An important stranger……..
A few years back, I spoke to
someone who met an important stranger. They had been on holiday away in the
North West Highlands, staying at a caravan site – mother, father, and one of
their daughters, along with the daughter’s friend – who were both in their last
year at secondary school. One afternoon, the daughter and her friend decided to
walk the single track road down to the local village to buy some things. Which they did. But when they were half way back, and in the
middle of nowhere, it began to pour, the heavens opened as it can only do in
the North West Highlands. For shelter they stood under the only clump of trees
for miles, but there was no sign of the rain letting up. When luckily for them,
up the road came an old battered land rover driven by a well-spoken middle aged
man in a Barbour jacket. He stopped and asked them where they were going – and
when they said the caravan site, he offered them a lift, as he was going that
way himself. Arriving at the caravan site, the girl’s mother invited the man
into the caravan for a cup of tea, and they all sat and chatted while everybody
warmed up. Eventually the man said – “I must go and - thank you for the tea” – “Listen,”
he said, “I’d like to do the same for you – if ever you’re in
Just before he went out of the
caravan door he gave them his card. When he had driven off, they looked at it,
and it said on it ‘Sir Hugh Fraser, Board of Directors, House of Fraser’.
When we turn to Acts chapter 8, an important stranger is travelling along the road there too. The man who meets the apostle Philip on the road is an important stranger.
Philip has been instructed by
an angel of the Lord to go south, to the road through the desert to
However, the book the chancellor
was sitting reading was the prophecy of Isaiah, at this point he had just reached
chapter 53, and reading verses 7 and 8, was deep in thought. We read in Acts
that the Spirit of the Lord told
Philip – go to that chariot and stay near it. Philip and the chancellor begin a
conversation about the passage in Isaiah, and the Ethiopian was converted and took
Christian faith to
But this morning I would like
to trace further the wonderful pattern that unfolds here in the book of Acts…..
that of the work of the Spirit.
You see, once again in this
passage we read those immensely significant words…
That it was the Spirit of the Lord, the Holy Spirit
who directed, guided, moved Philip to go down to the Gaza road……….
If we read patiently and
carefully through Acts
we
will find again and again the Spirit, the Holy Spirit working, moving,
inspiring,
uplifting, creating, shaping the Church and its people.
In the opening chapters of the
book of Acts,
we see there the Spirit
shaping, creating the Church, calling the Church into the life of Jesus Christ,
drawing men and women - the believers – together.
The most famous occasion is on that day of Pentecost,
but not only then and
there. As we read on in Acts,
another congregation in
and among the believers
in
The Spirit comes down in blessing on men and women as rain blesses dry
and thirsty ground, and the Church springs into life, green and fresh and new……
as Jesus promises……..
This has been the experience of many parts of the Church in many parts of
the world throughout the twentieth century – the blessing of the Spirit…..
and whenever and
wherever the Church becomes dry, thirsty ground
we can look to the
Spirit
pray for the Spirit, ask
for the Spirit, that He will come down
in blessing,
that the Church may
spring into life, green and fresh and new……
And whenever you and I become dry, thirsty ground
we can call upon the
Spirit of the living God,
and He will come down in
blessing,
and green and fresh and
new life will spring up within us again.
But also in the book of Acts, I
just find it fascinating how the promise of Jesus in John’s Gospel unfolds:
that promise found in John 15.26
The Lord says: When the Counsellor comes whom I will send
you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father – He will
speak of me –
and you also must speak……………
You see, as we read in the book of Acts we discover that
beside creating, shaping, breathing life into the Church,
the Spirit prepares,
equips and enables, men and women to speak,
so that they speak, they witness to Jesus Christ
with a living, dynamic,
true word for their situation.
Last week, we heard how filled
with the Spirit
Peter declares before the
that a disabled man has been completely cured
healed by the power and authority of Jesus Christ -
you should all know he says......
that this man stands here before you
completely well through the power of the name of Jesus
Christ of
whom you crucified and whom God raised from
death............
there is no other name, given by which we must be saved !
as Peter,
filled with the Holy Spirit,
stands before the leaders
of the
He speaks of the power and the
authority of Jesus !
the
crucified, risen ascended Jesus,
the One to
whom all power has been given.
Jesus Christ is ever
present with His Church, He is the one who sustains
the Church,
speaks through
His servants,
and creates
the Church ever anew through the Spirit,
and all
power, all authority belongs………to Him……that is where,
as the old
hymn says – our anchor holds……
In Him, the One to
whom all power has been given
that is where
our anchor holds……
But, back
to Philip…….
the chariot
came to a halt at the side of that road
and
the chancellor invited Philip up into the chariot to explain the passage from
Isaiah,
From chapter 53 – these words,
the chancellor read them out: He was led
like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers 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?
“What does this mean ?” the chancellor asked Philip.
And Philip, moved by the
Spirit,
Philip caught up, I am certain,
in the sheer joy of the grace-filled moment, told him about Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, the lowly one:
despised and rejected, as the servant of the Lord
who offered
Himself for the sin of the world,
who has
taken on Himself our weaknesses, carried our sorrows,
and by whose wounds we are healed………
Philip, filled by the Spirit -
speaks of Jesus to this chancellor, from a country far, far away, about Jesus.
So don’t you see
? it is just as Jesus promised: When the Spirit comes whom I will send you
from the Father, – He will speak of me –
and you also must speak……………
Philip speaks: and the
chancellor comes to Jesus Christ.
I cannot think of any greater
need for the Church here and now in this land….. than this
…
we
need the deepest, richest blessing of the Spirit to be upon us
so
that, just as the Spirit taught Peter
we begin to
learn that all power, all authority belongs………to Jesus Christ
He is the One to
whom all power has been given
He is where our
anchor holds……
we
need the deepest, richest blessing of the Spirit to be upon us
so
that, just as the Spirit taught Philip
we
learn to speak concerning Jesus.
The lowly one, despised and
rejected,
who
has given Himself for the sin of the world,
who
has taken on Himself our weaknesses, carried our sorrows,
by
whose wounds we are healed.
As the Spirit taught
Peter and Philip, and all the Church,
may He also
teach us, anew,
that the stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone……!
AMEN.