Mark 4: 21-25

Mark 4:21-25 21 He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? 22 For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”
24 “Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. 25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”

There are three reasons to spread Gospel Seed.

1. The gospel light is designed to shine. We need to share and shine the light of Christ. Sometimes we hide it because of false modesty, sometimes because we are timid or embarrassed by the gospel and sometimes we say we don’t know enough. (But if we know enough to be saved we know enough to tell someone else how to be saved!) Or we hide it because we are selfish. We are to draw near to Christ by trusting in His work and turning from our sin.

2. The gospel message is made for broadcast. Verse 22 in this passage tells us that it’s not meant to be hidden or kept for an elite group. It’s designed to be shared with everyone! The knowledge of the gospel isn’t ours to accumulate, but to disseminate. And we should have a strategy to spread it. To share with boldness and joy.

3. The gospel message is primed for reward. Verses 24 and 25 show us that a minimalist approach to Christianity will lead to a painful life. But a generous approach will lead to a fruitful life of reward and blessing. We just need to be who He designed us to be!

How much seed are you spreading?

Sharing God - Part 3

After that the Eunuch asked to be baptized as an outward symbol of his inward belief and Philip did so. And right after that Philip was “snatched away” by the spirit. And he found himself 18 miles away on the coastal plain. From there he continued to work through towns until he reached Caesarea and raised a family of 4 daughters who are mentioned in Acts 21:8-9.

The Ethiopian went back to Ethiopia a new person in Christ. And according to the 4th century church historian Eusebius, he became an evangelist in his native land. (Biblical Ethiopia is the present day Sudan.)

John Wesley loved to read and he read everything: history, poetry, natural science, philosophy, but he described himself as a “man of one book, the Bible.” He believed that the Bible was the essential text for the people of God and that all Christians in the power of the Holy Spirit could read it and understand it.

Wesley offered some advice on spiritual reading, which could easily be applied to reading the Bible. He said he was giving the advice to those who know “they have not yet attained” and “despise no assistance which is offered to them.”

In other words like the Ethiopian on the road to Gaza.

1.Read at a regularly determined time each day.

2.Prepare for reading with fervent prayer to God and aiming for pure intentions and the good of your soul.

3.Do not read hastily, but leisurely, seriously and with great attention. Pause at intervals to allow the inspiration of divine grace. Consider how you can put it into practice. Read orderly. Have a plan, don’t just skip around.

4.Let your feeling be involved. Treasure sayings that may protect you against later temptations or inspire you to act with virtue, humility, patience and the love of God.

5.Conclude your time of reading with a short prayer to God that what you have read may be sown in your heart and bring forth fruit to life eternal. In other words take your time, meditate on it, take it seriously. The Bible is not just a source of comfort. It is the living voice of God calling us to action.

The story of Philip and the Eunuch, besides telling us how important every individual is to God and telling us that the Gospel is for everyone, tells us that the Bible is a gift from God. And God’s people can offer hope to the world.

Our faith must be more than a collection of lightly held traditions. It must show us an example of how a person trusts God and is obedient. Philip didn’t argue or pretend. He didn’t miss God’s calling. He went. Immediately.

Philip allowed God to reshape him, an ordinary person, into an extraordinarily obedient disciple. This didn’t happen overnight. Philip was likely one who for years had followed God to the best of his ability, even before he heard of Jesus. When that happened and he believed, the spirit filled him and equipped him for service.

We may be somewhere in that preparation story and God will do for us what He did for Philip. He wants us to be continually moving deeper into our relationship with Him so we can be ready when He chooses us to be His witness.

It takes more then Sunday morning in church and Sunday School to be ready. Bible study, Christian literature, Christian radio, service projects help. Prayer, open and continual communication with God is a biggy. And then doing the things that please God. Putting into practice what you learn.

This might be a good time for you to take inventory of how much time you give God. You won’t be an effective witness if you don’t love God and love His Word.

I hate to sell anything! Ask my daughter if I ever sold a box a Girl Scout cookies for her! But, I can sell $100 tickets to fundraisers for causes I believe in and that I knew the person would have a great time attending. I was doing someone a favor by sharing it with them! Before I started 7 years of Bible Study Fellowship, or went on the Walk to Emmaus I used to get nervous doing a 2 minute devotion in front of a group. But, then I started studying the Bible, really studying it and reading other things and listening to Christian radio programs and I wanted everyone to love it all as much as I do: sharing Jesus with people, sharing God, sharing the Bible…and I stopped being nervous.

Ask God to lead you to someone who needs to know Him today.

Sharing God's Word - Part 2

This lesson covers Acts 8:26-40

“Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." 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, 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."

Then Philip ran up to the chariot and 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.

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.
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. 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.

As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?" And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized 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."

Philip was on of the 7 deacons chosen in Acts 6:5. The 7 were Godly men. When he witnessed to Samaria he actually reaped a harvest previously sown by Jesus Himself. Remember Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well? How she ran to tell the other town people and they believed because her transformation was so amazing? From a disgraced woman to a radiant person with a powerful testimony? At that time Jesus told the disciples, that they would reap what others (including Himself) had sown and pointing to the Samaritan territory around them said, “open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for the harvest.” About 5 years later this happened.

This is a story about Philip leading a person to Christ. This story teaches how important a single person, a single soul, is to God.

Philip was preaching to multitudes in Samaria and many people were being saved. Yet God called him away to a desert road in order to meet one man who needed Him.

How many people think the ministry God has them in is too small? “All I do is teach Sunday School and some Sundays there are only 9 or 10 people there.” “Surely if I do well God will move me up, to bigger groups, expand my territory.”

This story tells us He might have us where we are for just one person, or 1 group. Maybe that person will be the one used to go to the multitudes!

The Ethiopian was a Eunuch. He was castrated. These men were then considered safe to work for a queen, but it was unlawful under the law of Moses to have membership in any Jewish synagogue if you were a Eunuch. But, here he was, seeking God the best he could with the Old Testament, all by himself.

In Jeremiah 29:13 God says, “If you seek me with all your heart, you will surely find me.”

And God sent Philip to the Eunuch.

Philip had learned from Peter, who learned from Christ that in the Old Testament was the meaning of the cross and of Christ’s mission to the world:

Luke 24:44-46 “Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.”

So Philip was prepared. And we need to be prepared to explain to people too.

The Ethiopian was reading the scroll of Isaiah in his chariot. Normally men of his standing weren’t approached directly. But, the spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” And Philip ran right over. He asked the Ethiopian if he understood what he was reading and the Ethiopian said no.

He was teachable, approachable; if he had pulled rank and snubbed Philip he would have missed the opportunity for eternal life. He was reading from Isaiah 53:7-8. This chapter is about Christ’s coming.

Philip didn’t need to research the answer. The events of Christ’s suffering and dying were recent. He was able to explain to the Ethiopian that Jesus Christ was the promised one. If Philip had strictly observed Moses law in Deuteronomy about Eunuchs, he wouldn’t have taught him. But, there’s another verse in Isaiah.

Isaiah 56:3-5 “Do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD speak, saying, “ The LORD has utterly separated me from His people”; Nor let the eunuch say, “ Here I am, a dry tree.” For thus says the LORD: “ To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant, even to them I will give in My house and within My walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.”

The Good News is for all people!

Sharing God’s Word - Part 1

Before we begin this lesson, let me set the stage for you. Tell you a little about what it was like to live in the 1st Century, which is when the book of Acts took place.

The Roman Empire stretched from Britain in the northwest, through present day France and Spain to the west, across Europe to Turkey and Syria in the east and along North Africa to the south. Rome ruled an estimated 60 – 65 million people of diverse ethnicities and cultures.

For the very elite, about 2-3% of the population, life was very comfortable. For the rest it was most often miserable.

The Emperor, based in Rome, was top man. The power of the position was a strong draw and of the men who were Emperors during the Acts period a great percentage were murdered and a few committed suicide.

In this world religion and politics were not separate. They were partners in reinforcing the imperial status quo and civic order by seeking divine blessing on it.

Members of the elite served as priests for the soul purpose of displaying and augmenting their wealth, status and power. They provided temples, shrines, images, offerings, processions, street festivals and feasting to honor imperial birthdays, anniversaries of gaining power and military victories. The message was that the gods had chosen Rome to rule and cooperation was the only course of action.

The non-elites experienced considerable social unrest and distress in the cities. Estimates of population density during that time suggested overcrowding higher then in our modern cities. Many were displaced by loss of land through inability to pay taxes and rents. Ethnic tensions often ran high.

Most people lived in small, dark, damp and dirty cubicles in poorly constructed wooden, multi-storied tenements with narrow streets, minimal privacy, numerous animals, poor sanitation, little sewage and garbage disposal, limited fresh water, pervasive crime, unpleasant odors, risk of fire and constant social disputes.

I think we tend to picture white woolly lambs on rolling green hills and people walking around in nice clean robes, don’t we?

Well, it wasn’t like that.

Food shortages were common. And like oil is power in our world, food was power in Rome’s world. Shortages caused urban riots, attacks on city officials and merchants, stealing and problems paying taxes. The urban elites did not store surplus for times of shortage. They didn’t seem to care about the poor.

You know it was Christianity that developed most of the outreach programs we have today. Acts 11:28-29 shows one of the first examples when the Christians in Antioch responded to the prophecy of famine by sending relief “according to their ability” to believers in Judea.

Lack of food, lack of variety of food and poor quality food led to disease. From skeletal remains we see that the non-elites suffered extensive malnutrition. Painful bladder stones from deficiency of dairy products. Eye diseases from lack of vitamin A and vegetables. Ricketts from inadequate vitamins and minerals. Lots of contagious diseases: diarrhea, dysentery, cholera, typhus, skin rashes and swollen eyes.

Where as the elite might live to their 60s and 70s, the non-elites lived to about 40. 50% of their children didn’t make to age 10. Jesus, we remember, was kept busy healing and He always had a special place in His heart for the poor. Early Christianity was a work that transformed the damage caused by the Roman imperial world.

In Acts 1:8 Jesus told the disciples they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came on them and they would be His witness in Jerusalem, all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Acts 17:6 tells us that this “turned the world upside down.”

God made His word spread fast and far beginning at Pentecost to the Jews gathered in Jerusalem who had come from all over the world. They took it home with them and it spread across vast geographical, economic, cultural, religious and ethnic boundaries. A church formed that included Greeks and Jews, men and women, Roman citizens and barbarians, slaves and freed. While it clearly was a mighty act of God, He used His people to witness. And we are still called to witness.