So we're in Acts chapter 6, and I'm going to read verses 1 through 15. 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 Parmenios and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed, and laid their hands on them. The word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the freedmen, as it was called, and of the Cyrenians and the Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly instigated men who said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. And they stirred up the people and the elders of the tribes, or elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council. And they set up false witnesses who said, this man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us. And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw his face was like the face of an angel. Let's pray. God, I pray that as we open your Word, as I preach your Word, and as we read and listen to your Word, that you would speak and that, God, we would be transformed by it. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. So we could say that God has designed everything in this world to work for His glory and for your good. Everything. God has made everything that way. Since we live in a sin-cursed world, though, that design, God's design, is often obscured or distorted. One of the great benefits of the Scripture is that it helps us to understand what God's design is and to live by it. That's what we're going for. So we look to God's Word for that design, but it's not just about information. We also understand that to actually live by God's design, something has to change about us. We have to be changed and transformed And what we're seeing happen in the book of Acts is as people put their faith in Jesus, they are changed by Jesus. And then they're starting to learn to live within God's design. And that's what we should expect as well. That as we have faith in Jesus and the Holy Spirit comes to us, it's the Spirit that transforms us. So we're no longer governed by the curse of sin and death. We're no longer bound to just go with the flow of a crooked and evil world. But instead, we learn to thrive and have life and joy and purpose in God's design. Now that whole idea of living by God's design and being changed into it, you can apply that to every area of life. We can't possibly do that today. But I do think Acts chapter 6 helps us with two areas of understanding, like, what is God's design here? And here's the two areas. I'll do these in form of question. What is God's design for the local church? And what is God's design for spreading the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth? Those are way bigger questions than we can answer in just a short 40-minute sermon. So we'll call it a blueprint. This is kind of a blueprint from which we'll build. Two big questions. What is God's design for the church? and what is God's design for spreading the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth. And I'm going to put it under three headings, so I'll answer those with the word, the work, and the wisdom. So first, look at the word. I think this is a lot more big picture than details, so look at verse 7. In fact, chapter 6. 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." So how did the Word of God continue to increase? Does that mean that God said more? Well, I don't think so. Actually, what we read in the Book of Acts is not new revelation from God, God saying more things, but rather it's the old revelation of God, the Old Testament, explained now in the terms of the death and resurrection and reign of Jesus. So when it says that the Word of God continued to increase, that is not God sending more information. So is it then that the Word of God was increasing in that more people were speaking the Word of God? And I think that is a big part of it. So just look at where we've come. If you just glance back at Acts chapter 4 verse 17, you remember that Peter and John were arrested for healing a man and for preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And so they get arrested, they get brought in before the council, and listen to what the Jewish high priest says in Acts 4 verse 17. But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name. And remember Peter's rebuttal in Acts chapter 4 verse 20. He says, we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. And after they're released, they pray for boldness. And then in verse 31 of Acts chapter 4, when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. And then the last couple weeks, we've looked at chapter five, where the whole thing just repeats itself. Preaching, arrested, set free by God, preaching, arrested, beaten, released. What happens at the end of Acts chapter five? Verse 42, every day in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. So when we read in Acts chapter six, verse seven, that the word of God continued to increase, A big part of that is more people are teaching more things about Jesus. They're preaching and teaching and proclaiming and speaking that Jesus is Lord and Christ. And that's what should continue right up to this day. We should long for and labor for an increase of the Word of God. Like more people speaking more of it. That's me and you. speaking the Word of God. And we don't speak new things, but rather we bring out the treasure of what God has already said to encourage, to instruct, to build up. What we should see happening in the book of Acts should cause us to long for more mouths to be open and more ears to hear that the Word of God would increase. And it's that second part, the ears to hear, that I think is also in view. There's more in Acts chapter 6, 7 than just more people speaking. Acts chapter 7, the increase of the Word of God is the harvest. Sorry, Acts 6 verse 7. The increase of the Word of God is the harvest, the produce, the result. Again, Acts 6, 7, the number of the disciples multiplied greatly. The increase of the Word of God is that people believe. It's what it produces. So Jesus has commissioned his disciples, and that includes you and me, to go and make more disciples. And the way we do that is through the Word of God. We speak, we teach, we apply, we listen to, we memorize, we obey, we trust, we love, and it's the Word that brings increase. Romans chapter 10 verse 17 says, faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. So it's we who speak, but it's the word that does the work. It's God who saves through the word. And so the defining feature of the ministry of Jesus and the apostles that we read about in the book of Acts is a ministry of the word. It's preaching and teaching and speaking what God has said. And people are changed by God through hearing the Word. This is exactly what we see in Acts chapter 6. Look at verse 2. 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 the ministry of the Word." We'll come back to that text, but just right here, it's the importance of the Word that's emphasized. The preeminence of the Word, the supremacy of the Word, the necessity of the Word, the indispensability of the Word. Getting the point? We are a people of the book. This is where God has revealed himself. This is where we meet with God and know God. Because God in his sovereign power and perfect wisdom has revealed himself in written words. That's what God decided to do. And so if we don't have the scriptures, we can't know God. And with the Scriptures, then, we know Him and His ways. He teaches us our design. Or, sorry, His design for the world. And so, just to make it really clear, Christianity is a Word-centered religion. Word-centered faith. Word-centered reality. When we talk about God's design for the church, which we'll do here in a moment, you know, there are so many different paths that you could follow. And so many different creative ways you could think about doing church and being the church. And one of the big dangers that people face in every age is that we try to invent something for ourselves when God has spoken in His Word. We ought to first and finally ask, what does God say in His Word? And obey Him. Because we know that it's the Word that gives life. It's the Word that works. It's the Word that changes. So even then, when we gather here together, we gather around the Word of God. Where God, from His Word, calls us to worship. Where God speaks to us in the Word, and we speak back to Him in prayer. Where God speaks through the reading of His Word, and the preaching of His Word. And it's the Word of God that brings us to the table of Christ, where we feast with our Savior. Like our goal when we gather for worship is to speak and hear the word of the Lord and say, thanks be to God. Those words are not just, you know, liturgical ritual. They should be coming from the depths of our heart. Like God has spoken to us. God is changing us and instructing us. God is saving people through his word. Thanks be to God. That's a really big picture reality that's undergirding all of Acts chapter 6. Every small design of God in this world is driven by the Word of God. So when it comes to those two big questions that I want to answer out of Acts chapter 6, we're going to answer them with the Word. What is God's design for the church? And what is God's design for spreading the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth? It's the Word that answers. And so let's focus on the first question. What is God's design for the church? And we don't have everything in Acts chapter six, but I'm gonna throw a ton of principles, and you'll see that there's actually a lot here that we can use. Acts six is a significant foundation. Now Acts chapter six, verse one. Now in those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, and I just wanna pause there and say, part of God's design for the church is that it's a growing organism. I think it's a good way to think about the church. Not so much an institution to be established and protected, but an organism, like a body, that needs to grow. And as the Word of God is spreading through the world, and people are believing it's churches that get gathered together. Churches are birthed through people's faith, the number of disciples growing. Growing groups of disciples of Jesus, that's what a local church is. So, principle for the local church is we should want to grow. in number, not through compromise, but through the word being preached. It should be our longing that more people would be disciples of Jesus and gathered into local churches. So first principle for the church, it is a growing organism. Growing in number, though, also means growing in conflict. Now, conflict is, I don't know, not necessarily God's design for the local church. Resolution to conflict is God's design. That we would apply forgiveness and grace and wisdom. So keep reading Acts chapter one verse, or sorry, Acts chapter six verse one. Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenist arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. All right, this is where a little bit of historical knowledge is gonna go a long, long way. So get this little bits of history in your mind. In the Roman Empire, Jewish people lived either in Israel, basically what had historically been their land, or scattered throughout the Roman Empire in what we call the Diaspora, like the being scattered, right? Many of the Diaspora Jews adopted the Greek language, because that's what they spoke in the cities where they lived. These are called Hellenists, because Helen is the Greek word for the Greek language. So when you see Hellenists, we're talking about Jews whose primary language is Greek. And to probably some degree, they have adopted some Greek culture. It's likely that those Jews moved back to Jerusalem, or we find them here in Acts chapter six. And when they would go to Jerusalem or visit Jerusalem or move there, they probably gathered in communities that spoke Greek. So this isn't necessarily bad, this is just natural human tendency, right? You've got some Hellenists, Greek-speaking Jews over here, and then there's the rest of the Jews who probably spoke some form of Hebrew, probably Aramaic, which is a form of Hebrew, a dialect of Hebrew of sorts. And so they're called the Hebrews. So there's your conflict in Acts chapter one. You've got Hellenistic Jews and you've got Hebrew-speaking Jews. It was also common in that time for Jewish women to move back to Israel, even specifically to Jerusalem when they became widowed. Because in Jerusalem, that's where you likely had the most people who could take care of you, whether that's extended families or places where you can beg for alms for food and protection. Now, put all that together. You've got the number of disciples growing in Jerusalem, including both Hebrew-speaking Jews and Greek-speaking Jews. And we already know that the church is characterized by its generosity towards those in need. And for some reason, the Greek-speaking Jewish widows are being overlooked in the daily provision of food that the church was giving. I just don't think that was prejudice. it's actually presented as a more pragmatic problem. Like the workload is just too much for the 12 apostles. I think these are thousands of believers and the 12 apostles overlooked something. That shouldn't surprise you, right? You can overlook something if you have that many people running around. So pick it up, what do they do in verse two? The twelve apostles summoned the number of the disciples and said, it is not right that we should give up preaching the word 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. So we got a conflict, widows are neglected, and now we have a good resolution. You know, we could say, and I will say so much about this passage, Maybe this is the one point that really needs to land, is that it is God's design for the church to resolve conflicts. Conflicts will happen, big and small. We will face conflicts in our church, and most of you have been here long enough to have gone through a few of them. It should be our go-to inclination to resolve, to seek resolution in conflict by God's wisdom, by God's word, I'm not going to say that every conflict is easily resolved. Nor are we always able to come to resolution that satisfies people. But we should understand that God's design for his people is that we apply the principles of forgiveness and grace and mercy so that we can live in peace with one another and in effective ministry to the world around us. So I'm just going to sit in the background here. Conflict. Resolution. That's God's design. So what's the resolution to the problem? What they said pleased the whole gathering, verse 5. 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, the proselyte of Antioch. And these they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. Okay, so the growing church is also a resolving church. Now kind of pulling back to the text, what exactly here is the work of the church? We're asking, what is God's design for the church? What are we supposed to be doing? I think Acts chapter 6 actually gives us a very good template for what the church is supposed to be doing. Like here, it's the ministry of tables and the ministry of the word and prayer. I would take the ministry of tables to be somewhat emblematic of the ministry of meeting the practical needs of the people in your church. and the ministry of the word and prayer. Those are the two works of the church. And those two are not in conflict or in competition. They are complementary. So think of the question of this passage like this. How do we do both of those things faithfully? How is it that we are faithful to the ministry of the word and prayer as a church and faithful to meeting the material needs of the people in our church. If that's what God's design is, is that the church does both, how do we do things both faithfully? It is not right, the apostles say, to give up the ministry of the word for the service of needs. I think that became a trend there for a while, where churches would cancel their Sunday service to go serve in the community, to which you should say, aren't there six other days in the week? Can't we be devoted to the Word of God and to the service of material needs? Those two don't need to be in competition with each other. So it would be wrong for us to give up the preaching of the Word and prayer and the ministry of the Word for service, and at the same time, it would be wrong of us to neglect the material needs of fellow Christians. So God's design for a faithful local church is one where we do both the Word and the work of meeting needs. How do we do that well? I've got a bunch of principles from Acts chapter 6. Well first, we do it well by seeing that there are two offices that are dedicated to leadership in both works. We see the twelve, the apostles, who devote themselves to the ministry of the word and prayer. And then we see the seven, who are set apart for meeting the material needs. Those are prototypes, sort of shadows, of the two offices that are later given to the church. The offices of elders and deacons. Elders lead with the word and prayer. Deacons manage meeting various material needs in the church. That isn't to say that everybody needs to find an office. These are leaders in those things. Everybody in the church serves one another in meeting material needs and in applying the Word of God in prayer. But what we do see here as a template, say that God's design is that we are led in those things. And we are led, second principle, by qualified men. The apostles are qualified by their appointment from Jesus. The seven are qualified because, verse three, they are of good repute, full of the Spirit and wisdom. Godly character is the standard for church leadership, right? We just put this in practice today as we commissioned Pat, right? And I read all those different passages from scripture about what an elder should be. It's a godly man. That's the point. Godly character is the standard for church leadership. The other skills that you have may be useful, but are not essential. What is essential is godliness. And elders and deacons must be godly Men, there's no mistake, yes, men. God's design for leadership in the church is godly men who lead with the word and prayer and service. Again, that's not to the expense of women, it should be to the benefit of women and children. But we look at what, what is God designed? The church is led by godly men. Now in the case of the seven, It could be that these seven also had practical inroads for the specific tasks, which I think is just, like, this is general wisdom, but we see it here as well, that if you're going to appoint someone to an office, they should be able to fulfill the basic duties of that office. And we look at the seven, and the reason I think they have particular practical inroads is that their names are all Greek names. So it's likely that these seven were Hellenists. They were Greek-speaking Jews, which really helps solve the problem of the Greek-speaking Jewish widows not getting the daily distribution. Now, it's not abundantly clear in this passage, but I think you can make a really good case that that was the whole idea. Okay, we've got Greek-speaking Jewish widows who are being neglected. Let's find seven Greek-speaking Jewish men who are godly who can minister to them and their practical needs. Doesn't that just make sense? Like it's not rocket science here. This is how God has designed the church. So I think, I think that we can rightly say God has designed for church leaders that character matters most and you should be practically useful. Be able to do the tasks that God has put before you. Okay, so first principle of the church, two offices, complementary works. Second principle, led by qualified men. Third principle, these qualified men are chosen by the congregation and the apostles. Look again at verse three. 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. Let's hear both those. It's you pick out from among you, and we will appoint to this duty. So there are so many ways in which churches can structure themselves and be faithful to this. There's permissible differences in how church government works. But the principle here is that God's design for the church is that both the leadership and the congregation are working together to do the work. So the work of ministry, the word, the prayer, the service, is never just thrown on a group of leaders, nor is it done by everybody without leadership. Rather, we always work together. Leadership is necessary, but the work of the church is for everyone. One of the ways we do that, we have just practically here at Crossroads, since we appointed an elder today, The elders, we let the congregation tell us who you think should be an elder. You nominate them. And then the elders spend time training. And then we bring it back to the congregation who affirms. And then we install them as an elder. It's kind of a back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. It's working together. And so as a congregation, we should understand that it is everybody's responsibility to do the work of the ministry. It's everybody's responsibility to pray. It's everybody's responsibility to speak the word of God to one another. And it's everybody's responsibility to serve in the material needs. But God's design for the local church includes the leadership of godly men who lead with the word and with prayer and in harmony with the congregation. So as we keep reading in the book of Acts, and we start seeing churches pop up, which they do, especially as we get into the life of Paul, And then as you go about reading the letters of the New Testament that are to churches and to elders, you're going to see these principles taking shape. Acts chapter 6 is a blueprint. It's an important blueprint for how a church is structured. And I think even as a local church, we have to regularly go back to something like Acts chapter 6, and I don't know, I just don't assume that most of you get really excited about various principles of church government. I just assume that. Maybe I'm wrong. I might be the weird person in the world that gets all excited about the details of church government. It's kind of what I'm supposed to do. But we should go back and say, God has designed something. Let's strive to live according to God's design. So if you want to put a really nice little bow on it, and a really nice way to think about the local church, God's design for the local church, here it is. God's design for the local church is centered on the word of God. serving the people of God, who are led by godly men, some of whom are praying preachers, that's the ministry of the word and prayer, and others are serving sages. I chose that language very deliberately, serving sages, because notice that Philip and Stephen and Nicholas and all these fellows, the seven, are not just good at serving. The qualification for them that's actually repeated is that they're full of wisdom. That's why I call them serving sages. Stephen, look at Acts chapter 6 verse 8, full of grace and power was doing great wonders and signs among the people. He's singled out, oh, I'm sorry, I read the wrong verse. I meant to read verse 5, that Stephen is a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. And if you go down and look at, or sorry, go back to verse three even, that they're supposed to appoint people who are full of the Spirit and wisdom. So there's that wisdom factor. So now we got Stephen. Stephen is singled out. I think showing not, like he has a special role to play as we'll see next week in chapter seven, but this is what all of these seven were like. They were all sages. They were all full of wisdom. Now verse eight, Stephen full of grace and power was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Now, that sounds a lot like Peter and the apostles, doesn't it? As a matter of fact, as I'm going to read this sort of introduction to Stephen through verse 15, you're going to see a lot of connections to the work of the apostles that we've seen so far in Acts. It's as if Luke, the author of Acts, is going out of his way to emphasize that the ministry of Stephen and the seven is a continuation of the ministry of the apostles. which is a continuation of the ministry of Jesus. Now, Stephen isn't an apostle, but he shares in their character and their witness. Why does Luke do this? Why is he making such an emphasis on Stephen continuing the ministry of the apostles who are continuing the ministry of Jesus? It's because he's showing us God's design for spreading the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth. That was our second question, right? What is God's design for spreading the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth? It's the continuing ministry of Jesus through his people. Like, Stephen isn't the only one. But he is sort of a figurehead. behind which we all follow. How is Stephen the model, the figurehead that we all follow for spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth? Well, first, Stephen was probably a Hellenist, as I mentioned. It's likely he speaks Greek. Now that's just a small detail, but it really does signal something important, that the kingdom of God is spreading beyond the Hebrews. beyond Israel. It's a big important point in the whole book of Acts. How is God spreading his kingdom to the ends of the earth? It isn't by making everybody Jewish. It's actually through servants of all languages and cultures. Stephen, secondly, God spreads the kingdom of God, sorry, the spread of the kingdom of God goes beyond the apostles. The twelve apostles are very important. and they are to be rightly honored. But the twelve apostles are not the kings of the kingdom. They're the servants of the kingdom. Jesus is the king. So our goal should never be to just identify the one in the succession of Peter, or who the apostles are. No, the spread of the kingdom of Jesus is never dependent on a single servant or on even a special group of servants. The spread of the kingdom of God goes beyond me and beyond you and beyond Stephen and beyond Peter. God uses all of his servants to spread his kingdom because Jesus is the king. Third principle, the spread of the kingdom of God is met with opposition. This is how God spreads his kingdom through the earth, with opposition. Pick it up in verse nine. Some of those who belong to the synagogue of the freedmen, as it was called, and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. Again, you've been following along in the book of Acts. This just sounds like the same thing Peter and John meet. It actually kind of makes it hard to study and preach, because I'm like, this is just the same story over and over and over. Except there's a big difference here. The instigators now are Hellenists. How do we know? Well, Cyrene, these are Jewish people because they belong to a synagogue who are opposing Stephen. But think about where they're from. Cyrene is basically modern Libya, what we might call northern Africa. Alexandria is in Egypt. Cilicia and Asia are in what we now call modern day Turkey. So as the kingdom of God is spreading in more languages, so the opposition to the kingdom of God is spreading in more languages. And this is part of God's design for the spread of the kingdom of God. He is building his kingdom in hostile territory. Now, we should long for God to transform communities. We should hope. I mean, I think in many ways, we're here as part of the kingdom of God, and the territory's not that hostile. We should hope that God would transform communities and nations, but you should expect that God's design is to spread the kingdom through opposition. Nonetheless, maybe principle number four, no opposition can silence the preaching of the word of God. Look at verse 10. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which Stephen was speaking. Now, I don't think that wisdom is Stephen's cleverness. It is far more his working knowledge of the Word of God. We're going to see that next week when we get to chapter 7. We see him actually use the Word of God. Peter's wisdom not so much cleverness as it is sound biblical exposition, if we use that word. Peter is a master at knowing the scripture and applying the scripture and he does it empowered by the spirit. They could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. That is still how the kingdom of God spreads throughout the earth. This is God's design. Through Christians expounding scripture empowered by the Holy Spirit. And again, it's not just apostles and it's not just pastors, it's all of us. All of us are spreading the kingdom of God by telling people what God has said in the scriptures, empowered by the Holy Spirit. Right? That's for men and women, it's for the young, it's for the old, it's for the Hebrews and the Hellenists and the Haitians and the Hillbillies. We speak the Word of God. And though it will be opposed, no one can truly stand against it. So we should strive, like Stephen, to speak it with wisdom, to know the Scriptures well. But just remember, the success of your speaking the Word of God is not dependent on your clever ability to explain it. It is the Word that works. So even if all you can do is read Scripture with somebody in a language that they can understand, that's enough. That's enough. That'd be a great way for you to think about people that you know that aren't Christians, that you would love to see them become Christians and know Jesus. You want the kingdom of God to spread to them as the disciples multiply? Read scripture with people. Read scripture with people. That's enough. It's enough for the Word to work. So, what do we got, like principle five? Four was no opposition can silence the preaching of the word of God. Here's number five. That doesn't mean that opposition won't kill some of the messengers. That is what's coming for Stephen next week when we get to that in chapter seven. It is God's design that the kingdom of God spreads to the end of the earth through the martyrdom of his servants. Let me just pick up a little introduction here on verse 11. Then they secretly instigated men who said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against God, Moses and God. And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council. And they set up false witnesses who said, this man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us. That's all set up for chapter seven. And actually, we're gonna pick up most of that text, 11 through 14, next week. And we'll see how Stephen actually answers all those accusations. But just lock this in your mind for today. It is God's design that the spread of the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth is accompanied by false accusations and sham trials and martyrdom. And sometimes you go, how can that be God's design? And I remind you, brothers and sisters, that that is the way of the cross. We've seen this with the apostles, now we see it with Stephen. And remember, this is exactly what happened to Jesus. Falsely accused, sham trial, death. And that was God's design to save you from sin and death and hell forever. It can also be God's good design to accomplish the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth. Jesus laid down his life on the cross to gather us as his eternal people. And so we must be willing to give our lives on this earth so that more people can hear that good news. Now, that's not to say that every messenger dies, but I think it's really significant when we start seeing the gospel spread beyond Jerusalem. It's significant that the first steps of the gospel are met with death. That should be to us as Christians an ever-present possibility. And it does still happen. There are Christians gathering right now at great risk of their lives. There are Christians who are making the gospel known in places where it is murderously opposed. We grieve the loss of brothers and sisters who die for the faith. But with them, we also rejoice in the hope that more people will know Jesus. That might be a hard truth for you to grasp, that that's God's design for the local church. And so if it is, I would encourage you to read some good missionary biographies, because you need to start seeing how wonderful it is that the gospel spreads through martyrdom. In our church library, you could even just start with the book, Through Gates of Splendor. Start there. This is in the 20th century. martyrs who gave their lives so that the gospel could reach people. So the book is called Through Gates of Splendor. We have a couple copies in our church library. I think our public library has it on audiobook and print book. God's Design. So what is God's design for the spread of the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth? It is praying preachers and serving sages and the people of God speaking the word of God in the face of opposition so that more people will believe. And it's God's design, and we know it's God's design because it's met with God's favor. Look at Acts chapter 6 verse 15. And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel. The favor of God is evident in the face of Stephen. Now, I don't know what that looked like, We can only guess. But what was evident to everybody who saw that moment is where God's favor was. Not on the people opposing Stephen, but on Stephen. It just sort of brings back to memory things that Jesus said. This is from Luke chapter 21. Jesus says, but before all this, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you. delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it, therefore, in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom with which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends. And some of you, they will put to death, like Stephen. You'll be hated by all for my name's sake, but Jesus says not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives. Even if we die, God will raise us to life. That's his good design. His good design for the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth includes the martyrdom of his people. So the book of Acts lays out a blueprint for how God is spreading his kingdom through local churches, where praying preachers and serving sages lead the people of God by the Word of God, and it's the Word that does the work. So I hope when you look at that, you see all of this is a grace from God. We do labor at it. No matter your role or office in the church, we all labor according to the Word of God, with the Word as our primary instrument, but all of this is a grace of God. The progress of God's kingdom is not dependent on our abilities, It's not dependent on our language. It's not even dependent on our ability to be free from conflict. They weren't in Acts chapter 6. No, the progress of the kingdom of God is God's work by God's Word, and we're the messengers. So may God give us ears of faith to hear His Word, and lips of hope to speak the Word, and hands of love to serve the Word. Let's pray. God, we pray that you would do it all the more in this day. God, in a place where so many people profess Christianity but don't know the Christ, we pray that the Word of God which goes forth from this pulpit, from this church, from these people, that the Word of God would bring people to Christ, to Jesus the Lord and the Christ. and that God, you would gather people in his name for his praise, and that you would change us by the good work of your word. And God, I do pray this morning for our brothers and sisters around the world, many of whom are worshiping Christ at great risk to their lives. People who are preaching the gospel to friends and neighbors who may have them put to death. God, for the blood of brothers and sisters shed even this year, And we pray for your great comfort on your people. We pray that you would vindicate the blood of your martyrs. And God, we pray that even though some of your servants die, more would believe. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.