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All right. Beautiful singing. So, if I have not met you, my name is Aaron, and I’m the preaching pastor here. I’m glad that you’re with us this morning. So if you have a Bible with you, please open up to Acts chapter eight. We have a text history from verses one through three. If you don’t have a Bible with you, there are pew Bibles kind of scattered throughout, and it’s on page 534. If you do have a Bible and you have kind of found it, but not sure where Acts exactly is located, it’s kind of in the back quarter of the Bible. It’s right after the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and then Acts.
As I mentioned, our text for study is from chapter eight, verses one through three. So this time, let me read those verses, and then we’ll pray again, and then we’ll work through this text together.
So, Acts eight, starting in verse one, reads: “And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. They were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him, but Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.”
So that’s God’s word for us this morning. Would you please pray with me?
Lord, thank you for bringing us together this morning. And, Lord, I pray that you would bless the preaching of your word for the glory of Jesus. Please, God, help me to be a good communicator. And, Lord, we do pray that the Spirit would be at work, that you would teach us from your word, teaching us in ways that we are more committed and more joyful in Jesus. In his name, Amen.
Just to start off the sermon this morning, let me read for you a hymn—actually, a hymn that I read for you in the past, though it’s been, I think, a handful of years since I’ve done this hymn. This hymn was written in 1860 by a man named Basil Manly, who’s actually one of the founders of Southern Seminary, which is where I went to school. Manly wrote this hymn to commemorate the school’s first-ever opening convocation, which is only sung at the first-ever convocation of the school, but nearly every year since, including all the years when I was there in seminary.
So, the title of this hymn is simply “Soldiers of Christ, in Truth Arrayed,” which comes from the first line of the hymn. So let me read it for you. There are four verses.
So, the first one:
“Soldiers of Christ, in truth arrayed,
A world in ruin needs your aid;
A world by sin destroyed and dead,
A world for which the Savior bled.
His gospel to the lost proclaim,
Good news to all in Jesus’ name.
Let light upon the darkness break,
That sinners from their death may wake.”
Morning and evening shall sow the seed;
God’s grace the effort shall succeed.
Seed times of tears have often been found
When sheaves of joy and plenty crowned.
In the last verse, which is actually the one that sticks out most to me from this hymn, verse four:
“We meet to part, but part to meet,
When earthly labors are complete;
So join in yet more blessed employ
In an eternal world of joy.”
The reason why this last verse sticks out most to me is just that line: “We meet to part, but part to meet.” Meaning, in this life as Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ, a very real part of being a faithful soldier of Christ with truth arrayed is that we come together to meet together, to connect, to build one another up, but doing so in ways we’re intentionally seeking to part. Ways to go through the world that is ruined in sin, a world for which our Savior, the Lord, bled, to go to them as witnesses to proclaim the message of the gospel—the good news of forgiveness of sin found in Jesus Christ, the one who died and rose again for sinners. Meeting to part, doing so knowing in the end that when our Lord returns, we’ll eternally meet again in his joyous presence, where we’ll never part again.
Now, before we work through our text this morning, let me just share a few things up front with you. First, I thought it appropriate to mention why this passage that I just read for you from the book of Acts. As you know, this summer we went through a sermon series on the Book of James, where a number of different guys in the church preached the vast majority of those sermons and did such a great job with that. I appreciate those sermons for many reasons, one of which is that this summer I actually had a little bit more headspace, maybe, to think about things that I don’t always have space or margins to think through when I’m writing sermons each week.
Over the course of summer, I actually had a few different people—few of you asked me about what are the things you’re thinking through, working through with the extra margin that I had? This text, Acts eight, is actually one of the answers to that question. This passage, really, that which surrounds this passage, is one of the primary things I was chewing on throughout the summer. So today, before we get back to where we left off in the sermon series on Hebrews, finishing where we stopped in May, I wanted to work through this passage here just to help think through all the things I’ve been chewing on. I can maybe share with you a passage I think does capture the hymn of meeting to part, parting to meet.
Second, let me just briefly give you some quick background information on the Book of Acts. The Book of Acts is actually volume two of a two-part series that a man named Luke wrote to a different man named Theophilus. As Luke set out to give Theophilus, who doesn’t appear to be a Christian, an orderly account concerning the things of Jesus Christ. Volume one is referred to as the Gospel of Luke, where the author, Luke, gave an orderly account on information concerning things like the virgin birth of our Lord, information on his life, his teaching, his ministry, his miracles, his fulfillment of the Old Testament, which includes Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension back into heaven, where Jesus has gone before us to prepare a heavenly kingdom that is to come. That was volume one.
Then, in volume two, which we call Acts, Luke picks up where he left off in the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus Christ. In this second volume, Luke shared with Theophilus how the early Christian church started, and not only how it started, but how it expanded through the preaching of the good news of Jesus Christ—or through the preaching, through the witness of God’s people that was powered by the Holy Spirit—how the gospel advanced, how the church advanced, which we can pick up in our sermon today.
Third, let me quickly mention how we’re going to work through this passage today. As a church, as many of you know, we practice something referred to as expository preaching, which is a style of preaching where the preacher basically tries to teach and explain the passage in its original context while also applying the passage to us today. We do this by working through a passage—not just cherry-picking through verses of the Bible to try to piece the sermon together; rather, we pick a passage and see what it’s saying in its context, as mentioned in the original setting, to understand the original author’s intent, how that passage fits into the storyline of the book it’s in, and also the storyline of the Bible, and how it just relates to Jesus Christ and his gospel message. From there, we try to apply it to our lives today.
Most often, when we do this here, we spend a little bit of time surrounding the context of the passage and then spend the lion’s share of the time focusing on the few verses or maybe an entire chapter. Today, we’re actually going to work through the sermon in a different way. We’re going to spend the lion’s share of our time working through the context. We’re going to work through everything that kind of leads up to Acts 8:13, and then when we get to Acts 8:13, we’ll actually spend a little bit less time there. We’re going to do that today simply because I think for us to feel the gravity, the weight of our passage from Acts eight, we actually need to spend a lot of time considering everything building up to that.
So that being said, if you want to look back with me, not at Acts eight, but starting actually in Acts one, I’m just going to kind of be working through that. So if you want to page along as I go through, you’re welcome to do that.
In Acts one, as mentioned, the author Luke is picking up where we left off in volume one, the Gospel of Luke. In Acts one, we see that Jesus was among his people after the resurrection from the dead, where Luke wrote in verse three that the Lord presented himself alive to his followers, presenting himself alive after his sufferings, doing so with many proofs to prove that he did rise again from the dead. We see that he did this for a 40-day period, where in this 40-day period, the Lord also was preaching and teaching about the coming of the kingdom of God.
In Acts one, as Jesus was doing this, notice that this was all taking place in Jerusalem. So just notice that this is all taking place in Jerusalem, and it’s actually where Jesus even instructed his followers that they were to stay, that they were to remain in Jerusalem. They remained there because something significant was about to happen there, namely in Jerusalem. They were going to be baptized by the Holy Spirit, which relates to perhaps the most famous verse in the Book of Acts, Acts 1:8, that I’m sure many of you are familiar with, where the Lord told his followers, “But you will receive power from the Holy Spirit,” the third member of the blessed Trinity. As they received that power, Jesus told them that this was going to happen not many days from now. As they received the power of the Holy Spirit, then they would be witnesses to him, to Jesus Christ, starting in Jerusalem, which is mentioned where they were currently at, where they were actually being called to stay for that time. But then, in time, they were to move out from Jerusalem. Acts 1:8 tells us they were to be witnesses in all Judea and Samaria and eventually to all the ends of the earth.
Okay, now, just a few things here. First, related to geography. Obviously, we know Jerusalem is a city, but Judea and Samaria were actually regions in the area. Jerusalem was in Judea, and Samaria was just north of Jerusalem. So, Acts 1:8 starts by witnessing in Jerusalem, where you currently are located, but then you start moving out from there to the regions closest to you. But don’t stop there. Keep moving until you get to the very ends of the earth itself.
Maybe a friend might be saying, like, “You are to be my witnesses in Madison, but then you’re to move out to all of Dane County and throughout all of Wisconsin to our general region here, but then to continue to move out all the way to the ends of the earth.”
Second, this call to be a witness to Jesus Christ to all the ends of the earth—obviously, this is an incredible call to hear, especially considering the group of believers at the end of Acts one. This is a group of 120 people. Right? That’s it. They are to be witnesses all over the world. So, this had to be a hard call to hear. I mean, can you imagine what’s going through their minds when Jesus tells them this? When they hear this incredible call, this should not have been a surprising call for these first Christians.
If you read through the storyline of the Bible, this has actually always been the call—God having a heart to send his people to all corners of the earth. In fact, this is the call that has been there from the very beginning of creation. In the book of Genesis, even before sin, death, and judgment entered into the world, God created our first parents, Adam and Eve, in his image. As he created them in his image, he did so by giving them a command—a mandate to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, to spread the image of God all over creation. This is God’s desire to spread his glory. This didn’t change even after sin, death, and judgment entered into the world.
Because also in Genesis, after God judged the world through the flood, shortly after Noah and his family got off the ark, we read the same mandate given now to Noah: to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. Right after God gave that mandate to Noah, the next story in Genesis is the story of mankind not spreading the glory of God to all corners of the earth. Rather, we see mankind all together in a place called Babel, with the intentions of making themselves like God by building a great tower. It was there that God came and confused the people and confused their languages, which led to mankind now spreading out from Babel to start to fill the earth.
From there, as the story of Babel ends, another story begins with a man named Abram, who in time would have his name changed to Abraham, who would be the great father of faith, a father of many nations. As God came to Abraham, he did so with a promise that through him, through the family line of Abraham, all the families of the earth would be blessed. God continued to reaffirm his desire for his glory, his blessings to fill the entire earth.
I could give you more from the Old Testament, where we see the desire of God to spread his glory over all the earth, which is really at the heart of the Old Testament. But for the sake of time, let me just give a couple of other verses. Some of these you might be familiar with. Psalm 67: “Let the nations be glad and sing for joy.” Then Psalm 96: “O sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Declare his glory among the nations.” Say it again—God’s desire for his glory to spread throughout the entire world. This is at the forefront of the entire Old Testament.
Even from the beginning, it’s not like this is just an Old Testament desire that God had. This is also a desire, a truth that we see in the New Testament as well. Again, I won’t give you all the references, but let me just give you two. First, in the Great Commission, remember this, in Matthew 28, the Great Commission that Jesus gave to his people after his resurrection? Those people were to go with his authority and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching others to follow and obey Jesus and his holy word. Second, how the New Testament ends is in this great picture of eternal life, where in this picture we see people from every nation, all tribes, peoples, tongues—friends, all of the Bible is filled with God’s desire for his mission to expand to all ends of the earth. This is why Christopher Wright, in his very helpful book titled “The Mission of God,” simply wrote that “The whole Bible itself is a missional phenomenon.”
Let’s go back to our passage in Acts. Acts 1:8—it’s not surprising that Jesus told his people that they were to be witnesses from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, all the way to the ends of the earth. The nations, the ends of the earth, have always been on the heart of God for his glory, his message to fill the earth, which God has purposed to do through his people being witnesses to him.
Third, let me also mention that because God’s desire, his plan for his glory to spread to the ends of the earth—that is his heart. We see in Acts 1:8 and other places that he has given to us, to his people, all that we need to accomplish this monumental task. We know that he’s given us his word. He’s given us his promises. He’s given us his assurance, even eternal life. We see a picture. We have assurance that the gospel will go forward. And in Acts 1:8, God has even given to his people, himself, in the person of the Holy Spirit, who dwells inside our hearts to empower us to accomplish this monumental task.
Now, if God did not give us these things, this monumental task to spread the gospel, this message of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth—yes, this would be an impossible task, one that we would be set up for failure. But friends, because God has given us all these things, including the power of his Holy Spirit, we have all that we need to be his witnesses all the way to the ends of the earth.
Keep going. In Acts one, after Jesus gave his commission to his people in verse eight, we read how our Lord descended back to his heavenly throne. As the Lord ascended back, the small band of 120 believers set up shop in Jerusalem, just as Jesus instructed them. We see in Acts one that they were together, praying together, and they were further organizing themselves as a band of believers by adding a man named Matthias to their leadership. It was there they patiently waited for the Holy Spirit to come, which he did come in chapter two.
Well, the Spirit of God did fall on this small band of believers, doing so almost like tongues of fire falling on them. As the Spirit came to fill them, to empower them, we see in Acts that they began to speak in various languages, which no doubt helped them to be witnesses. In chapter two, shortly after the early band of Christians received the promised Holy Spirit, we see Peter, who is one of Jesus’ followers, one of his disciples, an apostle, gave the first Christian sermon, which he also did in Jerusalem, where the Lord providentially brought people all over the land to hear the gospel proclaimed.
I won’t read all the list of nations represented to hear Peter’s sermon; you can read about them starting in chapter two, verse nine. In chapter two, as Peter witnessed Jesus Christ through this first Christian sermon, he proclaimed the gospel—the good news of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the means by which we can find forgiveness of sin. We see in Acts two that this witness, powered through the Holy Spirit, was effective—so effective that 3,000 responded to the message, responded to the witness of Peter, responding with repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
In keeping with the repentance and faith, as many as received Jesus Christ, they were baptized to symbolize their union with Jesus. As this little band of believers exponentially grew, we see in Acts two that the first church really begins to form in Jerusalem. In Acts two, as the church formed, it just seems like they had such warm, encouraging fellowship with one another. We see in Acts two how they were devoted to the teachings of the apostles and to fellowship and to breaking of bread and to prayers. We see that this first church, as they were together, had all things in common. And as they were together, they watched the Lord perform signs and wonders and miracles through the apostles, just leaving them awestruck.
This was a daily thing for them. As we read that day by day they were together in each other’s homes and in each other’s lives, hanging out, enjoying fellowship, enjoying friendship, eating food with glad, generous hearts. For us, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to understand how sweet a time this had to be for the church in Jerusalem.
Keep going in the timeline to build to our text. In Acts three, we see one of the great signs and wonders that the Lord did among his people—healed a lame beggar. Not just physically healed this man, but more importantly, spiritually healed him if he was converted to Christ, which not only added to the number but also added to the wonder and amazement of the church in Jerusalem.
As this man was healed, it seemed like the early church felt even more emboldened by the power of the Holy Spirit to be witnesses to Christ. We see at a place called Solomon’s Portico in Jerusalem, we see Peter and John—apostles of Jesus Christ. We see them boldly proclaim Christ, boldly witness to Jesus, to his death, to his resurrection, as the means of forgiveness of sin.
As Peter and John preached the gospel, the message of Jesus at Solomon’s Portico, the crowd responded. At least some in the crowd responded, and the church in Jerusalem continued to grow. We read that not all responded to the message of Jesus Christ. The preaching of the gospel, as we see, as the witness of Christ was spreading throughout the area, the religious leaders in Jerusalem were becoming greatly annoyed with the witness of Jesus Christ. They were annoyed by the witness of Jesus Christ because Jesus was a threat to them—a threat to their power, a threat to their control, a threat to all the influence they had over the people of Jerusalem.
Because of that, they did not want the message of Christ to further spread in the city. So we see the religious leaders went on the offensive. They seized Peter and John and began to make serious threats towards them, hoping that the seizing and the threatening would intimidate the men and intimidate the church into silence, hoping that the church would stop being a witness to Christ.
However, in Acts, we see that that plan backfired mightily. What happened was actually the opposite. We read how God used the threats to actually further empower Peter and John, further empower the early church to become even more bold in their witness to Christ, as the Spirit empowered them not only to be more bold in their witness to Christ but also more committed to their fellowship and living in generosity, which resulted in the message of the gospel further spreading, further taking root in Jerusalem.
We assume the entire city was abuzz by what was taking place. However, let’s keep going. We see the first church controversy arise—at least the first one that we know of. We see much of the church was genuine in their walks with God, honest with their generosity towards others. We read that not all were. There was a couple in the church named Ananias and Sapphira who were not honest with the church, not honest with the Lord about how generous they were being. They were saying one thing publicly for all to hear, giving this perception of how generous they were, but probably doing something very different.
Perhaps over time, they felt they were getting away with this hypocrisy. Perhaps they felt they were able to hide it. But clearly, the Lord could see what was happening, and the Lord revealed to the apostles what actually was taking place. This led the first church not only to confront this couple for their sinful deception, but in Acts, we see the Lord actually struck them down dead when they refused to confess their sin after being confronted.
Even though it had to be hard for the church, a sobering time for the church to go through that with Ananias and Sapphira, the Lord used what happened to actually further strengthen and empower the church in Jerusalem, as great fear came upon them, which also brought greater levels of boldness in their witness to Jesus Christ.
In Acts five, after judgment fell on Ananias and Sapphira, we continue to see that the church was together at Solomon’s Portico. We see that more and more people in the city were putting their faith in Jesus Christ and joining the ranks of the church. And here in Acts five, it wasn’t just the people from inside of Jerusalem who were believing in Jesus. Acts five records that more and more were coming from places even outside of Jerusalem, where they were coming into Jerusalem, believing in Jesus and joining the sweet fellowship of the Jerusalem church.
Keep going. In Acts six, the second recorded controversy arose. This time, a controversy arose due to how things were being distributed among the church, how they were sharing things among them. In Acts six, specifically Hellenistic or Greek-speaking Jews felt like their widows were being neglected or overlooked, not receiving the proper care as the needs were being met.
As this controversy bubbled up, it actually proved to further help the church organize themselves, organize their ministry. How we see the controversy help towards that end is through the early stages of establishment and defining of the role of an elder or pastor, who were to minister to the word and prayer, as well as the office of deacons, who were created to make sure felt needs were being met. Through this thought, through intentional ministries that were forming, the disbursement of that was being shared was actually able to better care for the church as a whole.
Finally, we’re building up to chapter eight, the end of Acts six, and all of Acts seven, which is closely tied to chapter eight, we learn more about a man named Stephen, who was one of the men listed as one of the proto-deacons—a man that was described as a man of good reputation, filled with the Spirit of God, filled with wisdom, who was used by God to display his great power as God did wonders and signs through Stephen among the church.
As Stephen was being used in that way, the religious leaders were getting increasingly more and more frustrated, more and more upset at the Christian church, more and more upset about their witness. So, in their ire, the religious leaders of Jerusalem began to target Stephen. They targeted him specifically because they hated the wisdom by which he spoke. They hated the fruit of the Spirit by which he was displaying his life.
So, the religious leaders targeted Stephen. As they targeted him, they actually seized Stephen and brought him to put him on trial before a council, kind of similar to what they did in Acts four with Peter and John. While on trial, Stephen was asked to give an account for his witness to Jesus Christ. Just like Peter and John, Stephen took advantage of that time by giving an incredible sermon—one I encourage you to read sometime this week.
In this sermon, Stephen traced the entire storyline of the Bible from Abraham, who is mentioned earlier as a man of faith, a man by which the whole earth would be blessed through his family line. As Stephen preached this sermon, he traced the storyline from Abraham all the way to Jesus Christ, the one who came from the family of Abraham, who is the righteous one of God—the very one whom God’s people betrayed and murdered, which they did on the cross. Yet it was through the death and resurrection of Jesus that Stephen let his hearers know how God fulfilled this promise to Abraham. Because through Jesus, his death on the cross in the place of sinners, and his resurrection from the dead, that’s where he finds salvation and blessing to all who by faith come to him, which, by the way, includes all here this morning.
The sermon that Stephen gave was not only incredible in terms of how rich it was, how helpful it was for us to see the storyline of the Bible, and how Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises. But Stephen’s sermon was incredible because of how bold it was. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Stephen didn’t sugarcoat anything. He did not hold back from the truth of Jesus Christ, even though he was being threatened.
However, in Acts six, even though this was a rich, bold sermon, the hearts of the religious leaders who seized Stephen, who put him on trial, did not soften. They did not trust in Jesus and join the ranks of the church in Jerusalem. Rather, as he heard this sermon, they actually hardened their own hearts. The religious leaders not only rejected the message of Jesus but, as Stephen preached, they became more and more enraged.
In their rage, in Acts seven, we read how they started to grind their teeth in anger. They had that much anger towards Jesus, the message of Jesus. Their teeth were grinding, and as the teeth ground, we also see that they bent down to pick up stones—stones that they would take and hurl at Stephen.
As the religious leaders raised their stones, we see in Acts seven how Stephen looked to the heavens. As Stephen looked at the heavens, he gave glory to God. We also see that he was able to see a vision of Jesus standing at the right hand of God the Father. As Stephen saw Jesus, his Lord, his Savior, we read how he then modeled Jesus, where Stephen not only committed his spirit to the Lord, but amazingly, Stephen started to pray for the very ones who were about to stone him, asking God to forgive them of their sin.
This is actually exactly what Jesus did in Luke 23 during his crucifixion. As Jesus was about to die to take on the punishment of our sin in our place, Jesus committed his spirit into his Father’s care while praying for the very ones who were about to kill him.
Let’s make a little side note here. When we see Jesus through the eyes of faith, as he is revealed to us in God’s holy word, friends, what happens? We actually begin to act like him, model him. We become Christlike—so Christlike that we begin to pray for those that we might label as our enemies.
As Acts seven ends, it concludes with Stephen’s life coming to an end as he becomes the first recorded martyr of the church, dying in Jerusalem.
Now, I mentioned at the start how we’re going to approach our text today is different than normal sermons, where I normally just give a little bit of background information and then spend most of our time in the text to study. Today, I’m doing the opposite—a lot of background information where a good portion of our time is all that we just went through. But I wanted to do it this way just because that information really helps us understand the little information that we’re about to look through, which starts in verse one if you want to take your eyes back there.
In Acts 8:1, whereas Stephen was stoned and murdered, we see a man named Saul approving the execution of Stephen. We’re going to talk about Saul more briefly in just a second. Then, in verse one, we read that the killing of Stephen empowered and emboldened the religious leaders and those who were following the religious leaders. We see in our text that there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem.
Up to this point, right, the church in Jerusalem—that’s the only place where the Christian church was. So everything we’ve covered in chapters one through seven, all that taking place in Jerusalem. I should mention here that it’s really hard to know the timeline concerning how much time has passed from chapter one to chapter seven. Church history has not been able to come to a consensus on that timeline. Some think maybe from chapter one to chapter seven, this is maybe like two or three years’ worth. Others think this may actually be a little bit more—maybe like six or so years.
While we don’t know the exact time, we feel safe to say that what happens in chapters one through seven wasn’t just like days or weeks or even months of time. This is somewhere in a handful of years. I’ll say it again—up to this point, everything is in Jerusalem. But our text, this persecution arose, great persecution, changed everything and changed in a way that the church started to scatter, which our text tells us they scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, while the apostles stayed in Jerusalem.
Friends, this is actually what I’ve been chewing on quite a bit this summer—how Acts 8:1, the scattering of the church through persecution, is where we see Acts 1:8 starting to work itself out. Acts 1:8 of God’s people being witnesses to Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, starting in Jerusalem, but then moving to the regions of Judea and Samaria, and continuing to move until they reach the ends of the earth. Talk about this more in just a bit as well, but providentially so, the persecution in Acts 1:8 is starting to be fulfilled.
In our text, verses two and three, we see the church—faithful men, devout men—come to the lifeless body of Stephen. They took the body and buried him, doing so with great lamentation as they grieved the death of the one they loved, one of their leaders.
In verse three, Saul, who stood in approval of killing Stephen in verse one, is now ravaging the church, where he would enter into house after house—the very places where the early church was having such sweet fellowship with each other. Day by day, Saul would go in there, and he’d break up those fellowships. Not only would he break them up, but we see that he would drag men and women from the church and throw them into prison, which also increased the scattering of the church all over the region.
Now, how I want to close our time here is by spending a bit of time talking about the call for God’s people to meet, to part, to part, to meet—which, by the way, is required if we’re going to be witnesses of Jesus Christ. We need to meet to grow, to be strong in our faith, but doing so in ways that we’re also intentionally, prayerfully seeking to part, to go to the world around us with the hopes, the prayers, the desires, the longings to see the gospel spread, to spread from where we currently are, to spread throughout the region, to spread to the ends of the earth itself.
I want to end by further sharing the things I’ve been chewing on this summer. So I have a handful of things.
First, think about all this: this call to be a witness for Jesus Christ. Friends, this is a hard call. There’s a real cost that comes with this call. This call to meet, to part, to part, to meet, to be witnesses—this is a hard call for many reasons. In the text, in the storyline of Acts, there’s the suffering and persecution that came along with it, even though that’s what God providentially used to move the church out of Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria.
By the way, if we’re going to keep going in Acts and serve you through it, we’re going to see how the early church kept going from there and there and there as they kept moving towards the ends of the earth. I won’t go through that with you here, but if you read through Acts, just notice how that happens too. The persecution was hard; it spread them out. But that’s not like the only thing that was hard they had to endure.
I kept thinking about how hard it had to be to leave their community. After all, the church seemed to have such sweet fellowship where they were together day by day in each other’s homes, where they shared life, they shared friendship with one another. That had to be hard to leave to see the gospel spread. And for me, as I was thinking about the hymn line, I’d rather just meet to meet. Parting, saying goodbye—that’s hard.
Within that, this summer, I was also thinking about how hard it had to be to leave their ministries, which in Acts are just still forming, to start new ones. You know, in Acts, it seemed like everything was just so fruitful, so encouraging in the ministry of this early church that they had among each other. That had to be hard to leave, hard to trust that the ministries were ready to be handed off.
If you’re involved in church life and you have a ministry, you know how much you love and appreciate the ministry that God might give you. That had to be hard to leave. I also thought they had to be hard to leave their leaders who stayed behind in Jerusalem as they scattered. Without trying to be self-deprecating here, they literally had the apostles leading them—the apostles teaching them the Bible. I’d ask if you know what that’s like, but being here, I know you don’t.
They also had men like Stephen serving as deacons. That had to be hard to leave. Then to factor in, like, potentially having to leave their jobs, their neighborhoods, maybe their families—they had to leave all they knew and were comfortable with in Jerusalem—all gone as they scattered. As they scattered to be witnesses to the Lord, friends, all that is hard.
I don’t know this to be true, but this summer, I did wonder, because of how hard all these things were, if perhaps the Lord actually had to send the persecution to scatter them. Obviously, the church was doing a great job being a witness in Jerusalem. But because the timeline was years leading up to this point in Acts eight, I wonder if that’s maybe an indication that maybe they were starting to neglect God’s desire for them to be witnesses to Judea and Samaria, to the ends of the earth.
This actually leads to the second thing: because it’s hard to be a witness to Christ, friends, we must continue to help each other fulfill this call. For many, if not all of us, this is not an easy or natural call for us to be witnesses to Jesus Christ. Honestly, what easily and naturally can happen in church life is that we just meet to meet in ways where we stop trying to build each other up in ways that we’re sending each other out. Rather, we just meet to meet to stay in safety and comfort.
Friends, we have to help each other on this end, providing encouragement and accountability to help us intentionally seek to get into the lives of the world around us so that we can be witnesses to the love of Jesus Christ to others.
The third thing I was actually thinking about: friends, we have all that we need to be witnesses of Jesus Christ. I keep saying it. Yeah, it’s hard to be a witness to Jesus. I do think one of the reasons why it’s hard, why it’s maybe just easier to meet to meet, is we can feel inadequate to do this work—maybe just not as gifted. Or maybe we just get so focused on all the times that we failed, and so we just want to stop doing it, try to ignore it.
You know, to go back to what I said earlier: if left on our own to do this work, it would be true—we could not do it. But friends, we’re not left on our own. We have each other. We have the promises of God. We have the assurance of God. And as Acts 1:8 reminds us, we have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in our hearts with all of his power to empower us to do this monumental call.
Now, in the Book of Acts, there certainly was a unique time in church history where God was doing incredible, unique acts. However, that being said, friends, we have everything that the early church had, and actually even more because we have all the New Testament. We just have to trust God with it.
I just want to close this morning by giving you a few more thoughts because we have all that we need to fulfill our calls. Let me just give you a few practical thoughts for us on how that might work out here.
So, first, maybe practically, because we have all that we need to fulfill this call to be witnesses, I think it might be helpful to take the principle of Acts 1:8 and then try to personalize it. As you do that, recognize that for many, maybe most of us, like, we actually will never leave Madison. This might be the place that God has planted us to be for the rest of our lives. There’s nothing wrong with that.
So let me encourage us to take the principle of Acts 1:8 and try to apply it to our situation here, where you start by seeking out to be a witness where God has placed you—like in your neighborhood, at your places of work. None of us have actual legitimate excuses to neglect doing that.
Even if the person—your neighbor, the person you work with—feels like they’re too far gone to be reached for Christ, if I can encourage you back to our text, Saul, who stood with approval of killing Stephen, who was ravaging the church—remember, very shortly after this passage, he actually gets converted to Christ. Not only was he converted to Christ, but Paul actually becomes an apostle, and the first foreign missionary. He actually becomes one of the greatest witnesses to Christ the world has ever known.
So don’t think that your neighbor, your coworker, those people already planted in your life, are too far gone. Who knows how the Lord might use your witness in your life? So we start there, right? We start with the people God has already planted in our lives, but then apply the principle—always looking to expand our witness to more and more areas.
Second, I was thinking about this: because we have all that we need to be witnesses, friends, let’s be intentional to make disciples. There’s a great book simply titled “The Master Plan of Evangelism.” I do love this book, and this really is a book more on discipleship than on evangelism. This book helps us to see that making disciples is actually a real way how we are being witnesses to Christ.
None of us on our own can reach everyone in the world. But when we’re making disciples, where we’re teaching others how to obey and follow Christ, what we are doing is multiplying ourselves—multiplying our witness for Christ. To this end, let me encourage all of us to prayerfully seek ways to make disciples. Maybe find someone who’s younger in the faith than you are and come alongside them to help mature them in the faith, to help grow them in the faith, to teach them how to serve God and others in the faith—to disciple them on how they are to be witnesses of Jesus Christ.
By the way, this does include parents discipling your children. If you don’t have children to disciple, good news! Soon a whole bunch of college students will be moving back to Madison and into our church family. Maybe that’s what you can do—to come alongside one of them and disciple them.
For T and I, as you know, last week we sent off our daughter Maddie to Green Bay for school. I’d love for someone to do that for her. I’m sure there are parents all over Wisconsin that would love for someone to do that for their son or daughter moving to Madison. Maybe that’s you.
The third thing, kind of tied to this as I think about this summer, because we have all that we need, let’s be intentional to try to multiply our small groups. That’s actually one of the things I probably thought about the most this summer as it relates to this passage—the need for us to seek and continue to seek to find ways to multiply our small groups. That’s a great place where discipleship occurs.
I mentioned this last week, and I’ll mention this again this week: we could really use more small groups to let more people in. Friends, a very real part of our small group is meeting to part in ways that our small groups are actually multiplying, where there are more and more groups spreading out throughout the Madison area so more people can come in.
By the way, I know this might be practically hard because of varying logistics, but I think it would be great if we had more small groups forming based on proximity to where we live, with the hopes that as we can work together to reach that region, that neighborhood of Madison, or that Madison area where you’re currently living.
Last one: because we have all that we need, let’s be intentional to raise people up from within us to then send them out by us. Whether it be to lead and care for a different local church, maybe it is to raise up a small group from our body to form some type of core group with the hopes of trying to start another church in the Madison area, or simply to raise people up to send them out to the foreign mission field to go to places where the witness of Jesus Christ is severely lacking.
Let’s be intentional, prayerful, hopeful that God would use our little church family to raise people up, to send them out to our Judea, our Samaria, to the ends of the earth. Church, raising up and sending out—this must continue to be a very real part of who we are as a church if we’re going to be faithful to the Lord and the call he’s given to us.
I say it again—it’s really hard to meet, to part. But friends, may we trust the Lord that as we meet to part, it’s not going to be a forever parting, but one day when our Lord returns for us, we’re going to come back together, and we’ll have the sweetest of all fellowships, and we will eternally meet not just with each other but also with Jesus.
But until that time comes, church, may we be soldiers of Christ in truth arrayed, who for the glory of Christ, for the joy of Christ, faithfully go to the world that needs our aid—a world by sin destroyed and dead, a world for which our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, bled.
Let’s pray.
Lord, please forgive us where we have failed. And Lord, please help us to trust and to believe that indeed you have given all that we need to be your faithful witnesses. And Lord, please help us to do that well here as a church, whether it be through witnessing to those that are already placed in our lives or witnessing on the other ends of the earth. Please help us to be faithful here.
Lord, we do pray that for the glory of Christ and our joy in him, that you might use our church family to do a great work—that you call many to saving faith in Jesus. We pray so in his name. Amen.