Alan Lewis
Elon, North Carolina
July 2025
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. 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. 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. (Acts 6:1-7 ESV)
We have been studying the Book of Acts. We have been looking at the life of the earliest Christians who were members of the Church of Jerusalem. This is the book of many firsts.
We saw the first prayer meeting in the Upper Room. We saw the first preaching and the first sermon. It was an outdoor sermon, not an indoor sermon. It was preached by Peter. He was the first evangelist, the first Billy Graham.
His preaching resulted in the first conversions and the first baptisms. Three thousand people got saved in one day. This led to the first mega church in history.
We saw not only the first conversions but the first miracles. We see the first charismatics in the church. People spoke in tongues. Signs and wonders were taking place.
The church at its first was the church at its best. The church was Spirit-filled. God was at work. Miracles were taking place. God was using them.
He was speaking through them. It was growing. It was also a church where needs were being met. It was united but not everything was good.
In Acts 5 & 6, we see two more firsts. We see the first sin in the church in Acts 5. It had nothing to do with sex. It had to do with deception. It was committed by Ananias and Sapphira. In Acts 6 we see the first church argument.
Everyone in the church was no longer one heart and one mind. They were arguing. They were fighting. Every family has fights. Siblings have fights. Spouses have fights. Churches have fights.
The first church had them. It was not perfect, even though it had apostles in it. Here is a shocking fact. The first recorded argument in the church was about race. It was about discrimination. It was about some of the same issues we deal with today.
Today, we are going to look at only seven verses. What happens here is clear. It begins with a problem. The problem was brought to the apostles or they heard about it.
We have some pastor-led churches. We have some elder-led churches. Apparently, this church did not have a pastor. It did not have elders. It did have apostles.
This was an apostle-led church. Wouldn’t it be great to have a church led by actual apostles? Any question you have, you could go directly to an apostle.
In this case, the apostles heard about the problem and offered a solution. The church was to pick seven men to address the problem.
After they were selected, the apostles laid their hands on them and officially installed them to this position. As a result, many more people came to faith.
What does this have to do with us today? We want to look at these verses in a way you may not have looked at before. In these seven verses, there are nine important principles worth thinking about.
The Diversity Principle
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 (Acts 6:1 ESV)
Christians are diverse. Churches are diverse. There is diversity in the church today. We are racially diverse. We are theologically diverse.
We have all of these different denominations. We have big mega churches and small county churches. We have churches that just sing hymns and churches with rock music.
There is diversity in the church today. There was diversity in the first church. There was diversity among the Jews outside the church. There were Pharisees and Sadducees.
There was also diversity among Jews inside the first church. There were two types of Jews in the first church. One group was called were Hebrews. The other group was called Hellenists.
What was the difference? They came from different places. They didn’t talk the same way. They did not think the same way. They came from different cultures.
The Hebrews were born and raised in Israel. They were the naïve Jews. We would call them Israeli Jews today.
The Hellenists were raised outside of Israel. They were the foreign Jews. Foreign Jews were different from native Jews. A Jew living in San Francisco is different from a Jew living in Jerusalem.
They also spoke different languages. The Hebrews spoke Aramaic. The Twelve Apostles were Hebrews. They made up the majority of the church. When they wanted to read the Bible, they pulled out a Hebrew Bible.
The Hellenists spoke Greek. When they wanted to read a passage in the OT, they would read from a Greek Bible. The Hellenists adopted Greek culture.
The Equality Principle
That is clear from the passage. There were two groups in the church. They were two racial groups. These two groups were to be treated equally. One group was not more important than the other group. Widows from both groups were to be take care of.
These two groups were in the church and apparently did not like each other. They did not trust each other. They were suspicious of each other. Each felt a little superior to the other and looked down on them. Do we have groups like that in church?
Do we bring our biases into church? There is no place for racism or discrimination in the church.
The Accountability Principle
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 (Acts 6:1 ESV)
In every church, there are some unhappy people. There are critical people. Some criticisms are valid and some are not. Some take their criticisms to leadership and some do not.
In Acts 6, we have some people who had a criticism and the leadership heard about it. Widows were being neglected, and specifically Greek widows were being neglected. They weren’t being provided for.
People from one racial group were being treated differently from other people groups. There was unequal treatment. There was favoritism.
Leaders should be open to criticism. They could have say, “Don’t ever question your leaders. How dare you bring a criticism against the church? How dare you bring a criticism against an apostolic church, a church not only of one apostle, but of twelve apostles?”
They were not defensive. They did not call them sinful or unspiritual. They did not rebuke them for a spirit of grumbling or criticism. They actually agreed with the criticism.
They agreed that not meeting the needs of these widows wasn’t right, and they agreed that something needed to be about it. Good leaders don’t pretend to be perfect. They admit when they make mistakes.
The Delegation Principle
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.
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 (Acts 6:2-3 ESV)
This brings us to the principle of delegation. It is a biblical principle. Leaders should delegate authority. No one person can do everything. The pastor can’t do everything. Even the apostles couldn’t do everything.
There is a famous quote. It is attributed to Dwight L. Moody. He said, “I’d rather get ten men to do the job than to do the job of ten men.”
Some pastors try to do everything in the church. They are control freaks. Some are workaholics and do not utilize all of the gifts in the body. They don’t delegate things. That leads to burnout.
In Acts 6, we see delegation. We see delegation done by the apostles. They agreed there was a problem and it needed to be solved but did not try to solve it all themselves.
They delegated leadership back to the congregation. They said, “This is a real problem, but we are not going to solve it. You are. You pick seven men.”
The apostles not only did not solve the problem themselves. Other people did that. In fact, the apostles did not even pick them. The apostles didn’t choose the seven men. The church chose them.
The Qualification Principle
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. (Acts 6:3 ESV)
Leaders need to be qualified. Why is that important today? Not everyone in a position is necessarily qualified for that position. The wrong people are often put into positions in many churches.
The men for this job had to fit certain qualifications. You might think that serving tables does not require too many qualifications, but this was a position in the church.
It involved handling money and you had to have certain qualifications for this position. What were the qualifications? There were three qualifications.
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. (Acts 6:3 ESV)
These seven men had to be good, godly and gifted.[1] They had to be GOOD. They had to have a good report. They had to have a good reputation.
They also had to be GODLY (full of the Spirit). There are plenty of people who have good reputations, who are not godly or spiritual. Being godly is not enough. They had to have one more qualification.
They had to be GIFTED. They have to have wisdom. Wisdom will help determine who needs to be provided for by the church and who does not.
In I Timothy, we see not just qualifications for deacons but also for widows.
No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband, 10 and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the Lord’s people, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.
11 As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry. 12 Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge. (I Timothy 5:9-12 NIV)
The Ordination Principle
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.
These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. (Acts 6:5-6 ESV)
This is an important principle. If God has called you to a ministry, you should be affirmed, recognized and commissioned by the church and that is what we see here. We see the first ordination service.
Many believe that this was the first deacon ordination. Many believe that this is the earliest reference to deacons in the Bible. They say that this was the first deacon board. There is just one problem with that theory.
The word “deacon” not used in this passage. We do not see that title, although some of its cognates are used. These men were not ordained to an office but to a specific job or ministry in the church.
What is the application for today? Leaders should recognize, affirm and support the ministries of the church and the leaders of those ministries but there is a warning here.
Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. (I Timothy 5:22 NIV).
Leaders should be ordained by the church, but we should not be too quick to lay hands on people. If you do it too quickly and get the wrong person in, you are responsible and share in that person’s sins.
The Service Principle
Leaders should serve people. These seven men were to serve the needs of these widows. That is the purpose of spiritual gifts.
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. (I Peter 4:10 NIV)
Some have a specific gift of service (Romans 12:7) but ALL spiritual gifts are meant to serve other people. What are you doing to serve others? Service is not limited to spiritual things.
The first church met the needs of poor widows and served them. They met their physical needs. There are two extremes in the church today.
Some churches are just social clubs. They do humanitarian work. They have a lot of social programs for the poor but that is all they do. Other churches do NOT deal with physical needs. They only deal with spiritual needs.
They focus on preaching the gospel, teaching the Bible and planting churches. The first church did BOTH. They preached the gospel, but they also took care of the needs of poor widows.
The Priority Principle
Widows were not to be neglected in the church, but the mission of the apostles was also not supposed to change.
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. (Acts 6:2 ESV)
They were to focus on two things: prayer (that comes first) and preaching of the Word. They said, “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4 ESV)
What is the lesson here? Leaders should focus on their calling. It is a question of priorities. We can’t do everything. We are all called to do different thigs. What has God called you to do? What are you focusing on? What are your priorities?
The Multiplication Principle
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 (Acts 6:7 ESV)
The concept of multiplication is not just a mathematical principle. It is a biblical principle. It is a spiritual principle. Evangelism and discipleship lead to multiplication, not just addition but multiplication.
And the Lord ADDED to their number day by day those who were being saved (Acts 2:47 ESV)
And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples MULTIPLIED greatly in Jerusalem (Acts 6:7 ESV)
God not only adds things. He multiplies things. He loves to multiply things. He is a God of multiplication. The first command in the Bible involved multiplication.
“Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). The feeding of the 5000 involved a miracle of multiplication. Multiplication is at the heart of the Great Commission (Make disciples of all nations).
Multiplication refers not just to growth but massive growth, exponential growth, like going from one to twelve to one hundred twenty to three thousand to five thousand to ten or fifteen thousand. Is the Lord adding to, subtracting from, or multiplying your ministry?
[1] https://www.preceptaustin.org/sermons-on-acts-lowell-johnson
