Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Some devout men buried Stephen, and made loud lamentation over him. But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison. Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.As we enter back into this story, Luke explains that Stephen’s death at the hands of the leadership of the Jewish nation resulted in a great persecution of this new community called the church in Jerusalem. To understand the underlying conditions that led to this persecution, we first need to understand what was happening in Jerusalem as a result of this new community called the church. At this point in the history of the church, many scholars believed that the church was composed of between seven and ten thousand people. Many people who had become followers of Jesus at the birth of the church had chosen not to travel back to their hometowns, but remained in Jerusalem.
To give you a little bit of perspective, most historians believe that the population of the city Jerusalem at this time in history was around 25-30,000 people. So between one fifth and one third of the population of Jerusalem had become followers of Jesus in the span of months. And as thousands of people continued to gather in the temple to worship a man that the Jewish religious leaders had just killed, tensions began to mount. As these early followers of Jesus gained influence and impact in the city of Jerusalem, tensions continued to mount. As these early followers of Jesus failed to be persuaded by threats and beatings to stop talking about Jesus, tensions continued to mount. And the events that surrounded Stephen served as a pivot point that galvanized and ignited those who were opposed to the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel to express that opposition through persecution.
Now a natural question that arises here is “well, if the church was God’s idea and if followers of Jesus are to be the vehicle that God was going to use to advance His kingdom mission in the world, then why would He allow the church to be persecuted? If I have just described what is running through your mind, I just want to let you know that is a great question to be asking. I believe the answer to this question is found by looking at the mission that these early followers of Jesus were given.
We began this series with Jesus giving His followers the mission: “you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth”. Yet, while these early followers of Jesus were doing a great job of being witnesses in Jerusalem, they were not engaging in the co:mission they had been given outside of Jerusalem. People were coming to Jerusalem and were responding to the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. But instead of returning to the cities an countries where they lived, they chose to remain in Jerusalem.
And it is here where we see a timeless temptation that we face as a community of believers. As a community of faith, there is a natural temptation to focus and look inward instead of engaging outward. Our natural temptation is to focus on what the church is doing for me instead of engaging in what God has called me to do for others. And that is exactly what was happening in Jerusalem.
After the persecution, began, however, Luke tells us that followers of Jesus were forced to scatter in all directions from Jerusalem. And as they scattered, these early followers of Jesus proclaimed the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel wherever they went. God used this persecution that arose from the death of Stephen to begin engaging His followers in the co:mission that they had been given to be the vehicle to reveal His Son Jesus and His message of rescue through the message of the gospel to the world.
In the rest of chapter eight, Luke provides for us two examples of God’s co:mission advancing through the life of an early follower of Jesus named Phillip. In Acts 8:5-25, Luke records for us the story of Phillip’s travels from Jerusalem to Samaria. Samaria was located north of Jerusalem. The Jewish people had a profound dislike of Samaritans and viewed them as “unclean”, as they were an ethnic mix of Jewish and Assyrian cultures.
Following the persecution, Phillip traveled to Samaria and shared the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. As Phillip exercised the sign spiritual gifts that God had given them to do the miraculous, these spiritual gifts served as a sign that authenticated that the message of the gospel was from God and not simply made up by man. And God’s activity through Phillip resulted in many Samaritans placing their confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel.
In Acts 8:26-40, Luke records for us the story of Phillip’s travels from Samaria to a desert road south of Jerusalem that led to Gaza. Phillip was led by the Spirit of God to engage in a conversation with a traveling official of the Queen of Ethiopia. As a result of that conversation, the Ethiopian official placed his confident trust in Christ, was baptized and then proceeded to travel to Ethiopia, where he would have an opportunity to be the vehicle that God used to reveal His Son Jesus.
Luke provides us these two example to reveal how the persecution that arose after Stephen’s death served to move God’s co:mission outward to Samaria and beyond in the north and to Judea and beyond in the south. In chapter nine, Luke then shifts to focus on the new character to the story of God’s co:mission in the world.
Tomorrow, we will meet this new character...
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