Acts 6-8 - Outline

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter. <http://www.2rbetter.org/>*

January 12, 2012


 *APR 13 - ACTS 6-8 - CHURCH GROWTH: DEACONS AND STEPHEN*


 *1. 6:3-4 (6:1-6) STEPHEN: ONE OF SEVEN CITY DEACONS. “But brethren, Look
out from among you seven men of good report, full of the Spirit and wisdom,
whom we shall appoint over this :business. 4 But WE will continue
steadfastly in :prayer, and in the ministry of the word” (NNT). *Note the
apostolic priority: *prayer* first; *then* the ministry of the Word! Burn
this upon our heart, Father. Amplify for us the importance of the city
church deacons for this purpose. How *wise* Your Kingdom principles and
priorities. *H**allowed be your :name!*


 *2. 6:7 DEACONS: SOLUTION LEADING TO FRUITFULNESS. “And the word of :God
increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem
exceedingly; and a great crowd of the priests were obedient to the
faith.” *Here
is proof that the obedience of faith to Your Kingdom principles produces
divine fruitfulness, Father. May we too be wise and experience such
fruitfulness. *Your :kingdom come!*


 *3. 6:8, 10 (6:8-15) STEPHEN: FALSELY ACCUSED. “And Stephen, full of grace
and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. 10 And they could
not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.” *When stirred
up, men cannot confront Your servants in honorable ways, Father; they
resort to subterfuge, lies and violence. But *in you* we are safe! *Your
:will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!*


 *4. 7:59-60 (7:1-8:1a) STEPHEN: DEFENSE AND CONFRONTATION. “And they
stoned :Stephen, calling upon the Lord, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my
:spirit. 60 And he kneeled, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this
:sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” *O our
Father, forgive us that we sometimes have the same spirit of anger and
murder in our hearts. Cleanse us from all bitterness and anger. Grant us
the same spirit of forgiveness that is here manifested in Your martyr
Stephen, and in Your Son our Lord Jesus! *Our :daily :bread, Give us this
day.*


 *5. 8:1b (8:1b-3) SAUL: RINGLEADER IN CHURCH PERSECUTION. “And Saul was
consenting to his :death. And a great persecution arose on that :day
against the church :in Jerusalem; and all were scattered abroad throughout
the regions of :Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.” *What a contrast
between the peace of Your martyr Stephen and the persecuting Saul, Father!
We would have all such spirit of Saul purged from our hearts. *And forgive
us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.*


 *6. 8:12 (8:4-25) PHILIP: ASSISTED BY PETER AND JOHN. “But when they
believed :Philip preaching good tidings concerning the kingdom of :God and
the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.” *We note the
two priorities preached by Philip, Father: Your *Kingdom*, and the
*Name*of Your Son! It is all wrapped up in Jesus and Calvary. Father,
we thank
You for this message of Philip. *And bring us not into temptation.*


 *7. 8:35 (8:26-40) PHILIP: WINS THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. “And :Philip opened
his :mouth, and beginning from this :scripture, preached the gospel to him,
:Jesus.” *Ah, here is the message of the Kingdom; here is the Good News for
all mankind! It is all wrapped up in *Jesus* and Calvary. Father, we thank
You for this message of Philip! *But deliver us from the evil one!*


 *NOTE**: 8:20 (8:4-25) PETER: REBUKES SIMON THE SORCERER! “But Peter said
unto him, Your :silver perish with you, because you have thought to obtain
the gift (d**o-reA) of :God with money.” *It cost *Jesus* His life to
provide the Gift of the Holy Spirit for us. The Promise of the Father flows
out of Calvary. May we not make the mistake of Simon, and lightly esteem
this great gift!


 We should note that the first 7 deacons were for the entire City Church of
Jerusalem - composed of hundreds of local churches in the home. At one time
I ministered in one *local church* with 24 deacons and deaconesses, 7
elders, 7 trustees, 20 Committee Chairmen, and a Christian School! It is
difficult for such a local church to adjust and move into a City Church
context. It is comparable to the difficulty of *remodeling* a house, and
building it from scratch as the apostle Paul did with 14 City Churches,
each composed of scores and even hundreds of local churches.


 A Greek Word-Study on “church” (ek-kl*e*SIa) throws more light on this
problem. Out of 114 NT references, *once* church refers to Israel as the
church in the wilderness (Acts 7); 3 times to the secular city gathering in
Ephesus (Acts 19:23-41); 14 times to a local church in the home such as led
by Aquila and Priscilla in Rome, Corinth and Ephesus; 15 times to the
universal church of believers of all time, Jew and Gentile; *but* - *81
times* to the City Church - each composed of many local churches in the
home. 14 of these latter are found in Revelation 2 and 3.


 It is the City Church concept that God indicated is the Pedestal or Stand
- that in the vision of the Organic Laser-Telescope - supports the
“Outlined Interlinear NT” using Ivan Panin's two texts; plus the many Greek
Word Studies again prepared largely on the basis of Panin's discoveries
starting in 1890.


 “*On the American Campus” - after 6 years in China - starting p. 99*

*(from “C.T. Studd: Athlete & Pioneer” by Norman P. Grubb)*


 Knoxville Students' Conference, June 21. After I had returned to my room
(writes C.T.) and just upon 10 p.m., in rushed a student and said, “Since
hearing you this morning, I have thought of nothing but hell, because I
have not and cannot surrender,” (though I had not spoken of hell or
anything like it). I said, “Why can't you surrender?” “I don't know.” “Do
you want to?” “Oh, yes.” “Well, do it now, get down here on your knees and
tell God you will give Him all.” “I think I may have been unwilling to do
as He told me.” “Well, are you willing now to leave all sin and do His
will?” “Yes.” “Then just give yourself to Him.” He knelt down, and after a
short time gave himself right up, and immediately arose with such a joyful,
beaming face and said, “It's all right now.” He needn't have told me.


 “Spirituality is much needed here; there is a great lack of it, too much
laughing and chaffing, not a real deep spiritual power. And why? Because
they are *afraid* of it. Fancy! They are afraid of minds getting strained,
and so instead of giving them fewer meetings, they dilute with the
ditch-water of nonsense too often.


 “In the afternoon I read and prayed: the others had gone on a boat for an
outing and ice creams. Missed tea on purpose, and took the evening meeting.
We had a great time. I spoke for an hour and forty minutes. The fellows
were quieter at the end than even at the beginning. The Lord was with us in
power. Many stayed to speak or arrange interviews. Two came that night. One
medical student, uncertain about being a volunteer; he has a mother and
sister dependent on him, and he wept as he spoke of leaving them. I took
him over the old ground. He saw the love of God, surrendered and left
bright. I don't tell these fellows to volunteer; I tell them to surrender
to God and to go away rejoicing in Him, and He will in His own way make all
plain. Oh, there is no joy in the world like being used of God to bless
others. The place is now just on fire, and one so regrets now that this
break didn't come earlier, as it might have done, had the talks been more
spiritual and appealing to the heart.


 “Next day I had interviews all the afternoon and evening, a real glory
time. One man told me as I began to probe him - for something seemed wrong
- that he had been converted, was saved, and was an Episcopalian. So I
said, 'Are all your sins forgiven?' 'No, not all.' 'Ain't it rather
dangerous to have any unforgiven?' 'I suppose it is.' 'Do you want them
forgiven?' 'Yes.' I explained a bit to him and then he got down on his
knees to confess; he was going to confess out loud to me the sins he had
committed, but I stopped him and said I didn't want to hear them, but he
had better tell them to God. So we knelt and he told them to God, and then
out aloud he asked for forgiveness. I asked, 'Has He forgiven you?'
quoting, 'If we confess,' etc. 'Yes, He has.' 'Then thank Him.' And he did
so. Then he surrendered and asked for the Holy Ghost, and thanked, and
afterwards when I had prayed, he rose up with tears in his eyes, pressed my
hand and said, 'I never had such an experience as this before.' Glory be to
God! You can imagine I went off to supper as full of joy as a gas balloon.
Oh my, these souls are indeed more than diamonds - I'd far sooner save one
soul than be Queen Victoria.


 “As I came away from supper, a man with such a sad face came to me and
wanted an interview. He told me he could not conquer a certain kind of sin.
I took him off to my room. He said he was a Ministerial Student; he had
been converted but had lately fallen into this sin and it had mastered him.
We talked long; he loathed it and wanted to quit. He saw his own utter
impotence. I said, 'Have you surrendered?' 'Yes, I have, yet sinned again.'
'Have you since that asked forgiveness?' 'No.' 'Well, that comes first.'
'Will you do so now?' 'Yes.' We got on our knees and he confessed and asked
forgiveness and receive it and that consciously; then he again made a full
surrender, and I said, 'Now ask for the Holy Ghost.' But he did not
understand and argued about the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, while we were on
our knees. I showed him the difference between Apostles before and after
Pentecost. He owned that if he was filled with the Holy Ghost, he would not
be committing the sin. At last he asked to be filled, and then I prayed and
asked God to take out the desire and let it no more enter in: oh, his whole
heart went out into it, and he got up anew, and said, 'I know, for I feel
He has given me the victory.' So I said, 'Then get down on your knees again
and thank Him' and he did. His face had before had despair as black as
night written on it, but now it was all changed. He was in tears of joy and
went away rejoicing.


 “(Next day) Last night I saw - and had a talk with him. He is the one who
had become a slave to a sin. He said it was all right, God has given him
complete victory and he was a new being; we went under a tree and kneeling
down, had some prayer.


 “H. was next, and the Lord led me in a strange way. After a bit he said he
was saved, sins forgiven. “Why do you think so?' 'Oh, I feel so.' 'What
makes you feel so?' 'Oh, I am trying to make Jesus my example.' 'Oh,' said
I, 'then you are quite sure to be damned.' It slipped out before I knew it,
and it did the Lord's work, for the fellow was perfectly astounded and
asked me again and I repeated it: it so astonished and convicted him, that
he asked in the exact words of the Philippian jailer, 'Then what must I do
to be saved?' So I showed him. After a while he got down and confessed,
received salvation as a gift, then surrendered and asked for the Holy
Ghost, and went away quite different.”


 “Monmouth, Nov. 19. Had a splendid time all yesterday with souls,
interviews all day long, and in the last case a backslider who had fallen
into deep sin. He looked as black and sullen as despair, but a three hours'
fight gave complete victory. I had him an hour and then had to rush off
straight to a meeting: another student took him on till I came back, and I
returned two hours afterwards to find he had got the victory just before.
You should have seen his face, oh, so bright; it was marvelous.


 “After tea the leader of the College Y.M.C.A. came and made a full
surrender, asked for the gift of the Holy Spirit and went away knowing he
had received, so bright and believing and set on doing personal soul-saving
work. There is such a lack of this. It seemed the same tale every place,
spiritual darkness because of this not doing personal work. You should have
seen the shining face yesterday of the President of the College Y.M.C.A. He
had been a Christian two years and had never won one soul. He won his first
the night before at my meeting, and yesterday he said he had never been so
happy and never believed he could be so happy - too happy to sleep.


 “The same evening S. came round and said he had been asked to speak at
chapel next day. The Lord at once seemed to tell me that I should have to
speak, but I said nothing. God stopped S. speaking ten minutes or more
before the end of the time; he could not think of another word, though he
had prepared to speak for 25 minutes; every word left him and he had to sit
down. I was thereupon asked if I would speak, although I was sitting at the
back of the building. I walked up as fast as I could lay legs to the ground
and began right away. I prayed first just these words, 'Oh, Lord, may my
tongue go as fast as my heart, for Jesus Christ's sake,' and He answered
abundantly. I spoke with all the gusto of making a century at cricket
against the Australians. Oh, it is so good to know the Lord is with one.


 “Then S. came to my room with me for a talk. He came right full out,
confessing, surrendering, and receiving the Holy Ghost. Oh, such a change
as you cannot understand, he is unrecognizable; we are just about drunk
with the Spirit. Oh, such freedom in prayer. We just laughed and thanked
and prayed before God.


 “God has made things so plain to me and enables me to put it plainly to
others. Here is the gist of what I tell them. Assurance of salvation
depends on the fact that Jesus paid the penalty of your sin, not on any
feeling of yours. As Christ died for you, you belong by rights to Him.
After further explanation I say, 'Will you not in a practical business way
on your knees yield yourself and all to Jesus?' 'Yes.' Then he or she does
it, and I ask if Jesus has accepted him. If they do not know, I simply ask
if God is a liar, which at once produces the required assurance, as it is
impossible for God to have lied. Then I tell the inquirer to ask in one
sentence for the Holy Ghost, and he does it. Then I ask, 'Has He been
given?' By the same method the answer comes back 'Yes'; then I tell him to
thank God for (1) having accepted him, (2) having given the Holy Ghost.
Then I say, 'Don't worry or fret, or think, or try, but just be careful for
nothing, only trust and obey His voice. Rejoice and be glad in Jesus
always. The feeling will come in due course, but it is a fact that God has
given the Holy Ghost. Do not hinder God by helping Him, but quit hindering
Him.' They come long-faced, and go away sparkling and beaming.”


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