Living Fearlessly 4/26/26

Last week, we walked with Stephen through his stoning and discovered the fullness of God’s grace even in the face of death. This week, the story continues in the aftermath of that violence. Acts 8 opens with the church under siege. Stephen is dead. Saul is ravaging believers house to house. A great persecution breaks out, and the comfortable, thriving community in Jerusalem is suddenly scattered. We might expect this to be the end of the story, fear winning, the gospel silenced, the church buried with Stephen. But Luke gives us one of the most hope-filled “therefore” statements in Scripture: “Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). What the enemy meant for destruction, God used for dispersion. Fear that could have produced death instead became the fertilizer for explosive fruitfulness. This is the pattern of the kingdom: Fear that takes the place of fruit breeds death, but when fear is laid down, it becomes the fertilizer of faith that produces fruit. Today, we’ll see this truth unfold in three movements from Acts 8:1-8: Scattered for Success, Fearless Faith, and The Fruit of Faith.