A Church for Everybody - Acts 8:26-40

“All you have to do is..”

Have you ever had trouble understanding what you’re reading? Ever tried to build a piece of furniture from IKEA? Ever have someone tell you “all you have to do is...”? Any time someone says “all you have to do is..”, I immediately think this is a job that’s over my head. I mean there are memes for this now.

I remember the purchase of a dresser for Luke and looking at the directions and thinking “there’s no way.” I did get help, and even then, I have no clue how our friend Troy was able to make sense of the directions. Recently, we bought a cabinet for the living room and had to send it back because there were 4 pages missing from the instructions. The lady at the return desk thought it was funny because we weren’t the only ones who returned that item for that reason.

At the heart of today’s lesson is a question that is asked specifically about understanding the Bible. It seems like a small detail, but Dr. Luke who is explaining what happened to an early church gathering seems to think it’s a big deal by sticking it right in the middle of the story.

Our story comes from Acts 8. Acts 8 is fully of stuff that seems weird to us. It starts off at the end of the murder of Stephen by Israel’s religious leaders. Persecution of the church breaks out, and Christians start to scatter far from Jerusalem, where all the early activity of the church happened. We’re introduced to the ministry of Philip.. chapter 8 is the only place in the Bible where Stephen does anything of significance… and he is a big, big deal. Acts 8 is also where the Gospel transforms Samaria, a city that is not well-liked by the Jews. And what we see is that Jesus is beginning to make good on his promise that His Gospel and His Kingdom would expand from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.

And our story continues that theme of kingdom and gospel expansion. We just read the story. The Holy Spirit sends Philip to an out of the way place south of Jerusalem… and the passage here seems to indicate that it’s a back road that few traveled. Like a needle in a haystack, Philip has a divine appointment with a guy in a chariot, and sure enough of this back road, he finds the chariot… and the Holy Spirit says, go jump on… and like a scene out of Indiana Jones, Philip chases down the chariot and hops on.

When he gets to the chariot, he hears a passage from the Bible being read aloud. And it becomes obvious to Philip why he’s been sent to a remote road out in the middle of nowhere.. and from the very beginning of this story, there are all sorts of details that suggest none of this is normal, but all of it is significant.

The Ethiopian

The chariot belongs to a government official from Africa. The text says he is from Ethiopia. The word “Ethiopia” is not talking about the nation we now know as Ethiopia, but the large area in Africa south of Egypt along the Nile, what we now know as Sudan. But more importantly, that word is telling us something about the ethnicity of the government official in the chariot. He is not a Jew. He is an African. He is a dark-skinned African. In fact, in the Old Testament, dark skin was the primary feature of the people from this area of the world.

So when Philip, jumps on the chariot and hears the Bible being read, and then sees who is reading the Bible, he is immediately confronted with the fact that this person is not a Jew. This person is visibly an outsider, someone who does not share his ethnicity.

The Outcast (eunuch)

But that’s not all. This person is also a eunuch, a word that occurs five times here. Because we’re in a G-rated context this morning, I’m not going to belabor just what “eunuch” means, other than to say that this is someone who has been intentionally mutilated and anatomically altered. What we do need to see though… this governement official is coming back from Jerusalem where he had been to worship. Which means his trip was designed to get him close to the temple, but not into the temple because eunuchs, according to old testament law, were considered impure and were not allowed into the temple. This guy was not simply and outsider. This guy was an outcast.

Reading Isaiah

But most of this story is dedicated to what is happening in the chariot. This Ethiopian eunuch is reading… that is immediately an interesting detail because most people those days could not read. And he’s reading Isaiah from a scroll. You had to have money, a lot of money to own a scroll. So… we have questions. I mean we have lots of questions. Why is this guy from Africa out in the middle of nowhere? How’d he get his hands on a scroll? Why is he reading Isaiah? So many questions.

Philip skips the first obvious question, what are you reading, because he had heard what was being read. But he knows he’s been sent for a purpose:

Acts 8:30 “When Philip ran up to the chariot, he heard the Ethiopian eunuch reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you’re reading?”

Philip gets right to the point because I think he knows the answer. And here’s the answer:

Acts 8:31 “How can I,” the Ethiopian eunuch said, “unless someone guides me?”

The eunuch points out his need for some help. Dr. Luke then clues us in on the part of the Bible from which the Ethiopian had been reading and it’s from Isaiah 53.. 7-8… a part of the Bible that is talking about the coming of Jesus who will die to take away the sins of his people. But that’s confusing to the eunuch so he then asks the third question, which is the biggest question of them all:

Acts 8:34 The eunuch said to Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet saying this about—himself or someone else?”

And there it is. Luke has set up his audience for the big reveal. This is there question. This was the Jews question. This was obviously the eunuch’s question. It’s a point that has been ask again and again about not just this passage, but the entire Old Testament. What’s all this about? Is this about the prophet or someone else? Is this about Israel or someone else?

And I’ll tell you how I answered that question for years. The Old Testament was a closed book to me, and it was closed to me because the teachers I’d had did not do a good job of explaining it. Is this about the prophet? Is this about Israel? Why yes… and that problem with that is if Philip answers with anything other than “someone else”, the Ethiopian will continue to be confused.

And just what is he reading in that scroll? I find it interesting that the two verses from Isaiah 53 aren’t the verses from that chapter that we would pick. The popular verse from that part of Isaiah is the verse about all the sheep going astray and all of our iniquity being laid on the Suffering Servant or the Messiah.

Here’s what he’s reading:

Acts 8:32–33 Now the Scripture passage he was reading was this: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who will describe his generation? For his life is taken from the earth.

You don’t think that eunuch, who is just coming from Jerusalem to worship at the temple, hasn’t heard the story about the recently executed Jewish rabbi, who was subjected to a sham trial that was rigged and the whole time never said a word? You can hear the lightbulbs starting to go off. Through the fog of being told all sorts of things about how he is supposed to read the Old Testament, he is beginning to think this may have to do with the story he heard.

There are so many parallels between this story and the story of the two men on the road to Emmaus on the day that Jesus rose from the dead. They are also on a desolate road, they are also approached by a stranger, and they are also very, very confused about their faith. And this is what Luke says happened that day:

Luke 24:27 Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, Jesus interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures.

And now here again is someone who is on a desolate road, is approached by a stranger, is confused about what he’s reading.. and here’s what Dr. Luke says happened:

Acts 8:35 Philip proceeded to tell the eunuch the good news about Jesus, beginning with that Scripture.

Beginning with Moses, Jesus explains the Good News about himself. Beginning with that Scripture in Isaiah, Philip explains the Good News of Jesus. And that’s the answer to the thousand dollar question from the eunuch:

Who’s the prophet talking about himself or someone else?

Philip was directed by the Spirit to that road to answer THAT question. It really belongs in the mother of all questions discussion. Because the eunuch is aware enough to see something bigger is going on in Isaiah than meets the eye. And the reason we want to hop, skip, and jump right through that question to get to whatever else is going on is because what the eunuch is really asking and how Philip answers the question is that it’s a question that isn’t just good for reading the book of Isaiah, but the entire Old Testament.

It’s all about the Good News of Jesus

We spend a lot of time on answering that question asked by the eunuch, because answering the question the way Philip does upends entire worldviews. Jesus is the point of the Old Testament. Jesus is the point of the book of Isaiah. Jesus is the point of the entire Bible. It’s all his story. And yes, the eunuch happens to be reading a passage from Isaiah 53 that clearly is about the coming Messiah, but the implications of what Philip is saying is that we don’t stop with Isaiah 53. The entire Old Testament is to be read this way. It is all about the Good News of Jesus.

The Gospel for Africa

But there’s also something else going on here. Something that is plain as day. But even this week, saw theologians and pastors dealing with this text and not wanting to state the obvious. Historically, there’s been a lot of whitewashing of this text, or if not, still very bad colonial readings of this text. This is Acts chapter 8 and Dr. Luke isn’t yet to Acts chapter 10, where we find another spectacular story about the Holy Spirit and the Gospel clearly being given to people who are not Jews… what we call Gentiles. But the Gentiles of Acts 10 are not the first recorded instance of the Gospel being given to the Gentiles. Acts 8 is. The dark-skinned Ethiopian eunuch is the first Gentile convert in Acts.

The reality is that Africa gets the Gospel before Europe does. Let that sink in. The story of how the great news about Jesus came to people that are not Jewish begins with Africa. And even this week I saw all sorts of examples on the internet of pastors and theologians tripping over themselves and doing all sorts of twisted and strange things to this story in Acts 8 to make it not so. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it looks like subtle whitewashing of what Dr. Luke wants us to see.

The Gospel for the world and outcasts

And what Dr. Luke wants us to see, as he writes this, is that the Gospel is for everybody. Church is for everybody. The Gospel is for the world. Jesus promised that His Good News of salvation and forgiveness would move from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth and here in Acts 8 he is beginning to make good on that promise. The Gospel can’t be owned. We don’t own Jesus. We don’t own forgiveness and salvation.

What do you think is going through Philip’s mind when he gets on that chariot and sees that the Holy Spirit has brought him out to the middle of nowhere to talk to a black official from the Ethiopian Queen’s court about Jesus? I guarantee you it’s not what he was expecting. But I also guarantee you he was also immediately excited about the thought that this is how Jesus is going to get his Good News to the whole world.

Stick around The Table Church long enough and you’ll hear us talk about our neighbor this way:

Neighbor: Someone who does not look like me, talk like me, spend like me, vote like me, think like me.

That the Ethiopian eunuch. That’s the story of Acts 8. The Gospel is for the world. The Gospel is for outcasts. This fantastic message of forgiveness and salvation provided by Jesus over and over and over again isn’t just for us. It’s for people who are not like us.

Why did Jesus pull us out of Los Fresnos and drop us into the middle of San Benito? We’ve said before, it really is impossible to answer that question definitively. Jesus doesn’t tell us why. But we can at the very least say that we are here because people need what we have: grace, life, forgiveness, and salvation in Jesus. Forgiveness makes the world go round. And we live in a society and culture that must hear it...wants to hear it. People need to hear that they are loved, that they are forgiven, that Jesus has them. Including people who are not like us.

We’ve been placed here in San Benito to make sure that this community knows that Jesus and his forgiveness are free. FOR THEM. And like the Ethiopian that day, there’s the need for someone to explain it or actually say it out loud to someone else. Jesus uses sound waves for the good news. And in spite of our society’s incessant message of individualism, there is a sense in which the Good News of Jesus is not meant to be read alone, but spoken by another. The eunuch’s question is our culture’s question:

How can I understand, if there’s no one to explain it to me?

And that question sounds an awful lot like St. Paul’s question: how will they hear without a preacher? And the implicit answer to both questions is one we don’t want to hear in our individualistic society: they won’t. They won’t hear. They won’t understand. It takes a village to speak the Gospel in places and situations in every day life where people need to hear it. Including people who aren’t like us. It’s why we do Jesus and Tacos. It’s why we do “ask the pastor”. It’s why we have confirmation. It’s taking more time to do more explanation of the Good News of Jesus and how it impacts our every day lives.

But you know what the most scandalous thing about this passage is? It’s that we’re all the Ethiopian eunuch. Nobody wants to place themselves there in that chariot, but it speaks and screams THIS IS US! How do we get off always seeing ourselves a sthe Philip in the story, when the reality is that all of us are the Ethiopian. All of us need a Philip to tell us how much we are loved again. All over us are desperate to have someone, just someone once again, tell us the Good News of Jesus again. Somebody please explain to me again how I am forgiven, how I’m a child of God, how Jesus still has me. Again. and Again.

A church for everybody

That means we have to be a church for everybody. The last question asked by the eunuch is one we also need to hear loud and clear:

Acts 8:36 As they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Look, there’s water. What would keep me from being baptized?”

This is another passage here in Acts where Word and Sacrament are closely aligned with one another. Peter had told a crowd earlier in Acts, after hearing the Good News of Jesus, that they needed to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. And that’s exactly what is happening here. The implicit answer to the question here is “nothing”, again a reminder that all the conditions we place on Word and Sacrament are totally artificial and anti-gospel. Word and Sacrament are no strings attached. The Good News of Jesus is for everybody. And that Good News is that forgiveness is free and unconditional. The cross is free. Grace is free. Forgiveness is free. And it knows no bounds.

Let’s pray.

The Table

This Table is for everybody. Just like the baptism. No strings attached… pure Gospel. It’s here that Jesus meets us. It’s here that Jesus has us. In his body and in his blood. It’s here Jesus is FOR THE WORLD. It’s as if the eunuch is saying, oh hey, here’s a Table with bread and wine. What prevents me from receiving the body and blood of Jesus? Nothing. Do you want forgiveness? Do you want grace? Do you want Jesus right here and right now? Then, this is FOR YOU.

Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26 May the Lord bless you and protect you; may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.