STEVEN AND PHILIP

Acts 7-8

Our church will be studying a stewardship lesson this Sunday, but I decided to hit the quarterly for those who may be following in other churches or classes. It will be shorter.

After the deacons were selected, two of them took center stage. (Do you ever wonder how many stories were never told? The other five deacons, most of the Twelve? )

Steven was apparently a powerful preacher and miracle worker. He attracted attention and got hauled in before the Sanhedrin. When asked to give an account of himself, he gave them a history lesson. (If you don't like history, sorry, but the Bible is based on historical events.) He preached Christ as the fulfillment of God's work with Israel and the promises of a messiah. Then he blistered them with the accusation they killed him and God raised him. I don't know where Gamalial was this time, but the condemned him to stoning through false testimony.

When he died, he commented he saw the living Christ standing at the right hand of God. Someone has commented that elsewhere the Bible says He is seated at the right hand of God, but that when His first martyr dies, He stands in honor!

Luke makes the poignant statement: they threw their gaments at the feet of a young man named Saul. Oh yes.

Philip was another deacon who was a powerful witness. Remember I commented that the leading role of the Spirit in the Bible is to provoke witness? This time the Spirit led Philip to the desert, close enough to a chariot leaving the country. In the chariot was the treasurer of Ethiopia, whose queen was called Candace – as the king of Egypt was called Pharaoh. He was a eunuch, which may mean he had been neutered or may by that time have only referred to his rank.

Anyway, this man was a God-fearer, friendly to the Jewish faith. He was even reading Isaiah as he traveled. This showed both he could read well and he had the money to own a scroll.

Philip joined him and asked if he understood what he was reading. Apparently he understood well enough to ask an intelligent question. “Was the prophet speaking of himself or someone else?” Probably he was reading one of the “suffering servant” passages, such as Isaiah 53. Philip used this as an entrance to tell him about Jesus and how Isaiah prophesied He would come. The man responded and said “There's some water. Why can't I be baptized?” So Philip baptized him. Traditionally, the eunuch went back to Ethiopia and began the longest lived branch of Christianity, only in recent years challenged by the Muslims.

Next, Philip was seen elsewhere, preaching. He preached in Samaria, to the Ethiopian, and along the coast. Remember Jesus specified Samaria and the ends of the earth in His Great Commission. Philip was one of the leaders in the international gospel movement! Remember a deacon qualification was “full of the Holy Spirit,” and that Spirit leads primarily to missionary activity. Both Steven and Philip exhibited it. Are you acquainted with Him?

DEACONS? AND STEPHEN
Acts 6-7

Every time your church ordains deacons, you will encounter this passage as representing the origin of the diaconate. It may be. On the other hand, the noun “deacon” is not used, only the words “to serve,” which in Greek is diakono. One could also argue this was the first benevolence committee or some other kind of ad hoc committee formed for that one purpose and not as a part of an ongoing church office.

The problem that popped  up was a simple question of how food was being distributed. Remember the day of Pentecost and all the different languages needed to understand Peter? The early church began as a sort of United Nations with people joining the new faith from all over the world. There were, of course, the natives from Jerusalem and all of Israel. They spoke Hebrew or Aramaic and worshiped at the temple and kept the Law as prescribed by Moses. Since Jesus and his disciples came from this group, it was natural to think of them as the normal Christians.

Apparently a huge amount of that early church was made up of Greek speakers, who came from all over the world to worship in Jerusalem. There they found the disciples preaching Jesus and became Christians.

Now remember the last lesson where we found the disciples were sharing among each other as they had need. The total number had now grown to 5,000 or more. (How would your church handle that kind of increase in, say, six months?) Since the scripture says “daily distribution,” apparently there was some kind of organized benevolence program taking place. In the upshot, the Greek widows began to feel the system favored the Hebrew widows, and the Greeks were being left out or left til last. They complained, and the first threat of a church split arose. Note the fault lines were similar to the later conflict between whether one must first become a Jew before becoming a Christian. Something had to be done.

When the problem came to the attention of the Twelve, they called a congregational meeting – Acts says the whole church! I'm not  sure that 5,000 people were there, but a good bunch. Note that the first “business meeting” of the early church called the entire congregation to make the decision. The apostles told the church they didn't want to get distracted from their ministry of the Word to “serve tables.”
We need to pause here and look at this in some detail. The Exploring the Bible curriculum prints the text from the Holman Christian Bible. When I read that translation of “to serve tables,” I nearly exploded. Holman reads “to handle financial matters.” That is not at all correct, either as a Greek translation or to fit Baptist polity. They acknowledge the problem with a note that reads “or to serve tables.” But even in the setting the problem was not a financial problem. It was a fellowship problem. They formed the committee to avoid a church split, or at least a rancorous division.

This is particularly troubling because anyone familiar with Baptist life knows that a constant problem in churches is the role and place of deacons. I have had deacons who felt it was their responsibility to “rule” the church. That is nonsense. In Baptist churches, the congregation is the final authority. I don't know how many times I have heard that Baptist churches are the purest example of a democracy. Certainly, the pastor should be a leader, and the church should follow him, but not as yes-men. But neither are the deacons to keep the pastor in place. If Acts 6 is indeed the origin of the office, their role is primarily to promote the fellowship of the community. Years ago, P T Burroughs wrote a book called “Honoring the Deaconship.” One chapter stated the deaconship is not honored when the finances of the church are given to someone else, such as a finance committee. This is total nonsense and fed years of problems, so I can't understand Holman's translation.

The Twelve recommended the church select a committee (deacons?) of seven to deal with the problem. Note that each of the Seven had a Greek name. I would have perhaps had three Hebrews and three Greeks with a Greek chairman who had lived a good while in Jerusalem. But the disciples' and the church's choice worked. We don't know what they did, but whatever they did worked, and we hear no more about the problem.

Incidentally, one commentator suggested the Twelve might have been wrong. Why? Because the first five chapters deal with their ministry, but after this incident, the Seven become featured, Stephen and Phillip.

UNDER SURVEILLANCE

ACTS 5;13 ff

After the striking down of Ananias and Sapphira, the whole town of Jerusalem and the countryside was talking. The apostles continued to attract crowds by healing and teaching. The people were pulled in two directions. Verse 13 says no one else dared to join them, but the very next verse says more and more were added to the church. The religious authorities did not like these guys continuing effectively representing Jesus, but they too were pulled two ways, fearing both the emergence of competition and reaction from the people if they overstepped too strongly and too quickly.

>Note both the people in general and the Sanhedrin were stretched between two forces. If this were a school course, that situation could produce a term paper assignment and a couple of test questions. Describe and contrast the tension between the authorities wanting to stop the new heresy and fear of a rebellion. Describe and contrast the wariness of the people knowing of this surveillance but fascinated by the miracles they saw happening daily.

The movement was spreading into the countryside, and people of both Jerusalem and the surrounding towns brought their sick to be healed. Peter must have appeared as the ring leader, because some placed the sick where his shadow might fall on them. Do you think this was superstition, or did their faith heal them? Remember the woman who touched the hem of Jesus garment? How did that compare? What about those later who wanted cloths from Paul to heal them? Note that verse 16 says ALL of them were healed. And what does all this say about healing in our churches today?

The Saducees were the ruling party with authority over the temple. They decided to give it another shot, so they arrested the apostles (all12?) and threw them in jail. That didn't work so well, because that night an angel let them out. “Angel” is a Greek word meaning “messenger.” Usually angels in the Bible appear as men. You can legitimately read this as God's sending a heavenly being to free His men, or you can see it as a secret believer on the inside slipping down and opening the way out. What do you think. Most of you have seen the internet stories of people trapped in car accidents or building fires who were rescued by distinctive persons who they cannot find afterward. Were they angels or humans? The most important thing to notice in all this, however, is not HOW God did it, but THAT God did it. He was the ultimate source of their freedom – and ours!

Following the angel's command, the apostles went into the outer courts of the temple and began to preach and teach about Jesus. Meanwhile, the rulers had called together the Sanhedrin, the full group supervising the Jewish faith and worship, and sent to the jail for their supposed prisoners.

Their emissaries came back reporting they were gone! The guards were there, and the doors were properly locked, but they were gone. (What does that say about the angel/man discussion above?) So they brought the men back before the rulers accompanied this time by the full authority of the Sanhedrin. The high priest confronted them. “We told you to quit preaching this Jesus stuff, and quit trying to make us villains for crucifying him. But here you are at it again!” Peter spoke for the group: We must obey God rather than men. Then he proceeded to do exactly what they had been commanded not to. And right in the heart of the opposition. Remember, this was the same Peter who a month before had been scared to admit he even knew Jesus. Ten of the rest were so scared they didn't even get that close, but ran away when Jesus was arrested. On this side of the resurrection, the Twelve were a different bunch.

Peter let them have it! The God both you and I worship raised Jesus from the dead after you killed Him on a cross. Now God has exalted Him to His right hand as Prince and Savior to call Israel to repentance, so He can forgive their sins. Then Peter tacked on, “We know this, because we saw it. We were there.

Now this speech teed these guys off big time, and some of them – most of them? - wanted to execute the disciples on the spot. But a man who may well have been the leading teacher of his day (he taught Paul) called a halt to their rush to judgment. He had the apostles sent outside while he spoke to the Sanhedrin. He reminded them that another guy also styling himself the messiah collected 400 or so people around him. This man, Theudas, failed totally. So did one Judas from Galilee who was also killed, and their movements came to nothing. So Gamaliel said to let God take care of it. If He is really behind it, you don't want to fight God. If He's not, it will fail. Turn these guys loose so you don't get caught fighting against God.

His speech carried the day, and they did turn them loose – after they flogged them and commanded them again to stop preaching in the name of Jesus. The whole thing had the opposite reaction from what the chief priest and his cronies intended. They left excited and happy because they considered it an honor to suffer as Jesus had and in His name!

Not only did they not stop, they witnessed daily in the temple (before their accusers) and house to house. How constant is our witness to Christ?

STRUCK DEAD

Acts 4:32-5:12

Failed to post last week, so let me add a couple of quotes that I like from Acts 3-4.

The church no longer has to say it has no silver nor gold, but neither can it say rise, take up your bed and walk.

In Acts, when someone is filled with the Holy Spirit, they witness!

Note the boldness of Peter, who once denied Christ, telling the same men who had ordered Him crucified, You did it, but God overruled you and raised Him.

Now to this week's lesson...

At verse 32 we turn to another summary of church behavior as at the end of the second chapter. First, Luke says the church was completely united – as one. We underrate today the doctrine of fellowship. Often our churches, even our denomination gets embroiled in a battle over this and that, sometimes important, but usually not so much. But even when of vital importance, a Christian is called to treat the other with respect, sometimes firmly and taking a stand, but always respecting the other as one for whom Christ died. A major secret of the power of the early church was their unity, their fellowship.

Sharing grew out of their fellowship. We are often quick to point out this was not communism, and it wasn't. Communism is a form of government. It holds there is no private property, but the state owns everything. These people did own property. Else they could not have sold it. After selling it, they had money they could do with as they chose. They chose to donate a good portion to their church, many apparently gave all of it.

As a pastor I have often heard people maintain that tithing is an Old Testament practice, and we are not under the Law, but under Grace. Believe me, you don't want to go there. At one point Jesus makes a passing reference in approval of tithing, but much more often he asked people to sell all and give to the poor and follow Him. The early church caught that spirit. “If you need it and I have it, it's yours!”

The Essene sect we know from the Dead Sea Scrolls did require its members to turn over their possessions to their cult. They did this in two stages, first leaving it in escrow with the group for a trial year. Then if they were accepted and wanted to become a full fledged member, they signed all of it over to the sect. There is no evidence the early church practiced anything like that.

But look what happened next!

Ananias and his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property. They took part of the proceeds of the sale and gave it to the apostles, claiming it was the full price of the land. For whatever reason, Peter knew this guy was trying to deceive them. He spelled it out to Ananias:

The property was yours.

You chose to sell it, you were not required to.

After you sold it, the money was yours to do with as you chose.

You chose to give some of it to us, which is fine, BUT

You lied to us by telling us this was the entire price.

When you lie to the church, you are lying to God the Holy Spirit!

Ananias dropped dead.

Note: Scripture does not say God struck him dead. Nor that Peter cursed him. Did he die from a heart attack or fear of being found out? I leave it to you.

Sapphira came in three hours later, and Peter confronted her. Did you sell your land for such and such a price? She replied they did. Peter asked her why they had conspired to test the Spirit of God by lying? He told her that Ananias was dead and the men who had buried him would take her there.

She also dropped dead.

Again, notice exactly what Scripture says. It does not say God struck her dead, nor that Peter cursed her. Indeed, one can interpret Peter's words as meaning they would show her her husband's grave. Nevertheless, she fell dead.

And the whole church panicked! We don't need to water down the story, but rather point out that the Lord considers His Church as sacred. We are to deal carefully with holy things. As a result of all this, the church prospered, attracting more and more through its preaching and ministries.