Chapter 6

Verse 1 – strife in the local church. “And in those days” – the days of the power and the development of the early church, 30 AD, forty years before Jerusalem would be destroyed. During those forty years the church would go from a local church in Jerusalem to a world-wide organization. But there is no such things as expansion, missionary activity, until the local church is stabilised. The schisms and the quarrels and the difficulties which arose are based upon the principle that there was instability in the local church. This instability frustrates evangelism and world-wide expansion.

“when the number of the disciples was multiplied” – the church began to expand locally but not beyond the limits of Jerusalem. The word “disciples” is what the Christians called themselves. It means a learner of doctrine. The Christians of the ancient world were called many different things. They were called by the Jews “the Nazarenes, the Galileeans.” They called themselves disciples because the emphasis was on learning doctrine, and they were called by the Roman world “Christians,” which means followers or soldiers or slaves of Christ. The word “Christian” was actually used in derision.

“there arose a murmuring” – the word “murmuring” means an undercurrent, a schism, a quarrel; “of the Grecians against the Hebrews.” We have the word “Grecians” used a number of times in Acts, and the trouble is it is used for two different words. The Greek word E(llenistoj is the word which is used here, but later on in Acts chapter eleven we have the Greek word E(llhn and it is also translated “Grecian” in the KJV. These two have the same root but they are not the same word at all. The word E(llenistoj means to imitate the Greeks, but E(llhn means someone who is a Greek or a Gentile. Sometimes the latter word is translated “Grecian,” as in Acts 11:20, but the Grecians in Acts 11:20 are actually Greeks. However, the Grecians here in chapter six are not Greeks, they are those who imitate the Greeks. In other words, Jews who were Hellenic in culture. So we actually have a murmuring or a quarrel between two kinds of Jews who are born again. So the first problem in the early church, which was made up entirely of Jews, was a division right down the middle as far as culture was concerned. Since the days of Alexander the Great there has always been among the Jews the full Hellenic party, those who have adopted Greek culture. Then we have the pro-Judaistic party and these are the ones who stick to the culture and background of the Mosaic law. Now both groups have accepted Christ as saviour but they have a difference of background. So we have background antagonisms, a problem that exists in any local church.

There are problems quite apart from the spiritual factor which cause difficulties in local congregations, unless believers go back to Bible doctrine: a) The poor versus the rich, a class problem; b) The educated versus the uneducated; c) Legalism versus antinomianism; d) Emotionalism versus rationalism; e) Conservative versus liberal. In every age down through the centuries for 2000 years these have been background conflicts among believers in the same congregation.

Basically there are two solutions to the varying backgrounds of individuals within a local church. The first is Bible doctrine. Learning Bible doctrine means growing up, orienting to grace, that you become a relaxed and wonderful believer, and background prejudices and differences are eliminated. But the second solution is fair and just administration within the confines of a local church. This is the responsibility of a certain kind of leadership in the local church who were originally known as deacons.

“because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration” – many of the believers in the early church in Jerusalem were widows. They fell into two parts from the cultural standpoint and this is what caused the schism in the church. The widows who had the Greek culture background were being neglected, and the widows who stuck with the Mosaic law were getting all the help from what is known here as “the table,” a place where they distributed money. Because the church took care of its own they actually practised the system of charity and they provided for their own. But whoever was distributing the money was down on those who came from Greek cultural backgrounds, and therefore they were being ignored. The word “neglected” is an imperfect tense which means constantly neglected. The fact that this neglect was repeated—imperfect tense—indicates a deliberate act of background antagonism.

Verse 2 – “Then the twelve,” i.e. the eleven plus Matthias. At this point the apostles are in charge of the local church; “called the multitude of the disciples” – the local church in Jerusalem – “unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.” The word “reason” is the Greek word for pleasing to God, fitting. It isn’t fitting. In other words, it is contrary to the Word of God and the plan of God for pastors to become entangled in administration. Any administrative responsibility of a pastor hinders his true function, and so administration must be conducted by someone other than the pastor; someone who has the compatible spiritual gift and the maturity as a believer. The principle is that anything that keeps the pastor from studying and teaching must be eliminated. That is why administration is conducted by another type of leadership in the local church.

The word “leave” means to forsake the study of the Word; “serve tables” simply means administrative responsibility.

Verse 3 – “Wherefore, brethren.” The word “brethren” is never used except when addressed to the entire congregation, or when addressed to one person who is being disciplined. There is no authorisation for running around and calling everyone “brother” this and “sister” that. We are brethren in Christ; we are members of the body of Christ, but there is no authorisation for “brother” and “sister.” You call people by their names. “Brethren” is used here as a collective vocative and it means he is addressing the entire congregation.

“look ye out among you” – a compound verb that means “check carefully, observe carefully”; “seven men of honest report” – church leadership is vested in the male, and the present passive participle means “being good witnesses, being constant witnesses.” So an honest report refers to the fact that they have stability of character; “full of the Holy Spirit” – they must be habitually in fellowship, the principle of spirituality and the use of rebound; “and wisdom” – the application of doctrine to experience, so they must know a lot of doctrine.

“whom we may appoint over this business” – the congregation made suggestions but the apostles did the appointing. The future tense indicates this will set a precedent. The word for “business” here is administration. This differentiates between administrative leadership and pastoral leadership.

Verse 4 – the conjunction of contrast, “But,” shows us that the responsibility of the pastor and the responsibility of the deacons is different; “we will give ourselves” – proskaterew [proj = face to face; katerew = to endure], means “we will endure face to face with prayer and the ministry of the Word,” which indicates that in the study and teaching of the Word there is a quality that is absolutely necessary—endurance. It isn’t always pleasant; it isn’t easy, it means concentration for long periods of time and all that goes with it. Concentration comes from knowledge of Bible doctrine. You cannot pray if you cannot concentrate. You cannot learn doctrine and teach it if you cannot concentrate.

Verse 5 – the selection of the first deacons. “And the saying pleased the whole multitude.” The word “saying” means the message which was given pleased the believers in the congregational meeting.

“and they chose” – the apostles chose out of the system which developed; “Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit” – full of faith means the faith-rest technique. He had maximum time logged in the filling of the Spirit; “and Philip” – an evangelist as well as a deacon, and he becomes the subject of Acts chapter eight; “and Prochorus,” the Greek name for the leader of a chorus, which means he was one of the Hellenistic Jews; “and Nicanor” – his name means “victorious” and that is all we know about him; “and Timon” – his name means “worthy”; “Parmenas” – he suffered martyrdom in the city of Philippi is the reign of Trajan; “and Nicolas” who eventually became apostate. He was a Gentile but he was circumcised and made a Jew, and then as a Jew found Christ as saviour – which is why he is called a proselyte. He is responsible for one of the great cults which opposed Christianity—the Nicolaitans of Revelation chapter two, verses 6 and 15.

Verses 6-7, the installation of the first deacons.

Verse 6 – “Whom they set [stood] before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them.” Prayer of dedication, and laying on of hands of identification. They were now identified with the leadership of the local church. They actually had an ordination service. The result of having now those who concentrated on teaching the Word and those who concentrated on administration was fantastic.

Verse 7 – “And the word of God increased.” This means that the apostles could study and teach, and therefore the teaching of the Word increased. This is imperfect linear aktionsart, it kept on ballooning and increasing. In other words, those whose responsibility it was to teach the Word could spend their time studying.

“and the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly” – so the church became much larger. The principle is: more Bible teaching means more believers, and more believers growing up.

“and a great company of priests were obedient to the faith” – here was a major breakthrough. For the first time the gospel finally got through to some of the members of the priesthood of the land. This, of course, was the most difficult area to crack. These priests were very religious and it is very difficult to reach through to religious people. But so great and so effective was the teaching of the Word of God, and so effective was the system used, that the obvious thing happened. The church expanded in a marvellous way.

From this passage:

There is no place for a background prejudice in a local church. Whatever your prejudices may be you have no right to superimpose them on someone else. The whole principle and the whole philosophy of a local church is that individuals can come and sit in the congregation and listen to the Word, and the Word of God must be the only thing working on them. There is no right to bring ones background prejudices to the local church, everyone has a right to his own freedom.

Verse 8 – “And Stephen, full of faith and power.” “Full of faith” should be “full of grace—xarij.” This emphasises the character of Stephen’s person, rather than his personality. It isn’t personality that counts, it is orientation to the plan of God. Stephen had a complete understanding of God’s plan, and he had no illusions about himself. When it says he was full of grace it means he also understood the plan of God, that God does all of the work, that God provides all of the assets, and man enters into this pattern through God’s work. Grace means you can’t earn or deserve or work for, and that you can’t take any credit. When you take credit you are out of line. Grace also means that you have no illusions about yourself or anyone else, and that you understand clearly that God is the one who makes the difference. The Bible emphasises grace always because grace describes in one word the plan of God. Everything depends on who and what God is.

As a result of being oriented to the plan of God—“full of grace” means orientation to God’s plan—there is power. The plan of God has three phases. Phase one is the cross where the Lord Jesus Christ did the work, and therefore Jesus Christ gets all of the glory and all of the credit. Phase two is the believer in time, and this is executed by the Holy Spirit—Acts 1:8, the power of the Holy Spirit. Then other passages in Ephesians which refer to the power of God, referring to the Father, and that is phase three or eternity which is executed by God the Father. So that in principle God does all of the work and He gets all the credit. In legalism, man does all of the doing and God is supposed to receive what man does, and man gets the credit. One of the signs of lack of Bible teaching is living in a day when man is trying to take the credit. Stephen is full of grace and as a result he is full of power. The sword “power” here refers to inherent power, i.e. the power of the Holy Spirit.

As a result of being full of grace and full of power he “did great wonders.” The word “to do” here is imperfect linear aktionsart, which means that he kept on doing great things. He consistently had a life of production. Notice the pattern. First of all you must know doctrine. Knowing doctrine you become oriented to the grace of God. Having become oriented to the grace of God you are able to learn how to tap divine power, utilise divine rather than human power.

The word “wonders” is not the same as the next word, “miracles.” Wonders means simply astounding things. It would have to do with witnessing, leading people to Christ, helping people with their problems; “and miracles” – this is before the completion of the canon of Scripture, and we see this on occasions throughout the book of Acts; yet the emphasis of the book of Acts is not on its miracles but on learning the Word of God. The emphasis is on Bible doctrine, on the Spirit-controlled life, the grace of God, and the emphasis is obviously not on miracles. Notice that Stephen did this “among the people,” which means among the unbelievers. In other words, he had an impact for Christ. He did these things in order to present to them the gospel.

Verses 9-10, an amplification of the witness of Stephen. As soon as Stephen began to perform these wonderful things, immediately opposition arose. This is always the case when a person is controlled by the Spirit and begins to get cranked up for the Lord.

Verse 9 – “Then there arose certain of the synagogue.” The people involved in this opposition are all Jews. These Jews have been scattered throughout the earth and many of them have come back to Jerusalem to live. Therefore they are not called Jews of Judea but they are called Jews from the land of their birth.

“of the Libertines” – the first group. The word “Libertine” is from the Latin word “libertinus” which means a liberated slave. So the first group of Jews who were in opposition to Stephen are Jews whose grandparents had been put into slavery. They had been freed by the Romans and were now citizens of the empire.

“and Cyrenians” – Jews from a Greek city between Carthage (which had been destroyed) and Alexandria; “and Alexandrians” – Jews who lived in Alexandria.

“and them of Cilicia” – in Asia Minor, and among the Jews of Cilicia who had come to Jerusalem was Saul of Tarsus. Having born out of the country these Jews had their own synagogue, so it was in effect a foreign synagogue. It is interesting that the first people to resent the gospel, apart from the religious leadership, were these Jews who came from these foreign backgrounds.

“disputing with Stephen” – present active participle, which means that they kept on trying to shut down Stephen. They kept on disputing, fighting it. The word “disputing” means that they simply tried to refute his position. So Stephen not only understood doctrine but he was very strong in the field of apologetics. But even Saul of Tarsus the unbeliever, a genius, could not handle Stephen the believer. None of these people could break down his arguments and refute his position. As a result of their disputations they lost every argument.

Verse 10 – “And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.” We know nothing about the background of Stephen, but we know one thing about him as a believer: he knew Bible doctrine. The best defence is to know doctrine and to state it clearly. In his defence he kept on presenting Bible doctrine. This is the power of the Word. It is not necessary to quote the Bible, but the Biblical position must be presented. That is exactly what Stephen did. As a result the opposition just didn’t have any argument.

“they were not able” is imperfect active indicative, but it is the Greek word i)sxuw, an unusual word which means to have ability. The usual word for being able is dunamai, but i)sxuw means that all of the inherent genius, all of the brilliance of these very bright Jews could not break down Bible doctrine. They were up against something bigger than any of them. Stephen just kept hitting them with the Word, the Biblical viewpoint. This word means more than being able mentally, it means they didn’t have the information. The word “resist” is not the correct word at all. It is the Greek word a)ntisthmi [a)nti = against; isthmi = against] which means to stand against, to refute. But notice that Stephen won the argument but he didn’t win these people to Christ. These people at the point of God-consciousness were on negative volition. You will never win people to Christ even though you win the argument, if they are on negative signals at the point of God-consciousness. When they come to the point of gospel-hearing they will be consistent and still be on negative signals, no matter how persuasive the argument. Principle: God the Holy Spirit using Stephen cannot change the volition of any person.

“the wisdom” – the application of doctrine; “and the Spirit” – i.e. God the Holy Spirit. He spoke in the power of the Spirit; “through which he spake” – imperfect linear aktionsart, he kept on speaking. The word “spake” is the Greek word for speaking extemporaneously, which means he knew doctrine, he understood doctrine, and he knew it so well that he could stand up and teach it extemporaneously to these people as they brought up various problems and difficulties with regard to God, His existence, His plan, the cross, the whole thing. In other words, they cross-examined him very thoroughly and he was able to cope with everything that they had to offer.

Verse 11 – opposition from the Sanhedrin. “Then they suborned me” – an old English word which means to give money. They bribed men.

“which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.” They couldn’t refute his argument, so these people decided they would pay people to lie about him. Immediately their evidence should have been ruled out. This is hearsay—“we have heard.”

Verse 12 – “And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes.” Notice the order. Who is running the show? The people. They put the pressure on. Then the elders, the rulers outside of the Sanhedrin. The scribes are a part of the Sanhedrin.

“and came upon him, and caught him [seized him violently]” – the Greek word means to seize by violence and force. In other words, they decided he was already guilty and they beat him up on the way to the Sanhedrin, he was already tried and condemned before he came to court.

“and brought him to the Sanhedrin” – the supreme court of the land.

Verse 13 – “And they set up false witnesses, which said” – the word “set up” means again “they paid”; “This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law” – the holy place was the temple. The Sanhedrin met in the temple. They are saying in effect that this man blasphemed the temple. The temple was sacred and holy to them—a building. Secondly, against the Word of God, “the law.”

Verse 14 – “For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.” This is Biblically correct: the customs were changed—no Sabbath worship, no specialised priesthood, no legalistic system of any kind.

Verse 15 – “And all that sat on the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel”—they couldn’t take their eyes off him, there was something about him that was absolutely different. They saw the face of an angel. This doesn’t mean they knew what angels look like because none of them had ever seen an angel, but it has the idea of Exodus 34:30 where they saw Moses’ face when it was animated. So the face of an angel means great animation. But even though they were totally fascinated by the marvellous way that he looked it didn’t keep them from obliterating that face with stones. Very shortly the whole supreme court are going to walk out of the city gates and stone this man to death, and for one thing: Stephen said that Jesus Christ is the God of Israel.