In our second week of Advent we have moved further into John 1. Here we see that the coming of the son of God into the world evokes different responses from different people. The way that we respond to Jesus is either a cause of tremendous joy or heartbreaking tragedy.

Moving into December, we begin our five week advent series examining the first chapter of John’s gospel. This Sunday, we looked at verses 1-5 which speaks to the true identity of the baby in the manger.

Acts 6:1-7 shows us an internal conflict that threatened the early church. What we see is a problem that was navigated through the wisdom of the apostles and a willingness to serve by a group of humble congregants. This is helpful to us as we consider what it looks like to love each other while working through the disputes that are common to church life.

This Sunday’s passage gave us our first glimpse of the world’s hostility to the gospel message. Though we have a message of grace and forgiveness it is often met with hostility. This story in Acts shows us the relentlessness of the apostles in the face of it and God’s providential hand moving events according to his will.