The summer I worked in Yellowstone NP, we would ask people during worship what state they were from. It was always fun to see how many states and even countries were represented. Every few weeks there would be people not only from the same state but from the same town. A few times people even knew each other but hadn’t seen each other in the campground or hotel. We were all amazed at what a small world it was. Have you had one of those moments?
I remember standing in the Lamb’s Way bookstore in Altoona and I was waiting behind a woman who was checking out. She said she was ordering things for her sister and wanted them shipped to a church in Niantic, CT. I was stunned because that’s my hometown. I asked her if she was from Niantic. She said no, but her sister played piano at Niantic Baptist Church. I asked her what her sister's name was and she said, Judy Mack. I lost it. Judy Mack was my youth choir director, she was my first piano teacher, and as a leader and friend, she is one of the reasons I am here today. In fact, as a kid I loved her so much that I named my first dog, Mack, because Judy and her husband had just adopted a boy. I know you may not think that shows great love and respect, but it was my first dog!
The entire store stood speechless as we laughed and hugged and talked. We all agreed that this was NOT a coincidence or an “Oh what a small world” moment. This was truly one of those God ordained moments. God placed us together at the exact moment to celebrate faith and family and church. There is no other way to describe those moments - God makes them happen.
Another one of those moments was when I was at MSU and went on a retreat with IV groups from other MI colleges. In the large group gathering there was a woman named Leigh who had muscular dystrophy and was in a wheelchair. During the first break I went and asked if she was Leigh Campbell and if she ever lived in Niantic, CT. She nodded yes and I said, I’m Andy Morgan. Leigh went crazy. Her entire body began to shake and she smiled but struggled to communicate. Her aide said, she obviously knows you. I explained that Leigh was one of my friends when I was in elementary school. My mom had been her aide and Leigh came to my first grade birthday party. Again, that was NOT an “it’s a small world” moment - it was a God moment that lifted both Leigh and me and our mothers who had lost touch through the years.
One more moment: I was preaching in Lewisburg and told a story about my friend Cindy who wrote me a letter when I was a freshman in college and encouraged me to check out IV. I was struggling to fit in and she said that her sister had loved IV when she attended MSU years earlier. After worship, a woman who had just moved to Lewisburg and was visiting our church for the first time waited in line to greet me and said, “the Cindy you mentioned in your story was Cindy Ball, wasn’t it?” I was stunned because it was. She then said, I did all the decorations at Cindy’s wedding. She had been a family friend for years and had just moved to Lewisburg. How does this happen? I tell the story of Cindy the same day she visits for the first time. This is not a coincidence. This is the movement of God!
These moments are special for a lot of reasons. First, they tell us that God is able to place us exactly where He wants us so that we can be blessed. God is that powerful. God might place us somewhere for a moment, or for a season, but God is at work. God is powerful enough to make sure we are right where He wants us. The second reason these moments are so special is because they show us just how much God loves us. God loves us enough to move us and others into places where we can be surprised and blessed. God loves us enough to show us that He will move heaven and earth to bless us, to help us, and even to save us.
God has been doing this for a long time. In Acts 8 there is one of these truly special God moments in the life of an Ethiopian eunuch.
Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”
So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its 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.
As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 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. Acts 8:26-39
It’s important to understand that this Ethiopian eunuch is very much an outsider among God’s people. While he was a believer in the God of Israel, because he was a foreigner, he would also have been considered an outsider. You can worship God but you can never really be a child of God. And because he was a eunuch, he would never be allowed to worship in the main part of the Temple. The law forbade eunuchs entrance into the Temp so he would always have to worship and remain in one of the outer courtyards.
He would always be seen as an outsider, and yet he loved God. While in Jerusalem he went to the Temple to honor God and on his way home he was reading from the prophet Isaiah. He loved God and he wanted to love God more. He longed for God and wanted to know more about God and experience more of God’s power and grace and love. He truly hungers and thirst for God.
Seeing his love and desire for more, God sends Philip to go and meet him. Now think about it, God could have sent someone to the Ethiopian eunuch while he was still in Jerusalem. It would have been so much easier for God to move someone down the sidewalk and talk to him in Jerusalem, but God doesn’t do that. God sent an angel to tell Philip to go out along the road to Gaza, a road that stretched out through the wilderness. Then the Holy Spirit told Philip to draw near to a certain chariot and listen. Philip did this and heard the man reading from Isaiah. God loved this man so much that He sent Philip far out of his way to teach him about salvation through Jesus.
God is still powerful enough to do this in our lives and God loves us enough to do this. God sees us in our dry places and when we feel like we are alone on a long and weary road, and God sends people our way. God sees us when we are hungering and thirsting for more of Him and He moves to fill us up. If nothing else, this story tells us that God loves us and sees us in every situation and that God is powerful enough to help us and bless us. We are not alone. We are not forsaken. God is already at work to bless you and help you and save you.
Philip comes alongside the Ethiopian eunuch and explains to him that the lamb that was led to the slaughter was Jesus. Going back to Isaiah 53, Philip teaches the man that our sin and the punishment of our sin was placed on Jesus, and that when he died on the cross, our sin had been paid for. He then told him that when Jesus rose from the grave it was to give him the gift of eternal life and that anyone who believes in Jesus and trusts in Him can be a full child of God.
Without waiting for more, the man wants to be saved, and so maybe he asked Philip, what do I have to do to be saved? And maybe Philip told him what he heard from Peter: Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call. Acts 2:38-39
And so, without delay, the man is baptized. Without being told what he had to do, how he had to change, or what he had to memorize or learn from scripture, he was baptized. He was made part of the family. In that moment the man celebrated that once he was lost but now, he was found. Once he was blind but now, he sees. Once he was a foreigner but now, he is a child of God. In that baptism he gave thanks for how God had been working in him, how God met his needs in that moment by sending Philip to explain the scriptures and introduce him to Jesus, and how the Holy Spirit would fill him with power in all the days to come.
And that is what we celebrate today. We celebrate that God has moved in our lives in a variety of ways to bring us to this place on this day. It is not an accident you are here. Maybe you needed to hear and see people give themselves to Jesus. Maybe you needed to hear that just like the Ethiopian, you are loved by God and that God is working in your life. Maybe you needed to hear, or hear again, that Jesus took your sin to the cross and paid the price so that you can be forgiven. Maybe you needed to hear that you have been set free from sin and that you can experience the power and the joy that comes with new and eternal life.
I love the last few verses of the Ethiopian’s story. It says he went on his way rejoicing. He is celebrating how God’s love, power and grace had been part of his life. He is celebrating that he has been made new in Jesus. He is celebrating because the power of God was still working in him. We can celebrate all those same things because it is true for all of us.
God is with you today. Whether you hunger and thirst for more of God or feel like you are trudging along a dry and dusty road, God is with you. If you have given yourself to God and are celebrating the gift of forgiveness and new life, God is celebrating with you. If you want God to bless you and use you as He did Philip, then get ready because God is going to use you to serve Him in some new way.
This story is what is taking place right here today. We are celebrating God’s power and love in this moment as people once again commit to walking with Jesus. We are celebrating that in Jesus we are made new and that through Jesus we can be accepted as a child of God. We are celebrating that God is at work in all of us and that whether we come forward or stay in our seats God is here to fill us up if we will simply ask Him to. This story is coming to life today - right here and right now.
In the moment, the Ethiopian asked to be baptized and, in this moment, if you want to be baptized, or if you want to celebrate your commitment to follow Jesus - you can do it. If you want to surrender again to God’s will and ask God to use you and bless you today and in all the days to come, then we want to invite you to come forward during our closing hymn.
And like the Ethiopian, you can come just as you are. You can come with doubts and fears and a troubled heart. You can come with joy and peace and a strong sense of God’s leading. You can come because you hunger and thirst for more of God and you can come because you are celebrating that you already feel full of God’s Holy Spirit.
As you come forward, we will use the water of baptism to bless you. With simple words like, “remember your baptism and rejoice” we will be asking God to bless you. You can remain at the prayer rail if you want and then return to your seats by the side aisles, but we invite you to come. This is an invitation for all of us to celebrate the love of God and to ask God to fill us once again with everything that we need.
Next Steps
Make Waves - Reborn Through The Water
What “God moments” have you had recently?
When has something happened to you that can only be explained by the power of God?
Read the story of Philip and the Ethiopian: Acts 8:26-39
● When have you felt like an outsider among God’s people?
The road to Gaza was a dry and deserted road.
● In what ways are you feeling spiritually dry and isolated? How does this story bring you hope?
Following God’s direction, Philip drew near to the Ethiopian and then reached out to teach and encourage him.
● Who might be the “Philip” in your life today?
● How can you be the “Philip” in someone else's life?
The Ethiopian immediately asked to be baptized.
● What are the things that hold you back from committing yourself fully to God?
For further reflection:
Read Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12
Identify all the ways this passage was fulfilled in Jesus?
(This is the first time that the early church saw Jesus as the fulfillment of the suffering servant in Isaiah.)
How does this story fulfill part of the promise Jesus made before He ascended into heaven? Read Acts 1:6-11
How does this story parallel the resurrection story of Jesus on the road to Emmaus? Read Luke 24:13-35
Why might this be significant for us today?
