History a Sermon
P.C. Barker Acts 9:31 Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord… The simplest matters of fact are sometimes weighted with impression and charged with instruction. And in like manner, the simplest-told history sometimes preaches the most suggestive of sermons. Notice three things in this briefly described episode of history. I. THE REST WHICH THE CHURCH HAD. 1. It was a rest from the actual sufferings of persecution. 2. It was a rest from the constant and tearing anxieties involved in the fear of persecution. Foreboding kills many whom no actual suffering would kill. 3. It was a rest from the literal moving about from place to place, either with the chance of eluding persecution or as the consequence of it. In all of these respects the mercy of Christ is not forgetful of the need of the Church: (1) As repose is one of the first necessities of each individual that composes it. Storm, trouble, conflict, operate as useful tests of character and fidelity, and they may be said to add some sort of strength. But for growth and nourishment and sound health rest is one of the first conditions. (2) As repose is one of the first necessities for giving scope to the character and action of the Church as a whole. One of the divinest tests of the Church is its spontaneous love and its spirit of co-operation. Those who are in similar want, similar sorrow, similar danger, similar fear, do not find any difficulty in harmonizing, drawing near together, co-operating. But the scene is often changed when it is all fair weather. Therefore fair weather itself is necessary (a) for trying character and hardening character, and (b) for giving the time and the opportunity for combining in works of holy activity. Note well what a various thing Christian character and life make. They are of many elements; they need not a hard, stiff, monotonous, unbending treatment. But they need the revolution of the seasons, and can bear it too. They need blast and tempest, and are responsive to summer evening's softest sigh also. They need many a caution, many an anxious watching, many an anguished heart-searching, but also they need to luxuriate awhile in the rest of calm, of happiness, of love. II. THE PEACE WHICH PREVAILED DURING REST. The enemy which might have taken opportunity to enter, one whom the most experienced would have feared the most, did not enter. The true motto, "Peace, as in all Churches of the saints" (1 Corinthians 14:33), was their welcome watchword now. Rest from without is often the very signal for confusion and discord within. The concord that comes of a common enemy known to be no distance off is something far inferior to the concord that comes from real intrinsic causes. This only can give us any slightest foretaste of the deep calm of heaven. 1. How pleasant this calm peace within must have been, as a mere contrast to what had been! 2. How welcome it must have been, as introducing the followers and disciples of Jesus to their first acquaintance with a thoroughly new set of ideas, new range of affections, new work of this life, and new scope of life itself! 3. How delightful this peace, for the sake of the actual converse of disciples with disciples, and of Church with Church! They had met, perhaps, in the relations of business, and of pleasure, and of a dead formalism of religion, and in the discussion of the humiliation of the political bondage under which they were now living; but what unwonted peace this was to have "their conversation in heaven," to find it "building" - time in the best sense, to "walk in the fear of the Lord," and to know the "comfort of the Holy Ghost"! The "fellowship of kindred minds" is indeed not necessarily "like to that above;" but the fellowship of such kindred minds is undoubtedly and blessedly "like to that above." III. THE INCREASE OF THE CHURCH. Intervals of rest give the opportunity of growth, and intervals of peace within are deep, solid, firm, growing itself. But neither the Church nor the individual Christian can be right in considering exclusively, or enjoying exclusively without consideration, its own possibilities of inward growth. The Church was now not only "edified" in itself, and "settled," "stablished," "strengthened," but "it was multiplied." No doubt, even in times of severest tribulation, it was added to, and persecution by no means closed its roll and cut off its recruits. But now the Church - the destined depository of Divine power in part, and the honored fellow-laborer with Divine unseen actors - was beginning to know its work and to feel its high force and to be conscious of its most responsible privileges. The very simple and beautiful description before us warrants us to say that the consistent "walk" of the Church, and the deep heart-felt experience on the part of the Church of what is most; characteristic above all things else whatsoever of her existence and nature, namely, "the comfort of the Holy Ghost," are the best adapted human means for the increase of the Church, for the impression of the world, for the conversion of the sinners. "The power is of God" under any and all circumstances. The "foolishness of preaching" is the positive and declared method of making known what the gospel of Christ is and what it proffers. But for impression on others, so far as human action goes, the Christian man who "walks in the fear of the Lord" availeth much. And for pressure upon the unbelieving world, pressure upon its eye, ear, judgment, and conscience, pressure constant, close, and unavoidable, there is nothing like the advance of a host that "walks in the fear of the Lord," and that enjoys "the comfort of the Holy Ghost." 1. Consistent Christian life speaks itself. This has always been a potent presence and an irresistible argument. The absence of it is damnatory, on all sides and in all senses - to the person who makes hollow profession, damnatory of that hollowness; to the world damnatory of any inclination to be found in the camp of such hollowness. For, wonderful though it be that the world will condone and will have fellowship with other hollowness, most blessed and advantageous it is that it kicks at, scorns, and exposes the hollowness of mere profession of Christ. 2. "The comfort of the Holy Ghost" is an experience, and it is of what is deepest down in human hearts. Yet is it not for that reason invisible. It betrays itself in the eye; it betokens itself in the language and the very tone of that language; it beams forth in all the deed of the man whom the Spirit who gives it vouchsafes to inhabit. When the Holy Ghost becomes the Master, the gracious, condescending, comforting Master of any man, or of the Church, or any part of the Church, then these become the persuasive masters of others, and the choicest, chiefest attraction of the world. The "Church is multiplied" then, and the "excellency of the power is of God" still. This little episode of history, then, is a sermon, and teaches us what a practical sermon the life of every Church and every Christian may preach. - B. Parallel Verses KJV: Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied. WEB: So the assemblies throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, and were built up. They were multiplied, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.