The Acts of the Apostles 32

Subtitle: The Stoning of Stephen II

Acts 7:57-60.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 22, 2023.

Last week, we looked at Stephen's conclusion to his defense before the Sanhedrin, the highest council of Israel.  He tells them that they are resisting the Holy Spirit just like their forefathers did.  He tells them that they have betrayed and murdered the Righteous One, which had to be a hard hit to them.  Lastly, he tells them that they have not obeyed the law.

Each of these hits on an area that they would have thought they were performing well.  They prided themselves in having received the law and meticulously obeying it and teaching it to others.  They would have prided themselves in waiting for the Messiah and teaching others to wait for him in righteousness.  They would have thought that they of all people were not resisting the Holy Spirit, but instead, were doing what God had told them to do through Moses.

However, this isn't the first time that they have heard this.  Jesus took them to task on this.  Peter and John had also said similar things when they were before the Sanhedrin. 

Regardless, if Stephen's charges aren't enough to precipitate his stoning, his description of a vision of God's throne in the heavens pushes them over the edge.  This time Gamaliel doesn't step in.  Is he enraged too?  Or, has he decided that he has pressed his honor far enough, and won't take the risk with this angry group?

There is a powerful spiritual dynamic at work here.  God deals with us as individuals, but at the same time, we are often part of groups.  It is impossible to avoid the group dynamics that can catch us up in a wave of emotional response.

We might even take a moment to ask the question if Stephen should have toned it down a little.  Was Stephen being too judgmental?  Judge not lest you be judged?  In truth, that verse gets quoted a lot by people who use it as a moral cloak.  It is simply a warning to make sure your judgments are righteous because, when you stand before God, He will take the manner of your judgments into consideration.  You were harsh?  Then, He will be harsh.  You were merciful?  Then, He will be merciful.

There are times when God speaks strongly to us.  He does this because He loves us.  Stephen spoke some hard words, but they were from the heart of God who wanted these men to hear the truth.  He loved them enough to tell them the truth.

On the other hand, these men have to be careful how they judge, which looks like they merely judged by emotions.  This is the problem with the accusation that someone is being judgmental.  Even that accusation is itself a judgment.  If you are using it simply to stiff-arm dealing with your stuff, then you are not doing yourself any favors.  Ultimately, we will all stand before God, so it doesn't matter what the other person says.  It only matters what God says.  If God can speak through a donkey, then he can even speak through a sinner who isn't completely right.  Don't shield yourself with platitudes.  Instead, turn to God in prayer and seek the truth.

Let's look at our passage.

The reaction of the Sanhedrin (vs. 57-60)

The council had been listening to a man filled with the Spirit and exposing their sin.  What would their reaction be?  Would it be to fall on their face and cry out to God for repentance?  No, like a pot coming to a boil, the Holy Spirit has been convicting them of sin, and they do not like it.

Verse 54 tells us that the council members were cut to the heart, and they "gnashed at him with their teeth."  This may sound bad, but at least there was a reaction.  It was proof that the Holy Spirit was breaking through to them.  Of course, we don't want to try and make people mad on purpose, but when people do explode in anger, just know that the Spirit of God has touched a nerve.

Hebrews 4:12 says, "the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."  God's word through Stephen pierced their heart, and when that happens we can become quite uncomfortable.

Paul tells us in Romans 1:16 that he wasn't ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus because it is the power of salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and then to the Gentiles.  We have all had the Holy Spirit convict us of sin.  How we respond is the critical thing.

Like parents dealing with a stubborn and resistant child, God deals with the reality that we need truth inserted into our life, but outward conformity isn't good enough.  Is my highest goal for my child that they not embarrass me in public; that they protect my "brand?"  No, the real issue is always the internal for God and for any parent who truly loves their child.

When the truth finally cuts through to the heart of a child or an adult, you will always get a big reaction, whether for good or bad.  It may seem harsh sometimes when a person is angry or crying, but God wants our hearts, and without the conviction of the Holy Spirit no true work can be done.  Praise God that this is exactly what He does (see John 16:8).  When God convicts a person, it is not about pushing that person down.  Rather, it is Him pleading with them.  "Why will you die?  Take my hand!"

Sadly, instead of falling on their faces in repentance, they covered their ears, cast him out of the city and stoned him.

Perhaps they are crying out, "Blasphemy!" as they did with Jesus in Matthew 26.  They may also be trying to shout him down, since they categorically reject that he is actually seeing the throne of God.

Also, they cover their ears, somewhat to keep from hearing more, and somewhat as a symbolic showing that they reject what he is saying.  Then, they rush at him.

All of these descriptions fall short of godly judgment of godly men.  However, the worst description to me is the phrase "in one accord."  It was if they were a single organism working with one purpose and one passion.  Unity is important precisely because the thing that unifies us can be bad or good.  I don't like one word mottoes like: Unity!  Love!  Equality!  They beg too many questions.  Unity around what?  Love of what, and how is this love defined?  What do you mean by equality? 

These men were just as unified as the 120 disciples were in the upper room of Acts 1-2.  However, a different spirit was animating and unifying them.  It reminds of that scene in Fyodor Dostoevsky's book The Possessed.  It is set in Tsarist Russia before the Bolshevik revolution.  A fire is set in a rundown section of town and everyone is scrambling to put out the fire.  A man who was demonstrably crazy throughout the book is running around yelling, "You can't put out the fire.  It's in the minds of men!"  Of course, no one is listening to him.  He's a crazy man, but it is the most salient point in the book.  The communist revolutionaries were seized upon by a fiery idea that would unify them to horrible things.

Groups, crowds, and protests can be powerful for good, but they can also be powerful for evil.  What spirit is animating the group?  More importantly, what spirit is animating me?  If the Spirit of God is animating me, then I will know if I run into a group that is not.  Of course, the Pharisees believe that they are led by God's Spirit too.  So now, we can have an event where one side says they have the Spirit and the other side says, no, we have the Spirit, a spiritual stand-off.

Some people become frustrated with such things and just walk away, even from church altogether.  How can you know who has the Spirit?  You make sure that you are in connection with God's Spirit, and if you aren't sure, then get out of the group, go home, get on your knees, and pray until you find God.  Time always proves what side has the Spirit of God.  In fact, sometimes neither side has the Spirit of God.  Yes, it is hard and difficult to go through such things, but it is the call of God to grow up in Christ.  Make sure for yourself that you are being led by the Holy Spirit, and leave the rest up to God.

As the group begins to stone Stephen, Luke brings our attention to young Saul of Tarsus.  Chapter eight will begin to describe an outbreak of persecution upon the Christians, and Saul was a zealous tip of the spear in it.  There it says that Saul was "consenting to his death." 

In this passage, it says that they laid their outer cloaks at his feet.  He would be the guarding them as they focus on stoning Stephen.  Someone could steal them.  Similar to playing sports at the park, it is hard to watch your stuff while you are playing.  Typically, you get a friend to watch it.

Saul didn't throw any stones, but he was an accessory to the murder of Stephen.  Of course, he was probably glad to be part of cleansing Israel for God.  However, later he would look back on this moment and see himself as the chief of sinners.

Have you ever done that, looked back at your life and saw just how blind you really were?  Often, it is not just blindness, but wickedness too.  Saul would go by Paul after his salvation.  He realized that he had been the worst of the worst, and yet, God loved him.

What do you do when you know how wicked you have been, how resistant and rebellious, and yet God calls you, and tells you that He loves you?  We can protest that God doesn't know how bad we really are, but the truth is that He knows that we are even worse than we believe we are.  Yet, He still loves you.  Why?  How?  There is no real answer to that.  Try to tell your spouse, or kids why you love them.  You will end up with a list that seems trite.  Even if you say that you love them because they are so lovable, it dredges up the inevitable question.  What if you find out who I really am, an unlovable person?  You don't have to have a why when your kid is born.  You love them.  You don't know what their life will be like, but you love them.  However, God knows everything about us, past, present and future.  Yet, He still loves us.  He died on a cross for you, just as He died on the cross for Saul of Tarsus, and even Caiaphas.  God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should have eternal life.

In Stephen, God was goading and pleading with those men that day to accept the Truth about who Jesus was, and still could be in their lives.  We should be thankful to God that we are not stuck in the truth of what we were, or even what we are today, any more than Saul was stuck being a blind persecutor of God's people.

Let's finish by looking at the last words of Stephen.  The scene is a loud and angry one, and yet, Stephen is serene in the face of it.  Surrounded by hatred and people throwing stones at him, he demonstrates the love of Christ through his actions and words.

This is easier said than done.  There is a spirit of rage moving in the crowd that can be infectious to both sides.  It doesn't matter if you are right.  You can be caught up in a spirit of fighting and arguing that is not of God.  Now, you both are wrong.  However, Stephen does not rail against them.  He simply cries out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"  He is not calling down fire from heaven upon them.  He knows that he is about to go home to his lord.

Jesus had told the Pharisees within the hearing of the disciples that he would send prophets and wise men to them and that they would kill some of them.  So, these men knew that they had signed up for something that could cost them their life.

Stephen had come to the end of his race, and now the only thing left was to run through the tape into the arms of an awaiting Jesus!  It is interesting to me that it was a Hellenized Jew who was the first to die for Christ.  I don't think this was to slight Peter, nor was it to protect him.  Peter would give his life around 30 years later.

Regardless, for the believer in Jesus, to die is to be present with Jesus at the throne room of God the Father.  Stephen has lived a life that was a witness to the Truth of Jesus, and now he will give the ultimate witness by dying for Christ.  Jesus is worth dying for and he is worth living for.  In fact, it is only a person who has lived for Christ who can die for him.  They both go hand in hand, like two sides of the same coin.

Lastly, Stephen stays true to form by giving words of mercy to those who are killing him.  "Lord do not hold this sin against them."  It is clear that he is thinking about the death of Jesus.  Jesus committed his spirit unto the Father, and asked the Father to forgive those killing him because they didn't know what they were actually doing.  He perfectly images the Father in this moment because He is perfectly imaging Jesus, who perfectly imaged the Father.  I hope you followed that.

How could he do that?  He is unjustly being put to death by wicked men.  Clearly, the death and resurrection of Jesus had changed his mind about what his job in this life was.  His job wasn't to get justice, or rail against wickedness.  His job was to be a witness to the lost of the love of God that is calling to them even as they murder a man.  Stephen refused to become bitter, hateful, and angry.

Of course, this doesn't mean God will not judge.  In fact, it is precisely because God will judge that we can show mercy.  As long as they are alive, they can repent, turn from their sins, and put their faith in Jesus Christ.

Do I really believe that God is not willing that any should perish, even those throwing stones at me right now?  Do I really believe that He wants to hold out His hands offering peace through me, even those who are mistreating me?  How can a person have this kind of attitude?

We can only have this attitude by dying to our desires and plans, and asking God to fill us with His desires and plans by His Holy Spirit.  Only the Spirit of God can enable a person to love their murderer and pray for their forgiveness.  "Oh God, do in me what I cannot do in myself!"  Everyday people are slipping into eternity lost, and it breaks the heart of God.  Can it break mine too?  It can if I will seek to be filled with the Spirit of God, and His love.

Stoning II audio

The Day Truth Came to Earth

John 14:5-6; Luke 2:39-40.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 25, 2022, Christmas Day.

We are going to start with a passage that is not a traditional Christmas passage.  However, it will give us insight as we go back and talk about that day when Jesus took on human flesh.

The Christmas story focuses on Jesus coming into the world.  However, let’s make the technical point that this is not the first time Jesus (the Word of God) came into the world.  It is the first time that he came into the world as a human being, an incarnation (in human flesh).  This unique human being was both God and man in a way that we can only speculate.  He was fully God and yet fully human.

The second part of the focus is that He is the Savior of the world.  This is a good thing because humanity has been looking for a savior to fix this mess for a long time.  In fact, we have not fixed the mess still in this modern era.

It is also important for us to recognize that the Incarnation of Jesus was also a day of identification.  Human beings were created like God in the sense that we could image Him in some ways.  Yet, we were not God in any way.  Jesus did not become “like” us.  Rather, he became one of us in order to identify with our condition, experience, and need.  From then on, no one could claim that God doesn’t understand what it is like to be a human.

Think about what this says to our foe, the devil.  God did not identify with fallen angels.  He identified with fallen humanity.  Why would He identify with humans?  For centuries now, we have been hammered with the reality that humans are just one species on a small planet, a speck within the universe.  What is humanity that God would be mindful of us?  It is interesting that even the ancients could understand the absolute smallness of mankind before the God of the universe.  Yet, He chose to identify with us. 

We are His creation, created for His purposes.  We were made in such a way that the incarnation could happen.  The uniqueness of humanity is not found in us, but in God’s creation of us for an amazing purpose, that the Word of God could become human and dwell among us!  Men have striven to become gods throughout history, but here, God becomes a man.  We are not fit to become gods in our mortality, but our mortality is somehow fit for God to become one of us.  Hallelujah! 

It is one thing for God to identify with us, but that only puts the ball in our court.  Will you identify with Him?  This is what needs to happen in our hearts, minds, and life.  Think it through.  He became one of us, and because of that, he has claims from within humanity as a human.  You can identify with him and connect in a living relationship, a relationship that is symbolized by marriage.  His future is your future because He has identified with you, and you have identified with Him.

I want to start with the John 14 passage.  Jesus is speaking with his disciples about leaving.  There he reveals something about himself that makes the Incarnation even more spectacular.

Let’s get into our passages.

Jesus is the Truth

Jesus makes several categorical statements here that involve his identity.  He says that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  These three pictures are a response to the question from Thomas about not knowing where Jesus is going.  Jesus makes it clear at the end of verse 6 that he is speaking about going to Father God in heaven. 

How do we get to the Father?  Jesus states that he himself is the Way.  Not, I know the way; I read a book once about the way; I can show you the way.  I am the Way!  Jesus is not pointing out the way to the Father in the sense of pointing over there.  Instead, he is pointing to himself.  I am the way.  It is about relationship with him.  If you have Jesus, then you have the way to the Father.  To be in relationship with Jesus is to be on the way to the Father, and you have nothing to fear.

The last picture speaks about life.  Not, I have a life; I can show you how to have a life.  I am the Life!  The Father is the Lord of life.  To dwell with Jesus is to have the life of the Father, eternal life.  Jesus was not teaching them the secrets to having a good life.  He was teaching them to come into a relationship with Life itself!  To have Jesus is to have eternal life, and to have eternal life is to have the Father!

It is the middle picture we are going to focus on for the rest of our time today, Truth.  Jesus does not say that he knows the truth, or that he climbed a mountain in Tibet and received the truth from a guru, who had received from a guru before him, ad infinitum (hmm, I wonder where such truth first came from).  He says that he is the Truth!  Yes, Jesus definitely taught Truth, but more than this, He is the Truth.

At Christmas, Truth came into the world, and this is a big deal!  In fact, this shows us that God has designed humans with the ability to seek out Truth, and as a loving Father, He has been faithful to give us Truth all along.

Let’s talk about Truth versus truth (uppercase “T” versus lowercase “t”).  We are a cynical age similar to the days of Jesus.  We also say as Pilate, “What is truth?”  On our lips, this question drips with much more cynicism and derision than it did from Pilate.  Our philosophy of truth has advanced to an even greater degree of hopelessness about the subject.  The “Enlightenment” of the 1600s AD have left us without hope of ever knowing absolute Truth.  We are taught that the best we can do is obtain a perception of things around us that are almost guaranteed not to be the “absolute truth.”  The only thing we can have is a personal perception of the world around us.

Let me just say that there is a thread of truth in this.  Much of our understanding of the world around us is merely perceptions, and perceptions have a reality of their own even if they don’t match the reality around us.  This relative and situational truth is not to be capitalized because it is in contrast to the absolute Truth (with a capital “T”) that modern philosophy says is impossible for us to know.

Now, I wonder just who in the universe has a vested interest in human beings believing that they cannot have a relationship with absolute Truth?  Where do you think such doctrines of demons come from?  Of course, you may protest that we don’t have doctrine of demons in our modern enlightened society.  O, to the contrary, my friend!  The devil does not show up one day with a pitchfork, wearing a red Halloween costume, and saying, “I have a teaching for you!”  No, he works upon men’s weak hearts and minds to draw them into accepting lies that are contrary to the Truth of God.  Brilliant but lost people write books and give lectures promoting the doctrine of demons despite their best intentions.

How do you build a society upon relative, perceptive truth?  In Truth, you can’t.  Our society is falling apart because of our exchanging God’s Truth for man’s relative truth.  We are responding to the dissolution by amassing more and more power for really smart people to tell us all how to live and how to fix the world.  It will not work because those “really smart people” refuse to believe that there is an absolute reality, Truth.

The Bible presents this absolute reality, this Truth.  It has concrete reality.  It is transcendent to us.  We cannot change reality by not perceiving it, or even refusing to accept it once we suspect it is real.  Humans were created to be able to know absolute Truth, and have a relationship with it.  Jesus is the lynchpin to this whole thing.  We were made to know Him, and therefore we can know absolute Truth.

Yes, we do not know everything absolutely.  We don’t have to.  Think about a light switch.  I don’t have to know all the cutting-edge physics behind how and why it works.  I only need to know that it works.  I can flip the switch and have power.  If it doesn’t work one day, I don’t quit believing in electricity, or those who designed the circuit.  I just know that something has gone wrong and will call an electrician.

Similarly, we do not need to know everything about the universe in order to live life.  We just need to know some absolute Truths, the ones that matter most.  God has been faithful to give us this.  Humans were designed to live by faith upon those Truths that God has given us.

-Truth as a baby-

So, what does Truth coming as a baby say to us?  To a world that was cynical (is) in regards to Truth, God gives the gift of Jesus, the Truth incarnate.  Why would he come as a baby?  Why would he even go through nine months of gestation?  Birth into a stable, a manger, a small village, a small country, a dangerous time?  All of these questions are meant to provoke us to think about the day that Truth came into the world.  How could the title “Truth” begiven to such a baby who was so small and vulnerable?  Yet, we even have bureaucrats today declaring, “I am science!”

I believe that God is showing us that Truth can be found.  It may not look like we expected, and it may not be all that we wanted, but there it is, Truth in a manger.  Even shepherds are able to find Truth in this wonderful world that God has made.  You do not need to be a genius to find Truth because God wants you to find it; He made you to find it!

Truth as a baby also tells us that God is absolutely the humblest being in the universe.  He doesn’t drop in as a fully developed man in his prime speaking our language proficiently.  Instead, He truly identifies with what it means to be a human, what it means to be the average human within human existence (something that Americans know nothing about).  God knows what you are going through.  He really does, that is the Truth.

This also tells us that there is something about Truth that cannot be sped up, or skipped.  We can’t just download to our minds quickly and be experts overnight.  This is because God is Truth and to know Truth is to have a relationship with Him.  You may have just been saved.  Well praise God.  You have just come into a new relationship with Truth.  Be faithful to the end of your life, and you will grow in your understanding of Truth.

It also tells us that our lives on this planet are Truly important and worth living because God Himself lived as one of us.  In fact, I would say that it is impossible for an American to be happy in this world.  Praise God that all things are possible with Him!

-Truth as a man-

Luke 2:39-40 describes Jesus growing up.  He grew up into a young man just like any of us do.  Yet, he did so without sinning like we did.  What does Truth becoming a grown man say to us?

It tells us that no station in life, or hindrances, should keep us from being what God called us to be.  Jesus carried the social stigma of being conceived outside of marriage.  He was an “illegitimate” child.  He grew up with adults and other kids continually making him aware that there was something wrong with him.

Notice how modern society wants to blame this on God.  “If we didn’t have these rules, then no one would ever carry a stigma in society.”  It’s God’s fault.  Yet, the same God who said that sex outside of marriage is sinful, also chose to be born in a way that put him under such suspicion.  Yes, Jesus was not born of fornication.  He knew it and Father God knew it.  However, the perception of society was that there was no way this young girl was made pregnant by the Holy Spirit of God.  That was their truth.  Jesus knows what it is like to be born into a state where the world around you continually lets you know that you fall short in their judgment.  There is a whole discussion on this in John 8 where the Pharisees accuse Jesus of being a bastard.  The problem wasn’t God.  It was them.  That is why God sent Truth in human form.

Truth as a man also tells us that God is not afraid to tell us the Truth.  The little baby didn’t stay a baby.  It grew up and began speaking Truth.  Too many “Christians” in the US have only embraced a baby Savior that only says, “Goo-goo gaga.”  This is a pretty, innocent, vulnerable baby that cannot threaten us by giving us Truth.  We have no problem giving lip-service to Truth, as long as we don’t have to face it in actuality.

If you think your life is dull, then read the Bible and start speaking the Truth of God to our society (even to other Christians).  You will find out really quick that the problem has never been that God is holding out on us, but more on that in a bit.

Truth as a man tells us that God wants to walk with us through life.  We are not alone.  He is Truly with us.  Even before the incarnation, this was True.

It also tells us that we can have hope in the future.  Do you really think that Jesus would do this if there was no hope?  We can hope in the future because we are not at the mercy of the “brights” of our age, just as Israel was not at the mercy of the “brights” of their age, whether Israeli or Roman. 

Truth lived among us, and His impact upon this planet is still rippling across this world like the aftershocks of a great earthquake.  In schools today, they will teach that time is divided between C.E. and B.C.E.  Of course, this is a rejection of the previous A.D. and B.C.  Yet, notice that it still divides upon Jesus Christ.  They cannot escape the reality, the Truth, of who He really is.

-Truth being executed-

It seems fitting in a tragic way that the crucifixion of Jesus symbolically shows us our problem.  We nailed Truth to a cross, and put it to death!  God had been giving us Truth all along the way.  Adam and Eve walked with God in the garden and He told them the Truth.  Still, they believed a lie and went down a path of discovering what evil is.  Praise God that He has gone down that path with us and did not abandon us!  He also gave us Truth in the heavens and the world around us, but we believed a lie and worshiped the creation instead of the Creator.  Down through the ages, God was faithful to speak Truth to us through holy men, but we believed a lie and didn’t like what we were hearing from them.  Most of them were killed.

The execution of Truth tells us that our problem has never been that God has made it too hard to see the Truth.  The Truth is stated in John 3:19. “this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”  Men love darkness rather than The Light.  Men love shortcuts rather than The Way.  Men love the shadowlands of lies rather than The Truth.

Praise God that we do not have to live that way.  Yes, you will have to live through this mess, but you don’t have to live like it.  It is only when we see our own penchant towards rejecting Truth, and chose to embrace the Truth instead of ourselves, that we can find the eternal life of Jesus.  God help us to be a people who are repenting of embracing lies and half-truths.  In Jesus, we can Truly find our way out of the mess. 

It is fitting perhaps that we celebrate the Incarnation during the darkest period of the year, but our need of the Light, of Truth, is year-round.

-Truth being resurrected-

This world tried to kill The Truth!  This is down in our hearts as humans.  We will kill the Truth and bury it, or put it under a tarp in the basement so long as it never gets out.  This is America; this is our world; this is me without Jesus!  Without Jesus, we are all struggling to live our lie.

What does Truth being resurrected say to us?  Can I just state the obvious?  It tells us that humanity will never be able to kill the Truth.  The Truth is that you can’t hide the Truth.  You can’t get away from the Truth.  Everything that you deal with and run into in this world was built on the foundation of Truth, even if it is rejecting the Truth.  To a person bent on getting away from Truth, this world, this universe, is a horror show filled with the rebukes of Truth everywhere.  We can manipulate much of God’s creation, but Truth is the framework upon which all of the creation operates.  Truth is the operating system of the creation, and we will never be able to create our own reality.  No matter how good our false path, false truth, and false life are in the moment, they are always headed over the cliff of Truth, and down the river of no return.

It is unavoidable, and it is not because God hates us.  He loves us too much to leave us trapped in deception and lies, and then lost forever.  No young person after a car wreck calls their dad and says, “Daddy, the perception in my mind has been wrecked!  Can you come and get me!”  So today, the Father of creation is waiting for you to cry out to Him in response to the reality you were trying to avoid.

The resurrection of Truth tells us that God will have His way in the end.  Those who embrace Truth will dwell eternally in the goodness of God.  Humanity will dwell in perfect Truth one day, and in fact, He has made it possible for each of us to taste of that Day in the now.

Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus, The Truth?  Truth may have physically left this planet twenty centuries ago, but He did not leave us without Truth.  He gave the Truth to His followers, and also had them write the Truth down.  He gave the Spirit of Truth so that they and we could be guided into all Truth that we need.  Yes, Truth can dwell in your heart today by the Spirit of Christ.

Truth audio

The Acts of the Apostles 23

Subtitle: Taking Care of Widows

Acts 6:1-7.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on November 13, 2022.

Today, we will look at a passage that serves two purposes.  First, it helps us to see how the early Church dealt with conflict, and it also serves to introduce Stephen to us.  The second half of this chapter describes his arrest, and chapter 7 is a very long treatise from Stephen before the Sanhedrin.  We will talk more about this next week.

Conflict is not always a bad thing.  It may simply be the motivation to fix something that is not as it should be.

Let’s look at this passage.

Conflict arises vs. 1

There has developed quite a large group of Christians in Jerusalem, and it is hard to have a large group without any conflict.  Even two people will no doubt develop conflicts that they need to work out.  However, any time you gather a large group of people, the more likely you are to see conflict. 

Verse 1 tells us, “When the number of the disciples was multiplying…”  This multiplication is driven by the work and blessing of the Holy Spirit.  The fruitfulness of the Holy Spirit does not guarantee the absence of conflict.  Rather, it must be walked out in our natural life.  This is where the fruitfulness is evidenced, or seen.

We should not think automatically that conflict is a bad thing.  All groups who are trying to accomplish a mission will develop issues that bring passion to the surface.  The personality of people tends towards a Fight Instinct or towards a Flight instinct.  This gives us different components of the conflict.  There is the source, the responses, and the solution.  Each of these components are fraught with pitfalls, and “getting it right” in one component does not guarantee doing so with the others.

The main thing for Christians is to guard against being controlled by our natural responses.  God always has a purpose in conflict, even when the other person may be wicked.  In short, increased size will always bring increased conflict.  Your heart is your main concern throughout this.

In this conflict, there is a cultural issue at the heart of the conflict.  Two groups are introduced.  The Hellenes were those, whether Greek or Jewish, who lived according to Greek culture and mainly spoke Greek.  Hellenes was a name that the Greeks came to use for themselves, but by extension, it came to be used for anyone who adopted their culture.  This is not a reference to Helen of Troy, but to the mythological son of two flood survivors.

In contrast to these Christians who lived according to Greek culture, there was the Hebrews.  These Christians were Jews and converts who lived according to the culture of Judea.  They mainly spoke Aramaic and Hebrew, also having the dress and lifestyle of Israel in those days.  Ever since the return from the Babylonian Exile, this distinction existed among them, whether Greek culture, or Persian and Babylonian culture.

This is not an issue of salvation.  Both Hebrew and Hellenists were believing in Jesus, and joining the Church.

Now we can begin to talk about the conflict.  There were widows among these two communities who needed help with food and necessities, and so a daily distribution was started in order to care for them.  Of course, these were not rich widows who would have slaves and could care for themselves.  They would not be young widows who would often still have family and could remarry.  They were older widows who were left without a husband, without means, and without adult children who could care for them.

The Apostle Paul speaks about this type of situation in 1 Timothy 5:3-5.  Paul is not putting down those who remarry.  Rather, he is saying that a church should not be supporting those who already have familial supports around them.

We see this in the Law of Moses, where God threatens Israel not to mistreat widows and orphans (Exodus 22:22).  In Deuteronomy 10:18, God describes Himself as one who gets justice for the widow and the orphan.  Early Christians took this seriously, and cared for the widows in their midst who did not have natural family to care for them.  We do not know who was doing it, but there seems to have been no group plan.  It was just happening.

However, the fact on the ground is that some widows were being overlooked, and they were Hellenists.  This does not appear to be in dispute at all.  Now some conflicts happen over immoral issues, but there is no idea that this is being done on purpose, as a result of ethnic rivalry.  Some conflicts are simply logistical issues that require a better plan of operation.  Humans forget things and any plan that does not plan to cover for such moments is a plan that will have failures.

In this case, the source of the conflict does not have a moral failure.  This brings us to the next stage, the stage of response.  If we are easily offended, we tend to see purposeful actions in others, and ourselves as innocent.  This can affect our response, even sour it.  I can respond sinfully to a conflict that is not over a sinful matter.  Pause and think about that for a moment.

A solution is found vs. 2-6

As certain Hellenists speak among themselves about this problem, it comes to the attention of The Twelve.  They recognize that this needs to be solved publicly so that everything is done in the open for all to see.  This will make it easier to keep group unity down the road. 

Thus, they have all the Christians in Jerusalem gather.  This will not be a time for a sermon, or teaching, or even worship in song.  It is a time for ironing out a problem in the day-to-day operation of the Church.  Notice that in this conflict there are already cultural divides between the people.  It is wise to pay attention to such matters.

The call to gather is put in the mouth of “The Twelve.”  They were united on this issue and no one is credited with coming up with the solution.

Part of the solution is nipping in the bud the idea that the apostles should oversee everything that the Church does, or even do it themselves.  We do not know how many widows there were.  However, they are a large group, and they are under Roman occupation.  This may mean that there is a substantial number.

They state that “it is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.”  “It is not desirable” has the idea of that which is fitting or proper, and thus pleasing, or desirable.  They are not saying it would be undesirable to them, but to God.  They had a calling on their lives that required being in the Word and spending time in prayer.  An enemy to reading the Word and prayer is often sinful tendencies, but it can also be other good things that need to be done and eat up our time.  There is a tyranny in the urgency of good things that take us away from better things.

Of course, everyone needs time in the Word and in prayer.  This is not only an issue for the apostles.  However, they are not the best ones to step up and fulfill this ministry.  Someone else needs to assist in this ministry.

The apostles tell the people to pick seven men to oversee this ministry.  Notice the qualifications that they advise the people to use.  Clearly, they do not see this ministry as something lowly that anyone could do.  It is not that this ministry is beneath them, but that it is not for them.  They have a different ministry to do.  They are to pick “men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business.”  Even something as menial as serving tables in the name of Christ should be taken seriously.  We all need the help of the Holy Spirit to do everything that we do, and not just the “great things.”

It has been suggested that the number seven basically puts one man in charge of each day.  It is speculative, but also quite reasonable considering that it was a daily distribution.  Many hands make light work, and light work makes for joyful work.  Learn to be joyful in the duties that you have.  God has a good blessing for you on the other side.

We should also notice that there is no election or electioneering mentioned.

Seven men are picked and they all just happen to have Greek names.  It may be a stretch to say that they were for sure all Hellenists, but it appears that way.  With all or most of them being Hellenists, there will be no question going forward that ethnic tensions are playing a part in any errors.  Stephen leads this list because he is the next focus of Luke’s account.

These seven men are only going “to feed widows,” but they are publicly commissioned to this task in front of the group by the apostles.  There will be no question that these men are the ones who will take care of the ministry and that they should deal with any further problems or issues.  It also is a reminder to the men that they are to do this ministry in the name of the Lord.  They will be the hand of the Lord to these widows in their time of need.

The apostles lay their hands upon them and pray over them.  This picture of placing a call of God upon others through prayer is a beautiful one.  Practical service is a spiritual service.  Just as God was using the apostles to lay a foundation for the Church, so he would use them to set the Church in order.  These men are not entitled deacons at this point, but the word for “serving” tables is the verb form of that title that we will find later in the New Testament.  These are the first deacons of the Church.

The effect upon the spread of the Gospel vs. 7

I am sure that the enemy was hoping to divide and conquer the early Church through this matter.  It is good to pay attention to the schemes of the devil.  If we will not buckle to brute force attacks against our faith, we may respond to divisions and conflict with fellow believers.

What we see here is a Spirit-filled response to a very practical problem, and it protects the work of God from being diminished, “the Word of God spread.”  Distraction and group squabbles can keep us from the mission of sharing the Good News with others.  It can put out the Spirit’s fire within our hearts. 

This does not mean that we do not pay attention and speak up when things are not right.  God used this to deal with a problem.  Some widows were not receiving the food and care that they should have.  No one should want that to go unnoticed for the appearance of group unity.  Leaders in a church should not emphasize unity so strongly that voices that bring up problems are squelched.  It is the unity of the Holy Spirit that we work for, and sometimes, the Holy Spirit wants something to be said.

We are also told that the number of disciples multiplied greatly.  It has already been multiplying greatly, so we can say that they continued in the blessing of God.  Feeding widows and proper conflict resolution are not the secret to growing the Church.  Rather, it is responding to issues that need to be addressed with spiritual maturity and grace.  It is too easy to let the chores go undone, and then go on about your life.  Sometimes God lets the roof leak so that you will get up and start doing something about it.  It is in an environment of taking one another seriously, and properly dealing with conflicts, that the blessing of growth in the believing community can happen.

Lastly, Luke mentions that “a great many of the priests” became believers in Jesus.  Not all of them were like Annas and Caiaphas.  They had grown up in a system of tradition and control that had taught them not to question what they saw.  It gave them a “correct understanding” of the law that was not actually correct.  It was not until someone, who knew the truth, started teaching and living out the truth in front of them that they were able to break free from the intellectual hold upon them.

This happens today in churches, denominations, nations, even in constitutional federated republics.  It is only by the grace of God by His Holy Spirit that we can break free from the lies that were taught to us by our fathers, often because they were taught them by their fathers.  Jesus is no lie!  The Holy Spirit is not a lie, and those who believe in Jesus will be filled with the Spirit in order to make a difference in their life.  God help us to be “serving tables” by helping those who have no help in this life.  However, let us not overlook the need of people to be served the Word of God, so that they can believe!

Widows audio

The Gifts of the Spirit

1 Corinthians 14:1-5.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on May 29, 2022.

Last week, we talked about the Day of Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2.  I want to pause on our walk through the Acts of the Apostles and focus this week and next on issues of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  In fact, next week, June 5, is Pentecost Sunday.

The Day of Pentecost nearly 2,000 years ago was a significant day, which opened the door for a whole new way of God’s working among His people.  From that day onward, each one of God’s people would have a spiritual gift or gifts by which they could strengthen and build up one another as the Holy Spirit leads us.

Let’s get into our passage.

The impact of love on spiritual gifts

Let’s refresh our minds regarding the context of this chapter.  Paul is writing to the Church at Corinth, Greece, in order to correct their errors regarding spiritual gifts.  In chapter 12, he broaches the subject, but then, in chapter 13, he shows them the more excellent way of love.  Chapter 14 calls Christians to a balance.  Love is not more excellent in the sense that we would choose it to the exclusion of spiritual gifts, but rather that it would be the moral imperative behind why and how we use spiritual gifts.

Verse 1 gives us the command to pursue love and to desire spiritual gifts.  It makes sense that he puts love first as it is the “more excellent way.”  He also uses the word pursue.  Of course, it is not a love relationship with another person that we are pursuing now, but a love itself.  The foundation of having love in my relationship with others is having a relationship with love itself.  Better yet, when we understand that “God is love,” this is a call for us to pursue God Himself, His character, His image.

Paul clearly is not trying to nix spiritual gifts.  We should continue to desire them, but for the purpose of demonstrating the image of God and His love for others.  Any expression of spiritual gifts should be to fulfill the imperative of love.  Love always works for the good of others, as defined by God, and not their harm.

Paul uses the example of two gifts, speaking in tongues and prophecy, because this is where their erroneous thinking was most obvious.  Speaking in tongues was the spiritual gift that many of the Corinthian Christians saw as the most desirable, even to the point of ignoring others.  The Greek culture saw intelligible language as a higher stamp of the divine than prophecy in an understood language.  Those closest to the divine would not be understood.  Their church assemblies had devolved into large numbers of people speaking in tongues and not wanting to do much else.  They had become so hung up on it that it was harming the value of the Christian gatherings.

The root of this problem is that they are thinking about God’s things with the mindset of the world around them.  Their Corinthian culture was dominating how they used these spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit.  This is not just a Corinthian problem.  All people are in danger of letting their own culture overwhelm how they approach the Bible, the Church, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

In verse 2, Paul begins to explain the purpose for both speaking in tongues and prophecy.  He does so by highlighting two issues: who is being addressed and who is being edified by it.  Let’s deal with them one at a time.

When a person speaks in tongues (an unknown language that they have not naturally learned), they are talking to God and not to others.  One might object by pointing to the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2.  They were understood by others, but it does not in anyway give the idea that those speaking in tongues were speaking to the crowds.  Peter later addresses the crowds in a language that they understand.  In essence, the crowds are overhearing this group of about 120 individuals who are all speaking in languages that they did not naturally know.

It is also important to understand that this initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit is unique to later outpourings.  God had orchestrated it to happen on a feast day in which Jews from many different nations would be there to overhear what He does.  Why?  We talked about this last week.  At the Tower of Babel event, God had confused their languages so that they couldn’t understand one another.  This was a sign of His judgment as He disowned the nations.  Also, in Isaiah 28, especially verse 11, God is explaining to the northern kingdom, which was led by the tribe of Ephraim, that He was casting them out of the land.  They had not listened to His prophets who spoke to them in a language they could understand, so God would speak to them through a language they don’t understand.  Ultimately, it was a reference to foreign invaders (the Assyrians) who would destroy Samaria and cart the people of Israel off into exile, where they would be forced to learn foreign languages to survive.  Again, unknown tongues, or languages, is a sign of God’s judgment throughout the Old Testament.

So, why would God have the Apostles and the disciples speaking in tongues?  Notice that the languages are unknown to the Galileans, but not to these Jews who were from every nation under the Roman Empire, even beyond.  God is letting these Jews who had been dispersed know that He is reversing the judgment of the northern kingdom of Israel, and He is reversing the judgment of the Tower of Babel.

I know that we have taken a big detour, but it is to establish Paul’s point.  Speaking in tongues addresses God.  Whether others overhearing understand it or not is immaterial. 

In verse 4, Paul states that a person edifies themselves when they speak in tongues.  This verb is the idea of building something up, strengthening it, completing it so that it is finished.  Many of the Corinthians were not even thinking about these distinctions because they were more concerned with distinguishing themselves as spiritual in their meetings.  Speaking in tongues is not a spiritual badge of honor that we get from the Holy Spirit.  It is for the purpose of speaking to God and building ourselves up so that we look more like God, like Jesus.

Someone may ask, “How in the world does speaking in tongues edify a person when it isn’t understandable?”  There are several ways.  First, speaking in tongues is a tangible gift from God.  You know for sure whether you are speaking a language you know or not.  You also know if you are just mimicking someone else, or really letting the Holy Spirit give you words to say that you don’t know.  Such a tangible gift lets me personally know that God is keeping His word to believers by giving spiritual gifts to us.

Second and more importantly, willingly surrendering yourself to speak what you don’t understand strengthens our faith for those times when the Spirit of God prompts us to speak something that we can understand.  It becomes an exercising of our ability to trust God and just do what He gives me to do.  Of course, there are people through the years who have done all manner of unbiblical things in the name of God, but they were lying.  The Holy Spirit will not contradict God’s Word since He was the One who inspired the prophets to speak those words and write them down.

Even when God gives us something to say to another person, we don’t always understand why He would have us say it, or how it can help them.  Speaking in tongues builds our confidence in God and helps us to grow in our relationship of learning to be obedient to the Holy Spirit.

There is a third reason.  We are told that the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf and through us to God. He can put into words what we struggle to say.  This is part of His helping ministry.

Thus, we can see that speaking in tongues is more of a personal thing that is intended for me to use for my benefit.  I will point out Paul’s words in verses 18-19.  Paul basically says that he speaks in tongues more than any of the Corinthians.  However, in a church meeting, he would rather speak 5 words in a known language than 10,000 in an unknown language.  The whole purpose of gathering together is to build each other up. 

All of this teaching about speaking in tongues is qualified by the statement in verse 5 “unless indeed he interprets…”  Here, Paul recognizes that there is another spiritual gift, the gift of interpretation.  If a person is going to speak to the assembly in tongues, they should be ready to interpret it, or know that someone else in the assembly has the gift of interpretation (see 1 Corinthians 14:27-28.  In the case when speaking in tongues is interpreted, it then functions essentially like prophecy and can now help others in the group. 

In conclusion, speaking in tongues is generally for personal use.  There are times in a corporate meeting where we may all be privately praying, i.e., we are not leading prayer for the group.  I think that speaking in tongues would be fine even though you are in a group.  However, one should not raise their voice to the point of sounding like you want everyone to listen to you.  The key is understanding the purpose of the moment we are in, and the purpose of the gift we exercise.

Let’s look at the comparison of prophecy and its particular purpose.  With the gift of prophecy, a person is addressing other people.  The prophet speaks on behalf of God to people.  In this setting, they would be speaking to God’s people in a church service.  God may speak about something in the past, something in the present, or something in the future.  Some things about the future may even disclose something that God says will happen (predictive prophecy).  Regardless, God intends the person receiving the prophetic word from the Holy Spirit to share it with another person, or group.  This requires a prophet to be careful to hear from the Holy Spirit about the content of a message and the timing of disclosure. 

Paul even adds some words that describe the purpose of prophecy.  It is to build up the people of God (in order to be like Jesus), to exhort them (stirring them up to Godly action), and to comfort them in difficult times.  God’s purpose is not to show who in the assembly He favors.  The purpose of the prophecy is about strengthening the whole church.  It takes faith in God, and a true spiritual gift from God and operating in love, in order to speak to others on His behalf.  No other motivation is acceptable.

There are many in the Church today who think they are making the Church stronger by casting off clear teaching of Christ and His Apostles.  They may even do so under the guise of speaking on behalf of God, i.e., prophesying.  A prophetic word will always be in harmony with the whole counsel of Scripture.  It will strengthen us in ways that God wants, as opposed to what we want and what the world wants.  Those who compromise the Word of God often believe that more lost people will listen to us if we “fix” the Gospel.  However, this is a self-delusion.

In verse 5, Paul makes it clear that prophecy is the greater gift and not speaking in tongues.  This would be a surprise to some of the Corinthians.  It is the greater gift because it impacts a greater number of people.  His emphasis is on the primary benefit.  We could say that if every single person in the Church was being personally edified through the proper use of speaking in tongues, then they would be more able to exercise the other spiritual gifts, like prophecy.  These gifts should not be in contention with one another, but rather dovetail together in their complementary purposes.

The American culture is like the Corinthian culture in some ways and not in other ways.  Speaking in tongues in prayer is not something you would “brag” about with the world or even some believers.  We are more likely to “hide” it or “run” from it than they would have been.  Speaking in tongues is not something to be feared, yet neither is it something to be publicized.  These are God’s holy gifts among His holy people.  We should not prostitute such things by promoting it before the world.  I’ve seen secular shows done on speaking in tongues, or videos on YouTube.  This is not something that we should treat lightly.  It is an intimate thing between believers and the Holy Spirit of God.

Let us build the foundation of unconditionally loving each other, not because the other person is doing it too, but because that’s what Christ asks us to do!  Then, let us desire spiritual gifts by praying for God to enable us in the ways that He desires to do, so that we can be a blessing to His people on His behalf.  It was always His intention that we would need one another, and especially that we would need one another operating properly in those spiritual gifts that He supplies.

Gifts of the Spirit audio