This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 6, 1991.
About this sermon
A squabble over deacons sets up Stephen’s ministry and stoning, which actually spreads the gospel rather than silencing it. Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch carries that spread further still, always tied to the plain importance of the Word in the apostles’ own miracles.
Sermon transcript
There in that chapter, we will start with verse 46. Hear the word of God. This is what Stephen is saying. And David found favor in God’s sight and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. The Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. As the Prophet says, Heaven is my throne, and earth is the footstool of my feet. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what place is there for my repose? Was it not my hand which made all these things? You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in harbineers are always resisting the Holy Spirit, you are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?
And they killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become, you who received the laws ordained by angels and yet did not keep it.” And when they heard this, they were cut to the quick. and they began gnashing their teeth at him.
But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. But they cried out with a loud voice and covered their ears, and they rushed upon him with one impulse. And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him. and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they went on stoning Stephen as he called upon the Lord and said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And having said this, he fell asleep.
And Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day, a great persecution arose against the Church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. And some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him. But Saul began ravaging the Church, entering house after house and dragging off men and and he put them in prison. Then turning over to verse twenty-six in that eighth chapter, But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.
This is a desert road. And he arose and went, and behold, there was an Ethiopian a court official of Candacy, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure, and he had come to Jerusalem to worship. And he was returning and sitting in his chariot and was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, Go up and join this chariot. And when Philip had run up, he heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet and said, Do you understand what you are reading? And he said, How could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
Now, the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this. He was led as a sheep to slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he does not open his mouth. In humiliation, his judgment was taken away. Who shall relate his generation? For his life is removed from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else? And Philip opened his mouth and began from this scripture. And beginning from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him.
And as they went along the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, Look, water, what prevents me from being baptized? And he ordered the chariot to stop. and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azathoth, and as he passed through, he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea.”
This section that we’re looking at tonight in Acts, chapters 5-8, is certainly a very exciting section in the book of Acts. The beginning we have there for us in Acts 5 stands out for us as a sentinel in the history of the Church. It stands there, lest anyone think it is a small matter to feign piety, to play at godliness in the Church of Jesus Christ. We have taken up our place within a new temple, a new structure which is now created in the And we are dwelling in that habitation. We should be sobered by that fact. For not only are we individually temples of the Holy Spirit, we as a group, corporately, as the Church of Jesus Christ, are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore it is no small matter to feign piety to fake godliness in the new temple, the last and final temple which God has set himself to establish. The judgment then that comes upon Ananias and Sapphira, you know Acts 5, you’ve read it a number of times, the judgment that comes upon these two is an appropriately placed warning for the Church throughout the entirety of their history.
This couple willfully faked giving all, giving all in lieu of an eternal inheritance. But they lied. Having loved this world, they lied. Being unable to give up their claim upon wealth and property and inheritance here, they wished all in the assembly to think that they had. But God strikes them down. God strikes them down as surely as he will strike down every hypocrite in the day of judgment.
We should not think, then, that because no one has been struck down lately, that God is asleep or has forgotten or is simply left off with matters concerning his wrath. It is a mercy that men and women are not struck down where they stand presently, but they do have that warning given to them at the outset of the history of the Church. God will not be mocked. You do not lie to God and escape His judgment.
He is the one, after all, who sees all. Have we not read today Psalm 139? He is the God who sees all. He knows all the secrets of our hearts. Bless him because he is at work presently to purify his assembly unto the end of his age. And may we all be purified.
Well, here is the power of God’s Word unmistakably registering itself upon the assembly of God’s people. Then we move on to the conclusion of Acts 5, and in that conclusion God demonstrates His purpose. There is an outworking for the demonstration of His purpose, so as you move through the Acts of the Apostles, you see that purpose more clearly presented. And in this setting His people’s resolve will also be held out, set forth before us.
Note, first of all, verses 12 through 16 in that fifth chapter. We have the account here of the mighty miracles performed by the apostles. Now these mighty miracles, these wonderful deeds, stand related to that judgment that we have just read about concerning Ananias and Sapphira. For these miracles performed by the apostles are as promissory as the judgment that has come upon Ananias and his wife.
Hang with me through this now. God’s purpose is to make His children new. God’s purpose is to heal His own, to make them whole. And ultimately, that will be plain and clear. In the day of the Lord, just as hypocrisy will be judged, God’s people who persevere will be manifest as whole and healthy and complete.
That achieved, accomplished by the Word of God. We want a theme running through this entire section. We might well concentrate upon the Word of God. It’s interesting to note throughout Acts how the growth of the Church is oftentimes described We’re told the Word of God increased. The Word of God increased. The concentration, Ben, is upon the Word, the powerful Word, the impact of that Word, and upon the one who gives the Word, God Himself.
So much for the church-growth fanatics of our time, where there’s little time given to the Word of God at all. In fact, I recently received a paper from a man in a congregation The man was greatly distressed because he said, You realize, in our church, standing as we do within the Reformed tradition, the elders have now made a decision where they are taking out the reading of the Scripture, and we are reduced to a few verses, two or three, before the morning message. And that’s all we hear of the Word of God during the service. They are taking the Word of God out of the worship of God. Obviously, they’ve concluded that it simply doesn’t communicate. It was written to another era. It belongs in another context, not contextualized. It is made irrelevant. Of course, I am parodying their position.
Well, here we have the Word of God making its impact and God’s purposes manifest all the more clearly in what He is doing in and through His apostolic band. His purpose is to make His children, His people, new. What we see among the sick, the afflicted, the demon-possessed, are signs of God’s power by His Word to change His own, to make them over, to make them whole. as there has been then in these instances an outer change. So there will be a consummate outer change, corollary to it an inner change, a complete and thorough transformation. These changes witnessed here in Acts chapter 5 testify to the great day when God’s people will be made perfectly fit for life in heaven, in the presence of God. But these wonderful works, these tremendous miracles, serve another purpose still. As we have suggested, they call attention to the Word of God, but not only so, they call attention to the Word of God and those who bear that Word, those who carry it.
And when these are jailed, they are put in prison, they are behind bars, God is powerful to show that His Word will not be bound. He sends His angel for His servants’ relief. And thus the Word continues its mighty effect. He will even protect his messengers against those who would destroy them. Those who carry his word are safe insofar as they fulfill his purpose. They with resolve are bound by God, and by his word they declare to those would stand in their way, we must obey God rather than men. Then the one who surveys all, who controls everything, sends them help from an unsuspected source.
You remember how at the end of the fifth chapter, Gamaliel from amongst the membership of the Sanhedrin, a Jew, hardly sympathetic to the Christian cause, rises to aid the apostles. And so it is, the word, the preaching of the word, goes on uninterrupted. from the fifth chapter to the sixth. And we see there, once more, how God is concerned with how His Word meets not just the unbelieving and hostile world, but how that Word functions within the Church. Yes, it functions, as we saw, the beginning of chapter 5 and brings judgment, but now here in chapter 6 that word is functioning once more. Chapter 6 presents us, I might say, with the first ecclesiastical battle, the first intramural squabble within the Church.
It seems that the Hellenistic Jews, the Greek-speaking Jews, believed that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food, and they were being neglected by the local Hebrew Christians. What arose here, the struggle that arose, may well have been related to racial difficulties. Jews coming from other parts of the world, Greek-speaking. They standing over against the Aramaic-speaking Jews of Palestine.
At any rate, the apostles set up a second tier of leadership by calling for an election of officers who would then see to it that the ministry of the Word would go on unhindered, uninterrupted. You recall what the Apostles said? It is important that we give ourselves to the ministry of the Word and to prayer, and that this ministry go on uninterrupted.
Therefore, choose among yourself men who could take care of this matter that has arisen amongst you. So the Church chooses seven men. They’re listed for you there in the fifth verse of the sixth chapter. Some of the names you will recognize, others you won’t. These seven men stood with the apostles for the ordering of and the caring for the Church.
We see in them something of a composite office. This text is often used as a proof text for the Office of Deacon. As I suggested to you last week, there is more here than just the deaconate. Yes, these men served as deacons, but they seem to have also served as elders, or even preachers and evangelists, as in the case of Stephen and Philip. So there’s more here than just the Office of Deacon. Some of these men, therefore, proved to have gifts that forecast a ministry that reaches out beyond the ministry of the apostles. A ministry that is being set in place for a time in which the apostles will no longer be present. Babbling. We have Stephen, for instance. What a magnificent figure this man is. He seems to outdistance even, if you like to think, even outdistance Peter and John.
The sermon that we have of his recorded for us in chapter 7 has to be one of the great all-time sermons ever. This man is gifted by the Spirit of God. He performs miracles. He performs great signs. He preaches with such power that people are overwhelmed. They are confounded. He wanders into the synagogues, and the people there have no answer to give him. He preaches with such power. Oh, to have preachers like that. And he even seems to be a biblical theologian, which is even more marvelous. Maybe that’s why they were confounded. They couldn’t understand it. But it is in his preaching ministry that the prospects of God’s program are beginning now to so well assert themselves, so clearly assert themselves. Stephen’s argument is with the Jewish leaders of the synagogues over the nature of God’s commitment to Israel and his commitment to the temple. That’s where the focus is and where it ends. Stephen’s points are these.
First of all, Israel has always resisted God’s kingdom. Israel has always resisted God’s kingdom. Preach that message and see if you get out of Jerusalem alive. Jesus didn’t. and neither will Stephen. First of all, Israel has always resisted God’s kingdom or God’s program.
Secondly, Israel has continually misread the intentions surrounding the establishment of the temple. as if it were God’s intention to inseparably bind himself to that edifice, that building, as if he could be contained within it. Even though there is that word in Scripture that invades against such thinking, it seems that, practically speaking, the Jews have succumbed to it. God can be contained in the temple and is identifiable with it. And thirdly, Israel has misunderstood God’s intention, because it always was God’s intention to bring to Israel, to bring to his people something greater than the temple. But now, in the time, in this day, when that greater thing has come, Israel in her sin is unsuited for it, and thus the condemnation. Well, such a sermon as that brings instant reaction. Oh, that there could be preaching like that today. That message brings instant reaction.
The Jews rush on Stephen. As we read, they carry him out of the city. They lay their coats at the feet of this young Pharisee by the name of Saul from Tarsus, and they stone Stephen and believe that in that act they have destroyed the words that he preached. It is now in this context that God makes plain to us just how wide a range His word will have, how expansive it is, how universal. And if the Jews haven’t been angered as yet, they certainly will be now. With the execution of Stephen, as we read, as the eighth chapter begins, a great persecution breaks out. We are told again about the young Pharisee, Saul, who holds the coats of Stephen’s executioners, and how this one devises his own program for the extermination, the extermination of the church.
Well, I could go on about that one for a while. But at any rate, the church is scattered As we read, under Saul, the Pharisee, many are captured. He goes from house to house, he drags people out into the street, puts them in bonds and carries them off to prison. It’s not a very pretty sight.
But is the word of God defeated, or are God’s purposes enhanced? Is God’s program and kingdom thwarted, or is it furthered? The wrath of men accomplish the purposes of God. end up in the implore of the sovereign as he surveys them and their actions. So now, the scene is set for the word to enter territories previously thought unthinkable.
We are introduced to Philip, Stephen is gone. Another of the seven takes his place. Philip now, one ordained, one who rises up more than a deacon. Here is a preacher, a preacher indeed, an evangelist. He finds himself in the territory of Samaria, a territory to which these Jewish Christians in Jerusalem have fled. And there he is not silent. He preaches. and Samaritans are converted. These, the native enemies of the Jews, these transformed by the Word of God, changed, brought into the kingdom. They receive the message.
Against the background of hostilities in Jerusalem, the story of the welcome the gospel receives in Samaria. amazing. But in order to keep things decently and in order, Peter, the apostle, comes down from Jerusalem into Samaria to confirm the Holy Spirit’s work. And yes, as has been reported, so it is found to be, Samaritans believe, They believe, and they are being brought into the kingdom. And note this one figure who has been introduced to us in this narrative, Simon the Magician. You know about him, the man from Samaria. He believes the Holy Spirit’s power can be bought and sold.
Please give me this power that you have, he says. and Peter rebukes them, and that’s a miracle. There is a translation of Peter’s rebuke that goes like this, to hell with you and your money. Gets the point across? So, Peter’s rebuke. But that rebuke, you see, is meant to be more than merely a rebuke to those who would buy, like Simon the magician.
It is meant to be a sentinel, once more, in the early times of the Church, standing there as a testimony to all who would take a different route than Peter did. and actually sell the Word and its power. There is a mighty indictment being now lodged against the Church from heaven. Because there are those who have risen up in the Church in our time who have commercialized the Word of God. Who have turned it into a commodity to be bought and sold, to be profited by monetarily.
I love the conclusion of the book of Zechariah, where we are told in that grand and glorious vision of the coming temple, and there will be no merchants, no merchandiser, no profiteer in the house of God. Well. Act eight and then versus twenty six through forty. With as marvelous an affirmation of God’s intent to date. As marvelous an affirmation of that intent that we have seen to date.
For here we have this Ethiopian, but not just an Ethiopian. This man is an Ethiopian eunuch who has gone up to Jerusalem to worship. That line is put in there deliberately. And what is the problem that this Ethiopian eunuch is going to find when he comes to Jerusalem to worship? He can’t worship because he’s a eunuch.
He has no place. Even if he was to be a proselyte, even if he was to come into Israel by the back door, even if he was to become a Jew by the back door, there was no way for him to be signed as Jew. He can have no standing or status in Israel, as much as he might want it. As you realize how important lineage is in Jerusalem, one must leave behind him sons. He must leave behind him those who will pick up the inheritance, the name, carry it on. This man is left without lineage, without name. He dies, and he’s gone. What a marvelous figure he is. He’s reading that passage where it talks about one who is cut off without generation. Is this man speaking, is the prophet speaking about himself or someone else like me?
And then we have that most marvelous of statements to date in the book of the Acts. Verse thirty-five of that eighth chapter, and Philip opened his mouth and began from this, beginning from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him. Hardly adequate in our contemporary setting, We’d have to set up some sort of ministerial method and program that would meet the man where he is, speak about his needs and his predicament and situation, some sort of thing that would take into consideration all of the psychological and sociological ramifications of the man’s situation. But Philip preaches to him Jesus. This Ethiopian eunuch, so attracted to Judaism, has no place in Jewish worship, for he is a Jew.
But now note what happens. and by right of that fuller and more complete sacramental sign. Baptism. He is introduced as one purified and sprinkled into the very temple of God. This man then, his portent of the coming expanse and expansiveness of the gospel, the extent of the Church and the intent of God and his kingdom.
Well, might we learn from this section of Acts, the risen reigning Christ rules by his Holy Spirit through his word. His word is powerful to judge within the church. His word is not bound. It will not be bound with bars of iron. The apostles are free to preach.
This word creates an order for the church as if at work in a new creation and provides ministry for and justice to the people of God in their need. This word battles opposition and triumphs over all those who would seek to stamp it out. And this word carries forward the program of God from Jerusalem to Samaria, to the uttermost parts of the earth. And it is this word that you have received that has profited you. This Word, which has been made effectual in your life by the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit upon you. This Word you love. And this Word cultivates within you the righteousness of God. for an increase in you that shall be harvested by your Lord in the great day. Amen.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.