September 17, 2017 John 17:20-23 Living A Good Life Series Spiritual Connection This little set of verses is contained in what some call the Great Priestly Prayer of Jesus. It is the last prayer on earth recorded by John. Besides maybe a little word of grace when he prepared the fish and bread at the seashore after his resurrection. In this great priestly prayer, Jesus makes it pretty clear that a spiritual connection with God is necessary for a good life. Lets look at it together. John 17:20-23, 20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Have you ever seen the Energizer battery commercial on television? You know that is the one where the little bunny appears beating a drum, and the announcer says" still going! On he goes, across the desert, over mountains, on lonely highways. Nothing seems to stop the little bunny. I have a few of my favorites for you. Now, I want you to understand that the point of the commercial is not the bunny, but the battery. It s important to have good batteries because weak batteries cause problems. Cars with weak batteries have problems starting. Once the motor starts the car usually runs, but it takes a good battery to get it started. Particularly in cold weather, a weak battery just won t do it. Tape recorders with 1
weak batteries will drag. Flashlights with weak batteries will go dim, pocket radios with weak batteries will fade, and your cell phones with weak batteries will be full of static and eventually disconnect themselves. Why?.because the battery is the power source. But even a good battery is only half the solution. Several years ago, I owned a car that was having trouble starting. Every time I would turn on the ignition a clicking sound could be heard. So naturally I thought that the battery was dead. Without checking with anyone, I went to Sears and bought a battery and put it in the car. I tried to start the car again, but got those same clicking sounds. Finally, I called a mechanic who took one look at the cable ends and analyzed the problem. He said, You have a good battery but your cables are bad. I learned a good lesson about cars that day. You must always make sure that you have a good connection to the battery. My brothers and sisters, we too, as born again Christians, must make sure that we have a good connection to our power source; and that source is Jesus. Our lesson scripture today is from Acts 8: 26-38. In this section the disciple Philip and his activity with the Ethiopian Eunuch can help us to see how we maintain a spiritual connection with God. 26Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." 27So 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, 28and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. 29The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it." 30Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked. 2
31"How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32The 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. 33In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth." 34The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?" 35Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 36As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?" 38And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. The first point in being connected with God is being obedient to the voice of God. (verse 26) In this passage something amazing happened, God spoke through an angel. When the Lord spoke to him he asked something that just didn t seem to make much sense. He asked Philip to leave a very fruitful ministry in Jerusalem to go to Gaza, a city that lay about fifty miles southwest of Jerusalem at the very end of the Palestinian world at that time. Gaza was right at the edge of the Sinai desert, which trailed off into Egypt, and was sparsely populated. This seemed like such a fruitless area for ministry, and many people would have questioned God about going to such a place. Sometimes God will ask us to do something that just doesn t make much sense, but like Philip we need to be obedient and go. Philip didn t question the Lord, or say to him, Well Lord, I really need some time to pray about this. If God has spoken a word to us and then 3
we say to him that we ll pray about it, what that really means is that we want to debate the matter with our own logic for a while, or question God and struggle with him. Philip was obedient to God and he went on his way to Gaza, and while he journeyed he met a Eunuch from Ethiopia. Now Philip heard the Lord tell him to go to Gaza, and he thought that God was going to use him in ministry somewhere in Gaza; but on the contrary, God didn t mean that the ministry was in Gaza, but it was on the way to Gaza. This scenario provides us with a very important spiritual truth in ministry. The point is, Sometimes we become so focused on our destination [or our perception of God s plan or destination] that we may miss opportunities to share the love of Christ along the way. The second point in being connected with God is being sensitive to the Spirit. ( verses 27-31) Henry Blackaby said that God speaks to us by the Holy Spirit through the Bible. The Bible that Philip would have been familiar with during this time was the Old Testament, because the New Testament had not been written yet. When Philip heard the Ethiopian Eunuch reading from the Old Testament book of the prophet Isaiah, the Holy Spirit within Philip helped him to recall what he had read, and he recognized it when the Eunuch was reading aloud. The Spirit urged Philip to go and explain what he knew and understood about the text. If we wish to hear God speak to us through the Holy Spirit, then we need to be plugged into the power source, which is God s Word. Philip s sensitivity to the leadership of the Holy Spirit enabled him to hear and respond to God... We become more sensitive to God s leading when we develop a close personal walk with him. It is through personal study and prayer that we come to know God and his ways. If we are in touch with God by 4
spending time in his Word, then the Spirit will definitely speak to us. We can be in a conversation with someone and we might hear the person say something that jogs our memory of a certain Scripture verse. If this happens then the Spirit is telling us, Hey, here s your opportunity to share. The person has just said something that can be answered by the Word of God. If you spend time in the Word of God then the Spirit will let you know when and what to share with a person. In the case of the Ethiopian Eunuch, the passage from Isaiah that he was reading jogged Philip s memory about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The third point in being connected with God is having an understanding of what God has already said. (verses 32-35) This point is related to the previous point of being connected with the Spirit, because here too one must spend time in God s Word. If Philip had not been familiar with the Scripture or had not studied it then he could not have answered the Eunuch when he asked him, Of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man? If someone were to ask you this same question about this particular passage in Isaiah, how would you answer it? What is very astonishing here is that the Ethiopian Eunuch was neither a Christian nor a Jew and he was reading the Scripture. It s sad to say that there are non-christians who know the Scripture better than Christians. Non-Christians read the Bible many times to learn how to refute it, and you better believe that they can quote the Scripture to you. They might quote it out of context, but that s better than many Christians can do. Do you want to be caught off guard when a non-christian asks you about a passage of Scripture that you haven t even read yourself? Of course not! Philip started sharing with the Ethiopian right 5
where he was. He used the Eunuch s present knowledge of Scripture to bring him to an understanding of the truth of Jesus Christ. He explained the passage, answering the questions, and telling the good news. There are many people around us who have never heard the truths of the Bible. We must be sensitive to the opportunities to help people move from where they are, to an understanding of the gospel. We can only do this if we know the Scripture ourselves. Now on a side note, I would like to point out that this passage contains some important guidelines on how to witness to someone. First, we should start with the person s questions about God and lend a listening ear. Secondly, our witness should incorporate a use of the Holy Scripture or the Bible. Thirdly, we should center the discussion around the topic of Jesus, and fourthly we should aim toward a response or decision. The final point this passage gives us in establishing and maintaining a connection with god is adding souls to the kingdom of heaven. Jesus gave us the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20, in which he says, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you... In our passage that we have examined today we see that Philip both taught and baptized the Ethiopian Eunuch. He was obedient to the Great Commission and he added to God s kingdom. This is the duty of all Christians, or all who have been saved from their sins by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We must all make an effort at sharing our faith with people. I never feel more connected to God in my own life than when I am sharing some bit of the Good News with others. 6
If you want to live a good life in Christ and you are wondering why you are not hearing from God, or why you are having trouble understanding his will, then you are probably either not connected with God, or you are connected and you have a few lose wires that need to be tightened. Be obedient, be sensitive to the Spirit, know what God has said and tell others about him and you will be strengthen in your connection and be well on your way to a truly good life. 7