The Book Of Acts (Ch. 5), the religious authorities are angry and afraid. The upstart sect is growing daily and filling Jerusalem with this new religion and its dead god. There was only one solution–kill all of the leaders. Crush the head and the body would die. But out of the midst of the heated rhetoric came a lone voice of reason.

Verses thirty-four through forty-two: Gamaliel, perhaps the most famous and respected teacher in all of Israel, seeing that things were about to get out of hand, stood up and warned the high priest and those with him to take care when dealing with the apostles. He reminded them of Theudas who had fomented a rebellion in the past, only to be killed and his followers scattered. Then there was Judas who had done the same thing and suffered the same results. Then he told the group that they should leave the apostles alone, pointing out that if the movement was not of God it would eventually fail as had the others But, he wisely added, if it was of God, the counsel would find itself fighting Him.

Gamaliel’s audience agreed. After beating the apostles and warning them not to speak in the name of Jesus, they let them go, assured that they had brought about an end to the problem. However, their warnings and beatings had the opposite effect. Instead of regretting their actions and seeking a place to hide, the apostles went away rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer for the Lord. “And daily in the Temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.” Not only did they continue to tell the people about Jesus of Nazareth, they did so every day in the most cherished site in all of the Holy Land–God’s Temple.

Chapter six

Verse one: The church was growing exponentially. Within the body were people of every economic and social level. Some of these were “Grecians”–Jews who had adopted the Greek lifestyle enforced by Alexander the Great after conquering the Holy Land. This life-style was based on the intellect. Spiritual things had little value to the Grecians, also called “Greeks” in other places. For reasons not stated, the Grecians’ widows were not being fed and cared for by the “Hebrews”–Jews who had maintained the Israelite life-style.

Verses two through four: In this passage we find God setting forth His top-down church leadership style. One will note that God’s way is the exact opposite of man’s way. As I bring out in the series titled Ministerial Ordination, God and only God appoints leaders. He either raises up a leader from within each church group or He sends a leader in from elsewhere. MAN DOES NOT ELECT OR SELECT PASTORS, DEACONS, ETC. God’s appointed minister then appoints deacons and gives them instructions. The people have no say in this matter–the sheep do not tell the shepherd where they will graze. It is the deacons’ job to take care of the everyday workings of the church. As is noted in this passage, these men must be of the highest character. The reason for this top-down system is found in verses 2-4: “It is in reasonable that we (apostles) should leave the (study of) the Word of God and serve tables …. But we will spend all of our time praying and ministering THE WORD.” Notice that everything revolved around the Word of God. The Word “the” is a definite article, meaning nothing else could be taught or preached. At that time, and for the next 70 years or so, “the Word” referred to the Old Testament. The New Testament did not exist at that time and would not exist until around 100 A.D. when the writings of the apostles were codified. See The Importance Of The Old Testament. L. J.