Leadership and Power – Part 3

Leadership and power go together. Some leaders use power to control people. Other leaders use power to set them free. The question is, how do you use the power given to you? One answer is, who you are is how you lead. 

As a Christ-centered leader, you have been given the power to influence people by empowering them to become who God created them to be. You discover and develop their potential to lead and then set them free to lead. The key to your power is the source of your power. The source shapes your values, character, and faith. It helps you become more aware of the people God gives you to love and to lead. And as you grow closer to the source, you begin to share what you are receiving with the people around you.   

So, how does this power work for you as a leader?   

Let’s use our practice of “Read, Reflect, Respond, and Return” to explore how this power helps you communicate across barriers of prejudice and exclusion. 

Read Acts 8:26-40 

²⁶ Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) ²⁷ So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸ and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹ Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” ³⁰ So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. ³² Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
    and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
        so he does not open his mouth.
³³ In his humiliation justice was denied him.
    Who can describe his generation?
        For his life is taken away from the earth.” 

³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. ³⁶ As they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” ³⁸ He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Reflect

As a Christ-centered leader, you have been given the power to communicate beyond barriers. Jesus told his followers, who were looking for power to restore Israel, that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit had come upon them and that they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Luke is telling the story of how the church is becoming a worldwide and inclusive community representing God’s love and acceptance of all people. This story, of Philip’s encounter with an Ethiopian eunuch, is an illustration of the power to communicate beyond the prejudices and exclusions that separate people from one another and the community of faith.

As you look at this story, there are three characters, a eunuch from Ethiopia, Philip, and the Holy Spirit, who help us understand the power to communicate.

The Power to Communicate: the Eunuch

The first character is the eunuch from Ethiopia. A eunuch was a man who by surgery, accident, or disposition could not father children. Eunuchs were trusted servants in a royal household. Although they were welcomed and trusted by royalty, according to Deuteronomy 23:1, “No eunuch is to enter the congregation of God.” (The Message). So, the eunuch in our story is not included or accepted in the community of faith. Being excluded from the community of faith is a barrier in this story.

He was a high court official for the queen of Ethiopia. Because he was from Ethiopia, he was considered a foreigner and not welcome in the community of faith. Being a foreigner is a barrier in this story. He is returning to Ethiopia from Jerusalem where he had been participating in a Jewish festival. Even though he was not welcomed or included, he had been in Israel to worship the Lord in the Temple. It was while he was on his way home that he encountered Philip.

The Power to Communicate: Philip

The second character is Philip, known in tradition as Philip the evangelist. He had been in Samaria, one of the areas Jesus had said he would have the power to witness (communicate), and now was on the road between Jerusalem and Gaza. On the road, in a chariot, was the Ethiopian eunuch. He was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah.

Philip was prompted by the Spirit to approach the chariot. As he got close, he overheard the eunuch reading from Isaiah. Philip asked him if he understood what he was reading. The eunuch replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” The eunuch then invited Philip to come sit with him in the chariot. Understanding the scripture is another barrier in this story.

The passage the eunuch was reading was:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
    and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
        so he does not open his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
    Who can describe his generation?
        For his life is taken away from the earth.” (Isaiah 53:7-8)

The eunuch asked about the prophet and about whom the prophet was describing. Philip used the opportunity to explain the passage. He began to tell the story of Jesus. As he shared the good news (gospel), the eunuch trusted what he was hearing. When they came to some water by the side of the road, the eunuch asked to be baptized. Remember the words from Deuteronomy 23:1, “No eunuch is to enter the congregation of God.” (The Message).

But Philip, empowered by the Holy Spirit, agreed to baptize him. The eunuch ordered the driver to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. Philip had communicated beyond the barriers of backgrounds and prejudices. He had received power to witness beyond the lack of hospitality and acceptance, and beyond the lack of understanding.

Tradition says that the eunuch carried the gospel back to Ethiopia, and Philip found himself at Azotus, where he continued to witness to the love of God on his way to Caesarea. 

The Power to Communicate: The Holy Spirit

The third character is the Holy Spirit, the power of God given to Philip. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon a group of frightened self-centered, willful, and discouraged men and women. They were transformed into new creatures.  They were infused with supernatural power, intellectually, emotionally, and physically. By the power of the Holy Spirit, they began to communicate the story of Jesus in ways people understood and responded to positively.  Philip was one of the people empowered to witness to God’s love. 

Philip had grown up hearing that he and other Hebrew children should not go to Samaria. Samaria was a community of “half-breeds” who were not truly Hebrew in their faith. Yet, when the Holy Spirit came upon Philip, the first place he went to witness was Samaria. He had received the power to communicate across the barrier of prejudice. 

He was leaving Samaria when he encountered the eunuch. It was his relationship with God and his sensitivity to God’s leading that led to the encounter with the eunuch. The words of Jesus had come alive in his life and ministry, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Philip was a living example of God’s desire that those who received power would witness beyond the barriers that separated people from one another. He had begun to lead with the power given to him by God’s grace. 

Respond

As a Christ-centered leader, you have the power to witness across the barriers of prejudice and ignorance. 

According to Deuteronomy 23:1, physical eunuchs were excluded from the people of God, but Isaiah 56:1-8 points to a time when eunuchs and foreigners will be included, and God’s house will be “a house of prayer for all peoples.” Luke sees the Ethiopian as a transitional figure who worships the Jewish God, reads the Jewish Scriptures, but is still an outsider to the people of God. In this story, he hears the good news, is baptized, and is incorporated into the Christian community. 

Christ-Centered Leaders Communicate Across Barriers

As a Christ-centered leader, you have the power to communicate across the barriers of biblical and theological misunderstanding. 

Philip was invited into an encounter with the Ethiopian because he heard him reading the scripture. In the ancient world, private reading was done aloud. The truth is, all the Bible was written to be read aloud. You can often come to good insights about the meaning of the scripture by hearing it and listening to it.   

For Luke, scripture was not self-interpreting. It required a community of faith in order to be faithfully interpreted. In other words, (here is a barrier to the understanding of scripture), the Bible is not the individual’s book. The Bible belongs to the church. Please hear me, this does not mean there should not be private Bible reading and study, but it does mean that Christian readers of the Bible should listen closely to the insights and meaning of scripture provided by the whole community of faith. Philip, by the Holy Spirit, was present to help with the interpretation of the whole truth of the scripture. 

You Have the Power to Communicate

As a Christ-centered leader, you have the power to present the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus through preaching, teaching, study groups, conversations, and encounters with people. You have the power to communicate clearly across barriers to invite people to be followers of Jesus in all they say and do. You have the power to witness across the barriers of exclusion using the wisdom of the whole church. 

Now listen closely. This is important. The Bible had hindered the eunuch from participating in the covenant people of God (Deuteronomy 23:1). But now the same book was promising full participation to those excluded (Isaiah 56:3-4). When interpreted in and through Jesus, God’s love crosses all hindrances and barriers. You as a Christ-centered leader, and a follower of Jesus, have been given the power, by the Holy Spirit, to witness across those barriers and hindrances.   

The Power to Communicate Across Barriers

As you respond to the reflection, think about the people who experience exclusion based on prejudice and ignorance. You have been given the power to communicate across the barriers that are rooted in what has been taught and experienced over centuries. God’s love in Jesus is greater than the prejudices that keep people out of the community of faith. You have been given the power to communicate across the barriers of biblical and theological ignorance rooted in the misunderstanding of who has received God’s grace and who is included in the community of faith.   

You have been given power by God, through God’s holy spirit, to be a witness, starting where you are, in the church, in the community, and in all the world. It is God’s power given to you that communicates beyond the barriers. 

As a leader, you decide whether you will receive and live by God’s power. Remember, who you are is how you lead. 

Return

Give God thanks for the people you met today. When did you have the opportunity to witness beyond a barrier or hindrance? Did you speak up when you had the opportunity to speak up on behalf of those who have been excluded or forgotten? How did you interact with the people God sent your way? What did you learn about yourself? Who is helping you remember that you are a child of God and that you have been empowered to love others as God has loved you? What will you do differently tomorrow? Ask God to give you the faith to be the leader God has created you to be.  

Prayer

O God, today I give you thanks for life and work. I pray for the power to be your witness starting where I am now. Remind me throughout the day of how you love me and how you have empowered me to love the people around me. I offer myself to you in the name of Jesus.  Amen