Hospitality to the stranger

Introduction/scripture

Acts 8:26–40 NIV

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

Pray.

Have you ever been called to provide hospitality to a stranger?

A couple of years ago, a young lady came into our church with severe burns all over her face and hands. Said she had a microwave accident. We often get people coming by the church asking for help with a hotel room or food. And we have to have a system in place because it is important that we help in ways that care for the person holistically. And personally, I have to have good boundaries or we can spend all our time working to help folks that maybe do not want our long-term help.

This young girl though caught my heart quickly. I wanted to help. So we paid for a week in this hotel. I drove out to pay the clerk and was struck by how awful this hotel was. Not a place for a young woman going through all of this but it was where we were. So I called lauren and we made some food a couple of days later. Went out and dropped it off and checked on her. Did that a couple more times. Was exploring some job opportunities for her and trying to get her to come to church with us. Then all of a sudden, she quick texting me back, she disappeared.

I dont know what happened and I hope she found a break and was on the mend, but I was disappointed because I thought God was up to something.

Have you had any of these moments? Have you had any that turned into something really cool when you provided hospitality to a stranger?

What we see in the passage is exactly that, God calls Philip to go and provide hospitality to a stranger. and that is our focus today.

Let’s see what is going on in the text.

Background

Philip is the one called to go on this journey. He has often been referred to as Philip the evangelist (later called that explicitly in Acts), here we see reason why that might be. We first see Philip in the book of Acts when he is a deacon chosen to serve the apostles and given the task of seeing to the ministry of the poor.

It is out of this ministry that he becomes one of the first to preach the gospel outside of Jerusalem. and Acts 8 in specific shows him as the first missionary to Samaria. In response to his success Peter and John travel to Samaria and pray for the Holy Spirit to come to the new believers in the care of Philip.

Then an angel of the Lord prompts Philip to South on the desert road from Jerusalem to Gaza. (See picture). Now what is peculiar about the prompting from the Lord is this road going through the deserted town of Gaza would seemingly be a waste of time for the evangelist. This is the guy that is reaching new people for the kingdom. He is preaching in Samaria (which is North) and many people are coming to know Jesus....and now God sends him on a deserted road towards a deserted town, opposite of his mission field so to speak.

Friends, hospitality to the stranger almost always begins in being inconvenienced.

So Philip responds to this absurd prompting and heads out. And he encounters this eunich from Ethiopia riding in a chariot reading the book of Isaiah, having just returned from the Temple in Jerusalem.

The Spirit tells Philip to go stand close to the chariot. And Philip hears what is going on.

Some observations:

This person is wealthy and probably in the high courts of the queen of ethiopia. Not many would have animals to travel much less a chariot.

This person, though a gentile, he is what they would call a “God-fearer.” He is exploring, searching. Even fascinating that he has come from the temple because he likely was turned away by Jewish leaders.

And he is reading from Isaiah 53, only a couple of verses are mentioned in the text, but a lot of times these references are a clue just to tell us what he is studying in general. So Philip encounters this Exploring the faith, wanna be at least Jewish believer, reading the text about the suffering servant of Israel who takes away the sins of the world through his death....

Let me pause here and just say, sometimes I get frustrated when I read this text, because I wish it happened this way with me. Like I do not think I could draw up a better set of circumstances for evangelism.

Angel tells him to go

Spirit tells him to get closer

Finds a brother who just traveled days or weeks to go to church and then when Philip finds him he is reading a prophetic text that is telling the salvation story of Jesus....AND HE ASKS PHILIP TO TELL HIM WHAT IT MEANS.

Then if this isnt absurd enough, the ethiopian, says oh look, there is some water, why dont I get baptized!!!

Here is the deal, Scripture has an economy of space. This story is told because it is significant. It is perhaps the spreading of the Gospel to the literal ends of the earth as this man is sent into Egypt, and we do not know all of the ways that Philip struck out. And you are not Philip the evangelist.

But there are some critical lessons for hospitality to the stranger here.

God cares more and before

First thing I want you to see is that God cares more for the Ethiopian and he is at work before Philip ever has this guy on his radar.

Even before God sends Philip, God has been at work. Who knows how the Ethipioan became sympathetic to this Yahweh God as he serves a pagan queen in Egypt. What life stories led him here. What hardship had he found hope in the midst of. What compelled him to seek God when God’s people would likely turn him away?

The God sends Philip. Acts is very clear about that. The angel of the Lord and the Spirit of the Lord are the primary actors here.

Two important theological concepts here:

Prevenient Grace

Missio Dei

Prevenient Grace is how we Methodist describe the grace of God that is working in a person’s life long before they even understand it. It is the love of God that gives us opportunity to respond.

Missio Dei, refers to the mission of God. Mission and evangelism is not human creation or programs of the church before they are the actual movement of God for the lost.

How might this change how we go about hospitality if we saw these at play.

Hospitality to Strangers requires going to strange places

Philip had to be ready to go to a place that was outside his plans, his agenda, and his perception of what he was supposed to do with that day.

Here is the deal. We had a fun video today about how to greet people in church. And we talked about nametags the last few weeks and how helpful they are to increase hospitality. Listen friends, if you cant be hospitable to a person sitting in your row or walking by you in church, that is like sitting in the chariot, listening to the ethiopian ponder Isaiah, and then just moving on without saying a word.

Be friendly to those next to you.

But I want to call us higher. What we learn from Acts 8 is that the people of God are called to bring hospitality into strange places. Hang out in places you wouldn’t normally. Strike up a conversation in the grocery story checkout line. Look your waiter in the eye at lunch today, ask them about their day…their life. Get out of your circle of friends and go to coffee with that person God brought into your path.

Hospitality requires proximity

Finally, hospitality requires proximity. Not the uncomfortable, too close in my space. But life proximity. I love that the angel of the lord sent philip but then when he gets down the road. The spirit says...

Acts 8:29 NIV

The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

Get closer.

Saw a pastor share a quote on twitter this week. “You cannot wash someone’s feet from a distance.”

And another friend trying to be funny, said, sure you can…with a water hose.

In his humor, he missed the irony that he was actually robbing the sacrificial and relational intimacy of washing someone’s feet. When Jesus tells his disciples to go and do likewise, he is not asking them to make sure humanity has clean feet.

He is telling them that proximity to another is the way of gospel hospitality.

Some of us spend our days washing feet with a waterhose. We do some good, but no major inconveniance. Don’t want to get too close.

Now here is the deal… all of these build.

God cares more and before

Hospitality in strange places

and hospitality of proximity

If you skip out on strange places, if you avoid proximity, then you will miss what God is doing.

One last question I have of this text:

What motivates Philip? Why does he stick his neck out, inconvenience himself and go to strange places and get close to people he does not know?

We have to go back to where we began. A theology of hospitality. Philip believed as Paul wrote in Ephesians...

Ephesians 2:19-20 “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”

We are now citizens of a new kingdom, we are now in a new family, and we are the temple where God is pleased to dwell. So we love differently. We believe that the blood of Christ rescues. Rescued us and will rescue others. and we believe in this salvation.

Kevin Watson:

“In our context, one of the great challenges American Christianity faces is that salvation seems unnecessary to many Americans, who feel that they are the source of their own life and security. But the gospel is only good news to those who realize their need for salvation and that only God is able to save us. The good news is that God is able and willing to save.”

If we have a high view of what Christ has done in our life, then we will go to strange places.