Huddle and Scatter
Acts Series
Chuck Sligh
May 31, 2015
(Adapted from a sermon by John Hamby titled “Gathered but Not Scattered” found on SermonCentral.)
TEXT: Turn to Acts 8
INTRODUCTION
Quotation – I want to read you something by way of introduction, by Tony Evans in a sermon titled “The Power of God’s People”:
In football they have a huddle. The goal of the huddle is to give you thirty seconds to call the play…. [At a professional…game there may be] sixty thousand people watching you huddle. They don’t mind you taking thirty seconds to call the play. They understand that you have to get organized; you have to know where you are going to go; the ends need to know where they are going…; the quarterback needs to know where he is going…; the backs need to know where they are going…. A huddle is a necessary part of playing the game.
But let me inform you if you do not already know: sixty thousand people do not pay $20 a ticket to watch you huddle (now it costs about $50 to $100). They want to see if their team can overcome the opposition who is daring them to snap the ball and move down the field to score. What they want to know is does your practice work?
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 great 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.” (Dr. Tony Evans. “The Power of God’s People.” Sermon, 1987 – Church Growth Conference, Prestonwood Baptist Church, Dallas, TX)
Now let’s read our text in Acts 8:1-4 – “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 Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. 3 As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison. 4 Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.”
We saw last week that Stephen was stoned to death by the Jewish religious leaders. In turn, Stephen’s death snowballed into a massive persecution of the entire church at Jerusalem, which we just read about in our text. This intense persecution against the church caused the saints to scatter. Things began getting really bad for the church.
Luke, the author of Acts, introduces Saul as the person leading the persecution of the church. Verse 3 says that Saul began to “make havoc” of the church, a phrase that literally means “to ravage” and was used of wild boars that ravaged or destroyed a vineyard. (John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, eds., The Bible Knowledge Commentary, Vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), p. 372.)
So great was Saul’s hatred against Christians, that he was wildly raging against them. He stormed the homes of believers, breaking down doors, fiercely seeking every believer in every house, verse 3 tells us. He arrested all he could find, “haling them”—which means constraining or dragging them—using whatever force necessary to arrest and subdue them.
Saul, whom we later know as the Apostle Paul, continued making trouble for the church until God abruptly arrested his attention!
As we consider this event in Bible history, I’d like us to consider two things from this passage:
I. FIRST, THE HUDDLING OF THE DISCIPLES WAS TO OBTAIN POWER
As the text begins, we find the church still located in Jerusalem. God had done a great work there, and many thousands had come to Christ. They were carrying out the Great Commission in a limited way—BUT THEY WERE STILL IN JERUSALEM! In other words, they were still in the huddle.
In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus had commanded, “Go ye therefore, and teach [or “make disciples in”] ALL NATIONS, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you…”
First though, Jesus instructed the disciples to wait on the coming of the Holy Spirit. He said in Luke 24:49 – “And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”
The disciples were to stay in Jerusalem until they had received the power of the Holy Spirit, but then they were to go out and carry out Christ’s Great Commandment. Jesus had promised in Acts 1:8 – “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
The problem was that they had not moved out from Jerusalem. The apostles were comfortable staying right where they were.
You know, sometimes God has to nudge us in strong ways to move us into the place of service where He wants us. If necessary, He’ll push us out of our comfortable surroundings to accomplish His purpose through us.
I want you to know something…
• My German friends, you that you are not here just because you were born here. – GOD, in His sovereignty put you here in this country and this town!
• You soldiers and soldier families—you’re not here just because of Uncle Sam. – Listen, GOD cut your orders!
• Those of you not in the military, but not from here, I want you to understand that you’re not here just because of a job decision. – GOD put you here!
Now what are you here for? Well, we’re to gather together and huddle as believers, for one thing. The problem is that too many of us love getting into the huddle of fellowship and worship in God’s house, but forget that the purpose of the huddle is to get power to go out on God’s playing field and win the game for Christ!
Jesus said of believers in Matthew 5:13 – “Ye are the salt of the earth…,” but if the salt stays in the salt shaker, what good is it?
When this persecution began, it looked awfully bad, but God was able to turn evil into good, causing the saltshaker to spread the salt outside the confines of Jerusalem. The devil meant the persecution to be like water that would extinguish the fire, but God used it as gas to fuel the spread of the fire.
The early church father, Tertullian, said, “Kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to dust. The more you mow us down, the more we grow, for the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Every single drop of our blood springs up, in some thirty fold, in some sixty and in some an hundred fold.”
Illus. – A modern parallel of this is what happened in 1949 in China when the Communists defeated the National Government. 637 China Inland Mission missionaries had to leave the country. At the time, it looked like a catastrophic setback for missions.
Yet within four years, 286 of these missionaries had been redeployed to Southeast Asia and Japan, while the national Christians in China, even under severe persecution, began to multiply at an incredible rate. In fact, now there are hundreds of times the number of believers in China than there were when the missionaries left in 1949.
When God shook the salt shaker all over the Far East, instead of there being a disproportionate concentration of missionaries in China, they were able to be far more effective in spreading the Gospel over a wider area than before! (John Stott. The Spirit, The Church and The World: The Message of Acts. [Downers Grove, ILL: InterVarsity Press, 1990.] p. 146.)
And folks, here in our church we can’t stay in the huddle; we’ve got to scatter. If we don’t, God might find His own ways to shake us out of the saltshaker.
II. NOTE SECOND THAT THE SCATTERING WAS TO PROCLAIM THE WORD.
Twice, both in verses 1 and 3, we’re told that the believers scattered. Do you think God might have had a reason for allowing the scattering?
Object Lesson – Here’s a packet of flower seeds. (HOLD UP PACKET.) Look at the picture on the package. Well, you can’t see from back there, but they’re pretty flowers.
I love the colors on these particular flowers because they’re beautiful. Well let’s look inside the packet (LOOK INSIDE PACKAGE)—Oh NO!!!—There are no flowers in here!
You say, “Chuck, you silly goose, you don’t get flowers from a packet of seeds! You have to spread them out in the garden. They’re useless inside the package.”
In His parable of the sower, Jesus said “a sower went out to sow,” and then he described how the seed fell on four types of soil, When explaining the meaning of the parable to His disciples, Jesus said, “The seed is the Word of God” (Luke 8:11).
Now do you see what I’m driving at? It’s great to huddle around God’s holy, precious Word in CHURCH. It’s good to gather around God’s Word in FAMILY DEVOTIONS. But we can’t leave God’s Word huddled up at church or at home. We’ve got to get it out and plant it out there in the workplace, in our neighborhoods, with our lost family members.
Yes, we ought to huddle with believers in the house of God to worship, pray, pursue a relationship with God, hear God’s Word preached, and observe the ordinances. But never forget that one of the main purposes of the huddling is to get strength to get out to sow the seed of God’s Word.
Now in Acts 8, I’d like to note three observations about this scattering of believers:
• First, when scattered, these disciples did not AGONIZE.
Those who were scattered had to decide whether they would simply be REFUGEES, or whether they would be MISSIONARIES.
> Refugees are constantly focused on where they came from.
They agonize about returning to the “home country.” They’re afraid to go BACK, and afraid to go FORWARD; afraid of the PAST and afraid of the FUTURE. The life of the refugee is ruled by fear.
> But JOY governs the MISSIONARY’S life and he looks at his life—even “bad” things—simply as new opportunities to share Christ.
God wants you to be a missionary in this world, NOT a refugee! Verse 1 says, “…and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria.”
There are two Greek words that can be translated “scattered.” The first means “dispersed so that the item is gone from that point on”—like the scattering of a person’s ashes in the ocean.
That’s not the word used here. The Greek word for “scattered” here is an agricultural term used of a farmer scattering seed—scattered, but also PLANTED.
Verse 4 says, “Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.”
What the scattering did was plant seeds wherever they landed.
Is that true of you? Wherever you find yourself—whether scattered by work or family or education or some other circumstance—have you considered yourself planted in that place?—planted by God for a purpose? Have you put down roots and borne fruit for Jesus Christ? That’s what these early Christians did.
You, like these Christians in Acts, may find yourself in a place you never wanted to be in, and you too have a choice: Choose to be a refugees—wishing for the past and living in fear of the future…or choose to be a missionary—with eyes open for new opportunities God is giving you.
When these disciples were scattered, they didn’t agonize.
• Second, when they were scattered, they did not CRITICIZE.
They could have criticized Stephen. They could have said, “This is all Stephen fault. He should have known when to keep his big mouth shut. Now look what he’s brought on us!”
No, these believers never expected a bed of ease and comfort when they trusted in Christ in the first place, so they did not murmur or complain.
Being critical only causes us to look inward instead of outward. God wants us to look OUTWARD to the harvest fields.
I’ve noticed something about gripers in a church: They’re never part of the group that’s out winning people to Jesus. They’re never the ones and sharing their faith and bringing people in.
Thank God, the Lord has spared us from gossipers and whisperers and critical people in our church—people who poison the spirit of a church. But Satan is always looking for a way to turn you into one, or to plant one for you to listen to wherever God is working. So keep focused outward, not inward—look out to the harvest fields! Jesus said, “…Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” (John 4:35)
These disciples did not AGONIZE, and they did not CRITICIZE.
• What they did do was EVANGELIZE.
Now notice that these were ordinary Christians, not professional ministers. Verse 1 says, “they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.”
Now don’t let the word “preaching” in verse 4 throw you off. It’s the Greek word euaggelízō which simply means “to bring good news, to announce or proclaim glad tidings.” (James Strong, Strong’s Greek and Hebrew Lexicon, in Logos Bible Software, v. 1.6 (Marlton, NJ: Logos Bible Software, 1992).)
ANY form of evangelism is included in euaggelízō. Yes, it includes “preaching,”—like what I’m doing now—but when you tell others about Christ, when you personally share your faith—that too is included in the word euaggelízō —and ANYONE can do that, whether or not you’re a preacher by vocation.
Notice that all were scattered except the Apostles, who remained in Jerusalem. It was ordinary Christians, not the apostles, who did the proclaiming. If we’re to reach our Jerusalem and our world for Christ, it CANNOT be done by the leadership of the church alone. It will only happen if all of us become active in sharing our faith.
If we’re to do this, we must take the time and expend the effort to get to know the people around us with a view of pointing them to Christ. If you feel incapable of sharing the Gospel with people, you certainly can bring people to a church where they will hear the Gospel preached.
You can be an Andrew. When Andrew met Jesus, the Bible says that he went and found his brother Peter and brought him to Jesus. Andrew didn’t know how to share, but he knew where to bring his brother. You can take the time to invite someone to church with you where they might hear the Good News of Jesus Christ.
CONCLUSION
So what is the Lord speaking to you about in this passage of Scripture?
• You have been scattered to this place called Grafenwoehr/Vilseck. Are you proclaiming the Good News of salvation through Christ Jesus?
We have had people in this church over the years scattered here from the U.S., various Caribbean islands, Puerto Rico, several African nations, various South American and Central American countries, Canada, South Korea, the Marshall Islands, Japan, the Philippines, China, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and too many European countries to mention.
And be assured that that’s not by accident, my dear friends! The sovereign Lord has scattered YOU here to huddle in this church from time to time so that you can go out and get in God’s game of evangelism. Are you actively looking for opportunities to proclaim the name of Christ? Do you, on a regular basis, invite people to church so that they can hear the Gospel?
It’s not enough just to huddle. That’s good and necessary, but then we’ve got to go out and win the game for the Lord.
• Let me ask you another question: are you agonizing or complaining about your scattering?
To some of you, this is now home, and you’re satisfied with God’s bringing you here. But perhaps some of you, agonize and criticize instead of evangelize. You’re more like a refugee than a missionary.
If that’s the case—get your focus off self and look onto the harvest field! “Get off of what you’re down on and get in on what God’s up to!”
Illus. – I remember a first sergeant we had in our church in Wiesbaden, Germany. He was a good man—good enough to be elected as one of our deacons—but he sometimes had a little bit of a negative spirit. He had problems on the job; he had problems with his family back in the U.S.; and sometimes things just didn’t go his way—and he’d get in a foul mood every now and then grumble about everything in his life.
One day a preacher came and challenged folks to get focused on evangelism. Something got hold of this brother. Suddenly, he turned into a flaming witness for Christ. It was like the difference between night and day. He started witnessing ceaselessly on the job. Almost every week he brought someone new to church.
He was African-American, and at the time, our church was about 20% black. Six months later, we were 40% black—most of it due to him bringing his friend and co-workers…and then they did the same thing in a snowball effect! It was an exciting time! ONE MAN changed the entire makeup of a church running 200 people!
And you know what?—His whole attitude about Wiesbaden changed. He saw how God had put him in a hard place to reach some folks for Jesus. He’s a pastor now in Texas.
Let’s huddle together—and then let’s scatter and evangelize for Jesus!
