60 - Disciples and Decision Making in the Church [B]

Disciples and Decision Making in the Church. Acts 6:1

We move into a new chapter but it is not really a new section in Acts. It is the conclusion, though, of the previous section and really serves as a transition from the focus in Jerusalem to the expansion of the church beyond Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria. Up to this point we have been focused on what was happening in Jerusalem but this is a transition because it is in this section that it is not just talking about the administration of the church but we are introduced to these seven men, specifically Stephen and Philip, who will dominate the next two or three chapters. They will be responsible for expanding the church and the ministry of the gospel beyond just Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria.

We learn a number of important things as we go through these next seven verses. For example, we see an emphasis on problem-solving here. There are some in the congregation who are complaining. They didn't really have a just cause but they had taken offence and there really was something of a problem there that had to be dealt with, so we will see something about the problem-solving technique of the apostles.

One or two things to point out. We don't see the twelve going to prayer prior to making this decision. In light of verse four which said that they needed to give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word it isn't fair to say they didn't pray about it. They did pray about it but even though this is an era when direct revelation still took place God was not giving them direct revelation to solve the problem. That sets a pattern for all of us: God does not give us direct revelation to solve our problems. He is not going to speak into our ear, He is not going to give us a vibration or a feeling that we are making the right decision. The issue is to take what we know of the Word of God, pray about it, and then apply the Word of God to the best of our ability in the circumstances and situations. That is how we develop wisdom. Wisdom comes from application. That is what they do here. They go through a process where they bring the believers together and explain the problem and say it is a priority issue. The priority of the apostles is the ministry of the Word and prayer but the church has grown so rapidly and there are so many people who have a need that they just can't cover all the bases, so they need to begin to expand the administration.        

The appointment of these seven is not the appointment of the first deacons. The noun "deacon" [diakonos/diakonoj] is not found here. The verb dikoneo [diakonew] which means to serve is found here but this isn't the appointment of seven  deacons. It is a sort of prototype of what will develop later on in terms of the administration of the church where there are two primary leadership groups, one of which focuses on the ministry of the Word and prayer and one that focuses on the administrative responsibilities of a local congregation. The group that focuses on the ministry of the Word and prayer is the pastor or pasters—depending on the size of the congregation—and the group that focuses on the administration of the logistical details of the congregation will be known as deacons. How that works really does vary from congregation to congregation, and the Scriptures give us a narrow enough view for us to understand the division of labor within a congregation but a broad enough view to where it can be applied by different groups of Christians and organizations within different cultures. We have a culture in the United States and western Europe that was heavily influenced by the organization of a corporation as that developed coming out of the industrial revolution and going into the late 19^th century where was developed something that ran a corporation called a board. That board would meet periodically and discuss the business of the corporation and in this discussion they would set policy and decisions. They would meet on a regular basis and keep minutes, appoint a chairman of the board. We don't have that in Scripture. That is how our culture from Scriptural concepts and organized them.

In the early church we think the way they did it was there were pastors and when there were physical needs within a congregation the pastor appointed different men to be responsible for those areas. They didn't have a monthly board meeting, there wasn't a chairman of the board; that was all a late 19^th century corporate idea. It is not that it is wrong, it is just that it is how our culture adapted the principles from Scripture to the way we organize and run a church. Christians in India don't organize that way. There are these different kinds of traditions and it is not that doing it in a specific way is not right or wrong but there should be this division of labor and of responsibility where there is one leadership that focuses on the ministry of the Word and prayer and another leadership that focuses on taking care of administrative responsibilities.

It is interesting that apparently the apostles initially tried to do it all. They did the teaching of the Word, prayer, and they were also involved in the distribution of food and necessities to the widows in this new entity, the church. One day the apostles have this meeting described here in chapter six and they said they were going to focus on the prayer and teaching the Word and the ones who are going to distribute the food and come knocking on your door to make sure you are being taken care of are going to be these seven men. We wonder how many of those widows said they didn't want Philip, they didn't want Prochorus; they want John, they want Peter, they're the apostles. We make fun of this because this is how so many churches operate today. They put all of this type of responsibility—hospital visitation, home visitation, whatever it might be—on the pastoral staff whose responsibility should be teaching the Word and prayer, and others should have the delegated responsibility to do hospital visits or ministry in other areas. It is tough because there are certain denominations which have these kinds of long traditions so embedded in their culture that it puts an unrealistic expectation upon the pastor, and it is not a biblical expectation.   

What is laid out here in chapter six is just more of a prototype. As we go through Acts we will see as time went by from the founding of the church in AD 33 up to the time the book closes out around 62 or 63 that in that time there is more of a refinement. There is more revelation given to specifically the apostle Paul in terms of organization and administration of a local church but is starts here. There is not an overt revelation from God as to how they ought to solve this problem but we see the hand of God the Holy Spirit working behind the scenes. And that is exactly how problem-solving should take place in a believer's life. We don't face a problem and say, Lord tell me what I should do here. He has already given us everything we need to know to solve any problem that is in our life. What we need to pray for is wisdom and how we can endure (James 1:8), and we need to pray that we might be faithful and endure in the midst of that trial or particular testing. But God is not going to whisper in our ear and tell us what the answer is. He says the test is for us to take what we know and apply it to the circumstances, and in and through that behind the scenes God the Holy Spirit is often working. We don't sense it overtly, it is a covert thing that is not obvious to us but when we look back on those circumstances often we see that the Holy Spirit was really guiding us.

We also see here the involvement of the congregation in making the decisions. When the apostles come forward and say here is the plan that we have decided on and present it to the congregation we are told in verse 5 ^NASB "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." There is a question about "they chose." Who is the "they"? The nearest antecedent, the nearest noun that the plural "they" would refer to is the noun "multitude." So the best answer here is that the multitude chose these men. Verse 6 reinforces this: "And these they brought before the apostles…" This has to be the congregation. "…and after praying, they [the apostles] laid their hands on them." Laying hands on them was an act of identification; it was a stamp of approval. They would be going forth as an extension of the apostolic ministry. This is really important because in 2 Corinthians 12:12 we have the statement by Paul that they went forth with signs and wonders. The signs of an apostle was performing signs and wonders. For that to be a sign of the apostolic ministry has to be fit with the fact that there are a few other people within the narrative of Acts who performed miracles/signs and wonders. Philip and Stephen are among them but they are extensions of the apostolic core. The issue is the apostles and their authority.

All the way through to the first missionary journey with Paul the major emphasis is that everything that happens occurs under the authority of the body of the apostles in Jerusalem. When Philip goes to Samaria and preaches the gospel people respond. But there is no baptism of the Holy Spirit, no coming of the Holy Spirit; there is nothing beyond their simple faith. They are saved but they are not brought into the body of the church until Peter and John come up top Samaria and lay hands on them. When that happens then the Holy Spirit comes. With Cornelius in Acts chapters 10 and 11 when Peter is given specific revelation from God to take the gospel to the Gentiles and he takes the gospel to the Gentiles and they are brought into the entity of the church it is Peter's apostolic ministry. None of these groups can claim later on that they had a beginning that was separated from the direct involvement of the apostles.

This laying on of hands from the apostles indicates an extremely close connection with the seven that they are an extension and are the assistants to the apostles. So what they are doing in a much more real sense than other assistants later on is they are carrying out and identifying with the direct apostolic ministry and authority. Then in verse seven Luke tells us that the Word of God spread. They go through an organizational shift and this enhances their ministry, and the Word of God spreads.   

The other thing to notice here is that two other times Luke comes along and says something about the Word of God spreading. The Word of God is the real change agent along with the Holy Spirit. It is not their methodology. The Bible doesn't emphasize the technique as the means by which the church grows; it is the content of the gospel and the Holy Spirit. It is the Word of God that causes growth. We live in an age today where as a result of corporate expansions, salesmanship, many of the tools that are used to build corporations and large businesses, are thought by many people that if we just sort of baptize those techniques and bring them into the church they can build a huge organization. Yes, they can. Those techniques are tried and true but their products are the flesh, not the Holy Spirit.

An ordination pastor once said, "Always remember that anybody with brains and energy can build a huge organization, but that doesn't mean God the Holy Spirit has anything to do with it." There may be a church of 25 people and God the Holy Spirit may be more involved with those 25 people than He is involved with any large church with 3000, 10,000 or 20,000. That is the truth, and we have lost sight of it today because we have been so infected with numbers and quantification as the standard for measuring success. In 1 Corinthians 4:2 Paul says, ^NASB "In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy [faithful]." It's not that he have so many converts in a year, perform so many baptisms, but that he is found faithful—faithful in ministering to the congregation through the teaching of the Word. So we can see there are a number of important doctrines, key ideas and topics that are embedded within these seven verses.

Acts 6:1 ^NASB "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.}" The verse begins "Now at this time" or "In those days." This indicates a direct connection between the events in chapter six and the events we have just seen in chapter five. In 5:42 we read, "And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they [the apostles] kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus {as} the Christ [Messiah]." To say that they were preaching Jesus as the Messiah puts the focus on the fact that the content of their message was to demonstrate that Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled the prophecies related to the Messiah in the Old Testament. We may not realize this but a trend in evangelical scholarship over the last forty years has been to minimize the reality of messianic prophecies in the Old Testament. This just goes along with a general drift of pseudo scholarship that has infected evangelicalism and runs counter to the historic teaching of sound biblical, Bible based Protestant theology over the last 400 years.

Teaching is a term that relates to explanation and instruction. Preaching is not what many people today think of as preaching. Today the concept of preaching has been redefined in terms of a rhetorical style, it is not what the Bible talks about in terms of preaching. The verb for preaching is kerusso [khrussw] which means simply to announce something, to proclaim something as true. It may very well include instruction and explanation in the process of making the announcement or the proclamation. It is not talking about a certain structure, a certain way to pace yourself through the message, not about how to do three points in a poem, not talking about only a 15-minute message because you don't want to stress anybody's attention spans. These all go into modern homiletic theory today but this is not what the word "preaching" meant. It wasn't tied to a rhetorical style as it has become today. It was closely tied though to the word "teaching," which indicates explanation and instruction. We have seen examples of that with Peter already as he went to the Old Testament, quoted passages and showed how they were fulfilled by Jesus. That was the point. As they were teaching and proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah they were clearly showing how Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah were fulfilled in Jesus.

So it was in "those days" right after that trial where Gamaliel made the statement that if this was not from God it would die out. Then we read the statement, "the disciples were increasing {in number}." So it was a result of the teaching of the Word of God that there was an expansion of the number of Christians. The verse uses the phrase "the disciples." It is important to understand what this term means. It is a translation of the Greek noun mathetes [maqhthj] which describes someone as a learner, a student, an apprentice, someone who came to be taught by a specific teacher, a scholar or someone who followed a respected teacher and was very closely identified with that teacher as Saul of Tarsus was with Gamaliel. This is the meaning of the word disciple. This is the first time in Acts that we see believers referred to as disciples. The twelve are not referred to as disciples at any point prior to this; they are apostles. There are numerous disciples. This word will now be used 28 more times in 26 verses in the remainder of Acts, so it is a term that is often applied to Christians.

The noun is used 28 times but the verb is only used one time in Jesus' parting instructions during the forty days between the resurrection and the ascension. One of the things that is stated and restated in each of the Gospels is Jesus' parting commands to teach and to make disciples. The one most commonly referred to is Matthew 28:19, 20 which is called the great commission. ^NASB "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." The two participles, baptizing and teaching, refer to how a disciple is made. The goal wasn't simply evangelism. Baptism was understood in the early church to be something that would immediately follow a person's faith in Christ. There wasn't a gap of weeks or months or years between someone's conversion, faith in Christ, and baptism. So baptism basically stands for and summarizes all that was involved at that point in time when a person would trust in Jesus Christ as savior and then would be baptized through immersion in believer's baptism. Then the second way you would make a disciple was by teaching, so the word isn't the equivalent of becoming a Christian. That is important to understand.

Certain people we usually refer to as holding to "Lordship salvation"—and a lot of times we just find that it is people who are untaught or people who really haven't understood the distinction between a disciple and a Christian—think that becoming  a Christian is responding to Jesus' challenges to become a disciple. A disciple and a Christian are two different things. For a disciple teaching and learning are at the very core of the meaning of a disciple. If you have a disciple what do you always have with the disciple? The master; the teacher. If there is a disciple there is always someone he is learning from. In the Gospels where there is the mention of the word "disciple" many times Jesus' ministry was a ministry that focused on teaching, and we see in a very broad sense that He teaches the multitudes. This is what He did in the first two to two and a half years of His ministry. Matthew 4:23 ^NASB "Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues …" That attracted people to Him as the Gospel says because He taught with authority, unlike the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees. These groups were called disciples, but it is in a loose sense. So the first area of meaning for a disciple was someone who was just loosely affiliated with the teacher, someone who was curious but not committed, someone who wanted to learn what this particular teacher wanted to teach but that did not necessarily mean that they were even a believer; they were just a student.

Not all believers became disciples and not all disciples were believers. The terms are not interchangeable. But there is a second level of the word "disciple" which does refer to someone who was a believer. This is seen in John 2:11 ^NASB "This beginning of {His} signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him." This is a reference to Peter, James and John and they are believing that Jesus is the Messiah. So in this verse a disciple was a believer. As we read through the Gospels we find that there are over 250 references made to disciples. We can't read through the ministry of Jesus Christ without recognizing that He wasn't just limiting His message to getting people saved. He was calling people to a commitment in terms of their spiritual life. The normative position is for people to trust in Christ as savior and then be completely committed to growing to spiritual maturity. That is what God expects. It is not a condition for salvation. Discipleship was earned; it was post salvation spiritual growth. These ideas have to be kept distinct. Jesus was calling His disciples, especially the twelve, to a higher level of commitment. And that is true for every one of us. God doesn't say, I just want you to be saved. He wants every believer to pursue spiritual maturity. The highest will of God is for every believer to achieve spiritual maturity and to glorify Him to the maximum. But that is not what is required in order to be justified, it is what is required to be a disciple in the fullest sense of the word.

We see a hint of this again in John 6. Jesus is ministering to a large crowd, it is the time He gives the discourse out by the Sea of Galilee that He is the bread of heaven, the beard of life. He has been challenging the multitude in terms of their commitment to Him. John 6:60 ^NASB "Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard {this} said, 'This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?'" That is referring to the crowd in the most general sense of the word "disciple." [61] "But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them [shifting to the twelve], 'Does this cause you to stumble? [62] {What} then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? [63] It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. [64] But there are some of you who do not believe…'" In that statement He is talking specifically about Judas. Here He refers to them as disciples but one of them is not a believer. "…For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. [65] "And He was saying, 'For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.' [66] As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore." Here we have disciples who say, "That's it. I've reached a 5 per cent commitment, 10 per cent, 20 per cent, but I'm out of here, He is just asking a little bit too much. Going to church on Sunday is one thing but going Sunday morning, Tuesday night, Thursday night is just asking too much of me, I'm going to go to some other church where I can just feel good." That is what happens. There are a lot of people who just don't want to be called to excellence in the Christian life. What God is calling all of us to be is great warriors in spiritual warfare for the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the standard. God is calling all of us to a standard of absolute excellence in the Christian life.

John 6:67 ^NASB "So Jesus said to the twelve, 'You do not want to go away also, do you?' [68] Simon Peter answered Him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. [69] We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.'" There are disciples who hang in there and disciples and there are disciples who don't hang in there. So the meaning of the word "disciple" is going to change from context to context. Jesus had this high standard of discipleship that He calls everyone to, as seen in Luke 9:23-25 (repeated again in Luke 14:27) ^NASB "And He was saying to {them} all, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me…" That is not a condition for salvation or justification; it is a condition for being a disciple. Taking up your cross daily has to do with being willing to take on God's plan for your life no matter what it might entail. "… 'For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.'" If we are more concerned with personal pleasures, personal security, pursuing your own significance in your plan for your life then in the end when you think that you have grabbed hold of life you will find that you have grabbed nothing but the air. Real life consists of fulfilling God's plan for your life and doing exactly what God would have you do. And that is the only time that we are ever going to experience the full significance of what God has planned for us. If we desire to saved our life by pursuing our own agenda we will end up losing our life, but whoever loses his life—gives up his agenda for Christ's sake—will save it. [25] "For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?"

So Jesus calls us to a higher level of commitment, not for salvation but in terms of the spiritual life, to experience everything that God has for us. But that is predicated upon our spiritual growth and spiritual maturity.

Another passage that relates to this is Matthew 11:28-30 ^NASB "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." The reference to those who labor and are heavy-laden is to those who are trying to work their way to righteousness, those who are trying to earn God's approval by what they do. We can never do anything to gain God's approval. "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS." A yoke as what was put on a pair of oxen in order to guide them and bring them under submission to the control of the farmer. So taking Christ's yoke is accepting His authority in life. Jesus isn't talking about justification here, He is talking about discipleship, becoming a committed disciple and growing to maturity. He is saying that if we accept His authority it is not going to be burdensome like that of the scribes and the Pharisees. This challenge is set forth for each one of us. Are we willing to grow to maturity and just pursue excellence in the spiritual life or are we going to settle for mediocrity. 

In Acts 6:1, "the number of the disciples." In this sense it is talking generally believers who are saved and justified but it includes a huge number, some of whom want to learn and are devoted to the teaching of the apostles, but whether they hang in there or not has yet to be determined.

So there was a large group of believers and now there was an administrative problem. It is tough for twelve men to manage and administer the needs of 25-30,000 – especially when there is a large number of widows in the congregation and have needs that need to be taken care of. The responsibility of the church in relation to widows is an extremely significant one. But the problem here was between those who were called Hebrews and those who were called Hellenists. The Hellenists were Greek speaking Jews rather than Aramaic speaking Jews. But the term "Hebrews" as it is used here in 6:1 is rarely ever used to refer to a language group, so that is not the best solution. The second solution is that the Greeks related to Gentile proselytes to Judaism as opposed to those who were ethnic Jews who had converted to Christ. The list in 6:5 of the deacons gives Greek names but most Jews had a Greek name and an Aramaic name so that doesn't mean anything. They were probably referred to by their Greek name because they were going to be ministering to the Hellenist widows, so that would be a more comfortable environment to be calling them by their Greek name. Another option is that these were Jews from the diaspora who were living in Judea or Galilee. Another was that these were pro-Hellenist sect within Judaism, and another is that this refers to Gentiles who joined the church at an early date. Others think that this is more of a general term. Probably the best solution is that there were a number of Jews who had been part of the diaspora, who grew up in more of a Greek culture and had moved to Judea or Galilee. This would possibly have been a reason why there were so many widows because many of them would have perhaps moved back to Judea after their husbands died. This would indicate a larger number of widows from this population than normal.

The Hebrews would refer to the Jews who were native born to Judea or Galilee. They were locals and those who immigrated back to Judea felt that they were being overlooked.

The twelve exercise real initiative and leadership here in solving the problem. They come up with a solution and they will summon the multitude to take care of it.