The Leading of the Lord in Personal Evangelism

Acts 8:26-40

    What stands out in this story is that a very unlikely candidate for conversion to Christ is found and converted through the supernatural leading of the Lord himself, and not through human planning. The person was from Ethiopia in Africa and had come all the way up to Jerusalem (at least 500 miles) to worship God (v. 27). So out of all the tens of thousands of Jews and Gentiles and Samaritans that need Christ, the Lord sovereignly sets his favor on this man and sends an angel to Philip, the deacon-evangelist, and says in verse 26, "Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza."

     Philip goes, like Abraham probably, not knowing all that God has in mind. But when he gets to the road the Spirit tells him the next step to take. This supernatural guidance comes one step at a time. In verse 29 the Spirit says, "Go up and join this chariot." That's all he says. Not what for. Nor who is in the chariot. Just go to the chariot.

    The timing of the Spirit proves perfect. At that very moment Philip, no doubt wondering what he would do or say when he got to the chariot, hears the Ethiopian reading out loud the book of Isaiah (probably in the Greek version). And not only that the place where he is reading is a specific reference to the Messiah which Jesus had fulfilled in his death. Verse 32f: "As a sheep led to the slaughter or a lamb before its shearer is dumb, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken up from the earth" (Isaiah 53:7-8).

     Now Philip knows what the Lord has been doing in directing him to this desolate place where there is one lone chariot and man from Ethiopia. The Lord is having mercy on a man whose nationality and sexual impotence might have made him think the God of Israel would never care about him. And not only that, the Lord is orchestrating the evangelization of Ethiopia. We can't know for sure, but Irenaeus wrote in the second century that this Ethiopian became a missionary among his people (Against Heresies iii. 12. 8; cf. Psalm 68:31; 87:4).

     Philip proclaimed the good news of Jesus to him (v. 35)—that "the Lord has laid on him the iniquities of us all" (Is. 53:6) and that we are set right with God through his death and resurrection (Is. 53:4-5, 11-12). …The Ethiopian believed, was baptized (v. 38) along the road and went on his way rejoicing (v. 39), while Philip was taken up to Azotus by the Spirit.

      Now what is the point of this story? Why does Luke include it in the book of Acts? What does he want us to get out of this inspired story—since (as Paul says) "all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16)? How does this Scripture equip us for every good work?

     I think the answer is that the story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch teaches us one of the ways God uses to evangelize the world. I say "one of the ways God uses" because it is clear from the book of Acts that a lot of evangelism was done without an angel of the Lord having to tell the Christians to do it (e.g. 8:4).

It's what one does if one loves Jesus and loves people. You tell the good news. Jesus already gave us a command to be about it in the Great Commission. So you don't have to have an angel of the Lord to tell you to do it any more than you need an angel of the Lord to tell you not to do it..

    But on the other hand, we may be more in danger of making the other mistake, namely of thinking that we can do all God wants done by simply evangelizing according to our own planning. So God includes in his inspired word stories and teachings that equip us for another kind of good work—not just wise and prayerful planning on the basis of circumstances we can see, but also listening responsively to the Spirit when he may want to tell us to do something that we might never think of doing through our own planning—like, "Go down to a desert road that leads to Gaza and wait for further instructions." Philip could not have computed form Scripture and circumstances that that's where the Spirit was moving next.

    So the Scriptures are wonderfully sufficient here—they protect us from the error of thinking that the only way God guides us in good work is by reasoning and planning from circumstances and principles (though this is good), and they show us that there are works God may lead us to do by means of extraordinary guidance. I count at least 18 instances of this extraordinary guidance in the book of Acts scattered among all the more ordinary ways of making decisions in evangelistic strategy. And since there is no teaching anywhere in the New Testament that says this work of the Lord is limited to the time of the book of Acts, we should assume that one of God's ways today of building his church is to give direction to his people in extraordinary ways as well as more ordinary ones.

     I believe in the unique authority and infallibility and sufficiency of the Scriptures. And one of the concerns expressed by people who love the Bible is that being open to supernatural guidance like Philip was might compromise the authority and sufficiency of Scripture. Now obviously Martyn Lloyd-Jones  I do not think that it does. Why? It's because what the sufficiency of Scripture means Biblically is that Scripture gives us all we need for two things: 1) it gives all the authoritative truth we need in order to be saved and grow spiritually, and 2) it gives all the authoritative truth we need in order to make good judgments about what is right and wrong.

    But the sufficiency of Scripture does not mean that God cannot speak through nature (Psalm 19:1) or that he cannot speak through the human conscience (Romans 2:15) or that he cannot speak through gifts of prophecy and wisdom (1 Cor. 12:8-10). It means that these are not sufficient to save us or nurture us or guide us. But the Scriptures are sufficient, in the sense that they give the only authoritative rule for completing and assessing those other kinds of revelations.

    Consider the analogy of a manual on how to use a sail boat. It says on the front of the manual: "All you need to know for successful sailing." So the manual claims to be a sufficient guide for sailing. You read in the manual on page six, "Before hoisting the sail, be sure that you know the way the wind is blowing so as to put the rigging in proper position to avoid capsizing or injury." So you go out on the lake with the boat and before you hoist the sail, you hold a little cloth in the air to see which way the wind is blowing.

    Suppose somebody said, "Hey why are you lifting that cloth in the air to find out which way the wind is blowing. The manual says that it contains everything you need to know for successful sailing. Shouldn't you just look in the manual to learn which way the wind is blowing?"

    That's the kind of mistake people make, I think, when they say that we should not be like Philip today and listen for the special direction of the Spirit in personal evangelism. The Bible doesn't rule out that special guidance and the Bible doesn't take its place. The Bible illustrates it, and the Bible advocates it, and the Bible regulates it—and it does so sufficiently. "All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." We have all the authoritative truth in the Bible that we need in order to properly discern and respond to God's voice in nature or in the conscience or in the dreams or visions or extraordinary revelations like: "Go south to a desert road that leads to Gaza, and await further instructions." Or: "Go up and join this chariot."

   On the other hand if people are neglecting meditation on Scripture in favor of impressions and special words, you can be sure that their spiritual faculties will not be well tuned to hear the truth.

   That's the way most cults and sects start. Someone claims a revelation and gets a following. ( Muslims, Mormons, Jehovah Wit.) That's why the Scripture is given to us as our only infallible and sufficient rule for judging all claims to divine guidance. So it can be dangerous to tell people to be open to the special leading of the Lord in personal evangelism and world evangelization (like Philip did). But it is dangerous like sharp knives are dangerous. They can hurt people, but we don't outlaw them. Because, when rightly used, they are so helpful in preparing food, we don't want to do without them.

    I am sure that most of us have a long way to go in simply obeying what we know to be right to do in our everyday life. But it would be a mistake to say that we must arrive at perfection in one area before we take baby steps in another. I believe God may be offering breakthroughs in your life and in the life of our church especially in the ministry of evangelism and world missions if we were more like Philip. Acts 6:3 says that he (along with the other 6 "deacons") was "full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom." And because he was full of the Spirit and wisdom (probably from long meditation on Scripture) he was alert to the voice of the Lord when one day the Spirit said, "I have a divine appointment for you. Go south to the road that leads to Gaza."

    God is getting breakthroughs around the world today by the most extraordinary means. Steadfast, day by day perseverance in the ordinary means of grace is the meat and potatoes of the ministry that keeps the people of God fed and growing. But, just like in the book of Acts, God is also mingling in breakthroughs all over the world by extraordinary demonstrations of his presence.

    In the midst of a life of steady, persevering faithfulness, God has yet more wonders to show us in the work of evangelism and world missions than we can imagine. Let's pray for eyes to see and ears to hear when he calls us to a divine appointment like Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch had on the road to Gaza.