Philip and the Ethiopian
Published by Matt Glover September 27th, 2005 in Hearing the WordOn Sunday morning, Grant lead us in an exploration of the story of Philip and the Ethiopian official from Acts 8:26-40. The approach Grant took was to view this passage through a missional mindset - what can we learn from this in terms of sharing/being Jesus in our community? Grant suggested a few ideas:
1. The method will always change but the message stays the same. Previously we had heard of Peter’s sermon to a large crowd and the message spoken to groups of all different sizes. Here we have a 1 on 1 encounter. The method should be dictated by the situation/context/culture of where it is we are living out our faith.
2. Philip was genuinely concerned for the Ethiopian. It’s not so much that we ‘earn’ the right to share our faith, but it is taken far more seriously when we show a genuine concern for the well being of others, regardless of whether they show any signs of becoming Christians or not.
3. Philip entered the Ethiopian’s world on his (the Ethiopian’s) level. He talked about what the Ethiopian was wrestling with there and then and saw faith grow out of that place. There was no suggestion of Philip saying anything like, “Well, before you can be part of this commmunity, you need to change the way you dress, get rid of those tattoo’s and leave your job.” This is what is sometimes called incarnational mission. Being with people where they are, not extracting them to a place where you feel more comfortable.
4. Go with the flow - let the Holy Spirit be your guide. I love this one! Being a little bit on the organised side (!) I like to have a set game plan and guidelines for what I’m going to do. Grant is the opposite (I mean that in a nice way!) and models this really well. Don’t spend so much effort on telling God how he can or cannot act, but instead let God lead you in HIS mission in the community.
I have lots of things running through my mind. I’d love to know what it looked like when Philip suddenly disappeared at the end of the story, and what it looked like wherever it was that he reappeared! But what I thought might be good to reflect on this week, is point four from above. How do we let the Holy Spirit guide us? It’s easy to say, but in practice hard to do. Particulalry given that we are so busy so much of the time.
What do you think?
I think Matt captured the essence of the message really well - must have been awake and taking notes!
I mentioned during the sermon about my experiences in recent years as chaplain with the Melbourne Storm (NRL team) and how when you enter into other peoples ‘world’ with genuine concern and a desire to listen and undersatnd, it often gives you an opportunity to invite them to ‘visit’ your world, to see things from another perspective, a kingdom view. To often I’ve seen well-intentioned evengelistic efforts from Christians backfire because of their inability or unwillingess to first listen and understand… What do you think?
Good that the sermon related well to the Scripture reading