Acts chapter 8 verse 26.
And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
Now the passage of scripture that he was reading was this.
Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter.
And like a lamb before its shearer is silent.
So he opens not his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe this generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.
And the eunuch said to Philip.
Philip, about whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this?
About himself or about someone else?
Then Philip opened his mouth.
And beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.
And as they were going along the road, they came to some water.
And the eunuch said, see, here is water.
What prevents me from being baptized?
And he commanded the chariot to stop.
And they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
And when they came out of the water, the spirit of the Lord carried Philip away.
And the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing.
But Philip found himself at Azotus.
And as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
Well, good morning, everyone.
Will you pray with me as we come to God's word?
Father, through my planned words this morning, I know that they are weak, these plans.
And so I pray that you might use my words to help us understand your word.
And that you would speak powerfully through your word and meet each one of us here this morning.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Well, a man named Laman from Gambia, West Africa, moves to Newcastle.
And Laman, he works at Newcastle Uni, Callaghan Campus, as a professor.
He goes through the gruelling process of getting his permanent residency,
and then he becomes an Australian citizen.
He's allowed to wear his traditional African dress to work.
His colleagues smile and accept his strange-smelling lunch in the common areas.
He struggles a bit with cultural differences, like how individualistic we are here,
like how private people are.
Like he never gets invited to have a meal at someone's home.
He finds that a bit strange.
But there's something else.
The Laman's colleagues and his students keep saying,
as if it's self-evidently obvious,
that it's just subtle sometimes,
and sometimes it's just outright ridiculing.
And it makes him feel that he doesn't truly belong, and he never will.
Because people say and imply that empirical science is the only capital T truth,
that what is material is all that there is.
And it mocks.
It mocks.
It mocks his Africanness.
Because I'm basing this off a real man, not at Newcastle,
but Lamin Sana, before he died in 2019.
He's a professor at Yale University in the US.
And he says in his book, Whose Religion is Christianity?
At the heart of Africanness is to see the world as a supernatural place.
Good spirits, evil spirits.
And the problem of evil spirits is they can seduce you, they can defeat you.
So our secular society, the West, says,
come, you can live here, you can eat your food,
you can dress how you want,
but to fully belong, the message is,
you need to become an individualistic, anti-supernatural Westerner.
How often do you hear the word inclusive?
We say it so much in our society.
But imagine someone like Lamin, how he feels.
He's not seen.
He's mocked.
So how inclusive is Jesus?
What would a man like Lamin find if he rubbed shoulders with you at work?
If a lady like Lamin came to playgroup,
if they came into our church, what would they find?
Let me quote Lamin in his book.
African sense in their hearts that Jesus did not mock their respect for the sacred,
the way Western secular people do,
nor their clamour for an invincible saviour.
So they beat their sacred drums for him
until the stars skipped and danced in the skies.
And after that dance, the stars weren't so little anymore.
Christianity helped Africans become renewed Africans,
not remade Europeans.
That's how inclusive Jesus is.
He doesn't mock.
But he does renew.
Jesus is truly inclusive of all races,
but precisely because he's exclusive.
He says,
I am the way.
I am the truth.
I am the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
No one.
No Anglo-Saxon whites who have a lovely house and family
and have grown up in the church.
No one.
Comes.
Except through me.
He requires totally renewed Aussies.
He's totally inclusive precisely because he is exclusive.
I am.
So we meet another African in the story here today
and his story is so powerful,
not because it's easy to belong to God,
but precisely because it is so difficult to fully belong to God.
We've seen in the story so far this mass conversion,
this revival,
this amazing reconciliation
between north and south in Samaria.
And Luke now,
he tells us about three individuals.
So we've gone big picture.
We're introduced to three people.
We're going to meet Saul next week in chapter 9,
Saul the enemy.
Chapter 10, Cornelius the Roman.
And here,
we have a nameless African eunuch foreigner.
All three individuals show us this unstoppable Jesus
who leaves the 99 sheep to go after the one,
who breaks any ideas you and I have of who is in and who is out.
He's determined to go to the ends of the earth.
So we've met Simon,
the great one in Samaria.
He's a somebody.
He's at the top of his society,
but he has some sort of conversion.
And how genuine that is,
we're not really sure.
He gets baptised,
but it's superficial at best
because we find that his heart is not right with God.
He is still in love with his own name.
He's still in love with power and money and success.
And now we meet another great man.
He is at the top of his society.
He's at the top.
But this man is sincere in his search for God.
And so I think he presents to us as a model
of what true faith in Jesus looks like.
So what do we know about this man?
He's from Ethiopia,
which is modern day Sudan,
just below Egypt.
He's racially on the edge of the world
that Philip would have known.
Like he's,
as we talked about in our small group,
he's a Gentile Gentile.
He's out there.
He's in charge of the treasury of the kingdom.
He's this chief financial officer,
if you will.
He's got the big bucks.
He's got the power.
But he's also made a 1,000 mile journey
on horse and chariot,
which would have taken weeks,
one way,
to come to Jerusalem.
He might be risking someone back home
usurping his position.
I don't know.
Give me some poetic license here.
Maybe he's risking someone taking his top spot
while he's away.
Maybe.
He's definitely risking danger on the road.
We think our roads are dangerous.
It was much more dangerous to travel back then,
mainly from people trying to rob you
and hurt you.
So he's made this huge journey.
But Luke is so not PC here.
Five times he just says the eunuch.
Like, it's pretty rude.
Like, what's represented by the name David Bott?
Everything.
Sorry, not everything in the world.
That came out wrong.
All that I am is in that name.
What's in a name?
All I am.
If you just call me Shorty.
Look.
Luke.
The eunuch.
Five times.
The eunuch.
We never learn his name.
What is a eunuch?
Well, in ancient royal courts,
we find it in the book of Esther, Daniel,
when they're in exile,
successful men holding high positions
in the royal family are castrated.
So that there's no threat to the female royalty,
to the bloodline.
It's a high price to be at the top.
And what's motivated him for such a journey?
Well, we're told in verse 27,
to worship.
He's come to worship.
There's plenty of religion where he's from.
The Ethiopian king was thought to be the son.
Let me read this.
Child of the son.
There's plenty of religion.
But he wants to change his allegiance.
He's searching for the true God of Israel.
He's studying.
He's owning an expensive copy of the Bible.
Not everyone had a Bible.
Not everyone could read it.
How privileged we are today.
But he is searching.
It suggests this great and powerful man at the top.
He's got some sort of inner emptiness.
That he's motivated to come all the way to Jerusalem,
to the temple, to find God.
But he would have been turned away.
The temple doors would have been shut for him.
Like we saw earlier in Acts, in chapter 3,
the beggar sitting by the temple doors.
It would have been shut.
Because Deuteronomy 23.1 says,
no one whose male organ is cut off
shall enter the assembly of the Lord.
He can't receive the physical sign of conversion,
of circumcision.
He can't become a full member of God's people,
even if he desperately wants to.
He embodies someone under God's curse,
who's cut off.
He's nameless.
No future.
No place.
He's excluded.
So I think it's likely he'd been returning home
incredibly disillusioned
and more lost than ever before.
Now why, I think we need to pause to consider
why might God have forbidden eunuchs
from accessing him in the temple to worship.
It seems harsh, doesn't it?
Well, I think one thing to consider is
how harsh other nations were,
how brutal,
how depersonalising
that other nations would
castrate their servants.
Socially, this law was very good.
It prevented Israel from being like the nations,
treating people like that.
But more than that,
it's not just eunuchs who are excluded.
We won't go into all the laws,
but those with physical defects,
it teaches us that
God requires wholeness to be in his presence.
But the physical laws are really just representing
we need to be whole morally.
We need to be whole people spiritually
to be in God's presence.
We need to be whole people
We need the law
to show me
that someone who's broken
the Ten Commandments,
how difficult it is to belong,
that I deserve to be cut off.
I'm with the eunuch outside.
God requires,
he wants wholeness.
Now that's a good thing.
He wants wholeness.
He wants us to be whole people.
Spiritually, morally, physically.
And so his exclusion actually points,
it gives us a yearning,
a crying out,
God, remake,
remake me,
remake this world.
And that's exactly what he's promised to do.
So there's very good reasons for this law,
but the law also pushes us forward.
And this eunuch is reading Isaiah 53.
Maybe he's reading there
because he's read a few chapters later
in Isaiah 56
what God has promised.
He says in Isaiah 56,
let not the foreigner
who has joined himself to the Lord
say,
the Lord will surely separate me
from his people.
And let not the eunuch say,
behold,
I'm a dry tree.
For thus says the Lord,
to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
I will give you in my house
and within my walls
a monument
and a name better
than sons and daughters.
I will give them an everlasting name
that shall not be cut off.
These I will bring to my holy mountain
and make them joyful
in my house of prayer.
For my house
shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.
The Lord God
who gathers the outcasts of Israel
declares,
I will gather yet others to him
besides those already gathered.
I wonder,
I just,
I wonder if he had read that promise
and that's why he's searching Isaiah.
Now someone in my small group this week
who shall remain nameless,
let's call him
Jamion.
Jamion rudely interrupted
my Bible study plans
and he pointed out
this story
isn't about the eunuchs
searching for the Lord.
Not primarily,
it's about the Lord
searching for
him.
That's why we're told
so much divine activity
going on here.
It's the Lord Jesus
who sends his angel
to Philip.
How Philip heard
this?
Was it in a
vision?
Was it the angel
showing up?
I don't know.
But don't get hung up
on that.
What's most important,
angels only turn up
in scripture
at very momentous
occasions.
This is a huge
occasion
and it's for this
foreigner.
This one
foreigner.
Angels are
turning up.
Philip,
leave Samaria,
this ministry
and movement
that's going
gangbusters
and I want you,
here's a plan
for evangelism,
go where you don't
expect anyone to be,
go to the desert.
Okay?
We're meant to be
seeing Jesus
driving this story.
He's the one,
he's the hero,
not Philip.
And then this
Jewish man
brought up on
purity laws,
he sees this
foreigner,
he sees this
sexually altered
man racially
from the edge
of the world
and then
Philip thinks,
wow,
what an opportunity
God,
I'll take it
from here.
No,
Philip's not the,
the spirit
has to prompt
him again,
go over
and join this
chariot.
Get close
to this man.
I'm reading
between the lines
here so
take this with
a grain of salt
but maybe
Philip needed
that push
to cross
everything
inside him
that kind
of had a
disgust
for this
man.
Spirit is
sending him.
Go join
this chariot
and if the
chariot's moving
it's kind
of a funny
image of him
just running
along.
Been reading
anything
interesting lately?
I don't know,
maybe it wasn't
moving.
I'm going,
I'm going to
get in trouble
for the poetic
license I got
in here today
but there's
no such thing
as chance
in God's
world.
What's he
reading out
loud?
Like if you
wanted to
start in the
Old Testament
there's a few
places where
you could
easily point
to Jesus.
Isaiah 53.
Wow.
This is not
a coincidence.
In that
very moment
for Philip
it's over
here.
This eunuch
thinks he's
searching for
God but
even his
failed
pilgrimage,
his struggle
to understand
the scriptures,
all of that
is really
the Lord
preparing him
to hear
his word
and the
Lord sending
his word
through his
people to
meet him
at the
exact moment
that he
had planned.
It's the
Lord searching
and sending
for him.
I find
great
encouragement
from this
in terms
of when
I just
feel like
there's an
opportunity
right now
in where
this person
is saying
something that
their heart
is yearning
and I
don't know
what to
say.
I don't
know what
to say
but the
sovereignty
of Jesus
here in
orchestrating
this moment
I find so
much encouragement
that I
don't know
what to
say but I
do know
he's so
sovereign he's
got me in
this moment.
He's been
working in
this person
long before
I got here.
He'll be
working in
them long
after I'm
gone.
It gives
us confidence
to open our
mouth I think.
We don't know
what to say
but we
know that
Jesus is
the one
who's really
searching.
I don't
know about
you if you're
a believer
but I can
look back
on my
salvation
and go
yeah it
was Jesus
finding me.
It wasn't
me finding
Jesus.
The more
we grow
in love
for Jesus
recalling
how he
found us
his
search
for the
outsider
it's
going to
become
our
search.
Well this
eunuch
he found
the full
belonging
he craved
in the
exclusive
claims of
Jesus.
he saw
the pictures
of Isaiah
53
this
servant
this
someone
sent
by God
who
entered
my
suffering
someone
who
actually
willingly
chose
to become
like me
a eunuch
because
who can
describe
his
generation
who
can
describe
his
offspring
because
he was
cut off
and he
did it
willingly
in service
of God
who is
this
figure
how is
he connected
to the
promise
a few
chapters
later
so that
me
a dry
tree
can receive
a name
better than
sons and
daughters
who is
this
who is
pierced
for my
transgressions
who is
this
who is
crushed
for our
iniquities
with his
wounds
we are
healed
we are
made
whole
and
Philip
says
well let
me tell
you about
him
brother
I've
been
wondering
what
everlasting
name
did
this
nameless
eunuch
receive
that
day
and why
don't we
get his
name
at this
point
once
he's
converted
Luke
keeps
calling
him
the
eunuch
I think
the
eunuch's
question
and then
Philip's
response
tells us
what name
he got
what
prevents
me
from
being
baptized
I don't
know about
your
baptism
if you're
a believer
but when
I got
baptized
looking back
I think I was
just thinking
about myself
really
I
thought it
I kind of
thought about
it as a
way of
declaring my
commitment
my faith
which it
is that
scripture says
it's so much
more than
that
I think I
thought of it
as like
well it's
commanded
I should
do it
which isn't
like we
should obey
God's commands
but often
God gives us
way more
motives than
that
imagine what
this man's
baptism meant
for him
try and put
yourself in
his shoes
because if we
do we will
start to
feel the
wonder of
what
baptism
means and
symbolises
because it
symbolises
or imagine
imagine if the
eunuch asked
who wanted to
be converted
to the God
of Israel
what prevents
me from being
circumcised
now I know
that's a bit
crass but
everything
prevents him
he can't
and here he's
asking
the covenant
physical symbol
of belonging
to God's
people
what prevents
me from
being
baptized
if this
suffering
servant
has taken
my place
what prevents
me
because
baptism
is a
physical
symbol
of what
the spirit
has already
done in
creating
faith in
Jesus
we know
what baptism
is from
the earlier
chapters of
Acts
it is not
just baptism
in the name
of Jesus
it's actually
into the
name
of Jesus
what's in
a name
everything
in this
case
everything
all of
Jesus
is yours
you are
baptized
into the
name
of Jesus
you belong
to him
fully
I'm not
my own
his death
is my death
his resurrection
is my
resurrected life
I'm not
my own
I now
belong to
all who
are united
to Jesus
by faith
I'm part
of the
assembly
imagine
what this
meant to
him
Philip
goes down
with this
eunuch
Luke's
language
here is
almost
confusing
but I
think he
might be
trying to
emphasize
how united
this Jewish
Philip
and this
foreign
eunuch
is now
it almost
sounds like
they're going
down into
the water
together
I'm not
sure if it
actually means
that but
it pictures
this eunuch
is fully
a brother
now
this sexually
altered
foreign
man
fully
belongs
to Jesus
and his
people
simply by
faith
so what
name did
he receive
he received
a name
that's above
every name
I think
he's
received
a risen
name
that will
never
die
so how
inclusive
is Jesus
of us
here today
when
I'm not
sure how
how much
you feel
on the
edges of
the assembly
of God's
people
I think
lots of
things
can make
us feel
on the
edge
a stained
conscience
of the
sin that
we do
this week
that we
did last
week
if people
knew
we know
God
knows
maybe
you've
got same
sex
attraction
and you're
fearing
what would
happen if
you told
someone
you love
Jesus
but
what would
happen
maybe you
know your
motives
when I
my zeal
for Jesus
and trying
to serve
him
gee
every step
I take
I know
there's so
much self
centred in
there
but here
in this
story of
of the
eunuch
that we
learn there's
no levels
there's no
degrees of
belonging to
God's
people
we all
share fully
in the
one name
we're all
baptized
by the
spirit that
inner renewal
into the
one body
his body
we're the
one people
across all
races we're
the one
new people
there's no
levels
there's no
degrees
if you love
the fact that
Jesus was
cut off
to bring
you in
you're in
you can't
add to
that
and nothing
can take
away from
that
what prevents
me from
being baptized
from fully
belonging to
the Lord
and his
people
forever and
ever
nothing
nothing at
all
I think
when Jesus
returns we'll
learn this
guy's personal
name
like he's
eternal
we'll meet
him
he's going to
be a monument
he already is a
monument
he's the first
what an
honoured place
he's been given
in scripture
he had no
biological legacy
on earth
but don't
you wonder
who became a
child of God
through his
testimony when
he got home
how many
people have
been touched
by God
because of
this story
but maybe
God is speaking
to you today
through this
story
and in a way
all those
people are the
offspring of
this man
so I
want to
say a
word
for those
who
are
struggling
to feel
complete
maybe in
your
singleness
maybe you're
struggling to
have
children
don't say
I'm a
dry tree
Jesus has
searched for
you and
found you
he's given
you his
name
an everlasting
name even
better than
sons and
daughters
no
you have a
special
honoured place
in his
household
in his
kingdom
and I
think you
have a
unique
opportunity
in your
struggles
to say
Jesus is
enough
I fully
belong
he's
enough
how much
this man
fully belongs
I think
even the
ending of
this story
points to
what are we
to learn
that the
spirit
whisked
Philip away
at the
end
Emma reminded
me that
there was this
church in
Sydney
we didn't go
to this
church
that they
were teaching
the spiritual
gift of
teleportation
it's sad
that they
were actually
taking that
seriously
that is not
what we
are to
learn
here
the word
here is
just seized
so maybe
it was very
supernatural
and just
plonked
but maybe
it was just
a conscience
filled with
just spirit
go here
now
we don't
know
permit me
one more
poetic
license
after this
sweet
moment
of
baptism
I'd be
surprised
if there
wasn't
tears
this is a
sweet
moment
of full
inclusion
in God
in Jesus
with his
brother
Philip
embracing
him
this is a
sweet
moment
and then
Philip
is taken
away
I think
it almost
seems cruel
to leave
this man
on his
own
because
Luke
says
he sees
him
no
more
but it's
not cruel
the eunuch
didn't think
it was cruel
outwardly
he's alone
again
but something
has radically
changed
he goes
on his
way
rejoicing
that
whatever
prompted
him to
search
to come
to Jerusalem
something
has changed
his emptiness
has been
filled
he knows
he fully
belongs to
the assembly
of the Lord
Jesus Christ
and so he
can
he can go
on his way
rejoicing
the search
is over
he's been
found
do you
is your
search
over
do you
know you've
been found
we're going
to sing
in a moment
and it's
the act
of singing
together
is
as we
learnt
on camp
it's actually
an expression
of that
belonging
to the
assembly
of Jesus
by faith
so we're
going to
it's going
to be
a beautiful
expression
of the fact
that Jesus
has brought
us into
his family
simply because
he was cut
off to
bring us
in
but before
we sing
can I ask
the muses
just to wait
a few minutes
and then come
on up
and lead us
in song
can I just
encourage us
all to
personally reflect
on what you
think is
holding you
out of
God's people
I'm not sure
it's going to be
different for each
one of us
so which is
why I'm just
going to ask
you to reflect
for a moment
if you already
trust Jesus
reflect on how
fully you belong
to him
and if you
sense that
God is
finding you
searching you
out right
now
do some
business with
God
I suppose
so why don't
we do
spend a few
minutes just
reflecting
and then
we'll sing
oh
let's see him
again
everyone
is
going to be
love
me
so
we'll be
going
to Y
create a
show