The Great Reversal. Acts 8

Nobody likes to get picked on, let alone persecuted. Yet as we read about the early church in Acts 8 we see a wave of persecution breaking out against them. Why? Maybe Stephen ticked somebody off with his sermon in chapter 7. Actually, I think it was a follow up to God’s plan that was laid out by Jesus in Acts 1:8 – ( “be my witnesses to the ends of the earth”) that wasn’t getting done. You see after the Day of Pentecost and the birth of the Church everybody was doing well in this new Jesus Movement, well maybe not Ananias and Sapphira. But this one big happy family that was experiencing this new way of real life needed to be reminded of the bigger plan – go and make disciples of all nations. My theory – God allowed Acts 8:1 because the Church didn’t get Acts 1:8 –so he encouraged the "going" through the persecution. Perhaps today we would do well to “go and make disciples” or we too may experience God’s great hand of motivation in our own church and generation.