Iwitness Series

Topic: iWitness

Text: Acts 8:26-40

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

Good morning church!

What a joy to be here with you all this morning. It is indeed a privilege to come together as a body of Christ to worship Him through songs, prayers/praises and now through the preaching and listening of God’s word.

Let us begin our time with the word of prayer, shall we?

Prayer:

Testimony of my father:

In the year 1992, my father went to a person’s house in a nearby town for a work related appointment. When he reached the house, the person he was supposed to meet was not at home. His family welcomed my father inside with a cup of tea and asked him to wait for sometime. During those days, there were no cell phones so my father had no choice but to wait for the person. As he was waiting, he noticed something unusual in that house. There were no statues and images of any gods and goddess. In Hinduism, there are 330 million gods and people worship as many gods as they possibly can in order to please them. The belief is, if you please the god of education, you will be blessed with wisdom and you will achieve great education. If you please the god of wealth, you will be blessed with a lot of wealth and so on. Coming from a Hindu Brahmin (priestly) family background, my father was in a complete shock. Thousands of questions ran through his mind immediately and he started asking, “ Why don’t you have any idol or image of any god in your house?”

It was the very question that family was waiting to hear from my father so that they could start sharing the Gospel. So they did. They explained that they only worship one living God who dwells in their heart, not in the images or idols. My father thought he can just add that one more god in his list of 330 millions gods and try how it works. But that family explained to him that when he has that only God who is Jesus, he doesn’t need 330 million gods anymore. He will give peace and eternal life all by Himself. After listening to the testimony of that family for about an hour and reading few pages of the Bible, my father decided to accept Jesus in his heart. The family couldn’t believe if it was real and they asked him, “Are you serious?” Do you really want to believe in Jesus? My father said yes and he prayed to receive Christ right then and there. After spending that life transforming one hour in that house, my father came home rejoicing in his newfound faith in Jesus.

Whenever I think of my father’s testimony, I think of this similar account in the Bible. I believe that this is a divine appointment for me to speak on this account, which is very close to my heart.

Background:

Our passage today falls in the middle of the overall theme of the book of Acts. It starts with the great commission given by Jesus in Acts 1:8. The Good News has been proclaimed in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) with tremendous results. And recently, the Gospel has begun to expand into Judea (Acts 8:1-4) and into Samaria (Acts 8:5-25). Last week, we found Philip (also known as "Philip the evangelist") in Samaria, preaching the gospel. As Philip and his friends were preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans on their way back to Jerusalem, something unusual happens in verse 26.

Introduction

Today, we will pick up from there and look at Acts 8: 26-40 and our topic is IWitness. “Witness is someone who tells what he has heard or seen”. In Acts 1:8 Jesus says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

We all know who Christ is and what He has done for us. We have read in His word and seen Him work in our lives. We are His witnesses and He wants us to be His witness to the ends of the earth. Now you may ask how do I become a witness?

Well, today, I would like to share 3 ways by which we can be faithful witnesses for Christ:

1. Be Obedient to God’s Command (vv. 26-27a, 29-30a)

The angel of the Lord told Philip to go south to a desert road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza. It was an unusual command in an unusual place. It was a desert road that runs sixty miles (2 days walk) from Jerusalem to Gaza. It was the main road from Jerusalem to Egypt and Africa. Notice that Philip is not told why he is to go this way, although he will shortly find out. He is not told anything regarding what ministry he will perform, or to whom. He is simply instructed to go in a certain direction and he obeyed.