Chapter 1 A Consecrated Life - Far Eastern Bible College

was a church leader named Stephen. In the previous chapter, Stephen
had been arrested on false charges of blasphemy and when brought to
trial, he had given a very powerful defence of the Christian faith, but the
Jews stoned him to death. Stephen had to die for the sake of preaching
Christ, but despite his suffering, he received strength to die glorifying
God, and forgiving those who were killing him.
But the death of Stephen was a great loss to the church, since he
was one of the most able leaders and was also a very powerful teacher
of the Old Testament. His death would have caused the church to realise
how vulnerable and weak they were in the midst of a nation that was
persecuting them.
And this realisation must have become even more acute as the
persecution got worse after Stephen’s death, for “at that time there was
a great persecution against the church” (8:1).
For the very first time, the church now began to suffer the full
intensity of Jewish hatred against Christ. Christians became regarded as
outcasts, outlaws, criminals that were hunted down like rats and thrown
into jail. Verse 3 mentions that men and women who professed Christ
were removed from their houses and then imprisoned. Many of them
fled from Jerusalem as refugees, following the instruction that Christ
had given in Matthew 24.
But this moment, when the church seemed to be at its most helpless
and weakest situation, also became its strongest and most glorious
moment. Instead of being destroyed by the great persecution, we see the
church growing even faster, extending her witness much further than
before. If the church is likened to a fire that the Jews were trying hard to
extinguish, it seems that the persecution that they applied to extinguish
it surprisingly became fuel that caused the flames to burn even brighter
and the fire to spread more and more, out of control. Look at Acts 8:4,
“Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching
the word.” And as the persecuted believers continued to witness for
Christ new churches sprang up. Acts 11:19–21,
Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution
[the same ones mentioned in 8:1] that arose about Stephen
travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch,
A Yielded Life
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