The Trouble with the Church, Or Shaking the Shaker. Acts 8:1-40

Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason -- March 4, 2007

Have you ever noticed that one of the problems in the church is that it is some times difficult for God to get our attention?

Let me tell you a story Billy Graham told in one of his prayer letters to his supporters: there was a mother in an African nation who came to Christ and grew in her commitment and devotion to the Lord. As so often happens, however, this alienated her from her husband, and over the years he grew to despise and hate her new devotion to Christ.

“His anger and bitterness reached their climax when he decided to kill his wife, their two children and himself, unable to live in such self inflicted misery. But he needed a motive. He decided he would accuse her of stealing his precious keys-the keys were to the bank, the house, and the car. Early one afternoon he left his bank and headed for the Tavern. His route took him across a footbridge extended over the headwaters of the Nile River. He paused above the river and dropped the keys. He spent all afternoon drinking and carousing.

“Later that afternoon, his wife went to the fish market to buy the evening meal. She purchased a large Nile perch. As she was gutting the fish, to her astonishment, in it’s belly were her husband’s keys. How had they gotten there? What were the circumstances? She did not know; but she cleaned them up and hung them on the hook.
Sufficiently drunk, the young banker came home that night and pounded open the front door shouting, “Woman, where are my keys?” Already in bed, she got up, picked them off the hook in the bedroom, and handed them to her husband. When he saw the keys, by his own testimony he immediately became sober and was instantly converted. He fell on his knee’s sobbing, asked for forgiveness, and confessed Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.”

This represents something that is difficult for us to comprehend. It appears so amazing that it almost defies belief. It certainly proved to be so to her husband; so much so that he immediately believed in the God worshipped by his wife and accepted this Jesus as his savior and lord of his life.

Now keeping this in mind, let’s shift our focus back to the early church in Jerusalem.

And there is a problem beginning to develop.

The early disciples are content to stay in Jerusalem. They have the apostles and they have the temple in which to worship. They have a context in which people can understand the gospel message. They have been effective in their witness because many of the priests have become disciples. As we noted last week, there were probably between 20 and 25 thousand disciples in Jerusalem by this time.

Remember, what Jesus said to them before he ascended to Heaven? “You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

The leaders and the people are not planning on going any where any time soon. I think that is the impression you get from the first part of Acts of the Apostles. They are content to work where they are.

Now, in fairness, we should recognize that one of the great principles of evangelism is what we might call base and field. The church is the base where believers are discipled, encouraged and employed in the work of the sharing the gospel in some manner. The field is the world outside the church. This field includes our homes, our neighborhoods, where we work and spend our time. The field is anywhere outside the church environment. When you think of the concept of base and field, you need to entertain the valid idea that everybody has a different field to farm. And for these early believers Jerusalem is a wonderful base for the church to disciple those who believe and become part of the body of Christ. The believers are encouraged and built up in the church and then go out to share the gospel in their own individual fields. That is the plan when it comes to base and field.

The problem with the church is that everybody is staying on base (in the church in Jerusalem) and the only field in view at the moment is the city of Jerusalem. This is contrary to their marching orders from Jesus.

But all is not well in Jerusalem. Persecution is coming and the church in Jerusalem will be shaken by it. Trying times are coming. And God is determined to get the gospel message out to the world. And He allows the ungodly to pressure the fledgling group of believers. This is such a fledgling group of followers of Jesus, that they are not even called Christians yet. That won’t come until there are a sufficient number of believers in Damascus.

In chapter 7 Stephen gives his great defense of the gospel and is martyred. In Acts 7:58 we find that those who stone Stephen lay their coats at the feet of Saul, we know that he was a young man from Tarsus.

The stoning of Stephen ushered in the first general persecution of the church. At the head of this persecution was Saul. He began attacking the church in Jerusalem and as a result the disciples were scattered all over Judea and Samaria.

He was so much in agreement with the stoning of Stephen that he intended to do the same thing to the entire church in Jerusalem. He became the primary persecutor of the church. The devastation he wrought on the church is described as devastation caused by a wild beast. He even invaded private houses looking for his victims.

And the believers began scattering to get away from the persecution. As they went, we are told that they went on proclaiming as good news the Word.

You will remember that Jesus told his disciples “You are the salt of the world…” “You are the light of the world…” Neither salt nor light are any good unless they get out of the container that holds them. For salt, the salt is worthless unless it is shaken out of the shaker. Salt can sit on your kitchen counter weeks on end and do nothing. It is still salt, but it has no value to you at all in the shaker. But as soon as you shake that shaker, salt begins doing its job of affecting your food. And you know when it gets out of the shaker.

By the same token a light is of no value to you until it is turned on and allowed to flood the room with light. When it is dark you make light so you can see. There are all kinds of ways to generate light, but if you put a cover on the light or you don’t ever turn it on, it will be of very little value to you.

That is the problem with the church in Jerusalem. They are light and salt. Jerusalem is benefiting from the presence of this light and salt in the city. In fact we are following along here and see the number of people believing in Jesus is growing. Their success is so great that they are reaching so many priests with their gospel message that it is beginning to have an impact on the worship of the temple.

The difficulty is that the rest of the world needs this light and salt. God is about to shake the shaker.

He is going to shake it to protect these early believers. They make a tempting target because almost all of the believers who were alive at that time were in Jerusalem. They have their orders to go. They have simply not gone yet.

He is going to shake it to scatter the salt around the world. He is going to shake the church so that the light will reach out well beyond Jerusalem.

Have you ever noticed what happens in big churches? While I don’t particularly have anything against large churches, I am not very interested in being part of one either. People begin attending because lots of other people are there. Many are there because of the great programs that are offered. There is something for everybody. But there is an attitude shift that often has taken place. The overriding question about church becomes “What is in it for me?” People begin to become consumers not producers. They become salt in the shaker or the light never switched on. They are no longer much of a threat to the enemy of our soul, nor of much value to the Christ of the Kingdom.

We can all identify with the person who once told RuthAnn and I that they really liked our church, but they needed a good program for their kids. The idea that they join us and create the program for their kids was absolutely foreign to their thinking. They weren’t bad people. They were just not willing to be shakers of the shaker, a tool in the hand of Jesus to accomplish something important in spreading the gospel. They wanted someone else to do it. The question for us can never be: “What’s in it for me?” The question must be “What can I do for the King and His Kingdom?”

Remember we spoke about the 80/20 rule last week? I suggested that it is well known that 80% of the work is usually done by 20% of the people. That leads us to the fact that often times we run from place to place trying to do more than we should. Sometimes we don’t go where we should. But sometimes we go when we shouldn’t. Listen to what I found about Old Betty:

‘Old Betty was converted late in her life, and though she was very poor she was very active. She visited the sick; out of her own poverty she gave to those who were still poorer; she collected a little money from others when she could give none of her own, and told many of the love of the Saviour. At last she caught a cold and rheumatism and lay in bed month after month, pain-worn and helpless. A good minister went to see her and asked if after her active habits she did not find the change very hard to bear. (Listen to Betty’s reply)

"No sir, not at all. When I was well, I used to hear the Lord say day by day, ’Betty, go here. Betty, go there. Betty, do this. Betty do that," and I used to do it as well as I could. And now I hear him say every day, ’Betty, lie still ...’" Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Quotable Spurgeon, (Wheaton: Harold Shaw Publishers, Inc, 1990)

There are times when God says “Go.” There are times when God says “Stay, be still.” The key for us is to know which is which.

For the early church it is “Go!”

God is getting their attention. Jerusalem is ok, but the rest of the world needs what you have in salt and light. Take it to them. And persecution and particularly that meted out by Saul of Tarsus is particularly brutal but effective.

Acts 8:4 tells us “Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.”

Among those who were scattered was Philip. He went down to the city of Samaria. You will remember Samaria as the place where Jesus spoke to the woman at the well. Remember, Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria…” Well, here is Philip in Samaria. He proclaimed Christ to them there. They listened to him and saw him perform wonders and miraculous signs. They really listened to him then. And the result was hope and great joy in the city of Samaria.

When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the Word of God, they sent Peter and John down there to them. When they arrived they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. They had not yet had a Pentecost type experience with the Holy Spirit, having been baptized only in the name of Jesus. We don’t particularly know why, but that was simply their experience to that point.

It is at this point that Philip is told to “Go South to the road – the desert road- that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

Think about this: Philip has been the initiator, by his obedience in proclaiming Christ, of the very first great revival in the history of the church. In our time this would be the cause of the elevation of the preacher to national fame and status and there would be a flood of people racing down to Samaria to see if they couldn’t capture and bottle some of the revival to carry it home to their own churches. God is working here and in this particular way and if we are to have it ourselves we believe we have to go there and capture something of it for ourselves. It does not really work that way. If we proclaim Christ, something will happen. God’s word will not return to him void. The Holy Spirit will cause something to happen. But the issue is not “What is in it for me?” No, it is “What Can I do for the King and His Kingdom?” My field is different and how God works in that field will most likely be different.

The problem with the church is that we want the cookie cutter approach. That is why there, for example, is a Harvest just about everywhere. They have made it to the Peoria area already and will be at the right and left coasts before long. There is a Willow Creek, A Cinnamon Creek, and who knows how many other Creeks that are part of the Willow Creek Association.  While they have been successful in reaching a certain group of people, they are all pretty much the same. And all types of churches are now becoming part of that association or using the Willow Creek model for their churches. Believe it or not, Franchising has come to the church.  

But look at Philip. He is eminently successful in sharing the gospel. People have responded to such an extent that all of Samaria has been affected by the preaching of the gospel. Great Joy has come to these people. Philip is on the top of the heap. He is so successful that he could go be pastor of almost any church. He could name his terms.

But what does the Spirit of God do? God sends an angel to Philip. The angel has a message: “Go South…back past Jerusalem….down toward Gaza.” He has an appointment for Philip. Now all Philip gets is direction and the command to go. And Philip leaves all the fame and ego lifting press behind.

He simply goes. And on the way he meets a Eunuch from Ethiopia. This man was an important official in charge of the treasury of Candace, Queen of Ethiopia. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship and was now on his way home. I think it obvious that he did not find what he was looking for when he went to Jerusalem. I take that from the fact that as the chariot in which he is riding is being driven toward home, he is reading the book of Isaiah. He is still looking for something.

The Holy Spirit told Philip to “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” Obedience is paramount if we would be successful in our proclaiming Christ and it is true here. Philip hears the man reading the prophet Isaiah. He goes up to him and simply asks: “Do you understand what you are reading?” “How can I unless someone explains it to me?” And he invited Philip up into the chariot with him. Philip told him the good news about Jesus and the man believes it. He asks to be baptized and they stop and do that. The Spirit suddenly took Philip away and the eunuch went away rejoicing.

The problem with the church in some churches is that they concentrate on maintaining a life that is free from sin or sinful activities and avoiding contact with anybody whose life isn’t free from sin or sinful activities. And unfortunately, there is not much shaking of the shaker or turning on of the light there to benefit those who are lost.

That is not the picture of the church Jesus had in mind. And to accomplish what He had in mind, God scattered the church. Acts 8:4 uses the word scattered. The word literally means to “throw loosely about.” Notice what these people did when they were “thrown loosely about”: they preached the word wherever they went. They were not hiding in fort designed to protect them from contact with sinful people. No they passionately pursued those whose lives had been devastated by sin.

God’s plan is to “loosely throw us about” so that His work can be done. Being scattered forces us out of our comfort zones.

About everyone here has probably seen the film Titanic. More than 1,500 of the 2,200 passengers died when it sank on April 15, 1912. Perhaps the greatest tragedy is that many of those people didn’t have to die. A lot of people climbed into the twenty lifeboats, but many were only half full. Hundreds of people were in the cold water with life preservers. Most of them did not die from drowning; they froze to death. The people in the lifeboats heard the cries of those dying people, but they chose not to go back for fear of capsizing. Only one lifeboat returned—after it was too late. Of the hundreds who were in the water, only six people were rescued. Those who were already saved didn’t go after those who were dying. When we pray for God to extend our territory we must ask God to break our hearts so that those of us who are already saved will go after those who are dying.

God’s plan is to “loosely throw us about.” So that his work can be done. Being scattered puts us in a context where we can share the good news. And no one hears the message unless we tell them.

Paul Harvey once asked this question: “Are we fishers of men, or keepers of the aquarium?’ And whenever the church is viewed as an aquarium, God will get our attention and He will shake the shaker.