Please take a seat, open your Bibles to the book of Acts
chapter 6. I wanted to ask you to do some
homework and that is read the book of Acts Chapter 7, which
will begin on Sunday. If you want to get a summary of
the Old Testament, A biblical summary, the book of Acts
Chapter 7, which we're not doing tonight, but Sunday, is one of
the most brilliant passages in the Bible, and I encourage you
to read ahead because it's loaded with so much a wonder.
But we're in Acts 6 tonight, so the church is continuing to
grow. Let's start now in those days
when the number of the disciples was multiplying.
Now he's changed from and the Lord added to the church daily.
God's good at maths. He's now multiplying.
He's multiplying. Sometimes there are blessed
subtractions. Do you know that?
Sometimes God says, you know what?
We don't need that situation, that person and, and, and
there's a blessed subtraction in the Kingdom of God.
But here we see now in those days when the number of the
disciples was multiplying, there arose A complaint against the
Hebrews by the Hellenists because they're widows were
neglected in the daily distribution.
So the church continues to grow, but they arose up within the
church a complaint. And so a murmuring is happening
and it was a matter of food. Now remember back when the
church was formed, people willingly, voluntarily, without
the Lord telling to do so, sold land, sold property and brought
their funds, laid it at the disciples feet to use as the
disciples of the apostles saw fit.
And so part of that, what was happening now is there were
widows and well, you can look at, we'll get to the
qualifications of what was a widow.
There were widows who were 60 plus years of age who had no
family, were godly. They actually served in the
church day and night. They cared for the afflicted.
They did all this work. And So what happened and is
there they were being cared for and including that others who
because of their coming to Christ had lost their job, lost
a lot of things being cut off from family, kicked out and
remember a young Japanese girl where in the church where Helen
and I got saved. Can't remember, I can't remember
her name, but she told went home and told her family she had
become a Christian. And her father physically threw
her out the door and physically kicked her all the way down the
street and told her to never return.
She was no longer their daughter.
And so these things that happened to some of the
believers there in Jerusalem. And so a complaint came up
because there were two cultures. There were the Jews believer,
Jewish believers who were living in more and more living a life
more like the Greek culture. And then there was the
traditional families and now become Christian Jews who still
retained their Hebrew culture. And so there was this this kind
of faction in a little bit purely because of their culture.
And so the Hebrew was saying that they felt that there was a
complaint against the Hebrews by the Greek culture, saying the
Hebrew sides, they're getting, they're getting more bread,
they're getting, they're getting better looked after than we are.
So as I said, the church had a definite support corrupt
programme for widows who served the church daily and faithfully.
And you can read that for yourself in one Timothy chapter
5 verses 3 to 16. And it goes into great detail
about how old they were had to be had to have no family support
because if there was a family, then the family had to support
the widows. That was their job.
Otherwise they'll candid worse than than a non believer and so
they'll believe in they served in the church.
So that as I said, the Greek cultured Jews felt that the
Hebrew cultured Jews were being given precedence more bread than
the Greek widows. And so there was a problem.
Now Satan loves to use an unintentional wrong to start a
conflict. So this hadn't been a thing
ordered by Christ to say, OK, when you come to Christ, you got
to sell all your land and you got to live in a communal style
type lifestyle. They weren't doing that because
they were helping one another. They love one another, but it
wasn't something that that was initiated by Christ or the
apostles. God had never commanded that.
So the situation, this was a problem, it needed to be dealt
with because it risked bringing a schism, a split in the church.
Well, we're going to have just the Hellenist congregation
meeting here, and we're going to have the Hebrew congregation
meeting here. Oh, but we're still all of
Christ, no? And so in bringing a solution to
the perceived problem because we don't know if it was true or
not. Sometimes they speak well, but
they're actually not, you know, so we don't know.
Doesn't say the apostles brought more than just a resolution to
the conflict. Their actions actually brought a
maturity to the church. Pastor Chuck Smith used to teach
us this about conflict. He'd said if someone in your
church has a problem with someone with what they've done
or what they're doing, there are only two that you should discuss
that matter with. One is the Lord, take it to the
Lord, and two, speak to the other individual yourself.
That's it. No third person, no telling
others, no one. You know what they're doing, you
know, like no, none of that. And you're to do it in that
order. Go to the Lord 1st and then go
to that individual. And then taking a step back, the
fourth thing you would do in that case is you are to seek
God's will in that situation above your own.
You know, the Bible says in the book of Proverbs that God hates
proud looks so forth and so on and those that cause division.
And when you think about it, anyone that causes a division in
the in the congregation of Christ and says, you know, no,
we're demanding we have this. This is what what they've done
is they've taken their pet hurt their pet thing and they've said
I don't care the damage that it does to others.
I don't care how to all split the church.
I don't care what it does to the name of Christ and how people
who aren't Christians will look on.
I don't care. This has got to be sorted this
way. And So what what has happened is
that individual has self proclaimed to their own desire.
This is going to it's got to go my way or the highway and
instead of looking at the damage to the Lord's name to the church
and to individuals the fallout so the the apostles heard the
murmuring the complaints. It says verse 2.
Then the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples and
said OK, everybody come here. It is not desirable that we
should leave the word of God and serve tables.
Now, before I go on, this is not like we're not going to do
something so petty as that. And I mean, you know, we're the
chiefs here. We're not the Indians.
That's that's not the spirit of what they're saying here.
They're saying the will of God in this situation is not that
this becomes something that we must manage and look after.
It goes on to say, therefore, brethren, seek out you guys, put
it on you, seek out from among you.
Here's the answer. 7 men get 7 men and they must have a good
reputation, 3 qualifications. They must be full of the Holy
Spirit and have wisdom, whom, after you've selected them, we
may appoint over this business. They'll be in charge of that.
They can run it, they can sort it out, but we will give
ourselves continually to what two things, to prayer and to the
ministry of the word. The apostles in examining the
problem found out probably that they were to blame.
In reality, you might go as well.
How's how's that? Well, were were the apostles so
looking after the food problem like situation and they're
involved in this and problems were coming up.
They were murmurings where they were neglecting their time now
to sort out these situations, these small things and these
other things and the ministry of the Word.
And they would be suffering because of the time spent on
this situation, because they were busy, so busy serving
tables. They're trying to do too much.
You see, spiritual deficiency in the church will always make it
easy for problems to develop attention to.
Prayer and the ministry of the Word are matters of spiritual
discipline and they especially the teaching of the Word of God
is that which must never fall short.
And those who are given that position to teach and to pray in
that regard, because you can't teach without prayer and you
need prayer to be able to teach any prayer to seek God.
Chuck Smith would say, and I, and I know how this is in my
life is, is, is you would read every commentary.
You would spend weeks and weeks and weeks.
You would read over and over and over the passage you're going to
preach. You would, you would write
endless notes. And I have exercise books that I
I write endless, endless notes on, on passages and, and look at
every commentary and they don't all agree which So what is what
is actually the text saying? And you've got to work through
this before you can share. And then you're going to seek
God and how long I pray specifically through the week.
God help us to understand your word.
Help us to know your word, but also help us to preach and teach
the word that is needed from this text.
So you got to teach the text. It's past Israel showed us out
of Nehemiah chapter 8. And that's where Calvary gets
their their distinctives. You read the text, give sense to
the text. And then there's application,
Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 8. And so to be able to do that, it
takes a lot of work. It's not like just get up here
and, you know, you've heard those, you've heard those
messages. Well, I haven't really got
together. I haven't had time.
So let's just seek the Lord and see where he leads us.
Yeah. Prayer, preparation and
preaching. When Paul gave his last words to
Timothy, whom he had trained, who took over the pastoral role
at Ephesus, what did Paul say? Make sure you got all the
administration down. Make sure that when you do the
weddings, you get their names right.
When you do the funerals, you get their names right.
Make sure you got all the offices out and you know, and
the invoices are paid on time. Make sure you got that down.
He said simply said preach the Word, preach the word.
So the ministry of the word that the apostle said all of our
time. And I can tell you people so, so
now that you're not working for the police, what, what are you
doing with all your time? And it's it's it's ironic.
I hated homework at school. That's why I did so well.
But the moment I became a Christian and then God called me
into the ministry. I have never read studied so
much and I'm and it, it doesn't drop away.
Oh yeah. Well, you know, we taught the
book about, you know, I taught the book of Acts, you know, over
40 years now. So just just just know it.
No, because it's the manner that's got to be picked up fresh
every morning. You can't go back and say, well,
I preached this message back in 40 years ago and here we are.
So let's start off. Nothing's changed.
The world's changed. God's moving, you're different.
What's happening? It's still, you've still got to
teach the text. You've still got to teach the
text in context. But what is God saying to us out
of the text today? Today the apostles, we're
labourers and that's what we are, Donald Grey Barnhouse said.
No man is ever going to be able to fill the pulpit adequately
unless he spends thousands of hours year after year in the
study of God's Word, Pastor Chuck would say.
And so I would spend all week and then I've got to come down
to 45 minutes and I have 50 pages of notes, 45 minutes
serving tables. They decide, well, the apostles
go and we don't do tables. No.
And this is where we need to be careful.
Serving tables, however, is not a menial task, too low for the
apostles. That's not what they're saying.
Every ministry in the church is important.
Every ministry usher at the door.
You know, I still believe that the men that they had at the
door when hell and I first got saved and we started attending,
they had an an initial impact upon my life as a new Christian.
One used to drive a truck for the brewery brewery.
The other one was a fellow who had been in the Air Force like
my father and he just was loaded with with the word of God and
God's kindness and grace. And as I shook their hands, 1977
going to the church, those first two weeks of services, I'll
never forget the impact they had.
The ushers at the door had upon my life.
I got a firm, welcoming, manly handshake.
They didn't go into great depths about things, but I became great
friends with them, grew close to them, revered them and and so
the impact of ministry. Serving the tables is not a
menial task too low for the apostles.
Every ministry in the church is important, but it is a case of
priorities. DL Mooney said it is better to
put 10 men to work than try to do the work of 10 men.
The solution and the the church agreed with it.
The multitudes select 7 qualified men.
We qualify. Then it's going to go to here's
your bread, here's your bread, what you want, what
qualifications. And that's where we lose it.
That's where we think, oh, this ministry, oh, you know, the
ministry of being a missionary going to some far off length.
Oh, I mean, that's got to be the highest calling, wrong?
That's not true. The highest calling is the
ministry that you do, that God has called you to do, you're
doing in his will. And the highest ministry is you
doing what God has asked you to do.
That's the highest calling. It's not, oh, Billy Graham's out
of it. You know he's gone.
I was hoping to be another Billy Graham.
Hold it. No 7 qualified men.
The apostle set them apart for this ministry.
The Hebrew members notice it was the Hebrew members selected six
men who are Helenus and one man who was both a Gentile and
proselyte. So he was not a Jew.
Then he became a proselyte. He converted to Judaism and now
he's become a believer. And now he's been selected to be
part of serving at the tables. Now the term Deacon comes into
this picture now diaconos, but it's not mentioned.
Diaconos means to serve, it means ministration, it means to
wait on tables, literally waiter attendant.
But these seven are not given this title here.
Later Paul gives the additional qualifications because there's
more that Paul will add for such a a position in the church for
someone who wants to be a Deacon.
One Timothy chapter 3, verses 8 to 13.
You may not call waiting or serving at a table a spiritual
job. That's wrong.
But the requirements to fill the position notice were indeed
spiritual. They didn't say anyone here
being a Baker, one man of good reputation, that is a good
witness. They had a good witness in
Jerusalem, in the church. They are to be men who by their
lives people speak well of them and their love for Christ.
Secondly, serving at tables, they had to be full of the Holy
Spirit. Wow and wisdom.
Fullness of the Spirit, however, is not some unique spiritual
aristocracy to which only a few can attain.
It's normal Christian living according to the Bible.
For you and I to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Visas, chapter 5. How often are we to be filled?
When are we to be filled? Go on being filled.
It's normal Christian living. It's people who are living a
life that demonstrates they are followers of Christ, full of the
Holy Spirit. It means that the things of the
world, their home, their business, their profession,
their family and all life that they're involved in are touched
by the hand which is Christ's hand.
Those who whose lives demonstrate faith and trust in
Christ, in everything that they do, in everything that they do,
they are to be full of wisdom. That is a moral quality.
One who reaches the best ends by the best means, then use their
intellect and the knowledge of God, and then apply the
knowledge of God. Be wise how they apply that.
So it is a matter of being faithful to the call of God upon
your life. What has God chosen you to do?
Whatever ministry that God asks you to do, that His is His will
for you is the highest ministry. The highest calling is that
which God has called you to, to be in serving Him with your
life. So God had called the 12
apostles. Paul wrote, I am an apostle by
the will of God. That's why he was an apostle.
Today you'd be an apostle because you want to make money
somewhere, travel around the world, put a thing, I'm an
apostle and to minister to the people.
The word of God, they'd been chosen to be apostles and their
job was to go into the world. Teach what I've taught you.
Secondly, some people are called to serve physical food.
Others are called to serve spiritual food.
You need both. It is you mentioned being
married to your wife comes on and she's I'm a spiritual wife.
So here's the food. Well, here's the blessing.
Lord bless. Would you like some dessert with
that? Lord bring some sweet blessings.
Is that is that satisfy you? No.
On occasion, if the need arises, an apostle may wait on tables
and this famous story Chuck Smith was saying he's walking to
the church, it's been raining, he's got his suit on.
He's about to preach in the morning and there's a a gutter
overflowing. The water's just pouring,
flooded out as people are coming in.
He takes his suit jacket off, rolls his sleeve up, sticks his
hand down the drain, pulls out all the leaves and all the mark,
cleans it off, goes in, washes his hand and goes to the
ministry. Yeah, we do what we have to do,
but it is not to be the daily occupation.
It's to be in prayer and the ministry of the Word to give our
lives to them. You must give top priority and
1st attention to what God has called you to be and to do.
Those men, seven men you can put in charge of such matters.
In other words, now we're going to stay and spend all our time
in prayer in the ministry of the Word, studying and then
teaching. Because remember, how often were
they teaching every day? And you guys got the bread's got
nothing to do with us anymore. It's not washing your hands of
it. It's getting it done and getting
it done right by the right people.
So the apostles prayed for them and then laid their hands on
them. Read verse 5 and the saying
please, the whole multitude. They chose Stephen, a man full
of faith and the Holy Spirit. Oh, but he's just serving
tables. Hold your horses.
Read the Bible and Philip, Procurus, Nikonor, Timon,
Palminus, Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch whom they set
before the apostles. And when they had prayed, so
they prayed for them. And now notice a bit of a
difference here. Then they laid hands on them.
When did they lay hands on them? If all they did was provide for
the practical needs of these widows?
If you ask, that's a good question.
Why do they pray for these guys? Well, it's like Ian Ian's going
to mow the lawn. Ian, we need to come pray for
you. Going to He's going to mow the
lawn. You're going to pray.
Actually, according to this, we probably should, because they
were meeting the needs of the widows.
Do you really need to be spiritual to do this kind of
practical service? Yes, indeed, for practical
service. And here's where we missed the
point. Oh, all this is where all the
service happens. And over there, none of the
services no wrong. Remember the moment someone
comes to the door, someone greets them and then someone
ushers them to the sea, someone directs them to the toilet,
someone says, oh, it's great to see you.
The ministry is happening. The ministry is happening
because practical service is spiritual service.
The same Greek word is used for both distribution in Acts 61.
Now in those days the number of the disciples were multiplying.
There was a complaint against the Hebrews because their widows
were neglected in the daily distribution and daily
distribution. And then in Acts chapter 6,
verse 4, but we will give ourselves continue to pray and
to the ministry of the word. The idea behind both.
It's the same word is service. Both were service, whether in a
practical or a spiritual way. People serving in some capacity
in church should always count it.
And that's why I say please don't ever take on a position in
the church. Don't ever teach Sunday school.
Don't ever be in usher. No one else.
I'll do. Hi.
Welcome care. Get in.
Sit over there. Oh, son, I'll do it.
All you kids get out of here. Sit down.
Quiet. We don't have a Bible story.
No. Anyone else.
I'm doing it. No, please don't.
It's to do it because it's a privilege, A privilege to teach,
a privilege to serve the Lord in these best practical ways.
You know we have that. Some of you have been here when
we've done the spring cleaning. Have you noticed the spirit
that's amongst that group of people if you've been involved?
Most of you have. When we gather, we're there.
We're all serving the Lord. It's a joy, it's a privilege to
serve the Lord in these basic practical ways.
Instead of seeing it as an unspiritual burden apart from
the cross at Calvary, Jesus showed the ultimate measure of
love by simply washing his disciples feet.
So what's the result of the apostles decision?
Verse 7? Notice it says.
Then the Word of God spread because things were in order,
the right people were doing the right things.
Everything was going well. The apostles were back to prayer
and teaching the Word. Now the guys were distributing
the bread. Then the Word of God spread, and
the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.
And Even so, a great many of the priests were obedient to the
faith. Now when Satan attacks and
attempts to divide the church, we found the apostles not
distracted from the focus of the ministry because Satan.
And we pray that. I wish you would join us in the
priest service prayer Sunday mornings.
One of the things we always attempt to pray for is that
there'll be no distractions during the gathering of God's
people because Satan always wants to have a distraction to
get our attention away from the worship of him, from the study
of the Word and from the from a bang what God has said, He wants
to distract us to someone to get our attention away from from the
Lord. So the apostles beautifully were
not distracted from the focus of the ministry that God had from
OK, well, we're going to run a roster out of the 12/2 of the
guys each time we gather every day you're going to go on the
bread. Then we'll rotate that through
depends on how you have church. Well, there's more bread than we
like to have three of us. No, no, no, that have been
sorted Verse 8 and Stephen full of faith and power.
Man, we keep reading that did great wonders and signs among
the people. Then there arose some from what
is called the synagogue of the freedmen, Cyrenians,
Alexandrians and those from Cilicia and Asia, disputing with
Stephen arguments. They were not able to resist the
wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke.
Capital S notice wasn't him. Stephen was not smarter, better
educated, or a greater debater than the than the Jews.
These Jews. If you think that you have not
read the text correctly, you haven't seen what God is telling
you about Stephen. No, Stephen was able to say and
do what he did. Why?
Because he was full of faith and power.
Jesus had said you're going to be called up.
People are going to drag you before the magistrate.
But don't don't worry, John 14. I will give you the words to
say. I by the Spirit will give you
that. Don't you don't have to be
concerned about that. Verse 11 Then they secretly
induced men to say, we have heard him speak blasphemous
words against Moses and God. They stirred up the people and
elders and scribes. They came upon him, seized him,
brought him to the council. They also set up false witnesses
who said this man does not cease to speak blasphemous words
against this holy place and the law.
They were twisting what Jesus had said through Stephen, for we
have heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth would destroy this
place, change the customs which Moses delivered to us and all
who said on the council looking steadfastly at him.
So his face is the face of an Angel.
That doesn't mean he's a good looking fellow.
No, it means Stephen as he is speaking to these guys, he's a
man of God and his face, they could see his confidence and
trust was in the Lord. He was not getting go cranky,
you guys. Yeah, and and and going off, he
was someone who trusted in the Lord and he spoke as someone who
knew the Lord and says notice again, it 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. So the word of God was dealt
with. It was found to be important.
So this is where Paul said we each have a gift.
We each are called. The task is what has God called
you to do? Because these seven were called
to serve at tables. But then we're going to read of
two of these men and no longer will we read of any of the other
apostles except Peter and John. And then we'll read of Saul.
But Philip and Stephen will read on because God opened the door.
They started. They said, yeah, we we'll do
that. You see, this is where you start
if you want to be a teacher of God's word.
And many people come and say, I'd love to teach the word of
God. Teacher of Bible state.
Oh, great. See Pastor Nap, Sunday School
kids start there. I want to go into the ministry.
Awesome. Come join us when we're cleaning
the church. We need to start with the
toilets and we need to go through.
You know what if you don't, if you follow up on that, there's a
really good chance God has called you into the ministry.
But if you back away from that, there's a really good chance
you're just after something that God hasn't called you to do.
Many of the Calvary Chapel pastors now serving and leading
mega churches in particularly in California and other parts of
America started as janitors, cleaners and message messenger
boys during their school holidays.
And when the church needed cleaning, that was the first job
they got. Pastor Israel will tell you as
an intern, Calvary Chapel, San Bernardino.
Where did he start his training? Under John Miller on the great
teachers. He cleaned the toilets after
every service and then all all the way along.
That's how you start into the ministry.