Acts 8

Run with Purpose: Sharing the Gospel Like Philip Acts 8:25–40

How many of you guys actually enjoy writing papers in school? Probably not many of us. Imagine your teacher stood up in front of the class and just said, “Write a paper.” What would your next question be? Probably, write a paper about what? Usually when a teacher gives you a paper or a project, they also give you a prompt. They tell you what you’re supposed to write about so you know what to do.

Did you know that even when you’re not in school, as Christians, we have someone who does something like that for us? His name is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit prompts us. He leads us. He directs us. I don’t know about you, but I don’t always know exactly what God wants me to do. I don’t always know what the next move is in my life. But if I stop, if I listen, if I pay attention, God often gives those little promptings that show me what the next step is.

And if that sounds strange, don’t just take my word for it. Let’s see it in Scripture. Tonight we’re jumping ahead in the book of Acts. In this passage, we meet Philip. Philip has already been preaching the gospel. God has already been using him. And then suddenly, God interrupts his plans.

An angel tells Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” And then the Bible adds this detail: This is a desert place.

Phillip is prompted

Now put yourself in Philip’s shoes for a second. He’s doing ministry. He’s preaching. People are hearing the gospel. Good things are happening. And then God tells him to leave all of that and go out into the desert. Does that make sense? Not really.

If I’m Philip, I probably have questions. God, why? Why now? Why there? Why leave all these people? Why go out to the middle of nowhere?

But you know what we don’t see Philip do? We don’t see him argue. We don’t see him question God. We don’t see him bargain. Verse 27 says, “And he rose and went.”

That’s it.

God said go, and Philip went.

That’s faith. That’s trust. Philip didn’t need the whole plan before he obeyed. He just needed the next step.

And I think that hits home for a lot of us. Because most of the time, we want the whole plan. We want God to show us exactly how this is going to work out. We want Him to explain the outcome first. We want Him to tell us why this matters. But most of the time, God doesn’t do that. Most of the time, He simply gives us the next step.

Sometimes He prompts you to go talk to someone. Sometimes He prompts you to encourage somebody. Sometimes He puts someone on your mind and you can’t stop thinking about them. Sometimes He gives you that little nudge in your heart, and immediately you know, I think God wants me to do something right now.

And honestly, that can feel uncomfortable.

Because you don’t know what’s going on in their life. You don’t know how they’re going to respond. You don’t know if it’ll be awkward. You don’t know if they’ll think you’re weird.

That’s exactly where Philip is.

He gets to the desert road, and there’s this Ethiopian official riding in a chariot. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and now he’s heading home. He’s important. He’s powerful. He’s in charge of the queen’s treasury. And then the Holy Spirit prompts Philip again: “Go over and join this chariot.”

That is such a specific prompting. God is basically saying, Go talk to that guy.

And again, Philip listens.

Have you ever had one of those moments? You’re at school. You’re at practice. You’re at work. You’re out somewhere. And suddenly you feel this little nudge like, Go talk to them. Ask them how they’re doing. Go sit with them. Go encourage them.

And immediately your mind starts fighting back. What if it’s awkward? What if I don’t know what to say? What if I make it weird?

Philip could have done that. Instead, the Bible says he ran.

He didn’t slowly wander over. He ran to the opportunity.

That brings us to the second part of this story.

Phillip explains the gospel

Philip gets close enough to hear the Ethiopian reading from the prophet Isaiah. And Philip asks him, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

I love that question.

Philip doesn’t start with a sermon. He starts with a question.

And the Ethiopian says, “How can I, unless someone guides me?”

Think about that. Here is a man reading Scripture. He has the words of God in front of him. But he doesn’t understand.

And honestly, that’s a really important reminder for us. Just because somebody owns a Bible doesn’t mean they know Jesus. Just because somebody goes to church doesn’t mean they understand the gospel. Just because somebody watches Christian videos or hears Christian language doesn’t mean they’ve actually understood the good news.

There are so many people around us right now who are curious, who are searching, who are confused, and who have questions.

And a lot of them may never say it out loud unless someone asks.

That’s what Philip does so well. He notices. He listens. He asks.

The Ethiopian is reading a passage about a suffering servant, someone led like a lamb to the slaughter, someone denied justice, someone whose life was taken away. And he asks Philip, “Who is this about?”

And that right there is the open door.

That is the gospel opportunity.

Philip could have panicked. He could have thought, I don’t know if I’m ready for this. What if I say it wrong? What if I can’t answer every question?

But Scripture says, “Beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.”

That’s what Philip does. He points him to Jesus.

And that’s what we are called to do too.

Sometimes we make evangelism sound harder than it needs to be. We think we need to know everything. We think we need to win every argument. We think we need to have answers for every possible question.

But Philip simply started with what was in front of him and pointed the man to Jesus.

You don’t need to know everything. But are you prepared to share what you do know?

Can you tell somebody who Jesus is? Can you tell somebody why He died? Can you tell somebody what He has done in your life?

That’s why 1 Peter says we should always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is in us.

Now maybe some of you hear that tonight and your honest answer is yes. You feel ready. You feel like, Yeah, I could have that conversation. I could explain the gospel. I could talk to somebody about Jesus.

But maybe some of you feel a lot more like the Ethiopian.

Maybe you think, Honestly, I still have questions. I still need people to help explain things to me. I’m not sure I’d even know where to start.

And honestly, that’s okay.

There’s nothing wrong with being eager to learn. There’s nothing wrong with having questions. You can spend your entire life in God’s Word and still keep discovering new things. You will never get to the bottom of the richness of what God has given us in Scripture.

To some extent, we all need to be like the Ethiopian. We need to stay teachable. We need to stay curious. We need to stay hungry to know God more.

But we just can’t stay there.

At some point, what God is teaching us has to move from being something we only receive to something we begin to share.

And that’s exactly what happens next.

A proclamation is made

As Philip and the Ethiopian keep traveling, they come to some water. And the Ethiopian says, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?”

I love that response.

He hears about Jesus, and he wants to respond right away.

He doesn’t say, Let me think about it for a few weeks. He doesn’t say, I’ll get serious about this later. He says, Right now.

Philip baptizes him, and that baptism becomes a proclamation. It’s the Ethiopian publicly saying, I belong to Jesus now.

And then the passage ends with one of my favorite lines. It says he “went on his way rejoicing.”

He came searching. He heard the gospel. He believed. And now he leaves rejoicing.

But don’t miss what started the whole thing.

It started with Philip listening to God’s prompting.

Philip had no idea what God was doing. He didn’t know there was a man out there searching for answers. He didn’t know there would be a gospel conversation. He didn’t know it would end with someone believing, getting baptized, and going away full of joy.

He just obeyed.

And that’s what I want you guys to take with you tonight.

This week, God may prompt you.

Maybe it’ll be to sit with someone at lunch. Maybe it’ll be to check in on a friend. Maybe it’ll be to text somebody who’s struggling. Maybe it’ll be to ask someone a question. Maybe it’ll be to actually have a gospel conversation.

And when that moment comes, you may not know what God is doing. You may not know how it will go. You may not know what the outcome will be.

But your job is not to control the outcome.

Your job is to obey.

Run with purpose like Philip.

Listen when the Spirit prompts you.

Open your mouth when God gives you the opportunity.

Point people to Jesus.

And trust God with what happens next.