The Gospel Spreads Under Pressure: Saul the Feared Persecutor

Introduction

Good morning! Please turn with me in your Bibles to Acts 8:1-4. I love God’s creation, because often there are visual, concrete examples within it that help understand spiritual truths. Have you ever heard about plants with ballistic seed dispersal? These plants remind me of our text this morning.

Illustration:

1. Witch Hazel shoots seeds out it seed at 100,000 fps at 20mph

2. Hairy Bitter Cress - exploding pods sends seeds up to 3 ft away. Edible

3. Jewel Weed - exploding pods

4. Cracker plant "duppy guns" explode and pop on contact with liquid. In India as an anti-inflammatory

5. Yellow Woodsorrel - tart lemony flavor

6. The Canary Spurge (up to 49' tall) has exploding seed pods - highly toxic

7. Dwarf Mistletoe shoots seeds up to 39' away

8. Violets also explode their seeds

9. One I found particulary fascinating is the Squirting Cucumber. It launches seeds with it cucumber juices outward like a squirt gun or a power washer with a turbo head.

What are you supposed to do when you face severe, life-threatening persecution? Are you to be silent? Stay in place? Not talk about it as much? What does God want us to do?

Let’s see what happened in the Jerusalem church.

Acts 8:1–4 “1 And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. 3 As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison. 4 Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.”

Like exploding seeds pods, persecution in the church brought pressure into the Christian’s lives. It causes stress and explosions so to speak. When the church of Jerusalem was put under pressure the Gospel shot out every where.

D. Persecution causes pressure upon the believers to scatter.

P. When persecution comes in our lives it may cause some scattering, but Gospel seeds should be spread with it.

T. When do we know we are experiencing persecution?

The enemies of the cross are happy to kill Christians.

The enemies of the cross wreak Havoc on Christians.

The enemies of the cross will not Halt the spread of the Gospel.

1. Enemies of Christ are Happy to kill Christians.

Acts 8:1–2 “1 And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.”

Explain

Great Persecution

Saul was consenting to Stephen’s death.

The word means to think good. Saul was happy about Stephen’s stoning.

He then thought it would be good to get a lot more of these believers on trial and eventually killed for holding that Christ fulfilled the temple sacrifices. As Christ is the end of the law to everyone that believes. (Romans 10:4)

Saul became a major player in spearheading the persecution at Jerusalem and the surrounding regions. Acts 9:1 attests “1 And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,”

Many in his synagogue probably had become Christians and he is infuriated by this deviation from the Law to the New Covenant in Christ.

At the time of Stephen’s death was the beginning of a great persecution against the church.

μέγας - great, there was a lot of persecution.

διωγμὸς - The word persecution entails a systematized persecution of the church as indicated by Paul’s house to house raids.

These surprise raids led to many to leave Jerusalem. Verse 1 and 4 used the word scattered.

The word structure of the original language means literally through sowing or planting seed.

The cause of persecution caused the Gospel to be dispersed throughout the regions of Samaria and Judea.

A number of commentators suggest that this persecution was aimed directly at hellenist Jews in Jerusalem of which Stephen represented.

These Jews may not have readily worshipped at the temple.

The Synagogue of where this contention started is perhaps a hint of this.

This may be probable. When Luke says all were scattered he uses hyperbole as the apostles are still present.

Persecutions are in a way seals of adoption to the children of God.

John Calvin (French Reformer)

Great Lamentation

Just as the persecution was great, so was the mourning over Stephen’s death.

There was a huge gaping whole Stephen left when he died.

Their most vibrant deacon, dead.

The church is in shock. How could such an injustice happen. But then they remember, had not their Savior Jesus suffered in this manner too?

The burial of Stephen.

A lack of burial was a great disgrace in Jewish culture. So devout men showed Stephen honor by burying his body. As they did they made great lamentation. This was likely meant they cried loudly and beat their chest.

This was an act of defiance. For the Jews Mishnah forbade lamentation for someone stoned. This showed they believed Stephen was innocent.

Traditionally the lamentation lasted 30 or 70 days.

70 days for Jacob. Genesis 50:3 “3 And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.”

30 days for Moses. Deuteronomy 34:8 “8 And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.”

These men took a risk to honor godly Stephen in his death.

Let me remind you, the men who stoned Stephen already showed they had no respect for the law they claimed to follow or for the law of those in authority over them. Stephen confronted them for this and they ignored him.

They were dishonest, jealous men.

They had use lies to try to convict Stephen.

They used Stephen’s own testimony to condemn him to death.

Their law of God stated.

Deuteronomy 17:6 “6 At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.”

Deuteronomy 19:15 “15 One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.”

Exodus 23:1 “1 Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.”

Yet, the Scripture states it wasn’t the witness of the witnesses, but Stephen’s confession of seeing the Son of man standing next to God. This was God’s approval on Stephen. Often what God approves does not meet man’s misguided approval.

It is easy to judge these as wicked men, but how about us? Do we ignore parts of God’s Word because we want to overemphasize another part? They claimed Stephen was blaspheming, but had to lie about him to get him on trial.

A rebuke to the council who stoned Stephen

The Jewish religious writing, the Mishnah, forbade lamentation for a blasphemer.

The devout Jewish men whether all Christian or not did so for the crooked trial and injustice done Stephen.

Argue

Why didn’t they use their second amendment rights? Oh wait they didn’t have that did they.

Matthew 5:10–11 “10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.”

These Christians knew this was part of what Jesus had promised. The previous arrests from rebuke, to beating, to a death had showed persecution was ramping up.

They were realizing their call not only to be children of God, but a call to suffer for God. 1 Peter 2:20–21 “20 For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. 21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:”

God wants us to realize part of being a Christian is suffering for when you haven’t done wrong. That is hard to swallow, yet true. Are you willing for people to be mad at you for simply being a Christian and believing the Bible?

Yet within suffering their is great reward, so they didn’t lose heart they left Jerusalem preaching the Gospel.

Their sufferings helped them know Jesus better.

Philippians 3:10 “10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;”

Romans 8:18 “18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

Illustrate

Ultra-Marathoner legend Scott Jurek won many races that were 100 mile plus in his time stated. “We all lose sometimes. We fail to get what we want. Friends and loved ones leave. We make a decision we regret. We try our hardest and come up short. It's not the losing that defines us. It's how we lose. It's what we do afterward.” Although these Christians were losing family, friends, and home to those happy to persecute them, they did not go silently. They went spreading the Word.

Apply

We should not be surprised when we are persecuted for Jesus’ sake.

Never have any princes been so famous for their victories as the martyrs were for their sufferings. Thomas Watson

Sometimes we can unnecessarily be a source of persecution against other Christians because we don’t want to submit to the Bible’s authority in every area of our lives.

Be careful you don’t use your Christian liberty to do those things God would not approve.

Be careful you don’t scorn those who have different convictions they have been led to hold based upon Scriptures.

Or, just being a grump. We shouldn’t be hard to live around just cuz we are not having things go our way.

Don’t be ashamed to show public grief over those who are wrongly killed for the sake of Jesus Christ.

We have brothers and sisters in Christ being massacared by Islamic groups in Africa because they are Christians. You may denounce such behavior, and at the same time extend forgiveness as Stephen did. Remember our job is to show the love of Christ and let Jesus judge.

When a brother or sister may be given a hard time for their faith, be the Christian that comes along side and helps bear their burden. Galatians 6:2 “2 Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”

Whose burdens are you called to help bear? Let us hold up one another in prayer and be steadfast in the faith.

Don’t compromise the faith just because someone doesn’t like what the Bible teaches.

1 Corinthians 12:26 “26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.”

T. The enemies of God were happy at Stephen’s death and persecution came to the church, but how did advance from a single Christian to many Christians? Saul headed up the persecution against the church.

2. Enemies make Havoc of God’s Church.

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

Explain

When it says Saul made havoc there was a wide and general destruction of the church.

They injured and violently harmed church members. Saul hated Jesus and anyone who followed him. To Saul the idea of calling Jesus the Son of God was disgusting and repulsive. So he found anyone who believed in Jesus to be the same and worthy of death.

How was this done? Systematically terrorizing Christians. Saul was entering every house.

The tense of the verb is imperfect denoting repeated occurrence. It was not like one family of the Jerusalem church had a house raided. It was an ongoing occurrence that was happening frequently. I’d imagine they had spies who figured out who was going to the Church of Jerusalem and then conducting raids on these houses.

Thus, Luke calls it a great persecution.

They were separating families, beating them, killing some.

Saul, later the Apostle Paul described his persecution as wasting the church of God. Galatians 1:13 “13 For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:”

He was destroying and pillaging God’s church just like an officer with a search warrant may turn a house upside down looking for evidence of a crime.

Could you imagine what that would look like if this happened in Lake? This would be like the police coming to every members house of Lake Baptist and with armed force taking us hostage and putting us in Harrison to await trial. Why? The authorities didn’t like Christians. This great persecution was a diligent, systematic persecution.

Saul seeks Christians in every house

Saul goes door to door.

Saul is not out to evangelize when we do our door knocking.

Saul is out to destroy Christians.

You can imagine how the members of the church of Jerusalem felt: Targets for the killing. The wolf was coming for the sheep.

Will our house be raided next.

Will they murder us all?

What will happen to my kids?

We need to get out of here!

They imprison church members.

Our text says “committed them to prison.”

Why were they being put in prison? Because they believed in Jesus their is forgiveness of sins. Acts 3:26 “26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.”

Argue

The idea in Jesus there is forgiveness of sins was blasphemous to the unbelieving Jews. They deemed Jesus a false Christ. To them, the temple sacrifices were still necessary to cover their sins even though at Christ’s death the way in the holy of holies was ripped wide open. Hebrews 10:19–20 “19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;”

God’s Word teaches Jesus offering was all that was needed. Hebrews 10:11–12 “11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;”

It is true the things of God are repulsive to unbelievers. So was the case here.

Other times the Devil may switch tactics. He will say its all good and you can’t be exclusive about your beliefs. Both are wrong.

The Bible teaches salvatioin is exclusively through God’s Son Jesus Christ.

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

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

Illustrate:

The person who states you are fine to believe what you believe and they will believe what they want to believe.

I wonder whether we are prepared to face the fact that the Church of God in this age and generation may in a sense have to go back to the catacombs. We may have to face that; there are people who are facing that, and it is the position in many countries today. Walking with God, 109

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Welsh Preacher and Writer)

Apply

How would you respond if this kind of persecution came to Lake, MI? We need to ask ourselves what cost are we willing to pay to follow Jesus?

Are you a fair weather friend?

Those are only followers of Jesus when it is easy are really no followers at all.

Matthew 10:38 “38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.”

Or, are you a committed soldier of Christ.

Make a decision to follow Christ no matter the cost.

I’m not saying mindlessly commit yourself to something you’ll regret. But, look at what is to be gained for trusting Christ and follow him with all your heart.

Luke 14:27–28 “27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?”

Commit to follow Christ to the death.

Let a man really dare to be a New Testament Christian and take Christ seriously, beginning next Monday morning, and he will wake up to the fact that he is a sheep among wolves.

Havner, Vance

T. The enemies of God may be happy at your hardships, and work to make them worse, but always remember that the spread of the Gospel can never be stopped.

3. Enemies cannot Halt the spread of the Gospel.

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

Explain

The visual image of a big tomato be slammed by a sledge hammer is what I think of when I hear the word scatter.

If Saul was trying to prevent the spread he failed. Because now these committed Christians went everywhere teaching the good news that Jesus is the Savior of mankind.

Matthew 16:18 “18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

They were going abroad everywhere.

They went all over.

They travelled on foot to escape persecution.

The church persecuted did not migrate together. They were scattered.

They preached all over.

They kept talking about Jesus everywhere.

Although separated from the church family they kept telling of Christ.

Do you only speak of Christ when your with church family?

They proclaimed the good news.

Luke 2:10 “10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”

They were telling the good news that Jesus came to save them from sin and rose again from the dead.

Argue

Why would they do this? Wouldn’t this perhaps put them in more danger?

Philippians 1:20–21 “20 According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

Acts 20:24 “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.”

Illustrate

The man who could not keep silent about Jesus.

Apply

When persecution comes for being a Christian don’t apologize. Be firm. Be strong. Give the truth without compromise. Don’t reassess the message because some don’t like it. Give it untainted.

Galatians 1:6–8 “6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”

The Gospel is simple. Jesus shed his blood on the cross and rose again to save sinners from their sin and condemnation. He offers us to be his children.

Conclusion

Just like God’s plants explode to spread the seed and reduplicate themselves, so we too should be eager to share the good news of Jesus to others. Jesus commanded them to share it in Judea and Samaria. Saul’s persecution of the church helped them obey.

What pressures of persecution has God allowed in your life? What is your response to it? Have you been silenced/ Or, do you share the Gospel everywhere?

If you have fallen out of the habit of passing out tracts, grab some and hand them out this week. Make it a regular thing. Our Savior is great. Let us lift him up and give him the glory he deserves.