Resolving Matters of Material Needs

Transcript

GR 1591
02/06/11
Resolving Matters of Material Needs
Acts 6:1-7
Gil Rugh

The book of Acts in your Bibles, the 6th chapter. The Spirit of God has directed Luke the beloved physician to record the history of the early church. And particular as we have moved through the opening chapters of Acts, these were exciting days, new days, and new things happening within a relatively short period of time. These followers of Christ had undergone some tremendous events. The Savior, the Messiah that they had followed, that they had served and ministered with for three years on this earth had been crucified. What a shattering event that was for them. Then He was raised from the dead, spent forty days ministering to them at various times and in various places. Then in Acts 1 He ascended in their sight back to heaven after promising them that He would send the Holy Spirit and they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came. What a remarkable statement. These men who had traveled throughout Palestine, healing the sick, being part of the powerful ministry of the Son of God, that they are told they will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them to be witnesses in a new and dynamic way representing Jesus Christ and proclaiming the message concerning Him. And so these early chapters of Acts have been a record of the power of that ministry. And people are hearing the word, people are being saved. The church is growing.

Look back in Acts 2:41, the result of that first sermon on the Day of Pentecost, to those who had received his word were baptized. That day there were added about 3,000 souls. You come to Acts 4:4, but many of those who had heard the message believed and the number of the men came to be about 5,000. Then you come to Acts 5:14 and all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number. So these are days of great growth. The word of God is prospering, if you will. And great numbers of Jews are turning to Jesus Christ and placing their faith in Him.

Persecution has arisen very quickly, particularly focusing in the leadership of the nation Israel. And as a result of miracle accomplished by the ministry of Peter and John and the proclamation of the clear gospel, that persecution has intensified, led by the Sanhedrin. But what an opportunity it presented for the followers of Christ to stand in the presence of the ruling body of Israel and proclaim to them the Savior that they had crucified, had been risen, was seated at the right hand of His Father in heaven, had sent the Holy Spirit with displaying the power of God through their ministry. So even persecution was providing a great opportunity that caused the followers of Christ to rejoice. Acts 5 concluded with verse 41, they went on their way from the presence of the Council after having been flogged, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. And every day in the temple and from house to house they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

You come to chapter 6; the Holy Spirit directs the record in a real way. It's not just all the high points—people getting saved and more people getting saved, but persecution developing and suffering taking place. But there is also difficulty within the church. We saw some of that already in chapter 5. Hypocrisy led to the death of Ananias and Sapphira. Now we come to chapter 6, there is further difficulty and stress. Some ordinary, what we would call mundane matters have to be taken care of. The people of God are functioning together. It's wonderful that people are getting saved; the church at Jerusalem is growing. That creates its own pressure and its own tensions. There are matters that have to be taken care of. We sometimes look at just the high points of what is going on. The reality is there is daily ministry that has to take place.

And chapter 6 gives us some insight; these opening verses, into some of what we might say are more mundane, everyday kind of activities. Also gives us insight into how the devil continues to work. He raised the potential of unfaithfulness, difficulty, conflict in the ministry with Ananias and Sapphira. That was dealt with in a very open and direct way, when God took the lives of Ananias and Sapphira.

Now potential conflict arises in the church between two groups, two groups of Jews who had the potential to divide the church at a very early time. Another occasion for Satan to try, if you will, to get his foot in the door. They create dissension in the church, even in its early days. It also provides the occasion for some necessary development to take place in the church, to expand it in significant ways beyond just the ministry of those early apostles.

The first seven verses focus on this early situation and a division over taking care of widows. You'll note how chapter 6 begins. Now at this time while the disciples were increasing. And that flows out of what we had in chapter 5, the ministry of the word going on. And while the leadership of Israel has responded strongly in opposing that ministry, the Spirit of God is using the word and people are being saved. The numbers are growing. So it's while the disciples were increasing, people are being saved, that a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews. Now you know blessings can become their own challenge. And it's exciting that number grow, but numbers growing puts pressure on. And that has happened in the church here. Even with the increasing numbers, that means there are more needs to be met, which create more potential for disagreement and conflict.

The Hellenistic Jews and the native Hebrews. We've added the word Jews after Hellenistic and put the word native before Hebrews. The Hellenistic Jews, and remember the church is just Jewish at this time basically. They haven't carried the gospel in any direct way to Gentiles. The Hellenistic Jews were Jews who had been part of the Diaspora, the scattering outside the land. Some of them may have left Jerusalem and been gone for years, some of them were probably born outside of the land and then had occasion to come back as the Jews have that desire which draws them back to their homeland. But being out of the land they had adopted the Greek ways, the Greek culture, and the Greek language. Whereas the native Hebrews, those born and raised in Palestine, they had the culture of the Jews of the land, the language of the land. So you have this potential. Even though both groups are Jews, they have different culture, different language. Now they are brought together in one body. And the conflict arises over the Hellenistic Jews thought that their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. The taking care of widows, the Jews had been taught back in the book of Deuteronomy it was set out for them clearly that the Jews were to take care of the widows and orphans. So here there is a particular focus on the care of the widows. But these Hellenistic Jews said their widows were being neglected. More attention and provision was being made for the native Jews.

When it says a complaint arose, this indicates a rather serious matter. This morning some of us were talking about the word here—goggusmos, that word like our word murmur that carries the sound of what it is. Murmur, that undercurrent of complaint with that murmuring associated with it. Goggusmos, that complaining, that grumbling, that murmuring. So you see now there is an undercurrent here as one group of Jews is complaining, grumbling about what is going on in the church. And our widows are not being provided for. Some money is being given because the church has been caring for widows in need, but they are neglecting ours. It’s something that can have disastrous conflict among the people of God. It doesn't seem like it is as major as some of the other things that might go on, but it is an issue that God takes very seriously.

Come back into the Old Testament, to Exodus 16. People in the wilderness. Back up to Exodus 15:24, so the people grumbled. And when you get to the Greek translation of the Old Testament, we have our word goggusmos, often translated as grumbling. The people grumbled at Moses saying, what shall we drink? You come down into Exodus 16:2, the whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. Verse 7, in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord for He hears your grumblings against the Lord. Wait a minute; they are grumbling against Moses, they are grumbling against Moses and Aaron. Now God says this is what the situation is, this is personal. You are grumbling against Me. He hears your grumblings against the Lord. Verse 8, for the Lord hears your grumblings which you grumble against Him and what are we? Your grumblings are not against us but against the Lord. Verse 9; come near before the Lord, for He has heard your grumblings. Then God says in verse 12, I have heard the grumblings of the sons of Israel. That just almost over repetition of that word grumbling. Then you bring in, this is against the Lord. So you see the seriousness of the situation.

Come over to Numbers 14. This is not over food and water; this is when they get the report back, the rebellion and the grumbling of the people. Verse 27, how long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are grumbling against Me. And the punishment there is death. All those twenty years of age and older are going to die in the wilderness, never see the land because you grumbled.

When you come into the New Testament, come over to I Corinthians 10. And here the Spirit of God tells us we are to learn lessons as the church of Jesus Christ from what happened to Israel in the Old Testament. And in I Corinthians 10:6, these things happened to them as examples for us, that we would learn not to crave evil things as they craved, not to be idolaters, not to be immoral, not to try the Lord. Verse 10, nor grumble as some of those did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these happened to them as an example. They were written for our instruction. We are the church of Jesus Christ today; we are to learn lessons from what happened to Israel and their activity in their history. We are not to repeat that as God's people.

Turn over to Philippians 2. And you'll note if you follow that line of things we were to learn from Israel's history, and it puts immorality in there and rolls right into grumbling. Often in the church today, immorality is a serious sin to deal with. Grumbling, well that's just what people do. Grumble, complain, murmur, and find something they don't like and stew over it, complain about it. Serious sin in God's sight. In Philippians 2:14, do all things without, and here is our word, grumbling, or disputing. So that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among who you appear as lights in the world.

So come back to Acts 6. This is a serious matter that gets the attention of the apostolic leadership of the church at that time. Verse 2, so the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples. We're going to address this problem and deal with it. It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. So we are not going to take upon ourselves this additional responsibility of handling these matters. That would draw us away from the ministry of the word of God. And you see the potential for problems that can be created. This not only has the potential of dividing the church at this early stage between the Hellenistic Jews and the native Jews of the land, but it also has the potential to distract and turn the church away from the proclamation, the teaching and preaching of the word of God. You can see how it seems to be something of not great significance is of great significance. You divide the church at this early stage and what are we going to end up with? A Jewish church that now is divided among two groups and then the apostolic leadership of the church is no longer concentrating on their ministry of the word of God and are doing things that are very important but not most important—the ministry of God's word.

So verse 3, therefore, brethren, you select from among you seven men. This is a significant number here. The qualifications—they have to be of good reputation; they are to be full of the Spirit, men who live under the control of the Holy Spirit of God that we as believers have each received; men who are full of wisdom, they are capable of handling decisions that have to be made here, administering the necessities here. So men of capability, godly men. It says men of good reputation, good testimonies is the word there. So they are men of proven character and life, men in whom the ministry of the Holy Spirit is evident, men who have the wisdom and have demonstrated the wisdom necessary. Whom we may put in charge of this task. So you select the men, we will appoint them to carry out the responsibility.

Now I want you to note here, even though the apostles say it wouldn't be right for them to take on the responsibility since their prime responsibility is the ministry of the word, this is not an unimportant ministry. It's not just well, select some men here, they don't have to be of special character. All they have to do is a practical matter here. It requires godliness, this is God's work. It requires godly men be given the responsibility for it. So we don't want to get the wrong idea. The ministry of the word is the most important thing that is to be done; the apostles are entrusted with that and the overall oversight. But these men appointed will be under their authority, they will appoint them, but they are to be godly men, men of solid, sound testimonies, men who evidence the work of the Spirit in their lives and men who have demonstrated the kind of wisdom that they can do the organization and all that takes place, needs to take place in these matters. And you realize these are just practical things. As the church functions it is important that we call these practical matters of the church be carried out properly and in a way that will enable the ministry of the word to go on and yet the ministry of the church and its responsibilities will be carried out.

There is some discussion, is this the beginning of the office of deacon. I don't know that it's the beginning of the office of deacon because that formal structure doesn't seem to be that far along. But I think it's probably the foundation out of which the office of deacon would have come. They are not called deacons but words related to the word deacon are what are used here. At the end of verse 1 when it talks about the daily serving of food, this is the diakonia, deacon is the basic word. This is a form of that word, you can hear it—diakonia. So they are not being called deacons but they are serving and it's a form of that word that we have as deacon. That's another form of it used at the end of verse 2, not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. It's also a form of that word used in verse 4, we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry, to the serving of the word, the service of the word. So it's all part of serving. Different aspects but the apostolic responsibility and area of service is particularly in the ministry of prayer and the proclamation of the word. But it's all part of our service for Jesus Christ, our service to the living God. This is His body; it's His church which He purchased with His own blood, as we'll be told in Acts 20. So it all must be carried out according to His will.

Later on the ministry of deacons will get a little more prominence. Come over to 1 Timothy 3. We are all familiar with this, at least most of you would be. And here specific instructions are given for deacons, beginning with verse 8. Deacons likewise, and you see we have an expansion here but you could summarize it in the three qualifications we had in Acts with men of good testimony, full of the Holy Spirit, full of wisdom. They must be men of dignity, not double-tongued, not addicted to wine, not fond of sordid gain, holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience, and so on.

In the letter to the Philippians that Paul would write to the church at Philippi, he addresses it to the elders and the deacons of the church. They are joined in the apostolic address that Paul the Apostle gives there, the apostles and deacons. So they become the elders and the deacons in the church at Philippi.

So come back to Acts 6. It would seem that this gives an idea of what is going to develop out later as the apostles pass off the scene and the ministry expands out beyond what they can personally be overseeing, there will be elders appointed. We'll mention that in a moment. The deacons will be put in charge of the task, or these men assigned to this role of serving. Then you come to verse 4, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. So the priority is maintained and yet the ministry of the body is not to be neglected. Godly, capable men will be carrying out other responsibilities, where our focus will be more narrowly focused on the ministry of the word of God. I take it with the expansion of the ministry out, that apostolic ministry is now in our present day turned over to elders. Not that elders are apostles because the apostles had a unique ministry, but they are no longer present. But elders are appointed to oversee the church. So in I Timothy 3 where we were, the first part of chapter 3 talked about the qualifications of elders, as there will be no new apostles being appointed.

Turn over to Acts 14. And the Apostle Paul here on his first missionary journey. He travels through preaching the word of God and establishing churches. And then what he does, he travels out, and we'll see this when we get to chapter 14, but then on his return back he retraces his steps and revisits these churches. And we are told, verse 23, when they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. So the responsibility of the oversight of the ministry of the word here is entrusted to elders. But as I Timothy sets out I take it that with that are godly men who have the role of deacons. And they join together in the oversight of the church, enabling the apostles early on and then the elders as they are entrusted with that continuing apostolic responsibility of ministering apostolic truth. To keep that focus.

I can say one of the blessings of my ministry here over many years has been the freedom given to me to focus on ministry of the word and prayer. Others have carried on other ministry, others have joined in the ministry of the word, of course, but that balance. One of the tragedies of the church is churches that have come to the point where they think they hire a pastor to do the work of the ministry. As a result the ministry of the word suffers and as a result the church suffers because it is not God's intention that one man or one group of men does the ministry. We are a body and all the parts function together and elders and deacons have specific oversight responsibility of various areas of that ministry and responsibility. And I think if we function biblically the whole church gets freed up to function with the blessing of God and the enabling of the Spirit of God.

Come back to Acts 6:5, the statement found approval with the whole congregation. What a blessing. They call the church together; the group of believers, and again its structure is relatively informal at this time. It's all under apostolic authority and leadership but now it's growing a structure. We think sometimes we don't need organization; we'll just let the Spirit work. But the Spirit has directed a certain organization and structure down to seeing that needs are properly met and cared for. And what a blessing. The congregation approves and this will be an acceptable plan.

So they chose seven men. Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. This is the only one elaborated on; I take it that it is true of the rest of the men. But Stephen becomes prominent because beginning with verse 8 of chapter 6 he will be the prominent figure through the rest of chapter 6 and through chapter 7 when he becomes the first martyr in the church. So he is particularly mentioned. But you get the idea of the character of the men that they selected for this responsibility, and the godly men involved in the church at this early stage.

They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. And Philip. And Stephen and Philip are the only two men that we know anything more about in the book of Acts. Stephen because of what is mentioned as I said in the rest of chapter 6 and chapter 7, and then Philip will become the key figure in chapter 8 beginning with verse 4 and continuing to verse 40 in carrying the gospel to Samaria. So even though these men are selected to free up the apostles for apostolic ministry doesn't mean that they won't be men involved also in the ministry of the word. But they are men carrying additional responsibility as well and then at times their ministry will become more focused also, perhaps, in the ministry of the word, depending how the Spirit chooses to use them.

Prochorus, Nicanor, Timmon, Parmenas, Nicolas who is identified as a proselyte from Antioch. As I said we know nothing else about these men except the first two. But we do know one other just from the listing here, by their names. These would all be Hellenistic Jews. They are the ones that thought that their widows were being treated unfairly. So what a testimony to the congregation that they are agreeing with the apostles that we ought to appoint seven men and if the Hellenistic group in our church is concerned that it is their widows not being treated fairly, let's select all seven men from the Hellenistic group and that way they'll be sure that there is no misunderstanding here. And we'll trust them to do what is right with the native Hebrew widows as well. So the trust there is in the church, because the complaints and undercurrents that develop in the church is when we think something is not being done as it ought to be or a way that we approve or like or would have done. So this is a great act here on the part of the congregation to appoint seven godly men and select those seven godly men from the Hellenistic side since they were the ones who had the complaint. They would do everything they could to put down the murmur, and possible grumbling from the start.

They brought them before the apostles and after praying they laid their hands on them. Indicating that they were appointing them to this task, indicating the solidifying the church continuing under apostolic authority. We've noted through the book of Acts that miracles are happening in connection with apostolic ministry because you see the pressure that is constantly being applied to divide the church at an early state. But important, too, that it remains under apostolic authority because truth is being revealed through apostles and the church gets split or removed from apostolic authority and leadership, what will happen to the doctrine that is being revealed through these men. Remember we looked at Hebrews 2, God was validating their word, their teaching. And what was being revealed to them were signs, wonders and miracles. So important that that solidity is there to maintain the faithful ministry of the truth.

Verse 7, what's the result? The word of God kept on spreading. The number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem. We don't have any idea how big the church is, but this is a large church. I mean, it continued to grow.

We're coming to a point where God is about to splinter it and send it out from Jerusalem and Judea and beyond. But it's continuing to grow. The word of God kept on spreading, the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem. And then we don't get any more numerical, we have two numbers—3,000, then 5,000, then we're just told multitudes of men and women, they increased greatly. But we don't get any counts anymore. But we have thousands and we're preparing the way when persecution will get to the point in chapter 8 that believers have to leave this area and it becomes an occasion to carry the gospel to other places.

The word of God kept on spreading, the numbers continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. That's remarkable. We just read in Acts 4-5 that the high priest, the Sanhedrin, the governing body, strongly oppose the ministry and now we read a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.

It might be helpful to know something of the historical setting of this. Let me read you what one person has written. There were many poor priests in Palestine, perhaps as many as 8,000. They received little support from the temple cult, had to support themselves primarily with their own hands and had little in common with the Sadducean priestly aristocracy. And that group would provide perhaps a great opportunity; they are part of the priestly line. The Sadducees are the powerful group, they were joined then with some of the Pharisees, but by and large you have great numbers in the priestly line who are not receiving their support from what is going on in the temple. And they are just eking out a living by doing other things. But they become a ripe field. So it's not necessarily that that group we read about opposing the gospel in such a strong way with the leadership of the Sanhedrin and the power center with the money centered. There were a great number of priests, the majority of them who would have been outside that group. And by God's grace they are coming to know the Lord and His work of salvation. And a great benefit which would come from this group, as we'll see later from the Apostle Paul, a Pharisee, is they come with an established knowledge of the Old Testament. So when they come to salvation in Jesus Christ, they come with a reservoir of knowledge to build upon now, and have explained to them what they already know. Non-Jews will get saved, have a lot of catching up to do. You can understand that, being saved out of a Gentile background and especially if you didn't even come from a church background. I mean, if you were saved out of a church background where you had learned the word of God, you knew much about the word even though you didn't have the understanding that comes from the work of the Spirit in salvation, but the knowledge just of the facts of the word. So these priests would have been a great reservoir. And as persecution is about to scatter the church, we have a great many of the priests have gotten saved who would have influence among Jews but also would become a reservoir of those who already knew the Old Testament and now could have explained to them how it was fulfilled, much of its prophecies in Christ. And you see the way the Lord builds the church with people of different levels.

Just like we have been blessed. There was a time, new converts would come out with almost no background and believers who have been brought in and the church is strengthened and solidified and so on.

Well just a couple of things in conclusion, just note a couple of things. Conflicts and disagreements can and will arise as the church carries out its ministry. That's not bad, it just will happen. The important thing is that we handle those in a biblical way, not let murmuring, complaining, grumbling become a divisive thing and a distraction in a church, a distraction from the ministry that God has called us to. The church should be organized in such a way that the work gets done without hindering the ministry of the word. When we function together as we should, we strengthen one another and the church is developed and we all grow more effectively. We ought to have godly men in leadership roles, elders and as deacons in other areas of ministry, not just the formal areas but those two areas specifically set out. But it's important to have godly people in the proper role and ministry overseeing. And everybody should be involved in one way or another because of their gifts, but that particular responsibility.

And I stress again, the word of God must be continually proclaimed. That must be our focus. We can't be distracted from that. There are many important and good things we must do, but we must never lose sight of what we are about. We are the pillar and support of the truth, as Paul refers to the church. We are God's family we are the pillar and support of the truth. And it is that proclamation of the truth that equips the saints for the work of serving and carrying out their ministry. And you continue that and the Spirit of God can use the word to reach the lost and can also use us in ministry to the body, to one another. And that's what we desire Him to continue to do.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace. Thank you for the way you worked in the early church, and Lord, you have continued to work down through the centuries of time to our day. Lord, we have experienced that work of your grace in our local church, that you have brought us together, provided godly leaders, elders and deacons, godly people serving in a variety of capacities and a variety of ways. Lord, we would take these lessons to heart, continuing to be open to the direction of the Spirit, to develop and mature, to make any adjustments necessary to be more effective in the ministry that you have entrusted to us, the responsibilities you have given us. May we continue to be a light in the darkness and a center of growth for your people. We pray in Christ's name, amen.