Last night I had an interesting dream about the church being scattered in an end-times persecution. I do have some very interesting dreams at times. Anyway, that got me thinking about the early church and the persecution that arose after Stephen's stoning, and how the church was scattered. I thought I would spend some time reflecting on that this morning. The record of this is brief and found in Acts 8:1-8, and in Acts 11:19-21 NIV:
Chapter 8: [1]"And Saul approved of their killing him.
[2] On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. [2] Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. [3] But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
[4] Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. [5] Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. [6] When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. [7] For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. [8] So there was great joy in that city."
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Chapter 11:[19] "Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. [20] Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. [21] The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord."
One thing is immediately clear when reading these texts, the scattering did not stop people from preaching the Gospel, and while possibly afraid for their lives, they considered the Gospel of utmost importance. The Christians were likely traveling in small groups, sometimes even alone, but were continuing to live their lives of faith and openly demonstrating the kingdom realities. Maybe they thought they were out-running the persecution, but it clearly spread as well for earlier in Acts 9, we find that Saul was actually pursuing the Christians all the way to Damascus.
Anyway, back to the reflection, because of my dream, my thoughts this morning were on the instructions the church received before leaving Jerusalem. We don't know anything about the specifics, but we can glean some insight from the previous verses. That they were headed out to areas that were not strong-holds of Christiandom is clear, they were being sent or scattered to largely unreached peoples. I have reflected previously on how this persecution actually allowed them to begin to fulfill the great commission found in Matt 28, and we can clearly see this in both sections. Philip was preaching to Samaritans, and in Chapter 11 we see the Gospel being preached to the Greeks, both groups of people that would have been excluded with a Jew's only focus. Thus, we can conclude that in their final instructions, there was an encouragement to continue to bear witness to the Gospel, regardless of where you ended up.
Secondly, both of these sections are followed by help coming from Jerusalem, so we know that people were still in contact with one another, despite being separated by miles and miles, with no direct communication methods that we enjoy today. There must have been some sort of communications network in tact, enabling person-to-person news to be communicated back to the home church in Jerusalem, and there must have been some direction around this given to people before they left. I find this encouraging, for we could think that in the scattering, people were just left on their own, each left to their own concerns and struggles, and we find the opposite. They were connected, they did have a sense of being a part of the Body of Christ, despite their travels. If we look back at Acts 2 and 4, we can see the type of community that was developed, they were very close, shared with one another and looked after one another. This type of connected life was absolutely essential to the continued well-being of the Church, especially under persecution. We would be well coached to make sure that we are encouraging a similar life connectedness in the church today!
As I was just thinking about this whole event, I saw an image of trying to put out a fire by spreading the embers all over, causing them to be separated from one another. This is actually a fine method, unless the embers are spread into dry grass, or other highly flammable substances, in which case this scattering would result in multiple new fires. I see here the enemy trying to stomp out the fire of the newly birthed church through persecution, and ending up spreading wildfire that would engulf the whole of the known world! Whoops! Oh that we would have the same fire burning in our hearts today, for clearly the world is dry and ready for the fire of God!
I was reminded of a couple of verses from Obadiah 1:17-18 NIV:
[17] "But on Mount Zion will be deliverance; it will be holy, and Jacob will possess his inheritance.
[18] Jacob will be a fire and Joseph a flame; Esau will be stubble, and they will set him on fire and destroy him.
There will be no survivors from Esau.” The Lord has spoken."
I like the imagery of Jacob being a fire and Joseph a flame, not for some sort of destruction, but rather for the rapid spread of the fire of passion for God! The persecution of the church did exactly that, it spread the fire of God out amongst the Greeks, the Samaritans, and the whole world! They heard in the words and passion for the Gospel, and saw the workings of the miracles and healings and this caught them on fire!
One wonders if when we pray for the Lord to fan the flames that sometimes He allows a scattering to better fan the flames into a bigger fire?! The other thing that is evident is that the Church was encouraged by these new fires, and they sent those to help stoke the fires, and bring teaching and direction and guidance! They weren't afraid to turn up the brightness, even with the persecution raging around them! They understood they were about a world-changing effort and were encouraged by the continued growth in the very face of persecution. This was not like the lost tribes of Israel where 10 tribes just seemed to disappear into the populations they were scattered to! Instead of cowering in fear, and trying to blend into the communities in which they were hiding these early Christians instead proclaimed the Gospel, shining their light for all to see! Oh, that we would have this same passion today!
This morning I am encouraged to pray for the fire of the Holy Spirit to burn brighter in each of us. I am encouraged to pray that the Lord might cause the fire of passion for Him to be spread! I am encouraged that the plans of the enemy will back-fire and that which he tries to quench will instead turn into a wild-fire that sweeps the world!
Amen, come Lord!
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