Spreading Like a Virus

Nothing seems to spread faster than a virus. Why? Because it continues to replicate itself throughout your body. When a virus spreads from one person to others and eventually to a group of people it is said to have gone viral. The same thing happens with a computer virus. It may begin with one system, but after a few emails or downloads or file shares it has suddenly gone viral infecting computers all over the world.

A virus can actually be a good thing. They have been used to hack into terrorists computers. Most computer hacking is now done by sneaking a virus into the system first. Such as the famous scene for Independence Day when they upload a virus into the data stream of an alien ship in order to hack their systems and defeat them.

Viruses can also be used to heal illnesses. Scientists are actually using viruses to combat cancer. They scientifically engineer common viruses that are programmed to home in on cancer cells and kill them without hurting the normal tissue surrounding the cancer. One of the viruses that they are using in their tests is Polio. Not many people would willingly allow someone to inject them with polio, but for the sake of curing cancer they would probably risk it.

As we continue our series on Going Viral, today we look at a situation that nobody would have asked for: persecution of the believers. Yet we will see that this persecution helped to spread the Good News about Jesus even faster.

Saul agreed with putting him to death. On that day a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria. Devout men buried Stephen and mourned deeply over him. Saul, however, was ravaging the church. He would enter house after house, drag off men and women, and put them in prison. 

So those who were scattered went on their way preaching the message of good news. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. The crowds paid attention with one mind to what Philip said, as they heard and saw the signs he was performing. For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city. (Acts 8:1-8, HCSB)

Chapter 7 ends with just a quick mention of Saul as we see that the people placed their robes at his feet while they stoned Stephen. Chapter 8 opens by letting us know that Saul agreed with putting him to death. Now we see Saul ravaging the church by finding every follower of The Way that he could and having them put in prison.

It was almost as if Saul had gotten a taste of the blood that was on his hands, having been complicit in the murder of Stephen, and now, like a spreading virus, that lust for blood drove him into a frenzy of activity. Saul was a very devout and religious man. I am sure that he believed that what he was doing was protecting the Jewish faith from these blasphemous and idolatrous people. It is amazing what men have done throughout history for the sake of their religion.

And so, the persecution of the followers of Jesus had started. This persecution was by the Jewish faithful. But the Jews were under Roman rule and did not have the right to put a man to death. What they had done to Stephen was illegal according to their own words when Pilate told them, “Take Him yourselves and judge Him according to your law. “It’s not legal for us to put anyone to death,” the Jews declared. (John 18:31)

So the Jewish religious leaders have already committed an illegal act of murder and now with Saul’s leadership they are rounding up anyone that is a follower of this Jesus. They are only imprisoning them for now, but there were many that were put to death as well for their faith.

The result of this action is that all, except for the apostles, fled for their lives. The bible says that they were scattered. Yet they did not stop believing in Jesus or telling others everything that they had seen and heard. Verse 4 tells us that they went on their way preaching about Jesus.

The attack by their own countrymen was not something they wanted, but the attack propelled them to do something they probably would not have done without being attacked. That is what happened to Philip who found his way to Samaria.

We know from the story of the Samaritan woman at the well and from the story of the good Samaritan, that the Jews did not have much love for the Samaritans. They looked down their noses at them. Samaritans had just as much Jewish blood and heritage as the other Jews, but for some unknown reason the average Jew hated Samaritans.

The Jews and the Samaritans were the Hatfield and the McCoy families from West Virginia/Kentucky, the Montague and the Capulet families from Romeo and Juliet, the North and the South from the War Between the States. There was very little difference between the North and the South, but there was enough hatred that our nation went to war and 620,000 soldiers died with millions more injured.

Yet here Philip is now living among the Samaritans and telling them about Jesus, performing miracles, and it says that there was great joy in that city. The people of this Samaritan city might not have learned about Jesus had Stephen not been stoned and Saul not started rounding up the followers of Jesus.

It was because of the persecution, because of the stoning, because of the arrests, that the Good News of Jesus went viral. God took something that was bad and used it for a good purpose. To bring glory and honor to Himself. To help people come to know what Jesus had done for them. To allow the followers of Christ to tell others all that they had seen and heard.

God doesn’t only use bad circumstances to bring others to Him, but there have been many times that He has done just that. Recently Mellissa, a friend of Kiya’s, accepted Jesus because she attended the funeral of a friend and realized that she needed Jesus. Something wonderful from a tragic circumstance. Donnie Vaughan was told that he had stage four cancer and I was asked to pray with him. He understood the seriousness of his situation and accepted Jesus. His wife, Kathy, also accepted Jesus.

My family probably would never have moved to Annapolis or planned to start a church if it had not been for some problems with my health. I had been a worship pastor for almost 30 years, but after 5 years of suffering with severe asthma I could tell that I was losing my ability to sing or play my trumpet.

I prayed about what to do and God led me to Ron Larson who was leading teams to start new churches in the Baltimore area. I knew that Baltimore was not right for my family, so I asked where else they needed new churches and Annapolis was on that list.

A pastor friend drove Wendy and I around Annapolis to show us the various areas. We learned that there were about 30,000 people in the Annapolis area that had no connection with any church. Never went. Ever. As he drove us around the city, we skirted past the Eastport area and he said, “You probably won’t want to plant a church there as it is a very difficult location.”

We went home and prayed and the one area that I kept thinking about was that community that Donnie thought was very difficult. And that is exactly where God led us. Two years later, we have connected with over 30 people that were previously unchurched and we have had 19 people accept Christ. None of that would have happened had I been healthy enough to continue leading music in churches.

These people were scattered and they spread like a virus. What about you? Are you willing to be used by God wherever He sends you?