Speaker 1: 0:00

And so, kicking off, this morning, we are going to be talking about Acts, chapter 6. And if you're listening online from Madison Church Online, we welcome you in as well. Today we are talking about division in the church. In fact, we're talking about discrimination in the church. We're talking about what it looks like to commission others on behalf of the Spirit. We're actually going to see today that the office of the deacon is created in the passage that we're going to look at and that's going to be in Acts, chapter 6, verses 1 through 7, if you want to pull up a Bible or your app today, now we are in a mini series with Kyle.

Speaker 1: 0:36

Stephen's not here next week and he's not here today. So, conveniently enough and he's already mentioned this a couple of times for the next two weeks we're going to talk about the person Stephen in the Bible, and so it's funny how today and next week, both scriptures are talking about Stephen, and so I asked myself is this a promotional? He decides to leave and then I get to hype him up for two weeks. That's one of the things. The other thing is, I wanted to throw the word steven in greek up on on the screen, so it's stefanos and uh, my, one of my jokes for steven right now is that he's pronouncing his name wrong. So I think that we should just really encourage him that he should switch over to stefanos, for, you know, forever we just start calling him that. My other joke is that, because this looks so cool, this is going to be my first tattoo, I think, if I just get like Stephanos. You know, and then I'm just kidding, but don't tell me with a good time.

Speaker 1: 1:32

This week we are talking about some internal strife inside the church, and then next week we're going to talk about Stephen and what it meant when Stephen became the first Christian martyr. So if we organize ourselves in the two the next two weeks today we're talking about the collective ministry of the church and then next week we're going to talk about what it means to be a faithful witness and the cost of being a faithful witness as well, and so it has some serious implications for us. But overall, there's just one question I want us to consider for the next two weeks what does it mean to be a Pentecost people? If Pentecost was so important, if the Holy Spirit indwelling each individual believer, what does it mean for us to be a Pentecost people? And so, as an introduction for today, we see a conflict in the early church, but a deeper truth is revealed Everyone matters and everyone has a part to play. The apostles don't try to fix the problems themselves. We're going to see them commission others to go out and help do the work, to be empowered others through the spirit, to let them lead as well. And this week is also an invitation for us to discover what our role is. There are no spectators, there are no sidelines, just a Spirit activated ministry calling our name right now, today.

Speaker 1: 2:57

So let's look at the text. I'll put it, we'll put it up on the screen for you Acts 6, verses 1 through 7, it says this. Put it up on the screen for you. Acts 6, verses 1 through 7, it says this but as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers Hellenists in the Greek complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, hebrews saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. So the twelve called a meeting of all the believers the word's actually disciples of all the disciples, and they said we apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running the food program. And so brothers select seven men who are well-respected and are full of spirit and wisdom, and we will give them this responsibility. Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word. And everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following our time in prayer and teaching the word. And everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following Stephen, a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit, philip Prochorus, nicanor, timon, barminius and Nicholas of Antioch, an earlier convert of the Jewish faith. These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them, and so God's message continued to spread. The numbers of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted too. And so that's the passage.

Speaker 1: 4:08

There's a lot that's happening. There's a lot of time that passes in these seven verses as well, because we see a problem arise. It didn't happen overnight. We see a solution happen, but that also didn't happen overnight. The church is growing, and with that came different problems. There's an internal division, discrimination, it sounds like ethnic division, and it's around something good. I don't want us to get lost on that too. It's the daily distribution of food to widows. They were trying to have a missional, incarnational impulse, which is one of our values here. But at the same time, conflict arose, because that's a natural part of being part of the church to be living in community, to live in authentic relationship with one another. Sometimes things arise that we have to overcome together. Now I find what the church does is fascinating, because they commission others, they empower others. It's not a hierarchical approach, it's how do we get everyone involved, and so that's what we're going to dive into today. Here's how we're going to do it.

Speaker 1: 5:08

First, I want to catch us up on where we are in Acts. Whenever we evaluate a specific text, I think it's really important for us to always remember where we're coming from in the book of Acts and then also take a peek ahead and see where we're going in the book of Acts, just to see how this passage fits squarely in the middle of that. The second thing I want us to dive into what the conflict is all about. What does it mean that the Hellenists and the Hebrews had conflict with each other, that there was a discrimination happening there? What does that mean? I'll describe that a little bit as well. And then I want us to see how the church empowered its community in a God-honoring way. And then finally, I want us to return to the question what does it mean to be a Pentecost people? So, as an overview of Acts, let's catch back up. Where are we at? So Acts is the second part of Luke.

Speaker 1: 5:54

Luke and Acts should be smushed together in scripture. They're actually split up, but they're written by the same author and they're written to the same person. So if you look at the beginning of Luke and you look at the beginning of Acts, you'll see that it's written to Theophilus. Now, theophilus is a really interesting name. We're talking about names a lot today, so I say let's just dive in and really experience what names are all about. Theophilus means lover of God. You got Theo, which is God, and then the Phyllis there means lover. In that way, when we come to Luke and to Acts, we know that the book is being written to us as well. Right, because we are lovers of God, coming to listen to what the author of Luke has to say. So that's what Luke starts out when he says to Theophilus my first account was about what Jesus did and taught. That's the gospel of Luke. And now he wants to tell Theophilus about Jesus' promise of the Holy Spirit and then the great movement of the church. That's the purpose of his writing about the book of Acts, and Pentecost is going to become the defining event.

Speaker 1: 6:57

So in the very earliest chapters of Acts we see the Holy Spirit descend on the disciples with tongues of fire above their heads. So it's kind of the same imagery you see here in our kind of PowerPoint slide. That's also the unique part about that is that's also the same imagery of God's presence descending in the Old Testament. So inside the Holy of Holies, inside the temple. Think about the pillar of fire guiding the Israelites by night. Think about the burning bush. God comes in a flame. But what's interesting here is that it's not descending in the temple, it's descending onto the individuals. That's the big shift. The people are now the temple of the Lord. That is what we see with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 1: 7:42

Now in the early chapters of Luke we have Luke detailing some of the great growth of the church. So they started out with the disciples, then they grow to about 120. They've just grown in Acts, chapter 4, to 3,000. And then right here, right before this happens, they grow just over 5,000. So a community of about 5,000 individuals. And you can actually see those numbers in the text too.

Speaker 1: 8:03

But what I wanted to put up on the screen from Acts 2 and Acts chapter 4 was how the disciples, the believers, were living in community with one another. It says this from Acts 2, continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and prayer. Just a couple verses later, that all believers were together, they had all things in common. They'd even sell their possessions and share them to the extent anyone had a need. And then in Acts chapter 4, there was not a needy person among them, because anyone who owned land or houses would end up selling and bringing the proceeds and then dividing it up amongst anyone who had the need. So that's where we're coming from. That's right before, where this passage happens.

Speaker 1: 8:46

Now, after this passage, where are we going? We see, if Pentecost becomes the defining event in the book of Acts, then the Holy Spirit becomes the defining character. So what does that mean? We started out following Peter around, now we're about to follow Stephen for a little bit. We're going to follow Philip, then we're going to start following Paul, and then we see Paul and Silas. We see Paul and Barnabas and their missionary journeys. That takes us just about through the book of Acts. But despite all those characters that we're following, one character always remains the same. That is the Holy Spirit, the person of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit working in different people to carry the message of God around the world.

Speaker 1: 9:29

So the gospel is not just carried to the Jewish population. This is the other thing that's going to happen. Right now we're mainly with a Jewish population, but soon the message of the gospel is going to be opened up to the Gentile population as well, and that's one thing that I want us to harp on, especially as we start talking about discrimination here. The gospel is inclusive. The gospel has always been inclusive. It's a formation of communities from various backgrounds who are treated with equality and who live according to Jesus' teaching. That's important for us to anchor on here at the very beginning, before we even dive into the problem of what was going on in the early church.

Speaker 1: 10:02

In this In Acts, chapter 6, we see a bit of a hiccup. This is mostly a Jewish population. The gospel hasn't spread specifically to the Gentiles yet. Even inside the Jewish population we're seeing discrimination, but what we're actually seeing is a little bit of elitism happening between the Hebrews and the Greek-speaking believers, and I think that's a bit awkward for us to handle, because when we look at the early church and we think about the early church or really anything in Scripture, we think very fondly of the community.

Speaker 1: 10:37

We say, oh, wow, whatever they were doing must have been right, not realizing or appreciating that they are in very much the same predicament that we are. They are wrestling through what is right, what the Holy Spirit's voice sounds like, how we're being led, what the Holy Spirit's voice sounds like, how we're being led. We should be able to relate in this moment very much to any other moment that we see in scripture and it reminds me of the we aren't what we used to be mantras I'm sure plenty of us have heard. Hey, we're not using, america is not what we used to be, okay. And then if, even if you go back in time, I'm sure they were saying in their time period hey, america isn't what it used to be. Well, at the same time I came across a little newspaper letter to the editor that someone wrote in and said hey, this newspaper is not what it used to be, and the newspaper actually responds and they say it never was. It never was. That's because we always look back fondly, but we don't appreciate the human experience of. They were still struggling to try to figure out what was going on themselves, and so that's what this church is struggling with in the present moment.

Speaker 1: 11:42

In Acts, chapter 6, too, we're experiencing growth, we experience persecution, and now we're experiencing an internal division. We had the first internal division in Acts 5 with Ananias and Sapphira. They were trying to pretend that they had sold all their possessions. They were trying to create a false perception about themselves is what Stephen kind of detailed for us. And then now we have a conflict about diversity, inclusion and status within different groups inside the community.

Speaker 1: 12:09

What does it mean about the Hellenists and the Hebrews though? So in verse one it said this the believers rapidly multiplied. There were rumblings of discontent. The Greek speaking believers complained about the Hebrew speaking believers, that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. So we see that there was a complaint of the Hellenists versus the Hebrews. There developed a murmuring. That's kind of what the Greek actually tells us about that a little bit Now. Murmuring that word should remind us of the Israelites wandering in the desert. They murmured against God as they. Why did you free me from Pharaoh, just so I can go die in the desert. That's kind of the imagery we hear when we hear complaint or murmuring there. But not all murmurings are created equal, and sometimes this signified a lack of faith. But in other ways it enabled and empowered the diaconate to be born. So when the Israelites are crawling out to God and saying why is this happening In this situation, a complaint arises and the solution becomes for everyone to get involved. It wasn't about God just coming in and supernaturally fixing it. It was about the people participating, and so that's where we kind of see a little bit of that nuance there.

Speaker 1: 13:23

And diving into the Greek speaking and Hebrew speaking believers for the first time, we learn about a difference among Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, hellenists and Hebrews. It comes down to this Some Jewish believers did not know Aramaic or Hebrew. There was something called the diaspora. When the Israelites were captured many different times and there are many different populations and they were scattered to the four winds, they lost the ability to speak Hebrew or Aramaic. Instead they spoke Greek. That was just the common language of the time. But it doesn't seem to come down to just that they were being overlooked. It also comes down to them feeling like they were inferior to the Hebrew-speaking believers. It's kind of like inside our own community, if some of us spoke Latin, a small group of us spoke Latin, and then we were doing different prayers in Latin, we could speak about theology in Latin, and then everyone else who didn't speak Latin was just like all right, are we here to worship too? Are we here to be taken care of too? That's kind of the closest kind of comparison that we can make to what is going on right here in Acts, chapter 6.

Speaker 1: 14:30

But I think it's important for us to name this issue for what it was discrimination, whether intentionally or unintentionally, it was overlooking the needs of the group within their community. The daily distribution was not only neglectful of the widow's physical need. This was also a means of clarifying their social standing within the community. What does your community actually value is kind of what I hear inside this complaint, and so right now I do want to pause and acknowledge several forms of discrimination that we see in the American church today. I think it's important to name them. So, first things first racial and ethnic discrimination.

Speaker 1: 15:12

The church in America seems to hold only one image in mind for what a Christian person or family looks like. In fact, many of our American Christian friends and family are actively supporting aggressive policies that are forcibly removing other Christians and people who do not look like themselves. We forget that Jesus was not a Roman citizen. Jesus was not a Roman citizen, and we'd be wise to remember that. The second form of discrimination we see right now is gender inequality. For some reason, the church in America specifically prizes discriminatory practices that say women do not belong in places of leadership, especially inside the church, as if somehow they were made less in the image of God than men were, as if Jesus' sacrifice was a little more for some than others, or as if the Holy Spirit doesn't indwell all of us equally. And then, lastly, we see LGBTQ discrimination, because the church in America continues to create boundaries that will not allow same-sex couples to become members of their church, and we just saw in the past two weeks one of the largest Christian denominations and Christian conventions in America call for legislation to overturn the rights for same-sex marriages. The ironic part is that the very same relationships that these Christians are trying to overturn or denounce show much more love the love of God and the love of neighbor than these Christian conventions do.

Speaker 1: 16:48

I don't get it. And I would say, with that we have a holy complaint why? How do we look at this passage today and see the Spirit and the church working together for these overlooked needs? How do we model that in our own community today? We're not going to solve these needs nationally, not today, not right now but we can set an example for Madison Church to follow and meet the needs of our church and be a representative inside our local community of the gospel that is for all people, not just for a select few. How do we do that? Well, the solution that they embrace in Acts, chapter 6, is a two-part embracing of diversity. First, I want to talk about how they embraced cultural diversity and then, second, I want to talk about how they embraced spiritual diversity. And it's right here in our passage today. So we're going to look at verses two through six again real quick.

Speaker 1: 17:44

So the disciples called a meeting of all the believers. Disciples is the actual word they said. We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God and not running a food program. And so brothers and we actually see that word mean brothers and sisters, it's a collective form Select seven men who are well-respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the Word. Everyone liked this idea and they chose the following Stephen, philip, prochorus, nicanor, timon, parmenas and Nicholas. These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them.

Speaker 1: 18:19

One of the first things that we notice here is that the church chose to become collaborative. It was not authoritarian under a single apostle. Everyone came together. That's important because it reflected organic systems, the same organic systems that we're trying to foster here at Madison Church. How do we work together? How do we avoid a hierarchical system? And I point out about the disciples actually being called believers in this passage, because for the first time in Acts we see the word disciples mean any follower of Jesus. It wasn't a status anymore, it was all believers and that reflects the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling us all. The apostles had a different function, but the Holy Spirit was seen across the board and the two ways we see that cultural diversity and spiritual diversity being embraced.

Speaker 1: 19:09

Now, to talk about cultural diversity really quickly, I do have to go back to an old story from the Tower of Babel and you're like okay, how do we compare the Tower of Babel and Pentecost? Like, where does that go? How does that challenge us here? But scholars put the Tower of Babel and Pentecost as a bit of a juxtaposition. Now to unpack this a little bit, let me just read the story real quick. I won't put it on the screen or anything, but I'll just read some highlights from Genesis, chapter 11.

Speaker 1: 19:38

At one time, all the people of the world spoke the same language and used the same words. People migrated to the east. They found a plain in the land of Babylonia and settled there. They began saying to each other let's make bricks and harden them with fire. They said let's build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world. But the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building. Look, he said the people are united and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them. Let's go down and confuse them with a different language so they won't be able to understand each other. And that way the Lord scattered them all over the world and they stopped building the city. This is why the city was called Babel, because where the Lord confused the people with different languages and this way God scattered them all over the world.

Speaker 1: 20:28

Now, if we read this story closely, especially with the help of a good number of Christian scholars, we hear that Pentecost echoes something in the story of Babel. A good number of scholars view the original sin of Babel as unity and uniformity. It was actually a lack of difference that occasioned Yahweh's intervention in what was destined to be a violent story of oppression, and conformity and uniformity. God had already commanded the human race after the flood, so that was in Genesis 9. Babel happens in Genesis 11. God had commanded everyone to go fill the whole earth, so for them to concentrate themselves in one place was already an act of disobedience. Hence the scattering of the human race across the world and creating a cultural and linguistic diversity that was embraced by God. And so in Pentecost we hear this story come back together.

Speaker 1: 21:25

Acts, chapter 2, verse 6,. The Spirit falls and the disciples speak. How? In the languages of every person, like their own language. It says this when they heard a loud noise, everyone came running and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.

Speaker 1: 21:43

Pentecost is not a reversal of Babel, it's an echo of Babel. One scholar notes that the praises of God are not heard in Greek, which was that common language at the time, and it was not heard in some sort of heavenly language or some sort of spiritual language. It was heard in their own languages. It has a massive affirmation of who we are, where we come from and the cultural diversity that we all represent. The many languages remained many, but the multiplicity of languages was no longer a barrier for the spirit to work. The multiplicity of languages was no longer a barrier for the Spirit to work, and I'd say that this is an enacted sign of what God is doing in the present through the church. It's also a sign of what the new life will look like, and new heavens and new earth where cultural diversity will be affirmed and the hostilities and the distrust attached to these diversities are no longer a barrier for true and genuine, authentic community in the Spirit.

Speaker 1: 22:44

Now, bringing it back to our passage today, we see the church do something unique in Acts, chapter 6. They changed the symbols of service within their own community. When we read the names of the servants selected—Steven, philip, prochorus, nicanor, timon, parmenas, nicholas. We really only know about Stephen and Philip, and we're about to follow them for the next couple chapters in Acts. We know next to nothing about the other four, except for one thing they have Greek names. These names are no coincidence.

Speaker 1: 23:12

To minister to the needs of the Hellenist widows, one needed more than moral rectitude Even though that was important. One needed cultural competency and credibility. There were probably many disciples that were going to be great fits to do the work that was needed inside the community, but the most effective response to crisis would come through the members of the neglected community themselves. As my dean put it, talking about this passage, this is a good Pentecost pedagogy. They were learning from the Spirit as they went. The church understood that the symbols of the community must change in order to serve the community of the church holistically. And they did so by embracing diversity and empowering leaders from other walks of life who uniquely knew the issues at hand. And so that brings us kind of into how did they embrace spiritual diversity? And with that I'll talk briefly about our APEST model.

Speaker 1: 24:08

Here at Madison Church. The apostles made a distinction that it would be better for them to focus on the spreading of the word, while others could better help with the distribution of the food. This is likely one of the many stories that ultimately shape what Paul talks about in Ephesians 4, with the different giftings that are given to the church. That's where we get this apest model, and so here at Madison Church we embrace that, because we see all of God's people as spiritual leaders and that it's important for us to develop those qualities within us, identify and develop what the Spirit has already put on our hearts, the giftings that we have been given. In fact, we do have a summer small group coming up that's going to talk about this for about eight weeks. It starts in just the beginning of July. There, with any congregation, we want to see spiritual giftings detailed in Ephesians, chapter 4, whether they're apostolic, prophetic, whether they're in shepherding, evangelism or in teaching, and we want to use here at Madison Church the spiritual giftings that we all have to develop those organic systems so that we might have the missional, incarnational impulse that God has put on our hearts. We see it reflected in Acts, chapter 6. How do we reflect it in our church today? That's why we come back to here at the very end, what does it mean to be a Pentecost.

Speaker 1: 25:29

People, christians, theologians speak of the church as bearing three responsibilities Martyria, which is witness, so the word martyr. Liturgia, worship, and then diakonia, service, where the word deacon comes from. You cut off one of those legs and the church collapses. Now, as we throw up on the screen good reputation, martyrio, to testify. This is the word that's used in Acts, chapter 6, to testify. They have a good reputation. It's really related to our word martis, which is what Jesus says in Acts, chapter 1, 8, when he commissions all the believers to go forth and spread the word you will be my witness into the world. This is actually where we get the word martyr from. So, as a foretaste of next week, talking about Stephen and martyrdom, we're actually talking about Stephen and the faithful witness. That's what we'll be looking at and that's what is empowered here. When we look at the deacon's call to serve God, I'd say that's a call for action and it's also a call to count the cost. That's more of what we'll be talking about next week.

Speaker 1: 26:35

But here, just as we close this out, I believe the Spirit is trying to teach us something in Acts, chapter 6. When you consider the apostolic criteria for the seven that were selected, good standing, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. One thing is clear the task before them of distributing the food was not menial. The apostles were looking for a Pentecost, people who understood. Christian ministry means waiting on tables, means any form of service inside the community, because that's an imitation of Christ who came to serve and to not be served. It's an affirmation of the universal role and responsibility of every believer. It's a commitment to meeting human needs holistically and it's offering a cup of water to even God's little ones and pointing them to the streams of God's grace. And here, in just a moment, we're going to have a moment where we will participate in the Lord's Supper. So everyone, the band will come up, everyone is invited, at their own pace, to go to the back, grab the elements, return to our seats while the band plays and take them at your own pace.

Speaker 1: 27:41

But I just want to leave you with this. It's tempting for all of us to relax. It's tempting to make excuses about not participating in God's ministry. It's tempting to cast aside the Holy Spirit's call. It's tempting to let conflict become the reason that ministry comes to a halt. Let conflict become the reason that ministry comes to a halt and it's even tempting to let a desire for unity secretly become a desire for authority.

Speaker 1: 28:08

But we are reminded in this story of a few things. One we're reminded of the power of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us. We're reminded of the power of Pentecost, the moment where all of our lives changed as believers. We're even reminded of the beauty in Babel, the beauty in diversity, of spiritual gifts, of cultural diversity. We're reminded that we are all made in the image of God. And as I close I'll just leave. There's a little John Henry Newman quote that I think just captures it all and the heart of Madison Church and what we want to be in our local community. It says this I sought to hear the voice of God and climb the topmost steeple, but God declared go down again. I dwell among the people.