When The Church Is Scattered

“And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.” [1]

Fairmeadows Church met at seven o’clock each Wednesday evening for a prayer meeting. One evening, rather than going to the prayer service, I left my home armed with some tracts and my New Testament to knock on the doors of several homes located in the vicinity of the church building. That evening, I was invited into several of those homes where I presented the message of Christ, inviting the residents living in those homes to put their faith in the Risen Son of God. There was generally a positive response from those with whom I visited that evening, and as result of my visits several families begin attending the services of the church.

However, all was not well in Zion. One particular deacon complained to the Pastor that I was not co-operative. He was aggrieved that I had not attended the prayer meeting of the congregation. This church leader had the temerity to complain that I was not supportive of the church. This deacon was more focused on the numbers attending any particular service than he was with fulfilling the commands given by the Saviour to His disciples. This man complained to the Pastor that I had actually gone visiting in the homes of unchurched people! My Pastor supported what I had done, responding to the deacon’s complaint in measured tones, “Perhaps it would be a good thing if more of our people would go visiting rather than merely coming to a prayer meeting.”

The Pastor’s response to that deacon’s complaint obviously was not the response the man was seeking, but it was a biblical response that should have been evident with even a casual understanding of Scripture. This is especially true in these days when governments are seeking to shut down all congregation gatherings for worship. Christians rightly chafe at the restrictions prohibiting meeting in assembly, and the more so when we see people shopping at Costco and Walmart, dining out at local restaurants, or even buying cannabis at the local pot stores. We struggle to accept what is seen as governmental intrusion into the sacred realm of worship. We who confess Christ as Lord of life are willing to be good citizens; we are prepared to co-operate to the extent possible and within reason. However, the shutdowns increasingly appear unreasonable, especially as more scientific studies are released. We were told that government was following the science, but it appears that governments have selectively listened to favoured scientists.

Christians now appear to be growing restive. Church leaders are placed in the uncomfortable position of being compelled to provide guidance to challenges they have never faced before and for which they are untrained. This raises the question of how should the saints respond to the enforced disruption of what has been rather comfortable? How should followers of Christ handle the heavy-handed threats imposed by politicians who are fearful of making a wrong decision? To find an answer that honours God, I recommend we study the response of the New Beginnings Baptist Church of Jerusalem during a time of governmental disruption of the activities of the church.

DISRUPTION OF THE FAITHFUL — “There arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria” [ACTS 8:1b]. What is meant when we read, “on that day?” Clearly, Doctor Luke means us to understand that some particular event is in view. We need to understand what was happening to have the fullest grasp of what happened if we are to make a valid application to our own situation.

You are quite familiar with the assault against the faithful as persecution, present from before the birth of this new Faith, broke out in the form of open war against the followers of the Risen Christ. The religious leaders had executed the Saviour. Not content with that travesty of justice, these same leaders pleaded for Pilate to post guards because they claimed to fear that disciples of this teacher, whom they had executed, might somehow break into His tomb and rob his body. Like craven politicians who are not content with engineering a political coup, who then manufacture an impeachment in an effort to ensure that the one ousted will never be able to run for office again, these religious leaders were intent on ensuring that Jesus of Nazareth would stay in the tomb!

However, on the third day, His tomb was discovered to be empty. The religious leaders knew that something momentous had taken place, so they suborned the Roman guards to concoct a story that the soldiers had been overpowered by frightened followers of the crucified Galilean who had stolen His body.