Methods of Evangelism: Part 3

One of the most practical forms of evangelism is what I'll call "person-to-person", it is how we share the truth of God with another person. It limits the discussion to us, them, and God.

Scripture is rich with the examples of this but the I really want to focus on one and that is the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian. It is a beautiful account because it teaches us everything we need to learn about witnessing face to face, person to person.

The passage in Acts 8 starts with this:

"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."

Whenever we want to witness to another person the first thing we need is spiritual guidance. Now we won't all be as blessed as Phillip and have an angel speaking with us but I do want to say this: we shouldn't be surprised if God does send a divine message to us.

Many times when you read scripture when every you see an angel appear the phrase that always seems to follow is "and they were afraid", but Phillip wasn't afraid. He had faith that God was going to lead him wherever he went, so when God sent an angel you almost get the sense that Phillip just nodded and thought to himself "I asked for direction and God sent it" - this is some real faith!

You can tell faith by our expectations. Do you really expect God to guide you? Then don't be too surprised when he does so. Here we see Phillip wasn't surprised, he expected God to lead him. That's why this is the very next phrase:

"And he rose and went."

Its one thing to look to God for direction but it can sometimes be difficult to take that divine answer for what it is. We can sometimes question God in such a way that we actually question his divine sanity, but Phillip doesn't do that. His faith is that God knows best. So when God says "Go out on a desert road and don't worry about supplies" Phillip doesn't say another word. After all he already asked for direction, now he has it. All he has to do now is obey.

The next thing we have to pray for is opportunity. God leads us many places but there are times when people have their hearts closed to the word of God. Other times we just don't feel like we've caught a good moment to say what God has given us to say. Phillip was granted a God given opportunity and he took it:

"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 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah."

God led Phillip right to a man who was searching scriptures related directly to Jesus. This divine leading is what opens doors for us. Everyone who God will save will have that moment of divine meeting, almost like when Paul was racing to Damascus, where God will meet that person where they are, blind them with His greatness, and lead them where he wants them to be. These meetings aren't by accident, these are planned in heaven.

James says "you do not have because you do not ask". That opportunity, that open door or open heart is something that we must ask for. We know God has given us a clear message, we know that he has given us people to speak to but what we need is open hearts ready to receive his word.

Now when Phillip found his opportunity the scripture says this:

"he told him the good news about Jesus"

This is the part that is always harder than it seems, because at that time there will be a distraction, a rabbit trail, an off topic question - if something can occur that can take the focus off of Jesus Christ it will. Why? Because we know the enemy is real. Even when Jesus spoke to the Samritan woman we find that in the middle of God explaining who he is she asks a question about which mountain they should serve on. These things will happen but what we need is a laser like focus on the central focus of scripture: Jesus Christ.

Don't let yourself be shaken or distracted. Don't let the conversation move - let the deciding point of the conversation be Jesus Christ. Some people will decline and that is fine, but some have hearts that are tender and ready to receive the word. They don't know what it really means to be alive, they don't know that God is calling them out of the world and into the citizenship of heaven. It is for those that we must focus and keep our eyes on Jesus.

The account in Acts 8 gives us a wonderful picture of what person to person evangelism really is because in the end our evangelism is really a reflection of our faith in God. Do you believe that God can guide us to the lost? Do you believe that God can open hearts? Then let's trust Him to empower us to speak to whomever he leads us.