Acts 6:1, “1 Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists,[a] because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.”
The congregation was growing in numbers but problems lay ahead for the congregation. The Greek word for complaint is Goggusmos which quite literally means that they could have had a secret debate, or murmuring in the congregation. This suggests several things for us today. It suggests that this issue was more along the lines of a cultural problem or language issue, or even an issue of administration which is clearly in view here in this chapter and verse. The issue at stake was the care of widows who were cared for in traditional Jewish society (Deut 14:29; 16:11; 24:19-21; 26:12). Paul would later give this responsibility of care to the congregation (1 Tim 5:3). The growth and harmony of the congregation at this very point could be threatened if the Apostles did not do as they will later. Now let us turn our attention to what the Hellenistic and Hebrew Jews are.
The Hellenistic Jews were those used the Greek language, but also they were Jews from foreign lands who spoke Greek. The Hebrew Jews in that sense were those who actually lived in Israel and who didn’t travel to Jerusalem during festival season like the Hellenistic Jews. The main problems among them would be that the Hebrew Jews spoke Aramaic while the Hellenistic Jews spoke Greek. Therefore, the problem we have is an issue of language, and cultural identity.
Acts 6:2-5, “2 Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. 6: 3 Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; 4 but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.””
The Apostles were the clear leaders of the congregation at this time with the ability to call the meeting by summoning the multitude of disciples. The focus of their meeting was that they knew their focus of ministry. They knew that they should not focus on the administrative issues at hand, but focus on the Word of God so that the people would be equipped to serve others.
In response to the work of the Spirit the Apostles move to organize the Body with servant leaders. The focus of this solution centers on the oppressed gaining leadership if, but for a time. This shows that the Apostles were not happy in the oldness of what the Spirit had done, but wanted to see the fullness of the Spirit manifested in the community. The focus of the Apostles again is upon the growth of the ministry, which was its maturity. What is needed in ministry is men and women of godly reputations who seek after the Lord, and aren’t satisfied staying in the same place spiritually or in any other place in their lives, but are focused upon His business, seeking after His Truths and His ways. These are the leaders who can be trusted to do His business, His way; in His power. The Apostles focus was upon the ministry of prayer and the Word.
The Apostles focus was not on what was comfortable, but upon what wasn’t going against the cultural grain. These Jewish Apostles understood the focus of ministry was upon serving the people. They let the people make the decision about what God was doing, but set guidelines for the community to govern their decisions. Therefore, we see God moves as we are faithful and calls us to continued faithfulness and service as we let Him move through us in our ministries. An elder in the Body of Messiah’s focus ought always to be on the ministry of the Word and prayer for the people for they minister to the people by prayer by the move of His Spirit, and teaching them the Word.
There remains in the history of this verse here a dispute whether the word deacon is in view. The word serve here comes from the greek word Diakoneo meaning according to strong’s, “to be a servant, attendant, domestic, to serve, wait upon to minister to one, render ministering offices to to be served, ministered unto to wait at a table and offer food and drink to the guests, of women preparing food to minister i.e. supply food and necessities of life; to relieve one’s necessities (e.g. by collecting alms), to provide take care of, distribute, the things necessary to sustain life. To take care of the poor and the sick, who administer the office of a deacon in Christian churches to serve as deacons. To minister. to attend to anything, that may serve another’s interests
to minister a thing to one, to serve one or by supplying any thing.”
Diakonos is the actual Greek word used by Paul in 1st Timothy 3:12, and it means, “one who executes the commands of another, esp. of a master, a servant, attendant, minister
the servant of a king
a deacon, one who, by virtue of the office assigned to him by the church, cares for the poor and has charge of and distributes the money collected for their use
a waiter, one who serves food and drink.”
Therefore, we see just through a brief word study that it is not possible that these early leaders commissioned by the Apostles were deacons. They may have carried the responsibilities of a deacon, but they did not hold the office of a deacon. We can see then that they served the tables but for a season here as the move of the Spirit was so great that they needed these men to step up to serve in this capacity. The later function of Stephen and Phillip would continue as evangelists.
Acts 6:5 And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch, 6 whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them.”
Stephen is later to play a very important part in the spread of the Gospel in our story of Acts. It is the persecution connected with his martyrdom that propelled the congregation out of Jerusalem (Acts 8:1). The words full of faith and the Spirit just prove that he was a man who could be trusted by Him to further His plans, and kingdom purposes.
Phillip also plays a prominent role in Acts. He took the gospel to the Samaritans (8:4-25), and to the Ethiopian eunuch (8:26-40). Four of his daughters became prophetesses (Acts 21:8).
Nothing is known of the remaining five men, although some early traditions connect Prochorus with John the Apostle possibly. Some have tried to say that here in Nicolas we were dealing with a heretical group known as the Nicolatians (Rev 2:6,15), but there is no evidence to back up such a claim.
This is the first occasion in which we have seen the laying on of hands signifying the identification and affirmation of the congregation with these men, and the support of their ministry. Elders, deacons, and all who served in the early congregation were ordained this way (Acts 13:3; 1 Tim 4:14; 5:22; 2 Tim 1:6). Although not much is known about these men, they still play a crucial role in the foundational of what God was doing at this time, in giving the marginalized people a voice and a place to serve in His Body.
Acts 6: 7 Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.”
The Apostles leadership demonstrated maturity to the move of the Spirit. Therefore, God continued to be honored through them and the number of converts and disciples increased. This ought to move those in ministry today to see that the focus of their ministries is on interceding for those who would hear their messages. If the Pastor or teacher isn’t under the anointing of the Lord the ministry will not grow, for God moves through His anointed by His Spirit. It is time that we realized that more than ever what we need in His Body is a genuine move of His Spirit in which people will turn from self to Him. The Apostles teaching caused the priests in other words those not in the high social circles of Jewish society but the poor circles to be obedient to the faith, in other words they believed in the prophecies of His coming, and received Him into there lives, and thus were described as obedient to the faith.
More than ever brothers and sisters, we need servants who will commit themselves to being involved in ministry, like the servant leaders who stepped up and served in the early congregation. You have a ministry in the congregation to fufill. Matthew 9: 37 Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." Luke 10: Then He said to them, "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest”
1st Peter 4:10-11, "10God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God’s generosity can flow through you. 11Are you called to be a speaker? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Are you called to help others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then God will be given glory in everything through Jesus Christ. All glory and power belong to him forever and ever. Amen."
What are your spiriutal gifts?
Encouragement Acts 14:22 ability to motivate God’s people to apply and act on biblical principles especially when they are down or wavering in their faith; the ability to bring out the best in those around them.
Wisdom 1st Corinthians 2:1; 6-16, the ability to understand God’s perspective on life situations and share those insights in a simple yet understandable way. The ability to explain what to do and how to do it.
Discernment 1st Corinthians 2:14 the ability to distinguish between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Service Acts 6:1-7 the ability to recognize unmet needs in the church family and take the imitative to provide practical assistance quickly, cheerfully and without a need for recognition.
Mercy Romans 12:8 the ability to manifest practical compassionate cheerful love towards suffering members of the Body of Christ.
Hospitality 1st Peter 4:9-10 the ability to make others especially strangers feel warmly welcomed, accepted and comfortable in the church family. The ability to coordinate factors that promote fellowship.
Pastoring 1st Peter 5:2-4, the ability to care for the spiritual needs of a group of believers and equip them for ministry. The ability to nurture a small group in spiritual growth and assume responsibility for their welfare.
Giving 2nd Cor 8:1-7 , the ability to generously contribute material resources and or money beyond the ten percent tithe so that the Body of Christ may grow and be strengthened.
Music, Psalms 150, the ability to celebrate God’s Presence through music, either vocal or instrumental and to lead the church family in worship.
Knowledge Daniel 1:17, the ability to discover, collect, analyze and organize information that is vital to individual believers or the entire church family. The ability to comprehend a large amount of information and provide it when needed for effective decision making.
Miracles Mark 11:23-24, the ability to pray in faith specifically for God’s supernatural intervention into an impossible situation and see God’s answer. The ability to sense when God is promoting you to pray this sort of prayer.
Tongues with interpretation. !st Cor 14:13-15, the gift of tongues is the special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to receive and communicate a message of God through divinely anointed utterance in a language they have never learned.
Interpretation, the gift of interpretation is the special ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to make known in the vernacular the message of the one whos peaks in tongues.
Arts and crafts Exodus 31:3-11, the ability to build, maintain or beautify the place of worship for God’s glory.
Intercession Colossians 1:9-12, the ability to pray for the needs of others in the church family over extended periods of time on a regular basis. the ability to persist in prayer and not be discouraged until the answer arrives.
Healing, James 5:14-16, the ability to pray in faith specifically for people who need physical, emotional, or spiritual healing and see God answer. The ability to sense when God is prompting you to pray this k ind of prayer as well.
Hebrews 13:7-17, the ability to clarify and communicate the purpose and direction "vision" of a ministry in a way that attracts others to get involved, the ability to motivate others by example to work together in accomplishing a ministry goal.
Administration 1st Cor 14:40, the ability to recognize gifts of others and recruit them to a ministry. The ability to organize and manage people, resources and time for effective ministry. The ability to coordinate many details and execute the plans of leadership.
Faith, Romans 4:18-21, the ability to trust God for what cannot be seen and to act on God’s promise; regardless of what the circumstances indicate. The willingness to risk failure in pursuit of a God given vision expecting God to handle the obstacles that will come with it.
I pray that our focus will not be upon the gift itself but upon the Giver of the gift, the reason for the gift. For it is only as we develop intimacy with our Lord and Savior that the gifts that we possess will in turn become stronger as we ourselves become stronger warriors for our Lord and Savior. Nail the passions of the flesh on the Cross and move on with your life, turning your heart and your mind towards heavenly things.
This quote is from my sermon on Matthew 5:3 titled Recognizing our needs, "It is when we allow though the Spirit of God to crucify and shed His light on our lives that we come to a true understanding of what our needs really are. Our need is to be crucified completely to Christ. After all, Christ became Man in part so that we could inherit the Kingdom of Light instead of the Kingdom of Darkness. If we don’t allow the Light to shine in our lives then we cannot say we have the Light in our lives. We really have the darkness that has captured so many, and even those who say they are really in the Light are really in the Darkness. When we recognize our needs, and as we come to an understanding deep within our wills that, yes, Jesus is the answer to the darkness of our souls. When this happens, we are then able to let the Light of Christ radiate in each area of our life. The result is a complete crucifixion of the flesh, and an embrace of the Way of Life that God has given us through the Blood of Jesus."
May our focus always be upon the Giver-the Lord Jesus Christ and upon developing intimacy with Him everyday.
Ephesians 2:11-3:6; 1st Cor 10:31, Ephesians 3:1-6, <5:31;1st timothy 5:17-22, Works of Service 1st Cor 15:58, Ephesians 4:12, Revelation 22:12. Gift for ministry Ephesians 4:7-12, Unique and Special spiritual abilities Romans 12:5-8, 1st cor 12:3-31, 1st Peter 4:10
The Lord has given each person a gift. Every person who has believed on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ has a gift and a purpose to serve Christ and advance His cause around the world. The church is full of people who know Christ but still haven’t heard that they have a mission and a ministry. Now as much as I love to have people be a member I long for people to be involved in serving God as well.
The Holy Spirit is the one who wants you to discover what your purpose is in Him. The Holy Spirit is the one who can use you to impact people’s lives. 1st Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore my brethren, be steadfast immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Also Ephesians 4:12, “For the equipping of the saints to the building up of the Body of Christ. Listen to Jesus warning to us in Revelation 22:12, “Behold I am coming quickly and My reward is with me, to render to every man according to what he has done.” Now do you know what your gifts are? Romans 12:5-8 and 1st Cor 12:4-31 tell what they are.
Each one has a gift for the building up of the Body of Christ. It is God Himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus; and long ages ago He planned that we should spend those in helping others. The Bible is very clear on our responsibilities as believers are 1) Worship God, this helps us to focus on God. 2) Fellowship, for this helps us to face life’s problems. 3) Discipleship, this helps fortify our faith. 4) Ministry, this helps us find our gifts and evangelism helps fulfill our mission. Our purpose is 1) Membership, inviting your friends, non Christians and Christians. 2) To bring you to maturity in Christ by discovering what your spiritual gifts are.
Pastor Dave Jenkins
