LAUNCH: LIFE PATH The Jesus Path Bible Fellowship Curriculum February 23, 2014 Introduction Over the last several weeks, we have done a lot of work. We revealed our new purpose statement ( Helping one another trade a checklist faith for real life with Jesus ). Following that, we unearthed the unique passions that are at the heart of First Baptist Concord and which make that purpose statement resonate with our church body so deeply. We talked about how we value passionate influence that we want to leverage all of our relationships toward telling others about Jesus. We talked about our passion for biblical truth both knowing it and applying it. We talked about our passion for missional living orienting our whole lives around making Jesus known. We talked about our passion for authentic relationships that we would relentlessly go after relationships of honesty and transparency, both inside and outside the church. Finally, last week we talked about our passion for thriving families believing that healthy, multi-generational families form the building blocks of a biblical community that reaches the world. In truth, we have covered a lot of ground in the first six weeks of this LAUNCH adventure. A lot of tremendous conversations are being had in our hallways, café, and living rooms that are helping shape the future of how God uses our church. This week, we turn a corner and begin looking at the path we will follow to move toward accomplishing our purpose. Knowing who we are and where we are going is one thing. Having a clear pathway on how we are going to get there is a different thing altogether. That s why we will be looking at this particular topic for the next two weeks. This week, we will look specifically at some of the characteristics of the Jesus Path. Biblically, what does it look like when we follow the path that Jesus lays out for us? The particulars can vary widely because the Creator is infinitely creative. There are, however, some common elements that we can expect to encounter as we follow our God honoring purpose. To glean some of those principles, we will look at Acts 8:26 40. Biblical Background From the beginning of the book of Acts, we know the who and why behind its writing. Luke was writing the second volume of his historical letter to Theophilus. While we do not know a great deal about Theophilus, we do know that Luke s intention was to record with as much precision as possible, the life and ministry of Jesus, the birth of the church, and the spreading of the gospel throughout the Mediterranean world. By the time we reach our passage for this week, the New Testament church has exploded onto the world scene with exponential daily growth. Starting in Jerusalem at Pentecost, the church instantly grew into the thousands. Its continued growth, characterized by miracles, healings, and prophetic teaching, also led to an almost equally immediate persecution of the apostles.
Following the example of Jesus, the apostles began to teach in the synagogue. They were met with responses of both contrite repentance leading to salvation and claims of heresy leading to their imprisonment. As the feverish growth of the Church continued to escalate, so did the persecution of its members. Apostles were imprisoned, then released; this was followed by the first martyr after the testimony of Stephen in Acts 7. With the persecution of the Church reaching a new apex in Stephen s death, we are introduced in Acts 8:1 to Saul. The man who would become the Apostle Paul is described in 8:1 simply as approving of Stephen s execution. In the very next verse, however, Luke records the onset of a great persecution against the Church in Jerusalem. The persecution was led in large part by the same Saul that approved of Stephen s execution; a fact that the great Apostle would lament repeatedly in his post-conversion writings to the churches. Frequently, the path that God chooses to use in order to accomplish his will can seem strange to us. Such was the case with the early church with the outbreak of this wave of persecution that included imprisonment and death of believers. While the Church was unequivocally following God s plan for them individually and collectively the persecution raged all the more. In fact, the result of the persecution was the scattering of many believers from Jerusalem who fled to safer locations. It is at this point in the early Church s history that we encounter Philip. In Acts 8:4 8, we find Philip as one of the dispersed believers, preaching the gospel in Samaria. Reminiscent of David s seeking safety among the hated Philistines as King Saul sought to kill him (1 Samuel 27), Philip had gone to the one region that would be the last place for any self-respecting Jew to enter. The Samaritans were a mixed race of Jews and Gentiles and were profoundly hated by the Jews. Jewish men would routinely triple the length of a trip in order to circumvent Samaria so that even the dirt of Samaritan roads did not cling to their sandals. If there was a safe place from the murderous Saul and the Jewish mob that was seeking to extinguish the New Testament Church, it was Samaria. What lets us know that asylum was not Philip s only goal is Luke s qualifier that Philip was preaching the gospel to the Samaritans. In the first incident of the gospel going to non-jews (both Jews and Gentiles refused to acknowledge any connection to the Samaritans), Philip found the Samaritans to be extremely open to the gospel. Unclean spirits were driven out and the broken were healed and made whole. In that one, persecution-inspired trip to Samaria, the gospel went global. It was no longer only for the Jews. The Text After a brief interruption in Luke s account of Philip to tell of Simon the Magician, Luke resumes his account of Philip s evangelism beyond Judaism. True to the earlier statement that God sometimes moves in ways that seem contrary to our understanding in order to accomplish his will, an angel of the Lord sends Philip someplace else. However, as soon as Philip follows in obedience, the hints of God s hand at work are evident. Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. (Acts 8:26-28)
The first aspect of the Jesus Path we see from Philip s story is that God calls us to where he is already at work, even if we don t know it. It was, from a human perspective, crazy for Philip to leave his ministry effort in Samaria. He was preaching and they were repenting. Salvation was happening all around him. Miracles were taking place. And all of this in an area that insulated him from the people that were hunting Christians. So God sent him from people accepting Christ all around him to a desert road where nobody was. Roads in that day were extremely dangerous, and the more deserted, the more dangerous. Think of the parable of the Good Samaritan. Robbers would hide along welltraveled roadways to ambush travelers. The road to Gaza passed the final watering place before entering the desert that stood between Jerusalem and Ethiopia, which means it was well traveled. The Ethiopian eunuch was a highly regarded foreign dignitary riding in a chariot. If ever there were a trap, this would have felt like it. As soon as Philip arrives, though, God s movement is discernible. This foreign dignitary, whose prominence Luke goes out of his way to establish, was returning from worshiping Yahweh in the temple in Jerusalem. There is much to unpack here. The Ethiopian culture had a distinct religious system, but this key governmental figure traveled through a desert to worship Yahweh. Now, he is returning, which means that he has already engaged in a worship experience and his heart is turned toward the things of God. The fact that he is a eunuch could mean either he has been ceremonially emasculated, or simply that he is a high-ranking attendant to the queen (Candace was actually the title of the Ethiopian queen, not her given name). Either way, his status as a eunuch and a Gentile means that he would have been relegated to outer courts of the temple grounds. This makes the fact that he is reading a scroll of Isaiah all the more astounding. It wasn t as if he could swing by the corner Bible bookstore and pick up a copy of Isaiah. For a foreigner, who was visibly different from the crowd, a dignitary, and a Gentile to be able to procure a copy of the scroll of Isaiah would have required significant effort. All of these facets coming together in one moment as Philip happens onto the scene is an incredible confirmation of God s redemptive work in action. Assessing his surroundings, Philip receives another prompting from the Holy Spirit: And the Spirit said to Philip, Go over and join his chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, Do you understand what you are reading? And he said, how can I, unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. (Acts 8:29 31) This brings us to the second aspect of the Jesus Path - when we sense God s movement around us, we follow as the Spirit prompts. The custom for travel in Philip s day was to do so in numbers to prevent attack. Certainly a high-ranking official, whose expressed duty was to be over all the queen s treasure, was not travelling in an unattended chariot. Even more, when a man not with the travelling party runs up beside the chariot, one would have to figure his chance of gaining access to the official would be tantamount to trying to get past the Secret Service. All logical likelihood aside, Philip runs up to the chariot and engages the Ethiopian dignitary with a simple, direct question. As a Jew, Philip knew well what the Ethiopian was reading aloud. He also knew the complexity of Isaiah s messianic prophecies for non-jews. As further confirmation of God s orchestration of the encounter, instead of dismissing the unexpected
stranger running next to his chariot, the Ethiopian invites Philip to sit down and guide him through Isaiah. The word choice of the eunuch in using guide is important. He was not saying that he needed someone to translate the prophecy of Isaiah into his native language so he could understand it. He was telling Philip he needed someone to explain the theological truth of the passage that he was reading to him. God was laying yet another opportunity at the feet of Philip, which brings us to the third aspect of the Jesus Path - when God presents opportunities, we need to be ready. Now the passage of the Scripture he was reading was this: Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth. And the eunuch said to Philip, About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. (Acts 8:32-35) When Philip took his seat in the Ethiopian official s chariot, he discovered that the passage that God had led the official to was one of the clearest prophecies of Christ s atoning work in the entire Bible. Having just left Samaria, where he was constantly preaching the gospel, Philip knew exactly how to answer the eunuch s questions. Philip knew the Scriptures and was able to trace the prophecies of Isaiah to their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus. The result of God s movement in the heart of this foreign official was salvation. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. (Acts 8:36-38) There is a fourth aspect of the Jesus Path revealed in Philip s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch that should be noted - when following the movement of God, there is always a next adventure. While it is always important to pause and praise God for his faithfulness through ministry seasons of the past, we must realize that as long as God is moving in the world, he will also be moving his Church to cooperate in his movement. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. (Acts 8:39-40) Philip was supernaturally carried away to his next location immediately after the baptism was completed, harkening to the experience of Elijah in 2 Kings 2. The reason was because there was another adventure in God s redemptive history for him to be involved with. As the eunuch celebrated his own baptism, Philip began preaching in another location. While one missionary went into the baptismal waters, two came out Philip to Azotus and the Ethiopian eunuch back to his homeland where he wielded influence and prominence.
The Text in Life To watch what happens in Philip s life in this section of Luke s gospel is nothing short of incredible. While the specific events might be different for our lives than in Philip s, the truth is that God wants to demonstrate his working in and through our lives just like he did in Philip s. In order for that to happen, though, we have to be mindful of the four aspects mentioned in our study. First, we must remember that when God wants to lead us into a new season of ministry, he will draw us into an environment, partnership, or opportunity in which he is already working. Psalm 139:5 tells us that God hems us in behind and before and then lays his hand over us. He is at work all around us. He prepares ministry before us, and then continues the work unto completion even after we ve gone. The Jesus Path is completely reliant upon the timeless sovereignty of God. Second, when we have sensed that God is moving, we must pay close attention to how the Holy Spirit will prompt us to join him. This is part of our passion for missional living. We must live with an awareness of how the Holy Spirit will move us, not if the Holy Spirit will move us. God desires to use us, both as individuals and as a church, to accomplish his will in the world. We are his instruments in the world. He gives us spiritual gifts so that we can do so with competence and a worshipful spirit. He calls us together as a body so that we can move together for greater impact in our community. There is no doubt that the Spirit will prompt us. The contingency is whether or not we will respond with openness and faithfulness. Just like Philip, we must respond with faithfulness to the great things that God is doing around us. Third, knowing that God is going to present opportunities for us to join his work in the world, we must take every opportunity to prepare for them. That is not to say the success of God working through us depends on our competency. That is most certainly not the case. However, we do have the commission to prepare for faithfulness. From our lesson on our passion for biblical truth, we looked at 2 Timothy 3:16 17 where Paul directs that the authority and holy power of the Scripture is useful for, among other things, making the man of God competent and equipped for every good work. That means we must become students and appliers of the Word so that when we have the opportunity to join God in his work, we can do so with competence and faithfulness. Fourth, when we are involved with the movement of God, we must always anticipate the next God-sized adventure that he will invite us into. Believers don t retire. Instead, we are to be more like Caleb who, even in his advanced years, was asking Joshua to give him the hill country of Hebron as his allotment in the Promised Land (Joshua 14), even though it was one of the more challenging to take. The retirement mentality in our spiritual development is not specific to age. More to the point, it settles in when we ve seen a significant amount of personal growth, spiritual success, or have acquired what we believe to be an impressive enough checklist. When that happens, we are tempted to believe that we can just tell our war stories (which is a great metaphor for what a testimony is), and coast into that spiritual sunset. Philip certainly could have done that, based on his experience in Samaria alone. But he refused. Instead of writing a book and going on a book-signing tour to relive past victories with Jesus, he engaged in the next God-sized adventure. That is precisely what we must do as believers, as families, and as a church.
Discussion Questions Below are some discussion questions aimed at processing this week s lesson either in personal study or with your group. If you are a teacher or discussion facilitator, please intersperse these questions throughout your lesson, as you deem necessary. 1. What is the best method you ve found to help view your daily activities as part of God s work in the world? How does that change the way you approach casual encounters? 2. How difficult do you think it would be for you to, like Philip, leave an environment that is seeing great growth and gospel fruit for another assignment? 3. If the Ethiopian eunuch had asked you the same question about the passage in Isaiah, how would have responded? In your current spheres of influence, what group or person is most likely to ask you questions about the Bible? 4. How open are you to unexpected movements of God in your life? Do you look for them? 5. When was the last time that you sensed God working in a specific environment, people group, situation, etc. and took a step of faith to become personally involved? Tell your story. 6. What part of embarking on a new adventure with God is the most difficult for you to process? 7. Describe a time when you were following what you sensed God was leading you to do and things didn t turn out as you expected. How did it impact you spiritually? How did you respond? 8. How do you involve your family in the adventures that God has taken you on?