Acts Chapter 6

In this next chapter a unfair exception is being made in the distribution fo food in the church. The greek speaking widows were being over looked. Not wanting to be distracting from the preaching of the gospel the Apostles decide to appoint 7 Godly men in the church to take on the task of distributing food to these women. 


As these men carry out this task one of them, Stephen, is said to be speaking of Jesus and performing many signs and wonders. This activity is noticed by many of the Greek speaking jews and they become angry.


Some things to discuss are:


Verse 1:

• How did this behavior creep into the church when everything was going so well?

Verse 2-4:

• Does anything stand out to you about the apostles reaction?
• Did the apostles do the right thing by appointing the seven?
• How are we to know whether we are to serve physically or devote ourselves to the word? Is it an either or situation?

Verses 5-6:

• What do you think about the criterion the apostles used for selecting individuals?
• The observation is made that many of these men seemed to have either foreign or had Hellenistic names. What inferences might we make from this?

Verse 7:

• Can a ministry model be lifted from the way the early churhc dealt with this problem?
• Should one be lifted?
• What would it be?

Verse 8:

• What the apostles had described as “merely waiting tables” seems to be much more?
• Do you think they knew it would be like this, or was it a surprise?
• Is this the democratization of signs and wonders?

Verses 9-15:

• Why do you think it was the Jews among the Greek Speaking community that took exception to this?
• Do this chapter make comments on the value of service in comparison to evangelism?