Trinity's blog

Bridging the Cultural Divide Acts 6:1-7

This week (3rd Monday in January) we remembered Dr. Martin Luther King and his work to bring racial equality for his people. Dr. King said that he had a dream to see our nation united. His work, and the work of other civil rights advocates, has helped to tear down the walls of racial prejudice and bigotry. Much work remains to be done to rid our nation of racial prejudice, but what was started in the civil rights movement in the 1960s has come a long way from the racism of the past.

The church of Jesus Christ has not been immune from racial and cultural divisions. The church is made up of human beings who, unfortunately, are, at times, susceptible to the same prejudices as are in the world today. It's no secret that many churches have been deeply affected by racial prejudice and divisions.

The Bible is against racial divisions. The Bible teaches racial harmony. The Bible says that "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." Unfortunately, the church has not always enjoyed racial harmony. From the very early days of the church, Christians have struggled with racial prejudices and cultural divisions. In fact, a cultural division in the early church caused a major crisis. We read of this crisis in Acts 6:1-7.

Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, "It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." The statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch. And these they brought before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them. The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.

The early church faced a crisis. The church was divided between those who spoke Hebrew and those who spoke Greek. To tackle this crisis, the Apostles directed the church to choose men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. As a result of the Apostles' leadership, the church enjoyed tremendous blessing from God.

I believe that in these few verses God has given us a lesson on bringing unity in the midst of diversity. Our church--Trinity Church of Teaneck, New Jersey is a culturally diverse church. We have immigrants from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe, and of course native-born North Americans. For the most part Trinity has been successful at bringing unity in the midst of diversity. Yet, in spite of the unity that we enjoy, we must continue to work to bridge cultural divides. The Bible gives us some good lessons on how to achieve the kind of unity that we will all enjoy in heaven. We need to take another look at how the early church brought unity in the midst of diversity and see what we can learn from them for our church today.

First, we need to understand the problem. Acts 6:1 says, "Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food." At first glance we see the obvious problem. The church was divided culturally. Yet the problem was more complicated. The Apostles were faced with more than one problem. The Apostles needed to deal with more than one issue.

Problems are always more complicated than they seem. As a pastor I am often involved in trying to solve relationship problems. Sometimes it's a problem in a family, sometimes it's a problem between friends, sometimes it's a problem between church members. The first rule in trying to solve these kinds of interpersonal relationship problems is that its always more involved than it appears. All church problems are like that. The most seemingly inconsequential problem is usually much more complicated. The issue that the Apostles faced was more than a division in their fellowship. They faced the problems associated with any growing church -- the need for more leaders.

The road to solving problems in the church is leadership. The lack of leaders in the early church resulted in a crisis--a division between ethnic or language groups in the church. Did the Greek speaking Christians have a legitimate complaint? Certainly. The Greek speaking widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. This complaint was a very serious issue. Did those who were offended deal with the problem correctly? Absolutely not. Some in the church were grumbling. Some of the Greek speaking Christians were murmuring and grumbling amongst themselves. Rather than come forward with their complaint, they were complaining amongst themselves. This complaining made an unhealthy situation grow into a worse problem.

Every church has problems. How the people in the church deal with those problems makes the difference between a healthy growing church and an unhealthy, crippled church. How do you handle problems? Complaining does more harm than good. We need to remember--complaining does more harm than good. If we are not to complain does that mean that no one ever mentions problems when they see them. Are we to always keep our mouth closed for fear of being labeled a complainer? No we do not need to stay silent when we see a problem. We should speak up. God wants us to speak up. If the leadership doesn't know about a problem, they can't solve it. But we must remember that God wants us to speak up in the right way. There is a big difference between addressing a problem and complaining.

How long did this problem occur before it was finally brought to the attention of the Apostles? Just like the apostles had to face this problem head on, we want to face the problems that might exist here at Trinity Church. The problem? The church needed unity.

What did the Apostles do about it? How did the Apostles solve this problem? When my wife and I were missionaries in the Philippines preparing to return home I appointed a steering committee to oversea the affairs of the church. One of the most mature Christians was a young man named Leo. I appointed him to lead the steering committee. Other members were Jonas who helped lead music, Chona who was the church secretary, and Charlie who was the church's evangelist and preacher. The church needs leaders to help oversee the affairs of the church.

The Apostles choose leaders to help them deal with the problem. We read in Acts 6:2-6 "So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, "It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." The statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch. And these they brought before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them."

In order to choose new leaders from amongst the people in the church, the Apostles needed to give some direction. So they gathered the church together, and had them choose good, spirit-filled men to help them with their church affairs.

Real leadership is going out and confronting the big issues. Leadership is stepping out and giving direction. As a church we have a choice. We can either look for leaders who will lead, or we can look for leaders who want to please people. The church in the twenty-first century doesn't need leaders who will put their finger in the wind of popular opinion to see which way to go. The church in 2003 can't afford to have a "wag the dog" type of leader. We need leaders, men and women, who will seek the Lord on their knees begging God for wisdom, direction, vision. Great leadership does not take a poll. Great leaders don't lead simply to implement consensus. A leader is one who leads. Our church needs leaders, men and women, who know who they are, and where their going. A leader needs to be able to see the road ahead, who can stay in the lead, and inspire others to follow. The early church needed direction. The Apostles gave the church direction.

When the Apostles said, "It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables", had they forgotten Jesus' example of servanthood? Jesus had told them: "the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many." Did they forget Jesus' teaching about being a servant?

Service and the willingness to be a servant is not the issue here. There is a time and place for this kind of serving, but it was not the role of the Apostles to get involved in administration of money and food. The apostles said, "It's not right." There is a time an place for all of us to do menial work. Jesus gave us an example of serving. But this is not to be an ongoing regular task of those who God has called to be preachers and teachers. The Apostles knew that it wasn't right for them to get involved in the counting of money, deciding how the money should be used, getting into the details of church administration and finance.

Churches all around the world are looking for leaders. Leaders to be proactive and stay ahead of the many changes that the church will face and leaders who can deal with unforeseen problems. The early church had not anticipated that it would grow so quickly and was not prepared for the crisis of cultural diversity? How did they respond? They called the church together, they explained the situation, and they gave the church some basic instructions. Acts 6:3-4says, "Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word."

The Apostles gave the church simple instructions. They said, "Choose men who are of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom." The first instruction concerning those who are to be leaders in the church is that leaders need to have a good reputation.

What kind of reputation do you have? Are you the same person Sunday morning in church as you are Monday morning at work. Is the person you are at home the same person we see on Sunday morning? What kind of reputation do you have at home, at work, with your neighbors. Leaders are to be men and women of integrity, of good reputation.

The second instruction concerning those who are to be leaders in the church is that leaders need to be full of the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? It's to die to self and live for God. We are filled with self, when we run out the door in the morning without spending time on our knees in prayer. We are filled with the Spirit when seek God's wisdom and power, because we know that we are so weak. We are filled with self, when we spend time reading the news paper, but neglect the reading of God's word. We are filled with the Spirit when find this book to be food for our soul, and seek God everyday in the pages of the Bible. We are filled with self, when we go day in and day out without confessing our sins. We are filled with the Spirit when we take time to sit before God Almighty and ask Him to show us the sin in our life, confess that sin, and are able to look freely in the face of God and know that we are clean. We are filled with self when we have an opportunity to tell someone about Jesus, but are afraid of rejection. We are filled with the Spirit when we make opportunities to tell others about Jesus, because we love them enough to risk their rejection. We are filled with self when we allow the sins of the flesh to rule our life. When we give room for anger, impatience, jealousy, hatred, selfishness, and impurity, we are full of self. We are filled with the Spirit when our life is full of the fruit of the Spirit. When we allow God to change us into men and women who are kind, gentle, patient, loving, giving, pure in heart, soul and mind, we are full of the Spirit of God. What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? Die to self and live for God. The Apostles gave the church instructions. They said, "Choose men who are of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom."

The third instruction concerning those who are to be leaders in the church is that leaders need to be full of wisdom. The Bible says that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. The church needs leaders who revere God and humble themselves before His Holy and awesome presence.

Did the early church find such leaders? They most certainly did. Not only were they able to identify at least seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, but they choose men with Greek names leading us to believe that most if not all of these men were from among the Greek speaking Christians. One of the men Nicolas, was a foreigner from Syria. The others might well have been part of those Jews who were born in foreign countries and were present on the day of Pentecost.

God gave the Apostles courage and wisdom to charge the congregation to choose new leaders to help with the work. They choose men who not only had the qualifications but who were uniquely suited because of their cultural to help the Apostles bridge the cultural division appointed these men to the work of the ministry. Acts 6:5-6 says, "The statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch. And these they brought before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them."

What was the result of the church finding and choosing spiritual men? The church experienced tremendous blessing from God. Verse seven says, "The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith."

The first blessing that the church enjoyed was the spread of God's Word. When God's people obey God, His word spreads. The world sees that we have something that they don't have and they begin to take notice. They want to learn what it is that makes us different. The word of God spread, and the church grew. The number of disciples increased.

Do you long to see our church, your church grow? When we do God's work, according to God's plan, using God's methods, in the power of God's strength; God will shower us with his blessings. When we allow the leaders in the church to lead we will see the heavens open and the Spirit of God will fall on our church just like in the days of the early church. When men and women of God obey the voice of God and step up to take positions of leadership the church of God will grow. When we break down the barriers of culture and skin color our church will expand. If we allow God to have his way in our church we will increase, we will multiply, we will grow. The early church enjoyed the blessings of God. The word of God spread, the number of disciples increased, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

For us today we could say a large number of those who were involved in other religions were born-again. The priests where those who attended the sacrifices of the temple. They were involved in rituals. Maybe you're from a church that focuses on traditions and rituals. Maybe you were involved in the rituals of your church. God is calling a people out of ritualistic religion and into a personal relationship with the living God. The early church saw a large number of conversions from religious people. Maybe you are a religious person. God wants you to be obedient not to a religion but to true faith in the living God through Jesus Christ his son.

The early church faced a crisis of cultural division. The Apostles gathered the church together and directed them to choose leaders of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. Because the church followed the direction of the Apostles and appointed new leaders, the church enjoyed the outpouring of God's blessing. Some of you have been putting off serving the Lord. You know that god is calling you to get involved but you been resisting Him. You know that you are educated. You are able to handle the responsibilities of home and work. Maybe you've held a position in another organization coached a baseball or soccer team. Maybe you've been part of a team effort at work. You know that God wants you to step forward and be part of the leadership team at your church. The issue is not that you aren't qualified. The issue that you must face is will you say "yes" to God. The early church found seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. We even know their names: Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas. Will future generations find your name written in the records of your church?

Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream. Do you have a dream for our church. Whatever kind of church you would like to see it will only happen when you believe that you are part of the solution.