The seventh point under “Everyone Speaking the Word of God” is “Approaching People, Helping People, and Knowing People.” If you desire to speak to people, you must approach them. Upon seeing people on the street, you should not just shout from afar, “Come, it is good to believe in Jesus!” If you desire to speak to someone, you should approach him and come to where he is.
The gospel preaching of Philip in Acts 8 is a very good example of following the leading of the Spirit to approach people. He was sent by an angel of the Lord to travel on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. While he was in the desert, an Ethiopian man, a eunuch, was returning from worshipping God in Jerusalem. He sat in his chariot reading Isaiah 53. At that time, the Spirit of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Approach and join this chariot” (v. 29). Philip then ran to the eunuch and heard him reading the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and asked him, “Do you really know what you are reading?” (v. 30). The eunuch said, “How can I unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up to the chariot (v. 31). Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from the scripture, “He was led as a sheep to slaughter...” (v. 32; cf. Isa. 53:7), he brought the good news of Jesus to him (vv. 32-35).
When we speak, we need to approach people and we also need to help people. If we help people to know the Bible, explaining the Bible to them, people will be saved. Suppose that when the Holy Spirit was leading him, asking him to approach the eunuch, Philip did not have the understanding of the Bible. He would have heard the eunuch reading the Scriptures, and he would have asked, “Do you really know what you are reading?” The eunuch would have said, “How can I unless someone guides me?” Then Philip would have said, “I don’t know either; let both of us pray together.” After the prayer, they still would not have understood. The eunuch would have returned to his Gentile land, and Philip would have returned to his own land. His chance to speak to the eunuch would have been gone.
Brothers and sisters, is this often the case with you? Your classmate may open a chapter of the Bible and ask you, “My classmate, aren’t you a Christian? What does this portion of the Scriptures say?” You may say, “I am sorry, I don’t know either. Why don’t you go with me on Sunday to listen to the preaching?” That classmate may say, “Haven’t you listened for a long time? If you do not understand, neither will I understand if I go to listen. Therefore, I do not want to listen.” This is the pitiful situation today.
Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom.” The word should dwell in us to such an extent that we understand Isaiah 53, John 4, Genesis 1, and every chapter of the Bible. Only in this way will people respect us. Otherwise, if we try to bring people to listen to a preacher and they will not go, we will become useless. If we all can be like Philip, we can approach people and help people understand the words of the Scriptures at school, in the office, in the barber shop, at home, or in any place.
Now we want to go one step further. No matter where you go, bring with you a small Bible or small cards with printed Bible verses. When you have your hair cut, you can let the barber cut your hair and at the same time read and speak to him. If you speak to one hundred people and one is saved, it will be worth all your effort. In one year, if you bring in one, another brings in one, and every brother and sister brings in one, the number in the church will increase one hundred percent. Therefore, you need to approach people and help people to understand the Scriptures.
When you speak to people, you need to know people. I firmly believe that on that day, as soon as Philip looked at the man in the chariot, he knew that he was an Ethiopian and that he was a high-ranking officer. After speaking a few more sentences to him, Philip knew his character. When you speak to people, do not be like a robot or like a recorded message, unable to know people. When you talk to a person, after looking at him you should have some understanding of his character and his mood. By looking at him, you will know that he has something that makes him sorrowful, or something that makes him happy. Based on these points, his character and his mood, you will know what his needs are.
The Bible is too rich. We need to be familiar with the Bible, to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom, so that we can give people a proper word. It may be suitable to read to one person the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. It may be suitable to read to another the words of Romans 2, telling him that although we Gentiles do not have God’s law, there is a conscience in us. Whatever we do, our conscience in our innate nature is always weighing our actions, either condemning or justifying them. You need to look at the situation. If the person is a beggar on the roadside, you should have one kind of gospel word for him. If he is a college professor, you should have another word from the Bible to give to him. In this way you will be able to hit the mark.
Surgeons use many instruments when they operate; therefore, it is very difficult to be a surgical nurse, knowing what instrument the surgeon will need at a particular time, without making mistakes. When we talk to people about the Bible, we also need many “instruments,” and we need to know what their functions are.
Finally, I hope you can see that for everyone to speak the word of God, you need to pray, to be filled in the spirit, and at the same time to learn to speak the proper words. When you speak, you need to be filled with the riches of the words of the Bible and the experiences of life. You need to know the person you are speaking to. You need to approach people, help people, and know people, and to deal with each kind of person with a certain kind of word. In this way, you will never miss the mark, and you will be certain to be successful. If this is the case, the church here surely will be propagating, and the number surely will increase. Thus, there will be a church in Taipei, a genuine golden lampstand, shining brightly.