“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church”

Turtullian (155-220AD).

Steven preached.  They hated what he said.  So they killed him.  And Saul was standing in approval, having no idea the train that was about to hit him.

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 (Acts 8:1-3)

It has been said that the only thing the church cannot endure well is prosperity.  It has always stumbled there.  But when the church is persecuted, it explodes.  This is a fact often repeated in history.

It’s happening now in places like Iran.

It’s going to happen again in the West.

It is strange though.  When persecution hit here, everyone scattered, except the apostles.  They stayed.  Perhaps they had already come to the point believing that their lives were already gone.    Or maybe it was that the religious leaders were fearful and instead went after the common people.  Regardless, the church was hunted down.

When persecution happens, people spread out. In this case it was an internal displacement.  People ran to the neighboring provinces/states/regions of Judea and Samaria.

Sometimes it takes that to get the church moving.  The beauty of it is wherever they went, they shared the gospel.

Saul commissioned

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).

Many were likely killed but we don’t know that for sure.  We do know that they were imprisoned.  It didn’t matter whether you were male or female.  All Christians were a target.  Yet they didn’t stop.

Saul thought he was going to destroy the church.  And in some ways, he definitely did damage.  But the church cannot be destroyed.  Because Jesus said it would never be destroyed.  Jesus would build his church and the gates of Hades would not defeat it.

Persecution is here.  It is also coming.  What do we do?

We do what we always do.  We keep on preaching the gospel.   It’s just another normal day in the Christian life.

“All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12).

If we want persecution to stop, it is actually quite simple.  We stop preaching and worshiping Jesus.  That’s all that’s necessary.  But then we would be in disobedience to God.  And that is far worse than any persecution we can face.