Sermon Tone Analysis

When God Doesn’t Make Sense He Is Up To Something

Acts 8:2-40

 

Dr.

James Dobson wrote a book called, /When God Doesn’t Make Sense/.

It was a best-seller.

I think it was so popular because it struck a common chord.

Have you had a time in your life when it seemed God didn’t make sense?

You were praying, reading your Bible, attending church and serving.

You felt pretty good about your faith.

But, something happened that completely blew your mind.

You started asking, “Why, Lord?”

I’ve been asking “why” lately.

I’ve been seeking God in prayer about our church.

As a church we’ve given a lot of time and energy and money to be faithful to God’s call.

Yet, we’ve had to move and attendance and finances have fallen for the first time in our short history.

You might think this is strange, but in spite of this, I’m not discouraged, this isn’t hurting my faith.

Just the opposite is true.

At this point I feel more confident about our church than I have in a year.

Here’s why: I’ve learned that when God doesn’t make sense, He’s up to something.

Today, I want to show you how the early church experienced this same thing.

They went through times of doubt, fear, uncertainty, and transition.

As I read Acts 8, sometimes God didn’t make sense.

Still He used those times in a powerful way to change the world.

I want to show that when God doesn’t make sense, he’s up to something.

Before we read the scripture, let me give you some background.

The church in Jerusalem was experiencing phenomenal growth.

Thousands of people were trusting Christ and being baptized into the church.

There was opposition, but it strengthened the resolve of the Christians.

The people were growing in their faith by meeting together in homes and in the Temple for worship.

Luke, the author of Acts, says the Lord added daily those who were being saved.

As the church became more organized the number of new disciples multiplied.

The people were sharing their faith with friends and family.

They were seeking God in prayer and devoting themselves to the study of the scriptures.

They were so effective that they even began to win some of the Jewish Temple priests to Christ.

That’s when things began to unravel.

A young follower of Christ named Stephen was captured by an angry mob.

They were upset that he and others were so successful in leading others to Christ.

So, they stoned him to death.

Here’s what happened next:

 

1.

The Zealous Persecution

Acts 8:2-3 On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.

Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.

But Saul began to destroy the church.

Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.

(NIV)

Can you imagine their thoughts?

The church had been doing things right.

If anything can be said about these people, they were faithful to God.

It didn’t make sense.

How could God let such terrible persecution come on His people?

Families were being ripped apart.

Committed Christians were hauled off to jail.

Jobs were lost.

Friends were shunned.

It didn’t make sense to them, but it was a part of God’s plan.

This persecution affected the Jewish Christians who were Hellenists or Greek.

Israel was not their native land.

The Jewish Christians who were born and raised in the area were largely unaffected by this.

The Hellenistic Jewish Christians ran for their lives away from Jerusalem.

God didn’t make sense, but he was up to something.

2.

The Powerful Purpose

Look what happened as a result of the persecution: Acts 8:4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

In this verse we see God’s purpose revealed.

He allowed the hostility to motivate these people to spread their faith beyond the borders of Jerusalem.

Jesus told them before he ascended back into heaven in Acts 1:8 "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

They had fulfilled the first part.

The Christian were effective witnesses for Christ in Jerusalem.

For some reason they hadn’t yet taken the message of God’s grace outside of the city yet.

God had to give them a push to get them moving.

You can understand their situation.

We’re the same way.

We love to get together.

But sometimes our fellowship can lead us to forget about our mission to the world.

I think our move is a push from the Lord.

How many of us are seriously building relationships with lost people?

When was the last time you shared your faith or invited someone to the Sunday service?

This past Easter I was surprised at the low attendance.

I should have suspected it when we didn’t do our usual Easter mailout due to finances.

But, mailouts aren’t the main way we have reached people, inviting them is.

Rather than view Easter as a primetime to bring an unchurched person to the service, most of us looked at Easter as a time “for us.”

If we won’t get out there and make disciples of all nations on our own initiative, then we should expect a push from the Lord.

 

3.

The Faithful Preacher

Look at the results of God’s push: Acts 8:5-8 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there.

When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said.

With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed.

So there was great joy in that city.

There was a reason why it happened this way.

Imagine that you’re a Samaritan.

You hate Jews and they hate you.

Into your village one day comes a group of refugees from Jerusalem.

They’re Jews, but not native Jews, so you don’t completely hate them.

They begin telling you how the Jews in Jerusalem were persecuting them, trying to kill them if possible.

Suddenly, you’ve got empathy for them.

They Jews are your enemy too.

Your ears are open as they tell why they’re being persecuted.

The conversation turns to Jesus.

Had the Christians in Jerusalem simply organized a mission trip to Samaria, they would have been resisted and rejected.

But, these Hellenistic Jewish Christians who were persecuted were a different story.

The Samaritans were open to them.

Do you think God planned it that way?