Acts 6:1-6 New Living Translation
Seven Men Chosen to Serve
6 But as the believers[a] rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food.
2 So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, “We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program. 3 And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. 4 Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.”
5 Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the Jewish faith). 6 These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
There is definitely Tension inside our Camps
We don’t often enjoy tension. Whether it’s in an organization, a business, a family, a friendship, or even a church, tension can really mess with things. But what if we can each refocus the tension and see if it creates a new opportunity?
Things were getting a bit tense in the fast-growing group of Jesus’ followers.
Feelings were hurt, some people were left out, and some of them began to complain.
Another word for this is “grumbling.”
If you have heard the story of God’s people wandering in the desert after being freed from Egypt, you know that it did not take long for them to start grumbling (Exodus 16).
What unfolds in this moment in Acts 6 is an opportunity to decentralize the responsibilities of serving. The community has grown so large that it’s time to appoint leaders who can help take care of some needs that aren’t being met.
When we take time to pray in the tension, we are able to see new opportunities.
Ecclesiastes 3:9-13 New Living Translation
9 What do people really get for all their hard work? 10 I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. 11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. 12 So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. 13 And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.
It’s easy to grumble.
It is easy to keep grumbling-grumbling has its own unique kind of momentum.
It’s also easy to find some people to grumble with.
It is easy too to form social clubs or social media chats to encourage world wide grumbling and in the process get everything more confused than it needs to be.
But if we step back and look at things from another angle, not ever our own but God’s alone, we might see grace, an opportunity to start something beautiful.
Too often in my life I have let the grumbling dictate the bulk of my actions and let my behaviors get in the way of what God may want to teach or reveal to me.
How can we take a few steps back and reframe what we are going through?
What new Kingdom of God things might arise from the mounting tension?
The Church: God’s Imperfect People
Acts 6:1-6 Easy-to-Read Version
Seven Men Chosen for a Special Work
6 More and more people were becoming followers of Jesus. But during this same time, the Greek-speaking followers began to complain against the other Jewish followers. They said that their widows were not getting their share of what the followers received every day. 2 The twelve apostles called the whole group of followers together.
The apostles said to them, “It would not be right for us to give up our work of teaching God’s word in order to be in charge of getting food to people. 3 So, brothers and sisters, choose seven of your men who have a good reputation. They must be full of wisdom and the Spirit. We will give them this work to do. 4 Then we can use all our time to pray and to teach the word of God.”
5 The whole group liked the idea. So they chose these seven men: Stephen (a man with great faith and full of the Holy Spirit), Philip,[a] Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus (a man from Antioch who had become a Jew). 6 Then they put these men before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.[b]
As I prepared for this devotional, I thought about the children’s story Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Now Goldilocks and the Three Bears was not my favorite childhood story.
However, I thought about all the tensions that Goldilocks went through when she encountered the bears’ environment:
This porridge was too hot, this porridge was too cold. This bed was too hard, this bed was too soft. Having found the right porridge and right bed, she did not enjoy her stay too long because a situation filled with conflict confronted her in the form of the arrival of three unhappy and surprised bears and she took off.
I think that it safe to say that sometimes we the public have the same kind of terse feelings about the church just like Goldilocks had about the bears’ home.
On the one hand, we love the church and can’t live without her. On the other hand, we find sermons long and boring, the music either too old or too new, the people too friendly or too cold, the theology of the pastor too left or too right.
On one hand, we turn to the church in times of crisis and need to hear a word of hope. On the other hand, when things are going well the church seems to be an interruption and we find her message a bit disconcerting and uncomfortable.
On one hand, we expect the church, to be all things to all people all the time. On the other hand, we sometimes feel inconvenienced when we are asked to help.
Ideologically, theologically, philosophically, even politically, we all have mixed feelings about the church.
Why is that?
Well for one reason, the spiritual nature of the church.
The church is not a for profit organization. It is the called of God, the ecclesia.
The church deals more than just with a financial statements, business matters, and programming issues. It deals with deeper matters of our hearts and souls.
And those matters of the heart and soul are all about attitude, about priorities, about thoughts and behaviors.
Matters that go to the very core of our humanity. Matters that cannot be redesigned by engineering departments or discussed with human resources.
Another reason that we all have mixed feelings about the church has to do with conflict. It seems that when conflict rears its ugly head, we begin to have second third and fourth thoughts about the stability, purpose and role of the church.
Why is that?
Perhaps we expect the church to be conflict free.
Maybe we assume that once we are saved, then everything is all right and that there is no more conflict. That’s the ideal but not even close to being the real.
Or maybe we feel that conflict is “sinful” or we are too deep and steadfast in our righteousness and that to admit to conflict is to admit that we are not perfect.
Isaiah 53:6 Amplified Bible
6
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
We have turned, each one, to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the wickedness of us all [our sin, our injustice, our wrongdoing]
To fall on Him [instead of us].
Not all conflict is wrong.
Some conflict is present because of the reality of good and evil in this world.
Which very much involves the church.
Unstoppable Tension! ‘Growth Can Cause Problems!’
Acts 6:1-6 Amplified Bible
Choosing of the Seven
6 Now about this time, when the number of disciples was increasing, a complaint was made by the [a]Hellenists (Greek-speaking Jews) against the [[b]native] Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. 2 So the [c]Twelve called the disciples together and said, “It is not appropriate for us to neglect [teaching] the word of God in order to serve tables and manage the distribution of food. 3 Therefore, brothers, choose from among you seven men with good reputations [men of godly character and moral integrity], full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. 4 But we will [continue to] devote ourselves [steadfastly] to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 The suggestion pleased the whole congregation; and they selected [d]Stephen, a man full of faith [in Christ Jesus], and [filled with and led by] the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas (Nikolaos), a proselyte (Gentile convert) from Antioch. 6 They brought these men before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them [to dedicate and commission them for this service].
Tension is inevitable.
Tension is unavoidable.
Tension can be effectively managed, turned into significant kingdom growth.
The number of disciples increased rapidly as many people believed in Jesus as the Messiah!
Myriads upon Myriads of the new believers had traveled a great distance over land and sea to get to Jerusalem from their respective foreign lands (Acts 2:5-11), so it is inevitable that some, if not most of them, spoke foreign languages.
The needs of the Greek-speaking widows were not being met despite the believers’ earlier efforts to help all among them with needs (Acts 4:32-37).
Growth without loving concern causes problems that the evil one can exploit.
In the midst of the tension, we must listen and respond with grace and patience to address potentially any divisive problems lovingly, quickly, fairly, wisely!
Galatians 3:26-29 Amplified Bible
26 For you [who are born-again have been reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, sanctified and] are all children of God [set apart for His purpose with full rights and privileges] through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ [into a spiritual union with the Christ, the Anointed] have clothed yourselves with Christ [that is, you have taken on His characteristics and values]. 28 There is [now no distinction in regard to salvation] neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you [who believe] are all one in Christ Jesus [no one can claim a spiritual superiority]. 29 And if you belong to Christ [if you are in Him], then you are Abraham’s descendants, and [spiritual] heirs according to [God’s] promise.
The early disciples took hold of the tension and did just that and the Gospel did spread, and the people got served and their whole host of needs had gotten met.
So, over the coming days, following General Conference, in the diversity of and in all the seriousness of the tensions created please pray, study how they did so.
Their Acts 6:1-6 solutions to the problem is an excellent example for us today.
How can this passage of Scripture be a catalyst to start the necessary debates?
How can the church continue in its great commission amidst todays’ tension?
Will we choose to be part of the problem or choose to continue and fester the problem or will we find that One way, One someway – God is saying “go forth.”
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
O Father, may we be known as people who love each other as family. Please do not let racial, cultural, socio-economic status, political, or ethnic differences divide us and allow Satan a foothold to destroy the spread of the Good News of Jesus. Amen.
Psalm 80 New American Standard Bible 1995
God Implored to Rescue His People from Their Calamities.
For the choir director; set to [a]El Shoshannim; [b]Eduth. A Psalm of Asaph.
80 Oh, give ear, Shepherd of Israel,
You who lead Joseph like a flock;
You who are enthroned above the cherubim, shine forth!
2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up Your power
And come to save us!
3 O God, restore us
And cause Your face to shine upon us, [c]and we will be saved.
4 O Lord God of hosts,
How long will You [d]be angry with the prayer of Your people?
5 You have fed them with the bread of tears,
And You have made them to drink tears in [e]large measure.
6 You make us [f]an object of contention to our neighbors,
And our enemies laugh among themselves.
7 O God of hosts, restore us
And cause Your face to shine upon us, [g]and we will be saved.
8 You removed a vine from Egypt;
You drove out the [h]nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground before it,
And it took deep root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shadow,
And [i]the cedars of God with its boughs.
11 It was sending out its branches to the sea
And its shoots to the River.
12 Why have You broken down its [j]hedges,
So that all who pass that way pick its fruit?
13 A boar from the forest eats it away
And whatever moves in the field feeds on it.
14 O God of hosts, turn again now, we beseech You;
Look down from heaven and see, and take care of this vine,
15 Even the [k]shoot which Your right hand has planted,
And on the [l]son whom You have [m]strengthened for Yourself.
16 It is burned with fire, it is cut down;
They perish at the rebuke of Your countenance.
17 Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand,
Upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself.
18 Then we shall not turn back from You;
Revive us, and we will call upon Your name.
19 O Lord God of hosts, restore us;
Cause Your face to shine upon us, [n]and we will be saved.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 