Well, we've made it through five chapters of the Book of Acts. We finished chapter five last week. And now we come to the scriptures that present us with a picture of the early church. It was still closely tied to Judaism. And the early church's outreach was primarily up to this point to the Jews. And there was no major break that we might find from Judaism. They were meeting in the temple. That's where they went. That was their center for their evangelistic outreach, if you will. And up to this point, the church was basically doing ministry in Jerusalem. So as we turn to Acts 6 this morning, here is where we begin to see the witness of the church, the ministry of the church, branch out, if you will, broaden their horizons. And it demonstrates the realization of the Great Commission and what Christ had commissioned them to do, to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. We're not to the ends of the earth yet. That's going to come later. So good morning. All right. So looking back at 5, we now venture on to 6. What a journey. Think about chapter 5 for a moment. There was a failed attempt to deceive the church through Ananias and Sapphira. The apostles were arrested, freed, arrested again, questioned, beaten, freed, and they went out and preached the gospel. So, you know, I think about those foundational days of the early church. They weren't smooth sailing by any means. It was a challenge. So as we begin 6 today, the church faces another challenge, another obstacle to contend with. This time it's coming within the church, and it had to do with the disbursement of food, goods, to needy widows in the church. So we begin to see the ministry of the church right here go beyond its Jewish roots. So will you stand with me as we look at these opening verses of Acts 6. We're gonna be in Acts 6, verses 1 through 7. Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of disciples and said, it is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, Pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Procorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith." Let's pray together. Our most gracious God, we thank you for your grace and your mercy. Lord, we thank you for your provision and your sovereignty, particularly that that you showed to the early church. And Lord, you even do so and continue to do so today. So Lord, as we begin this chapter in the book of Acts, chapter six, how it relates to us some 2,000 years later. Let us not only heed your word, but practice your word and what it says. And may all that we do exalt your name and glorify you. And these things we ask in the blessed name of our risen Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Please be seated. Well, the basis for these first couple of verses here is about ministry and the growing pains of the church. So there were some needs that were being neglected, and these needs generated ministry. So the ministry of the church involves all of its people. So ministry is a do word. So the ministry that resulted, or the ministry, you might say the need for ministry, arose, first of all, from a complaint, verse 1. So it says, now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So we can see right here that the church is experiencing growing pains. And we see this in the previous chapters, you know. If you go back to chapter 4, it said people sold houses, they sold lands, they brought those proceeds, laid them at the apostles' feet, and they distributed those funds or whatever to those who were in need. So the church is experiencing growing pains. So we see it here. They're increasing in number. But there was a complaint that arose. So who are the complainers? Let's talk about the Hellenists for a moment. So as referred to in this passage, the Hellenists are Christian converts among the Jews who had returned to Judea. They had You might say embraced Greek culture. They learned how to speak Greek, etc. And despite being Jewish, the Hellenists had adopted this Greek cultural element. And this is who Hellenists were. And why did they complain? Their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. So they complained. The word in the King James is murmuring. and it arose among the widows, not because of them." Now, it's kind of an interesting word, what this word means. Gangoumas is the Greek word, and it means to say anything in a low tone. Okay? It is an onomatopoetic word. Boy, try to say that fast three times. Anyway, it's a word that sounds out the meaning. So, you might say that there is a low undertone, there is a low murmuring of complaint going on here. It's grumbling. I like what Robertson in Robertson Word Picture says. He says, this describes secret grumblings that buzz away till they are heard. So the word Gangama signifies whispering and emphasizes a smoldering discontent. Well, what happens if you leave something smoldering? You ever seen that happen? I had a couple delivery guys one time and I always told them, I said, you know what, don't smoke when you go into the warehouse. If you're gonna smoke, smoke outside. Well, one guy went into the warehouse and somehow he knocked the, what do you call it, I don't know, the end of the cigarette that's real hot, and it fell into some delivery blankets. And about three hours later, the fire department called and says, you got a fire in your warehouse. Well, what happened is we went in there and it was smoldering. Boy, it was just about ready to explode. So this is what this word means. It means smoldering discontent, and if it is not handled quickly, it can flare up and even cause a split. So the complaint was like a distant rumble, a low muffled noise, and it came from these Hellenistic Jews. And it was loud enough that they finally took care of it. So who is the other faction? The Hebrews. The Hebrews in this verse are Christian converts among the Jews who were born and raised in Israel. So Hebrews and Hellenists, they had sort of a, kind of a little bit of a rift between them. And Hebrews tended to regard Hellenists as unspiritual, and Hellenists regarded Hebrews as holier than thou. So there's kind of a two-way kind of thing there. But nonetheless, these two groups, it's kind of interesting, but you know, the devil, he always likes to try to get in there and drive a wedge between people. And this is what he tried to do here. So the complaint, what happens? Let me just say this. Even though they're called Hellenists, even though they're called Hebrews, these people were followers of Christ. They were all from a Jewish background, and they all embraced Jesus as Messiah. So what was happening in this infant church was an undercurrent of constant secret whispering that finally grew loud enough that the apostles had become aware of it and they decided to take care of it. So the need for ministry led to a conference. Look at verses two through four. So the 12 summoned the full number of disciples. I don't know how many that is, it's quite a few. And they did summon them and they said, you know what, it isn't right that we should give up our ministry to serve tables. So let's look at this. There's a couple things going on here. The first one is difficulty. So the Apostles' ministry was twofold. The Apostles' ministry was their devotion to prayer and their devotion to the Word. So they said it's not right that we give this up to serve tables. Not right means it wouldn't be pleasing to God. So the question comes, well, was this below the Apostles' pay grade to wait on tables? Were they above this? You know, some have suggested that this statement is evidence that the apostles were superior and they didn't have to do this kind of thing. Some has gone far to say that, you know, this serves as a biblical permission that ministers or clergy don't have to do the routine custodial tasks that are sometimes involved in the church. I beg to differ. I beg to differ. If anything, sometimes these lackluster things that we're called to do can bring the greatest blessings. So it's not about that. The apostles were not above doing such tasks. They were able, but here was the difficulty. Here is why they did not serve tables. First of all, time was a problem. The physical and time restraints made doing both, their ministry plus the ministry of serving these widows and waiting on tables, it was just undoable. The apostles had a priority. Their priority was first to the Lord, their devotion to prayer, to preach and teach the word. That was their calling. So God did not call the apostles to do all the tasks of ministry in the church. So let's think about the church for a moment. What is the church? We're a living organism. Paul refers to the church as a body. All right? We all have bodies, right? Our bodies consist of many members. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, he gives a good analogy. He says one body, many members. The body is just not one member, it's many. The body is just not an eye or an ear. The body has many parts. Now here's something pretty cool. You know, when God created us, he arranged our bodies in a certain way. Two ears, two eyes, two hands, two feet. He arranged our bodies. He created us in his image. So God not only arranged our physical body, he arranges the body of Christ. So the ministry of the church What the church does ministry-wise isn't just simply for apostles. It isn't just simply for clergy. It is the ministry of the entire body. And not everyone has the same ministry. You know, there's things like pastoral ministry. Paul points this out in Ephesians. Ephesians 4, 11 and 12, this is what Paul says. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, some translations use pastors and teachers, to equip the saints, the saints of the holy ones, God's people, his church, for the work of what? Ministry. For the building up of the body of Christ. So the ministry of the church is the ministry of the body of Christ. So the difficulty that the apostles faced, they had to make a decision, verse three. They knew they couldn't do everything. So there's a pressing ministry in the church, within the church, these widows. So they summoned the full number of disciples and they said, you know what, we're gonna delegate this responsibility, we're gonna give you the responsibility of choosing seven men from among you. So you're gonna have seven, excuse me, just a moment. I sound like I'm 13 again. Excuse me. So what you have here is you have seven helping 12. And this mirrors the 70 helping one. You remember Moses back in the book of Exodus, Exodus 18? Here's Moses. He goes out every day and he judges the people from morning till evening. And his father-in-law came up to him and says, come here, son. He says, what you are doing is not good. He says, you don't have time to do all this. You're wearing yourself out. So he says, here's what you need to do. You need to choose three, you need to choose men and you need to look for these requirements. Men who fear God, men who are trustworthy, and men who hate dishonest gain. And you choose those men and you delegate to them responsibility. You just judge the big cases, but you leave the others in the hands of these men whom you choose. So the choosing of the seven is a lot like this. So why seven? Why not five? Why not three? Why not nine? Seven represents completeness. So the five requirements of the seven are very similar to Exodus 18. First of all, the Apostle said, I want you to choose men from among you, fellow believers. The church didn't need outside help. They didn't need an outside source. They didn't need outside specialists. They needed people within the church. And they said, choose seven men from among you. Andros is the Greek word specific for male, not implying that women are inferior, but this was a task for men. Thirdly, good repute, honest men, a lifestyle that bears witness of their faith in the Lord. full of the Holy Spirit, controlled by the Spirit, filled with the Spirit. They have surrendered themselves to the Lord. And then lastly, wisdom. These men needed wisdom. They needed proper savvy, if you will, in the ministry of benevolence. So men disciplined with the ability to not only judge correctly, but follow the best course of action. in regard to these Hellenistic widows, based on their knowledge and their understanding. So the requirements were crucial to the ministry of the early church, especially the filling of the Holy Spirit. So the filling of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential for effective ministry. You know, the Holy Spirit has got to be behind what the church does. A movement of the Holy Spirit. If it's not a movement of the Spirit of God, it's all for nothing. So the filling of the Spirit expresses and conveys supernatural power for ministry. So what we do as a church, what we do as individuals, must be an undertaking of the Holy Spirit. Now every believer is a minister in one way or another. Do you know that you're a minister? We're all ministers. And everything we do every day is in some way ministry. So this begs the question, and it goes back to the filling, In whose power are you ministering throughout the week? Are you doing it in your own power, or are you doing it in the power of the Holy Spirit? Only the latter will bear eternal spiritual fruit. So we're filled each day, and that question must be the litmus test for each of us. We're either filled with the Spirit, or we're filled with self. Someone once said, in every believer, the Holy Spirit is resident But what he wants to be is president. So the decision of the seven freed the apostles to continue their duties. Look at verse four. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. So the apostles were able to continue to do the ministry for which they were called, devotion to prayer. Prayer is a must when ministering through the word of God. The ministry of the Word, the preaching and teaching of God's Word, the Apostles understood the weight of that ministry. And the ministry of prayer, there could be no distraction from it. So the concern of the Apostles, it speaks volumes to you and I today. Must be our concern as well, prioritizing what really matters. So you know what? I think we can all probably relate to this. Sometimes we go through weeks and weeks can be pretty busy. How many of you have busy weeks? We all do. And sometimes that busyness can draw us away from the Lord. We think that busyness equates with doing God's work. Well, sometimes it does, but sometimes we get so busy we forget. We can neglect our prayer life. We can neglect spending time in the Word. So we need to really understand this. You know, the apostles, they devoted themselves to prayer and to the word. We really need to do that as well. Don't let busyness equate with ministry. Prayer and the word, they go together. How many of you like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? They go together, peanut butter and jelly, it's good. You don't put peanut butter and mustard on a sandwich, that wouldn't be very good. So prayer and the word, ministry, they all go together. Two ministries that every believer needs to keep on track. Well, the need for ministry necessitated a choice. Look at verses 5 through 7. Seven men were chosen. Now I'm going to give some context behind this. The names of all seven are Greek names, so they were likely Hellenists themselves. So that's who they chose. They chose these men who each had Greek names to go and minister to the Hellenistic widows. Now they were chosen to serve. In the Greek, serve is diakoneio. And the basic idea means to serve. In this case, they would serve tables. And their work was service. Diakoneia. Diakoneia conveys the ministry of service. So the task of the seven was to serve, diakoneo, and their work was service, diakonea. John Polehill states, and this might come as a surprise to some of us, quite often this passage has been equated to the initiation of the deaconate or the office of deacon. But here's what you won't find in Acts 6. You do not find the Greek word for deacon anywhere. As a matter of fact, you don't even find it in the book of Acts. The first mention of deacon does not appear in the New Testament until Philippians 1.1. So this is not about per se deacons. It may be implied, but this is about service and serving ministry. So two men, I want you to notice two men. The order of the seven is significant because the first two played a significant role in the spread of the gospel in the early church. In Acts 7, Stephen. In Acts 8, Philip. It's notable that Stephen is characterized as a man full of the Holy Spirit. He was a man of faith. Philip means lover of horses. And he had two missionary journeys. Acts 8, 5-13. And Acts 8, 26-20. Now, Philip. Let's get him right. It's not the same Philip who was an apostle. Some have referred to this Philip as Philip the deacon. He's not Philip the deacon, he's Philip the evangelist. So how did the Lord use these two? God used Stephen to preach the word of God and he was the first martyr for the faith. God used Philip as the first missionary who went out and preached the gospel for the faith. And here's the point. None of us may know what God might do with us when we are obedient. to do exactly what he tells us to do when it is set before us at any given time. So you know something? If we try to avoid those things, we may be missing a very important ministry opportunity and blessing to serve the Lord. So you know what? It kind of works like this. If God is calling you to, quote, wait on tables, then wait on tables for the glory of God. So the seven are made official, their installation in verse six. They were set before the apostles, they came and stood before them, and the first thing that the apostles did is they prayed over them. Prayer is at the heart of pastoral ministry. Everything begins and ends with prayer. And far too often, it is easily forfeited. Sometimes we want to multitask prayer. You know, we live in a day and age where multitasking, you know, you got to learn how to multitask. Sometimes people want to multitask their prayer. Well, let me give the example of Jesus. Jesus always prayed. Many times he prayed alone. He went and his prayer was focused. He spent that time with the Father. And if anyone could multitask prayer, certainly it was Jesus. But you know what? He didn't. Matter of fact, Luke gives three specific examples where Jesus withdrew from the crowds to pray. He had healed a leper, and he withdrew to a desolate, in other words, a solitary, isolated place where he prayed, Luke 5.16. Before choosing the apostles, he spent all night in prayer. Luke 6 will. And then Luke states that Jesus prayed alone when the disciples they came to him. Luke 9 18. So what the apostles were doing is they were following the example of Jesus. Not that they were necessarily alone at this time, but they followed the example of Jesus and they prayed over these men because they are getting ready to do ministry. And they understood how important it is to pray. Prayer is essential. And the apostles were not going to neglect this part of their ministry. So when it comes to our own personal lives, when it comes to our church, various ministries, be it outreach, whatever we do, it all begins and ends with prayer. The second thing the apostles did is they laid their hands on them. And this is an affirmation. Not only the prayer, but the laying on of hands affirmed what they were going to do. So it says, you know what, go back to verse three, You guys go out and pick seven men whom we will appoint this duty to. So this is in light of that. They are turning the responsibility of ministry over to these seven men. So the apostles did not ordain seven to an office. They didn't ordain them to an office of deacon. They commissioned them with a verb to, quote, deacon, which means to serve tables. So the apostles appointed seven men to shared ministry. They were sharing in the ministry of the church. The apostles weren't doing it all. They now had seven men to help with ministry. And it helped harmonize the ministry of the early church. And it freed the apostles to the ministry of prayer and the word. And the result of ministry, we see another increase. The ministry of the word continued. The results, the number of disciples multiplied. The church grew spiritually, it grew numerically. And guess what else happened? A great number of priests became obedient to the faith. So the ministry of the word, the ministry of prayer, those seeds that were cast, the gospel, they took root in some unexpected soil. Now, let's don't mistake these for the opposition, the Sadducees. These priests had little in common with them. They were just your working, everyday, working-class priest. They weren't the wealthy upper enchantment of the priesthood. These priests were ordinary men, received little, if any, help from the wealthier priests. So what they longed for was pure worship of God, and God's word proved faithful, and many priests became obedient to the faith. So this is church growth, the product of spirit-filled, unified, praying believers. Work increased, seven men chosen. The word spread, the apostles were able to focus on their primary ministry, and the Lord's saving grace is evident. Disciples multiplied, Many priests became obedient to the faith. So the need for ministry, it still continues today. And this is our calling, okay? Let me go back to that early church for a moment. They were serious when it came to the spiritual and material concerns of the people. Now the early church just wasn't a soul-winning haven It was a group that recognized genuine need. And Act 6 is specific. Widows, daily distribution, the early church took action. Beginning with the apostles, they called the disciples, chose seven men from among them, and they carried on a biblical ministry. You say biblical, how so? If you go back to the Old Testament, there's at least four passages that deal with widows. Deuteronomy 24, 19 through 21, Deuteronomy 26, 12, talk about the care of widows. Isaiah 1, 17, where the prophet called people to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, justice for the fatherless, and plead the widow's cause. Malachi 3, 5, this is judgment against sorcerers, adulterers, those who oppress the father, those who oppress widows. So the apostles and these seven men were carrying out a biblical ministry to widows. And the early church was ready to adapt to meet those needs, they were structured to meet those needs, and they diligently practiced positive action of restraint. They didn't go out and say, well, you know what, we're blaming these people because now we're all messed up. No. And they didn't show favoritism saying, well, you know what, the apostles don't have time to do this. Nobody else does. No. They practiced positive restraint. They helped those in need. So what is the common factor in all of this some 2,000 years later? One word. Ministry. Ministry is a do word. We do ministry. Ministry is the task of every believer. We are all servants. We are all diakonos of the Lord and of one another. And ministry can be many things. Have you ever heard of a gel ministry? Have you ever heard of soup kitchen ministry? Outreach ministry? Outreach is like door-to-door evangelism. I'm gonna come back to this in just a moment. Lay ministry, street preaching ministry. So let's just go back for a moment. Last week, Acts 5.42, it says this, and every day in the temple and from house to house they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. So this is an outreach ministry. They went house to house, door to door. You know what a lie of Satan is? He said door-to-door evangelism doesn't work anymore. Okay, there's two groups that do it, Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. And you know what? They go door-to-door, albeit for the wrong reasons, folks. Why shouldn't we do it for the right reason? So how many of you are up for the task of doing a little door-to-door evangelism? I am. Let me know. Let's do it. This is ministry. This is how we get the word of God out. Yeah? We may get a door slammed in our face. We may get people say things to us that we haven't heard in quite a while, but you know what? God is still in control. Don't listen to the devil. I heard a guy at Brett Beasley's conference several years ago and he said this, you know what? Door-to-door evangelism still works. Don't listen to the lie of the devil that it doesn't work. So ministry. A.G. Gaston coined a phrase a long time ago that says, find a need in Philip. Let's revamp that. Let's find a ministry and do it. And when believers do ministry together like they did in the early church, through prayer, through preaching, through teaching, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we'll experience growth pains. And you know what? That's a good pain to have, right? All right, let's go to the Lord in prayer. We're gonna spend a little time here. When we get done, we're gonna observe the Lord's Supper. Father, let us just take a moment to reflect in our own lives our calling, our salvation, our walk with you, our obedience, our fruit. And Lord, there are so many ministry opportunities out there. And Lord, I'm serious. One of them is door to door ministry. So Father, I just pray that you impress upon each of our hearts, not only the need for ministry, but to do ministry. Lord, this is your church. It doesn't belong to any of us. It is your church. And it's evident in the book of Acts that your church grew and it continued to grow. This church can grow and continue to grow as well. Help us to be bold in our stance and our firmness and our faith in you. Let us seek the wisdom of the Holy Spirit and his guidance each and every day through prayer, through the study and meditation of your word. And Lord, help us to be ministers, to do ministry. And Lord, I know you want this church to grow. May it grow for your glory. May it grow for your honor. And all these things we ask in Jesus' name, amen.