In Acts chapter 8, when the Ethiopian eunuch invited Philip to come and sit with him he was reading that passage in Isaiah 53 that describes the blessed Jesus.
And the eunuch turned to the evangelist and said, “Of whom is the prophet speaking? Is he talking about himself or of some other man? And beginning at the same Scripture, he preached unto him Jesus.” There are some mighty and wonderful things revealed to us in that simple avowal: “And . . . he preached unto him Jesus.”
The gospel message is the simple story of Jesus. That’s what it is. In 1 Corinthian 15 Paul delineates what the gospel is: “Brethren, I declare unto you, I make known unto you the gospel wherein ye stand, wherein ye are saved.” What is it? “How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, He was buried, and the third day He rose again, according to the scriptures.”
First, the way of salvation begins with the simple story of Jesus: Jesus born of a virgin; Jesus going about in His ministry doing good; Jesus dying on the cross for our sins; Jesus buried in the tomb; the third day, Jesus raised from among the dead; forty days later Jesus ascending up into heaven; Jesus at the right hand of God; and some triumphant, golden tomorrow, Jesus coming again. The heart and the core and the center of the gospel message is always the simple story of Jesus.
Second, the way of salvation is that plain and simple way of trusting Jesus. Wherever in the Bible God tells a man how to be saved, He always does it in a single sentence. There is no exception to that.
John 1:12, John 3:16, John 5:24, Romans 10:9-10—wherever God tells us how to be saved, He will always do it in one simple sentence.
Third, the way of salvation is always a simple act, committing your life to the Lord Jesus.
The great act of conversion is the committal of your life to the Lord Jesus, plainly and simply. “I commit my life, my soul, my destiny, my every tomorrow, every hope I have—Lord, I commit it unto Thee. I place it in Thy dear, nail-pierced hands.” From now on it belongs to Him: my heart, my destiny, my every tomorrow.
Fourth, it is entrance into the church, the family of God, in obedience to the great commandment, the Great Commission of the Lord Jesus. We are to make disciples of all people, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 12:13, “By one Spirit are we all baptized into the body of Christ.” And that’s the first thing that will come into the heart of somebody who trusts in the Lord as Savior.
“Pastor, I want to be baptized just as Jesus was, just as He commanded, and just as all of the saved of God have been.” As the eunuch says to Philip, “See, here is water. I want to be baptized.”
Fifth and last, it is our assignment now and forever to praise the blessed Lord Jesus. He’s everything. He’s all in all; loving Him, serving Him, dedicating heart and life and tomorrow to Him, just loving the Lord, praising God forever.
Is that not the sign and the image and the revelation of heaven itself ? “Unto Him”—I’m quoting now the redeemed of all of the ages, revealed to us in the Apocalypse—“Unto Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, unto Him be glory and dominion and power forever and forever!” That is the paean of praise.
That’s the text of the anthem that we shall sing in heaven and in earth—just praising Jesus, our all in all; a people waiting for the Lord, loving the Lord, serving the Lord, committing heart and life to the blessed Jesus. “And he preached unto him Jesus.”
