Living on the Edge

Chip Ingram: Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, have you ever seen someone perform a judo move? I mean, like watching a 90-pound woman completely flip a 200-pound man? It's amazing. Even more amazing is what I call spiritual judo. It's when God takes the worst of our lives and flips them to become the greatest opportunities for our growth and His glory. If you're facing some really tough stuff today, stick around. God wants to do some spiritual judo on your most challenging circumstances.

Dave Drury: The plan was to crush the movement before it spread, scatter the believers, cut them off from each other, make them afraid. But what Satan designed as the death of the early church became the engine that drove the gospel into Samaria, into Africa, and toward the ends of the earth. I'm Dave Drury, and today on Living on the Edge, Chip Ingram continues his series, The Jesus Revolution, with a lesson on how God systematically dismantles the enemy's best tactics. And later in today's program, Chip will be sharing about our mid-year match, a special giving opportunity happening right now. Stay close. Now here's Chip with a message titled Intimidate and Isolate.

Chip Ingram: And we pick up the story in the beginning of chapter 8. On that day, a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem. All except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned for him deeply. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged them off and put them in jail. Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Remember one of the seven, Philip went down to a city in Samaria and he proclaimed Christ there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs that he did, they all paid close attention to what he said.

And then notice the results. With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. So there was great joy in that city. Let's summarize. Satan's strategy is to destroy through intimidation and isolation. You see that in the first eight verses. And after this, now there's sort of a battle between good and evil because these Samaritans had been hoodwinked by some demonic activity. We pick up the story in verse nine.

In verse nine, it says, now for some time a man named Simon practiced sorcery in this city, and he 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." He actually was claiming deity. They followed him because he amazed them for a long time with his magic. The word magic and the word sorcery—same root words. It has the idea of the manifestation of supernatural things through demonic power.

And then look at verse 12. 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 that he saw. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon them. They had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

Now, this big confrontation of good and evil, if you summarized it, Simon is intimidating through demonic sorcery. And here we pick up the story in verse 18. When Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money and said, "Give me this ability so that everyone whom I lay my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit." Peter answered, "May your money perish with you because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money. You have no part or share in this ministry because your heart is not right before God."

Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps He'll forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. And it's not that God would be unforgiving. Peter's saying, man, you've got to come clean from the heart for real. For I see that you are full of bitterness and you're a captive to sin. Then Simon answered, pray to the Lord so that nothing that you've said will happen to me. And then when Peter and John had testified and proclaimed the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem. And notice what they're doing. They're preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages. There's a breakthrough.

But it's very interesting. This is like there's a story and then in parenthesis, by the way, check out Simon. Everyone who believes—intellectual assent—and goes through some external ritual—baptism, communion, raising a hand, walking forward—here's the truth: intellectual assent and external ritual do not constitute saving faith. Simon sought to use God. In the paragraph before, it said, and Simon believed. He intellectually agrees with what's happening, but there's no internal transformation of heart.

Now, here's the danger. This is from Jesus' lips. The most famous sermon Jesus ever gave was called the Sermon on the Mount, and He said, watch out for false prophets. In chapter 7, they come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ravenous wolves. It's by their fruit you'll recognize them. And then He says that good fruit is on good trees and bad fruit is on bad trees. Regardless of what the externals people say, it's the fruit, the evidence, the results.

He says, not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. On that day of judgment, many will say to Me, "Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in Your name? Didn't we drive out demons and perform many miracles?" And then I will say to them plainly, "I never knew you. Away from Me, you evildoers." You had external religion, we even got involved in some service, but He said, you know something? There wasn't a change of heart. There wasn't a real relationship.

He says, therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and puts them into practice, he's like a wise man who builds his house on the rock, and the rain comes down, and the waters rise, and the wind blows, and it beats against it, but the house remains because it's on the rock. But every single person who hears these words of Mine and does not obey is like a person who builds their house on a sand. And the rains come and the streams rise and the wind blows and they're gone. My observation is we may have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people in the church that are convinced that they have a personal relationship with God, but by the fruit of their life, maybe there's a great possibility they don't.

Maybe they're like Simon. You intellectually believe. Do you believe in Jesus? Yes. Do you believe He's the Son of God? Yes. Do you believe He died on the cross? Yes. Do you believe He rose from the dead? Yes. Intellectually. Have you ever recognized that your life has offended a holy God and you have to turn from that sin? It's in receiving that grace and following Him, not just the parts that you like. It's not about Him fulfilling your agenda. He is God, and you follow Him with loyalty. Therefore, the fruits are a compassion and a love and a sacrifice and a commitment where you become more and more like Jesus, where His word is precious to you, where you talk to Him, where there's tough issues, but He is transforming your life.

For a lot of people, you just come once a month or a couple times a month, you check a box, you're a shade more moral than the next person. But Jesus is a self-help appendage to you as you live your life. God brought you in this room on this day so you could fear not and settle the issue today. If there's any doubt in your mind, you don't have to be afraid, thinking, some of you I better think right now, I'm not sure. I've never thought about it like that. And it's so crept into the life of the church.

Let's just stop right now. Let's settle that for some of you. You're not sure. Today is the day of salvation. If you've never placed your faith and repented of your sin and said, I want to follow Him, let's do that right now. Lord, I ask You because You know every heart, You know every situation, and You love us. God, it's out of Your great love that You paid the price for our sin, not that that would be the end, but a beginning. Could I invite you not just to follow along in a prayer, but a transfer of trust and focus from you to accept the forgiveness of Christ and follow Him?

In your mind or heart, just pray: Dear God, I admit I need You today. I don't want to use You or manipulate You. I want to submit and follow You. I ask You to forgive me right now. I believe You died and paid for my sin. I believe You rose from the dead bodily, and You sit at the right hand of the Father. I ask You to come into my life, and I tell You I want to follow You, and I desperately need Your help. Lord, will You convince and overwhelm those who in their heart of hearts have turned from sin to follow You? Would You flood them with Your love and courage and faith? In Christ's name, amen.

Dave Drury: You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We'll have more in just a moment. This month, Living on the Edge is participating in a special mid-year match. Every dollar given in June is being matched one-for-one by a group of generous partners who want to see this ministry go further. Your gift doesn't just help; it's doubled the moment it arrives. You can get all the details at livingontheedge.org. Stick around; Chip will share more about it before we're done today. Right now, back to the message.

Chip Ingram: Now we're going to see something that's absolutely amazing, beginning in verse 26 and through the end of the chapter. The gospel is now going to do what Jesus said after two years it was stuck in Jerusalem. It was meant for evil by the enemy—fear and isolation—but the Spirit of God said, no, baby. We're going to do the spiritual jiu-jitsu, judo move. I'm going to use this persecution and this fear to take these two-year-old Christians to Samaria, and then I'm going to take them to the Gentiles. Now the gospel's going global.

Everything I said is going to happen. It's going to start to happen. And here's the way it's going to happen: He's going to choose what we call a prime mover. He's going to plant the gospel even before the church gets there through an unlikely person that we would say could never be ready to hear about Christ. He's an Ethiopian eunuch. He's like one of the cabinet members of the Queen Candace. You'll read in just a minute, that's a queen title. The government of Egypt at this point in time is run by a woman. Her son is thought to be divine, a direct descendant from the sun god.

And this eunuch, who's a proselyte or at least a God-fearer, has come to Jerusalem to worship because monotheism is so attractive in this warped world. He has a copy of the text. He's a wealthy man. He's a leader. He has platform. He has tremendous influence. He's on this chariot coming back from Jerusalem, back toward Africa. Ethiopia in this context isn't the Ethiopia that we know; it goes all the way from the northern part of Africa down to Sudan. Let's pick up the story as the gospel goes global, as the plan unfolds.

Jesus said that we would receive power and the Holy Spirit would come upon us and we would be witnesses: Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. Now we're going to see the uttermost parts of the world. Now an angel of the Lord, verse 26 says, told Philip, "Go to the south, to the desert road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza." So he started out on his way and he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of the treasury of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and he was on his way home, sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah.

And the Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it." Then Philip ran up to the chariot and he heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. I love this. This is a way you should share. You don't have to preach at people; you just ask good questions. "Do you understand what you're reading?" Philip asked. "How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit down with him. And then he begins to read out of Isaiah 53, speaking of Christ. "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." And the eunuch said to 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. See what he does again? Philip's two years old in the Lord. But for two years, Philip's been digging in and all those Old Testament passages which lead to Jesus. And he's been going to those meetings on the weekends where Peter or John or James preaches.

And he's been going to those small group meetings in the homes and talking about this new Messiah and how it works: how's it play out in your marriage, how's it play out with your kids, how's it play out with your finances. All of a sudden, God says, "Go on this road." He starts walking on this road, and pretty soon there's this chariot of a very important, influential man who's intimidating because he's wealthy and he's powerful. Philip's going, "Who am I?" God says, "Hey, just go walk by the chariot." So he goes, walks by the chariot.

As he's walking by the chariot, the practice in this time and world: whenever people read, they read out loud. As he stands near, he's hearing this guy and he's going, "This is unbelievable. I'm supposed to stand by this chariot. This Ethiopian guy is reading the book of Isaiah." So he has a moment of boldness. He goes, "Hey, do you get what that's about?" The guy goes, "Not really. Why don't you come on up and sit down?" Notice he just then said, he took from that passage and began to explain. Do you realize there's a God who loves you? Do you realize the problem of sin's been addressed?

Do you realize there's purpose and hope? Do you realize there's a heaven? Do you realize that you can know this God personally through the Son that He sent, Jesus? Do you realize that your whole world and purpose can be transformed? By the way, here's what happens: it's a gift of God by grace. You receive it by faith, and then you go public. I was baptized because baptism back then had a much bigger picture of total identification change. You're just like, "I had an old uniform, I'm putting on a new uniform." So pick up the story. What happened?

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?" He ordered the chariot to stop, and 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 snatched literally Philip away, and the eunuch didn't see him again, but he went on his way rejoicing. This was a great baptism. He said, "Wow, this is amazing. I just met God. I put my faith in Christ. Down, up, woo! There you go." Would that be just like amazing?

And Philip finds himself like, "Whoa, it was amazing. Now I'm in a different city, Azotus." And he traveled about preaching and sharing the gospel in all the towns that reached to Caesarea. These are normal, regular, ordinary people where God is intervening and doing supernatural things. You know why? Because He loves people. He loves your boss. He loves your employees. He loves your neighbors. He loves your relatives. He loves the boss that you never think could ever be open to Christ. Here's what I want you to get: Philip obeys a prompting by the Holy Spirit.

That's what God wants us to do. You don't have to lay it all out, you don't have to be a Bible scholar. What if you said this week, "God, okay, ready? This week, would You give me a little nudge about when to tell someone about You and maybe introduce them in some way to Your word?" Or you know what? "God, I'm not sure I'm ready for that one. Could You just lead me to someone who has a problem, and I'll ask them for coffee or ask them for lunch? I won't even bring up Jesus at first, I'll just love them."

What would happen if you said, "You know, I understand you just went through a divorce. You want to grab a cup of coffee? I've actually had that in my history. Just love to hear how I could help you. Or I hear your son's in the hospital. Or I hear you've got a problem, a health issue. Or you know what? Man, I am so sorry. I heard the down-sizings happened and you were on the list. Can I buy you dinner? You want to come over to our house?" What if this week, each one of us were prompted by the Holy Spirit to love someone, to reach out in some way and connect with them?

You know what would happen? God will work. It's not that He doesn't prompt; it's that our ears get spiritual wax and we don't hear, or we think it's for someone else, or we're so afraid, intimidated. He'll ask a big spiritual question. Here's my answer to the really hard ones. Are you ready for this? You can use this: I don't know. I just use it all the time. "What about this, this, and this? And so-and-so says this, this, and this? And this religion says this, this, and this?" "Great question. I don't know. But would you be willing to read a little bit and talk about it?" I'm just telling you, people will.

Philip obeys a prompting, but God had prepared a heart to hear. Isn't that amazing? See, the enemy doesn't want you to believe that. He wants you to be afraid to share your faith. He wants you to be afraid to go public. He wants you to be afraid of what people might think. He wants you to be isolated. And the truth is, God is sovereignly working in the lives of people all around you all the time. And the most unlikely people that you think would never come to Christ, He's already preparing. And the application is: fear not, boldly share the gospel every day and in every way.

Not them, not someone, not our little huddle—boldly. Here's what's true in the book of Acts: you know you're filled with the Spirit when you're bold. When you're filled with the Spirit, sometimes there's manifestations, sometimes there's not. Sometimes this happens, sometimes it doesn't. People always read through the book of Acts and they want to pick out this or pick out that. Here's one thing for sure that every group can know: when you're filled with the Spirit, you are bold. And the boldness isn't an arrogance.

It's a boldness where your conviction is that the only hope for the world is Jesus, that the word of God is true, and you love those people. And when you do, God will prompt you. And in your fear, here's His promise. I call it the Matthew 28:20 principle. After He told us to go into all the world and make disciples, I love this. I like it in the King James, even. Are you ready? Can I give a little King James here? "And lo, I am with you always." Don't be afraid.

I've given you a supernatural mission to bring people from darkness into light, a darkness into light that will restore marriages, that will change people's eternities, that will change the whole trajectory of families, that will cause people's lives and all the ripples from them to change forever and ever and ever and ever. And you are My ambassadors, you're My full-time workers. I've entrusted My word and My truth to you. Don't be afraid. I am with you.

Dave Drury: That's Chip Ingram on Living on the Edge with a message called Intimidate and Isolate from his series, The Jesus Revolution. Chip has a word about the mid-year match coming right up, so stay with us. Today's message is on the Living on the Edge podcast. Search for it and subscribe wherever you stream audio. And for the full, unedited version of what Chip teaches, find the Chip Ingram sermon podcast. Philip was nobody special. He wasn't an apostle, he wasn't a trained evangelist. He was a two-year-old believer who got scattered by persecution and went straight to preaching wherever he landed.

When the spirit said, "Go stand by that chariot," he ran. When the man in the chariot said, "Can you explain this passage to me?" Philip sat down and told him about Jesus. Intellectual assent isn't saving faith. What God is after is a change of heart, a transfer of trust. A life that looks completely different after the encounter than it did before. And right now all over the world, the gospel is moving. And here's Chip with a word about what it looks like when ordinary people refuse to be intimidated or isolated.

Chip Ingram: If you have a child or a grandchild who's walked away from the faith—maybe a niece or nephew—I want you to hold on to something from the book of Acts. Saul of Tarsus wasn't just a skeptic. He wasn't just indifferent to Christianity. He was actively hunting down Christians, dragging them from their homes, and watching them die. He was the last person anyone would have ever expected God to reach. And then Jesus showed up on the road to Damascus, and everything changed. And the message for every broken-hearted parent is this: nobody is too far gone. Nobody is outside God's reach. And your prayers are not falling on deaf ears.

I've had literally hundreds of conversations with parents and grandparents that have shared their heartache and their pain of their daughter, their son, or their young adult who no longer walks with God, doesn't go to church, doesn't seem interested. But I've been around long enough now—five years, ten years later—and saw God reach into their heart, move into their life as their parents wouldn't give up. They wouldn't compromise. They kept caring, they kept in touch, they kept the door open. What I want you to know is that we are committed to helping you communicate in a way that really reaches the next generation.

And that's not just the teaching, but we're working on some technology right now—I call them algorithms for good—that is going to connect with the next generation like never before. When you give to Living on the Edge, you are saying to God, I care about my kids and my grandkids, and I also care about everyone else's. We have to reach this next generation. Here's my question: will you help us? And the way to help us this June is to give. Give generously, give from the heart. Every dollar will be doubled as we think about the next generation and what God wants to do in them and through them.

Dave Drury: There are sons and daughters and grandkids who need someone to refuse to give up. Join the mid-year match and put that conviction to work. Every gift you send this month is matched dollar-for-dollar. Give at livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. Or send your donation through the mail by writing to us at Living on the Edge, PO Box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia 30304. I'm Dave Drury. Coming up, Satan has a fourth agenda, and it may be his most effective yet. It doesn't look dangerous; it looks like church. Chip Ingram takes it on next time on Living on the Edge. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.