Words to the End of the World

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

You're listening to the Christ Church Toronto Podcast, a recording of the Sunday Sermons of Christ Church Toronto.

Christ Church Toronto is located in Toronto's East End and seeks to practice the ancient Christian faith today. We would love for you to join us in the future. Until then, here is today's scripture reading.

SPEAKER_2 (0:23)

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, Rise, and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who is in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, do you understand what you were reading? And he said, how can I unless someone guides me?

And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now, the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this.

Like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb, before its shear is silent, so he opens, not his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.

And the eunuch said to Philip, about whom I ask you, does the prophet say this? About himself or about someone else?

Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, see, here is water. What prevents me from being baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stop. And they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord carried Philip away.

And the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Isotus. And as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. This is the word of the Lord for our church and is given for our good.

Rev. Dr. Lyndon Jost (2:38)

Well, as we've been working through the Book of Acts here, the good news of Jesus has been proclaimed, and it seems to me difficult to think otherwise than that this good news of Jesus really sounds like good news. What I mean is, for people who have any kind of sense, that all is not right in the world, that we simply aren't the kinds of people that we ought to be, and that our God has actually done everything that we might be drawn close to him, forgiven for our sins, given new life, even life eternal. How could this not be the best of news? And as this news comes to us, we can hear it really as it is good news. But at some point in the Christian life, if you haven't yet asked this question or wrestled with this, you will, I'm sure, you ask the question, but what about everyone else?

What about those who have never heard the good news? What about those who never have the opportunity to hear the good news? What about those who are born into a family and cultural, a national context where the good news simply is not available to them? What about people who were born in certain periods in history where the good news simply was not available to them? What does that mean for the ends of the earth? You know, again, this good news can come to us, and we can say, this is good news for me.

But what about the foreigner? What about the outsider? What's God's plan for them? And how does this work itself out? Well, I'm glad you asked, because here in our passage this morning in Acts 8, we begin to see something of the unfolding of God's plans and purposes before our eyes for how our God brings salvation to the ends of the earth. And it's not what you might think. It's not what you might have imagined God's plans and purposes would have been. And I want us to consider together how this happens, that God brings his salvation to the ends of the earth. And what we're going to see is that he does it with words and with water. Okay, with words and with water. Here's the big idea that I want us to engage from this text together today, is that God is bringing salvation to the ends of the earth, to every tribe, every tongue, every nation. And he's doing it with words. When I say with words, I mean words written, read, ruminated on, passed on, and with water, sprinkled, poured, and maybe even with immersion. Okay.