Acts Devo

Introduction:

Evangelism is hard.

But Sharing the gospel, it’s an important part of being a Christian.

It’s a privilege even. We get to be God’s hands and feet on the earth to bring hope and salvation to humanity.

Evangelism is how you and I learned about Jesus for the first time. Whether from parents, friends, pastors, or even social media.

Someone shared the gospel with us, and God saved us.

But Evangelism is hard.

We worry about what to say, how to say it, when to say it, we act as if evangelism is all about our performance.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

And I think that one simple concept can help us share the gospel without fear, or feeling like we need to perform.

And here’s the concept.

Evangelism is Guided by God.

Evangelism is Guided by God.

In the Book of Acts, evangelism is everywhere.

Becuase Acts shows us the birth of the church, and the spread of the gospel from the apostles to the whole world.

And in our passage today, we see one evangelistic encounter that shows us how God guides us while we share the gospel, just like he did for the apostles.

So let’s begin reading at Acts 8:26.

Acts 8:26–39 ESV

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 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 before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.

And I think in this passage, God shows us three ways that he guides our evangelism.

And the first way, that

I. God’s Calls Us to Share the Gospel

God is the beginning of the evangelistic process. And he begins by calling us to share the gospel.

And we see this here with Philip, who gets this encounter with an angel of God, who tells him to go south to a desert place called Gaza.

The angel doesn’t say way. He doesn’t give a reason at all. He just says, GO.

Then, when Philip goes, he sees a Eunuch.

Who serves the queen of Ethiopia.

A powerful court official, who was in charge of all her treasure.

He’s a Jew, or at least was like a Jew, since he was worshipping in Jerusalem, and reading the book of Isaiah.

And if the angel of God wasn’t enough, God himself, in the person of the Holy Spirit, tells Philip, “Go join him.”

Philip is in a strange place, with a strange man, but God called him there for a mission.

And while our call to evangelize might not be as dramatic as Philip’s.

We still face uncertainty. Like Phillip, We don’t have all the answers. But when God calls. We Go!

And God has called all Christians to evangelize in his great commission.

But there’s also another way we can see God guiding our evangelism. And that second way is, #2

II. God’s Gives Us Opportunities to Share the Gospel

And we see this play out in our passage too.

Not only is the Eunuch reading Isaiah. But he’s reading Isaiah 53.

A chapter which prophecies the sufferings of Jesus for our salvation.

And the Eunuch asks Philip to help him understand.

This open door can literally not get any wider.

God has intricately planned out this whole situation.

And in the same way, when we encounter unbelievers, God gives us opportunities to plant seeds.

So look out for these opportunities. And take these opportunities to plant seeds.

Which brings us to the third way God guides evangelism, #3

III. God Provides Unexpected Results

We can see in this passage that the eunuch rejoices at the gospel message.

In fact, he’s so excited to begin following Jesus, he takes the lead, and asks Philip if he can get baptized right then and there.

And so he commands this chariot to stop, and Philip baptizes him.

And then Philip gets seemingly teleported away by the Holy Spirit, while the eunuch keeps rejoicing.

I don’t know about you, but if I could sum up this conversion in a word, that word would be “unexpected.”

The Spirit takes Philip to an unexpected place, to teach an unexpected foreigner about Jesus, and the story ends in an quick and unexpected way.

But what we do know, is that this is the way that God works. He takes the people you wouldn’t expect, in situations you wouldn’t expect, and works miracles like this.

So in our lives, when it comes to the hard task of evangelism.

We don’t need to obsess over saying all the right words, and doing all the right things.

Instead, we must realize that God guides evangelism, from beginning to end.

So trust him! And expect the unexpected.