FIVE ASPECTS OF THE GLAD TIDINGS
FIVE ASPECTS OF THE GLAD TIDINGS
Acts 8:4,5; Acts 8:12; Acts 8:25; Acts 8:35
What is in mind in this address is that the various features of the gospel presented in this chapter should come before us, and that in considering these five features of it everyone present may in some way be helped, those who have believed and are established christians, those who are young in the faith, and those who are not in the faith at all. The last are the ones that are particularly in mind, with the desire that this remarkable chapter, affording so much instruction as to the gospel, should yield much for them.
I shall first speak of the gospel mentioned in its general bearing in verses 25 and 40. Following on that in the spiritual order is verse 12, which speaks of the glad tidings concerning the kingdom of God. In verse 5 we have another side of the great testimony that God is presenting, the preaching of the Christ, a Man who can do things for God and for men. Then we have in verse 4 the term “the glad tidings of the word”, meaning the word of God. And finally in verse 35, the most attractive term of all, “the glad tidings of Jesus”. Under these five designations of the gospel I propose by the Lord’s help to speak to you. There are other designations of the gospel in the Scripture that are not in this chapter, but this is one of the richest that I know of in such designations. There are thirteen or more in the New Testament, and each one of them has a distinct import which is to be learnt and profited from by believers.
Now the first is the general thought, beloved friends, covering the whole dispensation in which we are, and reflecting the great, divine thought, the simple word “the gospel”. It is a word that is taken up in human language and human thought, but [p. 2] rarely in this sense conveys what Scripture conveys as to it. The Lord Jesus Himself, indeed, sometimes personifies it, it had such a place with Him, and it has still such a place with Him, and in the mind of God, as meeting human ills, as meeting man and relieving him from the effects of sin and fitting him for the presence of God. “The gospel” is a word having a great place in the divine vocabulary in that way and the apostle Paul, reflecting this, almost always speaks of it in a personal sense, exhorting Timothy to be a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. So that the preparation of God in view of the gospel must have been very great, resulting in what is so carefully devised and featured in so many ways, so that no human being should be unable to understand it. Whilst the thought of it is not generally seized among men, yet the very use of the word is a testimony, and the Lord intended that it should be, a testimony that there is such a great thing as the gospel, and that testimony is in full force today, notwithstanding the disregard of it that is so prevalent.
There is no change at all in the attitude of God expressed in it. It remains as fresh and as wide as it was when Christ became Man and ascended up into heaven and the Holy Spirit came down. It retains its power and freshness in the divine mind, and the Holy Spirit being down here, it is still presented in freshness to those who will hear, however small and however few. That is one great thought one has in mind, that it should be presented in the freshness of the Spirit at this time, so that no one here should be afraid of the great general term of the gospel. There are those here doubtless who have never yet appropriated it. Millions have and many round you are appropriating the salvation and blessing available through the gospel, but you have not appropriated it yet.
[p. 3] The apostle Paul was the outstanding preacher and the most effective of all preachers, save the Lord Himself. He says to a number of converts of his in the city of Corinth, “the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received”, 1 Corinthians 15: 1. He had been there eighteen months in this wonderful service, and he tells us that during that period he had preached to them, making a careful selection of the features of the truth which he should present. And he says, ‘you received what I preached unto you’. Now what is important in regard to what we are here for this afternoon is whether we have received the gospel, and as having received it, what effect it has had on us. He says, “which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand” (1 Corinthians 15: 1), and then he adds a very sorrowful word, “Unless ye have believed in vain”.
Believed in vain! Let that touch anyone here who thought he believed the gospel years ago, and it has not been effective in him. We cannot say that anyone is really saved, either potentially or actually, in whom the gospel has not become effective. The apostle mournfully has to add that word, “Unless ye have believed in vain”.
Some of you may never have heard such words as that, but the apostle Paul used them in writing to these professed believers at Corinth. It may be there are those here who have thought that they believed to their salvation, and yet there is no effect of the gospel, no change of outlook, no change of life, no change of associations, no thought whatever of coming out of the world. The fact that you say, I was converted at such-and-such a date, by such-and-such a preacher, is not enough. The apostle raises a serious doubt with these christians: “Unless ye have believed in vain”. He goes on then to state the terms that he had presented. He says, “How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
[p. 4] and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve [that is the twelve apostles]: after that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once ... .. After that he was seen of James; then of all the apostles” (changing the word from “twelve” to “apostles” ). “And last of all he was seen of me also”, 1 Corinthians 15: 4 - 8. You received what I presented to you, and he adds significantly and sorrowfully, “unless ye have believed in vain”. These terms, if received in full in the soul of a believer, man, woman, or child, will save him. “That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures”. There is no doubt that the idea of the gospel had been foretold or foreseen of old. The prophets witnessed to it. They searched “what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow” (1 Peter 1: 11), and Peter goes on to say that this testimony, the gospel, was preached unto them “by the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven”. Think of the wonderful provision God has made, first in the gift of His beloved Son, in the death of that holy Person, who died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was buried and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures and appeared to all these people. Think of the pains that God has gone to, in order that men should have a clear testimony to what He has provided; that they should be saved, for He is not willing that any should perish. He has gone to infinite pains that the testimony should come to you of the wonderful provisions that God has made that you should be saved.
The first is that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. There is no question about it. The Scriptures have foretold it and it has become a fact, that He died for our sins. Why should you or I [p. 5] die for them? Thank God I shall not, for the Lord Jesus says, “Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die”, John 11:26. You say, ‘That is denied every day’. It is not denied, it is the truth, for the Christian does not taste death. He falls asleep in Jesus, only awaiting the resurrection shout to take him out of the grave, for that is the resurrection part of the gospel: “He rose again the third day according to the scriptures”. He was raised first; “Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming”. The saints will be raised by the same power that raised Christ. The present time is the time of the soul’s salvation; presently we shall have body salvation; so that a saint falling asleep and buried like others is not subservient to death, it is only a little moment and he comes into body salvation, he is only awaiting redemption, the redemption of our bodies.
The first great thing is that He died for our sins according to the Scriptures. If there is anybody here troubled about his sins, I say it is well to be troubled about them and to confess them, but the gospel is that you might be relieved from all pressures as regards sins. There is forgiveness with God in order that your heart may be relieved from your sins, for Christ died for your sins according to the Scriptures; and secondly He was buried. You say, ‘What has that to do with redemption?’ A great deal. It would be utterly derogatory to Christ our Saviour to say that He was in the grave in any other sense than vicariously. He must be there vicariously; burying was necessary. It is a very solemn thing that God said to man, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return”, Genesis 3: 19. One of the most terrible things to the unregenerate mind is the grave and God intended it to be so. There is no discharge in that war. What can you do? You are utterly powerless as dying in your sins and buried in your sins. You [p. 6] are held in the grip of death, and it is the judgment of God that man should lie in the grave and return to the dust.
Not that that is the end of man. It is utterly false to assume that that is the end. Not at all, for we are told that the dead in Christ will rise more than a thousand years before those who die in their sins. Then, after the thousand years, there will be the judgment of God, for we are told that death and hell were cast into the lake of fire which is the second death; that is a most terrible thing. The grave is as nothing compared with what will come after the grave! If the grave were the end of everything then I could understand how men would think nothing of it; but it is not the end, it is only a means to an end, as we have in the awful picture of the rich man who died and was buried, and who in hell lifted up his eyes being in torment. Do not tell me that is only a figure; it is a fact. It is from the lips of Jesus who is the truth and the fulness of it! Death is not final. It is not Gehenna. It is the grave — Hades. Gehenna is the full thought “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched”, Mark 9: 44. You say you are preaching judgment. Why should I not? It is only to warn you. The apostle Paul says, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven”, Romans 1: 18.
So you can see how Jesus was buried vicariously so that, as He came out of death, so shall we. Christ is viewed as taken out of the grave. “Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming”. That is in 1 Corinthians 15, a very long chapter. These long chapters suggest that the truth is so important, so vital to every believer, that God spreads it out for us, and I would urge everyone to read that chapter and ponder it prayerfully. It finishes up with “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory”. It is a triumphant chapter and it begins with the verses that I quoted, relating to the terms of the gospel “by which also ye are saved ... unless ye have believed in vain”. We are saved as receiving these wonderful terms on the principle of faith, first “that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures”; and secondly, “that he was buried”, and thirdly “that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures”. Paul himself says elsewhere, He “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification”, Romans 4: 25.
Think of the Spirit of God writing all this down through the apostle, as though the death of Christ was for nothing else than for our offences. How God would impress upon us that He was thinking of the load of sins that sinners would bear, and that He delivered Christ for those offences in order that there should be a perfect clearance. He “was raised again for our justification”, mark you, as if there was nothing else but our sins to be removed and our justification. Of course, there is much more in these things, but the Spirit of God in preaching the gospel would impress upon every man, woman and child that God was thinking of him in the death of Christ. “Delivered for our offences and ... raised again for our justification”. And then there is in that wonderful verse, Romans 5:1, a triumphant “therefore”: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand”. Is there anyone here a non-participator in these things? Our hearts would yearn for you. There is such folly in turning a deaf ear to, or treating lightly, these wonderful things that God has provided in the death of Christ and formulated into what is so commonly called the gospel.
Then there are these witnesses — Cephas, the great apostle Peter, and twelve chosen men, and then five hundred brethren, every one a witness by his own eyes of the resurrection of Christ. These five hundred [p. 8] brethren were there all at one time. Can anyone be so foolish as to deny such adequate and overwhelming testimony of the resurrection of Christ? He was seen by over five hundred brethren at one time, and by others, too, James, and the twelve apostles and then Paul himself, the greatest witness of all coming in last but seeing the most. He comes to tell all that he saw, and he saw more than the others, for he saw a glorified Christ, a Christ who appeared to him out of heaven. Such is the gospel, beloved friends. Can you wonder that those of us who seek fully to preach Christ are full of triumph as we do it? It is the most triumphant thing that has ever been devised for man. There is the gospel, the mystery of it, the terms under which it is presented, such as the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, the glad tidings, the unsearchable riches of Christ. Think of all these terms intended to fill the minds of believers and make them triumphant!
Well now I have dwelt upon this first point in verses 25 and 40, the gospel mentioned separately. The next word I present is “the glad tidings concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ” (verse 12). After a person believes, according to what I have been saying, he needs protection, and not only that, but he needs subjection. Protection and subjection are the words I should use in connection with the kingdom. There is enjoyment in the kingdom, but the idea of the kingdom is that when men and women as believers in Christ come into the good of forgiveness, and know that they are clear, that they are justified, the next thing they need is the Spirit of God, and we are carefully told “that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”, Romans 10: 9.
It is not only believing, but confessing, and what that implies is the gift of the Holy Spirit; and so we [p. 9] are told in this book of the Acts that all who are subject to Christ get the Spirit. There may be delay, for God reserves His own liberty in regard to the gift of the Spirit. It is a gift, and can never be automatic, but in a general way we are told that those who obey Christ get the Spirit. No one ever gets the Spirit otherwise. It would be utterly incongruous to think of God giving His Spirit to a disobedient person. He gives the Spirit to those who obey Christ, and so Christ is said to have been made both Lord and Christ as ascended into heaven. He was always that personally, the testimony of the angel was that “unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord”, Luke 2: 11.
Personally He was that, Christ the Lord, but in Acts 2, Peter tells us “God hath made that same Jesus ... both Lord and Christ”; that is to say, He is established in heaven as the Man who does everything for God, and as the Man who rules; and what He is doing now is ruling persons. He will rule the universe presently, in the meantime He is ruling persons; one of the most important things is for a believer to come under the direct rule of Christ, and as coming under it to take up that attitude and say “Lord”. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”, Romans 10:9. Now that implies that you get the Spirit. There can be no salvation today without the Spirit. Some may have a meagre thought of salvation; it is not merely a ticket to get through and escape judgment to come. It is a present thing; hence we are told that Jesus gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from this present world, and to give us the Spirit. He gives us a good conscience and forgiveness, and then He gives us the Spirit, and so Peter says, “Having therefore been exalted by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father [p. 10] the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which ye behold and hear”, Acts 2:33.
The Spirit is here from a glorified Christ and a constituted Lord in heaven, and He is here to bring all into subjection to Christ; and let me assure you, whatever you are told the gospel is, that aside from subjection to Christ and the presence of the Spirit, there is no present salvation. It is soul salvation. You will get body salvation by and by. The Lord Jesus will raise you from the dead and quicken you, but in the meantime you want soul salvation, and there is no soul salvation apart from the ground of subjection to Christ and the Spirit received, and confessing with the mouth the Lord Jesus and believing in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead. That is what I understand by Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God. One would love to have heard what Philip said. It is a divine subject to contemplate; he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God.
Now, thirdly, in verse 5, we have the preaching of the Christ which, as I understand and have already intimated, alludes to Christ as the One whom God has anointed to do everything for Himself and everything for us. Think of having a Man in heaven who will do everything spiritually needed! He is our High Priest up there, and we are told, “He ever liveth to make intercession for us”, as if He were not doing anything else. I would like you to get that thought, beloved friends, that there is a Man living night and day to make intercession for you, and so it says, “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him”, Hebrews 7: 25.
What a salvation, beloved friends, and what a Saviour! That is Christ. Then the next thought is “the glad tidings of the word”. In the New Translation you will see that verse 4 says they “went through the countries announcing the glad tidings of the word”. They were unofficial persons, scattered persons, and yet were preaching the glad tidings of the word. You say, ‘What is that? What more do I need, than the glad tidings, and the glad tidings of the kingdom, and the preaching of Christ?’ Well, the Spirit of God thinks you need more, and that more is ‘the word’. You have got a mind, and Romans teaches you that that mind is to be renewed. It is the greatest faculty a man has, a mind; God has given it to him. In a believer it is renewed, and there are great things open to him. It is not simply that you are saved out of this world; you are saved for another. Did you ever think that God has another world? It is utterly out of all keeping with what is morally right to connect God with this world. He is seeking to save men out of it; doing all in His power to save men out of it. He is not willing that any should perish, but then He has another world. The Son of God has inaugurated another world and that world is for the believer, and you ought to be instructed in it. It is infinitely more important to be instructed in the world that God has opened up to you. Even if you knew all the sciences, all that is to be known, what would it be? It would all die with you. It has nothing to do with God’s world but His word discloses all that this may mean for you.
The glad tidings of the word would be that the mind of God in the gospel should enter into our hearts. What can be greater as a matter of understanding, as a matter of study and contemplation, than to see what God has in His mind for us? And that is what these scattered saints in those early days were concerned about, the glad tidings of the word. It would deliver us from all novel-reading. Young Christians are damaged beyond words in devouring lies. There is unmitigated judgment meted out on persons who believe and make lies. The novel-reader and writer are classed together. God hates it; but even young [p. 12] Christian people go in for it. Now these glad tidings of the word would deliver you from all that, because they open up God’s word where everything is true, where we have “a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb”, Revelation 22: 1. Everything is open and above-board, perfectly clear. There is hidden wisdom in it, which God ordained before the world unto our glory. Can we afford to be without these things as Christians? The glad tidings of the word, in the sense in which I am presenting it, changes our minds; it turns us away from the things that men would present to hold the minds of the unregenerate. The newspaper and the monthly magazine, and all these things that men of letters produce, are intended to hold the mind of men in contentment with this present evil world. It is all to pass away, the whole of it, learning and all, passing away for God’s world. We are told, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him”, 1 Corinthians 2: 9. Can you afford to be ignorant about these things? I certainly cannot, and many here cannot, and God is appealing to all these young people, for we are nominal Christians, and really so, I hope. God is appealing to you now as to these glad tidings of the word. The gospel is opening up the mind of God to you so that your mind shall be full of it, in glad appreciation of all the priceless worth of it.
Finally, and perhaps this is most attractive, in verse 35 we get the glad tidings of Jesus. It is the most beautiful expression. Doubtless most of us have heard the gospel preached many times from this remarkable passage which concerns the Ethiopian eunuch, a remarkable man among the many distinguished men that this book of the Acts speaks of that were saved, for God is no respecter of persons. He would save the Prime Minister of Abyssinia as quickly [p. 13] as He would save the meanest person in Abyssinia, and this man was as the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, and he had been up to Jerusalem to worship. He was a proselyte to the Jewish belief, and was returning from Jerusalem. He had gained little by going there. There is not a word of him having gone to find the apostles or the Lord’s people. He was returning and he was reading the Bible, we can thank God for that! He was sitting in his chariot and reading the Bible, and the Spirit of God had him in mind. He was a distinguished man of this world but has now become a distinguished Christian, a man to be spoken of for generations in the gospel. He is reading a Bible and the Spirit of God brings this obedient servant, who was directed to leave an important work in Samaria and go down to the desert near Gaza, and as he is there the Spirit says, “Join thyself to this chariot” and he does it quickly and is invited up by the exercised man.
Philip says, “Understandest thou what thou readest?” The eunuch says, “How can I, except some man should guide me?” How simple he was! How free from haughty pride! He is a humble contrite man, and that is the man the gospel would take up; Heaven watched his chariot from the time it left Jerusalem. It watched him reading that book and was pleased with him, and sent this servant to speak to him about his soul and instruct him about Jesus. There are many of us here; if there is an exercised person who wants to come into the truth, we would love to tell you about Jesus. Philip was a ready vessel, a true evangelist, and began at that scripture, Isaiah 53, the very heart of the prophets. It is about Jesus, the lowly Saviour, the Person that is in mind who grew up here in this world before Jehovah “as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground”. The eunuch is reading this verse, “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth”.
[p. 14] And Philip began at that scripture. He was fresh, ready, as every evangelist should be, for any emergency, so as to take up a soul where he is, even if he only has a little light about Jesus, like a handful of meal. But true faith in the deity of Christ is enough to save one. A handful of meal refers to His Person, not His death. I am not saying that His death is not essential and will come into it. But the point is to get in touch with Jesus in your soul just where you are. He is the most attractive Person in the universe. He took little infants in His arms. That is Jesus, and He is ready to take you today. It is the glad tidings of Jesus in verse 35. How one would love to have heard Philip the evangelist preach Jesus to this great man!
Then as they went on in the chariot together, the eunuch says,”Here is water”. Philip was not preaching baptism to him. I have no doubt he had done so in Samaria when telling the glad tidings. They believed and were baptised, both men and women. And so it is, as Jesus is fully received, you say, ‘I do not want to stay in the world that has rejected that Man’. The Lord would appeal to you. Jehoshaphat of old was an honourable man, but he had affiliated himself with a people that hated God. He had affiliated himself with Ahab. The Lord says through His servant, You “love them that hate the Lord”,
2 Chronicles 19: 2. Do not forget that, young man or woman, when you link yourself up with worldly people.
Now the eunuch is virtually saying, ‘Christ for me and the friends of Christ for me; I am going to be baptised, I am turning my back on the world’. That is what it means; it is deliverance from the world, that you may live to Christ. You want to be with Him, you do not want to be with His enemies, and so he says, “Here is water”. What is the scripture? “He was taken from prison and from judgment”,
[p. 15] Isaiah 53: 8. That holy precious life is taken from the earth. How can you stay in the world where that life has been cast out? When Pilate brought Him forth, they said, “Away with this man”, Luke 23: 18. The eunuch says, ‘I want to be with Him’, and “Here is water” — marvellous thing that it should be there in the desert! God provided that water, as He provided the blood of Jesus, for that eunuch. He provided that water that he should be baptised. It is really a symbol of Christ’s death, and he appropriated it, as he appropriated the gospel concerning Jesus. He was buried; and our burial is part of the gospel. That is, we are privileged to do it in figure in baptism so as to be with Jesus. “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection”, Romans 6: 5.
In the meantime we walk here in newness of life with Jesus through the desert. And He is walking with you, too. Now Christians, are you ready like the Ethiopian eunuch? He is a leading man in this part of the truth. It is not Philip here, but the eunuch who calls attention to the water; but Philip is ready to use it. He says, ‘I will go down with you’, and he went down with him into the water. What a sight! He had done that before; he had been planted before in the likeness of Christ’s death; and now he would go down again with this new Christian, this fresh young soul in the faith. How lovely to see those two as they went down together! It reminds you of Elijah and Elisha going down to Jordan together. Elijah wraps his mantle together, and smites the water, and the waters are divided; and after they had gone over the Jordan they went on and talked. Is that not attractive to you, to be in company with those who can walk and talk as it were in communion? What would be their theme? What would Elijah and Elisha talk about now but heavenly things? And so these two, presenting such [p. 16] a beautiful picture for us, go down into the water. What a sight! And Philip baptised him after announcing the glad tidings of Jesus to him, and the eunuch went away rejoicing.
May God grant that someone here may take sides with Jesus in baptism. It is association with Christ; it is definitely turning your back on the world that hated Him, and association with Him and with His people. As another said, “Thy people shall be my people”, Ruth 1: 16. That is, the Lord’s people are available to you, and the great heritage that God has provided for His people is the saints. May God bless these words to us for Christ’s sake.