Scattered for Joy
- David Fairchild
- Jul 8, 2007
- Series: Acts
Acts 8:1-8: "And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that
day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all
scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2
Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. 3 But Saul was
ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and
women and committed them to prison. 4 Now those who were scattered went about
preaching the word. 5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to
them the Christ. 6 And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was
being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. 7 For
unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, crying with a loud voice,
and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was much joy in
that city."
INTRODUCTION
We've been moving through the book of Acts these last several weeks attempting to discern the incredible activity of the Holy Spirit to send the Church on mission to the world. We've been asking how it could be that a group of small, marginalized, powerless people like the early Church, could sweep through the most powerful empire in the world in a few decades and turn the world upside-down, or right-side-up, depending on how you look at it. How did they do it? What did they understand and believe, what power did they have access to in order to give their lives away for the advancement of Jesus Christ and His salvation in their time?
We've seen that they were transformed from the inside out by the power of the Gospel, the truth that Christ had lived a life they were supposed to, had died the reign from His throne as the King of kings and Lord of lords. We see that this resulted in a kind of living and generosity that had no counterpart in the Roman Empire. They became bold when previously they were frightened. They became hospitable when previously they were closed off from others. They became radically generous with their property and finances when previously they were selfish and self-centered. They became concerned for the welfare of others when previously they lived primarily for themselves. They were willing to die in order to tell others of this truth when previously they did everything they could to preserve their life at any cost.
Over and over again the Christians in the early Church show us a people that are not without faults and sin, but rather what it looks like when you know you've been forgiven of your sin and want to see this pardon given to others on behalf of your King.
This week we look at the results of the persecution of the early Church as the first Christian martyr, Stephen, was killed for his love for Jesus and desire to see Jesus' name and glory spread. The church became scattered. This is what we see in verse 4.
This scattering, however, was not by happenstance or some kind of oversight or accident by God. It had a purpose to it and a plan which God was working out in their midst.
God's missionary activity is often very confusing to neat and tidy little western minds. We like things to make sense to us in ways that are simple and without much thought. Yet God recognizes that we have to have our hearts warmed in ways that may only come through physical circumstances which cause us to love Him and others more. This is the case in this story.
This was God's missional plan that the early Church quickly began to understand and pursue: to see the good news of God's offer of the forgiveness of sins as well as His ultimate good news of restoring everything back to beauty without the curse and sin in this world.
It wasn't just unplanned or thoughtless missional activity in which the Church engaged, but rather a purposed plan that they knew would most quickly get the Gospel into Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the world.
Christianity spread fast, but it wasn't just a shotgun blast, it was a sniper shot into major cities which then spread out from the center of power and influence. The original leaders of the first church planting movement had a strategy to go into cities. God directed this strategy. The entire book of Acts is one great story of God directing a mission movement into the cities where they were often most hostile to the Gospel and yet most able to spread the Gospel.
God's plan for changing the world was to bring joy to the city. If God brought joy to the city it would impact the places of social, economic, and cultural influence, and the rest of the world would be impacted. The city sets the tone for the country in which it is located and the cities of the world set the tone for the entire world. London, Paris, New York, and Tokyo have more in common with each other than they do with the suburbs of their own country. Cities shape the world because they have the most people with the most power and the most money to see that their vision and values eventually become imbedded into their country.
If there is joy in the city then there will be healing in the world. This is God's strategy.
STUDY
Saul, who would become the beloved Paul, gave approval to execute Stephen and succeeded in his plan to disrupt the gathering of Christians in a larger local context. God then scattered them into various places to preach the Word. He sent His key leaders to work in major cities.
Verse 5: "Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ"
#1-God's missional strategy
What did Phillip do? He went down to the city in Samaria. It literally reads, "Phillip went down to THE city in Samaria..."
It was the capital, the main city in Samaria. Phillip was one of the seven chosen with Stephen in chapter 6 to help serve the Church so that the apostles could be freed to preach the word. These leaders were people of tremendous wisdom and ability. God sends Phillip to the city.
The rest of the book of Acts shows us the way Christianity spread through the empire was by reaching the cities. How do you reach Samaria? You go to THE city of Samaria. How do you reach the intellectuals? You go to THE city of the intellectuals, Athens. Paul went to Athens to proclaim the Gospel to the place where the arts and thinkers were huddled together. How do you reach the commercial center of the Roman Empire? You go to Corinth and plant a church. How do you reach the religious center of the Empire? You go to Ephesus and plant a church. Ephesus was where the competing religions to Christianity were. How do you reach the power center of the Roman Empire? You go to Rome and plant a church that plants churches.
Paul went to the Boston of the day, the New York of the day, the Los Angeles and San Diego of the day, the Chicago of the day, the Washington DC of the day. This was how God was going to bring joy to the world.
In Acts 16 Paul has a dream. In that dream, he sees a man from Macedonia telling him to come and bring the Gospel to Macedonia. Two verses after Paul's dream, it says in Acts 16:11-12, "So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days."
If Paul was going to reach Macedonia, he was going to the leading city of Macedonia.
There is an amazing statement by Paul in Romans 15. Paul says in verse 19, "...so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ." Paul is saying that he has fully preached the Gospel so that his work is done in that region. Once he's planted a church in every big city in that region, he leaves the work to the elders to continue planting churches from their church on mission to the whole area. But Paul considered his work to be done because he was moving on to plant more churches. Paul saw his strategy from first to last as urban.
He virtually ignored the countryside and towns. He knew that for the countryside and towns to be reached, the city had to be changed by the Gospel and the church in that city had to be involved in God's work to bring joy to that city so that it would eventually spread to the countryside.
In the first two centuries virtually all Christians were urban Christians. How did the Church expand from 25,000 in 100 AD to 20,000,000 by 310 AD? Paul infected a group of urban pagans with the Gospel virus and they were transformed into missionaries for that city and they tried to spread the Gospel to everyone with whom they came into contact. If you're going to spread a virus that will impact the world, you don't do it initially in the countryside or it will never catch. You drop it in the middle of the city and eventually those who come and visit the city will catch it and bring it back. I know calling the Gospel a virus isn't that attractive, but you get the point.
Town and country people are conservative. They usually are more closed off and more reserved to hear something new. So, Paul went to the places where it was incredibly diverse and where they were more open to hearing something new, the city.
Town and country people stay put. City people like to be mobile and move around. If we plant the Gospel in the city it will travel all over.
Town and country people are more homogenous. In other words, there isn't a great diversity with town and country people since they seem to move to an area or are born in an area that has people more like themselves. But in the city there are hundreds of races and classes of people. Paul knew that if the Gospel got into the city it would work its way into hundreds of different groups.
Lastly, town and country people only influence their little town, but city people influence the entire culture through the media, political, educational, economic, and other culture-shaping expressions. If we plant the Gospel in the city, it will sweep the country. The way to reach a county is the plant a church in THE city of that county. The way to reach a state is to plant a church in THE cities of that state. The way to reach a country is to plant churches in THE cities of that country. San Diego is the second largest city in California, and the second largest on the west coast. For California and the west coast to be transformed, cities like San Diego, LA, Seattle, and Portland have to be transformed by massive church planting efforts so the Gospel gets into the city.
What would have happened to the spread of the Gospel if the early Christians only took the Gospel to the places we want to live today? We only want to live in safe, homogenous, and tranquil places. This is the opposite of a city. If Paul or other leading missionaries would have done this instead of going to the cities and planting churches in the marketplace to reach the power centers of that region, where would we be? If they would have gone where we want to go, where would we be?
This is the missional strategy of the book of Acts.
#2-How this strategy was discovered
We're told here that Phillip went to Samaria. Why? Did Phillip sit down and purposely plan out this missional strategy on his own? No. Perhaps Paul thought this through more deeply than Phillip, but Phillip had this strategy thrust upon him by God.
We're told in verse 4:
Verse 4: "Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word."
Phillip went because he was scattered. What does this mean?
In the very beginning of Acts in chapter 1 and 2, God indicated that He wanted His people to be a missional people and to get out of their safe, homogenous, and tranquil comfort zones to be scattered for Him and for the sake of the world.
To the very first disciples He says to a small group of about 120:
Acts 1:8: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
Jesus told His disciples just before He ascended to Heaven essentially, "I disperse you." I don't want you in safe, homogenous, and tranquil places anymore. I want you to break down the physical, racial, economic, and social barriers to get out!
But they didn't get out, they stayed. They wanted to remain in a nice warm little comfortable church plant of 120. Then the Holy Spirit, the Gospel, and persecution were sent by God to scatter them to be a blessing to the world.
We read after Stephen was stoned and executed, a tremendous persecution broke out.
Verses 1-3: "And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. 3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison."
Christians were being dragged from their homes by the work of Saul (Paul). They were taken off and they were scattered. They were refugees and exiles in their once nice, safe, homogenous, and tranquil homes. When they met Christ they became foreigners in their own home city.
Because they were scattered, Phillip was now free to go to strategic places for the sake of the Gospel. If they hadn't been scattered, I'm not convinced he would have left on his own. But, very carefully, Luke uses a word in verse 4 to speak of what happened to the Christians. He uses the word diaspora to speak of what happened to them. To be the dispersed was as much a description of what happened to you as it was what you were.
The Christians were dispersed. God has to physically scatter us to show us that we are spiritually scattered already. To be scattered was and is the spiritual condition of every Christian. These Christians had to be physically scattered to be shown what they already were.
What do we mean? In James 1:1 and 1 Peter 1:1, we are called exiles. Colossians 1:13 tells us we've been transferred from the kingdom darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son. We're told in Philippians that we are now citizens of Heaven. What does this mean? The moment you become a Christian, your citizenship is no longer about where you're from anymore. When you become a Christian, your citizenship is transferred to God's city. Something has happened to you.
If you've been transferred, you're adopted in Christ, you're standing in Christ, your new citizenship becomes more important than any family, social, or political background you're from. What happens to a Christian is that they find their old taproot is cut and they are attached to something different. They are now tapped in as a citizen of Heaven.
Who you have been, where you were born, your race, and your ethnicity has a lot to do with who you are, but now who you are in Christ becomes infinitely more important. You become scattered and you no longer have to just stick to your group; you can move around like Phillip and go to the place where the Gospel is going to enter into others' lives to see their citizenship transferred as well. You no longer have to live in Iowa to be happy. You no longer have to live in Bakersfield to be happy. You can move for the sake of the Gospel to places that take you out of your safe and tranquil life because you are already scattered. You're already an exile.
You're scattered spiritually and theologically, but God sometimes has to scatter you physically to show you that.
How many of you came to Christ and came to San Diego and told yourself that you came here be in the middle of God's plan for the world? Neither did I! I didn't say, "I'm coming to you Jesus to have my sins forgiven and to be sent where the Gospel will most strategically be preached." I was scattered here like Phillip by the need for a job that would give me a nice, safe, tranquil life. I came here for myself, but the Gospel is making see that God sent me here for others.
Now that you're here in San Diego, see what Phillip saw. You're not just a physical exile from your homeland, you're a spiritual exile. You now become a world citizen that cares about God's glory being spread to all the ends of His creation. You can live anywhere. You have more in common with someone from a different race or class in Christ that you do with someone who is of the same race and class without Christ. That's what being scattered means.
No place can control you any longer. If Christianity is just a vitamin supplement to you to give some added benefit to your life, you're not going to understand this. However, if you understand the transformation of identity that the Gospel brings, you'll no longer look at yourself and where you live the same.
Phillip was scattered and this was the only way he found out he was already scattered. Do you see that about yourself? If you haven't discovered this until now, you're in good company. It took the early Christians from Acts 1 to Acts 8 to discover they were already scattered. God had to come down on their heads to show them this. It shouldn't be surprising that it takes some time to work it into our hearts.
God is still doing this with us. He's still teaching us and scattering us to show us that we're already scattered.
The Bible and Kaleo don't believe you have to live in the city to be a Christian; that isn't the point. What the Gospel does teach is that before the Gospel exploded in your heart, you had a prejudice to places and people in ways you probably weren't aware of. Now, if the Gospel has come in, you develop new eyes through which to see the world, yourself, and God. Your previous prejudices are exposed and you begin to see God's true plan for your life and this world. You are no longer about yourself but you are intensely for others, just Like Jesus.
To say you believe the Gospel and yet have no interest in what we're discussing this morning is self-contradictory. If you've believed the Gospel then you'll begin to be conformed to the image of God's Son, Jesus. That image is selfless, self-giving, generous, and intensely concerned in the welfare of others, both spiritually and physically. Did Jesus go into a place that was nice, safe, homogenous to God and tranquil? No. He came into a place that ultimately cost Him His life. He moved out of His place of safety and glory to experience suffering and rejection for the sake of others.
If you begin to see yourself as already an exile, already scattered, you can now ask some great questions: "Where can I do the most good? Where can I be most useful for the Gospel? How can I spend my resources and time to make the greatest impact for the Gospel?" Are you asking yourself these questions? Or, are you still hung up on asking what is best, safest, and most comfortable for you?
#3-The power of the strategy
There is a power at the heart of this strategy. There was something in the message and heart of Phillip that drove him to the places he went. You need this power to drive you to and keep you in the city and you need this power to make you effective while you're there.
It says he went to the leading city in Samaria. Now, why would a Jewish man go to a place like Samaria, which we know was the home of the religious enemies of the Jews and considered the scum of the earth?
When the Assyrians took away the Northern tribes of Israel, they brought in foreigners to intermingle with the lower class Jews and the result was the Samaritans. These were people considered half-breeds racially and spiritually. They were a mix of Jews and Arabs. They were hated by both sides and despised by everyone.
When the Temple was built in Jerusalem, the Samaritans built another Temple on their mountain and the Jews considered them an utter abomination. They were considered blasphemers.
The Samaritans weren't allowed in the real Temple because they were considered unclean. Here is Phillip going to the most unclean place to mingle with the most unclean people, the paralytics and the possessed, and lame. These were considered the most unworthy of the unworthy to the religious leaders of the day. Yet here goes Phillip to them to bring them the good news of Jesus.
What was it that moved Phillip to do that?
A little further down in the chapter you see a story of the African finance official, the treasurer for the queen Candice of Ethiopia. He was a eunuch. Why was he a eunuch? In this day officials would have their highest servants castrated so that they would be lifelong servants loyal to only them. It was an act of isolation for someone to be a eunuch since they would never have children. They were considered the most trustworthy since they could be trusted with the wives and concubines.
They were alone, and they were often mocked by others. We're told in chapter 8 that this Ethiopian traveled a far distance to worship. It's so odd that he would come under conviction to go to Jerusalem to worship, but that's where God led him. He obviously had read the Hebrew Scriptures.
However, commentators mention that he must have been traveling home in disappointment because eunuchs would have been considered unclean and unfit for worship. He would have been kept out of the Temple. Deuteronomy 23:1 tells us that a eunuch was to be kept out of the Temple.
They were considered unclean, not whole. He traveled hundreds of miles to probably be told he wasn't even a whole man. Eunuchs were often mocked as a dry tree. They weren't allowed. He was an African, a eunuch that worked for the wicked queen of Ethiopia.
He was traveling home reading the Isaiah scroll in the 50s chapters. Commentators tell us that he was probably meditating upon Isaiah 56 previously and looking for some answers through the other chapters. What does Isaiah 56 tell us?
Isaiah 56:2-5: "Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil. 3 Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, ‘The LORD will surely separate me from his people'; and let not the eunuch say, ‘Behold, I am a dry tree.' 4 For thus says the LORD: ‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, 5 I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.'"
Can you imagine that passage hitting through the heart of this man? The one who would have been mocked, the unclean one, the man who was not whole, the dry tree is told that God will give him a monument and name better than sons and daughters. He will have an everlasting name and will never be cut off.
This would have gone through him like a shot. He was promised a place in God's Temple. The eunuch was probably wondering what happened between Deuteronomy 23 and Isaiah 56. What happened to change someone who is outside to be able to come in? What would make Jewish man put his arm around and have concern for a sexually-altered, black finance minister from Ethiopia?
Commentators think he was pouring over the scroll to figure this out when Phillip showed up. The eunuch was reading Isaiah 53. When Phillips got next to him the eunuch was reading this:
Isaiah 53:7-10: "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand."
The eunuch understood that someone was cut off from his descendents, someone's life was cut off, somebody was humiliated. Who was the author speaking of?
Then in Act 8:35 Phillip preached to Him the Gospel of Jesus and showed him from that text that the One who did all of this was Christ. A couple verses later the heart of the eunuch was changed and he was baptized on the spot! It says he went home rejoicing! Joy!
What would cause Phillip to put his arm around this man, place hands on the lepers and unclean, to move him from a place of safety and comfort to one of great sacrifice? The Gospel that Philip believed, that's what did it.
Jesus Christ on the cross became all that kept us from God, our uncleanness, our cowardice, our defilement. Jesus became cut off so we could be grafted in.
When Buddha died he said, "Strive without ceasing." When Jesus died He said, "It is finished."
When Buddha was dying he said, "Pay what you owe." When Jesus died he said, "I've paid what you owe!"
INTRODUCTION
We've been moving through the book of Acts these last several weeks attempting to discern the incredible activity of the Holy Spirit to send the Church on mission to the world. We've been asking how it could be that a group of small, marginalized, powerless people like the early Church, could sweep through the most powerful empire in the world in a few decades and turn the world upside-down, or right-side-up, depending on how you look at it. How did they do it? What did they understand and believe, what power did they have access to in order to give their lives away for the advancement of Jesus Christ and His salvation in their time?
We've seen that they were transformed from the inside out by the power of the Gospel, the truth that Christ had lived a life they were supposed to, had died the reign from His throne as the King of kings and Lord of lords. We see that this resulted in a kind of living and generosity that had no counterpart in the Roman Empire. They became bold when previously they were frightened. They became hospitable when previously they were closed off from others. They became radically generous with their property and finances when previously they were selfish and self-centered. They became concerned for the welfare of others when previously they lived primarily for themselves. They were willing to die in order to tell others of this truth when previously they did everything they could to preserve their life at any cost.
Over and over again the Christians in the early Church show us a people that are not without faults and sin, but rather what it looks like when you know you've been forgiven of your sin and want to see this pardon given to others on behalf of your King.
This week we look at the results of the persecution of the early Church as the first Christian martyr, Stephen, was killed for his love for Jesus and desire to see Jesus' name and glory spread. The church became scattered. This is what we see in verse 4.
This scattering, however, was not by happenstance or some kind of oversight or accident by God. It had a purpose to it and a plan which God was working out in their midst.
God's missionary activity is often very confusing to neat and tidy little western minds. We like things to make sense to us in ways that are simple and without much thought. Yet God recognizes that we have to have our hearts warmed in ways that may only come through physical circumstances which cause us to love Him and others more. This is the case in this story.
This was God's missional plan that the early Church quickly began to understand and pursue: to see the good news of God's offer of the forgiveness of sins as well as His ultimate good news of restoring everything back to beauty without the curse and sin in this world.
It wasn't just unplanned or thoughtless missional activity in which the Church engaged, but rather a purposed plan that they knew would most quickly get the Gospel into Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the world.
Christianity spread fast, but it wasn't just a shotgun blast, it was a sniper shot into major cities which then spread out from the center of power and influence. The original leaders of the first church planting movement had a strategy to go into cities. God directed this strategy. The entire book of Acts is one great story of God directing a mission movement into the cities where they were often most hostile to the Gospel and yet most able to spread the Gospel.
God's plan for changing the world was to bring joy to the city. If God brought joy to the city it would impact the places of social, economic, and cultural influence, and the rest of the world would be impacted. The city sets the tone for the country in which it is located and the cities of the world set the tone for the entire world. London, Paris, New York, and Tokyo have more in common with each other than they do with the suburbs of their own country. Cities shape the world because they have the most people with the most power and the most money to see that their vision and values eventually become imbedded into their country.
If there is joy in the city then there will be healing in the world. This is God's strategy.
STUDY
Saul, who would become the beloved Paul, gave approval to execute Stephen and succeeded in his plan to disrupt the gathering of Christians in a larger local context. God then scattered them into various places to preach the Word. He sent His key leaders to work in major cities.
Verse 5: "Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ"
#1-God's missional strategy
What did Phillip do? He went down to the city in Samaria. It literally reads, "Phillip went down to THE city in Samaria..."
It was the capital, the main city in Samaria. Phillip was one of the seven chosen with Stephen in chapter 6 to help serve the Church so that the apostles could be freed to preach the word. These leaders were people of tremendous wisdom and ability. God sends Phillip to the city.
The rest of the book of Acts shows us the way Christianity spread through the empire was by reaching the cities. How do you reach Samaria? You go to THE city of Samaria. How do you reach the intellectuals? You go to THE city of the intellectuals, Athens. Paul went to Athens to proclaim the Gospel to the place where the arts and thinkers were huddled together. How do you reach the commercial center of the Roman Empire? You go to Corinth and plant a church. How do you reach the religious center of the Empire? You go to Ephesus and plant a church. Ephesus was where the competing religions to Christianity were. How do you reach the power center of the Roman Empire? You go to Rome and plant a church that plants churches.
Paul went to the Boston of the day, the New York of the day, the Los Angeles and San Diego of the day, the Chicago of the day, the Washington DC of the day. This was how God was going to bring joy to the world.
In Acts 16 Paul has a dream. In that dream, he sees a man from Macedonia telling him to come and bring the Gospel to Macedonia. Two verses after Paul's dream, it says in Acts 16:11-12, "So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days."
If Paul was going to reach Macedonia, he was going to the leading city of Macedonia.
There is an amazing statement by Paul in Romans 15. Paul says in verse 19, "...so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ." Paul is saying that he has fully preached the Gospel so that his work is done in that region. Once he's planted a church in every big city in that region, he leaves the work to the elders to continue planting churches from their church on mission to the whole area. But Paul considered his work to be done because he was moving on to plant more churches. Paul saw his strategy from first to last as urban.
He virtually ignored the countryside and towns. He knew that for the countryside and towns to be reached, the city had to be changed by the Gospel and the church in that city had to be involved in God's work to bring joy to that city so that it would eventually spread to the countryside.
In the first two centuries virtually all Christians were urban Christians. How did the Church expand from 25,000 in 100 AD to 20,000,000 by 310 AD? Paul infected a group of urban pagans with the Gospel virus and they were transformed into missionaries for that city and they tried to spread the Gospel to everyone with whom they came into contact. If you're going to spread a virus that will impact the world, you don't do it initially in the countryside or it will never catch. You drop it in the middle of the city and eventually those who come and visit the city will catch it and bring it back. I know calling the Gospel a virus isn't that attractive, but you get the point.
Town and country people are conservative. They usually are more closed off and more reserved to hear something new. So, Paul went to the places where it was incredibly diverse and where they were more open to hearing something new, the city.
Town and country people stay put. City people like to be mobile and move around. If we plant the Gospel in the city it will travel all over.
Town and country people are more homogenous. In other words, there isn't a great diversity with town and country people since they seem to move to an area or are born in an area that has people more like themselves. But in the city there are hundreds of races and classes of people. Paul knew that if the Gospel got into the city it would work its way into hundreds of different groups.
Lastly, town and country people only influence their little town, but city people influence the entire culture through the media, political, educational, economic, and other culture-shaping expressions. If we plant the Gospel in the city, it will sweep the country. The way to reach a county is the plant a church in THE city of that county. The way to reach a state is to plant a church in THE cities of that state. The way to reach a country is to plant churches in THE cities of that country. San Diego is the second largest city in California, and the second largest on the west coast. For California and the west coast to be transformed, cities like San Diego, LA, Seattle, and Portland have to be transformed by massive church planting efforts so the Gospel gets into the city.
What would have happened to the spread of the Gospel if the early Christians only took the Gospel to the places we want to live today? We only want to live in safe, homogenous, and tranquil places. This is the opposite of a city. If Paul or other leading missionaries would have done this instead of going to the cities and planting churches in the marketplace to reach the power centers of that region, where would we be? If they would have gone where we want to go, where would we be?
This is the missional strategy of the book of Acts.
#2-How this strategy was discovered
We're told here that Phillip went to Samaria. Why? Did Phillip sit down and purposely plan out this missional strategy on his own? No. Perhaps Paul thought this through more deeply than Phillip, but Phillip had this strategy thrust upon him by God.
We're told in verse 4:
Verse 4: "Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word."
Phillip went because he was scattered. What does this mean?
In the very beginning of Acts in chapter 1 and 2, God indicated that He wanted His people to be a missional people and to get out of their safe, homogenous, and tranquil comfort zones to be scattered for Him and for the sake of the world.
To the very first disciples He says to a small group of about 120:
Acts 1:8: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
Jesus told His disciples just before He ascended to Heaven essentially, "I disperse you." I don't want you in safe, homogenous, and tranquil places anymore. I want you to break down the physical, racial, economic, and social barriers to get out!
But they didn't get out, they stayed. They wanted to remain in a nice warm little comfortable church plant of 120. Then the Holy Spirit, the Gospel, and persecution were sent by God to scatter them to be a blessing to the world.
We read after Stephen was stoned and executed, a tremendous persecution broke out.
Verses 1-3: "And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. 3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison."
Christians were being dragged from their homes by the work of Saul (Paul). They were taken off and they were scattered. They were refugees and exiles in their once nice, safe, homogenous, and tranquil homes. When they met Christ they became foreigners in their own home city.
Because they were scattered, Phillip was now free to go to strategic places for the sake of the Gospel. If they hadn't been scattered, I'm not convinced he would have left on his own. But, very carefully, Luke uses a word in verse 4 to speak of what happened to the Christians. He uses the word diaspora to speak of what happened to them. To be the dispersed was as much a description of what happened to you as it was what you were.
The Christians were dispersed. God has to physically scatter us to show us that we are spiritually scattered already. To be scattered was and is the spiritual condition of every Christian. These Christians had to be physically scattered to be shown what they already were.
What do we mean? In James 1:1 and 1 Peter 1:1, we are called exiles. Colossians 1:13 tells us we've been transferred from the kingdom darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son. We're told in Philippians that we are now citizens of Heaven. What does this mean? The moment you become a Christian, your citizenship is no longer about where you're from anymore. When you become a Christian, your citizenship is transferred to God's city. Something has happened to you.
If you've been transferred, you're adopted in Christ, you're standing in Christ, your new citizenship becomes more important than any family, social, or political background you're from. What happens to a Christian is that they find their old taproot is cut and they are attached to something different. They are now tapped in as a citizen of Heaven.
Who you have been, where you were born, your race, and your ethnicity has a lot to do with who you are, but now who you are in Christ becomes infinitely more important. You become scattered and you no longer have to just stick to your group; you can move around like Phillip and go to the place where the Gospel is going to enter into others' lives to see their citizenship transferred as well. You no longer have to live in Iowa to be happy. You no longer have to live in Bakersfield to be happy. You can move for the sake of the Gospel to places that take you out of your safe and tranquil life because you are already scattered. You're already an exile.
You're scattered spiritually and theologically, but God sometimes has to scatter you physically to show you that.
How many of you came to Christ and came to San Diego and told yourself that you came here be in the middle of God's plan for the world? Neither did I! I didn't say, "I'm coming to you Jesus to have my sins forgiven and to be sent where the Gospel will most strategically be preached." I was scattered here like Phillip by the need for a job that would give me a nice, safe, tranquil life. I came here for myself, but the Gospel is making see that God sent me here for others.
Now that you're here in San Diego, see what Phillip saw. You're not just a physical exile from your homeland, you're a spiritual exile. You now become a world citizen that cares about God's glory being spread to all the ends of His creation. You can live anywhere. You have more in common with someone from a different race or class in Christ that you do with someone who is of the same race and class without Christ. That's what being scattered means.
No place can control you any longer. If Christianity is just a vitamin supplement to you to give some added benefit to your life, you're not going to understand this. However, if you understand the transformation of identity that the Gospel brings, you'll no longer look at yourself and where you live the same.
Phillip was scattered and this was the only way he found out he was already scattered. Do you see that about yourself? If you haven't discovered this until now, you're in good company. It took the early Christians from Acts 1 to Acts 8 to discover they were already scattered. God had to come down on their heads to show them this. It shouldn't be surprising that it takes some time to work it into our hearts.
God is still doing this with us. He's still teaching us and scattering us to show us that we're already scattered.
The Bible and Kaleo don't believe you have to live in the city to be a Christian; that isn't the point. What the Gospel does teach is that before the Gospel exploded in your heart, you had a prejudice to places and people in ways you probably weren't aware of. Now, if the Gospel has come in, you develop new eyes through which to see the world, yourself, and God. Your previous prejudices are exposed and you begin to see God's true plan for your life and this world. You are no longer about yourself but you are intensely for others, just Like Jesus.
To say you believe the Gospel and yet have no interest in what we're discussing this morning is self-contradictory. If you've believed the Gospel then you'll begin to be conformed to the image of God's Son, Jesus. That image is selfless, self-giving, generous, and intensely concerned in the welfare of others, both spiritually and physically. Did Jesus go into a place that was nice, safe, homogenous to God and tranquil? No. He came into a place that ultimately cost Him His life. He moved out of His place of safety and glory to experience suffering and rejection for the sake of others.
If you begin to see yourself as already an exile, already scattered, you can now ask some great questions: "Where can I do the most good? Where can I be most useful for the Gospel? How can I spend my resources and time to make the greatest impact for the Gospel?" Are you asking yourself these questions? Or, are you still hung up on asking what is best, safest, and most comfortable for you?
#3-The power of the strategy
There is a power at the heart of this strategy. There was something in the message and heart of Phillip that drove him to the places he went. You need this power to drive you to and keep you in the city and you need this power to make you effective while you're there.
It says he went to the leading city in Samaria. Now, why would a Jewish man go to a place like Samaria, which we know was the home of the religious enemies of the Jews and considered the scum of the earth?
When the Assyrians took away the Northern tribes of Israel, they brought in foreigners to intermingle with the lower class Jews and the result was the Samaritans. These were people considered half-breeds racially and spiritually. They were a mix of Jews and Arabs. They were hated by both sides and despised by everyone.
When the Temple was built in Jerusalem, the Samaritans built another Temple on their mountain and the Jews considered them an utter abomination. They were considered blasphemers.
The Samaritans weren't allowed in the real Temple because they were considered unclean. Here is Phillip going to the most unclean place to mingle with the most unclean people, the paralytics and the possessed, and lame. These were considered the most unworthy of the unworthy to the religious leaders of the day. Yet here goes Phillip to them to bring them the good news of Jesus.
What was it that moved Phillip to do that?
A little further down in the chapter you see a story of the African finance official, the treasurer for the queen Candice of Ethiopia. He was a eunuch. Why was he a eunuch? In this day officials would have their highest servants castrated so that they would be lifelong servants loyal to only them. It was an act of isolation for someone to be a eunuch since they would never have children. They were considered the most trustworthy since they could be trusted with the wives and concubines.
They were alone, and they were often mocked by others. We're told in chapter 8 that this Ethiopian traveled a far distance to worship. It's so odd that he would come under conviction to go to Jerusalem to worship, but that's where God led him. He obviously had read the Hebrew Scriptures.
However, commentators mention that he must have been traveling home in disappointment because eunuchs would have been considered unclean and unfit for worship. He would have been kept out of the Temple. Deuteronomy 23:1 tells us that a eunuch was to be kept out of the Temple.
They were considered unclean, not whole. He traveled hundreds of miles to probably be told he wasn't even a whole man. Eunuchs were often mocked as a dry tree. They weren't allowed. He was an African, a eunuch that worked for the wicked queen of Ethiopia.
He was traveling home reading the Isaiah scroll in the 50s chapters. Commentators tell us that he was probably meditating upon Isaiah 56 previously and looking for some answers through the other chapters. What does Isaiah 56 tell us?
Isaiah 56:2-5: "Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil. 3 Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, ‘The LORD will surely separate me from his people'; and let not the eunuch say, ‘Behold, I am a dry tree.' 4 For thus says the LORD: ‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, 5 I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.'"
Can you imagine that passage hitting through the heart of this man? The one who would have been mocked, the unclean one, the man who was not whole, the dry tree is told that God will give him a monument and name better than sons and daughters. He will have an everlasting name and will never be cut off.
This would have gone through him like a shot. He was promised a place in God's Temple. The eunuch was probably wondering what happened between Deuteronomy 23 and Isaiah 56. What happened to change someone who is outside to be able to come in? What would make Jewish man put his arm around and have concern for a sexually-altered, black finance minister from Ethiopia?
Commentators think he was pouring over the scroll to figure this out when Phillip showed up. The eunuch was reading Isaiah 53. When Phillips got next to him the eunuch was reading this:
Isaiah 53:7-10: "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand."
The eunuch understood that someone was cut off from his descendents, someone's life was cut off, somebody was humiliated. Who was the author speaking of?
Then in Act 8:35 Phillip preached to Him the Gospel of Jesus and showed him from that text that the One who did all of this was Christ. A couple verses later the heart of the eunuch was changed and he was baptized on the spot! It says he went home rejoicing! Joy!
What would cause Phillip to put his arm around this man, place hands on the lepers and unclean, to move him from a place of safety and comfort to one of great sacrifice? The Gospel that Philip believed, that's what did it.
Jesus Christ on the cross became all that kept us from God, our uncleanness, our cowardice, our defilement. Jesus became cut off so we could be grafted in.
When Buddha died he said, "Strive without ceasing." When Jesus died He said, "It is finished."
When Buddha was dying he said, "Pay what you owe." When Jesus died he said, "I've paid what you owe!"
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