The Holy Spirit is active even in the midst of great calamity, we just need ears to hear.
Notes
Transcript
Acts 6 to 8 is full of turmoil and conflict. Yet the Holy Spirit is still active, even in the midst of calamity.
Acts 6 to 8 is the first real test of the churches committment to valuing all people equally.
Up to this point it had been all about the Apostles and their ministry.
There had been the powerful test and example made of Ananias and Sapphira when they had lied to the Church and to God and been struck down as a result.
There has been the test of Peter and John when they had been dragged before the Council and told to stop preaching in Acts 4.
There had been the test of the Apostles when the High Priest, filled with jealousy, had the Apostles arrested and dragged before the High Council and flogged in Acts 5.
But there hadn’t been any real test of the whole community.
And in Acts 6:1 we find a test that shaped the future of the church.
1 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.
Now it seems that those from the Jerusalem area, those who spoke Hebrew or actually Aramaic as their primary language may have seen themselves and their own as more important as they discriminated against the widows who were from Greek regions and spoke little or no Aramaic.
We are not talking about Jews and Gentiles here.
The church was entirely Jewish at this time, made up of those born into the Jewish faith and those who had converted to Judaism.
This was a case of Jewish widows from the regions whose primary language was Greek being left out.
Everyone spoke some Greek, it was the common trade language of the time but many Jews outside of Judea didn’t speak the Hebrew or Aramaic language of Judea, they only spoke Greek.
These Jews were sometimes looked down on by those who lived near Jerusalem as they were often not as strict in their observances as those who lived closer to Jerusalem.
So for all of these reasons and probably many more a particular subgroup of the church were being left out.
This was a significant test for the nature of the church.
Concern for widows is a very strong theme in Scripture.
The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Widow)
The community of God is given special charge to care for the widows (Exod 22:22; Deut 10:18; 14:29; 24:17; 24:20–21; 26:12–13; Psa 146:9; Prov 15:25; Isa 1:17; Jer 22:3; Zech 7:10).
In Deuteronomy, care for widows is linked with care for orphans and strangers. This may imply that these three populations were particularly vulnerable in ancient Israel.
The oppression of widows can bring God’s retribution; the presence of a great number of widows may be proof of God’s displeasure with a community (Exod 22:24; Deut 27:19; Psa 94:6; Isa 1:23; 10:2; 47:8–9; Jer 15:8; 18:21).
In the New Testament, Jesus criticizes those who abuse widows (Mark 12:40; Luke 20:47). James 1:27 defines religion in terms of caring for orphans and widows.
In the Roman society of New Testament times there was a cultural and legal expectation that a widow, especially of child bearing age would remarry.
This context may explain the tension between Paul’s insistence that unmarried women and widows remain unmarried (1 Cor 7:8), while 1 Tim 5:14 calls on younger widows to marry and bear children.
The term grew to include all women without a husband and goes some way to explaining why the church should have a particular concern for widows, divorcees and single mothers as women who are more vunerable to being exploited.
So here we have a group of vunerable women, being discriminated against by those who should have known better, and this division becomes a real test for the early church.
Will they protect the vulnerable?
The response of the church became the catalyst for the Holy Spirit to empower others for great witness
In Acts 6:2–7 we read of the Apostles decision and the churches response
“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. 3 And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. 4 Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.” 5 Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the Jewish faith). 6 These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them. 7 So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.”
The Tyndale Commentary tells us that “The choice of seven men corresponded with Jewish practice in setting up boards of seven men for particular duties. The men chosen were to be distinguished by their possession of wisdom (6:10; 7:10, 22) and the Spirit, i.e. a wisdom inspired by the Spirit; we may recognize a parallel with the appointment of Joshua (Num. 27:16–20).” (TNTC Acts: An Introduction and Commentary (a. The Appointment of the Seven (6:1–7))
There is actually no hint in the Scriptures that this is a lessor role as the qualification for the task is Spiritual and two of those mentioned went on to have a ministry of preaching the word with great results.
And their names indicate that they were men from Greek speaking regions.
Their job was to ensure the church treated the vulnerable in their midst fairly.
And as we see in the following chapters the church community as a whole passed its first major test.
7 So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.
Through the next few chapters we see incredible calamity and incredible growth as the Holy Spirit continues to be active through peope who have ears to hear and a willingness to obey.
Through the rest of Acts 6 and 7 we see Stephen one of the men chosen to protect the interests of the vulnerable in the church performing many miraculous signs and miracles, preaching the word of God boldly and as a result offending those who didn’t want to hear of their need for God’s grace through Christ.
Eventually the High Council of Israel murders Stephen in Acts 7:59-60.
A great persecution breaks out in Acts 8:1-3.
The church is scattered with the result that the Gospel was taken outside of Judea to Samaria in Acts 8:4-8
The Apostles on hearing that the Gospel has been taken to Samaria send Peter and John to check on things.
The new believers receive the Holy Spirit and in Acts 8:14-17 and then in Acts 8:25 we find that Peter and John on their way home to Jerusalem take the Gospel to many Samaritian towns and villages.
Then in Acts 8:26 an Angel of the Lord sends Philip another of those seven men chosen to protect the vulnerable in the church south towards Gaza and in the middle of a desert road he sees the opportunity.
A man, a high official of the ruler of Ethiopia, reading aloud from the book of Isaiah.
Grasping the opportunity Philip explains to the man the prophecy concerning Christ in Isaiah 53:7-8 which he was reading.
Talk about an opportunity served on a platter.
Church tradition tells us that the ancient churches of Ethiopia were founded when this man brought the Gospel back to his country after his encounter with Philip on the road that day.
Then in Acts 8:40 Philip finds himself in Azotus, taken there by the Holy Spirit in beam me up Scotty style.
This place is also known as Ashdod and Philip preached the Gospel there and all the way along the coastal road to his home town of Caesara.
The Holy Spirit is active even in the midst of great calamity, we just need ears to hear.
Just as the early church was willing to do when faced with a test.
They didn’t know that a dispute about fairness and the need for protection of vulnerable widows would be the catalyst for the Gospel to be spread outside of the immediate environs of Jerusalem to lands as far away as Ethiopia.
