Article 2018-05 Kingdom Extension: From Jerusalem to Africa
Chapter 44: Kingdom Extension: From Jerusalem to Africa
Introduction
The Lord of the harvest keeps a close eye on the church’s mission activities. Persecution was one of His corrective tools to increase missions. This did not paralyze the believers, it rather activated them. God’s solutions in the midst of suffering work miracles. One was that now the barrier from urban to rural people was crossed; another that the ‘leaven’ of Jerusalem’s Christianity now spread through the whole country. A layman, not an ‘official’ apostle, became the first cross-cultural missionary and so, Philip (the deacon) imitated Jesus Who also went to the Jews first and then to the Samaritans. Philip did mass-evangelism and personal evangelism. Occasionally God even turns a church-hater into a missionary, and a Gentile-avoiding Jewish rabbi into a missionary to Gentiles.
Scripture reference
Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. So there was great joy in that city (Acts 8:4-8)
The story
Stephen was the first to pay with his blood for Christ’s sake. His death had great results and led to the extension of God’s Kingdom, far beyond its borders at the time of his death. The time had now come for the gospel to be planted in the hearts of many outside Jerusalem. After Pentecost some Jews took the message to the nations from where they came. After Stephen’s death the Holy Spirit took back more enemy territory.
Until then God’s ministers were all Jews, with almost no experience in contacts with Gentiles. Most of them learned no languages and their rigid, legalistic habits prevented them from contacting Gentiles voluntarily, neither did they send other people. Then God called other ministers. The first was Stephen’s colleague-deacon Philip. Philip set aside his Jewish cultural and religious biases to go to Samaria. Later he reached an Ethiopean.
Then God called another zealous man, who made the Gentile peoples his major business. He traveled much and suffered a lot for Christ’s name. His ambition was to spread the gospel where it was unknown. His name became known in all the world and his influence lasted over the entire church era. Eventually he died a martyr. That man, Saul of Tarsus, now still persecuted the church, but soon became the new cross-cultural missionary to the Gentiles. He brought about a breakthrough in Gentile missions, and encouraged a large team of disciples to work with him. He became a missionary, a missionary recruiter and a church mobilizer, apart from his evangelistic and church-planting ministry.
Scripture reference
But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man [Saul] is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name” (Acts 9:15,16)
The story, continued
At the same time, the Holy Spirit carried out other objectives. He taught the Jewish missionaries a lesson and simultaneously spread the gospel to some Gentiles who lived among the Jews. That opened their eyes more for the hard to grasp all-nations concept. The recipient of that blessing was Cornelius, a Roman commander. But before he could be blessed, Peter needed to be stretched further in his beliefs. He had to be liberated from his narrow-mindedness! After that he had to convince the church in Jerusalem. Its rigidity was not the best breeding place for cross-cultural missions.
The persecution, initiated by the stoning of Stephen, chased many Jerusalem believers into the Judean countryside. None of them could keep the good news of Jesus for himself, and so the gospel was scattered all over the province, like seed over a ploughed field. There were no problems with the language; these were urban Jews witnessing to rural ones. It was the simple one-to-one evangelism of ordinary people.
Stephen had not been the only deacon who practiced apostolic ministry as a layman. His colleague Philip (the deacon) made good use of the necessity to flee Jerusalem. He didn’t belong to the professional clergy who had been trained by Jesus personally.
He was the first to carry the gospel to the Samaritans. This hadn’t been done since Jesus initiated Samaritan outreach to Sychar, when He spoke to the woman at the well. Philip hadn’t been there, but he’d heard the stories and since Jesus also spoke about Samaria, he figured that a follow-up outreach was within the divine mission plan. The Lord blessed his ministry richly. Many believed in Jesus, people were healed and liberated from demons. Even Simon, a sorcerer, believed and was baptized with many others.
Scripture reference
When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14,15)
The story, continued
Then Peter and John arrived. They had heard that God’s Word was well received among those, they used to despise. They met Philip and rejoiced in his success. That day most citizens gathered on the town square to listen to the apostles. After ministering the Word, Peter and John prayed that the Samaritans might receive the Holy Spirit – which happened in a way that deeply touched the hearts of all who were present. And so, the leaders of the Jerusalem church became part of this cross-cultural mission to Samaria.
Then they separated. Peter and John went back to Jerusalem, so impressed with the openness for the gospel among the Samaritans, that they decided to preach in all the villages they came across.
Scripture reference
Now an angel of he Lord said to Phillip, “Go south to the road … that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out and on his way he met an Ethiopian … This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship and on his way home was … reading the book Isaiah … The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near to it (Acts 8:26-29)
Philip received another commission from the Spirit, allowing him to take the gospel a step further still. He was led to the road from Jerusalem to Gaza where he met an Ethiopian, who had visited Jerusalem to meet Israel’s God. He thought he hadn’t met Him, but he did find the book of the prophet Isaiah. He read much but couldn’t figure out what it meant. At that moment Philip ran up to his carriage, asking whether he understood what he read. The African told Philip that he didn’t and invited our brother to join him and explain the old words – which Philip gladly did. After that it wasn’t long before the black man repented and was baptized by Philip. He continued his journey with great joy; one of the first to carry the gospel from Jerusalem to Africa. Now he knew he’d met the God of Israel, in His Son Jesus Christ.
Philip was miraculously picked up by the Spirit and put down at Judea’s south coast, from where he evangelized villages and cities, heading north. He became the first disciple to go the whole way of world missions.
Comment
Throughout church- and missions history the principle applied, as Martin Luther worded it, that ‘the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church’. Persecution and suffering always generated growth. On a collective level it meant numerical growth; on an individual level it meant growth in spiritual depth and quality. The twentieth century showed striking examples of this principle: the church in China and Sudan are a point in case; many other countries can be mentioned as well.
The heavy persecution in Jerusalem opened areas up for the gospel, where it had hardly penetrated before. The suffering of the Jerusalem saints caused a tremendous forward thrust of the gospel into Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth. Paul’s willingness to suffer for the gospel made it spread through many countries. Thousands like him took it to the rest of the world. Now is the time for huge missionary offensives to the remaining unreached and least-reached people groups.
Persecuted Christians sometimes keep quiet because they are scared of the consequences if they witness. This was not the case with the Jerusalem believers who had to flee their city; they proclaimed the gospel boldly in the Judean villages where they found themselves. So, the opposite of what the persecutors meant, happened: instead of eradicating the gospel they became instrumental in spreading it. All through history persecutors would make the same ‘mistake’.
It is significant that gospel outreach started in a city before it spread to the countryside. Cities are more influential, they host a larger variety of people and usually possess more material resources, enabling to creatively distribute the gospel message. City people are usually better respected among the rural population of a country than vice versa, and therefore have more credibility.
What happens in the capital city of a country influences the rest of that country sooner or later. A country’s capital city is like the head of a body: the head decides upon actions that will be followed by the rest of the body. The Capital has an example function. When Jesus cried about Jerusalem, He cried over the whole country’s unwillingness to accept His Salvation.
It is remarkable that a layman takes the lead in exploring new ways of outreach, namely cross-cultural missions instead of (only) mono-cultural local evangelism. This should free Christ’s ministers from the fear of insufficient training or lack of professionalism. The official apostles were allowed to apply the finishing touch, but had forfeited their chance to be the first to engage in pioneer-ministry.
The most important properties of lay-ministers are still that they should be ‘of good and attested character and repute, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom’.
Philip first ministered successfully among Jews, before he was sent out (or should we say ‘kicked out’?) to the Samaritans. We must remember that we will only succeed abroad in what we can do well at home, within the confines of our own culture. If you can not plant a church in your own country, what makes you think you can do it in another country?
There is no ‘right’ way of doing evangelism. There is a place for the personal, one-to-one testimony to friends, family or acquaintances, as there is for large gatherings of people to hear the gospel. What is most effective depends largely on the cultural make-up of a people group. In all cases, the guidance of the Holy Spirit is indispensable.
Discussion & dialogue
- Discuss what remaining unreached or least-reached people group your church can send missionaries to, starting with those who have no known believers. The larger these people groups are, the more strategic they are!
- Discuss how your church can take the gospel a step further than it has until now. Do you have to move from city to countryside? Establish a beach-head in a new city? Move from mono-cultural evangelism to cross-cultural missions?
