The Road to Salvation

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Road to Salvation. He will be reading out of Acts 8:26-40.

God is setting up divine appointments in your life and God is bringing people across your path for a particular reason. There are many hungry hearts out there who want to know more about Jesus and they want to know more about the Bible and you and I have a responsibility to be ready to give an answer.

Hello this is Pastor Mike Sanders and this is Hope Worth Having and I am your host today and looking forward to sharing the hope that we have in Jesus Christ today. If you have your Bibles I want you to join us in Acts chapter 8 verse 26 through 40.

We’re talking about the road to salvation. Is anything more important, is there any other road more important than the road to salvation? So let’s learn about that as we are studying this text and learning more about the road to salvation.

We do want to share a little bit with you from God’s Word and we’re gonna be in Acts chapter 8 in verse 26 through 40. If you don’t have a device or a Bible with you feel free there should be one in the pew that you can follow along.

I’m gonna give you a quick overview of this story. We’re not gonna have time to read every verse just because of the length of this chapter but I want to tell you a little bit about this incredible story and about a servant whose name was Philip.

Now as we look at the setting of this story we see that there was an Ethiopian official who was traveling to Jerusalem and he was attending the Passover. Having attended the Passover in the midst of the story we learn that he leaves and he is on a road heading back to where he lives.

He is crossing the desert and while he is traveling back he is reading the Bible. More specifically he is reading Isaiah chapter 50. And the Spirit of God leads Philip, who was a deacon in the church, that God had sent out to the Samaritans.

At that point, the gospel of Jesus Christ had only made it to the Jewish people within the confines of Jerusalem. But God had already commissioned His disciples that they would not only take the gospel to Jerusalem but to Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth.

And so we see this lived out in the life of Philip, a man who was a servant willing to take the gospel to Jerusalem as he served through his local church family, but also committed to listening to the call of God and following the will of God and taking the gospel to Samaria and literally now in this unique, this unique transaction that takes place relating to him sharing the gospel with an Ethiopian.

to the Jewish mind that would have been considered the utter most parts of the earth. And so Philip joins this Ethiopian and he begins to share with him the gospel of Jesus Christ. And this Ethiopian makes a decision for Christ and receives the Lord as his Savior.

In every life that is one to Jesus, there are always steps that take place. There are steps that take place on this journey of knowing Jesus Christ. And in most cases, there are three steps that are common on the road to salvation.

That’s what I want to share with you this morning, the incredible road to salvation. And I want you to see in this text as we begin reading in verse 26, the Bible says that now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying arise and go towards the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

This is desert. So he arose and went and behold a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning and sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.

Verse 29, then the spirit said to Philip, go near and overtake this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, do you understand what you are reading? And he said, how can I?

Unless someone guides me. And he asked Philip to come up and to sit with him. What I want you to see on this road to salvation, that there was a meeting that was arranged by God. What is amazing about this story is that at the very is that you are witnessing God’s initiative of reaching people.

And when you think about your own life and you think about how God has brought you to where you are at today, that you begin to understand as you reflect upon your life, the steps, the journeys, the detours, the struggles, the difficulties, the things that have happened in your life and you realize that God is at work in your heart and that just like this Ethiopian, that God has arranged a special meeting where you would come to that moment and that you would come to that point that you would receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior.

The road that the Ethiopian was on was a different road. The Bible describes it as a desert. It was a road that the Jews would never travel because of its danger. They would never travel this journey because it was too difficult.

They would take a different path but here was God at work in the life of… Philip, and he was bringing, Philip is referred to as an evangelist, that is that he was someone who was bold and committed to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And he would leave Philip if we go back to verse 25, you see that great things are happening in the ministry of Philip, verse 25 of Acts chapter 8, so when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.

People were coming to Christ, and God is using Philip, and he has a sense of meaning and purpose every day in his life as he gets up and helping people to come to Christ. But all of a sudden, God steps in Philip’s life and says, I want you to leave all this, all these blessings, all these people coming to Christ, and I want you to go down a difficult journey, and I want you to go on a road that is less traveled,

and I want you to go share the gospel, not with many, but with one, but with one person. So interesting that God had his heart set upon this Ethiopian. This Ethiopian who was from Africa was a man of status, he was a man of wealth.

The Bible describes him as a eunuch, and he is described as a person who had great responsibility. He was, if you will, the secretary of treasure. He was responsible for all the finances for this nation in Ethiopia.

He worked under the queen, and he had this great responsibility to take care of things, but yet in his heart, God was pursuing him, and God was calling him, and God was tugging at him and drawing him to him.

The Bible teaches us that he went to Jerusalem to worship God. That would have been at least 500 miles that he traveled, so he made a great effort. He was not a Jew in Israel. person, but he had heard about Jehovah God, someone, somewhere, somehow, some way.

He had heard about this God of Jehovah who had delivered the people of God out of slavery, and he had heard about the people of God who had crossed the Red Sea. He had heard about the people of God that he had raised up, that God had raised up to be a powerful nation, the nation of Israel.

So he was inquiring, he was seeking, he was looking for more than wealth, he was looking for more than being prestigious and being a man of power. He wanted something more to life because I remind you this morning that there is no authority, there is no power, there is no amount of money in your life, and there is not enough religion in your life that can satisfy your soul.

Only Jesus Christ satisfies the soul. the invitation that Jesus Christ gives to each and every heart. The Bible says that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

This invitation is not an invitation to religion, but it is an invitation to a relationship with Jesus Christ. Now people often say to me, Pastor Mike, I don’t believe in organized religion. I say great, come to the open door church because the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.

Amen. We love being disorganized, but I want to assure you this. It’s not about religion. It’s about a relationship with Jesus Christ. This man was seeking God. He was looking for God and what did God do?

He arranged what I call a divine appointment. We have a promise in the Bible in Jeremiah 29 13. God says you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I promise you here today that if you are looking for something more than what the world can offer and if you’re looking for something more than what you have already experienced in your life that it is ultimately found in a relationship with Jesus Christ and that if you will seek him with all your heart you will find him.

This man made great effort to seek God. He traveled over 500 miles that he might worship God, but yet when he got to the temple and he came to celebrate the Passover, though he may not have fully understood what it meant, according to the religious rules of the Jewish people they would not have allowed this eunuch to come in to the temple.

He would have had to stand outside the gate. Could you imagine what kind of a church would tell people to stay out there and that you’re not welcome to come in? and to worship God, but that’s exactly what religion does.

Religion pushes you away from God. Religion tells you to stay out there. Religion says if you’re not good enough, you can’t come to God, but the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, reaches out to all of us in the midst of our brokenness and the midst of our despair and the midst of our troubles and draws us and brings us into a real relationship with Jesus Christ.

Can God’s people say amen? That was the difference. No doubt that on this road back from Jerusalem, he was disappointed, but he began to read the Bible. The Bible tells us that God did something pretty miraculous here, that he brought a man named Philip to him, and Philip was a man who would deliver a message and he would provide a message.

explaining the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I want you to see this, that in verse 32 through 35, the Bible says that the place of the scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb before its shear is silent.

So he opened not his mouth and in his humiliation, his justice was taken away. And who will declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth. So the eunuch answered Philip and said, I ask you of whom does the prophet say this?

Of himself or of some other man? Look at verse 35. Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning at this scripture, preached Jesus to him. How wonderful, what a wonderful message. I want you to know the importance of the scriptures in your life.

Because this man as he was searching for God, even though he could not find it in the temple, he could not find it in Jerusalem, he could not find it in religion. When he got to the Bible, the spirit of God was working in his heart and he had so many questions.

And thankfully God in this divine appointment, he arranged for Philip to be there and Philip would be the man who would take the message of the gospel and explain it to this man of authority. He was a humble man.

The scriptures were already humbling his heart because he started asking questions. Look at verse 31. How can I unless someone guides me? Let’s just be honest, so many people don’t feel like anybody could teach them anything.

They feel like they know it all. They think they figured it out already. You know, you’ve met those teenagers, they’re 17, they’re 18 years old and you can’t tell them anything. Do you understand, parents?

I know you don’t wanna say it in front of your kids, but I wanna tell you something. One of the great… characteristics of a person who comes to God is a heart that is humble and teachable. And I want you to know that you might have many questions about Jesus Christ and you might have questions about the Bible and you may have questions about God and you may have questions about life and you may have questions about how could this be true or how could that be true?

Let me tell you, no question that you have is wrong. And I want you to know that every question you have, God can handle that question. And I believe that God has an answer for our questions and as we are being drawn to God, God is giving us an inquisitive heart, a heart that is asking how can this be?

What is this talking about? What does the scripture say? And we see that as the message is explained, that Philip uses this passage of scripture to help this Ethiopian to understand that it is referring to Jesus Christ.

It is referring to the one who gave. his life, that’s the kind of man Philip was. Philip was always preaching the gospel. I want you to jump back to verse 12 in chapter eight. It says that when they believed Philip, as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.

Then we jump back again to verse 35. Philip opened his mouth and he, beginning at the scriptures, preached Jesus to them. We jump over to verse 40 of Acts chapter eight. Philip was found at Azatas and passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.

Everywhere that Philip went, he was a man who was ready to explain the message. He was ready to give a defense of the hope that lived within him. He was ready to answer the questions. I want to say to every believer this morning that God is setting up divine appointments in your life and God is bringing people across your path for a particular reason.

There are many hungry hearts out there who want to know more about Jesus and they want to know more about the Bible. And you and I have a responsibility to be ready to give an answer. We have a responsibility to proclaim and communicate and explain the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And you might ask me, well, how is that gonna be possible? How is it that we could ever be in a position to be able to explain or witness for Christ? Let me teach you real quickly three things on how to be ready to witness because God is setting up divine appointments in your life.

Just three things that I see in Philip’s life. Number one, he was obedient to God. He was obedient to God. You see, when you embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ and you are determined to follow after him, you are gonna find yourself where you never thought you might be.

And you are not only gonna find yourself where you never thought you might be, you might find yourself doing things that you never thought. you would do, Molly gave a great testimony, didn’t she? That was a blessing, Molly, thank you so much for sharing.

And I thought about that as you were sharing that and you said, man, two years ago, I’d have never been here. But she stood up before you and she testified of the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Let me tell you something, the key to you being ready to be a witness for God is not that you’re the super speaker, not that you have all the knowledge in the world, not that you figured out everything in life, it’s just that you’re obedient to God.

When the Spirit leads you, you move. When the Spirit draws you, you respond. When the Spirit gives you that unction and that movement that you’re to reach out to this person, it may be that God just wants you to be an encourager.

He might just want you to be a blessing. He might just want you to be the person that have put a smile on that person’s face. Every day, there are people in our lives that we may not particularly know.

But God is saying, I want you to bless them. I mean, friends, when I go to the store, I know people think I’m crazy. But I say hi to them. I smile. I let people know that God loves them. I know it annoys some people, but when people use God’s name in vain, I’ll say, God loves you.

Because I want them to know that God cares. God cares about them. And maybe I’m just gonna bring a smile. You never know what people are walking through in their life. You walk down the aisles of those stores.

You see somebody just trying to make it. They just might need someone to be an encourager in their life. Philip was that kind of man. He was obedient to the spirit of God. But I want you to know the second thing about Philip.

He had compassion for souls. He had a compassion. Did you see the Bible teaches us that Philip ran to the chariot? Look at verse 30. The Bible says Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, do you understand what you are reading?

He cared. He cared. He had compassion. He saw a man after being obedient to God. He saw a man. Now, Philip could have said, now Lord, I’m the kind of guy, I need large crowds. I’m the kind of guy that I need a lot of people before I do ministry.

But no, God said, I just want you to reach this one man who has many questions about the faith, who doesn’t understand. And Philip said to this man as he ran to the chariot, do you understand what you are reading?

You know what this man said? How can I? Unless someone guides me. I wonder how many hearts are out there. I wonder how many people are in our lives and in our families and in our sphere of influence that are saying, how can I?

Unless somebody guides me. What this generation. needs is not critics. What this generation needs is not lectures. What this generation needs are people who will be an example, who will love them where they’re at and guide them and help them and encourage them to be all that God wants them to be.

Now I’m telling you parents, I know some of you struggle sometimes. I understand we raise three children and I always tell these teenagers up there, you don’t scare me. I’ve already been through three teenagers.

I’m not afraid of a teenager. I love them. I thank God for them and I meet them right where they’re at and I challenge them to be all that God wants them to be. I encourage them to love Jesus. Parents, the greatest thing you can do is to be an example to your children.

It is to be that kind of person that they can look up to and they can say, you know what, I want to be like mom. I wanna be like dad. I mean, people look to the world for their heroes, but I think our heroes should be right in the home.

Our heroes ought to be people who serve our country. Our heroes ought to be people who are out there making life happen day by day. That’s the kind of people you set before your children to guide them.

What’s that third characteristic? Is that he was filled with the spirit of God. Yes, Philip was filled with the spirit of God. Notice in verse 29, the Bible says that the spirit said to Philip. You see, Philip was so filled with God and so filled with the spirit that he was sensitive to the spirits leading in your life.

Here’s the great thing as a believer, the spirit of God is already living in you. It’s just that you are not accessing all that God has for you. It’s like some of you, you’re walking around. I know some of you, you’re a little bit older.

You’re like me, you got these cell phones and you still think this is a phone. This is not a phone, this is a computer. And it’s a computer with a phone and you look at your kids and you say, how do you know all that?

When I have problems on my phone, I just hand it to the grandkids and say, fix that phone right there for me. They just whip right through it and they get it all going. They go, there you go, grandpa, can I play games on it?

I say, as long as you don’t buy anything, you know what I mean? I mean, they figured out how to go into my credit card, get it to pay for an app, and now they got a nice new app to play games on, huh?

Hey, I wanna tell you, it’s the same way. You have the spirit of God. You just got to download His power, His wisdom, and access all that is available to you. And that comes by surrendering our life each and every day.

When I get up every day in my life, and I’m not here to try to make Mike this perfect person because that’s not my goal, but I do want you to understand something, that every day when I get up, I want to be fully supported.

surrendered to Christ. I want to be fully committed to the power of Christ. I want God to work effectively in my heart and I say Lord here’s my life. Help me to be a blessing to somebody today. Help me to be a blessing to my wife, my children, my grandchildren, but let me be a blessing to a stranger out there.

Let me just help somebody in the journey of life. If you got up every day and said I want to be a blessing Lord put someone in my path that I can be a blessing to. You know how that would transform your life?

And you never know what God would do in your life and how he would use your life. My final point and all God’s people said we were talking about this divine appointment that was arranged and this message that was explained but I want you to see a faith that was proclaimed.

In verse 36 through 40 what do we see take place is that this Ethiopian receives Christ and he trusts in Jesus Christ he was ready to confess God he was ready to believe after Philip explained him the details of the gospel he was ready to trust Christ.

I want you to know that this Ethiopian was not afraid reminds me of Romans 10 9 the Bible said if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and you believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead you will be saved friends it’s not religion that saves you it’s Jesus that saves you it’s not church attendance that saves you it’s Jesus that saves you and I want you to know that when you come to that moment in your life where you have a interest in spiritual things and you acknowledge your spiritual bankruptcy before God and you’re ready to receive Christ the Bible promises that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be what church say are you ready are you ready to trust Christ this Ethiopian was so excited about his decision for Christ the Bible tells us that he made a public witness he declared his faith by being baptized after Philip had explained to him that Jesus is the answer for every troubled heart and that Jesus is the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the father but by him that this man trusted in Christ and was ready to be baptized and to proclaim it to all he was not a shame of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and friends on that day he was baptized I want you to know something I want you to just note this last verse here in the Bible that he gives to us or verse 39 says now when they came up out of the water the spirit of the Lord caught Philip away bang He’s gone,

so that the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way, rejoicing. The secret of joy begins in a heart that is surrendered to Jesus Christ. And joy always follows when we obey God in our lives. Would you pray with me?

This morning, as we consider what we have heard, God’s Word is always worthy of a response. As we complete this service in prayer, I would like for you to consider this question. Do you have joy in Jesus Christ?

Do you have the joy of Christ in your heart? If you find yourself miserable and living without purpose and meaning, and struggling with the realities of life, it is in this moment that God is calling you to receive Him.

It is no accident that you’re here. It did not catch God by surprise that you walked into this building. For He divinely arranged in this moment in time that you would hear about Christ. He is calling you to eternal life.

And I pray today that if you are ready, that you would receive Christ as your Lord and Savior. You say, how do I do that to pastor? Just tell the Lord, just be real with Him right now. Lord, I’m a sinner, but I’m in need of a Savior.

And I wanna be honest with you, God. I’m calling on you to forgive me of my sins. I come with a sincere heart, asking you to be my Savior. Friends, whoever calls in the name of the Lord shall be saved.

I pray that no matter where you’re at in the walk of life, that you’re not too proud to humble your heart before the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and receive Jesus Christ as your Savior. You might be here and you say, pastor, I know Christ.

I’ve trusted Him. Would you be like Philip? Would you be that kind of person that would follow the leadership of the Spirit and share your faith with confidence and commit your heart to be a blessing to every divine appointment that God creates in your life?

Would you be open to take people down the road of salvation? Help them to know Jesus. [“Pomp and Circumstance”] The road to salvation requires a heart that is ready to repent and believe in Jesus Christ and you just cannot get around that I know other people try different things but the true road of true salvation is through Jesus Christ Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life and no man comes unto the Father but by me so I hope that’s you today that you have trusted Christ and that you believe in him if you are contemplating you have questions don’t be afraid to send me some of those questions you can go to our website hopeworthhaving .com hit the contact button since your questions to me will do our best to interact and share a little bit about what the Bible says about some of those questions I do want to encourage you to check out our Facebook page we’re on Facebook and if you just search hope worth having like us and keep up with our ministry and find out what’s going on this is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.