We looked last week at chapter 5 of Acts.  Dramatic events!  Two people falling down dead in a church service – God's judgement.   We saw the fact that we come to a holy God, a God who sees into our hearts.  They’re important lessons on how important honesty is among God's people.  But now we come on to chapter 6 and we have here another problem.  The church had, from the beginning, been concerned with the practical aspects of life.  Christ's love meant that there was a concern for people’s material needs.  Spontaneously and generously money had been given to provide for the needy, so that Luke records in chapter 4 verse 34, “…there was not a needy person among them”.  But now as numbers increased a problem arose in this area.  We are told that the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.  This really suggests there were two distinct groups within the church.  Scholars tell us that the Grecian Jews would be Greek speaking Jews.  They would be unlikely to know the Aramaic language very well (probably because they had been brought up away from Jerusalem), while the Hebrews would be Jews who spoke the native Aramaic language; although it seems likely they would most probably also understand Greek as well, as Greek was the sort of universal language at that time.

It was the Greek-speaking group that felt their widows were being neglected where daily distribution of provisions was being made.  It seems that perhaps, up until that time, it was the job of the apostles to oversee the distribution to those in need.  We know gifts were brought and laid at the apostles’ feet and presumably they had to oversee the distribution of that food and that money.  Now the apostles would have been Aramaic speakers.  They were locals; they had been brought up in the local areas, in Judea and Galilee.  Now whereas before there had been a spontaneous spirit of unity in the church, there now loomed the threat of division; and so we have a real danger here, of a destructive split in the church.  The apostles were open to the charge of showing favouritism to those of their own group.  How should that situation be handled?

Firstly they faced up to the problem.  Now one of the dangers, I believe, that we English are prone to fall into, is to try and skirt round controversial problems; we’d rather avoid a person than have to take issue with them.  We feel it’s un-Christian to complain when things are not as they should be.  I’m sure there are times when it’s appropriate to display Christian meekness and patience but there are also times when we need to speak out, and it’s right to speak out.  Whether the Grecian Jews did this in the best spirit, well that’s open to debate; it says they complained against the Hebrews, which suggested they may have spoken in rather a disgruntled fashion.  But as we’ve said before, no one’s perfect.  The important thing however, is that they brought the issue into the open; things were not as they should be.  And so instead of sweeping things under the carpet or staying silent and allowing the resentment to build up, they raised the issue.

And then we have the reaction of the apostles.  The apostles acknowledge there’s a problem and they seek to find a solution to that problem.  First of all they realise that as the church continues to grow they can’t do everything.  There are only twelve of them.  Remember the church now is in thousands – five, six, seven thousand or so.  And so they delegate.  Now that’s not something that’s always easy to do, particularly if it means us having to lose or having to share power with others.  We don’t really like that; we like to keep control of things, don’t we?  And I’m as guilty as anyone of that.

But the apostles realised the important thing that they were called to do first is to preach the gospel message and so it means passing on the responsibility for the practical aspects of church life to others.

The next thing they do is to call a church meeting.  This gives us an important insight into the way that the early church was governed.  They called the congregation together, and that’s the way we do it as Baptists, isn’t it?  Have a church meeting!  And the twelve apostles gave positive leadership to the church.  They thought it out and they decided what they were going to say and what they felt would be best.  So they didn’t lord it over the rest of the church.  You notice that the apostles ask the rest of the rank and file church members to make the choice as to who the seven new helpers would be.  Now they did give some helpful guidance as to what qualities should be looked for in potential leaders.  They were to be men of good repute, full of the spirit and of wisdom; not just men of skill, but men of character, men who had the evidence of the Holy Spirit within them.  Spiritual characteristics were important.  Another significant factor is the names of all those chosen as helpers were Greek names and that suggests the seven were chosen from the Greek speaking section of the church.  If this was so it suggests that there was a willingness among the church as a whole to acknowledge that they had been at fault in neglecting that section of the community.  By this act, of what you might call positive discrimination, they wanted to seek to heal any division that was beginning to show itself.

Finally the chosen seven were appointed by the apostles praying and laying hands on them.  Much of what we’ve said about how this problem was handled has been simply good common sense.  Perhaps some of the principals applied to the problem correspond very closely with the sort of ideas that you might be taught on a business or personnel management course.  And we need to use common sense in our church meetings as well as every other area of our lives.  It’s a fault that’s all too common, to leave to the Spirit things that we could use our brains for.  But when we’ve done what we can to the best of our ability and we’ve used our brains, when we’ve thought, when we’ve talked, when we’ve decided, then we need to come to God in prayer and acknowledge that we need His help – that all we do in the end is dependant on Him.  That’s just what the apostles were doing in praying and laying hands on the newly appointed seven.  They asked for divine help to equip them for their task.  Although we can’t be absolutely sure, it is likely that we see here the appointment of the first deacons, although Luke doesn’t actually use the word.  You see God's wisdom is necessary in choosing and appointing leaders.  And all can participate in it, but then even when people are chosen for practical tasks, we find the apostles lay their hands on them.  That was to do with them receiving the Holy Spirit's help for the task they had been appointed to. We find as the chapter goes on that the Spirit leads them, they do their work as the Spirit leads them.  And we find, for example, that they don’t feel restricted – oh we can’t do that, that’s not our job.  You find that they don’t just distribute to the needy; you find that they preach.  You find that with Stephen God gave him the ability to do miracles.  You see, it wasn’t a church that was stifled by hierarchy, but a church that was led by the Spirit; people were open to the Spirit and God worked through those seven.  And the result was that the church continued to grow, the problem had been overcome.

Well today we have problems in churches.  There are tensions over racial differences sometimes, people of every race can be racist – it’s not just English people.  But you know this problem can be overcome because God calls his church to be a place where there is a love for one another.  No matter from where we come, no matter what our educational background, our racial background, our religious background, that love can overcome and there can be justice for all.

But I believe it would be wrong to leave this chapter of Acts without mentioning what was going on at what I believe we should call the business end of the church.  It was Archbishop William Temple who said that the church is the only organisation that exists for those who don’t belong to it.  The main purpose of the church was, and still is, to reach out with the good news of Jesus to others.  And there was plenty of this going on in chapter 6 of Acts.  As with other areas of church life, that also entailed problems.  One problem that the preaching of the gospel regularly encounters is opposition.  And the reason for that is that although the gospel is the good news of God's love for mankind in Jesus, it is also a deeply challenging message and that challenge causes conflict.  Many experience that as an inner conflict.  You know, when we’re challenged by the gospel there can be within us a strong resistance to God's claims.  But some expressed that opposition openly with opposition towards the church or even persecution of the church.  And here again in chapter 6 we see where Steven is hauled before the court.  The disciples knew the reality of God's help and presence though, in facing that opposition.

It was not that they were able to escape persecution.  Even when the angel opened the prison doors for them, (we looked at that in chapter 5 last week) it was not for them to escape but rather for them to go and preach in the temple and face arrest again.  The Holy Spirit within gave them the courage to speak and the Holy Spirit gave them the words to say.  Even after a beating they continued to preach daily in the temple.  The one consistent way that the Christians reacted was, with God's help, to persevere.  That’s what we’ve got to do; we’ve got to persevere with God's help.  And Luke sums up the result in verses 6 & 7 where he says that the word of God spread.  In some ways that’s rather an odd phrase, but it describes very well what was going on.  Jesus once likened God's word to seed that is sown in men’s hearts.  And that seed can ultimately take root and grow, that’s what was happening in the church there in Jerusalem.  We know in two decades that church that began there in that city of Jerusalem, spread across the empire and to Rome itself.  You know the gospel still spreads today, when we faithfully speak God's truth.

Like every other church, Clarence Road Baptist Church will never be perfect, but by God's grace we should always seek God's forgiveness and help, to keep us free from pretence and hypocrisy.  Like the church of the New Testament, may we today in truth and love, work out how most effectively to be a fellowship where the Holy Spirit can be present.  May each of us take part in our own way in the task of sharing the gospel by our words and our deeds.  Knowing that when we do that, we’re sowing the seed of God's word in the hope that his word will grow and his kingdom will spread.

Amen.

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