God Stabilizes The Scattered Church

We know about the gathered church and have only read about the scattered church. Think about the adjective “scattered”. It is the distributed or widely spaced church. It is the dispersed church. Scattered even has a negative side of being disorganized and distracted. When you look at scattered from a purely definition sense, it doesn’t fit with our understanding or comfort with what we consider as a church. When our concept is based in scripture that God does all things in decency and order, what does that say about the scattered church? 

Can there even be a scattered church existing under the shadow of Almighty God? 

Acts 8:1-25 explains that severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem All were scattered as a result of the persecution except the apostles. The believers who scattered away from Jerusalem, away from Saul went throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria. They avoided the more populated areas and moved around the countryside. In the context of this safer place, they proclaimed the Word of God to the people in those locations. These believers were scattered away from Jerusalem but they were not spiritually distracted. They moved around from place to place but they were not disorganized and distracted in the mission for God. Persecution pushed them out of Jerusalem but not off of the revelation of Jesus Christ. 

Phillip’s experiences becomes the highlight example of how God stabilizes the church when the people are forced to scatter. The town is Samaria and Philip is there preaching about Jesus. Phillip not only preaches the gospel, additionally he demonstrates the ministry of Holy Spirit with supernatural signs. The results? People are delivered from unclean spirits, physical miracles of healing occur and great joy explodes in the city. News about the city accepting the Word of God travelled back to Jerusalem. Remember that the Apostles never scattered away from Jerusalem. The apostles held steady. The apostles, by the grace of God were able to remain and hence stabilized the scattered church. 

How does God stabilize the scattered church? 

God stabilizes the foundation leaders – Apostles and Prophets. The apostles went to the new converts to stabilize them in the promise of the Father – Holy Spirit 

We are not living under the same exact persecution in Acts 8 but we are experiencing a scattering. We have experienced the church being dispersed. While some congregations have returned to the gathering locations, others haven’t and others may never gather again like they once existed. The reasons are varied but our focus is best served by asking Holy Spirit to stabilize the scattered church. 

No matter how you replay the circumstances of the 1st century church in your mind, you can’t avoid the historical record of the apostles remaining in Jerusalem. I know this point may not mean anything to most Christians but it was important for God’s church that they remain in Jerusalem. 

Can you imagine how uncertain the times were for the apostles?, Yet God had them to remain in Jerusalem. Phillip is just one example of the outcome from the scattered church but imagine the scenario happening all over the countryside of Judea and Samaria. I can only imagine how the news encouraged the apostles when it reached them in Jerusalem. From their perspective in Jerusalem, it probably looked like nothing was happening to build the Lord’s Church now that the people were scattered. But when news reached them, they knew differently. The apostles went in and out of Jerusalem supporting the new converts and making sure they had received their earthly ministry of Holy Spirit. 

Our prayer and preaching today is for the stabilization of foundational leaders and their deployment to new converts and established works and congregations. 

The ministry of Holy Spirit is needed in our lives today. His work takes away the distraction of the scattered believers. His works reveal the hearts and intentions of scattered and gathered believers. 

Scattered conditions allows wickedness in hearts to hide in plain view. 

For the sake of the ministry – God had the apostles to expose the wickedness that was attached to Phillip’s ministry. God stabilized Philip’s ministry among the scattered believers by sending the apostles to stabilize and rebuke where necessary. The good thing for Simon – he repented after the apostles rebuked him. Scripture doesn’t tell us what happens later after Simon repents but it does say they went back to Jerusalem. We can conclude that the presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit was well-established among these new converts. 

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