Acts 6 The Grind of Grace (Mon 8/24)

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The Grind of Grace

It is one thing to put on one fundraiser concert for the homeless people over christmas, its another thing to invite them over every day for dinner. It is one thing to give someone a buck on the way to work, its another thing to give a buck every day on the way to work. The church of Jerusalem has been in the grind of showing grace to those who need it for nearly 5 years. The arrest and release of Peter was distant history, and now, they are well on their way in establishing the church in Jerusalem. More so, they were facing the day-in-day out of being a source of redemption for their community. The apostles will be pressed to start making some fundamental administrative positions.

V1

As it always goes – work, church, home. People feel misunderstood and neglected. It seems that the situation was inevitable. The Hellenistic widows were many. They had moved from the meditterean to live out their waning years in the “holy city” – much like Florida. The Hebrew Jews on the other hand were well connected and informed about the goings on. They had lived there all their life. Of course the local Hebrew widow "Sarah" would be remembered more than widow "Dionysis" who just moved in from Gaul last week. And that’s exactly what happened. Widows were put on a list When it came to serving (Acts 4:35), the Jewish woman was recognized quicker and serviced faster than the Hellenized woman. Paul seems to work on this issue a little more in 1 Tim 5:1-9. Essentially, he sets up parameters on how the church is to provide for the money and resources of a widow.

V2

The apostles are charged with the duty of taking care of the situation. What a sticky situation. They could handle it so well. And so there response is genius. But what do you think of their response?

Should leaders – apostles, pastors, etc be committed to spending their time praying and studying the word? Do you agree? Do you not agree?

Their response is genius in my book. Sometimes leaders choose volunteers or other employees with the idea that they are less than – less than spiritual, less than educated, less than influential. The apostles order that a person “full of the Spirit and wisdom” be given the job. We have some pretty important roles in Koiné Uptown. I call them our be healed point person, behold point person and be tribal point person. These are not throw away roles at all!! It would be stupid as a leader to empower just anyone to own these responsibilities. They have to – as it says in the text, show some wisdom in that particular area. And they also need to be someone that God has ordained for such a task.

If the apostles are going to give away the ministry, let it be done in such a way that it doesn’t create more distance between the “professional” and “people”. The best way to do that is to take every role seriously, and raise the bar so that if someone wants to serve, it is not a service given lightly.

That's what I got today.

Peace

Kevin