Stephen has been stoned to death for proclaiming the deity of Jesus. The fact that the Sanhedrin has gotten away with executing him gives them, and other enemies of the church, greater boldness to bring persecution against the Christians.
"On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Jerusalem and Samaria." (Acts 8:1b) The word translated "persecution" is the Greek "diogmos" which means "to hunt down, to pursue, to chase". It is a word that would be most often used to describe the hunting of game, so Luke is telling us not only that the enemies of the church hunted the Christians down like animals, but that they enjoyed it in the same way an avid hunter would enjoy tracking and killing wild game.
It's natural that the apostles and the new believers would have gathered as one large group in Jerusalem, the center of worship. The church first became the church at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Jesus Himself predicted that the gospel message would begin to be taught at Jerusalem, but He never instructed the church to stay there from then on. Instead He told them, "You will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8b) I'm not saying the church was operating outside the Lord's will by remaining at Jerusalem, but I think that until persecution came they might have been getting a little too comfortable there. In our own times we are in danger of getting too comfortable inside the walls of our churches. It is Biblical for us to gather together as the church for the purpose of prayer, study, fellowship, and encouragement. But it's also Biblical for us to go out into the world and be the church, to be the hands and feet of Jesus in a hurting world, and to bring the message of hope to our fellow man.
The apostles themselves do not flee in fear of their lives, but the other believers head out with their families for safer regions. It is imperative for the apostles to stand strong in the face of opposition, no matter the threat to their lives, in order to encourage the other believers to share the gospel wherever they go. No doubt Satan thought the persecution of the church would soon lead to its being disbanded, but it had the opposite effect: it spread the gospel. When Luke says the believers were "scattered" he uses the Greek "diaspora", with the most basic meaning of this term being "to scatter seed". It calls to mind the image of a farmer walking down the rows of his field swinging his arm widely in an arc to cast handfuls of seed into the rich earth where it will soon spring up. Satan thought he could destroy the church down to its very roots by bringing persecution against it, but the persecution only scattered the seed of the gospel, causing it to come up and flourish in more and more places outside of Jerusalem.
"Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him." (Acts 8:2) Stephen wasn't a perfect man but he was a very godly and faithful man. His death was a huge loss for all who knew and loved him. In life he did great things for the kingdom of Christ and in his death he also did great things for the kingdom of Christ, because it was his death that first prompted the gospel to move outside the walls of Jerusalem and eventually into the rest of the world. The enemies of the church likely felt Stephen had given his life in vain for a false religion, but there was nothing the least bit useless about the sacrifice of his life for the sake of the gospel. God used what happened on that sad day in a mighty way to cause the church to grow and prosper.
As we close today we get another glimpse into the character of Saul of Tarsus, "But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison." (Acts 8:3) A more literal rendering of what Luke tells us is that Saul laid waste to the church, or that he ravaged it, or that he brutalized it, or that he devastated it. Following his conversion, when the man now known as the Apostle Paul testifies before King Agrippa, he says of his previous behavior, "I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord's people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities." (Acts 26:9-11)
Paul says of his former life, "It wasn't enough for me to persecute the Christians at Jerusalem. I hated them so much I wanted to hunt them down to the ends of the earth. I wanted to wipe the name and the memory of Jesus of Nazareth from history. I have the blood of the Lord's people on my hands, a stain nothing could ever wash away except the blood of the very One whose church I formerly persecuted. I don't deserve to be called an apostle because of all the ways I sinned against the Lord Jesus Christ. But He extended grace and forgiveness to me anyway, and He offered me a chance to become someone new, and it's by His grace that I am a minister of the gospel. Because He has shown such marvelous grace to me, I intend to declare His gospel wherever I go. I will not waste the opportunity He's given me." (paraphrased from 1 Corinthians 15:9-10)
The man who once had the blood of the Christians on his hands will become a Christian himself when he recognizes his sins and realizes nothing can wash them away but the blood of Christ.
Those of you who have been following this blog for a long time will recognize the song I'm posting the link to below. It's one of my favorite songs about the blood of Jesus and I've posted this link several times before in previous studies. I hope it is as much of a blessing to you as it is to me.
This Blood
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