WEBVTT 00:00:00.940 --> 00:00:05.980 What am I doing here? That's not an existential 00:00:05.980 --> 00:00:09.679 crisis as I stand at the Oak Hill Chapel pulpit. 00:00:09.820 --> 00:00:13.179 But it may well be what Philip was thinking. 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:18.300 As bemused and confused, he stood on a desert 00:00:18.300 --> 00:00:23.300 road, far from anywhere, not knowing why he's 00:00:23.300 --> 00:00:29.949 there. Why has God brought me here? After all, 00:00:29.949 --> 00:00:32.030 in the reading that Matt just gave us, Philip 00:00:32.030 --> 00:00:34.049 had been enjoying unparalleled, unprecedented 00:00:34.049 --> 00:00:38.250 ministry, evangelistic success in Samaria. He's 00:00:38.250 --> 00:00:40.450 been in Jerusalem at the start of chapter eight. 00:00:40.469 --> 00:00:43.350 But like so many others, had been scattered by 00:00:43.350 --> 00:00:46.289 that Pauline persecution. And he'd ended up in 00:00:46.289 --> 00:00:49.689 Samaria where, verse five, he'd been proclaiming 00:00:49.689 --> 00:00:52.810 the Messiah. And when the crowds heard Philip 00:00:52.810 --> 00:00:55.729 and saw the signs he performed, they all paid 00:00:55.729 --> 00:00:59.850 close attention to what he said. Streaks, impure 00:00:59.850 --> 00:01:03.429 spirits came out of many and many who were paralyzed 00:01:03.429 --> 00:01:07.189 or lame were healed. So there was great joy in 00:01:07.189 --> 00:01:11.049 that city. Wow. What a beautiful, bountiful, 00:01:11.129 --> 00:01:14.609 blessed ministry. that Philip was enjoying in 00:01:14.609 --> 00:01:17.370 Samaria. There's healing, there's deliverance, 00:01:17.409 --> 00:01:20.349 there's miracles. And best of all, there is many 00:01:20.349 --> 00:01:23.849 turning to faith in Christ, including the spectacular 00:01:23.849 --> 00:01:27.510 conversion of a sorcerer, no less. So when an 00:01:27.510 --> 00:01:30.750 angel appears in verse 26, there's many things 00:01:30.750 --> 00:01:32.969 that we might expect God to say through that 00:01:32.969 --> 00:01:35.530 angel to Philip. But perhaps the one thing we 00:01:35.530 --> 00:01:38.489 might be least expecting is what the angel does 00:01:38.489 --> 00:01:45.840 say. Go. Go on, go south, go into the desert 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:50.700 on the track that leads you through Gaza to Africa. 00:01:51.900 --> 00:01:56.530 Now I dropped a Google pin. onto this road as 00:01:56.530 --> 00:01:58.890 it looks today it's just a few miles from the 00:01:58.890 --> 00:02:01.969 horrors going on in Gaza and even with all the 00:02:01.969 --> 00:02:05.209 modern irrigation there's not a huge lot going 00:02:05.209 --> 00:02:09.090 on today and there was even less back then the 00:02:09.090 --> 00:02:12.090 angel is telling Philip to leave the ministry 00:02:12.090 --> 00:02:16.189 momentum that he was enjoying and head out into 00:02:16.189 --> 00:02:19.610 the wilderness no crowds no apparent platform 00:02:19.610 --> 00:02:26.949 no apparent plan what am I doing here It's a 00:02:26.949 --> 00:02:28.930 strange assignment, isn't it, that God gives 00:02:28.930 --> 00:02:32.849 him. But God has an appointment for him. And 00:02:32.849 --> 00:02:37.969 sure enough, a chariot soon trundles into view. 00:02:39.430 --> 00:02:42.169 Now, don't get me wrong, Philip's not a man to 00:02:42.169 --> 00:02:44.990 be disturbed by difference. After all, he's been 00:02:44.990 --> 00:02:48.449 a missionary among the Samaritans, those others 00:02:48.449 --> 00:02:51.050 with a wrong history and wrong temple and wrong 00:02:51.050 --> 00:02:54.349 worship. But this man on the chariot coming into 00:02:54.349 --> 00:02:58.569 Philip's view will require next level cross -cultural 00:02:58.569 --> 00:03:02.650 courage. For everything about this man makes 00:03:02.650 --> 00:03:07.430 him a profoundly unlikely candidate to receive 00:03:07.430 --> 00:03:12.750 God's grace and truth. For a start, his ethnicity. 00:03:13.949 --> 00:03:17.509 Ethiopian. Probably not from the modern nation 00:03:17.509 --> 00:03:20.750 state of Ethiopia, but further up the Blue Nile 00:03:20.750 --> 00:03:24.169 around modern day Khartoum, the kingdom of Kush, 00:03:24.330 --> 00:03:27.330 as it was called, a five month chariot journey 00:03:27.330 --> 00:03:30.729 from Jerusalem. A land so distant that it stood 00:03:30.729 --> 00:03:34.250 at the very edge of the known world. To the Greek 00:03:34.250 --> 00:03:38.990 mind, Ethiopia was the furthest horizons imaginable. 00:03:39.050 --> 00:03:42.650 Both Herodotus and Homer speak of Ethiopians 00:03:42.650 --> 00:03:45.610 as those literally on the edge of the earth. 00:03:45.689 --> 00:03:49.409 You cannot get any further away from the Jewish 00:03:49.409 --> 00:03:54.990 religious center than this. What am I doing here? 00:03:57.389 --> 00:04:00.210 The kings in that Kushite kingdom were regarded 00:04:00.210 --> 00:04:03.389 as divine, too holy to involve themselves in 00:04:03.389 --> 00:04:06.009 administration. So it was the queen or the queen 00:04:06.009 --> 00:04:09.889 mother that governed. Her title was Kandake and 00:04:09.889 --> 00:04:12.810 the royal treasurer kept the books of the kingdom. 00:04:12.930 --> 00:04:16.350 So our charioteer here is that treasurer. He's 00:04:16.350 --> 00:04:20.269 a powerful figure, but he's a eunuch. Probably 00:04:20.269 --> 00:04:23.660 that's why he's so senior. eunuchs could not 00:04:23.660 --> 00:04:26.519 father a dynasty so they could be trusted around 00:04:26.519 --> 00:04:30.040 a royal harem they could be trusted not to rebel 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:32.220 because without descendants what would be the 00:04:32.220 --> 00:04:37.160 point of setting up a rival dynasty eunuchs throughout 00:04:37.160 --> 00:04:39.620 entire antiquity were then trusted therefore 00:04:39.620 --> 00:04:43.459 to raise to high office so his disfigurement 00:04:43.459 --> 00:04:47.500 would have been a decision made for him a procedure 00:04:47.500 --> 00:04:52.170 done to him You may rise to significant wealth 00:04:52.170 --> 00:04:54.850 and power, but without children, you will always 00:04:54.850 --> 00:04:59.689 be an outsider, temporary. Your name dies with 00:04:59.689 --> 00:05:03.290 you as a eunuch. Cancellation and condemnation 00:05:03.290 --> 00:05:06.550 arising from his castration was deeply embedded 00:05:06.550 --> 00:05:11.060 in Jewish culture. And so in Philip's mind and 00:05:11.060 --> 00:05:14.339 heart, after all, Deuteronomy 23 says, no one 00:05:14.339 --> 00:05:18.079 who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:22.660 may enter the assembly of the Lord. A eunuch 00:05:22.660 --> 00:05:27.899 was an ultimate outcast, unclean, untouchable, 00:05:27.959 --> 00:05:33.639 unwelcome. This is about as unlikely and unconventional 00:05:33.639 --> 00:05:37.779 an evangelistic encounter as Philip could imagine. 00:05:39.079 --> 00:05:44.680 What am I doing here? This Ethiopian eunuch is 00:05:44.680 --> 00:05:46.720 on his return journey. He's heading back from 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:49.600 Jerusalem. He's gone there to worship. And whilst 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:52.459 he's there, he spends a not inconsiderable amount 00:05:52.459 --> 00:05:56.660 of money on a precious scroll. The prophecies 00:05:56.660 --> 00:06:00.759 of Isaiah. Now, he's almost certainly not Jewish, 00:06:00.860 --> 00:06:03.519 this man, but he's reaching out in some way, 00:06:03.579 --> 00:06:06.459 reaching out to Yahweh, perhaps having heard 00:06:06.459 --> 00:06:10.379 of him through Jewish diaspora communities further 00:06:10.379 --> 00:06:13.779 down the Nile. This man's a Gentile, but he's 00:06:13.779 --> 00:06:18.040 a God fearing, perhaps a Sabbath keeping Gentile, 00:06:18.040 --> 00:06:21.319 a proselyte. Yet no doubt he would have discovered 00:06:21.319 --> 00:06:25.019 in Jerusalem that he was held at arm's length. 00:06:26.610 --> 00:06:29.930 Restricted to the outer courts of the temple, 00:06:30.050 --> 00:06:34.529 shut out by his anatomy and ethnicity as a castrated 00:06:34.529 --> 00:06:37.970 Gentile from the ends of the earth. And now he's 00:06:37.970 --> 00:06:41.730 on the long road home, scroll in hand, but he's 00:06:41.730 --> 00:06:46.129 desperately in need of a guide. What am I doing 00:06:46.129 --> 00:06:52.850 here? Thinks Philip. Go to that chariot, says 00:06:52.850 --> 00:06:58.800 the spirit. Him. He's the reason I brought you 00:06:58.800 --> 00:07:03.500 here to this desert road. Philip would have had 00:07:03.500 --> 00:07:08.060 every reason to do a Jonah and turn around. Him. 00:07:09.859 --> 00:07:12.839 Surely not, Lord, he might have objected, just 00:07:12.839 --> 00:07:15.759 as Peter does over the page when facing a similar 00:07:15.759 --> 00:07:19.000 encounter. But no, Philip listens to the Holy 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:22.220 Spirit's whispers and he obeys. He runs down 00:07:22.220 --> 00:07:25.439 that dusty track until he draws level with the 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:28.639 moving chariot and jogging alongside, catching 00:07:28.639 --> 00:07:32.019 his breath, he listens. And this man is reading 00:07:32.019 --> 00:07:35.360 the scriptures aloud. Do you understand what 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:38.500 you're reading? Philip asks. Brilliant question. 00:07:39.980 --> 00:07:43.680 And the reply from the Ethiopian eunuch is humble 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:48.300 and honest. How can I, unless someone explains 00:07:48.300 --> 00:07:52.839 it to me? That is the question of a heart wide 00:07:52.839 --> 00:07:59.180 open, ready to receive. Do you get a sense of 00:07:59.180 --> 00:08:02.339 the kind of divine choreography going on in this 00:08:02.339 --> 00:08:04.899 passage? Can you see how the Holy Spirit has 00:08:04.899 --> 00:08:08.139 just brought it all together so beautifully? 00:08:08.220 --> 00:08:12.079 God is weaving this tapestry of redemption with 00:08:12.079 --> 00:08:15.680 threads that stretch far across space and time. 00:08:15.839 --> 00:08:18.480 So one of these threads runs from the royal court 00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:21.860 in distant Ethiopia, where a powerful official 00:08:21.860 --> 00:08:25.089 is granted a hunger for truth. Another thread 00:08:25.089 --> 00:08:28.850 runs from the streets of Samaria as Philip learns 00:08:28.850 --> 00:08:31.689 to hear and obey the Spirit's voice and move 00:08:31.689 --> 00:08:35.190 to the desert road. Another thread is from centuries 00:08:35.190 --> 00:08:38.950 earlier as Isaiah's pen scratches prophecy onto 00:08:38.950 --> 00:08:42.049 parchment, words that would one day find a home 00:08:42.049 --> 00:08:45.470 in this chariot. And even up front, way in the 00:08:45.470 --> 00:08:49.610 distance, the distant glint of water in the desert. 00:08:51.279 --> 00:08:55.440 Do you see that the spirit has been weaving it 00:08:55.440 --> 00:08:58.620 all together? Grace that's just threaded through 00:08:58.620 --> 00:09:02.220 geography and history and all converging on this 00:09:02.220 --> 00:09:05.840 random desert road outside Gaza. It's stunning. 00:09:07.139 --> 00:09:11.559 And so Philip is invited up onto the chariot. 00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:15.080 And this is where he and we learn what the man 00:09:15.080 --> 00:09:20.629 is reading precisely. It's Isaiah 53. I mean, 00:09:20.649 --> 00:09:23.169 seriously, you couldn't script it better, could 00:09:23.169 --> 00:09:25.669 you? We know that the whole Old Testament is 00:09:25.669 --> 00:09:29.289 calling us to Christ, but this passage is one 00:09:29.289 --> 00:09:32.789 of the more clear, obvious, beautiful, profound 00:09:32.789 --> 00:09:36.320 passages that does that. Now, Luke gives us two 00:09:36.320 --> 00:09:40.259 or three verses that the man was reading, but 00:09:40.259 --> 00:09:42.080 there's no reason for us to think that that was 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:45.179 all that he was reading. It's got to be, I presume 00:09:45.179 --> 00:09:47.179 it's got to be the whole servant song, at least 00:09:47.179 --> 00:09:51.919 the end of chapter 52, all of chapter 53. So 00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:55.080 who is this Ethiopian Gentile eunuch reading 00:09:55.080 --> 00:09:59.340 about in the scroll? He's reading about a servant 00:09:59.340 --> 00:10:03.620 who was marred, disfigured. He's reading about 00:10:03.620 --> 00:10:08.240 a servant despised and rejected, a man of suffering, 00:10:08.500 --> 00:10:13.620 familiar with pain. One who bore our suffering, 00:10:13.860 --> 00:10:17.080 pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our 00:10:17.080 --> 00:10:20.440 iniquities. One by whose wounds we are healed. 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:23.679 As sheep who have gone astray, the Lord lays 00:10:23.679 --> 00:10:27.000 on him the iniquity of us all. But he will stay 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:30.419 silent amidst all that oppression and affliction. 00:10:31.080 --> 00:10:33.299 He will be cut off from the land of the living, 00:10:33.399 --> 00:10:36.419 assigned a grave alongside the wicked, pouring 00:10:36.419 --> 00:10:40.659 out his life, bearing sins, interceding for transgressors, 00:10:40.679 --> 00:10:44.600 a righteous servant who will justify many. That's 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:50.460 the servant of Isaiah 52 and 53. Who is he talking 00:10:50.460 --> 00:10:54.840 about? The Ethiopian's question is spot on. Who 00:10:54.840 --> 00:10:58.799 is this suffering, smitten, sin -bearing, saving 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:04.000 servant? Who is he? Well, Philip makes it loud 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:08.000 and clear in verse 35. Then Philip, beginning 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:11.019 with that very passage of scripture, told him 00:11:11.019 --> 00:11:19.419 the good news about Jesus. Philip begins with 00:11:19.419 --> 00:11:22.419 that passage, that servant song, but I doubt 00:11:22.419 --> 00:11:25.740 he finishes there. I think we're absolutely right 00:11:25.740 --> 00:11:29.940 to assume that Philip unrolls the scroll. A bit 00:11:29.940 --> 00:11:34.580 further during that Bible study. And comes to 00:11:34.580 --> 00:11:37.419 the next prophecy in our Bibles. It's three chapters 00:11:37.419 --> 00:11:39.419 later on. I've got it on the screen for us here. 00:11:39.500 --> 00:11:44.200 It's Isaiah 56. And look what it says. For my 00:11:44.200 --> 00:11:47.759 salvation is close at hand and my righteousness 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:52.259 will soon be revealed. Let no foreigner who is 00:11:52.259 --> 00:11:56.139 bound to the Lord say the Lord will surely exclude 00:11:56.139 --> 00:12:00.580 me from his people. And let no eunuch complain. 00:12:00.820 --> 00:12:05.080 I am only a dry tree. But this is what the Lord 00:12:05.080 --> 00:12:09.500 says to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who 00:12:09.500 --> 00:12:12.799 choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant. 00:12:12.820 --> 00:12:15.519 To them, I will give within my temple and its 00:12:15.519 --> 00:12:19.980 walls a memorial and a name better than sons 00:12:19.980 --> 00:12:22.980 and daughters. I will give them an everlasting 00:12:22.980 --> 00:12:27.309 name that will endure forever. And foreigners 00:12:27.309 --> 00:12:29.850 who bind themselves to the Lord, to minister 00:12:29.850 --> 00:12:33.190 to him, to love the name of the Lord and to be 00:12:33.190 --> 00:12:35.990 his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without 00:12:35.990 --> 00:12:39.009 desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant. 00:12:39.070 --> 00:12:43.070 These I will bring to my holy mountain and give 00:12:43.070 --> 00:12:50.009 them joy in my house of prayer. Brings me so 00:12:50.009 --> 00:12:53.690 much joy to think of the face of the Ethiopian 00:12:53.690 --> 00:12:56.629 eunuch. As Philip reads that section and explains 00:12:56.629 --> 00:13:00.990 it to him, that in Jesus, those beautiful words 00:13:00.990 --> 00:13:05.230 have come to their final fulfilment. Jesus, who 00:13:05.230 --> 00:13:07.590 was pierced for our transgressions and crushed 00:13:07.590 --> 00:13:10.470 for iniquities, has carried the shame of the 00:13:10.470 --> 00:13:15.620 excluded so that the excluded may enter in. Jesus, 00:13:15.659 --> 00:13:17.700 who was cut off from the land of the living, 00:13:17.820 --> 00:13:20.179 has made it possible for those who were previously 00:13:20.179 --> 00:13:24.580 cut off to live forever. Jesus, who became disfigured 00:13:24.580 --> 00:13:27.740 so that this disfigured African official on a 00:13:27.740 --> 00:13:30.620 dusty desert road might find himself welcomed 00:13:30.620 --> 00:13:34.159 into the heart of God's temple and God's people, 00:13:34.279 --> 00:13:37.559 not in the outer courts, but in the very presence 00:13:37.559 --> 00:13:41.200 of the Lord himself. This eunuch looks down and 00:13:41.200 --> 00:13:44.039 the parchment in his hands, it's like a mirror. 00:13:44.330 --> 00:13:47.289 in which he sees his own story written there 00:13:47.289 --> 00:13:51.529 in Christ, by Christ, through Christ, that salvation 00:13:51.529 --> 00:13:55.590 that for Isaiah was merely close at hand has 00:13:55.590 --> 00:13:58.950 now come in all fullness. God's righteousness 00:13:58.950 --> 00:14:02.350 has been revealed. The foreigner is no longer 00:14:02.350 --> 00:14:05.649 excluded. The eunuch is no longer cut off. His 00:14:05.649 --> 00:14:08.590 name will be written in the book of life and 00:14:08.590 --> 00:14:13.990 will endure forever. And just as we think that 00:14:13.990 --> 00:14:17.830 this story can't get any more joyful, the Ethiopian 00:14:17.830 --> 00:14:20.750 spots a pool of water in the desert. Look at 00:14:20.750 --> 00:14:25.710 that. Look, he says, here is water. What can 00:14:25.710 --> 00:14:29.090 stand in the way of my being baptised? And the 00:14:29.090 --> 00:14:31.570 answer, of course, is it because of Christ. There 00:14:31.570 --> 00:14:34.830 is nothing that can stand in the way of him being 00:14:34.830 --> 00:14:38.519 baptised. Not anymore. Christ has removed the 00:14:38.519 --> 00:14:41.080 barriers and the blockages. His death brings 00:14:41.080 --> 00:14:44.519 life and his exclusion brings inclusion and his 00:14:44.519 --> 00:14:47.740 wounds bring healing. And so down into the water 00:14:47.740 --> 00:14:50.879 they go. And at that moment, at that moment, 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:54.580 surely Philip is no longer asking, what am I 00:14:54.580 --> 00:14:59.179 doing here? For now, he sees clearly this divine 00:14:59.179 --> 00:15:04.009 tapestry of redemption, a soul saved. New life 00:15:04.009 --> 00:15:09.009 in the desert. That's what he's doing here. And 00:15:09.009 --> 00:15:12.389 as they come out the water, the Lord takes Philip 00:15:12.389 --> 00:15:15.590 away, apparently supernaturally, and the Ethiopian 00:15:15.590 --> 00:15:18.830 is left alone yet rejoicing. The five -month 00:15:18.830 --> 00:15:22.669 trip to follow will feel very different from 00:15:22.669 --> 00:15:26.909 that day on. It's a beautiful story, isn't it? 00:15:29.129 --> 00:15:32.070 There's three things I want us to enjoy in light 00:15:32.070 --> 00:15:36.490 of it. I want us to rest in Christ's work, respond 00:15:36.490 --> 00:15:40.230 to the Spirit's prompting and reach out to God's 00:15:40.230 --> 00:15:44.830 nations. Firstly, let's rest in Christ's work. 00:15:46.649 --> 00:15:49.649 Many of us here today will feel the sting of 00:15:49.649 --> 00:15:54.490 exclusion in one form or another. A past failure 00:15:54.490 --> 00:15:58.570 that feels too ugly to name aloud. A set of habits 00:15:58.570 --> 00:16:01.809 that have calcified into a deep sense of unworthiness 00:16:01.809 --> 00:16:05.480 in us. A culture or a language or a heritage 00:16:05.480 --> 00:16:08.480 that feels somehow second class in certain spaces. 00:16:09.259 --> 00:16:13.019 If you, like me, read Acts 8 and immediately 00:16:13.019 --> 00:16:16.000 identify with Philip, then maybe that speaks 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:19.740 to certain privileges that we enjoy. There are 00:16:19.740 --> 00:16:22.200 many in the world around us and in this college 00:16:22.200 --> 00:16:25.340 amongst us who relate to the outsider status 00:16:25.340 --> 00:16:31.230 of this Ethiopian eunuch. We all know, don't 00:16:31.230 --> 00:16:33.570 we, that the gospel welcomes the foreigner and 00:16:33.570 --> 00:16:36.070 the eunuch, the distant and the different. We've 00:16:36.070 --> 00:16:38.409 studied that truth, we've written essays about 00:16:38.409 --> 00:16:40.870 it, we maybe even preached about it, but some 00:16:40.870 --> 00:16:43.049 of us still feel that it applies more naturally 00:16:43.049 --> 00:16:45.830 to other people more than ourselves. The ones 00:16:45.830 --> 00:16:48.789 who seem to belong better than us, the ones who 00:16:48.789 --> 00:16:51.649 find the rhythms of academic life easier, the 00:16:51.649 --> 00:16:54.269 ones with the right backgrounds or the confidence 00:16:54.269 --> 00:16:57.549 or voice or heritage or accent. In different 00:16:57.549 --> 00:17:00.940 ways, actually, all of us. We'll feel that at 00:17:00.940 --> 00:17:04.079 some time or another, perhaps in ways that we've 00:17:04.079 --> 00:17:07.359 never even admitted out loud to ourselves. So 00:17:07.359 --> 00:17:11.420 please, all of us, hear God's voice through Isaiah. 00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:16.059 Let no one who is bound to the Lord say, the 00:17:16.059 --> 00:17:19.279 Lord will surely exclude me from his people. 00:17:19.640 --> 00:17:25.240 No. In Christ, all barriers have fallen. By faith, 00:17:25.299 --> 00:17:29.789 by his work on the cross, all are welcomed. All 00:17:29.789 --> 00:17:34.109 are wanted. The servant was cut off so that we 00:17:34.109 --> 00:17:37.329 all might come in. No more outer courts, no more 00:17:37.329 --> 00:17:40.309 arm's length, just grace upon grace in Christ, 00:17:40.309 --> 00:17:43.750 the suffering servant. Who can stand in the way? 00:17:43.829 --> 00:17:47.970 What can stand in the way? Nothing. Not anymore. 00:17:50.589 --> 00:17:54.130 So we rest in Christ's work. Secondly, we respond 00:17:54.130 --> 00:17:58.940 to the Spirit's prompting. In Acts 8, the Spirit 00:17:58.940 --> 00:18:03.819 is the true missionary. Philip listens and moves, 00:18:04.079 --> 00:18:07.559 but it's the Spirit who sends himself, nudges 00:18:07.559 --> 00:18:10.839 him towards the chariot. It's the Spirit who 00:18:10.839 --> 00:18:13.799 whisks him away when the work is done. It's striking 00:18:13.799 --> 00:18:16.680 how little Philip actually kind of initiates 00:18:16.680 --> 00:18:19.019 in this whole encounter. There's no plans, no 00:18:19.019 --> 00:18:21.220 committees, no strategy. It's just obedience 00:18:21.220 --> 00:18:24.240 to the Spirit. There's something in that, isn't 00:18:24.240 --> 00:18:28.970 there? To be responsive to the Spirit is to be 00:18:28.970 --> 00:18:35.549 interruptible, available, teachable, pliable, 00:18:35.710 --> 00:18:39.769 willing to have our schedules rearranged somehow 00:18:39.769 --> 00:18:43.670 for the sake of God's purposes. That takes humility, 00:18:44.069 --> 00:18:48.049 takes trust. It's horrible to give up control 00:18:48.049 --> 00:18:50.230 of our own lives and ministries, isn't it? It 00:18:50.230 --> 00:18:54.099 hurts, but it's essential. When a team of students 00:18:54.099 --> 00:18:56.759 go out into Southgate to witness to Christ, I've 00:18:56.759 --> 00:19:00.059 no doubt they can easily wonder, what am I doing 00:19:00.059 --> 00:19:03.380 here? Perhaps similarly, if you find yourself 00:19:03.380 --> 00:19:05.680 helping an asylum seeker with some practical 00:19:05.680 --> 00:19:08.119 life logistics when you'd rather be writing a 00:19:08.119 --> 00:19:11.940 sermon, what am I doing here? When the jobs you 00:19:11.940 --> 00:19:14.119 really wanted after college fall through and 00:19:14.119 --> 00:19:16.140 you're left with a ministry setting that feels 00:19:16.140 --> 00:19:20.599 small or remote, what am I doing here? But the 00:19:20.599 --> 00:19:25.190 spirit is at work. To those who listen, our part 00:19:25.190 --> 00:19:30.349 is to stay alert and willing and open and interruptible. 00:19:31.309 --> 00:19:33.910 God rarely hands us the full blueprint of our 00:19:33.910 --> 00:19:36.130 lives for the next 12 years or even the next 00:19:36.130 --> 00:19:38.430 12 days or sometimes even the next 12 hours. 00:19:38.509 --> 00:19:41.930 But his spirit does give us the next steps. Our 00:19:41.930 --> 00:19:47.210 work is to listen. A couple of years ago, the 00:19:47.210 --> 00:19:50.509 US Christian band Casting Crowns released a song 00:19:50.509 --> 00:19:55.029 which contains these lyrics. God, if there's 00:19:55.029 --> 00:19:57.950 a bigger picture, it's getting hard to see today. 00:19:58.829 --> 00:20:01.710 I don't know where this is going, but I know 00:20:01.710 --> 00:20:04.970 who holds my hand. It's not the path I would 00:20:04.970 --> 00:20:07.230 have chosen, but I'll follow you to the end. 00:20:07.769 --> 00:20:10.809 Lord, as long as I am breathing, I will make 00:20:10.809 --> 00:20:14.269 your glory known, even if it means I'm walking. 00:20:14.859 --> 00:20:20.700 On this desert road. That's right, I think. Spirit's 00:20:20.700 --> 00:20:23.339 leading doesn't always feel strategic or glamorous. 00:20:23.380 --> 00:20:26.319 It often feels inconvenient, uncertain, perhaps 00:20:26.319 --> 00:20:29.220 even lonely. It's not always the path I would 00:20:29.220 --> 00:20:31.980 have chosen. Perhaps that's for the best, for 00:20:31.980 --> 00:20:34.500 our hearts are corruptible and sometimes our 00:20:34.500 --> 00:20:37.839 decision making sucks. But the same spirit who 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:40.359 sent Philip to that desert road knows exactly 00:20:40.359 --> 00:20:43.609 why he brought you here to Oak Hill. And here 00:20:43.609 --> 00:20:45.849 into these difficult language classes and here 00:20:45.849 --> 00:20:48.609 into these difficult essays and here into this 00:20:48.609 --> 00:20:51.190 chapel service. And he jolly well knows why he's 00:20:51.190 --> 00:20:53.630 bringing you into whichever desert roads you 00:20:53.630 --> 00:20:57.829 may find yourselves in in the future. We respond 00:20:57.829 --> 00:21:02.529 to the Spirit's prompting. And thirdly and finally, 00:21:02.710 --> 00:21:07.970 we reach out to God's nations. Let's finish by 00:21:07.970 --> 00:21:10.789 just pulling the camera back a little bit and 00:21:10.789 --> 00:21:14.230 noticing this passage as part of the bigger narrative 00:21:14.230 --> 00:21:17.309 of scripture. See, before Paul ever preaches 00:21:17.309 --> 00:21:20.289 in Philippi or Athens, before the gospel ever 00:21:20.289 --> 00:21:24.990 reaches Europe, it's already heading south along 00:21:24.990 --> 00:21:28.730 the Nile into the heart of Africa. The church 00:21:28.730 --> 00:21:31.849 in Africa does not begin with 19th century pith 00:21:31.849 --> 00:21:34.109 -helmeted missionaries. It is in the Upper Nile 00:21:34.109 --> 00:21:37.410 region centuries before it reaches the Upper 00:21:37.410 --> 00:21:40.869 Thames region. Now, we don't know for sure what 00:21:40.869 --> 00:21:42.990 life and faith and mission looked like for this 00:21:42.990 --> 00:21:46.289 Ethiopian eunuch after this chapter. Interestingly, 00:21:46.609 --> 00:21:49.430 second century church father Irenaeus reports 00:21:49.430 --> 00:21:52.569 that this man started to spread the gospel around 00:21:52.569 --> 00:21:56.130 that region and began the growth of the church 00:21:56.130 --> 00:21:58.569 there. I don't know if he's right. I don't know 00:21:58.569 --> 00:22:00.289 how he would know that. It's perfectly plausible, 00:22:00.509 --> 00:22:02.849 I guess, isn't it? Perhaps even likely. We do 00:22:02.849 --> 00:22:05.009 know that by the fourth century, Christianity 00:22:05.009 --> 00:22:08.170 is established in Aksum, what we'd now call today. 00:22:08.490 --> 00:22:12.269 Ethiopia. And today, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo 00:22:12.269 --> 00:22:15.509 Church still venerates this man, this Ethiopian 00:22:15.509 --> 00:22:18.690 eunuch. And Ethiopian church history is just 00:22:18.690 --> 00:22:21.789 longer than any European church history. And 00:22:21.789 --> 00:22:26.369 it continues today, stronger than ever. On Monday 00:22:26.369 --> 00:22:28.829 night, James Robson and I were at a book launch 00:22:28.829 --> 00:22:33.150 for Girma Bishor. Dear friends of the colleges, 00:22:33.369 --> 00:22:36.869 he's Ethiopian. He arrived in the UK in 1990 00:22:36.869 --> 00:22:39.410 without a word of English in his heart or without 00:22:39.410 --> 00:22:42.670 any money in his pocket. And at his book launch, 00:22:42.789 --> 00:22:46.269 James and I were surrounded by Ethiopian sisters 00:22:46.269 --> 00:22:49.730 and brothers right here in London. We drank Ethiopian 00:22:49.730 --> 00:22:53.529 coffee. We ate Ethiopian foods. It's good, wasn't 00:22:53.529 --> 00:22:56.740 it? And I couldn't help but think of this very 00:22:56.740 --> 00:23:00.819 story. The joy that begins on this desert road 00:23:00.819 --> 00:23:04.279 has blossomed into millions of true Ethiopian 00:23:04.279 --> 00:23:07.799 worshippers across space and time. It's marvellous, 00:23:07.799 --> 00:23:11.059 isn't it? And it doesn't stop there. By the end 00:23:11.059 --> 00:23:13.480 of this century, over half the world's Christians 00:23:13.480 --> 00:23:18.359 will be African. Ponder that for a moment. As 00:23:18.359 --> 00:23:22.200 we worship the risen Christ today, we do so shoulder 00:23:22.200 --> 00:23:24.779 to shoulder with sisters and brothers in Addis 00:23:24.779 --> 00:23:29.690 Ababa, in Kampala, Kinshasa and Kigali. The spirit 00:23:29.690 --> 00:23:33.950 pushes Philip out across barriers of race and 00:23:33.950 --> 00:23:37.329 context and geography for God wants those barriers 00:23:37.329 --> 00:23:42.450 dismantled in his multicultural kingdom. Again 00:23:42.450 --> 00:23:45.690 and again and again in the book of Acts, we see 00:23:45.690 --> 00:23:49.730 the spirit forcing the early church out into 00:23:49.730 --> 00:23:52.750 these cross -cultural encounters that stretch 00:23:52.750 --> 00:23:56.130 them and humble them. And he's still doing that 00:23:56.130 --> 00:24:00.359 today. The gospel does not belong to one culture 00:24:00.359 --> 00:24:03.480 more than another. It is radically inclusive. 00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:07.619 It cannot be captured by one single language 00:24:07.619 --> 00:24:11.000 or culture or ethnicity. And we need that reminder 00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:15.579 because we are experts at shrinking the gospel 00:24:15.579 --> 00:24:18.900 to fit our own preferences. We're so good at 00:24:18.900 --> 00:24:23.660 it. We talk about a global God, yet quietly we 00:24:23.660 --> 00:24:26.599 live as though he is most present where we are 00:24:26.599 --> 00:24:30.500 most comfortable. But the God of glory will not 00:24:30.500 --> 00:24:34.990 be domesticated into our culture. This Ethiopian 00:24:34.990 --> 00:24:37.930 from the very edges of the world is part of God 00:24:37.930 --> 00:24:41.690 fulfilling his promise to see Christ known in 00:24:41.690 --> 00:24:45.710 Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to Ethiopia, 00:24:45.950 --> 00:24:48.910 the ends of the earth. This man's baptism is, 00:24:48.970 --> 00:24:51.309 of course, first and foremost, personal to him. 00:24:51.410 --> 00:24:53.809 But it's also representative of something so 00:24:53.809 --> 00:24:57.430 much bigger. The gospel begins its long, unstoppable 00:24:57.430 --> 00:25:00.849 journey to the ends of the earth, from Jerusalem 00:25:00.849 --> 00:25:05.809 to Judea, from God. Gaza to Addis, from Oak Hill 00:25:05.809 --> 00:25:08.710 to the ends of the earth. God's purposes are 00:25:08.710 --> 00:25:12.910 unchanged, that every tribe and tongue and nation 00:25:12.910 --> 00:25:17.309 and language might find life in the servant who 00:25:17.309 --> 00:25:22.210 was cut off to bring us in. What a privilege 00:25:22.210 --> 00:25:25.269 to be invited into that, each of us, wherever 00:25:25.269 --> 00:25:28.410 we may end up, to be invited into God's glorious 00:25:28.410 --> 00:25:32.670 global gospel purposes. For the story that begins 00:25:32.670 --> 00:25:36.849 on this desert road is still being written. And 00:25:36.849 --> 00:25:41.130 by grace, by his kindness, we get to be a part 00:25:41.130 --> 00:25:50.130 of that. Let's pray. Our loving Lord and Father, 00:25:50.210 --> 00:25:53.450 we thank you that your son was cut off from the 00:25:53.450 --> 00:25:57.190 land of the living, crushed for our iniquities, 00:25:57.230 --> 00:26:00.950 bearing our sins. dying for our transgressions, 00:26:00.950 --> 00:26:04.970 that in him we might find life, that in him the 00:26:04.970 --> 00:26:09.829 excluded will be included, that in him our names 00:26:09.829 --> 00:26:12.589 may be written in the book of life and live forevermore. 00:26:13.650 --> 00:26:16.569 We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ and we 00:26:16.569 --> 00:26:19.470 ask that we might find our rest in him, that 00:26:19.470 --> 00:26:22.809 where we feel outside as we might remember, that 00:26:22.809 --> 00:26:25.950 we might deeply cherish that we are insiders 00:26:25.950 --> 00:26:29.230 in his kingdom. We pray, Lord, that we would 00:26:29.230 --> 00:26:32.390 be responsive to what you are calling us to in 00:26:32.390 --> 00:26:35.230 our lives, both near and far. In whatever desert 00:26:35.230 --> 00:26:38.049 roads you bring us to, might we be inclined to 00:26:38.049 --> 00:26:40.910 hear the prompting of your spirit and might we 00:26:40.910 --> 00:26:44.430 participate with all joy and gladness in your 00:26:44.430 --> 00:26:48.890 global purposes that you might use us in whatever 00:26:48.890 --> 00:26:52.549 way you see fit to keep on writing your story 00:26:52.549 --> 00:26:55.910 of the gospel going to the ends of the earth. 00:26:57.259 --> 00:26:59.220 Please bless us, Lord, and be with us.