“The Church, Taking Care of Business”
Acts 6:1-7
July 29, 2007
Baptist stranded on a desert island is rescued after years by a helicopter pilot who notices three huts on the island. "What’s the first", he asked. "That’s my house", came the reply. "And the second?" "I’m Baptist, and that’s where I go to church." "Cool. And the third hut?" “Oh, that’s the church I used to go to church.” What does that have to do with today’s text? Hang on; let’s read it together!
Business meetings – not exactly scintillating sometimes, with the exception being when tempers flare—that can be entertaining! And sadly, sometimes the church doing business ends up splitting. Dwight Pentecost writes of a Dallas church that split many years ago in what ended up as a court case that made headlines in the Dallas metroplex. The courts were called in to determine which side in the dispute should receive the assets of the church. It was a sad thing indeed, but it was made infinitely sadder when the source of the conflict was traced back, not to a serious doctrinal issue or even an issue of direction for the church, but rather to the fact that an elder received a smaller portion of ham than did a small child seated next to him at a church dinner. Well…
After the relatively smooth sailing of the first several chapters of Acts, we begin to read of the problems. The first, of course, was the problem of persecution, a threat from the outside of the church. The threats we consider today were more internal, but no less serious (and in some ways, they could have been more serious!). A split could have loomed had this issue not been handled in a godly manner, in this first ever “business meeting” of the local church.
I. Problems Coming - :1-2
“I will build My church”, Jesus said. The guarantee of Jesus to build it doesn’t preclude the possibility, indeed the likelihood, of some friction.
“disciples” – followers of Jesus, not a select group of 12 or what have you. This is echoed in verse 7.
“increasing in number” – Good problems, but problems nonetheless! Acts 2 – “3000”; “daily”. Acts 4:4 – “5000 men”. Acts 5:14 – “More than ever…” Explosive growth brings wonderful blessing, but brings challenges as well.
Hellenists v. Hebrews – the early church was not without its problems; it, like the church today, was populated by people, and people are notoriously…people! Hellenists were Greek-speaking Jews, while Jews in Jerusalem generally spoke Aramaic. Many of these Hellenistic Jews likely had been raised in lands outside of Israel, but had moved back to Jerusalem, perhaps as a “homecoming” of sorts such as we see so many Jews moving back to Israel today from other parts of the world to which they’d been dispersed. The Hellenists formed a bit of a different culture, though they were Jews; they had separate synagogues where Greek was spoken. And the Aramaic-speaking Jews had a natural aversion to the Hellenists, likely not as strong as they had to Samaritans, but people being people, many thought of the Hellenists as second-class citizens. And people being people, this attitude subtly—maybe even not so subtly—crept over into the early church.
“the daily distribution” – Judaism had a system for the maintenance and care of widows, and the early church developed the same. If indeed many of these Hellenistic Jews were those who had moved back to Jerusalem in order to die and be buried near the holy city, then their widows would have likely had no family around to take care of them upon their death, and thus there probably arose a significant number of these widows.
“complaint” – The word in the original, gongysmos, is a fairly ugly one, the word used of the Jews murmuring in the wilderness against God. This was a serious situation, and the possibility of the first “church split” loomed.
If these Hellenists had suspicions that, even in the context of the early church, they were seen as second-class by Aramaic-speaking Jews, then this was an outlet for their suspicions to be concerned: “the Jewish widows are well taken-care-of, but our widows are being overlooked and treated shabbily!”
And this might have been symbolic even of deeper contentions, maybe not outright divisions and such, but problems nonetheless. If the Hellenists didn’t speak Aramaic, then there must have had to have been, at the very least, translation going on, if not separate meetings; the potential for misunderstanding was heightened.
Was the offense real or imagined? Who knows? Maybe a little of both. But it’s irrelevant here, because the apostles didn’t go on a fact-finding mission to determine the truth of everything; they just addressed the issue to make sure that it wouldn’t be an issue.
The first internal problem facing the church, then, was conflict.
James 4:1 - What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? “Passions” is the way ESV translates this word; it is the Greek “hedone”, and it signifies desires for pleasure, the desire to get satisfaction for myself. We all have these desires; reined in and channeled by the power of the Spirit, there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with them, but when James speaks of these “passions” that cause quarrels and fights, he’s referring to the misuse of our desires, to our willingness to fight to get our way irrespective of the good of others, or irrespective of the usage of the proper means to accomplish our purposes. That’s where the issue lay here: murmuring behind the scenes—gossip, if you will—is never a biblical means to accomplish our ends.
:2 - “It is not right” – and the next words out of their mouths could have been something like, “it is not right for y’all to be griping!” But instead of finding blame, the twelve determined to find a solution to the problem, recognizing that the spiritual and the temporal both had significance, indeed are intertwined. That doesn’t mean that there wasn’t sin involved—“murmuring” of this sort is always against God’s will, and can be a real devastating problem in churches—I highly advise against it! But the disciples take the high road, do so immediately, and win, undoubtedly, the trust of those who had done the griping.
The second internal problem was the potential problem of distraction. This was not happening, apparently, to any significant degree; wisely, the twelve saw the potential for this problem to creep in, and “nipped it in the bud.”
Table Talk
What are some other ways that a church might be distracted from its mission of making disciples?
Priorities – those who were preaching the Word were not above the idea of “serving tables”, but they had a God-ordained task, and saw the necessity of taking care of other aspects of ministry, but not themselves. Sometimes the good is the enemy of the best, and sometimes we can get ourselves off track, not by deviating into error or sin, but by doing good things instead of doing the best things, the things God has called us to do. The issue wasn’t one of administration being beneath the dignity of the apostles, but that it wasn’t their calling.
It’s not a question of whether or not such things need to be done: they do. Do not draw an unwarranted division between the “sacred” and the “secular” here; for one thing, that’s a false dichotomy, and for another, both are important. A balanced ministry will minister as best it can to all of the needs of people. But it is clear that the ministry of the Word remain!
And churches can get so easily distracted today—and pastors can, too, if they’re not careful. It’s easier than ever for pastors to “cheat” their congregations—www.sermoncentral.com is a nice resource for pastors, and I use it. But since entire message manuscripts are placed on there—some of mine are—the unscrupulous pastor might lift an entire message almost verbatim from another. Further, there are even those who suggest that this is a good thing—posted on my blog a few months back about one prominent pastor who suggested that, given the busyness of many contemporary pastors, using the sermons of another, particularly of some other quite effective Bible teacher, might be a wise thing to do! No, this will not do; if I as the pastor get too busy to devote time to considering the Word that I might bring it to the people, then I am too busy—and my priorities are messed up as well.
How does a congregation respond to this priority?
• By demanding that a pastor keep prayer and the ministry of the Word as his priority
Ultimately, it’s not about whether I as pastor am a great administrator or promoter or whatever; it’s about the keeping of the effective ministry of the Word a high priority. You have every right to expect that, to demand that, that the pastor of Red Oak rightly divide the Word of truth, that he place a high priority on getting it right and getting it meaningful.
• By stepping up and doing the work of the ministry
What we see here, in the development of the office we’ve come to know as “deacon”, is simply a precursor of the idea that the work of the ministry belongs to all the people of God. We’re going to be very quickly writing by-laws, and one of the key areas will be in the establishment of the norms of membership. We believe in meaningful membership, the idea that to be a member of Red Oak, one ought to commit to certain minimum expectations of how a Christ-follower ought to live. I’m thinking that we ought to include a phrase that says, “I recognize that I am a minister of the gospel of Christ.” Because we all are!
John Stott suggests, by the way, that we “do a great disservice to the church when we refer to the pastorate as ‘the ministry’”. I think he’s right! If you are a follower of Jesus, then you are a full-time Christian minister, right now, where you are. You might be a full-time Christian minister who works in the banking field, or the engineering field, or the teaching profession, or in accounting or administration, or you may chase kids 24/7, but wherever you are, you are a full-time Christian minister.
Personal anecdote: one of the things I love the most is to hear about ministry that gets done with which I have nothing to do. I love it!
When you agree to serve in some capacity of church ministry, would you do it with all your heart? Would you do it to the best of your ability? Would you keep your promises to God and His church? What a joy to serve in ministry with others who are themselves committed to doing everything to the glory of God and in the service of others.
A potentially-deadly problem loomed, but the apostles acted:
II. Proposed Conclusion - :3
Qualifications:
• “Seven men” – There was some precedent in Jewish circles for committees of seven men to accomplish particular tasks; again remember that this is descriptive, rather than prescriptive, literature we’re dealing with, and thus the idea of “seven men” isn’t binding on us today. It did, however, make a great deal of sense in the culture of the day.
• “Good repute” – The importance of reputation. These men had to inspire confidence in all concerned, that they could be trusted with the dispersal of goods and funds in a fair and impartial manner (since partiality was the issue here). “Good character certified by public testimony” is how R.B. Rackham puts it.
• “full of Spirit” – Men controlled by the Holy Spirit of God, the kind of men who constantly are praying that God will work through them, giving them wisdom and strength and power, instead of relying upon their own way.
• “full of wisdom” – This referred to the application of godly insight in such a way as to yield good “common sense”, practical insight for problem-solving.
A “duty”, not a “high office”. The “office” of deacon (not called that here, by the way!) was necessitated by a service that needed to be rendered, not as some status thing. “Deacon” was a ministry prior to its becoming an office or a position, and today, it is from those who show themselves faithful to serve that we ought to draw our deacons, not from those who have “status”. Still, this position that is described here, while analogous to the office of deacon in that the position is one of serving (as opposed to ruling; a form of the word from which we get “deacon”—diakonos—is used several times here), really wasn’t necessarily the same thing we think of when we think of “deacons”.
A hint of congregationalism here? But also in the same sentence the exercise of leadership (“whom we will appoint”). In other words, we find here some justification for the consent of the entire church in such matters, and also some justification for a special approving role of the elders of the church—exactly the type of government that we will want to put into place here at Red Oak.
III. Priorities Confirmed - :4
Reiteration of the priority of prayer and the Word. More on this later.
IV. Pleased Congregation – :5
These were all Hellenists; we can tell that by their names! The early church was wise in selecting those who were particularly equipped for the task at hand; namely, the distribution of food to Hellenistic widows. This is a tricky thing: on the one hand, in Christ, there is no Jew nor Greek, Paul tells us; we are one in Him. On the other hand, it’s simple common sense to suggest that the Hellenists would be more easily ministered to by those who, like them, had Greek as their native tongue. We can be united with Mt. Olive as brothers and sisters in Christ, intent on the same purpose of glorifying Christ here on PS Road, while at the same time recognizing that Pastor Fritz is better equipped to minister to his Haitian countrymen than I am—and vice-versa!
Stephen – This man was an apologist, giving his life as the first martyr as he stood up for the faith. Philip – This man was an evangelist; we read later in Acts of his coming alongside the Ethiopian eunuch to explain the Scriptures to him and to baptize him as a follower of Christ. Other five – we know nothing of them except for certain non-Biblical references that mention a couple of them. But at any rate, the congregation was pleased by the suggestion, and made solid, trustworthy choices.
V. Prayerful Commissioning - :6
Congregation of disciples (“whole gathering”) set these men before the apostles; apostles
Prayed and laid hands on – Commissioning for a task, the delegation of authority to the men so selected.
VI. Progress Continued – :7
Results:
• Word continued to increase
• Number of disciples multiplied greatly
• Many priests came to faith
Points to Ponder
• We should all work hard not to be offended by others.
This isn’t the point of this narrative, of course, but it bears being said: murmuring takes place when people choose to embrace their status as being “victims” or being “offended”. People are people, and they say hurtful things. Many times, the things we take as hurtful aren’t intended that way at all—we’ve misunderstood, or jumped to a conclusion, or we’ve even just chosen to be offended. Though the apostles didn’t address this murmuring head on, nonetheless it was a sinful response to a legitimate concern. We would do well, instead of murmuring, to ask questions, to seek understanding, to look for common ground. That has happened already here—folks have asked me to clarify what I mean, or what have you, and if our minds and hearts are open to God and to each other, we can often—usually, I daresay—work things out, instead of taking offense.
• We need to deal with problems while they are small, before they “fester”.
Christians are not generally particularly good at this, frankly. This could have been a huge problem, with a lot of personalities involved and a lot of hurt resulting, but the twelve dealt with the problem honestly, forthrightly, and quickly. A little “pain” now is better, surely, than a lot of pain later. This is especially important in situations that directly affect the unity or the integrity of the church. This one involved its unity.
• Churches ought to maintain an element of “functional flexibility.”
Some want to always be reaching back as “restorationists” to the “early church” example—but let’s make sure we get the right thing when we reach. The early church example is that they adapted their structure to the needs of the situation. It was a godly thing to do, but the function of deacons here didn’t come about because they had a special revelation from God or something, but rather because there was a need, and there were priorities, and it made the best sense to do what they did! The apostles felt a real sense of flexibility when it came to structure, and we should feel the same: their administration of the church fit the parameters of the context of the situation at hand. I believe that to be appropriate today. Our world situation is different from theirs; our culture is different from theirs. What remains? The mission has never changed. The question for Red Oak will always be, “how can we best fulfill the mission and vision that God has given us for this place?” And if it means altering the by-laws and operating in different and new ways, we will, so long as we are faithful to our Scriptural mandate. They did!
• Elders need to be able to confidently delegate responsibility to others—and others need to take it!
The twelve didn’t insist of doing all the work of ministry, but rather were willing to share with those who could be trusted to be faithful. They were not afraid to “hand off” ministry to those whom the congregation trusted, and those new servants of the church began to meet the needs of the widows. Beautiful!
• We will all serve God best when we find out where we “fit” in the work of the Kingdom, and then serve God there.
The apostles had a clear calling from God, but God had also raised up and qualified some other men who were ready and willing to perform this important service. God has uniquely gifted you to play a role in the body of Christ! The Falcons are now faced with a dilemma at quarterback, since Michael Vick won’t be around for at least awhile, if ever again. But there’s one thing of which I’m pretty certain: they’re not going to take a guy off the defensive line and ask him to step in behind center. They’ll find a quarterback to play quarterback, either Joey Harrington, or another QB in camp, or they’ll sign one who’s not with any team right now. They’re going to get a player qualified to play the position of QB, in other words (though there are people who wonder if any of the guys on the roster currently fit the description!). So it is with kingdom work; it is imperative that we find out where we fit, and play that role for which God has gifted us. We’ll be soon doing some of that very thing, helping each Red Oaker to find his/her place in ministry.
The potential for serious problems, even a split, existed. In the early church’s first-ever business meeting, though, the apostles wisely delegated some of the work of ministry to choice servants. We all have that trowel; we all have that role to play in ministry. Let’s keep our focus on why we’re here, and cooperate with Christ’s work in building His church!
Table Talk
Choose one or two of the “Points to Ponder” and use it as a springboard for discussion around the table.
