SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
12/3/2017 9:54 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Persecution”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 8:1b-3
Message of the verses: “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. 2 Some devout men buried
Stephen, and made loud lamentation over him. 3 But Saul began ravaging the
church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would
put them in prison.”
As I am
reading, or listening, to the book of Ezekiel he talks about being a watchman
on different occasions, and as we look at the end of verse one we see that the
apostles were like watchmen, not leaving their posts in Jerusalem. They desired to stay in the city because of
their love for the Lord, and as we look at verse two we see that it is possible
that those devout men that Luke is talking about may not have been believers,
thus Jerusalem was still a mission field.
John MacArthur states that “Luke use 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.”
As we move
onto the next verse (3) we see that the storm of persecution continued unabated
because of what Saul was doing. He
really had a great deal of hatred for the believers, as he was even putting men
and women in prison just because they believed in Jesus Christ. Jesus says in John 16:2 “"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.” This prophecy is coming true at this time and
has continued throughout church history.
MacArthur
writes “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… In extra- biblical writings, it was used to describe the
destruction of a city…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.”
The
persecution caused the scattering of the church but God would use it to bring
glory to His name as while the church spread there was witnessing going on.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Prophets”
Today’s Bible question:
“Why was Joash hidden for six years before becoming king?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/3/2017 10:15 PM
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