Acts 8:1-8: The Church's First Missionary Outreach

Acts 8:1-8: The Church’s First Missionary Outreach

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of Acts, and today the next passage we come to is Acts 8:1-8 as the passage upon which today’s message will be based. After describing the execution of Stephen in the previous passage, it says,

1 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, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was much joy in that city.

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of Acts, and this morning the next passage we come to is Acts 8:1-8. 

Many of you may have heard the rather famous story of the five missionaries who lost their lives while attempting to bring the gospel to the Huaorani people. The Huaorani were a tribe deep in the Amazon rainforest and were commonly called the Aucas, which means “savages,” because they were so violent—and not just violent toward outsiders but even toward members of their own tribe. In fact, there were so many revenge killings within the tribe that it threatened the tribe’s very survival. But five missionaries with the Alliance church—Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, and Roger Youderian—decided to engage this tribe with the goal of bringing the gospel to them. So they began by dropping gifts to the Huaorani from an airplane. Then, when those gifts were reciprocated time after time, the missionaries established a camp close to the Huaorani settlements. However, on January 8, 1956, the Huaorani people—for some reason that’s still a bit unclear—speared the five missionaries, killing all of them. And at first, it’s difficult even to think about how great of a tragedy this was, especially when you consider the fact that each of these men left behind wives and children. How could these seemingly senseless killings have any purpose or accomplish any good?

However, a few years after these five missionaries were killed, two women—Elisabeth Elliot, the wife of Jim Elliot, and Rachel Saint, the sister of Nate Saint—decided that God was calling them to go back to the tribe that had killed their loved ones and continue seeking to share the gospel with them. So they went. And the Huaorani people were so amazed that these women would seek to befriend them even after they had killed the women’s loved ones. So they listened to what the women had to say about Jesus. The women explained that Jesus also had loved his enemies and, in fact, had loved them so much that he willingly died for them. And one after another, a significant portion of the Huaorani people came to know Jesus. As a result, tribal violence virtually stopped, and the Huaorani became different people—what the Bible calls a “new creation” in Christ. The women even shared the gospel with some of the very men who had actually thrown the spears that struck their loved ones, and those men were among those who became Christians. Also, in addition to the conversion many of the Huaorani, the story of the sacrifice of these five missionaries served to galvanize the missionary movement in the United States so that thousands of other missionaries were sent out all over the world to proclaim the gospel. They went because they were inspired by the story of these five missionaries. So God used what must have at first appeared to be a senseless tragedy to do something more glorious than anyone could have ever imagined. 

And that’s what we see taking place here in Acts 8:1-8 as well. And in order for us to understand what’s going on in this passage, we have to think back to what we looked at a couple of weeks ago in Acts 7. If you were here that week, you may remember that a Christian named Stephen was proclaiming in Jerusalem the message of Jesus. He was arguing very persuasively with the Jews that Jesus is their long-awaited Messiah, sent to rescue them from their sins. And the Jewish leaders ended up getting very upset with Stephen and arresting him and falsely accusing him of saying all kinds of things he didn’t say. Yet even then, Stephen didn’t back down. He actually rebuked the Jewish leaders for their hardness of heart. Now, as you might imagine, the Jewish leaders didn’t appreciate that very much, so one thing led to another, and they ended up forming a mob and brutally killing Stephen. Even as he prayed out loud for God to forgive them of their rebellion, they kept on throwing stones at him until he finally died. 

And there are some significant similarities between Stephen’s death and the deaths of those five missionaries to the Huaorani tribe. Like those five missionaries, Stephen’s death must have seemed utterly pointless at first. I mean, think about the ministry Stephen had. There was every indication that he was an up-and-coming star among the early Christians. Not only was he one of the seven men appointed to oversee a significant portion of the church’s daily operations, he also had a powerful evangelistic ministry. Acts chapter 6 records how he was performing all kinds of miracles designed to point people to Jesus and was a powerful preacher as well. In fact, he was such a persuasive speaker with such an extensive knowledge of the Old Testament that Acts 6:10 states that his opponents “could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.” So this guy was a spiritual powerhouse in the early church. Yet, tragically, his life was cut short and his promising ministry abruptly ended. Not only that, but his death triggered a massive persecution against the whole church. What a disaster, right? 

Yet, as we’re going to see, God was up to something in the death of Stephen—because Stephen’s death actually ended up triggering much more than just a persecution. It ended up triggering the church’s first great missionary outreach. And that’s the main idea of our main passage of Acts 8:1-8. Stephen’s death triggered the church’s first great missionary outreach. As one commentator writes, “Satan’s attempt to stamp out the church’s fire merely scattered the embers and started new fires around the world.”

Look with me at how it’s described in Acts 8:1-8: 1 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, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was much joy in that city. 

So praise God for the way he works. He was able to use the tragedy of Stephen’s death to bring about something amazing in the advance of the gospel. Because think about the church in the first seven chapters of Acts. They had some really good things going on, right? There was a solid teaching ministry in the church, the believers were actively ministering to one another, people were being healed of sicknesses, and new converts were being added every day. By just about any measure, this was one of the most vibrant communities of Christians the world has ever known. 

However, up to this point, were they really being obedient to Jesus' instructions in Acts 1:8? In Acts 1:8, Jesus had told them that they were to be his witnesses “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Those were their instructions. Yet, prior to Acts 8, had the church made any significant efforts to take the gospel outside of Jerusalem? None that we know of. They seemed quite content staying there in Jerusalem—and that had to change. So God, in his great sovereignty and wisdom, gave them a little nudge in the right direction. Actually, he gave them a pretty big nudge. He used Stephen’s death and the persecution that ensued to trigger a massive missionary outreach throughout that region of the world. 

It reminds me of that famous quote from Tertullian, one of the church fathers from the second century, who observed that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church. Here’s the full quote. Tertullian’s writing this, by the way, to a ruler in the Roman government who was responsible for a lot of the persecution of Christians in that region of the empire. And Tertullian says to this ruler, “Kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to dust; your injustice is the proof that we are innocent….Nor does your cruelty, however exquisite, avail you; it is rather a temptation to us. The more often we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow; the blood of Christians is seed.” And that’s often been the case throughout the history of the church. Over and over again—just like we see here in Acts 8 and with Tertullian—persecution has had the effect not of extinguishing the fire of the gospel but of adding fuel to the fire. It’s caused the gospel to spread even more rapidly. 

And I can’t help but wonder whether that might be one of the key reasons why the church today is in such a sad state of decline in our country and in other Western nations. Could it be that things have been so comfortable for Christians for so long that’s it’s ended up actually weakening both our devotion and our witness? Now, of course, I’m not suggesting that we should do anything to try to provoke persecution or even that we should desire persecution. I certainly don’t desire it. But at the same time, I think it’s good to be aware of the ways in which persecution can actually serve to advance the gospel. Very briefly, let me give you three main ways in which I believe that’s the case.

First, persecution galvanizes Christians toward greater devotion and sacrifice. There’s something about seeing our spiritual brothers and sisters endure severe hardship and, in some cases, even death for the sake of Jesus that stirs our hearts and makes us more inclined to be bold in our own gospel witness. It’s like it causes all of those things that don’t really matter in life to fade into the background and reminds us of just how supremely worthy Jesus is—that’s he’s worthy of our everything. He’s worthy of us enduring scorn, he’s worthy of us having our property taken away from us, he’s worthy of us being arrested or tortured or even killed for the sake of the gospel. He’s worthy of it all. And I’m not sure there’s anything that reminds us of that reality quite as powerfully as seeing fellow Christians endure persecution. 

Second, not only does persecution galvanize Christians toward greater devotion and sacrifice, it also creates an environment conducive to a more powerful gospel witness. Think about Stephen here in Acts. Surely his prayer for the forgiveness of the mob that was killing him made a powerful impact on many of the people present. I mean, who does that? Who prays for God to forgive the people who are actively killing you? And Stephen’s not the only one. Church history’s filled with innumerable examples of Christians demonstrating astonishing love toward those who are persecuting them and also boldly sharing the gospel even in the most adverse circumstances. You know, it’s one thing for someone to tell you about Jesus when it doesn’t really cost them anything, but when some tells you about Jesus even when they know they’ll have to pay dearly for that testimony, it kind of makes you think twice about what they say. 

Then, finally, persecution eliminates nominal Christianity. A nominal Christian refers to someone who’s a Christian in name only—meaning that their commitment to Jesus only goes skin-deep. They’re willing to be a Christian as long as it’s not too inconvenient for them and as long as they don’t have to make any significant adjustments to their lives. And if the Bible does speak against a certain aspect of their lifestyle, they’re totally fine just passing over that command and focusing on other things. So it’s kind of like a buffet-style approach. They take what they like and pass over the rest. In their mind, Jesus is great as long as following him seems to be enhancing their life. That’s nominal Christianity. And I don’t think there’s anything—and I mean that, anything—that hinders the spread of the gospel like the presence of nominal Christians in the church. But persecution takes care of that problem real quick so that, with very few exceptions, the only people still left in the church are those who truly love Jesus and are truly devoted to him. 

So those are some ways in which persecution actually helps the gospel spread. And I believe all three of those things were happening to some degree in the aftermath of Stephen’s martyrdom. His martyrdom had the effect of galvanizing the early Christians toward greater devotion and sacrifice, it also left a powerful gospel testimony ringing in the ears of everyone who saw Stephen being killed, and if there were any nominal Christians associating with the church before Stephen’s martyrdom, I think we can safely say there weren’t any afterwards. And of course, in this particular situation, Stephen’s martyrdom actually went beyond these three things as well. It accomplished these things, but it also accomplished more. It triggered additional persecution that resulted in Christians being scattered throughout that region of the world and taking the gospel with them wherever they went. Again, the main idea of the passage, Stephen’s death triggered the church’s first great missionary outreach. God used this tragedy for triumph and persecution for a purpose. 

And, indeed, that’s the way God often works. In fact, the unfolding of the story here in Acts 8 follows the pattern of the central story of the Bible—the gospel. Perhaps you remember me mentioning at the beginning how Stephen’s death must have seemed utterly pointless at first. Here was a man with so much potential to make an impact for the Kingdom of God, and his life and ministry were tragically cut short. Does that remind you of anyone? How about Jesus, right? Like Stephen, Jesus’ death must have initially seemed utterly pointless as well. Here also was a man who died in the prime of his life. Think about all of the additional things Jesus could have done and taught if he’d lived for another few decades. Imagine if he’d had a public ministry that lasted 30 years instead of one that lasted 3 years? How much more of an impact would he have had? 

And yet, it was through his death that Jesus accomplished the salvation of his people. You see, what we need isn’t just the moral example that Jesus provided through his life. We need the atonement Jesus provided in his death. Because the Bible teaches that you and I and everyone else in the world have sinned against God and therefore stand guilty and condemned before him. But Jesus took the judgment we deserved when he died on that cross. He himself suffered the penalty for our sins. Then after that, he rose from the dead so that he’s now able to save all who will put their trust in him to do that. So now, looking back on the cross in hindsight, we can see that what at first seemed to be the greatest defeat was actually the greatest victory. What at first seemed to be the worst disaster in the history of the world was actually the greatest achievement in the history of the world. As Jesus himself said in John 12:24: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” So, like Stephen, Jesus bore more fruit through his death than he could have ever done merely through his life. 

That’s just the way God works. And, by the way, our lives are no exception. God can bring the most wonderful outcomes even out of the darkest and most difficult experiences we endure. He masterfully orchestrates it all to accomplish his good purposes. Not one bit of our suffering is ever wasted. 

So as we think about the unfolding of the story of Acts 8:1-8, we discover that these events are cut from the same cloth as the gospel. We might say that they contain unmistakable echoes of the gospel through and through. 

 Also, there’s another very important feature of this passage that we don’t want to overlook. We’ve said that Stephen’s death triggered the church’s first great missionary outreach. But who were the people who actually engaged in that outreach? Who were the missionaries? Because we might expect it to be primarily the church leaders, right? But look back at verse 1. It states, “…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.” So because of this persecution, the Christians of Jerusalem were scattered to the surrounding regions—except for the apostles, the text says. Then if we look down at verse 4, here’s what we read: “Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.” So who were the scattered ones who “went about preaching the word”? Was it the apostles or the leaders? No, verse 1 specifically told us that the leaders were actually the only ones who weren’t scattered. It was everyone else in the church, the so-called “ordinary” Christians, who “went about preaching the word.” As I’ve heard one pastor say, it was the Joes, not the pros, who spread the gospel here in Acts 8. 

And that’s really how God’s designed the church to function. He hasn’t designed it to be like a professional sporting event where you have a handful of players actually playing in the game and then thousands upon thousands of others watching from the stands. A couple of weeks ago, Becky and I went to a Pirates game. And I can tell you that the vast majority of people at PNC Park that day didn’t play any baseball. We just ate and talked and had a good time. Only a very small minority of the people there actually played baseball. The rest were just spectators. And the sad reality is that if you leave PNC Park and go around to various churches, it doesn’t take long to observe that many of those churches aren’t all that different. Many of them are full of spectators also. But that’s not the way God designed it to be. 

God’s design is for every Christian to do what these early Christians here in Acts 8 were doing and take personal ownership of the mission Jesus has given us. God calls every Christian to be a missionary. And throughout the history of the church, that’s how most of the advance of the gospel has been accomplished. The gospel hasn’t advanced primarily through a handful of rockstar Christians who accomplish amazing feats for the Kingdom. Instead, it’s advanced primarily through relatively ordinary Christians who are faithful to their calling to be missionaries in the various spheres God’s placed them in—their homes and workplaces and neighborhoods and circles of friends. 

You know, thinking of our church in particular, one of the blessings of this past month or so has been the opportunity going to two services has given us to get more people involved in what we do on Sunday mornings. Believe it or not, there are about 60 people who are regular volunteers on Sundays. I love that. That’s about three quarters of our normal Sunday attendance—which is incredible. So praise God that we have a church where such a strong majority of people are helping out in very meaningful ways on Sundays. 

However, just understand that that’s only the beginning of God’s calling for our lives. For those of us who are Christians, God gives us the calling, and indeed the privilege, of being ambassadors for the gospel throughout the week. He calls us to embody a missionary lifestyle—where sharing the gospel with the people around us is just a part of the fabric of our lives. And a lot of it happens in the midst of ordinary encounters. Just this past week, Rick and I were having lunch at Panera, and the woman cleaning the tables told me that I had a nice smile. So I replied to her that the reason for my smile was because of Jesus and all that he’d done for me. And she seemed to be intrigued and interested in pursuing the conversation, so I was able to share a few other things with her as well—and then Rick jumped in and laid out the gospel even more thoroughly—all in the context of a very natural conversation. I think we ended up talking with her for around 5-10 minutes. And that’s what I’m talking about when I speak of living a missionary lifestyle. You just talk about Jesus in the course of your normal, everyday interactions with people. 

You see, just like the believers in the Jerusalem church were deployed as missionaries when persecution broke out here in Acts 8, God wants each one of us to be deployed as missionaries when we walk out of this building every Sunday. Just as the early Christians were scattered, we’re scattered each and every Sunday after the worship service. And that’s why we recite the Great Commission every week right before we leave. It’s to remind ourselves that our departure from this building is really our deployment into our mission field as missionaries to this area. Do you view yourself in that way? Are your energies focused in that way? To what degree is your life oriented around that calling? 

On your seats this morning, you probably noticed a short brochure that you might have mistook for a bulletin at first, but it’s not. It’s actually a very practical “nuts and bolts” kind of guide to being faithful in our missionary calling. It’s titled “A Blueprint for Evangelism.” And I’m not going to read the whole thing—I certainly hope you’ll take it home and read it—but just to go over a few major things…the booklet’s divided into three steps. Step One is to identify people in your life who may not be Christians yet and begin praying for those people every day. Then, Step Two is to continue to develop relationships with those people even to the point that you become real friends with them. And the booklet gives you several ideas for doing that. Then, finally, Step Three is to share the gospel with them. And the booklet gives you tips on how to do that in the course of natural conversations—trying your best to make the conversation a true dialogue rather than you just preaching at them and also utilizing your personal testimony as a vehicle for sharing the gospel. Also, the booklet mentions starting Evangelistic Bible Studies, which have proven to be very fruitful in our church. I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to call them our church’s main method for organized outreach. So this brochure contains some very practical advice for those of us who are Christians to be faithful in our missionary calling. 

And guys, perhaps the most encouraging part of all of this is that we’re guaranteed to see results. You heard me right: if we’re consistently faithful to share the gospel, we’re guaranteed to see at least some results. You see, the Bible teaches that God is sovereign in salvation and has chosen people all around this area to be saved—people from among your family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors. So if we’re just faithful in sharing the gospel on a consistent basis, we know that God’s going to use that to save at least some people. In fact, it may shock you whom God saves. God frequently likes to save people who, from a human perspective, seem to be the most unlikely to ever embrace Jesus. Just look at Acts 8. Perhaps some of you noticed who was mentioned at the very beginning of verse 1. Did you catch what it said? Right after it describes the death of Stephen in the previous chapter, it says, “And Saul approved of his execution…” Many of you are probably aware that this Saul who approvingly stood by as Stephen was murdered would later be called the Apostle Paul and would become the greatest missionary in the history of the church. Don’t ever forget that God can draw anyone to faith—even those who currently seem the most stubborn and resolute in their unbelief. 

And, of course, the ultimate reason why we reach out to others in this way is because God has reached down to us. You know, it’s true that a missionary lifestyle is neither easy nor comfortable. But when we think about the grace God’s shown us in the gospel, how can we not orient our lives around his glory and around his missionary calling for us? I mean, if there isn’t something within you that yearns to see God glorified and to see his Kingdom advanced, then I’d have to say that there’s something about the gospel that you just don’t understand. You might be able to articulate the truths of the gospel very skillfully, but there’s something about it that you haven’t yet grasped if you’re content to orient your life merely around the American dream instead of around God’s missionary calling. 

Just think about Jesus. There’s a very real sense in which Jesus was the first missionary. Because Jesus left the glories of heaven in order to come to this broken world—on a mission to save us. Understand that he didn’t have to do that. He was under no obligation to do anything for us. Yet because of his great love, he came and he lived and he died to pay for our sins. There’s never been a missionary like him. And it’s his missionary endeavor toward us that drives us to live as missionaries toward others.