Acts 8:14-24 “Guidance in Faith”
A woman is very ill and is in the hospital. She has what is called a near-death experience where she is taken up to the pearly gates and sees Saint Peter there. Saint Peter checks his records and discovers that it is not her time yet. He tells her that there is something wrong because according to his book, she has another forty years to live.
Next thing she knows, she wakes up in the hospital. She realizes then that she has another forty years to live out her life. She thinks to herself that she can get back into shape and make some improvements in her looks. She dyes her hair. She gets a facelift and does some botox injections. She joins a health club and loses forty pounds.
Just as she was leaving the health club one day, she steps off the curb and gets hit by a bus. She finds herself in heaven again, this time talking directly with God. She asks God what happened. Saint Peter had after all told her that she had forty more years to live. God replied, “I am sorry, I guess I did not recognize you!”
In regards to our Scripture for today, I wanted to start out by pointing out to all of you a curiosity in the text. You will all note that the Ethiopian eunuch that Philip meets on that wilderness road to Gaza is never given a name in the Bible. And yet, the term “eunuch” is used five times to say who he is. That is to me very interesting that his name does not seem to matter as much as the fact that he is a eunuch. What difference does it make that he is a “eunuch”? How did Philip know that he WAS a eunuch? You really can’t tell those things just by looking at someone traveling in a chariot. Was he wearing a “I’m a eunuch” t-shirt? Was there a license plate on the back of the chariot “Eunuch on board”?
I think the point that Luke, the author of the Book of Acts, was trying to make in pointing out the fact that this man was a eunuch is that as you recall he was traveling along the road reading Hebrew Scriptures, specifically the Prophet Isaiah, and yet as a eunuch he could never be a Jew. He could never be circumcised, which is the sign of the covenant for Jewish men. The Jewish law was very clear on that point. We get the sense then that he was aspiring to be part of a faith that could never accept him. He would never be acceptable even though he was trying to learn all of the scriptures and would even go to the Temple in Jerusalem to pray.
The Bible tells us that the eunuch was just coming back from Jerusalem in fact when Philip is sent to him by the Holy Spirit. The eunuch is reading from Isaiah the part that is called “The Suffering Servant’s Song.” He probably could relate his own life to those words. He must have suffered as a servant in the court of Candace in Ethiopia. There is no doubt that in spite of his stature in the royal court, there must have been great suffering for him.
When Philip explains to him that the scripture is about Jesus, someone else who was not acceptable to the faith of the time, the eunuch can truly relate his life to that scripture. And, even though he could never be acceptable to the Jewish faith of the time, he could be baptized into the Christian faith! That is the wonder of Christian baptism—all one needs is a bit of water. It does not matter who you are and the condition in your life, you can be baptized into the Christian faith.
Now, this is very important when we consider that Queen in Ethiopia. Her name was Candace. It would have been pronounced “chandakis.” Could Candace be converted to Judaism by her servant, a eunuch? No. Could she be baptized by the eunuch and come to accept the faith of Jesus Christ? Absolutely! When we look at this story and wonder what the Holy Spirit was doing with Philip and the eunuch, it becomes a story of opening up the faith to all people, no matter gender, race, skin color, or physical attribute. Christ is for all people, no matter whom! Amen.
Candace therefore was converted and the Christian faith spread throughout Ethiopia. Today it is estimated that there are 30 million Christians in that country and that the church there dates back to Candace’s conversion just after the resurrection of Christ, making it one of the oldest Christian churches in the world today. Candace is still regarded today as being the first royalty to be converted to Christianity.
Another fascinating aspect of this story is that Philip is called away from a huge revival going on in Samaria to this lonely wilderness road to meet with just this one man. Of course in hindsight we realize that this one man will eventually spread the faith to millions; however, Philip did not know that at the time. He simply went where the Spirit led.
We see that Philip is called to be on the road to Gaza but actually never makes it there. Meeting this one man along the journey is the total goal of Philip’s leaving Samaria in the power of the Spirit. Philip just has to be in the right place at the right time, and that is no longer in that big revival in Samaria. He is called out of the limelight to that lonely road in the middle of nowhere.
The Holy Spirit has this way of making sure that people are just where they are needed at just the right time. This last week one of the members of the Pua Kea Bible study group (that faithfully watches our worship on television though she is not a member of this church) mentioned how it was a few days earlier when she was walking through a hallway at the retirement center when the daughter of one of the residents came out of a room in tears and ran into her and just hugged her while she was sobbing. There was a great sense of the Holy Spirit flowing through that hug. Through the sobbing she was to learn that that woman’s mother had just passed on to the Lord. She was just there at the right time to console a distraught person and give over that sense of the Holy Spirit’s presence. The Holy Spirit put her there just at the right moment.
We have to recall the Gospel story, too. Jesus was always right there in the right place at the right time, wasn’t he? He was there just in time to change water into wine, to heal the Gerasene Demoniac, still the storm when the Disciples were crossing the Galilee Sea, to call Zaccheus come down out of the tree! Even the colt was tied up in the next town just when Jesus needed it to ride into Jerusalem. At the Passover, the man carrying a jar of water appeared just at the right time to lead the Disciples to house with the upper room. I could go on and on.
I think that each and everyone of us could tell of a time when it just seemed as if the Holy Spirit has just made the right person appear to us just in the knick of time or when we needed comfort in faith. I recall taking a flight back from Los Angeles about two years ago when I had gone back to visit my ailing mother. As I boarded the plane I had that sense of dread that perhaps that was going to be the last time I saw my mother alive. As I sat there waiting for the door to shut on the plane, I was happy to see the seat next to mine was still empty. I thought that this would be good just to fly back without having to make small talk with someone.
I heard the door of the plane shut, but just a moment later a gentleman took the seat next to mine. We nodded at one another with a greeting. The plane took off, and it came to pass that we did engage in some small talk and as it turned out the man sitting next to me was also a pastor. He was the regional minister for all of Hawaii from a different denomination. In fact, I even knew his name although we had never met before. For the next five hours we spoke of all things concerning church and Jesus. It was actually a really nice time to share with this other pastor. I think back now about how I was feeling before I got on that plane and how I felt getting off in Honolulu, and I realize that the Holy Spirit had interceded.
By the way, what do you think the chances are with the number of flights and the number of seats that two pastors should be seated together like that? It was not up to chance, was it?! Amen to that.
My last point about this scripture reflects the sermon title itself: “Guidance in Faith.” We must note that everything that has happened is because the Holy Spirit has been guiding Philip. And, when first Philip meets the eunuch, the first thing that the eunuch asks for is guidance. He asks Philip to help him to understand the meaning of the Prophet Isaiah’s words. Philip becomes the eunuchs guide in the faith of Jesus.
The last few lines of the Letter of James tells us (James 5:19-20): “If any among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death will cover a multitude of sins.” Guiding someone else in the faith helps to assure your own salvation! The eunuch is not shy to ask for guidance, and Philip is ready to give it!
The Holy Spirit will lead us into circumstances where we will be able to help guide others in the faith. If we consider all of Paul’s letters to the early church, we see that they are all letters of guidance and often times the churches did not accept that guidance to their own fault and frustration. Let us be open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and recognize when others through the Spirit have been sent to us to offer faithful guidance!
As you
leave here today consider these three points: the Holy Spirit invites all and
everyone, no matter whom, to the faith. The Spirit will put us in the right place
and the right time to the Lord’s use. And lastly, the Spirit will guide us and
lead us to guide others to come to faith. Amen.