Acts 8:4b

Introduction

There are two reasons I went on this voyage through the Book of Acts last Summer

I wanted BBC to know what God can do with a church that is in one accord.

The phrase one-accord - means to share the same passion.

Acts 1:14 “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.”

Acts 2:1 “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.”

Acts 2:46 “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,”

Acts 4:24 “And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:”

Acts 5:12 “And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch.”

This is important

Romans 15:5-6 “Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Filling of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:4 “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

Acts 4:8 “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,”

Acts 4:31 “And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.”

The filling of the Holy Spirit enables us to do ministry. This filling does not occur without the church sharing the same passion.

The church is in rural America. My county is known as a Dairy Farm county. We have had little success with organized outreach programs.

I wanted to encourage the church that the most effective outreach program is not organized by the church but led by the Spirit of God through day to day opportunities God gives us to share the Gospel Story.

Which leads us to our text this evening.

Scattered

Acts 8:4 “Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.”

Acts is a historical narrative genre. It is important to know how Luke arrived at our text.

The church at Jerusalem had early success. Being in one accord and filled with the Spirit of God, enabled their successes.

In Acts 2, God saved 3000 souls, were baptized, added to the church and Acts 2:42 “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

Sometime after Acts 2, Peter and John were in the Temple preaching in the name of Jesus and about the name of Jesus.

Before their first trial, Luke records - Acts 4:4 “Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.”

The terminology is different than Acts 2:41 “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.”

5000 men just speaks of men, not women, teenagers or kids.

BY the time we turn to Acts 5, the church had grown from 120 to potentially, well over 10,000 people.

With this kind of success, the Sanhedrin stepped in.

The Sanhedrin was Israel’s Supreme Court for all religious matters.

Just like our Supreme Court, they were divided into 2 parties

Sadduccees

Pharisees

Rarely did the Sanhedrin unify on any issue

However, when it came to Jesus ministry and sermons about Jesus, the Sanhedrin unified in their hatred and animosity towards anything about Jesus.

Therefore, they ruled that teaching or preaching in the name of Jesus was unconstitutional.

The church was at a Crossroad.

They cold fall in line with Israel’s law by not mentioning Jesus

The problem is Acts 4:12 “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

Or, they can reject the new law by continuing to preach the unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Acts 4:29-30 “And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.”

Arguably, the prayer became the most consequential prayer since the Garden of Gethsemane.

Their request added pain but launched the church into global evangelism.

Pain - The Jews intensified their persecution

Leaders to Lay people

Temporary Imprisonment to torture and death

A snap shot of the intensification of persecution Acts 8:3 “As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.”

Adult Christians were violently taken from their homes. Separating them from their families, where many were tortured and some never returned because they became martyrs.

They were scattered

There are two main words for scattered

To indiscriminately scatter

To strategically and purposefully scatter.

As a farmer scatters seed.

God was the Farmer that scattered these Christians throughout the Roman Empire, He purposely put these Christians in new fields that needed the Seed to be planted and watered.

Does not matter what your field is, God has strategically placed you there to cultivate that field.

This cannot be done without being in one accord or filled with the Holy Spirit.

They shared

What did they do while in their new field?

The word “preach” means “good news” - It is good news that comes from God’s word.

The word of God is good news. In particular the Gospel of Jesus Christ is good news! The word “preach” is translated in over 20 instances the “Gospel.”

Matthew 11:5 “The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

“Preaching the word” is to communicate the Good News of the Gospel while using the word of God.

It would be more literally translated as gospelizing the word or could be paraphrased as "gospeling the Gospel.

We criticize news agencies for constantly providing us with bad news. Yet, there is not any news that topples the good news we have in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have an opportunity to become beacons of good news!

Paul and Silas in a Philippian Jail were beacons of good news.

Peter on the day of Pentecost with judgement looming was a beacon of good news and hope to people that were in judgments way.

Jonah had good news for Nineveh

Jonah 2:9 “But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.”

We are the spokespeople of good news! 1 Peter 3:15 “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:”

As they scattered, they went preaching the word. As they were rebuilding their lives, what appear to be most important was preaching the word.

What is meant by preaching the word?

"The statement that they ‘preached the word’ is misleading; the Greek expression does not necessarily mean more than ‘shared the good news’."

The chief agents in the expansion of Christianity appear not to have been those who made it a profession, but men and women who carried on their livelihood in some secular manner and spoke their faith to those they met in this natural fashion, that the expansion of the church at this point didn't depend upon the apostles, but on the grass roots, men and women gossiping the gospel as they went.

John MacArthur: “Satan’s persecution promoted the very thing it was designed to destroy.”

Why was preaching the word so important for these Christians?

Eternity mattered to these Christians

Unlike the Sadduccees, these Christians believed in a real Hell

Unlike the Pharisees, they believed all Jews were unclean, corrupt and destined for condemnation without the Gospel.

Judgement coming

They lived in light of God’s judgment coming.

The Imminent return of Jesus

Why is the Gospel Good news

Why did God call the Gospel good news?

Acts 20:24 “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”

The Gospel is the only possible portal that allows a holy God to love wretched sinners.

The Gospel is fixated on Jesus

1 Corinthians 15:1-4 “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”

John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Conclusion

Why do not people view the Gospel as good news?

People generally dislike criticism

The Good News begins with bad news

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

Romans 3:10-11 “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.”

Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”