This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day five of our second week together looking through
the book of Acts. We have been focusing together on how God changes the world
through this early church. And how this early church is not as we would have
expected.

It's facing both difficulty and triumph at the same time. We've looked together
at the fact that with boldness there is opposition, with sacrifice there is
selfishness, with success there is jealousy, with growth there is problems. And
the church has to deal with both.

And today we look at a fifth truth. With transformation there comes persecution.
Even above problems, even above opposition is persecution.

The persecution began in our last chapter as a single man. Stephen gives his
life because of his faith. But immediately that persecution explodes out upon
the entire church.

In Acts chapter eight verse one, Saul was one of the official witnesses at the
killing of Stephen. A great wave of persecution began that day sweeping over the
church in Jerusalem. And all the believers except the apostles fled into Judea
and Samaria.

Verse four, but the believers who had fled Jerusalem went everywhere preaching
the good news about Jesus. They go out and they immediately begin to tell the
good news. So what looked like a big problem, this wonderful church that had
started, this church where they loved each other and they gave to each other and
they never experienced anything like this and now it's broken up because of
persecution.

Now they have to flee for their lives. How could God do this? Everywhere they go
they spread the seed of the good news.

Everywhere they go people get to hear the gospel. Without this persecution I
wonder, could they have ever left? Would they have always stayed?

Or how long would they have stayed? How long would it have taken? God's timing
is perfect and he used even this experience of persecution.

With transformation there comes persecution, but with persecution there comes
expansion. There comes the explosion of the church into the world. Now as we
look at the church exploding out into the world, many more people coming to know
Christ.

I want to focus in on just one experience because that's what the book of Acts
does. It focuses in on one man and one witnessing experience, a man by the name
of Philip, one of those early seven, who comes to be known as Philip the
Evangelist, a man who shares his faith with someone who needs to hear the good
news. When you look at the life of Philip, his life challenges some questions in
our lives.

It's a life that makes me ask why is it such a struggle sometimes to share my
faith? Sometimes it's the work of Satan. Satan doesn't want you to share.

Sometimes you think, well, maybe it's my type of personality, I'm just not as
outgoing as other people. Sometimes it may be a lack of experience, but the
truth of the matter is with all the reasons that there are, God wants you to
share your faith. And Philip gives us some practical lessons about sharing the
good news with others.

Lessons that show you and I how you can defeat Satan, how you can energize your
personality, whatever it is. If you have a quiet personality, God wants to use
that personality to witness to people that would never be won by somebody who
was overbearing in their personality. God wants to show us through Philip how we
can gain new experience.

What do I need to do to share my faith? As you look at the life of Philip, the
first thing you learn is you need to be willing. Be willing to go.

He was willing to go. Be willing to go to places that are new. In verse five,
Philip, for example, went to the city of Samaria and told the people there about
the Messiah.

Samaria? That's where no Jewish people would go. You wouldn't even walk through
Samaria because you were of the opinion that these were of another culture.

Because of Jewish history, the feeling was they weren't pure Jews. And so I
couldn't even talk to these people, not Philip. For him, he saw scattering as
God's opportunity.

And you and I need to see that. If God moves you, if you're scattered somewhere
you didn't want to go, a job you didn't want to go to for a time, a place you
didn't want to live in, you loved where you were living, maybe even a church
that you need to move to. See it as an opportunity to proclaim.

When you're in a new situation, it can either be an opportunity to complain or
an opportunity to proclaim. And Philip uses it as an opportunity to tell the
good news. You go to places that are new and you go to people that have a need.

How do you find them? You ask. You ask God's Spirit, "Holy Spirit, lead me today
to someone who has a need and help me to tell them the good news about Jesus.

" Philip asked and he got amazing answers. In verse 26, "As for Philip, an angel
of the Lord said to him, 'Go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem
to Gaza. '" Now it was so important that he be in the right place at the right
time.

He had the very unusual experience of an angel talking to him. But you don't
need that. It can be the Spirit's prompting in your life.

It can be something you read in a book. It can be an email that you get or a
tweet that you get. Anything can prompt you to say, "That's a person I need to
speak to.

" God speaks by planning an idea often in your mind. And Philip follows and he
shows up. He's where God tells him to be and listen to what happens in verse 27.

So he did. And he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority
under the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship and he
was now returning.

Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet
Isaiah. In verse 29, "The Holy Spirit said to Philip, 'Go over and walk along
beside the carriage. '" This would often happen.

This wasn't a strange thing to walk along beside such a royal carriage. So he
went and he walked along. First thing you want to do if you want to be somebody
who is able to share your faith in an effective way is be willing.

Be willing to go. But the second thing you have to do is this, listen for their
need. You can't just go and not listen.

Then people feel like you're just talking, not listening. First, you have to let
them know that you're listening. That's how you gain the opportunity to be
heard.

Listen for their need. "Philip," in verse 30, "ran over and he heard the man
reading from the prophet Isaiah. " So he listens.

He knows what this man needs. He knows what he's reading. He knows where his
heart is right then.

And they begin a conversation. And in that conversation, you learn to do the
third thing. You be willing to go.

You listen for their need. Number three, you ask the right questions. Verse 30,
"Philip ran over.

He heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. So he asked, 'Do you
understand what you're reading? '" What a conversation that started.

No, the man did not understand. So the conversation goes to the next level. And
in the next level, here's what you want to do.

Tell them about Jesus. Beginning with their need, tell them about Jesus. Verse
31, "The man replied, 'How can I, since there's no one here to instruct me?

' And he begged Philip to come up into his carriage and sit with him. The
passage of scripture he'd been reading was this, 'He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter, and as a lamb of silent before the shearers, he did not open his
mouth. The eunuch asked Philip, 'Was Isaiah talking about himself or somebody
else?

Talk about an easy question to answer and point to Jesus. ' And so Philip began
with this same scripture. And then he used many others to tell them the good
news about Jesus.

" You tell them about Jesus. Beginning with the person's need, you let them know
about Jesus Christ. Now you may think, "Oh, if it would only be as easy as it
was for Philip, if that would only happen.

" Somebody's reading the Bible and says, "Could you explain to me what this is,
who this is about, and it's about Jesus. " The truth is, if you listen for
people's needs, and if you do this next thing, ask the right questions, you will
be amazed at how many times you have this exact experience that Philip had. The
next question out of the person's mouth is the question that points the way to
Jesus Christ.

Yes, Jesus is the answer to that need in your family. Yes, Jesus is the answer
to that discouragement that you're facing. Yes, Jesus is the answer to facing
that great hope that you have for the future, but that you're so disappointed in
right now as you look at this world.

And you say to somebody, "I've had those same feelings, and Jesus met that need
in my life. " You tell them about Jesus. What do you do to share the good news?

You be willing to go, you listen for their need, you ask the right questions,
you tell them about Jesus, and then you encourage them to respond. You don't
just say it and then not encourage. And that's what happened here.

In verse 36, as they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said,
"Look, there's some water. Why can't I be baptized? " And he ordered the
carriage to stop, and he went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.

Philip didn't say, "Oh no, this is rushing things. We can't do that now. Oh no,
we have to have some kind of vote in order to do this.

" No, they went down and they were baptized right away. He encouraged
immediately this man to respond. In fact, that's what Philip spent his life
doing.

When we get all the way to Acts chapter 21, verse 8, we're going to read again
about Philip. Twenty years later, Philip the evangelist and his family, he had
found a way of sharing here that lasted a lifetime. That's what I want for my
life.

That's what I want for your life. A new way of sharing that naturally fits into
who we are that lasts a lifetime. Let's pray that that would happen right now.

Jesus, you've done in our lives awesome things because of the good news, and we
want other people to know. So we pray today that this example of Philip would
empower a new kind of witnessing in our lives. First, we tell you, we're
willing, Lord, we're willing, and Lord, we're willing to go places that are new
to people that are in need.

And as we go, Lord, we pray that we would follow this example. Help us to listen
for people's needs. Help us to ask the right questions.

Help us to tell people about Jesus. Help us to encourage people to respond. We
ask that through your spirit, you would work the miracle of finding a way of
sharing our faith that will last a lifetime.

And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Join us next week as we continue in our
study of the book of Acts. Some big changes are in store.