Acts 6

Discussion Questions

• Are we living out the Gospel in both word and deed? Does what we believe directly impact how we behave? Are we living in a way that connects the truth of the Word to tangible works that result in real witness? What are some practical ways to put feet to our faith for the glory of God and for the highest good of our neighbors and ourselves?
• We are called to be a community of learning people who are growing together in the grace of God. Are we willing to humble ourselves to be lifelong learners who are on the road to the goal, but not there yet? How do we actively grow roots and bear fruit along the way? Are we committed to be continual students, growing deeper in grace until we see Jesus’ face?
• What kind of church are we today? What are we becoming? What do we want to become? How do we continue on as a community committed to each other, cultivating a culture of grace?

Transcript

We study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel. We happened to have some extra copies. If you didn’t bring one with you and you would like one to follow along, which is so helpful when you’re doing a Bible study, raise your hand up real high and somebody will drop one off at your aisle, and then you can, have the text in front of you. If you’d like paper copies of it, just keep your hand up real high. Looks like there’s one over on that side. Also, I’ll put up on the screen the QR code if you prefer to use your device, you can follow that QR code. It’ll take you to the sermon notes and quotes. I even think there’s a copy of the Scriptures up there for you as well. We want to thank also the folks who joined us online over the last week or so: Cape Town, South Africa; folks from Singapore, folks from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and some folks from Milpitas, I think I’m saying that right, California. And that could be our friends the Biggs family out there, I think.

But here we are today in Acts, Chapter 6. I will call our study “The Gospel in Word and Deed.” And we’re going to read how the early church was growing, but it was also experiencing some growing pains. Needs were arising, tension was surfacing. The apostles faced some critical leadership issues. What unfolded was not a crisis that weakened the church, but rather a process that clarified the church and, I think, matured the church; because as the Gospel was lived out in both word and deed, something powerful happened. And it’s really beautiful. The church grew deeper, loved wider, served better, and shined brighter. This was not a picture of a perfect church, but of a real church, a community of learning. People, struggling to understand what it meant to remain centered on God’s Word, how to care for its own people, and how to grow together in the grace of God. And so, we’ll look at a sort of a case study here in Acts, Chapter 6. Of course, it raises important questions, as I’ve marinated in this text all week long myself, the question kept popping into my mind: What kind of church are we becoming as we hit the 25-year mark? What kind of church are we becoming? What kind of church do we want to become as we move forward in space/time history and in our age together as a community of faith?

I like this quote from Jared C Wilson. “The doctrine of grace, when administered with a spirit of grace, gradually becomes a culture of grace.” I think that describes the desire, the heart of, of most people in this room. I would, maybe all of us even, certainly resonate with what Jared has said there as well. We’ve already seen the church get off to a good start. But not without those sort of tensions, internal and external opposition. The internal tensions sprang up from greed and hypocrisy. Pride, corruption. We study that in Acts, Chapter 5. On the first half, the external opposition was coming from religious political cults, cultural sectors and various groups seem to be arresting themselves against the new sapling of a church. But in spite of it all, God continued to multiply the church in number, to deepen its unity and widen its diversity, to confirm the message of the Gospel with wisdom, with signs and wonders, and in other ways that evidence and make clear that God had given His imprimatur to this church, this movement.

Pray with me, if you will, before we read the text: Father, as we open our hearts and minds to Your Word, may Your promises become our inexhaustible hope and proper confidence. May Your purposes become our meaning and our mission. May Your presence become our delight and joy. Grant to us a clearer vision of Your truth, a greater faith in Your power, and a more confident assurance of Your love for us. We pray this in the matchless name of Jesus. Amen and amen. So, Acts, Chapter 6, “The Gospel in Word and Deed.” Let’s go back one verse into Chapter 5. “Every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.” They had met with some opposition that was outside opposition coming from the religious sector. The religious leaders very upset. Pastor Matt walked us through that last part of Chapter 5 last week, and all through that, we just see how the religious folks are so upset, so angry as these guys, the disciples of Jesus are preaching.

The apostles are preaching the Gospel there in the temple precincts. They had been thrown in jail, got released by an angel, preached again, got thrown in jail again and told to stop doing that. Their answer was, “You decide whether it’s better for us to obey a man rather than God. We’re going to go with God on this one.” And they continue to preach, as we saw there in verse 42, every single day. I don’t know how you stop guys like this. Jail doesn’t bother them. Flogging doesn’t bother them. That happened the second time. They literally beat them. I think Pastor Matt said it was, sort of like 39 lashes. The kind of thing that would cause some people to die during that kind of suffering. But they just kept right on preaching from house to house as well as in the temple area, preaching Jesus as the Christ. That’s not His last name. That’s His title. Jesus is the Lord’s anointed King, come to deliver us and to save us. He’s Jesus of Nazareth, but He’s also the Christ. The New Testament version of the Old Testament word “Messiah.” Same word. So, at this time, verse one of Chapter 6, “While the disciples were increasing in number…” And that’s, by the way, the first time in the book of Acts we have the word “disciples,” and it’s going to appear over 20 times throughout the rest of the book.

But it’s interesting that we’re already at Chapter 6, and this is the first time we’re hearing that word. We’ll hear it again as we get a little deeper into Chapter 6. But they were increasing in number. And I like it that at the end of it, Luke has taken the time to say, “And at that time, while the converts were increasing in number…” because there’s a real difference between just a convert and an actual disciple. All disciples are believers. But it isn’t true that all believers are necessarily disciples. You can believe in the existence of God and live as if God doesn’t matter. You can believe in Jesus being the Son of God and live as if it doesn’t matter, as if He doesn’t matter whatsoever. So, the question is, are our disciples increasing in number as we go through Acts, Chapter 6? I think that’ll be a nice focus for us to be thinking about that as well. Well, what in the world was this, sort of tension that  starts in verse one? They’re growing in number. “But a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows [the Hellenistic Jews’ widows] were being overlooked in the daily serving of food.”

It’s a really practical problem that’s sort of arisen, isn’t it? Yeah. And what we have here is, some folks bringing that problem forward, that really practical problem forward to the leaders of the church. I like the word “complaint.” I don’t know if your English Bible might say “there arose some grumbling.” That might be what your Bible might say. The Greek word is “gongysmos.” It’s onomatopoeic, isn’t it? It sounds like what it is: Gongysmos, gongysmos, gongysmos. It sounds like that. You know, when you when you murmur. That’s another word. That’s very. It’s like an onomatopoeia, right? It’s it. It sounds are. Remember, remember. Say, that was made four times really fast. Ready. Murmur, murmur, murmur, murmur. That sounds like what it is. Complaining, murmuring, you know. And so that murmur arises, and it’s because of a very practical thing. These Hellenistic Jews, what are they? Well, those are the ones that likely speak Greek. That’s their tongue, the language that they’ve grown up speaking. And likely they’re from somewhere around the Mediterranean and the Roman Empire, where some of the Jews had been carried away as slaves.

And over time, some of them had actually been released when the empires would change hands, you know, it’d be a different emperor. And some of them took pity on some of the Jews that had been taken captive and released, some literally by the hundreds and thousands. So those Jews naturally migrated back to their own home, which would be Israel and Jerusalem, so important to them. But they spoke Greek, not Hebrew or Aramaic, as the Hebrew Jews would have spoken. And so you got these groups that speak these different languages, and you can imagine as you’re trying to sort of get together with people for Bible study, or Torah study in their case, and you’re wanting to sort of have a little small group or whatever you can imagine that the people that spoke Greek would be in one home group, and the people that spoke Aramaic would be in another home group. And that’s very natural. But somebody is missing the widows that speak Greek, and they bring that forward to the leaders of the church. They’re overlooked in the daily serving, some in the congregation.

Verse two says of the disciples that they said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. But select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation.” So here are the here are the 12 disciples, the apostles, instructing those Hellenistic Jews that the Hellenistic believers, rather that have come forward with a complaint and saying to them, “You pick seven guys.” And what’s the qualities that they’re looking for in these guys? It’s desirable for us to say and pay attention to the prayer and to the word. “But select from among yourselves, brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.” Very practical. I love that wisdom is flowing in a good way. We’re going to see over and over again throughout this passage. Really, the church is both an organism and an organization. You need both. Both are important. I believe that the former governs the latter. You can’t lose that part of it being living the body of Christ. But you also cannot dismiss the part of it that that takes care of business that needs to be taken care of. Else you would not have your chairs in a row today.

I know a lot of people hate organized religion. I love organized religion. I’m not very organized as a person. And so, when we started hiring staff here at The Village Chapel, we just hired to our weaknesses. We hired people that are really good at organizing stuff. And they do it beautifully. And we continue to have a very healthy and balanced staff that way.  There are people that tend to all of the different categories of ministry and organization that we need here at The Village Chapel. And I’m so glad to be able to say that. But we see that early on. The more people that show up, the more opportunity there is for some kind of a little, you know, something to fall through the cracks. And they responded really well. Here they are, the leaders of the church, saying we’ll devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. By the way, that is in a proper order, isn’t it? The sequence is right there. You’re going to be a Bible teacher, small group leader, men’s group leader, women’s group leader, whatever. You’re going to be a pastor standing up here. Pray first, then start digging through commentaries and listen to other people’s sermons and going on AI or whatever. And do whatever you do, do it. It’s a great, great resource. It’s all fine. No problem here. Nobody’s being legalistic about it. But pray first, “Lord, speak to me.” We tell each other all the time, “Lord, speak to me and speak through me.” It’s really important that God is the one who is speaking to us and leading us the Holy Spirit. His role as teacher in our lives is really important.

Verse five: “The statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch.” Now, the proselyte from Antioch is the only one that’s mentioned as a proselyte. Likely the other six are Jewish by race, and now have converted, even though they’re Greek speakers. All the names are Greek names. That’s interesting right there. How practical that was. You got a problem with the Greek widows being overlooked? Put some Greek men or men who speak Greek in charge of that problem. Good move. But Nicholas, we never hear another word about him, but he is a proselyte. Interesting, too, because I think a lot of people think that Cornelius is the first of the of the Gentiles to become a believer. And some people think, oh no, in chapter eight, it’s Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. He becomes the first Gentile that becomes a believer. I’m going to say no, I think that’s Nicholas right here, whom we never hear anything about. All Saint Nicholas right here. You know. So, he’s mentioned in passing. We know a little bit more about Stephen and Philip. They’re going to do more than wait on tables. Matter of fact, in this chapter you going to see Stephen just begin to…  next week you’re going to study his sermon.

It’s the longest sermon in the whole book of Acts. There’s 24 sermons, nine by Paul, eight by Peter, this long one by Stephen on a couple of various and sundry small little mini sermons by others. But this guy, this Hellenized Christian speaking Greek, maybe he also knows Aramaic. I don’t know, but we just know he’s from this group of folk who are serving tables at the beginning of this church, and he’s going to go on to become quite the preacher, but the whole congregation is excited about it. They choose these folks, verse six, and they brought them before the apostles, and after praying, they laid hands on them. That’s a look at the process. They’re really great. So, vetting them, we got these suggestions. Here’s the seven. We like them a lot. Take them to the apostles. The guys that really understand the Scriptures really knew Jesus, really knew them well, really understood what the church is all about. They were commissioned in Acts, Chapter 1, verse 8 to go into all the world, preach the Gospel to everybody in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the Earth. And here we already have the uttermost parts of the Earth coming in, because we got some Hellenized Jews from around the Mediterranean, and they’re coming into Jerusalem.

Right? So, they like this process, the congregation. Do the apostles like this process? They pray for them, they lay hands on them. And the word verse seven is one of Luke’s. Maybe there’s about a dozen of these kind of summary statements throughout the book of Acts, but it’s his summary. He kind of wraps up what just we just read “…the Word of God kept on spreading… the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem.” So just right there, that core group in Jerusalem is increasing greatly. We started with about 120. I think it was right to Pentecost. All of a sudden 3000, a few chapters later, 5000 more. We got ten, we got 20,000 because that’s men. Does that include men and women and children? What do we got? We got 20,000. Twenty thousand people in a short period of time coming to faith in Jesus. That’s really amazing when you think about it. And you can kind of see where stuff could fall through the cracks. And we need to sort of get the organization side of things together. But the Word of God is spreading. The number of disciples is increasing. And a great many of the priests, look at the last part of verse seven.

“And a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.” Pro tip: if you ever look for a church, make sure your priest knows God. Okay? It’s just it’s some way, it’s a little just a hint. I know every now and then we get people, “Hey, I’m moving to Ohio. I want to look for a church. What should I do?” And, you know, you say all the normal things go along with it, but I never thought I’d have to say and make sure he’s a Christian. Make sure you got somebody that believes, you know, that’d be awesome. But actually, it’s really true. I’ve been around this town long enough to know that in our city, as well as in other cities, there’s a whole lot of people that stand behind one of these, although it doesn’t look quite like this one, but they stand behind the pulpit, and they speak for a career move. But some of them don’t even believe what they’re preaching. Some of them have never been converted, never had a conversion experience where they’ve surrendered their lives to Christ. There are seminary professors and divinity school professors that don’t know God. They like to talk about it as a concept, but they don’t know God. They haven’t surrendered themselves to God.

So that’s really important. I think that that’s even part of the conversation there. Verse 8, we now slip into a new pericope. And what this is Stephen’s going to move to the front of the story line here. Next week, you’ll study with Pastor Tommy this sermon that Stephen gives. We get a little summary walking up to that, though, it goes like this, “Stephen, full of grace and power…” I love the combination there, full of grace and power, because we already know he’s full of wisdom and full of the Holy Spirit, because he got chosen to be among the seven. And that was part of the requirements there, right from among us. All right. Full of grace and power was performing great wonders and the signs among the people. First time somebody who’s not an apostle is doing kind of a miracle thing. Okay. Some men, though, from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Sardinians and Alexandrians, those are two places in Northern Africa. And so, these people are from the Synagogue of the Freedmen would have been those somewhere along the way when the Roman Empire did, when the emperor made an edict and said, “All of those Jews, set them free.” And they call them freedmen synagogues.

You got to remember, we’re going to read about synagogues all through the book of Acts, but you never read about them in the old Testament. Why? Because they had the Tabernacle and the temple. And somewhere along in the sixth century BC, when the Babylonian captivity happened, and all of the Jews from southern Israel got carried away to Babylon. That’s the best we can tell. When synagogue worship started happening for the Jewish students, they still they didn’t have access to the temple, didn’t have access to Jerusalem. So, they gathered in small groups, usually ten Jewish males. That was sort of a tradition; ten Jewish males and their families would be a synagogue. And they could read Torah, they could pray together, they could sing the Psalms together. So, the synagogue of the freedman, these men, from that they come. And there are some of them from northern Africa, and some of them from Cilicia and Asia, which would be north and west of Israel. So, what’s interesting about this is, Cilicia is a region where the town of Tarsus is. And the apostle Paul, who used to be called Saul, was Saul of Tarsus. So, he’s from that area. The area called Asia is not what we normally would think. Oh, China or Southeast Asia somewhere. Now this would be a reference more to Asia minor, which today we would call Turkey, for the most part.

And so, what you have is you have people from all around there like that and they’re coming in. Some of them are just speaking Greek. And they’re coming to Jerusalem. They maybe have Jewish background. Are they converts to Christianity yet? Well, it doesn’t say that right here. It just says some people from the Synagogue of the Freedman. I’m going to say they probably aren’t yet Christians, because they’re actually going to work at odds with Stephen and his message. They rose up and argued with Stephen, in verse ten. And yet they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. So, here’s a guy that was just your waiter about a month ago or two months ago or something like that. You know how you come to Nashville and literally every waiter is a songwriter, right? You got it right. And so, you come to Jerusalem and you got all these waiters, you know, that are popping up in this Christian church, gaggle of people, and you’re part of the Greek speaking people that have come into town, some of them are doing that kind of Christian thing and others are not. And so, you start arguing with the guy who seems to know what he’s talking about, and you just can’t best him.

It’s just like Jesus. Yeah. People came in all the time and tried to catch Him in things, tried to argue with Him, and He bested them every single time. And same thing happens here with Stephen, because he’s so full of wisdom and of the Holy Spirit in his life. Verse 11, “They secretly then [these Hellenistic, Jews who are there causing trouble] induced men to say, ‘We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.’ And they stirred up the people, the elders and scribes, and they came upon him and dragged him away, and brought him before the Council.” That’s the Sanhedrin, council of about 70, Jews, made mostly of Pharisees and Sadducees. And so, they bring him there and sort of the ruling, governing body of the religious council. Okay. And they put forward false witnesses who said, verse 13, “This man incessantly speaks against this holy place,” meaning the temple and the law. Well, that sounds interesting. “…And we have heard him say that this Nazarene Jesus, will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us.” So, lots of references to Moses here, the law, and the customs that Moses handed down. All of that. Right. And we’re upset. “He’s talking about the temple. He’s talking about Jesus. He’s saying Jesus is going to tear this temple down. I thought that Jesus was dead.”

And so, they’re making these accusations before the church council. And here’s what Luke chooses to record as just almost parenthetically, verse 15, which is probably my favorite verse in this chapter. Take a look at it with your eyes: “And fixing their gaze on him, [meaning Stephen] all who were sitting in the council saw his face like the face of an angel.” Now, that’s not some mama who looks at their child and goes, “Oh, you’re my little angel, I love you.” You know, most babies, when they’re born, looked at me like they got their face stuck in an elevator door. You know, it’s kind of like it’s gonna, you know, be let me out of here. Yeah, but no, no, no, this is way this is way more than that. This is stunning. And it’s not insignificant. Okay? I think it’s important that we take note. What do they see? I mean, what does Luke mean by recording that? And where do you get that information from? Yeah. If Joseph of Arimathea is still on the council, which he could be; if Nicodemus is still on the council, would it could be Luke goes around all over Jerusalem and starts interviewing people, and many priests are coming to faith, it seems to me there probably be plenty of people that would know what the murmur was all about when it came to this guy, Stephen, and what he was saying. And then they look at his face and it’s like flashlight face, you know? It’s like the face of an angel.

Interestingly, in the context of them complaining about Stephen, in their view, saying things against Moses and the customs of Moses, and that they would have known that Deuteronomy 34 is a story of Moses coming back down off the mountain with his face, a light in such a bright way that all the children of Israel fell back out of fear, because his face was so bright. Now I would love to have been in Heaven between verse 14 and 15, and heard the committee of angels sitting around with Jesus just gone, watching this whole thing go down, you know, with the with Stephen before the Sanhedrin there and there, they’re all saying all these things against him and all the and there’s this little pause. He speaks for God so long as I’m Moses and Michael or Gabriel looks over Jesus, he goes, “Let’s make his face really bright like Moses.” That’d be awesome right now, you know. Could he just see their mischief in wanting to do that right then and there? I love the thought of that. What do we learn here? Well, there’s plenty actually. There’s so much good, good stuff here. I think I put this down. I put a quote up there already. Do you guys see that?

That’s such a great quote. I’ll throw it up there again just because it’s right next in line. But we do learn that the church is both an organism and an organization. And we learn in verse one that the church here is a growing church. So, when the Gospel is on the move inward, and indeed it results in growth. All along we’ve seen this happen. Luke has mentioned it in Acts, Chapter 2, verses 41 to 47; in Acts, Chapter 4, verse 4, “…many of those who had heard the message believed, and the number of men came to be about 5000.” Again, just the men. How many women, how many children? So, you got that. And Luke seems as much as a lot of us might say, I don’t really want to be in a big mega-church, or I don’t want to be in a jail. You know, I remember early on in our church, Matt, Pastor Matt used to pray. He came to me once and asked me. I said, “We’ve reached about 30 people or something.” Pastor Matt goes, “Is it okay if I pray that we don’t grow anymore? You know?” And I said, “Well, that’s kind of the point. You know, we’re kind of here to, you know, grow, you know, that’s part of what we want is a sign of vitality and life.” I know what he meant, though. There’s something really beautiful about the, the intimacy of smallness. And, and I love that, but Luke seems interested in numbers. All the more believers in the Lord, “…multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number,” Luke says, and then we have here verse one, “…at this time, while the disciples were increasing in number.” Yes. You see the same thing in Acts six and seven. You see the same thing in Acts 9:31. “The church throughout Judea and Samaria enjoyed peace; being built up and going on in fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.” Really interesting. Acts 12:24, “The Word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied.”

Acts 16:5, “…so the churches were being strengthened in the faith and were increasing in number daily.” Yeah, it’s all there. Acts 19:20, “The word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.” And so yeah, Luke sees numbers as a sign of vitality. Not the only sign. I know a lot of times in our Western mindset, church unity, we might think it’s the only sign of vitality is numbers. It’s not, but it is a sign. And I think it’s really an important one. The growth of the early church was both deep and wide, and that growth came complete with growing pains, as we saw in verse one. After 25 years here at The Village Chapel, I hope and pray that TVC never stops growing in depth. I hope it never stops growing in numbers as well. But we should always remain students. We should always be growing. We’ve never arrived. We’ve never learned it all. We’ve never heard it all. And it’s so easy, isn’t it? We get so smug sometimes, especially in a town like this. You know, I remember people just sitting there like this: “Go on, hit me. What you got? You know, preacher. If you can move me.” Had one guy used to live here, and as he left, he would wave over at me, “Nice try.” Yeah. We laughed. I mean, we laughed about it. It was all in good fun, but it is that kind of thing where you go, “Lord, keep us growing.” That’s important church work. And the reason is because, every single one of us is, is a member or a part of this organism and organization we call The Village Chapel.

And every church is that way. We participate at differing levels. As a matter of fact, I love the old adage that says church work is similar to a football match: 22 people needing a rest watched by lots of people needing exercise. So, I ask you, which are you? Which side of that are you on? You know, that’s good for all of us to ask, I think. And, not trying to guilt anybody at all, but I just tell you, it takes an entire group of us to make this happen for these chairs to be in the right rows, for these lights to be on, somebody’s got to pay the bills, you know, for all those beautiful, wonderful children that we have, it takes so much to herd them. But to beyond that, to go and love them and to train them and to teach them. And it takes so much to do the music that we have here. And I’m so proud of our musical worship here at this church. There’s so many things that it takes, and you can have a part. It’s so much to lead a group, a women’s Bible study, a men’s Bible study, the youth group. I could go on. There’s so many categories. I invite you, if you aren’t part of the 22, jump in! We will find something for you to do. But we remember that we’re on the grow. We’ve never arrived. Okay?

I love the way Martin Luther said, “This life is not godliness, but growth in godliness; not health, but healing; not being, but becoming; not rest, but exercise. We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way; the process is not yet finished, but it has begun; this is not the goal, but it is the road. At present. All does not gleam and glitter, but everything is being purified.” Village chapel, you’re being purified. We are being purified. All of us. And the Lord, the good Father that He is, wants to conform us into the image of His dear Son. So, brothers and sisters, let’s be part of what the Lord is doing. I know some of you. You’ve probably been to a lot of different churches over the years, and I may have told this little story before, but it is interesting to me and I always think it makes sense, because people do sort of hop from church to church, you know, in different cities. And, truth be told, I think Kim and I have been to maybe 4 or 5 different churches since we’ve lived here. We came here in the late 80s or so. I can’t remember how long ago it was. But we hopped around a little bit before we started this church. Felt that led to do it.

But I love the story of the guy that got trapped on the desert island. If I may have told. If I have, don’t give it away to anybody else. But he got trapped on the desert island, and he was there for, like, ten years just trying to make, you know, food and catch fish with the spear and doing whatever he could. And finally, he said, you know, after ten years’ time, he sees the ship in the distance, it’s puffing its little smoke. So, he builds a fire and he sends up some smoke and smoke signals and throws the thing up, covers it, and then uncovers, like and sending a little signal. Morse code. Yeah, I’ll pay up. I’m, you know, whatever. And they sent a boat and the boat comes up on the shore and the people that are come to save this guy, they get out of the boat and they look at the guy. The guy’s all bushy beard, hair going all different directions. His clothes are all ratty and everything like that. But they look at they go, they see these three huts and they go, “What’s that?” He goes, “That’s my house, you know?” And they go, “What’s that building, right there?” He goes, “That’s the church.” Yeah. And then somebody goes, “Well what’s that other the third building?” He goes, “That’s the church I used to go to.” You know?

So, we’re just, our tendency is like that, right? When it’s kind of like not quite, you know, scratching our itch or whatever it might be, but you need to pour into the community to become a part of the community. Be fit together. And this is what we see happening here in Acts, Chapter 6. We see some people that have some really good gifts, some godly people, some really good, you know, skills as well that are very practical, to be able to distribute the food in a proper and a fair and equitable way. So, a growing church. Don’t look for the perfect church. Yeah. They just don’t exist. But growing church. Yeah. That’s good. And I think also when the Gospel in word and deed is reflected in the church, you see a caring church. That’s what happened here. The apostles didn’t say, “Sorry, they’re not Jewish 100% like we are. We speak Aramaic and Hebrew.” They didn’t do that. They said, “We need to take care of this group of folks, we need we need to meet their needs.” And, you know, Kim and I were talking about this this weekend. Now, there are so many hurting people in the world, so many hurting people very close to us, so many people around the world that are hurting, sometimes it’s so overwhelming to my soul. Maybe it is to yours as well.

And that’s one of the reasons I love the missions organizations that we support here at The Village Chapel. Forty of them, and some of them are doing great work in the area of justice, mercy and evangelism. It’s so wonderful. And look, we’re just a drop in the bucket and there’s a massive ocean of need out there. But why would you just sit there with your arms folded and not do anything? Why would you not become part of the solution, be part of the growing church, be part of a caring church as well? “The Gospel deals, not just with our alienation from God,” said David Jackman, “but the Gospel also deals with our sinful preoccupation with ourselves and our lack of loving concern for other people. And one of the marks of the gospel is that Christians are united in their care for each other.” We want to be that kind of loving community of faith where creed affects conduct, where belief influences behavior. And I think I can say that I see a growing and a caring church here at the village chapel, and it’s quite beautiful.

Now, last week, Pastor Matt made the comment that he didn’t have any John Stott or Tim Keller quotes. Does anybody remember that at all? And so, in the 9:00 service, just spontaneously when he said that, I literally walked up and walked out and that’s what happened. People laughed. And then I came back in and in between services and Matt said, “You got to do that in the 11.” Yes. So, I don’t know if you were here last week or not in the 11 when I did that, but I added to it like throwing a piece of paper up and really going out. Clop, clop, clop. No John Stott, no Tim Keller quotes, it was three Iain Duguid quotes. Nobody’s ever heard an Iain Duguid quote. What are you doing? Sorry, Duguid, but I gotta Stott and a Keller here for you. Matt, these are just for you. I thought that would be good. “In the ministry of Jesus’ words and works, gospel preaching and compassionate service went hand in hand. His works expressed his words.” I love that. So, the miracles of Jesus expressed the sermon on the Mount. Yeah. “His words explained his works. It should be the same for us. Words are abstract, they need to be embodied in deeds of love. Works are ambiguous, they need to be interpreted by the proclamation of the gospel. Keep words and works together in the service and witness of the church.” We see that in Acts, Chapter 6, the apostles say we got to keep paying attention to what we’ve seen with our eyes and heard with our ears in the person and work of Jesus. We’ve got to stay close to that, and we’re going to do some writing and all that sort of thing. Yeah, it’s just amazing when you think about it and just imagine the way it might have happened. We need some people, though, to take care of the actual machinery that needs to happen. It’s important. It’s not not important. It’s important that we put our words to work and take care of the needs of our people.

So, we see a growing church, a caring church, a faithful church. What were some of the distinctive characteristics in verse three? I think you noticed them, didn’t you? The characteristics of the seven up on the screen, that they would be seven people from among us. In other words, you don’t put newbies and visitors in charge of this important ministry of taking care of these folks that have been neglected. You use people that are in. They know the DNA; they understand the mission of the church. And so, they’re set apart there from among us. Good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit, full of wisdom and able to be put in charge or capable, responsible. They could do a good job at this. And again, this is so important that all of these characteristics line up. And I remember we even used this exact same little template way back at the beginning when we first started the church and we were thinking, we need a board of people, a council, if you will, servant leadership council.

And it’s even in our documents that describe the Servant Leadership Council that they are to be, to have these kinds of characteristics. So important. British church historian from the 19th and 20th century, his name was Henry Gwatkin described the early church this way and I love this quote. “No wonder if the Christians made an impression out of all proportion to their numbers. Conviction in the midst of waverers, fiery energy in a world of disillusion, purity in an age of easy morals, firm brotherhood in a loose society, heroic courage in a time of persecution, formed a problem that could not be set aside, however polite society might affect to ignore it: and the religion of the future turned on the answer to it. Would the world be able to explain it better than the Christians, who said it was the living power of the risen Savior?” And I remind you that the resurrection of Jesus is mentioned in all 24 sermons in the book of Acts. The apostle Paul in 1Corinthians 15 says that if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is in vain. The resurrection of Jesus is at the core. It’s central to the Christian faith.

And you know why it matters, folks? Because some of you are going to experience what I experienced last year when I lost my mom. I know where she is, actually, I didn’t lose her. I know exactly where she’s at. But she passed away, as a lot of you know, and some of you have experienced this recently as well. The resurrection of Jesus changes that forever. See if He can do that, if He has the power over life and death, and He has said, “Trust Me,” I don’t know about you, but I’m running to His feet. I’m trusting Him with everything I got. I’ll bet the farm on Him, and I have, and I will. All the outcomes belong to Him. Large outcomes or small, seemingly trivial, outcomes. And when you trust Him that much, trusting that He’s sovereign over everything, this One who says that the hairs on your head are numbered, that He knows you that intimately when you trust Him, if he really is sovereign, and I don’t believe in partial sovereignty, I don’t. I don’t believe in half sovereign or quarter sovereign, but I believe He’s really sovereign over all of this chaos and nuttiness that the world has. And that’s why these guys, when they get thrown in jail, start singing hymns at midnight, you know? You can’t quiet people like that, that believe in a sovereign God who’s in charge of all the outcomes. That makes a huge difference.

But we need to remember along the way that the church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. When I was a kid, I thought the opposite. I thought the church was a museum for saints. I thought all those people had it right. Why? Because it made me feel like I had it all wrong. They didn’t know how to handle a sinner. They didn’t know what to do with the sinner. They didn’t know that. Their sort of gruff, judgmental attitude toward little guys like me that were asking why questions all the time, trying to figure it all out. They didn’t understand that I was looking for a place that would welcome me, that would love me, that would try to answer my questions even if they didn’t actually have the answer, and might be honest enough to actually say, I don’t have the answer. But I think it’s this once in a while. And, I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that here at The Village Chapel. I hope we do, and we hope we have, and I hope we will indeed continue to do that. We want to be the place where the people that come in here don’t think we’re all looking down our nose at them.

Is there hypocrisy in the church? Yes. And there’s hypocrisy outside the church, too. I don’t know why, but in this world, everybody seems to want to talk about how there’s only hypocrisy in religious people. But every atheist you’ve ever met, every atheist you’ve ever seen on a TV show, is a hypocrite. And so is everybody from every other religion. They’re all weak. We are all, well, say one thing and do another at some point in our lives. And that’s what hypocrites are. We’re just pretenders here. We come in here. When you come in here, you are welcomed into this family of repentant sinners. We already know you’re a sinner when you come here. Why? Because we are too. So, we’re we are blessed to know the redeeming love of a Savior who would give His life for us, you know? He doesn’t have wagging fingers. He’s not rolling His eyes. He’s opening His arms wide for you to come to Him and come home to God through Him. The Gospel in word and deed results in a growing, caring, faithful and missional church.

“The word of God,” Verse seven says, “kept on spreading, and the number of disciples continued to increase greatly.” Not just converts, but disciples. So, so very important. And spiritual transformation. Transformation as a priest. Hallelujah! Pray for your pastors. Pray for all pastors everywhere, including this one. You know all of us. Pray for us all. We need you to. We need help all the time. Newbigin, the great missionary and missiologist, he wrote this: “The Church is the pilgrim people of God. It is on the move –hastening to the ends of the earth to beseech all men to be reconciled to God, hastening to the end of time to meet its Lord, who would gather all into one…It cannot be understood rightly, except in a perspective which is at once missionary and eschatological.” We’re looking forward. That’s what we are. Eschatology is that study of the end times, that’s one of those theological terms that that theologians came up with so they could keep their jobs. But yeah, we are sent out, we come to see, but we also go out and we preach the Gospel, and we want to be looking forward to the way the Lord is going to restore all things.

So, church, let’s be a refuge, not a performance. We can have that kind of fun out there tonight like we can. And we can enjoy great music in here and all that sort of thing. But at the core of who we are, we want everyone to know if they need a refuge, we’re here for them, right? The church becomes compelling. Not when it’s filled with a bunch of shiny, happy people, though, gathering in an impressive edifice, but rather becomes compelling when it’s unmistakably humble, gracious, and redemptive, just reflecting the grace that’s been shown to us. That’s all right. The church’s witness is most powerful, impactful, and irrefutable when we exhibit the grace that we’ve experienced. Its life is known by the humility of received mercy, not the arrogance of some kind of earned understanding. Stephen was a great example of the gospel in motion through words and deeds. As we read, some religious folks rose up to argue against him, but they were unable to cope with his wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke. So, they stirred up the religious leaders who arrested Stephen and then they dragged him before the council. And next week you will read about his execution, basically, here’s what it says.

If you think about what Jesus went through, and then you think about what Stephen went through, look at how parallel these things are. Religious leaders rose up against both of them, lost arguments with both of them, arranged false witnesses against both of them, stirred up the people against them. Number five, does it say arrested up there? Yeah. Arrested them. Dragged them before the council. Lost arguments with them, arranged false witnesses against them, and stirred up the people against them. You see what’s happening? Jesus predicted. Because the world hates me, it will hate you. Jesus said it. If you love me, you’ll keep my commandments. Jesus invited us to come and to follow Him, but He said, when you follow Me, you’ll need to take up your cross. You’ll need to deny yourself, take up your cross and to follow Him. It’s costly to be a disciple, but I wonder if Stephen, as he’s being dragged away to the Sanhedrin council, I wonder if the words of Jesus, which we studied not too long ago in Luke, Chapter 21, where He said, “I’ll give you utterance in wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute,” I wonder, I just wonder, you know, if Stephen heard that. If he was hanging out with the disciples and with Jesus back then, and he heard Jesus say those words, and then next week he launches a serious sermon, you know what? You do not want to miss that.

But when the church presents the Gospel in both word and deed, it helps thinking people believe and it causes believing people to think. Now, do you have some friends that aren’t believers? If it’s the Gospel you’re giving them instead of just religion or religious rules to follow, if it’s the good news of the Gospel you’re giving them, it’s going to in some way impact them. It’s going to help thinking people believe because it’s good news, folks. It’s great news. And we say it all the time: Who wouldn’t want that? You know? And then if the Gospel is in word and deed in our church, it’s going to cause believing people to think more. The Lord created us with feelings too; I’m not denying that. But the world that we live in, folks, we need to be thinking people of faith. The world is getting so much smaller and we have access to so many ideas, and that’s wonderful in so many ways. But we need to be ready and prepared to be able to give a defense for what we believe as well.

So, here’s the second Stott quote for the day. And, I’ll have this and a Spurgeon and then we’ll close up. “The church is supposed to be God’s new society, the living embodiment of the gospel, [There it is. Words and deeds, right?] a sign of the kingdom of God, a demonstration of what human community looks like when it comes under his gracious rule.” The kingdom of heaven has a king. Is He your king? Is He my king? Is He our king? Yeah. And from Spurgeon, I came across this clarity at 5 a.m., 5:30, this morning, I think it was. And I we have such a great tech team. I’m going to praise them a little bit, because even at the last minute, if I send them something like that and I say, can you squeeze this in at the end? And they go, yeah, without even, you know, arguing at all. It’s really wonderful. But Spurgeon said this so beautifully: “My hope lives not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, He [Christ] is my righteousness. My faith rests not upon what I am or shall be or feel, or know, [for that matter] but in what Christ is, in what He has done, and then what He is now doing for me.”

And I think, if Spurgeon were here, he’d say, and in me as well. I pray the Lord is working in all of us that way. Giving us, as we prayed before, a clear vision of His truth, a greater faith in His power, and a more confident assurance of His love for us. Let me pray for us: Lord, we have so much to be thankful for on this day that we’re celebrating our 25th anniversary. And pour more love for You into our hearts, because we’re inclined the other way. But if You would come and move on us, incline our hearts to You to love You. Redirect our affections to You, Lord. Put deep within us an increasing hunger for Your Word here at The Village Chapel. And then may the love of God flow richly between the people of God, so the watching world can see the antidote to all that’s wrong in this world is Jesus. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Amen. Amen.

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs:

“Holy Holy Holy“ by John Bacchus Dykes and Reginald Heber
“It Was Finished Upon That Cross“ by Jonny Robinson, Nigel Hendroff, and Rich Thompson
“I Need Thee Every Hour“ by Annie Sherwood Hawks and Robert Lowry
“Hallelujah What A Savior“ by Philip Paul Bliss, alt. verse: Tommy Bailey
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois
All songs are used with permission. CCLI License no. 2003690

Looking for our Hymns of the Week or resources to worship anytime? We’ve curated a playlist of hymns TVC Worship has led on our YouTube Channel!

Call To Worship: Let Us Go to the House of the Lord

Leader: I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord!
People: Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God!

Leader: Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; His understanding is beyond measure.
People: Blessed is he whose hope is in the Lord, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them.

Leader: The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations.
All: Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

Classic Prayer: Bernard of Clairvaux

Come, Holy Spirit, and bring from heaven a ray of Thy light! Come, Thou father of the poor, Thou giver of gifts, Thou light of the world, the blessed Comforter, the dear guest of the soul, and its sweetest refreshment; Thou, our repose in labor, our coolness in heat, our comfort in affliction! O, most blessed Spirit, fill full the hearts of Thy faithful people! Without Thy influence there is nothing in us which is not weakness and guilt. O, cleanse that which is sordid; bedew that which is dried up; heal that which is wounded; bend that which is stubborn, cherish to thyself that which is cold; guide that which is wandering; and grant unto Thy servants, putting their trust in Thee, the merit of Thy righteousness; O Lord, hear our prayer, and let our cry come unto Thee.

Confession of Faith: Treasuring God’s Word

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”
Psalm 32:8

Leader: What do we mean when we say “The Lord will instruct us and teach us in the way we should go?”
People: God gives us His Word, found in the Old and New Testaments, to guide and instruct us in all the ways He wants us to go, for His glory and for our good.
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Leader: What do we mean when we say “The Lord will counsel us with His eye upon us?”
People: God gives us His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, who dwells with us and in us as our Helper, our Teacher, and our Counselor. He leads each of us in the way we should go, illuminating His Word, and pointing us to Jesus, God the Son.

TVC Prayer Ministry

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Vocation: Finance, Banking, CPAs, Money
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Praying for the Persecuted Church: Oman

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