Divine encounter.
Acts 8: 26 -- 40. 09/05/04
For the past few Sunday mornings, we have been talking about the main business of the church. The main business of the church is to tell people how they can be forgiven of their sin and go to heaven. That is evangelism and we want to have an evangelistic church; winning people to Jesus. Now if you are saved it is because someone thought enough of you to tell you about Jesus and how you can be saved.
Now this morning I want to talk to you about your involvement in the main business of the church. I want to encourage you to get involved in telling people they can be saved by trusting Jesus and go to heaven when they die.
Now there is something that is played out here on earth but it is planned in heaven. We call that a divine encounter. I have had several of them along the way and thank God for everyone. A divine encounter is when you lead someone to Jesus here on earth and it was planned in heaven. Jesus left heaven and walked the earth and said I came to seek and too save the lost. When you lead a lost person to Jesus, you have just experienced a divine encounter.
Now there are several of them listed in the Bible and one we have in our text this morning. I want us to take a look at this divine encounter. Lets read the Scripture.
What we have just read, we find that Philip had a divine encounter. Now you know where we read that the spirit of God caught Philip away and the eunuch saw him no more? That is in the past tense because the eunuch sees Philip often now. And every time he sees Philip he sees a man obedient to God and because he was, the eunuch can say I am in heaven.
The first point I want to call to your attention is A PROMPT SOUL WINNER. A soul winner is someone who wins souls to Jesus. Soul winning is the main business of the church. This account begins with a deacon and an angel. That is an unusual combination. Just kidding. But what I want you to see here is that the business of soul winning is left up to people and not angels. The angel said to the man Philip arise and go, and he got up and went. I am afraid today we would say we need to get a committee appointed to this business. I want to say you don’t vote on the commands of Jesus. One of the reasons many churches never get about the main business is that they are always wanting to vote on something. You don’t vote on evangelism. You don’t vote on whether to lead people to Jesus.
I heard about a woman in church who wasn’t married and never been married. She went to the pastor and expressed her impatience of ever finding a man. The pastor said the Bible says one man for one woman and one woman for one man. That is God’s plan and you cannot improve on it. She said Lord have mercy preacher, I am not trying to improve on it, I am just trying to get in on it. We want to get in the soul winning business. Don’t you think God wants you to be a soul winner? Let me answer that. If you are a Christian, then God wants you to be a soul winner.
There is first of all a prompt soul winner, and then we have A PREPARED SINNER. From His throne on high God was hearing a man reading His word. Here is a man who did not understand what he was reading but we have a man seeking to know God. I want to tell you, there are more people out there wanting to hear, than there are those waiting to go.
I wonder sometimes what people leave the service with. Do they leave lost not knowing how to be saved? This man left the church in Jerusalem still seeking to know God personally. I pray when someone comes to this church, that they can find out how they can be saved. I hope you Sunday school teachers tell your classes how they can be saved. I hope you that are in children’s church tell those children how they can be saved. You say preacher those that come to my class are saved. Would you base your salvation on it? Listen, if they are saved, they don’t mind hearing it and if they aren’t, they need to hear it. As Philip ran to the chariot to tell the eunuch, we should be running to the lost as though they had no other day.
I want us to see not only a prompt soul winner and a prepared sinner but also A POWERFUL SCRIPTURE. The place of his reading was found in Isaiah. The eunuch asked is this man talking of himself or someone else? The Bible says that Philip took that Scripture and preached unto him Jesus. I want to tell you folks you can find Jesus on every page of the Bible. Did you know you can take just four verses from the book of Romans and lead someone to Jesus? I want to give you these verses as you get a pencil to write them down. First of all I read about a man who could not read. He wanted to lead people to Jesus so he got his pastor to mark the verses in Romans. He would visit folks with his Bible under his arm. He would tell them I cannot read but will you read these verses to me? He led forty people to Jesus in one year.
Now are you ready to make your map of the Romans road? The first verse is Romans 3:23. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” That is a good starting point. Then you just move over to Romans 6:23. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Then you just move back to Romans 5:8. “God commends his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners; Christ died for us.” Then move to Romans 10:9. “If thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” That is enough gospel too save all the sinners of the world.
The Bible tells us the eunuch believed and was baptized. He probably went on to start a Bible believing Baptist Church in Ethiopia.
Dr. Charles Stanley told of a man he won to the Lord who was a drunk. He wanted to win the other drunks he knew to Jesus so he asked if there was a space he could use to preach to them. Dr. Stanley asked how would you do that, you have just been saved. The man said that is simple, I will listen to your message on Sunday morning and preach it to them on Sunday night. Get in this business of soul winning and experience a divine encounter. Do you know Jesus?
