Latest / Chapel Talks / The best marks of evangelical Christianity | Acts 8 | Bishop Andrew Watson

Transcript

The best marks of evangelical Christianity | Acts 8 | Bishop Andrew Watson · Chapel Talks

0:00
shall we pray as we reflect on god's word together
0:02
father we thank you so much for these wonderful
0:06
passages from your word and we pray that you
0:08
would speak through their words to our hearts
0:11
and our lives this day encourage us build us
0:14
up renew our vision strengthen us we pray as
0:20
we seek to follow you for we ask these things
0:23
for jesus sake amen So the Ethiopian eunuch,
0:31
he was a very successful man professionally,
0:34
an important official, we are told, in the court
0:37
of Kandaki, the queen mother. And as such, he
0:41
was wealthy, he was respected, and he was quite
0:43
able, with his queen's permission, to take a
0:46
very long trip. For this Ethiopian was also a
0:50
God -fearer. He was a Gentile adherent to Judaism.
0:54
And we can only assume that on this eunuch's
0:56
bucket list included the trip. of a lifetime,
1:00
a hag, as the Bible puts it, from which the Muslims
1:03
get their word haj, a pilgrimage to Jerusalem,
1:08
the holy city, and to the temple which lay at
1:11
its heart. So what hopes did the Ethiopian have
1:16
as he arrived in Jerusalem after a long and arduous
1:19
journey, as he booked into his five -star inn,
1:22
had a wash, had a meal, and took an evening stroll
1:25
to the Lord's house? Luke doesn't tell us. But
1:29
I would suspect that he came with all the same
1:31
hopes that believers generally bring to pilgrimages.
1:35
The temple would be an oasis, a place where he
1:38
would encounter afresh the presence of the living
1:41
God. After all, hadn't the prophet Ezekiel had
1:45
the vision of a great river flowing from the
1:47
south of the altar, a tiny little trickle to
1:50
begin with, that became a great river from the
1:53
place of sacrifice? a river that in Ezekiel's
1:57
vision made the Dead Sea fresh and brought life
2:00
wherever it flowed. And suddenly there it was,
2:04
the Jerusalem Temple in all its glory, following
2:07
the magnificent expansion program masterminded
2:11
by King Herod the Great a few decades earlier,
2:14
one of the most impressive buildings in the ancient
2:17
world. And all around it were priests dressed
2:20
in white robes and tubular hats, the so -called
2:24
Kohanim, who would show pilgrims where they could
2:27
go and advise them on the kind of sacrifices
2:30
that they should offer. So where did the Kohanim
2:34
direct our friend, the Ethiopian, who'd travelled
2:37
many weeks for just this moment? Well, at the
2:41
heart of the temple, as you know, was the so
2:43
-called Holy of Holies, the most powerful meeting
2:46
place between man and God. Only the high priest
2:49
could enter that place, and that just once a
2:52
year. It certainly wasn't open to the Ethiopian
2:55
eunuch. Outside of that was the priest's court.
3:00
The Ethiopian wasn't a priest, so that wasn't
3:03
open to him either. Next, there was the court
3:06
of Israel, where Jewish men could meet and worship
3:08
God together. Under the rules of the day, Gentiles
3:12
were excluded from that place, and so specifically
3:15
were eunuchs. There was a special rule about
3:19
that, so our friend failed on both counts. and
3:23
outside of that was the women's court and that
3:25
was clearly out of bounds as well only the court
3:29
of the gentiles was open to the man and that
3:32
was more like a cattle market than a place of
3:35
worship cows and sheep and doves were everywhere
3:38
being sold as sacrificial animals money was changing
3:42
hands as people swapped their ordinary currency
3:44
for the special temple coinage at exorbitant
3:48
exchange rates to boot the noise was terrible
3:52
and so was the mess and the smell. But the white
3:55
-robed Kohanim were clear this was the place,
3:58
the only place, that the Ethiopian was permitted
4:01
to worship. We don't know whether the Ethiopian
4:05
heard about this during his visit to the temple,
4:08
that just a few years before, a young man from
4:11
Galilee had come into this court of the Gentiles
4:14
with a whip in his hand and had chased out the
4:16
money changers and cattle traders. As he had
4:20
done so, he had shouted out a verse from the
4:22
Bible, from Isaiah chapter 56, My house shall
4:26
be called a house of prayer for all the nations,
4:29
but you have made it a den of robbers. Yet that
4:33
man had been executed for his blasphemy, nailed
4:36
to a cross, and now the robbers were back, and
4:39
the noise and the mess and the smell. And so
4:43
this Ethiopian, with a serious thirst for God,
4:46
was forced to worship among the sheep, and the
4:49
cattle traders. That oasis of which he had dreamt
4:53
when he first arrived seemed a million miles
4:55
away from the reality he experienced. Perhaps,
4:59
he thought sadly, Ezekiel's river was just for
5:02
the Jews. So it is my guess, in this reconstruction,
5:08
that the Ethiopian felt deeply disappointed as
5:11
he climbed back into his chariot and set off
5:14
on the long road home. Yet for those who know
5:17
the story of the road to Emmaus, there's a pattern
5:20
here. That is, sometimes when we have our backs
5:23
to Jerusalem, when we're walking sadly away from
5:26
the place where we'd expected to meet with God,
5:29
that he suddenly, unexpectedly shows up. The
5:34
Ethiopian had bought a scroll of scripture during
5:37
his stay in Jerusalem, and immediately he started
5:39
reading from the scroll, some words jumped out
5:42
the page at him. Because I believe what he started
5:46
reading was chapter 56 of the book of the prophet
5:50
Isaiah. If you have Bibles, you might like to
5:52
turn to chapter 56 of Isaiah. For this is what
6:03
the Lord says. to the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths
6:07
who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my
6:10
covenant to them i will give within my temple
6:13
and its walls a memorial and a name better than
6:17
sons and daughters And foreigners who bind themselves
6:21
to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the
6:25
name of the Lord and be his servants, all who
6:27
keep the Sabbath without desecrating it, and
6:30
who hold fast to my covenant, these I will bring
6:33
to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house
6:37
of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
6:40
will be accepted on my altar, for my house will
6:44
be called a house of prayer for all nations.
6:50
Here is a set of promises in the scripture specifically
6:52
for eunuchs and for foreigners like this man.
6:56
An assurance that they, that he, would one day
6:59
be joyfully welcomed right into the heart of
7:02
the worship of God, into the heart of the temple.
7:07
What did it feel like to be a foreigner in Jerusalem?
7:11
Well, just as Isaiah put it, it felt like being
7:13
excluded from God's people. What did it feel
7:17
like to be a eunuch? Again, Isaiah got it precisely.
7:20
It felt like being a dried up tree. There's a
7:25
sadness about being childless and forgotten after
7:28
your death. But Isaiah addressed that as well
7:31
with God's promise of a memorial and a name better
7:35
than sons and daughters. And how about the phrase,
7:39
a house of prayer for all nations, which that
7:43
young man had shouted out some years earlier.
7:46
Now, that was God's vision. for his temple. It's
7:50
just a vision that hadn't yet been fulfilled.
7:53
So when would that fulfillment come? As a eunuch
7:57
works his way through the scroll, he may well
7:59
have noticed that invitation in Isaiah 55, come
8:03
all you who are thirsty, come to the waters.
8:06
But it was Isaiah 53 which really commanded his
8:10
attention. It would come, he read, when a man
8:13
known only as the Lord's servant would be led
8:16
like a lamb. of a slaughter and pierced for our
8:19
transgressions that would be the source from
8:23
which ezekiel's river would flow the only question
8:26
was who was that man and it was just at that
8:30
moment that the ethiopian saw a young fellow
8:33
running towards his chariot not the risen jesus
8:36
who patiently explained the scriptures on the
8:39
road to emmaus as their hearts burned within
8:42
them but philip an enthusiastic member of Jesus'
8:46
sales team, who's the only individual in the
8:49
scriptures specifically called an evangelist.
8:54
For Philip, it was a demonstration of the power
8:57
of the Holy Spirit. He'd been praying that morning
9:00
and being told to travel to this desert road.
9:03
And when he heard the Ethiopian reading, Isaiah
9:05
chapter 53, because people always read out loud
9:09
in those days, it was the perfect opportunity
9:11
for an evangelist like him to offer to climb
9:14
in and talk about Jesus. I don't think even I
9:17
could have missed that, and I do miss evangelistic
9:19
opportunities more often than I should. We know
9:23
the rest of the story very well, and it ends
9:26
with the Ethiopian asking the question, look,
9:28
here's water, what's to stop me from being baptised?
9:32
The man had found his oasis at last. He'd come
9:36
to the waters. He'd discovered that the crucified
9:39
Jesus is the true temple, the true sacrifice
9:43
from which the river of God's grace flows, and
9:47
that the risen Jesus was standing there in the
9:49
water saying, come on in, it's lovely. It's hardly
9:53
surprising that in fulfilment of that promise
9:56
in Isaiah 56, I will give them joy in my house
9:59
of prayer. The man, we're told, went on his way
10:02
rejoicing. So as you reflect together on what
10:09
I hope is a fair reconstruction of this amazing
10:12
story in Acts chapter 8, just a few thoughts
10:15
about the three main characters and how we might
10:18
identify with them. The Ethiopian, Philip. and
10:21
the angel or spirit of the lord who brought the
10:24
three the two together firstly ethiopian there
10:29
is something i find immensely inspiring about
10:32
this man's spiritual thirst because the very
10:36
best of our evangelical spirituality emphasizes
10:39
the importance of maintaining that deep thirst
10:43
for the things of god for the word of god for
10:46
the spirit of god for the lamb of god jesus the
10:49
living word A thirst, an openness to him that
10:54
flows from a sense of personal need, yes, our
10:57
need of his grace and forgiveness, but also from
11:00
an amazement at the grace and forgiveness which
11:03
is on offer. And yet in the midst of demanding
11:06
lives, sometimes combined with a touch of laziness
11:10
as well, that thirst can sometimes be replaced
11:12
by a kind of dullness within, a sort of spiritual
11:16
middle -aged spread. There's something really
11:20
graceless, even pharisaical, about an evangelical
11:23
Christianity which has lost that sense of thirst,
11:27
that appears self -contained and self -satisfied
11:30
in a tidy little box of his or her baking. And
11:35
conversely, there is something remarkably powerful
11:38
about an evangelical Christian who is always
11:41
going deeper, always opening ourselves up to
11:45
the sanctifying work of the Spirit of God. That's
11:49
what I pray for in myself, and that's what I
11:51
long for in churches across the nation and around
11:54
the world. In that sense, the Ethiopian is the
11:57
most inspiring role model for us to follow. How
12:02
about Philip in the story? If the Ethiopian impresses
12:06
with his spiritual thirst, Philip impresses with
12:09
his spiritual seeking. There's often a lot of
12:14
talk about seekers in Christian circles, with
12:16
Willow Creek in particular, promoting the idea
12:19
of seeker -sensitive worship, worship that is
12:23
approachable for those who are not yet Christians.
12:26
And of course, that is important as we seek to
12:28
be an inclusive church in the best possible sense,
12:32
with the friendliest of our members serving on
12:34
the welcome team as the latter -day white -robed
12:37
Kohanim. But whilst, of course, the Ethiopian
12:41
in one sense is the seeker in this story, in
12:44
another sense it is Philip who is the seeker.
12:47
He is the shepherd going out of his way to track
12:51
down this lost sheep. That perspective about
12:56
who's the seeker makes a real difference to the
12:59
way that we approach mission. If we use the word
13:02
seeker to describe unbelievers, We are placing
13:06
the heaviest of expectations upon them, asking
13:09
them to take the first step into a really weird,
13:12
strange culture, which we call the church, and
13:15
somehow to find their way within it. But what
13:19
if we turn it the other way around? What if it's
13:21
the believers who are the seekers? Well, now
13:24
it's us who are being expected to take the first
13:27
step, to step out from the... comfort of our
13:31
culture into a strange culture, the desert road
13:34
if you like, and if invited to step up into a
13:37
stranger's chariot and explain to them why the
13:40
scriptures are just so relevant to them and why
13:43
they point to Jesus. Go into all the world and
13:47
make disciples of all nations with Jesus' missionary
13:50
calling, not go into the church and make disciples
13:53
of anyone who chooses to show up. And again,
13:57
that is the approach. That outward looking, we
14:00
are the seekers, that is the approach that has
14:03
marked the very best of evangelical Christianity
14:06
over the centuries and has spawned a thousand
14:10
dynamic mission movements all around the world
14:12
without which none of us would have become Christians.
14:16
But while it's tempting to typecast unbelievers
14:19
as the seekers and we are somehow the Kohanim
14:22
standing at the church door, that is not the
14:25
way this story unfolds. And that brings us on
14:30
to the third and final character in the story,
14:32
the spirit or the angel of the Lord. For if the
14:35
Ethiopian is doing the thirsting and Philip is
14:38
doing the seeking, God's spirit is doing the
14:40
connecting. In John V. Taylor's famous phrase,
14:44
the Holy Spirit is the go -between God, the one
14:47
who brings the seeker and the thirsty together.
14:52
It is a spirit who first inspired Isaiah to write
14:55
those remarkable scriptures that the Ethiopian
14:58
was reading. It is a spirit who steered the Ethiopian
15:01
into buying those scriptures in Jerusalem and
15:04
who brought them so powerfully to life as the
15:07
man began to read them. It is a spirit who spoke
15:10
to Philip, directing him towards the desert road
15:13
that leads to Gaza and led him towards that chariot.
15:17
It is the spirit who enabled the Ethiopian to
15:20
make that move from God -fearer to follower of
15:23
Jesus and the spirit who sent him on his way
15:26
rejoicing. And why did the Spirit go to quite
15:30
so many efforts to bring the Ethiopian and the
15:33
evangelist together in the story? What is the
15:36
mission of the Spirit here? Well, the mission
15:39
of the Spirit, of course, is the mission of Jesus.
15:41
And what is the mission of Jesus? Luke 19, verse
15:44
10, the Son of Man came to seek and to save the
15:48
lost. The Son of Man came to seek and to save
15:52
the lost. So the Ethiopian thirsts, Philip seeks,
15:56
and God connects. That is the message of this
15:59
story. It's an encouraging message, reminding
16:02
us that the church's mission is Jesus' mission,
16:05
the Missio Dei, which you and I are called to
16:08
join in with. And it's a challenging message,
16:11
reminding us that if we're not seeking, not seeking
16:15
God, not seeking the lost, then we've somehow
16:18
lost our way. We may or may not be wearing impressive
16:22
robes and strange -shaped hats like the Kohanim,
16:26
and I'm certainly used to impressive robes and
16:29
strange -shaped hats too, but somehow, somewhere
16:32
along the way, we've stepped out of the river
16:35
of grace. That river, Ezekiel's river, was glorious.
16:40
This little trickle of water bubbling out from
16:43
the south side of the altar, the place of Christ's
16:46
sacrifice as it transpired, a miraculous torrent
16:49
that could turn the toxic waters of the Dead
16:52
Sea into water teeming with life. But not even
16:56
Ezekiel realized just how far the river would
16:59
flow, that after the Dead Sea it would continue
17:02
gathering pace as it moved way outside the boundaries
17:05
of Israel and into the world beyond. Isaiah saw
17:09
it more clearly, holding out special promises
17:12
for those on the outside and encouraging all
17:15
to come to the waters and drink. Joel had a vision
17:18
of the Spirit of God being poured out on all
17:21
flesh. Habakkuk, a vision of how the earth would
17:24
be filled with the glory of God as the waters
17:27
cover the sea. Jesus metaphorically turned salty
17:31
water into fresh. reversing the laws of contagion
17:35
so enthusiastically developed by the Pharisees.
17:38
He laid hands on sick people. He didn't get sick.
17:42
They got well. He mixed with bad company. He
17:46
didn't get bad. He made them good. He turned
17:49
mourning into dancing and death into life. And
17:52
here's what lay behind it, a vision to seek and
17:55
save the lost, to give beautiful but damaged
17:58
humanity, indeed the whole of God's beautiful
18:01
but damaged creation, a brand new start. During
18:06
Jesus' lifetime, the river began to reach out
18:08
not just to those in Jerusalem and Judea, to
18:12
Nicodemus in John chapter 3, but also to Samaria,
18:16
like the woman in the well, by the well in John
18:18
chapter 4. Following Christ's death and resurrection,
18:21
the spring bubbled up in Jerusalem once more
18:24
as 3 ,000 of those from Pontus and Cappadocia,
18:28
Egypt and Libya, Parthians, Medes and Elamites
18:31
received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
18:34
With the ministry of people like Philip, it began
18:36
to flow again into Samaria and then to embrace
18:39
Gentile God -fearers like our friend from Ethiopia
18:43
who would begin to take it to the ends of the
18:46
earth. King Herod's magnificent temple would
18:50
soon be destroyed. But it wouldn't affect the
18:52
course of the river because while Herod's plan
18:55
was to extend the temple and to kill the infant
18:58
Jesus, God's plan was to allow the destruction
19:01
of the temple and to exalt the infant Jesus.
19:05
Men and women, Jews and Gentiles, slaves and
19:08
free, a white -robed multitude, now gathered
19:11
out of every nation, tribe, people and language,
19:14
were themselves immersed within this river. And
19:18
2 ,000 years later, it is now harder to thirst
19:22
like the Ethiopian, to seek like Philip, and
19:25
to connect in the power of the Holy Spirit as
19:27
baptised, redeemed members of the Church of Christ.
19:32
And we do so looking to the source of the spring,
19:35
to the lamb that was slain. And in gratitude,
19:38
we offer our souls and bodies to be a living
19:41
sacrifice, holy and acceptable to him. So that
19:45
working in the power of his spirit, we in our
19:47
generation might receive grace and give grace
19:51
and welcome the lost sheep home. Shall we pray?
20:14
lord we praise you for this amazing river of
20:17
grace flowing from from the altar from the side
20:22
of jesus our redeemer we thank you for this wonderful
20:28
story of one individual entering that river of
20:34
grace We pray, Lord, that you would help us to
20:44
thirst as the Ethiopian thirsted, never to be
20:48
complacent or satisfied with where we've got
20:52
to, but always open to your fresh empowering
20:55
and leading. We pray, Lord, that we would be
21:02
actively seeking. You'd enable us, Lord, to be
21:07
willing to enter strange cultures. and to bring
21:13
the life -giving message of Jesus wherever we
21:17
go. And to do that, Lord, we pray afresh for
21:24
your Holy Spirit to fill us, to refresh and renew
21:30
us, and to lead us even unexpectedly as you led
21:38
Philip. To the places where you need us to be.
21:48
For we ask these things for Jesus' sake. Amen.