Transcript
First theological student fellowship, noon time forum, these forums will happen almost
weekly throughout the year there's not one next week but they'll start almost weekly at the beginning of October and they'll usually be on Tuesdays or Wednesdays because of the privilege of having Earl Palmer with us today. We moved our time a little bit. Let me also tell you that the theological student fellowship also does some other ministries on campus and Friday night fellowship starts this Friday and it'll be 6.30. Do you know where? Out in front of Stuart so there's going to be volleyball ice cream and then that'll be a
Friday evening worship service and praise time as well as student sharing as the year goes on. Charles Hodge Society is also part of the theological students fellowship and they'll start an apologetics seminar next Tuesday night at 8 o'clock over in Stuart Hall so you're welcome to attend that to Earl Palmer is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and has been a trustee for 22 years and is presently pastor of the University Presbyterian Church in
Seattle, Washington. He is a standard speaker for us in the fall and it is it is our privilege to to hear him today so we welcome him but first I'm going to ask Kat to come up and pray for us.
Lord God we come into your presence at this time God to praise you to praise you for what you're doing in our lives what you're doing in us and through us and to us here at Princeton.
God grant us ease as we breathe in this moment your person and the mystery of now. Grab our attention God surprise us God with the wonder of you today.
Lord we pray for Earl Palmer we thank you God for what you're doing in his life and his ministry God we thank that you that you have given him the opportunity to be with us today.
Lord be with him as he shares his experience his reality and his hope grant us ears to hear the message that you have for us today in Jesus name we pray amen.
Well thank you for inviting me to a TSF again. I really have enjoyed this so much coming every fall and having a chance to be with the TSF in the fall.
You know I've been figuring it out that I've been a member of the trustees now for about 20 some years and since TSF was founded about back there about that time.
I believe or not I have been invited by your predecessors to give a little talk at the beginning of the fall every year for about 20 years now.
So this is a 20 year series of messages I've been giving I got a file of all the talks I've given to TSF I was looking at it the other day and I've talked on so many different topics.
Maybe I'll publish a book on the talks that TSF anyway I've spoken on the case for miracles for biblical exposition the case for that balance in your life and a little last year on encouragement theology I was just whatever it seemed to be in my heart when I got around to the fall that seemed to be brewing in me as I thought well maybe this would be something that students in
your the beginning of your academic year at Princeton you might want to hear might be helpful to you and so I've done it and and you keep inviting me back now I you don't have to you know I don't you don't do it but I really by the way I went and had lunch today upstairs had the keys.
I do not recommend it if you're going on up to lunch afterward very weak item today very herbal and politically correct but the extremely extremely low on the food chain believe me now there with broccoli it was awful and but anyways I at least I didn't eat meat and stuff like that I wish I had
those ribs what I really wanted but then I thought that soap so wrong anyway hey thanks for letting me come I hate that make fun of Princeton I love this school and I'm very loyal I'm meeting right now with a long range planning committee we are making plans for the future they're all secret right now I can't wish I could tell you some of some of the things we're thinking of this afternoon we're going to decide this morning we just dream but I want to do a little Bible I I use
to do I just do a little Bible studies is all I ever do when I when I come to your to TSF and it's something I like to do and so I thought I would do a little Bible study or a brief Bible study from the 8th chapter of Acts and because it it seemed to me it would be a Bible study that would help us think about our ministries and sort of what God wants to do with our lives
and so that's what I would like to do in the 8th chapter of Acts we have it's in the early chapters that we see what the this early church and it's
ambassadorship toward the world is all about and we watch these early Christians share their faith and the one I want to zero in on I'm going to zero in on one of the disciples
and that's Philip in the 8th chapter in the 4th verse it tells about how Philip goes to Samaria and he has a great experience in Samaria and then after that in the 9th verse we meet Simon the magician who is intoxicated with power and he then has a very fascinating
confrontation with Peter I'm going to skip that part because I'm going to stick with with Philip so Philip we meet I'll just read about Philip in
verse 4 now those who were scared it's like persecution is beginning to happen so they were scattered about preaching the word
Philip went down to a city of Samaria and he proclaimed them the Christ and the multitudes of the one accord gave heed to what was said by Philip
and so we get that and there was much joy in that city so there's a sense of ministry he has then Simon the magician who has that
encounter with Peter and now this is the passage I want us to particularly look at the give us you know an insight into Philip
so verse 26 well I'll start with 25 and now when they had testified and spoke into the word of the Lord they returned to Jerusalem
this is after the Simon the magician incident preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans but an angel of the Lord said to Philip rise and go
down toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza this is the Gaza Strip this is a desert road that's an
understatement and that's why nobody wants the Gaza Strip and he went and rose and went and behold an Ethiopian an official minister of
Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure had come to Jerusalem to worship and he was returning
seated in his chariot he was reading the prophet Isaiah and the spirit said to Philip go up and join this chariot
so Philip ran on to him heard him read that reading Isaiah the prophet and asked do you understand what you're reading
and he said how can I list someone guides me and they invited Philip to come up and sit with him
and now the passage of the scripture which he was reading was this and here you have a
brief quotation in Acts from Isaiah 53 as a sheep led to the slaughter or a lamb before it shearers dumb
so he opens not his mouth in his humiliation justice was denied him who can describe his generation
for his life is taken up from the earth and the official then said to Philip about whom
pray does the prophet say this about himself or about someone else then Philip opened his mouth and
beginning with this scripture he told them the good news of Jesus and this marvelous little phrase
good news of Jesus earlier it said he told him about the Christ and Messiah but I love that little
description he told him the good news of Jesus and as they went along the road they came to some water
and the official said to him see here is water what is to prevent my being baptized and he commanded
the chariot to stop and they both went down into the water Philip and the official and he baptized
him and when they came up out of the water the spirit of the Lord caught up Philip and the official
saw no more and then he went in his way rejoicing okay I want to primarily focus in on Philip but
let's just make a few observations about the incident itself and and notice that here are two
men that are both experiencing the wideness of the of the grace of God the wideness of God's love
and it's part of those early chapters of the book of Acts in which foreigners and like the 10th
chapter which is going to be a couple chapters later Peter will share the gospel with Cornelius a
Roman here is an Ethiopian and we're Philip has been with just been with the Samaritans and the
Samaritans you know from the time of 150 BC when they sided with the Syrians against the Jews
the Jews have sort of considered them a renegade and not even true Jews so here you have Philip
sharing the good news with the Samaritans who are outsiders and now here's another outsider and then
in the 10th chapter another outsider so it's kind of interesting isn't we're we're seeing the the
spread of the good news of Christ beyond the the tight Jewish community so notice what happens
here and notice if I if I were going to primarily work about Philip for a minute but if you think
about the Ethiopian and you you ask the question how does he discover the grace of God well
it's very interesting to notice some of the features of the way he makes that discovery
you can see the key role the Bible plays in it he's reading a text in the sacred scripture he's
reading Isaiah he has questions about the text Philip plays a a role with him and says how do
you understand what you're reading so another person who's experienced God's love as experience
this text calls the good news of Jesus of the love and the faithfulness of Christ his own life
Philip then shares with him interprets this text it's interesting the question that the Ethiopian
is very intrigued with this text on suffering this incredible Isaiah 53 passage and you know it's
interesting in the Dead Sea Scrolls and all the commentaries in Isaiah the Jewish community the
first century saw those suffering passages is referring to Israel and yet here you're getting Isaiah
that Phillips says oh no they don't read you refer to Israel they refer to the son of man they
refer to Jesus Christ he's the one who fulfills that suffering he's the one who identifies with us
and that's the good news of Jesus and he uses that passage that passage on the
uh the injustice that Jesus Christ experienced in our behalf when he identified with us and then
he shares in the gospel and then the Ethiopian says well what's to keep me from what's to keep me
from experiencing this love too and what's to stop me he says from being baptized and evidently
Phillips says why I can't think of anything and so he baptizes him on the spot and so you there's
a kind of a boldness breaking through all kinds of barriers and that is becomes for us one of the
really wonderful expansive passages here of the sharing of the gospel and the New Testament okay but
now let's now focus on Philip what I want us to notice today because we're pastors here and
seminarians and young theologians and I'm an older theologian but I'm in ministry like the rest
of you and we're trying to think about what our role is I think it'd be interesting to notice
how God uses Philip to play a vital role in this person's life just like he played a role in the
in the city of Samaria now he gets to play a role in this Ethiopian's life and try to think for a minute
of what are the ingredient parts of Phillips role in the Ethiopian's life and maybe we can dialogue
about this too the first is that he well the first is a kind of is it you might say is a divine
appointment theology he's at the right place at the right time he's where he's supposed to be he's
there in fact the angel told him to go down there you have that sort of miraculous intervention
kind of a divine appointment theology is here that Philip was supposed to be there to meet this man
and I don't know I don't want to maybe overdo that with us though I do believe I do believe that
that there are divine appointments I think the apostle Paul when he talks about the Philippians
praying for him in Philippians 1 he says you know that marvelous passage where he says that yeah I
know through your prayers and the help of the Holy Spirit this will work out for my deliverance
that's Philippians in the first chapter when he says that to them and the word for help there that
is used is only used to place a New Testament epichorēgias and it's used also by Paul in Ephesians when
he talks about the body of Christ being knit together here he used it the your prayers and the
help of the Holy Spirit and that word epichorēgias courageous means choreograph or choral it's where
the word chorus comes from in English and so in a way that passage could be translated that I am
sure that because of your prayers and the choreography of the Holy Spirit this is going to work out
for my deliverance and that again is Paul aware of a kind of divine appointment theology that God
lays something on your heart and if he lays something on your heart if he lays a concern on your
heart he's going to honor it you know I was I said this to my people I have a theory with regard
to giving and stewardship and I said this to my people in Seattle a lot I said you know if this
is a rule of thumb that I've tried to follow in my life if you're praying or you're living your
life and something comes on your heart where you begin to feel a concern for someone do something
about it do something concrete about what's been laid in your heart because maybe that's the
choreography of the Holy Spirit see the the Holy Spirit never takes away your freedom I agree
completely with C.S. Lewis there that he he does not override or cancel out your freedom that would
be like the Screwtapes says that would be useless for God's plan he has no intention to cancel you
out so you can't he doesn't take away your freedom but he does choreograph he arranges appointments
you know I've had three kids that have grown up and they're your age we have a daughter who's
by the way our daughter is married to the former president of T.S.F. Liz Eric Jacobson was
president last year I'm going to go to his ordination and installation this this Sunday at Missoula
Montana where he's going to be ordained as a associate pastor there so we're we're having a big
convergence of all our divine appointment of our whole family to be there to pray for him and
and then I have a son who's 29 and a daughter who's 33 but all these three kids I prayed for them
their whole life growing up and you know you think about what's a prayer is a proper prayer I can't
say Lord make them good I never could pray that what it was he going to do take away their freedom
and turn them into little puppets you can't do that but you know what I have prayed for my kids
I've prayed this all the time I still do Lord bring good people into their lives give them some
appointments with friends make give them some friends that will be enriching to them that is
a tamper with their freedom I'm just asking for angels I'm just asking God to to love them and
bring into their lives some good people and it's happened and all three of our kids as they grew up
they had good people play a role in their lives young adults at the Berkeley Church I was there
for 21 years the pastor so my kids all grew up all three of them grew up their whole 21 years in
Berkeley California so I saw the impact of young adults and older adults that took an interest in
our kids lives did things for them that we could never have done and I believe they were divine
appointments there were people that were at the right place at the right time in the in in connection
with my kids lives and in a way I think that's a good way to look at your ministry that Philip was
at the right place he was where he was supposed to be you know the word for blessing in the Old
Testament Psalm 1 blessed is the man woman who walks in the way of righteousness that word a
char means to be literally in the right place that is the biblical understanding of success not
to be rich but to be where you're supposed to be to be in the way of the Torah see in the right
place and that is really the biblical doctrine of success to be where you're supposed to be
at the moment in your life where you're supposed to be there and I don't know I just I wanted
to reflect on that with you a little bit Philips ministry starts by the fact that he's there and of
course he's there because God wants him there and that's why he's able to ask the question of the
Ethiopian official and the Ethiopian officials are able to ask him some questions and he's able to
have a dialogue he doesn't tamper with the Ethiopians of freedom but he's there to ask a question to
be to answer questions and finally when the guy says well what's to keep me from being baptized he's
there to to even play a role in that welcoming committee he's able to be a welcoming committee
into the family of God with that Ethiopian I think that's what the ministry is all about half
of the ministry is just being someplace and hanging in there and by the way I think it takes time
to hang in there and to be there I always say to youth pastors don't ever see your the beginning
of your ministry as the entry level to your ministry it's your post it's where you're supposed to be
and also stay there for a while I was eight years my my first ministry in Seattle I started as a
youth pastor for eight years I watched two generations go through high school I don't see how you
can be in youth ministry and not stay at least four years to watch a generation go through so you
can actually be there long enough for them to ask you some questions now of course in this
past it all seems to happen so fast but still you have to be it's a good way to test if you're
in a place long enough when people are freed up enough to ask you some questions like hey what's
this text mean they trust you enough to ask you those questions and I'll tell you I've learned
in the ministry I've been you know I'm gonna celebrate my 40th year in ministry this next year
coming back here for my 43 union here at Princeton and I've learned that you only get clout by time
I was in Berkeley 21 years and toward the end of those 21 years I had clout in Berkeley because I
had been there a while and that's the only reason you haven't because you just simply earn it by
sort of being there to where they can begin to ask you questions and some of the big questions
people won't ask until you've sort of been there for a while so that's the first thing I wanted
to observe about Philip he's where he's supposed to be I think he's there by divine appointment and I
think I would say that that's a good way to look at your ministry wherever you are you're here
because God wants you to be here and then of course he he plays his role of it's interesting the
role Philip plays he asks him a question do you understand what you're reading the guy said well
how can I understand when I'm reading he said well let's take a look at what you're reading and then
he says then he boldly becomes a theologian and reads that text through its fulfillment and the
fulfillment is Jesus Christ and that's the gospel so he preaches like Luther Luther would say
he preaches the law in the gospel the law which is what Bonhoeffer would call the next to the last
word and the gospel which is the last the word you've got to have both you've got a journey with
the person through the next to the last word and then the boldness of the Christian pastor is the
Christian preacher affirms the last word that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of this yearning
even he's the fulfillment of this suffering he is the one who's suffered and he gets a chance to
share that good news and that's that's the best thing we've got folks the best thing we've
got is the church is Jesus Christ he's the most exciting thing we have to share
and I can tell you for sure that it's Jesus Christ who will cause your church to grow it's Jesus
Christ who will win young people it's Jesus Christ that will energize you it's Jesus Christ that
will keep your church alive and when you're focused on our Lord as the fulfillment
and the center I like to think of it this way that the key role that the Christian pastor should have
is what I would call the instinct for the center that's instinct for the center and so he plays that
role and then finally he gets to be the welcomer and probably breaks all kinds of church rules
on the you know he hasn't had the the class that he needed to have for the baptism and all
but he goes ahead and says what's to keep me from being baptized anyway you know
I'm not I tend to be very low church on this score and I get in trouble from time to time I find
it's easy to ask forgiveness and to ask permission so sometimes you just do things that you think
are right but you try to do it decently in order so I do believe in that but I do believe the
sacraments are for the people not the people for the sacraments and I do believe that there's a
wonderful freedom you get to be a welcomer and that's the most important thing you get to be
and it's so important for the Christian pastor to play that role of welcoming people in
removing roadblocks to get them in to discover the good news that doesn't mean you don't call them
to repentance it doesn't mean you don't call them to the the the way of discipleship you do
and that's also it's funny that's also part of the welcoming you know sometimes saying
notice somebody saying notice in and yes to Jesus Christ is still part of the welcoming but you
get that role to be able to they're the ones that have to encounter Christ they're the ones that
have to repent you can't do it for anyone but you get to have that wonderful role that
Philip gets to play of the welcomer all right now I want to ask one more thing and then I'm
going to see if I'm going to give you even a C.S. Lewis quotation here I want to ask this one last
question does it intrigue you is it sort of fascinating to you that God would use Philip
to play this role with the Ethiopian we just sort of looked a little bit at the role he plays
but does it intrigue you the God would use Philip to play this role and notice all the work God
goes through according to this text to use Philip he wastes an angel sends an angel to Philip
the Ethiopian is already wide open he's reading the book of Isaiah what more can you ask for he's
he's asking what does it mean and yet God instead of converting the Ethiopian directly which God
certainly could do if he can send an angel to Philip he could certainly just appear to the Ethiopian
and after I'll say you're reading the book of Isaiah here's the fulfillment of Isaiah and then
the Ethiopian would do is in a very malleable and open mood and yet notice what he does
he has an angel go to Philip way up in Samaria and says to Philip go all the way down to Gaza
who wants to go to Gaza and he goes all the way down to Gaza in the desert to meet this man
all right I'll give you even a more impressive one in the 10th chapter of Acts there's a man
named Cornelius who is a Roman centurion that's called he's a seeker after God in fact the text
says he's a godly man he does he does many he's described in one place of doing many kind things
for God's people even a Roman centurion and an angel appears to him all right now there here's
a guy ready to be converted if there ever was a guy ready to be converted ready to become a
worshiper of God and what does the angel say to the Cornelius send somebody down to to Joppa and
you'll find a man named Peter he's at somebody's house get him and bring him here okay now that's
one angel used then if you continue reading in the text Peter is down at Joppa having lunch and he
has a terrible anxiety dream remember the angel has to spend a lot of time with Peter and so an
angel appears to Peter to get Peter ready for this Gentile who's going to come and ask him to
come up to his house and then Peter has this terrible dream about the sheet and he's never
eating anything unclean and then God in the dream says don't say anything that I've made don't
call it unclean so Peter gets ready for the the guests who come to the door from Cornelius and then
he goes up to Cornelius's house it's interesting he enters Cornelius's house and Peter who is very racist
says you know I'm not supposed to go under a house into the house of a Gentile but God has shown
me that he is no respecter persons so I'm going to come in here so Peter did finally learn
and later Annie Ock he unlearned it and then Paul had to confront you know confront him again
but Peter is he learned for a while a lot of repentance does not last very long but this one
lasts it for a while and so notice you got an angel that goes to Cornelius and angel that goes to
Peter and says Peter now go on up and speak to him and then Peter gets to share the good news
of the Cornelius and Peter gets the joy of seeing Cornelius become a Christian a believer and
to baptize Cornelius in his household all right I want to ask you this simple question if God is
so powerful and he is and certainly he you think he's very efficient why would he waste
these two angels to do already Cornelius is wide open Cornelius is ready to be converted why
spend all this time to have Peter come down or up to Cornelius's house and why spend all this time
to send Philip down to the desert what a waste why does God do that or let me put it in very
existential terms for you why is God wasting all this time on you why is he sending you to a small
parish to meet and get to know if you're in youth ministry get to know young men and women as
they go through high school or if you're with older folks get to know people who are in all the
different stages of their lives in their life journey why is he doing this why would God do that
with us I mean he certainly could do it more efficiently it must be that there's something that
Peter can do that the angel can't do it must be there's something that you can do that you have a
role you can play that only you can play I had an amazing experience a few months ago I was with a
a group of Chinese pastors and the father figure in that Chinese pastors conference it was a
Mandarin speaking pastors conference and I was asked to give four Bible studies on the book of
Philippians to that Mandarin speaking conference through a translator and it was a wonderful experience
to to teach expositionally with in with the translator who translated into Mandarin and
anyway at that conference the father sort of the the great leader of the conference was Reverend
Paul Chen who is a man about 76 years old and a truly great preacher and I had a chance to hear him
preach in Mandarin and then it was translated to me in English by just a person sitting next to
me translating as he spoke and he was truly a great preacher and I had a chance to hear this man who's
had such an influence in among the Mandarin speaking Chinese congregations in Canada and the
United States sort of like the father figure for so many of these Mandarin speaking congregations
and anyway he told the story that literally was so powerful on this regard he said that he is
Shanghaiese and he speaks Shanghaiese and he told this story in Arabic just roared because these are
these are funny stories if for Chinese Chinese speaking folks have a lot of fun with the
different dialects of the Chinese language in fact I was at a 12 course dinner after all the
whole conference was over with these with these folks that were all participants in the conference
and I found out that the main humor of the whole evening after we had toast at the beginning
and we had a little speech given by Reverend Chan at the beginning and then we started the dinner
and I noticed that throughout the whole dinner some of the most of the humor in the dinner had
to do with different dialects misunderstanding each other and how how funny it was between
Mandarin's and Cantonese and Shanghaiese and all the people speaking different dialects and not
understanding and so he told this joke and so everybody got a big kick out of this joke he said
I was in Hong Kong and I wanted to have some soup and I went to this restaurant and I wanted
to order some soup so I ordered soup and the waitress laughed when I gave the order because I
asked for noodle soup and he was using his own Shanghaiese dialect of Mandarin and evidently
in Cantonese the Mandarin word at least the Shanghaiese Mandarin word for noodle soup
really is shoelaces soup and so everybody just roared and he said the waitress was laughing at me
because I was asking for shoelaces soup and she could understand why I would want shoelaces soup
and so everybody just roared and I thought it was the funniest story and then he after telling that
little story he said oh but I when I get to preach or share the gospel of Jesus Christ with my
broken Shanghaiese Mandarin and as imperfectly as I speak it and share the gospel with someone
I can still share the gospel better than an angel can because I can share about forgiveness
and an angel can't I can explain the good news of Jesus who suffered see it's interesting it's
the Isaiah 53 passage that the Ethiopian official was reading and I can share that better than God
himself can better than an angel can because I'm the sinner for whom that suffering servant died
I can share about forgiveness and that's the good news and Dr. Shan said and you know it helped
make all these pieces come together for me he said that's why God uses you to share the gospel
because you can share something that no one else can really share other that was neat
and and that's the role we get to play we get to be we get to be there
at the right place at the right time and we get to ask questions and sometimes we're asked
questions and then we get to do our best with that instinct for the center to point to Jesus Christ
and then we get to welcome and in the middle of it all there's a great part of that message that
we get to share that we can do better than anybody else can do I just thought that was good
I want to read you see us loose quote from Screwtape Letters that also kind of helped me a little
bit in this regard in chapter 22 of Screwtape Letters you know a senior devil is writing to a
junior devil in this book and in chapter 22 the Screwtape is quite upset with wormwood because
this young man who's the patient has not only fallen in love with this girl but he's got to know
her family and you're going to see Lewis now work on that family which is kind of like Lewis is
working on the church and and I just love to see the way he puts it so here's what Screwtape says
he says then of course the patient gets to know this woman's family the whole circle could you
not see that the very house she lives in is one that he ought never to have entered
the whole place reeks of that deadly odor remember in the book of of Corinthians Paul talks about
the the aroma of Christ well that you have to remember in Screwtape Letters you have to reverse
everything the aroma of Christ is a deadly odor to the devil to evil is deadly and there
that is a mystery that we get to be the we get to be the deadly odor or it's opposite the
life giving odor we get to be that and you can only say it's because the grace of God
because you and I have experienced that to that love that can transform I'll finish reading
the way Lewis puts it so he says could you not see the very house she lives in is one he ought never
to have entered the whole place reeks of that deadly odor the very gardener though he's been
there only five years is beginning to acquire it even guess after a weekend visit carry some of
the smell away with him the dog and the cat are tainted with it you know that's kind of good too
even the created order benefits from your when you've experienced God's love and faithfulness
okay I'll see the how the dog and the cat are tainted with it the house is full of the impenetrable
mystery that's interesting it's filled with an impenetrable mystery at least to the devil he can't
figure it out evil cannot figure it out there is something there is a mystery and that's that
that wonderful mystery that God uses Philip with that Ethiopian hey that's that's the Bible study I
thought I would do with you guys and I know the time is up but I'm sorry I used every bit of it
for the Bible study but if uh if anybody wants to hang around for a minute I have to go back
to my meeting and you probably have to all go to class too but let me pray with you
hello Lord I just thank you for this wonderful simple text about our ministries
and I just pray that each of us in this room will have ministries and divine appointments
and that we'll experience that impenetrable mystery that living order and that we'll be able to
share it with people around us and that people around us will share it with us so Lord bless
bless these students this year here at Princeton what a tremendous place to be it was a life changing
place for me and I just pray that it'll be a marvelous place to build friendships and also
to grow theologically for this this wonderful group of young man and women as they prepare for
ministry so Lord thank you for the ministries we're already in and bless us in in what you have in
store for us and the Gaza strips you have to take us to in Christ name we pray amen