Readable transcript
Read the sermon
So hey, if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Acts chapter 8. And as you turn to Acts chapter 8, I want to invite you all to just think with me for a couple of moments this morning about the things in life that help us navigate the twists and turns of life. So think with me for a couple of moments of things in life that help us navigate the twists and turns of life. Right, we use things like GPS to navigate when we travel, or we use maps to navigate when we hike, or we use a manual to navigate instructions on maybe how to build something or put something together.
We might even use the advice of a friend to navigate some challenging situations in our lives. All of us are used to and familiar with this idea of of using some kind of navigation system to navigate something in life. Maybe we're going somewhere that we've never been before, or we're doing something that we've never done before. We use certain things to help us navigate where we're going and how to get there.
Think about the things that we used to use to navigate, right? I'm sure you could all remember the days when we would print out instructions from MapQuest on how to get from point A to point B. Or maybe you remember pulling out your Thomas Guide from the glove box, right? Where's my Thomas Guide fans in the room? Right, like pulling that out from the glove box and actually looking up like, how am I going to get somewhere, right?
You know, the shame is now we have things like phones that tell us where to go. And now we have cars that can practically drive ourselves to our or drive themselves to our destination. And yet somehow we still get lost on the trail and we still miss our exit on the freeway. Right. You know what I'm talking about? Quick story. I mentioned last week that my brothers and I try to do an annual backpacking trip.
And so we just got back from a trip to Lost Coast, this beautiful, rugged stretch of the California coastline up in Northern California. And we had our fair share of moments where we missed our exit on the freeway, right? We also somehow missed our turns at on the trail. And you think about it, you're just following the coastline, guys. Like all you have to do is hug the coastline and you'll get to where you need to go on this trail.
But somehow three adult grown men kept getting lost on the trail, right? And so like one has their Their Google phone downloaded AllTrails trying to navigate where to go. One's got their Apple Watch Ultra trying to look where to go. One's on their watch, one's on their phone. I didn't have my watch or my phone, so I'm just looking around and wait, there's a signpost, guys. And it says LCT, which stands for Lost Coast Trail, with an arrow pointing this way.
Like, guys, I think we're supposed to go over here, right? Even with all of the information technology and artificial intelligence that we have today, sometimes we still get lost, don't we? Right. And sometimes those things aren't sufficient to get us where we need to go. And I actually want to just take a moment to remind you in our modern world that has information technology and artificial intelligence.
I want to take a moment to remind you that you have a greater and better guide than Google or AI. And that guide that's better than Google and that guide that's better than AI is talked about in Scripture as a helper. And I want to say that he's an onboard navigator because Scripture says he lives inside of us. And that guide that we're going to be talking about today is God. The Holy Spirit. And if you have Acts chapter 8 open in front of you, I want to turn your attention to an incredible story about how the Holy Spirit guided an individual into an incredible encounter that changed someone's life forever.
And in a world where we're so often on our devices and we're so often relying on other guides to guide us and navigate us, I just want to remind you of the ultimate guide. I want to remind you of the ultimate navigator. I want to remind you of the helper. I want to remind you of what who scripture calls the Holy Spirit. And he lives inside of you. And he is so much better than Google guys. And he's going to navigate you and he's going to walk with you and he's going to lead you and he's going to guide you.
Every moment of every day in Acts chapter 8, we get this beautiful picture, this beautiful portrait, this window into what it looks like to be led, to be guided by the Holy Spirit with every step we take and everywhere we go. We're going to meet a man named Philip. We heard about Philip briefly a few chapters ago in our series through Acts. Philip, what he's going to do He's going to follow the Spirit's lead.
He's going to follow the Spirit as his guide. And it's going to take him to this incredible encounter, to somewhere that he had never been before, and to baptize somebody that he had never met before. And it changed someone's life forever. And if you would lean in today and think about how you're filled with the Spirit today, God might use you to change someone's life forever. Forever. So today we're going to be talking about a guide for life.
And we're going to be talking about how that guide is the guide, the Holy Spirit, who scripture says lives inside of us and guides us each and every day. And the story of a Philip and an Ethiopian official who will meet together in this passage. This story reminds us that the Holy Spirit is a guide to do good. A God lives inside of you. And he wants to guide you to do good in your circle of influence each and every day.
Second, we're going to see that the Holy Spirit is a guide to know God. He wants to help you come to know God. He wants to use you to help others come to know God. And it's only by the Holy Spirit that we can truly understand who God is and what Jesus has done for us. And then finally, I love how this passage is going to end. It's just the Holy Spirit's a guide to always go. Like the Spirit wants us to always be taking our next step in our relationship with God and in our influence of others.
So let's look at Acts chapter 8 and consider what it looks like that we have a guide for life named the Holy Spirit. And that guide wants to guide us to do good, guide us to know God, and guide us to always go. on this adventure that God has called us to as his church. So let's read Acts chapter 8. I'll read it out loud. We're going to be in verses 26 to 40. I'd love to pray, and then we'll get started with our message today.
This is what is recorded about the story of Philip and about a man that he meets from Ethiopia. It says this in Acts chapter 8, verse 26, an angel of the Lord said to Philip, Rise and go toward the south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. That 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.
You know, he had come to Jerusalem to worship and he was returning actually seated in his chariot and he was reading, guys. The prophet Isaiah. And verse 29, it says, 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 just a simple question. Do you understand what you are reading? Oh, and look what he says. He said, How can I unless someone guides me?
And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of scripture that he was reading was this. And if you have a footnote in your Bible, it's Isaiah 53. It says, like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter. And like a lamb before its shearers is silenced, 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 so the eunuch said to Philip, about whom, I ask, 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 who? About Jesus. And as they were going along the road, they came to some water. And so 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. And Philip and the eunuch. And he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, get this. The spirit of the Lord carried Philip away. And the eunuch saw him no more. And went on his way rejoicing. But then Philip found himself at Azotus. And as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all of the towns. Until he came to a coastal city called Caesarea.
That is the story of Philip. Let's pray together this morning. Father, we are just so thankful that we get to gather here this morning and study your word together this morning. And that we get to consider and think about how we have a guide living inside of us this morning. Lord, help us to remember, God, that you are three persons in one being, Father, Son, and Spirit. And you promised to pour out your Spirit on your church.
And if we profess faith in Jesus, we are not alone. But everywhere we go, we are filled by your Spirit who leads us and guides us every step that we take. Father, we want to become more aware of his presence. We want to be attentive to His promptings. We want to know what it means when the scripture teaches that we are to walk and be led by the spirit of God who lives in us. Lord, help us to understand what you have for us today as we study the book of Acts together.
God, we thank you. We love you. And we pray all these things in Jesus name and all God's people said, amen. Well, I want to welcome you again to our church and to this series. I want to take a moment to acknowledge we've been studying the book of Acts now for eight weeks this summer. And I want to take a moment to remember where we are and where we've been in the storyline of Scripture and in the storyline of Jesus's life and ministry.
Right. The book of Acts was actually written by an individual named Luke. And Luke wrote both the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts really as one unified story of. But it's presented to us in two volumes in our Bibles. We have the Gospel of Luke and we have the Book of Acts. And what happens is Luke picks up in Acts where he left off in his Gospel telling us what Jesus began to do and teach and what we are called to do and teach as his church from the moment in time when Jesus ascended into heaven. until he returns to this earth. Now, I like to think about it this way. Luke is the story of Jesus, and Acts is the story of the church. And if you've not read the story of Jesus before, I just want to invite you to do that this week, to maybe open up to Luke's gospel and begin thinking about who Jesus is and what Jesus did for you and for this world. And now, Acts is all about how we are called to live like Jesus lived,
And what we're called to do in light of what Jesus has done for this world, it's all about our story. It's all about the church. Now, we've been acknowledging how it was in Acts chapter 1 that was the last moment in time that Jesus set foot on this earth. Think about where Jesus is right now. He's at the Father's right hand. But in Acts chapter 1, he was still on earth, and we've been thinking about how Acts chapter 1 was the last moment in time that Jesus set foot on this earth. But despite the fact that he's now in heaven, God's power has never been stronger and God's presence has never been realer or more real. I don't know if realer is a word. Sure it is. But more real than it is today because of what Jesus promised would happen when he went to heaven. I think we've got to ask ourselves, would we rather have Jesus beside us or would we rather have the Spirit in us?
And that's the transition that takes place when Jesus goes to heaven. We no longer have Jesus beside us. He's at the Father's side. But we now have the Spirit inside us. And that's what Jesus promised in Acts chapter 1, verse 8. He says, but you will receive what? Power when the Spirit has come upon you. And then he says, power. You will be my witnesses right where in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and all the way to the ends of the earth.
Those are expanding concentric circles of influence. And Jesus calls us to be his witnesses, his representatives in those spaces right here at home in Jerusalem and And all the way to the ends of the earth. Now, here's what we've been thinking about. The Spirit did fill the church. In Acts chapter 2 verse 4, it says they were all filled with the Spirit, just as God had promised when he says, I will pour out my Spirit on what?
All flesh. And I just want you to know that if you're a follower of Jesus, you are a temple of the Holy Spirit. And he is with you. And he lives inside of you. And he walks with you each and every day. And so what Peter does is he proclaims the gospel, the church is born. And so we've been thinking about what does it look like to be a team of spirit-filled Christians? And what does a team of spirit-filled Christians commit to doing together?
And we've seen in the book of Acts so far how we practice certain things together together. And we win certain things together. And we've been talking about and defining how winning looks like serving people in our circle and sharing Jesus with people in our circle. Okay, now fast forward to Acts chapter 8 where we pick up in our passage today. We acknowledged last week with the story of Stephen how in Acts chapter 8 the church is actually scattered.
Now the church is scattered by persecution. But the church is also scattered on purpose and with purpose by the Holy Spirit to begin being his witnesses to new people and to new places. And we begin to see the story of Stephen and Philip. And we're going to see the story of Paul and the story of Peter. Now, last week, we looked at the story of Stephen. This week, what we're going to do is look at the story of Peter. of Philip. Now, Philip is a unique follower of Jesus. He's given the opportunity to be a part of expanding that circle of influence that the church had from its immediate geographical location, which was Jerusalem, to the next geographical location, which we were told is where? Samaria. So if you look at Acts chapter 8, verse 5, earlier in our passage, it's What Philip does is he spreads that circle now to Samaria.
And if you read earlier in Acts chapter 8, we see a magician comes to faith in Jesus. It's an incredible story. I encourage you to read it. A magician, a career magician comes to faith in Jesus. And then the crowds and the people of Samaria come to have joy in Jesus. And then what Philip does is he expands the circle even further beyond Samaria now to Gaza in Acts chapter 8, verse 26, when an angel says, rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.
Now, we know actually because of current events in the Middle East, we're aware of where Gaza is, aren't we? Yeah. It's this desert region actually in southern Israel. And it's somewhere that Philip had never been before. And quite honestly, I don't think it's somewhere that Philip ever wanted to go before. He had never been compelled to go that far from his hometown. He had never been compelled to go to that particular place because it's been a place of conflict from ancient times to modern times.
And yet sometimes that's Where God calls us to go, isn't it? Sometimes God puts us and places us and prompts us and calls us to go places in our circle and outside of our circle to places that are in our comfort zone and places that are what? Outside of our comfort zone. And so we see that happening as the Spirit prompts us Philip to go to Gaza, a place outside of his comfort zone. And we see Philip beginning to respond to that leading and to that guiding.
Now, we don't know much about Philip, frankly, doesn't know much about where he's going. Philip doesn't know who he's going to meet on the way. Philip is going to be relieved that he doesn't have to go all the way to Gaza. Because he's going to meet a man on the road to Gaza. Now, Philip knows none of this yet. All that he's told is rise and go. And then the passage of scripture tells us that he was, he rose and he went.
So we just see Philip being obedient to God's calling. We see Philip being perceptive to the spirits prompting and we see Philip Philip going wherever God calls him to go. And that's because Philip knew that the spirit is always preparing us to do good. And if the spirit is going to tell us or prompt us to go somewhere, it's going to be important and it's going to be good. And he's going to use us to accomplish something either in our life or in the lives of others.
And so what Philip does is he believes that the spirit of God is preparing him to do something good. And whether it's far away like Gaza or familiar like home, the important thing is that we go wherever God calls us to go and we're present wherever God calls us to go, looking for opportunities along the way. Philip was obedient to God's call. Philip was obedient to the prompting of the Spirit, and he went knowing and expecting something good was going to happen, because the Spirit always prepares us to do something good.
Now, it was a few weeks ago that I met a buddy of mine up in Northern California for what we're calling our inaugural annual cycling trip. where we're planning to meet up once a year, every year, to catch up together and to cycle together. And so just a few weeks ago, I put my bike in the back of the car, and I drove up the 5 freeway, and I met him at Lake Tahoe. I had been to Lake Tahoe a few summers ago, and I thought, how fun would it be to ride the perimeter of Lake Tahoe?
That's an interesting definition of fun, right? How fun would it be to ride the perimeter of Lake Tahoe? Just a casual 72 miles and 3,900 feet of elevation gains. Just a casual ride around Lake Tahoe. So I went and, you know, there is something about, I'm leaving my circle. I've influenced Thousand Oaks and my home and my community. And I was going somewhere a little far away from home. And I began thinking about how I'm going to circle Lake Tahoe.
Like I'm literally going to circle Lake Tahoe. Why don't I begin praying for Lake Tahoe and the community and people that I'm going to, I'm about to start circling. I don't know any of them. I've never met any of them. It's not my hometown. It's not my community. But I'm here. And I want to be present where I am. And I want to be present wherever God has me. And I happen to be in Lake Tahoe. So I'm just going to begin praying for Lake Tahoe and seeing if God might have an opportunity for me while I'm here.
And sure enough, he did. And I think that that's what we see happening with Philip. He's going to an unfamiliar place a little far away from home. And he just begins praying and opening his heart and his mind to whatever opportunity God had for him. And you know what? God did. And all of this reminded me of a missionary that God has used to inspire me in my Christian walk and in my Christian faith.
This missionary's name is Jim Elliot. And if you're familiar with Jim Elliot, God called him to go to a place a little far away from home. And that place was Ecuador, to bring the gospel to the people of Ecuador. And he would go on to say, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he can never lose. And that became something that I wanted to internalize and live and practice today. Became my senior quote in high school.
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he can never lose. That's actually not the quote of Jim Elliot that I wanted to share with you today. He has another one that's inspired me. And it goes like this. He wrote in his journal early on in his Christian walk. He says, wherever you are, be all there. Right, wherever you are. Be all there because it's not coincidence that you are where you are.
It's providence that you are where you are. And if you are all there, you will be ready for whatever prompting God gives you to reach out to somebody, serve somebody, love somebody in your circle. And I think we saw Philip being all there and ready for whatever God has for him. So in verse 27, what does it say that Philip did? The angel said, go to Gaza. And so he rose and he went. Philip went. He was all there and he was ready for whatever God had.
Now, unbeknownst to Philip, something simultaneously was going on that he wasn't aware of. The spirit of God was preparing this man who had traveled far. very far from home, all the way from Ethiopia to Jerusalem to worship. We're told that he was a court official for the queen of Ethiopia. He oversaw her treasury and he had come maybe using some of that wealth to travel a far distance and he had come to Jerusalem to worship.
And we believe that he actually purchased A scroll of Isaiah while he was in Jerusalem brought that back with him and is now just like Philip on the road to Gaza because that was the major international route to get back to Ethiopia from which he came. And now he's on the road to Gaza and so is Philip. And this gentleman is now reading a scroll from Isaiah. Now, I love this. Philip has no idea where
What's about to happen? He doesn't know he's going to meet this man on the chariot. He doesn't know that this man is reading from Isaiah. He doesn't know he's going to get this opportunity. But the spirit of God organized and orchestrated all of it. Oh, what a reminder that is for us, right? God is organizing and orchestrating all kinds of divine appointments in our lives every single day. Like who you meet is not an accident.
And who you meet and encounter is not a coincidence. But God wants to cross your paths with different people in different places for a reason and for a purpose. And when we are there and we're all there, we'll be ready when God gives us that opportunity. Now, in verse 29, we see that Philip is saying, is becoming aware of this opportunity. There's this gentleman on a chariot, and the Spirit said to Philip, go over and what?
Join his chariot. Now, okay, Philip still doesn't really know what's going on, but he is aware of one thing. This chariot is moving a lot faster than he is, right? And so it says that Philip, in response to the Spirit saying, go over, what does Philip do? He runs over, right? Now have you noticed that most people don't run just for the fun of it? Have you ever noticed that most people don't just run for the fun of it?
It takes a very unique person to run just for the fun of it. Am I right? Now if you think about running, most of us, we typically run for a few reasons. Maybe we're afraid. and we're running from something, maybe we're excited or we're running to something, or maybe we're running late and we don't want to miss something, right? Has anybody ever been in that last category? Running a little late. I remember we were actually on a mission trip to Indonesia, taking a group of students to go share Jesus with indigenous peoples in another country.
And we had a journey from LAX to SFO to Singapore. And we arrived in SFO to catch our layover flight with about 20, 25 minutes to get 18 people their luggage and board another plane. You can believe that we were running through that airport to make our flight so that we wouldn't miss it. Okay, so why is Philip running? Is he afraid? No. Is he excited? Maybe. Is he running late to catch this chariot?
Yes, he is. And he doesn't want to miss the opportunity that God has for him. And I love that. When the Spirit said go, it says that Philip ran. I just wonder, are we that attentive to the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit in our life? That when he prompts us to go over, when he prompts us to go and talk to somebody, when he prompts us to do something good for somebody, do we hesitate with fear?
Or do we respond with excitement? And do we run to that opportunity ready to serve and ready to discover whatever it is that God has for us? Like, am I that attentive? The Holy Spirit who lives inside of me. Guys, I'll admit that sometimes it seems as if God used to work in a qualitatively greater way in the Bible than he does today. Does that resonate with anybody? It seems as if God works in a qualitatively greater way in the Bible than he does today.
Than he does today. Now there is something to that. As we see the church being established. And we see the gospel being spread. I think that there is an abundance. Of God's work. And God's spirit at work. As we study this book. But I think as good students of scripture. We got to remember that. As much as it's descriptive. Of what happened in the early church. In Philip's day. It's also prescriptive.
And how God intends to work in our lives today. And I think that we need to become more aware of the Holy Spirit. And his work in our lives. This whole study has made me ask. How does the Holy Spirit work in our lives today? Like who is the Holy Spirit? And how does scripture teach that he works? And so I came up with a quick list. I've just been wrestling personally with. How does the Holy Spirit work in our lives today?
As we see him working very clearly on the pages of scripture. And here's a few ways that the Spirit works in our lives today. He convicts. He regenerates. He justifies. He adopts. He indwells. He seals. He enables. He empowers. He illuminates. He intercedes, he leads, he fills, he strengthens, he sanctifies, he gifts, he grants, he unifies, and ultimately he glorifies Jesus in all of his works in our lives today.
I think that would make an excellent study if you're questioning like me, who is the Holy Spirit today? And how does he work in our lives today? Now, I just want to confess, I do not want to minimize or underestimate the power or the presence of the spirit in my life. And I want to be as attentive and as aware as Philip was, ready to respond to how he's preparing me and prompting me to love and serve those in my circles.
I just want to ask you, are you ready for the Spirit of God to nudge you this week? Are you ready for the Spirit of God to prompt you this week? Are you ready for the Spirit of God to lead you and guide you to do good in your circle of influence this week? Now let me give you a cheat code. The Holy Spirit will never lead you to do something that's contradictory to the Bible. I think that's important for us to remember.
The Holy Spirit will never lead us to do something that is contradictory to God's revealed will in Scripture. And yet, the Holy Spirit, who does all of those things in our lives and more, the Holy Spirit will always lead us to do things in obedience to what is taught in the Bible. Because apart from him, we could do nothing. And he wants us to be obedient in our walk with God and obedient to the teachings of scripture.
So are you ready this week for him to nudge you, prompt you, lead you and guide you to apply what you know to be true of the teachings of scripture? You know, what's one big one that I miss is that he brings to remember memory, Everything that God has taught us. Write down John 14:26. That's a verse I missed. I kind of ran out of room. As big a screen as we have in here, I ran out of room of all the things that the Spirit of God does in our lives.
And one of them is he brings to memory everything that God has taught us in John chapter 14, verse 26. So are you ready for him to nudge you and prompt you To apply what you've already learned and what you already know as you love and serve those in your circle. Now, he's not just a guide to do good. The Holy Spirit is a guide to know God. And I don't know how this happens, but every Sunday I always run out of time.
I've got so much more to go. And we're running out of time. So I'm going to try to speed this up a little bit. And think about how the Holy Spirit is a guide, not just to do good, but to know God. And I want to look at verses 31 to 35. Somebody described this passage this way. Five minutes, one verse, and a little bit of courage. The interaction between Philip and the Ethiopian official took place in five minutes with one verse and a little bit of courage.
And guys, sometimes that's all it takes to influence somebody and to share Jesus with somebody. Five minutes, one verse, and a little bit of courage. Here's what happens. The Spirit prompts Philip to talk to this man in the chariot. And he asks him if he understands what he's reading. Now you realize that some of the best conversations start with a question. Just become a good question asker, like be an inquisitive person as a follower of Jesus.
Learn other people's stories. Ask them good intentional questions. Because sometimes the best conversations, they start with a question. And so what is the first thing that Philip does? He asks the man a question. Do you understand what you're reading? And then he says, how can I? Unless somebody guides me. And that leads to a full-on conversation about Jesus and how the man is reading Isaiah 53. Who's Isaiah 53 about?
It's about Jesus and how he came and how he lived and how he died and how he paid for all of our sins so that we could be forgiven and so we could be loved. And so he'd be brought into a relationship with God. So he tells him about Jesus because often the Spirit will use people to help others know God. And God wants to use you to help others know God. I mentioned that I went up to Lake Tahoe with a friend just ready for whatever God had and just began praying around Lake Tahoe.
So what ended up happening is we successfully drew a circle around This circle around Lake Tahoe, we started in South Lake and we went all the way up to Incline Village for lunch and we made it all the way back to South Lake in about five hours. So after drawing the circle, I was ready for two things. Can anybody guess? A clean shower and a good meal and definitely a cup of coffee as well. And so, okay, so we cleaned up and we ordered dinner and we sat down at our table and this man approached us.
He was about my age and we were at a table for four. We only had two of us. And he asked if he could join us. And, you know, the World Cup was on. And so there are people everywhere in the restaurant. We're all watching the game. The soccer game. It was the first knockout game with Team USA. The one that got red carded. Remember that? So it was kind of like a lively atmosphere. And everybody wanted to crowd around.
And we had two extra seats. And so the man said, can I join you guys? I said, sure, no problem. But it was then and there that I realized why I was in Lake Tahoe. To talk to this man about Jesus. Now, I was exhausted, actually, if you remember what I just did. I was pretty much on empty. I had nothing left in the tank. But the Spirit of God is always preparing us and prompting us to do good and to help others know God.
And so what did I do? I just asked a few questions. I said, what brings you to Tahoe? Where are you from? What's your name? And what do you do for a living? And you know what? This man started sharing his entire life story with us. He just began sharing about where he grew up and his family atmosphere. Actually, he asked me what I did for a living. Now, that's really easy to get the conversation started.
I'm a pastor. I work for a church. He said, well, my dad was a pastor, but he wasn't a good guy. And we didn't have a good upbringing. And I've actually never been to church since. And he just began sharing his story about the hardships that he's had and how he had recently... Kind of hit a rock bottom. And at the end of the conversation, he said, well, you're a pastor. Would you pray for me? And so I prayed with him.
And I just reminded him that God loves him. And I reminded him that Jesus died for him. And I left him with a verse. Favorite verse of mine is Romans 8, verse 28. And it reminds us that God works what? All things for good. And I just wanted to put a stone in his shoe and remind him he met a pastor in Lake Tahoe for a reason. And I put a pebble in his shoe to remind him God works everything together for good.
And it was for a reason that we met in Lake Tahoe. And God is orchestrating appointments like that each and every day. And he calls us to be ready to help others know God. And that's because the Spirit uses us to make the message of Jesus known. And he also uses scripture. And that's why I left him with Romans 8. I hope that he goes back and picks up a Bible or walks through the doors of a church and reengages in his relationship with God.
Romans 8:28 was something I left him. And something that God gave the man from Ethiopia was Isaiah 53. And look at what it says in verse 35. Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about what? About Jesus. Philip opened his mouth and he just talked about Jesus. Okay, he probably used Isaiah 53 because that was the starting point for the conversation. But I'm sure it went well beyond Isaiah 53.
And it included how Jesus is fully God. And Jesus is fully man. And he came to this earth to dwell with us and live among us and share his life with us and ultimately give his life for us. And how Jesus died. But three days later, Jesus rose. And right now, Jesus reigns from his throne in heaven. And he loves us and he wants a relationship with us. And nothing will ever separate us from his love. And Philip just begins pouring out all of this about Jesus.
And what does the man from Ethiopia do? He responds in faith and he wants to get baptized. And that's kind of how we wrap up this passage. The spirit is a guide to do good and the spirit is a guide to know God. But the spirit is also a guide to always go. To always take your next step with Jesus, to always help others in their next step with Jesus. And so the man from Ethiopia hears the good news about Jesus.
And what does he want to do? He wants to get baptized. And I love how this passage of scripture, what strikes me is how excited he is to get baptized, right? He spots a body of water out in the distance. Like he's playing a game of I spy with my little eye, right? It's like, hey, look, there's water. And then he commands the chariot to stop like it's a tram arriving at Disneyland, right? And he's just ready to get off the tram and jump in with both feet.
And he does. And it says that the Ethiopian was baptized that day. And profess faith in Jesus that day. He didn't wait. He didn't procrastinate. He didn't let anything come between him and obeying God's call on his life to follow Jesus, which begins with baptism, but includes a life of obedience and pursuing God's will that is taught in the Bible for our lives today. And so I just love the enthusiasm.
How the Spirit of God leads us to always take our next step with Jesus. So as we wrap this up, I just want to ask you, what's your next step with Jesus? Maybe it's to believe in Him. I missed a verse in my outline. It's Romans chapter 10, verse 17. It says, Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of Christ. As Philip shared Christ with this man, he responded in faith. Maybe you're hearing the word of Christ today.
And maybe God and the Spirit of God is prompting you to respond in faith. Would you just in the stillness of your heart, just tell him that you believe. And that you're ready to follow Jesus. And maybe tell somebody that you did that today. And maybe take the next step and get baptized as It's a public profession of your faith that you're ready to follow Jesus, that you understand that he lived and died and rose for you.
And he's promised you a hope and a future and he loves you and he forgives you. Like maybe your response today is to believe like the man from Ethiopia. Maybe your response today is to get baptized and take that step and tell the world that you've decided to follow Jesus and there's no turning back. Maybe your next step is to help somebody else take their next step. Because the Spirit of God will always lead us to take that next step with Jesus.
But oftentimes he leads us to take our next step for Jesus and tell others about him. So I just want you to go today. We're going to give you a couple of moments to reflect and respond today as we celebrate communion here in just a couple of moments. But I want you to think about how is the Spirit of God prompting you And nudging you. And leading you and guiding you. Is it to respond in faith and receive the free gift that Jesus offers you?
Is it to respond in obedience and maybe get baptized or do that thing that God has been calling you to do as you apply his word in your life today? Maybe it's just to leave this place and be more attentive to those in your circle. And be ready for those promptings. That God wants to prepare you for. Whatever your response. I just want to remind you. As we study this book. The book of Acts. I just want to remind you of your mission.
And your purpose. In this life. Which is to know Jesus. And make him known. That is our mission. That is our purpose. To know Jesus. And make him known. Amen. Amen.