Acts 1:8 records that Jesus instructed His disciples to be witnesses of Him to the whole world. The rest of the book relates many accounts of their bearing witness to Him and for Him.
For many reasons, Acts 8 is a uniquely important chapter in the book of Acts for our understanding of being a witness of Christ:
—Shows how not just the apostles, but also other believers were witnesses of Christ (Acts 8:4)
—Has key statements about how believers initially witnessed of Christ to people outside of Jerusalem (Acts 8:1, 4)
—Has far more occurrences of forms of a key verb for preaching the gospel (euaggelizomai) than any other chapter of the book of Acts has (Acts 8:4, 12, 25, 35, 40)
—Provides the only inspired record of the gospel ministry of the only person named as an evangelist in Scripture (Acts 8:5-13; 26-40)
—Provides a crucial statement about the dual-faceted nature of sound gospel preaching (Acts 8:12)
—Records vital apostolic instruction about the necessity of repentance and prayer for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 8:22)
—Relates the vital importance of believers’ helping people understand what that they have been reading from Scripture but have not understood properly (Acts 8:30-35)
—Underscores the importance of confronting people with their need to have hearts that are right in the sight of God (Acts 8:20-23; 37)
Because God has given us Acts 8 to teach us so many important truths that vitally equip all believers for doing the good works of evangelizing and making disciples of the world, we need to profit from it as fully as possible. Because this chapter uniquely provides us with an extensive record of the evangelist Philip as a witness of Christ, we all as believers need especially to learn from Philip how God wants us to be witnesses of Christ.
If you will be in the Greenville area on this Sunday and are looking for a church to attend, I would like to invite you to come hear my message this Sunday morning that will explain these things further.
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