SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/27/2017
8:52 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 The Reason
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 6:1-2, 4
Message of the
verses: “1 Now at this time while
the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the
Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being
overlooked in the daily serving of food. 2 So the twelve summoned the congregation
of the disciples and said, "It is not desirable for us to neglect the word
of God in order to serve tables… 4 “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and
to the ministry of the word."”
Now as we look at the name “Hellenistic Jews” we can
probably understand that these Jews speak the Greek language as opposed to the
Hebrew language. They would be using the
Septuagint Bible as opposed to the Hebrew Bible. The Septuagint is in the Greek language, that
is the entire Old Testament is in the Greek Language and this can be very
helpful in the study of the Old Testament today as it can make things clearer
at times. John MacArthur quotes Richard
N. Longenecker who writes “According to the Talmud, Pharisaism made little
secret of its contempt for Hellenists…they were frequently categorized by the
native-born and assumedly more scrupulous populace of Jerusalem as second-class
Israelites.”
As mentioned in our last SD these Jews were there at the
Passover celebration when Peter gave his first sermon and became believers in
Christ and so stayed over in Jerusalem in order to be taught by the apostles,
and so they were looking for work and a place to live.
The issue that is brought up here seems insignificant,
but these are the kind of things that can cause big problems if allowed to fester
and not dealt with. As we study the Old
Testament we can see in places like Deuteronomy 14:29; 16:11; 24:19-21; and
26:12 things written about the fact that widows need to be cared for as this is
very important to God that this be done.
Paul mentions this to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:3 and following. Little things like this could have split the
church as I have heard stories about little things that have split churches,
things like whether or not angels sing or not.
I suppose given the fact that these widows spoke the Greek language and
in general these Jews were looked down upon because of the language they spoke
that this issue came up and had to be dealt with, which is what will happen as
we will see as we go on in this first section of the sixth chapter of Acts.
In verse two we see the apostles called “the twelve” and
this is the only time that Dr. Luke uses that term in the book of Acts, however
he does use this six times in the gospel he wrote. We see that the apostles did the correct
thing in summing the congregation of the disciples in order to seek a
solution. As I looked at the term that
is used for the congregation I see that Luke uses the word disciple and this
makes me think of what the twelve and others were called in the gospels, the
word means a learner or pupil so I guess that this would be a proper term for
believers today too.
Next we see that it was desirable for the apostles to
neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. John MacArthur writes “It may be helpful to
note that the word for tables, trapeze,
can mean ‘a table or counter of a money changer,’ or ‘money matters,’ as well
as an eating table (cf. such use in Matt. 21:12; Luke 19:23). To involve themselves in the details of
serving means and handling money matters would take them away from their
calling. Instead, they would ‘devote
themselves to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.’ The apostles knew their priority was praying,
preaching, teaching, and studying the Word.”
The apostles would not let anything get in their way from these duties. Perhaps to paraphrase this we could say “You
take care of serving food and caring for money matters, and we will care for
the ministry of the Word which includes praying and studying the Word of
God. Now it may be wise at this point to
understand that the only Bible they had was the Old Testament and I am sure
they were studying the prophetic parts that had to do with our Lord’s first
coming.
We will end this second SD on “The Reason” by quoting an
important paragraph from MacArthur’s commentary which will be helpful for the
day we live in.
“Many in ministry today have
left the emphasis on prayer and the Word of God. They are so involved in the administrative
details of their church that they have little time left for intercession and
study. Yet pastors are given to the
church ‘for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the
building up of the body of Christ’ (Eph. 4:12).
Their calling is to mature the saints so they can do the work of the
ministry. By neglecting that calling,
they doom their congregations to languish in spiritual infancy. Programs are no substitute for the power of
God and His Word. Those whom God has
called to the ministry of prayer and the Word must make it their priority.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I desire not to
make little things into big things so that they fester and cause problems.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord as I continue to make
preparations in my study of the seven churches from the book of Revelation, as
I seek God’s will and direction in teaching this very important section of the
Word of God.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Bethlehem” (1 Samuel 16:1-4).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who replaced Judas as one of
the twelve apostles?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/27/2017 9:50 AM
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