In Jesus Holy Name July 10, 2022
Text: Acts 6 Redeemer Lutheran
“The Face of an Angel- Defending Jesus”
In the 4th chapter of Acts we are told that if we want to be saved, we should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter was clear: “Salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name given under haven by which we can be saved.”
Those simple words are true and easy to understand. And, as far as heaven is concerned, those words need no amplification. Acts chapter 5 ends with this comment by Luke: “Day after day in the temple courts and from house to house, (the disciples) never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news about Jesus, who is the (long expected) Messiah.” The numbers increased and a large number of priests became believers because of the work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, convicting them that the Old Testament bible passages pointed to Jesus.
The disciples taught that Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah. “On Easter morning the earth shook. The heavens shook. And the body of Jesus of Nazareth, who had been crucified and buried, came to life. Jesus did not raise Himself from the dead…no, it was the Father through the work of the Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. The resurrection is something that happened to Jesus. It was the Father’s vindication of His life, message and ministry.
Death could not hold the Son of God in its endless domain. Jesus rose from the grave victorious over death. He shook off the chains, no longer bound by space and time and history. His resurrection created a “new people of God, no Jew, no Gentile, no slave or free, no black or white or brown. A new kingdom of people imitating the love of Jesus with one another. (Jesus Theography, Leonard Sweet p. 264,265)
Now when you have the number of Christians in Jerusalem growing past 5000 to 6000 or 7000 you are going to have logistic problems and jealousy. And they did. The 12 needed help. The Christian community chose six men to help serve the community. One of them was Stephen.
“Anyone can be great because anyone can serve.” Those are the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They remind us of the words of Jesus who declared that he did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). Dr. King is right. Greatness is open to all because anyone can be a servant. We generally don’t realize this until a crisis comes. Most of the time we rock along contentedly, knowing that someone else will do the serving. Serving is fine with us as long as someone else does most of the work.
Then a crisis comes and we begin to see things differently. I am told that the Chinese word for “crisis” is made up of two word-symbols – one meaning “danger” and the other “opportunity.” That’s what a crisis is: a danger and an opportunity rolled up together.
Our text tells the story of a sudden and unexpected controversy that threatened to rip apart the early church. How it was handled and how the crisis became an opportunity makes for a fascinating story.
Acts 4 tells us it was a time of unusual spiritual unity and sharing of possessions. Acts 5 told us about two people who were selfish. This should not surprise us. Satan often attacks at the moment when things are finally going well. David Wilkerson calls this unplanned interruption a “Satanic conspiracy” to divert the church from its God-appointed mission.
The devil’s 3rd attack against the new “Jesus movement” was clever. Having failed to overcome the church by persecution(The arrest of Peter and John) or corruption, (Ananias and Sapphira) he now tried distraction. If he could preoccupy the apostles with social administration, which was essential but not their calling, they would neglect their responsibilities to pray and to preach.
The problem: “In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food” (Acts 6:1).
This is the first case of racial prejudice in the Christian church. It comes about primarily because the church has grown so fast that it has outstripped its leadership base. In the early days the apostles and their helpers could easily care for everyone in the congregation. As thousands joined the growing movement, it was inevitable that some people (or groups of people) would fall through the cracks.
The problem stemmed from the fact that the early church was entirely Jewish, it was made up of two different groups of Jews. The Hebraic Jews were Jewish-Christians who spoke Hebrew as their main language. They had been born and raised in Israel, were native to the land, knew the customs of the synagogue intimately, and brought their extensive culture with them when they entered the temple.
By contrast the Grecian Jews were Jewish-Christians who spoke Greek because they had been born and raised outside Israel. They might have come from Cappadocia, Galatia, Pontus, Macedonia, Crete, Italy, or any other part of the Roman Empire. When they came to faith in Jesus, they brought their Greek-speaking culture with them.
This is a recipe for trouble. Perhaps it wasn’t being done intentionally, but nevertheless one group of widows was being favored over another group.
I think it’s easy for us to dismiss this as a fairly minor problem. It wasn’t. If you were a Greek-speaking widow in the Jerusalem church, it was a big deal because you being left out of the food distribution. Churches routinely split over issues much less important than this.
In the late 1600s, Anabaptist leader Jacob Ammann and his followers promoted "shunning" and other religious innovations, which ultimately led to a split among the Swiss Anabaptists into Mennonite and Amish branches in 1693. There are many Amish communities throughout America. They may seem to look the same to an outsider but there are many subtle differences. Some of the splits in the Amish community were over the type of buggy they drive, the use or non use of electricity, the type of prayer cap worn by women, even the length of time they sing in church; the length and style of a woman’s dress and hair becomes an issue for some groups.
Some Mennonite churches split over whether or not you could drive a car. Did
the car have to be black? Sometime splits in the church happen over theology, sometimes over practical issues and sometimes because people are people.
It has been said to dwell with saints above…oh, what glory, to dwell with saints below…well that’s another story. The problem in the 1st century “church” was solved when the community of believers raised up men already known to be full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit.
In the local church there are hundreds of things that need to be done, and therefore hundreds of willing hands are needed. Our own congregation needs more ushers. You would not think that a difficult job…. Now that Kristi has left Redeemer to be more active in the congregations her husband serves, we will need at least 10 volunteers to help teach Sunday School this fall.
This could be a crisis, or an opportunity. Pastor Doua and I see it as an opportunity to have the entire church, with our different language and cultural backgrounds have Sunday School together this fall. How will we serve 25 to 30 children all different ages?, How will we hold bible class for more adults, what space will be used? What kind of Sunday School material will we use for different age groups? We are a multi ethnic church coming together to worship the same Jesus. These are logistic issues we are trying to work out.
I said earlier that in Acts 6 we see the first case of racial prejudice in the church. “So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together.” Second, there was a clear statement of priorities. “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.”
The first deacons were elected in Acts 6. The Greek word for deacon (diakonos) means servant. Deacons “wait on tables” by ministering to others through practical deeds of kindness. They roll up their sleeves and get busy helping people in a variety of ways. We have many members who are silently serving others, we just don’t call them “deacons”.
Stephen was one of the seven men tasked to care for the Gentile widows. His ministry, however, provoked antagonism. A sect of jealous enemies falsely accused him of blasphemy. They marched him to the council of the Sanhedrin and demanded that he defend himself. This is the 2nd time the Pharisees and Sadducees attempt to stop the message of Jesus.
John Stott has pointed out that “persecution is simply the clash between two irreconcilable value-systems.” That clash is what we are seeing now, and it is ultimately between those who believe, trust, and love the God of the Bible and those who do not. The changes afoot today represent a sea-change from the past; the wind is no longer on our back but in our face. This is creating a cultural climate in the West in which persecution of Jesus’s followers…” (C.S Lewis Institute Persecution)
Gene Veith, Missouri Synod Lutheran professor states: One of the greatest paradoxes in Christian history is that the church is most pure in times of cultural hostility. When things are easy and good, that is when the church most often goes astray. When Christianity seems identical with the culture and even when the church seems to be enjoying its greatest earthly success, then it is weakest. Conversely, when the church encounters hardship, persecution, and suffering… then it is closest to its crucified Lord, then there are fewer hypocrites and nominal believers among its members, and then the faith of Christians burns most intensely. (ibid)
In the past 4 years two Lutheran Pastors in Finland were arrested because of their stance against abortion. Last year the trial of two Finnish Christians. One, Paivi Rasanen, member of the Finish Parliament, mother of five, and member of the Finish Lutheran Church posted a tweet on her social media stating that the Bible is clear that sex is only for heterosexual marriage is now on trial for her tweet.
She stated: “This case is about whether it is allowed in Finland to cite the Bible and to agree with it in topics that go against the tide and challenge the current ethos and thinking.”
Let me conclude: Read Acts 6:13-15
