Acts 6 - Clearing the way for the Word
God will meet your needs through the church, especially your primary need of hearing His Word.
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Acts 6 (ESV)
1 Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number,
a complaint by the Hellenists arose
against the Hebrews
because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
2 And the twelve
summoned the full number of the disciples and said,
“It is not right that we should give up
preaching the word of God
to serve tables.
3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you
seven men
of good repute,
full of the Spirit and of wisdom,
whom we will appoint to this duty.
4 But we will devote ourselves
to prayer
and to the ministry of the word.”
5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering,
and they chose
Stephen,
a man full
of faith
and of the Holy Spirit,
and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.
6 These
they set before the apostles,
and they prayed and laid their hands on them.
7 And the word of God continued to increase,
and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem,
and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
8 And Stephen,
full of grace and power, was doing
great wonders
and signs among the people.
9 Then some of those
who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called),
and of the Cyrenians,
and of the Alexandrians,
and of those from Cilicia and Asia,
rose up and disputed with Stephen.
10 But they could not withstand
the wisdom
and the Spirit
with which he was speaking.
11 Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him
speak blasphemous words
against Moses and God.”
12 And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes,
and they came upon him
and seized him
and brought him before the council,
13 and they set up false witnesses who said,
“This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law,
14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth
will destroy this place
and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.”
15 And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
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Acts 6 Summary
Explosive growth can often lead to explosive problems. The new but rapidly growing church is just coming off the scandal of Ananias & Sapphira's lies, which resulted in their immediate deaths, and now pre-existing racial divisions begin to be felt in how the Church is taking care of the widows.
In both of these situations the apostles take immediate action to make sure that their ability to devote themselves to prayer & preaching is not compromised.
Once again a meeting is convened and seven Godly men are chosen to serve as deacons, a word that simply means servant.
Five of these chosen men will not gain notoriety; they'll simply serve the Lord by serving the vulnerable members of His church and we'll not read of their names again.
However, Stephen radiated grace and power, and his actions quickly get him into hot water with the establishment (in a few days we'll read of how God used another of these deacons: Phillip).
Dig Deeper
So far in Acts we've seen how the Church's primary function is proclaiming the Word of the Lord and submitting to Him in prayer. These simple (and by the world's standard, foolish) actions have resulted in thousands of people realizing their salvation and joining the church in the opening chapters.
This is why as Worthington CRC has been defining what it means to be a thriving church, our values we've identified are centered around the preaching of the Word.
As important and central as what communicating the gospel is, we learn in chapter six that it's not the only task the church has, and taking care of our needy members is only one of those tasks.
This is why God has ordered deacons to serve in His church: so that critical tasks are addressed in a way that does not detract from the church's primary calling: to preach the Word of the Lord.
AAA Prayer:
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, whose Word is powerful and brings salvation;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will serve the Church as faithfully as these first deacons
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
