Scattered
Church - Part 4
Sunday, June 5, 2022
Acts 8:1-5, 26-40; Acts 1:6-11
At that time, the church in Jerusalem began to be subjected to vicious harassment. Everyone except the apostles was scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria…
…Those who had been scattered moved on, preaching the good news along the way.
Acts 8:1, 4 (CEB)
Listen to this week’s sermon here:
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In Acts 8:1, following the death of Stephen, we find that most of the church, except for the apostles, began to scatter throughout the regions of Judea and even into Samaria. This was the catalyst they needed to fulfill Jesus’ final command: “Go!”
It’s interesting that they never actually intended to do this. They seemed comfortable in Jerusalem and so long as they were comfortable they had no reason to go elsewhere. They never planned any mission trips to Samaria… they didn’t even send money to help the poor in starving towns around the world. Their fulfillment of the Great Commission came not by planning and sending, but by persecution, fear, and running away.
The Word Jesus proclaimed was finally on the move, even if it required fleeing for their lives, but to their credit these persecuted disciples did not flee by leaving their faith behind. Instead they moved into new territories with the same boldness that led to their persecution in Jerusalem.
“The blood of the martyrs,” Tertullian wrote in the 2nd century, “is the seed of the church.” And they scattered that seed everywhere they went, along the way, without a second thought.
Much more can be said of the apostles’ preaching in Samaria and of Phillip’s continued ministry, particularly as he meets a royal servant on the road and through him, ends up sending the gospel even to the far reaches of Ethiopia… in some ways, to the end of the earth. But for now it is enough to understand that the struggles we face as Christians should not drive us further into our protective church shaped bubble, but rather should propel us out into the world to continue spreading the Good News of God’s grace in all the world.
We must also realize that we will not always get it right and that even when we do get it right, it may not always be interpreted or understood the right way. Finally, we see in these early Samaritan encounters that we are not the first ones to take Christ into our world. God is already at work and many people are already searching. Our primary task in evangelism is to see where God is at work and help others realize God’s presence in their midst.
As Bishop Ken Carter often says:
“Go now in peace to serve God and your neighbor in all that you do. Bear witness to the love of God in this world, so that those to whom love is a stranger will find in you generous friends.”