The Cracked Pot, or,  The Trouble with People      Acts 6:1-12

 Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason  -- February 25, 2007

¹But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. Those who spoke Greek complained against those who spoke Hebrew, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. ²So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers.

“We apostles should spend our time preaching and teaching the word of God, not administering a food program,” they said. ³“Now look around among yourselves, brothers, and select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. We will put them in charge of this business. ⁴Then we can spend our time in prayer and preaching and teaching the word.”

⁵This idea pleased the whole group, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (a Gentile convert to the Jewish faith, who had now become a Christian). ⁶These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them.

⁷God’s message was preached in ever-widening circles. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.

Stephen Is Arrested

⁸Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people. ⁹But one day some men from the Synagogue of Freed Slaves, as it was called, started to debate with him. They were Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and the province of Asia. ¹⁰None of them was able to stand against the wisdom and Spirit by which Stephen spoke.

¹¹So they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen, saying, “We heard him blaspheme Moses, and even God.” ¹²Naturally, this roused the crowds, the elders, and the teachers of religious law. So they arrested Stephen and brought him before the high council. ¹³The lying witnesses said, “This man is always speaking against the Temple and against the law of Moses. ¹⁴We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the Temple and change the customs Moses handed down to us.” ¹⁵At this point everyone in the council stared at Stephen because his face became as bright as an angel’s.

The Cracked Pot
A Chinese Fable

A water bearer in China had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which he carried across his neck.

One pot had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house,
the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his house.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After 2 years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream... "I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."

The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?" That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I planted flower seeds on your side of the path. Every day while we walk back, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. "Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."

Last week we looked at the trouble with God.

I suggested at that time:

The trouble with God is that he never gives up!

The trouble with God is that God is never in a hurry.

The trouble with God is that God seems always to delay.

The trouble with God is that he knows us very well.

The trouble with God is that he expects us to obey him and his word.

The trouble with God is that what we think he could/should do, he doesn’t do. 

The trouble with God is that he doesn’t see things our way.

The trouble with God is that he expects too much.The trouble with God is that he is more concerned about how we respond to the challenges we face than what actually we go through in this life.

When you can’t see what God is doing….

When the pieces of the puzzle of your life don’t seem to fit together or make any sense….

When it appears as if God has abandoned you or doesn’t hear you…

When it seem as if God expects too much of you…

“When you can’t see the hand of God, will you trust His heart?”

This week we want to consider the trouble with people.

Our text tells us that the church is growing rapidly. Luke tells us “the disciples multiplying…”

It has been conservatively estimated that by this time there are about 20 to 25 thousand disciples there in Jerusalem.

The trouble with people is that they like sheep need a shepherd. The church is outgrowing the capacity of the Apostles to be everything the people need. The Apostles simply cannot do everything that needs to be done. Leadership, guidance and training are all part of the making of disciples. New people coming into the church needed what we would call today “mentoring” i.e., discipleship training.

This reminds me of Moses, as the people of Israel leave Egypt. Night and day people are coming to him to settle all kinds of issues and problems. His father-in-law finally comes to him and tells him that he has to have help. 70 men are appointed to the position of elders in Israel to help Moses carry the load. The Apostles are in that position in the early church. They need help if they are to continue to do their ministry among the people.

The trouble with people is that they are often complainers, quite often unhappy about something. The something is always changing, but people are always being cheated, mistreated, ignored, taken advantage of, misunderstood, and so on.

People begin murmuring in the early church. There is discontent. It is subdued but never the less it is real. This dissension and turmoil threatens the unity and life of the church.

There are two groups of people who make up the church at this point. There are the Jews of Hebrew origin from Palestine and Jews who are Hellenistic or from the Greek culture. Most of the known world of that time was influenced by the Greek culture. To be part of the in crowd in those days, was to speak the Greek language and to adopt Greek or pagan modes of life. They were considered by the Hebraistic Jews to have been contaminated. The Hellenists were Jews who had been scattered all over the Roman Empire. The listing of people present on the day of Pentecost gives us a clue as to where some of these people came from.

The Hellenists began to complain that their widows were being overlooked in the daily administration of money to meet their physical needs. This “ministration” is service rendered and help for the benefit of those concerned. This meant that the locals were being well taken care of and those from other places were not. This is clearly seen as unfair. Something needs to be done about it and soon.

We don’t know from the text how the widows of the Hellenists had been over looked.

In response, the Apostles call the people together. This action is prompt and reveals that their complaints were apparently justified.

The trouble with people is that we often expect too much of each other and try to do more than we either can do or are gifted for. And we are usually in too much of a hurry to do it.

The Apostles admit as much: “It does not please us that we, having forsaken the work of God, keep ministering to tables.”

They had fallen into the trap of trying to do it all. We have all heard of the 80/20 rule, haven’t we?

80% of the work is done by 20% of the people. Those are the leaders. Who can you count on to do the work that needs to be done? Well, you go to the busy people, who are already doing most of the work. You do that because you know that they are the dependable ones you can count on to help you accomplish your tasks. And quite often they just keep accepting more and more until they collapse.

Do you remember the plate spinner at the carnival? He takes a plate and spins it atop a slender reed. The plate spins and the reed sways with the rhythm of the spinning plate. Then he adds another plate to another reed. And then there is another and another and another. Before long the platform is filled with spinning plates. Then the spinner runs from plate to plate to keep them spinning. What eventually happens? Plates begin to fall and break because the plate spinner cannot keep all the plates up at the same time. That is what happens so often in the church. We have too many plates spinning and eventually we cannot keep them all going.

What do the Apostles do? They call a meeting. At the meeting, they lay out the priorities necessary for themselves. We have failed, they say. We have been waiting on tables while we should have been doing what we have been called to do. It is not that we are above meeting those physical needs. It is just that the work of God for us as Apostles is to worship and minister the Word of God. The word used for worship here is one that is focused on prayer as the prominent part. Ministry of the word is preaching and teaching the Word of God.

So our solution, they say,  is that you should choose seven men of attested ability, who are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. They were to be men known to be of character and ability. They were to be men of wisdom. Wisdom is knowing what is right according to the Word of God and then doing it. Wisdom is a matter of knowing and doing. Let these seven men superintend the ministry of meeting the physical needs of the members of the church.

The Apostles go on to say, We, as a congregation, will appoint them to this need. This is a matter of consensus. You decide who these men should be and then we will set them apart for this ministry so that no one’s needs go unmet. There is no Apostolic decision binding on the congregation. The congregation is very much a part of the process of finding a solution to this need. We think this is a way to meet the need; so you decide who they will be. We will continue to be steadfast in worship and in ministering the Word, preaching and teaching.

The trouble with people is that we often think that we are competent to do just about anything we set our minds to or that everybody should do everything. But isn’t it interesting that in order to be qualified to meet the physical needs of the people of that early church, one had to be filled with the Holy Spirit and full of wisdom. Only certain people were to be considered. Only seven were thought to be needed. But they had to be Spirit qualified.

I can remember being pressured a number of years ago to get involved in a new ministry in a church we were attending. I was already teaching, leading a small group and had a demanding position as elder in the church. A sign up sheet was passed around at one of our Elder meetings for us to designate when we would personally become involved in this new ministry. I left the sheet unsigned. It was not considered an “appropriate” response. I was not supporting this new ministry. The truth is that I was already committed to numerous ministries and believed that one more was too much. I also believed that there were those around the table who were in the position to add on ministry if they were so led.

For me it was a matter of priority not interest.

The trouble with people is that often we just assume that everybody ought to be doing everything.

I grew up in a church culture that basically believed that the Pastor had to do it all. If the pastor did not do it, it had no real spiritual value. And at the same time, the commonly held belief was that is what we pay the pastor for anyway. You will find none of this in the decision of the early church to meet this need.

The early church chose Stephen and Philip, Prochorus and Nicanor, Timon and Parmenas and Nicolaus, Stephen and Philip you know. The rest have disappeared into the history of the church. Stephen is said to be a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.

The source of his power and ministry was the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the filling of his life with the Holy Spirit was faith.  Acts 6:8 tells us that Stephen was full of grace and power. It tells us that he was doing great wonders (miracles) and signs among the people.

That is how the Spirit of God used Stephen.

The trouble with people is that we believe that there are a lot of things we cannot do. We are not all Stephens, or Peters or Johns or Pauls. We don’t always have the faith that they had. We don’t always get the opportunities Stephen or any of them had, even when we are filled with the Holy Spirit.

We are flawed people. We are imperfect. Too often, We accept the notion that we could never do what Peter and John and Stephen and any of the other “stars” of the early Church did. But remember, they were not perfect either. They were just available for God to use.

Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. And God will produce fruit in and through us that will last for eternity if we will only allow Him to use us, imperfections and all.

And as we water the ground along the path of life, the result will be grace, beauty and love as people see Jesus in us.