A STUDY OF THE BOOK OF ACTS
Sermon # 15
GATHERED BUT NOT SCATTERED
Acts 8:1-4
“In football they have a huddle, the goal of the huddle is to give you thirty seconds to call the play, that is why they give you a huddle.(At a professional football 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 to go, the quarterback needs to know where he is going to go, the backs need to know where they are going to go. 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. See, people don’t come to football games to watch the huddle. 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 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 Saul was consenting to his death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea 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 havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. (4) Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.” Acts 8:1-4 (NKJV)
The problem of the neglected widows was solved by the appointment of seven men to oversee this ministry (6:1-7). Prominent among the men that are appointed are Stephen and Philip. Stephen’s ministry expanded beyond the overseeing of the widows to the powerful proclamation of the gospel with accompanying signs and wonders (6:8). This led to resistance, persecution and ultimately to his execution by stoning (7:59)
In turn Stephen’s death snowballed into a massive persecution of the entire church at Jerusalem. This intense persecution that broke out against church, caused the saints to scatter. Things began getting really bad for the church. Luke introduces Saul as the agent leading the persecution of the church. Verse three says that Saul began to “make havoc” other translations say he “ravaged” the church. This verb is imperfect and it means that he began to ravage the church and he kept on ravaging the church. He was making trouble for the church and he would keep it up until God stopped him.
I. THE GATHERING WAS TO OBTAIN POWER
As the text begins we find the church still located in Jerusalem. God had indeed done a great work there, and many thousands had come to know Him as their Savior. There were carrying out the Great Commission in a limited way but they were still in Jerusalem. Jesus had said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:19-20) NKJV.
Jesus had asked the disciples to wait upon the coming of the Holy Spirit. “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.” (Luke 24:49) NKJV. They were to remain in the city of Jerusalem until they had received the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had promised, “But you shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) NKJV.
He has stated emphatically “You” [the KJV uses ye to denote that it is plural] meaning (all of you) shall receive power.
You (all of you) shall be witnesses (matrus) martyrs. Up until now they have been learners now they are to be witnesses. You (all of you) shall be witnesses in an ever-widening circle of influence. They are to start where they are and reach the world.
But they had not moved from Jerusalem. The apostles were comfortable staying right where they were.
Sometimes God has to nudge us in strong ways to move us into the place of service where he wants us. If necessary he will push out of our comfortable surroundings in order that we might accomplish His purpose through us. You are not where you are because of your job. You may think so but you are not. Your not here because of some professional decision you made you’re here to serve God. Those of you who were not born here moved here to serve God. You see for Christ to reach the world he put his people in different places in the world.
The lesson for us is that comfort and ease and prosperity can cause a tremendous inertia in the church. Inertia is the tendency of something that is standing still to stay standing still and of something moving to keep moving. The very things that we think would produce energy and movement frequently contribute to its self-absorption and preoccupation with the status quota.
George Barna, the statistician, tells us that of adults who attend church at least once each month 37% did not give any money to the church last year. (George Barna. How to Increase Giving In Your Church. [Ventura, Calif: Regal Books, 1997] p. 20.)
An article a recent article in the newspaper stated that the richer we become the less we are likely to give proportion-ately to the church and the mission program.
Persecution can have harmful effects on the church but so it seems can prosperity. My point is not that we should seek persecution, but that we should beware of allowing what God has given us to lull us into excessive ease and unconcern.
The Devil meant for the persecution to put out the fire but it merely spread the fire. An interesting “modern parallel is what happened in 1949 in China when the National Government was defeated by the Communists. Six hundred and thirty seven China Inland Mission missionaries were obliged to leave. It seemed a total disaster. Yet within four years 286 of them had been redeployed in South-East Asia and Japan, while the national Christians in China, even under severe persecution, began to multiply and now total thirty to forty times the number they were when the missionaries left.” (John Stott. The Spirit, The Church and The World: The Message of Acts. [Downers Grove, ILL: InterVarsity Press, 1990.] p. 146.)
II. THE SCATTERING WAS TO PROCLAIM
THE WORD
Three Principles About Being Scattered
When Scattered they did not Agonize. Those who were scattered had to decide whether they would simply be refugees or whether they would be missionaries. The refugee is constantly thinking about where they came from. They are 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 the missionaries’ life is ruled by joy, and looks at their life as opportunities to share Christ.
The word says in verse one that,“ and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.” There are two different Greek words that can be translated scattered. The first word means “dispersed so that the item is gone from that point on,” like the scattering of a person’s ashes on the waves of the ocean. That is not the word used here. The word “scattered” is (disaspeiro) which is an agri. term used of a farmer scattering seed, scattered but also planted (Matt. 13:37-38). The text says that, “those who were scattered went everywhere preaching (euaggelizo) the word.”
So 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 circumstances - have you considered yourself planted in that place? Have you put down roots and born fruit for Jesus Christ?
That is what these early Christians did.
It may not be persecution that moves us. It can be any kind of adversity in life, the loss of someone we love, the loss of a job, or some other change in the circumstances in our lives. But whenever circumstances force us into new situations, we have a choice. We can choose to be refugees, wishing for the past and living in fear of the future. Or we can chose to be missionaries, having our eyes open for the new opportunities that God is giving us.
When Scattered they did not Criticize.
They could have criticized the leadership. They could have said, “This is all Stephen fault, he should have known when to keep quiet.” When things go wrong, even when things go right, it is easy to find fault with the leadership of the church. But criticism of the leadership and of each other cripples the church.
When Scattered they Evangelize. These were ordinary Christians, not professional ministers. Verse one said, “they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.” We are told that it is the ordinary Christian not the apostles that are doing the proclaiming. I believe that the point that he trying to get across to us here was that the ministry of the church was more than what the apostles alone could do. If we are going to see people won to Christ – if we are going to reach our world with the gospel, it cannot be accomplished by the leadership of the church alone. If we are going to really do good job of reaching our community and this world for Christ, it will because every one of you becomes active in sharing your faith.
They spread the word informally by continuously speaking the gospel to everyone they met. They went out to their friends and neighbors and naturally started talking about Jesus. You do not have to be a full-time minister to be a witness for Christ. If you are faithful to look for and use the opportunities that are given to you to share Christ you will see people getting saved.
If we are to do this we must take the time and expend the effort to get to know the people around us with a view of leading them to Christ. If you fill incapable of sitting someone down and presenting the gospel you certainly can bring him or her to a place where they will have the gospel communicated to them. You can be an Andrew. When Andrew met Jesus, the Bible says that went and found his brother Peter and brought him to Jesus. Andrew did not know how to share, but he knew where to bring his brother. You can take the time to invite someone to come to church with you that they might here the good news. By the way if you are constantly telling people everything that is wrong with your church and the people who go there, don’t expect that person to ever come to church with you.
Some fairly fundamental principles need to be remembered. (1) People are lost everywhere we go. The Bible says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23 - NKJV). Everyone needs to be saved. (2) People need to know about Jesus everywhere we go. Peter has already told us in Acts 4:12, that there is not “salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” There is no other way to be saved, other by the name and through the shed blood of Christ. (3) We are to evangelize everywhere we go (Acts 1:8). We just need to GO!!!!! Jesus had once warned his disciples, “Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up (aorist imperative active) your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!” (John 4:35) NKJV
Conclusion
The trouble that Saul and others were making was ineffective in the end. Saul has set out to destroy the church, yet the more he tried the more the gospel spread.
What will the result of this spread of the gospel be? In Acts 8:8 we read, “so there was great joy in the city.” What was the reason for this Joy? That Jesus has set people free from the slavery of sin. The world wondered at them. Their greatest enemy (Saul) ultimately joined them!
