“How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.He said, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” He begged Philip to come up and sit with him.And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.And he said, How can I, except some one shall guide me? And he besought Philip to come up and sit with him.
3 sermons cite this verse
We need to apprehend the scripture. Look at verse 30 one more time. It continues by saying, so Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. And he said, and I love this question. It's such a simple question. And by the way, this is a great question, the idea of this, to ask to your friends, to those in this world. Do you understand what you're reading? Do you understand what you're reading? And then in verse 35, it says, Philip opened his mouth and beginning at this scripture, he preached Jesus to him. The Ethiopian eunuch is reading Isaiah 53, but he doesn't understand it. It doesn't make sense to him. He's like, who is this talking about? What does it mean? And notice Philip's strategy. He doesn't give motivational advice. He doesn't start with politics, culture wars, or personal opinions. He starts with scripture and he points to Jesus. And this is essential for anyone who wants to lead people to Jesus Christ. We need to apprehend and understand the scripture. If we don't understand the word of God, we can never pour out what hasn't been poured into us. We need to have an understanding of what God is speaking to us through his word so that when people have questions, when people don't understand it, we can explain it to them. And I got to let you know, this is the most powerful tool that you have for evangelism. More than any book, any YouTube video, any course, any class, this is the most powerful …
… We continue on, verse 31. And he said, how can I? Unless someone guides me. He invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of scripture that he was reading was this. It was Isaiah 53. And it was actually a literal prophetic message on the coming Messiah. Or in this case, the Messiah that had already come. So then it continues on. Verse 34. The eunuch said to Philip, Who is this writer talking about? Is it himself? Is it someone else? what is the eunuch saying I don't know but I want to know do you know how many people I come in contact with where I hear those words I want to grow closer to God I want to know more but we fail to realize that that opportunity was meant for us to say something and then it continues one of my favorite verse, verse 35 then Philip opened his mouth. And beginning with the scripture, he told him about the good news of Jesus. …
Listen, and beginning from what? Beginning from what? In the Scripture, he preached Jesus to him. Philip obeyed. Philip went. Everything was prepared by the providence of God. Philip ran eagerly up to this man, heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, verse 30, and asked him a simple question, do you understand what you're reading? And he said, how could I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Simon wanted the power, right? This man wanted the truth. Simon was willing to pay money for the power. This man desperately wanted the truth. So here's the first part of the presentation, the key to effective presentation, pointing people at the Scripture, pointing people at the Scripture, pointing their attention, their focus at the Scripture. You say, well, hey, not everybody's interested in that, and you don't want to get bogged down in the Bible. If they're not interested in what the Scripture says, They're not expressing a desperate hunger for salvation because if the Holy Spirit is moving in their heart and is in the work of regeneration, the Spirit will drive them at the truth. …