9-1-2022, September 1, Acts 6, “Trouble in the Early Church”

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Welcome to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Each weekday, Dr. Crisp will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Crisp.

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Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Crisp, and this is the 365 Bible Reading Plan. Today is September the 1st, and our chapter reading for today is the Book of Acts, chapter 6. Well, after chapter 5, we need a break, but we don't get one. When it comes to the Church of Jesus, the enemy is always walking about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And so he is trying to disrupt the Church of Jesus. He tried it from within, he tried it from without any way that the destroyer can get hold of a life and get hold of a congregation, he will certainly do it. As you recall, in Acts chapter two, the Bible says when the day of Pentecost was fully come, people were there from all under heaven, from every nation under heaven. And then a list of many nations that had representatives coming were listed. When people came to these great festivals and feasts and fast days, they made pilgrimages, many of them for days and weeks to come. For some it was once in a lifetime. For some they had saved all of their lives so that they could go and be there for the great Passover in Jerusalem, or for the day of first fruits or Shavuot, the feast of weeks. It might have been in the fall, and it might have been that they were going to come and stay for months so they could go to all, but the reality is that they maybe could only come once except those who were very wealthy. And so people had come, they had saved all of their shekels, and they had come from all over the earth to come to Jerusalem. Now many of them had left family behind, and when they were there on the day of Pentecost, they heard these men preaching in their own dialects, their own native tongue, and not just their native tongue, but a particular speech that would be familiar only to the people in their area, and from their family line that spoke a dialectos, a dialect. And so you had people who had come from other lands who were not natives to the land. And so we run upon a situation that is recorded in what we call Acts chapter six, as the number of disciples began to multiply. You see, now multiplication was taking place and exponential growth was happening, and because of that there had to be, no doubt, some adjustments made. It was the primary trade language, the lingua franca of the day, so they were Greek speaking. They had Greek ways and Greek culture that they had come out of and had come from to Jerusalem to worship and to stay for a period of time. And so you had two different lifestyles, two different ways of lives. All Jews, all of these had come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. They had been filled with God's Spirit. God's Spirit lived within them, but they had trouble. Do God's people ever have trouble and not get along? Well, if you've ever been to church, you know that it's not just possible, it is probable. Because we all are living in sin cursed bodies, in a sin cursed environment, and without the guidance of the Word of God, without the filling and the control of the Spirit of God, we won't just talk about going astray and say we might go astray. We will go astray because we are sinful creatures. Yes, we've been saved from the penalty of sin, but it is something that is ongoing as we are saved from the power of sin. And so as we go through this chapter, we're going to see that there was an issue because there was a class of cultures. There was one that looked at life through one prism, another that looked at life through another prism, and the two were clashing together in one body of Christ in Jerusalem. And so there was a complaint. And the complaint was that the natives, those who had more of a culture and customs and rituals that were associated with the Jerusalem and Judea Christians who were followers of Jesus, that they were being preferred over the Hellenists, who were more than likely those who had come in from other nations who had adopted Greek culture and thought and way of life. And so it was about to get out of hand. And so the Scripture says, in verse 2, then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples, and there was a multitude, and said it is not good that we should leave the Word of God to serve tables, to be deacons, to be table waiters. So they said, Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, these are the requirements, full of the Holy Spirit, that is controlled by God's Spirit. They have wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. They didn't say over the business, but over this business. What was the business? It was taking care of the widows who probably had lost everything. When they became a follower of Jesus, they could not go back home. Because if they went back home, many of them in other countries would be put out on the street because they would be looked upon as those who had departed from their Jewishness. And so they could not go back home, so they stayed there. They stayed with other believers who allowed them to have hospitality in their home and be hospitable to them. And so this is the background. And as they did life together, because they were of different cultures and backgrounds, they would from time to time allow prejudice to get in the way. And the apostle said, We will give ourselves to the word of God and to the ministry of prayer. And verse 5 says, And the saying made sense. It pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, and the Holy Spirit, Philip, Prochorus, Niconor, Timon, Parmenus, and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. These Greeks who had the argument came to the apostles and said, The natives, the Hebrew cultured and Hebrew speaking people, the Aramaic speakers, they are getting preferential treatment over those of us who have come from foreign lands. We can't go back home. And it seems like that because we're not natives here, we're not getting a fair treatment. We're not being given equitable treatment in the whole scheme of things, and we would like to have relief. And so this was a communal type living voluntary, not communism, not forced communal living. This was people like Barnabas who had sold a property and given it to the church so people could live and survive. And so there was a discrepancy in their minds, that is, the Hellenist minds, the Greek-speaking and the Greek cultured Jews that were there, again, who had been saved, who were walking with God, the best thing you have. And so it wasn't a matter of that they hated anybody or anything else. There was just a disagreement, and there was partiality being shown in regards to the Hellenist. And so when the complaint was lodged, this is what happened. The apostle said, You choose out from among you people that will be faithful, and they gave qualifications for that. Now here's an amazing thing. Everyone that was chosen had a Greek name. That means they were all Greek. Yes, they were Jews, they were in the church, but they all had Greek names. That means they were more than likely Hellenists. They were people who were sympathetic to the Hellenist lifestyle culture and viewpoint. Now, this is very important. It's a good leadership tip, and that is that if someone comes to you and they are complaining about something, if they really want a solution, you can say to them, Well, why don't you get someone to help you with this? And you bring them to me and let's sit down and talk together and we'll see if we can't work something out. And basically this is what happened in Acts chapter 6. And the scripture says, after they chose these men, the congregation that is, that they brought them, the Hellenists, that is, those who were complaining one against the other, they brought these men to the apostles and said, This is who we want working with us, because we know them, we trust them, and they will take care of us. And do you know what? The apostles, when they had prayed, they laid hands on those people that had been brought by the congregation. They met up to the standards, they met up to the requirements, and now they were going to be put to the test. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then there arose some from what is called the synagogue of freed men, and that is the Serenians, the Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia, disputing with Stephen, and they were not able to resist his wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. And on and on and on it goes on about Stephen, who was picked out as an illustration of what these early men were like. These men were teachers and preachers of the Word of God. They were totally committed and sold out to Jesus, and they were selected for a specific task. What was the task of these men who were going to be helpers of the elders? That's right. Helpers of the elders. What were they going to do? Well, as you read through this Acts chapter 6 and the following chapters, you will see that these assistants called the Okanoi or the Okina singular deacons, it's brought right over into our language. What were they to do? They were to keep down disharmony in the church. In other words, they were to be the peacemakers. They were to work out solutions. They were not problem people. They were not analyzers. They were solutions people. They were people that had the wisdom that God had given them. They were filled with the Spirit of God. And so they did the right thing. They were the kind of men that would make the right choices with impartiality toward everyone. And so Stephen was singled out, and Philip was singled out as two who were great apologists and teachers, learned men who would lead and serve within the flock. The deacons were assigned to keep harmony in the church. Number two, the deacons were assigned to take care of those who had no one to take care of them. Now listen to me, the first responsibility that anyone has towards someone who is sick, who has a need are other family members. If families would take care of themselves, I know we're going to speak about when you're overwhelmed and you cannot do that, but until that time comes, families need to take care of families. Now when there is an overwhelming crisis or something happens where someone needs help urgently, importantly, and they might need it for an ongoing while, then this needs to be when those who are set aside to help to lead in the area of deacons, then this is when people need to step up and carry on and do what God has assigned. And that is the deacons are to take care and the church is to take care of those who have no one to take care of them. You see, if you have many family members, or you have a few family members, or you have one family member that really cares for you, then the church is freed up to help those who are really needy and have no one to take care of them. So the deacons, by pattern, by what we see, they are those who keep harmony in the church, their solutions, men. And then they are men who serve those and take care of those who are either in abject poverty or they have no one to help them, they have no one to take care of them. And so these deacons seek those people out, and they seek to help them to relieve their burdens, and in that way they serve the people, and in serving the people they serve the Lord. And so the other thing that we find them doing, besides one, keeping harmony in the church, two, taking care of those who are in need indeed, or have no one to take care of them. The third thing we find them doing is being fire brands of apologists and teachers and preachers of the Word of God, sharing Jesus with people. That is the life of a deacon. And so these are the three primary reasons why God designed and ordered for deacons to be in the church so that they can be those who are in leadership and are making the spiritual decisions on behalf of the church and leading the church in various ways. Those are called elders or pastors. There's three words for that that we're not going to go into now that gives a well-rounded job description of what a pastor should be doing in the church. Some personnel committee doesn't need to draw up the assignment of God's man. God's already done that in the Bible. We just need to find out what it is and put it in front of a pastor and say, This is what we do, to put it in front of a deacon and say, This is what we do. Are you willing to commit to this? And if they are, then they are a candidate for what God has for them. This, in summary, is the issue in the book of Acts, chapter six, and that is the beginning of a particular office within the church that keeps harmony in the church among church members, that continually are serving those who have no one, or have no one or not enough to take care of their needs. And the other thing is being an apologist and a teacher and preacher of the Word of God. Well, that's Acts chapter 6, just the opening verses. For On the Way, this is Tony Crisp.

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Thanks for listening to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Tune in every weekday for information on biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Fridays are for your questions. Email your questions to questions at TonyCrisp.org. Then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast. That's questions at TonyC R I S P dot org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.