This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
The Lord says there's neither Jew nor Greek, nor bond or
freeman or male or female. We've all been made to drink
that same spiritual drink from God's economy and the way he
views things. He doesn't look at ethnic
issues, he doesn't look at racial issues, he doesn't look
at financial issues, he doesn't choose people based upon some
place of birth. He doesn't see anybody as being
more important than someone else, right.
We're all the same as people. In today's world, there are so
many things that divide us from one another.
Race, gender, political ideology, or even favorite
sports teams can drive wedges between people if we allow them
to. But Pastor Clark teaches us
today that in the eyes of God, all of us are equal.
All of us have sinned and are in need of a Savior.
Jesus didn't come to this earth to die for one group of people.
He came to offer salvation to any who would call on him.
The early church was diverse because it was open to everyone.
Now here's Pastor Clark in the book of Acts Chapter 5 with
today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
So we are in the book of Acts, the Acts of the Apostles could
be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit as well, because it is
about the work of God's Holy Spirit in the church, the early
church. So the early church, when we
study this in Acts, this is all new.
Everything that we're studying is new to the people who became
believers at Pentecost and when God put his church together, the
New Testament church, there was no programs, very little
politics, no agenda. It was just people loving Jesus
and hanging out together and worshipping God.
They didn't really have buildings like we have nowadays,
church buildings at that time. They didn't have much of an
organizational chart in regard to how ministry flows within the
four walls of a a church community.
So everything is organic, everything is developing,
everything is brand new. I'm going to finish reading the
verses in chapter 5 starting at 40 leading into chapter 6.
This is after Gamaliel told the leaders of the empire at the
time not to hassle the Christians.
If it's of if it's of man, it'll fall apart.
If it's of God, no one can stop it.
And obviously it is of God because no one has stopped it in
over 2000 years. But it says, And they agreed
with him. And when they had called for the
apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not
speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.
So they departed from the presence of the council,
rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his
name. And daily in the temple and in
every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as
the Christ. So they weren't worried about
being embarrassed or ridiculed or persecuted or betrayed.
And in regard to the nation, they love serving the Lord.
And they weren't self-centered, they were other centered.
They were Christ centered and they were praising God that they
had an opportunity to suffer difficulty for their faith,
something that we can learn from.
And they worshipped every day. It wasn't just like they waited
till Wednesday or Sunday or some other day.
These people had such a desire to be in the Word and be
together as Christians that they they gathered whenever they
could in homes and they were always teaching one another
about the things of God and preaching the gospel to people
that never heard or needed to know who Jesus was.
This a wonderful move of of God's spirit.
It was approximately 20,000 people that were part of this
New Testament church at this time.
It was developing, it was growing and eventually there'd
be persecution and the church would be scattered and they
would be then meeting primarily in smaller homes, groups, that
kind of stuff. God wasn't interested in mega
churches back then. He was interested in real unity
and Christians coming together, knowing each other, loving each
other, praying for one another wasn't the size of the of the of
the organization. It was the life that was in the
community of faith at the time that impacted everyone that was
exposed to this New Testament church.
So we we we begin in chapter 6 here and the subtitle says 7
chosen to serve in any church and it happened in the early
church. There's always need for help and
they always say there's an 8020 roll, 20% to 80% of the work and
organizations or ministries or whatever.
We're fortunate here. There's a much higher percentage
of participation of help and service because of your heart's
desired and want to serve the Lord.
And we're very grateful for that.
That's what makes the church alive.
When people get involved with their passion and their
ministries and they're using their gifts.
And now in these days and those days when the number of the
disciples. This is Acts chapter 6, verse 1
was multiplying. There arose A complaint against
the Hebrews by the Hellenist because their widows were
neglected in the daily distribution.
So the Jewish institution, the synagogue, the temple, they did
try to help take care of widows and orphans.
This is not something new. But now there's this breakdown
in relationship between Christians and the legalists of
the Jewish religion. And so the ministry is growing,
things are happening, and there's this complaint that's
beginning to occur because they need more help now.
These Hebrews were the people that were more, I guess,
organized within the community of Jerusalem and they were law
keepers and they were into, you know, their traditions and that
kind of stuff. The hell on us were Jewish
people, but they were impacted by Greek culture.
And so they were sort of looked out upon by the Hebrews.
But nonetheless, they were two communities of Jewish people.
These people had been scattered during the dysphoria and the
difficulties of of the nation of Israel, what they've been
through since the beginning of time as a nation.
So there's this this issue that things are falling through to
cracks and the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples and
said it is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and
serve tables. So what's the solution to the
problem? And any given church is always
something that someone maybe is upset about or they don't like
something or they're frustrated or whatever.
Instead of coming and making it known to the leadership, Lots of
times people begin this behind the scenes, backbiting,
murmuring, complaining, backstabbing, whatever.
They did this or do you know what he did or what she did or
whatever. And that stuff never solves
anything, right? But lots of times things can be
taken care of quite easily if someone just goes and says, hey,
have you ever thought about this?
This isn't really working really well right now.
And have you ever thought about trying this or this idea,
whatever. And we as leaders are open to
whatever ideas you guys have. Many times, if they're good
ideas and they're from the Lord, we want to see them implemented.
If we're missing something or we're not doing something right,
we want to be told about that so we can correct it.
Not the people get mad and they leave or they say they don't
listen or whatever. That's not the way we want to
roll here. But what was happening here is
that they realize the apostles, I can't do all this.
There's twelve of them and they cannot handle all this group of
20,000 approximately people and do it well.
And so they said, look, we have to study and we have to pray so
that whenever we come and teach the people, we have something of
substance to tell them. But if we're too busy handling
all the details of the church, then we're not going to be
prepared to tell the people the things of God from the word of
God. They were stretched and they
realized that they couldn't do this themselves.
They were asking for help. So they said it isn't a good
idea that we should leave what we're supposed to be doing,
teaching the word of God. And and when they say serving
tables, it doesn't mean like giving people food, wiping them
off, get the dishes, all that. It's just being a servant in all
these different other capacities of what happens when churches
begin to grow and there's needs. So it says.
Therefore, brethren in verse 3, seek out from among you 7 men of
good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom whom we
may appoint over this business, but we will give ourselves
continually to prayer in the ministry of the word.
So what's beautiful about this? It got the congregation involved
like you guys. You should know the people that
come to Calvary you, you, you talk to them all the time.
If we have need for help, you might suggest to Pastor Lewis or
one of the elders, Hey, you know this, this guy or this woman
they're they're really gifted. They got a real love for God.
Have you ever thought about, you know, we need have a need for
this? And they were telling me they'd
like to do whatever. I mean, that's how you get the
right people in the right place. So, you know, they, they made
suggestions in regard to what was happening.
So the saying, please, the whole multitude.
So the church was in unity. They weren't disunity.
They were connected and they they understood we're going to
fix this. We're going to make it right.
And so they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, and the Holy
Spirit, and Philip and Procurius and Nicanor and Theemon and par
Menas, and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they set
before the apostles. And when they had prayed, they
laid hands on them. So what's interesting is the
predominant number of people in this church at the time were
Hebrew Christians. The Hellenists were a smaller
percentage of the group, but a lot of people in this instance
that were called to serve were from that Hellenist group, which
is I find sort of interesting, you know, the Greek influence.
And so the Lord says there's neither Jew nor Greek or Bond or
Freeman or male or female. We've all been made to drink
that same spiritual drink from God's economy and the way he
views things. He doesn't look at ethnic
issues, He doesn't look at racial issues.
He doesn't look at financial issues.
He doesn't choose people based upon some place of birth.
He doesn't see anybody as being more important than someone
else, right? We're all the same as people.
And so whenever you have a, a church community, you don't have
preference over one person or group or background.
We need to be LED of the Holy Spirit.
We need to do what God's telling us to do, not what the culture
maybe is trying to push us to do or what's politically correct,
you know, that term and that kind of stuff.
We want God to raise up who he wants to raise up and for him to
take down who he needs to take down.
And so they, they got the support of the people.
It wasn't a congregational role kind of thing or anything.
It was the body of Christ being alive enough to, you know, be
together in regard to people that they thought would be
really good in this capacity. And so there was no
disagreement. And so whenever they got these
guys together, these seven, they ordained them.
And ordained ordination is, is biblical.
It's the laying on of hands to the person that's going to do a
particular ministry in the church, and that person is
codified or recognized by God's calling.
And the laying on of hands isn't anything powerful from the
person who's doing the laying on of hands.
It's a picture of God laying his hands on them and we're just
agreeing with what it is that God's already done in a person's
life. And so when they did that, this
is the exciting thing. Verse 7, they got it together.
They got it straightened out. Then the word of God spread and
the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.
And a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.
So what was cool about this is the apostles were released from
the responsibility of having to deal with the the widow
situation. They were able to concentrate on
what it was that they were called to do and then they were
able to do it effectively. And the word went out and the
church kept growing. It kept growing.
It says it multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.
And not only the people in the streets we're hearing, but the
high-ranking officials that were serving in the synagogue.
The priests were getting saved too, which is awesome, right?
Just a move of God, a real revival.
And so Stephen, we're going to concentrate on him now.
The next Stephen was one of the seven.
He was not an apostle, but he was a man of God filled with the
Holy Spirit. So God doesn't differentiate in
regard to the communication of the Word.
A man of God is a man of God. You know, the title doesn't not
make the man the man of God. It's not the pastor or the elder
or the Deacon. It's you and me as men were
either given over to serve God and to be used by God and to use
our gifts that God's given us, or we just sit around and don't
do anything right in our church. You know, we want to see more
and more men teaching the word of God because if they're
learning to teach the word of God, they're going to help the
church grow, but they're also going to be used by the Lord in
their own homes and their family and their own sphere of
influence as as well as the church.
And that Wednesday night we have other guys beside pastors that
are teaching the word and they're this is competent and
gifted and a blessing to us is, is, is the pastors.
We don't hold one person up higher than the other.
It's the word of God that's doing the work, right.
The word of God communicated to the people of God is what
changes the the hearts of of the people of God.
So Stephen is a man of faith. It says here in verse 8, Stephen
full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among
the people. And then you might say, well, I
thought any of the apostles could do that.
Well, back in the early church days, God's miraculous power was
being poured out through men and women in very different kind of
circumstances. It wasn't, excuse me, only an
Apostolic kind of authority that would have the ability to do
these things. I mean, Stevens picked to be and
there was no deacons at this time.
Later on, the word develop Deacon means servant.
In the book of Timothy, it tells about the qualifications of
leaders in the church, but they weren't so much at this
particular point in time positioned as deacons.
They were just servants, right. So Steven, he's doing these
ministries and he's called to help with the widows, but he, he
didn't say, well, well, I guess I'm just like a down and out guy
and I'm, I'm not good enough to do anything else.
So I'll help these widows and I'll, you know, no, he was a man
of God. So he had a lot of spiritual
gifts. He was able to do a lot of
different things. He wasn't just doing one thing
right. He was able to be used by the
Lord. And then in verse 9, there arose
some from what is called the synagogue of the freeman
Sirenians, Alexandrians and those from Silesia and Asia
disputing with Stephen. They began to argue with him
because of his evangelistic zeal and his preaching of of Christ.
Cilicia is the region where the apostle Paul was serving with
the Sanhedrin at the time. He was called Saul of Tarsus and
we'll study later on in the book of the Acts how he became born
again. But he was a persecutor of
Christians. And so it says that and when
they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which
he spoke. So these guys are hearing what
the gospel's about the person of Jesus, the history, the biblical
point by point step and he goes into great detail.
It's probably one of the greatest historical sermons in
the New Testament as to what God started with Abraham and moved
all the way through Christ when Christ came.
We'll take our time as we study this.
But, and so they're arguing with him.
But what was amazing was they inside weren't able to resist
the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke.
There was an anointing on this man and they weren't able to
ignore it. They weren't able to dispute it.
They weren't really able to find concrete evidence to disagree
with what he was saying. They didn't like what he was
saying, but they weren't able to disagree with what he was
saying. They were convicted even at the
early stage of his his preaching here.
And it says then they secretly induce men to say we have heard
him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.
So already these guys are beginning to spread division and
lies among the multitudes of people.
They're putting him down. They're disagreeing, they're
lying about things he said. Isn't that typical of anybody
that is influential in the culture?
If they're good people and they're trying to do the right
job, how many people slander the leader or the spokesperson or
the person? You know, it could be a
politician, it could be, you know, whatever, a pastor, you
guys or your family, you know, you're sharing your faith with
someone and, and they're, they're saying, well, you know,
I wouldn't listen to him because I saw him run a red light last
week. You know, he's not a real
Christian or just goofy stuff, right?
They come up with all kind of reasons to invalidate you as
being a follower and a servant of God, right?
So they're beginning to stir all this up.
You know, we've heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses
and God. He never did that, but he surely
told them that Jesus was better than Moses, which he is, right?
They also talked about the authority of Christ versus all
those who went before him. He was very clear on
representing the Lord as as to who he was and what he did.
And it says in verse 12. And they stirred up the people,
they got them all uptight, got them all anxious, aggravated the
elders and the scribes, and they came upon him, seized him and
brought him to the council. So none of the stuff's true.
What they're saying about this evangelist Stephen, he's being
faithful to this. Give the word out there, simply
the history of what Christ has done and they get this group of
people that want to arrest them now, seize them and bring them
before the authorities, the same authorities that Christ had to
go through and go before, which is interesting.
They also set up false witnesses who said this man does not cease
to speak blasphemous words against this holy place in the
law. False witnesses, That's common
in the day as well. How many times have you heard
things that are being said about someone that aren't?
That isn't true. This is happening in the
political arena right now. Thank the Lord there's evidence
to the contrary and it's brought out to clarify that it is a lie
and it's not true. But if the enemy always wants to
bring lies and slanderous things.
Against the truth. It's just the way it is in in
our world, and it's the way it's been since the beginning of
time. So they set up these false
witnesses. Now, when Stephen was speaking
about what God had put on his heart, he wasn't like saying
that the temple was insignificant, but he was trying
to help them understand. You've made this into an
idolatrous institution. You begun to worship the
structure and the artwork and the beauty of the temple and not
the one who created it. And that can happen very easily
in, in, in churches. People told you, if you've been
into that church, it's magnificent.
They have the most amazing stained glass and they have, you
know, how high ceilings in the, in the chandeliers and, and
people can go on and on and on and they like, they go into that
and then they think, well, you know, because all that stuff's
there, then there must be God must be there somehow.
And then they, they, they come into a place like this.
And where's the stained glass man?
You know, is this really a church or is this a cult or what
is this place? You know, and I'm not negating
the beauty. I like a, a beautiful church.
I go into Saint Vincent once in a while and pray when I'm
driving down the road. I just like going in there
because it's sun's coming in through that stained glass
window. It's cool.
I like that. If we could afford it, I'd like
to do it right, but we're never, we're probably never going to be
able to do that. So if you want that, you got to
go up there, right? Nonetheless, it's not an opinion
of this is better and this is worse.
You know, the whole idea was it was their heart.
And because of their hearts being so focused on religion and
the duty of the law, they were religious Pharisees, and they
were trying to make everybody in a legalistic way, follow their
pattern of religion. And so Stevens telling them
about the freedom that we have in Christ and that God is not
dwelling in temples made with hands, Jesus made that clear.
It's nice, you know, when we're together as a church, I sense
God's presence here, not because of the building, but because
you're here. You represent him.
Your life is filled with God's Spirit and, and that's what
makes the place alive When whenever you guys all leave here
and you walk in here, it's just a room.
It's just a room, but you still can sense of spirit because he's
with you if you're the only one in the room.
For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will
destroy this place and change the customs which Moses
delivered to us. So they're really making a big
deal about the building. And whenever Jesus said this
temple will be destroyed or be raised up in three days, we all
know because we went through the Gospel studying, that he was
referring to his body, right, and his resurrection.
But of course, the temple was going to be destroyed in AD 70.
And he warned them about what was going to happen to their
wonderful city and because of their Pagan rituals and
everything else that was going on, that the Lord was going to
allow that all to be eventually destroyed.
And the customs, you know, the traditions of men make God's
word of no effect. If I or Lewis or any of us as
leading the church began to make a custom primary versus the
worship of Jesus, we've lost it. We've already gone down the
wrong Rd. Thank you for listening to this
edition of Living Waters of Grace.
Pastor Clark is teaching us about the book of Acts in this
series. Acts is a powerful and unique
part of Scripture, not just because it records the spread of
the gospel geographically from Jerusalem to the ends of the
earth, but also culturally. Acts shows us how the message of
Jesus moved beyond its Jewish roots and began to reach the
Gentile world. What started with Peter leading
a small group in the Upper Room became a global movement with
Paul taking the gospel to cities, synagogues and
marketplaces across the Roman Empire.
Acts captures this vital transition and reminds us that
the good news of Jesus is for all people in every place.
May we be inspired to carry that same gospel boldly into our
world today. Living Waters of Grace comes to
you from Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland.
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