Persecution, the great victory

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.