September 15, 2024 SERMON

 Growing Pain Problems
Acts 6:1-7      

Take God's Word and turn to Acts chapter 6, we're going through the book of Acts under the heading, "That Old-Time Religion," because we believe that the need of the twentieth -century is not something new, but something old.

So, we're thinking about that Old-Time Religion, and we're finding out how they did it in the book of Acts, so that the power, the victory, and the revival that took place in the book of Acts can be reproduced in our lives today.

I believe that, if we believed and behaved as they believed and behaved, then we could achieve what they achieved.

There are always those pessimists that go around and see difficulty in every opportunity.

But, we're gonna find out that every difficulty that came to that early church was used of God as a springboard, to cause them to grow all the more for the Lord Jesus.

The problem in our scripture today wasn’t distributing food it was actually growing pains.

Remember when you were a child, and you grew up trying to learn how to walk and trying to please your parents, and when you got to be a teenager you got so awkward—you had two left feet, you had pimples, you had buck teeth, you couldn't get your hair to do right, your voice was changing, and oh, you just felt terrible.

But, you were in a process of growing. We called that "growing pains." As a Christian, when you try to grow in the Lord, you think, at first, that you've been saved and it's just so wonderful, and that you'll never have another problem.

But then, the Bible says: "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby" (1 Peter 2:2).

You learn that you have those same kinds of growing pains in the spiritual world that you had in the physical world. Any new Christian knows what it is to have growing pains—to stumble, to hurt, to have spiritual indigestion, and everything else spiritually that you had physically as you were growing.

Those of you who have or had families that are growing know that a growing family has growing pains, amen?

Someone said that you can have kids or you can have things, but you can't have both.

A growing church has growing pains. That's what happened to this early church. There was great growth and, as a result, there were some problems.

And it was Satan’s doings: Acts 6:1-7 teaches us about Satan’s attack of distraction and the church’s priorities for ministry.

Christians are not immune from trials and difficulties just because they are Christians. Conversion to Christ does not cause our problems to evaporate and disappear.

Part of the reason for our continuing trials is that we have an enemy who constantly works to cause us to sin.

But Satan not only works against individual Christians; he is at work against the church as well.

Satan hates Christ, and he hates the bride of Christ, the Church.

And so, throughout history, Satan has been at work to overthrow the church of Jesus Christ.

A few weeks ago, I noted that Satan attacked the first-century church community on three fronts.

Satan’s first and crudest attack was persecution; he tried to crush the church by physical violence (Acts 4:1-22).

Satan’s second and more cunning assault was moral corruption. He attempted through Ananias and Sapphira to infuse evil into its inner life, and so ruin the church community and Christian fellowship (Acts 5:1-11).

Satan’s third and most subtle ploy was distraction.

He sought to deflect the apostles from their priority of prayer and preaching by preoccupying them with church administration, which was not their calling (Acts 6:1-7).

If he had been successful in this, an untaught church would have been exposed to every wind of false doctrine.

So, these were the weapons of Satan—physical (persecution), moral (corruption), and priorities (distraction).

Of Satan’s attacks against the first-century church, the third was the cleverest.

If he could preoccupy the apostles with church administration, which, though essential, was not their calling, they would neglect their God-given responsibilities to pray and to preach, and so leave the church without any defense against false doctrine.

In his book, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," Stephen Covey shares an appropriate story: Suppose you were to come upon someone working feverishly to saw down a tree. "What are you doing?" you ask. "Can’t you see?" comes the impatient reply. "I’m sawing down this tree." "You look exhausted!" you exclaim. "How long have you been at it?" "Over 5 hours," he replies, "and I’m beat! This is hard work." "Well, why don’t you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen the saw? I’m sure it would go a lot faster!" "I don’t have time to sharpen the saw," the man says emphatically. "I’m too busy sawing."

We have too often fallen prey to this dull blade thinking. We are busy, in constant motion. Our calendars are full. But the blade is dull.

Prayer sharpens the blade of ministry. Our Lord knew this; yet with all the demands on Him, He went aside to pray.

Time and again throughout His ministry even as the needy throngs crowded around begging for His touch, Jesus broke away to pray.

He modeled this priority to His closest followers and we see that they heeded His example in our text today.

Nevertheless in many churches today people expect and pastors comply with a completely opposite paradigm. “Whatever needs to be done the pastor will do it.”

The problem is, when we buy into that model, the ministry of the church can reach only as far as the pastor’s arms.

The Biblical model is a different one. Ephesians 4:11 says that pastors have been given to the Church to equip or prepare God’s people to do the work of the ministry.

It’s just like the Apostles said here--Our priority is to the teaching of the Word and Prayer, Help us find other leaders to lead in works of service, to care for the immediate needs of the people so that we can do the ministry God has called us to.

Satan still attacks the church today in the same way in which he attacked the first-century church.

Today, we are going to look at Satan’s latest attack on the first-century church, and we are going to learn how the church can thwart Satan’s attack of distraction by concentrating on its priorities for ministry.

The apostles had been in leadership training for 3 years under the greatest teacher this world has ever seen. They were students of Jesus of Nazareth, and had learned a lot about helping people as they watched Jesus at work.

So, it is not surprising that after Jesus left them with a mission and sent the Holy Spirit to help them accomplish it that the disciples are found distributing food to the many widows who had come to believe on Jesus.

So for a period of time, the apostles worked hard at meeting the genuine physical needs of people. One of those groups were the widows.

Scholars tell us that many foreign Jews who lived in other lands would move to Israel, especially Jerusalem, in their old age because that was where they wanted to be buried.

Consequently, there seemed to be a large concentration of displaced widows in Jerusalem. Jews typically provided well for widows in obedience to the Old Testament, which instructed them to take care of widows.

However, there weren’t enough Greek synagogues in Jerusalem to adequately provide for these non-native Jewish widows.

That is where the church came in. Many of these widows were receiving the gospel and turning to Jesus.

Peter and the other apostles were doing their best to meet the needs, but the church by this time could easily have been 10,000 plus people strong.

Twelve leaders could not keep up with all the demands of providing spiritual leadership, along with making sure everyone had enough food to eat.

But the point to be made is that the apostles had stepped up and were meeting this need the best way they knew how.

It was this rivalry that Satan fueled by inciting the Hellenists to complain against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.

I also want us to note that this complaint surfaced at exactly the same time that the church was exploding with growth. Luke said that it took place in “these days when the disciples were increasing in number.”

So, on the one hand, there was tremendous growth in the church. There was great excitement and encouragement as people experienced the grace of God in their lives.

On the other hand, however, Satan was about to attack the church at the point of ethnic and cultural differences.

Let me note that Christ has come to do away with such distinctions in the church.

Paul wrote to the Galatians that “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

Distinctions based on class, race, position, gender, culture, and so on should never be the basis for causing division in the body of Christ.

The issue in the first-century church, however, was more than one of cultural tension. Satan’s goal was to cause the leaders to become distracted from their primary calling.

So the apostles rightly discerned the deeper problem, namely that administration was threatening to occupy all their time and so hinder them from the work which the Lord had specifically entrusted to them, namely praying and preaching.

The Solution, Luke said in verse 2, “And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, ‘It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables’ ”

There is no hint whatsoever that the apostles regarded administration as inferior to pastoral work, or beneath their dignity. It was entirely a question of calling.

The apostles had no liberty to be distracted from their priority task, which was the ministry of the word of God.

So they proposed a solution to all the disciples, all the church, “Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom, whom we will appoint over this ministry. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (6:3-4).

Note that the apostles added “prayer” to “the ministry of the word” in specifying the essence of the apostles’ ministry.

The church saw the point of the apostles’ plan. Luke said that “what they said pleased the whole gathering” (6:5a).

Then they put the plan into effect: “… and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.”

Thus commissioning and authorizing them to exercise this ministry(6:5b-6).

It is worth noting that this action is commonly thought to have been the origin of Deacons, although commentators seem to be about equally divided on whether or not the Seven were actually the first Deacons.

A vital principle is illustrated in this incident: God calls all His people to ministry, and He calls different people to different ministries, and those who are called to “prayer and the ministry of the word” must not allow themselves to be distracted from their priorities.

The Twelve were committed to “the ministry of the Word” or pastoral work, and the Seven were committed to “the ministry of service or administration, or benevolence.

Neither ministry is superior to the other. Both are Christian ministries, ways of serving God and God’s people.

Both require spiritual people, “full of the Spirit,” to exercise them. And both can be full-time Christian ministries.

The only difference between them lies in the form the ministry takes, requiring different gifts and different callings.

Many people refer to the pastorate as “the ministry.” We speak of men becoming ordained as “entering the ministry.” It is probably unwise and unhelpful to use such language. That implies that the ordained pastorate is the only ministry there is.

All Christians without exception are themselves called to ministry, to give their lives to ministry.

The expression “full-time Christian ministry” is not to be restricted to church work and missionary service; it can also be exercised in government, the media, the professions, business, industry, the home, etc.

We need to recover this vision of the wide diversity of ministries to which God calls His people.

It is especially important for the health and growth of churches for pastors and their congregations to learn this lesson.

Pastors are responsible for expounding the message that the Holy Spirit through the apostles have given us in the New Testament. Real pastors are called to dedicate their lives to that work.

The apostles in Acts 6 were not too busy for ministry; they were simply in danger of becoming preoccupied with the wrong ministry.

Instead of concentrating on the ministry of the word (which will include preaching to the congregation, counseling individuals, and training members for ministry), they become overwhelmed with administration.

Sometimes it is the pastor’s fault (he wants to keep all the reins in his own hands), and sometimes the people’s fault (they want him to do everything). In either case, the results are disastrous.

What is needed is the basic, biblical recognition that God calls different men and women to different ministries.

Finally, let’s notice the result.

As a direct result of the action of the apostles in delegating the administration of the benevolence to the Seven, Luke tells us in verse 7a, “And the word of God continued to increase.”

Then, as a further result, we read in verse 7b, “and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”

Acts 6:7 is the first of six summary statements of how the church grew in the Book of Acts.

In each statement, we read either that the word was spreading or that the church was growing, or both. God was at work; neither humans nor demons could stand in the way of the spread of the good news of Jesus Christ.

Let’s look at each summary statement:

In Acts 6:7, the church grew after the apostles’ decision to give their attention to prayer and preaching: “And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”

In Acts 9:31, the church grew after the dramatic conversion of Saul of Tarsus: “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.”

In Acts 12:24, the church grew after the equally wonderful conversion of the first Gentile, Cornelius: “But the word of God increased and multiplied.”

In Acts 16:5, the church grew after Paul’s first missionary journey and the Jerusalem Council: “So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.”

In Acts 19:20, the church grew after Paul’s second and third missionary journeys: “So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.”

In Acts 28:30–31, at the very end of the Book of Acts, we read that the church grew after Paul arrived in Rome, where he preached with all boldness and without hindrance: “He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.”

The church grows when it commits itself to God’s priorities.

Pastors must commit themselves to a ministry of shepherding, which includes a ministry of the word and prayer as well.

Church members must commit themselves to a ministry of service in the areas of benevolence, finance, and property.

Church members must commit themselves to a ministry of service.

The bottom line is this: all of us must commit ourselves to the area of ministry and service to which God has called us.

Don’t get distracted by areas of service that are not your primary area of calling.

Serve God in the area of your primary gifts and strengths.

And as you do so, God will bless His church. Amen.