How To Be An Effective Witness | Acts 8:26-40 | Pastor John Miller

in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 I just want to refer it to you as kind of an outline of the book of Acts where Jesus before his ascension meeting on the Mount of Olives with his disciples he actually said but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you and that happened in the second chapter and he said you shall be witnesses catch that witnesses we get our word martyrs from that word by the way means a person who lays down their life you shall be witnesses for me in Jerusalem in Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth so you have there an outlay of the book of Acts one of the favorite titles for the book of Acts for me as the title Jerusalem to Rome and that's what the book of Acts is it's the church's spreading of the gospel starting in Jerusalem and it ends up in the book or in the city of Rome but the first seven chapters are you shall be witnesses in Jerusalem beginning in chapter 8 we moved to the seconds division where he goes the gospel goes to Samaria and then it starts to go to the uttermost parts of the world so it spreads out over Judea and into Samaria now you remember that one of the seven elders chosen to wait on tables Philip went down to Cimmerian we saw that last week and God used him to bring about a great revival in the city of Samaria which is the central area of Israel and then Peter and John came down from Jerusalem they heard that the Samaritans had received the Word of God and they came down they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit actually we pick it up as Peter and John have gone back verse 25 they're going back to Jerusalem and everywhere they go to every town and every village they're preaching the gospel they're preaching Jesus Christ now it's kind of a meanwhile back at the reign back to Phillip now some feel then Phillip left with Peter and John and was headed back to Jerusalem and the Holy Spirit led him to go to Gaza but we can't be clear about that the general kind of consensus is is that he was in Samaria still and God called him from Samaria to go down to Gaza let me say something before I even get started in the text that that God actually was leading Philip from a successful evangelistic campaign where he's preaching to a whole city and many are getting saved he has him leave that and go down to this desert place and share with one individual God is concerned about individuals now I believe in mass evangelism I think sadly that the world in the church is losing out on mass evangelism I believe that that God uses mass evangelism and it should be done but I also believe that the gospel is spread individually by individual believers and that one by one we share with people and they hear the good news and they come to Jesus Christ so it's not enough to just say well we still have you know the Billy Graham Crusades and we have the harvest Crusades and we have other evangelists filling stadiums which by the way is decreasing rather than increasing and say well that's the way people get saved no we need to share the gospel it's not enough to say well I'll just bring my friend or my family member my unbelieving neighbor to church and pastor John will show the gospel and give an invitation and they'll come forward and accept Christ God wants all of us individually to open our mouth to look for opportunities and to tell other people about Jesus now I know that idea of personal evangelism scares people to death you know it asked me to do anything but don't ask me to talk to somebody about Jesus ask me to do anything but don't ask me to witness and don't make me put on a sandwich placard that says repent or turn or burn and march up and down Main Street you know or in the past tracks out I don't want to do that we have all these kind of freaky thought about what it means to go out and do personal evangelism and a lot of people by being too zealous have actually caused great shame to the cause of the gospel and witnessing but I do believe that we need to be open and receptive that God wants to use us to talk to our family to talk to our friends to talk to co-workers to talk to neighbors and to talk to absolute strangers that we encounter throughout the day wherever we go that we can be sowing the seed of the gospel and we can be seeing people come to know Jesus Christ so Philip the Evangelist is our focus again tonight until we get to chapter I believe it is chapter 21 later on in the book of Acts and we see him again in says areia and then he's married and has kids so now he's not traveling he's staying home and kind of minding his ministry there at home but as we go through this story tonight there are six characteristics of an effective witness and I want you to write them down as we go through six characteristics of an effective witness how can we be effective in our personal evangelism and sharing the gospel with others the first is that we are obedient to the spirits leading that's the first characteristic of an effective witness we're sensitive to the Spirit of God leading us in guiding us were spirit led and obedient to his leading look at verse 26 it says and an angel of the Lord and by the way the angel of the Lord is an unfortunate translation it's referring to an angel of the Lord spoke unto Philip saying arise and go toward the south and to the way that goeth down from jerusalem unto gaza and so he arose and he win and behold a man of ethiopia eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians who had the charge of all her treasure had come to Jerusalem for to worship and he was returning and sitting in a chariot and he read Isaiah the prophet and then notice verse 29 then the spirit said unto Philip go near and join thyself unto that chariot and Philip ran thither unto him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said do you understand what you're reading let's stop right there now it says that an angel of the Lord spoke unto Philip it doesn't tell us how the angel spoke to him and that's not really what's important what's important is an angel spoke to him and in reading commentaries they'll take several paragraphs trying to figure out how the angel spake and I'm thinking for heaven's sake it doesn't really matter well all that matters is the angel spoke and what the angel said that's the important thing angel could have appeared in a dream or in a vision he could have appeared just physically there and give him audible instructions but he told him to go toward the south down to the place called Gaza which is desert now I don't have a map to put on the screen for you again tonight as I did last week but from Samaria he would have headed Southwest he would have had it south and west kind of over Jerusalem and then headed west and down in what's today known as the Gaza Strip and it was an ancient city that was the home of the of the Philistines in the ancient world so he was to go down to this ancient Philistine city of Gaza and the Old Testament it was in Gaza where they worshipped Dagon and Samson was brought into the temple of Dagon and he brought the house down upon the Philistines there in the city of Gaza and so it's a desert place it's about 60 miles to be specific about south west of Jerusalem and this would take Philip a couple of days journey but the point I want to make is is that the angel doesn't tell him why he's to go just to go I could have argued with him you said well you tell me why I'm going and then I'll let you know if I want to go you tell me what's gonna happen when I get there and then I'll tell you whether or not I'm gonna go sometimes we say Lord you know have your way in my life and then the Lord says okay I want you to go to Barstow and you go no I want you go just you know to weed California and start a ministry no thank you Jesus you know and we're not really willing to do what the Lord calls us to do a person that's going to be effective in reaching others is going to be obedient to the leading of the Spirit amen to go where he wants you to go to do what he want you to do and say what he wants you to say the angel didn't really yet as far as the record goes as we know he doesn't really tell him you're gonna be used mightily in the life of this really influential Ethiopian man and he's gonna go to Africa and reach the whole continent for my sake he doesn't say that he just says to go and he has to go obediently and it's interesting God's leading is all not always according to our schedule in our plan and God's leading doesn't always seem by human reasoning to be the right thing to do it's like Lord this doesn't make sense that is a podunk desert place there's nothing out there and I'm in Samaria and you're using me people are being healed people are being delivered the church is packed the stadium's full they're coming to hear me my pictures on the brochures you know come here Philip the Evangelist and everybody's excited about what's happening and now you want me to leave this and you want me to go out into the desert to talk to one person and by human understanding it wouldn't make sense and I point that out because no matter what or where God wants us to go we must obey God amen god knows what he's doing we don't God knows why he wants us to go somewhere what he wants us to do and and we just we just need to be obedient so I didn't wouldn't make sense to the natural mind but God was going to do an awesome work but it also shows again that there are two types of Evangeline their massive Angela Samaria and there's personal evangelism the Gaza Strip there's reaching the masses and there's reaching the individual Jesus would preach to multitudes and then he would stop at the well in John 4 at psy car and Jacobs well and he would talk to one woman who was a lonely heart who needed the good news so it's important that we understand that Jesus can lead us and guide us so if you want to be effective in your witness for Jesus Christ you need to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit he leads you through his word he'll lead you by impressions it'll lead you by thoughts and if you're reading the word and you're filled with the spirit and you're open to his Leedy and God can put people on your heart God can prompt your heart God can direct your heart God can lead you and guide you go talk to that gas station attendant say go back and give that person at the checkout stand the track or see that person sitting on the bench over there go sit there and you know introduce yourself and talk to them or invite them to church or share the gospel we need to be sensitive to the direction to the leading of the Holy Spirit we need to walk by faith but we need to be led by God's holy spirit and pray and ask God every day when you get up say Lord lead me to a hungry heart another thing you're gonna see in the story is that God prepared the sower and God prepared the recipient God prepared the soil God prepared the sower who is Philip and God prepared the soil which was the Pheo pian and you've got to believe that when you go through your day that God has prepared you to share and the God has prepared someone to hear God lead me to someone who wants to hear this message and God will lead you by his spirit and make that happen but here's the second effective characteristic or a characteristic of effective witness and that is that we need to remember the gospel is for all men that the gospel is for everyone noticed in verse 27 he arose and he went and behold a man of Ethiopia he was a eunuch of great authority under Candace which is by the way not a name it's a title like the name Pharaoh would be Candace the queen of the ethiopians which would be Africa south of Egypt so in anywhere in that area of northern Africa but south of Egypt now this Ethiopian was clearly a Gentile the gospel has gone to the Samaritans and I explained last week that they were half Jew and half Gentile but now the gospel is going to go to this Ethiopian this man from Africa and another thing that we need to remember is the Gospels for everyone it's not for us to say well you know they they're they're not good people so we won't take the gospel to them or the gospel is only for the United States or it's only for white folks and we don't go to these people we don't go to this ethnic group but the gospel is for every for God so loved the world amen that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will never perish but have everlasting life we need to have a vision as big as God's and that's the vision for the whole world we need to remember that so his race was he's a Gentile his rank and verse 27 was that he was actually a man of great authority he was a great powerful wealthy well-to-do man the fact that he was riding in a chariot means that he was a rich dude he was in charge of Candice's the queen of Africa her treasure if you had a chariot in those days you were well off and he was probably had a fine cheerio - probably had a beautiful paint job and probably had mag rims on it and stuff and probably lowered and just a flames painted on the side and he was a man of influence so he was a man of a Gentile background rank and then his religion is meant as well in verse 27 where it says there that he was gone to Jerusalem to worship and he had the scriptures verse 28 he was actually reading from the prophet of Isaiah and the practice in those days even if you were alone when you read you always read out loud so he's in this chariot and he's reading from Isaiah now it that indicates that he though a Gentile had gone to Jerusalem to try to find God that he was probably what was called a proselyte or a proselyte of the gate Gentiles could become Jews by proselyting into their religion same thing can happen today so they were known as proselytes but then if they didn't become a full-blown Jew they were called a proselyte of the gate and he had gone to Jerusalem but he's coming back he's reading from Isaiah but it seems as though that he didn't find what he was looking for that his search for God wasn't full or wasn't complete there was something missing in his life and so we need to remember that even religious people need to hear the good news about Jesus Christ so be obedient to the spirit and remember the gospel is for everyone rich poor black white brown yellow whatever color if they're green people out there somewhere it's for green people it's for everyone and there's a matter if they're rich or poor educated or uneducated sometimes we get intimidated if someone looks like they're affluent or educated or well-off or maybe religious we'll just leave them alone but we need to realize that gospel is for everyone and so he was returning sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah the prophet what a coincidence we see the hand of God and bringing this witness together and I believe God can do the same even for us so he had the scriptures and then the spirit again said unto Philip we don't know how he said maybe an audible voice go near and join thyself into this area and it almost seems to indicate in the text that Phillip on his desert Trek down to Gaza was sitting there waiting for the right person to pass by along the highway there and then when he saw this one specific Ethiopian man in this chariot the Holy Spirit said that's the person I want you to talk to and then he took off and shared with him and here's my third point to be a effective witness and that we should witness enthusiastically Philip ran verse 30 he ran to him and he heard him reading from the prophet Isaiah and he said do you understand what you're reading now notice he didn't me and ER he didn't kind of take his time he like just took off and beelined that chariot that ethiopian you know to be enthusiastic when you witness it's so important that we share with zeal and excitement we don't we don't want to have zeal without knowledge we don't want to be obnoxious but we want to be excited about the good things of God and the things that God has done for us it's kind of hard to win people to Christ when you're all bummed out and sad like you know I'm really a bummed out right now and I don't know if I'm really even say but I want to tell you about Jesus it's like you go out witnessing you look like you've been baptised in lemon juice people think I don't want what you've got I know that's a terrible but he ran and he was excited and also the idea that we should be eager to share the gospel with others and I really believe that we can pray and ask God to give us a attitude of excitement and then notice my fourth characteristic of an effective witness is in verse 30 as well that he makes contact he said do you understand what you are reading I think that this is one of the most important aspects of personal evangelism and obviously these points aren't exhaustive on this subject but I think too often we try to be so tactful that we never make contact and there's that one extreme that just says well I just let my life witness for Jesus that's fine but at some point and then sometime make contact and we're gonna see in a moment that all fill up opened his mouth and preached unto them Jesus if you don't open your mouth and preach Jesus they don't know what makes you happy they know what makes you different they don't know what makes you tick you can't just live a life before them now do that please do that because if you don't then your witness is nullified by the way that you live but don't try to excuse your lack of enthusiasm or contact by just saying well you know I'm a silent witness I'm I'm of Christ of the secret order and my goal is to just keep quiet you know and you expect someone to your neighbors to ring the doorbell dingdong we've been watching you for years now and we just want to know what must I do to be saved why are you laughing because you know it ain't very likely that's gonna happen right so we need to make contact and we need to approach people now here's a very practical tip and I think it's clear from this passage and I've known it to be true in my own life sometimes the best way to connect with people is to start by asking a question it's that simple just ask them a question hey that's a nice car where'd you get dad and ask him about what something they're doing there ask him about where they work or something about what's going on or you know hey is it a beautiful day just start striking up a calm you don't have to just walk up to them say are you washed in the blood of Jesus cry have you been regenerated I mean you walk up and and you just start talking to them now I know that in our culture today when you talk to somebody whose strength it's like they get kind of freaked like what are you gonna try to rob me or something you know and they I mean we're so freaked out by strangers talking to us today but I've noticed that when I just allow myself to talk to people that the conversation so easily can come around to Christ but when we just lie don't talk to anybody on any left alone you know as a pastor when I fly on an airplane many times to travel to preach or teach and sometimes just getting on an airplane for me can be a really blessing because like nobody knows me I'm on a plane I'm gone I can be alone I can read a book and leave me alone I just want to you know sleep or sit here and then inevitably somebody'll sit down oh hi where are you going what are you doing what do you do for a living you know and the minute you tell them you're a pastor they they they they either hate you or love you they have all these questions for it's like and the Lord convicts me sometimes I think you know just because you're on an airplane you're not your pulpit on Sunday and you're away from your church doesn't mean that you're not still to be an ambassador for me and that you need to share the good news wherever you go but sometimes we just need to make contact again John chapter 4 when Jesus sat down on the well and the woman came with a water pitcher Jesus what did he do he said can I have a drink of water that whole dialogue just started with Jesus saying can I have a drink and she said what why would you being a Jew ask water of me a woman of Samaria the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans and the whole conversation started and then Jesus said if you knew who I was and what I could give you you'd ask for me and I would give you living water and she'd say how do you got to get living water you have a well this Wells very deep and the whole thing just took off you just say can I have something to drink I've always thought it'd be a great to just go to a public park and stand by the drinking fountain when they start to drink so you can drink of that water but you'll thirst again but the water that Jesus will give you be a well springing up into everlasting life and they'll probably take off running or something but just look for a way to make contact or ask a question or to get engaged in a conversation and I I love the fact that Philip just said do you understand what you're reading there's another little footnote in this thought and that is it's possible to read the Bible and not understand it just because someone's reading the Bible doesn't mean they'll understand it and it indicates that God can use us to explain the scriptures God can use us to interpret the Scriptures read the Bible yes but do you understand what you're reading but I don't understand what I'm reading but I think that by Providence that this Ethiopian was searching and he's reading from the book of Isaiah and Philip made the contact as we need to at least make contact and maybe start by asking a question maybe you know where you're gonna go when you die or have you you ever read the Bible or what do you think about Jesus Christ sir have you ever heard the gospel just ask them a question and another thing to do when you make contact is to let them talk and listen to if you're not listening to them where they're coming from and getting to know what really is going on in their life then that's unfortunate need to be listening to them as well as talking to them now it says that Ethiopian responded saying how can I understand except some man should guide me and then he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him in his chariot how cool is that and so the place of Scripture verse 32 where he was reading was this and by the way this is taken from I Ziya 53 versus 7 to 8 now if any of you Bible students out there know your Bibles you know that this is one of the greatest missie anak prophecies in the Old Testament this is an amazing text which speaks of the substitutionary sacrificial death of Jesus Christ for the sins of the world even the Jewish people and Jesus day and even today they struggle with who's the prophet speaking of in this passage and we know clearly that he's speaking there of Jesus and he begins to quote from it in verse 32 he was led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb done before his Shearer's so he opened not his mouth in his humiliation judgment was taken away and who shall declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth it's referring to Jesus giving his life on the cross for our sins he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities and bias stripes isaiah the prophet said we are healed and the eunuch answered philip verse 34 and said i pray thee of whom speakest the prophet of this is he talkin about himself or some other man now how good is that spirit said to go he went spirit said speak to this man he speaks to this man and he says do you understand what you read and the man just so happened to be reading the Bible from Isaiah I have actually had many times when I've been in public and seeing people reading a Bible and I strike up a conversation with them many times they've been unbelievers so they've been from a cult group or had some crazy ideas and I began to dialogue with them and get to share with them and tell them the gospel so it's really cool how God opened this door and no coincidence God has all and all under control that this Ethiopian was reading from the book of Isaiah and he says do you understand he said how could I list some men and so he jumps up in the chariot and the eunuch answered and said in the film I pray thee of whom speak us out of the prophet of himself or some other man now here's my fifth point in how to be an effective witness use the scripture and share Jesus be knowledgeable to the word know the word be ready in the Bible know the scripture you have to be a theologian you don't have to know Hebrew or Greek but you should know some basic verses memorized ready John 3:16 Ephesians 2:8 and 9 you know the Roman Road passages you're ready to share the gospel because notice verse 35 then Philip opened his mouth which if you're going to be an effective witness it's a good idea to open your mouth and he began at the same scriptures to do what preached unto him Jesus I love that he opened his mouth and he took from those scriptures and they began to preach unto him Jesus so we need to know the scriptures if we're going to use the scriptures now as I said you don't have to be some theologian you don't have to have a PhD in theology you just need to know once I was blind and now I can see you just need to know some simple Bible truths but you do need to know some truths now what a Philip had not known that this Isaiah passage was about Jesus and what if the Ethiopian would have asked him who's he speaking about he's I don't know let me ask my pastor this Sunday let me go home and get my commentaries out and see if I can figure out now there's a time for that and and and and that's that happens to me there are times that people come up to me and some of you probably know you're some of the people that have stumped me on Sundays and you've come up passing around what about this I don't know let me let me look into that but when somebody is hungry and needs to hear about Jesus we ought to know enough about who Jesus is now notice he preached unto Him Jesus let me encourage you that if you want to be an effective witness and you want to share the gospel center and focus on the person and work of Jesus Christ talk about his incarnation in virgin birth talk about his sinless life talk about his substitutionary death you must get to the cross there's power and the cross and the cross is so necessary for people to come to salvation the preaching the cross is foolishness to those that are perishing but it's the power of God to those that are saved I recently was listening to an old video of Billy Graham and he was talking about I'm very rarely but he in his early years would preach and not get to the cross and not preach Christ and there would be a lack of response but he noticed whenever he preached Christ and he preached the cross that people responded to the gospel and I think that's true don't talk about religion don't talk about peripherals don't talk about non essentials get to the heart that Christ came from heaven that he was born of a virgin that he was the god man that he lived a sinless life that He gave His life voluntarily to die on the cross for our sins explain what he did on the cross that he took our sins and he was a substitute and then talk about his burial and resurrection that Jesus was buried and he rose and be able to defend the resurrection of Jesus Christ and to be able to give to every man and the answer for the reason of the hope that lies in you and do it with reverence and respect so focus on Jesus in Romans 10 verse 17 it says faith comes by hearing and hearing by what the Word of God which literally by the way that passage is a word preached about Christ it's the word preached about crime so Center on the person work of Christ and I love verse 35 that he opened his mouth he began at the same Scripture he didn't say well let's turn somewhere else where I'm familiar with he took that very passage in Isaiah and he knew that it was about Jesus and he sprung bored from that and by the way you can take anything in the Old Testament and somewhere you can connect it to Jesus Christ now verse 36 as they went on their way they came to a certain water doesn't say if it was a lake or a river or a cistern or what it was but they came to some water and the eunuch said see here is water what does hinder me to be baptized and Philip said if thou believest with all of your heart verse 37 thou mayest and he answered and said I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down both of them into the water both Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him now to just kind of save you again and I just talked about questions asking me a question after the service some of you have maybe a translation that has omitted verse 37 and I don't want to get into the pros and cons of whether this belongs in the Bible or doesn't or why it would be here but in some of the older manuscripts it doesn't appear in some certain manuscripts it doesn't appear and so some modern translations have omitted verse 37 but certainly all New Testament scholars at least that I have studied agree that there must have been some interaction or dialogue between Philip and the Ethiopian and certainly what is said in verse 37 is scriptural and Biblical and consistent within the scripture and my personal feelings is that it belongs in the Bible and that it shouldn't be omitted and that's one of the reasons why I still use my King James translation not that it's the only inspired translation or the best translation but it includes this in the passage and notice how important verse 37 is by the way Phillips said if you believe with all your heart you may and the answered and said I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God then in verse 38 the chariot Stood Still they went down into the water both Philip and the eunuch and he was baptized now this is my sixth and last point on how to be an effective witness and I want to say some things about the passage but write this down seek if possible a decision seek a decision I sometimes what we do - we share the gospel we tell people about Jesus and then we just stop there and we don't say would you like to pray right now and ask Jesus in your heart would you like to trust Jesus Christ as your Savior now I'm not saying that all the time we need to ask for a decision but a lot more often than we do a lot more often I'm guilty of this quite often challenge for me is I get to preach to people all the time and see people save so that when I go grocery shopping I don't want to talk to anybody I'm just here to buy some orange juice right now besides it's my day off I'm not I'm not on duty right now but I realized that it doesn't work that way but when you're sharing with somebody sometimes you need to actually say okay enough is enough you've heard the gospel would you like to accept Christ right now and what will happen sometimes they say yes I wouldn't go whoa wait a minute are you sure you're ready yes I am well let's call my pastor there right now once you come to church this Sunday I believe that every one of us as Christians ought to be ready to lead another individual in a prayer of repentance and faith and trust in Jesus Christ you don't have to have a canned little say then that to be just the right words but you're able to say okay I'm gonna lead you in a prayer and I want you to repeat these words after me make them your four prayer from your heart and this pray and say Jesus I'm sorry for my sins will you please forgive me will you come into my heart I trust you as my savior fill me with your holy spirit help me to live for you turn from my sins follow you as Lord and Savior you you you ought to be ready and prepared to be able to lead somebody in a prayer like that and you don't have to be ordained you don't have to be a official clergyman every one of us remember Phillip was a layman he wasn't even an apostle who has chosen to wait on tables he was a deacon at the most he was just a servant among the other brethren at the church but yet God was using him to lead others to Christ now the passage doesn't say that Phillip led him in the sinner's prayer but it seems as though Phillip probably gave him enough information about Jesus that he preached Christ that the Ethiopian trusted Jesus and believed in Jesus and that's why when Philip questioned him if you believe with all your heart and he said III believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God you've given me the message and now I do believe and then what followed his confession was baptism now I know that we don't believe that here and very few of you would have a hang-up with it or a problem but there are some Christian circles they actually believed in unless you're baptized in water you cannot be saved and this is an indication that baptism follows conversion it's not part of your conversion it's the evident it's the outward show of an inward work you you aren't saved because you're baptized you're baptized because you're saved and when we get to Acts chapter 10 and Gentile Cornelius and his household are saved and filled with the Holy Spirit they even speak in tongues that Peter says can any man forbid water that these should be baptized which have passed tents receive the Holy Spirit just like we have so you don't get the Holy Spirit when you're dunked in water you get the Holy Spirit when you believe in Jesus Christ you trust in him and then you're ducked and dunked in water as a right or a ritual outward showing of an inward work baptism doesn't save us it doesn't certainly merit salvation and not that it's that big of a deal but it would also indicate in this passage that he was baptized by total immersion because it says they both of them went down into the water which would indicate it's not it's not it's not a Loctite argument but it would indicate that he took him down into the water to immerse him in water baptism and it doesn't give us the formula but jesus said that we baptize in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and I would believe that Philip would have done it with that formula which again salvation precedes baptism so it's not really the issue now when verse 39 they would come up out of the water the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip that the eunuch saw him no more but he that is the eunuch went on his way rejoicing but Philip was founded days Ottis which is actually the ancient Old Testament city of Ashdod which was about 20 miles north of Gaza which again was a Philistine area and passing through Philip continued to preach in all of the cities which would be Joppa and litter and then he came to Caesarea which was 20 miles south of the modern city of Haifa and by the way when we get to acts 21 verses 8 and 9 you find there that Philip is there 20 years later in Caesarea and he has a house and he has four daughters and so it seems that that's where he ended up staying and living but he brought him to a decision if you believe that Jesus is the savior you trusted Christ then you can be baptized so don't be afraid to ask someone would like to accept the Lord would you like to pray right now would you like to open your heart to Jesus Christ right now if they say no I'm not ready at least you gave them the opportunity if they say no not right now just maybe a very gentle or tactful warning just say okay that's that's fine but remember jesus said that you're either for me or against me by saying no you're rejecting Jesus Christ and the Bible always puts salvation in the present tense now is the acceptance time today is the day of salvation Bible says if you hear God's voice don't harden your heart so don't be afraid to press for a decision and say you know if you're ready would you like to trust Jesus Christ and invite him to come into your heart and your life now notice the result of the ethiopians conversion that it says there that he went away rejoicing always joy as a result of salvation but I don't want to miss what is a mind-blowing kind of aspect to the story in verse 39 that mystifies Bible students and that when it says the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip the eunuch saw him no more it's like what in the world is that all about it's kind of like Philip got raptured sideways he puts him under the water boom the eunuch comes up and no Philip word Philip go he's gone this is a cool reference to I believe it is a supernatural miracle now some Bible scholars try to explain it away and it's just a figure of speech or language for Philip just left and they didn't see him or whatever but the Greek phrase that's used here actually means to catch away or to snatch away and it indicates even grammatically that that Philip was caught away instantly and the Ethiopian didn't see him any longer and then he was passing up the coast and he ends up in Caesarea so I believe that this is actually a reference to God catching Philip transporting him and he can imagine Philip the flying evangelist I mean what was that like someone what was that it was Philip the flying evangelist he's rude escapes flying back he's a bug stuck in his teeth like a motorcyclist you know and it's just too mean I can't wait to get to heaven and say Philip what happened that was that was insane it's not unique though remember when Elijah went to heaven and God sent a chariot flaming chariot came down swooped down and scooped him up and took him away to heaven and you like show the prophet saw him taken up and his mantle fell on him but just that catching up and III believe also that Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him and I believe that the church is going to be raptured or caught up or just instantly disappear and will be caught up to meet the Lord in heaven that the Lord does that so it's just an interesting little aspect to this story but the interesting thing is the power of one life now while we have his church history to go on but church history says that he went to Africa became the first bishop of the churches in Africa and that God used this Ethiopian to take the gospel to Africa and to spread the good news of Jesus Christ on that continent so never underestimate the value of one individual that you might lead to Christ you never know how God might use them and you might be feeling well you know I haven't really done anything great or awesome for God maybe one child or one individual one elderly person in the shut up in a rest home you go to see and you tell them about Jesus and they pray and they invite Christ in their heart and their life and God uses them and you share the gospel with somebody and then they share the gospel with somebody else and they share the gospel with someone else and then they share the gospel someone on that someone else becomes the next Billy Graham you never know what God can do through one individual don't don't underestimate the importance of sharing the good news with one person so be obedient to his spirit be sensitive and let the Spirit of God lead you remember that all men need Jesus no one too rich no one too poor every country every tribe every kindred every tongue ask God to fill you with a love for the Lost be tactful make contact ask questions open your mouth and preach Jesus and don't be afraid to bring to a point where you bring a decision would you like to accept Christ would you like to trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior you'd be amazed how God can use you and we need to all pray God here am i use me

Channel: Revival Christian Fellowship

Views: 690

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: 1VTJ3u_3CJg

Length: 47min 26sec (2846 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 06 2018