5th Sunday of Easter “Alongside Chariots”
April 28, 2024 Acts 8:26-40
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Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,
You may remember, when you were young, a time or two when you had trouble understanding a math problem, and someone sat down next to you to help. Maybe it was your brother or sister or a friend who already took that class & knew what was expected. Later on in life, you may remember a person who came & listened to all your jumbled thoughts when you had a hard decision to make. They sat with you, & helped you thru the process of taking a new job, or moving to a different town or state. Someone came alongside you to offer an ear & some words that you really needed. And now you look back & say, ‘thank you, God, for sending the right person, at the right time.’
Now think back to those similar times in your life of Christian faith. Maybe it was a parent or grandparent or a friend; maybe it was that kinda-weird but nice person at church
that lent their ear & gave you a little wisdom = which made something ‘click’ in a very helpful spiritual way. Should we be surprised when God decides to work that way for us? When Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit as another ‘counselor’ for us = this is one of the things He was talking about.
It’s part of being the Body of Christ – to have those special people sent to us by God
=at the right time= to help us grow in our trust in God, & guide us to know & follow Christ better. The Holy Spirit is the great ‘come-alongsider’ who is able to use others to bring to us repentance, forgiveness, & assurance, // guidance, hope, & peace in Lord Jesus.
The HSp also intends to do that same work in the opposite direction: He will put you in the right place, at the right time, to bring that spiritual counsel & wisdom to someone who needs it. This is one of the lessons taught in Acts 8, and one of the ways the Lord brings surprising moments into our lives. On any given day, in your life as a disciple, you never know what might happen when you ‘come alongside’ someone.
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One thing we DO know is that we can’t force those situations; it always starts with God.
It begins with God & His desire to make His work of reconciliation in Christ Jesus known to people.
He has a heart for ALL people, as 1Tim.2:4 says, God ‘desires all people to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.’
In Acts 8, the Spirit of the Lord had a plan, and it included Philip. Now, in the context of Acts 8, it seems that this is not the Philip who was one of the Twelve; but a Philip, who was one of the seven deacons chosen to serve in Acts 6. Stephan was another one of those, & we remember that he was the first NT martyr, who was stoned to death in Acts 7. So, The Spirit prompts Philip to go catch up with a chariot; the man inside it is reading Scripture. Being next to this person sparked a discussion that would lead this man into realizing that the Lord’s OT salvation promise to him has been accomplished in the very recent days. His life is changed; and it happens there ‘alongside chariots.’
Christian authors will often ask in their books something like this: ‘Isn’t it amazing how God works thru people who are open to being used as God’s vessels.’ We never know =as we come & go during the day= how God may prompt us to get near to another person so that he or she might hear & receive the gift of God’s grace in correction or in mercy. Philip is directed by the Spirit to leave Samaria, with its many people & opportunities, and go to a particular lonely road in a ‘desert place.’ He was being sent to evangelize just one person. God had a plan.
Who is that one man? Turns out he is a court official of high standing & influence as the treasurer for the Queen of the Ethiopians. He is a Gentile convert to Judaism, who is returning from Jerusalem where he had gone to worship. While riding back in his chariot, he is reading from the Book of Isaiah the prophet. Philip is told to go to the chariot and ‘join’ it, or ‘stay near it.’ Philip had to run to catch up to the chariot, and didn’t know what God’s plan was.
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So Philip gets close, and he hears the man reading some familiar Scripture =it was customary to read out loud= altho it was not customary for individuals to have scrolls.
The Ethiopian was reading from Isaiah 53, written about 700 years before Christ. It happened,
in God’s plan, that the portion he was reading was explicitly about the Messiah, which is worth us hearing again from a different version: Like a sheep being brought to slaughter, like a lamb silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth. By unjust ruling he was taken away, and who around him would consider that He was struck dead because of my people’s rebellion.
So, Philip asks a simple leading question, which can be very helpful in furthering a conversation: ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ The man is honest and admits that he won’t understand unless someone ‘guides’ him. This is the same word Jesus used in John 16 when He said that the HSp will ‘guide’ us into all truth.
And so that’s what the Spirit does with His Living Word thru Philip. Isaiah’s words are quite explicit about the suffering work of the world’s Messiah; and when those prophecies are compared alongside the events surrounding Jesus only about 2 months earlier, the important connections can be seen & believed. Philip explains to the Ethiopian in simple language that that Isaiah was writing about Jesus of Nazareth, and about the Good News of His suffering, death & resurrection. The Risen Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. Philip simply shares what he himself had seen & heard & believed about His Savior, Lord & God.
To see Philip in action here reminds us of some of the other words we heard this morning. When we are connected to the source, Christ the true vine, we bear the fruit of His word in us. That fruit has actions of: peace, patience, kindness & goodness. In 1John 4, we heard that this fruit of love is how God’s own love is made manifest among us. The fruits-of-faith that a believer shows to someone displays the love of God that caused Him to send His Son to be ‘the propitiation’ for our sin. Or in other words, the love that caused the Son to remove the wrath of God over the sin of the world = including our sin. God’s undeserved love for us is the cause & power behind our love shown to others.
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So, this dark-skinned-man from Ethiopia, in talking to this brown-skinned-Jewish-man, came to understand how the prophecy in Isaiah was fulfilled in Jesus for all nations, tribes & languages = for all people. I say it that way to emphasize that to US -the Lord’s Church-
all the cultural ‘race-baiting’ we hear, and the political efforts to divide people by skin colors, or social or ethnic groups, is Biblically wrong & harmful; & we won’t participate in it.
The Savior calls all humans to repentance, and His Gospel of forgiveness is for all to believe. There is just one Christ, and one Gospel & faith for mankind. Of all people, God’s people should know how to love ALL their neighbors. As Philip trusted God & understood His mission plan to all people, so the Holy Spirit used him to guide the Ethiopian to know Jesus as the Christ. And when a little water presented itself, the man was baptized in the name of the F,S,HSp.
Now, even tho they each -then- went their separate ways, God’s plan was ongoing.
So now, in a NT faith, this Ethiopian took with him the saving message of Jesus in his heart & mind, and had it ready to share when he would come alongside others, whether in or out of their chariots. Early historians hold that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was first brought to the continent of Africa by this very man. And after Philip was faithful alongside one chariot,
=in a rather mysterious way= God took Philip many miles away to the town of Azotus,
and then beyond. Philip continued to get alongside others who were waiting to hear of the forgiveness, new life, & eternal hope that the Savior has for all.
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And where Philip’s story and the Ethiopian’s story ends, OUR stories begin – as God’s plan continues. The Holy Spirit has been given to each of us – as we received the gospel of Christ Jesus in word, and thru baptism. And the Holy Spirit has a plan for each of us as we daily find ourselves living alongside others; as we live this new life of following our Lord’s teachings, and bearing the visible fruits of this holy faith. We keep in mind that the love of God was undeserved when it came to US. So that same love prompts us to share the undeserved love of the world’s Savior with those we find ourselves next to.
Thankfully, we have the power of the HSp to remind us of this plan of God, otherwise we would often not have the courage to come alongside our neighbor, to perceive when they are in need of a little faith-guidance, and a little faith-wisdom, as we help point them to the Son of God, who died for their forgiveness, and rose again for their new life & heavenly hope.
In this fallen world, is there ever a day that goes by when we don’t meet a person who could use a listening ear; or a little care or encouragement from our faith-fruit; or a reminder that the cross is the sign that God does have forgiveness for them; and that the open tomb is the sign that, while this life can be tough or sad, the life to come will be a true heavenly rest (?)
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Like many events in the Bible, there are two sides to the story & lesson. Which side have you most recently been on? Were you that person who was in the chariot with unanswered questions, with a bit of confusion, and in need of some guidance? And then God sent someone to you who came alongside to help you remember Jesus’ work & teaching for you? Give thanks that the HSp prompted someone to be there for you.
OR, have you recently been on the other side of the lesson? Were you that person
who was prompted to notice someone in need, who was struggling to understand why something was happening to them, or you saw that they were in need of a solid word of guidance to avoid sin, and to do what God says is right?
Jesus says that when we abide in Him -the vine-, & in His teachings, then our daily lives will bear good fruit. And since God needs nothing from us, so that fruit is to the benefit & blessing of those around us. Or better put, our fruit is for those we are prompted to come alongside of; to listen to, and to remind them of God’s love for them in Christ Jesus.
How will the Holy Spirit use you & me? Who can predict? But we know God has
a plan for Jesus’ disciples, who trust Him, and are ready to serve Him, and share the good news that we have heard & believed about our crucified & risen Savior. Like Peter wrote: always be prepared to give a reason for the hope you have, but do this with gentleness & respect. Be prepared to run up alongside chariots, and help someone understand their Savior and Lord.
Amen