Passion for God’s Mission and Compassionate Care for God’s People

PASSION FOR GOD’S MISSION AND COMPASSIONATE CARE FOR GOD’S PEOPLE 

An Exposition of Acts 6:1-7

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: June 8, 2025

Series: The Book of Acts

Note: Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Good morning. I invite you to turn to the book of Acts, chapter six, as we continue our journey through this book. And I'm going to read verses one through seven. Acts, chapter six, beginning in verse one. Holy Scripture says.

¹ 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)

This is God's holy word, and it is for our good. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this portion of Holy Scripture that you have given to us for our good, for our sanctification, for our growth together in Christ. And Father, I pray that you would bless the teaching of your word this morning in our hearts, in our lives and our relationships with one another. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

GETTING RIGHT TO THE POINT

Notice how this passage is framed. It begins with a word telling us that “the disciples were increasing in number” (v. 1). The gospel is on the move. The church is growing numerically. More and more people are becoming disciples. And then when you look at the end of the passage in verse seven, that is basically restated and expanded upon, that the word of God is increasing in the sense that it is gaining traction and bearing fruit in more and more people's lives. And more and more people, including a great number of priests in Judaism, were coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So this passage is set within the context of church growth. The church is growing.

But then in the middle section of this passage (v. 1b-6), we learn about a difficulty that had arisen within the church family that they had to sort out. And so this passage is a great gift to us. And it reminds us of a very important lesson. It can be stated in different ways:

• Passion for making new disciples out there must be accompanied by compassion for already disciples in here.

• The ministry of preaching the word of God must be accompanied by the ministry of practical care.

• Being devoted to prayer must be accompanied by devotion to works of mercy.

We need the whole package, and it doesn't fall on any one individual to strike the perfect balance and embody the whole package. Rather, it falls upon the body of believers, all of us, together with our varied giftings and callings, to strike that balance and to make sure that all of that is present.

What if this situation had been handled poorly?

Now another thing that's really instructive about this passage is to exercise your imagination a little bit and ask the question, How could this situation have been handled poorly? Because let's be honest, sometimes situations like this are handled poorly.

Well, one way that the situation could have been handled poorly would have been to ignore the complaint. And how easy it would be to ignore a complaint like this in the name of: ‘Hey, the church is growing. God is obviously blessing the preaching of the apostles, and so many people's lives are being impacted. Let's not get sidetracked by a complaint. Let's silence complaints so we can get on with the important work of adding to our numbers.’ It would be very easy to let the success of the mission justify ignoring a complaint within the body. They didn't do that.

Another way that this whole situation could have been handled poorly would have been for the apostles to take upon themselves the entire burden of resolving it to the point that though they may have resolved the internal problem, their preaching ministry was suffering and the mission was suffering and making new disciples was suffering. And they didn't do that either.

And we have to remember how easy it is for us to become imbalanced. On the one side, we think about nurturing faith, preaching the gospel, making new disciples, helping the people grow in their knowledge of God's Word. And all of that is very important. But that nurturing of faith must be accompanied by and must bear fruit in the demonstration of love and the formation of a community – a rich community of brothers and sisters who are learning to take care of one another and to meet one another's needs. And the Book of Acts has already been teaching us that the ministry of the Word of God is designed to bring people into a rich community of brothers and sisters who are living out that word practically in their day to day lives and demonstrating love for one another.

Acts 2:1-47

For example, in Acts chapter 2, verses 1 through 41, we see evangelism. The apostles are declaring the word of the Lord, and then in Acts 2:41 they baptize 3,000 souls. But then what does the end of chapter 2 tell us? It tells us that they were together. These new believers were together, “[devoting] themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42) And they were often in each other's homes, and they were meeting each other's needs. (Acts 2:45-46)

Acts 3:1-4:37

And then you go to Acts chapter three. You go from Acts 3:1 to Acts 4:31 – I'm oversimplifying a little bit – but basically, in that big section, what are they doing? They are preaching the gospel, they are evangelizing, they are making new disciples. But then the end of chapter four tells us that all these believers were gathered together, that they “were of one heart and one soul” (Acts 4:32), that God's grace was upon them (Acts 4:33), and that they were being very generous toward one another, even to the point of selling their possessions in order to meet each other's needs. (Acts 4:34-35)

Acts 5:12-6:7

And you see the same setup here in today’s passage. If you go into Acts, chapter five, there is more evangelism. There is more preaching the word. There is more disciple-making. It says in Acts 5:14, “And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women” (Acts 5:14). And then in Acts 5, verse 25, after the apostles had been released from prison, it says in reference to them, “The men [i.e., the apostles] whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.” (Acts 5:25) And then the end of chapter five, verse 42, says, “And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they [the apostles] did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.” (Acts 5:42) And then chapter six begins: “Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number”. So again you see that emphasis on preaching the gospel and making new disciples. The church is growing. The gospel is on the move.

But now, instead of another nice little summary passage about how wonderful things were, in this case, the author, Luke, calls our attention to, ‘Oh, there was a problem, there was a trouble, there were some unmet needs.’ So this passage today, it's just a great opportunity for us to make sure that we are embodying the whole package.

The gospel shapes people into a community of love

And I want to say one more thing before I get into the text. How can the gospel message that we proclaim not produce and lead to a community that is characterized by love? This gospel that they are proclaiming, this gospel that the apostles feel compelled to keep proclaiming (Acts 6:2-4), is about a Father who so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) And that Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, loved us and gave Himself for us (Ephesians 5:2), and “bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24), and rose from the dead on the third day and ascended into heaven, and from the Father's right hand he poured out the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and the Son. The Spirit of love and the Spirit of holiness comes rushing into our lives when we receive the gospel. To not be a community characterized by love, grace, and generosity would be to profoundly contradict the very message that we proclaim.

So all of these things (passion for God’s mission and compassionate care for God’s people) belong together.

WE MUST RECOGNIZE WHERE THERE ARE GAPS OR UNMET NEEDS WITHIN OUR CONGREGATION (v. 1b)

So as we look at this passage, I just want to begin by looking at the rest of verse one and by saying this: we must recognize when there are gaps or unmet needs within our congregation. I'm going to use the word ‘matter’ or ‘matters’ a lot in the sermon because some things really matter in this text that we need to see and understand.

Complaints matter

And the first thing that I want to say is that complaints matter. A complaint arose. A complaint – you could think of it like that pain in your body that alerts you to the fact that something is wrong, something needs attention.

Now we have to be careful here because we know that there is some other instruction in the Bible that tells us that there ought to be no complaining or murmuring or grumbling among us. And yet here there is a complaint, and there's no indication, there's no suggestion, that the voicing of this complaint is in any way inappropriate. And so you have to think through how does this fit together? And in my thinking about it, here's kind of maybe a helpful way to think of it.

When there's complaining or murmuring or grumbling that arises from a heart that is not trusting God, not waiting patiently on the Lord, and with no capacity to be patient and gracious toward your brothers and sisters, that kind of complaining is really unhealthy, right? Like it says in Philippians 2:14, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing” (Philippians 2:14).

But this is another kind of complaining in Acts 6:1. There is a way of walking with the Lord, trusting in him, being kind to each other, but then you see something taking place within the body. You see something that's not right, something is being neglected, something is being done that shouldn't be done, or something isn't being done that should be done, and you give voice to that in a respectful manner that is entirely appropriate. And so, Christians – and leaders in particular – should not try to silence or shut down the legitimate complaints in the name of the prohibition on other complaints that arise from not trusting God. We need to hear the complaints of those who are walking with God, but they see something that's not right and they're calling our attention to it. So complaints matter.

People matter

So the next thing I want to say is that people matter. Notice that “a complaint by the Hellenistsarose against the Hebrews” (italics added). Now we're talking about the church here. At this particular juncture, the church, the early church, consists mainly of Jews who had come to put their faith in Jesus. And the Hellenists were Greek-speaking Jews and they were more affected by Greek culture. Some of them, if not all of them, may have actually been part of that group that had lived elsewhere before returning to Jerusalem – they would have lived in other parts of the world. And then the Hebrews would have been the Aramaic-speaking Jews who were probably more rooted locally right there in Jerusalem. So you have these two subgroups. Now we don't know enough information to draw any big conclusions here. We can't say that there was any kind of systematic prejudice. There's certainly no indication that there's any kind of malice. But nevertheless, it helps us to appreciate the fact that within a body of believers, there's all kinds of different groupings of people. And sometimes just an individual is neglected, but sometimes a group of people is neglected.

And neglect can happen along all kinds of lines. Rich and poor, you know, insider or outsider, long-termer or short-termer, you know, more cultured and educated or less cultured and educated – there can be those kinds of divisions that can take place within the body. And we just need to remember that we are one body in Christ. In Christ, there is no Greek and Jew, there is no rich or poor, there is no barbarian or Scythian or slave or free (Colossians 3:11). We're all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28). And so no one should be neglected or overlooked. Everyone matters.

Widows matter

The third thing I want to say, still in verse one, is that widows matter. There's a significant emphasis all throughout the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, of how important it is to care for widows (e.g., James 1:27). And even if widows were, generally speaking, more vulnerable in the ancient world than they are in our modern Western world, the fact remains that widows are often among the most vulnerable people, one way or another. And the Bible calls us to have a special heart for those who are the most vulnerable. Children, especially orphans, widows, widowers, sojourners, outsiders. We must have a special place in our heart for those who are vulnerable, because those who are vulnerable have less access to the resources of the community, which is why it's imperative upon us that we go out of our way to bring those resources to them.

Meeting practical needs matters

Finally, still looking at verse one, meeting practical needs matters. There was a daily distribution of food to meet the needs of vulnerable people within the community. And the New Testament, over and over again, calls us to be rich in good works, to demonstrate our faith in works of love and to meet pressing needs, and to help our brothers and sisters out in practical ways.

Neglect is a big deal

So neglect in these things – having unmet needs – is a big deal. Don't forget what Acts chapter two and chapter four had told us about this early church. And also remember the size of the church here in Acts 6 – it is in the thousands. We're a couple hundred people and that can be difficult enough to pay attention to and meet everyone's needs. This church in the book of Acts is numbering in the thousands. Just think about the logistical and communication challenges associated with that.

But don't forget what we were told in Acts, chapter 2. Acts 2:45 says, “And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.” (Acts 2:45) Then look over In Acts chapter 4, verses 34 and 35. It says, “There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.” (Acts 4:34-35) The problem in Acts chapter six is not that they were uncaring. This was a caring, gracious, and generous community. The problem was more in the vein of the administrative or the logistical of actually delivering the help, which was willing to be given, and to actually get it to where it was needed.

So when you have a community in which there is this genuine care and mutual service, and then you realize, ‘Oh, wait a minute, there's a gap here, there's an unmet need here,’ then the natural response should be, ‘We need to fix this.’

WE MUST ADDRESS THE GAPS AND UNMET NEEDS WITHIN OUR CONGREGATION (v. 2-6)

And that brings us to verses two to six. We must not only recognize the gaps or unmet needs within our congregation. We must then address the gaps and unmet needs within our congregation.

Good leadership matters

And as we begin to look here, verses two to six, I want to begin by saying that good leadership matters. The apostles demonstrate very effective leadership here.

First of all, they take the lead in “[summoning] the full number of the disciples” (v. 2) in order to communicate with them about this problem that is before them.

Second, these apostles are also resolved to maintain their own God-given priorities (v. 2, 4). They have been commissioned especially to preach the gospel, to the ministry of prayer and the service of the Word. And they were determined to remain faithful to their commission. And by the way, like you saw in the passage that I just read from Acts chapter 4, these apostles were loving leaders. And back in Acts chapter four, verses 34-35, they were actually involved in the distribution of benevolence funds and charitable resources for those who needed it in the body. And there was nothing wrong with the fact that they were involved in that in chapter four. But sometimes you get to a point where, ‘Oh, now it's too much, or this additional level of administrative responsibility would detract us from our primary calling and therefore it wouldn't be wise for us to do it.’ So they have an understanding of their own priorities.

A third way that they demonstrate good leadership is by involving others in the solution (v. 2-3). They don't obviously just do it themselves. And they also just don't push their solution upon others, but they actually invite the congregation to participate in a process that would ultimately lead to the appointment of seven men to administrate these practical needs.

And then finally, they demonstrate good leadership by empowering others to serve (v. 6). Once the congregation has selected the seven, the apostles pray for them, lay their hands on them, bless them, and commission them to the work.

The congregation matters

I also want you to see, in looking at verses two to six, that the congregation matters. Here at South Parish Baptist Church, we are elder-led congregationalists. That means that we do recognize that there is a leadership role that the Bible assigns to elders in terms of teaching and shepherding the flock and setting an example. But we're also congregationalist in recognizing that some of the responsibilities in the New Testament God assigns to the local church as a whole, to the entire membership. And here you have an actual example of the congregation taking ownership of the problem and working toward a solution. They are summoned and they come in verse two.

They obviously listened to the proposal that's being made by the apostles, and then it says in verse five that they were “pleased”. They were all pleased – “what they [the apostles] said pleased the whole gathering” (v. 5). What a beautiful picture. They were obviously on the same page. That's not always going to be the case – and that's okay, you work through that. But here there is a beautiful unity within the body of Christ and within the sense of what the priorities were. And so they were pleased with what the apostles had said.

And then they proceeded to enact the decision to select seven men to serve in this way (v. 5-6). So the congregation matters.

Servants who serve tables matter

And then I also want you to see that the servants – you might call them the seven – these seven men, these servants who are serving tables, matter.

And I really want you to see this because this sometimes rubs against the grain of our thinking when we begin to rank things in an unhealthy way.

So I want you to notice what it says in verse two. The apostles say, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.” Think about that phrase: “serve tables”. And then in verse four it says: “we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” Now the Greek word translated “ministry” in verse four is almost the same Greek word that is translated “serve” in verse two. There are those who serve tables, and there are those who serve the Word. There are those who minister to practical needs (the ministry of tables), and there are those who minister to spiritual needs (the ministry of the Word).

But what I want you to notice is how the apostles reasoned that the sort of men who ought to be doing the serving tables and the meeting of practical needs are not just like pragmatically-minded men who can do the work. No, what kind of men ought to be doing the serving of tables? Well, they say in verse three that such servants must have a good reputation, “full of the Spirit and of wisdom”. You can't look into someone's heart and say, ‘Well, you obviously have the Holy Spirit and you're obviously full of wisdom.’ But there are people who are demonstrating being under the controlling influence of the Holy Spirit: they are walking with the Lord, they are trusting God, they are demonstrating love, and when they open their mouth, they say helpful and constructive and biblical and edifying things. And that's the sort of people who, frankly, should be serving in any capacity. Because in our service we're always interacting with people and we want to be bringing people encouragement, edification and care. And that requires that we ourselves are keeping in step with the Holy Spirit.

And so when the apostles pray and lay their hands on the seven – sometimes the seven are thought of as the first deacons, and maybe that's a good way of thinking of it, and maybe it's not – but when the apostles laid their hands on these seven, they were blessing the work of God in their midst. For the same Spirit of God who would be empowering the apostles to preach the Word, that same Holy Spirit would be empowering the seven to care practically for the widows who were being neglected.

LESSONS FOR APPLICATION

So as we think about applying this passage into our own church family, keep in mind that this passage is not a how-to manual, as if this is exactly how you do it every time there is a legitimate complain. Rather, Luke, the author, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is painting a picture of a healthy church, which he's been doing all along. He is painting a picture of how a healthy church manages a particular conflict or complaint that arises in their midst.

Teamwork

And first of all, just notice the teamwork. You have the advocates in verse one. Some of the Hellenists were advocating for their widows. They were advocates. Then you had a number of people within the body of believers who were providing the resources that made it possible to have a daily distribution of food – and we've learned about that in earlier chapters, how generous the community was in providing the resources. Then you have the twelve apostles, you have the seven servants, and you have the whole body of believers. There's this wonderful teamwork within the body of Christ.

And when John was praying this morning, he was thanking God for the team of seven that they have as a youth group leadership team. Yesterday, the elders and deacons met over at Tim's house for a morning retreat. We spent four hours together, we ate together, and we reflected on the Lord's work within our congregation, and we were thinking strategically and tactically about how to steward the work of God in our midst. And it was so good to be together and to be walking together as brothers in the work of the Lord. And as you look around this congregation, there are so many people who are serving in various ways. And that's really important because ultimately we want people to be well cared for. John and the youth group team, they want those youth to be well cared for and to be nourished and strengthened in their walk and to be given opportunities to serve. And that sort of thing is going on all throughout the congregation. Charlotta and the Vacation Bible School team, they ultimately want to bless and encourage and instruct those children who come to Vacation Bible School. It's always about loving people, and loving people well requires teamwork.

Communication

But teamwork also requires communication. And that's another thing that's going on in this text. I didn't directly call attention to it until now, but communication is what's happening here. Certain people are communicating a complaint, and it's heard and processed. And then the apostles are communicating to the whole body of believers. And somehow – we don't know how, we don't know the logistics here – but somehow the whole body of believers communicated among themselves to determine that these seven men should be appointed to this task. And then they communicated that information back to the apostles.

And one of the things we were talking about yesterday as elders and deacons was how important the communication pipeline is. You know, sometimes people get frustrated because you tell someone something, and you'd like something to be done about it, and nothing gets done about it. It just seems like it falls on deaf ears. And there's all kinds of reasons why that happens, but one reason it happens is because there's not a good communication pipeline in which information is going to the right people who can actually do something about it. And just over the past couple weeks, there's been a couple issues within our church family where certain families have needs, and I have referred those needs to the deacons, not with the understanding that they're necessarily going to do everything, but that they're going to be attentive to those needs. They are going to follow up with those people and see how we as a church family can help. And maybe some of you will be called upon and given the opportunity to help meet those practical needs in the family.

Jeremy, just over the past couple weeks, communicated to us as a church so that we could get connected to Abel and Jody. And what a blessing it was that we were able to get connected to Abel and Jody over the last couple weeks of Abel's life before he passed away this past Thursday. And now we have an open line of communication with Jody to minister to her.

This is very important because sometimes as an individual, you might feel outside of the church's care, outside of the church's benevolence fund resources, outside of the church's home groups, life groups, Bible studies, prayer groups. You might say, ‘Oh, I hear about all these wonderful things going on, but I feel disconnected from that, on the outside of that.’ Or maybe you feel outside of – you know, ‘Hey, I hear that some people are receiving counseling and some people are being mentored and some people are being discipled, but I'm not.’ So it's very easy for certain individuals to feel like they're on the outside of the church's care, on the outside of the church's ministry. And you might know that somebody else is on the outside of the church's care and the church's ministry. And maybe you're supposed to speak up, maybe you're supposed to put that information into the communication pipeline so that someone can take action, in order to draw one more person a little bit more into the church's care.

Good teamwork and good communication for the sake of demonstrating practical care to people.

And the final thing I'm going to say is this: a caring church is the only kind of church worth growing. If what is talked about in verses two to six completely falls apart, and there's not good communication and there's not good teamwork, and there's not mutual love for one another, and there's not generosity and there's not sacrifice, then what's the point of going back out onto the streets (as we see in verse 7) and trying to draw more people into a dysfunctional community that doesn't know how to love one another. Do you see? Let's be the kind of community that is worth inviting more people into.

Let me pray.

Father, I pray that you would take these words and that you would stir our hearts to trust you, to love one another, to take the life and the resources and the gifts that you have given us, and that you would pour them out both for the advance of the gospel and making more disciples, but also to love and care for one another and encourage and disciple one another in really practical ways. I pray that you would build this kind of spiritual community and loving community in our very midst. I pray in Jesus’ name, amen.