Today’s Scripture

Psalm 22:25-31                       Acts 8:26-40                1 John 3:18-24                        John 15:1-8

 

 

            Disclaimers; we are used to reading and hearing the disclaimers.  The pharmaceutical companies sometimes seem to spend more time with disclaimers about side effects than they do telling the benefits of the product.  An opinion page or program states that this is not the view of that organization.  How many times have we read, “The results will vary.”  It is so common to “disclaim” something anymore, think of a time when you were in the right place at the right time to claim something that is absolute truth and you faded away into the fog of disclaiming anonymity?  In other words, think of a time if not many when you had the words to say, but just didn’t say them that would have clarified someone’s understanding of God’s saving grace in Jesus Christ.

 

            Since Easter, we have been reading selected accounts of the early church as the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to record them in the first chapters of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles.  Each of these accounts is there to instruct us how God uses believers to tell others his love and saving grace in Jesus so new people will understand this unbelievable truth, believe this unbelievable truth, and receive the unimaginable joys of an eternity in heaven with our Lord.  In each of these instances there is no hesitation.  These men do not apologize for what they have to say about Jesus.  There are no disclaimers.

 

            This Philip we read about today is not the disciple Philip.   In Acts 6, the disciples chose seven to assist them.  Among these seven was Stephen who was stoned to death for his bold profession of faith in Christ.  Another was a Philip.  Philip is among the believers who fled Jerusalem during the persecution following Stephen’s stoning.  In Samaria he preached the news about Jesus.  He healed cripples and paralytics.  He drove demons out.  All of his preaching and performing miracles was in Jesus’ name and by God’s almighty power.  God used Philip to bring the good news of his saving grace in Jesus to the people of Samaria as many who heard his message believed and were baptized.  As the Holy Spirit worked through the word and the miracles, the church grew.

 

            Whether in physical appearance or in a vision we do not know, but God sent an angel to Philip instructing him to go from this active mission area to a desert road to Gaza.  There Philip observed an important dignitary from Ethiopia reading in his chariot.  Philip followed God’s urging to approach this man.  As he did, he heard him reading from the prophet Isaiah.  We recognize this passage too as the prophecy of Jesus who is our suffering servant.

 

            Isaiah wrote this passage seven hundred years earlier as if the events had already occurred.  Imagine the Ethiopian’s confusion reading a prophecy that points to the past?  Philip questions the man about what he is reading.  He responds as so many of us do when we read Scripture too.  “I need someone to explain it to me,” he says. 

 

            Philip then explains the recent events about Jesus, the Son of God, the Son of Man, who is the suffering servant Isaiah wrote about.  Jesus suffered and died, willingly and uncomplaining as the sacrifice for the sins of all people.  Believing and being baptized in that faith saves you.

 

            Think of your conversations with other people.  Think of the sacrifices people think they need to make to “save themselves.”  Think of the questions we hear so often, “What must I do to have eternal life?”  Think of the many answers to that question.  Now think of Jesus’ answer to that question in today’s Gospel reading.  Jesus is “the vine” and we “are the branches.”  The Father prunes the branches that do not produce fruit.  There is judgment for those who reject the vine.  Those dead branches are thrown into the fires of hell.  Those branches that do rely on the vine, Jesus, for what he brings, do bear fruit as believers live lives of faith, and those lives of faith are living witness of God’s love in Jesus to others.

 

            Martin Luther played Eunuch and Philip as he posed those questions and answers, “What does this mean?”  Martin Luther went to Scripture to find the answers to these questions.  You and I have the same source that Philip, the Ethiopian Eunuch, Martin Luther, and all other believing saints have ever had, God’s word in Jesus Christ.  Without Jesus we have nothing.  We also find the account of the Eunuch and Philip not unlike the disciples on the road to Emmaus and the disciples after the resurrection, listening to Jesus explain that these Scriptures of the Old Testament all pointed to the Messiah and how Jesus is the Messiah who fulfilled all of these prophecies.  These passages all pointed to Jesus who is the one and only Savior.

 

            The Ethiopian in the chariot saw water and asked for baptism.  That means this man knew he was covered with sin that by his works he could not shed.  That means this man knew he needed God’s saving grace given in baptism.  That means this man knew that the forgiveness of sins won on the cross and the new everlasting life promised in the resurrection come only through faith in this baptism gives the washing and the renewal.  That means this man now knew that the suffering servant described in Isaiah is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

 

            You are the Philips in this community.  You have been placed here by God for a specific purpose.  You have been brought to faith and baptism by your parents or someone else who explained God’s love in Jesus Christ to you.  You have been prepared for this work as you know God’s saving graces as he brings them to you through his word, in one baptism for your entire life, and in the Lord’s Supper where you receive over and over the precious body and blood that won the victory over sin for you.

 

            Each week are Bible Studies that together we study and understand these Scriptures.  There are the daily readings and devotions that individually one studies and understands the Scriptures.  Each week are the services at Immanuel where together we listen to God’s words, sing hymns of praise, thanksgiving, and petitions to him for his wondrous works.  Each day, another person sees the things you do and the things you say.  Are you doing things that show God’s love?  Are you responding to those opportunities to state the truth about sin and the forgiveness that comes only in Jesus Christ?  Are you a branch that is connected to the vine or are you another one of those disclaimers?  God has given you his word to know and his spirit to give you strength to share the truth of saving grace in Jesus Christ with others who do not understand.

 

            Philip was connected to the vine.  He brought the Ethiopian to the vine and the vine to the Ethiopian.  Connected with that vine they produced much fruit.

 

            Oh, about this Philip guy.  His name means, “Lover of horses.”  At the end of this passage we see him going to another city (Azotus) and preaching until he reaches Caesarea.  About 20 years later Paul visits him in Caesarea.  By then he has four daughters who are known as prophetesses.  Nothing more is known except the obvious, Philip remained active sharing the love of Christ with others.  He and his family remained connected to the vine knowing it was God who put him at the right place at the right time.  No disclaimers here.             Amen.