Acts 6 - Preservation and pleasing God

Book of Acts chapter 6. Acts chapter 6. I think this will fit in nicely with what we've been hearing because there is a problem that comes in in this chapter that goes against the very purpose of what we were hearing about, to bring about a oneness into that church, a unity, and yet that unity is on the verge of being shattered in Acts chapter 6. Verse 1, and in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied, and you'll notice as we go through the book of Acts there are a number of things that grow, a number of things that are full, a number of things that are magnified, that increase, and so the number of the disciples was multiplied. There arose a murmuring of the Grecians or the Hellenists against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Now what this likely was is that there were sales of properties and there were excess amount of money and it was being distributed to those in need, particularly the widows, to help them in their condition, and there were those that were being ignored on the basis of ethnicity.

Now it says, then the twelve, and that is one of the indicators again of the approval of the action that was taken in the book, in the beginning of the book, the twelve, even though Judas fell, Matthias took his place, it is an administrative title as well, and so the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, it is not reason, it's not reasonable, it's not consistent or good, it's not something that should be done, that we should leave the word of God and minister or serve, that's where we would get the word deacon from, serve tables. Now this table here has nothing to do with the Lord's table or anything, this is a table for practical purposes in the distribution of goods to the widows, and so as the apostles meet together, they're talking about this, they call the multitude, they said it's not reasonable, we should leave the word of God, notice that's the priority, and serve tables. Wherefore brethren, look you out among you, seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business, and the idea there is this present necessity, this is a necessity, it's something that has arisen and we need to deal with this, we cannot let this fester, we cannot let this go on, this needs immediate attention, but the attention should not take us away from the pressing priority of preaching, teaching, and ministering in terms of the word of God, that is paramount.

It says, but we, verse 4 proves that, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry, the deaconing, the serving of the word of God. And the saying pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full, there's one of those expressions again in the book of Acts, full of faith, and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas a proselyte of Antioch, whom they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them, that was an act of identification, of public recognition, it's very different if you were to go back to chapter 5, and the chapter 4, you'd read that same expression, but it's a lot different there, there we read that they laid their hands on them to beat them, they laid their hands on them to cast them in prison, this is different, there was the recognition, the identification of these men, and they laid their hands on them. Notice verse 7, as a result of what happened in dealing with this issue, quickly, properly, administratively, and it's showing that the way they dealt with this problem was not necessarily just because of the ethnicity of the situation, it was a problem because of maybe there had been administrative lack, organization lack, there had been a lack in terms of overseeing this issue, and staying on top of things biblically, and correctly, and spiritually, and the result in doing this now in verse 7 is this, and the word of God increased.

How did that happen? Was more of the Bible being written? I don't think that's what it means. The word of God increased, the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great number of the priests were obedient to the faith. I'm not going to be too long, I just want to, I think it just fit in as I was listening to brother John speak on the great truth of the Ephesian epistles, and going back to the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit of God came down, and Jew and Gentile formed into one body, that middle wall of partition that existed between them, broken down, and God establishing now in one body, that which we have all been brought into upon the moment of salvation, and as we've been reminded will be complete at the rapture.

As I read this and look at this passage, I got to thinking about an expression in chapter 6 and verse 1, in those days. It occurs a number of times in the book of Acts, in those days, and it is indicative of something that happens, that is bringing about a change. I just wonder now if we could apply that to in these days, and think about things that possibly can arise, challenges that can come into the assemblies of God's people, or even the lives of God's people.

How do we handle that? How do we deal with that? How do we address that? It is of paramount importance that we don't lean to our own understanding, that we don't do necessarily what is simply convenient. Sometimes convenience has reason to be used, but it is important that always we look to the Word of God and its authority, because if we do not, we open up the door for things that can come in that will derail, that will divide, that will affect us in such a way that if that path keeps going on, it becomes harder and harder to come back upon. But if we obey the Word of God, we keep on track.

And not only do we keep on track, but we act then under the authority of the One that we belong to. And we are ultimately pleasing God in a world that basically lives for itself and has said this, our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? We're going to do what we want.

But what we have admitted and acknowledged and accepted is this, we belong to Christ. We have been bought, whether it is that local assembly, that Acts chapter 20, the Apostle reminds them this, that he has purchased with the blood of his own, or whether it is us as individual believers, or it says we've been bought with a price. Same price, precious blood.

So as I'm looking at this, these were interesting days. The book of Acts is a tremendous study. It was a time of expansion, of newness, things that had to be faced that they had never faced before.

Challenging days, challenging endeavors. The gospel was being spread, and it was spread in such a different way. And I was thinking even as our brother John mentioned about the dispensational church, and I know what he means, and in a very real way, in some ways, there is a uniqueness even about the local church that has a dispensational aspect.

Because what we do, even though it is different than the body, we are doing until he come. And it was brought into being at the same time. Distinct, different, and we face challenges.

And while hymnology is not theology, we have sung in that hymn, the church's one foundation is Jesus Christ our Lord, and then we sang by schisms, rent asunder, and so on. That is not true of the universal church. That is not true.

The universal church, the body of Christ, that which the Ephesian epistle has brought before us, is unaffected, undaunted, unswerved. But the local church is affected. It is challenged.

And while the universal church, if I can use that term, the body of Christ, will not ever cease to be from the day it came into existence on Pentecost. There are local assemblies that have ceased to be. And that's the burden of my heart, thinking about this.

How do we handle situations that arise among us? How do we address needs that arise among us? Some of those are very legitimate. Some of those are created because of self-will, self-endeavor, wrong choices, wrong directions, wrong associations. However they may come into being, they will come.

And the correct and really the only way that we must address them is biblically, scripturally, under the authority of the Word of God. So as I'm looking at that, these were times of expansion. The disciples, it says, were multiplied, verses 1, verse 7. It says the Word of God increased, verse 7. And then it even says about these individual men, Stephen in particular, he was a man full of faith, full of the Holy Spirit.

We need people like that. God is looking for people like that. Those are the kind of individuals, and these were the men that were used to promote, preserve, and literally protect, as it were, God was using them to further His agenda, to be an active agent among the people of God for His good.

Those are the kind of people that are essential, that are necessary, spiritual men and women. It is a cry today in all of us. Spirituality is what causes an assembly to thrive.

Christlikeness, the recognition of His authority, submission to His Word. It's not about intelligence. It's not about capability in the world.

It's not about business acumen. It's not about educational prowess. It's about spiritual men and women.

And as we come to this account here, literally it is the first really collective problem. I know Ananias and Sapphira were earlier, but as this problem is facing the church, the deflection or the deviation or the direction is based upon what is going to happen here. I don't know, but maybe there are assemblies that are represented here, and I certainly know there are assemblies in the world that are at crossroads in situations.

How are you going to handle? How are they going to handle such situations? Situations that Satan will seek to get in and using a pry bar to divide, to corrupt, to even distract, to even at times seemingly legitimize wrong direction for the sake of the people. That is really what you had when you come to Laodicea and in the book of Revelation. The people's rights.

It's something where it was about the people. But we need to remember that this is not about the people. It's about Him.

It's about Christ. It's about His lordship. It's about His word.

And so as we move through this, I want you to just notice that the issues here are interesting. They were beginning issues. The Hellenists, the Hebrews, just to make a distinction a little bit.

Hellenists were basically Greek-speaking Jews. They didn't speak the Hebrew. They would have used the Septuagint for their study.

And so you have this division. They weren't the pure Hebrew. They weren't those.

And so as there's this difference in ethnicity, racially almost, if you can use it that way, and they're looking at one another, and how are they going to deal with this situation? I appreciate what the apostles say is the 12. It says, it is not reasonable that we should leave the word of God. Not reasonable.

I wonder how important, and this is wonderful at a once a year conference, but I wonder how important, I know how important the gospel is to assemblies here, but I want to ask everyone here with overseers here that are responsible for the leadership of assemblies, the direction of assemblies, how important is it to you in the assembly that you find yourself in as leaders is the ministry of the word of God? How important is the teaching of the word of God? You see, that is overarching. Don't miss that, what's here. The 12 are recognizing there's a problem.

There's a clear acknowledgement that there are issues here. There's necessities here in terms of the widows that are being neglected, but they say even in relation to that, it's not reasonable that we should leave the teaching of the word of God, the instruction of the word of God. That's paramount.

How often do assemblies here have series of ministry meetings? It used to be years ago that I could remember men coming with charts on Zechariah, and the feasts of Jehovah, and the offerings, and the seven churches, and it would be a week or two, two weeks on Egypt to Canaan. Now you know what you hear sometimes? I don't know if the saints can really put up with more than three nights. I don't know, it's going to be hard.

We'll see what we can do, but you know, the preacher, don't be disappointed if come Wednesday night, you know, you're only getting the few and the faithful out. Right from the beginning, even not in the in light of simply just going along, but in light of a crisis situation, the apostles are saying this, what is paramount, we dare not leave the importance of the teaching of the word of God to serve tables. That's important.

This is paramount. And if we truly take care of this in this way, this will also come under that purview and be taken care of as well. And so you have this business.

Now I want you to think as you compare these two, the tables with the teaching of the word of God. One was momentary. One was momentary.

It sprang up. It was there for the moment. The other is all the time.

It exists today. We don't have a problem today with widows being neglected. Not that specific problem.

We have other issues, practical issues that can come in. Issues of people being maybe mistreated, maybe misaligned, even misunderstood. That happens all the time.

But this was a local issue as well, whereas the teaching of the word of God is a universal issue. This was a momentary issue, whereas the teaching of the word of God is a permanent issue all the time. This was an issue of pretty much service and activity, whereas the teaching was a matter of doctrine.

And brethren, if we do not have teaching of doctrine consistently, continually, correctly, we will not behave properly. It is that which conforms us It gives us the guide rails. It gives us the guidance, the parameters, the understanding.

How can I live? How can I please? How can I know God without knowing the Bible that God has given me? Without knowing the doctrine, the teaching of the word of God. So we must have the word of God taught. It must be known.

But there's one more thing here. It must be obeyed. It must be carried out.

I know this is basically Christianity 101. I'm not going to give you anything very deep or anything, but when I come to this passage right at the beginning of the book of Acts, it says this, and the saying pleased all the people. I was thinking that as John was speaking about saying that the doctrine, don't give us the practical things.

No, it says this saying pleased the people. They were agreeable to it. In other words, they were saying that this is right.

How wonderful when God's people hear the teaching of the word of God given and they say, that pleases us because we can please God in it. We can do what's right. We can agree.

We can have unity on the basis, not by what you like and what you like and what you like, but on the basis of what God says. And it brings the people of God together in agreement. Listen, doctrine does not divide.

Doctrine unites. And when we disagree on what God says in his doctrine, in his word, then we move away from what God wants. But doctrine unites.

And so it says they agreed. This pleased the people. And they were basically in obedience to his word, in pleasing their God, they were showcasing in shoe leather the reality of the gospel that they were preaching.

They were bringing it into view. They were bringing God into view in essence. They were bringing truth into view.

You know, there is a great danger, brethren, for us to have the truth in name only. For us to boast and brag and put something under a glass case and say, well, you know what, we do this and we do that and we don't do this and we don't do that. And to simply hold the word of God like this, but to not let it really conform us, to not let it cause us to live it out in relationships one with another, in worship to the God of heaven, in the preaching of the gospel, in the lives that we live.

You see, what I see about this, this hit them right where they lived. This was an issue of reality. There were, think about it, there were widows that were being neglected.

The most helpless of society, the ones that had no resources, no ability, the ones that were absolutely vulnerable and open, they were being neglected. And the apostles, the apostles, the twelve, they didn't say about this issue, you know, that is such a small thing. You know, it'll take care of itself on its own.

Just, you know what, it'll die out. Just, time is on our side. And the people who are causing problems, you know what, they'll just go away.

Just let the thing die out. You know what they recognized? They recognized number one, any issue that affected the people of God was ultimately God's concern. That's number one.

Number two, they recognized this, and brethren, we need to recognize this very, very significantly, that unless little things, seemingly at times, are addressed, they can quickly become runaway trains. They can quickly become big issues. And at the very beginning of the church age, the apostles in their wisdom and in their love for their Lord and for His Word and for His people recognized, we cannot leave this preaching of the Word of God.

That is important. But then they said, now look you out, seven men, seven men. I wonder if we could have found seven men today.

I'm not saying there isn't. I'm just saying, who would we find? Who would God find? Who would be chosen? Who among this conference meeting today would be one of the seven picked out? You know, when you go to the Old Testament and you see God looking to have some excursion or some event, there are those that were chosen out of the tribes. They were men, princes.

They should have been godly men, capable men, men that knew God, men that had the welfare of their tribe at heart. And they were the men that were called. Here are seven men that are called, and notice them, and this one of these men is going to die very shortly.

He is going to die for his Lord. We are a people today, sadly, that we seem to be willing to live for everything else, but not die for what's important. I want to ask you, I'm asking myself this, believe me, I was really hoping, I was looking for other brethren to get up, but I did feel it fit in, and I just want to ask the question, how far are you willing to go? How far have you gone? How far after this conference, hearing the word of God, hearing earlier about the Apostle Paul, one committed life, hearing about rubbish in the temple, hearing about the truth of the revelation, the truth of the kingdom, the truth of, hearing about all the, are they just hot topics? Are they just buzzwords? Or is it truth that will literally come down and settle upon the companies of God's people represented in this conference, and recognize this, that we are at crossroads, that there are possibilities, there is potential here for things to come in if we are not wise, if we do not present and keep teaching what is absolutely vital.

We will spend, and I'm not decrying it brethren, but looking at the balance, we will spend countless weeks upon weeks upon weeks in the gospel, and very little time in the ministry of the word of God. Why is that? I'm not saying the other isn't important, but I'm saying why is the other seemingly so little important? Here it says the word of God. We cannot leave the word of God.

It says they laid hands on these men. The result, let me just look at these three results. Number one, and I just say this as an aside, the disciples do not allow fragmentation to occur along ethnic or natural ties to happen.

In other words, they did not cater to group philosophy. They recognized the importance of the oneness, the unity of the people of God. Not at the expense of agreeing with what was wrong, and not at the expense of forming some group of the widow's club of the Middle East, or something like that.

Not on the basis of, well, the Hellenists will go one way, and then we'll have the Hebrews on one side, and they'll each have their own group, and they can splinter off and so on. No, no. It wasn't on the basis of splinter groups.

It was on the basis of that this is going to affect the entire company, the whole. The solution we have to come up with is this. What does God say? What is spiritual? What is right? What is in keeping with the holy character of God and His word? And so as a result, number one, the word of God increased.

Now, how did that happen? What does that exactly mean, that the word of God increased? Did their Bibles get bigger? Was there more added to the scripture? No, that's not what it means. It literally has the thought that the word of God increased in their appreciation of it, in their apprehension of it. In other words, this became more dear to them, more precious to them, more real to them.

That before they were basing behavior on this, on this, on self-will, on what we want. But now they turn, and as they see what's happening, and they literally, the fog lifts and it clears, and they get the perspective of the big picture. Brethren, that's what we need.

We need the perspective of the big picture, the bird's eye view from heaven. And it says this, the word of God increased. There was an appreciation that grew.

Can I ask you, every one of us, has your appreciation for the word of God increased? Because it is in that measure that you hold that book in your hand special, and you realize that what you have in your hand is something that men have died for, people were burned for, that God himself has promised that this was precious to Christ. It was something he lived and moved, and not only in the very truth of it that spoke of him, but in the fulfillment of it as well, as we were reminded of this morning. This book is unique.

This book is alive. This book is able to change, to radicalize, to motivate. And it says the word of God, it says it increased.

Has your appreciation for the word of God increased? Or is it the same to you this week as it was last week? Is it the same to you now as it was last year? Do you really pick it up and hold it to your chest? You know, I remember being in Aruba, there was a woman, and we asked her just visiting down there, I said, is there anything that we can bring you back? And she was a woman, she said, a Bible. She said, I don't have a Bible. She didn't have it, at least in her language.

I was able to get her one Bible in her language. I'll never forget, I gave it to her, and she just looked at it. And as she looked at it, she went like this.

She said, thank you. Thank you. I touched my heart.

I remember another time, I may have told this once before, but I was in a bat mitzvah. One of my nieces, Jewish girl, not a bar mitzvah, that's for men, but a bat mitzvah, that's for girls. And my son and I went to it, and I remember sitting there, and we all sat together, and we were like sardines, all squeezed in.

It was packed. And they had a Bible, an Old Testament, and I was able to look at it. It was interesting as I was looking at the arrangement and how it was different.

And I remember we were so close, we sat there for two hours, that finally, it got to the point where that Bible, even just the Old Testament, was a little heavy, and it was a little uncomfortable as I was holding it. I felt like a T-Rex, kind of like this. It was going like this.

And finally, I just, I took that Bible, and I just, I stood it up straight, and I put it on the side of the leg of the chair. So it was on the carpeting. It was less than a minute.

And one of the Jewish men, he came over, and he went like this to me. He said, pick that up. Pick that up.

I tell you, that smoked my own conscience. I thought, here's a man, he's not even saved. And he's telling me, don't put the Bible on the floor.

Let me ask everyone here, what have you done with your Bible? What have you done with the Bible? Because really, that says what you've done with your God. As I read this, the Word of God increased. It increased not only in their appreciation by, but it also then increased in the ability of.

Because as your appreciation of the Word of God increases, and your apprehension of it increases, so will then your ability to be used by God. God will put more into your hands. God will put more responsibility.

He will trust you with more. Maybe you don't want that. Maybe there are people here, and you really are interested in sitting this one out, and you're happy where you are.

Will God help you? Because there's a day coming when we're all going to stand before Christ. These individuals saw this, and they recognized, no, no, no, this is not what we want. The saying pleased the people.

The men rose up, seven men, full of the Holy Spirit. The apostles preaching the Word, the Word of God increased. The number of disciples increased.

It didn't say the number of believers increased. It said the number of disciples increased, right? In other words, those who are committed, those who are now are added to the cause. They're disciplined.

They are learners. They are disciples. And so, the number of disciples increased.

But you know what I thought was really interesting? It said, and a great number of the priests believed. According to Josephus at this time, in Jerusalem, there could have been up to 20,000 priests. One commentator says that Josephus tended to be a little bit exaggerated.

So maybe there were 15,000 to 18,000. That would have been about 10,000 Levites, 8,000 priests. Can you picture that? A great number of the priests, the very group of people in Judaism that had beat these disciples up, that had thrust them into prison, that had said, shh, no more, no more.

And inside their very grouping, and there's a bigger fish yet to come in Saul of Tarsus, and it says they believed. In fact, it actually says that they were obedient unto the faith, which carries the idea of a living, responsive, submissive agreement to, bowing to. These were men, the priests, were men of the book.

And now, they become obedient to the faith. What I'm seeing here is this, and then Stephen rises up. So what I'm seeing is this, when the Word of God is given its proper place, when the teaching, when it is bowed to, when it is submitted to, when that is something that says, it is not reasonable, no matter what crises comes in, we use that situation to bring the Word of God into it, God will be vindicated.

The people of God will be blessed. There will be blessing, there will be increase. What does God want? Well, God wants to be glorified.

How? How? We pray that, right? That God will be glorified. How? How is God glorified? When we obey His Word, when we revere, that is a word that we don't use that often, do we? Revere, respect, regard, reverence to, elevation of, prioritization of, a premium. This is the one thing.

And when God is glorified, think about that, His Word in worship, His Word, if there is no familiarity, understanding, apprehension, expansion, increase in the Word of God, it's going to affect first and foremost, my worship. You know what God loves to hear? He loves to hear His own language, brought right back to Him. It's the language He has given us in His Word.

The Bible is literally the language of heaven. It's the language of God. And when we use that to each other and speak to Him and each other, we are literally embracing the tremendous truth of community and of reality of whose we are.

I remember one time I was in an airport and I remember there was a man who got off the plane, was sitting there waiting, the people were arriving, I was waiting to leave, and I could tell, I could just tell that one of the men that got up, he was Italian. And as he went, he started speaking to his relative, whether it was a brother, a cousin, I couldn't tell. They embraced, they hugged, and they started talking.

They were going, going, just quickly, quick. And they were just thrilled. And people were standing there and they just couldn't.

But these two men, they were just into it. And there was emotion, and there was reality, and there was togetherness. They were speaking each other's language.

You know something, brethren? When you get familiar with the Word of God, when you immerse yourself in the Word of God, and you then worship and communicate and serve and pray in light of this book, you are then speaking God's language. Tremendous. God has given it to us.

What about serving? When we serve, even the small, offer a cup of cold water in my name. You know, that's in the Bible. When you do that, in his name, you are carrying out his Word.

And that delights God. And that's just a cup of cold water. Imagine when you master a meal.

Imagine when you master the bigger things. Imagine when you bring the reality of the truth of the Word of God and submission to it, and obedience to Christ, the Christ of the Word, and you link them together, and you bring them, and now how much pleasure and delight is that going to bring? So in all of these things, so I'll just leave you with these three things. I will notice the truth of God will, first of all, it will preserve.

This company has been, in Acts chapter six, preserved. Companies are not preserved when the Word of God is not obeyed. When we lean to self-will, when we lead to philosophies, when we lead to convenience, when we lead to compromise, when we look at things in light of maybe even the spirit of the world, the understanding of what they do, why they do it, what's working there, and we take away from the Word of God, and we move off the pages and truth of the Bible, we open ourselves up, and we are not preserved.

And that is true individually as well as collectively. Not only are we not preserved, but there is not a promotion of things, a propagation of things. They either, and there's no such thing as standing still.

We're either going on or we're going backwards. You do not stand still. So if we are not carrying out the truth of the Word of God in devotion, obedient, and from the heart, and knowing this book like they did here, there will be no promotion.

That's why it says here, and the Word of God increased. And the number of the disciples increased. There was expansion.

But the third thing we'll be missing too. We won't be pleasing God. We won't be bringing delight to His heart.

Isn't that what we want to do? What does it say about Enoch in that he had this testimony in that he pleased God? Isn't that what you want to do? Doesn't it cause us heartache when we don't please Him? When we please ourselves, we please Him. But truth, you know, we have a completed Word. We have lines of truth that are specific.

And one last thing, when we speak about the Word of God, that we have to hold the Word of God and know the Word of God, listen, I don't want that to be some generic yellow label type thing. There are lines of truth that need to be mined, need to be got into, so that we will effectively be able to not only defend the truth. Brother John was up here before talking about false teaching on election and so on.

How are you going to guard against that? We are literally being inundated today by voluminous writings of Reform teaching that leans to a wrong biblical view of Calvinism and so on. How are you going to defend that if you don't know what the truth of election is in the Bible? Truths of soteriology, the truth of salvation, the truth of the gospel, the truth of assembly teaching, church teaching, ecclesiology, the truth of future events that have been brought before us in this conference, eschatology, prophecy. These are specific lines and it is for all of us, men and women, and especially I implore, I beg the leaders of assemblies, the shepherds, teach the Word of God.

It is the one thing that is non-negotiable when it comes to the truth of God. Teach it. The sheep need the food.

You know, sometimes we were hearing about people leaving just recently, leaving assemblies. Brethren, you might not like me for saying this, but it's the truth at times. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but sometimes people leave because they don't have food.

The sheep need to be fed. There is enough in this book. It is infinite as the God himself who gave it to us.

Know it. Teach it. Bring it.

Not just in crisis times when the widows are being neglected, especially in those times when the widows are being neglected, but at all times. That assemblies might be thriving. Might this conference be the beginning once again of a work of God that will be able to entrench in our hearts and conviction? We need to get into the book.

We need to know the God of the book and the book of God, and it goes together so that we will be like the man of God in 2 Timothy, thoroughly equipped, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.