About this sermon
As the disciples multiply, the Hellenists complain that the church is neglecting their widows in the daily distribution, likely an oversight in a growing church. The apostles do not give up preaching to serve tables; they have the congregation choose seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and wisdom, and devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. The proposal pleases everyone; they choose Stephen and six others, and the apostles lay hands on them. The plan resolves the problem, and the word of God continues to increase as the number of disciples multiplies.
Sermon transcript
Remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. My sermon text this evening, Acts chapter 6, verses 1 through 7, you’ll find that on page 1086 in your Pew Bibles. A number of weeks ago we considered a passage that speaks to the qualifications of ministers and elders in the church and this evening we consider a passage that many regard as the foundation of the diaconate in its New Covenant expression, so Acts chapter 6, verses 1 through 7. Dear friends, this is the Word of God. Let us hear it with reverence and awe. Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, it is not right that we should give up preaching the Word of God to serve tables.
Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. And what they said pleased the whole gathering, 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 Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. And the Word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the preaching of his Word tonight.
Our Lord and Father in heaven, sovereign and eternal God, we thank you that you have spoken your Word to us and that you have given us clear direction in your church for how we are to conduct ourselves in the body of Christ in the church, which is the pillar and ground of the truth. Lord, we ask that by your Spirit you would help us to see the relevance and significance and importance of this portion of Scripture and what it says to us today in the church. And we ask that you would please edify us, build us up, and strengthen us in our faith as we consider your Word. We pray that you would feed our souls and work in us, O Lord God, conforming us more and more into the image of Christ as you sanctify us by your Word and Spirit.
We pray these things in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. If you have your sermon outline, you’ll see there’s a number of words that you can be listening for in my sermon tonight. I especially would encourage the children to listen for these words, the words community, complaint, calling, solution, ministry, and word. Well, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Word of God teaches us that we are God’s beloved, redeemed, adopted sons and daughters in union with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That is a glorious truth when it comes to our identity in Christ. So here’s a question for you, given what the Scriptures teach us about our identity in Christ. Let me ask you this. In His dealings with us as His beloved, redeemed, adopted children, is God, our gracious Heavenly Father, is He only concerned about saving our souls and providing for our spiritual needs?
Now, of course, our Father in Heaven is certainly concerned for that. And indeed, in Christ, He has granted to us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So certainly, the Gospel is centered on the glorious proclamation that Christ died to save us from our sins, to redeem our souls. But is God only concerned for our spiritual needs? Or is He also concerned about ministering to our bodily, earthly, and temporal needs? Needs such as the need for food, for clothing, for shelter, for basic financial provisions, and for other temporal needs, including the need for just treatment in the church and in the social order? Well, as we consider the testimony of Scripture as a whole, the answer to those questions ought to be rather obvious to the student of the Bible. And so, for example, consider the numerous provisions and commandments revealed in the law of Moses that require God’s people to make provision for the poor and to seek justice and fair treatment for the most vulnerable in society, the most vulnerable such as, for example, the widow, the orphan, the stranger, and the sojourner.
And of course, if we consider the earthly ministry of our incarnate Lord Jesus when He walked this earth, what do we find Jesus doing as we read the gospel accounts about what Jesus did during His earthly ministry? Well, we see our Lord in the gospel accounts doing such things as performing mighty miracles and signs of God’s kingdom as He healed the sick, as He restored sight to the blind, as He gave hearing to the deaf and speech to the dumb, as He cast out demons from those who were possessed and oppressed by the spiritual forces of darkness, and so forth. Well, dear ones, our passage for this Lord’s Day evening reinforces the truth that our God is concerned for both the spiritual and the material and temporal needs of His people. Our God is concerned, in other words, to minister to the whole man, to the whole person, both soul and body.
And Jesus died not just to save our souls, but to redeem us as whole persons. And our blessed hope is not simply that we get to go to heaven when we die. Praise God that is true, and Christ has secured that for us. But Jesus died so that we might look forward to the resurrection of the body. The good news of Jesus is ultimately about the hope of the resurrection that we have in union with Christ our Savior. And in our passage for this evening, we have what many regard as the institution of the New Covenant Office of Deacon, or at the very least, we have an anticipation and precursor to the New Covenant diaconate in the appointment of these seven men who were to serve the early Jerusalem Church in its ministry of mercy to the needy in their midst.
So as we turn our attention to our text for this Lord’s Day evening, let’s consider first of all the Christian community confronted with a complaint. What we have here in our passage is the early Christian community confronted with a complaint, and it’s a legitimate complaint as we will see. It says in verse 1, now in those days, now it’s a very general statement chronologically speaking, but the meaning is in the general time period that’s being spoken of, up to this point in the book of Acts, where so far Luke in his record of the history of the early apostolic churches focused primarily on the church in Jerusalem, the earliest apostolic church. In those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, there was church growth. The church in Jerusalem was busting at the seams. The Lord was adding to their number those who were being saved.
In those wonderful, marvelous days, what happened? A complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews. Why? Because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. You know, it was an exciting time in the life of the early church in Jerusalem during the days of the apostles. Thousands had been converted to Christ and baptized. The message of the gospel was being powerfully proclaimed, and overall there was a great spirit of unity and generosity among the believers as they shared their resources with the needy and with one another. We see this, for example, reflected if you turn back to chapter 4. Let me just read verses 32 to 35 in chapter 4. It says this. This gives you a snapshot of the life of the church in those early days. It says this. Now, the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.
Now, this is not saying that they were communists, that they got rid of their private property. It says they were generous. They were willing to give as was necessary, and this was all voluntary on their part, and this was the overflow of the salvation that they enjoyed. It says, and with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. Again, they did this voluntarily and out of gratitude, and they laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. So they took care of one another’s needs, and their hearts were so filled with the love of Christ, and they were so united that they made sure that there was not a needy one in their midst, at least at that point.
However, as is often the case when a church grows significantly in its membership, you know, there is some downside to church growth, and the downside of church growth is that more members means more potential for issues to arise or problems to arise or disputes and complaints to arise. After all, the church is is a gathering of sinners, sinners saved by grace, forgiven sinners, sinners who are being sanctified but sinners nonetheless, and that is what we find happening here at the beginning of this chapter. Now it says in in verse one, when the disciples were increasing in number, I want you to focus in on that word disciple for a second, isn’t it interesting that the Christians are then called disciples? Now that term disciple is used in different ways in different contexts, but in this particular context the term disciple is being used here in a broader sense than the way it tended to be used in the gospel accounts.
Oftentimes in the gospel accounts the term disciple or disciples referred to the 12 primarily or to the larger group of Jesus’s disciples that gathered around him and literally followed him during his earthly ministry, but here the term is broadened to include all who profess to be followers of Jesus. The term disciple means a learner, a learner, someone who learns of Christ that he or she may follow Jesus in faith and obedience. And it says this, in those days when the disciples were increasing in number, again we have a picture of wonderful church growth here, what happens? It says a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews. Now that ought to raise a question, the question being who are these different groups? Who are the Hellenists and who are the Hebrews? How do we identify them?
And there is some debate among commentators about the specific identities of those described here as the Hellenists and those described as the Hebrews, but it it seems that the so-called Hellenists are most likely Greek-speaking Jewish Christians from the dispersion, in other words the diaspora. They are Jews who had originally been from other parts of the Roman Empire outside of Palestine and who had decided to move to Jerusalem or to move to Palestine probably in their older years, perhaps in their retirement, with the goal being that we want to go back to the land of our our ancestors, the land of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and we want to be buried in the Holy Land. That is perhaps what was on their minds, whereas the Hebrews were likely native Palestinian Jewish Christians who spoke Aramaic or Hebrew, and so there were linguistic and cultural differences between the Hellenists on the one hand and the Hebrews on the other hand.
They were both groups of Jews, but they were Jews with different linguistic and cultural baggage, if you will, or assumptions. It’s interesting how the new international version translates these terms. The NIV translates the term Hellenists as the Grecian Jews, Jews that were Greek, and the Hebrews as the Hebraic Jews, and I think that’s probably an accurate way to characterize these two groups in the church. Now it’s important, as an aside, it’s important to remember that the earliest major persecutor of the church was not the Roman Empire, but rather the earliest major persecutor of the church was the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem and the Jewish synagogue. This makes sense, of course, since the majority of the earliest Christians were converted Jews, Jews who had come to acknowledge Jesus as the promised Messiah and had claimed him as their Lord and Savior, not converts from among the pagan Gentiles.
That happened a little bit later as the gospel spreads out beyond Jerusalem into Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth, especially through the Gentile mission, as carried out by Saul of Tarsus, whom the Lord called to be Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles. But at this stage, the gospel was mostly spreading among the Jews. And think about it, in those early days of the church, when a Jew converted and became a follower of Jesus, he or she was likely cut off, excommunicated from the synagogue. And friends, that was a big deal. That was a real big deal. If you were a Jew living back then, and you became a follower of Jesus, and you were cut off from the synagogue, well, the synagogue was the center of the life of the community and often the center of family life as well.
So you would often be cut off from family ties or shunned by your family, and you would be cut off from the community, the religious community of the synagogue. That was a big deal because in being cut off from the synagogue, needy Jewish believers such as widows were cut off from the social safety net that the synagogue provided to its needy members from the almsgiving of the people. And see, back then, there wasn’t a government social safety net. There wasn’t welfare that you could fall back on. If you were a widow, for example, if you were a needy impoverished individual dependent on others, you either depended on your family or you depended on your religious community. And if you didn’t have either of those to depend upon, you were destitute. In the case of Jewish widows who were from among the Hellenists, it is likely that many of them did not have family nearby who could serve as their social safety net.
And since they could not depend on either family or synagogue to provide for their needs, and since there was no government provided safety net back then, like we have it today, these Jewish Christian widows would be entirely dependent upon the church to provide for their basic needs. No wonder a complaint by the Hellenists arose when their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. They depended upon it, and they would be destitute without it. Now, we’re told in this passage that the Hellenist widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. Now, what does this mean? In what sense were they being neglected? Were they being neglected due to, say, prejudice on the part of the Hebrews, the Hebraic Jews? Well, that’s one possibility, and some commentators think that that’s what’s going on here, that the church is being confronted with some prejudice against the Jews of the diaspora who were by the Palestinian Jews.
However, given the context of this passage, and given what we read in the early chapters of Acts about the spirit of unity and camaraderie and generosity in the church, I think it’s more likely that this was an innocent oversight, a real oversight, something that deserved to be complained against, but nevertheless an innocent oversight. And after all, friends, up until this point in time, it appears that the 12 apostles themselves were apparently the ones who not only oversaw the spiritual life of the Jerusalem church, but in addition they oversaw the distribution of benevolence funds to the needy in the church. And so this neglect, if you will, was not likely due to any kind of animosity, but was most likely due to the fact that the 12 apostles at this point had way too much, way too many responsibilities and demands on their plate to be able to keep up with all the demands of the people.
I mean, think about it. What do we read of in the early chapters of Acts? How many were converted? There were thousands of converts and there’s only 12 apostles to minister to these converts. And one thing to keep in mind as well, when we talk about the church in Jerusalem, it probably wasn’t just one congregation consisting of thousands of people. What probably was happening in the early church in Jerusalem is there were probably multiple congregations scattered throughout the city that were overseen by the different apostles, but nevertheless there was so much in the way of needs and there was obviously much in the way of needs for distribution among those who were poor and needy in their midst. Well, what are some of the lessons that and takeaways that we can glean from what we’ve considered so far?
Well, first of all, one of the things we learned from this passage, beloved, is that even the most unified faithful churches this side of glory will face issues and challenges that arise in the life of the congregation. You’ve perhaps heard the saying, there’s no such thing as a perfect church and if you find a perfect church, make sure you don’t join it because it won’t be perfect anymore, right? Well, that is true. Now, this is not an excuse for the church not to be the best that it ought to strive to be, but nevertheless we need to recognize we are the church on the way and we are the church that is not yet fully glorified and we’re being sanctified, so there will always be issues and challenges in the church and in various in the congregations of Christ’s church.
Let us not expect perfection in the life of the church, this side of glory, but at the same time, let us make sure that we are doing our part to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace as the apostle Paul exhorts the church in Ephesus to do in Ephesians chapter 4. I think another lesson we can glean from this, you know, sometimes if you bring a complaint against the church or against the leadership of the church or what have you, the tendency is to label such folks as complainers, so so-and-so is just a complainer and it’s one thing to be hypercritical, certainly we need to avoid being hypercritical, but we learn in passages like this that not all complaints in the life of the church are to be dismissed as invalid.
Some complaints are valid and biblical, this is one of them, so we would do well to receive complaints that are raised to receive such complaints assuming the best about the ones bringing the complaints, assuming that they bring complaints in good faith and so we should receive such complaints in a spirit of openness and brotherly love and considering whether there’s validity to those complaints that need to be addressed. And that leads me to my next point, we see that the complaint has arisen in spite of the great spirit of unity and generosity in the early Jerusalem church, nevertheless a complaint has arisen, but we next notice an apostolic solution proposed, that’s the second point on your sermon outline, an apostolic solution proposed. How do the apostles who are called here the twelve, that would include the eleven apostles plus the one they added, Matthias says, and the twelve did what?
The twelve swept this under the rug, no. The twelve pointed their fingers and brought slanderous accusations against those who dared to complain, no. It says the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, it is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables, and then they propose a solution. Therefore, brothers, again notice the tenderness, notice the care and the love in expressing themselves to the congregations, to the people, they say, therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the spirit and wisdom whom we will appoint to this duty, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Again, this is really instructive, brothers and sisters, you see, instead of pointing fingers, instead of raising uncharitable accusations or innuendo, instead of passively trying to avoid addressing a difficult situation in the church, notice what they do, they address the issue directly, they address it head on, they do so by summoning the full number of the disciples as we’re told in verse two, and they give their perspective, they say, look, verse two, it says, it is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.
Now, what do they mean by that? What does this statement imply? What kind of spirit or attitude is being conveyed by this statement? Are the apostles saying, look, we’re apostles, we don’t serve tables, that’s beneath us. Is that what they’re conveying here in these words? No. It’s not that the apostles think of themselves as sort of upper crust elitists who imagine that serving tables is beneath them, that’s for the common Christian, we are apostles, no. That’s not the attitude that’s being conveyed. Instead, their concern, beloved, is that the responsibility of overseeing the daily distribution to the needy, which was a genuine responsibility of the church, this responsibility, they’re concerned that this responsibility not distract them from their primary calling, and as apostles of Jesus Christ, what was their primary calling? Their primary calling was to be witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus, to preach the word and prayer.
Their primary responsibility was the ministry of the word and prayer, and we get the sense in this passage that the responsibility for distributing to the needs of the widows in their midst was taking them away from their primary calling, and so that’s what they’re expressing here. They’re saying, look, this is a genuine complaint, a genuine need, but we don’t want to be distracted from our primary calling, we want to be able to focus, we want to be freed up so we can focus on the ministry of the word and prayer, and so that leads to their proposal here, and again, the Holy Spirit is obviously guiding the church and leading the church and its apostles in all of this. It says the following in verse 3, Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.
Notice he says, pick out seven men. That’s kind of, that’s interesting, isn’t it? In the scriptures, the number seven is often the number that symbolizes completeness, and so seven men should, are to be chosen, and the qualifications are given for these men. He doesn’t just say, oh, choose anybody. I mean, it’s an easy task to just serve tables and distribute the needs to the needy. No, he says these men must have a good reputation. They’re going to be handling the church’s money after all. They need to be of good reputation. They need to be full of the Holy Spirit. They need to be full of godly wisdom. These men have to have spiritual qualifications, and so these men were to be chosen. They were to be chosen by the people, not imposed by the apostles.
The apostles didn’t say, okay, here’s the men we’ve chosen for you. They didn’t, there was no bishop imposing these officers upon the people. No, they say, you choose. You choose the people. These men were to be chosen by the people from among the people, and they were to be men, as I mentioned, with a good public reputation, men characterized by a good public reputation, spiritual maturity, and godly wisdom. We see that kind of emphasis on high character laid out for us by the apostle Paul in the passage that was read earlier in the service from 1 Timothy chapter 3 verses 8 to 13, where we read that these men who would serve as deacons must be of high moral character and spiritual maturity. Then it goes on to say in verse 4, it says, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.
In other words, they are calling for a division of labor, and this division of labor would not only address the valid complaint that was raised by the Hellenists, it would also free up the apostles to focus on their primary calling. So a couple of observations from this second point, beloved. First of all, in this passage, we see that the church must always prioritize the ministry of the word and prayer. The word of God is central to the life of the church, and anything that would distract the church and its ministry from that central focus needs to be addressed and needs to be dealt with so that the ministry of the word can go forward. And benevolence ministries, in other words, the church’s diaconal ministries of mercy, are given here to serve and enhance and support the ministry of the word, not to detract from it.
What was the result of the appointment of these men? Well, the result was the apostles were then freed up from having to worry about the distribution to the needy so that they could focus on on preaching the word and prayer. And what was the result? Look at verse seven. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. Brothers and sisters in Christ, the ministry of the diaconate and the ministry of elders and pastors, in other words, the benevolence ministries of the church and the spiritual ministry of the church, these things are meant to work together, to be mutually beneficial, not to be in competition with each other. And praise God, God used this solution proposed by the apostles, the appointment of these men to free up the apostles and to continue to prosper the preaching of the word in the church.
Another lesson, I think another takeaway we can get from this passage, brothers and sisters, here we see an example of how to deal well with conflicts and issues in the church. Sadly, the church does not always deal well, does not always deal biblically or in a Christ-like way with issues, problems, and scandals in her midst. Sometimes our conflicts are not resolved biblically, but here we see an example of how to deal well with conflicts and issues in the church. The apostles, how did they deal with this issue? Again, they didn’t ignore it, they didn’t sweep it under the rug, they confronted it, they recognized, hey, yeah, you Hellenists, you have a point, you have a good point. So they dealt with it directly, they dealt with this issue fairly, they did so in a spirit of brotherly love, and they did so in a manner that promoted love and unity and cohesiveness in the body of Christ.
Let us by the grace of God seek to emulate this apostolic example. And that brings me to my final point as we wrap up our time in our passage this evening and consider the last section of this passage. We see here the problem resolved and the ministry multiplied. We see problem resolved and ministry multiplied. Again, in verse 5 it says, and what they said pleased the whole congregation. The apostles made this proposal and the congregation said, that’s a great idea. They agreed and it pleased the whole congregation. And they chose, and then there’s the list of men that they chose, Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. If you continue reading on in chapter 6 and into chapter 7, you’ll realize that Peter was also a preacher of the word and he was an early martyr in the church.
And then Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenus, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, and so forth. Again, the apostles had made the proposal but the people themselves chose the men that are listed here. And what’s interesting about these men is that they all had Greek names. And that has suggested to many commentators that these men, that all of these men were Hellenists. They were from among the group of Jews who were bringing the complaint. Now again, that’s not proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. There are examples of Palestinian or Hebraic Jews who adopted Greek names. But nevertheless, I think in this passage, it’s quite possible that we are to understand that all of these men were chosen from amongst the Hellenists. And if that is the case, consider the great wisdom in all of this.
The Hellenists had brought the complaint and the people wisely choose men from among the Hellenists to address the problem. And in doing so, they’re basically saying to the Hellenists, yes, we recognize this is a problem. We hear you and we’re going to make a solution. We’re going to choose men who can deal with this issue. And again, as I mentioned, the men who are listed here, Stephen, would soon be martyred. He is described here as a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. This indicates that the diaconate is not just for anybody. It is for men who are spiritually mature, men of godly wisdom, men who are full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. There are spiritual qualifications for serving in the diaconate. Another interesting name that’s mentioned, a man who’s mentioned here at the very end, is Nicholas.
Nicholas is described as a proselyte from Antioch. Now, what does that mean? What that means is that he was a gentile who not only was a god-fearing gentile, there were many gentiles in the first century who were attracted to the ethical monotheism of Judaism. They liked the ethics of Judaism, but they did not want to fully convert and become be circumcised and actually become Jews. But Nicholas was a man who he went the whole route. He converted to Judaism. He was circumcised, but then heard the gospel and was converted to Christ. So what an interesting spiritual history Nicholas had. Again, we see the Lord at work powerfully in the church, bringing these men to this significant service. And it goes on to say in verse six, they set, these men they set before the apostles and they prayed and laid their hands on them.
The church chose these men probably by congregational vote, but notice the church, the congregation didn’t ordain them. The apostles ordained them by laying on of hands, and that’s significant. In the Old Testament, hands were laid on priests to ordain them. And what does that laying on of hands signify? It symbolizes setting these men apart and consecrating them to their service. And that’s the meaning here. This symbolized that these men were being set apart and commissioned for their diaconal task. We observe a similar pattern today in the calling and ordaining of the church’s office bearers, its ministers, ruling elders and deacons. The congregation has a vote in choosing its own leaders. Aren’t you glad that that that I became your pastor not because some bishop imposed me upon you, but that you had a voice in choosing and calling me.
The same thing with the elders and the deacons of the church. The congregation has a say, has a vote. And yet the men who are chosen to serve in ordained office are ordained by other church officers. In the case of ministers, this is done by the ministers and elders of the presbytery, the regional church. And in the case of local ruling elders and deacons, ordination is administered by the pastors and ruling elders of that local congregation. In any case, with the technicalities aside, what is the end result of all of this? This complaint, this issue that arose in the church in the way that the apostles under the guidance of the spirit dealt with it. Again, I would direct your attention as we close to verse seven, it says, and the word of God continued to increase.
It increased in the sense that more converts were made. It increased in its influence. The gospel was spreading. People were hearing the word. People were being brought to faith in Christ. The word of God continued to increase and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. And the influence of the word of the gospel was so powerful that it goes on to say, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. This is probably not talking about the priests who were, you know, in the high priestly family and in the leadership in Jerusalem, but there were many priests that they rotated their responsibilities, several thousand of them, I believe, in Jerusalem at the time. And many of them even became obedient to the faith. Even many of them were converted. Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we consider what we learn here from this passage of God’s word, may the spirit give us as a church wisdom in dealing with any conflicts or issues or complaints that arise.
Let us seek to deal with such complaints in a spirit of brotherly love and unity. Let us seek to address legitimate, valid complaints and issues. And let us in all of this seek to do so for the glory of God and for the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And all of God’s people said, and then let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, that you have given us your word, which not only gives us commands and directives, but also shows us the pathway of godly wisdom for the life of the church and for our lives as individual believers. We ask that you would help us to take these truths to heart, to learn from them, and to apply these principles and truths to our lives as believers and to the life of the church.
And we thank you, Lord Jesus, that you laid down your life to redeem your church, your sheep. And we thank you that you have privileged us with the grace to be part of your flock. We thank you, O Lord, that you are indeed our shepherd. Continue to shepherd us and continue to guide us and sanctify us and give us the grace to consecrate ourselves fully unto you. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen. Let’s respond to what we’ve heard by rising and we’ll sing together 538, take my life and let it be 538.
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