Have you ever encountered an obstacle?  An obstacle is a thing, sometimes a person, that prevents, that blocks your way or prevents or hinders from doing what you want to do.  Those things that may be obstacles to us in our daily life could be government systems, government red tape, or it could be simply a speed limit sign that reminds us to slow down even if it means we will be late for an appointment.  When I worked for the Federal government, we would deliberately encircle the perimeter of militarily sensitive facilities with perhaps 50 yards wide field of jagged sharp-edged stones about the size of small watermelons to serve as obstacles or stumbling blocks for people trying to illegally enter the property.  Sometimes the obstacle to accomplishing something important comes about by our own thinking, making us the obstacle to our own progress.  Sometimes an obstacle is there to keep us safe.  I am sure that all of us have experienced an obstacle of some sort to accomplishing goals we are seeking to achieve in life or even obstacles to keep us safe.

For example, one time Jesus’ apostle, Peter, upset when And just as we have obstacles or stumbling blocks in our physical life, sometimes we experience obstacles to our faith journey. These spiritual obstacles can come from our own lack of knowledge, or from fear or anxiousness, or pride, or sometimes the obstacle comes by beliefs we hold that conflict with God.  The Bible has a few things to say about obstacles and stumbling blocks. 

Jesus predicted his own death scolded Jesus telling Jesus to say anything like that again!  In response, “Jesus turned and said to Peter [and said], ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns’” (Matthew 16:23).  Peter, believing himself more spiritually aware of God’s plans than Jesus, for a brief moment, presented himself as a stumbling block to Jesus and the message Jesus wanted all his apostles to know.  Namely, that Jesus mission as Messiah was to serve as God’s suffering servant.

Again, Paul once wrote, “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister” (Romans 14:13).  Paul’s concern here was that one Christian judging another Christian, usually in the context of the person making the judgement thinking themselves better than others, was not helpful to the development of the body of Christ.  When we act in our own pride and arrogance believing we are better than others and judge others accordingly, Paul says, we become a stumbling block and obstacle to other people coming to faith and developing in faith.

So, in the development of our spiritual life, there can be stumbling blocks that keep the fullness of God from our life. 

One of the stumbling blocks in the days of Jesus’ Apostles involved cultural prejudices.  We, of course, are so much more sophisticated than the apostles and we no longer have cultural prejudices, right?  If only that were so.  From the cultural context of the Jesus’ Apostles and the disciples they were making, almost all of whom were all Jewish, there were cultural prejudices against non-Jews such as the Samaritans and the Gentiles.  But in Jesus’ commissioning of the apostles Jesus said, “19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20a).  From the Book of Acts, Jesus said “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8b).  Jesus commission was intended to overcome the cultural prejudices and the good news of Jesus to be brought to all peoples.

          In the beginning of the Apostles’ ministry, the Apostles and their disciples limited themselves to the surrounds of the city of Jerusalem.  That was until persecution of the early church began with the death of Stephen, a Deacon of the church.  We spoke about Stephen last week.  After Stephen was stoned to death by the Jews for believing in Jesus, the Jewish authorities began to arrest Christians and jail them simply because they believed in Jesus and shared their faith.  The Jewish leaders, particularly through the work of a Pharisee named Saul, made themselves a stumbling block, an obstacle to furtherance of God’s plans.

The unspiritual and demonic work of persecution, however, had the effect of sending evangelists out of Jerusalem and into other regions.  One of those early evangelists leaving the persecution in Jerusalem was Stephen’s fellow Deacon, Philip.  As we discussed last week, we did not know anything about Philip until he was called as one of the first deacons of the church.  But what we did learn about Philip because he was called as a deacon was that Philip had the Holy Spirit within him and Philip had received from the Holy Spirit the gift of wisdom. 

We would read in the beginning of Acts Chapter 8 that Philip’s first mission was to the people of Samaria.  We know from history and from Chapter 4 of the Gospel of John that Jews thought themselves spiritually superior to the Samaritans, a people made up of ancestral Jews who had married pagans.  Nevertheless, Philip, left Jerusalem and witnessed to the Samaritans just as Jesus commanded.  In doing so, Philip had to overcome his own stumbling block of what he previously thought of the Samaritans.  Philip did not do this in his own strength.  Instead, Philip overcame the cultural prejudices through the power of the Holy Spirit and because the message of hope Philip had to share compelled move.  Philip could not stand in the way of the message of salvation through Jesus.  But here is an important thing to remember. Philip overcame his cultural prejudices to preach the truth, but he never did not change the truth to speak words the Samaritans might want to hear.  Philip understood that the message of Jesus must not be changed to appeal to the audience.  The audience must be called to the message of truth.

What does this lengthy introduction about stumbling blocks, obstacles, and Philip teach us for our own faith journey.  I think there is one thing I would like us to quickly note today. It is that our commitment to Christ and subsequent receipt of the Holy Spirit and receiving the gifts of the Holy Spirit means that we, individually and collectively as the church, can do all things.  We can overcome stumbling blocks that would otherwise impede our progress.  In some cases, such as in Philip’s case, we can cast aside the stumbling block of cultural prejudices and reach out, in truth, to people who we had been taught to avoid.  The Holy Spirit will open our hands so that we can release the grip we have on our own stumbling blocks and make us free.  This is another context to Jesus’ words, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31).  The empowerment of the Holy Spirit excites us about the truth, transforms us and releases us from our own stumbling blocks, compels us to share the truth, and moves us in our own faith development. That is what happened to Philip as he went to Samaria.

Now after Samaria, we read “26 An angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man [the Ethiopian eunuch] had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, ‘Go to that chariot and stay near it’” (Acts 8:26-29).  There is a lot in this short passage. 

First, we see Philip was obedient to the Holy Spirit even though the Spirit told him to use a road that went through the desert without giving Philip a specific purpose and to move toward Gaza, today we would say Gaza City.

Second, on that desert road Philip encountered a man in a carriage or chariot who is from Ethiopia, the overseer of the Ethiopian empire’s treasury, and a eunuch.  At that time, Ethiopia had a king, who believed himself a descendant of the gods. The Ethiopian kings, as descendants of the gods, believed that running the day-to-day activities of the empire were beneath them.  Instead, the king’s wife, the queen, governed the empire.  At the leading of the Holy Spirit, Philip encountered the Ethiopian queen’s treasurer.  And, as was custom in some nations, men who had access to the king’s women were surgically emasculated to keep them from becoming sexually involved with those women. So, it is little surprise that treasurer of the Ethiopian empire who worked for the queen was a eunuch, an emasculated man.

Third, this man from Ethiopia had visited Jerusalem to worship at the Temple and had his own private copy of the Book of Isaiah.  We all have Bibles, perhaps multiple copies of the Bible. But at this point in history, to have your own copy of a sacred document was extraordinary.

Fourth, we might not know but Jews tended to exclude eunuchs from the faith community because the Hebrew Scriptures said, “No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 23:1).  The direction here from ancient times was the Jews were not to make men into eunuchs because to do so would be to also exclude them from the community.  So, it is likely that this Ethiopian man who went to Jerusalem to worship could not pass beyond the wall, the obstacle in the Temple court where Gentiles were not permitted to cross.  This Ethiopian had experienced a stumbling block to his faith. In addition, other cultural beliefs were applied to the Ethiopians.  Namely, the Greeks and Romans considered the Ethiopians as uncivilized, barbarians, and even monstrous people.

And so, we see that the Spirit led Philp to a forsaken desert road to encounter a man who sought to worship God in God’s own place of prayer and worship, the Temple in Jerusalem, but this person was a man who had been mutilated by his own people and rejected by Jews, Greeks, and Romans alike.  As I say, there is a lot in this short passage, and we conclude then that the encounter between Philip and the Ethiopian was not accidental but the deliberate work of God.

As we move into this encounter, we see that Philip learned that the Ethiopian was reading from the Book of Isaiah.  It may well be that this book spoke to this man from Ethiopia in part because Chapter 56 revealed God’s posture toward eunuchs.  Isaiah wrote, “4 For this is what the Lord says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant—5 to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever” (Isaiah 56:4-5).  To know that God would receive the eunuch even if others would not, must have been a relief to this man.

          In this account, Philip learned that the Ethiopian had encountered a spiritual stumbling block, an obstacle to his faith.  Philip observed the Ethiopian was reading from Isaiah, Chapter 53, and discovered the man did not understand what he was reading because, as the Ethiopian man put it, no one had been willing to explain the passage to him. No one was willing to extend themselves to help this man discover the truth about God.  What was the man reading?  The Ethiopian was reading the chapter of Isaiah that discusses the suffering servant of God.  “4 Surely, he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.  5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5). The Ethiopian was reading the passage of Isaiah that Jesus had been referred to when he spoke to his apostles of the suffering and death Jesus would experience as the Messiah.  Those words that caused Peter to rebuke Jesus and for Peter’s response, Jesus to refer to Peter as Satan, a stumbling block to Christ.

We now have these words of the suffering servant becoming a stumbling block to the Ethiopian because no one would explain to him whether Isaiah was talking about himself or another person.  Our passage today says that “35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:35).  Philip, empowered by the Holy Spirit, revealed the truth to the Ethiopian that these words from Isaiah were a prophesy about a man named Jesus of Nazareth.  This man, Jesus, Philip explained, was and is the Son of God who took upon himself the sins of the world, died, was buried, rose again from the dead, and now was in heaven making intercession on behalf of those who would believe in him. And in that moment of receiving the good news of Jesus Christ, the Ethiopian man, disfigured by his own people, rejected by the Jews, Greeks, and Romans alike, knew he was fully accepted by God through the completed work of Jesus.  This is a wonderful story of how the truth removed a stumbling blocks to faith and allowing the fullness of God to be received.

Not long after this moment, the Ethiopian man saw some water, perhaps an oasis along the desert road.  The Ethiopian said, ““Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” (Acts 8:37).  Here along the desert road, the Ethiopian man wanted to be baptized to show his acceptance of Christ and Christ’s acceptance of him.  The man could now see in Christ there was nothing that could stand his way. No walls to keep him out.  No ignorance of God’s plan to keep him out. No feeling of being less than to keep him out.  The stumbling blocks and the obstacles to faith had been removed by the completed work of Christ and this man could not imagine waiting one more moment for baptism. He could not wait one more moment to express through baptism his love for Christ.  What could stand in his way?  The truth of the Jesus’ work had removed the stumbling blocks, and the Ethiopian was free and whole.

          What are the stumbling blocks to our faith journey? They are anything we cannot or willing yield to Christ.  What might those stumbling blocks be in our lives?  Perhaps we have bitterness or anger toward someone.  That is a stumbling block.  Perhaps we have some unforgiveness towards an offense of another Christian.  That is a stumbling block.  Perhaps we are involved in some sinful behavior.  That is a stumbling block.  Perhaps we don’t understand something about God that is keeping us from loving him. That is a stumbling block.  What are we to do?  Seek the Lord and where necessary the body of Christ, His church, so that you can receive the truth and let go of the stumbling blocks.  Give glory to God and be baptized to give public testimony that you are free and walking unimpeded along the narrow road of glory.  Rejoice that you have been accepted by God, not to remain as you are but to be transformed into the image of His Son.  Know that you too can ask, “What can stand in my way now?”  The answer is, “Absolutely nothing.”  Amen and Amen.