WATER IN THE DESERT Acts 4
How good are you at sharing your faith? How often does your conversation include discussion about Jesus Christ? For some of us it’s really easy and speaking up is very natural. But for others, we find it very difficult. We get tongue-tied and nervous. We even worry that we might say the wrong thing, yet we know we should say something. We want to share Christ with others because we know what the benefits are, we want to speak up because we love those of our extended family or those we come into contact with on a regular basis enough to want them to share eternity with us in Heaven. But more often than not we convince ourselves that it isn’t the right moment or I can’t talk about that again because they are fed up with me bleating on about their salvation. There can be some truth in that. Bible bashing people call it – But I want us to think about how we reach out, when we speak up and how often we should return to that conversation with those we see regularly – these are really important questions and it would be easy for me to stand here and give you the easy answer to them. The problem with me saying you need to tell everyone you meet about Christ that you need to use every conversation to extend Gods love to someone that you need to tell them unflinchingly they are eternally lost, is on the surface absolutely correct…..but I know if that’s what I encouraged you to do that you probably wouldn’t do it and I wonder how successful a strategy that might be anyway.
2 weeks ago I spent 5 days making some photographs in the Nevada desert. I’ve been in other deserts, the Sahara, the Afghan desert and they are difficult and lonely places. When I was on one of those long desert roads in that blistering heat I thought about the car breaking down, about not knowing how far it was to the next town, should I go back or forward if something went wrong. Would someone stop to help me if I broke down? If I ran out of water would anyone stop to share theirs with me? The lost, the really lost, the eternally lost are in the desert. It’s a spiritual desert where they are in need of Christ if they are to survive eternally. In a spiritual wilderness we are the ones who know where the water is. We have found water in the desert and it’s likely that someone led us there. Some people – I think of my Dad here as an exception actively searching and finding it for himself after maybe years of checking out places that promised water but were only a mirage, they looked right on the surface but didn’t lead to Christ. In such an ungodly and inhospitable environment we need to be guides. We need to demonstrate in how we live that we have something that is far better than what this world offers. We need to lead people to the water and if they have any sense they will get right in.
In our reading where Peter and John are brought in difficult circumstances before the Sanhedrin. ‘The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.’
The next day when they are questioned in public v8 tells us that they were filled with the Holy Spirit and therefore had the confidence to explain that they had healed a man in an act of kindness and in the name of the risen Christ, the very one they had rejected he told them. V13 tells us that When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say.
But they decide that they don’t want this message spreading and order them to stop speaking about the risen Jesus but their wonderful reply in verse 20’ we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."
Our second reading tells us what happened when they were released…they went back to the faithful to the church and they prayed together – what for? 29 ‘Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.’
And 31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
Again – it would be easy for me to simply suggest that this should embolden us in every situation that their example teaches us what we need to know in our encounters with others and our attempts to speak up about Jesus. But two things make that not so straightforward – firstly the situation was life threatening, it was an extreme situation and I think (this is me personally) I think that if I were in such a situation I would find the courage, the faith the boldness to defend my faith. That kind of situation is truly terrible but it is black and white, the options are presented to you – defend or deny. Everyday encounters don’t often put us I a situation where we are being asked to overtly defend of reject our faith. In fact the choices we make on a daily basis have the ingredients of that situation but are presented to us in much more subtle ways. We all face situations, maybe daily, where our choices, our actions even our words or attitude towards others constitute a defense or rejection of Christ. It’s just that we don’t often enough read those situations that way and therefore don’t make the right choice of don’t make enough of them when we do choose right.
Someone might also say that because the nature of the work of the Holy Spirit after the time of the apostles was different than now, maybe the boldness afforded to Peter and John was particular to their time and situation. We accept that the Holy Spirit worked in different ways in the time of the apostles, God permitted them to heal and perform miracles in order to establish the Church, spirit enabled events that do not occur today. But let me be very clear here, we do receive the gift of the Holy Spirit when we Repent of our sins, confess his name and are baptized for the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That gift is called a helper in scripture, the Holy Spirit is expressed as an active, not passive force, living in us and working through us to further Christ’s kingdom. And that gift is given precisely for the situations we are looking at this morning.
2 Timothy 1: 7-14
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher.
For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.
That couldn’t be clearer could it? Romans 9 of course tells us that if we belong to Christ then the spirit dwells in us and that if he does not, then we don’t belong to Him. That passage goes on to teach us that Christ/the Holy spirit living in us will help us put to death the deeds of the body – will help us conquer sin and situations where our natural, fleshly, bodily response would be to sin.
So how do we put it into action? How do we accomplish the work that he has called us to do? How do we ensue that the Holy Spirit rises to the surface in what we do in order that we can continue the apostles work of spreading the gospel to all mankind?
LISTEN: First I want to suggest that we need to listen – and we need to be attentive. Do you believe that God works actively in the world we live in? The scriptures assure us that he does and if so he is presenting us with situations so that we can further His kingdom. Just how often do we think about how much God is orchestrating our lives, giving us opportunity after opportunity – and our minds are closed to his intervention?
Sometimes God does use dramatic things to get our attention – he speaks to Moses from a burning bush, he speaks to a guy named Balaam through is donkey and he speaks to Mary through angels. But, more often than not, they are the exceptions and instead, God speaks to us in quite and simple ways. There is a great story in 1 Kings about a prophet named Elijah who is on a mountain top waiting for God to come so that they could speak and a “mighty windstorm hits the mountain” but yet God was not in the storm. After that there was an earthquake, but again God was not in the earthquake. After that there was fire but again, no God in the flames. Finally, there was a gentle whisper and at that Elijah came out of the cave where he’d been waiting and spoke to God.
God, I think most often speaks to us in very simple ways – through His words of the Bible, through other people, everyday situations, through nature, our conscience, His is a soft voice – but yet we are all too often looking for the big, huge message or for him to speak to us when we need Him, not when he needs us when in fact he is already talking and we just aren’t listening. We do plenty of asking don’t we? Our prayers are full of asking – we need to listen too.
RESPOND: It’s really important that we are ready to acknowledge and accept God’s intervention in everyday situations and respond appropriately. You know when Daniel and his three friends were captured and taken as slaves to Babylon – we learn in the first Chapter of Daniel that v17 ‘as for these four youths God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom’ Why, why had God blessed them with intelligence, god looks V4 wisdom? So that they could work effectively in the situation they found themselves in – it gave them access to the King and the royal household and through them God would work to further His kingdom. Did they miss that? Did they reject or ignore their blessing? Did they conform to the situation they were in? No – they used what God had given them and responded appropriately, they acknowledged God and they used the fact that they were respected by those around them to good effect.
Why would it be any different for us? If we have been blessed with success, or knowledge or wealth – what does God want us to do with it? If I am respected by my peers then isn’t it much more likely that they will listen to what I have to say? It’s up to me to respond and if I’m listening, if I’m being attentive then I will recognise the situations that God is presenting to me. And on seeing them I shouldn’t be timid or worried that I’ll get it wrong – the holy spirit will help me sow the seed and help me deal with my timidity. Unfortunately I think the thing that most often prevents us from listening to God is because we simply don’t want to because it puts us in awkward or embarrassing situations.
Right throughout the book of Acts we see how God has orchestrated the church to move out of Jerusalem. Persecution of the believers in Jerusalem, and more specifically, the martyrdom of Stephen, has caused them to scatter out into the countryside and cities of Palestine. Now all of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee are hearing the good news about what Jesus has done as the Messiah. They are hearing about His deliberate sacrificial death, that He went to the cross on purpose in order to demonstrate His love and to save humanity from their sin. They are hearing about His utter defeat of death by doing the impossible – rising from the dead. They are hearing from many people about how Jesus fulfilled His promise to send the Holy Spirit and the new life He now brings. This message was spreading like wildfire.
Philip had been doing great evangelistic work in Samaria bringing the gospel to the Samaritans when 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. Philip has been having great success and when one is having success, I think it is pretty natural to try to stick with it. That certainly would have been the temptation here, but Philip’s response teaches us an important lesson, which was not to ponder the idea, not to pray to God to see if this really is His will.” He just went into this hot barren region – and of course found a African man in a literal and spiritual desert Phillip was the water in that desert and was sent by God into that situation – you know what he did when he saw that train of camels and carriages on the road – he realised that this was an opportunity presented to him by God – was he timid? The passage in Acts 8 said he RAN, He RAN up to the carriage. What faith. We know the outcome…
Having Listened and responded to Gods direction in our everyday situations we are called to SPEAK – not think about it, not prevaricate, not put it off – just pray for the right words and speak. Use your voice – having been attentive to the situation you are in or listened to the people you encounter regularly, god will help you find a way in a way to steer the conversation in the right direction.
This peace of advice I heard some time ago “Bring God up” in conversation. “Bring God up”. Jesus was always doing this with those he encountered. He was the master evangelist. In John 4 he took a conversation about a cup of water and transformed it into a spiritual conversation telling the woman at the well that he was the living water and that if she partook then she would never thirst again. Jesus calls us to bring it up with those we know who don’t know Jesus. There are different ways to do that – We can Look for natural opportunities in everyday conversations. If you are talking about family, talk about your blessings, talk about your Christian family – when people ask me have the boys settled here in Northern Ireland one of the first things I say is that we’ve been richly blessed by having Gentry and Liz here and that invariably opens a whole conversation about Gods place in my own family.
There is what you might call a “fork in the road moment” something that occurs in many conversations where you can turn it toward Jesus – how many times have I let the conversation pass that point without turning us down that road…?.
You might use a direct question like, “Where Do you go to church?” And then just listen to them. Don’t shake your head and say, “Sorry if you’re a Free Presbyterian you’re going straight to hell.” We need to be careful how we proceed in our conversation – we shouldn’t judge people or get immediately in to doctrinal debate. In the past all hat did was make us seem supercilious, judgemental, narrow minded. The time for substantial of teaching, the urging of people to follow Gods instructions and be baptised for the forgiveness of sin is not in our first conversation. Show them Christ’s influence on our lives, show them Christ. What kind of Gospel did Christ preach –a gospel of love a message of forgiveness, a gospel of grace.
Col 4:6 "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man."
Eph 4:15…. tells us to Speak the truth in love ...
That isn’t an excuse to tolerate all mens beliefs and be silent. But if we are to present the gospel message powerfully we ned to do it with love and we need it to be borne out by our own actions and our own attitude.
Friends what position has God placed us in which we need to speak up, but we continue to be silent. Are we afraid of losing a friendship, a job, a position? Are we afraid of ridicule and rejection? Ultimately whether or not we speak up, will be dependent on just how much we trust God to handle our lives after we are faithful to him. It will be dependent on our living life accepting that if we belong to Him then Christ lives in us, that the Holy spirit will help us to find the right opportunities to speak, to find the right words to say.
2 weeks ago in Boston I had dinner in the hotel with one of the other speakers at the conference I was at. He was from Los Angeles and I made a fairly instant judgement about him when he ordered a beer and then went outside to smoke while he waited on his food. In the course of the evening I told him of my plans after the conference that I’d be going to Nevada and Nashville and he told me that he was considering going to Ohio to see his mother and brother but couldn’t face it so probably would stay in Boston. I didn’t pursue it and didn’t take the fork in the road during our conversation. The next morning I was having breakfast when Peter came and joined me. He told me that he had a strange experience after I left him. He’d went outside for a cigarette before bedtime and a tramp approached him and said he didn’t want any money he just wanted to talk to someone. He told me that he talked to the man about how he had ended up on the street and the conversation led to his brother in Ohio, an alcoholic and drug addict who had just fallen of the wagon and was in re-hab. Peter didn’t want to go there to face that situation – one he’d faced numerous times before. He then told me that he was going to go because the man told him something he had experience of – he said he couldn’t help his brother but he could be THERE for him and that would in the long term make a real difference to his brothers life….. He told me over breakfast that he felt that if ever God had sent an angel to him he had sent one that night. What was God saying to me – that faced with my reluctance to speak up God used a down and out to prick that mans heart? That morning God was presenting me with the opportunity I had missed the previous evening and I felt so strongly that God had just told me that I need to have more grace, more faith and more courage to speak when he presents me with an opportunity.
We here this morning are a people who have recognized our thirst and found it quenched in Jesus. So we come to this table, formerly thirsty people, wandering in the desert without direction, without a guide, without a destination. Someone listened, someone we knew or met or a member of our family heard us, noticed us and responded and when they spoke in word and in deed they planted a seed of hope in us that ultimately led us here this morning. Most of us here are no longer thirsty or lost but we’re surrounded by people who are.
Rev 7 talks of the faithful standing before Gods throne in heaven and tells us that – ‘They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes."
Take a moment this afternoon to think about who you might reach out to. Pray earnestly for the right opportunity and listen out for it this week – when you recognize it, don’t be silent – speak, and help someone else find water in the desert.
