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Deacons and the Early Church · The Grove Church

• 0:04
  Charlie Loften: The questions we wrestle with as Christians about who God is, how do we live out our faith, what is the Bible, what is the truth of the Bible? What are we supposed to believe? How are we supposed to live? There are really big, deep questions that we ask each other, that we ask God, that we wrestle with ourselves. And that's why the Cultivate podcast exists, to help us go deeper in our understanding of who God is, his word, and the way that he's called us to live.
• 0:35
  Everyone, welcome to the Cultivate podcast with The Grove Church. I'm Charlie Loften. I'm the lead pastor there, and we are here with the one and only, no one like her, Abigail Boone, creative director, podcast producer, good friend
• 0:50
  Abigail Boone: Good friend. Yeah. A friend. The one... From Charlie Loften.
• 0:55
  Charlie Loften: Yes. Yes. So we are big picture church history. Small picture, we're kind of working our way through acts, kind of talking through these key moments that really help establish the church. The first one we did in acts two, the launch of it.
• 1:12
  So it's with that powerful, sermon that Peter gave, the coming of the Holy Spirit to everyone who believes, which was prophesied in Joel, but had never really been experienced before. And it will come a... It is a it is a significant theme of the rest of the book of Acts, what the Holy Spirit is doing, what happens when the Holy Spirit calls upon... Comes upon people, which will then be discussed much more in-depth when we get to Pentecostalism and the rise of the charismatic movement. And then persecution is, you know, it's already coming from the very beginning.
• 1:44
  We see that we're seeing an evangelistic movement move out, but again, still very localized. And according to the end of Acts chapter two, people are being added to the number daily.
• 1:56
  Abigail Boone: Mhmm.
• 1:57
  Charlie Loften: And so this movement has gone from a handful of disciples and followers to 3,000 people to more than thousands of people, which leads us to Acts chapter six, a very important passage for church governance right here. In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.
• 2:29
  Abigail Boone: That's fair.
• 2:30
  Charlie Loften: Do you know what a Hellenistic Jew is?
• 2:33
  Abigail Boone: From the city of Helena?
• 2:35
  Charlie Loften: Helena, Arkansas. The duck hunters.
• 2:39
  Abigail Boone: Yeah. Their widows matter.
• 2:43
  Charlie Loften: Hebraic Jew basically is ethnic ethnically Jew.
• 2:48
  Abigail Boone: Oh, okay.
• 2:49
  Charlie Loften: Hellenistic is a term to describe someone who is Greek.
• 2:53
  Abigail Boone: Oh, interesting. Okay.
• 2:55
  Charlie Loften: So essentially a non Jewish Jew.
• 2:58
  Abigail Boone: But geographically, they're in the same area?
• 3:02
  Charlie Loften: Maybe. Well, they are all now. They're all now in the same area now. But, like, their their ethnicity... Their ethnic background is not Jewish, but they are part of the Jewish faith.
• 3:12
  Okay. They have become Jewish versus people who are both religiously and ethnically Jewish. So amongst that group of people, I'm Jewish both ethnically and belief system, but now I believe in Jesus. I was Greek ethnically, but I follow the Jewish faith. Now they've also believed in Jesus.
• 3:32
  And so there seems to be a bias amongst the the really Jewish widows to show favor towards says them.
• 3:41
  Abigail Boone: Hebrew is? He... Like Hebrew. He... And then Hellenistic is the Greek.
• 3:46
  Charlie Loften: Right. So Jewish Jews and non Jewish Jews.
• 3:48
  Abigail Boone: Okay.
• 3:50
  Charlie Loften: They're distributing food to the widows who had no means of providing for themselves. Yeah. And it seems like extra portions are going to the to the ethnically Jewish people Mhmm. And there's little to nothing left over for the Hellenistic Jews.
• 4:04
  Abigail Boone: Valid thing to bring up.
• 4:05
  Charlie Loften: And, like, hey. What's up? So the 12 gathered all the disciples together and said it would not be right for us to neglect ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. You
• 4:17
  Abigail Boone: really... I thought you made that up, but it's really in there.
• 4:20
  Charlie Loften: That really is what that says. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who will be known to be full of the spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them, and we will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.
• 4:33
  Abigail Boone: I would just like to take us back to two episodes ago or three maybe when I said so much comes down to growth and organization. That
• 4:43
  Charlie Loften: is exactly what this... Where structures are created out of necessity. Numbers grow as opposed some sort of grand plan and scheme. They they may have not consulted the creative directors first like we talked about last time. They did not consult the industrial engineers first either.
• 5:01
  Abigail Boone: Right.
• 5:01
  Charlie Loften: Yeah. Yeah. So basically, what he's saying here is that our primary calling is to be the ones that are teaching. We're out there we're out there teaching. We're in here teaching.
• 5:12
  It is not within our gift set. Mhmm. It will not be the most strategic use of our time
• 5:17
  Abigail Boone: Mhmm.
• 5:18
  Charlie Loften: For us to be involved in making sure that we're spreading out the portions of the food into equal manner. Find seven guys who can. And the word that describe, anytime it talks about serving is a version of the Greek word that we would transliterate to deacon.
• 5:37
  Abigail Boone: Okay.
• 5:38
  Charlie Loften: And the word deacon in Greek would be one who serves. It is a verb to to serve.
• 5:46
  Abigail Boone: We don't have deacons.
• 5:48
  To me, our church doesn't serve.
• 5:50
  Charlie Loften: You and I don't have deacons.
• 5:51
  Abigail Boone: Our church does not serve people. So
• 5:54
  Charlie Loften: all that to say, this is so seven guys are appointed to become deacons. Mhmm. And they they don't really they're not really called Deacons. They are just they're just appointed to to the serve. We're gonna lay our hands on you, and now this is your job.
• 6:10
  Your job is to make sure that the serving component of what we do is done well.
• 6:14
  Abigail Boone: Take, but kinda like the rock. Be rocky.
• 6:17
  Charlie Loften: Yeah. So they they they are not called Deacons.
• 6:20
  Abigail Boone: Uh-huh.
• 6:21
  Charlie Loften: Deacon is a word that comes much later
• 6:24
  Abigail Boone: Uh-huh.
• 6:24
  Charlie Loften: To describe this particular office.
• 6:27
  Abigail Boone: Okay.
• 6:28
  Charlie Loften: At this point, they are... We are... You are being you are being you're being set apart to serve. You're being set apart to to Deacon.
• 6:37
  Abigail Boone: Mhmm. K.
• 6:38
  Charlie Loften: We we we would be like if if the the movement had been started in in an English speaking country
• 6:46
  Abigail Boone: Mhmm.
• 6:47
  Charlie Loften: They would have been called servants. Yeah. It really is just... That's the word. It did not...
• 6:52
  It was not an official office at this point. Mhmm. But this passage, most assuredly is the grounding passage for what then becomes that office and in churches all over still is a primary office. So it it is... It it it sets the stage for what we would now call Deacons.
• 7:13
  Abigail Boone: So
• 7:15
  Charlie Loften: now is a good a time as any just to talk about that. What that role is, again, we're appointing people to serve. And so in a lot of churches, like the church I grew up in, we'll talk about the church I grew up in, we'll talk about the church you grew up in, then we can talk about other churches. Churches I grew up in, it turned into a more formalized, almost governing body.
• 7:36
  Abigail Boone: Yeah.
• 7:37
  Charlie Loften: They did have the role. They were supposed to take care of widows. Of the things that they did was they they checked in and looked in on the widows, cared for them.
• 7:46
  Abigail Boone: It's very kind.
• 7:47
  Charlie Loften: It's very it's very kind thing. But it also really functioned as an administrative board, consulting board for the pastor. Okay. In our church, growing up in Southern Baptist Church, the lead pastor essentially was the singular elder. There were not multiple elders in the church.
• 8:06
  Abigail Boone: Okay.
• 8:06
  Charlie Loften: There was one elder, and it was the senior pastor.
• 8:10
  Abigail Boone: Mhmm.
• 8:11
  Charlie Loften: And then there were deacons, and they served the church and also served the elder as kind of being a sounding board. Mhmm. But then ultimately, the decisions of the church were made by a congregational vote. And so it is an interesting blend of a pastor led church with some deacon leadership in there too as kind of consultants and sideways kind of accountability to the lead pastor, but really with just a little blend of American democracy thrown in there. Right?
• 8:42
  That was just kind But
• 8:43
  Abigail Boone: the pastor was accountable to the deacons?
• 8:45
  Charlie Loften: Sort of.
• 8:45
  Abigail Boone: Okay.
• 8:46
  Charlie Loften: He was definitely in charge of them. Mhmm. But they they were the ones that could kinda be like, what are you really doing here?
• 8:53
  Abigail Boone: Okay.
• 8:54
  Charlie Loften: And if and if there was ever going to be a situation where we were gonna vote whether or not we wanted to get rid of the senior pastor
• 9:00
  Abigail Boone: Mhmm.
• 9:00
  Charlie Loften: Which happened when I was in college. Yikes. It was the head of the Deacon Board that brought the matter to our attention.
• 9:06
  Abigail Boone: Okay. To the congregation? Yes. Okay.
• 9:09
  Charlie Loften: So that that... That's our church. In your church growing up, the Methodist Church
• 9:14
  Abigail Boone: We didn't have deacons.
• 9:15
  Charlie Loften: Yes, you did. Oh. There are layers of progress that... Like, I want to become a fully ordained pastor. Mhmm.
• 9:24
  There are steps along the way. But I like, you're kind of your junior ordained and now you're ordained. Now you're like Right? Fully The first step there is deacon. And so you're ordained as a deacon.
• 9:44
  You can be like, there can be lay, like if there's like a really significant lay leader that preached sometimes at your church, he was probably ordained as a deacon. Most youth pastors probably are ordained as deacons.
• 10:00
  Abigail Boone: Okay.
• 10:01
  Charlie Loften: I don't know if if Claude's gonna have some method... United Methodist fact checking on me there. I mean, it's a it's a little... It's... It can be loose, but it really is kind of the entry level ordination level, and it is sometimes the first step for a professional minister, but it can also be the first and likely final step for a lay leader in the church.
• 10:26
  Okay. You can be a lay leader in church and not be ordained as a deacon, but being ordained as a deacon does give you the ability within the structure of the Methodist Church to perform certain functions that you could not do otherwise.
• 10:39
  Abigail Boone: Are you sure that they all had them?
• 10:42
  Charlie Loften: All who have what?
• 10:44
  Abigail Boone: I don't think that we had Deacons.
• 10:47
  Charlie Loften: I'm not saying that you had Deacons. I'm saying that there were some people that it is the... The same structure. Okay. Am almost positive that your pastor who's probably now ordained as an elder at some point was ordained as
• 11:02
  Abigail Boone: a deacon. Gotcha. Okay.
• 11:04
  Charlie Loften: They would not have... You would not have referred to him as a deacon. As a teenager growing up, you would not have thought... Oh, you would not have thought, oh, my youth pastor, he's ordained as a deacon. That would not...
• 11:15
  Something they would have said, but it is something that would have been done.
• 11:19
  Abigail Boone: So what of all churches, no matter the congregation, they would have a group of people that were over the same kinds of things that they're saying here in acts? Like every church was like, we need to have people that are over the widows and...
• 11:32
  Charlie Loften: We will we will talk about that as we go on. Really, I just wanna kind of spend some time right now talking about the endgame, kind of where we are. But, like, this this this role as it being an official role, it's something that's growing out. Like you'll see it even in like first and second Timothy and Titus as Paul is talking to them. Is apparent by then that there is a group of people called Deacons.
• 11:58
  You know, he talks about these lists. Here's the requirements that an elder must have. Then he'll say, and here are the requirements that a Deacon must have. So from the time here, approximately thirty thirty one to thirty three AD Mhmm. To twenty five to thirty years later when Paul is writing those books, it has already become
• 12:20
  Abigail Boone: More established.
• 12:21
  Charlie Loften: Kind of thing that really every church should have this.
• 12:24
  Abigail Boone: Yeah. So I guess it's interesting here that... Which maybe this is cultural to a little bit, but interesting that there's an issue and they're already expecting the church to handle it to some capacity. Not waiting for some other like government or something. They're like, no, the church needs to fill this gap.
• 12:43
  Charlie Loften: Yeah. So in the Methodist Church and in your more high church kind of places, non reformed high church places, Anglicans, Episcopals, Catholics, Orthodox.
• 12:56
  Abigail Boone: Mhmm.
• 12:56
  Charlie Loften: It is... It's it's primarily just a stepping stone of a level of ordination. There's not a group of deacons. Deacon is just a step you take potentially on the path to becoming a pastor or priest or whatever. And then you're more reformed Presbyterian traditions, it is more it is more akin to what's being described here.
• 13:19
  It is it is a group of people designed to serve. Okay. Which is so... And that really does not have any sort of administrative board functions. That's almost exclusively to in the Baptist tradition.
• 13:31
  Abigail Boone: Okay.
• 13:31
  Charlie Loften: Baptist tradition, they serve, but really they kind of function as administrative boards. And how much power they have will depend on the particular Baptist denomination.
• 13:41
  Abigail Boone: Okay.
• 13:41
  Charlie Loften: Your Presbyterians, it is more like this in Acts where it's... They're just... They're here as servants. Mhmm. And then in your higher churches, it is a a step along the process to become...
• 13:57
  Towards full ordination, and it's not a separate group of people. The deacons got together today.
• 14:03
  Abigail Boone: At some point, you are going to be that...
• 14:05
  Charlie Loften: Are you are working your way towards full ordination, and Deacon is kind of the first step along the way. But it could be the final step for some people because that's as far as I want to or can progress because I'm not
• 14:20
  Abigail Boone: They this just type wanted to be a youth minister, that's just
• 14:22
  Charlie Loften: what they
• 14:23
  Abigail Boone: would have been. Right.
• 14:25
  Charlie Loften: And so it just seems like a really simple thing that the guys came up with. Hey, listen, we don't really have time to manage this. Let's find seven guys and and put put our trust and faith in them. It does not seem like you have established a brand new church office that is gonna last for two thousand plus years and will be, you know, shaped in other forms and fashions to become something. It doesn't seem like without the knowledge of all of that
• 14:55
  Abigail Boone: Mhmm.
• 14:55
  Charlie Loften: It would not seem like that this was some really important moment in church history, but it is. It's a it's a it's a title that is used for a long time, but it also goes the thing that you said that really structures are birthed more out of need rather than long term strategic planning.
• 15:16
  Abigail Boone: Well, and, I mean, I already said it, but, again, I just think it's really cool this soon after Pentecost, an issue crops up and they're like, the church should meet this need. And they're going to the... Wasn't like, well, we'll figure this out on our own. They're like calling to the church like, hey, this is a thing now.
• 15:35
  Charlie Loften: Yeah. And it's interesting. We want
• 15:36
  Abigail Boone: y'all to invest.
• 15:37
  Charlie Loften: Because you get it in acts two that as, you know, they were meeting all the needs of everybody that had needs like that. It was just built into the DNA of the Yeah. Church from the very And so we at The Grove, we don't have Deacons per se as a as an as a as a certain class and team of people. Do we have people who serve? Yes.
• 16:06
  Lots of people who serve in a lot of different capacities. Yeah. So there are groups of servers like, we... You a serving team. If...
• 16:15
  In that sense, we do. In in a stricter sense, really, community care team That's
• 16:19
  Abigail Boone: what I
• 16:19
  Charlie Loften: was thinking. Kind of functions in that role.
• 16:22
  Abigail Boone: Of needs.
• 16:23
  Charlie Loften: And so the principle is the same and, you know, and it's like, who do we want to serve in these different serving capacities? Mhmm. Yeah. There are certain requirements that we want them to be able to hit, but we do not call them Deacons in the way that more organized, structured denominations do. Mhmm.
• 16:42
  But we do follow those same principles. And that's just kinda what we're gonna find. Our church, your nondenominational evangelical churches, and even amongst those groups, our church is gonna be very, I'll say, structure resistant.
• 16:58
  Abigail Boone: Mhmm.
• 16:59
  Charlie Loften: Right? I mean, just like
• 17:00
  Abigail Boone: Yeah.
• 17:00
  Charlie Loften: Why do something formally if it can be done informally?
• 17:03
  Abigail Boone: Right.
• 17:04
  Charlie Loften: But still following all of those same principles.
• 17:06
  Abigail Boone: Mhmm. And so the large scope of this, and I guess in verse three, he's saying, we'll delegate it to these people, and then we... I don't know who they're directly talking to, but the people who are not the seven are gonna continue to focus on prayer and the ministry being like
• 17:25
  Charlie Loften: teaching The 12 apostles. The 12
• 17:28
  Abigail Boone: apostles. Okay.
• 17:28
  Charlie Loften: The 12 apostles but are it's interesting that even in that, like, they they apparently chose guys who were also
• 17:37
  Abigail Boone: Well, it says spirit filled.
• 17:39
  Charlie Loften: Yes. They they... Yeah. They're... Everybody's...
• 17:41
  Yep. Yeah. And But I
• 17:42
  Abigail Boone: mean, that is different than before Pentecost. So it's interesting that they're already
• 17:46
  Charlie Loften: Yeah. They they are full on believers and have evidenced in some way that the spirit is there with them. Yeah. But two of those guys that are appointed as part of the seven, Stephen and Philip, are gonna play a significant role later in the book of acts as doing more than just serving Serving. Widows.
• 18:03
  I mean, like, Stephen is about to become the very first martyr in the Christian movement. And then there's a story of Philip preaching to in Samaria, and we'll see him also much later in the book of acts. And so even though these two guys were designated to to play this particular role, seems like that they were also evangelists too. Yeah. Which is really interesting because they almost like...
• 18:26
  We think of it as like, hey. We've got evangelists and large group communicators and then the serving group. But even amongst that serving group. Yeah.
• 18:36
  Abigail Boone: Yeah. That you said Stephen, it was not an apostle, it was Philip?
• 18:40
  Charlie Loften: There is a Philip who is an apostle, but this is a different Philip.
• 18:45
  Abigail Boone: So what have these guys, like, they heard it on Pentecost and they're, like, just on fire and then they got going?
• 18:54
  Charlie Loften: Yeah. At some point between Pentecost and here, they came to faith. We have no indication that either one of them were followers of Jesus pre resurrection.
• 19:03
  Abigail Boone: Okay. That's pretty cool.
• 19:05
  Charlie Loften: And so now this is really as a plot device within the book of acts, it really is kind of a a setup for the story of Stephen and the story of Philip. It really is kind of a, hey, let me let me just tell you where these two guys came from.
• 19:21
  Abigail Boone: Yeah.
• 19:22
  Charlie Loften: Is really the structure more of it more it holds as opposed to, and here administrative role that now every church must do for... It obviously becomes that. It's not something that the church invented four hundred years later. Hey, we should create something. We could just make it off of this.
• 19:40
  Apparently, it was something that became a tradition to do. We've got people who are primarily teaching elders.
• 19:47
  Abigail Boone: Mhmm.
• 19:48
  Charlie Loften: And then we also have deacons, and it is two separate church roles, again, as early as twenty five to thirty years later.
• 19:55
  Abigail Boone: Yeah.
• 19:55
  Charlie Loften: But functionally, in the story, it really is more, hey. And one of these guys, Steven, he was preaching, and they arrested him.
• 20:05
  Abigail Boone: Yeah.
• 20:05
  Charlie Loften: And they arrest him, and he gives this probably one of the most significant sermons in all of all the book of Acts. I mean, to be just very powerful. And and and it is in front of all these people, but specifically most kind of the Jewish religious court.
• 20:26
  Abigail Boone: Mhmm.
• 20:26
  Charlie Loften: And they are so out... And that group group is called the Sanhedrin, and they are so absolutely outraged. So, basically, he's kinda going cover to cover through the Old Testament to show who Jesus is and why they are on the wrong side of this. And, not having consult the creative director for messaging, he ends it this way. You stiff necked people, your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised.
• 20:54
  You are like your ancestors. You always resist the Holy Spirit. Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the righteous one, and now you have betrayed and murdered him. You who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.
• 21:12
  When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, this is not a plot twist, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Look, he said, I see heaven open and the son of man standing at the right hand of God. At this, they covered their ears and yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named...
• 21:48
  Saul. Saul. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and so
• 21:52
  Abigail Boone: The picture of them actively putting their hands, they don't even wanna hear I what
• 21:57
  Charlie Loften: he's do not even want to hear any of this.
• 22:01
  Abigail Boone: But I think in the big scheme, to my knowledge, there may be stories like this in the old testament, but this is just really does feel like a new era that someone could go from... I mean, I guess we may not know how old Stephen is, but he's not a young child hearing the message at Pentecost. And then however many chapters later, he's doing a profoundly accurate sermon. Right. Like, that's like fire that I feel like we don't hear of like transformation stories that we heard until the church cropped up.
• 22:39
  And like, that's a radically different storyline from Samuel, what we're doing on Sunday mornings that started from when he was a baby. Right. Right. This just feels like a a definitely a new era of accelerated excitement almost. Then
• 22:55
  Charlie Loften: The the... For... This is... You know, but then it sounds like religious. Like, the holy spirit is definitely an accelerant.
• 23:01
  Abigail Boone: Yeah. Yeah. So as a pastor who has been pastoring for a really long time, have you ever had the experience where there was seemingly a bitter conflict and they brought it to you and you proposed a resolve and they said, we're well pleased. That's what it says in five. The proposal pleased the whole group.
• 23:27
  Is that usually how it goes for you? Happens. It happens. And maybe it's because of the beginning days. Yeah.
• 23:34
  They're like, yeah. We don't know another option. That works great.
• 23:38
  Charlie Loften: And then just to just to drive the point home, verse first part of chapter eight, and Saul approved of their killing him. Oh, wow. We gotta make sure we're... You know, like, we... We're...
• 23:47
  We've got to establish full villain status to
• 23:50
  Abigail Boone: this guy. Before. Yeah.
• 23:51
  Charlie Loften: On that day, a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Mhmm. So this is gonna be a significant turning point in the history of the church. Because right now, go back to Acts one eight.
• 24:06
  Abigail Boone: Mhmm.
• 24:07
  Charlie Loften: In Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, persecution was so severe after that moment that there's a scattering, and everybody except the 12 have now scattered to Are there? Out out outside of Jerusalem.
• 24:22
  Abigail Boone: Is that Jerusalem?
• 24:22
  Charlie Loften: The Jerusalem is where the Jewish religious leadership would be able to have the most control and power over people. They could... They didn't have any they didn't have any reach Right. Much far beyond that. Mhmm.
• 24:35
  So if we can just get out of here Mhmm. We can just get out of here, we can avoid this persecution. And so we'll see this not only through acts, but if we were to take, and we'll do the sum, not only just a history of the church, but a history of missions. There's several different ways that God does missions. One is people voluntarily go, which we'll see later with Paul.
• 24:59
  And we also see that God involuntarily sends missionaries. And that's what this is. This is an involuntary sending of missionaries.
• 25:07
  Abigail Boone: Which is interesting because I feel like this type narrative doesn't fit very well onto your felt board children's class. That if you asked a kid who is the biggest persecutor of the Christian faith early on, they never would have guessed.
• 25:23
  Charlie Loften: No. I mean, it was definitely in the the, you know, the story of him coming to faith and seeing the bright light. That was definitely a felt board worthy sign. We all we all we all knew that he was... That's what he did.
• 25:38
  Abigail Boone: I just missed it.
• 25:40
  Charlie Loften: You did?
• 25:40
  Abigail Boone: I just think as a kid, I would have I would have, like, very simplified... Oversimplified it of Jesus died and then the church started, but then the world was against us. I was like, well, no, actually, the Jewish people that Jesus was preaching to, they were against us, not just Rome.
• 26:02
  Charlie Loften: So the shift is now we've moved from Jerusalem to the surrounding areas, and we get a story in here about Philip, not Philip the apostle, but Philip, one of the seven. He's, you know, in Samaria. He talks to this Ethiopian that is coming... That he was in Samaria and heading back to Ethiopia. And so we're starting to see just the glimpses of...
• 26:25
  Okay. Well, now we've moved from it being a Jerusalem centered thing to a regional Jewish thing, expanding into Samaria, which is like one offs from being Jewish to even this kind of this what feels like a random story of this Ethiopian guy happening to be there and Philip converting him to follow Jesus. We're starting to see kind of... It's moving the the the sprinkling of it moving from a Jewish movement to more of a multiethnic movement, which then follows the conversion of Paul
• 27:00
  Abigail Boone: Mhmm.
• 27:01
  Charlie Loften: And turning the greatest hater of the Christian movement to its greatest missionary.
• 27:08
  Abigail Boone: Mhmm.
• 27:09
  Charlie Loften: And so that kind of period right there that we've kind of talked about as far as its place in church history, the establishment of Deacons, number one. Number two, we're starting... We will see this pattern many times over the course of all the centuries, this pattern of persecution spreading people out, but really being then a a multiplier of the movement. We're persecuted, and so we're fleeing, but we're not we're not we're not hiding. We're not we're not hiding what we believe.
• 27:39
  Abigail Boone: You've turned
• 27:40
  Charlie Loften: into We're just taking we're just taking what what God has given us to a to another place. And then I think like we've talked about before before that the the the persecution of Christianity has a
• 27:52
  Abigail Boone: has a
• 27:53
  Charlie Loften: has a Streisand effect on it. It's actually drawing more people to it. And then with the conversion of Saul, we have the creation of who is going to be the, you know, the greatest missionary of all time. And so we were setting the sea... Set setting the groundwork for church becoming a a Jerusalem Jewish centered movement to ultimately a regional and a worldwide movement.
• 28:18
  Abigail Boone: Jerusalem was in Judea or Judea was another place near Jerusalem?
• 28:23
  Charlie Loften: Yeah. So it, like, Little Rock. It's moved from Little Rock to Arkansas to Arkansas and Oklahoma.
• 28:29
  Abigail Boone: Okay.
• 28:29
  Charlie Loften: And ultimately to the ends of
• 28:31
  Abigail Boone: the earth. Also, are these Hellenistic and Hebraic? Were they already worshiping together? Or were they in different...
• 28:43
  Charlie Loften: Yeah. I mean, yeah, at this point, they would... They they they would not have had full bias against them because they they were religiously Right. Jewish. Okay.
• 28:52
  Even still...
• 28:53
  Abigail Boone: Not like a full on Gentile.
• 28:55
  Charlie Loften: Right. I mean, they they they were they were Jewish in their face, which meant probably all their dudes were circumcised. Mhmm. These are widows. But...
• 29:01
  So they would have been like, no, you're cool. You're Okay. You're cool. But...
• 29:04
  Abigail Boone: But you are
• 29:04
  Charlie Loften: good. Mean, if I've if I've got a choice between giving you a... I've only got one piece of bread left. Mhmm. I'm not gonna split it in half.
• 29:11
  I'm gonna give it to you and look at you and say, I'm
• 29:13
  Abigail Boone: sorry. Yeah. Okay.
• 29:14
  Charlie Loften: But... So not not not animosity Okay. But there was definitely would
• 29:18
  Abigail Boone: have been a an
• 29:20
  Charlie Loften: unconscious bias towards people who look look look and talk like me.
• 29:27
  Abigail Boone: Okay.
• 29:27
  Charlie Loften: Right? Okay. Alright. So we'll we'll do... I've I've I've decided.
• 29:31
  I told you I was uncertain. I've decided we're gonna do one more in the book of Acts.
• 29:34
  Abigail Boone: Okay.
• 29:35
  Charlie Loften: It's gonna take us through how it really kind of made the leap from a a gentile movement.
• 29:42
  Abigail Boone: Okay.
• 29:42
  Charlie Loften: And so we'll talk about a little bit about Paul's missionary journeys and then the most... Where this most significant part of acts with respect to church history is the council of Jerusalem.
• 29:54
  Abigail Boone: Okay.
• 29:54
  Charlie Loften: We'll talk about that because
• 29:55
  Abigail Boone: You think this is gonna be one more episode? That sounds like a long episode.
• 29:59
  Charlie Loften: Watch me.
• 29:59
  Abigail Boone: Okay. Alright. Bring it. Bring it. We got
• 30:03
  Charlie Loften: we got we gotta we gotta get at a a pace we can manage.
• 30:06
  Abigail Boone: I know. But the people are gonna like it.
• 30:08
  Charlie Loften: We... This... The the... We are three episodes in Mhmm. And we are...
• 30:12
  What? The church is one year old?
• 30:14
  Abigail Boone: Right. Lot of stuff happened. They start up culture is intense. Right.
• 30:20
  Charlie Loften: Anyways. Okay. We'll see. We'll see. I work for Come on this journey with us.
• 30:26
  We did also did not consult the industrial engineers. No one no one plotted this.
• 30:31
  Abigail Boone: I would have not like No one
• 30:32
  Charlie Loften: plotted this out. It's not drawn out at all. We'll see where it goes. Anyways, thank you for joining us. Please come back as we continue in our journey in the book of acts as we're kind of really kind of setting up church history.
• 30:44
  And thanks for joining us, and we'll see you next time. Thank you for listening to the Cultivate podcast. Our hope is that you are taking steps to go deeper in your faith that you're asking big questions and you're looking for answers. We hope that we can be a resource for you through our podcast and any other way that we can help you. You can find all our episodes anywhere that you can find podcasts including YouTube.
• 31:07
  And again, thank you so much for joining us.