Blueprint #13 - No Outsiders

READ – Acts 10+11

As people from all different backgrounds came to faith in Jesus, one of the biggest and hardest issues in the early church was how people formerly divided by cultural and ethnic walls could now live as brothers, sisters, friends and family in the church. The story of Cornelius in Acts 10 and 11 tells the foundational story that opened up the door of the church to those who were considered “outsiders”. Because the church sought to apply the lessons of this story - one of the biggest draws of early Christianity was how people who were naturally divided by cultural and ethnic walls worked through hard issues and found a way to live as brothers, sisters, friends and family. There was nothing like this in the ancient world.  As the blueprint for how Jesus built and builds the church, Acts shows us that the church is meant to be a place where there are no outsiders - a place where no one feels less than, unwelcome, unwanted, or they don’t belong because of race, ethnicity or culture. A place where everyone feels included, valued, that they can belong, their voices heard, and their gifts needed. How is this possible? It takes the 3 conversions of Acts 10 and 11.

1. CORNELIUS’ CONVERSION

The first conversion in the story is Cornelius’. Cornelius was a Gentile - a captain in the Roman army. We are told he was a devout man who feared God with his whole household. He gave to charity and prayed regularly. He was a good person. As a “god-fearer”, he was willing to take on the beliefs and practices of the Jewish faith, but he wasn’t willing to fully convert to Judaism (by undergoing circumcision and observing the food laws). So, even though Cornelius was as good a person as someone could be, he was still considered unclean. He couldn’t eat with faithful Jewish people. He was not welcome into a Jewish home or into the temple in Jerusalem for worship. He was an outsider because of his ethnicity. He was good but not good enough.

But God arranges for Peter to come to Cornelius through angelic visits, visions and the assurance of the Holy Spirit. When Peter arrives at Cornelius’ home (10:25-33), what does he say? Why did God go through so much trouble to bring Peter to Cornelius? Was it to tell Cornelius, “If you want to truly be in, you need to do more good”? No! Peter wasn’t sent to tell Cornelius what more to do to get in; he was sent to tell him all that Jesus did so he could get in. Peter preached the gospel (10:36-43) – Everyone can be forgiven because of all Jesus has done! It clicked for Cornelius - being good doesn’t make me an insider. Only Jesus does. When Cornelius heard this, he repented (11:18), believed and the Holy Spirit confirmed something that Peter was slow to believe – because of Cornelius’ faith in Jesus, this Gentile Roman solider is no longer an outsider. He was baptized into the church. Now he was just as much an insider as Peter.

This is the first conversion necessary for God to build a “no outsiders” church: It’s not Jesus + my goodness that gets me in. It’s Jesus + nothing that gets me in. The gospel equally humbles all (no one is in because of their race, culture or goodness) and equally elevates all (everyone who comes in by faith is equally “in”, equally valued and loved).

2. PETER’S CONVERSION

But a second conversion is needed. Scholar John Stott argues that it’s this conversion that is the main subject of these two chapters. He writes, “How would God succeed in breaking down Peter’s deep seated racial intolerance? The principle subject in this chapter is not so much the conversion of Cornelius as the conversion of Peter”. God chose one of the hardest people for Peter to accept – a Roman captain. The Romans had subjugated and oppressed his people for years.

In order for Peter to experience his conversion, it took a vision of God directly speaking to him three times (10:16), a visit from Cornelius’ messengers to share his vision (10:22) and the direct assurance of the Holy Spirit (10:20) for Peter to go inside a Gentile home. God could have directly proclaimed the gospel to Cornelius Himself! But clearly, he wanted Peter to do it. Why? So Peter could experience his conversion and a “no outsiders” church could be built.

Peter had to realize he was adding to the gospel. By adding race and culture to what was needed to be right and fully acceptable before God, he was denying the gospel of grace. Peter speaks as one experiencing repentance - “God has shown me (10:28)”, “now I truly understand” (10:34). It was Peter’s repentance from his racial and cultural self-righteousness that opened up the door of the gospel to all nations, race and peoples.

Peter realized the implications of the gospel he proclaimed in Cornelius’ home. The cross shows the world there is only one insider. There is only one person good enough, only one person clean enough, only one person pure enough. There is only one insider yet he’s the One on the cross (“the tree”, 10:39). The tree was the place where the bad, the impure, and the unclean belong. The tree is the place of curse – outside of God’s blessing. Why is Jesus there? On the cross, He took our place on the outside (what we deserve) and he gave us his goodness, his cleanness, his purity so we can be on the inside. Everyone who gets in says, “I’m only in because of him!  This was Peter’s conversion - being Jewish or being (_insert anything here_ ) doesn’t make me an insider. Only Jesus does.

 3. THE CHURCH’S CONVERSION (AND OURS)

When Peter shared his report of the conversion of Cornelius and his household with the church in Judea (“the Gentiles had also received the word of God”, 11:1), there should have been a celebration of epic proportions! The Gentiles (ie, all non-Jewish nations, ethnic groups) receiving the word of God (the gospel) is the heartbeat and promise of the whole bible! It’s what Jesus’ Great Commission is all about (Matt. 28:18-20). It’s what he said would happen before he ascended (they would be his witness to the “ends of the earth”, Acts 1:8). But instead of celebration, there’s criticism and disgust – “You went to non-Jewish people and ate with them!”. What’s going on? The church needed to experience Peter’s conversion as a community. They needed to see - we are all only in because of Jesus, so there are no outsiders!

This communal conversion into a church where there are no outsiders happened in at least 4 ways:

Us vs. Them – Us vs. them thinking had to be exposed by God and dissolved by the gospel. Peter later reminded the church, “God made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:9). The “us vs them” thinking and distinctions we hold on to need to be honestly admitted and repented of.

Step by Step – Just as Peter needed to be taken step by step by God through a process of repentance from his prejudice, so he took the church in Jerusalem through the same process (11:4). In his commentary on this passage, Ajith Fernando, a Sri Lankan minister wrote, “living in a land of ethnic strife and struggling with the question of feelings of one’s race and the other’s race in a time of conflict, I have come to realize that prejudice is often one of the last things that is touched by the process of sanctification”. Prejudices are deeply held, very slowly recognized, reluctantly admitted and often slowly changed. We should be patient as we and others take steps toward repentance. Yet we should be firmly resolved to keep growing and calling others to grow since this is matter of great importance to God, his mission and our sanctification.

Face to Face – In order for Peter to experience his conversion, he needed more than a proper theology of the gospel applied to race and culture. He needed to enter into the home of a Gentile. He needed to stay with them and eat with them. It took face to face interaction with someone “other” for Peter to truly change. It’s the same for us. Personal study and disembodied controversies on social media can only get you so far. We need to sit down and eat with someone “other” than us in order to grow in our ability to be “no outsider” people and churches.

Book by Book – Diversity is not to be pursued in the church because it happens to be the socially progressive thing to do or is accepted in the circles we have. It’s not pursued for the personal benefits of enjoying cultures and learning about other people. It is to be pursued because it is God’s mission and heart in all of Scripture. It is the truth of the gospel lived out in the church. When Peter slipped into his old prejudices (Galatians 2:11-21), what did Paul say to him? He didn’t say, “Peter, you’re being a racist! a bigot!” He said, “Peter, Cephas, brother, you are denying the truth of the gospel.” If we don’t see this, we need to spend time book by book in the Scriptures until we are convinced it is a matter of gospel truth.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1.       What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2.      Why is that some people think the message of Christianity is “to get in you need to be a good person”, “to stay in you need to be good enough”, or “to get in to heaven you need to be a good person”? How does the story of Cornelius’ conversion show us that a complete misunderstanding of Christianity?

3.       Do you see race, ethnicity and culture dividing people? in our country? in your community? in the church?  How is the message of salvation (“getting in”) by grace connected to issues of race?

4.      Have you ever had an experience of feeling like an outsider because of your race, ethnicity or culture? What was this like? How have you learned to welcome people different than you when you are the insider?

5.      How does the cross address all our insider thinking and insider/outsider divisions?

6.      In the sermon, 4 aspects to the church’s conversion were discussed – As a group, pick 1 or more of the following questions:

a.       Us vs them – Where do you see us vs them thinking still at work in your heart and life?

b.      Step by Step – Where do you feel you are in the step by step journey of sanctification in areas of prejudice?

c.       Face to Face – What face to face interactions have you had with people who were “other” changed how you saw other groups, races or cultures?

d.      Book by Book – Are you convinced that a church where there are insiders/outsiders because of race or culture is a matter of denying the truth of the gospel (2:14)? Why or why not?

7.       Acts shows us that the church is meant to be a place where there are no outsiders - a place where no one feels less than, unwelcome, unwanted, or they don’t belong because of race, ethnicity or culture. A place where everyone feels included, valued, that they can belong, their voices heard, and their gifts needed.

How is Trinity doing here? What can we do better? How can we become a church like this? Pray that we would.

Blueprint #12 - A Church That Brings People In

READ – Acts 9:19-31

Currently, our nation is divided by a controversy about our walls. There’s disagreement about which people should be brought in and who should be kept out. This issue is not unique to our country. Every country, group and community must make decisions about its walls. Who gets in? Who’s out? And why are some in and some out?

Because the heart of Christianity is that no one earns or deserves to be in, but everyone is welcome into relationship with God by grace through faith in Jesus – this means the church is called to be a community without walls. Everyone is not only allowed to come inside, the church is called to go “outside” to everyone and anyone to welcome all into relationship with God in Christ. The story of how Barnabas brought Paul in teaches us that God calls the church to be a community that brings people in by becoming a community of encouragement.

1. WHY WE WANT TO BE ON THE INSIDE

After Saul’s dramatic conversion in Damascus, he began “immediately proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues” (v20). First, everyone was astonished. “Is this the same Saul!?” The change was dramatic. Over time, it became clear it wasn’t a passing phase – he kept growing “stronger” in his faith and resolve to prove Jesus is the Messiah his people had been waiting for (v22). After a while (2-3 years), the Jewish leaders had enough of this new Saul and tried to trap him in the city to kill him. He barely escaped with his life (v25) and was on the run. Where would he go? Who would take him in? He thought to himself, “Surely the Jerusalem church will take me in. The apostles of Jesus will give me refuge.”

But when he arrived something very different happened – “He tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, since they did not believe he was a disciple” (v26). Saul must have been crushed. They didn’t just reject his newfound ministry, they didn’t believe in the authenticity of his new-found faith. He must have been deeply discouraged. Is there anything more discouraging than being on the outside of an “inner ring” that we desperately want to be in on? To be told, “You don’t belong”, “You aren’t one of us”, “We can’t accept you” is one of the most crushing things we experience in life. Why? The Bible teaches us we are all like Saul – everyone has the deep need to be accepted and belong.  

2. WHY WE KEEP PEOPLE ON THE OUTSIDE

Though we know how bad we want to be on the “inside” and how bad it feels to be on the outside, we continue to excel at making walls that exclude people and keep people out. Why is this? Verse 26 gives us the answer. It’s fear. Those on the inside had legitimate fears about Saul. Was he really changed? He had their friends murdered and driven out of their homes. What if it was a trick? Fear grew in the community. As our fear grow larger, our view of God grows smaller until who he is, what he is doing and can do is pushed out of the picture. Those who are on the outside are also afraid – afraid that any attempt to get in will lead to rejection. These fears are powerful. They lead to boundaries, walls and barriers being put up by people in fear. How can these walls be brought down? How can our fear be overcome?

 3. HOW GOD BRINGS US IN

This story is about how God overcame these fears through a man named Barnabas. We first meet Barnabas in Acts 4 where we are told that he earned the nickname Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement) because of his consistent encouraging presence in the church. Verse 27 says Barnabas “took him [Saul] and brought him to the apostles”. Barnabas, the insider with a great reputation, risked his place in the community and his reputation for Saul – the outsider with a terrible reputation who didn’t deserve to be brought in. This is a picture of how God brings us all in. This is a picture of the gospel.

The Gospel is that Jesus brings us in. We don’t deserve to be brought into the family of God. We could never earn our place. But Someone else does deserve it and has earned it –and He brings us in. This is how God brings us in:

·         Everything that would have kept us out & should have kept us out - Jesus took on himself.

·         Jesus brings us in to the acceptance, love and favor of God - forever.

·         Nothing we do can take us outside of God’s acceptance, love and favor.

When these gospel truths sink in; when we are astonished that we’ve been brought in and how we’ve been brought in, it changes how we think about “outsiders”.

4. HOW WE BRING OTHERS IN

When the gospel takes hold of a church, what happens? It’s described for us in 9:31 – ‘The church… had peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit it increased in numbers.” A strong and healthy church is marked by the fear of the Lord—not the fear of being on the outside ourselves and not the fear of outsiders who believe, live, think differently than us. A church that gets the gospel is a community of encouragement – a church full of Barnabas who are willing to go outside of their comfort zone, to risk their own status in order to come alongside people who need encouragement.

An important principle emerges from the story of Paul and Barnabas : encouragement is absolutely necessary for the health of the church and for the mission of the church. An encourager is someone who goes out to bring someone else in; someone who goes out of their way to bring someone deeper in to God’s love and God’s will for them in Christ. Encouragement happens through words and actions of acceptance, welcome and affirmation.

Barnabas helps us build the “profile” of an encourager. An encourager is continually astonished that they are in. They know they don’t deserve and didn’t earn their place in God’s family. An encourager is willing to listen to opponents, even enemies, as Barnabas listened to Paul and his story. An encourager is willing to persevere in love – even when it’s hard. Paul (like us!) wasn’t always the easiest person to encourage – but Barnabas never stopped encouraging Paul. Even after they had a sharp disagreement (about what else? encouraging John Mark! see Acts 15:36-41), Paul felt Barnabas encouragement through John Mark while he was suffering in prison. There would be no apostle Paul, epistles of Paul and worldwide impact of Paul without Barnabas. Encouragement is that powerful.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1.       What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2.      Have you ever experienced being on the outside of an “inner ring”? What was that experience like? Why does acceptance and belonging matter so much to us? How does the bible help us answer this question?

3.       Do you agree that it is largely fear that causes us to keep people outside of our groups, circles and communities? How have you seen this at work in your experience and the walls we build around ourselves?

4.      How does the gospel overcome our fear of being on the outside and our fear of outsiders? How might the three bold bullet points above address your own fears?

5.      EXERCISE: Read Romans 15:3-7. Notice how Paul encourages the church to welcome and accept each other. He references Psalm 69 to show them exactly how they were welcomed in and accepted by God. As a group, slowly read all of Psalm 69 listening for how the Psalmist describes his experience. In what ways does the Psalmist describe what it’s like to be an outsider? What difference does it make knowing that this was the experience of Jesus? that he experienced this to bring you in?

6.      What role has encouragement (what Barnabas did for Paul) played in your faith? Why is encouragement such a powerful thing? How are you in need of encouragement now?

7.       FOR GROUPS: Discuss this question together - How can we become better at encouragement? Hebrews 3:13 calls us to daily encourage each other. What would it look like for our group to put this into practice? 

Blueprint #11 - Conversion: How God Changes a Life

READ – Acts 9:1-25

Acts Chapters 8-11 are all about conversion. Here we find three very different conversion stories. In chapter 8, an African (an Ethiopian eunuch), meets Philip on the road while reading the Old Testament and is baptized right away. Acts 10-11 tells us the story of the conversion of a Roman soldier named Cornelius through visions sent to him and to the apostle Peter. In Chapter 9 we find what may be the most well-known of any conversion story – the conversion of Saul the Pharisee on the road to Damascus. These are 3 very different people who came to faith in 3 very different ways. From this we learn 1) conversion is necessary but 2) conversion is varied. There is no one template for how God changes a life.  The bible clearly teaches us that each person’s conversion story is unique. Keep in this mind, we must also listen to how the apostle Paul (Paul is simply Saul’s Greek name) reflects back on this Damascus road experience and says that the way God changed his life happened in the way it did as an “example” (1 Tim. 1:16) to all. In other words, it can be seen as a pattern or a blueprint for the way God changes a life. From Saul’s conversion we can identify 3 essential parts to how God changes a life.

1. CONFRONTATION – A NEW VIEW OF GOD

For God to change a life, for there to be true conversion, for any real turning point to happen, there must first be a confrontation; a confrontation that results in a new view of God.  Saul the Pharisee had set himself on a direct collision course with God. It was Saul who stood by (as the organizer?) of the stoning of Stephen. It was Saul who orchestrated the persecution of Christians in Jerusalem that scattered them all over Judea and Samaria (Acts 7:53-8:3). He was the archenemy of God’s people and main opponent of God’s message of grace in Jesus.

Verse 3 describes what happened when God confronted his archenemy. Saul was knocked to the ground and forced to cry out, “Who are you, Lord?” This was the one question that Saul thought he would never ask God. He knew who God was. He was an expert in the law. He spent his whole life studying God, teaching others and living in strict adherence to the laws of God, persecuting any who he though had the wrong view of God. But here he finds himself falling to the ground, asking the most basic starting question of faith - Who are you? If Saul were to ever change, ever truly meet God, he first had to be confronted with the reality that he didn’t know who God was. He was wrong about God. All this time, all his life, he had made up a god of his own.

What’s the lesson of this for us? The truth is we all prefer a god of our own making. This “god” always affirms us and never calls us to account. But all true conversion and any subsequent turning points faith require meeting a God we have not constructed in our own image. A god we have made will never confront us so a god like this will never change us. All change, all real relationship involves confrontation. It requires us falling to the ground and asking, “Who are you Lord?” and letting God answer the question.

2. BLINDNESS – A NEW VIEW OF OURSELVES

After Paul’s encounter with the glorious appearance of Jesus, he was struck with blindness for three days. We are told he went into the city of Damascus and didn’t eat or drink for these three days. What was going on within Saul during this time?  From this text and from places in Paul’s letters, we can be fairly certain what he was happening. For one, we know he was fasting, implying humility and repentance (ie a change of mind). We also know he was praying. Verse 11 reports this with shock when God tells Ananias “Behold, he is praying there!” (v11, ESV). God is saying, “It’s ok Ananias, Saul is really praying, he is finally praying to Me.” Clearly, Paul was undergoing a radical reorientation of mind and heart.

Paul’s letters provide us with the specific things that were changing inside of him. It can be boiled down to this: He was coming to grips with how his new view of God (revealed in Jesus) changed everything he knew about himself. It was as if he had always been blind to who he really was, but now, in seeing Jesus, he was seeing himself for the first time. Paul’s reflections on this experience reveal the 2 insights that changed everything for him:

1) I am a far far greater sinner than I ever thought. In Galatians 1:14, Paul tells us that prior to his conversion, he believed he was better than anyone (“I was advancing beyond my contemporaries”). In Philippians 3:4-6, he says he was “confident” his spiritual resume would stand up against anyone’s. Only in the blindness could he finally see that all this was ignorance, arrogance and blasphemy (1 Tim. 1:13).   Only by admitting his blindness could he ever see his sin and guilt (John 9:39-41). During those 3 days, Paul learned something he called a “trustworthy saying” that everyone should accept – “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – and I am the worst of them” (1 Tim 1:15). In those three days of blindness, he was overcome by a sense of his own darkness and sin. The one who saw himself as the best of the righteous, now saw himself as the worst of sinners. When he saw this first insight, the second insight came rushing in…

2) I am far far more loved and accepted by God in Messiah Jesus than I ever imagined was possible! Even more than the realization of his own sin, the reality of the personal and sacrificial love of God in Jesus overcame him and forever changed him. He realized God had called him by grace even before he was born – fully knowing he would become his archenemy. (Gal 1:15) How could it be? Why would Jesus call him by name in love and not squash him on the spot for all the evil he had done? He realized the “grace of our Lord overflowed” to him. It wouldn’t stop pouring over and onto all the sin and guilt he saw in himself. All this time, he thought he had to live to earn God’s acceptance and now he realized it was a gift given even to the worst of sinners. He realized only Jesus the Messiah could deal with our sin and earn us a secure place in the love of God (see theological reflection below).   

What does this mean for us? All conversion and all subsequent turning points in our lives require seeing these 2 things “as if for the first time”. We don’t primarily need new insight to change, we need to see these 2 things more clearly, more deeply and more fully about ourselves.  This is the how God changes a life.

3. CHANGE – A NEW WAY OF LIFE

Once was confronted with who God really was, what God really did for him in Jesus and what this meant about who he really was, Saul was ready to embrace the gospel and a new way of life as a Christian. God immediately taught Paul two things about this new way of life.

·         It was a new life in community. Prior to his conversion, Saul didn’t think he needed anyone else. By his own admission, he was too arrogant and self-confident to rely on others. But God calls another ordinary Christian, a man named Ananias, to show Paul this new way of life is life in community. God could have healed Paul’s blindness directly himself. But He didn’t – Saul was not restored without the touch, the welcome, the and the presence of another Christian; not without submitting to the sacrament of baptism by another welcoming Paul into the community, the body of Christ. Conversion is conversion to Christ and to a new way of life in, his body, the church.

·         It was a new life of surrender. God told Ananias, “This man is my chosen instrument”. The word instrument is translated elsewhere “vessel”. It’s a word Paul would later use about the how the way of life we are called to live as Christians A vessel is ordinary, fragile and expendable – but when surrendered to God reveals to others the all surpassing power of the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4-6). The rest of Paul’s life shows us how God can work through a weak and flawed vessel fully surrendered to Him.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1.       What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions? Do you sense the need for a turning point in your life or in a part of your life? If so, where and how? How does the story of Paul’s conversion encourage and help you?

2.      Though we shy away from talk of conversion in our modern world because we are wary of people trying to convert others, this story teaches us that conversion isn’t something that people to do people, it’s something God does to people. Saul’s story makes it clear it was God’s initiative and work. Why is this important for us to remember in our hopes and efforts to see ourselves change AND for others to believe in and embrace the gospel?

3.       How can we tell if we are following a god of our own making? How can we “invite” God to confront our false views of him? What has this looked like in your life? Where do you sense you need this?

4.      Why is it so hard to see our sin? Why is it so hard to see that God knows and loves us fully and completely in Christ? Why is it so powerful when our eyes are open to see how these two insights (mentioned above) are true at the same time? How is God showing you these things about yourself (or do you feel your blind to these)?

5.      How might you more fully need to embrace your need for the body of Christ (the church)? What would this look like? How might you need to more fully surrender your life or areas of your life to God as “vessel” for his glory? Pray for these things to change for each other in 2019.

Gospel Theology Extra: It’s fascinating to see how Paul’s gospel theology was contained in “seed form” in the simple response of Jesus to his question. “Who are you, Lord?” “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting” (v5). In this one sentence, we see the three great themes of Pauline theology. Here’s how this appearance changed everything for Paul:

1.       The resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus was really appearing and speaking to Paul, then He was truly alive and risen. If Jesus is risen, then his death on the cross was not because of his sin, or rejection by God, or being cursed by God. It must be that the sin, rejection, the curse that took him to the cross was the sin, rejection curse that others deserved! This changes everything!

2.      The deity of Jesus. Paul asked, “Who are you Lord?” The voice answered, “I am Jesus”. If Jesus is Lord, then he is God. This means it was God on the cross who died! What?! This means only a perfect life, a perfect a God-man could save us. The Messiah was God substituting himself for us! For me!? This changes everything!

3.       The unity of Jesus with his people (union with Christ”). “I am Jesus, the one who you are persecuting”. If persecuting the church is persecuting Jesus Himself, then He is somehow one with all who believe in him. He is united to them and they are united to Him. If Jesus is united with his people, then his identity is theirs. This means to be united to Him, the Messiah who died and rose again is for me to die and rise again in Him. It’s what he has done for me, not what I have done for Him that brings me to God and secures my place united to Him forever – This changes everything!

Blueprint #10 - To the Ends of the Earth

READ – Acts 8:26-40

 Acts 8-10 is a blueprint for how the gospel gets out to everyone everywhere. We see that in Acts 8 as Philip and the scattered Christians begin implementing the vision of Stephen’s teaching by crossing boundaries to reach people who both rejected the temple (Samaritans) and could not access the temple (Ethiopian eunuch). In Acts 9-10 we’ll see the gospel transforming a conservative Pharisee and then a Roman centurion.

1. HOW INSIDERS GO OUT

The first part of Acts 8 shows the fruitful evangelistic efforts of Philip. As part of a scattered minority, Philip was one of many early Christians who went public with his faith. The result: places and people formerly unreached by the good news began to embrace Jesus as Savior and Lord. But right when Philip begins experiencing ‘success’ reaching people, planting churches, receiving accolades from the leadership in Jerusalem, God sends him to a desert road between Jerusalem and Gaza. God sends Philip out to the middle of nowhere for one person. That’s remarkable. It shows us God’s heart. Philip is the ultimate insider; an established leader and pace-setter of early Christianity. But God sends him out – away from comfort and security to reach one person in a desert place.

2. HOW OUTSIDERS COME IN

Consider this Ethiopian eunuch. First, we need to know that this man is a black African. “Ethiopia” in the New Testament world applied to all of Africa south of Egypt. In Philip’s world, Ethiopia would have been considered at the limits or beyond the limits of the empire. This Ethiopian is a cultural outsider.

Second, he’s described as a “court official” of the queen of the Ethiopians. That was a significant role in his kingdom – more like a prime minister than our modern day secretary of treasury. That detail tells us that this man has reached the pinnacle of his career. He is at the top of his game and probably holds a significant amount of power, prestige, and political mobility. And yet, this man has taken a dangerous, lengthy journey, leaving his culture, religion, and kingdom to discover something in Jerusalem. Perhaps he thought that the God of the Bible would give him what neither his identity, career, or achievements could give him.

Third, the characteristic that is most highlighted by the text (it’s indicated five times) is that this man is a eunuch. He’s been castrated. Often in the ancient world this was the price to pay in the political arena if you weren’t of royal blood, but wanted access to the royal family. His status as a eunuch would have been incredibly significant for this man’s life. He gave up the ability to have children and raise a family in a world where passing on your legacy and lineage was one of the most important things you could do. Though his identity as a eunuch afforded him political power, it would have also made him despised in the eyes of many. Castration in the ancient world was thought to remove a man’s status as male. At least in Jewish culture, being a eunuch made you a permanent outsider. Deuteronomy 23 gave strict restrictions on eunuchs’ ability to enter into the temple. So this eunuch would have traveled thousands of miles over many months only to be denied access to the temple. 

So why is this Ethiopian eunuch, a man who is both racially other and sexually-altered, reading Isaiah? We know he’s reading Isaiah 53. Perhaps it’s because he has heard about Isaiah 56 which prophesies that one day God would give inclusion to foreigners and a name better than sons and daughters to eunuchs – a name that could never be cut off. And he’s reading Isaiah 53 because that’s the chapter that zooms in on a mysterious figure named “the servant” who was said to be like a sheep led to the slaughter and the one who “no one cared that he died without descendants” (NLT). The eunuch is reading about someone who voluntarily became equivalent to a eunuch as a way of substitution.

That’s where Philip engages him and the eunuch asks, “Who is this?”

3. THE KEY TO GOING OUT AND COMING IN

We’re told that “beginning with this Scripture [Philip] told him the good news about Jesus.” That’s the key. Jesus is the key to it all. The Jesus who substituted heaven for a manger, who exchanged a throne for a cross, who traded places with sinners. Even though he was the source of life, he became like a eunuch. He was the ultimate insider who went out. He became the ultimate outsider so we could be brought in.

 QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1.       What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2.      What are the obstacles and barriers to getting public with your faith? For me, it’s the limited time that I have with people who aren’t religious. In many cases, I feel like I haven’t yet earned the right to speak into their lives with the gospel.   

3.       Who do you most identity with in this passage – Philip or the eunuch? Why?  

4.      How is the gospel both the key to getting out and coming in?    

5.      If you’re an insider to Christianity (in other words, a follower of Jesus) who is the “Ethiopian eunuch” in your life? Maybe it’s someone who is culturally or religiously other? Maybe it’s just someone who is weird and awkward. What might it look like to move toward them this year?  

Ruth #3 - Finding Rest in God

READ – Ruth 3

Chapter 3 is the “love story” chapter in Ruth. Here we are told of how Naomi, having come out her depression, begins to see how vulnerable Ruth’s future is in the land of Israel. She tells Ruth that it is her duty to find “rest” for her. At this time, rest for a widow meant coming under the protective care of a husband. Naomi hatches a plan to get Ruth hitched – to Boaz. When Ruth comes back from her nighttime encounter with Boaz, Naomi tells Ruth she can wait (ie she can rest) because Boaz won’t rest until she is redeemed. It’s a story of how Ruth moved from restlessness to rest. It’s a story that shows us how we can find rest in all our restlessness.

1. HOW RUTH FOUND REST

Naomi’s plan was risky. Sneaking into a man’s tent in the middle of the night looking your best, uncovering his feet and lying down next to him? This was not only risky, it was dangerously risqué. Boaz was known as a man of character and integrity. Threshing floors were frequented by prostitutes for business. What was Ruth doing!? All this could easily have been misinterpreted by Boaz.  But the story is told in such a way to highlight the character of both Boaz and Ruth. Boaz understood Ruth’s intentions. Ruth trusted Boaz’ character.  This was not a night of passion but a night where character of heart ruled over the cravings of the flesh.

If Naomi’s plan was risky, Ruth’s execution of the plan was crazy. Instead of waiting for Boaz to take the lead, Ruth took the lead and proposed to Boaz (“spread the edge of your garment over me was a figure of speech for engagement)! A foreign, poor woman asking a rich, noble man to marry her was absolutely unheard of… Yet Boaz didn’t flinch. When Ruth called Boaz to fulfill the role of family redeemer – he saw she was right (v12). The law called him to care for Ruth, for Naomi and to honor Elimelech. Marrying Ruth would take care of all these needs and bring rest to these vulnerable women. He promised Ruth with a solemn vow—he would make sure she would be redeemed by the next morning. When he sent Ruth home with a pile of grain, Naomi knew what it meant – it meant Boaz could be trusted, he would not rest until Ruth found rest.

2. HOW WE CAN FIND REST

What does this ancient love story teach us about finding rest in all our restlessness?

Be at Rest…God is mysterious. God is faithful. The story of Ruth shows us two things about God that we must hold together, in tension, to find rest. 1) God is mysterious – his ways are subversive and surprising. 2) God is faithful – his ways are sure and steadfast. God’s mysterious ways are highlighted in this book in the Old Testament Jewish cannon named after a Moabite woman (the only book named after a non Jewish person). It’s as if God is saying, “You want to know how I work and who I work through? How about this – I work through a woman proposing to a man, a younger person proposing to the older, a beggar field worker of the lowest class proposing to an upper-class field owner, a Moabite foreigner proposing to an Israelite, using a plan that’s uncomfortably like that of a prostitute! It’s through this that my greatest King will come. It’s through this that my son will one day enter the world.” What?! This was utterly shocking in its day. God subverts the status quo and surprises at every turn. Much of our restlessness in life comes from wanting to have all the answers; to have all the answers about God. Ruth shows us we never will. God always surprises. He works in ways that subvert human expectation and thinking.

God’s faithfulness is also highlighted in the book of Ruth. So much of our restlessness in life is because we want to eliminate all risk. But Ruth shows us we will never eliminate all risk and we don’t have to. Why? We can trust God to provide and to direct our lives even when we don’t know how things will turn out. God faithfully led and directed Naomi and Ruth. The lesson – he can be trusted, even when he calls us to step out in faith and risk.

Be at Rest…God’s limits in your life are gifts– Ruth is one of the greatest characters in all the bible. But her greatness was not found in how much she did and how many people she impacted. Her greatness was found in her love for two other people. Ruth did not spend her life resisting all her limitations – her poverty, her widowhood, her barrenness, her being an immigrant refugee. Instead she learned to show “hesed” love within her limits and therein was her greatness.

So much of our restlessness comes from trying to do it all and be it all. But In giving us the limits we have, God is teaching us to love like him – with hesed love that is loyal, committed and available. 

Be at Rest… God won’t rest until you are fully redeemed.  Boaz uses the strongest words a person could ever use at the time. He say, “As the Lord lives…I will”. He’s making a covenant oath in essence saying, “May God kill me if I break any of my promises to you.” He even sent Ruth home with a “down payment” on his promise (a full load of grain). Naomi hears what Boaz said and sees what he did and she knows – Ruth’s rest is sure. She tells her she can wait for Boaz who won’t rest until he has made good on his word.

The covenant oath of Boaz points us to a greater covenant. The love story of Ruth and Boaz points us to a greater love story. How do we know this? We know this from how the book ends. It ends not with a wedding but a birth – the birth of baby that shows God is keeping his covenant to a wayward people to give them rest by raising up a king after his own heart (David). Ruth’s story is a part of God’s great promise and covenant of redemption. Ruth is not only about Ruth’s baby and grandson (David), it’s about her greater grandson – the baby born in Bethlehem to bring the world lasting and full rest. Ruth is not only about the love of this unlikely couple, it’s about the love of God for a broken world – a love that will not rest until we are redeemed. In Jesus, we see why we can trust God with whatever makes us restless. Jesus left his eternal rest at the Father’s side to pursue his faithless bride, so she would finally find rest in Him. He showed us how far God would go to prove to us beyond a shadow of a doubt that His love and His faithfulness to us can be trusted. In between the first and second coming of Jesus, we can wait, knowing he won’t rest until we are fully redeemed.   

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1.       What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2.      Where would you say you are today on the rest scale? 10 – completely at peace and rest – 1 – full of anxiety and restlessness. Why? What makes you most restless?

3.       Ruth shows us God surprises us and subverts our expectations. How does this help us rest and keep us from trying to figure everything out/have all the answers? What about Ruth has surprised you about God and his ways?

4.      Ruth also shows us how God is faithful and trustworthy. How does Ruth’s story show us this? How does Ruth’s story encourage you to trust God in areas where you may be called to risk or trust him without knowing how it will all turn out?

5.      Do you struggle with trying to live a “limitless” life, ie trying to do it all and be it all? How does this affect you? What limits has God put in your life right now? What might it look like to see your limits as a gift that help you focus your love (hesed) on a few?

6.      Advent is a season that acknowledges our struggle with restlessness. Advent means “arrival” or “coming”. We live in between the comings of Jesus. At his first coming – he bore our sin and defeated all the enemies of our rest. At his second coming – he will completely redeem us from the curse of sin and death and usher in a endless age of eternal rest. In between, we wait. Ruth teaches us our waiting can be a hopeful, expectant waiting instead of restless waiting.

In light of this, what difference would it make to you right now if you believed with all your heart that you can trust God to redeem everything you don’t understand, everything that hurts, everything you are afraid and worried about? How does all Jesus has done at his first coming assure you he will fully redeem you and all your sorrows/fears at his second coming? How does the gospel prove to us that God can be trusted in this way?