We Are On a Mission from God

December 29, 2024 · Acts

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Series · Acts · Week 41 of 120

Scripture referenced 6 passages

The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.

Acts 1:8 Jesus prophesies the disciples will be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

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Acts 2

God moves with power at Pentecost, word interprets, opposition arises

1 Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord in one place.

2 Suddenly there came from the sky a sound like the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

3 Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and one sat on each of them.

4 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.

5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under the sky.

6 When this sound was heard, the multitude came together, and were bewildered, because everyone heard them speaking in his own language.

7 They were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Behold, aren’t all these who speak Galileans?

8 How do we hear, everyone in our own native language?

9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia,

10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the parts of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,

11 Cretans and Arabians: we hear them speaking in our languages the mighty works of God!”

12 They were all amazed, and were perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”

13 Others, mocking, said, “They are filled with new wine.”

14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and spoke out to them, “You men of Judea, and all you who dwell at Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to my words.

15 For these aren’t drunken, as you suppose, seeing it is only the third hour of the day.

16 But this is what has been spoken through the prophet Joel:

17 ‘It will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams.

18 Yes, and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days, I will pour out my Spirit, and they will prophesy.

19 I will show wonders in the sky above, and signs on the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and billows of smoke.

20 The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.

21 It will be that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

22 “Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him among you, even as you yourselves know,

23 him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed;

24 whom God raised up, having freed him from the agony of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it.

25 For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before my face, For he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.

26 Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. Moreover my flesh also will dwell in hope;

27 because you will not leave my soul in Hades, neither will you allow your Holy One to see decay.

28 You made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

29 “Brothers, I may tell you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

30 Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne,

31 he foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul wasn’t left in Hades, and his flesh didn’t see decay.

32 This Jesus God raised up, to which we all are witnesses.

33 Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this, which you now see and hear.

34 For David didn’t ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit by my right hand,

35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’

36 “Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

39 For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.”

40 With many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”

41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls.

42 They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer.

43 Fear came on every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

44 All who believed were together, and had all things in common.

45 They sold their possessions and goods, and distributed them to all, according as anyone had need.

46 Day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart,

47 praising God, and having favor with all the people. The Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved.

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Acts 3-4

same pattern of God moving with power, opposition arising

3:1 Peter and John were going up into the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.

3:2 A certain man who was lame from his mother’s womb was being carried, whom they laid daily at the door of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask gifts for the needy of those who entered into the temple.

3:3 Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive gifts for the needy.

3:4 Peter, fastening his eyes on him, with John, said, “Look at us.”

3:5 He listened to them, expecting to receive something from them.

3:6 But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have, that I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!”

3:7 He took him by the right hand, and raised him up. Immediately his feet and his ankle bones received strength.

3:8 Leaping up, he stood, and began to walk. He entered with them into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God.

3:9 All the people saw him walking and praising God.

3:10 They recognized him, that it was he who used to sit begging for gifts for the needy at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. They were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

3:11 As the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.

3:12 When Peter saw it, he responded to the people, “You men of Israel, why do you marvel at this man? Why do you fasten your eyes on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him walk?

3:13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up, and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had determined to release him.

3:14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,

3:15 and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, to which we are witnesses.

3:16 By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which is through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

3:17 “Now, brothers, I know that you did this in ignorance, as did also your rulers.

3:18 But the things which God announced by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled.

3:19 “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,

3:20 and that he may send Christ Jesus, who was ordained for you before,

3:21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God spoke long ago by the mouth of his holy prophets.

3:22 For Moses indeed said to the fathers, ‘The Lord God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him in all things whatever he says to you.

3:23 It will be that every soul that will not listen to that prophet will be utterly destroyed from among the people.’

3:24 Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who followed after, as many as have spoken, they also told of these days.

3:25 You are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘In your offspring will all the families of the earth be blessed.’

3:26 God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to you first to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your wickedness.”

4:1 As they spoke to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came to them,

4:2 being upset because they taught the people and proclaimed in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

4:3 They laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was now evening.

4:4 But many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.

4:5 In the morning, their rulers, elders, and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem.

4:6 Annas the high priest was there, with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and as many as were relatives of the high priest.

4:7 When they had stood Peter and John in the middle of them, they inquired, “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?”

4:8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “You rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,

4:9 if we are examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed,

4:10 be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, in him does this man stand here before you whole.

4:11 He is ‘the stone which was regarded as worthless by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner.’

4:12 There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved!”

4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and had perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. They recognized that they had been with Jesus.

4:14 Seeing the man who was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.

4:15 But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,

4:16 saying, “What shall we do to these men? Because indeed a notable miracle has been done through them, as can be plainly seen by all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we can’t deny it.

4:17 But so that this spreads no further among the people, let’s threaten them, that from now on they don’t speak to anyone in this name.”

4:18 They called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.

4:19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, judge for yourselves,

4:20 for we can’t help telling the things which we saw and heard.”

4:21 When they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people; for everyone glorified God for that…

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Acts 5:12-42

last passage preached before this sermon, apostles arrested, flogged, told not to preach, chose to obey God rather than men

12 By the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. They were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch.

13 None of the rest dared to join them, however the people honored them.

14 More believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.

15 They even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mattresses, so that as Peter came by, at the least his shadow might overshadow some of them.

16 The multitude also came together from the cities around Jerusalem, bringing sick people, and those who were tormented by unclean spirits: and they were all healed.

17 But the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy,

18 and laid hands on the apostles, and put them in public custody.

19 But an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors by night, and brought them out, and said,

20 “Go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.”

21 When they heard this, they entered into the temple about daybreak, and taught. But the high priest came, and those who were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.

22 But the officers who came didn’t find them in the prison. They returned and reported,

23 “We found the prison shut and locked, and the guards standing before the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside!”

24 Now when the high priest, the captain of the temple, and the chief priests heard these words, they were very perplexed about them and what might become of this.

25 One came and told them, “Behold, the men whom you put in prison are in the temple, standing and teaching the people.”

26 Then the captain went with the officers, and brought them without violence, for they were afraid that the people might stone them.

27 When they had brought them, they set them before the council. The high priest questioned them,

28 saying, “Didn’t we strictly command you not to teach in this name? Behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to bring this man’s blood on us.”

29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed, hanging him on a tree.

31 God exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.

32 We are His witnesses of these things; and so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

33 But they, when they heard this, were cut to the heart, and were determined to kill them.

34 But one stood up in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, honored by all the people, and commanded to put the apostles out for a little while.

35 He said to them, “You men of Israel, be careful concerning these men, what you are about to do.

36 For before these days Theudas rose up, making himself out to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were dispersed, and came to nothing.

37 After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the enrollment, and drew away some people after him. He also perished, and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered abroad.

38 Now I tell you, withdraw from these men, and leave them alone. For if this counsel or this work is of men, it will be overthrown.

39 But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow it, and you would be found even to be fighting against God!”

40 They agreed with him. Summoning the apostles, they beat them and commanded them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

41 They therefore departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for Jesus’ name.

42 Every day, in the temple and at home, they never stopped teaching and preaching Jesus, the Christ.

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Acts 6:1-15

the whole of the passage preached, introduction of the seven, Stephen's arrest

1 Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, a complaint arose from the Hellenists against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily service.

2 The twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not appropriate for us to forsake the word of God and serve tables.

3 Therefore select from among you, brothers, seven men of good report, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

4 But we will continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the word.”

5 These words pleased the whole multitude. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch;

6 whom they set before the apostles. When they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.

7 The word of God increased and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly. A great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.

8 Stephen, full of faith and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people.

9 But some of those who were of the synagogue called “The Libertines”, and of the Cyrenians, of the Alexandrians, and of those of Cilicia and Asia arose, disputing with Stephen.

10 They weren’t able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.

11 Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”

12 They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and came against him and seized him, and brought him in to the council,

13 and set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law.

14 For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us.”

15 All who sat in the council, fastening their eyes on him, saw his face like it was the face of an angel.

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Philippians 2

benediction about unity in Christ, encouragement from belonging to Christ, reference to Euodia and Syntyche's division

1 If therefore there is any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassion,

2 make my joy full, by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind;

3 doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself;

4 each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.

5 Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus,

6 who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,

7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.

8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.

9 Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name;

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,

11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

12 So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

13 For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.

14 Do all things without murmurings and disputes,

15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without defect in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world,

16 holding up the word of life; that I may have something to boast in the day of Christ, that I didn’t run in vain nor labor in vain.

17 Yes, and if I am poured out on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and rejoice with you all.

18 In the same way, you also rejoice, and rejoice with me.

19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered up when I know how you are doing.

20 For I have no one else like-minded, who will truly care about you.

21 For they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ.

22 But you know the proof of him, that, as a child serves a father, so he served with me in furtherance of the Good News.

23 Therefore I hope to send him at once, as soon as I see how it will go with me.

24 But I trust in the Lord that I myself also will come shortly.

25 But I counted it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, fellow soldier, and your apostle and servant of my need;

26 since he longed for you all, and was very troubled, because you had heard that he was sick.

27 For indeed he was sick, nearly to death, but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow on sorrow.

28 I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that, when you see him again, you may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.

29 Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy, and hold such in honor,

30 because for the work of Christ he came near to death, risking his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me.

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Recap

The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.

The pastor opened the last Sunday of 2024 by returning to the book of Acts, picking up at chapter six after a month of Christmas-focused preaching. He walked through a pattern he has been tracing through Acts, showing how God's movement is always met by opposition from one direction or another, and how that opposition is always overcome. The morning ended with the opening of Stephen's story as a preview of what is coming next.

What was said

Working back through the ground already covered in Acts, the pastor laid out a recurring pattern: God moves with power, His word interprets what is happening, opposition arises, that opposition is thwarted, and the witness goes forward. He pointed to Pentecost, then chapters three through five, as examples of the cycle repeating, and said it will keep repeating all the way to the end of the book. The pattern is worth knowing, because it reframes opposition. It is normal, it has always been there, and it has never stopped the mission.

Three kinds of opposition had come up by this point in Acts. External persecution showed up when the apostles were arrested, beaten, and ordered to stop preaching. Their answer was to ask whether they should obey God or men, and they kept preaching. Internal hypocrisy showed up with Ananias and Sapphira, who lied about their offering and were judged immediately. Both types of opposition were met, and in both cases the word kept going forward.

Chapter six introduces a third kind: murmuring from inside the community. The Greek-speaking believers were grumbling that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food compared to the widows of Hebrew-speaking believers. The pastor noted that the Greek word for this grumbling is onomatopoetic, a word that sounds like what it describes, and that this kind of quiet, internal division has been a threat to the church from its very first weeks.

What the apostles did next is what he kept coming back to. Rather than dismissing the complaint or pulling rank, they called a meeting of the whole community and said they needed to stay focused on prayer and teaching the word. They asked the congregation to choose seven men from among themselves, men full of the Spirit and of wisdom, to handle the distribution. Every name chosen was Greek, meaning the apostles handed the responsibility directly back to the group that had been complaining. The pastor called this considering the merits of the murmuring, and said it stood in sharp contrast to the Sanhedrin's habit of closed-door scheming.

It worked. God's word continued to spread, the number of believers in Jerusalem increased, and many Jewish priests were converted. The pastor suggested the priests may have believed in part because they saw a community that did not run on centralized authority and reputation management, but on trust that the Holy Spirit could work through ordinary people given real responsibility.

The chapter closes with the introduction of Stephen, one of the seven chosen, who was full of faith and the Holy Spirit and was performing signs among the people. When men from a synagogue tried to debate him and could not match his wisdom or his spirit, they did what opponents of the gospel had done before: they found people willing to lie. False witnesses accused Stephen of blaspheming Moses and God, and he was brought before the Sanhedrin. The pastor left him there, face shining like an angel's, as a setup for next week.

The final note was about geography. Jesus had told his followers they would be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. They had done well in Jerusalem and had not moved. The pastor said it was Stephen's coming martyrdom that would scatter the community and push the gospel outward into the rest of that prophecy, which means even the worst outcome in the story is still part of the mission going forward.

Doing a Bible study?

Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.

The pastor described a repeating pattern in Acts where God moves with power, His word interprets what is happening, opposition arises, and then the witness advances. Where have you seen that pattern play out in your own life or in this church?
When the Greek-speaking believers were grumbling about their widows being overlooked, the apostles considered the merits of the complaint rather than dismissing it. How do you typically respond when someone brings a grievance to you, and what does it look like to genuinely weigh what they are saying?

and 3 more questions in the guide

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Speaker 1Turn on. Good good morning. Here we go. This is everybody. Members present and voting.

How about that? Here here you are. Welcome, and I'm glad that you're here. They did close the pass, and I heard that they were closing the road towards Pinedale later on in the afternoon. So we're bound to have a few folks missing here and there but would you stand?

We're going to sing, go tell it on the mountain. We're going to carry on forward this message. Go tell it on the mountain as far up as the traffic will allow.

Speaker 2Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. While shepherds kept there watching or silent flocks by night. Behold throughout the heavens, there's shown a holy light. Go tell it on the mountain, mountain, over the hills and everywhere.

Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. The shepherds feared and trembled when low above the earth rang out the angel for us that hailed the savior's birth. Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain salvation that blessed Christmas mourn. Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere.

Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born.

Speaker 1Amen. We're gonna sing hymn number when 03/24, when I survey the wondrous cross. This is the traditional version of it. We sing a couple of different versions here. I sang one a few weeks ago, but watch me for the changes since you don't have your hymn books in front of you.

There are hymn books up here if you want them. Hymn number three twenty four but we're gonna go into a broader darker third verse and then go from there. Alright.

Speaker 2When I survey the wondrous cross on which the prince of glory died. My riches gain, I count but lost All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood. See from his head, his hands, his feet. Sorrow and love flow me go down. Did there such and ground.

Speaker 1And back in the major key.

Speaker 2Were the whole realm of nature mine so divine, demons my soul, my life, mine.

Speaker 1Amen. Thank you, Judy. I like the broader version of that. Would you have a seat? We have, I think, one announcement.

This is it. It's Teton Valley, Idaho is having the Teton Valley Fellowship. Teton Valley, Idaho having a hard time making over hill this morning with the past closed. So they were probably watching online, most of them. Some started early and got over before it closed.

But the second Friday of the month starting in January is gonna be a fellowship time. They don't have a plan at this point to do a specific book of the Bible or a Bible study or a book. It's just the time to get together for the folks who are part of first b that are over on the other side, the Teton Valley Idaho Fellowship. And it they'll gather and it won't just be people who come to church here but others too. Teton Valley Fellowship, second Friday of the month, each month starting in January.

And if you wanna know more about it, you can ask Emily Anderson That's her phone number right there. And I think that's the only announcement. After the season of Christmas where we were double booked for the whole month of December and most of November, it feels good to have one announcement. Can I get an amen? Alright.

Amen. How many of the rest of y'all feel like you're limping into this new year? You don't feel that way at all, Crystal. I'm so glad.

Speaker 2Thank you. But I I do. I do. So

Speaker 1I would like for us to stand again, we'll sing a few more. Couple more songs, great is the Lord, he is holy and just by his power, we trust in his love.

Speaker 2Great is the Lord, he is holy and just by his power we trust in his love. Great is the Lord, he is faithful and true. By his mercy, he proves his love. Great is the Lord and worthy of glory. Great is the Lord and worthy of praise.

Great is the Lord. Now lift up your voice. Now lift up your voice. Praise is the Lord. Great the Lord.

Great is great is the Lord. He is holy and just by his power we trust in his love. Great is the Lord. He is faithful and true. By his mercy, he proves he is love.

Great are you, Lord, and worthy of glory. Great are you, Lord, and worthy of praise. Great are you, Lord. I lift up my voice. I lift up my voice.

Great are you, Lord. Great are you, Lord.

Speaker 1I think the slides lost us on that. We're just gonna stop right there. The Lord is great. It is true. We will get eternity to sing about it, but the slides are gonna do what they're gonna do.

Hallelujah. How about that? Hallelujah. Hymn number one eighty nine.

Speaker 2He's my savior. He's my savior. He's my savior. He's my savior. He's my savior.

He's my savior. He's my savior. He's my savior. I will praise him. I

Speaker 1I

Speaker 2will will praise him. Him. I will praise him. I will praise him. I will praise him.

I will praise him. I will praise him. Amen.

Speaker 1Y'all can have a seat. Would you pray with me? God, I thank you that you, Lord, are worthy, that you're praiseworthy, that you're good, that you're kind, that you're patient with us, you're abounding in mercy, and your loving kindness knows no end. Lord, we wanna be like you. We wanna be patient with people.

We wanna be helpful. We wanna be at the right place, at the right time to see the opportunity for your gospel to go forward. Lord, would you use the way that we live our lives and the way that we use our words to advance your good gospel. Lord, would you allow us to take you seriously, to take your word seriously, to internalize it, to allow it to transform our lives, and then Lord, would you give us the ability to articulate what we believe in, who we believe in. It's in Jesus name that we gather, it's in Jesus name that we sing, it's in Jesus name that we proclaim, preach, pray.

Lord, would you do your will and your way among us here this morning but through us in the future week. In Jesus name, amen. Thank you. Excuse me. We are getting back to our scheme.

Going back to Acts, we've been in the book of Acts for the past couple of months and I took an excursus for Christmas to kind of tell the Christmas story again and kind of the big picture story last Sunday and again on Christmas Eve. But I'm trying to get back to the book of acts and we're just going to keep on plotting through scripture a little bit at a time expository preaching, hopefully exposing what's there, that's the idea. But I wanna remind you kind of where we were in the text too. We're we're up to chapter six. It'll be the introduction of deacons into the mix, although it doesn't call them that yet.

Acts six one through 15 is the whole chapter of Acts six. But this I wanna bring up first. Anybody recognize this? We're on a mission from God. This is my favorite movie of all time.

It's my favorite. Not even anything's even really close to it. And that may sound sacrilegious and yeah, there are a few things I would have left out. But it's great and if you read the book of Acts and you don't at some point relate it to this movie and you've seen this movie, they just they know we're putting the band back together. Right?

We're putting the band back together. John Belushi's character in this gets to see a vision from the Lord that he's supposed to put the band back together to save an orphanage blah blah blah. And no matter what happens, they just keep on getting through it. They keep on until the mission is accomplished. So the book of Acts, we're on a mission from God.

As Gamaliel stands up, the last time that I preached Gamaliel stood up and said, hey, I see that you're opposing these people, but my advice is this, if it's of man, it'll die out, but if it's of God, you're gonna find yourself opposing God. You need to let these guys go. Right? We're on a mission from God. Acts five twelve through 42 was the last passage that I presented.

Carl had presented the first part of chapter five with Ananias and Sapphira, that hard story. But five twelve through 42 presents a familiar pattern in the book of Acts and I'll show you the pattern probably multiple times before we get to the last chapter here. It's like this, God moves with power. Think about the day of Pentecost. God moves with great power and what has been forecast from long past that the new covenant is coming and that he's gonna pour out his spirit on his sons and his daughters.

Right? God moves with power. Now, had given them instructions. He had given his disciples instructions to stay here in Jerusalem until you've been empowered from on high, you'll recognize it but stick together, stay close together, stay here in Jerusalem, God moves with power. And then, when he does, his word.

In this case, in the hearts and in the mouths of his apostles, Peter being the primary example. God's word interprets what has just happened in his powerful move. So God moves with power, his word is used to interpret what's going on, and then opposition arises, and it's always been that way. Since the birth of the church, the very first day, when God moves with power and someone uses the scripture to interpret the circumstances of what's going on and opposition will arise but the deal is, it will be thwarted too and there are multiple ways that this happens. We'll talk about it as we advance but then the witness goes forward because why?

Because we're on a mission from God. So, in chapter two, we see it. God moves with power in Pentecost. His word interprets and then opposition arises. Don't do this anymore.

You can't do this, right? Chapter three and four, same thing happens. Opposition arises. This one, we get the opposition arises in chapter four, but we even see it in the history books of Josephus. And if you go through this, Acts five twelve through 42, you'll see it again.

I'm not going to re preach the whole sermon but God moving with power is his prerogative. We don't know when he's going to move. We don't know exactly what he's going to do. He's given us his word and he's given us something to hold on to and something to study and something to look forward to but when God begins to move with power, we don't know when that's going to be. It's all his prerogative and I can say right now from what I see, we are seeing a movement in this valley among teenagers like never since I've been here which is wonderful to see.

We're seeing unity among the churches like I've never seen before, which is wonderful to see. We're seeing ladies ministries, men's ministries, overarching stuff that is wonderful. And God is moving with power and people are coming into the kingdom and people are being built up in other ways to be able to be more effective. God's moving with power is on him, it's his prerogative. Usually, recognize it when we're praying.

His word interprets. Now, this is our spiritual responsibility as believers. God has given us the Bible. He's given us propositional truth. All the New Testaments to study, to know, and since we're talking about Acts and spend a lot of time in Luke over Christmas so that we can have confidence in the things that we were taught.

So, we can have confidence in the word. It's our spiritual responsibility to know the Bible so that when we see things take place, we interpret them through the lens of God's word. It's our spiritual responsibility to do so and you see Peter speaks so effectively in the book of Acts. It's happened over and over so far and even when they were arrested, think about this. When they're arrested and they were flogged and they were beaten and then they were turned out and they said, don't ever preach in this name again and they said, who are we going to follow after?

Are we gonna obey God or are we gonna obey men? The traditions of men. It's our spiritual responsibility to know the word, internalize it, and allow it to interpret our circumstances. Opposition arises. This is normal.

It's also normal for God to rid your rid the opposition. It's not within our ability to control and there will be times actually next week's sermon will confirm this, but there will be times when even martyrdom does happen. It's not within our ability to control when opposition takes place or how it takes place, but God's word will not be thwarted, the opposition will be. It's not within our ability to control, that's on God. So what types of opposition have we seen so far?

What we've seen is external pressure in the form of persecution and it it's hard to say that it's that it's really external. At this time, it's long before Christians were ever called Christians. This is the the nascent church. It's very beginnings and they were not even considered to be a sect of Judaism at this point because it's new enough that they didn't really have a name for it. They just were followers of the way and so the persecution came from the religious council and the religious or the religious people, the chief priest, the scribes, the Sanhedrin, you remember the Sanhedrin from the last couple of sermons.

The 71 people seated in a semi circle in the chamber of hewn stone and they made the declarations for how this went. That external pressure of don't ever speak again in this name, we're going to beat you if you do, we're going to throw you in even the public jail if you do, under threats, it still grew. In fact, probably grows faster under external pressure. Persecution is one of the ways that we've seen and we've seen it in chapter two, we saw it in chapter three, we saw it in chapter four, and we saw it in chapter five. We're probably going to see it again.

We do see it again a lot. Now, when I was away during Thanksgiving and Carl was preaching, he preached on hypocrisy. Actually, Ananias and Sapphira, he spoke on that. Oh my goodness, Blake. Blake caught me in the first service.

I tried my best not to say it, but I I just looked up and he's laughing again. I said, the second type of opposition is hypocrisy. We saw that when Carl preached last time. No. No.

He was preaching about Ananias and Sapphira, and Ananias and Sapphira were seeking to make themselves look better than they actually were. They felt that earthly security was important enough to hold back a pro a portion of what their sale of their land was. They kept it. It was theirs that they could keep, but they lied about it. They pretended that they gave it all and in that case, how was the opposition overcome?

God smoked them. He killed them on the spot one at a time and the youth group carried them out. The text says, the young men came in to carry them away. And then Peter said, tell me, Sapphira, how did this go? And she told the same story that they had concocted.

Said, the same young men that carried your husband away are coming back to carry you away. I don't want for that to be the way that God handles the opposition, But it is the way he handled it. The purity of the church was very very important. External pressure, what happened when they were arrested and when they were turned out, they said, who must we obey, God or man? They made a determination that they would follow God rather than men, the traditions of men and they prayed for boldness to continue with the word that was internalized that Jesus had explained to them all of the ways Old Testament points to his messiahship and they were internalizing that and they were boldly sharing it.

That was the way that persecution was overcome. The way hypocrisy was overcome in that case of Ananias and Sapphira was God killed them. Well, what's what are we going to see today? Today, we're going to see murmuring. Murmur, murmur, murmur, murmur.

Murmur, murmur, murmur is not a monopoetic word in English and we hear it. We actually get our the word in Greek is gongitso, gongitso, gongitso, gongitso. In Greek, sounds like murmur, murmur, murmur. It's it's division from the inside. And so, here we go.

Oh, let me say, the witness advances. I didn't hit this one. The witness advances. This is about our obedience. As long as we are boldly proclaiming in the way we live our lives, in the way we use our words, that Jesus is the Christ, actually, the next slide says that right.

Every day in the temple and from house to house, summary statement. They continue to teach and preach this message. Jesus is the Messiah. Amen. That's how the gospel goes forward and the witness advances out of obedience because they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

So we're on a mission from God. If that feels a little bit uncomfortable for you that I'm even using a secular reference there, I'm sorry. I see see this and I go, wow, it's such a great way to see that God's will is not gonna be thwarted. Do you all know the name Isaac Watts? Do you know who that is?

This this service should know Isaac Watts. I see a couple of songwriters in here right now. Isaac Watts was on the way home from church with his dad, with his whole family presumably. He's born in like sixteen seventies. He's been around a while.

He's on the way home from church with his family and he says, dad, the music is so horrible. It's just terrible and it's it's hard to sit through. It's really hard to even sit through the song service. Now, when we sing, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, that's a beautiful song, isn't it? Well, Isaac's dad is responsible for that.

Isaac's dad said, Isaac, if you're hearing that and you're sensing that it's terrible, you ought to do something about it. And so, he set about writing hymns and he wrote thousands of hymns, like 7,000 hymns. About 400 of them you'd probably recognize the names of, most a lot of them are in our hymnals and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross is one of those. Just a beautiful song and he went back to the Psalms and he personalized it to his experience with when I survey the wondrous cross on which the prince of glory died, my richest gain I count but lost. It's like it's so cool that he put himself right there and not to mention the the actual music.

Before that, the music had gotten to be just stale and they're singing to the Lord a new song. It's there, you know. So, his dad was responsible for that. When I went through this book the first time, the book of acts, the first time I was here, it was the summertime of twenty thirteen and Renzi Reno was changing in from being a volunteer who worked in the the band a little bit, ran the sound booth, but he was becoming our youth guy. And so as he was transitioning in, I was talking to him about, when did you have start having an interest in ministering in the youth?

He said, well, on the way home from youth group when I was about 14, I was coming home with my dad, my family, and I just said, dad, youth group is terrible. It's just awful. I can't stand it. It's just a terrible place to be and there are only a few of us and it's just bad. The music's bad, the teaching's bad, it's just bad.

And he says, it's just the worst place to be and he says, Renzi, if you're noticing that, it might be because you're the one who's supposed to do something about that. And he says, so you're a leader whether you want to be or not, and people kind of follow after you. You've got a great sense of humor and you're a handsome guy and people are going to follow you. And if you make it the best place to be on Wednesday, it's going be the best place for anybody to be on Wednesday. Do your best to be that change that you want to see.

And As the believers rapid me start over. Acts six one says, but as the believers rapidly multiplied, amen, there were rumblings of discontent. Oh, it's an immediately up. Oh, believers are rapidly multiplying. It's exponential growth and that's wonderful.

And then there were rumblings of discontent. There was. The Greek speaking believers complained about the Hebrew speaking believers. Isn't that just the way we are? Oh, we divide so often.

Us and them is so real to the human experience that if you're from the South, it's like, I don't trust them, they're Yankees. It's just immediate. It's something we all know. And if you are, you know, I mean, I could go to SEC football crying out loud. Oh, he's an Alabama fan.

Oh, I would cheer for those. That's like cheering for Darth Vader. You know, that's you can hear this sort of stuff, you can feel it. And we might do that politically, but we tend to be opposed and often it's on language based lines too. So the Greek speaking believers now, on the day of Pentecost, they heard everything in their own language and these men from Galilee, how is it that we are confused because we understand, we hear everything that's coming out of their mouth and we understand it.

The Greek speaking believers now are murmuring against the Hebrew speaking believers about what? The rumblings of discontent, the is about it's an onomatopoetic word. I keep saying that because it sounds like what it is. The apostles, they're gathering saying Solomon's colonnade outside of the temple out where anybody can get to them and be out of the weather and they're preaching and teaching Jesus as the Christ. And then there are the practical things when you're holding all things in common of there's a distribution of food.

And the Greek speaking ones are going, yeah, well they're given their widows more than they're given our widows. And then you can hear the murmuring, the rumblings of discontent saying that now in Judaism, there's actually a provision for the widow, the widows and the poor and it's normal for the Hebrew speaking believers to know the process for this. At the temple, they would have known how it was done. They would have understood that this is the way that it goes. Now, the Greek speaking folks that came into the church would not have a background from it.

First of all, they're from the pagan lands, who knows where and they don't have a common culture. They certainly don't have a culture like the Hebrew speaking believers do. There were things about Judaism that God instituted that worked for taking care of people. And so the Hebrew apostles, Hebrew speaking believers, understood the process and saw it and maybe the Greek speaking believers just came in and didn't really understand the process and they were getting shortchanged because they didn't get that. Having access to a service and actually accessing the service are two different things, right?

But when the apostles heard the rumblings of discontent, they called a meeting of all of the believers. It was not a secret meeting. This is good. What have we seen in the secret meeting so far in Acts? Whenever the Sanhedrin gets together and they get to talking amongst us, we can't we know that this is just getting out of hand.

What are we going to do about it? We would kill him but that would cause a riot. We're going to beat them any secret meeting is usually scheming and underhanded and it says the 12 called a meeting of all the believers. That's thousands of people and when they called the meeting, they said, the apostles, the 12 said, we apostles really should spend our time teaching the word of God. That's what we need to be about.

We had the access to scriptures. A lot of y'all had access to scriptures too but we were taught by Jesus. He he showed us specifically after the resurrection, these things and we really feel like we ought to spend our time teaching the word of God and not running a food program. We can't do everything and so brothers, and he calls them brothers, he's speaking specifically to the Greek speaking believers who were grumbling, mumbling, murmuring. And so brothers, y'all select seven men who are well respected and are full of the spirit and of wisdom.

That in itself is absolutely transformational. The apostle the apostles, presumably Peter, the apostles said, we need to be about the ministry of the word and not running this food program or managing tables, it says in one translation. So brothers, you all select seven men who are well respected and full of the spirit and full of wisdom. They trusted that the Holy Spirit that brought people out of whatever their team was before, out of their tribe, tongue, nation, language. Whatever it was, brought them into the Ecclesia, the church.

They trusted that the spirit of God that can call them out of their place and into this other could do his will through them. Now, this is somebody who's full of spirit and wisdom and will give over responsibility to them to do this and then we, the apostles, can spend our time in prayer and in teaching the word. They weren't shirking the responsibility to take care of it. They trusted the spirit to use other people to take care of it which is great and everyone liked this idea. You know what they did?

And this this rings in my head from preaching this however many years ago. Shoot, it was like eleven or twelve years ago. They considered the merits of the murmuring. They considered the merits of the murmuring. If they're hearing murmuring instead of just saying, we're the capital A apostles.

You get what you get, you don't throw a fit. We're the ones who are in charge, didn't you maybe your widows need to lose some weight. No. We don't know why, what they might have done but what they did was they considered it and said, you know what? Y'all choose from among yourselves and what's interesting, everyone liked this idea and they chose the following, Stephen.

Stephen's a Greek name, not a not a Hebrew name. This is a a Greek speaking believer. Y'all choose from among yourselves. Stephen, a man who was full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. Oh, that that might be said of us.

A man of full of faith and full of the Holy Spirit. We'll see Stephen again. At the end of this chapter, we'll see Stephen all throughout the next chapter proclaiming by the spirit and then martyred. Right? Instrument of God, Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.

Philip, we'll see Philip again in chapter eight running alongside a chariot, introducing an Ethiopian eunuch to the long awaited savior that Isaiah wrote of, the suffering servant. Prochorus, I don't know anything else about Prochorus. Nicanor, don't know anything about Nicanor. Timon. Timon was Pumba's friend.

I don't know anything about Timon either. Timon is his name. Parmenas. All of these are Greek names. We do know that.

All of these are Greek names. Parmenas and Nicholas of Antioch. It's neat that it's Nicholas of Antioch. Antioch is the first place where they were actually called Christians. It was gonna be ten years down the road but Nicholas Nicholas was an earlier convert to the Jewish faith.

So, this is a guy who came out from the Greek speaking world and recognized the singularity, the goodness of the monotheistic Judaism of his day and he recognized something good about it and was drawn into the faith and then he recognized Messiah before the leaders of his faith recognized him. That's beautiful and he was full of the spirit and of wisdom. He's an earlier convert to the Jewish faith. Now, these seven were presented to the apostles. This is the ones that the crowd came up with and they prayed for them.

The apostles prayed for them and they laid their hands on them to do this work. So, that is the way that Judaism would have handled this situation. If there were people that needed to be fed, if there's something, the way Judaism would handle it is the people in charge would lay their hands on the people that they had said, you are given this responsibility. So did it work? Well, the next verse says it did.

So, God's message continued to spread. The gospel advances and it says how it continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem. Now, we see God is moving with power. This is his prerogative.

He's moving with power because his word is going forward. As it happens, it says, many of the Jewish priests were converted too. Ain't that beautiful? That's wonderful. Now, Nicanor or the you know, the was it Nicanor?

The last guy. Let's see what his name was. Nicholas. Sorry. Nick Nicholas.

Nicholas of Antioch recognized it before some of these guys, but they recognized that this is the way that it ought to be. We ought to be able to trust the spirit of God. We ought to be able to trust it rather than trusting an authoritarian system where it's centralized authority, only we know what's right. No. God knows what is right.

Christ said that he was build his church. He would do it by his spirit and many of the Jewish priests were converted too and if I had to go out on a limb here, I'd say, the reason that they were converted is because they saw it working. It was no longer 71 guys seated in a room in the order of smartest guy in the middle, number two right here, number three right there, all the way out from smartest to dumbest. That literally is the way the Sanhedrin met. And they sat like that and that is, you stand right there in the middle and we'll determine.

And everybody's looking at the head guy trying to suck up to him honestly. That's not the way that the disciples handled this. They considered the merits of the murmuring, they laid it back in their lap and that's a pretty amazing thing. Now, I I went back, I said I tried to find took me forever actually. I had to go through three different computers to find this thing.

I wanted to hear what I preached on the first time that I did this. And so, I was still trying to fit everything into sermon sermon format. And so, this is my every Christian will be better equipped for life and ministry by recognizing these three assaults of the evil one. Persecution, external pressure, hypocrisy, internal pressure, murmuring, division. I have become over the past thirteen years, more and more reliant on just saying what it says.

Right? Just say what it says. It's so good. You don't have to sermonize. Stephen, and this is just an introduction for next week.

Might be the shortest sermon here all year. Not this year. Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power. Oh Lord, that that may be said of us. Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people and I'm sure Stephen would have said just like Peter and John said earlier in Acts that this is Jesus that did this, not me.

But one day, some men from the synagogue of freed slaves as it was called, started to debate with Stephen and they were Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and the province of Asia And none of them could stand against the wisdom and the spirit with which Stephen spoke. So this in itself right here, this looks like one of those opportunities. If you run up against someone and you can't stand against their wisdom or against their spirit, the Holy Spirit, what should you do? Consider the merits of what they're saying and not oppose and not debate them. Just from Gamaliel's advice, if it's of God, you're gonna find yourself opposing God and that's not gonna go well.

None of them could stand against the wisdom and the spirit with which Stephen spoke and so they persuaded some folks to lie about Stephen. Have we seen this before in the gospels? Yeah. We need for you to say that Jesus blasphemed. We need for you to go on record saying that you saw him threaten the temple.

We need for you to go on record. So lying witnesses. So they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen saying, say this, we heard him blaspheme Moses and we heard him blaspheme God. And this of course roused the people, it roused the elders, it roused the teachers of religious law. And so, they arrested Stephen and they brought him before the high council and that high council presumably was that same Sanhedrin, established authority, no doubt about it.

And the lying witnesses said, this man is always speaking against the holy temple. And he's speaking against the law of Moses. Now, Stephen, since he's full of grace and full of power and full of the spirit and wisdom was certainly declaring Jesus as the fulfillment of the law of Moses. He was certainly saying that the place where God, heaven and earth meet is in the temple of the believer. Now, is he speaking against the temple and against the law of Moses?

No. We've heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the temple and change the customs Moses handed down to us. Now, Jesus had said that that temple would be thrown down. Did he say that? That was that something that was noteworthy charge?

I'm going to leave you with this. At this point, everyone in the high council was staring at Stephen and because his face had become as bright as an angel's. There is opposition, significant opposition and will God's will be thwarted? That's the question. As you read through acts, it's like the Blues Brothers.

Every every every time you think they can't get over this one, they can't get out of this situation, they can't get out of this situation. How is it that God is gonna get out them out of this situation? Well, in Stephen's case and we'll see it next week. He's gonna present the sermon of a lifetime. He's gonna sum up the whole of the Old Testament in one sermon and then what it's gonna get is him stoned.

So opposition arises in the way that that witness advances, in Stephen's case, it's through his martyrdom. But it's also an introduction to the next portion of the book of Acts where Jesus told him in Acts one eight, he said, you're going to be my witnesses. This is his prophecy over them. You are going to be my witnesses. In Jerusalem, they had done a great job in Jerusalem and isn't the great time when there's a movement going on and there's just wonderful stuff happening and there's exponential growth.

Man, everybody wants to be on board. But then, when that happens, we have to keep on letting his word interpret and what Jesus said is, you're gonna be my witnesses here in Jerusalem, but also in Judea and Samaria and even to the uttermost parts. Did they spread out? They didn't. They clumped up and it was Stephen's martyrdom that allowed them to fulfill prophecy of going forward to Judea and Samaria.

So that's the next thing we see. Is that the last one of the slides, Blake? So that's the end of chapter six. It's really just kind of a teaser for chapter seven. I think that Stephen's speech is probably the best one sermon.

It's it's not long but it is effective and just as we often say, if you proclaim the word, if you proclaim it faithfully, the way you live your life but if you proclaim it with your words, you're either going to get somebody to accept it or reject it or hear you again later. We'll see that in Acts 17 also. Would you stand with me? We're gonna sing It Is Well With My Soul. We closed in the first service with take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee.

As we look into this new year, I think that it's important to think, lord, I wanna be doing your will. I long to do your will and your way, lord. I long to do your will. Show me your way and I'll walk in it. We long to do that collectively.

Lord, we long to do your will. This this body, we long to do your will. Will you show us your way and we'll walk in it? And I think that there's another component to that that taking our life and letting it be consecrated is great, but we also have to be okay that we can't control when God moves and we can't control how he gets us through the opposition. So let's sing, It Is Well with my soul.

Speaker 2What ever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well. It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well. My sin not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well. It is well with my soul.

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight. The clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound It is well with my soul. Is well it is well with my

Speaker 1soul. Amen. And I've got a benediction here for you from Philippians two. Think about this, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, do you? Is there any encouragement there?

There is. Oh, by the way, Philippians is great. It's so good but Euodia and Syntyche couldn't get along. There were divisions, there was murmuring. I'm sure that there was division and people were taking sides whether Euodia was right and Syntyche was right and Paul's answer this is much like Peter's answer this.

Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? There's unity in Christ. Yeah, there is. Is there any comfort in Christ's love? Can you say, yes, there is.

Is there any common sharing in the spirit? Well, yes, there is. Both Euodia and Syntyche were helpful. We're both led by the same spirit and that might lead us to do different things within the body. The deacons that they named, they haven't been named as deacons yet but the deacons that were named in this sermon, they were kicking up dust, they were getting things to happen.

The common sharing in the spirit might look different. Is there any tenderness? Is there any compassion? Then y'all be making my joy complete by being like minded, by having the same love, by being one in spirit and one in mind and lord, would that be what we want from you? That's what we're praying for lord that you'd make us one just like you and Jesus and the spirit are one.

We want that kind of closeness with our brothers and sisters in Christ and we want to go forward carrying your will out in your way. Would you use us as a part of your gospel's advance? In Jesus name, amen.

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Church Conflict Church Growth Deacons Mission Murmuring Persecution

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