Additions and Accusations
Acts 6:1-14
Jeff Hughes – April 27, 2003
Calvary Chapel Aggieland
I. Introduction
a. Exponential church growth is a problem that the early church at Jerusalem had, and a problem that many churches today seek to have. The early church had grown to the point that all of the people could not be ministered to, and the apostles needed to find a solution to this fast.
b. The apostles needed to spend time in prayer and in the study of the scriptures, in preparation of teaching the people daily. If they spent more time ministering to people’s physical needs, then they could not meet their needs spiritually, as their own personal study and prayer time would suffer. Their ultimate decision was that they should continue to meet the people’s spiritual needs, and choose others to meet physical needs.
c. Today, we are going to look at servants in the body of Christ, and how they are chosen and appointed to serve the body of Christ. Service in the kingdom of God is defined by the three T’s, as my pastor likes to say. The three T’s are – Time, Talent, and Treasure. If we can say that these three things are under the guidance of God, then we can say that we are truly serving God.
d. Something that comes along with wholehearted service to God is persecution. We have looked at this some before, and here, we get to see this topic addressed again today. One of the marks of a successful ministry, how you know if you’re really serving the Lord, is that you meet persecution along the way.
e. Jesus told us that this would happen, in John chapter 16, verse 33, we find this quote from Jesus - 33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
f. These are the two main ideas we are going to look at today, as we continue through the Book of Acts, but first, let’s ask the Lord to bless the study of His Word this morning.
II. PRAYER
III. Illustration
a. Philip Yancey once made a fascinating observation about finding fulfillment. In his career as a writer and journalist he has interviewed a wide range of people. He divides these people into two groups: stars and servants. For the stars -- super star athletes, famous authors, TV personalities -- he has only sympathy. These "idols," he says, "are as miserable a group of people as I have ever met." According to the standards of this age these people have it made. They are famous, they have their pictures in magazines, they live in big, expensive homes. Some of us wish we were just like them. We don’t see the troubled marriages, the tormented psyches, the incurable self-doubts.
b. Yancey contrasts the life-styles of these stars with a group he calls servants. Servants include such folks as relief workers in Bangladesh and language experts scattered through the jungles of South America translating the Bible into obscure languages. "I was prepared to honor and admire these servants," Yancey writes, "to uphold them as inspiring examples. I was not prepared to envy them." But envy them he did. As he reflected on the two groups, stars and servants, he declares that "the servants clearly emerge as the favored ones, the graced ones. They work for low pay, long hours, and no applause, ’wasting’ their talents among the poor and uneducated. But somehow in the process of losing their lives, they have found them."
c. It may be fascinating to you that the people that have the least amount of fame and fortune are the ones who are better off. But, these people have found the true secret to finding peace. That answer is serving God.
d. Jesus said “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. “ We find this in Luke chapter 17.
e. Today we are going to look at a group of men who had done just that. They had given up their lives, their money, their profession, to pursue a life of serving God. We will take a close look at these men, as well as the persecution they faced.
f. Our study comes from Acts chapter 6, and we will look at verses 1 through 14, as we continue to study through Acts. There’s a place for you to take notes in your bulletin if you would like, and if you need a Bible, just raise your hand. Acts is right past John in the New Testament, and just before Romans.
g. Follow along with me as we read.
IV. Study
a. Intro
i. 1 In those days, as the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. 2 Then the Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, "It would not be right for us to give up preaching about God to wait on tables. 3 Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the preaching ministry." 5 The proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte from Antioch. 6 They had them stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. 7 So the preaching about God flourished, the number of the disciples in Jerusalem multiplied greatly, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith. 8 Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Then some from what is called the Freedmen’s Synagogue, composed of both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, came forward and disputed with Stephen. 10 But they were unable to stand up against the wisdom and the Spirit by whom he spoke. 11 Then they induced men to say, "We heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God!" 12 They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; so they came up, dragged him off, and took him to the Sanhedrin. 13 They also presented false witnesses who said, "This man does not stop speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. 14 For we heard him say that Jesus, this Nazarene, will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us."
ii. We see here a large church that has outstripped it leadership’s abilities to meet all of their needs. People started complaining, as people are inclined to do.
iii. Here we see the gospel being spread to the Greek-speaking Jews, and this is setting the stage for the missionary thrust that we will see in the following chapters, as the gospel is taken to the Greek speaking world, to the very edges of the Roman Empire.
iv. To this end, we see the apostles selecting and installing new leaders to meet the needs of this growing body of believers, and an interesting thing happens, the church grew exponentially again, as the apostles were freed up to minister to the people, and these newly installed leaders begin to teach the Word as well as meeting physical needs.
v. The Jewish religious leaders had forbid the apostles from teaching in Jesus’ name. Now this teaching had spread to the Greek-speaking Jews, and many were turning to follow Jesus. This was not something that they were happy about, and they were about to try and do something about it.
vi. In our study today, we will look at five points. We will look at the Shortfall, the Selection, the Separation, the Squabble, and finally the Slander, as we look at these fourteen verses today.
vii. Our first point deals with a need or a lack in the church, we find this described in verses 1 and 2.
b. The Shortfall (Acts 6:1-2)
i. 1 In those days, as the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. 2 Then the Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, "It would not be right for us to give up preaching about God to wait on tables.
ii. Luke starts off verse 1 by giving us a time reference, by telling “us in those days”. He is referring to a sharp period of growth in the church. Jewish writings of the time also bear this out, by stating that in the days of Gamaliel, the number of heretics increased greatly in Israel. This is how the followers of Jesus were described by the Jewish establishment.
iii. So, what we get a glimpse of here is a trend in church growth. We saw back in chapter 2 that God was adding to the church. Later, as we saw in chapter 5 with Ananias and Sapphira, God did some subtraction. But, we see the fruits of the subtraction here in chapter 6.
iv. The church is a living organism that I liken somewhat to a tree. The pruning experiences are painful to a church, but necessary. If we allow God to manage the numbers, He will greatly increase the fruit of the ministry, provided that we stick to His program, and we will get a look at how that is accomplished a little later today.
v. But, there are issues, even as God is blessing the ministry. We see a complaint in the early church here. The issue seems to be a simple one on the surface. But, in reality, this was a multi-faceted problem that would take wisdom and guidance to see through, as most problems in the church require.
vi. The first issue was that some older church ladies weren’t getting their meals on chariots like they should have been.
vii. Now, one might be tempted to say, well, these older ladies were just complaining, as older single women can often fall into the trap of gossip. Paul tells us a lot about this too, and how to keep these gals busy for the Lord instead of burning folk’s ears, but they really had a legitimate complaint here.
viii. These gals were being neglected by the church. But, the root of this problem wasn’t a logistical one; it was a problem had crept in that we still face today – discrimination.
ix. The Greek culture dominated the whole ancient world at the time. Alexander the Great had seen to that. His policy of conquer and Hellenization had left the ancient world with a common language and culture.
x. Some of the Jews accepted and embraced the Greek culture. They were called Hellenists. Others had rejected the Greek culture for a more traditional Jewish one, and these guys tended to look down on their more Greek brethren.
xi. So, the end result is that they had a discrimination problem on our hands. This was a “who is holier” contest, and it divided the early church. This is a problem that plagues many churches as they grow, as the more established folks try to turn the church into an exclusive club, and get away from the life-saving station that they are supposed to be.
xii. The second problem becomes apparent in verse two. It is also a problem of growing churches. Growing churches tend to have more and more needs, and well meaning people usually seek to try and remedy the situation.
xiii. The solution that they come up with is often faulty, though. They tend to try and bring these problems to leadership, and expect the leadership to do handle the situation by themselves.
xiv. I see this happening all the time these days. I am on a couple of internet forums where pastors gather to share ideas of insight. Most of them are far overworked and underpaid by the sheep that are often leading their shepherd.
xv. A recent ad I saw looking for a pastor went something like this – Vibrant, growing, energetic church seeks a senior pastor. You must be a seminary graduate with a Ph.D, and be able to preach powerfully and effectively to reach the community, without being long-winded. Must be available for hospital visits and convalescent ministry, and must be an effective evangelist. Must love children, and have musical ability to lead worship. Must also be skilled in marketing and program planning, and will recruit and train workers where available. An in-depth knowledge of computers is recommended, with particular emphasis on word processing, desktop publishing, and databases. A working knowledge of public address systems is desirable. The applicant will also be called upon occasionally as a garden supervisor, caretaker, and artist. He will lead a blameless life and spiritual walk. It is, of course, assumed that the applicant’s WIFE will be included under the above arrangements, to work half-days.
xvi. Now, of course I am kidding, but you get the point. But many people fall into the trap of professionalism. They would rather leave the work of the church to paid professionals.
xvii. I know of churches that hire people off the street to do their Children’s Church because they can’t get any volunteers to do it. As long as I am the pastor here, we will never do this. The dirty work of ministry is for us to grow spiritually.
xviii. The apostles weren’t opposed to doing this kind of work, on the contrary, they were quite willing, and obviously had done some of this for a time.
xix. But, the question arises, should they neglect the teaching of God’s Word to take meals to these gals? They were willing, but the church would suffer.
xx. My pastor used to tell the congregation when we hit lean times in the Children’s Church that if it came down to it, he would leave the pulpit to teach the children, that’s how important he saw Children’s ministry. I tended to agree with him. Children’s ministry is important. They are the future of the church.
xxi. But, just like the apostles, Calvary Chapel Houston would have suffered if my pastor had done that. There were other people that needed to step out and serve. I often got called back to do it to fill in, after doing worship for the kids, because I was a servant. I had been selected as a deacon to serve the body. We get to look at this process in the next 3 verses.
c. The Selection (Acts 6:3-5)
i. 3 Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the preaching ministry." 5 The proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte from Antioch.
ii. Here we see a solution to our two problems. The first problem that is addressed is that of professionalism. The apostles had to prioritize the tasks of ministry, and they did this by delegating some authority.
iii. They had a good model for this. In the days of the exodus, when Moses led the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, he served as judge for all their civil matters, and he worked from dawn until dusk, serving the people. But, it was wearing him out, and draining him. With some advice from his father-in-law, he appoints judges over the people, to help Moses out with the work at hand.
iv. The apostles told the disciples to select men who were distinguished by their wisdom, good reputation, and full of the Holy Spirit. You see, the apostles didn’t choose or hand pick these men; they left that up to God. God had already selected these men for this position by blessing them with wisdom and the Holy Spirit.
v. Their reasoning was that they themselves should be devoted to prayer and preaching, which includes studying, by the way. Their calling was not to distribute food, but to distribute the Word of God to the people. God’s calling and equipping is different for each of us, and we need to be faithful to it, as the apostles were doing here.
vi. The group of disciples thought that this was a great idea. They were hungry for the Word, and anything to help the apostles in teaching the Word, they were for it. The problem of professionalism was taken care of. The body looked to themselves to fill the need in the church, instead of trying to get the apostles to stretch and cover the need, while their main focus suffered.
vii. As D.L Moody once said, it is better to get ten men to work, than to try to do the work of ten men. It is better for you, it is better for those serving, and it is better for the church as a whole.
viii. Problems like this are a chance to not only put our faith in God, but a chance to put our faith in one another.
ix. We are about to see the second problem get worked out as well – discrimination. The seven men that were selected to minister to the windows were all Grecian Jews. God has a funny sense of humor. The Hebrew folks looked down on them, and the men God chose to raise up were all Greek.
x. That took care of the discrimination problem. These seven guys, since we know they were of good reputation, and full of wisdom, as well as the Holy Spirit, being Greek Jews, how could they neglect the Grecian widows? The answer is they can’t.
xi. In many churches, people tend to select leaders from the community, or the rich and influential people for leadership in a church. Scripture tells us that God isn’t concerned with the outward appearance though. He doesn’t see men as we see men. God looks at the heart. These guys had good hearts.
xii. Stephen would become the first of the disciples to die for his faith, and a powerful teacher of God’s Word as well. We will look at him some more today, and more next week.
xiii. Philip went on to become an evangelist. He was the father of four daughters who became prophetesses. He was a godly man who increased the boundaries of ministry.
xiv. Prochorus would later become the assistant, to the Apostle John. Following John’s death, Prochorus became the bishop of Nicodema — a large and growing church — before being killed for his faith himself.
xv. These men, already being set apart by God, would be set apart into their ministry by the apostles. We find this in verses 6 through 8.
d. The Separation (Acts 6:6-7)
i. 6 They had them stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. 7 So the preaching about God flourished, the number of the disciples in Jerusalem multiplied greatly, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.
ii. So, after they allowed God to make His choice of the new servants known, they were called up in front of the apostles, and they laid their hands on them and prayed for them.
iii. The appointing of Matthias to the vacant apostle’s spot was performed the same way, but both modeled Moses appointing Joshua to take his place as leader of the people.
iv. The laying on of hands signifies authority being passed on, and the accompanying prayer was that the Holy Spirit would fill them and empower them for service.
v. The effect of appointing these new leaders in the church had an immediate and dramatic effect on the body of believers at Jerusalem.
vi. Anyone who is involved in any kind of ministry should take note of verse 7. The preaching about God flourished and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem multiplied greatly.
vii. Church growth is accomplished by the simple act of feeding God’s sheep. Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him. Three times Peter told the Lord the he loved Him. Three more times, Jesus answered Peter – “then feed my sheep”.
viii. Healthy, well fed sheep reproduce. It’s pretty simple. The other thing is that if sheep are not being fed where they are, they tend to gaze longingly to the other pasture, with greener grass and well-fed sheep, and they want to go over there.
ix. That’s not a bad thing. I don’t want to get accused of stealing other people’s sheep here, but, it’s hardly stealing if they come willingly. We see this happening at the end of verse 7.
x. A group of priests, a LARGE group of priests. There was approximately 18,000 priests and Levites attached to the temple in Jerusalem at this time. They were on duty for two weeks at a time in shifts all year. These guys were the underfed sheep. They weren’t getting anything out of the dead religion and ceremony. They wanted a relationship with the living God, and that’s what they came seeking from the apostles. That is what they got.
xi. This event- the priests being converted to Christianity, and the two hearings in front of the Sanhedrin drove some people to extreme hatred and anger. We see this in our next three verses, 8 through 10.
e. The Squabble (Acts 6:8-10)
i. 8 Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Then some from what is called the Freedmen’s Synagogue, composed of both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, came forward and disputed with Stephen. 10 But they were unable to stand up against the wisdom and the Spirit by whom he spoke.
ii. Stephen was full of God’s grace, and the power of the Holy Spirit working through him. We saw this before, and it was confirmed by the apostles.
iii. It’s so awesome to see God work in people’s lives. Stephen started off serving tables, and was appointed to serve by the apostles.
iv. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 25 that “he who is faithful in the little things will be made ruler over many things. This is being played out in Stephen’s life.
v. It’s an interesting thing to see people serving diligently, and then get raised up to serve and lead. One of three things happen. One, the person could fail at their new appointment. This person may not be unfit for service they are more likely unready for service in that capacity. God has more work to do in their lives first.
vi. Second, they step up to their new responsibility, and are completely happy and content, and that is the place that God has for them. That is an awesome thing. Remember the four guys out of the seven that I didn’t tell you what they later went on to do? It’s because we don’t know. Most likely, that was all God had for them to do, to serve Him in that capacity.
vii. But the third thing that can happen, is that the person steps up and serves, and is just phenomenal at what they have been appointed to, and they feel like God is calling them to something more, to even bigger things. This was Stephen. God had plans for Stephen.
viii. God used Stephen to signs and wonders among the people, just as the apostles were doing. This no doubt, gave him the opportunity to share the gospel, just like the apostles.
ix. Stephen’s ministry drew some opposition. Stephen had a ministry to the Grecian Jews, and he was fulfilling God’s calling on His life. But, he enters in to an active debate with some Jews from the Freedman’s Synagogue. The Freedmen were Jews who were taken prisoner as slaves by the Roman General Pompey when he conquered Jerusalem in 63 BC. These Jews were later freed, but returned to Jerusalem as Grecian Jews. These were the guys or, more likely their sons who confronted Stephen.
x. They were from four places mentioned here, two are North Africa – Cyrene and Alexandria, and the other two in Asia Minor; modern day Turkey.
xi. They debate Stephen, but cannot overcome his logic, and persuasion. This made them angry. When people can’t an argument, sometimes the choose to get even in other ways. That is what we are going to see here.
xii. One thing I want us to realize here is that Stephen wins the debate not because he is more intelligent, or a better debater. He won by the power of the Spirit.
xiii. The losers decide to get even, they choose to lie. We find this in our remaining verses this morning, verses 11 through 14.
f. The Slander (Acts 6:11-14)
i. 11 Then they induced men to say, "We heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God!" 12 They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; so they came up, dragged him off, and took him to the Sanhedrin. 13 They also presented false witnesses who said, "This man does not stop speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. 14 For we heard him say that Jesus, this Nazarene, will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us."
ii. These guys can’t find anything legitimate to pin on Stephen, being a man of good reputation, and they can’t out debate him, so they decide to start up false accusations.
iii. The scripture tells us here that they induced these men to level these accusations against Stephen. The word induced there in the original language is the word used for bribe in the Greek. So, these men were bribed to say that they had witnessed Stephen speaking blasphemy.
iv. The hiring of false witnesses seems to be a pretty common occurrence, because if you remember, the Sanhedrin had found some men to falsely testify against Jesus as well.
v. It was important that they had more than one man to level the charges. Blasphemy was a crime deserving death in Jewish law, and in order to sentence someone to death, two witnesses had to have corroborating testimony against the accused person.
vi. These Greek speaking Jews succeeded in doing what they set out to do. They stirred up the people against Stephen. They drug Stephen off to face the Sanhedrin. These were the same guys that had just beaten all of the apostles, and threatened them to not speak about Jesus any more in Jerusalem. They would not be thrilled to see Stephen to say the least.
vii. They proceeded to roll out more false witnesses against Stephen. These new guys have a slightly different story, claiming that Stephen blasphemed against the temple and the law. This was done to get a rise out of the Sanhedrin. The temple and the law were the two most important things to them.
viii. The control of the temple and their misapplication of God’s laws is where the Sanhedrin derived their power. They placed a heavy burden of legalism on the people and lorded over them.
ix. What Stephen preached was grace and freedom in Jesus Christ. This was something that would take away from their power, and endanger their way of life, and as we have studied in previous chapters, the Sanhedrin wanted to keep the status quo.
x. These false witnesses go on to level the same charges leveled against Jesus against Stephen, that Jesus (or the worship of Him) would destroy the temple and do away with the law.
xi. This is partially right. The coming of Jesus meant that God no longer dwelt in a building, but in people’s hearts. Eventually, the temple as they knew it would be destroyed, and it would not be rebuilt. Also, Jesus didn’t come to destroy or to take away the law, but He came to complete of fulfill it.
xii. These charges were certainly inflammatory to the Sanhedrin. It was these same false charges that sent Jesus to the cross by their judgment.
xiii. Next week, we will take a look at Stephen under fire of these charges, and how he handles them with the same grace and peace that characterized his ministry.
xiv. But, as we draw things to a close -
xv. Point Summary - There are four things I want us to take away from this message -
1. Church growth gives an opportunity to serve the body.
2. God chooses and raises up leaders, not people. It is the responsibility of the other leaders to recognize this.
3. God gives us more responsibility as we show ourselves faithful.
4. Faithful service often results in personal persecution and tribulation.
xvi. I‘d like to close with a short story.
g. Conclusion
i. During World War II, England needed to increase its production of coal. Winston Churchill called together labor leaders to enlist their support. At the end of his presentation he asked them to picture in their minds a parade which he knew would be held in Picadilly Circus after the war. First, he said, would come the sailors who had kept the vital sea lanes open. Then would come the soldiers who had come home from Dunkirk and then gone on to defeat Rommel in Africa. Then would come the pilots who had driven the Luftwaffe from the sky.
ii. “Last of all, he said, would come a long line of sweat-stained, soot-streaked men in miner’s caps. Someone would cry from the crowd, ‘And where were you during the critical days of our struggle?’ And from ten thousand throats would come the answer, ‘We were deep in the earth with our faces to the coal.’”
iii. The point of the story is that not all the jobs in a church are prominent and glamorous. But it is often the people with their “faces to the coal” who help the church accomplish its mission. Stephen was a man who had his face to the coal, he served the Lord with everything he had.
iv. He would soon pay the ultimate price for his service, because as we will see next week, rocks would follow the false accusations hurled at Stephen, but he still felt like it was a small thing to serve the Lord through his death.
h. Let’s Pray.
V. Closing Prayer
