May 6, 2012
Dear friends in Christ.
If you’ll permit me, I’d like to tell you a story
this morning. It’s not a story about car
chases or gunfights, though one of the characters does chase after a
chariot. It’s not a story with a western
setting, though there are some horses involved with it. It’s not even a science fiction story in
which two different species of aliens have to learn to coexist, instead, it’s
simply a Bible History story that many of you have undoubtedly heard
before. It’s the story about the Philip,
the deacon, and the Ethiopian eunuch and how God chose that eunuch to be his
own. Now, I admit, at first glance this
might not seem to be the most interesting story that I could have told you this
morning! But even though this might be
the case, I guarantee you that by the time I’m done, you’ll be thankful I did
tell you. You’ll be thankful, because
through this simple and completely true Bible History story, you will be
reassured that it was God who chose you to be his own.
Though I know that you already know that it was God
who chose you to be his own, this is a fact that will become that much clearer
as we study the account of Philip and the Eunuch. As our story opens, Philip was working with a
number of the other disciples in the region of Samaria, and in the city which was
also named, Samaria. This city of Samaria
was about 30 – 40 miles north of Jerusalem, and it was there that an angel of
the Lord suddenly came to Philip and told him to “Go south to the road—the
desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”" (Acts 8:26, NIV84)
Even though the Lord was greatly blessing the work
of the disciples in Samaria and quite a few of the Samaritans were coming to
faith, Philip simply obeyed the word of the Lord. Without a second thought he started out on
his journey, and as he traveled, somewhere on that road leading to Gaza, Philip
met up with this Ethiopian eunuch. Now,
this was no ordinary Ethiopian! This was
an important official in the government.
He was basically the Secretary of the Treasury for all of Ethiopia. On top of that, he was a convert to Judaism
and had recently been in Jerusalem to worship the Lord God. On top of that, as he was traveling back to
Ethiopia, he was reading from the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah.
Now, when Philip saw him, the Holy Spirit told him
to go up to the chariot and stay near it.
So Philip ran along side and heard the man reading. As he was reading Philip asked a very simple
question. Luke tells us: “‘Do you
understand what you are reading?’ asked Philip. ‘How can I,’ [the eunuch] said,
‘unless someone explains it to me?’ So he invited Philip to come up and sit
with him. The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: ‘He was led like a
sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did
not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can
speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.’ The eunuch
asked Philip, ‘Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or
someone else?’ Then Philip began with that
very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.” (Acts
8:30-35).
This is why the Lord pulled Philip away from a very
successful ministry in Samaria and sent him down to a lonely desert road south
of Jerusalem! He did it so that this
eunuch might have the opportunity to learn about Jesus through Philip’s
teaching! He did it so that this eunuch
might be brought to faith in Jesus and become a child of God! He did it, because this eunuch was a soul whom
God had chosen to be his own, and God made sure that he had the opportunity to
hear the gospel and come to faith. Well
the same thing can be said about each and every one of us here today! For the truth is, each one of us is a soul
whom God has chosen to be his own. For
you see even before we were even a sparkle in our mother’s eyes, the Lord knew
us and knew what he had planned for our lives.
Before we were even born, the Lord loved us and chose us to be his
own. When we were born, he was the one
who saw to it that our parents had us baptized.
He is the one who saw to it that we were taught the precious truths
about his Son. He is the one who saw to
it that we learned our Bible History lessons and our Catechism lessons so that
our faith in him might be strengthened. Now he is the one who continues to
strengthen our faith through his Word and Sacrament so that we might remain
faithful to him throughout our lives no matter what troubles or frustrations we
might face.
What greater comfort could we receive today, than
the comfort that comes from knowing that it was the Lord God who chose us to be
his own! It was the Lord our God who
counted us as his precious souls and saw to it that we were made his
children! This, in fact, was exactly
what the Lord did for that Ethiopian eunuch in our lesson today! For after Philip had thoroughly explained the
word of God to him, the eunuch was baptized.
Luke tells us: “As they traveled along the road, they came to some water
and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” 38 And
he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down
into the water and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water,
the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see
him again, but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Philip, however, appeared at
Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he
reached Caesarea." (Acts 8:36–40, NIV84)
As they road together, the Holy Spirit created faith
in the heart of this eunuch—faith which trusted in Jesus as his Savior, and
faith that longed for the assurance that Baptism could give him. When they stopped, Philip baptized him,
assuring this eunuch that he was indeed a child of God through faith. But when they came up out of the water, it
was the Lord who suddenly took Philip away.
He suddenly took Philip away, and he wound up at Azotus, where he began
to preach the Word of God, traveling north until he reached the town of
Caesarea.
Why the Lord took Philip away like he did, we will
never know! But there is great comfort
and assurance for us in the way this story ends. For even though Philip suddenly disappeared
from the eunuch’s side, never to be seen again, the eunuch went on his way
rejoicing. He returned to his homeland
as a child of God, and it is very likely that he began teaching others about
their Savior, Jesus Christ. It is quite
possible that he brought this news to the queen and all her officials and the
leadership of Ethiopia came to know Jesus as their Savior. It is even possible that this man became a
missionary and went around his country and even throughout Africa preaching and
teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Though this is the only part of the Bible in which this man is
mentioned, though we are never told anything more than, “the eunuch went on his
way rejoicing,” we take great comfort in the fact that it was the Lord who
chose him to be his own.
Well, just as we take great comfort in the fact that
the Lord chose this particular Ethiopian eunuch to be his own, we also take
comfort in the fact that the Lord has chosen us to be his own. For the truth is, as we sit here today, we
know that it was the Lord who chose us to be his own. We know that it was the Lord who saw to it
that we were baptized into the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We know that it was the Lord who not only
created the faith that trusts in Jesus as our Savior, but we also know that he
is the one who sustained that faith through the regular use of his word and
sacrament. But even more than that, we
also know that it is the Lord who now uses us to call others to faith in Jesus
Christ as their Savior. He is the one
who now uses us to proclaim that beautiful message of the gospel so that
everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved. This is the gospel message that proclaims to
believers from every nation, kingdom, tribe and people, that Jesus has chosen
them to be his own.
Though sometimes it might be difficult and a little
scary for us to speak to people about our faith, this is what the Lord wants us
to do. Though it may be difficult for
some of us to recognize the importance of filling this church with all sorts of
different colors and unfamiliar faces, this is the mission that the Lord has
set before us in brining the Gospel to all nations. But while the very thought of going out and
proclaiming the Gospel can be quite terrifying, you don’t need to be frightened
or even alarmed. For now that the Lord
has called you to be his own, he uses you to bring others into his fold every
hour of every day. Sometimes it happens when someone simply notices how you
live your life, and from that they start to wonder about your beliefs. Other times it happens when people notice
that foul language isn’t a normal part of your every day conversation and they
remember you belong to the Lutheran Church.
Sometimes it happens in the midst of a conversation when suddenly you
find yourself talking about Jesus and other times it transpires in a simple
invitation to worship on Sunday morning.
But no matter how it might happen, we know that it is the Lord using us
to spread his word to others, just as he used Philip to share God’s Word with a
precious soul whom the Lord had chosen.
So then, here we are, we’ve come to the end of our
story. But even though it doesn’t end
with trademark, “happily ever after”, or with a hero riding off into the
sunset, it ends on a very comforting note.
For this account ends with the assurance that it is the Lord who has
chosen us to be his own. It is the Lord
who called us to faith and it is the Lord who uses us to share that faith with
others who need to know. Take comfort in
that fact as you leave this place today, and don’t ever forget that it was the
Lord who chose you to be his own.
Amen.
Pastor
David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
