SERIES: “LESSONS FROM THE EARLY CHURCH”
TEXT: ACTS 8:26-40
TITLE: “SOME TIPS ON SHARING YOUR FAITH”
INTRODUCTION: A. What gets you excited?
--Someone: “You cannot kindle a fire in any other heart until it is burning in your
own.”
1. Another word for excitement is “enthusiasm”
2. It’s been said: “Enthusiasm is unmistakable evidence that you’re in love with your
work.”
3. Charles Schwab: “A man can succeed at almost anything for he has unlimited
enthusiasm.”
4. If we are excited about our relationship with Jesus, it shouldn’t be too hard to tell
others about that relationship
--We can talk to people about all kinds of things: the weather, our favorite sports
team, our favorite television show, a hobby that we enjoy or any other topic of
interest to us because it excites us and we want to share the excitement with
other people.
B. Chuck Swindoll, Strengthening Your Grip, lists four basic hindrances to sharing our
faith:
1. Bad experience
--Maybe as a non-Christian you met someone who seemed to be a “wild-eyed
fanatic” who pushed you, maybe even embarrassed you trying to force a decision.
2. Indifference
a. As hard as it is to admit, there some who claim to be believers that just don’t
care that people are lost and will spend this life without Christ and eternity in
hell.
b. They think, “Hey, if that’s the way that person wants to believe, that’s fine with
me; to each his own.”
3. Fear
--We’re just plain scared
a. We’re afraid we’ll be asked a question we can’t answer
b. Or we’re afraid that someone will get mad at us and tell us off.
4. Ignorance
--We don’t know how to go about sharing our faith
C. This passage from Acts 8 describes someone sharing their faith
1. It’s a fairly well-known story in the Restoration Movement about Phillip and the
Ethiopian eunuch.
2. Most of the time I’ve heard it preached in a sermon or taught in a lesson, the
emphasis in Restoration Movement churches is the doctrine of baptism for
salvation.
3. Let’s look at this passage to help us in sharing our faith with others
I. MAKE YOURSELF AVAILABLE
--Acts 8: 26-27a – “Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road--the desert road--that goes
down from Jerusalem to Gaza." So he started out…”
A. Availability is anything that makes itself accessible for utilization
1. Availability is what we see in Is. 6:8 – “I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send and
who will for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I; send me.’”
2. One of my favorite sayings: “God doesn’t want your capability. He only wants your availability. If
you’ll give Him your availability, He’ll provide the capability.”
B. Philip Clarke Brewer:
God uses
what you have
to fill a need which
you never could have filled.
God uses
where you are
to take you where
you never could have gone.
God uses
what you can do
to accomplish what
you never could have done.
God uses
who you are
to let you become who
you never could have been.
II. KNOW THAT GOD PREPARES HEARTS
--Acts 8:27b-28 – “… and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the
treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28and on his
way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet.”
A. How did God prepare the heart of this Ethiopian official
1. He was returning from worship in Jerusalem
2. He was reading scripture
3. God doesn’t prepare every heart the same way every time.
--The essential thing is that this preparation is a process that develops in the person the knowledge
that there is a need for God in their lives and a need to know God.
B. Preparation is the work of the Holy Spirit
--Jn. 16:7-11 – “7But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the
Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8When he comes, he will convict the
world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9in regard to sin, because men do not
believe in me; 10in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no
longer; 11and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.”
III. LISTEN TO THE PROMPTING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
A. Acts 8:29 – “29The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it."”
--If the Holy Spirit is preparing hearts ahead of time, you can be sure that He knows when they are ready
to hear the Gospel
B. A number of years ago, I was working a week of Junior camp at White Mills, KY. One of the
faculty members brought their 17-year-old daughter with them to help out at camp. This faculty
member and I had worked several weeks of camp together and were friends. She told me that her
daughter had never committed her life to Christ. She had brought her along not just to help out that
week of camp but also to be helped along in making a decision. She then asked if I could maybe talk to
her daughter who was named Peggy about that decision which I did every day to no avail.
Also during that week there was a death in the family of one of my church members. I left camp on
Wednesday to comfort the family and tie down arrangements for the funeral which would be on
Saturday morning. Although camp wasn’t finished until Saturday morning, I had to leave late Friday
night to return home and be ready for the funeral the next day.
I went around the camp saying good-byes and then got in my car to head home. I put the keys in the
ignition but could not turn the key. There was a very clear voice ringing in my head saying, “You can’t
leave until you talk to Peggy one more time about here decision.” Like everyone else, I argued why I
couldn’t accomplish that task. Obviously, I had to leave to be able to do the funeral. I sat in the car
about twenty minutes jockeying back and forth with the Holy Spirit about talking to Peggy one more
time.
I got out of the car, walked to the girls’ dormitory and knocked. One of the female faulty answered
the door and I asked if I could speak to Peggy. She said okay and went to retrieve Peggy. Peggy and I
walked next door to the chapel and I told her that I wasn’t going to leave until I spoke to her one more
time about her decision. She broke out into tears and said, “I want to give my life to Christ.”
I went back to the girls’ dormitory and this time asked for her mom. When I told her mom what had
happened, she broke down into tears. I also informed her mom that Peggy wanted to be baptized by me
that night before I left. She heartily gave her consent and I went to wake up the camp manager so he
could unlock the gate to the pool. He was sound asleep and no one from his family quarters answered
my knocks. We had to break into one of the storage sheds, get a ladder, climb the fence, and with all the
campers and most of faculty around the fence to the pool, I baptized Peggy into her relationship with
Jesus Christ.
It was because of my listening to and obedience to the voice of the Holy Spirit that Peggy finally
made her decision. I’m not saying that Peggy never would have made her decision without my help.
What I am saying is that I would have missed a fantastic blessing if I had failed to finally heed the
instruction of the Holy Spirit in an eternal life or death matter.
--Jn. 16:13 – “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.”
IV. START WHERE PEOPLE ARE AND GUIDE THEM TO WHERE THEY NEED TO BE
--Acts 8:30-34 – “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. 32The eunuch was reading this passage of
Scripture: "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did
not open his mouth. 33In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth." 34The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet
talking about, himself or someone else?" 35Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told
him the good news about Jesus.
A. Notice how Phillip handles the situation:
1. He paid attention to what was happening in the Ethiopian official’s life at that very moment
2. He listened very carefully to the man’s request
3. He responded directly to the man’s request
4. He was ready to answer the man’s questions.
B. Primary thing to do when sharing your faith is to put yourself in the other person’s place
1. Essential to be a good listener
a. The other person is thinking: “Don’t just expect me to listen to you. I want you to listen to me.”
b. FDR decided one time to find out if anybody was paying attention to what he was saying. At a
diplomatic dinner, FDR stood in the receiving line and as each person came up to him to shake
hands, he would heartily shade their hand, flash his big smile, and say, “I murdered my
grandmother this morning.”
People would automatically respond with comments such as “How lovely!”: or “:Just continue
with your great work!” No one was actually listening to what he had to say, except for one
foreign diplomat. When FDR said, “I murdered my grandmother this morning.,” the diplomat
responded softly, “I’m sure she had it coming.”
2. People also are saying to us: “Talk with me – don’t talk down to me.”
a. Old maxim is true: “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
b. Jesus cared about individuals. He not only died for the whole world but also for each person
individually
c. He stopped His busy agenda to meet and minister to individuals: Zaccheus in a tree; a bleeding
Syro-Phoenecian woman who reached out from a crowd; blind Bartimaues on the side of the
road; a Samaritan woman at a well.
--In each situation, Jesus showed how much He cared about the individual.
3. They’re also saying: “Please use words that I understand. Don’t use secret religious code words.”
a. We face an increasingly secular society.
--More and more people have never stepped into a church building
b. You can’t talk graduate school theology to someone who never been to Sunday school.
c. We assume that people will understand words like justification, sanctification, and propitiation
1). We even assume that they understand what “born again” means
2). They might be words we’re used to but are a foreign language to the unchurched
d. Have to break it down into terms they will understand.
--Jesus accomplished this task by using concepts that the people He was speaking to at the time
could understand:
1). When talking to farmers, spoke about sowing seed
2). When talking to businessmen, spoke about profit and loss
3). When talking to fishermen, spoke about fishing for people
V. DECLARE THE GOSPEL
A. Our word “gospel” comes from an Old English worship that means “good news”
1. In New Testament, it was a term that literally meant “good news about a victory”
2. Same word angel used when he announced the birth of Jesus: “I bring good tidings of great joy…”
B. The message of “good news” or the “gospel” as presented in the New Testament follows a basic
pattern:
1. As people, we’re all separated from God through sin and we look for things to fill that empty
relationship
2. God sent the answer for this empty relationship in His Son, Jesus
3. This same Jesus lived a sinless life, was executed for sins He did not commit, died in our place, was
buried but rose from the grave three day later to give us victory in this life, victory over death, and
an eternal home with Him.
4. Jesus now calls everyone to acknowledge Him as Savior and Lord and also to come into relationship
with Him through:
a. Trusting in Him (faith and confession)
b. Turning away from the life we’ve been leading and live life under His Lordship (repentance)
c. Experience death to that old life and resurrection to the new life He offers (baptism)
d. And receive the power of He offers to us through His Holy Spirit.
VI. BE PREPARED FOR A DECISION
--vss. 36-40 – “As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here
is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?"[ And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the
eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 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. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns
until he reached Caesarea.”
A. How many times have we assumed that the person that needs Jesus knows what they need to do?
1. A sales manager was trying to determine why his sales people weren’t producing the order from
customers like they should. They were selling needed products made with quality materials and were
asking an affordable price. Each of his sales people were thoroughly supplied with any information
concerning their products and were all hard-working and likable.
The sales manager decided that he would travel with his sales people to see where the problem
was. When he finished the task of sitting through sales presentations of all of his people, he called
all of them together for a meeting. At this meeting, he announced that he had discovered the reason
why his sales force was not producing the order as they should. He told them, “Ladies and
gentlemen, the reason we don’t get orders is that we don’t ask for them.”
2. What the sales manage had discovered is that each of his sales people would conclude their sales
presentation without asking for an order. They would simply wait around for a few minutes, talk
some small talk, shake hands, and leave. They failed to ask their customers if the wanted to but what
they were selling.
B. Two basic decisions:
1. NO
a. The person can say, “No,” to Jesus’ invitation to relationship and eternal life
--Sadly, it’s not our invitation but Jesus’. It’s not us they’re rejecting. It’s Christ.
b. Need to follow up on “No,” decisions
--Although prayer should have saturated our effort, it’s doubly important to pray for that person
after a negative response.
c. Also important to keep reaffirming that we still care about that person
--We need to let them know that they are not just religious brownie points on a heavenly
scoreboard but that we truly care for them as an individual.
2. YES
a. Even when a person says, “Yes,” we need to be prepared to follow up on their decision
--We can’t just dunk ‘em and drop ‘em
b. Notice that this Ethiopian official went on his way and as far as we know, never saw Phillip again
--At least it’s never mentioned in Scripture.
c. How many times have we done this to new converts?
--We have to teach them the things of Christ more fully or as Christ said, “All things which I have
commanded…”
CONCLUSION: A. Sharing our faith is different than sharing our ideas and feelings
--What people need is Jesus Christ
1. Jn. 12:20-21 – “Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at
the Feast. 21They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request.
"Sir," they said, "we would like to see Jesus."”
2. People have very real questions and very real hurts in their lives
a. They don’t need psychological answers. They don’t need political answers. And
they don’t need philosophical answers.
b. They need THE ANSWER: Jesus Christ
B. If this portion of scripture tells us anything, it tells us that God loves and and that He
wants to make a difference in our lives.
1. It tells us that He loves us and wants what is best for us.
2. It tells us that He has provided what is needed for us to receive His help in our lives.
3. For almost 2,000 years, faithful Christian people have been active in telling other
about the good news in Jesus Christ.
C. Notice that when this Ethiopian official accepted this good news and was obedient to its
demands, vs. 39b tells us that “he went on his way rejoicing.”
1. No longer was there an empty space in his life
2. No longer was there a nagging feeling that something was missing.
3. He had found what was missing and now that emptiness was filled with joy.
D. God has done everything possible for you to have that kind of joy in your life.
1. The only thing still missing is your decision to follow Him.
2. Max Lucado: “If there are a thousand steps between us and God, He will take all but
one. He will leave the final one for us. The choice is ours.”
