Trinity 17
Dear friends in Christ! Today people look at the state of the Church and they get all worried—what’s going to happen: the Church is losing influence; there are so many false teachers, or just plain weird ones, passing themselves off as true Christian teachers; people have a skewed idea of Christianity is all about; there is open hostility to the Christian faith; various false religions are on the rise, etc.
Often these people long for a golden age of the Church—like it was in the early Church: how wonderful it would be to have the apostles in our midst; how there was nothing but peace and harmony in the Church! But as we learn from our text, and from the rest of the book of Acts, even this was no “Golden Age”. In the chapters before our text we see the apostles harassed and arrested; we see false Christians trying to lie to the Apostles—and in reality it was lying to the Holy Spirit; immediately after our text we have the account of the first person killed on account of their faith in Christ, St. Stephen.
The long and short of it, is that there really never was a “Golden Age” of the Church; and on the flip side, there never really was a “Dark Age” of the Church in which everything was going horribly wrong—like some say the Church is in today.
The best way to look at it is that instead of saying a Dark Age or a Golden Age, the holy Christian Church just “is.” There is just the present age of the Church—a present age with its own trials, with its own blessings—but always with the grace and presence of our Lord. Christ our Lord tells us [Mt. 6.34]: Sufficient for the day is its own trouble; but along with it, we can be assured that no matter how great the trial, Christ is still the Protector and the Guardian of His Church and of each of us.
1. Because Christ is the Protector and Guardian of His Church and of each of His dear Christians, we can say, in faith, the same thing David did in the Psalm [46]: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear when the earth is moved, and when the mountains are carried into the midst of the sea; when its waters roar and are troubled, when the mountains shake with its swelling.
In the chapters before our text we saw the Early Church of the Apostles attacked from the outside—by the religious leaders of the Jews. We read of the apostles being arrested, jailed and beaten on account of their preaching Christ. But what happened? The apostles departed from the presence of the [Jewish] council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for [Christ’s] name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. And what was the result of that? The first verse of our text: Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying... The apostles continued to preach Christ crucified and risen for the forgiveness of sins and as a result of the work of the Holy Spirit people were coming to faith; they were being rescued/ delivered from slavery to sin, death and devil. The devil’s kingdom was being plundered—and still is whenever the word is preached and the sacrament administered. He can’t stand that—so what does He do? He attacks the Church! At first He did it head on and attacked the Church from the outside—using the Jewish religious authorities.
But that didn’t work: the number of the disciples was multiplying. So now Satan tries to stop the Church by attacking it from within: murmuring arose against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. Again—no golden age of the Church; no dark age; just the current time with its own blessings and trials—but under our Lord’s gracious care working all things for the good of His Church and each Christian. To attack the Church from within, the devil tries to create dissension.
At that time, the Church was almost exclusively an ethnically Jewish Church. But among the Jews there were two groups—the Hebrews and the Hellenists. The Hebrews were those Jews born in Palestine and spoke Hebrew or its variant; they kept Jewish culture and customs; they were Jewish through and through.
The other group was the Hellenists. These people were Jews as well, but they were born in lands other than Palestine. Because they came from other lands and cultures, they first spoke Greek—as most of those countries did. They were heavily influenced by Greek culture as well. They thought differently than their Palestinian brethren and had different customs. But many would return to Jerusalem for the festivals—and perhaps it was at Pentecost when they heard the Apostles preaching, were brought to faith, and stayed in Jerusalem to be part of that first Christian congregation in Jerusalem. The seemingly large number of widows might come from the fact that old Jews from outside Palestine would often go there in their old age to die and be buried there. They would be poor and alone because their families would be in their homeland.
These two groups of Jews—native born and foreign born—were in that one congregation in Jerusalem and through their differences Satan thought he could create discord and destroy the Church, nip it in the bud: murmuring arose against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. A cultural factionalism broke out threatening unity. To be sure, there probably was some sort of neglect. Very likely it was some language or cultural barrier/ different social customs that was really to blame; it certainly wasn’t on purpose or vindictive or favoritism. But the devil comes along and blows it up way out of proportion in the minds so that there was this murmuring. And in doing so, he hopes to destroy the Church—before more of his kingdom is plundered.
The vital lesson for us to keep in mind in all this is that the devil always takes from the same play book. It worked before, it will work again. That’s one reason why the Holy Spirit recorded our text; that’s the reason why the Apostle writes things like [Eph. 4.3]: [endeavor] to guard the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The Holy Spirit has worked faith in the hearts of people and gathered them into the Christian congregation. There is a glorious Spirit worked unity as He creates the one and same faith in the heart. Our duty/ privilege as Christians, as members of our congregation is to strive to guard that glorious unity of faith against this factionalism/ discord that the devil would want to stir up.
Sadly, like it was easy for the devil to foment discord and murmuring even in that apostolic congregation, so it is easy for him to do the same thing in congregations today. That’s why the example and warning of our text! What we need to keep in mind is that all of us in the congregation are fellow Christians—or as St. Luke calls the Christians Jerusalem congregation, disciples. The Holy Spirit has worked that same faith in us as He has worked in others—in spite of how different we all are.
The holy Christian faith is the great unifier in the congregation.
If we then look upon our fellow Christian, our fellow congregational member as a fellow Christian—as one like me—we will recognize also, that like me, he/she is at the same time both a saint and sinner. As a saint, we have the same Spirit worked faith that trusts in Christ and receives from Christ His forgiveness and His righteousness. As a saint, we have the Holy Spirit in us leading us and empowering us to fight against sin and to strive to do the will of the Lord. But as a sinner, we know that we both still have that old sinful nature and still sin, no matter how hard we try not to. So as I recognize my fellow congregational member to be like I am—saint and sinner—I recognize that he/she, like I do, have many sins and weaknesses which need forgiveness; and I recognize that since they are fellow Christians, led and empowered by the Holy Spirit, I shouldn’t magnify, blown up, exaggerate the trouble and right away think of some evil motive—after all, like here in our text, it could merely be some different habit/ custom. There is always in the congregation much room for forgiveness.
2. Yes, the holy Christian Church is never without trial because the devil is always working to destroy the Church and individual congregations. But let us not forget—it is Christ’s Church. He is her guardian and protector. He watches over and even turns/ uses all these tumults/ dissensions for the good of His Church.
In our text we see Christ, working through His apostles: Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, "It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word." The apostles are not claiming this work of mercy—taking care of the widows—is beneath them because it is a true spiritual service done for Jesus’ sake; instead, the 12 are saying they have been called to a particular service of preaching the word.
So what do the 12 do? They rely on the Lord to raise up the men to carry on this work of mercy in the Church because Christ guides and protects His Church! And He does so by giving His Holy Spirit! He does this first by bringing people to faith; and then He gives them gifts to carry out service to Him and His Church.
As Christians, all of them in that Jerusalem congregation had the Holy Spirit! But He specifically gave these men the gift of wisdom for this work—they understood the work and could carry it out with all faithfulness and ability. And it was the Holy Spirit who guided the congregation to select these men and who led the Apostles to commission these men: And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. By placing their hands on them, the apostles were signifying that these men had been elected for a specific responsibility and they were asking God’s blessing on their efforts. Christ guides and protects His Church as He raises us and equips those He works through.
As we look at the names of the men that the Lord raised up for this work—they are all Greek names and one, Nicolas, is even a Gentile convert. That, too, shows the Lord’s work on the hearts of the people of the congregation. Remember, the dispute was that the Greek speaking members felt overlooked—so here the Holy Spirit leads the congregation, especially the native, Palestinian members to put away any selfishness or jealously and prompted them to be generous and recognize and elect Greek Jews to this office. This wasn’t their old sinful natures at work; it was the new self, the Christian, at work in them—led by the Holy Spirit. Recognizing the danger disruption/ disunity would cause, they came to realize that in matters not concerning doctrine, where God has not spoken, it is better to yield and let charity/ love rule.
As a result of Christ leading His Church—that relied on Him and His guidance—this event that the devil had tried to use to destroy the Church failed: Then the word of God continued to spread, and the number of the disciples continued to multiply greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obeying the faith. Christ mightily guides and protects His Church and through the word she proclaims He mightily extends His kingdom—here, in our text, by His Holy Spirit at work in the word even great numbers of those that had been His enemies, the priests, had been brought to faith and into His Kingdom, the Church.
There is neither a golden age of the church nor a dark age; it is just a present age in which the Church is attacked by the devil but Christ is protecting and guiding His Church, of which we, by His grace, are a part. May our trust always be in the Lord and may we, led and empowered by the Holy Spirit [endeavor] to guard the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. INJ Amen