GOOD NEWS – BAD NEWS FOR THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST
Acts 8:1-4
Dorn Ridge Church Of Christ, September 07, 2014
INTRODUCTION:
1.) The story has been told of a man waking up in the hospital after a car accident.
A.) As the man gains consciousness, his doctor says to him, I have good news and bad news for you.
B.) The man asks to be given the bad news first.
C.) His doctor replies your injuries were very severe. We had to amputate both of your legs.
D.) The man in the bed replies if that is the bad news what then is there for good news?
E.) The doctor responded “The man in the next bed wants to buy your shoes.”
2.) It is very rarely I would ever use a joke in the pulpit, and perhaps even more rare that I would open a sermon with a joke.
3.) But this morning I have chosen to do so because the situation in our text today though neither trivial nor funny is like some of the jokes a matter of good news and of bad news for the Church of Jesus Christ.
4.) It is a scene where the church had to face some bad news, and the bad news was replaced with even worse news, and from this downward spiral of events, God brought about His good news.
I. BAD NEWS FOR THE CHURCH.
1.) Stephen had been put to death.
A.) Last week in the Word of God, we looked at the scene as Stephen preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
B.) As Stephen preached to this Jewish Synagogue, he tried to convict them of their need for Jesus Christ.
ba.) Sadly, not only was he preaching to an audience that was spiritually dead, he was also speaking to an audience that was very hostile to the message of salvation in Jesus Christ.
C.) Instead of coming to repentance, and a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, his audience turned on him, dragged him from the city, and stoned him to death.
ca.) I want to tell you that Stephen was a man well respected within the church.
cb.) The Scripture does not say on the effects of Stephen’s death, but we can be sure that it shook up the church.
cc.) I suspect that many felt this news was as bad as it could get.
cda.) Yet as bad as this news was for the church, this was the birth pains of even:
II. WORSE NEWS FOR THE CHURCH.
1.) On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem.
A.) Acts 8:1
B.) I want you to notice the location that Luke includes for this persecution.
Luke tells us that this all happened in Jerusalem.
ba.) As I had stated a few weeks ago, the church was by this time probably about seven years old.
bb.) Under the former Jewish dispensation, Jerusalem had been both the political as well as the religious capital.
bc.) As these events were unfolding, the temple was still in Jerusalem, and the sacrifices were still being carried out there each and every day for about another 30-35 years.
C.) Just as the Jewish system had been primarily focussed in Jerusalem, so also for the first few years of the church, the church had remained an entirely Jewish organization.
ca.) Not only did the church remain a Jewish organization, but it also remained one which like the temple was only in the city of Jerusalem.
D.) The death of Stephen was a major turning point for the early church.
da.) Under the direction of a Pharisee we know as “Saul of Tarsus” the Jewish religion began an all-out assault against the Church of Jesus Christ.
db.) Saul’s persecution was no small attack on the church.
dc.) It was an extremely painful attack on the church.
dca.) Perhaps the American civil war in the United States can give us some idea as to how and why this attack on the church was so painful and
devastating.
dbc.) As in the American Civil war the fighting was with brothers, and cousins, and in some instances even fathers and sons were on opposite sides of the battle lines.
dbd.) In the same way, this persecution on the church was being carried out by family members, and relations, of those within the church.
dd.) The attack on the church was coming from people the church had worshipped with; it was from men who had been well known and respected by those who were now in the church.
dda.) Some of these had even been spiritual mentors in earlier days.
de.) The only thing that had changed between the two groups was the acknowledgement of Jesus as the Christ of God.
df.) Those who were attacking the church had not come to place their faith in Jesus as the Messiah or Christ that God had promised for them.
2.) All except the apostles were scattered.
A.) The church had by this time grown to several thousand people.
aa.) God’s Word does not record for us the number of Christians, nor the size of the church in the city of Jerusalem, but it was definitely in the thousands or even tens of thousands of people.
acb.) When I think of this, it really blows my mind to consider that this persecution was so intense that the entire population of Christians except for the Apostles had to desert this city.
acc.) Later on, even the Apostles would also have to leave the city of Jerusalem and go elsewhere.
3.) The death of Stephen changed the acceptance level for the church.
A.) At first the church was allowed and tolerated.
B.) Later the church was persecuted by the Jews.
C.) Now with the death of Stephen persecution from the Jews intensified to the place of desiring the total annihilation of the church of Jesus Christ.
D.) Saul of Tarsus appears to have been the one in charge of the murder of Stephen.
da.) This Pharisee of the Pharisees now takes his aim on wiping out the name of Jesus Christ, and Christ’s church from the face of the earth.
4.) Saul began to destroy the church.
A.) Acts 8:3
aa.) The Greek word that is used here is spelled almost identically to our English word “Eliminate”
ab.) I think that is an important notation to make.
ac.) What that is saying is that Saul of Tarsus was not content to just make it difficult for anyone to worship Jesus Christ.
ad.) Instead, Saul’s goal was to so devastate the church and Christianity, that the name of Jesus Christ would be completely removed from the face of the earth.
B.) He went from house to house.
ba.) Acts 8:3
bb.) Saul was not content to just go to the churches and persecute and arrest the Christians.
bba.) I suspect that Saul would have begun his persecution in the churches, but from there he made it his personal goal to go even into personal homes to arrest the Christians.
bbb.) The circumstances may not be identical, but the best comparison I can think of to compare with this attack on the church of Jesus Christ, was Adolph Hitler and in trying to abolish Judaism from this earth.
bbc.) It was with that same kind of determination that Saul of Tarsus had decided to abolish Christianity from the planet.
C.) He dragged off men and women and put them in prison.
ca.) This is not just a casual detail that Luke is adding for us.
cb.) Luke is giving us a specific detail to show us the intensity of Saul’s persecution of the church.
cba.) It might have been normal to have gone after the men, but when Saul also arrested the women for their faith in Jesus Christ it is showing that he went beyond the normal efforts to abolish the Christian faith.
cbb.) By his own confession Saul had persecuted Christians both men and women, even to the point of death.
.01) Acts 22:4
.02) Saul had respect for neither age nor sex but treated all who bore the name of Christ with severity, and without mercy.
D.)We are all familiar with the words of Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
da.) This is certainly a verse of Scripture that applies to our text today.
db.) The verse does not tell us that God necessarily brings good things (at least in this life) for those who love him and are called according to his purpose, but that God can use even the worst things in our lives to accomplish the good he wants to develop.
dba.) In the first century church in Jerusalem, life could not have gotten much worse.
dbb.) If Christianity was being driven from such a sacred and Godly city as Jerusalem, many must have wondered if the church could or would survive anywhere.
dbc.) It was truly a dark and hopeless time for the church and for the Christian faith.
E.) But as I come to my third point we will see that:
III. GOD TURNS THE BAD NEWS INTO GOOD NEWS FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
1.) Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.
A.) Acts 8:4
B.) Who did the preaching?
ba.) Up to this point the Apostles may have been the primary spokesmen and preachers for the church.
bb.) Certainly there were others proclaiming the Word of God, but the Apostles remained the primary witnesses for Jesus Christ.
bc.) This was not the Apostles doing this preaching.
bd.) Those in this passage proclaiming the death burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ were not the Apostles.
be.) The Apostles were still in Jerusalem; this preaching was going on in Judea and Samaria.
bf.) It was those whom were scattered by the persecution doing the preaching.
bfa.) This may not necessarily have even been preaching as we would think of it.
bfb.) In fact the Word that is used here can be literally translated as “evangelizing” which might actually carry a more accurate understanding of the passage than preaching.
bfc.) Some may have been preaching as we would think of, but many were just sharing the message of Jesus Christ with those they met.
bfd.) Many were not trained preachers but rather everyday people telling their neighbours what Jesus Christ had done for them and in their lives.
C.) I want you to notice where this was taking place.
ca.) Look again to Acts 8:1
cb.) They were going to Judea, and to Samaria.
cba.) Perhaps this was a natural progression.
cc.) Once the church was driven from the city of Jerusalem it was natural to move into the province of Judea where the city of Jerusalem was situated.
cd.) As the heat of persecution became too great in Judea they went on from there to Samaria.
cda.) Samaria was made up of Jewish people whose lives had become united with the Gentile peoples.
cdb.) Like the Christians, the Samaritans were hated by the Jewish people, but there was still a common thread between the two groups.
cdc.) Samaria could also offer the church a bit of refuge as the Jewish people would not even walk through Samaria if they could help it.
cdd.) There is something even more remarkable about where they went, and the preaching of the gospel in these towns.
.01) About seven years earlier Jesus Christ had commanded the church to go into all the world preaching the gospel beginning in these specific geographical areas.
2.) The commandment to Go into all the world begins to happen.
A.) Acts 1:8
B.) God had to use the evil of persecution to bring the church to honour his word.
ba.)The church had clearly been ordered by Jesus Christ to go into the world with the Gospel of Christ.
bb.) For around seven years the church had grown and flourished in the city of Jerusalem, but had been very complacent and happy to keep the church in Jerusalem.
bc.) It was not until persecution had virtually closed down the church in Jerusalem, that the people of God were willing to obey and follow the command of God in this Great Commission.
CONCLUSION:
1.) As I close today, I want us to remember what happened in Jerusalem.
A.) Jerusalem had come to the place in which the church and the message of Jesus Christ were being rejected.
2.) The message in these first few verses of Acts 8 is a message the church needs to take serious today.
A.) We are rapidly coming to the place where the church and the Christian faith are losing acceptance more and more in Canada and the United States.
B.) In an era when the church seems to be more bad news than good news we need to remember the power and presence of God are still present.
3.) We have before us the same challenge as the Apostles of taking the message of Jesus Christ to the world, that same challenge is here for the church today.
4.) I pray that our love for Jesus Christ will motivate us to share that message of Christ with the world around us.
