Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev19971019.htm

ACTS: THE LOCAL CHURCH AS GOD'S AGENCY FOR DISCIPLING MEN
Part XV: "Reading" and "Yielding To" God's Plans Through The EFFECTS Of Church Troubles
(Acts 8:1-4)
  1. Introduction
    1. When trouble arises in a local church, the tendency is for everyone to fear trouble and to grieve over the loss of a past spiritual euphoric condition in the body.
    2. However, God looks above the fray to see trouble as a tool to advance His agenda of building His Church so that the gates of Hades cannot prevail against it in accord with Mtt. 16:18.
    3. If we do a proper "read" on the positive EFFECTS of church trouble God allows, we can catch a glimpse of the plan of God and go with the flow for blessing. Acts 8:1-4 provides us insight to do just that:
  2. "Reading" and "Yielding To" God's Plans Through The EFFECTS Of Church Troubles, Acts 8:1-4.
    1. On the surface, Stephen's martyrdom and its resulting persecution seemed to end the Church's Golden Age:
      1. The Jerusalem Church at first enjoyed a spiritually euphoric atmosphere of divine blessing:
        1. The people solidly supported their apostolic leaders, hanging on their every doctrine, Acts 2:42a.
        2. They accordingly steadfastly continued in fellowship and worship, Acts 2:42b,c.
        3. The resulting sense of awe coupled with miraculous works done by the apostles produced resulting works of compassion and unity amongst those in the body, Acts 2:43-46.
        4. Consequently, evangelism was an ordinary experience as people came to faith in Christ daily, 2:47.
      2. However, upon the martyrdom of Stephen, the church, fearing trouble, scattered abroad throughout the country of Judaea and Samaria not to be united to this day, Acts 8:1a,b,c. That spiritually euphoric experience the Earliest Church knew not only has not bee n duplicated, but will not be duplicated again until the rapture when the Church is all together with Christ, 1 Thess. 4:13-18.
    2. Possibly not wanting to let go of that euphoric atmosphere, the grieving apostles stayed in Jerusalem in spite of the persecution there, Acts 8:1d with G. Campbell Morgan, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 194.
    3. However, thankfully, what appeared on the surface to be a great loss of a golden age of Christian fellowship actually became the means to the end of God's getting the precious fellowship out to US!
      1. When the persecution hit the Church in Jerusalem, Saul, who had participated in the stoning of Stephen, led his own personal crusade to try to annihilate the Church, hauling men and women off to prison, 8:3.
      2. This intense persecution is described in the King James Version as "made havoc", but is rendered better as "ravage" (NIV margin) as the word is used of wild boars that destroy a vineyard in Ps. 79:13 in the Greek translation of the Hebrew, the Septuagint, Bib. Know. Com., N.T., p. 372.
      3. Such fierce persecution naturally led to Christians fleeing for their lives, and this flight scattered the Church throughout the region of Judaea and up as far as Samaria, Acts 8:1c. Acts 11:19 reveals that s ome of those scattered believers fled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch up north and west.
      4. However, their going from Jerusalem fit God's original purpose for the disciples to be Christ's witnesses starting in Jerusalem, and spreading to Judaea, Samaria and the ends of the earth in Acts 1:8!
      5. In this way, God USED what appeared to be a tragic disruption of an idyllic fellowship of believers to be the source of spreading the Gospel to us so that we ALSO might enjoy fellowship in the Lord!
Lesson: Church trouble, in the eyes of the SOVEREIGN Lord of the Church is merely a divinely permitted means to His end of overriding the limitations of his people to achieve effective Church advances. A good illustration is found in 1 Cor. 11:19.

Application: (1) To be productive when Church troubles arise where fears abound or griefs exist over losing past euphoric eras, we must (a) AVOID two things: ((a)) avoid wishing for the "good ol' days" like the Apostles were possibly at first tempt ed to do by staying in the "hot" spot of Jerusalem, and ((b)) avoid lamenting over fears due to ungodly persecution. (b) Instead, we need to "read" God's ADVANCES that are afoot through His ALLOWING these troubles to rise and thereby better understand His WILL, and adjust to it in the troubles for blessings down the road! (2) If we CANNOT just yet "read" those advances, we should "keep going" by faith until God reveals them!