ACTS: Abolishing Favoritism

 

Acts 6:2 The twelve disciples gathered the congregation together and said, "We are becoming overwhelmed with all the serving and are neglecting our responsibility to the Word. 3 "We believe the solution is for you to select seven men from your number, and we will put them in charge of the serving. Pick people who have a good reputation, have a real sense of the Holy Spirit, and would be considered spiritually wise. 4 "Then we can concentrate on prayers and the teaching of the word." 5 All of the people gathered thought this was a great way to handle the situation and they put forth Stephen, a man full of the Holy Spirit and faith, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, who was a proselyte from Antioch. 6 When these seven were brought before the apostles, they prayed for God's wisdom and laid their hands upon these new servants. The word for servant in Greek is “Deacon.”  

 

One of the teachings we can draw from this passage has to do with the role and responsibility of the apostles, and by connection with the teaching leaders of the church today.

 

Peter drew attention to the role of an apostle, i.e., to not neglect their responsibility to the Word, to concentrate on prayers, and to teach the Word. The apostles had a responsibility to Jesus, who was the Word of God. They had been called to take His words and pass them on to anyone who would be willing to listen. They also had a calling to pray for the work of ministry and the people who were coming into this body of believers. 

 

These men were teachers. Well, we know they were fishermen and tax collectors, but they had the needed qualities of a teacher. They knew the content better than anyone else, they had spent time with Jesus for over three years and they had His special teachings after He has risen from the dead. They also had a commitment to the people who would become Jesus’ followers, to love them and care for them as best as possible. 

 

These were their unique roles, they needed to concentrate on these things. When something, in this case, the serving of food, got in the way of their responsibilities, then they needed to find a way for someone else to step into that role and let the apostles return to the core of what Jesus had called them to do. 

 

In order to pass the role of serving on to others, they suggested the congregation find amongst themselves seven men who fit the category of a good servant leader.  “Pick people who have a good reputation, have a real sense of the Holy Spirit, and would be considered spiritually wise.” (Acts 6:3 EBV) In verse 5 it describes Stephen as “a man full of the Holy Spirit and faith.” And again, in verse 8, it mentions that he is “filled with grace and power.” These qualities are beneficial to any who would step up to lead others in the church. We could add to this list the qualities that Paul calls the “fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:22. 

 

The question which comes next is who are these leaders supposed to serve? The grumbling, in this story, started because the widows who were part of the group of believers called Hellenists were not getting a fair share of the distributions from the apostles. Clearly someone was unknowingly favoring a group of people they knew and liked, just like each of us tends to take care of our friends and in the process often neglect others. We show favoritism and James reminded his readers, “when we treat people with favoritism we are sinning and acting different from God's desire.” (James 2:9 EBV)

 

The calling to be a follower of Jesus is a calling to love as He loved, and it seems the only people He had trouble with were the religious leaders who were leading the people astray. One time he says of the Pharisees "These leaders are blind themselves, leading others who are blind. If a blind leader tries to guide a blind man, won't they both stumble into the open pit." (Matthew 5:14 EBV)

 

Our calling as followers of Jesus is to lovingly serve the world in such a way that they will recognize the presence of Jesus in our lives and turn their hearts to Him. We do not have the freedom to choose whom we will serve and whom we will not serve without making a choice to sin. Jesus calls us to serve all mankind with His love. 

 

When the apostles could no longer concentrate on that message, they needed someone else to step in to help them. Stephen and the other deacons took that challenge to heart. 

 

Acts 6:7 So, the word of God continued to be taught and more people joined with the followers of Jesus including some of the priests and leaders of the Hebrew church. 

 

We do not often stop and think about this verse. When we do, we gloss over some of the words, play favoritism with our thoughts, focusing only on the fact that more and more people were joining the church. I want to point out that some of those people were from the opposition. Priests and leaders of the Hebrew church were joining up with the apostles and the followers. Before we jump to conclusions about other people, we need to be careful that we do not lump all people together into one group and have an opinion about the group because one person did something we do not like. Remember, we call that prejudice. Deciding that someone is not open to the good news or should not be told about Jesus because they speak against us, is wrong. Even our enemies have a need to hear the good news and decide for themselves. We might be surprised who we will meet in heaven. 

 

8 Stephen stepped forward, filled with grace and power, and started performing miracles among the people, surprising everyone with signs and wonders. 9 There arose an argument between some people from the Synagogue of the Freedmen. This group was mostly people from Egypt, Libya, and Turkey who once were Roman slaves but had found freedom in Jerusalem. 10 Stephen was wise beyond these men, being filled with the words of the Holy Spirit. 11 So, in their jealousy, they found people to say they had heard Stephen say things against Moses and God. 12 These Freedmen continued to hype up the crowd so that Stephen was taken away to the religious Council. 13 It was there that the accusations continued to spew forth saying Stephen always spoke against the temple and the Law itself. 14 They suggested that Stephen had said Jesus would one day come and destroy the temple and change the customs of the Jewish people. 15 The more the Freedmen spoke the more the Council were amazed at Stephen and began to see his face shine like that of an angel. EBV

 

As I mentioned before, the story of the distributions to the widows serves the wonderful purpose of introducing us to Stephen. He is a vital link in the mission of the church as his death sparks a movement of Christians out of Jerusalem to different parts of the world. His message shows a large concern for getting the message of Jesus out beyond the boundaries of Jerusalem. He clearly saw God was working through the Jewish people and their Messiah, Jesus, to take the news of God’s blessing out to the nations of the world. The Scriptures are clear, even though the religious leadership of Jesus’ day seem to have forgotten that the promise to Abraham was how God would bless the family of Abraham for a purpose, that the nations of the world would find God’s love. God said to Abraham, “I will bring good things to anyone who treats you well, and I will allow bad things to happen to those who do not treat you well; and by seeing how I bless you and your family, the whole world will find good things come their way.” (Genesis 12:3 EBV)

 

The name “Stephen” suggests that he was probably one of the Hellenists, someone heavily influenced by the Greek culture and possibly someone who converted to Judaism from another religion. He was ultimately martyred for his faith in Jesus. But by his actions and words, he set the stage for the church to be dispersed through the region of Judea and even beyond. This one proclamation to the religious leaders of Jerusalem, prepared the church in Jerusalem to be open to the message that God was preparing to bring through the dramatic conversion and ministry of Saul, i.e., that the good news of Jesus was not just for Israel but for the whole world, to any who would desire to believe. 

 

There is an interesting parallel between the experience of Jesus and that of Stephen. They were both betrayed (Luke 22:3-6; Acts 6:9-11), both seized by a crowd (Luke 22:47; Acts 6:12), both brought to the Sanhedrin (Luke 22:66; Acts 6:12), and both questioned with witnesses that were giving false testimony (Luke 22:67; Acts 6:13-15).

 

Both Jesus and Stephen, in their “defense speech” talked about hard-hearted people and the coming of the Son of Man. (Luke 22:68-69; Acts 7:1-56) Then they were both taken out of the city (Luke 23:32ff; Acts 7:58). And in their final words both Jesus and Stephen asked the Father to forgive their accusers (Luke 23:34; Acts 7:60), concluding with similar words, “I place my spirit in Your hands.” (Jesus, Luke 23:46) and “Lord Jesus, welcome my spirit into your presence." (Stephen, Acts 7:59).

 

Jesus is looking for leaders, some to focus on prayer and the word, some to focus on equitably serving people in need, some to stand up in the face of opposition, all so that the church can grow in confidence and the world can see the love of Jesus. Accept the role that Jesus has blessed you with and serve Him in all you do. “Whatever choices you make in the things you say and the things you do, speak and act in the power and confidence of Jesus our Lord, and do all giving thanks to the Father in heaven.” (Colossians 3:17 EBV)

 

May you be blessed with a heart for prayer, a hunger for the word of God, and a heart of compassion for others.