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Breaking Down Barriers
Acts 8:26-40
Every person can understand the value of people better by looking at the issues that Philip had to overlook.
Introduction:
A young man had been to Wed. night Bible Study.
The pastor had shared about listening to God and obeying the Lord's voice.
The young man couldn't help but wonder, "Does God still speak to people?"
After service, he went out with some friends for coffee and pie and they discussed the message.
Several different ones talked about how God had led them in different ways.
It was about ten o'clock when the young man started driving home.
Sitting in his car, he just began to pray,
"God...If you still speak to people speak to me.
I will listen.
I will do my best to obey."
As he drove down the main street of his town, he had the strangest thought to stop and buy a gallon of milk.
He shook his head and said out loud, "God is that you?"
He didn't get a reply and started on toward home.
But again, he thought, buy a gallon of milk.
The young man thought about Samuel and how he didn't recognize the voice of God, and how little Samuel ran to Eli. "Okay, God, in case that is you, I will buy the milk."
It didn't seem like too hard a test of obedience.
He could always use the milk.
He stopped and purchased the gallon of milk and started off toward home.
As he passed Seventh Street, he again felt the urge, "Turn down that street."
This is crazy he thought and drove on past the intersection.
Again, he felt that he should turn down Seventh Street.
At the next intersection, he turned back and headed down Seventh.
Half jokingly, he said out loud, "Okay, God, I will."
He drove several blocks, when suddenly, he felt like he should stop.
He pulled over to the curb and looked around.
He was in a semi-commercial area of town.
It wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst of neighborhoods either.
The businesses were closed and most of the houses looked dark like the people were already in bed.
Again, he sensed something, "Go and give the milk to the people in the house across the street."
The young man looked at the house.
It was dark and it looked like the people were either gone or they were already asleep.
He started to open the door and then sat back in the car seat.
"Lord, this is insane.
Those people are in bed and asleep, and if I wake them up, they are going to be mad and I will look stupid."
Again, he felt like he should go and give the milk.
Finally, he opened the door.
"Okay God, if this is you, I will go to the door and I will give them the milk.
If you want me to look like a crazy person, okay.
I want to be obedient.
I guess that will count for something, but if they don't answer right away, I am out of here."
He walked across the street and rang the bell.
He could hear some noise inside.
A man's voice yelled out, "Who is it?
What do you want?" Then the door opened before the young man could get away.
The man was standing there in his jeans and t-shirt.
He looked like he had just gotten out of bed.
He had a strange look on his face and he didn't seem too happy to have some stranger standing on his doorstep.
"What is it?"
The young man thrust out the gallon of milk.
"Here I brought this to you."
The man took the milk and rushed down a hallway, speaking loudly in Spanish.
Then from down the hall came a woman carrying the milk toward the kitchen, the man following her, holding a baby.
The baby was crying.
The man had tears streaming down his face.
The man began speaking and half-crying, "We were just praying.
We had some big bills this month and we ran out of money.
We didn't have any milk for our baby.
I was just praying and asking God to show me how to get some milk."
His wife in the kitchen yelled out, "I asked him to send an Angel with some.
Are you an Angel?"
The young man reached into his wallet and pulled out all the money he had on him and put in the man's hand.
He turned and walked back toward his car and the tears were streaming down his face.
He knew that God still answers prayers.
We will be studying a man who had a similar experience.
I would like to look at the issues that could have kept him from doing the right thing.
Issue I. Nation of origin
A. I like to read biographies of missionaries.
It seems that many of the missionaries I read about had a passion and a drive to reach a people group that had not been reached.
During the early 1800’s missionaries would working along the shores of the continent of Africa.
They had heard stories of cannibals and diseases in the interior of Africa.
So they would work on the coast, but they would not go into the interior of that continent.
That is until a man came along who had a passion to see the people in the inner parts of Africa reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
He traveled throughout Africa with the message of Jesus Christ.
B.
In Jesus day Ethiopia was the edge of the earth.
At least that is what people believed.
Imagine if that stereo type had prevented Philip from delivering the message of salvation to this man.
We know today that Ethiopia is not the edge of the earth.
We know that the interior of Africa does not eat white men alive.
Philip could have very easily felt that he did not want to deal with an Ethiopian because of some stereo types.
The Jewish people usually did not accept eunuchs either.
Neither of these ideas kept Philip from going to this man.
It would have been very easy for him to say he did not want to deal with the person because he was different.
It might have been a stereo type.
It might have been something real.
He did not allow that to stand in the way of going to this man as God had told him to do.
C.
I was talking with a friend the other day who attends another church.
He was telling me about some immigrants who are attending their church.
The grandmother in this group has her head in a wrap and has several piercings in her ears and in her nose.
They are different from the other people who attend that church.
Just because she looks different does not mean that she should be avoided.
Just because this Ethiopian Eunuch was different from Philip did not mean that he could be overlooked.
D.
I come from a family that has prejudices.
I must be very aware of what I am thinking.
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