An Intro to Paul (Col. 1:24-29)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and Bethel Friends on Sunday, August 11, 2024

I wish to talk about the apostle Paul. We will introduce Paul today. Paul was introduced at Stephen’s stoning and could have been in a better light.

Acts 8:1:

 Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death.

Verse 3:

But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison.

Now, in Acts chapter 9, Paul becomes a Christian. By the way, Saul is Paul, and Paul is Saul. He is called Saul before his conversion. He now commits his life to the Lord. We will look at that in a few weeks. Today, I wish to look at Paul’s philosophy of ministry (A philosophy is a way of thinking), which can be found in Colossians 1:24-29.

Let’s read that passage:

Colossians 1:24–29 (ESV)

²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, ²⁵ of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, ²⁶ the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. ²⁷ To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. ²⁸ Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. ²⁹ For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

As we discuss this passage, I want you to notice Paul’s passion for Jesus-centered, Gospel-driven ministry and his humility.

Now, what is the take-home today? I want to teach you about the apostle Paul. But what do you take home? God has placed all of us in a position of ministry. We are all in places where we can serve the Lord. These are not full-time paid positions. The follower of Christ is to serve the Lord everywhere and always. We are on the clock 24/7. Today, I am not teaching you about Paul’s life, I am teaching you about Paul’s philosophy of ministry. A philosophy is a way of thinking. This is Paul’s way of thinking about ministry.

So, your take-home application: I ask that we all compare and contrast our philosophy or thinking about ministry with the Apostle Paul’s. Maybe we will be encouraged because things line up. Maybe we will need encouragement because we are putting too much on ourselves and not trusting God. Maybe you will need to refocus. Remember, when I say ministry today, I am talking about the connections in life that God has placed you in for His purposes.

1. First, some things about Paul’s background.
   1. This comes from R.C. Sproul’s commentary on Acts:
   2. Much of Acts is a profile of this man, Paul—of his life, his ministry, his suffering, and his faithfulness to his Master. When we first meet him here in Acts, however, we do not meet the greatest pastor, the greatest missionary, the greatest evangelist, or the greatest man. We meet the early church’s public enemy number one. We meet a man filled with hostility and hatred toward Christ and Christ’s church, a man whose consuming passion was to eradicate Christianity from the face of the earth.^[1]
   3. Paul was born, according to tradition, in the same year that Jesus was born. He was born in Asia Minor, in the city of Tarsus; hence he was called Saul of Tarsus, Paul being the name he used in Gentile circles. His father was a Roman citizen and a well-respected merchant. The fact that he was a Roman citizen indicates that he likely had done something significant. Because Saul’s father was a Roman citizen, Saul was born a free man, and he inherited that citizenship from his father. Tarsus was at the extreme southeastern tip of Asia Minor, close to Antioch, just a little bit north of Jerusalem. Tarsus was on the trade routes, where all merchandise moved from Europe and Asia south through the Middle East, down into Africa, and back. In antiquity Tarsus was one of the wealthiest cities of that region. Tarsus had the largest university in the world at that time, bigger than the universities in Athens and Alexandria. Tarsus was a cosmopolitan city, a city in which merchants, scholars, intellectuals, and travelers from all over the world mingled.^[2]
   4. The young Saul grew up in that environment. Initially he followed a commonplace tradition of the time, which was learning a trade through apprenticeship. One of the most lucrative trades in that day and region was tentmaking. As a young lad, Saul learned the trade of making tents, which served him well throughout his life.
   5. At the age of thirteen, because of the prowess and brilliance that he had already displayed, he was sent away from Tarsus to Jerusalem to go to seminary, as it were, to study under the tutorship of the leading theologian in the world of that time, Gamaliel. (We were introduced to Gamaliel in Acts 5.) Saul studied under Gamaliel for seven years and received the equivalent of two PhDs in theology. It has been said that by the age of twenty-one Saul of Tarsus was the most educated Jew in Palestine. He had mastered the Old Testament and all the rabbinic interpretations of it, and his star had risen in meteoric fashion.^[3]
2. Notice Verse 25: The source of the ministry is God.
   12. Paul says that he was made a minister. Paul did not choose to be a minister. God gives ministry gifts out. You can read about these gifts in 1 Cor. 12 and Romans 12. We are in ministry for God’s Kingdom. I better be in ministry for God’s Kingdom.
   13. Notice Paul writes stewardship: This is still in verse 25. God gives us stewardship of a ministry that He calls us to. Do you know what that word means? It means “House ruler.” If you are a Christian, you are also house rulers, stewards of ministries that God has given you.

Before we move on, I want to emphasize again that in addition to learning about Paul, I hope that your take-home assignment is to analyze what and how your philosophy of ministry compares to Paul’s.

• Notice in Verse 24: The spirit of the ministry is joy.
  1. This is a tough one. This is tough because Paul is writing this from a prison. This is one of the letters called “The Prison Epistles.” Paul writes about joy in persecution.
  2. There are currently Christians in jail all over the world because of persecution.

Paul found joy from the Lord, even in suffering, do we? I wonder if I can? If the source of ministry is the Lord, He is the one responsible for the ministry, I serve Him, and He is responsible for the fruit. I am called by God to serve Him as a pastor, but we are all called to serve the Lord in various ways.

• In verse 25, the scope of ministry is that he might fully carry out the Word of God.
  1. We will see in a minute that this goes together with preaching. But notice that in Paul’s philosophy of ministry we see that he uses the word, “fully.” This is complete.
  2. What is our thinking about what God is calling us to do, how does it compare to Paul’s thinking here?
• Verse 28: The style of the ministry is preaching.
  1. Paul will proclaim the Gospel. This is like a herald crying it out.
  2. We must proclaim the Gospel as Paul did.
• Verse 28: Sum of the ministry, what are we after? What’s the goal? “So that we may present every man complete in Christ.”
  1. Paul’s goal was completion
  2. His goal was that everyone he served would be complete in Christ.
• Verse 29: The strength of the ministry. Who can do this? Who can fulfill all this?
  1. Verse 29 tells us the strength of it. “For this purpose also I labor striving.”
  2. Paul would work diligently.
  3. We see this idea reflected in the rest of the New Testament.
  4. By the way, this is Olympic language. The language here is comparable to an athlete striving for a crown. It is the language of a runner laboring toward the end.

Some of you know that I run. I enjoy running, I really do. There are days in the summer, especially late in the evening, when I can run faster. But when it is hot, I struggle. Then, I long for winter. But then, in the winter, there are times when the wind is so strong and so cold that I struggle. On a January morning last year, I went out running just before 6 am. I opened my garage and realized it was snowing. Further, there was an inch of snow on the ground. I started running and realized the snow was picking up in intensity. The wind was strong. The temperature was dropping. I was wearing shorts because it was about 20 degrees, but by the end of the run, it was 14 degrees. I recall running on 224 towards 680, and the wind and the snow were beating at my face. It was difficult. I had to push through. Maybe that is the joy of running distance. It is a labor of enjoyment, though I cannot explain it.

In so much a greater manner, we labor the Christian life for a greater prize in the end.

This was Paul’s philosophy of ministry. We should aim to minister in similar ways.

This is Paul’s philosophy of ministry; we are all called to serve the Lord in the church, in the family, and everywhere. Where does your philosophy of ministry need to change?

Pray

^[1] R. C. Sproul, Acts, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 138.

^[2] Ibid.

^[3] Ibid.

Witness to an Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26–40)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, July 28, 2024

I want to start with something funny:

A man goes to his rabbi:

.. “rabbi, I am very troubled. My son, he went off traveling the world, and came back a Christian!” The rabbi replies, “you know, it’s so strange you say that. My son also left home, and came back a Christian!” The two decide to pray to God about this, and God replies, “you know, it’s so strange you say that… my Son went to the world…

 Well, we know that is only a joke. Jesus was and is a Jewish man who died for our sins and rose again…

Jesus’s sacrifice transcends cultural boundaries… He is for the whole world.  

In the last several weeks, we have walked through Acts chapter 8. Today, I want to look at Philip’s witness with the Ethiopian Eunuch.

I shared this a few weeks ago:

Jesus Christ on the cross says, “I’ve become a leper for the lepers. I’ve become a eunuch for the eunuchs. I’ve become a thief for the thieves. I’ve become a coward for the cowards. I’ve become a bad husband for the bad husbands and a bad wife for the bad wives.” When Buddha was dying, they say he said, “Strive without ceasing.” When Jesus was dying, he said, “It is finished.” When Buddha was dying, he says, “Pay what you owe.” When Jesus was dying, he said, “I’ve paid what you owe.” Utterly different.

Do you see how radical that message is for the city? First of all, that is the message that brings down the superior.^[1]

So, today, we will look at Philip’s witness to the Ethiopian Eunuch. Let’s look at this passage again together. As we do, we will gain some strong insights into sharing the Gospel, and we see the gospel transcend ethnic boundaries.

Acts 8:26–40 (ESV)

²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. ²⁷ And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸ and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” ³⁰ So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

                  “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter

and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,

so he opens not his mouth.

         ³³       In his humiliation justice was denied him.

Who can describe his generation?

                  For his life is taken away from the earth.”

³⁴ And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. ³⁶ And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” ³⁸ And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. ³⁹ And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

I have a basic breakdown of this passage.

Message breakdown

A model for personal sharing from Acts 8:26-40

1. First part, verses 26 and 29, we must be sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
   1. First of all, I like what Timothy Keller shares:
   2. First of all, we’re told he’s the finance minister of the nation of Ethiopia. He’s the CFO. He’s the cabinet minister. He has hit the top. He’s powerful. The second thing we know about him is he can read. Do you realize how unusual that is? Do you realize how rare it is that he can read? Hardly anybody could read back then, and there he is reading. So he was a man of incredible education and intellectual sophistication, and he was a man of great power.
   3. Last of all, he owned an Isaiah scroll. Do you realize how rare that was? People didn’t own Isaiah scrolls. They didn’t have scrolls and books and libraries. It was incredibly expensive to do something like that. The scrolls were always kept in some public place, the synagogue, the schools, and so on. So here’s a man who’s unbelievably able. He has made it to the top. He’s brilliant. He’s educated. He’s wealthy.^[2]
   4. Further, from Keller:
   5. Jerusalem was not around the corner from Ethiopia. It would be an enormous, amazing journey. I mean, a person who set out from Ethiopia to go to Jerusalem would not have high hopes of surviving. What would have driven a man of that kind of accomplishment to read the Bible, to be so interested in the God of Israel that he would take such an enormous journey to go and try to worship in Jerusalem?
   6. The answer is he must have experienced some unbelievably deep spiritual disappointment. In some ways, the Ethiopian eunuch shows how both our modern culture and ancient culture fail. Because in terms of the ancient culture, he could have no children. He was a dry tree. He would have no sons and daughters. As far as the ancient culture was concerned, he had sold his soul for money, and he had given it all up. He was a nobody. He was a nobody! He had no name, no name that would last.
   7. But as far as modern culture is concerned, it’s pretty clear the money hadn’t satisfied.^[3]
   8. Do you know what? He must have been devastated because as both an African and and eunuch, he would have been turned away at the doors. Can you imagine risking your life to go see if maybe this God of Israel that he had read about was his hope and be turned away? He was coming back. When Philip meets him, he is reading the Isaiah scroll. He is reading the last chapters of Isaiah. He would have certainly found Isaiah 56 where it says, “Let no foreigner be turned away, and let no eunuch says, ‘I am a dry tree.’ ”
   9. He would have read this and realized there was a salvation coming. There was a Person coming who was going to change the exclusionary boundaries around the believing community. He saw God was saying, “Through the work of my Servant, foreigners are coming in. Through the work of my Servant, the eunuchs are coming in. It doesn’t matter what your past is. It doesn’t matter what you’ve been. Everyone who believes and binds themselves to me is brought in.”^[4]
   10. The Person who was going to do this was this mysterious Servant. You know, when Philip meets this guy, this is the verse he is reading. You see this in Acts 8. This is what he is reading (Isaiah 53:8) where it says, “By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants?” Who can speak of his descendants? It’s talking about Jesus. “And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.”
   11. When Philip meets him, he is reading this text. Philip says, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” The man says, “No! Could you please tell me? Who is this? Is the prophet talking about himself or somebody else? Who is this?” In one little verse, Acts 8, it says, “Then Philip … told him the good news about Jesus.” He believed, and he turned and said, “Baptize me.” Philip and this Ethiopian eunuch get down in the water, and Philip puts the water on him.
   12. There is what this whole text is talking about. Because of Jesus Christ, here is a middle-class Jewish man embracing a sexually altered African man in the water. What would bring people like that together? They had the same name. His name was not, “I’m a successful treasurer. I’m the director of the treasury of the queen.” See? Philip’s name was no longer, “I am a very upright Jewish man.” They had the same name, and the name was, “I’ve been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.”^[5]
   13. Do you know, interestingly enough (I found this out when I was studying this), the Greek word for eunuch and the Greek word for prime minister or high court official in the Mediterranean world (in all of the courts) is the same word?
   14. Why would that be? Why would the word for prime minister and the word for eunuch be the same word? The answer is if you were a commoner and you were going to make it up to the very, very top of the royal courts, the male royal personages did not trust any commoner to come and work in close quarters with the female royal personages unless they were castrated. That’s the reason why nobody who wasn’t already royal got to the very top and pinnacle of power in any of these royal courts unless they became eunuchs, unless they were castrated.^[6]
   15. Look at verse 26 with me. We can see that the Angel of the Lord speaks to Philip, and Philip obeys.
   16. Let’s reread verses 26-28: ²⁶ Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. ²⁷ And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸ and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
   17. Then we see in verse 29 that the Spirit of God again speaks to Philip.
   18. Philip obeys as well.
   19. Keller shares:
   20. Jesus, in every way, says to his disciples, “My message isn’t just for people like you. It’s for all races, for all peoples.” Yet when you get into the book of Acts, God has to do excessive prodding (we’ll see this when we get to Acts 10) to get Peter to go to a Gentile, Cornelius, to get Philip, a Jew, to go to a black African. Over and over, God has to give very specific directions. “Go down that road. Do you see that chariot? Yes, stay with the chariot.”^[7]
2. Verse 27, we must be obedient to the Lord’s command.
   1. Back up now to verse 27, notice that Philip obeys. He obeys right away.
   2. Now, I know that I can intellectualize something many times.
   3. Many times, I can easily think that someone else will share Jesus with so and so. Right?
   4. What about your children? You would tell them, “Mercedes, I want you to wash the dishes” Now, Mercedes could easily say, “Abigail will do them.” But I could say, “I did not ask Abigail, I asked you.” Right? Right? God is calling me to be a witness to certain people, and He is calling you to be a witness to certain people. We must obey. We should not say, “Oh, the other pastor will do it,” or anything like that.
   5. You may ask, “How do I know the Lord is telling me to be a witness or to witness to someone?” I am glad you asked. The simple answer is that you know them; they are in your influence, right? That means the Lord wants you to witness. In other words, you must now pray for how to be the most effective witness. That is a daily prayer need.
   6. In reality, I hope that helps me want to be a witness more and more as I go through my spiritual journey. I must want to see the lost come to know Jesus. I must want someone to be delivered from things because he accepts Christ.

• Verse 30: Be sensitive to the other person’s needs.
  30. Look with me at verse 30.
  31. ³⁰ So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
  32. We see that Philip asked him if he understood. This leads to the next point.
• Verse 35: be skilled in Understanding God’s Word.
  1. Verse 35: Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.
  2. We must always be ready to give an answer of the hope that is within us.
• Seek a response to the Gospel.

Close:

Keller:

What does the Spirit show is the sign of conversion? A middle-aged Jewish man putting his arms around a sexually altered black man and calling him “brother.” If your psychology has been changed, your sociology will be changed. What could do that? Only the gospel.^[8]

Example: At the end of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens … It talks about two men, kind of friends, Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay. Sydney is in love with Lucie, but Lucie marries Charles. Charles, however, is arrested during the French Revolution, and he’s condemned to die. He’s in the prison with the other prisoners who are going to be executed the next day. They’re going to go to the guillotine.

That night, Sydney sneaks in and says to Charles, “Look, we resemble each other. We always have resembled each other. Let me take your place. You go to Lucie. You go and live with her. You go and have children. You have a family.” Charles won’t do it, and if I remember correctly, Sydney has him knocked out and pushed out, and he takes his place. There’s a young girl, a seamstress, who’s in there, and she is going to be executed the next day. She has been condemned to die as well.

She walks up to him, because she knows Charles Darnay. She begins talking with Sydney as if he’s Charles, thinking, of course, they know each other. Sydney tries to keep up the ruse a little bit and says, “Well yes, of course. It’s nice to see you,” and so on. Suddenly the girl realizes, “This isn’t Charles.” She looks and she sees it’s somebody else who has taken his place. Her eyes get big. It dawns on her. Suddenly she says, “Are you dying for him?” Sydney says, “Yes, and for his wife and child.”

Basically after that, she says, “You know, I’m having a lot of trouble facing my death, but if you, O brave stranger, would just hold my hand, I think I could do it.” The wonder of his sacrificial love changed her, and it wasn’t even for her. Imagine what change comes into the human soul when you look at Jesus, and your eyes get big, and you realize what he has done. You say, “Are you dying for me?” and he says, “Yes.” He says, “I’ll hold your hand through the rest of your life, and you’ll be able to face anything.”^[9]

…the moment you realize he has done that for you, and he takes you by the hand, and you know you’re loved and accepted in him, and the pressure is off, and you never have to prove yourself again, it changes everything. The gospel is not, “Live a good life and try to be like Jesus.” The gospel is not “What would Jesus do?” The gospel is “What has Jesus done?” That’s what changes you.^[10]

Pray

^[1] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[2] Ibid.

^[3] Ibid.

^[4] Ibid.

^[5] Ibid.

^[6] Ibid.

^[7] Ibid.

^[8] Ibid.

^[9] Ibid.

^[10] Ibid.

Witness to the Samaritans (Acts 8:9–25)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, July 21, 2024

We are now in our eighth chapter of Acts, which will be encouraging. Recently, I read the following:

“When the preferences of the church members are greater than their passion for the Gospel, the church is dying.”  Thom Rainer

What are you most passionate about? Put aside your preferences. The Bible is about the Gospel. The apostle Paul wrote:

1 Corinthians 9:16: For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. 

I share that because the Book of Acts is about the spread of the Gospel. This would not happen if the people were stuck in their mold, which is especially true today. If the people were stuck in their preference, Jesus would still only be for Jewish people, but in today’s passage, we see the Gospel spread to the Samaritans. This is now when the Book of Acts transitions from non-Jews to Gentiles.

Here is what can happen when the gospel spreads:

WESLEY: A HEART STRANGELY WARMED

At the first half of the 18th century, England was also in a mess. Gin and gambling were destroying the lives of poor and rich alike. This was the age when Dick Turpin – crime figures were so high, there was so much danger from highway men and footpads that Horace Walpole wrote, “One is forced to travel, even at noon, as if one were going to battle.” The government did not know how to respond so they simply added the death penalty for more and more and more crimes.

Meanwhile in 1713 England by defeating France and Spain had secured itself a monopoly in the slave trade. The horrors of unbridled greed in the early industrial revolution meant that three out of every four children died before the age of five because of the insanitary slums and poverty. And of course it hardly goes without saying–churchgoing was at an all time low, and clergy were time servers. I have an ancestor Bishop Carr of Worcester, who gambled (and lost) so much, that when he died, his creditors highjacked the coffin, and would not allow it to be buried, until the debts had been paid. That was the state of the church and the nation at the time.

And then in 1738, a man called John Wesley went to meeting in Aldersgate in the City of London. He heard a reading from a sermon of Martin Luther on Romans and as he listened “My heart was strangely warmed” he said. He felt God – not the god of cucumber sandwiches but the God who tears open the heavens and shakes mountains. And he began to preach. He preached outside the shafts of coalmines and at the doors of factories. He preached not where the church said people should come, but where people were. 

And lives were changed. Workers who would take their pay and drink it away, leaving nothing for their wives and children, put aside the bottle and turned to Jesus. Families were reunited. Child mortality dropped. Literacy grew as people longed to learn to read to read the Bible. Prayers were answered – people were healed of physical ailments. Church attendance grew – passionate church attendance singing hymns to what at the time were considered vulgar pop-song tunes. Parliament itself was affected. The slave trade was abolished. Sending children down the mines or up the chimney was abolished. The death penalty was restricted to truly serious crimes. And the crime rate fell…because one heart was strangely warmed. And then many hearts were strangely warmed. In one generation, a nation was changed.

God is at work. I believe that our current society has the potential to change as John Wesley’s society, but it will take all of us doing things differently. Let’s now look at a passage where Philip the evangelist went to a different people group. I want to show you how Philip witnessed to the Samaritan and how he was a witness to the Ethiopian Eunuch. I want to show you how Philip was obedient to the Holy Spirit.

1. God was taking care of those who were marginalized.
   1. In verse 4, the Bible says that those scattered because of persecution went out “preaching” the Word.
   2. Do you know the word “preaching” is used five times in Acts chapter 8? They were proclaiming the Gospel; they were infecting people with Jesus.
   3. In verses 4-13, Philip witnesses in Samaria. This is a phenomenal passage.
      1. Philip went to Samaria, and many were set free from their bondage in sin. A magician named Simon was also set free.
      2. Last week, we talked about Acts 8:4-8. Today, we will pick up at verse 9.

Acts 8:9–13 (ESV)

⁹ But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. ¹⁰ They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.” ¹¹ And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. ¹² But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. ¹³ Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.

• Acts 8:8 left off by saying there was much joy in the city. Why? They were scattered preaching the gospel. Unclean spirits came out. People were healed.
• Now, we see this man named Simon. He has previously practiced magic.
• Notice it says that he amazed the people of the city. They thought he was somebody great.
• Verse 10 says they all paid attention to him, and verse 11 tells us why. They thought the power of God was working in him.
• But verse 12 gives the contrast. They believed Philip when he preached the good news about the Kingdom of God, and they were all baptized.
• Verse 13- even Simon believed and was baptized. He continued with Philip.
• In Verses 14-24, Peter and John, hearing about this witness in Samaria, came to lay hands on these people so that they could receive the Holy Spirit.
• Acts 8:14–24 (ESV)
• ¹⁴ Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, ¹⁵ who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, ¹⁶ for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷ Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸ Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, ¹⁹ saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” ²⁰ But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! ²¹ You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. ²² Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. ²³ For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” ²⁴ And Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”
• Philip was not one of the original 12 disciples. So, the 12 hear what is going on and they come down to check it out.
• Peter and John travel to check this out.
• So, verses 14-17 tell us about them receiving the Holy Spirit.
• Now, the Holy Spirit usually comes upon us when we receive Christ. There was likely a delay in this instance because this allowed the Apostles to confirm God’s work in Samaria and authenticate Philip’s witness. God purposefully delayed in this instance.
• The book of Acts is transitional. It is descriptive, not prescriptive. It is history. We must get our theology from the epistles.
• Rydelnic teaches at Moody Bible Institute, and he shares: When he has his students study the various ways the Holy Spirit came upon people in the Book of Acts, there is no consistency. Sometimes, they speak in tongues, or sometimes, like the apostle Paul, they receive their sight back.
• This may have kept the apostles, and specifically Peter, in charge of the church at this time, keeping it from becoming a Samaritan church.
• We must experience the apostle’s teachings, not teach the apostle’s experiences.[2]
• In verses 18-24, we see the magician Simon trying to buy the ability to give the Holy Spirit out, but Peter would not allow that. Peter told him that he needed to repent.
• In verse 23, Peter is saying that he saw in his soul that he wanted the gift of the Holy Spirit without submitting to His power.
• Verse 25 summarized: Acts 8:25 (ESV): ²⁵ Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.
• The gospel is spreading.
• Do we realize that people in our society are held hostage? People in our society are prisoners of war. They need to be released. They need to be set free, and we can help with this. The Samaritans needed Jesus, and it took Philip, being different, to set them free. Imagine ourselves in Vietnam. The war is waging around us, and we see many people who are prisoners, but we walk right by; we do not set them free. Imagine ourselves in World War II; we walk right by a concentration camp, and we have the full ability to set the people free, but we do not.
• We CAN set them free, but we are afraid we may not have all the answers, we are afraid we may be laughed at, we are afraid of something else.
• Do we know that we are all in God’s army? We are all fighting the enemy; that is what we are called to as Christians. The people in this city and this world are prisoners. They need us to set them free. They are prisoners spiritually, not unlike the people in Vietnam or even in concentration camps. Certainly, the people in concentration camps had more tangible imprisonment, but without Christ, there is an eternal prison. Its effects are current and eternal. Set them free!
• It is time to set them free.

Ortberg shared a story from Tony Campolo:

John Ortberg, in The Life You’ve Always Wanted, tells about the time that Tony Campolo, the college professor, popular speaker and author, was about to address a college chapel service. Several men from the school gathered with Tony for a time of prayer before he spoke. They circled, knelt, laid hands on him and began to call out for God to bless their speaker.

Campolo shared that his men prayed a long time, and as they prayed, they grew tired and started leaning more and more on Campolo. The prayers were earnest, but their weight was getting too much to bear.

On top of that, one guy was not even praying for Tony. He was praying for someone named Charlie Stolzfus.

“Dear Lord, you know Charlie Stoltzfus. He lives in that silver trailer down the road a mile. You know the trailer, Lord, just down the road on the right hand side.”

Why was the man praying for Charlie? Tony was the speaker, not Charlie Stoltzfus. In addition, the Lord already knew where Charlie Stotzfus lived.

“Lord,” the man continued, “this morning Charlie told me he’s going to leave his wife and three kids. Step in and do something, Lord. Please bring that family back together.”

Finally, the prayer time ended, they had a great chapel service, and Campolo headed home. Just as he was merging onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike, he noticed a hitchhiker on the side of the road and decided to give him a ride.

As they rode along, Tony introduced himself. The man stuck out his hand and said, “My name is Charlie Stoltzfus.”

Campolo could not believe his ears. What are the chances . . . ?

At the next exit, Tony left the interstate and turned the car around. As they returned to the interstate, Charlie said, “Hey, mister, where are you taking me?”

Tony said, “I’m taking you home.”

“Why?”

Campolo said, “Because you just left your wife and three kids, right?”

The man was stunned. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. I did.”

He moved over against the door and never took his eyes off of Campolo. Then, when Tony drove right into the guy’s yard, that really did it.”

Charlie’s eyes bulged out. He said, “How did you know I live here?”

“The Lord told me,” Tony said. (He didn’t explain how the Lord told him).

The trailer door threw open and Charlie’s wife ran out. “You’re back! You’re back!”

Charlie whispered in her ear what happened. The more he shared, the bigger her eyes got.

Campolo then said with real authority, “The two of you sit down. I’m going to talk and you two are going to listen!” And he laid it on, and they listened.

That afternoon, Campolo helped those two receive Jesus Christ as Savior, and that was the start of the healing of a marriage.

Now, was that coincidence that Tony Campolo happened to pick up that particular hitchhiker? Or did God answer the praying man’s petition to “step in and do something?”

James 5:16 reads, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” Prayer unlocks divine power, heaven’s blessing, and God’s answer. How many of our coincidences are really answered prayer?[3]

Prayer

^[1] Stanley E. Porter, “Acts,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1732.

[2] Open Line; 07.11.2021 and 11.05.2022

[3] http://www.thecitizen.com/blogs/dr-david-l-chancey/03-27-2012/prayer-really-works-when-we-take-it-seriously

Philip Witnesses Beyond Jerusalem (Acts 8:4–8)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, July 14, 2024

You may or may not know the name “John Bunyon.” He lived from 1628-1688. You may know the great work, “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Bunyon wrote that and many other works while in prison for preaching without a license. John Piper writes:

In 1672, about fifty miles northwest of London in Bedford, John Bunyan was released from twelve years of imprisonment. As with suffering saints before and since, Bunyan found prison to be a painful and fruitful gift. He would have understood the words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, three hundred years later, who, like Bunyan, turned his imprisonment into a world-changing work of explosive art. After his imprisonment in the Russian gulag of Joseph Stalin’s “corrective labor camps,” Solzhenitsyn wrote,

I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me: “Bless you, prison!” I . . . have served enough time there. I nourished my soul there, and I say without hesitation: “Bless you, prison, for having been in my life!” (The Gulag Archipelago, vol. 2, 617)

How can a man pronounce a blessing on imprisonment? Bunyan’s life and labor give one answer.

Ten years after they were married, when Bunyan was thirty, his wife died, leaving him with four children under ten, one of them blind. A year later, in 1659, he married Elizabeth, who was a remarkable woman. The year after their marriage, however, Bunyan was arrested and put in prison for not conforming to the High Church standards of Charles II, the nation’s new king. Elizabeth was pregnant with their firstborn and miscarried in the crisis. Then she cared for the four children as stepmother for twelve years alone and bore Bunyan two more children, Sarah and Joseph.

For twelve years, Bunyan chose prison and a clear conscience over freedom and a conscience soiled by the agreement not to preach. He could have had his freedom when he wanted it. But he and Elizabeth were made of the same stuff. Though he was sometimes tormented that he might not be making the right decision in regard to his family, when asked to recant and not to preach he said,

If nothing will do unless I make of my conscience a continual butchery and slaughtershop . . . I have determined, the Almighty God being my help and shield, yet to suffer, if frail life might continue so long, even till the moss shall grow on mine eyebrows, rather than thus to violate my faith and principles. (John Bunyan, 224)

Prison proved for Bunyan to be a hallowed place of communion with God because his suffering unlocked the word and the deepest fellowship with Christ he had ever known. He wrote,

I never had in all my life so great an inlet into the Word of God as now [in prison]. Those scriptures that I saw nothing in before were made in this place and state to shine upon me. Jesus Christ also was never more real and apparent than now. Here I have seen him and felt him indeed. . . . I never knew what it was for God to stand by me at all times and at every offer of Satan to afflict me, as I have found Him since I came in hither. (Grace Abounding, 121)[1]

Tim Keller shares:

The greater persecution and greater violence toward Christians and greater oppression and greater trampling toward Christians does not lead ever to violence in return. It doesn’t. It leads to greater love. It leads to greater joy.

The best example of Acts 8 today in the twentieth century actually is China, because after World War II when the Communist government took over, they threw all the Western missionaries out and they killed a lot of the Chinese pastors. They said, “That’s the end of Christianity in China.” Do you know what happened?

Ironically, it’s the very same thing that happened here in Acts 8, because actually the Chinese church had become too dependent on the Western missionaries. They were the providers, and the church was the customers. They brought in the money. They had their fingers on the controls, but when they got rid of the Western missionaries and they began to persecute the church, what did it do? It turned them all into people of mission. It turned them all into providers.

It turned them into people who preached the Word, who evangelized everywhere they went. It made the church indigenous, and the church just exploded in growth. In fact, as I said, over and over again if you try to kill the church, if you try to persecute the church, if you try to stamp it out, if you use violence on the church, it only makes it grow. The response is not growth in violence. The church doesn’t grow like that. It grows in love.^[2]

My theme today is the church scatters, and Philip proclaims Christ in Samaria.

Read with me Acts 8:4-8:

Acts 8:4–8 (ESV)

⁴ Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. ⁵ Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. ⁶ And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. ⁷ For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. ⁸ So there was much joy in that city.

1. Philip is one of those scattered proclaiming Christ (Acts 8:4-5).
   1. Philip is the first missionary named in Scripture and the first to be given the title “evangelist” (21:8).^[3]
   2. Pillar New Testament Commentary shares: In Acts, Samaria generally denotes the territory, not the city of that name (cf. 1:8; 8:1, 9, 14; 9:31; 15:3).^[4]
   3. Sproul: The early church spread the faith not through professional clergy but through the laity. All the people took the gospel to the outer regions of the Empire.
   4. I like what Tim Keller points out, The apostles became the stabilizing, verifying, and unifying element in a mission that moved to new areas and groups without their planning or control. That is a movement. In a bureaucracy, people at the top completely control everything, but in a movement where everybody owns the mission, everybody is participating in it, what happens is, even though you still need leaders, the apostles were stabilizing, verifying, and unifying.
   5. Yet there was a spontaneity about the church. All kinds of new initiatives bubbled up all over the place. The apostles didn’t send Philip to Samaria. He went. What happens is God uses the persecution to turn his church into a movement in which everybody is in mission, in which everybody is initiating.^[5]
   6. Most Jews didn’t like the Samaritans. They were enemies. There was a long history of violence between the people.
   7. Most people believe this goes back to when Assyria conquered the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. At this time, the Israelites left, and the area intermarried with the Gentiles (gentiles are non-Jews), so the other Jews considered these Jews as half-breeds. They were not fully Jewish. But the problem may not date back this far. [6]
   8. Philip is unlike Jonah.
   9. Jonah was called to preach in Nineveh, but he was a racist prophet and refused to go. Through all of Jonah, he is unhappy.
   10. Philip goes to Samaria. The Samaritans and the Jews hated each other. They were mortal enemies.
   11. Yet, Philip goes to Samaria with the Gospel.
   12. Where is our Samaria? Who are people that we may not like, but God is calling us to be a Gospel witness to them?
2. Signs and wonders came about (Acts 8:6-8).
   1. The crowds paid attention as they heard and saw the signs (Acts 8:6).
   2. Philip did not change the message for the Samaritans, and he appealed for them to become followers of Jesus, not to convert to Judaism.^[7]
   3. Witherington III: Philip is being portrayed as the same sort of positive evangelizing figure as Peter—one who is powerful in word and deed, as Jesus himself had been (cf. 1:22). The reaction to these words and deeds was joy in that city.^17,[8]
   4. Unclean spirits came out.
   5. They came out with “shrieks” or “loud voices.”
   6. The expression unclean spirits refers to evil supernatural spirits which were ceremonially unclean, and which caused the persons possessed by them to be ceremonially unclean.^[9]
   7. Many more who were paralyzed or lame were healed (Acts 8:7).
   8. The people rejoiced (Acts 8:8)!

• Applications
  • Keller: The life and the joy of verses 5–8 follow the death and the misery of verses 1–4. Look at all the misery up there. There’s death. There’s destruction. Verse 2 says, “Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.” The word there means just agonizing grief. So in verses 1–4 there’s death, there’s destruction, there’s agonizing grief, and in verses 5–8, there are life and joy. Misery and death; joy and life.
  • Here’s what I want you to see. The joy in life doesn’t come in spite of the misery and death. It comes through it. The joy and the life come because of the misery and the death. The death has caused resurrection. How does this work? The pattern here is a gospel pattern. Here’s the irony. Saul sought the destruction of the church, and what did it lead to? The expansion of the church.
  • Saul sought to scatter the church, but all it did was it led to more gathering. He was trying to scatter it, but actually it just led to more gathering. He tried to kill it; it led to more life. If you try to put the church to death, it leads to resurrection. Here’s why it happened. If you go back to chapter 7 and you read about Stephen, that’s how it happened.^[10]
  • Where is our joy in Christ?
  • If we know Christ, is the joy of the Lord your strength (Neh. 8:10)?
  • Are we spending time with the Lord?
  • Can we be like these lay people and take the Gospel everywhere we go?
  • Four years ago, all the talk was about containing COVID-19. People talked about not getting too close, so people were not exposed. I believe we need to do the opposite with the gospel. We must get close and infect people with the Gospel. This means being servants, hospitable, building relationships, sharing what Jesus has done in our lives, praying for the lost, and having Christ-centered conversations.

Tim Keller shares:

Jesus Christ on the cross says, “I’ve become a leper for the lepers. I’ve become a eunuch for the eunuchs. I’ve become a thief for the thieves. I’ve become a coward for the cowards. I’ve become a bad husband for the bad husbands and a bad wife for the bad wives.” When Buddha was dying, they say he said, “Strive without ceasing.” When Jesus was dying, he said, “It is finished.” When Buddha was dying, he says, “Pay what you owe.” When Jesus was dying, he said, “I’ve paid what you owe.” Utterly different.^[11]

Praise be to Jesus!

Pray

[1] https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/his-wounded-heart-bled-bible

^[2] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[3] John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), Ac 8:5.

^[4] David G. Peterson, The Acts of the Apostles, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009), 280.

^[5] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[6] Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, pages 726-727.

^[7] William H. Marty, “Acts,” in The Moody Bible Commentary, ed. Michael A. Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2014), 1690.

¹⁷ Though joy sometimes can be a sign in Acts of a conversion having just taken place (cf. 8:39), it is unlikely this is the case here, for Luke has yet to relate the conversion of Samaritans. Here, then, we see the reaction of a city that had messianic hopes and was thankful for the healing of their relatives and friends. See Barrett, Acts, vol. 1, p. 404.

^[8] Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), 283.

^[9] Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes (Biblical Studies Press, 2006), Ac 8:7.

^[10] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[11] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

Do you think of perseverance? I am a student of history. Churchill shared:

An address at Harrow School, October 29, 1941: “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never give in.” Then he sat down.

—Winston Churchill^[1]

How about another example:

David McCullough writes about John Adams:

John Adams, had work to do, a public trust to uphold. The science of government was his duty; the art of negotiation must take precedence. Then, in a prophetic paragraph that would be quoted for generations within the Adams family and beyond, he wrote:

“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study paintings, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.”[2]

We are looking at a passage in which Saul is still persecuting the church. Yet, the church is spreading the Gospel. They persevered.

My theme today is:

While the church is persecuted, they scatter, spreading the gospel.

1. In Acts 8:1-3 we see the persecution.

Acts 8:1–3 (ESV)

Saul Ravages the Church

8 And Saul approved of his execution.

And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. ² Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. ³ But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

AND IT CAME TO PASS…

“The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.” — Martin Luther

1. How did we get to this passage?
2. Two weeks ago, we talked about Stephen.
3. In Acts 6, Stephen was chosen as a deacon.
4. In Acts 6:8-15 Stephen is falsely accused.
5. Then, in Acts 7, Stephen gives a powerful defense. It was so powerful that he was stoned to death.
6. That brings us to Acts 8:1. They stoned him to death, and Saul approved of the execution.
7. In the previous verses, we see that they laid their cloaks at Saul’s feet.
8. Before we move on, verse 2 discusses people mourning over Stephen’s death. That is important. He was in heaven, but there is a time to mourn.
9. So, Paul, called Saul, is introduced. Quite an introduction, right?
10. We know Paul, don’t we?
11. Sometimes, Bible writers will introduce someone who will be very important later on. Luke is doing that right here with Saul/Paul. In the next chapter, Saul will be saved. Why is he called Paul later?
12. I believe Paul is a gentile name, and Saul is a Jewish name.
13. He will be called to be an apostle to the Gentiles, so it seems that we mainly see his gentile name.
14. The people scatter.

Look at verse 1: And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

1. The people scattered, but they scattered with the Gospel. Acts 8:1 uses a word for scattering seeds. So, the people scattered because of the persecution, but they planted seeds with the Gospel.
2. This is the shot heard around the world, meaning that the early disciples spread the Gospel. God used this to spread the Gospel to the Gentiles and now to us. Praise God.
3. Another thought:
4. The apostles stayed in Jerusalem.
5. Jerusalem was the home base. The leaders stay in the home base while the rest spread out.
6. But they originally did not spread out to share the gospel.
7. They spread out because of the persecution.
8. Look again at verse 3: But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
9. Saul is ravaging the church. He is going from house to house. He is dragging people off to put them in prison.
10. The people are scattering with the gospel. But don’t miss this. This is the introduction to one of the greatest minds and evangelists of church history.
11. Many years ago, I was serving as an associate pastor in Cincinnati. I was the coordinator of an interfaith clergy group. We came together to support an interfaith food and clothing shelter. This was interfaith, which means different religious groups were present. One day, a rabbi who taught at Hebrew-Union University spoke to our group. He said that Paul was the most influential man of the last 2000 years. So, here we have a rabbi, a non-believer, giving much credit to Paul. But this is how he is introduced.
12. Paul is “ravaging” the church.
13. Paul was like the terrorist.
14. No one is too far for Jesus to save.
15. In Acts 9, he will be saved.
16. Several years ago, I read a New York Times article about how a former ISIS leader was now leading worship at a Canadian church. Wow! The writer could not figure out what changed this man. Sure, he could write about the events, but could not figure out what changed his heart. The Holy Spirit changes people. That happens with Paul.
17. But for now, the church scatters.
18. They scatter with the gospel.
19. They later started the church of Antioch; we don’t know who started that church; it was not an apostle. It was a lay-driven movement. God brought it about because of persecution. The church of Antioch became a major sending church. In Acts 13:1-3, Paul and Barnabas are sent out from that church, but it seems that the church was started as a response to the persecution.
20. They scatter with the gospel.

Close:

So, study and be ready to give an answer boldly as Stephen did. Plant seeds of the Gospel everywhere you go and mourn the death of Christian brothers and sisters. Lastly, be encouraged as God is at work.

Prayer

^[1] Charles R. Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart and 1501 Other Stories (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2016), 438.

[2] McCullough, David. John Adams (p. 286). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

[3] (From a sermon by Stephen Sheane, The Table of Shewbread, 5/25/2011)

How Shall Christians Live (1 Peter 3:13-17)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, June 30, 2024

This Thursday, we celebrate Independence Day. Today, we celebrate Independence Day in our worship service.

I love history! I am a student of history. I love American history. Recently, I watched the Apple TV series “Masters of the Air.” It is a mini-series about the men who flew B-17s during WW II. It was an insightful show that gave me even more insight into what our soldiers endured. Of course, I read a lot of history as well. Watching that show made me even more proud to be an American. To be sure, America is not God’s chosen nation. We can and should be proud and good citizens. This is true whether the country shares our values or not. How do we live when the nation does not share our values? Well, how do we live either way?

Regardlss, of what nation we liveiand of whether or not the nation shares our values, Jesus is Lord.

I expect the world to be the world. We, as Christians, must take our faith seriously; why? Persecution is coming, and we are called upon to represent Christ.

I want to talk about 1 Peter 3:13-17 and show you that Peter gives his readers instructions on how to live as Christians when the country does not share their values.

If you brought a Bible, please turn to 1 Peter 3:13-17

Let’s read:

1 Peter 3:13–17 (ESV)

¹³ Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? ¹⁴ But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, ¹⁵ but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, ¹⁶ having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. ¹⁷ For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

1. Be zealous to do good:
   1. In verses 13-14 and 16-17, Peter encourages them to be zealous to be good.
   2. Let me say a few words about the situation in 1 Peter: This was written around AD 62-63, probably from Rome.
   3. There was sporadic persecution.
   4. Later, Peter was martyred, likely crucified, and maybe upside down. Legend is that he watched his wife crucified first, saying something like, “Remember our Lord.”
   5. There is a lot about persecution in 1 Peter (word “suffering” in 1 Peter: 1 Peter: 1:6–7; 2:12, 19–21; 4:12–19; 5:9–10).
   6. Now, the NIV says to be eager to be good. I like the NASB’s use of the word “Zealous” better. In verse 13, Peter communicates with a question: “Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good?”
   7. Answer the question: honestly, how often do we face trouble for doing good? Not often. Certainly, there are occasions, specifically with children, when they are laughed at and made fun of for doing the right thing.
   8. Unfortunately, this is on the rise among adults as well. A few years ago, I spoke with another pastor, who said that our culture is becoming one that glorifies sin. That is so true.
   9. Peter does not deny that there are occasions when we will face trouble for doing good. Verse 14 acknowledges that, and we will come back to that in a moment.
   10. First, let’s acknowledge that Peter talks about being eager or zealous to do good. This is not simply doing the right thing by helping someone carry their groceries to their car. This is looking for opportunities to do good. At the time of Christ, the name “zealots” was applied to a party among the Jews, half religious and half political, founded by Judas the Galilean (Acts 5:37). These undertook to punish without trial those guilty of violating Jewish practices, under which pretext they themselves committed the greatest excesses of crime.^[1] These people were intense, and that is the word Peter uses to describe our good behavior.
   11. Now, look at verse 14: even if we suffer for doing good, we are blessed.
   12. Peter uses the term righteousness: If we suffer for righteousness, we will be blessed. To be righteous means to be “just,” to be “right.” To be righteous is the character that God requires of man. What God requires is grounded in what God is. God is righteous.
   13. Matt 5:10: Jesus says blessed are those persecuted for righteousness
   14. In verse 14, Peter also quotes Isa. 8:12 about not being intimidated.
   15. In verses 16-17, Peter reviews this idea.
2. How to be prepared:
   1. Now, look at verse 15 and see what Peter tells us to do to be ready for persecution and how to respond.
   2. Peter has already told us one way to be ready, hasn’t he? He told us to be good, more than that, to be eager to do good.
   3. Now Peter says to sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts. The NIV will say to “set apart Christ as Lord in our hearts.” Or “Revere Christ as Lord.” This means the same thing.
   4. If we are sanctifying Christ, this means that we are setting Him apart in our lives—or, actually, we are setting our lives apart for Him. To be sanctified means to be set apart for a purpose—this is like being holy. So, if we are revering Christ as Lord in our hearts, then we are giving Him prominence in our hearts and in our lives. Let’s stop right here.
      1. Are we doing this? Does Jesus have prominence in our lives?
      2. Is Jesus Lord of our lives?
   5. I must battle this, too. Don’t think I am only preaching to you; I must also apply this to myself.
   6. So, as we can see, the first step in being ready for persecution is living for Christ. This is holiness, making Jesus Lord of our life; this is surrendering to King Jesus. Men, this means becoming a man of God. Women, this means becoming a woman of God.
   7. We must live eager to do good, surrendered to Jesus, and learning about Jesus. That is the third and final step in being ready for persecution.
   8. Peter writes: “Always be prepared to give an answer or defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you.”
   9. In a devotion on Job 21, Swindoll writes this:

Chances are good that many of you who are reading these lines are currently the target of someone’s lying accusations. That can be an anguishing cross to bear. I’ve been there, so I speak from painful experience. Since this is an ongoing issue for many of us, it should be helpful to draw a few guidelines to follow based on the way Job handled his accuser.

Listen to what is being said, considering the character of the critic. Stay calm! You will be tempted to jump in and rashly react in the flesh, saying things you will later regret. Do your best to listen to what is being said. While doing so, keep in mind the character of the person who is the source of the accusation. Calmly take it all in. Job did that, which prepared him for his further response.

Respond with true facts and accurate information, knowing the nature of your accuser. Speak truth! Stay on the side of accuracy, regardless. The other person may be a former husband or former wife. He or she could be your previous or current boss, an employee, a neighbor, a pastor, or a friend. It doesn’t matter who the individual is. If you are being accused, you need to focus only on facts. Don’t react or ponder ways to retaliate. If you yield to either temptation, you’ll come off sounding like the accuser. God honors integrity. Maybe not immediately, but ultimately you’ll be vindicated. Remember David’s prayer: “Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity” (Psalm 26:1). Truth will prevail among people who traffic in it and make their decisions based on it.

Abraham Lincoln was told that he needed to fire his postmaster general. All kinds of accusations were being leveled against the man. Lincoln weighed rumor against hard evidence, and on July 18, 1864, he wrote Secretary Stanton a letter saying he was not going to do that because the information was based on hearsay, not accurate facts. In that letter he correctly concluded, “Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.” Wise response.

Stay with the truth. Don’t exaggerate it, don’t deny it, and don’t hesitate to say it.

1. Swindoll is writing about integrity and that is a vital part. It is also important to know the Bible. How we respond is important, it is important to know the facts and to know information about your faith.
2. Are we prepared?
3. I know that some of you are very prepared and that is great.
4. As Christians, we must be learners. We must be studying the Bible and studying books about the Bible.
5. But notice this: First Peter talked about being a Christian
   1. Be zealously good
   2. Make Jesus Lord in your life

• Then Peter talked about knowledge.

1. If we have knowledge without a Christian lifestyle we are hypocritical and aggressive. That is the next part of how to respond to persecution.
2. Peter says to respond with gentleness and respect or reverence.
3. How we respond is important.
4. I shared the following in the May-June newsletter.

Grace towards everyone, Faith towards God, Biblical wisdom towards everything.

I believe if we can keep those phrases in the forefront of our minds, we will be happier and more Christ-like.

Certain Bible passages convict me. Over the last few years, scriptures related to submissiveness, grace, forgiveness, and gentleness have been on my mind and prayer life. Also, the scriptures that are against being critical, grumbling, and complaining. Let me share a few:

Proverbs 15:1 (ESV)

A soft answer turns away wrath,

but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 19:11 (ESV)

Good sense makes one slow to anger,

and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

Philippians 2:14–15 (ESV)

¹⁴ Do all things without grumbling or disputing, ¹⁵ that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world…

1 Corinthians 13:7 (ESV)

Love bears all things, believes all things [this means love gives each other the benefit of the doubt], hopes all things, endures all things.

There are other passages, such as Gal. 5:22-23 and the fruit of the Spirit, but I will stop with those verses. So, think with me:

Grace towards everyone: God gives us grace. Grace means unearned favor. This is 1 Cor. 13:7. This means we give each other a break. We give each other the benefit of the doubt. God gives us grace. We give grace towards everyone. This means we do NOT grumble and complain. This means we live Eph. 4:32: Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. We get rid of the hyper-critical attitude. What if we get up each morning and pray: “Lord, help me to encourage others today.”

Faith towards God: without faith, we cannot please God (Heb. 11:6). We need to trust the Lord. The Lord is in control. Psalm 115:3: Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. Sometimes, we grumble and complain, forgetting that the Lord is in control. For whatever reason, the Lord allowed the trial we are going through. We can trust Him. The Lord is faithful (Prov. 3:5-6).

Biblical wisdom towards everything: Everything we hear, read, see, and encounter must go through the lens of the Bible. James 4:4: You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Another verse is Romans 12:2: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

I want to write more, but I will stop at that, except to say: Those phrases flow together. Think of them backward: When you apply biblical wisdom towards everything, AND when you have faith in God, IT WILL be easier to give grace to everyone.

So, how do we live?

Be zealous to do good.

Set apart Jesus as Lord in your life.

Always be ready to give an answer of your hope, which is Jesus.

Do so with gentleness.

Grace towards everyone, faith towards God, Biblical wisdom in all things.

Pray.

^[1] Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary : New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.

Stephen’s Address Before the Sanhedrin (Acts 7)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, June 23, 2024

We are now in Acts chapter 7.

Remember that in the previous chapter of Acts, Stephen, the new deacon, was arrested. Stephen had been witnessing in his sphere of influence, and the people made up lies about him. They dragged him before the Jewish high court and put him on trial. In one way, Stephen is on trial. In another way, God is putting the Sanhedrin on trial. God is at work, even when we do not realize it.

How many of you have been affected by Christianity? Raise your hands if you have been affected or influenced by Christianity. Everyone, really everyone, whether you are a Christian or not, should have their hand raised. This all happened because of the martyr of Stephen. We are going to look at that today. We, as a church made up mostly of non-Jewish descendants, as far as we know, are here because of the aftermath of Stephen’s death. Sometimes we must wonder what God is doing, right? But sometimes we cannot know until a long time afterward. We live in the moment. This is true whether we plan or not, it has to be true. We must ask God to let us see the big picture and know that only God knows the big picture. Only God knows all and is not limited by time. We must think deeply and ask God to help us with a heavenly, spiritual, vision of reality. Swindoll gives a good illustration:

We are running shy of eagles, and we’re running over with parrots.

Content to sit safely on our evangelical perches and repeat in rapid-fire falsetto our religious words, we are fast becoming overpopulated with bright-colored birds having soft bellies, big beaks, and little heads. What would help to balance things out would be a lot more keen-eyed, wide-winged creatures willing to soar out and up, exploring the illimitable ranges of the kingdom of God . . . willing to return with a brief report on their findings before they leave the nest again for another fascinating adventure.

Parrot people are much different than eagle thinkers. They like to stay in the same cage, pick over the same pan full of seeds, and listen to the same words over and over again until they can say them with ease. They like company too. Lots of attention, a scratch here, a snuggle there, and they’ll stay for years right on the same perch. You and I can’t remember the last time we saw one fly. Parrots like the predictable, the secure, the strokes they get from their mutual admiration society.

Not eagles. There’s not a predictable pinion in their wings! They think. They love to think. They are driven with this inner urge to search, to discover, to learn. And that means they’re courageous, tough-minded, willing to ask the hard questions as they bypass the routine in vigorous pursuit of the truth. The whole truth. “The deep things of God”—fresh from the Himalayan heights, where the thin air makes thoughts pure and clear—rather than the tired, worn distillations of humanity. And unlike the intellectually impoverished parrot, eagles take risks getting their food because they hate anything that comes from a small dish of picked-over seeds . . . it’s boring, dull, repetitious, and dry.

Although rare, eagles are not completely extinct in the historic skies of the church. Thomas Aquinas was one, as were Augustine and Bunyan, Wycliffe and Huss. So were G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, Robert Dick Wilson, J. Gresham Machen, W. R. Nicoll, and A. W. Tozer.

Many of the reformers qualify, as do John Newton, George Whitefield, and a long line of nonconformists—original thinkers whose lives were interwoven through the treasured tapestry of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.

And in our day? We could name some . . . but they are increasingly rarer, as the “Entertain Me” philosophy of the public outshouts those who plead, “Make me think!”

Have you fallen prey to a similar mind-set? Do you find yourself contentedly sitting on your perch, pecking at dry morsels rather than longing for the skies? Think about it.[1]

1. Summary of Stephen’s message:
   1. I am now going to briefly summarize Acts chapter 7:1-8:4 and then highlight a few applications from the overall passage. I want you to notice the boldness of Stephen. I wish to show you the wisdom, insight, and spiritual leading of Stephen. I wish to challenge all of us to be prepared to speak as Stephen was prepared. I wish to encourage you that God is at work.
   2. Acts 7:1-8: High Priest confirms the crime; the beginning of Stephen’s defense; the promise to Abraham
   3. Acts 7:9-10: Joseph is exalted over Egypt
   4. Acts 7:11-16: The Patriarchs end up in Egypt
   5. Acts 7:17-29: Moses is introduced
   6. Acts 7:30-34: Moses encounters God
   7. Acts 7:35- 43: Moses leading the people; prophesy and transition to Jesus
   8. Acts 7:44-50: Transition to David and Solomon and the dwelling place of God
   9. Acts 7:51-53: Transition to the people of Stephen’s day; Stephen now directs attention to them; Stephen is assertive
   10. Acts 7:54-60: Stephen is stoned
   11. Acts 8:1-3: Stephen is buried; Saul is introduced

I want to read Acts 7:54-60. We are picking up after Stephen’s sermon to the Jewish High Court:

Acts 7:54–60 (ESV)

⁵⁴ Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. ⁵⁵ But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶ And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” ⁵⁷ But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. ⁵⁸ Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹ And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰ And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

• Notice Stephen’s wisdom, insight, and boldness.
  1. We do not need boldness or courage, not from God, if we are not being a witness. If you are persecuted, it is for living for Christ. Otherwise, it is not Christian persecution. Know that God has called us to be witnesses.
  2. Sometimes, we do not have great boldness or great courage because we are not diligently seeking the Lord to begin with, and because of that, we are not in the least ready to be a witness.
  3. We will look at that more in a moment. But think about this:
  4. The church is called the bride of Christ. Each of you, who are followers of Christ, you are married to Christ. He is the groom. Suppose that you get married to a man or a woman and you are happily married for a while!!! After a few years, you decide you do not wish to be that committed to your spouse. However, you do wish to remain married, but you do not want to get into all that marriage stuff. You wish to have intimacy occasionally; how about twice a year, at Christmas and Easter? And that is on your terms. Your terms only. Other times throughout the year, you wish to see your spouse if you are well-rested and feel like it. You never want to talk about your spouse, you might get made fun of! This goes on for a long time. You may even seek out some other men and women. Maybe, off and on, you will see your spouse every week, but only on Sundays. How do you think your spouse feels about this? Are you still married to your spouse? I guess only in a legal way. You consider yourself married, though all logic would say that you shouldn’t be identified with him or her. But this is exactly how many treat Christianity. We commit on Christmas and Easter or only on Sundays.
  5. Someone recently told me that people go through phases, so it is normal to stray from our faith off and on. I think, really, what if we treat our spouse that way? We are the bride of Christ. Commit to the groom. You will not be ready, or eager to be a bold witness if you treat Jesus that way. We are married to Jesus; we must be committed.
  6. If we are witnesses, we must pray that God gives us wisdom.
  7. Wisdom comes from God. Stephen had great wisdom, and we can see this in this message (Acts 6:10). We must seek the Lord for this wisdom.
  8. I will not receive the wisdom if I am not committed to Jesus, the one I am married to, more than once a week.
  9. If we are witnesses, we will need to pray that we are diligent to study to be prepared to be a witness (1 Peter 3:15).
  10. This does take preparation on our part. We must be committed to the groom. We must study the Scriptures and other things as well. Think about Daniel 1:17 and 20, which show that God gave wisdom and understanding.
  11. Listen to this from a wonderful pastor from the 20th Century.
  12. “My strong advice to you is to soak, soak, soak in philosophy and psychology, until you know more of these subjects than you ever need consciously think. It is ignorance of these subjects on the part of ministers and workers that has brought our evangelical theology to such a sorry plight. When people refer to a man as ‘a man of one book,’ meaning  the Bible, he is generally a man of multitudinous books, which simply isolates the one Book to its proper grandeur. The man who reads only the Bible does not, as a rule, know it or human life.”                                  -Oswald Chambers

Close:

So, study and be ready to answer boldly, as Stephen did. Plant seeds of the Gospel everywhere. Lastly, be encouraged as God is at work.

Stephen was martyred. Death, is it the end? No not at all.

“Held” Natalie Grant

Two months is too little
They let him go
They had no sudden healing
To think that providence
Would take a child from his mother
While she prays, is appalling
Who told us we’d be rescued
What has changed and
Why should we be saved from nightmares
Were asking why this happens to us
Who have died to live, it’s unfair
This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was that when everything fell
We’d be held
This hand is bitterness
We want to taste it and
Let the hatred numb our sorrows
The wise hand opens slowly
To lilies of the valley and tomorrow
This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was that when everything fell
We’d be held
If hope if born of suffering
If this is only the beginning
Can we not wait, for one hour
Watching for our savior
This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was that when everything fell
We’d be held
[Repeat Chorus]

No, NO, NO, death is not the end. Stephen was a martyr, and God used that to spread the Gospel around the known world. God was at work, and God is at work. I know of people who get sick, and through that sickness, a family member comes to know Christ. Never underestimate what God is doing.

We have a future in glory, which is what this book we call the Bible is all about. When we die as believers we meet Jesus in paradise. When we live, we are held by Jesus constantly.

I strongly believe the following: Sometimes we are thinking, “Why did you take this person from life? Why God?” Sometimes, we are even angry at God over death, and that is sometimes part of grief. That can be okay. But turn it around, our loved one is in paradise thinking, “Jesus, why do you leave them in suffering on earth for so long.” They are in paradise, and you can be as well.

Do you know Jesus?

God created us to be with Him (Gen. 1-2).

Our sins separate us from God (Gen 3).

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen. 4-Mal. 4).

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again (Matt.-Luke).

Everyone who trusts in Him alone has eternal life (John- Jude).

Life that is eternal means being in paradise forever (Rev. 22:5.  

[1]Excerpted from Come Before Winter and Share My Hope, Copyright © 1985, 1994 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. http://thejourneyisthelife.wordpress.com/tag/isaiah-40-chuck-swindoll-hope-rest/

Happy Father’s Day!

How are fathers portrayed in the media? I am talking about television programs. We watched most of the Home Improvement episodes as a family. It was a funny and good show, but I don’t like how it portrays the dad. Generally, in Home Improvement, the dad is NOT to be taken seriously. There are many redeeming qualities of Home Improvement. It does show the dad involved with his family. Tim works on the car with the kids. He teaches his sons how to work on the Hot Rod, those are good things. But he is the object of many of the jokes and not to be taken seriously.

Today, I want to challenge men to stand-up. Stand up for your family. Take leadership.

My theme today is:

As a father, and/or paternal influence, stand “in the gap” for God.

What does that mean? You are about to find out.

Ezekiel 22:30 (ESV)

And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none.

1. What is the context of the passage?
   1. Context is critical.
   2. Ezekiel is writing during a time when the southern kingdom of Israel is being conquered by Babylon.
   3. Other passages across the Old Testament show that God caused the southern kingdom to be conquered because of their unfaithfulness to the Lord.
   4. Ezekiel shares about a systemic failure in Judah.
   5. As one source shares: Here, rather than surveying behaviors (as in vv. 6–12), Ezekiel surveys personnel. The issue is still impurity (a land … not cleansed, v. 24). This oracle almost serves as a commentary on 7:23–27 where prophet, priest, elders, and king mislead the city, although an even earlier “model” is found in Zeph. 3:3–4. The sum is a web of deceit, as these pillars of the community are seen as colluding.^[1]
   6. The pillars of community are colluding and leading the people astray.
   7. That is not unlike men, and dads in our society shirking responsibility.
   8. We are called to step-up.
   9. In Ezekiel 22:25 he writes about prophets conspiring and deceiving the people.
   10. Then, the priest, look at Ezekiel 22:26 (ESV) ²⁶ Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.
   11. Verse 27 addresses the princes. They are getting dishonest gain.
   12. Then, back to the prophets: Ezekiel 22:28–29 (ESV)
   13. ²⁸ And her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord has not spoken. ²⁹ The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the sojourner without justice.
   14. This is a very sad passage.
   15. Then, we come back to verse 30: And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none.
   16. God found none.
   17. Verse 31 uses language to show that, therefore, the Lord will have them conquered.
2. Let’s look at the verse itself and the context together.
   1. Ezekiel 22:30: And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none.
   2. God was searching for a man who would stand in the breach.
   3. This is the language of holding up a wall during a battle.
   4. One sources shares: There is no one to stand in the breach (cf. 13:5; Ps. 106:23) who might avert the destruction. Sometimes it takes only one courageous, righteous person to stop great evil, but there was no one.^[2]
   5. Imagine a wall during a battle. Back in that day, the city’s walls were really important. Those walls protected the people in the city. They protected the city.
   6. Think of a fortress and it has a wall.
   7. The wall is coming down. The men are to rush in and build up the wall. The men are supposed to protect those inside the city.
   8. Now, suppose these men leave. Instead of protecting the city, they flee.
   9. The men do the opposite.
   10. That is what God is saying. He found no one.
   11. Further, when we look at this passage in light of the context, the men did the opposite of protecting the city.
   12. Actually, they did not just leave, they helped tear down the city.
   13. Remember, verse 26: Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.
   14. Notice that part of standing in the gap, the most significant part is spiritual. The prophet Ezekiel is not referring to the priest literally harming Israel physically, but these spiritual dimensions: profaning the holy things… no distinction between holy and common…. Disregarding the sabbaths.
   15. These things lead to the destruction of Israel. The spiritual destroys the city. The lack of the spiritual care destroys the city.
   16. Then, verse 27 was about the princes: Ezekiel 22:27 (ESV)
   17. ²⁷ Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain.
   18. I believe Ezekiel in talking about their lack of integrity is saying that is destroying the land physically.
   19. Ethics, integrity, and morals matter. They are of first importance.
   20. One writes: Government officials were supposed to protect people, the first function of government being the establishment of justice for everyone (Rm 13).^[3]
   21. And, of course, the prophets: They are not preaching truth.
   22. All of this is not holding up the wall. It is not rebuilding the wall.
   23. This is metaphorical language intended to show that God could not find any man who would “build up” Judah.

• Apply:
  1. This passage is NOT about God destroying us, the United States, for the lack of men to stand in the gap.
  2. No, this is about Judea about six centuries before Christ.
  3. However, we can indirectly apply the principle to us.
  4. God was looking for men to intercede.
  5. He was looking for men to seek Him, and to stand for truth. This is about men seeking the Lord.
  6. Throughout the Bible, God used men to stand up and intercede.
  7. The most famous example is Abraham in Genesis 18:22-31.
  8. In that passage, God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, but Abraham intercedes.
  9. In Exodus chapters 32-34 Moses intercedes. That is after the people rebel and build a golden calf and worship it. The people are unfaithful to the Lord.
  10. Moses prays to the Lord and intercedes.
  11. So, how do we apply this?
  12. As fathers, grandfathers, and paternal influences, we must seek the Lord on behalf of our family, our church, our community.
  13. We must stand in the gap.
  14. This means we are in God’s Word.
  15. We stand for truth. Don’t be like those false prophets Ezekiel was writing about. Don’t be like those immoral princes. Don’t be like those priests that were not set apart for the Lord. No, we must stand for truth.
  16. We must pray for our family to know the Lord.
  17. We must talk to our family about the Lord.
  18. We must have the Lord, which includes His church as the center of our life.
  19. God could find no one to stand in the gap, but eventually, He would provide Jesus. 1 Tim. 2:5-6 shows this is pointing to Jesus.
  20. The ultimate answer is Jesus.
  21. Point your family to Jesus.

Closing:

I began the sermon by talking about Home Improvement. Tim Allen made another successful series, Last Man Standing. Allen plays a dad with three daughters. Many of you have probably seen it. Compare Home Improvement to Last Man Standing. In Last Man Standing, Allen plays a dad who is more serious, more mature, and very involved in leading the family in decision-making. However, very rarely does it show the dad leading the family in prayer, spiritual disciplines, devotions, and congregational worship.

We must stand in the gap. We must hold up the wall and point our family to Jesus. We must hold the wall and let our family run to the safe place and the safe place is a relationship with Jesus.

Prayer

^[1] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 1531.

^[2] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 1532.

^[3] Mark F. Rooker, “Ezekiel,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1278.

The Seven Chosen to Serve and Stephen Seized (Acts 6)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, June 9, 2024

Today, I am delivering this sermon a little differently. I am with the youth on their Niagara Falls trip. I am recording the message with the youth group.

Still, we are continuing our way through Acts. I think it is fitting to be with the youth on a day when we talk about Acts 6.

In Acts 6, we see the deacons. “Deacons” means “servants.” The apostles are forming a group of servants to take care of all the needs. That is fitting with the youth group right in front of me. Regardless of age, we must know that the church is not about “me.” It is about the community. That means we are here to serve.

In Acts 6, we see the deacons. “Deacons” means “servants.” The apostles are forming a group of servants to take care of all the needs. That is fitting with the youth group right in front of me. Regardless of age, we must know that the church is not about “me.” It is about the community. That means we are here to serve.

At this point, the early church is growing. They are growing so rapidly that certain problems are coming about in their unity. In Acts 1, Jesus told the disciples to wait until the Holy Spirit came upon them. Jesus told the disciples that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them and they would be His witnesses in the whole known world, starting locally (Acts 1:8). This has been happening, and so now we see the devil trying to divide the church. You remember Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes upon the church. Then, in Acts 3 and 4, Peter and John heal a man and face persecution for it, but 5000 are saved. Then, in Acts 5, the disciples are persecuted again. So, in Acts 6 some of the needs are not being met.

Let’s look at Acts 6:1-7, and I wish to show you four things: Firstly, the disciples ensure that the felt needs of people are met. Secondly, the disciples will not drop the ministry of the Word of God and prayer. Thirdly, the disciples create expectations that the new leaders are men of noble Christian character. Fourthly, Stephen is seized.

Let’s read Acts 6:1-7:

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. ² And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. ³ Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. ⁴ But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” ⁵ And what they 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 Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. ⁶ These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

⁷ And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

1. First, notice that the needs of some are not met.
   1. Verse 1 is simple enough. Some came to the disciples complaining that some people were not having their needs met. I noticed that as I looked at this passage, there was a need. There was a social issue. The church was growing. It was likely growing rapidly. It appears that we are now in the mid-30s AD, and we are just a few years after Jesus’ resurrection. In Jerusalem, there are Jews who are Greek speaking called Hellenistic Jews. The rest of the Jews likely spoke Aramaic.
   2. Now, many times, Jewish people would come back to Jerusalem to spend their final years, but then the husband might die, and guess what? The wife is there by herself.
   3. But still, to be a widow in their day was a big deal. They need income. They need food.
   4. A while back, I read something that was enlightening for these verses:
   5. In its charity the church may have followed somewhat the precedents already set in contemporary Judaism, which had a double system of distribution to the needy. The Jews had a weekly dole for resident needy, called the quppah. It was given out every Friday and consisted of enough money for fourteen meals. There was also a daily distribution, known as the tamhuy. It was for nonresidents and transients and consisted of food and drink, which were delivered from house to house where known needy were dwelling. The Christian practice seems to have embraced elements of both Jewish systems. Like the tamhuy it was daily, and like the quppah it was for the resident membership.
   6. But in this case, the Hellenistic Jews were being overlooked. Now, it does appear that this was not intentional. It appears that this could be because of the language barrier or something else. The point is, they were overlooked, and this is a problem. This came to their attention, and they are about to take care of it.
   7. Now, an application: we have felt needs in our community which we must take care of as well.
   8. Yet, we must be careful of enabling people as well. In a minute we will see how the disciples meet these needs. It is interesting, many times I have people asking for money or assistance. There are times when I get calls and it is something that I can help with my discretionary fund, so I meet a small need, but then the very next week I get a request from the same person. So, I might say that I would like to meet with them and recommend some other resources and I will recommend financial counseling and unfortunately, 9 out of 10 times they hang up on me. That is quite telling. The point is that we must always seek God’s Wisdom in meeting people’s needs. In that day and age there were no resources for orphans and widows and Christians were known for serving and helping.
2. In verses 2-4: the church leaders meet to talk about this need.
   1. There is only a little bit of time in a day and that time goes fast. So, in verse 2 the disciples affirm that they cannot, let me repeat, they cannot, neglect the ministry of the Word for these needs. Yet, these needs are so very important.
   2. Notice that the disciples knew that they had to stick with the proclamation of the Word of God. We cannot dilute this major need in the church.
   3. 2 Timothy 4:1: “preach the Word…”
   4. The disciples want the church to choose 7 men:
   5. These men must have a good reputation.
   6. This means literally that they are witnesses.
   7. Now, know that in 1 Timothy 3 we have similar qualifications for church leaders, elders and deacons.
   8. The leadership must be full of the Holy Spirit.
   9. The leadership must have wisdom.
   10. We need wisdom to know who to help and who not to help.
   11. Verse 4: The disciples will take care of the ministry of praying and teaching and preaching.
3. In verse 5-7 the disciples ordain 7 men.

• • The men are chosen. We will see from Stephen later in this chapter and he is the first martyr. We see from Phillip in chapter 8. The other men we really don’t know much about beyond church tradition.
  • These men all have Greek names, and it is implied that most if not all may be Greek believers which means that the church chooses Greeks to meet the needs of the Greeks. This is a wise decision. These men will know the needs of their own people and will not have a language barrier.
  • The disciples pray and then they lay hands on them, this is essentially ordination.
  • We also must pray prior to and during church decisions.
  • Verse 7 is a summary. Many times in Acts Luke concludes with a summary.

Now, Stephen is seized.

1. 1. Acts 6:8–15 (ESV): ⁸ And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. ¹¹ Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” ¹² 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, ¹³ and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, ¹⁴ for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” ¹⁵ And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
   2. It is important that we know that in verse 5 above, Stephen is introduced as one full of faith and the Holy Spirit.
   3. Right now, we see that God is taking care of Stephen as he is arrested, and in reality, as we are bold and courageous witnesses, God will take care of us as well.
   4. I have heard testimonies of people being bold witnesses for Christ. Just think about Martin Luther standing up for the Scriptures in the 16^th Study the early church and many that were standing up during persecution. I know that I have shared others with you before, people going through persecution, yet standing strong for Jesus. Maybe you have heard of some stories. God takes care of us.
   5. But what about stories of miracles as well? God is still at work in His church. We will experience more miracles as we step out and witness for Christ.
   6. Remember that “signs and wonders” most always go together in Acts.
2. In verses 9-14 we see the attack against Stephen.
   • First, we see the “who” in verse 9. Some men started arguing against Stephen. We can learn a few things from this.
   • This is the first time of active oppression against the church in Acts.
   • Also, Stephen was probably part of that synagogue. Stephen was being a witness in his sphere of influence. Do we realize that God has placed us in a specific place to be a witness? He has.
   • We do not know for sure whether this was one synagogue or as many as 5 synagogues. We do know that this was likely called the synagogue of the Freedmen because they would be former slaves. These synagogues represent men from these four countries.
   • In verse 10 we see the “why.” Interesting that Stephen was apparently very good at defending the faith. Of course, we should expect that since Stephen was being guided by the Holy Spirit. In fact, verse 10 lists the Spirit and the wisdom as what the people couldn’t cope with.
   • In verses 11-14 we see the “what.” Verse 11 tells us that they are putting forward false witnesses. These people are committing perjury, but in the end, God is at work. Verse 11 says that they “secretly induced” men to say false things. Some translations say something like, “They persuaded…” But that wording is too weak. They “secretly induced” people to lie.
   • Verse 13: they say that he said Jesus will destroy the temple. My translation says “Holy Place” but that is talking about the Temple. We do know that Jesus did say something like that, but He was talking about Himself. Jesus also predicted the destruction of the Temple, but never said He would do it (Matt. 24:1–2; Mark 13:1–2; Luke 21:5–6).
   • Verse 12 says that these false witnesses stirred up the elders and the scribes. The elders would represent the Sadducees and the Scribes would represent the Pharisees. Both groups have representation on the Sanhedrin.
   • They also say that Jesus will destroy the law of God. This is from verses 11-12 and 13b-14. This is a half-truth. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament.
   • Verse 15 tells us the meekness of Stephen. His face is like that of an angel. John MacArthur says about this:
   • You see what God’s saying? God’s saying both of those were mine. In Exodus 33 and 34 you can read the story yourself of the glory of God on the face of Moses. And as he came down from the mountain with the glory of God what did he have in his arm? The old covenant. And Stephen there has proclaimed the new covenant and God puts on his face the glow of God and what is God saying? I approve of Moses. I approve of Stephen. Don’t you see this is fulfillment.
   • Starting in verse 15 Stephen is on trial, but in reality, God is putting the Sanhedrin on trial.

Close:

I love studying history and specifically Revolutionary War History. Have you heard the phrase the shot heard round the world? Something that I have read about that states:

The phrase is originally from the opening stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Concord Hymn” (1837), and referred to the first shot of the American Revolutionary War. According to Emerson’s poem, this pivotal shot occurred at the North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, where the first British soldiers killed in the battles of Lexington and Concord fell.

Historically, no one shot can be definitely cited as the first shot of the battle or the war. Shots were fired earlier at Lexington, where eight Americans were killed and a British soldier was slightly wounded, but accounts of that event are confused and contradictory. The North Bridge skirmish did see the first shots by Americans acting under orders, the first organized volley by Americans, the first British fatalities, and the first British retreat.

Stephen being brought to trial and later martyred is the shot heard around the world. In a few weeks we will continue this narrative from the Word of God, and we will see how this ignites the Christians to spread out into the gentile areas and to spread the Gospel with them.

Do you know Christ?

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

The Apostles Appear Before the Council (summarize Acts 4:32-37 and Acts 5:1-16; preach Acts 5:17-42)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, June 2, 2024

Several years ago I read a series of articles on persecution in the early church. I read certain Bible scholars almost daily to see what they are writing about. One of those scholars is Ben Witherington III. Dr. Witherington commented and reposted another scholar’s comments on a book by Candida Moss about persecution in the early church. I have often thought about persecution. I have thought about how we can stand strong when one is inflicting pain because of our view of Christ. Sometimes, we can simply think that they wish for us to deny Christ, which may be true, but from what I have read, things usually come up differently than that. Usually, a church is meeting and worshipping the Lord, then suddenly, government authorities barge in, hurt many, and put others in prison.

Some of you have read and heard about something Francis Chan shares in his book Forgotten God. He shares about a few Christians, one of whom is a pastor, and they are all taken prisoner in the Middle East. Yet, they are Americans, and eventually, the Americans came to rescue them. During their time of persecution, at least one of them is killed. After they were rescued and sent back to America, they said that they would have rather been in the Middle East under persecution because the Holy Spirit was so strong there. Many are persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ, and God is present with them.

Matthew 5:10 (ESV)

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 10:19 (ESV)

When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.

We will examine one of many passages in the Book of Acts dealing with persecution.

• Notice how the disciples boldly proclaim Christ and obey God.
• Notice also how the disciples proclaim that they must obey God and not human laws.
• I hope you are encouraged by how God cared for them in persecution.
• I also hope that you are encouraged to obey God and not human laws.
• I hope your Christian faith is so important to you that you will live it and share it no matter the consequences and
• I hope that you can rejoice with the disciples even in persecution.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones:

It is perfectly clear that in New Testament times, the gospel was authenticated in this way by signs, wonders and miracles of various characters and descriptions … Was it only meant to be true of the early church? … The Scriptures never anywhere say that these things were only temporary—never! There is no such statement anywhere (The Sovereign Spirit, pp. 31–32).

God is still active and what we need to know and be aware of is that the more you step out into faith to follow God, the more you will see amazing things through the Holy Spirit. You will not see miracles if you are not following the Lord.

So, God is at work in the early church and some of the Jewish leaders are not at all happy about this. Let’s get into the passage. This is a long passage, so I will break it into sections to discuss it.

1. Context is important; how did we get to this point?
   1. In Acts 4:32-Acts chapter 5:16, we have an account of the Christian community sharing.
   2. We will not preach through that passage, but we will summarize it.
   3. In Acts 4:32-37, we have the model church. Acts 4:32 says that they were all of one mind.
   4. They were sharing with anyone who had need.
   5. We are also introduced to Joseph, called by the apostles Barnabas (Acts 4:36).
   6. At the beginning of chapter 5 (verses 1-11), we have the account of Ananias and Sapphira. This was one example when all the people were selling possessions and sharing.
   7. So, Ananias sold a house and kept money for himself. But he lied to the apostles and told them he was giving all the money to the apostles for the ministry. He lied to God and his wife, Sapphira, did the same thing.
   8. There is a lot in that passage.
   9. We see theological statements.
   10. They lied to God (verse 4), and in the previous verse, Peter says they lied to the Holy Spirit (verse 3).
   11. It would not have been wrong for them to keep some money. The issue is they lied about it.
   12. The Lord struck down both the husband and the wife.
   13. This passage is very similar to Joshua 8 and the sin of Achan.
   14. Starting at verse 12 we see that many signs and wonders were done among the people through the Apostles.
   15. Verse 12 makes an interesting note that they were in Solomon’s Portico.
   16. Verse 12, many signs and wonders were being done among the people. They were all in one accord.
   17. Verse 14: more believers were joining them, great numbers.
   18. Verse 15: people even want Peter’s shadow to fall on them.
   19. Verse 16: people from neighboring areas were bringing the sick and those tormented with unclean Spirits.
   20. That brings us to today’s section.
2. In verses 17-21a, we see the apostles imprisoned and miraculously released. Let’s read the section, and then I will share a few thoughts.

Acts 5:17–21 (ESV)

¹⁷ But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy ¹⁸ they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. ¹⁹ But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, ²⁰ “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.” ²¹ And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.

Now when the high priest came, and those who were with him, they called together the council, all the senate of the people of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.

• What an amazing passage! Doesn’t that just excite you? As we look at the rest of this passage, you will see even more great irony. But now notice that the Jewish High Court is unhappy with what is happening in the new Christian faith. I call them the Jewish High Court, but we have at least two major groups. This is the Sanhedrin. We have the Pharisees who accepted our whole Old Testament. They accepted the Ten Commandments and the books about them; they accepted the prophetic books. They also believed in the resurrection. Paul, the apostle, was a Pharisee. Then we have the Sadducees. They were much smaller, and they were politically tied to Rome. They didn’t believe in the resurrection. Jesus’s resurrection meant that they were no longer in power. If the resurrected order is taking place, the Sadducees and their ties to Rome will no longer be in power.
• The Bible says that they were filled with jealousy, so they took the apostles and imprisoned them. Now, it appears that they took all the apostles, all twelve, and imprisoned them.
• The Bible says that they were put in “public jail.” This could mean that they were in a public jail or publicly put in jail. They may have wanted everyone to see this.
• Okay, so at night an angel from the Lord let them out and told them to go and speak to the people the whole message of the Lord. Interesting that the angel did not tell them to flee or anything else. They were to go back to the very place where they were taken prisoner. So, they obey.

In verses 21b-26, we see some very ironic events. Let’s read them.

Acts 5:21–26 (ESV)

²¹ And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.

Now when the high priest came, and those who were with him, they called together the council, all the senate of the people of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. ²² But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported, ²³ “We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them we found no one inside.” ²⁴ Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to. ²⁵ And someone came and told them, “Look! The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.” ²⁶ Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.

1. So, the people were guarding an empty jail cell. I find that funny.
2. The people who were supposed to be in power were clearly not in power at all.
3. In verse 24, the chief priest hears about this and is very perplexed. This literally means that he doubts it. He doesn’t believe it. But then he finds out that the people who were imprisoned had not fled, but they were now teaching.
4. It is fortunate for the guards that they were guarding a Jewish prison and not a Roman prison. Later in Acts 12, an angel lets Peter out of prison, and Herod has the guards put to death for losing a prisoner.
5. Back then, you went to jail until trial; that was all. They didn’t have long-term prisons with cable television as we do today. After trial, you were sold into slavery, beaten, killed, or released.
6. Then, notice in verse 26 that the ones in charge were worried they would get stoned, bringing the apostles back.
7. Now, in verses 27-32, we see the apostle’s response.

Acts 5:27–32 (ESV)

²⁷ And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, ²⁸ saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” ²⁹ But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. ³⁰ The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. ³¹ God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. ³² And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

1. In verse 28, they say, we gave you strict orders not to teach in “this name.” Notice they will not say the name of Jesus.
2. Then, in verse 29, Peter is once again the spokesperson for the group. He says they must obey God and not man.
3. How much does the Gospel mean to you? Put yourself in the place of the persecuted. Say that you are a schoolteacher, and you hold a Bible study in your room, and then after a while, you are told you can no longer do this? Suppose that you are a schoolteacher, and a student brings up the Christian faith and is interested in how you become a Christian. Do you share with him? No, you could not do that because you would be fired! Is your job worth this person’s eternity? Suppose that church is illegal, and so a church meeting is happening in a home. Do you attend? That is what they face in other countries.
4. In the Book of Acts, we see that it is very important to share the Gospel with people. They must fulfill the Great Commission. Jesus is eternal life.
5. So, now Peter shares about Jesus with this group. He shares the Gospel. Verse 31: Jesus is the Prince and Savior of the world.
6. Peter says that they are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit. Do you remember what I shared with you at the beginning of this sermon about the Holy Spirit?
7. In verses 33-42, we see the ruling:

Acts 5:33–42 (ESV)

³³ When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. ³⁴ But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. ³⁵ And he said to them, “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. ³⁶ For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. ³⁷ After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. ³⁸ So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; ³⁹ but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” So they took his advice, ⁴⁰ and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. ⁴¹ Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. ⁴² And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.

1. Gamaliel was the one who trained Paul. He was a brilliant scholar revered for a long time after this, and he says, if this is of man, it will diminish, and he cites two examples. But he says if this is of God. You will be fighting God. Wow!
2. But notice the end of this passage: The disciples leave rejoicing that they were counted worthy of persecution. This is right after they were beaten.
3. Lastly, the disciples continued teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ every day in houses and in the temple.

Some applications:

1. We see God’s presence with the disciples.
2. God’s presence let them out of the jail (verses 19-20).
3. God’s presence helped them rejoice in suffering (verse 41).
4. We must be ready for persecution (1 Peter 3:15).
5. When persecuted, we can rejoice that we are counted worthy to be persecuted for Christ (verse 41).
6. We must obey God and not human laws when there is a contradiction (verse 29).
7. We must obey what God communicates to us just as the Apostles did following verses 20 and 21.

As we continue to preach through Acts, I pray that you are challenged to be a disciple of Christ all the time.

Pray