Being Right in the Middle of God's Will, Even in the Darkest of Times, part 2

Introduction

Last week we began a series within our larger study of Acts titled, Being Right in the Middle of God’s Will, Even in the Darkest of Times. In it we are exploring the beginnings of the first century church being persecuted. The culmination of this early persecution was the martyrdom of Stephen. But, it didn’t end there. In fact, throughout all of the rest of Acts the first-century church will experience various degrees and forms of persecution and opposition. And yet, despite this reality, the early church was right in the middle of God’s will for them.

For many modern believers this is hard to wrap our minds around. For too long we’ve been sold a version of Christianity in which God’s sole personality traits are love and grace; where we wrongly believe that God’s will is judged by whether we are happy about the outcomes; where God wants, above all else, for us to be nice and for us to live happy, fulfilled lives. This picture in no way comports to the Book of Acts. In fact, throughout Acts and Christian history, the church often has faced times of persecution and opposition; sometimes subtle and other times harsh. Yet, the believers were still right in the middle of God’s will, even while facing the darkest of times.

The larger point of opposition and persecution isn’t that the church is experiencing it, but how we respond to it. To learn how to respond, we are wise to look at those who experienced real suffering and learn the lessons from them. And that’s what we are doing throughout this series.

The question we were posed last week was: How can we be right in the middle of God’s will, even in the darkest of times? We saw the first four answers from the text:

Those who want to be right in the middle of God’s will, even at the darkest of times, immerse themselves in God’s Word...stand up for the truth, even if it costs them everything...fix their eyes on Jesus...extend forgiveness when no forgiveness has been earned.

This morning we will see two more answers to that question.

Body

This is another transition passage in the Book of Acts. The focus of the narrative will move away from the witness in Jerusalem and now be on the witness in Judea and Samaria.

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.””

Another interesting aspect of this is that one might expect verse 2 to follow chapter 7, then verses 1 and 3 be linked together (I’m actually going to present them this way when we talk about the verses).

However, by formatting it this way, Luke is showing the link between Stephen’s martyrdom and the beginning of the first great persecution of Christians.

Essentially, Stephen’s bold proclamation is the match that lit the fuse. Does this mean that Stephen should have kept his mouth shut?

For many modern Christians, this would probably be the response. Go along to get along. But, Stephen was being led by the Holy Spirit to something very different. And this bold proclamation would led to his martyrdom, which would lead to the dispersion, which would led to an expanded Gospel witness, which would lead to the Gospel being preached in Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. So, what Stephen did wasn’t safe, but it was necessary.

The lesson is: boldly proclaiming the truth of the Gospel isn’t always safe, but it’s always necessary for God’s greater purposes to be fulfilled!

Verses 1 & 3

As I mentioned last week, Saul’s approval of Stephen’s execution probably points to Saul being a high ranking member of the council, possibly even the main person Stephen was debating with.

More on him in a moment.

With the stoning of Stephen the first great persecution of Christians begins.

It was so bad that it caused much of the Jerusalem church to be scattered throughout Asia Minor.

This would have been extremely difficult for the young church. Yet God is not defeated! It was because of the dispersion that the church would begin to spread outside of Jerusalem.

This should be a lesson to us about hard times in the life of the church: Sometimes hard times happen so that a greater good can come out of it.

This can come in the form of persecution and opposition, but it can also come in the form of other challenging seasons.

Like in the OT book of Habakkuk, the question isn’t “Why God?” but “What now? What is it Lord that You are doing and what do You want us to do?”

Notice that the apostles stay in Jerusalem. Many commentators suggest that this points to the persecution being focus on the Hellenistic Jewish Christians and that the Hebrew Christians weren’t experienced the same levels of persecution. I don’t agree, however.

The text says, “against the church in Jerusalem...” suggesting the entire church.

And, just because the apostles stayed, doesn’t necessarily mean that they stayed because they weren’t being mistreated. In fact, they likely felt obligated to those who couldn’t leave Jerusalem, so they were willing to endure the hard times.

Next we see that Saul was the great persecutor of the church.

In fact, the Greek word translated as “ravaging” means to destroy, as a wild beast seeks to destroy a piece of meat!

He enters homes and has both men and women thrown into prison for following Christ Jesus.

Paul’s own words about himself are powerful:

Acts 26:9–11 ““I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.”

Be very careful not to understate the threat that Saul was the the early church. The true impact of Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus hinges on an understanding of how great a threat he was to the first century church.

It is not overstating things to say that Saul was the greatest enemy the early church had faced up to this point. And, without divine intervention, he may have succeeded in stopping the spread of the Gospel.

But, God is not overcome by a man!

Verse 2

In spite of all this, there are still some brave men who not only bury Stephen, but even publicly lament over his unjust killing. Why do I call them brave?

Because the Jewish oral law prohibited people from publicly mourning people who were executed. So, in a very real way, they were putting themselves at personal risk by doing this.

Why do it then?

Because they wanted to honor him. Within the Jewish culture, a person’s body was to be buried immediately. For them, it was an incredible dishonor to a man like Stephen to not give him a proper burial and to mourn for him.

Thus, they are willing to take the risk in order to do it.

Notice too that it doesn’t name the men. Just calls them “Devout men”. There’s a humility to this. They aren’t burying Stephen for personal accolades, they are doing it because it is the right thing to do.

In short, they are doing it because it is the Christian thing to do!

So What?

How can we be right in the middle of God’s will, even in the darkest of times?

Those who want to be right in the middle of God’s will, even in the darkest of times, willingly follow God’s call wherever it might lead.

I’m positive that none of the men and women in Jerusalem wanted to be uprooted and dispersed throughout Asia Minor.

Imagine being forced from your home and your community because of your faith. Forced to move somewhere, find a new place to live, find new work, and a new social group. All the while, praying that this new community doesn’t turn on you as well.

It seems impossible! And yet, God is at work despite the wickedness of men.

I love what William Larkin writes, “But the dispersion through persecution creates a band of missionaries, not refugees.” That’s so true! You see, these people didn’t simply leave their home to live somewhere else, they left and brought the message of Christ Jesus with them!

And, it’s of further importance that this wasn’t the apostles because it reminds us that it was ordinary men and women, sharing the Gospel wherever they went.

In fact, the word “scattered” is similar to the word used when one would scatter seed for planting. So, as the people were dispersed, they are like seed, scattering on fertile ground, leading to a further increase of the Gospel.

And that’s the point. What if we started looking at challenges as Gospel opportunities? Even when God calls us to go way outside of our comfort-zone, that, in fact, God is giving us a new chance to scatter the Gospel in potentially fertile places?

It takes asking the question, “God, what are you doing here? And, where are the Gospel opportunities you’ve brought to me?”

I’ve learned to approach every major ministry opportunity like this. I say, “What if this is the reason that God sent me to Castle Rock?” I do that because it reminds me to always bring my best to ministry opportunities.

When we look for Gospel opportunities wherever God brings us and whatever He brings into our life, we will be right in the middle of God’s will.

Those who want to be right in the middle of God’s will, even in the darkest of times, care for others even at great personal sacrifice.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned about love is this: true love is sacrifice. That isn’t from me:

John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

Ephesians 5:25 “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,”

Love is sacrifice. It means we put other’s needs ahead of our own.

It is the model that Jesus left us. But, unfortunately, it is too often rare today.

For many people, we will care for people when:

It doesn’t inconvenience us too much...

It doesn’t cost us too much...

It can be done from a distance...(thoughts and prayers!!!)

This is not the picture here.

There unnamed devout men put themselves in danger in order to honor Stephen properly.

Caring for people is an action term. It means that we go the extra mile for people.

You know what happens when we do that? In many cases, we bear testimony in ways we could never imagine.

I sat with Melba and her family on Friday after Bob passed away. Between the weeping and heartbreak, more than once the family talked about the wonderful people who provided meals for them this week. There was a mix of Christians, pseudo-Christians, and agnostics there, but they all got to see God’s people care for God’s people. Who knows the long-term impact, but there will be an impact, none-the-less.

This should be the norm, beloved. People need to see that the church cares before they will hear anything about how much we care.

And it’s not simply the staff or the deacons. It’s the unnamed devout men and women who really make the lasting impact in people’s life.

They question is, are you one of those devout men or women?