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OVERQUALIFIED SERVANTS?

As you may or may not have noticed this morning, the long-awaited construction projects, that have been working there way through the city of Tempe, have finally gotten under way. On the west side a new entrance is being carved out. As soon as that is done, the maintenance building will go up on the south side of the campus near the east end of the present entrance.
To inform our neighbors of what was happening we sent one of the new maintenance men around to place an informative pamphlet on each door. The pamphlet simply introduced ourselves and explained the changes that would be taking place during 2005. It also gave a picture of what our campus would look like in the distant future.
One of the neighbors, I won’t say which one, happened to be home when the maintenance man came by his house. In fact, he was pulling weeds in his yard so whats-his-name simply handed him the pamphlet. When the man saw what it was, he started asking questions about the project which the maintenance man really couldn’t answer. He also wanted to know why we weren’t doing anything about our weeds.
As I understand it, our representative tried to be polite but soon found himself being verbally assaulted by this man. The man accused us of being lousy neighbors and then started pointing his finger at the church in general as an organization that just wanted everybody's money.
The maintenance man tried to respond to him but found himself getting frustrated with the guy. Then when this “neighbor” got in his face, he shoved him away and that is when the real fight started - a fight that was eventually broken up by the police.
The above story is completely fabricated. Let me say it again, the above story is simply a product of my imagination. It never happened! But, we can imagine it happening. We can imagine sending an employee, who may or may not be mature in Christ, whose only job is to hang a pamphlet on the front door. We can also imagine that employee who is used to working with tools, as opposed to people, becoming frustrated and getting into a fight for life tends to throw unexpected punches at us from time to time.
If this had really happened, and it didn’t, we should have known better than to send this man. He didn’t really know very much about the various projects and he wasn’t accustom to handling himself spiritually with those who had no use for the church.
We should have known better for Acts 6 shows us how to handle what the world throws at us. We read:
In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”
This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus (Proch’ o rus), Nicanor (Ni ca’ nor), Timon, Parmenas (Par’ me nus), and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. 6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.
First Church chose seven men to be responsible for the equitable distribution of food. You will recall that in the midst of rapid growth the Grecian Jews had filed a complaint against the Hebraic Jews. The complaint stated that the Grecian widows “were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.” Consequently the church chose Stephen, Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch and charged them with seeing that the problem was resolved.
These seven, of course, were not selected at random. Nor was it a case of asking for seven volunteers. The apostles, who realized they couldn’t do everything, outlined the requirements for the task. In Acts 6:3 they said,
“ But select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.” (NASB)
In this verse four qualifications are given for serving the church. First, those who would serve must be chosen from among the congregation. That is, they must be believers. A person may have tremendous leadership skills but if they do not know Christ they cannot serve within the church. In other words, if you don’t know the Head of the body you certainly can’t function well within the body.
Second, the person must have a good reputation. They must be men of integrity. They must be above reproach. When others think about them, when others talk about them, there must be no reason, seen or unseen, that would prompt them to distrust them or to doubt their motives for serving.
The classic passage on this matter of having a good reputation is found in Acts 16:1 - 2. In this passage, Luke the historian, writes:
He (meaning Paul) came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Greek. The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him.
Note three things. First, people were talking about Timothy. A good reputation prompts conversation. Behind your back, as well as when they have opportunity to do so publicly, your friends, neighbors, and colleagues give others a good report of you.
Second, it was more than one person doing the talking. A good test of whether or not a person has a good reputation is the number of people doing the talking. After all, most of us have one or two biased friends who will give a good report of us. But what are people saying in general? This is the true test.
Third, people were talking about Timothy in both Lystra and Iconium. That is, they were talking about him in more than one place. When Paul observed that a number of people in two different places gave a good report in regards to Timothy he knew he had found someone of high caliber to take John Mark’s place.
The third requirement for service that we see in Acts 6 is that the person must be “full of the Spirit.” That is, while they, in Christ, have all of the Holy Spirit that they are ever going to have the Holy Spirit must have all of them. They must be fully yielded to His control in every area of their lives.
Fourth, those who serve within the church must be “full of wisdom.” I don’t take this to mean that you need to have a high IQ in order to serve. After all, that would rule most of us out immediately. I take it to mean that those who serve are to know Scripture well enough, that is, they are to know God’s mind well enough, that they are able to apply Biblical solutions to everyday problems.
The seven men chosen were to be wise in the sense that they knew the answers to life were not found in themselves but found in turning to the author of life. It means they were prepared to give an answer to those within the church as well as those on the outside who were keeping a close watch on the church.
Now when you look at the task before these seven men, the task of “waiting on tables,” it appears, in light of the qualifications, that the apostles went overboard. I mean, it appears that the seven were overqualified! After all, we’re talking about “distribution of food” not the CEO of some missionary organization.
No! No job in God’s Kingdom is too small not to require good men and women for we are serving people. That is both the blessing and the challenge. On the one hand it is a blessing for those who give of their time and energy are serving those who are very precious in God’s sight. You see, usually we don’t need a bigger ministry. We simply need a greater view of the ministry God has given us.
On the other hand, since we are serving people we can be sure that there will be bumps and bruises along the way. Like it or not, as Ben Rumson, as played by Lee Marvin, declared in Paint Your Wagon , “Do I know where hell is? Hell is in hello!” When you are “among the people,” as these seven were, you had better be full of the Spirit and have God’s wisdom or you will not last very long.
In sharing all of this with us, Luke teaches us a very important lesson. The answer to problems within the church is not some clever program. Yes, we need programs and systems. But, the real answer is good people. The churches most valuable resource are believers with a good reputation who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.
One of those good men in the early church was Stephen. He was a believer, he had a good reputation, he was sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, he was well-acquainted with God’s Word, and he had a servants heart. In vv. 8 - 10 we read:
Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. 9 Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. These men began to argue with Stephen, 10 but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.
As Stephen ministered to others, as he stayed instep with the Spirit, he manifested grace and power. If he had simply personified grace he would have been seen as a wimp. If he had simply bowled others over with power he would have been seen as an intellectual bully. But he exhibited “grace and power” which made him influential. In fact, he was so influential, so persuasive, that members of the Synagogue of the Freed Slaves, as well as the Sanhedrin, considered him dangerous.
What is interesting to note is that he began by distributing food but quickly vaulted to ministering to the deeper needs and hearts of others. Indeed, the wonders and miraculous signs that had only been associated with the Apostles up to this point were now being exercised by this newly appointed deacon.
How did that happen? Well, I think it happened because as he watched Peter and John preach with grace and power the Spirit double-dogged dare him to “Not be afraid to bite off more than he could chew, for his God was bigger than he thought.” Unlike my dentist, he picked up on the challenge and began speaking in the power of the Holy Spirit. In return, the Holy Spirit exercised His power on behalf of Stephen!

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