Last week we started 2025 in exactly the right way. We spent the afternoon praying together for our church, our city, our country and our world. It was, as far as I can remember, the best-attended prayer meeting we’ve ever had, and it’s been a long time since I’ve been so encouraged by you. So I wanted to thank you for that.

Last Sunday morning we prepared for that meeting by spending our time in 2 Corinthians 1.11, talking about what happens when we pray together. We saw that when we pray together, God answers; when we pray together, we learn to pray; when we pray together, we see bigger; and finally, when we pray together, God is glorified. As Paul says, when God answers the prayers of many, it gives many the opportunity to thank God for his answer.

But there was one thing we didn’t address last week, that I want to address today. And that is this simple question: What happens when God says no?

I don’t want to be manipulative with this message, so I want to put all my cards out on the table. A couple of months ago, we knew we were going to have a prayer service on January 5th, and we knew we were going to be starting the gospel of Mark on the 19th. That left January 12th open for something else. So back in November, we were already talking about the possibility of addressing this subject today—and that is, what happens if our building project doesn’t go through?

The project isn’t over—we’ll tell you more this afternoon—but I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone that the project isn’t going to happen exactly in the way that we thought it would. God has been really good to us. When I was in the U.S. I talked to the head fundraiser for a major Bible translation company, and he was astonished that we were able to raise so much money in such a short time, especially given that most of it came from within the church. It’s an incredible achievement.

But it still wasn’t enough to make the target we needed to hit in December. So it’s not over, but it’s not going to happen exactly like we thought or hoped.

Now there are two ways we could handle this. The first way would be to speak in very pragmatic terms. I know a lot of pastors who have tried to purchasing buildings in much easier places than Paris, and it’s almost never a straight line—most of the time, they try for one place, it doesn’t work, and they try for another, and it doesn’t work, and it’s a roller coaster until finally they have all their ducks in a row. And often that roller coaster takes many years to come to an end. So on the one hand, the fact that things didn’t go exactly how we were hoping is completely normal, and no reason to be discouraged.

But that’s not going to help those of you who have worked really hard, and are going to feel your minds spinning out of control now over all the unknowns about the future. I want to ask you to do your best not let yourself get distracted by those things this morning.

Because before we even get there, we can’t afford to look at this situation only from a pragmatic point of view. We need to look at it from a biblical point of view. We are children of a heavenly Father who loves us; to simply react to what seems like bad news, without taking our Father’s love and wisdom and sovereignty into account, is to do a disservice to God. So just as last week’s sermon was preparation for our prayer meeting, today’s sermon is preparation for our information meeting about the building project. We’re doing it this way because it’s in our nature to panic and worry when news like this comes, and we have no reason to worry, as long as we remember what’s actually going on.

Let me tell you a story that might help us put this in perspective.

Last year I went to an Acts 29 conference in Latvia, where we heard the testimony of a guy named Taras. Taras had planted a church in Minsk, in Belarus. Because of the war in Ukraine broke out, Taras and his family and their entire church were forced to flee for their lives in 2023. The church was scattered to the winds; still, they don’t know where everyone is. Taras and his family ended up as refugees in Warsaw, Poland. None of them spoke Polish; he had no job; they were put up in government housing; the kids had to go to school in a new language.

I tried to put myself in his shoes, and I had a very hard time imagining it. I kept seeing my own family, my own kids, thrown into that situation. It would be an incredible trial just to get through every day—much less do anything worth celebrating.

Taras and his church had prayed that the conflict in Ukraine would calm down. They prayed that their community would be preserved, that they could remain in Minsk and maintain the life of their church, their relationships with these brothers and sisters whom they loved.

But God said no. It’s a truth that’s hard for us to accept, but we have to accept it: sometimes, God says no.

So what happens when God says no? How do we process it? How do we react to it? How should we understand it?

That’s what I want us to consider today. There are many, many places in the Bible we could go. We could go to Joseph, sent to Egypt as a slave. We could go to the Hebrews, enslaved by the Pharaoh in Egypt. We could go to the exile of the Israelites in Babylon and Assyria. We could go to Paul, with his thorn in the flesh, praying that God would remove it, and Christ actually tells him no. And of course we could go to Jesus, who prayed that this cup might pass from him, just a few hours before his own crucifixion.

We really could simply pick our place. But today, we’re going to be spending our time in Acts 8.1-8.

The situation of the church in Acts 8 and the situation Taras found himself in are remarkably similar. The Christian faith exploded in Jerusalem not long after Jesus’s resurrection and ascension. Thousands of Jewish men and women came to faith in Christ, the apostles were preaching the gospel with boldness, and the church was growing day by day.

Of course, this made the Jewish authorities very unhappy; we see several episodes of their conflicts with the apostles in the first few chapters of Acts.

Persecution (v. 1-3)

But in the second half of chapter 6, we see a new level of tension arise. A man named Stephen—not an apostle, just an ordinary Christian, but a Christian who was saying and doing remarkable things—caught the attention of the Jewish authorities and Jewish zealots. Stephen was seized by the crowd, brought before the Jewish council. After giving an impassioned speech before the council, Stephen was taken out of the city and stoned to death, making him the first Christian martyr.

In the verses describing his execution, we see mention of a young man named Saul. We find out later on that Saul is a Pharisee, a young man who was well-educated in the law, and extremely zealous for maintaining that law.

As it turns out, Saul would soon himself become radically converted by Christ and become an apostle himself (the apostle Paul). But that hasn’t happened yet. For now, here is what we see. Acts 8, verse 1:

And Saul approved of [Stephen’s] execution.

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. 2 Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. 3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

So you see how similar this is to what Taras and our brothers and sisters who had to flee because of the war in Ukraine have gone through. The reasons are different, but the basic situation is the same.

Here’s what I want to draw our attention to. The pattern we see throughout all of Scripture, and particularly in the first chapters of the book of Acts, is that the Christians prayed about everything. So although it’s not mentioned in the text, it is inconceivable that the Christians facing Saul’s persecution would not be praying for God to deliver them.

It’s easy for us to look at this story from a distance and not feel much tension when we read this, because we know what happened later. But put yourself in their shoes. They didn’t know what was going to happen next. They knew that God had done incredible things in their midst up to this point, but suddenly here is this guy Saul—an extremely well-learned, passionate and convincing Pharisee, who comes on the scene and is, as v. 3 says, “ravaging the church”. He’s not just prohibiting services; he’s busting into people’s homes and carrying them off to prison.

So they prayed, as Taras and his church prayed…and God didn’t change things. In fact, they went from bad to worse.

Stephen is not only not released; he is carted outside the city and stoned to death.

It escalates to such an extent that the Christians living in Jerusalem are forced to flee. They just have to get out, run for their lives, scattering all over Judea and Samaria. The apostles stay, but everyone else has to run.

Can you imagine the mindset of those Christians? You know they’ve been praying, because that’s what they always do—and yet, God not only doesn’t stop the persecution. He allows it to keep on getting worse.

What question would be on your minds in that situation?

Why? WHY? Clearly the persecution of Christians is a bad thing. Why would God allow this to happen? Why wouldn’t he stop it? And in that moment, you don’t have a clear answer to those questions.

Now I know you know this isn’t the end of the story, but I don’t want to move on too quickly from this. I’d like us to sit in that state of uncertainty for just a minute, because in reality, that is how we will spend much of our time. The time spent between the prayer and the resolution, between the prayer and the answer to that question “Why?”, is often very long. And sometimes the answer never comes. Sometimes something happens, and we never really find out why it did, at least not on this side of heaven.

Scattering (v. 1, 4)

We will all be faced with a situation when either as individuals, as a family, or as a church, when we will earnestly pray that God will do something, and God will not do what we asked, and we won’t understand why. And we need to know ahead of time, right now, what kind of God we serve, because our understanding of God will determine how we respond to those situations.

We read at the end of v. 1:

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.

Here’s the question—how did these Christians respond to this situation? What was their understanding of God, and how did it inform their response?

Look at v. 4:

4 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

What they did tells us what they believed.

What did they do when they were scattered? They went about preaching the word.

Think about that. These were people who had just been chased from their homes because they believed the gospel. And they didn’t go very far; they didn’t even flee to another country, but to the surrounding regions of Judea and Samaria. (Samaria wasn’t a place where Jews would have received a warm welcome; the Jews and the Samaritans weren’t fond of each other.) The point is, they were in places where it was still dangerous to be a Christian.

Even so, when they were persecuted, when they had to flee, they fled preaching the word.

This simple fact tells us a number of things.

It tells us, first of all, that their faith was not shaken by the disastrous situation in which they found themselves. It tells us that they didn’t believe that preaching the gospel was a lost cause, despite the hardships it brought them. It tells us they still had confidence in the God they served. It tells us they still believed they were on a mission. And it tells us that they knew that God was working, despite or—dare we say it?—even through their situation.

They couldn’t see what God was doing yet, but they knew the God they served. So they considered their situation, and they acted, not based on their situation, but based on their knowledge of who God is.

So far, the church had been almost entirely centered in Jerusalem. But now the Christians were scattered, and they would have remembered the prayers they prayed back in chapter 4, when they asked God to give them boldness to continue to preach the gospel.

Suddenly, through their desperate situation, they realize they have a new opportunity. It’s not what they were expecting, but it’s there: they can either try to hide themselves and stay safe, or they can go into these new places and preach the gospel wherever they end up.

That’s what they do.

And it’s what Taras did. When he and his family arrived in Warsaw, they were devastated. They had lost everything: their home, their possessions, their church. They had lost any and all familiarity with the culture and the language.

But Taras also knew that they weren’t the only ones in that situation. He knew that many, many Belarusians were fleeing to Warsaw. And he knew that God had not brought them there for no reason.

So he planted another church.

He planted a church for Belarusian refugees in Warsaw, and the church filled very, very quickly. God is now working in the lives of people Taras didn’t know before, in a city none of them knew. The message of the gospel has a particular resonance for people who have lost everything—what a relief to find out that even when you’ve lost everything, you can actually gain everything.

This was his testimony, of the beautiful things God is doing in his church and in Warsaw. And these things never would have happened if God had given them what they asked for in prayer; these things never would have happened if God hadn’t said “no”.

God’s Good Plan (v. 5-7)

God has a plan. It is not always our plan, but it is a good plan.

That is exactly what we see in the following verses in Acts 8. Let’s read again, starting at v. 5:

5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. 6 And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. 7 For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was much joy in that city.

Do you see it? The persecution of the church became a tool in God’s hands to win more people to Christ. When they prayed, as anyone would, for their persecution to stop, God said no—not because he didn’t love them, but because he had better plans.

Because the church was scattered from Jerusalem, the gospel went out to places that didn’t yet have it. An argument could be made that it was the scattering of the Christians from Jerusalem that began the trajectory of spreading the gospel all over the world. An argument could be made that we would not be here today if this hadn’t happened. There could have a been a scenario in which Christianity would have remained localized to Jerusalem. But that scenario wasn’t God’s plan.

Obviously letting the Christians stay in Jerusalem would have been far more pleasant and more comfortable. But there was more joy in enduring the persecution and being scattered than in having God stop the persecution. Because they knew who their God was, the Christians in Jerusalem were not devastated by their situation; rather, they realized their mission was being redirected, and they made the most of the opportunity before them, to bring the gospel to places they never would have gone otherwise.

To close, let’s come back to our current situation. When we put this in perspective—when we think of our situation in comparison to the persecution of the church in Acts 8, or of Taras having to flee because of the conflict in Ukraine—it’s easy to see our building project is actually not a big deal.

But it feels like a big deal to us, as it always does to those who are going through it. So let’s ask the question: Why would God present us with this opportunity, only to not let us get the money we needed at the right time?

Most of the time, we have no idea how to answer that question when we ask it. This time, I have a ton of ideas. Some are speculative, and some are solid facts—we’ll talk about more of these this afternoon. But I want to mention just one specific thing this morning: one thing that stands out in my mind above everything else.

This opportunity has forced people in our church who may otherwise have sat still to use their gifts in ways they wouldn’t have needed to before, and thus to grow in him. I know it’s hard to see the forest for the trees if you’ve been in the thick of the building project this year; but as a pastor, this is what has made 2024 an incredibly encouraging year. I’ve seen people with gifts I had never suspected put together the legal, financial and communications structures that will make it possible for our church to purchase property in Paris. You have done incredible things.

And whether you realize it or not, all the work done over this past year has become the raw materials God will use to cause you to grow.

God almost always causes us to grow in faith and in maturity through trial. Many of us have been paying so much attention to the practical and logistical objectives of this project; I want you to take your eyes away from that for a minute, and consider what God has been doing in you through the effort you’ve put in. What has he been changing in you through this experience?

I’ll tell you what I’m seeing. I’m seeing people who are exhausted, yes, and perhaps discouraged. But I’m also seeing those same people who have realized, in a deeper and more urgent way, that they need God to do whatever it is they’re doing. It’s made us more thirsty for God, because we have a deeper realization of the fact that we can’t do this without him. I know it may not always feel that way—when we’re discouraged it’s hard to think about anything else. But when we cry out to God for help, we are acknowledging our need for him, and growing in our dependence on him.

This was not a wasted opportunity. We don’t know where God is going to bring us in the future in terms of buildings, but we do know that every time God says “no” to a prayer, it is not to harm us, and it is not to set us back. It is to bring us closer to what he has planned for his people, closer to the glory of his name being seen.

Folks, I am not just saying this: I am happy with our situation today. I am so proud of my church. I am thankful for what I’ve seen God do in you, even if it’s been hard.

But most of all, I’m happy because our security isn’t in the success of a church project or a roof over our heads. Our security is in our knowledge of who our God is, that he is victorious, that he is good, that he loves his people, and that he is always working for our good and for his glory.

When God answers our prayers the way we asked, it’s good news, as we saw last week.

But when God says no, it’s also good news.

Ask Joseph, who was sold into slavery in Egypt in order to save thousands of lives from famine.

Ask the Hebrews, who became slaves in Egypt in order to see God’s mighty hand at work to deliver them.

Ask Jesus, who drank the cup the Father held out to him, in order to save us.

Ask Paul, who (as far as we know) was never delivered from the thorn in his flesh, in order to understand that the grace of Christ was sufficient, that Christ’s power is made perfect in weakness.

Ask the church in Jerusalem, which was persecuted and scattered in order to bring the gospel to the surrounding regions.

Ask Taras, who had to flee Minsk with his family in order to begin a wholly unexpected ministry in Warsaw, and see more people come to Christ.

And ask yourselves. Some time in the future, I believe we’ll be able to look back at this past year and see what God was doing, that never could have happened if things had gone exactly as we’d planned. Our God is a good God, and he never stops working for our good and for his glory.

All is well.