On Sunday, January 8, 1956, on the shore of a lonely river deep in the Ecuadorian jungle, five missionaries were murdered by primitive Auca Indians. News of the massacre shocked the world. To some, their deaths seemed a senseless tragedy. Many decried the promising missionary careers cut short, the five young wives bereft of their husbands, the children left fatherless.

Those with deeper spiritual insight saw things differently. Nate Saint, one of the five martyrs, had written,

As we weigh the future and seek the will of God, does it seem right that we should hazard our lives for just a few savages? As we ask ourselves this question, we realize that it is not the call of the needy thousands, rather it is the simple call of the prophetic Word that there shall be some from every tribe in His presence in the last day and in our hearts we feel that it is pleasing to Him that we should interest ourselves in making an opening into the Auca prison for Christ. (Elisabeth Elliot, Through Gates of Splendor [Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale, 1981], 176)

Elisabeth Elliot, widow of another of the martyrs, Jim Elliot, commented,

To the world at large this was a sad waste of five young lives. But God has His plan and purpose in all things. There were those whose lives were changed by what happened on Palm Beach. In Brazil, a group of Indians at a mission station deep in the Mato Grosso, upon hearing the news, dropped to their knees and cried out to God for forgiveness for their own lack of concern for fellow Indians who did not know of Jesus Christ. From Rome, an American official wrote to one of the widows, “I knew your husband. He was to me the ideal of what a Christian should be.” An Air Force Major stationed in England, with many hours of jet flying, immediately began making plans to join the Missionary Aviation Fellowship. A missionary in Africa wrote: “Our work will never be the same. We knew two of the men. Their lives have left their mark on ours.”

At first glance, Stephen’s death may also seem pointless. Here was another promising career cut short. He was a powerful, miraculous preacher, with a deep knowledge of the Old Testament. Such was the godly character of his life that he was one of the seven chosen by the church to oversee its daily affairs. Why was it necessary that one so gifted have such a brief ministry?

Why is it that it seems the good die young?

God Remains in Control Even in Persecution and Suffering

God rules over the sufferings of the church, early and present, and causes them to spread spiritual power and the joy of faith in a lost world. It is not his only way, but it does seem to be
a frequent way. God spurs the church into missionary service by the suffering she endures. Therefore, we should not judge too quickly the apparent setbacks and tactical “defeats” of the church

God Uses Persecution to Promote Missions

verse 1 shows us that God makes persecution serve the Great Commission. “On that day [the day of Stephen’s murder] a great persecution arose against that church in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.”

They left Jerusalem and spread out.

Up until now in the book of Acts all the ministry has taken place in Jerusalem. No one had moved out to Judea and Samaria. But Jesus had said in Acts 1:8 that the coming of the Holy Spirit was to empower missions in Jerusalem and beyond. “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 8:1 uses exactly those two unreached areas in that order: “… they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria.” So whether the church may have awakened to her calling eventually without persecution, the fact is that God used persecution to move his people into the mission he had given them.

Stephen’s Death

Stephen’s ministry seemed to have ended in failure. Not only was he killed as a heretic, but his death also triggered the first persecution against the entire church. That persecution, spearheaded by Saul of Tarsus, scattered the Jerusalem fellowship. Such a skewed view of Stephen’s death, however, betrays a lack of understanding of the way the Holy Spirit works.

The persecution, Satan’s attempt to stamp out the church’s fire merely scattered the embers and started new fires around the world. In the words of the early church Father Tertullian, the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church.

In chapter 8, the church is seen reaching out to Judea, Samaria, and even to a Gentile. They were carrying out their Lord’s mandate to “be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

The murder of Stephen almost surely fixed a point of the gospel’s final rejection by the Jewish leaders, and God’s design for the gospel to move out into new territory began.

On the very day of Stephen’s death, a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem. That persecution, detonated by the murder of Stephen, was led by a Hellenist Jew named Saul of Tarsus.

Stephen’s death, then, was the catalyst for the storm of persecution, led by Saul, that broke on the church. The predictions of the Lord Jesus Christ were coming true: “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20); “

Watch for in Danger in Comfort, Ease, and Prosperity in the Church

God is sovereign and turns setbacks to triumphs. Comfort, ease, affluence, prosperity, safety and freedom often cause a tremendous stand still in the church. The very things that we think would produce personnel, energy and creative investment of time and money in the cause of Christ and his kingdom, instead produce, again and again, the exact opposite, weakness, apathy, self-centeredness, and a preoccupation with security.

It’s a strange principle, that probably goes right to the heart of our sinfulness and Christ’s sufficiency—the principle that hard times, like persecution, often produce more personnel, more prayer, more power, more open purses than easy times.

It’s true, from Jesus’ parable of the four soils, that some fall away during persecution because they have no root. But it seems to be true that even more people are like the third soil, “the cares of the world, and the delight in riches, and the desire for other things enter in and choke the word and it proves unfruitful” (Mark 4:19).

David Brainard said, we want missionaries who will come when there are no roads.

Persecution can have harmful effects on the church, but the facts are that prosperity, it seems, is even more devastating to the mission to which God calls us. The point is that we should be very wary of prosperity and excessive ease and comfort and affluence, and we should not be disheartened but filled with hope if we are persecuted for righteousness’ sake (Matthew 5:10).
God uses persecution to serve the mission of the church.

Stephen Is Honored, Not Blamed

The persecution in Jerusalem started because of Stephen. That’s clear here and in Acts 11:19—“the persecution that arose over Stephen.”

You can imagine, it is the same today, some prudent and well-meaning believers in Jerusalem saying: “Stephen’s speech was utterly uncalled for. There are other less inflammatory ways to defend the truth than to call the Sanhedrin ‘stiff-necked people who always resist the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 7:51).

It’s always hotheads like this that get the church into trouble. Now the whole city is against us. Look at the waste of life and property and time. Look at the families that are being broken up. Look at the homes being lost and the children being taken away from all their friends. Now we have to live like refugees and exiles in Judea and Samaria.

Why didn’t Stephen think before he spoke?”

We have seen the exact same thing recently, one example is John MacArthur in Ca. Christians blasted him for not wanting to close the church.

When Luke tells God’s version of the story, Stephen is a man full of grace and power (Acts 6:8). When he spoke his final words that enraged the council, Luke says he was filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:55). And here in Acts 8:2 Luke says that “devout men buried Stephen, and made great lamentation over him.” Stephen is honored not blamed for the persecution—at least by devout men. Worldly people might be more worried about goods and kindred and status. But the devout people, who think the way Jesus thinks about life, they “let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill, God’s truth abideth still.”

When persecution comes because of courageous, faithful, God-honoring obedience, godly people don’t blame the servant of the Lord. Instead, they honor them.

Faithfulness To the Word Can Convert Adversaries

When we are faithful, sometimes our worst enemies become our best friends. Verse 3: “But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.” This Saul is the one who would be dramatically converted and become the best friend and advocate Christianity ever had.

He “kept pursuing them even to foreign cities” (Acts 26:11) with the permission of the Jewish leaders (Acts 22:5).

The effects of Saul’s persecution were devastating, it means “to destroy,” “to ruin,” or “to damage.” In extrabiblical writings, it was used to describe the destruction of a city and mangling by a wild beast

The Word of God Is Good News and Brings Joy

The Word of God brought persecution and exile, but it is still good news and brings joy.

Verse 4 says that the scattered, persecuted Christians preached the Word wherever they went. They announced the very Word that brought persecution as good news. And verse 8 confirms that it was good news because it says, “So there was much joy in that city.” The Word that brings persecution also brings joy—and the joy it brings is so much greater and longer than the trouble it brings that the trade-off is worth it.

verse 5: “Philip went down to a city of Samaria, and proclaimed to them the Christ.”

Christ alone has the power to deliver from Satan and all his evil. Christ alone has the power heal our bodies now and finally in the resurrection. Christ alone has the right and power to forgive our sins and make us right with God (Acts 10:43). So if you have Christ, if you know him and
trust him, then no matter how severe the persecution is, no matter how great the suffering of life, you have hope and you have joy. “There was much joy in that city” because Philip preached Christ.

Therefore, in spite of the persecution, those believers who had been scattered were not cowering somewhere in fear but went about preaching the word. They had been doing so before the outbreak of the persecution, and after being scattered they continued to preach.
Satan’s persecution promoted the very thing it was designed to destroy. It fired the believers with new zeal to proclaim the gospel in new areas.

Philip went down from Jerusalem to the city of Samaria.

Demon-indwelt people exist in our own day, although they may not be as commonly manifest in Western culture as in third-world cultures.

As C. S. Lewis notes, Satan and his demons adapt themselves to whatever world view prevails in a given society. They are equally at home with Western materialists and third-world magicians

When the truth of God’s Word is shared, it will bring change and Joy.