The Church of the Resurrection of Peace

12/02/08

The Acts of the Apostles-Week 8

Chapter 6

Verses 1-7

1.      verse 1…”In those days…” there is question as to how much time has passed between 5:42 and 6:1. It seems to be a length of time. Grecian Jews/Hebraic Jews, both groups holding roughly the same beliefs but perhaps with a different point of view. Religiously/spiritually the two groups were similar but with cultural differences. NOTE: Even with the two groups, the church was still Jewish either by birth or conversion. The Gospel still had not been taken to the Gentiles. The Greeks brought forward that their widows were being overlooked (ignored??) in the daily distribution of food. FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Was the missing of the Greek widows truly an oversight or was there a cultural prejudice? Remember, those that were born Jewish were very clannish and possibly suspicious of the Greeks, even though were Jewish. Is there any prejudice existing in the church today?

2.      verses 2-4…”So the twelve gathered…” Notice that the Apostles did not hesitate in the addressing of this problem. They didn’t let it fester. The solution is the appointing of 7 that will take over the “waiting of tables” to allow the Apostles to focus on the ministry of the Gospel. NOTE: This is also establishing the structure of the leaders in the church and the assignment of responsibilities for the various positions. In this case, the Apostles are to be ministers of the Gospel while those elected will be more to the one on one administration to the populace of the church. v 3…”choose seven…that are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom…turn this responsibility over to them” v 4…”give our attention to prayer and ministry…”

3.      verses 5-6…”proposal pleased the whole group…They chose Stephen… NOTE: All of those chosen were Greek. Was this done solely because the complaint was from the Greeks? Was it done to make the Grecian Jews feel a part of the church? Is it possible that some of the cultural prejudice filtered through so the Hebraic Jews would not have to minister to the Grecian Jews?   v 6 “They presented these men to the Apostles…and laid hands on them” NOTE: The Apostles (the 12) did not participate in the selection of the seven. Why 7 instead of 6 or 9? The laying of hands was the ordination of the 7. This is still practiced to this day.

4.       verse 7…”the word of God spread…number of disciples increased rapidly…and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith” NOTE: These priests were those from the temples. These were born into the priesthood as it was passed from father to son. (Cohen, Cohan, etc). They had accepted that there was a single sacrifice (Jesus) that set aside the need of the old covenant sacrifices.