The Submitted Life

Welcome to the Enduring Grace Sermons Podcast.

This is the home for the weekly teaching and ministry of Pastor Ben Hill.

Our mission is to share the timeless truth of God's Word with the world in need of hope for more resources, articles, and updates, visit us online at enduringgrace.com.

And now, here is this week's message.

This morning, we're going to be continuing our study in the book of Acts.

We're going to be in Acts chapter 8 this morning.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

And I want to talk to you just briefly about the sub subject of being submitted to God.

Specifically, how when we submit to the Lord, when believers submit to the Lord, he uses us extraordinarily.

And we're going to see three keys to how you can live a submitted life this morning from the book of Acts.

But what I want to tell you is that the early church trusted God.

They trusted the Lord even when trials came their way.

If you remember back, we have seen that the church has not been without problems since God started making a great movement in Jerusalem.

We've seen a multitude of people saved.

We've seen issues in the church rise up.

And we saw last week Stephen, who preached an amazing message to the spiritual leaders or who should have been spiritual leaders to Jerusalem, to Israel, that he preaches and then he is martyred as the first martyr for his faithfulness in proclaiming the good news about Jesus, that he is the Messiah, he is the promised one, the one who is worthy of all our worship and praise.

And after his death, we are now introduced into a season that we know as the dispersion of the church.

And so this morning in Acts chapter 8, what I want to encourage you to see is that even though Saul and the people of Israel are persecuting Christians, God is still at work.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

That God is still sovereign and he is still acting through his people.

And so if you found your place in Acts chapter 8, we're going to read the first three verses.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

And would you please stand and say word in the honor of God's word?

It says, And Saul approved of his execution, and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him.

But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

Let us pray.

Father God, I pray that you would allow us to be encouraged that your church is at the feet of you, that as long as we follow you, Father, that we live a submitted life, you will use us for your glory and praise, that you can use us extraordinarily for your glory and your honor.

So, Lord, I pray that you would encourage us as we unpack this text this morning, as we look at the faithful life of the lay Christian in that early church.

Lord, we love you.

May you be glorified in your name we pray.

Amen.

You may be seated.

If you're taking notes, the title of the message is simply this the submitted life.

The submitted life.

And the reason for the submitted life is as we will see, Philip really his life tells us, the early church tells us of what it means to be submitted to God with all of your life, with your whole self.

We're introduced to Saul in this text, and really just prior, and we see that Saul was the one who got all the cloaks as they were stoning and killing Stephen.

And Saul is here after seeing it.

It says that he approved of Stephen's execution.

Now, that word approved is not just simply saying, you know, he liked it.

He actually praised it.

He is excited about what was happening because he felt it was a righteous thing.

And not only that, what we see is that he is a catalyst along with the others in the Jerusalem Council, specifically dealing with the leaders of Israel, that a great persecution comes across all of Jerusalem.

The Christians are being ravaged, is what the text says.

That Saul was ravaging the church.

That is basically going out and destroying all that he could, trying to uproot the church, to eradicate it so it could not spread any further.

And so if you're thinking, okay, that looks bad for the church, you're right.

It does look bad from the outside end.

But notice in verse 1, the second part of verse 1, what happens when this great persecution comes upon the church?

It says that they were all scattered.

Now the church is the they.

So the church is scattered throughout the region of two places that are named, Judea and Samaria.

I want you to flip back to Acts chapter 1 just briefly, because it's important for us to keep in mind the actual purpose of the church that Jesus gave, and it is our verse for our one more theme for this year, which is Acts 1.8.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Look at what it says.

Jesus instructing the church says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

You notice a theme here.

Jesus, God, has sovereignly allowed persecution to come upon the Jerusalem church after it's grown to this multitude.

Many people have been saved, many people have been instructed, encouraged, and now God is allowing Saul to wreak havoc on the church along with those who were behind him, supporting him, so that the church would spread throughout the region.

Here's the beauty of it is that that word scattered is a word that is really an agricultural term that means to cast seed.

What happens when a sower casts seed?

The seed falls on the soil.

It finds root, some does, others don't, but most of the case, it finds good soil when it's been prepared.

And once it goes in, there's a great harvest that unfolds.

And so what we see in this text is simply this that God is allowing his church to be scattered like seed across the region for the purpose of taking the gospel to the world around.

And as we will study the book of Acts, what we're going to see is that through the ministry of these people in the early church and through the ministry of Paul, also known as Saul, is that ultimately God's work, his gospel spreads across the world.

In fact, you're in this room because of the scattering of the seed of the church.

Sometimes God allows great persecution to come upon the church so that the church can grow.

So that the church can have influence in places that they never knew they could reach.

Persecution is not always a bad thing.

It is sometimes needed for the church to do all that it needs to do.

Persecution is not something that we should shy away from, but instead ask God, how is he going to use it for his glory and praise for the purpose of proclaiming the gospel to the ends of the earth?

Persecution is not bad.

It is in fact a test of our faithfulness and our resolve for Jesus.

The real question is: are you willing to submit to God's will, even if it means that you must face persecution?

You can maybe think about it from this perspective in our context, is that we live in an American America where there's freedom of speech.

Now, uh, I believe it was Finland that just recently uh ruled against one of their leaders because they quoted the Bible.

That is not out of the ordinary uh except for the fact that it was out of the ordinary there.

It wasn't that way just a few decades ago.

America could easily get there.

Would you be willing to quote Scripture if it meant that you would end up in jail for hate speech?

Because the Bible is hate speech to a lost and dying world.

The Bible speaks against many different groups of people that people don't like hearing, that they are not allowed to do what they want to do.

Would you be willing to stand in the trenches and proclaim the gospel even if it meant that you would lose your life?

Like our brothers and sisters in India often do.

The early church was being ravaged by great persecution.

God's design for the church is not to be taken away from persecution or tribulation.

It is so that we will be faithful and a light in the midst of it.

Are you willing to stand up and be willing to be excluded here in America for the purpose of making sure people know where you stand on Jesus?

Being submitted to God's will means that you're willing to take whatever comes your way from the world as long as you are submitting to God and his desire for you to proclaim the good news to others.

Are you willing to proclaim the good news?

You know, oftentimes I think we can read persecution and think that it is not helpful to the church, but it's kind of like the slingshot uh method, or really it is uh that's the term that they use oftentimes in space travel, specifically when we're talking about our satellites that we send out.

Now, if you're not familiar with that, basically what it how it works is that you send out a craft out into space and you send it on a mission and you want to reach far out into the galaxy.

Well, in order for us to reach the ends of our solar system, it has to use the slingshot method because it cannot travel quick enough.

So what they do is they actually send that craft as close as they can to a big giant planet.

And you might think, well, isn't that kind of out of the way if you're trying to go a certain direction?

Well, it could, but if you do it right, the gravitational pull of, say, let's say, Jupiter, will pull that craft in, speed it up, and it'll spit it back out on the other side faster than it was going, and it slingshots it out further into the space.

Persecution is like that to the church.

It is, it propels the church because it requires people to really be faithful, to be willing to submit to God's will.

They become more attuned to what God is doing and more aware of their need for the Lord in that season.

And it slingshots the gospel out because we respond differently than the world does when persecution comes or when trials come.

Are you willing to submit to God's will in a way that allows you to be used by God for the purpose of bringing others to Jesus?

Secondly, not only do we see that we are to submit to God's will, we also see that we are to submit to God's instruction.

We see this in the next sequence of verses, starting with verse 4.

It says, Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

Notice who is preaching the word.

Those that were scattered.

Who was scattered?

All of the church.

This is not just the apostles.

In fact, the apostles stay back in Jerusalem, is what the text says.

This is the common person, the common disciple, the average congregant that is being sent out, scattered, and they are all, according to this, preaching the word.

Those who were scattered are preaching the word of the Lord.

Now, this is proclaiming the gospel message of Christ crucified and raised from the dead.

Look at verse 5.

It says, Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.

Now, just a refresher on who Philip is.

Philip is one of the men, young men, the seven, who were chosen to minister to the Hellenistic Jew because the widows were being ignored.

The issue that rose in the church.

This is Stephen and Philip from those seven men.

So Philip goes down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.

He goes to Samaria and says, Hey, I'm going to go to people that really are ostracized.

They're outside of really the framework of what is considered a true Jew because they are half Jews.

He goes into Samaria and starts preaching the good news about Christ.

And notice what happens.

It says, in the crowd with one accord paid attention.

They go, hold up, you're talking about something different than what we're used to.

We remember when Jesus came, and you're talking about Jesus' death and resurrection.

Tell us more.

They lean in, they listen closely to what was being said by Philip.

When they heard him and saw the signs that he did.

So they see that he is doing things that most people don't do.

I'm going to pay attention to him.

But it's not like that they're unaware of these types of things that would maybe transpire.

Look at verse 6.

And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said to Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did, for unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.

So he's healing people.

And so there was much joy in that city.

People celebrate.

They have joy because there is a great movement that's taking place.

There's this guy that has come in, and he is healing those who are afflicted.

He's preaching the good news of Christ.

This is good and a joyous occasion.

Much like they celebrated singing Hosanna as Christ entered Jerusalem, only to kill him a few days later.

Notice what happens.

We're introduced to Simon, the magician.

Simon is a unique character because he has a profession of faith, but he gets scolded.

Notice what happens.

Says, but there was a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great.

They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the power of God that is called great.

And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.

But when they believed, Philip, as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

So the city is getting saved, they're being baptized.

Even Simon himself believed.

And after being baptized, he continued with Philip.

And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.

This magician is amazed because he's seeing what God is doing through Philip in this city.

And he says, it says now in verse 14, now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John.

Essentially, they're sending in the big guns to make sure that this is a good work of the Lord, to confirm it.

They're like, hey, Peter, John, we need you to.

I know you walked with Jesus, you were in the inner circle.

Go confirm, make sure Philip is doing a good job.

We love him, but we gotta make sure.

And so they send Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Here's a beautiful picture of the confirmation to the Samarians and also to the church of Jerusalem, to the people of God, the Jews, that this movement is of God, is that the disciples come in, the apostles, Peter and John, they confirm, they lay their hands, and they pray, and you basically have a second Pentecost with this Gentile group of people.

And so the Lord is confirming this great moment of faithfulness that these people are being saved, and it's genuine through his Holy Spirit coming upon them.

Verse 17, then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

Verse 18, now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money.

Let me just tell you right now, as Peter's about to tell you, you cannot buy God.

You can't.

Look at verse 19.

Saying, Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.

But Peter said to him, May your silver perish with you.

May you die.

Because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money.

You can't buy your way into heaven.

You can't buy your way into heaven through good works or your money.

The only way that you can be truly saved and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior is to be a completely submitted person to Jesus.

You have to surrender all.

Look at what he says.

Verse 21.

You have neither part nor lot in the mat in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.

Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.

He says, May you pray and ask that God forgive you if it's possible.

Because you are trying to rob God of his glory through your money.

For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.

Look at how Simon responds.

He answers in verse 24 Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.

Now, when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

Or Samaritans, yeah, Samaritans.

So here what we see is that after this rebuke that you cannot buy God, they continue to preach as they return home, confirming that the movement was of God, even though Simon had misunderstood.

We can misunderstand God sometimes, especially early in our walks with the Lord, that we just simply struggle to understand his instruction because we haven't spent time in his word like we ought.

If you want to know how you can submit to God's instruction, it begins by reading his word and understanding who he is, by walking with him, but also through discipleship.

We need to be equipped and discipled.

That's the reason why I love our Sunday school.

Because that is a time of equipping and discipleship and really a sharpening that can take place when we're asking deep questions about the word.

That it's a safe spot for us to ask those questions that we maybe feel like we might have misunderstood or have those discussions that hey, I have a question that came up with a friend, and I just didn't have a good answer.

Do you have one?

I love as a pastor answering those questions because it tells me my that the people that God has allowed me to labor with, to serve alongside, are hungry to grow and know the Lord and to follow Him faithfully.

It is one of the best things to ask questions.

I used to tell students all the time that there is no wrong question.

There's just the question that is unanswered by not being asked.

Or more simply, that there is no bad question.

Ask them all.

Are you asking and seeking instruction from the Lord?

Are you asking God to reveal to you what it was required of you?

Philip was following the instruction that Jesus gave, which was to go and share the gospel.

I'm going to belabor this all year long, but I'm just reminding you that we have all been called to do that, to share the gospel.

That's the reason why our theme this year is one more.

Because we have all been called to share the gospel with somebody that God has.

Given us influence.

And it's as we are going that we are instructed to make disciples.

So that is an ongoing process every day.

Are we doing that?

Are we following the instruction of the Lord given to the church to equip others with the good news of the gospel?

But not leaving them there when they respond to the gospel, but also teaching them all that God has commanded.

For some of us in this room, you might not have ever been truly discipled, and you're desperately in need of that instruction.

You've made a profession of faith, but your walk is a little bit rocky because you simply haven't engaged in discipleship.

For others that you've been walking with Jesus for a long time, you've been poured into, you have a ton of wisdom.

But that wisdom is going wasted because you have not taken the time to disciple someone else.

Are you discipling others?

Are you being discipled so that you can disciple others?

If we're going to be submitted to God, it requires us to be submitted to God's instruction, which means that we must be willing to both be a disciple and a discipler.

Are you faithfully following the Lord in that?

Then what we see, thirdly, is that to submit to God's will and God's instruction, we also have to submit to God's calling.

To God's calling.

Look at verse 26.

It says, Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, Rise up and go towards the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

This is a desert place.

In other words, there is basically nothing here.

I'm sending you to the middle of nowhere, my friend.

That's what the angel of the Lord told him to do.

You're going south and you're going to nowhere.

But there is someone that is there.

Look at what verse 27 says.

And he rose and went.

Did you catch that?

The angel of the Lord comes, says, Hey, I need you to go to a place.

Philip didn't delay.

He didn't say, You know, Lord, I'll wait till tomorrow.

Tomorrow's better weather.

It's not raining tomorrow.

Or it's not as hot tomorrow.

Look, the sky looks good for tomorrow, Lord.

I'm a little tired.

My legs are tired from walking the streets of Samaria, and I've been preaching.

I need a day off.

He didn't say any of that.

Instead, the angel of the Lord spoke.

And what did he do?

He rose and went.

And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians.

You think he's important?

Yes, he's an important dude who was in charge of all her treasure.

He's really important.

He's got all the money.

Look at what it says.

He had come to Jerusalem to worship.

He had been in Jerusalem.

He's leaving.

He's heading back to his home country.

He's in the middle of a desert place, in the middle of nowhere.

And here's Philip in the middle of nowhere.

It says in verse 28, and he was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet of Isaiah.

So here's an Ethiopian, a Gentile, eunuch, who is riding back after being in Jerusalem for worship, back to his homeland of Ethiopia, where he can serve the queen as her treasurer, and he is reading the prophet Isaiah.

Isn't it amazing what God does with God-appointed meetings?

He has set up the platter for Philip to share the gospel.

Look at what happens.

And the Spirit said to Philip, Go over and join the chariot.

So Philip delayed.

No, that's not what it says.

It says, ran to him.

He ran to him.

He's excited.

He's like, oh, that's who I'm supposed to talk to?

Okay, awesome.

I'm heading there.

Do you know those types of people that they see somebody and they're the first person that's going to run to that person and talk to them?

We all know those people.

That's who I imagine Philip being is that outgoing person who just wants to serve the Lord faithfully.

He sees a person, God says, That's who you need to talk to and goes, awesome, I'm a little happy puppy dog.

I'm going to go and obey my master.

I'm going to go fetch that man for the Lord.

Look at what happens.

Heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, Do you understand what you were reading?

He listens, he goes, Oh, that's a great passage.

I know exactly where he's reading.

I got a question.

I can ask it.

Start a conversation.

Do you understand it?

And this is what the Ethiopian says.

And he said, How can I unless someone guides me?

And he invited Philip to come up and to sit with him.

The Ethiopian's like, Whoa, hey man, I don't know where you came from, but if you can answer, come and tell me, because I am curious.

I don't understand what I'm reading.

And so he calls him up there to sit with him.

Verse 32.

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 it shears, 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.

If I'm Philip, I'm sitting there going, Oh my goodness, Lord, thank you so much.

This is easy because this is Jesus, and his death and resurrection is all lined up for me to be able to explain this.

Because God had set this as an appointed moment.

And the eunuch said to Philip, About whom I ask you, does this prophet say this about himself or about someone else?

Then Philip opened his mouth.

Here's the beauty of the Holy Spirit.

All he expects us to do is to be faithful, to open our mouth, to answer when we are asked by God to speak.

Do you understand that?

That God will give you the words and the wisdom to say in that moment, you don't have to have all the answers.

You have to rely on the Holy Spirit.

Philip opened his mouth and beginning with the scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.

The eunuch was reading a text that was about Jesus, and he wanted understanding.

God brought understanding through the missionary Philip, the evangelist Philip.

Verse 36.

And 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?

And he commanded the chariots to stop.

They brought, both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

The eunuch doesn't delay in his obedience to baptism, to be submerged in water with believers' baptism.

Philip didn't delay in giving that baptism.

God showed up, brought and instructed Philip to go.

Here's the thing with Philip.

Philip obeyed the calling of the Lord to go.

And when he was willing to obey to go, God used him extraordinarily.

What comes next is one of my favorite little small texts in all of Scripture because I think it would be so cool to experience.

Look at what Philip experiences.

And when they came up 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.

That word carried is the same word that you see in 1 Thessalonians 4 17, which is what we use to talk about the rapture.

It means to be literally snatched out.

Philip is taken from the water with the eunuch.

Just imagine.

Just put on your spiritual imagination caps for just a moment.

Pretend that you're flying in the desert watching this take place.

Which, by the way, it's a desert.

There's no water usually, and there's water.

God provided water too.

But here they are in the water.

You're flying around the camel, looking, going, what is going on?

You see Philip go, in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, I baptize you, and I raise you to walk in newness of life.

And as he pulls him out, he vanishes.

Gone.

The eunuch doesn't know where he goes.

Nothing.

Don't know about you, but if I was the eunuch, my first reaction would be, thank you, God, for providing a man, but I don't know where he went.

God, where'd he go?

I have more questions.

But God had a purpose for Philip.

He came, he fulfilled the purpose, he called him out and dropped him in a new place.

Look at what it says in verse 40.

But Philip found himself at Azardus, and as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Cassarea.

Do you think Philip prioritized sharing Jesus?

Absolutely he did.

Philip was brought out to a desert place by the calling of the Lord.

He obeyed the Lord, and when his time was done, he got picked up and dropped in a new city where he got to share the gospel with more people as he went on following the Lord to Cassarea.

Let me ask you a simple question.

Are you willing to submit to the call of God, even if it makes you uncomfortable and you have to go in a direction that maybe you don't have the answers to where you're going?

That's what Philip did.

He followed the Lord without having all the answers, other than I'm following my Lord and He's guiding my steps.

Are you willing to follow the Lord in such a way to follow his calling, to submit to God's calling in your life that you're willing to follow him with your entire life?

Are you willing to surrender your entire world to Jesus in order to experience the blessing of getting to be used by God extraordinarily as a nobody?

My cousin used to say, I'm the somebody serving the I am the nobody serving the somebody that can save everybody.

So that the one person who is somebody can reach another person that's a nobody for his glory and praise.

And here's the beauty: when we surrender our life, we're no longer nobody.

Because we become children of God, heirs with Christ, we become the beloved of God.

We're no longer enemies.

We're no longer separated when we submit our lives to Jesus.

Have you submitted your life to Jesus?

Have you ever come to that place where you said, I surrender all to Jesus?

If you've never done that, it's simple.

And what better time of the year than the Easter season to say, I'm surrendering all to the one who came and died and rose from the grave for me.

Will you simply say, Lord, I know I'm a sinner and I need to be saved?

Most of us in this room probably have done that.

Are you living a submitted life, Christian?

Are you willing to follow God's will no matter where it leads?

Are you willing to follow his instruction for your life even if it makes you uncomfortable?

Are you willing to follow God's calling, even if he doesn't give you all the answers immediately?

For the church to change the world, we have to be submitted to the Lord.

Would you ask the Lord to help you be even more submitted this morning to following Jesus with your entire life?

With every head bowed and eye closed this morning.