The Sovereign Scatter: When the Devil Sows, God Reaps a Harvest Text: Acts 8:1-3
Introduction: The Logic of the Kingdom
We live in an age that is terrified of friction. Our entire culture is built on the pursuit of comfort, safety, and the elimination of all that offends. And when this mindset seeps into the church, as it always does, you get a kind of Christianity that is soft, sentimental, and utterly impotent. It wants a crown without a cross, a resurrection without a crucifixion, and a global victory without a single battle. But the logic of the kingdom of God is entirely different. It is a logic that the world cannot comprehend, and that carnal Christians are constantly trying to edit. The logic of the kingdom is that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. It is the logic of the grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies in order to bear much fruit. It is the logic of a God who takes the most violent, hateful, and destructive acts of sinful men and coolly uses them as the very means to accomplish His glorious and unstoppable purpose.
This is what we see at the beginning of Acts chapter 8. The church in Jerusalem has just witnessed the brutal, lawless murder of Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. And standing there, holding the coats, was a young, sharp, zealous Pharisee named Saul. The stoning of Stephen was not an isolated incident; it was the first clap of thunder in a violent storm. It was the spark that lit a wildfire of persecution. And from a human perspective, it was a disaster. The fledgling church, gathered and growing in Jerusalem, was about to be broken apart and scattered. But from a divine perspective, it was not a disaster at all. It was a deployment. It was not a setback; it was the sovereign fulfillment of the Great Commission. Jesus had told them they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8). They had done a fine job with Jerusalem. Now God, in His rough providence, was going to take care of the rest of the syllabus.
We must understand this principle if we are to have any backbone in our own time. The world thinks that when it attacks the church, it is winning. But the world is always a fool. It is a pawn in a chess game it does not understand. When the enemies of God bare their teeth, they are simply serving the purposes of God. When they scatter the saints, they are only sowing the gospel. This passage is a profound lesson in the sovereignty of God over the malice of men. It shows us how God uses the pressure of persecution to export the glad tidings of salvation.
The Text
Now Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death.
And on that day a great persecution began 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 was delivering them into prison.
(Acts 8:1-3 LSB)
The Zealous Accomplice and the Great Storm (v. 1)
We begin with the introduction of our antagonist, and the explosion of hostility he represents.
"Now Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles." (Acts 8:1)
Luke makes a point of connecting Saul directly to the murder of Stephen. The phrase "hearty agreement" indicates more than passive consent; it was a deep-seated approval, a zealous endorsement. Saul was not some reluctant bystander. He was all in. This was a man consumed with what he believed to be righteousness. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees, trained at the feet of Gamaliel, and he saw this new sect of "the Way" as a cancerous heresy that had to be stamped out for the glory of God. His zeal was white-hot, but it was a zeal utterly devoid of knowledge. And in this, he is a terrifying picture of all false religion. False religion is not lazy or apathetic; it is energetic, furious, and murderous. Cain did not kill Abel out of boredom.
Notice the timing: "on that day." The martyrdom of Stephen was not the end of the violence, but the beginning. It broke the dam. A "great persecution" was unleashed. This was not a matter of social disapproval or snarky comments online. This was a violent, physical assault on the body of Christ. And what was the result? The church was "all scattered." But look at the geography. Where did they go? "Throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria." This is not a random detail. This is Luke, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, showing us the direct fulfillment of Acts 1:8. The church was getting comfortable in Jerusalem. They were having great fellowship, the Lord was adding to their number daily, and things were going swimmingly. But the mission was bigger than Jerusalem. And so God, using the wicked hands of Saul and the Sanhedrin, kicked the birds out of the nest. He did not suggest they go to Samaria; He chased them there.
This is a pattern. God's people have a tendency to build comfortable holy huddles. And God, in His wisdom, often uses external pressure, even persecution, to force us out into the mission field He has assigned us. The devil meant to stamp out the church, but all he managed to do was spread it. He was trying to put out a bonfire in Jerusalem, and in his stamping and kicking, he sent flaming embers flying all over the countryside, starting a hundred new fires.
It is also significant that the apostles remained in Jerusalem. This was not an act of cowardice, but of courage and strategic necessity. They were the generals of the army, and they had to hold the command post. They stayed to anchor the church, to provide a central point of leadership and doctrinal stability for the scattered believers. The foundation had to remain firm, even as the building materials were being flung far and wide.
Courageous Grief (v. 2)
In the midst of this chaos and fear, we see a quiet act of profound courage and piety.
"And some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him." (Acts 8:2)
This was not a safe thing to do. Stephen had been executed as a blasphemer by the highest religious court in the land. To give him an honorable burial was to publicly identify with a condemned criminal. It was to paint a target on your own back. These "devout men" were not fair-weather disciples. They were men who feared God more than they feared the Sanhedrin. Their actions were a public rebuke to the authorities and a declaration of their love for their fallen brother.
Their burial of Stephen was an act of honor. In that culture, to be deprived of a proper burial was a great curse. By burying him, they were testifying that this man, though condemned by men, was honored by God. And they "made loud lamentation over him." This was not a quiet, hidden grief. This was a public, vocal, costly grief. They were not ashamed of their tears for this martyr of Jesus. This is a vital point for us. We are not Stoics. Grief is not a sign of weak faith. We are to grieve, but not as those who have no hope (1 Thess. 4:13). Their lamentation was loud because their loss was great, but their faith was strong enough to perform this act of love in the face of mortal danger. This is what Christian courage looks like. It is not the absence of fear, but the right ordering of fears.
The Havoc of Saul (v. 3)
Lest we think the persecution was a vague, impersonal force, Luke brings it into sharp focus by returning to its chief agent.
"But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he was delivering them into prison." (Acts 8:3)
The verb translated "ravaging" is a violent one. It is used in classical Greek to describe a wild boar tearing up a vineyard. This was not a polite inquiry. This was a brutal, systematic effort to destroy the church. Saul was a man on a mission. He went "house after house." This was domestic terrorism. He violated the sanctity of the home, the basic unit of society. He was not just arresting the leaders in the temple courts; he was hunting down ordinary believers in their living rooms.
And he dragged off "men and women." This detail is included to show the depths of his fury. He had no chivalry, no restraint. In that culture, to treat women this way was particularly shocking. But Saul's zeal had burned away all such sensibilities. He saw men and women not as fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, but as carriers of a plague that had to be eradicated. He was imprisoning them, which often was a prelude to execution. As he himself would later confess, he voted for their deaths (Acts 26:10).
This is the man God chose to be the greatest apostle, the greatest missionary, the greatest theologian in the history of the church. Why? Because God loves to display His grace. God did not choose a nice, respectable, religiously moderate man. He chose a monster. He chose a violent, bloodthirsty persecutor. He did this so that no one could ever say that Paul's transformation was the result of his own innate goodness. It was a resurrection from the dead. It was a radical, sovereign act of divine power. The ferocity of Saul the persecutor is the perfect backdrop for the magnificent grace of God that would apprehend him on the road to Damascus. The chief of sinners would be made the chief of apostles, so that God alone would get all the glory.
Conclusion: The Unstoppable Word
So what is the central lesson for us? It is that the kingdom of God is not a fragile enterprise that depends on favorable circumstances. It is a force of nature, because it is driven by the God who created nature. The very things that seem to threaten it are the things God uses to advance it.
The enemy overplays his hand, always. He thinks that by scattering the believers, he can silence the message. But the scattered believers, as we see in the very next verse, "went everywhere preaching the word" (Acts 8:4). The persecution turned every refugee into a missionary. The pressure cooker exploded, and the gospel stew got all over the kitchen. What was contained in one city was now broadcast throughout two regions, and from there it would go to the ends of the earth.
This should give us a robust and confident faith. We should not be surprised when the world rages against Christ and His church. We should expect it. And we should not despair when it happens. We should, rather, look to see what glorious, counter-intuitive, and brilliant purpose God is working out through it. The church is an anvil that has worn out many hammers. The fury of Saul was just one such hammer, and it was shattered and remade into a tool for the Master's use. Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases. And it pleases Him to build His church through the very opposition of His enemies. Therefore, let us not fear, but let us be faithful, knowing that our labor, our suffering, and even our scattering, are never in vain in the Lord.