Sunday Worship Service November 2, 2025

Prelude
Call to Worship Psalm 96:3
Hymn JBC # 61 Morning has broken like the first morning
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 554 All the way my Saviour leads me
The Prayer Time
Offering
Scripture Acts 8:26~40
Prayer
Sermon “Do you understand what you are reading?”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 510 When we walk with the Lord
Doxology JBC # 676
Benediction
Postlude


In today's Bible passage, the angel of the Lord appeared to Philip and said, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”
Philip was a Christ preacher and he was one of the seven men chosen to oversee the “fair distribution of food,” an issue that had arisen within the Jerusalem church.
This was about 2000 years ago. It was after Jesus Christ had been crucified, died, risen, and ascended into heaven.
Jesus no longer lived on earth as a human being. He was no longer physically present with His disciples.
However, the disciples received the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of God, the Helper whom Jesus promised to send to them.
Through these disciples who received the Holy Spirit, the Gospel of God (the Gospel of Jesus Christ) began to be proclaimed to many people.
　Even now, we in the Christian church and each individual Christian connected to the church continue this work as bearers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It is a great joy for us to believe in Christ, to be kept alive by the gospel of Christ, and to be able to serve in the work of proclaiming the gospel of Christ.

We are kept alive by the grace of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.
Believing and rejoicing in this, we desire to serve joyfully in the work of sharing this good news with others.
As I mentioned at the beginning, in today's passage Philip hears the voice of the Lord's angel. The Lord's angel is a being who conveys God's message to people.
　Believing in God is not merely acknowledging God's existence intellectually in one's mind.
Believing in God means following God's voice and walking the path God shows.
However, while Philip clearly heard the Lord's (angel's) voice, I believe it is not common for us today to hear God's voice clearly with our ears—though it is not entirely impossible.
Yet, when we pray seeking the path God shows us and look for answers within the words of Scripture, God conveys His voice to us.
Moreover, when we pray together with fellow believers, our spiritual family, seeking the path God shows us, the way forward may be revealed.
Therefore, being part of a community of faith is very important.

It is a great joy for us to be members of this community of faith, to be a spiritual family praying together, seeking the voice of God speaking to us.
We desire to love and cherish our church, which is such a community of faith.
The road shown to Philip in today's passage is described as “the road from Jerusalem down to Gaza,” and it is written that it was a “desert road.”
As you all know, the places named Jerusalem and Gaza are precisely where intense, tragic conflict and fighting are currently taking place.
We hear that many people are suffering there, and precious lives are being lost.
We pray without ceasing, hoping that the cycle of hatred and conflict will end, and that precious lives will be protected.
Philip was directed by the Lord to proceed along that “desert road” leading from Jerusalem to Gaza.
Since it was a desert road, it was likely a path few people desired to take—a lonely, deserted road (place).

Philip himself may have preferred not to go down such a desolate road. Yet he obeyed the voice of the Lord (God).
There may be times when the path we are called to walk—the path shown by God—leads us to a place that feels less than desirable or joyful to us.
Yet, if God has given us this direction, we desire to be believers who can move forward in that direction.
For beyond it may lie wonderful encounters and events prepared by God—far beyond what we could ever think or imagine.
What unfolds in today's passage was precisely such an encounter.
An Ethiopian eunuch appears—a high official (a person of high rank) of Queen Candace of Ethiopia who managed all her possessions.

A “eunuch” was typically a castrated man serving as a high official in the royal court of that time.
Since this man managed all the queen's property, he could be called the kingdom's treasurer. That was a position of considerable high rank.
Even such a man of high standing, and he was an Ethiopian—a foreigner and a Gentile from the Jewish perspective—had come to Jerusalem to worship the true God.
No matter how high his position, no matter how much social status or fame he possessed, this man had been given a heart that sought the true God.
This eunuch had finished his worship in Jerusalem and was returning home by chariot. And in his chariot, he was reading aloud from the Book of Isaiah (one of the books of the Old Testament).
According to verse 29, the Spirit said to Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” When Philip ran up, he heard the eunuch reading aloud from the Book of Isaiah.

Philip then asked the eunuch, “Do you understand what you are reading?”　
What Philip said could be interpreted as quite a rude remark.
It was essentially asking, “You seem very enthusiastic about reading the Scriptures, but do you actually understand what you're reading?”
However, from the eunuch's fervent reading of Isaiah, Philip could sense his earnest desire to seek God's word and his genuine longing to hear God's message from it.
So Philip intuitively sensed that “now is the time” and seized the opportunity to tell God's word (to share God's message) by asking, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
The eunuch replied, “How can I unless someone explains it to me?”
The eunuch's answer is remarkably honest. He confesses, “I cannot understand the meaning of what is written here (in the Scriptures) on my own.”
Admitting what we don't know is quite difficult for us. This is because we have pride.
Doesn't pride get in the way, preventing us from saying (or making us unwilling to say), “I can't do it,” or “I don't know”?

Yet in reality, we don't know many things—most things. It is crucial to humbly admit we don't know most important matters and seek instruction from others.
In this sense, Philip and the eunuch engage in a remarkably candid, open-hearted conversation (dialogue) in today's passage. Such dialogue is also vital for us.
　We can read the words of the Bible alone.
Yet, at the same time, when we read the Bible together with other believers, teaching each other its contents and listening to others' understanding and interpretations, we can grasp the deep meaning of God's Word in Scripture—meaning we would never discover (or notice) reading alone.
As mature believers who delight in hearing and teaching the words of Scripture together, let each one of us grow within the church.
Philip explained the gospel about Jesus Christ to the eunuch, starting from the passage of Isaiah 53 he was reading.
That passage in Isaiah 53 reads as follows (today's verses 32-33):

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”

This passage from the Old Testament Book of Isaiah prophesies how Christ would bear the sins of humanity and be crucified—how Christ would accept this mission without resistance, remaining silent.
Philip explained to the eunuch that these prophetic words from Isaiah were fulfilled in Jesus Christ—that Christ truly came into the world, bore the sins of humanity, and died on the cross.
The words of Scripture throughout the Old and New Testaments point to Jesus Christ.
The messages proclaimed in church through the preacher (pastor) are also founded on the Bible, and their central theme is Jesus Christ.
My earnest desire as a preacher and evangelist is that through the weekly worship service and the biblical message shared there, each of you may encounter Jesus Christ anew.
When you leave the church after worship, I hope each and every one of you will think, “Through today's words of Scripture, I met Jesus.”

As Philip and the eunuch continued on their way, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, they came to a place where there was water (verse 36).
It is said that this was a “desert road,” meaning a location like a wilderness. Being a wilderness, water was likely extremely scarce there.
In a place where finding water would normally be difficult, Philip and the eunuch, who were sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, came to a place where there was water.
Then the eunuch said,
　“Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?”

The eunuch believed, “Now is the time,” and “I now understand what the Scriptures say. It is the grace of Christ.”
Moreover, there was water there. The eunuch was given the conviction: “Now is the time for me to believe in Christ and be baptized as a sign of that faith.”
This remarkable encounter between the two men, and the fact that they found water in a place where it is usually hard to find along the road they were traveling, both show that these were instances of God's (the Holy Spirit's) guidance.
It was the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit, who led Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in today’ scene. Human encounters are truly mysterious events. We can believe that God's providence is at work there.
We gather weekly in church for worship. We always hear God's word together in this way.
I believe that even this seemingly ordinary event—our shared worship, too—is itself a miraculous act of grace, brought about by the guidance of God's Spirit.
Each time we acknowledge the immeasurable grace of God's Word, give thanks, hear His Word, and share it together—each time we worship—let us be granted a fresh encounter with Jesus.
And shall we resolve to believe in Christ and live anew?