You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?
Is there anything here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink. Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages.
Welcome to More Than Ink. You know, this week someone gets in trouble with the religious leaders and it's not an apostle. No, this week we're going to meet Stephen and he got in a great deal of trouble and he was just serving tables. Serving tables.
But he wasn't just serving tables. I know, a little bit more. We'll see what that was all about today on More Than Ink.
Yes, indeedy, this is More Than Ink. I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy. And we're glad you're with us. I hope you're enjoying like we are going through the book of Acts. And in doing so, we're trying to just show you how you yourself can sit down, you know, sit down on a couch, turn on the light and you can read this and go, wow. A lot of people don't really read Acts very much, but it's one of the best narratives in terms of storytelling I know of in the entire Bible.
Oh, and it's not short on action at all. Something fascinating happens in every chapter. Well, like last week I had a jailbreak and an angel just comes in and opens the doors, you know, and it's just perplexing to everyone. How can there be guards here?
How can it possibly be? How can a gate be locked and they're just not here until some guy comes in and says, oh, I just saw them outside. They're preaching outside.
So that was pretty fun. Absolute persistence at continuing to teach and preach in the name of Jesus as Messiah, regardless of being beaten, being punished, being told not to, being locked up. They just wouldn't stop.
Yep, yep. So they've suffered some external opposition. Today we start to broach the issue of kind of internal struggles in the young church that could potentially have as much of a negative effect as the external persecution. So we already saw some of that back in chapter five with the giving issue with Ananias and Sapphira who defrauded not only, they thought they were defrauding the church, but they were actually lying to the Holy Spirit. But the church is growing so fast.
Yeah, yeah. So we're going to dive in in chapter six of Acts and we're going to get a close look at the church going, you know, and what's happening inside the body itself. So if you're following, we're in chapter six, verse one. Let's get a look into the young body of Christ that's growing.
Okay. Verse one. Now in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So maybe we need to explain that a little bit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So the Hellenists is a reference to those Jews who were Greek speaking and Greek in culture, but were there as new believers. And the Hebrews, of course, were there as who were born and raised in Israel and Jewish in culture.
Yeah, they're all Jewish. Right. There were cultural differences. Cultural differences because the Hellenists were dominated by Greek culture.
And probably a linguistic difference. Right, right, right. So yeah, I mean, a good example of this is Barnabas, you know, who came from Crete.
Right. So he wasn't living in the actual 12 tribe area of Jerusalem. He was in Crete.
So he'd be more dominated by Greek culture, but still full blooded Jew. And all these guys are also all believers in Jesus. So an honest kind of conflict arises. Well, we know from earlier chapters that they were all having all things in common. They were eating together, they were sharing, they were worshiping together. But in the daily making sure everybody ate these Greek speaking widows were being overlooked. Mm hmm.
Or at least lesser served than what looks like the full blooded cultural Jews. But there's a problem. They're being neglected is what it says.
So how do you deal with it? And then, you know, in a real sense, this is a very innocent thing. Right, it just is a thing that happened. Yeah, I don't think this wasn't a deliberate thing. Maybe they were just simply overlooked.
But I mean, it's a real, it's a real piece of friction. So, and in a sense here, everybody in this in this conflicts, quote unquote, they really have right hearts because the Hebrews, they're right in hearts because they're serving the widows. They're doing their best to try and do that. The Hellenists are right. You know, they they're bringing up the facts and say, you know, we're being we're, we're being neglected.
So let's just take this honest problem, see how to work it out. And they were probably many of them strangers to one another, they were just getting to know one another just beginning to function as what we call the body of Christ. But that was that was not a concept that was being taught yet. Yeah. But if Satan had his way early in the life of the church, he would sow division. Right.
And this is exactly where it could go right here. So how do they wisely respond so Satan doesn't get it to hold? And the 12, this is in verse two, 12, summoned the full number of the disciples and said, it's not right that we should give up preaching the Word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you, seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, who me whom we will appoint to this duty, but we will devote ourselves to prayer into the ministry of the word.
Okay, stop there for a minute. That's interesting, because it's wonderful that they it's makes a point of saying they gathered everybody. They didn't just have a secret conclave. They gathered everybody and said, you know, okay, we, we have our assignment from God. But you all know one another.
You choose from among yourselves. Yeah, men who are able to address this issue. And I think the way they responded here, instead of being very defensive, right, which they're not, I think they just basically admitting the fact that, you know, we're sort of overwhelmed here.
Right. And so maybe we need to talk about delegating some of this work, because clearly we're being outstripped here. And anyway, they said, we should be doing no important stuff. And now it's not that it's not that this work is beneath them, because no, no, but they can they can actually better use their time in another way. Because they were Jesus's sent ones.
They were the eyewitnesses. They said our job, our job is to devote ourselves to prayer in the ministry of the word. Yeah, through prayer to make sure people are growing in understanding of the truth of what Jesus has said.
Yeah, so I'll just I'll just comment right off the top here. So this little conflict, which looks like it's spiritual warfare could be quite divisive, is a great way in which God alerted the apostles to the fact that you guys need to focus on something you're not focusing on. You've been drawn away. It's not bad to serve widows. In fact, First Timothy five talks about the need about serving widows. It's important. It's very, very important. But you know what, you guys need to reassess and apply yourselves a little differently. And by the way, there's other men who can do this. So let's find them. And let's put them in place.
I mean, it's a very healthy, it's a healthy response to this honest kind of little problem. Well, and these men look at their characteristics. He says you pick out from among you men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom.
Right? So it doesn't say, you know, look for guys that work hard. Look for guys that are always available. Look for guys that are full of the Spirit. So they're aware of what God wants. Yeah, listening to the Spirit. These are spiritual qualifications for a service job. Good reputation, right? Guys that everybody trusts and full of wisdom, right? That means they can apply what they know.
They can see how to get there from here. Yeah. Yeah. And even, you know, when I mentioned First Timothy, Paul writes to Timothy there in chapter three of First Timothy and talks about deacons. Now he doesn't use the word deacon here, but deacon, this diakonos word just means servant.
Right. So these are prototypically, these are like the first deacons in a sense as servants. And when you look at Timothy's qualification list in First Timothy three, it turns out it's all spiritual.
Yeah, right. So when you're serving, you think, well, I just have this menial job at work. You know, I clean up this or I do that. But the service qualifications are primarily spiritual qualifications. Well, you know what Jesus told the apostles that night before he died when he washed their feet, hey, you regard me as your Lord and Master and I'm among you as one who serves. Yeah.
Blessed are you if you do what I do, if you get it. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So we have very respected men of high regard who are now taking the place of the apostles in terms of serving the widows.
It's a perfect solution. Well and verse five says, and what they said pleased the whole gathering, right? Everybody recognized the wisdom of it because they recognize these 12 need to be doing what God has given them to do. We can trust other guys to oversee the dispersant of food.
Yeah. And I might point out, he's going to make the list of who got chosen. Well, the apostles are the ones that are choosing here, but the people, the ones that they asked, they spoke up and said, make some suggestions.
Who do you see that would fit this? And so this is not really some kind of congregational government in a sense, but this is the leadership that the most spiritual guy is in the room saying, tell us who you see, tell us who the Holy Spirit is telling you would be good people to serve. And then they suggest these names and then out of those names, the apostles pick seven guys. So the apostles are still choosing.
So some people think this is, well, this is the first example of the church voting for something like this. And they're not voting. They're not voting, but they're expressing their desires and expressing what they observe with these men.
And yes, growing out of the gathered body, right? They're looking around and saying, well, these are guys who are serving. These are guys with these characteristics.
Who probably already are showing these characteristics. And that's an important distinction too. So the order here is helpful, right?
Because the whole gathering chooses these men and then they bring them to the apostles who pray and lay hands on them. In other words, recognize and validate. So we didn't read that yet. No, we haven't read it yet.
Okay. So verse five. And what they said, what the apostle said, pleased the whole gathering. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit and Philip and Prochorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmenas and Nicholas, Nicolaus and a proselyte of Antioch. So a proselyte.
So he's not a Jew. In fact, all these guys have Greek names. I noticed that too. So there's some wisdom in that because it's the Greek widows that are complaining. Because they were feeling like outsiders.
Right. So now we bring in Greek name guys. So these they set before the apostles and they, the apostles, prayed and laid their hands on them.
So, you know, it's interesting. I think this is the first time we come across this praying and laying on of hands in Acts. But you know what, it's not a brand new idea with the New Testament. It goes clear back to Leviticus, their numbers to the Levites were designated by the laying on of hands.
Joshua was designated by Moses' laying on of hands. So, you know, it's claiming, identifying, recognizing with some sort of authority. Yeah, connection to authority. These are the guys. Right, right.
And there's no magic involved here, really. But it is a nice visible public way to say, right, these guys have our authority. Yeah, yeah. So what do you make of that? Well, they chose Stephen, and they put him up first, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. And then the rest of them, we kind of assume have the same characteristics. But since Stephen is going to become central to the story shortly.
Yeah, that's why that's why he's first on the list here. Yeah, yeah. So this is just a marvelous solution. Satan could have as a lever use this kind of disagreement to cause division. And instead, it redirected the apostles in a healthy direction.
It raised up seven men who may not have been as prominent in their service or challenged to serve the Lord. I mean, it's just it's just good all around. And I want to I want to make kind of an obvious point to the Hellenist, the Hellenist believers. They had they had the guts kind of to not to complain, but to say, you know, there's an issue here.
Right. And many times in churches, we feel like, you know, do I have a place to bring this issue up? I mean, you know, maybe I'll get shouted down.
I don't know. Well, yeah, take courage when something is not going right. Just say, Look, I'm not I'm not here to complain or point blame on anyone. But I need to raise this issue. So be bold and do that.
But but it's not a person, no one will take it personally, or they shouldn't at least. Right corrective actions don't happen inside the church unless people speak up. So a lot of people feel like they don't have the voice to speak up in church.
Well, this worked out really well. And it's interesting that the apostles respond, it's not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables, right. So it that's not that word news, right? It's not pleasing to God, right? Neither is it pleasing to God for the body to be neglecting the needy among them. Right. So they they take action. And it's not wrong for them to be serving the widows.
No. So so this is all good stuff. It's just God realigning how he wants them to spend their time best.
So that's, I mean, I'm just saying, All's well at ends. Well, that was a really good thing as a great, it's a great way to kind of thwart Satan when there's division tactics, and actually to grow the body in kind of a strategic way. Well, because look how the next section starts in verse seven, and the word of God continued to increase. Yeah, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith, because the 12 stayed true to their task. Yeah, yeah, priests, because remember, the disciples were doing all these signs and wonders, right smack dab out in public right around that right around the temple. That's where the priests are. So surely, God did that. So some of the priests would come to faith, and it happens right here, because they were hearing because they were hearing the Old Testament passages opened and expounded and the connections being made to Messiah, and Peter wasn't bashful about sharing what's going on.
So yeah, many, and not just a few a great many of the priests became obedient. That's just, that's like, what? Tell me more about that. So that's, that's a fascinating thing. Except we go back to Stephen right away. Right, right.
So let's not get sidetracked. Let's go to verse eight. Verse eight. And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Oh, so he wasn't just serving tables.
Then some of those who belong. Maybe it was how he was serving tables. Great wonders and signs would indicate something beyond.
Yeah. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the freedmen, as it was called, and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. So Stephen's ministry clearly was a spoken one, as much as a service one. Service and speaking. He was engaged in active conversation with people.
And his words were underwritten by wonders and signs that accompanied him while he was doing it. So who are all these guys, and why would they have taken issue with Stephen? Well, and by the way, these are not believers.
These are Jews. From other places. From other places.
Yeah, other places. Cyrene is Northern Africa, you know, so we go down. But the one I was waiting for was Cilicia. Because Paul, previously known as Saul, came out of Tarsus.
Tarsus is in the region of Cilicia. Oh, yeah. So this is one of those other little hints along the way that what's going, he could have been in this pack of guys that were doing this. In fact, it's actually pretty likely. It's likely. Yeah. Oh, we're going to find that out next week.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so we need to rest on. So then they, these guys, these outsiders, then they secretly instigated men who said, we've heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council.
Here we go again. And they set up false witnesses who said, this man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law. For we've heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.
They're lying. Oh, you know what, those are the same charges that were placed against Jesus. Right. Matthew 26. Yeah, go back and read Matthew 26. This is like deja vu all over again.
And the funny thing about it is it's exactly the opposite of what Jesus actually did and said. But the charges were just absurd. Yeah.
Yeah. They knew what kind of charges would stick with the religious leadership. And so they went down the list of the top ones, the top ones. And so of course, yeah, they are lying. And in Jewish law says on the basis of two or three witnesses. So you have to have witnesses to support these accusations. So they gathered up some false witnesses. And, you know, the leadership asked them, is this true? Did you hear this?
Oh, yeah, I did. So they have their witnesses, they have their lies. And so because Stephen could not be, he could not be countered. I mean, they try, they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. And so in their frustration, they said, well, let's just lie about him.
Oh, let's just lie about him. That's instructive, isn't it? It is.
Yeah, it is. And so they lie and they take those lies to the council, hoping that they condemn him, hoping that this guy gets in trouble. And it looks like he is.
He's gonna get in trouble. Yeah. It's interesting, though, that that Luke wraps up this part of the story by saying, And gazing at him, all who said in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel. Now isn't that intriguing?
What is he trying to communicate? Isn't that it made me think instantly of Moses? Yes. In Exodus 34, Moses comes down from being with God. And people are saying, you know, his face is glowing. Well, see, that's interesting, because they had charged him with speaking against Moses speaking against Moses.
He's actually looking like Moses. Right. Right. And we're gonna find out when we read his defense at his actual trial. He does a very straightforward historical recounting and completely accurate. Straight up. Of facts regarding Moses.
Yeah, straight up. So it is kind of interesting. You wonder if someone poked each other with an elbow and said, you know, you're you're countering the customs of Moses.
And then some says, but you know, its face is glowing like Moses. What does that mean? I don't know. But it's just stay on the story. Stay on the story. Yeah. We'll convict him.
Yeah. So so I mean, it turns out Stephen's got everything going for him when they try and when they try and wrestle with him doctrinally. They can't withstand his wisdom. The Holy Spirit is giving him this ability to be able to counter it perfectly.
It frustrates them. They have to have to cook up a plot to lie about him. His face is glowing. I mean, and they have probably seen him do wonders and signs while he's serving the community. I mean, this guy's everything going for him. You know, it's very like Jesus. Very like because they couldn't come up with a counter argument to Jesus either.
And so they decided to just lie about him. Right, right. And and that's what you got to do.
And when you resist that strongly, your only option is just to misrepresent the truth. Yeah. And hope that on the basis of many witnesses, we can get this guy condemned. And that's what they want to do. So and it's highly likely Paul is in their midst. I think so. We're going to encounter him next week.
Yeah, yeah. So So Stephen, you know, one of the seven guys who's pulled out to take the place of the apostles in terms of serving tables. And by the way, that serving tables also implies financial service as well for them. But this guy who's just he's just serving. But he's doing more than just serving. And when you say, well, I'm just serving in the church doing this or that.
You're doing so much more than that. That's why there's spiritual qualifications. And and and in his service, God decides to take not an apostle, but someone who is picked out because of his integrity to serve. Serving is just such a gigantic issue in the body of Christ. And here, one of the most prominent servants in the beginning of the story of the body of Christ through acts is the one who's picked out, who's lied about, and eventually he'll be killed. But God is doing stuff through Stephen. Yeah, just as he simply experiences being full of the grace and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, in his going about life, something about him drew attention. And you know, the passage tells us specifically, he was doing great signs and wonders among the people. We don't know what those were. Was he healing people? Was the food extending farther than they thought it would go?
We don't have any idea. But it attracted the attention of all these outsiders. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
And it's and it's interesting. They're they're kind of, they're not the core guys in town that these Jews that are against them. They're foreigners here.
And I'm not exactly sure why it is that this opposition would not come from the central religious leaders in Jerusalem. It came from these guys who are clearly out of towners. Oh, that's interesting. But Stephen was probably an out of towner himself. He could have been. Yeah, he could have been.
But I've never been able to explain why that is. Because Luke is very specific to tell us. Right, who they were.
Where these guys come from and all this kind of stuff. And the fact they were disputing Stephen. It's interesting, too, because Gamaliel already told the religious leaders, right, just let these guys go. Well, this is the B team. And I think that's that's my best argument for that because they they probably were not in the room when Gamaliel wisely said, don't oppose him.
This will just fizzle up by itself if it's not from God. So maybe they missed that message. And they're in from out of town. I don't I don't really know. But it is specific that these are guys who are not representative of the local major leadership in town.
You know, these are these are guys from from outer areas coming in. So I don't know. They're they're also disputing with him. So there was I mean, they were close enough to have an argument. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And and also, Stephen's the guy who's who's with a Greek name serving Greek widows. And these guys would come out of a more Greek dominated culture. So I don't know, there's some way to tie all that together.
But I've never been. Well, he's clearly the leader of the kind of the household administration of this community of people. Yeah. So I don't know, it's kind of an interesting scenario that that he his reputation, his spiritual qualifications, somehow enabled him to be the target for these guys.
I don't know. And you know, I think I think the reason is because we keep coming back to this servant thing. And when you look at Jesus, probably the most the most stunning aspect of his character was how he was so, so willing and so quick to be a servant.
And you mentioned the washing the feet and stuff like that. I mean, Jesus served in at every turn that is doing so there's something about God coming in the flesh and serving mankind. And now here's Stephen, basically going down that same route. And so could you make a case for the fact that it's it is in our service, that we most glorify the nature of God's heart toward us God's heart of love toward us if we're serving. And so with Stephen, instead of just being a guy like the apostles, who is teaching all the time and teaching great stuff about Jesus, he's demonstrating the heart of God by how he serves. Well, you know, Jesus said to them again in that last night before he died, they're gonna know your mind by the word love by your love.
Yeah. And I'm sure Stephen demonstrated that. So in a real sense, you know, it was transformative. And I think for these outsider guys, and these highfalutin Jews, they're just saying, you know, this is, they're out, this guy is out do gooding us. But he's demonstrating the very heart and nature of God in terms of his love for us in terms of serving. So, you know, in, and it's talked about the fact that Jesus left behind his place on high and, and, and came down and took the form of a man and humbled himself as being a man humbled himself into the point of death. And even his death, Jesus death was a service thing. So love and service, it actually communicates the heart of God probably more powerfully than even using words. And so Stephen was a living, breathing, demonstrating model of the heart of God through how he served.
I think that's just a fascinating emphasis. It's true. I while you were talking about that, I was thinking again, back to that night before Jesus died, when he tells the disciples, hey, if the world hates you know that hated me first, hated me first. And don't be surprised when they say all kinds of evil against you. And when they line up to take you down, if they persecuted me, they'll persecute you.
All these things they'll do to you for my name's sake, because they do not know the one who sent me. Yeah. And so Stephen, something about Stephen was highlighting that. Yeah, he knows God and they don't.
Yeah. And you know, we've talked about this before for the Jews, they really had a they had a warped expectation of what the coming Messiah would look like. It would look like a ruling king, right? Not a servant, but not a servant. And so here's a guy who's attested by miracles and wonders and signs, doing clearly God like things, but he's not acting like the military ruler. He's acting like the servant.
It's almost like rubbing it in their faces. You should have been expecting a servant Messiah and this guy has the Holy Spirit. He's full of it. So next time, as you know, we started to chapter seven, we're going to find out what the verdict is because all the false witnesses have said their stuff.
And in verse one, and the high priest said, are these things so? And Stephen said, and we'll talk about that next time. We'll see how does he defend himself? Does he does he take it personally? Where does he go after that? And we'll find out how he responds to that very thing.
Are these things so? Next week here on More Than Ink. There are many more episodes of this broadcast to be found at our website, morethanink.org. And while you're there, take a moment to drop us a note. Remember, the Bible is God's love letter to you. Pick it up and read it for yourself and you will discover that the words printed there are indeed more than ink. This has been a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City.
