Sunday: The Appointment of the Seven
Read Acts 6:1. What was the complaint of the Hellenistic believers?
“The cause of complaint was an alleged neglect of the Greek widows in the daily distribution of assistance. Any inequality would have been contrary to the spirit of the gospel, yet Satan had succeeded in arousing suspicion.
The Appointment of the Seven
Prompt measures must now be taken to remove all occasion for dissatisfaction, lest the enemy triumph in his effort to bring about a division among the believers.”—Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 88.
The solution proposed by the apostles was that the Jews choose seven men from among themselves to “serve [diakoneo] tables” (Acts 6:2), while they would spend their time in prayer and the “ministry [diakonia] of the word” (Acts 6:4). Since diakoneo and diakoniabelong to the same word-group, the only real difference is between “tables” in Acts 6:2 and “the word” in Acts 6:4. This, together with the adjective “daily” (Acts 6:1), seems to point to the two main elements of the early church’s daily life: teaching (“the word”) and fellowship (“tables”), the latter consisting of the communal meal, the Lord’s Supper, and prayers (Acts 2:42, Acts 2:46; Acts 5:42).
That is, as the authoritative trustees of Jesus’ teachings, the apostles would occupy themselves mostly with the believers’ doctrinal teaching and with prayer, while the Seven would be in charge of the fellowship activities, in the several house-churches. Their duties, however, were not limited to those of deacons as this term is understood today. They were in fact the first congregation leaders of the church.
Read Acts 6:2-6. How were the Seven chosen and commissioned to service?
The candidates were to be distinguished by moral, spiritual, and practical qualities: they should have an honorable reputation and be filled with the Spirit and wisdom. With the community’s approval, the Seven were selected and then commissioned through prayer and laying on of hands. The rite seems to indicate public recognition and the bestowal of authority to work as deacons.
| It’s so easy to sow dissension in the ranks, isn’t it? How can we do all in our God-given power to keep peace among us and to focus on mission? |
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Satan had tried to infiltrate the church by the unconverted minds of
Ananias and Sapphira
when it did not work, he fell back into his age old scheme of divide and conquer. He knew a house divided cannot stand against itself.
He begins the quarrel inside the church. He forgot the church was God's treasured possession. Christ will guard it as a Jealous husband. The twelve GATHERED the disciples together and brought a proposal that pleased the whole group. Scheme of division broken God's people triumphed.
Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
Indeed the devil knows all the possible tricks to make man miss out heaven,,,,May we always seek the holyspirit's guidance
Looking for Scriptural confirmation that the early church daily kept the "Lord's Supper!" Not there! Why is this in a Seventh-day Adventist Sabbath School Lesson?
Good point Daniel. It is interesting how this lesson includes in two main daily elements a "Third Item," being "The Lords Supper." I myself see no "Scriptural support for this." Jesus Himself started the Lord's supper based on something that His People "The Jews," celebrated only once a year. It was at the Passover feast (A Once A Year Event,) that Jesus institutes this celebration. Therefore, I doubt very much that the Early Christians were celebrating this event on a daily basis.
Theological scholars are divided on the interpretation of Acts 2: 42, 46. F F Bruce indicates that it refers to the celebration of the Lord's supper, while others prefer to think of it as simply communal meals. I don't think it matters much either way. There is no clear indication in the Bible of how frequently the Lord's supper should be celebrated and perhaps it would do well for us to consider the purpose rather than the frequency.
There is no Biblical precedent for holding the service quarterly either and I think that scheduled services often lack meaningfulness as a result. Certainly, the most memorable communion services I have experienced have been the "surprise" ones where it was part of something rather special. The celebration of the Lord's supper is something we should probably think about a bit more.
How to keep peace? I believe Paul gave excellent counsel in Eph 4:2,3 didn't he? Don't we follow this when taking upon us the yoke of Jesus, who is "meek and lowly of heart"? When this peace among brethren is lacking, so must be also the lack of taking the yoke Jesus offers all.
I wonder, how many churches utilize the role of deacon as in the days of the apostles? How many are still careful concerning the character of these men?
Visited a church in another state many years ago, where the sermon was given by a local deacon. Oh that more pastors could preach the gospel with such conviction and power.
If seems to me that today's church's sense of what it is to be a deacon is quite different from those days! But this is not the deacon's fault, it is the whole church's! There is a cultural moviment towards the "respect of individuality", and strict space (normally confined to the worship services) for regular basis social church members interaction - which means that much of the sense of communion practiced in those days are just theoretical! (Perhaps maintained somehow by the traditional sabbath's potluck!)
In order to be ready for the Spirit's latter rain we need to restore the same atitudes of this first group of christians! We need to stop being church friends only. We do not need to get info each other's business, but we need to get truly involved in love as our fathers did! This can be possible when we decide so. God sees the heart that decides to act! And there are special blessings to those who act!
Because obedience is related with "doing, or willing to do, what you have been told"... And "to obey is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22)!
Are we playing of being christians or we really are christians?
This conflict reminds me of the discussion last week about giving to those in need. Here is an example of a conflict that arose regarding the inequality of the distribution of goods.
The apostles under the guidance of the Holy Spirit were able to quickly resolve the issue. All were cared for in the resolution. This is not always the case in present day conflicts.
The promise God gives in Psalm 32:8, that He would guide and instruct us in the way we should go, would help us to resolve similar issues today.
In order to receive the promise we must surrender our Laodicean ideas and wholly accept God’s way. That will be an expression of the miraculous working of the Holy Ghost in us. It will be of the same character of the miraculous transformation that took place in the minds and hearts of the disciples so that by the power of God they were living and acting on one accord in the early church.
You wrote: "This is not always the case in present-day conflicts." It was not always the case in the early Church either. The conflict over the circumcision of the Gentiles took a lot longer to resolve, and in the minds of some, it was never resolved.
I agree wholeheartedly with you. Each conflict revolved around different issues.
Sometimes we develop and incorporate religious practices that give a sense of goodness, peculiarity or even rightness that isn't grounded in Biblical truth. I believe conflicts arising from those beliefs or practices may be more difficult and take more time to resolve.
I'm not saying every issue will be easily resolved I'm saying this particular issue involving giving was resolved in a short time because they were open to the wisdom of the Spirit of God.
And perhaps; some of the things that we argue about passionately are not as important as we think they are. I have lived long enough to see that the way we argue is often more divisive than the argument itself.
Same here..I agree..
May God always help us sort out differences which arise among us according to our different backgrounds especially in this place where iam
It is very interesting that in Acts 6:2-6 there is nothing there indicating that God was pleased with this decision. It just simply indicates that the decision of the twelve was pleasing to "The whole multitude." Why did there have to be a division of "Spiritual Leadership?" And why did the twelve indicate that "Serving Tables," was not in accordance with "The Ministry Of The Word?" Did not Jesus (The Word,) say to "Feed the Hungry?" as part of that ministry?
In Exodus 18 we have the story of Jethro, Zipporah's Father, coming to visit Moses. He spends a day with Moses and realises that he is overworked and needs to delegate some of his duties to others. He sets out a plan so that the work of ruling the people was distributed and Moses only had to judge the most difficult cases. Nowhere in that chapter is it said that God was pleased with the decision either.
We cannot use the absence of a particular phrase or idea from the Bible as being significant. God can give people really good ideas - that is part of the way the Holy Spirit works.
Now there seems to be a significant difference between what a Deacon is and what an Elder is. I do not think that this difference was ever meant to be in the division of spiritual leadership that occurred in the Book of Acts. Now deacons just seem to be the ones that just pick up the offering on Sabbath Services and that also distribute the Communion Service Emblems on Communion Service Sabbaths and they do not do much, if any other type of physical work at all. And Elders just seem to be the ones that can Preach and visit Church members. In the Book of Acts, The Deacons seemed to have been the ones that did more evangelizing than the elders did after the Deacons were set apart.
The duties of the Deacons and Elders in NAD seem to be as you have indicated. In Africa, especially the poor churches their duties include cleaning the church, literally preparing the elements of the Lord's supper, baptism , preaching , visiting the sick etc
An elder in your church should grab a decon or lay member by the hand, or a lay member or decon grab the elder by the hand and go out visiting the members, infrequent members, widows, shut in's, and the poor.
Well, where I come from Deacon's do assist elders by preaching in church, visiting the backsliders from home to home, they clean the church everytime after a service, they assist pastors during baptism etc