Acts 8:1-4 – Judea and Samaria
The Living Word With Chuck Davis
Acts 8:1-4 – Judea and Samaria
Welcome to the Living Word with Chuck Davis. Acts 8, 1 to 4, Judea and Samaria, 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. Developed men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him, but Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Now those who were scattered went about preaching the Word. We see the persecution of Stephen and his eventual martyrdom is going to lead to the movement of the church. Now initially there's this great lament, there's grief. When you have a leader taken out like that, they're feeling the pain of the situation. Developed men buried him, there was great lamentation. And persecution breaks out. Saul was ravaging the church, sending people to prison. But what we see is that in this opposition, God's will is accomplished. To understand the significance of this passage, we need to go back to Acts 1 and verse 8. Jesus said, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria until the ends of the earth." You see, they were having great success in Jerusalem. We've already seen thousands of people coming into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, but they seem somewhat stuck in Jerusalem. In teaching on missions, I often refer to four ways of kingdom advance. There's voluntary going, that's when the people of God send someone with the message. There's involuntary going, that's through captivity or exile. There's voluntary coming. We see that in stories like the Magi who come to find King Jesus. There's involuntary coming. Those are refugees who discover Jesus through their transport from one place to another. This is an instance of involuntary going. You see, God's plan for the church was they would be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria until the ends of the earth. And it says that they were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. What they were unwilling to do up to this point, God gives them a little bit of a boost. The punchline of the text is verse 4, "Now those who are scattered went about preaching the Word." See, persecution doesn't silence the church. For those who have experienced the resurrected Christ, persecution just makes them more vocal about what God is doing. Eventually, it's going to get to the ends of the earth, who this guy looking on his name is Saul. We're going to be introduced to the church's first voluntary going in Acts chapter 13. In Acts 17, 6, only a few missionary journeys afterwards, there's a critique of Paul and Barnabas and Silas on the trip with Paul's second missionary trip. It says in Acts 17, 6, "These men have caused trouble all over the world." Basically, they brought the kingdom of God, and it's messing up people's comfort zone of what they've been experiencing. The sole word of this passage is to remember that God is more committed to his mission than we are. Missio Day, God's passion as a pursuing God to reach the people that are not yet part of his family. We're invited to proactively work in that, and when we do that, we flourish. Is there opposition and persecution that happens in voluntary going? Absolutely. I've had friends who were martyred, I've had friends who have experienced great pain and struggle. Even our experience in Molly brought all kinds of struggle that way. But we can trust that God is in the midst of the story, and he's telling a story that's better than we can even imagine in the moment. We're back to that same concept again, that now what is to trust? That God has his way being formed in us for our good, but also for the glory of the name of Jesus. We pray to ourselves to you today, Lord, whatever our circumstances, we pray that you would be glorified in Jesus' name, amen.