Do you understand?

On behalf of all of us who are members of this church I’d like to begin by welcoming you very warmly especially if you’re an international student. So if that’s you, we want you to feel that you’re among friends – even though you may be a very long way from home. And do please pass on our greetings to your families and friends and communities back home when you’re able to do so.

Now, here’s a question for you. Do you want to know more about God? You’ve crossed the world to come to Newcastle to study – whatever your subject is. And no doubt, especially if you don’t know Britain well, you’re also interested to find out more about us – what we’re like, how we live. But our experience is that many people who come here are also wanting to discover more about themselves, about the meaning of their own lives, and about God. There’s no doubt that getting away from your usual environment gives you a great opportunity to do that. And what we want to say to you is this: We’ve discovered not only how to know about God, but how to know him personally. It’s a discovery that you can make too. We want to share what we’ve learned with you. Mind you, it’s not a secret. It’s all right here, out in the open, in this book, the Bible. We believe, with good reason, that this is God’s message to the world. It’s divided into lots of short books. This morning I want us to look together at one of the incidents that’s recorded in here, in the book called Acts. The title of my talk is ‘Do you understand?

The reference of the passage is Acts 8.26-40. The ‘8’ is the chapter – that’s the large number. Then ‘26-40’ are the verse numbers – that’s the small numbers. So this passage is headed ‘Philip and the Ethiopian’.

It’s about a man who was taken by surprise when he was on an international expedition, and who found the joy of knowing Jesus Christ. And the truth is that you can also make that discovery for yourself.

Now as we work through what happened I’d like you to look out for 3 Good Questions that this Ethiopian asks, and 3 Good Moves that he makes. They are questions that we, too, need to ask and get answers to, and moves that we need to make. I’m going to read through the passage section by section, and I’ll keep pausing to explain what it means and why it’s relevant to us. So this is how it begins (Acts 8.26):

“Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road – the desert road – that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”

This first thing to say is that Philip was a disciple – a follower – of Jesus Christ. He believed that Jesus was the unique Son of God who had died and risen from the death to be the Lord and the Saviour of the world. Those are big claims, I know. But Philip was one of the men who knew it was true, and who was following Jesus, his risen Lord.

Now notice something very important. It would be easy to think that this account is all about a man who’s looking for God. But it’s clear from the start that it’s the other way round. God is seeking this man – the Ethiopian we’re about to meet. The same is true in your life. If you don’t yet know God through Jesus Christ, then God is seeking you. You may not realise that yet. But I believe that’s why you’re here this morning.

And one other vital thing to see here is that the living God is a God who speaks. On this occasion he sends a messenger – an angel. He speaks in different ways at different times. But that’s how we can know him – by listening to what he has said. Let’s move on (Acts 8.27):

“So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians.”

This is what God had planned all along – it was a divine appointment. God lead Philip to this man. Who was he? This is all we know. He was a powerful and influential African – a kind of Minister of Finance of Ethiopia, from the region around the northern Nile.

What about you? It may be that back home you are a person of some considerable status in your society. Or maybe you would like to be, but you’re not yet. Either way, God cares about you in the same way that he cared enough about this man to arrange for Philip to meet him on the road.

So remember that you matter to God. God wants to be at the centre of your life, whoever you are, and whether you consider yourself to be important or not.(Acts 8.27)

“This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship,

He’d gone on a long journey – many days of travelling. Admittedly he didn’t have to wait in airports or work his way through Immigration. But like you, he was a long way from home. He’d been to Jerusalem, among the Jews, where the culture was different.

And the religion was different. But that’s what he wanted. The religion of his native Ethiopia must have left him dissatisfied, empty inside, knowing that he hadn’t yet found the truth.

He was at least beginning to understand that there was one true God – and he wanted to know him. Maybe in your heart of hearts you realise that you’re in the same situation yourself. What is more, he had begun to read the Bible.(Acts 8.28)

“and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet”

He probably had to keep looking up to make sure he didn’t get chariot-sick as he bumped along through the inevitable potholes in the road. But this was his first Good Move, that we need to copy. He was reading the Bible. If you want to know the one true God, that’s the right thing to do. He was reading from a scroll that maybe he’d bought from one of the tourist gift shops in central Jerusalem. It was the book of Isaiah the prophet – written about 700 hundred years before. It’s one of the books that’s here in the Bible, so we can still read it today.

What’s a prophet? Someone to whom God speaks, and who then passes on God’s message. So that helps us to understand what the Bible is, and why as Christians it’s central to our lives: the Bible is God’s words spoken and written by men. No wonder it’s so important that we read it. What happened next? (Act 8.29-31)

“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.”

Because the Bible is God’s word, the key to knowing God is understanding the Bible. So Philip goes up to the Ethiopian and says, ‘Do you understand that?’ – knowing full well that he doesn’t – at least not fully.

But that prompts the first of the three Good Questions from the African: ‘How can I unless someone explains it to me?’ He’s right – we do need help understanding the Bible. If you go it alone, it’s very easy to get confused and to miss the point of what you’re reading. So the Ethiopian asks Philip to help him.

And that’s his second Good Move. His first Good Move was to read the Bible. His second Good Move was to invite a follower of Jesus to explain the Bible to him. And we would like to invite you to invite us to help you understand the Bible, if you’d like to. It’s your decision – and we respect that. We will not pressurise you. But our offer remains open any time you would like to take us up on that.

There are various different ways we can help you understand the Bible here at Jesmond Parish Church. We were hearing about some of them earlier – especially the informal course we run with international students in mind called ‘Christianity Explored’. Do make sure you’ve got the leaflets about what’s going on here for internationals. Now Luke, who’s writing this from eyewitness accounts that he researched, tells us exactly what the Ethiopian was reading (Acts 8.32-33):

“The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the 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.”

It’s a passage that comes from Isaiah chapter 53. We heard a longer section read to us earlier in this service. It is a prophecy about a man who suffers terribly.

When you read the whole thing it’s clear that this man is suffering as the servant of God himself – God actually calls him ‘my servant’. He suffers innocently – he had neither deceived nor harmed anyone. He suffers silently – like a quiet lamb led to the slaughter without complaint. He suffers as a subsitute – in other words he died so that we all could escape death and find peace with God. That’s what Isaiah says just before the bit that’s quoted here (Isaiah 53):

‘…he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities [all of our wickedness and rebellion against God]; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.’

So in a strange way, he also suffers successfully, in the sense that the death of this servant of God was not a waste of a good life. It was full of purpose and meaning. Ultimately it was God’s plan for rescuing people from the judgement and death that we deserve. (Acts 8.34)

“The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?”

That’s the second excellent question the African asks. ‘Who is this?’ That’s what we need to know, isn’t it? If the death of this servant of God is so important to us, then who is he? Well, Philip immediately knew the answer to that, because Jesus himself had taught his disciples the key to understanding the Bible – the Scriptures.

You can find what he said, for example, in Luke 24.25-27. If you want to write that down you could look it up later. That tells how after he rose from the dead Jesus told his disciples that the key to understanding the Bible is that it all points to Jesus himself. Philip knew that this prophecy in Isaiah was all about Jesus. (Acts 8.35)

“Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.”

The good news is that Jesus, who has been raised from the dead, is the suffering servant of God who brings forgiveness and eternal life to those who turn to him.

Jesus himself sums up the good news in this way (this is John 3.16):

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’

And Peter, one of the men who knew Jesus best while he was on the earth, explained why his death by crucifixion was so important. He put it like this (1 Peter 3.18):

“For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit…”

So how does Jesus call on us to respond to this good news? He calls us to repent – to turn away from our old way of life and back to God – and to believe in Jesus as our Lord and as our Saviour. That’s what we need to do. What did the Ethiopian do? Luke tells us. (Acts 8.36)

“As they travelled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptised?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot.”

So here’s the third Good Question. Question 1: ‘How can understand the Bible unless someone explains it to me?’ Question 2: ‘Who is this saviour?’ Question 3: ‘Why shouldn’t I be baptised?’ Presumably Philip had explained to him the significance of baptism.

Baptism is a sign of becoming a believer in Jesus. It’s a sign of the forgiveness that he brings, of the gift of his Spirit to help us to live for him, and of joining the family of God – the church. And what happens next?

“Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptised him.”

And here is the African’s best move of all. His first Good Move was to read the Bible. His second Good Move was to invite someone to explain the Bible to him. And now his third Good Move is to cross line from not being a believer to being a believer. The way the Ethiopian signified that he’d begun to trust in Jesus as his Lord and as his Saviour was to be baptised.

And you can do that too. Jesus told his disciples to baptise new believers. So if you are clear that you’ve become a believer in Jesus, and you haven’t yet been baptised, then take the next opportunity. There will in fact be a service of adult baptism and renewal of baptismal vows here on Sunday evening 9 November. If you think it’s time you were baptised, then speak to me or another member of staff and we can explain more about that to you. Finally, don’t miss what happens at the end of this extraordinary and life-changing incident: (Acts 8.39)

“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.”

Although your situation is very different from this, there may be parallels. You may not be here for all that long. The time will come soon enough when you return to your own country, and then you may not see the friends who’ve explained to you about Jesus again.

But once you’re a believer, you have a promise from Jesus that he will never leave you – he will always be with you. That’s why this African went on his way rejoicing – and that’s why we can too, even when life is hard. Joy is one of the things that marks the lives of those who believe in Jesus. And what about Philip?(Acts 8.40)

“Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and travelled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.”

Philip just carried on explaining the good news wherever he was. And that’s another mark of true believers: they tell others about Jesus.

Jesus makes it abundantly clear that the good news about him has to be taken to the ends of the earth. There is no individual person, and no nation that does not need to hear. We all need Jesus, whoever we are, wherever we’re from.

We’re delighted that you’re here in Newcastle. And we are confident that God brought you here for a purpose – either to get to know him through Jesus for the first time, or to get to know him better.

Please make the most of your opportunity.