ACTS 6:1-7 EVERY CHURCH HAS NEEDS2016 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Acts 6:1-7 Every Church Has Needs

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2016.

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And now as we make our way into Acts chapter 6, we'll get to see some more opportunities that the enemy, of course, would want to use to mess up the work that is going on. But the overcoming power of the Lord that's involved in the church, that's active in the church,

as the apostles and the disciples there seek the Lord on how to resolve the situation that is ahead of them. So we're going to be looking at Acts chapter 6 this evening and focusing on verses 1 through 7. And so let's begin by reading that portion.

Acts 6, verse 1 says,

Verse 5. And Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor,

Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they set before the apostles. And when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. And a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith."

Here as we look at Acts chapter 6 verses 1 through 7, I've titled the message for this evening, Every Church Has Needs.

And that's what we see happening and developing here in Acts chapter 6. As the church is beginning and they've experienced opposition from the outside, they've experienced Ananias and Sapphira, so the possibility of corruption within the church. Now there's another challenge, and that is this tension that is developed between these two groups. And so we see even in the early church,

There are needs that are unmet. There are needs that arise, that develop, that are not being addressed and now need to be addressed by the church at this time. Now, as we look at this passage, it is important to understand the way that the Bible talks about, the way the New Testament deals with the church, it relates really a lot to family life.

we are considered, you know, a family. We're part of the family of God. And as a gathering of believers, we are very much like a family. And like families, that includes problems, that includes complaints, that includes needs that arise and disagreements and hurts, as well as the victories and the celebrations and the rejoicing and all of those things that take place.

And every church, by church I'm referring to, you know, the local church, so living water, as a family, we are going to have needs and there's going to be problems and disagreements and things like this that arise. And that is true of every individual church.

the legitimate needs that take place. Now there's sometimes a lot of nonsense that crops up too, and that's a different subject. But here what we see in Acts chapter 6 is a legitimate need. In verse 3, as they're addressing the need, the apostles say, you know, we need to choose seven men that we could appoint over this business. That word business could also be translated need or necessity. And

And so the apostles recognized this is a legitimate need. This is a real necessity. We do need to address this situation. And so now they're going to be working on how to address this problem that has arisen. And so the early church had needs.

Living water will have needs and every church has needs because we are a body. We're a family. Our lives are interwoven together. That's by God's design. But what comes along with that, because we're fallen people, because we're sinful people, because we fall short and are not perfect, we're going to have some tension, some conflict and things that arise as we live life together the way that God has called us to.

And so we'll get to explore a little bit how to handle those needs here in this passage. There'll be five points that we'll look at as we work our way through verses 1 through 7 here. So point number one is found in verses 1 and 2, and that is, needs should be made known. Now, this maybe seems a little bit obvious, but oftentimes needs are not made known. And so it's an important point for us to consider.

Looking again at verse 1, it says, So it begins to describe the situation, the need that is there amongst the church as they are going about their business and walking with the Lord and developing in the Lord.

Now, as he begins to describe this problem, you can see from verse 1, really this is kind of like growing pains. That as the church is growing, it says in verse 1, the number of disciples was multiplying. And so we saw already there was several thousand who got saved on the day of Pentecost. And then a couple thousand more got saved in Acts chapter 5. And I think it was actually 4. And then, you know, so the church is developing and it's multiplying. It's growing and people are getting saved.

And--

natural product of that, a natural result of growth is growing pains. There's things that have to be adjusted. There's, you know, things that worked when you were, you know, handling things one way or in one condition. It changes. And, you know, for us as well at Living Water, as things grow, we're going to experience pains. But also, as things shrink, which we also experience, right, then there's shrinking pains. And there's things that need to be adjusted and things that need to be, you

handled differently depending on the circumstances that are before us. And so that's a natural and normal thing. And again, it's part of church life is there's going to be needs that develop. And so there arose a complaint, it says in verse one, against the Hebrews by the Hellenists. Now, I'd like to take a moment just to

understand the complaint that is happening because there's really several components to this complaint that is being brought forth and it's very particular to the Jewish culture of the day. First of all, this centers primarily around widows and widows in that culture at that time really had no means of provision. The way their culture was set up and established was

if a woman who is married lost her husband, she lost her means of support. She lost her means of provision because it was really centered around the man was providing for families. That was predominantly how families were taken care of. And so there was no means of provision for a widow. There wasn't jobs that she could easily go get. There wasn't ways for her to be able to

earn money easily to be able to provide for herself. And so a widow was often destitute and incredibly poor because they, you know, didn't have a way to provide for themselves. Now the Jews really held in high regard providing for the poor. It was very important to the Jewish people. And

and it was part of their religion. It was part of their worship of God. It was part of their culture as well. It was part of their upbringing, even as God built it into the Old Testament, you know, that was part of automatically they would take care of the poor. And so they would take care of the widows by giving personally, but there was also a temple distribution. So the widows could go to the temple and

And they had no means of support for themselves. And so the Jewish people as a whole took it upon themselves to make sure the widows were taken care of. And so there would be offerings and contributions that were given at the temple. And the priests would distribute that to the widows and other poor who had need.

But what we're talking about here in Acts chapter 6 is now Christian widows. You've already seen some tension and conflict between the Jewish religious leaders and the Christians, and that also is impacting these widows. As these ladies believed in Jesus...

It seems like the Jewish people as a whole and the priests stopped supporting them, and so the church actually begins to take care of the widows within their midst. It's possible that the Jews withdrew their support altogether, but the

But regardless whether they did or not, the church saw it as their responsibility to care for these widows that were in their midst because they had no other means of support.

Now, this continued on in the church, and Paul even writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5, verses 1 through 16, and addresses this in great detail. If you want to see a little bit of the criteria that they used in order to establish, well, who is a widow that would receive support? What would be the criteria that they would use to determine that and establish that and the way that that would be handled? Paul addresses that in 1 Timothy 5, verses

But just to sum it up, 1 Timothy 5, verse 16 says,

And so this whole idea of being a widow, Paul is protecting the Ephesian church from being kind of taken advantage of. Hey, if your family has widows, well, you should take care of those widows within your family and don't let that be a burden to the church. But those widows who really have no support, no others who will be able to help them,

the, the Jewish people in, well, the Jewish church here in Acts chapter six and Paul later on in first Timothy chapter five, he said, it is a church's responsibility to help care for and provide for and meet the needs of those who have no other support. And so, uh,

There was some criteria that he established, but he says, you know, if someone else can support them, then they should support them. But there is that need. There is that obligation to provide for those widows. And so that's the condition that they were in here in Acts chapter 6. There were these widows. They had no provision. Nobody else could provide for them. The church was providing for them.

Now, we saw previously in Acts chapter 5 and earlier in chapter 2 that people were selling their properties and giving it to the church. And so now, you know, the church, although it's brand new, it's only a year or two old, there's provision there. And there's been, you know, monies that have been given to provide for this sort of thing. And so the widows are being given daily a distribution of the church's funds so that they could live, so that they could survive.

But again, there's a problem in this situation. And what is that? Well, continuing on, learning to understand the complaint here in verse 1, it says, And so this complaint centers around this division between the Hebrews and the Hellenists. Now, that may not mean a whole lot to us, but it was significant to them.

Remember that the church up to this point only consisted of Jewish people.

In Acts chapter 10, we'll see the first Gentiles get saved. But right now, salvation is only happening for the Jewish people, and the Jewish people are joining the church. They're turning to Jesus. There are Gentiles who have become Jews that are now Christians, and they're part of the church, but it's all centered around Jewish culture, the Jewish people, and it's located in one place in Jerusalem.

And so they were steeped in Jewish culture. And something that was really important for the Jewish culture was this division between Hebrews and Hellenists. All Jews were divided into these two groups in that day. What was the difference? Well, Hebrews, those were how you would refer to Jews who were raised in the land of Israel.

They were born in the land of Israel, also known as Palestine in those days, right? So they were raised in the land of Israel. They primarily spoke Aramaic.

And when they studied the scriptures, they studied the Hebrew scriptures. And so they focused on the Hebrew scriptures. They spoke Aramaic. They were born and raised in the land of Israel. And they were Hebrews. They were the Hebrew group. But then there was the Hellenists. Now, Hellenists were basically Jews raised anywhere else, right?

because the rest of the world was primarily, like, involved in Greek culture and spoke the Greek language. There were Jews. They were Jews. They weren't, you know, necessarily mixed races or anything. They were still Jews, but they were born and raised in other places. And so their first language was not Aramaic. Their first language was Greek. And maybe they spoke Aramaic, but

but it wasn't their first language. They were born and raised speaking Greek. They were born and raised in Greek culture. And so they had, you know, just as you might understand in your experience with other cultures, there's different mindsets, different things that you value, different ways that you approach things, different perspectives you have. And so these Jews from elsewhere around the world were,

would have, you know, different opinions and different ways of approaching things. And when they studied the scriptures, they didn't study the Hebrew scriptures. They studied the Septuagint.

And the Septuagint was the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures. And because Greek was their primary language, that's the scriptures that they studied. In the same way that you probably have an English Bible and not a Greek or a Hebrew Bible, right? And that's because English is your language and that's what you study. And so there was this division between these two groups of Jews. And this existed outside of the church. This was already there in Jewish culture before.

before the church even began. This was, you know, already there as a product of the world at that time. And so Jews were kind of divided, and the Hebrews could be kind of high and mighty, like, you know, we're pure Jews, you know, we are more holy, and we speak Aramaic, and we study the Hebrew scriptures. And the Hellenists were more like, you guys need to relax a little bit, you know, come get up with the times. Everybody speaks Greek now. And, you know, there's that, that

constant division between the old school traditionalists and the, you know, kind of the new school, like relaxed old school people that continues to exist today. And so you can understand a little bit. There would be bias between these two groups. There would be prejudice between these two groups. There would be suspicion between these two groups. And it would just be continuing like this as they get saved and begin to participate in the church. And

And so you have these widows who are desperate and they need help. Some are from the Hebrews and some are from the Hellenists. And the situation that arose in verse 1 is this complaint comes up against the Hebrews by the Hellenists saying, our widows are neglected in the daily distribution. In other words, there's some favoritism going on. The Hebrew widows are

They're well taken care of. Meanwhile, the Hellenist widows, you guys aren't doing a good job taking care of them. They're being neglected. They're being overlooked as the provision is being given out. And so this is the complaint, that there is this favoritism, that there is this neglect that's going on. Now this word complaint that Luke uses here in verse 1 says,

He says it's a complaint against the Hebrews. The word complaint, it means a murmur or a murmuring or a secret debate. It's a secret displeasure. The Greek scholar Kenneth Wiest says this way, that the word complaint is used of the cooing of doves. It refers not to a loud outspoken dissatisfaction, but

but to an undertone muttering. So picture that for just a moment. There is this neglect that this group of people sees, that they feel. They're being slighted. They're being treated lesser. And so as they're feeling this, as they're experiencing this, there's not a great outcry, but there's like, can you believe? Look at that.

Look at Susie, got like twice as much as I got. And I'm a widow too. I needed just as much, but she's a Hebrew widow and I'm a Hellenist widow. And you know, like this muttering, this mumbling, this secret stuff that's going on. And that's what was taking place. And this complaint, it says, arises within the church. And so this is why I make the point for point number one, needs should be made known.

It's absolutely normal for this kind of complaint to take place. There's always going to be the behind the scenes, you know, there's always going to be that. That's always going to take place. But when there's legitimate needs within the church, and you can apply that here at Living Water, and you can apply that to any church that the Lord has you become a part of, there's a responsibility we have as members of the body of Christ to make needs known.

And this does happen. We don't know exactly how this happens here in Acts chapter 6. Somehow this complaint becomes known and it's then that the issue can be resolved. Again, verse 2 says,

So somehow the complaint either becomes big enough, you know, the rumor spreads far enough that the apostles catch wind of it and they say, all right, we need a family meeting. Let's gather the church together. We need to talk about this situation. Or maybe someone finally got bold enough to just say,

to Peter, hey, Peter, there's a problem. People have been saying, maybe you've heard that. People are saying, people are talking. And so someone finally brings it up and that's the right thing to do. Sometimes, of course, we don't like to address problems, especially you can imagine the tension here between these two groups and, oh man, if I bring this up, then they're gonna think this or they're gonna think that. Let me just encourage you. When it comes to church life,

Needs should be made known. The church is never going to be able to address situations and needs if they're not brought up, if they're not made known, if they're not brought to the light. Now, of course, the church will never be all things to all people, and we're not equipped by God to meet everybody's want and wish, and perhaps we might even call some of them needs. And

But there are many needs that could be met if they were known. There are many problems and situations that could be resolved if they were made known. I think many times the tendency in our culture is,

It's too hard to bring it up. It's too hard to address the need. It's a little bit easier. Let me just move to a different church. You know, let me just go to a different place. I'll just, you know, move along in the same way like, well, I don't like Target's bathroom policy, so I'm shopping at Walmart. Like, just move along, you know, just rather than try to deal with it, rather than try to resolve situations, it's easy for us many times to just move on to something else.

But there's a great problem with unspoken complaints. Number one, it very easily leads to bitterness because you feel this slight, just as these Hellenist widows felt slighted, they felt neglected. And that could easily develop into bitterness and cause great problems within the church. It could cause great division within the church. And so there's a danger of that bitterness creeping in if we do not address the problems and needs that are there within the church.

But then the other thing to consider is if you don't bring it up, it leaves the problem unresolved. So, you know, you move on to another church perhaps, or you move on to a different situation, and you're like, okay, well, you know, I survived that one. I'm out of it. But then you left, you know, the whole other people who come after you to be inflicted with the same slight, the same neglect. And so, you know, you've not given the opportunity for that need to be addressed, for that problem to be resolved. Right?

It's very possible, in case you don't know, it's very possible that you and all your friends know about needs that I know nothing about, that Dave knows nothing about, that Harvey knows nothing about. It's all common knowledge to you guys. You guys talk about it all the time, but we never hear about it. And that happens regularly in church life.

And so here it was taking place. And we don't know how long it went on before it was addressed, but we thank God. Here it is. It's addressed. And it's a really good example for us. I really like this passage of scripture because it's so practical. It's so kind of down to earth. Like this is what really happens in church life. There's problems between groups of people and it needs to be addressed. And so here it was taking place.

And so I would encourage you, if there are needs that are going on, if there's slights that you feel, neglect that you experience, bring it to our attention. Bring it up to the pastors or the ministry leaders or the board members. Don't just talk about it with other people, but bring it to those who have some authority from the Lord and are able to help resolve the situation. So point number one is needs.

should be made known now as we go on to verses two through four here we see that servants need priorities so as we talk about needs within the church and resolving those needs

There's some structure that we see here established that's really good for us as a model to help us understand how to resolve needs as they arise. And one of the structure, one of the boundaries that we need to apply as we look to resolve needs is there does need to be priorities for those who are involved. Let's look again at verse 2, 3, and 4. It says, Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said,

It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

And so here what we see is there's some priorities that are applied as the apostles are seeking to resolve the situation. Now understand, this is not about classifying different types of functions as better or higher or lesser work. It's not about that at all. Whatever God calls you to is fine.

high calling. Whatever God calls you to is an honor, is a privilege. It's a privilege to serve God in any capacity. It's not, this is not talking about different capacities. This is talking about specific callings, and there's a priority that comes with that. And so what we see here is really two sets of priorities here in this passage. First, you have the twelve apostles. And

And the 12 apostles, discipled by Jesus, you know, and called to go on and lead the church into the years to come and to establish, you know, the church in the world and to bring the gospel to the world. These 12 apostles, their primary calling was prayer and the word of God. These two things were their priority as they express it here in the text.

And there's always going to be a danger when you have a calling from God and a priority that comes along with that. There's going to be some opportunities to be distracted from your primary calling. And that's what the apostles are experiencing here. And so they gather together all the disciples. They gather together the church in verse 2. And they say, it's not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. They saw this as a situation where

This will force us to make some choices. And we're going to have to neglect our primary calling in order to address this situation if we're going to be personally involved in it. And they recognize that's a problem. We need to be focused on our primary calling. We need to be focused on what God has called us to do and not get distracted with these other things. Now, it wasn't that providing for the widows and making sure everybody got a fair share was wrong.

Not important. It was important, but they were just needing to be focused on their priority. And so in verse 4, you see them express that again. We will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And so they were working hard to stay focused on the primary calling. And that is going to be something that is important for each of us, whatever our calling might be. We all have different callings and different functions, and we'll talk about that. But whatever it is,

We need to make sure we keep our priorities. There's going to be challenges to those priorities. And we're going to need to make sure that we give ourselves continually to the priorities that God has established for us.

That's not the priorities that our boss gives us or that our spouse gives us or that, you know, society expects of us or what others before us have done, but to really be focused on the priorities that God gives us. That means we need to walk with the Lord and hear from Him and live our lives focused in the things that the Lord puts before us and calls to our attention.

The apostles here say that we will give ourselves continually. The word to give ourselves continually, literally it means to adhere to something. It's to be glued together, to be steadfastly attentive to, to persevere in something, to show yourself courageous for something.

and to be constantly ready for something. This was the way that the apostles approached their ministry of the word. They needed to be adhering to it, to be steadfast in it, to be persistent in it, even though there was going to be challenges and opposition and opportunities to be distracted and caught up with other good things, but just not the priority that God had given to them. And so they say, we will give ourselves continually to prayer and

and to the ministry of the word. They have their priorities set and they're not going to budge. They're going to be focused on what God has given to them. But we see another set of priorities as we look at these seven men that they advised the people to select in verse three. Again, verse three says, "'Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.'"

So as the apostles kind of set the model, they say, look, we need to be focused and adhering to the priorities that God has given to us. But let's select seven men that can have this kind of focus and this kind of attention given to this business, this need that is there in handling the distribution of resources to the widows that are in need.

And so these men will be focused on providing for the widows in the same way that the apostles are focused on the word of God and prayer. For these men, their priorities, they'll need to stick to them in the same fashion, but their priorities are going to be different than the 12 apostles. They're going to be focused on this business. They're going to be focused on this situation and making sure that the needs are met.

Now understand as it talks about, you know, this need in verse 2, you know, they say we shouldn't neglect the word of God to serve tables. I think we all kind of get the picture of, you know, waiters and waitresses is, you know, kind of the general idea here. But that's really not the picture of what's happening here. Business was conducted over tables. Remember when Jesus cleansed the temple and he overturned the tables of the money changers? Yeah.

That's the kind of table we're talking about here. It was a distribution of funds, of resources to the widows. And so it wasn't a banquet dinner and these seven guys are all going to be the waiters. Not that there's something wrong with that, but just to understand what we're dealing with here is we're dealing with the handling of resources and making sure that monies were given appropriately to those who are in need. And that's what it means to serve tables.

And so again, this was not about classifying better, higher, or lesser work. Both these seven men and the 12 apostles are servants. In verse 2, it says, you know, these guys are going to serve tables. But also in verse 4, they say, we're going to give ourselves to the ministry of the word. It's the same word. In verse 2, to serve tables, that word serve is the same word ministry in verse 4.

It's just we're servants regardless. Again, it's not about higher or lesser or more important. Whatever God calls you to, you're his servant. And so you're to be faithful to do what God calls you to do. That's what a servant does. And whatever God calls you to do is a high calling. Remember what Paul shared in 1 Corinthians 12.

In verse 24, he says, God composed the body. God designed the body, gave every member their part. And he says, giving greater honor to the part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. God has designed the body of Christ in such a way so that every member has equal importance. And the members that we think, ah, that's, you know, less important. God has composed the body so that they are actually more important than we think.

That's the way that God has designed it so that we each have the same care for one another. So that one of us is not more important than the other. We're all servants. We all have different callings and different functions. The priorities that we have are set by the role that God has given to us in the body of Christ.

And so that's going to be different for us individually. That's going to be different for us depending on what our calling is. But all of us need to have those priorities and all of us can be distracted by very good things that we're not actually called to do. And that's what we see taking place here. The apostles are potentially distracted by this good thing. It needs to be taken care of. And it would have been a mistake for them to say, all right,

Peter, you know, you go ahead and take care of that. James, you got this one. You know, let's all man the tables and let's make sure everything happens fairly. That would have been a mistake. It would have violated the priorities that God had given to them in fulfilling their role as the apostles of the church. I'd like to kind of rewind the tape a bit and remind you of some of the things that we went through when we did the course Equipped to Serve.

You might remember I challenged you to rethink spiritual gifts, to not just kind of throw them all, you know, from all the passages into one big pile and lump it all together and, you know, all right, these are all the spiritual gifts, but to recognize there's differences as, you know, found in the different passages that indicates there's differences. Romans chapter 12 talks about roles in the body of Christ, and we'll talk about that in a moment.

1 Corinthians chapter 12 talks about the gifts of the Spirit or the manifestations of the Spirit. And then Ephesians chapter 4 is really talking about leadership within the body of Christ. And so every member of the body of Christ, every believer is

fits into Romans chapter 12 somewhere. You have a role in the body of Christ. And you know, there's, these aren't exact sciences and there's a lot of overlap. But the point is you have a role, you have a part to play, and then God gifts you. The Holy Spirit gifts you. The manifestations of the Holy Spirit are to help you complete your role in the body of Christ. And so as we talk about these priorities, that we're talking about your role in the body of Christ. And so as we talk about these priorities,

And along with your role in the body of Christ comes some priorities. In Romans chapter 12, verse 4 and 5, Paul says, Here's the way that God has designed the body. We're many members, but we have different functions or different roles.

We do different things. We have different focuses. We have different priorities based on our place within the body of Christ and the things that God has called us to. We have a role to play and it's different than other people. And so our priorities are going to be different. Our focus is going to be different in the same way as the apostles had a different focus than these men who would be selected to be focused on this business.

I shared with you at that time as we went through this, you could kind of think about it like positions on a baseball field. You have the pitcher, the catcher, first base, second base, third base, shortstop, left field, right field, center field. These are all different positions, all different roles on the team, and everybody does their part. Everybody has their own set of priorities, their own set of focus, and it's as each one does their part that the team functions well. Now, that's not to say that

One can't perform the functions of another and that, you know, one doesn't step in. I don't really know sports that well, so I apologize if I totally butcher this, but I could imagine the shortstop, you know, subbing in as second base, you know, because second base is out catching the ball or whatever, you know, and so, you know, they sub in. Yeah, they can sub in for one another. There's not like ones beneath the other. In a similar way, our roles in the body of Christ, it's not that we can't do other

functions. And it's not that we shouldn't from time to time, but that we should be careful to maintain this is my role. This is what I need to be focused on. And there's going to be challenges to that, but I need to protect myself against distractions that will keep me from doing what God has primarily called me to do. And so what are these roles within the body of Christ? Just looking at these very briefly, we have what Paul describes here in Romans chapter 12, verses six through eight,

gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, he says, let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Or ministry, let us use it in our ministering. He who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness.

And so these are what Paul identifies and highlights as the roles or the functions within the body of Christ. Prophecy, that's the speaking forth on behalf of God. Ministry or service, that's practical areas of serving. Teaching, that's the explanation of doctrine and such.

exhortation, that's encouragement, you know, kind of like cheerleading and building people up. Also bringing comfort to people who are hurting. Giving, that's providing resources to those who are in need. Leading, that could also be translated administration, that's taking care of details. And you could look at these seven guys that we're talking about here in Acts chapter 6, really as administration. They're, you know,

all right, here's the amount of money. Here's the number of widows. And okay, let's make sure everybody gets what is needed and it's distributed fairly. And then mercy, and that is showing compassion on behalf of the Lord to people. And so these are the different roles. And again, we can't go into all the details here, but these are demonstrated in a variety of ways, in a variety of ministries. The way this looks is,

in the children's ministry is different than here, is different than Spanish ministry, is different than at your workplace and in your home. It manifests itself in a variety of ways. There's great variety in how God uses these things, but these are the general roles. This is the general things that God calls you to. One of these, one of these is what God's called you to here at Living Water if this is where God has planted you. That's

This is the role, you know? And so what is your role? Is something important for you to wrestle with the Lord about and to figure out so that you know what your priorities are and that you make sure that you stick to that. There's a great, you know, admirable quality of one who's, you know, just available for anything. It's just whatever you need, okay, I'm doing it. And that's great and that's good. And I wouldn't take that away from anyone except...

I would say you need to be careful that you don't get distracted from doing what God has primarily called you to do because we all have that potential. And so we need to be focused. And there's servants in the body of Christ, but we need priorities. We need to be focused. The apostles handled this well in Acts.

delegating this responsibility so that others who could be focused on this would be focused on it and not taking away from their priorities that God had given to them. So servants need priorities. As needs are brought to the church's attention, as we seek to meet needs, there also is the structure, there's the boundaries, okay, but we need to make sure that we don't stray from the primary thing that God has called us to.

Well, moving on to point number three, here we'll just focus on verse three, and that is that servants need godly character. So as they begin to address this problem, the apostles suggest, okay, we can't handle this. It's going to take away from our ministry. And so what we need to do is get seven other guys. Now, as you look for these seven guys, here's some qualities to look for. Here's character that you need to look for. Make sure they're godly men that we appoint over this ministry.

situation over this business. Now, different roles in the body of Christ require different qualifications. Paul talks about the role of bishop or overseer. We might refer to that person as a pastor in 1 Timothy 3, verses 1-7.

He talks about the position or the requirements of a deacon in 1 Timothy 3, verses 8-13, that word deacon simply means servant, which is possibly, you know, again, what's being developed here in Acts 6. You also have elders mentioned in Titus 1, verses 5-9, and different people define and differentiate all these different titles. But there's different criteria, and the point that I'm seeking to make here is all focus on character, right?

Whether you're talking about a bishop, a deacon, or an elder, whether you're talking about, you know, these guys here in Acts chapter 6, the focus is on character, that they are godly. Not that they have, you know, so many years experience and this kind of degree, or that they have so much popularity, or they have these certain set of skills, but it really focuses on character. That's primarily what God is concerned with. And as his servants, we need to have godly character.

Look at the character that they highlight in verse 3. He says, So really three requirements that they set forth here. First, they need to be of good reputation. That basically means that they need to have proven character.

Good reputation means that they have been, you know, doing this for a while. They've been living the Christian life. They've proven themselves to be genuine and they've demonstrated this godly character for some time so that they're known for it. Oh yes, that's a man of integrity. You know, oh yes, that's a man who walks with the Lord. Yes, that's a man who hears from the Lord. They need to have that kind of good reputation. So they need to be known for their walk with God and their relationship with the Lord.

Secondly, they need to be full of the Spirit. They need to be filled with the Spirit. Now, how do you know if someone is filled with the Spirit? Well, you could ask them and then just take their word for it. Pastor Pule, are you filled with the Holy Spirit? Oh, yes, yes, I am. Yes, I am. Well, how do we know? Well, we're fortunate. The Bible tells us in Galatians chapter 5, the fruit of the Spirit. Here's how you can know.

Again, this will be demonstrated over time. The proven character goes along with this. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such there is no law. Here's the manifestation. This is what happens in a person's life when they are filled with the Holy Spirit. They bear fruit of the Spirit. And so if these guys are grumpy and they don't have joy and they don't like people that much, they're

Well, they're probably not qualified for this role, right? And so if they're demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit, it's evident in their lives that the Holy Spirit is at work. Well, then they're qualified. And so pick men with these kinds of qualities. And then the third requirement that they give is they need to be wise, right?

How do you know if somebody is wise? Does that mean that they are successful in business? Does that mean that they never get in trouble? You know, what does it mean that someone is wise? Well, again, we have that described for us in James chapter 3. James differentiates between wisdom that comes from below and wisdom that comes from above. There's different kinds of wisdom and

And so James chapter 3 gives us some insight. In verse 17 of James 3, he says, Now just focusing on those last two for just a second. Without partiality and without hypocrisy, you could see, well, these are very good qualities needed for people who are coming in to resolve a situation where partiality has been an issue.

And so, yes, you need to have men who are wise, who have wisdom from God, who are able to bring peace to situations with gentleness. And they're willing to, you know, to work out and resolve situations. And they're full of mercy. And they're not showing partiality to the different people that they're ministering or administering these resources to.

And so you can see that these are very valuable qualities. These describe godly character. These need to be godly men who handle the situation. They don't necessarily have to be successful business people. They need to be godly. They need to have wisdom from God. They need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and their reputation needs to be proven. Well, moving on to point number four, verses three through six, here we see that people need to be part of the solution.

Every church has needs, and as we seek to resolve those needs, as we seek to address those needs, you need to understand that it's not the other people only who are supposed to resolve the situations that you're experiencing, but you yourself are to be involved in resolving those

the situation and bringing forth the solution. And we can see this demonstrated throughout verses three through six. Let me highlight a couple of things here. In verse three, it says, therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation. So here the apostles are speaking and saying, look, we need to focus on our priorities. We need to keep straight what God has given to us and make sure we don't deviate from that. So we're going to hand this responsibility back to you who brought the complaint.

You guys who had the situation, you had the issue. It's something that you brought up because of the situation. Okay, we're going to hand this back to you and say, you seek out from among yourselves seven men of good reputation. They're putting the ball back in their court and saying, okay, you need to be involved in the resolution of this situation.

The apostles involved the complainers. Now, complainers is not a negative sense here, but the complaint was there. And so they involve these people in working out a solution. Some people only want to complain. They don't want to help fix anything. They just want to highlight problems. They just want to, you know, call out issues. Sometimes, you know, for drama's sake or whatever their ideas and their mindset is.

We don't know the heart, but some people only want to complain. They don't want to contribute. But listen, if you have a real need, again, it needs to be made known. Bring it up. But also understand that comes with, I need to also be prepared to get involved and help resolve the situation, help be part of the solution, whatever it is that God wants to do.

And so the apostles say, seek out from among you seven men. You guys seek them out. You guys work out, look amongst yourselves and talk amongst yourselves and figure out, choose seven people who can help us with this responsibility. The apostles refused essentially to choose the men. We're not going to select the men. You guys select the men. You guys work together to pick people that you want to represent you, to pick people that you want to help handle this situation.

situation. You guys work out some options. We'll pray over them. We'll help make the final decision, but you guys need to be involved. You seek them out. You make sure they're qualified. You test out the qualifications. And so they say, you know, seek men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. So you guys do some evaluation. You guys do some of the criteria checking of these guys that are selected. And then notice verse 5, and the saying, please the whole multitude.

So the apostles come back and says, okay, here's what you guys need to do. Find seven guys that have good reputation, that meet these criteria. And everybody says, oh, that's a good idea. It's good to point out. It's good to know because if the Hellenists here in this situation, if they expected the apostles to handle this personally, they would have been disappointed. They wouldn't have been pleased at the situation.

If the Hellenists were saying, no, Peter, I want you at the table when I come to get my distribution, they wouldn't have been happy with this. Sometimes we have that kind of thing. We have issues within the church, within families, because our expectations are not realistic and don't match with what God has called us to.

Again, some people only want to complain and not contribute, but they're pleased by this response. This is a good idea. This is right. This is appropriate. Okay, let's do this. And so the people get involved and begin the work. In verse 5, it tells us, and they chose. So they do. They seek out and then they choose Stephen and Philip and all these different guys. I don't want to butcher their names again, but they choose these seven men. They choose them.

They engage themselves. They're participating. They're praying. They're seeking the Lord. They're talking to people. And then in verse 6, it says, whom they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. So the multitude works through the selection process. The multitude set these seven men before the apostles, and then the apostles did their part. They prayed and

sought confirmation from the Lord about these guys and then laid hands on them. And that's a picture of passing on authority and saying, all right, you guys are now commissioned to handle the daily distribution for the widows. So they're delegating this authority. They're giving them the responsibility by laying hands on them.

People need to be part of the solution. You know what's interesting here? As you look at this, all these names of these seven guys that are mentioned are all Greek names. Remember, the primary conflict was the Greek Jewish people felt neglected, felt slighted, and so the guys that are selected here to handle this situation are all men from Greek culture. All their names are from Greek origin. And so,

It kind of goes along with something that's often been the case for us here at Living Water, but also in Calvary Chapel in general. And that is, hey, I have a great idea for a ministry. Why don't we go do this? And many times the response is, great. Why don't you go do that? And that's kind of what we see happen here. Hey, we have an issue. The Greek widows are not being taken care of. That's great. OK, why don't you guys handle that? Why don't you guys make sure that it's fair and the distribution happens well?

It's something good to point out. It's something good to realize that, again, when there is those needs, when there's legitimate needs within the body of Christ, we need to be made known about them, but recognize, well, I'm probably going to be part of the solution. That's probably why I have it on my mind and on my heart. That's probably why it's come to my attention is because God wants me to be part of the solution and I can help work out whatever it is that's going on. But that's hard for us to overcome sometimes.

If you're on the, you know, the offended end, maybe you feel neglected by the church. Well, I would encourage you to bring it up, but be ready to participate in the solution. I've shared this many times because over the years, there's been many people who have felt neglected by the church. And I share this repeatedly in those contexts. I'm sorry that we failed you in that way. I'm very sorry. It was not intentional. We don't neglect you on purpose.

Now, here's what I would ask. Now, come back and get involved and make sure nobody else experiences what you experienced. You be part of the solution for the next person, for the other people who might be in the same situation. That is what we see take place here in Acts chapter six. The people who were neglected are the ones who step up and say, okay, we want to help make sure that this doesn't continue to happen to other people. We can look at a lot of things within the church and say, why don't they

do this? Why don't they see this need? Why don't they see how this is hurting me or offending me? You know, why don't they keep the storage container organized better? Why don't they do these kinds of events? Why don't they spend more time in prayer? Why don't they have a full worship band? Why don't they cut the palm branches? Why don't they have CDs available? Why don't they? Why don't they? Why don't they? Well, let me just remind you, they is we. We are the church. It's not they. It's

There's nobody at Living Water that God has called to just be a consumer. You just sit there and they will do all the work of the church. No, no, no. We're a family and we all have responsibility within the family. We all have responsibility for the property. We all have responsibility for the building. You are they. So why don't they? The question is, yes, that's true. Good point. Why don't you?

Why don't you? Now, you can't do everything. None of us can do everything. That's why a lot of things don't get done because, well, there are priorities. And me as a pastor, I have to focus on the priorities that God has given to me.

And many times I try to do everything and then I fail at everything. We can't do that. We need to be focused on the priorities that God has given to us. So you can't do everything either. You also have families and work and other responsibilities. That's all acknowledged. So it comes back to what is your role? And are you being focused on that? Are you protecting the priorities of that and fulfilling your role that God has given to you? Are you involved in

in resolving needs here in the body of Christ. Well, let's finish it up. Verse seven, the final point, the word of God needs to spread. This is the final need here that we'll see. Verse seven says, then the word of God spread and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.

The result was they picked these guys, they handled the situation, the apostles laid hands on them, they began the work, and then the result was the word of God spread. This is what happens when we function the way that God has called to function as a church. The kingdom of God advances. And that's the primary reason that we exist as a church.

It's a huge part of the reason for everything we do. We equip the saints for the work of ministry so that the saints can do the work of ministry so that the kingdom of God advances. We equip the youth, you know, in the youth group. We equip the children and minister to the children. We have times of worship and prayer. We go out to Meridian. We wear the prayer shirts. It's all a part of advancing the kingdom of God. That's our focus. That's what God wants us to do. And that's what we are called to do as a church.

And it's then, as these internal needs are met and established by the church, it's then that the word of God spreads. When did the word of God spread? When the need was made known. When the priorities were set and kept and held to. When the servants who were involved had godly character. And when the people helped resolve the problem, then the word of God spread.

You remember what Paul said in Ephesians 4, verse 16. He says, The body grows, the church grows, we grow individually and spiritually as each of us does our part and each of us does our share. There's great power there.

in us collectively focused on what God has called us to and fulfilling our role within the body of Christ. And when we do that, when we're not distracted and running around and trying to solve every need, but when we focus and then the person next to us is focused and each part is doing its part, each part is doing what God has called them to do, then the word of God spreads. And it says, and the number of disciples was multiplied. People are getting saved.

Now the enemy wanted to use this situation to cause division, you know? Well, let's plant two churches now. Let's split. We'll have the Hebrew Christian church and the Hellenist Christian church. But that's not what God desired. That's not what the Lord wanted to do in this situation. Instead, he brought them together, resolved the problem, and advanced the kingdom of God. Not only was there many disciples multiplied, but it says a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.

So even religious leaders in Judaism saw the work that was going on. Remember what Jesus said? The world will know you're my disciples by your love for one another. There was, as the church worked together as the church, it impacted not just the general people of Jerusalem, but even the priests looked on and said, you know, there's something legitimate about this. There's something genuine about this. And so they responded to the gospel as well.

The kingdom of God advanced as they resolved this internal problem. Every church has needs and living water is no different. Needs should be made known. Please don't get bitter about some slights. It always seems obvious to us. Why don't they see what's happening to me? No, I realize that that happens.

But we don't see it. It's not for lack of caring. It's just we come from different backgrounds. Some of us are Hebrews and some of us are Hellenists. Some of us are focused on one thing. We all have busy lives. It happens so easily. It's going to happen within the church. There's going to be problems and offenses. Please bring it out. Make it known. Help us address it. But also understand as we do, we need to have priorities.

And so if you come bring a need to my attention and expect me to drop everything so that I can come, you know, handle some problem for you, I may be able to, I may not be able to, or any other person that, you know, you talk to. But it might call for, hey, let's have a family meeting. Let's talk. Let's get the board together. Let's talk about this need and let's work out something so that the needs can be met while we're not distracted from what God has primarily called us to.

As we look for people to fill in those gaps and meet those needs, we need to look for godly character. That's the priority. Focus on that. And if you want to focus on being useful for God, focus not on techniques or things that you can learn. Focus on developing godly character. That's what God will use.

People need to be part of the solution. So as we see needs, as we see situations, as you see things and say, why don't they do that? Turn that back around and say, why don't I do that? And be part of the work that God wants to do because the word of God needs to spread. People need to hear the good news. The kingdom of God needs to be advanced. And that happens as we work together as the body of Christ in the way that God has called us to. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for this gathering of believers that you have established here at Living Water. Thank you, Lord, for each one. We're blessed, Lord, and every one of us is important and necessary, and not one is higher than another.

Lord, you've given each of us different roles and giftings and manifestations, Lord, that we might serve you, that we might advance your kingdom and minister to one another. I pray, God, for us, that you would help us to be fully active and involved.

in the things that you've called us to. Protect, Lord, our priorities. And Lord, if we're out of line in any of our priorities, I pray that you would highlight that and show us, Lord, where we're neglecting the things that you've called us to. Even though there's other good things that we're doing, Lord, we need to be focused primarily on the things that you've primarily called us to. And Lord, I pray for whatever needs there might be within this body.

Lord, hurts that have been afflicted or inflicted upon people. Lord, slights or neglects. Lord, whether they be individual to a person or personal,

to a group of people collectively, or Lord, maybe it is some area of ministry that is being neglected or some physical thing that is lacking as a result of this situation. Lord, I pray that you would help us, Lord, to see those things. I pray that you would help us to get personally involved, Lord, that we would bring it to light and that we would seek you for how you want to meet every need.

for how you want to resolve every situation. So Lord, would you lead us and guide us, Lord, that we might love one another and serve one another. And Lord, that we might be a part of advancing your kingdom for your glory. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.