Persecution Preaching – Acts 11:19-21

You’ve been burning one of those scented candles and your house is filled with the smell of vanilla.

But it’s time to go to church, and you don’t want to leave that candle burning while you’re gone.

So what do you do? You blow the candle out.

That breath of air momentarily drives the flame from its fuel, and it goes out.

But what happens when you blow on the dying embers of a campfire?

This time the fire responds in the opposite way.

Where there had only been hot coals, now you’ve got a flame once again.

You might say that the difference between the fire on the candle and the fire in the fire-pit is the grasp that the fire has on it’s fuel.

When the fire has been burning on that log for a while and has crept into its soul, it is not going to leave without a fight.

But the fire on that tiny wick just doesn’t hold on in the same way.

I think this little illustration parallels what we read in these three verses.

Tonight let’s think about persecution preaching by answering six questions.

Let’s begin with “WHEN.”

I am of the opinion that the last part of the chapter occurred before the first part of the chapter.

I think that reference to Stephen in verse 19 means that we can link this episode with the end of chapter seven and to the days of Philip in Samaria.

The persecution of that arose about Stephen involved Saul of Tarsus before his conversion in Acts 9.

So why didn’t Luke give us this information before the conversion of Cornelius.

I think that the reason is due to importance.

While God was giving to the gospel to Gentiles in Antioch and other foreign cities,

He was also giving the gospel to the Romans of Caesarea.

But, in a sense, the evangelism of Cornelius was more important, because it brought the matter of the Gentiles right to the heart of Judaism and to the Apostles.

In the case of Cornelius there were the revelations and the miraculous manifestation of the power of God removing any doubts that the Jews had about the new avenue of evangelism.

In some ways near-by Caesarea authenticated what was happening in far-away Antioch so it was presented first.

And WHERE was this taking place?

“Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch.”

The persecution was not accomplishing its intended objective.

It wasn’t driving these new Christians into denying faith in Christ.

But it was driving them out of Jerusalem and Judea.

The saints were becoming refugees.

Truly this world was not their home.

But these verses aren’t describing some sort of Christian underground railroad to Antioch.

They weren’t following a single path up the Mediterranean coast.

The saints were being scattered in every direction all at the same time.

Phenice was that country on the Mediterranean coast just north of Caesarea and Mount Carmel.

At times it was one of the most important nations in the world.

Did you know the Phoenicians were famous not only for their commercial armadas,

But it was key to the development and propagation of letters and the alphabet?

Most nations used various forms of cuneiform picture-writing until the Phoenicians came along.

As a result this was an important country in the spreading of the gospel.

“Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch.”

Cyprus was the first island nation to the west of Israel and Phenice.

As we shall see, it was the first place that Paul and Barnabas went in their first missionary journey.

There were a great many Jews living on that island.

Antioch at that time was the eastern capital of the Mediterranean world, laying 16 miles upriver from the northeastern coast.

It was the third largest city in the Roman world after Rome and Alexandria, and was extremely important commercial center.

If Christianity was an army trying to conquer the world, Phenice and Antioch would have been strategic military objectives.

And because of the persecution in Jerusalem, these places were being evangelized.

WHO were they who were going to Phenice and Antioch?

We are talking about the persecuted saints of Jerusalem and Judea.

They were being driven from their ancestral homes, but not from the faith in their father’ Messiah.

They were refugees.

I suppose that it would be very easy to picture these people as frightened and faithless.

And I suppose that among them you might have found various degrees of fear and doubt,

But I tend to think that their departure from Jerusalem was out of necessity rather than fear.

And I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the Apostles were encouraging them to leave, and to take with them their new-found faith.

There is a good likelihood that many of these people had unsaved relatives who had moved to these heathen commercial centers in order to make a living.

The church may have been suggesting to members who had the means to move out of the danger of Jerusalem to do so in order to share Christ when their lost kinfolk.

And as we have seen earlier, the apostles were not among the departees.

So who were these people?

Someone said that their names have been hidden to us so that the Name of the Lord might be magnified.

I tend to think that they were ordinary, average members of the church.

People like any one of us.

They were carpenters and masons, and shop-keepers and blacksmiths.

Perhaps there were a few teachers, doctors and even perhaps a few priests.

Off they went escaping the wrath of Saul and the Sanhedrin, sharing their faith in Christ.

And the Lord greatly blessed their evangelism.

When tidings of the great conversions came to the ears of the apostles back in Jerusalem,

Just as they had sent Peter to look into things in Samaria, they sent Barnabas to investigate things in Antioch.

Maybe they were sent out at the same time.

But the fact that the church sent Barnabas, seems to say that they hadn’t yet authorized any direct mission work in Antioch to this point.

And WHAT was it that was happening in these places, especially in Antioch?

The refugee saints were preaching the Word.

They were so filled with excitement about the Saviour and salvation that they were sharing what they knew with every one who would listen.

And initially that meant with Jews only.

The way that verse 19 refers to “preaching the Word,” it sounds to me that their message was still in an Old Testament context.

They weren’t preaching the gospel, although they were preaching the gospel – if that makes any sense.

As we saw with Stephen and several others, these people taking the history, the laws, the ceremonies and the ordinances of Israel and using them to point to Christ.

They were taking Messianic scriptures and showing their fulfillment in Christ.

And they were taking Jesus of Nazareth and proving that He is the Christ.

What I’m trying to say is that it doesn’t appear they were preaching the gospel from John or Matthew.

But I know that the end result should have been exactly the same.

But after a while the message of these people started to change.

As more and more of the Grecians became interested in what they were saying,

The message became more and more pointed about the Lord Jesus.

I thought about trying to build a message around the word “Lord.”

Verse 20 says that they were “preaching the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the hand of the Lord was with them:

And a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.”

Weren’t they preaching that Jesus was the Lord?

And weren’t they empowered by Jehovah, the Lord?

Weren’t these people believing on Christ, the One Who is the Lord?

I cannot stop myself from seeing here that Jesus Christ is Jehovah.

Not only is He the message being preached and the Saviour being received,

But He is also the power bring all this about.

The saints fleeing from Jerusalem were spreading the flames of the gospel.

And WHY were these Christians doing this evangelistic work?

How difficult do you think that it was, 2000 years ago, to move 300 miles?

Most people who left Europe to come to North America back in the 16^th and 17^th centuries did so because their lives depended on it.

When people left the east coast to first settle in Kentucky and Ohio, and then along the Mississippi, many of them felt that they were doing it out of necessity.

When these people left Jerusalem to take up residence in foreign and heathen countries, it was probably with a great deal of reluctance, humanly speaking.

But their new lives in Christ could not be abrogated or denied.

They couldn’t go back to their Jewish priests and say that it had been a mistake to be baptized by the disciples of Christ.

These people had been filled with the Spirit of God;

They were convinced that the Old Testament scriptures were fulfilled in Christ.

They knew that they had been given new hearts just as Joel and others had prophesied.

They couldn’t go back to what they were before.

And the Jews were determined to make sure that they couldn’t live in Jerusalem.

So they went forward, leaving their farms and shops and houses, towards the unknown.

They went in faith and in much assurance.

They traveled with the Word of God, the blessing of the Spirit and with a zeal that was unmatched by anything that the world had to offer.

And when people asked them why they had come to Antioch, they were quick to describe the cause and to give the reason for the hope that was in them.

The persecution was a part of the permissive will of God.

And the evangelism of Phenice, Cyprus and Antioch was a part of the command and promise of God.

“Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

And WHAT HAPPENED when they did the will of the Lord?

“And the hand of the Lord was with them:: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.”

These Christians were simply being faithful in sharing the good news about Christ, and God was blessing.

I’m sure that their hands were quite feeble, but the hand of the Lord is mighty.

Like ours, their hands were short, but “the LORD‘S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save.”

If persecution was essential to have the kind of results and blessing that these people had, then perhaps we should pray for persecution.