Untitled Sermon (3)

Intro: Personal Story with being outcast.

Acts 8:26–36 (NLT)

26 As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, “Go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.”

E- This is a clear Divine Appointment from God. Why did Phillip have to go down south to a road less traveled when he and the other Apostles are having success in Jerusalem?

27 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,

E- A eunuch is a castrated males whose job was to watch over the women in the kings quarters.

28 and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.

29 The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.”

30 Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

31 The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.

32 The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter. And as a lamb is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.

33 He was humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”

34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?”

35 So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.

36 As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?”

Spiritual Alienation

Eunuchs were outcasts and excluded from worship. There was nothing they could do about it beacuse of their biological situation.

Deuteronomy 23:1 NRSV

1 No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.

The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Eunuchs in the Ancient World)

For example, Josephus writes that eunuchs should be held in “detestation” and that one should “avoid any conversation with them who have denied themselves of their manhood” (Josephus, Antiquities 4.290).

Spiritual Adoption

Isaiah prophesied that Eunuchs will be accepted in God’s Kingdom. God was already preparing the heart of this

Eunuch because he was hungry for a connection with God. There is hope for the outcast and ostracized. There is room in God’s Kingdom. Maybe not in some fellowships, but in God’s kingdom.

Jesus himself said that eunuchs have a place in the kingdom

Matthew 19:12 NRSV

12 For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.”

What does this mean for us?

Phillip full of the Holy Spirit, was obedient and surrendered to what God wanted in this moment. What if Phillip said “no, the Kingdom does not include eunuchs.” God you called me all the way out into the desert for this eunuch?”

We should be bold to go out and minister the unconditional love of God because He died for all people. The good news is for everyone.

What if we are the ones who are outcast? the good news is open and available to us!

You might say, “Chaplain, but you do not know my past. I should be an outcast.” I want to encourage you that there is room in Jesus kingdom. You do not have to be on the outside looking in, longing to be a part of God’s family.

Ephesians 2:12–13 NLT

12 In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. 13 But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.