This week's Sermon from First B Jackson January 19th

In one paragraph

Pastor Mark opened with a candid admission that he had second-guessed something he said the previous week, and then walked through the account of Philip and the Ethiopian official in Acts 8. The through-line was a simple question he kept returning to: do you want the ball? By the end of the service, Ernesto had been baptized. Before getting into the text, Pastor Mark circled back to Simon Magus...

Read together

1. Acts 8:26-40 the primary passage for the sermon, Philip and the Ethiopian official
2. Isaiah 53:7-8 the passage the Ethiopian eunuch was reading aloud in his carriage, quoted in the Septuagint version and then in the New Living Translation
3. Matthew 28:18-20 the Great Commission, quoted as Jesus giving all authority and commanding his followers to go make disciples, baptize, and teach

Talk about it

1. Philip left a successful revival in Samaria immediately when he received his assignment, without the sermon mentioning any hesitation or preparation. What makes that kind of immediacy easy or hard for you in your own life?
2. The Ethiopian official said he could not understand what he was reading unless someone explained it to him. When have you been in a position where you needed someone to walk alongside you in understanding scripture, or where you were the one doing the walking alongside?
3. The pastor pointed out that the eunuch went on his way rejoicing even after Philip was suddenly gone, with no follow-up, no class, no community visible to him yet. What does that tell us about what actually sustains someone who has just come to faith?
4. The great commission phrase 'go and make disciples' is also a participle, meaning 'as you are going.' How does that change the way you think about evangelism in your ordinary daily life, not just in formal ministry settings?
5. The pastor asked the congregation directly, 'Do you want the ball?' Thinking about the basketball analogy he used, what does it actually look like to want the ball when it comes to sharing the gospel, and what gets in the way of wanting it?