“One More” …the need to Tell One More

This past weekend we watched movies, well ½ of our family did, the others are gamers so there’s that.  And so we started it off with Schindler’s List which is rated R (we sorted of watched videos on what Freddy talked about on the holocaust and the the genocide in Rwanda.  And basically Schindler was a businessman who was looking to make it rich on war time profits and a confirmed Nazi and would hire jews to work for free from the ghettos that they were enslaved into.  His accountant who was Polish Jewish convinced him to hire Jewish laborers. 

Once he started doing that he began to have sympathy for their plight while making money and would employ children and the elderly to keep them from starving to death in the ghettos.  Those jews were relocated to Plaszow a forced labor camp and he convinced them to run a subcamp on the ground of his factory.  His claim was that the Jews were workers for wartime production. 

A year later they were again moved to Plasov and he convinced them to move the factory near to a town where he grew up and it was classified as a subcamp of the Gross Rosen concentration camp.  His wife convinced two cattle cars of approximately 120 Jews to be dropped off at their factory they had been seven days without food or water and helped the ones that were still alive.

And sometime in the story his heart begins to change and realized he can be an active force for saving lives. And though a deeply flawed man he is credited for saving over 1000 Jewish lives.

In the Hollywood version at the end of the movie they have this gripping scene…

Clip from Schilnder’s List (sent via email)

“Whoever saves one life saves the world in time”

And as watched the show our hearts were gripped the same…

“One More” …the need to tell One More.

Given More.

Told More.

Done More.

Would you turn to the book of Acts Chapter 8

Oh what a time to be alive. 

The church of Jesus was being born. 

The Holy Spirit had fallen on the upper and Peter is preaching these incredible gospel centered messages and people are being saved.  And then Stephen preaches in chapter 8 and incredible sermon.  And he says to them “you stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit.  As your fathers did, so do you…

They didn’t really take to that message…

And so they are enraged, the ESV says they ground their teeth at him, and stoned him.

But He is full of the Holy Spirit and sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God.and falling on his knees he cries out “Lord do not hold this sin against them.”  And he falls asleep.

And that is where we pick him up.

Acts 8:1-8  and Acts 8:26-40

8 And Saul approved of his execution.  And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. ² Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. ³ But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.  ⁴ Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

We are gathering today to scatter as soon as we leave.

But the goal of our scattering is to preach the word.

Our assignment is to tell others the good news of Jesus. 

And Philips takes that seriously.

⁵ Philip went down to the city^[a] of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. ⁶ And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. ⁷ For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. ⁸ So there was much joy in that city.

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch vs 26-40

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south^[d] to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 

1. Ask the Lord for a person and a place

-He was told to go toward the south of to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza

-He was told of a person, an Ethiopian

It was specific. It’s not always specific remember they scattered and preached the word.

That is why we spend time on the word, that is why we spend time in worship, that is why we spend time in prayer, to be with our Lord yes, to know Him yes, but also to make him known. 

This doesn’t have to be super complicated, young people I will help you hear the voice of God clearly, its your school, for others of us its our job, and others its our family, and sometimes the Lord will even speak specifically about a country or place. 

I have a pastor friend that will religiously visit the same places, the same Starbucks, the same grocery story with the same person checking him out, the same gym, and then proceeds to make friends of those people, and learns their names, and joins in with their hurts and pains, and proceeded to share the Gospel of Jesus.

²⁷ And he rose and went.

2. Rise and Go

Rise. 

I like that because it means we just don’t think about it, like that’s a good idea maybe I should do that.  Instead, he rose and he went. 

Get up out of bed. 

Quit being slothful. 

Rise out of depression and discouragement and complacency. 

Quit saying one day I am going to get to that person or place, if the Lord said it, do it!

And GO!

And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch

(he had been made so though castration Deuteronomy 23 says “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.  If this man had been taken as a boy, he would have had no choice in the matter, and they would have “crushed” him and this would alter his growth, change his appearance, he would look unusual and everyone would know him as eunuch just by looking at him. He was different. He looked strange, He sounded strange. He felt strange),

a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸ and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 

He is traveling by chariot about 1500 miles to go from the capital of Ethiopia to Jerusalem so this was about a 11 to 12 day trip one way meaning the Queen has such confidence in him to allow him to go away for at least a month. 

This man wanted to know God.

²⁹ And the Spirit said to Philip,

3. Listen to the Spirit

Luke 12:11-12 The Message (MSG)“When they drag you into their meeting places, or into police courts and before judges, don't worry about defending yourselves—what you'll say or how you'll say it. The right words will be there. The Holy Spirit will give you the right words when the time comes.”

Not to be repetitive but this is why we establish the habits of prayer and the word and worship.

So we can be confident when the time comes to tell someone of Him. 

(ex. You know I was just reading that in the bible this week)

(ex. You know there is song that I Know Called More Than Able by Maverick City)

(ex.  You know the thing about prayer is, it can seem He’s not listening but that isn’t true)

“Go over and join this chariot.” ³⁰ So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: (Isaiah 53 and further in this passage it talks about one having an appearance so marred and wounded and crushed and despised, rejected a man of suffering and I wonder if that Eunuch wouldn’t have said that sounds a whole lot like me)

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
    and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
    so he opens not his mouth.
³³ In his humiliation justice was denied him.
    Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”

³⁴ And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 

4. Speak the Good News of Jesus

That is where we start but it is also where we end.

If you can’t say anything else at least memorize John 3:16 “For God so loved the World…that’s you, that He gave His one and only son, that’s Jesus, that whoever believes in Him…would you like to do that would not die but have eternal life…that is who you are now.

Invite them to church.

You wanna go to women’s or men’s conference with me “Ill pay your way.”

Come to Hope Abounds, or Parenting, or Small Group With Me.

Those are starts.

But ultimately we should be speaking the good news of Jesus.

There is someone who see you.  Feel your pain. And died and rose again for you.

³⁶ 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?”^[e] 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. ³⁹ 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. ⁴⁰ But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Historically, Ethiopia is the second country to have officially proclaimed Christianity as its state religion, having done so in A.D 33.  Church tradition says that the Ethiopian eunuch evangelized by Philip in Acts 8 spread the gospel as he returned to Africa.

 Church fathers as early as Irenaeus in AD 180 mention the eunuch evangelizing the homeland.

So what started that day affected a nation.

Philip being obedient to the Holy Spirt.

His rising and Going and Listening the Spirit with faithfulness to speak the name of Jesus

Permates an entire country. So much so that they are the second nation to proclaim Christianity.

“One More” the Need to Tell One More