March 4, 2025
#259 - When Trouble Scatters You, God Sows You - Acts 8.1-4
Today on Al Pastor, Pastor Brian and Noah walk through Acts 8:1–4, where great persecution strikes the early Church, yet God’s sovereign plan unfolds. Learn how hardship led to the spread of the gospel, why trials refine true faith, and how everyday believers can be powerful witnesses wherever they go. This is a call to boldness, trust, and everyday evangelism — even when life feels scattered.
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You're listening to Al Pascor, the show that helps you love God, love your neighbor and eat more
tacos.
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I'm your host, Pastor Brian.
Welcome to the show.
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Hey friends, I want to welcome you to today's podcast.
We are in Acts chapter 8 and this is a beautiful chapter, so we're going to be walking through at a
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minimum the 1st 4 verses.
We might be able to go a little further.
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We'll see.
I've got Noah in studio with me today.
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Noah, how's your day going?
All right.
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Good.
So tell me a little bit about your reading.
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How?
How has it gone?
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Have you read today?
Yet.
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Not today, no.
OK, so we're recording this in the afternoon.
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So what I want to tell you is, is I want to re emphasize the importance of us doing it in the
mornings and in the evening.
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Part of the reason is, is that we should listen to it or read it.
I know in your case you don't like listening and that's OK.
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You should go through and read it and listen at the same time.
And then you can kind of like set something in your heart where you're kind of thinking and
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meditating on.
For me, like first thing when I got up this morning, I was, I was in the word and I've been kind of
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sitting on these, on these 4 verses, not because we're doing a podcast, just because it kind of
really gripped my heart what what was going on here.
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So I want to re emphasize that with you.
So of course, obviously we're, I'm going to come alongside of you, encourage you to do that, but
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that's the purpose.
What are we doing?
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What we're doing?
You want to allow the Holy Spirit to hover over something so that you can meditate on, so that you
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can think about.
So let's get in.
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We're going to do the first 4 verses or so.
So why don't you go ahead and read those 4 verses and then we'll come back to verse one and start
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breaking it down.
Now Saul was consenting to his death at that time, was at that time a great persecute, and arose
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against the Church, which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the region to Jay
and Samara, except the apostles.
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And the valve man 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,
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committing them to prison.
Therefore, those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.
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All right, so let's go back here to verse #1 I want you to notice this is now Saul was consenting to
his death.
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And I don't know if you have you read through part of the discipleship guide.
You did that part of that yesterday, correct?
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OK.
Now in our discipleship guide, Horton really kind of took the time.
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Well, I shouldn't say took the time.
He, he wrote a line or two about this phrase consenting to his death.
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And in fact, I need to make sure that I pull it up here so that I've got it.
But do you have yours up?
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Oh, yeah.
OK.
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So he says it is here that Saul was giving approval to the Greek is a little stronger Saul holy and
completely approved or parentheses Saul was in hearty agreement with.
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That's how the new American standard Bible says it.
So here in the new King James, it says consenting.
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Here's the point Horton highlights and he gives us an indication that this vocabulary is much
stronger.
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So it's more than just him saying, yes, you have permission.
It was that he is approved.
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He's pleased.
He it is coming about because of his involvement.
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And so this puts, this makes this situation all the more heavier because he's there.
He's playing a major, major role in this.
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And then, of course, it goes on.
It says, at that time, what was that time the day that Stephen was was stoned?
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And it says a great persecution.
OK, now, because it's using an adjective before persecution, it's describing what kind of
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persecution is this A great one.
It's a great one.
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The Greek word is mega like so this isn't this isn't just some small thing.
This is this is a big deal.
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And then notice the persecution who it is against the church, the church.
Wow, really, really beautiful.
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Now we just take for granted the language that we use today, but to say the church and this moment
means that that God has formed it through the power of the Holy Spirit.
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The Church has been formed and it tells us that the church was at Jerusalem.
And then what is the result?
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What does it say after It says that they were all what?
Scattered throughout the the regions.
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OK, now I want you, I would like for you to know it to highlight that word scattered.
And the reason that that's important is because it gives us a word picture.
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Now this word scatter is also used as in farming terms.
What do you think it could could be?
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I don't know.
It means to sow seed.
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So they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.
Now I'm just giving you my opinion here.
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As we're going to see, God is going to use this for his glory.
But when it says that they are scattered, they are dispersed.
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So I want you to imagine.
Do you remember Jesus gives a parable about about seeds?
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The good and the bad, them running in good and bad spots.
Yeah, yeah, that's the 1:00.
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Well, it the picture is that a farmer has kind of like a like a duffel bag.
We'd call it a satchel.
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And he's got all his seeds and his, he's walking.
He puts his hands down into the bag and he begins to tossed.
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We would call that broadcasting.
That's the old term.
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That's where we get the term.
Like right now we're broadcasting over the Internet.
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TV is a live broadcast.
If you're watching YouTube, you could broadcast.
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What does that mean?
It's scattering, dispersing your seed.
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And so the idea here, even though it is not explicit, like over the top, the idea is that this is
God's activity because you need to remember nothing is taking God by surprise.
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And so when it says that they're all scattered, it's as if the sower is taking a handful of seed and
he's going to scatter them.
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Now God can do this one of two ways.
He can do this in the form of judgement, which we see in the Old Testament.
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In fact, this is the word where we get, it's called diaspora, where we get the word diaspora.
Now in the Old Testament, God's people were scattered as a form of judgment.
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Now some people might approach this and say, is this God's judgment?
No, no, no.
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God is actually reversing some things.
God will use this and as a result notice the location or where they scattered.
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Today and Samaria.
Yeah.
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Now, do you remember Acts 1:00 and 8:00?
You mean one verse 8 you mean Yeah.
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Acts chapter one, verse 8.
It's the purpose it's one of the purposes of the of the book of Acts.
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The the Bible says you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be
my witnesses in.
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All of Judea and.
Judea, all of Samaria, or for Jerusalem?
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Judea, Samaria.
And the ends of.
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Them into the ends of the earth.
So Acts is a four stage process geographically and that also communicates what we would call the
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universality of the gospel.
What does that mean?
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Means it's for everybody.
It's not for one ethnic group.
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So I want you to notice we have been focusing on Jerusalem and Judea.
The next phase in this chapter, Noah, we're going to move into Samaria because that's where Philip
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goes, right As we as we go down.
Yeah.
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Because look at the result in verse 4.
I'm getting ahead.
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Look, look at the result of being scattered.
So notice that scattered is in verse one.
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OK, I wanted you to highlight that.
And then I want you to highlight it the exact same way in verse #4 it says therefore those who were
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scattered, what did they do?
Preach the word, they preached.
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The word, I've got a lot we could talk about on that word preaching if you were to do an exhaustive
word study.
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But again, the idea here, think of it because did you know in the New Testament that we are called
living epistles?
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Peter tells us that in his that we are living epistles.
And so God sews His word and he sews his people as well.
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So they were scattered.
God is now moving them from Jerusalem and Judea.
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They're going to move into Samaria and get this, we get a glimpse or a preview of what's to come at
the very end.
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Now, do you remember where Philip ends up going after he preached in Samaria?
Oh my, don't.
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Or who he encounters.
Scroll down to the end of the chapter.
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Tell me.
Tell me from in.
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Gaza.
No, no Verse Verse 27.
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Ethiopia.
Ethiopia.
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Now here's the preview.
Look how far South we went.
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It, it, it's communicating what's to come by the ends of the earth.
He sees and he he goes from Samaria.
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So notice where Philip had gone from it like in what we would call a microcosm.
OK, the the book of Acts is one big remember from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria to the ends of the
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earth.
In this very chapter, God takes Philip, which we'll get into.
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He was in Jerusalem.
He had to travel through Judea.
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He had to go to Samaria and he speaks to a representative to the end of the earth.
All contained right here in that chapter.
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Now if we if we want to zoom out now for the big, big picture Noah, this is the story of all the
Bible, all the Bible, God's plan of redemption for the entire world.
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It goes all the way back to Abraham where he says I will bless you and make you a great nation and I
am from you, from your seed, I will bless the entire world.
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Pretty cool stuff.
OK, back up to verse one.
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All right, great persecution.
The word there's mega, mega persecution and it says that they were scattered throughout the regions.
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Now I want us to put some flesh and bones on this in your I want you to think about this, Noah, in
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your opinion and in your learning and in your interpretation.
How big is the church at Jerusalem?
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In other words, how many people do you think by this point make up what is called the church?
And we're not just talking 1 little, you know, one church.
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There are multiple churches are spread out meeting from house to house.
How many do you think there are?
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More than like 10,000.
That's a really good guess.
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So at a minimum, 10,000 right, At A, at a minimum.
So if these believers are dispersed and they have been meeting, OK, remember back in Acts Chapter 2,
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I'm going to remind you that they were meeting, they were all in one accord.
They were meeting daily in the temple courts and from house to house.
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They were breaking bread and having fellowship with with one another.
In other words, they were being discipled.
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So these people, generally speaking, they've had some time.
How long exactly?
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Now we don't know the answer, but it would be safe to say possibly a year and a half to three years
upwards up up there.
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OK, we could push it even further.
I'm just trying to be very conservative here.
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Now these people, meaning they've come out of Judaism, they've had their eyes open to the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
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They are, they are being discipled with the apostles doctrine and teaching and now God is going to
use them.
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Now we've seen a theme.
What is the theme?
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It goes back when it started.
Remember when they they arose a complaint between the Hebrew speaking widows and the Hellenist ones?
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Yeah.
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And what did they do?
What was the solution?
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They they found seven people to do it.
They found seven and the significance of that, OK, significance is Steven is used and he's not an
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apostle.
Very big deal.
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And God is using somebody that's not an apostle.
We're seeing the same thing here.
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We're going to see it with Philip.
The theme reoccurs, but here's where it gets even bigger.
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God is also going to use these people.
We're going to see that this dispersion, this scattering is going to reappear to us in Acts, and you
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might say, well, where?
Well, let me read you one.
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Listen to Acts 1119.
This is down the road.
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It says.
Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as
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Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to no one, but to Jews only.
Now I know that those cities might not mean a whole lot to you, but if we were to get out a map and
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we were to have Jerusalem right here in the middle right center of Jerusalem, you would see the
spread, the scattering of the gospel by God's hand in in in a dispersed manner.
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It's really beautiful.
And so we're going to see this theme.
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What's the purpose of all this?
All from all from this great persecution arose.
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They were scattered.
Now why do you think it says accept the apostles?
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Why would the apostles stay there?
They weren't afraid.
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Hey, I'd like your answer.
I think you're right.
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Now, many people have entered into this question and what I say by many people, many people that are
way, way smarter than me and there are different thoughts on this, but I think you just in your
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simplicity gave the right answer.
What happened?
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OK, I want you.
I want to, I want to frame these two stories I told you and we've talked last week that Steven is
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almost a mirror image of who Jesus.
Now what happened when Jesus died?
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They ran.
They all ran.
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Now I want you to notice they're still remember how we went and we correlated the Steven was in
front of the Sanhedrin.
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Steven said forgive them.
Steven, do you know all those similarities?
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Well, it's like, wait, there's more even in Stevens death in verse #2 it says in devout men carried
Steven to his burial and made great lamentation over them over him.
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Sorry.
Now there were some devout men that helped with the body of Jesus.
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Do you remember who those those people were?
Nicodemus and yeah.
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Well, I forgot Joseph of, of Arimathea.
We would call them devout men.
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Now Joseph of of Amerithea was a disciple of Jesus, but he was he was undercover, he was secret
because he was part he had an influence.
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Now when the Bible says that devoted devout men carried Stephen, the question is, is are these
Christians quote UN quote Christians yet?
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And the answer most likely is no.
However, Luke uses this word devout.
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He he would have used the word brothers.
But there is in in his gospel he described a religious man who was waiting for the consolation of
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Israel.
And his name was Simeon.
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And God gave him a promise that before he would die that he would see God's Messiah.
He was waiting for the consolation.
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And Luke describes Simeon as devout.
What does that mean?
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It means that he was set apart, that his heart was more open to the things of God than your normal
everyday religious person.
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And now you.
Luke is using the same term for these men who carried Stephen to his burial.
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We could call them at this point, not in a negative sense, Noah, but they were Christian
sympathizers, meaning they might not have fully committed just yet to the message, and that's OK
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Doesn't mean that they're not on their way.
However, there could be indication after witnessing the grace with which Stephen died, that they
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would have carried his body.
Do you have any thoughts or anything you read on this Noah?
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The commentary had said they were sincere, godly Jews who had not accepted Christ as their Messiah
and Savior, but who respected Stephen and courageously rejected the the decision of the Sanhedrin as
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wrong and unjust.
Yes, Yep, absolutely, absolutely.
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Now Jesus was buried in a similar manner and the apostles had fled.
This time they're staying.
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They are staying.
And I think that's the reason it says accept the apostles.
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Now when it says all going back to verse one says they were all scattered people.
I'm not trying to overwhelm, you know, with all these different scholars that talk, but the question
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is, is, is Luke exaggerating here or speaking what we would call with hyperbole?
So imagine if, like, we were in a room full of people and then, yeah, I got to turn off my do not
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disturb.
Smooth move, right?
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Same thing as last time.
I know that's all right.
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I want you to imagine we're in a big room full of people.
Like let's say there's 200 people and 190 people left, and there's only 10 people left.
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If I was describing that situation later, I'd say, you know what?
Everybody left, you know, if somebody could come up and like, well, technically not everybody.
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You still had Noah was there with you, right?
I'd be like, come on, you know what I'm saying?
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Right.
That's that's the, the sense of what people look into.
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So when Luke says they were all scattered.
I would assume not everybody, but like like maybe like 95% or exactly like in the 90%.
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Range.
You got it.
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You got it.
Now something else this is really gripped me.
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I was reading a guy, this is what I would call the big dog commentary Keener like his books are,
would go the width, like width of this table huge.
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Like I know you're rolling your eyes just thinking about it, but what this guy does is he's not just
writing.
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He gives you every little detail.
So as I was reading, he was talking about the implications of them being scattered, and the
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implications of that could be good and bad in the bad, if they were identified as a follower of
Christ.
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And because if they would have been put into prison, they could have technically seized their
property.
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So we're talking about an economic hardship that would be difficult for us to relate to see one of
the hardest things.
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Why didn't you?
Shouldn't you say it was like hard?
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I don't want to diminish what COVID was, but one of the most imprinting things on us was that period
of time during COVID, people suffered greatly economically or, or, or, you know, physically and all
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those things.
And jobs and all that.
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Correct.
And I'm not diminishing that whatsoever.
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However, compared to back then, it would be.
Correct.
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This was devastating.
Great, great persecution, great persecution.
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For me, I think if if at the minimum there was 10,000, probably more than that, like maybe a couple
thousand more, I would think maybe like less than 500 or so stayed.
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Could be.
It's hard to put a number on that, so let's look into verse three.
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OK, so we see that devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and it's also highly significant.
They made a great lamentation over him.
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In the commentary, it had said devout men carried Stephen out, buried him, and mourn deeply,
parentheses publicly be beating their breasts over him.
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This was unusual, for Jewish tradition was against during this kind of respect or sorrow for an
executed person.
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My question was what's the significance of beating the publicly beating the press?
That is just a cultural cultural how how do I word it?
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My, my brain went, went flat here for a second.
It it, it's just part of culture.
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So every culture does things that are different for them.
Beating their breast is, is just an expression of great mourning and lamentation.
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For instance, if I was to say, like, you know, the Sanhedrin would tear their robes or they would
repent and and sackcloth and ash.
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These are all cultural expressions of grieving.
And so, yes, you weren't allowed to do your normal grieving for somebody that was a criminal.
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So these men, these devout men actually defied the cultural norms, which is super, super
interesting.
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So yeah, I'm glad you picked up on that.
Glad you read that and glad you asked that question.
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Anything else out of that verse?
Oh, no.
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OK, verse 3.
As for Saul, he made havoc on the church, so it tells us what that means.
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Havoc, right?
He entered every house he dragged off men and women, committing them to prison.
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And so this word, to make havoc means to tear something apart.
So this word would be used back in these times.
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If I was to use it like in sentence, it would be as if I had a vineyard out in the backyard and then
all of a sudden a wild boar came running through and tore up the vineyard.
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What would I say?
I would say that wild boar made.
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Havoc of the vineyard.
Havoc.
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Yes, it's a very, very strong word.
And so it tells us that he was very intentional.
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In other words, he was very systematic in hunting down believers and he was going from house to
house.
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Now, why would he do this?
Why do you think so, Noah?
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Because after, after what happened with Stephen, he didn't, he didn't like, he realized that maybe
not realize, but like, like with how many like upcoming Christians know that he wanted to just like
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get rid of them.
Yeah, Yeah, that's part of it.
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And I don't want to, I don't want to try to interpret his intentions psychologically, but I can give
us some insight into some possibilities.
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Does that make sense?
Yeah.
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OK.
I want you to scroll up a little bit and look at Chapter 7, verse 58. 758.
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Yeah.
And look at the last four words.
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Tell me those last four words.
Young man named Saul.
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So it tells us he's a young man.
Now in the Bible, when it says a young man, do you want to take a guess how old he he might have
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been?
Maybe like anyone from his 20s to 40s.
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Yeah, that's actually a pretty good guess.
Anything below 3030 and below from 20 to 30 would be considered a young man.
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We find out later that Paul Saul was a student of a very influential famous rabbi by the name of
Gamelio, right?
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And Gamelio was the grandson of an even more famous rabbi named Halil.
Now, when it says that he's young, there's also some possibilities that he was in line to take the
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throne of Gamaliel and that he very well, not only was he associated with the synagogue of the
freedmen, but that he was also in line to be on the Sanhedrin.
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Now that's a whole other discussion right there.
We find out that Paul ended up he was a Pharisee.
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So when it says that he is a young man, most likely he is trying to make his mark.
We would call this being zealous, the way the Bible would call it.
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The world would call this, hey, you're out making a name for yourself.
You're trending, you're hustling, right?
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You're on the grind.
What all those, all those words to describe it.
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So what's he doing?
He's like here, let me make my mark.
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Now.
He has deviated from his teacher's teaching.
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Because if you remember Gamalio, he was the one who was influential.
And he was the one who said not to do anything in case they were of God.
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Correct.
So he was like, let's just chill out, let's just wait.
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Let's just see If it's of God, you can't stop it.
If it's not, it'll come to nothing, right?
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Yeah.
Whereas with Saul, he he isn't exactly agreeing with his.
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No, I'm not.
Yeah.
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So he let me give you.
Let me offer this.
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I'm I'm this is just me.
It's possible.
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Not that he's turning on Gamelio, but maybe he and there's a live, there's a whole background to
this too.
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Paul's background, perhaps how he was brought up, his parents, they sent him.
Perhaps he's like, you know what?
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That's a sign of weakness.
Let me step up and let me show who I am.
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And I'm going to, I'm going to take, I'm going to ascend, right?
I'm going to climb the ranks even further.
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And so the purpose of this could be his motivation.
Power hungry.
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He could be power hungry and and he also at the same time legitimately sees this as a threat to
Judaism as a whole.
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Like if this stuff gets spread, like somebody's got to stop it.
And, and, and he, he doesn't want to ruin the temple system.
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That's good to him.
Correct, Correct.
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So let's go back here to verse 3.
Acts 8/3.
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As for Saul, he made havoc of the church.
You got that picture right in your head of the boar running through.
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Imagine if you did that through your mom's garden you'd like your mom had.
Can you imagine?
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I think I think I would be spanxed for the first time.
Well, not you, but I mean, imagine though, she had it all nice and then all of a sudden a wild pig
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ran through that.
All right, so he enters house, he drags them off and he commits them to prison.
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Now that's where part of that background came in that I told you I was reading about Keener.
When you're committed to to prison in this system, you lose your rights.
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You could lose your property, lose your home.
When?
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They say committing to prison.
Is that just saying?
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Does that just saying they're going to be in prison for the rest of their life for like for a while
or something?
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For a while, yeah, they're going to be.
They're going to go through the same process.
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They're going to be tried and go to trial and held their harassed, intimidated, remember what they
were trying to do to Peter and John.
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Arrest them.
They arrested them, but they were also threatening them, threatening their lives.
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So verse anything on verse 3 before we move on.
When it says men and women, is that because like in the chapters when it was saying how like how
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like the men cost saved, but you had said that would also include like their families like like the
women and the children, correct?
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Would that apply here in terms of saying men and women like would that include the children also or?
I don't know if it wouldn't have included the children being committed into prison.
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I'm not sure on that one, Noah.
I would have to.
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I haven't come across anything.
I've read quite a bit out of multiple commentaries for these verses.
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So that's actually a good question.
So my answer is I don't know.
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So I don't know.
That's that's a good question.
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All right, anything else?
Oh no, All right, verse 4.
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Therefore, those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.
Now just giving you a pre.
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Just a reminder this word to preach it.
Isn't like what we think it in today's terms.
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Good.
Tell me about it.
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Talk to me a little bit here.
I want.
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To I was looking for an account because I had read something that was talking about how it's not
necessarily like them.
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I don't.
I will try.
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I'm trying to look for it.
Yeah, it's not like you're going to walk in and take a pulpit and.
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Like.
For instance, Memo got to preach on Sunday, did a great job.
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And by the way, but that isn't exactly what that word means.
It can include that, but that in this sense, no.
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So tell me some more.
It was the just, I would think it would just like be them like telling people, not necessarily just
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like telling like their experiences and stuff and like like see if they like spark and like spark
something.
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Yeah, Yeah, you're actually, you're actually right on the money.
And this, this word carries the idea of what we would call it.
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It the word is actually where we get the word evangelizing from preaching, meaning that they were
declaring the gospel in their everyday setting.
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So as they came into town, they were go ahead, read, read.
Tell me what you found.
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This does not mean the believers were all preachers in the modern sense.
They were simply joyous and free in their witness to Jesus.
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Though disordinary people, they were full of the Spirit, knew the Word, and became channels of the
love and power of Jesus up.
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Apparently none complained because of the persecution.
They seized it as another opportunity to see what God would do.
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Now let's take that further then.
So you said none of them did what?
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What did they not do?
Preach the modern sense.
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No, what it is, you just read it.
None of them, Apparently none of them complained, right?
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Imagine you can feel real sorry for yourself.
I mean, if anybody had a right to feel sorry for themselves, there'd be these folks.
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But instead they went out telling the good news.
So how bridge that to us today, Noah?
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Tell me.
Tell me what this might look like today.
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Just just just like walking up to someone, just like trying to talk to them about Jesus if they
want, if they are willing to hear it.
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Absolutely.
So tell me some situations where that might happen.
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School work just like yeah, you at the store.
Yeah, exactly.
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I mean, if you wanted to help somebody out right, like.
It's just whoever, whoever is willing to hear you, you just like answer.
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So you've been going to the gym lately.
You like, let's say now you're not in a position yet to where like if you saw somebody bench
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pressing that you would go over and give them some tips, right?
But let's say somebody that's been going to the gym for a while, like because you've been you work
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out sometimes with Martin or Memo.
So imagine, let's say, like, you know, Martin's been there for, let's say, years, right?
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It's like, it's like Martin's always giving me tips on how to do.
Stuff properly.
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Now let's say you see somebody across the way that's struggling with a certain exercise.
He might go over there and be like, hey, hey, can I help you out?
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I'm going to give you a little word of advice.
That's the sense of of this as well.
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You're preaching, you're helping people, you're giving the good news.
So we are to do this everywhere.
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And what amazes me the most is that they did this because of the persecution that not the that's
that was the driver, but in spite of the persecution, like that's pretty, pretty incredible.
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And so instead of hiding, instead of feeling sorry for themselves, they preach the gospel
everywhere.
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So I guess the question we could ask is what are we waiting for, right?
Are we waiting for the perfect opportunity?
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Are we waiting for things to be comfortable?
If you're await, if you're waiting for the perfect opportunity is it's never going to come and you
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just no waiting for tomorrow, just do it.
Absolutely.
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So let me give this final thought and then we'll do some we'll, we'll, we'll apply this word a
little bit better for US.
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Number one is we have seen a pattern through the Gospel of John and all of our studies and even
here.
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And here's the pattern.
God is sovereign.
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Do you remember when Jesus was standing before Pilate?
And Pilate says, answer me, don't you know I I can take your life?
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Oh yeah.
Do you remember what Jesus said?
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I don't, He said.
Nobody takes my life.
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I'd lay it down.
In other words, Pilate, you think you have power, but you don't.
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God used the high priest to even prophecy God.
God has a habit of using people, and God is going to use the apostle Paul at a mighty way, but he's
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using him right now in this moment.
Even though Paul's not aware of it, he's going to be sorrowful.
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He'll remember this for the rest of his life.
But here's the thing, God can use it for His glory, and he's doing that right here.
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He's just, He is scattering them for the sake of the gospel.
Yes, it's not easy, it's not comfortable, it's not the best life, but God is is using all of this
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for his glory.
Any thoughts on that?
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I know.
So here's some things that I think we should take away.
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First of all, persecution always, always, historically and biblically speaking, refines and spreads
the gospel.
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Always Trials don't destroy faith.
They actually will strengthen faith.
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And so when we go through a trial, we begin to see what's really on the inside of us.
And these people, it is evident that they have been discipled and that they have truly been born
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again.
Because if they hadn't, they would have ran.
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They would have been scattered.
What I mean by running and being scattered in this sense is to run and hide.
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They would have given up on this whole Jesus thing, but they didn't.
And so it is evidence of a true and lasting saving faith in Jesus Christ.
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And it is the same for us.
And this is part of the reason, Noah, why you hear me say over and over and over again that I'm
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looking for long term.
I don't want just, yes, you can have momentary experiences and those things are nice and cool and
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all those things, but what we're after is for the long haul.
That way, when trials do come, you're not going to be destroyed by them.
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They're going to strengthen your faith.
Now here's the question.
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Will we trust God that He's at work even in times of hardship?
Will we do that?
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I hope so.
That's part of the message.
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Trust Him no matter what.
I don't think that these people are connecting the dots the way you and I are right now.
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Noah, they're in the middle of it.
I'm sure they had questions.
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I mean, we read some of them went all the way up north to Antioch and, and, and, and Pasidia and all
these different cities.
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They're like, why?
What am I doing?
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Like, how is this supposed to work?
Imagine in the modern context.
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I'm supposed to be healthy, wealthy and wise, and God's supposed to have a plan for my life.
What's going on that is.
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The part of the plan.
This was and they said, you know what, regardless of what we're going through, we're going to preach
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the gospel.
I love it.
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I love it.
And so the other thing that we learned, what we're going to see through this, and I'm getting ahead
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of ourselves as God can redeem one of the hardest of hearts.
He does that through Saul.
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God is going to redeem him and the greatest enemy of the church, mega persecution, a great
persecution became what the greatest missionary.
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And so nobody is beyond God's grace.
And so when there are people that seem like they're far away from Jesus, we got to pray for them.
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That's what we got to do and remember, God can redeem them.
And here's the other thing, evangelism, what we see this word in verse 4, I and if I didn't tell you
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no, I want to encourage you to highlight that word preaching, because it's the word for evangelism.
Evangelism is for everybody.
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And what we're seeing here is that the gospel is being advanced through everyday ordinary believers,
not just the apostles.
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That's that theme that we've been reading, right started with Steven.
We're going to see it in Philip and now with them.
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And so the question is, is are we, you and I and Arvind Assembly and those that are listening today,
are we willing to step out and share our faith in everyday moments?
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School, gym, Vallarta post office, pumping gas, right?
Yeah, let's be willing to do that.
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And so this whole, this acts, this is only four verses.
I'm excited to get in the rest.
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But this isn't just history, it's a call to boldness and trusting God and that He's sovereign, that
He is sovereign, and the church will never be silenced by persecution.
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It is actually mobilized and becomes refined by persecution.
And so I want to thank all of you for tuning in today.
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If you've got any thoughts, if you've got any questions out of these verses, please feel free to let
me know.
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You can always visit what's the website Noah, www.alpastor.org, all pastor.org.
Thanks for tuning in.
42:54
Thank you for listening to Al Pastor with Brian Overturf.
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