Live Free with Josh Howerton - Philip’s Message of Hope in Samaria // Acts 8:4-8

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

In today’s episode, we witness Philip’s journey into Samaria, a place filled with cultural tensions and deep-seated divisions. Yet, led by the Holy Spirit, Philip steps boldly into this unfamiliar territory, bringing the message of Jesus to people who were often overlooked. His story shows us that God sometimes calls us beyond what’s comfortable to reach those who need His love most. By following Philip’s example, we can stay open to God’s promptings and look for divine appointments with those who need hope. Let’s walk in faith today, ready to share God’s love wherever He may lead.   For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, thanks for joining us today. I'm Mike Bro, and this is the Daily Drive, where we have been walking through a major book of the New Testament called the Book of Acts. And we're not doing an exhaustive verse-by-verse journey, but rather we're grabbing a few highlights along the way. And I hope you will read the entire book. It was written by a meticulous historian slash doctor named Luke, who carefully researched everything and was an eyewitness to a good part of it.

It's known as the Acts of the Apostles. But it's really that. the acts of the Holy Spirit, because he is in everything, and the grace and power of God is on full display. We left off yesterday in Chapter 8, where after the stoning death of a good man named Stephen, a great wave of persecution breaks out against the whole church, and the followers of Jesus are now scattered into places all over Judea and Samaria. They are, as we talked about yesterday, moved out of the comfort zone and into the courageous zone. And the cool thing is, they embraced it. It says this in verse number four of chapter 8,

but the believers who were scattered preached the good news about Jesus wherever they went. I love this. They were no longer living in the comfort of their hometown, but they were still living on mission. They were living in places they never dreamed they'd ever live, but they're telling everybody they meet about the good news of Jesus Christ. And one of those courageous people was a guy named Philip. Like Stephen, he was one of those compassionate guys

chosen to take care of the benevolence needs and the food distribution in the church in Jerusalem. And now, like Stephen, he's preaching boldly about the hope that is found in Jesus. And the cool thing about Philip is that he is now doing it in a place called Samaria. Now, it wasn't the ends of the earth, but Samaria was actually next door. But to a Jew in that day, it would be the last place on earth you would ever want to We've talked before about how the Jews and Samaritans hated each other. I mean, you think unrest in the Middle East is a relatively new thing?

Oh, no. There's some long-time history there. These people had destroyed one another's temples. The Samaritans actually scattered human remains and bones in the Jewish temple. It got so ugly that Jewish children were taught that if they passed a Samaritan on a dusty road, they were to immediately go to the temple and have a priest ceremonially wash them or they would be declared unclean by God.

In fact, Jewish law allowed anyone to testify in a court of law except Samaritans. Why? Because one of the stipulations for testifying was, and I quote, you have to be human. I mean, this is a lot more intense than like Red Sox, Yankees, Duke, North Carolina, Longhorn Sooners, or Republican Democrats. This was intense racism and hatred. Even though they were created by and believed in the same God, and even descended from the same people, the Jews regarded Samaritans as less than.

They saw them as religious and social half-breeds because generations ago they had intermarried. They had built their own temple and allowed all kinds of idol worship and other false religions to creep in. So in the Jewish mind, they were the holy ones and the Samaritans were, you know, those people. There was no way that Samaritans would ever be allowed into the kingdom of God. They were all past the point of no return. And the religious leaders pounded that junk in their hearts and their minds, and they bought into it. They actually believed the lies that they were submarried. superior to those people.

You know, one of the problems in our country right now is a those people mentality? There's such a lack of humility and kindness, so much division and name-calling, even violence pointing to those people. I like what Anne Lamott says. You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. You need to know it's never of those people with Jesus. Just people, priceless people.

And Philip embraced that new reality. He moved with grace and power, and it says there was great joy in Samaria because of him. And other people like Peter and John, they start showing up in Samaria and preaching too. And lots of people come to Christ in a place that no one wanted to go. And that is just some of the good that comes out of the horrible stoning of Stephen. Like I said, we're doing some highlights.

So I want to pick up the story of Philip in verse 26. But first I want to tell you about a story I heard about a guy who, there was a 911 call in which a guy from my home state of Kentucky called in saying, hey, please send an ambulance. We're out for a walk. My wife just fell off a curb and I think her legs broke. And the dispatcher said, where are you? He said, we're the corner of maple and eucalyptus.

She said, could you spell that? Long pause. the guy says, How about I just drag her over to Oak Street? That's terrible. Now, I don't know if you've ever been at the intersection of Maple and Eucalyptus, but maybe you have stood at some of the more famous intersections in our country. Anybody ever been in Hollywood and Vine out in L.A.?

One of the most famous intersections in the world, ever been to New York City, and stood at the intersection of Broadway, 42nd, and 7th Street, better known as, yep, Times Square. The intersection of hate and Ashbury, in San Francisco was made famous by the hippies of the 60s and the 70s. The other day, I was standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, such a fine sight. All kinds of famous intersections. But have you ever stood in a moment and just knew that God had intersected your life with another person?

Somebody crossed your path. Your lives intersected. And you sensed in that moment, whoa, this is one of those divine appointments. It is such a cool moment to know. that you were supposed to be there in that intersection, that you were the right person, in the right place, at the right time, being used for God's right purposes. And I think God does that all the time.

And I think we would experience more often if we live with awareness and intentionality, because God is always bringing people into our life saying, this guy needs some hope. That woman right there needs some healing in her life. This girl needs a friend. This guy needs someone to listen to him, always prompting us. Step out, look around, be aware. notice, listen well, sit here, go over there, make that call, send that text, write that note,

make that invite. And if we would just be aware of his promptings and follow his lead through the day, we would be standing, at least in God's mind, in some of the most famous intersections on the planet. Well, in chapter 8 of Acts, Philip is standing at the intersection of what am I doing here, and please help me God. And he's just boldly, lovingly taking the good news of Jesus to the Samaritans and the people were finding salvation in him. This happened because one guy stepped out of his comfort zone, let his prejudice go, and went where Jesus told him to go. And now in verse 26, we see that the Holy Spirit instructs Philip

to go down to this desert road, and it's here, in the middle of nowhere, that two lives intersect. God crosses the path of Philip, and this government official from Africa, and both men walk away changed. The guy Philip meets, is from Ethiopia. Ethiopia would have been in northern Sudan in that day, so this guy would have probably been dark-skinned and hundreds, if not thousands of miles, away from home.

Extremely long pilgrimage to Jerusalem. I mean, you really have to want to go to worship to make that kind of a road trip. And he was an important government official. He was like Secretary of the Treasury in Ethiopia. He was an important guy with an impressive job riding in a carriage or a chariot, which would have been the equivalent of a first-century limo. And on his way home from Jerusalem, the carriage is stopped along the road. I don't know, probably looking for a charging station. I don't know. But he's sitting there doing some reading. And it says this in verse 29. The Holy Spirit said to Philip, go over and walk along beside the carriage. There's those subtle promptings again where God speaks to us all day long, and we can listen and follow, and we can let them use our lives in unexpected ways,

or honestly we can tell them, you know what? I got a lot to do. Just leave me alone. Stop interrupting me. And we do that, don't we? But not Philip. Verse 30. Philip ran over and heard the man reading the prophet Isaiah.

And Philip asked, hey, you understand what you're reading? So here's this guy. He's not scrolling through like you version on his phone. He's just scrolling through a scroll. And Philip sees an opportunity to ask him, hey, what's you reading? You understand it? And the Ethiopian guy says, well, you know, honestly, not really. You got any insight?

Why don't you come on up and have a seat and see if you can make any sense of this? And that would begin a life-changing conversation at this spirit-led intersection. Now, I want to push pause on the story, and we're going to pick it up tomorrow, but I want to challenge all of us today. Let's listen well to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Be on the lookout for important intersections today. I know that God wants to intersect your life today with someone who needs some hope, a listening ear, a warm embrace, an encouraging word.

Don't let your to-do-do-do-lose. list keep you from doing what God wants you to do. Don't see people as an interruption today, but rather an intersection. I'm praying that God would use you today, just like he did, Philip, and we'll see you back here tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information about all the digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt.combe.com slash daily. lead drive. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out.