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Pastor at Resurrection Anglican Fellowship in Greenwood Village, CO

Sunday, May 2, 2021

1...2...3: WILLINGNESS ... AVAILABILITY ... OBEDIENCE

 Sermon for Eastertide
5th Sunday – May 2, 2021
Fr. Philip Eberhart+

 

Acts 8:26-40 

Ps 66:1-11

1 John 3:11-24 

John 14:15-21

  

WILLINGNESS… AVAILABILITY … OBEDIENCE !!   1 … 2… 3

 

Have you ever had someone around you that was like a broken record? 

I’m going to be that person today!

For almost a decade, I think, we’ve heard talk of the three steps of THE GREAT ADVENTURE of Christian living as fully formed disciples…

WILLINGNESS … AVAILABILITY … OBEDIENCE

 

Paul the Apostle said to the Thessalonians (1 Thess 4:1-2, 9-10):

And now, beloved brothers and sisters, since you have been mentored by us with respect to living for God and pleasing him, I appeal to you in the name of the Lord Jesus with this request: keep faithfully growing through our teachings even more and moreFor you already know the instructions we’ve shared with you through the Lord Jesus.

There’s no need for anyone to say much to you about loving your fellow believers, for God is continually teaching you to unselfishly love one another.[d] 10 Indeed, your love is what you’re known for throughout Macedonia. We urge you, beloved ones, to let this unselfish love increase and flow through you more and more.

 

This is the purpose of this morning’s sermon, is to encourage you to do what you are already doing, even MORE AND MORE!

Our scripture passages all collude this morning – they converge into an example and a message of encouragement for this kind of Adventurous Christian living!

Philip, the Evangelist, likely the one named among the deacons in Acts 6, versus the Apostle Philip, is our example of the BIG 3:  Willingness, Availability & Obedience:

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go … so he got up and went!

All three are captured in these few words!  Philip was in a state of constant willingness, that is where he lived.  It was the foundation of his life.  King David prayed, “UPHOLD ME WITH A WILLING SPIRIT.” (Ps 51:12)  All of this always comes from the Spirit of God within us – none of it is from ourselves!  As Paul says, “we have this treasure in a jar of clay!” (2 Cor 5:7)

Philip was ready to hear and respond.  “Get up and go … so he got up and went!”  Was Philip planning his day?  Did he know WHY he was being sent?  NO.

The journey to Gaza was about 60-70 miles, two or three days journey, through the Negev Desert Wilderness – no water, no provisions, no hotels along the way.  And there were no questions from Philip!  No, “But Lord!” or “But what about…?”

On the foundation of WILLINGNESS or YIELDEDNESS Philip was immediately AVAILABLE.  There was no hesitation – no second guessing – no explanation needed – no planning the day.  “Get up and go … so he got up and went!”

Philip knew that WILLINGNESS AND AVAILABILITY LEAD TO ASSIGNMENT!

But how do we know what the assignment is?  You probably won’t!  Until you obey.  Philip had no idea what was planned before he went on his walk.  He wasn’t the One planning his day!  God was.

But Philip was obedient to be ON THE WAY.  To actually GO!  All of this happens AS YOU GO!  When Jesus called and sent the disciples he said to them, “AS YOU GO, PROCLAIM, ‘THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN HAS COME NEAR.’ ”
(Mt 10:4)

 Nothing happens while we are sitting still, especially after God has said, GO!   “Get up and go … so he got up and went!” 


WILLINGNESS… AVAILABILITY … OBEDIENCE.    GET IT?

SORRY, BROKEN RECORD.


And the rest of the story is just the stuff of the ADVENTURE!  A great series of coincidences!! …

Just so happens he meets up with a chariot. 

Just so happens that it has a high government official in it, a Jew from Ethiopia.  An advisor and servant to the Queen!

Just so happens he is reading aloud as he rides along, from the very verses that speak of the Messiah as the suffering servant, and substitutionary sacrifice for our sins and the sins of the whole world!  Just so happens…

 

AVAILABILITY means showing up!  Showing up at the place God has assigned you, day by day, moment by moment – it means living in a place where your “eyes are wide open to God’s mercies” (Rom 12:1 JB Phillips) and your “ears are open for His voice” (Jn 10) to speak to you, through what you overhear… through coming along side to walk with someone … SHOW UP.  When I was instituted as the Rector of St. George’s Parish, 25 years ago, the sermon by Canon Burt Womack was “90% of the Lord’s work in the parish is accomplished by our just “showing up.” 

 

At the end of the day, and the end of the sermon, OBEDIENCE is the goal.  Without OBEDIENCE its all just water flowing under the bridge!   What if Philip hadn’t asked the question – opened his mouth and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”   Conversations that matter, like this one, often start with simple questions!  Questions and parables were Jesus’ primary method of engagement.  Jesus didn’t make pronouncements, He asked questions.

 

And all of it – let me say it again:  ALL OF IT is motivated by love.  We are not out getting spiritual notches on our gun – brownie points or merit badges for all the good we have done.  ALL OF IT is motivated by love, for God and for people.

”If you love me, you will OBEY my commandments!”  OBEDIENCE IS THE OUTCOME OF LOVE FOR GOD.  Obedience is not a way to gain God’s love! 

God’s love preceeds our response of obedience and our response of obedience proceeds from our love for God.  Can you see the difference?  When Jesus said what He said in our readings today from John’s gospel and first letter, He is saying this fact.  John tells us that “we love because He first loved us!”  Everything arises out of that love and of our experience of it – our comprehension of our apprehension by God’s Love! 

Paul prayed it this way:

I pray that He (Jesus) would unveil within you the unlimited riches of His glory and favor until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with His divine might and explosive power.

17 Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of his love will become the very source and root of your life.

18–19 Then you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences—the great magnitude[f] of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is his love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding—this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God! (Eph 3:16-19 TPT)

Jesus promised us this relationship and this infusion of love.  Here is your assignment verse this morning – assignment to memorize this:

Jn 14:20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

Friends, the means of God’s personal self-revelation to us in the intimacy of our relationship with Him, is in the context of our willingness, of our availability to Him and of our obedience to His voice and his direction, moment by moment and day by day.

A friend once said to me, “What if I’m not always willing?  Jonah didn’t seem particularly willing to go to Nineveh!”  “True,” I said, “but God made Jonah willing!”  Sometimes we just have to pray to be made willing!  Anyone else ever have that experience?  Yesterday?   This morning?

Let me end with Jonah’s prayer in the belly of the whale:

Then Jonah prayed to Adonai his God from the belly of the fish, 3 saying:

“From my distress I cried to Adonai and He answered me. 
From the belly of Sheol I cried for help and you heard my voice.[c]

As my soul was fading from me,
    I remembered Adonai
    and my prayer came to You,
        toward Your holy Temple.
Those who watch worthless empty things

    forsake their mercy.
10 But I, with a voice of thanks

        will sacrifice to you.
    What I vowed, I will pay.
    Salvation is from Adonai.”

Help us Lord, never to “forsake our mercy… Your mercy!”   Give us open eyes and ears to hear You and to follow your direction for our days and hours.  Open our eyes, Lord, to see Your hand at work in the world around us, and use us, as instruments of Your peace to those we encounter in Your Name.  As we go, help us to proclaim Your Kingdom and to demonstrate Your love to all we meet along the way.

When we hear You say, “Get up and go … “ HELP US to be the ones who “got up and went.”

In Jesus Name and for the sake of His Kingdom we pray.

Amen.

 

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