Sermon Manuscript

One of the things you pick up on in life is that it is full of moments you didn’t plan for. I think the phase of my life that’s taught me this the most is parenting. If you had told me 10 years ago some of the things that would happen with my kids I would be shocked and horrified in some cases. This story is about both of those things.

Me and my wife were driving home from a vacation with our oldest son who was about a year and a half at the time. We’re driving through the middle of nowhere Ohio that has basically no exits. Well we’re in the middle of this deserted highway when all of a sudden we start to smell something. The smell only continues to get worse so there is only one explanation…our son needs a diaper change stat. We start looking for an exit and there just isn’t one. The smell is getting way worse than normal at this point. We’re kind of panicking looking for an exit because this doesn’t seem good at this point and we’re hoping to dodge a blowout.

Almost 20 minutes goes by until we can finally stop somewhere and by this time we’re gagging. Like, this is really bad. We pull into this gas station and we open the car door to reveal what I can only describe as the remnants of a crime scene. The entire carseat, his clothes, his hair, his hands, his legs, his entire body is covered in what is most definitely not chocolate ice cream. I will never forget this moment.

Those early moments with kids are really tough, but as they grow you start to have less blowout moments and enter the psychological warfare phase of parenting. You start to experience some conflict as they begin to push boundaries, question rules, and start to ask really big questions. Most of these times aren’t really planned either. They love to catch you off guard. However, it’s these moments of unexpected conflict that shape your kids the most. The way you respond and the words you use in these moments carry more weight than the moments that are planned. Those conflicts that felt so difficult at the time can result in incredible growth for you both when Christ is at the center.

What’s true for families is often true in the church as well. There’s conflict, difficulties, or suffering that comes up, but through these moments, God’s greatest work tends to come. And many times it’s because the individual or the group responded to the situation in a God-honoring way that allowed them to grow spiritually.

We’re going to be in Acts 6 this morning so you can go ahead and turn there now or follow along in our Church Center app, but as you turn there you’ll see a situation pretty similar to what we just described. We find the early church in conflict. It’s not conflict from persecution or from some external source. We are stepping into an internal conflict that has occurred due to negligence. The early church was filled with lots of different people, and at the beginning of Acts through the end of Acts 6:7, Luke (the author of Acts) focuses on the Jews. This trend continues within our Scripture this morning as we see a conflict between the Hellenist Jews and the Hebrews. The Hellenists were just Jews who had been heavily influenced by Greek culture and the Hebrews were traditional Jews. Both were found in Jerusalem where this story takes place.

People from both of these subgroups of Jews had converted to Christianity and were members of the early church. Christianity had seen some pretty rapid growth, especially among Jews at this time, but with this rapid growth came some growing pains. Some important things started to fall through the cracks. And this is where we find our conflict.

We’re currently in our series Faith Under Fire where we’re examining some stories in the book of Acts that involve suffering. Suffering is an unfortunate part of life, but what does it look like to suffer for Jesus? What does it look like for Him to use our suffering for His glory? Wherever you find yourself this morning, I hope this message encourages you because I believe it shows us that God can take any suffering or conflict and turn it into something incredible.

Let’s turn to Acts 6:1 and see how God uses this situation…

Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

The Hellenist widows were being neglected from the daily food provisions. Widows were meant to be taken care of by the community, so when the community forgot them they weren’t being taken care of. This wasn’t done out maliciousness, the church had simply grown so fast that they were missing the mark administratively. So the Hellenist Jews bring their suffering to the attention of the Apostles.

Growth creates pressure. Pressure creates tension. And tension reveals weaknesses. In this case, the Apostles weren’t prepared for thousands to suddenly come to know Jesus and to then be responsible for all of these widows. They had been doing so many things well, people were coming to know Jesus, miracles were happening, but in the midst of all these amazing things the widows were forgotten. But what’s crucial is the Apostles didn’t let this issue get bigger than it needed to be. They didn’t allow the conflict from the widows’ suffering to create division within the early church.

Moments like this reveal something important. Conflict and suffering have a way of exposing weaknesses. Sometimes they reveal things that were overlooked. Sometimes they expose areas where we need to grow. And sometimes they show us whether we will respond in a way that honors Jesus or in a way that creates more division.

The early church had a choice in this moment. They could ignore the problem. They could argue about who was responsible. They could allow the tension to divide them. Instead, they responded with humility and wisdom, and because of that response God used this difficult moment to grow His church and move His mission forward. So the question becomes: how did they respond? What did the apostles actually do when this tension surfaced in the church?

2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

The apostles, the twelve, take this concern seriously. They don’t minimize the issue and they don’t make excuses. They face it head on. Their response is marked by humility. They acknowledge the problem and take responsibility for addressing it, but they also recognize that they can’t do everything themselves. So they delegate the responsibility of caring for the widows to seven qualified men from within the church.

What’s interesting is that while the apostles acknowledge the role they played in the situation, they also clarify the calling God has given them. They explain that their responsibility is to devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word, while others step in to handle the daily distribution. At first glance, that response can sound a little harsh. It almost sounds like they’re saying it’s beneath them to serve tables. But that’s not actually what’s happening here.

The phrase “serve tables” in verse 2 and the phrase “ministry of the word” in verse 4 actually share the same Greek root word: diakonia. It simply means service or ministry. That means both roles described here are forms of ministry. They’re just different expressions of it. One focuses on meeting physical needs through the distribution of food, while the other focuses on spiritual care through prayer and the teaching of God’s word. They’re different kinds of service, but both are incredibly important for the health of the church.

Which is why selecting the seven men is so important. These aren’t just waiters serving tables, these are men spreading the Gospel through an incredibly important ministry. They need to have some important characteristics: a good reputation, be filled with the Spirit, and be filled with wisdom. These men set the tone for ministry leaders who would eventually be referred to as deacons. Selecting them was vital and each man selected was affirmed by the community. They laid hands on them and commissioned them for the ministry to come.

You may have recognized a couple of the men: Stephen and Philip the Evangelist. You’ll hear a little bit more about Stephen next week, but he is credited as the first martyr and helped begin the spread of the Gospel outside of Jerusalem to the rest of the world. This Philip isn’t the same Philip as the Apostle, but he is the same one who ministered to Samaria after the church scattered due to persecution. He’s also the one who baptized the Ethiopian Eunuch.

Both of these men went on to do amazing things for Jesus, but remember where all this started. This all started with the widows’ suffering that led to conflict. Something that could have resulted in division amongst the Jews became a moment of unity that led to the birth of a brand new ministry.

Growth creates pressure. Pressure creates tension. And tension reveals weaknesses. The weakness was revealed, but the church did not shrink amidst the pressure. They rose up to the challenge, sought to honor Jesus above all, and set aside their differences.

Suffering exposes areas where we need to grow. It can reveal pride, anger, or selfishness in our hearts. How we respond to suffering says a lot about what we really believe about God. If we try to control an uncontrollable situation, what we’re really saying is that God isn’t big enough to handle it. That’s pride, or at the very least it shows we have a smaller view of God than we should.

If our response to suffering is an all-consuming anger that we take out on everyone around us, we may need to examine where our joy is actually coming from. Suffering is difficult, but our joy doesn’t come from our circumstances. It comes from the Holy Spirit within us. And when suffering causes us to withdraw and focus only on ourselves, it often reveals a need to grow in our love for others. Suffering has a way of revealing what’s really going on in our hearts. And it did the same thing in the early church. In fact, look at the results…

7 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

The Gospel continues to spread in Jerusalem as the author of Acts, Luke, closes this section. This verse actually closes “phase 1” of the church. The Gospel has spread to the Jews all throughout Jerusalem and they have found unity within Jesus, but now the Gospel is about to go beyond Jerusalem. Because of the unified response through Jesus, many are saved. The suffering didn’t slow down the mission, it actually accelerated it!

The church multiplies and even the priests believe. We shouldn’t overlook what Luke is trying to tell us here because the priests were part of the temple establishment, so their conversion shows the gospel going deeply into Jerusalem society. Remember how much the religious leaders hated Jesus? They hated Him so much they killed Him! Yet now we see many priests are now believing in who He is and converting to Christianity.

This is an absolutely astounding victory. The disciples could have ignored the issue or gotten defensive because they were doing great work! People were being saved and the church was growing, but that’s not what they did. They acknowledged where God has called them, but then recognized they can’t do it all. The seven men that were selected weren’t even Hebrews, they were all Hellenistic Jews. One of them, Nicolaus, was a proselyte. Which means he was a Greek who became a Jew who then became a Christian. The Apostles could have appointed anyone to these positions, but they chose to recognize unity within diversity. They empowered the Hellenist Jews who brought the concern to them, they didn’t push them away.

Responding to suffering with Spirit-filled wisdom and faithfulness doesn’t happen by chance. It requires a posture of reliance on God and careful attention to His work in the midst of difficulty. The Apostles faced a real problem in the early church, yet they responded in a way that honored God and strengthened the community. Their response shows a pattern we can learn from: they were able to act faithfully because of the way they oriented themselves toward God and toward others. Look closely at how they responded to the widows’ suffering. They responded faithfully because they responded with…

Devotion and prayer to the word. The Apostles’ first response to the widows’ suffering was to remain steadfast in prayer and the ministry of the Word. They didn’t see service as unimportant, but they recognized their calling was rooted in spiritual leadership. Prayer wasn’t just a routine to them, it was the source of their discernment and direction. The ministry of the Word was the means by which the church would continue to grow in Christ. By devoting themselves to these things, the Apostles modeled a faithfulness for you and me to follow. The tension of the widows’ neglect didn’t distract them from their calling; it highlighted the necessity of relying on God’s guidance in every challenge.

They also raised up spirit-filled servants. Rather than trying to do everything themselves, the Apostles empowered others to serve. This wasn’t simply delegation; it was a spiritual act. These seven men were chosen for their character and Spirit-filled discernment, and the Apostles prayed over them and laid hands on them, recognizing God’s gifting in others. The Apostles’ trust in these servants reflected humility and a reliance on God’s provision. By raising up Spirit-filled leaders, the Apostles empowered a ministry that ensured the church wouldn’t neglect to meet both physical and spiritual needs. God’s work expanded because the Apostles affirmed the gifts and callings He had placed in others. They were able to assist the widows in their suffering. How are you helping raise up spirit-filled servants to help in each other’s suffering?

The Apostles understood this, which is why they knew to seek unity through humble service. The Apostles’ response wasn’t shaped by pride or defensiveness, but by a commitment to unity. They addressed the complaint seriously and directly, acknowledging the problem without making excuses. The delegation of responsibilities demonstrated humility, as it recognized that others could serve in ways the Apostles themselves could not. The church’s unity was preserved because they prioritized the well-being of all; including the most vulnerable. By responding with humble service, the Apostles ensured that tension did not fracture the community, but instead became an opportunity for God’s grace to be experienced collectively. Conflict, when handled with humility, becomes a platform for the Church to grow in unimaginable ways.

What began as a tense moment that could have led to division became a moment of great unity. This moment led to the Gospel going global. Some of the men selected to oversee simple food distribution became the very men who would advance the Gospel beyond Jerusalem. Treat moments of tension as opportunities for Jesus to move. Growth creates pressure. Pressure creates tension. And tension reveals weaknesses. Praise God for what He can do in the relaxing moments, but for how He treats tension as opportunities to advance the Gospel.

Acts 6 shows us how tension created by suffering can be used to spread the Gospel in unimaginable ways. Rather than avoid or run away from the tension caused by conflict and suffering, take advantage of them! Look for what God might be saying through the tension. How He is in the midst of even the most difficult situations working all for His good.

How can God use your difficult parenting moment? How can He use your challenging work environment?

Respond to suffering with Spirit-filled wisdom and faithfulness so the Gospel may be spread through your situation.

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