Pray the word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

Acts chapter 8 verse 1, and Saul approved of his execution, and there arose on that day a great

persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of

Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. That last praise, except the apostles, is so important,

and it leads us to pray in so many different ways. So we've talked about Stephen,

pray according to God's word about Stephen in Acts chapter 6 and 7, and the last couple of

episodes will hear Saul approving of Stephen's execution, a great persecution starting on that day

against the entire church in Jerusalem, which means the church starts to scatter throughout

Judea and Samaria. You even think about that. This is what Jesus had promised what happened.

Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria.

That's exactly what happens in Acts chapter 8 verse 4. It says those who were scattered into

Judea and Samaria went about preaching the word, and that leads us back to the last phrase in

Acts chapter 8 verse 1, except the apostles. So the apostles stayed in Jerusalem. Those who were

leaders of the church stayed where this persecution was happening. It was all of these other followers

of Jesus, whose names we don't know, like we know the names of the apostles, they're staying in

Jerusalem. They're the leaders that we think of when we think of the church in the first century,

but it was actually unnamed ordinary followers of Jesus, unnamed ordinary men, women, teenagers who

were scattered into Judea and Samaria, proclaiming the gospel wherever they went. What a picture!

The church is scattered and not the apostles on the front lines of that scattering, but just

ordinary everyday believers on the front lines of sharing the gospel into new territory, into Judea

and Samaria and ultimately to the ends of the earth. This is how the gospel spreads in the world.

Yes, through leaders we might think of, through preachers we might think of, but fundamentally through

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