A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem, and all the believers except the apostles fled into Judea and Samaria. (Acts 8:1)
Revival and Persecution arrive together. What caused the early Church to expand beyond Jerusalem? How did this Pentecostal Fire spread throughout the Roman Empire, and 2000 years later reach you and I? After the stoning and martyrdom of Stephen, the early believers who had fled Jerusalem, went everywhere preaching the Gospel; and everywhere they went, crowds listened intently and were saved. Out of persecution came great joy! (Acts 8.1-8.)
Recently, my attention was drawn to the persecution of the Early Church, and to the martyrdom of Stephen – the first Christian martyr. Looking back into his story in Acts 6, I realised this is only shortly after the Day of Pentecost and Peter’s first sermon in Acts 2; followed in Acts 3 and 4 by the miraculous healing of the cripple at the Temple Gate and the ensuing persecution of the Apostles by the religious Temple authorities, and the command not to preach in the Name of Jesus; their defiance of this; in Acts 5 we see the growth of the Church, the re-arrest of Peter and John, and their miraculous release from the prison, being commanded by the Angel to return to the Temple to preach Christ; their re-arrest again, being beaten by the authorities and commanded again not to preach Christ, and the continued growth of the Church in Acts 6…
In Acts 6:6ff, seven men are brought before the Apostles who laid hands on them – and immediately the Word of God increased and the number of disciples multiplied greatly, and a great company of the Jewish priests were obedient to the faith! Stephen, full of faith and the Power of the Holy Spirit, did great wonders and miracles among the people! Not just the Apostles working miracles, but for the first time, we clearly see one of the other men, appointed simply to be an administrator, so powerfully filled with the Holy Spirit and with faith, that he did great wonders and miracles among the people!
What an example! This is a tremendous challenge! Too many people look at the miracles in the Bible and say, “Oh, that only happened in the Bible, with the Twelve Apostles. But no! Even Stephen, who had been set apart and anointed for a ‘secular’ ministry, is so full of faith and the Power of the Holy Spirit that he did great wonders and miracles!
And what happened to Stephen as a result? By the end of Acts chapter 7, Stephen was martyred. But this was not the end of the Church, as one might suppose it could be. Rather, it was the catalyst to the greatest growth in the early Church (Acts 8:1-8).
Yes, I know, the Church began in revival on the Day of Pentecost. And yes, I know we’re believing for another revival, another spiritual awakening. In the recent years of my ministry, I’ve seen Holy Ghost Revival. What else can you call what’s happening in Ukraine when all the denominations unite to pray for their nation? I saw revival in Hungary in the late 1980s; I saw revival sweep across Bulgaria in the early 1990s, from one side to the other. I’ve experienced the Power of God. I LIVE in revival! It’s burning within me with a passion, an intensity. I live in revival. But here, in Acts 7, we see persecution. I believe we are going to see in certain areas a massive revival, but at the same time we cannot deny the fact that there will also be massive persecution. And the nearer we get to the coming of the Lord, I believe we have to strengthen ourselves – like Stephen did, fill of faith and the Holy Spirit! So that when that persecution comes, we will stand strong in the face of it, even if it means death and martyrdom. Yes.
The greater the persecution, the greater responsibility we have to go everywhere and preach the Word. That’s what I am doing in the last years of my life, I’m preaching to the unreached!
In Luke 14, Jesus spoke about a wedding feast. All the preparation was made. The official guests had been invited. But when it came to the time of the wedding, the invited guests all made excuses not to come. The master commanded his servants to go out into the streets of the city and bring in the poor, the maimed, the crippled, the blind. And when the house still wasn’t filled, he sent them out again, saying, "Go out into the highways and byways and compel them to come in!"
We have to fill the Kingdom! I believe in these Last Days the revival we’re going to see is the Gospel of Jesus Christ going out to the poor, the deprived, the war torn; the Kingdom of God will be filled with these people.