Intro
How many of you are picky eaters? How many of you have kids that are picky eaters? The struggle is real, my friends. I love my kids and I think they are awesome, but at the dinner table, it’s not always awesome. There are about four things my kids eat for dinner willingly and eagerly: pizza, chicken pot pie, spaghetti, and sushi. Credit to them for that. I didn’t eat sushi until I was 22 years old, my kids were downing California rolls as toddlers. On a side note, when I told my kids what I was going to say, Natalie thought I should add a fifth element: butter. Just plain butter. Apparently, they’d eat that regularly. Back to the point, Carolyn will make something I think is really delicious, and the first thing we hear is “I don’t like that, I don’t want to eat that, why didn’t you make spaghettiiiiiiiiii!!!!” If we’re lucky, that statement is then followed up by waterworks, just tears and wailing as if some irreversible tragedy has just struck them. Which, I guess, is kind of true, because it’s not reversible and they’re going to eat it, dagnabit!
The point is, grumbling causes issues. We all know it. Grumbling can easily destroy the peace in relationships, in a family, in a community. In the Old Testament, as the Israelites are travelling through the wilderness, their grumbling about anything and everything exasperates Moses and angers God. It’s why we read Paul instructing the Philippians, “do everything without grumbling or arguing” (Philippians 2:14). James reminds us that if we grumble against a brother or sister, we will be judged (James 5:9). Hebrews exhorts believers to have confidence in their leaders and submit to their authority so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, because if it’s a burden it will be of no benefit to those they’re leading. See, grumbling can easily destroy a church and its leaders (Hebrews 13:17).
This happened to a church I was an associate pastor in, back in my early twenties. There were a number of really difficult issues in the church, including some members living very publicly in sin without any desire to turn away from that sin. The elders had numerous conversations with them to encourage them to repent. When that failed, they began the process of biblical discipline. That provoked the ire of my generation especially, who were (apparently) upset at the idea that believers should be held accountable in any way. They were very verbal about this, and the leaders decided to have an evening where people could speak their mind publicly and they would simply listen. That evening turned into two hours of people in the church ripping their leaders to shreds, for reasons that in my mind weren’t even justifiable, never mind the manner in which it was done. It was one of the worst and most disheartening things I’ve ever witnessed. Everyone left in a bad mood. Not that it was because of that one meeting, but that church has since continued to decline and to my knowledge hasn’t had anyone willing to stand as an elder for years.
As I said last week, in this section of the book of Acts, one of the unifying themes is that the early church is tested in just about every way. Anything that could potentially destroy the unity and integrity of the church is thrown their direction. We saw it with Ananias and Sapphira and the temptation to compromise morally and to build on faulty foundations. We saw it last week with state-sponsored persecution and pressure. And this week we see it through grumbling and discontentedness with leadership. Let’s pray and get into it.
1. The Situation (Acts 6:1)
Here’s what we read in Acts 6:1:
“In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.”
Acts 6:1
First of all, note that a lot of things are going well here. Acts 4 says that there were no needy persons in the church in Jerusalem because people were sharing their possessions, selling homes and giving the proceeds to be distributed to the poor (Acts 4:34). There was a system set up where people contributed what they had and provided for those that didn’t have. That system is alive and well in Acts 6, which is a great thing. Particularly, widows are being cared for. In a very patriarchal society where women generally didn’t take an income, widows who were unattached to a husband or father were the most vulnerable in society. They were a staple in biblical calls to compassion: Psalm 68:5 says that God is a father to the fatherless and the defender of widows. James 1:27 says that looking after orphans and widows in their distress is a hallmark of true Christian faith. And in Acts 6, the church is growing. Butts are in the seats! Acts 2:47 tells us that there were new believers every single day. Despite all the pressures, despite all the ways these believers were walking through the fire, more and more people were seeing the truth and beauty of Jesus and giving their lives to him!
But nevertheless, the church was tragically made up of…humans. Even the early church, the church at its best, was not a perfect church. Because you know what they say, if you ever find the perfect church, don’t join it, because you’ll ruin it! Even the good things- growth, compassion, generosity- were imperfect and could become a cause for grumbling.
Here was the reason. By Acts 6, the church is still made up entirely of Jews, but it is not monocultural anymore. We read about two kinds of Jewish people in the church: Hebraic Jews and Hellenistic Jews. The Hebraics were the people who were at home in Judea. They were probably born and raised there, so they had grown up in a culture where almost everything was Jewish. They would have spoken Aramaic as their first language, a language closely related to Hebrew, and they likely read their Scriptures in Hebrew. Having been raised in Judea and deeply immersed in Jewish customs, it would have been easy for Hebraic Jews to see themselves as in some ways truer and more authentic. In the early church, it is likely that all the apostles and almost all the other first disciples were Hebraic Jews.
Then you had Hellenistic Jews. These were people who had been born and raised elsewhere in the Roman Empire and only later in life had immigrated to Judea. While they had maintained Jewish customs, they had done it in settings where they were very much the minority. Some may well have had to compromise those customs. They would have been much more fluent in Greek and read their Scriptures in Greek, and not that many would have had capability in Aramaic. What I’m getting at is that these two groups of people spoke different languages, had different perspectives on the world, they had different cultural experiences. These are similar dynamics to first generation immigrants today and their second or third generation descendants. Regarding the Jews in Acts 6, there was a natural gulf between them, but they were tied together by their shared faith in Yahweh, and now in Yahweh’s Messiah, Jesus.
Many of these Hellenistic Jews would have immigrated to Jerusalem to retire and live out their last days in their ancestral homeland. They were likely wealthier and contributed significantly to the “benevolence fund” in the early church. However, they were also more likely to have vulnerable widows in their ranks, since the Hellenists were generally older and not as connected to biological families, having moved there from elsewhere.
To sum up: you’ve got these two groups of people with pre-existing tensions, now part of the body of Christ together. You’ve got Hellenistic Jews, likely contributing significant resources, probably with a large proportion of vulnerable widows. They already struggle with an inferiority complex towards Hebraic Jews, who hold the cultural power. You’ve got a daily distribution of food and other resources so that the poor and vulnerable are taken care of. The kicker is that the text indicates this system is being administered by the apostles, who are already fairly busy leading a movement that is bursting at the seams with untold pressures being placed on them. Not to mention that those apostles are all Hebraic Jews. And it seems, at least to the Hellenistic Jews, that the apostles are showing preference for widows from their own cultural background. They’re being served first, getting a larger share of resources, whatever it is. They don’t believe it’s fair, and it likely just reinforces long standing suspicions and tensions. So they grumble against their Hebraic leaders. And as we said before, grumbling is rarely an act that rarely results in anything good. That’s the situation. Do you see how this could threaten the fabric of the early church and cause it to go off track?
3. The Disciples’ Response (Acts 6:2-4)
Here’s how the apostles respond:
2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spiritand wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” 5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. 6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
Acts 6:2-6
Notice what they don’t do. The apostles don’t get defensive and argue with the Hellenists that actually things are fair. “It’s all in your head, stop whining about it. It’s just like you Hellenists!” Yet they also don’t seem to agree with the Hellenists about the real issue. The text doesn’t say exactly, but it’s not a stretch to suggest that for the Hellenistic Jews, they thought the slight was due to ethnic discrimination. Their widows were being ignored because of where they came from and what language they spoke. But the apostles don’t go with them on this. There are ethnic tensions that will need to be worked through in the early church and we’ll talk about those in the weeks ahead. But here, for the apostles, the issue is that they have been overextended. They, as leaders, have been trying to do everything and as a result have been operating outside of their calling and gifting. That’s the focus in the text.
I get that. I’m prone to the same thing, though probably for different reasons than the apostles. When I played basketball, I wanted to be the star. I wanted to score the most points and have the ball in my hands at the end of the game. I wanted my teammates to look at me and sing “there goes my hero, watch him as he goes.” (There’s a little Foo Fighters for you!) I wanted to impress people with how much of a load I could carry. You think that’s different in ministry? I still have that tendency. I want people to say, wow look how much he’s doing, look how involved he is! There are other reasons, too, of course. Maybe I think, well, I’m going to do this better than other people and have to correct all their work anyway, so I’ll do it myself. Maybe I’m too lazy to actually train other people up. Maybe I think that the leader is supposed to do everything. There are a bunch of reasons we might find ourselves in the same situation, where we are overextended.
But the grumbling wakes the apostles up to this. They don’t allow the grumbling to destroy the church, which is what it could easily have done. They do allow it to prompt a much-needed change. As leaders, as shepherds of this people, if they try to do everything, important things will inevitably get neglected. They say, “it would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.” (6:2)
Hear them clearly. It might sound like “waiting on tables” is beneath them. But they are not saying there’s anything inferior with administering the food for the poor. In fact, in this passage at various points in the original Greek, the administration of food is called a “ministry”. Same word as the “ministry of the word”, which is their teaching and preaching (6:4). It’s not that administration isn’t a high and worthy calling, but it’s not their calling. By giving their time so extensively to it, they’re at risk of neglecting their calling.
Have you been there before? Have you neglected the ministry God has given you? In asking this, I do want to warn against a different tendency that might arise. You know, there are some people who are so careful not to do anything that doesn’t fit perfectly and doesn’t suit their fancy. Back in the ‘90s, the Hall of Fame basketball player Scottie Pippen famously refused to go in at the end of a playoff game because the coach had drawn up a play for another player. This was during the time Michael Jordan had retired briefly to fulfill his dream of becoming a below-average minor league baseball player, so it was Scottie’s time to shine! If he wasn’t taking the last shot, he wasn’t going to play, because he was the superstar! I’m not encouraging that mentality, where you say, I’m not going to do that job because I’m better than that. I’m talking about people who have been gifted by God and have been called to do something- the coach is saying, go into the game and do this task- but they don’t act on it. Or they get sucked into and consumed by something totally different.
The disciples know exactly what they’ve been gifted and called by Jesus to do: to lead the church by preaching the word and by prayer. That’s what they say in verse 4. I believe this is to be the primary job description for any pastor or elder of a church. Whether publicly to a large group or in small groups and homes or individually in conversation, they teach Jesus and they pray. There are other things that need to happen in a church, but it is crucial that the spiritual leaders give themselves to those tasks. If they don’t, the whole church goes astray.
Consider what would have happened if there wasn’t this course correction in Acts 6. If the apostles continued to be the main facilitators of this massive social project, would the church not have become primarily a social service? There’s a prominent organization in the Downtown Eastside here in Vancouver called First United. For over 100 years, it was a church that offered community services. Over time, those service became prominent, to the point that 15 years ago First United ceased meeting as a church, instead existing entirely as a social service. Obviously, there are many good things that First United does, but it is no longer a church body proclaiming the Gospel and worshiping Jesus together. Without knowing the in-depth history, I would guess that at some point the central tasks of preaching the word and prayer were neglected. Think about the ramifications of the apostles neglecting their central duty. In the early stages of the church, when the foundations were being laid, it would have been disastrous.
So the disciples know what they need to do. My guess is that at this point, they also thought about Moses. I said before that there was a lot of grumbling among the Israelites in between Egypt and the promised land. Moses, as leader, also functioned as the judge and would often sit all day listening to disputes and settling issues among the Israelites. One day, his father in law Jethro came to visit him and was gobsmacked- gobsmacked, I tell you!- at what he saw. He told Moses, this isn’t good. You need help. Appoint some men who fear God and are trustworthy, train them and teach them so they can handle a lot of these smaller disputes. Basically, Moses will be the supreme court and appoint judges to handle the rest. Jethro tells him that if he does this and it’s God’s will, “you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.” (Ex. 18:23)
That’s what the apostles do. They suggest that seven men be chosen who will handle the distribution. The whole group present puts forward their candidates, the apostles approve of them and commission them to do this important work. But notice a couple of things about who these guys are.
One thing to notice escapes all of us English readers. All of these names are Greek, not Aramaic. That doesn’t guarantee they were all Hellenistic Jews, because some Hebraic Jews went by Greek names. But it does suggest that at least that the majority of them were Hellenistic. That’s probably significant for a few reasons. It suggests that there’s wisdom in having leaders who can understand and represent the people they are serving. This has been a missiological principle for quite a while, that when a Westerner goes overseas to plant a church in another culture, they should get leadership of that church into the hands of people native to that culture as quickly as possible. It holds true domestically, too. If you want to reach a people group or serve a people group, you should be intentional about calling leaders who can easily bridge the gap and relate to them.
This act also shows us that the apostles willingly share leadership and authority with people who they might perceive as outsiders. It would be easy for them to try to keep the circle small, to only allow people who have been around since the beginning to lead, or only allow Hebraic Jews to lead. But they bless this new group of leaders with a different cultural background. One guy especially stands out here: Nicolas, a convert to Judaism. This guy wasn’t just a Hellenistic Jew, he wasn’t even a Jew at all ethnically, he came to it later on in life!
But notice something else about these men that are chosen. They are not chosen on the basis of their cultural background. What’s the qualification? They need to be “known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom” (6:3). Their cultural background may factor into it. Their administrative competency certainly is part of the picture. But foremost is their character.
Recognize again that they are being commissioned to an administrative task. Not preaching, not counseling, not pastoring. And yet it is imperative that the quality of their character and the authenticity of their faith stands out. This is different from how some churches fill positions, where it’s more about who’s willing or who has the most connections. It’s different from how a lot of companies these days fill positions, where it’s all about checking off a bunch of boxes on the diversity, inclusion, and equity scale. The most important thing is that they are men who walk closely with the Lord, who are being conformed to the image of Jesus in how they speak and act, who display wisdom in their interactions with others. There might be other things down the list, but the number one thing we should ever look for in Christian leaders is that they are full of the Spirit and wisdom.
Here is the sermon to myself and to all our leaders: God doesn’t need our qualifications, our education, our skills. He’ll use them, but He doesn’t need them. What He wants is our hearts! That is what He blesses! He will do more with a humble nobody whose heart is fully surrendered to Him than the most gifted, competent person who is in it for themselves.
4. The Result and Implications (Acts 6:7)
The apostles, led by the Holy Spirit, let go of their ego and find a way to empower new leaders. These new leaders represent the people they’re serving but most of all are recognized as being wise, Spirit-filled men. A crisis is averted, and the people go away pleased and encouraged. But it gets even better. Here’s what we read in verse 7: “so the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.” (6:7)
The bottom line here is that because of how the crisis is handled, there is further growth instead of division and decline. And we even get this note about a large number of priests who came to faith in Jesus. There were about 8000 priests in Jerusalem, most of them part-time. Nevertheless, they were religious leaders who were expected to take their cues from their higher-ups- the chief priests who were harassing the church. But now even they are lining up with Jesus. This is what our God can do. He can transform hearts that were once hard, He can take events that would naturally lead to destruction and turn them to be used for the revelation of His glory.
Now, what do we do with all this? I want to suggest three implications for our church.
1. Use your gifts
The first is that if you are a follower of Jesus, you are part of His body, and He has given you gifts to build up that body. 1 Corinthians 12 says, “now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” You have been given gifts by the Holy Spirit. Are you using them? Are you exploring what those gifts might be? If you’re not sure what gifts God has given you, I have some resources I can share with you. Reflection questions, spiritual gifts assessments, those kinds of things. But the point here in Acts 6 and in 1 Corinthians 12 is that the body of Christ is healthiest and strongest when every part is engaged in the work God has called it to.
And by the way, you build up the body not only by volunteering in church ministries, but by making Jesus known in your interactions with those outside the church as well. If you’re a follower of Jesus, you are a missionary in this world. Participating in corporate worship is like a charging station to send you out with fresh vision and energy for your ministry for the rest of the week. This is not a show you come to once a week to be entertained. This is not the spiritual component of your life compared to the secular six other days. Your whole life is to be offered to God as a living sacrifice, and my job is to equip you to do that. Ephesians 4 says that “Christ gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” (4:11-12)
Discern how God has gifted you and called you to serve the body of Christ, whether that’s in the church community or in the wider community on behalf of the church. Don’t neglect this.
2. Let go of pride
A second implication is that the disciples show us what it looks like to let go of pride and create space for others to lead and serve. If you’re someone who tends to want to go it on your own and be the superstar- like I said, I recognize this in myself- let go of that. Share the load. When crises come or grumbling arises, ask the Lord what He wants to teach you through this. Instead of becoming defensive, trying to preserve your turf or reputation or whatever, allow God to take those crises and use them for growth and transformation. The bottom line is that things go better when we have humble hearts, hearts that are concerned first and foremost for God’s glory and not our own.
3. Have right priorities
Which leads to the final implication, and it has to do with priorities. The early church was abundantly clear on what their priorities were to be, they were very clear on what they were about as a church. Acts 2:42 says that the early church was devoted to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship and the breaking of bread, and to prayer. And it started with the leaders, the apostles themselves. Given all the good things they could give their time and energy to, it came down to the word and prayer.
Coming fresh off a week of 24/7 prayer as a church, let’s reflect on that a bit more. E.M. Bounds wrote about prayer a century ago and said “the most efficient agents in disseminating the knowledge of God, in prosecuting His work upon the earth, and in standing as breakwater against the billows of evil, have been praying church leaders. God depends upon them, employs them, and blesses them.” Half a century ago, Leonard Ravenhill proclaimed that “this is an hour in need of burning hearts, bursting lips, and brimming eyes” and that “for this sin-hungry age we need a prayer-hungry church”. He said that “poverty-stricken as the Church is today in many things, she is most stricken here, in the place of prayer.”
My friends, there is a world out there numb and apathetic to the things of God. There is a generation emerging right now that this is especially true of. We can do many good things as a church, but what is most needful is that we remain true to the word and humbly come before the Lord in earnest, passionate prayer. It is crucial that our leaders, starting with me, actually do lead the way. Because if our hearts are not right and our priorities are skewed, the crises we encounter will destroy us. But if our hearts our right and our priorities are right, then God can even use these crises to grow the church.
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