We are studying the book of Acts in our morning service. We read now from Acts, chapter 6, verses 1 to 7. Acts, chapter 6. Now in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the Twelve 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 and to 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, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. 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. Amen. May God bless the reading and the preaching of His Word to us all. Let us turn in God's Word to the book of Acts, chapter 6, and the first seven verses of this chapter. Taking as our theme this morning, words from the first verse, a complaint arose. A complaint arose. We've been moving through Acts quite quickly. This is the tenth sermon on this book, taking a fairly large passage each time. The teaching in this short passage is so vital that I want to spend two studies on it. There is material here in these verses which could affect our congregation profoundly for the next generation, our children and our grandchildren. We can see in these verses the picture of the balanced ministry of a healthy church. The ministry of the elders and the ministry of the deacons. The ministry of the Word and the ministry of mercy. And that's something I would like to look at with you, God willing, when we return to this chapter, to this passage. But today, Taking probably a minor theme in the passage, but one I think of importance, I want us to look at these verses as a textbook case of how to handle problems within the church. How to handle problems within the church. A complaint arose. You may say, well, we don't need to worry about that because we don't have problems in this congregation. Well, I don't expect any of you would be saying that. We have been astonishingly blessed by God over the years, over the decades, with a great measure of peace and unity. And for that, we do thank God and we pray it will continue. But we're all imperfect. We're all sinful. There are always going to be minor disagreements And where human beings are involved, it's always possible, in the best of churches, that there will be major disagreements. And disagreements can be very divisive in a church. They can be distracting. They take our minds away from the more important things that we should be focusing on. And they can drain us of energy and enthusiasm and happiness. So they can be a very dangerous thing in a church. I don't think we can avoid them altogether. I think we need to learn to deal with them biblically. And this passage is of great help in that. A complaint arose. I want to say four things about this. The first two perhaps at greater length. So first we have a problem among the members. A problem among the membership of the Jerusalem church. The picture of the church so far in Acts has been very positive. In fact, almost rosy. It's been a picture of love and care and oneness and everybody's together and they've one heart and soul and they're prospering and they're growing and they're being Although, in the previous chapter, we've had the tragedy of Ananias and Sapphira, the hypocrites, the false members in the church. So, all is not perfect. But now, another issue arises. Here's the realism and the honesty of the Word of God. The New Testament church wasn't perfect. The early church wasn't trouble-free. No church ever is. And we see the complaint, or the problem arising. A complaint arose by the Hellenists against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So it's a problem about the practical care of widows in the church. Now this was always hugely important among the Jewish people. The care of the widow and the orphan. There's a vast amount about it in the Old Testament. I can only give you two or three sample references to really a large body of material. Deuteronomy 10, 17. The Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow. So Israel is taught that their great God cares for lonely, vulnerable, helpless people. Proverbs 15.25 The Lord tears down the house of the proud, but he maintains the widow's boundaries. Here's God's protection for the widow. Thankfully, in Psalm 68, verse 5, a father of the fatherless and a protector of widows is God in His holy habitation. So from early stages, the people of Israel took the care of the widow very seriously. They had a well-organized and elaborate support system among the Jewish people. There was a daily soup kitchen or a distribution of food for those who were in emergencies, in a crisis situation. And there was also what they called the chest, a box in which money was kept for long-term support. And this was well worked out and in Jerusalem it seems to have been centered on the temple. So there was a system of social security to some extent for widows. It seems that the early Christians preferred not to use the temple support system for widows and it seems that they had developed their own system or perhaps they were debarred from the temple system. because of their Christianity. We're not told. At any rate, they had their own parallel support system for the widows in their midst. The daily distribution was a wonderful witness of practical love and care, a reflection of God. The problem came with the Hellenists. Who were the Hellenists? These were Jews who spoke only Greek. Hellenist means Greek. And these were Jews who had grown up in the west of the Roman Empire. Perhaps in Asia Minor, or in Greece, or in Italy, or in North Africa. They'd lived there, they'd been born there, they'd been brought up there, and they had learned only Greek. They read the Scriptures in Greek, and Greek was their native language. And they had come to settle in Jerusalem. This was something that many elderly Jewish couples tended to do towards the end of their lives. Living outside Jerusalem, it was a common thing for them to come and spend their closing years in Jerusalem so that they could be buried in that city. Even today, there's a very large cemetery on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. And it's a very important thing for some Jewish people, they feel, to have their bodies laid to rest in the holy city. So they may have come for other reasons, for business or for education, but these were Jews who spoke Greek, who had come to settle in Palestine and were living in Jerusalem. The other Christians were called Hebrews, and these were Jews whose native language was Aramaic. They may have understood Greek, I think many of them did, but they spoke and conversed in Aramaic. And they had come either from Palestine or from the Eastern Empire, and they had settled in Greek. So you had these two groups in the church who spoke different languages, who had different cultural backgrounds, who had different histories, who were separate from each other in many ways. Their traditions, their history, their culture were different and they were together in the church. It was a multi-lingual church. It was a multi-cultural church. They were all Jews but huge differences as there are today among the Jewish people. Perhaps the Aramaic-speaking Jews looked down on the Greek-speaking Jews. regarded them as incomers or newcomers. They were the real kosher people of God. These people were perhaps a little bit down. We don't know. These Hellenist widows would have been especially vulnerable. Their families probably didn't live in Jerusalem. They probably lived in other countries. Perhaps they had come as a couple. and the husband dies. And now his widow is left. She's living in Jerusalem. She's a Greek speaker. She doesn't have the network of family and friends that the locals would have to help look after her. And so she's particularly vulnerable and in need of the help of the church. And for some reason, these women didn't get it. They were being neglected. in the daily distribution. The food and the clothes and the money were being handed out. It was going to the Aramaic speaking widows, but the Greek speaking widows in the church were being neglected. There's no evidence that this was deliberate or malicious in any way. It's probably just part of the problem of growth. The church was exploding. There were thousands of people now worshipping Jesus. We're told in the first verse that the disciples were increasing in number. And it's easy for people to be overlooked. As a group gets bigger, people fall through the cracks, as we say, especially people who don't know many others, who perhaps don't speak the language. They're newcomers. And whatever happened, They were overlooked. And yet, how damaging. Imagine what these ladies felt like. Imagine how hurt they felt. Week by week as the food and the clothing were given out and there was none for them or not enough for them or it only came sometimes. If you can imagine the hard feelings. and the coldness and the anger and the two groups getting annoyed with each other. And these Hellenistic widows saying this is not fair. Why are they privileged and we are not? Why are they getting it and we are not getting it? What's wrong with us? And the fellowship is in danger of being damaged. And there are hurt feelings and anger and hard feelings in the church. What about the impact on the world? Are they talking outside the church? Sometimes people do that. We told in chapter 4 verse 34 that there was not a needy person among them. But now there are needy people. There are needy people. The widows are dear to God's heart, but they don't seem to be dear to the hearts of his professing people. So there is a problem, a real problem, in the church among the members. Church growth, numerical growth, is greatly desirable, but it brings its own challenges. It means that a church that was a small, cozy, intimate community where everybody knew everybody else very well. They could all gather together in one living room. There was a very special sense of love and oneness. And now the church gets bigger. And there are lots of new people. And there are different people. And they have different ideas and different backgrounds. And it brings its whole set of problems and challenges. And God is calling the church out of its comfort zone. Yes, it was easier to live together when there were only a few of you, but now there are more. A problem among the members. But let's look secondly at the procedure of the leaders. The procedure of the leaders. And what I have to say from this passage is applicable not only in the church But to all of you who have any leadership role, perhaps you're in a management position at work, at the office, in school, in the factory. You're responsible for others. You have other people beneath you. It's your job to organize and manage well. What can we learn about leadership when there's a problem? I'd like actually to spend most of our time in this section on what the apostles did not do. What the apostles did not do and what leaders can so often do today. First of all, they didn't take offense. They didn't get all huffy. You see, the apostles were in charge of this. This was their responsibility. Chapter 4, verse 35, the people brought the money and laid it at the Apostle's feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. So they were responsible for the distribution. And this was a criticism of their leadership, an indirect criticism, an implied criticism. But these people are coming and saying this isn't being done properly. And if I'm in charge of it being done, then that's a criticism of my leadership. And the apostles could have taken a sort of a hissy fit and gotten their dignity and started being all defensive and annoyed and started feeling sorry for themselves. Look at all the work we're doing for these people. Morning, noon and night, never get a rest, out preaching. And here they're coming and moaning about it. Do they not appreciate, do they not know how busy we are? My wife hasn't seen me for the last two weeks. It's all very well for these widows sitting twiddling their thumbs all day and they roll along. Easy to react in that defensive, angry way and start explaining themselves and justifying themselves. Don't do that. They don't do that. Nor do they attack their critics. Nor do they attack their critics. This is a serious matter. A complaint arose. It's a lovely Greek word for complaint. Gongizmos. It means, and this is a lovely English word, grumbling. I like the word grumbling. It's full of meaning. But it's the word that was used in the Old Testament for the complaining of the people of Israel in the desert against their leader against Moses. Exodus 16.2, the whole congregation of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Greek translation is the same word, gungismos. Or Numbers 14.27, how God says, how long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? That would have been a good text. for one of the leaders to preach on when the complaint arose. I'd like to address you from Numbers 14.27. God says, All who have grumbled against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell. That can be a leadership tactic. You note some fault in your critic, and there are always faults, and you fasten on that and instead of dealing with a criticism you attack the person who's criticizing you. The apostles didn't do that. Nor did they ignore this or sweep it under the carpet and hope that it would simply go away. Let's pretend that we didn't hear that and if we leave it for a week or two perhaps the problem will disappear. Sometimes That is perfectly legitimate. If a complaint is really silly or sinful, you're sometimes better to ignore it and pretend that it hasn't happened. But this was neither of these. They didn't do that. They didn't force the critics out of the church. They didn't make life so uncomfortable for them and pressurize them that they had to leave. They didn't beat them down by argument and force of personality. Leaders can do that sometimes. They're usually better at expressing themselves than their people. It's the easiest thing in the world to out-talk someone and out-argue them and just really intimidate them by a flood of words. Peter could have done that. Who are these widows? We're apostles, but they didn't do that. They didn't outvote them at the congregational meeting. Now sometimes that's perfectly proper. We do that ourselves, where it's a matter of judgment, where there are differing opinions, and they're both legitimate, and they're both God-honoring. It's a perfectly proper thing to say, now, what does the majority feel? And in normal circumstances, The minority will accept the will of the majority. But this was not an issue like this. They didn't do what Presbyterians love to do. They didn't set up a committee to study the issue. That's always a good thing. Something comes up, well, we'll set up a committee. And then it will take a year for them to report. Sometimes that can be useful. But they didn't do that. They didn't divide the church. They didn't set up first Jerusalem and second Jerusalem Christian church. That would have been a solution. Well, if you don't agree, you can go and do your own church and you can look after your widows there if you're not happy with the way we're doing it. It might have solved the immediate problem. But what would it have been saying about the gospel and the Christian fellowship? No. The apostles forgot about themselves. Leaders can't have hurt feelings. If you're a leader and your feelings are hurt, go away and deal with your hurt feelings before God and a friend. But you're not in office to have hurt feelings. You're in office to lead. So they didn't get all defensive, self-protective. They said, there's a problem here, and our task is to solve it as soon as we can. We may be a bit ruffled by this. We may feel a bit guilty about this. But that's irrelevant. We can deal with it later. And they set about solving it in a non-defensive, wise, compassionate way. This is a legitimate complaint. What needs to be done to fix it. We need to heal the wound before it starts festering in a way that will commend itself to the whole church. And in this they are an example to leaders ever since. And how many of us perhaps have winced as we work through the list of what the apostles didn't do And we may have said to ourselves, but this is what I have done at times in the past. It's so easy for us, isn't it, to adopt strategies that are not biblical, are not God honoring, and they're not helpful. To the apostles, there is a problem. There is a genuine complaint. Let us set ourselves to solving it. And that is the task of the leader always. When it is legitimate, when it is genuine, leadership is there to help answer the complaint, to help solve the problem if possible. And that brings us thirdly to their proposal to the people. The problem among the members, the procedure of the leaders, and the proposal to the people. What would they do? Well, first of all, these leaders are not afraid to lead. They're not afraid to lead. They are the leaders. God has appointed them over the church. The church is built on the foundation of the apostle and prophets. They summon a special general meeting of the whole congregation. Verse 2, the twelve summoned the full number of disciples. So they call a congregational meeting. But note again what they don't do. They don't just throw the meeting open. They don't say, well, folks, there's been a complaint in the church. There's a problem. Here we all are. What does anybody think we should do about this? That is a species of moral cowardice. There are leaders in many organizations that are afraid to lead. They're afraid to take and accept responsibility for decisions. They're always shuffling off the responsibility. It can sound humble. It can sound very commendable and praiseworthy. It's not fair to the people you're leading. It's a road to confusion and chaos. So the leaders are not afraid to leave. They have made a decision. They have established a biblical principle. Verse 2. It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to sit to serve tables. That is the will of God. They don't throw that open for discussion. That isn't open for debate in the congregational meeting. They don't say to the people, do you think that we the apostles should do a bit less preaching and a bit more diagonal work? No. They say, this is the biblical principle. We're acting from this biblical principle. This is our starting point. So the leaders state to the people the biblical principle. Secondly, they have also decided on a strategy. They talk about seven men whom we will appoint to this duty. This is the germ of the diaconate. There are other gifts in the church. And so the thing to do is to divide the ministry. We will preach and pray. These seven will exercise the compassionate arm of the church's witness. This will deal with the complaint, it will deal with the neglect, it will solve the problem, and we'll come to that again, God willing, in the next message. So they're not afraid to lead. They state to the people the biblical principle, and they state to the people the strategy that they have decided on which is to be followed. But then, and this is the interesting thing, at this point, They give to the people real significant input to the members of the congregation. At this point they say, therefore brothers, you pick out from among you seven men. We're not going to choose them. We're not going to impose them on you. We're leaders, but we're not dictators. We are not tyrants. And it is for you to make that choice under God as He leads and guides you. They don't mark their cards. They don't suggest their favorites. They entrust to the people a very significant part of the decision making. We read in verses 5 and 6 that the people chose Stephen and so on. They set them before the apostles. And they prayed and laid their hands on them. So there's a beautiful balance here, isn't there, of strong leadership on the one hand, and genuine responsibility exercised by the people themselves. On the other hand, they are given a place and a role and a voice, just as we elect are office bearers today. The elders will decide that it's time for office bearers to be elected. We will state the qualifications. We perhaps may indicate how many we would like. But from then on, it's for the people. It's for the people to choose their leaders, those in whom they have confidence. And it's all directed at finding a solution to the problem. And it's no wonder that we read in verse 5 that what they said pleased the whole gathering. Here's strong, wise, balanced, sensitive leadership. It's based, of course, on the example of Christ, on that great, mysterious division in Scripture between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. For God leads and directs and guides and yet treats us as moral, responsible agents whose choices and decisions really do matter. It is Christ-centered leadership. I would simply make one further comment at this point that this in the Church is mainly and administrative change. It's a structural administrative change in the church. People today tend to downgrade administration and organization and structure and say, well, the church isn't about these things. It's not about good procedure and keeping the books properly and organizing your committees well. No, it's not about that. But that is one of the gifts of the Spirit, the gift of administration. And good management, good administration, wise structure is of the utmost importance for the well-being of the people of God. Note also that the Church is flexible enough to change its structures. They were adequate when we were small, Now they're not adequate and they need to be adapted. They need to be altered. Perhaps that's why many churches don't grow. They're not flexible enough to change what needs to be changed. May God continue to give such leaders to his people and such people to their leaders. And that brings us lastly And we'll carry this on, God willing, in our next study to what I've called provision for ministry. Provision for ministry. The people choose. They choose wisely and well. And in my experience, during 42 years in the ministry, the people of God generally do choose wisely. and well. Not always, but generally it's a pattern. The men they choose are spiritually well qualified. But more than that, the people choose generously. All of the seven have Greek names. Now this doesn't mean that they have to be Hellenists They have to be Greek speakers. Andrew and Philip had Greek names and they spoke Aramaic. But I think of the context when you get a list of seven emphatically Greek names, it strongly suggests that these men were from the Hellenists, from the complaining community, from the injured community. And I think this is an act of great generosity and wisdom on the part of the whole church. The Hellenists were probably in the minority. But weren't they the best men to pick? They would know the widows who had been neglected. They would know them better. They would be able to reassure the minority. They'd be able to minister successfully and sensitively. And the Greek speakers are feeling vulnerable. We're being overlooked. We're being disregarded. We're not being cared for. The church can say, well, here are seven of your own who've been called to office. That's how much you mean to us. That's how much you matter in this church, that we have your interests at heart. We can't be absolutely dogmatic on that, but I think it's strongly suggested. And as we shall see in In the next few studies, God willing, these ministers, these deacons, are not going to care only for the physical needs of a church, but they're going to spearhead a massive advance in the Christian church. And the next three chapters are all going to be about Stephen and Philip, two of the seven Men whom then God used mightily to extend the gospel and the church. Stephen, the first great theologian of the New Testament church. Philip, taking the gospel to Samaria. So we read in verse 7 that the Word of God continued to increase. And the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. The great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. The complaint was met. The problem was solved. The church was strengthened through it. And great blessing came upon them. Surely that's encouraging for us. We don't welcome problems. We don't want complaints. But when they come, they needn't be destructive. They can be opportunities for heart searching, for self-examination, for repentance. I like to imagine the apostles meeting in the session room after they heard the complaint and looking at each other and saying, That's our fault. We overlooked those ladies. We were wrong. And these things can be God's means of changing a church. And leading a church into new ways of serving the Lord. New ways of doing things. New ministry. Significant growth. Yet as I read the passage, I tremble. It could so easily have gone the other way. It could so easily have gone the other way. Friends, that's the knife edge we're always on. when problems arise in the church. Every one of us should say to ourselves, this can go one of two ways. It can be really bad or it can be a blessing. And it's up to each and every one of us, by God's grace, to see that when these things happen, it's the latter and not the former. We need to pray for each other. Let us bow in prayer. Father in heaven, in your mercy, you have brought us together into a body of people. And it's a close body. And our relationships with one another are very close and intimate. We see each other close up. The protective coverings which we wear in the world are largely removed. We see one another's flaws and inconsistencies as well as our virtues. It's fertile ground for Satan to seek to cultivate. We open our hearts to one another. We pray for one another. The work of the church is something about which we care intensely. and which really matters to us. So easy for us, O God, to fall afoul of one another. Help us, we pray, to learn from this passage. We thank you for the self-forgetfulness of the apostles. We thank you for their strength and their compassion and their wisdom. We thank you, O God, for those who had the courage to come and bring the original complaint. to identify a problem to which the leadership apparently was blind, not to let it fester. We thank you for the appointment of the seven, for how you used them. So we pray, O God, that we will learn from this passage. And if in your providence problems arise in our fellowship, help us, we pray, to so deal with them. that we will love each other more at the end of them, that we will be more united and stronger and better equipped for the ministry of the gospel. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.