The First Church Complaint- Acts 6:1-4

Original Photo posted to Flikr under creative commons license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

"You get what you get and you don't throw a fit."

That's a line that I've stolen from my mother-in-law. I'm not sure if it's original to her or not (she's an elementary school teacher!) But we use the line at my house all of the time!

It would be tempting to simply use that line any time we field complaints in any area of life, wouldn't it? I'm sure that most of our complaints should be responded to with that line. But occasionally, as we all know, there really is a legitimate complaint that needs to be dealt with. Such is the case in churches from time to time now and it was also the case in the church all the way back in Acts 6.

The situation was spelled out plainly enough in verse 1 and of course it centered around the fact that someone felt they were being neglected. In this case, it was an entire group of widows. The church had apparently already developed somewhat of a division. Not in that there was a lack of unity in Christ, but simply a language barrier. The Hellenistic Jews were most likely the Jews of the diaspora, those who lived in different places all over the world. Because of that, they would have spoken Greek as their primary language. The Hebraic Jews, on the other hand, who most likely were from the Palestine area, would have been familiar with Greek and comfortable with it, but would have spoken Hebrew or more likely Aramaic as their primary language. If you have ever worshiped in a bilingual service or been a part of a congregation with a ministry to a population that speaks little or no English, then you will understand this natural...and frustrating...division completely.

Whether by chance or by design, the Greek speaking Jewish, now Christian, widows were being neglected by the church who was working to take care of those incapable of taking care of themselves. What we don't know was whether the apostles had previously been directly responsible for this ministry. We do know that the Christians would give their donations to the apostles directly and then "they would be distributed to each as any had need" (Acts 4:35).

In truth, it doesn't matter if the apostles had previously been directly responsible for distributing the aid or if they had already delegated that task. Since Acts 6 is a very obvious delegation of responsibility, it seems to me that they had been the ones rationing out the food and money. If that is so, then it's worth noting that even the inspired apostles had trouble keeping up with the demands and needs of a large group of Christians!! If that was the case from the very beginning with the men who had  a miraculous indwelling of the Holy Spirit, then perhaps we should not be quite so surprised or offended today when preachers and/or elders allow something or someone to slip through the organizational cracks!

More importantly, though, no matter who was originally responsible for passing out the food, we can learn a few principles that definitely need to be applied today:

1. In order for a church to do its work, there has to be MANY people who are "full of the Spirit and of wisdom" who are willing to work and take initiative to minister. It is not hard to see in most congregations that too many of us are content to allow the Elders, and preachers, and the really high driven deacons to do the bulk of the work in the church. But I want you to think about something. Think about the ministries that your congregation is involved in and think about the ones that have the most passion behind them and seem to be the most beneficial and effective. Isn't it true that the ministries that really work are initiated and led by members who see a need and have the desire to fill it!?
2. In order for your personal ministry to be effective, you might need to narrow your focus. I am so thankful that the apostles were wise enough and Spirit-filled enough to recognize that if they simply "worked harder" in order to satisfy the legitimate concerns of the church, they would be neglecting the primary work that God had laid out for them. They were called to be witnesses and evangelists because of what they had seen and heard. Therefore, they recognized that it "wouldn't be right to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables." Did that mean that waiting on tables was beneath them or of less importance? Absolutely not! After all, the disciples of Christ were supposed to have been known for their love for each other! (John 13:34-35) But the truth is that we all are the have different roles in the body of Christ. If they had neglected their role to do someone else's, would God have been glorified and the kingdom of heaven advanced like it was?

I was so thankful to hear our elders a couple of months ago announce that they were working on plans to give more responsibilities to deacons in order for them to be free to do more of the work of shepherding. Is the work of the deacon any less important than the work of the shepherd or of the evangelist/preacher? Absolutely not! They go hand in hand and the complement each other! But the truth is that without multiple people to fill different individual roles, then evangelism will shrink backto nothing, programs will be dropped, people will be neglected, and people's souls will stagnate and fall away because too few people would be trying to do too much work!

What need have you recognized in your church and/or your community and/or the world? What do you think needs to be done about it? Can you guess who the best person is to do it!? Recruit someone else to help you out and light a fire under them for the work, but don't take a great idea to someone who is already ministering in their own great ideas and drop your great idea on them for either their work or yours to die! Take the initiative and be the answer to your complaint!!

May we be a people who is willing to work! May we be a people who is courageous enough to call others to work! May we be a people who takes initiative! May we be a people who is neither neglectful of the ministry of the word and of prayer nor the ministries of waiting on tables!

And may God be glorified through it all!

Bird Food- Matthew 6:26

original photo by flickr user marfis75

I have never in my life been in a position where I was really unsure where the next meal was coming from. The greatest worry about food that I have ever really had was more about what kind of food I would have than if I would have food. I guess the only semi-real exception to that would have been my honeymoon.

Here's the cliff notes version of the story. If you are not already 25 years old and don't have a credit card, you can forget about renting a car. That's not such a big deal until you are in a villa in St. Croix with nothing in walking distance that you can get to! I spent all week begging car rental companies to let me rent a car to no avail. Amber and I lived off of peanut butter and ramen noodles for about half the week until we ran out. Then we really got desperate! To keep a long story short, we finally called enough restaurants that we found one we begged to deliver some food to us for a generous tip. That was the best pizza, fruit bowl, salad, sub sandwiches, (and I can't remember what else!) we had ever eaten!

The truth is that my worst "hunger" story was when I was on my honeymoon in the Caribbean and it ended with us feasting! I really don't think that qualifies me to speak on trusting God when so many in the world really are worried about where the money will come from to feed their children the next day.

But I do know this. When mistakes that I had made in the past really came back to haunt me and my relationships, I was laying on a hammock at my in-laws house worrying about how to fix all the things I had broken. I had done everything I knew to do, and it was completely out of my hands at that point. The damage had been done. I was sick at my stomach with regret and worry about the future. And then I looked over and saw some birds hopping on the ground and this verse came to mind. I wasn't worried about a meal; I was worried about a relationship, but the message was the same. God takes care of the birds. According to Jesus, I am more valuable than the birds. God will take care of me. That was the first time I felt peace about the situation since it had blown up months before. And guess what. God brought me through that time and has many more as well.

I love the Matthew 6:26 and I trust it. Even if I trust it from a different angle because so far I have never experienced the kind of poverty that really is concerned with basic necessities. What about you? What are you worried about? Have you done what you can about it? Are you a child of God? Then trust that your heavenly Father really is your heavenly Father!

...And as a side note with a completely different focus, but it has to be said in light of the only "food worry" story I have experienced.....Christians who are so blessed, can we please stop complaining about the food in the cafeteria or at the restaurant!? Can we please stop using the phrase "I'm starving!" when what we really mean is "I ate a light breakfast and my tummy is rumbling at 12:25"!? Can we please thank God that he has provided for us just as he provides for all of His creation. And He has provided for us to the point that we are so free from real worries that our drive to be anxious has to find stuff like how long it takes the waiter to get our food to us and which meat have I already eaten three times this week to worry about instead!

May we stop worrying altogether about the things that we call worries but that are really just complaints about blessings. And may we trust God's fatherly love and omnipotent power enough to stop worrying about the things that could legitimately be worrisome.

After all, "are you not much more valuable [to God] than [the birds]?"

Do you really believe enough to quit complaining? Matthew 5:10-12

"Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

- Matthew 5:10-12

!!!HYPOCRISY ALERT!!!

Warning! I am about to write an entire post about something I don't really believe! Please continue reading with the understanding that the author is a big hypocrite in this area.

Before I'm labeled as a heretic that doesn't believe the words of Jesus, let me explain! My head believes it absolutely...my heart and my emotions just haven't quite caught up yet. I'm praying that one day they will!

Do you remember what happened the first time Peter and the apostles were arrested and beaten for preaching about Jesus? You can read about it in Acts 5. Here's the cliff's notes version. Peter and the rest refused to obey the religious leaders and quit talking about Jesus because obeying God was more important to them (Acts 5:29).   Gamaliel, an incredibly well-respected Jewish leader, convinced the other leaders that they needed to let Peter and the others go because, after all, they might be wrong about Jesus not being from God. If it Jesus was from God, Gamaliel argued, you can't do anything about it anyway (Acts 5:39). And lo and behold, his argument won the day! But... just for good measure, they went ahead and flogged Peter and the others, anyway, and told them one more time to quit talking about Jesus!  

I think it's worth mentioning that a flogging for the Jews meant being hit 39 times with either a rod or some sort of pretty barbaric whip. Do you know why it was 39 times? Because the law only allowed 40 times for fear the person would die if they took too many more. To be sure they didn't violate the law by miscounting, they stopped at 39. Pretty considerate, huh?

And do you remember how much Peter complained about the hypocritical leaders beating him after acknowledging that they might be wrong and Peter might just be right about Jesus after all? Do you remember how the apostles told everyone in Jerusalem how unfair the council was therefore proving that people should listen to the apostles instead of the council? Do you remember that?

No, you don't. And here's why:

"So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ."   - Acts 5:41-42

 Wanna know the worst that anyone has ever done to me? They've talked about me behind my back, assigned false motives for different decisions that I've made and twisted my words to say what they wanted them to say. Wanna know my reaction? I felt sorry for myself, complained to my wife, my dad, my brother, and my father-in-law, and eventually complained to God about it and asked God to fix the situation.

And that is why I have to admit that while I believe in my head that Jesus was telling the truth in the last beatitude above about being blessed if you are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, if I'm honest, I have a lot of trouble believing it enough to put it into practice the way Peter did. I feel very confident that when Peter left the council beaten and bloodied, the first words that went through his mind were those of Jesus saying, "Rejoice and be glad! For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you!" And Peter obeyed. He rejoiced and he kept at his work joyfully. I imagine it was a discipline for Peter to remind himself to rejoice instead of complain when he painfully rolled out of bed the next morning. I imagine it was difficult at first to train his mind to think, "Blessed am I!" instead of "woe is me!" each time his scabs were reopened. 

But I know that the same Holy Spirit that filled Peter and gave him enough strength and enough faith in Jesus' teachings to allow him to rejoice also fills me and offers the same strength and faith to me today. And he does the same for you if He is in you through Christ!

So how about it? What do you need to quit complaining and start rejoicing about today?