So as you're turning to Acts
chapter 6 verses 5 through 7, chapter 6 was a turning point,
as we learned in our study last week, where we saw the church
struggling through some discrimination issues when it came to the Aramaic
Christians and the Grecian Christians, particularly the widows who were
neglected. That's verse 1. In the daily
ministration, the term ministration is diaconate, and so service,
ministry, We had learned last week that the church had already
taken on the task of acknowledging and dealing with and addressing
the material and physical needs of the people of God. Whether
you know it or not, in the early church, by and large, the early,
early apostolic days, we're in the first couple of years of
the ministry where Peter is featured, he will be featured up to chapter
10. The vast majority of those who came to the faith at this
time were poor. They weren't wealthy at all.
In fact, they were very poor. And what happens with the local
church is that God raises you up in a community, and that community
becomes your ministry. And so whatever the nature of
that community is with its needs, that's what God calls you to.
This is why you read in the book of Acts chapter 20, as well as
in the book of Galatians to remember the poor. Remember the poor,
the poor saints at Jerusalem. So this is what we're dealing
with. And we saw last week that somehow over time, the church
really did begin to kind of divide itself and separate itself into
groups. As I had stated last week, we
are so bad about that. We are horrible. at asserting
our own uniqueness over against someone else, as if those superficial
distinctions really matter. And what occurred was the Hebrew
widows, or rather the Grecians against the Hebrews, because
their widows were neglected. The Grecian widows were neglected.
These are the Hellenists. These were Hebrew people who
had been scattered in the diaspora earlier on, and they grew up
in Greek cultures, Italy, Rome, Corinth, and what have you. And
now under the gospel, they are being brought back into a unity
in the person and work of Jesus Christ. But they still have this
animus toward the Aramaic Jews, or Hebrews, and the Aramaic Hebrews
have a certain kind of air about them over against their Grecian
brothers. You guys know what I mean by
that. And that began a problem where
the Grecian women, widows, were being neglected, overlooked in
the distribution of foods and clothing and other things. And
so the apostles struggled through it. They came to the conclusion
that we need a diaconate. And so we saw in verses two through
four that they had resolved to continue preaching the gospel
And that they would look for men who would take on the task
of handling that ministry. That's where we come to verse
five in our account. And they, the saying that had
been given to the whole congregation through the apostles and those
who were elders at that time, pleased the whole multitude.
You guys see that, right? In other words, there was a unity
of mind around an issue that was becoming very controversial,
and they were able to settle it through a process that resulted
in their oneness, their harmony. And we ought to thank God for
occasions where the church is tempted to argue and debate and
struggle through issues, and then to use a godly biblical
process to resolve it. And then people are brought back
to a place unity in focus and oneness this is to be marked
and it says and they chose Stephen our steppin a man full of faith
and of the Holy Ghost and Philip and Procurus in Nicanor and Timon
and Parmenas and Nicholas a proselyte of Antioch. How many is that
Saints a seven? So these were the seven initial
servants. Now, you don't see the term deacon,
as I said last week, in the text, but this is the beginning of
your diaconate. And again, the good Hebrew mind
or Jewish mind would recognize that the number seven is the
number for perfection or fullness. And so we have now our deaconate. What I want you to mark is how
they chose them out because that's getting ready to move us into
another consideration. They stated over in verse three,
wherefore, brethren, look out among you for seven men of honest
report. You see that full of the Holy
Ghost and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business. So
if you had your outline from last week, it would be point
number four, from among you. Choose them from among you. Don't
go hire somebody outside of your local fellowship. Don't send
out resumes and merely look for someone who qualifies on an academic
level. The matters of the church are
more than business-oriented matters. They are relational, relational. Even when it comes to the menial
task of taking care of foods and handling distresses, helping
people pay their bills, keeping the roof over their head, that
is even to be done with a measure of grace and giftedness from
God so that the task can ultimately redound to God's glory. So as
you and I looked at last week, the qualifications of the deacon,
we saw that the deacons were required to have the same level
of spiritual maturity that the elders were. That the task of
helping people work through the knots and the entanglements of
life, and even issues like controversies in the church, that the leaders,
even the diaconate, was to be, notice what the apostles said,
look among yourselves for men of honest report. Now if we're
gonna If we're going to seek persons who would fulfill those
kinds of standards, we have to know them, don't we? Honest report
would mean that they would have to have been among us long enough
for us to be able to know their reputation, to know their place
in the community, to know how they interact with people, whether
or not they are sensitive, abrasive, divisive congenial whether they
have the fruit of the Spirit and that by and large the people
of God approve of them you would trouble a church if you seek
to install persons in leadership who do not qualify biblically
You will trouble a church when they are brought into positions
of authority purely on a political process that has to do with nepotism
and a good old boys mentality. You will divide the church at
its foundation as soon as you are choosing men based upon a
good old boys mentality where he has not been vetted and has
been approved by the larger portion of the Christian body. you are
asking to create a clergy-laity divide when the local church
should never be a clergy-laity divide. In fact, that's where
we are moving from the Book of Acts into the patristic era and
then into the Catholic Church's era into this sort of clergy-laity
divide where the clergy is this professional group who are vetted
by the a clergy themselves, but the people don't necessarily
know them. And so the apostles are responding to a very grievous
character flaw in the church and the way they deal with it
is very insightful. First, they said, let's choose
us men from among ourselves. So you know what this is called
in terms of ecclesiology? Ecclesiology is what we call
the structure and government of the local church. This would
be called a congregational form of ecclesiology. Now, a congregational
form of ecclesiology is a form of church government where the
people as a whole are given a large role to play in the decision
making. churches are not, um, they're
not many today. They were in the early, uh, early
days of the Americas. We had a lot of congregational
churches and congregational churches basically voted. If you are a
member of the church, you voted folks in and you voted folks
out. You voted the preacher in, you voted the preacher out. Very
unstable structure. I can tell you that now because
human beings are fickle and just like they can vote you in, they
can vote you out. But here at this time, because we are just
beginning to develop the form and structure of the local church,
as I had stated in our previous outline, the beginnings of church
structure, the apostles were not voted in by the people. Christ
ordained them. The people had no political,
as it were, democratic influence in the choice of the apostles.
Christ hand-picked his apostles and they submitted to their leadership
and now the Apostles are Utilizing the church in this context to
assist in the decision-making of men who would be part of the
leadership structure Dealing with the practical matters of
life This this gives us a little insight into the confidence that
the Apostles had in the church because they could have prayed
about it the holy ghost could have given the apostles the insight
as to who to choose and the uh the apostles could have brought
seven men before the church and said you know what we prayed
about it we asked god for insight and revelation and god showed
us these men and the church would have had to live with that right
but that would have been a kind of structure and a kind of establishment
of leadership that would have threatened the character of the
church at that time. Because the character of the
church at that time was that they had gotten too large without
structure and they were starting to divide within themselves.
Now stay with me now, I want you to get this. Because there
are all kinds of church structures. There are Presbyterian politics
or policies that we call them. And then we have Baptist polities
and then we have We have Catholic polities. We have Lutheran polities. We have Anglican polities. And what I'm talking about is
different structures of church government. We have Episcopalian
polities. And so there are different structures
in which the church has sought to operate over these last 2,000
years. All of them are good and bad. They all have weaknesses. They
all have their relative good, depending on the context in which
they were erected. you guys understanding what I'm
saying? In other words, the same structure does not work in one
place as it would another place because of the character nature
of the fellowship. And so the apostles here are
dealing with what would be a kind of congregational structure,
out of which came an interesting result. And I think it's the
wisdom of God, but we don't fully know. Here's what we know is
by the time it was done, we have seven deacons, right? Our deacons
to be. And they are all, watch this
now, Grecian. They're not Aramaic. Isn't that
interesting? They're all Grecian. Now, you're
not going to hear any more trouble out of the church on this level.
But what I would say to you is this. The process by which the
disciples or the apostles had chosen to work towards raising
up men from among the people, this eclectic group of Aramaic
Jews and Grecian Jews, men, women, and widows resulted in seven
men who were all Greeks. Now they were Jews by nature,
by birth, but they were Grecian or Hellenistic by nationality. Thus their names are all Greek
names. Okay, all Greek. And so I have a fifth point that
you don't have in your previous outline. Actually, you do have
it, the blessing of prayerful biblical structure and government,
of which we have in that point, order, government, and a mediatorial
and salvific outcome. You guys have that in your previous
outline? Order, government, and a mediatorial salvific outcome. Let me just make a little observation
about that before we now hone in our focus on one man. The
danger that had taken place over this period of burgeoning growth
and numbers in the church was that the enemy was able to get
in and distract the people from their centrality to Jesus. and
allow rather than the harmony and unity of the church that
we saw in Acts chapter two, where everybody gave everything that
they had and they all had everything in common. And no man said that
which they possessed was their own. You guys remember that?
Well, that was done at a time when there was such a dynamic
and overwhelming gratuitous character on the part of the people towards
God. It's kind of like what we're going to learn on Sunday. when
we break into the church at Ephesus and our master tells us that
we have lost our first love. You know, when you're full of
love, it's real hard for you to be offended. But when the
love wanes, everything offends you. And this is what began to
happen among these Christians over time, that glorious model
of a spirit-filled fellowship where everyone was sharing equally
the kind of koinonia that we would love to be able to demonstrate,
especially as a witness to those that are without, unique, remarkable,
and it had no controversy with it. Now, all of a sudden, we're
dealing with controversy because you know the rule, you know the
principle. Familiarity ultimately breeds
what? Contempt. That's a human flaw. And it's really bad, which means
as a Christian, we have to really struggle to overcome that natural
demerit in our character, because it's a flaw in our character
where you meet someone and they are valuable to you and you appreciate
them and you show your value because your heart is palpitating
with a kind of fondness toward them. This doesn't even have
to be It doesn't have to be sensual, sexual, erotic. It doesn't have
to be an eros love. It doesn't have to be even a
deep sort of committed love, just a platonic love for a person
or people because they have played a major role in your life, blessing
you. But over time, you stop or fail
to realize their blessing in your life. And now you're looking
at all the flaws. You know what I'm talking about,
because this goes on in relationships. even the most intimate husbands
and wives. And what that means is if we
don't labor to continue to fan the flames of love for God and
for one another, we will find ourselves complaining and finding
fault and arguing and the enemy has gotten in and divided. Am
I making some sense? That's what's going on here.
And all it is is not that the Christians in Acts chapter six
are any worse than we are or any better. They're just human.
And the dynamic that's necessary for us to rise above the level
of simply being carnal in our behavior towards one another
is a call to the effort, a cognitive deliberate effort to value one
another at the highest level. You see, without that, you will
begin to default into kind of a contemptuous, contemptuous
attitude towards one another. The resolution of the apostles
around this matter was established structure. establish structure,
make sure that the problem that's happening here in the church
doesn't turn into radical chaos because it can, right? You guys
know that. You can know that the, remember
we said that they were murmuring, verse one, that they were murmuring,
there arose a murmuring, that underlying disenchantment, attitude,
divisiveness that emerges eventually into all sorts of bad things,
the apostles now, in a timely fashion or they are apprehending
what would ultimately be a chaotic situation. And God is not the
author of chaos, right? And so in order to apprehend
a situation that has the potential of turning into chaos, you have
to implement order. To stop chaos, you have to implement
order. Now implementing order has a
tendency sometimes to offend people too. Because there are
folks who love to live in the dimension and realm of chaos,
free from authority, free from restraints, free from parameters,
free from limitations, free from rules. They love being in the
jungle. That's right. They love the jungle
mentality. They love just kind of winging
it. They love the kind of grassroots movement where we sit around
and talk and not guard our mouths and say what we feel. And the
next thing you know, you've got a whole litany of offenses going
on. Well, when you are operating in the sphere and realm of the
kingdom of God, what's going to take place if God is in it
is order. And then government is going
to emerge out of order. This is often what we need in
our families. You know, a mother or a father will be pulling their
hair out when they talk about the behavior of their children.
I saw it again today. I'm pulling out of my house to
go see Brianna. And I'm in my driveway. And my
neighbor has opened his door about three houses down. And
his little son was out playing in the street. We live in a Caldasuck
area, closed in area. And he was playing soccer all
by himself. And daddy said, son, come on
in. We've got some things to do. And I tell you what, the
boy act as if his daddy didn't say a thing to him. He kept playing. And I thought, this is remarkable.
That's what I thought. This is remarkable. And his dad
said, now, son, I just told you to come in. I'm going to count
to three. And if you don't come in by three, you know what's
going to happen. He counted to three. The boy didn't budge.
He just kept playing soccer. Kept playing soccer. Right? See,
that's just, this is the postmodern mentality that you really can't
impose authority on children. You got to kind of woo them in.
I would have told that boy to tail up so quick. He would, none
of my kids would ever, ever, ever done that. You understand
that? See, so I hope to be moved off
this block by the time that gorilla is 13, 14, 15 years old. Cause
there will be, there will be chaos in that household. You
understand what I'm getting at? I, you know, I had to drive on
off. I had to just, just drive on off. Because it was very obvious
that the boy did not respect authority. We have that problem
in the world. It's a deficit in our character.
And see, some of us, we only start growing up when we realize
that life goes better when we follow the rules. Am I telling
the truth? Life goes better when we follow
the rules. And once we understand that, now we are actually growing
up. because many of us have really
tried to circumvent and work our way around and frustrate
and push back on the rules. Cause we knew better, but our
life is in ruin. See what I'm getting at. And
so the apostles in a timely fashion, implemented order. That's first
Corinthians 1433. God is not the author of confusion.
The apostles knew if we left this alone, we would both be
derelict in duty and the enemy would be in the camp. And it
would be a horrible witness of the gospel in the society with
all of this clamor going on in the church. Also, as the apostles
had begun to do, and you'll see this by the time we get to Acts
15, they started implementing what? Government. This government
is Necessary you need authority over people That's Titus 1 5
ordain elders in every church that they might teach people
sound doctrine that they might help them to understand their
calling in Christ that we all might live a life that adorns
the gospel and Demonstrates good works and those things have to
be taught and inculcated in all of our lives even as human beings
You and I have to be taught that we are left here to adorn the
gospel Do you believe that? You're not just left here, you're
left here to adorn the gospel. You're not just a free radical
running around doing whatever you want to in the name of Jesus.
There is a plan, there's a purpose, there's a mission, there's a
structure, there's a process, there's a goal. And yours is
ultimately to bear witness to the truth of the gospel, comprehensively,
not just with your words, but with your life. And so if you're
single, your authority starts top down with Christ, and it
works through the church and you demonstrate self-control. If you're married, there's a
dynamic that from the top down, we assist you in the relationship
between a husband and a wife. If you're married, we are there
as leadership to assist you in operating as a man and operating
as a woman. If you're a family, the church
then is there to assist you to operate biblically as a family,
husband and wife, having authority over the children, children being
subject to the parents, everybody living in the context of grace,
but growing up in a level of maturity that as a gospel family,
we bear witness to the presence of Christ in our home. Does that
make some sense? And see, our society is tore
up today because we don't have any of those kinds of Intricate
elements manifesting themselves in the home today and many of
our churches were just a pagan church with a veneer of Christianity
That's where we are And so when you see this taking place in
the book of acts as I said you won't hear this problem again
because when we turn the corner you're gonna see government getting
set up in the Book of Acts. And so the third one is a mediatorial
and a salvific outcome. What happens when the church
is walking in order? What happens when the church
has good, godly, biblical government? Well, the church then can be
mediatorial in its role in society, and it can be salvific in its
aim. 1 Timothy 2, verses 1 through
5. I'll share that with you, and
then we'll come back and take up our next thought. which is
going to be profound. First Timothy chapter two. This
will give you sort of a big synoptic picture of what the purpose of
the local church is. We are to be reminded of what
the local church's purpose is. Listen to it. The apostle says,
I exhort therefore that first and foremost, that is chief above
everything else, supplication, prayers, intercession, and giving
of thanks be made for all men. Do you guys see that? So now
watch this then, then a healthy biblically based church will
have a clear understanding of its mediatorial role to pray
to the sovereign God that he would so order the lives of men
in government, in politics, in religion, in education, in all
the affairs of life, that we might have an outcome that's
evangelical in nature. Watch what we mean by that. Pray
for kings. You guys got that? And for all
that are in authority. You don't have to agree with
them. I don't agree with most of them, but I pray for them.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? You pray for them. Cause there's
a greater end in view. It's not about them. It's not
about the political structure. It's not about parties. It's
not what we're talking about. For those of you who are anti,
you know, sort of political. And I understand that where we
are today, it's very difficult to be, Uh, politically involved
and not be duped and deceived because there's so much massive
deception going in, going on in politics. And in fact, if
you want my word on it, politics is the art of deception. It is the epitome of the art
of deception. Unless you understand the underlying
substratums of politics and what their aims are, you will be deceived
by both parties all the time. They will let you down over and
over and over and over again. And you'll wonder, why am I still
involved? Because of the deceptive nature
of politics. It's deceptive. Here's what he
said, pray for kings all that are in authority that we may
lead a what? Quiet and peaceable life in all
godliness and honesty, for this is good and acceptable in the
sight of God our Savior. What is this being described
in verse two? I call this a pre-evangelical
condition, a pre-evangelical condition, meaning what the apostle
is not telling the church to do is get involved in overt expressions
of boycotting fighting issues on a public level, throwing stones
at the government, you know, Molotov cocktails and arguments
and debates and all of the things that will distract the local
church from its primary role of being a mediator. You are
not at the height of your Christianity when you are simply wrestling
with these pagans in the middle of the street to get them to
stop doing abortions. You're not at the height of your
Christianity Now don't get me wrong, abortion is wrong. And
there is a way and manner in which one can advocate against
it. But if the whole church is out
in the street wrestling with the pagans over abortion, you
are missing the point. Am I making some sense? And I
could give a whole list of things for which if the church wants
to be known for its care of saving the world, let it be for its
care of saving the soul of the world. the soul. And if you really
buy into that proposition, follow this. You cannot be involved
in every contention. You cannot see the enemy has
already set it up. He's already set up multiple
fronts of wars battles. The battles are endless. The,
the, the, the fronts of war endless. We can start with the baby in
the womb. Then we can deal with the baby when it comes out of
the womb. Then we can deal with the baby in terms of school and
middle school and high school. We can deal with so many issues
and never be on the main point of the preaching of the gospel,
which will actually solve the matter if God were to endorse
our preaching on a level that would impact the whole thing.
Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? But now God has called
a few people to the office of contending and advocating for
certain persons in certain conditions as a precondition for evangelism. He's called people to that. Are
you guys hearing what I'm saying? There's a calling that people
have to dealing with an issue. A sister has struggled with abuse
all her life. And she has been deeply involved
in the experience and has come to a saving knowledge of God
in Christ. And that saving knowledge of
God in Christ has now providentially placed her in the field where
her sisters need her help because of her expertise. That's her
calling. True for the men too. And true
for groups of people too. But what I am saying there does
not describe the whole aggregate of the church. The church's role
is primarily mediatorial and prophetic. Am I making some sense? So here's what Paul says. If
we pray effectively, we can see a toning down of the confusion
that goes on in our culture and we'll see more people saved.
There's more salvation to be experienced in the context of
an orderly structural society than it is in the context of
mayhem and war and destruction and madness. Because the fruit
of righteousness is sown in peace to those that make peace. That's
about James chapter 3 verse 18. Are you guys hearing me? The
fruit of righteousness is sown in peace to them That makes peace
doesn't mean that God can't do things in the midst of war But
he's not calling us to advocate war tear up everything and then
tell people see how bad it is. You need Jesus No, no, no when
a society sees the blessing of order and structure in government
and sees the blessing of God raining down upon the just and
the unjust with good health and prosperity and jobs, then that
society is compelled by those blessings to ask the question,
who is this God that is blessing us this way? Am I making some
sense? And we as Christians can come
along and say, the Bible is clear. You have been blessed by the
true and the living God who rains upon the just and the unjust.
And you need to give him glory for that. In other words, it's
the goodness of God primarily that leaves men and women to
repentance. Does that make some sense, saints?
It's very important for you to know that because our world is
filled with a call to politics, and politics will make you ugly. And then this mediatorial role
of praying for our government and our society should lead to
evangelism, healthy evangelism. Listen to what he says in verse
three and four. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of
God our Savior, who will have all men to be what? And to come
unto a knowledge of the truth. Do you see that? So what we're
talking about is preconditions to hear the gospel in a way where
you aren't distracted and thus that gospel penetrate the soul
and bring men and women into a real vital experience of grace
with Christ. And so now let's go back to our
text and begin to introduce ourselves to a man that the Spirit of God
is about to pluck out of the seven deacons. In Acts chapter
6, we read in verse 7, the net benefit of the blessing of a
prayerful, biblical, structural government implemented, the deaconate
being implemented, resulted in verse 7 this way. After that,
the apostles had laid hands on them. And the word of God increased. See it? and the number of the
disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly. Now this is wild. Watch this. And a great company
of the priests were obedient to the faith. Isn't that amazing? When two weeks ago, guess who
it was that was obstructing Peter and John? It was the high priest
and the whole priesthood. Do you suppose that the devil
saw this coming? and therefore wanted to stop
Peter and John from their persistent preaching of the gospel because
the Spirit of God would now go into hell and leave captivity
captive a whole host of priests and bring them to a saving knowledge
of Christ? Of course. Of course. Of course. Acts chapter 5 verse 17. Then the high priest rose up
and all they that were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees,
And we're filled with indignation. This is the whole priesthood.
And they're filled with indignation. The devil has blinded them. Their
role is threatened. Their rule is threatened. Their
false authority, as I told you, they have now because their authority
is not from God, is threatened. And so they threatened Peter
and John and they beat Peter and John and they put them in
prison and an angel delivers them out and say, go right back
into the temple. Stay in the middle of the temple
streets preaching. And what happens over Acts 5
to Acts 6, a great company of the priests became obedient to
the faith. That's amazing. That's amazing. And what God is saying is, when
my people do my will, my way, I always bless it. See, and I
can see how that part of the leadership in Israel, this false
pseudo authority of priests were watching this grassroots movement
of 10 to 15,000, uh, 17,000 people who had no structure, who had
no order, who had no government wondering, will this thing fade
away? Remember Gamaliel said, leave it alone. It'll die. It
didn't die. And the chaos that started in
the undercurrent of the murmuring of the people was quickly apprehended
by a God-ordained process of implementing a diaconate that
would address it. A diaconate, by the way, which
is what I call a sensitive and sympathetic structure consistent
with the needs. That's why when I called your
attention to those seven deacons being Grecian, Do you know they
would have added insult to injury if all seven of these would have
been Aramaic? Are you hearing me? The ones
that were being overlooked were Greeks. And you go and ordain
seven Aramaic deacons. You're adding insult to injury.
Why? Because you are not recognizing
the uniqueness of that people groups need in a fashion that
the only way you can remedy it is with a lawful mediatorial
structure consistent with who they are and what they need.
See, representation means something. Did that go over our head? Representation
means something. Meaning, and one of the things
I'm dealing with now with a bunch of preachers wanting to get together
and talk about the essential process of diversifying the church
because of multiple ethnic groups in our culture. One of the things
I'm telling them is you better be able to develop a sound set
of premises around the virtue of ethnic groups over against
the virtue of diversity. Because you're never gonna get
anybody to buy into your system of diversity that does not demonstrate
the capacity to preserve that ethnic group. This is the reason
we have wars all over the world. This is the reason for which
we are now seeing in the Ukraine the battle that's taking place.
Because the United Nations is trying to go in there surreptitiously
through our government. to set up a kind of government
in Ukraine that puts NATO right up on the borders of Russia to,
as it were, destroy the capacity of the whole Soviet Union to
have any kind of real serious play in the world. And Putin
is pushing back on that. You know why he's pushing back?
Because our government, not necessarily Obama, but our government many
years ago said we wouldn't do that. We wouldn't get that close.
We wouldn't overtake you. But this move in Ukraine was
an overtaking. Do you know what it created amongst
the Ukrainians now? A division inside. A division
inside. Ladies and gentlemen, this is
what we have been doing with our policies all around the world.
Implementing a democratic strategy that is non-sensitive to the
indigenous ethnic groups of the people and started causing them
to go to war with one another. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying?
A biblical wisdom, a biblical guidance would never ever disregard
the intrinsic value of indigenous people wherever they are. We
did that when we came to America with our Native American brethren.
We have totally destroyed our Native American brethren's whole
capacity to be an influence in America because somehow we thought
that they were insignificant as an ethnic group. I think we
are way behind the gun in the benefits and the blessings from
which we could have derived from them in terms of their knowledge
of the land, their knowledge of culture, their knowledge of
how our world works. We are missing the blessing.
Now we have been heaped upon, foisted upon with all kinds of
synthetic stuff when our brothers and sisters who have been working
this land for hundreds, yay thousands of years could teach us a little
bit about holistic medicine. I'm telling the truth. I'm advocating
a little bit cause I'm part native American. So that's kind of way
it is, you know, but, but it's still true. It's still true. You don't go into a culture and
demolish that culture. God made that culture. Acts chapter
14 very clearly states of one blood. Did he make all nations
of men and he set them in their particular place specifically
gave them boundaries so that they might seek God from right
where they are. Am I making some sense? So there's
a tension that wise men have to have when we are talking about
integrating while at the same time, acknowledging the purity
and the purpose of a specific ethnic group. Got to be able
to hold that together. And the apostles did that here.
They held it together, didn't they? They held it. They made
sure that they did not create a nepotism in the rulership by
which they exalted the Aramaic Jews. No, no, you guys neglected
our Grecian brothers that we're gonna make sure that our Grecian
brethren feel good when the deacons come knocking on their doors
Whoo, did you get that see I can go in the hood I can't and knock
on somebody door and they might just let me in Because I'm from
the hood Did that make some sense? Someone else may knock on the
door and they may look through the little IP what you want What you want, oh you want to
talk to me about Jesus you got something stick it on the door
leave it right there I'll read it later. See the difference
You understand that this is why Paul said for him his model was
to the Jew first Because he was a Jew am I making some sense.
You got to hold these tensions with a with a kind of wisdom
understanding human frailty if you want to if you want to benefit
them with the gospel, so that's interesting because The Lord
gave us this text as a piece of wisdom and application. Should
we need it on a personal level or on a larger level? And so
we close verse seven with the blessing of God on the decision
of the apostles and the structures that they implemented with a
great number of the priests coming into the faith. I thank God for
it because what this means is that Jesus now has once again
fulfilled his own word to the high priest who said to him face
to face when he was in his trial, are you the son of God? You know
what he said? Just wait a minute. You'll find
out. You'll find out when you see the son of man coming on
the clouds of glory with power. He just did right here for you
to wake up as the high priest, Carthus and Ananias and find
out hundreds of your priests have come to Jesus. Jesus is
just knocked on your door. Isn't that true? Hundreds of
your priests have come to Jesus. Jesus is just knocked on your
door and let you know he is the great high priest. Powerful. All right, let's get on to our
next point. We are now going to look at an individual, a brother
who is worthy of meditation. The text that we're going to
be dealing with now is verses eight through 15. And I'm sure
we'll only open up with point number one out of four points.
This aspect of our study is called Stephen or Stephan, either way
you want to use it, a Christ-like deacon. You remember last week
what I said was a deacon was a messianic office, if you guys
remember. Just like an elder is a messianic
office, just like a shepherd is a messianic office, just like
a prophet, a priest, a king, a deacon is a messianic office.
And in fact, the diaconate is the quintessential position of
humility It is the ultimate expression of service So the infinite God
in the person of Christ who created the universe humbled himself
and became a deacon. I Told you that last week. That's
right. He became a deacon That's what it meant when it says the
Son of Man came not to be ministered to but to minister. That's a
deacon That's our word. Are you hearing me? He came to
be a deacon. He came to serve and lay down
his life for many. And so as he stated, the man
that's going to be exalted will first be abased. And the way
you and I are going to enter into the blessings of Jehovah
and in the power and grace of Christ is to adopt the concept
of serving before being served. The church, uh, the church, will
only make its way through the world in an evangelically successful
manner when we are about serving. Not running things, not controlling
things, not dominating things, serving. You guys got that? It's
very important to understand that's the rope. Why? Because
that was the incarnation of the second person. He came to serve. And he stayed on that platform
of service until he died. In other words, Christ was never
King in this world He was never a dignitary in this world. He was never in this world system
a ruler Christ was never a ruler in this world He was a ruler
of the world to come He was a king in the world to come down here.
He was a servant And so the attitude that must
grip you and me is if I am going to Experience the center and
fullness of what Christ wants for me down here as a witness
for him I am going to have to learn the dignity of a diaconate
what it means to serve What it means to serve that's where grace
is going to impact your life in its fullest measure when you
are Operating out of the gifts that God calls you to and everybody
has gifts and you're doing it with a servant's disposition
Not a king's disposition, not a princess, not a prince. And
I need to state that because the evangelical church is so
corrupted with a, with a sense of entitlement that even the
idea of serving people, these cats in our churches are so highfalutin,
many of them. and their attitude of being the
minister. I'm the minister. And in that
sense, there's an arrogation to that term that doesn't even
remotely reflect the idea of serving. Like I've said it many,
many times, I know multitude of preachers and wannabe preachers
who won't bend over and pick up the toilet tissue on the ground.
They expect somebody in the church to do it. Isn't that right? They
expect somebody in the church to do it. With that kind of mentality,
they are the furthest thing away from Jesus Christ. The furthest
thing away from Jesus Christ. Don't ever give anybody a sense
that you are entitled to them dressing you. That's terrible. It stinks to high heaven. It
has no place in the kingdom of God. This is the diatrophy spirit
that John warned about, Diotrephes loves to have the preeminence
and it was the precursor to the papacy. Do you understand that? The papacy operates out of this
elitism, this Nicolaitan elitism of which we'll be dealing with
in the book of Revelation. Listen you got to have a whole
bunch of people dressing you the way these folks dress in
the papacy that the outfits they have on Somebody got to be helping
you do you can't do all that yourself And I'm using that as
a metaphor for the ridiculousness of Structures that exalt a person
above that which is written Can you even imagine our Lord or
the, come on now, help me now. See, this is how, this is how
massively deceptive religion is. This is how massively deceptive
religion is. You actually think the outer
garb of these individuals constitutes some intrinsic holiness. And
didn't we talk about this last Sunday? That true intrinsic glory
and substance It's what's on the inside, not what we wear. That's amazing, isn't it? It's
amazing. But the world is enamored by
the appearance, enamored by the appearance. And to the degree
that the church is caught up in the gaudiness of externalities,
to that same degree, you are far away from the substance of
the gospel. The church that's wrapped up
in appearance and form and outward beauty, and the intricacies of
the God. You are nothing but a religious
institution deceiving the masses through existentialism. The substance
is not there. Anytime you and I are spending
hours putting our clothes on, hours, I'm sorry, ladies, hours
putting our clothes on, we are vain. And I'm using it as a metaphor
for the church. I'm using it as a metaphor. We
are vain. And then I look, you know, I look, I look at my preacher
brother. I ain't gonna name the denominations,
but I go in and you know, I don't even like wearing suits, but
I'll wear suits on occasion. I go in, I look at these guys,
I said, man, they must've took this cat three hours to get dressed. Vain. Vain. Are you hearing me? Vain. We
are so deceived. And we call that godliness. Deceived. Now, now saints, could you imagine
Jesus dressing like this? Could you imagine the apostles
dressing like this? You couldn't, you just couldn't,
could you? I know you couldn't, because
the Bible is so clear, so crystal clear on what really is the gold,
silver and precious stones of the kingdom, isn't it? So clear.
Okay, so John closes out first John chapter 5 the last verse
around verse 21. Don't go there little children
Keep yourselves from idols. So let's open up now. We got
a few minutes to go I know I'm boring but get this get the CD
and when you get some sleep listen to it again You know, man, that
was a good study. I wasn't there, but that was a good study Verse
number eight. I want to open up dealing with
four things with regards to a remarkable remarkable Deacon in fact this
Deacon actually was my model when God began to call me to
ministry and he allowed me to serve in the church at an early
age and and then he called me into the service of being a deacon
in the local church and one of the things I wanted to understand
was what is a biblical deacon what what is the role of the
deacon because I struggled enormously with the traditional cultural
view of deacons. As I told you last week, I struggled
with what I thought deacons were, was old fogies that sat over
in the corner of the church who went to sleep five minutes after
the sermon started, who started snoring and all the kids would
laugh at him. That's what I thought a deacon
was. I thought a deacon was somebody who was slick, knew all of the
religious phraseology, but he wouldn't hurt a fly. He wouldn't
stand up for truth if it was to save his life. I thought the
deacon was the one that all the women ran over, used him. That's
the way I saw it growing up. And what I meant by that is they
would run him here and they would run him there and they would
dump all their stuff on the deacon. Deacon had to hear all of the
junk, right? Deacon had to hear all the junk.
Like somehow the deacon could solve all these people's problems.
He became the dumping pool for everybody's complaints. Nobody
want to be a deacon. If that's what a deacon is, I
don't want to be a deacon. And then as I was reading the
book of Acts, and I discovered the origin of the deaconship,
and I realized that among these deacons that we are reading was
two powerful men. One was Philip, of which I can't
wait till we get to Acts chapter eight. Philip impacted me like
I don't know what. The other one was Stephen. Both
of these men are deacons par excellence, which said, yes,
I want that role. That's why I said, I want that
role. If I, if I want to, if I'm going to be a deacon, cause
they were calling me to deaconship, I want to be this kind of deacon.
I want to be a deacon full of faith and of the Holy ghost. I want to know what this kind
of deacon is. So you and I are going to look at this a little
bit tonight. We're going to open it up. In verses 8 through 15,
and then I'm gonna back up and deal with point one. That'll
be all the time we'll have. And we'll come back and deal
with the other two next time. So, and Stephen, full of faith and
power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Then
there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue
of the Libertines, and the Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them
of Sicilia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not
able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.
Then they suborned men, which said, we have heard him speak
blasphemous words against Moses and against God. And they stirred
up the people and the elders and the scribes came upon him
and caught him and brought him to the council and set up false
witnesses. which said this man ceases not
to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law.
For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall
destroy this place and shall change the customs which Moses
delivered us. And all that sat in the council
looked steadfastly on him. They saw his face as it had been
the face of an angel. I said, Lord, that's the deacon
I want to be. That's the one. That's the deacon I want to be.
So let's go back to the top. Stephen, a Christ-like deacon. Everything about these seven
verses underscores the messianic nature of being a deacon, the
messianic nature of being a servant. Remarkable. So there are four
categories that I want you to consider with me. First is the
evangelical power of the spirit in the life of Stephen. Secondly,
the apologetic power of the Spirit in the life of Stephen. Thirdly,
the prophetic power of the Spirit in the life of Stephen. And finally,
the gift of grace to die for Christ in the life of Stephen. That's gonna cover 56 verses.
Remarkable deacon. Remarkable. Now watch this, saints.
Wouldn't you want this deacon coming over to your house bringing
you food? I'd have Steve every time my kids get sick. Can you
have Deacon Steven to come over? What a blessing this kind of
Deacon would be. What a blessing. What rich resources of grace
would he be able to bring to your home when he comes to console
you over death or to encourage you concerning a sickness? or
to counsel you concerning finances, or to work through the differences
that husbands and wives have, or to help you with your children.
Wouldn't you want a deacon like this? Full of faith. Who wouldn't
want to be around somebody full of faith? Do you know how attractive
people are who are full of faith? To the community of God. To the
community of God. Absolutely powerful. And notice
what the writer says. Not only was Stephen full of
faith and power, He also did great wonders and miracles among
the people. Buddhists were cold. He healing,
opening the eyes of the blind, doing all sorts of miraculous
deeds. See, that's the kind of deacon
you want. Are you hearing me? The kind of deacon that has access
to God in such a full orb score that this deacon can touch all
sorts of stuff and it get fixed. That's the deacon you want. You
don't want a deacon that's powerless. You don't want a deacon that's
faithless. You don't want a deacon that doesn't have God with him.
You want a deacon that has God with him. Cause see all that's
being described in verse seven is that God was with Steven.
Are you hearing me? He had God with him. So when
this deacon comes to your house, he's coming with God. Your house
is going to always be blessed after he leaves because he's
coming with God. That's the kind of deacons we
want. Alright, let's just open up the first point. The evangelical
power of the Spirit. So obviously you know what I
mean when I say the evangelical power of the Spirit. I am talking
about the capacity and giftedness that God equips us with in order
for us to win people to Christ. The evangelical evangelism, the
euangelon, is the gift of preaching Christ in a fashion that brings
men and women to Him. Now everyone does not have the
gift of evangelism, but everyone is an evangelist. If you've been
born again, if you are truly a child of God, you have a message
that is evangelical in nature. You may not have the gift of
evangelism, but you are an evangelist. And everything about your life
should ultimately sum up in this objective. Lord, use me in a
way in which I draw people to Christ. That's exactly where
Stephen is. Remarkable! I want to open up
dealing with the fundamental attributes or characteristics
that describe Stephen's life and walk. The first thing I want
to call your attention to is the adjective attached to the
title or a concept of faith. Stephen is a man of faith, right?
But he's a man full of faith. Do you see that? So in your outline,
I have the basic Greek term, plerou, or pleruo, and that word
has to do with fullness. We use this term in our English
language, pleruo, when we use the term plenary. We talk about
the plenary verbal inspiration of scripture, right? Now when
we use that phrase, plenary verbal inspiration, we are saying that
every word, every syllable, every letter from Genesis to Revelation
is inspired of God. We're saying that the Bible is
fully and totally the Word of God. Are you guys hearing me?
We're not saying that the Bible contains the Word of God like
liberals say. You'll hear these subtle qualifiers
among liberal progressive who say, I believe the Bible is the
word of God in a certain sense. And they'll turn around and say,
it's flawed because it's written by men. What an oxymoronic statement. When they say that, what they
are betraying is the fact that they do not believe in the verbal
plenary inspiration of scripture. They do not believe that the
Bible is infallible and inerrant. Are you hearing me? So when we
use the term pleruo, which is a derivative or a cognitive plenary,
as well as pleroma, which is the term Paul loved to use. Paul
loved to use the word filled, for which he prayed for every
church. I pray that God fill you with
everything necessary for life and godliness. To feel is the
act. To be full is the state. Are
you hearing me? To feel is the act. To be full
is the state. And Peter was filled with the
Holy Ghost. That was an act of effusion on
the part of God that qualified Peter to stand up and boldly
proclaim Christ. Stephen is full of the Holy Ghost. That's the state of his being.
Now watch this now. This is interesting. Now watch
what the word means. It means to feel. It also means
to cover. Do you see that? Not only feel,
cover. That's how powerful this verb
is. The word means to cover. It means to stuff. Like if you
have a container, not only do you want to fill that container
up, you want to stuff it. Stuff it. The word means to cram. What an analogy. Wouldn't you
want the whole of your being stuffed? Crammed. covered with the presence of
God. Cramped, where the spirit of
God intentionally forces himself into every nook and cranny of
your being. The infinite God who fills the universe, forcing
himself all down into every fiber of your being, every corpuscle
of your being, every hair on your head. That's how full Stephen
was. Crazy. You'll get it one day. He wasn't just filled to the
brim. He was stuffed, stuffed, stuffed. God crammed himself
inside of Stephen. Crammed himself. Stephen had
a certain scale of being. He's a little peon man like you
and me. But God loved him so much that he went beyond Stephen's
scale and forced himself in. You can see his vessel about
to burst. But because the word means to
cover he had the Holy Ghost on the outside restraining him from
busting That's what I want Are you hearing the analogy? So much
infusion of the presence of God that he's on the inside and he's
on the inside more than he should be Logically speaking and he's
on the outside too Well, this is going to be a necessary predicate
to the whole of the discourse because of what God is about
to use Stephen for. And it teaches us what is necessary
for us to be able to do the kind of work that God has called us
to do. Are you hearing me? That it is
possible to be a Christian and have the spirit of God, but not
at a level in which we are here contemplating of Stephen. Stephen
is full of faith, but isn't that what the Apostles required? Look
at verse 3 look at verse 3 again. I'm not done. Listen to what
he said We're for brethren. Look out among yourselves for
seven men of what honest report Full of the Holy Ghost and of
wisdom whom we may appoint over this business See how important
the practical needs of the church are that you have to have men
like Stephen in it Then he said it again over in verse five.
Watch this, watch this. And the same please the whole of the
group. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the
Holy Ghost. See that? And then the other
six. Crazy! Full! And here are three areas in which
I want you to mark with regards to Stephen. This is critical.
This is what I call the evangelical power of the spirit in the life
of a man or of a woman or of a people group. The feeling is
essential in order for them to know God on a level critical
for them to be the kind of witness that they're going to be called
to be. So I call your attention to the first thing, a knowledge
of God. Do you see that? A knowledge of God. Now, why
do I say critical to this idea of Pleruo is a knowledge of God? Because the text says he was
full of what? Faith. And ladies and gentlemen,
you cannot be full of faith apart from knowledge. You cannot be
full of faith apart from knowledge. You might be full of something,
but it's not faith because faith always comes by what? And hearing
by what? So then faith is a component
of the constant inculcation of biblical truth. The man or the
woman that's going to be full, filled, covered, crammed, stuffed
with God is going to be the man or the woman who is so deeply
committed to biblical truth that it makes the kind of impact in
their life. it overtakes them. See, there's
no separating God from the knowledge of God. Men and women are moved
to serve God because they know Him. Ask John 17 3 again, and
this is eternal life, that they might know thee, epigenosis,
a deep profound covenantal knowledge of God and Jesus Christ whom
you have sent. And isn't this what Paul cried
out for Philippians three that I might know him all that I might
know him all that I might know him and the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ for which I have abandoned everything now
watch this this is interesting because if there was another
person that I thought could contend with Stephen it's Paul but Paul
is saying to the church at Philippi Have a constant unending desire
and that is to know Christ better because to the degree that I
know him better I will be more effective in my service of him.
But first and foremost, I just want to know him better for myself
I want the dynamic of a knowledge of Christ to impact me for me
Are you hearing me? That's what he was saying for
which he counted all things done. I for which he abandoned all
of his previous prerequisites and callings and accomplishments
as a Pharisee of the Pharisees, as a child born of the tribe
of Benjamin, circumcised the eight day, a Hebrew of the Hebrew.
All of that, he says, all of that was dong, rubbish, refuge,
compared to the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. And
that term excellency has to do with the qualitative nature of
its impact in your life. In other words, it's like eating
I don't want to start talking about kinds of food cause I love
to talk about food cause I don't want to step on nobody's toes.
So it's kind of like eating a very inferior dish and then coming
over here and eating something that you go, I just ate some
doo doo compared to this. He called it dumb. You, you,
you, you American people with all your, your, your, your, your,
your cool stuff. The Bible is real. He called it dumb. He says, when I look back at
what I had learned under Gamaliel and what I had learned in the
school of Hillel, what I had learned in the school of Shema,
what I learned in all of my Hebrew upbringing, compared to the revelation
of the glory of the Son of God and the knowledge that has impacted
me now, that was all rubbish. That was actually undigestible
food. I should have never ate it. It
didn't do me any good. It blinded me, it deceived me,
it hindered me. In fact, it made me an enemy
of the cross. Something worth vomiting up It's amazing It's
amazing. And this is what happens when
the gospel actually comes in power When you've been feeding
on the husk of false religion all your life And you know that
stuff fills you up, but it doesn't satisfy You are constantly agitated
on the inside because you have not come to the substance of
the reality And then you actually meet christ in the reality of
the gospel And it gets a hold to you in such a way and you
go, this is it. I don't want to eat nothing else.
This is my diet for life. All I want is Christ. What you
want for dessert? Christ. What you want as an a
la carte? Christ. What you want for breakfast?
Christ. What you want for dinner? Christ.
How you want your lunch? Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ.
That's what Paul said. That's what he was saying. So
to me, what that means is that from the time that he met the
sovereign Lord in Acts 9 to the point in which he's writing to
the Philippians, he's experienced Him, but only so much as to want
more of Him. 35 years for me. I know exactly what he's saying.
I want more. Don't you want more, Mother Banks?
I want more of Christ. There's never been a time in
my life where I was satisfied with Christ. There's always been
this thing where He's so good, but I can't get enough of him.
I can't get him to the point that I want him They're not amazing
This is what's going on and so the idea of our friend Stephen
being described in this fashion has first and foremost to do
with us comprehending that he is a man of faith. Faith comes
by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And by the way,
I just want to share with you a couple of things. In the book of Acts,
there's this kind of parody going on. If you don't know what parody
is, it's the way the scriptures set up the tensions. In the book of Acts, the term
fool is used a lot, or several times. But it's used in the positive
sense, and it's also used in the negative sense. I think we
have it here back in the earlier chapters as well. Let me see
here. Back in chapter 5, look at this. Yeah. Verse 17. Watch this. Then
the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him,
which is the sect of the Sadducees, and they were what? Filled. There's our word again. See it?
With what? Not the Holy Ghost. Indignation. Do you see that? Feel. So what
you're gonna see when you're careful to go through the Book
of Acts is two groups of people are getting filled. The unbelieving
group and the believing group. They're both getting filled.
They're both getting filled to the full and covered and stuffed
and crammed. Watch this. And this act and
state will result in an exhibition of whose they are. as they clash
with each other. In other words, when the world
is full of demons, it exhibits an open hostile attack on the
people of God. Like if you go to your job full
of the Holy Ghost, it's quite possible that one of your co-workers
is going to come to work that same day full of the devil. And
there's going to be a battle right then and there between
you and them. Because this is what's going on through the book
of Acts. Are you hearing me? The devil is filling up people. Remember
back in chapter 5? He filled to the full Ananias
and Sapphira. When Ananias and Sapphira had
just seen the loving, open, gregarious nature of the giving of the people
of God. Here comes the devil with his parody. The parody is
a facsimile of the truth. I can do that too. Only it's
selfish and carnal and self-centered. So God will fill his people to
the full, with themselves, cramming them, stuffing them, and they
will move out in obedience. Just natural, natural obedience. No fanfare, no show. But it's
based upon two things, a knowledge of God. So growing in God's Word
is critical. Acts chapter 11, verse 19. I'm
almost done. Acts chapter 11, verse 19. Watch
this. This will speak to the subject again. Acts chapter 11,
verse 19 through 24. This is concerning Barnabas.
Now, when they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that
arose about who? See, God, I'm gonna tell you,
that was a hallmark. And we'll get a chance to unpack that one
more week next week. They traveled as far as Phoenicia
and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the
Jews. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when
they were come to Antioch spoke unto the Grecians, preaching
the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was
with them, and a great multitude, a great number believed and turned
to the Lord. Then tidings of these things
came unto the ears of the church, which was in Jerusalem, and they
sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch to
find out what's going on, right? Now watch this, who when he had
came, had seen the grace of God, And he was glad and exhorted
them all that with purpose of heart that they would cleave
unto the Lord. That's right. When you start serving Christ
visibly and publicly, you got to be committed to cleaving to
him because the goal of the enemy is to separate you from Christ.
You got to be committed to cleaving to Christ because you're not
going to have Christ without something trying to wedge between
you and Christ because your effectiveness is only to the degree that you're
cleaving to him. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
So the devil comes and wedges you, all kinds of topics, all
kinds of situations to wedge you, keep you ineffective. So he says, you guys, you guys
stay fired up for the Lord. Now verse 24, for he was a good
man and what full of the Holy ghost and what faith. See my
point? Well, how's he full of faith
through knowledge? Through knowledge, you cannot
have a vital faith apart from knowledge. So the Holy Ghost
is a separate component to knowledge. He is the means by which knowledge
is brought to life, made vital in your life. He works to make
the word of God alive in your soul in order for it to have
a transformative effect in your life. And that's what we have
here. And then we could go to several other verses. That's
why in your last point here, three kinds of fool. You have
a fullness of faith and in Acts chapter 9 verse 36, look back
there. We have a fullness of good works.
I like this little caveat, this little vignette that we'll get
a chance to look at, but I just want you to see it because I
want to call attention to the word full before we close. It's something that we need to
be meditating on. And so we read in Acts chapter
9, these words over in verse 36, and you guys know this is
about Tabitha. Verse 32, and it came to pass
as Peter passed throughout all the quarter, he came down also
to the saints that dwelt in Lydda. And there he found a certain
man named Annas, which had kept his bed eight years and was sick
of palsy. And Peter said unto Annas, Jesus
Christ, make thee whole, arise, make your bed. And he arose immediately.
Isn't that sweet? Just get up, man, get up. And
all that dwelt in Lydda and Saron saw him and turned to the Lord.
Verse 36, now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha.
which by interpretation was called Dorcas. This woman was full. Do you see it? Full. So the Holy
Ghost is actually writing down the historical works of this
young lady because she was so committed to communion with God
that it manifested itself in good works and alms deeds, which
she did. See verse 36? So just stay with
me for a moment. She was full. She was full. Do you hear me? She was full.
See, now watch this. There are people who want to
do good works and there are people who want to give alms, but because
they're full, they just want to. I'm sorry, because they're
not full. They just want to. Do you know
what I'm talking about? There are people who want to
give, but they don't give. There are people who want to
do good things, but they don't do them. How come? Because in
order to do what you want to do, you have to be full. See,
something has to move you out of a simply willingness to act. See, now you know what I'm saying
is true, don't you? You know what I'm saying is true.
And so when we think about Dorcas, she has a litany of good works
behind her because she was full, full. It was easy for her to
give. And that was a characteristic
of the spirit of God too. It's very important, very important.
God wrote her down in the book of Acts. I thank God for her.
Now watch this. His woman was full of good works,
alms, these, what she did. It came to pass in those days
that she was sick and died. This woman died. whom when they
had washed her, they laid her up in the upper chamber. And
for as much as litter was not a job and the disciples heard
that Peter was there, they sent unto him two men desiring that
he would not delay, but come to them." Now, I want you to
mark this now. The sister dead, cleaned up,
we getting ready to bury her. But the impact of her life in
that community was so God anointed that a couple of men would move
not to close the casket. Isn't that amazing? She was so,
they were so impacted by her good works, which were God ordained
and God directed that they were moved to go catch up with Peter. Peter, we're not through with
this sister yet. Let's see if God's on our side
in this. It's amazing. I'm done here. Listen. Then Peter verse 39,
then Peter arose and went with them. And when he was come, they,
they brought him into the upper chamber and all the widows stood
by him weeping. She go, she go, Peter, look,
look at all these garments. She made beautiful. We thinking
about writing a plaque for her. Go. Garments which Dorcas had made
while she was with them But Peter put them all for Didn't our Lord do that Did he
do that? When they had just closed the
casket on on the on the sister back in the book of Mark Remember
that and they were laughing when Jesus said she just sleep. They
laughed him to score Remember that these are the professional
mourners like we have in our church today. You know when we
do funerals we have professional mourners Don't we the folks that
come in black? Stuff over the head. Crying and
whining. The ones that show out at funerals.
You know what I'm talking about. The professional mourners. The
ones that sing and cry. They do a big old show out of
dead folk, don't they? Nobody praying for life, but
they done chalked her up as dead. Peter kicked them all out. See,
the Holy Ghost brought back to his remembrance how his master
worked. He says, I think I remember now
My master facing a situation like this. Man, let me kick these
people out of here. And he kicked them out. Now listen
to this. Peter put them all forth and
he kneeled down and he prayed. And turning him to the body,
he said, Tabitha, what? Arise. Isn't that what our master
said? And that girl opened her eyes. And when she saw Peter,
she sat right up. Tabitha was full of good works,
wasn't she? Peter was full of the Holy Ghost, wasn't he? And
God wasn't done with Tabitha yet, was he? Listen to what he
said. And he gave her his hand and lifted her up. Ladies and
gentlemen, if this is not our Lord Jesus Christ, I don't know
who this is in Peter. And when he had called the saints
and widows and presented her a lot, and it was known throughout
all Joppa and many believed on the Lord. Isn't that amazing?
And it came to pass that he tarried many days in Joppa with one Simon
Tanner this is where he's getting ready to do his biggest work
So we will come back next week and deal with Stephen Acts chapter
6 and 7 particularly 7 is just Remarkable read it. Okay, because
there's some principles in there for us to learn. Let's close
in prayer father Thank you for this time. Thank you for your
grace. Thank you for your work. Thank you for your admonition
Thank you for your spirit, which is present among us. We ask Oh
God that you would fill us up to the full, press us down, cram
us with yourself, cover us with yourself, oh God, in such a way
that we would be so confident, so bold, so clear, so decisive,
so committed to your honor and glory. Everywhere we go, ready
to tell men and women about Jesus, loving them, but loving you more,
ready to tell them their only hope for glory is Jesus Christ.
As the scripture just says, the wicked flee when no man pursues,
but the righteous are as bold as a lion. Make us so in this
generation, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you.