Dennis Tuuri

Seven we’ll be reading today the subject is ordination. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. And in those days the number of the disciples was multiplied. There arose a murmuring of the Grecian against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, “It is not reason that we should leave the word and serve tables.

Wherefore, brethren, look ye out of among you, seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Steven, a man full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Procorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, whom they set before the apostles.

And when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them, and the word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. We thank God for his word and pray that he might illuminate it to our understanding. You may be seated.

We continue to speak relative to the acts of Christ through his church. That’s what the book of Acts is all about. And specifically, we’re dealing for the fourth time with the ordering, the reordering, the reorganization of the church to feed the world.

And today we’re going to talk about ordination. And so you’ll need those outlines and we’ll go ahead and speak to the concept of ordination in the context of today’s sermon.

Now, we’ve been talking about this particular account for several weeks now. And, you know, you read this account and some people can sort of say, well, it’s sort of like things that happen in our own life. Problems come up. We then take steps to correct the problems and as it turns out things turn out differently in the end anyway and it’s better than we originally anticipated.

So they had this problem of feeding these Grecian widows and they met the problem but the problem really was not the end result of what happened. The satisfying of the problem—rather we see Steven and Philip going on to preach. Steven became a martyr, to die the noble death of martyrdom for the Lord Jesus Christ. Philip went on to Samaria and was involved in the evangelization of that area and then baptized the Ethiopian eunuch.

And so we say, well, you know, it’s just kind of the way things work out. You know, you have these odd circumstances that happen. But as a commentator writing in a book explaining the episcopate ministry mentions, and I’ll quote him here: Luke didn’t have this particular conception of the way things work out. He says, “Well, let us listen to St. Luke who thinks that history is not accidental but providential and who records nothing out of mere factual curiosity.”

When we read the account of Luke, whether it’s in the Gospels or here in the book of Acts, we read from a man who was of course a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and who understood the radical nature of that belief and understood that facts are not brute facts. Things just don’t happen. They happen at the decree and in the providence of God. And so the way Luke records his history for us both in the Gospels and here in the book of Acts is significant.

And he writes it in such a way and Luke particularly does this in his oratory style as to help us to see that significance if only we would look at it in terms of a whole Bible approach.

And so for yet one more time, we’re going to look at the larger context for the subject of ordination now in the first portion of our sermon. And you’ll see from your outline, we’re going to look at ordination relative first to the book of Acts and then secondly, ordination in context of ordination relative to Numbers, chapter 11.

We’ve talked about that before, but I’m also going to mention earlier chapters in the book of Numbers and then finally the Gospel of Luke. And as I said, much of this material is found in an article out of a book. The book is entitled Essays on the History and Doctrine of Episcopacy. And there is a particular article in that book called “The Ministers in the New Testament” written by Reverend A.M. Farrer.

And that article particularly is very refreshing in the whole Bible approach it takes to see some of the events that Luke wants us to connect—this seemingly desperate incident, this coincidental picking of men to meet a particular need who then turn out meeting a different kind of need.

So let’s first of all look at the picking of these men relative to the context of specifically the first nine chapters of the book of Acts.

And so for this portion you turn over to the outline entitled “The Acts of Christ through the Church.” I’m sorry, that’s the sermon outline. You have to turn over to that portion, that outline entitled, “An Overview of Acts 1-9, a Rough Draft, October 9th, 1993.” And as I said, this is a rough draft. I’m still working on this outline, but I want us to see the flow of what’s happened till now. And hopefully I’ve repeated it enough till you begin to remember it well and look at these things as you go through your own reading of scripture.

Now, the first thing that happens in the book of Acts, the setting for the entire rest of the book, I believe is found in the first half of chapter 1. And you remember what happens there? Jesus ascends, but he does so after a specific question from the disciples. They say, “When will the kingdom be restored to Israel?” And Jesus says, “Well, I’m not going to tell you any times. It’s not for you to know. It’s for the Father to know in heaven. But wait in Jerusalem and you’ll receive power and you’ll be witnesses of mine to Jerusalem, Judea, the specific Jewish context of the area, the tribe of Judah originally in which Jerusalem was found. Then to Samaria.

Now Samaria is, you know, kind of like bastardized Jews, so to speak. They fell into idolatry early on. And so that northern portion up there in Samaria particularly, it involves people who have kind of taken the Jewish, the Hebrew faith, mixed it with other things. And so they don’t worship and originally the context was idolatrous worship not at Jerusalem, but still believers in Yahweh. And then finally to the uttermost parts of the earth.

And I believe that the answer is to the question. It doesn’t ignore the question, give a separate answer. Jesus promises I believe in the first half of the chapter of the book of Acts—chapter one rather—is two things: that indeed the kingdom will be restored to Israel those who rule for God, the church which is the new Israel and that will happen as a result of them going back to Jerusalem waiting for the empowering of the Holy Spirit who then equips the church as it marches into history to disciple all portions of the earth. And so that’s what Jesus says will happen in the book of Acts and in all of history and that gives us the proper context to understand what happened. The ordination of these seven whatevers they ares in Acts chapter 6 is in relationship to that promise from Jesus. And as we’ll see here as we go on, it’s very specifically in relationship to it.

The second major portion of the book of Acts then is the commissioning of the 12. It’s very interesting after he gives this promise, the first thing they do is they go back to Jerusalem. They wait, but they see that it is necessary and Luke thinks it’s very important to record the making up of the 12 that this mission might be accomplished. And so that’s what happens.

First, these 12 then go out and evangelize Jerusalem and begin also to evangelize Judea. They remember the day of Pentecost happens. There’s four specific incidents here in recording of the 12 as they evangelize where Jesus told them to start with, which was Jerusalem and then Judea. The evangelization begins in the day of Pentecost. And we have there a typological salvation of the entire world.

But they’re all gathered at Jerusalem. And so the apostles in a sense reach to the uttermost parts of the earth, but actually they’re evangelizing Jerusalem and people who have come into Jerusalem. And so that’s the first things that happen—four major events that are recorded in these first few chapters of Acts relative to the 12 evangelizing Jerusalem and Judea.

Secondly, they then have a healing of the lame man at the gate of the temple. He can’t get in. He’s lame and he’s healed then. And remember, Peter then preaches his second sermon and that sermon has to do with the restoration of all things being pictured, of course, in the man being healed. And so that’s the second major element as the apostles continue to evangelize Jerusalem and as their power and strength grows, as their empowering from God grows, healings going on, etc. And they get into the second major aspect, the restoration of all things as pictured by the healing of the lame man.

The next major incident recorded for us is the Ananias and Sapphira incident in which they lie to the Holy Spirit, lie to the church, by doing so lie to the Holy Spirit, and as a result are judged and found by God executed. God slays them. He does it through, however, the word of the apostles again. And so the 12 are seen here in restoring now justice to the church of God. Discipline within the context of the church is an important element of its maturation as the 12 not just evangelize but disciple Jerusalem.

The fourth element then is the selection of the seven. And this is to meet a specific need which we do not want to overlook. While it has greater significance, the specific need being met is important as well. And that need is the exhibition of mercy and grace, acts of loving kindness.

The responsive reading we ended with, we ended with the recitation from the book of Micah. What are the three things God requires of man? To do justice to love mercy and walk humbly with him. If you try justice, you try mercy without being humble to God, you become idolatrous and you become either conservative, Republican or liberal, Democrat, whatever. But you’ve lost your sense of the scriptures. Humility to God in his word is defining what justice is and defining what the extension of grace and mercy is.

And those two elements, justice and mercy, are seen as the New Testament church matures and as Jerusalem is discipled by specifically the 12. And you notice the 12 had two spokesmen as well in these early chapters. That’s Peter and John, two men.

Now, we said that this particular incident, the extension of mercy is the specific context in which the passage relative to ordination is found. And we have there that the Greek world is hungry. And the subtitle I’ve given to this is that the feeding of the world in the restoration of mercy. Restoration of mercy is demonstrated through the feeding of the world.

The world again has been converted typologically or not typologically but as a symbol through the gathering of the nations to Jerusalem. It says in that first second chapter rather that all nations of the earth were there. It wants us to think that way about what happened. Luke does and God does and these all these nations now are and they’re particularly represented the gathering of the nations by the Grecian elements of the Hebrew church.

Now these were not non-Jews. These were still Jews. Okay? So I put the word Greek in parenthesis. I don’t want you to think here too much of the Greek Jewish distinction that will come about primarily through the seven going out into Samaria and then into the uttermost parts of the earth and Paul. The mission of the 12 is to evangelize specifically Jerusalem and Judea but however they are kind of half Greek because they’re Jews but while they’re Jews many of them are proselytes and the distinguishing characteristic is they don’t speak Hebrew they speak Greek okay and they use the Greek Septuagint the preparation of the Old Testament in Greek. And so their customs and traditions are Greek.

So they’re really kind of a separate element in the context of the Hebrew Jewish church and then now the Christian church. The converts from Judaism. Some converts are Hebrew. Some converts are Greek in their language and in their culture. And these Greek widows then need to be fed. The Greek world then is hungry.

The widow in scripture is always seen as those who truly understand their need for a husband. That husband is the Lord Jesus Christ. Elijah went to a widow and the church is seen as a widow. And that’s why we’re supposed to show grace to widows. Ultimately, it’s a picture of our widowhood, our lack of a husband, so to speak. Adam originally, the first Adam, being executed by God. Well, in any event, the Greek world is then hungry. And the seven then are appointed to meet this particular need.

And the world then, Jew and Greek, and again, now you know, I know this is kind of stepping into an area that it goes too far. These were not non-Jews. They were still Jews, but they were Hellenistic Jews as opposed to Hebrew Jews. And the world then by way of picture is fed through the appointment of the seven and blessings then come upon the church. The word multiplies and the word of God grows.

And that’s the important thing. The demonstration of mercy along with the demonstration of justice is not to the end that people are fed physically. It’s to the end that the word of God grows and more and more people are brought into the church of God. Signs and wonders are accomplished throughout all these things. You have the sign and wonder originally of language, people hearing the language of the day of Pentecost.

And there were other signs and wonders talked about as well. The sign and wonder of a healing of a lame man. Other signs and wonders occur as well. The sign and wonder of God slaying those who would lie to him and pervert the church of God. The sign and wonder that’s followed by other signs and wonders in the context of that text. And here the sign and wonder of people being willing to give of their substance to then feed the Greek world, so to speak, is also a sign and wonder, followed by other signs and wonders as well.

And so, have this fourfold growth as the 12 evangelize Jerusalem. Well, throughout these you have opposition of course and the opposition that we’re coming up to we’ll deal with next week is the martyr most Steven and that’s death. That’s death is the final opposition that we are faced. But even there just as Peter and John are released from jail several times in the early persecutions. So Steven is released so to speak from the jail the hold that death would have upon him.

The Lord Jesus Christ has brought, bought us deliverance from the slavery and bondage that’s a result of death and fear of death. And so Steven is freed from death as the Lord Jesus Christ appears to him and receives him unto himself. We’ll talk about that next week.

So in all these incidences, the church is victorious. Even in death, the church is seen as victorious. And the 12 then have evangelized to the point of now exacting persecution to the point of death and demonstrating the victory of Jesus Christ even over death. They’ve evangelized and discipled Jerusalem and Judea. And that’s the context for the seven.

The seven here, the appointing of the seven is a transition to the rest of the book of Acts, which has to do with eventually the calling of Paul to evangelize now Samaria and then the uttermost parts of the earth. And so the seven that are appointed in the context of that, Steven and Philip, just as Peter and John represent the 12, so Steven and Philip here represent in a way the seven.

They’re the two who are mentioned and they are mentioned in a very specific way. Steven relative to martyrdom and Philip then relative to preaching the word going into Samaria. And so the fourth major element of this book after the promise of the evangelization, discipling of the world, the restoration of the kingdom after then the fulfilling of the 12, the 12 then go out and evangelize Jerusalem and Judea.

Remember that the cities around Jerusalem were coming to be healed. Remember that. And so Judea is represented there as well. And so then the seven are composed as the 12 was completed so that they might then prove the transition for the discipling of the uttermost parts of the earth.

The seven are ordained as the 12 were made up and now then those seven move out and specifically they move out into Samaria. After this the persecution comes after the death of Steven a great persecution. It’s very interesting the 12 remain in Jerusalem because their original context and original call is to disciple Jerusalem and Judea. And I think probably and we’ll talk about this later but there’s probably some elements in which because they were Hebrew Jews, Hebrew Christians, they probably don’t suffer the same amount of persecution as now these Hellenistic Christians do.

And so the Hellenistic Christians are driven out and the Hebrew apostles stay there. But in any event, they’re driven out and specifically into Judea and Samaria. They’re scattered forth as the scriptures tell us. Philip then goes to Samaria and evangelizes. And so, Philip, who was called unto serve tables, now becomes a minister of the word as opposed to simply a minister of tables or administration. The administration of the word is in the context of the evangelization of Samaria stretching out now from Jerusalem and Judea.

And Philip goes and men are converted there. Signs and wonders accompany Philip’s work. And then we have the conversion of Simon the sorcerer. Very significant when we get to that, the relationship of the gospel to magic. And Simon the sorcerer is converted. And the apostles then are brought to Samaria. Philip does his work. But the apostles then come. It’s when the apostles come to Samaria and to the people that have been evangelized by Philip.

It’s the apostles’ presence that brings the gift of the Holy Spirit to those believers. So the spirit doesn’t come upon these people just through the evangelization of Philip. The apostles’ presence is manifested by the gift of the spirit given to those converts. And that’s when Simon the magician says, “Wow, these apostles can lay hands on people and give them the Holy Ghost. I want to be able to do that. I used to know some magic. Maybe I can do that stuff.”

But the context for that is not Philip. The context is the members of the 12, the 12 represented in Peter and John who come through laying out of hands produce the fullness of salvation and blessing as we’ll see relative to the imposition of hands.

And then of course Philip is then seen dealing with the Ethiopian eunuch and there we see by way of sign again what’s going to happen the conversion of the uttermost parts of the earth. The Ethiopian eunuch comes from a long way away and Philip converts him and he’s baptized by Philip. And that leads up then. And the next thing that happens in the book of Acts, the very central thing, the next thing that happens is the call of who later will be renamed Paul by God and Paul of course is the apostle, the 13th apostle, the apostle to the Gentiles.

And so you see the ordination of these seven and the fact of this ordination is in the context of this big flow of the book of Acts—the restoration of the kingdom to those who would rule for God, the evangelization discipling of the world, the 12 made up to disciple Jerusalem and Judea. The appointment of the seven is a transition then that ordination is a transition of the preaching of the gospel to Samaria in the uttermost parts of the earth. And that’s the context in the book of Acts.

Now, this correlates well, as we’ve said before, with Numbers 11. Remember, we said that turn in your scriptures to Numbers 11. I don’t think we’ve actually taken the time to go through this very well, but it’d be good just to briefly touch on this.

In Numbers 11, we see a very similar set of circumstances happen to Acts chapter 6. And it’s really refreshing by the way to see various commentators in this case Episcopal ministers see this correlation and draw some very good conclusions out of it. In Numbers 11 we see the context for the ordination in Acts chapter 6. I think that the corollaries are so clear that Luke has specifically put them in the account.

God first of all made them happen and Luke saw fit to record them as a way to take us back to Numbers 11 and think of what’s going on here. You see in Numbers 11, the people begin to complain in verse one. In verse four rather, the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting and the children of Israel also wept again and said, “Who shall give us flesh to eat?”

You see, it’s a food problem. They want food to eat, not enough food, they’re thinking, and they fell lusting and complaining. And it’s the mixed multitude. You know, when the people of God came out of Egypt, they didn’t come out all physically from the loins of Jacob. No, there were many who were converted. And those converted Jews, now that’s what they were. Those are the ones who begin the mumbling about the food in the wilderness.

It’s going to lead to the appointment of 70 men here. You see, it’s the mixed multitude. It’s the Hellenistic Jews, so to speak. Okay? It’s the Egyptian Jews. Now, we don’t want to put them down, but the point here is that as the gospel penetrates—in the gospel in the Old Testament, the provisions of Yahweh for grace and forgiveness of sins. As that penetrates the world in which Israel finds itself, problems ensue.

They’re always going to happen when you convert people out of a different culture and background. And that’s what’s happening here. The blessings of God have led to a multiplication of the people through the preaching of the word typologically through the Passover and deliverance from Egypt, etc. And that mixed multitude then begin to start the complaining about specifically food just as in Acts chapter 6.

Fixed with a mixed multitude, the Hellenistic Jews as a result of the blessing of God and the multiplication of the church. They have a problem making sure their widows get fed in the daily ministration or food provision. And it says that then Moses cries out to God in verse 11. Moses said, “Lord, wherefore hast thou an afflicted thy servant? Have I not found favor in thy sight? Have I conceived all these people?” In verse 12, “Have I begotten them that thou shouldst say unto me, carry them in thy bosom as a nursing father?” Verse 13, “Where should I have flesh given to all this people? They weep unto me.” Verse 14, “I am not able to bear all this people alone because it is too heavy for me.”

Just as the apostles were unable to bear the administrative burden of the tremendously multiplying number of disciples. So Moses here is unable to bear this burden and he cries out to God and God provides a means. In verse 16, the Lord said to Moses, “Gather unto me 70 men of the elders of Israel and these men who are elders will also then be officers over them and bring them under the tabernacle of the congregation.”

There is an ordination that occurs here and two men are apart from the rest of the people in the context of Numbers 11. This group of 70—let’s see in verse 17 I will take of the spirit which is upon thee and shall put it upon them. They shall bear the burden of the people with thee. And so Luke tells us that the 12 impose hands upon the seven. God takes of the authority and responsibility of the 12 and confers it upon the seven the same way that God took the authority and responsibility of Moses and the spirit of wisdom from Moses and puts it upon the 70 for the sake of administering to meet this specific problem.

And these men then prophesy and then we have the provision of the quail that comes and so obviously the 70 is seen in providing food and helping the administration of the people rather relative to the quail.

Then down to verse 24. Moses went out, took the people in the word the people, told the people the words of the Lord, gathered the 70 men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle. The Lord came down in a cloud and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the 70 elders. And it came to pass that when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied and did not cease.

But there remained two of the men in the camp. The name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Midad. And the spirit rested upon them, and they were of them that were written, but were not out unto the tabernacle. And they prophesied in the camp. And there ran a young man and told Moses and said, “Eldad and Midad do prophesy.”

And Joshua gets up then he says, “Oh, you know, forbid them.” And Moses said, “Would to God that all the people of God were prophets.”

The specific two that are singled out here for the manifestation of prophecy in the camp of Israel are two men, Eldad and Midad. And so what do we have after the ordination of the seven correlating to the ordination of the 70 in Numbers 11?

We have two men, Philip and Steven, who are specifically singled out for us relative to their prophetic speaking forth the word of God and God blessing them. And so the corollaries are very close.

Now, we won’t turn to these chapters, but suffice it to say that in chapters 1 and 2 and then again in chapter 7, there’s a different group of men who are represented. Those men are the 12 princes of the tribes of Israel. Numbers 1 is a census, and that prepares the way. Numbers 2, a listing of the princes of the different tribes, the 12 tribes. And so you have the 12 princes who are first of all in the book of Numbers.

You remember Numbers is about the conquest of the promised land. They’ve been delivered by God’s grace out of Egypt. They’re marching toward the promised land. It’s the organization of the people for the conquest of the world again. And what happens? We have the 12 specifically singled out in Numbers 1-2. Their offerings, a great deal of attention is spent on their offerings in chapter 7. Mentions each of them by name. Each of the offerings are the same. It lists them all out.

Telling us again and again the importance of these 12 men and then the construction of two horns is made in Numbers, I believe it’s chapter 10. Remember one horn is for the calling of the princes to them the other horn is for the assembly of the congregation—parallels to our Senate and House of Representatives but in any event it’s talking about these two different groups and so you have the 12 in Numbers 1-10 and you have the 70 in Numbers 11 and that is the ordering of the people for the conquest of the land.

Now, Luke is writing to people that understood all this stuff. They knew the Old Testament, and yeah, they had to think about it somewhat what was going on. But, you know, if we were more familiar with our scriptures, we’d see these same correlations. We’d see that Luke is calling upon the ordination of 12 and then 70 in Numbers 11 and telling us that this is going on.

But there’s even more evidence to that than these verses in Numbers 11.

Additionally, we have Luke’s own gospel. And while I won’t take the time to turn to it now, I’ve listed some references there for you. And let’s just kind of summarize this for you. What happens in the Gospel of Luke in the chapters that I’ve listed on your outline, specifically chapters 9 and 10, is another 70 similar to the seven, same number times 10, 70 are ordained. And it follows the instructions to the 12.

And specifically in chapter 9, Jesus specifically makes reference to the 12 and prepares them then for their ministry. And then goes on in chapter 10 to ordain the 70 and specifically the text says the 70 are to go forth to wherever Jesus himself would go to prepare the way for him so to speak and that is seen in the context of Jesus’s visit to Samaria and Jerusalem as well but Samaria those are the two places that are mentioned and he commissions the 70 to go out to prepare the way for him the same way that John the Baptist was preparatory to the Lord Jesus Christ.

So these 70 go out then to the land where the Lord Jesus Christ will visit and as a result you know you know you probably know the story the 70 find success and they come back and they report the signs and wonders that God had done through them the same way he’ll do signs and wonders through Steven and Philip and Jesus rejoices and that’s when Jesus says I saw Satan falling from heaven.

You see the army is organized typologically again the 12 and the 70 are there to go forth and preach the gospel. And here in the book of Acts, that’s what Luke rather wants us to think about as he records the setting aside of these seven and then immediately talks about two of them like Eldad and Midad prophesying who go forth as the 70 do into Samaria and who have success then.

Now, Steven didn’t go forth, but the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is pictured there as well. In the resurrection, Jesus goes forward in the form of Philip to evangelize Samaria.

See, all these things are so important for us to see because of the big thrust of the context for understanding what ordination is all about. It’s interesting. We’ve talked before about why seven. Well, it’s very interesting that it does correlate well to the 70. And it’s also interesting in this. There are seven epistles that Paul writes to churches in the New Testament. Only seven. And they’re all to Gentile churches.

They’re all to that Samaria, Judea, and the uttermost parts of the Samaria in the uttermost parts of the earth that Paul is specifically apostle to. Seven. Again, how many letters are there in the book of Revelation to the churches? Seven again and Paul is seen as always referring to these things in terms of sevens and it’s a picture from God of the going forth of the gospel into the fullness of all the earth.

That’s what the 70 and then the seven represent in Paul’s writings. David Chilton in his commentary on the book of Revelation talks about the letters to the seven churches and mentions how the astronomical references in the book of Revelation and elsewhere are interesting and it’s interesting that the Pleiades of course is the constellation that has seven stars clustered about and Chilton says this is found in the constellation of the house of Taurus which was associated at Easter time with the sun and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Without getting to all the astronomical references suffice it to say that the seven of the Pleiades is placed in the sky relative to the coming of springtime, the coming at Easter and the coming of the sun which relates to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and so throughout these epistles for instance the seven churches Jesus says I’m going to come and remove your lampstand if you don’t repent you see the seven are out there preparatory to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The same way that the seven are sent out a route of their ordination in Acts or at least correlated by Luke and his account to this going out. You see, all these things don’t happen by chance. All these things are one picture from God. That picture of one is that ordination is linked to the progressive capturing of the world, the discipling of the world by the Lord Jesus Christ. And specifically the stages in which that’ll occur in the book of Numbers.

Now what does this mean to us?

Well, for one thing, I hope it gives you a sense of awe and wonder at the scriptures, to see the unity in those scriptures and to see the value of understanding the whole of God’s word. You can’t understand Acts chapter 6 if you never read and think about and meditate upon Numbers 11 and the Gospel of Luke and the letters to the churches of the book of Revelation. You’ve got to understand and meditate upon the word of God to see how it relates to itself.

That’s one thing that’s important is to see the awe and wonder of that and to see the ordination specific context. Then the way that Luke records for us the organization of the church and its ministry is specifically in reference to the church as a conquering force to go out and preach the gospel to evangelize the world and disciple men and nations.

I think it has something to say about the way missions are done as well. I think that the fact that God sends these Hellenistic Jews out, all seven of them have Hellenistic names to evangelize then Samaria and out into the uttermost parts of the earth, I think is significant for us in terms of who we then see in terms of missionary activity.

I think that you could make a correlation between this and the requirement that many mission agencies are beginning to see the wisdom that is of turning over missions, foreign missions as early as possible to indigenous peoples to people from that culture who have been converted by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into a fullness of salvation through letting it conquer their own perception of their life.

There are those things to be seen. But I think the greater picture I’ve tried to point out for you here is that this is not some chance little event. Ordination isn’t a chance event to meet a particular thing, but then it turns out something different. No, no. The point of this is that there is a significance to the details of what happens in history.

And don’t think of it somehow that in this particular act in history, this choosing of the seven, those things are significant, but other things are not. No, it’s so hard for us to see the significance of God’s word relative to our daily affairs and relative to the daily tasks that God has called us to do. Because we were all born and bred in this country particularly good humanists and more than that good secularists who see all the world as removed in its basic details and the facts of the world who see it removed from significance relative to the hand of God.

You know it’s interesting. I was listening to a radio show this morning of James Montgomery Boyce preaching and he said the term secular actually means originally age. Secular means it doesn’t mean that you never attribute meanings to things. What it really means is you attribute meanings to things is determined by the spirit of the age in which you live and the spirit of the age in which we live says the meaning is extracted from God.

Eventually people see mystery in the world around them. But they do not ascribe to that the providence of God at work to love, defend, grow, and mature his covenant people. But that’s what it’s all about. That’s the wonderful story that’s unfolding for us here is God’s moving in history to love his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. And every detail of your life is a ministration of God’s love, grace, and sometimes chastisement. That’s love as well to you as you are in the Lord Jesus Christ to correct, mature, and to cause you to go from glory to glory as the 12 and the 70 became more glorious than the apostles and the seven sent out into Samaria.

So, I want you to rejoice in the facts of your life and to see that they all have meaning and to continue to combat in your thoughts and what you convey to your children this terrible notion that these facts are removed from the person and work of God in his ordination.

You know, it’s interesting. I watched a baseball game. The playoffs are going on and the other night this fellow named Bartist, I think his name was, playing for one of the two teams. He was the goat in the ninth inning. Brought in as an expert fielder. Then he made a fielding error which allowed the other team to tie the game up and send it into extra innings. You know, he was the goat. But then in the 10th inning, he comes up to bat with runners on base and he knocks in the winning run and now he’s a hero and he’s actually carried off the field on the shoulders of his teammates.

Doesn’t happen much in baseball, from goat to hero over one inning. And the interesting thing about Bartist as well is that the commentators were saying in the sporting event there that the last time he had made a fielding error was August 15th, nearly 2 months ago. And the last time he had another RBI, a run batted in was that same day on August 15th. Interesting, isn’t it?

And you know, if you watch baseball very long, you know that these things happen all the time in baseball. These funny little coincidences, these patterns appear throughout a baseball season. Part of that is because people are so enamored of statistics in baseball. They watch those things. They correlate them and they look for patterns.

Why do I bring that up? I don’t think you have to sketch out the global significance of Bartist making an error and RBI on August 15th and two months later doing the same thing and becoming a hero in a championship playoff game. But the point is that it demonstrates over and over baseball does and all of our life does the statistical regularity of God’s providence that the things happen in relationship to a person behind all of this. These things are not unrelated. There is no brute factuality. It is almost as if the world is so filled with meaning that our schools have to self-consciously attempt to take all meaning away from it and make you think that it’s a disordered mess.

It is not. And the ordination of the seven here is one more indication to us of the continuity of God’s word, his hand of providence, and the affairs, the reordering of the church. But more than that, I want you to see it in application to your own lives that your lives are filled with significance.

I saw another movie “Grand Canyon” a while back and you know the two messages from that movie. It was you know I mean the non-believers in the world all they have to work with are the facts that God has ordained and the reality that he has ordained. They can twist it. They can try to distribute glory to somebody else but they have that to work with. So frequently they’ll speak very important things.

Grand Canyon that movie was about two things. One the relative insignificance of man to the Grand Canyon but two The continual theme throughout it was as people tried to do the right thing, the good thing and take responsibility for their actions in small ways, great changes were brought about to the positive for people in which they came into contact with. And you see that’s a true message.

We have to be humble before God. It’s very important because our pride always wells up. But the other side of that is you have to understand the significance of your daily actions. You know, it’s kind of like chaos theory. A butterfly flaps its wings here and something different happens halfway across the world. Well, I don’t know about that, but I do know that your events in your life are very significant and God is at work in them.

And so, he wants you to realize the great importance of your daily affairs. When you teach your children, when you discipline your children, when you provide a meal for your family, when you go to work and do the mundane things that are involved at work, I want you to recognize this. And, you know, you can’t dwell on this too much, I suppose, but it is certainly true that all those things are part of God’s will for your life, and they have significance to them.

And if you do those things correctly, if you do those things in obedience to God, repenting of your sins and trying to be faithful in the small things of life, great changes will happen in your life and the life of your children, the life of this church as well and the life of the community around about us as a result of your tiny little efforts that the scriptures I think affirm that.

So first of all, ordination is seen in that context.

Secondly, ordination in the scriptures is connected as it is in the chapter in Acts chapter 6 with the imposition of hands. And so I want us to just look briefly at what the laying on of hands, an overview of it from the scriptures. We can do this real quickly, but it is important as it’s important to see the big overarching pictures of scripture. It’s also important to see the specific details recorded in things such as ordination.

Ordination can be said in general simply to be the acknowledgement of somebody to serve in a particular capacity. And specifically here we’re talking about to the institutional church. It is not always accompanied with the imposition of hands, laying out of hands in other words. I mean Jesus when he chooses the 12 there’s no laying out of hands. He does eventually breathe on them which is quite significant. And when he tells them receive the Holy Ghost and then when he ascends he ascends blessing them with both of his hands. There’s no laying on of hands.

Matthias there’s no hands laid upon him. Partly that I suppose is because God has specifically elected Matthias but all suffice it to say that all ordinations are not connected with the laying out of hands but a few are significant ones are and so it’s important that we see what is portrayed in the ordination of officers relative to the church and specifically through the right of laying out of hands.

The laying out of hands is used to mean to show or demonstrate several things and I’ve list them for you on your outline here and you can see I’ve listed them in bunches.

The first one is identification with sacrifices. This is a rather obvious one in the sacrificial system. There were certain offerings where the priest himself had to lay his hands on the offering. Some the high priest had to do. Some the offerer himself had to put his hand upon the offering that was going to be offered on the sacrificial table. And so there is identification is what’s being shown here. The sinner comes up. He lays his hand on his offering. That offering then is killed. And he’s acknowledging that he is identified with that animal and that he really is the one who is killed by God or should be killed relative to his sins.

And eventually there’ll be another one to come. The Lord Jesus Christ, Messiah who will take upon himself the sins of the sinning congregation, the sinning member. So identification is certainly seen in the laying out of hands in the sacrificial system.

Secondly, there’s transmission of health and resurrection frequently in the Gospels and I’ve listed some references there. The laying on of hands has to do with people being healed. We’ll see that with Paul later in the book of Acts as well. He lays hands on people and they’re healed. And even we have instances where a typological at least or an actual resurrection occurs. A small daughter who dies off the man the father comes and says to Jesus lay your hands on her that she might be raised up.

The book of Revelation we have the Lord Jesus Christ laying his hands upon John. John sees a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ and falls down as if dead. The text says the Lord lays his right hand on him and says come back up. You’re okay. I’ve forgiven you. I have the keys of death and hell.

Every Lord’s day we go through that confession of sin absolution. The absolution is in a sense the laying of Jesus’s hands on you and saying raise up. It’s okay. You’re alive again. You’re in resurrection power in me. So the laying out of hands is involved with identification, but it’s also involved with health and salvation and resurrection.

Now to that end, the laying out of hands is a symbol then of the wholeness of God and his life-giving power being conveyed to the one whose hands were laid upon them.

And then the third set here, transmission of the Holy Spirit in wisdom or a gifting. And again, we won’t turn to the scripture references, but in as the apostles go to Samaria. It’s through the imposition of their hands that the Holy Spirit is given. And that’s why Simon the magician wants to be able to do that as well. Lay his hands on somebody has somebody get the Holy Spirit. So the laying on of hands is connected with the transference or empowerment of the Holy Spirit and specifically to a gifting as well.

Timothy is reminded by Paul that he receives some sort of gifting at his ordination at the laying on of hands of presbyters. Another incident in Timothy Paul says on my laying on of hands from the bishop so to speak. And so this laying of hands produces a gifting. It’s interesting in the references I’ve given you on the outline relative to Joshua. You know, God tells actually we should probably read this text. I won’t have you turn it, but I will read it.

Well, let me I’ll wait for a couple minutes to read it and we’ll come back to this point as well. But suffice it to say that in one account of Joshua’s ordination, it says that Joshua was full of wisdom and so Moses took him and ordained him and put his hands on him and gave him a charge. In Deuteronomy, it says that Joshua was full of wisdom because Moses had laid hands upon him.

And so these seven who are picked out, the wisdom that they are said to possess is seen in correlation to Joshua. And by the way, that’s significant as well. There Luke doesn’t just point us back to the 70. He also points us to Joshua’s ordination and the importance of the victory than that’s accomplished through Joshua.

But in any event, Joshua and these seven are gifted, but they receive more gifting from God as a result of the ordination. They go from glory to glory. And so the laying on of hands is the transmission of the Holy Spirit. That spirit is one of wisdom or gifting. And it’s particularly wisdom or gifting for the task at hand.

Remember we said that wisdom shouldn’t be extracted out. Wisdom is the application of the spirit, spiritual truth the Holy Spirit teaches us relative to the particular calling he gives us to do.

The fourth set of things is blessings. Blessing of the penitent perhaps in 1 Timothy 5:22. That’s the verse where Paul writes to Timothy. He says, “Lay hands on no man suddenly, lest you partake of his sins. Some people think that means that Timothy shouldn’t ordain people too quickly. But other good commentators think that’s talking about the laying on of hands. If a person’s sin, became penitent, was brought back into fellowship, the bishop, the pastor, the elders, whatever it was, would lay hands upon the person as a sign of their acceptance back into the household of God.

And so he’s warning Timothy here, don’t bless people’s repentance too quickly and partake of their sins. You bring them back in before they’re really penitent. That’s a bad thing. And so it could be the blessing upon the penitent. It could be ordination. But certainly Jesus blessed the children in the gospel accounts. There’s the blessing of inheritance in Genesis 48 with the imposition of the hands upon the younger and the older being switched.

Remember that in terms of Jacob’s blessing the children. And so the blessing of inheritance comes in. It’s interesting that we could talk about Jesus blessing the 12 as he leaves with his hands upraised. Now actually I am upraised. They receive the inheritance of Jesus the giving of the spirit. Calvin says that the resurrection, the ascension of Christ is really the other side of the giving of the Holy Spirit. Those things happen as a result. They’re one event.

And so it was that Elijah’s successor, Elisha, received a double portion. That’s relative to inheritance. He got a double portion of the inheritance that was due to the first son. So Elisha was adopted, so to speak, by Elijah. And as a result of Elijah, Elisha receiving the inheritance of Elijah and the blessing there, he received the double portion of Elijah’s strength and so the apostles as well received the inheritance from Jesus.

Well, in any event, actual land inheritance is converted by the imposition of hands as well. Which one got the double portion of course is what’s being emphasized in Genesis 48.

And then cursing and judgment as well. It’s very important. If you do a word study of laying out of hands in the Bible and you say give me all the occurrences, you’ll see a great number of them have to do with laying hands on somebody to kill them or to get them in some way. And God is said to have laid his hands in the text quoted here upon Pharaoh and Egypt when he delivers his people out of bondage. Okay. And so God lays his hands in a judgmental sense upon people as well. Not simply a blessing but there’s also a cursing aspect to it.

And then finally ordination to office or function and along with that increased authority and responsibility. And now we’ll read from Numbers 27.

The Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit and lay thy hand upon him.” And as I said there are correlations in Acts chapter 6. The ordination we’re considering to the ordination of Joshua in the same way as God Moses selected or appointed Joshua. So the same way they the apostles had the seven selected and appointed and they then laid hands upon him. Well, in any event, we’ll continue to read.

“Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit and lay thy hands upon him and set him before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation and give him a charge in their sight. Verse 21, ‘He shall stand before Eleazar the priest who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim before the Lord. At his word shall they go out and at his word they shall come in both he and all the children of Israel with him even all the congregation.’ And then in verse 23 ‘he laid his hands upon him and gave him a charge as the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses.’”

What’s going on? Moses is through laying out of hands transferring his office the authority of his office to Joshua. That’s one thing he’s doing. Joshua has increased responsibility.