Acts 8:1-3--Saul Ravages the Church

Acts 8:1-3
English Standard Version

Saul Ravages the Church
8 And Saul approved of his execution.

And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. 3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

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We just saw Saul mentioned by name at the end of chapter 7 as Luke told us, "And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul."  Now Luke makes it clear what that meant by adding, "And Saul approved of his [Stephen's] execution."  We'll only get a glimpse of what Saul is doing right now, but we'll come back to him.  For now, it is enough to say that God is using him and the persecution he is bringing against the Church in Jerusalem to get them to spread out throughout all Judea and Samaria.  However, the apostles stayed put in Jerusalem.

Do you remember the Great Commission?  Jesus said, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8).  The word martyr that we use to describe someone who dies for the sake of the gospel is the word "witness" that Jesus uses.  I think it is fair to say that Stephen was definitely one of these "witnesses" in the area of Jerusalem (as were Peter, John, and the other Apostles).

"Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him."  Many times people judge how important a person was by how many people attend their funeral and how much attention the funeral gets.  In this society people would wail and weep loudly as a sign of mourning and lament so that everyone around them could hear their pain and grief and sorrow and know how important this person was to them.  Stephen apparently had some devout Christians men bury him--likely a group that included the apostles and other deacons, though that is not specified, and their mourning was loud even though they may not have been large in number.

Did the Sanhedrin give the Church any reprieve and time to grieve the loss of Stephen?  No!  They took the opportunity to send Saul out to go house to house in Jerusalem to arrest not just the men, but also the women and children of any household where there were disciples of Jesus--who will soon be called followers of the Way in chapter 9 of the book of Acts (we will not see these followers of the Way called Christians until Acts 11).  This is a new tactic to not just arrest the Apostles and Deacons, but now they are coming after the members and their families.  It's quite the escalation, and God is going to use this to help disperse the people, causing those who came from far away lands to travel back home and return to their local synagogues.  In this way, that gospel if going to quickly spread to nearly every city and town where there was a synagogue as God has been saving a remnant (a small portion) of every tribe, tongue, language and ethnicity (people group).  The next time we see Saul will be on the Road to Damascus where Jesus will appear to him and say, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"  Saul will say, "Who are you Lord?" and Jesus will answer, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." (See Acts 9:4-5).  Jesus feels the persecution of His people and counts it as a personal attack against Himself.  Jesus knows and feels the pain that every Church member in all places in all times has ever felt and He has made that pain His very own.  That is part of the gospel too.