Shane Willard | Well Based Church

 

Ps Shane Willard shares a powerful message encouraging our church to not put fences up, but to share from wells.

 

 

Acts 8:26-40

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 was 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 are 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 shearer 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.

 

Observations and Questions

 

1. Is there too much information in the passage?

2. Why is he choosing to worship in Jerusalem?

3. Why the scroll of Isaiah?

4. How does the good news apply to an Ethiopian who is missing his anatomy?

5. Is there any reason why I can't be baptized?

6. Are we a fence-based or well-based church?

 

Deuteronomy 23:1

No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the LORD. No one born of a forbidden marriage nor any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, not even in the tenth generation.  No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, not even in the tenth generation.

 

Isaiah 56: 3-8

Let no foreigner who is bound to the LORD say, "The LORD will surely exclude me from his people." And let no eunuch complain, "I am only a dry tree." 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 — 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. And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD

to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants,

all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer.

 

Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. "

 

The Sovereign LORD declares—

he who gathers the exiles of Israel:

"I will gather still others to them

besides those already gathered."

  

 

Characters

 

1. Ethiopian Eunuch: A "God Fearer", would have been disqualified, willing to walk days to find the truth.

 

2. Philip: One of the original 12, from a devoutly orthodox village called Bethsaida, would have lived by 613 fences…..then he met Jesus.

 

Fruit

 

1. 65 Percent of Ethiopia identifies as Christian.

2. Ethiopian Christians are indigenous.

3. The Ethiopian Church today traces their origins back to this eunuch.

4.  An entire book about being surprised by how generous God is with people who are thirsty?...... Uncircumcised Gentiles being filled with the Spirit, normal people being used by God, Ethiopian eunuchs, etc…

 

Application

 

1. Jesus doesn't ask "are you worthy?" …..Jesus asks "are you thirsty?"

2. Sinning less vs loving more

3. Everything needs to be fixed vs. nothing needs to be hidden

 

Lack of Thirst

 

1. Lack of thirst equals lack of teachability.

2. Lack of thirst equals a lack of humility

3. Lack of thirst equals lack of responsibility.

4. Lack of thirst equals ambivalence.  Now that I am in….how I live doesn't matter

 

The overuse of fences is not necessary if there is a well stocked well.

 

There was 613 fences in the Old Testament.  Jesus had 2 fence posts. Acts 15 has 4…food sacrificed to idols, blood, meat of strangled animals, sexual immorality.

 

Are we gravitating to the center regardless of fencing?

 

Are we more focused on direction instead of distance?

 

Fences matter less when we are focused on moving towards the center. 

 

In old communities, the whole village centered around the well.

 

What if we build wells instead of fences?

 

Wells and thirst represent: life, provision, prosperity, and abundance.

 

Jesus was a fence destroyer and well inviter.

 

Philip ignores all the fences and just keeps talking about the well.

 

We don't need any fence that doesn't lead to the well. 

 

If fences make it more difficult to get to the well, they miss the point.

 

  John 7:37-39

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them."

 

Questions

 

1. When is the last time I saw God do something that made me uncomfortable?

2. Have I honored right/wrong, in/out/, clean/unclean over a hungry/thirsty paradigm?

3. Am I blaming?

4. Am I teachable?

5. Am I flexible?  If God saw fit to fill them with the Holy Spirit, who am I to argue?

6. Are we building deeper wells or higher fences?