The Church Scattered

Acts 8:1-8

Introduction

Back when I was in my mid-20s, I went on my first mission trip. It was with the organization Operation Mobilization. I was pretty excited to go overseas and preach the gospel. And I as feeling a bit overconfident as well, if I am honest. The Canadians met in Oakville and got a bit of training. Then we were sent to the Toronto airport, not just to catch a flight, but to do evangelism. 

We were terrified and so we gathered together in large packs at the airport. We felt like there was safety in numbers. Our primary concern was not our effectiveness but our own comfort. e were pretty useless. Eventually we arrived in Germany and from there we went to our individual countries. That group of young Canadian short-term missionaries that tried to keep it safe as then scattered across Europe. As frightening as that was, it was then we were actually able to do something useful.

I didn’t know it at the time but what I was experiencing echoed something from the book of Acts and that this also is often replayed in churches all over the world.

Scattering in Acts

Way back in Acts 1, Jesus just before his ascension said to them, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) As we saw, God was faithful to his side, sending the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. But how did the disciples do?

The disciples were very effective in Jerusalem. They preached the gospel and made sure that people knew that Jesus was Lord and the kingdom of God was arriving. They did okay in Judea, that area around Jerusalem. Samaria? Not much had happened there. There had been a longstanding conflict between the Jews and the Samaritans. That was way outside their comfort zone. And you could just forget about the ends of the earth. The safest thing to do would be to stay clustered in Jerusalem with occasional forays into the surrounding towns.

But then Stephen happened. His style was far from seeker sensitive or friendship evangelism. Stephen had a confrontational style and this led to his death. But it didn’t end there. The opponents to the followers of Jesus realized that they had to take a stronger hand. If they didn’t stamp out this Jesus talk, things could get out of hand. So instead of just pressuring leaders, they went after the church in general. Persecution was put in gear.

I need to make a comment about this. The first persecution of Christians were by the Jews. That can sometimes be seen as conflict between the religions of Christianity and Judaism. That was not exactly the case. Everyone involved were Jews. This was seen as an attempt of one group of Jews to stamp out another group of Jews whose beliefs were seen as heretical. This was no different than what happened after the Reformation when one Christian group would persecute another Christian group.

What was the result of the persecution? Many of the Christians scattered. Their safety was disrupted and they were forced to go to new places. Ironically, the non-Christian Jews would be forced to scatter less than forty years later when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem. It was one of the reasons why Judaism has survived until this day.

What about the Christians? This scattering was not just to find a new place of comfort and safety. The Christians were scattered to do ministry. We are told that some of them fled to Samaria. This will lead us directly into the story of the evangelism of the Samaritans. This would be the first major group of non-Jews to be welcomed into the church.

We are told that the apostles stayed in Jerusalem. But don’t think they got off easy. Tradition tells us that they too would be scattered and that they would share Jesus in far off lands, some as far away as India.

Let’s be clear. Persecution is a bad thing. We do not want people being arrested for their faith. But God used this event to scatter an overly comfortable church, not just to disrupt them, but to send them out for ministry. In the coming weeks, we will see what some of that ministry looked like.

Scattering Today

All of the principles that we have talked about so far are played out again over and over in modern times. This is especially true during our current pandemic.

The first principle is that the idea of safety and comfort are extremely appealing. Just as those early Christians wished that life would continue as normal in Jerusalem, we wish that life would continue as normal in our church building. One year ago from right now, we were keeping an eye on COVID-19 but with no concerns of any major disruptions. We were looking at increased use of hand sanitizer and decreased shaking of hands and that was about it. Can you remember what it was like a year ago? Can you remember gathering together for worship and Bible studies and fellowship and meals? Can you remember being able to be faithful to our traditions, doing things the way we had for years? It was very comforting and we miss those comforts now.

The second principles is that life happens. This pandemic is not the first incident to disrupt us and it will not be the last. Hopefully it will be a long time before we have anything like that again, but these things will happen and have been happening. The increase in drug use in our community had already changed Out of the Cold from the days when the biggest concern was that a guest had a bit too much to drink. Ministry has to continually adapt to changing circumstances.

The final principle is that our discomfort can be used for the building of the kingdom of God. In Acts, we saw the persecution resulting in the scattering of the Christians to Samaria and beyond. Some very important ministry took place because of it.

In a way this pandemic has scattered us. Normally on a Sunday morning, the majority of our congregation would be in the same building at the same time. While you are watching this, we have people scattered across St Catharines and  beyond. The scattering is not for finding a new place of comfort but ministry. This is not a time for a comfortable people to be consuming spiritual goods and services. This is a time to mobilize the congregation for ministry to a world that is losing hope. What that ministry will look like will be different for all of us, but it is must happen.

Conclusion

When I think about that moment when Stephen’s persecutors turned their attention to the rest of the church, I try to imagine their reaction. There must have been much confusion and frustration. They were fellow Jews who were trying their best to serve God. There must have been panic as they had to leave their homes and move onto unfamiliar places.

I think we can identify with some of their feelings. Our world has been turned upside down as well. We are experiencing confusion and frustration. Some of us might be living with panic. But just as a crisis led to greater ministry for the early church, our crisis can lead to greater ministry for us. COVID-19 is the end to the effective ministry of Queen Street Baptist Church. It may actually be the beginning of our our best ministry years.