In the sermon 'Deacons: A Biblical Response To An Early Dispute,' Trent Moody explores Acts 6:1-7, emphasizing the early church's approach to resolving internal disputes through the appointment of deacons. A complaint arose from the Hellenists, Greek-speaking Jews, regarding the neglect of their widows in daily distributions. The apostles, prioritizing prayer and the ministry of the Word, proposed selecting seven reputable men filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom to address the issue. This decision not only satisfied the congregation but also facilitated church growth, with many, including priests, becoming obedient to the faith. The sermon highlights the importance of unity, addressing partiality and complaining, and the necessity of godly leadership for church order. It draws parallels with instructions in 1st Timothy and urges against partiality and complaining within the church. Ultimately, the sermon calls for obedience to God's command to believe in Jesus Christ, emphasizing the transformative power of a well-ordered church.

Acts chapter 6 and we will be reading verses 1 through 7. Thus says the Word of the Lord, 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. And when the 12 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 saying pleased the whole multitude and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenius, and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they set 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 multiplying greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, Lord we so thank you that you have not left us without instruction, that you have not left us to ourselves to just try to figure things out, but Lord your word is here for us this morning to instruct us and to guide us in the way to show us Lord your will and your way. And Lord we do delight to see how an orderly church is a blessing.

Lord it is a blessing not only to the church itself but also to those outside of the church. And Lord we see here in this passage how you have blessed the obedience of the Apostles and the multitude of disciples and Lord you added to the church by multitudes. Lord our desire this morning is that you would do this again, that you would continue to do this and bring in many into the fold. And Lord we ask it in Christ's name, amen. You may be seated.

Well this morning as we continue in the book of Acts chapter 6, The theme of the message this morning is regarding the role in the office of deacons even though the word deacon is not in our English translation here. Within these words we do see that there are servants and serving within this passage of scripture. And we do know that as I mentioned earlier on, as we were beginning the book of Acts, I said that there are going to be many things that are descriptive in the book of Acts and then there are going to be many things that are prescriptive in the book of Acts and I believe that this is one of the prescriptive parts out of a descriptive part because we have so much weight given to the office of a deacon that correlates with this in 1st Timothy chapter 3 and following even into verse chapter 5 of 1st Timothy we see so much instruction there regarding the role of deacons and the role of caring for the widows and so we can see this this morning as that which is descriptive for or prescriptive for us so that we would learn how God would order his church and so the office of Deacon and here in this passage I've titled this a biblical response to an early dispute and it is something that in which the apostles were not ignorant of.

They were not ignorant of the way in which God would have them to function. They functioned by the word of God, specifically the Old Testament. That's what they were preaching from. They were continually quoting the Old Testament Scriptures and they knew much of that and we'll get into that and we'll see why they had this wisdom about them, one because of the Holy Spirit. We will see that they also had the instruction of Scripture to pull from principally from the Old Testament.

And you know it's no surprise as we consider such a large multitude of disciples and as they were growing and multiplying daily that the possibility of disputes would arise. You know there's been even times when I sat in a room alone and there was a little bit of a dispute, and much less when we gather a whole large body of people together, and we want them to live together and to love each other and to serve each other and to function even as a larger body or as a family, that there will arise disputes. It is inevitable because we are all sinful people as we sang just a moment ago that there's going to be a day in which we will be no more sin. And that's going to be a glorious state and there will be no more disputes. We will all be on the same page.

It's interesting though in the book of Acts what we have seen over and over and over again is the fact that it says that the body of disciples were of one accord. There was great unity among this body. However, as this body grew there was a dispute that arose and it arose interestingly out of a need. There was a need presented before the Apostles and this dispute arose and there were differences within the church. If you look around here this morning you're going to see differences among this body and no doubt there there could be and will be disputes in in our future and we need biblical wisdom and in fact the office of a deacon was what God used to bring order and love and peace in this early church through that office of serving.

And so I hope that we can see that again as we go through these passages of scripture. The more people that are involved, the greater possibility and probability that there's going to be challenges and difficulties but God in his wisdom again as I prayed God has not left us without instruction he has not left us without what we need by which we can bring orderliness to the church of the living God. And we read that and I'll quote a few of these passages later on. We see it in Titus and we also see it in 1st Timothy that God had a design in instructing the church that it would bring an order to the church of the living God because God is not the author of confusion. He is the God of order and he wanted to bring order to this early church.

So let's look with me if you will in chapter 6 verses 1 and 2 and that's where we'll pick up our first main point and we see in verses 1 & 2 this complaint that was arising among the people. He says this in verse 1, now in those days which days? These days of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit we have seen this church experiencing great challenges and persecutions and trials and difficulties from without and now we're getting ready to see something come up from within. And so he 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. You know it's oftentimes in a time of great blessing as in these days here that we see in the book of Acts there was a great number of disciples and the disciples were multiplying.

God was bringing multitudes in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and it's really instructive for us to understand this that oftentimes almost without exception when God brings great blessing to the church that the devil will also desire to call some dispute among the church and so we must be ready for that. Don't be surprised when disputes arise. It is unfortunately a natural thing that takes place when there are outpouring of great blessing in the church and that's what we see here. But there in the midst of this multitude in these days and the disciples were multiplying and it's almost like it takes you off guard. It's multiplying, it's a wonderful time, it's in these days a complaint, a complaint arose.

This word complaint has the idea of a whispering, of a grumbling talk that takes place often beginning in private, something that we would see in the Old Testament often, it was a murmuring among the people. A complaint has arisen. It refers here in this passage to the act of expressing one's internal reaction to a situation. And it may be that it began with just someone murmuring to themselves, maybe complaining within themselves, but then it transfers to murmuring that infects others. It goes and it begins to grow in the midst of the congregation.

Matthew Henry said this, he said the first contention in the Christian church was about a money matter. But it is a pity that the little things of this world should be make-bates, he says, among those that profess to be taken up with the greater things of another world. A great deal of money was gathered for the relief of the poor, but as often happens in such cases, it was impossible to please everybody in the laying out of that money. And so within this Congress that's what we see we read back in chapter 4 that Barnabas he had brought the son of encouragement had sold lands and possessions and he came and he brought it to the apostles and laid it at the apostles feet so that it would be distributed and that they would have all things in common in that sense of caring for the needs of the people of the church specifically and especially the widows And that's what we see here is this complaint arising even among the widows, not necessarily just was it the widows, but it just says that the Hellenists, it says their complaint arose against the Hebrews by the Hellenists because they're widows.

So it's not necessarily just that the widows were complaining, but perhaps some of those people who were family members or friends of these widows were seeing something that was taking place that they began to complain about. It'll help us to have a little bit of context here regarding these Hellenists. These Hellenists were Greek speaking Jews. They had embraced the culture in the sense of the Roman culture and speaking the language of Greek. And in that, as you can imagine, there began to be some differences between the Hebrews who were continuing to speak a language, maybe even Aramaic that they were speaking, but then you had the Greek speaking, these Hellenists, these Greek speaking Jews.

And so it was no doubt seen as something as these Greek speaking Jews had given in, in a sense, to the pressures of the culture and had embraced the language of the Greeks. And so there was this contention, not necessarily in the open yet, not necessarily something that was taking place verbally, but there was a difference felt at least in the beginning. And so we must be guarded as well against those differences that we would feel one among another. And I'm going to get into all kinds of ways, there's a whole list of ways that we can have differences among ourselves, but this complaint arose between these two groups separated by language and culture. And it's nothing new in the church when there are factions over insignificant differences.

Paul says in Galatians 3, he gives instruction about this very thing. He says, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." This is really one of the great testimony and resounding testimonies of the New Testament is that all peoples who are in Christ are one and we should not look at external differences here because we are bound by the unity of the Spirit of God. Yet inevitably human beings, even Christian human beings, will consistently find ways to divide themselves. Why is this? We will divide ourselves and it will possibly work itself out in some form of complaint.

So in this passage here very specifically, it was somewhat difficult to determine if this complaint was actually a valid complaint or was it something they felt like they were being, not getting what they had deserved. So it's not perfectly clear here but I don't think that it really matters and I'll show you why in just a few moments. So in this passage as we see there were widows that were being neglected or was it that they felt neglected? Either way either they were being neglected and the Hebrews were showing partiality or the Hellenists were falsely complaining. So you have here this possibility or a probability of both.

I believe I kind of land in the middle of this thing of I think it could be both. I believe that there was some form of partiality that has taken place, if you know Jewish history you would say there was probably some partiality taking place. But also if I know human nature I would say that there was probably some complaining taking place and maybe unthankfulness and that they thought perhaps that person got just a little bit more than I did. Why is that? So what is this issue here?

Well the issue is this, whether you're showing partiality or whether you're complaining, you're wrong. Both ways are wrong. My guess is, like I said, it's probably a little bit of both. The Hellenists, no doubt, were seen as those who had yielded to this Greek culture and had adopted the language as their primary language. And the Hebrews would hold more earnestly to their cultural heritage and holding on to their language and their culture and therefore this tension between them began to arise.

And like I said, there have been many differences in distribution because it brought to the attention of the of the Apostles, hey there's a problem here the widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. Either way there was a potential disaster about to take place in this early church. As you can imagine imagine if half of this this group over here is complaining about this group over here because they think they're getting less than this group, but this group is kind of looking down on this group because of differences, perhaps cultural differences or whatever it may be. Can you imagine? Whew, we might just have two churches and two denominations here real quick.

That is not what the apostles wanted to see. And God giving them wisdom, it was averted. They were able to keep that from happening and keep it from growing. Like I said, a possible church split, either way, it was possible that they said, hey, I know I got a great idea, let's have two services. We're going to have a traditional service early and then we can have a more contemporary service a little bit later in the afternoon.

No that's not what they did. They're one body in Christ and they wanted to worship together and they wanted to love each other or perhaps as I said two denominations were about to form and of course I say these things tongue-in-cheek but I think the importance here is this. It was a real problem that they were having to deal with. It was one that could do great damage to the church and these new Christians, these young believers, and also it would have brought great damage to the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ and of his body. So I want to take a minute and give a warning before we really dig into this office and role of a deacon, but I want to give us a warning here because I just can't get past this first part of this complaint arising because of some form of partiality, and I want to talk about both of those things.

I want to talk about partiality and I want to talk about both of those things. I want to talk about partiality and I want to talk about complaining because I want you to understand that both of these behaviors are destructive to the body of Christ. So let's look first at partiality. This is a grave danger not only in the early church but it's a grave danger in this church. And in all churches there is a possibility of showing partiality.

There are many things that we can let divide us. Ethnicity, language, educational levels, wealth, culture, married, single, children, no children, and the list could go on and on and on. It's one thing that we're really good at and that is pointing out all of our differences throughout the history of the world. This has been the case that people divide themselves over surface level issues and the Word of God says be done with that. God does not show partiality, neither should we.

We should love everyone in the body of Christ. James tells us this, and James too, he says, my brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. Do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with partiality. He says, for if there should come in to your assembly a man with gold rings and fine apparel and there should also come in a poor man filthy clothes and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him you sit here in this good place and say to the poor man you stand there or sit here at my footstool Have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges of evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brethren, has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him but you have dishonored the poor man do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called.

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture you shall love your neighbor as yourself you do well but if you show partiality listen you commit sin and are convicted by the law as a transgressor. It is so, it is almost a respectable sin in one sense because there is a grave temptation for every one of us to do this And it's not necessarily something that's really plain to see. It could be a partiality just within our heart or within our mind. But I want to warn you against this. Romans 2 11 says, for there is no partiality with God.

And in fact Ephesians 6 9 says, and you masters do the same things to them giving up threatening, knowing that your own master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with him. Paul says again in Colossians, he says in chapter three, verse 25, but he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done and there is no partiality. God would not have us to be showing partiality to a certain type of person, whether it be because of their money, because of their education, because of what they look like, or any of these other things. But we are actually to love our neighbor as ourself. So however, in the midst of this, there is one overarching truth that we need to understand that unites us and causes us to be in one accord.

If you'll recall from the book of Acts and its beginnings, what was it that brought all of this diverse group together? It was not their language, it was not their looks, it was not their wealth or their lack thereof, it was none of these things. But it was the coming of the Holy Spirit of God that it says over and over and over that they were of one accord. God had brought them together and had given them unity in the Spirit. And brothers and sisters that's what my desire is here this morning is that we all would be unified in the Spirit.

That we would love one another and not show any partiality. In Romans 12 5 it says, so we being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. And in Ephesians 4, therefore I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling one Lord one faith one baptism one God and father of all who is above all and through all and in you all we are to be unified in the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit of God, and there should be no partiality. So let us love one another as what we truly are.

We are one in Christ. There is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free. We are all one in Christ. And let's love each other that way. Now that was one option and at least a valid option and I believe it is a real option that was going on in this early church.

The other one is this that stated plainly, complaining. There arose a complaint. This word has with it the idea of a murmuring. At the root of complaining, we need to understand, can be, and most often is, the root of pride. The thought that you deserve better than what you received.

Now this can happen, let's be honest, this can happen in a marriage, this can happen in a family, this can happen in a church, this can happen in a nation, And I think we've seen a lot of this complaining going on in our nation. But my focus this morning is this greater concern of complaining within the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want us to be very guarded against complaining and I want you to understand the grave dangers of complaining. So I hope that we will not think about when we hear this about complaining that we will think, you know that person does complain a lot. I would rather you say and ask yourself the question, in what areas do I complain and then repent and stop complaining.

Do all things without murmuring and disputing. You know what? That we may be children of God. We don't need to be a type of people that are murmuring and complaining. Here's some of the reasons why.

Complaining denies the wisdom of God Because a person who complains believes that God perhaps did not know the best way for me to be living right now. He didn't really know the best situation that I should be experiencing right now. It could also deny the very goodness of God. God, I deserve better than this. How can I continue on in this terrible situation?

Lord, I deserve better. Now we would never say that out loud, but we may think it. I deserve better. That is a heart of pride. Complaining also denies the sovereignty of God.

That God has actually ordained exactly where you are in your life right now. Every situation that you're experiencing, every trial, every difficulty, every pain, every hurt, every sorrow, every blessing, every goodness, everything in your life God has ordained. And when we complain, in a sense, we are denying the sovereignty of God in our life. And we need to yield to His good plan for us. Also, one other thing is this, complaining is a great offense to God.

Now, we may kind of put that on the lower list of sins that the Bible gives us. Complaining, it's not good, but it's kind of down here on the lower level. It's more of a respectable sin if we at least don't do it out loud. Philippians says this, do all things without complaining and disputing. Same idea, that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.

One of the reasons that complaining is so grievous to the Holy Spirit and grievous in the eyes of God is that complaining is infectious. Complaining actually acts like a very contagious virus and when it begins in your heart and then begins to come out of your mouth it does not stay just in the air it actually infects others around you. You can begin to work up a spirit of complaining among others that are near you and listening to this complaining. You know what? Yeah, you're right.

I think they did stiff us. They didn't give us near what we should have gotten. Well, I noticed they had just a little bit more. Did you see that? And then you can begin to stir these things up.

Do you remember the ten spies? What did they do? You had two that came in and said we can take the land. God has given us this good land but then you had ten come in and begin to complain and begin to say we can't do it. These people are huge.

And this defeatist mentality, this idea of defeatism that we can't do it, not even with God's help can we do something like this. And that infected the entirety of the congregation and God sent that whole congregation of the children of Israel back out into the wilderness for 40 years. Now I want to read some things to you in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. It's a very important passage of scripture because we are specifically told that these things are given to us as an example and therefore our admonition. So it's good to listen up to this.

It's not just a story, it's actually for us. God tells us this for us, so listen to this. In 1st Corinthians 10, 1 through 13, moreover brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all of our fathers were under the cloud. All passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ but with most of them God was not well pleased for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness that's another words for they died there they died in the wilderness What is it that drove the judgment of God upon his own chosen people that would cause them to be scattered in the wilderness? Must have been bad.

Now these things became our examples, remember what I told you, this is actually for us. It is Hope Baptist Church example this morning and we should listen. It is our example to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted." So there's one thing, there's four things mentioned here. Do not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Verse 7, and do not become idolaters as some of them.

As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. There's number two, don't become an idolater. They did not truly worship the living God. And the passage here that he's quoting there is in Exodus when Moses was on the mountain they began to play. This idea of playing was not what we would think of children playing.

This was a grave immorality and they were committing sexual immorality and they were doing that before false and brazen idols. And so this was a huge problem. Verse 8, nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did and in one day 23, 000 fell. Twenty-three thousand. Now I'm from a county in Virginia that had about 25, 000 people.

When I think of that number I think of that would be astounding. 23, 000 people died. But it doesn't end there. Verse 9, nor let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents. And verse 10, Nor complain.

Would you have thought complaining would fit nicely within those other things that they were doing? It's not exactly the next thing that I was expecting. Murder, some other grievous sin that is very plain to see, complain. Nor complain as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer. God killed people for complaining because listen it is infectious.

It actually causes people to deny the goodness of God, the wisdom of God, and the sovereignty of God. Don't be someone who leads others and infects others with a defeatist complaining, murmuring, and disputing mouth and mentality that would cause God's judgment to be upon you. It is a grievous and serious thing in the eyes of the Lord. Now listen, verse 11, now all these things happen to them as examples and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. That would be us.

Hope Baptist Church these are your examples. Be warned. Let this be an admonition to you. And again I want us to understand that if you have a complaining spirit that you're in danger. It's not a little thing.

We must be careful. We must repent of complaining. Now I know that we are living in the new covenant. There is bounding grace that is offered to us and you're right. However, God's view of complaining has not changed.

Now some of his judgments towards it may have. God is the one who judges, God is the one who will take vengeance, God is the one who will discipline and do all these things, but we need to understand that when God hated complaining in the Old Testament, he hates complaining in the New Testament because of what it does to the people of God. So be admonished and work to eradicate a spirit and a mouth and a heart of complaining. Be done with it brothers and sisters. See it for what it is.

It is rebellion against God's goodness, wisdom, and power. Yeah, this one hurt me too. It is something I think all of us in some form or fashion have struggled with and dealt with in our life. You see, Matthew Henry says, in the best-ordered church in the world, there will be something amiss. Some maladministration or others, some grievance or at least some complaints.

Those are the best that have the least and the fewest. May we be that church with the fewest of these things. Now this was the beginning of a serious problem in this church here in the book of Acts. This complaint and this partiality that was being displayed. And the apostles knew that quick action must be taken because they understood what complaining did.

They saw it. They knew the Old Testament. They understood what partiality and God did not like partiality and he was not a partial God in that sense. And so what did they do? They summons the multitude in verse 2.

They called for all of the disciples to come together so that they could deal with this potential disaster. It's interesting, it seems like the Apostles had their hands in the business of the distribution to some extent because we know that Barnabas the son of encouragement had brought he had sold lands and he brought the money and laid it at the Apostles feet they were either distributing it themselves or they were overseeing the distribution of the goods for those people. And so it became such a huge responsibility however that the apostles were beginning to feel like they were neglecting their primary responsibility. Why else would they have said it is not desirable that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables? So they knew that they could not do both things well.

I have to tell myself this quite often, Trent, you cannot do both of these things well. You may be like that, you have a hard time saying no to anything. Thank God the wisdom of God filled the Apostles of God to say I'm not doing that. This is my primary responsibility, we need to find somebody to do this thing. That way things function well and it makes an orderly church something no doubt would be neglected if they tried to do it all.

And so the natural tendency of man is to sacrifice the better thing for the immediate thing. The immediate thing facing them was you had people complaining, hey there's a possible partiality, there's a possible complaining spirit within this church. It's interesting to me that how they dealt with it was not quit showing partiality and don't complain. They didn't do that at all even though those two things were real and I believe that sometimes biblical wisdom helps us because we need to rightly understand what it is that is leading to that temptation of sin. It's not wrong for us to look at sin in that way.

What is leading to that? The Bible says in the book of Romans, make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust. That actually means that before the lust there is something that is being made a provision for it. And we are actually commanded to deal with this provision that we're making for the lust of the flesh. And so I believe that the apostles were using this type of wisdom here, this biblical wisdom, because they understood the preaching of the gospel was a greater need for the eternal good of the edification of the church and for the lost souls that they were preaching to and yet the need of these widows was extremely important and needed to be dealt with and needed to be ministered unto and so This idea here of this word desirable means that which is proper or right.

So it's not proper or right that we would leave the word of God to serve tables. And this again, it doesn't negate the fact that there was a real need among the widows that needed to be met by the church. Both are needed but the Apostles were not going to neglect their primary calling in order to give their time and efforts to that which was immediate. There needed to be a division of labor And so many do not often see the value or nor do they believe in the power of the ministry of the Word of God in prayer and they may look at the apostles in this instance and they think man do they think they're too good to serve a table. It's interesting because the words here and we'll see this in just a few moments, this word here for serving tables, serve is where we get the word deacon from, but also we get the word ministry.

So it's not that one was going to serve and the other one wasn't. It was in fact, it was going to be both are serving but just in different capacities. So let's think about these things rightly. The church and this church, praise God, is not like that. They value the preaching of the Word of God and you enable men to be able to do it, to have the time and the resources to do that.

The next section I want to look at is verses 3 through 5 and this is the apostle's remedy. What is going to be their remedy to this problem of complaining? Therefore, brethren, seek out 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." This instance is reminiscent, and it may have come to your mind as well, we spoke about it on Tuesday, of what was taking place with Moses and his dilemma that he was facing when his father-in-law came and told him, Moses, you can't do this. You're going to wear yourself out, you're going to wear all the people out. You can't do it all, is basically what he was telling them.

There needed to be a division of labor. I'm not gonna read all of that passage in Exodus 18 today just for sake of time, but you can go back and look at the wisdom that his father-in-law gave him, and it was a help to the people. And now that was regarding making judgments and whatnot, but I want you to listen to one thing that he says, moreover you shall select, this is in Exodus 18, you shall select from all the people, able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands and of hundreds and of fifties and of tens. There was this division of labor and they understood though that these men needed to be godly men and that's the same thing that we're seeing here in the book of Acts. It's interesting though again that their solution was not to rebuke or to offer this big correction to the congregation but their solution was to cause a fix to the situation.

Now I'm learning from this that sometimes when there is an issue, whether it be in my own life, in my family, in the church, that the answer is not always a rebuke. Parents, we can be guilty of this. Sometimes we think the only way to respond to a disorderly child is to rebuke them. There may be something else that we need to be using, biblical wisdom. We may need to be using, I'm not abdicating the rebuke and I'm not abdicating correction, but what I am saying is let us use wisdom here.

Wisdom teaches us that the right ordering of our lives or the right ordering of the church can alleviate the circumstances that lead to the temptation to sin and potential sin. Now to clarify I'm not saying that we need to invent new ways to order the church. That's not what I'm saying. God has made it clear and in fact he lays it out here in his word for us so that we would know how to order the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. What I am saying is that wisdom is needed to properly apply the Word of God in any given circumstance to bring godly order.

And we see such an occasion in Titus in chapter 1 verse 5. He says this, for this reason, Paul writes to Titus, I left you in Crete that you should set in order the things that are lacking and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you. He looked at this church and he understood from the writings and from hearing from Timothy this church was out of order. It was not orderly. And he said they need elders to help this church get in order because it was a bit chaotic.

There is a time in which a church is not orderly but it's still a church. But it needs to be set in order. The lack of order in these churches would lead to real problems. Remember it's not just one church on the island of Crete. It was many churches because he said in every city do this.

And these churches needed orderliness. They needed elders and overseers to bring that order. And that's one of the qualities of a man in this case, a deacon that we see in the book of Acts, to be placed over this business here was a man that was full of wisdom which means the proper use of knowledge of biblical knowledge and what we're talking about here. We will get to the depths of this in just a few moments but I'm so instructed by this personally in seeing that the Apostles solution was to use biblical wisdom to order the church and not simply to think that their only tool was to rebuke the church for the problem. So, what remedy would God ordain through the spirit-filled apostles to bring order to the situation?

Well, we see very primarily in this, godly men. Godly men are needed to bring order. Without godly men there will be disorder and this is not negating the fact of godly women but let me tell you something I've been in churches when men were not godly and they did not lead and those churches became out of order. They were not ruled properly and in fact it brought many other problems and it actually brought shame and disgrace upon those churches. So men of good reputation they are spoken well of, they're commended, they speak, they're spoken of as in terms of respect.

The other people are willing to vouch for these men. 1st Timothy 3 10 says, but let these also first be tested, then let them serve as deacons being found blameless. Others could and would testify that their life is above reproach. We have no testimony to bring against this man. That's the type of man he's talking about, a man of good reputation.

Next it is a man that is full of the Holy Spirit. Matthew Henry again says, they must be full of the Holy Spirit, must be filled with those gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost which were necessary to the right management of this trust. Men who were honest, men who were of good reputation but also this word full here carries over into the word wisdom. Full of the Holy Spirit, full of wisdom. They needed to have wisdom as we've talked about before.

The Apostles were exercising wisdom but these deacons are going to need wisdom as well. This office requires wisdom that comes from above. Not just business sense. We're not just talking about men who know how to order their finances, we need men who have wisdom from above. Proverbs 9-10 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and in knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

These men need to be wise in the Word of God. They need to know the difference between the evil and the good. They need to know the difference between the good and the better. Wisdom was going to be needed in consideration of this present circumstance regarding this difficult relationship that needed mending. This was a big problem.

You had thousands of people in the midst of this. This wasn't just a you know 25 people that they're dealing with. We're talking about thousands And remember there was a complaint or a murmuring against one another and we see the wisdom that God gave the Apostles to understand that in this calling they needed spiritual men to oversee this business or this duty and now these needed this wisdom in order to fulfill. So the Apostles needed wisdom and now these men that were deacons needed this wisdom. So what is this business that they were about?

The word here in Acts 6 3 refers to a duty. It's a responsibility. The Apostles tell the community of disciples to select seven men for the duty or for the business. It's business and it was regarding the distributing of food to widows. So this was going to be their first and primary responsibility, the physical care of those in need and those who are truly in need are widows who as Timothy tells us, 1st Timothy 5, those who are widows who are truly widows.

They don't have any family to care for them, they don't have a husband obviously, and they needed the help of the church. And Paul again has much to say in 1st Timothy 3 about this, how they were to honor widows who were really widows. And then also in in 1st Timothy chapter 3 we have this understanding of what the deacons were supposed to be doing and what kind of characteristics and qualifications for them. But these true widows did not have family members to care for them and the church needed to do this. Next we see the Apostles duty and primary responsibility was actually being preserved because of the deacons that were being appointed.

So remember the Apostles had a primary duty of prayer and the word and now because of the wisdom of God given to the Apostles they were going to appoint men over this duty or this responsibility, this business of helping the physical needs of the church and it actually worked to preserve the ministry of the Apostles. It didn't diminish their ministry and what we're going to see as a result, it expanded their ministry and blessed their ministry and that's what we all want. It's interesting word choice here. Two things that the Apostles were to give themselves to. They were to give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word.

He says the idea here, one commentator says the idea here is to persist obstinately in some activity. They were to give themselves to persist obstinately, refusing to let anything distract them from what they were doing. Now men, let's be honest, we can get this way can't we? We can persist obstinately in something and our wives may need us, hey can you come help me do... Man we're one, we're focused.

But here in this sense, this obstinateness of the apostles and what they were supposed to be doing, I would say it would also flow into the office of an elder because there's many similarities there. Elders are not apostles, that's not what I'm saying. However, some of the responsibilities of feeding the flock, preaching and prayer are the responsibility of elders and I believe that this principle and this idea here flows naturally into the office of an elder but they were to persist obstinately in this task of preaching the Word of God and in prayer. And so they preserved their office, they preserved their responsibility by bringing these other men along to help them in this other business. Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 4, till I come give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine, do not neglect the gift that is in you which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.

Meditate on these things. Listen, give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all." As I mentioned before this thing that they were to give themselves to was prayer. They were to give themselves to the great duty of speaking to God about men and in the ministry of the word speaking to men what God had said. That was their primary responsibilities. In Titus 1 9, holding fast the faithful Word as he has been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convict those who contradict the the responsibility of that man who has the responsibility of the word of the ministry of the word is someone it takes time to be able to stop the mouse or to exhort or to convict those who contradict sound doctrine.

You can't do it flippantly. You can't do it without thinking about it. You can't do it without studying to show yourself approved unto God. You have to give yourself to this thing so that you'll be able to stop those contradictions. And one of the challenges of an elder is to be about the spending of the time and the word of God so that we are able to exhort and convict those contradictions.

It's a laborious task. Labor's task. We have fleshly teachers in this world that present things that are almost true. I've said this before, you know the ingredients of rat poison, 99.995% food. It's food.

.005% poison. And it's much that way with false teachers, those who would contradict the true gospel. We have to be on our game. We need to be wise. We need to be understanding.

We need to have the time to be able to give ourselves to the ministry of the Word and to prayer so that we would be able to stop those who would bring about that just enough poison to kill you so that we can see it clearly. A church that gives their elders time to pray and and to have their time in the Word of God to be able to preach the Word and study the Word is a church that is well fed and well guarded from the enemy. Now it seems that some of the Apostles words would sound like again they were above serving tables however again this is not the case that The idea here is that the deacons are going to serve, they were servants, that's what deacon means, they were servants who were going to serve the needs of the people. The apostles were going to be servants of the word. They're both going to be servants just at different capacities and different roles which is you know much like a household in a marriage a husband and a wife they both are going to serve but they're just going to do it in different ways and both are necessary.

If the wife was always trying to do what the husband was supposed to do her role would not be fulfilled. If the husband was always doing what the wife was supposed to do, his role would not be fulfilled and neither would that whole situation would be a mess. And it's the same way within the church of God. There needs to be order and because it preserves that responsibility of us to be able to, for the deacons to serve the physical needs of the church and for elders to be able to pray and to serve the spiritual needs of the church and to be able to proclaim the gospel. And so that word would go out.

And so Let's look finally and closingly at this, the last two verses, verses six and seven. Whom they set before the apostles, what is this blessed result of what they did by calling out these seven men to do this work and this business. Whom they set before the apostles and when they had prayed they laid hands on them then the Word of God spread and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. Number one in this little subsection here is the congregation was pleased. Do you see the difference between verse 1 and verse 5?

In verse 1 there arose a complaint in verse 5 and the saying, please the whole multitude. The apostles through the wisdom of God brought this complaining spirit and turned it into a pleasing spirit among the people because they used wisdom. Because God used the office and the function of a deacon to bless the body of Christ. It's a wonderful thing, very instructive for us. The saying pleased everyone, everyone, can you imagine?

Everyone being happy? That would be something, right? Everyone was pleased. Everyone was pleased. United in agreement of the goodness of this outcome.

It was a blessing to the church. Not only that, the congregation took part. The congregation had a say in the choice. Now I find this interesting. If you'll note in verse 5 that the last Nicholas here, He's a proselyte.

Proselyte from Antioch. In other words, he was not a Hebrew. They actually brought someone in that would help them to have faith in what was taking place. This was a Hellenist, this was somebody who was a Greek speaking person, this was somebody who was going to come in and not only that all the names mentioned here, I read one comment, he said all the names mentioned here are Greek names. Was it that that brought such trust and peace and just the whole sense and the spirit of being pleased with this decision?

We can trust these guys. These are our guys. These are men full of the Holy Spirit, full of wisdom, and we trust them. The congregation took part in this. So not only that, but the men were ordained.

I believe that that's what this is teaching us here. Whom they set before the Apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. It's important that these men they were chosen by the congregation but they were set before the apostles. So in verse 3 we we see there that the apostles would appoint them. He says that we may appoint over this business.

They were brought to the Apostles from the congregation and then the Apostles they were appointing them to this great work. The Apostles were the ones who would set them to this business and say here's the business that you were to be about. They prayed for them. The Apostles fulfilled part of their duty in praying, giving themselves to prayer for these men who would do this good work. And they desired God's wisdom in the decision.

They prayed so that God would show them, are these the men? They laid hands on them. This was the visible sign to the congregation that they were appointed by the apostles and that the blessing of the apostles was upon them. You remember Paul told Timothy later lay hands on no man quickly. Remember deacons in 1st Timothy 3 they must be tested.

So remember goes back to a good reputation. These were need to be well-known men. They need to be men who are known by the congregation and trusted by the congregation and trusted by the Apostles that they would say yes I'm gonna lay my hands on these men these are faithful men. Notice what happened when a church is well ordered. Look at the result.

Verse 7, he says this, then the Word of God spread. The Word of God spread. Why is that? Because the Apostles weren't doing that which was not their primary responsibility. They weren't serving tables.

They were serving the Word of God to everybody they came in contact with. They were pouring forth the Word of God. These disciples were multiplied because of this great work of ordering the Church of God. The Word of God increased. One commentator says, now that the apostles resolved to stick more closely than ever to their preaching, it spread the gospel further and brought it home with more power.

Ministers, disentangling themselves from secular employments and addicting themselves entirely and vigorously to their work will contribute very much as a means to the success of the gospel. The Word of God is said to increase as the seed is sown is increased when it comes up 30 60 and 100 fold he who sows sparingly reaps sparingly but he who sows abundantly will also reap abundantly." This principle is being played out right before us in Acts chapter 6 and this very interesting last part here, many priests were obedient to the faith. Very interesting. This is so encouraging, that when the word of God spread, it was not limited to those outside of the priesthood, but it was so powerful and so clear that even the priest saw this is the truth of God. Notice this word, they were obedient to the faith.

You kind of think of obedience as a work. You think of faith as this thing over here and obedience as this thing over here but here it is brought right together. They were obedient to the faith. This is important and this is where I want to end us. All men everywhere, every soul in this room, God has commanded you to believe.

If you do not believe, you are disobedient. You are actively disobeying God. 1st John 3 verse 23, and this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment. He bookend this verse with commandment and commandment. He wanted you to understand God commands all men everywhere to believe on his son and I in the authority of the Word of God that is laid before you today, I command every one of you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is your responsibility to believe. Believe on Him and so I command you this is the Word of God believe on the name of God's Son Jesus Christ the only Savior of men and get this and everyone who calls on his name shall be saved." Would you come? Would you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Would you obey the Word of God and believe? Take all of your excuses for not believing and becoming obedient to the faith and really look at them and you will find they are nothing but dust and vapor.

They have no bearing, they have no foundation, and they will vanish on the day of judgment. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Word of God that again that instructs us and teaches us in the way. Oh God what wisdom is in your word, what help for your people is here and God I pray that you would raise up godly men, men of good reputation, men full of the Holy Spirit and full of wisdom to bless this very congregation, Hope Baptist Church.

Lord, we see the results of it in Acts. We see the result is that the Word of God spread. Many were brought into the kingdom because of this order of the church. Lord would you do this again for us? Would you grant us such blessing and help us to be obedient to your word and all of those under the sound of my voice that they would be obedient to the faith, that they would see the beauty of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and her Savior and that they would savingly believe and come into this very fold and who knows Lord maybe they would be a deacon or an elder that would bless the congregation and spread the word.

Lord would you do great and marvelous things for us this morning and we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.