Acts 6:1-7:14 - Corps Notes - March 9, 1976
Acts 6:1-7:14 March 9, 1976 Acts 6:1 “those days” - indefinite period of time in the Bible. It could be a number of years. On the other hand, it could be a much shorter period of time. In Matthew 2:23 – 3:1 - “In those days” is a long time after the record in verse 23. In Acts 1:15 - “in those days” is a much less period of time. The days between the ascension and the day of Pentecost “the number of the disciples was multiplied” – the believers had increased tremendously in Jerusalem. “murmuring” - complaint “Grecians” - Greek speaking Jews. They are called in secular literature Hellenists. These were Jews who, because of persecution and other reasons, had been expelled from some countries and areas and had immigrated to Alexandria, Egypt. There they learned Greek. Alexandria, Egypt was a Greekspeaking area. There was always a cleavage between the Hellenists and the Aramaeans, here called Hebrews. In many respects, the Jewish or Hebrew religionists considered the Greeks pagan and their language was not very adequate as far as they were concerned. These Grecians or Hellenists murmured or complained against the Aramaeans because the widows were neglected, not properly cared for, in the daily ministering, daily care. I Timothy 5:9-l0 Verse 9 “taken” - chosen. Widows were to be taken care of. In the early Church there were widows who had no other source of income and many times they had their children to take care of. Then the Church took care of those women. However, widows of the Hebrews (Aramaeans) were given better care than the Hellenists, because these were Greek-speaking ones. Acts 6:2 “called the multitude of the disciples” - called all the believers together, had a big ‘branch meeting.’ “tables” - food “not reason” – not reasonable, not logical, not proper. That was good sense-knowledge wisdom by spirit-filled men but I believe it was spiritually wrong. I do not believe that it was Christian to the end that it should have been. We’re going to read about them ch
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They may be servants, they may be ministers, but they are not branded. When you' re branded, you stay faithful. You do not budge. You do not change. You stay put. If all hell breaks loose, you still live the believing Word. I think the prophet once said, If I was in the midst of hell, God I know you' d be there. (Psalm 139:8) He' d be there. That' s the doulos. That, of course, is just a tremendous piece of work. And the other great part that I think... and this is a second piece that I want the Corps to master before next Wednesday night, " Workers for God," the work on ' witness.' You see, it's the same word basically that's translated ' martyr,' see. And we got a lot of those canonized. That's not at all what a witness is. A witness is a living example, not a dead one. The word 'martyr' simply means that you lay down your life in witnessing. And boy, when you put the doulos together w