What Keeps You?

Introduction

Good morning. Phil, open in your New Testament’s with me to Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8. We’ll pick up the reading in verse 26 in a few moments. You think about living in Florida, one of the difficulties is the big, bad, dreaded hurricanes. When Kashka and I got married in 2013, she was concerned about that being from Oregon, where people who are from Oregon say, What’s a hurricane? And why does that affect me? And I said, Don’t worry, they never really actually come here. There was one year four came for some reason. But other than that, really, hurricanes don’t bother us too much. And even in a year where the hurricanes have a busy season, you really only remember hurricane when it hits you. So, for example, it might, someone might remember in Texas a couple years ago a bad hurricane.

We remember in 2004 several bad hurricanes. But it’s not something to worry about because we’ll get through it, and living here, you’re kind of used to it in a way. Well, four or five years later, we buy our first home, and two months later, Florida decided to greet us with a nice welcome present. Hurricane Irma was said to be on its way two weeks before it arrived. Prognosticators said this hurricane is coming, and it’s somehow going to come right through Central Florida. Something if you live here, you know almost rarely ever happens. And Kashka looked at me and she said, Well, why aren’t we doing anything to prepare? I said, Because it’s aiming for Central Florida. There’s no way it’s going to hit Central Florida if they say it’s coming here.

And so we went to my parents’ house, and my sister had her one year old baby there and was in complete panic because her one year old was going to have to go through a hurricane, which is aiming straight for Central Florida. So we get in the car going home, and she says, Okay, now I’m really confused. Your sister’s terrified, you’re doing absolutely nothing. Is this a big deal or not? I said, it’s not. As long as they keep saying it’s going to hit us, there’s no way it’s going to actually hit us. We’ve been through this a million times. It will not happen. A week passes, public shelves are getting emptier and emptier of water, and can goes, and canned goods. And she says, People are buying them, we’ve got to buy them.

I said, it’s not going to happen. It’s not going to hit us. And then four days before, the path changed. It shifted. It wasn’t going to hit us. I said, see, no problem. We don’t have to worry about it. Until two days before, and it shifted right back over Central Florida. I said, take a picture of everything we own. We have no proof of anything for property insurance, and she was terrified. And we lived happily ever after. So I’m sorry. When you know something is coming, when you believe it’s real, you take preparations for it. The more you’re concerned about what you have to lose, the more you see the storm coming, the more you decide, hey, I have to do something about it. The question is spiritually, do we really believe God when he says Jesus is coming again?

Do we believe Jesus when he speaks of everlasting punishment and everlasting reward? Do we believe the stakes are high enough to get our attention? And if the stakes are high enough to get our attention, do we truly believe that the end is nigh? That at any time, our God may say to us, today, your soul is required of you. This lesson is going to be unique this morning, and as you start thinking about moving, you think about what’s important to you and focusing on what matters. This morning, instead of three points, although we’ll look at it from that construct, they’ll have just one focus. My question would be why do you not just do what God says? Or to use the language of Acts chapter 8, what hinders or keeps you?

Look at me in the reading of Acts chapter 8, beginning in verse 26. Now 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. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who is in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship. And was returning seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him, reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked him, Do you understand what you are reading? And he said, How can’t I unless someone guides me?

And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this. Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. And his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth. And the eunuch said to Philip, About whom I ask you, does the prophet say this? About himself or about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, he told them the good news about Jesus. And as they were coming along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water. What prevents me?

What keeps me from being baptized? And in verse 38, he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. My focus this morning is not solely on baptism, although that’s a major part of it. The scriptures teach in the New Testament pattern is consistent and clear, that we have a sin problem. And that Jesus is the only answer to that sin problem, and the stakes are high. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, Paul says in Romans 6. So the question is, what keeps me from being the dedicated servant of God that I know I should be? Certainly we believe that God is real and that the mistakes are true, that there is heaven, there is hell, or as Jesus says in Matthew 25, 46, eternal punishment and eternal life.

Certainly we believe that part. But if you’ve never been baptized, recognize that apart from that, apart from that bridge into Christ, we stand in sin, stuck, with the wages of which are death. But if you are a Christian and you’ve been baptized into Jesus and experienced the good news of salvation, but aren’t serving the way you should, the question remains what keeps me from reading and seeing what I need to do is right and doing something about it. So we’re going to investigate that question. We learn from the eunuch a couple things. One of them is he was obviously a religious person. He’s finding himself having a returning from Jerusalem. He is reading the good word of God. In fact, whether this is providential or not, he’s reading about Jesus.

He’s reading what we would call Isaiah 53. And of course, he doesn’t understand it. And when Philip approaches him at the Holy Spirit’s beckoning, he says, I need a teacher. How can I understand it unless someone shows me? And he’s reading this passage about Jesus. And in verse 34, the eunuch asked the question, who is this about? Is Isaiah talking about himself or is it somebody else? If you notice the phrasing of Philip in verse 35 by Luke here, he says, beginning with this scripture, he told them the good news about Jesus. The eunuch knew that he needed to know something. In fact, he’s reading the Old Testament scripture, which to him, as seemingly a good practicing Jew would know that this prophecy is important. And I need to be in the Word to know what God expects of me.

And so he’s studying it. And when he doesn’t understand, do you notice he’s willing to get help? Now he isn’t the one who went and found Philip, but when Philip came up, he didn’t say, No, I got it, I’ll go look it up at home. He says, How can I unless someone guides me? He’s willing to take help. Why? Because what God says is important. And he needs to understand it. And so you insert Philip, and Philip teaches him about Jesus. It’s interesting in verse 35. That’s really all that’s said. We have Isaiah 53. Philip starts with that scripture and teaches him Jesus. And so his reaction is fascinating in the following verses that somehow out of Isaiah 53 that Jesus would be the prophesied messianic lamb.

But also being taught whatever it was else that Philip included in that message about Jesus from that passage forward. Led to the following verses where the eunuch demanded baptism. There’s really only two conclusions to draw. One of them is when he says, See, here is water, what prevents me from being baptized. Number one, something about the message of Jesus implied. Baptism’s necessary. It wasn’t something to wait, it wasn’t something to put off. And if you look at many church websites today, you’ll see they’ll say, go ahead and schedule your baptism with us. It can be two weeks, you can have, we have a baptism Saturday. But no, the eunuch sees what he needs to do. He hears the words of Jesus and says, I’ve got to get to this right now.

By the way, if you weren’t looking, you are now, right? He demanded that. But secondly, and more to the point, beyond just the necessity of baptism being true, which it is, and needing to be in Jesus to have our sins forgiven, which we do. It’s the fact that when he heard what he needed to do, call it baptism, call it faith, call it what you want. He did it. There was no, I’ll work on it. There was no, maybe the next month I’ll start it. Maybe when the new year comes, I’ll make another failed resolution to make it 100% year after year, I fail my resolutions by the end of February. He says, here’s what God says about Jesus. Here’s what the scripture reveals. Here is what his messenger told me.

1. We Don’t Feel Like We Know Enough

And so I will do it. No delay. No waiting. And the question this morning is whether, as a non-Christian here this morning, or as a Christian, if I am not doing the will of God, why would I wait? I think there’s a few reasons. If I can put these into buckets. Number one is we don’t feel like we know enough. If we’re honest with the eunuch, as you go back into those verses, and I mean know enough in two ways. We see the eunuch maybe doesn’t know because he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. If that’s not clear enough, think about this. He doesn’t understand Isaiah 53 is about Jesus. But Philip teaches him about Jesus. And in that teaching, he learns he needs to be baptized and does it.

I think a very strong argument can be made that this eunuch, until Philip approaches him in Acts 8, has no idea about Jesus, or certainly about the idea of baptism into Jesus. And so you can’t expect someone to do something they don’t know. And so if we don’t know enough, we have a solution for that, though. Notice what is the eunuch doing before, during, and after Philip is with him. He’s studying the word, trying to understand. When Philip approaches him, he takes advantage of the opportunity to learn more, and he does what he’s told, and he goes on his way, verse 39 says, rejoicing. But I want to talk more about that second group of knowing enough, because I think in our information age, we have access.

And if you’re here this morning and you don’t understand what God’s will is for salvation or why we’re here, or any of those questions, please feel free to stop me, to stop Ken, any of our elders. One will come forward at the end of the service this morning for the invitation. Ask us. We’d love to talk about the Word of God. And we’ll study it together. Not as an expert, not like Philip, but maybe as someone who has studied the Word and at least knows this much so far. But I want to talk about this second group of people. Sometimes in our society, we feel like we don’t know enough of some other questions. Many times in my studies with people, we’ll reach a point and I’ll say, Well, what hinders you from being baptized?

And it’ll say, Well, I don’t understand this one quirk of the law on fill in the gap. And those are often good questions. And frankly, sometimes they’re questions I don’t have the beginning of an answer for, because there’s not really a cut and dry one from Scripture. And I’m not degrading question asking, because that would be just major shots at myself. Anyone who knows me knows that when I don’t know something, I ask questions until I do. And by the way, that does mean yes, the questions never stop. When it comes to not knowing enough, though, what did the eunuch know? What was he capable of knowing in this one setting with Philip? I have no doubt Philip is a fantastic teacher. And Isaiah 53 is arguably a perfect place to start this teaching.

But to act as if the eunuch would get baptized because he fully understands all that Christianity is and all that it would take from him seems a bit stretched, a bit far-fetched. But he responded to what he had. And that’s the pattern we see repeated. Look at me in Acts 16. In Acts chapter 16, we see another example of someone who responded to what he learned immediately. Keep in mind in Acts chapter 16, when we pick up in verse 25 with who we know as the Philippian jailer, this is another individual who would have, let’s say, a less than perfect understanding of what it means to be a Christian. In fact, you could probably make a pretty good assumption that he knows less than the eunuch did, because at least the eunuch seemed to be following Jewish customs.

In verse 25, about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. And when the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, do not harm yourself. For we are all here. And the jailer called for lights and rushed in and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.

And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house, and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once. He and all his family. Verse 34 actually describes this event as he rejoiced along with his entire household that they had believed in God. Fascinating. What could the Philippian jailer have learned? Now it seems to be around midnight when this happens, and around that same hour of the night he is baptized. Regardless of what that means, do we think the Philippian jailer was now a Christian scholar? That he’s the person that if you had one phone call, you were on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Christian Edition, you’re dialing up the Philippian jailer.

Probably not. We’re not deriding him, not deriding the eunuch, not deriding anyone here who feels like they’re most akin to the eunuch or the Philippian jailer. But it does teach us something important. That God expects us to respond to what we know. And there is one thing that is clearly in all the New Testament of the utmost importance that without Jesus we are lost. In Jesus, we have salvation and freedom from the bondage of sin. And when you figure out how to get from point A to point B, you act. You just do it. The eunuch said, see, here is water, what prevents me from being baptized. The jailer in Acts 16 is described as being baptized with his household that very night. The idea of not knowing enough is important.

Jesus says in Luke chapter 14, we have to count the cost of following after him. Much like a king would make sure he could win a battle before sending his troops to an obvious disadvantage and a slaughter. Or that we would make sure we have the cost to build a building, a tower, before we run out of funds and leave it half finished. Following Jesus is no simple decision in terms of not having a sacrifice. There is a catch. The catch is this world is not our home. But it’s worth it. When you understand sin is on me and I’m stuck. And Jesus provides the way out. We lay up treasures in heaven. That decision is simple. Living it is very difficult. But when you see the New Testament pattern, there is not a knowing enough question.

2. Unwilling to Make the Commitment

There’s a do you understand you have sinned? Do you understand who Jesus is and what he offers? And will you do something about it? We see, secondly, perhaps we don’t wait just because we don’t know enough. If we’re honest. Some of us just wait because we’re unwilling to make the commitment. And it is a heavy commitment. Jesus makes that clear in Luke 9 and Luke 14 over and over that this world will be difficult. This world will be tough. You have to count the cost of persecution, reviling, slander. They persecuted the prophets. They persecuted Jesus. If you’re living righteously, darkness hates the light, they’ll hate you too. The world hates light. It’s always hated. Every practice of someone who believes and does what God says. In the Old Testament, in the New Testament, in the 21st century America, you stand up for what God teaches, you will be reviled.

So why would anyone do this? Well, John chapter 12, first of all, we see there are people like that, so we’ve got to be honest. And maybe you are a Christian here and you’re not living out to what it means to be a true servant of God. You haven’t denied yourself, as Jesus would say in Luke 9 23. You’re not taking up your cross daily and following after him. It might be because, like the people in John 12, 42 and 43, our internal calculation that we’d never admit out loud is it’s just not worth it right now. And John 12, 42, nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him. But for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it. So they would not be put out of the synagogue.

For they love the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God. Now, I dare say nobody in the room this morning would say, you know what? I love the praise of men way more than the praise of God. But do we live that way? Do our actions, does my pattern of commitment or a lack of commitment to God show I don’t actually care enough to make the change? Yes, I believe he’s real. John 12, this is inspired scripture, says these authorities believed in Jesus. The inescapable conclusion is they know who he is, they just don’t care enough to change. And that’s startling. Because I think everyone in this room probably to some extent believes in Jesus. Do I care enough to serve him all out today?

What if coming back to God means making a public confession and it’s embarrassing? What if it means admitting I’m wrong? Or my family’s been wrong. Or my family is wrong. Jesus says, count the cost. But please know the cost of being wrong, of rejecting the one and only Savior, is much higher than any persecution or trouble that this world can offer. Sometimes we’re unwilling to make the commitment. Perhaps it’s like Paul with King Agrippa. And as Agrippa would say, in a short time, would you persuade me to be a Christian? That’s the English Standard Version, probably not familiar with that one as much as the other. Sometimes we know. We’ve been taught, we’re just unwilling to make the sacrifice. Certainly we know that’s displeasing to God.

3. We Honestly Don’t Feel the Rush

I think this final reason perhaps undergirds a little bit of the first two. We honestly don’t feel the rush. In James chapter 4, this is similar to the idea of the hurricane. We know hurricanes are damaging. I know that. I’ve lived here, I lived through several of them. I wasn’t taking any precautions because I really didn’t think they were coming. And truth be told, I knew that if they’d shifted forecast two or three days before, like they did, that we would have time to go and make proper arrangements. James chapter 4 teaches us not to live like that spiritually. In James 4, verse 13, come now, you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will do this or that and live. As it is, you boast in your arrogance, and all such boasting is evil. Notice verse 17 with me. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. If one verse summarizes this morning and it’s not the eunuch saying, Here is water, what prevents me? It’s James 4 17. To him who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, to him it is sin. This world is passing away. It is not promised tomorrow.

I could regale us with sad stories of children, infants, teenagers, young parents, older parents passing away unexpectedly. And share the reality of that. I was at college when a fellow college student at 19 was killed in a car accident. I remember not believing that could be real. If you had asked me, I would have said, of course, a teenager can die. I wouldn’t have expected it would be a classmate. Not at 19. Not when I was 18. Life happens. Our soul will be required of us. And if we don’t act like it, we either are showing we don’t believe it or we don’t care. This morning is an opportunity that God has blessed us with. The question is, how will I harness it? How will I use the opportunity God has given me?

Because today I do have breath. Today I do have life. And if you’re in this room this morning, you have an opportunity to pray with and be prayed for by so many Christians who love you and want to be arm in arm in heaven with you. In Luke 15, there’s a picture of the lost sheep and the lost coin and the prodigal son. In each of those cases, what does God do? God and the angels in heaven rejoice when someone comes back. Every day of life should be a cause for rejoicing. It’s not an embarrassment to come back to God or to start your life with Him. It is a blessing and a cause for joy. The question is, will we have something to celebrate this morning?

4. Take God’s Word Seriously

We have to know James 4 teaches us this world is passing away. It’s but a vapor. Jesus can come at any time. Be willing to make the commitment. Know that you know enough. And if you don’t know that someone here can teach you enough, you don’t have to wait. So how do we do this? Three quick points. First of all, take God’s word seriously. If you look at 2 Peter chapter 3, and 2 Peter chapter 3, if certain many here might know of Acts chapter 17, the noble Bereans, who Paul would go about in the synagogues teaching about Jesus from the old scriptures, much like Philip did with the eunuch. And they would search the scriptures daily or eagerly to see if what he said was true.

You know, it’s interesting. Taking the God’s word seriously means one, I need to be willing to read it. But two, when I read what it says, I do it. Remember James 4 17? To one who knows what the right thing to do is and fails to do it, to him it is sin. Take the word seriously. Read it, and let’s practice it. But here’s what the word says that’s frightening to me. In 2 Peter 3 and verse 3, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing following their own sinful desires. They will say, Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.

For they deliberately overlook this fact that the heavens existed long ago and that the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. Do you hear that? This world will be destroyed by the very God who we should believe in. God says, in his word, to us, this world will end. And what’s there at the end? Judgment. And if I am deemed in the ungodly, destruction. It’s not worth waiting. Believe what he says when he tells us.

5. Don’t Delay

Believe the good things of Jesus, that he offers forgiveness, that he offers a peace that surpasses understanding, that God is able to do Ephesians 3.21 far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. Believe that. Comfort yourself with that. But remember the same God says, judgment is coming. We need to live as if judgment is coming because it is. Whether we live 150 years or 150 more seconds. Take God’s word seriously. Secondly, don’t delay. Like the jailer in Acts chapter 16, he was mortified at what had happened. Much has been said about what that jailer was experiencing. Remember, he was about to take his life, knowing the cost of the escaped prisoners. He is terrified. He is afraid. And he says, What must I do to be saved?

6. Remove All Doubt

And when Paul and Silas tell him, what does he do? He just says, Yes. I will do it. Not because Paul and Silas are amazing or because they’re the Son of God, but because they taught about the Lord Jesus. And just like Philip with the eunuch, the Lord Jesus expects those who are in sin to be baptized, and those who are in sin who have been baptized to confess their sins to be forgiven. Don’t delay. It’s too serious. Remove all doubt. Well, look at one final passage with me in 1 John chapter 5. First John chapter 5 and verse 13. This is hard, whether you’re a Christian or not, please recognize these words are for Christians. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

And this is the confidence that we have towards him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us, and if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request that we have asked of him. We should have certainty when we pray to God. And verse 13 says, I need to know that I have eternal life. In Acts 8, we see Samaritans, we see Simon the sorcerer, believed and was baptized. But then he sinned in greed. And Peter said, Repent of this wickedness in you. We just need to have no doubt. Whether you’re a Christian or not, I implore you, be right with God today. You have a chance. You have an opportunity to serve Him, to love Him.

Conclusion

Take the opportunity. Know that life is a vapor. Time passes just like that. Today is the day to make the angels in heaven rejoice. If you’re here and you’ve never become a Christian, be like the eunuch. Be like the jailer in his household of those who believed. Believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Confess your sins. Repent, recognizing we have to subserviate our will to his. And be baptized, immersed in water, sharing as Romans 6 pictures in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. You can have your sins forgiven. You can go on your way rejoicing. You can have a celebratory feast like the eunuch or like the jailer. You don’t have to leave unsure. And if you’re a Christian here and you don’t believe 1 John 5 13 applies to you, that you may know you have eternal life.

Fix it. Take the opportunity. We will pray with you. We will pray for you. There are elders, preachers, deacons, and Christians here everywhere that desperately want God’s will to be done. If we can help you in any of those ways at all, come forward as we stand and sing the invitation song.