If anyone today can find a Bible, a sermon and a church online in seconds, does telling someone about Jesus face to face still make sense? This sermon leads to the desert road to Gaza, where Philip leaves a fruitful ministry in the city to join the chariot of one foreigner reading the prophet Isaiah (Acts 8). Out of that meeting grows a very practical question: what do we actually talk about when we talk about faith, ourselves, our church, or Jesus? Listen if you are looking for courage and wisdom for ordinary conversations about God.
Discussion questions
For your small group or for personal reflection after the sermon.
- What does Acts 8:26-40 reveal about the Ethiopian, given that he made a long journey to Jerusalem though as a eunuch he could not enter the temple, and was reading the prophet Isaiah?
- Philip was seeing great fruit in Samaria, yet God sent him to a desert road to meet one man. What does this teach about obedience and about who the real hero of evangelism is?
- Philip began with the passage in Isaiah about the lamb led to the slaughter and told him about Jesus. How would you summarize the Gospel in your own words as God's message of rescue in Christ?
- The speaker described an actor talking about self-discipline and his own checkout conversation that drifted off track. Why is it so easy to talk about ourselves instead of Jesus when we talk about faith?
- The Ethiopian asked what was preventing him from being baptized, and the only requirement turned out to be faith. What obstacles, real or imagined, keep people from following Jesus today?
- Who could you talk to about Jesus this week, and how will you listen for the Holy Spirit's leading so that the conversation stays focused on Him?
