Acts 6-8 Bible Lesson by Dr. Bob Utley

we're going to be dealing with a group of men that I am not exactly sure who they are they have often been identified with deacons the word deacons never appears in here although the verb for deacons does if these men are deacons the Deacons in the church today have an awful high standard for which to shoot at for these men are the ones that push the frontier of faith far beyond the vision of the Apostles and these are the men really who had the vision of the worldwide gospel not the apostles this group of men known as the seven in acts six through eight we deal with two of these men Stephen and Philip we really know nothing about the other ones except all of them have Greek speaking names now the reason for that was a problem in the early church I think sometimes we think that the church should not have problems well if we're going to be quote New Testament we're going to have problems in the Church of Jesus Christ because to tell you the truth the church is full of people who remain sinners and you know some of the thing a factor that adds to many many church problems rapid growth I think the church was somewhere around 20 to 25 thousand people at this point much too large to meet in any one group at any one place and so they were meeting in different parts of the city and I imagine the apostles were trying to make all the meetings now that will kill you right there let's look at we can't the text in those days as the number of disciples now the word disciple simply means learners are followers I'm very convinced that the New Testament teaches that we need to make disciples not make decisions we've got far too many decisions that do not issue in disciples now disciple is a term that is basically in the book of Acts and the Gospels and when we get to the letters it changes to Saints brothers those kind of terms and so disciples is basically an acts gospel term the number disciples was increasing and notice what happened complaint was made by the Greek speaking Jews against the native Jews now here we have they're both Jewish people that have become believers one group are Jews who are from outside of Palestine whose basic language is Greek and the other group are Jews who lived in Palestine and accepted Christ whose basic language is Aramaic so here we have two different groups that can't talk together except in their second language which was Greek and it caused a lot of confusion matter of fact I really think one group was saying these new outsiders now that never happens in a church does it the group that's here never feels any tension with the new group do they certainly not never well here we have a tension in the early church between two different groups of people all Christians all being taught by the Apostles all filled with the spirit and an undercurrent of complaint develops over how the food is being distributed to the widows now the widows aren't complaining but others are complaining on their behalf and what they're saying is the Jewish widows are getting more to eat than the greek-speaking widows and I what a nitpicking issue right it always amazes me when this in the news how people get killed over a pool game or a glass of a beer or peanuts or something you think how could anybody get killed over something like that you know folks get so uptight over the littlest issues and then it becomes a point of pride and my you know don't on this thing caused a major disruption in the ministry of the early church so I think what we have here is the early church took on the characteristics of the synagogue the synagogue did what they called arms giving and every one day a week representatives of synagogue would go out to all the members and collect money and then with that money they would buy so many meals and people he needed food would come to the synagogue and they would give them 14 meals two meals a day for seven days and basically that seemed what the church was doing now listen what the Apostles said they're called the twelve here which is a nickname for them they called together the whole body of disciples and notice if you would that in verse five it says this suggestion was approved by the whole body basically our church runs on a polity farm known as congregational polity we believe the entire body of believers has greater wisdom than any smaller body and that the entire body is representative of the will of God and so we let the whole church vote on issues and take what they say is the will of God now that is what's happening here now there are other farms in the New Testament the New Testament does not give us just one polity farm but the Apostles are certainly a a one man inspired by God kind of way and then we have the elders or the press Peters and that's kind of a group that the Presbyterians use the Episcopal and Catholic use what the other system we would call it Oh a Piscopo is the way it's often called where they have a pope and then it kind of filters down there are three different polity farms now my basic opinion is that we're moving in a transition from the Apostles who are one of the kind people in a sense to the congregation's in local areas and I think we're moving from that one man as the authority through the elders to the whole congregation but I certainly can't prove that but here's an example of the Apostles going to the whole church now this where it mentions they say very piously this always tickles me how righteous preachers are it is not desirable that we should leave off or leave unattended preaching and the Word of God to wait on tables well that sounds religious doesn't it well when you learn the whole story they chose the most spirit-filled men the most the men were the highest qualifications in the whole church they chose to serve tables that was underneath the apostles and then it's the men who they chose to serve the tables it never tells us about serving the tables it just says when they were put in here ship positions they took the lead and they're the ones they begin to preach in Samaria and all around and the Apostles are left in Jerusalem quite often our pious words don't fit our lives and here we have the men should have had the greatest vision saying they don't have time to do menial tasks and the very ones who are chosen to the menial tasks are the ones who have the greatest impact in ministry I think I remember something about Jesus saying the first among you will be leashed and will be servant of all leadership in the church is not how many folks you control but how many folks you serve now let's continue then if we could and so they're going to choose seven men why seven well it's kind of a special number it's the number of perfection there's no special reason for choosing 7 but listen these qualifications men of good standing this means good reputation full the holy spirit means controlled by the Holy Spirit and practical wisdom they had divine horse sense devote it and then while we go on excuse me then go back to verse 3 and we will assign to them this task they had a particular task to perform and that was helping these widows get their food and notice they're all Greek speaking that's where the problem lay well the Apostles they're going to go on devoting themselves to prayer in the Word of God and somehow they're going to miss the boat and we continue this suggestion was approved by the whole body and they selected Stephen who his name means crown Victor's crown a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit more sure gonna see that for the feem filled with the spirit you might well see Galatians 5:22 and 23 and then the racialist list of me and some wonder why Nicholas is said to be of any art well many of us think that maybe Luke was of Antioch and he was kind of proud that one of those number was in his home city now notice where it says he presented these men with the Apostles and they they prayed and laid hands on them you know this dude about laying on of hands it might surprise you we get so used to doing things the same way have you ever looked at the Bible about ordination as we call it or laying on a pain we think it's a real simple thing and everybody that's the way we do it but the scriptural evidence is very different about the purpose of laying on of hands who did it and why it was done I want to give you a few references and let you look this up and see what you think for yourself it's in your outline on page two and number six and the Old Testament laying on of hands was for sacrificial identification you see the scripture verses there it was for a special blessing the patriarchal blessing you see the scripture there and for commissioning a successor and you see the scripture there now in the New Testament it may surprise you the variety notice it was it's mentioned in mark 523 acts 912 for healing they laid hands on they were healed notice it's mentioned acts 6 6 and 13 3 as a dedication are commissioning to a task that's the text we're dealing with notice mentioned in connection with receiving the Holy Spirit our spiritual gifts acts 8 1719 6 first Timothy 4:14 2nd Timothy 1:6 it's also used in reference to basic teachings either from Judaism are from Christianity in Hebrews 6 two men laying on of hands is not a real settled thing you're amazed me when I was looking at the reference to deacons here unit deacons are only mentioned three times in the whole New Testament and never tells you what they're supposed to do and one of the three times is a woman named deacon in Romans 6 1 & 2 never says what deacons are supposed to do only mentioned three times three times I got surprising so sometimes we need to think through how we do things I'm at the grammar here which says they laid hands on them is obviously the Apostles but later on when Barnabas and Saul are going to be set out from Antioch they lay hands on them aperi the whole church laid hands on them so sometimes we'd lock things down that aren't real locked down now those it says and God's message continued to spread and a large numbers of cycles grew now there are several summary statements throughout Acts many of them think the book of Acts is built on these summary statements you might want to see them 931 1224 16 5 19 20 28 31 or all summary statements that talk about how the God what was increasing I'm sure that many priests coming know the Lord really made the Jews nervous and that's probably one of the first things that they were really upset about is the large number that we're converting to following Jesus as Messiah even among the priests now in verse eight in following we get into Stephens arrest and of course Stephen began preaching he was full of power no one could stand before him he is performing great signs and wonders among the people and he went to the synagogues and preach that Jesus was Messiah he went to a particular one and you see it there in verse nine it's known as the Libyans or the freedmen and I think there's one synagogue were several different people from the Diaspora came Paul was probably a member of this synagogue because his hometown is included in one of these lists and he began to teach there and these people could not stand before him and they became extremely irritated and so they instigated men to say that he was saying abusive things about Moses and the temple this is exactly what they said about Jesus exactly what they said about Paul and matter of fact it's a trumped-up charge however there is some truth because all three of these men looked at the Old Testament in a different way from traditional Judaism you might want to see this is the charge against Paul in acts twenty one twenty eight this is the charge against Jesus in Matthew 26 sixty-one now there's going to be a list of Stephens sermons that follows the council is they're going to bring him before the Sanhedrin and they're going to accuse him of saying things against Moses and against the temple in Chapter seven we have a record of that sermon I am NOT going to go through that sermon detailed although I want to give you an outline if I might in verses 2 through 16 Stephen is going to do a historical rendition of the patriarchs in verses 17 43 he's going to deal with the Exodus and the wilderness wanderings and then in 44 and 50 he's going to deal with the tabernacle and the temple and then in 51 and 53 he is gonna apply it with a razor edge to their lives now he's going to answer their two questions in this way let's wait gonna say he says number one in the charge you made against me denying Moses he goes to this whole series of events where the children of Israel denied Moses on several occasions and that they've always been a stiff-necked people and always rejected God's spokesman Vinnie's going to come back and say God spoke in many places outside the temple all through our history you have made too much of the temple now that's what Stephens going to do and it is going to make these folks so mad if you want to go through this sermon I hope you will and outline it you might mark the number of Old Testament characters that are going to be used and you might want to mark the different geographical locations that God is going to speak to his children I've put I want to list a couple of things because Stephen says some things differently than we have recorded the Old Testament it's called people a lot of problem since the Dead Sea Scrolls we have found that there is some Old Testament manuscripts that are different from the Old Testament we have in our Bible and probably Stephen was using the Septuagint he was a Greek speaking Jew and some of these differences have been found in these Greek manuscripts and they seem unusual to us and maybe Stephens purpose was different but I want to show you four places where there is a problem of what Stephen says in the Old Testament the first in verse 6 where Stephen says for hundred years now that's exactly what Genesis 15:13 says that the children of Israel will be in bondage in Egypt for hundred years but if you read Exodus 12:40 it says 430 years now obviously one's a summary and one's more specific it's real hard to know where you date that from but I think there's no real problem there the second ones down in verse 14 where Stephen says there's 75 that went down to Egypt beginning but your Old Testament in Genesis 46:27 Exodus 1:5 will say 70 well the Septuagint says 75 the Masoretic text says 70 one of them is including jacob and is joseph in his family and one of them is not it's not a real problem how many folks are included now number three and this really is a problem in verse 16 if you look in the Old Testament Abraham bought a field in Genesis 23 16 and Jacob is buried in that field and that field is in Hebron now Joh Jacob bought a field in Shechem and that's where Joseph is buried but if you look at verse 16 Stephen has somehow telescoped those two together he's got Abraham buying the field in Hebron and four leaves Jacob out and so it's a real kind of messed-up deal well I think if I stood before the Sanhedrin was trying to do this whole rendition by memory I might get a few things mixed up too and I think he's just combined those two accounts into one and you have to deal with what you think about that but it's obvious a problem there now I wish I had time to go through all this I just don't you know your Old Testament is a brief summary of it I want you to look at verse 42 it's a quote from Amos 5 25 through 27 if you'll turn to Amos 5 25 27 you'll see that what's in your New Testament is different from what's in your Old Testament and the basic problem is we have a series of names of foreign gods most of them Babylonian astral deities some calls Saturn and on and on the names are somewhat confused in these gods because they're called by different names from different people and that's basically the problem here we have the mention of Molech Molech is that godless that's an unusual name to call it idle godless but the people worshipped this Phoenician fire God by offering their firstborn child we're not sure if they killed the baby first and then burn it or if they burnt the baby alive it was to ensure fertility of the land and the Jews hated this with a passion and you there's several references in the Old Testament to it now in verse 51 he says you people are stubborn and will and he the nisshin hearts this is the ideal of stiff neck there are many references Jews being called stiff-necked and uncircumcised in their heart that really blessed them you may let's see Romans 2:28 and 29 they kept the outward form but the inward form they did not keep they were always resisting the Holy Spirit as their fathers did then in 52 it says you rejected the righteous one you murdered him and aren't on what they got so mad there I imagine their face grew red they begin grinding their teeth they became infuriated and they came on Stephen now those that Stephens filled the Holy Spirit in verse 55 he saw the glory of God and Jesus never had the whole Trinity involved right there standing at God's right hand this is the only place in the Bible Jesus is standing everywhere else he's sitting he's like he's standing to receive the first Christian martyr he looked up and saw the Son of man standing at God's right hand now we'll see Daniel 7:13 this is the only place outside the words of Jesus that anyone calls Jesus the Son of Man besides himself which I think is a combination of humanity and deity then they raised a great shout they held their hands over their ears they rushed upon him and drugged him outside of the city and can start distilling him now from the Old Testament we know the ones who had to throw the first stones were the witnesses that lied because they were guilty of murder and that's that's who did this first and it's somewhat interesting to see how the Jews did this they threw somebody off of a 15-foot cliff that killed him fine if the fall didn't kill him they hit him on the chest with a large stone if that didn't kill him then everybody in the whole congregation stoned him well Stephen in the midst of all these stones flying around him looks up he says he comes to his knees apparently he was knocked down he says forgive them he almost says the very same words that Jesus said from the cross I believe Stephen was at the crucifixion and heard Jesus words in his last few things he says the very same thing those he says Lord Jesus receive my spirit the same thing jesus said about to the Father Saul was holding the cloaks of those witnesses that were stoning him and I think Paul's life begin to change right here in chapter 8 we had the persecution that broke out in the early church notice they went everywhere all of them were scattered except the apostles look at that in verse 1 they were scattering in Judea and Samaria some devout men buried even apparently Jewish and so Philip the people who were scattered with everywhere preaching the word the apostles who were too spiritual to serve tables are left in Jerusalem and the whole church is scattered and the church is the one that does the preaching not the Apostle the Apostle still were tied to Judaism but old Philip he had a love for people and he said I'm gonna go to Samaria now the Samaritans were half Jews and half Gentiles it goes back to the exile in 722 by Syria they were hated they were thought as half-breeds they were looked down on that hell day we even talked to them what Philip said I'm gonna preach the gospel to him and Philip goes to Samaria performs wonder works and a lot of people are converted and the Apostles got nervous and look at verse 14 they sent Peter and James I mean Peter and John down there to see what was happening and when they came and prayed for them they received the Holy Spirit now many people try to build a theology on Acts you cannot build a theology on Acts because the salvation events differ here we have people who truly believe in Jesus they are baptized but they do not receive the Holy Spirit until the Apostles come and lay hands on them you can't say that baptism is the time you receive the Holy Spirit because it's different here you all these things we say about how it should should be are just not appropriate acts because it happens in different sequence sometimes they're filled with the spirit like Cornelius before the they're even baptized sometimes when they're baptized they receive the Holy Spirit sometimes baptism is not even mentioned sometimes receiving the Holy Spirit's not mentioned you cannot build a theology of Acts because the events differ and their order differs now there was one guy there named Simon Magnus I wish I had time to talk about him the early church developed a tremendous tradition about him and we don't know all about him but apparently I want to give him the benefit of the doubt some folks say he's not a believer I think he was a believer that had a hard time giving up this aspect of magic or power in verse 24 after Peter confronts him and trying to get the Holy Spirit to pay for it he says oh please he beg them to pray for him that what Peter said might not befall him and it's an heiress passive imperative I had to manage sincere I think he's sincerely wrong but I think he is probably a believer in Christ now Melissa if you would in verse 25 of those summary statements that tell us that though Philip continued to preach and and even the Apostles got so excited and what God was doing that on their way home they preached in Samaritan villages this is a racial barrier like you can't imagine this is this is far worse than white and black United States this is almost worse than the caste of India there was such a dividing line between Jew and Samaritan friends I want you to know Jesus broke down that barrier and he's going to break down another one right now in verse 26 here we had Philip and you know the whole story he was caught up by the spirit to go down to a road that lead to Gaza and meet a man there known as the Ethiopian eunuch and you see him mentioned there in verse 27 now this Ethiopian eunuch I want to mention to you that he's a eunuch but we're not sure that that meant he was castrated Potiphar remember that who Joseph was sold to in Egypt he is called a eunuch and yet he has a wife so what we have here is this word eunuch is used for officials at court this is obviously a black man he had obviously come to Jerusalem to worship he had bought a scroll of Isaiah 29 feet long very expensive and apparently he was a god-fearing he was a man he could not be a part of the Jewish faith for this reason in Deuteronomy 23 1 if he was a eunuch no eunuch could be a part of the people of God however in Isaiah 56 3 there's a promise to even those who are physically emasculated can one day peel be apart I'm not sure if Philip is mentioned because he's a God fear or if he's mentioned because he's physically emasculated but here's a whole nother group of people that God's just draw him to himself he's overcoming barriers these Jews are wide mouths and what God is doing a black man a Gentile person who is physically emasculated and Samaritans - it's unbelievable that God could love them and that's what this whole story's about now Candace the Queen the king is considered to be divine in Ethiopia so the king is never mentioned the Queen does all the fairs of state Candace is a term like Pharaoh or Caesar all the Queens are called Candace and so he's going home Philip runs up alongside the chariot I'm sure there are many soldiers there's a play a large entourage and this man was reading out loud as all the ancients did and Philip went along the side and said hey you know what you're reading and the guy was I just going to say no I'm not sure he was reading Isaiah 53 to me this is the idea that the suffering servant was an integral part of the early church's proclamation about Jesus and I believe that Jesus is the one that showed the early church the Old Testament passages that applied to him he takes from this point preaches to him the good news look at verse 36 the eunuch said hey Philip let's talk about baptism the eunuch said here's some water can I be baptized now verse 37 you may have in your Bible it's not in the oldest manuscripts it really and it's not even p45 p47 olive a.b.c just not there Philip said I'm sure Philip talked to him much more was convinced of his true true sincere conversion said sure now you know all our theory about that you got to have approval from the church to baptize someone what did Philip do send a carrier pigeon to Jerusalem to get approval for a baptized this guy all of our neat little theological things fall apart when we look at the events of the early church Philip said friend do you trust Jesus the eunuch said yes but I've said stop the coach we're going to have a baptismal service right here hallelujah and Philip baptized him now he's caught away we don't appear that the eunuch went back and evangelize his country there's a lot of tradition here we know nothing for certain but look he's caught away you say is that does it was it a miracle we don't know Isaiah I mean Elijah and Elijah and the Old Testament were caught away well this is a miracle or Philip just left right away we don't know but boy what Philip went home and he had the same thing all the way home he preached the gospel ride up the coast until he got to Caesarea we find him there later in acts 21 8 he had four daughters who caught the spirit of evangelism from him and his four daughters were preachers don't tell the Southern Baptist Convention they're really nervous about that and here we have the early church overcoming barrier after barrier after barrier after barrier men's prejudice or God's opportunity to love people and let his love Sparkle against the blackness of racial social economic intellectual biasness on the part of sinful man Lord Jesus thank you for loving all men and thank you Lord in allowing Gentiles like ourselves to be a part of your great church and thank you that your death has made a difference in our lives and thank you that we don't have to be Jews before we can be saved hallelujah Lord thank you for including us in Jesus name Amen you

Channel: Free Bible Commentary

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Keywords: bible, bible study, bible commentary, hermeneutics, historical-grammatical, new testament, bob utley, acts

Id: eJ-Xktax1e4

Length: 27min 52sec (1672 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 02 2014