Act 8:1 NIV And Saul approved of their killing him. On
that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all
except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.
The stoning of the first martyr, Stephen, must have seemed
the ultimate tragedy for the church in Jerusalem. Up till then they had been
living in an atmosphere of success and glory. They were a substantial number. After
all there were 3000 converted on the day of Pentecost. The new church then grew
daily as people saw the witness of the new believers. They were heavily
involved in looking after the needy as well demonstrating the life hat Jesus
preached and lived.
How big was the church of Jerusalem at that stage? We cannot
tell, but something in excess of 5000 would not seem unreasonable.
Then the religious leaders became worried about this new challenge
to their authority and arrested Stephen. Here was their chance to bring this
new cult back under their control. But it didn’t turn out that way.
Stephen’s speech recounted the essence of salvation history
and ended in a direct challenge to the authorities that could not be ignored.
Act 7:51-53 NIV "You stiff-necked people! Your hearts
and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always
resist the Holy Spirit! (52) Was there
ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who
predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and
murdered him-- (53) you who have received the law that was given
through angels but have not obeyed it."
(PS This could equally be said of much of the modern day
church which has abandoned the teaching of Jesus, and of many individuals who just
go along with it).
So Stephen was stoned
to death without further ado. The crowd went along with this, and Saul (later
to be the great apostle Paul) was prominent in the stoning.
The result was as the leaders had expected; the new
believers left Jerusalem in a hurry and were scattered throughout the Roman Empire.
This could have been the end of the infant church, it certainly must have
seemed that way to the Apostles. They were among the few who remained behind to
nurture what was left of the believers.
But God had a bigger plan. The scattering of the believers
just enabled the spreading of the gospel further abroad. The church grew from
strength to strength in small pockets throughout the Empire. The basis was laid
for the work of Paul and the other Apostles in the years ahead, until within a
generation it could be said that the whole world was filled with the Word of
God.
What a dramatic demonstration of the power of God. What
seemed like a tragedy and the end of all the dreams of the early church, was in
reality the beginning of the greatest move of the Holy Spirit in all of human
history.
The love invasion of Jesus was now underway and nothing
would stop it.
What a timeless lesson this is. The words of Isaiah were now
fulfilled in the greatest possible way.
Isa 55:8-9 NIV "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. (9) "As the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
It is easy to imagine the remaining believers in Jerusalem
sitting around, wondering what to do. When all the time God was powerfully at
work in ways that could only be seen through the Spirit.
So it is for us today. God is still on the throne. He is
still working His purposes out. He has not forgotten individual believers or
the corporate church, irrespective of the immediate circumstances. He has not
been caught by surprise by the state of the world or the state of the church.
His solutions may seem strange, but they are effective.
He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, now and always.
He has won the victory against sin and death on the Cross of
Calvary.
He has brought into being a new creation, with new citizens,
and a new covenant. Loss had become gain. Death has become victory. Life is
renewed.
Is now up to us to shake off the dust from out feet and
spread the word wherever we find ourselves in exile. We have been scattered
through society so that we can ‘seed’ society with the message of the Kingdom
of God.
Rom 13:11 (CEV) You know what sort of times we live in,
and so you should live properly. It is time to wake up. You know that the day
when we will be saved is nearer now than when we first put our faith in the
Lord.
Eph
5:14 Light shows up everything, just as the
Scriptures say, "Wake up from your sleep and rise from death. Then Christ
will shine on you.
Wake up.
