Saturday, October 8, 2005
Acts 8:30-31 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked. "How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
SPEAK UP
No doubt the Ethiopian got his copy of Isaiah in Jerusalem . . . and took a quiet desert road so he could concentrate. It was plain that what he read described a man and not the nation of Israel. But what man?
So it was that the Lord put in the Ethiopian's hand the very power of God unto salvation. And then He used Philip to help him understand what he was reading. Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him about Jesus.
Could your have done what Philip did for the Ethiopian? Yes! The Lord has given you an understanding of the Gospel. It is yours to share. Look at what this searching traveler was reading . . . and consider what you know:
And (I believe) in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
and as a lamb before the shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
Was crucified, dead, and buried,
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
(lit. His justice was taken away, lifted)
The third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven
And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.
From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
Philip taught the Ethiopian what most of us learned in confirmation instruction. Stand ready to use your basic understanding of Jesus to share your faith. God has provided you with the means to minister to hearts which need Him. He will prepare those hearts beforehand. He will put you in position to witness.
