The Power of Scattering

INTRODUCTION

This morning we are continuing our journey through the book of Acts, tracing the movements of the early church so that we might seek out and understand the truths of how God moved and worked in his people then, and how our unchanging God moves and works in his people now.

Our passage today opens up with some sad news. One of the seven men that the church has just commissioned to serve and love has been stoned to death for his faith. Stephen had been going around healing people and preaching about Jesus, and some other religious leaders get jealous and arrest him and accuse him of blasphemy. Stephen gets confronted about this, and he just stands up and gives the entire history of Israel, from Abraham and Moses to David and Solomon and the prophets. There’s this powerful moment during this recounting where he notes Israel’s desire to build a house for YHWH, a great temple where God might reside. But then Stephen says this, and it matters quite a bit to where we are going today: “It was Solomon… who built him a house, but the Most High does not dwell in sanctuaries made with hands” (Acts 7:47-48). Stephen calls them stiff-necked betrayers and murderers, which they DO NOT like. And then, the mic drop moment: Stephen has this vision of the glory of God, the throne of heaven, and he sees Jesus standing there, watching over him, and he declares that he has seen the Son of God standing at the right hand of his Father. And the religious leaders have had enough. They cover their ears and yell and rush him and carry him out to the edge of the city and pelt him with rocks. They kill him. This young, ambitious leader named Saul is there, watching and approving of everything they are doing.

This is the first massive tragedy to befall the church. Someone has died for speaking out about Jesus. He is killed for his witness. Our word martyr today in English is defined as a person who is killed because of his or her beliefs, precisely because of this moment here. It’s the type of thing that we might go to great lengths to avoid and stop. It’s the type of heinous act that turns knots in our stomachs if it were to happen here and now. And what is worse is that this martyrdom scatters the church in all directions. For the first time since we have been reading about this gathered collective community, we see them no longer drawn inward, but driven outward.

But what I want to talk about today is not how to avoid persecution, or this scattering, but the power in it. Because what we discover through this atrocity is that God used martyrdom to carry out his mission, and through Stephen’s death and the persecution of the church, they would become his witnesses, going out from Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria, and ultimately to the ends of the earth.

PRAY

MIND THE MOMENT

Acts 8:1–3 (CSB)

On that day a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria. Devout men buried Stephen and mourned deeply over him. Saul, however, was ravaging the church. He would enter house after house, drag off men and women, and put them in prison.

We have to start at this point, before we note how God worked through it, before we move on to the ways in which the church responded so powerfully. What I find particularly moving here is this statement right in the middle, surrounded by persecution and imprisonment and ravaging. It’s terrible, it’s frightening; but right in the middle, it’s as if everything stalls.

Devout men buried Stephen and mourned deeply over him. God-fearing men who believed the truth Stephen proclaimed and loved him as a brother. They mourned for him; they sobbed over his death. Amidst great persecution, they pause to share in sorrow. They are mindful of the moment.

I know I talk a lot about how great it is to be a part of God’s family; how you will find rest in him, how your life will discover meaning, how you will be utterly transformed by the Spirit, how you will experience eternal joy and peace, how you will never taste true death. Jesus says, indeed, his yoke is easy, and his burden is light. But make no mistake, following Jesus is not an easy road. He says that do so means denying yourself and taking up your cross. He says you will be hated for following him. For serving a different king. For seeing the world with the eyes of eternity. The world will hate you. And sometimes the world will do what it can to hold you to account for what you believe.

And yet, even though the road is hard and perilous, the Bible is clear that God is not indifferent to us. He does not see you as collateral damage for the sake of the cause. The fact that Luke takes the time to record this moment of grief is incredibly important.

Hardship happens. Churches struggle sometimes and are forced to scatter due to forces from the inside and from the outside. Now I believe, as we will soon see, that God can turn around sorrowful situations; he can bring about beauty from ashes. But before we can understand the beauty, God’s word invites us to breathe, to cry, to grieve. We do not serve a God who is distant and stoic; in fact, you may become even more aware of God’s presence through tough times. And he sympathizes with our weaknesses; he endures with us, and Jesus mourns loss just like we do. God does not merely wait on the other side of the dark valleys, welcoming those who survive. He is there, with us, guiding us through it every step of the way, like the Good Shepherd he is. God feels the pain Stephen feels; he suffers with the persecuted church. In fact, Jesus will miraculously confront the ravager Saul and blind him with his glory, and then he asks Saul, “why do you persecute me?” He doesn’t say the church, he says, me. Because Jesus and his people are one. He dwells with them, he knows what you are going through, he feels your pain. He grieves with you.

So I would encourage you in your groups today to take time, pause, and mind the moments that cause us pain and sadness. Don’t fold in on yourself—this is not the time to give in to darkness! But bring your sorrows to God, that through him, you mind find a deeper joy.

SCATTERING IS A CATALYST, NOT A CATASTROPHE

Acts 8:4–7 CSB

So those who were scattered went on their way preaching the word. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. The crowds were all paying attention to what Philip said, as they listened and saw the signs he was performing. For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed.

Now, the church is scattered. No longer gathered together, no longer drawn in and growing out of that core group of disciples, but scattered in all directions—specifically, throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. And all on account of Stephen’s martyrdom and persecution. And yet, this is not a catastrophe, but a catalyst.

Now I learned this week that in the Greek there are two different words for scattering. The first is the kind of scattering that looks like what happens when a light shines on a group of cockroaches and suddenly they all zoom about in fear, hiding in every corner. We might think that if the church were to scatter today, it might look like that, and I think that might be why we fear not being able to gather sometimes. That kind of scattering would be an absolute catastrophe. But that’s not the word that used here.

The word for scattering here is diaspeiro. It’s the image of a farmer scattering seed along the ground. It’s planting imagery, it’s growth and multiplication. It is as if the church is being strategically scattered here to grow the gospel far beyond the fertile soils of Jerusalem. Would we say that is a catastrophe? No, that’s a catalyst. A catalyst, by the way, is a change agent, a person or event that marks a transformational shift. In this case, the persecution of the church and the death of Stephen brought forth a massive multiplication movement.

Check this out: those who were scattered went on their way preaching the word. Who are those who were scattered? Not the Apostles; they stayed behind in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1). The leaders and elders of the church are not counted among those who go. Who does? Men and women, members of the community, just like you. The Seven Servants—well, now six—they go as well, but all were dispersed. And what do they do when they are dispersed? Do they run for the hills? Do they cower in fear? All of those who were scattered went on their way preaching the word. As they go, the preach. That word in preach is euangelizo, where get our word evangelize, and it literally means the bearer of a good message. It’s the word for gospel in our Bibles. The gospel of Jesus the Anointed One, the news of the kingdom of God coming to earth, the scattered testify to this as they go.

We spend a lot of time as the church thinking about what we ought to do when we gather. We put huge emphasis on Sunday morning gatherings, a massive percentage of our resources are stewarded to this end. We coordinate groups to gather in, we plan worship nights to come and gather, we’re working on developing a functional facility, a safe space that welcomes and invites you and others in. And yet I wonder if we are missing out on some of the catalyst opportunities we have to scatter the seeds, the plant the gospel throughout our region, not just here in this building, not just in Cottonwood, but Anderson, Redding, Red Bluff; wherever the church goes, the gospel goes with them. And look, it’s not the pastor that goes and evangelizes. It’s you. In your neighborhood, in your workplace, in your school. You bear the image of Christ, you have been given the mind and heart of Jesus, and so scattering is no longer a break in the action, it is the action!

Man, woman, child, all are commissioned. Someone asked me once if the Great Commission in Matthew 28 or in Acts 1 was given only to the Apostles and therefore does not apply to us. But look, who are the witnesses to Judea and Samaria? Not the Apostles! It’s the everyday, “average” members of the church. Do not afraid to be scattered; Saul drives the church apart because he fears its strength when collected; HE scatters the church with his persecution; and yet it ends up that his persecution sows the seeds of the gospel.

You are that seed. You were meant to be scattered, to be planted, to bear more gospel fruit, to see more lives changed by Jesus in corners of the earth yet untouched (and believe me, there are dark corners, even here, even right around us; I’m not talking about the remote jungles of South America, I’m talking about Brush Street, USA).

Luke pans out over ALL the church scattered throughout the regions, and then he zooms in on Philip, one of the Seven Servants from chapter 6. Philip goes down to Samaria, a people that hate Jews, and who are hated by the Jews. Philip, a Jew, comes in and speaks out about Jesus, and then heals and drives out demons before them, he brings the Spirit of God to the hated Samaritans. And they gather together and believe. Philip plants a new church right then and there among a people who, prior to the church’s persecution, had not yet heard the truth.

Really quick, I want to come back to that thing Stephen said earlier. I told you this would matter. He said Israel strove to build God a house, where his Spirit, where his presence could reside. The temple was the pride of Jerusalem, because it housed—one might say, contained—the Almighty God. But Stephen counters and declare that God does not dwell in houses made with human hands. No man-made temple can contain him. Rather, God chooses to come and dwell in a different sort of temple, made with living stones. Right before this moment, the Apostles lay hands on seven men and commission them as part of a new priesthood. Philip is one of those priests. He brings the temple to Samaria. And the church flourishes.

Without chaos, there is no need to change—why fix what ain’t broke? Without struggle, there is no opportunity to break free. Without scattering, the gospel will not spread. My encouragement to you today is to allow God to use whatever he needs to use—even if that is persecution—so that more churches might be planted, more dark corners illuminated, more lives transformed, more enemies made friends. When it comes to the mission of God and the life of the church, comfort—not chaos—is the catastrophe. If we want to see more and more of Jesus in our community, in our nation, and in our world, don’t be surprised if God uses something a little chaotic to stir us from our sleep, to scatter us strategically as seeds. Don’t be surprised if scattering—not gathering—becomes the catalyst for gospel multiplication.

TRUST THE PROCESS

There’s one last verse to look at, and it ends our tragic story on a surprising note:

Acts 8:8 CSB

So there was great joy in that city.

Where did we begin? With sorrow. Death, persecution, ravaging. The church scattered about in every direction, sent away from its founders and leaders. And yet, look, we end with joy. Actually, great joy. A great persecution broke out, and it led to great joy.

I want to end today by encouraging you to trust the process. God has a habit of this. It’s in his nature to transform evil into good, to overturn sorrow.

King David writes a song about his enemies coming after him, about death and fear and weeping and sorrow. David writes a lot of these songs actually. And after waxing poetic about his hardships, he turns toward his God and says:

Psalm 30:10–12 CSB

Lord, listen and be gracious to me; Lord, be my helper.” You turned my lament into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, so that I can sing to you and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever.

Later on the prophet Jeremiah is speaking about how the nation of Israel will be scattered and there will be weeping and tears, but then God will do this work of regathering and he will plant something new out of the wasteland:

Jeremiah 31:10–13 CSB

Nations, hear the word of the Lord, and tell it among the far off coasts and islands! Say, “The one who scattered Israel will gather him. He will watch over him as a shepherd guards his flock, for the Lord has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from the power of one stronger than he.” They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will be radiant with joy because of the Lord’s goodness, because of the grain, the new wine, the fresh oil, and because of the young of the flocks and herds. Their life will be like an irrigated garden, and they will no longer grow weak from hunger. Then the young women will rejoice with dancing, while young and old men rejoice together. I will turn their mourning into joy, give them consolation, and bring happiness out of grief.

In both these passages there is a word that is the same. It is the action God takes when he receives our pain and our hurts. It’s the word hapak meaning to turn. It can mean destroy, overturn, transform. God takes our sorrows, and he overturns them and transforms them into joy. It’s as if every event, every challenge, every time we see something terrible and grievous and awful, God sees another side to it, and it’s like he says, just give me a moment, let me turn this around for you. And he flips it over, and we see the joy.

I want to you to see something really quick. In Acts, do the people scatter, or are they scattered? It’s passive. They don’t actively go, they are sent. Who turns mourning into joy? Not us. God is the active agent. We have to trust the process.

Now, if I were to ask my wife what the most painful thing she has ever experienced physically is, she might say kidney stone, but a close second? Childbirth. I have witnessed this secondhand, and I can tell you that I am grateful I did not witness it firsthand, because God did not design my body to go through that kind of trauma. And I would argue, moms, that you have some agency in childbirth, but really, it’s something that happens to you. You just gotta white-knuckle-grip that sucker for the whole ride. Because if you jump ship too soon, you’re going to miss out on the joy that suddenly overcomes you, the relief afterward, the rush of happiness that overshadows the pain.

Jesus uses this very example when his disciples:

John 16:19–22 (CSB)

Truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice. You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. When a woman is in labor, she has pain because her time has come. But when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the suffering because of the joy that a person has been born into the world. So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy from you.

When you follow Jesus, hardship happens. The world will struggle to understand you, the church will not always gather the way you are used to, and sometimes we will driven out more than we are drawn in. And in those moments, it’s easy to see only evil, only bad, only suffering. But I want you today, instead of focusing on the bad (again, I know that’s our default sometimes), to believe, truly, that God will use it for good. Sorrow will turn to joy. Mourning will turn to dancing. We can be utterly sure about that. Acknowledge grief, allow God to use you, and trust the process, that joy comes with the dawn.