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Evangelize
26 Now an angel of the Lord said toPhilip, “Go south to the road—thedesert road—that goes down fromJerusalem to Gaza.”
27 So he started out, and on his way hemet an Ethiopian eunuch, an importantofficial in charge of all the treasury ofthe Kandake (which means “queen ofthe Ethiopians”). This man had gone toJerusalem to worship,
28 and on his way home was sitting inhis chariot reading the Book of Isaiahthe prophet.
29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to thatchariot and stay near it.”
30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot andheard the man reading Isaiah theprophet. “Do you understand what youare reading?” Philip asked.
31 “How can I,” he said, “unlesssomeone explains it to me?” So heinvited Philip to come up and sit withhim.
32 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”
34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?”
35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
36 As they traveled along the road, theycame to some water and the eunuchsaid, “Look, here is water. What canstand in the way of my beingbaptized?”
[37] Philip said, “If you believe with allyour heart, you may.” The eunuchanswered, “I believe that Jesus Christ isthe Son of God.”
38 And he gave orders to stop thechariot. Then both Philip and theeunuch went down into the water andPhilip baptized him.
39 When they came up out of thewater, the Spirit of the Lord suddenlytook Philip away, and the eunuch didnot see him again, but went on hisway rejoicing.
40 Philip, however, appeared at Azotusand traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
We can’t make something ripe. It’s going to take time. We can’t make
someone ripe for Jesus. It’s going to take time. And so we have to lovingly, patiently wait until someone is ripe,
and then we pick them.
We tell them about Jesus, we love them, serve them, inform them,
instruct them, and then theirheart’s open to Jesus as he’s
been preparing them.
SHOWS UP TO IMPART
Our God is a supernatural God. Our God is a capable God. Our God is a living God. Our God is a miraculous God. Our God is a creative God. He sends an angel to Philip, tells Philip,
“You’ve got to go somewhere. You’ve got something to do.”
GREEN APPLE TURNING RED
He’s not even Hebrew. He’s not a Jewish guy. He didn’t grow up with the
Bible, not in his country. So, he’s making the 1,000 mile journey to get to Jerusalem to worship God, to meet God’s people, and along the way he’s
reading the Bible.
All right, he’s a green apple turning red. God’s working on him.God’s preparing him for the
message of Jesus.
THE SPIRIT-FILLED EVANGELIST
There is this guy named Philip. Godly guy, filled with the Holy Spirit, loves Jesus, missionary, minister, he’s an
evangelist.
That God loves one person enough that he’d put together an entire plan to
go get that one person.
God uses people to save people. God saves people. If you want to boil
Christianity down, here’sone way to do it. God saves. We can
speak about the Savior.
We can serve on behalf of the Savior. So we can speak and serve, but only God can save. We can speak, we can serve, only God can save. We don’t
save anybody.
Philip is not going to save this guy, forgive his sin, give him access to the presence of God for all eternity. That’s not his responsibility. His responsibility
is to speak and to serve. God uses people to save people.
Now, there are many case studies in the Bible of evangelism and how somebody becomes a Christian.
This is only one.
Sometimes you’ll see somebody, they don’t know the Lord, they need to
know the Lord. They don’t know about the Lord, they need to know about the
Lord. Sometimes there has to be a sense of urgency.
Sometimes there just has to be a sense of urgency, and here it is. And in
God’s kindness, the heart of the Ethiopian eunuch, he’s becoming a red
apple. He’s ready for that message.
SHOWS UP TO SPEAK
It says that the Holy Spirit spoke to Philip and the Holy Spirit’s overseeing the process. Jesus said early on, you
know,
“You’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. You’ll be my witnesses to the ends of the earth.”
The good news of Jesus is getting out to the nations of the earth through the person, the presence, the power of the Holy Spirit. He’s mentioned frequently.
The Holy Spirit is God, and the Holy Spirit is not just a force, it’s a person. He doesn’t inhabit a physical body, but he has feelings, he has a will, and he
can communicate with us.
He’s God. He can be grieved, he can be resisted, he can be quenched, the Bible says. He’s God, and it’s not an
impersonal force, it’s a personal God.
Here’s my question: Who had God put in front of you? So, God puts the Ethiopian eunuch in the middle of
nowhere in front of Philip. Whom has God put in front of you? Family, friend,
neighbor, coworker.
Who is God already preparing their heart, ripening their soul for his
evangelistic harvest? Who is in front of you that you need to put your phone
down so you can see them and initiate a conversation with them?
Whom has God put in front of you?
THREE
Go to the person that the Holy Spirit sends you to.
Give them a Bible. Give them one. If you’re here, and you’re not a Chris-tian, and you don’t have a Bible, take one.
One of the best gifts you can give somebody is a Bible. Get them a good
Bible. If you love them, give them a good Bible.
Answer their question by telling them about Jesus.
This is the book that God wrote, and it’s all about Jesus from beginning to
end. There are many stories, but there’s only one story. There’s only one hero. This book is for you, but it’s not
about you. It’s about Jesus.
We need you to see that everything in this book is about Jesus. And if you
give this book to anyone and then they have questions, the answer is always
somehow connected back to the good news of the person and work of Jesus.
This includes events.
So when you see, in the Old Testament, Passover, where God’s people sacrificed a lamb, and they cover the doorpost of their home with blood so that the wrath of God would pass over them, that through the shedding of blood their sins would be atoned for, that all points to Jesus, our
Passover Lamb who was slain.
He died for our sin. His blood covers us so the wrath of God would pass over us.
And Jesus came to suffer, he came to be without sin, to suffer at the hands of
sinners, to go to the cross and die in the place of sinners, and in so doing, he is the one who serves us through his suffering.
It’s not just that Jesus is found in the events and the titles, but also the
prophesies.
The includes types. The first man in the Bible is Adam, and we’re all born with a sin nature into Adam. Jesus is called the last Adam, and we’re born again with a new nature through Jesus, the last Adam. The first Adam sinned in a garden; the last
Adam bled for sin in a garden.
The first Adam sinned at a tree; the last Adam atoned for our sin on a tree. The first
Adam was made naked and unashamed; the last Adam was naked and bore our
shame.
The first Adam brought us thorns; the last Adam wore a crown of thorns. The first Adam brought us condemnation, but it’s through the Lord Jesus Christ, the last
Adam, that God alone brings us salvation.
This is the bedrock of where we stand. The Bible is true—it’s all about Jesus. When the book is open and Jesus is proclaimed, the Holy Spirit shows up because that’s the book he wrote and that’s the person he
loves to glorify.
We want to meet with you, talk with you, pray for you, care for you,
give you a Bible, help you,love you, serve you.
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