124. Beginner Bible Course: Problems inside and outside for the early Church

EPISODE 124:  PROBLEMS INSIDE AND OUTSIDE FOR THE EARLY CHURCH

The night before Jesus

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Was crucified. He told his disciples, it's really good. I'm going away. I'm going to send to you a helper. That's going to be a game changer. Then he said, when I do, you'll do greater things than I did because you'll have the helper and I'll be there with the father making things happen. That was a real eye roller to the disciples, but they stopped rolling their eyes just six weeks later, when we get to the fourth chapter of acts, we see what Jesus means. We're not sure how many people went all in on Jesus as Messiah and Lord. During his three plus years of ministry on this planet, there were 120 devoted followers waiting for this promised helper. But then 50 days later, Peter gets up empowered by this helper.

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The Holy spirit gives a 10 minute sermon and 3000 men from all over the Mediterranean turned to Jesus as savior and Lord and are baptized within a week or so there are over 5,000 males plus women and children. Who've gone all in on Jesus and that at the risk of their reputations, their jobs, and even their personal safety or lives greater works, shall you do indeed with the baby church, the body of Christ born in Jerusalem, we shouldn't expect the local Jewish religious machine or the enemy Satan to be singing the hallelujah chorus.

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Jesus promised his disciples. This isn't going to be any Sunday. School picnic expect some fairly serious opposition. Peter John and the other disciples now called apostles knew some things were coming. What may have taken them by surprise though, is how many of those problems would be coming from inside the church acts chapter five, introduces to us a couple attending this baby church in Jerusalem and a niacin Safira at the end of acts, chapter four to care for the needs of all of these folks from around the Mediterranean, who had turned to Jesus as savior and Lord. And we're lingering in Jerusalem for a little basic training in how to follow Jesus.

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A man named Barnabas sold attractive land and brought a substantial amount of money to the apostles. He placed it in front of them and said, guys, use this to meet needs in a nice and Safira were apparently impressed with the response of the church to Mr. Encouragement, Barnabas and his generous gift. So they go out and sell a piece of property as well and an ice and Safira were not sincere. They were with wax. They didn't bring it all. That was okay. The problem is they wanted their brothers and sisters in the church to believe they brought it all. And the NIS was the one who delivered the money. Peter must have sensed that Anna Niaz was telling a Whopper and the Niaz.

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Why would you lie to the Holy spirit while you had that property? It was it's in your control. You didn't have to bring it all, but instead you conceive this deed in your heart and a nice was wearing a mask, a Barnabas mask of gracious generosity. Peter says drop dead. No, he really says that an Anna Niaz drops dead. Paul bears come in and carry him out and bury him three hours later. His wife Safira comes in. Safira thanks for the love gift. Let me ask you, was that the full price of the field? She says, yes, it was Peter replies. Why have you and your husband determined to test the spirit of the Lord?

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Do you hear those footsteps? Those are the Pall bearers of your husband, and they're coming to carry you out as well. She drops dead too. It doesn't take long for the word of this to eke out to this tightly knit body of brothers and sisters in the church. Great aunt comes over the church. You might be thinking what I thought the first time I heard that story. Why so harsh? I mean, can you imagine today in churches, if people putting on a Sunday face, a mask of hypocrisy dropped dead, all my Jesus is laying the footings of his body. The church footings have to be true and square. And a nice sense of fire are committing the primary sin of the Pharisees religious mask wearing God has to deal with this and deal with it publicly.

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It's a big, big deal. As we move through chapter five, God continues to roll out signs and wonders through the apostles. Peter gets so revered and popular that sick people on cots are placed in the streets. Hoping that Peter's shadow will fall on them. As he walks by people start coming into town from all around Jerusalem, hoping for physical healing and deliverance from demons, the religious leaders. Aren't going to take this sitting down. They become intensely jealous in one fell swoop. They imprisoned all 11 apostles, but under lock and guard, God lets them out and tells them, go back to the temple and do what you normally do in the morning.

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The religious leaders summon them to be brought from the prison. But when they get there, they report back. There's no prisoners while they're scratching their head, someone comes in and says, your prisoners are preaching in the temple. These men are relentless peacefully. They're brought back to the council. We gave you guys strict orders about teaching in the name of Jesus. Yet you're filling Jerusalem with your teaching. You're trying to bring this man's blood on us. That's rather ironic. Some of these same men were in front of pilot in Jesus, early morning, trial, crying out his blood, be upon us and upon our children, the apostles respond.

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We must obey God rather than men. We've been witnesses of these things. And so is the Holy spirit. This isn't going well. They're intending to slaughter all 11 of them until one of the council members, a wise one Chameli all speaks up. He reminds them of two other guys would be messiahs, one named <inaudible> and another Judas of Galilee. He cites how they collected their own followers. And in each case, these men were killed and their disciples scattered. He advises the council. If this is of men, it will perish. But if it's of God, you will lose. And we might be toast.

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They agree to go with his plan, but they want to send the apostles a message. So they call them in and they flogged them. That's just the whip to hurt, not the scourge to tear. As these 11 men leave the chamber. They might've had the words of Jesus in his sermon, on the Mount dancing through their heads. Bless are you when men persecute you for my name's sake, bless it means happy. And as they leave this whooping, Luke tells us they rejoiced and that scolding and whooping did nothing, but encourage them more. They taught the baby Christians house to house, to house in Jerusalem.

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Then problems moved back inside the church. Again, the Greek Jews started complaining that the Hebrew Jews were being favored in the distribution of food. The meals on wheels were not being distributed fairly. You could call this favoritism in the church or perhaps flat-out racism. If you needed food and you happen to be Hebrew, you are going to be put at the front of the line. The complaint comes to the ears of the apostles. They agree. There's a problem, but say it's not right. That they would neglect teaching house to house and prayer to fix this food distribution problem. So the apostles choose seven men to administer the church meals on wheels.

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They come up with three selection criteria. They needed to be men of good reputation, full of wisdom and full of the helper. The Holy spirit, really these are meal delivery. People being counters, church administrators, you need to be full of wisdom and the Holy spirit to do that. Have you ever tried to make church whiny people happy? The apostles choose seven men. It's interesting to note all seven names are Greek. That's pretty wise. They chose Greek men to make sure the Greek believers wouldn't get left behind. What was the result? The gospel kept spreading and more people came to embrace Jesus as Messiah and Lord.

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Many of those people included the priests. That's right. They were coming over to Jesus' side. If you're interested, these seven men were called deacons, which means servants. If you attend church, you may have deacons in your church. People called to serve the needs of God's flock under shepherds, as it were two of these Greek men. These deacons are pretty special. The first one is Stephen in acts chapter seven, Stephen annoys Jews from outside Jerusalem. Stephen has just, well, a curve wrecker he's intensely studied in the old Testament. And he's a guy who can really argue for Jesus.

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These Jews find false witnesses against Steven. They claim he's out there speaking against Moses and God. He speaks against the temple and keeping the law. They're saying, he's saying Jesus will destroy the temple and alter the customs of Moses he's dragged before a tribunal. He stands up the tribunal notices, man, it looks like that guy's face is lighting up. Stephen begins to speak and shows us what this deacon, this servant is made of. He gives the council an outstanding review of old Testament history from Abraham to David. I tell my old Testament students, if you don't have time to study for the comprehensive final read Stephen's review of God's history with Israel and act seven, it's an extraordinary summary.

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The council listening don't realize it. But Stephen like Jesus did in his parable of the vineyard. And the tenants is leading his accusers into a trap. As Stephen goes through as a review, he points out a couple of guys in particular. He reminds them that Joseph was rejected by his brothers. Yet it was God using Joseph to save their lives. When Stephen gets to Moses, he reminds them that Moses was rejected by the Israelites. Yet Moses was sent to be their deliverer. Then Stephen Springs, the trap like Joseph's brothers and the Israelites to Moses. You men are doing this to Jesus. You men are stiff-necked and resistant.

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Just like your fathers. Your fathers killed the prophets who spoke of the coming righteous one. And that righteous one you have now become his killers and murderers. You men receive Moses law is given by angels and yet you won't keep any of it. His tribunal is cut to the heart. They begin gnashing their teeth, but Steve isn't done yet. The text tells us this full of the Holy spirit, Stephen gazed, intently into the heavens and saw God's glory and Jesus standing at his right hand. Look, I see the heavens open and the son of man standing at the right hand of God. The men in the council cover their ears.

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They rush at him and drag him out of the city. As they begin to stone him, they take off their robes and lay it at the feet of a young man in their group. As the rocks fly. Stephen only has time to say two things. Lord Jesus receive my spirit and Lord do not hold this sin against them. Do those sound familiar? Those are two of the seven sayings Jesus made from the cross. Stephen dies the first martyr of the baby church. Stephen said a very interesting phrase in front of the tribunal. I see Jesus standing at the right hand of God. The father standing at the right hand. That's not used anywhere else in scripture.

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Several times Jesus said seated at the right hand of God. That was an idiom. When you sat down, a job was done and at the right hand of God meant your his right-hand person. We could understand why Jesus would say seated at the right hand of God, but why standing? I have a guess. I think Jesus may be standing because Stephen is coming. The theme throughout the old Testament was, I'll be your God. You'll be my people. And we will be together. I think Jesus is standing because he's excited to welcome Stephen. I think you should forget the jokes about St. Peter waiting for you at the pearly Gates.

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My guess is Jesus has dibs on that in chapter eight, that day, a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout Judea and Sumeria. Remember our theme of acts. You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth, the followers of Christ as Messiah and Lord that day were driven out, were thrown out or escape for their lives. Some Bible students speculate. They waited too long that the Jerusalem church had become a Holy huddle. And this was God's way of sending them forth.

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But others think maybe this was just God's appropriate timetable. After all baby Christians needed to be grounded and fed let's circle back to that young man who held the coats at Stephen's stoning, something that was the role of the ringleader. We'll meet this guy in his early thirties. He becomes the driving force in the goal of exterminating Christ followers. His name saw from the city of Tarsus. Saul is his Jewish name. His Roman name is Paul. He begins ravaging the church, going house to house, arresting both men and women. He is a Pharisee, a religious zealot, a terrorist, perhaps we'll hear his story in the next episode, scattered from Jerusalem.

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We're next told about another deacon, Philip. He goes North to Sumeria. He proclaims Jesus as Messiah and Lord, we learn in the episode of the woman at the well, the Samaritans were also looking for a Messiah when Philip preaches Jesus, the Messiah and Lord to them, they give him their wrapped attention. They see great science, unclean spirits coming out of people, paralyzed in being made whole we're introduced to a Samaritan Simon. He's a sourcer. The locals call him the great power of God because of his amazing magic arts. As the Samaritans go all in on Jesus and are baptized Simon, the sorcerer also believes and is baptized and he follows Phil around like his shadow, amazed at what is really a great power from God.

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Meanwhile, in Jerusalem about the only Christians left that are not underground are the apostles they hear about the half-breeds Samaritans believing and being baptized and sent Peter and John up there, Peter and John get there and experience for themselves. The gospel has really come to these half-breed brothers and sisters. They lay hands on these new Samaritan believers and they to receive the Holy spirit. When Simon, the sorcerer sees this, that through the laying on of hands, God gives them the Holy spirit. He offers Peter and John money for this authority. Maybe he sees a great marketing opportunity.

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Peter's not impressed. Take that silver in your hands and may it perish with you. Your heart's not right. You need to repent this wickedness. You are one bitter man. And in bondage, Peter and John then head back to Jerusalem and preach in the Samaritan village is on the way. Meanwhile, Phillip is told by an angel to go to Gaza, South of Jerusalem on the road near Gaza, he runs into a chariot on that. Chariot is an Ethiopian high official, their treasurer. He's a God worshiper. And he's on the chariot. Reading the scroll of Isaiah, the spirit prompts, Phil to hitchhike. He runs up to the chariot and here's the man reading a passage from Isaiah 53.

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Do you understand what you're reading there? The man replies, how can I, I don't have a teacher to guide me. Phil hops on the chariot and starting at Isaiah 53, that amazing passage describing the crucifixion of Jesus. He preaches Jesus as Messiah to him down the road. They come by a body of water. The Ethiopian says, look, water, baptize me in Jesus name. He's all in on Jesus. Why not? When the baptism is over, we're told the spirit snatch fell away and the Ethiopian continued South rejoicing all the way as we reached the end of acts, chapter eight, the church is now spreading throughout Judea and Sumeria.

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Believers now include half-breed Jews, Gentiles the Samaritans, and at least one African official while God is using Philip to add to the church. Another person is working on subtraction saw we'll get his story in our next wordpicture.