Monday,
January 20, 2020
As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, “Go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah. The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.” Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him. The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter. And as a lamb is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. He was humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?” So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus. As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?” He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing. Meanwhile, Philip found himself farther north at the town of Azotus. He preached the Good News there and in every town along the way until he came to Caesarea. Acts 8:26-40
Of the conundrums Christians face, one of
the more perplexing is why sharing the Good News of Jesus is so difficult. I know (and have used) all the common excuses...I’m
not trained…I’m not an evangelist like Philip…She wouldn’t have listened…I
thought he was already a believer.
At the end of the day excuses are not reasons, but merely attempts to
justify our fear of rejection or lack of faith.
While I must plead guilty to putting
faith-sharing on the back burner too many times, with too many excuses, there
have been those other encounters of trying to help someone find a relationship
with God through Jesus Christ. When I
think about the times I bailed on an opportunity, and the times I put my fear
or feeble faith on hold and opened my mouth, the difference is always the issue
of getting started? How do you break
the ice and have a conversation about Jesus?
When you take a hard look at Philip’s
encounter with the man in the chariot you find the simplest of approaches. It was a chance encounter, Philip hearing the
man read Scripture aloud. The Holy
Spirit prompted Philip to walk alongside the chariot. The bold encounter began with a simple
question – have you figured out what you’re reading? The man was already searching for answers,
God just brought Philip to the equation with some quite wonderful news that the
answers were in Jesus. The icebreaker
was that Philip was willing to be available (near someone who needed Christ),
and he was willing to listen to the man’s need.
There is no secret ingredient to be a faithfully
obedient witness, other than faith that Jesus knew what he was talking about
when he told his disciples that they would be his
witnesses, starting in Jerusalem, and spreading around the world. It turned out to be true in the first
century, and it is so in this century.
If you are a
believer in Christ, you’re also a witness.
If you want to be an obedient witness begin praying today for God to be
glorified through your witness.
But, as you
pray, be willing to be like Philip. Be
ready to be near someone who needs to hear, and willing to listen so you’ll hear
the Holy Spirit’s prompting, and the needs of the one God puts in front of you.
When you
allow your heart to be broken for the needs of someone else to know God and
share in His blessings, you’ll know the right words to say.
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