I learned something fighting a brush fire as a boy in Montana… Sometimes beating the flames and the coals of a brush fire with a wet gunny sack, does not put the fire out – instead it spreads the fire elsewhere!
Here is that reality applied to the spreading of the gospel…
“Jesus called ‘the Twelve’ together and gave them power and authority to drive out demons and to cure diseases, and He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and heal the sick… So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere…
“Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. He was perplexed, because some were saying that John and been raised from the dead, others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. But Herod said, ‘I beheaded John! Who, then, is this I hear such things about?’
I can almost hear Herod’s response… “What is going on? I thought I put a stop to it! I killed John! Now it’s popping up everywhere!”
Persecution has never stamped out the gospel – It’s always resulted in the spreading of the gospel! Here it is from another location in Scripture… “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… Now those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.” (Acts 8:1-4)
