May 6th, 2012

ACTS 8:26-40 "Good News Travels Fast" Pastor Waldschmidt Imagine that you forgot your tickets for the game at Miller Park or Lambeau Field. Your car is there in the parking lot and the grills and the lawn chairs have all gone up and so your car is stuck. The radio has a cd stuck inside so you can’t tune in the Brewers broadcast and your portable TV was still sitting on the counter at home right next to the envelope with your tickets. So your seat for the game is out in your iron chariot in the parking lot. The game for you consists of waiting and listening for the cheers of the crowd when Donald Driver does a Lambeau leap or Ryan Braun breaks into his home run trot. Today in God’s Word we see an Ethiopian man sitting in his real chariot out in the desert. He was still waiting for the cheers for the Savior God had promised. He had not seen or heard about the wonderful events in Jerusalem when Jesus brought salvation to him and you and me. Still, the good news traveled fast. That’s what we want to think about this morning as we watch and hear the Good News of Jesus travel fast. 1000 years before Jesus was born, a caravan with camels and gold and spices came to Jerusalem. The caravan belonged to the Queen of Sheba which included the area we know as Ethiopia. The Bible tells us, “When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relation to the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions. 2 Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan —with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. 3 Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her.” Most importantly the Queen also heard about what happened at the temple in Jerusalem. She learned how the sacrifices offered there pointed the people to the Savior who was to come. After her visit the Queen returned to her own country with that Good News of a promised Savior. 300 years after her visit, the Assyrians ripped through the Northern Tribes of Israel and the Jewish people were scattered throughout the world. It could also be that some of God’s faithful Old Testament people found safety in Ethiopia and brought with them the good news of the promise of the Savior. Years after the Queen of Sheba’s visit another government official from Africa visited Jerusalem. The Bible tells us, “Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 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 man had gone to Jerusalem to worship.” Some incredible things had been happening there in Jerusalem in the years and months before the Ethiopian’s visit. God’s Son had been crucified and His dead body was placed in a tomb. 3 days later Jesus rose from the dead as he had promised. 40 days after Easter Jesus ascended into heaven with the command to his disciples to go throughout the world with the message of sins forgiven. Unless it was an extended trip all these things happened before the Ethiopian Eunuch’s trip. So the Ethiopian was unaware of Jesus or at least unaware of Jesus meant for him. So here he was bumping around in his chariots on the trip back home reading from the Old Testament. He had a problem. It was like he was still sitting in the parking lot waiting for the crowd to roar. He was missing the most important part of the story- the good news that God had kept His promise. "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. 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. The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” That’s Isaiah 53. That’s a clear word portrait of Jesus painted almost 700 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. These verses describe how Jesus willingly went to the cross for you and for me. Jesus was deprived of justice so that you and I would never have to feel God's justice carried out against us because of our sins. You see our creator God demands perfection from us. Over and over again in Leviticus, God says, “Be holy as I the Lord your God am holy.” The Eunuch knew that his life fell short of God’s holiness. He needed the Lamb. “Be Holy!” What does he see when he looks at our lives? All too often, in our own homes he sees moms and dads who rarely talk to each other except to criticize and complain. He sees brothers and sisters who can't get through one night at the dinner table without a fight. All too often in our conversations with our friends and neighbors, God hears idle gossip & hateful words coming out of our mouths. God sees our sins. He does not just let them slide by. His justice demands full payment for every sin. That's what Jesus paid on the cross- full payment for all our sins. The Bible tells us, "When you were dead in trespasses and sins...God made you alive again with Christ. He forgave us all our sins." Jesus' death on the cross paid for all my evil deeds and all of your evil deeds. There is no more payment God demands and because of Jesus' death, we're going to live in heaven when we die! What better news can there be! Good news traveled fast. Philip didn’t say, “I’ll tell you on your trip back next year.” On that day Good News traveled fast as the chariot sped along. “Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus." It was not an accident that these two men met on the road that day. God was concerned about that one Ethiopian man out there in the desert and He made it so that the Good News could travel fast to him. It was not by chance that you were brought to faith by the grace of God working through His Word and sacraments. It was no accident or chance that many of you had Christian parents wante that Good News to travel fast to you and so they didn’t drag their feet but brought you to be baptized at an early age. It was not mere chance that many of you had Christian parents and grandparents who told you about Jesus while you were little children sitting on their laps or sang to you about the love of Jesus as they rocked you to sleep. It was no accident that some of you married Christian spouses who influenced you to learn about what God has done for you. It was no accident that some of you had Christian friends who shared their friend Jesus with you. It was not by chance that God brought you to faith. God brought others to see how important it was for you to know and they brought that news to you quickly. Are there some people passing you on your road of life who need to hear the Good News? How thrilling it must have been for Philip to tell the Ethiopian that the long awaited Messiah had come and had fulfilled these words of Isaiah! How thrilling it is for you and me to tell others that Jesus has come and paid for their sins too! Maybe that chance will come for you as you ride in the car on the way to work or on a business trip on an airplane. Maybe that chance will come for you to tell aged grandpas and grandmas and your young friends who are feeling unloved and unneeded that Jesus loves them. Many times people will say that they don't know what to say when talking to others about Jesus. I've used that excuse and maybe you have too. Sometimes we think that when talking about Jesus to somebody else that we have to sound just like a seminary professor. No, when talking to others about Jesus, how about using the simple truths found in the song you learned as little children, "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so." When you think you don't know what to say, think of Philip and how he just shared the good news about Jesus that day. Good News travels fast. God worked in the heart of the Ethiopian "As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said,"Look here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?" And he ordered the chariot to stop. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him." God's Word had done its work. God's law had plowed up the man's heart of stone and the Holy Spirit had made the seeds of the gospel grow and they were now bearing fruit in the man's life. He now asked for the assurance that all his sins had been forgiven which God gives us in baptism. "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. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea." We are into the last month or so of school. I remember how I always used to feel about this time of year. On the last day of school before summer vacation, I always walked home with a song of rejoicing in my heart smiling all the way. I suppose that this is the way the Eunuch felt as he made his way home to Ethiopia smiling and rejoicing the whole way. The good news traveled fast back to his home. The fact that the Spirit of God took Philip away points out the fact that the mission work we do is God's. He watches over us. He guides our words, He alone grants success to our labors, and He alone deserves the credit and the praise. The Spirit speeding Philip off also shows us that our mission work is never done until the day when Jesus breaks through the clouds again with all of His holy angels with Him. We were not inside “the stadium” there near Jerusalem to see Jesus’ cross and empty tomb. But God made sure the news traveled fast to us. We hear God’s Word announcing the final score. Jesus won. God has given us the pleasure of telling others the Good News about Jesus. You may not meet any Ethiopian Eunuchs this week, but keep on watching for people who don't know the Good News about Jesus. Let’s share the Good News with them and watch the Good News travel fast! Amen.