The Fullness of God and Men – Acts 6:8-15

Summary:

Stephen was filled with “faith” or faithfulness (cf. Rom. 3:3) and miracle working “power” (6:8) because he was filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:4; 6:5) and faith and power were gifts of the Spirit (I Cor. 12:8-10).  The Spirit filled and controlled them (Ezek. 36:27) to where they couldn’t sin (I Jo. 3:9), but that didn’t mean He overpowered their personalities.

We know that because the 12 told the disciples to pick 7 men filled with wisdom and the Spirit to settle a dispute (Acts 6:1-3).  But they were all filled with both, so how could they choose?  Well, they were also to pick men “of honest report,” which can mean fair and equitable men.  But honesty wasn’t one of the gifts of the Spirit, so we know the Spirit didn’t eclipse their personalities in that taste of the kingdom of heaven on earth—and He won’t eclipse ours either when we get to the kingdom of heaven in heaven.  They weren’t a bunch of mindless robots, and we won’t be either!

Why Stephen (6:9) and not Peter?  A year has now passed since Acts 2:4 and God is about to cut Israel down for rejecting Christ’s apostles (Luke 13:6-9).  Since Stephen’s name means “crown,” he’s about to become an example of how Tribulation Jews will have to be faithful to death to get eternal life (Rev. 2:10).  God needed the 12 alive to continue the kingdom program during the “diminishing” of Israel (Rom. 11:12), to write epistles to kingdom saints that will be in the Bible for the Tribulation.  So He couldn’t have Peter die.

After the persecution of the Jewish council (Acts 5:40,41) the “disputing” came from average Jews, not the leaders (6:9), as the Lord predicted (Mt. 10:17).  The “Libertines” may have been formed to look for liberty from their enemies in Rome (Lu. 1:70) but now the Lord’s disciples were their main enemy.  So now they were fighting for the “liberty” found in the law (Ps. 119:133, 145).  In the measure they followed the law, they were free from sin.  They later charged the 12 with blaspheming the law (6:13) because the 12 were preaching freedom from sin through Christ, just as He did (Jo. 8:32-36).  That’s why James called it a “law of liberty” (Jam. 2:12).  The Lord wanted to give the Jews complete liberty from their sins by filling them with His Spirit and making them able to keep the law perfectly.  The Libertines thought they didn’t need that, because they thought they were keeping the law well enough to be saved on their own.

The Alexandrians (6:9) were probably also strong for the law, like their favorite son (Acts 18:24).  “Them of Cilicia” produced Saul (22:3) so they were also zealous for the law, and they too joined the Libertines in championing the law.

But all those zealots of the law couldn’t compete with Stephen’s gift of wisdom (6:10)—and he was just a waiter (6:5).  Men won’t be able to resist your wisdom either if you have the truth rightly divided, unlike the Jews who clung to the law here.  They couldn’t resist his gracious “spirit” either, the spirit of grace—and you can have that too (Col. 4:6).

They suborned men to lie (6:11) so they could get the kingdom, like Jezebel did (I Ki. 21:1-10), a type of how Israel’s religious leaders got men to lie to kill the Lord (Mt. 21:38) and kill Stephen, the rightful owners of the vineyard of Israel

They “caught” Stephen (6:11), meaning he was running away.  If the government persecutes you, you can run, but you must follow David’s example and not resist them (I Sa. 24).

Since they bore false witness about Stephen and then gnashed on him (Acts 7:54), I have to believe he prayed for his enemies in between (cf. Ps. 35:11-16 cf. Mt.5:44).

They claimed Stephen was saying the Lord would destroy the temple (6:14) because they purposely misunderstood when He said He’d destroy the temple of His body and raise it up (Jo. 2:19-21).  And Stephen was preaching Christ’s resurrection.  We know neither the Lord nor Stephen destroyed the “customs” of the law, for the Lord always observed the “custom” of the feasts (Lu. 2:41,42) and Stephen was there at this next Pentecost a year later.

God replied to these charges by saying, “You want to charge him with speaking against Moses and the law?  I’ll make him look like Moses when he got the law!” (6:15 cf. Ex.34:29-34).

Video of this sermon is available on YouTube: The Fullness of God and Men – Acts 6:8-15

Aged Women Teachers

“The aged women likewise, that they be… teachers of good things” (Titus 2:3).

When I was a boy, I remember reading about a mother who taught her daughter to cut off the end of a roast before placing it in the oven, laying the part she cut off in the pan next to the roast.  She explained that that’s how her mother had taught her to prepare a roast.  When her daughter asked why, her mom wasn’t sure, so the girl called her grandmother to find out.  Grandma explained that it was because she never owned a pan long enough for a roast!

Now that sounds like something that aged women don’t need to teach anyone.  And life is filled with things like that!  Maybe that’s why, after telling “aged women” to be “teachers of good things” (Titus 2:3), the Apostle Paul went on to talk about the kinds of things he wanted them to teach—and to whom he wished they would teach them.  Speaking of aged women, he wrote,

“That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands” (Tit. 2:4).

Aged Christian women are to teach younger Christian women.  And the first thing Paul says to teach them is to be sober.  That word has different meanings in Scripture, but when Paul uses it right after telling aged women to be “not given to much wine” (v. 3), I have to believe he wanted younger women to learn not to give themselves to much wine as wellIf you’re not sure why young wives might need to be taught this, it might be because Paul also says that young women should be taught “to love their husbands.”  When a woman is married to a man who is hard to love, it’s much easier to give herself to wine than it is to learn to love him.

Aged Christian women should teach younger women to love their husbands by example, of course.  Ladies, when you are making the often-difficult decision of whether to love your difficult husband, or drown your sorrows in alcohol instead, keep in mind that whichever path you choose, you are setting an example for younger women—and to society in general.  What woman doesn’t want to make the world a better place in which to live?  Well, if a young woman is married, the primary way in which she can accomplish this worthy goal is to learn to love her husband.

Another way aged women can teach younger women to love an unlovable husband is by reminding them that loving the unlovable is what the Lord did when He died for us.  “Christ died for the ungodly…when we were enemies” (Rom. 5:6,10).  Talk about loving the unlovable!  If our sinless Savior could love sinners like us, no wife can ever say she can’t love her unlovable husband —and no husband can say he can’t love his unlovable wife, as Paul also commands (Eph. 5:25).

In marriage counseling I have often heard husbands and wives lament, “I just don’t love my spouse anymore.” My response has always been the same.  I remind husbands and wives that they can learn to love their spouses.  If Paul says that aged women are to teach younger women to love their husbands, that means love can be taught.  And if love can be taught, it can be learned.

Many husbands are hard to love, but somewhere on the planet is the best husband on earth.  You’d think that it wouldn’t be hard for his wife to love him, but the best husband on earth is still a man with a fallen sin nature that he inherited from Adam.  That means he may not have the flaws of many of the other men on earth, but he’s not perfect.  If you don’t believe me, just ask his wife!

But let me tell you something about her sin nature.  Instead of being grateful that he doesn’t have all the flaws of other men, she’s focusing on the few flaws he does have.  It’s just human nature.  His flaws might seem small to you, but I guarantee they seem big to her.  That’s human nature as well.  But the woman with the world’s best husband must also learn to love her husband.

Loving the unlovable is good advice for us all.  So if you know how, why not teach some-one else how?  And if you haven’t yet learned to “walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us” (Eph. 5:2), why not determine to begin learning how today, by learning more of how Christ loved us.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.


Two Minutes with the Bible lets you start your day with short but powerful Bible study articles from the Berean Bible Society. Sign up now to receive Two Minutes With the Bible every day in your email inbox. We will never share your personal information and you can unsubscribe at any time.



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The Grecian Formula – Acts 6:1-7

Summary:

When the Grecians complained, the apostles had to come up with a formula to address their complaint (6:1).  But if this was a foretaste of the kingdom of heaven on earth, does that mean there will be complaints when we get to the kingdom of heaven in heaven? 

Yes!  That’s why we’ll have to “judge angels” (I Cor. 6:3). Angels are sinless but not perfect.  They will have disputes similar to this one in Acts 6 that they’ll need us to settle.  Meanwhile, the 12 apostles will be doing the same thing in the kingdom of heaven on earth (Mt. 19:28) among saved Jews who will be sinless but not perfect either.  And we’re seeing this pictured here in Acts 6.  We’re not seeing a breakdown of the harmony in the church here (Acts 1:14; 2:1,46; 4:32).  We’re seeing how the harmony was maintained, and how it will be maintained in the kingdom.

Heaven will be perfect, but not in the way many people think  Many Christians think we won’t have to go to work, but Eden was perfect, and Adam had a job (Gen. 2:15).And being a judge is a job, so we’ll have to go to work to judge angels.

People of other nations that spoke Greek were called Greeks (Mark 7:26).  People of the Jewish nation who spoke Greek, who grew up in other lands, were called “Grecians.”  The “daily ministration” that was neglecting the Grecian widows was the distribution to the needs of the saints (Acts 2:44,45).  It couldn’t have been on purpose, for neglecting widows would have been a sin (Ex. 22:22), and these saints couldn’t sin (I Jo. 3:9).  They were sinless, just not perfect.

The apostles didn’t think helping with this was beneath them, but passed on helping (6:2) because, in order to look into this neglect, they would have had to do some neglecting of their own.  They’d have had to neglect their spiritual gift of teaching (Rom. 12:7 cf. I Tim. 4:14).

Instead, they helped by delegating authority (6:3), as Moses did when the Jews were multiplied in his day, as they were here at Pentecost (Deut. 1:10-17).

When they deferred to give themselves to teaching instead (6:4), that suggests men needed to be taught the Word there in the kingdom of heaven on earth, and that suggests that men will need it in the kingdom of heaven in heaven.  That answers the question I’m often asked, if we’ll know the Bible perfectly the instant we enter heaven.  No!  The Bible is an eternal Book, and we’ll delight in studying it for all eternity.  Imagine how boring eternity would be otherwise!

We’ll talk more about Stephen and Philip (6:5) in Acts 7,8. And these other men aren’t mentioned elsewhere, so there is nothing we can know about them.  Although “Nicolas” might have been the father of the cult in Revelation 2:6,14,15 that was associated with fornication.  Church history says Nicolas started taking  that business of living with all things common (Acts 2:44; 4:32) too far, saying men shouldn’t say their wives were their own (Acts 4:32), leading to fornication

They ordained these men by laying hands on them (6:6) to give them the gift of ministry (Rom. 12:6) to help them operate “the daily ministration.”

But while we know nothing about these men, we know they were all Grecians, as their Greek names indicate!  You wouldn’t pick a fox to guard the henhouse that he’s most likely to rob, but these disciples picked Grecian leaders who were most likely to side with Grecian widows in this dispute!

That’s grace!  The Jews could have said, “It’s a Jewish church, we’re picking Jewish judges, and if you don’t like it, you can leave.”  Of course, unsaved men would say, “That’s not fair, you need to pick 3 Hebrews, 3 Grecians, and 1 proselyte,” thinking no one could propose a better solution.  But God did!  Grace is always a better solution, for grace always goes above and beyond the call (Eph. 3:20).  Do you?

If you could settle all your disputes as graciously, you might see the same results these saints saw: priests who a short while ago opposed them (Acts 4:1-3) believed (6:7).

“The faith” you had to be “obedient” to in the Jewish nation was Acts 2:38, but the faith to be obedient to among “all nations” was Paul’s gospel (Rom.1:5; 16:25,26).  It still is!

Video of this sermon is available on YouTube: The Grecian Formula – Acts 6:1-7

The Noble Bereans

“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11).

Why did God call the Bereans noble? Why did He place them among the spiritual aristocracy of Paul’s day? Wherein lay their true greatness?

I have asked many people this and the answer has generally been the same, “Because they searched the Scriptures.”

This is true, but it is not the whole truth. The Scriptures give us a twofold reason.

1. “They received the Word with all readiness of mind.”

2. “They searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”

Let us put first things first.

THEY WERE OPEN-MINDED

They were broad as well as narrow. They were progressive as well as conservative. If they listened to Paul’s strange words with open eyes and open mouths, they at least listened with open minds too. This is the first lesson we must learn from the noble Bereans.

To really appreciate the spiritual greatness of these people, we must remember that they were Jews who met in a synagogue each Sabbath day. This was apparently the very first time that they had heard the gospel of grace proclaimed. It must all have seemed very strange and impossible to them but they were big enough to listen attentively and respectfully. They did not immediately shake their heads in refusal of the message and deem it unworthy of investigation.

It was not so at Thessalonica. There Paul reasoned out of the Scriptures for three Sabbath days with men who were not willing to listen. The result was that “some” of them believed in comparison to “many” at Berea. And while only “some” of the Thessalonian Jews believed, we read that “a great multitude” of the Gentiles believed. The Gentiles had put God’s chosen people to shame.

Thessalonian bigotry not only kept them in spiritual darkness, but moved them to bitter opposition to the truth itself. After persecuting the apostles in their own city they even followed them to Berea to stir up the people against them. This was the natural result of their blind refusal of the apostle’s message. And why should they have acted so? Could they not have given Paul a hearing? Did they not have Bibles too?

Perhaps we need this lesson. Bigotry among God’s people today will have the same effect as it had in that day. Let us never close our minds, to keep error out, for in doing so we will shut out new light as well, and close old errors in. Rather let us receive the words of men and subject them immediately to the Word of God.

And this brings us to the second element of Berean greatness.

THEY BELIEVED GOD’S WORD ALONE

They were not gullible or credulous. They did not just believe whatever they were told. They “received” Paul’s word, but they did not immediately believe it. They listened to him; they gave him an interested hearing, but did not immediately agree with him. First they had to search the Scriptures to see “whether those things were so.” Paul’s word was subjected to God’s Word. The word of man was tested by the Word of God. [Note: At this point in the article, many years later, Pastor Stam added these hand-written words in the margin: “Now all that Paul preached was not to be found in the Old Testament, for Paul had received a further revelation from the Lord. But it all fit right in with the Scriptures they had. None of it was contrary to the Old Testament.”] How God must have rejoiced over this Bible-loving, Bible-honoring group! They, and not the popular leaders of the day, were the truly great ones in Israel.

Picture the scene: A husband comes home saying he has heard strange things in the synagogue from the lips of a visiting rabbi. Reaching for the sacred Scriptures, he begins an intensive search. The rest of that Sabbath day finds him buried in thought over the writings of the prophets. And not only that day, for he continues the search day after day. He hurries home from his daily work. He puts aside the less important things. Untiringly he searches on until he is sure he has the Truth of God.

And he is only one of many. This was the general attitude in Berea toward Paul’s message. “They searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” They were not willing to take his word for granted. They sifted his message carefully and put it to an intense investigation in the light of the Word of God.

Result? “Therefore many of them believed.”

And we may be sure that these Bereans were strong in the faith, for they had an intelligent understanding of the subject. They not only had the “full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:22), but the “full assurance of understanding” (Col. 2:2).

How we need to learn this lesson! Thousands of believers today are satisfied with their preachers, so satisfied that they never even check up on what they say. If a minister of the Word is fundamentally sound and has a passion for souls, they feel he is a pretty safe man to follow. But, beloved, we cannot safely follow the teachings of any man. No matter how greatly we may love and respect our spiritual leaders, it is our duty to examine their teachings in the light of the Word of God. Yet how few Christians practice this! How few, after hearing man’s word, go home and diligently search the Scriptures to see whether these things are so!

How much new light, how much fresh, encouraging truth might have been found in the last decade or two if we had all been Bereans! After the wonderful truth of the Lord’s premillennial return was recovered a few decades ago, it seemed that the Bereans began to die off. It seemed that believers were satisfied to stop their searching of the Word, as though they had found all the truth. And, depend upon it, when the Berean spirit dies, the Church loses it’s vitality. But again, praise God, there seems to be an awakening among some, both of Bible searching and true evangelism.

The virtues of the Bereans may at first seem contradictory. They were broad and yet narrow. They were progressive and yet conservative. But these virtues do go together. These are the characteristics of the spiritually great. And, another strange paradox: those who reject new light, refusing even to consider it, are the very ones who accept old errors without even considering them in the light of Scripture. Those who are so suspicious of other preachers are often so credulous of their own.

Beloved, are you a Berean? Do you stand among the nobles of the Church of Christ today? Are you spiritually big enough to give men a hearing, and yet exacting enough to accept only what is in harmony with God’s Holy Word?


Pastor Cornelius R. Stam (1908-2003) was the founder of Berean Bible Society and president for 46 years (1940-1986). He authored over 30 Bible study books, including the classic work, Things That Differ.


You can receive More Minutes With the Bible every week in your email inbox. This list features longer articles, including both original content and articles that have appeared in the Berean Searchlight.


Advice For Aged Women

“The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers…” (Titus 2:3).

Former first lady Barbara Bush was one of our nation’s most beloved aged women.  In her memoirs, she tells how she and her husband George were once at a state dinner in Japan while he was our president.  She was seated next to the emperor, but just couldn’t seem to engage him in conversation.  He replied to every inquiry with a “yes” or a “no.”  Finally, she complimented him on the splendor of his official residence.  He responded: “Thank you.”  Undaunted, she pressed on.  “Is it new?”  “Yes.”  “Well, was the old palace so old that it was falling down?”  “No.  You bombed it.”  At that point, she turned to talk to the person sitting on her other side!

Mrs. Bush tried to courteously engage the emperor in conversation for she knew she represented her husband and her country.  But Christian aged women represent the Lord, so Paul says they should be “in behaviour as becometh holiness.”  The word “holiness” has different meanings, but when Paul says that aged women should be “likewise” in behavior as becometh holiness, he must mean they should be holy in the ways in which he had just encouraged aged men to be holy (vs.1,2).  After all, what’s good for the aged gander is good for the aged goose!

But aged women should know that it is especially important for them to be holy, for women are the guardians of decency in society.  Did you ever wonder why, in speaking of the sins of the ancient Gentile world, Paul wrote that “even their women” were engaged in those abominable sins (Rom. 1:26)?  It is because women, by their very nature, are more refined.  We see this illustrated in the account of the creation of men and women.  God made man from the dust of the earth, but He drew woman from the man.  Thus women are by nature further removed from the dirt of which we men were created!  Because of this, women can often rein us men in by simply being who they are.  This is especially important for aged women, who must set an example for younger women.

But after telling aged women to be holy like the men, Paul singles out an area where it is harder for women to be holy when he says they shouldn’t be “false accusers.”  If you’re wondering why women would have more trouble with that than men, it’s not because they talk more, as I might suggest if I were a sexist!  It is because when women want to hurt someone, they tend to use their words and not their fists like us men.  That’s why when Paul talked about the qualifications of a spiritual leader, he wrote,

“A bishop then must be… not given to wine… no striker… not a brawler(I Tim. 3:2,3).

But when he gave the qualifications for the wife of a spiritual leader, he wrote,

“Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers” (I Tim. 3:11).

The Greek word for “slanderers” there is the same as the word translated “false accusers” in our text, the word diabolos.  Aged women need to be reminded that it is simply diabolical to slander someone by accusing them falsely.

And the reason Paul adds, “not given to much wine,” is—well, do you know what tends to make a woman slander someone?  The same thing that tends to make a man strike someone—much wine!  Did you notice that before telling leaders to be “no strikers,” Paul tells them to be “not given to wine?”  And right after telling aged women not to be false accusers, he tells them the same thing?  There’s just something about alcohol that overcomes a man’s natural inhibition to deck some jerk, and there’s just something about it that overcomes a woman’s natural inhibition to slander someone as well.

But slandering and striking others is not very holy behavior.  So by God’s grace, let’s all determine to be in behavior as becometh holiness, to the glory and praise of God.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.


Two Minutes with the Bible lets you start your day with short but powerful Bible study articles from the Berean Bible Society. Sign up now to receive Two Minutes With the Bible every day in your email inbox. We will never share your personal information and you can unsubscribe at any time.



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Just What the Doctor Ordered – Acts 5:34-42

Summary:

When the religious leaders in Israel began plotting to kill the twelve apostles (5:33), a doctor calmed them down (v. 34, 35).  His willingness to oppose this murderous mob of powerful men shows that Pharisees weren’t all bad, as did Nicodemus (Jo. 3:1-3), who later got saved (Jo. 19:38-40).

Gamaliel was a doctor “of the law,” i.e., a lawyer.  In Israel, that meant he was a doctor of the law of Moses.  Moses’ law wasn’t just Israel’s religious law, it was their civil law, as the constitution is ours. There were lots of lawyers (Lu. 2:46,47).

Gamaliel was “had of reputation,” and reputations aren’t built quickly.  So he was probably one of the lawyers the Lord offered to heal a few years earlier (Lu. 5:17), but who refused Him.  Don’t ever feel sorry for those Pharisees and lawyers, thinking that they never had a chance to be saved. But if Gamaliel didn’t get saved that day, why’d he stick up for the apostles?  Well, for one thing, he was a Pharisee, and the ones opposing the apostles were Sadducees (Acts 5:17,18).  That made Gamaliel friendly toward the enemy of his enemies.  We’ll see more reasons he defended them later.

But if his name sounds familiar, it’s because Acts 22:3 says that he trained Paul before he was saved.  He must have been a big shot in Israel to have “commanded” (Acts 5:34) these rulers not to harm the apostles.  And as all good lawyers do, he cited some legal precedents to help make his case.

Theudas (5:36) is only mentioned here, but if you’re going to boast yourself to be somebody in Israel, it was probably messiah.  Everyone knew messiah would be the son of David (Mt. 22:41,42), and 400 men joined themselves to David too (I Sam. 22:1,2 cf. Acts 5:36).  Israel’s rulers probably didn’t know what do with Theudas when he got popular, but Gamaliel pointed out they didn’t have to do anything. He got himself killed and his followers scattered—and so will the apostles, is what Gamaliel was suggesting.  It was illegal for them to kill anyone (cf. Jo. 18:31), so killing the twelve might have gotten them killed.  Gamaliel knew those “men of Israel” (Acts 5:35) would know the principle of Zechariah 13:7.

Like most lawyers, Gamaliel cited more than one precedent.  This “Judas” (5:37) wasn’t Iscariot.  “Judas” was the Greek version of the popular Hebrew name Judah, father of one of the 12 tribes.  There were even two men named Judas among the apostles (Lu. 6:13-16).  But Iscariot is the Greek form of “Kerioth” (Josh. 15:25), a city in Moab, or a city in southern Judah, and this Judas was from northern Galilee (Acts 5:37).  Besides, he died in the “taxing” (5:37 cf. Lu. 2:1-5), 30 years before Judas even became an apostle.  The reason Gamaliel mentioned “much people” followed him is that the leaders were worried that much people were following the twelve.  But Judas too died and his followers were scattered.

So far, Gamaliel has been warning those leaders about what Rome would do if they killed the apostles.  Next he warns them about what God might do (Acts 5:38,39).  Here he’s probably citing a Jewish legal precedent that he knew those men of Israel would be familiar with (Jeremiah 26:18,19).

Gamaliel was a type of Antichrist.  You say, “Won’t Antichrist try to kill followers of Jesus, not stick up for them?”  Not at first.  He starts out as a peacemaker, probably telling the Jews to leave the followers of Jesus alone, as Gamaliel did.  By the way, Antichrist will rise in the day of taxing (Dn. 11:20,21).  He’ll talk smooth like Gamaliel with war in his heart (Ps. 55:21), war that will come out later when he persecutes the Jews he’ll stick up for initially—like Gamaliel did.  Gamaliel later authorized Saul to slay the followers of Christ.

All doctrines are either of men or of God (Acts 5:38 cf. Mark 11:30).  But will all doctrines of men come to naught as Gamaliel said?  It doesn’t seem that way, but Paul said it was so (II Tim. 3:8,9).  But he meant in eternity to come!  That’s when “all men” will see the folly of the doctrines of men.  Until then, don’t let the success of false doctrines get you down.  Focus on things you can’t see instead (II Cor. 4:16,18).

For religious leaders to tell men of God not to preach what God said is nothing new (Isa. 30:9,10; Amos 2:12; Micah 2:6), but the apostles remembered what the Lord said (Mt. 5:11,12) and rejoiced and continued to preach Christ.

Video of this sermon is available on YouTube: Just What the Doctor Ordered – Acts 5:34-42

Striking Faith and Charity

In Paul’s epistle to Titus, he gives some instructions for “aged men” that contain good advice for believers of all ages, saying,

“That the aged men be… sound in faith, in charity…” (Titus 2:2).

The word “sound” means strong, healthy and wholesome (cf. Isa. 1:5,6), and all of God’s people should aspire to be sound in the virtues Paul mentions here.  But that can be difficult when things in life arise that test our faith and challenge our charity.  That’s why it interests me that another definition of the word “sound” is to strike something to see if it is whole, based on the sound it makes when you strike it.

When I worked in my dad’s tool and die shop as a young man, I worked with surface grinding machines that had a grinding wheel of two feet in diameter that spun at several thousand revolutions per minute.  If the wheel was cracked and unsound it could fly apart at that speed and take out your eye, or even your life.  The problem is, you can’t tell if a grinding wheel is unsound just by looking at it.  So my dad taught me to check the wheel before mounting it on the machine by putting my fingers in the hole in the middle of the wheel, balancing it in my hand, while using my other hand to strike it with a brass hammer.  If it made a clunk sound, that meant it was cracked and dangerous.  If it made a ping sound, then it was healthy and whole.

And I believe that you can tell if you are sound in faith in the same way, when life strikes your faith.  The word “faith” here means faithfulness, as it does when Paul talked about “the faith of God” (Rom. 3:3).  If you want to know the strength of your faithfulness to the Lord, all you have to do is wait for something in life to strike you while faithfully serving Him to see if you will continue to serve Him, or fold like a house of cards. When life strikes some Christians they respond with something that sounds more like a clunk than a ping.  Some even make sounds such as you might hear at the Wailing Wall!  But when life strikes others, their faith rings true.  Does yours?

Similarly, if you want to know if you are sound “in charity,” just wait to see how you react when someone strikes out at you when you offer them charity.  Years ago when I was a painting contractor, a lady hired me to paint her parents’ home—while they were away on vacation!  She wanted to surprise them by doing something nice for them.  But I remember she was very apprehensive about how her charity might be received!  She knew that the old saying, “No good deed goes unpunished,” is often true.  But that’s how you can know if you are sound in charity—when someone lashes out at you for giving it, and you continue steadfast and sound in charity.

Now the reason Paul told “aged men” to be sound in faith and charity is that these are “the things which become sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1).  It’s not very becoming for a believer to profess sound doctrine and not be sound in these virtues.  Others are watching to see if the doctrine that we say is sound doctrine actually works in our lives, and we dare not let them down.

On July 16, 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr. died in a plane crash. When one of his closest friends was interviewed afterward, he pointed out that John Jr. never said or did anything that caused embarrassment to his family name, unlike many of his relatives.  What makes this even more re-markable is the fact that he lived his life under constant scrutiny.  Every time he stepped out of the house he was met by a flurry of photographers, who followed him wherever he went.  Had he said or done anything to embarrass his family name, it would have been all over the evening news.

Could your life hold up under scrutiny like that?  Do you always live in ways that are becoming to the sound doctrine found in Paul’s epistles that we hold dear?  Can it be said of you that you never do anything to embarrass the name of the Lord?  If not, don’t wait until you are aged to start faithfully honoring His name.  Start now.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.


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