Acts 8:26-38 NKJV  Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is desert.  (27)  So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship,  (28)  was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.  (29)  Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.”  (30)  So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”  (31)  And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.  (32)  The place in the Scripture which he read was this: “HE WAS LED AS A SHEEP TO THE SLAUGHTER; AND AS A LAMB BEFORE ITS SHEARER IS SILENT, SO HE OPENED NOT HIS MOUTH.  (33)  IN HIS HUMILIATION HIS JUSTICE WAS TAKEN AWAY, AND WHO WILL DECLARE HIS GENERATION? FOR HIS LIFE IS TAKEN FROM THE EARTH.”  (34)  So the eunuch answered Philip and said, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?”  (35)  Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.  (36)  Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?”  (37)  Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”  (38)  So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.

• Welcome church to Mission Sunday!
  • Once a trimester we gather together to remember that God really does care about the nations… that we Christians here in Iowa are not the only people or the only culture in the world… and that souls in other nations are just as eternal, just as valuable, and just as loved as we are.
    • So on mission Sunday we dress up in clothing from other nations.
    • We sing songs in other languages.
    • We pray for other nations.
    • I preach a mission centered message.
    • And we pledge financial support to missions works around the world.
      • Today is a day that is not about you, it is about serving God and serving others.
  • So let’s get into this message about the Ethiopian Eunuch, but before we do that, let’s pray.

• Let’s just recap the scripture we read… Philip, a disciple of Christ, was specifically told by an angel to head down to Gaza.
  • Yes, THAT GAZA, the same Gaza that is at war with Israel right now, and will probably become a part of Israel and governed by Israel once again.
    • So this Angel tells Philip “Go to Gaza” and as Philip is going to he sees a Eunuch from Ethiopia.
      • Now a Eunuch is a man who remains unmarried and is generally of high political importance.And we see from these scriptures that this particular Eunuch worked directly for the queen of Ethiopia.He was in charge of the treasury of the Nation and was “of great authority”.
        • So this dude is a powerful politician from another country… and Phillip sees him riding down the road in his chariot.
      At this point the Holy Spirit tells Phillip to go near to the chariot… so Phillip does and hears the Eunuch reading from the book of Isaiah.
• • • Philip uses this as an opportunity to lead the Eunuch to Christ.
  • That brings me to my first point this morning.
• Point one this morning, God Cares About The Nations… and I think we see that in these events…

Point One – God Cares About The Nations

Acts 8:26-27a NKJV  Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is desert.  (27)  So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority…

• God cares about the Nations… I think we all know that, deep down we know it. Even logically we know it.
  • If  asked on a quiz “True or False: God Cares about the Nations” I think everyone in here would probably answer “True”.
    • But when it comes down to how we live our lives… do we live like we believe it?
    • Let me speak for pastors for a moment…
      • Because I have been pastoring for a minute now…
      • And I think it is safe to say that a lot of pastors do not pastor like they believe that God cares about the nations.
      • I say that because I know that the struggle is real, the temptation to ignore others and only care about ourself is real.
        • To only care about our church, our services, our people. I am constantly pulled in so many directions here and it is so easy to think “Do we really have the time, the energy, the money, the people… do we really have all these things needed to do missions work? Can’t we just focus on where God has planted us? Can’t we just grow CHRISTIAN LIFE CHURCH OF CEDAR RAPIDS?
        • Because that temptation is so real is one of the reasons we do mission Sundays on such a regular schedule, to force ME, the pastor of this church, to care about, pray about, and teach about missions.
        • To hold me accountable to make sure I am leading this church in a way that we support and send missionaries.
          • Because God cares about the Nations I think we as a church should care about the Nations…
• Do you guys remember the last thing Jesus said before He ascended into heaven? It was about the Nations…

Acts 1:8 NKJV  But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

• Philip was there when Jesus spoke these words…
  • Jesus told Philip, amongst others, “Philip, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes and then you will preach about Me in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth”.
    • And guess what, that is exactly what happens.
    • If we go back to the event’s of the Eunuch, and we go back just a few verses we get some very important context.

Acts 8:5-8 NKJV  Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them.  (6)  And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.  (7)  For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed.  (8)  And there was great joy in that city.

• Phillip went to Samaria, Just as Jesus had instructed, and he preached Christ to them…
  • And the result? REVIVAL!
    • People were being saved, people where being healed, great multitudes of people where delivered from demonic possession!
    • AND IT WAS CITY WIDE… Look at verse 8, this would make a great key verse for city wide Christian organizations…

Acts 8:8 NKJV  And there was great joy in that city.

• There was great joy in the city!
  • The whole city was being changed by Christ.
    • This is every young preachers dream… to go into a city and see the whole city changed by the preaching of the gospel… to see city wide revival… and Philip was seeing it happen!
      • And many preachers would try to ride that revival… try to turn it into a huge church plant… try to use it to become famous, to start a lucrative career of ministry in the city… most preachers would say at that point “I have made it, I have arrived, what more can I ask for”.
        • But an angel comes down and tells Philip to leave the revival that HE started by preaching the Gospel… well God started the revival, but it would be easy to think to yourself that you started it if you were the one preaching.
        • The angel tells Philip to leave… why?
          • Because Ethiopia needed Jesus.
• The Angel sends Philip to one man, an Ethiopian Politician, to lead this man to Christ.
  • The angel said “Go toward Gaza” but Gaza was not Philips destination, we know this because after this encounter with the Eunich the Holy Spirit took Philip away to a completely different region north of Gaza…
  • God wanted Philip to go towards Gaza for one reason and one reason alone… God cares about the Nations, not just Samaria, not Just Judea… but the Nations, the ends of the world… and God wanted this Politician, this Ethiopian Eunuch to be saved.
    • What was the result of this Eunuch’s Salvation?
      • Well, Ethiopia became one of the very first Christian nations.
        • Ethiopia adopted Christianity as it’s religion before ROME did!
        • It was the third or fourth Nation to become Christian.
        • 75 percent of Ethiopia considers itself Christian today, making it one of the most Christian nations in the world.
        • Y’all the Bible was translated into Ethiopian hundreds of years before it was ever translated into English… To put that in perspective…the Ethiopian Bible is 800 years older than the King James Version of the Bible!
    • All these souls saved, because God Cares about the nations, and because Philip honored God and left his church, the revival that God started through his preaching, in Samaria…
  • I thank God for people like Philip, because if it wasn’t for selfless missionaries like him, the Gospel would have never made it outside of Israel… we would all be a bunch of pagan worshiping heathens if it were not for missions…
• Now that brings me to point two this morning… Missions is about the Gospel!

Point Two – Missions is About The Gospel

Acts 8:30-38 NKJV  So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”  (31)  And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.  (32)  The place in the Scripture which he read was this: “HE WAS LED AS A SHEEP TO THE SLAUGHTER; AND AS A LAMB BEFORE ITS SHEARER IS SILENT, SO HE OPENED NOT HIS MOUTH.  (33)  IN HIS HUMILIATION HIS JUSTICE WAS TAKEN AWAY, AND WHO WILL DECLARE HIS GENERATION? FOR HIS LIFE IS TAKEN FROM THE EARTH.”  (34)  So the eunuch answered Philip and said, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?”  (35)  Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.  (36)  Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?”  (37)  Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”  (38)  So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.

• Missions is about the Gospel, that is the second point this morning.
  • Missions is about the Gospel.
    • God understands this.
    • Philip understands this.
    • Do we understand this?
  • Missions is about the Gospel.
• How wonderful was it that this Ethiopian Eunuch was reading scripture, and not just any scripture but Scripture from Isaiah that clearly and plainly prophecy’s about Jesus… one of the clearest verses in the Old Testament about Jesus there is…
  • Why was the Eunuch reading this, at this very moment, as Philip approached him?
    • Well, I am sure, the Holy Spirit had lead him there.
    • I don’t know if he just opened up something and started reading…
    • If he had some kind of urge to read Isaiah… if he had a vision telling him to read it… I don’t know, but I know this… The Holy Spirit was preparing him to receive the Gospel…
      • The same thing happened to me before I was saved… I had a dream, and in my dream a scripture I had never heard was read… and I woke up, went to the Bible I never had read before, opened it to a random page… and bam, there was the verse… the Holy Spirit was preparing me, and sure enough, Pastor Matt preached the Gospel that Sunday and I was saved…

John 6:44 NKJV  No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.

• So I think that is what is happening here, God is preparing this Eunuch, this Ethiopian Politician to receive the gospel… God is drawing the Eunuch to Christ.
  • Now here is where this point comes in, Missions is about the Gospel.
    • What did Philip do?
      • Did Philip say “Oh, you are from Ethiopia… I was thinking about starting an orphanage there!”
      • Did he go “You know, I am pretty good at digging wells, let me come to your country and dig some wells!”
        • No… Philip PREACHED THE GOSPEL.
  • Look at this passage, a great example of international missions… No orphanages, no wells, no medical clinics, no food distribution, no sight seeing tours… Just: Let me tell you about Jesus… do you believe? Good! Let me baptize you!

Acts 8:35-38 NKJV  Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.  (36)  Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?”  (37)  Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”  (38)  So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.

• This is missions… YOU PREACH CHRIST.
  • And when you are done preaching and teaching about Christ you bring people to a point of decision… “do you believe”
  • And when they get saved you baptize them.
    • Phillip did not dig a well, he preached Jesus!
    • Phillip did not start an orphanage, he said “If you believe with all your heart”.
    • Phillip did not run a medical clinic, he baptized a Eunuch in the nearest water there was!
      • Not that orphanages are bad…
      • Not that wells are not needed…
      • Not that medicine is not important…
        • If there is a physical need that we can fill, we should fill it!
          • BUT NEVER AT THE EXPENSE OF THE GOSPEL>
          • THE GOSPEL FIRST.
          • THE GOSPEL ALWAYS.
          • THE GOSPEL IS THE MOST IMPORTANT.
            • GOSPEL, GOSPEL, GOSPEL.
            • WELLS, ORPHANAGES, HOSPITALS, YES!
            • BUT THE GOSPEL FIRST.
            • THE GOSPEL ALWAYS.
            • THE GOSPEL IS THE MOST IMPORTANT.
            • GOSPEL GOSPEL GOSPEL.
            • MISSIONS IS ABOUT THE GOSPEL.
        • “Go therefore and make disciples, teaching them and baptizing them!”
• This is why, at Christian Life Church, when we send Missionaries like Rebecca, we send them with one goal: Preach the Gospel, baptize converts, and make disciples.
  • And this is why when Rebecca writes me that they have lead a man to Christ in Japan I SHOUT FOR JOY!!!!!!!
    • Because of two reasons: One, I know how hard it is to make converts in Japan…
    • And Two: I know what God can do to a nation through JUST ONE MAN!
  • *At the camera* I thank God for you Rebecca! I thank God for the man your team lead to Jesus!
    • I pray this man will be a man of peace, that he will go on to lead his family, his neighborhood, his city, his island, and his nation to Christ.
    • LORD USE THIS MAN LIKE YOU USED THE ETHEOPIAN!
    • And thank you for using Rebecca like you used Phillip!
• Now, let’s conclude by talking about the Gospel, and then talking about the mission faith pledge.

Conclusion

Turn On Children’s Class Lamps

• Gospel Call based on the Ethiopian’s conversion… what did the Ethiopian see that made him change his beliefs in an instant, on the side of the road, with a stranger?

HAND OUT MFP’s

• Now, let’s talk for a moment about how we do missions at CLC…
  • At CLC we support a handful of missionaries…
    • We support Equipping the Persecuted, which serves those preaching the Gospel in Nigeria.
    • We support Kingdom Life and Prayer Ministries International which preaches the gospel in Siera Leon.
    • We support Fire Around the World that preaches and supports preachers in India and Africa.
    • We support Pastor Musa who is preaching the Gospel in Jamacia
    • And we of course support Rebecca who was sent from this very church to preach the Gospel in Sapporo Japan.
      • And least you think I am against humanitarian efforts, we also send monthly support to Bridgehaven, the local Christian Crisis pregnancy center… but you will notice that is the exception not the rule.
        • Wells are needed, hospitals are needed… but the GOSPEL is needed most. So we do support those kinds of things, but our focus is on eternal salvation.