Tuesday 14th February - Acts 8

Today’s chapter is Acts 8

Tom writes:

“Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains alone. But if it dies it bears much fruit.” Jesus said that. And then Jesus did that; he died and bore the fruit of the Jerusalem church. And then Jesus’ followers started doing it; Stephen died and bore the fruit of the multi-tribal church spreading across the world. And Jesus’s followers are still doing this. It’s not just martyrdom that Jesus uses to bear much fruit; every time a follower dies to themself, the possibility for kingdom germination is unleashed. What Philip and Peter and John did in Samaria was remarkable. It was a death to prejudice that took them into the murky area that Jews would forever associate with hideous idolatry. To place hands on an unclean Samaritan would have been a death of propriety for the disciples. But it bore the abundant fruit of the Spirit baptising the brand new believers. For Philip to start out on the desert road to Gaza would have been an act of death to comfort. To approach a chariot and ask a random stranger “do you understand what you are reading?” would have been an act of death to pride.

And yet it birthed the church in Africa. And we are still reaping the immense fruitfulness sprouting from that glorious branch of Jesus’ church. And so we must - if we want to be fruitful disciples - learn the practice of letting our life “fall to the ground”. It’s a practice of perpetually prioritising Jesus; of doing what he asks no matter what it costs. Often it costs our self-respect, or our reputation, or it bites hard at our emotional reserves. The bible never pretends this practice is easy; the church mourned deeply for Stephen. And all through the book of Acts we see the believers bracing themselves under the emotional weight of sharing in Jesus’ sufferings. They carried their cross because they were in friendship with the one who God had raised from the dead. They fell to the ground because they knew that God would raise them up; that miracles and great joy and empowering and baptisms would all flow from their simple decisions to do what Jesus had said. The book of Acts testifies to the truth that Jesus told; the church is at its best when it’s willing to die like He did.

Question for reflection

Are there any “little deaths” Jesus is asking you to make for the sake of his mission and your fruitfulness?