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Notes
Transcript
Acts 8:26-40
Acts 8:26-40
Introduction:
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Ideal
Imagine: Someone reading the Bible
Imagine: Someone jogging by my house with there phone on speaker listening to a podcast...
That’s about Jesus!
“It is??”
“Yes”
“Well, that sounds great!” Hey, there’s Holly Brook, can I just get baptized right now?”
My response? Sure!
Sort of that simple, but also not, because like Luke’s typical self, he doesn’t just record any old story...
Big Fish!
Philip is sent by the Holy Spirit south of Israel...
Meets a chariot on the dusty road...
Sees an Ethiopian…
Ethiopia: “He is at once exotic, powerful, and pious...” William Larkin
So it’s not like someone jogging past your house… It’s more like jogging alongside a limo!
Miraculous story of conversion!
Ethiopian Geography: Not modern day Ethiopia.
Land of Cush- Modern day Sudan
Why not say he’s from the land of Cush then?
Ethiopians: Greek Contraction: “Burnt Face”
Only Helps us understand what this person looked like, not who this person is.
PROBABLY A JEW (coming from Jerusalem, has access to the Old Testament)
Very powerful man!
“The chief treasurer of a kingdom wealthy from its iron smelting, gold mining and trading position.... Candace, queen of the Ethiopians (better “Queen Mother, ruling monarch of the Ethiopians,” since Candace is a title, not a proper name), cared for the duties of the state… The ‘Candace’ in this instance was Amanitare (A.D. 25-41).” William Larkin
Very powerful, very wealthy, very important position. Works directly with Queen Amanitare, who was a Candace, not because that’s her name, but because that’s that’s her title.
LIKE CAESAR because a title for the Emporer of Rome
Ethiopian Eunuch: Yikes, another tricky physical aspect of this guy to explain...
I’ll just say it: He was mostly like castrated! Kids, don’t ask. THIS IS WHERE, LIKE, THERE ARE ADVANTAGES TO TALKING ABOUT LIKE THIS WHERE I GREW UP IN A FARMING CONTEXT...
He’s not consider a threat against royal women
On the one hand: High positions of authority in other nations.
On the other: Excluded from becoming full prosylytes of Judaism (Dt. 23:1).
Agee with William Willimon: Emphasis not on the fact that he can’t enter the temple because he’s castrated, the emphasis is that he’s a super powerful high official who comes from different continent coming to Christ!
A JEW? Debate:
I think he was a believing Jew. Why?
Coming from Jerusalem
Holding the Hebrew Bible!
May not be PC, but it does speak about the Gospel!
Big Picture
Ethiopian and Big Picture
Front End Conversions:
Simon and Samaria
North, Mixed blood, mixed religion
Mass conversion
Big Miracles!
Tail End Conversion
Huge massive conversion
Different than Saul (no supernatural Jesus encounter)
Different
Unnamed, single guy,
Ethiopian: Irenaeus, writing in the second century, says that he became a missionary to the Ethiopians.
Eusebius: Willimon: “Ethiopian whom Philip baptized returned home and became an evangelism (Historia Ecclesiastica)…
Unnamed exotic character who God used to expand the Gospel
Prototype/Ideal
No show, not spectacular emergence of Jesus himself!
Just a dude from the ends of the Earth who will take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
Ethiopian and Bigger Picture
How does he fit into the entirety of the Book?
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the Ends of the Earth
Ethiopian Eunuch: Coming from Jerusalem and going to the Ends of the Earth
Homer Odyssey 1.21: First- Century Romans and Greeks: “Ethiopians lived literally at the southern edge of the earth).” William Larkin
Represents the Spectrum of whom God is reaching!
Proselyte Jew and Exotic Official from a Foreign Treasury Department.
Ephiopian and the Biggest Picture
FULFILMENT OF SCRIPTURE!
Example #1: (just a few chapters later from the one he was reading…)
Isaiah 56:3-6
3 Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say,
“The Lord will surely separate me from his people”;
and let not the eunuch say,
“Behold, I am a dry tree.”
4 For thus says the Lord:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
5 I will give in my house and within my walls
a monument and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that shall not be cut off.
Example #2: Isaiah 11:11
In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.
Example #3: Psalm 68:31
31 Nobles shall come from Egypt;
Cush shall hasten to stretch out her hands to God.
Psalm 68:31: Let Ethiopia hasten to stretch out her hands to God.”
Example #4: Zephaniah 3:9-10
9 “For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples
to a pure speech,
that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord
and serve him with one accord.
10 From beyond the rivers of Cush
my worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones,
shall bring my offering.
I’m going to bring all kinds!
From those who look completely different from you.
From the physically cut—whether circumcised or castrated, or BOTH!
From poor to the wealthy
From the Jew who lives out in Timbucktu.
To those like, me and you!
God reaches all kinds!!
This guy covers the spectrum, and we belong to that spectrum...
Big Moments
Holy Spirit main Character?
Willimon question: Who is the Protagonist?
v. 30: The Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join the chariot.”
v.39: And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more...”
Philip is ‘snatched up’ (rapture)
Holy Spirit continues to bring us to Big Moments: Divine appointments
Stories of conversations:
One lady who just needed people to talk to. Loves Jesus but then grossly misquotes the Bible and you wonder if you’re reading the same one.
One Elderly gentlemen in a trailer park who had a pretty good handle on the Gospel… Took us a bit to get out of that conversation
Two young men who were just so absolutely confused about their purpose in life and were seriously considering how Jesus could help them
A mom who believes in other religions and doesn’t think there’s one answer. She answered the door from her second story window and it felt like a Hansel and Grettle conversation. We had a great conversation.
Gospel presentation of a young women who was in a mess in life. Who’s grandfather was a ‘church going man’ but for herself didn’t have much use for religion.
For a nominal Christian who immigrated from former Yugoslavia.
A church going guy who attends a large evangelical church… We were on a role when he started talking about how he lives with his girlfriend.
I shared already that one young man who desperately wanted to pray a prayer of repentance with him.
Not patting myself on the back… That’s not the point, but I’ll be honest, I’ve never schedule evangelism… LIFE IS TOO BUSY!!
Each of these moments were divine appointments. We would even tell them that!
There are tools that I’m learning along the way. Like a really interesting question:
Question: Who is Isaiah talking about?
Question: If you were at the gates of heaven and the Lord asked you, why should I let you in?
Amazing to me that no one knows how to answer that question!
I’m a good person
I don’t know
My goal as a pastor is to equip us as a church to be evangelists.
Missional! We need to support the poor. We want give out Bibles
Be attentive to your divine moments.
Divine appointments. Where is the Lord leading you?
WHO’S YOUR ONE!
God sends all kinds
Philip’s Legacy: Settled Down
Stayed near Caerarea for the next 20 years (raised four unmarried prophetesses!)
Philip’s Legacy: “It is this combination of change (in relation to contexts and methods) and changelessness (in relation to the gospel itself), together with the ability to discern between them, which is one of Philip’s abiding legacies to the church.” Stott.
21:8-10: Philip and his unmarried prophetess daughters!