Acts chapter eight, starting in verse 26. Here now God's holy and inspired word. Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place. And he rose and went, and there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, do you understand what you are reading? And he said, how can I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this, like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before it shears is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth. And the eunuch said to Philip, about whom I ask you, does the prophet say this is about himself or about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water. What prevents me from being baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord carried Philip away and the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus and as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. The grass withers and the flowers fade. The word of our God stands forever. I'm constantly trying to learn and grow as a Christian, as I know that you are also. For me, this means I do a lot of reading, and so this week it's meant I've ordered two more books on the Lord's Supper, as we've been focusing on that in our Sunday school. I think I have all of the books on the Lord's Supper now, so if you need one, I can deal them to you out of the back of the church where my study is. And whenever I order a book, What I do is I look at the table of contents to see what it's all about, to get a sense of what the author is doing and where he's going. And I did that this week with one of the books I ordered on the Lord's Supper. It had these chapter titles, The Meal of Meals, The Feast Within a Feast, Bread from Heaven, Heaven on Earth, And from that table of contents, we learn a lot about the book, right? And for me, as I saw those chapter titles, I thought, yes, these are things I want to know more about and grow in. How is the Lord's Supper a feast within a feast? It's intriguing. Or how is it heaven on earth? Is that possible? I want to know more. So I always, look at the table of contents when I am trying to understand what a book is about. I'm sure you do the same. In the book of Acts, the Lord Jesus himself gives us the table of contents for this book. And it's quite an intriguing table of contents with three fundamental chapters. We find Jesus' table of contents in Acts 1 verse 8 when Jesus says to his disciples, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Now what Jesus has done in that verse is he's laid out in very orderly fashion everything that will happen in the book of Acts. these first Christian believers will be Jesus' witnesses. First, chapter one in Jerusalem, second, chapter two in Judea and Samaria, and then chapter three to the ends of the earth. We're living in chapter three now, aren't we? Now, we've divided the book of Acts ourselves at some point, into 28 chapters, which is helpful for finding our way around the book. But Jesus gives us three fundamental chapters, three fundamental movements as the gospel expands from Jerusalem into the broader world. And here in Acts 8, Jesus' second chapter begins in verse five. So now we're in chapter two, in essence, as the gospel goes to Samaria. It's broken out of Jerusalem and expanded into Samaria, exactly as Jesus' table of contents said it would happen. The Gospel begins in Jerusalem, chapter 1, and now it's gone to Samaria, chapter 2. Eventually it will go to the ends of the earth, chapter 3. And by the way, and again, just sort of returning to the little difficult problem a little bit earlier in chapter eight, when we understand these hallmarks, these movements, these chapters in the book of Acts, this helps to explain the extraordinary moment where the reception of the Holy Spirit is delayed for the Samaritans in verse 16, in Acts chapter eight, verse 16. They believe in Jesus, but they don't initially receive the Spirit. And what's happening here is the question, is this normal? Is it normal for a Christian to believe and become a Christian and not receive the Holy Spirit? And we know from the rest of the New Testament, that's not normal. What we're witnessing here is a brand new chapter in the history of redemption. It's a brand new chapter as the gospel breaks out of Jerusalem to Samaria. It's a new chapter in Acts. It's a new chapter in redemptive history that requires the authentication of the apostles who bear the spirits to the Samaritans as an extraordinary, unique, and unrepeatable moment. You see, this is a key moment in redemptive history. That's why this baptism and their belief in the Holy Spirit is a bit of an anomaly here, because it is a unique and unrepeatable moment. And now we're still in Jesus chapter 2, but we come here to the story of this Ethiopian eunuch where we see that as the gospel is expanding, just as promised by Jesus, it's getting ready to break out into a new and final chapter to the ends of the earth. You're probably familiar with the old Johnny Cash song. I think it was written by June Carter Cash. Love is a burning thing. Ring of fire, ring of fire. Love is a burning thing and it makes a fiery ring. This illustration doesn't come from me. It comes from a commentator I was reading. So here's a, you know, normally, well, anyway. And the commentator suggested that Acts is a little bit like a burning ring of fire. It's a burning ring of fire in that the Spirit descends in Jerusalem as fire on the first Christians, expressing the love of God for them, and now the fire of God's love for the world expands beyond Jerusalem to Samaria, and then it's going to expand further to the end of the world. I want you to see, as we look at the Ethiopian here, just two big ideas as the gospel continues to expand. First, in Acts, the great missionary is God. It's God himself. And then second, the great missionary message is Jesus. Very simple. Two things we learned from this account of the Ethiopian eunuch. First, the great missionary is God. In Acts 8, God is the sovereign missionary. He is the one ensuring that his gospel will indeed, without question, advance to the farthest ends of the world. Failure is not a possibility here, because God is the missionary. We've seen this already in different ways, but at the beginning of chapter eight, remember, Saul is ravaging the church. He's seeking to destroy it. Saul appears to be in charge of just about everything that's going on, dragging off Christians to prison, scattering them throughout the broader region. It looks like Saul is in charge, but very quickly we learn that it is actually God who is in charge of everything that's happening. Saul is God's pawn in this account. God is so decisively in charge of his own missionary endeavors that even Saul's most evil intentions are overcome by God and they are forced to serve God's own missionary purposes. In other words, it looks like Saul is scattering the church for its destruction. That's what it looks like. But in reality, God is growing the church by scattering it across the globe. That's a macro level picture of God's missionary work. When we come to verse 26, we're given the micro level picture of God's missionary work in the life of this Ethiopian eunuch. It's God who sends the angel to Philip, telling him to travel to the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza. It's called a desert place. In other words, this is not a place Philip would have normally been found. It's not a place anyone would normally have been found, but that doesn't matter because God has his own plans. If we had a kind of Google Earth view So we're looking at Google Earth and you've got Philip as one dot and Ethiopian as another and you're watching them over the course of their lives. God is directing all of their movements through the course of their lives that leads them ultimately to meet at this divine appointment where by God's direction, Philip runs up to this Ethiopian chariot. Verse 26, who told Philip to travel to this remote road? God did. Verse 29, who told Philip to approach the Ethiopian's chariot? God did. And by implication, who had been working in the heart of the Ethiopian eunuch, leading him to Jerusalem, leading him to read Isaiah at this very moment that Philip approaches him? God was working in him. Who arranged this meeting? God did. Who wrote the words of Isaiah that the Ethiopian was reading and reflecting on? God wrote those words. And we can't help but notice the extremely high ranking of this Ethiopian official. Verse 27, he basically answers directly to the queen, Candace. He's in charge of all of her treasure. He held a position of such great influence that were he to be converted to Christianity, It would have inevitable, enormous repercussions throughout all of Ethiopian society. This is not something, his position was so high, this is not something that could have been hidden from the public. It would have been, in some ways, a seismic event that would reverberate, not only, I think, through Ethiopia, but through the rest of Africa, perhaps. And who was it that ensured the gospel would be introduced to a man of such extraordinary rank and influence in African society? God did that. Who raised this man to such a high rank? God did. And who was it that gave this man a heart hungry for the gospel? God did it. So God is the great missionary in the book of Acts, ensuring at every step of the way that his gospel and his kingdom will advance into all the world. And he remains the great missionary today. He orchestrates all of the events of history on the macro level and on the micro level to accomplish all of his purposes. It's easy, I think, at times to be discouraged at the hostility of the world to the gospel. Sometimes I'm not actually discouraged by the hostility because at least people are paying attention to Christ and his gospel then. Sometimes what really discourages me is the indifference to Christ and his gospel. People that just don't want to think about Christianity or hear about it. And it can feel like no one's paying attention and we're losing. And I'm sure it felt like this for the first Christians. They would have felt like they were losing as they were being dragged from their homes and scattered abroad. But they cannot lose. The gospel will not lose. It's an impossibility because God is the one bringing this message to the world. And the same is true today. rather than being discouraged by hostility or indifference, we should be encouraged that often it is precisely at the lowest moments that God does his most radical work to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ. We see that in the church in China, for example, as it grows in significant ways, even in the midst of tremendous opposition. I think often, and you know I love to tell the story of how I met Brandon and Stephanie Wilcox. Most of you know the story. We were at a concert. I saw a woman with this Hebrew tattoo on her shoulder from Genesis 1. No one has a tattoo like that. I thought I gotta go talk to her. I asked her about it, and I think about the extraordinary orchestration of God that led to that moment when we met. I even tried to muck it all up because I never told them my name. I never asked for their names. I just eventually left them alone. But none of that mattered because God had plans for Brandon and Stephanie. And he brought them to our church against all odds. I would have never imagined. I didn't know their names. They came. And the end of it all, So we're able to send, we as a church, we're able to send Brandon to seminary and now he is ordained to preach the gospel and he's engaged in a fruitful gospel ministry in North Carolina. Who did this in their lives? And who did this in our lives as we share that fellowship with them? God did it. Some of you will have equally extraordinary stories of how you came to faith, perhaps through a divine appointment where you, every day of your life, you rejoice and say, look what God did. Look who he introduced to me when I was on the road that day. Look at how he saved me against all odds. Many of you will have those stories. I encourage you to tell those stories. Maybe tell them to your children today at lunchtime or talk about them over a meal with friends. And what we're witnessing when we see God doing this, when we experience God doing this, is God's love as this ever expanding ring of fire, to use that language from the beginning of Acts, burning across time and place as God himself acts as the great missionary across all of history. And for our part, you know, I'm detailing here God's sovereignty over the salvation of all people. His sovereignty in missions and our insistence on God's sovereignty in missions and conversion is not a detriment to evangelism, it's the great motivator because we know as we go, it is God Himself sending us and it is God himself appointing the fruit. And it is God who is working in advance in the hearts of others as he was here with the Ethiopian. And he will bring those who are his to salvation. In the book of Acts, the great missionary is God. And then the second thing for us to see is that the great missionary message is Jesus. And so we find the Ethiopian, he's reading from the book of Isaiah, Isaiah 53. It's the passage we call the suffering servant passage. And we call it that because it details God's servant being led in humiliation and pain and suffering to his, It's this prophetic passage and in Judaism of the time, nobody knew who it was or what it meant. Who is this person? It was a common debate. Is it Isaiah himself? Is it the people of Israel? Who is it? And it details this suffering servant. And what Luke has done is he's given us a summary and paraphrase of this passage. And in Isaiah 53, the passage, in many ways, it culminates with verse five, where it says, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we are healed. This is what the Ethiopian is reading in Isaiah 53. Now he had just made this journey to Jerusalem. He's obviously an extraordinary, important, and wealthy person. He has a chariot. The modern equivalent would probably be some kind of enormous black SUV. And he's riding in the back, which gives him the luxury. This is something only important people can do. They can read while they're traveling. And he's extraordinary powerful and wealthy. He was most likely an ethnic Ethiopian. He would have had very dark skin, not a Jew by race. Although it is possible he was, we don't know for sure that had been transported there, but because of his high position, he was probably an ethnic Ethiopian. He would have been considered a Gentile God-fearer. someone who was attracted to the Jewish religion. One commentator says that the journey to Jerusalem that he underwent would have taken five months one way, so not a very fast big black SUV, kind of just inching along, which is how Philip was able to catch up to him, I suppose. So he's made this, five months, he's made this very serious commitment as to go to Jerusalem. Like this is a life goal kind of thing for this man. One of his great aims, to get to the temple. And we imagine him, he gets to the temple and what does he find there? He would have found himself largely excluded from the heart of the Jewish faith because He was a Gentile and because he was a eunuch, two strikes against him. He would have been restricted to the court of the Gentiles and the inner courts of the temple had very clear signs, kind of keep out signs posted. These are signs for people like him. Keep out. The most complete of these ancient signs was discovered on the Temple Mount in 1871, and this is what it read. It said, no alien may enter within the balustrade around the sanctuary and the enclosure. Whoever is caught, on himself shall he put blame for the death which will ensure. Keep out upon penalty of death. A life goal to get there, And that's what he finds. That's the message he found for himself. Pilgrimage, very high hopes to somehow get near to Yahweh, to God. And imagine the disappointment when he gets there. Keep out, you can't come near to him. He's basically being told, you're not worthy. It's a message that I think we often implicitly feel when maybe we're confronted by our own sin, by our own just failures or inadequacies, we know we cannot on our own come near to God. And so we sort of erect these keep out signs like for ourselves mentally or spiritually, I can't be near Him because of who I am. We feel the pain of separation and distance from God. We understand something of what it is to be a kind of foreigner, an alien, or a freak to God's people. Isn't that a fear of coming even into a church building that everyone's going to look at you like, you're some kind of freak and that you don't belong here. And we feel life outside of God's presence as perhaps our lot in life when we think of our own sins and we'll always be at arm's length because there's something wrong with us. I think we feel something of perhaps what our Ethiopian friend would have felt as he went to the temple and found these keep out signs. So it's no surprise that he's devoted himself to further study on what I'm speculating to be a disappointing journey home. He's reading Isaiah. Maybe he's already read Isaiah 56, for example, which holds out, Isaiah 56 holds out a radical promise to two kinds of people. It directly addresses foreigners, And eunuchs, Isaiah 56, this man is both. To the eunuchs, Isaiah 56 promises that they will be brought into God's house and given a name better than sons and daughters. To the foreigners, Isaiah 56 promises, they will be brought to God's holy mountain and made joyful in the house of prayer. At the heart of those promises for eunuchs and foreigners is the reality that they will be made worthy to come near to God, so near that they're inside the innermost parts of his sanctuary, into the very heart of God is really the essence of those promises. So perhaps he's already read those promises And he's trying to understand how can this be? How can this be for me? And this has perhaps led him to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 points to a person, a man, suffering servant who will make one worthy of God through his suffering. Isaiah 53 details how the servant of God will suffer and die for our transgressions. He will be crushed for our iniquities, it says. And the pressing question as he's reading this is who is this who will be crushed for my iniquities? Who is this? That's the question the Ethiopian asked Philip in verse 34. Who is Isaiah 53 about? He's asking essentially, who can make me worthy to draw near to the Lord? Who can take away my iniquity? Who can die for my sin? Who can bring me peace with God? Who can carry my sorrows and bear my griefs and who can make me to be accounted righteous before God? These are the questions that Isaiah 53 forces upon us in verse after verse as it describes this suffering servant. And so the Ethiopian is asking undoubtedly with hunger, maybe even with desperation, who is the man who can do all this for me? And this is where God sent Philip to him to tell him it is Jesus. It's Jesus. Verse 35, Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture, Isaiah 53, he told him the good news about Jesus. The great missionary message is always and only Jesus. So when we are weighed down with that pressing question, how can I be made worthy for God? We need to hear the answer through Jesus who died for us. And when we go into the world and we meet people where this pressing question, whether they will acknowledge it or not, we don't know, but this pressing question is ever-present. It defines every human experience after the fall. How can I be made worthy? That's the question everyone is asking everywhere, whether consciously or not. So many people are forced, they just have to make their own answers up to find their own way in answering this question. They have no help. No one has ever told them the one and true answer. How can I be made worthy? Well, I'm just going to work myself to the bone to show myself worthy to someone somewhere. How can I be made worthy? Well, I'm just going to affirm and embrace my basis desires and say, this is just who I am and you have to accept it and I'm going to accept it. How can I be made worthy? Well, therapy really is my only hope. That's it. How can I be made worthy? And for many, they suppress the question. They just ignore it. They don't wanna deal with the question, so they entertain themselves all day long, or they pursue other things because they know that question is there, but they don't have an answer, and they don't wanna deal with it. The answer is always Jesus. He is the one who makes us worthy of God. by taking our sin upon himself, crediting his righteousness to us, so that in Christ, God's love breaks into our lives in the most surprising ways, so that everyone who trusts in Christ, like this Ethiopian eunuch, like you yourself, everyone who trusts in Christ becomes a kind of new chapter in this story of God's great love for the world. And as we go from here today, we go into a world possessing a certain hope that God's love for this world will extend even to the darkest places. Even when it looks like it's impossible, we can be confident God's love will extend there in his own way, in his own time, but it will go forth because we've seen it happen. To this Ethiopian, we've seen it happen to the Samaritans. We'll see it happen as we go forward in acts to the ends of the earth. This means when we look at our neighbors, when we look at those who, are trying to suppress this question, how can I be made worthy out in the world today? And often they're trying to suppress the question by railing against the gospel. Our answer to them is not to rail back at them with the same kind of rage. We don't match rage for rage. They don't need our ruthless ferocity They need the message of Christ crucified, who is the only one who can address that pressing matter that all humanity faces, how can I be made worthy? God is the great missionary, and Jesus is the great missionary message. And you see then this Ethiopian having been brought near to God through Christ is filled with joy, just as Isaiah 56 promises for foreigners and eunuchs who will be made joyful in the house of God. And as we have been brought near to God, we come to the Lord's table ourselves celebrating in joy this reality we inhabit. Let's pray as we come. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of Christ and the salvation we have in Him and the life we have in Him. As we come to this table, may you, by this covenant sign and seal, press upon us the reality through your Spirit that we have been made worthy by Christ and Christ alone. And it's in His name we pray, amen.