David Bahn – Reflections

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Acts 6:1-15 [NLT]

But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food.

² So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, “We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program. ³ And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. ⁴ Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.”

⁵ Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the Jewish faith). ⁶ These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them.

⁷ So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.

⁸ Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people. ⁹ But one day some men from the Synagogue of Freed Slaves, as it was called, started to debate with him. They were Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and the province of Asia. ¹⁰ None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke.

¹¹ So they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen, saying, “We heard him blaspheme Moses, and even God.” ¹² This roused the people, the elders, and the teachers of religious law. So they arrested Stephen and brought him before the high council.

¹³ The lying witnesses said, “This man is always speaking against the holy Temple and against the law of Moses. ¹⁴ We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the Temple and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”

¹⁵ At this point everyone in the high council stared at Stephen, because his face became as bright as an angel’s.

They’re not my favorite people, but they made a Pizza Hut commercial years ago that I still remember. Deion Sanders and Jerry Jones are talking, after a few baseball-football, offence-defence questions, comes the Pizza Hut, “Meat Lovers or Stuffed Crust pizza?” The answer is both. Then Jerry asks, “What do you say, Deion? Will it be $15 million or $20 million? (Deion had just signed a $35 million contract with the Dallas Cowboys). “How about both?” Deion says. Jerry asks, “Both?” Deion answers, “Both.”

Some people want to be so spiritually-minded that they become no earthly good. They want to focus on prayer, mercy, grace, heaven, and the life of the world to come apart from applying the Gospel message to their everyday lives. They disassociate life on earth from life in heaven. They are spiritually-minded and earthly thoughtless.

That is not the way of God. When the issue of the distribution of the food to the widows comes before the apostles, they don’t say, “That’s none of our business. That’s not a matter for the church.” They realize they must attend to this concern. The care of widows and orphans is of the essence of true religion (cf. James 1:27). But neither do they abandon the mission of God to preach the gospel to all the world. They are to be witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection, redemption, and kingdom call to the ends of the earth.

When Jesus began his ministry, he announced, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15) The kingdom of God is not just a pie-in-the-sky experience. It’s an eternal reign and rule of Jesus in the hearts of believers that begins at the moment of conversion and never ends. The culmination of all that will be the new heaven and the new earth in which every sin, sickness, sorrow, or influence of Satan will be totally erased. It will be glorious.

We properly speak about the life of the world to come. It will be truly glorious where we will have glorified resurrected bodies and enjoy the perfect paradise of God, the garden of true godly pleasures. We look forward to that, truly. But we still live here for a purpose. We must not ignore the needs of others, hiding behind a thin veil of spirituality. God cares about our needs now and throughout all eternity. We must remain heavenly minded while we do all we can on earth to serve our neighbor. We must do both.