A HITCHIKING HELLENIST
Acts 6:1-8:40
Today’s message is about taking a trip. As we start on this journey, we will meet different characters who have needs. Much of our lives follow a deliberate path. We act intentionally in finding a career, school, mate, friends, church… all with intent. We look for compatibility, similar thoughts, values and expressions: discipleship accounts for some of this as we learn to do what is right in faith. We even do this with much of our God activities: we plan and execute, we train and implement. But many of our most profound expressions of ministry are performed spontaneously/unconsciously. They flow out of our lives, demonstrating who we have become as we follow the Lord’s leading once we determine who we are in Christ. Observe:
THE NEEDY AND A RESPONSE (Acts 6:1-7)
Holy Spirit was leading the church toward its future: multiplication and expansion through the act of reaching those who lived outside the traditional box. The constraints of the Temple and Orthodox Judaism as it was configured in the First Century was to constrictive and hostile toward the church to make allowances for the continuation of the Nazarene Heresy to continue unabated. It appears as though there was an unhealthy attachment toward the Temple and the ancient traditions by the apostolic band of believers that needed to be expunged from their practices and belief system. This separation would come in a most unusual forum, as the emerging disciples began to grow among the ‘outsiders’ who inhabited Jerusalem. These out side the box believers would become the Spirit guided recipients of a most unusual road map away from Jerusalem as the ground zero point on the map for the fledgling church.
6:1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the (Hellenist) Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. We see this outside the box dynamic, as ‘the disciples’ began to grow among both the Hebrews and Hellenists. At first, Jesus’ followers saw no need to develop a system of church government. They expected Christ to return soon, so they dealt with internal problems as the need arose. This approach to problem management was probably conducted informally in a non-confrontational format for the most part, as the expectations would less pronounced in the early days of excitement. Most historic revivals demonstrate a reluctance to change and adapt structural systems initially, as they tend to change the original dynamic that brought the dissidents together, yet the need to address relational issues lead to the inevitable structures development.
Any time a church grows, problems happen. Acts six identifies a complaint of neglect toward the Hellenist widows. This problem led to a diversification of leadership, as Hellenist men were allowed to lead as Almoners (alms overseers). I am ignoring the identification of these seven lay leaders as deacons at this time, as this is not the designation they are given here, although the term that does become identified with the ministry of the deacon is used in the passage and is translated as: “waiting (diaconias) on tables.”
6:2-4 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.” Hellenists were Jewish people who were Greek in culture and language. As they converted, their testimony was: men of wisdom, men good report, men filled with Holy Spirit. Stephen and Phillip were Hellenists, as were the rest of the seven.
6:5-6 this proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. 6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
The Apostles chose seven men, all of whom were Hellenists, one who was a Gentile convert to Judaism first, Christianity second. It’s interesting how the community selected the men, with the Apostles commissioning them. Jewish Law (Mishnah) shows us that members in the Sanhedrin were admitted with the laying on of hands. The New Testament does not give us a detailed picture of this early church government. Apparently, one or more elders (presbyters) presided over the affairs of each congregation (Romans 12:6–8; 1 Thessalonians 5:12; Hebrews 13:7, 17, 24), just as elders did in Jewish synagogues. These elders were Spirit identified (Ephesians 4:11), apostle appointed (Acts 14:23). Thus, the Holy Spirit worked through the apostles to ordain leaders for the ministry.
6:7 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. This is another Progress Report, or history insert, telling the readers that the church was growing with great favor, especially with the non-chief priestly servants in the Temple. It is safe to assume that many of the ordinary priests were holy men who were humble of heart, like Jesus’ Uncle Zechariah. Scripture is letting us know that the Word was even spreading in the temple, which wouldn’t have set well with the main rulers.
By placing this insert right before Stephen’s martyrdom, Luke is emphasizing the points of tension, and explaining the harsh reprisal against one of the Hellenist Almsmen, as we see the ugliness of the prejudicial attitudes put on open display.
II) THE NEEDLED AND A RESPONSE (Acts 6:8-8:3)
Acts is ‘The Book’ of action. The primary characters were constantly going places, growing together, and glowing with the fire of Holy Spirit. Stephen’s message to the Sanhedrin embraces these ideas as he gives a defense for Christianity by tying it to the concept of departure as a New Exodus, as the church spread out among the peoples. One of the main themes of Stephen’s argument is that the Presence of God isn’t confined to a region or a Building.
Acts 6:8-12 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. 11 Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God.” 12 So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin.
Acts 7:2 “To this he replied: ‘Brothers and fathers listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran.’” This verse tells us that God revealed Himself to Abraham centuries before a Temple was built and years before he settled in the Promised Land. God was with Joseph in Egypt, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the desert, the Judges and the early Prophets. God was with Moses and Israel in the wilderness, the point being that a moveable tent was a more fitting place of meeting than one made out of stone. Why? The tent was mobile.
The early church embraced the idea of “the church in the wilderness,” pilgrims who were willing to encounter God were ever and whenever, as these New Exodus people were being deployed. In the Exodus God would say: pitch the tent here and enjoy my presence.
Stephen also connects the rejection of the Tabernacle and the Prophets for a Temple and Priesthood to the Priests and the people’s rejection of Jesus as being the same. It is interesting to see how the Hellenist’s quickly embraced the ‘big picture’ need to spread away from the Temple. This has to relate to the fact that they grew up with the homeland being out of their usual lives. Their association with Temples would have been negative.
Stephen’s call to abandon traditional religion would find a sympathetic vote later in the book of Hebrews, as Hebrews 13:13 admonishes its readers to abandon traditional Judaism for Jesus sake and: “go forth to Him outside the camp.” This challenge to look back at God in history also fits rabbinic teaching. The Rabbis looked at ‘God in History’ as their reason for optimism. Stephen’s main difference is in the script for the sequel. His rejection of an eccocentric faith is staggering. Stephen calls Abraham as a witness. He never owned land, only a promise (7:3-8). Next Joseph speaks, and then Moses gives his account. They were all pilgrims. There is a point to his dissertation.
7:33 “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals; the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Gentile land is also demonstrated to be “holy ground” for one reason: God manifested His presence. This is the importance of being born again: we are made holy simply because He shows up. It isn’t about the faith of our parents, our city or our nation. It is about Jesus.
Stephen connects the dots even further when he quotes Isaiah 66:1-2: “Heaven is my throne; earth is a footstool for my feet. What house will you build for me? Says the LORD, or what will be my resting place? Was it not my hand that made all these things?” God is bigger than our attempts to centralize religion and move people away from personal relationship. Acts 7:55-56 wraps all this up, as Stephen sees Jesus as “the Son of Man” welcoming him into heaven. This is Daniel’s phrase, which describes the Messiah. This is the only instance the phrase appears outside of the Gospels.
The churches response to Stephen’s death is sharp and pointed. They dispersed on an Exodus again. An apocalyptic writer wrote: “I will scatter this people among the Gentiles, that they may do the Gentiles good (2 Baruch).” The attitude was just like Stephen’s: there He stands, here we stand. Stephen’s whole point was that the people of God needed to be on the march, pulling up their tent stakes just like Abraham did, leaving their ancestral land and rituals in order to follow God wherever He led them.
III) THE NEEDED AND A RESPONSE (Acts 8:26-40)
Earlier in 8:1, Luke uses a phrase that is unique to his style: Judea and Samaria are connected in a sentence: On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. This was also employed in Acts 1:8: “You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and all Samaria.” This connection is an oblique reference to Isaiah’s vision of a unified Kingdom. In 8:14, we are told that the Apostles heard that the city of Samaria had accepted the Word of God and sent Peter and John to them. It’s interesting how some people who rejected the Jerusalem Temple reacted to the new vision of a united people and a living temple that they joined. The cosmopolitan Hellenists and the Samaritans were winning the day and expanding the boundaries of the Kingdom with cities being reached for Jesus.
8:5 tells us “Philip went down to Samaria.” The Ethiopian man and Phillip share a common event with Peter and Paul: they all underwent journeys (Acts 8:26-40; 9:32-11:18; 12:25-28:16). These travels give us the framework of the book of Acts. Acts has two basic stories: the Scriptural story in the early chapters, and the travel narrative that makes up the rest of the story. This all fits into the overlay of Isaiah’s vision of a unified people. The eunuch brings Isaiah into Phillip’s sphere of understanding as he ponders Isaiah 53. Luke connects the command of Jesus to spread the Gospel in 1:8 to “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth” to include the eunuch’s country of origin as the ends of the earth. The triad of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria fits Isaiah’s unified vision for the nation. The Ethiopian fits his view of expansion.
It’s important to see that there are a number of Hellenistic influences in Paul’s letters. It seems that Paul absorbed a considerable amount of Greek wisdom during his years in Tarsus, which was an enclave of Hellenist Jews. This allowed him to express the gospel in terms that the Greek mind could understand. Throughout his letters, Paul tried to articulate the “deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10). He frequently used Greek philosophical concepts to do this. For example, he described how Christ united Gentiles and Jews in “one new man” who could come into fellowship with God (Ephesians 2:15). He spoke of Christ “being in the form of God,” yet taking “the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:6–7) or being “the image (the visible expression) of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). All of these statements struck fire in the minds of Greek readers who were acquainted with Plato’s teachings about visible forms and invisible ideals.
So what does this have to do with the Eunuch, you may ask? The reason is simple. This passage has long baffled commentators, causing most of them to be overly focused on the ethnicity of the man, or to use it as a prequel to Cornelius and the rest of the Gentile’s inclusion into the family of faith. I think both of these ways of interpreting the Eunuch story are inadequate, as Luke was really showing us that God’s plan of restoration was underway with a full head of steam. This is why we see references to the person’s status as a Eunuch fully five times in this short passage.
The Ethiopian was following Jeremiah’s advice: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart (29:13).” The Eunuch had an important possession. He had a hungry heart. Isaiah had prophesied that “desolation would continue to plague the people of promise until: “a Spirit from on high is poured out on us (Isaiah 32:15).” Luke records the end of the time of desolation in 1:8: when Jesus said that “You will receive power (from on high KJV) when the Holy Spirit has come on you.” This is an important side light to Luke’s treatment of God’s program and plan, as Isaiah saw a day when the 10 exiled tribes would reunite with the two Northern tribes.
Conclusion
The Eunuch’s conversion to faith in Christ is the first volley in the inclusion of the outcasts into the reconstituted people of God in Isaiah’s New Exodus in chapter’s 40-55. Look at Isaiah’s statement, as he records God’s prophetic pronouncement. “Do not let the foreigners joined to the LORD say. ‘The LORD will surely separate me from His people;’ and do not let the Eunuch say, ‘I am just a dry tree.’ For thus says the LORD: to the Eunuch’s who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.” The passage continues to speak about the restoration of Israel in Isaiah 56:8: “The Sovereign LORD declares— He who gathers the exiles of Israel: “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.” Luke’s inclusion of Phillip’s sovereign transportation is only understandable in the light of Isaiah’s outcasts and their part in God’s plan of restoration that Acts so aptly fulfills. Remember West Ridge, God says, “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 49:6).”
“Millionaire” Cities: The United Nations has predicted that by AD 2000, 60% of the world will be living in large cities. More people now live in Tokyo than in the whole of Australia. In The King is Coming, Homer Duncan gives the following statistics: “In 1800 only 2.4 percent of the people in the world lived in cities of over 20,000 populations. By 1950, that number had jumped to 20.9 percent. In 1900, there were only eleven cities in the world with a population of over a million. Now there are at least 125 such cities. Cities with a population of over a million are referred to as “millionaire cities.” In 1935, Europe had twice as many millionaire cities as Asia, now Asia has more.
