To the End of the Earth (12): Seven Wise Men

Acts 6:1-7

By Dr. Derek W. H. Thomas

Now turn with me, if you would, to The Acts of the Apostles, chapter six. I'm going to tell you a problem in the church of the New Testament where evidently love was in short supply. This is in Acts 6, and we're just going to read the first seven verses. Before we do so, let's come before God in prayer.

Father, we thank You from the very bottom of our hearts for the Bible...that You've given to us this inestimable gift. We thank You for Your word that is able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Grant Your blessing now as we read the Scriptures together, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. And the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, 'It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. But select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. But we will devote ourselves to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.' And the statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch. And these they brought before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them. And the word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.

Amen. May God add His blessing to the reading of His holy and inerrant word.

Now as you remember from Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, Lysander tells his beloved Hermia, "The course of true love never did run smooth." Hermia's father was intent that she should marry someone else (Demetrius), and thus this love triangle of sorts issues forth in this very famous statement: "The course of true love never did run smooth." And the same could be said of mercy ministry. It is almost bound to raise the hackles (maybe that's not a Mississippi axiom...I've been away...forgive me!)...but mercy ministry is almost bound to raise the ire of some, and it certainly did here in the New Testament church. Some will argue that the giving of relief to the poor and disadvantaged, whoever they might be, saps of the initiative for self-improvement and creates a culture of self-dependence—a culture of dependency on others, perhaps I should say. Others will argue that it is an impossible ministry because of the difficulty of scrutinizing the genuineness of those who should receive mercy ministry.

Satan is at work, of course. He has singularly failed to bring the church to its knees over the incident of Ananias and Sapphira. The presence of such rank hypocrisy in the midst of the church was potentially a way of bringing the New Testament fledgling community of God's people to its knees. I wonder how long they remembered and talked about the sudden deaths of Ananias and Sapphira. We don't know. Luke doesn't tell us what the timetable is between the end of chapter 5 and chapter 6. You get the impression that perhaps some weeks, maybe months have passed...maybe even a year has passed: "Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number...."

Satan now employs another strategy, the strategy of what the Romans called divide et impera — "divide and conquer." It's one of his most useful missiles. Divide and conquer: You divide the people of God, and you will usually conquer [from the perspective, now, of Satan]. He has used that arsenal more than once in the life and ministry and history of the church, bringing division and acrimony, and resentment, and accusation and grumbling into the body of Christ.

And it all happens over widows, the most sensitive of the various groups within the church. It was a clever strategy. To be seen, or at least to be thought to be seen, neglecting widows was surely a sensitive thing. That was bound to raise the temperature within the church. Widows were in a difficult position. Their chance of remarriage was slim; their income was probably zero. There was no state welfare, no government handouts or aid. It was a common problem in the early church. Paul, in I Timothy 5, talks about widows and the lists of widows, and we'll come back to that in a moment.

This isn't just an issue that concerns the New Testament church. It was an issue that concerned the synagogue. It was a Jewish concern. Back in Deuteronomy, Moses had given legislation given to him by God that the people of God were bound to take care of widows. It was part of the ministry of the body of the company of believers that they took care of widows. You'll remember, of course, the story of Naomi and Ruth. That's part of the reason why they returned from Moab to Bethlehem, just outside Jerusalem, because they knew that there at least they would have enough sufficient to live.

When James in chapter 5 says that "pure religion consists in visiting orphans and widows", he's not just plucking that out of the air. He is, in fact, in a subtle way, in Jerusalem (and James was a big man in Jerusalem)...James is saying this New Testament church actually has its roots, its ethical roots in the Old Testament. It's interesting that Jesus says that on the Day of Judgment (in that astonishing passage in Matthew 24-25, "the little apocalypse" as it's sometimes called...the Olivet Discourse, as it's otherwise known)...Jesus says that on that day, judgment will be given on the basis of our conformity to mercy ministry. You remember the disciples asked Him what He meant, and He said, "Inasmuch as you did it to one of these, My little ones, you did it unto Me." A cup of cold water....

Interesting that John Piper, in almost like a manifesto, I think, for Bethlehem Baptist Church, has this to say about compassion in a document called Dimensions of Church Life:

...Something that this church has thought through, the place and function and utility of mercy ministry, personal and corporate expressions of compassion to relieve human suffering, near and far, by means of short-term intervention or long-term....[something! Can't read my writing!]...and structural change in order to show the justice, mercy, and soul-satisfying beauty of Christ forever.

Well, you get the drift of it. Mercy ministry is a necessary and essential aspect of the church's life and witness.

And our own Confession of Faith, in Chapter XXVI on "The Communion of Saints," speaks of the place and function of mercy ministry.

Now, before we look at the problem, we need just to say....you know, it's easy to look at the problem, because there is a huge problem here...but they were engaging in mercy ministry. Let's see the positive thing first. This church was engaged in mercy ministry to widows.

Now, there's a problem, a solution, and something of a postscript in this little section. The problem has to do with certain widows feeling grieved and hurt that other widows in the church are being looked after, but they are not.

The Hellenistic party of the church complain against the Hebrew (or, as the New American Standard calls it, "the native Hebrew") party of the church that their widows are being taken care of, but the Hellenistic widows are being overlooked. Isn't it interesting (and look at the passage very carefully): "A complaint by the Hellenists arose against...against the Hebrews." Now, do you notice that language? It's very interesting, because the complaint is not initially "We're not getting food." Now, that's part of the complaint, but that's not what they're saying. They are complaining against the other party. It's become personal, do you see? This church has already begun to split into two sections, the Hellenists and the Jewish party, the Hebrew party. It's become sectarian. It's become actually tribal. It's become "us and them." Actually there's a racial and ethnic dimension to it.

So, who are the Hellenists? And who are the Hebrews?

Well, scholars (whoever they may be) differ. The astonishing scholar, C.F.D. Muell, a Cambridge University New Testament scholar, long ago argued that the Hellenists were those who spoke only Greek. In the Roman Empire, at least in Asia Minor, everyone spoke Greek. Latin was the formal language, but the everyday language was Greek. And Jews who didn't live in Israel, especially Jews in the so-called diaspora, spoke Greek; and probably, if they hadn't lived in Israel, or perhaps they were second, third, or maybe fourth or fifth generation diaspora, they didn't even know Hebrew, or more commonly, Aramaic, the native language spoken in Israel. They were Jews, but they didn't speak Hebrew. They didn't speak Aramaic. So when these Hellenists in the Hellenization of the Roman Empire that occurred 200 years before the birth of Christ and onward into the first century A.D., this Greek-forming Hellenistic movement, where speaking Greek became the thing to do, these widows who now find themselves back in Jerusalem are attending probably Greek-speaking synagogues in Jerusalem.

How many synagogues were there in Jerusalem? Well, in the City of David, scholars now think there might have been at least five synagogues in the ancient City of David itself; possibly two or three of them were Greek-speaking synagogues. The others were Hebrew- or Aramaic-speaking synagogues. The prayers, the blessings, the benedictions, the sermon given by the rabbi would in one synagogue be all in Greek; in the other it would be in Hebrew or Aramaic. Although they are Christians, they are believers, they are identified now as "the disciples" — look at verse 9: "Then some of those who belonged to the Synagogue of the Freedmen...." [First Presbyterian Synagogue...no! But something similar.] It's already got a name, do you see? And it's a Hellenistic synagogue, so there are two factions developing.

Now, others are not as convinced that the difference was entirely due to language. Some more recently think that the Hellenists were simply those who lived outside of Israel. They had never lived in Israel, they weren't born in Israel, they weren't raised in Israel. They were diaspora Jews. And the Hebrews were the native Israelites. Now, they're all Jews, of course, but there was something purer about being an Israelite Jew, born and raised in the motherland. [You might live in Jackson, Mississippi, but if you weren't born in Mississippi and in Jackson, you will never be a true-blue Jacksonian!] Something like that has developed in the church.

Now the problem of looking after these various widows was enormous for several reasons. One, because of the disproportionate number of widows in Jerusalem, some of the rabbis had suggested that the resurrection would only occur for Jews who died in Israel. If you died in the diaspora, if you died outside of Israel, your body would have to roll over until it eventually came into Israel—not a pleasant prospect! Other rabbis taught that there's a special blessing attending those who die in "the City of God," as Psalm 46 refers to Jerusalem. I imagine that widows living in the country, for example, with no family to take care of them, would seek the shelter of the larger community of the city. So there's just a vast number of widows in Jerusalem, a disproportionate number of widows in Jerusalem.

The economy of Jerusalem was unstable and often poor, which would make mercy ministry a matter of some tension. And, it would be organizationally complex. The distribution was not done at the synagogue, because at the synagogue you still had Jews, and now Jewish Christians. More likely this distribution of food took place in the various—and some think hundreds of—house groups that have now developed in the city of Jerusalem and in its outskirts. So in the organization, who bought the food? The money that was being....property, you know, in Acts 2 and 4, property was being sold, given, distributed to the apostles...and the organization involved in taking care of these widows was enormous.

And tension arises. It's the tension of favoritism.

You see, the true blue Israelite widow is receiving more than the foreigner, the...oh, I've been called it!... "The Outsider." The immigrant. Think of tensions that arise in congregations where two different languages are being spoken. Try observing English Christians on vacation in Wales, where some of the liturgy in the service is going to be in Welsh. And Welsh Christians greet one another in Welsh, and it looks—and indeed, it does look somewhat clique-ish. You're not on the inside, because you don't speak the language.

A problem has arisen, and the church is splitting into two. There is, if you like, the Hellenistic Mission Church of Jerusalem, and the Continuing Church of Zion...or make up your own names. This is a stratagem, make no mistake, of Satan: Divide and conquer. No wonder Jesus prayed in His high priestly prayer in John 17 for the unity of the church, "...that they may be one as We are one."

Now, the solution was as bold as the problem was serious. They call a church meeting. Isn't that interesting? Tempting as it is to make an application about church government, I will not. I don't have time. But it is interesting. They call a church meeting. The whole church. The apostles don't dictate a policy here. They inform, they give their opinion, they give their wisdom, but the whole church is called. Oh, I'd love to know what went on in that church meeting! I'd love to know who spoke. I'd love to know: Was there one individual, as there often is in a meeting where there's tension and there are two sides and two parties, did one person stand up and give a really emotional speech that galvanized the whole congregation? Maybe Peter—although I doubt it was Peter. More likely, John.

Several things about the solution:

I. The first thing I want us to see is that the entire church, the whole body of the disciples agreed that the apostles should give their time and energy to prayer and preaching.

Now, this isn't...read the text carefully. This isn't just special pleading on the part of preachers. The whole church thought this was a good idea.

You know, friends, in a day and age where we're always wanting to shorten prayer and preaching, we need to observe how far removed we are from the early church. They were adamant that prayer and preaching came before mercy ministry...important as mercy ministry is.

II. Secondly, they did a very Presbyterian thing.

They formed a committee — The Magnificent Seven! Seven men...I don't think that they're deacons. We can argue about this afterwards. I know that some see here the roots of the office of the diaconate, and maybe there is something of the seminal roots of eventually what will become the office of a deacon, but ...yes, the word diaconus is used on more than one occasion in this passage. They were certainly doing diaconal work, but neither Stephen nor Philip readily fall into the category of a deacon. They were evangelists. And this is the first division of the apostles, not a division here of elders and deacons. That, I think, comes later in the New Testament as the church grows and matures and develops. I get the sense here that something very practical was being done to meet a very specific need in the growing pains of a fledgling Christian community.

III. Notice, thirdly, they are all Greek names.

Now, that is interesting. They all have Greek names. Now, if half of them had Greek names, we wouldn't say anything about it, but they all have Greek names. And it seems to me...anyway, it looks as though what happened was, if the problem exists amongst the Hellenistic widows and the Hellenistic party, it looks as though the church said 'You sort it out amongst yourselves.' And you know, when somebody's complaining that they're not getting enough, how wise a strategy is it to make that person in charge, and to see how difficult the task can actually be. It's worked on more than one occasion! I just think this is brilliant!

They're commissioned. Hands are laid on them, and they're commissioned and they're set apart for a very specific ministry in the church. And notice, it's not just anybody that can do this. They needed the highest of spiritual qualifications: "...men of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom." [True, one of them, Nicanor, is said by some to be of the Nicolaitans of the letters in Revelation, and scorned and condemned for heresy. Yes, perhaps that's true, and perhaps that did develop later.] Spiritual men, because all of the official tasks of the church, whether it's prayer or whether it's preaching, or whether it's mercy ministry, or whether it's diaconal work, or whatever it is, all of these tasks are to be performed and carried out by those of the highest spiritual qualifications.

It's interesting that Calvin in Geneva tried to implement what was in all intents and purposes a kind of social reform in the city—building hospitals, planting schools. At one point there must have been something in the region of 60- or 70,000 French refugees in the city of Geneva because of persecution in France, some of them arriving in the city with only the clothes that they wore, and needing jobs and needing food, and needing help. And an astonishing diaconal ministry of care and mercy was established in Geneva. It was Calvinism that did that. It was belief in the sovereignty of God that did that. And the same could be said of Richard Baxter and Thomas Chalmers in Scotland, and others.

There's a postscript. Look at verse 7: "And the word of God continued to increase."

God's blessing was on this church, and I can't help but think that Luke wants us to see the cause and effect: that because they overcame the strategy of Satan, because they didn't yield to the temptation to divide, God poured out His blessing upon them and they increased in number.

This was a kind of church that you really wanted to be a member of. I imagine some of the Jews in Jerusalem saw things in terms of the care and love and mercy that the church was showing, and that they must have said to themselves 'There is really something in this. When they say they love Jesus Christ, they mean it. And it shows.'

And they established what James will speak of later as ministry not just in word, but in word and in deed. And may God make us such a church.

Let's pray.

Father, we are breathless as we think of the potential of this church to be imploded and destroyed in an instant, and yet Your sovereign hand was upon them. And we pray for ourselves; teach us, Lord, what it means to show the love of Christ to those who are poor and needy in our own midst; and bless us, we pray. Pour out Your Spirit upon us, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

Please stand; receive the Lord's benediction.