The Power of the Spirit and the Role of Deacons

Welcome to Halting Toward Zion, the podcast where we limp like Jacob to the Promised Land and talk about life, the universe, and everything along the way. I’m Emily Maxson here with Greg Uttinger and Rachel Voytek, and we are in Acts 5.

We’ve just been witnessing the early church, by which I mean reading about accounts of the early church and how they lived in Jerusalem, the spirit of generosity and brotherly love that was among them, and how there was a trend of people selling their property and bringing the proceeds to the church as an offering to cover expenses. It is into this situation that we come to chapter 5.

Where we meet the first of the two Ananias’s in the book of Acts. They are very different.

Yes. I was interested in the name Ananias a while ago as I was reading through Acts, and I was trying to understand what it meant. I was like, “All the names mean something. Names are not just names in the Bible.” I’m seeing something that looks like a Greek prefix - “Ana-what? What does it mean?” It’s not a Greek name, it’s a Hebrew name. Hananiah is the Hebrew form.

Related to Jehovah.

Right, which we might also know as John, right? So that’s what this name is, in case anyone was wondering. Now you know, because I was wondering.

That is very interesting.

But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whilst it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
And Ananias hearing these words fell down and gave up the ghost, and great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out and buried him.

Rachel, when you teach this what stands out here for you?

First, this is one of only a few instances in the New Testament where someone is said specifically to be under the influence of Satan, so that is something to note. This is something the apostles classify as satanic. One of the other ones will be Peter talking to Simon, and that’s where we get the word ‘simony,’ where you try to buy the power of God, you try to buy the apostolic office. Obviously, we also know that Judas has Satan come into him.

It’s interesting to note that there’s only a few of those occasions in the scriptures, and one of them is this. It’s another one to do with money, interestingly enough, so there seems to be some connection there.

Peter obviously is not just speaking from his own knowledge. He himself is speaking by inspiration from the Holy Spirit, which is why he can say, “You’ve just lied to the Holy Spirit.” It becomes clear from the story that not only do they sell it for a certain amount and keep back part, but they don’t speak honestly when they come and say how much they sold it for. It’s not that they kept back part and they’re being condemned for keeping back the part. Peter makes it clear that they were allowed to bring any amount of offering they wished. The problem is that they got, for example, $100,000 for it and they’re bringing $50,000 and claiming that they brought the entire price.

We can guess at their motives, but it’s something of looking good before others, so a self-righteousness, a desire to be praised, but in their hearts they are coveting and holding back to both benefit themselves by others having a good opinion of them, while simultaneously having all this money. They are doing this, thinking they can get away with it, and that’s a lot of what Peter is pointing out. “No, the Spirit knows your heart and you cannot hide anything.”

Part of the wonder of the new covenant and the law being truly in our hearts and the Spirit being poured out is that all things are clear and manifest. We glory in things like Romans 8 where the Spirit can groan and pray for us in ways that we can’t even utter, but it also means he knows the hearts of all wickedness, too. That’s obviously been true throughout history, but there’s a highlighting of the Spirit’s power here that I think goes with some of that need to understand what it means that the Spirit has been poured out without measure.

We’re in a time of greater revelation. God is making the crooked straight even here at this early stage. That’s not a solely eschatological promise.

And the greater revelation means greater responsibility. We can think back to Leviticus. No sooner is the tabernacle up and running than Nadab and Abihu are smitten dead because they get careless in holy things, and it’s something very similar here.

The American church tends to think of the new covenant as all grace and nice and sweet and puppy dogs and rainbows and God wouldn’t hurt a fly. The people around this disagreed. On a couple occasions here in the story we’re told everybody was afraid. They feared God. They feared what God was doing in these people. They were afraid to join themselves to the church. It was not in the sense of hating them or lashing out at them, but realizing, “God has his hand on these people. We better not mess with them. We don’t want to touch God’s people or interfere with God’s work.”

The other thing is, of course, “Before you sold it, it was your own. Once you sold it, it was your own.” This is called private property. Peter not only takes it for granted, he tells us twice. “The fact that you sold it with an intention – still you weren’t committed to following through until you brought it and told us. You could have said this is half of it and it would have been great.” But it was spiritual pride, self-righteousness, the praise of men – not things to bring into the worship of God.

There’s more to the story, so I’ll read the rest now.

But we should not move on without talking about the ability to lie to the Holy Ghost, which is an acknowledgement of the personhood of the Holy Ghost, which will become historically important later. You can’t lie to a table. You can’t lie to a rock. When you lie to somebody, that somebody is a person.

You can’t lie to electromagnetism or gravity. You don’t lie to forces. You lie to persons. This is one of the standard proof texts for the deity of the Spirit, probably because the Bible doesn’t really think that we need a lot of proof, given everything we’ve heard about the Spirit since Genesis 1, but you know, a few scraps for those people who feel that one verse is going to make a world of difference here. It is. The Holy Spirit is God.

And one other thing, we should note both here and a little bit later, even though these two are condemned as lying against the Holy Spirit, therefore we would say unbelievers, their bodies are still honored in burial. They are taken care of immediately. They’re not thrown into a pile on the side of the road. They are still buried. Just as a note.

I think about that with the Old Testament saints a lot, how being within the external covenant does not necessarily tell us about whether that person will be in heaven or not, like Nadab and Abihu. We have some indication that there was not faith in their hearts, but we don’t know that. They could have committed that grievous sin and still belonged to Jesus. We don’t know.

And apparently it’s none of our business.

Right. Otherwise, we would be told.

And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much.

Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet and yielded up the ghost. And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church and upon as many as heard these things.

Rachel, you had some observations about Sapphira.

Yes. It’s interesting if you think about this that in some ways this is a type of court case because he’s questioning and determining the truth, judging, so it’s interesting to note that it’s okay to separate two potential criminals or suspects and question them separately and find out what their stories are and see if they line up.

It’s also interesting to note that they are being treated as equals. Their testimony is equally valid, so we see husband and wife. It’s not, “Your husband did this and so you are automatically guilty and culpable.” She gets to speak for herself.

Contrary to certain views of the familial covenant.

Yes. It’s important to note the value that’s being put on her, but because of that she also is equally responsible and receives the exact same judgement as her husband, the same punishment. She is not given a lesser punishment because she’s the wife and she maybe didn’t understand what they were doing. She gets to speak for herself, and therefore she gets to bear the judgement on herself as well.

It’s just some interesting things to think about in general in the church, but also if you think in a legal system the ways that it’s setting up the standard that men and women should be treated equally in these systems, as equally valuable, equally able to give witness or testimony, and that husbands and wives are not responsible for each other’s sins. They have the ability to be distinct, for the husband to do something and the wife to deny it or choose to tell the truth and not go along with the conspiracy.

Conspiring together is part of what is so grievous in this situation. It wasn’t just one person that came up with this, but they actually decide on it together. They come up with their story, and so because of that they fall in the same way.

A couple things in terms of legal theory that you just brought to my mind. First of all, it’s not perfectly clear but verse 6 says, “And the young men arose…” It sounds like Peter was not doing this in private in a corner room someplace. There were people around, and this was standard for trials in the Old Testament. They had to be done in the gate. They had to be done in front of witnesses. You didn’t drag someone to a star chamber and quietly question them with hot pokers and things. It’s out in the open.

The other thing, in American law a wife or husband cannot testify against the other, and it’s interesting here that they don’t. Peter does not ask Ananias, “Is your wife involved?” and then go from there. It’s reasonable to think she might be, but then as you say he interrogates her separately.

And he doesn’t take her testimony against Ananias because he’s already dead, so as you say they stand separately but they are not forced to testify against each other, because being one flesh, the assumption at least in American law is that’s not good. That’s the same thing as testifying against yourself, which we don’t do, the same reason we don’t torture people.

And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.

I don’t remember where I came across this – it might have been some radio drama or something that kind of rings a bell – but word would get out that two members of the church were missing, and then that they were dead and that they’d been buried quietly. Think about how the enemies of the church could play that one.

We hear all about cults in our day who make people disappear, and this would be a good chance for the enemies of the church to begin to spread rumors of, “What’s really going on there? Do you trust these men?” These people were taking it all very seriously.

Was there anything else, Rachel, you wanted to add here?

Not here, no.

And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch [where there was a synagogue]. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them, but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women. Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks and them which were vexed with unclean spirits, and they were healed every one.

Wow! In light of what’s about to follow you would think, “Wow, this is a marvelous outpouring of God’s Spirit and power, and obviously everyone is going to be convinced that this is a God thing, that this work is from God. These men are God’s servants!” and they’re going to leave them alone or encourage them or take up an offering for them or something, but no.

I’m going to point again to this strange difference. I think so many hundreds of years later we’re so removed from it that it’s hard to recognize this, as you said, Rachel, the pointing to Satan as filling Ananias and how that’s distinct from being vexed with unclean spirits.

Dr. Luke knows the difference between epilepsy and demon possession. He’s made that very clear in his gospel. He can tell the difference. There’s being an agent of Satan and then there’s being vexed with unclean spirits and then there’s epilepsy. These are entirely different things. Not everyone who’s vexed with an unclean spirit is an agent of Satan.

Or very useful to him, for that matter.

Right. I mean when they’re throwing themselves in the fire that’s pretty counterproductive.

Yeah. It’s kind of scary and off-putting and horrific, but he’s not going to be going around starting a new religion or pushing someone into the office of king or anything like that. He’s just going to be there groveling and looking horrible.

Satan is not particularly creative or artistic or anything. He’s good at lying, though. He’s had a lot of practice on that one.

It’s funny that those that are, as we say, filled with Satan, tend to be lying. They’re like their father.

And they seem to be in full possession of their faculties when they choose to do so.

As opposed to demon possessed.

It’s interesting as you were saying, Greg, the idea that even though so much healing is happening, that doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is going to be well and everyone is going to acknowledge the truth of the work that’s happening. We think of Jesus, who also did great miracles of healing, and they wanted to kill him for that.

I was also thinking it never says regarding Jesus that simply his shadow – that wasn’t a miracle that he specifically had, his shadow passing over someone. Granted, the woman reached out and touched his garment, but that’s about as close as we get to a passive healing.

And a shadow is not even a thing. It’s the absence of light. It’s not connected to his body. It’s not anything, and yet.

But we do know in the Bible that things that overshadow – there’s an image of glory and covering and that sort of thing. Maybe that’s why the Lord chose to use that, or it’s simply just that idea that him passing by was sufficient.

It’s interesting that it said here of Peter, and then later something similar will happen with Paul where they’re able to take the little handkerchiefs and pieces of clothing from him to a sick person and they will be healed. It’s a clear demonstration that Jesus wants people to know that these are his very particular messengers, his witnesses.

Yes, this is not something that the ordinary church pastor did. This is something the apostles did, and only on these two occasions that you’ve mentioned. On other occasions they did miracles. Peter is going to perform a resurrection, but for these few weeks it was very common and everybody heard about it and everybody brought their sick folk, but it’s going to end. It’s not ongoing.

And it was only Peter. It wasn’t even all the apostles, so there’s clearly a narrowness, as you say.

Yes. Well, when things are going well, assume that God has something planned.

Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.

The Sadducees again are the priestly class. Sadducee is a corruption of the word Zadok, so they claimed descent from Zadok, who was God’s righteous priest in David’s era. These were liberals. They were secularists, humanists, who Rome had put in charge of the temple. It made a lot of money. In fact, so much that Rome kept rotating the office of High Priest so that no one got too rich off it.

This sect denied the resurrection, denied spirits, denied the prophets after Moses. They were good at charging high prices and exchange rates in the temple. They’re upset about two things. First, the disciples are preaching the resurrection, and secondly, can you believe it? The apostles are somehow implicating them in Jesus’ death.

“Wow, we’ve got to do something about that. They’re not going away. They’re not shutting up. Most of these movements run their course and people go home, but that’s not happening,” so they laid hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.

But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said, “Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.”

That’s a phrase that’s used a couple times for the Christian faith. Later it will be called The Way before the disciples are called Christians. “This way, this Torah, this way of walking with God in Christ. He is the way.”

And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning and taught.

They didn’t run away. They didn’t say, “Lord, what are you saying? They’re just going to grab us again and put us back in prison. This is counterproductive,” or “A big help the people were the last time. Why should we go minister to them?” There’s all kinds of things they could have said. What they say is, “Yes, Lord,” and they go do it and start teaching and preaching in the temple again.

But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.

They want to implicate everybody here, so they’re getting all their Pharisee – it’s hard to call them friends, but cohorts together to deal with these men, because they’re obviously a threat to the standing order.

So this is the Pharisees and the Sadducees working together once again?

Once again, yes.

But when the officers came and found them not in the prison, they returned and told, saying, The prison truly found we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors, but when we had opened we found no man within.

This is going to happen later with Peter, and Herod is going to have a very simple solution. “The guards are incompetent. Kill them.” But the Sadducees are a little more, “Uhh, what’s going on?”

Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these things, they doubted of them whereunto this would grow. Then came one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.

“We found them!”

“We found ‘em, boss.”

Then went the captain with the officers and brought them without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned [because the people really liked these guys].

It’s the restraining power of the mob.

That seems to work a lot in favor of both Jesus and then the early church.

Yes. You’ve got a good reputation. People know you’re kind to them and you’re telling them cool things and they get a little upset when armed guards come and take these people away.

And when they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest asked them, saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine [that is the resurrection], and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.

Didn’t you already? “His blood be on us and on our children.” No? You don’t remember that?

Yeah, they forgot that.

Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

Then he launches into a sermon which we’ll look at in a moment.

Rachel, you were making a remark about this earlier.

Simply that we had referenced it in the previous time they stood before the Sadducees, where it was what they meant but not the exact words they used. But here is where we get the actual summary line, the quote, so to speak. “We ought to obey God rather than men.” We could say that’s another theme of the book of Acts that comes back again and again.

It is interesting that the high priests’ and others’ accusation is, “You didn’t do what we told you,” when they had already told them, “We’re not going to do what you told us.” Yet, they still imagined that they had enough power or capacity to cow these men into submission.

It’s interesting that in this whole episode they’re actually the ones scrambling around, not the apostles. They’re the ones going, “Let’s put them in prison!” “Wait, that didn’t work. We went to the prison and nobody was there.” “Wait, we found them in the exact spot we don’t want them to be.” “Wait, we told them not to do this! Why are they doing this?”

There’s this sense that things are not going the way they want them to go. They’re not on their best footing.

They’re the ones off-balance. The Holy Spirit is not off-balance.

Exactly. It’s interesting to watch that while they’re supposedly the more learned and cultured, you might say, yet it’s the apostles that come off as the ones who are calm and collected and know exactly what to say because of the work of the Holy Spirit doing exactly what Jesus had promised.

There are enemies of the faith who point at this and say, “Are you saying that Christians have some freedom to disobey civil rulers when they want to?” No, that’s not what we’re saying. It’s not when we want to, it’s when God has said, “Do this,” and they tell us, “Don’t do this.” That’s very different.

There are a lot of laws that we don’t like, but they’re not compelling us to sin. We can put up with a lot of really bad laws and submit to them. Whether or not we can use other legal processes, peaceful ones, to undo bad laws is another topic. But violence does not immediately kick in, and even here it doesn’t kick in. The crowd was ready to throw a riot and stone the guards, and the apostles did not encourage it.

They came quietly when they were asked.

Yes. They were asked by proper authorities to come, and they went and they stood before a very corrupt crooked court and spoke to them more or less politely. It wasn’t the kind of response that the Sanhedrin was used to getting from common folk, but they didn’t say anything that a prophet of the Old Testament wouldn’t have said.

And Paul later is going to appeal repeatedly to a very unjust government, and appeal to the following of its laws, for the benefit of the gospel. He’s very pointed in his reasoning behind that, which is so fun, but we’ll get there.

The sermon goes like this –

We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers [notice the covenantal tinge] raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree [the cross again is called a tree]. Him hath God exalted with his right hand [echoes of Psalm 110] to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins [the gospel begins with Israel].

And we are his witnesses of these things [that’s a legal standing; you’ve seen something and you’re bearing legal witness that these things are true]; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.

It’s not saying that if you obey you get the Holy Ghost. It’s saying that if you have the Holy Ghost you are among those who are obeying God, because the Holy Spirit makes that possible.

When they heard that, they were cut to the heart…

And repented and fell on their knees and walked forward to receive Jesus.

Oh, your translation is different from mine.

No. The were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them, “Because, you know, that’s what we religious folk do when someone crosses us.”

“We don’t like being cut to the heart.”

“Yeah. When we’re convicted of sin, the obvious thing is kill the messenger.”

Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, who had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space.

We know Gamaliel from secular history. I was looking at the Wikipedia article just to see if there was anything terribly useful, and there wasn’t a whole lot. In fact, a good part of what the Wikipedia article said appealed to this passage and to a remark that Paul makes later on when he tells the crowd, “I’m a citizen of Tarsus but I was brought up in the city at the feet of Gamaliel.” He was Paul’s teacher.

He was well-known. He didn’t do a great deal of commentary, but the Mishnah speaks well of him and tradition speaks well of him. He’s what the text says. He was a doctor of the law, an expert in the law, and the people honored him and he’s a Pharisee, so he did believe in the resurrection and in angels and in the prophets and such. So he commanded to move the apostles away and said, “Let’s talk.”

And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men.

What they intend to do – and at this point obviously they’ve said it out loud – is they intend to kill them. You think, “Wait a second…”

And he says, “Watch yourselves.”

Yes, and he gives some historical precedence for why they might want to do that.

For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody, to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves, who was slain. And all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered and brought to nought. After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him. He also perished and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.

The argument is, “We’ve seen charismatic leaders before who’ve gathered great followings, but once they were dead…” and perhaps it’s significant that they died not heroic deaths, not martyrs’ deaths, they were apparently killed. Their enemies struck them down and killed them and their followers were scattered. We have two instances of this happening.

Charismatic leaders have a very hard time holding on to their following once the leaders themselves are dead. It just doesn’t work well to command a movement from the grave. So this is his argument.

And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men and let them alone. for if this counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought. But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.

I think the argument is a bit weak, and we were offering some other suggestions before. We have seen a lot of movements. Before the broadcast I had mentioned Mohammed, and you can think of Joseph Smith and other men who were charismatic in their lifetime and whose followers did not disperse, largely because there was a strong element to step in upon their death and to assume power in the man’s name.

There was somebody to fill the power vacuum.

Yes. They had a vision for maintaining the following and they knew what to do. It didn’t all rest on the one man, so there is that significant difference. Do you want to say anything else about that aspect before we find out what they did?

No, it speaks for itself, I think.

It’s interesting that Gamaliel isn’t sure. “If it be of God…if it be of man.” Where has he been lately, I wonder? Maybe in Tarsus gathering followers? Has he really not been there to know what’s been going on? Was he not around when the Roman guards came and said, “The tomb is empty.”? Does he not know what everyone else in Jerusalem knows, apparently? It’s an interesting distant kind of attitude toward things.

Maybe a little bit of fence-sitting.

Yes. Apparently there was actually a legend – again Wikipedia – that he was a secret Christian and he didn’t come out in the open because he wanted to use his position of power to help his fellow believers. I don’t think that works.

We would probably be told.

Yes. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea got away with that for only so long before God forced them out in the open. Men have motives that we don’t always discern. A lot of people just want to think of themselves as good guys who are judicious and thoughtful, not rushing to violence. There’s all kinds of reasons that might have motivated him.

There are lots of good reasons to not doing something in just about every situation.

Yes, there are. What’s interesting is in verse 40 –

And to him they agreed [sort of] and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them…

That wasn’t part of what Gamaliel suggested, but you know, they didn’t kill them.

…they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

And so the faith goes on. The emphasis is not, “Oh, and they went back and started doing more miracles.” We’re not even going to see any emphasis about the communion of the saints as it was being manifested. No doubt in time that changed, but the thing that’s kept constant is they preached and they taught Jesus as Messiah. On that point they would stop. They could not be shut up. They could not be silenced. They could not be turned away.

That’s what they did, and there was no Starbucks to go with the preaching. It was all about revealing Christ in his word. They didn’t try to gain an audience by being user-friendly. They simply told the truth about Jesus.

Next in chapter 6…

And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians [Hellenistic Jews] against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.

They were Jews, but they had been raised in the Greek culture and they primarily spoke Greek. Hebrews were Christians who spoke presumably Aramaic, so there’s a language difference. They’re all Jewish, and yet within that there is actually a cultural difference and a language difference, and it’s making them a little suspicious of each other and a little dissatisfied with how things were going.

One of the things, as we’ve seen, is that the church was very good at taking care of the poor, particularly of widows. This is something that God had emphasized in the Old Testament over and over again, and the church was trying to work through it.

It’s interesting to me that the murmuring is of one group against the other, not against the apostles, because at this point the apostles were the ones managing this, as we’re going to see here in a second. But people were not upset with the apostles, apparently. Each group was upset with the other because, well, you know why. “They’re not like us. They’re different. Those people over there – them, the other,” as the psychologists say today.

Is it kind of an appeal to the apostles, that they’re having this trouble with the people who are doing the ministering, and then it gets appealed to the apostles and they’re like, “Why are you asking us to solve this?”

That’s not quite it.

Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

It sounds like at this point the apostles were the ones overseeing it, among their many other duties. It’s like having your pastor also run the soup kitchen. If you have a small church with a handful of people that may be fine, but there comes a point – they’re ministering now to thousands of people. There are 12 of them but that’s still not going to be a lot, and at this point we don’t know what other provisions had been made for elders or teachers or evangelists or anything of that sort.

Jesus had ordained 70 to go preach, but it seems that they were probably Galileans and may not have been here, so we’re not really sure what form church government was taking, what form ministry was taking, but apparently there was nobody who was dedicated to do this particular ministry.

The apostles said, “This is getting beyond us. Our focus is to be the word of God and prayer. If these other things are taking us away from that, then something’s got to change. In other words, we need help.”

This is kind of like Moses when his father-in-law said, “You are too busy and are wearing yourself thin.”

Exactly. “You guys are going to wear yourselves out. This whole situation is going to wear us out, so here is our solution.”

Brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

These men are not called deacons here, but the assumption generally of the church has been that this is the beginning of the office of deacon, which simply means a minister, someone who conducts ministry. Notice the qualifications. In a sense they’re very simple, but they’re also rather large. First of all, honest.

Before that – men.

Yes, that would be important, male, and they have to be honest. And how do you know that? Because they’re of good report, honest report. In other words, they have a public reputation for honesty. Paul will say something like this when he lists the qualifications for elders and deacons, “having a report with them that are without.”

Full of the Holy Ghost – that doesn’t mean that they’re undergoing ecstatic experiences but that their lives are governed by the Spirit through the word of God. They are disciples of Christ who live out the Spirit-filled life by submitting themselves to one another in the fear of the Lord, rejoicing in Christ Jesus, and the other things that go with this.

It’s interesting to contrast this too with the connection between lying and doing the work of Satan earlier…honesty.

Yes, these guys are supposed to be honest because they’re going to be working with money and reserves and properties and things.

And wisdom – again, this has to be public knowledge. They have some kind of track record in public or in their homes and families, that they know how to handle things in a wise manner. They know stuff and they know how to use that knowledge to pull off things that are good and important. The church gets to nominate these and elect them after some fashion, but the apostles will appoint and ordain them to this business.

But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch, whom they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed they laid their hands on them.

So there’s the laying on of hands in connection with ordaining to church office.

And the word of God increased and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.

This is unusual and it probably is a stamp on the office of deacon. Notice when the seven were described, he’s the only one who gets any commentary and he is said to be full of faith and of the Spirit. Here we’re told that he – not the others – did great wonders and miracles, so it was some kind of special blessing on him.

Here’s something my wife was mentioning earlier. Too often in American churches I think we have the idea of deacons as sort of the handyman – not that there’s anything wrong with being a handyman. That’s great. Everybody needs a handyman. I need a handyman. But that’s not enough. We’re talking about men who are Spirit-filled, honest, faithful, given to service.

It should not be a question of, “Well, what good ol’ boy haven’t we tapped yet? Who hasn’t been a deacon lately?”

“Who’s stacking chairs?”

Yes. “Let’s see, we’ve got this family – one’s an elder, two are deacons, aww, let’s make the other son a deacon too.” There’s a lot of bad reasons for making deacons.

But this is an office marked by God. This is not just a decision that’s made by men.

And so the miracles, to punctuate that as it were.

Over the years, particularly the 20th century, the church has done things like generate church secretaries, and again there’s nothing wrong with church secretaries. It’s not a divine office. And you can think of other things where people take up duties that are important and that are useful to the church and that serve one another, but they aren’t necessarily things that God has ordained. The call to the diaconate is a call to an office that God himself has created, and God has adorned.

When we look at the qualifications for deacon and elder in Titus, they’re almost identical. About the only difference is that elders are to be apt to teach. It doesn’t say deacons can’t be. In fact, there’s a certain emphasis upon deacons of testing and trying them first.

“They’re waiting tables.” What does that mean? It means you’re taking care of the private personal needs of people who don’t have much – widows, orphans, the infirm, the elderly, the shut-ins. That’s putting you really near the heart of people, putting you in a position where you can do great good, but you could also do great damage if you’re not called of God and if you’re not full of charity and humility and purity.

So many times the deacon seems like an elder in training, or like a second-rate elder or something. My pastor did an excellent Sunday School series on the offices in the church several years ago and he pointed out that the diaconate is actually a more specialized office – like when there aren’t deacons available, elders do their job. But when you have someone who’s available to do the work of deacon it’s like, “Oh, praise the Lord. We’ve got one.” It’s very special and very specialized.

Yes, and it’s something that men should prepare themselves for. It shouldn’t be, “Well, I’m really handy with my hands. I guess they’re going to be calling me to be a deacon sometime.” No, this is a spiritual office. Yes, you’re dealing in some ways with the physical and financial and health needs of God’s people, but you’re also coming very near their souls.

This is not for everybody. This is for those called of God. It’s a specialized office. And yes, when we find people who can do this, who are called, the elders rejoice greatly.

I know in our own church we try to have at least as many deacons as elders, because the more the church grows, the more there is to do. The more people you can trust with secrets, the better. “Why are we taking food to this woman’s house? Where’s her husband?”

“There’s a story there, but you’re a deacon so I can trust you. Here’s what’s really going on.”

There are things like that where you don’t want to just hand it out to anybody. “Well, you’re driving the car so I guess I get to tell you.” No, you are called of God to this spiritual office so this is very important, and God has Stephen do miracles. Stephen even goes further and he starts preaching.

Before we go there though, I have two comments. First of all – Emily, who knows more Greek than I do can correct me – but I believe the names of all the deacons are Greek, which is significant since it was the Grecian widows that were being neglected, and all the men chose to have Greek names. They could be Hebrew, but the names themselves, which shows an inclusion of Greeks into the church, so the breaking down of the dividing wall in the church.

Also, just as a general comment, I guess for men to be aware and listening when other people say that you are called to an office, because it’s the church that calls these men. God calls, but the church calls too. I think a lot of men in some ways are afraid of the offices, and when people start commenting or even actively encouraging them to an office they are afraid.

I guess my encouragement is take it seriously when someone else in the church begins to point out your gifting to be a deacon or an elder, because they can see things that we sometimes can’t see in ourselves. It’s a means that God uses, which is the people going and seeking out who in their midst should be called, so it is also a duty for the rest of us to be paying attention.

That brings me back kind of full circle to what I was saying earlier. Men should prepare themselves for these offices. It may be that a man, when the church comes and says, “Have you thought about being a deacon or an elder?” – says, “Well, yes, but here’s this area of immaturity. Here’s this sin I’m struggling with. Here’s this problem in my family.”

“So, what are you going to do about it?” to borrow a line.

I remember quite a few years ago now when we were doing elder visitation in a particular home with some really fine Christian people who were very useful in our church, very given to the work of the church, and I said to the man, “You’re going to be an elder someday. Here’s what you need to do to get ready for that.”

I said to the wife, “And you’re going to be the wife of an elder, so here’s something you need to work on.”

Sometimes it comes like that. The temptation – and I know because I’ve seen it in myself – is to just say, “Well, someday they’ll be ready.” Usually when the church starts looking for officers it’s because they desperately need them, and they need you to get with it. “So when are you going to be ready?” If the answer is, “Well, give me six months,” okay. If the answer is, “A couple years,” then “Why? Let’s talk about this immaturity, this problem. Do you need mentoring? Do you need counseling? Do you need intervention? You don’t know enough? Okay, here are some books. Here’s a Bible study. Start working on it.”

Waiting for it with a “que sera sera” attitude of, “Well, God will call me when He’s ready. He’ll prepare me when He’s ready. I’ll just go about my affairs otherwise” – preparation does not hit you like a bolt out of the blue. You work at getting ready, at growing in Christ, at learning the Bible, getting to know the church, getting to know the people of the church and their needs and what you can do. You can start on helping them before you become a deacon, before you become an elder.

And you don’t have to be what you will be, when you start out. I think that’s some of what is discouraging to men. They see those men who have been in the office for 10, 15, 20 years and they look at themselves and say, “I am not that; therefore, I am not ready to step into the office.” You do have to grow in it because you will always be a sinner and unready, truly, for that office. My point is that it’s the Holy Spirit that fills these men, that enables these men, that qualifies them and makes them effective.

I think it’s easy to get too focused on ourselves when we’re being called to do any service, rather than the Lord making our work effective.

There’s some legitimacy to looking at the description of a godly elder or deacon, or even a godly husband, and saying, “That sounds terrifying,” because it is.

It’s like Proverbs 31 for women.

Yeah, exactly.

The standard is perfection. That’s what you’re being measured against, and you know you’re not that. It comes with responsibility along with these standards that you know as a sinner you cannot meet. But the fact is that Christ is that for us and we are being conformed to His image. There’s no sense in which we can expect to ever fulfill these requirements perfectly in this life, and God knows that and He knew that when He set these offices up and called sinners to fill them.

From the point of view of sociology, I think it would be well to step back and say let’s compare the early church to aristocratic society, say, or to something like Freemasonry. We could look at various kinds of societies and attempts to reform, even some movements within the modern American church.

How different this is. It’s not about power. It’s not about one-upmanship. It’s not about getting your credentials from Yale and Harvard. It’s not about knowing all the right people and having the right passwords to get into the inner circle. It’s about serving people, even though you’re not ready, even though you know your limitations, because you’re not selling you.

In a sense you’re not even selling a movement. You’re pushing Jesus and you’re drawing all eyes to Him, with the full realization that what you’re doing is not perfect. What your friends are doing is not perfect. And what your whole organization is doing is not perfect, but Jesus is.

We can look at all these other organizations and movements and such within society, and it would be an interesting sociological discussion to see how other movements – whether they be political or conspiratorial or religious or founded in money – how they look at succeeding and promotion and self-promotion. Then compare it.

There’s no super educational program. There’s no secret hand signals and passwords. There’s no funny hats. There’s no list that you have to have these credits and you have to have these credentials and you have to have these certifications.

They don’t even require deacons to read Hebrew or Greek. They don’t require a seminary education from them. They require them to be men full of the Spirit who fear God and are wise and who want to help the church. It’s a very different kind of mentality than the world has, in whatever its manifestations may be.

We’re a bit over time so we should call it there and leave our listeners with some recommendations.

I’ve got an easy one. Gentlemen, you’re not ready to be a church officer? Okay. Target why you’re not and then start working on it. You don’t know enough? Ask your pastor for a solid book on theology in some area that you don’t know much about, or a commentary. First of all, I’m assuming you’re reading your Bible and you have a regular prayer time. Take it to the next step. Learn something, learn something more.

When you’ve finished that book, talk it over with your pastor and then read another. Talk it over with your wife while you’re at it, and your kids. Make it something you talk about at the dinner table.

“Susie, what did you learn in school? Freddy, what did you learn?”

“Now Daddy, what did you learn?”

“Well, let me tell you about the hypostatic union!” Let’s not just say, “Well, I don’t know much.” Well, get over it then.

I started studying theology when I was about 14. You don’t have to be a super genius. You don’t have to be terribly old. You just have to be able to read English and be willing to work at it.

“Well, that’s not my area. I know a lot but I’ve got this pride issue.”

“Well! Let’s get your wife to help you on that one, and your kids to start praying for you and pointing things out to you like, ‘Honey, you’re being proud again.’” Get your best friend on board. Get your pastor on board and start confessing your sins to God. Whatever the thing is that’s holding you back, start dealing with it.

Now, are you going to be ready and perfect? No, but you’ll be readier than you were. And if you don’t start learning Minbari now, where will you be in five years? Still not knowing Minbari. No time like the present, and then when the church does call, if the church calls, you’ll be a whole lot further along and it will be a lot less painful than it would have been otherwise. So get ready to be a church officer.

And ladies, sweetly, gently, lovingly encourage your husband because you know his weaknesses, and you know that some of the things that he thinks are weaknesses aren’t. At least they’re not that bad. “No honey, that’s not the problem. This is the problem.” Emily, you’re next.

Kate told me that I should recommend nausea. The context for this is that I’m expecting a child, and there was not a lot of nausea first trimester but there’s nausea picking up now. I’m thankful for that because that’s a sign that things are going well, the baby is growing and all that.

I told Kate though that I don’t think I can quite bring myself to recommend the nausea itself, so I’m going to recommend the sparkling water flavor of the week that is getting me half-way hydrated, because water is terrible. If God wanted me to be hydrated, why did he make water taste terrible? This is my question of the week.

The sparkling water flavor of the week is Waterloo raspberry-nectarine sparkling water. That’s what we’re living on.

My recommendation is a second part of one I made previously. I had recommended a podcast where Alisa Childers had interviewed a pastor named Johnny Ardavanis about a book he had written, and I had just started the book, so I recommended the podcast but now I have actually read the book and want to recommend it.

The book is called Consider the Lilies: Finding Perfect Peace in the Character of God. It’s a wonderful and very devotional book. I’ve actually been reading it in my devotions, going through some of the key character attributes of God that are a foundation to ground us in the midst of anxiety, worry, depression, all of those things, and how we should turn our eyes off of ourselves onto the character of God, because that’s unchanging.

My favorite chapter was when he dealt with prayer in the context of someone that is depressed or anxious, dealing with the problems we often face in prayer, and what prayer should be truly like, what are the different elements of prayer and such, which were excellent.

One of the things that really stuck with me from his chapter was his summary that said, “Our battle against anxiety and worry is waged in our minds, and scripturally speaking your mind is the sum of your prayer life.” That hit me really, really hard like, “Whoa! Oh, wow.”

I don’t know if it was someone in your family, Greg, or who that said, “Worry is praying to yourself.”

That’s real good, too.

I know. I think it was maybe one of your daughters or your wife, but I can’t remember. I’ve been going over that a lot in my mind and found that very helpful, very convicting, but also an encouragement to pray.

My husband David was preaching this last Sunday on Abraham advocating for the righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah, and he made a connection to Jesus’ high priestly prayer where he prays for the righteous, for his people only.

David had encouraged the congregation to meditate on that prayer, so I guess I kind of have a double recommendation to both read the book, if that’s something that would encourage or help you, but also to particularly meditate on Jesus’ high priestly prayer because it’s what he is currently praying for us. It’s been very encouraging for me to go back and be meditating on his prayer when I find my prayers are so weak.

That sounds very sweet to the soul.

Thank you both so much for this conversation. As always, it’s been a delight. A big thank you also to David, our producer and my lawfully-wedded husband, and to our financial supporters for keeping the show rolling. We really appreciate you.

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Thanks so much for joining us and we hope to see you next time.