Scripture referenced 5 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Psalm 103:1 opening encouragement to lead into worship, praising the Lord with all inmost being
1 Praise Yahweh, my soul! All that is within me, praise his holy name!
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Keep this verse
1 Corinthians 1:9
God is faithful who has called you into fellowship with his son Jesus our Lord
9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
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Psalm 119:105
God's word is a light to the path and lamp for the feet
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.
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Acts 6:1-15
main passage for the sermon covering the appointment of the seven and 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 2:1-2
benediction about encouragement from being united with Christ and being like minded
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;
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Carl is out of town, so another pastor from the congregation brought the message from Acts 6:1-15, continuing First B's ongoing study through the book of Acts. He traced the recurring pattern in Acts where God moves with power, His word interprets what is happening, opposition arises, and the gospel advances anyway. This week the opposition came not from outside the church but from within, in the form of murmuring and the early stirrings of division.
What was said
Running through the book of Acts so far, the same wave repeats itself: God moves with power, His word interprets the situation, opposition arises and is thwarted, and the witness advances. That pattern has shown up in chapters two, three, and five, and it shows up again here in chapter six. The three forms of opposition the church has faced are external persecution from the religious authorities, internal hypocrisy like what happened with Ananias and Sapphira, and now a third thing: murmuring.
The Greek word translated "murmuring" in Acts 6 is onomatopoetic, a word that sounds like what it describes. Greek-speaking believers were complaining that their widows were being left out of the daily food distribution while the Hebrew-speaking widows were being cared for. It was the kind of low-level grumbling that, left alone, splits communities apart along the lines people already tend to divide on.
What is striking is how the apostles responded. They did not shut the complaint down or pull rank. They called a meeting in front of everyone, not a back-room conversation, and they took the murmuring seriously on its merits. They acknowledged that the food distribution mattered and had to be handled well, and then they said clearly that their own calling was prayer and teaching the word, not running the program.
Rather than appointing someone from the top down, the apostles told the Greek-speaking believers to choose seven men from among themselves, men full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, and hand the responsibility to them. Every name on the list that was chosen is a Greek name. The people who had the complaint were trusted to find the people to fix it. That, the sermon said, is decentralized authority, and it is the way the kingdom of God moves forward.
It worked. God's message kept spreading, the number of believers in Jerusalem increased, and many Jewish priests came to faith as well. The Holy Spirit's work was visible precisely because human beings tend to pair off for a fight, and what happened here was the opposite. Considering the merits of a complaint and letting the Spirit act, rather than digging in defensively, opened the door wider rather than closing it.
The passage then introduces Stephen, described as full of faith and the Holy Spirit, who was doing miracles and preaching with a wisdom no one could argue against. When argument failed, his opponents did what had been done to Jesus: they found men willing to lie, saying Stephen had blasphemed Moses and God. He was arrested and brought before the high council, and at the moment the lying witnesses finished their accusations, everyone in the room stared at Stephen because his face looked like the face of an angel. His defense before the council is where the sermon picks up next week, and it is, as the preacher noted, a turning point in the entire book of Acts.
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 sermon describes a repeating pattern in Acts where God moves with power, His word interprets the situation, opposition arises and is thwarted, and the witness advances. Where have you seen that pattern play out in your own life or in this church?
- The preacher pointed out three forms of opposition to the early church: external persecution, internal hypocrisy, and murmuring that leads to division. Which of those three do you think poses the greatest threat to a local church today, and why?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 5,520 words
Bless you.
They're gonna sit on this side over here. They're gonna sit on this side over here. They always sit over there. Yeah. They're gonna come in these doors, and then they're gonna sit over here.
So, Bria, are you just gonna sit up there?
I think the pass would be a little too technical. So I think we'll do Cliff Creek or maybe Walker Inn. Some just something kinda fun and easy, but not flat like a range.
Yeah. You snowmobile? Is that what you're Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
It's turns. You watch each other. You stay on the sides. Try to find a hill to climb with little little to no consequence at the bottom in case something happens.
Good morning, first b. Thanks for coming. That sounds like Teton Pass is closed, so, you know, might might be a little smaller crowd this morning, but thank you for coming. I'm not Carl Clemmer. He's he's out of town for for a week with his family and having a good time.
But thanks for coming. Here's encouraging word from Psalm one zero three to lead us into worship. It says, praise the Lord, my soul. All my inmost inmost being, praise his holy name. Would you stand and and and join us in singing Fall Afresh?
Amen. Is it time? Announcements. Hey, let's do it. Announcements are Awana is is Awana on?
Awana is not on. What is this announcement thing doing? We are not yet back to school, so we're not doing that this week. Like, I I feel like we're about to beat off. Does anybody else feel like they're limping into the New Year?
I am limping into the New Year. I am barely, barely crossing this finish line. I've I've been fighting a cold for a while. Pray for me. I'll pray for y'all.
I promise. We're getting through Teton Valley Fellowship. This is certainly coming to pass. This is happening starting in January. Teton Valley, Idaho is having a fellowship meeting.
Actually, probably doing it today if Teton Pass is closed, but the second Friday of the month starting in January. For details, can contact Emily Anderson. And I think that that is the last of the slides if I could
see Blake right up there. Do y'all have any other announcements?
Do we just do testimony? My goodness. Now if I I am glad to be here. I'm glad that we're able to gather for worship together, but I I really have noticed like between Christmas Eve and the calls that I've been getting and the text that I've been getting, it feels like we're limping into the New Year. Can I just stop and kinda pray for us right here?
Lord God Almighty, you are the sovereign God, the great physician, the healer. And so, we're calling on you. I know that it's just a cold. It feels like just a cold. And that's what the doctor says.
It's just a cold. But, Lord, it feels like a warning. In Jesus' name, Lord, I ask that you'd heal us. Heal us as your people, Lord, that the opposition to just being able to getting up and going and going forward in the day. Would quell, Lord, that we'd be able to continue doing your work, carrying your word forward joyfully and together.
In Jesus name, we ask you for healing amongst this body and in our bodies. In Jesus name, amen. Would you stand up? Let's sing again.
We're gonna sing the prayer. Alright. In first Corinthians, it says, God is faithful who has called you into fellowship with his son, Jesus our Lord. Let's keep singing. God, we, come before you today, the last Sunday in two thousand twenty four, and just thank you for your faithfulness, in the past, in the presence, and in the future.
We know that you will be faithful. And we just thank you for your love and your grace on our lives, and it's in your name we pray. Amen.
Yes.
This is the worship through giving part of the service. I'll invite the ushers to come forward, and we're gonna sing evidence. Before we sing, Ray, can you pray?
Sure. God, thank you for the opportunity to gather this morning. We come together to sing your praises, and we come together to encourage one another, Lord. I pray that we would be doing your will in your way. Lord, show us that way.
I I I think every morning, I wanna wake up, Lord. I long to do your will. Lord, I long to do your will. Show me your way, and I'll walk in it. God, may that be our prayer collectively too.
Lord, we long to do your will. Show us your way, and we will walk in that way. Just empower us, Lord, by your spirit to do your will in your way. In Jesus' name, we ask that you bless these offerings this morning, to accomplish the advance of the good gospel. In Jesus' name.
Amen. Amen. And it's time for children's church downstairs. And there they go. So here we are back to back to our course from Acts.
We've been going through the book of Acts lately. We're up to Acts six one through 15 before I turned the turned and headed towards Christmas on a little bit of an excursus. This is what we were studying. We we've gotten up to Acts six one. I'm gonna step back for just a second, but does anybody know what this reference is?
Yeah. We're on a mission from God. If you read the book of Acts and you've seen this movie, you cannot help but think these things are related to one another because the mission goes forward and it they run into all kinds of opposition and the music is amazing. The gathering of the the band back together is beautiful, and some of y'all probably think that's the most sacrilegious thing I've ever heard. We're on a mission from God, and that's the way it is in the book of Acts.
If we go back to the last sermon that I preached on the book of Acts, which was just three or four weeks ago, there was a familiar pattern. God moves with power and then one of the apostles usually, in this chapter, it will be one of the deacons, but one of the apostles usually allows God's word to interpret the situation that's going on. God moves with power, his word interprets, and then opposition arises and is thwarted because why? We're on a mission from God and God's purpose as Gamaliel said, if it's God's purpose, it's not going to be overcome. You can try but you're not going to thwart the the will of God.
So opposition arises and the opposition is what is thwarted, and then the witness or the gospel advances. And that's the pattern from the book of Acts and I actually not that I'm not this much of a CPA. I don't use Excel spreadsheets for vacations and stuff like some of y'all do. But chapter two, we see that played out. Chapter three, we see that played out.
Chapter five, we see that played out. You can expect that in chapter six and seven, we're gonna see it played out too. It's the same wave over and over. God moves in power, his word interprets. And so, almost always if there's a miracle or miraculous thing, it is immediately followed by a gospel message and the miracles have authenticated the message.
Opposition will arise to it and it's usually Well, there are three different forms that it usually takes, but the opposition that arises will be thwarted and the witness will advance. That's the way it goes. So God moves with power. This is his prerogative. You cannot control when God is gonna do what God is gonna do.
So when he came at Pentecost, he told them, be right here, stay right here together. You're gonna be my witnesses, but stay together until you have received this power from on high. You don't even know what it's gonna look like, but y'all stick together. When it's time, he will do it. God moves with power.
His word interprets. This is our spiritual responsibility. He has given us his word. Can you imagine? It's great that God has given us propositional truth.
It's written down for us to internalize it. As David said, your word is a light to my path, a lamp for my feet. It's something that I need to know it and then my circumstances around me whatever they are. God's word will help me interpret what is going on around me. It's our spiritual responsibility to dig in and know his word.
Opposition arises and I always wanna say, and is thwarted. It's not within our ability to control how it's gonna be thwarted. If we know the word, that's what Jesus did whenever opposition arose. He tended in the temptation in the desert when he's tempted by the devil with all the same stuff he tempts us with, you know, power, fame, glory, whatever. Jesus always responded with scripture.
So our spiritual responsibility helps this, but it's not within our ability to control. We may die martyrs death for speaking the word, it's a possibility, but the opposition will be thwarted and you can see that in those verses in chapter five. What types of opposition have we seen so far? So far, we've seen external and it's kind of hard to call it external pressure. It is external pressure because the Jewish religious leadership, the Sanhedrin has been one of the primary places where they received opposition and the persecution of the believers or the followers of the way, this is long before they were ever called Christians.
So they were a sect of Judaism or becoming an a sect of Judaism. The Romans wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. Right? But the religious leadership that the apostles still had some respect for, showed some respect for, were putting pressure on them not to speak again in Jesus name, do not do this anymore. That's external pressure persecution.
In our day, persecution looks a lot different. In our land, I mean, I know I hear people complain about it a lot, but we have it pretty cushy. We don't have a lot of external pressure on us. It is counter cultural in every age to actually live as a Christian, to actually care as much about people around you as you care about yourself as countercultural. In an individualistic, materialistic society, it looks weird to live a Christian life.
But external pressure or persecution, we have heard from folks recently. Last week, we heard from some of my servant on the other side of the globe where persecution looks very different in East Asia. But external pressure happens to the church from outside and I say it happened in acts, external pressure was from the religious leadership who should have recognized Messiah and didn't. And so the external pressure on them was to protect their own, the Sanhedrin's own authority, power, whatever. Hypocrisy.
We saw that when Carl preached on Ananias and Sapphira. Ananias and Sapphira wanted to make themselves appear to be generous and good and benevolent and wonderful and made themselves appear to be more or better than they actually were. They thought, well, earthly security is kind of nice too. I'm going to hold back this portion, who needs to know that? Let's agree on it.
They hypocritically acted like they were given their all and they weren't. And so hypocrisy threatened the church from the inside. Now, how was that opposition thwarted? I hope that doesn't happen again. You know, God smited them.
He just took them out, smote them. I don't know the past tense for smite. Smote. I think it's smoked. Anyway, persecution, when they were persecuted by the religious authorities, they came out after having been flogged and beaten, they came out of it and they prayed for boldness to proclaim the word of God that they had in their hearts and they were constantly studying and Jesus had shown them all of the ways that the old testament was pointing to his messiahship and they were spreading that news.
Oh, man. So their answer to persecution proclaim was boldness, humility, we must follow the way of God rather than the ways of men. That's their answer to persecution. Their answer to hypocrisy, like I said, they didn't kill them, God took them out. That's not within the disciples control, I don't think.
Hypocrisy, internal pressure. So what are we going to see today? Today, we're going to see murmuring, murmuring. So the beginnings of division, it's another form of internal pressure and in our day, this is probably the one that we probably see the most often in our society. It's so polarized when you try to bring together a group of people, the church, that Christ is building his church and he's calling people from every tribe, tongue, and nation, and affiliation.
He's calling people out of and into. So the the church, the ekklesia, the out of into, the out of, he's calling us all out of all of our affiliations and all of our nations, our tribes, tongues. In this case, it looks like the language had a lot to do with it. But murmuring among, of course, that's the way they are, you know that's how dirty democrat, sorry. You know that's the way they think, you can't trust them.
That joker is from up north, ridiculous. He's an Alabama fan, whatever it is. Right? We tend to team up and we tend to do that and then murmuring can start. So the witness advances, this is about our obedience.
If we have been saved, if we know what it's like to have tasted of the goodness of the grace of God and it transforms our life, then we'll want to be obedient and the message will go forward. So the closing from that last sermon, these last two are kind of a summary statement. It said, the apostles left the high council and they had been beaten, but they were rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus. And every day in the temple and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message. Jesus is the Messiah.
So that's the way the gospel goes forward. That's a bold thing to hold on to. So we're on a mission from God. If you think that that's kind of sacrilegious, do you know the name Isaac Watts? Do you all know who that is?
So When I Survey the Wondrous Cross and a few 400 others probably that make it into most hymnals, and there are thousands of songs that he wrote. Isaac Watts was on his way home from church with his dad, and he's born like like 1600, 1700. It's been a while. He's on the way home from church. He's riding with his family.
He says, dad, the music is just playing terrible. I can't keep doing this. It's awful. Now, there was a the proscribed format for how music ought to be, and it wasn't exactly Gregorian chants, but it was perfectly symmetrical rhythms and all kinds of conventions. And it was really conventions of the time, but in English Hymnity, Isaac Watts name just stands out because Isaac Watts dad said, well Isaac, you need to do something about that.
Isn't that something? Do you all remember Renzi Reno that was here for a while? He's a youth guy for a while. So Renzi came home from youth group one time and his dad said, hey, well, he's riding home with his dad after youth group and I came to pick him up and he says, dad, that is the worst that is the worst place. It is the worst thing I do all week.
Why do I have to go? Please don't make me come back. And he said, Renzi, you need to do something about that. He kind of put it back in his lap and what he told Renzi is, you're a leader whether you want to be or not, You're somebody that people kind of follow. And if you make this the most fun place to be on Wednesday night in this county, it's going to be the most fun place to be in this county on Wednesday night.
There's a movement right now by the way going on in the youth in this valley that is amazing. It's really really cool to see. It's rising up and it's rising up from the hearts of young people that are boldly professing the word of God and how it's affected their lives. It's beautiful. So Isaac Watson, Hymnody, Rinsey for his his life change.
He's still in ministry today, like started in youth group, and he's still in ministry today with Bob beautifully. They were here one time over Christmas. Acts six one through 15. Really the sermon is about six one through seven and the rest of that is kind of prologue for next week, but I wanna start with verse six right here. I mean verse one chapter six says this, but as the believers rapidly multiplied, amen, as the believers rapidly multiplied, it's happening.
There's a movement, it's going. There were rumblings of discontent. Isn't that just the way that it is? God is moving with power and opposition arises. Rumblings of discontent, murmuring.
In fact, in in Greek, it's Don't that sound? It's an onomatopoetic word. It's like, takadoodle doo. It's Doesn't that sound
like
murmuring? The Greek speaking believers complained about the Hebrew speaking believers. Doesn't that sound like teams? Now, they've been called out of and into and Hebrew believers have the whole Old Testament, they have the structures of Judaism, they have this and they are going forward knowing kind of how to deal with some of the things that come when you are in an assembly. The Greek speaking believers come from lots of different backgrounds And they're they're complaining about the Hebrew speaking believers, what?
Their rumblings of discontent and they're going get some money, good, good, good, good, was saying that our widows are being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. All of you Jewish boys, all of you Hebrew speaking folks, yeah, on the day of Pentecost, it was all in We understood everything you're saying, but it seems like you all slipped back into just taking care of your own, and you're not taking care of our widows like you're taking care of your widows. Now, in Judaism, there's a structure, there's a format, there's a way of doing that, and they were probably just kind of going by that. Like I said, this is this is early. And so as they're going by that, the Greeks don't know the system, they don't understand the system, they don't necessarily go through the system, but it's interesting to me how the disciples, how the apostles respond to this.
The the Greek speaking believers complained about the Hebrew speaking believers saying, our widows are being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. They held all things in common. This is still something that they're doing. And so the 12 called a meeting of all the believers, it was it was out in front of everybody, it wasn't a backdoor meeting. Funny because the backdoor meetings that have happened so far have not been good meetings, have they?
The backdoor meetings of the leadership that were in an authority structure, I'm still I know I've said it three weeks in a three times in a row, but that circle or the semi circle of 71 people still cracks me up. That 71 people in seats of authority and they're seated number one in the middle, number two on his right hand, three, four, five, and they're seated in order of intelligence. Their authority is really, really important and getting to be in that seat is really, really cutthroat, I'm sure. So the 12 called a meeting in front of all of the believers and they said, listen, we apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God. We prayed for boldness, we see that God moves forward every time his word is proclaimed in the face of opposition even.
Every time that his word is proclaimed and we allow his word to interpret the situation, the gospel goes forward. So we should be spending time teaching the word of God, not running a food program. It is something that has to happen though. And so, brothers, he calls them brothers. He's called them brothers.
These are Greek speaking believers that are coming that are going to so, going to get so that are murmuring against. And what they did right here was they considered the merits of the murmuring. I I have been through this book, preached through this book one time. It was 2013, it was in the summertime. I went back to listen to hear how much my my preaching style has changed.
I learned that I am more reliant on the word and I just wanna keep on pointing up there to that instead of sermonizing. My sermon the last time was every Christian will be better equipped for life and ministry by recognizing these three assaults of the evil one. Persecution, hypocrisy, and murmuring. It's still the same, but the format of it, I love this that they didn't say, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit. They didn't say, we're the capital a apostles around here.
You do as you're told. Maybe your widows need to lose some weight. No. They did not say that. They didn't appoint a committee.
Well, kinda. No. They said, brothers, y'all select seven men who are well respected, who are full of the spirit and of wisdom. You know what they did? They trusted the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit that brought them out of and into is still able to guide people's hearts. It doesn't have to come from the from the top down. It doesn't have to come from us. We are saying, brothers, you all select seven men who are well respected and full of spirit and wisdom and we will give off this responsibility to them. This is decentralized authority.
This is the kingdom of God. This is the way that Jesus said it would go forward. We're given over this responsibility and we apostles can spend our time in prayer and in teaching the word. So would you all take care of this and deacons is what we would call them. Deacons, the word deacon is not used right here yet, it will be.
But deacon, the the Greek word comes from those who are kicking up dust. Isn't that great? It's somebody who's kicking up dust, getting things done. Amen. Everyone liked this idea.
So murmuring sounds like, division. There's a possibility right here. It's coming apart at the seams and they said, no, listen. Isaac, you need to do something about that. Renzi, you need to do something about that.
Pick seven folks from among yourselves who see this problem, who understand what's going on and it says everybody liked the idea and they chose the following. Stephen, a man of faith, full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. No doubt about it. He leads the list and we'll talk about him starting in verse eight in all of chapter seven. Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.
Stephen is a Greek name. Okay? Philip, also a Greek name. We'll see him again in chapter eight. We'll see him referred to as an evangelist in chapter 21.
So first, I think he's the only person, might be the only person in Acts that's referred to as an evangelist, Philip. Prochorus, don't know squat about Prochorus. Nicaner, lovely name, also Greek, don't know anything about him. Timon, he was Pumba's friend. I don't know.
Just sorry. Parmenas, Parmenas, don't know anything about him. These are all Greek names though. And Nicholas of Antioch, who was an earlier convert to the Jewish faith. This guy came out of pagan into Judaism and recognized ahead of a lot of Jews, the Messiahship of Jesus.
So that's cool. They were getting things done, they're kicking up dust and these seven were presented to the apostles who prayed for them. We know this is not gonna be an easy task. We wanna pray for you as you go forward. They laid their hands on them, That's a sign of passing along authority.
Actually, this is the exact same way that it would have been done in Judaism. The same way, seven guys would have been the norm and laying the hands on the people before they went out to do the ministry is that is something that could have been done in Judaism. So did it work? Did this work? So God's message continued to spread.
Amen. It worked. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem. Now, where did Jesus say, you're gonna be my witnesses? In Jerusalem, that's where it started and in Judea and we've already seen that in the time where all of the healings were happening in chapter four, chapter five, all of the healings that were happening in Solomon's colonnade and the beautiful gate earlier than that.
We see that they're bringing people from outside of there. So we're already seeing rumblings that's going forward, but the number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem and this is cool. And many of the Jewish priests were converted too. They recognized the Holy Spirit's work because they know that as human beings, what we do is we pair off for a fight. We go against and the Holy Spirit brings people together and in the face of murmuring, if you just say, no, we're the ones in charge, But you consider the merits of the murmuring, and then you allow for the Holy Spirit to act.
It's quite possible that if you're sensing something that's wrong with a situation, you might be more sensitive to it because you're the one to fix that situation. Does that make sense? We can listen to the same in the office. We can listen to the same story. Sometimes there are three of us who are working with the benevolence fund.
Happen We to be in the office at the same time, and somebody will come in and we will all three, the three of us who can write a check, will key in on a different part of the person's story. If it's automotive, I'm probably going to be the one. If it's administrative, it's probably going to be Nick, and if it's heart, it's always been Diane. Right? These guys recognize that this is the way this is supposed to work.
And when we hear in when we hear in the book of Acts that Luke says, I'm gonna interview everybody. I'm I'm taking care of listening to everybody. And then we hear stuff that happened in the chamber of hewn stone and how the conversation went when the disciples were out of the room. You wonder how did it These guys were in there. They were in the room and then they came into the faith and they're able to tell the whole story so that we can have great confidence that this faith is not made up, it's not man made, it is of God.
So here we go forward, Stephen, a man full of God's grace and of power. A deacon performed amazing miracles and signs among the people. But one day, some men from the Synagogue of Freed Slaves as it was called, started to debate with him. 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. Now, what what does that do to you when you can't stand against somebody?
There are couple of ways. You can be in awe and you could thank God for the wisdom that's being shared with you at that point or you can say, no. You pair off. Get ready for a fight. So they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen.
Had this happened before? There's a pattern here that we're seeing. It happened to Jesus. We need some folks that'll say that he blasphemed in front of him. We need some folks who'll go on record that'll say this.
So they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen saying, we heard him blaspheme Moses and even God. And this roused the people, it roused the elders and the teachers of the religious law. So they arrested Stephen, that's opposition, external pressure, persecution. They brought him before the high council and the lying witnesses, I love Luke, the lying witnesses said, this man is always speaking against the holy temple. Had he spoken against the holy temple?
He was in the holy temple every day. Just like Jesus was there. He said, I've been here every day. I'm just teaching this the way that it actually is and against the law of Moses. No.
He wasn't speaking against the law of Moses, he was preaching that it had been fulfilled in Christ. We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the temple and change the customs Moses handed down to us. He might have said that. He might have said that. It wasn't a threat.
At this point, everyone in the high council stared at Stephen because his face became as bright as an angel's. Now, I'm going leave you hanging right there. Next week is Stephen's speech, Stephen's defense, and and it's a turning point in the book of Acts. It's a big turning point. The Jesus telling the disciples that you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and uttermost parts.
It's really cool to do ministry when there's a movement going on, and when things are growing and you're just seeing exponential growth and it's wonderful, but your temptation then is just stick right there. And this is a this is a message that's for the absolute uttermost parts, and it's gonna go forward. How are we gonna be a part of it? Take my life and let it be. That's a great end to this sermon.
Would you all stand with me? I'm gonna invite the band back up. God, would you help us would you help us realize that if if if would you help me realize, Lord? If I'm the one that's murmuring, that would it would be best for me to go straight to the person or the group that I'm murmuring about for resolution, for boldness. It's required, Lord.
If I'm the one that's being murmured against or if we're the ones being murmured against, Lord, I pray that we'd boldly confront that situation to bring about reconciliation and the advance of the gospel. We do not want for division to sneak in. Lord, individually, it has to start with you taking over our life. You taking on our lives, our sins, our
evil inclinations and proclivities. Lord, would you take our lives and let them be consecrated to you in the advance of your good gospel? In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. As
we, ring in the New Year twenty twenty five, we thought ending with this song before we head into a new year would be good. Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee. Take my moments and my days. Let them flow in ceaseless praise. Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Amen. You got a blood a benediction for us, Blake? There we go. Therefore, if y'all have any encouragement from being united with Christ, do you? Yes.
Yes? Good. If there's any comfort in his love, and there is. If there's any common sharing in the spirit, and that's what the disciples were trusting when they said, hey, pick some folks from among you
who are full of the spirit.
We trust God's spirit to lead. We can't do everything. It's good. If there's any common sharing in the spirit, if there's any tenderness, if any compassion, then y'all make my joy complete by being like minded and having the same love and being one in spirit and one in mind. In Jesus name.
In Jesus name. Lord, would you would you carry your gospel forward With this assembled crowd and everyone we encountered this week. Amen.
Yeah.
Thank you.
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