Living Life with the Holy Spirit - Part 2: The Reconciling Presence | Scott Hayden

Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is

an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,

with dozens of nationalities worshiping together.

We invite you to connect with us from wherever

you are through our website ecb .asia or our

mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed

by this week's sermon. I appreciate last week

Pastor Phil opened our series on the presence.

living life with the Holy Spirit by having us

meditate on the transforming presence and how

the Holy Spirit has kind of two time dimensions

in which he transforms us. One is instant. Sometimes

he'll say, I'm going to give you a gift right

now. You're different in this way. And most often

and throughout our lives, he lives in us and

takes us through the gradual process. of opening

more and more doors in our heart and letting

Him live there too. And today I would like to

take you, as we work through our theme verse,

let's read this together. Since we are living

the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading

in every part of our lives. And last week we

focused on the individual work of the Holy Spirit.

And I want to expand that from me to we. Because

all the personal pronouns up there are plural.

And the Holy Spirit doesn't just want to change

your heart. He wants to change the cultural norms,

the group think, and the habits of the groups

you're a part of. Families, life groups, workplaces,

schools. He wants to get in there and rearrange

the furniture. So we're going to practice a little

of that together. So as the lights come up a

bit, I want you to turn to your neighbor and

make sure they know your name and find out what

city they were most recently in before they came

to Bangkok. I'll tell you why I'm doing this.

I'm an elementary teacher at heart. That is my

training. And there are going to be four or five

times throughout the sermon when you're going

to talk to each other. I want you to know who

you're talking to. Make sure you turn both ways

so nobody's left out. What's your name? What

city have you been in most recently? All right.

Let's wrap it up in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3,

2, and 1. And the choir director called the choir

back to your attention. Thank you. Wow, I can't

get them to stop. Thank you very much. That was

great. I saw people get up out of their seats

and move across the aisle to make sure nobody

was left out. The sermon has been preached. As

we talk about the reconciling presence, I picked

this passage because Acts is a book full of power

signs. It begins with Jesus physically rising

up into the sky, stunning the apostles, and angels

standing nearby saying, He's coming back the

same way you saw Him go. It continues with the

Holy Spirit coming down and taking that... Power

of Jesus that had been packed into one individual

and now spreading it in sign of flame and wind

and other languages and growing the church within

a day to 3 ,000. It continues with miracles and

signs and healings and jailbreaks. And then you

come to this story, and it's normal, everyday,

mundane, people cannot get along, and leadership

has to do something about it, right where we

all live. So I picked this one. I can relate.

Let me read you the story. From Acts chapter

Acts 6 · chapter mention

6. But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there

were rumblings of discontent. The Greek -speaking

believers complained about the Hebrew -speaking

believers, saying that their widows were being

discriminated against in the daily distribution

of food. So the Twelve called a meeting of all

the believers. They said, we apostles should

spend our time teaching the Word of God, not

running a food program. And so, brothers, select

seven men who are well -respected and are full

of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this

responsibility. Then we apostles can spend our

time in prayer and teaching the Word. Everybody

liked this idea. And they chose the following.

Stephen. A man full of faith in the Holy Spirit.

Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas,

and Nicholas of Antioch, an earlier convert to

the Jewish faith. These seven were presented

to the apostles who prayed for them. As they

laid their hands on them, so God's message continued

to spread. The number of believers greatly increased

in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests

were converted too. One of my favorite ways to

look deeper into any story in Scripture is to

think of it like a movie producer. As this story

goes, where do I have to change the camera? So

let's break this down into scenes. The story

begins, wide angle, all the believers increasing,

the church growing. The camera zooms in on one

particular group of the church that's complaining

against another group. The camera zooms in on

the leadership team to call everybody together.

Then the camera zooms out as everybody works

together to choose seven. And then the widest

angle again as the believers increase greatly.

And priests began joining too. Now, do you see

what I see? Look at the beginning. Look at the

end. This is one of those idea sandwiches. Believers

increasing at the beginning, believers increasing

at the end. The Hebrews loved idea sandwiches.

And there's a technical name for it. It's called

chiasm. And it means there's something going

on at the beginning and something at the end.

But at the end, it's slightly different. And

you can track the sandwich. It can have multiple

layers. This is the simple version. I analyzed

the text and found there's actually eight. different

incidents or words moving towards the core of

the proposal, and every one of those eight is

mirror -imaged in the opposite order as you exit

the story. But you don't want a 15 -point sermon.

So we're going to keep it simple. Chiasm is like

knock -knock jokes. Knock -knock. So some of

you know the routine, right? I don't know which

country originated it, but in America, if someone

says knock -knock, you say, who's there? And

then I say, art. You say, are who? I say, R2

-D2. Or knock -knock, Dwayne. Dwayne the tub,

I'm dwelling. It's really dumb stuff, okay? It's

dad joke, highfalutin material. Knock -knock

jokes ask the listener to ask a question. Chiasms

ask the reader or listener to ask a question.

And here's the question chiasm asks you to ask

about the story. What is it in the middle that

changed the ending? Because you see here the

ending is not exactly the same as the beginning.

The ending, there's increase, but it's a greatly

increase. And now priests are called out as a

new group that's joining the church. So what

is it about that meeting of the 12 with the group?

What is it about that that changed the crowd

from just increasing to increasing greatly? In

fact, what is it about the crowd that changed

them from complainers to working together to

choose seven? So we're going to break it down

like this. Instead of a 15 -point sermon, let's

go for three. What happened? And we're going

to spend most of our time here. If you analyze

a story well, the lessons from it and the application

flow pretty quickly after that. So we'll dig

into what happened. Spend a little time asking

why it worked. And finally, would it work for

us? Let's take a look, all right? What happened?

This is an easy three points. There is a problem,

there is a proposal, and then there was a propulsion.

Propulsion as in propelling like a rocket, taking

off, lifting something higher. Let's dig into

the problem, and I need your help, okay? I'm

going to say a number of times, they had a problem.

And when I say that, I want you to say, what

kind of problem? All right, let's practice. They

had a problem. Here we go. There were rumblings

of discontent. People were talking, but the groups

in protest were not talking to each other. They

were talking to everybody else. And the rumors

were going around, and the speculation was going

around, and the assumption was going around,

and they had a problem. That was a little weak.

They had a problem. They had a communication

problem, and that wasn't all. The Greek -speaking

believers were Jewish, but they were from outside

Israel because their history included hundreds

of years of exile and not all the families returned

when they were allowed. And as those who lived

in exile had descendants, they adopted the language

of the empire, which was Greek. Like English

is a common trade language today, Greek is what

anybody spoke if they wanted to do business.

And so the Jews in the outskirts of the empire,

outside Israel, would learn Greek, but with every

language comes a new way of thinking. And the

Jews who spoke Greek absorbed some of the Greek

ideas and habits, and the Jews that were at home

considered themselves more pure than those who

lived outside. And so when the Jews outside who

spoke Greek would come to Jerusalem for festivals,

They could probably speak some Hebrew, maybe,

but they were recognized for who they were and

looked down on. They had a problem. They had

a cross -cultural problem. And then we have the

widows. Implied here that the widows did not

have any family to take care of them, because

the Jews were like many of the Asian cultures,

and unfortunately not my culture as much, but

they respected elders and cared for them. All

the way through life. Americans do do that. It

just looks different. But the widows who did

not have family to do that. Had a problem. Financial

problem. They needed someone to take care of

them. But put it together. Greek speaking widows.

From outside Israel. And there was a weirdly

high number of Greek speaking widows. In Jerusalem.

Because some of the religious teachers. in Judaism

had been spreading this idea. If you die in Jerusalem,

you get a better resurrection. And many of the

Greek -speaking Jews, they knew that was home.

And so if they could, they would move there.

And as is the case in our day, women often outlive

the men. And we end up with Greek -speaking widows

in Jerusalem with no family connections and not

enough Greek -speaking synagogues to care for

them. So they had a problem. Greek -speaking

women, no family connections, ethnic minority,

this was a triple vulnerability. And then the

Hebrew -speaking believers, they had their own

kind of problem. They were Jews. They were the

locals. And within the church, some of them,

it seems, were responsible for distributing food

to the widows who needed it. And they probably

spoke Greek, too, because it was the trade language.

But they probably, like we often do, we go back

and forth between our languages. And when we

get upset or emotional, we flip to our heart

language, right? And I don't know how this conflict

started. Maybe it was intentional, but maybe

it was something like this. Hey, all you widows,

make a line. But the speaker is speaking in Hebrew

because they forgot it's a mixed crowd. So the

Hebrew speakers get in line and all the foreigners

are bunching up in kind of like. And so the Hebrew

speaker remembers, oh yeah, switch to Greek,

get in line, back there. But then in the mind

of those who don't understand, the Greek speaking

widows are like, why is he yelling at us? Why

is he sending us to the back of the line? Why

did he tell everybody else they could go first?

And when you have a crowd of 3 ,000, how long

does it take for speculation and assumptions

to grow? It may have been innocent, we don't

know. But they had a problem. They had a language

problem. We experience this all the time, right?

That's not all. Discrimination. That was a real

thing. Within the Jewish religious system, let's

slow down just a little bit on this one. The

Hebrew -speaking Jews were the ones who controlled

Judaism. The local temple, the religious system,

the religious court called the Sanhedrin. They

were in control. And there was corruption in

the system. Jesus even called them out. When

he accused, in public, he accused the priests

of cheating widows out of their property. Taking

advantage of their lack of connections and legally

pulling fast ones so the property ended up. as

temple property or priestly property. And Jesus

called them out also when he flipped the tables

of the money changers in the temple, saying,

this is supposed to be my father's house, a house

of prayer for all nations, and you've turned

it into a den of thieves. Make the connections.

He's criticizing their exchange rates and flipping

the coins out because it didn't really belong

to those exchange people. They've been ripping

people off. So normal everyday priestly society

in Jerusalem practiced discrimination and took

advantage of people. And it seemed to be that

this problem had followed the believers into

the church. At least that was the rumor. They

had a problem. An assumed power problem. And

then word finally reaches the apostles, the guys

in charge. And the leadership team, I don't know

how long it took, but eventually they realized,

we better deal with this. This is threatening

our ministry. Jesus called us to teach and tell

what we saw him do before he died and after he

came to life. That's our job. And if we devote

ourselves to this ministry, they had a problem.

What kind of problem? they had a leadership problem.

So now it's time to turn to your neighbor and

let me give you a little guidance. You can share

something you heard that was wow or oh or what

and you can decide what those mean. Turn to your

neighbor and have a little chat about what you've

heard so far. Finish up in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5,

4, 3, 2, 1. Thank you. They had a problem. Wow,

all right. A multicultural, multilingual, multigenerational

problem. So let's get to the proposal. What was

so special about this proposal that changed the

problem into a propulsion? The apostles said,

we apostles should spend our time teaching the

word of God, not running a food program. And

so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected.

full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, we will give

them this responsibility, then we apostles can

spend our time in prayer and teaching of the

Word. Lo and behold... Oh, hang on. Sorry, this

is not working the way I thought. Don't look

at that! Let's talk about what they did not do

first. The apostles, in their proposal, did not

try to ignore it and hope it would go away. They

also did not blame the Greek speakers for being

extra sensitive. Would you just be quiet? And

they did not blame the Hebrew speakers for being

racist, greedy people. Would you just stop it?

They didn't try to fake or force unity. And this

is a double temptation to everyone in leadership.

You can fake the unity by refusing to deal with

it and telling everybody, get on with your job.

You can force unity by commanding a solution.

And sometimes leaders have to do that in crises.

But we can overdo it and force unity and shut

down disagreements. Instead, they invited the

whole crowd to forge. Meaning, enter the heat

of disagreement. Submit your heart to the uncomfortable,

awkward conversation. Stop talking about people

and start talking with people. And let the heat

of disagreement and the awkwardness soften the

heart until we can get a solution that works

for everybody. If you look here, even in their

proposal, it's a chiasm. The topic in their first

line, we apostles should spend our time doing

what? And at the last line, then we apostles

can spend our time doing what? Okay, here we

go again. And Luke, who authored this, is telling

us, go ahead, ask. Ask what is it in the middle

that makes that difference from... This is threatening

our ministry responsibility to, now we can devote

ourselves to it, and prayer. What is it? Well,

there's some criteria embedded in there. You're

going to pick some people, people that are well

-respected, which means they've been in the community

long enough to be known. Okay, it's not someone

who just walked in a week ago and, whoa, love

their speaking style, let's put them in charge.

They've been in the community long enough to

be known. And another criteria is that it should

be obvious these people are full of the Spirit.

What, full of the Spirit for mundane, everyday

administrative work? Yes, not just miracles.

What, full of the Spirit for table waiters? Yes,

not just for miracle workers. Another criteria

was full of wisdom, which just means they have

the skill to do the job. Put these all together,

and the apostles are telling the crowd, pick

based on character, not campaign promises, not

appearance, not speaking ability, and not because

they look like, think like, and vote like you.

Turn to your neighbor. Talk about the proposal.

Wow, or oh, or what? Up to you. And wrap it up

in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Thank you.

So we've talked about the problem. Multi -generational,

multi -lingual, multi -cultural problem. Their

proposal of getting people together. Now let's

talk about the propulsion, because this is very

interesting. Really? Come on, Luke, you've got

to be exaggerating. Everyone liked the idea?

This is not normal everyday conflict. Right?

How many times does that happen? Really? Everyone

liked the idea, Luke. The Hebrew -speaking majority

who just got the finger pointed in your face

saying, you're discriminating. They liked this

idea. Really? The Greek speakers? The minority

who was in danger? Maybe the discrimination was

real. They liked this idea. Luke says, yeah,

everyone liked this idea. And they chose the

following. Stephen, man full of faith in the

Holy Spirit. Philip. Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon,

Parmenas, and Nicholas of Antioch, an earlier

convert to the Jewish faith. Now what I did not

know, someone had to tell me, every name up there

is Greek. Do you think that's a mistake? Do you

think that's an accident? The majority Hebrew

speakers did not. Use their power to put their

people in charge. Another thing that shows this

outcome is very interesting. This propulsion

of the gospel is that three names in this list

are like a table of contents that you can click

and it sends you to the next chapter in the video.

Stephen, immediately after this story, gets two

and a half pages of text. As he does more than

wait tables, the Spirit is so active in him,

he's performing miracles. He's speaking the word

of God so powerfully, he angers competing groups

outside the church and they get him killed. He's

the first Christian martyr. Immediately after

Stephen is the story of Philip. Another one and

a half pages in the book of Acts. as he takes

the gospel message north out of Jerusalem to

Samaria, another ethnic minority that the Jews

did not like. And then the Spirit leads himself

to meet a royal official from Ethiopia, and the

gospel goes with him south. So Philip is a hinge

of gospel breaking out beyond Jerusalem. And

the final name in the list is Nicholas, and it's

not the guy's name, it's where he's from that's

significant. Antioch is almost the rest of the

book of Acts, because it's the headquarters of

a church that sent out the apostle Paul, who

then took the gospel to the rest of the empire.

See why the apostles followed the Spirit's leading

and said, Pick table waiters who are full of

the Spirit. When the Spirit puts you in charge

of anything, even a little thing, notice four

names up there. No story of it. They're never

mentioned again in Scripture. But they were part

of a solution that propelled the gospel. So,

God's message continued to spread. And in the

chiasm, the idea sandwich, this is parallel to

the complaining that was spreading before. Now

it's changed. And the number of believers greatly

increased. Now look, Luke has already said twice

that the day of Pentecost, that miracle resulted

in 3 ,000 people joining the church. And in a

later incident, Luke says, now we're up to 5

,000. I think by now he's just tired of counting.

All right? Greatly sounds like, yeah. And then

he calls out a group. Many of the Jewish priests

were converted too. This is the same class that

had just killed their Messiah a couple months

before. This is the same religious power structure

that conspired and successfully thought they

got rid of this Jesus thing. This is the same

power structure. That started the whole discrimination

problem and corruptionist system for real. That

was not speculation. This is the same power structure

backed by wealthy, aristocratic, elite influencers.

What changed? Why are they now joining the church?

These priests, before they killed Jesus, they

knew his teaching. That did not convince them.

These priests, They heard about the miracles

and probably saw some and met some of the people

that had been healed and that did not convince

them. These priests... heard about the resurrection

from eyewitnesses, and knew about the empty tomb,

and heard the story from the soldiers, and that

did not convince them. These priests in their

own city heard about the sign of flame, and flame,

and what's it, wind, and languages, and saw and

heard the miracle of understanding across linguistic

boundaries. And that did not convince them. These

priests saw Peter go from a Messiah denier to

a public courageous preacher. And that did not

convince them. But when the Holy Spirit took

out from under these same priests' influence

people who were an ethnic majority. and moved

those new believers to act contrary to the priestly

corruption in normal, everyday ethnic politics,

and moved these people to bless and empower and

honor and serve ethnic minorities who were vulnerable,

the priests saw the good of the good news, and

that convinced them. Got anything to talk about?

Turn to your neighbor. Wrap it up in 10, 9, 8,

7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Thank you. What happened?

We had a multi -generational, multi -cultural

problem. But a proposal from the apostles changed

the whole thing into the propulsion of the gospel

and the church expanded. So we've looked at what

happened, but let's ask why it worked. Because

chiasm asks us to ask a question. What happened

in the core that changed rumblings of discontent

to God's word spreading? What happened in the

core that changed multi -layered cross -cultural

mess? Everybody liked it. What happened that

changed believers increasing to believers increasing

greatly and priests? Let's take a closer look

at the proposal. Now here's the thing with chiasm.

When it asks you to ask the question, it doesn't

always answer it for you. The biblical writers

often set up the story and then require you to

talk with your friends and work it out. That's

okay. Here's what I think I've worked out that

you should talk at lunch or life group or sometime

later and say, is that really true? But I think

we can infer that it worked because the apostles

trusted the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit was

already at work in them and among them and through

them. Let me break it down. It's not that they

came up with a plan and then said, hey, Holy

Spirit, got something for you to do. No. It's

because they knew he was already at work following

the outline Jesus had already given them and

the way of life Jesus had already given them

and the work of Jesus on the cross given to them

and the Holy Spirit was pushing that forward

and outward and inward. And so you can infer

that the Holy Spirit had confirmed their calling

to be word workers and the Holy Spirit had not

changed their calling to be widow workers. Someone

else would have to do it. They saw the Holy Spirit

was already filling other people too. They had

that confidence and they trusted that the Holy

Spirit would foresee the need and prepare people

with wisdom to meet the need. It didn't have

to be all them. And the Holy Spirit would guide.

All the people to discover the people in their

midst that could fill the new need. The Holy

Spirit was at work in them to lift individuals

above their own self -interest and look also

to the interests of others. The Holy Spirit was

at work among them as a group to submit to the

apostles' leadership. and participate in their

proposal to find the seven needed. And the Holy

Spirit was at work through them to create a new

kind of community that was attractive to others.

Before you turn to your neighbor, apologize for

waking them up and then share what you've heard.

All right, wrap it up in five. Four, three, two,

one. We've looked at what happened. We talked

very briefly about why it works. Question, would

it work for us? Wrong question. It's not an it.

It's a he. Does he work for us? I mean, he has

our good in mind, but he works in us, among us,

and through us. He work in and among and through

us. I propose he already is. Look at the nations

in this room. Look at the nations if you get

to know people, people from cultures that actually

would prefer not to be in the same room together.

Over here, a few weeks ago, I met a guy, an American

like me, who told me as we chatted away that

he went to get his hair cut by an Iranian. If

your national leader were bombing another country,

would you let someone from that country take

sharp tools around your head? He was not reckless.

He saw it as an opportunity to show the love

of Jesus across geopolitical interests. See,

the answer to the world's problems is not winning

elections, winning wars. or getting higher numbers

in the polls. It's not getting your party to

have more control over more people. It's about

the Holy Spirit getting into us and ours to give

us the gift of self -control. The Holy Spirit

is at work, calling together a people from among

the nations who regard heaven as our primary

citizenship. Would he work in and among and through

us? I think he already is. Read this with me.

For God is working in you, giving you the desire

and the power to do what pleases him. Here we

go again. Standard English is a northern Midwest

dialect that has erased the plural. We have no

separate word for you, singular and you, plural.

But in the Greek, that's you plural. So I would

actually prefer a southern United States dialect

that should be read like this. For God is working

in you all. Giving. Now, after I did this, someone

came up and said, actually, there's a further

pronoun. It's called all y 'all. Okay. God is

working in all y 'all. Giving all y 'all. I'm

a Yankee. I just can't do this correctly. The

Holy Spirit's interested in the group. This helps

me so much in conflict because by nature I am

a conflict avoider. I stay quiet about things

and I don't have a strong sense of urgency until

I do and then I blow up and attack people. God's

been working on me and one of the ways he works

is he's given me this confidence. It has become

my prayer. when I'm facing someone that I think

is not treating me well, and when I coach others

through conflict. This is my prayer. Father,

I know your Holy Spirit works in me to transform

me. I trust your Holy Spirit's working in them

too. It makes a huge difference. He is already

at work transforming community, desire, groupthink,

and cultural habits. Read with me, please. Since

we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the

Spirit's leading in every part of our lives.

The plural pronouns are obvious there, addressed

to the group. Would He work in and among and

through us? He already is. He is leading. And

finally, I said this wrong in the first service.

It was not Jesus' final prayer request. It was

second to last prayer request. His final prayer

request was, Father, do I have to do this? But

your will instead of mine. The power of the creator

laid it down to serve those who are vulnerable.

And this community in Acts did the same thing.

Living out his second to the last prayer request

in John 17, where Jesus said, I am praying not

only for these disciples. but also for all who

will ever believe in me through their message.

He prayed for you. And in an eternal mind of

omniscience, maybe he even said your name. But

the prayer goes on. What was he praying for you

about? He said, I am praying that they will all

be Just as you and I are one. As you are in me.

And I am in you. And may they be in us. So that.

Are you ready for this? Why does he want us to

be one? So that. Read with me. The world will

believe you sent me. The strongest apologetic

to convince outsiders is how you treat each other.

And the Holy Spirit is desperate to answer that

prayer. I said I chose this story because it's

a normal, everyday, mundane, no miracles kind

of story. I was wrong. This is the miracle of

real unity in deep diversity. And the Holy Spirit

wants to do it again. When the Holy Spirit works,

differences that normally divide become opportunities

to display the gospel. So in true Pastor Pablo

tradition, I'll give you one question. Do you

trust the reconciling presence? I'm not going

to pray out loud. I'm going to invite you to

do business with your father right now. Just

be quiet for a moment while our worship team

comes. And you talk to your father about what

he wants to do in your group. Thank you for tuning

in to the ECB Sermon Podcast. Whether near or

far, if you are looking for community or are

in need of prayer, We welcome you to engage by

sending us an email to office at ecb .asia. If

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And remember to join us next week. God bless

you.