Evangelism - The Ethiopian Eunuch

English Standard Version Chapter 8

26 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. 27 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 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 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.

33  In his humiliation justice was denied him.

Who can describe his generation?

For his life is taken away from the earth.”

34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36 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?” 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 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. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

An angel appears and commissions Philip to a work of evangelism. It’s out of his way, down a road to a desert.

about an 18 hour walk

v27 - AND HE ROSE AND WENT

obedience. Evangelism takes obedience.

before we get into anything else? It must be said that if you don’t come to the great commission with an obedient heart then you ought not be shocked that you don’t experience the thrill of conversions in your life.

obedience in the face of hard things. difficult things. the potential loss of a relationship. the potential fear of being “that guy”

AND in the face of the unknown.

Many of us want to have all the details worked out in a scenario before we take a leap. We’re perfectionists, in a sense.

We want to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, or maybe just mostly, that something will be successful. That there will be returns for our effort. That we’re minimizing our risk as much as possible.

But realistically, this isn’t possible, and it certainly isn’t what happens here with Phillip.

Phillip doesn’t know what’s going to happen, or even really the details of where he’s going. He’s just traveling down to a city. To a new region. Maybe he’s been there before maybe not.

The text doesn’t say “and he rose and packed his bags accordingly” because he doesn’t know what hte heck he’s getting into.

but what we DO know, is that he did it. In the face of the unknown.

We don’t get to know if our efforts will be successful. We don’t get to know if we’re going to maintain our reputation.

Heck, Phillip didn’t even know if he’d survive this trip, and yet he went.

Our safety, our results, our reputation, our fanaicial security, NONE of this is guaranteed. But that’s not the point. The point is are we ready to obey?

Jesus made it clear to us that we should count the cost. You very well could lose everything following this call to preach the Gospel to those around you. Your reputation may become marred, and in some circumstances it definitely will (in the eyes of the world). For some of you it will cost you everything. You’ll be sent into unknown lands. Into places you don’t want to go. Maybe it will mean quitting or losing your job, maybe it will mean having to slice and dice yrou budget - again. Maybe it will actually mean risking your safety, your life, for the mission of the proclamation of the Gospel.

Worth it.

Count the cost my friends. Heed Jesus’ advice.

Take a look at your possessions, your comfort, your paycheck, your safety, and hand them all over to Christ.

why? For the sake of the Gospel ringing true in the ears of those doomed to hell.

We walk into the unknown, heads up, hands to the work.

And for Phillip this wasn’t a short easy walk either.

For Phillip it was the 18 hour worth of walking.

“But if an angel appeared to me and told me what to do I’d do it!”

Would you? Because the Bible makes it pretty clear that if we have the law and the prophets and don’t obey them no supernatural event will change out hearts.

You see, many of us are sign-seekers. We follow jesus because we hope to see something fancy. Or maybe more like we will if we see something impressive. The Bible tells us it’s a wicked generation that seeks for a sign.

The sign-givers of old were performers, even Herod later on in the life of Jesus was excited to meet Jesus, why? Becuase he hoped to see some sign, some miracle.

If we are banking our following of Christ on the appearance of some sign then we aren’t following him at all. And if we’re waiting for a sign to perform an act of evangelism then we can say no different.

We’re sitting around, waiting for a supernatural event to happen in order for our “spirits to be stirred” and move in a certain direction, whereas the reality is that if you are reborn the supernatural event has already taken place, you are already born again, therefore the sign you’re awaiting has already been received.

You’re “seeing a sign” will change nothing. You’ll still be the same unregenerate person you were before. You wont be convinced further by a new sight. Instead, the Lord calls us to be obedient. Obedient to what? His calling of evangelism. To make disciples and teach them all that he has commanded.

AS WELL AS the call to repent and believe the Gospel. To walk in the obedience of faith that the Bible calls us to walk in. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ!

Isn’t that exactly what Phillip does?

English Standard Version Chapter 8

35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36 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?

Beginning with the prophet Isaiah Phillip expounded on the Bible and how it teaches of Christ. He even made plain the need for baptism as a sign of repentance of sin, the Ethiopian at the end submits to the truth of God and says “then why shouldn’t I be baptized!?”

SO - we need obedience, yes.

but we also need wisdom.

We live in a Bible starved society - to borrow an illustration - we are so rich that we are poor.

We have Christian colleges within driving distance, Christian schools within range of an easy commute, churches on every corner...

If you were to place a puritan in our society I think he’d believe that Christendom had been revived and maybe even that he was living in the new heavens and new earth! Well. Maybe for the first 10 minutes or so...

Because eventually he will come to realization that with Bibles in every home, churches on every corner, schools in every city and colleges in every state...... we still lack the fundamentals.

somehow, in the midst of all this, we are the most Bible starved people to walk the earth and call themselves Christians.

Think with me for a moment. How many of us would be confident to stand before another and recount the story of Jesus? How many of us could tell the whole story of the Bible? How many of us can define sin or list characteristics of God? How many of us understand the doctrine of depravity and regeneration? How many of us really understand why Jesus needed to be born a man?

Do you see what I mean? We are so rich that we are poor.

Our society echoes this sentiment. We have more money than generations before us could have imagined having, and yet we squander it on technnology and machines that will expire in the next 18 months. Aesthetics that will change with the fashions of our day. Clothes that will be in the goodwill bin within a few months.

But where are our timeless treasures? The quality architecture of old? it’s rarely seen today. Family heirlooms are becoming more and more rare. And with it family legacies and inheritances. Why is that? Because we are so rich we are poor.

We have so much money, we spend it frivolously. On things that decay adn rust away quickly.

Such is true with our approach to the Bible. We have it in such abundance. Podcasts everywhere, sermons abound, churches everywhere, Christian education coming out of our ears… that we just don’t care enough about it anymore. We have so much of it… we take it for granted. And we have for some time… for nearly the last hundred years or so… and it has taken it’s toll on us.

The Bible has become less and less special to us. Christianity and it’s teachings less and less significant that we make decisions where to send our children to school based on whether or not the school has a football program. Oh no I’m sorry, whether or not it has a winning football program.

We’ve lost sight of the significant needs. The true needs. The more important needs.

and because of this we’ve lost sight of the sacrifices that we need to make in order to make it happen.

You might not be able to have that second car if you want your children to be educated in a Christian school. That second job. That bigger house. That finer....

when I say things like “I don’t care about if my kids go to college” I get quite a few sideways looks.

but what I’m trying to communicate is that I have a different set of priorities for my children.

Whereas, if we lived in less of an abundance of “Bible” maybe we’d hunger or it more?

we’re fat but yet in poverty.

we’re so rich that we’re poor.

We need wisdom. We need Bible. We need to be like Phillip, who knew the word well and could communicate it winsomely.

And we need to be snapped awake from our over-abundant stupor.

but how do we wake up?

How does anyone wake up? With an alarm.

If my children want to go to church with me early in the morning, before the rest of the family comes, they’ll ask me. “Dad can you wake us up early so we can come to church with you?”

We need to wake up from our “I’ll get to it later” mentality, and I think the way we do it is we ask our father.

So we need obedience, and we need wisdom, but there’s one more thing I want to pull out of this text.

English Standard Version Chapter 8

He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

When we read this passage there is one bit that is profoundly clear.

Phillip could have had all the wisdom/Bible stored up in his heart that he could possibly contain. He could have been saturated with it. He could have been walking in obedience to the Lord his entire life, faithfully following his commands.

But if God hadn’t sovereignly arranged this entire situation beforehand, it would have all been for not.

In other words, Phillip had an opportunity. A divine moment, predestined by God, to do the work that the Lord had called him to do.

Maybe a better word for you and I would be trial, or test.

In other words, you have a moment where the opportunity to use the wisdom the Lord has given you through your faithful obedience to his words comes, and you can take it or not.

We need to have a right view of these moments. In these moments your faith is absolutely being tested.

so how should we respond to tests?

English Standard Version Chapter 1

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

“the genuineness of your faith” is tested. And evangelism is most certainly a test.

When God gives us those opportunities, we should view them rightly. Here, in this moment, your faith is most definitely being tested. Will you prove faithful?

Now we haven’t thought this way in a while. Why? I’m concerned that we’ve stuck the category of evangelism over in a “specialization”

as in, well that’s not really for everybody to do. Theres folks who have that job, and then there’s the rest of us.

No. I don’t think so my friends. This is a test for all of us.

“Go and make disciples, teaching them to obey all that I’ve commanded” is a command given to all believers.

And if we just think about this for a moment we know that it’s true. Parents are obviously called to do this for their children, husbands are obviously called to do this for their households, pastors are obviously called to do this for their churches, bible study leaders… older women… older men...

but yet somehow we think that doesn’t apply to every other area of our lives in which we carry influence over others. Or in every other area of our lives in which we have relationships. It does my friends. All of it.

We cannot have a compartmentalized Christianity.

It is all of Christ in all of life.

And these tests result in a marvelous thing.

“in praise and glory and honor and the revelation of Jesus Christ”

When you carry the wisdom of God, when you walk in faithful obedience to his words, and when the opportunity comes - it is for the Glory of God.

In other words, your faithfulness has eternal, cosmic, and heavenly powers tied up with it.

Who rejoices when a lost one comes to Christ?

Heaven itself! The Angels of God (Luke 15:10)

Some of you have gotten to experience the amazing experience of having others cheer for you. Maybe on a football field, maybe in a recital hall, maybe at an award ceremony… it’s quite the boost. Really, there’s not much like it.

And the Bible tells us that when one sinner repents… heaven itself errupts. Louder and more powerful than any stadium on earth could ever be.

So here we are.

This is our calling my friends. To wisdom, to obedience, and to testing.

Admittedly, this is no small calling. No light work.

And honestly… it’s overwhelming when we look at it. How on earth can we carry this pressure on ourselves? To do all these things? To make sure we’re studied in the word (wisdom) to make sure we’re walking in faithful repentance (obedience) all the while knowing our test is coming… and the pressure is on.

Well. To carry that pressure on your shoulders, that stress, all of that, means your doctrine is weak. You don’t yet understand what the Bible teaches, or how God works. Maybe you understand it, in the sense that you know the verses. Maybe you could even teach other people the passages and principles. But you don’t understand it in your everday life. It hasn’t fallen into your heart yet. These truths aren’t a part of who you are, and as a result they don’t govern your day-to-day.

“Paul plants, appollos waters, but God gives the growth.”

Repentance is a gift from God.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

You CAN’T do it.

But God can. And he does.

So really, what is our calling here? What do we do?

Well, like any child, we ask our Father.

Like my children, when they want to wake up early to come to church, they ask dad to wake them up.

We need to ask dad to wake us up. And not just once. Not just today. We need to take a Biblical example and be persistent, like the widow in Luke 18 who would not stop asking.

Luke 18:7 - “will [God] not give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night?”

We need to check our disposition, and return to a child like faith. A faith that looks to our father for everything. A faith that asks him for good gifts. A faith that relies wholly and completely on him and his power.

So what are we going to do?

We’re gonna pray.

For the next 21 days, we’re going to be talking about evangelism.

On Sundays and in every other meeting we have. Our women’s groups, our men’s groups, our online presence, all of it.

And for the next 21 days, we’re going to pray. We’re going to ask the Lord for the three things we talked about today.

We’re gonna ask him for the gift of wisdom, that we would have a desire to read and study his word, and that we would understand it, retain it, and bring it to those in need.

We’re going to ask him for the gift of obedience. That we would faithfully walk in this calling that God has given us to make disciples.

And we’re going to ask for the gift of opportunity. That God would test us. That he would put in our paths those that need to hear the word of Christ, and that we would meet the challenge. That we would pass the test. That we would take the opportunity.

and that we would get to experience the deafening cries of joy from the angels themselves when just one sinner repents.