This is a true story.
It is about a man who was prompted by God to initiate a conversation with a stranger .This man really felt strongly that God wanted him to go down to the pier. ‘All right. I’m not sure why, but ok.’ He goes down to the pier, and God doesn’t ‘say’ anything further to him. The only person around is a woman standing down at the end of the pier, so he thinks, ‘Maybe God wants me to talk to her.’ He doesn’t know, so he just wanders down to where this woman is and begins to engage her in conversation.
As they talk this woman pours out her heart to him. It turns out her life has fallen apart and she was at the pier to throw herself into the ocean and end her life. Instead, this man tells her about Jesus, and of God’s love for her. She ends up giving her life to God, becoming a follower of Jesus, and her life begins its process of ‘turning-around’. She becomes a woman of faith and of joy, and it began with a man who heard from God and listened.
Now, when we hear a story like that, we may have two reactions: half of us celebrate God’s activity in saving people and say ‘Yes! I want my life to have some stories like that.’ And the other half of us is afraid that God might actually prompt us into a conversation with someone about Jesus: ‘See that person right there? Go tell them that their sins are forgiven and that Jesus loves them.’
The truth is that most Christians get a little anxious at the thought of talking to people about Jesus. As Rebecca Pippert says: ‘Christians and non-Christians have something in common: We’re both uptight about evangelism.’
Even that word (‘evangelism’) is a signal that we think we can’t just talk to people about Jesus like we talk to them normally. It requires a special term: ‘Evangelism’. We have come to program it into the church. Many of have attended seminars and read books on ‘how to share your faith’, as if it was something that required a special gift or skill set.
A few years back I went to such a presentation. It involved a tool, a coffee-table book filled with Christian testimonies and a Gospel presentation. You ‘sponsor’ an area by buying X-number of books, and these books get delivered to mailboxes in a particular neighborhood. The idea is that while most people would not want someone knocking on their door to talk to them about Jesus, perhaps while browsing through an attractive book they might become interested in the Christian Gospel.
But at this presentation I was struck by the sense of cloak-and-dagger, of surreptitiously slipping the gospel into unsuspecting homes. They were pretty explicitly saying, ‘We know you don’t want to actually talk to anyone about Jesus. That is normal. Well, now you don’t have to worry about it.’
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When did talking about Jesus become so awkward for us? How did a reticence or even fear of talking about Jesus become normal?
And so we come to this part of Acts Chapter 8. Here we see a story like the one I told a moment ago: God ‘prompts’ one of his people to go somewhere, have a conversation that ends up changing a life.
There is an angel in this story, and at the end of the passage, it sounds like the Holy Spirit suddenly teleports Philip away. Yet for all that, I read this story and cannot help but think, ‘Maybe this story is normal. Maybe this is more representative of the Christian experience than “cloak & dagger” evangelism or sweaty palms.’
Let’s look at this together and see what’s going on. Maybe it’s more normal than we think.
Recap: Philip, who has been at the hub of an incredible move of God in Samaria, receives a message from God, via an angel: ‘Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ (This is a desert place.)
So Philip goes. There he sees a chariot in which is riding a high court official from Ethiopia, a worshiper of God who has come to the temple in Jerusalem and is returning home. Philip, again nudged by God, approaches the chariot. The man has a copy of – at least – the book of Isaiah and is reading aloud. Philip initiates and says, ‘Do you understand what you’re reading?’ The man says, ‘No. How can I unless someone explains it to me?’. And he invites Philip to ride with him and teach him.
The passage the Ethiopian is reading is Isaiah 53, a prophecy of the one who would suffer for the sins of the people and live again to intercede for them. Philip starts there and tells the man all about Jesus.
Evidently the man understands and responds, for at the first opportunity, he asks to be baptized. Philip baptizes him, and is ‘magically’ transported to another place, and the Ethiopian official continues his journey home, rejoicing.
So our passage begins with the immediate presence of the supernatural: an angel gives God’s message to Philip.
Right away, we think, ‘Well, there you go. This story has nothing to say to me. Angels don’t just speak to me. If an angel appeared and said, ‘Go see your neighbor and just say “Hi”, I would! But I’ve never heard an angel.’
But Philip’s story doesn’t start here.
Where was Philip? Well, earlier in chapter 8 we see him in Samaria, where he had singehandedly sparked the revival in Samaria: miracles, healings, people surrendering to Jesus left and right and getting baptized all over the place. (That just makes it even less our story!)
But Philip’s story doesn’t start there, either.
Nor does it start at the very beginning of chapter 8, with the savage persecution of Christians in Jerusalem that led to Philip going to Samaria in the first place.
We first meet Philip in chapter 6. There, seven men are affirmed by the church (several thousand strong, remember) as being men full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit and of unquestioned integrity. All right, then. Doesn’t that just make Philip special, the cream of the crop? How many of us would describe ourselves as ’acknowedged by thousands as being more full of wisdom and the Spirit than the others’. Again, this is not our story.
But his story doesn’t start there, either.
It starts in Acts 2:42.
I don’t know if Philip became a Christian at Pentecost, or before, or after. But Acts 2:42 describes the life and priorities that defined the Christian community of which Philip was a part:
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
The road that led Philip to the chariot in Acts 8 began with his being part of a community devoted to the apostolic teaching concerning Jesus, to prayer, to regular reflection on Jesus’ death, and to the life of the community that was the church.
And that can be my story. And yours.
Because Acts 8 is not just about Philip’s conversation with the Ethiopian. It begins in the context of Philip’s ongoing conversation with God. An angel speaks to Philip. In verse 29, Philip recognizes the Spirit’s voice.
Witnessing, then, is God-led, and arises most naturally out of a cultivated sensitivity to the leading of God’s Spirit. It is not trying to force Jesus into a conversation, rowing upstream as it were. It is catching the wind of God’s Spirit and sailing with it: ‘Where is God going in a person’s life, and how can I move with him in that?’ How did Philip cultivate that sensitivity? Same way we do. The only way possible. We’ve seen it throughout Acts already: Chapter 2: An immersion in the Scriptures, in prayer, in the worshiping community, in generosity. In other words, in an intentional participation in the things of God. This was the life of faith that Philip was a part of, and in that context he became familiar with the voice of God.
A non-praying people, unfamiliar with the Word of God, in a surface relationship with the community of Jesus that is the Church, committed to caring for self more than for others… cannot, then, expect to recognize the promptings of God.
Observations from the this text:
First, we see faithfulness in the little things. It is the fruit of the Spirit, after all.
I find myself wishing that God would speak to me clearly and use me to bring his kingdom into a life that needs him. But he has spoken to me directly: he has said, ‘Ken, love your wife as Christ loved the church. Ken, don’t provoke your children to anger. Ken, forgive those who sin against you. Ken, don’t forsake the gathering together of Christians. Be generous. Pray. Don’t let negative talk come out of your mouth. Abide in Jesus. Cultivate purity of mind. Care for others. Cultivate love, peace, gentleness, patience, integrity. Don’t let worry take over.’
Yet it is so easy for me to ignore or forget these things. I do not seek first God’s kingdom. I do worry. I do criticize. I do put my own interests above those of my wife and kids. I have a poverty in my prayer and SCripture life, and so I do not know God very well.
And then I say, ‘Why doesn’t God speak to me?’
The Bible says on a number of occasions something like: ‘If you are faithful in the little things, you will be trusted with greater things’.
What if I wanted to be a ‘hockey hero’ in my own city? I hear about the guy who makes the play or scores the goal that saves the game, and think, ‘I’d love it if that was me! That would be so cool! Why doesn’t the Coach ever ask me to play?’ Well, maybe it is because I have not played hockey all my life. I have never really learned, never cultivated what I needed. The Coach does not ask me to play in 2024 not because of any lack of passion and commitment to hockey today, but because I wasn’t interested in hockey in 1994.
Jesus said in John 15: that if we abide in him, we bear fruit. That simply the act of remaining connected, plugged in, conscious of Jesus is the pre-requisite of bearing fruit. We can only be led by God if we are in the habit of carving out space in our lives for the simple purpose of becoming familiar with God. As Philip did.
It’s not that we earn the right to be used by God by being good Christians for a long time, accumulating enough ‘merit badges’ so that God says, ‘Great job! Here, let me speak and do some cool things. You deserve it.’ No. It is that over time we have become the kind of people who are so used to living in step with God that when he needs us to do something – ‘Go down to the desert road’ – we just naturally do it. Maybe it’s not Philip who’s normal. Maybe it is you!
Secondly, it is not about the ‘glamor’. (After all, Philip left the ‘glamor’ to go to a desert road). Part of the reason it is so critical to be sensitive to the voice of God is because often he leads us in a way that is counter-intuitive. What we would consider good strategy or a wise course of action might be the opposite of how God would lead.
We desire to ‘hear a prompting from God’ and have a supernatural conversation that changes someone’s life, but isn’t part of our response to such stories a response to the coolness factor? A story like, ‘This week I really sensed that God was directing me to go to the neighbor’s house. Didn’t know why. Turns out my neighbor was on his way out the door, leaving his wife. I spent a couple hours with them, shared Jesus, they cried and became Christians on the spot, and when I left there was such a joy and peace in the house.’ That is a much cooler story than, ‘I got home from work on Tuesday and was pretty tired, wanted to put my feet up but my wife told me that my kid had had a tough day at school, so I gave him a hug and said, ‘Want to play Monopoly Junior for a while?’ And so we did. But there, too, God’s kingdom comes.
Care for your family. Put in a good day at work, day after day. Live out your faith in school. Speak of Jesus when he is mocked. Or speak out for Jesus in the public sphere. Take a stand against abortion. Challenge the direction of our schools.
Again, consider Philip: in the center of what is clearly a thriving ministry, he is suddenly called to go to the desert, to leave it all behind. A bad leadership decision, in a sense. Wouldn’t he maximize his ministry impact if he stayed where the people are? Wasn’t there great momentum that needed his leadership? Maybe. That is not the point. The point is that God had a man in mind, and that man was not in Samaria. He was in the desert. And God wanted Philip to go to him.
Jesus made a similar point in Mark chapter 1. After a long day of significant ministry: powerful teaching in the synagogue, many miracles and healings, Jesus gets up early in the morning and goes off somewhere to pray, to be connected with God his father. So when the disciples finally find him and say, ‘Everyone is looking for you’, Jesus says, ‘Let’s leave and go to some other towns.’ What? Leave a place where everyone is looking for Jesus? Leave a place right when it looks like things are taking off? Yes. For Jesus had been led by God in prayer, and knew that it was time to go. He might not have known if he had not been praying.
It is not about the glamor.
And thirdly, take one step at a time
The angel says, ‘Go to the desert road.’ That’s all. He didn’t say to Philip in Samaria: ‘Okay Philip, here’s a job for you to do: Go down to the desert road between Jerusalem and Gaza. There you will meet an Ethiopian official. He’ll be in a chariot reading the prophet Isaiah. Ask him about what he’s reading. He’ll invite you into his chariot, and ask you to explain the Scripture to him. Tell him about Jesus. He’ll get saved and you’ll baptize him. Okay?’ No. ‘Go to the road’, and Philip goes. ‘Go near that chariot’, and Philip does.
Note what the Spirit says to Philip: ‘Go to that chariot and stay near it.’ He didn’t say, ‘Go talk to that man.’ Just, ‘Get close to him.’
Bill Hybels, in speaking of evangelism, talks about what he calls the Law of Proximity: that to witness for Jesus you’ve got to be near people who need him. Salt doesn’t do any good unless it is on the food.
Rebecca Pippert, who I quoted earlier – Christians and non-Christians are both uptight about evangelism – titled her book, Out of the Salt Shaker for that very reason. A doctor is useless unless he interacts with sick people. A teacher needs to be in a classroom, or what’s the point? Christians need to be near people who need Jesus.
Whose chariot are you near? Do you have any relational proximity to anyone who needs Jesus? Can you think of any person, or group of people, who are not Christians and whom you interact with with any regularity? If not, consider joining a team or club, get involved in a community activity that you enjoy. If you have to set aside a church ministry to do it. That is, if all of your proximity is to Christians, make a shift. Many of you, of course, do have proximity to non-Christians: at work, at school, in your neighborhood. Be conscious of that proximity and become familiar enough with God to let him nudge you to conversation with them.
Because that’s what God does. He nudges. He prompts.
As you have proximity, God will nudge you, lead you and open your eyes to opportunities. But he doesn’t make you take those opportunities. As the saying goes, ‘You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.’
As a kid we would create treasure hunts, and leave notes to be found, clues as to where to look next. Finding the first note, there would be a clue to lead us to the second note, which would lead us to the third, and only then would we find the ‘treasure’: one step at a time. God usually directs a step at a time.
We don’t need all our ‘ducks in a row’ before being obedient to God. In fact, often if we wait for all the questions to be answered, if we don’t move until we know how it all plays out, we don’t move at all. Sometimes the best leadership does not get all its ducks in a row. Sometimes all that is needed is to say, ‘I see a duck.’ But see, when we are led by God and recognize his voice, that becomes a non-issue. I don’t know the whole map or the final destination, but I hear God calling me to take a step in this direction.
Fourth, it is about Jesus. The eunuch is reading the Isaiah passage about Jesus and so Philip begins telling him about Jesus.
The Ethiopian was reading from Isaiah 53: 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.
So he asks Philip, ‘Who is the prophet talking about?’ And Philip starts there, and tells him all about Jesus. That passage in Isaiah describes the suffering Servant of the LORD, who is smitten by God for the sins of God’s people, who is wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our sins. All we like sheep have gone astray but the LORD has laid on him the sins of us all. He was buried, but afterward he will yet prosper and intercede for many. That is Jesus: who died on the cross, bearing the punishment for our sins, dying in our place so that we might have forgiveness and reconciliation with God. And though Jesus died and was buried, yet he was raised to life by the power of God, and lives now, at God’s right hand and making intercession for God’s people.
And fifth, it begins in Scripture
Isaiah 53. Philip’s ‘conversation’ about Jesus begins with his being asked if he understands what the Scripture is talking about
We need to read the Scripture and be familiar with it. Not as an activity, and certainly not as if we were studying for an exam: ‘I need to study the Bible in case I need to witness to someone’. But we put ourselves under God’s Word. We don’t apply the Scripture to our lives. We apply our lives to the Scripture. And that is how two things happen: 1. we learn to be familiar with God and with his voice, and 2. we become the kind of people who can share Jesus with people when opportunities arise.
There is a danger here! When we say, ‘Read the Bible more’, that’s not the point. A runner in a in a 26-mile marathon ‘hits the wall’ at (about) the 23rd mile. Runners often take a banana or a granola bar to eat part way through the marathon. If they do not, or did not feel like eating, they run the risk of not finishing the race. Similarly, the Bible is food. For us personally but also so we can explain it as we ‘evangelize’ the people God sends us to.
Imagine Philip’s response to the eunuch’s question: When asked, ‘Who is he writing about?’ And Philip says, ‘Well, I don’t know that passage specifically, but I hear the Scripture is generally about Jesus so it is probably about him.’
Normal ‘sharing Jesus’: Don’t look for the glamourous. Maybe don’t even look for the opportunities. We just walk with God. We fix ourselves and attention on Jesus. We do the things that are right before us: build character, cultivate the fruit in a thousand mundane ways. And when the ‘big’ opportunity arises before us, we won’t even think, ‘Here’s a big opportunity!’ We’ll just naturally sense God at work, share Jesus naturally, and maybe not even realize what we’ve just done. Because we always just take the step God wants us to take
You actually do this exact thing when someone tells you of something going on in their life and you say, “For what it’s worth, I’ll pray for you. Let me know how it turns out.” Or a co-worker asks ‘How was your weekend?’ and you reply, ‘Normal: Did yard work Saturday, was in church Sunday and relaxed all afternoon.’ And a conversation may or may not follow, but you’ve initiated in a way that isn’t weird or awkward but natural. And you’d be surprised how often someone will say, ‘Yeah, pray. If the Big Guy upstairs can help, we sure need it.’ or ‘I used to go to church. What church do you go to?’ And before you know it, you are having a spiritual conversation. It is not a ‘gospel presentation’, and you are not following some pre-set formula. You are just talking naturally about Jesus.
But we’ve made it weird. It wasn’t weird for Philip. Listening to God’s prompting, he got near the chariot, and asked the most natural question in the world: ‘Do you understand what you’re reading?’ So the Ethiopian then took the initiative and invited Philip to join him in the chariot.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have them take the initiative? Sometimes they do.
Or sometimes we take the initiative.
Anyway, God knows who he is trying to reach. He knows the circumstances they find themselves in. He knows that this is the moment for him to receive Christ and find healing and forgiveness. And who knows? God might send you.
AMEN.