Building Gospel Bridges Talk 6

0:00 Good morning. Thank you, Davey, and to Heather, and to everyone who makes a service like this possible. Thanks for getting up out of bed and for making it through the snow and being here. The first service, everyone was online. There's like 10 people in front of me, so it's quite bizarre. So there's a few more this morning, but great to see you. And this is a one-off talk to continue the Building Gospel Bridges series. So for the past several years, I think, Glen Abbey has been gradually turning up the heat when it comes to making Jesus Christ known in Northern Ireland.

0:43 And I pray that this gospel bridge check-in, if you like, might encourage us all to make Christ known as we charge into this new year or limping or crawling. I don't know how you're feeling this morning or sliding. The snow has come. So when it comes to making Christ known, let me start here. I wonder if there are any questions or fears or reservations already filling your mind when it comes to sharing your faith. I'm going to walk through five that hit my mind, and I have to battle these, push them aside, and trust the Lord. The first one's this, I don't know how to do it. I don't have the gift, the eloquence, the knowledge, the courage, the wit.

1:30 I don't have it. Or number two, this comes up a lot, I'm too scared to do it. What if I can't answer a question? What if I don't share the gospel correctly? What if it wrecks my friendships with my colleagues, with family members? What if I embarrass myself? Number three, sometimes I think, I don't really need to. God has it all worked out.

1:59 The pastor, he'll do it, Chris will do it, or the children's and youth ministries, they've got it all sorted. That's why we have courses and events. Surely I can just stay quiet. We've got professionals that do this stuff. I don't need to think about it. Or number four, I would just rather not to. I'm too tired. I'm too busy, too troubled, too stressed, too discouraged, too hurt.

2:25 I have no time, no motivation, no energy, or I'm too old. That's for the younger generations to do. Or finally, and all these things get hit at once actually, they paralyze you. I don't think anyone is interested. People seem happy enough out there. They get to decide how they want to live. Why should I tell them to think differently? And if they're interested, surely if I just be a good person, people will come my way.

2:57 Maybe you're feeling a few of those, one of those, maybe they come at different times. But when I feel those things, and then I look again at the Lord's last words to his followers in Matthew 28, 19, when he says, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And then as I look at Acts 1, 8, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you, look at all the you's here, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth, I ask myself, and maybe this is our prayer, does this go and this you really apply to me? Surely others have got this. Am I to be a witness in Northern Ireland? And if so, tell me, Lord, what does that look like in 2026? That's the question we're going to answer this morning.

3:55 Let's see where we all land when we look at this passage in Acts chapter eight. So that's where we're gonna be parking ourselves because God through Dr. Luke has given us a story. And it's a story of an everyday conversation, an everyday encounter, meeting someone along the way of life. And it's between a guy called Philip and the treasurer of the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia. And now, I don't know where your brain's at right now, if it's already starting to switch off, here's one takeaway I like to say up front. One takeaway that I pray will help us step through some of those fears, objections, and reservations, and that's this. With our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ in 2026, I pray that we might take hold that when it comes to witnessing, it's the Spirit who directs it, it's the Word that God uses that change hearts, and thereby the church grows and it can't be stopped. Now that's an encouraging story to go into 2026 with.

5:04 And for those who love a good structure, like to hang your thoughts on something and know where I'm going, here's where I'm going. It's like three scenes of a movie where you have the connection, which is verses 26 to 29, is a connection between the two individuals, the conversation that takes place, and then the conversion. Okay? You up for it? I'm going to ask God to help us. Let's go. Father, in the name of Jesus and for his glory, we pray that you would lead us in your paths, show us your ways, guide us in your truth, so that we might stand firm in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and be emboldened and encouraged and joyful when it comes to the privilege to be able to share it and point people to your son. Lead us, we pray in Christ's name.

6:05 Amen. Amen. Okay, so let's go into scene one of the stories. It's gonna come up on screen even better. Look out in your Bibles or apps, et cetera. So verse 26, the connection. Watch the spirit make this connection. Now, an angel of the Lord said, Philip, go south to the road, the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

6:29 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake, which means queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, go to that chariot and stay near it. So we've got Philip here. We'll pause there. We've got Philip. Now we read about Philip in Acts 6. He's one of the seven men appointed, full of wisdom, full of the Holy Spirit, to help with the practical needs of many widows in the church in the distribution of food.

7:15 And then in Acts 21, we find out he's married. He lives in Caesarea, and he's got four daughters. And just before this one-on-one encounter in the middle of the desert, we read about Philip going to Samaria, and he preaches the gospel, and there's a mass conversion. There's a revival going on in Samaria. But in this story, the Lord sends him out to the desert for this encounter, and he meets the Ethiopian eunuch. Let me introduce him for a second. As I said before, he's the treasurer of the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia. He's therefore, in British terms, the chancellor of the Exchequer.

7:57 And he's thus a high-ranking government official in the service of the Kandake, which I'm told is the title of the mother of the reigning monarch. And according to scholars, this ancient kingdom of Ethiopia isn't today's country Ethiopia. It's actually in the area of Sudan, where, as we know, there's a crazy, horrific humanitarian crisis today. And I learned that this man, he's a eunuch, so he would have been voluntarily castrated to reach high office in the royal courts, because those who did that were deemed less prone to pleasures and easier to trust. So that was his way to get that job promotion, which is an interesting one. So we have these two characters. They've met in the middle of the desert. Who connected them?

8:49 Is it random? Is it unplanned? Or did God make it happen? Well, look at the movements of the Spirit to make this connection. There's so many, I'm just going to list a few. Firstly, Acts 6, the Holy Spirit is in Philip, dwelling within him, filling him, guiding him. And then the Spirit, in chapter 8, verse 4, uses the scattering of the Christians because of a fierce persecution to see the Christians sharing the gospel out into the world like Philip. Then in this passage, we see the Spirit directly guiding Philip, and he must have been working in the heart of the Ethiopian eunuch because he's traveling all to Jerusalem.

9:31 And I learned that it's a five-month journey by chariot each way. That's a long journey. So clearly he's responding to something and he's interested to find out more. What are the chances? Two unlikely people meeting in a desert. And as you read the entirety of Acts and especially this story, everything is led and powered by the Holy Spirit. Just as the Lord promised in Acts 1-8 that came up in the screen, it is the Spirit of God who is the ultimate witness and teacher. Jesus says himself in John 14, it is the spirit who's the one that convicts the world of sin.

10:14 So this encounter is not random. It's not unplanned. It's guided by the spirit. What a truth to take hold of when it comes to crushing those fears or stepping through those fears that hit our minds. And having lived in the West my whole life, which largely seeks to worship the physical, the material, the self, the intellect, and now technology, I find this deeply challenging and encouraging to once again see life through a spiritual lens and trust the reality of God's Spirit. Because take the story of Melvina that we heard about at the baptism service, which was just in November. The Spirit guided her to step into this building. The Spirit prompted Sarah to say, hey, how you doing?

11:12 Had a chat. Had a wee coffee. I could keep saying the Spirit did this, the Spirit did that. There's a 3-2-1 course. There was Word 1-1 all the way through to Melvina giving her life to the Lord and being baptized right in front of us. Is that random? Or is that God doing something in her life? I think this story tells us it's the Holy Spirit at work.

11:35 It is God guiding it. And so as we step through the fears, the big first point is this. Let's find our confidence in God's Spirit. He's the power. He's the witness through us what a privilege we have. And I emphasize this because when it comes to a topic like this about encouraging us to share our faith, I don't know about you, but with me, sometimes I interpret it as do more. Or a guilt hits my mind that I'm not doing enough. And I hear pray more, I hear share more, I hear read more, more and more and more.

12:18 And we can so quickly give up on that, like a new fitness regime in January. bet you a bunch of us give up on those. I'm just telling you. You may as well tell yourself now that might not continue in the February, but you can quickly give up. But what that on the screen is actually saying is to rest more in Christ, to rest more in the reality and power of the Holy Spirit, to be activated in who we already are in Christ and where we already are with the Spirit. that's something to take into prayer regularly as often to recalibrate our hearts around that truth the holy spirit is the witness and so with that in philip's heart and with the go that we see in matthew 28 i think go actually means that we go yeah go means go we agree then that's exactly what Philip did. He responded to the Spirit's instruction to go south, to go to that chariot and stay near it. And notice this little detail.

13:25 The Holy Spirit doesn't tell him exactly what to say or do. He just says, go there, be present, be available. And since everyone here has to be somewhere for work, for family and social life. I think this is something we can all do. So what does it look like wherever God has placed us? And he tells us in Acts 17 that he's deliberately placed you somewhere in this country. What does it look like to be available, alert and intentional in those places? And I find this deeply challenging because isn't life busy?

14:08 Isn't it full on? There's so much going on in our hearts and minds. And I see another push in my heart that justifies, just keep your head down, Simon. Say nothing. Just keep doing the next thing. There's truth in that. But maybe there's something going on here. Tim Keller once said that adults in the Western society are deeply shaped by individualism.

14:33 A fear and even hatred of limiting options for the sake of others. And there's application to that right across life. Every relationship, marriage, whatever. especially when it comes to sharing your faith. And this quote from Oswald Sanders as well I found quite challenging. He says, few things are more likely to produce tension in the busy life than unexpected interruptions. Do you like those unexpected interruptions? Those structured ones among us?

14:59 Oh, they can be infuriating. But yet to Jesus there was no such things. Unexpected events were always foreseen in the Father's planning and Jesus was therefore not disturbed by them. He sends people our way. He sent Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch. He sent Barnabas to see Paul. The same applies today. God sends people our way.

15:22 So with the confidence in the Holy Spirit, I decided, right, okay, I can't think about this 24-7. I don't want to beat myself up. I want to rest in you, Lord, that you're the witness, but I've still got to go somewhere and do something. So I had an idea. What if at least one week I had a day of intentionality? Do you want to hear about my day of intentionality and what happened? Well, I go into Belfast to work. I sat in the car and I said, Lord, okay, you're the witness.

15:50 What are you doing out there? How can I join you? Please help me to look up from this black little mirror for five minutes. Look around me see who you've put in my path. And I had four encounters. Okay. First encounter, I met someone in this church, walking in the street, going to work. Had a nice little chat.

16:11 And part of me knew that he was going in to have a bad day. I wish I said to him, how can I pray for you? But I was still there, had that encounter, wonderful. And I just encourage you, never hesitate to say to somebody, how can I pray for you? I don't know why I resist that sometimes. But anyway, that was encounter number one. You might say that wasn't great, Simon. What about your next one?

16:32 The second one, I went into the office and there's a lady at the front desk who is not a believer. I had a great chat, excited for Christmas. And I decided to ask her, how can I pray for you? There was stunned silence, like, whoa, where are you taking this conversation? But then she told me a few things. And as she says, yeah, I pray a lot as well. That led to a conversation. Wow, scatter the seed, Asher can I pray for you?

16:55 The third one, I needed to go to the Apple store. I needed a new charger for my laptop. As I was walking towards it, I thought about the Apple logo. This is incredibly cheesy, and I'm not saying this is probably a good thing to do all the time. But I thought, I wonder if I could ask a question to the guy who serves me whether that's anything to do with the Bible, the Genesis story. I actually did this. So the guy gives me the product in the very end, and I said, thank you very much. And while he was just getting her seat, he said, see that logo?

17:23 do you reckon that has anything to do with the Bible? He just looked at me and smiled and said, I think it's to do with Isaac Newton, not the Bible. But anyway, he then said, but if you're into religion, go for it. That's great, because I think religion's good for society. I was raised as a Catholic, but I'm left with loads of questions. And I thought, whoa, we're going somewhere here. So I said, well, questions are so important, and I know I've got to leave here because there's a customer right beside me, but I encourage you, Because the best way for me to explain why I believe what the Bible says and who Jesus is, is for you to check it out yourself. Look behind the religion, behind the church, behind the background.

18:03 Go to the source, read it for yourself, and give him a resource to do that. And then off I went. No idea what happens next. Encounter number four. I spotted somebody. I was working that day. It sounds like I'm constantly chatting. I spotted somebody in a coffee shop than you, and I just thought, I say go say hello and sit and ask questions and encourage and listen.

18:23 So the first one was a quick chat. The second one was how can I pray? The third one went even saying the name of Jesus. And we get to that point, you know that's gonna do something. The Lord Jesus' name is proclaimed. The fourth one was just an encouragement. That's one day. And maybe if you all had one day a week, encounters are gonna come whether you like it or not, and we've got a choice to use them.

18:43 But one day a week, call it the intentionality day, and I bet you something happens. That was one day for encounters. Anyway, the point is, the Spirit directs, the Spirit is the witness, and how are we as a church going to continue to rest in Christ, remain activated by the Spirit, and stay intentional? And that's why the church has partnered up with a movement called Isaiah 61, which provides a practical process and way to do that in your groups, to keep praying, to keep encouraging, to share stories like this, even the ones that go nowhere, some of those are the best, because it emboldens us to just keep talking, why not, and to take some practical steps. So the more of it is Isaiah 61 this year, but let's have a confidence in the Holy Spirit, and there's a Holy Spirit that connected Philip and the eunuch, so let's watch what happens next in this story. So verse 30 to 35, then Philip, he ran up to the chariot, so Philip's clearly quite fit, he's doing his burpees and park runs. This guy's going for it. And he runs right up to keep up with the chariot.

19:51 And he heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. Do you understand what you are reading? Philip asked. How can I, he said, unless someone explains it to me. So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. This is the passage of scripture the eunuch was reading. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb before a chair is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation, he was deprived of justice.

20:19 Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth. The eunuch asked Philip, tell me please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else? Then Philip began with that very passage of scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. And notice that all Philip had to do as instructed by the Spirit was to stay near. That's almost like our step one. Be near people. Be near things so you can observe and hear because Philip was able to hear the eunuch reading the Bible aloud.

21:00 I'm not too sure you'll hear that. You'll not see many people in the chariot, first of all, but I'm not sure you'll see many people or hear them reading the Bible aloud, but who knows? But Philip was close, and what does he do when he hears this? Now, picture yourself. This is the moment we're all familiar with. The adrenaline starts to build. The heart beats. The fears rise.

21:28 The voices fill our minds, persuading us to be silent. You're in it now. Will I say something, or will I stay quiet. You've been there, haven't you? I have. Yeah. Well, what does Philip choose to do? He doesn't rush in.

21:46 He listens. So he knows the spirit is in charge. He is patient, calm. He listens to understand, and he simply enjoys the human being made in God's image right in front of him. And that's immediately a challenge. Like how good are we at truly listening and enjoying other human beings? Sometimes we're so tied up at this point in the conversation in our head, of what to say. We say nothing.

22:09 We're kind of looking through them, freaking out in their own heads, and they don't know what's going on. Or sometimes we might get so excited, and we rush in, and we bulldoze someone with the gospel, and totally freak them out. And that might be the end of the conversation, or not. But Philip listens, and he initiates then with a question. Do you understand what you're reading? And I love that this question meets him where he's at. He's genuinely interested in where the eunuch is at. And this quote from Jeremy Marshall's book called Scattering Seeds of Hope, which has been raised a few times in this series, where Jeremy says this, the great thing about questions is that they allow respectful, generous sharing of the gospel and genuine, interesting conversations.

22:55 We listen to how our friends respond. Do they ask questions or shut down the question? We just react accordingly by talking some more about Jesus or by shutting up and changing the subject. We leave God to be the one who changes people's hearts. We listen and we engage with people where they genuinely are. I love that. And in this case, the eunuch didn't shut Philip down. The eunuch was humble enough to seek guidance.

23:26 And he says, how can I, unless someone explains it to me? And we discover here that the eunuch is reading what Isaiah prophesied thousands of years before from Isaiah chapter 53. And he's asking the very same question that people have asked down the centuries. Who is this person? Or for us today, who is this Jesus? And so beginning with those words, Philip tells the eunuch for the first time, he's hearing it for the first time, the good news about Jesus. And what did Jesus come to do? Let's remind our souls here from Romans 5, 68.

24:13 Paul says this, you see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person, someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, failing, messing up, haven't got it all together whatsoever, Christ died for us. And how did he die? well jesus christ the son of god the image of the invisible god through him everything was created we read and worship the lord all about that over christmas he entered creation to make god known taken on the form of a human being coming in grace and truth out of love not condemnation was rejected brutally beaten, and murdered by crucifixion. He was slaughtered. Why?

25:21 Yes, by ignorant Roman authorities. Yes, by the arrogance of Jewish leaders, but ultimately the sovereign will of God himself. God in flesh, Jesus Christ, gave his life in our place, dying willingly, lovingly, Sacrificially, to defeat once and for all the penalty of sin, the enemy of eternal death, and our separation from God. That's the good news. That is the gospel. And just look at the world around us, full of beauty, adventure, and good, as God originally designed it and gave it, yet also full of pain and suffering and death. Because I don't know about you, but I have a rebellion in my own heart against God's design, God's ways, God's purposes. But I see then the gospel afresh that Christ died for our sins and Christ rose from the dead.

26:24 We need to hear that every day of our lives. That is the gospel that saves. That is the gospel that has won millions of hearts over the centuries. This is the gospel that Judaism didn't have as the eunuch went to find out by going to the temple and by opening up the Bible. This is the gospel that Philip told the eunuch. And the eunuch would have read just a few chapters later in Isaiah, in Isaiah 56, that one day eunuchs and all people, sinners from every tongue, race, and nation, will be accepted by God's people and by God's amazing grace. And guess what? that day came.

27:08 And that day is today for all who trust Jesus Lord, turn from their own way and follow him. And guess what you get? Peace with God, permanent grace and hope of eternity. Hearing all that might be familiar to many here, but for a few, that could be the first time, just like the eunuch. And how did the eunuch move from reading and just from Isaiah to actually understanding the amazing gospel? And here's something to hit right home to activate us. He moved from reading to understanding by the Spirit, through the Bible, in conversation with the Christian. By the Spirit, through the Bible, in conversation.

27:57 And now, in 2025, and I think this has been raised in the past number of months, the UK's Evangelical Alliance released a report called Finding Jesus, which explores the different factors contributing to 300 people becoming Christians over the past five years, so just since 2020. 59% said attending church in person. That still does something to people's hearts and minds. The Lord meets them. 47% said reading the Bible. 46% said conversations with friends. 42% found attending a course or small group helpful. And notice all the way through this, the combination of the Bible and relationship.

28:37 God using individual, taking the words out, and the Spirit being the teacher. And it tells me that people are curious out there for the meaning of life. They're crying out for help, often inwardly, and they're willing to look at still the world's best-selling book, the Bible. And there's another huge research project this past year called the Patmos World Bible Attitude Survey. And it covered 85 countries, 89 languages, and surveyed over 90,000 people. And the result out of that is that there are at least 240 million people from other or no religious traditions who are interested in learning more about the Bible. And we see that, The YouVersion Bible app has been downloaded a billion times. See if there's a narrative in our head that people aren't interested in looking at it, that has got to be a lie.

29:33 If that stops you inviting people to look at it, know that people do want to see it and read it. But do you know what most people don't have? People like you and me, there to talk to them. For the Lord Jesus said it himself, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. And God is always, the models in scripture, has always given his words through his people to make himself known in the world. And where do we find our confidence to do that? It's in the spirit. It's in his word.

30:13 It's in God. So let me do a quick recap here. We have, This is quite a journey, and there's a lot of lessons, practical lessons here. So first of all, Philip was available. Let's not remember that. What does it look like to be available? He went somewhere. Philip was intentional.

30:31 He ran up to the chariot. For us, what does it look like to be interested, be creative, join a club, take action, meet people? Maybe you haven't got to that stage. You're trying to stay away from people. You're freaking out and hiding in church. Who could you meet outside? Thirdly, Philip listened. He didn't rush in.

30:48 He enjoyed the person. He listened to them. And then he initiated with a question. Now, see that question? That's the turning point. You can be near people, you can listen to people, but to have the courage to ask a question that moves it that bit deeper, boy, that's when all the reasons pop up to say nothing and stay silent. But having the courage to ask the question, I remind us again, it requires a confidence in the spirit and the confidence in the word. But the person you talk to, if you ask a question, or they might ask you one back, and you might again start to freak out.

31:28 Oh dear, here we go. And now, first of all, I would say just smile. That's okay. If you don't know the answer to the question, that's all right. But to be ready for discussion, there is a series coming up, a series of days, I think, over the next number of months called Be Prepared. I think it's going to come up on screen. There we go. to help us have some answers to some of the tough questions that people will fire at you.

31:50 Like the guy in the Apple store, I wonder what he would have asked me. I got out just in time, actually, before that came. But if you can't answer a question, please just smile at people, like, come on. And maybe the next step is to invite them to a course to say, hey, the best way I can explain what I believe, why don't you come along to this course? There's a bunch of other people. It's called 321, and it will bring you through the gospel story. Malvina did that. Just come to the Lord.

32:16 Others did that. They're still exploring. But why not invite them along? Now, sometimes I find, though, just my experience, just say someone says no to that, or someone asks you a big question you don't know how to answer. I think, firstly, it's okay to say I don't know how to answer that. But here's what I found as a good initiator question. Hello, friend.

32:41 Great question. I'm going to try to find out if I can answer that as well, and we should discuss more. But the best way that I can explain who Jesus is and why I believe he is God, and why I believe the Bible says what it says, is for you to look at it for yourself. You see that invitation to look at the Bible for yourself? That is so powerful. Now, someone might say no, but what's it to lose? That's all right. But inviting someone to look at the source, to look at the claims of Jesus for themselves, is guaranteed to do something.

33:13 You know why? Because you're not the teacher. The Holy Spirit is the teacher. The word does the work. And a great resource for that. Oh, I've got a story that's going to, let me go back that slide after. But a great resource for inviting someone to look at God's word is word one to one. I happen to work with that ministry.

33:30 It's a helpful resource. It has John's gospel on the side, some basic notes. And guess what preparation you've got to do? Nothing. You just pray and enjoy the conversation, put it in front of one another, and watch the word at work. And a great example of this came up, and I'll say this very quickly because we've got to get to the last scene of this story. But no, the story bearers thing, I just think that's a great idea because sometimes we can start from the assumption that no one is doing anything. That is not true.

33:58 Stories galore. You're all out there scattering seeds like mad. And so the story bearers lets us all get encouraged by that. But someone in this community, I'm going to call them Kay, and the person they talk to is called Jay. So here's a story. here's how it goes. The Glenelby member was talking to a guy from NIE at their door for a while. And as he left, he, Jay, gave her, Kay, a contact card.

34:24 And so Kay, the Glenelby member, said, let me give you this. And it was an invite to a Bible study. And he took it, but then he said he's more into science than God, which led to a deeper discussion about how the two are compatible. So the guy left, not necessarily convinced. The seed was scattered. The question, the invite was given. But admitted he wished he was as passionate about something as Kay was about God. And of course, Kay encouraged him to check out a certain prof, John Lennox.

34:54 That's a great example. Used in the moment. I'm sure that person was praying, Lord, how can I share Christ today? So once something is in the words of the Bible, it moves into a different place. We're going to see that in this final session, this final scene, because it asks everyone to answer this question. Who is this person? Who is Jesus? So let's look at what happened.

35:19 So verse 36 to 40, very quickly, as they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized? And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down to the water and Philip baptized. to him. When they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea. So they're still on the road.

35:56 They've had this epic conversation. The eunuch turns to Philip and says, hey, Phil, because they're buddies now. I'm sure they've made good friends on a long journey. Is there any reason why I can't be baptized right here, right now? And I'm sure, like Luke doesn't tell us, I'm sure Philip would have said something like this, like from Peter in chapter 2, verse 37 to 39. Would you hear this? It says in chapter 2, when the people heard this after Peter preached the gospel, they were cut to the heart. So eunuch is cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the other apostles, brothers, what shall we do?

36:37 And Peter replied, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so Philip would have explained what baptism is all about. We heard a wonderful explanation of it last month or two months ago now in November. And although Luke doesn't tell us what Philip said or the eunuch said, I just love that their actions spoke louder. I can imagine them looking at each other, going with a smile, a wee nod, off the chariot, away they went down, and Philip baptized them. And so this is how God's building his church, and it can't be stopped. People are repenting, giving their lives to the Lord, being baptized right across this world. And if you ever think you're alone, at least once a year, go to a big concert or conference where there's a lot of believers there.

37:31 If I may, if you're at the SSA arena, a certain Keith and Kristen Getty were leading the worship, and at one point, everyone without music sang Silent Night and In Christ Alone. Now, that is something to be witnessed every year if you can. You're not alone. The Lord is changing lives, and he's doing it in Glen Abbey Church. That was one baptism service. Did you notice all the generations of people across this church are giving their lives to the Lord? And it does make me ask, anyone here trusts the Lord you haven't been baptized? Why not?

38:03 Like the eunuch thought, what's going to stop me? Can I not just jump off this chair and get baptized? And maybe we need to start, where's Chris? We maybe need to start some spontaneous baptisms. Like we all, we organize these things. But what if someone right this morning says, I trust the Lord. I believe in him. I want to be baptized.

38:20 Why can't I? We've got to be ready for that, I think. Anyone? I'm not doing the big call. But maybe so. And I do want to finish on that point of confidence in God's kingdom, but I've got to wrap up here. So let me wrap up with this. There's a confidence in God's spirit, a confidence in his word, and a confidence in his kingdom.

38:37 So if anything, followers of Christ in this room, this story is a reminder that your personal witness matters. And as the Lord commanded us in Matthew 28 and Acts 1, I think this is telling us that we're all missionaries. Don't just box it into the thing you do when you go to a foreign land. That is important. That's phenomenal. That's Peter. He's doing it tomorrow. Let's pray for his health that he gets on that plane.

39:02 But we are missionaries going back into where God has deliberately placed us. And we might not get a specific go from a visiting angel. If you do, tell me about it. That would be awesome if you've got an angel telling you to go. But the reality is we don't need another go. We've already got the go, the most authoritative go from the Lord Jesus. He promises to be with us until the very end of the age. How?

39:27 The spirit directs, the word goes out and the church grows. It's that simple, that powerful. That's where confidence lies. So imagine if we all had one person. You probably are reaching out to them now and you're praying for them. Keep going, but if you don't invest, imagine investing in one person. And a church I visited in Germany in September called them their VIPs. So it might not be loads of people you meet every day.

39:50 It could be two or three people that you invest in, pray for, and invite them to something. What a gospel seed that is. And as Henry Blackaby once says, love this line, we've got to find out what God is doing and then join in because he's doing it anyway. Do you want to join him or not? And there's a blessing that comes of that. And so I can therefore say, I think, with confidence on what the word is saying here, that the go from Matthew 28 equals the you of Acts 1.8, and that you is us. We are to go. And when the eunuch came out of the water, okay, I've got to touch on this last scene.

40:30 Wasn't that amazing? Read this. When the eunuch came out of the water, Luke tells us that the spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and he was preaching in Caesarea. Imagine him going home to his wife and daughters and telling that story. Oh, mad. But the eunuch also had a story to take home. And notice that one conversation led to the gospel going to Africa. I wonder where one conversation with someone in your life, what that's going to lead to.

40:55 That is powerful. But by God's grace, this man is going home rejoicing. Can we finish on a note of joy here? And as we go into song and we pray and we reflect on this. What is the eunuch rejoicing about? Well, by God's grace, through faith in Christ, He is no longer excluded because of his birthplace, ethnicity, or appearance. He is not condemned for his sin, past, present, and future. He is no longer separate from God.

41:24 He now walks through this life with the certainty that death is not the end. The eunuch is rejoicing that his name is written in heaven. Righthoods, MBEs are all wonderful temporary achievements, but it does not come close to having your name written in heaven. And if you're tracking this story closely, do you notice verse 37 isn't quite there? It's dropped down into a footnote. And that's because many of the manuscripts didn't have verse 37 in it. And if you're reading it right now, it gives me a chance. And it says this, if you believe with all your heart, you may.

42:07 That is the eunuch saying, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That gives me a chance to speak to anyone in this room that hasn't placed their trust in the Lord Jesus. And I'm gonna use it with a story about my daughter. So maybe you're wondering where God is today. My five-year-old was wondering that. And after going to the cinema to see the King of Kings, anyone watch it? King of Kings? No, just us, okay.

42:31 She said, Daddy, how can God be here if we can't see him? Now, what a question to ask. And my answer to her is the same to you. He was here. He is alive. His name is Jesus. And he is with us by his spirit, through his word, and he's coming back. And the next life is going to be even better than this one.

43:02 let's pray father you made yourself known and what a god you are thank you for your amazing grace and promises in christ and i pray for courage in this room courage in the hearts of those that don't know you that might take that step now to place their trust in your son and receive this phenomenal hope and certainty of eternal life. And I pray for those who do follow you that we have a renewed courage out of a confidence in your spirit, a confidence in your word, a confidence in your kingdom. Oh Lord, I pray you would lead us out of here knowing you're ahead of us, behind us, in us, and through us. Encourage us to stand firm and joyfully make known the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his name I pray. Amen.