Acts 6:1

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.

The Church was growing by leaps and bounds and here is a lesson to be learned. Anytime an organization balloons in growth there are always going to be leadership gaps. The scripture says that the number of the disciples was increasing daily. More people equal more problems…and that is precisely what we see happening as widows are being overlooked…but before I address that…let’s look at the heart of what is happening here…

“The Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews…”

A Grecian Jew was someone that wasn’t born in Israel. They were born from another area and were sometimes looked at as lesser Jews. Obviously the Hebraic Jews were born in Israel and often paraded themselves as the authentic thing. So what you have here is prejudicial acts in the church. One race of people claiming to be better than the others…but listen are now under the blood of Christ trying to reconcile differences in the church…and here is the thing…that is going to breed problems…but the intentions here are great. God is breaking down barriers. Normally the Grecian Jews wouldn’t have attended a Hebraic synagogue because Grecian Jews speak Greek…Hebraic Jews spoke Aramaic. However, under the leadership of the Apostles we see some of the first ever bilingual services happening and we are seeing some of the problems that are in need of being worked out.

Last thing I want to look at here is the fact that there was some form of ministry that included distributing food to widows on a daily basis. The early church tackled the responsibility of taking care of widows, orphans, and the poor. Literally from the beginning…we’re only in chapter 6 here…there seems to be a ministry that helps people. That’s important. This is the heart of God. You’ve heard me say it over and over. My heart is helping people. I want to help the poor and downtrodden of our society. I want use our abundance of resources and supplies in an effort to grow the kingdom. I want to bring Jesus to the heart of the poor and needy…and so should you.