Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / August 21 - Acts 6

Transcript

August 21 - Acts 6 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

• 0:11
  Hello friends, it's Sean. Here it is Thursday.
• 0:15
  It's the 21st of August. How you doing?
• 0:18
  I hope you're going well. I hope this week has been
• 0:20
  treating you well as here we are getting toward the end of the
• 0:23
  week and today our reading takes well.
• 0:27
  It's kind of sobering and kind of reassuring all at the same
• 0:30
  time. We have read 5 chapters of the
• 0:33
  book of Acts, the church, the Christian Church is 5 chapters
• 0:37
  old and here in the 6th chapter begins internal grumbling and
• 0:42
  discontent and people being annoyed with each other.
• 0:47
  So if you have been a part of a church and you've thought why
• 0:50
  can't you all just get along? Do you really need to bicker
• 0:53
  like this? Yes, yes, it's part of a long
• 0:58
  and proud tradition. Maybe we're not so proud, but
• 1:01
  certainly a long tradition when we get people together in a
• 1:04
  community. Yes, we are people.
• 1:06
  We are broken. And so we bigger.
• 1:09
  That's just how we roll. And if you have had young
• 1:11
  children, you know that it starts early, early in life and
• 1:15
  early in the life of the church. So let us read this story and
• 1:20
  then we'll move on to this incredible man named Stephen and
• 1:23
  how God shines through him. Reading together Acts chapter 6.
• 1:37
  But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings
• 1:41
  of discontent. The Greek speaking believers
• 1:44
  complained about the Hebrew speaking believers saying that
• 1:47
  their widows were being discriminated against in the
• 1:50
  daily distribution of food. So the 12 called a meeting of
• 1:54
  all the believers. They said we apostles should
• 1:57
  spend our time teaching the Word of God, not running a food
• 2:01
  programme. And so brothers, select seven
• 2:05
  men who are well respected and full of the spirit and wisdom.
• 2:09
  We will give them this responsibility.
• 2:11
  Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the
• 2:15
  Word. Everyone liked this idea, and
• 2:18
  they chose the following Stephen, a man full of faith and
• 2:22
  the Holy Spirit, Philip, Procurus, Naikonor, Timon,
• 2:27
  Parmenus, and Nicholas of Antioch, an earlier convert to
• 2:32
  the Jewish faith. These seven men were presented
• 2:35
  to the apostles who prayed for them as they laid their hands on
• 2:39
  them. So God's message continued to
• 2:41
  spread. The number of believers greatly
• 2:44
  increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were
• 2:48
  converted too. Stephen, a man full of God's
• 2:52
  grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among
• 2:57
  the people. But one day some men from the
• 3:00
  synagogue of freed slaves, as it was called, started to debate
• 3:04
  with him. They were Jews from Cyrene,
• 3:07
  Alexandria, Cecilia, and the province of Asia.
• 3:11
  None of them could stand against the wisdom and the spirit with
• 3:14
  which Stephen spoke. So they persuaded some men to
• 3:18
  lie about Stephen, saying we heard him blasphemy Moses and
• 3:22
  even God. This roused the people, the
• 3:26
  elders, and the teachers of religious law.
• 3:28
  So they arrested Stephen and brought him before the High
• 3:31
  Council. The lying witnesses said this
• 3:35
  man is always speaking against the Holy Temple and against the
• 3:38
  Law of Moses. We have heard him say that this
• 3:42
  Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the temple and change the
• 3:46
  customs Moses handed down to us. At this point, everyone in the
• 3:52
  High Council stared at Stephen because his face became as
• 3:57
  bright as an angel's. Our Lord, problems within and
• 4:10
  without your church. These are nothing new.
• 4:14
  Here we see conflict in the church and the way that they
• 4:19
  responded by building better systems to ensure that these
• 4:22
  people were cared for and to free up the apostles to continue
• 4:26
  sharing Your Word. And then in the next sentence,
• 4:30
  we see people lying about your believers to try and discredit
• 4:35
  your church and your people. Lord, you know that when we step
• 4:40
  out boldly to be your ambassadors, your followers in
• 4:44
  this world, that the world will hate us, the world will
• 4:48
  persecute us, and the world will think that we have gone slightly
• 4:51
  mad. Said Lord, I pray that you
• 4:54
  continue to embolden us, that this would not subdue us or
• 4:59
  temper our message, but that your Holy Spirit would continue
• 5:03
  to empower us to live in a way that so clearly points to you,
• 5:09
  the author of life, the Spirit of gentleness and kindness and
• 5:15
  patience and self control, all these things that go against the
• 5:19
  natural way of us. So Holy Spirit move in US,
• 5:25
  create in our hearts a desire to be more and more a part of your
• 5:30
  Kingdom and not the world and the way the world works.
• 5:34
  So here we stand, Your loving children use us, we are yours,
• 5:42
  and we pray all of this in your powerful name, Jesus, Amen.