Unstoppable: God’s Plan For Multiplication

Would God Want Me?

Introduction: God’s Unstoppable Mission

• Jesus assembled a team to spread God’s will on earth
• The mission: for people to repent, claim Jesus as Messiah and Son of God
• This mission has remained unchanged through generations

Three Unexpected Converts

1. God Wants the Scarred People to Come to Him – The Ethiopian Eunuch

[Acts 8:26-27] “As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, ‘Go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship…”

• Eunuchs were traditionally excluded from the assembly of the Lord
• God’s promise of restoration through Isaiah

[Isaiah 56:4-5] “For this is what the LORD says: I will bless those eunuchs who keep my Sabbath days holy and who choose to do what pleases me and commit their lives to me. I will give them–within the walls of my house–a memorial and a name far greater than sons and daughters could give. For the name I give them is an everlasting one. It will never disappear!”

2. God Wants the Bad People to Come to Him – Saul the Persecutor

[Acts 9:1-4] “Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers. So he went to the high priest. He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them–both men and women–back to Jerusalem in chains. As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?'”

“But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased him to reveal his Son to me so that I would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles.” – Paul (Galatians 1:15-16)

3. God Wants the Outsiders to Come to Him – Cornelius the Centurion

[Acts 10:1-4] “In Caesarea there lived a Roman army officer named Cornelius, who was a captain of the Italian Regiment. He was a devout, God-fearing man, as was everyone in his household. He gave generously to the poor and prayed regularly to God. One afternoon about three o’clock, he had a vision in which he saw an angel of God coming toward him. ‘Cornelius!’ the angel said. Cornelius stared at him in terror. ‘What is it, sir?’ he asked the angel. And the angel replied, ‘Your prayers and gifts to the poor have been received by God as an offering!'”

[Acts 10:28] “Peter told them, ‘You know it is against our laws for a Jewish man to enter a Gentile home like this or to associate with you. But God has shown me that I should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean.'”

Key Observations

1. In all three cases, the follower of Jesus had to overcome a barrier
2. In all three cases, God initiated reconciliation with someone who didn’t qualify
3. Baptism followed immediately after conversion in each case

[Galatians 3:26-28] “For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.”