Growing pains (Acts 6:1-7) // On mission with the risen Jesus

Acts chapter 6, verse one to seven.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the

Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic

Jews because their weirdos were being overlooked in the daily

distribution of food. So the 12 gathered all the

disciples together and said it would not be right for us to

neglect the ministry of the Word of God in order to wait on

tables. Brothers and sisters, choose

seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit

and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility

over to them, and we'll give our attention to prayer and the

ministry of the Word. This proposal pleased the whole

group. They chose Stephen, a man full

of faith and of the Holy Spirit. Also Philip, Precorious,

Naikenor, Simon, Palminous, and Nicholas from Antioch, a convert

to Judaism. They presented these men to the

apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

So the Word of God spread, the number of disciples in Jerusalem

increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became

obedient to the faith. So yeah, as we come to this next

bit of the book of Acts, I'm going to, some people say I

struggle to pronounce English words correctly, but I'm going

to try for a Chinese word to begin with.

I have asked some advice for this.

So it was really recently about the Chinese word for crisis,

which is Weiji, I think. And so there it is on the on the

screen there, Weiji. And it is made-up of two

characters. Apparently the first means

danger and the second means opportunity.

So Weiji, I'll say that one last time.

So a crisis in this rendering is a time both of danger and

opportunity. And as I was spending time in

Acts chapter 6 ahead of today, I was really struck by that

Acts 6 · chapter mention

definition of crisis there. The Acts chapter 6 records for

Acts 6 · chapter mention

us a moment of crisis in the life of the early church in

Jerusalem, a moment filled with danger and with opportunity for

the early disciples. And we see that in verse one of

Acts 6. Again, it's a real verse of two

halves. This verse, the first part, the

first half of the verse in life looks really good for the early

Christians in those days when the number of disciples was

increasing. So the church is growing, the

number of disciples is increasing.

Any local church longs to say, yeah, we are experiencing growth

as a church. But in the second-half of the

verse is less positive and goes with the first half.

People are complaining, widows are being overlooked, people are

upset. The church is growing, but

conflict is brewing. It's very much a crisis moment

for the early church, a mode of danger and opportunity.

And what the early church decides to do at that moment is

hugely significant for the rest of Acts and indeed actually for

local churches right up to today.

We've been in the book of Acts now for a couple of months.

And I hope you've seen, if you've been here with us, Luke,

the guy who writes Acts, He refuses to gloss over or edit

out the conflicts and difficulties the early church

faced. But whenever he records those

difficulties, he also focuses on the way those difficulties were

resolved. And we've seen that a number of

times in recent weeks. So in Acts chapter 4, the threat

Acts 4 · chapter mention

facing the church is persecution from the Jewish religious

leaders. And the response to that is that

the disciples get together and they pray for courage and God

answers their prayers. Acts chapter 5, he looked at a

Acts 5 · chapter mention

few weeks ago, the threat was hypocrisy within the church.

Ananias and Sapphira, this married couple lying about how

much money they'd received from selling some property.

They were hypocritical, trying to appear more spiritual than

they really were. And the response was that the

apostles confronted directly and God judged Ananias and Sapphira

by striking them dead. And then today, Acts chapter 6,

Acts 6 · chapter mention

the threat is disunity and division.

We're told that Greek speaking widows are being overlooked in

the daily distribution of food. And people are upset about this.

They're complaining about it. And their complaints are

directed against the church leaders here, the 12 apostles.

The threat here is of division and disunity.

And how does the early church response?

The response is better organization, which straightway

doesn't feel like a very sexy response or a very spiritual

response even. But that's what they do.

They say we need to organize ourselves better.

This passage enacts it. It shows us the early church

organizing themselves better so that their life together was an

effective witness to Jesus, the servant king.

They they recognize it matters how we live, how we function as

a church. If we're to be witnesses to

Jesus, we need to show the world that we belong to Jesus.

So we need to organize ourselves accordingly.

So we're going to look at this passage together now and think

what it has to say to us a church in the 21st century an

Ave. today. So again, as I say that the

passage begins with yet another really encouraging picture of

the early church. Luke tells us in those days when

the number of disciples was increasing, verse one.

So the church is growing, people are starting to follow Jesus all

over Jerusalem. There are so many signs of life

in the church there and look at how Luke describes the believers

here. They're described as disciples.

That's the first time he's actually used that word to

describe Christians. They're not just converts or

believers or church members. They are disciples of the risen

Jesus, followers of Jesus, apprentices of Jesus.

Just like the 12 when Jesus was walking around ancient Israel,

were were following him, learning from him, listening to

him. So these early Christians after

Jesus has ascended to heaven, are following Jesus.

Jesus is Lord over their lives. They're learning from Jesus

through the apostles message. They're spending time with Jesus

through prayer and the word of God.

They're worshipping Jesus together with the other

disciples. This early church is made of

disciples of Jesus who then go out and make disciples for

Jesus. And that effect, that's the,

that's the model for every church ever since that we're

made-up of people who follow Jesus.

Jesus is Lord, but also following Jesus.

Come on, we want to make disciples for Jesus, not just

learn more of him ourselves, but help other people around us get

to see him for who he is and to follow him as Lord and Savior of

their lives. So in so many ways, it's another

amazing, encouraging picture local churches today would love

to say, yes, we are seeing growth.

When it happens, we praise God for it.

But alongside that growth, there are worries on the horizon.

Verse one, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against

the Hebraic Jews because their widows are being overlooked in

the daily distribution of food. There is grumbling going on in

the church. What is going on here?

Well, actually it's important to remember the early church we've

looked at in these chapters of Acts.

It's still in Jerusalem and it's still made-up almost entirely of

Jewish believers, followers of Jesus from a Jewish background.

There aren't yet significant numbers of non Jewish or Gentile

believers. That's a few chapters away.

But that doesn't mean all the Jewish believers are the same.

Luke tells us here there are Hellenistic Jews and Hebraic

Jews. Now the Hellenistic Jews, they

were Jewish Christians who spoke mainly Greek and who had happily

adopted a lot of 1st century Greek culture.

They were quite at ease in that world.

Then the Hebraic Jews, they were Jewish Christians who spoke

mainly Aramaic and who consciously resisted Greek

culture. They probably could speak Greek,

nearly every Roman member of the empire could speak Greek at that

time, but they would largely have chosen not to.

They wanted to to lean into their traditional Hebrew

culture. That's the problem here is

you've got 2 sets of widows who looks like they have very little

to do with each other, and one set, the Greek speaking widows,

are being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

And why is that a big deal? But because we need to remember

what the place of widows was in the ancient worlds.

Widows in the ancient world, they were, they were one of the

most vulnerable people in society, women whose husbands

had died. And he often had no other source

of income. And throughout the Bible, both

Old and New Testament, God calls on his people to have a

particular concern for widows. In fact, it's the sign of health

of God's people that they look after widows and other

vulnerable groups. So just two passages, one from

the Old Testament, one from the New Exodus 22.

Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless.

If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their

cry. My anger will be arised and I

will kill you with the sword. Your wives will become widows

and your children fatherless. It's really high bar here I am

watching how you treat widows, my people and the New Testament.

James one verse 27 religion that God our Father accepts as pure

and faultless as this, to look after orphans and widows in

their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by

the world Widows and how they are treated by God's people

matters enormously to God. And what is this daily

distribution of food where this is this is, is emerging?

Well, if you've been here again the last few weeks, you'll know

that the early church was committed to caring for those

people in need within the church.

Chapter 4, Luke tells us there was no needy person among them

because the generous grace of God in Jesus had transformed

these Christians into generous people.

They shared what they had. They looked out for those in

need. But now in chapter 6, we hear

that they're not looking out for everyone.

Some people in the church are being overlooked.

And Luke wants to see this is not a minor issue.

It's not unimportant. This is a dangerous moment in

the life of the early church because it threatens the unity

of the church and the witness of the church.

If friends, the unity of the church in that Jesus through his

life, death and resurrection brought these Hebraic Jews and

Hellenistic Jews together. They are now one in Christ, but

they're not living like it. They're making distinctions

between one another. That is a dangerous moment that

is damaging the church for which Christ died.

And As for the witness of the church, well, by overlooking

some of the widows, they are failing to love one another.

And loving one another is absolutely central to the

witness of any church, remembering the words of Jesus

in John 1335. By this everyone will know that

you're my disciples if you love one another.

If they don't love one another, the world around will not see

Jesus through the early church. And and in addition to all of

that, in the history of God's people, complaining or grumbling

about of lack of food is always a serious spiritual warning

sign. It's like a red light on the

dashboard that something else is wrong.

So in the Old Testament, after the people of Israel were

rescued from slavery in Egypt by God through the leadership of

Moses and Aaron, instead of praising God for his saving

power, they quickly start grumbling against Moses and air

and they didn't have enough food to eat.

They didn't like living in the desert.

There was all this grumbling and complaining.

We see that in passages like Exodus chapter 16.

Exodus 16 · chapter mention

Actually, this is a bad sign in people who've been rescued by

God that they're grumbling and complaining.

It's a serious spiritual issue for God's people.

So the question really is how are the 12 apostles going to

respond to this? Because they could respond in

any number of ways. They could have rushed to defend

themselves against those grumblings.

Say, stop complaining. Don't you see how well things

are going? The church is growing and people

are becoming disciples of Jesus. You're just ruining it for

everyone. They could, they could defend

themselves or they could have rebuked the Greek speaking

widow. Stop complaining.

You're just like the Israelites in the wilderness.

If you keep grumbling, then God's going to deal with you the

way he dealt with them. They could have rebuked those

grumbling. We need to see that's not what

the 12 apostles do. That's not how they respond.

They know this isn't a minor issue.

It's a serious issue. The life and witness of the

church is at stake. Widows are being overlooked and

they matter to God. One group within the church was

divided against another. That matters to God.

For the glory of God, the good of the church, and the

effectiveness of their witness to Jesus, the apostles spring

into action. And he'd pick up again at verse

2. So the 12 gathered all the

disciples together and said it would not be right for us to

neglect the ministry of the Word of God in order to wait on

tables. Brothers and sisters, choose

seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit

and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility

over to them and we'll give our attention to prayer and the

ministry of the Word for this moment of crisis.

What do the early church leaders, the apostles, do we see

here? First of all, they they gather

the whole church together, all the disciples.

Verse 2. Now that's quite a feat

actually. There's at least 5000 believers

in Jerusalem at this point. Some people estimate it could be

as high as 8000 believers. This is a huge like church

meeting that. It's not an easy task here, but

the 12 are convinced the whole church has a part to play in

responding to this need. Then the apostles, they're

really clear about what their priorities are.

Their priorities are prayer and the ministry of the Word.

See, I Look begins and ends the summary of their speech, verse

2. It would not be right for us to

neglect the Word of God. Verse 4.

We will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the

Word. The apostles are clear here.

There would be no church in Jerusalem without prayer and the

ministry of the Word of God. Therefore, the apostles need to

prioritise those things. And what I mean by the ministry

of the Word of God, Well, there's a few summaries we get

in Acts, but if you look back just a verse before this passage

in Acts 5 verse 42, we get a good summary of the ministry of

Acts 5:42

the Word of God. Acts 5 verse 42, Day by day in

Acts 5:42

the temple courts and from house to house, they never stop

teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the

Messiah. So the ministry of the Word of

God, it includes public preaching and teaching, but it

wasn't restricted to that. We're told the apostles taught

in the temple courts publicly to large groups, like we're doing

this morning. But he also taught from house to

house in smaller groups, twos and threes, even one to ones

probably. The ministry of the Word of God

is public and private. It's happening all the time.

And what do they mean by devoting themselves to prayer?

Well, for the ministry of the Word of God to be effective, the

apostles have to depend on the living God and ask the living

God to be at work. Without prayer, the ministry of

the word is powerless to change anyone.

It's even pointless. So the 12 vie to prioritize the

word of God and prayer. And at this point we sort of

might make a a misstep and we might think, well, maybe that's

what real ministry is about. Maybe that's what real Christian

living should be about, prayer and the ministry of the words.

Nothing else matters. But that's not what the apostles

are saying here. I hope we can see that they're

saying actually the daily distribution of food that is

vital to the life and witness of the Church.

It's just that the apostles weren't the right people to make

that happen. It seems up to this point in the

book of Acts, the apostles, the 12 have been organizing and

leading everything. But now the apostles are clear

with the other believers. They can't keep doing that.

They can't do everything. If they try to do that, prayer

and the minister of the word will suffer.

Widows will go hungry, the witness of the church will be

damaged. Therefore, in this huge meeting,

they call on the church to organize itself better with more

people empowered to lead. Verse 3 Brothers and sisters,

choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the

spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility

over to them. When you see there's a really

big moment in the life of the early church.

It's the moment when the apostles begin to empower other

people to lead and serve alongside them for the sake of

unity and love and mission. And so at this moment in its

history, the whole church appoints 7 men to organize the

daily distribution of food. And we need to see it's the

whole church doing that. You look down again.

The apostles don't select these seven men on their own.

They invite the whole church to choose them to recognize who

these men should be. The apostles know that every

believer who trusts in Jesus has the Holy Spirit living in them.

Therefore, every believer is qualified to play a part in the

life of the local church. And what were the believers

meant to be looking for in these seven men?

Well, interestingly, it wasn't just practical skills.

You kind of think, well, this is for the distribution of food.

So the important questions are, can they cook?

Can they manage a budget? Can they organize people?

But before those things are considered, the apostles urged

them to ask, are they full of the Spirit?

Do they trust in Jesus? Is the living God clearly at

work in them? Do they depend on the Spirit to

live as witnesses for Jesus? And are they full of wisdom?

Can they make godly decisions for the glory of God and the

good of his church? Are they problem solvers?

Can they come up with a solution to the issues the early church

was facing? Again, this is a big moment in

the book of Acts. From this point onwards, the 12

apostles are liberated to devote themselves to prayer and the

ministry of the Word. The Greek speaking widows are no

longer being overlooked and new leaders who aren't apostles are

identified and who will play a vital role in the chapters to

come. Stephen.

A man full of faith and the Holy Spirit.

We're going to see more about him next week.

Philip, he will take the good news of Jesus to the Samaritans,

even to an African diplomat for the first time.

And the results of this decision, this better

organization we see in verse seven.

So the word of God spread, the number of disciples in Jerusalem

increased rapidly. A large number of priests became

obedient to the faith. The word of God spread, says

Luke. Interesting in in in the book of

Acts, the word of God's almost like a character in its own

right. The Word of God is the power of

God to save everyone who believes, to reach into people's

lives and transform them as they receive it, which all the number

of disciples increased in Jerusalem.

Jesus is calling people to follow him, and even a large

number of priests become obedient to the faith.

The people who are opposing the early church see their life

together, see the way they love each other, and they are drawn

to faith themselves. It's an amazing moment.

How does this bit of acts apply to our church family at Ave.

today? I think there's plenty of

principles here we can learn. This is a unique and special

moment in the life of the early church.

But actually Luke records it because he wants other churches

to learn the lessons from Jerusalem.

Here Luke wants to see the how a local church organizes itself

has a huge impact on its life together with Jesus and its

witness to Jesus in the world. Or to put it another way,

throughout Acts Luke is showing us what a spirit filled church

looks like. And here in Act six, we learn a

spirit filled church is a church where every member has a part to

play, like one of our core values at Ave., everyone

involved because we need one another.

And this passage in Acts 6, you may know, is often seen as the

origin story for the role of Deacon in the New Testament

church. That's often how Christians have

viewed it over the centuries. It's important to know a few

things on that. So the Greek word for Deacon,

diaconos, doesn't actually appear here.

The seven aren't identified as deacons.

And also a big difference between a local church today and

the church in Jerusalem is that the early church in Jerusalem

was led by apostles, not elders. Actually, elders in the Church

of Jerusalem don't appear until Acts 11, verse 30, when most of

Acts 11:30

the apostles have left Jerusalem have been scattered across the

Roman world. So there are key differences

between Acts 6, the church there, and a local church today.

And yet the Greek verb diaconio to serve does appear in verses 2

and four. And as early as the 2nd century,

early church tradition viewed Act 6 as the origin of the rule

of Deacon, and that rule is mentioned elsewhere in the New

Testament. It's one of two recognized

offices in a local church alongside the role of elder.

It's mentioned in Philippians one verse 1, Romans 16 verse one

where Phoebe is named as the Deacon, one Timothy 3 where you

have qualifications for deacons and from those passages and Acts

6 taken together, you can come with the following definition of

a Deacon. A Deacon is a believer who

serves alongside the elders in a local church to work towards the

health of the church and it's witness to Jesus.

It's an important role. Actually in a local church an

Ave. We don't use the official title

Deacon like a lot of things that can have a bit of baggage from

different church traditions. But we have, we see various

people taking on Deacon type roles in the life of our church

family. Those people include ministry

team leaders who meet some of the needs of our life and

mission together. We appointed Keith as the head

of our finance ministry team in January.

We're going to be unveiling a few more new ministry teams and

ministry team leaders and we're going to aim to do that every

month for the foreseeable future as we try and set up more

ministry teams to share in the work of ministry.

So watch this space for that. Another Deacon type rule we

mentioned last month at the family meeting is non elder

trustees, people who serve alongside the elders to oversee

Ave. as a charity. We're going to be hearing more

about that tonight as we hear about a candidate to be a non

elder trustee at the family meeting.

Now all this actually, we can't lose sight of the fact that that

Greek word Deacon, it just literally means servant.

And so in a very real sense, every single Christian is a

Deacon. We are all called to serve the

living God and to serve one another in the church.

But Acts 6 and those other New Testament passages tell us

there's real wisdom in having certain specific people set

apart to oversee aspects of our life and mission together to

help the health of the church, the unity of the church, and the

witness of the church. There's loads of principles in

this passage that apply to us today as we head towards the

finished war. Some of those principles here,

very simply. The 1st is that God calls all

his people to serve him. We are all servants of the

living God. We have been served by Jesus

through his life, death, and resurrection, and he calls us to

serve Him in response to love one another as He first loved

us. Whether you've been coming to

Ave. for 20 years or for two months, if I haven't used a

local church, the Lord is calling you to serve Him here.

You have a part to play in building this church.

Secondly, God calls different people to serve Him in different

ways. So the 12 apostles serve and the

seven serve in Acts 6. You actually translate Acts 2

verses verses 2 and four of Acts 6 this way.

It is not right for us to Deacon tables.

That's the verb to serve. We will give our attention to

prayer and deaconing the words bit bit clumsy and ugly, but I

hope you get the point. There's a sense of Deacon.

Just be a servant, but serve in different ways.

Both are ways of serving God and His people.

Both are ways of building God's church.

Both require people filled with the Spirit and wisdom to do it.

None of these things we can do in our own strength.

We need God's help in all of them.

If you're part of this church and you don't yet have a way of

serving, please come and talk to me or Joel or Mike or Joe or

your Home group leader. We'd love to talk to you about

ways you could use your gifts to serve and bless the rest of us.

And if you're part of this church and you're already

serving, remember that you serve as people who first have been

served by Jesus, whether that's in music and set up, in welcome,

in refreshments, in Sunday club, in crash, in service leading and

Ace, in source, in home groups. I really hope I didn't forget

one, but if I did, tell me. But actually, the Lord wants to

use your gifts for the good of his people and the good of our

mission together with the risen Jesus in this world.

We all have a part to play. And if that sounds very

idealistic, Acts 6 is also very clear about the dangers in being

part of a local church. We need to love one another in

spite of our differences. Acts 6 tells us that the unity

of the local church is vital to the witness of a local church.

So in the early church in Jerusalem, the potential of

division was between Greek speaking Jewish believers and

more traditional Jewish believers.

But there's plenty of differences and opportunities

for division among our church family.

We have plenty of differences with each other, men and women,

young and old, new believers and long term believers, different

backgrounds, different nationalities, different

temperaments. In the face of all those

differences, the Lord Jesus calls us to love one another.

I this everyone know you're my disciples if you love one

another. We are one in Christ And so

within the power of the Spirit. We should live like Him in our

home groups on a Sunday morning throughout the week.

We should see one another as brothers and sisters in Christ,

united in Him, and therefore we love one another as He first

loved us. Another thing that strikes me

from Act 6, which I might say, but it has struck me this week,

leaders need to be committed to prayer and the Word of God for

any church to grow. For church to grow, God's Word

needs to be prayerfully proclaimed in public and from

house to house. And speaking personally, that

was one of the biggest challenges for me is the

challenge of distraction from that.

There are always so many other things to do.

People are amazed sometimes when I tell people I work full time

for a church. So how do you fill your time?

I I manage it. But actually, that's the sense

actually, people say, well, yeah, of course.

So prayer, I mentioned that's what you're doing.

But actually, I know in my heart there's so many other things

that feel like they need my attention, feel like I would

rather do then sit in a study and and and and read my Bible or

to meet with someone and open the Bible or to pray for any

length of time. The dangers of distraction are

enormous. They were for the apostles.

They are for every leader. And to help respond to that, the

whole church is needed to respond to important needs.

I reflect as as one of the elders here at Ave. that I think

over over the years, we perhaps have just held too much

centrally. We've been talking about this in

family meetings. We're elders, but also we in the

pandemic, we had to know everything about COVID in in

other ways. We had to know understand other

things. And there's a sense of just

actually, are we missing out on gifts in the local church, other

people we can ask to serve alongside the elders for the

good of the whole church, for the unity of the whole church,

for the effectiveness of our mission.

How do we do that together? We do that by gathering together

regularly, by sharing our needs, by praying together, and by

appointing and empowering different people to respond to

those needs. And of course, the most obvious

way that happens every month is our family meeting.

Tonight, 6:00 is the family meeting here until half seven.

Families are play a vital role in our life and mission together

in a family meeting. We worship God together, we pray

together, we share our needs together.

We explore how to meet those needs together.

Why not come along tonight if you're able to six O clock.

We're going to be praying about Sunday evenings and Ave. praying

about elders and trustees and other levels of leadership,

praying about Christmas and the opportunities that brings.

They're a vital part in our church.

Those family meetings for how we organize ourselves and use

everyone's gifts for the good of the gospel and the glory of God

as we leave Acts chapter 6, this, this was a real crisis

Acts 6 · chapter mention

moment for the early church. You get to the end of verse one

and the story could have ended very differently.

Then there was division, then the church scattered, then they

separated from each other. Then it's separate church had to

set up one for Greek speaking, one for traditional.

It was a moment of real danger. But the apostle saw it was also

a moment of opportunity. And the danger was averted

through wise leadership, better organization and a commitment to

prayer and the Word of God. And we're facing our own

challenges as a church family at Ave.

The need for new elders, the need for Deacon type leaders to

work alongside the elders, the need for more ministry teams,

the need for a clearer vision of what the Lord is calling us to

be and to do in this point in our history.

To meet those needs, let's learn from the early church in Act 6.

Let's gather together, let's pray together.

Let's think. How do we organize ourselves

better so that our life together serves as an effective witness

to Jesus, the servant King, the ultimate Deacon, one who lived

and died to serve us, and he calls us to serve him in

response. Let me pray.

As we as we close, let me pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you that

when you call on your people to serve one another in love, you

do that as the ultimate servant. Lord Jesus, we thank you that

you love your church so passionately.

You gave your life for us, and you want each one of us to play

a part in demonstrating the beauty of your saving purposes,

to proclaim the Good news you have won for us of forgiveness,

adoption, reconciliation with the living God.

Lord Jesus, thank you for the ways you led the early church in

Jerusalem to respond to that crisis moment and for the real

opportunity it was for that church to develop and then grow.

Lord, we we ask you at this moment in our church's life,

when we face challenges, there are opportunities and there are

dangers. Lord Jesus, in your mercy, by

your Holy Spirit, equip us with the wisdom we need, the love for

you that we need, the love for our world that we need to

proclaim boldly the good news that you have won for us.

And show us the part you'd have each one of us play in building

your church and blessing our brothers and sisters and an

extending your Kingdom, making more disciples for you.

Lord Jesus, with every opportunity you give us, we ask

that that you would be glorified and we would be blessed through

knowing you. Amen.