Chosen To Serve

Chosen to Serve

6-16-13

Acts 6:1-7 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.

Satan has failed to accomplish his purposes with the persecution, he has tried corruption in the church with Ananias and Sapphira and now Satan is attacking by using distraction and busyness.

We see in our text for today that there was a high value placed on caring for the widows and the poor in the early church. Let's look at James 1:27. So we know there was a high value put on the poor and the widows but what a lot of people don't understand is who the "Hellenists" were. Often times we just keep reading right over it. In order to understand what is going on here we need to know that there was an urban social problem happening and it was spilling over into the church. It was considered virtuous to be buried in Israel. The Hellenists were foreign born Jews who came to die (men usually have lower life expectancy than females) and left widows with no means of support because there was no family nearby to care for them. (Look at 1 Tim. 5:3-8) So some animosity developed between the Hebraic Jew and the Hellenists due to language barriers, cultural differences and racism. The Hellenists were looked upon as infected, they weren't true Jews because they were from outside Israel. It was racism! Also, there was scriptural barriers- the majority of the Hellenists used the Septuagint and the Hebraic Jews read the Old Testament in Hebrew. That is the social background to who the Hellenists were.

So now we come into the church where they were collecting to help the poor. On Friday morning a group of people from the church would gather food and financial donations, and then later in the day it was distributed to the poor and widows among the believers. Apparently, somehow the Hellenistic Jews were falling through the cracks. Interesting fact, the word tables (trapezais) was for serving food or financial banking. There was a misunderstanding that started to develop. It is easy to fall through the cracks. We can come to church and get involved and then something happens in our lives and we expect people to read our minds; we take an offence and stop coming to church and maybe people don't notice and then we think nobody cares. Maybe we need to ask ourselves if we are really involved or do we just show up on Sunday? We need to communicate with the leaders. The same thing happened here. The widows were not getting what they deserved. Someone came and told the Apostles. It seems it was not intentional; it was not deliberate. The leadership did not see the turmoil under the surface. So it took away from the emphasis on the gospel; it hurts the body of Christ and the message of the gospel.

It was implied in the text that it should be the Apostles that take care of this personally because they were the paid staff. The people were supporting them so they could preach the gospel. Well, meeting both physical and spiritual needs is very important. When we look at the Greek word for serve and minister it is the same word. So in other words, cleaning up after the meal is the same word as me (Dan) preaching. We separate them out, but when we are using the gifts God has given us to serve it is all the same. There is no separation of the sacred and the secular for the Holy Spirit. All we do is for the glory of God and should be used for His Honor.

There was an expectation that the Apostles were personally going to handle this issue. The Apostles said this is not going to work for us. It wasn't that they thought it was beneath them, but they felt it was unwise for them to leave the preaching of the Word to make sure the widows got what they needed. It would have been sinful for them to do that because it was not what God was calling them to do, nor did they have the time or physical energy to do both well. That was the exact same result the Sanhedrin tried to accomplish with threats. They wanted to stop/hinder the Apostles from preaching. Satan uses "good" distractions so there is not time to do what really matters. Satan still does that! He causes us to get so busy with "good stuff" and we have no time for God. Christians let the busyness of life get in the way of the things God has called us to. (Worship, reading the Word, prayer, fellowship, outreach...)

The solution to the problem was teamwork. It was a unity and harmony between the spiritual leaders and the flock. We see the plurality of leadership. The Apostles outlined 5 requirements that they have for these men and then gave the freedom to the people to figure out how and who they are going to choose for this role. There is a division of responsibility. The Apostles trusted the H.S. to lead and guide others too. Take a look at the 5 requirements in Acts 6:3-5a - Had to be a believer, seven, men, of good repute (men of integrity both in church and in community),full of the Spirit (solid spiritually), full of wisdom (ability to apply God's Word to every day situations). "...and what they said pleased the whole gathering." So all were in agreement.

Some would say that these are the first deacons. The word here is not deacons. They only took from one particular group (the Hellenists) so it was not a picture of the whole body of Christ. The best description is that this as a solution to a particular problem that the church was struggling with. This is the best interpretation of these men. Their specific ministry was distribution. These guys were to unload some of the weight for the Apostles so they could do what they needed to do. Just as the deacons and elders in our church today. The body of Christ has to step up and the deacons are one way to serve.

The whole church gathered together and picked seven men. All of them were Hellenists (look at Acts 6: 5b-6) Notice the Apostles released them to do the work, but the Apostles appointed/confirmed them. (Checks and balances) Look at Romans 12:10. The body of Christ was gathering and the Hellenistic Jews were feeling unloved and left out. They voted the minority into the group (the Hellenists) not the Hebraic Jews. The Hellenist Jews could best take care of the Hellenists and the minority saw the majority's humility and love toward them. This is God's Great wisdom. Ultimately God places people in positions.

• ·      The results of this were that God was glorified.
• ·      If there was favoritism it ended.
• ·      We don't see this coming up again anywhere in scripture, so the widows were fed.
• ·      A church split was avoided.
•     The 12 Apostles continued to preach the gospel. Satan's clever attack was thwarted!

  What lessons can we learn?

• ·      It is easy to fall through the cracks- we have to communicate.
• ·      Satan likes to get us busy with good things so we don't get to the best.
• ·      In a healthy, loving, effective, Spirit-led church everyone must serve Jesus with his or her gifts. Use your gifts...step out! (Read Luke 22:25-27; Eph. 4:11-12; 1 Cor. 12:7,14,19-20) Every Christian is a minister, not just the paid staff. Every one of you needs to use your gift. You know why? Because our body is handicapped if you don't. Your gifts need to be used in this body; if you don't serve there is something missing!  Choose to serve, not opt out... Do it for the glory of God!