God Preserves Unity

What appears to be a devastating setback becomes God’s means of advance. Persecution scatters the Church, but it cannot silence the gospel. This brief passage reminds us that God often uses hardship to propel His mission forward—and that suffering never has the final word in God’s redemptive plan.

Transcript

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Why does God allow persecution of his people? A friend recently shared with me a book about the persecuted church. One chapter tells of a story of a young father in Russia during the Soviet occupation. He began sharing God's words with his family. It started to spread a little bit to his neighbors, and he began housing a small home church. The Russians found out and arrested him, and he spent the next 17 years in prison. He had no Bible, he knew very few hymns, and he was locked away with 1,500 of the worst men in Russia. But each morning in his cell, he would wake up and sing one hymn that he could remember. And every day he would sing this song. And the inmates would respond by mocking him, throwing food at him, and even human feces. For 15 years he endured the berating of the guards and the constant physical abuse. At one point, the guards told him that his wife had died, his children had been killed, all he had to do was sign these papers, renouncing his faith, saying that he was a U.S. spy. All of this was a waste. What are you doing? And he was exhausted, he was broken, and he was tired, and he finally agreed. The next morning he was going to sign those papers, he told the guard. That night, though, God gave him a dream, and in it he heard the very voices praying for him of his family. His family gathering in the living room, praying for his father's perseverance. That next morning, he woke up with a vigor, standing upright. And when the guards came, he boldly declared, I am no longer signing those papers. Confused, they demanded some sort of explanation. And he looked at him and he said, My God revealed to me the prayers of my family. I heard them last night. They are alive, they believe, and they are praying for my endurance. As the guards moved to drag him out, something extraordinary happened. A loud roar of voices erupted. Every inmate began singing the hymn this man had sung alone every morning for fifteen years, all 1,500 inmates. The sound filled the prison like a great choir, and the guards stopped in disbelief and looked at him and said, Who are you? And he looked at them and said, I am a son of the living God. This morning we're going to unpack Acts 8 and how God uses persecution for the good of his people and to accomplish his purposes. So our main idea is the bold and faithful witness of the gospel delivers the oppressed out of darkness. The bold and faithful witness of the gospel delivers the oppressed out of darkness. So let's look at this text. And Saul approved of his execution. This is Stephen. 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. So when is he persecuting? We see the persecution occurs immediately after Stephen was martyred. Stephen's blood was the catalyst needed to begin an all-out war on the church of Christ. There had been persecution we've seen already. The apostles have been beaten, they've been called to remain silent, they've been thrown in jail, all for proclaiming the risen Jesus. But that earlier persecution was against the apostles only. For the first time, we are now seeing the persecution was not just for the leaders, but for the whole church. The persecution was starting to expand. Between Peter's arrest, the persecution at the start of Acts, the gospel is now spread to who are called what are called Hellenists, Jews. These are Jews by birth, but raised in Greek language and culture, and we're now coming to faith in Christ. So who's persecuting here? We see our second mention of Saul. He is going to be a prominent character in the rest of this book. In Philippians and Galatians, Paul describes himself as an Israelite. He's a Pharisee with authority. He's learned. He's young at this point, advancing in his years beyond many of his peers. He kind of has this zealousness and charisma that is starting to gather a following. A Pharisee, Paul's believed to be married as well. At this time, Pharisees were required to be married. The language here, ravaging, emphasizes the brutal and sadistic cruelty. Imagine this: house to house, people coming, dragging men and women of the community and putting them into prison. Saul was making trouble, and he was going to keep on making trouble until God stopped him. Jesus warned his followers that they would face this type of persecution. Matthew 10, 16 through 18, we see, Behold, I am, this is Jesus, sending you, the disciples, as sheep in the midst of wolves. So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves, beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in the synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness for them and the Gentiles. So at a spiritual level, the enemy's rage is directly tied to the gospels reaching now beyond ethnic Jews, to the Hellenists, and to those that are going to be reaching the ends of the world. He will use any means to stop it. Paul was raging against the church in Jerusalem, and this caused a dispersion and scattering among the Christians. Acts 11, we hear where these scattering leads them. Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch. We're looking at about Phoenicia is about 150 miles and away from Jerusalem. Cyprus is about 60 miles west, and Antioch is almost 300 miles away from Jerusalem. So this is a not a sign this is a significant up and leaf. And this is the fulfillment we see in Acts 1, 8. But you will receive the power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. This was something that was going to happen. And now we're starting to see this. And the end goal is that God will use people as a means to be his witness to the world around them. God used this persecution to scatter his people. The word wasn't going to stay sheltered in Jerusalem. It was going to go to Samaria and to the ends of the world. Jesus would not let his church become limited racially, culturally, geographically. These early believers became missionaries as much as they were refugees. An interesting note that's mentioned is that everyone was scattered except for the apostles. And we'll we'll zoom in shortly on Philip, but what a great reminder for the church that it's not just the paid staff, it's not the pastors to do all the work of the ministry, but it's the people of God who are scattered in their places of life to proclaim the gospel message. So often in our churches and like many businesses, there's this 80-20, right? 20% of the people do 80% of the work. This isn't an option in Christian faith. All of us are contributors and critical members of the body to step in and to engage. So why is he persecuting the church? Paul hated, or Saul at this point, hated the Christian church. Acts 26 says, I myself was convinced, feel the weight of that word. Convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. We see that in our culture, right? This convincing. And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priest, but when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them, and I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blasphemy in raging fury against them. I persecuted them even to foreign cities. He likely saw his activism as a stepping stone to grow in his influence, power as a Pharisee. The man began to gather a following because of his persecuting of the church. This fed his ego, and his anger grew. He was convinced. We see Saul's story, where he's persecuting the church, but we also see God's story. God was using the hate of the persecution to advance his church. And I think there's a bigger theological principle about God's character that Luke is trying to communicate. I don't think that this was the means that the people anticipated God was going to use to get them to move to reach the world. They probably thought they were going to continue about their current business in Jerusalem, continue to share about the amazing story that God has done, that maybe others were going to be the ones to go out to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Scholars believe that this has about been a year to five years since the Pentecost. So at some level, things have started to kind of settle. They've become established in Jerusalem. But here we have God intentionally using the persecution of his church to move his people. God uses hard things in our lives to move us closer to him and to accomplish his purposes, not only in our lives, but others in future generations. Imagine these people, they're questioning the unfairness of life. God, what are you doing? Why am I leaving 300 miles from my home? There must be something going on wrong. We must be doing something wrong to be experiencing this level of persecution. Do you frequently grumble or complain silently about the hardships you're experiencing? Do you question if God is unfair in your life? Or do you see these as ways God is working in your life, maybe to loosen your grips on the comforts of this world and re and increase your reliance on Christ? God may be working in us to grow fruit in our lives that we would have not pursued voluntarily. These early Christians could have cowered in fear, they could have had a fresh start and had a new life, but they didn't. They knew their calling in their lives to make Jesus known. And from that we see they have a bold proclamation. Let's look at verses four through six. 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. There are different words for scattered in the Greek. One of them means to be dispersed, so that an item has gone from one point to another, like scattering a person's ashes in the ocean. This is not that word used here, but in verses one through four, the word used means scattered in order to be planted. I teach biology, and one thing we talk about is this concept of called endozucrani. It's a silly word, but it's a biological adaptation that plants have. And simply it's this is these plants are trying to spread their genetic footprint. And these trees develop these adaptations to increase that. And on the surface, it's birds eating the seeds and excreting them in a new location. The seeds, though, have a protective layer, and they need to be eaten by the birds to remove that protective layer. That stomach acid removes it, once digested, is then excreted into a new location, and it matures into a new tree and repeats the same process. These seeds had to be plucked, they had to be eaten, passed through something stressful, moved to a new location before it could take root somewhere else. Here we see in this text, this is God's design here to uproot these people, though in that moment it seemed unjust, it seemed unfair, and use that uprooting to sanctify them and advance his kingdom. These seeds are not scattered to die, they're scattered to be planted and to grow. Those hardships remove the layers of dependence on the self and prepared people to plant their roots in a new area. You never know how God is going to use your story to make an impact on others. We're a product of scattered people. We should see our lives as one that is scattered, not just dispersed, but planted to bear fruit. Have you considered yourself planted in the place that God has placed you? God's placed you in your areas for a reason. He's given you your family for a reason, your job, your passions. None of these are random. My wife and I have a maybe to a bent or a fault that we live, work, play, we try to be intentional about every aspect. We live in Mason, I work at Mason City Schools. While we homeschool, we choose to involve our kids in Mason youth sports, knowing that coaching and being invested in these families, kids, that one day they would maybe walk through my classroom. We desire to be planted in our community, attending events, bringing our kids alongside so that they can see and we can model for them what it looks like to be a family that is making roots. This shapes the way that we spend our time, our money, our resources, choices. And it's easy. I get it. I want to be insular at times to stay comfortable. But we have a call to be a people who plant our roots down. Luke zooms in now on a specific character of Philip. It kind of gives us an example of what this looks like in practice. So who is Philip? Philip, this is not the apostle Philip, but this is the deacon that's mentioned in Acts 6.5. Philip is the first person and the only person in the New Testament to be called an evangelist. He was a layman. And Philip is going to Samaria. Samaria was a blended culture that has contentious ties with the Israelites. And they historically didn't like each other at all. But if we remember back in the Gospel of John, John 4, Jesus actually talks to a woman at the well who was a Samaritan woman. The woman at the well encountered Christ just a few years ago. It changed her life. Jesus opened up her eyes to the fact that God was not going to be confined to a temple. He wasn't going to be confined to a mountain, but a promise that all who are the true worshipers will worship the Father and the Spirit of truth. And revealing he was the Messiah, she responded by going to the city, telling all of what Jesus had done to her, and many believed. And this is years ago. Jesus changed this woman's life. So this rattling of who Jesus was and what he has done was starting to impact that city. And here we have Philip. He arrives now, finding the soil already prepared. He reaps what the woman sowed. I think here's something important for us, church. No good work for God is ever lost. If you've labored in a town, if you've shared the gospel with your family and your friends and seen no great success and feeling frustrated, someday someone else may see it. Just weeks ago, we got to celebrate my brother's baptism. He also recently got married as well, and it was nothing short of the miracle of what God has done in his life. I definitely was not probably the best model brother, but I do hope that some of our conversations, our prayers, the way that my wife and our family have modeled our life helped to point him to Christ. And by God's grace, he has worked in his heart and his wife's, and they're now involved in a healthy church in Columbus and contributing to the body and on fire for what God is doing in his word and for his people. Your story, your work is not about initial results. Your story is about being faithful to God's call. I think of friends I've reached back to over the years, maybe that I've lost contact with, thanking them just for words that they've spoken, the way that they spend time with me, push me towards Christ. Most of them don't even really remember those conversations or that time together. But it changed my life. Your work, your words, your time may bear fruit like Philip's. Or it may be quietly tilling the soil for someone else. Either way, the calling is the same. Be obedient and faithful. It's through the proclamation of the word in this formal setting and the testifying in the word through our informal conversations that the power of God is known. That's how God has chosen to reach his people. Transformation is going to happen when it's the Spirit works through the faithful witness to his word through demonstration and proclamation of the gospel. Let's look at some of Philip's characteristics. We know he's not an apostle, he's a faithful servant. He was culturally connected. He was a Hellenist Jew. He had Greek and Gentile culture background who became saved. He was faithful and bold to the message. He had a very clear message. Philip was an ordinary servant who used his gifts, and God used Philip and went before him. C.S. Lewis has a nice quote. It says, It's not your business to succeed, but to do it right. When you have done so, the rest lies with God. Part of God's intentional plan was sending, was God sending a Greek-speaking Jew to Samaria, someone who would connect with these people. Philip's background was not incidental, it was intentional. Think about your own wiring, your gifts, your passions, your culture and experiences. These aren't random, but they're avenues that God has designed for you to engage the lost world and your spheres of influence. Every other month, uh some friends of ours, we get together, we have like a wine club where we bring uh we bring a style of wine and we kind of blind test them and see like, oh, which ones do we like? That's kind of like a hillbilly wine club. We kind of pretend to be Somaliers. But before we met, we we sat down and we had a conversation of what we wanted this to look like. We didn't want this to be something that was exclusive, meant just for insular our own friends and fellowship. Our vision was that we want to have create a space where we can invite people that we are ministering to, relationships that we're building to plug into the church, unbelievers that we can engage with, loving on them and pointing them to something even greater, while sharing a passion that we all enjoy together. We rotate homes each every other month, and the per the hosting family gets to invite those people that they are ministering to or caring for, and we all get to love and get to know them. Mission is for the whole church, it's for every aspect of our lives. We are scattered to plant. Although some pastors are evangelists, the chief task of pastoral ministry is not evangelism. It is, as Paul says in Ephesians, to prepare God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up. So a pastor's job is to teach the Bible so that those in the church who are taught, particularly with the gift of evangelism or whatever gift they may have can exercise their gifts in reaching others and building up the church. Here at Sacred Mission, we believe the gifts of the Spirit are alive and active today. And they have three primary purposes. The first is the building up the body of Christ in love and unity. It's also what we see in these next two in this text to bear witness to the gospel as God bears witness to his word of grace and to demonstrate the presence of the God's kingdom. Breaking into this present age. Here in this text, we see that the gifts were not just limited to the apostles. While signs and wonders accompanied apostolic ministry, they were also performed by deacons such as Stephen and Philip and ordinary church members in Corinth and Galatia. These signs and wonders didn't compete with the preaching of the word or replace the power of the gospel. Rather, they served as God's witness to his word of his grace. And this has caused me in my life recently to just pause and ask myself is my life a spirit-filled ministry? Or is it just on autopilot? Hit the alarm, eat breakfast, clock in, clock out, shuffle the kids to practice, scrolling the emails on the sideline, scarf down a dinner, get the kids to bed, scroll the phone, check in the email, maybe watch a short show, rent, swash, repeat. The scriptures tell us that one day each work will become evident. The day will disclose it. And I often imagine God showing me like a film tape of a sports game, kind of recapping the play after play, walking me through the choices that I've made, how I chose to spend my time or energy or resources, my heart posture behind those things. And none of those things I mentioned were inherently wrong. Work is good, family dinners are good, rest is good. But the question that I wrestle with is whether I'm actually asking God to move through me in the middle of it all. Am I engaging each morning? Do I really believe that the living God wants to engage with me and work through me today? Do I even want to participate in what He's called me to do? What I really desire is my teaching would point students to Christ and His design of creation, that my sidelines at practice would build relationships and draw people to the beauty of God and his people, that my dinner would be a place to linger, to recount God's goodness of the day, to gospel the hard moments as we labor together as a family. That my rest would recharge us, not through empty calories, but through feasting on his word and prayer, that the next day we might go and plant it and where God's placed us. I don't want to reach the end of my life and say I've wasted it. And church, I don't want us to say that either for you. These early believers saw them as part of something far bigger than themselves. And so should we. They saw themselves as scattered to be planted. Philip was an ordinary man, filled with the Spirit of God. He was a faithful witness. The people around him started to pay attention. God did the rest. This morning I want to encourage you. Evaluate your life. Think of the as a mixed hate that you're watching. The choices that you're making, your heart motivation behind the things that you do. Are you just on autopilot? Moving from one thing to the next? Or is there a deep communion and abiding in Christ that overflows with all the places of your life? That's what's going to motivate us. That's what's going to help us to persevere, to boldly proclaim. And then we get to see the beauty of it all. In verses here in 7 and 8, we see purification. For unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame or healed. So there was much joy in that city. Finally, the build-up. Why is there an emphasis on the proclamation of the gospel? It's not just a good story to share. A history lesson. And how do we know? We see demons leaving people screaming. There was a demonic presence that confront was confronted and defeated. This is to demonstrate the presence of God's kingdom breaking now into this age. C.S. Lewis again has a great quote. It says, There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence, the other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. I would suggest many in our context, and not all, but many, err by minimizing the existence and the power of demonic forces. This is a grave error because the scriptures are very clear that the battles we fight are rooted in the cosmic powers of darkness and spiritual forces of evil. We might make light of spiritual forces of evil or don't think of them as dangerous. And I don't want to go down the rabbit trail of demonology, but there is a darkness of this world that seeks to disgrace the name of God, to attack the church and its leaders, and to make people dull and uninterested. The enemy is crafty and deceptive, and if not proactive, it will have a greater impact than we can imagine. And I'm not saying to chase demons out of every single bush, but spiritual warfare is real. The crowds had unclean spirits in them. And we see Philip, he didn't come with a social program. He didn't come with the government. There were no new fads or medicines or diagnosis or treatment that was presented. It was the power of the gospel that awakened the souls that they might experience the true freedom and joy. The crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip. The NASB and the Greek actually write it this way, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing. These are both speaking gifts that they are hearing through the preaching, and we see sign gifts of healing. And this is a beautiful text to demonstrate how signs and wonders don't rival or replace the word, but are servants to it. They don't save anyone in themselves, only the gospel has that power, but they can shatter shells of disinterest, cynicism, false religion, and helping people fix their gaze on Christ. I love a good Costco sample. I don't know if you guys are like me. But those are small tastes that often leave me longing for something more. Many times it's caused me to per the full meal behind it. And this taste has grabbed, this sample has grabbed my attention. And how shortcoming would we be to just stay there at the sample? Signs and wonders are taste that the coming age has broken into the present, drawing men and women into hearing and responding to the gospel call. It's the evidence that Christ's current reign points to the complete restoration that's coming ahead. The world is groaning to be set free, and freedom is now available to those who receive that good news. Jesus was the word that became flesh. He went to the darkness to rescue his people. He became proclaiming the kingdom of God to establish his rule. He came to set the captives free. In his death, the enemies believe they had won, but three days later, the power of God is demonstrated by overcoming that death. And we taste that. We get to taste that. John 4, the woman was waiting for this moment, and now it is fulfilled. People are now going to be, we now church, will be worshiping in spirit and truth. And the Spirit of God is active and alive in his people today. A few months ago, our family was having a family worship. We were praying through the Psalms. We sang a few songs. And we kind of just left some space to give thanks for God or just prayers as we started our time of devotion. And those are both beautiful, but at the same time can be harnessed in sinful ways. As we were sitting there, I had an overwhelming sense that there was an incredible strong presence over my son. You could feel his anger radiating over something that may have happened hours before or moments before. But you could tell that the enemy was using something to disengage him from this time. He didn't want to be there, he didn't want to participate. Everything was negative. This was a moment I felt like God was using for me in my life, to listen to his spirit in this time. Rather than just powering through, moving through a devotion, a check-offs, but to be really present in that moment. My son was obviously experiencing a dark thought in that moment, and as silly as it may sound to some, this was a moment I believe the Spirit wanted me to slow down and speak a word of encouragement to this situation, to bring light specifically to him. I asked my son, I can sense something is wrong. And he hardly moved and he was just kind of staring forward. I asked again, son, do you feel angry? He paused. He was looking ahead still. Yes. He said, son, are you tired of being angry? Are you tired of letting this anger consume you? Do you feel like it's destroying you? And he slowly turned his head and he looked at me with tears forming in his eyes. And he said, Yes, Dad, I am. I don't know though how I don't know though how to let this go. Will you pray for me not to be angry? And here we had a moment where I'm sure I stumbled over words working through the love of and forgiveness of God, the cost of our pride and selfishness, and the power that we have over sin because of his finished work. We each, as a family, prayed over him, and it was a sweet moment. It was a powerful moment. And there wasn't a screaming or a screeching of an unclean spirit, but there felt a freshness in the room, a relief that he had experienced in that moment. I don't say this to boast, but I say this as an encouragement. That we have a God who wants to be active in our lives and to make his presence known. And through your ordinary endeavors and faithful pursuits of him and listening to the Spirit, He will move in mighty ways. This morning, if any of you are feeling overwhelmed with a sense of darkness, oppressions that you feel like you cannot shake, if there are lies that you've believed about yourself for years that you tell yourself, I invite you, like this crowd, to respond to the call that Jesus has to offer of breaking that chain of oppression. I've seen and experienced God help break addictions. I have seen him free those who are crippled by anxieties and health issues. Come and experience the living God this morning. He goes before you, he's calling you, trust in his finished work, flee from your sin and receive his promises this morning. The text describes that many were healed and that there was so much joy. After this service, if you feel this, find a group mission group leader, find any of the elders here, or come talk to myself. We'd love to hear the battle that you feel like you are fighting, and we want to walk alongside you. We want to share the joy of the salvation that we have experienced by putting our trust in Christ. In closing, Philip was a man like you and me. He was persecuted, he was forced to leave his home. God and his providence moved Philip to Samaria to fulfill a promise that he was going to do. Your life and your experiences are unique to each and every one of you. Each of us have very different stories, gifts, passions, and God wants to use that and channel that for his kingdom work. The pressures of the enemy will seek to stomp that out. He will seek to dull your spirits. The cosmic powers of darkness will make every obstacle and every excuse to stop you from doing God's work. But if we're a people who abide in Christ, who fight to kill sin, walk in obedience and the ordinary means of grace, and actually just pause and ask and listen for the Spirit to lead us. I believe we're going to see God do amazing things here at SMC now for future generations to come. Our story and work isn't about the initial results. Our story is about being faithful to God, calling every moment of our lives so that we get to see the kingdom of God break down the walls of hostility and deliver the oppressed out of darkness. And we'll respond like the prisoners in Russia. A loud sound of joy and a song of praise to the king. Let's pray.