FULFILLMENT

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

And Saul approved of their killing him.

On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.

But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

Acts 8:1-3

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also.” John 15:18-20

Well before He was arrested, falsely accused and convicted, beaten and abused, and then crucified on a cross at Calvary, Jesus had warned about the future for those who would choose to be His disciples. He knew they would be treated as badly as He was and He wanted to give them advance warning.

As the eighth chapter of Acts open, we see the prophecy from John’s Gospel fulfilled.

For the Sanhedrin, their ears closed to the history lesson provided by Stephen, a history lesson intended to prevent them from repeating the mistakes of their ancestors, dragged Stephen outside the city and sanctioned his execution by stoning. The killing was gladly supervised by a fervent Jew by the name of Saul. We’ll spend most of Acts looking at Saul’s story and how he comes to Christ and becomes a great apostle named Paul, but for now, we need to remember that Saul was a master persecutor who never hesitated to kill a Christian if the opportunity presented itself.

He wasn’t alone for we read where the Jewish religious leaders capitalized on the stoning of Stephen by going full throttle in persecuting the Christian church in Jerusalem.

How severe was this persecution?

So severe that all Christian disciples, with the exception of the apostles, scattered and dispersed to the regions of Judea and Samaria to avoid Saul’s onslaught as he went from home to home, dragging off Christian believers and incarcerating them. The goal was stopping the spread of Jesus followers but the Jewish religious authorities and their chief persecutor, Saul, actually served to advance the Gospel through their actions, and in doing so, fulfilling two other predictions, one by Jesus and the other by a Pharisee named Gamaliel as he sought to advise the Sanhedrin during their trial of the apostles. We’ll look at Gamaliel’s words first and then Jesus’.

“A Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” Acts 5:34-39

At the time, the Sanhedrin was persuaded and didn’t put the apostles to death. As a result, a dispersing never materialized. But it didn’t take long for the Sanhedrin to forget Gamaliel’s wisdom because instead of seeing that by fighting Stephen, they were really fighting God, which was always going to be a losing proposition, they executed Stephen and witnessed first had why Gamaliel had warned them as he did. For the disbursement of disciples occurred and the Jewish religious authorities immediately lost any control they may have had in trying to stop the cause of Jesus.

Of course, as mentioned, Jesus also had predicted this as He addressed His disciples before His ascension. Going back to the first chapter of Acts, we find Jesus saying these words:

“…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8

Jesus foretold how the Gospel would be spread. There was a playbook that would be fulfilled and followed perfectly because Jesus was calling the plays.

After the Holy Spirit, the Gospel would first take root in Jerusalem and the apostles made sure that happened as thousands upon thousands of new believers joined the church.

And now, with the killing of Stephen and breakout of persecution in Jerusalem, the Gospel spreading plan was entering stage 2 where we’ll see it shared in Judea and Samaria before heading to the ends of the earth.

Over and over again in the scriptures, we find the pattern of prophecy followed by fulfillment. We can always count on things happening just the way the Lord says they will happen because His words are always perfectly true. Never forget that when you start to be dismayed with the way the world is going. For we know the world will enter into a steady decline and spiral into evil and wickedness but we also know that Jesus is going to return and all those who placed their belief and hope in Him will be ushered into glory forever, to a new eternal home where we’ll never ever have to see persecution happen again.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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