Stirring The Nest

Probably much of the book of Acts has been challenging me as I read it, and wow, Lord, I'm so far short of where I should be, and that's always good to say that, but you need to move past that and start changing, changing your life to become more in line with the truth here. I'm going to read down through the first four verses. We'll probably go down through verse eight, but the first half of the message is going to deal with the first four verses.

So, starting in chapter eight, Stephen has just been stoned, Saul is there consenting unto his death, he is holding the garments of those that are stoning Stephen. It says in verse number one, and Saul was consenting unto his death, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad 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 at the church, entering into every house and hailing men and women, committed them to prison. Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. So, let's pray and then we'll consider these things.

Lord, again, we acknowledge your word and the saying yesterday, today, and forever, and Lord that your word will stand, and so, Father, may you teach us and instruct us the perfect will of God and your heart and your purposes, Lord, that we can, if our hearts are soft and tender, we can make application of these things to our own life. Lord, every word of God is pure and all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And so, Lord, use these words here today for that purpose.

Make us men of God, thoroughly furnished through every good work. So, we pray your blessing on the words this morning, in Jesus' name, amen. Well, I shared with you last time, and I want to start out here with this idea of wolves and sheep.

And we saw an innocent sheep, Stephen. His face is the face of an angel, and when he is reviled, he reviles not again. When he is falsely accused, he does not even seek to defend himself.

He simply is teaching truth, and he is, as a sheep, he is being devoured. He is one of the first martyrs here in the book of Acts, after Jesus is martyred. And so you see this picture, and I'd like you to picture this in your mind, these sheep in Jerusalem, these children of God, and they're in pasture, and they're being fed, and they're beside the still waters, and all of a sudden, there's wolves.

One in particular, Saul, but wolves start entering in amongst the sheep, and one of the sheep gets devoured. A wolf, you see this wolf just eating it up, and that's Stephen. Stephen gets killed, and everybody else, you see the sheep on the hillside just scattered.

And they're going all different directions, because the wolves are just causing them to flee. And that's a picture here of what's happening in the early church. Stephen is caught by a wolf.

He's going to get killed. He's going to get devoured. And the rest of the sheep are going to be scattered.

Now Saul is thinking, and he even says later on in his testimony to Timothy and other places, he's thinking he's doing God's service. And Jesus said, the time is coming that they that kill you will think they do God's service. He thinks he's doing the right thing.

He's a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He's the top of the line in the Jewish religious system. If anybody thinks he's right, it's Saul of Tarsus.

And of course Saul is outwardly, he has that appearance we talked about. He has an appearance of righteousness. He looks, dresses, he outwardly has everything in conformity.

He's a super conservative fellow. He's got everything in line externally, but he is a ravening wolf on the inside. And that's a reality.

You know, we ought not to judge people according to appearance. Because some people look good on the outside, but they're ravening wolves on the inside. And of course Saul was one of them.

Jesus talked about wolves in sheep's clothing. And there's two things that wolves do to sheep. And they're right here at the end of chapter 7 and the start of chapter 8. Number one, they devour them.

Wolves like to eat them, like to eat sheep. And Stephen is being devoured, stoned. Now they're going to bury him, he's gone.

But there's something else that wolves do, and that is they scatter. They scatter the sheep. If you look at this word here in verse number 1, it says, Saul was consenting unto his death, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church, which is at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad.

The sheep are being scattered. This word is used in verse 4, therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. And so wolves scatter.

And one of the ways you can have discernment about people, especially people in church life, is are they devouring others? Are they devouring? Do they have a spirit that devours? Are they destroying people? As these wolves here with Stephen, are they false accusers? Are they devouring their brothers and sisters? Do they have hatred in their heart? This is a wolf, this is the nature of a wolf, to devour. Another thing a wolf does is scatter. Scatter God's people, divide up the body of Christ, and scatter them into many different groups.

When you see that attitude coming out of people, coming out of hearts, God's heart is to bring us all together, amen? That they all may be one. He wants reconciliation. He wants us to be together as a body.

His desire is not to devour us. He is one who wants to redeem us, and to bring us to a place of maturity. So those two things.

You know, someone may look good on the outside, but you need to have discernment and say, where is their heart? Is this a devouring heart? Are these hearts devouring God's people? Are these scattering God's people? Acts 20 verse 29, Paul warns the church at Ephesus about wolves, and he says this, For I know this, that after my departing, shall grievous wolves enter in among you. Not these physical wolves, but these are people in sheep's clothing, who have the spirit of a wolf. They are not going to spare the flock.

In other words, they are going to eat the flock. They are going to try to devour the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away, to scatter people, to draw away people after them, scattering the flock.

So Paul is warning them, these are the two things you are going to see happening. So if you are a wise person, you have some discernment, you look for that kind of a spirit, and you evaluate people on that basis. So, something amazing that is happening here in this first part of the message, I want to bring this out, is that Saul is being used by God.

God uses everything. Saul is being used as an instrument for God's purposes, and the Lord is always one who is sovereign. God is always ruling over everything.

Even the things that appear that the devil is accomplishing and doing his will. For example, if you see Jesus on the cross, and you see him being crucified on the cross, and you are thinking, wow, the devil is winning. Jesus is being crucified, he is dying, and now we have hindsight, we look back and say, no, the devil wasn't winning.

Actually, the devil didn't know it, but he was destroying himself. He was making a way for his captives to then be free, through the blood of Jesus Christ. So even when we look at the tragedies of life, when we look at the great difficulties of life, God is always one who is trying to take our tragedies and turn them around for our good.

And I think the devil gets confounded by the thing, and God is glorified by it. So whenever tragedy comes to your life, you need to just acknowledge that God is able, and the Bible says in Romans 8, that God is able to make all things. Not 90%, not 95%, but all things work together for what? For good.

To them that love him. And so whatever trauma or tragedy has been in your life, I want you to realize that God has a purpose for it, and the Bible is loaded with examples of these kinds of things. I think of Joseph.

We talked about Joseph a few weeks ago, but Joseph was a man who got thrown into a pit as a child, a tragedy, separated from his family, sold into Egypt as a slave, then put into jail, into a prison. What a way for a young man to start his life. But Joseph had faith in a sovereign God that he could work all things for his good.

And Joseph saw that to be a reality. Many years later, Joseph stood before those same brethren, and he said, listen, God meant it for good. You meant it for evil.

And so many times people harm us, or the devil uses people to harm us, but we need to acknowledge in faith that you know the devil, and you meant it for evil, but God's meant it for good. And I'm going to receive it, and that's the only way you can keep from reviling in return. You did me evil, I'm going to do you evil in return.

Well, if you believe that God is going to take it and work it out for your good, you might even want to thank him for it. And so this is what's happening here. Saul is being used by the Lord.

He is thinking it's for evil. He is trying to destroy them, but God's purposes are going to be fulfilled. Now what is the good that is coming out of this? Well, if you look at the end of verse number 1, it says that they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

Now Jesus had told the disciples in the early church, I want you to go into all the world and preach the gospel, and I want you to start in Jerusalem, and then I want you to go from Jerusalem to Judea, and then from Judea to Samaria, and then from Samaria to the ends of the earth. And so they began. They began in Jerusalem, but just like those eagles, those little eaglets, Jerusalem was a great place to be.

I mean, you can imagine. Some of you are thinking, I'd love to have been in a church in Jerusalem there, that early church. That would have been a great place to be.

Imagine all the benefits of that church. You know, you're seeing 3,000 people saved on the first day the church is planted, and the Bible says they were adding daily to the church, baptizing, not just once like we do every three or four months, but they were baptizing every day, and new converts coming into the church, and every Sunday you didn't have me preaching. You had Peter and James and John and these great men and these apostles, those who walk with Jesus, and great teaching.

I'm sure they had great families and great fellowship. There was unity and breaking of bread, and wow, what a great church. You know, it would be good.

I think this is one thing I want to impress upon our hearts this morning. It would be good to just settle in there and just raise your family and just enjoy your life and have a good church setting there. You know? Man, we go to church on Sundays.

Who's preaching this Sunday? Dad, Paul, or excuse me, Peter, or James? Is it John? I like John. Or any of the apostles. And can you imagine sitting in a church where you've got James' family here and Peter's family there and all these families? It would have been a great place.

But you see, the Lord had given them the great commission. I know men give that title, the great commission, but it is a great commission. And it's something I don't think we elevate to the place it needs to be elevated to.

You've heard me say this throughout the years, and I'll keep saying it because when I go to the Bible, this is what I see in the Bible. I can't help but saying it. Jesus elevates the great commission.

It is a great commission. And that commission is even greater than keeping this Jerusalem church together. He says, I've got a greater purpose than you just having this nice fellowship.

You've got to get out and reach the world. And He was willing, we're going to see here, He was willing to break up homes. I mean, seriously.

The Bible says many of them were thrown into prisons. Moms and dads. What ever happened to the children? That's what Jesus meant when He said, if you're going to follow Me, you need to remember that you need to love Me more than father, mother, wife, children, and even your life also, because in following Me, it might cost you these things.

But they're going to learn that it does. And so, there's great sacrifice here. So the Lord looks down from Heaven, and He has told them to start in Jerusalem, and they filled Jerusalem with their doctrines in the earlier chapters of the book of Acts, and now they're starting to get a little comfortable in Jerusalem.

And I don't know how many months or a year or two goes by here, but they're simply not reaching outside of Jerusalem. They have this local mentality, and it's Jerusalem, and we're just going to stay right here. And I can understand that.

You know, you've got the temple over here. Religion has always been here in Jerusalem. Now the church is established here, so, you know, Jerusalem is where we ought to be.

And I notice that. You know, we just need to face that. I need to face that.

I'm always needing that mother eagle to take feathers out of my nest. Because it's so easy just to relax. I was talking to a brother this week.

We were sitting at the table and just talking about, you know, it is so easy just to relax and just put it in neutral and just coast along with church life and just enjoy fellowship and be in the church at Jerusalem and just have a good life. And that's kind of where they were. They were comfortable.

But God has to move them, just like that eagle. He has to move them. And we have to get moving.

I told you I need to reach the world. And yes, fellowship is good. But fellowship is to be the strengthening aspect to get you out.

To move you. So God is moving them here. And God is actually using Saul who thinks he's serving God.

He's actually going to use Saul to do it. And I'm going to make a statement here that may surprise some of you, but after 31 years of viewing these things, I believe this to be the truth. I watch these things and I believe that people get settled in and they have a perfect church situation.

And I've never seen one of those make it. It's always splits and fights and fusses. And I'm just watching these churches over the years.

Oh, we've got this church and we're just going to close everything off and just have a great church and we're going to stay here and raise our families and intermarry and the whole nine yards. But I've never seen that thing function well. It always seems to boom.

And I think God is saying, listen, I don't want this. Yes, you can have fellowship, but there's a bigger picture here. And unless we see that picture, I think we're just going to frustrate ourselves over and over again.

And I've watched these churches. I thought there were some of these churches that really had it all together. And boy, they had some pretty dynamic people and families in these churches.

But a few years, boom, bang and explosions and I just wonder if God is saying, I want you to get out. Get moving. And we're trying to make a new Jerusalem again.

And we're packing it in. So, I don't think the Lord is going to allow us to settle in either in our Jerusalem. Just like He did here.

And just like I told the children, that mother knows best. And yes, those little eaglets would love to just stay in the nest. It's nice in the nest.

It's comfortable in the nest. It's warm in the nest. The feathers are great in the nest.

Mom, why are you kicking these feathers out and causing us to be, you know, pricked and roughed up? Because I want you to get out. You need to grow up. You need to experience that world out there.

And so, in her wisdom, she does that. And God said, I'm doing that with my children in the Old Testament. I'm stirring the nest.

And so, I want to encourage us in that. You know, I think God oftentimes tries to stir the nest. And if we're not going to get out and start reaching this world, we'll find out.

We're going to fight with each other. And you say, well, the enemy's doing that. Well, sometimes God's overseeing all of that stuff.

Just like Saul here. And okay, if you all want to just have a little church gathering and just stay local and then not reach my world, then we'll just scatter you too. You know, I don't need Saul to come here and make having a church.

I'll bring some other person in here and just divide you up and fight. You've got to fight and scatter and go off in different places. I believe that.

And so, in order to avoid that, we need to make sure we have a vision outside for the Great Commission. Amen? I want to read to you. Maybe you can turn with me.

I won't ask you to turn to too many places this morning. Back to the book of Philippians. This same Saul, he gets converted.

And he understands this truth. In Philippians 1, Paul is in jail and he is suffering at the hands of a wolf himself, and yet he views it as the sovereign purposes of God. In Philippians 1, verse 7, well, let's jump down in verse number 8. Verse 8, for God is my record.

Verse 7 talks about how he's in bonds. Verse 8, for God is my record, how greatly I long after You in all my bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that Your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, that You may approve things that are excellent, that You may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ under the glory and praise of God.

Now notice what it says here in verse 12. But I would you should understand, brethren, that the things which happen unto me, in other words, me being thrown in jail here, I'm suffering. The things that have happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel.

In other words, he says, God is using this for His great purpose. Even me and a wolf threw me in this jail and I'm sitting in this jail cell, but I want you to know, and I have faith, that God is using this for the furtherance of the gospel. Verse 13, So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and all the places, and many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident, my bonds are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

Some indeed preach Christ, even of envy and strife, and some also of good will. So Paul is sitting in jail. He was thrown in there by some wolves.

He is confined, but he realizes God is going to take what those wolves did to me and He's going to use it for that great purpose, the furtherance of the gospel. And he says, I see how He's doing it. So God has an overriding purpose here.

And that purpose is to reach the world with the gospel. That's the great purpose that He has. We as a congregation come together in fellowship.

That is not an end in and of itself. That is to support us in that work. And to find fellowship and strength in that.

And so the devil meant it for evil in Paul's life, but God is going to work it out for good. And Paul saw that. He is working it out for good.

And so what is the good that the Lord is trying to work out? Well, you can see here, exactly back in Acts chapter 8, what is the good that the Lord is trying to work out? Look at chapter 8 verse 4. It says, Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. So here you have God up in heaven.

He's looking down on His people. And they're in the nest. And they like the feathers.

And they like the coziness of how things are going there in Jerusalem and how many people are getting converted. We're just going to stay here the rest of our lives. It's a great church.

Vibrant church. Dynamic church. And we're just going to become members and stay right here the rest of our lives.

And the Lord says, No, no, no, no, no. Wait. Three or four months ago I told you to go into all the world and preach the gospel.

Start in Jerusalem, then go to Judea, Samaria, and the other parts of the earth. No, don't get comfortable there. I'm an eagle, a mother, and I like to stir the nest up to get my eaglets moving.

I'm going to come down to that church in Jerusalem. I'm going to stir things up a little bit. I'm going to bring this guy Saul who the devil thinks he's going to destroy you, but I'm going to use him as an instrument.

And we're going to make your nest a little uncomfortable. And guess what happens? They do, and those eaglets start taking off. Let's get out of the nest.

And we're doing what we're supposed to. We were told to do this about six months ago. We need to get out and get moving.

And so I think a lot of our church problems that we have, I think the Lord's just up in heaven saying, hey, we've got to get moving or else we're going to almost send a Saul to you. And he's going to make havoc of the place. And some of you have been in churches where someone's made havoc of the place, and you've experienced that whole thing.

And no, you weren't thrown in prison like they are going to be thrown in prison, but sometimes it feels like a prison in the spiritual realm. Well, notice what it says here in Acts. I want to kind of disseminate some of the lies that we believe here.

It says in verse 4, Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. This is something that was in their hearts. And by the way, these are not the apostles.

These are not some gifted individual. This is the actual church. And I like how the Lord does this in Acts 8 verse 1. He says they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles.

Now, this is for those who think only the apostles were doing this. No, the apostles stayed in Jerusalem. They wanted to hold the fort, try to hold the fort down.

The rest of the church, just like you all, were scattered. And what did they do? Go hide in a cave? No, they didn't. They knew that we need to be preaching the word.

And so they left and went out and preached the word. And I believe the Great Commission is still great. I believe it's the over-encompassing commandment that God has given to us.

And when we as a church start focusing inward and closing, and I just want to stay in this little group, we invite a blow-up. We invite it. Because it's God's will that we get moving.

We don't have a lot of time. This world is coming to an end soon. Amen? And there is regions, there are people that are all over our areas and to the ends of the earth that they need help.

They need the gospel. And so God is interested in those things. He's the one that purchased this great field.

Every soul has been purchased by the blood of Jesus. And He would love to see as many won as possible. If you want to flip over to Acts chapter 11, just a verse or two here in verse 19.

Acts chapter 11 verse 19 gives you an idea of what they're doing here. It says in verse 19 of Acts 11, Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Pharnacy and Cyprus and Antioch preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. They don't have this vision yet.

And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene which when they were come to Antioch spake unto the Grecians preaching the Lord Jesus. And then verse 21 says this, And the hand of the Lord was with them. You know, that's a beautiful statement there.

The hand of God. This scattering caused God to say, I'm with you. We're gone.

I'm gone with you. This is my purposes. The hand of the Lord was with them.

And they went forth. And they fulfilled what is called in the Bible the Great Commission. Now there's a great lesson I believe here for all of us.

And that is, you know, from a selfish perspective, we'd love to have the church in Jerusalem. We'd love to be in that situation. We'd love to have the revival.

We'd love to have the souls saved. We'd love to have the apostles as our elders. We'd love to have the fellowship and the ministry.

Can you imagine being a part of that church? That'd be great for a few months. And then you're going to end up either in prison or fleeing. And so there's a lesson for us there.

We need to not try to just build a little quaint little community and make it the end of itself. It's not God's purpose. And the same thing will happen to us if we try to do that.

God came and allowed Saul to break this thing up for a greater purpose. And that was the furtherance of the gospel. The furtherance of the gospel.

And so let's keep that in mind. When Jesus said, if you're going to follow me, you're going to need to take up a cross. You're going to be willing to lose father, mother, wife, children, yea, your own life also for my sake and the gospel.

Now here in verse number 3 it says this. Sometimes we read this and we don't really think about it, how it actually practically works out. But in verse 3 it says, As for Saul, he made havoc at the church, entering into every house, that's a Christian home, and hailing or dragging, it says, hauling men and women, committed them to prison.

Can you imagine being in your house and you hear Saul and his men are out searching for every child of God and anyone who professes faith. And you've got the kids and we've got the two boys and our older children and all of a sudden somebody comes pounding at the door, breaks the door down, grabs me, my wife, drags us out of the house, throw us in a van, take us down and lock us up in a prison cell. You say, what happens to Brother Jerry's children? What about the boys? Who's going to take care of them? Well, they're kind of left orphaned.

Many families, maybe half of the families here, parents drugged to prison. How long are we going to be there? I don't know. You know, many people are sitting in prison saying, why did God do this? Why did God cause these things to happen? It says they scattered, people left their houses.

Can you imagine us having to leave our house? You have a nice house, probably worth, I don't know, $350,000, we have to flee it. Just leave it all and run. And run to other regions, you can't even come back.

You lose everything. So that's reality, right? That's what's happening here. So just stop and think about it.

God is willing to have that happen to His people. His people. Just so His purposes can be accomplished.

Wow. And so, you know, sometimes we sit in church and if we have a little bit of uncomfortableness, God, why do you allow this, Lord? Well, you go back here and read this. You talk about some uncomfortable situations.

That mother eagle, she really stirred the nest up pretty good there. And it wasn't very comfortable staying in this church anymore. We better get moving.

So just keeping that in mind, you know, I view it this way. I've been observing churches for many years, preach, try to help churches. I just, so many churches are going boom, boom.

And you have to wonder why. Why is this? And I think a lot of it is just due to the fact that God says, if you're not going to do My work, I'm going to scatter you. And the early church faced that.

So how can this be good? Well, all things work together for good. How can the betrayal of Jesus Christ by Judas and the death of Christ be good? I mean, if you look at it from just a natural perspective, this is not good. And the disciples didn't think it was good either.

But if you look at it from God's perspective, very good. Very good situation here. My son is dying, being betrayed by Judas, fulfilling the Word of God, and it's going to redeem humanity.

So let's have a different view of things. Let's look at things from God's perspective. You know, I just lost my house.

We had to flee. We had to go down to Columbus or to Cleveland to get away from the persecution. My wife was thrown into prison.

My children are scattered. God, this is good. Wow.

That's real faith, isn't it? It's good because your purposes, your great purpose is being accomplished. And there's many stories. You know, Job understood this.

Man, I've got boils all over my body. My wife's cursing me. Everything is lost.

And God says it's going to work out for your good, Job. Just trust me. And so let's make sure that we have His purposes in mind.

And I think if we would get on the same page and say, Lord, the Great Commission is your purpose, and this fellowship here is to support that work, and once we make this fellowship the work, that this is all there is, and there's no outreach, then we're going to end up splitting in ten different directions. And the Lord will send the Saul in here, and boom, away we go. So let's make sure we keep first things first.

Amen? This is God's heart. Now, if you ask me, I'd probably say let's have a nice little fellowship. Everybody's, you know, closed in, and we'll just intermarry and have grandkids and, you know, hold nine yards and have a nice soft nest until we're 80.

Only problem is we'll never learn how to fly that way. And so this Great Commission is called great because it exceeds all the other things. It's the greater good.

And just stop and think about this this morning. God is willing to scatter His church. God is willing to let Saul come through and scatter it for the greater good.

God is willing for a mom and dad to spend time in a prison cell for the greater good. God is willing to have you lose everything, your house, and to have to leave Jerusalem and go off into some other area and start over for the greater good. Boy, that's really trusting God for the greater good, isn't it? And so I've seen these people over the years looking for the perfect church, and no one's ever found it yet.

Keep trying. Keep trying to get that Jerusalem thing together. And I think God is working against the idea.

I think He's going, boom, boom, to get us to get out of that whole mindset and look out, lift up your eyes, and see the vision on the fields. And this church here, this congregation, was to strengthen us, to come together and strengthen each other, support each other for the work, not as an end in and of itself. So it's God's concern that we don't have this comfortable life.

Now, there is going to come a time, praise God, here in the next couple of chapters where it says, Then had the church rest. So there's a time, there's a season. There are seasons for rest, and there are seasons for not rest.

And God does it just like, you know, sometimes there's rainy days. Yesterday was a windy, messed up day, and rainy day. But it's, from God's perspective, a good day because we need to have those bad days in order to really appreciate the good ones.

And if you never suffer, you'll never appreciate health. And so the Lord gives both that which is difficult and that which is comforting. And so they had rest.

Many people are trying to figure out how they can be the church at Jerusalem, but, you know, this perfect church, but they forget that God scattered them. And there was no church any more perfect than that one. And the Lord allowed Saul to come in and make havoc of it.

All for the furtherance of the gospel. So I'm convinced this morning that God puts those thorns, when He builds the nest, He puts those thorns and those rocks and jagged things in the nest, and He gets that new church started, the converts there, and He gets them in there, and He comforts them, and they're rooted and grounded in love, and they have a foundation. Then God starts to say, let's start to stir this thing up a little bit.

Let's not make it so comfortable here. I'm going to start moving you out. Let's go.

And you mature a little bit. You've been converted a couple of years. It's time for us to get a little tough in here in the nest.

And so it's the purpose of God. Some of you have been converted a couple of years. You know, life sometimes sends you some difficult situations.

You need to realize God is trying to get you out of your comfort zone and get you out in the ministry and working for Him, get you to work. You say, well, I just want to keep kind of staying in the nest. Well, I'll tell you what, you keep doing that, and the Lord will keep taking those feathers out, and you'll be laying on bare bristles and thorns.

And you say, what is life? What's going on here? The Bible says you're supposed to be growing and maturing. So I just want to try to destroy this idea of looking for the perfect church to settle in and kind of get comfortable and just kind of stay in that one. I don't think you'll ever find it.

I know people have been looking for it for a long time. They've still never found it. And if you're going to have anything close to a perfect church, it better be a church that's reaching out, because it's not going to last very long if it isn't.

The Lord's going to take care of scattering. Well, let's keep reading here. I want to discuss another thing or two here in verse 1. It says, And Saul was consenting unto his death, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem.

This idea of great persecution. Now, persecution, if you read the Scriptures, is a part of the Christian experience. As a matter of fact, I've quoted this verse before.

Paul said, All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Persecution is a part of our life, because darkness hates light. And I won't go back and read it, but in Matthew chapter 5, someone mentioned it this morning.

Blessed are the pure in heart. That's for all of us. Amen.

Blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Blessed are the peacemakers. All these are qualities of the Christian life. And that last one causes people some difficulty, because it says, Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you.

They shall say, All men are of evil. Well, that's something we're waiting for. No, you're not waiting for it.

That's a lie. Persecution is for every one of us. But what people should say is this.

I heard someone say this a few weeks ago. We're waiting for great persecution. Persecution on the level that Jesus promised all of us is for men to revile you, to speak evil against you.

Great persecution of the Bible is being thrown in prison, is martyrdom. You know, the Bible says we're appointed unto tribulation. But there's coming a great tribulation.

I mean a great tribulation. The Bible talks about the great tribulation. Every one of us has tribulation in this life, but there's a future day when there is great tribulation.

It talks about that in Matthew 24. All of us are persecuted in some form or another. And by the way, great is your reward when you're persecuted.

You know, God doesn't say to Americans, I'm sorry, you can't get any rewards for persecution because you live in America. No. Everyone has the privilege of being persecuted for Jesus' sake.

So I hear people say this. I want to correct this error. We're waiting for persecution.

No, no, no, we're not. We're waiting for this great persecution. We in America have not faced this yet.

In our generation, people coming in and hailing us, dragging us out, and throwing us in prison. Now when that happens, I'll say we're in great persecution. But right now, we can be reviled.

We can be hated. We can be falsely accused. Some of the things that Jesus mentions there in Matthew chapter 5, and that's in large part because we're outdoing His will.

So we have here great persecution. So great persecution is dealing with imprisonment. It's dealing with being scattered and being martyred.

And I'm sure we'll probably face those kind of days before we leave this world and pass on. But as for now, there's plenty of persecution available. And so the early church here is being scattered.

Now let's look at verse number 5. Then Philip. Philip was just ordained a deacon back in chapter 7. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. Notice here the importance of this preaching.

He's preaching, and this is what God had told them to do. This is their main thrust. Preached Christ.

And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them, and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed, and there was a great joy in that city. So everybody's going in different directions.

And when they go, it says they're preaching. Verse 4. Therefore they that were scattered abroad, whenever we're preaching the word. And so they understood the importance of that.

And I don't think we understand the importance of that. Actually, I don't think people think of Christianity as a ministry of preaching, not behind a pulpit, not on a street corner, but just communicating God's word to people, wherever you're at. Being concerned about the souls of people.

Talk to people. Share the word of God with people. You may never be behind a pulpit.

You may never be on a street corner or anything like that, but you can speak forth. And by the way, there's kind of confusion here. When I say the word preach, I'm not talking about behind a pulpit all the time.

We're just speaking. I mean, a woman can be a preacher of the Bible. Just speak the word.

So here Philip goes, and Philip is a... You know, I say this and I think, Philip is just a regular old guy. He's just a deacon. Stephen also was just a regular guy who was just a deacon.

I don't know if he's married or not, but he's now transplanted. He's down in Samaria. He's fleeing persecution.

But it says this, that when Philip goes down and preaches unto them, that he was doing miracles. It says there are unclean spirits crying with a loud voice, and those that were sick, they were healed. You have to keep in mind that just a few months before, the Lord is on the Mount of Olives, and the disciples are before him.

He looks at them and says, now go and preach, and these signs are going to follow you. And if you go forth and preach, there's going to be devils cast out. If you take up any deadly thing, it will not hurt you.

You're going to speak in tongues, and you're going to heal. Now, I didn't say that. The Lord did.

I'm just repeating what he said. And he gives us here this word. Actually, that happens.

People, these are not special people. They're just someone who is now fleeing and is preaching. Doesn't have to be on a housetop.

Doesn't have to be in a pulpit. Everywhere they go, the gas station, the grocery store, everywhere they go, they're taking the word of God and speaking forth the truth. And God is accompanying them with signs.

And I'm going to read this passage again. It's in Mark, the end of Mark, what Jesus says to the disciples. He says, and go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe, not them that are apostles or them that are specially gifted, but them that believe. In my name, they shall cast out devils.

That's what Philip did. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents.

If they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. That's what Philip did.

So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them. That's a beautiful picture there.

They went forth and preached everywhere. And God says, you know what, you're going to do that part, I'll do my part. And I'll work with you.

We're told that we're co-laborers together with God. But I'll work with this project in getting the gospel to the ends of the earth. Now I just believe this.

You know, some people say there's no miracles today. I don't find that in the Bible. I'd rather say what it says here in the Bible.

If we as a church go forth and preach the word of God, then God will do his part. If we don't, if we stay right here and we huddle up, don't expect any miracles. I've seen some miracles in my life, and they're always when you're out preaching or trying to win people to Christ.

And very few things happening when you're closed up, bottled up. And so Philip is doing what God told him to do. The Lord told him to do.

Go and I'll follow you with miracles and signs and wonders. And of course, Philip experiences that. Now did God leave this? He told us to preach the word.

Did he put that in there? Just for some fantastical thing that we'll never be able to achieve? Or did he put that in there to challenge us to say, hey, see if my word is true or not. Just see. Why don't you go forth and preach? See what happens.

Maybe we ought to try that. So the Lord works with them. And I asked this question a few weeks ago.

I'd like to close with this question today. Where are the Philips today? Does anybody know a Philip? Does anybody know a Stephen? Where are those who are out preaching the word on a regular basis? Where are they? The early church was full of them. Men, even women.

That's what the book of Acts says. He poured out his spirit upon sons and daughters and men and women. Does anyone know a Philip? Well, I just want a church to come to, a nice fellowship where we can just kind of enjoy fellowship on Sunday.

Well, there's something more than that. Maybe we ought to ask this question. Does anyone know a Philip? Or maybe this is a better one.

Does anyone know a church? It's like this one. Scattered, going everywhere, preaching the word. I didn't make this up.

This is not me. These are not my words. I'm just trying to teach you what it says here in the book of Acts.

So Philip is an example of one in the church who had the vision. I don't know whether Philip had a nice house. I don't know.

Maybe Philip was married, had children. Saul comes in, makes havoc of the place. I'd like to sit down someday with Philip.

So what happened? You might see some amazing stories. I just barely escaped. They were going to throw me in prison.

I might have ended up as a martyr like Stephen, but I fled. I outrun them. So you got to Samaria.

What is it, 50, 60 miles? Yeah, I ran and I got to Samaria. What did you do in Samaria? Did I hid? Did I get into some cave and hide? No, I got to Samaria and started preaching. That's what I did.

Wow. We need some more Philips, amen? And so I know our church systems and our American, you know, got to make money, got to keep up with the standard of living, got to keep with the Joneses. That all mitigates against everything that's here.

But we need to be willing to break out of some of that stuff. And good examples here of the early church. So Saul is a wolf coming to scatter the sheep, but the Lord says, sheep, you're too locked in.

I'm your shepherd. I want to get you out. I want to get you spread out over all this pasture.

So I'm going to let Saul come in there. He's an insider of mine. He's going to scatter you.

And it's going to be a good thing. You're going to go to Judea, Samaria, and the other parts of the earth. My biggest concern for us as a congregation is that we don't get so introspective.

That church to you is just this gathering, this fellowship. The church, it is this gathering, it is this fellowship, but it has to work out there to reach people and to reach the lost. It has to.

Or else we may end up one year, boom. I just heard Remnant had a big split three or four different places. They all scattered everywhere.

Well, they must not have been doing what the Lord asked them to do. So let's make sure that God can honor us. And we're trying.

I know how hard it is. We're trying to reach out into Columbus, into the slums of Columbus. And you all get vision.

You can reach out individually. Reach out to people, different places. Let's try to reach this world while we have an opportunity.

The door of the ark is still open. Someday it's going to shut. Amen.

And that's going to be the last opportunity. So let's take the example here of the early church. God is like that mother eagle.

And he's carrying out the nest. Do you feel like maybe you're a little uncomfortable? All right. Let's close with a word of prayer.

Then we'll have some announcements. We'll open the time up here and ask the Lord to help us. Lord, may your word find a place in our hearts, and may it bring forth fruit as we look at the early church and your purposes, Lord, even for persecution and the scattering of God's people for your greater good.

Lord, may we have that same vision in heart, that there's a greater good. And may we not be a church that's self-centered. May we also have vision to look outside of ourselves to a lost and dying world.

Lord, bless us. Give us the boldness to go forth. Give us vision as men and women to establish outreaches and ministries that we can communicate the gospel to people.

Bless us as families, Lord. We pray your blessing on us as a congregation here. In Jesus' name, amen.