Acts 8:1-4 | Scattered Missionaries
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Main Point: The Lord
Intro - hey how is everyone?
Question, how would you do in a real deal persecution?
Through out history there have been many attempts to destroy Christianity.
One of the big ones in ancient history is the great persecution.
On Feb 24th, AD 303 the first edict of Diocletian was issued.
Diocletian was Emperor of Rome
The edicts were meant to destroy Christianity.
Each one had the goal of wiping Christianity off the map.
churches burned, scriptures destroyed and christians killed.
That was the goal.
Christianity was a plague, need to be destroyed.
For 10 years this persecution went on.
10 years of churches being burned, Christians being killed.
And the whole time the faith of the church is being strengthened.
So goes on for 10 years.
Until the Edict of Milan in 313 AD
gave Christians legal status in the empire.
And this edict is given by Constantine, the first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire.
Crazy - 10 years destroyed to legal. 10 years.
Gotta ask, how did the church withstand.
Put yourself in those shoes, facing Beheading or Burned at the stake, you just do what we want.
Be cause that was how you could get out of it.
sacrifice to the emperor, and we will let you go.
This what Eusebius, ancient church historian, says writing just after this the end of the persecution. He saw this happen.
“After three days they were both of them brought together before the judge, and he commanded them to offer sacrifice to the emperors: but they confessed, and said, We acknowledge one God only, the supreme sovereign of all; and when they had uttered these words in the presence of all the people (p. 7.) they were numbered among the company of Holy Martyrs, and were crowned as glorious and illustrious combatants in the conflict of God, for whose sake also their heads were cut off. And better than all the course of their lives did they love their departure, to be with Him in whom they made their confession.”
That last line there,
And better than all the course of their lives did they love their departure, to be with Him in whom they made their confession.
This is not new in the christian faith even in the early church it wasn’t new.
So see this, when persecution happens, the church flourishes.
I want that thought in your head as we get back to acts.
Context - recap where we’ve been
Where have we been? step away
Been going through acts
How did the 1st church function?
two things
Commissioned to spread the kingdom
It built a radical new community.
So far it’s all Jerusalem.
Everything has happened in Jerusalem.
The book of acts follows Acts 1:8
8 and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Tonight we are going to see a shift.
If you have a bible…..
Acts 8:1-4
Pray
Lets read this
1 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.
What is going on?
Right after Stephen’s martyrdom
EX:
We see
Saul approved of the excecution.
Love the NASB version -
New American Standard Bible (1995) Chapter 8
Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death
Persecution began
Stephen is buried
Saul begins to destroy the church.
it says going house to house
But then a glimmer of hope verse 4
those who were scattered began preaching the gospel.
So this is a transition passage.
Narratively and historically
So let’s put ourselves in the shoes of the first century church.
So far in Acts after Christ is raised they have seen
Christ commission them, Acts 1:8
The church has grown like crazy
The holy spirit descended on them
The tongues - reversal of Babel
The church is being organized
Church is still growing.
Few hiccups with the authorities
nothing crazy
Put yourself in the shoes, its going well.
There is excitement, joy, its probably fun.
P1 - Persecution began that day.
But here is the first thing I want you to see,
Persecution began that day.
The death of Stephen was reality setting in
Ever seen someone get checked with reality? You ever been checked with reality?
Step away
When I was in little league…
The Clowns….
we were good.
We laughed
Our Coach said, don’t make fun of them, you know how good you gotta be?
Guess what happened
We go the brakes beat off us
1st pitch dinger
This was a reality defining moment for the first church
Jesus words rang true
‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
They crucified Christ.
This moment defined reality
Its gonna be hard.
servants are not above their masters
Its going to take resiliency and a firm faith.
After this nothing else was the same
And the reality is, persecution has been present ever since.
doesn’t go away
Diocletian was just one of many
Nero, Caligula, Tragan,
Sulliman
Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Hitler
Even to the present day
Nigeria Christians are being slaughtered as we speak
All through the ages
Its no new
Persecution is an ever present reality
Through it the church is fortified
The church is made stronger
Thats the upside down nature of the kingdom of God
through death/life.
death is defeated
P2 - The Church is being watered by the blood of the saints
through this tragedy, the church is fortified.
Stephen is buried, they lamented his death
tells us something
they told about Stephens faith
almost a rally cry, lament means to mourn and speak about
In this fortification, the church is scattered
Church is going out.
P3 - those who were scattered became missionaries.
Last thing i want you to see in the text
Those scattered where given a purpose.
verse 4 Acts 8:4
4 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.
Where ever they went they were spreading the gospel
So from here, the gospel is outside Jerusalem.
its now in Judea and Samaria.
and as you read on in the chapter you see growth
people are coming to faith
Stephen’s death helped propel the gospel.
as tie goes on, the gospel takes over
slowly - deliberately
Cultural Analysis - Christians can assimilate and still fully preach the gospel. Dispersion/Jewish became like the culture. Christians use the culture to preach the gospel and remake the culture. since the holy spirit has came, reversal of the story is happening.
and this is the cool thing
the gospel still works like this
look at the story of redemption, the whole narrative of scripture.
What is it?
Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration.
Since the coming of the holy spirit the church is in the restoration phase.
Look at the OT
God chooses a people
The people wrestle with God
Rebelion and restoration.
Here is a cool thing that this passage is reversing, restoring.
Just like the Holy Spirit and the different languages, a reversal Babel
The people are dispersed. Scattered.
Dispersed - literally means in to foreign lands
This is another reversal of history.
Part of the story of the Hebrew people is they are famously dispersed.
They are taken away to Babylon.
The cycle was an army comes in a takes the out.
And even if they aren’t physically taken away if another culture comes by what happens?
When they go to Babylon? what do they do?
They become like the babylonians.
They take on the gods of Babylon
When they didn’t wipe out the Cannaites, what did they begin to do?
Worship the Cannanite gods.
When the hebrew people were persecuted, their culture broke down.
The followed other Gods
They are judged
The are brought back
Thats the pattern.
But look here in Acts,
Scattered and doing what?
Preaching the word.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Reversing the histroy of the people of God. Restoring the story.
Tolkien has this great line in LOTR
After the ring is destroyed Sam asks Gandalf, is everything sad now going to become untrue?
The Holy spirit is restoring history through his church pointing towards the everlasting
He does thin through his church going out in to the world and remaking it.
Christian are the only people who can assimilate in to a culture ad still preach the gospel, and change the culture to a gospel culture.
This is what i mean
Christ called them to go out in to the world and be what?
Salt and Light
What does salt do?
heals, preserves
what else?
Makes things better
Anyone like unsalted fries?
CFA waffe fries, terrible without salt.
The gospel is like salt, imagine if you’ve never had salt
You’re gonna want it, you are gonna want seasoned food.
College - Albion’s seed.
Why food up north is no good.
didn’t use salt
Southern food, has west african influence
seasoned food.
But this is what we engage in as we take the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Christians can use the culture to preach the gospel,
The gospel both contextualizes the culture and remakes the culture.
And this goes on and on through out history.
After Diocletian persecution, with in 70 years, Rome is a Christian empire.
Application - What is the duty - MSG forced to become missionaries ? What is the doctrine - sovereignty of God? What is the wisdom in contextualization? The lord is positioning you to be a witness for the gospel.
What do we do with this?
Three things i want to pull out of the text
Sovereignty of God
We must understand that the Lord is sovereign in all things
The gospel shows the sovereignty of God.
The Lord uses this tragic murder
Stephen is stoned, The church is scattered, Saul is there
The gospel is being proclaimed in places they other wise would not have
God orchestrated his plan to work through tragedy
For us, we need to understand that the Lord has put us in place
For myself, how did I get here?
College, almost dying, school, here.
The lord uses hard difficult situations as a means of grace and restoration in our own life.
As time marches on in to glory, everything sad will come untrue.
God is sovereignly working in everyone of our lives
every pain, joy, tear, and laugh
It is working for his glory and our good
We have a purpose and a duty.
Second, see this
We all have a purpose and a duty.
No matter the circumstance
Look at verse 4
4 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.
I love the message translation of this
Forced to leave home base, the followers of Jesus all became missionaries
I love how that read.
as they were forced out of their homes, they became missionaries.
Whats our duty?
Everyone of us is called to be a missionary.
As we go through our lives, we take the gospel with us
our identity can only be found in the gospel.
There s wisdom in the example.
There is wisdom in this,
Look at the Lord’s wisdom
the church from here, starts to go global.
Saul is introduced, like a Marvel Cameo almost
But later in this same chapter,
The gospel is gonna make it’s way to Ethiopia, from someone who was converted after Stephens death.
God will use our pain and redeem it for his glory.
SO our duty and our purpose is to trust the lord’s sovereign work and follow his lead in taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.
What does that look like? Some vocational ministry/missions. But most it will look like faithful living. What does faithful living look? Truth and Beauty. Radically ordinary. Everything done in the pursuit and proclamation of the gospel.
What does this look like?
Some its vocational
you might be a missionary somewhere the gospel isn’t yet,
I pray that one of you get to do that
I want that in my legacy selfishly.
But for most of us, faithful living
Radically ordinary lives following Jesus.
This is what I mean.
Our lives are lived in a manner that seeks to restore and redeem this broken world.
Our lives are lived in the truth and beauty of the gospel.
That we live fulfilled lives,
Not in the sense that we are healthy and wealthy, but in the sense that we are salt and light.
Becasue we have eternity in mind.
That we are not bound here for ever, but that we are going to live for eternity in the full presence of God.
This is the Christian example for generations.
Diogentias letter - Explaining the rapid rise of Christianity. This is from the second century
LIsten to this, this explains how we should carry our lives, no matter where we are.
This is long but stay with me
For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh.
Did you catch that?
We are here but do not live for the here and now.
We are to live lives marked by the truth and beauty of the gospel.
What ever you do in life, do it with truth and beauty,
Do it well
Go through the jobs - step away
P2Christ
I want to leave you with this,
The gospel is our only hope in life and in death
The Lord is sovereignly orchestrating our days and giving us purpose.
We are called to take the gospel and make disciples in all of our lives
To followe Christ in all of life for all of life.
Present the gospel
You can not do it apart from following Jesus.
Those guys in 4th century Rome getting their heads cut off, they knew that Christ was better.
Jesus died for you
Jesus give you a new family, new purpose
You become who you were made to be in light of the Gospel.
All Jesus wants is your whole life, to come as you are so he can make you not as you are anymore.
All the baggae, all the stuff, Jesus knows what he is buying with his blood
and he has made a way for you.
If you have questions or feel like you are being called, come talk to me
I want to invite you in to the kingdom
Come see Christ as lord, come see Christ as king
