Acts 8:4-6 “Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. (5) Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. (6) And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.”
So let us examine Philip’s ministry so that we can learn more about the office of the evangelist. The above quoted passage of scripture does not introduce us to Philip, for he is mentioned in scripture before this account. Prior to this incident, Philip had served as a deacon in the church at Jerusalem. When persecution broke out in that city against the believers and the disciples were scattered throughout Judea, they began to preach the gospel wherever they went. It was at this time that the Lord promoted Philip into the ministry gift to which He had called him, i.e. the ministry of evangelist. As the only scriptural example of an evangelist, it is important for us to notice what message Philip preached. We have record in scripture of just two occasions when Philip preached and one of those accounts is quoted above, and in this account we see that he preached Christ to them. In other words Philip preached the gospel of salvation.
Acts 8:29-38 “Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near and overtake this chariot." (30) So, Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?" (31) And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. (32) The place in the Scripture which he read was this: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth. (33) In His humiliation His justice was taken away, and who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth." (34) So, the eunuch answered Philip and said, "I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?" (35) Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. (36) Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?" (37) Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." (38) So, he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.”
The above quoted passage of scripture is an account of Philip preaching to the Ethiopian eunuch. This is the second account that we have of Philip’s preaching, and in this account we again see Philip preaching Jesus. In other words Philip preached the gospel of salvation. And so we see that the primary message that the evangelist preaches, is the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. Evangelists are not bible teachers that are able to teach biblical doctrines to the church, for that is not their call. God has called the evangelist to go to the unsaved and preach the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ. Their ministry is not geared to the church. Their ministry is geared to reach out to the unsaved and bring them into the church. I want you to also notice that Philip preached. In other words the evangelist is a preacher and not a teacher. The anointing is on their preaching, and the Holy Spirit uses the simple message of salvation that they preach to convict sinners of their need for salvation. When an evangelist preaches to an audience people will accept Christ because that is the evangelist’s calling and the Holy Spirit specifically anoints their words to affect sinners.
Acts 2:36-38 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." (37) Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" (38) Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Look at the above quoted example of Peter’s preaching to see just how the preaching of an evangelist affects a sinner. Someone said but I thought Peter was an apostle, so why would we look at his preaching of the gospel as an example? Remember that one of the main aspects of the ministry of the apostle is to go to the unsaved and establish churches. They do this by first preaching the gospel to the unsaved, and as such, they have a similar anointing to the evangelist in this area. And so we see that when an evangelist preaches the gospel that the Holy Spirit takes those words and convicts the unsaved of their need for salvation, for the scripture says that they were “cut to the heart”. If any other of the ministry gifts such as the prophet, the pastor or the teacher, preached the exact same message to the exact same audience, they would not get the response that the evangelist would, i.e. not many would be saved. But under the preaching of the evangelist most unbelievers are convicted for salvation, because that is their anointing.
Michael E.B. Maher
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