Persecution

Act 8:1

“And Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him (Stephen) to death. And on that day a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except for the apostles.”

We have mentioned persecution in the past as we saw the apostles put in jail because of their testimony. That was relatively mild compared to what we see in this chapter. One of the greatest persecutors was Saul and we get another glimpse of him here in that role. Notice in v. 3 he began “ravaging the church, entering house after house; and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison.” We’ll look at Saul more closely later.

Today, let’s spend some time thinking why God allows persecution of His people. In this instance I think one of the reasons is to begin the fulfillment of Acts 1:8 where Jesus shared with the Christians that they would “be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth. Notice the persecution caused the people to be scattered throughout “the regions of Judea and Samaria” (8:1). We see in v. 4 “those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.”

A study of the history of Christianity will reveal that there is a close relationship between persecution and growth of the number of Christians. Examine the countries where persecution has been greatest and missionaries have even been forced to leave. China is a great example as it was a closed country for years. When it began to open up and Christians gained access they learned that there were a tremendous number of Christians and house churches meeting in secret. That also occurred in countries in Eastern Europe.

I have had the privilege of getting to know Congressman Sam Johnson, who currently represents Plano in the U. S. Congress. He was a prisoner of war for seven years during the Vietnam war. He will tell you his faith was the only thing that got him through that time and that it grew immeasurably as he faced great persecution almost to the point of death. He has been a stalwart testimony for Christ since going through that experience. I have heard the same thing about men who were imprisoned in Soviet Russia.

Sometimes we don’t know why God allows persecution and we have a significant instance in the Bible in the case of Job. What we do know is that God took him through that time and he was faithful. His testimony has been preserved in Scriptures for our benefit.
I pray that regardless of the situations you face in life, you will be faithful to Him.