Acts 7:9-19 Understand with Your Heart!

Acts 7:9-19  Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles.  He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt.  So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.“  Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food.  When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers on their first visit.  On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family.  After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all.  Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died.  Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.  “As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased.  Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.  ’He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.  

In Stephen’s defense of himself, as he faces his accusers, he delves into the life of Joseph, recounting Joseph’s relationship to the plan of God in saving the Israelites from certain death in Canaan.  The patriarch, Jacob, had twelve sons.  However, one son, Joseph, had the hand of God on his life from his very beginning.  Joseph dreamt that he would rule over his brothers and even his parents.  These dreams from God troubled his brothers and his dad, for who was Joseph, but a brother and son of Jacob.  For his brothers, he was just flesh and blood as they were out of the loins of Jacob.  And forJacob, the father, why should Joseph rule over his parents who brought him into the world?  But Joseph had the hand and purpose of God on his life from conception.  He was conceived from a barren womb, just as Isaac before him and John the Baptist after him.  God had a purpose for his life that was hidden exclusively in the heart of God from the beginning of time.  This mysterious plan of God was the salvation plan for a sick and dying humanity.  By using Joseph, as a savior of his family, he became an allegory of Jesus Christ saving the human family.  The land of Canaan, the home of Jacob, was experiencing a severe famine, so harsh and deadly that Jacob feared that they would all die from starvation.  Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food.  Joseph because of the nefarious act of his brothers, selling him to traders who were going to Egypt, found himself as a slave in Egypt.  In the role of a slave, he would be the first of the household of Jacob to enter the wicked land of Egypt.  In this position of despair, God’s hand is manifested in his life, for Joseph is lifted up in Egypt, prospering mightily.  He becomes Pharaoh’s right-hand-man, chief administrator of all that goes on in Egypt.  Joseph dictates were as powerful as Pharaoh’s commands.  Stephen reminds his adversaries that God was in control of Joseph’s life.  God never left or abandoned Joseph no matter what trials Joseph experienced.  God was going to fulfill his mysterious plan of salvation regardless of the obstacles men put in front of Joseph.  But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles.  Stephen implies to his foes that Jesus whom they crucified is as Joseph, who had experienced many trials in Egypt.  However, Jesus is not serving a Pharaoh, who Egyptians claimed to be God, but He was serving his Father, the only God, the Creator of all that exists.  Jesus was sent to earth to be the gate to eternal life, THE WAY to be right with God and to inherit eternity as a child of God.  The resurrected Jesus is firstborn of all who believe in his redemptive work on the cross.

Jacob and the family of God or the chosen people entered Egypt as only 75 individuals, but they would leave Egypt numbered in the thousands after years of bondage.  God implements his plan of salvation for the Israelites from Egypt through a Jewish man, Moses.  Moses grew up living in the splendor of Pharaoh’s palace.  He was the adopted son of the daughter of Pharaoh, but still an Israelite at heart.  As with Joseph, God’s hand was on him from birth.  However, because of killing an abusive Egyptian who was mistreating an Israelite man, he had to flee to the land of the Midianites.  In Midian he lived as a lonely shepherd until God called him from a burning bush back to Egypt.  He was called to Egypt so that he could implement God’s plan of deliverance of the Israelites from the hand of a wicked Pharaoh.  Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.  You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country.  But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you.  (7:1-4)  Now thousands of Israelites would be led by Moses, escaping the hand of Satan: Pharaoh.  As Joseph spoke for Pharaoh, Moses would speak for the Supreme Authority: God.  in Moses' hands as with Joseph, the Israelites would prosper; Canaan would be won for them.  Now a nation, they would take possession of all of Canaan.  They would fulfill God’s promise to Abraham of owning Canaan.  As with the patriarchs, with Joseph and Moses, God’s hand was intimately involved with their lives, fulfilling his mysterious plan of salvation.  Now Stephen is championing this same Idea about Jesus.  He is not just part of God’s plan of salvation; HE IS THE PLAN of redeeming man to right standing with God.  But Stephen’s adversaries who claimed the efficacy of circumcision were ready to break one of the Ten Commandments: murdering an innocent man.  As Jeremiah said, they were uncircumcised in their hearts.  “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh—  Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the wilderness in distant places.  For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”  (Jeremiah 9:25-26)  The plan of God meant nothing to them, for their eyes could not see and their ears were stopped.  The garden of sin flourished in their hearts, yielding nothing of substance in their lives but blindness and deafness.  You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.  For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.  Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.  (Matthew 13:14-15)  They could not perceive of Jesus being the Messiah, the Son of God, even though He had done more wonders and miracles than any man who ever lived.  These wonders and miracles testified that Jesus was sent from God and that his mission was to save men from their sins and concomitant eternal death.  These religious men who wanted Stephen dead were living unprofitable lives; they were devoured by sinful deeds and thoughts in their hearts.  These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.  (Matthew 15:8-9)  As Stephen faces them down with his words of truth about the history of the Jews, their hearts stirred with rage towards him.  As with Pharaoh their hearts had been hardened by their disobedience to God’s call on their lives.  

Stephen’s words touched the inner selves of those who were facing him with murder in their hearts.  They hear him recount how God was with Joseph and how God delivered him out of the hands of those who hated him. They knew Joseph was part of their history, and they knew God had planted him in the Israelites’ existence for the benefit of every Jew, but they did not want to accept Jesus as THE INTEGRAL part of God’s rescue plan for their eternal existence.  The Jewish people were so against this plan of God that they would stone Stephen to death.  They had championed the death of Jesus, forcing Pilate’s hand to crucify him.  They locked up the disciples and had them flogged; they rejoiced over James’ beheading and chased down Paul in the Temple in Jerusalem, yelling kill him, kill him!  God's chosen, who should have had more light that any other people in the world, were leaders in rejecting Jesus as the Messiah.  But people cannot lay this hatred toward Jesus at the Jews’ feet only, for all of mankind was marshaled against the salvation plan of God.  All have gone their own way; no, not one is righteous or completely good in actions and thoughts.  The world from the fall has been violent and sinful.  The Gentiles were just as involved as the Jews in rejecting God’s plan of salvation.  A wicked spirit is one that is against the Jews, for God’s hand has been intimately involved with the Jews from the beginning, through Abraham the father of the Israelites.  He has blessed all nations.  But this animosity of the Israelites toward the Good News led Paul to be an apostle to the Gentiles.  The Gentiles lived in complete darkness to God’s plan of salvation.  They lived under their own imaginations, making idols to serve no-gods, that were nothing more than their own creations.  The Jews had the light of the law: God’s goodness and holiness were reflected through the law and its regulations.  But their rejection of God’s mercy and grace led them to darkness in their souls.  John the Baptist told them to repent of their lifestyle, for they are emulating the Gentiles in the way they were living and thinking.  Paul points out clearly that believers should separate themselves from darkness and live unto Christ who is the LIGHT of the world.  So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.  They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.  Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.  (Ephesians 4:17-19)  Stephen in his defense tells his foes that their uncircumcised hearts have led them to hatred and revenge.  Joseph forgave his brothers for selling him into slavery.  He displayed the grace and mercy of God.  Even though mistreated by them, he loved them so much that he could not control his emotions.  Stephen knew Jesus loved these people who stood around him with stones in their hands to kill him. They were likened to the priest and Levite who passed on the other side of the road when a fellow Jew lay almost dead from the hands of robbers.  These two people supposed men of faith lived a lie; their words of dedication to God were but empty words.  But the Good Samaritan's life was full of love and grace.  He would not pass by and leave this Jew to die by the road.  He would love even those who despised him.  Jesus, the despised Savior, stopped by a dying world, bleeding and naked, paid the full price for the recovery of this deathly sick world.  Stephen would now pay the full price of the death of his own life for stopping by to help a sick and dying world.  Stephan, as Christ who forgave the people for they were acting in total ignorance, would leave this world with words on his lips of forgiveness and grace: Lord, do not hold this sin against them.  May the Lord find such words of grace on our lips when we face angry men or death.  

 

Act 7:1-9 New Life!

Act 7:1-9 Then the high priest asked Stephen, "Are these charges true?”  To this he replied, "Brothers and fathers, listen to me!  The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran.  ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’  “So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran.  After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living.  He gave him no inheritance here, not even enough ground to set his foot on.  But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child.  God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated.  But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’  Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision.  And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth.  Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

In the above focus, Stephen ignores the question asked him: Are these charges true?  As with Jesus and Paul, people were recruited to lie about Stephen, violating the commandment, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.  These liars were used to contaminated the way the people viewed Stephen.  So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law.  They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin.  They produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law.  For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”  (Acts 6:12-14)  Of course, to speak against the law and the temple was a threat to the religious leaders and elders, for their livelihood and position of power rested on how people viewed the law and the temple.  Belittling or desecrating either would affect the deference the leaders enjoyed in the Jewish community.  Therefore, having liars claim Stephen was promoting ideas against the law and the temple identified him as an enemy to Judaism.  But Stephen did not address these concerns of him speaking against the holy place and the law.  Instead, he diverted from the high priest's question about these liar’s protestations and delved into the history of the Jewish people from Abraham to the present.  Their father of Judaism left the idol worshipping area of Mesopotamia, probably today’s Iraq, journeyed to Harran, probably in Turkey, and then settled in Canaan.  Idol worshipping was part of the custom of his family, but in Canaan, God came to him and gave him the the promise of a son, and that he would be the father of many nations.  He chose to believe God’s words rather than his present circumstance of being childless.  He chose to have faith in God’s words and not his own reality.  Therefore, Abraham lived by faith in the words of the eternal living God.  He proved his fidelity to God’s words by even offering up Isaac as a sacrifice because God requested this of him.  Now we see Stephen recounting that story of Abraham as an indictment against the priests and leaders of the Jewish society because they were not really people of faith with the goodness of God in them, but just people following the law and its regulations without the mercy and grace of God.  God’s grace and mercy were revelatory in Abraham’s story: calling him out of a world of idol worshipping to his own bosom.  Abraham is the prototype of all believers who live by faith and not by the rigidity of law.  Even though Abraham's covenant was one of blessings and promises, his descendants would spend 400 years in slavery, living in the darkness of captivity to the Pharaohs of Egypt.  God designed this trial so they would experience the darkness of bondage to sin.  Esau, Jacobs’s brother, was not bound by slavery for he settled in the hill country of Seir.  (Genesis 36:8)  He experienced physical freedom; Jacob experienced slavery.  But in reality all people are under spiritual bondage to Satan, or the  Pharaoh of this world.  However, Jacob’s people knew the reality of slavery to a hard taskmaster: Pharaoh.  God desired this for the Israelites.  They would taste the harshness and darkness of captivity.  In their escape from Egypt, they would know freedom from physical slavery.  However, the law and its regulations were given to them so that they might know the God who rescued them from Pharaoh.  The law from Moses' hand would show them how to be right with God.  But this revelation of the law, God’s words to Moses, revealing the nature of God’s holiness, was never fully accepted by the Jewish people.  Their dedication to God was often feigned lip service only.  Their total dedication to the God who released them from prison was often short-lived.  From the very beginning, after experiencing miracles and wonders from God’s hand, they still clung stubbornly to their own way of living, their own gods, a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him.  (Psalm 78:8)  This was the casting, the role of the chosen, who experienced more wonders and miracles from God’s hand than any other people on the face of the earth.  

The Israelites were the quintessential example of the stubbornness of humans who fell from God’s blessing in the Garden. When Adam and Eve made their decision to be like God, this attitude of self-interest and self-direction became an indelible part of every human’s DNA.  We see Moses in his last words to the Israelites talk about this sinful, rebellious nature within humans.  He gives them little hope that they will ever change toward serving God with their whole hearts and.souls.  For I know that after my death you are sure to become utterly corrupt and to turn from the way I have commanded you.  In days to come, disaster will fall on you because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord and arouse his anger by what your hands have made.”  (Deuteronomy 31:29)  Joshua in his last words to the Israelites before he dies states the same condition about human nature, their willingness to forsake their Creator and live unto themselves without his righteousness.  Joshua said to the people, “YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO SERVE THE LORD.  He is a holy God; he is a jealous God.  He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins.  If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”  (Joshua 24:19-20)  The Israelites, blessed above all people on earth, delivered from slavery, protected in their journey across the wilderness, given a promised land of milk and honey, would be unfaithful to God who chose them out of all the people of the world as his own.  Even though so chosen, they could not deliver themselves from their own DNA of rebellion to God.  Stephen tells this story to the elite of Israel to highlight the rebellious nature of the Israelites and of all humans.  Jesus exposits on this condition of mankind in his dealing with the man blind from birth.  As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.  His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.  As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me.  Night is coming, when no one can work.   While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”  (John 9:1-5)  As with all of mankind, this blind man was sightless from birth.  No sin of his mother and father or himself caused this blindness.  He was in darkness because that was the natural condition of his existence.  People are born in blindness, in complete darkness without God’s light.  God placed this man on Jesus’ journey to reveal the works of God in delivering this man from his darkened condition.  This is an example of God bringing light to a very dark and sinful world, sightless in knowing God.  This blind man made of dust came to know the true light: God through JESUS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.  Jesus combined his spittle of light to the darkness of the dust of mankind to create life. The Israelites could never find their own way out of the darkness through the law and its regulations; their DNA would not succumb completely to God’s authority.  They could never be holy enough to please a perfect God.  As Joshua said, YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO SERVE THE LORD.  Something else was needed for them to be able to serve God with their whole hearts: Jesus Christ.  Stephen in his review of the history of Jews to the elders was unveiling the truth of their adversary relationship to a righteous God; they needed a Savior and intermediator.  

The children of Israel, even though favored greatly, experiencing miracles and wonders at the hand of God, were always adulterous in their relationship with him.  They carried their other gods from Egypt in their satchels through the wilderness.  This rebellious people built shrines and altars to other gods everywhere in Canaan.  They were unfaithful in their service to God.  Stephen, in his account of the Jew's wayward nature, points out that even in the wilderness after they had seen water gush out of a rock to refresh them, they were willing to doubt God’s care and love for them.  They limited their God of unending love for them by saying He was not capable of taking care of them in all situations. Sure, God rolled back the Red Sea for us to walk across it on dry ground, sure He allowed us to escape from Pharaoh, and he evidently can bring water out of rock.  But water can be found everywhere under the surface of the ground.  However, for him to give us food in this barren wilderness is an impossibility.  They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved.  They spoke against God; they said, “Can God really spread a table in the wilderness.  True, he struck the rock, and water gushed out, streams flowed abundantly, but can he also give us bread?  Can he supply meat for his people?”  (Psalm 78:18-20)  This attitude of limiting God’s power made God furious.  Sadly, this disbelieving attitude of the Israelites is alive and well in our world.  We have made God in our own images; we have built idols to these images in our minds.  For so many, even Christians, God is not omnipotent.  He could never make a fish to swallow a man; he definitely cannot make a plant that can grow in one day to shelter a man, or make a worm to destroy that plant in one day.  The Israelites knew God could not feed them in the wilderness: it was an impossibility, it was unscientific; it is beyond their wildest imagination or dreams.  Now we see Stephen's defense of Jesus, that the resurrection is real and he follows that man who will take the place of the temple and the law, something beyond the religious leaders' imagination.  And this man can do what the law could not do: make men and women right with God.  He alone will do something unimaginable to humans, give people so much love that they will give their lives up for even their enemies, an unheard of concept.  But we do know, Moses and Paul said they would give up their spiritual existence with God for the sake of people they loved.  Jesus told his disciples that their responsibility to the world after He left them was to love each other so that the world might know the all powerful God is one of enduring love.  A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.  (John 13:34-35)  Stephen is castigating the leading priests and elders because he knows they have murder in their hearts.  They are willing to kill him as they did Jesus, who died for sins of the world.  Stephen will lay his life down while revealing his love for all people, even his enemies.  Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  (John 15:12-13)  Stephen full of the Holy Ghost knew his life was hidden IN CHRIST.  A new birth and a new life through the Holy Spirit was his.  (Titus 3:4-5)   HIs heart was circumcised by God forevermore.  Praise God that this new life is yours today or seek him that you may be found.  Love, Dad and Mom                   

 

 

 

(Acts 6:6-15) Treasures of Wisdom!

(Acts 6:6-15)  Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people.  Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen.  But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.  Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.  ”So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law.  They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin.  They produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law.  For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.  ”All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

In the above focus we are introduced to a man called Stephen.  As a deacon in the church, he carried out a daily routine of feeding widows, but Stephen was also a man full of the Holy Spirit and power.  We can also assume he displayed the gifts of the Spirit readily: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  (Galatians 5:22)  He personified Christianity: born again, a new creature, a new life.  He was once a slave to carnal flesh, captivated behind the bars of the self-willed nature of his old self, but as Paul tells the Galatians, Jesus came to set us free from our self-willed nature and its concomitant sins.  As Christians we are no longer slaves to the sins of the flesh, for our spirits are forever free to be citizens of the heavenly realm, forever known as children of God.  It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.  (Galatians 5:1)  But now in this focus we see men who are enslaved in their fleshly nature; once physically slaves of the Romans but now freemen, belonging to the Synagogue of the Freedmen.  They are very zealous for the tenets of the Jewish religion; consequently, Stephen and all other Christians who teach the freedom of Christ are considered apostates, enemies of God.  These fervent supporters of Judaism began to argue with Stephen.  But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.  Stephen was full of Jesus Christ and God’s Spirit.  He possessed the wisdom and knowledge of God, for all true wisdom and all perfect knowledge comes directly through knowing Jesus Christ.  As Paul wrote:  My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the TREASURES of wisdom and knowledge.  (Colossians 2:2-3)  Stephen’s foes, befuddled by the wisdom an knowledge of Stephen, turned to lies and deception.  Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.  Their treacherous scheme of using lies to persuade others to believe what they wanted people to believe was also used to condemn Jesus to death.   The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death.  (Matthew 26:59)  Paul received the same teatment of people lying about him.  We have found this man to be a troublemaker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world.  He is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect and even tried to desecrate the temple; so we seized him.  (Acts 24:5-6)  Lying is an age old trick to distort the truth or to convince people to believe something that is blatantly false.  It is interesting to note that at the end of Revelations, we see that all liars will receive eternal damnation.  The seriousness of lying is explicit in the Old Testament, for it is one of the Ten Commandments.  Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbor.  (Deuteronomy 5:20)  We now see with Stephen these men who are supposedly strong advocates of Moses’ laws and regulations openly violating one of the Ten Commandments.  They, as was done with Jesus and Paul, are willing to lie to get their way.  They also are willing  to murder innocent people, another violation of the Commandments, to satisfy their hatred of the Good News.  Their own design of Judaism led them to violate the scriptures, and the basic tenets of Judaism.

As a Christian, Stephen was not tied down to believing that Jerusalem or the Temple were the only places to worship God.  He understood Jesus' words that were spoken to the Samaritan women at the well.  Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.  God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.  (John 4:23-24)  Yes, the time has come to worship God in the Spirit and in truth.  No place was more holy than the place he was standing on, for Stephen was now the temple of the living God.  His lips would relate the truth of God.  He would expose the knowledge of God, for he possessed Jesus IN HIM, revealing God to the dark and sinful world.  Jesus said for Christians to be lights, and Stephen was a brilliant light, even to his last breath.  Knowing Jesus, he knew the wisdom of God and the knowledge of God.  He knew the mysterious plan of God that was hidden in the heart of the Father from the beginning of time.  That mysterious plan was Jesus, the Son, the gate to becoming right with God.  Salvation is Jesus, freedom is Jesus, eternal life is Jesus.  Every bit of life is wrapped up in Jesus.  He is the direct metaphor of THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE.  In the above focus, we see men with knowledge of the world and of the scriptures, yet living in darkness.  They were openly against the light of God.  The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.  (John 1:9-13)  These Judaic followers existed in darkness but did not know it.  Therefore, they could not confront successfully Stephen’s understanding of God.  They were living by regulations and religious tenets, but not by the Spirit of God.  They were living by the strength of their will and not by the power of the Holy Spirit.  The law was imposed on them, not in them, not in their hearts.  So they could not argue with Stephen successfully.  HIs light revealed clearly their darkness, even of the Old Testament, the prophets and their words.  They could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.

As with David, Stephen was committed to God wholeheartedly.  God was Stephen's home, not just an idea for him of an eternal dwelling place somewhere.  God was his home, his inheritance: as with David and the Levite priests.  ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’  (Acts 13:22)  Stephen would follow God even to his death by stoning.  He would die with God on his face.  For him it was as Moses prayed, Lord, through all the generations you have been our home!  Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from beginning to end, you are God.  (Psalm 90:1-2 NLT)  Stephen would go back to God after his death; he would go home.  Moses went back to God; his home was not Canaan, but God.  We who are Christians have a dwelling place forever, for through Christ’s work, we have been made right with God.  God is Spirit and we will dwell with him.  As we are IN CHRIST we will dwell as children of God.  Sometimes we forget that reality, and we pray without acknowledging who we are IN CHRIST and who God is as the Creator.  The prayer that Peter and the believers lifted up to God after he and John were released from the Sanhedrin’s imprisonment is a fantastic prayer of acknowledging God and also our place in his creation.  This prayer also recognizes the adversaries to God's plan of saving men from eternal damnation.  “Sovereign Lord, you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.  You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one."  (Acts 4:25-26). Sometimes in our prayers, we forget the greatness of God because Jesus is so personal and intimate in our lives.  This prayer emphasizes the truth of God.  He is the only God, the only life, and He has created all that exists.  The prayer goes on and describes the futility of mankind rebelling against their God.  The people do rage against their Creator, and they do plot against the work of God’s salvation by coming against Christ.  In Peter and the believers' prayer they honor God, and expose the truth of man’s rebellion against the Almighty.  The prayer exposes the truth of man’s existence; his degradation and sinful state.  It does not exclude anyone from the responsibilities of killing Jesus.  All of mankind is guilty, even in holy Jerusalem.  “In fact, this has happened here in this very city!  For Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate the governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed.  (27)  Kings, governors, rulers, Gentiles and Jews were aggressively against God’s plan of salvation, his Anointed One.  God knew beforehand men and women would reject his salvation plan through his Son, Jesus Christ.  Now, this prayer beseeches God to reveal himself to a dark world through his servants.  Give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word.  Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”  (29-30).  This was exactly what God did, even Peter’s shadow healed people.  After such a powerful and explicit prayer, honoring God and stating the truth of life, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.  (Acts 4:31 NLT)  God exalted his servants by filling them once more to the brim with the Holy Spirit.  They went away from that meeting place with renewed boldness to speak of Christ everywhere.  Later, we see Stephen full of boldness and the likeness of the Spirit, willing to give his life for the cause of the Good News, for The Way to be right with a perfect and eternal God, the creator of all life.  May we all follow The Way with the courage of Stephen.  Amen!  

   

    

     

        

 

 

Acts 6:1-6 Full of Wisdom

Acts 6:1-6  In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.  So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.  Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.  We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”  This proposal pleased the whole group.  They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.  They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

In the above verses we see a split developing in the church between the Hellenistic Jews who spoke Greek and the Hebraic Jews who spoke mainly Hebrew.  The Hellenistic Jews were more attuned to the Greek lifestyle than were the Hebraic Jews.  This division was becoming more acute in this environment of unity, where all things were to be shared equally, in this case food—the Hellenistic widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.  This dispute became so disturbing to the apostles that they had to make some changes in their daily routine and in how the earthly body of Christ should function.  It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.  The disciples' commission from the Lord Jesus Christ was to go into all the world and to preach the gospel to all people, not to go into all the world to feed people.  Feeding people is important, but insignificant to the ministering of the word, to the of baptizing people into the body of Christ.  However, they understood this troubling circumstance of partisanship needed to be resolved. These widows needed to be treated justly and fairly.  People should love others as they love themselves, so it was important that everyone in the body was fed well and treated equally.  The church was to function as the body of Christ; therefore, as one body, they knew each member in the body of Christ belonged to all the others.  (Romans 12:5)  All members of the body should function in the right way for the glory of the Lord.  Therefore, unity in Christ's visible body on earth is very important for  unity clearly reveals God’s love for all people.  In the above focus we see the community of believers encouraged by the apostles to select seven men to carry out the ministry of feeding widows, those who are a responsibility of the church.  Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.  We will turn this responsibility of feeding the widows over to them.  The requirements for this new position were that they be full of the Spirit and wisdom.  The believers chose seven men that fulfilled the requirements; the apostles installed them by laying their hands on them and praying for God’s blessing to rest on them as they carried out this necessary function within the church.  This gifting of serving others, as with all gifts in the church, is directed by the Holy Spirit.  These seven were men of wisdom.  They were to use their gift of wisdom to serve the church as deacons.  Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.  (1 Peter 4:10)  As we see in the life of Stephen that serving meals was not the only thing he did for the cause of Christ.  He was actively involved in displaying the works of Christ to believers and unbelievers.  Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people.  (Acts 6:8)  His purpose in life was not just to serve meals to widows; he also was to be a constant reflection of God’s power and God’s loving image to all people.  All seven were men of passion for God.

No longer would these deacons live just for themselves.  Their vision of life included everyone else in the body of Christ, especially the widows.  As with all believers, their hearts had been circumcised.  Their will of living for themselves had been circumcised when they died and were raised to new life in baptism.  No longer would they live by self-rule, eat, drink and be merry.  Instead, they would put on the cloak of the Righteous One who died for all people.  Their way of living a life for themselves was buried with Christ, now they were raised with Christ after his resurrection.  The will of God was paramount in their lives.  A major duty for their resurrected lives was serving widows food without discrimination or bias.  But being dead in Christ through his burial and being resurrected IN HIM into new life brought to them a responsibility of living for Christ in every part of their lives.  Your WHOLE SELF RULED BY THE FLESH was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.  (Colossians 2:11-12)  All members in the body of Christ possessing the resurrected power within them should be lights to a very dark world.  Believers should reflect the glory and power of God continuously in their lives, always allowing a vibrant glow of God's love to emanate from them.  These chosen seven men were to be servants of love, treating all the widows fairly.  They were to display God’s love for all people, even to the most vulnerable.  These men were men of the Holy Spirit; they possessed the gift of wisdom.  They were to use this gift of wisdom to benefit the church.  The apostles had laid their hands on them in prayer so that they might fulfill their duty of feeding the widows well.  God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well.  So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you.  If your gift is serving others, serve them well.  If you are a teacher, teach well.  If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging.  If it is giving, give generously.  If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously.  And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.  (Romans 12:6-8 NLT)  Every gift given to members of the church should be activated with eagerness and soundness for the benefit of the body.  The apostles needed these deacons to function effectively to benefit the body of Christ.  They did not want to be bothered with the task of feeding the widows; this duty was to be carried out by the deacons without their involvement or concern.  The apostles had been given by Christ the responsibility to pray and to minister the words and works of Christ the Lord.

The apostles were given the task of revealing the mystery of God to the world.  This mystery held in the heart of God from the beginning was that his Son would come to bring salvation to all who would accept him as the Messiah.  The apostles knew because of their time with Jesus that Jesus was the Lord, the Son of God.  The prophets predicted that the Messiah would come to the world in the last days.  For the disciples, this mystery had to be told everywhere, to all people.   Paul, an apostle out of season, states, My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  (Colossians 2:2-3)  In Christ are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  We can understand with that statement that the seven men were filled with Christ's wisdom for He is the origin of wisdom.  He is also the origin of all gifts in the church, for the fountain of love is encased in the body of Christ.  Feeding widows and caring for the vulnerable is an important task within the church, but the primary responsibility of the church is to bring all people to the knowledge of Jesus Christ as Lord.  Only the name of Jesus will deliver people out of the eternal darkness that is hidden in their souls.  They are the blind, and no religious ideas or secular wisdom and knowledge can lead people out of the lostness they are in without God as their Father.  Their eternal souls are at stake; therefore, the apostle’s mission was to bring light to these people, suffering in eternal darkness.  The message is simple, opened to even the youngest child.  If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.  As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”  For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”  (Romans 10:9-13)  There is no difference between the Hellenistic widow, the Hebraic widow or any widow of any group, all should be treated the same with justice and equality.  There is no difference with any people; all are loved by God; all are coveted by him to be his children in the Kingdom of God.  He wishes for none to be judged as unrighteous; all can find acceptance by him through the name of his Son, Jesus Christ.  No one will ever have to be in the presence of God in a cloak of unrighteousness.  No one will ever have to come to God in shame.  Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.  The way of salvation, of being right with God, is simple: by being inundated with faith in God’s word, revealed in Jesus Christ, you have eternal life.  If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  THE APOSTLES CARRIED THIS MESSAGE to the world, it was fire in their bones.  All but John died a violent death.  They no longer fed the widows, but they fed the world with the Word of God, Jesus Christ the Word of deliverance.  Today, do the work God has given you with joy whether it is feeding widows or seeking the lost.