“I believed, therefore I spoke” or lessons from the two Philips (DRBC, 21/03/04, pm)
Introduction
• [Show picture]- Who is this?
• George Foreman, ex-boxer, now famous promoter of…the Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine
• Sold over 50 million in the US, and 5 million in the UK- approx. 1 in 4 households!! The instructions read, “Position GRILLING MACHINE close to a power socket. Plug GRILLING MACHINE into power socket. Switch the socket on, if necessary.”
• Why has this sold so well? Partly because we like eating, and partly because we are vain and want to stay slim, and partly because we are lazy and don’t want to have to cook things ourselves! But Foreman thinks the machine’s top selling points is its celebrity promoter, himself- he says, “I’m so proud of it, I put my name on it.” He travels all round the globe, speaking of this machine he uses every day, along with his wife and his five sons, all called George, I kid you not. He says, “Ah’m going over to talk about the grill. We’re on a mission.”
• A lesser known fact about Foreman is that he is an ordained minister. It seems as if his mission to sell his Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine has taken the limelight. But the fact is, since he believes in the machine, he continuously speaks about it to others. What, I wonder, can we learn from this?
“Since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed and therefore I spoke,’ we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you” (2 Corinthians 4:13,14).
Context
We’re going to look at two men in the NT, both called Philip, who were greatly used by the Lord. One was an apostle, the other an evangelist. What they have in common is that they both believed in the Lord Jesus, and they both spoke of Him with great commitment to others. I’m going to make three points which are:
A. Believe in Jesus- we find Jesus only because He finds us
B. Speak about Jesus- if we truly believe in Jesus, we will surely speak of Jesus
C. Lessons from the Two Philips
A. Believe in Jesus- we find Jesus only because He finds us
Read- John 1:43-46 (page 1064).
1. Jesus chooses us- “finding Philip…” (43). John 15:16- “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.” So Philip was chosen, not because he was a good bloke or particularly talented, but because of Jesus’ sovereign choice. It is the same with us.
2. Jesus calls us- “He said to him, ‘Follow Me’” (43). Notice that his calling involves speaking- Jesus opens His mouth and says follow Me. This is true for all the disciples called in the gospels. It is true for all those who are converted in Acts. It is not some mystical stirring that involves no language or mental engagement. It is a clear, verbal calling. It is the same with us. Jesus calls us through the clear and simple proclamation of His Word.
3. Jesus is found to be like one of us- “We have found the one Moses wrote about…Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph” (45). We find him as a man with whom we may identify.
4. Jesus challenges our limited view of Him. Before a crowd of 5000+ hungry folk in John 6, Jesus invites Philip to turn to Him in faith, but instead he tries to figure out a financial solution and gets nowhere; Jesus wants Philip to come to the end of himself so that he can truly depend on Jesus and see Him for who He is- the all-bountiful God-made-flesh.
5. Jesus reveals Himself as God the Son- even at the Last Supper, Philip has not grasped who Jesus really is. In John 14:8, Philip says, “Lord show us the Father and that will be enough for us” and Jesus replies, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (9).
6. Lastly, the Spirit of Jesus enables us to trust Jesus for who He is- it says in Acts 6:3 that Philip the Evangelist was “full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom” and we know from John that “The wind blows where it wishes…so is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8); “The Spirit dispenses his influences where, and when, on whom, and in what measure and degree, he pleases”- Matthew Henry (Philip the Evangelist is filled with the Holy Spirit).
My first point, then: we should believe in Jesus. But we should remember that we have found him, only because He first found us. As 1 John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
B. Speak about Jesus- if we have truly found Jesus, we will certainly bring others to Him; if we truly believe in Jesus, we will surely speak of Jesus
Turn with me please to John 12 on page 1080. Look again at verse 24.
“I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
What does this mean?
Well, the next two verses say, “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves me” (v25,26).
When we follow Jesus, we follow Him all the way to the Cross. By following Jesus, we are declaring that we count this present passing life to be of little value, and eternal life with Him to be of infinite value. We are also putting our old nature to death, declaring war with the world and its principles, and resisting the Devil and all his works.
What is the purpose of a grain of wheat? To be sown into the ground and to produce more wheat. A grain of wheat cannot produce more wheat unless it dies.
So we have a decision before us: we may either follow Christ, die to self and be made alive to Him, or we can reject Christ, live for self, and remain dead in our trespasses in sins.
And there are two different results: if we follow Christ and die to self, we will bear fruit; in other words, men and women, boys and girls will come to know Him through us. If we do not follow Christ, we will remain alone and help no one where it really counts: onto the road to salvation.
The radical implication here is that if we are not seeking to win others for Jesus, to be sown as one of his precious seeds, to bear fruit for Him then we have not really died, and we do not really know Him ourselves. And Jesus says, “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit the Father takes away” (15:2).
If we have truly found Jesus, we will certainly bring others to Him. If we believe in Jesus, we will surely speak of Jesus.
C. Lessons from the two Philips
So what are some lessons we can learn from our two Philips about how to go about doing this? Four categories: individuals, families, small groups, large groups.
1. Speaking with individuals- bringing or sharing
a. Bringing: physically bring people to hear the words of Jesus (John 1:45,46, page 1064). Evangelistic suppers- Cambridge, Watford; going round and picking them up; trust in the Spirit’s stirring. Why do this? Because if we don’t bring them, they won’t come. And if they don’t come, they won’t hear. And if they don’t hear, they won’t believe. And if they don’t believe, they can’t be saved. And if they are not saved, and we have not spoken, then we do well to heed the words of the LORD in Ezekiel: “When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand” (Ezekiel 3:18). Also, because it is possible and though many times people will refuse to come, or make excuses or cancel last minute, there will be many other times that the Spirit of God will put it into their heart to come and hear the words of Jesus. But if we never ask and we never bring, there may never be a time that they come to hear of Jesus, and put their trust in Him. We face a task unfinished which should bring us to our knees, but then should send us out with willing feet and mouths ready to invite others to hear the Good News. Few people can preach really well, but I’ve never met anyone who can’t invite someone to hear a gospel message given by someone else. JC Ryle says, “Philip’s mode of dealing, we may be sure, is one principal way to do good. Few are ever moved by reasoning and argument. Still fewer are frightened into repentance. The man who does most good to souls, is often the simple believer who says to his friends, ‘I have found a Saviour; come and see Him.’” There is no record of the Apostle Philip giving a sermon, but he loved his friend Nathaniel enough to invite him to come to Jesus. Nathaniel found the Son of God, where moments before he had been doing nothing much, hanging around being sceptical about Nazareth under a fig tree. And this was all because Philip loved him enough to invite him. Will you be like Philip and bring your friends to hear the words of the Lord here at church or anywhere the Bible is faithfully taught?
b. Sharing: physically go and start one-to-one Bible studies with those seeking the Lord (Acts 8:26-40, page 1101)- again, here we see a man like Nathaniel in that he couldn’t come to the Lord without some assistance. The Lord had already opened his heart to want to read Isaiah, but he still could not understand without some guidance- and the Lord chose a human to enable this. The key thing here is that Philip the Evangelist acted: he got up, went, ran, overtook, came up, sat and finally opened his mouth to preach Jesus. What a wonderful series of steps in the life of a man determined to follow the Spirit’s leading! Salvation for the Ethiopian eunuch came during a one-to-one Bible study on Isaiah 53. If Philip had ignored the Lord and gone to watch a camel race, the Ethiopian would never have heard or believed or gotten baptised. But look, the eunuch goes away “rejoicing”! Wouldn’t you like to see someone go away from a Bible study rejoicing? You could say, well that’s never happened to me. But it’s the same Spirit at work today! One thing is certain, you will never rejoice in another’s conversion as a result of one-to-one Bible study if you don’t at least attempt to get started with one!
Some people might say, “Well I’d like to do this, but I wouldn’t really know how to get started and I don’t really think I understand the Bible well enough anyhow.” The answer to that is do any of us? And there are some great resources available like ‘Just for starters’ which Tom or I could make available for you to us. Keith ‘Just for starters’. [Show One-to-one]- “If you understand [one-to-one discipleship] and put its principles into practice, then when it comes to Christian service you will never be remotely redundant again. Indeed, you’ll be absolute gold dust in any church family” (Rico Tice).
2. Speaking with family members (Acts 21:8-10, page 1118)
a. A Christian family provides a base for hospitality and nurturing godly children- “we stayed there a number of days” (10); “he had four unmarried daughters who prophesied” (9). Philip the Evangelist had given his life over to God, to be directed as the Spirit wished. In chapter 8, he was a single man, on fire with the good news of the gospel, sharing with large groups of Samaritans and an individual African. At the end of chapter 8, he lands up in Caesarea, and seems to have stayed there for at least 20 years and raised a family of godly daughters. In different ways at different stages of his life, he was like a seed that fell into the ground and died: bearing fruit amongst the Samaritans and the African; and then bearing fruit and multiplying in his own family- bringing four girls into the world, and then leading them to Christ as a godly father. If- as the proverb goes- charity begins at home, how much more should gospel witness begin at home? And yet talking to our nearest and dearest about where they are at with the Lord can be one of the hardest tasks. Till Jo was 18. In Exodus (12:24,26; 13:8) it is expected that children will ask their parents questions about Christian worship, and that the parents will explain things to them; in Deuteronomy 6:4-9, parents are told to “teach [the words of God] diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up.” Quiet times every night; prayer before journeys in car, grace before meals, etc.; Ps. 78:1-8 says that “God commanded our fathers that they should make [His laws] known to their children; that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments”; Proverbs 19:18 uses even stronger language: “Chasten your son while there is hope, and do not set your heart on his destruction”; “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6)- true, I still find it hard to go to sleep at night without first turning to my Bible and praying- all because of my parents’ training.
b. A Christian within a non-Christian family can do a great deal of good. Many here are not parents, or your children are grown up, or you have a different circumstance. Well the importance of witnessing to family members is still relevant. Lois taught her daughter Eunice the things of Christ, and together they passed on the good news to Timothy, Eunice’s son. Christian grandparents have a crucial role in drawing the little ones to Jesus, whether the parents of the children are Christians or not. And similarly, in the opposite direction, we do well to witness to our siblings, parents and grandparents if they do not yet know the Lord, as Peter says in the third chapter of his first epistle, “with meekness and fear” (3:15). Earlier in that same chapter Peter counsels Christian wives of non-Christian husbands to “be submissive to them”, so as to win them over to Jesus by their good conduct, without even using words. So even if wives do not speak the gospel directly to their husbands, the Lord can do a great work of grace in the men’s hearts when they “see the purity and reverence of your lives.” Our lives are a book that men read, as well as listening to the words we say. We should never give up serving and we should never give up seeking opportunities to speak of the Lord to the members of our families.
3. Speaking with small groups- Greeks (John 12:20-22, page 1080)
a. There are some who want to see Jesus. Just before Jesus’ speech about the grain of wheat, Philip the Apostle has been approached by some Greeks who have come to worship at the Passover feast. Philip goes to Andrew, and together they go to Jesus.
b. Often, they need someone who can lead them to Him- “they came to Philip with a request” (21). Tom, home evangelism evenings; objection- no-one wants to hear; but are not people the same today, just like those Greeks of old? There will always be some who want to come and see Jesus, and we should make the opportunities available to them. Christianity Explored/Explained, etc.
4. Speaking with larger groups- Samaritans (Acts 8:4-8, page 1101)
a. Some must go into the cities and speak to the crowds. After the stoning of Stephen, a great persecution broke out against the church and everyone except the apostles fled Jerusalem. But typically God used this evil to bring about glorious purposes. Philip the Evangelist seized the chance to go to the Samaritans, those hated by the Jews, to tell them about the Messiah. Consequently, verse 8, “there was great joy in that city.”
b. All the rest must support this work in some way. Verse 14 shows us that the news of Philip’s open air evangelism has spread, and so the apostles send backup. There are at least five tasks with open air: preaching, talking with individuals and small groups, handing out leaflets, encouraging those who do the work to persevere, and praying for the work. I would say that all five tasks are vital. Every living Christian can and should do at least one.
i. Preaching- extremely hard because few stop to listen and it’s hard to project your voice in a pleasant yet commanding fashion. Not all are called to this difficult work, but we are thankful for those who do.
ii. Talking with individuals & small groups- some of the most effective evangelism is not done by the preachers, but by the chatters who are given the courage to draw alongside those who are half-listening to the preaching. Sweary Mark- Me, Tom S, John C.
iii. Handing out leaflets- maybe you find it difficult to open your mouth and speak, you get tongue-tied. There is a job for you, too- you can hand out leaflets, which contain the greatest news people will ever hear. Dodgy men trying to sell holidays; Sylvia (North Finchley)
iv. Encouragement- like a glass of cold water! seeing Joseph and kids; sometimes literally, Hilary brought me a drink, but I was gesturing and hit the poor woman in the face!
v. Prayer- this is something we must all do if nothing else, and you might say it is the most important. Paul says in Colossians 4:2-4, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.” If the great apostle Paul depended on the prayers of the Colossians, how much more will the weak and timid open air preachers of Derby Road Baptist Church, Watford, depend on the prayers of the congregation here!
Some must go into cities and speak to the crowds; all the rest must support this work in some way.
Conclusion
• Do you believe? There is only One Lord, and one faith and one baptism. Jesus is the only way to the Father. We must trust in Him if we are to be saved.
• If so, are you speaking? How? Even though there is only one Lord, there are so many different ways we can speak of Him. We speak plainly of Jesus to our friends, neighbours, families, strangers, the homeless, shopkeepers, passers-by, people we don’t like very much. We can hand out leaflets, we can invite people to events, we can tell others of encouragements the Lord has granted us during the week, whether they believe or not. Best of all we can speak from the Bible, but we can also give our testimony, show hospitality, and seek to win people over by our gracious and Christ-like conduct towards them, especially when they are being unreasonable. We can pray for those who preach the gospel, that a door will be opened for them. We speak of Jesus whether old or young, able-bodied or disabled, simple-minded or intellectual- all the Lord is looking for is a heart that will believe and a mouth that will speak up for Him. But whatever we do, if we believe in Jesus, let us speak about Him too. Amen.
