The Holy Hitchhiker’s Great Chariot Adventure
Chuck Sligh
October 7, 2012
TEXT: Acts 8:26-39
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – There are some really fascinating stories in the Bible. One of my favorites is the story of The Holy Hitchhiker’s Great Chariot Adventure. It’s found in our text this morning, and it tells the story of a deacon who was in a successful evangelistic campaign and who was called out on a highly unusual evangelistic encounter: To catch a ride in the desert in a chariot driven by an Ethiopian Eunuch (which is kind of scary right there)…and tell him about Jesus.
Let’s read about it this morning in Acts 8:26-39 – “And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. 27 And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, 28 Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. 29 Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. 30 And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? 31 And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. 32 The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: 33 In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. 34 And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. 36 And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? 37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 38 And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. 39 And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.”
This is the third sermon in a series on Contagious Faith that is synchronizing somewhat with our Sunday night series titled, Becoming a Contagious Christian, a class in how to share your faith effectively in a way that is natural to you.
Our text today is a remarkable story, but not really unusual from the standpoint of evangelism. In fact, in are text are four key elements that take place EVERY TIME someone comes to faith by someone’s witness. Let’s look at these four key elements in “The Holy Hitchhiker’s Great Chariot Adventure”:
I. THE FIRST IS A MESSENGER OF GOD.
The fact of the matter is that God’s way of reaching people is very simple and low-tech and has always been the same—God uses PEOPLE to reach PEOPLE. Or as Paul put it in Romans 10:13 – “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”
Let’s look again at three verses in our text and as we do, note the word “man” in each verse, and see if you can detect a progression of thought:
• Verse 27 – “And [Philip] arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians…”
• Verse 31 – “And [the eunuch] said, How can I [understand this scripture], except some man should guide me?…”
• Verse 34 – “And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?”
Do you see the progression in these verses?— God used A MAN to tell ANOTHER MAN about THE WORLD’S MOST IMPORTANT MAN, who was also God—the Lord Jesus Christ. And folks, that’s how God still works today. God uses PEOPLE to tell OTHER PEOPLE about Jesus Christ.
Giving the Gospel to the lost is a job apparently only humans can do. As far as I can tell, angels aren’t apparently directly involved in the task of evangelism.
For example, go with me to Acts 10. Look first with me at verses 1-3 – “There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, 2 A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always. 3 He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius.”
Now here was a man who was religious, but he needed Jesus. Religion and good works cannot save anyone, but it sometimes makes a person receptive to the message of the Gospel. God knew Cornelius’s tender heart, and knew he would be saved if someone would go and witness to him. So what did God do?—He sent an angel to him.
But wait a minute: notice what this angel told Cornelius in verse 5 – “And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter.” He told him to send for the Apostle Peter. Later in the chapter we read how Peter went and preached Christ to Cornelius and he and his family was saved after hearing Peter preach.
Now let me ask you a question: Why didn’t the ANGEL just go and tell Cornelius the Gospel himself? Wouldn’t that have been more economical? Wouldn’t that have been less complicated with the angel right there? Why did the angel tell him to go and get Peter when HE was right THERE?— Because God has ordained that people tell other people about Jesus.
Do you realize how significant that makes you and me in God’s big plan? Psalm 8:5 describes mankind as being “a little lower than the angels.” But here’s something even angels aren’t tasked to do. God has appointed HUMANS as the proclaimers of His salvation message. What a privilege to be able to do what even the angels don’t do! So the first element of true conversion is the messenger of God.
II. THE SECOND ELEMENT OF EVERY CONVERSION IS THE WORKING OF GOD.
God has ordained that humans proclaim the Gospel, but a human preaching is not enough! Without the working of the Holy Spirit to prepare the heart of the sinner, our message will only fall on deaf ears. That’s why we must pray for God’s working in the lives of people we impact in our lives, and for God’s power on OUR lives as we share Jesus with them.
Look with me at the way God worked in this story:
• First, God opened the way for Philip to come to the Ethiopian Eunuch – Verse 26 – “And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.”
Philip was sensitive to the leading of God. Like Philip, we need to be sensitive to opportunities God opens up for us to share the Gospel with others. That’s what I meant a couple of weeks ago when I talked about being on the “evangelistic edge”—meaning being available and alert to evangelistic opportunities and dependent on the Lord to guide us and embolden us. And then SEIZING those opportunities, with the assurance that God always prepares the way before us through His internal working in people’s hearts.
• Second, note that God opened the Scriptures to the seeking sinner – Verse 28 tells us this eunuch “Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Isaiah the prophet.”
Now doesn’t it strike you as peculiar that this man just HAPPENS to have a copy of the Scriptures opened to one of the most PROMINENT and CLEAR prophecies about Jesus Christ in the Old Testament—Isaiah 53? Do you think that was just a coincidence?—Of course not! You see, God had already prepared the way for Philip’s coming in the heart of the Ethiopian Eunuch before Philip even got there. All Philip did was BE AVAILABLE TO GOD by being at the right place at the right time—and God did the rest. You see, nobody’s really ever just “saved out of the blue.” People come to Christ when GOD uses His Word to open their hearts and produce questions in their minds about God and salvation.
So what does this mean to us who are trying to reach the lost for Christ?—Simply this: We cannot win the lost apart from the working of God in their hearts. The task of reaching the lost is a partnership. God has sovereignly chosen to use US to accomplish His plan on earth. But never think that we do it alone!—There’s ALWAYS the working of God also.
Let me share three ways to assure the working of God in your witnessing:
• First, pray for God to prepare the hearts of people you come into contact with every day.
• Second, be a clean vessel so that God will use you in the glorious enterprise of sharing Christ with others. In Acts 6, we read how the Jerusalem church was looking for seven “men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom” and one of them was Philip. People who are dishonest or unethical, filled with sin or self instead of the Spirit and unwise in the things of God don’t make very effective witnesses.
• Third, like Philip, be sensitive to the God’s leading and DO what He leads you to do. If He prompts you to bring up church or Bible study or something along those lines as an opener—do it! If He prompts you to bring up God or how he’s working in your life in a conversation—do it! If He prompts you to point someone to Christ—do it! Obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit and watch God work through you!
III. THE THIRD ELEMENT OF EVERY CONVERSION IS THE WORD OF GOD.
The Bible is clear that there can be no real conversion without a verbal declaration of God’s Word. This is the fallacy of the “I’ll witness with my life” idea. Ultimately a person comes to Christ by belief in very concrete ideas that can only be communicated through words. Our lives can bear witness to the power of this message, but ultimately no one is saved apart from the declaration of the Gospel from the Word of God.
I’d like for you to listen to the following passages of Scripture and notice how the Word of God—either read or proclaimed—is essential in people coming to Christ:
• Jesus said in John 5:24 – “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life…”
• Paul tells us in Romans 10:17 – “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” We call upon the Lord for salvation by faith according to verse 13. But what produces and nurtures that faith?—The hearing of God’s Word.
• Ephesians 1:13s says, “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation…”
Do you see it?—Faith comes only in response to the hearing of Bible truth. Of course, all of the Word of God has authority, but specifically, it’s the message of the GOSPEL that is referred to here, which Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 is the message of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God, for our sins.
Paul said in Romans 1:16 – “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one who believeth…” So the application to us is this: When sharing Christ, realize that giving your testimony, and bringing up spiritual things, and inviting people to church or church activities and all the things we’re learning to do in our Sunday evening series, Becoming a Contagious Christian, are all important, but they’re all preparatory or instrumental to the real thing, which is verbally sharing with them the Gospel message, the Good News!
We may not always be given this opportunity, which is why all these other preparatory things are so important, but remember that in the end, it is the message of the Gospel given to us in God’s Word that ultimately saves a person.
IV. THE LAST ELEMENT OF EVERY CONVERSION IS BELIEF IN THE SON OF GOD.
Notice that the Ethiopian eunuch thought, like many mistakenly believe today, that he could be saved by baptism – Verse 36 – “And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?”
Illus. – A few weeks ago I was talking to a man and I asked him if he knew he was forgiven of his sins and was going to heaven when he died. He said, “Yes, I was baptized about ten years ago.” Like many others, he equated his baptism with being saved.
Let me make this perfectly clear—baptism has no saving power; nor does baptism make you any more or less saved; nor does it in any way contribute to your salvation. It is a voluntary post-salvation ordinance in which a believer publicly and outwardly identifies with Christ and the core Gospel message of His death, burial and resurrection for his sins.
Well, the Ethiopian Eunuch didn’t quite understand this yet. Apparently he’d heard how people who believe in Christ invariably follows Christ in water baptism, so he put two and two together and came up with five. He assumed that baptism was how you became a Christian because in verse 36, he said, “Hey, here’s some water. Why don’t you baptize me, Philip?”
But Philip said in verse 37 – “…IF (that’s conditional. ‘You can be baptized IF’.… If what? If…) you believe with all thine heart, you may…” Philip was saying, “You’ve got the cart before the horse. You can ‘t be baptized to be saved. You must believe in Christ, and THEN you can be baptized as a testimony of your faith in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.”
Suddenly this Ethiopian GOT IT! He blurted out, “I BELIEVE that Jesus Christ is the Son of God!” Then—AFTER he believed in Christ and was saved—he could be baptized. And he was: verse 38 says, “And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.”
Now, let me change the subject a bit here and ask you a question: If you’re a believer, could you take God’s Word and show someone how to be saved like Philip did? If not, then you should be attending our series, Becoming a Contagious Christian and the follow-up series in November titled Share Jesus Without Fear. 2 Timothy 2:15 says, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
CONCLUSION
Now note the result of this remarkable encounter at the end of verse 39 – “…and he went on his way rejoicing.” This man found forgiveness in Jesus Christ—and it brought joy to his heart. Tradition tells us that this man returned to his home in Ethiopia and was instrumental in the spread of the Gospel throughout northern Africa. Until Islam conquered northern Africa, there were thousands of churches throughout northern Africa due to this one man’s salvation. And it all started with a willing MAN OF GOD, who was available to answer a few simple questions with another man experiencing THE WORKING OF GOD, about Jesus in THE WORD GOD, which led to BELIEF IN THE SON OF GOD.
Well, what are you going to do with today’s sermon?
• Christian, let me ask you: Are you willing to make yourself available to be used as instrument of God to bring the Gospel to others?
This evening, the session is titled, “Deepening Your Relationships and Conversations” which will be one of the most practical sessions so far. Come and learn how to become a Philip—an available servant answering seekers’ questions.
And be thinking of a friend you believe needs Christ to bring on Sunday October 28, the last Sunday in the Contagious Faith series. That Sunday I will present a very concise and clear presentation of the Gospel and an invitation to put their faith in Christ to be saved. Be thinking of who to invite now, and this week give them the first invitation to come that Sunday and invite them repeatedly.
• And if you’re like the Ethiopian in our story—someone who to whom God and the Bible and forgiveness of sins and heaven and all this is frankly a bit confusing—let me just encourage you to keep coming to church; start going to a homegroup to learn more; keep reading God’s Word; and ask God to make it clear to you.
I would be glad to talk with you after this service or later the week. Just pull me aside and let’s talk, or let’s arrange a time to meet. But just keep this in mind: without Christ, you will perish for all eternity. But Jesus is not distant. He wants to reach out to you and save you.
The Bible teaches that He was God the Son who was born as a human on this earth, lived a sinless life, died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin, was buried to proved he really died, and rose from the dead to prove He was truly God and to conquer death. He did that to save you and give you eternal life.
How can you be saved and have eternal life?—Jesus answered that question in John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ today!
