Sermon notes for Sunday, May 10, 2009 (Mother’s Day)

Text:  Acts 8:26-40

8:26 Then 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.)
8:27 So 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
8:28 and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
8:29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.”
8:30 So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
8:31 He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.
8:32 Now 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.
8:33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.”
8:34 The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”
8:35 Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.
8:36 As 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?”
8:38 He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
8:39 When 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.
8:40 But 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.

The Acts of the Holy Spirit

Acts 8:26-40
The Spirit in Action

The Commission:  Acts 1:8

Philip:  Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria….. ???

Philip was Philip the Evangelist, as he later became known, not the Philip of the Twelve who had walked with Jesus and were now leading the church at Jerusalem, but Philip of the Seven who were chosen to help make sure that the service to the poor — the daily distribution of food to widows — was fair and equitable and left no one out.  When one of his colleagues in that group, Stephen, was martyred for his faith, “a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria” (Acts 8:1).  “Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went” (Acts 8:4).  Note this.  The apostles stayed behind, and all the rest took up the task of preaching.  Philip was one of these, and it was through this process of persecution and scattering that the Word spread from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, and began, through Philip as we shall see, to go out to the ends of the earth.

The Holy Spirit Works —through Obedient People 
—Acts 8:26-27a

What we see in our passage is that when Philip heard an instruction from God, whether from “an angel” or from “the Spirit” — that is, whether the witness was from outside of him or within him, he not only heard, but acted.  What a miraculous thing it is, already, to hear from God and know it!  Even a great prophet such as Elijah, who had spoken to kings and stood up to false prophets in God’s name, came to the place where all the noisy influences around him, all the impressive signs and wonders that could confront him, were not to be compared to the “still small voice” which questioned him, and then answered his questions.  Ultimately, each of us stands in God’s presence, responsible to no one else but God, and the obedient soul is the one who will take that prompting of the Spirit and step out into new territory.  Philip was being successful in Samaria, but the divine instruction sent him on a lonelier road; and he went.

The Holy Spirit Sets Up Meetings — Acts 8:27b-30a

knew just what He was doing when he sent Philip down that lonely road.  It would have seemed strange to any observer that the leader who had instigated a great movement toward God in a Samaritan city should choose to leave, but having done so under God’s instruction, we now see that the Spirit was at work in a coordinating role.  Listen:  When God calls you to do something a little bit different, beyond your routine, out of your comfort zone, be assured that he is also preparing the place where you are going.  This is one of the most delightful things about the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  He connects us with people and circumstances at just the right time.  This is Philip’s experience as he now comes upon this Ethiopian court official, reading the prophet Isaiah.  We are told that the Spirit now instructed Philip to join himself to this chariot.  Things begin to come together.

The Holy Spirit Raises Questions! 
Three Critical Questions about Scripture 
— Acts 8: 30b-31

The three questions we see here are:  “Do you understand what you are reading?”  “How can I, unless, someone explains it to me?”  and “Who is theprophet talking about?” Let’s look at how all of these questions get answered.

The Holy Spirit Points to Jesus —Acts 8:35

Then Philip began at this same Scripture and preached unto him Jesus

Here is the key:  To read scripture without understanding is frustrating and futile.  For understanding there must be a key, a guiding principle, a way of “explaining.”  I submit to you that it would nto have mattered much which text the man was reading, it would be right in every case to begin there, and proclaim Jesus.  Jesus is the key  to understanding all of scrupture, and any explanation of scripture that does not point to Jesus is missing something of critical importance. In this case, it was a passage dealing with his suffering and death.  But “to him all the prophets give witness” (Acts 10:43) and so every scripture could be used as a starting-point to show that “everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins in his name.”

The Spirit Brings Understanding
The Key To Understanding:  Jesus!
Jesus, the Living Word
The Holy Spirit Empowers New Believers 
— Acts 8:36-38
The Spirit Leads Each of us Differently — Acts 8:39-40