Saul, Philip, and the Other Side of the Tracks

Transcription

1 Dartmouth Bible Notes Notes from the Pulpit Ministry of Dartmouth Bible Church Series: Studies in Acts, Lesson 9 Scripture: Acts 8:1-8 Speaker: Rev. Neil C. Damgaard, Th.M., D.Min. Date: November 11 th, 2018 Saul, Philip, and the Other Side of the Tracks Acts 8: 1-8 (ESV) And Saul approved of his [Stephen s] 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. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city. Introduction It is on my heart next Sunday to bring a message about why I preach in the way that I do, which is to bring the Bible to you as it is. I hope you can be with us then. Today let me ask you if you have you heard the expression, the other side of the tracks or the wrong side of the tracks? The idea is that someone raised or who is from the other side of the tracks or the wrong side of the tracks is sort of for some reason undesirable. When there actually were railroad tracks in a town, in theory the soot and coal dust would blow off the steam engines and collect over there on the industrial side of town, making it kind of grimy and people who lived over there were also thought to be grimy. Maybe they didn t have the latest designer clothing, maybe they didn t shower too often, maybe they didn t speak properly all the time or used a lot of slang, maybe they had linguica-breath or maybe people just didn t like them for arbitrary reasons. To the Jews in Judea in the first century, Samaria was THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TRACKS. But Jesus had told Peter and James and John and the rest, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8b). The good news of Jesus Christ was going to go to MANY on the other side of the tracks whether the apostles wanted it to or not! In our passage today we have two things happening A. the execution of Stephen triggered a massive phase of persecution of the believers in Jesus, and second:

2 B. with one of the Seven (not one of the Twelve) at the head, the gospel would now spread to Samaria. This week I was evaluated negatively after praying in a public gathering of recognition and mourning the loss of 13 Jewish lives in Pittsburg. I was one of a number of university staff and faculty who were invited to pray briefly, bring poem, a meditation, a rant of whatever--to bear in large official gathering last week. The content of my prayer was appreciated, I was told asking God to intervene and frustrate any current plans for evil--but I was also told that to invoke the name of Jesus, to just close my prayer in His name, was offensive to a small number of people. Apparently the presumed ethic was that Christians should not mention the name of Jesus if there is anyone present who would object-even clergy, and even in an announced ecumenical public gathering. I was told that if I cannot bring myself to cease mentioning Jesus name in such an event I will not be invited in the future. I have been on this campus for 35 years now and I have never before been warned in this way not to pray in Jesus name. However, I will not delete His name now or ever. But I would never call this persecution. It is just annoying. Last Sunday was what has come to be known as the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church around the world--as it is happening right now. This is pretty hard for us to relate to because most of the time, and for most of US we are not persecuted in any way. According to Open Doors 1, the top five countries in the world last year, in 2017, where persecution of Christians is most severe are North Korea, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan. To arrive at such a ranking a pretty sophisticated algorithm is employed, but a few of the survey-questions which reveal persecution include: Has conversion to Christ been opposed, forbidden or punishable including conversion from one type of Christianity to another? Has it been risky for Christians to conduct acts of Christian worship by themselves? Has it been dangerous to privately own or keep Christian materials? When issues like this become relevant you can pretty much say you re being persecuted as we read about the earliest believers in Acts 8:1,3. We first have mention from Luke about a man named Saul in 7:58b And the witnesses [at Stephen s stoning] laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. We can say safely I think that Saul really hated these Jesusfollowers. Luke describes him: Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison

3 Luke also felt the need to tell Theophilus (verse 2) that Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. There was a grieving time and the effort to give Stephen a proper burial. This is a rare mention in the New Testament of what we would call a funeral. Luke did not leave this little detail out. Stephen was loved and as people watched aghast, Stephen was killed. A good man was murdered. There was little due process. There was certainly no crime and MOST certainly no capital crime. But just so, he was dragged out and stoned. It broke people s hearts. And as they entombed Stephen s body they wept over it. Luke felt the need to tell Theophilus that some closure was achieved. Meanwhile, Saul is going from house to house with complete judicial authority and dragging men and women off to jail. No transcript is preserved of what he said as he was doing this. But we can imagine easily Later he would characterize himself with these words, to the Corinthians, to the Ephesians and to Timothy: 1 st Corinthians 15:9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. Ephesians 3:8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 1 st Timothy 1:15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. So however he worded it he later saw himself as pretty bad, pretty dangerous and pretty guilty. He could not have known at the time, inflamed with passion and hatred that his example would be loved by the Church for centuries that ANYONE is capable of redemption, even a vicious and relentless persecutor. But on the OTHER SIDE OF THE TRACKS something positive was happening. We read, concluding with one of Luke s cool summary statements, Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city. (Acts 8:4-8) So, the persecution resulted in the spreading of the word! Philip crosses the tracks, and proclaimed Christ to them. The Gospel was going into second gear! When you know a little about the Samaritans this is more striking. The Samaritans had a rather distinctive understanding of the Coming One or 3

4 Messiah because they accepted only the first five books of the Bible as their Scriptures. They talked about a Taheb who would be a new Moses (or maybe even Moses himself, reincarnated) who would fulfill Deuteronomy 18:15 and restoring true worship on Mount Gerizim 2. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers it is to him you shall listen Whatever ill-feelings and differences were felt, evaporated to some extent at least as they ALL came under the banner of the Risen King! I like verse 6a, And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip. They easily might have NOT been in one accord but been bitterly divided and they easily might have interrupted Philip and replaced what he was saying in their own minds with what they wanted to hear. Years later Luke learns of this extraordinary moment in Samaria. Josephus tells that that in Samaria there was an almost even greater expectation of Messiah than in Judea! There may have been a party which was expecting Messiah to lead them up Mount Gerizim with the promise to show them where the hidden sacred temple vessels were! The Philip comes along, with signs and exorcisms and healings and the people were benefiting immediately from his ministry. So Luke summarizes: So there was much joy in that city (verse 8). Even when there is excruciating trouble in one place, there is the joy of the Lord in another. His kingdom is everywhere and His moves unfold across the tracks sometimes when we think they should be visible here! When I was in Haiti and saw the joy on those Christians faces, amidst crippling poverty it humbled me greatly I wanted that joy to be in Dartmouth! We hear of success and joy in another congregation and if it is the Gospel that is bringing it, we can share that joy too from a distance. Finally, with those who are hateful of Jesus Christ on one day we may live to see Him invade that very person s life with His grace and power. He is good. He is good all the time and His kingdom knows no bounds! 2 Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Social-Rhetorical Commentary, 1998, Eerdmans, p

5 That Word above all earthly powers no thanks to them abideth; the Spirit and the gifts are ours through him who with us sideth. Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill: God's truth abideth still; his kingdom is forever! 5