What Hinders?
Now as they went down the
road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water.
What hinders me from being baptized?"
Then Philip said, "If you believe with
all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God."
So he commanded the chariot to stand
still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized
him. Acts 8:36-38
While Philip and the Ethiopian are riding along in his chariot, he asks
Philip, "What hinders me from being baptized?"
Philip's answer is: nothing...you are limited only by the limits of your
faith.
The man answered that he had faith in Jesus and so Philip baptized him.
And it is true. We are limited only by the limits of our faith and the
limits we put on what we are willing to believe and to do. We decide where
to build the picket fence. God does not, in that instance.
God does put limits around us, be clear about that.
We cannot confess all kinds of faith and then go on sinning against God
and humanity. That will run straight into God's brick wall. In the call to
worship this morning taken from Isaiah 55, we read together:
Seek the
LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way and the
evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the LORD, and he will
have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
One of God's requirements is the need to recognize we need to make a change,
and that God is the only One who can help us.
And we can only keep moving forward in God by following where God wants
us to go.
But to those who turn away from their own way and are willing to follow
God's way, the limits we encounter are likely the picket fences that either
we or other human beings have built.
So who is Philip and who is this Ethiopian?
Soon after the resurrection of Jesus and his bodily exit from the planet
earth, the church in Jerusalem is visited by God's Holy Spirit who fills
them and energizes them to do the task they are sent out to do.
And one of the outstanding features of that church was their radical compassion.
Many of them sold their possessions and used it for the common good of all.
And they had a practice of taking care of the less fortunate in their
group.
As I have mentioned before, we believe this is what God is calling us
to do. Not to sell our possessions, but to be a compassionate fellowship.
But there was a controversy in that the widows with Greek names were complaining
that the Hebrew widows were better taken care of than they were. Even in
the most spiritual groups, there can be rivalries and jealousies--and maybe
they weren't being given the same care.
So the apostles asked for the appointment of a group who would look after
this as they felt they were not called to this task--they were called to
preaching and teaching, not administering the monetary distribution.
So seven men, full of the Holy Spirit were appointed. Among them, Stephen
and Philip.
Just a side note, Stephen and Philip turn out to be two of the most powerful
evangelists and preachers in the entire church.
Just because you are not ordained to this or that does not mean God will
not use you any way He chooses.
God can and will use you any way He chooses if you are available.
More on that later.
Philip had been very effective in preaching in Samaria but now the Spirit
directs him to the south to the caravan route from Jerusalem to Gaza. There
he meets a man, an eunuch from Ethiopia. He is a high civil servant of Candace
queen of Ehiopia--her minister of finance. The man is reading from Isaiah
53 and invites Philip to help him understand what he is reading. He comes
to the portion that reads,:
He was
oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb
that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is
dumb, so he opened not his mouth.
Philip begins at that point and explains who Jesus is and how He fulfilled
the prophecy of Isaiah and then goes on to explain how Jesus is Messiah,
not just for Jews, but all humankind.
The reason we know this is because they come alongside water and the man
asks, "what hinders me from being baptized?"
If he were a Jew he would not ask that question as Jews were not baptized.
Now that sounds like an innocuous enough question..what hinders me from
being baptized?
In fact as a Baptist, that was how I concluded every service of baptism.
"Here is water. What hinders you from being baptized?"
Or in other words...are you ready, and if so, then why not now?
But in that time and particularly for that man, it is not just a rhetorical
question.
There is in fact something that would hinder him from being baptized.
He was a eunuch, and eunuchs were strictly forbidden in Israel. They were
not permitted to enter the assembly of God.1
Isaiah prophesies a day when foreigners and even eunuchs will be given
a home in the people of God, but that day had not come yet when Philip spoke
to this Ethiopian.2
And so his question: "what hinders me?" is a real question because there
is something standing in the way. And it is something he can do nothing
about.
But Jesus fulfills Isaiah's prophesy. " The punishment that brought
us peace was upon Him and with his stripes we are healed."
Jesus removes all barriers between us and God.
And so Philip gives only brief thought to this and the answer is clear:
there is nothing to prevent you becoming part of God's family. And so he baptizes
the man who goes on his way back to Ethiopia.
I mentioned that Philip was not called or ordained as a preacher, but
he turns out to be one of the most effective evangelists in the church.
The history of the Christian church in Ethiopia is that this man takes the
gospel back to that North African country, which still has an indigenous
Christian church to this day and is one of the only places in the middle
east to withstand the tide of Islam that swept it in the fifth century after
Christ. Not bad for someone who was just on the board of managers.
This is not the first time Philip breaks barriers either.
Before this, Philip is in Samaria doing the same thing--preaching to non
Jews.
He is incredibly effective to the point the Jerusalem church sends Peter
to check it out.
While Peter is there, the Holy Spirit comes upon the Samaritans just like
on the day of Pentecost--as a way to prove to Peter and the church in Jerusalem
this is God's doing and Samaritans and presumably Gentiles are to be admitted.
This is not the end of the story, as it takes a bit more for all this
to be accepted, but it does eventually and the greatest barrier of all is
overcome.
Philip, the man appointed to "wait on tables" turns into a powerhouse
preacher and practical theologian.
What he does is to make a theological statement of the highest order,
one that Paul formalizes in his letters--in Jesus there is neither Jew nor
Gentile, male or female, slave or free. In Him we are one.
Its difficult for us to understand the impact of what Philip does. It
is incredibly profound and ground breaking. And he is not even an apostle.
There are no fences in God's eyes. The only fence is the fence we build
by refusing to do life God's way.
But there is no situation beyond God's power; no person beyond God's love,
and no need beyond God's ability.
And God may lead any one of us to open some door that everyone thought
was permanently closed.
In fact we are far too quick to assume a door is closed when God has decided
it should be opened.
Philip was going against hundreds of years of teaching and accepted practice,
but once God unlocks a door, nothing can keep it closed. Philip just happened
to be the one willing to turn the handle.
Are we willing to turn handles?
God is calling us to be door openers.
How?
Here is what you can do this week:
Each day just as you spend some time with God say this simple prayer:
"Lord lead me to the person you want me to meet this week."
That's all. Be willing to ask. Be willing to go. Be willing to meet that
person.
God will show you what to do when the time comes.
I have no idea what it might be.
But I do know this from personal experience: when you humbly ask and make
yourself available to God--no strings--God will open doors for you that
you could never contrive to open for yourself.
I could tell you instances, but I won't, at least not today.
What hinders us?
What are the picket fences that you or others have built up around some
idea or some person?
In most cases they are not from God.
God is the door opener.
Be available and God may allow you to be the one to open a door that everyone
else had thought permanently shut.
Preached May 10, 2009
Dr. Harold McNabb
West Shore Presbyterian
Church
Victoria, British Columbia
Notes
1. Deuteronomy 23:1
2. Isaiah 56:3-5
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