Genesis 32-33, Psalm 14, Matthew 6:1-15, Acts 8:26-40

Acts 8:26-40:

A great story of witness and personal evangelism. What can we learn from it? These five things:

• Desert roads can be fruitful fields for the gospel. Perhaps you feel like you are wandering down a desert road. You cannot see much fertility of opportunity around you. Keep your eyes open! There could well be a great gospel opportunity for witness coming around the corner at any moment.
• Start with a question. Philip wisely begins the conversation by asking a question. So often we fail because we immediately start lecturing. Ask first. Inquire before you pontificate. Ask where someone is coming from, what they are looking for, discover who they are. Have the love to find out who this person is that you wish to win for Christ.
• Use Scripture. The Bible tells us that faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of Christ (Romans 10:17). You want to bring people to a place where they can look into the Bible alongside you. To go back to the source documents. To discover for themselves the truth about Christ. To hear the Word preached and so by God’s grace be brought to believe.
• Focus on the Good News. Do not overcomplicate the message. Keep it laser focused on Christ and the cross. Do not allow yourself to be distracted into the dead ends of controversies and problematic issues. Keep yourself, keep the conversation, keep the focus all crystal clear on the gospel.
• Ask for God’s Spirit to be powerfully at work. How the Spirit led Philip we are not exactly told. But the Spirit did lead Philip. It is our job to tell people about Jesus. But it is God’s job to convert. For there to be any real conversion, we need the Spirit of God to be powerfully at work. Ask for God’s Spirit to open hearts and minds, to give sight to the blind, that they might come and believe the truth.