Acts 8:1-4 Scattered Like Seeds
Good morning! Turn with me to Acts 8:1-4, page 916 in the pew Bibles.
We are going to pick up right where we left off last time with the stoning of Stephen, the Church’s first martyr.
This event marked a turning point in the life of the Church. It has echoes of Genesis 50:20 which says, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
In truth it is a window into the perspective of God who sees so much more and so much farther than we do.
So Stephen had just preached this amazing sermon on the history of Israel and how the Father had sent many prophets to the people to turn them back to God but they refused. The council that day sat in the same seat, refusing to listen to Jesus, and now refusing to listen to Stephen. They became enraged and plugged their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul…
You can ignore the chapter division and paragraph heading.
And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. 3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. 4 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.
Let’s pray.
This same Saul mentioned here in chapter seven and eight is the same Saul that will become a central figure in the unfolding of the expansion of the gospel in the book of Acts as well as most of the rest of the New Testament. We’ll talk a lot more about him in chapter nine.
For now, what do we know about Saul?
The New Testament tells us that he was from the city of Tarsus, the chief city of Cilicia, now part of modern day Turkey. Back in Acts six, at the beginning of this conflict with Stephen, one of the synagogues represented in the group that opposed Stephen was from Cilicia, and that is how Saul happened to be there that day.
We know that Saul was a Roman citizen, who was a Pharisee and the son of Pharisees. Galatians 1:14 says that he had advanced in Judaism far beyond those of his own age because he was so zealous for the traditions of the Jewish fathers.
He wrote later in Philippians 3:4-6, “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.”
Saul was a religious fanatic of the worst kind because in his zeal he persecuted the church.
The day that Stephen was martyred he was there, watching over the coats of those who stoned Stephen, and as it says in verse one, approved of his execution.
And like a wild beast that has tasted blood, Saul led the persecution of the church, thirsty for the blood of more martyrs.
The second half of verse one says, And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
So now in the face of this great persecution of the church everybody scatters beyond Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. Does that sound familiar?
I’m not suggesting that the church was being unfaithful to the Great Commission by staying in Jerusalem, but they were just as human as we are and staying together in relative comfort and safety is just what people would rather do. But these folks had no choice but to get out of Dodge.
3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
It was either run for the hills or be thrown in prison.
The word that’s translated, “ravaging,” is an expression used for what wild boars do to vineyards, they tear it apart and completely destroy it. That was Saul’s objective. If you were caught, what awaited you was prison and death.
But as Tertullian once said, “The storms of persecution are only winds that fan the fire of faith in the church and carry the spark of truth a great distance.”
What did those people do that fled Jerusalem?
4 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.
Acts 11 records that some of these who were scattered made it as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, and what did they all do?
They preached the Word.
Nobody had been given a title or special office in the church, none of them went to seminary to be qualified, they didn’t even have pulpits, they just went out and preached the Word.
They couldn’t help but testify to that which filled their hearts. These fugitive Christians labored in distant lands as the first missionaries of the gospel. The voice of the Good News had only rung out in one place before but would now ring out all over the place because the people had been scattered like seeds on the wind.
The Lord used that persecution to bring light out of darkness and life out of death.
What the enemy meant for evil, the Lord turned for good.
Psalm 110:2 says, “Rule in the midst of your enemies!” And that exactly what Jesus does, He rules in the midst of His enemies and always promotes the interests of His kingdom.
It looked as if the church might just be destroyed, but instead that persecution converted into a means of invigorating and extending it over the whole world. That is a pattern that has continued throughout the history of the Church, it certainly did throughout the book of Acts. Persecution has always led to expansion.
What could have easily been qualified as a calamity in the eyes of the believers turned out to be among the best things to happen to the young Church. But only because the people who were scattered were faithful to the Lord and His gospel.
It seems like every commentator I read this week compared this event with salt in a salt shaker. Salt does absolutely no good in the shaker, in order to give flavor to those potatoes you have to shake it out of there.
This is the same with the church. We can gather here and worship the Lord together, pray together, and be instructed in His Word. But if that is the end of our Christian experience those potatoes out there are going to go to waste. We each have the responsibility to preach the gospel to our neighbors, to testify to that which fills our hearts. We too must be ready to preach Christ in the midst of calamity!
But if all that fills your heart is the weather, or the news, or games, or gossip, you need a come to Jesus moment of your own and let His love fill you up!
For God the Father loved you so much that He gave His one and only Son Jesus, who lived a perfect life, and died a sinner’s death in our place on the cross, that if you would put your trust in Him you would have your sins forgiven and you would be adopted as His child to live forever with Him in His kingdom.
The gospel is that simple. But not everybody wants to hear it. 1 Peter 4:12-14 says,
12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
