Well, good evening everybody. It's good to be back here in Sheffield. It's been a long time, I think, for us, but it's good to see the numbers have improved and you've grown in the Lord. And I love the building. I think it's great. It's nice and cool. But having worshipped in an old building, I can also imagine what it's like in the winter. So you do have my sympathy there. Now as Kevin told you this evening and I'm going to be speaking on the wisest African in the Bible. Now who is the wisest African in the Bible? I'm expecting you to join in here, there's no rhetorical questions here. Do you know when I was a young Christian I came back to England and I went and heard John Marshall at Hemel Hempstead and he asked a question from the pulpit and of course many people were used to this but me I was a new Christian so I stuck my hand up and he was like, oh yes young man, I was quite happy with that and I gave an answer and he was quite pleased and afterwards He said, you know, normally people are too scared to answer. He said, but I was glad you were brave enough. So who's brave enough tonight to have a guess? Who is the wisest African in the Bible? Queen of Sheba is a good guess. You've been given a clue, but not this time. No. Yes, you're right well done second guess that is our answer so now it's the Ethiopian eunuch and It's interesting Kevin just read about Solomon and the Queen of Sheba and she's mentioned again here But what's interesting is the Solomon story about why Solomon which I preached this morning in Doncaster Ascon has a sad ending and But this story about the wise African has a happy ending. So let's have a little look about what the Bible says about the wisest African in the Bible. It's found in Acts chapter 8 and from verse 26 to the end of the chapter. 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 its shearer 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, about himself or about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. And 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. Philip found himself at Azotus and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. Amen. The wisest African in the Bible. Let us pray. Father in heaven, as we open your word, we come, Lord, this evening desiring for you to speak to us. We ask, O Lord God, that you would open our ears that we might hear, open our hearts that we might understand, and, Lord, move us that we might do likewise. Forgive our sin and bless us in this time together, in Jesus' name we pray. I'm into the wisest African in the Bible. I love this passage. I preach it often in Uganda How did it come about when I was I was asked to go to Rwanda and I was asked to speak to some students in school and and I thought what am I going to say to these students to make them want to come to ADU and in a very short time I prayed it and one Sunday afternoon within 15 minutes I had the outline and this is what I would say to them something along these lines so I would talk about that because you know we've gone to Africa to teach Africans but we from this passage we will learn that it's the African who teaches us. Now what do I mean? And again, as I would in Uganda, I'm gonna ask you, why is he the wisest African in the Bible? Why? And there are three reasons, and you're gonna help me find them. So come on, why is he the wisest African in the Bible? Have a little look back in the passage. That's a good answer. Hold on to that, Kevin's mum. Now if you were in Uganda, you would be called Mumma Kevin. They don't call you by your name, you're Mumma Kevin. Mumma Kevin, hold on to that. But that's not the first thing we see, is it? How do we find him? What do we find him doing? Reading the Bible. Wonderful, that's the art, that's why the first reason he's the wisest African in the Bible. Now a lot of our students will say, well he's in charge of the treasury, and let's not forget that, you know, this is not a stupid man. This is a very intelligent man. He's a very clever man, isn't he? If you think about it, he's in charge of the treasury. He's possibly the most important man in the country because he's in charge of the money. I love that, you know, I love it. Here he is reading his Bible. He's reading his Bible. Now, why is that so amazing? Well, isn't it so that we look out on the world today And do we see successful people like Steve Jobs or like Bill Gates, are they reading their Bible? No. If you told them, are you reading your Bible? Don't be so stupid. I read, do you know, someone handed me a history book on Friday, it was that thick, by some eminent historian. Not one mention of God, not one mention of the greatness of the West because of Christianity, the triumph of Christianity, not mentioned. rocks and building and millions of years nothing about God nothing about God but this man this very successful man he's reading his Bible isn't that wonderful isn't it wonderful do you know I say to my students there are many people in the world their lives a shipwreck They start off well, they go to Sunday school, they're reading their Bibles, but when they get a bit older, they go to senior school, their friends begin to laugh at them, they put the Bible down, and they stop reading it. They get married, sooner or later they forget the golden rule, they forget to love their wife, the wife forgets to love the husband, they fall out, their lives are shit-cracked. And I used this term in a church recently, and I had to explain what I meant by shipwrecked, because you see, Uganda's landlocked. But what stops a ship being shipwrecked? What stops a ship being shipwrecked? Come on. What is it that they build that stops ships being shipwrecked? Anger. No, that keeps the ship in place. It doesn't stop it being shipwrecked. Raf, that's if you get in a shipwreck, but how do we avoid it? Thank you. Lighthouse. You know, lighthouses, you might not know this because I don't know if you've been down to Land's End, there's a beautiful one down there. I could tell you a story about that one when they were building it and the waves went underneath the lighthouse at night and the man there, he was sent there to man the lighthouse. Overnight, he heard these white overnight on the longships lighthouse. Well a lighthouse is built to shine light at night, not to guide the ship but to stop the ship from crashing against the rocks and that's what the Bible is isn't it? It's a light. It's a light that stops us from crashing in our lives. If we read the Bible daily it stops us crashing in our lives. How many lives have crashed Because people have stopped reading their Bible. But not this man. Not this man. And another thing about this man. He's a very successful man. But you notice he's a eunuch. And because there's children here, we won't go into the details of that. But it's worth looking up that. Because, you know, again, here's a man, probably never married, never have children. Can't do those things. Not shaking his fist at God, is he? The Bible tells us he's come from worshipping God. Isn't that wonderful? Today people have been shaking their fist at God. You know, they have the slightest problem. Oh, I can't believe in God. Not a God who allows that. Not this man. Worshipping God. He comes from God and he's worshipping God, isn't he? He's reading his Bible. Isn't that wonderful? Now, many people say, Well, I would read my Bible, but I haven't got time. Have you heard someone say that? Have you ever said to someone, why don't you read about this? I haven't got time. Where do we see our man reading the Bible? Where is he? He's in the chariot. So he's actually going back to work, isn't he? He's going back to work. And here he is, he's in the chariot, reading his Bible. And if he was alive today, well, he'd be sitting on the bus, wouldn't he? Sitting on the train, reading his Bible, making good use of his time. So there's no excuse, is there, for us to say, I haven't got time. Read it on the way to work, I love it. My students, they say, oh, that reading, it's hard to read the Bible, they say. You know, Uganda's not a reading culture. And they'll say, I haven't got time. I say, well, make time. Look at this man. There he is, reading his Bible in his chariot on the way to work. What a wonderful example he is to us. Or you might say to someone, are you reading your Bible? What would they say? I don't understand it. Have you said that to someone? And they say to you, I don't understand it. Do you know when I was first given a Bible, I was working in Tenerife. Now I was converted in Tenerife. Some of you might not know it. It's a little island off the coast of Africa. So me, I'm a born again African. And I was converted there. But you know, someone gave me a Bible, a New Testament, and I started reading it and I couldn't put it down. But you know, when I went to the church the day I was saved, she said, what do you know about the gospel? I said, I've been reading it. I can't put it down, but I don't understand a word of it. Isn't that amazing? And the woman, then she gave me a very simple account of the gospel. She said, are you a sinner? sinner big one of those she says well you know Jesus died on the cross I said I know that she said if you take your sin and put it at the foot of the cross and ask him to take your sin away Jesus will take your sin away and give you a new life and a new heart I said that's what I need a new heart and within half an hour I had that new heart I prayed what she told me and I put my sin at the foot of the cross. And that very moment, May the 5th, 1992, the Lord took my sin away and gave me a new heart. Praise God. Amen. So, this man, well, some people say they don't understand it. Well, this man, what did he say? He said, how can I understand it unless someone explains it to me? So, even that's not an excuse, is it? It's not an excuse to say, I don't understand. We still see that this man is reading his Bible, and we must learn from that. If you don't understand it, well, read it and maybe the Lord will give you someone to explain it. And Kevin, that's what Kevin and the elders are here to do. If you don't understand something, go and see them. So there's no excuses there for any of us to be not reading our Bibles. We need to make time. We need to be wise. You often sing to the students, read your Bibles, pray every day. You know that little chorus. Amen? So that's our first reason why he's the wisest African in the Bible. He's reading his Bible. And what's the second reason? Mama Kevin, what was the second reason? Nearly, nearly. Nearly. What does he say? When Philip asks him, Philip says, do you understand what you are reading? What does he say? How can I unless someone guides me? Well, the second reason he's the wisest African in the Bible is because he admits he doesn't understand it. He admits it. Now, why is that so important? Well, I'll tell you now, I used to be an electrician, putting in buildings like this, and often I'd get a young apprentice with me. And I'd be with the apprentice, and I'd say, right, I want you to do this, I want you to wire that room, put this in and that in. Do you understand? And the apprentice would say, yes, yes, I've got it. I'd say, okay, I'll see you later. Well, I'd go back, and three, four hours later, I'd walk in the room, I'd go. What have you done? And what would the apprentice say? I didn't understand. And what would I say? Why didn't you tell me? And isn't that the case today? You know, I'm a teacher as well. Before Tenerife, I was there three and a half years, I was an electrician. When I came back, I was an electrician for a bit more, and I went to college. So I came back from Tenerife, I had no qualifications. I left school without any, I was lucky not to be thrown out of school but I went back to college when I came back from Tenerife and I went back to college for five years and trained to be a teacher. And then I got a job as a teacher and the children, I would give them the work and they'd do the exam and after the exam there'd be one student you'd think, what have they done, they've got it wrong and I'd call them over and say what happened and they'll say, I didn't understand. I say, why didn't you tell me? And isn't that the case today? How many men, women have lost jobs because they wouldn't admit they didn't understand. You know, it's a case of humility, isn't it? It takes humility to admit that you don't understand something. I mean, now just imagine if I went to the church that day, back in May 1992, and the woman said, do you know the gospel? And I'd have said, of course I do, what do you think I am, an idiot? Well, I might never have heard the gospel, never understood it, but the Lord was working in me at the time. But that's the way it is today, isn't it? So many people, they lack this humility, not this man. And again, I think there's a link between his position and his humility, his lack of pride. I think it's wonderful the way he says to Philip, how can I unless someone guides me? And I think for another example of humility is Philip himself. Look back with me at chapter 6 of the Acts of the Apostles. Acts chapter 6, and we'll just read the first few verses. Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, it is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty, that we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.' And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed, and laid their hands on them." So what do we see about Philip? Philip was a man who was asked to do what? He was asked to wait on tables. How many of us men would say if we were told, oh, can you wait on these tables, fix up these tables? How many men, how many of us would be tempted to say, well, that's women's work, isn't it? That's women's work. How many of us would feel like that? But not feeling. And then the next thing we hear, he's being moved by the spirit out there into the desert to meet this Ethiopian eunuch, a humble man. A humble man just like this eunuch. And another thing, we read that he says, how can I unless someone tells me? Now, I don't know about you, but when we are in Uganda, we have a lot of problems. Some of our students, they come and they say that the men in our church tell us we shouldn't come to Bible college. And I say, well, why is that? And they say, well, the Holy Spirit will teach you. And I'm sure you've heard that before, haven't you? You've heard that. Some people say, you say to them, why don't you go to church? And they say, well, I like to stay at home and the Spirit teaches me at home. Have you heard something like that before? I'm sure you've heard something similar. If you went to college or if you've been to Bible college or you're thinking about it, someone might say, well, you don't need to go to the Bible college. the Holy Spirit will teach you but do you notice what happens in this passage and this is a good answer if you ever hear someone make that comment is you should say well what does the Spirit do in this passage it actually says that the Spirit said to Philip go over and join this chariot so the Spirit does not teach The Ethiopian eunuch per se, not exactly. The spirit sends a man. And a man who had been trained under Jesus. A man who had studied with the Lord for many years. This man is a trained man. And he was sent by the spirit. Not the spirit going directly to the Ethiopian eunuch. Isn't that amazing? I tell my students, you go back and tell them, go and tell them how the Spirit works. The Spirit sends a man. And in fact, as we read from chapter six, the Spirit chooses men to go. Now, of course, there's a lesson for us there about the Spirit, but I wonder, is the Spirit telling you to go? I don't know any of you really. I don't know, is the spirit telling you to go to Bible college or go somewhere and study? Is the spirit telling you to go out to the mission field? Are you reluctant? Do you think maybe I want to do this job, it's more important? Not this man, not Philip, and not this eunuch. No pride. Very humble men. The Lord, what does the Bible say? The Lord resists the proud, gives grace to the humble. So first of all, we can see that he's reading his Bible. Next, he admits he doesn't understand he's humble. Those are two things. So what's the third thing? What's the third reason he's the wisest African? Who wants to have a guess? Well who said that? Well done sir. So what do we see here? It says verse 36. Well let's back up a minute and see that the passage of scripture he was reading was this. Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer 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 this interesting and lovely eunuch said to Philip, about whom I ask you, does the prophet say this? About himself or about someone else? You know often we meet people don't we and I'm sure it's the same here as it is in Africa. You meet people and they say I've been reading the Bible and the Bible is telling me this. And what are they doing is they are reading the Bible thinking the Bible is about them. Don't they read it and they think that the book of Isaiah, because often it is the book of Isaiah, they believe it's talking about them. Whereas in fact it's talking about God. and here he sees that it's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and then it says that Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news about Jesus Now it then it says and as they were going along the road they came to some water so obviously between verse 35 and 36 we must presume that Philip told him that Jesus said go out and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and he would have heard this and then he sees water and he says see here is water what prevents me from being baptized now my reason is not so much that he desired baptism but he's wise because he was obedient he had been told, believe and be baptized. And he thought, well I believe, and in fact, Philip says to him, Philip says, and they came up, Yeah 38 and he commanded the chariot to stop and they both went down into water and he baptized him. Now am I right in thinking that in another version it says if you believe Well, what version is that? That's what I was looking for Thank you Yeah, so he did say he believed And now he's saying, I want to be baptized. And what I love about this is, he doesn't ask for a party, does he? He doesn't say, well, I'm gonna go home and let me go home and invite all my friends around and we'll have a barbecue and we'll get a swimming pool and we'll go this and we'll go down into whatever. He says, no, straight away, straight away he sees water and he wants to be baptized. And I love that, are we like that? Are we obedient when we hear something from the pulpit? Are we immediately obedient? When we're told, when we go through the commandments, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not lust, do not blaspheme, honour your mother and father. Do we think, I'll do it later? Or are we obedient straight away? And again, you know, there is something here, isn't there? I'm not saying that if we do these things, 1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 5 or whatever. But I do think there's a reason why this man is a very successful man. I think he's very successful because of these things. Because he's humble. Because he's reading his Bible. And because he's obedient, immediately. Can we say the same about ourselves? Can the same be said about us? Are we doing these things? That's why he's the wisest man in Africa in the Bible. Now, before we finish, I've got a question. I've got a little thing, a question to ask you. And that is, are you rejoicing? Are you rejoicing in your Christian life? Now let's look at this passage again and look down at verse 39. It says, 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. Now of course he's rejoicing in his newfound salvation. Are you rejoicing? That's what we should be doing shouldn't we? As Christians we should be rejoicing in the Lord. We come every Sunday to worship and to rejoice. What is the first point of the catechism? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever and enjoyment well rejoicing and enjoyment they go together surely I mean you're not going to be enjoying life if you're not rejoicing is that right you can't go around with a miserable look on your face and someone say what's the matter with you well I'm rejoicing there wouldn't be much of a witness would you None of us would be, would we, if we were like that all the time. So we're to rejoice in the Lord, enjoy Him forever. Are we rejoicing in the Lord? Now, I'm looking out here and I'm gonna presume most of you are believers. And say that if you are not rejoicing, might it be because you're not reading your Bible? You know, my students, one of them, he said to me, and we have a laugh about this, because you know, one of the students, he said, Mr. Kinsella, he said, last year, the Lord spoke to me. I said, was it from the book of Isaiah? He said, how did you know? I said, well, it's always Isaiah, isn't it? It's always the book of Isaiah. I said, well, I'll tell you something, I said, I said, you know, the day before that, the Lord spoke to me. They were like, hello. And one of them said, Mr. Kinsella, how come the Lord speaks to you every day? I said, because I read my Bible every day. Isn't that true? I said, you know, when you read your Bible, I said, the Lord speaks to you. I said, the trouble is you don't know how to hear. And because you're only dipping in, You never know what is right and wrong. I said, you read your Bible every day. I said, you'll start hearing the Lord speak to you. They were like, oh. Someone said, I said, well, you must read your Bible every day. I said, I try and read it every day. He said, oh, that's a gift. I said, it's not. I said, that's graft. I said, you've got to work at it. Read it every day. If you're not rejoicing, it might be that. Might it also be, if you're not rejoicing, Do you think too highly of yourself? You know, when you're struggling with something, you don't go to the pastor. You don't go to the elders. You sit at home and you try and struggle through it. If someone says, what's the matter? Nothing, nothing's the matter, I'm doing all right. You're too proud. Maybe that's your problem. Or be like this Ethiopian eunuch. You admit you've got a problem. Go and see your pastor and your elders, get some help. Or might it be that as a Christian you're not obedient, that you're struggling in life, you're going through a dark period because you're harbouring sin, you're holding on to sin, you've got a besetting sin, one of those little sins that you think, I'll get rid of the others but I'll keep that one, I like that one, I don't know what it is, You know, if you're single here, I remember when I was single, very hard to, you know, very easy to keep sin, isn't it? When you're single, no one's there to check up on you. Well, if you're disobedient, maybe tonight's the night to confess that disobedience. You know, God says only confess your sin. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive our sin, cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What a promise, what a promise. That's what I would say to the Christian. Now if you're not a Christian here, maybe you're a seeker. And I'll finish with this. But you know, I was talking to my friend's father and he said, surely this is a passage that is about encouraging those who seek. This man reads his Bible, he's seeking the Lord. And here we see that those who seek, find. Those who knock, the door is answered. Those who ask will receive. And that's what he did, didn't he, in all these things. So I don't know, if you're sitting here and you don't know the Lord, you're lacking in assurance, well, this tells us, doesn't it, that we're to keep seeking, we're to keep reading, we're to keep knocking on that door, and we're to keep asking. You know, for the Ethiopian unit, the answer came out of the blue, didn't it? The Spirit brought the man there. That was me in Tenerife. Do you know, I used to stalk couples. I'm going over time up here. Sorry, Kevin. There's always a good story. So anyway, I'm in Tenerife and I'm selling timeshares. Now, those of you who don't know Timeshare, where there are these nasty people that stop you in the street, and they send you to a block of apartments, and they'll try and sell you an apartment, and give you about three hours of the third degree. It's a real hard time. Well, my job was to send the people up there. That's all I had to do. I didn't do the third degree, but I was doing that in Tenerife. And do you know what? I was doing that, and one night a couple came along, Oh you know, that's all you need isn't it when you're working. But you know I was polite and listened to them and they went to my timeshare and they earned me money. But you know every three, four, five months they'd come back to Tenerife and every night they'd come past. Sean, how are you? Have you thought about Jesus? And ultimately it was, I believe it was their prayers that led to me being converted. We never know, do we? I began to seek as well. I went to the Catholic Church. I started reading the Bible and I didn't understand it. And I asked a few other people. They couldn't help me. And this actually gives me another illustration. I'll quickly do this one. Do you know who drives here? Who's got a car here? Who's got a car? And you get a problem with your car, you can hear it, or you sense there's a problem with the car. I say to Natasha, can you hear that? She says, no, I can't hear it. I says, well it's there. You go to the mechanic, and you see the mechanic, and he says, I don't know what you mean, but he'll give you some advice, and he'll have a little look, and for a few days it seems to have gone. But then you get back in one day, and there it is again, that problem. And then you might think, well I've got that Haynes manual, I'll have a look at that. Have you ever looked at one of those? Well, that's in here. You've got to have some sort of PhD, haven't you? In motor mechanics to understand one of them. You might as well just use it to stand here so that people can see you above the pulpit. They're not very good, but you know, that's how I felt with the Bible. And you know, I had a problem with me, which only I could see. Only I could see this problem. Everyone else, you alright? I knew I wasn't all right, I had this nagging mechanical problem inside me, inside my heart. Do you know, I'd sit there on the side of the bed in the morning, money, women, cars, sunshine, but an emptiness inside my heart. And do you know, in the end, with your car, you have to go back to the Will fix your car because they made it and you know with a problem with you you have to go back to your maker If you haven't gone to your maker God and asked him to fix your problem when the wonder you're not rejoice No wonder you're not happy No wonder you're struggling I'm in Let's all go to our maker now and pray Father in heaven we do thank you for your work this little short story about an Ethiopian eunuch on his way back home in a chariot stopped reading his Bible and arrested by your servant Philip convicted of his sin and saved by the grace of God. Lord what a wonderful little story is but all what lessons it teaches us teaches us to read our Bibles. Help us to read our Bibles, Lord, and read them every day, to be diligent, not be wasteful with our time. Start the day with the Bible, read it every day. Help us to do that, Lord God. Help us to be humble, go to the pastor with our problems, go to the elders, talk to one another, and help us all, Lord God, to be obedient. Lord, straight away. How often, Lord, we get conviction of sin, but we suppress it, we push it down, we push it away thinking we'll deal with it tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes. Lord God, help us to put away our sin and Lord to come to you for forgiveness and mercy. Forgive us, oh Lord God, our disobedience. Help us to love your law, And Lord God, some of us, when we're not rejoicing, we're not rejoicing enough. Help us, Lord, to know our sins are forgiven. Help us to know about the cross, where we can lay our sins down. Help us to know about this new life and this new heart that can be ours through Christ Jesus. And Lord, for those of us who have sinned, may we not believe as we pray. Create in us clean hearts, O God. Renew a right spirit within us. Wash us, clean us, cleanse us from our sin, we pray. Bless us, O Lord God, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.