Read part 1 here.
In part one, we saw that God’s propagation requires a transformed, tangible humanity on the earth. The book of Acts began with Christ’s ascension, which also initiated His heavenly ministry being carried out on the earth by a group of believers. No matter where they are, what they do, or who they are with, this group of people outlives Christ and they are sensitive to hear, interpret, and be “ministerized” by the Word and the Spirit. How real Christ can be to multiply and propagate and reproduce in such willing and tangible human beings! Now, we continue to see how living out the ministry requires a specific coordination on the earth. We see an example of this in Acts chapter 6.
Chosen in the view of the ministry of the word
And in these days, as the disciples were multiplying in number, a murmuring of the Hellenists against the Hebrews occurred, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily dispensing. (Acts 6:1)
In the opening of this chapter, we see immediately that a situation had arisen because of fallen humanity and murmuring flesh. The Bible never gives us a camouflage telling us that the church life has no problems. That’s the beauty of the ministry and God’s economy: it’s God mingling with us, as fragile, tangible, feeling human beings. The church life reflects this. The church life is not a life where we give each other a beautiful presentation or performance. The church life has problems because we, as fallen human beings, have problems. Yet the practical church life today also exists because we human beings have fallen and need to be saved so that we can be recovered unto our original purpose and live out Christ. This is the background of Acts, which is Christ’s work in His ascension that must be realized on the earth.
And the twelve called the multitude of the disciples to them and said, It is not fitting for us to forsake the word of God and serve tables. (Acts 6:2)
Although there was a need in the negative sense, there was practical serving to address it. The Bible records this very clearly in verse 2: “it is not fitting for us to forsake the word of God and serve tables.” Serving tables is serving food, and it’s necessary. Brother Lee writes that this is a pattern for us, who keep the ministry of the word, to learn to distribute the responsibility of the serving tables in the church to all the saints, and not to keep it on our shoulders (Life Study of Acts, m.19). But for those who are chosen to serve the tables, there is also a qualification: they must be full of the Spirit, which is of life, not of work (v.3). This is the basic prerequisite. By nature, it is not fitting for anyone to just do physical things without understanding, so verses 2 and 3 give us a very clear nature of what is the work of Christ, or the work of the ministry by the constitution of the Word.
But brothers, look for seven well-attested men from among you, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint over this need. / But we will continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the word. / And the word pleased all the multitude; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, 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. / And the word of God grew, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem multiplied greatly; and a large number of the priests obeyed the faith. (Acts 6:3-7)
Throughout the entire book of Acts—all 28 chapters—there are several critical people: Peter, Paul, Stephen, Philip, Mark, Barnabas, and others. Some people are not named, like Philip’s four daughters, and some are mentioned only in passing. Here, among the seven chosen men, only Stephen was singled out. The Bible says, “…look for seven well-attested men among you, full of spirit and full of wisdom.” Peter was forced to make a decision, but he never lost the view of the ministry. He had a very clear understanding of what can be compromised and what cannot be compromised. Even the most human of arrangements was carried out under the very specific guidance, authority and power of the ministry—and there was a very specific, very spiritual fruit. The Bible never says the arrangement was well performed or carried out, but the Bible does record that out of the arrangement there was a beautiful human being produced.
And Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. / But some of those of the synagogue which is called the synagogue of the Libertines and of the Cyrenians and of the Alexandrians and of those from Cilicia and Asia rose up and disputed with Stephen; / Yet they were not able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. / Then they instigated some men to say, We have heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God. / And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and led him to the Sanhedrin. / And they set up false witnesses, saying, This man does not cease speaking words against this holy place and the law,
/ For we have heard him saying that this Jesus the Nazarene will destroy this place and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us. / And all those sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw his face as though it were the face of an angel. (Acts 6:8-15)
How beautiful Stephen was! The Bible never says Stephen was a good chef and he cooked really good meals, or that he was the most careful server. Perhaps he was all of these things, but the Bible only says when the church was in need of someone to serve tables, he was there. But the rest of chapter 6 is all about this person from a different point of view. Stephen was mentioned among the seven for a reason. Even when Stephen served the physical things, he was powerful. Look at the end of this chapter and chapter 7. The way he spoke, nobody could stop him. Nobody was able to even withstand the wisdom and the Spirit! When he spoke, he spoke God!
When the Sanhedrin saw Stephen’s face, it was as though it were the face of an angel (6:15). Depending on how we understand spiritual things, when human beings live on the earth in Christ’s ascension, they appear to us in our spirit as angels. People who live in Christ’s ascension have the heavens opened to them. We see this later, when Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit and saw the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God (7:56), and he declared the glory of God and Jesus in the heavens and was martyred. This is the kind of man the Lord chooses to serve the tables.
This is the same standard for us today in the church life, no matter what “area” we are serving. We may have a lot of physical arrangements to meet the needs of our practical living, and it is certainly not always outwardly pretty. But in each arrangement, there is a spiritual foundation; the church is always continuing steadfastly in prayer in the ministry of the word to support the arrangement. We all need to be chosen to minister to the saints, to minister to the Lord, to learn to be constituted and to understand the intrinsic elements and essential part of the ministry so that we don’t miss the churchlife.
Practical Serving
There is something beyond the appearance of churching that’s essential to our being constituted to serve. Our participation in activities is not enough. Even our planning is not enough. Amidst all of these, the leading ones must have Christ first and foremost to preserve the proper ministry and humanity among us.
When doing any “arrangement” in the church life, we need to reconsider, spiritually, why and how we do it. If we compromise that purpose, then doing anything will become a damage. Learn from church history—in the early days of the church life, on the one hand, they were propagating, and on the other hand, they were serving tables. But through fleshly differences, and because they felt there was an uneven distribution of care, they became striving and divisive. When this happens, it shows that the spiritual condition was shifted, not because of the church but rather because certain people are not yet constituted; they do not have the ministry. These struggles don’t always show on the surface, but the internal striving eventually spreads like gangrene to kill life among us. When they see practical things, they take it into their own hands. This becomes a damage in the New Testament churches. The best way to prevent this is that we have a transparent fellowship and that in doing anything, we understand why we do it. This is why the serving ones among us need to have the spiritual supply and clarity before they do anything and before they ask others to do anything.
Praise the Lord there is a way to overcome all of the degradation, frustration, religious understandings, bad intentions and even good intentions among us: the cross. Don’t stay in the darkness and void, always blurry and unclear, always apologizing, always ignorant, always forgetting. Our focus should be instead, “What have I been constituted with today? What has Christ accomplished in me today?” If we lay ourselves down at the cross to die, we will also be resurrected. To be resurrected is the foundation for the church life to be in existence in the book of Acts. Without the resurrection, there’s no church life. Without the ascension, we wouldn’t have the divine nature of churching, which is solidified by Christ’s victory establishing His reign absolutely and tremendously in every circumstance. To die, we actually lose nothing, but gain Christ in ascension—in victory. This is our reasonable service. The book of Acts is so precious to us; through it, we know that the propagation is considered a reproduction, a birth of the divine being on the earth, in His ascension with His outlived actions to testify that there is a true divinity in humanity.
Whatever we do, the core of our churching is clear. This churching is the personified Christ, being reproduced, being birthed, and manifesting a sphere on the earth among us today. As in John 1, the Word became flesh, tabernacling among us. What a beautiful thing! Who is the tabernacling, who is the propagation? Who can say today that Christ has been enlarged in me—through me? Who can declare that my work is the work of the ministry? (Eph. 4:12) We should be those who can say that in everything we do. No matter what we do—whether we cook, clean, marry or don’t marry, work or don’t work, whatever we do—we minister to Christ and we minister to the saints. We always look out for the saints’ benefit. We are always looking out to see where God can be incarnated. What we care for today is that the life of Christ is lived out, reproduced and exists in this absolute sphere—in the mystical divine realm among us—not in the heavens, but on earth! That is what’s hiding in the book of Acts, behind all of the tangible human beings, just like us. These tangible beings not only pray about bringing in a kingdom in the future (“May your kingdom come, may your will be done…” Matt. 6:10), but actually, they are the kingdom on the earth today, and they are carrying out God’s eternal, economical will on the earth today.
We have many saints with a good heart to help, to attend the meetings, and even to speak. But the church doesn’t need “help.” We need Christ. If we have Christ, then we have the tables to serve and to eat. If we have Christ, we can pray, we can study, we can even have barbecues or camping trips—we can do anything and everything in our human lives. But without Christ we are nothing, and we won’t be able to live out the meaning of our corporate churching. In all aspects of our lives, including our marriage and raising children and being together to serve our practical needs, what we need is to have the insightful understanding to interpret the Spirit. We shouldn’t hide ourselves in busy planning or arrangements anymore. We can’t touch the root issues of our practical living without the ministry. There must be interpretation and understanding among us to communicate and to follow the intrinsic leading of Spirit. Christ in the heavenlies must minister through our lives to yield a beautiful and powerful humanity!
The book of Acts is really important for us to understand that key in our human living. We need to live Christ. We need to live in His mercy and power, and we should live beautifully; we should enjoy each other. We have a beautiful church life; we have very beautiful saints among ourselves. They may not be the smartest or most achieving people on the earth; they may be vulnerable and imperfect. But these people have given their all to the Lord. And their consecration makes this church life beautiful. Our thorough consecration to this ministry makes it possible for us to enjoy Paul, Stephen and all the saints before us as our tangible and beautiful brothers and sisters.
By saying this, saints, we must prepare to face our own practical and daily living. We should ask ourselves, “What is my life really filled by? What am I driven by?” Then, we will have a very different view when we open the Bible or make a phone call. It will no longer be out of duty but from the inner direction and leading from the Spirit to live out a life for the ministry. These times during the pandemic, we are nearing a crucial turning point in the church. We must awaken to the true calling in our lives. We don’t need others to tell us to wake up; we should see the signs of the times and the Lord’s yearning to recover His people, His expression on the earth. So today, we need to be propagating. Be fruitful. Be productive. Give birth. We need to multiply. How? The Lord outliving in us is how. We need to have that divinity in humanity in all aspects of our human living. Our serving and our going on together requires this essential understanding. We need to have the eyes to see one another. In the church, this life relationship is something that separates us from other people. Here there is something divine and not worldly, that people have never before seen lived out on the earth. This is a privilege for us to own each other without hesitation, to share in common, to pray in a way that can shake heaven and earth. We don’t need money or any interest or benefit to be together. We are all willing to lay ourselves down to preserve the work of God so that our life can be shared and lived out together wilthout compromise. Amen.
(Above is part 2 of a series compiled from notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 4/24/2020, not reviewed by the speaker.)