Flying Sparks of the Gospel (Acts 8:1-8)

[Stephan Choe]

07.03.2023

Key verses

4: "Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went."

            8: "And there was great joy in that city."

Have you ever played with the fire of the campfire? When you hit the fire with a stick, sparks jump out of the fire. These sparks can then ignite surrounding objects.

Persecuting Christians is similar to hitting the fire with a stick to put it out. When someone persecutes Christians, Christians flee, and these fleeing Christians set more areas on fire for the Gospel.

Today, we want to learn about the spread of the Gospel through the persecution of Christians.

May God help us to see God's ways of world evangelization, because out of a bad situation God can do wonderful works.

1. Persecution of Christians

With the resurrection of Christ and the reception of the Holy Spirit, the first Christian church was established in Jerusalem. And this church grew bigger and bigger. Then the unbelieving Jews began to persecute the Christian church harshly. First, they persecuted Stephen.

Through Stephen's response, the Jews had the opportunity to learn about the faith of the Christians. The faith of the Christians was majestic. Stephen encouraged the Jews to repent and believe in Jesus Christ.

However, the stubborn Jews thought Stephen and all Christians were a dangerous sect and wanted to destroy all Christians. They dragged Stephen out of the city and stoned him to death. Godly men buried Stephen and held a great dirge over him.

The Jews took his martyrdom as the starting signal for the persecution of Christians. On the day of Stephen's death, they began a great persecution of Christians. They seized all the Christians who fell into their hands and threw them into prison.

One of the most zealous persecutors was named Saul. Saul tried to completely destroy the church of Christ. He went from house to house, dragging away men and women and throwing them into prison.

Was the church of Christ destroyed as the persecutors intended?

2. Flying Sparks of the Gospel

Christians are normal, even weak people. They become fearful when persecution is there. That is why all the Christians fled from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria to save themselves. Except for the apostles, hardly any Christians remained in Jerusalem. One might think that Christianity would be completely extinguished.

But Christians are not just weak people. They are not alone. With them is Christ Jesus. They can count on Christ's help in their weakness. Christ shows his strength in their weakness.

Although Saul and his persecutors tried to destroy Christianity with all their fierceness, God used these fleeing, weak Christians and kindled the fire of the Gospel throughout Judea and Samaria.

After Esther, my wife, went to heaven, I am weak. But I write the Good News and put it on the Internet, because the Lord is with me, strengthening me and spreading the Gospel to the world by Internet.

Verse 4 states:

" Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went."

The persecutors wanted to kill the mouths of Christians. Christians were to deny their faith or at least remain silent for fear of persecution.

So persecution gave every Christian the opportunity to think seriously about what he believes in.

Those who did not seriously believe in the resurrection of Christ remained mute. But whoever found the faith in Jesus and the resurrection was worthwhile despite the persecution, received much strength and joy. Despite the persecution, he became joyful and looked for the opportunity to tell other people about Jesus.

Thus, the scattered Christians were like sparks of fire. They had something that could set other people on fire. They had something very hot in their hearts. They told about the Good News of Christ everywhere.

Outwardly, Christians were like fugitives. But they were sparks of the Good News. They were bringers of blessings. Each spark of the Gospel spreads faith in the Gospel wherever it was.

Image: The spread of the Gospel through fleeing Christians.

(Source: http://www.fototester.de/img_lagerfeuer_1185.phtml)

Philip was a good example of these sparks. He had been one of the seven ministers for the poor in Jerusalem church. When persecution happened, he fled from Jerusalem to Samaria, which was considered a place of refuge because of the enmity between the Jews and Samaritans.

In the midst of his flight, he asked about the will of God. Then he realized that God wanted to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ through this persecution. He obeyed the will of God. He came to the capital of Samaria and preached the Good News of Jesus Christ there.

What was the reaction of the people there? 

Verses 6-8 tell us about their reaction:

"And the people inclined with one accord to what Philip said, when they listened to him and saw the signs which he did. For the unclean spirits went out with a great cry from many who were possessed, even many who were paralyzed and crippled were made well; and great joy arose in that city."

In the time of the Christians' weakness, the Lord showed Himself to be mighty. He did miracles. He cast out unclean spirits and made many paralyzed and crippled people well. And they believed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so that they were freed from the heavy burdens of sin and from all curses.

Thus, great joy arose in that city.

Philip was a helpless refugee from Jerusalem. He was like a little spark at first. From that small spark, a small flame arose at first. This flame grew bigger and bigger and set the capital of Samaria on fire.

God does this wonder again and again.

Hudson Taylor was an English missionary to China in the second half of the 19th century. He and his co-workers had worked devotedly for China Mission. Through the devoted work of Taylor and others, one or two million Chinese became Christians.

Then Communists took over all of China in 1949. The Communists first watched Christians for about a year. They then began to persecute Christians harshly beginning in 1950. All foreign missionaries had to leave China. Every Chinese Christian was forced to either deny their faith or die in concentration camps through hard forced labor. It appeared that the Communists had eradicated all Christians from China with their actions.

But miracles happened. Jesus Christ used the persecution of the Communists against Christians in China to prove Himself as the living and almighty Lord. In the weakness of the Chinese Christians, Jesus Christ proved faithful to them and stood by them. The Christians experienced various miracles and got new courage and testified Jesus Christ as the living Lord. Jesus Christ showed through various miracles that he is the risen Lord and is with his people.

This persecution of Christians was really comparable to hitting the fire with a stick. The sparks of the fire then ignited new flames. The persecuted Christians in China experienced that Jesus Christ is really alive and with them. They rejoiced in the living Lord and spread the good news of Jesus Christ. Thus, the Gospel was spread throughout China.

Brother John Yun, the author of the book "Heavenly Man" estimates that the Christians in China today are more than 100 million. These Chinese Christians are now praying to send out 100,000 devoted missionaries to the Hindu, Muslim, or Buddhist countries of the world to lead the whole world to faith in Jesus Christ.

We are weak people. We have various problems: Financial problems, health problems, study difficulties, etc. However, we should not look only at our difficulties, but at the will of God. God can show His strength and spread the gospel in our weakness.

We are sparks of the gospel fire. Let us pray to God that we can light as sparks of the Gospel everywhere.

Let us ignite all the students and all the people in Bochum, Ruhr area, whole Germany and whole world with the spark of the Gospel.