WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.080 We hope that you enjoy this teaching from Christ Church. 00:00:05.719 --> 00:00:09.500 This material is copyrighted and no unauthorized duplication, 00:00:09.880 --> 00:00:15.280 redistribution, or any other use of any part is permitted without prior consent from Christ Church. 00:00:15.640 --> 00:00:22.620 Please consider donating to this work in the San Francisco Bay Area online at ChristChurchEastBay.org. 00:00:26.300 --> 00:00:28.480 Good morning. My name is Brian, 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:31.140 and I attend the Alameda Parish. 00:00:31.859 --> 00:00:35.560 Today's scripture lesson is a reading from the Acts of the Apostles. 00:00:36.620 --> 00:00:39.020 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, 00:00:39.659 --> 00:00:45.420 Go south to the road, the desert road, that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. 00:00:46.620 --> 00:00:50.359 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, 00:00:50.939 --> 00:00:54.780 an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake, 00:00:54.780 --> 00:00:57.260 which means Queen of the Ethiopians. 00:00:57.259 --> 00:01:00.920 This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 00:01:01.539 --> 00:01:06.120 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot, reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. 00:01:06.920 --> 00:01:08.500 The spirit told Philip, 00:01:08.939 --> 00:01:11.179 Go to that chariot and stay near it. 00:01:11.900 --> 00:01:16.280 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:19.000 Do you understand what you're reading? 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:20.099 Philip asked. 00:01:20.700 --> 00:01:23.859 How can I, he said, unless someone explains it to me. 00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:27.219 So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 00:01:28.159 --> 00:01:31.280 This is the passage of scripture the eunuch was reading. 00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:34.920 He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, 00:01:34.920 --> 00:01:41.640 and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 00:01:42.519 --> 00:01:46.060 In his humiliation, he was deprived of justice. 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:48.980 Who can speak of his descendants? 00:01:48.980 --> 00:01:52.060 For his life was taken from the earth. 00:01:53.060 --> 00:01:54.700 The eunuch asked Philip, 00:01:55.219 --> 00:02:00.500 Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else? 00:02:01.400 --> 00:02:07.439 Then Philip began with that very passage of scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 00:02:07.439 --> 00:02:10.159 And they traveled along the road. 00:02:10.699 --> 00:02:13.099 They came to some water, and the eunuch said, 00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:14.919 Look, here's water. 00:02:15.419 --> 00:02:17.740 What can stand in the way of my being baptized? 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:21.020 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. 00:02:21.939 --> 00:02:26.500 Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 00:02:27.400 --> 00:02:31.680 When they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, 00:02:31.979 --> 00:02:36.240 and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:41.200 Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, 00:02:41.659 --> 00:02:45.800 preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea. 00:02:46.719 --> 00:02:48.520 This is the word of the Lord. 00:02:49.159 --> 00:02:50.000 Thanks be to God. 00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:09.960 There we go. 00:03:10.040 --> 00:03:10.520 Can you hear me? 00:03:11.580 --> 00:03:18.580 You know, pre-COVID, I did not think that much about the role of pastors in public health. 00:03:19.260 --> 00:03:22.340 I didn't even know what an epidemiologist was, so like a year ago. 00:03:23.439 --> 00:03:25.620 My brother's the doctor of our family. 00:03:25.760 --> 00:03:26.420 I'm just the preacher. 00:03:27.100 --> 00:03:27.960 I could have been a doctor. 00:03:27.960 --> 00:03:32.240 There were too many good shows on TV, though, when I was growing up. 00:03:32.480 --> 00:03:37.620 So I do have the handwriting of a doctor, but that's about it. 00:03:38.140 --> 00:03:41.319 You just do not want me to treat any of your ailments. 00:03:41.379 --> 00:03:43.960 If you have a fever, I'm going to give you some aspirin. 00:03:44.700 --> 00:03:47.659 Step on a nail, I'm going to crush up some aspirin and rub it on your foot. 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:54.060 Gaping wound, I'm going to pour some extra-strength aspirin into that hole and put some duct tape on it. 00:03:54.060 --> 00:03:55.759 So that's about the extent of my care. 00:03:56.520 --> 00:03:58.219 Extra-strength aspirin always. 00:03:58.439 --> 00:04:01.479 I just want the maximum human dosage allowable. 00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:05.740 Just take me up to, like, where it would kill me and then just back it off a touch. 00:04:05.800 --> 00:04:08.180 That's the kind of pain reliever I enjoy. 00:04:09.340 --> 00:04:10.219 I'm not a doctor. 00:04:10.340 --> 00:04:13.640 I know very little about viruses or vaccines or public health, 00:04:13.640 --> 00:04:22.139 but I am happy to report to you that we've had 210 adults and kids, different people, in here since mid-February. 00:04:22.139 --> 00:04:27.699 And we have not yet had any COVID transmission to date that I'm aware of, so praise God for that. 00:04:28.219 --> 00:04:37.039 And we also took a survey this past week, and you all let us know, about 132 of you, that you're 97% vaccinated. 00:04:37.180 --> 00:04:38.019 So congratulations. 00:04:38.800 --> 00:04:43.339 Again, I'm not a math guy, but 97%, I'm told, is a high, high number. 00:04:43.599 --> 00:04:46.839 And you can probably feel pretty good about that. 00:04:46.839 --> 00:04:55.899 So our COVID task force is going to write a letter in the coming weeks to talk about what it means to reopen Christ Church fully with our county, with our state on June 15. 00:04:56.239 --> 00:05:01.459 And many of you raised great questions in that survey and concerns, and so we'll try to speak to that. 00:05:02.120 --> 00:05:04.620 And if you haven't filled that out, we encourage you to do so. 00:05:05.559 --> 00:05:13.139 Well, today we are getting back into the Acts of the Apostles, the Acts of the Holy Spirit, the Acts of Christ's church. 00:05:13.139 --> 00:05:20.879 And this is the book that tells us about the church's identity and mission, who we are and what we are to do. 00:05:20.959 --> 00:05:28.500 And we want to take a fresh look at it as COVID recedes and we emerge from this pandemic to ask the question, who are we at Christ Church? 00:05:29.379 --> 00:05:34.379 What does God have for us to do in Berkeley and Oakland and in the Bay Area? 00:05:34.379 --> 00:05:44.139 And we're following along this mission statement that Jesus gives in chapter 1, verse 8, where he says to a group of about 120 disciples, he says to them, 00:05:44.199 --> 00:05:48.079 you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. 00:05:48.939 --> 00:05:57.439 And you're going to go out and be my empowered witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and even to the ends of the earth. 00:05:57.439 --> 00:06:08.579 And so this is a blueprint for us, it's a map and a compass for how to move, how to keep up with the Holy Spirit as he's taking the gospel, the good news of Jesus to the ends of the earth. 00:06:09.259 --> 00:06:20.120 We come today to Acts chapter 8, which is an especially cherished scripture among Christians of African descent, the story of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch. 00:06:20.120 --> 00:06:28.740 And when we think about Christianity in Africa today, we often think about movements that began with the witness of missionaries from the West. 00:06:28.959 --> 00:06:35.699 But the biblical record tells us that Christianity in Africa actually starts before Christianity in Europe. 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:46.360 And of course, if you know the history, now the center of gravity of Christianity is in the global south, in Africa, in Latin America, in Asia. 00:06:46.360 --> 00:06:53.540 And the 20th century was probably one of the most remarkable of all the centuries since the first century, 00:06:54.180 --> 00:07:01.620 because the composition of the Christian church ethnically and culturally changed dramatically in that century. 00:07:02.460 --> 00:07:06.020 In the year 1900, Africa had about 10 million Christians. 00:07:06.900 --> 00:07:10.680 Fast forward to the year 2000, it had 360 million Christians. 00:07:11.100 --> 00:07:14.540 About half of the population of Africa is Christian today. 00:07:14.540 --> 00:07:20.939 And so what we see is that Africa became the heartland of Christianity in the early centuries of the church, 00:07:21.160 --> 00:07:24.420 and it is now the heartland once again. 00:07:24.500 --> 00:07:31.020 And so we do well to look at this text, which has inspired so many through the years. 00:07:31.100 --> 00:07:42.660 And what it tells us is that the church's mission is to pursue others, answer questions, and baptize into joy. 00:07:42.660 --> 00:07:55.140 And let me start with the church's mission to pursue others. 00:07:55.420 --> 00:08:03.620 The three main characters of the story are the Holy Spirit, Philip, and this man from Ethiopia. 00:08:03.620 --> 00:08:10.840 And if you pulled out Google Maps and you entered in Aswan, Egypt, and Khartoum, Sudan, 00:08:10.840 --> 00:08:17.379 that would put you about in the zone where this black African man began his 1,000-mile journey, 00:08:17.500 --> 00:08:20.740 his pilgrimage north along the Nile River. 00:08:20.980 --> 00:08:27.060 And he got up there, and then he went east to Jerusalem, to Israel. 00:08:27.060 --> 00:08:30.579 And we're told that he's not just an Ethiopian. 00:08:31.180 --> 00:08:35.820 We're told five times that he's a eunuch, which means he's castrated. 00:08:36.580 --> 00:08:39.940 And that was common if you're not part of the royal family, 00:08:40.120 --> 00:08:44.519 but you're being groomed in an administrative leadership position in the government, 00:08:44.740 --> 00:08:49.440 and you're constantly close to in proximity with the royal family members. 00:08:49.740 --> 00:08:55.019 This was your cost of entry into your profession to be castrated, to be eunuched. 00:08:55.019 --> 00:09:01.379 Some of us thought we had to pay a high price for our graduate student degree entrance into our vocational field, 00:09:01.480 --> 00:09:03.279 so we should probably complain a little bit less. 00:09:03.860 --> 00:09:08.179 But notice the differences between Philip and this man. 00:09:09.340 --> 00:09:10.740 Philip is working class. 00:09:10.980 --> 00:09:15.419 This guy is upper class, part of the cultural, political elite. 00:09:15.559 --> 00:09:17.079 He's the CFO of his nation. 00:09:17.480 --> 00:09:18.519 He runs the treasury. 00:09:18.659 --> 00:09:19.259 He's rich. 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:20.720 He's successful. 00:09:20.840 --> 00:09:22.879 He's this powerful businessman. 00:09:22.879 --> 00:09:25.379 Philip is Jewish. 00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:28.100 This guy is racially different. 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:29.360 He has darker skin. 00:09:29.980 --> 00:09:34.100 He's from the outermost culture in the known civilized world at that time. 00:09:34.539 --> 00:09:35.939 He's sexually altered. 00:09:36.120 --> 00:09:40.519 He's about as different as Philip as you could possibly be. 00:09:41.259 --> 00:09:45.779 And Jews just simply did not mix with Gentiles like this at all. 00:09:45.779 --> 00:09:49.220 But the Holy Spirit is work in this guy's life. 00:09:49.939 --> 00:09:53.959 Because of the Jewish diaspora that had spread throughout the Roman Empire, 00:09:54.079 --> 00:10:01.779 it made it all the way down to Ethiopia, where this man who was a spiritual seeker became a convert to Israel's God. 00:10:02.620 --> 00:10:09.899 And so he traveled for months on pilgrimage to this feast in Jerusalem where he went there to worship Yahweh. 00:10:09.899 --> 00:10:17.519 And while he was there, this highly educated man found this rare, expensive scroll of the Scriptures, which he purchased. 00:10:18.019 --> 00:10:22.740 And now he's bumping along in his chariot reading this scroll. 00:10:23.259 --> 00:10:29.939 And the Holy Spirit has prepared the heart of this man for an encounter with a Christian. 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:31.279 Right? 00:10:31.340 --> 00:10:34.720 And meanwhile, the Holy Spirit's not just working in this Ethiopian man. 00:10:34.779 --> 00:10:36.179 He's also at work in Philip. 00:10:36.179 --> 00:10:41.120 In verse 26, we see that an angel of the Lord said to Philip, 00:10:41.239 --> 00:10:45.959 Go south to the road, the desert road, that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. 00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:48.120 And then in verse 29, it says, 00:10:48.299 --> 00:10:52.120 The Spirit told Philip, Go to that chariot and stay near it. 00:10:52.899 --> 00:10:55.659 And what we see is that the Holy Spirit intervenes. 00:10:55.739 --> 00:11:01.259 The Holy Spirit directs and guides this Christian to pursue this spiritual seeker. 00:11:02.019 --> 00:11:03.500 And the chariot's moving. 00:11:03.500 --> 00:11:05.599 So Philip is having to run, right? 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:09.040 He's running alongside and saying, I can see that you're reading the Bible. 00:11:09.180 --> 00:11:11.899 I can see that you're engaging with this. 00:11:11.960 --> 00:11:12.659 Do you understand it? 00:11:13.019 --> 00:11:14.159 Do you need any help? 00:11:15.300 --> 00:11:16.500 And it's hot. 00:11:17.060 --> 00:11:17.879 He's in the desert. 00:11:18.220 --> 00:11:18.940 He's sweating. 00:11:19.879 --> 00:11:26.000 This kind of thing just doesn't happen between a Jew and an Ethiopian eunuch ever. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:32.580 It doesn't happen unless the Holy Spirit pushes and pulls Philip into this conversation. 00:11:32.740 --> 00:11:37.059 Unless it reminds him that statement of the resurrected Jesus where he said, 00:11:37.480 --> 00:11:42.120 I want you to go and I want you to make disciples of all the nations, of all the ethnos. 00:11:43.700 --> 00:11:45.840 And here he is. 00:11:46.279 --> 00:11:50.600 He's pursuing this other who's very different than him. 00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:59.480 And he's doing what Jesus told us to do, which is to intentionally break down barriers so that the gospel can go to new groups of people. 00:12:00.120 --> 00:12:07.100 And that's a theme throughout the Acts of the Apostles, that the Holy Spirit desires Christians to break down barriers, 00:12:07.100 --> 00:12:15.800 to get out of our comfort zone, to engage with and embrace different people in different places of different cultures. 00:12:15.940 --> 00:12:23.440 And in fact, the Holy Spirit is grieved when Christians of one race disdain or have contempt for another 00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:27.600 or simply avoid and ignore others who are different than them. 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:35.740 So the Holy Spirit urges Philip to run after this racially different, sexually altered man, 00:12:35.800 --> 00:12:38.120 a man he would never have anything to do with him. 00:12:38.159 --> 00:12:41.879 And he says, I want you to get near him and I want you to stay close to him. 00:12:42.899 --> 00:12:45.000 And it raises the question for us, doesn't it? 00:12:45.060 --> 00:12:47.220 Who is your one? 00:12:48.379 --> 00:12:52.639 Who is your one person like this in your life? 00:12:53.519 --> 00:12:57.139 Jesus told us about the good shepherd who goes after the one sheep. 00:12:57.600 --> 00:12:57.800 Right? 00:12:57.860 --> 00:13:02.700 And Jesus here through the Holy Spirit, through Philip, is going after this one man. 00:13:02.779 --> 00:13:07.899 Who is the one person that God has put into your life here in Berkeley and in Oakland 00:13:07.899 --> 00:13:14.300 whom the Holy Spirit is nudging you and saying, go to them and stay near them? 00:13:15.480 --> 00:13:18.320 This Ethiopian is what we would call a person of peace. 00:13:19.139 --> 00:13:20.720 Meaning he's open to Philip. 00:13:21.040 --> 00:13:22.420 He listens to Philip. 00:13:22.540 --> 00:13:23.580 He invites him in. 00:13:23.660 --> 00:13:24.899 He sits down for conversation. 00:13:25.060 --> 00:13:27.080 Who is that in your life? 00:13:27.080 --> 00:13:28.480 I want you to imagine their face. 00:13:28.600 --> 00:13:29.400 Imagine their name. 00:13:30.220 --> 00:13:31.660 And then I want you to ask this question. 00:13:31.800 --> 00:13:37.860 How is the Holy Spirit prompting me to take my next step and be intentional with that one person? 00:13:38.820 --> 00:13:40.040 Is it to pray for them? 00:13:40.840 --> 00:13:42.900 Is it to spend time with them? 00:13:43.020 --> 00:13:47.220 Is it to ask them good questions like Philip is doing here? 00:13:48.460 --> 00:13:51.040 Now you might say, well, I want to be a good friend to that person, 00:13:51.039 --> 00:13:55.480 but I don't really want to impose my faith on them. 00:13:55.559 --> 00:14:01.039 I don't want to ask them to change their culture in sharing the gospel with them. 00:14:01.360 --> 00:14:08.980 But what the Acts of the Apostles tells us is that Christianity does not belong to any one people or culture more than another. 00:14:08.980 --> 00:14:12.399 What we see is that the gospel is for Samaritans. 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:14.120 It's for Africans. 00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:15.399 It's for Middle Easterners. 00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:20.759 It's for Europeans and Asians and all the way out to all the people groups of the world. 00:14:20.759 --> 00:14:28.659 Laminsane, whom we've mentioned here before, he's a native of Gambia in Africa, professor at Yale, 00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:32.019 and he wrote a book called Whose Religion is Christianity? 00:14:32.600 --> 00:14:34.279 The Gospel Beyond the West. 00:14:34.919 --> 00:14:39.899 And he sheds light on this issue of the cultural transference of Christianity 00:14:39.899 --> 00:14:46.399 as he's reflecting on that explosive growth of the gospel in Africa in the 20th century. 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:48.240 And he says, why is that? 00:14:48.279 --> 00:14:49.519 What enabled that to happen? 00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:52.419 And what Sané says, he says this, he says, 00:14:52.519 --> 00:14:56.220 Christianity gave us a reorientation of worldview. 00:14:57.360 --> 00:15:02.439 People sensed in their hearts that Jesus did not mock their respect for the sacred 00:15:02.439 --> 00:15:05.319 or their clamor for an invincible savior, 00:15:05.460 --> 00:15:11.120 and so they beat their sacred drums for him until the stars skipped and danced in the skies. 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:19.000 Sané says Christianity helped Africans to become renewed Africans, not remade Europeans. 00:15:19.519 --> 00:15:24.000 In other words, Christianity does not destroy our African culture. 00:15:24.120 --> 00:15:28.579 Rather, it completes it, restores it, and renews our Africanness. 00:15:29.379 --> 00:15:31.240 And that's what the Spirit does everywhere. 00:15:31.639 --> 00:15:39.419 The Spirit recreates Christianity afresh in each new culture without destroying or diminishing that culture, 00:15:39.419 --> 00:15:46.120 which Sané argues makes Christianity the most inclusive of all cultural differences among all the world religions. 00:15:46.120 --> 00:15:53.320 In fact, he says Christianity is way more inclusive than secularism, which is always talking about inclusion. 00:15:53.320 --> 00:15:57.440 So when we ask that question, who is your one? 00:15:58.100 --> 00:15:59.160 Who's your one person? 00:15:59.220 --> 00:16:04.620 And we try to imagine sharing the gospel with that one person in the context of friendship. 00:16:04.620 --> 00:16:14.500 You would not be imposing something that's alien or foreign onto that person in such a way to diminish them culturally or individually. 00:16:15.379 --> 00:16:23.779 Rather, you'd be inviting them to become the truest expression, the highest version of who God created them to be, 00:16:24.919 --> 00:16:31.620 inviting them into an authentic humanity in Jesus who transcends all cultures. 00:16:31.620 --> 00:16:32.299 Cultures. 00:16:33.279 --> 00:16:36.019 And that's what's happening here with this man. 00:16:36.080 --> 00:16:38.899 And this is what the church's mission is all about. 00:16:39.039 --> 00:16:47.379 The church's mission is to pursue others who are radically different from us racially, culturally, religiously, in every way. 00:16:47.940 --> 00:16:48.560 In every way. 00:16:49.379 --> 00:16:55.659 The church's mission is to pursue others, and it's also to answer their questions. 00:16:56.279 --> 00:17:00.159 The church's mission is also to pursue others and to answer their questions. 00:17:00.159 --> 00:17:06.619 Because we see the three main characters in the story, the Holy Spirit, Philip, and the Ethiopian. 00:17:06.700 --> 00:17:09.240 But what are the three main questions in the story? 00:17:09.940 --> 00:17:14.420 The three main things that this inquire, this questioning seeker asks. 00:17:14.480 --> 00:17:16.500 We see the first question in verse 31. 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:26.119 He says, how can I understand this scroll of Scripture that I'm reading unless someone explains it to me and teaches me its meaning? 00:17:26.119 --> 00:17:29.559 And the second question comes up in verse 34. 00:17:29.759 --> 00:17:33.000 He says, who is this prophet Isaiah talking about? 00:17:33.039 --> 00:17:35.559 Is he talking about himself or someone else? 00:17:36.479 --> 00:17:42.559 And then his third question in verse 36, he says, what can stand in the way of my being baptized? 00:17:43.979 --> 00:17:52.419 Our mission is to pursue others and to earn their trust in such a way that they would come and ask us their questions. 00:17:52.420 --> 00:18:01.640 And we should pray that the Holy Spirit would stir up this level of spiritual awakening and desire and seeking that we see in this man. 00:18:01.720 --> 00:18:08.019 That more and more people would be asking these kind of questions in their hearts and then coming to us with those questions. 00:18:08.019 --> 00:18:17.220 And assuming that we, God's people, are earning the right to be heard and that people know how much we care for them, 00:18:17.259 --> 00:18:24.879 we should pray that the Holy Spirit would give us clear, solid, biblical, truthful answers about reality, about God, 00:18:25.240 --> 00:18:33.079 about human nature and the meaning of life and the story of salvation and the end and the goal of human history. 00:18:33.940 --> 00:18:36.099 And the courage to share those convictions. 00:18:36.099 --> 00:18:39.519 So what is it that gives rise to this man's question? 00:18:40.719 --> 00:18:46.119 Well, the Holy Spirit has led this Ethiopian eunuch to the Word of God. 00:18:46.899 --> 00:18:50.500 The Holy Spirit has fixed this man's attention on the Bible. 00:18:51.059 --> 00:18:59.299 And not just the Bible, but one of the most important texts in the heart of the Bible, Isaiah 53, the song of the suffering servant. 00:18:59.299 --> 00:19:06.139 And so if you wonder how the Holy Spirit acts, if you wonder what it means for the Holy Spirit to be working on someone, 00:19:06.700 --> 00:19:14.599 what we see here is that the Spirit of God leads us to the Scriptures of God, which focus on the servant of God. 00:19:15.279 --> 00:19:20.299 The Spirit of God leads us to the Scriptures of God, which focuses on the servant of God. 00:19:20.299 --> 00:19:23.099 And that's what prompts his question in verse 34. 00:19:23.879 --> 00:19:24.980 Who is this about? 00:19:25.700 --> 00:19:27.059 Who is this talking about? 00:19:27.119 --> 00:19:29.480 Is this about the prophet or somebody else? 00:19:29.519 --> 00:19:31.279 And why is he so eager? 00:19:31.879 --> 00:19:36.059 Why is this man so eager to know the someone in this text? 00:19:36.059 --> 00:19:40.819 Because think about the context of this Ethiopian eunuch's life. 00:19:40.919 --> 00:19:42.700 He's reached the top, right? 00:19:42.740 --> 00:19:46.319 He's the head of the treasury, the CFO of his country. 00:19:46.500 --> 00:19:47.319 He's got money. 00:19:47.440 --> 00:19:48.159 He's got power. 00:19:48.259 --> 00:19:49.240 He's got success. 00:19:49.980 --> 00:19:53.220 But it's come at great cost and at great sacrifice, right? 00:19:53.259 --> 00:19:53.960 He's eunuched. 00:19:54.299 --> 00:20:00.059 He's eunuched in the midst of a family-centric culture, which means he is never going to marry. 00:20:00.779 --> 00:20:05.019 He is not going to have a legacy to pass on to his kids and his grandkids. 00:20:05.019 --> 00:20:09.379 And so he probably reads that line, who can speak of his descendants? 00:20:10.500 --> 00:20:11.960 And that resonates with the story. 00:20:12.079 --> 00:20:14.059 He wonders, who is this? 00:20:14.319 --> 00:20:15.160 Who is this? 00:20:15.960 --> 00:20:16.759 And think about it. 00:20:16.779 --> 00:20:26.539 Why did this guy leave his kingdom to go in this long, dangerous, costly 1,000-mile pilgrimage up to Jerusalem to worship at the temple? 00:20:26.639 --> 00:20:32.319 He must have had an enormous spiritual emptiness inside of him. 00:20:32.319 --> 00:20:42.439 He must have had a deep hunger that all of his money and power and success could not fill, that only the God of Israel, only the God of the Bible could fill. 00:20:43.220 --> 00:20:45.539 And so he goes on this journey, but he gets to the temple. 00:20:46.519 --> 00:20:47.259 And guess what? 00:20:47.259 --> 00:20:53.779 Gentiles and eunuchs are not allowed in to that holy place. 00:20:54.319 --> 00:21:04.019 And so he's reading this text about this one who's shut out, this one who's cut off, this one who's humiliated, and he's wondering, who is this? 00:21:05.220 --> 00:21:06.859 And how is it that Philip responds? 00:21:08.140 --> 00:21:13.019 Well, Philip does not give this guy postmodern literary criticism. 00:21:13.019 --> 00:21:16.799 He doesn't say, well, you create the meaning in this text, right? 00:21:16.819 --> 00:21:18.579 He doesn't give him Derrida and deconstruction. 00:21:18.660 --> 00:21:20.420 He just tells him straight up. 00:21:20.700 --> 00:21:28.720 He says in verse 35 that he began with that very passage of Scripture, and he told him the good news about Jesus. 00:21:29.920 --> 00:21:40.980 He said, you've been reading Isaiah's songs about the servant of Yahweh and what he's going to do, how he's going to come, and he's going to triumph over everything that threatens us. 00:21:40.980 --> 00:21:45.960 How he's going to be victorious over all that dehumanizes us. 00:21:46.039 --> 00:21:51.519 And now you've gotten to that text that tells us how the servant is going to do it. 00:21:51.579 --> 00:21:56.140 The servant of the Lord is going to triumph through defeat. 00:21:57.059 --> 00:22:01.940 The servant of Yahweh is going to be victorious through suffering, it says. 00:22:02.620 --> 00:22:06.920 The servant of God is going to be exalted through humiliation. 00:22:06.920 --> 00:22:16.240 You see that slaughtered lamb in verse 32, that humiliated one in verse 33, that's Jesus of Nazareth. 00:22:16.360 --> 00:22:19.500 That is God crucified. 00:22:20.320 --> 00:22:22.259 That's the man who was born to die. 00:22:22.340 --> 00:22:25.460 Because these are the verses that lead up to this text. 00:22:25.539 --> 00:22:27.720 The few verses just ahead of what's printed for us. 00:22:27.720 --> 00:22:37.339 It says, surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted. 00:22:37.400 --> 00:22:40.660 But he was pierced for our transgressions. 00:22:40.799 --> 00:22:44.279 He was crushed for our iniquities. 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:51.920 The punishment that brought us peace was laid upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 00:22:52.039 --> 00:22:54.779 We all, like sheep, have gone astray. 00:22:54.779 --> 00:23:00.379 Each of us has turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us. 00:23:01.319 --> 00:23:03.720 Every single one of us. 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:11.839 Philip, I imagine, looked at this man and said, you know all the self-centeredness that's in our hearts? 00:23:13.099 --> 00:23:16.099 You know all the guilt and shame of this world? 00:23:17.200 --> 00:23:22.420 God provided a substitute to carry that for you and for me. 00:23:22.420 --> 00:23:27.620 God provided a sacrificial lamb to bear that in our place. 00:23:28.140 --> 00:23:30.539 He came and he was deprived of justice. 00:23:30.660 --> 00:23:33.240 He came and he was covered in blood. 00:23:33.400 --> 00:23:38.519 He came and he was swallowed up by the darkness. 00:23:39.320 --> 00:23:40.480 And why did he do it? 00:23:41.180 --> 00:23:43.019 He did it to heal us. 00:23:43.779 --> 00:23:46.440 He did it to forgive us and to cleanse us. 00:23:46.440 --> 00:23:51.100 To put us back in a right relationship with God to give us life. 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:53.140 To give us peace. 00:23:54.039 --> 00:24:00.059 And I can imagine Philip looking straight in the eyes of this man and saying, you know on the cross, 00:24:01.279 --> 00:24:06.559 Jesus became this suffering servant not just for Israelites, but for Ethiopians. 00:24:06.559 --> 00:24:10.259 Not just for Jews, but for Gentiles. 00:24:10.359 --> 00:24:12.440 Not just for marrieds, but for eunuchs. 00:24:13.319 --> 00:24:16.099 Not just for insiders, but for outsiders. 00:24:16.220 --> 00:24:21.960 Because on the cross, the Son of God, God in the flesh, the ultimate insider, 00:24:22.759 --> 00:24:26.220 took the place of the ultimate outsider. 00:24:26.220 --> 00:24:32.500 So that we, who are outside of a relationship with God, longing to be let in. 00:24:32.740 --> 00:24:34.180 Let into that holy place. 00:24:34.339 --> 00:24:35.920 Let into his holy love. 00:24:36.519 --> 00:24:39.339 Could finally become insiders. 00:24:39.579 --> 00:24:40.240 Christ Church. 00:24:41.240 --> 00:24:46.059 Of all the questions that the world is asking, 00:24:47.059 --> 00:24:50.180 this is the one answer that we've been given. 00:24:50.180 --> 00:24:53.720 It's the deepest answer to all the world's questions. 00:24:54.519 --> 00:24:57.039 The answer of the suffering servant. 00:24:57.180 --> 00:25:00.019 The answer of the sacrificial substitute. 00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:03.120 The answer of the crucified Christ. 00:25:03.240 --> 00:25:07.920 It's all we have to offer as good news to this world. 00:25:09.100 --> 00:25:10.680 And that's the church's mission. 00:25:11.620 --> 00:25:13.240 It's to pursue others. 00:25:14.180 --> 00:25:17.220 And in pursuing others to answer their questions. 00:25:17.220 --> 00:25:21.440 And then finally, it's to baptize into joy. 00:25:22.240 --> 00:25:27.319 The church's mission is to pursue others, answer their questions, and baptize them into joy. 00:25:27.400 --> 00:25:28.380 And I want to end with this. 00:25:28.440 --> 00:25:32.460 Because what do we do with Philip's answer to this question? 00:25:32.559 --> 00:25:37.400 Do we believe that the suffering servant took our place? 00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:41.660 And that his substitutionary sacrifice for us is good news. 00:25:41.720 --> 00:25:43.600 Not just for us, but for the whole world. 00:25:43.599 --> 00:25:50.839 And do we cherish that as the best news that we've ever heard that anyone ever will hear? 00:25:51.740 --> 00:25:57.199 And do we cherish it to such a degree that we want to do something about it? 00:25:58.059 --> 00:26:01.619 The story of this eunuch ends with him being baptized. 00:26:01.619 --> 00:26:04.599 And it says he goes home to Ethiopia rejoicing. 00:26:05.379 --> 00:26:08.759 And there he goes and he commends what he most cherishes. 00:26:09.379 --> 00:26:09.559 Right? 00:26:09.659 --> 00:26:12.099 The Holy Spirit has come upon him. 00:26:12.099 --> 00:26:14.599 He's received power when the Holy Spirit came on him. 00:26:14.619 --> 00:26:19.079 And he returned home as an empowered witness to the ends of the earth. 00:26:19.159 --> 00:26:20.779 The first evangelist in his city. 00:26:21.659 --> 00:26:24.099 The first to plant a church in Africa. 00:26:24.219 --> 00:26:27.879 The first to launch a missionary movement on the continent. 00:26:29.019 --> 00:26:35.359 And what's so ironic is that this eunuch who would never have a biological family became the spiritual father. 00:26:35.359 --> 00:26:39.839 To countless sons and daughters. 00:26:39.839 --> 00:26:42.939 All because he asked this question in verse 36. 00:26:43.699 --> 00:26:46.939 What can stand in the way of my being baptized? 00:26:49.019 --> 00:26:51.539 See, understanding is essential to faith. 00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:54.000 But understanding is not enough. 00:26:54.919 --> 00:26:55.179 Right? 00:26:55.240 --> 00:26:56.799 We can understand what's at stake. 00:26:56.799 --> 00:27:00.059 We can understand what God has done for us in Christ. 00:27:00.180 --> 00:27:01.779 But we can still be undecided. 00:27:01.919 --> 00:27:03.279 We can still do nothing about it. 00:27:03.319 --> 00:27:05.379 We can still stay on the fence. 00:27:05.480 --> 00:27:08.279 But this man's will becomes malleable. 00:27:09.139 --> 00:27:12.079 And he says, I want to take a step of faith. 00:27:12.180 --> 00:27:13.639 I want to come off the fence. 00:27:13.740 --> 00:27:18.940 I want to identify myself with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 00:27:19.039 --> 00:27:21.240 And all that God has done for me. 00:27:21.299 --> 00:27:22.299 I want that water. 00:27:22.299 --> 00:27:26.740 I want the water of baptism that says, I belong to the Father. 00:27:26.819 --> 00:27:33.180 I want the water that tells me I've been washed by Jesus and all my sins are washed away. 00:27:33.240 --> 00:27:39.220 I want the water that plunges me into the resurrection life by the Holy Spirit. 00:27:40.119 --> 00:27:43.099 Is there anything that should keep me from that water? 00:27:44.200 --> 00:27:46.299 He knows that this is a serious step. 00:27:46.919 --> 00:27:49.599 He knows that this is a costly decision. 00:27:49.599 --> 00:27:54.359 It's an action with consequences that will reverberate his whole life long. 00:27:54.399 --> 00:27:56.199 All the way to the very end. 00:27:56.319 --> 00:27:59.039 Because baptism means conversion. 00:28:00.539 --> 00:28:02.279 And as Laman Sané puts it, he says, 00:28:02.359 --> 00:28:04.879 Conversion is the turning of ourselves to God. 00:28:05.559 --> 00:28:10.799 And that means all of ourselves without leaving anything behind or outside. 00:28:12.119 --> 00:28:14.759 Baptism says the old way of life is over. 00:28:15.339 --> 00:28:17.899 And the new way of life begins here. 00:28:17.900 --> 00:28:24.360 Baptism says stop believing those doctrines and start confessing this creed. 00:28:25.320 --> 00:28:32.820 Baptism says stop living in this ethical way and start walking on this moral path. 00:28:33.820 --> 00:28:34.300 Right? 00:28:34.360 --> 00:28:43.920 And this guy knows that here and now I'm unreservedly, irrevocably committing myself to Jesus to belong only and wholly to him. 00:28:43.920 --> 00:28:44.920 Baptism says stop living in this moral path. 00:28:44.920 --> 00:28:46.420 To be devoted to his word. 00:28:46.720 --> 00:28:48.380 To obey his commands. 00:28:48.519 --> 00:28:50.000 To live a holy life. 00:28:50.660 --> 00:28:52.560 To love his church. 00:28:52.680 --> 00:28:54.300 To participate in his mission. 00:28:54.440 --> 00:28:57.220 To be under his control. 00:28:57.420 --> 00:28:59.539 This is what baptism means. 00:29:00.660 --> 00:29:02.340 And some people might look at this and say, 00:29:02.500 --> 00:29:09.539 Gosh, all of those commitments of baptism seem like they might rob this man of his joy. 00:29:09.539 --> 00:29:17.079 I mean, all the constraints that baptism requires, that would seem like it would kill this man's joy. 00:29:18.019 --> 00:29:20.279 But that's in fact the opposite of what happens. 00:29:21.319 --> 00:29:28.940 It says in verse 39 that when they came up out of the water, that he went on his way rejoicing. 00:29:28.940 --> 00:29:35.100 He went on his way with exceeding joy, with immense gladness. 00:29:36.340 --> 00:29:45.740 Andrew Walls, a missionary to Sierra Leone and scholar of world Christianity, says one of the great gifts of the African church today is its sheer joyousness. 00:29:46.820 --> 00:29:55.680 And I think many of those brothers and sisters would come and look at the troubled, retrograde souls that inhabit backward places like New York, LA, and San Francisco. 00:29:55.680 --> 00:29:59.680 And they would pity us for our secularity and our joylessness. 00:30:00.600 --> 00:30:02.220 And they would say, Hey, don't you know? 00:30:03.039 --> 00:30:07.080 Jesus prayed that we might be filled to the full measure of his joy. 00:30:08.519 --> 00:30:14.680 Don't you know that one of the most devastating accusations that could be made against a Christian is that they're joyless? 00:30:16.759 --> 00:30:21.940 Don't you know that a joyless Christian is a contradiction in terms? 00:30:21.940 --> 00:30:27.080 I think if this Ethiopian eunuch were here, he would challenge me, and maybe he'd challenge you. 00:30:27.740 --> 00:30:38.940 And he'd say, You know, if the good news of this suffering servant Jesus is actually true, how can you keep from rejoicing? 00:30:40.680 --> 00:30:48.960 If this is true, how can you keep from sharing your newfound joy with others? 00:30:48.960 --> 00:30:53.240 I want to end with this quote from a guy named Roland Allen. 00:30:54.380 --> 00:31:00.680 He became a missionary to China in 1895, about two years before my great-grandmother was born in China. 00:31:00.779 --> 00:31:04.140 So he was a contemporary missionary of my great-great-grandparents. 00:31:04.340 --> 00:31:08.779 And he wrote a book called The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church. 00:31:09.400 --> 00:31:10.680 And here's what Allen says. 00:31:10.680 --> 00:31:40.660 He says, 00:31:40.680 --> 00:31:56.080 Don't we want this? 00:31:56.900 --> 00:31:59.740 Don't we want this joy in our lives? 00:32:00.680 --> 00:32:05.039 That's the only way we're going to live out the mission of the church that's been given to us. 00:32:05.039 --> 00:32:17.619 The church's mission is to pursue others, answer their questions, and baptize them into not only our joy, but the joy of the Lord himself. 00:32:18.619 --> 00:32:20.859 In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 00:32:21.740 --> 00:32:22.000 Amen. 00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:22.180 Amen. 00:32:22.180 --> 00:32:22.220 Amen. 00:32:22.220 --> 00:32:22.240 Amen. 00:32:22.240 --> 00:32:22.259 Amen. 00:32:22.259 --> 00:32:22.279 Amen. 00:32:22.279 --> 00:32:22.299 Amen. 00:32:22.299 --> 00:32:22.339 Amen. 00:32:22.339 --> 00:32:22.359 Amen. 00:32:22.359 --> 00:32:24.299 Amen. 00:32:24.299 --> 00:32:26.299 Amen. 00:32:26.299 --> 00:32:26.339 Amen. 00:32:26.339 --> 00:32:26.399 Amen. 00:32:26.399 --> 00:32:28.339 Amen. 00:32:28.339 --> 00:32:30.299 Amen. 00:32:30.299 --> 00:32:31.339 Amen. 00:32:31.339 --> 00:32:32.339 Amen. 00:32:32.339 --> 00:32:32.399 Amen. 00:32:32.399 --> 00:32:33.339 Amen. 00:32:33.339 --> 00:32:34.339 Amen.