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Sunday of Easter April 28, 2002
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Do you believe in divine appointments? Have you ever considered the fact that
the traveler you sit with on a plane, the waiter at your table, the clerk
at the department store might be in your life by divine appointment?
Divine appointments are those times when God’s providential guidance
arranges lives to intersect at crucial moments and exact timing for encouragement
and even salvation. Divine appointments are those orchestrated interactions
when you know in your heart God is asking you to do something and to do something
now.
Philip understood the truth of divine appointments. He had just preached a
citywide crusade in Samaria. Hundreds had come to Christ! It was so successful
that the mother church in Jerusalem sent a credentialing board to check things
out. You would have thought God wanted him to stay and continue the work.
But this was a Spirit on the move and God had other plans.
The Spirit prompted Philip and said: “Go south to the road – the
desert road – that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza” (Acts 8:26).
Talk about specific! It sounds like a gas station attendant giving directions.
“Follow the paved road down to the four-way stop – turn left until
you see the big metal windmill in the hayfield.”
But then again the specifics were important. It was important that Philip
know which road to take. Had he taken another road, he would have missed God’s
divine appointment.
While the directions were specific they didn’t exactly make sense. The
exact words that Philip heard can either mean a time of day or a direction.
It can mean “south” or “noon” or both. And the road God
picked out didn’t make much sense either. It either meant “desert”
road or “deserted” road. Either way it was in the middle of nowhere.
Why in the world would God want Philip to be on a deserted road at the hottest
part of the day on a road that led to nowhere?
My in-laws live in Bullhead City, Arizona, which is just west of nowhere and
just east of almost there! I’ve traveled those desert highways, between
Bullhead City and Las Vegas, in the middle of the afternoon and I’m here
to tell you that you can travel miles without seeing so much as a turkey buzzard!
Traveling down a desert road at high noon is crazy today with an air-conditioned
mini-van and a case of Evian water in the back. But for someone in the first
century, on foot, it was absolutely absurd! These were strange directions
to say the least.
Has God ever asked you to do something you thought didn’t make sense?
But Philip knew the Spirit’s voice, and he had faith enough that when
God spoke he didn’t ask why, he just obeyed!
And his obedience was immediate. The verbs for “going” are in the
aorist tense which means prompt, immediate action! But had he delayed for
any reason, he would have missed God’s divine appointment.
In her wonderful little book When the Pieces Don’t Fit, Glaphre Gilliland,
tells the story of waking up one night with a start. Immediately she thought
of an elderly lady with thick snowy hair and a smile that hugged you. Her
name was Mrs. Graystone and Glaphre knew that she was in the hospital. She
said: “I felt God saying to me, ‘She’s dying and she feels
alone. I want you to go be with her. Now.’”
She said, “I held my little clock with the fluorescent hands close so
I could see the time without putting on my glasses. It was three o’ clock
in the morning! ‘God,’ she said, ‘I barely know her. She might
not even know who I am.’ It’s so late, it can probably wait until
morning. Maybe it isn’t God speaking anyway.” And she pulled the
covers back over her head and went back to sleep.
The next morning she called the hospital to check on Mrs. Graystone. She had
died at five o’ clock that morning . . . alone.
Glaphre said, “I was shaken. There was no way to make that up. Not to
Mrs. Graystone. Not to God. It scared me to think how easily, how casually
I’d dismissed what God had told me to do. How noncommittal I’d been
about his directions in the small things.”
Philip was obedient in the small things because he knew the voice. The direction
he received may have been strange, but the voice wasn’t. He knew the
voice through prayer, study of the Scriptures, openness, and a willingness
to obey.
He followed the directions exactly and went to the desert road. And on that
road he met a man!
The first thing we’re told about the man is that he was from Ethiopia.
Ethiopia is called Cush in the Old Testament. It was located in what we today
would call Sudan, Africa. Ethiopia literally means “burnt face”
meaning he was a black man. In the Greco-Roman world Ethiopians were a revered
and exotic people, because they were considered to live at the very end of
the earth.
The second thing we’re told about this man is that he was a VIP. He was
an important man of position. The fact he was riding in a chariot was an indication
of his status and affluence. He was the secretary of the treasury for Queen
Candace of Ethiopia. He was a eunuch because any man working in close quarters
with the royal household, particularly the queen, paid the price of emasculation
to serve in the palace. But he was neither despised nor deprived. To the contrary,
he was smart, intelligent, and well–respected.
If you think Philip was caught off guard to see anyone else on the desert
road, imagine his surprise when the Holy Spirit spoke to him again and said:
“Go to his chariot and stay near it” (Acts 8:29).
This chariot was not a war chariot with one or two horses out front. This
was probably a riding carriage with a covered top and several seats inside.
The chariot was moving, and so the only way to stay near it was to run alongside
of it. Talk about feeling silly. Jogging alongside a chariot, on a desert
road, in the heat of the day doesn’t make a lot of sense. Particularly
when there are secret service men with no necks riding shotgun! But when God
says chase a chariot, you chase a chariot.
And so he did. And as Philip ran alongside the chariot we find a third thing
about the Ethiopian – he was a religious man. Luke tells us he was returning
from a pilgrimage to worship in Jerusalem, a good indication that he was probably
a Jewish proselyte.
Philip overheard him reading aloud from a scroll, another indication of his
status (the poor usually couldn’t read), and he happened to be reading
from Isaiah 53. At a time when not one line of any New Testament document
had been written I can’t think of a better starting point for the good
news of Jesus Christ than Isaiah 53.
And the Holy Spirit was prompting Philip all the way. “OK, kid, now’s
your chance. You’ve heard what you need to hear. Go talk to him.”
And so Philip poked his head inside the carriage and asked: “Watcha readin’?
I mean, I couldn’t help but overhear. Especially, since we’re the
only living things out on this highway!”
Not a bad opening line! It was just a natural question to start up a conversation.
The Ethiopian said: “Listen, man! I’ve got to have some help here.
I’ve been studying this passage this for hours and I can’t figure
it out. Know anybody who can interpret it for me?”
The Bible doesn’t say this, but I imagine Philip said something like
this: “Well I’ll tell you what, I can teach better than I can jog.
Mind if I hop in?” Do you see what’s happening here? Philip has
the good sense to start right where the man was. He didn’t say: “Hey
forget this passage. Let me show you the four spiritual laws and the bridge
illustration.” No! He started right where the man was and worked from
there. And the conversation was just as natural and easy as can be. The man
practically begged Philip to explain the Scriptures to him.
And just like the risen Jesus with the two travelers on the Emmaus road, Philip
opened the Scriptures and shared the good news of the crucified and risen
Christ. Before Philip could even spit out the diagnostic question, “If
you were to die tonight do you know for sure you would go to heaven,”
the eunuch said, “I’m in.”
Philip said: “What?”
“I’m in. You’ve convinced me. I believe! In fact, there’s
some water, why don’t I just get baptized right now?”
And Philip smiled and answered: “Why not?”
Luke tells us they stopped the chariot, and the Ethiopian was baptized in
the fresh spring water, cleansed of his sins, and began a brand new life.
In the meantime, Philip is whisked away to chase another chariot and the Ethiopian
goes on his way rejoicing as the first missionary to Africa.
This is an amazing story to me. Do you know what’s so amazing about it?
I’m amazed at how simple it all is.
I’m amazed at how far God will go to win one person. God will pull out
all he’s got for just one person! Think about it! God has Philip, a major
leader in the church, leave Samaria where there were hundreds of people getting
saved to go to the middle of an isolated desert to bring a man from another
country into the kingdom. Amazing!
But God had prepared that wonderful man. Long before Philip ever arrived on
the scene, God had been at work. Or was it just coincidence that the Ethiopian
had traveled 750 miles one way (over a month on the road) to be there at that
particular time? Was it only a coincidence that Philip managed to be in the
exact place, at the exact time the Ethiopian was also on the road? Was it
merely coincidence that the man just happened to be reading from Isaiah 53
when Philip chased down his chariot? Was it merely coincidence that at just
the time the Ethiopian was ready to make a decision for Christ that water
appeared in the desert for baptism? I don’t think so.
Coincidence is really nothing more than God undercover. It was grace all the
way – from stem to stern. You and I have never been to a place where
God has not already been. Whether it be the highest mountain or the deepest
valley, God has already been there. You and I have never met a person that
God has not already loved and been reaching out to.
We’re not working solo in this Gospel adventure. Witness is not a one-person
operation. It is orchestrated from start to finish by God. God is in charge!
And as God leads us to be his witnesses we can be assured that God has prepared
both hearer and evangelist for that encounter.
I’m amazed at how far God will go to win one person.
I’m also amazed at the obedience required to win one person. Almost all
Philip had to do in this situation was not get in the way. But he had to obey!
And he had to obey immediately, because God had a divine appointment for him.
If he had hesitated even an hour he would have missed it.
When the Holy Spirit prompts us to some ministry to others he empowers us
to carry it out. Where God guides, God provides. But for the provision to
come we have to obey!
How often have you heard it said that the key to being a witness is boldness?
And because of that, some say, if you’re not bold, you’re off the
hook. Some claim they don’t have to witness because they don’t have
boldness. I think that’s got it all turned around! The key isn’t
boldness – the key is obedience!
If we take the first step of obedience, the Spirit will guide us and empower
us with boldness, because courage comes with the decision to obey! And so
most of the time we miss out on opportunities to witness simply because we
don’t take the first step to turn a conversation into a divine appointment.
I can almost hear God saying: “My children want me to give them a plan
to change the whole world. THEN they’ll be obedient. But they don’t
have the time to obey what they consider a small assignment.”
You have to be faithful with the seemingly small tasks before you will hear
his voice clearly enough to be trusted with other responsibilities. Because
when the Spirit moves, there are no small assignments!
I’m convinced that the more we respond to the thoughts we never considered
to be God’s leading – the impulse to write a note, phone a friend,
or pray for whoever comes to our mind – the more clear God’s plan
becomes. Just as a baby’s legs become stronger with each new step, we
find that the more we act on those inner promptings, the more of God’s
direction we receive.
If Philip had hesitated, even for an hour, in what God was asking him to do,
even though it seemed like a small thing, he would have missed God’s
opportunity for a divine appointment! It makes you wonder if there really
is any such thing as LATE obedience.
There is a man in our church named Ron Pfingston. His father, in his 80’s,
was experiencing kidney failure and wasn’t expected to live through the
week. Ron was concerned for his health, but more than that he was concerned
for his soul. He wanted him to be physically well, but more than that he wanted
his father to be spiritually well.
His dad had never shown any real interest in spiritual matters and had avoided
the subject for most of his life. Ron wanted to go and be with him, but Ron
had cancer surgery the same day and so all he could do was pray.
On Tuesday morning a high school buddy of Ron’s named Darrel, another
Christian, woke up with a burden for Ron’s dad. He sensed God calling
him to go and pray with Ron’s dying father. The only problem was Darrel
lived in Phoenix, Arizona and Ron’s father was hospitalized in Tulsa,
Oklahoma.
Rather than arguing with God or asking questions about convenience and timing,
he just obeyed. He knew the voice. He purchased a ticket, hopped on a plane,
and left that morning. Not sure how he would be received, he spent several
hours talking to him about his spiritual condition. And when he felt it was
time to go he invited him to pray the sinner’s prayer and to repeat it
after him. He did, and last Tuesday afternoon, Ron’s father became a
Christian.
That’s called a divine appointment! It’s hard to imagine how far
God will go for one person and it’s amazing how much obedience is required
to win one person.
Let me ask you something: Who does God have on your appointment schedule?
Where has God strategically placed you for a divine appointment?
You are not where you are by accident. Not in your neighborhood, not at your
work, not at your school. God is orchestrating a divine intersection between
you and lost and broken people, and all he’s asking from you is obedience.
Sometimes it won’t make sense, but we can’t afford to hesitate!
There is too much at stake.
Let’s start chasing some chariots!