Acts 8:1-4 (New King James Version)

Now Saul was consenting to his death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.

Stephen is dead. That chapter is over. Now we are introduced to the man that for all purposes sat in the back and watched as a council of spiritless preachers stoned a man to his death. The scripture now desires to label Saul as a man that was pleased or consenting to the death of Stephen. Saul understood why they were stoning him and absolutely agreed that it needed to be done. For Saul, however, it was really more than that…You see something stirred up inside of Saul. Something resonated with his soul to see justice done to those that would rail blaspheme against God and God’s people. Something stirred up inside of him to do what he believed to be right…

There is nothing more dangerous than a young man/woman with a passion to see justice.

So Saul terrorizes the church…chasing them down and imprisoning men and women everywhere. He was relentless…the scripture says that he made “havoc” of the church and scattered its followers…the result is underground churches that are scattered like the wind.

Let me read to you how the Message Translation reads…

Acts 8:3-4 (Message Bible)

And Saul just went wild, devastating the church, entering house after house after house, dragging men and women off to jail. Forced to leave home base, the followers of Jesus all became missionaries. Wherever they were scattered, they preached the Message about Jesus.

Did you catch that? “The followers of Jesus all became missionaries…”

Here is one thing we have in common with the “Acts Church”…we struggle to be evangelistic and missional…we usually aren’t evangelistic and missional unless we are pushed to be…let me remind you that it is in the first chapter of Acts that we see this mandate made by Jesus…

Acts 1:8 (New King James Version)

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

This is God’s redemptive plan of action…That you will receive power…when…the Holy Spirit has come upon you…and this is directly related to being a witness to God and for God. Some of you today wonder where has the Spirit of the Lord gone from our churches here in America…it could be quite possible because we are misusing its power for our well-being than the well-being of those God has called us to serve? I’m not saying that we don’t have healing services…I’m not saying that we don’t have moments of when the Holy Spirit falls on us to use the gifts that God has given us…what I am saying is that the power given to us when the Holy Spirit falls is first and foremost given to us so that we might evangelize and energize the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to others! The more you become like Christ, the less self-serving you will become. Christ lived to serve…and so it should be found in us. It’s then that God will honor His promise to send us power from on high…and when that power comes we will know to use it for what it was intended to be used for…the enlargement of God’s kingdom…and not our churches…

It took the church quite some time to get outside the four walls. Miracles are happening all over the place. Great things are happening…but it was never God’s plan that it stay right there in Jerusalem. It was never God’s plan that the church be inclusive. The Churches responsibility and mission is to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ…to our community first, then to the surrounding communities, and then to the rest of the world. That is His plan…that is His mission…and if you are a follower and disciple of Christ…then it is yours.

So when the Church fails to get outside of its comfort zone…when it fails to bring the Good News to its neighbor…God makes a way… Death in this life is no punishment, Hell is punishment. God is so willing that none should perish and that all know that Jesus is Lord that he allows men like Saul to be birthed into being…men that have a will and passion to see the church in havoc…men that have a passion to see the church destroyed…because listen…the church never left Jerusalem. They were told that they were supposed to…but they didn’t. It took this persecution to create missionaries.