18  The Persecuted  Church  Reaches Out (8:1b-8)

And on that day a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And some devout men buried Stephen, and made loud lamentation over him. But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house; and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison. Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word. And Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing. For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice; and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was much rejoicing in that city. (8:1b–8)

On Sunday, January 8, 1956, on the shore of a lonely river deep in the Ecuadorian jungle, five missionaries were murdered by primitive Auca Indians. News of the massacre shocked the world. To some, their deaths seemed a senseless tragedy. Many decried the promising missionary careers cut short, the five young wives bereft of their husbands, the children left fatherless.

Those with deeper spiritual insight saw things differently. Nate Saint, one of the five martyrs, had written,

Elisabeth Elliot, widow of another of the martyrs, Jim Elliot, commented,

At first glance, Stephen’s death may also seem pointless. Here was another promising career cut short. He was a powerful, miraculous preacher, with a deep knowledge of the Old Testament. Such was the godly character of his life that he was one of the seven chosen by the church to oversee its daily affairs. Why was it necessary that one so gifted have such a brief ministry?

Further, his ministry seemed to have ended in failure. Not only was he killed as a heretic, but his death also triggered the first persecution against the entire church. That persecution, spearheaded by Saul of Tarsus, scattered the Jerusalem fellowship. Such a skewed view of Stephen’s death, however, betrays a lack of understanding of the way the Holy Spirit works. The persecution, which seemed to be a negative, was in reality a positive factor. It led to the first great missionary outreach by the early church. Satan’s attempt to stamp out the church’s fire merely scattered the embers and started new fires around the world. In the words of the early church Father Tertullian, the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church.

The church’s first missionary effort, beginning in this chapter, was foreshadowed in chapter 5, when people from the cities near Jerusalem brought their sick for the apostles to heal (5:16). Stephen’s outreach to the Hellenistic Jews, those from foreign lands, was a step toward world evangelism. In chapter 8, the church is seen reaching out to Judea, Samaria, and even to a Gentile. They were carrying out their Lord’s mandate to “be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

This chapter marks another turning point. Jerusalem, which has dominated the story up to this point, begins to settle into the background, illustrating the truth that opportunity ignored is opportunity lost. The church there continues, but the explosive days of apostolic miracles and exponential growth fade. Paul wrote that the gospel came “to the Jew first” and then “to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16). The murder of Stephen almost surely fixed a point of the gospel’s final rejection by the Jewish leaders, and God’s design for the gospel to move out into new territory began.

In the opening verses of this critical chapter three progressive features describing the initial expansion stand out: persecution, which led to preaching, which led to productivity.

PERSECUTION

And on that day a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And some devout men buried Stephen, and made loud lamentation over him. But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house; and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison. (8:1b-3)

The persecution the church had faced up to this point had been directed at the apostles and their associates who were proclaiming the risen Jesus. Peter and John had encountered opposition from the Jewish authorities, and Stephen had died a martyr’s death. As of yet, however, no persecution had been aimed at the members of the church. That was to change quickly.

On the very day of Stephen’s death, a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem. That persecution, detonated by the murder of Stephen, was led by a Hellenist Jew named Saul of Tarsus. He was a brilliant student of the revered rabbi Gamaliel, “advancing in Judaism beyond many of [his] contemporaries among [his] countrymen, being more extremely zealous for [his] ancestral traditions” (Gal. 1:14). His own testimony was that he was “a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless” (Phil. 3:5–6). His commitment and zeal were turned toward the elimination of the church. (For further biographical information on Paul, see Romans 1–8, MacArthur New Testament Commentary [Chicago: Moody, 1991], xiii-xvii.)

Ironically, this same Saul who consented to Stephen’s death would later suffer far more for the cause of Christ than did Stephen. The very first physical persecution Stephen encountered killed him, while Paul was repeatedly battered (cf. 2 Cor. 11:23ff.) until finally killed. As the Lord Jesus Christ said about him, “I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake” (Acts 9:16). He endured the emotion of facing death many times (2 Cor. 4:8–12).

Paul’s ministry was in many ways to parallel that of Stephen. Stephen preached Christ in the synagogues, so did Paul (Acts 17:1–2). The Jewish people rejected Stephen’s message, as they did Paul’s (Acts 18:5–6). Stephen was accused of speaking against Moses, the law, and the temple, so was Paul (Acts 21:28; 24:6; 25:8; 28:17). Stephen was stoned, so was Paul (although he did not die) (Acts 14:19–20). Both were tried before the Sanhedrin (Acts 6:12ff.; 22:30ff.). Finally, both died as martyrs.

Stephen’s death, then, was the catalyst for the storm of persecution, led by Saul, that broke on the church. The predictions of the Lord Jesus Christ were coming true: “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20); “they will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God” (John 16:2).

Because of the persecution, the believers were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. “All” does not mean every individual Christian, except the apostles, left Jerusalem. That the Jerusalem church continued to exist is clear from Acts 9:26; 11:2, 22; 15:4; and 21:17. What it does mean is that the church was broken up, and many of its members forced to flee. Acts 11:19–20 suggests that those who fled were primarily Hellenists. Further, “from this time onward the Jerusalem church appears to have consisted almost entirely of ‘Hebrews’” (F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971], 174). It was only natural that the Hellenists of which Stephen was likely one would bear the brunt of the persecution.

Like faithful watchmen, the apostles remained at their posts. They remained in the city out of devotion to their Lord and the desire to shepherd the flock in Jerusalem. An additional reason appears in verse 2: Jerusalem was still a mission field. The devout men who buried Stephen, and made loud lamentation over him, may not have been believers. Luke uses the term devout elsewhere to speak of pious Jews (cf. Luke 2:25; Acts 2:5). Perhaps they were friends of Stephen’s from the Hellenist synagogue he attended. Their loud lamentation—forbidden by the Mishna in the case of an executed criminal—amounted to a public protest of Stephen’s death. Despite its rejection by the leaders, there were still people like these whose hearts might be open to the gospel. The apostles remained behind in part to continue their evangelistic efforts.

Meanwhile, the storm of persecution continued unabated, as Saul began ravaging the church. Armed with “authority from the chief priests” (Acts 26:10), he began entering house after house in search of Christians. Dragging off men and women alike, he would put them in prison. Not content to harass the saints in Jerusalem, he “persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons” (Acts 22:4). He “kept pursuing them even to foreign cities” (Acts 26:11) with the permission of the Jewish leaders (Acts 22:5). Ironically, it was on one of those missions that he was converted (Acts 9:1ff.). In his zeal for his beliefs (cf. Gal. 1:13), he fulfilled the Lord’s prediction recorded in John 16:2. He sincerely thought he was serving God by incarcerating and executing believers. And only a direct confrontation with the Lord Jesus Christ would persuade him otherwise.

The effects of Saul’s persecution were devastating. Lumainomai (ravaging) appears only here in the New Testament. It means “to destroy,” “to ruin,” or “to damage.” In extrabiblical writings, it was used to describe the destruction of a city (Walter Bauer, William Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature [Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1979], 481) and mangling by a wild beast (Fritz Rienecker and Cleon L. Rogers, Jr., Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982], 278). Saul literally tore the church apart—an act that would haunt him for the rest of his life so that he felt utterly unworthy to be called an apostle (cf. Acts 22:3–5, 19–20; 26:9ff.; Gal. 1:13; 1 Cor. 15:9; 1 Tim. 1:13).

The persecution resulted in the scattering of the church. But God used the wrath of men for His gospel purposes.

PREACHING

Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word. And Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing. For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice; and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed. (8:4–7)

Therefore, in spite of the persecution, those believers who had been scattered were not cowering somewhere in fear but went about preaching the word. They had been doing so before the outbreak of the persecution, and after being scattered they continued to preach. Went about is from dierchomai, a word used frequently in Acts of missionary endeavors (8:40; 9:32; 13:6; 14:24; 15:3, 41; 16:6; 18:23; 19:1, 21; 20:2).

Preaching is from euangelizō, which refers to proclaiming the gospel. All the scattered believers were involved in evangelism. Although some are specially gifted as evangelists (Acts 21:8; Eph. 4:11; 2 Tim. 4:5), all Christians are called to proclaim Christ. Satan’s persecution promoted the very thing it was designed to destroy. It fired the believers with new zeal to proclaim the gospel in new areas.

In verse 5, the Holy Spirit focuses on one man as an example of faithful evangelism. Philip, the first missionary named in Scripture, becomes the key figure for the rest of the chapter. This is not the apostle Philip, who would have stayed in Jerusalem, but one of the seven chosen to serve the needs of the Hellenist widows (Acts 6:5). Like Stephen, his faithfulness to that task led God to use him in a wider ministry (cf. Matt. 25:23). Although Paul later instructed Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Tim. 4:5), Philip is the only man in Scripture actually given the title “evangelist” (Acts 21:8). That is a fitting honor in light of his pioneering work in spreading the gospel.

Beginning his evangelistic work, Philip went down from the high plateau of Jerusalem to the city of Samaria, located some forty miles north of Jerusalem. It was the ancient capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, founded by Omri (1 Kings 16:24), who moved the capital there from Tirzah. After nearly a century and a half of idolatry and rebellion against God, the city fell to the Assyrians under Shalmaneser V in 722 B.C. (2 Kings 17:1–6; 18:9–12). Samaria’s downfall marked the end of the Northern Kingdom. Many of its people were resettled in other lands by the Assyrians (2 Kings 17:6), who also located people from other nations in that region (2 Kings 17:24ff.). The resulting mix of Jews and Gentile peoples became known as the Samaritans. Second Kings 17:33 records their religious syncretism: “They feared the Lord and served their own gods according to the custom of the nations from among whom they had been carried away into exile.”

Friction soon developed between the Samaritans and the Israelites. When some Samaritans offered to help rebuild the temple, they were contemptuously rejected—despite their claims to be worshipers of the true God (Ezra 4:1–3). Hostility between Jews and Samaritans grew during the intertestamental period and was evident during New Testament times (cf. Luke 9:52–53; John 4:9; 8:48).

The Lord had defied conventional opinion by announcing his messiahship to a Samaritan woman, setting an example of His commitment to the world and to sinners (cf. John 4:4ff.). His express command in Acts 1:8 was initially fulfilled by Philip, who began proclaiming Christ to the Samaritans. Proclaiming is from kērussō, which means “to proclaim publicly,” or “herald.” By New Testament times, the Samaritans had shed their idolatry. They now worshiped the true God—although after their own confused fashion, which Jesus described as “worshiping that which you do not know” (cf. John 4:20–24). The Samaritans, like the Jews, looked for the coming of the Messiah (John 4:25). Given that foundation of belief, Stephen could simply proclaim Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. With some we need to spend time in pre-evangelism, tearing down their false system of belief and proving the truth of Christianity. Only then will they be prepared to understand the gospel message. Others, like these Samaritans, already have that background. They are ready to hear the gospel.

The Holy Spirit had prepared their hearts to respond to Philip’s message. As a result, his preaching resulted in a wholesale spiritual awakening, as the multitudes with one accord were giving attention to what was said by him. The signs which Philip was performing authenticated him as a true messenger of God (cf. Acts 2:43; 4:30; 5:12–16; 6:8; 14:3; 15:12, and the discussion in chapter 13 of this volume).

Verse 7 gives some samples of the miracles performed by Philip: In the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice; and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed. Luke notes that those possessed by unclean spirits, or demons, were freed from their bondage. Jesus had frequently encountered and healed demon-possessed individuals (cf. Matt. 4:24; 8:16, 28; 9:32–34; 12:22–28; etc.), as Satan mustered all his forces in a futile effort to oppose Him. Jesus was still healing the demon-possessed through this associate of the apostles.

Such demon-indwelt people exist in our own day, although they may not be as commonly manifest in Western culture as in third-world cultures. As C. S. Lewis notes, Satan and his demons adapt themselves to whatever world view prevails in a given society. They are equally at home with Western materialists and third-world magicians (The Screwtape Letters [New York: Macmillan, 1961], 3). Many are controlled by demons who give no outward sign of it. That is especially true of those involved in promoting false religion. (For a discussion of whether Christians can be demon-possessed, see my book How to Meet the Enemy [Wheaton, Ill.: Victor, 1992].)

Despite the claims of those in the so-called “spiritual warfare” movement, believers today do not have the authority or ability to command or to directly cast out demons. I have elsewhere noted that the temporary sign gift of miracles was the power (dunamis) to cast out demons (1 Corinthians, MacArthur New Testament Commentary [Chicago: Moody, 1984], 302). Like the other sign gifts, that gift no longer operates today. As with physical healing, however, we can pray for God to intercede.

Nowhere in Scripture are believers told to “bind Satan” or exercise authority over demons. Satan will not be bound until a holy angel does so in the future (Rev. 20:1–3). And those who attempt to assert their authority over demons risk winding up like the Jewish exorcists, the sons of Sceva, of Acts 19:13–16. It is dangerous to claim for ourselves authority God has not granted us. The biblical instruction for conducting spiritual warfare is laid out in Ephesians 6:10–18.

Unable to resist Philip’s God-given power, the unclean spirits were coming out of their victims, shouting with a loud voice. Demons often cried out when they were cast out of an individual (cf. Mark 1:23, 26; 3:11; 5:7; Luke 4:33, 41), perhaps in rage and protestation.

Besides casting out demons, Philip also healed many who had been paralyzed and lame. Such healings of serious physical ailments made the power of God evident. It is no wonder, then, that the people paid close attention to the truth in Philip’s preaching.

PRODUCTIVITY

And there was much rejoicing in that city. (8:8)

The powerful miracles and preaching of Philip resulted, as it had in Jerusalem, in the salvation of many Samaritans. But as true biblical preaching inevitably does, it produced another vastly different response. Some accepted the gospel, believing and reacting with much rejoicing. They were the true believers, the wheat. Their joy came not just from physical deliverance from diseases, or spiritual deliverance from demons, but from complete deliverance from sin through the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Others, however, were false believers, or tares. Such a man was Simon Magus, the subject of the following narrative.