Watermark Sunday Messages The Persecuted Church | Acts 6:8–15; 7:54–8:3
Mar 29, 2026
Reese Graves, a physician missionary with East Asia field experience, and Jennifer Graves, long-term local missionary and mother, share ministry under government scrutiny. They recount raids, interrogation, blacklisting, and caring for unreached people groups. Conversations explore types of persecution, faithful resilience, and how hardship has shaped evangelistic opportunity.
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Believers Are Family Across Borders
- Christians are family worldwide, so persecution of distant believers is personally relevant to every follower of Jesus.
- Timothy 'TA' Ateek contrasts his distant, easy pity with his wife's immediate grief to show how theology should create global kinship.
How Debate Escalates Into Persecution
- The opposition to Stephen escalated from debate to false accusations, arrest, and riotous murder, showing how offensive the gospel can be to entrenched religions.
- TA tracks verbs (accused, seized, set up false witnesses, ground their teeth, stoned) to highlight the passage's movement toward persecution.
Stephen as a Portrait of Christ
- Stephen mirrored Christ under persecution: innocent, falsely accused, executed outside the city, praying for his killers, and committing his spirit to God.
- TA notes Stephen saw the Son of Man standing because Jesus stands to welcome and honor martyrs.