Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] All right, let's get our Bibles and turn to the Book of Acts, chapter eight.
[00:00:06] Lord willing, we will be in Acts this morning, but not tonight.
[00:00:11] So I think we will go in a different direction tonight and maybe for the next few services if, if that's how the Lord continues to direct Acts chapter eight, we will start reading in verse number eight, verse number one, rather, reading down through verse number four.
[00:00:37] I do want to note verse number chapter seven right across the column there, probably in your Bible, the Bible says in verse verse chapter seven, verse 58.
[00:00:51] Speaking of Stephen, they cast him out of the city and stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul.
[00:01:06] This is the first direct mention of who would become one of the most prominent figures in all of Christianity. We do not worship Paul, we only worship the Lord Jesus. But the Lord chose him to be a very prominent figure in the New Testament Church.
[00:01:27] About two thirds of our New Testament is written by not this man, but this man who would become Paul the Apostle.
[00:01:38] But notice Paul himself, saul himself rather is not lifting his hand to harm Stephen.
[00:01:46] He is holding the clothes of those that do.
[00:01:51] And just as a reminder before we get into chapter, you know, in chapter eight and verse one, it starts with and Saul was consenting unto his death. So by holding the clothes, Saul is signifying that he is in agreement with, he is facilitating those that do bring harm, that do persecute God's people. And he mentions this later. Paul mentions this after he's saved. He mentions how that he held the clothes of the Lord's martyr Stephen. And that bothered him. That bothered him. It was a memorable and important point in his life.
[00:02:34] But just as a reminder that how we approach and how we interact with evil is important. Paul was not committing the evil, but he was holding the clothes of those that did.
[00:02:52] And in chapter eight and verse one, it goes from holding the clothes of those that committed the wickedness to committing the wickedness itself, right? To committing the wickedness oneself. So just be aware, just be aware in the way that we come at evil, we come at sin if we facilitate it, if we tolerate it. This is not just, of course what Saul is doing is not mere toleration saul is actually taking part in it, but just not with his own hands. But whenever we do that and we facilitate think family members, that's where really the rubber meets the road right there. When we facilitate things that are evil, it won't be long until we'll be doing it themselves, doing it ourselves. So we just need to be aware of that. Holding the clothes, I know that's not what this is talking about directly. That's not the context of this. But it does raise a good point, which is we don't want to hold clothes for people that are doing evil.
[00:03:55] I'll say that again, we don't want to hold clothes for people that are doing evil. If they do evil, we want them to have to exert all the energy to do it. We want them to be put out a little bit. Amen. Amen. And when we go to do evil, we ought not give our clothes to anybody else and say, hey, hold this for me so I can sin a little bit. Be it our children, be it our family, be it whatever.
[00:04:20] Just as a side note, now let's get to our message in chapter eight, verse one.
[00:04:25] And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles and devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the Church, entering into every house and hailing men and women, committed them to prison. Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere, preaching the Word. Let's pray together.
[00:05:07] Lord, thank you for the opportunity to meet together with Your people. Lord, I pray that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ would be exalted among us here this morning.
[00:05:17] Lord, I pray, even as I've already prayed, that you would move and work and urge and influence and speak to the hearts of Your people here this morning.
[00:05:32] Lord, I pray that none of us would sit and listen to the Word and be unmoved.
[00:05:39] Please meet with us and please teach us by Your spirit. I pray that the Gospel would be evident and plain to see.
[00:05:46] And Lord, just help your people. Lord, you know what we all need. You know what our church needs. I do pray for those that can't be here with us today. I pray as they're listening in. Or is there a way that you would bless them and you would keep them?
[00:06:02] And I pray for those among us that are ill, that affliction is causing them trouble and pain. Please give them grace, especially Mrs. Mark and even my wife and those that are carrying babies. Please give grace especially to Sister Sharon and to her baby. Please give grace to your people, Lord, and have mercy.
[00:06:25] Lord, we just desire that this time that we have together would be a blessing, first of all to you, that you would look upon it with joy and with pleasure as we've met together, Lord, to hear Your word, to know of Your name, to know of Your will. So I pray you would do that among us in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:06:49] This persecution, this is a turning point. Chapter eight, verse one. We've already talked about chapter seven being a turning point.
[00:06:59] Not only chapter seven is a turning point, in the history of the church because what God initially offered Israel, they rejected. God's word went to Israel first because of the place in election don't let that word scare you, but the place in election that God had designated for them, the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ was the Jewish Savior. He was the Savior that came. He is the king of the Jews. He is first of all the Savior of Israel. That was his initial. You read Isaiah 53 and Micah and different places that talk about the coming of Christ and how he would die on the cross and all that primarily in view was the Jewish people, the Jewish Savior saving the Jewish people from their sins. And then he eventually is told that he will be their king.
[00:07:57] So chapter seven, the Lord offers through Stephen. He just lays it out and they in a very dramatic fashion just utterly detested this offer the Lord makes through Stephen in the same way that they rejected.
[00:08:16] So that changes it because from this point on, the Gospel is going to start to go to other people groups, not just the people of Israel. It's going to start with the Samaritans starting in verse number five of chapter eight. But then beyond that, as we'll see in a minute, it starts to go beyond the borders of just Israel. It'll start to go to even Gentile people.
[00:08:38] And so the savior of the Jews will become our Savior, will become the Savior of those who aren't Jews. Because of course we know he originally he died for all men and that was his plan all along.
[00:08:52] But part of that plan was that the Jewish people would voluntarily reject their Savior. Now one day they will receive Him, but for now they haven't. But chapter eight also is another turning point in this narrative. In verse one, Saul was consenting unto Stephen's death. And then it says, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem. Think about what we've read so far in Acts. If you've been know pretty much every service, I hope. My desire is that you have learned a lot about the early church from the Book of Acts.
[00:09:36] Let's test that theory. Where was the Church meeting up to this point?
[00:09:41] Where do you see them all the time?
[00:09:44] They're in the temple. They're on the temple ground. So is this a public place or a private place? It's a public place up to this point. The Church of God now you have to understand it just kind of go in your mind to all the different events in chapter two and chapter three and four and five.
[00:10:03] As we saw in all of those different places, the church is meeting in the Temple, which is a public place.
[00:10:11] They're all Jewish. Pretty much everyone that has believed in Christ are Jewish or they're a proselyte. There are some proselytes scattered in there but they're all Jewish, either born in Israel or they're Grecians. We all know what a Grecian is by now, right? They're a Jew who is born among the Greeks, but they're Jewish ethnically. But the language they spoke was Greek.
[00:10:34] So you have Judaism and you have the Temple and you have the priesthood, and you have all the goings on of the Jewish religion. We call it Judaism.
[00:10:46] You have the Pharisees and you have the Sadducees and you have all of that that existed at the time of Christ. This is just a short time after that.
[00:10:54] And they had their religion and they had their offerings and they had their holy days. But within that group, there is this weird fringe element, okay? That's what is developed. It started with 120. In Acts, chapter one, you had this fringe element. And what we find in other parts of the Book of Acts is they referred to the belief system, the beliefs of this fringe element as the way.
[00:11:24] The way, which is an interesting way to put it, considering. In fact, if you hold your place here look at Acts, chapter nine, verse two. Speaking of Saul Tarsus going about to persecute the church, he desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any of what does it say this way. This is not the only time this kind of particular phraseology is used to describe the Christians. This is the way Paul described it. The way this way. So basically, you had these Jews, you had their whole religious system. And then on the Temple grounds, remember, in the first century, there were different factions within Judaism. You had the Sadducees and you had the Pharisees. And then you also had other groups called the Essenes and other groups that aren't specifically mentioned in the Bible. But you had these groups. They were all Jews and they were all religious. Okay?
[00:12:35] This is the way it was perceived that the early Church was it was just another faction.
[00:12:42] That's why they had so much liberty in the Temple here. They met together, and their preachers and their pastors and their apostles preached to them in the Temple. I mean, in public, at the center of the Jewish religious worship. Now, up to this point, that had been allowed up to this point, this is a group that was just kind of that was just kind of there. But it's growing very rapidly. We've seen that already in chapter eight, verse number one is where all of that changes. All of that liberty is gone because after the death of Stephen, right at the time of the death of Stephen, and we talked about how that Stephen how that he disputed with the Jews that had come from Cilicia. Remember that which is a Roman province, the capital of which is Tarsus. Who knows something about tarsus. Tarsus is the hometown of this man. There is strong indicators that Saul was involved in this. The Bible doesn't say it directly, so I'm not going to state it like that. But there's indicators that in fact, one commentary I read said that Paul was probably he might have been very angry at Stephen in particular because Stephen being that he had the spirit of God in him, like we read, he was faced as the face of an angel was giving arguments that even Saul himself couldn't answer, especially with that. They call it the Solicit synagogue.
[00:14:26] Maybe that's true, maybe that's not. But the point being is at this point, everything changes with the Church.
[00:14:34] The liberty they've had to meet in the Temple. The fact that they are viewed as just another sect of Judaism is over.
[00:14:43] Is over.
[00:14:48] And what happens as a result of this persecution, this great persecution that is perpetuated because of what happens with Stephen? In other words, they're emboldened because you know what Stephen did, stephen stated without any ambiguity just exactly what these people believed.
[00:15:08] You know what? All of a sudden the leaders realized. Now the leaders had interviewed and questioned and interrogated Peter and John. But now you have another one who's not one of the apostles who was with Jesus. Now he's talking about it. And now he's talking about how that again, they're accusing the Jews of murder, right?
[00:15:34] And they've had enough.
[00:15:38] And so what this is going to do is it's going to drive a huge wedge, which is a good thing between Judaism and Christianity at this point, is when that division starts to get very clear.
[00:15:53] You know what the impetus to that is? Persecution.
[00:15:57] Persecution. Now, this persecution is different than the persecutions that we've already read previously in the earlier part of Acts.
[00:16:09] Now think about how it's different.
[00:16:11] Previously, the persecutions targeted certain individuals, mainly the leaders, you remember, who was hauled in on the very first one? It was Peter. Right? Peter was hauled in and Peter was jailed. And then after Peter was released and he went out and they kept preaching, then it was Peter and John. They arrested all of the apostles. And then after that it was so. But these are kind of the leaders. These are just individuals. Not people en masse, but just individuals. But now, as we see in verse number one, and at that time, there's a great persecution against the Church, which is at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad. You see this now? It's affecting everybody.
[00:16:59] Verse number three, saul made havoc of the Church, entering into every house, hailing men and women, committed them to prison.
[00:17:08] These are not the leaders at this point. They are targeting all of the disciples.
[00:17:14] Okay? That's one way it's different. Second way it's different is the intention of the persecutions earlier with Peter and John and the apostles was to shut the mouths of the preachers.
[00:17:29] It was to shut the mouths of the preachers. Remember, they commanded them. They forbid them from speaking. But notice nobody's saying a word about the fact that there's huge groups of people in the temple that are being taught. Nobody's saying a word about that.
[00:17:43] The fact that there were people that believed in Christ, there was this sect of people this way, that wasn't the issue. The issue was that Peter and John were telling other people, other Jews, about Jesus and his resurrection.
[00:18:02] They were not happy with that.
[00:18:04] But now these persecutors are targeting everybody who believes it. At first, they wanted to get the people who were talking about it, spreading it. Now they're targeting people who believe it. You see, that's different.
[00:18:21] Another way it's different.
[00:18:23] The persecutions concentrated on those who boldly made themselves known because of their witness.
[00:18:33] All right?
[00:18:35] In other words, the Peters and the James's and the Johns and the Apostles and the Stephen's, they're actually going out trying to witness, trying to win people actively they have FaceTime. They're going out in public. They're seeking out opportunities to tell people about Jesus. But these people we read in verse number three, who are being literally the word hail means to be dragged. They're being drugged from their house. These people are not people. They've gone out and tried to witness. You know what they're doing? They're just believing in Jesus in their home.
[00:19:09] The persecutors are actively seeking out Christians.
[00:19:14] They're not just getting the ones that are out front, they're actively seeking them out and rooting them out wherever they can find them.
[00:19:23] And the last way that it's different is previously, the previous persecutions, we've read the persecution was mainly defensive.
[00:19:32] But now the persecutors are being offensive.
[00:19:36] They're intentionally and deliberately going after the church. Now, what did this persecution entail?
[00:19:44] The Bible uses the term verse three havoc. Havoc. And something I've read, I have no idea if this is entirely true, but it refers to the way an animal would go after prey.
[00:19:56] But definitely what's in this word is the word spoil, destroy. And so what's happening is don't just pass over verse three. Let's read it one more time, but I want you to pay attention what's happening. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house and hailing men and women, committed them to prison. Who lives in a house?
[00:20:21] Families.
[00:20:22] And who is he arresting?
[00:20:27] Men and women.
[00:20:29] What's happening to their kids?
[00:20:36] Husbands and wives are being separated, right?
[00:20:41] Kids are being left without somebody to care for them, except someone comes and maybe takes care of them. In the meantime, there's an indication here with the word that related this word havoc, related to the word spoil means their property is being confiscated.
[00:20:56] Paul later talks about these people being imprisoned. That's what this verse says, being in prison. But not only prison, some of them were beaten.
[00:21:07] Paul talks about how he compelled them to blaspheme. In other words, he wanted them to say that Jesus had not risen, that it was all a fraud, it was all a fake.
[00:21:21] And lastly, he said he gave his voice against them when they were put to death. They were beaten publicly, shamed, and then finally, they were put to death. Stephen is not the only one. We don't know that at this point. We know stephen, as far as we know, is the first, but he's not the last.
[00:21:39] Paul is responsible for others being put to death and many scores of them being put in prison.
[00:21:46] This is the nature of this persecution. This persecution, unlike the others, was a persecution against the Church. Not just the apostles, not just the leaders, not just the speakers, not just the people witnessing, but everyone.
[00:22:03] Now, what did they do in verse number one? What did they do as a result of this persecution?
[00:22:09] Just like any of us would do. Let's not be too high and mighty, right?
[00:22:14] What would you do if you knew you were being hunted down because you were a believer in Christ, not because you did anything, not because you're out on the street preaching, not because you're passing out a Gospel tract, nothing like that. What would you do if you knew they were looking for you and they were going to put you in jail or worse? What would you do?
[00:22:33] You would leave.
[00:22:35] You know what?
[00:22:37] There would be nothing unbiblical about that. Here's why Jesus said this in Matthew 1023. Now, I'll admit that this context is referring to the last days before Jesus returns what I'm about to read. But the disciples didn't know that at the time he spoke it. The timeline of all that wasn't clear.
[00:22:59] So it makes perfect sense why they scatter.
[00:23:02] Jesus said, but when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another, for verily I say unto you, you shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of man become so. The Lord said himself, when they persecute you, go to another place. And so that's exactly what they did. And now, I'll be honest, that's what I would do if you were tasked with taking care of your family and your wife, your husband, your children, and you didn't want all your property confiscated. Listen, none of us are all that spiritual, right?
[00:23:37] We try to hold our things lightly, but none of us want to see our property taken away and our bank account emptied. Nowadays, it's high tech.
[00:23:45] They'll just click a few buttons, and your balance on your bank account goes to zero.
[00:23:51] But the principle is the same.
[00:23:54] They scattered.
[00:23:57] Now, as I said before in verse number three, as for Saul, he made havoc of the Church, entering into every house, hailing men and women. Now, as I said before, unlike the apostles and Stephen, the persecutors are not targeting merely those who are out in front preaching the word of God to the people.
[00:24:15] They're entering into private homes and arresting Christians only because they believe in Christ. That is it.
[00:24:24] They're not doing anything wrong. They're not breaking any laws other than their faith.
[00:24:30] They're not even sharing their faith. They're just in their house.
[00:24:37] Not what they're doing is making them the target, but what they believe is making them the target. And even in their private home faith, private faith was not permitted. It became difficult for these people to be private Christians.
[00:24:56] Now, let me pause here a second.
[00:25:01] What does it mean to be a private Christian?
[00:25:06] That is what I mean by that is a private Christian is a believer in Christ, who is only a believer in Christ in his house.
[00:25:14] And that faith doesn't spill out outside of his house such that other people know that he is a believer in Christ. He keeps it very close.
[00:25:29] Private Christians are an know you have the Josephs of Arimathea, right, who was a private Christian. He didn't want to let everybody know he believed in Jesus. There were others, but they were not the rule. They were the exception. And to be honest, have you not read about those people who did not confess Christ openly for fear they'd be put out of the synagogue or whatever? Does you not walk away from those passages when you read them in your Bible and you just scratch your head like, well, did they really believe in Christ? Sometimes I wonder.
[00:26:06] But we'll talk about private Christians a little more in just a minute. But notice hold your place here and let's look at a couple other things because I want to mention something from chapter eight, verse three. Look at chapter five, verse 14.
[00:26:29] We covered this before, but the apostles did many signs in verse twelve and 13. And verse 14 says and believers were the more added to the Lord multitudes, both of men and women. You notice often the Bible does not mention women specifically.
[00:26:51] It says men, but it includes both genders here it actually differentiates them. Look at chapter, chapter eight, verse three of Acts.
[00:27:05] As for Saul, he made havoc of the church entering into every house inhaling men and women, committed them to prison. You notice that. Look at chapter eight, verse number twelve.
[00:27:21] But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. We talked about that back in Acts, chapter five, how that a man and his faith does not represent the faith of his wife.
[00:27:39] A woman must believe in a family. Children must believe in Christ themselves. That's what this is showing.
[00:27:46] All right, one more. I'm sorry, two more. Chapter nine, verse two.
[00:27:52] This is what I want you to see.
[00:27:58] Saul is going out trying to persecute the church. He desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if they found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. Chapter 22. Look at that, if you would.
[00:28:21] Chapter 22, verse number four. Paul's, now a believer, verse four says, and I persecuted this way. There it is again, unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both what does it say?
[00:28:38] Men and women.
[00:28:40] I'll mention more about that in a second. But there's a reason, I think, why the Lord mentions that both genders.
[00:28:50] Now, if you would go back to eight, verse number four. I'm going somewhere with this, I promise.
[00:28:59] So you have these in chapter eight, verse one, you have these Christians are scattering because they don't want to go to jail, they don't want their property confiscated, they don't want their family separated, and they definitely don't want to die at the hands of a persecutor like Stephen did. Now, we give honor, we tip our hat to Stephen, but if there's any way we can avoid it, we're going to avoid it. I mean, that's kind of the mo for believers throughout history.
[00:29:27] If I'm in a position where I have no choice either to recant or to die, then I hope that I'd be willing to die. But if there's any way, any other third option, I'll probably choose that one. Let's just be honest. In fact, I read a quote, it was by Charles Spurgeon, but he was quoting, it was a historian covering one of the English martyrs who actually recanted like he was tied to the stake, getting ready to be burned. They lit the fire, and under that pressure, he yelled out, I recant, I recant.
[00:30:07] Those kinds of things did happen.
[00:30:10] And just a couple of weeks later, he was burned at the state and he didn't recant. So he recanted of his recantation, I guess that's what you call it. But as that illustrates, there's a great deal of pressure, and if there's any way to get out of it, the tendency is to do that. And we all understand that. Verse number four.
[00:30:33] Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.
[00:30:39] So up to this point in Acts, the main people that are speaking the word of God that we know of were Peter and John and the apostles and Stephen. And of course, we see little hints here and there of other people that are sharing the Gospel. You know, that's happening. But as far as directly covered, it's just these few, the apostles are the ones whose words are recorded and who bore the entirety of the persecution. You include Stephen in that.
[00:31:10] And what we also see is that the apostles were also staying in Jerusalem. They didn't leave, they didn't scatter. They were the ones being targeted mostly, but they stayed in Jerusalem. What's interesting is in the great commission which the Lord gave, we study that the Lord gave to the eleven apostles, right? He gave it to the eleven. Judas has already died. He gave it to the eleven, and he says, go you therefore and teach all nations. He says, Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He tells them to be witnesses unto the ends of the earth. In Acts chapter one. So this is what the Lord says to the Eleven. But here the Church is scattering and the apostles are staying.
[00:31:47] Now that tells us something. How the apostles understood the Great Commission, it wasn't just for them.
[00:31:54] It had a much broader meaning. When the Lord told the apostles to go and preach the Gospel to every creature, to be witnesses and disciple the nations, that wasn't just for the Eleven, it was for the whole Church.
[00:32:10] And here the Lord gives them a little nudge.
[00:32:16] Now, verse number one says, there was a great persecution against the Church which was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered. Notice that they were all scattered. Now this doesn't necessarily mean every single individual except the Twelve, but it just means that the Church by and large was scattered abroad. They did not stay in Jerusalem because they're being hunted.
[00:32:45] And we also see in verse number one at the end that the apostles were still in Jerusalem. All right, now I'm not trying to insult your intelligence, but I just want to ask you who is leaving Jerusalem and going to different places, the preachers or the common Christians?
[00:33:04] I use the common Christian in the best possible light. In other words, not the apostles. The common Christians are scattered. So you get to verse four. Look what it says.
[00:33:13] Therefore they that were scattered stop.
[00:33:16] Who is this?
[00:33:19] These are the common Christians.
[00:33:22] These aren't the preachers and the apostles. This is really not even the leaders of the Church. Now, were there leaders among them? Probably.
[00:33:29] But these are just the ones who were scattered in verse four were the same ones being persecuted in verse one. They're just regular people, people that in their house were believing in Jesus. They were doing nothing more than that.
[00:33:47] But it says in verse four, they were scattered abroad, went everywhere, preaching the word. I love this word, preaching. You know why? Because the next verse, verse five, also uses the word preach, does it not? What does it say? Philip preached Christ unto them. That word is the word proclaim. It means proclaim. But the word in verse four means it actually is the verb of the word Gospel to Gospel someone.
[00:34:16] What word do we use when we're saying we're going to gospel somebody?
[00:34:21] We say witness.
[00:34:24] The technical word is evangelize because the word Gospel comes from the word evangelist or evangelize or evangelism, that's the word. So we say we're going to evangelize. We're going to do evangelism. What we're saying is we're going to preach the Gospel to people. We're going to give them the Gospel. That doesn't necessarily mean we do it loud or quiet. It just means we're going to convey the information of. The gospel and call them to repent and believe the gospel. That's what that means. It's very simple. But in verse four, who is doing that?
[00:34:56] The common Christians, because the preachers are in Jerusalem.
[00:35:04] See it, you know what it was? Because, let me just say it like this it was no longer largely the disciples doing the preaching.
[00:35:19] It was the mass, the disciples in the Twelve, it was the mass of the disciples, the church.
[00:35:28] They were the ones doing the preaching in verse four.
[00:35:31] And it was because of this we might call it scatter preaching.
[00:35:36] Now again, when I say the word preach we're not talking about standing on the pulpit bringing a sermon. That's not what we're talking about preaching the gospel. Evangelism can be what Brother Lester does sometimes when he's at work, when he has opportunity to talk to someone who's maybe troubled or has questions or whatnot and he just sits down with him and talks to him. That is what we're talking about. That's preaching the gospel, this scattered preaching of the Word of God because all of the individual disciples, the mass of the church, all those thousands of people were scattered abroad.
[00:36:20] It caused the Word of God to begin to spread very quickly geographically much more quickly than it could have spread if only the main speakers, the group of twelve that were still in Jerusalem, only if they had gone out. So what's happening here is the Word of God is spreading kind of as a byproduct of them just trying to get out of the persecution and notice wherever the disciples went. Again, we're not talking about the Twelve, we're talking about the whole church. We're talking about the men and the women.
[00:36:59] Wherever the disciples went, the Word of God went.
[00:37:04] Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. You know why? Because the Word of God and the gospel is attached to you, Sister Pam. It's attached to you with a pete. It's attached to you, Sister Sherry, same to you. The Word of God and the gospel is attached to every single Christian. We carry it, we believe it, it's in our heart. We have the Spirit who is its author.
[00:37:30] It goes where we go.
[00:37:33] The question is, are we going to open our mouth to tell other people about it?
[00:37:40] The question is, am I going to open my mouth and tell other people about it?
[00:37:45] The gospel never goes where God's people do not take it.
[00:37:55] Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.
[00:37:59] Wherever the Christians went, the gospel went.
[00:38:04] This is God's plan and his intention.
[00:38:09] Therefore we understand that evangelism and gospel preaching was never intended by God to be a work only for the gifted, those who had special ability.
[00:38:23] It is in every Christian work. That's what's happening in verse four.
[00:38:29] All the Christians are leaving Jerusalem and going to various places to escape the persecution and with them the Gospel is going to because they are obeying what the Lord said and telling people about Jesus.
[00:38:47] You go down to chapter same chapter I'm sorry, chapter eleven. Look at chapter eleven real quick. Verse 19. I'm almost finished.
[00:38:55] Hang in there, hang in there.
[00:38:59] Chapter eleven, verse number 19.
[00:39:04] Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen stop. Who are these?
[00:39:12] These are the apostles, right? The preachers.
[00:39:16] Who are they? These are just the regular disciples, the, the people in church. We call it the Church members.
[00:39:23] They traveled as far as Phonic and Cyprus and Antioch, uhoh, preaching the word of God to none but the Jews only notice they're preaching. We see this as well. Common disciples, verse 20. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the grecians. We know who they are preaching, the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them. And a great number believed and turned to the Lord who is responsible. This is not the preachers, this is you, every single one of you telling somebody else about Jesus. That's what caused this.
[00:40:01] And the Church as a result of that. The Christian was carried by the wind. Somebody said that persecution is to the Gospel what the wind is to a seed. It just blows it out further, because wherever that persecuted Christian goes, the Gospel goes with them because they're obeying the Lord and they're telling their neighbor about Jesus. And as a direct result of the common Christians giving the word of God and giving the Gospel to their neighbors and their loved ones and their coworkers and those people they know, you know what happened? The Church of Antioch was started. And the Church of Antioch, just like Jerusalem is to the first seven chapters of Acts, the center of Christianity, the Church of Antioch becomes the center of Christianity for the rest of the Book of Acts and for the whole missionary enterprise of Paul. He was a part of the Church of Antioch which sent him out in Acts 13. That was all because people like you took the Gospel, not the preachers, not the Evangelists, the common disciples.
[00:41:13] So I just want to remind you of a couple of things about this being a common Christian.
[00:41:19] Persecution was carried out on the common Christian.
[00:41:24] The faith of the common individual Christian in the home was tested.
[00:41:32] The evangelism was done by the common Christian.
[00:41:36] And so therefore the common Christians were not spectators, they were active participants.
[00:41:52] This is the whole reason the Gospel spread, had nothing to do with the preachers, had to do with the Christians.
[00:42:00] You remember I talked about how men and women were persecuted. You know, those women, Saul Tarsus, he might have went into a house where they had a man and a woman. The man wasn't a believer, he was just a regular Jew. And then you had maybe the lady had believed in Christ at one of those meetings.
[00:42:19] It was the lady who was drug out.
[00:42:23] You know what, these ladies, these women that were specifically targeted to be persecuted, separated from their husbands, had to give an account of their own individual faith in Christ separate from their husbands.
[00:42:43] You know what? You also see these same ladies, these same individuals, these same common disciples spreading the gospel in verse four. I'll tell you something, ladies.
[00:42:52] Just as the common disciples went and spread the word of God and told their neighbors, listen, you have an opportunity as a woman to get the gospel to people that men can't approach.
[00:43:09] Men can't approach. There are certain people I just can't approach. I'm not going to hand them a gospel track, maybe, but I have no way. Like, let me give you an example. A woman my age, around my age, twenty s. Thirty s. Forty s, something like that.
[00:43:24] I don't get into close conversations with people like that, even about the gospel. I just don't do it out of deference for my wife. But you know what? I expect you ladies to and there's some men that you can't approach because a woman of similar age approaches a man, he can't think straight.
[00:43:48] So it's our job, men, to tell those here's the thing, ladies. You have a niche in evangelism that men can't touch.
[00:43:57] Same thing with the kids.
[00:44:00] This is why God wants the common Christians to be involved in this work, spreading the word. That's what we see, women included. You see, when you divide up the Christians to every little, small segment and division, well, you're including every individual, young, old, rich, poor, man, woman, whatever.
[00:44:22] Every one of us has a sphere. Every one of us has a bubble in which we live. And there are people in that bubble, in that sphere that I'll never meet, that I'll never know, I'll never interact with. But you do. And the Lord expects you and me to influence those people for the gospel and to give them the gospel. God help us to do it and not be neglectful.
[00:44:49] God help us to be like one of these Christians here that wherever they went, the gospel went.
[00:44:55] So I want to challenge you.
[00:44:58] What I'm saying here has nothing to do with trying to get people to come to our church. Do I want our church to grow? Of course. Right? Of course. Do I pray to that end? Yes, of course. But they had no church to invite people to come to.
[00:45:12] They were the church, and they were being scattered abroad like seed in the wind. There was no chick. Don't come to our church in Jerusalem. We're being persecuted.
[00:45:20] No, they're scattered.
[00:45:23] So this has nothing to do with our church, choice Hills Baptist Church. This has everything to do with the Lord wants us to do so. I want to challenge you.
[00:45:32] This week.
[00:45:35] Be a common disciple.
[00:45:38] I'm talking to me too. Be a common disciple. Get you a handful of gospel tracks, get you five or ten and take a gospel track. And in that circle of people that you know and see, you take that gospel track and you look at that person in the eye and you say, this is about Jesus and about how you can have eternal life, look them in the eyeball and say, would you please read this?
[00:46:10] But even better than that is using the gospel tract as only an aid.
[00:46:17] You actually talk to them about Jesus. Listen, our church's theme this year and what's been in my mind is edify and multiply. Look at what's happening.
[00:46:29] Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere, preaching the word. You know what's happening? The word of God is spreading.
[00:46:36] The gospel is multiplying. People are being saved. We read it in Acts Eleven, remember, just as a reminder, look what it says. Acts Eleven. And the hand of the Lord in Antioch was with them, and a great number believed. Wouldn't we love to see that here? Wouldn't we love to see a great number pass through the waters of baptism not for salvation, but as a testimony of their faith? Yes, but you know why that happened there? It's because all of these little common believers were telling people about Jesus wherever they went. So I want to challenge you.
[00:47:10] I want to challenge you to resolve to do that. Set a goal, set a number.
[00:47:16] Even if you feel uncomfortable doing it, resolve to do it. Well, I've never been good at I just don't know what to say. Listen, that's why you have these. These can help open that conversation. Well, nobody's ever I mean, I haven't really told people, now's the time.
[00:47:34] This is what multiply means.
[00:47:38] This is what multiply means. This is my challenge to you to be a first century Christian.
[00:47:46] Let's pray.
