Bentley Baptist Church Sermons

God Uses Outsiders

• Bentley Baptist Church

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Acts 8.1-8 | Ps Alex Huggett | 3.11.2024
Part of a series on Acts
Delivered for a combined service with Karen Baptist Community Church

© Bentley Baptist Church Inc.
www.bentleybaptist.org

Speaker 1:

Well, good morning. I'd like to add my welcome. It's such a privilege to be able to speak to you all today and I hope you'll bear with me. I'm still getting over the tail end of the cold, so I might be a little bit husky in places. Well, do you ever feel like God can't use you because you're not qualified or because you can't hear the preacher? Maybe you feel like an outsider. Now you can hear me. Sorry.

Speaker 1:

In Israel at the time of the apostles, there were different classes of Jews. So there were the local-born Jews that were called the Hebraic Jews, and we meet them a little earlier in Acts. And then there were immigrant Jews from other parts of the Roman Empire who were known as Hellenistic Jews. So Hellenic means Greek, so they were Greek speaking Jews. They were Jewish, they were religiously Jewish, but culturally they came from the different parts of the empire as they had descended from the people from the dispersion during the exile. Now, while the Hellenists were devout Jews, we know that there were tensions between the local Hebraic Jews and the migrant Hellenistic population. We know what sort of tensions there can be between local and migrant communities, don't we? So many of us have experienced that, and it was no different in Jerusalem in those days, in Jerusalem in those days. So these Hellenistic Jews were often considered outsiders, cultural outsiders, even if they were ethnically Jewish.

Speaker 1:

Early on in chapter 6 of Acts, we read of how the church had to address this divide between the local and the migrant populations of Christians, because the migrant widows, the Hellenistic or the Greek speaking widows, were missing out on the daily distribution of food. Now, this probably wasn't deliberate, it was probably just because people move in different circles and they were just getting missed. But the church knew that they had to fix this urgently in order to maintain their unity in Christ, and so their solution was to appoint the first deacons in the church to make sure everyone was treated fairly. And it's really interesting that the people they put over the entire program for both the local and migrant Christians were migrant Hellenistic speaking men. So two of these deacons were Stephen and Philip, and we join the story at the funeral of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and we see the beginning of the persecution against Christians. And maybe you can see how this puts someone like Philip in a very vulnerable position. He's not local, he's moved in at some point into Jerusalem. And so the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council, which was made up of locals. They didn't like him just because of who he was, and plus, he was a follower of Jesus. And now they're persecuting followers of Jesus and, in some cases, putting them to death.

Speaker 1:

Luke tells us earlier in the story that Stephen and Philip were godly spirit-filled men and clearly they're important leaders in the church. Don't think of them as only deacons. They had been put in charge of a large sum of money to care for some of the most vulnerable people in the community. These were very, very capable men, but they were called first and foremost to care for the practical needs of the church. Evangelism wasn't their job, so to speak, and yet here they are powerfully speaking for the church. Evangelism wasn't their job, so to speak, and yet here they are, powerfully speaking for the gospel, telling other people in Jerusalem about it.

Speaker 1:

Isn't it interesting that, of all the stories that God could tell us about this time after the persecution, he doesn't pick more stories about the apostles. He talks about these outsiders, stephen and Philip. In any case, because of this intense persecution as Christians fled Jerusalem, philip heads north to Samaria. Now, if local Jews didn't like Hellenistic Jews, if there was this tension between these two Jewish populations. They really hated the Samaritans. Samaritans were almost subhuman in their views, in fact. Jews traveling between Jerusalem and the north, the shortest way was through Samaria, but they'd go the long way around to avoid it. They hated them that much. Plus, the feeling was mutual. It wasn't safe for them to travel through Samaritan lands very often. Despite all of that tension and hatred between these two groups of people, what a powerful ministry Philip has there. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. The crowds were all paying attention to what Philip said as they listened and saw the signs he was performing, and we see that there's great joy in the city as God does these things.

Speaker 1:

And what strikes me about that is they weren't these Samaritans who came to hear Philip? They're not just there for the miracles.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there's amazing, mind-blowing miracles happening, people are being healed, people are being set free from demons, but Luke, the author of Acts makes clear he wants us to know they listened, they're there for the message. I mean, there were times Jesus himself was preaching the Gospels and he's like you guys are just here because I turned, I multiplied the bread. You just want more physical food. I'm offering you spiritual food. Here's Philip the deacon offering spiritual food, and people are lapping it up.

Speaker 1:

The Samaritans received the Gospel. The kingdom of God came powerfully to this Samaritan town and there was great joy in what the Jews considered this city of outsiders. You know, jesus promised right at the beginning of Acts that when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church, that they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, judea, samaria and to the ends of the earth. And as you read Acts, that's sort of Luke's framework. That's the way he paces it out. It begins in Jerusalem and then we see it going to Judea, and now we reach Samaria. And who is it who takes the gospel to Samaria? Not the apostles, it's this outsider. In fact, philip probably didn't even meet Jesus in person, but that didn't matter. He had met Jesus in the Holy Spirit. He knew God, god knew him and God was determined to use him. Now, if you read on in Acts, you'll find out that the Holy Spirit isn't poured out on the Samaritans at this point the way it was on the first church in Jerusalem. That won't happen until, interestingly, the apostles come from Jerusalem. Why is that? Well, that's because you don't want the Samaritans going off with all those tensions and everything between them and starting their own church under Philip and say you Jerusalem, you Jews, you go. Do your own thing under the apostles. We have our own church under Philip. Your own thing under the apostles, we have our own church under Philip. The church is one and it must be built on the foundation of one God, of one Lord and Saviour, jesus Christ, one Holy Spirit, as Paul later writes in Ephesians one God and Father of all, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. That doesn't take anything away from what Philip does. He's the first to take the gospel one step closer to the ends of the earth.

Speaker 1:

Philip doesn't seem like a likely candidate to extend the church's mission so far away. Why Philip? Well, you know, one time Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, going through Samaria, told his disciples to go ahead and just prepare his way in the Samaritan town. Now Samaritans elsewhere had accepted Jesus. We know the story of the woman at the well. But as they're going to Jerusalem, this town rejects Jesus because they're going that way. And you know what Peter wanted to do he wanted to call down fire on them. Great beginning to international ministry, isn't it? Would Peter really have been the right person to try to take the gospel to a Samaritan town, but as a persecuted outsider on the run from the Jerusalem authorities. Philip seems like the perfect person, doesn't he? He could be a powerful witness to these people. He could relate to them in a way a native-born Jew would have struggled with. I think he was probably the best man for the job.

Speaker 1:

So today, as we gather as two churches made one in Christ, actually born as one, even just in Bentley Baptist, we have many people born overseas. Some are Australian born, some were born overseas. Obviously, most of you in KBCC were born overseas. What a beautiful collision of cultures. The kingdom of God creates. Collision of cultures the kingdom of God creates.

Speaker 1:

But of course, even being locally born, you can sometimes feel like an outsider. I've conducted several funerals for Aboriginal people. It's always extremely humbling for me when I face a sea of Aboriginal faces and I'm like what the heck am I doing here? I feel so white in this moment, like I'm treading on sacred ground. And I actually said this one day at a funeral and a Noongar man who used to come to this church was there. I said man, I feel so white. He said you know what, alex? Now you know how we feel all the time. That still cuts me.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes we can feel like God can't use us because we're the outsider, we don't fit in somewhere, certain groups reject us. Or, on the other hand, maybe you feel like God can't use me because I'm just a volunteer in the church. I'm no one. The real ministry is done by the pastors and elders, while I just serve in the background and listen. Serving is no small thing. What did Jesus come to do? He came to serve. When you serve, you're being like Jesus, but all the same, you might wonder could God really use me? But what if being the outsider is the very thing that qualifies you for ministry in the kingdom of God? That qualifies you for ministry in the kingdom of God?

Speaker 1:

Now, apparently, the apostles needed to stay in Jerusalem, for whatever reason, and look, they took a huge risk in doing that because that was the epicenter of persecution. So it was this persecuted on the run outsider and others like him who took the gospel to the next stage of worldwide expansion. It was the deacon who helped manage the food program, who was used by God to save a town in this first instance and begin the gospeling of the Samaritans. Do you know what friends as a pastor, there are places I just can't go effectively at least with the gospel that you can, because the number of times I tell someone I'm a pastor, when they ask me what I do and you just see it, they're very polite oh okay, stay away from me. Oh, unclean, one Barriers go up. But when you go in the love of God and the power of the Spirit, you have openings that no one else does to bring the kingdom of God into that place and the message of the gospel to bring the kingdom of God into that place. And the message of the gospel.

Speaker 1:

Acts 6 tells us that Stephen and Philip were men who were filled with the spirit and wisdom. It's not your status as an insider in the culture or your position in the church that qualifies you. It's your heart for God, it's your heart for people and your relationship with him. Friends, a lot of people feel like outsiders. Philip, the Jewish outsider, went to Samaritan. Outsiders turned a whole town upside down with the good news.

Speaker 1:

An outsider who has a heart for God and is filled with the Spirit is actually an insider in God's kingdom, and that sort of person can change their world. Let's pray, father. What a powerful, inspiring story we have, both in Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and in Philip, first man that we know of, to take the gospel beyond the boundaries of Judea, that we know of. To take the gospel beyond the boundaries of Judea. Lord, may we be a people not limited by our perception of ourselves, or what we think or how we think others perceive us, but let us press on into Jesus and be committed to his cause. That you may use us for your glory, to take your kingdom into this world In Jesus' name amen.