Out of the Huddle and Onto the Field (2)

Acts 8:1–8 ESV

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. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city.

INTRODUCTION...

Are you a fan of football? I wish I could say that I am. I do like high school football, but college and professional football, not so much. I might watch the Super Bowl but usually that is because I’m part of a church Super Bowl party.

This year, I was at the Super Bowl in Los Angeles (with 73 other evangelists) but never got to go into the stadium because I was sharing the gospel with the people.

In football, they have what is called the huddle. The team playing offense will be seen gathering into the huddle so that the Quarterback can call plays and give instructions to the other team members. Huddles serve a great purpose but they only last a few moments - 30 seconds at the most. Then the team breaks the huddle and takes position to run the next play on the field.

As comfortable as it might be to stay in that huddle, the team can’t remain there and win the game. They have to get out of the huddle and onto the playing field. The fans in the stands didn’t pay their way into the game to see the team huddle. They want to see some action! The fans would understand 30 seconds in the huddle, but what if it stretched into 3 minutes, or 30 minutes. There would be rebellion in the stadium.

How much are we as the church like that? This is the Huddle. We come here together on Sunday Morning, Evening, and Wednesday Evening, Etc. to hear the quarterback call the plays. Then it’s time to break and get onto the playing field and snap the ball. Get in the game.

Pastor Tony Evans used this illustration at a church growth conference once. This is what he said, “Now what Christians often do is get high on their huddles. We gather together on Sunday morning and Sunday nights and Wednesday nights and we go nuts over the huddle! We say, “Boy did we have a huddle!! My quarterback can call plays better than your quarterback. And boy do we go off on the huddle. But what people don’t seem to understand is, that the huddle is so that we can play the game. The effectiveness of your church cannot be measured by how well you do on Sunday morning. … The test of the church is what it does in the marketplace. What we need today is churches that are representative of Jesus Christ not only when gathered but when disseminated.”

In today’s text, we see the what happens when the church in Jerusalem breaks out of the huddle and steps into action. At this point, they had been in existence for about a year. Perhaps they had gotten a little too comfortable in the huddle. The coach had to nudge them back into play. So, he used this persecution to move them to be on the mission of taking the gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the Utter most parts of the earth. What will it take to move his church today to take the gospel to the lost?

The Reasons for their Gathering

They gathered to be empowered.

Luke 24:49 ESV

And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Acts 1:8 ESV

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.”

I can tell you from personal experience that the proclamation of the gospel requires the empowering of the Holy Spirit. We dare not attempt to share the message of Jesus in our own strength.

Up until this point, they had been learners on how to share their faith. They had spent time with Jesus observing how he ministered and being trained. Once Pentecost came, the Holy Spirit filled them with His power and they were now supposed to be doers.

With some of the type of ministry that God has allowed me to do, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit is an absolute necessity. You don’t dare step foot onto Bourbon Street in New Orleans if you have not prepared your heart and received his power. The devil will eat your lunch!

But the empowerment of the Spirit is just as needed when you are talking to your next door neighbor about Jesus!

They also gathered to be equipped.

Acts 2:42 ESV

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

The local church is the huddle. Your pastor is the quarterback. His job is to call the plays from the playbook which is the Word of God. Once you break from the huddle, he is going to put the ball into someone else’s hands and they are going to run the touchdown.

Every person on that team makes it possible for the effective hand off of the ball so that the running back or wide receiver can make the touchdown. By the way, you deacons are they lineman. Your job is to keep your quarterback from getting sacked!

By the way, I’ve known your quarterback for a long time. He is going call from the playbook! He ain’t gonna make it up as he goes! He knows that the playbook is the only thing that will make this team successful. The quarterback is not the only player on the team either.

Have you devoted yourself to being equipped with the Word? Part of that is to take what you are learning from the playbook and use it on the field. What kind of team would you have if you only every studied the playbook? Yet some think that the only responsibility they have on the team is to learn the playbook. How many games would y’all win if you stayed in the huddle? ZERO!

Their Response to their Scattering

Acts 8:4 ESV

Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

They didn’t go into hiding for fear of persecution. They didn’t just go back to what life was like before meeting Jesus either. They went on their way evangelizing!

The reason for their scattering was persecution. With the martyrdom of Stephen, a new wave of persecution began. Saul, who later became Paul, was ravaging the church going from house to house and dragging Christians off to prison. The word used here for ravaging is one that could be used to describe an army destroying a city or a wild animal tearing at its meat. Did you ever seen a dog pick up a toy in his mouth and shake it?

We have yet to experience this kind of persecution here in the United States. Someone might hurt our feelings by calling us bad names but nothing like the early church experienced. BUT, it is coming.

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church!

God used these trying circumstances to shake the church out of their comfortable state and moved them into doing His will.

The text says they were scattered. It is a picture of someone sowing seeds. When you sow seed, what do you expect?

Illus. Hold up seed package: I have in my hands some flowers. Now, if I open this package and look inside, will I see flowers? No. I will see seed which have the potential of becoming flowers. If I take the package and set it on a shelf somewhere, will I get flowers? No. These seed have to be removed from the package and be planted in order to get flowers.

Now when you leave this church building today, you are going to be scattered. Not because of persecution but that scattering is really what happens each and every Sunday. God is going to plant you somewhere. In your neighborhood. In your school. At your job. Etc. He is going to plant you there with the expectation of seeing a harvest.

John 12:24 ESV

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

You have to die to self in order to bear fruit for Jesus. That means putting your will side and surrendering to his will. So, who do you know that needs to hear about Jesus? God didn’t say for you to identify that person, and then call your pastor to go visit that person. God didn’t say for you to invite them to church although that may be a great start. God said, “YOU shall be my witnesses!”

Don’t get tripped up on that word preaching by the way. The original word denoted evangelizing or simply telling the good news of Jesus.

Evangelism is the responsibility of every believer, not just the responsibility of the professionals. And, there is no spiritual gift of evangelism found in the Bible. There is the office of evangelist that God gave for the equipping of the church for the ministry. But, no spiritual gift. It is always a commandment.

You may never step foot on Bourbon Street in NOLA to share the gospel, but you will be able to reach people where you are. People that I may never be able to reach. You can plant seeds in places that I can’t. Why? because you are already there! God has planted you in those places. Bloom for Jesus!

Now I’m going to let you in on a secret about evangelism. This is worth the price of admission today so listen close. You may feel that you are not very good at sharing the gospel with others. That’s OK. You can get better.

The secret to getting better at sharing the gospel with others is… wait for it… The secret to getting better is sharing the gospel. You will never get better until you do it. Training, memorizing Scriptures, listening to sermons on evangelism are all good, but unless you step out and start doing it, you will never get any better.

The Results of their Obedience

Let’s take a few moments to see what happened when the church shared the gospel.

First, new people groups were reached.

Acts 8:5 ESV

Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.

The Samaritans were despised by Jews. But, they were loved by God.

Samaritans were Jews who had intermarried with the pagans of the land. The Jews considered them to be half-breads who were compromised in their beliefs about God. There was a deep-seated prejudice in the hearts of the Jews toward the people of Samaria. So why did Phillip preach to them? Because God had moved upon his heart to do so and there was no room for prejudice there. What a lesson for the church!

Illus. While in New Orleans this year, God gave me the opportunity to witness to a young man named Rory. I was preaching on Bourbon Street when he approached me and wanted to ask a question.Rory approached me while I was preaching in the middle of Bourbon Street on Fat Tuesday. In case you didn't know, Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras in French) is the culmination of the Mardi Gras season which leads up to the period called Lent.

He wanted to know if I thought Homosexuals could go to heaven. I told him that homosexuals, like everyone else, needed a Savior because of the sin that separates us from God.

He then proceeded to ask what I thought about people who said they were Christians but went out and committed adultery. I told him that it was the same for them and that sin should not be a normal part of a Christian's life. You see Rory had been told by some Christian that he was going to hell because he was a Christian by someone who said they were a Christian, yet they were actively involved in sexual sin too.

We as believers need to be careful not to hate the LGBTQ community because God can save them too!

Later in the chapter, we see Phillip venturing out even further into uncharted territory. The Holy Spirit guided him to an Ethiopian Eunuch who was going home from Jerusalem where he had been to the temple to worship God. This man gave his life to Jesus becoming the first African Convert to Christianity.

Secondly, the proclamation of the gospel resulted in spiritual awakening.

Acts 8:6–8 ESV

And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city.

Many lives were changed spiritually and physically as a result of Philip evangelizing in Samaria. And, there was great joy in the city!

That is what happens when the power of the gospel touches lives - great Joy is the result. People were experiencing freedom from their sins through the gospel. Even one of their worst enemies was going to become a Christian and join them soon.

John 8:32 ESV

and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

We need some of that joy in our world today, don’t we? Who’s going to give it to them?

Who do you know that needs Jesus? We had a campaign recently in Southern Baptist Churches called “Who’s Your One?”

Imagine if every believer could identify just one person that they had a red-hot passion for - to see them come to Jesus. What if those believers committed to pray for that person and share the gospel with that person? What do you think would happen? Great Joy in Hertford county! Or Northampton County!

What are we waiting for? Time has come to put our hands to the plow and not look back. Time to break out of the huddle and get onto the playing field! Let’s pray...