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Philip The Evangelist
Unsung Heroes, Part 3
From Acts 8
August 12, 2007
Pastor Bob Sanders
This is the third in series of messages entitled Unsung Heroes. We’re taking a look at some of the lesser-known characters in the New Testament. Not the starting line-up like Peter and Paul, James and John, but the often overlooked “second stringers” who play such a crucial role in the early church. Two weeks ago it was Barnabas the Encourager. Last week it was Stephen the Martyr. And this week it’s Philip the Evangelist. We find his story at the beginning and end of Acts chapter 8:
Acts 8:1-8, 26-40
1And Saul approved of their killing him. That day a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria. 2Devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him. 3But Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison.
4Now those who were scattered went from place to place, proclaiming the word. 5Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. 6The crowds with one accord listened eagerly to what was said by Philip, hearing and seeing the signs that he did, 7for unclean spirits, crying with loud shrieks, came out of many who were possessed; and many others who were paralyzed or lame were cured. 8So there was great joy in that city.
26Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) 27So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” 30So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. 32Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. 33In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” 34The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. 36As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” 38He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
One Father’s Day a family bought their dad a new set of golf clubs AND a pass to play a round on a very exclusive course AND an experienced caddie to accompany him. Unfortunately, the dad wasn’t much of a golfer and the game he played was terrible. The caddie made him so nervous he was hitting shots into the weeds, woods, and water, even leaving divots on the putting green, that sort of thing. After the final hole the caddie tallied up the enormous score. The man smiled sheepishly and tried to make light of it by saying, “Golf is such a silly game, isn’t it?”
But the caddie looked up and said without a trace of smile, “It’s not supposed to be, sir.”
I’m not a golfer. But I am here to say that a lot of what passes for Christianity these days isn’t what it’s supposed to be, either. Christian faith is all about a vital personal relationship with a living Lord that leads to a transformed life marked by purpose and passion. Following Jesus involves risk and adventure – not the bland, safe and sane, only-on-Sunday caricature too many of us settle for. William James, the pioneer psychologist, observed that religion is either a dull habit or an acute fever. Which best describes your faith these days: dull habit or acute fever? If you sometimes wish for more passion, more adventure, keep your eyes on Philip.
Two qualities make faith an adventure for Philip. The first is his remarkable openness. Philip is open to the Lord, open to the unexpected leading of the Holy Spirit. And the second quality is his radical obedience. Philip is obedient to the Lord. He’s not only open to God’s leading, he acts on it. And whenever we are open to the Lord and obedient to whatever he asks us to do, faith becomes what it’s supposed to be. Not a silly game. Not “playing church.” But a life of purpose and passion. An adventure.
A Remarkable Openness
Last week we heard about this persecution that arose against the early church following the death of Stephen, and how the early Christians were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Philip was among these scattered believers, and he went to a city of Samaria and proclaimed the good news about Jesus Christ – with great success. The Samaritans listened eagerly and responded in faith. And Luke tells us, “So there was great joy in that city.”
It’s hard to describe what a huge step this represents. As you may know, Jews and Samaritans had no dealings with each other. Their hostility went back over a thousand years. Jews regarded Samaritans as half-breeds and heretics – racially impure and religiously inferior. Think Sunnis versus Shiites in Iraq. Think Hutus versus Tutsis in Rwanda. Think wizards versus “mudbloods” in Harry Potter. Yet here’s Philip, a Jewish Christian, reaching out to the despised residents of a city in Samaria.
What prompted him to do that, to overcome the centuries-old barriers of hatred and fear? Only one answer: Philip was open to Jesus Christ, open to his all-embracing Gospel, open to his leading – no matter how unexpected it might seem. Unlike Jonah, who ran the other way when God asked him to go to the hated people of Nineveh, Philip dropped his prejudice and went to the Samaritans to tell them about Jesus Christ and, what’s more, to invite these outcasts, these sworn enemies, to be part of the new community Jesus was creating.
Imagine the sensation Philip’s message must have made among the Samaritans. Talk about Good News! Not only had the Messiah come, but through him despised Samaritans were welcome into the new Israel, the Church of Jesus Christ. No longer were they second-class citizens, because there are no second-class citizens in the family of God. And imagine the amazement of the Jewish-Christian leaders of the church back in Jerusalem. Philip had just wiped out a thousand years of feeling superior to and suspicious of the Samaritans. The ancient racial-ethnic barrier was beginning to shatter because one man was open to Jesus Christ.
In his poem “Mending Wall” Robert Frost says,
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast…
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.[1]
And that’s what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is all about. Jesus wants it down – every wall, every division, every barrier. The wall of sin that separates us from God. And the walls of fear and hatred that separate us from each other. Not just physical walls like the one that used to divide Berlin, or the wall that today divides parts of the Holy Land, or the barriers across the southern border of our country. But the walls we put up in our hearts and minds. The walls that keep us from dealing with others as real people, loved by God every bit as much as we are. When, like Philip, we’re open to God, when we listen to the voice of his Spirit more than the voices of fear and exclusion around us, amazing things can happen. Walls come down. Hostilities are healed. A new community is created.
A Radical Obedience
Philip was not only open to God. He was also obedient. He didn’t just listen to his Lord. He acted on what he heard. In verse 26 the Lord tells him, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” How strange that must have sounded. Leave all the action in Samaria and wander down to a lonely road out in the middle of nowhere? It didn’t make sense. Most of us would disregard it. Not Philip. He obeyed. God told him, “Get up and go.” And verse 27 says, “He got up and went.” Those five words are the key to a life of adventure. Philip got up and went. He didn’t try to second-guess God. He obeyed.
And what happened? Philip reached the Gaza road just in time to keep the appointment God had for him with the secretary of the treasury of the queen of Ethiopia who was returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Like many of his day, this foreigner came to Judaism seeking truth, hoping to find the one true God. He was going home with his questions unanswered. That’s when he met Philip, who “just happened” to be there, open and obedient.
Once again the Spirit nudged Philip: “Go over to this chariot and join it.” Once again Philip obeyed. As he did so, he overheard the Ethiopian reading aloud from the prophet Isaiah, muttering the same verses over and over as he tried to understand them. I suspect Philip smiled when he heard the words. The same Spirit that guided him here was also guiding the Ethiopian to one of the most important passages in the entire Old Testament: Isaiah, chapter 53, which (as we heard earlier) describes the suffering servant of the Lord, the Messiah who comes to be “wounded for our transgressions,” led like a lamb to the slaughter and slain to take away the sins of the world. It’s one of the clearest pictures of Jesus Christ found in the Old Testament. But to grasp it the Ethiopian needed a guide. That’s why the Lord wanted Philip there. And we read that “starting with this scripture, Philip proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.”
I love the Ethiopian’s response: “Look! Here’s water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” “Yikes!” said Philip, “I’ve already pushed my luck with the Samaritans. Before I baptize a black guy from Ethiopia I better get permission from the Session and Presbytery.”
No, they stopped right there and Philip baptized him on the spot. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit led Philip off in a new direction, and the Ethiopian returned home full of joy. Tradition has it that this guy went on to evangelize most of Ethiopia. Remember what Jesus said in Acts 1:8: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” And now it was happening! The Gospel was moving out to Samaria and even to far away Africa – all through an obedient disciple named Philip.
Nudging from the Spirit
Do you see how obedience works? It’s not like the Lord says, “Go do something heroic and huge.” In Philip’s case it was, “Get up and go to the following place.” It didn’t make a lot of sense at the time, but Philip got up and went. Then it was, “See that chariot ahead of you with the black guy scratching his head? Catch up with him.” That had to seem awkward. But Philip obeyed. And what a difference that obedience made not only in the Ethiopian’s life but also in Philip’s life. He got to see God use him, see God work through him. He got to experience the greatest joy in the entire world – which is to introduce someone to the Lord Jesus, to help that person come into the Kingdom of God.
Obedience is the key that unlocks the adventure in the Christian life. Do you see how this works? Without obedience we play it safe. We stay where we are. We don’t take any chances. Without obedience we never get out of our comfort zones. Without obedience, we get bored. Show me a bored disciple and I’ll show you someone who hasn’t been open to what God wants to do, someone who hasn’t obedient to the Spirit’s prompting, someone who hasn’t gone far enough for the fun.
You’ve had an experience like this, haven’t you? You find yourself thinking about somebody, feeling strangely concerned, wondering if there’s something you’re supposed to do. Quite often that’s the nudging of the Holy Spirit. It’s not spectacular or grandiose. The Spirit’s nudges are usually very specific and very doable. Like the time recently when I was driving home and suddenly, for no apparent reason, a guy I know came to mind, a guy I hadn’t seen for a while, and I had the sense I was supposed to call him. My first response was to push it away. But it kept coming back. So when I got home I picked up the phone and called. When he answered I just said, “Hi, this is Bob. How are you doing?”
There was a brief pause and I thought, “Now he’s going to think I’m a real jerk.” But then he started telling me about what was going on in his life, the very tough situation he was in, and how alone he felt because he didn’t know who he could talk with about it. And now here I was calling him on the phone, and I was able to listen and pray with him and, by God’s grace, put some courage into him both then and in the days that followed. But if I hadn’t made the call – as weird as it seemed at the time – it wouldn’t have happened.
When the Spirit nudges you, it’s to say something like, “Get up and walk across the room and talk to that person who’s alone.” Or, “Go say you’re sorry for your part in what happened and the hurt it’s caused.” Or, “Write a letter and tell that person how much he/she means to you.” Or, “Send the check . . . Sponsor the child . . . Offer to help . . . Invite the newcomer to come to church with you.”
When you sense that nudging, the wise response is not to argue or resist. Just do it. That’s obedience – and, as some of us have discovered, the results can be amazing. God can use you to touch a life, to put courage into a fearful heart, to help a person find Jesus Christ. And I don’t know of anything as exciting as that. But if we dismiss the Spirit’s nudges pretty soon the Spirit quits nudging us at all. The result of continuing disobedience is spiritual dullness and boredom.
The secret to a life of adventure in Christ is to take the next step of obedience. God called Philip to hang out on the Gaza road. Only when Philip obeyed was he in a position to hear God’s next call: to get next to this Ethiopian. Only when Philip obeyed again was God able to use him to lead this man to Christ. When we say “Yes” to God in the thing he asks us (whatever it is), then God can lead us to the next step. If we say “No” then God cannot lead us any farther. The adventure stops precisely at the point of our disobedience.
Get Up and Go
There’s a lot that’s boring about “religion.” There’s nothing dull or boring about following Jesus Christ. If we’re open and obedient to God, it’s a life of adventure. Let me ask you: are you open to whatever God has in mind for you? What if it meant breaking down a wall in your life? A wall of anger or fear between you and someone else? A wall of resentment and mistrust? “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall…” Are you open to God?
And are you willing to be obedient? Where the Spirit might be nudging you? Where does the Lord want you to “get up and go”? Who’s the person the Lord wants you to get next to? When was the last time you had the joy of being used by God in another person’s life? If you can’t remember or can’t relate to the question, could that have something to do with the fact that you find yourself bored?
Look, it’s as simple as this. When we’re open, when we’re obedient, God is going to use us. Like Philip, God will put us in touch with folks who need our help – folks who are out on the margins, folks who need to know the Lord Jesus, folks who are hoping and praying for some guidance. We don’t have to be experts. We only have to show up and share what we do know, and God will take care of the rest. It’s incredibly stretching and challenging. Suddenly we’re on the cutting edge, praying for more insight, more wisdom, more courage, more power. But it’s also incredibly exciting – those times when the Lord uses us to reach another person.
See, that’s how the game was supposed to be played. Not some silly spectator sport. But an adventure of openness and obedience.
“Get up and go,” is what the Spirit said to Philip. What’s he saying to you? And what are you going to do about it?
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