PRAYER:
Father, we, your church, ask that you pour your blessing upon us... Open this text to our hearts. Come, Holy Spirit, and teach us the Word: give us ears to listen, hearts to hear. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
OPENER:
Acts chapter 8 is a transitional point of the book of Acts: the movement of the church, this is Phase Two of God’s plan for the church, moving out from Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria.
What was the trigger that set off the persecution of all Christians? It was because of Stephen that this whole avalanche of persecution came down. The persecution that is surprisingly one of the most significant human rights issues in the world today.
We can view this persecution as a negative time, or we can see the Holy Spirit at work, taking a negative, hopeless situation and turning it into a positive.
These are four things to remember when life is hard:[1]
Remember, Peter and John’s many hopeless situations, when persecution came to them, preaching began to follow right on its heels. The time they were cast into jail, I can see them teaching, upon their release from prison, they went right back to proclaiming the Good News of Jesus. The gospel reaches into areas and the hearts of people who never would have heard it. It is kind of like trying to stamp out a fire, and the harder you jump on it, the more scatter the embers and start fires all over everywhere. So that is what happened, embers spread across the globe.
One hundred years later, Tertullian said, “The blood of the martyrs has become the seed of the church.”
Think back to Acts 1:8, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” This is the outline of chapter eight: the church starts in Jerusalem, and by the end of, Philip is on a ministry mission into the Gentile world.
We see three things that stand out progressively in the expansion of the church: the persecution, which leads to ministry, and the disciples spreading the gospel.
Until this point, we have discussed persecution as an event, what about the people in the persecution?
The central figure is Holy Spirit (H.S.), and the H.S. explicitly points out the man by the name of Saul in verse 1, “And Saul approved of his execution.” That is a P.S. to chapter 7. Saul is from the tribe of Benjamin, named for the great King of the Old Testament. We also know he is from Cilicia. Think about this: Is it likely that Saul’s dislike of Stephen started around chapter 6, when Stephen, in verse 9, was preaching from synagogue to synagogue and winning arguments with the highly educated Hellenistic Jews – most likely some of those debates were with this Saul. Was Saul the person who ramrodded the whole trial? The witnesses and leaders knew him; they laid their garments at the feet of Saul (Acts7:58). I know he was involved from the very beginning. I can picture the arrogance, “Now, I am once again the greatest debater of scripture…”
Saul was a Pharisee, zealous for Judaism. He had a brilliant mind, and when he committed himself, it was 100 percent (At least he was determined to something and apathetic). As Saul stood there gloating over what they were doing to Stephen, I don’t think he could have imagined what would happen in a few short months. Saul would go through more trials and persecution; then Stephen ever went through, it might be considered a blessing to die the first time. Because Paul kept being persecuted, time after time, he kept getting it, and getting it, and getting it, and never died until finally, they chopped his head off in Rome.[2]
MAIN POINT:
The death of Stephen set off a blood lust, The blood of one, became a thirst for more, like a school of piranha, a little bit of blood and the righteous mob wants to rip and shred the church.
Back to the verses: “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 ... But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.”
We do not have any of the gory details of what ravaging Saul did; we only have some general terms. Whatever it was, resulted in the people being driven out of the city and scattered all over. Saul drove them out, and I am sure those driven out, were converted Hellenistic Jews and Grecian Jews who did not belong there. Moreover, it may have been in these early times that the whole movement was still associated with Stephen as a Grecian Jew.
It is from this point on in history; we find the Jerusalem church made up mainly of Jerusalem Jews, “except the apostles.” They stayed back to hold on to the fort.
TAKE AWAY:Verse 2 says, “Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him.” That is a special note of the H.S. for devout men; it is a term for pious Jews. Because of Stephen’s murder and persecution lead to more deaths, some Jews in Jerusalem, who were not Christians, believed the killing of Stephen was wrong. This opens up even more fertile soil for the apostles. See is not this God thing deep…
According to Jewish law, executed criminals must be buried. However, the law also said that they were forbidden to weep or lament over criminals’ death. Here we see a direct protest of devout men, pious people display or show devoutness. They not only bury Stephen, but they also make lamentation over him publicly. This is a reaction by the protest to the murder, and they are flaunting the law in disobedience.
CONCLUSION:
What was the fruit from the martyrdom of Stephen? I think it played on the conscience of Saul. Remember that at Saul’s conversion, he asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The voice answered, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:5)
2 Timothy 3:12 tells us that all who will live godly in Christ will suffer persecution. In one form or another, standing for Christ will raise the ire of our spiritual foe, and he will incite people to oppose us. It will seem unreasonable and unfair. That is because it is. However, when it comes, Jesus said you should count it a great honor. Here are His words in Matthew 5:10-12:
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
That sure is not how the world thinks, but then, most of Jesus’ teaching is different from the way the world thinks. Remember, in Acts 7:52, Stephen said that there was hardly a prophet that their ancestors did not persecute and kill.
Some would say that the Christian life is boring; I suppose they do not know what is to be a Christian.
We certainly do not seek to be martyrs. It is simply an honor to put Him first, even above something so dear as life itself.
We overcome evil and the evil one by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony, the Revelation tells us, for we love not our lives even unto death (Revelation 12:11).
Loving not our lives means dying daily, which should be the “normal” to a Christian life (1 Corinthians 15:31).
LET’S PRAY:
Father God, we thank you that you want to use us in your marvelous plan of salvation. Help us Lord to die to self-daily, so that you can use us to the fullest. We give our hearts, minds, and souls to you to use as you see fit. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.
[1] Adapted from Dave Willis, 4 things God wants you to remember when life is hard. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/davewillis/author/davewillis/
[2] Finegan, Jack. Handbook of Biblical Chronology. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1998.
Father, we, your church, ask that you pour your blessing upon us... Open this text to our hearts. Come, Holy Spirit, and teach us the Word: give us ears to listen, hearts to hear. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
OPENER:
Acts chapter 8 is a transitional point of the book of Acts: the movement of the church, this is Phase Two of God’s plan for the church, moving out from Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria.
What was the trigger that set off the persecution of all Christians? It was because of Stephen that this whole avalanche of persecution came down. The persecution that is surprisingly one of the most significant human rights issues in the world today.
We can view this persecution as a negative time, or we can see the Holy Spirit at work, taking a negative, hopeless situation and turning it into a positive.
These are four things to remember when life is hard:[1]
- Your Character should always be more durable than your Circumstances. We cannot always control what happens to us, but we can always control how we choose to respond. In those moments stop complaining and give thanks to God for the good in life, the parts that seem bad start to look much less significant: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
- Remember that your Struggles always lead to strength. Every difficulty in your life, whether big or small, is something God will use to produce more strength, faith, and perseverance in you if you let Him! Pain has a purpose: Romans 8:28
- Remember that God’s timing is not your timing. God’s plans are almost always different from our plans, but His plans are always perfect! Have the patience to wait on His timing instead of forcing your own: Jeremiah 29:11
- Remember that God will never leave your side. This struggle is not yours alone, from the moment you ask Jesus to bring you into God’s family, He is by your side to the end: Deuteronomy 31:6
Remember, Peter and John’s many hopeless situations, when persecution came to them, preaching began to follow right on its heels. The time they were cast into jail, I can see them teaching, upon their release from prison, they went right back to proclaiming the Good News of Jesus. The gospel reaches into areas and the hearts of people who never would have heard it. It is kind of like trying to stamp out a fire, and the harder you jump on it, the more scatter the embers and start fires all over everywhere. So that is what happened, embers spread across the globe.
One hundred years later, Tertullian said, “The blood of the martyrs has become the seed of the church.”
Think back to Acts 1:8, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” This is the outline of chapter eight: the church starts in Jerusalem, and by the end of, Philip is on a ministry mission into the Gentile world.
We see three things that stand out progressively in the expansion of the church: the persecution, which leads to ministry, and the disciples spreading the gospel.
Until this point, we have discussed persecution as an event, what about the people in the persecution?
The central figure is Holy Spirit (H.S.), and the H.S. explicitly points out the man by the name of Saul in verse 1, “And Saul approved of his execution.” That is a P.S. to chapter 7. Saul is from the tribe of Benjamin, named for the great King of the Old Testament. We also know he is from Cilicia. Think about this: Is it likely that Saul’s dislike of Stephen started around chapter 6, when Stephen, in verse 9, was preaching from synagogue to synagogue and winning arguments with the highly educated Hellenistic Jews – most likely some of those debates were with this Saul. Was Saul the person who ramrodded the whole trial? The witnesses and leaders knew him; they laid their garments at the feet of Saul (Acts7:58). I know he was involved from the very beginning. I can picture the arrogance, “Now, I am once again the greatest debater of scripture…”
Saul was a Pharisee, zealous for Judaism. He had a brilliant mind, and when he committed himself, it was 100 percent (At least he was determined to something and apathetic). As Saul stood there gloating over what they were doing to Stephen, I don’t think he could have imagined what would happen in a few short months. Saul would go through more trials and persecution; then Stephen ever went through, it might be considered a blessing to die the first time. Because Paul kept being persecuted, time after time, he kept getting it, and getting it, and getting it, and never died until finally, they chopped his head off in Rome.[2]
MAIN POINT:
The death of Stephen set off a blood lust, The blood of one, became a thirst for more, like a school of piranha, a little bit of blood and the righteous mob wants to rip and shred the church.
Back to the verses: “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 ... But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.”
We do not have any of the gory details of what ravaging Saul did; we only have some general terms. Whatever it was, resulted in the people being driven out of the city and scattered all over. Saul drove them out, and I am sure those driven out, were converted Hellenistic Jews and Grecian Jews who did not belong there. Moreover, it may have been in these early times that the whole movement was still associated with Stephen as a Grecian Jew.
It is from this point on in history; we find the Jerusalem church made up mainly of Jerusalem Jews, “except the apostles.” They stayed back to hold on to the fort.
TAKE AWAY:Verse 2 says, “Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him.” That is a special note of the H.S. for devout men; it is a term for pious Jews. Because of Stephen’s murder and persecution lead to more deaths, some Jews in Jerusalem, who were not Christians, believed the killing of Stephen was wrong. This opens up even more fertile soil for the apostles. See is not this God thing deep…
According to Jewish law, executed criminals must be buried. However, the law also said that they were forbidden to weep or lament over criminals’ death. Here we see a direct protest of devout men, pious people display or show devoutness. They not only bury Stephen, but they also make lamentation over him publicly. This is a reaction by the protest to the murder, and they are flaunting the law in disobedience.
CONCLUSION:
What was the fruit from the martyrdom of Stephen? I think it played on the conscience of Saul. Remember that at Saul’s conversion, he asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The voice answered, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:5)
2 Timothy 3:12 tells us that all who will live godly in Christ will suffer persecution. In one form or another, standing for Christ will raise the ire of our spiritual foe, and he will incite people to oppose us. It will seem unreasonable and unfair. That is because it is. However, when it comes, Jesus said you should count it a great honor. Here are His words in Matthew 5:10-12:
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
That sure is not how the world thinks, but then, most of Jesus’ teaching is different from the way the world thinks. Remember, in Acts 7:52, Stephen said that there was hardly a prophet that their ancestors did not persecute and kill.
Some would say that the Christian life is boring; I suppose they do not know what is to be a Christian.
We certainly do not seek to be martyrs. It is simply an honor to put Him first, even above something so dear as life itself.
We overcome evil and the evil one by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony, the Revelation tells us, for we love not our lives even unto death (Revelation 12:11).
Loving not our lives means dying daily, which should be the “normal” to a Christian life (1 Corinthians 15:31).
- We die to the old nature that we might live unto God (Galatians 5:24-25).
- We die to selfishness that we might show the unconditional love of Christ (Romans 12:1-2).
LET’S PRAY:
Father God, we thank you that you want to use us in your marvelous plan of salvation. Help us Lord to die to self-daily, so that you can use us to the fullest. We give our hearts, minds, and souls to you to use as you see fit. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.
[1] Adapted from Dave Willis, 4 things God wants you to remember when life is hard. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/davewillis/author/davewillis/
[2] Finegan, Jack. Handbook of Biblical Chronology. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1998.
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