Acts 8:26-40
“Radical Inclusion”
Just think for a moment.
If you were to give up control of your own plans for even just an hour, where might the Holy Spirit of God send you?
(Pause)
How many of your “accidental” encounters with other people are really divinely ordained?
How often is God calling you to share the Gospel with someone who is outside the Church…
…with someone who is marginalized…
…with someone who is seeking God…
…with someone who is hurting…
…with someone who is seeking to understand?
It can become easy for us, who are accustomed to the Church, to take for granted that those on the outside already “know” what we are about…
…what Jesus is about…
…what life in the Church is about.
But many, many people don’t understand.
Many folks see us as a foreign breed, and as a people who speak another language of which they have no understanding.
They don’t know that the Church is not only a welcoming place, but a place that exists for them.
How many times, I couldn’t count, have I encountered people whom I have invited to church and they will say to me, “I would come but I don’t have any fancy clothes,” or “Do you allow black people to attend?”…
…or, or, or…
In Acts 1:8 Jesus says, “the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
In other words, go and tell everyone everywhere about the Good News of Jesus Christ!!!
And everyone means everyone!!!
And baptize them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them everything Jesus has taught us!!!
This is the call of the Church—it’s a universal call.
Every member is called to do this, and we are called to invite everyone into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
We are to have: “Open hearts, Open minds and Open doors,” as we are led by the Holy Spirit preaching Christ to everyone we encounter.
This is what Philip was doing in our Scripture passage for this morning.
Philip was one of seven Greek-speaking Jewish Christians who had been appointed by the Twelve Apostles to take care of the needs of others, especially widows, in the Greek-speaking part of the Church.
He is also known as “Philip the evangelist,” and had four daughters who were prophets in the Christian community.
He was a man who listened to the Holy Spirit of God, and wasn’t afraid to take risks for the Gospel of Christ.
We are told that an angel of the Lord directed Philip to change his travel plans, and to take “the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza.”
It was, indeed a divine directive.
Philip followed the directions and came upon “an Ethiopian man [who] was on his way home from Jerusalem…
…[the man] was a eunuch and an official responsible for the entire treasury of” the Ethiopian queen.
The fact that the man was a eunuch seems to be particularly important to Luke, the author of Acts, since he mentions this five times in this short passage.
In ancient times a eunuch was a castrated male servant who was neutered so that he could be deemed “safe” to serve the women of a royal household.
But, despite this, they were deemed to be “sexually immoral.”
So, what had the Eunuch been doing in Jerusalem?
We are told that “he had come to worship.”
This tells us that he was drawn to Judaism.
But his relationship or attraction to Judaism might have been a bit problematic.
And that was because he was, again, a eunuch.
Castrated males were not allowed access to the Temple.
Deuteronomy 23:1 and Leviticus 21:17-21 exclude eunuchs from entering the “assembly of the Lord.”
So, this man from Ethiopia is an “outsider” when it comes to the God he seeks…
…or rather, the religious system he seeks since Acts Chapter 8 makes it quite clear that God is seeking him something fierce!!!
And we know this because the Holy Spirit “told Philip, ‘Approach his carriage and stay with it.’”
So jogging alongside the chariot, Philip hears the Eunuch reading aloud.
And at that time in history the custom was that people read aloud.
It wasn’t until monasteries developed in the 300’s, that reading silently became the norm.
So this outcast, this marginalized person…
…this castrated man is reading from Isaiah 53, and Isaiah 53 contains many words that the eunuch could relate to:
“He was despised and avoided by others; a man who suffered…
…Like someone from whom people hide their faces, he was despised…
…He was pierced…
…and crushed…
…he was oppressed and tormented.”
Perhaps the eunuch wondered if this passage was speaking about him or about someone like him; it sounded all too familiar.
But that wasn’t all there is to that passage; it has a happy ending; it carries hope for the outsider, the tormented.
Isaiah 53:12 says, “I will give him a share with the great…”
This hopeless man, who is returning from a Temple that wouldn’t let him in…
…this human being who is so thirsty for God…
…sees hope in this passage of Scripture.
Perhaps there is a light at the end of this dark, dark tunnel after-all.
Perhaps God does have a place for the outcastes of society.
Maybe God does love people like him after-all!!!
I mean, yes, Deuteronomy 23:1 says that a eunuch cannot “belong to the Lord’s assembly,” but the eunuch isn’t reading Deuteronomy; he’s reading Isaiah.
And, what is this?
In Isaiah 56:4 “The Lord says: To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths…” they will be given “a name better than sons and daughters.”
When will this happen?
Through Whom will this occur?
So, the eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, about whom does the prophet say this? Is he talking about himself or someone else?”
At this point in the conversation, no doubt the eunuch means “Is this only about Isaiah and his situation, or is this passage about me as well?
Is this a Word from God for someone else, or is this God’s Word and promise for me as well?”
And when Philip told the eunuch that this passage was “fulfilled in his hearing” it turned out to be better news than the eunuch could have ever imagined!!!
For in Jesus Christ, the Law has been fulfilled, and freedom for the captives has come, including the release from certain older laws!!!!
Not only does God know and understand the eunuch’s experience of being humiliated and ostrasized religiously; Jesus Himself took on that lowly and outcast situation.
So Philip told the eunuch that what Isaiah says has to do, not only with him, but also with Jesus, Who Himself was “like a sheep…led to the slaughter,” and Who was humiliated and mocked.
And Jesus died on a horrible Cross, but Rose again and sits at the right hand of God.
And to all who come to Him, to all who believe in His name, He gives the right to become children of God, “born not from blood nor from human desire or passion, but born from God.”
And, wow, is this Good News or what???
All who believe in Christ enter God’s Kingdom, here and now and forever!!!
The Temple system which has excluded this man is now defunct!
Jesus Christ is now the Only Way to God, and everyone is more than welcome!!!
It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from!!!
It is by grace through faith that we are saved.
We are all equally loved in the eyes of God.
The old walls of separation have been knocked to the ground!!!
As we are told in Galatians: “There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
We are told in verse 35 that “Philip proclaimed the good news about Jesus to” the eunuch.
And then, “as they went down the road, they came to some water.
The eunuch said, ‘Look! Water! What would keep me from being baptized?”
In other words, “Unlike at the Temple, is there anything about me that might keep me from being a full participant in the people of God—of becoming a disciple of Christ?”
And, when we think about it, there were quite a few things that people could have thrown up as roadblocks to exclude this man.
He belonged to the wrong nation, held the wrong job, and well, he had been sexually broken.
But Philip heard the voice of the Holy Spirit speak God’s answer to the eunuch’s question, “Absolutely nothing!!!”
So, the eunuch “ordered that the carriage halt.
Both Philip and the eunuch went down to the water, where Philip baptized him…”
…and the eunuch “went on his way rejoicing.”
According to Church tradition, that very eunuch went back to Ethiopia and became an evangelist himself.
And the Christian Church in Ethiopia is believed to be a direct result of the eunuch’s ministry!!!
As we marvel on this miracle story from Acts Chapter 8, again, let’s just think for a moment.
If you were to give up control of your own plans for even just an hour, where might the Holy Spirit of God send you?
(Pause)
How many of your “accidental” encounters with other people are really divinely ordained?
How often is God calling you to share the Gospel with someone who is outside the Church…
…with someone who is marginalized…
…with someone who is seeking God…
…with someone who is hurting…
…with someone who is seeking to understand?
And most importantly of all—with someone whom God is seeking to save?
