Acts 6:2-6: The Solution

Acts 6:2-7

2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

The Twelve did not force a solution on the church, rather they summoned the full number of the disciples in order to share the dilemma with them. They said, "It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables." before we go any further, let it be noted that there is no hint, no clue, no thought that the disciples apostles regarded social work as inferior to their work or beneath their position. This was not a question of position, as much as it was a question of calling. They had no 'freedom' to be taken away from the task Jesus had given them. So they proposed a remedy: pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

The delegation of social welfare to the Seven is commonly thought to have been the origin of the diaconate. It may be so, for the language of diakonia is used in verse 1 and 2, as we shall see later. Nevertheless, the Seven are not actually called diakonia. The church saw the point of the apostles remedy: And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. The next move was to commission them, so, these they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

Key Take Away Principles: What does this have to do with us? Short answer: God calls ALL of his people to ministry, and he calls different people to different ministries.

We must realize that it is not accidental that the work of the apostles who were to devote their time to studying, prayer, and preaching and those Seven who were to devote themselves to social needs, were both called 'diakonia.' Meaning, that neither ministry is superior to the other, and they BOTH REQUIRE people who are 'full of the Spirit' to execute them. So the difference is not in importance, rather in calling and gifting.

All disciples, without exception, are to mimic the one who came to serve, not to be served. What we often find though, is that the standards of preaching and teaching decline since the pastor(s) has little time to study or pray. The congregants do not exercise their God-given (mandated) calling, since the pastor(s) does everything himself. When this happens, we have a church that is hindered from growing into the full maturity that Christ has destined it to.

So, what happens when we do this? Well, lets look at the text: Acts 6:7, "...the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith." The word cannot spread when the ministry of the word is neglected.

So, far, we have seen three tactics which the enemy uses to destroy his church:

1. He tried kill it by force
2. He tried to kill it by hypocrisy
3. He tried to kill it from within through grumbling and complaining.

However, the apostles were intuitive when it came to satan's plans. So today, we need to use the same type of spiritual discernment to spot out the enemy's plans. We also need the faith the disciples used to make the enemy's attacks impotent.

The Problem - 6:1

Acts 6:1
Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

We have two opposing factors going on at the same time here in the same body, I guess it is true, for every action there is an opposite reaction. On one hand the disciples were increasing in number but on the other hand, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews. The word used here for 'complaint' is the Greek word, 'goggysmos' and is used to mirror the same action of 'complaining' by the Israelites against Moses. In fact, this whole birth of the church is a bit of a mirror of God's chosen people being called out of Egypt - opposition, complaining, messyness, etc, etc. The chosen people have been expanded from the Israelites to the church, and much like the Israelites, there is a 'complaining' at a root level - rather than having the 'chosen' people complain to Moses because he took them out of Egypt, but wasn't handling the rescue mission the way they wanted him to; we have the 'chosen' complaining at the Apostles who had received the 'relief money' and was not distrubting it the way the people saw fit. Their complaining was around the care of the widows, which we must note, that God had promised to take care of and defend in the Old Testament. So, the church had continued in and accepted this responsibility and a daily distribution of food was made to them. But there were two groups in the Jerusalem church: (1) the Hellenistais and the (2) Hebraioi. The Hellenistais were complaining against the Hebraioi because their widows were being overlooked in the daily giving of food. We are not told that the oversight was deliberate, but rather we are left to assume it was poor administration and management.

Many seperate the difference of the Helenists and the Hebrews by orgin and language, however, what we are dealing with here, is the difference of culture. In this case the Hellenists not only spoke Greek but thought and behaved like Greeks. Where the Hebrews not only spoke Aramaic but were deeply immersed in Hebrew culture. Richard Longenecker says, "What is needed here is some such translation as 'Grecian Jews' and 'Hebraic Jews'." There had always been rivalry between these groups in Jewish culture; the tragedy is that it was perpetuated within the new community of Jesus, who had obliterated the distinctions.

So what are we to make of this? So far we see a mirroring of the Old Covenant people, but we also see a mirroring of the Modern-Day Covenant people. How often are we ready to complain without having a solution to offer when our 'culture' is overlooked, confronted, do put on the back burner, due to new leadership, we have to remember that the apostles were new to this, their heart was to be like Jesus and lead like Jesus, their mistakes were not intentional. But, how ready are we to willingly to believe and take offense at our leaders because we assume they must be putting our culture behind theirs. The problem I see here is not so much that the problem was brought to the Apostles attention, but in the way it was done. The text specifically tells us they were complaining and does so in a way in which it mirrors the OT People's complaining that God hated so much. But also that they didn't come with was a solution. In today's world we know this, when people are willing to flag the problem without giving their idea for a solution, they really don't care about a solution, they don't care about the other party, they care about self, which is satan's number one scheme - the focus of self.

What we have is Satan trying to destroy the new community from with in. The last couple of chapters we see Satan trying to destroy this new community from without, but the result was a strengthend church, so he tries a new tactic, "Kill them from within..."

The apostles discerned that the unity of this young church was being threatened by Satan attempting to draw them (the apostles) away from their time in prayer and the word, which Christ had specifcially entrusted them with for the preaching and teaching of his word!

The Bible assures us that Satan is out to kill, still, and destroy us, and at a larger level, he is out to kill, still, and destroy the church from doing what she was meant to do, fill the world with the glory of God. Let us also be as wise as the apostles, and not be quick to blame, or to seperate ourselves, but let's realize that just as Christ wanted unity in his Body, Satan's goal is to defeat us with dis-unity. And if we are not knowledgable of his attacks, we will focus our fight, our selfishness, and our rights on other humans, rather than waring against the serpent.

Seven are Chosen and Commissioned - 6:1-7

Acts 6:1-7

6:1 Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. 2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. 7 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Today we are going to just focus on the text, read it, and then the next several days we will unpack verses 1-7

The Conclusion - 5:40-42

Acts 5:40-42

40 ...and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. 42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

What we see here is the complete opposition of the prosperity gospel. They obeyed God, then shouldn't they walk away safe and secure. I guess not, rather they walked away with their backs ripped open, bleeding, and probably very weak, yet they were rejoicing that they had the opportunity to suffer not just a beating, but also dishonor for the name. And this dishonor and physical beating didn't lead them into a prayer to 'make a deal' with God, ya' know the, "look if you protect me, then I will obey you...if you bless me, then I will obey you..." Rather with no promise of life, no promise of security, and their immediate reward being dishonor and physical torture they continued every day, in the temple and from house to house...teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

Here we see a manifestation of the Sermon on the Mount. With verse 42, Luke concludes his account of the first two waves of persecution. In the first Council a simple prohibition and a warning led the apostles to pray to God for boldness to continue in their preaching, and in the second the courage they received which led to continue preaching resulted in dishonor and physical torture, which led them to even lift up God more.

Satan has never given up the attempt to destroy the church. History calls us to simply view those like Nero who imprisoned and executed Christians, more than likely including Paul and Peter; Domitian oppressed Christians who refused to pay him the honor of a God and was probably the one who exiled John to Patmos. Marcus Aurelius believed that Christians were dangerous and immoral, so passively turned a deaf ear to those who 'just happened' to war against them with violence. Decius murdered thousands of Christians including Fabian, Bishop of Rome, for refusing to sacrifice to the him as deity. Diocletian issued four edicts which were intended to stamp out Christianity altogether by burning churches, confiscating scriptures, torturing church leaders, and revoking citizenship from Christians, and executing many others. We see Satan's work today or in recent history with the Marxists, Hindu's, extreme Islamic movements, etc.

However, we need not fear for the church. Tertullian screamed out while being tortured to death, "The more you mow us down, the more we grow; the seed is the blood of Christians." Bishop Festo Kivengere said in February of 1979 on the second anniversary of the martyrdom of Archbishop Janani Luwum of Uganda, "Without bleeding the church fails to bless..." Persecution will refine the church, but not destory it. If it leads to prayer and praise, to an acknowledgement of the sovereignty of God and of solidarity with Christ in his suffering, then - however painful - it may even be welcome.

So, how does this very historical log speak to us today, especially those of us who have never been persecuted? I believe the practicality of this, is that God is in all things. God is always on the move sanctifying us to be more in the image of his Son, Jesus. If we are to look at hardships, loss, pain, or loneliness as God's sovereignty sanctifying us rather than a fatalistic perspective, I believe that we too can be built up and changed for the good of humanity and the glory of God!