SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/1/2017
9:07 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: The Roster
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 6:5-6
Message of the
verses: “5 The statement found
approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of
faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas
and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch. 6 And these they brought before the apostles;
and after praying, they laid their hands on them.”
The first part of verse five tells us that the
congregation approved the suggestion from the apostles and they chose seven men
who were appointed to the ministry. Now
as we look at the names of these seven men we see that they all had Greek names
suggesting that they were Hellenists, and if this was true then this fit into
helping the problem that they were trying to care for. We have to believe that this was a ploy from
Satan to split the church and so this was avoided.
Steven would play a pivotal role in the spread of the
gospel in Jerusalem and we will see later on in Acts that he will be persecuted
and killed for the cause of Christ.
Philip will also play a prominent role in the book of
Acts as we will see in chapters 8 and then again in chapter 21 where the text
talks about not only him, but his daughters.
Prochorus and the rest of the five: John MacArthur writes that nothing definite
is known about these remaining five men.
“Some early traditions connect Prochorus with John the apostle, possibly
as his amanuensis when he wrote his gospel.
According to those traditions, he later became bishop of Nicomedia and
was martyred in Antioch.
Now as I am preparing my Sunday school lesson for the 2nd
and third chapters of Revelation there was something that came up about Nicolas
and I will get to that in a moment. We
see that Nicolas was a proselyte which is a Gentile who was converted to
Judaism and that he was from Antioch.
Now I want to look at two verses in Revelation chapter
two: “6 ’Yet this you do have, that you
hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” “15 ’So you also have some who in the same
way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.” There are two schools of thought on these
verses and one of them says that Nicolas was an apostate teaching wrong things
about Christ and thus his teaching turned into the Nicolaitans teaching which
nothing certain is actually known about it other than it could have been
similar with the teachings of Balaam, and Balaam taught the enemies of Israel
to use their women in a sexual way to corrupt the men of Israel. The other school of thought is that Nicolas
was not an apostate and his name was used to teach wrong things to believers as
seen in the two passages from Revelation 2.
Now we want to talk about what the congregation did after
choosing these men and that was that they brought them to the apostles and then
the apostles laid hands on them and prayed over them. This is the first occasion in the New
Testament of laying on hands signifying the identification and affirmation of
the church with these men, and also the support of their new ministry. This would also be done for Elders, deacons,
and all who served the early church as they were ordained in this way. See Acts 13:3; 1 Timothy 4:14; 5:22; and 2
Timothy 1:6.
I have to say that I remember when one of our Pastors,
who at the time was a youth pastor was ordained and I remember going to this
service and some of the retired Pastors and other Pastors laid hands on him and
prayed over him. We had this man, a
retired Pastor who prayed over this youth Pastor and to tell you the truth I
have heard shorter sermons, but his prayer was wonderful, just very long.
As mentioned not much is known about some of these men,
but this was a crucial role in the foundational history of the church. The apostles priorities were not compromised
and also the church avoided a split as the Holy Spirit directed this church to
do the right thing.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Remembering the
important role of the Holy Spirit in the church and in my life is something
that I was reminded this morning, not only from this Spiritual Diary, but also
for the one that I posted from Jude this morning.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
I desire in my prayer time, to allow
the Holy Spirit to direct my prayer time.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “False Christ and false
prophets.”
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘Brother Saul, the
Lord even Jesus…has sent me that you might receive your sight’?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/1/2017 10:21 AM
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