The Roster (Acts 6:5-6)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/1/2017 9:07 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                             Focus:  The Roster

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  Acts 6:5-6

            Message of the verses:  “5 The statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch. 6 And these they brought before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them.”

            The first part of verse five tells us that the congregation approved the suggestion from the apostles and they chose seven men who were appointed to the ministry.  Now as we look at the names of these seven men we see that they all had Greek names suggesting that they were Hellenists, and if this was true then this fit into helping the problem that they were trying to care for.  We have to believe that this was a ploy from Satan to split the church and so this was avoided.

            Steven would play a pivotal role in the spread of the gospel in Jerusalem and we will see later on in Acts that he will be persecuted and killed for the cause of Christ.

            Philip will also play a prominent role in the book of Acts as we will see in chapters 8 and then again in chapter 21 where the text talks about not only him, but his daughters.

            Prochorus and the rest of the five:  John MacArthur writes that nothing definite is known about these remaining five men.  “Some early traditions connect Prochorus with John the apostle, possibly as his amanuensis when he wrote his gospel.  According to those traditions, he later became bishop of Nicomedia and was martyred in Antioch.

            Now as I am preparing my Sunday school lesson for the 2^nd and third chapters of Revelation there was something that came up about Nicolas and I will get to that in a moment.  We see that Nicolas was a proselyte which is a Gentile who was converted to Judaism and that he was from Antioch. 

            Now I want to look at two verses in Revelation chapter two:  “6 ’Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”  “15 ’So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.”   There are two schools of thought on these verses and one of them says that Nicolas was an apostate teaching wrong things about Christ and thus his teaching turned into the Nicolaitans teaching which nothing certain is actually known about it other than it could have been similar with the teachings of Balaam, and Balaam taught the enemies of Israel to use their women in a sexual way to corrupt the men of Israel.  The other school of thought is that Nicolas was not an apostate and his name was used to teach wrong things to believers as seen in the two passages from Revelation 2.

            Now we want to talk about what the congregation did after choosing these men and that was that they brought them to the apostles and then the apostles laid hands on them and prayed over them.  This is the first occasion in the New Testament of laying on hands signifying the identification and affirmation of the church with these men, and also the support of their new ministry.  This would also be done for Elders, deacons, and all who served the early church as they were ordained in this way.  See Acts 13:3; 1 Timothy 4:14; 5:22; and 2 Timothy 1:6.

            I have to say that I remember when one of our Pastors, who at the time was a youth pastor was ordained and I remember going to this service and some of the retired Pastors and other Pastors laid hands on him and prayed over him.  We had this man, a retired Pastor who prayed over this youth Pastor and to tell you the truth I have heard shorter sermons, but his prayer was wonderful, just very long.

            As mentioned not much is known about some of these men, but this was a crucial role in the foundational history of the church.  The apostle’s priorities were not compromised and also the church avoided a split as the Holy Spirit directed this church to do the right thing.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Remembering the important role of the Holy Spirit in the church and in my life is something that I was reminded this morning, not only from this Spiritual Diary, but also for the one that I posted from Jude this morning.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire in my prayer time, to allow the Holy Spirit to direct my prayer time.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “False Christ and false prophets.”

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘Brother Saul, the Lord even Jesus…has sent me that you might receive your sight’?”

Answer in our next SD.

11/1/2017 10:21 AM