External Persecution and Internal Conflict — Acts 4-6

0:00 Good morning. Turn with me to Acts chapter five. We're continuing our Acts study. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for this time that we have to gather together.

0:14 We thank you for your son, Lord Jesus. And, yeah, Lord, once again, just saying amen to the fact that he is holy, perfect, Lord, altogether worthy. We thank you for your son, the salvation that we have in him. Lord, thank you for your word that we have and the wisdom therein, Lord, the salvation found in it. And yeah, Lord, that you've just given us all things to live a godly life.

0:37 We pray that you would just bless the word that comes today, Prepare our hearts and our ears. And Lord, just help me in this process as well. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright. So let me do a little test real quick just to make sure we're good.

1:10 So this is round two of what we see in Acts happening of we have external persecution, the first round that happened was in Acts chapter four. The disciples, they healed somebody and Peter and John were arrested and they were given a warning, right, to not preach in the name of Jesus. So we had that first round of external persecution and then our first round of internal conflict being Ananias and Sapphira, whichever... However you pronounce it. But there...

1:41 That internal conflict of them lying to the holy spirit and and deceiving... Trying to deceive the the church and lying to God. So now we have once again the apostles, they did not listen to the the council, did not listen to the people that were telling them not to preach in the name of Jesus. So we see that they're gonna be arrested again, so there's our external persecution. And then we're gonna be covering today the neglect of widows, this internal conflict that arose in the church.

2:10 Yes, this internal conflict is much bigger than what we have going on in Westlake this morning, which is Tim and Joey and their brisket face off. They both made brisket for Thanksgiving, but Joey left us at home. So honestly, I think he lost essentially. So, alright. So a little bit of background.

2:31 I just like to have, I'm a visual guy. I like to know kinda like what's going on. This is, I don't know if you can see it too well, there's a lot going on, but this is just a a map of Jerusalem at this time, at the time of Jesus. So it's covering about 1.5 square miles and the timeline we're at right now, it's been more or less a year or two since since Jesus ascended to heaven and sent the holy spirit. Still right now where we are in acts, that chart over there is really good to kinda help you out a little.

3:01 But the center of ministry is still in Jerusalem and the disciples are constantly in the temple proclaiming and preaching Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. The religious leaders involved here, looking at Acts four, it says in four seventeen, it says the sect of the Sadducees are involved and the Sadducees, it's important to note that they don't believe in the resurrection or the existence of spiritual beings such as angels and stuff like that. So that was a big problem because the disciples were preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And going on, so that once again, the second time the apostle disobeyed the command, we see that in Acts four and commentary from Richard Longnecker writes that Jewish law at this time for any for anyone that was guilty of a non capital offense that they were considered a common folk or like a non rabbinic, you know, not not taught by the pharisees and things like that. They were given a formal warning before witnesses and then after their formal warning, if they made the offense again, they were given punishment and we we see that taking place here.

4:09 So once again, all these things, I would just like to give this background because we were able to appreciate the extreme accuracy of little things that Luke writes about and just his knowledge of the time that they're in, just further showing the authenticity of the book of Acts. So alright. Going on, we'll start reading in verse twenty two five. Of And we have the apostles were saved from prison. Mister Hilton covered that last week.

5:16 So one came and told them saying, look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Then the captain went with the officers and brought them without violence for they fear the people lest they should be stoned. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest asked them saying, do we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood on us. But Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men.

5:46 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to his right hand to be prince and savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses to these things and so also is the holy spirit whom God has given to those who obey him. So there's a lot there. That statement is very very heavy and we're gonna break it down part by part.

6:45 Jesus prophesied about this, right, and talks about it. In Matthew 21 verses 42 through 46. Jesus said to them, I'm just gonna read it here. Jesus said to them, have you never read the scriptures? The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

7:01 This was the Lord's doing and is marvelous in our eyes. And then just skipping on, that the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking of them. So this was this is something that we shouldn't be surprised about and we see it present even in Jewish people today. Some Jews that I've spoken to, one told me after reading prophecies to him of the Messiah, he said, no amount of evidence is gonna convince me that they are just so blind and choose to remain in their blindness. So once again, breaking down the statements made by the apostles.

7:38 Obey God rather than men. We're gonna talk about that. God has raised Jesus Christ. The Sanhedrin is guilty of the murder of the Christ. The apostles affirmed that, right?

7:47 They said you're gonna you're trying to bring our blood on us and the apostles are like, yeah, you're guilty. Jesus Christ is God and the apostles have witnessed this with their own eyes, holy spirit being witnessed as well. So the first question that we're gonna... The first thing we're gonna break down is to obey God rather than men. I'm glad that JC, you know, didn't cover this part.

8:27 So some examples in scripture, alright, is as I have here in Exodus one, Esther four, Daniel three, Daniel six, Matthew two. That essentially, right, bottom line is that when the law of man would force you to compromise or disobey what God commands you to do, that's when you should not obey that. And something to note here, right, we see every example of this in Esther four, Esther had to go to the king but it was illegal in the way in which she did it but she had to do it in order to save the Jewish people but she was ready to receive the consequences of her actions there. Daniel three, refusing to worship idols and bow down to bow down to other gods, they were they were ready to face the persecution and consequence of that. Daniel six, Daniel in the lion's den that he refused to pray to King Darius and was put into the lion's den for it.

9:26 In Matthew two, the wise men, they were told by King Herod to return to him when they found the Lord Jesus. They said return to him, go back and tell him where he is, right, because Herod wanted to kill him. Well, an angel of the Lord appeared to them and told them don't do that, so they didn't. And that's the same thing here in Acts chapter five. People are telling them one thing, God tells you another.

9:49 You go with what God tells you to do regardless of the government authority and what might happen there. So turn with me to Romans 13. This is a important passage here talking about that because this is not an excuse to disobey the government whenever you can. Because in scripture, we as Christians should be the most submissive and model citizens but just simply unwilling to compromise with what God calls us to do. So Romans 13.

10:31 Romans 13 verses one through seven. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God. And the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority, resists the ordinance of God and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works but to evil.

10:52 Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good, but if you do evil, be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore, you must be subject not only because of wrath, but also for conscience's sake.

11:12 For because of this, you also pay taxes for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to who customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. So we're responsible to submit to the government and authorities once again as far as we're not disobeying the command of God. Things to note right from here that God has appointed government but that doesn't mean that he approves of every action of the government of course. God allows governments to do terrible things and sometimes we don't understand why God does that but he allows it for a time because, you know, given that these government officials and people in power don't repent and continue to reject God, God is going, God is just and will repay them for the things that they've done.

12:03 In my studies, some questions that I've asked myself are are we responsible for what the government does with our tax money? Because I'm sure we we know that the government does some bad things depending on the state you're living in, right? Such as especially maybe in California, Medicaid and things like that funding abortions. And this is tough, you may not agree with me but I believe that no, are not responsible depending on the situation there That we pay taxes to the government in submission to the Lord as unto the Lord and that they are responsible for what they do with it. You know, extenuating circumstances such as, you know, what if a specific tax is meant to fund abortions or do terrible atrocities and things like that.

12:55 Just from examining my own heart, I would say that I wouldn't support that, I wouldn't pay that tax, at the same time, I would be ready to suffer the consequences of that and suffer for the Lord in that. Now what about at work, right? We're talking about government authorities. What about at work? What about parents?

13:48 If your work does not specifically allow you to share the gospel with people, one thing first of all is that we should not be sharing the gospel with people at the expense of the company. That if sharing the gospel with someone is taking away from you know your responsibility to whatever work you're doing or every company, if you can multitask, great, but otherwise shouldn't be at the expense of the company. Things such as lunch break, after work, or you know inviting co workers and things like that to dinner. These are just practical examples but otherwise you know that's something that we should be careful but still once again proclaim the gospel in whatever way you can. And in parents, is an extreme case because I can once again say that you know my dad wasn't right in everything, okay?

14:39 No. He wasn't right in anything, but I would... I can confidently say that he didn't do anything. He didn't say or tell me to do anything that would've caused me to compromise what God commands us to do. Even though, you know, said things or did things that...

14:57 I don't know, can't give specific examples right now. I'm not trying to call you out dad, I love you so much. But an example of this is Muslims who become Christians. Muslims who become Christians are told to deny. Right?

15:13 They're told by parents and whoever to deny Christ, right, come back to Muslim. And that's simply something that you need to disobey your parents for that. Know, if if they're telling you to deny Christ to do things like that, you know, that's something that you disobey your parents and that is honoring to the Lord. And so once again it's consistent in scripture that Christians either fled from authorities or endured the consequences and suffered for Christ. In my studies, in my searching, looking through the Old Testament, there's absolutely nothing in the New Testament about it but the Old Testament of uprisings that are uprisings against government authorities and things like that of killing people is not condoned in scripture as far as I'm able to see.

16:05 There are times in scripture where there are foreign like in the book of Judges where foreign governments oppressing, right? You have foreign governments not your own government oppressing and fighting against that but our own government it seems that scripture is pretty consistent on obey the Lord before men and if your government is persecuting you endure it for Christ. And we're going to talk a little bit about suffering for Christ in a bit. So but all in all, no accusation should be able to stick besides the fact that we will not compromise God's commandments. And so going on, we're gonna get a little bit into suffering for Christ.

16:44 I'm gonna skip down to verses forty forty through 42 in Acts chapter five before we address the rest of the passage. Pharisees, now they wanted to... After the statement that the apostles made, they wanted to kill them but they decided not to we'll get into that but 40 through 42 it says, And they agreed with them and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them they commanded they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. So they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were kind of worthy to suffer shame for his name and daily in the temple and every house they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. So once again they continued to disobey them but so they were beaten and they were rejoicing about the fact that they were beaten because they were counter worthy to suffer shame for his name.

18:42 If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part, he is blasphemed, but on your part, he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people's matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. That's pretty self explanatory I would say and I really don't need to go too more in-depth there.

19:10 Second Timothy three twelve says, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. That's a promise for us. Luke six twenty two through 23. Blessed are you when men hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and cast out your name as evil for the son of man's sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy for indeed your reward is great in heaven for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.

19:34 So once again developing this mindset towards persecution and suffering for Christ that it should be something that is an honor for us to do and we have our greatest example is Jesus Christ in first Peter two verses 20 through 23 it says, For what credit is it when you are beaten for your faults you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you are called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow his steps who committed no sin nor was deceit found in his mouth. Who when he was reviled did not revile in return when he suffered he did not threaten but committed himself to him who judges righteously. And in Isaiah 50, the last note about this topic to have our mindset be like the Lord Jesus in this.

20:28 Isaiah 50 verses six through seven. I gave my back to those who struck me and my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard. This is a messianic prophecy by the way. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting for the Lord God will help me. Therefore I will not be disgraced.

20:45 Therefore I have set my face like a flint and I know that I will not be ashamed. And so that last that last part there, I have set my face like a flint and I know I will not be ashamed. Let that be our mindset when we suffer for Christ in whatever area we're in. Going back to Acts five, the apostle said, The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to his right hand to be prince and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

21:18 And so I just wanted to highlight the importance of a correct Christology to have God exalted in the proper place... To have Jesus Christ exalted in the proper place of equality with the father. So here are just a couple verses I had of of attributions to Jesus Christ and God both in the old and new testament as creator. The great I am. Jesus claimed that of himself in John eight and also Mark chapter six when the disciples were on the water.

21:49 I thought this was so cool I learned this recently and it just you know, was a nice little nugget. Mark chapter six verse five, when Jesus said to the apostles to the disciples, do not be afraid, it is I. The Greek actually says, do not be afraid, I am. Because once again, he was trying to calm them down because I have power over the sea, I have dominion over the things of this world. And then going on, I am he, Jesus said that in John chapter eight.

22:20 The first and the last, Jesus Christ receives worship and in this passage here, the forgiver of sins. So the disciples once again were having Jesus on an equal equality with the father because being at the right hand of God is a position of sharing glory, authority, honor, and power with the father. So once again, when we have people that are bringing in these false doctrines of Christ, of Jesus Christ and preaching a different Christ, two Corinthians 11 talks about this, that to not accept them, you know, and that they preach that Christ isn't actually God and that he is a created being. Now going on, the disciples said, we are eyewitnesses and we are his witnesses to these things and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him. I just wanted to share with you just going through some chronological order.

23:18 Now some of these could be switched, know, it's debatable if you could switch some of these around a little bit, but overall this is the chronological order of the eyewitnesses of the resurrection before Jesus ascended to heaven. And once again, very cool to kinda go, a fun study to go through the scriptures and look at that. I the Holy Spirit is number one because God is outside of time, so that was kinda a given. And then a little popcorn quiz, who's the last eyewitness that is missing from this list? Counter's about to raise his hand?

23:52 No? No? No one? Oh, you didn't answer. I just wanna see what five seconds of silence would look like, you know, as we waited for Paul, the last eyewitness to be there.

24:11 And then, so once again we have the amount of eyewitnesses of the resurrection, the death and resurrection is so huge, so amazing and we're able to be confident. The eyewitness testimony that they had at this time, two thousand years later we are confident that we have the trustworthy eyewitness testimony of everyone. I love getting into the of manuscripts that that are in the the New Testament. That the New Testament is by far the has the most volume and accuracy of manuscript testimony. So these are all just they're all comparing ancient manuscripts and how long it took, how long before the earliest copy was written or the earliest copy we have and the number and the approximate time.

25:06 This needs to be updated. There's actually around 5,800 New Testament manuscripts and if you see here right, all these ancient manuscripts that are considered historical, some ranging a thousand years, five hundred years, none of them having over a thousand manuscripts, but the New Testament less than a hundred years between the original and the copy, and we have 5,800 in the Greek manuscripts alone, and in other languages we have over 24,000. So we're able to very confidently, without a shadow of a doubt, proclaim the reality of the resurrection. And that's disregarding the fact that Jesus said this would happen in the prophecies of the Old Testament. The amount of witnesses, the early dating volume and accuracy of these witnesses remain true because once again without the resurrection our faith is futile.

26:04 It means nothing like we have nothing if we don't have Jesus Christ who died and was raised again. So this is the foundation of our hope and should be a huge focus when we are proclaiming Christ and proclaiming the gospel. It's an essential part of the gospel. Alright. Going on to the Gamaliel's advice.

26:43 And he said to them, men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men. For some time ago, Judas rose up claiming to be somebody, a number of men, about 400, joined him. He was slain and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing. After this man Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census and drew away many people after him. He also perished and all who obeyed him were dispersed.

27:06 And now I say to you keep away from these men and let them alone for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing. But if is of God, you cannot overthrow it lest you even be found to fight against God. So Gamma Liel's advice, is it entirely correct? Short answer, not entirely. In the context of what Luke is describing here, Luke is comparing, Gamaliel is comparing these two Jewish men claiming to be somebody.

27:35 They were killed and their movement died with them. Right? Now Luke is using this. He's recording this to show that Jesus Christ who is killed, but the thing is he is alive forevermore. Revelation one eighteen says, I am he who lives and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore.

27:51 And this movement, right, this movement that Luke is recording here follows in like manner, right, that it was not going to be stopped. Now why is this not entirely correct? Well because if you just take this across the board of any movement that gathers a following, well that must be a movement of God, right? You take it to religions such as Islam. Islam is the fastest growing religion today.

28:17 They have over 1,800,000,000 people and in the Quran, largely and now many people, now different Muslim groups and things like that interpret it differently, but for the most part, they believe it is true that Jesus Christ wasn't even crucified. That either someone else took his place or made it appear so that he was crucified. And once again this is totally and blatant disregard of any historical evidence and archaeological evidence and things like that. Hindus 1,000,000,000 people, professing Christians over 2,000,000,000, and as of 2024, 7,000,000 Mormons and 9,000,000 Jehovah Witnesses are in The US today who deny the deity of Jesus Christ that Jesus Christ is a created being and not the second person of the Godhead. So yes, Gamma Liel's advice isn't correct across the board because we see once again a degree of success in things that are not backed by God.

29:15 And a question that I had for myself was, alright well how can I reconcile this? What answer do I have for what will happen? I guess what will God do with this, right? Like why does he allow these religions to exist and things like that. And first of all, that broad is a path to destruction and few find it.

29:38 Jesus foretold of his rejection, he foretold that many will deny the gift of salvation because once again people either don't want to be accountable before God, they want to be their own God, or they want to earn their way earn their way to salvation. And so they just reject the idea that that salvation is from God and is a gift of God and that all we do is receive it, that we do nothing to earn it. Psalm 73 doesn't relate directly with this but the psalmist is kind of lamenting about the fact that the wicked seem to do so well and the wicked seem to not have any struggles and things like that. And the psalmist says that until I went into the sanctuary of God then I understood their end. And we can have a similar mindset in that we go to scripture, and we can see that Philippians two, although we may not see the end of these false religions in our lifetime, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of those in heaven, and of those on earth and those under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

31:54 In those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. Then the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, it is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren seek out for among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer into the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenaus, and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch whom they sent before the apostles and when they had prayed they laid hands on them. Then the word of God spread and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.

32:50 Alright, so first of all we just want to point out the order. Just want to present to you, cause obviously WBF has talked about deacons and things like that. I just wanna present to you what the Bible says about deacons and that's pretty much it. Okay? So the order in which deacons came about and how deacons were chosen, we see it taking place in Acts six here.

33:12 The need arose, but it was a need that would take away the apostles from their primary role and responsibility of ministering the word, shepherding the people, and prayer. So that need arose, the apostles then gave the responsibility to the church, to the body, to raise up people, to appoint people to this position. And these people were brought before the elders or the apostles, They're brought before the elders and the apostles and they're then approved and appointed by the elders and apostles and of course everything is hovered and is drowned in prayer, right? That they laid hands on them and prayed. So that's just the order in which the deacons came about.

33:58 Once again, the need arose, the apostles gave the responsibility to the body to choose the people, the people then bring it to the apostles. The apostles or elders, now elders approve and appoint. So now some million dollar questions. I know we've done these studies in the past. I know Mr.

34:18 Boss, I looked up on the WBF website and I looked up Deacon and it was Mr. Boss both times. He got stuck with it both times in 2022 and like ten years before that. So some questions: What is a deacon? What does a deacon do?

34:38 Who can be a deacon? How many deacons? And does the office of a deacon exist? Okay, so first of all, what is a deacon? A deacon means servant or minister.

34:47 It is a appointed position given a degree authority among the body. Now what does a deacon do? The Bible isn't too specific, however when we do see deacons in action we see them dealing in financialadministrative areas regarding having the responsibility of handling funds given by the local church to distribute on behalf of the body. And you can see that in first Timothy five when Paul is giving Timothy direction in terms of who qualifies as a true widow and how the church should support that. The the early church was very involved in supporting its needy members as we should be as well.

35:31 Who can be a deacon? Must meet the qualifications. Acts chapter six and one Timothy three. Acts chapter six, of course, says seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. And then one Timothy three, we'll break that down a little more.

35:48 Now how many deacons? Elders and deacons are always mentioned or are always brought up and taught in a plurality, right? Because we have one singular head of the church, Jesus Christ, and elders and deacons can be seen as, I forget the picture that you wrote, that the elders are the shepherd amongst the body and the deacons are like the hound dog or something. I think Mr. Hilton said that a little bit ago.

36:15 But we don't see anywhere in scripture of of singular deacons or elders. Now, does the office of a deacon next deaconess exist? Can women be deacons? Good question. Do you guys want the short answer or long answer?

36:32 Short? Too bad. So deaconesses, there are two passages in scripture that advocates for use and the first one is Romans 16 verse one. Paul says, I commend to you Phoebe our sister who is a servant of the church and centria that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, etc. So that word servant is the same word for deacon, diokineo, right?

37:01 Now the problem with this is that the general sense or the general use of the word servant or diakineo, right, because the word deacon is the same Greek word that's being used there. It's used 26 times in a general sense in terms of just being a servant or a minister and only used three times in scripture in reference to the office of deacon, twice in first Timothy three and once in Philippians one:one. One example is Jesus saying in Matthew twenty three eleven, but he who is greatest among you shall be your servant or your diokinaios. Right? So I guess that was the establishment of the office of a deacon there.

37:43 Just kidding. But essentially, right, short answer is no, that women are not called to the role of a deacon. One Timothy three, this is used often, Likewise their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children in their own house as well. So the Greek word for word reads, women likewise dignified, not slanderers, clear minded, faithful in all things.

38:09 Deacon, let be husbands of one woman, of children well managing and of one's own households. That sounds garbled but that's just what it reads in the Greek. So in verse eleven and twelve, the word woman used for wives and just wives likewise must be reverent. The word is the Greek word and it's the same word used but proponents who try to push for that, it's really an extreme stretch to say that Paul is going through a systematic establishment of qualifications for elders and then deacons and then he establishes right in the middle of talking about deacons the office of a deaconess. And the last note is that husbands, right, as used in first Timothy three for elders and deacons and Acts chapter six, the word men used there.

39:03 Now oftentimes in the Greek it's very specific because men sometimes mean just in the general sense of people, but in here the apostles called for seven men as in male sex. And so it's pretty specific and it's not supported in scripture to have that. Yeah, in Philippians one:one, that's just a reference to bishops or elders and deacons. So I just wanna go through real quick, in one Timothy three:one-thirteen, the qualifications for elders and deacons. Many of the qualifications for both of these positions are shared and it's understandable that they're, because once again, right, elders and deacons should both be full of the Holy Spirit and wise and things like that.

39:54 Just a couple key differences is that deacons, unlike elders, are to be tested. Now there's liberty in that, it probably looks different, you know each church right, that a deacon could be first like tested in the roll, like get your feet wet in the roll and then you know once they're approved or tested in terms of you know are they trustworthy in finances, are they trustworthy that they're not going to steal money and things like that. That's important. Deacons do not need to be able to teach because the primary role is dealing with financial things right and the elders being ministers of the word. Deacons, don't, elders say they can't be a novice.

40:36 You don't see that in deacons. I do believe deacons should be mature believers but they can be younger or newer believers and it's interesting, wives are expressly said to, you know, qualifications for wives of a deacon has explicit qualifications but it doesn't for elders. Once again, I don't know if that's like, you know, they both, you know, are mixed there or that because dealing with, you know, handling funds for the poor and things like that that there is the wives especially because they can be younger as well that wives need to be mature, reverent, and able to keep private what should be kept private for people. Now, we just talk about deacons a lot and we're done, I promise. But one thing that you notice when talking about how deacons came about is that they came about because the church was able to know, right, the church was intimately involved with each other's lives and they were able to know the needs of the people and they were able to tell when needs weren't being met.

41:49 They did something about it, right? And so some questions that come into mind there, right, is like the church was so important to these people, right, and their needs were met. So the questions that I ask and of course everyone is in different seasons of life and your level involvement or things like that that you're able to give to the local body may differ obviously but just some things is, you know, where is a local church in your life? If you can't physically be there for people or be there at church gatherings or something like that, are you praying for the people? Are you seeking to make sure that everyone is cared for both physically, emotionally, spiritually.

42:36 So where's a local church in your life? Would you say that you're doing life with the people that you fellowship with? Are they involved in your life? Are they able to speak into your life too because that's so important. And there are needs amongst the body at Westlake whether long term or short term things that spring up and of course people that are visiting from out of town you know you can apply this back to your local body as well that to be involved and to do life with everyone that you're in fellowship with.

43:07 And you don't need a deacon to be able to do an elder deacon to be able to see these things that need to happen. And now I'm just going to spitball some ways to get involved right because I'm just I don't know I just thought of things. So at church gatherings right because once again service is in the church and outside the church when we go off you know and live our lives for the Lord throughout the week. Church gatherings help set up, tear down, take out trash, do dishes, shovel and salt, make food, host or attend prayer meetings, make sure people get to their car safe. You know, we're in Westlake but you don't want someone to slip on ice I guess.

43:46 If you see a need and desire to do it and have the desire, you know the Nike logo, just do it. I'm not trying to advertise Nike here but just do it. Outside church gatherings, spend time with the saints, do evangelism together, bible studies, host one another in each other's homes, pack and snack, rake and bake, yard work, discipleship, ladies missionaries meetings, there's so many things going on. Hide Alpine's, VBS, a week or two at summer camps such as Camp Alola, Preaching one or Preaching three, know, you can go to either one. Conferences, conferences, we're about to have the Christmas program, you know, we're about to have a conference in March.

44:30 Like we need all hands on deck. I know that people at this past conference that we had were just like at a physical and emotional end to themselves and just the amount of work that they had to do and that you know it wasn't being shared, it wasn't being shared enough right. Now once again I do want to express encouragement that like I am so blessed and grateful that you know Westlake we are involved in each other's lives but if you don't feel that way well like you know we want to encourage you to just jump in. And so once again realistically if it doesn't involve handling financials of the church for distribution purposes and it doesn't involve the roles of priesthood of men and women when we gather together for worship and prayer. There's so much liberty and so many opportunities to serve the Lord and one another.

45:27 So please remember that that there are so many opportunities. Now I just want to read in closing Ephesians four sixteen and it says, And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love. May grow up in all things into him who is ahead, Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. So we see here the importance of every part, the whole body jointed in together by what every joint supplies, which every part does its share.

46:40 I don't know if you've seen guys who they only hit upper body and don't hit legs, they have like string bean legs but like it just looks weird right? So there's something like that, but even though in your own body if you pull a muscle, if one part of the body is hurting, the whole rest of the body also hurts because other parts of the body now have to overwork or are used to do certain things when they shouldn't be and that causes even more pain and stuff like that for the body. You can, it's a very good picture there. And so lastly when we talk about every joint being knit together, joining it together, doing your share, some points of conversation in terms of like, how do I know what I should be getting involved in, what I should do. So some questions to answer, I'm not going to address any of these things because you can probably have a conference off of you know spiritual gifts.

47:37 So the questions here is maybe you can talk about it with your family or whoever. Do you know what spiritual gifts are? Do you know your spiritual gifts? Are you using your spiritual gifts? And is the body of Christ being edified by the use of your spiritual gifts?

47:54 Because if you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, he has given you spiritual gifts or plural gifts. Now something that you like take a test to determine what your spiritual gift is and I would say no, that's not the case. I know that at least in the early church they didn't really have a Google form that you could fill out so that you can know your spiritual gift. What I would say is to step into serving the Lord. Step into serving and you'll find that something that brings the fullest blessing to the body, the fullest blessing of the body with the least amount of work or energy required for you is something that you know I think is a reliable thing to point towards that and the Holy Spirit will lead you in this and of course God can use other people.

48:46 Others can, you know, when you're doing life together with the church and you're serving with the church, people are able to see, hey, like you have a gifting in that area and they can point it out for you because once again, has given many discernment in this. And so in closing, we're ten minutes over but we also started singing ten minutes late so I think I did pretty good or maybe fifteen, I don't know, whatever. But in closing, submit to government and authorities in your life as far as you don't disobey God in doing so. Continually seek opportunity to proclaim the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Ready yourself to suffer persecution for Christ.

49:26 Set your face as a flint. Don't return insult for insult. Don't return punch for punch, right? We see the example of the Lord Jesus that he didn't do that. He gave his back, right?

49:37 It says in Isaiah 50, he gave his back to those who struck him. We can trust the Bibles in our hands today these translations that we have to be the original message from the eyewitnesses of the resurrection and get involved. Know and meet the needs of your local church, seek to get involved and to know and seek and to use your spiritual gifts for the glory of God in betterment of the local church. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for your word and Lord we just praise you for how you have worked through history, worked through us Lord, the fact that you used us to bring about your purposes.

50:23 Lord just sinful and frail people like us Lord you empower to do awesome things for you. Lord we just praise you, we want to give you the glory and Lord as we step forward and consider these things Lord help us Lord to give us a heart to seek out desires of others Lord, put the interests of others first. Lord to desire to do life with one another Lord as we share the common bond of being saved by grace Lord and being brothers and sisters in Christ and yeah Lord just thank you so much and we pray that as people travel home from the holidays and things like that we ask for safe travel for them and Lord that you would just continue to enrich us with your presence and blessing. In Jesus name, Amen.