So…
Sometimes God can use what looks to us to be a disaster, as a new beginning. Amazingly, God uses willing disciples to make that beginning.
Are you willing?
Lots of us are willing to listen to God and to consider God’s claims on us. But are we willing, like Philip, to get up and go and do and make a difference?
Philip, you may remember was a Deacon, a Deacon who believed that all believers need to get busy sharing the good news with everyone. Not a real surprise, because our Deacons, at least, are crazy!
You may have heard we have a food pantry. And in the last two weeks our Deacons have purchased and moved 83 cases of food into our basement for folks who need food help, for a total cost of $166. They get stuff done, in Jesus’ name!
So, it should come as no surprise that a Deacon, Philip is doing it again!
Last week Philip was with Samaritans, the heretics who had rejected traditional Judaism, at the time of the split between the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel. They, the Northern Kingdom, had created their own nation and their own version of Judaism and a separate capital city called Samaria.
They were roundly despised by traditional Jews, but Philip didn’t care.
He knew that the gospel was to be preached to everyone everywhere, and even though Samaritans were not welcome at the banquet tables of traditional Jews, they were welcome at the banquet feast of the lamb slain, Jesus.
Jesus had told his disciples, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And he said, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
So, that’s what Philip was doing! How about you?
Sometimes God can use what looks to us to be a disaster, as a new beginning. Amazingly, God uses willing disciples to make that beginning.
Are you willing?
Philip then found himself in the desert. Not sure how that works, but there he was and there he hears a man reading from the Old Testament.
When was the last time that happened to you?
Keep in mind, regular folks in Philip’s day did not ride in chariots. This guy wasn’t driving the horses. He was sitting & reading. So, big chariot.
And that meant he was somebody big, important and powerful. And it was clear, God had prepared him and Philip for a conversation.
This is kind of like taking a stroll over to Micks’ Market to get Jeff a bacon, egg, and cheese on a hard roll, no salt, pepper or ketchup (just saying) and finding yourself standing in line next to, I don’t know, a huge celebrity, just as they just happen to say, “I wonder why a church would use the hasktags #tiedyechurch #comesharemypew #noruleschurch.
What would you do?
I hope you’d say, well…
“That’s my church, and I would love to tell you why!”
Of course, there are few things that make this man in the chariot a bigger deal. One, Philip had to run alongside a chariot to keep up, and two, he had to assume that this was a new potential disciple of Jesus, riding in a chariot.
Did you notice that the guy in the chariot doesn’t have a name? We assume that’s to make sure you notice three other things about him, that he was African, that he was a eunuch, and that he was reading a scroll of Isaiah that he had in his possession.
So, in reverse order, note this. God was already at work in this man’s heart. This man wasn’t carrying that scroll and reading it out loud for no reason. He was being moved by the Holy Spirit, just like Philip for this meeting and it’s outcome!
No matter where you go, no matter who you meet, as a disciple of Jesus, you must assume that God is already at work in the hearts and minds of our new acquaintances!
We do not meet people by accident. We meet people, new as well as old friends, by God’s doing. So, be prepared!
Two, he was a eunuch. In general, eunuchs were castrated males by intention or accident, who were often given responsibility to do intimate and extremely high-level work with females because there was no danger of impregnation. It is what it is!
And this man, we are told, was an ambassador for Queen Candace of Ethiopia. He had been in Jerusalem, possibly on a diplomatic mission. He was a top shelf diplomat, possibly someone interested in following Judaism, but because he was a eunuch, unable to participate in the Temple rituals, and to gain full acceptance as an Israelite.
But all that made no difference to Philip! Because he knew it made no difference to Jesus!
The Messiah had gathered with tax collectors and prostitutes, and fishermen, and shepherds, Gentiles, and Samaritans, and saw only their heart’s relationship to God.
Which is why his nationality, Ethiopian, and color, black, didn’t matter either.
Philip knew that what God loved was a heart open to God’s love, a life ready to be lived to make a difference, and transformed mind that rather than thinking about why God shouldn’t love someone else, marvels instead that God loves them, and that God has asked them to love others.
Philip climbed up into the chariot, one very big chariot, and shared with the Ethiopian the good news about Jesus, about Jesus fulfilling Isaiah’s prophesy, and told the Ethiopian that if he wanted to be a disciple, he was in.
And so, somewhere in the desert between Jerusalem and Ethiopia another outsider was invited inside through the waters of baptism!
In those waters, he become family!
Because…
Sometimes God can use what looks to us to be a disaster, as a new beginning. Amazingly, God uses willing disciples to make that beginning.
Are you willing?
Amen.
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