The Tip of the Spear

Introduction

Many People are bored in Church.  Just going through the motions.  (get up, get dressed, walk in, grab a doughnut, try to get through the service before the sugar crash.  Go home, do it all again next week)… and we are afflicted with a nagging sense that we ought to be doing something.  That there is some meaningful mission we are supposed to be a part of, but we can’t quite get their mind around what it is, or how we can be a part of it.  So in the meantime, we sit in church, try to pay attention, give our tithes, behave as best we can, and wonder if when we get to heaven we are going to be rebuked for failing to do whatever it was God wanted us to do. 

Somehow, somewhere along the way, Christianity went from being a narrow path of difficulty, and trial, and missional living…to a path of convenience, and comfort, and BOREDOM.  I have titled today’s message “the tip of the spear.” This term is used by military strategists, historians, and tacticians to describe the first and most important action in an offensive. It refers to the forward-most element of a military force, the one that makes first contact with the enemy. In the early Christians it was not the leaders who were the tip of the spear, but ordinary Christians who had been empowered by the Spirit of God.

Acts 8:1-4

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.

Context/Story

• This morning we step into the greatest shift in Christianity since the Crucifixion.  It has been a wild ride so far, Pentecost, 3000 people get saved in a single day, and then there are the miracles and the demon exorcisms, and Peter’s shadow healing people, and people getting struck dead in the offering.  Then comes chapter 6 Stephen is martyred, and it changes everything.   And I believe that our passage this morning is put here intentionally to show us what gospel expansion looks like. 
• Stephen – He gets selected to help deliver food to the widows, so that the apostles can devote themselves to the ministry of the word and to prayer.  Stephen’s job was not that important.  He was not speaking at seminars, he was not a leader, he wasn’t a group president, he didn’t write books, he never went to seminary.  He was basically the meals on wheels guy for the early church taking food to widows. Just a table waiter.  Yet Acts 6:7 tells us that he did his job so well, and his work was so full of the Spirit that the Jewish leadership took notice and brought him in.
• They couldn’t withstand His wisdom.  They ground their teeth and stopped their ears, and charged him, Threw him out of the city and stoned him. 

God Wants to Scatter You

• • Vs 1 – In that day (what day?) A great persecution
    • This is not the kind of persecution we get here in America.  People aren’t getting road rage because of Stephen’s “Jesus take the wheel bumper sticker”.  They aren’t getting poor service in the restaurant because the waiter doesn’t like Jesus.  
      • No, they are dying.  Stephen was murdered, now they go after the flock.   They are walking into churches with billy-clubs and handcuffs, and finding the names of every Christian they can.  
  • But check out vs 3.
    • Vs 3 – But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
      • We have something like 350 people who have signed up for our celebration groups in the last month.  We think that they are good because they imitate the early church. 
        • We meet in homes just like they did, We break bread together, they were discipled around the dinner table.  We have been promoting these things so that people could come. 
      • But let’s say that a terrorist showed up to your group this week wanting to kill you.  For many of us, that would be the last day we would ever go to that group.  
        • This is what was happening.  Saul was ravaging the church.  

• 2 Timothy 3:12 – Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted

• • • “All”—how many? You are included in the “all.
      • If this was written in America, it would say “blessed” because the prominent teaching today is, “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be blessed.” Do you have a problem? Come to Jesus and He will fix it.  You’re sick? Come to Jesus. You’re poor? Come to Jesus. You’re single? Come to Jesus. You’re married? Come to Jesus. Whatever you want, come to Jesus. He’ll bless you. He’ll give you a job. He’ll give you health. He’ll give you prosperity. He’ll give you a spouse. He’ll give you children. Whatever you want, come to Jesus.
    • But historically, Christianity has always been a religion of difficulty.  There are no such promises given. 
• The sovereignty of God in Persecution
  • Is God really in control even during persecution?
  • 1st Peter 3:17 – For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.
    • In other words, if God wills that we suffer for doing good, we will suffer.  And if God wills that we do not suffer for doing good we will not.  The enemy does not have the final say, God does. 
    • Some of you may be asking, Why would God ever will persecution on His people?  Well let’s look at the text. 
      • God was accomplishing a purpose through this persecution.

God Wants to Use You

• • Notably at this point in the story, Christianity had not spread outside of Jerusalem.  They had a massive spurt of Church growth, but the gospel needed to spread, not just in one place but all places.  
    • This was predicted back in 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.”
  • The gospel needed to go, but nobody wanted to leave their homes, or their jobs, or their families.  They loved what God was doing around them, but they didn’t seem particularly focused on what God wanted to do on a global scale.  
    • The Christian bubble can be a lot like this.  (hair dresser, friends groups, mechanics, restaurants)  
    • We desperately want to see God’s wonder working power in all the areas we can see and touch, but we get a lot less excited when God wants to use us to go work in power in other places. 

• How the Early Church Did it

• Vs 1

• • The first time the gospel left Jerusalem, it was not in the mouths of the apostles. Regular people went everywhere preaching the word. Not a single apostle was involved.  
  • In fact, by the end of the first century, there were 3 major church planting centers in the ancient world.   Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome. But they all had an incredible thing in common.  Not a single one of them was started by an apostle. 
    • The start of the church of Antioch is recorded in Acts 11.  It says, “some brothers” whom Luke did not even bother to record. 
    • A Lot of people associate the planting of the church in Rome with Peter. But Peter didn’t do it.  Paul wanted to plant the church in Rome… (14 chapters of Acts) Paul tried to get the gospel to Rome for years, and on His way, he was stoned, imprisoned, Shipwrecked, snake bitten, and beaten.  And when he finally drags his beaten body into Rome, Acts 28 records what happens.  He is greeted by the brothers.  THE GOSPEL WAS ALREADY THERE!
      • Steven Neill – Nothing is more notable than the anonymity of these early missionaries.
  • The gospel spreads much further and much faster on the backs of Christian businessmen and women, than it does through full time missionaries.  
    • How does this work? – He-Brews, St. Arbucks, Awkward conversation at the end of a business call, (Christian pilot)
      • Leverage what God has made you are good at, to intentionally bless people, so that you can build Gospel centered relationships.  And Do this in a place where Gospel centered relationships are needed.  (might be in Montrose (Jerusalem), might be in Ouray(Samaria), might be in Bahrain.
    • Closed countries
      • Many of the most unreached places in the world are completely closed to missionaries.  If I were to try to get in, they would deny my visa.  But these exact same places are wide open to any kind of businessman and woman.
  • Brandon are you seriously telling me to move around the world and become a missionary business man?  No, But God might be.
    • You are crazy, I cant do that.  I am not good enough, holy enough, strong enough in my faith.  (look I get it!)

The Holy Spirit Empowers You

• So far this morning, we have been confronted with two things that would make the bravest of men tremble.  
  • 1. Endure persecution faithfully
  • 2. Leverage all you have to fulfill the Great Commission
• The number 1 characteristic describing Stephen in the last 2 chapters was “Spirit Filled”
  • What gives ordinary people, extraordinary Confidence and effectiveness is the KNOWLEDGE of the power of the spirit within them.  
    • Every Christian has the spirit within them.  But having the knowledge of it seems to be what makes the difference. 
  • Matthew 11:11 – Truly, I say to you, among those born of women (that’s everybody) there has arisen no one greater than (who was the greatest man to ever live?) John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
  • What does it mean to be the least in the kingdom?  Least talented, least spiritual gifts, know the least about the Bible, smallest ministry, worst personality.
    • One of us is in this room right now the least in the kingdom in this room.  I’m not trying to be mean, but mathematically that has to be true.  Someone right now is like, “I think that might be me”.  
      • But even if that is true, you have more potential for greatness than John the Baptist.  Because you have something that John never had!  Because of the Holy Spirit, it is no longer about ability, but availability!
  • God can do things through you, that are beyond the power of all the apostles and all the religious leaders.
    • 2 examples of this
      • 1. Jesus Ascension in Acts 1 – Don’t do anything until the Holy Spirit comes.
      • 2. Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch (God speaks – Go out to this small town, Stand on the street corner)  (Isaiah, Salvation, Goes back to sub Saharan Africa, and starts a church planting movement that is still alive today.)  One act of obedience accomplished more than all 8 chapters of the book of Acts so far in getting the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Do You Believe the Gospel? Conclusion

• You don’t Opt-in to the great commission.  It is a mandate for all believers.
  • Martin Luther – It wouldn’t matter if Jesus died a thousand times if nobody ever heard about it.
  • Carl F Henry – The Gospel is only good news if it gets there in time.
    • But study after study shows that most Christians have never shared their faith with anyone.  Around 90% of Christians have never told someone else about Jesus.  
• Do we actually believe the Gospel? Does it change the way we live? Does it change the way we look at life? Are we actually serious about getting the good news to those who need it?  You can accept the gospel, you can reject the gospel, but the most dangerous thing is to marginalize the gospel.  
  • To let it die in the daily grind of our lives. Through all the doughnuts and coffees and Netflix shows, and boredom.
  • Christianity is not boring unless you intentionally ignore the message, the mission and the movement of God.  Real Christianity is life changing.  God wants to use you.  He has given you His power.  What will you do with it?
    • Will you be willing to say, “as Jesus did for Me, so I will do for others”

Jesus Paid it all, All to Him I owe,

Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow

Were the whole realm of nature mine, that would be a present far too small

Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.