The Enemy is at work to destroy the church. He caused the
resistance from outside: persecution.
He caused resistance from inside: moral
decay of Ananias and Saphira. Now we see conflict from within the church: administration errors.
The church was growing. Things were going well! Then a
problem arose. People were giving lavishly to the care for one another, but
somehow the needy Greek speaking widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.
This is a major
problem seeing that ‘Religion that is
pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows
in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world’(James
1:27). The Lord CARES for widows. They matter. They couldn’t just let this
matter slide. This could mar the reputation of the church in the community in 2
ways: lack of care for the needy & racism in the community of faith! How
this problem was dealt with was of utmost significance.
So how would they solve this problem? This is where it gets
tricky. This is where we see the snake slither in with one of the sneakiest, slyest tactics
yet: perhaps the 12 apostles should add this to their plates. They are in fact
the ‘ministers’; shouldn’t they be the ones that care for their flock in this
way?
It sounds very much like someone brought this argument up
because in verse 2 we read the 12 disciples say ‘It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to
serve tables’ which is perhaps a response to a well-meaning disciple who
thought the apostles should do it all
(can you see this in the church today?!).
The response of the apostles shows great singularity of
focus. They knew their mission. They knew their calling and they were unwilling
to add other things to their plate. They were called to the Word of God and to
prayer.
In these 7 verses we learn a lot about the church. We learn
that the pastors/elders of a church are NOT called to do everything. In fact,
if they DO everything, the work of God through His Word will be hindered. We
see that people are called to different ministries and to serve the Lord and
the Church in different ways. Here we see that the 12 were called to the Word and
prayer and 7 deacons were chosen to take care of needs within the body. This
was an incredibly wise move by the apostles, and they were blessed for it. They kept their priorities in the Word and
prayer and verse 7 states ‘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.’
Could this have happened if the apostles neglected the word
and prayer to care for the needs of the widows instead? I don’t think so. It
was wise of the church to find godly men to care for others (see Acts 6:3) so
that the ministry of the Word could be a priority to those who were called to
it. We see great fruit in the church when the tyranny of the urgent does not
take precedence, but rather the main thing remains the main thing especially
when needs arise.
Practically this means for us: THE PASTORS ARE NOT CALLED TO
DO IT ALL. We need to be clear that their primary responsibility is to the Word
of God and prayer. Many pastors are so distracted by all the administrative and
care for others that prayer especially is sadly neglected. It is time for the
Body of Christ to rise up and each do the work it is called to. The pastor is
not called to be the hands, feet, heart, ears, mouth….we are ALL called to walk
out our gifting. If we fail to serve,
then perhaps that means that others are taking on more than their fair share
and THE MISSION OF GOD IS AFFECTED TO ITS DETRIMENT.
But, if we serve out of our strengths and walk out our gifting,
then the ministry of the word and prayer will not be neglected. When these
things remain a priority the word of God will continue to increase and bear the
fruit of disciples obedient to the faith.
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