And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Some devout men buried Stephen, and made loud lamentation over him. But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word. .” (Acts 8:1-4)
Who better to be discipled by than the twelve apostles. They are said to the foundation, “…having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone…” (Ephesians 2:20)
So what did discipleship by the Apostles look like? We can see what it looked like in verse four, “those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.” The word “preaching” in the Greek places emphasis on the entirety of the good news being announced. Therefore, we can say that the Apostles must have done an excellent job of teaching the whole counsel of God.
The first group of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, when separated from their shepherd, did not frantically say while looking dumbfounded at each other, “What do we do now?” In fact, they did what they were called to do, herald the complete good news of Jesus Christ. When they finished telling the Gospel, their hearers would have few to no questions.
I wonder how many churches, if persecution were to arise in our nation, would go about proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ with that kind of clarity. Many will no doubt say, they had the Apostles to teach them. True! Nonetheless, we have the complete writings of the New Testament, inspired by the Holy Spirit, which is written with perfect clarity. Furthermore, we have had nearly 2,000 years to study and understand their meaning.