This week we’ve watched the Holy Spirit help the first Christians get woke. What is “woke”? Is it “awake”? If this is the first post you’re reading in this five-part series, I encourage you to pause and start with the first one here.
As we studied the amazing events of Acts 8:4-40, which tell the story of the ministry of Philip, we saw what the Spirit of God did in Samaria and with the Ethiopian Eunuch. What did we learn?
1st – We need to be aware of our relationship with God. Are we in the kind of relationship where we are just talking to him? Or are we digging into his words, are we sitting still and learning his voice? Are we able to see where he is moving within our lives, our families, our communities?
2nd – How well do you know your community? At a time like this do you know who around you might be in need? Who might need encouragement? Who might need to see Jesus and his love for them?
3rd – We aren’t all going to go out and move across the globe, especially now when we can’t really leave our homes because of the virus. But do you know what is going on in different countries? In different cultures? Even in ones that we might consider our “enemies.” Are you “woke” to those things?
4th – Pray for God’s love and mercy to be with them just as much as you want it for yourself. He loves deeply, across all cultural, ethnic, and economic barriers. Ask God to grow that in you. During this time when you are a bit more “stuck,” use it to study his heart in this and to ask him to grow your heart to be more and more like his in this area. The more we look like him the more beautiful and hopeful the world will be. Certainly not without trial and struggle, but with hope, joy, and the movement of God. Here are some suggestions for further study:
Does your church welcome all ethnicities? All races? Does your church’s ethnic demographic resemble that of the community around you? If not, why not?
This week we’ve been reading Acts 8:4-40, learning how the Spirit has been pushing the church to get woke. So far the Spirit, through the ministry of Philip, has taken the good news of Jesus to a new ethnic group, the Samaritans. But the Spirit is not done. When it comes to helping the early church get woke, the Spirit is only just getting started.
We see this in verses 26-40, as the story returns to the ministry of Philip. First, in verses 26-29, an angel directs Philip travel to southwest on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza. I want to give you a sense of what kind of travel we’re reading about. When Philip first went north to Samaria, he might have traveled 20-30 miles. Now he is heading south. First he has to backtrack the 20-30 miles to get to Jerusalem, and then he’ll get on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza. Based on what we read here, it seems that Philip is somewhere southwest of Jerusalem when he has another fascinating encounter.
Heading toward Gaza, Philip comes upon an Ethiopian eunuch who had been in Jerusalem to worship, but was now on the long journey back to Ethiopia. Think about what the Spirit has done here. We’ve been talking all along about the outward movement of the Spirit, pushing the earliest Christians to spread the good news about Jesus. And now Philip meets an Ethiopian.
Do you know where Ethiopia is? It is in East Africa, right above Kenya. We don’t know how much territory the Ethiopian kingdom covered in the first century. The boundaries were very different from what they are today. Some scholars believe that this man was from an area in modern day Sudan which is immediately to the west of Ethiopia. My point is that this man is African. He’s not Jewish. He’s not Middle Eastern or Arabic, but African. Consider the skin color of this man.
You might think, “Wait a minute, Joel…aren’t we supposed to be colorblind?” We are not to be colorblind. I know the idea of colorblindness is out there in our culture, but the reality is that there are different skin tones and God creatively wonderfully made them that way. This man’s skin was likely a shade of brown, and God specifically sends Philip to him.
The man was also a eunuch, meaning that he had likely been castrated in order to serve the Ethiopian Queen without fear for any indiscretion. He could be trusted and was an important official, in charge of the Queen’s treasury. At this time the Ethiopian kingdom was powerful. So not only is the Spirit leading Philip to a diverse audience, but to one that could take the Gospel to a center of power in the ancient world.
The Ethiopian official, because he was a eunuch, would have been barred from worship in the temple, with its regulations against those who had some kind of mutilation. Having just attempted to worship in Jerusalem, the man is reading Isaiah, but not understanding. The Spirit directs Philip to talk with the Ethiopian. Side note here: do you see how much the Spirit is talking with Philip? And Philip is listening. He is attentive and aware of what Holy Spirit is asking him to do and it is 100% in line with the heart of God and he is obedient.
What happens? In verses 30-38, Philip and the Ethiopian discuss Isaiah 53:7-8, and Philip shares the Gospel, explaining that the passage in Isaiah was fulfilled by Jesus, the Messiah. While we don’t read the words, “the Eunuch believed,” we can assume so because he asks Philip to baptize him. Not only is this an instance of the Spirit reaching one who is of a different ethnicity, but also one who was not allowed access to worship at the temple. The message in Acts 8:4-40 is clear: when it comes to the Kingdom of God, all are welcome!
Once again, through the Spirit leading outward, the Kingdom of God is expanding across ethnic boundaries, across international boundaries, giving us an illustration of the outward, missional mindset we too must have.
This wonderful story concludes in verses 39-40 as the Spirit miraculously takes Philip away to Azotus, which is just north of Gaza on the Mediterranean coastline, and Philip preaches the Gospel in all the towns, continuing north, until he arrives in Caesarea which is about halfway up the coastline of Israel.
Again and again in this passage, what have we seen? We have seen Spirit guiding Philip to preach the Gospel to those of non-Jewish descent. The Spirit is pushing the outward movement of the Gospel, fulfilling the words of Jesus that the disciples were to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. The Spirit continues to lead us today to include all people of all races and ethnicities. We need to think outwardly about the mission of God’s Kingdom.
Tomorrow we conclude this week’s study of Acts 8:4-40 with some practical ideas of how to apply this outward principle, that we, the church of 2020, might follow the Spirit’s lead in getting woke.
There was a powerful man in Samaria. Simon the Sorcerer. All week long we’ve been studying Acts 8:4-40, learning about how Christians should get woke like the early church. One of those earliest Christians, Philip, had traveled to Samaria and started demonstrating the power of the Holy Spirit. But there was already a man with great power in Samaria, Simon. Are we about to have a showdown? Simon the Sorcerer versus the power of the Holy Spirit?
If you’re reading verse 9 in the ancient Greek language Acts was originally written in, the word for sorcery is “mageo.” I mention that because you can see that this is where we get our English word “magic.” Simon was a mage, one who practiced magic. His magic, or sorcery, could involve both magic tricks like sleight of hand, and possibly supernatural ability like witchcraft. As you can see in verse 10, he was very well respected by the people in Samaria because he had impressed them for many years with his abilities. But that is all about to change when Philip shows up. Let me ask you this: how does it often go when one person in power is upstaged by a new guy? Not well. This is a classic human story, so keep reading to see how it unfolds.
In verses 12-13 we read that the response of the people to Philip’s ministry is that “they believe and are baptized.” I suspect Simon was even more astonished than the average person in Samaria because he knew that the miracles Philip was performing, he, Simon, was unable to replicate. Simon had some cool tricks, but nothing like the power of the Holy Spirit that was flowing through Philip. Simon believes too, and is baptized, and starts following Philip everywhere.
I wonder what Philip thought about that. Did Philip respond by entering into a discipling relationship with Simon? Or is Simon just a consumer here, asking Philip to “do more tricks”? What is Simon’s motive? No doubt he is entranced by the miracles Philip is doing. But stay with the story because it’s about to get even more interesting.
In verses 14-17 the apostles who were still in Jerusalem hear that people in Samaria have become followers of Jesus, so they send Peter and John to Samaria to lay hands on the converts and give them the Spirit. It is fascinating to me that through Philip’s ministry the power of the Spirit is clearly evident, but though the people of Samaria have believed in the Gospel and been baptized, the Spirit had not been given to the Samaritans. Some apostles had to come, pray for them, and lay hands on them before those Samaritans received the Spirit.
What we will see in the book of Acts is that there is a varying order of the process of salvation in different accounts. The writers of the New Testament don’t clearly explain why this is the case. You might remember a few months ago in the Identity sermon on the Holy Spirit, we talked about how we are temples of the Holy Spirit, and we receive the Spirit at the moment of our salvation. We call that the indwelling of the Spirit. The Spirit is living with us. But that is different from the filling of the Spirit. I know those terms are very similar, but there is a difference. While we are indwelt with the Spirit at the moment of our salvation, that does not mean we are always filled with the Spirit, giving him control of our lives.
It seems that at least in this instance, the apostles needed to be present to pray for and lay hands on the Samaritans so they might experience the indwelling of the Spirit. Here’s a key question: does the racial and ethnic animosity between the Jews and Samaritans give the apostles pause? They could have concluded that the Spirit didn’t indwell the Samaritans because God was disapproving of the Samaritans. Those apostles could have perpetuated the segregation that was already deeply entrenched in the Jewish mindset. In fact, they did the opposite. They traveled to Samaria, breaking down the wall of injustice, proclaiming that all are equal in God’s eyes, just as Jesus had taught and demonstrated for them. The apostles finally got woke.
That day in the Samaritan city, as the Apostles pray and lay on hands on the Samaritans, the Spirit of God indwells the Samaritans, and someone is watching them very intently. Was it Saul or his henchman, spying on them? Nope.
It’s Simon the Sorcerer. And he is blown away. The guy with a decades-long reputation for impressing people with acts of power is watching as a whole new power, a very real power, is just being given away. Is he threatened? Is his position and financial income about to be eroded? Or does he just want more power?
Look at verses 18-24. He wants this power so badly, he offers to pay the apostles to receive the Spirit. His explanation to them is that he just wants to be able to give the Spirit like Peter and John were doing. It seems, though, that Simon likely had ulterior motives. Peter knows this and rebukes Simon. When Peter reveals the truth about Simon’s true motivation, Simon changes his tune quickly. Maybe his is a genuine confession and repentance in verse 24. Notice how he changes from wanting power, to humbly submitting to those in whom God’s power resides, asking Peter to pray for him. But is Simon at this point still focused on himself, saying that he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to him? It seems so.
This is a wonderful reminder to us that the mission of the Kingdom is not about our prestige, not about getting ahead. The mission of the Kingdom is about Jesus, about being disciples to him, and living like he said his disciples would live, denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following him. It is all about Jesus. Sadly, we don’t know if Simon the Sorcerer ever made that turn away from himself toward Jesus.
As we know, the disciples had made that turn, and they wanted everyone to join them. They can’t stop talking about Jesus! The story of Simon and the Samaritans concludes in verse 25 as Peter and John return to Jerusalem preaching the Gospel to many more Samaritan villages along the way, again showing their new commitment to follow the method and message of Jesus to invite all ethnicities into the Kingdom.
But the Spirit is not done. When it comes to helping the early church get woke, the Spirit is only just getting started. Check back tomorrow to see the surprise that the Spirit has in store for Philip!
As I mentioned in the previous post, in the section of Acts we’re studying this week, Acts 8:4-40, we meet a man who had some fascinating encounters as he preached Jesus along the way, and his name was Philip. Today we’re going to learn how Jesus’ example and teaching of wokeness impacted Philip.
There was also a disciple of Jesus named Philip, but the Philip we read about here in Acts 8 is not one of the disciples. The Philip is Acts 8 a different man with the same name. He is Philip the deacon, sometimes called Philip the evangelist. Look back at Acts 6:5, and you’ll see that this Philip was one of the seven men chosen as a deacon or servant to help with the food distribution problem. Just as Stephen, who we studied last week, was not chosen because he was certified for handling food distribution, but for his maturity in Christ, Philip was also chosen because of his character, wisdom and example. Also just like Stephen, we’re going to see that Philip declared the good news about Jesus in word and deed. We’re also going to see how the Holy Spirit helped Philip get woke! (What is “wokeness”? Pause here and read the previous post to learn more.)
If you’d like, read Acts 8:5-8. To summarize it for you, Philip goes to an unnamed city in Samaria, proclaiming the good news about Jesus and doing miracles (exorcisms and healings), and a crowd formed.
There is so much of interest in these first few verses. First of all, Philip goes to Samaria, which was a major step, considering the animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans. Jesus had not only told the disciples that they were to be his witnesses in Samaria, but also Jesus himself had gone there to minister many times, which was a radical move showing God’s heart.
This was such a radical move because the Jews and Samaritans hated each other for centuries. The history of their ethnic segregation goes back to the time when the nation of Israel had been divided in two, with the Kingdom of Israel in the north, and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. Samaria was the capital of the Northern Kingdom, and Jerusalem was the capital of the southern Kingdom. As time went by, some Jews from the North intermarried with people from surrounding nations, creating a new ethnic group, the Samaritans, and by the time of Jesus and the early church, Samaria was a large territory right in the middle of the nation. Through the years, the Jews considered Samaritans impure and, because the Samaritans practiced an altered version of the OT Law, which the Jews considered a polluted version, they discriminated against the Samaritans.
Jews and Samaritans even led guerrilla or terrorist attacks against each other’s holy places over the years. They hated each other. So when Jesus ministered in Samaritan towns, it was a radical move toward ethnic and racial integration – towards love being shown to all people. His parable of the Good Samaritan was another example of how Jesus showed us God’s heart for all people. Now a few years later, Philip went to Samaria, and once again we learn that Christians are called to break racial, ethnic, and culture barriers for the mission of the Kingdom. God loves all. All are made in his image. Just as Jesus had been woke, embracing racial or ethnic diversity, so Philip was as well.
Keep that thought in mind, and take notice of the flow of activity through Philip’s combo of preaching the Gospel in both word and deed. The people: 1. Saw his miracles, 2. Paid close attention to what he said, 3. Many were healed, and 4. There was great joy.
The miracles caused people to pay attention to what Philip said, and gave them great joy, as of course there would be when people are getting healed and freed from oppression. What we see thus far from Philip was clearly a demonstration of the deeds of the gospel. Healings and exorcisms are signs of the Kingdom of God having victory over the forces of darkness. God’s Kingdom was at work here. Obviously through Philip’s ministry we see the deeds of the Gospel, but what about the words of the Gospel? Did the people decide to choose Christ as the one they wanted to live their lives following?
The author, Luke, doesn’t tell us just yet. Instead he reveals to us that someone in those crowds in Samaria has been watching Philip’s ministry very intently. Was it Saul, who had been rounding up the Christians and throwing them in jail? No. Was it one of Saul’s henchmen, there to spy on the Christian movement? No. It was a guy named Simon, who was a sorcerer! It is not often in the Bible that something like sorcery occurs, especially in the New Testament, so what is going on here?
I am starting to get woke. Are you “woke”? Not awake, but woke. Maybe you’ve heard that word, as it become popular in recent years. I recently read the book Woke Church by Eric Mason, and in the book he describes “woke” as “to utilize the mind of Christ and to be fully awake to the issues of race and injustice in this country.” (25) In society, to be woke is essentially to be socially conscious. It is not a Christian term, but there is much about being woke that is right in line with the mission of God’s Kingdom. For example, in the book Woke Church, Mason quotes a commentator who describes wokeness, and as I read this, I want you to think in your minds how this description of wokeness might have a connection to the mission of God’s Kingdom:
“To me staying woke means making sure you’re tuned in to your community. That you are doing everything that you can to not only educate yourself but to bring someone else along. To ensure that we all have the same information. It’s not enough to be woke on your own; you need to help someone else along to also get woke. Woke is about a state of mind.”
Like I said, I’m starting to get woke. I think I have a long way to go.
Today we’re going to see how the early church gets woke. And maybe their story will help us too.
We have been studying the book of Acts, which tells the story of the first Christians, and how they lived out their faith in Jesus in the world. The outline of the book is established in Acts 1:8 where Jesus gives the disciples their new mission saying, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
So far in chapters 1-7, we have watched how the church was formed and developed, pursuing that mission, but only to Jews living in the city of Jerusalem. They have not looked outward, and yet Jesus clearly directed them to look outward. As we saw last week through the life and ministry, and sadly also through the death, of Stephen, the church was pushed through that first wall, just like the wall around the city of Jerusalem. When Stephen was killed, we read in Acts 8:3 that a great persecution broke out against the church, led by a guy a named Saul who seems to have been a young, but very aggressive Jewish leader.
For now, open your Bibles to Acts 8 verse 3. If you have been following along with the story of the early church through chapters 1-7, you might get the idea that these very first Christians were living in an ideal situation, led the by apostles who were empowered by the Holy Spirit to do miracles and deliver powerful teaching, and everyone loved one another, and the church just grew and grew uninhibited. That’s just not the case, though.
While there are certainly some wonderful descriptions of that kind of experience in the early church, as we saw last week there is a larger context that is far more ominous. By the time we reach Acts 8, the church is somewhere in the vicinity of 2-3 years old. But by chapter 7, we have seen this relatively young church experience the threat of violence and destruction from the Jewish religious elite in the city of Jerusalem. Twice some or all of the apostles have been arrested and jailed, brought up on trial, and once the religious leaders ordered them flogged, which was a severe beating. Then last week we saw how Stephen, one of the seven deacons listed in Acts 6, was also arrested, falsely accused, and then stoned to death, which sparked the great persecution we read about in Acts 8:1-3, where this guy Saul is hell-bent on destroying the church, which he believed was a cult.
Only the apostles remain in Jerusalem, and the other Christians, fearing for their lives, scatter. How will the Christians handle this? Did some of them give up the faith? Did some think, “This is crazy…my family and I could get killed for this? This is not what I signed up for. I’m out.”? Maybe some did think like that. We don’t know. The author doesn’t say anything like that though. Instead, in this uncertainty, this threat, this great danger, we arrive at Acts 8, verse 4, which says:
“Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.”
The author gives us a brief summary statement about how the persecution, instead of destroying them, spread the church beyond Jerusalem, and the Christians preached the word wherever they went. It’s an amazing statement. Though their location changed, though their situation had changed, they made sure their mission remained their mission. Their world was anything but rosy and happy. It was exactly the opposite.
Imagine fleeing for your lives because your faith in Jesus could get you killed or thrown in prison? Think about what they would realistically be like. It would probably be a very quick, anxiety-filled moment of gathering up a few precious belongings you can carry on your back, making sure you have some food and water, and hightailing it out of the city as fast as you can, hoping that the authorities do not see you or your family, or your friends in the church. I imagine people hiding in wagons, covered with tarps, trying to get beyond the walls of the city unseen, maybe under cover of night. This is what many current refugees who flee persecution go through. I imagine people looking out for this guy Saul and his minions, trying to alert people that he was coming. I imagine Christians wondering if their non-Christian neighbors and friends were going to rat them out to Saul. I imagine them wondering if they would have enough money, enough food, and when this crisis would end. Does that last line feel at all familiar? Read it again. See if it sounds familiar.
It would be super easy to give up the faith, to be very quiet about Jesus, not wanting to tip off anyone about the fact that you were part of this group of people who were Jesus-followers. It would be very easy to take the church underground and wait until the fire passed.
But that is not what the Christians did! First of all the apostles stayed in Jerusalem, which amazes me. Think about that. The most visible, well-known people in the church stayed in the place that was the most dangerous for them. Second, the Christians who fled the persecution were not quiet, but preached about Jesus everywhere they went! What we see from the earliest Christians is amazing courage and boldness, flowing from their faith in Christ, even during a crisis. They knew the real God, they knew his heart and they wanted others to be a part of the beautiful mission he was about. That is very instructive for us. Do we know God? Do we know his heart? It is such a part of our lives we can’t help but to show it to others?
Tomorrow we’re going to meet one of those courageous first Christians who had some fascinating encounters as he preached Jesus along the way. Through this man, it seems like the Holy Spirit wants the church to get woke!
How should Christians live in a liminal moment such as our current global health crisis? All week long we have been studying the life and ministry of Stephen, one of the earliest followers of Jesus, attempting to answer that question. If you want to learn more about Stephen, start by reading the first post here. What we have seen in Stephen is a wonderful example of courage and trust in God. Are you willing to be like Stephen? Do you have his heart? It doesn’t mean that we need to be in people’s faces with accusation, though it might mean speaking truth to power like Stephen did. Instead look at Stephen’s heart. His heart was sold out for Christ. 100% in. Willing to sacrifice. Focused on others’ betterment rather than his own.
Or are we quiet about Jesus because we are afraid of some kind of negative response? In many places in the world, this is a very real possibility. In most countries, though, like the USA from where I write, it is highly unlikely that we are going to be arrested and brought up on trial like Stephen was. It is also doubtful that we are going to be physically assaulted like Stephen was.
Perhaps if we are appropriately bold about Jesus, we might get a negative response from some.
For example, a friend of mine described a colleague who accused my friend, “You wear your faith on your sleeve.” What the guy was insinuating was that my friend should have been quieter about his faith.
Another friend who is a retired teacher told me the story about her principal who requested her to remove a silhouette of the Nativity scene she had displayed on a window in her classroom. Rather than wait for her response, she walked into her classroom one morning to discover that the principal had maintenance throw the Nativity scene in the trash. While that is not persecution like we read about it in Acts 6:8-8:3, it is abrupt and can cause offense.
What other such feedback might we be scared of?
Fearful of being rejected.
Fearful of saying the wrong thing and being a poor messenger of Jesus.
We can feel inwardly upset or guilty when we stay quiet in what might be an appropriate moment to share Christ with others.
Another person told the story of playing music at work, and a Christian song came on. He was wondering what the other workers would think. “Are they judging me? Should I turn down the volume? Should I skip the Christian song?” These are normal thoughts we can have. Rather than allow those thoughts to lead you down a road of quiet disengagement, think through what could be the most healthy way to share the hope, love and good news of Jesus.
In the liminal moments we are living in, such as our world now in these days of virus, let us stand clearly for Christ, just like Stephen did, in both word and deed. Let us take necessary precautions so as not to spread the virus, and thus endanger vulnerable people.
Those of you have not lost your jobs or wages during this time, how can you be Christ/have the heart of Stephen and be all in and sacrificial for those struggling, letting them know you are showing the heart of Christ. What will it look like for you to bring his goodness to them? I’m not just talking financially, though that might be an option for some. If you do find yourself “stuck at home”, how can you reach out to others? Have the mind of Christ and show goodness as you share encouragement. How would Christ be? Be all in for him. Be sacrificial with your desires for the betterment of others, be people who regularly call and check on others. Mention your faith in Jesus, talk about it openly. Look for the goodness of God in the midst of struggle and difficulties.
This is our liminal moment! Let’s embrace God and his mission in the midst of it, just like Stephen did.
If you are feeling scared, anxious or even downright terrified by the news of the spread of the coronavirus, what should you do? I feel the weight of it myself. As a pastor of a small church, we’re having to rethink how we do everything, and it can feel like a heavy burden. We’re all wondering, “Will we survive? Will we lose loved ones? Will our economy be destroyed? What will life be like on the other side of this?” Today, as we continue to follow the life of Stephen, I believe we have an answer to how we can think and act when we are confronted by a life-changing situation that has us scared.
In this week’s series of posts on Acts 6:8-8:3, we’ve been learning about the ministry of one of the first Christians, a guy named Stephen. In his final hours, he preaches a bold sermon accusing the ruling elite in Jerusalem of being fraudulent leaders, pointing them to Jesus as the Messiah. They respond in anger, stoning Stephen to death. We noticed the many parallels the author of Acts describes between the deaths of Stephen and Jesus. But Stephen is not like Jesus in a significant way. Stephen was not perfect and did not give his life for the sins of all humanity, and thus Stephen did not rise again. But similar to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, what happened immediately after Stephen’s death brought new life to many. Read Acts 8:1-3 to see what I mean. What happens?
Persecution. And not just any persecution. A great persecution. Wait…how does that bring new life to many? Doesn’t it seem like a persecution would bring pain and death to many? Yes, it does seem like that. Did you notice who is behind the persecution? That guy named Saul we mentioned in the previous post. He is a young man, but a powerful leader who started destroying the church, putting people in prison. He’d had enough of this movement of Jesus-followers. Again, think about how this is a liminal moment for the church! It doesn’t seem like there has been anything good that has come from Stephen’s death.
Interestingly, though awful, this becomes a major turning point for the church. Go back to Acts 1:8. Remember that? There Jesus says to his disciples that they were to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and finally to the ends of the earth. It is an outline of sorts for the whole book of Acts. In chapters 1-7 we have watched as the church started and grew in Jerusalem. To this point in Acts, though, up to chapter 8 the church has never left Jerusalem. But that was not God’s desire, was it? Jesus clearly said that he had the whole world in view. So far the early church is 100% Jewish and located only in Jerusalem, with maybe some followers coming in from the nearby towns around the city. What does that mean? The church is not yet thinking outward like Jesus wanted them to!
That is a problem. Go back to Genesis 12 and study God’s covenant with Abraham where he said he was going to make Abraham’s family into a nation that would bless the world. Then trace that promise to Abraham’s son, Isaac, and his son, Jacob, who was renamed Israel, the father of 12 sons, who pretty much would become the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel. Notice how that promise continues to Moses, and through David, under whose leadership the nation of Israel finally reached prominence where it could bless the world. But Israel didn’t bless the whole world. Instead after David, the nation slowly devolved into sin and rebellion and was exiled. Until Jesus came, and there was a new day, a new hope that through Israel the whole world actually could be blessed. This is exactly what Peter refers to in his sermon in Acts 3:24-26. I encourage you to read that. Peter is saying a new day was upon the people of Israel, that through Jesus this promise to Abraham thousands of years before was finally coming true. Through Jesus God was going to bless the whole world.
And yet, what have seen from the early Christians? The Gospel, which was supposed to be good news for the world, the Christians contained behind the walls of the city of Jerusalem. They were vibrantly preaching the good news to Jews in the city, but they had gone no further. Until now. Acts 8:1 is a turning point. A breakthrough. It is horrible that it had to come through a martyrdom and a persecution. But the breakthrough happened as this evil guy Saul was rounding up the Christians in Jerusalem and throwing them in jail, and thus the Christians fled the city, scattering to Judea and Samaria, the territories to the north and around Jerusalem. The apostles, however, stay in Jerusalem, which I take as an act of courage, but many Christians are scattered. At the end of Acts 8:3, it seems like the church is in a very precarious position. In the coming weeks we’re going to find out is that the opposite is true. But for now, we need to talk about persecution.
I don’t believe God ever wants persecution. It is awful. We should pray against it, and we should advocate for international policy against it. Some people say, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church,” meaning that when people like Stephen are martyred the church grows, as if there is a silver lining to martyrdom or that God somehow blesses it. I want to say that is categorically false. Martyrdom is always awful and wrong, and God does not approve of it. There are plenty of martyrdom stories where the church is exterminated. Gone. Read the book or watch the movie Silence by Shusako Endo about Catholic missionaries in Japan in the 1600s. They are brutally destroyed. It is a hard read or watch. Or read the book The Lost History of Christianity by Philip Jenkins. Another hard read, it details the destruction of the church in the Middle East, which was historically the Christian birthplace and stronghold. No longer, though.
In Stephen’s case, his martyrdom and the resulting persecution will have the effect of pushing the disciples, probably fearing for their lives, to do what Jesus said they were supposed to do, be his witnesses in Judea and Samaria and everywhere in the world. I don’t think Stephen intended any of this. He didn’t know that he would be arrested, stoned, and the result would be that the church would finally obey Jesus. He was just proclaiming what he believed in. Who knows…he may have even lost his cool in that sermon. But God redeemed it, as we will see in the coming weeks. Take a peek at Acts 8, verse 4: “Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.” Though they were in a liminal moment, unsure of what the future held, unsure if they would be thrown in prison or lose their lives, they carried the same heart as Stephen. They looked outward. They looked to serve. They looked beyond themselves.
How do we do this during the coronavirus? We’ll talk more about this in the next post!
When we’re in pain, usually we just want it to go away. At least that’s how I am. I can get very worked up emotionally, imagining that I’ll be in pain the rest of my life. So far, that thought of mine has never been true, as the pain heals. What it reveals is that I think about the wrong things when I’m in pain. It is hard to choose to think differently when you’re in pain, but as we’re going to see today, it is possible.
This week we have been looking at the ministry of one of the earliest followers of Jesus, a man named Stephen, as told in Acts 6:8-8:3, and how we can learn from him how to live in our liminal moment. Not sure what a liminal moment is? Go back and read the first two posts here and here. We’re living in such a moment, as the corona virus affects the globe. Thus far we’ve seen Stephen boldly confront the hypocrisy and fraud of the Jewish leaders. He has said that they are no better than pagans. How will they receive his word of harsh accountability?
Look at Acts 7, verse 54. The leaders erupt in anger. That picture of gnashing teeth is vivid isn’t it? It reminds me of a situation I dealt with a couple weeks ago running with my dog. I can’t begin to tell you how many local farmers let their dogs run free. So we’re running, always on the left side of the road toward incoming traffic, as is normal for runners, and maybe 50 yards ahead on the same side of the street, I see two dogs in a yard. They notice us, and start running toward us. I’m thinking, “Oh man…here we go,” knowing what is coming next. My dog Bentley sees them too. Immediately he pulls hard on the leash toward them, so I start to yank him in the opposite direction across the street to the other side of the road, hoping that those two dogs will not come out onto the road.
The two dogs come right out into the road, and they didn’t look both ways first. One dog, mouth open, teeth bared, goes right for Bentley’s face. I start yelling loudly at the dogs, “No!” Multiple times I yell, hoping to scare them off. It works! The dogs turn and start running back to their yard. But Bentley and I are going in opposite directions now, because he wants to chase the dogs, while I’m trying to run up the road away from that yard. Instead of following me, Bentley lunges in the dog’s direction, gets his head out of his collar, and tears off toward them! I’m left holding a limp leash and collar, thinking, “Oh no…” Knowing him, he was seeing red and wasn’t going to stop until he chased down those dogs. In a split second he had dashed halfway into their yard, so I start yelling at him to, “Sit, Stay!” But I wasn’t sure he would listen. Hearing my commands, thankfully he obeyed and stopped running. Rattled, I put his collar back on, and led him back onto the road.
Those leaders in the Jewish ruling body, the Sanhedrin, were like Bentley. Angry, gnashing their teeth, wanting revenge.
Right at that moment, something amazing happens, an astounding event that can help us learn to think differently when we are in the middle of pain. Stephen, as we read in verses 55-56, has a vision of God. And what’s more, he has the audacity to tell the people what he sees! What can we learn from this? Though he was facing a perilous reality, Stephen is 100% focused on God. In the midst of his liminal moment, he was still attuned to God. That is very instructive for us in our liminal moments. What can it look like for us to focus on God, right in the middle of the uncertainty, the pain, the struggle?
Unfortunately, Stephen’s sermon, message, and now this vision are all too much for the religious leaders. What happens next is awful. Read 7:57-8:1 to see for yourself.
They drag Stephen outside the city, like a mob, and stone him. Stoning was often performed by dropping large rocks on a person. An awful way to die.
Take notice that as he describes Stephen’s horrible end, the author, Luke, does two things with this event.
First, Luke mentions that a man named Saul is involved. We meet him in 7:58, and in 8:1. He is described as a young man, and yet he seems to have some kind of leadership role, though it is not defined. The people put their clothes at his feet, and he is giving approval. Why would they lay their clothes at his feet? The first thing that comes to my mind is that they needed less encumbrance to lift and drop or throw stones. Who is this Saul? More on him in the coming posts.
The second thing Luke mentions is Stephen’s final words. “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” and then falling to his knees, “Do not hold this sin against them.” Again Stephen is laser-focused on God, though he is now just about to die. Sound familiar? It should. Jesus said nearly the same things for two of his seven last words. “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit,” and “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” What we see in Luke’s account of Stephen’s death, then, are numerous parallels to the death of Jesus:
The signs and wonders, the powerful speaking which the Jews could not stand up against.
The arrest and false accusation.
An indictment of the leaders as hypocritical and false.
Finally the death, including words that are similar.
Luke is very purposefully making parallels between the two. He is not saying that Stephen is equal to Jesus, but he is saying that Stephen was an amazing disciple of Jesus, willing to give his life for the Kingdom, just like Jesus did. When Stephen gave his life, he suffered a brutal death, just like Jesus’ did.
There is a major difference between the two. Stephen was not the perfect sacrifice like Jesus was. Thus while Jesus rose again, Stephen would not. But there was something that happened after the horror of Stephen’s death. Like a crucifixion and resurrection, what happened next brought new life to many. We’ll look at that in the next post.
For now, think about how Stephen chooses to focus on God, though he is being stoned to death. I don’t know if I could do that. I think I would want to try to run away. Likely Stephen was surrounded, and there was no escape. In that moment, he remains focused on God, and in the process, behaves very similarly to Jesus. Stephen, therefore, is an excellent example for us about how to think in the middle of pain. What are some creative ways you can focus on God in the middle of the pain?
How are we to live in liminal moments? As I write this, our world is in the throes of the coronavirus. As we saw in the previous post, the early church experienced a liminal moment of their own, the threat of punishment and persecution from the powerful religious leaders in the city of Jerusalem. How did they choose to respond? That is what the story of Acts chapters 6 and 7 are about, a guy named Stephen and the horrible way it turned out.
Take a look at the description of Stephen in Acts 6, verses 8-10. There are four qualities that the author uses to describe Stephen. In verse 8 we read about the first two. Stephen was full of God’s grace and power. As a result he did great wonders and miraculous signs. In verse 10 we read about the second two qualities, his wisdom and that the Spirit was speaking through him.
Let’s take a deeper look at the first two qualities mentioned in verse 8: he was full of God’s grace and power. It seems these two are connected. Earlier in Acts 4:33 we read a very similar description of the apostles, that “much grace was upon them all.” The word “grace” in Greek is “charis,” which refers to favor. “Much favor was upon them all,” and it was a favorable disposition from God to them. God was graciously empowering them, and he does the same with Stephen. It is very interesting that this empowerment happens after the apostles commission Stephen, along with the other six deacons, which we read in Acts 6:6. What the apostles were doing, performing miraculous signs and wonders favorably empowered by God, now Stephen is also doing!
You might think that this incredible ministry, which likely included the spectacle of healing and exorcism, would have been applauded and accepted by huge crowds. I suspect it was. We don’t hear about that though. Instead look at verse 9, which describes opposition to Stephen. Remember the larger context I talked about in the previous post? Remember the liminality the church was living in? The in-between time?
Here is where we tie in what we already learned about Stephen being a Greek-speaker. It seems that Stephen was especially focusing on ministry to the Jews in Jerusalem who were also Greek-speakers. How do we know this? Because in verse 9 the Synagogue of the Freedman, is mentioned. The author describes it a bit, listing four places where Jews, who were members of the Synagogue of the freedman, came from: Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia and Asia, all Greek-speaking places in that day. So Greek-speaking Jews gathered together at this synagogue. There would have been many such synagogues in Jerusalem, likely forming around language groups. Why is it called the Synagogue of the Freedmen? There is speculation that this synagogue was for Greek-speaking Jews who had been freed from slavery throughout the Roman Empire and had come to relocate in Jerusalem. Because of Stephen’s Greek-language focus, of course he is going to minister to the Greek-speaking Jews in the city.
But it doesn’t go well. Why? Stephen not only ministers through the gracious power of the God, but he also preaches the words of the Gospel. This goes to the second group of qualities of Stephen listed in verse 10: his wisdom, and that he spoke by the Spirit. The Jews, like the religious leaders had done with the apostles, disagreed with Stephen’s Gospel message, opposing him. But we read that they could not stand up to him, meaning that he was able to best them in a discussion about the truth. Imagine how this angered them. Read what happens in verses 11-15.
The Grecian Jews opposing Stephen create falsely testimony about him. They seize him and bring him before the Sanhedrin (which was the top Jewish ruling body). Again, the big ominous threat rears its ugly head. Another leader of the church is brought before the powerful ruling authorities. There they proclaim more false testimony against Stephen.
Now look at chapter 7, verse 1, where the high priest asks Stephen if the charges are true. Stephen launches into a sermon reviewing the history of Israel, which is bold of him considering that Stephen is speaking to the people in the nation who would have known their history best. Did the Sanhedrin feel that they were being lectured by a peon? I would think those religious leaders were boiling inside, hating sitting there listening to Stephen tell them what they already knew. Think about how Stephen is responding to his liminal moment. Not running away. Not giving in. But trusting in God, obeying God, and with a heart to be the church, proclaiming the amazing story of hope that there is in Jesus.
Let me summarize the sermon, which runs from verses 2 through 53. Stephen reviews the history of Israel from Abraham, to Moses and the Exodus, all the way through to Joshua, David and Solomon, who built the temple. But then he makes a turn in verse 48 saying that God does not live in houses. He quotes Isaiah 66:1-2 to support this. But why? Why does he bring this up about the temple?
It could very well be that Stephen is now moving his argument toward Jesus. The religious leaders were stuck on the centrality of the temple, which was the central image of the Old Testament religion, and Stephen is about to say that the temple is no longer the center. What he says is so interesting: maybe the temple was never supposed to be seen as so central, which is what the passage in Isaiah 66 refers to.
Luke records that Stephen only quotes verses 1-2 of Isaiah 66, but that’s all he needed to quote. Everyone there would have been quite familiar with Isaiah 66, and the verses that follow 1-2. Read Isaiah 66:1-4 so you can see what the next few verses say, verses that Stephen was bringing to mind just by quoting the first two.
What we read in Isaiah 66 is a prophecy of judgment from the Lord against people who were thinking wrongly about the temple. In 1 Kings 8:27 when King Solomon dedicated the first temple, he said, “Will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” Solomon knew. Isaiah knew. And Stephen knew. Together they all bring an accusation against the religious leaders who crucified the Messiah. The religious leaders who Stephen was preaching to also knew that when he used this passage from Isaiah, he was indicting them for being fraudulent, leading the people astray. Again, do you see how Stephen is choosing to live in his liminal moment? With courage, trusting in God.
Then in verses 51-52 he gets really accusatory. He says that those religious leaders are just like their fathers, that they resist the Holy Spirit, and that, just as their fathers killed the prophets, even the ones who predicted the coming of the Messiah, those whom Stephen was speaking to killed the Messiah Jesus.
Those words in verse 51 are bold, aren’t they? Stephen is not holding anything back now, even when he is on trial. What can we learn from this? I don’t recommend that you share the Gospel by attacking people verbally. I don’t know why Stephen goes this route. Maybe it was a culturally appropriate way that Jews spoke, but I doubt it based on the reaction of the leaders, which we’ll see in just a moment. John the Baptist and Jesus would sometimes talk with that kind of bold accusation too, and they, too, weren’t well-received by the leadership. So I have to doubt that Stephen was thinking, “I know what I’ll do. I’ll confront them. A strong accusation will win these guys over.” Instead Stephen seems upset and even angry. To call a Jew uncircumcised is a big punch in the gut, and he is saying to the leaders that their hearts and ears are uncircumcised, meaning that they might as well be pagans. In other words, he is telling them, “You guys are rebellious against God and you are false!” I don’t see any other way around this, except that Stephen is blasting them. And why? Did he not want to win them over? I don’t know. Maybe he has had it with them, maybe he lets his emotion get the best of him, maybe he was at the point where he has been falsely accused and he is done with them. Essentially, like Isaiah, he is proclaiming and prophetic word of judgment over them. Maybe all he is doing is speaking truth to power.
Verse 53 is odd as well, but it fits with Stephen’s flow of thought. These powerful religious leaders in Jerusalem stand in line with the many Jewish leaders before them who, through years, were the keepers, receivers and teachers of the Mosaic Law, which Stephen says was put into effect through angels. Angels? What is Stephen talking about? If you look back into his sermon, in verse 38 you’ll see that there, too, he mentions an angel involved in the giving of the law. Interestingly, the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) doesn’t mention the idea of angelic involvement in the giving of the Law. It was a Jewish tradition that Stephen was aware of.
Why does he bring up the Law at all? His point is that the leaders have not obeyed the Law. Stephen has just unloaded strong accusation on those religious leaders. We can learn from his boldness, his trust in God and his determination to speak truth in the middle of a liminal moment. As he speaks truth to power, how will the leaders react? Thus far, they haven’t received his teaching at all. Will they now? Will Stephen’s sermon cause them to repent and turn to Jesus? More on that in the next post.
I have a vocabulary word for you: liminality. Have you heard of that word? The dictionary defines Liminality as “a state of transition between one stage and the next, especially between major stages in one’s life or during a rite of passage.” It is a threshold.
Sound familiar? In the last week or two, do any of you feel like that? I do. In the last week, I think I have received at least 50 emails from different organizations telling me about how they are responding to the coronavirus. I have received multiple similar emails and podcasts from Christian ministries with ideas about how churches and pastors should respond to the virus and the shutdowns and quarantines.
We’re not only facing the virus, we’re also facing the response to the virus. It can feel overwhelming. We’re not where we once were, and we’re not where we’re going to be. The world is changing, suddenly, rapidly, and we are in the middle of it. We don’t know how this is all going to turn out. That’s a threshold moment. That’s liminality.
And that is exactly where the early church was at in Acts chapter 6.
For the last month or so, we’ve been studying Acts, trying to learn how the early church lived out their faith in the world, so that we can learn to better live out our faith in our world. How do we live out faith in Jesus during the coronavirus? I believe what we’re about to read in Acts can really help us. So please open your Bibles to Acts 6, verse 8.
Before we start looking at the events recorded starting in Acts 6:8, I want us to remember the liminal moment that the early church is experiencing. By Acts 6:8, the church is probably no more than 2-3 years old. We don’t know for sure. They started out as 120 followers of Jesus, staying in the city of Jerusalem, and now have grown to thousands of people. Acts 4:4 tells us that just the number of men was 5,000. How many more women and children were there? Not to mention the increase in the church that happened between Acts 4:4 and Acts 6:8. The church was multiplying. But things were not all perfect and happy. Thus far in our study, we have seen numerous crises in the church, internally and externally. Twice actually: once in chapter 4 and once in chapter 5, leaders of the church were thrown in prison, severely accused by the ruling elites, and even harshly beaten. We need to remember this larger context. Though they church was growing, many people in power were strongly opposed to the church, threatening to destroy it. The church knew this. I’m talking about those thousands of people who were part of the church. They knew that the religious leaders were watching them. They knew the Roman leaders had killed Jesus at the drop of a hat, and they could easily purge the church as well. This was their liminal moment. They didn’t know how it would turn out.
While the church was practicing amazing love and generosity to one another, and while the Spirit of God was at work in miraculously ways, and while the church was growing, like the walls of the city of Jerusalem around them there was a very ominous threat that was a part of their everyday existence. The religious leaders had multiple times commanded the apostles to stop preaching Jesus, and multiple times the apostles had disobeyed, and multiple times the apostles had been jailed. The people knew this, and they felt the weight of a very present danger around them. How will they respond to their liminal moment?
In the remainder of chapter 6, through all of chapter 7, we learn about an awful incident that happened to one man in the early church, Stephen, whose story actually begins in chapter 6 verses 1-7. There we learn about one of the three crises in the church that we discussed previously. To review, read Acts chapter 6, verses 1-7.
What the author, Luke, is describing is a social action ministry of food distribution to vulnerable people in the church, widows. This flows from the account of the church’s great love for one another that we’ve seen multiple times already, first in chapter 2 verses 42-47, then again in chapter 4, verses 32-37. This crisis was that the one group of widows was getting preferential treatment, and one group of widows was being overlooked.
These were all Jews who believed in Jesus, but they didn’t speak the same language.
The early church was comprised of Jews from many different countries who spoke different languages. Some were not from Jerusalem or Israel, and thus their first language was likely the language of their home country, and the primary world language of the day, Greek. Many other Jewish Christians in the early church were from Jerusalem or Israel and thus their first language was Aramaic, and maybe Hebrew, but to a much lesser extent Greek. So you have two distinct groups of the people in the early church, separated by a language and cultural barrier. As the church creates this social support program out of love for widows, you can imagine how this unfolds.
Think about how difficult it can be to communicate with a call center in another country. They are speaking English, but their accent is not American, and it can be hard to understand. Faith Church going to be renting a couple rooms of our building to a Burmese Christian church, and it is hard to communicate with them. In fact, when we showed them the space, they called up a translator on the phone, and we communicated via speaker phone using the translator. When I need to contact a company that uses a call center, and now when I communicate with the Burmese pastor, I have found that what facilitates communication is texting. Texting removes the accent, and can be translated easily online. Well the early church didn’t have the benefit of texting or Google Translate. You can imagine how frustrated they might have been, and the result was that the Greek-speaking widows were being overlooked.
What did the apostles do? They told the church to select godly leaders to resolve this. The church selected seven men, and the apostles commissioned them. I want you to notice something in chapter 6 verse 5. The men all have Greek names. That means that the people and the apostles wanted to reach the Greek-speaking people in their church. I love that heart. They knew Greek-speaking widows were being overlooked, so they selected Greek-speaking leaders to make sure there would be equity.
One of those Greek-speaking leaders was Stephen. Stephen, and Philip who we’ll meet next week, were not just chosen because they were good at food distribution. They were chosen because they were godly leaders, and while they were tasked to solve the food distribution problem, they also did much other ministry. That is what the story of chapters 6 and 7 are about, Stephen’s ministry and the horrible way it turned out. In the next post we’ll begin to learn about it.
Engaging Scripture 