Acts 6: Church Growth

The development of the Church continues in Acts chapter six. When God empowers His church, He expects them to grow in His ways as the Holy Spirit guides them. Change is not only good, but necessary as we journey with God.

The growth of the first church began with the Apostle breaking the ground by telling people about Jesus for the first time. Now, with an established group of people, deacons or administrators were needed:

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.” (Acts 6:1-4 ESV)

The early church experienced some growing pains as Jews from different cultures joined as one. Hellenists were Jews by ancestry, but they had embraced the Greek culture. For this reason, they often clashed with other Israelites. It could have been an act of prejudice that caused the Hellenists to be overlooked for food distribution, or just a misunderstanding about the way to organize supplies.

In a time of growth, things can get overlooked. The apostles had a solution. Now that the church had grown, deacons needed to be assigned to help with the everyday needs of distributing to the poor and needy.

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 (five others) 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. (Acts 6:5-7 ESV)

The Holy Spirit had come in fullness so they chose overseers or deacons, not by casting lots, but through following His gentle guidance. Seven of those through whom He flowed were chosen to help. Delegating responsibilities helped the first church to continue to grow.

Now Stephen, full of grace (divine blessing and favor) and power (strength and ability) worked great wonders and signs (miracles) among the people. However, some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (freed Jewish slaves), as it was called, and [of the synagogues] of the Cyrenians and of the Alexandrians and of those from Cilicia and [the province of] Asia, arose [and undertook] to debate and dispute with Stephen. But they were not able to resist the intelligence and the wisdom and [the inspiration of] the Spirit with which and by Whom he spoke. (Acts 6:8-10 AMPC)

This description of Stephen’s actions show us that deacons can teach and preach as well as working in administration. Having received the prayer of the apostles, Stephen was speaking with the fire of the Holy Spirit. This did not go over well with the Jews who had not yet converted to Christianity, but the wisdom from the Holy Spirit could not be disputed with human logic. This was another aspect of fulfillment of one of the promises of Jesus:

And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” (Luke 12:11-12 ESV)

The chosen men were not scholars, studying the word like the Sadducees and Pharisees. They didn’t have a degree in theology. These men were trained by the Holy Spirit who brought them wisdom as they yielded to Him. Just as Jesus declared, they didn’t need to worry about what to say! How did the Israelites respond to this wisdom?

Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”

And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel. (Acts 6:11-15 ESV)

When they couldn’t overcome Stephen with logical arguments, they proceed to lie and enlist others to lie about him. God didn’t abandon Stephen. He let His glory shine through Stephen’s face, just as it did in the faces of the angels!

We often think that when God is in the midst of a project that everything goes well. As we can see, there were issues in the first church, but following the Holy Spirit the church changed and grew. Even with that growth, there were still attacks, however, God showed up in power! He has our back, even through the hard times.