Who writes in your diary?

Posted on 13/03/2011 by davidfowlerpreacher

This is a talk I gave at Becontree Avenue Baptist church in Dagenham on 24th May 2009.

Acts 8: 26 – 40

26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road–the desert road–that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” 30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” 34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 36 As they travelled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39 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. 40 Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and travelled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

Let me ask you a question: Who writes in your diary? Who sets your agenda?

For those who are in management you may well answer that it is your secretary or PA. For me as a self employed man, I do it myself.

But in all our busyness and our meetings and schedules does God get a chance to put his arrangements in your diary?

Lets have a look at a man who let God have his diary and organise his agenda. This man was called Philip.

Firstly some background. Phillip was one of the seven men chosen by the early church to take on some of the administrative and pastoral work that had been overwhelming the apostles. Acts 6 v 3 – 7 says: “ Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.”

Sadly as we know soon after this came the arrest and stoning of Stephen followed by a great persecution of the church. Many fled Jerusalem and of course they spread the gospel wherever they went. I just wonder if these folk would have gone out of Jerusalem if the Lord had not allowed this persecution to take place? After all we all like our comfort zones.
Phillip ends up in a city in Samaria. Some translations state it is the old city of Samaria which was originally known as Shechem but is now known as Nablus. It is of course often in the news as the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians continues.

However Phillip proclaims the good news of Jesus as we find at the start of Acts 8 “Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. So there was great joy in that city. Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is the divine power known as the Great Power.” They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic. But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.”

So the gospel was being preached and accompanied by signs and wonders and many were being saved. I don’t know how you would feel if that was you in Samaria and God was using you like that to bring salvation to so many people. I once heard a Chinese pastor, Brother Yun whose story you can read in the book “The Heavenly Man”, speaking about how 375,000 came to faith in one city in China. Just imagine the logistics of baptising that many people and then teaching and disciple them! We rejoice when we have one person come to faith, but how would we cope with that many?

In the middle of all this work, Phillip hears from God. Its probably not what he wanted to hear, given that he had fled Jerusalem and had now settled in Samaria where he was doing very nicely. But here is this command from God “Go south to the road–the desert road–that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” Phillip does as he is told. It would appear he didn’t argue with God or even query as to who was going to lead the church in his absence. Being a busy church leader his diary would have been full of meetings, committees and everything else that seems to fill our days. Or perhaps Philip might have used the argument I heard recently “God called me to minister here and that’s where I am staying.”

This of course doesn’t leave room for the thought that nothing changes and that God not only appoints people but he dismisses them, and moves them on to minister elsewhere. But all we are told is that Philip just goes. We don’t know what he thought as he trudged along that desert road. It was probably about 30 miles from Samaria to Jerusalem and then about another 50 to Gaza. It’s a bit like God telling you to go to Chelmsford as he wants you on the A12 going to Colchester. You may agree as long as you can go by car, but walking in that heat? Its not even evident what he is to do on the desert road. No mission plan, no support team with him maybe not even time to get the usual prayer letter and press release out. Just him and God and no idea why he is going there.

How many of us are willing to step out in faith like that? So Philip discovers why he was on that lonely desert road when along comes the Ethiopian finance minister in his official chariot. What an opportunity! The man is reading scripture, the prophet Isaiah, and is struggling to understand it, and here suddenly is someone who can help him. Phillip seizes the initiative and presents the Ethiopian with the gospel. It seems that this man is thirsty for God and he readily accepts what Phillip has to say.

At this point I want to ask: How well do you know your Bible? Could you have answered the Ethiopian’s questions? I am often surprised at people’s lack of Bible knowledge. Some years ago a fellow counsellor was telling me that she had had a series of clients from a locally well known church which had a reputation for teaching and Bible study. Yet her clients, supposedly mature Christians needed to be taught the basics of the faith before she could counsel them.

Incidentally knowing your bible inside out just proves you know your bible. It doesn’t prove that you have been born again and have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Just remember that the Gospels tell us that the devil quoted scripture at Jesus to lead him astray.

Philip however knows his stuff and the Ethiopian is convinced and wants to do something about it. He says “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” Incidentally, some Bible scholars think that the place where this baptism took place was at the brook where David picked up the stones used to defeat Goliath. Fortunately Phillip was a man of the Word and the Spirit and baptised the man. There are unfortunately people who would have to apply “man made” rules and regulations to the situation. I can’t baptise you straight away as you need to go on an “Alpha course”, or “Christianity explained” or you need to come to church for the next six months and then we will think about it! Or we have to make sure you can behave properly before we let you in the club.

Phillip isn’t phased by the fact this man is not a Jew but a foreigner and as a eunuch he could never have been a Jew as he was physically imperfect. But we know that the good news of Jesus is for all men and women irrespective of racial origin or any imperfections. So the Ethiopian is baptised and goes home rejoicing. Tradition has it that this man started the Coptic church in Ethiopia which is still flourishing 2000 years later.

Philip however is directed by the Holy spirit to move on as his work here has finished. He goes to Azotus and then onto Caesarea where incidentally according to Acts he stays for the next 20 years.

As we can see our actions can have far reaching consequences. Through the obedience of Phillip, the gospel is taken to Ethiopia and many people are brought to salvation.

So who sets your agenda? If God speaks to you do you listen and obey? Or is your life so full of stuff that you can’t possible reschedule your life to include God in the agenda? Paul reminds us in 2 Timothy 4:2 that we should “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage–with great patience and careful instruction.”

Maybe God has big important appointments for us as he had for Philip. Or maybe its something smaller even to stopping to chat with the girl who serves you coffee in the Motorway services as she is obviously having a very bad day. Perhaps no one has said a kind word to her all day. Or often there are old folk no one has spoken at all that day, unless you do it!

Many older folk have not met with Jesus and don’t know him, and let’s be honest here, none of us know if we have a tomorrow. So for the unsaved every second is vital. If they are going to be saved it’s down to us.

I conducted some 300 funeral services last year and only in a handful could I feel that they had a faith in Jesus. So I had arrived too late for them, but I always pray that I can plant seeds in the lives of those who attend the funeral.

When we were in Cornwall a couple of weeks ago, I preached on a similar theme and after the service Tim came and talked with me. He had been out to Zimbabwe on business and had met amongst other folk a pastor. A few weeks later he flew into Zimbabwe again and as he came out of the airport, he felt that God told him to go and see the pastor. His driver agreed to take him on the three hour journey through the bush. When Tim arrived, the pastor threw his arms around Tim and wept. He had been in such a state of despair that morning he had prayed that the Lord would send a Christian brother to pray with him. And there was Tim!

It’s about being in tune with the Holy Spirit’s prompting and going when and where he says.

So lets pray that the Holy Spirit will give us the sensitively to listen to his prompting and the courage to step out in faith when he asks us. Amen.

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The Bread of Life

Posted on 12/03/2011 by davidfowlerpreacher

The following is a talk I gave on 6th March 2011 at Becontree Avenue Baptist Church.

I have also included the Scripture reading on which my talk is based:

John 6:25 – 40

When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” So they asked him, “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”  “Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.” Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.  All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.  For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.  For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods known to man. There is evidence that humans were preparing bread some 30,000 years ago. Bread is often referred to as the “staff of life” and forms a vital part of many people’s diet.

Bread has an important role to play in life. In the days of the Roman Empire, when there was discontent the people were distracted by being offered bread and circuses.

Just before the French revolution, it is said that the Queen Marie Antoinette on being told that the people didn’t have bread to eat said “let them eat cake”.

In Russia in 1917, Lenin and his fellow Bolsheviks promised “Peace, Land, and Bread”.

In our Bible passage this morning Jesus is talking about bread in the sense of spiritual food, and as we often find, people do not immediately grasp what he is on about.

Before the start of his public ministry, Jesus was tempted by the devil for some 40 days in the desert and this is one of the temptations: Matthew 4:1 – 4 “ Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.  After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.  The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”  Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ “

Jesus was quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3 where Moses was reminding the Israelites of all that God had done for them since he had rescued them from Egypt “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”

Jesus’ hearers would have been well aware of this as the first five books of what we call the Old Testament form the basis of the Jewish law or Torah. So they should have understood that there is a spiritual side to life and indeed a spiritual hunger that only God can satisfy.

The Jews tell Jesus that Moses gave the people of Israel manna to eat in the desert, when in reality it was God. Moses was merely his spokesman. At the time of Jesus there was an expectation that when the Messiah came, he would like Moses feed the people with manna. And maybe they were thinking that Jesus didn’t make the grade. They had seen him feed 5000 with ordinary bread whereas Moses had fed a nation for 40 years with bread from heaven.

Jesus puts the matter right in telling them that it was God who fed the nation in the desert. He then talks about something more important than physical food. We learn from vv32 – 33 that “Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Jesus goes on to say in v35 “Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Many people today are spiritually hungry and are searching for spiritual food. This is what the pastor, author and broadcaster Michael Youssef wrote this week on his Facebook page “So many people today are spiritually starving. They are hungry for God, but they try to fill themselves with everything but the Bread of Life. Where do you seek your spiritual fulfilment? Are you merely chasing after Jesus in search of answers to your long list of wants and desires? Or do you seek Jesus in love and obedience, knowing that He is the only One who can truly satisfy you?”

Our short drama earlier in the service showed that not everywhere that claims to have bread actually does. Many people go looking for bread in all the wrong places. Just as not every shop in town sells bread, so not all religions or philosophies lead to God. Also I sadly have to say not every bread shop actually has bread. They may speak about it, know how to make it, have pictures of it and even the right bags to sell it in, but they have no bread.

Years ago an acquaintance of mine, lets call him Mark, attended a high church more out of habit than anything else. He was one of the servers, the men who carried the candles etc. And yet amazingly one Sunday in the middle of the communion service God spoke to him and he became convicted of his sins and was aware that he needed to do something about his life. Mark spoke with the rector after the service had ended. Instead of leading him to Jesus, the rector gave him a book on “spiritual dryness”. Ian told me that he knew at that moment he had to move church if he was to live. There was no bread there.

Many people out there look to false religions to satisfy them. I’ve talked about Nigel before. He is seeking God and longs to meet with him and has done so since his teens. And yet he has steered clear of Christianity. He has looked into eastern mysticism and all that stuff. One day I caught him in his lunch hour hurrying through town on his way to see his guru in the Health Food Shop. He swallows all that but won’t come to Jesus who is the bread of life.

Some people end up with the spiritual equivalent of Wright’s Coal Tar Soap. Its vaguely loaf shape and colour but the taste is rather different and its life sustaining qualities negligible.

Some people don’t come because they think it costs too much. Yet here is what God said through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 55:1 – 3 “”Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.  Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.  Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.”

Jesus is the bread of life and he is also the source of eternal life. He promises that death is not the end. Just as one slice of bread when were a child is not enough to sustain us for the whole of our lives, so we continually need to have Jesus the bread of life. Otherwise we grow up spiritually anorexic and fail to grow and mature as we should. Maybe we are afraid of being considered “religious” or “super spiritual”. The actress Celia Imrie talked on the radio the other week about as a young girl being told she was going to be too big to be a ballet dancer. So she decided to become smaller by just not eating! She didn’t think of the consequences of giving up on food.

The Dutch born Christian writer Henri Nouwen once described Christianity as one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. And so it is, as having met with Jesus we tell others about him.

We are reminded of our dependence on Jesus every time we meet around the Lord’s table. Every time we read or hear his words recorded in the gospels ie Luke 22:19 “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

We need to study our bibles, remembering that “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” 2 Timothy 3:16 & 17 reminds us “ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

There is a prayer written by Cranmer one of the English reformers for the 1549 Prayer Book which says:

Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

We need to pray, to keep in touch with Jesus and seek his will for our lives. And also, as Paul reminds us in Ephesians 5:18 we need to be filled with the Spirit.

So today if you are spiritually hungry why not answer Jesus’ appeal to you when he says  “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. “

Come to Jesus and receive eternal life. Amen.

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Posted on 07/03/2011 by davidfowlerpreacher

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