I love to read an old text with new eyes and see things I have never seen before. Acts 8:26-40 provides one of those “new eyes” experiences. If you are a student of the Bible or have heard any sermons on this text you know the story of the Ethiopian Eunuch. The great evangelist Philip made a tough journey to a remote place, chased the man down in his chariot, and taught him about Jesus.
To me this story has always been about the character of the man who obeyed the Gospel or the one who taught the Gospel. Recently my “new eyes” saw something else.
Philip went to the chariot and taught the Ethiopian about Jesus. That is what we usually see. What may have been missed is that before he taught him Jesus, he heard him read the book of Isaiah. After hearing him read part of Isaiah 53 Philip asked him, “Do you understand what you are reading.” (Acts 8:30)Only after asking that question was he able to teach him about Jesus. I call that the “Reading Isaiah Moment.” It is the event that happens that opens the door to someone hearing about Jesus.
Evangelism is not about cold calling and knocking on doors like someone selling magazines. Evangelism is not about grabbing someone by the shirt collar and making them listen. Evangelism is about finding those moments when someone is reading the book of Isaiah or doing something else that opens the door to a conversation about Jesus.
I have participated in those door knocking campaigns that try to find strangers. It did not work well then and it does not work well now. What does work is finding someone in a “Reading Isaiah Moment” and opening a conversation about Jesus. Once the conversation starts then you can do exactly the same thing Philip did. “Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.” (8:35).
A “reading Isaiah moment” happens in all of our lives. Don’t miss it when it does. A soul may depend on it.
Lonnie Davis
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