High Calling Magazine

The official publication of The Francis Asbury Society

Message in the Bottle
BY STAN KEY

Eugene H. Peterson tells the story of a group of people who lived on an island. Surrounded by water in the midst of a vast ocean, these relatively happy islanders lived and died assuming that their little piece of real estate was the sum total of all reality. They never dreamed that across the waves, beyond their ability to see it, a mainland existed.

One day, however, everything changed. While walking along the beach, one of the inhabitants discovered a bottle washed up on the shore. Picking it up, he was amazed to discover a piece of paper inside with a three-word message: "Help is coming!"

What could it mean? No one on the island had ever even imagined that they needed help. Who could the author be? And what kind of help was it talking about? Should this be taken seriously or was this some kind of a prank? A few weeks later another bottle with another message was discovered: "Don't give up. Help left today," it said. In the following months, similar messages were received.

These messages caused great turmoil on the island. Many people scoffed. Others offered various "scientific explanations" for the origin of these messages. Some paid no attention at all and continued to live as before. But for a few people these messages were taken with utmost seriousness. They realized that they were being addressed by someone they did not know who was informing them of needs they did not realize they had! Perhaps there was more to life than what they had experienced on their little island. Perhaps there were other peoples and other worlds. Perhaps there really was a mainland and this island was only a small part of a universe that was much bigger than they had ever imagined.

For these people, these little scraps of paper became more precious than all the books in all the libraries on their island. These words offered new life, new hopes, and new dreams. The messages created a hunger and thirst to know more about life, reality and the world beyond. On Sunday mornings, these people began to gather on the beach where they read and re-read the precious messages that spoke of a richer more abundant life than they had yet known. Peterson writes:

The messages in the bottles had stirred something in them they hadn't known was there - a sense that there might be a lot more to life than the island language had expressed-that there was more outside the island than inside it. From across those seas, someone was saying something to them that sounded like the difference between life and death, or at least from being helped and being helpless. They wanted to know as much about it as possible. (Working the Angles. Eerdmans, 1987. P. 98).

In Acts 8:26-40 we find the story of a man, an Ethiopian government official, who found a message. The message he found was on an old scroll, not in a bottle. But the message stirred within him hopes and desires that had never been stirred before. The message spoke of realities he never dreamed or imagined. He was reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah. Like the island dwellers in Peterson's story, he felt that Someone was addressing him, making him aware of needs and desires of which he had never been conscious before. But the message was difficult, hard to understand. What did it all mean? He needed someone to help him.

Enter Philip, the evangelist. Thanks to his assistance, the African grasped the meaning of the message and entered into a personal relationship with the living Lord. When the story ends, our Ethiopian friend returns to his country "rejoicing" (v. 39). If you will permit me, I would like to use this story to ask you four simple questions.

WHAT ARE YOU READING?

There is so much that we do not know about the Ethiopian. But one thing we do know: he had a thirst for truth, for God. We know this because of his reading habits. He was reading the prophets. He was searching for truth.

What about you? Are you a reader? If so, what do you read?

A pastor once paid a visit to a family from his church. After the visit, as he rose to leave, he asked if he could read Scripture and pray with the family. Trying to look good in the eyes of his pastor, the father of the home said to his daughter, "Sweetheart, the Pastor wants to read and pray. Would you please run into the other room and bring the book that Daddy loves so much?" A moment later the little girl returned with a well-worn edition of the latest TV Guide!

Let's be honest. Few of us are readers. We live in a culture that watches and rewinds. I am afraid we will never be what God wants us to be until we put down the TV Guide, Readers Digest, People, and Sports Illustrated and pick up our Bibles. We must learn to do what the Ethiopian did: read the Word of God as if our very souls depended upon it. They do!

DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE READING?

Philip, seeing that the Ethiopian was reading Scripture, went up to his chariot and asked a startling question: Do you understand what you are reading? (v. 30). I wonder if the Ethiopian felt insulted. Thankfully, he had the humility to acknowledge his need for help. With Philip's guidance, the Ethiopian came to a full understanding of what he had been reading.

I hate to admit this, but I know many people, who have a daily habit of reading the Bible, yet they don't understand what they read. To be frank, Bible comprehension requires hard work, something that most of us detest. It takes lots of time and diligent study. In short, Bible understanding comes to those who are teachable, those who choose to become lifetime students of the Word of God.

Friend, are you teachable? Are you a student of the Word? Do you love the Lord with all your mind…. as well as all your heart and soul and strength? Surely the greatest irony of the American church today is here. Never before in human history have a people had more Bible resources and helps than we do today. Yet, perhaps never before has there been more Biblical ignorance in both the pew and the pulpit. May God have mercy on us all.

ARE YOU ENCOUNTERING JESUS IN WHAT YOU READ?

The Ethiopian was reading from the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. Here Isaiah is describing the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. As Philip gave the interpretation of this passage he used the Word of God to introduce the Ethiopian to Jesus (v. 35).

Philip understood that the goal of Bible study is NOT to know the Bible. Rather, it is to know HIM! Philip understood that Scripture is not just the revelation FROM God. It is the revelation OF God! Philip knew that he would fail as a Bible interpreter if the Word did not become flesh for this Ethiopian seeker. It is no accident that the same name is given to both Scripture and to Jesus: the Word of God. We must never separate what God has joined together! Bible study is meant to lead us to Christ.

Yet the frightful reality is that it is possible to know all about the Bible and yet miss Jesus! This is precisely what happened to the Pharisees in the days of the New Testament. And tragically this is what continues to happen in many of our churches today.

If the mailman brings you a love letter, it would be an awful mistake to fall in love with the mailman! The Bible is God's love letter to us. It is meant to point beyond itself to the Divine Lover. If we stop with the words on the page, if we become fixated on the text itself, we miss the entire point. The hymn writer Mary A. Lathbury expressed this truth in her hymn Break Thou the Bread of Life.

Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord, My spirit pants for Thee, O living Word.

Martin Luther called Scripture "the manger" where we meet Christ. How tragic when we become enthralled with the container but miss the contents! I know Christians today who are very impressive when they play the Bible version of Trivial Pursuits. These people can tell you the year that Artaxerxes was born, the Hebrew term for "lice" and the identity of the fourth horn on the beast in the book of Revelation. Yet, have they met Jesus? Do they know him in an intimate and personal way? I wonder…

ARE YOU PUTTING INTO PRACTICE WHAT YOU LEARN?

The Ethiopian official, according to this passage, read and understood only two verses in the entire Bible. But that was all he needed. "Why shouldn't I be baptized?" he asked (v. 37). Just two verses was all it took! According to tradition, this government official then went back to Ethiopia where he became perhaps the first missionary on the continent of Africa! Philip was a great Bible teacher because he understood that the goal of Bible study is not information, but transformation! The goal of Bible study is not to fill our heads with knowledge but to fill our hearts with holy fire!

Today we live in what is called the Information Age. We are drowning in an ocean of words. But tragically, it seems the more information we get, the more we lose touch with true wisdom. James 1:22 gives a solemn warning to those who major on information and minor on transformation. When we do this, James says, we deceive ourselves. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

I am tempted to ask you, dear reader, if you are deceived. But that would be a foolish question. By definition someone who is deceived doesn't know that he is! So I will ask you a different question. Are you putting into practice what God is telling you in His Word? Are you being informed or transformed?

CONCLUSION

On our little island called Earth, a "message in a bottle" has washed ashore. Many mock and ridicule. Others try to explain it away. Many simply ignore the messages. But others try their best to understand what it all means. Sometimes the message is hard to comprehend. Often we need help in interpreting what it means. But for those who persevere, these words are the means to life! Man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Matt. 4:4).


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