Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.
After Stephen's stoning severe persecution drove the believers out of Jerusalem throughout Judea and Samaria, and those who were scattered went everywhere telling the good news and winning converts wherever they went. God allowed this scattering because after Pentecost the believers had lingered in Jerusalem to guard the church and were in danger of settling in satisfied indifference instead of working for those who had not heard. They did not stay in their own country but went into many parts of the world preaching salvation through Christ and His resurrection with bold missionary zeal, and the Lord worked with them with healing and signs so that many believed. Those who did this work were not ministers and were not ordained, showing that humble ordinary believers moved by love for Christ can carry the work into other places and raise up new churches as well as ministers can. The same teaching calls believers now not to crowd together in a few centers and large buildings but to scatter and live as missionaries among towns and villages, and when persecution comes to move from place to place until the work is finished.
Persecution and Scattering Context
After Stephen's stoning in A.D. 34, severe persecution scattered the believers from Jerusalem throughout Judea and Samaria. Saul's imprisoning of believers and support for putting them to death show how severe that persecution was. As the disciples fled they preached the word wherever they went. Their preaching followed the Jewish people's final rejection of the gospel and marked its spread beyond the Jews toward the wider world and the Gentiles, helping prepare for that wider spread, with Saul's conversion and later work as apostle to the Gentiles following shortly afterward.
Those driven from Jerusalem carried the word with them and preached wherever they went. In cities they entered, such as Damascus, the new faith gained converts, indeed many converts. Instead of suppressing the gospel, the bitter persecution stirred up by Saul after Stephen's death spread it, proving that every effort to put down the new religion only increased its strength.
Believers scattered by the persecution in Jerusalem carried the message of Christ wherever they went, preaching beyond Jerusalem in the surrounding cities. Converts who left Jerusalem carried the truth to their homes. They spread it among different nations and classes of society, including both Hebrew and Greek Jews, with the Lord accompanying their work so that many believed and turned to Him.
The scattering forced believers to flee their homes and brought them into great trial of affliction and deep poverty, with some coming even as far as Macedonia. Yet even in those straits they spread the message wherever they went. With love and zeal for Christ they sacrificed greatly, risked their lives and suffered the loss of all things for the truth, and their preaching raised up new churches, some of them Gentile churches. Though very poor, their poverty abounded in generous giving, for later, when famine came to Jerusalem as prophesied, these scattered and impoverished believers gave beyond their ability and power to feed those suffering there.
God's Providential Purpose
God permitted persecution to scatter His representatives abroad so that they would work for others, because after Pentecost they lingered in Jerusalem to shield the new members from the enemy and to protect the church. They had been commanded to remain in Jerusalem for a time, but God did not desire them to settle there permanently, yet many stayed because they thought the city must be made a great center for their work. They were in danger of being satisfied with what had been accomplished and of settling down in satisfied indifference, instead of educating the new converts to become workers together with God in carrying the gospel to those who had not heard it. After Stephen and several others died for their faith the church members were scattered, and the gospel was then proclaimed with power in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
They had not realized that strength to resist temptation is best gained by active service for others. The scattering redirected them from guarding the church in one place to laboring for the unreached who had not heard salvation through Christ. As they went everywhere preaching, they brought to decision many who had lacked courage and determination to walk in the light they had seen. Their scattering spread the gospel beyond Jerusalem and began fulfilling the prediction that His followers would witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.
God permitted the conditions that drove His people out in New Testament times as He also did in Old Testament times, so that the light might shine in new places. His people are to spread the truth in new places, and if they will not go willingly to spread it, He may scatter them.
Preaching the Word Everywhere
They did not remain in Jerusalem or in the cities nearby or even in their own country, but went beyond into many parts of the world and along the great thoroughfares and major routes of travel. There they opened the Scriptures to men and women, called them to repentance, and sought the lost sheep to bring them to the fold and to God. Their dispersion in this way fulfilled the mission to preach throughout the world and shows that the work is not to remain confined to one place or to a few localities but to reach people where they are.
Their message was salvation through Christ as the bread of life for a spiritually hungry world in need, telling of Christ and His resurrection from the dead. They carried it with living faith in a risen Saviour and without fanaticism, traveling constantly to present truth to as many as possible rather than confining labor to one place. They were compelled by Christ’s love and by His command to teach all nations, and those who hear the word are not only to practise it but to communicate it to others.
They spoke boldly the truths of the gospel with missionary zeal, and that preaching was the great power of God in the conversion of many souls. The Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by signs following: the sick were healed and the poor had the gospel preached to them. Many believed and turned to Him, and thousands were converted.
They did not limit the work to any class of people or place, but proclaimed the message everywhere through ordinary humble believers telling others what they had learned. Despite fierce opposition, the gospel of the kingdom was in a short time sounded to all the inhabited parts of the earth. In the providence of God great multitudes had been gathered at Jerusalem, many were converted there, and returning to their homes they carried the news to every place, while believers driven from country to country carried the gospel to the dark places of the earth and new churches were raised up.
Preaching everywhere included Spirit-led mission to even one soul, for the Spirit waits to enlighten souls and convert them to the truth. So Philip was directed by the angel and the Spirit to arise and go to the desert way from Jerusalem to Gaza and join the Ethiopian eunuch, a man of great authority returning from worship at Jerusalem and reading Esaias the prophet without understanding. He represents a large class who read the Scriptures and cannot understand their import, and those who have a knowledge of God must hear the voice of God, go where He sends them, explain His Word to such souls, and preach Jesus from the same scripture, with neglect of this work bringing judgment. That same everywhere work means teaching the truth from the Bible from house to house by Bible readings, which starts interest and brings people to decide to obey even where churchgoers, members, teachers and ministers oppose, warn the people, and try to make the truth of God of none effect, carried forward by few workers with limited means and plain living and with much labor.
Those who were scattered and preaching were not ministers and were not ordained. Men who fear God but are not ministers can therefore take hold of the work in other countries, and many of them can do just as much and just as well as ministers. Men who go out with the burden of the work to bring souls into the truth are ordained of God even if they never receive the ceremony of ordination, and as souls are raised up through their preaching they may baptize them themselves when no ordained minister is in reach.
Prophecy and Wider Mission
The stoning of Stephen in A.D. 34 was followed by persecution that scattered the disciples from Jerusalem, and wherever they fled they carried the gospel and preached the word. That scattering came after the final rejection of the gospel by the Jewish people as a nation. It marked the turning of the message beyond the Jews and beyond its earlier special focus upon them, out toward the wider world and to the Gentiles. Philip's preaching in Samaria stands as one example of that outward movement.
In going beyond Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria and farther, the scattered believers began fulfilling Jesus' prediction that His followers would be witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and unto the ends of the earth. Their dispersion fulfilled the mission to preach throughout the world and shows that God's people are not to remain concentrated in one place.
Shortly after this scattering and preaching, Saul was converted and afterward labored as apostle to the Gentiles.
Pattern in Later History
As in apostolic times, persecution scattered believers from Paris and Meaux into other places, where they continued preaching the word, and their dispersal carried the gospel into many remote provinces of France. Persecution scattered believers but did not stop their work or silence their witness. Wherever they went they preached, and the persecution itself helped spread and extend the truth. Even the deaths of thousands did not prevent the work from going on.
The same pattern appeared when persecuted English believers were driven from their homes and some crossed the ocean to America, spreading their testimony and helping establish religious liberty. Those driven from their homes continued preaching wherever they went. This is illustrated by John Bunyan, whose imprisonment in Bedford became an occasion for writing works that guided many people into the path of life.
Present Missionary Application
The verse shows the true fruit of receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, for those who receive it share the light received and use spiritual blessings to carry the message beyond one place. Those who hear the word are responsible not only to practise it but also to communicate it to others. Going forth in the same way now without the camp bearing reproach for Christ receives rich blessing from on high.
Believers are not to crowd together in ever larger buildings and institutions, in companies in a few places, or in one center. Overgrown centers and present influences of association are to be broken up, and believers are to scatter into different places and plant truth in cities and unworked and neglected fields, leaving places where truth is already known. This active going gives far greater knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ than staying to educate believers or seeking the education of the schools, and gains a different experience.
God's people are to live scattered among towns, cities, and villages rather than gathered in large communities. There they serve as His representatives and missionaries, whose faith and works shine as lights testifying that the Saviour's coming is near.
The verse means division and subdivision: missionary work is to be commenced in several places, efforts merged in one city and then divided to enter the next, so that several cities are worked at once. The work is to go into unworked places, establish small schools that prepare workers by taking them along to instruct in different lines, put up only unpretentious buildings, dispense books and papers with simple Bible lessons, and unite physicians with gospel ministers in humble diligent labor. Methods are to be devised for meeting people where they are, labor is not to be confined to one place but to reach people where they are and along the great thoroughfares of travel, and the work of the canvasser is to be united with that of the missionary evangelist to learn more practical lessons than can be learned in school. Where this spreading is done with earnest effort and self-surrender to God, the Holy Spirit cooperates, the truth becomes a power, and thousands are converted who will then work for other souls.
More experienced laborers ought to take hold of the work in the large cities, while lay workers labor in the surrounding fields using their experience as best they can. God does not rest His work on a few ministers, and those who fear God but are not ministers can take hold of the work in other countries and do just as much and as well as ministers. Workers must therefore be trained in close connection with ministerial labor, with their talents appreciated and taught how to be used so the light can shine everywhere.
When persecution becomes severe in one place workers should move to another, and then to another, and God will lead them to be a blessing in many places. Persecution drives truth far more widely than it otherwise would be proclaimed and opens new places for evangelistic work. This scattering continues as long as probation lasts, even when religious denominations unite with the papacy to oppress, with places of religious freedom opened by evangelistic canvassing, and there will still be places to labor and hearts to receive the message until heaven declares the work finished.
The example applies now by laboring with prayer and faith with an eye single to God's glory and taking God at His Word, without diverting minds from Jesus to the hindering of the message. Favorable positions are to be seized to bring truth before large congregations. Friends and neighbors are to be warned of the nearness of Christ's coming and urged to prepare to meet the Saviour, under accountability in the great day of judgment for failure to warn them. In one application this required moving the General Conference offices and the publishing work from Battle Creek and establishing them in an entirely new place.
After Stephen's stoning severe persecution drove the believers out of Jerusalem throughout Judea and Samaria, and those who were scattered went everywhere telling the good news and winning converts wherever they went.
God allowed this scattering because after Pentecost the believers had lingered in Jerusalem to guard the church and were in danger of settling in satisfied indifference instead of working for those who had not heard.
They did not stay in their own country but went into many parts of the world preaching salvation through Christ and His resurrection with bold missionary zeal, and the Lord worked with them with healing and signs so that many believed.
Those who did this work were not ministers and were not ordained, showing that humble ordinary believers moved by love for Christ can carry the work into other places and raise up new churches as well as ministers can.
The same teaching calls believers now not to crowd together in a few centers and large buildings but to scatter and live as missionaries among towns and villages, and when persecution comes to move from place to place until the work is finished.
Persecution and Scattering Context
After Stephen's stoning in A.D. 34, severe persecution scattered the believers from Jerusalem throughout Judea and Samaria. Saul's imprisoning of believers and support for putting them to death show how severe that persecution was. As the disciples fled they preached the word wherever they went. Their preaching followed the Jewish people's final rejection of the gospel and marked its spread beyond the Jews toward the wider world and the Gentiles, helping prepare for that wider spread, with Saul's conversion and later work as apostle to the Gentiles following shortly afterward.
Those driven from Jerusalem carried the word with them and preached wherever they went. In cities they entered, such as Damascus, the new faith gained converts, indeed many converts. Instead of suppressing the gospel, the bitter persecution stirred up by Saul after Stephen's death spread it, proving that every effort to put down the new religion only increased its strength.
Believers scattered by the persecution in Jerusalem carried the message of Christ wherever they went, preaching beyond Jerusalem in the surrounding cities. Converts who left Jerusalem carried the truth to their homes. They spread it among different nations and classes of society, including both Hebrew and Greek Jews, with the Lord accompanying their work so that many believed and turned to Him.
The scattering forced believers to flee their homes and brought them into great trial of affliction and deep poverty, with some coming even as far as Macedonia. Yet even in those straits they spread the message wherever they went. With love and zeal for Christ they sacrificed greatly, risked their lives and suffered the loss of all things for the truth, and their preaching raised up new churches, some of them Gentile churches. Though very poor, their poverty abounded in generous giving, for later, when famine came to Jerusalem as prophesied, these scattered and impoverished believers gave beyond their ability and power to feed those suffering there.
God's Providential Purpose
God permitted persecution to scatter His representatives abroad so that they would work for others, because after Pentecost they lingered in Jerusalem to shield the new members from the enemy and to protect the church. They had been commanded to remain in Jerusalem for a time, but God did not desire them to settle there permanently, yet many stayed because they thought the city must be made a great center for their work. They were in danger of being satisfied with what had been accomplished and of settling down in satisfied indifference, instead of educating the new converts to become workers together with God in carrying the gospel to those who had not heard it. After Stephen and several others died for their faith the church members were scattered, and the gospel was then proclaimed with power in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
They had not realized that strength to resist temptation is best gained by active service for others. The scattering redirected them from guarding the church in one place to laboring for the unreached who had not heard salvation through Christ. As they went everywhere preaching, they brought to decision many who had lacked courage and determination to walk in the light they had seen. Their scattering spread the gospel beyond Jerusalem and began fulfilling the prediction that His followers would witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.
God permitted the conditions that drove His people out in New Testament times as He also did in Old Testament times, so that the light might shine in new places. His people are to spread the truth in new places, and if they will not go willingly to spread it, He may scatter them.
Preaching the Word Everywhere
They did not remain in Jerusalem or in the cities nearby or even in their own country, but went beyond into many parts of the world and along the great thoroughfares and major routes of travel. There they opened the Scriptures to men and women, called them to repentance, and sought the lost sheep to bring them to the fold and to God. Their dispersion in this way fulfilled the mission to preach throughout the world and shows that the work is not to remain confined to one place or to a few localities but to reach people where they are.
Their message was salvation through Christ as the bread of life for a spiritually hungry world in need, telling of Christ and His resurrection from the dead. They carried it with living faith in a risen Saviour and without fanaticism, traveling constantly to present truth to as many as possible rather than confining labor to one place. They were compelled by Christ’s love and by His command to teach all nations, and those who hear the word are not only to practise it but to communicate it to others.
They spoke boldly the truths of the gospel with missionary zeal, and that preaching was the great power of God in the conversion of many souls. The Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by signs following: the sick were healed and the poor had the gospel preached to them. Many believed and turned to Him, and thousands were converted.
They did not limit the work to any class of people or place, but proclaimed the message everywhere through ordinary humble believers telling others what they had learned. Despite fierce opposition, the gospel of the kingdom was in a short time sounded to all the inhabited parts of the earth. In the providence of God great multitudes had been gathered at Jerusalem, many were converted there, and returning to their homes they carried the news to every place, while believers driven from country to country carried the gospel to the dark places of the earth and new churches were raised up.
Preaching everywhere included Spirit-led mission to even one soul, for the Spirit waits to enlighten souls and convert them to the truth. So Philip was directed by the angel and the Spirit to arise and go to the desert way from Jerusalem to Gaza and join the Ethiopian eunuch, a man of great authority returning from worship at Jerusalem and reading Esaias the prophet without understanding. He represents a large class who read the Scriptures and cannot understand their import, and those who have a knowledge of God must hear the voice of God, go where He sends them, explain His Word to such souls, and preach Jesus from the same scripture, with neglect of this work bringing judgment. That same everywhere work means teaching the truth from the Bible from house to house by Bible readings, which starts interest and brings people to decide to obey even where churchgoers, members, teachers and ministers oppose, warn the people, and try to make the truth of God of none effect, carried forward by few workers with limited means and plain living and with much labor.
Those who were scattered and preaching were not ministers and were not ordained. Men who fear God but are not ministers can therefore take hold of the work in other countries, and many of them can do just as much and just as well as ministers. Men who go out with the burden of the work to bring souls into the truth are ordained of God even if they never receive the ceremony of ordination, and as souls are raised up through their preaching they may baptize them themselves when no ordained minister is in reach.
Prophecy and Wider Mission
The stoning of Stephen in A.D. 34 was followed by persecution that scattered the disciples from Jerusalem, and wherever they fled they carried the gospel and preached the word. That scattering came after the final rejection of the gospel by the Jewish people as a nation. It marked the turning of the message beyond the Jews and beyond its earlier special focus upon them, out toward the wider world and to the Gentiles. Philip's preaching in Samaria stands as one example of that outward movement.
In going beyond Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria and farther, the scattered believers began fulfilling Jesus' prediction that His followers would be witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and unto the ends of the earth. Their dispersion fulfilled the mission to preach throughout the world and shows that God's people are not to remain concentrated in one place.
Shortly after this scattering and preaching, Saul was converted and afterward labored as apostle to the Gentiles.
Pattern in Later History
As in apostolic times, persecution scattered believers from Paris and Meaux into other places, where they continued preaching the word, and their dispersal carried the gospel into many remote provinces of France. Persecution scattered believers but did not stop their work or silence their witness. Wherever they went they preached, and the persecution itself helped spread and extend the truth. Even the deaths of thousands did not prevent the work from going on.
The same pattern appeared when persecuted English believers were driven from their homes and some crossed the ocean to America, spreading their testimony and helping establish religious liberty. Those driven from their homes continued preaching wherever they went. This is illustrated by John Bunyan, whose imprisonment in Bedford became an occasion for writing works that guided many people into the path of life.
Present Missionary Application
The verse shows the true fruit of receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, for those who receive it share the light received and use spiritual blessings to carry the message beyond one place. Those who hear the word are responsible not only to practise it but also to communicate it to others. Going forth in the same way now without the camp bearing reproach for Christ receives rich blessing from on high.
Believers are not to crowd together in ever larger buildings and institutions, in companies in a few places, or in one center. Overgrown centers and present influences of association are to be broken up, and believers are to scatter into different places and plant truth in cities and unworked and neglected fields, leaving places where truth is already known. This active going gives far greater knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ than staying to educate believers or seeking the education of the schools, and gains a different experience.
God's people are to live scattered among towns, cities, and villages rather than gathered in large communities. There they serve as His representatives and missionaries, whose faith and works shine as lights testifying that the Saviour's coming is near.
The verse means division and subdivision: missionary work is to be commenced in several places, efforts merged in one city and then divided to enter the next, so that several cities are worked at once. The work is to go into unworked places, establish small schools that prepare workers by taking them along to instruct in different lines, put up only unpretentious buildings, dispense books and papers with simple Bible lessons, and unite physicians with gospel ministers in humble diligent labor. Methods are to be devised for meeting people where they are, labor is not to be confined to one place but to reach people where they are and along the great thoroughfares of travel, and the work of the canvasser is to be united with that of the missionary evangelist to learn more practical lessons than can be learned in school. Where this spreading is done with earnest effort and self-surrender to God, the Holy Spirit cooperates, the truth becomes a power, and thousands are converted who will then work for other souls.
More experienced laborers ought to take hold of the work in the large cities, while lay workers labor in the surrounding fields using their experience as best they can. God does not rest His work on a few ministers, and those who fear God but are not ministers can take hold of the work in other countries and do just as much and as well as ministers. Workers must therefore be trained in close connection with ministerial labor, with their talents appreciated and taught how to be used so the light can shine everywhere.
When persecution becomes severe in one place workers should move to another, and then to another, and God will lead them to be a blessing in many places. Persecution drives truth far more widely than it otherwise would be proclaimed and opens new places for evangelistic work. This scattering continues as long as probation lasts, even when religious denominations unite with the papacy to oppress, with places of religious freedom opened by evangelistic canvassing, and there will still be places to labor and hearts to receive the message until heaven declares the work finished.
The example applies now by laboring with prayer and faith with an eye single to God's glory and taking God at His Word, without diverting minds from Jesus to the hindering of the message. Favorable positions are to be seized to bring truth before large congregations. Friends and neighbors are to be warned of the nearness of Christ's coming and urged to prepare to meet the Saviour, under accountability in the great day of judgment for failure to warn them. In one application this required moving the General Conference offices and the publishing work from Battle Creek and establishing them in an entirely new place.