Acts - 17

Acts - 17

Acts 6:1-7

Introduction

In grad school I researched and wrote a paper on the rapid growth of the Church during the second century. Sounds riveting, right? After the Church is established in the first century and takes off, as chronicled in the Book of Acts, what happens next? Once the New Testament record ends, how do things progress further? The second century proved to be the season of the Church’s life in the world when it grew the most (percentage wise). More rapidly than in any other period of Church history. Why?

Church leaders made dramatic shifts in how the Church was going to be led. It became more lean and agile, able to make quick decisions and respond quickly to issues it was facing. This speed of leadership decision-making enabled the Church to ‘turn on a dime’ and maneuver through all the crises it faced. Because, while this was a season of rapid growth, it was also a season of rampant problems. The Church faced two primary issues, one external and one internal.

The external problem was continued persecution. Once persecution started in Acts chapter 4, it just continued over the centuries. Christians were being arrested, killed, ostracized, and kicked out of the Roman Empire. This obviously made the Church more agile in its decision-making because they didn’t know who was going to live through the week or if someone would be in jail. So power couldn’t be centered on just one person in case that one person was no longer around.

The internal problem was false teaching. Countless false teachers arose and would lead people astray. Though the New Testament letters were all written by then, they were not all readily available to everyone. They couldn’t just email copies of Paul’s letters around. They had to make copies of it by hand and then hand-deliver it across the world. That takes time. So in the meantime, some Church leaders are teaching what makes sense to them. What they want to be true. Not necessarily biblical truth. The Church needed ways to be able to quickly step in a remove those false teachers to protect the purity of the Church.

The Church’s response to these two problems was to enable quick decision-making to fix the problems. And because they were successful in their strategy, the Church took off and exploded in growth. God’s Church has always had its problems. And when they are faced head-on, and leaders make good decisions, it enables the Church to continue to thrive. That is what happens in Acts 6. So far, the Church’s problems have mostly been external…persecution. Now they will face a huge internal problem. One that will force the leaders to change their tactics.

Acts 6:1-7 - Now in those days, while the disciples were multiplying in number, there was grumbling from the Hellenists against the Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food.

2 So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not pleasing to God for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.

3 Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this need.

4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the service of the word.”

5 And this word pleased the whole congregation, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch.

6 And these they stood before the apostles, and after praying, they laid their hands on them.

7 And the word of God kept on spreading, and the number of the disciples continued to multiply greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.

TS - let’s take a few minutes and walk through the text together. We begin with…

THE PROBLEM (V. 1)

Notice how the account begins…v. 1 - Now in those days, while the disciples were multiplying in number…Herein lies the problem they are facing…they are growing in number. People are placing their faith in Jesus all around them. People are taking an ownership to grow their faith. The disciples are multiplying in number. And that can create problems. You have a bunch of non-Christians running around exploring the faith. They have questions that have to be answered. They still hold on to some of their non-Christian ways that have to be addressed. On top of all that, you have a bunch of new Christians, ones the NT calls ‘infants’ in Christ. You ever been in a room full of babies and toddlers? It’s chaos. They are trying to walk and falling down. They are breaking stuff. They are making messes. That is what is happening in the Church. All that has to be dealt with by the leaders.

Their growth created some administration problems. End of v. 1 - there was a grumbling from the Hellenists against the Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. A grumbling? Gee, that is surprising, church people never grumble! It is a grumble, a complaint, from the Hellenists against the Hebrews. Who is that? Hellenists are Jews who speak Greek. They were either born in Israel and had moved somewhere else in the Roman Empire and picked up on Greek culture, or they were born elsewhere in that pagan environment and now have moved to Jerusalem. The Hebrews are the Jews who speak their mother tongue, Hebrew.

When they were still worshiping with their fellow Jews, there were different services for them in their respective languages. They are still Jewish in the cultural sense, but have placed their faith in Jesus for salvation and are now part of the NT Church. And one group’s widows aren’t getting their fair share like the other group’s widows. Widows were especially vulnerable in ancient cultures. All inheritance went to the sons to continue the family name, never to the wife or daughters. So if a husband dies, and especially if she has no sons, she is in trouble. No social programs to help her. The ancient Israelites obeyed God’s clear laws to care for widows in their midst. And the NT Church carries on that same pattern. The NT carries much teaching on caring for widows, orphans, and the vulnerable who are in the Church. Already, the Church obviously has some sort of benevolence program to provide daily food to widows in the Church.

Why are the Hellenists being overlooked? Two possibilities: first, it could be intentional. There is a very real race issue here. This is those who are true Israelites with that heritage and those who come from a pagan heritage. Insiders and outsiders. Hellenists could come from any of the various cultures within the Roman Empire. They are foreigners in Jerusalem. Or maybe it isn’t race, but spiritual elitism. The Jews who grew up speaking Hebrew were considered the most pure in their faith. It was a badge of honor. In Philippians 3, the Apostle Paul offers a spiritual resume. In it he refers to himself as a “Hebrew of Hebrews.” This is what he means by that…he spoke ancient Hebrew. Meaning, his family were devout and pure in their faith. Very much unlike those who speak Greek, the common language of the day. Not pure. Not a long heritage of faith in their background. So there could be a ‘we are better than you’ thing happening.

But I don’t think any of that is happening here. So far in the first five chapters of Acts, all that is stressed is the unity of the Church. There is no hint at all of division, either by race or by religious elitism. Both issues will come up later in Acts, but there is no indication that is happening here. So the more reasonable conclusion is that this overlooking of these widows is unintentional. It is brought on by the chaos of the church’s growth. The Apostles who are leading the Church, who are over the funds designated for helping the people, are overloaded with their responsibilities and need some help. This is an administrative problem, nothing more. But it is still a problem that has to be fixed.

THE PLAN (V. 2-6)

V. 2-6 - 2 So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not pleasing to God for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.

3 Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this need.

4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the service of the word.”

5 And this word pleased the whole congregation, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch.

6 And these they stood before the apostles, and after praying, they laid their hands on them.

This is a brilliant plan and strategy, with layers of brilliance. This is obviously a major problem, so they gather all together to solve the problem together. The Apostles are clear on their calling from the Lord and are unwilling to sacrifice that. End of v. 2 - It is not pleasing to God for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. It is ‘not pleasing’ literally translates as it is ‘not right’ or ‘not acceptable’ that we forsake our direct calling from the Lord Jesus to do something else. The Apostles were clearly tasked by Jesus to preach the Gospel and to teach Scripture to the disciples. That is their role. What will happen if they skimp on that and focus on this administration problem of food? Well, what will happen is the same thing that happens in churches today when they neglect the preaching and teaching of God’s Word and focus on all the practical things of church life.

The preaching immediately becomes weak, because there is no focus on the study of Scripture throughout the week to prepare for the worship gathering on Sunday. Classes and studies are cancelled in the name of serving in the community. Study goes out the window so that the more practical means of helping people can be accomplished. That is always a mistake. Because you end up with a Church full of activists, not disciples.

And even that is limited because it is the church leaders who are trying to do it all. Not only are they still doing the prep work for preaching and teaching (limited and poor as it is), they are also now in charge of the administration stuff and running a daily food program. They are doing it all. So really you end up with a group of leaders who are burned out, frustrated, and Church full of people who aren’t even given the opportunity to serve because the leaders are doing everything. Weak preaching and teaching, no emphasis on the Bible, and no opportunities for people to truly serve. That creates multiple layers of devastating spiritual immaturity.

But they get it right here. The Apostles are going to focus on what Jesus has called them to do. And they are going to share the ministry with the people. They are to choose seven men who have spiritual qualifications…notice they aren’t chosen for their administrative gifts. Instead they must be devoted Christians who have the wisdom to deal with potentially sensitive relational issues. It isn’t their skill that is most important. It is the depth of their faith and their ability to care for people well.

V. 5 - And this word pleased the whole congregation…this is probably the greatest miracle recorded so far in the book of Acts! The leaders in the Church made a decision and everyone was pleased with it!!! That never happens. They choose the seven men, most of whom we have no idea about them. We know more information about two of them…Stephen and Philip, the first two mentioned. And we only know what we know because the narrative of Acts is getting ready to focus on them for a couple chapters. The other five, we never hear of again. Because serving Christ is not about making a name for yourself. The Apostles commission them to serve and off they go. Problem solved.

THE PRINCIPLE

What do we do with this? We don’t have the same issues they had. We don’t deal with a daily distribution of food and widows being overlooked. But we do deal with the same stuff in principle. This Church is growing. Disciples are multiplying. That can create some issues. Things can be overlooked. People can be overlooked. What is the solution? Well, we know what the solution is NOT. It is not to have the staff and elders take over and run everything. That has been tried in the past. This Church had a nasty habit in the past of over-hiring and making all ministry done by paid professionals. That is a mistake. It creates the issues we highlighted before…weak preaching, almost no emphasis on the Bible, and no opportunity for people to serve because the staff is doing it all.

So here is the solution, here is the principle we pull from Acts 6 to implement - TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR SOMETHING YOU CARE ABOUT. That is what the Apostles did for sure. You guys take care of this food problem. Get qualified men to ensure it gets done. We can’t do both. If we focus on the ministry of the Word AND the ministry to widows, both ministries will suffer. V.4 - But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the service of the word.

That is what the Apostles care about. Not because they don’t care about the widows, but because they know the Lord had called them specifically to a particular form of serving. They care about being obedient to the Lord. They care about leading the Church faithfully through prayer and Scripture. They must carefully guard that or they will get distracted and focus on something else.

One scholar sees this account as just another attempt by the Church’s enemies to take it out in its infancy stage. They tried persecution and it didn’t work. They tried corruption (Ananias and Sapphira) and it didn’t work. Now they try distraction. Get the Church off their focus on the Bible and it will fall. But thankfully the Apostles saw what was happening and addressed it.

Take responsibility for something you care about. Not only did the Apostles do this, but these seven men did this. Remember, it is the Greek Jews who are being overlooked. And wouldn’t you know it…all seven names are Greek names. Absolutely brilliant! You guys are going to care more about this than others. These are your people. It’s a Greek problem, pick Greeks to fix it. Take responsibility for something you care about.

Maybe you care about little kids being taught the Bible to help form the foundation of their faith. Great. Take responsibility for that and get involved in Children’s ministry. Maybe you care about students having a safe space to ask questions and a group of caring adults who can help them as they figure out how to navigate their life and faith. Great. Take responsibility for that and get involved in Student ministry. Maybe you care about meeting the practical needs of a specific group of people in the community. Great. Take responsibility for that and make it happen. Maybe you care about people feeling welcome at Church and having a positive experience here. Great. Take responsibility for that and get involved in Hospitality ministry.

See how this works? Figure out what you care about and take responsibility for making it happen. It is not the elder’s job to do that. It is not the staff’s job to do that. It is your job to do that. Everybody has a role to play and ministry to serve in. And none of those ministries are less than any others. When the Apostles say in v. 2 that they aren’t going to neglect Scripture to ‘serve tables’ they aren’t looking down on serving tables. They just know it is not their calling. Whether it is preaching the Gospel or feeding widows, they use the same word to describe it. V. 1 - the daily serving of food; v. 2 - to serve tables; v. 4 - service of the word. It is all described as serving.

THE PAYOFF (V. 7)

And notice the result of all this. V. 7 - 7 And the word of God kept on spreading, and the number of the disciples continued to multiply greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.

The word of God kept on spreading. Why? Because they focused on it! They ensured that someone was keeping the preaching and teaching of Scripture as the Apostle’s top priority. They didn’t skimp on preaching the Gospel. They didn’t neglect opportunities for people to gather and study the Bible. Therefore, the word of God spread.

And when that happens, so does the rest of verse 7…the number of disciples continued to multiply greatly. Where the Word of God grows, the Church grows. Where Scripture is focused upon, disciples will be found there. Where needs are being met, needy people will show up. And notice as well, that the ministry of the Church invades into a new realm. Now, a great many of Jewish priests are converting to faith in the Lord Jesus. Even those who are the most involved and sold out to the Jewish faith are abandoning that and trusting in Christ. What could cause that? The Word and the Witness of a faithful Church will change the world.