Sunday, May 3, 2015
The Angel of the Lord told Philip,
“Get up and go.” And he did. And we do.
We are a few weeks removed from
Easter Sunday, but we always Easter people.
Every day of the year, we are resurrection people.
This means many things. This year, our focus has been on the words of
Jesus in Acts 1:8 and how these words shape our understanding of who God is
calling us to be. “You will receive power
when the Holy Spirit has come upon you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in
all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
The statement is loaded. First, it
is an imperative. Jesus is not making a
suggestion, but rather an assertion. You will receive power. You
will be witnesses. If we wonder
where he gets the authority to say such things, well, he’s been resurrected. He
was dead, buried, and now he stands alive, never to die again.
Second, his words contain a promise,
and what a promise! We’re going to receive power from the Holy Spirit!! What does that
look like in our lives?
Third, Jesus is specific. We are to be witnesses. Witnesses testify. As resurrection people, it is inherent. We are people who tell about Jesus, about His
kingdom, and about how each person who comes to faith in Him has life in His
name. With the power of the Holy Spirit
of God, through actions, through words, and through the approach we take to
people, we testify to the Gospel – salvation in Jesus Christ.
Fourth, the statement the risen Lord
makes in Acts 1:8 is expansive. He tells
the disciples, you’ll be witnesses in Jerusalem. This occurs in that season of Passover and
then Pentecost. It’s a time of year when
Jews from all over travel to Jerusalem to worship. Even though they are all Jews, they are not
all from Jerusalem. Many don’t even
speak Aramaic or read Hebrew as their everyday language. In Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit fills this
diverse crowd and then Peter preaches, it is a fulfillment of the command of
Jesus in chapter 1. It is also a first
step in the spread of the Gospel.
Then throughout the rest of Acts,
the movement is seen – Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria, and the ends of the
earth. In Acts 3 – 5 the gospel is
preached in the city. In Acts chapters
6-7, a conflict occurs between Aramaic speaking Jewish Christ-followers and
Greek-speaking Jewish Christ-followers. Such a dispute might threaten a young
movement, but the church is the gathering of people who worship Jesus and have
their life in Him. The Holy Spirit leads
the leaders to find a solution that not only preserves the life of the
community but actually grows it.
They appoint the first deacons –
Greek speakers. And these deacons,
starting with Stephen join in the work of bearing witness, telling the story of
life in Christ.
The beginning portion of Acts
chapter 9 shows another boundary crossed.
This time the gospel expands not to another people group or a new
language or across an ethnic divide. In
Acts 9, the story of Jesus breaks through to a Jew – the Pharisee who had been
leading the persecution of Christians, Saul.
He meets the risen Lord in a flash of light. Saul the Pharisee and Christian-killer
becomes Paul the Apostle. He does not
ever stop being Jewish. He simply
understands every bit of life in the light of Christ. We’re all called to do
this. We don’t just become new creations
in Christ. We interpret our history
based on who we are in Him. Paul went
from enemy to witness.
Acts 10-11 give the story of Peter first
sharing the good news with Gentiles, specifically the Roman centurion
Cornelius. A voice from Heaven pointedly
tells Peter it is a new day and in this new day even those who are not of
Israel can benefit from Israel’s Messiah because he is the Lord of all
creation. Even non-Jews can come to life
in Jesus.
So we see the statement and hear the
word of Jesus. “You will be my witnesses
in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” We follow through the chapters of Acts and we
see it happening – Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the earth. The Kingdom of God expands as the story of
Jesus is told and people come to faith in Him.
But, you notice we have skipped over Acts chapter 8. There we see the Gospel expansion by way of a
less-known witness in a direction not frequently considered.
Acts 8 begins with one of those
Hellenists ordained in Acts 6. This is
not Philip of the 12 disciples. This is
the deacon Philip. He gives his witness
in Samaria. Samaritans and Jews did not
like each other. They were ethnically
related, but as often happens with half-brothers and cousins, the closeness
bred enmity. Jesus touches on this when
he makes the hero of a parable a Samaritan instead of a denizen of
Jerusalem. Part of Jesus’ point is that
his way is so radically transforming that former enemies, like Jews and
Samaritans, become brothers who love each other when they are his followers.
Philip preaches Christ in Samaria
and many believe including a magician named Simon. So many barriers are broken down in a simple
story. A Greek-speaking Jews, Philip,
share Jesus with Samaritan, a Samaritan practitioner of black magic, and that
person becomes a believer. The Gospel
expands even beyond what the first believers would have imagined. But the Holy Spirit does more than that. In the latter part of Acts 8, the Gospel
expands beyond what the first Christ-followers even considered.
Then as now, Africa is often
overlooked, forgotten. But it is an
enormous continent of millions of people made in the image of God. Every African was on Jesus mind as he went to
the cross. Acts 8:26-40 is a Biblical
reminder that this wonderful place and the people there are so important to the
Lord, the story of the Gospel could not be told without mention of them.
The angel of the Lord addresses
Philip directly. Philip is sent to a
wilderness road, a remote, dangerous place.
There he sees an Ethiopian, a court official. This man is in charge of the treasury of the
royal house of Ethiopia. His position
gives him enormous power. But, he is
also a eunuch. Deuteronomy 23:1 severely
limits the participation of eunuchs in Israelite worship. Provisions would have been made to allow some
level of involvement. But in the
Jerusalem temple, this man of royal power would be a second class citizen. He was gentile. And he was a eunuch. Why was he interested in Jewish religion in
the first place?
I don’t know, but he clearly had a
very strong attraction to Jewish religious practice. He had traveled to Jerusalem to participate
in Passover and Pentecost. Now, as he
rode southward in his royal procession, headed home, he continued reading
scripture. The Holy Spirit essentially
put Philip there so he could bear witness to this “other.” The Spirit sent the disciple to a gentile and
one who could not carry on the normal sexual life of a healthy male. He was asexual.
To him, Philip “proclaimed the good
news about Jesus.” This is the center of
this story. Philip told the Ethiopian
court official about Jesus. This is the
core idea of the books Acts. Philip bore
his witness. It is to this that we are
called; Jesus makes us his witnesses.
We are also called to be that
Ethiopian eunuch. We are most ready to
receive the good news of Jesus when we recognize how removed from God we
are. This gentile, this mutilated man –
he had no trouble seeing himself as one who desperately needed God. When Philip helped him see that the
scriptures point to Jesus, he was thrilled.
When they came to a stream, he stopped the entire procession so Philip
could baptize him.
And then, the Holy Spirit snatched
Philip away. What did the Ethiopian
think at that point? He was so fully
open to God, he was too happy to be surprised.
Acts 8:39 says he went on his way rejoicing. It was a natural as anything he could
imagine. God’s Spirit sent him a man to
help him see salvation and once he got it, then God’s spirit whooshed that man
away to bear witness somewhere else. Of
course!
Christianity in Ethiopia is
ancient. I have often imagined that the
eunuch went back home and told everyone about his new life in Christ. Upon hearing him bear witness, I imagine the
royal court becoming Christian. I have
searched for documents that tie the Ethiopian church back to this story, and I
have not found any connections. The
earliest documentation of Christianity in that country is from the 4th
century AD. Ethiopian Christianity is
different than any of the threads of the faith you might know: Catholicism;
Eastern Orthodoxy; Protestantism. It
does not fit in any of these categories.
Nor is there an easy connection to Philip and that eunuch.
Still, I believe that’s where faith
in Jesus was born in that place, on that Wilderness Road. Philip the deacon testified, the Ethiopian
Courtier believed and received Jesus, and there was a baptism and a new birth in
Christ. It all came about because of
Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8.
Today, the expansion of the Gospel
continues as the church continues to bear witness. Have you received salvation with the innocent
joy that the Ethiopian had? If you have
not, today would you open your heart and ask Jesus in? Would you give Him all your sin and let today
be the day of your rejoicing as everything else fades from view and all you can
see if Him and all you can feel is the love he has for you?
If you have received Christ, then
today, would you make yourself available so the Spirit can carry you as Philip
was carried and place you? And once the
Spirit has placed you, will you testify there as Philip did, whether it is
Samaria or a wilderness road or the street where you live. What is at the heart of your story or my
story?
Jesus tells us the heart of our
stories is power and testimony. To us
says, “You will be my witnesses.” We are
his witnesses. We have a story to tell –
the story of the Kingdom of God. When we
leave today, may we go ready to give testimony that will point the world to
Him.
AMEN
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