A Lesson In Evangelism From Philip And The Ethiopian Eunuch

There was a man on a business trip and when he checked in he was given one of the middle seats on the airplane. He was tired and he all he wanted to do was sleep, so he got a little bit irritated when the young girl sat next to him started to ask questions: “Mister, do you brush your teeth?” “Yes,” he replied. “That’s good,” she said, “People who don’t - LOSE their teeth.”

Then she asked, “Mister, do you smoke?” “No,” he answered. “Good, because people who DO get sick,” she said.

After a brief silence, she turned to him again, “Mister, do you love Jesus?” “Yes I DO,” he answered. “That’s good,” she added. “People who love Jesus, go to heaven.”

The man was touched by the little girls words, but he settled back into his seat, hoping there would be no more questions. Just then she asked, “Mister…will you ask the man next to you if HE brushes HIS teeth?”

Well, I’m sure you can guess what happened next. And when she came to the question about Jesus, the second man answered, “I’m afraid I don’t understand.” And for the remainder of the flight, the first man got to share his faith with the second man – all because of a little girl with unusual persistence.

If there is one word that is sure to spread fear and dread in any church circle – it's the word ‘Evangelism’. For most Christians, the thought of having to actually ‘share their faith’ with someone, will cause them to break out in a cold sweat!

The average Christian will, over the course of their Christian life (based on 40 or so years):

Attend 2,500 church services

hear 2,500 sermons,

sing over 20,000 songs,

participate in over 10,000 public prayers...

and will lead 0 people to faith in Jesus Christ in the course of their Christian lifetime.

And yet, that's why we’re here, that's why we exist, that is the purpose of the Church – ‘To make Him known to a lost and unbelieving world’!

In his book ‘Transforming your Church’, Mark Connor writes –

The church exists for three primary reasons – to minister to God, to minister to each other, to minister to the world. The interesting thing about these three important ministries is that there is only one that cannot be done in heaven – the third one! In fact if we were only here for the first two reasons, then we might as well go to heaven right now! In heaven it will be so much easier to love God because we’ll see him face to face. In heaven it will be so much easier to love one another, because we’ll be perfect. The only reason that we are still here on earth is that God is longsuffering, not wanting anyone to perish, but all people to have an opportunity to receive eternal life. In heaven, there will be no more evangelism. While we’re on earth, we should mix with the unsaved and cultivate friendships with them. Our life goal should be to go to heaven and take as many people with us as possible. The ministry focus of the Church must change from inreach to outreach – it exists for mission.

‘It exists for mission…’ If we are going to be the church then sharing our faith is not a choice. If we are going to be the Church, then we have to be reaching out with God’s love and sharing the message of Jesus with those that we meet. The truth is – that when you gave your life to Jesus, He commissioned you to be a missionary for him. And where you work, where you live, where you play, are all mission fields that God has placed you in.

So this morning I want to help you be the missionary that God has called you to be. I want to enthuse you to share your faith with those who are ‘not yet Christians’. I want to encourage you - as the Apostle Paul encouraged Timothy ‘to do the work of an evangelist’. You’re not an evangelist – but do the work of an evangelist. And to help us in that task this morning, I want to ask three questions:

1. Question Number One - What is evangelism?

Someone has described it as ‘the sob of God over the world’. Spurgeon defined it as ‘one beggar telling another beggar where to get bread’. But perhaps the most well known and embracing definition of evangelism comes from Archbishop William Temple’s committee on evangelism who came up with this: ‘to evangelise is so to present Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, that men shall come to put their trust in God through him, to accept him as their Saviour, and serve him as their King in the fellowship of his church’.