Acts 8:1 “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.”
The writer of the Acts of the Apostle is Luke, and Luke tells the history of the early (the beginning) church. He will open with the last words of Jesus before His ascension where He tells His disciples to TAKE the gospel to the world. Hopefully you recall Acts 1:8 but in case you don’t it says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
As Luke starts Acts 8, he has just told us in Acts 7 about Stephen’s thought-provoking message filled with the history of Israel and how Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the OT prophecies. At the conclusion of Acts 7 he tells how Stephen was stoned to death by a hate filled mob of Jews. As chapter 8 starts we get our first look at the man who would become of the great apostle Paul. As you may recall the Apostle Paul had a Hebrew name, Saul, and Saul was standing there consenting, agreeing with the martyr of Stephen.
Luke will go on to tell that this event would unleash a “great persecution” designed to stamp out the church. Astonishly a different result happened as instead of the persecution stamping out the church it causes the church to SCATTER. The persecution designed to stamp out the church got the “church” to SPREAD out to where Jesus had told them to GO!! The gospel is now going to the “regions of Judea and to Samaria.”
Persecution propelled the proclamation of the gospel to unreached regions.
We have a tendency to wonder when things are bad – rough – hard to want to ask God what is He up to? From an evangelism professor at The Criswell College over 40 years ago I was taught He is always up to getting the gospel to the world!! In Acts 8:1 God used persecution to get church members to SCATTER in order to SPREAD the gospel! He used persecution to propel the proclamation of the precious gospel of Jesus Christ.
On your DATE with the WORD what might God be allowing to happen in your life to give you an opportunity to share the gospel? Remember that Paul, formerly Saul, would write to the Philippians that being in jail was an opportunity for the “furtherance of the gospel.” See Philippians 1:12.
Continue Strong boldly proclaiming the gospel,
And remember to DATE the Word