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Acts Series Part 12: There is Nothing that Will Stop the Gospel: Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch · Growing Together in the Gospel

0:02
SPEAKER_02: This week we witness a remarkable change of pace in the Book of Acts.
0:07
SPEAKER_02: After crowds in Samaria responding to the gospel, God sends Philip away from a thriving ministry to meet one man travelling on a desert road.
0:15
SPEAKER_02: It reminds us that while God delights in saving crowds, he never loses sight of the individual.
0:22
SPEAKER_02: Every person matters to him.
0:25
SPEAKER_02: The Ethiopian official represents someone who, in many ways, seemed to be an outsider.
0:31
SPEAKER_02: Although wealthy, influential, and deeply interested in God, he carried barriers that would have made him feel he could never fully belong.
0:40
SPEAKER_02: He stood outside God's covenant people by birth, because he wasn't Jewish, and as a eunuch, he was restricted under the Old Testament law from full participation in the assembly of God's people.
0:51
SPEAKER_02: He had travelled hundreds of miles to worship, owned an expensive copy of Isaiah, and was sincerely seeking God, yet he still lived with a painful sense that he remained on the edge.
1:05
SPEAKER_02: That is why his question is so significant.
1:08
SPEAKER_02: What can stand in the way of me being baptized?
1:12
SPEAKER_02: Beneath the practical question lies a much deeper one.
1:15
SPEAKER_02: Is there still something about me that keeps me from being fully accepted by God?
1:20
SPEAKER_02: Philip's response is not simply to reassure him with words, but to baptize him immediately.
1:27
SPEAKER_02: In doing so, he declares the answer.
1:31
SPEAKER_02: Nothing.
1:32
SPEAKER_02: Because of Jesus, every barrier has been removed.
1:36
SPEAKER_02: The outsider is welcomed, the excluded are brought near, and all who trust in Christ are received as beloved children of God.
1:45
SPEAKER_02: Let's listen to the sermon.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: Last week we were in the book of Acts, as Jim has just mentioned.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: We saw that the church has been scattered.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: There was this persecution.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: And so this is the story.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: If you're new or you're visiting church, we're doing the story of the early church, how it started, Jesus dies, he's resurrected, he ascends, and he sends out his people with a message to the world.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: And this goes on and goes on, but it becomes clear that the powers that be are opposed to it.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: There is persecution.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: One man dies because of this.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, the church is scattered everywhere.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: But the church has not stopped, and the church continues to grow wherever it is sent.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what we saw last week.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: The church scattered, our young people today scattered out into the town, just as the early church was.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: Miracles are happening, crowds are gathering, great joy fills the city, people are being blessed and transformed.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: And now Luke, as he records this history, he zooms in on one story, one man, one traveler, one chariot, one conversation, one moment.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: And he's telling us that something profound is happening.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: Crowds of people, thousands are coming to know the love of God in Jesus, and their lives, their whole cities are being changed.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: But here we see that God loves crowds because crowds are made up of people.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: And God loves people.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: God loves here in this story, we're going to come to today, a person, and we're going to see the power of that.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: And so we go back to a man called Philip who's in the middle of an incredibly fruitful ministry.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: People are being blessed and healed and being freed from all sorts of oppression.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: People are coming to faith.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: The church is growing, and God does what he often does in these moments.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: He says, Leave.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: You aren't going to stay here, I'm going to send you somewhere else.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: So in Acts chapter 8, if you want to follow along, it says, Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, Go south to the road, the desert road, that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: So he started out.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: And on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandach, which means queen of the Ethiopians.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: And on his way home, he was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the Prophet.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: The spirit told Philip, Go to that chariot and stay near it.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the Prophet.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand what you are reading?
4:00
SPEAKER_00: Philip asked.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: How can I, he said, unless someone explains it to me.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: So he invited Philip to come up sit with him.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: This is the passage of scripture the eunuch was reading.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: Who can speak of his descendants?
4:21
SPEAKER_00: For his life was taken from the earth.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: The eunuch asked Philip, Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?
4:29
SPEAKER_00: Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: As they travelled along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, Look, here is water.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: What can stand in the way of my being baptized?
4:42
SPEAKER_00: And he gave orders to stop the chariot.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and travelled about preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: If we were organizing Philip's schedule and his plan, he's there, he's ministering, he's preaching, the whole city is being transformed.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: Crowds are coming.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: We would probably say, Let's book some more appointments.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: You've got to meet some people here because there's more work to be done here.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: There's a whole city that's been transformed.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: You need to get some structure in place, get some systems and plans in place.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: God does the complete opposite.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: God says to Philip, I've got someone waiting for you.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: One person that you need to come and see.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: And so Philip starts this 45, 60 mile journey, two or three days, walking down this road, not knowing where he's going, not knowing who he's going to meet, not knowing what awaits him when he arrives there.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: This isn't unusual.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: This is often how God works.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: And here in this story in Acts, we see the movement of God where he is concerned about crowds, as I've said, because he's concerned about the people.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: This is a theme that Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, is familiar with because you find it again and again in the Gospels.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: Luke records that Jesus told three sets of stories.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: Very well-known stories, you might be familiar with some of them.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: One was about a lost sheep.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: A farmer has 99 sheep and one of them's gone missing, or 100 sheep and one of them's gone missing, but he's still got 99, so you don't worry about one, do you farmers?
6:22
SPEAKER_00: No, even today, a farmer will go out their way and find the sheep.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: I heard one of the farmers the other day saying, in this heat, two of the calves got out.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: And my inclination is just leave it.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: Come on, it's too hot for that kind of thing.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: But off they went, chasing the calves around the fields, trying to get them back.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: Because it doesn't matter.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: If they lose one, it is their sheep.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: And so off they go to find it.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: And they bring it home, and there's great rejoicing, Jesus says.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: Then he tells another story.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: A woman woman loses two, she has ten coins, she loses one.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: So she searches, she searches, she sweeps, she's exploring every nook and cranny until she finds that coin.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: Then she rings her friends and rejoices.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: Now, in the story, it's not just one coin, this is a significant amount of money.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: This could be a retirement, this could be a wedding dress, this could be a celebration.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: This represents more than that, but she's lost it.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: It's valuable, it's precious, and she searches to have it back.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: Jesus then tells a third story.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: A man has two sons.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: One of them wishes his father dead and wants his inheritance before that time has come.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: And so he takes the inheritance and goes off.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: And the father watches and waits, watches and waits, watches and waits until the moment his son realizes his error.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: He's lost everything and he comes home hoping that maybe he could be a servant again in his father's house.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: And the father runs to his son, throws his arms around him, showers him in kisses, brings him back, and celebrates his son who has returned home.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: Not a slave, not a servant, but a son.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: And each one of those stories, it's Jesus tells him to escalate and highlight this point.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: God loves the one.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: The one sheep because it's his.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: The one coin because it is precious.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: The one son because he is a son.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: Not a slave, but a child who is missed.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: And each one emphasizes a slightly different angle of this idea, but it's the idea that God loves each one, each of us, because you are his.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: Because you are valuable.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: Because you are his child, even though you may be a lost child.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: And Luke, who wrote those stories down and recorded them in the gospel, now tells this story, and I'm sure they're ringing in his ears.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: This idea that God sends Philip away from the 99, away from the nine coins, away from the son who's at home, out into the middle of nowhere, a dusty track to find one who is lost but is searching.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: One lost sheep, this Ethiopian eunuch.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: So he comes and he finds him.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: It says the Ethiopian eunuch, he's riding along in this chariot.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: He's an official of all the treasury of Kandik, which means Queen of the Ethiopians.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: And so this Ethiopian eunuch, let me just tell you one thing about him.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: First of all, he's not Ethiopian.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: At least not in the way that we understand it.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: Modern-day Ethiopia, the boundaries back then were slightly different, and the names of the places are slightly different.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: So this is probably a man in what was now modern-day Sudan.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: That would be the region that he was in, but back then it had a different name and different place.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: So that's where he was from.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: But that means, first of all, that he's an outsider.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: What the Bible would call a Gentile, a non-Jewish person a foreigner, someone who wasn't brought up in the Jewish faith, although he obviously has some belief in God.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: But he is someone who has not yet been welcomed into the family of God.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: Throughout the Bible, there's this idea that people can come in, but most don't.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: And so those there is an outside court where the people who, like us, we would be considered Gentiles.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: Those who aren't Jewish in their birth and in their bringing up, that they are outside and they're slightly distant from God.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: And so this man is a foreigner, he's then an Ethiopian, he's then a eunuch.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: Those are the two things we're told.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: He's a eunuch, which means that he's probably been forcibly castrated in order to serve within the royal courts.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: The reason being, and don't want to go into too much detail, but you can be entrusted with positions overseeing the harem of royalty and overseeing certain things because there is no chance of you establishing a dynasty to compete.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: Don't have to go any further than that.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: I think we understand what that means.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: But this is this was his lot in life.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: He could not have children, could not have a family, and because of that, he was entrusted with this position.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: But it does mean that he has missed out on something.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: That something has been probably forcibly taken away from him.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: In addition to that, this man is not only um an Ethiopian eunuch, but he is a searcher.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: Someone who has come to worship God.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: We're told that he's come, he understands the God of Israel as the one true God, and he's seeking him, but he doesn't quite understand.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: He's got this scroll, and this would have been an expensive purchase.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: This is obviously a wealthy man, probably like a prime minister in our day, like a very high-ranking official, and he's spent his money on a scroll, a very precious item that he is there reading.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: But as he reads, he doesn't understand what he's reading.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: This should be a huge encouragement.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: Anyone who comes to faith, and you pick up the Bible, and a few pages in, you're like, What on earth am I reading?
11:00
SPEAKER_00: Do not be discouraged because there are bits in their heart.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: I love Peter says this.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: In one of his letters, he says, you know what, there's some things in the Bible that are hard to understand.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he has a little poke at Paul because he says, Some of Paul's letters.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: We don't understand them.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: But that's that there is a way to understand, there was a way to grow in that.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: But this man is here, he's reading.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: And you start to build these things up, and you see this man, the word that you could put over him is outsider.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: He's an outsider because he's from a foreign country.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: He's an outsider because he is a eunuch, and the Deuteronomy, the law says that those in his condition were cut off and not able to enter the assembly of God.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: So there's a distance there.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: He's got this scroll, he's got this thing, he's seeking God, but he feels like he's on the outside.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand, I can't comprehend.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: He's come to Jerusalem to worship.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: He's searching, but there's something in him that feels like there is a distance.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: He's asking questions, he's bringing up spiritual things, but he doesn't quite understand.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: Here is this man, this outsider, this person who wants to be in, but finds himself staring through the window.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: This person who wants to be a part of it, but for whatever reason, whether it's where he's from or what's been done to him, or what he's trying to do but feels weak and frail and unable to do, for whatever reason he feels like he is not part of this.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: He's simply a spectator.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he's heard of this God of Israel and all the wonderful things he's done.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he's heard of his love and his grace and his patience and his mercy, but for him, it feels like he's on the outside.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: And so God notices this.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: And he sends a man called Philip to come to him.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: We read that Philip comes alongside him, runs alongside the chariot, led by the Spirit.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: And the man is there reading this passage.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: This passage that says, He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: Who can speak of his descendants?
12:54
SPEAKER_00: For his life was taken from the earth.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: He's reading this prophet Isaiah, written 700 years before this moment, and he's thinking, What is this talking about?
13:03
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: And so he asks Philip, Tell me, who is the prophet talking about?
13:08
SPEAKER_00: Himself or someone else?
13:10
SPEAKER_00: And Philip, beginning with that passage, he takes that scripture and tells him about the good news of Jesus.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: Notice just all the personal details here.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: Philip runs up to the chariot.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: Philip listens into the conversation, that this internal conversation.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: He asks the question, he starts where he is, he explains Jesus, and he goes from that passage and explains this is who you're reading about.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: This man who gives his life, this son of God, the one who came to take on the injustice of the world, to take on the curse of the world, to take on the darkness and the pain, to be led outside the city, so that those outside can come in, so that those in darkness can find light, so that those who feel cut off can be brought in.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: And he does this, he stands before and takes the punishment.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: He does it silently, he does it with dignity, he does it with great sacrifice and great love.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: He does this.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: He is the one who bore our sins, like a lamb led to the slaughter, the one who died that we could be forgiven.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: And he tells them this story.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: Now I wonder, because we say the the Ethiopian eunuch was reading Isaiah chapter 53, because our Bible is neatly divided up.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: But in their time, Isaiah 53 didn't exist, they didn't have the numbers.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: It's sort of he read in blocks or in sections.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: And so I wonder if Philip, and it doesn't say this in the text, but Philip starting with Isaiah 53, this man who was silent before Asherah, I wonder if he rolled down the scroll, because it would have been a scroll, if he went down a bit further and read it to Isaiah, what we call Isaiah 56, where it says this it says, Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, The Lord will surely exclude me from his people, and let no eunuch complain, I am only a dry tree.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: So in the very passage that this eunuch is reading, a few verses later, it says that there will be a people, foreigners who say, I can't, but I'm excluded.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: There'll be eunuchs who say, I am a dry tree, I have no fruit, I have no legacy, I have nothing coming after me.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: And it goes on and says, This is what the Lord says.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant, to them I'll give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: Better than sons and daughters, I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: Imagine that.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: An Ethiopian eunuch, like a foreigner who has no chance of a family or legacy.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: And in the very passage he's reading, a few verses, he reads the bit about this man he's gonna suffer, and he doesn't understand that.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: Philip, I'd like to say, I'm imagining now, but I just imagine that this promise must have been part of the story.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: There will be a time where those who have nothing will have a name within God's courts.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: Those who have no legacy, no one to follow will have something better than sons and daughters.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: They will have an everlasting name that will endure forever and ever.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: How is that possible?
16:00
SPEAKER_00: Because the one who will bear the sin, the one who will die, the one who will come will bring outsiders in.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: Will bring those who feel like they are cut off, will make them part of something new.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: Those who feel like they have nothing, they will have everything they've ever longed for.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: He will do it, he will make it possible.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: And the one who stood silent before his accusers takes the blame that those outside can come in.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: And I said, I don't know if that's exactly what Philip did, but it's not far off.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: It seems striking that the very same passage would include those promises.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it was, the eunuch understands.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: The eunuch finally sees.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: This man who, through all that's happened to him, all that he has done, has had communicated over and over again, there is distance, there is separation, God is here and you are over here.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: Or perhaps God is up here and you are down here.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: Now understands that a bridge has been gapped.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: A gap has been bridged.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: Now understands that he can come near.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: And so he looks out and he says, Look, look, here is water.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: What can stand in the way of my being baptized?
17:13
SPEAKER_00: On one level, that's a practical question.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: Is there any reason I can't be baptized?
17:17
SPEAKER_00: But knowing this story, I think that perhaps there's another layer to it.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: This man who has lived with barriers, the man who's very aware there is a God, but I'm a foreigner, I'm an outsider, I am a eunuch, I don't have any claim to this.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: Is there any barrier between me becoming his?
17:36
SPEAKER_00: Is there any barrier to be me becoming his child?
17:40
SPEAKER_00: Is there any barrier to me receiving the love of the one who died for me?
17:46
SPEAKER_00: He's heard about the suffering servant, the one pierced for his transgressions.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: He's heard about the one who bore his sin.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: He's heard of the forgiveness and the grace that is available and that the outsider is welcomed.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: He's now heard about it, and now he's asking the question Is there any reason why I cannot take hold of it?
18:03
SPEAKER_00: Is there any reason why all that you've just explained to me, Philip, can't be mine?
18:07
SPEAKER_00: What stands in the way?
18:09
SPEAKER_00: And Philip, I love, doesn't even give an answer, at least not one recorded.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: He simply baptizes him.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything that should keep me outside?
18:20
SPEAKER_00: Anything about my body that should keep me outside?
18:23
SPEAKER_00: Anything about my background that should keep me from experiencing the love of God?
18:28
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything about where I come from that should keep me from experiencing the love of God?
18:33
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything about what has happened to me that should keep me from experiencing the love of God?
18:38
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything about what others say to me that should keep me from experiencing the love of God?
18:43
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything that means I cannot come close to God and I cannot belong to him?
18:50
SPEAKER_00: And the answer.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: I put it on the screen so you can remember it.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
18:58
SPEAKER_00: There is nothing that should keep us from this.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: No Gentile background, no status as a eunuch, no exclusions, not his past, not his difference, not because sin does not matter, not because God has lowered his standard, but because Jesus has taken it all.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: He has opened the way, and the man who now stood on the margins is welcomed fully into the family of God.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: Not just tolerated, not just allowed to stand quietly on the edges if he keeps quiet, not accepted as a second class member, he is received, he is forgiven, he is washed, he is welcomed, he is a child of God.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: And I think that question then reaches beyond the eunuch, because all of us, I think, would answer it.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: What prevents you from receiving the love of God?
19:42
SPEAKER_00: And I speak that to those who might be non-Christian, you might say, I don't believe, I don't follow Jesus.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: You might be standing on the outside looking in, it's all very nice, people are very pleasant, but you feel like an outsider.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: Everyone else knows when to stand up and sit down and pray and say Amen and all those things, and you just feel disconnected.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: But maybe the question comes: is there anything that would stop me from receiving that love?
20:04
SPEAKER_00: But I also want to ask it for those who've been walking with Jesus a while.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything that stops you today from receiving that love?
20:12
SPEAKER_00: Because I know there are many who've said they believed in Jesus, called on his name, said they've received the forgiveness, but in their everyday life, it feels like there's a barrier between them and the love of God.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: And so I just for a moment, let me just ask, if I were come to come to you face to face and say, what prevents you from receiving God's love?
20:33
SPEAKER_00: Now, that first answer, you know, that church answer, let's just chuck that in the bin for a moment.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not helpful in this context.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: Let's go with the real answer.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: What comes to mind when you stand before God in all his beauty and his goodness?
20:48
SPEAKER_00: What is it that comes to mind where you feel like you aren't worthy of his love?
20:52
SPEAKER_00: That you don't deserve his love?
20:54
SPEAKER_00: What is it that you think of?
20:57
SPEAKER_00: Is it your past?
20:59
SPEAKER_00: Is it your failures?
21:01
SPEAKER_00: Is it some sort of shame?
21:03
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps an addiction?
21:04
SPEAKER_00: Is it a doubt?
21:06
SPEAKER_00: Is it your sense of weakness?
21:08
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps it's something you've done, perhaps it's something that's been done to you.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's the fact you keep struggling with the same thing over and over again, the fact that you don't feel good enough compared to other followers of Jesus, the fact that you're just unlike other people, you feel different, the fact that you don't really know what you're like, you're just confused.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: Interestingly, we all have an answer.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: Why can't you receive God's love?
21:37
SPEAKER_00: And what today I want us to do is to take that answer and bring it to Jesus until that answer becomes silence, until that answer becomes nothing.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: Because whatever it is that comes to mind, it is a lie of the enemy to keep you at a distance.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: And this is what he does something happens to you, or you do something, and that thing is not beyond God's.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: God's goodness and grace to overcome, to remove, to cleanse, to wash away.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: But when these things come, the enemy sows into it a lie that stays when the thing is gone.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: It's a bit like your dog.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: If you've got a dog, you've got to give it medicine.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: What do you do?
22:12
SPEAKER_00: You wrap it up in something, don't you?
22:13
SPEAKER_00: Get a bit of cheese, a bit of ham, and then the little swallow.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: The really clever dogs know to spit it out and just take the good stuff.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: But the enemy does the same thing.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: The things that happen to you, the things that you do, he wraps up in it, not medicine, but a poison.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: A lie that says, Because of this, you are now cut off from the love of God.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: Because of this, you are not worthy of the love of God.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: Because of who you are, where you've come from, what you've done, the love of God is off limits to you.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: Everyone else, fine, but not for you.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: And what we need to do is take that thing and stand before the one who suffered for us, the one who died, the one who on the cross demonstrates once and for all, this is God's love.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: And it's not based on you, it's based on what I've done.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: And we hold it there until in the light of that, that excuse, that reason, as justified as you may think it may be, it becomes silence.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: We come to Jesus to say he has dealt with it, he has borne it on the cross, he has paid for it, he has opened the way.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: Those are Bible verses, by the way.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: It's not just me saying it.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: Romans 8, go and read it.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: The question: what prevents me from being received of this child?
23:27
SPEAKER_00: What prevents me from receiving his love?
23:29
SPEAKER_00: There is no accusation that remains.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: No barrier, no debt, no sin, no failure, nothing can overrule the Father's love.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean there aren't things that need changing, but those changes come because I am loved, not in order to be loved.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: We are changed because in Christ I am loved, and I am received and I am welcomed.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: And that's why the man it says he goes on his way rejoicing.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: Philip is gone, the one who led him to faith, he's been taken away.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: He's left with the scroll that he had at the start.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't have a full Bible, he hasn't got a church, he hasn't got an alpha course to go on, but he has everything he needs.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: Because he now rejoices in the fact I am loved, I belong.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: Jesus remains with him.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: The love of Jesus stays with him.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: And because he is kept in that, he has all he needs.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that God loves you?
24:23
SPEAKER_00: We find it very easy to say things like, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: Of course he does.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: He loves the world, he loves everyone.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: We struggle more with what Paul says in one of his letters.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: I am perfectly happy with the idea that God loves everyone.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: It's part of what makes God God.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: But I struggle more, and perhaps you do too, with the idea that God would love me.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: And that seems so what, doesn't it?
24:55
SPEAKER_00: God can love everyone, but he can't love me, and yet this is where so often we find ourselves.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: It's like you can see the sea, and you can say the sea touches all the coastline, every square inch of it touches the sea, and there isn't a part of it.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: It's so long, so vast, it goes on forever, and it has depths to it.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: But until you stand in the sea, until it touches you, it doesn't mean anything.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: And I think we do that with a love, it's so vast is love, it's so big, we say it, we believe it, we sing it, it's so beautiful and wonderful, but we hesitate to put our toe into it.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: We hesitate to step into it and so it remains out there rather than something that has reached into me, that has shaped me, that has brought me home, that has shaped my entire life, that is the foundation of my being, is the ground on which I stand every moment, not performance, not achievement, not my status, not my background.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: I am loved by God.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: One of Jesus' disciples, John, seemed to get this in his gospel.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: He calls himself the beloved disciple.
25:58
SPEAKER_00: Not the better than all the other disciples.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: That's how it can come across sometimes.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: I am the beloved disciple because the foundation of his being was I am loved.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: He could have said, I am a witness, I was one of the first at the tomb, I am an apostle, I'm one of the twelve, I'm planting churches, I'm spreading all these things he could have said, and he chooses his title.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: I am beloved by Jesus.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: I am the disciple he loved because that was the ground of his entire being.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: He had experienced it.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: He had not just seen the ocean, he had swam in its depths, and it was glorious.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: Yesterday we went to Lempwidine.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: If you've been there, you get cheap petrol on one hand.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: There's also a nice little beach area where you can go in there and swim and go up to the bridge.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: And going with the boys, obviously, it's interesting.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: They as boys they sort of get there, and it's obviously very warm outside, and you get to the water.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: It's a bit chilly, isn't it?
26:50
SPEAKER_00: They never want to go in there.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: Not the boys.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: They are straight in, swimming, splashing around, and so obviously I then got to go in.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: And there's certain points in your body, isn't there, where sort of the feet's okay, and then it's sort of the the knees, and then halfway, that's always a difficult bit.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then then it's sort of up here, and as you go in, it's until you're finally in, and then you then you've got to spend a bit of time there because it's shocking, it's startless, it's not it's not quite right, but the more time you spend in there, suddenly you start to acclimatize, and then you start to swim in it, and then you start to enjoy it, and then it's just simply it's where you are, it's no longer something you have to tolerate.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: And I imagine it's something like that with the love of God.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: The first time it reaches you, it might shock you.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: Whoa, no, no, no, not for me, thank you.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: Whoa, no, no, can't be right.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, this doesn't feel I'm not me, beloved.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: But as you stay in it, as it gets deeper and deeper, you no longer begin to just have to believe it.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: You can't not believe it.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: You start not just to convince yourself, you start to enjoy it.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: To enjoy the to swim in it, to play in it, to delight in it, to savor it.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: This beautiful thing that Paul puts it like this: he says, I pray that you would be established in love and that you would know this love that surpasses knowledge.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: Paul, that doesn't make sense, I know.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: To know something that surpasses knowledge, what would what does that even mean?
28:17
SPEAKER_00: It means that you cannot contain the ocean in your hands, but you can be contained in the ocean.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: You cannot scoop up the entire ocean, but the entire ocean can scoop you up.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: This is what the love of God is like.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: You you can't, you you can only hold a part of it and only understand it, but the other alternative is you can just swim in it and allow yourself to fall into its fullness.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: It surpasses your knowledge.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: You will never arrive at the end of it.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: It has length and height and breadth and depth that you can barely even explore.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: And so don't try and master it.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: Just learn to swim in it, to float in it, to rest in it, to delight in it, for it to surround you and fill you, to show you that you are more than who you are.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: You are more than what has been done to you, you are more than what you have done.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: You are more than your past, you are more than your future, you're more than your failures, you're more than your sin, you are more than your darkest secret, and you're more than your worst habit.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: Because you are beloved by God.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: And you want the proof of that.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: You go to the one who stood and on the cross was silent before his accusers.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: The one that the prophet Isaiah was pointing towards, the one that Philip points towards, because only in him have we found someone who takes the pain, takes the suffering, takes the sin, and removes it, leaving only the love of God in its place.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: This love is something you experience, and there's always more to discover.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: And Acts 8 is the story of one man's conversion, but it shows us the breadth of the gospel.
29:49
SPEAKER_00: In one person, we see that the gospel welcomes those who thought they could never belong.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: It removes any barrier, it promises, it fulfills promises made centuries beforehand, it turns outsiders into sons and daughters, it gives joy to people who have finally discovered the love of God includes you, includes me.
30:11
SPEAKER_00: And so we start with the question: can an Ethiopian eunuch be welcomed?
30:15
SPEAKER_00: But we end with the question, can I be welcomed?
30:20
SPEAKER_00: And whatever answer you give, the gospel will keep coming, the good news will keep coming, God will keep speaking to you and keep speaking to you until the only answer you have is silence.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: Nothing, no thing can separate me from his love.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: No thing can prevent you.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: Christ has opened the way.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: You are forgiven in him, you are received in him, you are his child, you are loved.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: For those who are perhaps not yet Christians, you may have thought that Christianity is about joining the crowd.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: You've got to become religious, you've got to learn how to behave, you've got to blend into church.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: And Acts 8 shows us that it is far more personal than that.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: God knows you.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: And just as Philip was sent on a crazy journey to find one person, perhaps you've been sent on a crazy journey to arrive here today.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: To be in this moment at this time, to hear someone trying their best to tell you God loves you.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: That God's love is searching for you.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: He knows your questions, he knows your fears, he knows your disappointments and your regrets, he knows your story, but you are not just a face in the crowd.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't die for people in the abstract.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: He gave himself for you.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: The Son of God loved me and gave himself for me.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: The invitation is not become part of our religious group.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: It's come to Christ.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: Come with your sin, come with your questions, come with the things that you believe disqualify you.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: Bring every answer here and ask what will prevent you?
31:52
SPEAKER_00: Until the answer is nothing, then keep searching.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: Keep asking, keep wrestling, keep inquiring, just as this Ethiopian does.
32:02
SPEAKER_00: Don't give up.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: And when you find the answer is nothing, then you've arrived at the start of the love of God that knows no bounds.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: For those of you who would call yourself Christian, and you believe the doctrine, but you struggle to receive the affection.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: You know John 3.16, God so loved the world, but you hesitate on Galatians 2.20.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: God loved me.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: And you can believe that others, all these other wonderful Christians, they're loved.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: But I feel like I'm tolerated.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: You pray as if you have to persuade him, you have to twist God's arm.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: You obey, but it's only because you've got to keep your place at the table.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: You punish yourself even though your punishment has been taken.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: You've been walking with Jesus, but you haven't received his love.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: So the question is not have you, the question is, are you.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: Because as I say, this isn't something where you dip your toe in and go, ooh, okay, thank you very much, and off we go.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: This is where we live.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: And the strength of the Christian faith, the power, the beauty, the freedom, the rest that comes where it's not something burdensome but a delight.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: It comes when it starts and is rooted in the truth that you are loved.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: His love has reached you.
33:24
SPEAKER_00: His love has crossed time and space, the span of heaven and earth, it has crossed it all in order to come to you, to fill your heart.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: And the more secure we come in God's personal love, the more natural you become at giving it away.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to prove myself, don't need to compete, don't need to use people to feel significant, I don't need to be noticed.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: He knows me.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: He loves me.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: And Acts 8 is a beautiful picture of that.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: And so we leave you with that question What prevents you from receiving his love?
34:01
SPEAKER_00: And the way we're going to respond is with two songs.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: One is to receive his love, and one is to express our love for him because he first loved us.
34:12
SPEAKER_00: That's why we love him.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: It's the beauty of our gospel.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: What prevents you today?
34:22
SPEAKER_00: What stops you?
34:25
SPEAKER_00: Don't dismiss it.
34:26
SPEAKER_00: Like I say, don't give the Christian answer.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: If there is something, let's bring it now.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: To the one who loved your very soul.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: And so, Jesus, we're doing that now.
34:39
SPEAKER_00: As we ask ourselves the question, is there anything that's preventing me?
34:42
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything that's stopping me?
34:46
SPEAKER_00: Something from our past, whether it's a fear or a doubt, something done by us or something done to us.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: We bring that thing now, Lord, and we lay it at the feet of the one who loved us and gave himself for us.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: The one who came to take away the sin of the world, came to take away the sin that I've contributed and the sin that has been done to me.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: The one who came to take away the darkness, the darkness that I've helped to create, and the darkness that I find myself living in.
35:21
SPEAKER_00: Come to take away the label of outsider.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: Whether through something I have done, where I've put myself on the outside, or something that is done to me where it's been communicated that I am on the outside, we bring them now to Him so that He might bring us near, that we might be received into His presence, and that we might take our first step into the ocean of God's love.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: For those who have been paddling around to go deeper into that love, to let it surround us and fill us.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: I pray particularly today, Lord, for those who feel on the outside, those with questions and doubts, those who are still searching and seeking.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for this story.
36:11
SPEAKER_00: For you are the one who meets us.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: You will find me, you said, and you search with me for me with all your heart.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: And so we want to honor those today who are searching, those who are inquiring, those who are reaching out.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: May today they taste something.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: May today you show them something of your love for them.
36:31
SPEAKER_00: For you are the one who sees them.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: You are their father who waits and watches for them to return home.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: You are the one who searches and searches to find what is valuable to you.
36:41
SPEAKER_00: You are the shepherd who notices every sheep that goes missing and will not rest until your flock is home.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: For you have declared, Lord, that we are yours, that we are precious, that we are your children.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: And so we receive that now.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, would you speak to our hearts?
37:07
SPEAKER_00: Would you shed abroad in us the love of God now?
37:17
SPEAKER_00: And as we respond, we will respond declaring your love for us, how you have loved us, and in turn our love for you.
37:29
SPEAKER_00: Lead us, Lord, in our response.
37:31
SPEAKER_00: May it not be a distraction, may it be a way for us to give you our hearts.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: We ask it in Jesus' name.
37:38
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
37:44
SPEAKER_01: We hope that you've enjoyed listening to Dean's thoughts today.
37:47
SPEAKER_01: If anything that he has said has challenged you or raised questions that you'd like answers to, please don't hesitate to contact us and ask for a chat.
37:55
SPEAKER_01: You can find our details on our website, which is leobc.co.uk, as well as on the information that we have posted with this podcast.
38:05
SPEAKER_01: Alternatively, if you live in our area, you are very welcome to join us on Sunday morning at 10.30 to hear things first hand.
38:12
SPEAKER_01: We'd love to see you there.