Let's imagine for a moment a gathering in heaven. Standing there in a circle all dressed in brilliant, wider contemporaries of Jesus Christ during His ministry on earth, you remember them? Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Nathaniel, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, the less. Judas, not a scarier, and so many others. Each of these received a miracle from the Master. The crowd around this select group in heaven is silent listening to them, recount their stories and what stories there must have been. Clearly the gospel's writers wrote many of the miracles Jesus worked, but John wrote at the very end of his book. You know what? If I wrote everything down Jesus did in, said, "I suppose the libraries in the entire world could not contain all the books." We might hear someone say, "I heard he was coming by, and I was determined to get his attention. I couldn't see him because I couldn't see anybody. I was blind since birth." But as the volume of the crowd swelled, I purpose that my volume would have to be louder than there. So I yelled over all of them, "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me." I yelled it over and over, even when His followers tried to silence me. And thankfully He cared enough about me to stop. He spoke, and suddenly light streamed in for the first time, and I could see, I could tell you what green meant. I could tell you how bright red was and how cool blue was. Another might reply, "I hadn't seen my family in years because we lepers were banished from the city. Several of us banded together to try to eke out an existence that could hardly be called a living. It was much more dying." That horrid disease relentlessly tried to steal our dignity, our humanity. There was no hope until someone told us about Jesus. He went to Him and He sent us all to the high priest to show Him we were clean. I couldn't leave without turning back to offer Jesus my thanks, and now I'd get to do that forever. A father might chime in. I would say about my son. He was possessed by a terrible spirit who cared none for him at all. He tormented him, tried to drown him, tried to burn him, but it couldn't. We had no way to control our son, and we were terrified, both for him and, and sad to say for a father, but we were terrified of him. Can you imagine our joy when somebody told us evil spirits were subject to the words of this Jesus? And they were. Jesus cast out that foul spirit, gave us our son back. I wish you could have seen this celebration in our home on that night. When Jesus walked this earth, He unstopped deaf ears, lame legs suddenly straightened in whole tongues that had never spoken began to sing illnesses that had plagued people for decades were suddenly cast away by the healing power of Jesus Christ. It's quite a group, a miracle club. And then a new potential member steps forward. Each ear turns to her awaiting her miracle story. Maybe she was a paralytic or maybe she was a leper or maybe she was blind or maybe she was halting, could not walk. It's impossible to tell in her glorified body what she dealt with on earth. They listen so carefully as she speaks through a beaming smile. How was the sinner? And Jesus saved me. In the stillness that follows all recognize the magnitude of that testimony because it mirrors their own. Each of us, a recipient of the greatest of all miracles, the miracle of salvation, and in that each of us can share. The most significant miracle is a spiritual transformation through the power of new birth. That miracle is available to everyone, everywhere. We'd be hard pressed to find more encouraging words than these in all the Word of God. And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come and let him that hear it say, come and let him that is a thirst to come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Revelation 22 verse 17. That miracle is not found in an exclusive club. It is founded on an all-inclusive invitation. It is for anyone, anywhere. And we're going to hear a story about somebody who discovered that beautiful truth right after this. Welcome to God's Word for Life, Lesson Companion Podcast. Brought to you by Word of Flame Curriculum and the Pentecostal Publishing House. This podcast encourages adult disciples to think deeply about God's Word, further develop their personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and make a greater commitment to the purpose and plan of God for their lives. Let's dive into today's lesson and explore what it means to live out God's Word in our lives. Happy New Year, God's Word for Life listeners. I hope this New Year has started off wonderfully well for you. Our prayers are with the people of California. Our prayers are with the people all around the world who are dealing with struggles and trials. And the beautiful news is there is coming a day when the Lord will write all the wrongs and all that is wrong with the world will once again be right as it was in the beginning and even better than it was in the beginning. But while we walk this sod, we pray for those who struggle and ask the Lord to help them and ask God to work miracles for them just as He has worked for those in the past. Glad you're with me. My name is El Jheri. I'm happy to be your God's Word for Life lesson companion podcast host. Today's episode is entitled Anyone Anywhere and it comes from the Book of Acts, chapter 8, verses 36 through 38, and as they went on their way, they came into a certain water. And the Unix said, "See, here is water. What does him do me to be baptized?" And Philip said, "If thou believeest with all thy heart thou mayest." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." And he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the Unix and Philip baptized him. Now the foundational principle that salvation is not limited to a select few is essential to a biblical belief structure, a biblical world view. There is a doctrine known as Calvinism and one of the tenets of that doctrine is that since from before the world began, God has selected a limited number of souls to whom He would grant salvation. And nobody can alter that predestined eternal fate. It is what is often known as predestination. But it's false. It's a false doctrine that offers no hope to the whole world. It flies in the face of the truth that whosoever may come in be saved. Jesus did not die for the sins of a select few. He died for the sins of the entire world. And a beautiful demonstration of that truth is found in the eighth chapter of the book of Acts. It involves a man commonly known as the Ethiopian Unic. He was an unlikely recipient of a miracle. A Unic for one was a man who had been affected or altered in such a way as not to be able to sigh her children. And he was highly sought after in Eastern culture as a servant because he would not be a threat around the women of the house. And he would not desire to leave to pursue raising up his own family because he could not. And when I given this man's name, but he had significant influence, the Bible calls him a man of great authority in the direct service of Candace, the queen of Ethiopia, that high status in this royal house resulted in him being afforded his own chariot in which to ride which was quite a luxury. That was no small detail. But for all his wealth and influence, as a Unic, he was excluded from traditional Jewish worship. Deuteronomy 23 verse 1 from the Law of Moses makes it quite clear that a man was not allowed to enter into the congregation of the Lord if he had been so altered. He was returning from Jerusalem when he went to worship in the congregation of the Lord. But while he was there, he could only look longingly as others entered the courts of the temple to worship, but because of the law, he could not. I want to think about that for a moment. He traveled hundreds of miles. Some researchers have said it could have taken him a month to travel one way, 1500 miles from what was then Ethiopia to get to Jerusalem to worship. And when he gets there, after all that time and all that expense and all that retinue to travel with him, he gets to the temple. The place where he should be able to get a hold of God and because of the Mosaic law, those who were in the temple told him, "You cannot come in here. The best you can do is stand in those outer courts where the Gentiles are and just look and wonder, and wonder what's going on in there." But God cared for this religious outcast. So much so that as he was heading back toward Ethiopia, after traveling once again, 1500 miles, now he's traveling 1500 miles back one month journey one way. And all he has with him is a scroll of the prophet Isaiah, which was an expensive purchase. But he's reading the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, but sadly, he doesn't understand what he's reading. He needs a teacher. He needs a spirit-filled, spirit-led believer to be able to share with him and show him what God is saying. But God cared for that religious outcast that he set a preacher from the middle of a red hot revival in Samaria, to the middle of the desert, the red hot desert, to be able to minister to one Ethiopian unique. When Philip got to the desert, he saw the Ethiopians chariot, and again God spoke to him and and told him to join the team.
chariot and travel. And so he did. Philip heard the voice of the unit reading from the book of Isaiah. He was reading from what we know as Isaiah 53. But he did not understand what he was reading. And so God sent him a preacher. First question. What other stories show us God sending a preacher to share the gospel? When Philip heard the unit reading Isaiah 53, you have to wonder if he kept on reading eventually to Isaiah 56, where he would have found these words. Neither let the sun of the stranger that had joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, "The Lord have utterly separated me from His people. Neither let the unixay behold I am a dry tree, for thus say of the Lord unto the unix that keep my Sabbaths and choose the things that please me and take hold of my covenant, even unto them." That's for you, Mr. Ethiopian. "Even unto them will I give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters, and I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off," Isaiah 56 verses 3 through 5. Can you imagine how his heart must nearly have burst to read such a promise? He likely would have found it hard to believe God's plans. It would include someone like him, but the preacher Philip had been sent to that dry barren place, specifically to expound and explain the scriptures to this who he would consider another, would consider a dry barren man so much that he was fully aware that he too had a place at God's table because no one is excluded. This promise of New Testament salvation is the most inclusive message in all the world, while the world is calling for diversity, equity, inclusion. You will not find any more diverse, equitable, or inclusive group of people hearing a message as you will the gospel. When we get to heaven, it will be filled with diverse people from every kindred and time and people in nation. It will be filled with people who listened and heard and responded to the gospel, that a Jewish carpenter who was the Messiah, who was born in Bethlehem, and walked the streets of Galilee and the seas of Galilee and Capernaum and Judea and died in Jerusalem and was raised from the dead by the power of God Himself. And is coming back for a church who has made herself ready. That Jesus is able to save anyone anywhere, Jew, Gentile, and anyone in between. It is the most inclusive message in the history of humanity and the only message with the power to get us right with God and ready for heaven. That message knows no boundary, no educational ethnic gender or fiscal boundary for whosoever shall call him the name of the Lord shall be saved. God paid the ultimate price on Calvary with his own blood. So everyone who chooses may repent of their sins, be baptized both in water and in the Spirit. That is the will of God. And the Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some man counts slackness, but is long suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance. Second question. How do you show your gratitude that the plan of salvation is for everyone, including and especially you? Just as God's plan to save all people, embraces all people, it encompasses all places. Some religious faiths deem certain locals to be more holy than others and requires followers to make sacred journeys there to commune with God, but the Word of God acknowledges a different truth. From Matthew 18 teaches for where two or three are gathered together in my name, their MI, in the midst of them. Whether that's here in America, or that's in an underground church and in access challenge nation, where two or three people agree together, gather together in the name of the Lord. He is right there. Accidentine even tells us that we can seek the Lord. If happily we might feel after Him and find He's not far from any one of us. When we follow Jesus, He comes where we are, no matter where we are. That is amazing truth for somebody out there who's not able to get to the house of God. Maybe you live so far away from the nearest church that you can't make it except once a week and that's on Sundays or maybe you're part of a home where you're not able to get to church because you don't drive or maybe you're a teenager and you can't go because your parents don't live for God. They don't believe in God and they don't support you believing in living for God either. But here's the beauty in your house. You can live for God even if you can't make it to his house. You can't make it to the building where the people of God gather together. God will come to your house and you can have an experience with God. You can have an encounter with God for where two or three gather together and let's say there's not even two there to gather with you, but you call in the name of the Lord. He will be there and He will minister to you. The meeting place that God had orchestrated for the Ethiopian, Unic and the man of God, Philip, occurred in Gaza. The southern boundary of Israel, Gaza is located in a desert land known as the Negev. To an arid place, average is only about one inch of rain per year, subject to extremely hot temperatures, not a hospitalful environment in which to travel or interact with people, you probably wouldn't be building a convention center in that desert. That's where God chose to bring a Unic to a profound revelation of how much God loves Him. The blistering heat did not stop God's will for this man's life. The barren sand could not thwart God's plan. Even a shortage of water was not insurmountable. They arrived at an oasis there in the desert just as this Ethiopian Unic was ready to be baptized. The circumstances or settings of our lives should not, must not deter us from doing the will of God. The chronicles of God's church include accounts of people being saved from a righteous home with godly parents and others who were saved from the home of the town drunk. Affluent cities, as well as despondent barrios have seen the Holy Ghost change lives. God is for the down and out, God is for the up and out, anyone who's out, God is for. There's not even one nation on the face of this earth that is outside the bounds of God touching that nation. No matter how politically opposed, they might be to the gospel. God still gets in there and changes lives. Nothing can. Nothing will stop God from reaching His people in that land. For the word of God promises this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then the end will come. No matter where a hungry soul is, God will find them and God will send someone to them to share the gospel with them. God went to great lengths to arrange this conversation between Philip and the Ethiopian for a simple and profound reason. This Ethiopian was hungry after God. Before we're born again, spiritual starvation is at work within us. We might try to feel that craving with any number of carnal pursuits, but each of us craves spiritual communion with our Creator. Nothing else can satisfy that longing the writer was right to right. Only Jesus can satisfy your soul. The wonderful news of the gospel is that Jesus can and Jesus will satisfy the soul that desires and enough to seek Him. When Jesus presented what we call the Beatitudes, one of them is, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. A relationship with Jesus fills us with all good things and finally fulfills the spiritual lack and hunger we have known. John 6 Jesus said unto them, "I am the bread of life. He that come at the Me shall never hunger, and he that believe with on Me shall never thirst." When we hunger for God, we desire more of Him than the pitiful substitutes we have been consuming. God will meet us anywhere we are. Which brings us to another question. What are the indicators that a person is hungry for more of God? It times it might feel like we're impossibly distant from God. Our choices and their consequences may lead us into dark and lonely places the enemy of our souls would love to convince us that we have gone too far down a spiritually destructive path. That God cannot find us where we are and all of our despair and all of our regrets and all of our of only I have had and sin, all of our I wish I would have. God can find us right there. The Bible offers this beautiful hope in the 139th Psalm. As the Psalmist asked the question, "Whither shall I go from thy spirit and "whither shall I flee from thy presence?" If I ascend up into heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in hell, you're there. If I take the wings in the morning, if I dwell in the uttermost part of the sea, even there your hand will lead me in your right hand will hold me. No matter where you are, I promise he is. If you're in the funeral home today, arranging a funeral that you did not expect to arrange, he is there. If you're in the operating room, he is there. If you're in the waiting room, he is there. If you're in the courtroom, he is there. If you're trying to find a room because you've been kicked out of the room where you were before, he is there. If you're in the recovery house, if you're in a [BLANK_AUDIO]
Halfway House. If you're in a prison cell and somehow you're able to hear this podcast, I promise you, he is there. He is there to reach you, to minister to you, right where you are. Salvation is the greatest miracle we can receive, being able to have a right relationship with Jesus Christ, the greatest wonder in all the world. Medical science does things that boggle the human mind, even to the point of restoring limbs or organs that previously had broken down, but nobody but Jesus can bring sinful humanity into right relationship with Almighty God. For an inherently sinful person to be the recipient of the righteousness of Jesus is nothing short of a miracle. After Philip preached Jesus to the Unic, the Unic was convinced, persuaded, and he looked up to see a rare pool of water in the desert, or what a sight that must have been, and the Unic asked. Here is water. What hinders me from being baptized. And Philip's response made it very clear, "If you believe with all your heart, you may, and he beamed and grinned, and he said, 'I believe, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.' Only two prerequisites for baptism exist. Belief and repentance. Those can't be separated from one another. The Unic was new to faith, but his belief in willingness to repent of his sins was enough to make him a candidate for baptism." Here's a question. What was your experience like when you were baptized in Jesus' name? I want to say this. It's wonderful when someone has a Bible study before they're baptized so they can really realize exactly why they're being baptized. But if somebody says, "I believe, Jesus is Christ." Yes, I believe he died for my sins. Yes, I believe he wants to forgive me and wash my sins away. They believe and they have repented. They are ready to be baptized. The choice is ours. If we choose to put our faith in Jesus, the miracle of salvation is ours for the asking. We choose to repent of our sins. We choose to get in the water to be baptized in Jesus' name. We choose to open wide our heart. And God chooses to open wide heaven and pour out His Spirit. Luke in the book of Acts only records the Ethiopian as being water baptized, but we know it's salvation entails for the rest of the book of Acts. Philip had just come from preaching revival in Samaria, preaching the gospel, and watching people be water baptized and Spirit baptized. And we know, either from direct reference or strong inference to all those elements recorded in Acts, too, it's only reasonable to believe that this unique did not just receive water baptism, but also spiritual baptism. And it's the same message we preach today. That message requires the same response from all of us. Faith, repentance, water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, and receiving the Holy Spirit. Thank God. Salvation is for anyone at any time in any place. And today is the perfect day for you to respond to this glorious gospel. Last question. Have you already experienced this miracle of salvation? And if not, let me ask you the question. The Ethiopian asks the preacher, what does hinder you? And why you think about that? Really think about that. Let's wrap this up. If we lined up the people who believed in Jesus from the gospels and from the book of Acts, they would form a uniquely disparate group. It would be difficult, quite nigh impossible, if not impossible, to find many similarities in their backgrounds. We would find the rich and the poor. We would find people from the left side of the aisle and from the right side of the aisle, and maybe even people sitting in the aisle. People from the ruling class, people from the working class, uneducated, some unlearned. All they had in common was Jesus saved them. Joseph of Arimathea would be there. He buried Jesus in his own tomb. Matthew 27 calls him a rich man, which fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 53 that Jesus would be with the rich in his death. Mark 15 calls Joseph an honorable counselor in Luke 23 called him good and just and clarified he had not consented to the counsel's decisions to crucify Jesus. So we would find a rich, religious leader with a lot of respect and influence. We'd find him in that line. We'd also find Mary Magdalene whom Luke 8 tells Jesus cast seven devils out of her. We'd find two exdemaniacs from Guderia and they would be beaming because Jesus had cast thousands of strange and horrific spirits out of them, which caused them to commit all manner of abominable and hideous acts and yet Jesus cast every one of them out when he simply said go. In that line, we'd find Zacche who lined his pockets with dishonest gains by cheating his own people when he collected taxes to pay the hated Romans. And we'd find Simon the Zealot who was trained from an early age to assassinate and overthrow the Roman government and he would have killed people like Zaccheus because Zaccheus was a turn coat to the Romans from the Jews. And here's the amazing thing. When Jesus joined his disciples together, he joined Matthew a tax collector and Simon the Zealot, the one who was trained to get rid of those tax collectors. The Apostle Paul would be there with his advanced educational degrees hanging on the wall, a man of influence and wealth, but alongside him would be the ignorant and unlearned fisherman who followed Jesus. Each of them, with their own story to tell, which would vary vastly, but each of them had one similar chapter in their story, the one where each of them responded to the gospel. And Jesus forgave their sins, whether they were many or few and saved their souls. And when you get to church on Sunday, you'll see the same thing. Those are manifold stories of the grace of God, people who are up and out, people who are down and out, and yet all of them invited in to covenant relationship with God through the gospel. Because of his grace, it's hard to imagine our fellow worshipers like they were before they knew Jesus, drug addiction, immorality, anger, hatred, some of them may even have felonies on their record. And yet all of them are among those we sit with and worship with on Sunday and one day will worship with around the throne. But the wonder of salvation is this, "No, you not, but the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Oh, don't be deceived, neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, or covetous, or drunkards, or violers, or extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God, and such were some of you, but you are washed. You are sanctified, you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. The gap between such were and but you are is the measure of grace. Because this miracle of salvation is still available to anyone, anywhere. I want us to pray for God to allow us, lead us to experience this miracle of salvation. If you have not yet pray with me that God would lead you to experience this miracle of salvation and then to help others experience the miracle of salvation because there are a whole lot more such were some of you out there, God wants the but you are to reach. I love you Jesus. Thank you for this miracle of salvation. Thank you for loving us enough, forgiving our sins, filling us with your Spirit, washing our sins away, writing your name on our life, adopting us into your family. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I pray for every listener, every teacher, every student to experience this miracle of salvation and help us to help others experience this same miracle. I know you want to do for them what you have done for us. I pray Jesus, no barrier, no wall, no boundary would divide your grace from your people and those you are wanting to reach. I ask you Jesus for everyone, everywhere you would pour out your Spirit and draw us closer to you to be saved and help others. In Jesus name I pray, let it happen. In Jesus name. Amen, amen, amen. I feel the Holy Ghost right now reaching wherever you are, if you have not yet been saved, not yet repent to just call out on Jesus, Jesus I am so sorry. I have made a mess of my life. I have wrecked my life and maybe even others but I want to be changed. I want to be saved. I am turning my life around and giving my heart my life to you. Jesus forgive me and He will. Then reach out if you do not yet have a church family, go to uPCI.org. Type in your zip code, your postal code if you are around the world. Glow to globalmissions.com. If you are here in the United States or Canada, uPCI.org, you can type in your zip code, postal code find a church nearby. You reach out today to that church, to that church family and say, "Hey, I want what God has for me." And you can reach out to me if you are having any trouble.
[email protected]. I know curriculum is kind of a tough word to spell. 2Rs1L. You can reach out to me at
[email protected]. That's L-H-A-R-R-Y. At uPCI.org and I will do my best to help you find a church nearby. If you are from around the world, go to globalmissions.com. Do a search for missionaries in your country or your people group.
and you will likely find a missionary not far from you who can introduce you to this glorious gospel. Preach it to you so you can hear it and you can receive everything Jesus has for you. There is so much more for you and you have already experienced and God has it just for you. Thank you so much for tuning into this God's Word for Life podcast. Share it with somebody else who needs to hear the gospel and go to penicostrapublishing.com and fill up with wonderful resources, Bibles and Bible studies and books and music and all the God's Word for Life resources from little learners, which are all the way from pre-K, all the way up to adults. You'll find God's Word for Life curriculum for every age level, every age group, including those who may have difficulty understanding because of some disabilities they're dealing with. You can find able supplements or special education supplements in the children and the youth curriculum that will help them to learn the Word of God better in a way that they will understand it better. So much available to you, for you and for others, penicostrapublishing.com. Next week we continue this series of miracles and what wonderful miracles they are. Next week's episode is entitled, "Japa's Miracle." I'm looking forward to sharing that with you next week and always look forward to learning and living out God's Word for Life. Thank you for listening to God's Word for Life, Lesson Companion Podcast, where together we explore what it means to live out God's Word in our lives. If you haven't yet, make sure to subscribe to this podcast and if you are looking for other Bible study tools and resources to encourage you and your walk with God, visit us today at penicostrapublishing.com.
PodcastTranscript AI