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Acts 8:1-8 & 11:19-30
Last week we saw that the first Christian community lived in harmony with the people of Jerusalem (2:47) but this was not to last, soon official irritation became anger. The apostles were pulled in and asked to account for their behaviour (4:4-5): wise counsel prevailed and they were released. But it was a temporary reprieve, the authorities were looking for an excuse to clamp down.
Some time later Stephen the evangelist was arrested and hauled before the council – his defense was a blistering critique of Israel’s leadership (chapter 7). As a result, official anger became violence: Stephen was murdered and many more were to follow (7:59-8:4).
Stephen was not killed for being a Christian, he was martyred because he had told powerful people something they did not wish to hear (7:54-59). It is the same today, no-one will ever suffer for ‘being a Christian’. Take the case of Kwabena Peat, a teacher in North London who complained that a training sesion had been used to promote a homosexual lifestyles. Mr Peat was suspended and is threatened with losing his job. In our society you offend the powerful by being insufficiently enthusiastic about homosexual lifestyles – challenge this and you pay the price.
There is an extraordinary claim in Psalm 103:19, “The Lord has made the heavens his throne, he rules over everything”. God is in control. Even as they killed Stephen those powerful men of Jeruslalem were playing into God’s hands, the persecution that followed was all part of his purpose. God was kicking his kids out of Jerusalem!
But why was he doing this?
Jerusalem: the comfort zone
Jesus left his apprentices with a command to preach the gospel in Jesusalem, Judaea, Samaria and the whole world. Seven chapters later they have not moved beyond Jerusalem. And why should they? Everyone was having a great time and they were just getting to know each other!
Most Christians are quite happy to let the rest of the human race die in their sins than do something about it. Many of us substitute prayer and giving for the uncomfortable business of going – we sub-contract mission and evangelism to the enthusiasts and stay well inside our comfort zone. The situation is the Jerusalem church just before Stephen got up to confront the council is indicative of the complacency at the heart of most Christians – happy to applaud Stephen, unwilling to immitate him.
That’s why God kicked his kids out of Jerusalem.
Affliction: God’s cure for complacency
The apostles sayed but the congregation moved out in every direction. Luke picks up the story:
Luke 11:19-21
Wherever they went people would ask the same question, “What brings you here?” and the Christians would answer?
The point here is that persecution achieved what nothing else could, it got the believers moving and it gave them something to talk about. God had cured their complacency – the church was on the move.
Wanna know the good news? It doesn’t have to be this way... you can actually chose to do the job so that God doesn’t have to kick you out.
Almost five years ago sixty of us left Bethany in Houghton to start this new congregation. We had been planning it for ages but as the time drew near it was clear that a lot of people didn’t want it to happen: the church in Houghton were well dug into their comfort zone. Oh they loved challenging messages about ‘I you want to walk on water you have got to get out of the boat’! But no-one had the slightest intention of ever doing so. It was clear to a few of us that the church needed to be shaken silly: and that is what happened. The result is that more people came to follow Jesus here and there – that is what happens when you challenge Christian complacency.
Let’s not fall into the same trap, shall we?
Scary people, big barriers
When you share the gopel with people, you will find that some of them come to faith. This is true with even the most challenging situations. This is because the gospel itself is persuasive and powerful – all you have to do is let it loose! Let’s see how Acts tells us this.
Huge barriers - It is impossible to exaggerate the depth of antagonism and suspicion there was between Jewish people and their helenistic neighbours. The Jews regarded gentiles as scum and the Greeks thought the Jews were totally weird! These first Christian evengelists were Jewish, so they naturally focused their efforts on other jews (19b) but some of them were not content with this. They knew that Jesus had intended the whole world to hear about him so they began to find ways of talking to gentiles (20).
As a result, the gospel jumped the Jew-gentile gap. It is impossible to exaggerate the effect that this had on world history and we son’t even know the names of the people that did it!
The gospel is powerful in itself – it can overcome the most intimidating barriers.
Scary people - Antioch was an amazing city: the third city in the Roman empire (after Rome and Alexandria), it’s people were sports mad and sex mad. Other cities sacrificed to the gods, but in Antioch the highlight of worship was to chase the temple prostitutes into a laurel grove and get off with them. Imagine preaching the gospel to this lot? Think about it... we already do!
The gospel is powerful in itself – it can thrive in the most challenging places.
Complacency is natural, and unacceptable. The gospel is powerful, it leaps cultural chasms and thrives in spiritual desserts.
Barnabas: the biggest heart in the church
Fascinating detail (22): the apostles had not kept quiet and there was now a new congregation in Jerusalem! But the news from Antioch was a shock – as we will see Jewish believers sruggled to receive their gentile brothers – to Barnabas was sent to investigate.
Barnabas was a big hearted bloke:
- He was the first to build bridges between Jew and gentile
- He dug out of obscurity a converted Pharisee called Saul whom no-one trusted.
Barnabas saw huge problems and set out to find a solution when he could have walked away. We need more people like Barnabas who follow the motto, ‘Encourage the good wherever you find it and if you can’t find it look harder’.