Servant, Evangelist, Father
Acts 21:8-9
Our trip to see Robin Hood started me thinking about one
the first times I attended a live performance with professional actors—with an
actor I’d seen on TV. The actor was
John Davidson. Right now, some of you
are thinking I haven’t heard of John Davidson in ages, is he still alive? The answer is yes. The play was Carousel.
This Rodgers and Hammerstein
musical tells the story of a carnival worker, Billy Bigelow, who meets a young
woman, Julie Jordan, in a small New England town where the carnival is
playing. They fall in love and marry. Then they both lose their jobs, just as Julie
learns she is pregnant. I won’t tell you
any more of the story except to say that when he discovers he is going to be a
father, Billy sings a song that marks a turning point in the story.
At first, he sings about all the fun he will
have with his son. Then, suddenly, it
occurs to him that Julie might give birth to a daughter. The song goes on:
What if
he is a girl?
What would I do with her?
What could I do for her?
A bum with no money!
You can have fun with a son
But you gotta be a father to a girl
What would I do with her?
What could I do for her?
A bum with no money!
You can have fun with a son
But you gotta be a father to a girl
Of course, we can only hope that
men know “you gotta be a father” to both girls and boys.
This is why fathers who might
wish to be role models, need role models.
One of these role models is
Philip. If you’ve been in church long,
you know him as a servant and an evangelist.
You might not know him as a father.
We meet him in that role long
after Luke had introduced him as servant and evangelist. Luke’s reference to
Philip’s daughters allows us to surmise something about him as a father
But first I’ll offer a word of
clarification. That these four young
women might have functioned as prophets in the church in Caesarea would have
surprised no one who knew about the birth of the church on Pentecost nearly
three decades before.
In his sermon on that day Peter
had quoted Joel to explain what was happening.
The passage he used included the words “your sons and your daughters
will prophesy.” The phrase, which has been
used throughout the history of Christianity to justify the women ministering in
the churches, was fulfilled within the worship of the early church.
Because we Baptists seldom speak
of “prophets” or “prophetesses” in our congregations, perhaps I should briefly
examine the role of prophecy in the New Testament church.
To begin with, Paul saw the
ability to prophesy as a charism, a
supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit to the church. While Paul seems to have believed any
Christian could prophecy, since the Spirit indwells each believer, he also
recognizes that some individuals in a congregation appear to be gifted
specially to offer prophecies (I Cor. 12:10).
In Paul’s view…
“[a]
prophecy is given in order to meet one or more needs within the Christian
community for guidance and direction, edification, encouragement, consolation
or witness, and it ultimately points back to the One who gives this gift.”[1]
At the same time, prophecy was “a
major means whereby God communicated with his people.”[2] This is why Paul valued the gift of prophecy
over the gift of speaking in tongues (unless accompanied by the gift of
interpretation) and why he warned the Thessalonians against “quenching” the
Spirit by despising or disdaining prophecy.[3]
David Aune points out that most
Protestants follow the Reformers of the sixteenth century by insisting that the
gift of prophecy has morphed into preaching rooted in the thoughtful exposition
of the Word of God. Pentecostals and
Charismatics, on the other hand, while not denying the Spirit speaks
“prophetically” through preachers, would not limit the gift of prophecy to this
mode of expression.[4] Most Baptists seem to believe that the
prophecy of the New Testament church has become the preaching of the modern
church.
Exactly how Philip’s daughters
carried on their role in the church may not be clear. Still,
a couple points seem obvious: The women
spoke to the church and what they said held a special authority.[5]
Now, I understand that the
theological term for the statement I just made is “can of worms.” So, let me say that my point this morning has
nothing to do with the gender of Philip’s children. Well, almost nothing.
Certainly, I could say most of
what I am about to say even if Luke had told us Philip had “four unmarried sons
who prophesied.”
So, let’s look at Philip the
servant, evangelist, and father.
1. Philip led his children to a genuine
commitment to Christ.
Philip was described as “one of
the seven” a reference that takes us back to the days of the early church when
it was wrestling with growing pains. One problem involved making sure
poor-relief funds were fairly distributed all the poor. The solution was the creation of a team to
coordinate the distribution. While
common sense and a practical bent were important, the apostles realized that
the team members needed other qualities.
They were to be “men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of
wisdom.” To be full of the Spirit meant
their commitment to Christ was deep and genuine.
Now, years later, his daughters
showed that same commitment. Their capacity
to prophesy indicated that they, too, were full of the Spirit.
I think most parents would love
to be able to help their children get a good education and even get start in
life. Philip passed on something of greater value to his daughters—a faith that
would sustain them as they faced life.
Fathers in the first century had
a greater influence on their children than today’s fathers. The threat of prison could do that. But forcing a child to follow your religion
by no means guaranteed they would be true believers. That kind of influence demanded
integrity. Dawson McAlister talks about
this.
Kids
want to know if the Christian faith actually works, and one way they can be
shown that is to observe it working in the lives of their parents. In the end,
Christianity is not simply taught, it’s caught. And if you ain’t got it, they
won’t catch it. So I say to parents, “Get right with God. Live for God, not
simply for yourself but also for your children and your children’s children.”
Philip lived his faith before his
daughters and his integrity bore fruit.
2. Philip was a father who instilled in his
children a desire to serve the Lord.
Don’t forget how we first met
Philip. He had made himself available to
serve the church in a practical way. He
helped make sure no one was neglected when help was given to the poor in the
church.
We don’t know all that may have
meant but it may have included something as practical as carrying meals to the
poor. In any case, Philip was soon
involved in other work. It was the work that would earn him the title
“the evangelist.” Philip carried the
gospel to the Samaritans, that despised group whom most Jews would have
believed to be beyond redemption. He
also witnessed on a lonely country road to an Ethiopian official. He led the man to Christ. We don’t know this for sure but it’s
reasonable that the man was able to share the gospel at the highest level of
Ethiopian society.
Now, years later, Philip’s own
daughters were serving the church with their own gifts.
Sometimes I think my generation
has done the younger generation a disservice. We’ve been so intent on making
church an entertaining, even fun, experience that we have failed to remind them
that the church is a place of service.
Philip helped his daughters
discover that following Christ could give them a sense of purpose and
fulfillment.
3. Philip helped inspire his daughters toward a
life of purity.
When the summer Olympics begin in
a few weeks a lot of attention is going to be focused on a young woman who grew
up in poverty and in a broken home but found peace through her faith in
Christ. She says that God has helped
her so much in her life that even if she were to never win a medal, she would
still praise him.
Her name is Lolo Jones. The twenty-nine year old, who will compete
for the US in the London, is expected to win the 100m hurdles. Not long ago she surprised fans by admitting
she is a virgin, something many in our culture consider not only an oddity but
an impossibility for an attractive woman who is almost thirty. In an interview with Bryant Gumble she talked
about the challenge to live with sexual purity in our age and why she had made
that choice.
It’s
just a gift I want to give my husband.
But please understand this journey has been hard. There are virgins out there and I want to let
them know that it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Harder than
training for the Olympics. Harder than
graduating from college has been to stay a virgin before marriage. I’ve been tempted. I’ve had plenty of opportunities.
There were plenty of
opportunities to surrender to sexual temptation in the first century as well.
Some of our translations refer to
Philip’s daughters as “unmarried.” The literal term is “virgins.” While it means these women were unmarried, it
also implies they had never had sexual relations with a man. That’s not always the implication of the term
“unmarried” today.
Much like today, the climate
around Caesarea was filled with temptation to sexual looseness. There would have been plenty of opportunities
for Philip’s daughters to abandon the moral standards shared by Judaism and
Christianity.
Philip’s wife, the girls’ mother,
isn’t mentioned. We don’t know if she
was still alive. Certainly, she had a
role in their upbringing. Her character
was probably reflected in her daughters’ demeanor. Perhaps they learned the importance of
hospitality from her, so they could make the wandering missionaries welcome.
But my focus is on Philip and his
influence. Even today a father can help
move his children toward sexual purity.
He might model for his son the proper attitude toward women and
sexuality. At the same time, it’s said a
young women learns from her father what a man is like. That means if a girl sees her father behave
as if any woman is just an object of lust, that’s what she will expect from any
man and nothing more.
A Christian father understands
maintaining sexual purity is a challenge because he faces that challenge and
because he faces that challenge he will accept the high call to pray for his
children.
It’s possible Luke’s reference to
Philip’s daughters being “unmarried” or “virgins” underscores the depth of
their commitment to Christ. Still, the
call to purity is no less and, really, no more than it is for any Christian
young person.
It is a blessed young person who
has Christian parents who will pray and offer support to their children as they
strive for purity in our culture.
4. Philip was a father who showed
his children that God can overcome the hatred that builds walls between people.
Philip was a trail-blazer. He took the gospel to the Samaritans and was
instrumental in introducing the Ethiopians to the gospel. As a Jew he had probably been instilled with
disdain for the Samaritans but God’s love overcame it. Earl Radmacher describes the impact of
Philip’s ministry.
…the
gospel message transcended the first-century barrier between the Jews and
Samaritans. The Spirit of God created a loving fellowship of believers out of
the hate that existed. The formation of the Samaritan church indicates that
there is no room for racism in the church, for Jesus died for the sins of the
whole world.[6]
Over the years, I’ve met my share
of unashamed racists. I’m sure you have
too. I’ve rarely met a twenty or
thirty-something racist who didn’t have a father or mother who was a racist. It is a sad heritage that’s too often passed
from one generation to the next. The
hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans had been passed from generation to
generation for almost eight centuries.
This is conjecture. But I’m guessing that as Philip ministered in
that cosmopolitan seaport town of Caesarea, filled as it was with so many
cultures, he never allowed skin-color or accents to keep him from sharing God’s
love.
His daughters would have watched
and learned. They saw him treat those
who were different with grace and respect.
They never heard him use a pejorative, derogatory slur for a fellow
human being. They never knew him to
blame a whole race of people for the actions of one. They watched him give every individual the
honor due one for whom Christ died.
Some of you were raised by
racists. You have the choice of passing
that racism on to another generation or stopping it now. Learn from Philip.
5. Philip was a father who encouraged his
daughters look beyond social barriers in their quest to do God’s will.
Several years ago, Barbra
Streisand starred in a film called Yentl. It’s the story of a young woman who
disguised herself as a man so she could study the Torah. The story was set in the nineteenth century
but the same attitude was found in the first century.
Rabbis believed it was a waste of time to try to teach the Torah to a woman.
Rabbis believed it was a waste of time to try to teach the Torah to a woman.
The Greek culture gave a little
more freedom to women but very little more.
Most of what I’ve said could have
applied to a father of four sons. Now, I
want to speak about Philip as a father of daughters.
Philip might have allowed the pressure
of his Jewish culture to persuade him to squelch his daughters’ first tentative
efforts to exercise their gifts. He
didn’t.
This servant and evangelist would
not prevent his daughters from doing the work God had for them. He seized the opportunity to serve as an
encourager, not as a champion of the status quo.
Back when I attended seminary in
New Orleans, Pat and I knew the wife of a fellow student. She was in her mid-twenties but couldn’t
drive. She had never learned. Her father told her she didn’t need to drive
because she would eventually marry and her husband would drive her wherever she
needed to go.
Her father was a model of those
fathers who would tell their daughters that God couldn’t possibly have
something special for them to do, that it would be best if they simply married
and lived a conventional life.
This father might have told his
daughter that things are they way they are and she wasn’t going to change them. Philip wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t stand in his daughters’ way or in
God’s way.
Conclusion:
Philip’s culture would have offered little support to him as he tried to
be a model father. Still, he was just
that.
Any parent could learn from
him.
[1] C.
M. Robeck, Jr, “Prophecy, Prophesying,” Dictionary
of Paul and His Letters, Ed. G. F. Hawthorne and R. P. Martin, Downers
Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press, 1993,
p.755.
[2] David
Aune, “Prophecy,” Encyclopedia of the
Bible, Volume 2, Walter Elwell, Ed, London:
Marshall Pickering, 1988, p. 1778.
[3]
See I Cor. 14:6ff and I Thess. 5:19-20.
[4]
Aune, p. 761.
[5] Check a good Bible dictionary or encyclopedia
for the role of the prophet in the New Testament church.
[6] Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., &
House, H. W. (1997). The Nelson
Study Bible: New King James Version (Ac 8:5). Nashville: T. Nelson
Publishers.
