The Man was an Ethiopian Eunuch! And the fact that Philip baptized him into the church was grounds for much discussion. Now, you or I would notice first that this man was black, but to Philip, or any other Jew of his day, the problem was that he was a eunuch. The Laws of Moses were clear about such people. He could not be a part of God's people. Yet this eunuch sought to worship God. He was a God fearing Gentile. In fact he was on his way back from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem where as he would have worshipped in the outermost part of the temple, the court of the Gentiles. He was also reading and studying the prophets.

As if being a eunuch was not enough, he was also a Gentile. Up to this point all the converts to Christianity had been Jews first. Consider the precedent that was being set here. If you let in this Ethiopian, next you have to let in Medes and Persians and Greeks. Where will it all end? I mean, you wouldn't want to sit next to a Gentiles in church, would you? Even Samaritans will be joining the church! Before long there will be more Gentiles than Jews in Jesus' church! They'll have to move church headquarters from Jerusalem to Greece or Rome or who knows where.

But this Ethiopian Eunuch was a man thirsting for God. To not baptize him would be like... like... like denying water to one dying of thirst. Anyway it was God who led Philip to this place. It was an angel that led Philip to him. It was the Holy Spirit that told him to run up to the Chariot. Now understand he couldn't just walk up to this chariot. He had to run up to a moving chariot to talk to this man. So Philip did as God told him to and he explained the Scriptures to the Ethiopian. He offered a spiritually thirsty man the water of life. Philip told him about Jesus. And that Eunuch accepted Christ and was baptized. Philip accepted and loved a man that others would have rejected, and he did it just because the Spirit told him to.

One of the defining characteristics of a Christian is love. A true Christian accepts others as they are, because that is how we came to Christ. Each of us came to Christ with nothing. No wealth, no prestige, no beauty, no love. Because any earthly wealth, prestige, beauty or affection that we had was nothing next to Christ. In fact we came in a fallen state as sinners. But Christ accepted us and made us fellow heirs with him in God's kingdom. So Christians should accept others with the same kind of love God showed us.

Paul says without love all our works are nothing.(1 Cor. 13:1-3) John writes, "Beloved, love one another for love is of God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God."(4:7) "God is love" and if he dwells in us our actions are motivated by that love. If we are motivated by anything other than love, then God is not in us.

Love is so important to being a child of God, but too often we fail to love. We ought to love and accept people who are different from us: people with long hair and strange clothes, people who don't dress good enough or who dress too good, Black people, brown people, red people, yellow people and even those who we are not sure what color they are. We ought to love them and accept them. We are called even to love sinners like racists and homosexuals. We should never condone their sin, but we can love the sinner while hating the sin. After all Jesus loved us while we were still sinners. We should even love bothersome preacher who steps on our toes.

There is a spiritual goes like this: "I'm gonna sing when the Spirit says sing." We ought to love when the Spirit says love. That's exactly what Philip did. When the Spirit said, "run up to that chariot and reach out to that Eunuch with God's love," Philip did it. He didn't worry about what people would think when they saw him running up to that chariot. And when the Ethiopian Eunuch asked to be baptized, Philip didn't worry about what the others in Jerusalem would say.

Like Philip, we should let love rule our lives too. If you say "I love God" and you don't love your neighbor, you're a liar.(1 John 4:20) I didn't make that up. It's in the Bible. If you can't love your neighbor whom you can see, how can you love God whom you can't see?(1 John 4:20)

If you have given you life to Christ, then God lives in you and God is love.(1 John 4:15- 16) Let that love motivate your actions. When God's Spirit says, "Love that unwanted unrighteous person who you judge to be the wrong color or from the wrong side of the tracks or from the wrong family," then love them. Don't worry about what your friends will say if they see you with them. What they say doesn't matter anyway. You should be concerned about what your Father in Heaven will say on that great day of judgment. Show them God's love with your actions and tell them of God's love with your words. And don't be afraid to introduce them to your friends; especially Jesus. And don't be afraid to bring them to church and introduce them to God's people no matter who they are. We might end up with a church full of Middianites and Persians and even a few Ethiopian Eunuchs, but we'll be sharing God's love and that is always wonderful.

John 15:1-11

"It's not what you know, it's who you know." Have you ever heard that saying before? Sometimes it is used as a pessimistic remark about favoritism in high places. But when applied to spiritual matters it has a different sound. We could never know enough to pass any theology test devised by God. So all He requires is that we know his Son: Jesus. Getting into heaven is not about what you know but who you know. It's all about the Jesus Connection.

In a sense that is what the parable of the vine tells us. But it goes beyond that. It not only says that we must have a relationship with Jesus it describes what kind of relationship. It tells us our place and role as well as God's place and role. It also tells us how Jesus fits into it all

Jesus' little discourse about the vine and the branches is an extended metaphor that has three parts to it. First there is God who is the farmer, the caretaker, of the vine. Then there is Jesus who is the main part of the vine. And finally there are the branches, which are the followers of Jesus.

But what does it all mean?

First let's consider God: the vine grower. The role of the vine grower is to care for the vine so that it is able to produce fruit. Jesus says that every branch that bears no fruit he removes. Such branches simply sap energy from the branches that are producing fruit so God removes them and throws them in the trash heap. There were a lot of fruitless branches on God's vine in Jesus' day. The Sadducees and the Pharisees were not serving God and they were among the ones that God would cut off.

So if God cuts off the fruitless branches God must pamper the fruitful ones, right? Wrong! Jesus says that God "prunes" the fruitful branches. Ouch! What's the difference between pruning and removing. As I studied this passage I discovered that apparently to care for a grape vine one has to prune it. If the branches are not pruned they produce little or no fruit. However if they are properly pruned they produce much fruit. In the next verse Jesus says that you have already been "cleansed" by the word I have spoken to you. There is a play on words here. The same root word is used for both "prune" and "cleanse" in the Greek. So through Jesus' teachings we are being pruned so we can bear fruit. Have you ever read the Bible or heard it preached and felt a twinge of pain from it. Maybe it spoke to your heart about some way that you were not serving God as you should. When that happens to some people they think, "Well I must not have been a very good Christian or I wouldn't be feeling convicted of that sin or lack of faith." On the contrary, if you were unfruitful you would not feel that twinge. You would have been cut off from God and your heart would have been hardened to the Spirit convicting you. But because you feel that twinge God is pruning you to make you more fruitful. The fact that the Spirit is working on your heart proves that you must be producing fruit for God. It also shows that God foresees you producing more fruit!

It is like a parent who places demands on a child. The parent makes the child study and do their homework. The parent makes the child take responsibilities. Many times the child doesn't like it, but it is done in love. It the parent cared less they would not train or discipline the child at all. In the same way God loves us and sometimes that love includes telling us we are wrong or allowing circumstances to change our lives. God does not want to hurt us. God simply wants to cleanse us of those things that are keeping us from producing more fruit.

That is God's role in caring for the vine, but what about the vine and its branches. Jesus said, "I am the true vine." The purpose of the vine is to carry water and nutrients to the branches. Without those nutrients the branches would die. They need what the vine supplies to live and to grow and to make fruit.

Jesus also said "you are the branches." "Abide in me and I in you, just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me."(15:4) Without the water of life and the spiritual nourishment that Jesus provides, we would die. We need Jesus, the vine, to provide those things. That is the Jesus connection.

And what do we need those things for? To bear much fruit! What does this fruit look like? Some people think Jesus is speaking only of leading people to Christ. And that is part but it is much more. The Old Testament uses the image of Israel as a vine that God transplanted and built a vineyard for.(Jer. 2:21) It was supposed to produce justice and righteousness. God's purpose for Israel was to be an example of holiness to the nations. The New Testament speaks of the fruit of the Spirit being: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."(Gal. 5:22-23) These are the things that our lives should produce as a result of being in Christ.

So living the Christian life is all about the Jesus Connection. Are you connected? Do you have an uplink to God? I'm serious! Without it we're dead. Jesus' cute little parable here says that without it we will be cut off.

If you answer, "yes, I am connected," then where is your fruit? Do you find the fruits of the Spirit in your life? Do you have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? If not, look out because the cosmic shears are coming.

If we are truly honest with ourselves we would probably all say "yes and no." Sometimes there are parts of our lives that are dead wood. Places in our hearts that are not producing these fruits. God needs to prune those. Yes it will hurt, but it will enable us to bear more fruit.

Jesus said he is the vine and we are the branches. And he came that we may be filled with the joy of the spirit. Seek to abide in him that he may abide in you and give you joy!