October 27, 2025 • 26 mins
What if the moment your plans fell apart wasn’t the end, but the opening move of a better story? We dive into Acts 8 to trace a surprising pattern: the church goes from thriving to scattered, from safety to persecution, and somehow the mission doesn’t shrink—it expands. Stephen’s death mirrors the path of Jesus, not by explaining suffering away, but by revealing how love walks into it and turns it into life. That’s the paradox at the heart of this conversation: breakdowns can become the ground where breakthroughs grow.
We don’t rush to tidy answers. Instead, we follow Luke’s deliberate pause on lament: devout people bury Stephen with loud mourning. Grief here isn’t a lack of faith—it’s evidence of it. Then comes the pivot most of us long for but rarely expect: “so then” the scattered believers proclaim good news wherever they go. Ordinary, Greek-speaking followers become unlikely leaders, carrying the same resurrection story into new places. What looked like chaos becomes choreography. What fear tried to scatter, the Spirit sends.
Along the way, we face a hard year head-on—panic, loss, and late-night questions that even good theology couldn’t quiet. The takeaway is honest and hopeful: God didn’t waste the pain. Formation happened in silence and smallness, producing a steadier heart and a clearer love. We refuse performative pain and blind optimism alike. Instead, we practice three moves—listen to pain without fixing, lament without shortcuts, and let love turn wounds into compassion. If your life feels scattered, you might be in a sending. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs sturdy hope, and leave a review with one line: where is disruption nudging you to go next?
If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing to Madison Church on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback means the world to us, so please take a moment to leave a review and share the podcast with your friends and family.
For inquiries, suggestions, or collaboration opportunities, please reach out to us at help@madisonchurch.com.
For the latest updates and behind-the-scenes content, follow us on social media:
New episodes are released every Monday, so mark your calendars and join us weekly!
If you'd like to support the show, you can make a donation here. Your generosity helps us continue to bring you meaningful content.
This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only. The views expressed by the hosts or guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Madison Church. Any reliance you place on such information is strictly at your own risk. For detailed information regarding our terms of use and privacy policy, please visit our website.
Thank you for being part of the Madison Church community! We appreciate your support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
I've been planning the series for a year over a
year, and it's a real kind ofbummer for me sometimes to be
this far in advance withplanning because there's no way
I could have planned to have theyear I've been having and have
to do the series for the nextfive weeks.
I wouldn't have planned it thatway.
More on that in a little bit.
(00:23):
I know you know what it's likewhen life shifts beneath your
feet.
You thought you were standing onsomething solid.
Sometimes it's cracks and youcan see it coming.
Like you can see the floor isabout to give out.
Sometimes you have a chance tomove.
Sometimes there's not a goodoption or a place to move to.
(00:45):
And other times the floor justdrops out from under you.
You didn't see it coming.
There was no way you could haveknown it was coming.
You thought you were doing allof the right things.
It's when, like one momenteverything is just steady and
going according to the plan, therhythm that you've built.
Everything in the schedule isjust full force, clicking.
(01:06):
And then something changes.
It's a phone call or textmessage.
It's a diagnosis.
It's a friendship that quietlyfades, or maybe not so quietly
fades.
Sometimes it's the loss we neverexpected, and some of you are
very vigilant and you thinkthrough all of the things that
(01:27):
could go wrong, and yetsomething went wrong that you
never expected.
And again, other times it's thisslow realization that what once
worked so well just doesn'tanymore.
And suddenly something that youonce found security in isn't
(01:49):
secure anymore.
That's not just you, and it'snot just me, it's every person
in the room watching, listeningonline.
We all know what disruptionfeels like.
To be human in this room is toknow that pain, that suffering.
(02:09):
Sometimes it's a personalrelationship ending, a dream
falling apart, your purpose oryour sense of purpose slipping
away.
Other times it's in the realm ofcommunity.
A collective church isstretched.
We've been through that beforetogether.
It's a community or aneighborhood changing.
It's a world that shifts fasterand faster and faster, and not
(02:35):
in the direction any of us wantit to go.
It's in these moments, momentslike where you might find
yourself today, where you wonderif you've lost the plot or if
God is still writing the story.
And if you're being honest, asI've had to do this year with
(02:58):
myself, you're not sure God isdoing anything at all.
But it's in moments that feellike this, those breakdowns that
when we look at the scripture,when we look at the gospel, the
life and legacy of Jesus, we seethat the breakdowns are often
where Jesus has hisbreakthroughs in our life.
(03:23):
And I want you to consider for amoment that the disruption that
you didn't choose might be thevery space God wants to move.
And that's why we're doing thisnew series, holy disruption.
And that's what it's about.
We're continuing our long seriesthrough Acts.
We're going to Acts chapter 8,if you want to follow along
(03:46):
today, just a few verses.
But the story of Acts is aboutthe church being scattered.
And they're scattered because ofpersecution, challenges, and
trials, and all of the thingsthat you wouldn't necessarily
choose.
And it's through this chaos thatGod's spirit continues to move
and do some of the best workthat He's done in human history.
(04:08):
We start off by seeing thosefirst few chapters that the
church in Jerusalem is thriving,right?
Peter preaches a message.
People are speaking in tonguesand worshiping, and people are
being baptized.
It's like they can't keep upwith all of the church growth.
It's a good time to be abeliever by every metric.
And then all of a sudden,something changes.
(04:31):
Everything familiar vanishes.
But Acts reminds us, Luke, as hewrites, he reminds us that what
feels like disruption is Godpreparing us for what is next.
Now they couldn't see it.
Don't kid yourself.
We got the whole story.
But as they were living in it,they could relate to you, and
(04:53):
you can relate to them being inthe middle between chapter one
and chapter 28 and not knowinghow it's going to end.
But what we see, what Lukerecords, is that God sovereignly
works through disruption andsuffering to advance his mission
and to form his people, hiscommunity, his family.
(05:13):
And what looks like a collapseactually is a catalyst.
You might remember it was a fewmonths ago, but Kyle closed our
last series in Acts and he wastalking about Stephen.
And Stephen's story fills thetwo chapters before Acts 8.
So Stephen gets two chapters allto himself.
And he was chosen to serve thecommunity.
(05:34):
He was picked.
They're like, hey, you, you're aman full of faith and the Holy
Spirit.
And by every measure, theinformation we're given in Acts
is that Stephen was a very goodperson.
And yet, something very badhappened to him.
I know we say it, you know it,but let me say it again.
(05:57):
Good things happen to badpeople, and bad things happen to
good people.
It's just the way it is.
But here's where we often get itwrong, even inside the church.
Religious consolation says theremust be a reason for this.
I mean, there has to, God has tohave a plan.
Why else would this happen?
(06:18):
And so religion comes in and ittries to put an arm around you
and say, well, maybe this ormaybe that.
And we find a little bit ofpeace in that.
Well, if there was a reason forall of this bad stuff, I guess I
can be okay with it.
But Christian Revelation sayssomething different.
It doesn't put an arm around youand try to offer an explanation.
(06:39):
Instead, it provides a saviorwho walks with you and has
walked before you and will walkafter you.
It's a God who stepped intosuffering himself, not to
explain it, but to redeem it.
As Tim Keller put it, theChristian faith is the only
religion that claims God becameweak and suffered, and that that
(07:00):
suffering was a way to triumph.
It wasn't just Jesus, because wesee this in Stephen's story.
His ministry begins withcompassion, but quickly becomes
a bold proclamation.
And when his message about theliving presence of God, how God
is living among them, threatensthe religious elite at the time,
(07:20):
they accuse him of blasphemy.
Stephen reminded them that God'spresence was never confined to a
place.
It was never confined to thetemple, a church basement here
or there, but that God'spresence is everywhere.
And they hated that.
They hated that truth.
And so they killed him.
And as they were killing him,Stephen prays, Lord Jesus,
(07:43):
receive my spirit.
And don't charge them with thissin.
And what I believe Luke intendsfor you, the reader, to
understand and to make aconnection is between not just
Jesus' life and Stephen's life,but Jesus' death and Jesus'
(08:07):
death.
Both of them.
How it comes together.
The same spirit that empoweredJesus to forgive his enemies
from the cross was nowempowering Stephen to forgive
his enemies who were stoninghim.
And that is the pattern ofChrist's death.
It leads to life, it leads tomission.
It starts with Jesus and it goesto Stephen.
(08:29):
And we're going to see itcontinues to spread generation
to generation.
And Luke writes, we'reintroduced to Saul, one of the
witnesses, and he agreedcompletely with the killing of
Stephen.
Now, Saul will one day becomethe person who carries the
gospel all over the world.
(08:50):
But he begins here by endorsingthe murder of a really good
person.
It's kind of like a little teasefor a few weeks when we talk
about Saul and Paul, that Godcan redeem even the worst
beginnings.
If you find yourself here today,you know, that can never be the
things that we're talking aboutin this series or the things we
talk about week to week.
Just remember Saul, Paul.
(09:13):
No matter what's been said aboutyou or what's been done to you,
God can not just redeem thosethings, but use them for his
mission, his glory.
Luke adds after this, a greatwave of persecution began,
sweeping over the church inJerusalem, and all the believers
except the apostles werescattered through the regions of
(09:34):
Judea and Samaria.
Stephen is killed.
Everyone freaks out that that'sa really appropriate reaction to
that sort of thing happening.
The city turns against them.
So everyone is running away.
The apostles stay behind, buteveryone else, families, widows,
servants, they run for theirlives.
(09:55):
And in this, we see that thegospel is being pushed.
Not by choice necessarily, butbeing pushed into uncomfortable
places.
You see, Jesus in Acts 1 says,one day you'll be my witnesses
in all of Judea, Samaria, andthe rest of the world.
They might have been thinkinglike an executive or CEO, what's
the strategy, Jesus?
What's the operation?
(10:16):
What's the plan?
And we begin to see it here.
Well, Stephen is gonna die.
That's gonna freak a whole lotof people out.
But it's not just gonna beStephen, they're gonna try to
kill you.
And as a result of that, you aregoing to scatter and spread.
And that is how this messagewill get out.
You can see why Jesus leaves itat you will be my witnesses till
(10:38):
the end of the world, and thenzoop, flies away, right?
He's like, I'm gonna leave thatlast part out just for you to
find out.
But it must have honestly feltlike the story was over.
Jesus dies, Stephen dies,everyone around us is dying.
But what they saw as chaos,heaven sees as choreography,
(10:58):
right?
What they saw as chaos wasactually choreography.
God was already turning theirscattering into a sending.
They thought they were fleeing.
God was sending them.
The persecution that broke themapart became the moment God's
mission broke open.
And after the chaos of verse 1,Luke slows the story down.
(11:21):
Kind of a sidebar parentheseshere.
Some devout men came and buriedStephen with great mourning.
But Saul was going everywhere todestroy the church.
He went from house to house,dragging out both men and women
to throw them into prison.
In the contrast of this passage,these verses couldn't be
(11:43):
sharper.
There's reverence and there'sruin, devotion and destruction,
lament, and persecution.
This line, devout, godly menburied Stephen.
It's a quiet line, but as we'velearned, Luke is always very
(12:05):
intentional about every word heuses and how he sets up
sentences.
To the original audience readingthis, this was courage.
It was courageous.
To bury Stephen in the mourndeeply was defiance wrapped in
devotion, a public act of faithin a city that had called him a
blasphemer.
He didn't deserve a funeral.
(12:27):
And yet that's what they gavehim.
But notice here, before Lukelaunches, Stephen is killed, and
Paul's persecuting the church,and then they go off.
Luke slows down.
Because oftentimes before themission, there's mourning.
You see, because our faithdoesn't skip the funeral.
(12:53):
That's an important word for ustoday because our culture and
and a lot of times within thechurch, the Christian church, we
rush past grief.
We call it optimism, we call ittrust, we call it faith.
But sometimes what we call trustand faith is just really the
(13:13):
fear of feeling.
I don't like feeling that way,so I gotta spiritualize it.
We mistake denial for devotion.
We think that if we can juststay positive, that that's being
faithful.
But that's not faith, it'sspiritualized avoidance.
A strong faith, a mature faith,can look at the facts and not
(13:37):
shake.
A faith that has to hide fromfacts is fragile.
These godly men weren't goingaround pretending it was okay.
Oh, Stephen died, and but it'sgonna be okay.
God's about to do somethinggreat.
They bury him and then they weptloudly for him.
Guys, the the level ofsecondhand embarrassment I have
(13:59):
for them 2,000 years later iswild.
They're going around cryingloudly.
Everyone's stopping.
What are you upset about?
Well, they killed Stephen.
Oh.
And their grief, it wasn't froma lack of faith.
Devoted, godly men.
(14:20):
Their grief, their crying, thatloud weeping was evidence of the
faith.
And it's a reminder to us todaythat lament isn't weakness, it's
worship, it's prayer, it'strusting God with what hurts.
That's when Luke shifts.
Saul's continuing to destroy thechurch.
(14:42):
The Greek word he uses here isto ravage like a wild beast.
Paul's destroying the Christiancommunity.
He isn't enforcing the law, he'sdismantling lives.
He's going from house to house,invading the very spaces where
believers prayed and sharedlife.
It looked like the story wasbreaking apart to everyone who
(15:05):
was alive that day, yet, evenhere, devotion continued.
God was forming something inthem, and he forms something
through grief that comfort nevercan.
The same tears that wateredStephen's grave would soon water
the soil of mission.
(15:27):
And through it all, the spiritwas not absent, hovering above
the chaos.
The spirit was with them.
Where they went.
Luke continues in verse 4.
The believers who were scatteredpreached the good news about
Jesus wherever they went.
Three little verses today sofar.
(15:48):
One, two, and three.
Chaos.
Murder, lament, persecution.
And then Luke quickly shiftsgears.
It's jarring.
While Saul is dragging believersinto prison, verse 4 tells us
that believers are proclaimingthe message.
What looked crushed was alreadyspeaking again, louder than
(16:08):
before.
And in the original Greek, thetransitional word that Luke uses
is so then.
So then, as a result ofStephen's death, as a result of
burying him, and as a result ofour grieving, as a result of
Saul going around and ruiningpeople's lives, they proclaimed.
Again, what looked like chaoswas coordination.
(16:31):
God was already using what theenemy meant for harm to advance
his purposes.
The church wasn't now just ledby these 12 apostles, these 12
first followers of Jesus.
The church was being led byordinary Greek-speaking people.
The group once seen as secondarywas now leading the way on the
(16:53):
mission.
Just as Jesus left the glory ofheaven to dwell among us, these
believers left the security oftheir homes to bring the message
to others.
They didn't say, Here we are,and this is where we meet.
Come join us.
They went out on a search andrescue type of mission.
(17:14):
They preached the word.
Not a new message, notrebranding, not a new logo.
The same resurrection story,just carried into new places.
Luke is telling us the storycontinues.
Now, for us today, you and me,we're not fleeing from our
homes.
Paul's been dead for thousandsof years.
(17:35):
Nobody's coming to pull you outof your house and put you in
jail for praying.
But we know what it's like to bescattered.
That stuff I was talking aboutat the beginning, the
disruptions, when the groundyou're standing on starts to
shake, starts to crack, or justfalls out from under you.
We know what it's like.
Because in those moments, ourfaith is tested.
And yet we can look back atthose folks, those who were
(17:57):
driven from Jerusalem and seethat they didn't abandon the
message that they carried.
The mission shifted and changedthem.
The Spirit empowered them to dothings that they never thought
they could have done before.
What fear attempted to scatter,the Spirit sent.
Historically, the early church'sgrowth occurred despite
(18:19):
suffering.
It endured.
Author and historian RodneyStark observes crisis and
disruption became openings tothe early church, not obstacles,
became openings.
Now we'll learn about Saul in afew weeks when he meets Jesus
and how his understanding ofsuffering was turned upside
(18:41):
down.
But for today, I'm going to jumpahead a little bit.
Because one day Paul's causingsuffering.
And then the next, he's writingto a church in Philippi.
He's talking about the communionof suffering.
I want you to know Christ andexperience the mighty power that
raised him from the dead.
(19:02):
I want to suffer with him,sharing in his death.
It's the communion of suffering.
It's a community.
You're hurt, I'm hurt.
It's together.
Later, he even says, I'm gladwhen I suffer for you and my
body, for I am participating inthe sufferings of Christ that
(19:22):
continue for his body, thechurch.
Now, this isn't masochism, okay?
And I want to draw yourattention here for just a little
bit.
I want to point out that we canmisuse suffering in the same way
that in the church we can blowright by those hard feelings of
sadness and grief andover-spiritualize it.
We can do the same in the otherdirection.
(19:45):
We can deny, pretend everythingis fine, and on the other hand,
we can deify our pain andsuffering, treating it as proof
of holiness.
Look how much I'm suffering.
I must be really doing thingsright.
Now, both are distortions.
Suffering doesn't save us, Jesusdoes.
And the cross isn't a contest ofwho hurts more.
(20:08):
It's where love went all theway.
And again, I want to come backto this idea that mature faith
doesn't avoid reality, but italso doesn't romanticize pain.
That's the kind of faith thatthe world, honestly, today,
2025, going into 2026, wouldfind compelling.
A faith that is honest, a faiththat is grounded, a faith that
(20:31):
is also resilient, not a blindoptimism, not performative pain,
but a hope that holds steady inboth.
Suffering still hurts.
It still confuses.
It makes us ask God, where areyou?
And it's quite okay to ask.
God is not threatened by youraches, He meets us in them.
(20:56):
I mentioned we were gettingstarted.
Boy, this year sucks.
I mean, I that's the cleaned upSunday morning version.
It'll go down as one of thehardest years of my life.
There's been a trail, there'sbeen loss, there's been deep
pain, the kind that I know youknow.
(21:16):
It shakes you to your core andit makes you question
everything.
Some of it was personal, some ofit was physical, but all of it
has been disorienting.
There were nights I would Iwould either lay awake because I
couldn't fall asleep, or I wouldwake up having a panic attack at
(21:36):
like three in the morning, and Iwould be angry with God.
God, where were you in this?
Where are you right now?
God, what are you doing?
I wrestled with my own theology.
Now you guys know this.
I've thought about theology alot the last 20 years.
Went to school for some of thisstuff.
(21:57):
And I have built, in my ownopinion, a very rock solid
theology.
I can explain everything.
And it's very circular to me.
It all comes back and around.
But that rock solid theologythis summer didn't bring me any
peace.
It didn't bring me any comfort.
I lay in bed in the middle ofthe night and have an argument
with myself.
(22:18):
But this is what you believe.
Well, okay, well, it stillsucks.
Okay.
And yet, as I wrote the messagefor today, I realized, and it's
still a revelation to me.
So don't think I'm on the otherside of this yet.
But I see how God has not wastedany of it.
(22:39):
Now he's used every part of itand little bits and pieces and
things I wasn't aware of thatwere occurring over here and in
here, that God is using it.
And I'm kind of choosing tobelieve he's going to continue
to use it.
Through everything, what I'veseen is that he's forming
something in me better than Iwas in the past.
(23:02):
Don't get me wrong, I wouldnever ever volunteer to relive
this year again.
I thought high school were theworst four years of my life.
I'd gladly take any one of thosefour years over this one, okay?
But I can say that every emotionI've gone through, I've brought
it to God.
Anger, sadness, frustration,irritation, joy.
(23:26):
I bring it right to God.
And I think on the other side ofthis, as I'm walking away from
2025 and not planning oncelebrating 2026, but I am going
to have a funeral for 2025 ifany of you want to join me in
celebrating this year's death.
I feel more honest, I feel moregrounded, and I can positively
(23:47):
say I am more like the personGod intended me to be and who he
intends me to be today than Iwas three months ago or six
months ago or last year.
And you see, that's the paradoxof faith.
Suffering isn't the shadow sideof Christianity, it's one of the
(24:08):
ways Christ is formed in us.
It's never the goal.
Love is.
So how do we live this out?
I think first and foremost, youlisten to your own pain and to
the pain of others withoutrushing to fix it.
I know we have good intentionsand we hear something, and
something's sometimes somethingseems so obvious to us.
(24:28):
But what we learned from thispassage was that devout, godly
men lamented.
They took time.
So let us listen to our ownpain.
Let us listen to the pain ofothers without rushing in to fix
it.
We can lament, name what's lost,and trusting that God hears
(24:49):
every cry.
And it is okay to cry, it'squite healthy, as I've come to
learn over the past couple ofyears.
It is okay to cry and lament.
Take that time to grieve.
And as you do these things, asyou listen and as you lament,
let God's love move through you,turning hurt into compassion and
(25:12):
disruption into mission.
Because that's the path thatJesus walked first.
He didn't avoid the world'spain, he entered into it.
God touches the untouchable, hecarried the cross and he let
himself be broken on the crossfor love, and he still does
through us.
(25:33):
So wherever you find yourselfthis morning, whether you're in
peace or pain, whether you haveclarity or you're confused, be
encouraged and be assured.
The Spirit is forming somethingin you.
Where God has where has Godplaced you that you didn't plan
(25:56):
to be?
How can you love or serve othersthis week?
Acts 8 reminds us thatdisruption is not the end of the
story often.
It's where God begins a new one.
When life feels scattered, Godis still sending.
When things break, grace stillbuilds, and when you can't fix
what's falling apart, God'spresence becomes your teacher,
(26:19):
forming patience where youwanted control, compassion where
you wanted to have certainty.
God's presence, may I remindyou, doesn't just comfort us.
We pray for that a lot, I know.
I pray for it a lot.
God's presence also transforms.
The same spirit who scatters theearly church is still sending
(26:40):
us.
God doesn't just meet us in ourmess, he moves us through it.
His grace isn't fragile, itflourishes in the disruption.
And maybe what feels like yoursetback is actually God's
sending.
I've been planning the series for a year over a
year, and it's a real kind ofbummer for me sometimes to be
this far in advance withplanning because there's no way
I could have planned to have theyear I've been having and have
to do the series for the nextfive weeks.
I wouldn't have planned it thatway.
More on that in a little bit.
(00:23):
I know you know what it's likewhen life shifts beneath your
feet.
You thought you were standing onsomething solid.
Sometimes it's cracks and youcan see it coming.
Like you can see the floor isabout to give out.
Sometimes you have a chance tomove.
Sometimes there's not a goodoption or a place to move to.
(00:45):
And other times the floor justdrops out from under you.
You didn't see it coming.
There was no way you could haveknown it was coming.
You thought you were doing allof the right things.
It's when, like one momenteverything is just steady and
going according to the plan, therhythm that you've built.
Everything in the schedule isjust full force, clicking.
(01:06):
And then something changes.
It's a phone call or textmessage.
It's a diagnosis.
It's a friendship that quietlyfades, or maybe not so quietly
fades.
Sometimes it's the loss we neverexpected, and some of you are
very vigilant and you thinkthrough all of the things that
(01:27):
could go wrong, and yetsomething went wrong that you
never expected.
And again, other times it's thisslow realization that what once
worked so well just doesn'tanymore.
And suddenly something that youonce found security in isn't
(01:49):
secure anymore.
That's not just you, and it'snot just me, it's every person
in the room watching, listeningonline.
We all know what disruptionfeels like.
To be human in this room is toknow that pain, that suffering.
(02:09):
Sometimes it's a personalrelationship ending, a dream
falling apart, your purpose oryour sense of purpose slipping
away.
Other times it's in the realm ofcommunity.
A collective church isstretched.
We've been through that beforetogether.
It's a community or aneighborhood changing.
It's a world that shifts fasterand faster and faster, and not
(02:35):
in the direction any of us wantit to go.
It's in these moments, momentslike where you might find
yourself today, where you wonderif you've lost the plot or if
God is still writing the story.
And if you're being honest, asI've had to do this year with
(02:58):
myself, you're not sure God isdoing anything at all.
But it's in moments that feellike this, those breakdowns that
when we look at the scripture,when we look at the gospel, the
life and legacy of Jesus, we seethat the breakdowns are often
where Jesus has hisbreakthroughs in our life.
(03:23):
And I want you to consider for amoment that the disruption that
you didn't choose might be thevery space God wants to move.
And that's why we're doing thisnew series, holy disruption.
And that's what it's about.
We're continuing our long seriesthrough Acts.
We're going to Acts chapter 8,if you want to follow along
(03:46):
today, just a few verses.
But the story of Acts is aboutthe church being scattered.
And they're scattered because ofpersecution, challenges, and
trials, and all of the thingsthat you wouldn't necessarily
choose.
And it's through this chaos thatGod's spirit continues to move
and do some of the best workthat He's done in human history.
(04:08):
We start off by seeing thosefirst few chapters that the
church in Jerusalem is thriving,right?
Peter preaches a message.
People are speaking in tonguesand worshiping, and people are
being baptized.
It's like they can't keep upwith all of the church growth.
It's a good time to be abeliever by every metric.
And then all of a sudden,something changes.
(04:31):
Everything familiar vanishes.
But Acts reminds us, Luke, as hewrites, he reminds us that what
feels like disruption is Godpreparing us for what is next.
Now they couldn't see it.
Don't kid yourself.
We got the whole story.
But as they were living in it,they could relate to you, and
(04:53):
you can relate to them being inthe middle between chapter one
and chapter 28 and not knowinghow it's going to end.
But what we see, what Lukerecords, is that God sovereignly
works through disruption andsuffering to advance his mission
and to form his people, hiscommunity, his family.
(05:13):
And what looks like a collapseactually is a catalyst.
You might remember it was a fewmonths ago, but Kyle closed our
last series in Acts and he wastalking about Stephen.
And Stephen's story fills thetwo chapters before Acts 8.
So Stephen gets two chapters allto himself.
And he was chosen to serve thecommunity.
(05:34):
He was picked.
They're like, hey, you, you're aman full of faith and the Holy
Spirit.
And by every measure, theinformation we're given in Acts
is that Stephen was a very goodperson.
And yet, something very badhappened to him.
I know we say it, you know it,but let me say it again.
(05:57):
Good things happen to badpeople, and bad things happen to
good people.
It's just the way it is.
But here's where we often get itwrong, even inside the church.
Religious consolation says theremust be a reason for this.
I mean, there has to, God has tohave a plan.
Why else would this happen?
(06:18):
And so religion comes in and ittries to put an arm around you
and say, well, maybe this ormaybe that.
And we find a little bit ofpeace in that.
Well, if there was a reason forall of this bad stuff, I guess I
can be okay with it.
But Christian Revelation sayssomething different.
It doesn't put an arm around youand try to offer an explanation.
(06:39):
Instead, it provides a saviorwho walks with you and has
walked before you and will walkafter you.
It's a God who stepped intosuffering himself, not to
explain it, but to redeem it.
As Tim Keller put it, theChristian faith is the only
religion that claims God becameweak and suffered, and that that
(07:00):
suffering was a way to triumph.
It wasn't just Jesus, because wesee this in Stephen's story.
His ministry begins withcompassion, but quickly becomes
a bold proclamation.
And when his message about theliving presence of God, how God
is living among them, threatensthe religious elite at the time,
(07:20):
they accuse him of blasphemy.
Stephen reminded them that God'spresence was never confined to a
place.
It was never confined to thetemple, a church basement here
or there, but that God'spresence is everywhere.
And they hated that.
They hated that truth.
And so they killed him.
And as they were killing him,Stephen prays, Lord Jesus,
(07:43):
receive my spirit.
And don't charge them with thissin.
And what I believe Luke intendsfor you, the reader, to
understand and to make aconnection is between not just
Jesus' life and Stephen's life,but Jesus' death and Jesus'
(08:07):
death.
Both of them.
How it comes together.
The same spirit that empoweredJesus to forgive his enemies
from the cross was nowempowering Stephen to forgive
his enemies who were stoninghim.
And that is the pattern ofChrist's death.
It leads to life, it leads tomission.
It starts with Jesus and it goesto Stephen.
(08:29):
And we're going to see itcontinues to spread generation
to generation.
And Luke writes, we'reintroduced to Saul, one of the
witnesses, and he agreedcompletely with the killing of
Stephen.
Now, Saul will one day becomethe person who carries the
gospel all over the world.
(08:50):
But he begins here by endorsingthe murder of a really good
person.
It's kind of like a little teasefor a few weeks when we talk
about Saul and Paul, that Godcan redeem even the worst
beginnings.
If you find yourself here today,you know, that can never be the
things that we're talking aboutin this series or the things we
talk about week to week.
Just remember Saul, Paul.
(09:13):
No matter what's been said aboutyou or what's been done to you,
God can not just redeem thosethings, but use them for his
mission, his glory.
Luke adds after this, a greatwave of persecution began,
sweeping over the church inJerusalem, and all the believers
except the apostles werescattered through the regions of
(09:34):
Judea and Samaria.
Stephen is killed.
Everyone freaks out that that'sa really appropriate reaction to
that sort of thing happening.
The city turns against them.
So everyone is running away.
The apostles stay behind, buteveryone else, families, widows,
servants, they run for theirlives.
(09:55):
And in this, we see that thegospel is being pushed.
Not by choice necessarily, butbeing pushed into uncomfortable
places.
You see, Jesus in Acts 1 says,one day you'll be my witnesses
in all of Judea, Samaria, andthe rest of the world.
They might have been thinkinglike an executive or CEO, what's
the strategy, Jesus?
What's the operation?
(10:16):
What's the plan?
And we begin to see it here.
Well, Stephen is gonna die.
That's gonna freak a whole lotof people out.
But it's not just gonna beStephen, they're gonna try to
kill you.
And as a result of that, you aregoing to scatter and spread.
And that is how this messagewill get out.
You can see why Jesus leaves itat you will be my witnesses till
(10:38):
the end of the world, and thenzoop, flies away, right?
He's like, I'm gonna leave thatlast part out just for you to
find out.
But it must have honestly feltlike the story was over.
Jesus dies, Stephen dies,everyone around us is dying.
But what they saw as chaos,heaven sees as choreography,
(10:58):
right?
What they saw as chaos wasactually choreography.
God was already turning theirscattering into a sending.
They thought they were fleeing.
God was sending them.
The persecution that broke themapart became the moment God's
mission broke open.
And after the chaos of verse 1,Luke slows the story down.
(11:21):
Kind of a sidebar parentheseshere.
Some devout men came and buriedStephen with great mourning.
But Saul was going everywhere todestroy the church.
He went from house to house,dragging out both men and women
to throw them into prison.
In the contrast of this passage,these verses couldn't be
(11:43):
sharper.
There's reverence and there'sruin, devotion and destruction,
lament, and persecution.
This line, devout, godly menburied Stephen.
It's a quiet line, but as we'velearned, Luke is always very
(12:05):
intentional about every word heuses and how he sets up
sentences.
To the original audience readingthis, this was courage.
It was courageous.
To bury Stephen in the mourndeeply was defiance wrapped in
devotion, a public act of faithin a city that had called him a
blasphemer.
He didn't deserve a funeral.
(12:27):
And yet that's what they gavehim.
But notice here, before Lukelaunches, Stephen is killed, and
Paul's persecuting the church,and then they go off.
Luke slows down.
Because oftentimes before themission, there's mourning.
You see, because our faithdoesn't skip the funeral.
(12:53):
That's an important word for ustoday because our culture and
and a lot of times within thechurch, the Christian church, we
rush past grief.
We call it optimism, we call ittrust, we call it faith.
But sometimes what we call trustand faith is just really the
(13:13):
fear of feeling.
I don't like feeling that way,so I gotta spiritualize it.
We mistake denial for devotion.
We think that if we can juststay positive, that that's being
faithful.
But that's not faith, it'sspiritualized avoidance.
A strong faith, a mature faith,can look at the facts and not
(13:37):
shake.
A faith that has to hide fromfacts is fragile.
These godly men weren't goingaround pretending it was okay.
Oh, Stephen died, and but it'sgonna be okay.
God's about to do somethinggreat.
They bury him and then they weptloudly for him.
Guys, the the level ofsecondhand embarrassment I have
(13:59):
for them 2,000 years later iswild.
They're going around cryingloudly.
Everyone's stopping.
What are you upset about?
Well, they killed Stephen.
Oh.
And their grief, it wasn't froma lack of faith.
Devoted, godly men.
(14:20):
Their grief, their crying, thatloud weeping was evidence of the
faith.
And it's a reminder to us todaythat lament isn't weakness, it's
worship, it's prayer, it'strusting God with what hurts.
That's when Luke shifts.
Saul's continuing to destroy thechurch.
(14:42):
The Greek word he uses here isto ravage like a wild beast.
Paul's destroying the Christiancommunity.
He isn't enforcing the law, he'sdismantling lives.
He's going from house to house,invading the very spaces where
believers prayed and sharedlife.
It looked like the story wasbreaking apart to everyone who
(15:05):
was alive that day, yet, evenhere, devotion continued.
God was forming something inthem, and he forms something
through grief that comfort nevercan.
The same tears that wateredStephen's grave would soon water
the soil of mission.
(15:27):
And through it all, the spiritwas not absent, hovering above
the chaos.
The spirit was with them.
Where they went.
Luke continues in verse 4.
The believers who were scatteredpreached the good news about
Jesus wherever they went.
Three little verses today sofar.
(15:48):
One, two, and three.
Chaos.
Murder, lament, persecution.
And then Luke quickly shiftsgears.
It's jarring.
While Saul is dragging believersinto prison, verse 4 tells us
that believers are proclaimingthe message.
What looked crushed was alreadyspeaking again, louder than
(16:08):
before.
And in the original Greek, thetransitional word that Luke uses
is so then.
So then, as a result ofStephen's death, as a result of
burying him, and as a result ofour grieving, as a result of
Saul going around and ruiningpeople's lives, they proclaimed.
Again, what looked like chaoswas coordination.
(16:31):
God was already using what theenemy meant for harm to advance
his purposes.
The church wasn't now just ledby these 12 apostles, these 12
first followers of Jesus.
The church was being led byordinary Greek-speaking people.
The group once seen as secondarywas now leading the way on the
(16:53):
mission.
Just as Jesus left the glory ofheaven to dwell among us, these
believers left the security oftheir homes to bring the message
to others.
They didn't say, Here we are,and this is where we meet.
Come join us.
They went out on a search andrescue type of mission.
(17:14):
They preached the word.
Not a new message, notrebranding, not a new logo.
The same resurrection story,just carried into new places.
Luke is telling us the storycontinues.
Now, for us today, you and me,we're not fleeing from our
homes.
Paul's been dead for thousandsof years.
(17:35):
Nobody's coming to pull you outof your house and put you in
jail for praying.
But we know what it's like to bescattered.
That stuff I was talking aboutat the beginning, the
disruptions, when the groundyou're standing on starts to
shake, starts to crack, or justfalls out from under you.
We know what it's like.
Because in those moments, ourfaith is tested.
And yet we can look back atthose folks, those who were
(17:57):
driven from Jerusalem and seethat they didn't abandon the
message that they carried.
The mission shifted and changedthem.
The Spirit empowered them to dothings that they never thought
they could have done before.
What fear attempted to scatter,the Spirit sent.
Historically, the early church'sgrowth occurred despite
(18:19):
suffering.
It endured.
Author and historian RodneyStark observes crisis and
disruption became openings tothe early church, not obstacles,
became openings.
Now we'll learn about Saul in afew weeks when he meets Jesus
and how his understanding ofsuffering was turned upside
(18:41):
down.
But for today, I'm going to jumpahead a little bit.
Because one day Paul's causingsuffering.
And then the next, he's writingto a church in Philippi.
He's talking about the communionof suffering.
I want you to know Christ andexperience the mighty power that
raised him from the dead.
(19:02):
I want to suffer with him,sharing in his death.
It's the communion of suffering.
It's a community.
You're hurt, I'm hurt.
It's together.
Later, he even says, I'm gladwhen I suffer for you and my
body, for I am participating inthe sufferings of Christ that
(19:22):
continue for his body, thechurch.
Now, this isn't masochism, okay?
And I want to draw yourattention here for just a little
bit.
I want to point out that we canmisuse suffering in the same way
that in the church we can blowright by those hard feelings of
sadness and grief andover-spiritualize it.
We can do the same in the otherdirection.
(19:45):
We can deny, pretend everythingis fine, and on the other hand,
we can deify our pain andsuffering, treating it as proof
of holiness.
Look how much I'm suffering.
I must be really doing thingsright.
Now, both are distortions.
Suffering doesn't save us, Jesusdoes.
And the cross isn't a contest ofwho hurts more.
(20:08):
It's where love went all theway.
And again, I want to come backto this idea that mature faith
doesn't avoid reality, but italso doesn't romanticize pain.
That's the kind of faith thatthe world, honestly, today,
2025, going into 2026, wouldfind compelling.
A faith that is honest, a faiththat is grounded, a faith that
(20:31):
is also resilient, not a blindoptimism, not performative pain,
but a hope that holds steady inboth.
Suffering still hurts.
It still confuses.
It makes us ask God, where areyou?
And it's quite okay to ask.
God is not threatened by youraches, He meets us in them.
(20:56):
I mentioned we were gettingstarted.
Boy, this year sucks.
I mean, I that's the cleaned upSunday morning version.
It'll go down as one of thehardest years of my life.
There's been a trail, there'sbeen loss, there's been deep
pain, the kind that I know youknow.
(21:16):
It shakes you to your core andit makes you question
everything.
Some of it was personal, some ofit was physical, but all of it
has been disorienting.
There were nights I would Iwould either lay awake because I
couldn't fall asleep, or I wouldwake up having a panic attack at
(21:36):
like three in the morning, and Iwould be angry with God.
God, where were you in this?
Where are you right now?
God, what are you doing?
I wrestled with my own theology.
Now you guys know this.
I've thought about theology alot the last 20 years.
Went to school for some of thisstuff.
(21:57):
And I have built, in my ownopinion, a very rock solid
theology.
I can explain everything.
And it's very circular to me.
It all comes back and around.
But that rock solid theologythis summer didn't bring me any
peace.
It didn't bring me any comfort.
I lay in bed in the middle ofthe night and have an argument
with myself.
(22:18):
But this is what you believe.
Well, okay, well, it stillsucks.
Okay.
And yet, as I wrote the messagefor today, I realized, and it's
still a revelation to me.
So don't think I'm on the otherside of this yet.
But I see how God has not wastedany of it.
(22:39):
Now he's used every part of itand little bits and pieces and
things I wasn't aware of thatwere occurring over here and in
here, that God is using it.
And I'm kind of choosing tobelieve he's going to continue
to use it.
Through everything, what I'veseen is that he's forming
something in me better than Iwas in the past.
(23:02):
Don't get me wrong, I wouldnever ever volunteer to relive
this year again.
I thought high school were theworst four years of my life.
I'd gladly take any one of thosefour years over this one, okay?
But I can say that every emotionI've gone through, I've brought
it to God.
Anger, sadness, frustration,irritation, joy.
(23:26):
I bring it right to God.
And I think on the other side ofthis, as I'm walking away from
2025 and not planning oncelebrating 2026, but I am going
to have a funeral for 2025 ifany of you want to join me in
celebrating this year's death.
I feel more honest, I feel moregrounded, and I can positively
(23:47):
say I am more like the personGod intended me to be and who he
intends me to be today than Iwas three months ago or six
months ago or last year.
And you see, that's the paradoxof faith.
Suffering isn't the shadow sideof Christianity, it's one of the
(24:08):
ways Christ is formed in us.
It's never the goal.
Love is.
So how do we live this out?
I think first and foremost, youlisten to your own pain and to
the pain of others withoutrushing to fix it.
I know we have good intentionsand we hear something, and
something's sometimes somethingseems so obvious to us.
(24:28):
But what we learned from thispassage was that devout, godly
men lamented.
They took time.
So let us listen to our ownpain.
Let us listen to the pain ofothers without rushing in to fix
it.
We can lament, name what's lost,and trusting that God hears
(24:49):
every cry.
And it is okay to cry, it'squite healthy, as I've come to
learn over the past couple ofyears.
It is okay to cry and lament.
Take that time to grieve.
And as you do these things, asyou listen and as you lament,
let God's love move through you,turning hurt into compassion and
(25:12):
disruption into mission.
Because that's the path thatJesus walked first.
He didn't avoid the world'spain, he entered into it.
God touches the untouchable, hecarried the cross and he let
himself be broken on the crossfor love, and he still does
through us.
(25:33):
So wherever you find yourselfthis morning, whether you're in
peace or pain, whether you haveclarity or you're confused, be
encouraged and be assured.
The Spirit is forming somethingin you.
Where God has where has Godplaced you that you didn't plan
(25:56):
to be?
How can you love or serve othersthis week?
Acts 8 reminds us thatdisruption is not the end of the
story often.
It's where God begins a new one.
When life feels scattered, Godis still sending.
When things break, grace stillbuilds, and when you can't fix
what's falling apart, God'spresence becomes your teacher,
(26:19):
forming patience where youwanted control, compassion where
you wanted to have certainty.
God's presence, may I remindyou, doesn't just comfort us.
We pray for that a lot, I know.
I pray for it a lot.
God's presence also transforms.
The same spirit who scatters theearly church is still sending
(26:40):
us.
God doesn't just meet us in ourmess, he moves us through it.
His grace isn't fragile, itflourishes in the disruption.
And maybe what feels like yoursetback is actually God's
sending.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.