 with that said. Let's begin reading together here in the book of Acts and before we read, I'll say one more thing in preparation for our study. I've already mentioned this before, I'll mention it again. What I've chosen to do, at least for a while as we go through this this book, and again I don't even know that I'll take you through the entire book of Acts, I do know that I want to take you for a while through it, but what I've been doing is taking kind of a snapshot from a chapter. Today's snapshot is going to come out of chapter 6, but in order to get you to that portion so that we have an understanding of what is taking place in that chapter, what I'm doing is I'm summarizing some of the previous events and verses that lead up to chapter 6. That's how I'm going to begin this study, so that you have a background and you understand, you know, as we read through the Bible, why did this particular thing take place? How is it that these events were recorded and what's the reason for them? And so I'm going to summarize some of the verses in chapter 5, and then I'll take you into chapter 6, and we're going to be looking today at verses 1 through 7. And so that's how it's going to be, and hopefully you'll be able to see why I'm doing that as I go through the portion of Scripture. So let me begin reading to you here in Acts chapter 6 at verse 1, and I'll read to verse 7, and we'll get into our study. Acts chapter 6, beginning at verse 1, reading to verse 7. Luke writes, Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their winnows were neglected in the daily distribution. Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, It is not desirable that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables, therefore brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. And the same pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Harmonos, and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they sat before the apostles. And when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. Then the Word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. And so we've already looked at a portion of Scripture that gave us a very clear insight into how Satan had attempted to infect the church with sin. Ananias and Sapphira, a husband and a wife, had joined with the group of believers. Now they had seen how believers were caring for those who were poor, those who were in need. You see, believers were selling properties. They were distributing to those who had need. So at that time a disciple named Barnabas was introduced to us. Now Luke mentioned that he had sold land and given the proceeds to the church. So it seems that the honor he had received for doing so exposed the hearts of Ananias and Sapphira. So they conspired together to give an amount to the church after they had sold a parcel of land, but they kept the rest for themselves. You see, as we saw Peter was given discernment by the Lord, and he confronted them. And as a result of that, both of them died, and great fear came upon the church and amongst all those who had heard. Now after that took place the purging of this, this sin that was attempted to infiltrate into the life of the church, after they died, God began moving again in amazing ways through the apostles. Acts 5 12 tells us that the apostles performed many signs and wonders, and those works were impacting people deeply. It says in chapter 5 verse 13 that none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly. So those who weren't converted to Christ didn't dare pretend that they were, and the immediate judgment separated the hypocrites from those who were really followers of Christ. And so the genuine believers were drawn closer together, and the unbelievers didn't pretend to be saved, but they greatly respected those who were genuine in their faith. Now in chapter 5, again verses 14 through 16, those verses tell us that God began moving mightily through the hands of the apostles, and Luke stopped giving us the numbers of new believers. He simply began to use the word multitude, and he began speaking of the multitudes of those who were being saved. Now Acts 5 14 says believers were increasingly added to the Lord multitudes of both men and women. And so what happened is people began to bring the sick into the streets, and they were laying them on beds and couches. They knew the root that the apostle Peter and the rest would take, and they were hoping that that Peter especially would pass by them, that even if his shadow fell upon them, they might be healed. So they brought their sick and they brought those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and as a result their faith was rewarded. Luke tells us they were all healed. Now that led to an angry response by the religious authorities because they had forbidden the apostles from preaching in the name of Jesus, and this command had not stopped them from continuing their ministry. So the high priest, being a Sadducee, was angered. They were saying that Jesus was resurrected. This exposed their error. He had undermined their standing and challenged their authority in the community. So he had the 12 apostles arrested, and he placed them in what is called a common prison. But at night an angel opened the prison doors and brought them out, and he told them, stand in the temple and preach the words of this life. Now the words of this life would speak of the gospel and the eternal life that comes to faith in Christ. So they weren't just released from jail to go on with their lives. They were released to preach others about eternal life so that they could be released from their spiritual jails. In John 3.36 it says, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life for God's wrath remains on them. So preach so that these who are under the wrath and the condemnation and ultimate judgment of God can be set free, and that's what they were doing. So they went to the temple as they had been commanded. They began to teach the people. Well when this happens the high priest calls the council together, but he didn't know what was going on yet, and when they heard what was happening and somehow they had gotten out of jail, he was bewildered. As he was wondering about it, he was told that they were there in the temple, and he ordered the captain of the temple to arrest them, but he did so without incident because he was afraid of the people's reaction if they were taken by force. So when brought before him, he told them, you've been forbidden to preach, but you filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. You also intend to bring this man's blood on us. Well their response lays a foundation for generations of followers of Jesus. You see, they had seen God move in marvelous ways. Miraculous healings had taken place. Demons had been cast out. People were lining their sick on the streets. They were being healed. An angel busted them out of jail. How many times did you shout what happened to you? I'll wait for a moment. You cons. So an angel broke us out, and you're saying we need to stop serving God. Well we all can learn something from their united response to the commands of the high priest in chapter 5 verse 29. Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. So instead of remaining silent, Peter boldly spoke to the high priest. Look what it says in verse 30 in chapter 5. This is what the apostle Peter said, the God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to his right hand to be prince and savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses to these things. And so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him. And so he makes it very, very clear. We ought to obey God rather than men. We are his witnesses. The works that have been performed proves it. We have obeyed him and through our hands he has demonstrated this clearly and therefore we will continue to obey him and we refuse to obey your command to stop preaching. Well that infuriated the council they wanted to execute the apostles. But there was a respected teacher, a man by the name of Gamaliel, and he cautioned them against doing this. Now this man, Gamaliel, is mentioned in Scripture, he was Paul's, he was Paul's teacher. He was very highly respected in the nation of Israel. One thing needs to be mentioned about him. He was a Pharisee. Now the Sadducees did not believe in resurrection or spirits, but Gamaliel was a Pharisee and he did. His reputation was so great that he was listened to. And so instead of seeking permission to kill them, they beat them, they released them from jail. What was their response? Well verse 41 and 42 says in chapter 5, they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. Daily in the temple and in every house they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. You need to keep that in mind because as we get into chapter 6, I'm going to return to that thought and we'll be looking at that. But they rejoiced that they were worthy to suffer shame for Christ. They were prepared for this. Jesus had prepared for them for the coming persecution. He had made it clear that this would take place. They had been forewarned and were prepared for this treatment. And that's what gave them strength to endure the beating that they went through. And so all of this is taking place as we come up to chapter 6. And so in chapter 6, I'll begin here at verse 1 and it says, Now in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. Let me share some things about that to set this up for you. Even though they had been threatened, they continued their ministry. They continued preaching, they continued teaching. Why? Because they obeyed God rather than men. And as a result of that, the church continued to grow. So they continued preaching, they continued teaching, and people continued getting saved. Now the church is busy growing now and as it's growing, strife surfaces. Now on the surface, it appears to be financial. There's a dispute going on, as it says in verse 1, a complaint against the Hebrews and the Hellenists because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. On the surface, it appears to be financial in nature, but it's much deeper than that. Now at the time, many believers were suffering financial hardship. And as is true even in our day, with growth comes challenge. Thousands were being saved. Growing numbers had needs. And that's something, by the way, that didn't cease at the beginning of the church. It continued on for some time. When you read the book of Romans, which was written probably about 25 or so years after this particular chapter is in four minutes of what took place. So it's about 25 years. There are people who are poor in need. Well, when Paul was writing to the Romans in chapter 15, verses 25 and 26, he said this. He said, I'm going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints for it, please those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. And so there was a continuance of this need, this financial need. And so it began then, but it continued on for many, many years. And so what had happened, and we've already seen this in chapters two and four, is there was what we today would refer to as a general fund that had been set up to care for the needs of the poor. In Acts two, 44 and 45, it said, all the believers were together and had everything in common, selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need. Well, that developed to chapter four, verse 34 and 35, when it says, there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time, those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put at the apostles feet. It was distributed to anyone as he had need. So we saw that develop even at the point when Barnabas had sold parcel of land and given the proceeds. And that's what Ananias and Sapphira had tried to get in and get some honor from. The church is exploding. There are new believers. They stopped keeping records at 5,000, which didn't include women and children. So with the explosive growth, administrative situations to church needs began to exist. With a group of people, a church this size, it was inevitable that neglect would occur. And that's something Satan takes advantage of. He saw the growth. He'd already begun his attack. He'd already begun to move against them. He's seen what's happening. So he had instigated a sustained attack. And he began first by religion because persecution against the believers started really with religious people. It was from the outside. It started with the Sanhedrin. But then he began to attack through false believers and Ananias and Sapphira being a good example of that. That began from kind of like almost the inside. It was on fringe. They were pretending to be believers, but this new attack comes through dissension within the church. The problem is not with false believers. The problem is with genuine ones. You have the Hebrews and you have the Hellenists. They were genuine Christians. So what does he do? What does Satan do to destroy a work? He instigates division. That's what he does. He knows that with division, when people are not working in unity, that they can begin to quarrel amongst themselves and then he can undermine the work that God is doing. In Luke 11.17, Jesus said, any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined and a house divided against itself will fall. So division is one of the earliest tactics of Satan. When God is moving, the enemy tries to plant seeds of disunity so that he can undermine what's taking place. And that's what's taking place here. Notice verse 1, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists. Now, Hellenists are Jews who were not born in Israel, but their language and their culture was Greek. Now, they're called in Scripture like in John 7.35, those who are of the dispersion. Or in James chapter 1 verse 1, they're spoken of as those who have been scattered abroad. They didn't necessarily speak Hebrew or Aramaic. They read their Scriptures not in the Hebrew, but in the Greek translation called the Septuagint. And so what's taking place is a cultural division. It's a cultural division between those who are believers in Christ. They were actually ethnically Jewish, if you will, but some were from different lands. And so those who are homegrown Hebrews had a problem with those of another culture. And so that's the division that Satan was trying to capitalize on. Now, how can I illustrate this? You may have, we'll say, an Irish background. You know, you have an Irish last name. You got red hair. You're Irish. You don't drink anymore, but you're Irish. So you go to Ireland and you expect to be welcomed with open arms by the Irish. And they look at you. They say, it's nice to see you. And you say, yeah, I'm home. And they say, no, you're an American. You're not Irish. You don't speak Gaelic. You're not Irish. You just call yourself that. And you get kind of like hurt like, no, I'm Irish and you do a little and or you may be French. You know, your last name is French. And you go to France. And in your mind, you're going to the motherland. Why? Because your last name is Garnier or whatever. And there you are. And they look at you and they say, you're an American. Or me, I'm a Mexican American. I go to Mexico and they don't say, you're Mexican. They say, you're an American because culturally, that's what I am. And so we have that kind of thing to this day where people will have their own culture and the way things are done here. And you show up and you do things differently. You don't speak our language. You don't know our culture. You don't know anything. Yeah, you celebrate Cinco de Mayo, but that doesn't count. And so they look at you in a different way, right? That's true. So in the United States, if you're like me, I'll use myself again as an example, Mexican heritage. But the Mexicans will say, no, you're American. But but the non Mexicans will say, you're Mexican. And well, that's that that doesn't stop. That was there. And the enemy, and this is the point I want to make. The enemy knows that if you can, if you can battle over these kinds of things, he can stop the work of God. That's why it is very important for us to say, I recognize my heritage. I love my ethnicity, if you will. I am who I am by the grace of God. I'm very pleased with that. But that is not more important than being a child of God. And as a child of God, I can have fellowship with anybody. That's the key. That's the key. And I believe right now, say this quickly, because you see it, if you watch the news at all, it's absolutely true. What I'm telling you, there is a division that is taking place right now where you are being pitted against other cultures and ethnicities. Right now, there's a word racism, racism, racism, which is very often just just actually watering down a word that at one time had real meaning. But it's being used as a tool to divide. If that enters a church, if people come in and sit down and look at that person next to him and say, that one's not like me, Satan is having his work performed by the body of Christ itself. And it's happened here. I'll say it quickly, but it has happened here where I've had people, I had a, years ago, I had a group come out, the Guchettas Brothers, and they had learned ministry here. They are part of our church. And we put them in our worship team. And I brought them up and I said, could you, I had told them before service, I said, could you sing a worship song in Spanish? Just because I think it's beautiful. Can you do that? Yeah, of course. And then I get a letter. This is the United States. This is America. Speak English. You know, and I said, honey, you could have told me that you don't have to write me at home. Why'd you do that? It broke my heart. Be careful. That person who is seated next to you may not be part of your ethnic family, but they are your brother, your sister in Christ. Never forget that. Never forget that. And so that's what's taking place here. They're saying they're not like us. Now, what is the solution to this problem here? Well, these Hellenists had been converted, many of them, on Passover. They had remained in Jerusalem and they remained serving the church. And they wanted to learn about Christ. They wanted to learn from the apostles. Others were retirees from other lands. They were living out their last days in Israel. But because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution, they were getting upset. Why is that? Well, caring for widows, rather, is part of the heritage of the Jew. It was expected by all. You can see in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy in chapter 24 verses 19 through 21 that this is outlined about caring for widows. It's also seen in Deuteronomy 26-12 where it reads, When you've finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied. You see, until this point, unity had been the norm in the body of Christ. They were united in Jesus and the Word of God. People were being saved. And with this growth, this rapid growth, neglect begins to occur. And that's why this complaint against the Hebrews came. Now, the word complaint is another way of saying murmuring. A complaint or murmuring is a secret displeasure that isn't openly spoken of. And it's always wrong because murmuring leads to division. And it seems that when God is blessing, the enemy does his best to destroy. And so he helps to provoke a division because it drains you of emotional and physical energy. It takes your eyes off of what is important and you lose your perspective. That's why Jesus would pray for unity. That's why when Peter, James, John, and others would have a bit of a debate about who's the greatest in the kingdom, that's why Jesus would shut that down and say, The greatest is a servant. It's not that you have special revelation or closer walk with me. You need to understand that the greatest is the one who serves all. So don't be putting yourself on some kind of pedestal. Why? Because division will divide. And God intends the church to be united, that we might love one another, that we might evangelize sharing. Because when you live in this unity, there's a blessing. When you promote love and care, God blesses you. That's why Psalm 133 verse 1 says how good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity. Be united in heart. Be united in vision. Be united in direction so you can reach the lost. Well, what happens is this comes to the apostle's attention. Notice verse 2. It says the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, This isn't, it is not desirable that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables. It is not desirable. This is unacceptable to leave the Word of God to deal in church business. When it says to wait on tables, he's not saying that service is to be disregarded. Waiting on tables is another way of speaking about church business. The word table, it speaks of a table or a stand that the money changers would use. And that's the point he's making. He used that word to say it's not right. It's not acceptable that we should stop praying and seeking God through His Word and begin to handle the financial situations here. Well, the need is legitimate, but it doesn't require an apostle to deal with it. You see, the apostle's time in the Word is now being jeopardized by church business and their ministry priority is to teach and to preach the Word of God. So they're not about to start stamping out church brush fires. Again, this is a typical temptation of the enemy. He distracts us with what we see as urgent and it takes our eyes off of what is necessary. I went to a conference many years ago now and the one who was teaching that I went to hear shared an illustration. And again, this has been over 35 years, but I brought it into my philosophy of ministry because I saw the biblical insight that he was attempting to give to us and it was this. He said, when Moses was leading the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage, his father-in-law Jathro was watching him as Moses was seated and the people were coming to him hour after hour. And so finally, Jathro approached Moses and said to him, what is this that you're doing? And Moses is, well, when the people have a complaint or need a desire, they come to me and I judge between them. And Jathro said, this thing that you're doing is not good because what's going to happen is you're going to burn yourself out. You're going to be taking care of the mundane things. So this is what I would share with you. He said, find men who are filled with wisdom, et cetera, qualified men, put them over the smaller things and you handle the greater. And that's called the theory of monkeys and gorillas because in ministry what will happen is somebody will walk up to me and they'll kind of like put their hand on my shoulder and they got a monkey on theirs. And they say, you know, so and so didn't show up to help in children's ministry today. And what they'll do is they'll pull their hand away and that monkey is now sitting on me. And I'll say, Oh, is that right? What I learned to do is put my hand on their shoulder and let that monkey go back and say, what are you going to do? Because that's a monkey. If they come and say something that's serious, that's a gorilla. That's my responsibility. I'll work on that myself because a gorilla should be taken on by the leader. But the little monkeys, their distractions and the enemy uses distraction. Oh, this isn't good. I didn't like the lights today. Oh, their conditioning wasn't on enough. When are you going to change the pews? You know, the little monkeys. So you throw little peanuts and close the door. Those are monkeys. You can deal with those things. And so this is what's taking place, guys. They say it is not desirable. It is not suitable. It's not right that we should leave God's word in prayer and handle this kind of business. And so this is what we're going to do. And given the study, you're getting a little insight into how things are done here, by the way. We're not going to leave the word of God. You see, the apostles knew their priority and the necessity of spiritual feeding. They were spiritually leading people and they needed feeding themselves. The word of God in prayer was necessary. Like it says in Job 2312, neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Or Jesus, when he said in Matthew 4 verse 4, man doesn't live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. You see, from Pentecost the apostles had faithfully preached and taught the word. It was a preaching of the word that had produced the church. It was the mark of the church to remain steadfast in the apostles' doctrine. When that man had been lame and he was healed, Peter preached. And when he and John were put into custody, they preached to the authorities. They had been forbidden to speak, but after the release they boldly preached. And great grace and power was evident in them. After the death of Ananias and Sapphira, they continued preaching. And as we've already seen, they were arrested a second time, but they still preached. Even after being beaten and threatened, the word had to go out. So a problem in the church has arisen. It can be a distraction. Again, one of the temptations of the leadership, a pastor's temptation, is to neglect the word of God to handle the distractions. Oh, you have building needs and you have staff needs and non-emergency ministry and operational concerns and all of those things can distract. They can quench the spirit. It stifles the minister's ministry. They couldn't leave God's word. They needed a biblical solution. So what did they do? Notice they delegated the people to select seven to meet the need. In verses three and four, it says, Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Now notice, select from yourselves. Remember, the apostles were all natives of Israel. So select from the Hellenists. That way, we avoid suspicion or the accusation of preferential treatment. The 12 would confirm the decision, but they were to select the men. And so they were delegated so that the apostles could remain in the word of God and prayer. Why? Because that's where inspiration and direction finds its origin. They were not to be distracted from the main priority of teaching God's word. And so what did they do? Well, first, he said, Seek out from among you. So they selected from within the church. Those who are already there select from among you. So leaders need to be known in the church as mature believers, mature Christians. Leaders should be raised up from among those in the congregation. Today, some neglect mentoring leaders and the result is ineffective ministry. We have, I've been mentoring men now for many, many, many, many years. I, to this day, every two weeks meet with a group of men who are leading in various capacities here. After this service and after the Israel meeting, I have a two hour meeting with men in this church. I've been doing it for many years every two weeks. So I can mentor them so that they can have the foundations of our ministry and understand these things. And so you select them from amongst yourself. Notice they were to seek out seven men. They didn't seek out women. The women have a wonderful and great place in the church. You see women like Tabitha and Lydia and Priscilla. They're all amazing women, but they were to seek out men to be leaders. We men have been called by God to do so. Now, third thing is they were to have good reputations. They were to be men of integrity. Why? Because they were entrusted with the word of God as well as great sums of money. So their characters had to be well known and respected. Another requirement was that they should be filled with the Holy Spirit, meaning that they're totally yielded to the leading of the Spirit of God. They're to be walking in the Spirit and led by the Spirit. And then he says they had to possess godly wisdom. They needed biblical understanding and the proper application of those things. That's what they're looking for. Then verse five says that they're to be filled with faith. And that's essential in leading, especially in matters of finance and provision. And as they brought that up, notice again in verse five, the same pleas the whole multitude. Now, these seven names that are mentioned have one thing in common. They're all Greek, more than likely from the Hellenists. Now, as you look at the names, three of those names stand out. You have the name of Stephen. He's the first Christian martyr. You have the name of Philip. He's later referred to as Philip the Evangelist. You might find this interesting. He's the only one in Scripture ever referred to as the Evangelist, Philip. In Acts chapter eight, it records that he had been preaching in the region of Samaria, but later he was used by God to bring a eunuch to faith in Christ. In Acts 21, 8, and 9, that tells us that he had four unmarried daughters who prophesied and he lived and labored in Caesarea. Now, there is another one named Nicholas. The others are not mentioned, but Nicholas is referred to as a Gentile, a Greek from Antioch. He'd been converted to Judaism to become a Jew and had been circumcised, which is the meaning of proselyte, and he had come to faith in Jesus. Finally, they set them before the apostles. They prayed, they laid hands on them, and the word of God spread. The number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. The word of God spread. The number of the disciples multiplied. You see, the result of dealing with this problem was God moved. His word spread out. They refused to leave the word. They refused to stop praying, and God moved. If they would have ceased preaching, people would not have been saved. Even a great many of the priests who were enemies were saved, and that gives you insight into why, even though there may be distractions in our fellowship here, we stay centered on the word of God and prayer. Because as the word of God goes forth, people are being saved. People are being raised up. People are being trained. Families are being saved. Children are being saved. Marriages are being saved. Communities are being impacted. Families outside of your core are being touched. That's why we preach the word of God, and that's why we will not be distracted from doing that. It's always the word of God. It always is, because nothing else will save a soul. It's the word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. The enemy wanted them to stop preaching. The enemy wanted to divert their attention, but they said, we will not be taken from the word of God and prayer. You appoint people to take care of your business while we wait on the service of the Lord, because we're going to feed your souls so you can do the work of ministry God provided for you. That's how churches ought to operate, and that's how this church has operated for 42 years. That's why we have 42 years because of Jesus. That's how it works.