Courage to Be Identified with Christ

well as we've studied the book of acts i'm sure at times you've thought about what it must have been to be there and to be a part of the church as it was growing from a small group of 120 to 3 000 5 000 i mean ten thousand if you count families it must have been something to have been a christian in either antioch or jerusalem there in the early days of the church it was a much different reality in the third century in rome when diocletian the emperor was bloodthirsty and on a rampage against christians that that was a whole different kind of experience if you think back recently in the 20th century living somewhere in the bible belt it was one thing to live the christian life out there when the culture was very affirming but it's another to live here in southern california in the 21st century when culture is ramping up its rampage against what we are and what we believe there are always going to be times like that in christian history where you're going to have difficulties where christians necessarily need to work harder at counting the cost of following christ and being resolved to count that cost and to say we're going to pay it whatever it is because if we are not willing to do that if we are afraid if we are gripped by timidity or cowardice then we're going to go underground we're going to retreat we're going to be quiet we're going to sit down and we're going to shut up when god has asked us to stand up and speak up and that is going to make us all together inadequate and it will make us practically useless to accomplishing all that christ has set us in our generation to do to advance the gospel to advance the cause of christ in our generation so we can't let that happen and thankfully god has given us many good examples and there are plenty of them when we think about them the three hebrew slaves in the book of daniel daniel himself the lions then even peter before the sanhedrin but many people miss a very powerful character here that is a example to us it's a emboldening kind of example here in acts chapter eight as we reach the end of our series the ethiopian eunuch we don't even know his name but if you really think about what it took for him to do what we're about to read that he did this was huge i mean he was the kind of person with everything to lose rich and powerful in the nation of ethiopia and he had everything in that position given to him in terms of of privilege and power and he risked all of that to stop everything to say no i'm going to stand with christ in contrast to the not quite as rich young ruler that jesus encountered who when he counted the cost wasn't willing to follow here was this ethiopian eunuch that was willing to follow if no one else was going to stand with him and frankly by the end of our narrative here in the last verses of acts chapter 8 he is by himself and there is no one else god takes philip away and we have an incredible reminder that would be helpful for romans in the 3rd century or americans in the 21st century to help us get through our week and the rest of our christian life as things get very difficult for us so i want you to look at this text with me in acts chapter 8. we're going to look at the end of this chapter we've been working through we've reached verse 36 and i want to show you the enthusiasm as you remember the context as philip has been called into the chariot to explain the messianic overtones of isaiah 53 and after it says there in verse number 35 philip had opened his mouth beginning with this scripture isaiah 53 that he was reading he told him the good news the gospel about jesus verse 36 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 verse 38. and he commanded the chariot to stop and they both went down into the water philip and the eunuch and he baptized him and when they came 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 philip found himself at azatos which is the old testament city of ashdod it's about 20 miles north from where they apparently were at a half day's walk if you're hoofing it and he passed through and he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to caesarea so he's moving up the mediterranean coast to caesarea where we find him several chapters later apparently he takes up residence there there's about 55 55 miles further north than ashdod or what was now called the new testament times azatos i i want to use this example that i do think takes probably more courage than we would imagine to say stop the chariots i've come to the realization that jesus is the christ i recognize my need to be cleansed and washed as the old testament prophet said in ezekiel from my sin to be made clean i i need that i'm going to repent and i'm going to follow the the truth of the gospel of christ and he was willing to do that in front of all of his colleagues in front of all of his servants in front of all of those that were his bodyguards all those who are guarding the treasure of the caravan and say i'm going to go down into this water here with philip and i'm going to be i'm going to come out soaking wet i'm going to take off my royal robes and i'm going to stand with christ philip's going to be gone i'm going to continue on into northeastern africa and as the historians tell us he had an impact there sharing the gospel among his national colleagues made a difference for the missionary advance of the gospel in the continent it's important for us i just put it down this way if you're taking notes number one for us to be quick to identify with christ because how quick can that be he gets to the place of getting the good news apparently responding well to the good news and he says i i'm ready i'm going to stop get everybody to watch me i'm going to go down and do what christ said i've been made a disciple and disciples are to be baptized in water and he identifies with grace now baptism in water is one specific expression of identifying with christ but i just want to think just generally about the idea of being identified with christ and i think some of us have been unafraid much like those in john chapter 12 who believed what christ said but i don't really know that i want to be identified with christ matter of fact let me read this to you at the end of john chapter 12 jesus said there was a lot of people there that are believing the words he just got done teaching but they were afraid john writes to confess it they were afraid to profess it they were afraid to tell people because they were afraid they would be put out of the synagogue now here is the divine commentary on that in john 12 43. he said it's because they love the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from god wow that's painful diagnosis of the problem that i'd much rather have the glory or the applause or the adulation or the approval of the world of people in this world than i would of of god that's not a good diagnosis that's a bad thing particularly when you recognize who you're comparing your concern with you've got people that's i don't know seemingly important could affect my job could affect my relationships could affect my day my week my year could affect the rest of my life or god god's approval the reason that a lot of us are timid and frankly to use a biblical category to be cowards before our generations because we care very much about what they think and jesus says well that's a natural thing you shouldn't care what people think but you ought to care a lot more about what god thinks i know a lot of you think i want to hear at the end of my life well done good and faithful servant i like that to be god's commentary on me well i'd like that too but i know that's not going to happen if i care more about what people think of me and frankly we've just got to get down to the place where we say why does it matter so much to us why does it frankly matter more to us what people think than what god thinks and i suppose because if your relationship with god is one that puts everything out there in some ethereal distant you know far away place to where god and the reality of his coming kingdom is no big deal to you at least it's no real deal to you then of course you're going to default by saying if this doesn't advance my adulation applause and acceptance and approval in the world then i'm not going to do it even though i know somewhere in the distance in some foggy imagination of mine i have a sense of being approved by god and i'd like that when i go to church on the weekend i think about it but i don't know not a big deal it should be a big deal because here's what jesus taught about himself one day the son of man is going to sit on his glorious throne he's going to gather the people before him and he's going to separate the nations and the peoples the way that a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats and he's going to say to those here on his right that he calls sheep enter in to the kingdom right the kingdom of my father prepared for you from the foundation of the world here it is all the blessings all the good here you get to go in you know say to those on his left apart from you accursed once into the eternal fire that was prepared for you for the devil and his angels that's a hard truth but i didn't say it and i didn't come up with it jesus said it and he said you ought to think about who really has the power here whose glory do you care about who's applaud and approval do you care about because when it comes down to it the world has no real power i know they think they do but for you to please your cultural trendsetters or the politicians or the people in culture that have some kind of sway over the things you tweet online really doesn't matter because one day every leader every cultural elite is going to have their forehead to the ground bowing before christ and confessing with their mouth that jesus is lord at that point it'll be too late for them to enter into the kingdom but everyone's going to confess it every knee will bow and every tongue will confess all of them in heaven on earth and under the earth the picture of those that are saved and those that are not saved it won't matter every demon will confess it everyone will confess that satan himself will confess it and he has the power to separate us into two groups and he's got the power for us to enter into the kingdom without any reference to our sin with complete forgiveness i'd like to be on the side of that person because he has all authority all dominion all power and he'll have all riches honor talk about glory he's got all the glory i care much more i should at least about the one who has that kind of power than the ones that only have temporal power in my life and so often we're so fearful about what people think i say it all the time but you want to be on the right side of history you got to think past the next 10 20 years you've got to start thinking about 2 000 years from now you want to be on the right side of history you'd better bow the knee to christ and you ought to say unashamedly i'm i'm standing with him and speaking of that let me create a little axiom that's created in other areas of the christian life when it comes to being ashamed or not ashamed we'll read first john for instance where it says that we love because he first loved us and that's a good thing it's a motivating thing to think christ loved me i need to love him and his children that's a good thing it's a motivating thing but let me recommend to you here's an axiom for that you ought to not be ashamed of christ in this world because he was not ashamed of you that's biblical principle hebrews chapter 2 says he was not ashamed to call you his brothers and that's why the son of man put on human form and dwelt among us because he was going to be identified with he was not ashamed of that before we get out of the book of hebrews by chapter 11 the father now is depicted as one who says he's not ashamed to be called these people's god i'm your god and i'm not ashamed of that i'll be called your god i have the father and the son in the book of hebrews clearly saying i'm not ashamed of you and i would say this if he wasn't ashamed of us we should not be ashamed of him well ashamed ashamed it sounds like you're quoting scripture here well i am but the verse that you think i'm quoting i don't want to quote because it's not a fun verse to quote and that is between the two bookends of thinking about a christ who came who was not ashamed and a god who is not ashamed of the people he redeems and sets his love on it is something for me to live my life without shame but i know this he said to me very clearly listen if you are ashamed of me in this sinful and perverse generation well then the son of man is going to be ashamed of you no guarantee of the fact that he won't be unless i am willing to in this generation say it doesn't matter the damned generation that i lived the damn generation that i'm a part of the damned culture that i'm a part of right if i'm willing to say i'm not going to be ashamed of christ in this generation and his word and his truth well then he's not going to be ashamed of me but i want to say it's important for us to see that there's no room no place for cowardice timidity in the christian life and even pastors can fall under that conviction as paul says to timothy a pastor in ephesus a big city cosmopolitan place listen god didn't give us a spirit of timidity it was a spirit of power discipline love a sound mind we ought to have that discipline to be able to stand up and say i'm going to be resolved no matter how tough it gets to stand with christ i'm going to be quick to do that in a month where everyone's talking about how prideful they are and how proud they are of their sexual preferences think about it they want to lead with stuff like that think about it we as christians of all people should be proud of the god who made us and the christ that redeemed us and be able to say hey we're the people that have something to be proud of we ought to be much more proud of the fact that we stand with the crucified christ and i'm not talking about the christ of your imagination or the christ of liberal denominations that would neglect the picture the clear picture of christ in the pages of scripture i'm talking about being proud of the christ that exists being proud of the god who is that means that you and i have got to eschew this kind of timidity this cowardice there's no place for that among christians it was a lot easier when you lived in the bible belt in the 20th century it wasn't so bad when you were amassed among this big converted crowd of thousands of people in the first mega church in jerusalem or this big enclave and subculture in antioch in the first century but what about the third century what about so many sub successes generations where people were persecuted for their faith well we're ramping into that as we often remind ourselves as though we need to that we get hard for you to identify with christ but i'm telling you you cannot in the face of the pressure back down just think of how much this man had to lose to go back to candace the queen of ethiopia and say hey i'm a follower of christ now all the pagan religions of north eastern africa i reject those i've been reading scripture i've been going to jerusalem and reading about the jewish messiah i'm now a follower of the jewish messiah that is an amazing claim for him to make and it was going to cost him we can only guess and there's some speculation about what happened to this man but and he's my hero and he should be yours if no one else is going to stand with me i'm going to be there i'm going to stand with christ i'm not going to wait to see how many people in my entourage are going to follow this christianity thing i'm going to follow christ that's a good thing important thing back to our text look at verse 37. take a look at verse 37. zero your eyes in on verse 37. look hard at verse 37. verse 37 your bibles aren't open and you don't wonder why people are giggling you should open your bibles and look at verse 37. it's not that it's a funny verse just the people are having a hard time finding it it'd be quick to identify with christ and i'm going to say this and then try to explain it to you number two if you're taking notes i have a little exclamation point next to verse 37 if you have the printed worksheet here or the digital worksheet can you write this down be thankful for honest bible translations be thankful for honest bible translations well what doesn't seem seem like i have a honest bible translation because i know what number comes after 36 and any 38 there's a 37 in there somewhere and it's missing okay if this doesn't worry anyone i wouldn't talk about it but it worries some people so let's talk about it let me say a few things number one though i use the word bible translation because we're all sitting there with a book we call a bible translation and that's the way we talk about it the parliaments of english and our idioms bible translation can i say this about why verse 37 is not in your bible it is not a translation issue this is not a translation issue this is not a translation issue let me try and say this clearly this is not a translation issue translation you know what translation is when i take one language and i turn it into another language right that's translation people talk about dumb people talk about ignorant people about well the bible's been translated so many times well it's been translated a lot of times but a good translation comes from the original languages of the bible the old testament jewish text is in hebrew and parts of it in aramaic and then the new testament was written in koine or common greek of the first century so we have hebrew aramaic and greek those are the languages of the bible and when you translate it into spanish how many times this has been translated once when you translate it into english how many times have been translated once when you translate it into latin how many times it was translated once all your bibles are translated once right there's rare exceptions but no one takes so seriously we slide it aside and finally find one that's translated once we transit at one time and translation issues maybe you know an issue of whether you call something to dunk or submerge versus baptizo and transliterate that's a translation this is not a translation issue this is what we call a transmission issue has nothing to do with your car but a transmission how did this text transmit its way in the original language of the greek new testament to where then we translate it because someone's got to translate acts chapter 8 and so i'm looking at how do i get from what i have in front of me in the greek new testament translate it one time into english well how did i have this text that either has verse 37 or doesn't that's a transmission issue example do you have any pictures of your grandparents do you have any pictures of your grandparents do you have any pictures of your grandparents yes some of you have pictures of grandparents uh in the patio when we're having donuts could you show me a picture of grandparents probably some of you could you pull out your phone here's a picture of my grandma my grandpa if i said well is that really a picture of your grandparents i mean when the photons of the sun bounced off your grandparent's face and went into that lens and stamped itself on that negative right and then it was taken to the five and dime and it was then it was then processed and then it was now in this development it was put onto some kind of photographic paper and then that photographic paper right we had that and grandma carried it around and then it went to your mom and then went in our shoe box in the attic and then you got it and then it was like you were the first in the family to get a scanner so you get stuck scanning all the pictures and so in the 80s or 90s you scanned it and then it went into some now defunct uh i don't know service like flickr or something you thought well now i'm into google so then it went from flickr cloud servers into the google cloud servers and then it went down into your phone matter of fact it's not even in your phone yet you have to download it from the cloud and then it's on your phone and then those little digital things you shove in my face by the thing you say here's a picture of my grandparents like that ain't pick your grandparents it's a reproduction of the picture of grandparents because the picture of grandparents really goes all the way back to that negative do you have the negatives do you have the negatives no i don't have the negatives where are the negatives well i don't know i don't know my mom probably got rid of him when she put him in i don't know where the negatives are i don't have negatives anymore but this was taken originally on on some film right and film was a negative inside of a camera you don't have that well i don't know if i can trust that no no you can trust it well yeah but in the process did it lose anything well sure there was compression in the software and put in the cloud but more than that actually when i went through the scanning process i did a lot of things like i was eating cheetos while i was watching tv and scanning on my flatbed scanner and so a couple times i got fingerprints on it and actually covered part of my granny's skirt and so you know i do have parts of it my hair came across and i didn't clean the thing very often so yeah the the transmission of that from the photons impressed upon that negative that got all the way through all that process to my phone yeah you'll see some parts where maybe even the photograph that i scanned it was cracked and so there's a little piece missing or torn off so yeah what i have on my phone is a picture of my grandparents but it's a transmitted picture my grandparents and through the process i know i lost a little something but there it is it's a good clear picture it just i mean it's not perfect but it's it's a good picture of it that's transmission and the question is now what's going on here looks like there's something on this photo that shouldn't be there or something on the photo that got taken off what's going on if it's a transmission problem an issue then it's not really an issue about uh the mechanics or software or coding it's about the people that did it and the people that did it are human beings and they're called copyists or if they were really professional at it they were called scribes and they had to copy these things by hand because kinkos was just getting going back then so they had no way to do this but by hand so that's the issue what happened with the copyists what happened with the scribes example i leave church get in my car get hit by a bus i'm not dead mostly dead not fully dead a lot of things inside are dying my head's still good my right arm's still good i get put in the hospital and i they tell me you only got you only got a day to live you're gonna be dead being dead by the end of the day so i say well you know i don't know any grandkids yet so be good thing for me i'm gonna write a little note to all my grandkids so i take out a yellow steno pad i take out my pen and i write by hand other arms all messed up inside's dying but my brain's working and i write out a full page to my grandkids okay i write i don't know full page it's it's like i don't know 39 sentences of stuff and i tear it off and i give it to my wife i say go take it to the waiting room where my where my kids are i got three kids go take in my waiting room there and and and let them have it and let them get it one day to my grandkids she goes down there none of my kids showed up except for one my oldest is there others are too busy my oldest matt is there and he goes oh man a letter from from dad i need to make a copy of this for my brother and my sister so he starts to make a copy of the letter that i made i'm gonna keep one and got no the coffee machine around and so i'm just gonna sit here i got hours to kill anyway dad's in the other room dying so i'm going to write down what dad wrote so he makes a copy by hand he gets down in this thing almost to the end i don't know like 36 sentences in and he says you know um what dad is saying here in this part of it and what he says next i mean there's a logical step here in between and i know what he means and so i'm just gonna put a little note in the margin here as to what dad is saying to my grandkids and so he puts a little note in the margin and then he finishes up the copy and takes the copy says hey mom can you run this to my brother he's out on the golf course so can he so mom goes my wife goes and finds my middle kid and and john is out on the golf course and he gets this and he goes oh man it's the copy that that matthew made and he goes man this seems important so when i'm done playing golf i'm going to check it out so he gets into the clubhouse he sits down gets his iced tea and he looks at this and he goes man i need to make a copy of this for my sister so he starts to make a copy and he makes this copy and he gets to this statement that's in the margin by his brother and he goes man that's that's an important thing it does help clarify what what dad is saying here so he takes that as he's copying and he adds what's in the margin he puts it in the middle of this of this page that he's writing out by hand and so now i don't have any longer i don't have 39 sentences now i have 40 sentences because he added a sentence between the 36th sentence and the 37th sentence and now he says ah there it is i'm going to take this to my sister so he goes and brings it to the house where his sister is and stephanie's there and she gets it and she goes oh let's check this out so she starts reading it she goes i'm going to make a copy for my grandkids i don't have any kids yet but i'm going to do that get ready and as she's going through it she gets to that 37th sentence because that doesn't sound like dad and so she says um i'm gonna text my brothers hey can you send me a picture of the of the of the copies that you made of this can you do that and so they do and so when she gets matthew's picture to her phone she sees that that sentence that she didn't think quite match the vocabulary of of dad she sees that it was in the margin of matthew's first copy and she goes ah see there not even in his handwriting didn't even belong there here's the problem her brother in the clubhouse is such a careful guy he's thinking this letter is so important and i know my kids are going to want to recite it and they're going to want to memorize it and meditate on it i'm going to give all of these sentences numbers and he numbers them and because he's incorporated that statement in the margin of his brother he's now got 40 numbers 1 through 40 sentences that are to the grandkids stephanie's got that but the copies she's got are all numbers she's verified now that is not dad's writing that's matthew's clarification so she goes and scratches a line through the 37th sentence and then takes it and hands it to her eventual grandchildren and they go conspiracy right my mom stephanie is trying to truncate the message from grandpa and stephanie goes no i wasn't matter of fact i was trying to get you an accurate picture of what grandpa said okay there's my dumb illustration let's let's identify the players okay let's identify matthew who is matthew in this illustration matthew is someone way out picture israel here africa down here got modern-day turkey and then way over here we got italy matthew is someone over here in italy out in the west who says it'd be really good to have a clarification because if you read this text it kind of needs a clarification or at least it begs for a clarification or you can see why a clarification would be helpful let's look at the text again verse 36 verse 36 of acts chapter 8. 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 verse 38. and he commanded the chariot to stop and they both went down into the water philip and the eunuch and he was baptized what's missing here friends what happened did he get did he did he repent right if of course he repented philip he he knows this he's done this he's he's been an evangelist from the beginning of the chapter he sat in peter's preaching he's listened to peter preach he knows what the gospels he knows what jesus taught about you got to repent right you got to repent put your trust in christ so that happened now if someone's looking at this text they're going to go well it would be helpful just to have that piece there as a matter of fact every time i preach to you i start by looking at the text reading the text over and over looking at the original languages and i take that text and one thing i try to do in my study early on is i just write one sentence summary of everything that's in it just encapsulated summary and you know what i wanted really bad because really when i look at this historically i'm saying well here's a passage about what here's a passage about the eunuch wanting to be baptized and philip baptizes him and then he goes on and does more evangelism and what i really want to say is hey the big deal is he got saved i want that i want to show that so someone out west in about three greek manuscripts from the sixth century forward they put that clarification it was reflected in old translations and revisions of of the vulgate the vulgate is the latin translation of the bible both in old testament new testament and in a late edition of jerome who was the man who translated was known for doing this back in the fourth century there was a edition of this as best we can tell there was an addition of why because we don't have it anywhere else we've got a few scant references irenaeus was a second century um church leader pastor and he wrote a book called a letter called against heresies and in that statement he recalls the ethiopian eunuch getting saved and just like i said there's no mention of him being saved well he states the scene and talks about him being saved and calling on jesus as the son of god perhaps irenaeus and cyprian followed and the and the uh biographer of scipion right after sipping in the next century he also discusses that and this word of him calling out on christ and believing with all of his heart is there and perhaps from the second third century this ends up in the west with a clarification way out here in italy in the west and so we have just a few manuscripts and the latin vulgate revision edition of that late edition we have that statement so who's matthew i don't know some dudes out in in the western world who put this clarification and perhaps influenced by irenaeus's depiction in cyprian's depiction of what happened which of course it's begging for that who is john well two people are john john is first of all erasmus erasmus and stefanos let's talk about erasmus erasmus in working in cambridge in the 1500s comes up with a critical what we call a critical edition of the greek new testament which is him taking some i like to say all but it wasn't all it was it was a few basic new testament greek manuscripts that were found that of course there are plenty of them around but he had a certain select group of them that he based a critical edition of the new testament which means he was pulling these together and saying let's reconstruct the original why because we don't have the negatives i'm looking at all the scanned pictures and i'm putting together a picture of the greek new testament and i'll put some footnotes here and so so erasmus does that work it's decent work but the decision that he made even in a comment that he makes is i just think this is an oversight of the copyists right he had no greek text that had this reading at that time he didn't have those few western texts but he had the vulgate and he had the late edition of the vulgate that had this reading in it later by the way he he reflected on it after he published it and said i don't think i should have added that nevertheless it was in the 1500s the critical edition of the greek new testament that erasmus did so john is erasmus putting it in the main text and then stefanus is john again because stefanus is the guy in 1551 who put the verse numbers in so the verse numbers were put in on the critical text of the greek new testament and other subsequent texts that was the first numbering system actually caught on so they put 40 verses in acts chapter 8. so stefanus and erasmus are john saying i'm going to number these and put this from the margin into the middle of it right well who's stephanie every basic scholar sense right are there people that'll argue it sure right you can find them on youtube the reliable source of truth in the world but most people with degrees who sit around and do this work and i have plenty of source material at least electronically available do the work myself and i come to the same conclusion everyone else has come to that stephanie has come to and that is if i compare all the available resources which are way more than erasmus way more than i mean we have them we have a plethora of witnesses to the greek new testament and even the ancient man uh translations i'm gonna say there was only 39 verses so i'm stuck now with the critical edition of the greek new testament that was based on the vulgate and a marginal reading in greek manuscripts that were way out west and that was then numbered by stefanus and then we're stuck with stephanie which is every modern translation putting a line through it and saying wait a minute that wasn't original and why not only because the oldest manuscripts don't have it but the majority of manuscripts don't have it which by the way let's go another level real quick if you were exposed to the king james only people which basically say we take a snapshot of what we got after a few revisions of the king james that started in 1611 but what they're carrying around is several versions later i'm going to say everything is to be judged by that and if it doesn't exist in the 1811 what they say 1611 if it doesn't exist in the king james bible then i'm saying you're taking it out and if you're taking it out it you must be demonic right you're filled with satan so you are taking verses out of the bible and if you judge everything by that then you're right but see the king james and the geneva bible and tyndale's version were all based on erasmus critical greek new testament therefore right everyone is looking at that king james bible going oh they took it out now if you have a new king james you're here this morning or a kingdom forever ma it's in mine right well it's in yours i get that the question is did luke write that and i'm saying no irenaeus cyprian i think put this concept his words into his mouth and then it became it got picked up in a few manuscripts late over here in the western manuscript family there's a whole set of manuscripts in the byzantine this middle gr uh greek speaking area and most people say well i believe in the king james because it has the majority of texts well it does have the majority of text because they were late because it was the one region of the world that kept speaking greek but guess what verse does not exist in the byzantine or majority text verse 38 doesn't exist so what 37 verse 38 does exist verse 37 thank you and that may be too much information it was too much information a long time ago pastor mike okay listen if you are bored by this then someone hadn't come into your office or into your world and said you have a demonic bible i've had plenty of people tell me that i've had them in my office two on one bible's on the desk one's the word of god one's not one's got verses one doesn't yours is taking it out 17 examples in modern translations that don't have verses and all i'm telling you that well most of them are conflations from the byzantine text family i am saying here's an exception of one that is not even a conflation it's a marginal reading from late western texts and i'm saying if you don't have verse 38 37 in your bible you should thank god for honest translators because the translators are basing this translation work on the best available most logical and supportable critical greek new testament and every modern critical greek new testament is totally transparent about the problem that's why i have all these footnotes at the bottom it's called apparatus and trust me it feels like apparatus it's hard stuff to work through but all of it is trying to help us figure out why verse 37 didn't exist we didn't even have verses right in our bibles until 1551 and that numbering system was based on that utilize erasmus decisions erasmus even regretted the decision about this particular text so it goes and there's why we should be thankful that there's honest scholars now that's the hard explanation guess what a lot of people like simple explanation with a simple explanation king james bible had it you're doesn't i'm right you're wrong okay i i can't i can't argue with you then right i'm sorry some things need complicated explanations because it's a complicated thing to get from the negative to the photo in your phone so verse 38 verse 38. i have no idea why you're applauding that but okay verse 38 and they came up out of the water i don't know first three any he command he commanded the chariot to stop right the ethiopian stop and they both went down into the water and they both went down into and they both went down into the water presbyterians they both went down into the water philip and the eunuch and he baptized them he didn't say look there's some water and then it says philip went over and got some water came back to the chariot and sprinkled him doesn't say that now the text doesn't have to say that for me not to be a presbyterian pedo baptist and here's the reason because the word baptizo means to submerge to dunk to immerse so we know that's what it means and that was the practice and so the practice is they go down into the water and it's a passive verb what prevents me from being baptized verse 36 well someone has to do this to you and of course philip does this to him or you can't baptize yourself unless you do a deep knee bend but you're going backwards into the water this is the picture of baptism and they come back up and then off he goes verse 39 more on that in a second but what we need to see is that this act of water baptism again and you can see why verse 37 was a marginal reading that got incorporated because i want to say it's after his response to the gospel which is implied in this text which of course it must be because philip knows what he's doing and so we know post-conversion make disciples baptizing them in water right they go down in water and they get submerged okay all of us need to make sure we do that that's a specific expression of identifying with christ number three we need to obey god's call for water baptism water baptism by someone representing the church in this case philip publicly stop the chariots everyone's standing around watching and it's by immersion they go down into the water and then they baptizo which is a transliterated word that means to submerge and it's after conversion why because phil wouldn't do it any other way be good if the verse were there well somebody out in italy decided to put the verse in there but that is post-conversion by immersion publicly by a church leader that needs to happen those four things has it happened to you you need to make sure if you are a christian you're professing christ you say i did repent i responded to the good news great then you need to it's a passive verb you need to let someone baptize you and that's not your buddy your wife your kids your your uncle this needs to be in a church it doesn't have to be a church setting it has to be by church leadership by submerging submersion by going immersed within the water and post conversion make disciples baptizing them if you haven't done that easy fix go on your phone come to church.org find the baptism link sign up for the next one the next one's coming up it's already on the calendar say i want to be baptized and the question that the ethiopian asked said what prevents me from being baptized right that's what the church leaders do we say well let's figure out if there is anything that prevents you being baptized and that's why you may not feel like you're being interrogated but we need to find out if there is anything is your testimony a legitimate biblical christian testimony do you understand what baptism is so we have a meeting with a pastor and we have a book to read about what baptism is and what it is those two things well i'm gonna do it right now in the patio well that we want to answer the question since philip is doing the baptizing since church leaders are doing the baptism right then we want to make sure we answer that question in our own conscience as church leaders hey nothing prevents you from being baptized philip got through those hurdles in his mind we want to get through those hurdles in our mind oh but it's scary and i'm saying don't be ashamed of christ so it's scary you pass out we'll catch you right it's fine we will we will it will be dramatic no one will forget it if you have a uh uh if you melt down on the platform be famous right the point though is that you do it so i need you to sign up to be baptized if you've never well i didn't like the last church so i'm gonna get baptized here again no no no no one time after conversion public setting post-conversion by immersion right by church leadership that that's taking place i don't know the church didn't like it the god of the baptism he's an apostate it doesn't matter it doesn't matter you did it that's what matters we want you to do it you haven't done it well i got baptized before it was a christian well that's not post conversion is it i got sprinkled well that's not immersion is it so we need to make sure that's taken care of in your life and when you lead someone to christ we need to say hey do this so much more that we have said on that go to the back of the worksheet so many good resources there sermons in the past that we've preached on about these things not a salvific thing well it's not salvific if it doesn't save me then what it's not important a lot of things that don't save you that are very important because christ commanded them so we need to do it verse 39 when they came up out of the water the spirit of the lord carried philip away and the eunuch saw him no more what in the world happened here and he went on his way rejoicing who did the eunuch kept going down south and as irenaeus says went preaching the gospel down in africa but philip found himself at a zodis and he passed through 22 miles north and preached the gospel to all the towns all the way up the mediterranean coast until he got to caesarea and that's where we find him later in the book we'll get to this whole carried away in a second but let's just get to the theme here and the theme is and again we have to rely on tradition of church history about the fact that it makes perfect sense that the church in africa grew because of the ethiopian eunuch as a standalone missionary there and starting the movement of christ in the continent at least down that far south in the continent but philip then clearly in the text goes on sharing the good news proclaiming the good news evangel he wants to see more people standing out of the crowd and identifying with christ number four we gotta work to see more identified with christ that's the goal that should be your passion that should be your concern might have been easier in the first century in antioch it might have been easier in the 20th century in georgia but it's the 21st century in southern california and we have got to have that same passion let me take you to one last passage let's close with this matthew chapter 9 and for this i'll tie together that carried away phrase what in the world carry it away that's the greek word harpazzo and if you're a theologian or you know it's armchair theologian you know that word harpazo in greek is the word that translates into latin which is transliterated into english rapture it's translated in our esv into the word caught up the words caught up in first test so the church is promised to be caught up and when you think about that you think about it in bodily form which of course is what happened to jesus at the ascension it's what happened with a elijah we see examples probably of enoch getting caught up the planet bodily well that's a miracle of teleport i mean that's that's that's star trek stuff right and you're like wow is that what happened here i don't know it seems to be that's what's being said it could be used metaphorically but the next phrase that the eunuch saw him no more seems to make it seem like it was like bam and if it was okay i'm not saying it's not metaphorically that the spirit of some commentators say just compelled him like he compelled him to go there and he physically got there literally and physically within the laws of nature perhaps he's physically going and compelled to leave and he's just done either way it's a forceful word harpazo he was caught up spirit took him somewhere else it reminds me of this text bottom of matthew 9 are you with me on matthew 9. matthew chapter 9 drop down to verse 35 which is reminiscent of what philip was described doing up the mediterranean coast jesus went throughout this is matthew 9 35 went throughout all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom wow everywhere moving moving going going going going going and of course as the messiah he is validating his messianic claim healing every disease and every affliction so he's got his authentication miraculous authentication when he saw the crowds he had compassion he felt something for them he felt moved in his gut literally what the word means he's moved in his gut in his in his organs because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd now i don't know and i'm sure they did if christians in the bible belt in the 20th century thought that about their culture but man if you don't see our world as absolutely insane right now they are harassed and helpless they're harassing each other they're helpless they are certainly like sheep without a shepherd bumping into the walls with ridiculous theories about reality ridiculous things that they're emphasizing it is absurd it is corrosive it is self-defeating it is an absolute mess the people around you are dying philosophically mentally and and spiritually of course and physically and he says because of that verse 37 he then says he says to his disciples the harvest is plentiful man there are people that need to be saved they need to be under the jurisdiction of christ they need to be identified with the lord the harvest upon here's the problem though the laborers are few i mean that's the reality the means by which god ordains for the gospel to go through the villages of the mediterranean coast are human beings and it's like there are not a lot of them and we need more workers and so here's this word harpazo like he's taken is he teleported 20 miles away he might be i don't know maybe did he have to then hoof it for half a day to get there maybe he did maybe he was compelled didn't even stop for lunch he just went i mean that could be the point is it's aggressive which is exactly what we see in the next verse therefore you ought to aggressively pray this is the word deo my the greek word for an intense begging of god i'm about to beg you on aggressively pray pray to the lord pray earnestly to the lord the lord of the harvest the one that's in charge of every city every person every life has been designed by god god is the king of life he wants these people saved and the means that he's appointed is laborers to send out laborers into his harvest send out you could translate that much stronger here's an aggressive verb right here ek balo ekbalo to ek is is the greek preposition out balo to throw to thrust them out into the harvest i'm begging god aggressive word for prayer to aggressive word to thrust them out here's something that if he did get teleported there that would be a thing to watch right and you often think about well the ethiopian unit like that's one thing but what if he's showing up in your town that way i'm thinking more of the other end here's this guy right was it that i'm not sure i don't know i mean 50 50 on this in terms of whether this is the compulsion and this is a metaphorical use of the word or whether it's literal nevertheless it's a strong aggressive term for time to move this chess piece over here and all i'm telling you that ought to be the way we are mobily ready to identify with christ and to see and want the last point of the last sermon of this series on gospel advance is that you and i ought to be committed to advancing the gospel always be ready to identify with christ and then i just want to see more and more people identified with christ we should want an expanding church we should pray for the ekbalo the thrusting forth of workers into the harvest field and you pray that prayer you can't help but be that person you'll be the answer to your own prayer in that regard because god is going to push you out into this mission field which of course is what he does to the ethiopian reminds me of mark chapter 5 in mark chapter 5 when the guy the demoniac was healed by christ he says i want to go with you and he goes no no no go to your home tell your friends and your family what the lord has done for you and here goes the ethiopian down into africa you go tell the people there but i gotta go up north to tell people up the coast this takes from a human perspective a resolve this is what a lot of what the series has been about we got to be resolved there's an old song i sang in sunday school as a kid about resolve you might remember it and in your calvinism you may be afraid to assert it but trust me this is a decent description of the resolve of the christian life and that is this i have decided to follow jesus look up the history of this song and i know there's some apocryphal stories that might have grown up around it but we know this it came from india and it came from india on the in the wake of the missionaries that were sent the welsh missionaries that went out from europe to go to northern india and they were going into some really difficult places and this was an indian song a gospel song that came out of the experience apparently of these european missionaries who came there and they brought people to christ said you've got to follow christ you've got to trust in christ well the story goes that one of the chiefs of one of the villages came in and saw what was happening to his people and he cornered this family of indians who were committing themselves to christ and under duress and under threat of death he tried to get them to renounce christ and his words apparently were hey you cannot follow christ anymore and out of that came this song apparently it's so the story goes these people this family was actually martyred in the process but the song was sung by the indians who were saved through that work of the missionary efforts of those welshman was i've decided to follow jesus i have decided to follow jesus i have decided to remember the song to follow jesus you know the last line there of the first verse no turning back no turning back i thought of the song because i thought about that poor ethiopian unit going all alone only christian in his caravan and the only christian in his nation and i thought about the next verse though none go with me still i will follow though none go with me still i will though none go with me still i will follow no turning back no turning back that's gonna mean in your life and in your heart you're gonna have to get down to the the brass tacks the the core of what this christian life is all about you got to be thinking as the last verse says the world behind me doesn't matter the glory of man not real interested in that the world behind me the cross before me care about what god thinks care about the glory of that the world behind me the cross before me the world behind me the cross before me no turning back no turning back let's pray god help us to be that resolved as the story goes of the indians in that village who were willing to say i am not going to stop following christ it's my resolve i've decided i understand the work of the spirit is securing that is empowering that but god we know that the means the instrumentality is the thing that you do in our volition in saying we're committed to this and it starts with us just being open as the world leads with all kinds of crazy things as they meet people we want to lead with this we are followers of jesus christ the christ of the bible and for us there'll be no turning back and if none follow we're gonna go we're gonna still do it the world to us doesn't matter it's in the rearview mirror what matters is the coming kingdom when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne and separate the peoples as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats god prepare us for that day by not being ashamed to confess the son of man in this perverse generation settle that steal our courage and let us eschew this timidity that is so rampant among evangelicals today that give us a heart with no cowardice with determination to follow you no matter what in jesus name amen

Channel: Mike Fabarez

Views: 326

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Courage, Fear, Cowardice, Sanctification, Baptism, Textual Criticism

Id: 8g_vKf8t0Ms

Length: 54min 24sec (3264 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 07 2021