Witness in Judea and Samaria
8:5 to 11:18
34-42 AD
On Sunday, January 8, 1956, on the shore of a lonely river deep in the Ecuadorian jungle, five missionaries were murdered by primitive Auca Indians. News of the massacre shocked the world. To some, their deaths seemed a senseless tragedy. Many decried the promising missionary careers cut short, the five wives grieving for their husbands, and the children left fatherless. At first glance, like Stephen’s death, it seemed so pointless.
More than pointless, Stephen’s ministry seemed to have ended in failure. Not only was he killed as a heretic, but his death also triggered the first persecution against the entire Messianic community. That persecution, spearheaded by Sha’ul of Tarsus, scattered the large numbers of Hellenistic believers and probably many Jewish believers as well. But in the final analysis, the persecution that seemed to be so negative, was really a positive factor. It led to the first great missionary outreach by early believers. The Adversary’s attempt to stamp out the fire of the early Messianic community, merely scattered the members and started new fires around the world. In the words of the early Church Father Tertullian, “The blood of the martyrs became the seed of the Church.”
The Messianic communities first missionary effort, which begins in these chapters, was foreshadowed by Chapter 5, when people form the cities near Jerusalem brought their sick for the apostles to be healed (5:16). Stephen’s outreach to Hellenistic Jews, those from foreign lands, was a step in the right direction. These chapters mark another turning point. Jerusalem, which has dominated the story line up to this point, begins to settle into the background, illustrating the truth that opportunity ignored is opportunity lost.168
Yeshua Messiah had given Peter the keys to the kingdom (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Fx – On This Rock I Will Build My Church), and he would be responsible for bringing the three known ethnic groups of his day into the kingdom of God. We have already seen his opening the door to salvation for the Jews on the festival of Shavu’ot (see An – Peter Speaks to the Shavu’ot Crowd). Next, in Chapter Eight, Peter will open the door to salvation for the Samaritans (see Ba – Simon the Sorcerer), and finally in Chapter Ten, Peter will open the door to salvation to the Gentiles (see Bg – Peter Goes to the House of Cornelius). The Messianic Community/Church will continue to grow, but the explosive days of the miracles of the apostles will fade into the background. Paul wrote that the gospel came first to the Jew and then to the Gentile (Romans 1:16). The murder of Stephen almost surely fixed a point of the gospel’s final rejection by the Sanhedrin, and ADONAI’s design for the Good News to move out into new territory began.
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