Division in the Church - Widows Were Neglected - A Solution was Found

Alright, let's take our Bible. Let's turn to Acts chapter 6. Acts chapter 6. I think most of you know that that is where we are landing tonight because we wrapped up Acts chapter 5 last week and tonight we will be in verses 1 to 7. Now before we get into our verses and into the message, I want to point out that there are quite a few ways that people approach these verses. I will begin the message here and end the message here.

I will point out specifically four ways we can approach these verses and you may see these different approaches if you do some study on your own in your study bibles and some of your own materials that you have in your library. First, we can choose to make the main point of these verses about deacons. That might be some type of a heading above those verses in your Bible. Some teach that these men are chosen here. Some teach these are the first deacons listed in the New Testament. So they make these verses all about deacons and deacon ministry and even deacon qualifications.

Second, we can choose to make Stephen the focal point of these verses. Stephen singled out in verses 1 to 7 as a man full of faith and full of the Holy Spirit and along with Philip, Luke clearly singles Stephen out kind of above the rest of the men of those seven men that were chosen. And he did become the main character in the rest of chapter six and chapter seven. Chapter six and seven, Stephen is described as a very godly man who was used of God greatly to preach Christ and to defend the faith. He preached powerfully before the Jews and the high priest and was ultimately stoned for his witness for Christ.

And if we know our New Testament, we know that he was the first martyr of the faith seen in the New Testament, the book of Acts. And then third, we can choose to make the lack of organization and the reorganization of the church the main point of these verses. It is clear that a great lack of organization was at the heart of a great internal problem in the church. Within the church, a large group of widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food and the blame was laid at the feet of the apostles as it should have been.

From Acts 4 verse 35 and 37, we see that the money that was brought to the apostles to meet any legitimate physical needs in the church. But somehow, some way, the apostles were not making sure that those needs were met. Simply, they had a serious leadership and organizational problem. But then fourth, some choose to make the problem the main point of the verses. Right away, we clearly see a great potentially deadly internal problem was in this church. And this problem had several layers or sides that could have split this church wide open if it was not handled properly.

First, needy widows in the church who were being overlooked, that was obvious so that they were not receiving food. That could have split the church. Second, these were Hellenistic widows who have been overlooked. So this was cultural, some would say racial, but it really wasn't racial. That could have added to the split. And then third, the apostles were lacking or faltering in their leadership. So more than one angle, more than one issue relating to these problems could have split the church down the middle. Well, this leads me to how I want to approach the verses tonight. I think the main point of the verses is the internal problem.

That's the main point. And the leadership of the apostles, the reorganization of the church, and the appointment and the appointment of men like Stephen and others, those things are a part of the problem. They're a part of the resolution of the problem. Again, this is all about the problem. So I want us to see this great internal problem in the church that was brought out in the open. I want us to see the resolution that the apostles offered. And this was a resolution that the church as a whole accepted and followed. And then I want us to see the results. That's going to be our outline. First, the problem, verse 1.

Second, the resolution of the solution, verse 2 to 6. And then third, the results. It's really tagged on there with verse 7. Now before we read our verses, I want to make sure we're familiar with where we are here. I will not be exhaustive. Since Pentecost in Acts 2, we have seen the unbelievable growth and ministry success in the life of this church. Thousands had come to faith in Christ, and through the spiritual leadership of the apostles, the city of Jerusalem was being filled with the message that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah of God. Simply, the church in Jerusalem was growing by leaps and bounds. They were healthy in every way.

But we have seen that the road of church growth and ministry success was not smooth for this church and the leaders. So far, they had experienced two particular types of tests. The first type of tests they faced was external persecution, persecution from the Jews and the religious leaders. We have seen that they faced two rounds of persecution with the first back in chapter 4 and the second in chapter 5. We finished that up last week. And the second type of tests they faced was internal hypocrisy crept inside the church. Hippocritical giving from the hypocritical husband and wife team, Ananias and Sapphira, had come into the church.

And notice how the church and the apostles reacted to all of these tests. And all of these things, they remained true to the gospel. They remained true to the truth. They remained true to doing the work of the church God's way. And it was through God's leadership that these things took place. Think about it. If the apostles had not remained true and right in each of these tests, then the work of the church would have been compromised greatly. But now we come to another great test. And this is not from without like another round of persecution. We're going to get to persecution soon. But this test here was from within. And this is a new test.

The problems here in Acts 6 verses 1 to 7 were all about dissension and division that had come into the church. Let me repeat that. The problem and the problems, because it's more than one, here in Acts 6, 1 to 7, this is all about dissensions and divisions that have come into the church. A group in the church, the text says they were Hellenistic widows. They were being overlooked, even neglected, in a legitimate and very serious need. While another group, the native or the Palestinian Jewish widows, they were not. So dissension and division had come into the church and it was brought out right there in the first verse. Verse 1.

We'll see that. So let's read our verses and then we will really get into the message, get into the verses. Chapter 6, 1 to 7. Now in these days when the disciples were increasing, another phrase there that shows us the growth of the church. A complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. And the 12, that would be the apostles, 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.

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. But we will devote ourselves to prayer into the ministry of the Word 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, Parmenius, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles and they prayed and laid their hands on them. Verse 7.

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. Now I've already said how we will approach our verses but let me give you the outline again. First, I want us to see the problem in verse 1. And second, I want us to see the resolution or the solution to the problem and that is in verses 2 to 6. And then third, I want us to see the results, the results of all of these things. So number one, it's easy to see in verse 1 the problem that was in the church, the problem in the church.

Now verse 1 tells us quite a lot but within the church it was growing wonderfully, greatly, in a great way. A problem arose that could have had devastating effects. I've already said that. Simply one group of widows was being overlooked or neglected in the daily distribution of food while the other group was not. But let's look at who was being overlooked and who was not. The Hellenistic widows were being overlooked but who were the Hellenistic widows? They were Grecian Jews or Greek Jews.

They were not Greeks racially but Jews who lived outside of the land of Israel, who spoke the Greek language, and who lived in a Greek world with Greek or non-Jewish people. They were the Jews of the dispersion. There's a long history there about how so many Jews were dispersed into these non-Jewish lands. And scholars tell us that the Hellenistic Jews did not speak Hebrew or Aramaic. They used the Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint and they had embraced many things within Greek life and culture, unlike the Jews of the land of Israel who would have rejected Greek life and Greek culture.

And the scriptures as well as history tell us that there was a great division and a rivalry between the Hellenistic Jews and the native of the Palestinian Jews. And scholars in the scriptures tell us how these Hellenistic Jews became a part of the church. Historians tell us that many Hellenistic Jews had come to Israel and to settle in Israel. And Acts 2 tells us that many Hellenistic Jews had come to Israel, to Jerusalem, for Passover. And many of both of those groups, those who had relocated and those who were visiting for Pentecost, had converted to Christ through Peter's preaching.

So within the church here in Jerusalem where the Hellenistic Jews are the Greek speaking Greek Jews and the native Jews are Jews of Palestine who spoke Hebrew and Aramaic. Now scholars say that the majority of the church really would have been these native Jews. But a big problem arose along these lines. The Hellenistic widows were being neglected, overlooked for the daily distribution of food. Now I will not take too much time here but I want to point out just a few details. First of all, theirs was a legitimate need.

Scholars and historians tell us that if widows in their day did not have family to meet their physical needs, they were really in every way totally destitute. They had no social security system at all. So this was a legitimate need. Second, this was a biblical need. This was biblical in that the Old Testament gave clear instructions for the Jews to meet the needs of widows and orphans and those who were destitute in the land. Of course these believers were not under the Old Covenant but that Old Testament teaching certainly would have had a bearing on those Jews and how they saw these things.

Then third, this was a need that the apostles should have met. I touched on this. But in Acts 4, 35 and 36, we see that the apostles were responsible for the money given to meet the physical needs in the church. So if the money was brought to the apostles to meet needs like this and they were not met appropriately, then the blame lay at the feet of the apostles. But before we move on, I want to ask us a question and I want us to see the seriousness of this problem. Here's the question. If the apostles were responsible, were they sinful? Were they willful in their neglect? Were they somehow sinful? Think about that.

Now it does not appear that that was the case. It really seems that this was a problem that snuck up on them. It really seems that this was a problem that they had that they were clearly responsible for, but they were not willful. They were not necessarily neglectful, therefore sinful. The church was growing extremely fast and it would be safe to assume that back in Acts 4, the apostles were able to keep up with those physical needs, but many more had been added to the church since Acts 4. So it seems that the growth of the church brought on this problem and that the apostles simply could not keep up.

Some scholars say that these problems were just a part of what we would call growing pains. I think it's safe to make those assumptions. And there is a lesson here, and this is very, very important. In the church, we have to give pastors and elders and other leaders room and grace to make these kinds of mistakes. As the church grows and as the church changes, the congregation can expect growing pains, and they can expect problems that come out of what we would call growing pains. And when growing pains problems do come about, it's not necessarily fair to assume that the leaders are responsible for willful sin. Let me give you an example.

Years ago in our early days when we were experiencing the rebirth of an almost dead church, well when I went to Nola Baptist Church, there were those who had been there all along, and then as we began to grow there, these new people. So there were two individuals who were responsible for the money, and one was saying, "I'm old. I'm ready to turn this over to some of the new people." So I was trying to disciple some men to come alongside and to have a smooth transition from those who had been there to the new group of leaders that I believe God was raising up.

And that's a delicate thing to do because you never want to squash the old in favor of the new and vice versa. Well in the middle of that situation, we had a church discipline issue arise because there was a loophole in the financial system and someone was embezzling money. Well that came to my attention, me as well as some other men, addressed it. We recouped that money. We were able to stop the issue. We took care of it. It became a big church discipline issue. Well I did have a family accuse me of negligence. And I said, "Now hold on. I was taught in seminary pastor you never touch the church checkbook. I saw the church bank account.

I looked at everything with my hands behind my back. I was taught and I even got counsel. Pastor don't touch that church checkbook." I didn't know there was a loophole in that system. And I had someone accuse me over and over of being negligent and irresponsible. And I said, "You can't hold me accountable for that." I said, "Now had I known, I would have taken control as best I could. I would have gone against sound advice not to touch the checkbook." So what I'm trying to show you is this. There are times when leaders are not willful but these kinds of things happen. But let me continue. But look at the seriousness of this problem.

Satan was working to bring dissension and division into the church to divide and destroy the church. And this was a very real possibility. Had this division been allowed to grow into a sinful division, the church would have truly been split between the Hellenistic Jews and the native Palestinian Jews. Think about that. And if that had been the case, the church would have totally lost its opportunity to go out into the gentile world with the gospel. And that opportunity was right around the corner. Now I want to pause here. I want you to commit to an exercise. Look at these verses and what we have here.

And look in your Bible, in your own personal study time, and look at what happens with the persecution that breaks out next. God in his great good and providence used persecution to scatter the thousands of Jews from Jerusalem all over the gentile world. And had they not addressed this division properly, it could have ruined that ability to be scattered and used in the gentile world. And I think about it in comparison to what we see in so many situations in our community, in the South. It just seems like so many people in America and the church get mad. They leave the church and go start them another one.

They just split after split after split. I remember years ago I was counseling with a friend of mine, Ed Lacy. Many of you know Ed Lacy. He's passed on. He's with the Lord now. But he did mission work all over the world. And I said, "Brother Ed, why do we see this in America?" People get mad. They leave the church split. They split. They split. They start another church. He said, "Brother, that only happens in America and other places in the world. They just stay right there and they try to work it out." But look ahead at what we see and do some work here to see what they could have ruined. Now, a hypothetical.

How many churches have we seen not deal with divisions and dissension properly? And think about this. Maybe how many of them have ruined their opportunity to make an impact in a community because division ruined their witness. So there's much more I could say here. The problem in the church. Then number two, I want us to see the solution or the resolution that was offered by the apostles in verses two to six. The solution that was offered by the apostles. Now here I want to go back and read the verses. Verse two to six.

"And the twelfth," that's the apostles, "summoned the full number of the disciples." That would have to be the full number of the church. I don't quite see how they did it. "And said, 'It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute or reputation full of the spirit and wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And what they," this is the apostles, "said, 'Please the whole gathering.' And they chose Stephen.

They chose Philip, Percurious, Nicanor, Timon, Permanius, Nicholas." Verse six says, "And they set before the apostles and they prayed for them, laid their hands on them, and sent them into the work." Now, here we see the leadership of the apostles. And it is important to see that they were the spiritual leaders of the church. At this time, in the growth and the development of the church, elders had not yet come on the scene. So the church was being pastored and governed by the apostles. I guess we can say it like this. The church at Jerusalem had a plurality of elders. The apostles were those elders.

And notice how they led out in the problem. First, they called a churchwide meeting. The apostles did not meet in private to sort out the problem, and then they just tell the church their decision. Verse two says that they called the full number of the disciples together. Now, I don't know how they did that because this was a church of thousands. Second, they called on the church to solve the problem. You see that? They called on the church to solve the problem. In verse two to three, the apostles told the congregation that they did not have time to meet those physical needs. They could not give up ministering the word in prayer.

So they called the church to solve the problem by appointing seven men to meet the physical needs that they did not have time to meet. And then third, they called the church to appoint seven men to meet those needs. We see that in verse three. Here we see that the apostles called the congregation to appoint seven men, not women, to the responsibility and the service of feeding the widows. And this term served tables in verse two. This speaks of serving food. This speaks of waiting on tables. This speaks on about serving. And this could also speak to serving in relation to money. And notice that these were not just any men.

These were qualified men and the apostles laid out three qualifications. First, the men appointed were to be of good repute, the English standard says. This simply means good reputation. This means that they would have had a good reputation of being men of Christian character and Christian living inside the church and outside the church. Second, the men appointed were to be full of the Spirit. Now this does not necessarily mean that they were to be empowered to perform to perform great miracles. This simply means that they were to be known as men full of the Holy Spirit, controlled by the Holy Spirit, guided by the Holy Spirit in life.

Then third, they were to be men of wisdom. This means they were to be men of spiritual skill. They were to be men who had the ability to act skillfully in spiritual matters and spiritually skillful in physical matters. Now something that is very important to see here. We must learn the lesson of qualification. Qualifications. Biblical qualification and qualifications are commanded. These men were not appointed to preach or to govern the church. Notice that. They were appointed to serve or to wait on tables, but they were to be God qualified men as God expressed the qualifications. And the lesson here is this.

We must never overlook biblical qualifications when qualifications are given in the scripture for leaders. I think back to when we appointed two more elders in the life of the church and how I systematically, carefully taught on what elders were, taught on what elders do, and I taught on the qualifications. And I'm thankful someone in this room passed on a compliment saying that I was very methodical, I was very clear, and it was very obvious what the qualifications and the responsibilities were. And I'll say this right now and I'll say it again. We don't have deacons yet. I believe in deacon ministry and it's time.

And when that time comes, we will deal with what the deacon is, what the deacon does, but we will especially deal with the qualifications. Now before I move on, I want us to see how this played out. Verse 5 tells us that four of the men that were appointed were native Jews and three of the men appointed were Hellenistic Jews because this was a division between the Hellenistic Jews and the native Palestinian Jews. They appointed almost half Hellenistic Jews and half Palestinian Jews for the solution. Is that what the text says? Some of you who know were thinking already our pastor's gotten a ditch. That's not what the text says.

If we do study on our own, we will see that all seven of these men appointed had Greek names. Now the text does not say this, but it's like the entire church said something like this. The Hellenistic widows are being neglected. They're getting the raw end of the deal. So let's extend great grace and appoint all Hellenistic men who are clearly qualified to meet this need and to fix this problem. You see that? There is a lesson here for us when there is interpersonal conflict between brothers and sisters when at all possible extend an extra measure of grace. An extra measure of grace.

And by the way, interpersonal conflict between brothers and sisters is bound to happen. And in doing what they did, notice what took place. First, congregational governance was established. Congregational governance was established. Think about this. Here we see that the apostles, who certainly had apostolic authority over the church, in this situation they handed the church congregational governing authority and power. And then second, deaconservice was exemplified. Now if we are totally honest with the text, we will see that these men were never named or called deacons. The office of deacon is never mentioned in the verses.

We see that they served in deacon-like ministry. That would be attending to the physical needs in the life of the church, but they are never called deacons and the office of deacon is never mentioned. Warren Wiersby gives a good explanation here of this matter. And I'm quoting him. Wiersby says, "We commonly call these seven men of Acts 6 1 to 7 deacons because the Greek noun, diakonos, is used in Acts 6 1. And the verb to serve here is used in Acts 6 2. However, the title is not given to them in this chapter.

Although you find deacons mentioned in Philippians 1 1 and their qualifications given in 1 Timothy 3 8 to 13, the word simply means a servant. These men were humble servants of the church, men whose work made it possible for the apostles to carry out their important ministries among the people." Now I want to pause here and I want to make a couple of statements. We have a lot of deacons in the life of our church. I have told friends, pastor friends, that we don't have deacons and they'll gasp. They'll say, "Wow, how does anything get done?" And I'll say, "Oh, hold on. We've got a lot of people who serve.

We've got a lot of people who roll up their sleeves and work." And I see it. We have service going on in the life of the church, but we do need to establish the office of the deacon in our church and let God bring to the surface those who need to be in those positions officially. And then what we'll do is this. We'll just serve better. But then third, the apostolic ministry was protected. Look back at verses 3 to 5, but I want to focus on verse 4 and the beginning of verse 5. "Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the spirit of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we," who is that?

This is the apostles. "We will devote ourselves to prayer into the ministry of the word." And what they said, this is the apostles, "pleased the whole gathering." The whole church was pleased, so they chose the men. Now here we see that the apostles in the entire church protected the very important ministry of the apostles, and their ministry was a ministry of prayer and the word. The text says that this plan pleased the whole church so that the apostles were totally devoted to prayer into the ministry of the word in the church.

In this phrase in verse 4, "devote yourselves," the King James says, "we will give ourselves continually." This is a very, very important phrase. It's a very strong phrase in the original. In the original language, this speaks of a strong, intense, persevering, or an unwavering effort. This simply means that the apostles in the entire church expected that the apostles would be unwavering, totally committed to, completely committed to their commitment to the work of prayer and to the ministry of the word.

In this prayer would have been both private prayer and public prayer, and this ministry of the word would have been preaching and teaching the word in any and all circumstances in the life of the church. I like something that John MacArthur says here. It's real simple. He says, "prayer in the ministry of the word, those things are inseparably linked." And he goes on to say, and I'm quoting him here, "prayer must permeate the pastor's sermon preparation, or his sermons will be superficial and dry. He must also pray constantly that his people will apply the truths he teaches them.

The man of God must also pray that he will be a pure channel through which God's truth can flow to his congregation." Now I want to pause here and I want to be honest. When it comes to pastors and how they study and prepare sermons and messages, it's unique to the pastor. Every pastor that I know studies a little bit different, writes a little bit different, prepares a little bit different. But no matter the style or the approach, it is a spiritual exercise. I'm thankful that my office is in my home. There are times I miss having a church office, but I'm thankful that my office is in my home.

And when I'm studying to preach, it involves lots of study, it involves lots of meditation. And I'll be honest with you, there are lots of times I'll study, I'll study, I'll read, and I'll stand up and I'll say, "Lord, I can't get it." And I'll go to my prayer closet, I'll walk through the house, and I'm mulling over what I've been studying, I'm praying over it, I go back to the text, I go back to what some people say, I go back to commentaries, I go back to language study, I go back to the text. There are times when I'm writing my message, I preach from my manuscript.

I will write paragraphs and I'll meditate over what I'm saying, and I'll pray over those things, I'll get up. I'm searching for a word to capture what we're trying to look at, what I'm trying to explain. It is a spiritual exercise, it is lots of work, it takes lots of time, and my wife can attest to that. I never feel prepared, I never feel like I've studied in an adequate manner. Sometimes I just get to the end of it on a Sunday morning and I say, "God, I don't know what else to do. I'm just like a little boy that has a little fish and a little bread, you've got to bless it.

I just hope the bread I have it and stale and the fish I have doesn't stink." I never feel adequate for the task. There's always somebody smarter, there's always somebody better, there's always somebody out there that I think can do what I'm doing better, but God's called me to do it. Fourth, I want us to see a reorganization of the church was established here. This is a result of all these things. Here in verse 5 we see that the plan that the apostles put forward was pleasing to the entire entire church, and as a result the church was reorganized in a very big and very important way.

Before the apostles were responsible for the ministry of prayer and the word and the responsibility of making sure the widows were fed, remember that the money given for those physical needs was brought to the apostles back in chapter 4. And with this new plan in place, the apostles would have been totally devoted to the ministry of the word and prayer and free from physical needs in the church. The physical needs in the church and especially the needs of those widows would have been handled by the seven God-qualified men who were appointed for the work.

And notice this is the organization and leadership structure in the New Testament church and prototype. The apostles are pictures of the elders to come, and these seven men here are pictures of the deacons to come. If we fast forward into the later development of the New Testament church, we see the implementation of deacon ministry, and those deacons took care of the physical needs in the church, and we see the implementation of elder ministry, and the elders took care of the spiritual needs of the church. So notice what we see here in verses 2 to 6. We're all about the solution to the problem of this division that had come into the church.

The apostles offered a solution, the entire church embraced the solution, and they fleshed it out. And those--and the church chose these seven men, they were qualified of God, and they assumed this responsibility of meeting these physical needs all while the apostles stayed totally devoted to the ministry of prayer and the word. And notice they laid their hands on them, prayed over them, and committed them to the work. Now, I want to say one thing in application before I move into verse 7.

It is important for us to see, understand, and accept that God has clearly stated how the leadership of the church should be structured and who is to fulfill those roles. The office of the deacon is given for God qualified men to serve in physical needs in the church. And the office of the elder is given for God qualified men to serve in the spiritual needs of the church. Elders, shepherd, pastor of the people govern the church and minister the word. And I say this often, we are elder led, but congregationally governed. You will look out and you'll see we're elder led, but at times it's congregationally governed.

And let me show you, you are congregationally governed, because if I get in the ditch, y'all will fire me in a minute. But again, we do need deacons and we will be addressing that in the fall. So the solution to the problem are many problems. There was a solution, a resolution. And then number three, the results. Look at verse 7. The results are found in verse 7. "And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem." This church just kept growing. "And a great many of the priests came obedient to the faith." Listen to verse 7 in the Amplified.

"And the message of God kept growing and spreading. And the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a large number of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith, accepting Jesus as the Messiah and acknowledging Him as the source of eternal salvation." Now I'm not going to spend too much time here, because the results are really easy to see. But because the apostles and the entire church handled this internal problem of division and dissension correctly, the church not only didn't split, they grew and continued to grow. The word of God spread more and more. More and more lost came to faith.

The church grew, and even many priests came to faith. Now three things I want us to see here before we move to the conclusion. This will be short. First, it seems that we have another short description of the church. We have seen that Luke gives us these longer brief descriptions. I've said they're in full color. But here in verse 7 we see another one of his short descriptions. Second, we could see that after the church passed the test of division, the church grew. We have seen that at each test that came to this church, both external and internal, after they handled the test properly, and by the way those things were not easy. What happened?

The church grew. And then third, in this last description of the church in Jerusalem, after these events the church at Jerusalem was scattered all over throughout the gentile world because of the death of Stephen and the persecution that followed. Warren Wiersby says of these things. In Acts 6-7, Dr. Luke describes the climax of the ministry in Jerusalem, "For the persecution following Stephen's death will take the gospel to the Samaritans and then to the gentiles." And again, I encourage you to read ahead. So verse 7, we see the results of the internal struggle and test of handling division and dissension properly.

Now before I conclude, we've seen division. When the Lord really led us to move and when the Lord really threw lots of prayer in seeking the Lord, when I began to share with leaders in the life of the church back in those old Nola days about moving geographically, it was like the flip of the switch. We had division after division after division and we continued in a plan to move. By the time we moved, we had lost 35 to 40 percent of the church. But after the blessing and the growth that took place after is unbelievable.

I heard a man say one time, because of the pain of the division in the past and the fact that our leaders handled that right that cleared a space for me. We've lived this. And by the way, we may have to live it again in the future. Now I want to close by coming back around to the four ways some approach these verses. I'm going to be real quick here. First, some do make the main point of these verses about deacons. One commentator I like, James Montgomery Boyce, does this in his commentary. Now we have learned that the main point here is not deacons, but there are things we can learn about deacons here.

I believe these men are deacons in prototype. No doubt these men and their ministry was a foreshadowing of that office and deacon ministry. Second, others can make the main point of these verses about Stephen. Warren Wiersby does this. Now Stephen is one of the main characters in verses 1 to 7. Luke clearly mentioned Stephen and Philip. He points out that they really stood above the others, but Stephen is not the main point of these passages until we get to verse 8. But of course we could use these verses, verses 1 to 7, if we were to do a character study of Stephen. Character studies are good.

And then third, some make the main point of these verses about organization and reorganization. John MacArthur does this in his commentary. Now we clearly see an organizational problem in the church, and we see a reorganization of leadership and responsibilities here. But that to me is not the main point. But there is a lesson here. As our church grows, we should expect that organization, leadership, and responsibilities should change. Think about that. I want to repeat it. As our church grows, we should expect to see that organization, leadership, and responsibilities should change.

Now I don't have time to go into this exhaustively, but there are things that I used to do in the life of the church I don't do anymore. Those responsibilities have shifted to you. And in the future, there are things that I do now that will be shifted to others because that's a part of how the church grows and changes. And then fourth, some make the main point about the problem and problems that came into the church. I do, obviously. John Stott in his commentary, the Bible speaks today, he takes this approach. As a matter of fact, he uses the very same outline that came to me in my study.

But the lesson I want to leave us here is this, and this is very important. Even the best of churches have internal problems. The best of churches have division and dissension. The best of church leaders allow problems to arise. The best of church leaders miss responsibilities and make mistakes. And right here, I want to ask you to do something for me personally. Please give me grace. I need it. I'm not going to fulfill my responsibilities perfectly. I'm not going to do my job perfectly. You're going to have to give me grace because you need grace. One thing I didn't say is this.

When I'm studying and I'm preparing to preach, a part of that prayer and a part of that wrestling is thinking about you and praying for you. Sometimes when I'm preparing my messages and looking in the scripture, I think about how this applies to you. I think about how this applies to your family. I think about how much you need this, how much I need this. So what I'm trying to show you is this. I'm praying for you and I'm having to give grace to you. You're going to have to give grace to me. You're going to get in the car one day and look at your wife and say, "Mmm, Pastor Chris, he's disappointing today." The apostles were.

Now notice what this has been all about. Division and dissension in the church. Christian widows were neglected and a solution to the problem was brought forward and the problem was fixed. So that brings me to the title of the message. Division in the church, widows were neglected, a solution found. I don't know how you could make the title any better. Division in the church, widows were neglected, a solution was found. Let's pray and then we will look at some prayer needs as always.