Sand Mountain Sermonette 81
Acts 8:30-31; Isaiah 53
The Night Sawdust Flew High at the Revival!
“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.” Acts 8:30-31
One evening, when I was a preschooler, my mom took me to one of those classic preaching tent revival services that was taking place in my hometown of Albertville, Alabama. The tent was set up on a parcel of ground adjacent one of the Baptist churches in town, the metal fold-out chairs were in place, and the flooring existed of sawdust spread upon the ground. My mom also told me that before the evangelist began to preach, she had placed me on the ground beside her because I had gotten a little restless, and after a few minutes, she couldn’t help but get “tickled” because she looked down and I was throwing sawdust up in the air during the sermon!
In today’s passage, a co-laborer in Christ by the name of Philip was called of the Holy Spirit to change his direction and travel the old dessert road out of Jerusalem towards Gaza. Along the way he met a eunuch who was the royal treasurer to Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, who was on his way home having returned from worshipping at the temple in Jerusalem. When Philip saw him, the Holy Spirit told Philip to go near the eunuch’s chariot and walk alongside it. Philip’s obedience to the Spirit lead to the eunuch’s inviting Philip to sit in the chariot with him which opened the door for Philip to share the meaning of the Scripture passage the eunuch was reading, with him! And this, in turn, lead to Philip’s pointing that passage of Scripture (taken from Isaiah 53) to the gospel of Jesus Christ, which led to the Philip baptizing the eunuch in body of water along the way as a sign of the eunuch’s new life in Christ!
That evening, I was just throwing sawdust in the air; too little to understand what the preacher was reading, but I have often thought about that night and about my loving mother who, sitting nearby, was placing her son within ear-shot of the word of God so that one day, I could know the Jesus who was being proclaimed from an old wooden pulpit, under a tent affixed a saw dust floor, on that special night!
Whether it be on the road to Gaza or seated in an outside tent; let us be ever ready to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with someone who has a hungry heart and who is seeking an understanding of God’s word. The Holy Spirit will take your availability to someone else’s journey of faith and bridge a most beautiful road of repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation to God along the way!
Pastor Louie