Jesus Christ in His Church..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Acts chapter 6, written from the English Standard Version of the Bible. 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.

And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, It is not right that we should give up preaching the words of God to serve tables. 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. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. 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. This they said before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

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. Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen, as it was called, and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly instigated men who said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.

And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council. And they set up false witnesses who said, These men never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law. 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. And gazed at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel. Amen, brothers and sisters.

This is the Word of God. As I said this evening, brothers and sisters, we are going to continue with our study in the Book of Acts. And the topic, as we have said, it is the life of Jesus Christ in his church. And this book, the Book of Acts, it is the beginning of the New Testament church after the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the book that teaches us the true characteristics of what a true Christian is, and also the true characteristics of what the church should be.

Please just remember that, as I said, The commission of the commandment that the Lord Jesus Christ gave to his disciples was that they were supposed to be witnesses of the Lord in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth. And being witness was not only to carry the message of the gospel and to bring to be messengers of the message of the gospel, but was also that they will become like Jesus Christ, that the shining glory of Christ would shine through the earthen vessels of the apostles and the disciples, that it was not only a message that was communicated out of their mouths, but actually there was power in them not only to do signs and wonders and miracles, but actually power to transform them and to make them like the Savior, the one that was hated, the one that was persecuted, the one that was reviled, Now, they will go through all of those things following the steps of the Savior. The Book of Acts teaches us the true characteristics, not only of what genuine Christianity is in the believer, but also the true characteristics of a biblical church. And brothers and sisters, we know that churches are not defined by the traditions of men. Churches are not defined by the schemes or the frameworks of man-made religion or by the cultural traditions of the place where we live or the country where we live.

But as we always say from the very beginning of our gatherings almost two years ago, The Church of the Living God, the pillar and the foundation of the truth, must be established upon the truth of God, and that is His Word. It is the Word of the Lord, the Word of our Savior, the Word of the only true God. It is His Word that is sufficient not only for us to believe and to be saved, but it's also the word that is able to guide us in Jesus Christ, towards Jesus Christ and for Jesus Christ. It is the word that empower us to be as Christians what we cannot be and empowers the church to be what scripture says that the church should be. It is until all the members of the Church attain the unity of the faith in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, this is what Apostle Paul calls a mature manhood, to the measure and the stature of the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we may not be longer children of the system of the world, driven and tossed, taken from one place to another by the winds of doctrines of this world, by the systems of this world, but rather that we might be filled with the Holy Spirit of Christ, the same Spirit of Christ that was in the Old Covenant, in the prophets, speaking of the coming of the Savior.

Now in us, revealing to us and illuminating to us the glory of Christ, that we might grow up in our salvation in Jesus Christ, who is the head of the church. and from whom the whole body that is the church is joined together. Every joint comes together and is equipped for the mission that we have been given on earth to glorify the Father in the person of Jesus Christ, establishing and becoming more like Him. growing in love, in the love that is the love of Jesus Christ, individually and also as a congregation. We are to be not only biblical Christians, we are not only to be biblical followers of Christ, each one of us, but we are to be a biblical church.

And this book is the book that teaches us through these many stories and details of the early church. And as I said last week, brothers and sisters, We should not let these many details and these many stories of the Book of Acts remove us from the underlying truth of this book. And that is that Jesus Christ is the one that builds up his church. The church is not built by the power of men, by the charisma of men, by the abilities that men can have or how much money they can put together or how big the building can be or how good the music can be or how many programs we can have. The church is not built through the power and the wisdom and the ability of men, but the church is built up in Jesus Christ.

He is the builder of the church and he does soul through his spirit. He does it through the power of the spirit that was given to the early church as we saw in Acts chapter two. So the power of his spirit, the power of the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ is necessary to be a church that is indeed a true witness of Christ. You see, people can come together, they can even have a Bible, and they can put a sign on the door saying that this is a church. But if the Spirit of God is not among them, then that church cannot be a true witness of Christ.

Just as genuine salvation requires the true and genuine intervention of the Spirit to save a person, also the works and the service of the Church as a congregation requires the power of the Spirit working in each one of the individuals. and also working covenantally or in the community of the church. All the things that we have read so far in these five chapters of the Book of Acts and all the things that we have seen that the early church did are things that were done in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is needed not only by them in the first century of the church, but it's also needed by the church as a whole until the Lord Jesus Christ comes to take us to glory. The church and the individuals, the Christians, need the Holy Spirit guiding us in the light of Scripture, guiding us in the ways of Jesus Christ.

We need the power of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, to walk in the same ways that the early church did. And as I said to you, this is, I think that Luke is trying to present to us this pattern of the power of the Spirit, that every time that the Spirit of God is poured or is given to the church, every time that there is an empowerment of the Spirit, that's something, as we saw in Acts two or in next four, then the result of it. It is that those upon whom the spirit is poured to those who are filled with the spirit, then these people become more like Jesus Christ. They are filled with boldness, with love, with unity. They are made like Jesus Christ with the truth of Christ.

And once the church as a whole becomes more like the Savior, more like the head, Jesus Christ, then is when the world and Satan attack the church. Then we see the opposition and the persecution of the system of Satan in the early century. And we can see that through the history of the church, that the more that the church becomes like that which is written, that the more that the Christian becomes like Jesus Christ, the more that the world is going to despise the Christian, and the more that the world is going to reject the Christian, and the more that the world is going to reject the church. This is the pattern that Luke is presenting and given to us in this book, that every time that the Spirit comes, there's going to be a manifestation of power in the believers, but not only power of miracles and signs and wonders, more than the power to bring them in unity, in love, of one heart, of one soul. And then Satan will try to attack and to destroy that church, that unity, that love, that bond, that link that exists between the believers of the congregation of the church that it is.

in the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this pattern will continue from the next chapter, just as we saw it last week that after the disciples had been filled again with power of the spirit in the end there of chapter four, then What the result of this empowerment of the Holy Spirit was that the church was united and there was love, there was boldness, there was power. They were sharing all the things that they have and all the things that belong to them. It was common to the whole congregation. This is Christ likeness.

This is love, love that cannot be produced in the flesh, love that it is foreign to the flesh, love that it is that is away even from the thoughts and the desires of the heart of sinful men. These are desires and these are results that can only be produced by the intervention, by the visitation of the Holy Spirit that now in the New Testament has been given to all Christians who genuinely have been, by grace through faith, united to the person of Jesus Christ. This is the spirit that dwells in us and among us and that empower us to the same things. But as we saw it right after this empowerment of the Holy Spirit in the end of chapter four, Satan was not as slow to respond to this with his attacks. And we saw that he did not only try to attack the church from the inside by filling the hearts of Ananias and Sapphira with deception and sin, trying to bring division to the church and to bring sin into the church.

But also he did it by filling the hearts of the high priest and these other people with jealousy and hatred. So these men, led by satanic affections, tried to stop the advance of the church with violence and sin upon the apostles and upon the disciples of the Lord. But The only thing that this produced was even more empowerment of the spirit, because we saw that in the end of chapter five, the response to all of this violence and all of the scene and all of these afflictions that the disciples and the apostles were going through that after this much pain and difficulties, the disciples were filled again. and led by the Holy Spirit. And they were taken to glorify God for being counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Even after being, you know, going through this pain and violence and all of these difficult things in the hands of the high priest and all of these people, They responded with more preaching and with more service to the Lord and to the saints. We were told in the last verse of chapter five that daily in the temple and in every house, they did not cease to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. This is the pattern. This is the work of the spirit. This is the work of the spirit given to the church, not only to the early church, but given to Every genuine believer, the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12 that we have been baptized by the Spirit into Christ, that we have been united to Christ by the Spirit and that we drink ongoingly, constantly of that Spirit, that we can be filled of the Spirit and speak in Psalms and in spiritual songs and in hymns that when the Word of God dwells richly in us, we are filled with the Spirit.

The ways of men are removed. and the ways of God are inked and written in our hearts by the word of God. When the desire of the heart of the Christian, it is to turn the eyes to the Savior. Then, as the Salmon says, the Lord purifies our hearts by feeling and treasuring up his word into our hearts. So then that the abundance of what is inside of us is not ours anymore, but it is his.

So then the abundance of our mouth or the speech of our mouth are the words of Christ. And the deeds that we do are not the deeds of our flesh or our desires, but are the deeds of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the glorious work of the Holy Spirit, not only in the early church, but in every single genuine Christian. and in every church that desires to walk in the ways of the Lord as they are written in scripture. In this chapter six, brothers and sisters, we will see the continuation of the story of the early church, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This time we will see how the growing church now faces her first practical difficulties from within. This is a way in which Satan will try again to attack the church and try to divide the church. In this portion of the scripture that we read, we will see again how the numbers that now are increasing of people will be used by flesh and desires of the flesh and things and also Satan to divide and to attack the church. But also we will see how the persecutors of the church will continue to try to destroy This simple group of low and vile Galileans who are adding up unto themselves the masses, the multitudes. Now, by Chapter six, we can see that these disciples that in Chapter one were just praying and it were just 120 of them.

They were feeble and weak. and that they were, you know, with fear, but they were persistent in prayer and in supplication after they were empowered by the Holy Spirit. This group of people now have added unto themselves the masses, multitudes of women and men. This is the way. These are the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and these group of people is turning Jerusalem upside down.

And we will see how the growth in numbers is going to be now a reason for them to face not only difficulties, practical difficulties within the church, but also how the persecutors of the church are going again in and led by satanic affections, try to destroy and try to try to continue to persecute people within the church. This is the power of this group of low and vile Galileans that now have many people added onto themselves, this group of followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. But you see, brothers and sisters, this chapter As we have just read, it is not only very short, but it's divided mainly in two sections. And this is how we are going to approach this chapter. It is divided in two main sections.

And brothers and sisters, this chapter is going to be very practical for our congregation, for Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church especially, section number one, in which we have the story from verse one to verse seven of the selection, if you want, or the election and ordination of these seven servants, or these seven deacons, if you want. What we are seeing in verse one through verse seven, it is that which is going to be the model of the deacon in later letters in the New Testament. That is the first section, a very practical section that is going to help us to understand many things about deacons or those servants in the church. And also in section number two of this chapter that goes from verse eight until the end of the chapter, we'll see. if you want the beginning of the ministry of Stephen or the appearing of Stephen, who is one of the seven servants or the seven deacons that were chosen in the first section, who will be, by the way, the first martyr of the early church, a mighty man, we are told, in the spirit.

Stephen is going to be the connecting man between the propagation of the gospel to Jerusalem and Judea. Remember that The commission that the Lord gave to the disciples is for them to be witnesses of the Lord in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the rest of the world, the outermost part of the earth. So this was a propagation, a spreading of the gospel that started in Jerusalem. Stephen is going to be this connecting man between the propagation of the Gospel in Jerusalem and Judea, which were there, and then connecting that with the propagation of the spreading of the Gospel in Samaria and the rest of the world. From this point, he's going to have a predominant role until the appearing of Paul the Apostle.

In that sense, also, Stephen, who we have just seen here, how he is going to be not only chosen as one of the deacons or servants, but also how his ministry starts in Versailles. We can say that he's the connecting man between the ministry of Peter and the ministry of the Apostle Paul. We will see that Peter has been doing lots of things until chapter five. He will do some other things until chapter 10, 11, but he Stephen will be the connecting man between the ministry of Peter to Jerusalem and Judea, as we are told in Galatians, that he was an apostle of the circumcision, and then the ministry of Paul the apostle, who by now it is not saved. He's one of the persecutors of the church.

This ministry of Paul the apostle, who will be the apostle to the Gentiles. Peter being the apostle to Jerusalem and Judea, and if you want Samaria, but then Paul being the apostle to the Gentiles, to the rest of the world. And this Stephen that we have here in chapter six is going to be the connecting man. So, as I said, we have these two sections, very practical, one of them, and the other one is going to teach us of the opposition that exists between the system of the Spirit of God and the system of the flesh. Actually, we can see here through the whole book of Acts, brothers and sisters, this constant controversy, this constant opposition, this constant conflict between the Spirit of Christ as it works, trying to bring conformity to His ways, and the flesh, not only the flesh and the system of the world and Satan, but even the flesh in the saints who have been redeemed.

So section number one that goes from verse one to verse seven, as I said, is going to be the selection and the ordination of these seven servants or these seven deacons. So we are told in the very beginning of this chapter, brothers and sisters, that the church was increasing in numbers. Now, in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, after all the attempts of Satan to destroy the church through persecution and even trying to bring sin into the church, Satan could not stop the advance of the church. not because these men were powerful or mighty or very wise, but because this church was walking and was empowered by the Holy Spirit. Satan was unable to prevent the masses being added.

We're talking now about of people, perhaps even like 20,000 people belonged to this church. Imagine they started only with 120 people and now there's almost 20,000 people that have been added by the proclamation of the gospel. But I want you to see that this is the nature of the advance of the church, of the empowerment of the church, that people are saved. So that there is an increase in numbers, that people, that souls are being added by the will of the Spirit and by the sovereign power of God. They are added onto the church.

This is the ministry of the church, not only to edify the Christians that are within the church, but through the preaching of the gospel, bring those select that are to be added to the congregation. The church may increase in numbers, and that is not only people that are seated in the church, people that are simply coming through the doors, but actually, these are. genuine salvation that the Lord, by the power of his spirit, is ministering in a mighty way so that sinners are being redeemed and taken from the dominion of darkness into the marvelous light of the Lord Jesus Christ. And once they have been added genuinely into the church by the power of the gospel, that is the power of God unto salvation for the Jew and to the Greek, but in this case for Jew in this chapter six, Then that person grows in Christ-likeness when the person has been added by faith into the church. So we can see the increase of the church.

This is a manifestation of the power of the Spirit. Brothers and sisters, we will never see increase in numbers in our congregation if it is not the Spirit, the one that brings salvation among us, and is the one that adds people unto us. We will never want to have people coming to our church that are only invited by fleshly ways and that are just sitting in our chairs among us by the flesh, through the flesh. We want everyone among us to be in Christ generally so that people will come in the Spirit with the heart changed, not of stone anymore, but in the flesh, heart of flesh, that they are walking in the Spirit, that it is the Spirit, the one that by His will and by His power increases the numbers to the church. And that we are told that because of the increase of numbers, and now there are so many people, And remember that there were 12 apostles, and there were now 20,000, or perhaps around that number, many thousands of people.

There is going to be a complaint. There is going to be a challenge, a difficulty. And this complaint is by the Hellenists. We are told there that there is a complaint that was raised by the Hellenists. We need to say that this is just as the increasing numbers of the people being saved and added to the church was a manifestation of the power of the Spirit.

Now, this complaint, it is necessarily going to be a manifestation of the flesh that remains in us, even though we are redeemed, yet we are sinners, and there is sin that remains in us. And this is the case with this complaint. This actually, this word in the Greek, speaks of a controversy, speaks of a debate, something, a debate that kind of like is hidden and is not brought to light. And it is just a debate that is just happening. There is a complaint that has not been addressed until it comes to the light and is brought to the attention of the apostles.

There is a debate. There's kind of like a division. There is a conflict that is happening between the Hellenists and the Hebrews. Now we are to understand, brothers and sisters, that these Hellenists, they were Jews just as the Hebrews were Jews. The difference is that these Hellenists were people who came from a different cultural background.

They were Greeks, let's say, culturally speaking. They spoke a different language. They spoke and they came from the diaspora, if you want. Remember that as we went through the Old Testament, we spoke about the division of the kingdom and the exiles of the kingdom and how many of the Jews remained in exile lands. And that was the reality for Israel for long periods of time.

So that means that many of the Jews, many of the people of Israel, many of the Hebrews remained in the diaspora. And then when the Roman Empire came, many of those Jews and many of those Israelites, they were or they had more Greek influence. While the Hebrews, they also were Jews, but they were Hebrews that were living in Jerusalem, that they spoke Hebrew, of course, or Aramaic. And also the Hellenists will speak Greek. So, you know, we have here not only a conflict of this situation that we are told that it is the daily distribution for the widows of the Hellenists, but also we have a contrast here of cultural backgrounds.

The complaint, as I said, is going to be about the widows who were being neglected, according to the Hellenists, in the daily distribution. Now, we are to understand, brothers and sisters, that widows and orphans and, you know, like the poor. And I think our brother mentioned this when he was doing Acts chapter four, that these were a predominant, an important, let's say, a part of society of the Middle Eastern society, the society of the Hebrews, because part of the religion of the religious system of Israel was to care and to look after the widow or the poor or the orphans. So back in that day, there was not governments like the Australian government that will support and that will look after those who are neglected or are going through difficulties in practical matters. Back in that day, and this is the reality in many third world countries and many countries even now in the world, widows or orphans, those who are poor, will be on their own.

But during times of the first century, the religious system will be in charge of looking after or supporting these widows. So that's why we have here that it was the duty, let's say, the religious duty of the church to provide in the daily distribution for these widows, and not only for them, but also for other people that were going through difficult circumstances. This is why then we see that in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul is going to speak to us of the true religion as looking, occurring for the widows and the orphans in James, or even there's going to be a whole section in the first Timothy that addresses how the church is to deal with the widow, because the widow then is a person that is needed, that is in need of support by the congregation. Now, the difference, and this is very important, not only for the context of the passage that we're just reading here, brothers and sisters, the difference is that the support and the care that the widows and the orphans and the poor received under the Old Covenant was through the law. The Israelites, the Hebrews, or people under the Old Covenant, will look after the widow, will care for the widow, for the orphan, and for the poor in order to meet the requirements of the law, and many times in order to be seen as a righteous person.

In the new covenant, the care that we have for those who are in need, it is through love. It is not through the requirement of the law, even though there is a requirement to the church given to look and to care for the needy, but we do it in the spirit of Christ, which is in love. It is a manifestation of love to our brothers and sisters who may be in need. But this is the situation that the early church was going through. They had increased in numbers, and because of the increasing numbers, now they were going through a difficult situation, which was that some of the widows from the Hellenist, who were from, let's say, Greek cultural background, were being neglected in the daily distribution.

And there, this complaint came to the ears or to the attention of the apostles. Now, it is very important for us that we pay attention to the response to the complaint, because the apostles, what they're going to do is that they are going to actually find a solution for this practical matter of the church. Now, remember, brothers and sisters, that this practical situation in the middle of the church, in the midst of the church, had not been solved would have brought division. This complaint that I told you, this speaks of a division in the heart. There is a debate in the heart.

There is murmuring. There is words that have been spoken that, oh, our widows are being neglected. This, if it's not dealt with from a practical point of view and also in love and in grace in Jesus Christ, then these things bring division in the church. And this was the intention of Satan. That was the intention of the flesh to bring division to this church that now was just not only growing in numbers, but also was growing in power.

And that was turning Jerusalem upside down. So the response of the of the apostles is going to be a response that is going to teach us lots of things, because Now, the apostles, the response that they're going to give to this is that we are going to solve this. This is now just as the complaint was a manifestation of the flesh in the believers. Now we're going to see the divine response of the apostles in the spirit. They are going to deal with these things of the flesh with the purpose of increasing and spreading the word and to preserve the unity of the congregation.

So says verse two, that 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. They are going to choose seven men. But I want you to see here at least five different things in the ordination and the election of these seven men's brothers and sister that are going to teach us lots of things for our congregation. Our congregation at this point, we don't have deacons. As I said, this is the model for deacons that then Paul is going to explain and is going to extend in 1 Timothy, and he's going to give more specific structure and details of those who are to be deacons of the church.

but here it is the model, this is the point from where this role or office of deacon starts. So I want to point to you and your attention five different things that will help us a lot as Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church to know the principles of election of deacons among us, that the Lord may bless us in the future with men that are called to serve the church in the office of deacons, and that the church may be prepared to know from Scripture, not with preferences of the flesh or not with intentions of the mind, but rather according to what is written, according to the principles that were given in Scripture, to know those who have been called to be servants, because that's what deacon means, a servant. The problem here, the complaint that was brought is that the apostles could not continue to serve the tables. That is, you know, like the provision of the daily distribution for these people. So they are going to choose men that are going to be able to fulfill this duty, to fulfill this practical matter of the church.

The first thing that I want you to see in verse two is that it says, and the 12 summoned the full number of the disciples. that they, the 12, summoned or congregated the full number of the disciples. Now, the apostles, by the inspiration of the Spirit and with the wisdom that they had and their knowledge of Scripture now given by the Spirit, they could have simply, just as they did so many miraculous things and signs and wonders, they could have appointed seven men through only just their agreement in the 12 with the apostles But what they decided it is to bring the congregation. I want you to see the first thing is the involvement of the whole congregation in the selection of these seven men who are going to fulfill this practical need that the church was going through. Had this need not been fulfilled, and had this situation not been fixed, then division would have happened in the church.

So the ministry of this man, the service of this man, is of such importance that preserves, ultimately, the unity of the church by allowing the apostles to devote themselves to the preaching of the Word and to prayer, as we're going to see it. But as the apostles, anointed by the Spirit, were doing this, they summoned, or they congregated, they brought the whole congregation. The whole congregation and the apostle said to them, It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God and to serve tables. Therefore, brothers and, of course, sisters, the instruction is given to the congregation. You pick out from among you seven men of good repute and full of the Spirit and of wisdom.

It was the whole congregation involved in the selection of these servants or these deacons that were going to serve the church with their lives. It was not those who preached the word or those apostles, in this case in Acts chapter 6, but it was the congregation. That means that when the apostles spoke to the congregation asking them to select these seven men, that they knew that the involvement that the congregation of people have in each other's life was such, even though there was 20,000 people, that they were going to be able to choose these men according to the requirements that they were going to give them. This is very important, brothers and sisters. We live in times in which the church has become a business model, a business structure, and then we work with a pastor, a group of pastors on top, and then you have people under them, and then the lay people just simply are under, and they just show up on Sunday.

This is not the biblical structure of the church. The church is to be united. It is a congregation. It is a community. It is a family, all of them together.

And this is the involvement of the whole congregation in selecting this man. But thing number two, this is first the involvement of the congregation. But the second thing that I want to point to your attention, it is the characteristic of these men. Because the apostles are going to instruct the congregation to choose from among the congregation, not somewhere else, but from among the congregation, from the midst of the congregation, seven men. And they are going to dress things of the character of these men, that the congregation was able to recognize and to discern in these men.

And the two Characteristics of these servants, of these deacons, is that they were supposed to be men of good reputation, of good repute, and they were supposed to be men full of the Spirit and wisdom. That is, that they were men that had a character that was not tainted by things in the eyes of the congregation, that was not stained by sins and by things in their character in the eyes of the congregation. but rather that were righteous men that were walking the path in the ways of righteousness of the Lord, upright men in the eyes of the congregation, but importantly, that they were men that were full of the Spirit and wisdom. no wisdom of this world, not abilities in things of the world. They didn't say, just go and find men that are good at serving tables.

Just go and find men that are good with the skills in serving tables when doing this or that. But what he says is full of the spirit and wisdom. Of course, humanly speaking, it is important that they are able to do what they're supposed to do. But primarily and substantially in the soul, in the heart. They are to be men that are full of the Spirit and wisdom, wisdom that comes not from their intellect or their minds, but wisdom that comes from the Word of God.

As we will see in the ministry of Stephen, this man was a man that was the new scriptures, especially in the chapter that follows in chapter seven. This was a man that the wisdom that had in his mind and in his heart was the Word of God and that walked in the power of the Spirit. These are men that are united, men that are united to Jesus Christ, that commune with him. in prayer, in the Word of God, that you can see the work of Christ in their lives, that they are being changed, that they are transformed, that you want to be imitators of these men because they are full of the Spirit and of wisdom, that this may be the future and the reality of our congregation in which we want to be like each other just because we are like Jesus Christ. that I want to imitate in my brothers that good thing because that is the of Christ.

That is Christ working in them, that we can clearly see the work of the Lord Jesus Christ filling them, empowering them and giving them wisdom. This was the commission of the apostle to the congregation. Find among yourself. seven men that are of good reputation, of good character, and are filled to full with the Spirit and with wisdom in the Word of God. Now, pay attention to the purpose of the selection of the election of these seven.

And the purpose is not for them to serve tables. The purpose for them is not ultimately just only to fill the practical need of the church. The role of the deacon goes beyond of what they do. The purpose of the role of the deacon is a preservation of the Word of God. That it is that the apostles, in this case, will be able to dedicate to the Word and to prayer, that those who were bringing the truth to the congregation will be released so that they will continue to give themselves to the Word of God and to prayer so that the truth and the foundation of this church of 20,000 people may continue to be strengthened.

Because otherwise, if there's no truth and there is not the righteous standard of the Word of God being poured and given to this congregation, it does not matter if the tables are not served, or if they are served, or if we have a big building, or if we don't have a big building. If the Word of God is not in the midst of the congregation, then every other single thing of the life of the church loses completely value. So the purpose of the election of these seven men was, of course, to solve this immediate practical need among the church, which was serving the tables or just make sure that no one was neglected in the daily distribution, but ultimately was to allow the apostles for them to give themselves to the words of God and prayer. And not that they will have just only time to do so, but even a more ultimate purpose was that These 20,000 people might be able to receive not the food that perishes, but the eternal food that nourishes their souls and makes them more like the person of Jesus Christ. Now, the fourth thing that I want to show you, it is how the election of these seven men was guided by the Spirit.

Because a congregation, we are told that the congregation was pleased. It says in verse 4, But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. And verse 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. Imagine how difficult it is to bring agreement among men, yet what they heard from the mouth of the apostles, it was pleasing to their ears, and they were able from among 20,000 or many, many people there to choose seven men that met the requirements that the apostles had given.

The election of these seven men was guided by the Spirit. It was not ultimately guided by the requirements or the explanations given by the apostle, but it was guided by the Holy Spirit. It was the Spirit that guided the congregation to elect or choose these seven These seven men who, by the way, if you see, all of these names are Greek names. So you can see a very practical thing that the apostles were doing because the Hellenists, the Greek, the cultural Greek in background, are the ones that were bringing this complaint. And they are now going to choose men who more than likely were Hellenist.

And one of them, we are told that he was a proselyte of Antioch, so that he was a Gentile, a convert Gentile. They are going to choose now these Hellenist men, or these Greek men, at least with their names and their background, probably to be the ones that are now going to solve the issue, the practical issue that is taking place. here in the congregation, at least as we see it in chapter number six, all of these was led, guided by the Holy Spirit. It was not people just choosing according to their personal preferences. So people just choosing the deacons or the servants.

according to how close and how good the relationship is with them, or how good he speaks, or how well he does this or that. But rather, everything was according to the apostolic instruction that was guided by the Holy Spirit. And then, the last point that I want you to see here, which is very practical for our congregation, brothers and sisters, is the ordination of these seven men. They were unanimously brought by the congregation to the apostles. They all agreed that these were the seven men that were to be chosen for this task.

And the ordination of the seven men was by the prayers and by the laying of hands of the apostles, which confirms that the selection of the congregation was done in the Spirit. So then the apostles, with the authority, apostolic authority of the Spirit, they prayed for them and they lay hands on them, approving the selection of the congregation and then confirming that and ordaining these men for this glorious ministry to the church. Whatever we can do and whatever we have been called to do for the church, it is glorious, not because of the thing that we are supposed to do, but because we are serving the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who take away the sin of the world and who is the one who created everything and is the one that is sustaining everything by the power of his word. everything that we do for the church. It is of heavenly value, not because of what we do in service to the church, but because of the one whom we serve.

So the apostles will ordain these men by praying and laying hands on them. I want you to see these five points, very important points for us as a congregation to know and to keep not only in our minds, but also to store in our hearts so that when the time comes, then the Lord is going to provide for us deacons that will be among us to serve in these practical needs, but also serve for the preservation of the preaching of the word. that we might do it in the Holy Spirit. And that may be the Lord, the one that is instituting and given us and providing for us men that are going to be serving as deacons and servants of the congregation so that we will see just as the early church saw it in this chapter six, that we will see the same thing as we see it in verse six. This they said before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

And verse 7, And the word of God continued to increase. This was the ultimate purpose of the ordination of these deacons, brothers and sisters, that the word of God may continue to increase. That is, that salvations will take place, that the gospel will continue to be preached and proclaimed in the power of the Spirit and in truth, that the Word of God may not be restrained because of practical matters, that the Word of God and the proclamation of the gospel may not be restrained for things that perish, but rather that the congregation will come as a whole body, as one body united in love, and find solution for this practical matter so that the Word of God may continue to increase and that the number of disciples will be multiplied. That is, that salvations will take place. that people will be added, that people will be saved, that the gospel may be proclaimed, and that people who are lost may indeed be saved, that the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ may continue to spread and go to those who have not heard of this Messiah who died and is triumphantly seated at the right hand of the Father.

We are told brothers and sisters here in verse seven that even a great number of priests were added to the church. Imagine they were turning Jerusalem upside down. Even a number of the priests were added to the church. Of course, these are not the high priests, but these were just priests that were just serving for a period of time. If you remember, Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, he was serving as a priest, we are told in Luke.

in the first chapters of Luke. And we are told that when the season, I think it says, I read Luke a couple of days ago, when the season of the service of Zacharias finished. So there was this type of priest that will serve for a season for a period of a short period of time. So many of these priests were added to the church, but these priests will serve in the temple. These priests will have a ministry in the temple.

And imagine, living, and all of those things that they did to follow the way. These priests, by the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Gospel, they were added to this congregation of dissenters, of rebellious people. These that are now persecuted not only by the high priests, but these They're put in jail, and they leave jail, and they're put in prison, and they are not in prison anymore. These people of these centers, of this message that is turning Jerusalem upside down. Now, some of our priests are being added unto them.

This was a huge thing that was happening there. And all of this by the power of the Spirit, that we may learn from that, brothers and sisters, that we may learn about what to pray for. what to pray for, for our congregation, for our church, the type of men that we are to pray for, that the Lord may raise among us, so that they may serve the congregation in the office of deacon or servant. Now we come next to the next section, which is the beginning, as I said, of the ministry of Stephen, the beginning of this ministry of Stephen, one of those seven men that were chosen in this way by the spirit. Now we see the beginning of the ministry of these men full of the spirit, full of faith and the ministry of Stephen.

We can see at least two things in in verse eight. we can see the power in which Stephen was working. That is, that he was full of grace and power, that the Spirit of God that had been given to the apostles had been given to the whole congregation, because even Stephen was full of grace and power, and he was doing. These are the deeds of the ministry of Stephen. He was doing great wonders and signs among the people.

This was the time in which the Spirit of God and His will was distributing miraculous gifts among the congregation of the saints, so that the word that will be preached will be confirmed and attested as a message that was coming from God, that even Stephen, on whom the hands of the apostles were laid, and upon whom the apostles prayed, he will be empowered to do all of these great wonders and science among the people. And just in the same way that the high priest and the people of the temple will be filled with jealousy and be filled with envy because of the things that the apostles were doing. We're going to see here that now some other type of men, some other type of persecutors, are also going to be filled with envy and now are going to become the persecutors of Stephen and the ministry of Stephen. Because Luke now is going to introduce something for the first time that we do know from the Gospels, but this is the first time that we hear it here in the Book of Acts. And that is the concept of people from the synagogues.

Luke is going to introduce here a very important system, a very important word, the synagogue. And we have now dealt so far with the high priest and with the system of the temple, but now here we're going to have persecutors and opposition to the church that are coming from the synagogues. And we're told that this is the synagogue of the Freedmen, and it seems that there's other synagogues here, or at least people from all of these places. that were in this synagogue, the Cyrenians, the Alexandrians, Cilicia, and Asia. By the way, these are places that were far away from Jerusalem, so that you can see here how there were Jews that were in the diaspora.

There were Jews that were spread all over the place there. These were places that were very far from Jerusalem. The important thing here is that I want you to see that Luke is going to introduce this concept of the synagogue, which we have heard many times through the Gospels. However, it's important for us that we understand something very interesting here. Our brother, I think, in Chapter 4, when he was doing Chapter 3, I think, or Chapter 4, he explained to us the Sadducees and how the Sadducees were the predominant party or the predominant camp, if you want, that were in the temple.

But now here, Luke is going to introduce to us, as I said, this system of the synagogue. Synagogues were different to the temple, of course, and something that you perhaps you have asked yourself before in your mind or that you have thought about it is where do you get the synagogues from? Because when you go to the Old Testament, the only instituted place for worship given to the people of Israel was the tabernacle given to Moses and later on that tabernacle that it becomes the temple. So the temple was the God-ordained place of worship and sacrifice through which the people of Israel will come in covenantal fellowship with the God of Israel and how the religion of the Israelites will be done, the temple. However, once we get to the Gospels and the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are told about this place, synagogue, a synagogue, a synagogue.

And actually, we continually see that not only through the New Testament, you know, through the Gospels better in the New Testament, also we see that Paul, the place that he chose to preach was always first in the synagogue. And brothers and sisters, the synagogue was not a place that was instituted in the Old Testament. This place was not a place like the temple or the tabernacle that was the official place of worship, but rather this was just a place a small congregation where there will be a rabbi, even the Lord Jesus Christ was called a rabbi, but there will be kind of like a rabbi, like a pastor now in contemporary churches, and there will be synagogues in the city of Jerusalem where the Torah or where the law or where the scriptures will be taught. You see, it's very difficult to know when the synagogues started, but I tend to believe, just with my limited understanding, that this could have happened in the time of the exile that we studied in the Old Testament. Remember that the kingdom was divided, and we had the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom.

And then the Southern Kingdom was taken to Babylon, and they spent 70 years there. Now, once they were taken in exile, the temple was not there anymore. First of all, because it was destroyed and because, of course, you cannot take a temple where you're exiled. So how were their Jews or how were the people of Judah or the Israelites going to worship God? They did not have a place.

So it seems that in the time of the exile of the people of Israel, some of them that were devoted to the religious system of the Israelites and to the Old Covenant, They created this system of synagogues in which they will come together with a group of people to teach scriptures and then to perform certain religious rituals. That because of the length of time that happened there in the exile, when they came back with Ezra and Nehemiah and rebuilt the Second Temple, it seems that this system of worship remained until the time of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Once one of the things that we do not for certain from perfect history from scripture, it is that there were synagogues that there were synagogues, this place of this place of teaching of the law, this place in which people will go to read the law, to read the Torah and then to speak and to teach through the Torah. We we saw our Lord Jesus Christ doing it, and also we will see Paul doing it. Important for us to know and to understand, brothers and sisters, is that the synagogue was not the temple.

The synagogue was not the temple, and it was not the God ordained place of worship, nor was the God ordained place to teach scripture. Now, why is this important? This is very important, first of all, because we can see that through the traditions of men in the Old Covenant, The system of religion in Israel at least had been divided into the temple system and the synagogues. Our brother explained to us the Sadducees will be those who will rule primarily the temple. But we know that the synagogues were ruled primarily by the Pharisees.

the Pharisees will be the ones that will be more predominantly in the synagogues. So when you have, when we speak about the Sadducees, we know that they have different doctrine than the Pharisees. This will be the people of the temple. And then when we, the Sadducees will be the people of the temple, and the Pharisees will be the people of the synagogues. This is the power of traditions.

Now, the synagogue was not contrary opposed to the temple, but had taken lots off the weight or importance that the temple would have because people will be taught primarily at the synagogues. People will come to the temple to worship and to offer sacrifices. but people will be taught primarily in the synagogues, primarily under the Pharisees. This is very important. This is the power of the traditions of men that endure or continue from the time of the exile.

Why am I saying all of these things, brothers and sisters? Because the writers of the New Testament, when we are going to see Paul and then we're going to see, you know, like the writers of the New Testament, they were primarily influenced by the system of the synagogue. Paul was a Pharisee of a synagogue. Perhaps one of the groups here or even that synagogue could have been the synagogue of Paul. But Paul was a Pharisee that seated under the teachings of the synagogue.

This is very important because In the synagogue, they taught the Torah, and the teachings of the rabbis in the synagogues were considered to be the interpretation of Moses and the law of God. This is important because this is the charge that these persecutors are going to bring against Stephen. Now, brothers and sisters, the important thing here, it is that to understand that these people that were in the synagogues that we are told here in verse 9 and in verse 10, they were going to argue and they were going to debate on the law of God and Moses with Stephen. But we are told something glorious in verse 10. They could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking.

These men of these synagogues, these Pharisees, they will come to argue, to debate. Actually, the word that is used there in the Greek is a strong word to speak specifically of a debate of doctrine, a debate that then Paul is going to say in 1 Corinthians that is wicked and that should not be done in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18 onwards. But now here we see that these people of the synagogues are going to come with this spirit of jealousy and envy. And with this spirit of the flesh, satanic affections going to come to debate Stephen. But Stephen is going to respond in grace with much wisdom and is going to answer everything.

Now, brothers and sisters, it is very important because we are going to see Stephen answering there in chapter 7 these accusations from the law of Moses and from the traditions of the Bible of the old covenant. So we see that the fleshly wisdom of men in arguing in the flesh cannot withstand with the spiritual wisdom of men who are reasoning in the spirit. Then Luke is going to report in verse 11, that they secretly instigated men who said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. Now, it is not that they were open liars that wanted to defame Stephen saying, you know, like they were 100% saying he is actually a coming purpose saying accuse him of being a blasphemer of Moses and God. But actually, they thought to a certain extent that the things that Stephen was saying were blasphemous.

But what you need to understand, brothers and sisters, is that Stephen was explaining and speaking of Moses and the law of God with the power and the illumination of the Spirit which was contrary to the understanding of the flesh and the wisdom in the flesh of these men who had misinterpreted the law and who had lost the value of the law of Moses to bring a person to the knowledge and seem to point it to the Savior Jesus Christ, And rather, they had transformed the old covenant in their own traditions, traditions of men. This is the accusation that the Lord Jesus Christ will brought to the Pharisees, to the scribes, and to the Sadducees in his ministry, that they were followers of traditions of men, that they preferred to They prefer to sacrifice the commandments of the Lord in order to follow their own traditions. These men in this satanic spirit, they're going to instigate and they're going to bring false accusations against Stephen and say that he was actually blaspheming. Now, they were, of course, trying to defend themselves in the name of the law. The apostles and Stephen were indeed speaking against Moses and God, but not the Moses and God of scripture.

They were speaking against the Moses and the God of their own minds. They had a law that was not powerful to bring them to conviction of sin, but actually they had a law that had been converted into traditions of men. They had a God who was not powerful to give them new life, but rather they had a God that required of them the perfection of the law, and this law could not be fulfilled, but they did not realize of that, and they were self-righteous in that law. They remained as wicked sinners, thinking that they were followers of Moses, and of the law, but they were never followers of Moses or the law. They were followers of their own self-righteousness.

Had they been followers of Moses and the law, they would have realized that they could not keep the law, and therefore they needed this Jesus Christ who completed and fulfilled the law on their behalf in order to be saved. These works of Satan can be seen in all of what we are told from verse 11 through verse 14. All of these things that they secretly instigated men, that they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, they came up. upon him and seized him and brought him before the council. They set up false witnesses.

They brought false charges. All of these things, these Pharisees of the synagogue did against Stephen. This is the power of Moses and the law in them, according to their understanding. This law had not the power to transform them, to change them, to make them righteous indeed, but rather they continue to be secretly liars, secretly having these satanic affections of hatred towards another person. Then we're told that they brought even false charges against him, saying, these men, in the end of verse 13, these men never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law.

And verse 14, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the custom that Moses delivered to us. Brothers and sisters, this is the conflict between the spirit and the conflict between the flesh. You can give the Old Testament and the scripture which is inspired, that we might not fall into the error of many to think that the law is not good, that it's not holy. Paul says that the law is good and it's holy. The purpose of the law is a servant of the gospel, but Many people fall into thinking that the law is not good, that it is not holy, because of the interpretation of the law of these fleshly men.

You see that when a man approaches not only the law, but when a man approaches Scripture in the flesh, The Scripture is of not benefit. It is only when a man approaches the Scripture, or a woman approaches the Scripture, by the light and the work of the Spirit, that the eyes of that person are open to the mysteries that are kept before the foundation of the world, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians. And our eyes are open that we can see Jesus Christ. And then we see that both the law and Moses are pointing to the Savior, Jesus Christ. And that apart from the law, there's no one that will point and convict us of our sin.

Of course, the Spirit, through the breaking of the law, convicts us of our sin and points us to Jesus Christ, but not only points us, but gives us life and inserts us, baptizes us in Jesus Christ by Himself, the Spirit of God. It is a man in the flesh will never have benefit of the Word of God, but rather will respond in the same way that these men of these synagogues who had inherited all of these traditions of men, all of these precepts of men, all of these things, to do. They said, if you ask them, brothers and sisters, it is not that they were rejecters of the Torah, rejecters of Scripture. They would say that that was the right interpretation of the Torah, of the law, that that was the right thing to do according to the law. but they were interpreting all of these things according to their own interests, without the Spirit.

So then Luke is going to conclude, actually it is in a glorious way, because these men are going to come to accuse and to persecute Stephen as one that it is going against the customs that Moses delivered, that wants to change the customs that Moses delivered. But then Luke says, and gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel. This is glorious, brothers and sisters, because in the Old Testament, the one in whom his face was made like the shining glory of an angel or the shining glory of God was the face of Moses. We are told in Exodus chapter 34 that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant, you remember, and he brought them down in his hands, he came down the mountain to the people. And he did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.

And Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near to him. Now God divinely was confirming that the accusations that they were bringing against these men were false, not only by presenting as he's going to do it in chapter 7 with the truth, but actually when they were gazing at him, they saw his face like the face of an angel. They saw the glory of God, the glory of the messengers of God in the face of Stephen confirming, confirming that the Moses and the law and the temple and the Jesus and the Messiah of whom he was speaking, this Stephen, was indeed in accordance to the law and the Moses that they thought that they were preaching, and they thought that they were teaching, but actually it was different. This was the real biblical Messiah of the people of Israel that now was preached not by those who were of high reputation and of high standing in the religious system of Israel, either on the temple or in the synagogues, but rather the Messiah of the Old Covenant that promised in the Old Covenant and prophesied in the Old Covenant was proclaimed and was preached through the lips of simple men, many of them even with Hellenistic background or Greek background, because the Spirit had been poured on all flesh, and all flesh was speaking of the glorious things of God. Brothers and sisters, that every time that we may go through this book, we may see the need in ourselves personally and as a congregation to be equipped and to be empowered individually and corporately by the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Not only, as I said, as a Christian, as an individual, but also as a church, bringing us in unity of love, unity of understanding, unity of light of the scriptures that not only those who preach, but every single one, every church member might understand that it is required of all of us that we may walk in the Holy Spirit so that we will, by the grace of God, be blessed with men rising from among us, being called to be deacons and servants and elders and preachers among us, serving with the gifts that the Spirit gives to each one of the members, so that the church might be strengthened, might come together in the Word of God, knowing the Word of God, and that we might be able, by the power of the Spirit, to preach the Gospel, Numbers may increase, not for the sake of having more people, but for the sake of being witnesses of the salvation of souls, and that these people may come to the obedience of the faith and may grow in conformity to the person of Jesus Christ. And also, brothers and sisters, that we may be prepared, as a congregation and individuals, to go through the same type of things that those brothers and sisters of the early church went through. The difficulties, the persecution, the offenses, because I don't know if you've realized, but most of the persecutions and the offenses that these brothers and sisters of the first century received were not from those who were not in God or atheists or from other religions. The persecution that they will receive were from false Israelites. Israelites according to the flesh.

Those who were followers in their mouth of the God of Israel. Those who were followers of the same book that they were followers of. That we might be empowered to stand upon the rock Jesus Christ and His truth. and that we may be conformed to have the same response that each one of these disciples had in the first century, brothers and sisters. If you see the responses upon persecution was not in hatred, was not with sometimes that people, you know, like people that are persecuted these days, they disguise their hatred under the label of Holy Seal.

No, but rather the response of these people, you can see that it was of love and grace, that they responded with boldness in the truth, but they were empowered with the Holy Spirit to convict the hearts of these people, not only with the things that they said, but even with the countenance, with their faces, because even the shining glory of Christ is not only manifested through the words that are spoken, but even through the countenance of the merry heart, the heart that has been happy, as the proverb says, through the word of God, reflects a countenance that shines because now we are in the peace of God. This man is going to die. He's going to be stoned after this appearance, after the sermon that he's going to give in chapter 7. But this man was in utter peace to be taken up in glory, not because of his skills or his knowledge, but because of the work of the Spirit in his life, because of the work of the Spirit of Jesus Christ in his heart. brothers and sisters of Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church.

This should be the desire of each one of us for our heart, but also should be the desire of each one of us for our brothers and sisters. We should be actively coming before the Lord in prayer, asking Him to make us more like Jesus Christ and to desire that your wife, your husband, your children, your friend, your brother and sister may be made more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.