Every Believer’s Ministry – Part 1

God is very deliberate in everything He does. He has a plan for the church, which must, of necessity, be fulfilled. And He will do it under every situation. From man’s perspective, the church seemed to be in trouble at this time, but God makes all things to work in favour of His people. In man’s calculation, the death of Stephen could have sparked a draw back for the church, but in God’s plan, it reveals the dispersion of the saints over nations, marking the beginning of the next phase of development for the church.

Men raised persecution against the Church, but God turned it to proclamation of the gospel to save multitudes of sinners. “Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee,” (Psalm 76:10). The outbreak of persecution, which would have destroyed the Church actually produced positive results, moving the Church forward to further fulfill the Great Commission. With God, every situation in a believer’s life can be turned into a giant leap of faith to accomplish much.

From this chapter, the Church took a big step towards fulfilling Christ’s plan of preaching the gospel to every creature. The Church had remained in Jerusalem until this time. Through persecution, gospel-preaching extended to Judaea and Samaria, following the pattern of expansion previously outlined by Christ, the Lord and Head of the Church (Acts 1:8) was extended to other places. Though many Christians were scattered, they became preachers, witnesses and soul-winners for Christ everywhere they went. Many people repented, believed and turned wholeheartedly to the Lord.

“At that time there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem.” From the earlier chapters, there had been great persecution against the Apostles, the leaders of the Church at Jerusalem. They were threatened, beaten and imprisoned (Acts 4:3,21; 5:17-21,40-42), yet thousands believed, the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly and they filled Jerusalem with Christ’s doctrine of salvation by grace through faith.

With this renewed wave of trouble, the believers “were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the Apostles.” The persecution was so intense that only the Apostles remained in Jerusalem. These Apostles, the pastors, who had already suffered much in the hand of the Jews were not intimidated or frightened to flee Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Church was drastically reduced in size, but the Apostles kept on preaching and ministering.

The Great Commission is worth living and dying for. Saul, the great persecutor, went “into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.” That did not weaken or stop the Apostles’ resolve to “preach the gospel to every creature.” Why should messengers of Satan be more zealous than the ministers of Christ? Soon, there were thousands of true believers won to Christ in Jerusalem.

• Further reading (King James Version): Acts 8:1-4;Acts 8:1-3; 9:13,14; 26:9-11; 9:26-28; 11:22,27-30; 12:24,25; 15:1-6; 16:4,5; 21:17-22; Romans 15:19,25-33. Acts 8:4; 11:19-24; Psalm 68:11; Mark 16:15,16,20; Luke 8:38-40; John 1:40-49; 4:28-30,39-42; 1 Peter 1:1-5; 2 Peter 3:9; Acts 17:6,30,31. Acts 8:4; Luke 9:6,59-62; 10:1-3,17-20; John 4:34-38; 1 Thessalonians 1:6-10;1 Corinthians 9:16-22; Matthew 24:12-14; Romans 10:17,18; 2 Corinthians 5:10,11,17-20; James 4:17.