The will of God in difficult times
Notes
Transcript
20200920_Acts 8v1-4_The will of God in difficult times
Acts 8:1–4 (NIV)
1 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.
2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.
3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.
Introduction
When we live in this world,
We sometimes have a difficult times.
In many cases,
We don’t know why it happened.
So, At that time,
Many people may cry out to God.
“Why me? Why do you give me the troubles?”
If we are in the difficult times,
What should we do?
Through today’s story,
Let’s find the answer.
# Body
In today’s bible,
We can see the persecution toward The Early Church.
Look at verse 1.
“Saul approved of their killing him.”
What is meaning?
You may know how Stephen was died.
Stephen does not commit sin.
But people killed him.
At that time, people laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Through their action, we can see Saul has authoritative man and
He is a representation of Israel people.
He approved of Stephen’s death.
And then
He started to persecute the church.
Look at verse 3.
3 Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
The persecution is so cruel.
As a result,
Except the apostles,
All people were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.
In this point,
We can see the difficult times of The Early Church.
In the difficult times,
What should they do?
They have two big choices.
They are escaping or abiding in Jerusalem.
In your opinion, what is right action?
We can see two attitudes in the bible.
1. Most of people were scattered.
2. The apostles abided in Jerusalem.
What is the right action?
At first, Let’s see about the scattered people.
First question,
Where did they go?
The bible said,
“They were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria /서메!어리어/.”
Why did they go to the area?
Actually, At that time, there are so many areas around Jerusalem.
But the bible said,
“They went Judea and Samaria.”
Why?
And second question, what did they do in the area?
Look at verse 4.
4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.
They preached the gospel !!!
It is amazing faith, because let’s think why they were persecuted and scattered.
It is because of the gospel.
They were almost died in Jerusalem.
But they did not afraid of the persecution in new area.
They preached the gospel wherever they go.
Q. Why did they do this?
Because, It is their mission from Jesus.
Jesus said before going up on the heaven in Acts 1:8.
Acts 1:8 (NIV)
8 But 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.”
Look at what Jesus said about the areas.
Jesus said, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Through these verses, we can know that
The scattered people always remembered what Jesus said.
So they went from Jerusalem to throughout Judea and Samaria.
And they focused on preaching the gospel, while remembering the command of Jesus.
Therefore, we can say that
The scattered people is right action.
# Apostles
And.. Next let’s see the apostles’ action.
They did not move from Jerusalem.
They abided in Jerusalem.
Why did not they go to a safety area?
Do you think it is wrong action?
No!!! The bible did not say like that.
The apostles should be stay in Jerusalem.
Jesus said, in Acts 1:8 (NIV)
8 But 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.”
Someone should be in Jerusalem to obey to Jesus’ command.
And The apostles did it.
They kept The Early Church to preach the gospel in Jerusalem although a persecution threatened them.
Therefore, it is good for The apostles to abide in Jerusalem.
#
As a result,
We can make conclusion that
“The bible gives a positive evaluation to two groups.”
If so,
In difficult times,
What should we do?
Let’s see not result of action, but their attitude.
What is their attitude in difficult times?
They focused on Jesus’ command and obeyed it.
Their action is always under Jesus’ command.
It is important to remember the command of Jesus.
And they did it according to their position.
Let’s think again today’s story.
The apostles should stay in Jerusalem. It is The apostles’ role.
But
Others should go to other area and preach the gospel, that is their role.
Can you understand?
They had a different role, so that they did different action, but in common, they obeyed to Jesus’ commandment.
It is important to think of Jesus, and to obey the will of Jesus.
# Application
Let’s apply this lesson.
We also have many difficult time in our life.
We are living in Corona times and
We will live after Corona times.
We never live like this times.
We don’t know what will happen to us, what is right attitude and what should we do.
In this time, what mind should we have?
Today’s story shows us the answers.
1. We should focus on the bible.
We should remember and memorize what they bible says.
And then we might find the will of God in the bible,
if we find the will of God from the bible,
2. We should obey the will of God in our own position.
Don’t forget!
In our own position,
We should obey the will of God.
The bible said to us, “church member is a part of Jesus’ body.”
For example, Jesus is head, and Some one is hand, other is foot, the others is mouse.
Every part of a body has their own role.
Therefore, in our own position,
Let’s always think,
“In my position, “
“How can I make God be pleasing?”
“How can I glorify to God?”
If you follow to today’s story,
You might also live in the will of God.
And
God will protect you in the difficult times and
Bless you for ever.