{"id":1469,"date":"2019-03-03T09:44:27","date_gmt":"2019-03-03T17:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1469"},"modified":"2019-03-03T09:44:27","modified_gmt":"2019-03-03T17:44:27","slug":"devotion-acts-61-7-led-by-the-spirit-and-wisdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1469","title":{"rendered":"Devotion Acts 6:1-7 Led By The Spirit And Wisdom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acts 6:1-7\u00a0<\/b>–\u00a0In those days when the number of disciples was increasing,\u00a0the Hellenistic Jews\u00a0among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows\u00a0were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.<\/i><\/span>\u00a02\u00a0So the Twelve gathered all the disciples\u00a0together and said, \u201cIt would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God\u00a0in order to wait on tables.<\/span>\u00a03\u00a0Brothers and sisters,\u00a0choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit\u00a0and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them<\/span>\u00a04\u00a0and will give our attention to prayer\u00a0and the ministry of the word.\u201d 5\u00a0This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen,\u00a0a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit;\u00a0also Philip,\u00a0Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.<\/span>\u00a06\u00a0They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed\u00a0and laid their hands on them.\u00a0 7\u00a0So the word of God spread.\u00a0The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly,\u00a0and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cIn those days when the number of disciples was increasing,\u00a0the Hellenistic Jews\u00a0among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows\u00a0were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 The young church was growing fast.\u00a0 The Lord was blessing it with converts coming daily, miracles, and healings.\u00a0 They were lovingly sharing what they had so that all had something to eat. Moreover, they were learning at the feet of the Apostles.\u00a0 Wow, sounds so idyllic!\u00a0 Now comes an ugly picture to the family picture album.\u00a0 A complaint rises up.<\/span><\/p>\n

There were primarily two groups of Jews among the new believers.\u00a0 The first group was referred to as Hebrews.\u00a0 They were from Jerusalem, were conservative and, while being familiar with Greek and Aramaic (lingua franca for the area and time), spoke mostly Hebrew. \u00a0They were very conservative in their theology, their customs and their dress.\u00a0 The Hellenistic Jews were loyal Jews who were from the diaspora (area beyond Israel). Hebrew was not their primary language, many may not have even spoken Hebrew.\u00a0 They adopted much of the culture of where they left, including the clothing they wore.\u00a0 They were loyal Hebrews living in a different culture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Hellenistic Jews were concerned that the Hellenistic widow were not being equally cared for as the Hebrew Jews were being cared for.\u00a0 All the Jews knew better than that.\u00a0\u00a0Deuteronomy 1:17<\/b>\u00a0instructed them to not show partiality.\u00a0 Although\u00a0James 2:9<\/b>\u00a0was not yet written, James was present with them.\u00a0 Favoritism was not pleasing to God as favoritism is not of love. It is not equally loving all the family of God.\u00a0 It was choosing to love some more than others.\u00a0 That is ugly, what if God showed favoritism and one of us, or all of us, were on the outside of the most favored status.\u00a0 We certainly would be hurt by that.\u00a0 They should have, and we should, remember the Golden Rule that Jesus gave to us in\u00a0Matthew 7:12<\/b>\u00a0\u201cSo in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 We don\u2019t want to be left out or forgotten and neither should we do that to another.\u00a0 That is not love.\u00a0 No favoritism, especially in church.\u00a0 Is there a group, or groups, in the church we attend who are treated with leftover love?\u00a0 God forbid!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c2\u00a0So the Twelve gathered all the disciples\u00a0together and said, \u201cIt would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God\u00a0in order to wait on tables.<\/i><\/span>\u00a03\u00a0Brothers and sisters,\u00a0choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit\u00a0and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them<\/span>\u00a04\u00a0and will give our attention to prayer\u00a0and the ministry of the word.\u201d 5a\u00a0This proposal pleased the whole group.<\/span><\/i>\u201d\u00a0 The Twelve (the Apostles) showed great humility and love in their response to this complaint.\u00a0 They did not argue.\u00a0 They did not tell the Hellenists that they shouldn\u2019t feel that way.\u00a0 They did not abrade either the accusers or the offenders.\u00a0 They knew their calling was to spread the Gospel and that should be their main focus.\u00a0 However they wanted all the Believers to be equally loved and valued.\u00a0 They made the rest of the disciples aware of their priority and then trusted them to resolve the issue.\u00a0 They felt no need to control all the details, but trusted God to guide their brothers to select seven people to take over.\u00a0 It\u2019s wonderful how the Apostles didn\u2019t get their feelings hurt, didn\u2019t get angry, didn\u2019t feel the need to contest the reality of the protest and didn\u2019t feel the need to try to put in longer days to address the issue.\u00a0 They trusted God to guide them to select the right men to take charge that the all were treated fairly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is important to note who the Apostles directed them to choose to be the deacons (the word for deacon goes directly back to those who served tables).\u00a0 They wanted those who were to serve the people to be \u201cbe full of the Spirit and Wisdom.\u201d\u00a0 Family, in our day when churches can be run like corporations, it is a good idea to remember the greatest quality that elders and deacons should have is that they should be full of the Holy Spirit and Wisdom.\u00a0 Those through whom the gifts of the Spirit flow (Galatians 5:22-23a<\/b>) are truly the ones most qualified to serve the people.\u00a0 Certainly it is better to be guided by the Spirit of God than the rules of the business of the world.\u00a0 Now, of course, there is nothing to say that elders cannot be blessed by being full of the Spirit and wisdom and also understand how to efficiently run organizations.\u00a0 The Lord certainly can provide that for His body.\u00a0 Praise God!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey chose Stephen,\u00a0a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit;\u00a0also Philip,\u00a0Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.<\/i><\/span>\u00a06\u00a0They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed\u00a0and laid their hands on them.\u00a0 7\u00a0So the word of God spread.\u00a0The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly,\u00a0and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 The noted seven were chosen.\u00a0 Stephen, who was the churches first martyr, is the first listed.\u00a0 The people did select seven men who were known to be, that is they had the reputation due to the \u201cfruits\u201d that they bore, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.\u00a0 The Apostles trusted God to take care of the matter and He did.\u00a0 Praise God!\u00a0 The Apostles laid their hands of the seven and prayed for God to lead and guide them.\u00a0 There was peace among the people.\u00a0 The crisis was averted.\u00a0 God continued to bless His young church with rapid growth.<\/p>\n

Luke mentions that a large number of priests came to the faith.\u00a0 These are considered to be, at least for the most part, not priests higher in position.\u00a0 But more common priests who worked with the people.\u00a0 Praise God for these Jewish priests who came.\u00a0 As the Word says \u201c\u2026first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.\u201d (Romans 1:16<\/b>).\u00a0 We can all praise God for His faithfulness to the Jew as that same faithfulness is also to us.\u00a0 They were learning to live in unity as Jesus had prayed for (John 17:20-23<\/b>). \u00a0We must pray that we would be unified in love without favoritism.\u00a0 Praise our good God!\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n

\n

Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Acts 6:1-7\u00a0–\u00a0In those days when the number of disciples was increasing,\u00a0the Hellenistic Jews\u00a0among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows\u00a0were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.\u00a02\u00a0So the Twelve gathered all the disciples\u00a0together and said, \u201cIt would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God\u00a0in order…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,1872,1969,1700,100,101,94,17,10],"class_list":["post-1469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-deuteronomy","tag-galatians","tag-james","tag-john","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-psalm","tag-romans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1470,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469\/revisions\/1470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}