The Essential Question (Part 4): The Good News Changes LivesSample

The B-List Apostle

Prepare: Think of a time when you faced difficulties or disasters in your life. What did you learn about God from the experience?

Read: Acts 8:1b-25

Reflect: In this reading, we come to another turning point in the book of Acts: widespread persecution. So far we've seen increasing resistance to the growth of the church, but after Stephen's martyrdom "a great persecution" broke out (8:1). Luke even introduces a kind of Darth Vader character into his narrative: Saul, the destroyer of the church (8:3).

But as we soon find out, God was planning to use what seemed like a disaster to accomplish a bigger plan. The persecution scattered the believers, so the good news began to spread, like dandelion seeds blown by the wind. It's helpful when we face difficulties and disasters in our lives today to remember that God can still use them to accomplish things we can't imagine. Sometimes we can only see what God is up to by looking back.

Imagine how perplexed the apostles must have been with God's plan. Jesus spent three years convincing them he was the promised Messiah, but God let him get crucified. Jesus miraculously came back to life, but God took him away after only a few weeks. The Spirit was poured out and the church began to grow, but God let the religious establishment bust it apart before it got going. What kind of plan is that?

What the apostles couldn't fully see is that God's plan wasn't to make one local church; instead, he was building one universal church. Persecution was his way of turbocharging the spread of the good news to "the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). Sometimes serving God requires us to let go of a good thing we have in order to receive a better thing he has.

The passage next zooms in on one of the scattered believers. I've always been intrigued by Philip. He wasn't a "franchise player" like Peter or John, who attracted all the attention. Even so, Philip was a gifted follower of Christ who had a strategic role in spreading the church to Samaria and Africa. Over and over again, the Bible shows us that God seems to prefer "B-list players," those who don't look like superstars, to do his work (Hebrews 11:32-40).

Simon the sorcerer totally missed that point. Although he seems to have made a genuine faith commitment (8:13), he longed for A-list status more than he sought a heart for God, and it prevented him from facing the sin patterns in his life (8:9, 23). Simon was initially drawn to Christ by signs and wonders, which God often uses to advance his kingdom. But he needed a solid grounding in God's Word and a Christian mentor to disciple him. Those are essential for anyone serving God today.

Apply: Jot down the names of three "B-list" followers of Christ that you know or know of–people who aren't in the spotlight but who faithfully and effectively serve God. Pray that God would bless them, and pray that God would help you follow their example.