28
Acts 6:1-7
THE FIRST DEACONS
Introduction:
In
a previous text the apostles had been arrested and brought to trial
before the Sanhedrin Council. The Council members wanted to put them to
death,
but were persuaded by Gamaliel not to do
so. So they were set free, but not
until they had been beaten.
In
this text the trouble which the apostles face was not from the outside
the church membership. It was from
within the membership.
I.
The problem
V.
1, “ And in those days, when the number of the disciples was
multiplied...” The problem got started because the church
was growing. This
was a good kind of problem for a church to
have. It is better than not
growing.
It is most certainly better than going
down in membership. Today when a church
has trouble because it is growing that
usually means that they need to go into a
building program to expand its building
and this is not always easy to do.
This
problem in the
to
saved.
When they got saved they got baptized and joined the church at
and never went back to their homes. They stayed in
homes there. This means that a large number of people in
the church were
temporarily out of work and needed to be
fed.
The
church took up offerings to provide food for those people, but that
solved the problem only temporarily. Most of the men would eventually find
jobs, but that still left a large number
of widows and orphans to be fed. The
church continued to grow rapidly and
presumably that just added more widows and
orphans to be fed.
The
problem was complicated by having two different groups of widows and
orphans.
One group is called “Grecians.”
They were of Hebrew blood and Hebrew
religion, but they had been living among
Grecian people. They spoke the Grecian
language and had Grecian customs.
The
other group, the larger group, was not only made up of Hebrew people,
but they had lived within the
the Hebrew (Aramaic) language and had
Hebrew customs.
(V.
1), “...there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews,
because their widows were neglected in the
daily ministration. The Grecian
group already felt that they did not fit
in with the Hebrew group because the
language and their customs were
different. Then, when the apostles ran
short of
funds and supplies and could not furnish
them with food, they thought that they
were being discriminated against because
of their difference in language and
customs.
Therefore, they very loudly voiced their feelings and by doing so they
stirred up a big stink in the church.
I
am confident that the apostles never intentionally neglected anyone.
But it is evident that some of the
Grecians had not been provided for and they
evidently thought it was intentional. The apostles were trying to divide their
time between preaching and teaching the
word of God and ministering to the
widows and orphans. They wee not doing a good job of either.
II.
The option
V.
2, “Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples [unto them],
and said, It is not reason that we should
leave the word of God, and serve
tables.”
The apostles apparently first discussed this matter among themselves
and considered their options.
One
option was to just do nothing, hoping that the problem would go away.
They could just let the Grecians
complain. But they could see that this
would
only mean that the problem would get
worse. It could lead to a split in the
church with the Grecian faction forming one church and with the
Hebrew faction
forming another church. They did not think that would be a good
solution to the
problem.
Another
option was that they could devote more time to ministering the
food and funds to the widows and
orphans. Before handing out any funds
they
could get a better count of the mouths to
be fed and a better count of the
available funds. But since the church was still rapidly
growing and more and
more widows and orphans came into the
membership, this would mean that they
would have to give more and more time to
ministering to the widows and orphans.
This would mean that they would be
spending less and less time preaching and
teaching the word of God. The apostles did not think that this was a
good
solution to the problem.
III.
The proposal
V.
3, “Therefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest
report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom,
whom we may appoint over this
business.”
The proposal of the apostles to the church was that the church seek
out someone else to minister to the poor of their
membership. The church was
to do the seeking out and to make the
selections. They were to seek out men of
honest report. These men would be handling money and anybody
who handles other
people’s money should be men of honest
report. They were also to be men who
were full of the Holy Ghost. That is, they should be deeply spiritual
men.
They were to be men of wisdom. That is, they were to be men who were capable
of
handling this business.
Therefore,
the job would get done and it would be done better than the
apostles had been doing it. It would be done better than he apostles
could
possibly do it and still have time for the
preaching and teaching which God had
called them to do.
V.
4, “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the
ministry of the word.” The apostles would then be free to do the
word which
Jesus had called them to do. They would give themselves continually to
prayer.
If one is going to do a good job of
preaching and teaching God’s word, time
spent in prayer is essential.
They
would also be free to do give themselves continually to the ministry
of the word of God. Ministering to the word includes time to
study the word and
prepare before attempting to preach or
teach the word. It takes a great deal of
time praying and studying and preparing in
order to do a credible job of
teaching or preaching the word of
God. No preacher or teacher can do a
good job
without much time spent in prayer and
study.
Furthermore,
not only would the apostles do a better job presenting the
word of God, but they would also have more
time available in which they could
make contact with unsaved people and they
would be able to witness to more
people
about Jesus for salvation.
IV.
The decision by the church
V. 5, “And the saying pleased the whole
multitude: and they chose Stephen,
a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost,
and Philip, and Prochorus, and
Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and
Nicolas a proselyte of
apostles made the recommendation, but the
apostles did not make the decision to
follow this plan. The decision was made by the whole
church. Then after the
decision to adopt this plan was made by
the church, it was the church who made
the selection of the men who were to
serve. Luke said that the suggestion of
the apostles pleased the whole
church. This means that the church in
some way
expressed their approval by a vote.
The
church not only voted in making their decision to adopt the plan, but
they also voted in making the selection of
the seven men.
The
apostles then served as a presbytery for the church and the seven men
were ordained to the work. V. 6, “Whom they set before the apostles: and
when
they had prayed, they laid [their] hands
on them.”
V.
The good results
V.
7, “And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples
multiplied in
obedient to the faith.” The apostles do a much better job of preaching the
word of God. Preachers always do a better job when they
spend the needed time
in prayer and preparation. They, of course, must be given sufficient
time to
spend in prayer and preparation.
The
number of disciples grew all the more.
They were not only spending
more time in prayer and preparation, but
they were spending more time in the
presentation of the word of God. That is, they were witnessing to more
people.
Therefore, more people were being reached
and won and added to the church.
Even
a larger number of the priests from the temple were saved. I cannot
help but wonder if a few of them might not
have been members of the Sanhedrin
Council, the council which had wanted to
kill all the apostles.
Another
good result was that the widows and orphans were being better
cared for.
Harmony was restored to the fellowship of a church. It always helps
when a church which has had a rift in the
fellowship can settle the problem and
restore the fellowship.
We
can make this observation: Good churches
need good preachers and
preachers need time in which to pray,
study and make preparation for teaching
and preaching God’s word. They make better preachers, better pastors
and better
soul winners that way.
Furthermore,
we should note that good churches need good deacons. They
need men of honest report who are filled
with the Holy Spirit of God. They need
men who are devoted to God and to the word
and work of God. Such men are
invaluable to the work. God does value them highly. The pastor of the church
should value them highly also. The church who has such men should value them
highly.
The church in which such men serve will be a better church and the
pastor will be a better pastor.