Episode 174: ALPHA: A Better Mousetrap | +Quigg Lawrence

So we're gonna be in Acts chapter eight today. We're gonna have kind of a shorter sermon and then we're gonna bring some folks up that met Christ in Alpha or have served in Alpha. We want you guys to get an idea of what it's like practically to see God work through a program. It's not really a program, it's really about relationships.

We're going to start at Acts eight. Can I start and tell you a story I really shouldn't tell you? Would that be okay? Do you promise not to tell anybody? We're not on Facebook Live now.

I did one of the dumbest things in my life in Ethiopia. We're talking about the Ethiopian eunuch, and that's why we're talking about Ethiopia. Have you been to Ethiopia? Ever been to Addis Ababa? Not so much.

Kevin Kubaugh and I were going—I think we were coming back from Rwanda a long time ago, maybe fourteen years ago. I just remember, I think it was actually flying over to Rwanda. We land in Addis Ababa, and you get on the plane about midnight, and by the time they serve the little food and all that stuff, and by the time you actually get to sleep, you get no sleep. So we landed in Addis Ababa at night with no sleep, and I had to go to the bathroom something terrible. When we went through customs and all that, I'm like, "Where's the bathroom? Where's the bathroom?" It's on the other side of the airport. Really? Okay, cool. I'm running down the hall. It's all the way into the hall. I go in this bathroom. I'm like, "Thank you, Jesus." Then I began to ease myself—that's what they say in Nigeria. I was easing myself. I looked up and there's a sign in front of me with some writing in Arabic. Well, that didn't help me because I've never studied Arabic. Then there's some writing in French. I took French kindergarten through third grade and can barely count in French, so that didn't help either. Then there was what appeared to be an English word. I was busy with my task at hand, and I couldn't even really think about it.

All of a sudden, when I was about done, I looked at the English sentence and it said, "No yellow." Then I see a faucet in this ceramic thing that looks like the urinal at Virginia Tech football game. I keep seeing "No yellow. Faucet." I'm not sure if this is a urinal. I think I better stop.

So I said, "Kevin, I think we made a mistake." So we stopped, we walked about four or five feet, there's a door, and there were seven Muslim men down saying their prayers facing Mecca. I'm like, rut row. I was almost the non-Ethiopian eunuch. I thought they were going to kill me.

So that's my title: Ethiopia.

The Story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

Now, an angel of the Lord said to Philip. Philip—who is Philip? There's two Phillips at least in the Bible. This one is an evangelist. He was a deacon. Remember in Acts six when they weren't taking care of the Gentile widows? So the early church appointed six men full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, and Philip was one of those. His job was waiting on tables, and yet he had a heart for God. So what I want to say is no matter what your job, however menial you may think your job is, God can use you and wants to use you.

The angel of the Lord again—gospel, faith—it always begins with the Lord. The angel was sent by the Lord to Philip, and he had a message from God. He said, "Philip, rise and go toward the south to the road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place."

So the angel, speaking on behalf of God, says, "Leave, go down on this country road in the middle of nowhere and just do it."

And Philip arose and he went. — Acts 8:27

And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. So when Philip went to this deserted place, he sees this very important man. This man—I mean, I can't tell you what a big deal this guy was. He was of a different culture, a different race. He's an Ethiopian. Philip probably was light brown. This guy was really, really dark. I don't even know if they spoke the same language. Maybe they did, but probably very poorly.

And so Philip's there and he meets this man who is incredibly wealthy and incredibly important. It says he not only was an Ethiopian, he was a eunuch. Do you know what that is? Because there are little ears here, I'm just going to say, it's a lot more to ask of a man to take that job than for you to get a vaccination. I'm just going to say straight up. I'm not making comments about vaccination. I'm just saying that is a pretty tough requirement to get a job.

Do you know why they made eunuchs of those who served around the king and around the queen? Because they didn't want to mess them in the harem. So this man had done that. He had been castrated. He was a eunuch, and he was serving as his Candace, queen of the Ethiopians.

Well, I thought Candace was a name of a person. Actually, Candace is just like the word Pharaoh. Candace is a title, meaning a female king or sovereign. There were many Candaces, but she is the queen or the ruler or the sovereign of Ethiopia. So this guy, this Ethiopian eunuch served her and he was in charge of all her treasure.

I love this verse. It says he had come to Jerusalem to worship. Now, I'm just curious this morning, how far did you come to worship? Anybody drive one or two minutes to get here? Okay. Bless you. Five to ten minutes? How about fifteen or more? Wow. Anybody hit thirty minutes? Bless you. You're committed. Anybody forty-five or more? We've had folks from Pulaski and Henry County, Martinsville. Is that where you all are?

The point being that there's 1,500 miles from Jerusalem to the place that he was going to go, to Ethiopia. 1,500 miles. Now, how long do you think it would take a bunch of guys walking with a heavy Ethiopian eunuch on their shoulders? A month and a half. A month and a half if they were clipping. So this man who was not a Jew, wanted to go worship Yahweh and be part of that. So much that he spent a month and a half on a carriage or chariot being bopped down dirty, dusty roads. He had a heart for worship. He was willing to sacrifice to worship.

Verse 28, as he was returning from worshiping in Jerusalem, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Have you read Isaiah? It's a great book. Honestly, I think it's got a lot of chapters, but there's some awesome things in Isaiah.

A young woman will be with child, or some versions say, A virgin will be with child. — Isaiah 7:14

So many good passages in Isaiah, but you know my favorite? I hope it's your favorite. Have you read Isaiah 53? It is the most convincing passage that points to who the Messiah will be and what he will undergo. That he will not come in as a conquering king the first time, but will lay down his life. He will be punished for our sins, for our iniquities. They, our sins, will be laid on his back. He will be like a sheep before a shearer and he will keep silent.

And so, as Philip goes and he sees this man, the spirit says to Philip, "Go over there and join this chariot." Again, God's initiating this. Philip's not—the Lord is. I don't know about you, but I don't know if I'd want to go up next to a eunuch or maybe even a powerful person. He might reject me. He might not want to come. Heck, we get afraid to even ask somebody to Alpha. How much more to approach one of the wealthiest men in the world who works for the Candace or the female Pharaoh?

And so Philip ran to him and he heard that the eunuch was reading Isaiah the prophet. He asked him a question: "Do you understand what you're reading?" Friends, a lot of times when we talk to non-believers or to seekers, instead of giving them untold information like a Gatling gun, maybe the more effective way is to ask them questions. Jesus did it all the time. Let them talk. See what God's doing in them.

And so the Ethiopian eunuch who was not Jewish, but had been to Jerusalem to worship is reading Isaiah 53 about the Messiah, the suffering servant of the Lord. He's reading this passage:

Like a sheep, he was led to slaughter, like a lamb before its shears is silent. So he opens not his mouth, in humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.

And so the eunuch then said to Philip, "About whom, I ask, does the prophet Isaiah say this? Is he talking about himself or about someone else?" And that, ladies and gentlemen, was all the opening that Philip needed.

Philip just hears him reading the scripture. He says, "Do you understand what you're reading?" And he says, "No. How can I unless somebody guides or teaches me?" And so Philip goes up and jumps in the chariot of this very famous Ethiopian eunuch and began to explain the gospel to him. How Isaiah is pointing to the Messiah, the Christ who would come, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Verse 35, Philip opened his mouth and beginning with the scripture, he told 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?" Isn't that awesome? Did Philip have to strong-arm him? No. God was working in his life. That's how people come to faith. You never argue some way to faith. You never browbeat people to faith, but the Holy Spirit does the work. We just have to be halfway attentive.

Like for you, maybe it would be every day waking up and say, God, I have no idea what you're doing, but I know you are doing things. Today, if there's somebody like this Ethiopian who's ready and hungry and wants to become a true worshiper of God, would you use me? Would the spirit also send me?

As they were going along the road, they saw the water. The eunuch says, "What prevents me from being baptized?" — Acts 8:36

He commanded the chariot to stop and they both went down into the water. Isn't that what Colossians says?

We're buried with Christ in his death, we're raised with him in his resurrection. — Colossians

They 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, but went on his way rejoicing.

In seminary, when you read passages like this, you know what kind of questions seminarians ask? How did Philip disappear? I mean, it's kind of like Star Trek. Remember that little machine that people would get in it and it vaporized them and all of a sudden they weren't there, they were somewhere else? That's kind of what happened here. It's a weird little scripture in the Bible. Philip is doing this ministry and all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit takes him away and he's there no more. He lands in Azotus.

Friends, the point here isn't how the Holy Spirit took him away. The point is that God himself initiates salvation. He initiates faith. He often will use his word just as he did for the Ethiopian, but he also uses people. In this case, he used a man who was a humble deacon waiting on tables. As a result of him stepping forward and doing what the spirit said, this man went back to Ethiopia and he shared his faith. And the Ethiopian church that we know today is a direct result of Philip's faithfulness. That might even be better than Alpha. A whole country comes to Christ because some deacon said yes to the Holy Spirit.

Friends, I want to ask up Mike and some Alpha people. If you're also on the Alpha team, come on up. I got a few questions to ask you.

So Mike, here's the thing. You were at Church of the Holy Spirit the first time when?

When you were 15, 16?

Mike: Probably 12 or 13.

That's a long time ago, Bubba. And did I hear right that you and Bobby Rose installed our church sign?

Mike: Yes. That was an Eagle Scout project for Bobby that I just tagged along with, for no other reason than just being his friend. So we put our church sign up and maybe you came once or twice when Bob Rose says, spend the night at our house, you're going to church. That's kind of how it went.

Quigg: Yeah. You stayed Saturday night, you go to church. So here we are. The crazy thing is in spite of putting a church sign up and coming here a few times, you didn't really have a relationship with Jesus.

Mike: I did not. At that point, I was just hanging out with friends and hanging out with Bobby and tagging along for the ride, and they always had great snacks at their house.

Quigg: God's not opposed to using food for sure.

Mike: Yeah, yeah. Remember that.

Quigg: So here's my question. How does a guy who did a flyby of Church of the Holy Spirit, a flyby of the church, but doesn't go to church for probably what, almost two decades? How did you decide to come to Alpha? Like, that seems really odd to me that some guy didn't go to church would just pop into Alpha.

Mike: Well, I think we all know that God calls his people, and really that's what it was. But he put that plan in action through Bob. Bob called me and that was a thirty second phone call that I just said yes to and it changed everything. It changed my life. It changed my family's life. It gave me examples of discipleship and caring and family, and that's just all it took. I couldn't be more grateful for it. It is the most transformative thing that's ever happened to me.

Quigg: So great. You came to Alpha. A lot of people can come to a meeting or to a gathering. What was it in Alpha that kind of pulled the veils off your eye and you could finally understand the gospel and understand who Christ was? Like, was there one particular thing? Was it the lectures? What was it?

Mike: It was the people. It was sitting in with those people and sharing your concerns. I mean, I always want to make sure I have the right word from people. Just something—that example from twelve to now—is that word, that caring from the Roses. That's just the best example that I can give. It's just an invite, and it was there that I saw this community is what was important to me.

Quigg: Amen. That's what was keeping me. Alright, let me ask some of your teammates. So here's the question: Why do you think Alpha works?

I mean, if I were sitting in pews today, might be like, is this just something a program the church is doing? Seriously, I'm too busy for a program. Like, I am really too busy for a program. You guys are serving an alpha, you clearly believe in it, but why? What is it about alpha that works? Why would you invest your time serving an alpha?

Well, my name is Bill, Bill Hauk, I've been coming to CHS for about four years now and, really by accident, learned about Alpha and came to a gathering and found out right away that the situation was very non-threatening. I'd been a Christian all my life, but I guess I could say I was fairly lukewarm. And as I like to say there are no coincidences. So that first time I came, I ended up at the table that Brian was leading. And so, through watching his ministry, which really was a ministry of being quiet and let other people talk, I watched how powerful that could be. Folks would open up that had a lot of baggage that they were bringing in, to figure out exactly why they should be here at CHS or more importantly, maybe not CHS necessarily, but to follow Jesus more carefully.

And so, Hannah, I want you to share too but in case you don't know, Alpha 23,000,000 people have gone through Alpha. 23,000,000. Most of those have come to faith. One, you may know of is Bear Grylls. Do you remember Bear Grylls? He was a famous guy but he came to faith through going to Alpha course and I just love their British accents. They're so well done and the talks are so great.

Hannah, what about you? Like, why do you invest your time in this? There's a lot of other things you could do.

Yeah. I think Alpha works really well because it creates a really welcoming environment that not only accepts questions but really encourages them. I think that through Alpha people are able to be comfortable and have dinner, watch a little movie, sit on a couch and eat some cookies and talk about what stood out to you from the video and oh that ties to Cheryl's life experience and hey I have this hard question that I'm gonna bring up because that's what we do at Alpha. So I think it's the environment that creates a really perfect place for connections and conversations and that's what makes Alpha work is those connections.

Cheryl you got anything?

Well I'm a southern girl so it's all about the food. So we do feed you and we try to feed you really well so we do want you to come. But also it's about that we want to have a relationship. We love you. We love everybody that comes and I just, you know, we're outside talking to some of the people who'd been in our tables before and it's just a joy to see them and the what God has done in their life. So it's just about you coming and bringing someone and knowing it's going to make a difference in their life.

Alright, Brian. You know, I say when you read your Bible, need a time, a place, and a method.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I need a time, a place, and a method to figure out how to do this. That's great. So questions we get at Alpha are, is God even there? We get people to come with that basic question. I'm coming because I don't know if God's there. People that are coming and saying, look, I think I'm a Christian. I'm not sure. And I know God's real. I know Jesus is real, but I'm not sure what prayer's about. So there's this huge spectrum of people that come to Alpha.

And when you came in, you got this little Alpha prayer card. Why you grab it real quick? Excellent. The way Alpha works is you come and you experience it yourself. If you have questions, you wanna know more what it's about. But more importantly is you say, God, who in my life is asking questions of faith? Who in my life has been through the pandemic and had a rough time and is saying, man, life is really difficult right now. God, I wish you were out there. God, I'm really mad at you. I was burned by my former church. I'm really mad. I would love to go back to church, but I don't know where. Those are the kind of people we would love to have.

And so what this does is our little alpha prayer campaign, it allows you to say, God, who are three people in my life that I could invite to Alpha? So I want you to open it up. So you'll see this is very easy. You'll see one, two, three. Number one is pray and ask God, who are three people that I can invite to come to Alpha? You may put your name on there. Maybe you're one of those three. Maybe it's your neighbor. Maybe it's your coworker. Maybe it's somebody you see at the soccer field. Maybe it's somebody you see at the grocery store all the time. Who else? Maybe somebody at work. So this is your opportunity. Write those three names down.

Number two, you'll see every day at 11:02, Luke 11:2 is where Jesus teaches the Lord prayer. We're saying at 11:02 every day, set an alarm on your phone and reminds you at 11:02, I'm gonna pray for these three people. God, would you move on their hearts? God, I think they're asking questions about life.

Would you open the door for me to invite them to come? Would you put it on their heart to wanna come and check it out? Come and be served and come experience what it means to be in community. And the third one is be expectant, that God is gonna use you.

So along with that, you'll see there's three cards in there, and those are the cards for you to give to the people that you're praying for. That you're asking, God, open that door. I already know who my three are. My neighbor right here, my neighbor right here, my neighbor right here. Actually, I got four because there's one on the other side as well. So I already know four families that I'm gonna invite.

If you turn the card over, it tells you when it starts. Alpha starts February 1. So you got four weeks to be thinking and praying about. And every day at 11:02, ask the Lord, God, who do you want me to invite? God, move on that person that I see at the grocery store all the time. I know they're asking questions about you. Please move on them to come.