Acts 8 - The Best Evangelism Starts in the Mode of Inquiry!
Acts 8 - NIV
8 And Saul approved of their killing him.
The Church Persecuted and Scattered
On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
Saul, who we know became the apostle Paul, was one of the chief persecutors of the early church. He went house to house and dragged the Christians off to prison. As a Pharisee, Paul saw this as his religious duty. He considered those who followed Jesus to be as blasphemous as Jesus was.
The scattering of the disciples served as a means for them to preach the gospel in the surrounding areas. God's ways are higher than our ways. What man meant for evil, God can use for good. Genesis 50:20
In Acts 1:8 Jesus clearly told His followers to look beyond Jerusalem and bring the gospel to Judea, Samaria, and the whole world. But to this point, Jesus’ followers had not done this. The resulting good of the spread of the gospel leads some to see this persecution as being the will of God. God can and will use pressing circumstances to guide us into His will. Sometimes we have to be shaken out of our comfortable state before we do what God wants us to do. - Guzik
Philip in Samaria
4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. 6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.
As was the case in Jesus' ministry, the signs and wonders God did through Philip gave credence to the gospel he preached. Note the singular content of His message was "Jesus is the Messiah". The signs and wonders included demons being cast out while they were shrieking, and the lame and paralyzed were healed. This caused great joy in the town. Jesus came to bring joy.
Simon the Sorcerer
9 Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, 10 and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” 11 They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. 12 But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.
It wasn't as if people were not open to the supernatural. In fact, they looked for it in people like Simon the Sorcerer. Simon practiced sorcery and the people were amazed at his power. But when Philip proclaimed the kingdom of God, it's power showed itself through his signs and wonders so much so that even Simon believed in the name of Jesus. And, he was baptized as a sign of his belief. He then followed Philip and continued to see him do many signs and wonders.
14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
The apostles were overjoyed that even those in Samaria were coming to faith in Jesus. They accepted the word of God. The word of God is the Good News of Jesus. Jesus was the word made flesh. Anytime we say "the Word of God" it is synonymous with Jesus. The bible we read contains the Word of God. The primary purpose of the bible, the Word of God, is to reveal the person of Jesus Christ and salvation in His name alone.
Apparently the new believers had not received the Holy Spirit yet. They had been simply baptized in the name of Jesus. This passage can be somewhat problematic, as it assumes the reception of the Holy Spirit comes apart from believing in Jesus and being baptized. Perhaps the key point is that the apostles laid hands on them and prayed for them. This was the usual way people received the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands.
Obviously, there was a subsequent experience with the Holy Spirit that these Samaritan believers did not know until the apostles came and ministered to them.
Often, the empowering and filling of the Holy Spirit is received as hands are laid on a person and prayer is offered for them (Acts 9:17, 1 Timothy 4:14, 2 Timothy 1:6). We should always be ready to receive whatever special graces and gifts God has to give us through the laying on of hands.
They received the Holy Spirit: We don’t know exactly how this was evident. Perhaps certain spiritual gifts were manifested (1 Corinthians 12:7-10).
We see in the book of Acts that the reception of the Holy Spirit is not neat and tidy. Different people received the Holy Spirit at different times, in different ways, and through different people. If the Holy Spirit is a gift of God, there is nothing we have to do to earn the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a gift but also a separate person of the Trinity.
Paul teaches in Ephesians that we are to be continually to be filled with and renewed by the Holy Spirit. It is not one and done. The Holy Spirit gives us gifts for ministry, the fruit of love, joy peace, patience and so on, and the assurance of salvation. The Holy Spirit helps us to pray, discern truth from God's Word, and also gives us the words to say when we are sharing the gospel. You can see there is basically nothing we can do without the help and power of the Holy Spirit.
Many times people get very legalistic about the Holy Spirit and put constraints on how the Holy Spirit can or can't work. We can't put the Holy Spirit in a box. The bible says, "The Holy Spirit blows where it wills. We don't know where it came from or where it is going, but we know when the Spirit is present." The bible says it is the same with those who are born of the Spirit. John 3:8
18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money 19 and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 20 Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! 21 You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. 23 For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”24 Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.” 25 After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.
When Simon saw the power of the Holy Spirit, he thought he could purchase it for himself. Peter rebuked Simon for thinking he could use God's Spirit for financial gain. We have seen many people over the last decades misuse the Holy Spirit in so called "healing ministries". Though some of them are the real deal, others have been shown to be guys like Simon. When Simon realized how serious Peter was he asked that nothing be done to him as a result of his ways.
Philip and the Ethiopian
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian[a] eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” 30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
32 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”[b]
34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
Philip was an evangelist. He was prepared for God to use him in any and every situation. He was also obedient to a special revelation of an angel to go down a road from Jerusalem to Gaza. As he was going down, he ran into an Ethiopian man who had gone to Jerusalem. He was a converted Jew from Africa. He was also reading from the book of Isaiah, which was a book full of prophecies about the Messiah. Obviously God had arranged for this divine encounter.
When Philip greeted the Ethiopian, he asked him if he knew what he was reading. The man said how could he unless someone explained it to him. You talk about an open door for the gospel. God is always drawing people to Himself through His Word. This eunuch was a seeker, or he would not have been reading from the book of Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah 53 has been called the chapter of the "Suffering Servant", and very Messianic in nature.
Philip helped connect the Ethiopian eunuch from the passage in Isaiah to Jesus. Philip knew how to rightly handle the Word of God. He studied it, knew it, so the Holy Spirit could speak through Philip to the eunuch. Think of how exciting it would be if every day you were open to divine encounters like this one.
Note it started with question, "What are you reading? Do you understand it?"
The best evangelism starts in inquiry mode. We are curious about others and delve into where they are at with spiritual matters. We don't hit them over the head with the gospel stick. When we take the time to understand where someone is at in their life, we can introduce them to Jesus in a way they can understand him.
36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” [37] [c] 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
We see his strategy worked. Instead of trying to persuade or manipulate the "eunuch" to make a decision for Christ, the man asked what could stand in the way of him being baptized. Though baptism doesn't save us, it was in this case a sure sign of the man's belief in Jesus. He knew being baptized meant he had become a follower of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit then miraculously took Peter away to Azotus where he preached the gospel all the way to Caesarea.
The Ethiopian was a rich man, a man of power, and at least in some way a celebrity. Yet Philip knew he needed Jesus just as much as anyone else. We should never fear speaking to those who are considered to be important people about Jesus.
We often shrink back from speaking boldly about Jesus, and the world lets us know we shouldn’t talk about such things. But the world does not hesitate to impose its own message on us. We should be just as bold to the world about Jesus as the world is bold to us about sin. - Guzik
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