ACTS 8:1-8 THE CHURCH IS SCATTERED FOR GOOD2016 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Acts 8:1-8 The Church Is Scattered For Good

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2016. All right, we're going to be in Acts chapter 8 this evening, looking at verses 1 through 8. And so let's take some time to read through this passage together. Acts chapter 8, verses 1 through 8. Here's what it says. 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. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.

Therefore, those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. Verse 6. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed, and the lame were healed. Verse 7.

And there was great joy in that city.

Here in Acts chapter 8, we're continuing to uncover and discover the beginning of the church as it began there in Acts chapter 2 with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And then as the church began to grow and expand and many people were getting saved. But now what we see in Acts chapter 8 is kind of the next segment of the book of Acts. We divided the book of Acts into three parts. First, we have the book of Acts chapter 2.

based on what Jesus said in Acts chapter 1 verse 8. Let me remind you of that. In Acts chapter 1 verse 8, Jesus told his disciples before he ascended into heaven, he said, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in Judea and all Samaria, I'm sorry, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

So this provides an outline for the book of Acts, breaking it up into three parts. First, he says, you'll be witnesses to me in Jerusalem. When you receive the Holy Spirit and have the power of the Holy Spirit, then you're going to be enabled and empowered to be a witness to me. And that's going to begin here in the city of Jerusalem.

And in Acts chapters 1 through 7, we've been looking at that develop. And we've been watching them fill Jerusalem with the doctrine of Jesus Christ. And they've been representing Jesus well in the city of Jerusalem. But now things are going to progress. Jesus said, you'll also be witnesses to me in Judea and Samaria.

And in Acts chapter 8 verses 1 through 8, you begin to see that happen as the gospel goes out of Jerusalem and now enters into the regions of Judea and Samaria. And we'll be looking at that over the next couple weeks through chapter 11 verse 18. And then we'll go from there into chapter 11 verse 19 all the way through the end of the book where Jesus said, you'll be witnesses to the ends of the earth.

And the rest of the book of Acts will record that the gospel going forth to the ends of the earth and their known world at that time. And so we're moving now into this new section here in Acts chapter 8 as the gospel is overflowing out of Jerusalem and now heading into new territory in all of Judea and Samaria.

Now, a quick look at the timeline just to give some perspective on how these events are unfolding. It was about 32 AD when Jesus was crucified and resurrected. It was soon after that, it was just about 50 days after that, that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples there in Acts chapter 2 in the upper room.

And then the church in that time or since that has been developing and growing, over 5,000 have been saved, you know, as we head into chapter 4 and 5. And we saw in chapter 6 some needs arise and some new leaders appointed. But then in chapter 7, we see the man Stephen is martyred.

And that's estimated to have occurred around 35 AD. So about three or four years have passed since the church has began. And so they've been established there in the city of Jerusalem. But to this point, the church has only been in Jerusalem. And now we're going to go beyond that.

And as we go forward in the book of Acts, we'll see the conversion of Paul and the salvation of Cornelius' household, and we'll get into those as those chapters are appropriate. But just so the sense of time is, you know, understood, it's been about three or four years. Jesus says you're going to

fill Jerusalem and be witnesses to me there, and then Judea and Samaria. And so that time has come. It's been a few years. They've completed that part of the commission of Jesus, and now it's time to go further into the next segment of his call in their lives. Well, as we look at this passage this evening, Acts chapter 8, verses 1 through 8, I titled the message for you, The Church is Scattered for Good.

The church is scattered for good. Now, we all know as believers that we are commanded in the scriptures. It's not a optional thing. It's really a necessity for us to gather together.

that we are commanded and instructed to get together as believers, to worship the Lord together, to study the scriptures together. You know, you can see in Acts chapter 2 verse 42 how they were steadfast in their time together of fellowship and prayer, the breaking of bread, and the apostles doctrine. And that's an important part for us as believers, that time to gather together. And

And so many times we're blessed to gather together. I'm sure that you can recount, you know, those times away as we're together, right? We go on a retreat together and it's just wonderful and glorious and God speaking. And many times we can have the kind of the mentality of Peter on the mount where Jesus was transfigured.

Remember, he kind of woke up and realized, hey, there's Jesus and Moses and Elijah. And he says, let's build three tabernacles, and let's just stay here. And you guys can hang out, and we'll hang out, and we'll just all hang out up here on the mountain together. It's so nice and peaceful without those religious leaders attacking us and accusing us and fighting us. And it's so wonderful, the fellowship up here is kind of the idea in Peter's head.

And we can have that attitude, right? We can have that mentality like, oh, the fellowship is so great. We're blessed to gather together. And that's great and that's good. It's part of what we're commanded to do.

But at the same time, we also have a commission to go beyond fellowship together so that our life doesn't consist only of time with each other as believers, but that there is something beyond that as we endeavor to reach the world with the gospels.

And so here in Acts chapter 8, we're seeing a change. Thus far, the church was only in Jerusalem. And you could understand how kind of cool it would be to just be there in Jerusalem with the church and just to stay there. You know, there wasn't much motivation for them to go outside of that because, well, things were happening well. Things were going great. Yeah.

Yeah, there was a little bit of problems. In Acts chapter 5, we saw Ananias and Sapphira try to lie to the Holy Spirit, and they dropped down dead. And so they kind of got, you know, some understanding of the seriousness of walking with the Lord and what the Lord was all about. They saw the problems in Acts chapter 6 of the distribution of resources.

But they were able to resolve that and they got these new guys now serving and distributing the foods to the widows or the monies to the widows that were in need. And so, yeah, they were handling things. They were taking care of things. And the church has been going well and they were quite comfortable there in Jerusalem, even though there was even some opposition with the religious leaders.

But now it's time to expand the borders. The Lord's plan wasn't just for them to stay there in Jerusalem the whole time. If you would have asked, you know, taken a survey of the church at that time, it probably would have been, you know,

fairly common for people to say, you know, I'd rather just stay here in Jerusalem. I mean, this is great. We got it set up nice. It's functioning well. You know, I think that's good. You know, we don't need to go do new stuff. You know, people are coming here to the temple and so we can minister to them that way. And there would have been, you know, a very easy tendency for them to just stay there in Jerusalem, which they have done for the past few years.

In Acts chapter 5 verse 28, the religious leaders tell the apostles, you've filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. And so you can see their job there in Jerusalem has really come to a conclusion. It's come to an end. They've accomplished the purpose and they've been witnesses to Jesus in Jerusalem. And so now it's time to expand the borders. Now, the method that is...

going to be used to accomplish this is not what we would choose right off the bat. They are dispersed out of Jerusalem because of persecution.

Here in Acts chapter 8, it says that they're scattered because of this persecution. They're running away from the persecution, the attacks that are coming against the Christians by the Jewish leaders. And so the end result is they're dispersed and they go out from Jerusalem to the surrounding regions. They're scattered because, well, they're in a place of, they're not comfortable anymore. They're

It was comfortable. There was some opposition, but overall things were going okay. But now they're forced into action. They don't have a choice anymore. They have to do something. They have to do something different. They have to go a different direction. And so they're scattered. And I think in that way, it's easy for you and I to relate to what's happening here with the Christians in Jerusalem.

Have you ever felt scattered in that way where you're put in a position where you would have preferred just staying comfortable in a spot? And you can think about this in your relationship with the Lord, your walk with God, in your capacities of serving, in your workplace, in your home. You know, there's different aspects of our lives and there's areas where, hey, we were comfortable, we were good, but then we were forced to make a change.

We would have preferred comfort, but now we're uncomfortable, but it's not by our choice, right? We didn't go out of our way to become uncomfortable, but we're forced into action because

because of some outside influence or some thing that has taken place. And so we can relate to what's happening in the church. I think the Lord has some important things for us to consider in our lives in that regard, because what we see here in this passage is that God uses those things. God uses scattering. And so as we talk about the church being scattered and

Understand that that applies to us as a church, perhaps. It applies to you as an individual, as a believer in Jesus in different aspects of your life. There's different ways that you can understand and experience this kind of scattering. But what you need to know about that is that God uses it for good. He accomplishes good through the scattering.

And so this evening, I want to encourage you to rest in the sovereignty of God, to rest that when there's those pressures and that changes are being forced upon you and uncomfortableness is being forced upon you and things are happening upon you, that you can rest in the sovereignty of God, knowing that God is in control and he uses those kinds of scatterings for good.

And so there's three points that we'll walk through as we look through this passage together, talking about the church being scattered for good. The first point is found in verses one through three, and that is a scattering brings conviction to unbelievers.

What we see unfold here in these first couple verses is the work that God's doing in the enemy, in Saul of Tarsus. Look again at verse 1. It says,

And so here we find we're entering into a new era of the church. They've been pretty comfortable, but now Stephen has been martyred. And that enters, you know, this whole new era where now there's an outright opposition to the church. Prior to this, the religious leaders arrested the apostles. They made threats to the apostles.

But they really didn't do much beyond that. And it's clear from those previous chapters, they feared the people of Jerusalem to do really much more beyond that. They were very careful in how they handled that because of their fear of the people. But now they've thrown off that restraint. And it's all out persecution against the church. And so there's attacks against the Christians. There's the harassment of Christians. There's

the arrest and the imprisonment of Christians. And leading the charge against the Christians is a man named Saul. Saul from Tarsus, brilliant Jew, absolutely brilliant, top of his class, ready to become, you know, the next great Pharisee. And we know him later on as the Apostle Paul. There's a radical conversion that happens in Acts chapter 9.

And prior to Acts chapter 9, we have a few references to Saul. And I would suggest to you this evening that all of these mentions of Saul are there for a reason. They're preparation for, they're the buildup to what God does in Acts chapter 9. Think about it this way. As Luke is writing out this account, he's recording the accounts of the church here. He could have talked about the persecution of

without using Saul's name. There was no need to identify Saul or to highlight Saul here in the midst of this. He could have just left out the first line of verse 1 and just said, at that time, a great persecution arose against the church. But there's a reason why he included that information. It's

Kind of fun to put the pieces together because we know in a couple chapters, Luke's going to join up with the Apostle Paul and join with him on some of his missionary journeys. Luke was a companion of Paul. And Luke is there when Paul shares his testimony several times. In Luke chapter 9, we see the conversion of Saul. And then later on, Paul's going to share his testimony and Luke records that. And then again, he's going to share his testimony and Luke records that.

What I'm saying here is that both Paul and Luke understood that these events that we're looking at here in Acts chapter 7 and 8 were very important aspects of God reaching Saul. It was things that were happening in Saul's heart that was part of God's method and God's work of reaching Saul and bringing him to salvation.

And so the first mention of Saul we have, we looked at two weeks ago in Acts chapter 7, verse 58. And the point that I was making at that time was when you go all out for God, you impact unbelievers. And there in Acts chapter 7, it's at the end of the chapter, is when they put Stephen to death by stoning.

As he's preaching to them, they cry out, they stop up their ears, they rush at him. It says, they take him out of the city, they stone him, and the witnesses laid their clothes down at the feet of a young man named Saul. And so it highlights Saul by name. It calls it out because, well, this was an important part of the path of salvation for Saul. Here in verse 1 of chapter 8, it says, now Saul was consenting to his death.

Saul was there. He was watching Stephen be put to death. He was holding the cloaks of those who were stoning him and he was consenting to it.

It tells us in verse 2 that devout men carry Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. And so there's great mourning. But as for Saul in verse 3, again, you know, highlighting, let's pay attention to what's happening here with Saul. What's happening? In verse 3, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. And so Saul, after this occasion,

He's there. It kind of seems passive, right? He's just holding the cloaks of those who are stoning Stephen. But he's consenting to the death, but he's not actively involved in it. But after that, boy, he goes on a rampage. He wrecks havoc in the church, entering every house, dragging off men and women, and committing them to prison. These are important steps in the testimony of Saul.

as he's sharing his testimony, he shares about these steps and these occasions. There was something happening in his heart as this was going on. As he witnessed the stoning of Stephen. And you might remember there at the end of Acts chapter 7, right before he died, Stephen said, Father, forgive them. Forgive them, Jesus. There was a radical forgiveness, a radical love that Stephen had that impacted Saul.

But it said there he was consenting to his death. That word consent, it's a pretty kind of strong word. It means to be pleased with. So it's not just like he allowed it or it was just like, well, I guess that's okay. But it's to be pleased with. It even goes as far as to describe giving an applause, right?

So here are these guys stoning Stephen, and you could kind of picture Saul saying, yes, you know, golf clap or whatever. You know, just, yes, yeah, good job, guys. Yeah, hit him harder. Put him to death. That was the condition. That was the state of his heart. And so he goes from there, and he made havoc of the church. It says, imprisoning even men and women.

And so he goes on this rampage and he begins to persecute the church, leading the charge against the Christians. Now I'm going to jump in and show you a couple other passages really quickly. As Paul is sharing his testimony in Acts chapter 22, verse 4, he says this, "'I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.'"

Paul there in Acts chapter 22 says, I persecuted this way, that is believers in Jesus or this doctrine, to the death. I would suggest that he's not just saying, you know, to the death was his commitment to it, but he was actually involved in the execution of people like Stephen. And that when there was an opportunity, he would cast his vote to have people executed for their faith in Jesus Christ.

And so Saul went on this rampage, not only imprisoning people, but arranging, voting, applauding when also people were executed. But probably even worse than that, he shares in Acts chapter 26 verse 11, in sharing his testimony that time,

He says, I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities. As Paul is sharing his testimony later on, he talks about this time in his life and he says, I punished them all over every synagogue and I compelled them to blaspheme.

Now later on, as Paul is writing the epistles, he's writing the letters, he describes himself as the least of all the apostles because he persecuted the church. He describes himself as the chief of sinners, and he often referred back to this state of his life, this portion of his life where he persecuted the church. It always bothered him, and I would suggest, I would consider, man, this is probably one of the worst parts of his memories of those early days before Christ.

that he even caused people to blaspheme the name of Jesus. I kind of picture, you know, Saul of Tarsus being there, dragging off men and women, threatening them. You blaspheme the name of Jesus. You renounce Jesus Christ or I'll kill you right now in front of your kids. I'll drag you off to prison unless you renounce. Like causing them, calling them, commanding them, threatening them. I mean, this was some serious opposition, right?

to Christianity, to believers. This was serious persecution that was going on here in Acts chapter 8. He made havoc of the church, imprisoned men and women, executed Christians, compelled them to blaspheme. But what was happening inside of Saul? That was all on the outside. That was what he was expressing. That's what he was living. But what was happening on the inside?

You know, it's really interesting in Acts chapter 9 when Saul has the encounter with Jesus. Jesus reveals himself to Saul. And he says in Acts chapter 9 verse 5, while Saul says, I think this gives us a little bit of insight into Saul's condition and Saul's heart. Jesus said, listen, Saul.

I'm the one you've been persecuting. And you know it's hard to kick against the goads. Now, the goads, it describes an instrument that was used by those who were plowing fields. And you can see it there. It was basically just a long, sharp stick. Sometimes it was metal on the end. Sometimes it was just, you know, carved or shaved to a point. And they would use that to kind of poke the oxen to get them to go the direction that they wanted or stay going in the right direction.

But sometimes what would happen is the oxen would kick against the goat. And so what would happen if you kicked against the end of that point? It would hurt, right? And that was the idea, to kick against the goats. It was a common saying, something that was used in their day. And so they were familiar with it. We're not that familiar with it. So that's why I explained it. But Saul knew what Jesus meant when he said that.

He says, look, I've been trying to direct you. I've been trying to guide you. I've been taking you down a path or trying to take you down a path and you've been fighting against it. You've been trying to overthrow what I want. You've been trying to overthrow my will. And so you've been kicking against the goads. And so internally, he's describing that there's this pain, there's this misery that Saul is experiencing, right?

All of that external persecution was the result of the inner turmoil that was happening between Saul and God. Jesus says in Acts chapter 9 verse 5, he says, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. You're not persecuting all those people. You're persecuting me. It's me that you're fighting against, Saul.

And so internally, there was a battle that was happening. There was a battle going on internally between Saul and the Lord. And he knew the Lord was calling out to him. He knew there was a work that God wanted to do, but he was kicking against the goats, trying to fight against the plan of God and the work of God. And that's why I make the point tonight, a scattering brings conviction.

to unbelievers. As this scattering is going on, as Saul's going from house to house, as he's, you know, enacting this persecution, he's being convicted. He's kicking against the goads. His heart is hurting. He's miserable within as he fights against. It's an interesting thing to consider. As you look at the example of Saul of Tarsus, you can see those who are really aggressive and

antagonistic in their opposition to the things of the Lord are the ones who are most convicted. They're behaving that way outwardly because of what's happening internally. There's an old saying, right? If you throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one that barks the loudest is the one that got hit.

We would look at Saul of Tarsus and think, you know, he was the one who had no conviction. He was the one who didn't care about anything. He was the one, you know, least that likely to hear from the Lord. No, no, no. It's the other way around. He was the one that the Lord was speaking to most. He was the one that the Lord was reaching out to most. And so as this scattering is taking place and this pressure is being applied, the one doing the pressure is the one receiving the great conviction, right?

He's the dog barking the loudest because he's the one who's being hit. Now that's important for us to consider because as we experience scattering, pressure coming from the outside. And again, you can consider this for your own self and your own life in a variety of levels. Let me just give you a simple example. What if God allows your boss to be incredibly harsh towards you for the purpose of your impact on him?

And you see that strong opposition and you're intimidated by it. You're like, man, this guy is godless and he's never going to, you know, understand or receive Jesus. He's never going to care about the things of God. But maybe it's the other way around. Maybe you're experiencing such a hard time because God is reaching out to that person and ministering to them and speaking to them and calling them to repentance.

And your impact on them, like Stephen impacted Saul, is a turning point, is an instrumental part of what God wants to do in the life of that person. Again, you could explore that in a variety of contexts, but the point is, as that pressure is brought by people around us, as there is the opposition that you experience, it's a reflection of the conviction that's taking place within you.

And so the church is scattered for good. God uses that persecution, that oppression, and he accomplishes good through it. Well, I better keep moving or we'll never finish. All right, Acts chapter eight, now verse four is point number two. And that is a scattering puts the church to work. A scattering puts the church to work. Check out verse four. Therefore, those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.

Those who were scattered went to work. They began to go everywhere preaching the word. And so who were the ones who were scattered? Well, again, verse one tells us that the church was all scattered except for the apostles. So think about that for a moment. There in Jerusalem was the church, over 5,000 people, believers in Jesus, all of them dispersed except for the apostles. There was 12 of those guys scattered.

So those 12 guys stayed there in Jerusalem. Everybody else. So 5,000 people left Jerusalem. I mean, it's a massive exodus. Now, probably not all on the same day. There wasn't a traffic jam to get out, you know that. But it's kind of like a quick observation, quick declaration of what happened. And so the point is the Christians were fleeing from Jerusalem because here you have Saul of Tarsus going from door to door, house to house, finding the Christians and hauling them off to prison.

And so they're in a rush. They get out of town quickly. And where did they go? Well, verse 4 tells us they went everywhere. They dispersed, they scattered, specifically, again, looking at verse 1, throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. Now, again, remember, this is part of what Jesus says. You're going to be witnesses to me to this specific region. So here they are in Jerusalem.

And they're there for three or four years. They're very comfortable there. Things are going well. They fill the city with the doctrine of Jesus. They're walking with Jesus. The church has grown significantly. But now they're scattered and they head out into Judea. And Judea is the region around Jerusalem.

And so they're not running, you know, thousands of miles. They're going to just the surrounding towns and cities and flooding, you know, that whole region as they escape from Saul of Tarsus and the crazy persecution that's going on. And then Samaria was a little bit north. It was the region north of them. And so they would typically avoid Samaria because there were Samaritans there. I'll talk about that in just a moment. But Samaria,

So they fill that area as well and they disperse. And so they're spread out and they're going through all these areas. This is the areas that Jesus told them they would reach, but they hadn't gone there yet. Now, I would just like to take a moment to point out, this wasn't a rebellion that they hadn't gone to these regions yet. It wasn't like a sinful refusal where God's been saying, all right, Peter and James and John and, you know, the rest of the church, make sure you send those people out, get them out to those regions.

The scripture doesn't give any kind of indication like that at all. Instead, it gives kind of the opposite. There's a lot of work to do, still plenty of ministry happening, and a lot was going on in Jerusalem. This is the method that God chose to use to bring them to that next step of now heading into these regions. This scattering forces the work to spread. They witnessed in Jerusalem and they represented Jesus well.

But now they head into Judea and Samaria and then even to the uttermost. This event here in Acts chapter 8 sparks them even going further beyond this than what we see here in Acts chapter 8. In Acts chapter 11, later on, we'll see

It says specifically they were scattered because of this persecution over Stephen. And then they traveled to Phoenicia, which is right there on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. They traveled to Cyprus, which is an island there on the left. And then all the way up to Antioch, which is that city on the far north there. And so the dispersion here starts and they immediately go into Judea and Samaria. But then it continues on. They continue to run. They continue to flee further as time progresses.

And so they're going out, but they're not just going quietly. Notice again what it says in verse four. They went everywhere preaching the word. They weren't just relocating their families. They weren't just getting to safety. They went out and they preached the word. Now, when you think of preaching, don't think of a pulpit. This was talking about bringing the gospel to people.

And so as they went to Judea, as they went to Samaria, as they encountered people, hey, what's going on? Why are you here? We're running from Saul because, you know, he hates Jesus and he hates those who love Jesus and we love Jesus. And well, who's Jesus? And they're sharing the gospel. They're sharing about Jesus as they go and everywhere they go, the word of God is spreading. Now think about it this way. In Jerusalem, it was probably primarily the apostles who were preaching the word.

They continued steadfastly in the breaking of bread and fellowship and the apostles' doctrine. It was the apostles who were teaching. And there was limited opportunity for preaching for themselves individually, personally, because, well, as more and more people got saved, they were surrounded with believers all the time. And so this is a dramatic change. Primarily, it's the apostles preaching. Now, everyone gets opportunity to preach.

This church of over 5,000 people, remember, there was only 12 apostles and then these seven servants that they appointed to distribute the needs of the widows. So here's, you know, 5,000 people not having much to do as far as using their gifts or serving the Lord or sharing the gospel. I'm exaggerating probably a little bit. I'm sure there was lots for them to do. They were involved, they were engaged and everything. But

I hope you kind of get the point of where I'm going here, that now they're not in a position of, hey, maybe once a month you could share the word, but now they're in a position of every day you're going to be sharing the gospel because you're going to be encountering people and you're going to be bringing forth the word of God. You're going to be bringing forth the gospel message as you're scattered, as you're running for your life away from Jerusalem. Scattering expands the work.

So that now it's not just the apostles preaching. It's not just the ministry of Stephen and Philip and that having a big impact. But now the individual, those 5,000 people are scattered. And in a similar way, you and I are scattered. We're scattered to wherever we are, our neighborhoods, our families. You're scattered to your workplace, right?

And so you're out there encountering people and we need to learn to follow the example here of the church in Acts chapter 8 verse 4. To be bringing forth the gospel wherever we go. To be bringing forth the gospel to the people around us. But sometimes it takes a scattering for that to happen. All these 5,000 people, they didn't just sign up to say, okay, we're going to go be missionaries. They were forced into becoming missionaries.

It happened to them. It was an outside pressure, this persecution that took place. And you know, many times God will do that in our lives as well. Now we're so blessed in our nation, in our society. When I'm talking about these things, we're looking at them a little bit metaphorically, right? We're thinking about, you know, different kinds of events and difficulties and financial crunches and those kinds of things that force us into different places and different positions and doing different things, right?

The rest of the world, though, still understands and relates to Acts chapter 8, literally, that, yeah, they flee from places because people are trying to put them to death because they believe in Jesus. That was what the church experienced in Acts chapter 8. It happens all around the world. We're blessed, and we're so comfortable, and that comfort can be a danger, that we just sit and we don't go forward and do all that God wants for us. And so many times the Lord will allow a scattering to take place.

He'll allow some pressures to mount in our lives. And maybe it is persecution. Maybe it is persecution for the faith, or maybe it's, you know, pressure from different kinds of circumstances. And he causes, he allows for things to take place, to push us to go places, to talk to people, to be involved in things that we would have never been involved with otherwise.

This is something that Kim and I have been talking about recently. It kind of fits, you know, where we are personally, but it also fits where we are as a church. And one of the scriptures that has come up a couple times as we've been talking about this is Deuteronomy chapter 32, where it talks about the eagle stirring up the nest and hovering over its young and spreading out its wings and taking it up and carrying them on its wings and using that as a description of how the Lord worked in the nation of Israel.

The eagle stirs up its nest. The picture that's being painted there that Moses is referencing is an eagle swooping out the chiclets from the nest, letting them experience the sensation of falling down.

And then swooping down underneath them to catch them on its back and then takes them back up to the nest. And the whole point of this exercise is for those baby birds to begin to learn how to flap their wings and fly because they're in a panic as they're falling.

flapping their wings as fast as they can and it's not fast enough. The first few times they're not strong enough. They have to build the strength in their wings. They're not ready to fly until they've fallen quite a few times and then after they've fallen a few times they've had enough exercise then the mom tips over the nest and then the baby eagles are able to fly. They're able to on their own not hit the ground without mom swooping in to catch them.

It's used as a description of how God works. He scatters us. Sometimes he rocks the nest, kicks us out. Now he doesn't let us splat, but he does let us fall. We feel that sensation. We feel that fear. We feel that panic, you know, and the Lord's with us the whole time. He's right there. He bears us up on his wings, but he's working. He's building. He's stirring up the nest, teaching us, training us.

to do things that we wouldn't do otherwise, to go places we wouldn't go otherwise, to have conversations we wouldn't otherwise have. He's allowing this to take place for our good, to put us to work, to engage us in his work. Many times within a church, there will be a lack or a void. You know, let's say someone who's been leading children's ministry for a long time is now moving out of state. And now it's like, oh no, what are we going to do?

So many times that's a good thing because that void causes other people to be stretched, to be scattered, you know, pressure to be applied. And they begin to flap their wings and yeah, it doesn't all happen automatically overnight, but they begin to grow and stretch and fill that need. And so many times those types of things are good.

They push us to do things that maybe we wouldn't have done. I wouldn't have volunteered for children's ministry, but man, there was the need, there was this pressure and boom, I began to flap my wings and get involved. I was asked recently, you know, as mentioned, you know, hey, how come we don't bring in

other pastors while you're on vacation and stuff. You know, we could bring in, you know, people from different churches and, you know, get some cool speakers in here and people would enjoy that. And I know that people would, but also I know that people need the opportunity to flap their wings here within the fellowship. And God wants to do that. And so sometimes we might apply pressure and say, hey, you're teaching on Sunday. Get ready. I'm trying to flap your wings. I'm

You're going to serve. Hey, we're going to do an outreach. And it's like, ah, you know, freak out. That's okay. It's good. We need that scattering from the Lord. You know, last year we had the remodeling here in the church, right? Man, I was flapping my wings with a hammer in the hand, right? It was just like forced me to do things I would have never expected to do. If you would have asked me, you know, a year and a half ago, Jerry, you're going to be framing windows. Yeah, right. I would have never, ever, ever expected to do that.

But there was a scattering. There was a pressure. It wasn't like, hey, I really want to learn this. I want to do these things. It was just, this is where we are. We have to take action. We have to do this. And many times in our personal lives, God will use these things to push us to go and do things that we don't want to do. Listen, if your Christian life is

allows you to only do the things that you want to do and are comfortable doing, then expect a scattering in the future. Because God wants you to take steps of faith. He wants you to go forward and grow and stretch and be stretched. And it doesn't mean that the church was in outright rebellion because they didn't go to those areas, but this is the way that the Lord uses to bring them to these places where the gospel needs to go. And

The Samaritans were not people that the Jewish people wanted to relate to. There was so much prejudice against the Jews. But where did the Christians go to the Samaritans? Their heart has been changed. Their priorities refocused and changed. They're reaching out to those that they were brought up to despise. And they're preaching the gospel. They're bringing forth the good news. That's a changed life.

And maybe they wouldn't have volunteered to go to Samaria, but they're scattering. They're running for their lives. And so here they are encountering Samaritans and sharing the gospel with them. The church is scattered for good. It's good for us. It puts us to work, causes us to engage in ways that we would have never engaged otherwise. Well, the final point is a quick one. In verses five through eight, a scattering brings joy to many. Verse five says,

Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. So here's 5,000 people that flee from Jerusalem. And Luke gives us one example. And I think that's important to consider. This is one example of 5,000, roughly speaking. One example. This isn't, you know, the only thing that happened. This isn't the biggest thing that happened. This is just, he highlights Philip. He's going to talk about Philip later on in the chapter as well.

And so he highlights this one example in verse six. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits crying with a loud voice came out of many who were possessed and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city. Here we see the ministry of Philip. He wouldn't have volunteered probably. He didn't sign up to go to Samaria, but fleeing for his life, he finds himself in Samaria and

As he's ministering, as he's preaching the word, God is doing a miracle. God is doing incredible works and many people are responding. And as they do, there's great joy in the city. Again, this is one example of many. There were many other believers who spread out and went all around there. And there were many similar stories of people coming to Jesus and God doing works and miracles taking place. And here again is where I say we need to learn to rest in the sovereignty of God.

He was doing a great work through that persecution. Now, notice this account is told from God's perspective. It's probably safe to think that every person wasn't like super calm. Oh man, there's persecution. Well, I guess we'll just move and, you know, preach the word everywhere. That's probably not the way they said it. They were fleeing for their lives. They were frantic and

Philip's wife is probably saying, what are we going to do? Where are we going to go? I don't know. We're just going to go, Philip says. You know, like there was the panic. There was the concern. This is just looking at from God's perspective, you know, this is what happened. And so we can see that perspective, but don't take that to mean that everybody was just like, okay, yeah, no problem. You know, we'll just move and preach the word everywhere. That's not how it works. Sometimes we kind of beat ourselves up for how we react to things, but sometimes

But these were people just like us. They were reacting just like we were reacting. They were concerned for their kids just like they were concerned for their kids. They were freaked out and stressed out, but going because they had to. And God, in the midst of all that, was going to do a great work and bring joy to many. Like Joseph said to his brothers, you guys meant this for evil, what you did to me. But God meant it for good to bring many people alive. We can rest in the sovereignty of God.

You can look at the things in your life and think, man, these people mean it for evil. It seems like it's for evil. There's this scattering. There's this pressure. There's all this going on. It seems like it's for evil, but we can rest in the sovereignty of God, knowing that God is in control and that he uses these things. And as we're experiencing this pressure, this persecution, this affliction, he is convicting unbelievers.

He is producing new work in you and stretching you to trust him in ways you haven't had to trust him before. Stretching you to minister, to reach out, to pray, whatever he might be doing in your life, but putting you to work, moving you forward. And it's not just for you, but the results of what happens in your life as you go and do these things and are affected by these things, he's going to accomplish through you bringing joy to many.

that your life is going to impact others. Other people are going to be ministered to. We're scattered for good. God is on the throne working. We can trust in him. He allows these things. He works these things in our lives for our good. He flips over the nest and we freak out. But God's working something good in the midst of it. Again, as you consider the church here in Acts chapter 8, it was a dark season for them. They just lost Stephen and

Not just, you know, he died of old age, but he was murdered by the Jewish leaders. And now they're trying to get them. There's great persecution. There's isolation. As everybody flees, it's every man for himself, every family for themselves. It's a dark season for the church. They were, I'm sure, depressed in many times, many seasons, many nights, confused, overwhelmed, concerned. What's going on? Why would this happen? How could God allow this?

I like what Warren Wiersbe says about this. He says, never give up when the enemy seems to be winning. It may be your finest hour of victory. Never give up. At this point, they probably said, man, the enemy seems like he's winning. But God says, no, no, no. I'm going to take this work here in Jerusalem, and I'm going to explode it across the world through this event. This is a victory. I'm going to do my work, bringing conviction to unbelievers,

putting the church, the Christians, to work all over the place and bringing joy to many. It's the way that God works. We need to learn to rest and trust in his sovereignty. He's able to do these things in our lives as well. Let's pray. Lord, I pray for our hearts as we consider Acts chapter eight, Lord, and as we consider the areas, Lord, where we have been scattered or are being scattered, Lord, recognizing that you're able to use us

Even the things that enemies desire to use for evil against us and intend evil against us, Lord, you're able to turn those things around and use them for good, not just for our good, but for the good of many people. Lord, it's so hard to see that in the midst of these difficulties and situations, but Lord, help us increase our faith, Lord, that we would trust you completely and recognize that

Lord, that you do have things in control and that we can rest in you. And Lord, we can accept the things that are happening in our lives, knowing that you work all these things together for good as we love you, as we seek to live out your call and purpose in our lives. Lord, you're doing a work. You're doing a work in us. You're doing a work in reaching unbelievers and you're doing a work in bringing joy to people around us. So Lord, help us to not fight you on that work,

Help us to trust you in it and to go along for the ride and watch you accomplish your purposes through us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.