THE GLAD TIDINGS OF JESUS
E. M. Walkinshaw
Acts 8: 34, 35; Galatians 1: 15–17
Our brother has spoken to us about the greatness of God and the way He has come near to us.
The good news that we preach is about a Person. We do not just preach the Bible, or preach doctrines, but we preach a Person, a Person in whom God has come near to us. That is why I read these two scriptures, because in each of them the Person is preached.
In the first passage it says that Philip “announced the glad tidings of Jesus to him”, and in the second—“God ... was pleased to reveal his Son in me, that I may announce him as glad tidings”, showing that the good news is the presentation of the Person to men, that God might be known in the heart of man. The law told us what to do, but we were unable to do it; the law is holy, just, and good, but man is lost. But God has come in in the Person of Jesus and we are not told what we are to do, but that Jesus has done everything for us. The Ethiopian had come up to worship, but did not understand the Scriptures. But beginning at the scripture from which he was reading Philip preached the glad tidings of Jesus. How this confirms what we were saying this afternoon that the Scriptures testify of Jesus. This man was evidently affected by the preaching because he was prepared to be baptised and Philip went down into the water with him. The part of the Scriptures which he was reading was this “his life is taken from the earth”. That is, the life of Jesus was taken somewhere else, and after having heard the glad tidings of Jesus I am sure the life of the eunuch would have been somewhere else. Where would it have been?
It would have been where Jesus was. I have often wondered about this eunuch. It says, “he went on his way rejoicing”. You might have asked him. Where is Philip? and he might well have said, I was so occupied with Jesus that I did not miss him. How wonderful when the preacher goes out of sight and the only Person who occupies us is Jesus. So he went on his way rejoicing.
Philip must have spoken of the work of Jesus; he must have spoken, I would think, of His being wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, “the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed”, Isaiah 53: 5. How wonderful to think of the Person and the work of Jesus, One who has done everything for God, glorified God in His death, maintained the rights and the glory of God’s throne, and at the same time met all our need. We can well understand that dark man returning to his country rejoicing.
We are not told the effect of his return, but I believe that even until today Ethiopia is largely a nominally Christian country. We are not told of converts, or of the spread of the glad tidings through the eunuch, but if he was rejoicing we can surely say persons would ask him why. He might have said something about Philip, but I think mainly he would tell them about Jesus; and the gospel of the same Person reaches us. Paul also says, “We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus Lord” (2 Corinthians 4: 5); again, he is preaching a Person. The law gave us no object for our hearts, but the glad tidings gives us the Lord Jesus as an object for our hearts.
Now in Galatians Paul speaks of preaching the Son of God. He says, “that I may announce him as glad tidings”. Paul’s thoughts and affections were occupied with the Person. Now when Paul announced the Son of God he would announce a Person who has done everything for God, who has introduced another world altogether for God’s pleasure, and Paul was bound up in his affections with that Man. You can see therefore that, although Paul would give us doctrine, the object before him would always be the Son of God. He says a little later, “the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me” (Galatians 2: 20). How good if each one of us could say the same as Paul! He says, “I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness is by law, then Christ has died for nothing”, (Galatians 2: 21). What a solemn thing! These Galatians were putting themselves under law, and that was really saying, “Christ has died for nothing”. He wanted them to be delivered from it; he wanted them to come into the liberty of sonship, that they might know the Son of God and each one of them be able to say, “the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”. They had received the Spirit evidently, and we have received the Spirit; but think of Paul having to say, “having begun in Spirit, are ye going to be made perfect in flesh?” (Galatians 3: 3). Think of leaving the Spirit to go on in the flesh! It does show that we are capable of such things—hence the great emphasis on the Son of God in this epistle and also on the Holy Spirit. For example, “If we live by the Spirit, let us walk also by the Spirit”. And then there is “the fruit of the Spirit”, showing how important it is that we should be maintained in the knowledge of the Son of God and the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
May we be encouraged, dear brethren, that we may see that in the glad tidings God presents a Person as the object of our hearts, and not the law to govern our lives. That does not mean that principles are not maintained and that law according to God is not right; but it does mean that we have an object for our hearts, and power in the Holy Spirit to walk here to please God, and not to please ourselves. May the Lord help us to do this for His glory. Amen.
Preaching at Valence
5 February 1984