Sermon Tone Analysis

Heavenly Father, I ask that you open our eyes to see what you want us to see, to hear what you want us to hear and to believe in our hearts the light of the world which is the good news, in which there is no darkness – Amen

 

 

/“Look, there is water.

What is to prevent my being baptized?”/

This is the question that the Ethiopian Eunuch asks of the disciple Philip

On the surface it might seem like an innocuous question, a question of little significance – but when you dig deeper, we find it carries with it, an incredible message

            To dig deeper we are going to approach this as a reporter might approach it

                        We are going to ask the five ‘W’s and the one H

                                    Who, What, Where, When, Why and How

And /like/ any good reporter we need to asks these questions first to dig deeper into the context of the story

 

WHO is this person?

We know that he is an from Ethiopia – which is the country that is next to Egypt in North Africa – and Ethiopia was considered the extreme reaches of the known world

He had traveled some considerable distances to be returning from Jerusalem the spiritual head city of the Israel and the Jewish people

            We are told that he holds a high position in the court of Queen of Candace

                        The queen of Ethiopia - He was the treasurer of all her treasury

He traveled not by foot as most would, nor riding on an animal, like a horse or camel as other might

            But he traveled with others in a chariot

A high ranking official – trusted with the money of the land

            He had gone to Jerusalem to worship

We don’t know if that meant he was Jewish scholar, serving in some form of slavery in the Ethiopian court – a Jew is Di-as-pora – similar to Daniel when the brightest young minds served in exile in the Babylonian court

Or whether he was sent by the queen as a trusted advisor to go and learn about the another culture, a cultural ambassador of some sorts

Or whether he was there on his own accord – searching for something – attracted to the Jewish people by some longing for spiritual truth

Or whether is was there – compelled by some force greater than his own understanding – that God had drawn him there to create such an opportunity

He might have been an Ethiopian by race, culture or nationality

            We are told that this Ethiopian was also a Eunuch

                        One that has been castrated, made sexual impotent

                                    Probably so that he could serve in the high position that he had

                                                (an aside: 2 out of 3 biblical Eunuch’s - are Ethiopian)

 

 

WHO was Philip?

Philip was a disciple of Jesus – one of the first disciples, after Andrew and Peter

Who left everything when Jesus found him and said simply “Follow Me”

That, then went running to Nathanial, after hearing Jesus for just a little while and stated to his friend /“We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”/

Philip who was likely a teenager or young man, not yet considered to be a man by Jewish understanding as when the temple tax was to be paid – only Peter and Jesus had to pay

Philip who empowered by the Holy Spirit, just before our reading of today had been preaching in Samaria to great success

After the martyr of Stephen, Philip was the next bright light – by today’s standards he was celebrity - sharing the Gospel message boldly

/ /

/Philip went down to (the) city of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them.

//With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.

…but once they began to believe Philip as he preached the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, men and women alike were baptized./

(Acts 8:5&6, 12)

 

 

WHAT was the Ethiopian doing?

When Philip prompted by the Holy Spirit came across the Ethiopian he was sitting in his chariot reading the prophet Isaiah

This man was well educated, as he was able to read, and not only read but could read Hebrew and speak Greek (which would have been the language of Philip (a Hellenized Jew)

            It was the practice in those days that reading was done out loud

So as Philip ran beside the chariot he would have heard his ancestral language and His bold question /“Do you understand what you are reading?”

/was made, because he must have known that he was brought there for this purpose

 

WHEN and WHERE did all this happen?

This is a story of the early disciples in the Acts of the Apostles

This is after the resurrection of Jesus at Easter

After the earthly appearances,

After the ascension

And after the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost,

After the first troubles of the Apostles and the appointment of the first seven deacons

After the martyring of Stephen (one of the first seven deacons)

This was just before the Saul (later to be called Paul) a Pharisee who was persecuting the early church, was to experience his ‘Damascus road conversion’

The story starts out with Philip in Samaria who is given a message from an angel of the Lord to /“Get up and go south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, (this is a desert road)”(Acts 8:26)/

So our story for today – happens literary in the middle of nowhere – in the desert

Along a dusty, sandy road…we have a high court official from a foreign land and one of the twelve disciples of Jesus traveling away from a pilgrimage in which this Ethiopian was worshiping at highest spiritual city of the Hebrew people.

Likely within the first few months after our Lord Jesus had been incarnate on the earth

 

HOW was all of this to be orchestrated?

HOW was it possible that all of these factors could come together in this way?

We are told that the angel of the Lord spoke to Philip and told him where to be

                        We can only assume that the Holy Spirit was at work in the Ethiopian

                                    To put him in such an important role in the Ethiopian court

To create in him the desire to worship in Jerusalem

                                    To create in him the desire to be searching for something

                                    To create in him the desire to be reading from the prophet Isaiah

                                    To create in him the trust to allow a stranger, of no apparent status, to dare

to ask him such a bold question – asking if ‘he understood what he was reading?’

And we can only assume that it was the Holy Spirit’s prompting, that had the Ethiopian reading this specific passage from Isaiah, which speaks prophetically of the Messiah, of Jesus the Christ

That has just transformed the early believer’s lives

 

WHAT happened next?

The Ethiopian Eunuch responded in what I can only imagine was a deep sense of longing

/“How can I/ [understand what I am reading], /unless someone instructs me?”

So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him./

(Acts 8:31)

After reading the passage from Isaiah again he asked

/“I beg you, about whom is the prophet saying this?

About himself, or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this scripture passage, he proclaimed Jesus to him./(Acts

8:34-35)

        Philip proclaimed the Good of Jesus

        Philip opened with the context of the scriptures, showed the work of God in relation to

humanity over time

Philip explained the teachings of the prophets and what they were leading towards

And Philip undoubtedly told of his life with Jesus – what he personally experienced in the three years that he was a disciple

He would have told what Jesus taught and what Jesus did

He would have shared the signs and wonders

And he would have told of the greatest of all acts … of the sacrificial lamb

Of the victory over death

And of the union with Christ – that a follower has

        Philip instructed this searching soul with the only thing that can truly satisfy our void in life

                    The truth – the light in the darkness – the Gospel of the Lord Jesus the Christ

 

/As they traveled along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, there is water.

What is to prevent my being baptized?”/(Acts

8:36)

 

Consider this incredible question from a certainly ‘pragmatic” perspective

            And the answer to what is to prevent…can only be “everything” – everything is against it...

                        What are the odds… that all of this could come together

·         A foreigner – one that would have been seen as outsider to the chosen people

·         a high court official from a faraway land

·         Just visited Jerusalem and is returning home

·         Along a wilderness or desert road

·         Philip a disciple of Jesus

·         who was on the other side of Israel – in Samaria