Jesus grows his church

So, we're reading from Acts chapter 6, and we're just reading the first seven verses.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

Now, in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists

arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

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.

Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom,

whom we will appoint this duty.

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

And what they said pleased the whole gathering.

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 Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch.

These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

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.

Well, good morning, everyone.

Will you pray with me as we come to God's word?

Father, we use the word church family a lot in this church,

and I pray that through your living word this morning,

that you would send your spirit to move

so that you might create us more and more into the likeness of the family that we are,

because of Jesus.

So please speak to us through your word.

Humble us.

Give us listening ears.

And I pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, we're getting into the book of Acts, obviously, from the Bible reading,

but we haven't been in Acts for three years,

so I had to go back and look that up,

so I can't remember, although I can't remember a lot of things,

but I'm guessing you can't remember where we're up to.

Now, as we come to the book of Acts, we may not realise it,

but we Christians often read the stories in Acts very differently

from how we read the stories in the rest of the Bible.

Like, we're starting our church lunches again next Sunday after the Lord's Supper,

and I'm not expecting anyone to bring on this beautiful platter

some locusts and wild honey beautifully presented

while they're wearing camel skin clothing,

because they just think, John the Baptist, I need to follow his example.

No one's expecting that.

And yet, we read the book of Acts,

and many Christians just assume and use it as a point of debate.

It's obvious we should do this.

We read it very, very differently.

I think it can cause us to...

You get a sentiment sometimes,

and I've fallen into this myself,

where you think,

the church, if only we went back to what it was like in the early days.

We need to go back there.

But we don't realise that we're romanticising what Luke didn't paint a rosy picture.

They had problems.

If we romanticise the book of Acts in the early church,

it can actually lead to too much disillusionment in the church today.

It's in a very unhealthy way.

So, that's all to say.

We need to, as we're coming into the book of Acts,

we need to get our bearings.

What is it about?

How do we read it?

What is the book of Acts about?

So, if you've got your Bibles,

if you don't, just listen along.

Acts chapter 1, verse 1.

Acts 1:1

Let's go to the first verse.

So, Luke is the author,

and he says,

So, this is following Luke's gospel,

and that word began.

The focus here, from the word go,

isn't on the apostles.

It's on the Lord.

What Jesus began in his earthly ministry,

he is continuing in his heavenly ministry

by sending his spirit through his apostles,

through his church.

Jesus is the hero, in other words.

The apostles are not the heroes.

Jesus is.

Jesus is.

Empowering his apostles.

Luke pauses throughout Acts

to give this narrative summary statement

so many times,

and in effect, they all say,

And the word of God increased.

The word of God spread.

The word of God multiplied.

All throughout, you'll find it.

The focus is on Jesus and his word.

He's gathering in his church.

The other key to helping us get our bearings for Acts

is, I should have stayed in chapter one,

stay in chapter one and look at verse eight.

Verse eight.

You will receive power.

Jesus talking to his apostles.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,

and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem

and in all Judea and Samaria

and to the end of the earth.

And then the book finishes with Paul in Rome,

the center of the Gentile world,

and he's still nothing stopping him from teaching God's word.

So the emphasis that Luke wants to paint,

he doesn't actually trace all the stories of the apostles.

He's not telling us a history of this apostle did this

and this apostle did that.

No, it's tracing where the word is going.

And he's not even tracing everywhere that the word went.

He's picking these stories in particular

to show us the word going from Jerusalem to Samaria

and out even to the Gentiles,

and we finish up in Rome.

So the emphasis is on Jesus gathering in his church

and he's making his church witnesses,

witnesses to the gospel,

to the truth of the goodness of belonging to Jesus.

And he's empowering his church through the Spirit to do this.

So the focus is on Jesus.

The theme is about being witnesses.

Jesus is gathering in his people

through the proclamation of the word

and through just the winsomeness of the church.

If you remember the story,

the first church after the first sermon,

it's this beautiful picture

of they're sharing all their goods in common,

they're having fellowship.

Anyway, I'll let you go back and read it.

So it's a witness.

Witness is bigger than just telling someone about Jesus.

It's bigger than that.

It's the witness of the character of the church.

It's how we go about things.

It's got to be word central,

but witness is a bigger term than evangelism.

So the focus is on Jesus.

Witness and the spread of the word is Luke's focus.

The third theme that we see through Acts

is that this happens despite serious threats.

And some of those threats are outside the church,

external pressure, persecution.

And some of the threats are inside the church.

But Jesus is unstoppable.

His word keeps spreading.

But don't expect the unstoppable Jesus.

It's not going to be smooth and easy.

So the external threats,

I don't think I need to go into this too much.

They're pretty obvious, aren't they?

Like the apostles are warned

and then beaten

and then imprisoned.

And we're about to come next week

to the first martyr.

The external threats are obvious

when you read the book of Acts.

I think we can skim over

and lose sight of the fact

that the internal threats

could have destroyed

the witness of Jesus

and the church being gathered.

So for instance,

it's doctrinally impure

and it's morally mixed.

So for instance,

chapter 5,

Ananias and Sapphira,

out of love of money,

they lie to God

and they lie to one another.

If that had spread,

it would have just been toxic

for the church.

You've got the power-hungry Simon

in chapter 8.

You've got the fearful

and retreating John Mark

on the missionary journey

he pulls out.

You've got the bitter dispute

between Paul and Barnabas.

You've got Apollos,

who doesn't,

his doctrine isn't quite complete.

He's a bit doctrinally confused.

You've got professing Christians

in Ephesus

who for a long time it seems

were hiding the fact

that in private

they were still practicing black magic.

All these internal problems,

and I think there's more,

but the risen Lord

is unstoppable.

He can use our sin and weakness

and he keeps going,

not to excuse that,

but he can also transform his people

from the inside out.

Now that's a long intro,

but I think it's important

as we come into chapter 6.

The focus is on Jesus.

It's about witness,

and there's external and internal threats

to Jesus gathering and building his church,

and here in chapter 6

I think we see another occasion

of internal threat.

And we've got two.

There's two dimensions to it.

So have chapter 6 open in front of you

if you've got your Bibles open.

The first one,

verse 1,

that kind of rhymes,

disunity.

Now in those days

when the disciples

were increasing in number,

a complaint by the Hellenists

arose against the Hebrews

because their widows

were being neglected

in the daily distribution.

Now I don't want to look over

the amazing fact

that early on

this very early church

had set up a system

for caring for the widows

in the church.

Already,

they're caring for the most vulnerable

in the church.

Their identity in Jesus

is controlling their wallets.

Like we read

that the rich

were selling their property

and laying it

at the apostles' feet

and they were distributing it

as anyone had need.

No one had any need

because

the transforming power

of belonging to Jesus' people.

It's a beautiful picture.

It's fulfilling

what God had commanded

in the Old Testament.

So Deuteronomy 24,

you may want to look it up

or just listen as I read it.

21,

when you gather the grapes

of your vineyard,

so you're a farmer,

you're gathering in the grapes,

you shall not strip it afterwards.

So once you go through it,

there's bits left over,

leave them there.

Why?

It's for the sojourner,

the visitor,

the fatherless,

and the widow.

Go.

You shall remember

that you are a slave

in the land of Egypt.

Therefore,

I command you to do this.

Throughout Scripture,

God has a heart

for the vulnerable.

James chapter 1,

James 1 · chapter mention

James is probably here this day.

He's saying,

if you say,

go,

be warm and well fed

and do nothing to help,

if you've got the ability

to help,

that is,

and do nothing to help,

that faith,

it's worthless.

Why?

Because your love of money

is greater than your love of God

and love of people.

God is a heart

for the widows.

We see in James,

we see in Deuteronomy.

And there's signs

that what God commanded

through Moses

wasn't happening

in the Jewish society

of the day.

So,

I thought of Mark chapter 7

Mark 7 · chapter mention

where Jesus,

he condemns the Pharisees.

He says,

you set up your own laws

above what God commands.

You say,

in effect,

I don't need to look after you,

mum and dad

in your old age,

as long as you give that money

to the temple.

And Jesus is like,

you're setting aside

God's word.

You should be caring

for your mum and dad.

And,

so they were teaching this.

And Jesus condemns

the Pharisees for it.

Another thing we see

in the Jewish society

in Jerusalem

was there was division

in the synagogues.

there were some synagogues

that were Hebrew speaking

and there were some synagogues

that were Greek speaking.

And we see that

in the next paragraph.

The synagogue

of the freedmen's

and they're from

different countries.

Because,

even though they're all Jews,

some Jews

had been dispersed

among the nations

and they only spoke Greek.

So you can imagine

that this language difference

created cultural difference

and you could imagine

that the Hebrew speaking

are more pure.

They haven't been mixed

with the other nations.

You could imagine

that prejudice.

It's a problem

that the synagogues

couldn't,

they didn't solve.

But here we see

that this division

has come into the church.

This prejudice

has come into the church.

It's a real problem.

If this was left unaddressed,

if the Greek,

Jewish,

converted to Christianity

women

weren't looked after,

it would basically say,

well,

you're not quite family enough

to be cared for.

It would totally undermine

what the gospel says.

The gospel says

who are God's people?

All who come to Jesus

as Saviour and Lord.

There's no distinctions.

It would undermine

what the church is,

the household of God,

if we didn't care for,

if they didn't care

for all their widows.

It would undermine

the witness

that Jesus' word

and spirit

can actually create

our hearts

after the heart of God

who does care

for the widows.

If this wasn't addressed,

it's the age-old problem.

We wouldn't be

practicing what we preach.

It would undermine

the testimony.

Here in our church,

why would we expect

friends and visitors

to want to come in

to this family of faith

if our family is marked

by the sorts of things

that you can find out

in the world?

Why would they want

to come in?

But how compelling

would it be

if our practical love

for one another

demonstrated who we are

as family

so much

so much

that

we even

surpassed

what

biological families do?

What a witness

that would be.

What a witness

if

any difference

that you find awkward

in this church,

someone that you're like,

I'm not sure

I can talk to them,

for whatever reason,

whether that's

a language thing,

cultural thing,

or whether it's

a dispute thing,

that's an opportunity.

Disunity

is not just a threat,

it's an opportunity

to demonstrate

who we are

in Jesus.

So this is a real threat

to the church

going forward,

but it raises

a second threat

if it's dealt with wrong,

in a wrong way.

Now I'm guessing

the first threat

of disunity

we kind of all agree with.

I'm guessing

it's not controversial

at all,

but the apostles

are wise

to see another

just a serious threat

and that's being distracted.

Being distracted

from word and prayer.

It's not right,

verse 2,

it is not right

that we should give up

preaching the word of God

to serve tables.

Now,

Jesus washed

his disciples' feet.

Is serving tables

beneath them somehow?

I don't think

that's the point.

It's not a matter

of they've got

a higher status.

It's not about that.

It's that

they've been set apart

for a specific task

to teach,

to proclaim.

you could imagine

to deal with this problem,

the emotional

and mental

and time

resources

required

to navigate

the relationships

and to practically

address this

would have

eaten into

their prayer

and their preparation

and their proclamation.

they would have

been distracted

from the word of God.

So a very,

there's a need here

that needs to be addressed

but if they dealt

with it themselves

they would have

stripped the church

of the lifeblood

of the word of God

and prayer.

apparently Charles Spurgeon

who

if you're in

church land

you'll know his name

he's got the title

Prince of Preachers

because

God used him

powerfully

to save many people.

His preaching was

that,

it was very powerful

and apparently

anyone

any kind of

anyone visiting

his church

he would take them

downstairs

into this

very empty room

which apparently

he called the boiler room

and it's just

these bunch of chairs

spread around

and while he was

preaching

there was just

dozens of people

praying

and he was

in effect saying

I give all the glory

to God

it's

he's

he's

he's praying

I wonder if we have

that view

of

the centrality

of the word of God

and prayer

it's

that the word

it's what creates us

it's what sustains us

it's what transforms us

it's our lifeblood

I think if Satan

can't get this church

to be quiet

from external

social pressure

to compromise

he'll try and undermine

our witness

through scandal

and disunity

oh they call themselves

family but

look at how they treat

each other

if he can't do it that way

he'll just

get us

being busy

with everything good

except talking

about Jesus

and

learning from

his word

his schemes

are not new

they're not new

they're right there

in the early church

but the risen

Lord

through his

apostles

he protects

his church

from both

threats

they bring

a proposal

brothers

pick out

from among you

seven men

of good repute

full of the

spirit

and of wisdom

whom we'll

appoint to

this duty

now

I think we can

treat this as

a bit of an

illustration of

deacons

we're going to

actually do a

sermon next week

on deacons

so I'm not going

to spend much

time on that

but the word

deacon here

as a title

isn't used

so it's not

precisely

but anyway

we'll come to that

next week

what I'm amazed

by is

even the way

they go about

the solution

to this

problem

demonstrates

being family

in Jesus

I love

that there's

not

political

manoeuvring

here

there's not

backdoor

conversations

going on

there's not

identity

politics

going

okay fine

we'll get

four Greek

men

and three

Hebrew

men

on this

committee

it's not

political

it's not

whoever

gives the

money

to the

church

gets to

decide

it's the

whole church

gathered

whole church

deciding

we're told

that they're

all pleased

with proposals

so the

Hebrew

Christians

they're

going

yes

we love

we love

you

we love

you

Greek

speaking

widows

we do

they're

pleased

with this

proposal

they're

pleased

with the

proposal

in the

sense

that

yes

we

agree

the

word

and

prayer

must

remain

central

if

we're

going

to

survive

and

be

a

witness

they're

pleased

with

that

the

church

is

entrusted

with

appointing

those

put

in

charge

it's

not

an

autocratic

decision

nor

is

it

just

pure

democracy

it's

led

by the

apostles

but

they're

also

given

it's

like

a

family

it's

calling

a

family

meeting

around

the

dinner

table

they decide

together

that's the

picture that

comes to my

mind

anyway

and they

gladly use

the gospel

criteria

they've

got to be

of good

repute

these

men

their

character

must

be

known

to be

trustworthy

but

notice

they've

got to

be

full

of

the

spirit

be

worth

talking

at

morning

tea

how

you

tell

if

someone's

full

of

the

spirit

I've

got

some

ideas

but

I'll

let

you

talk

about

that

they've

got

to do

a

very

practical

task

but

they've

got to

be

spiritual

men

they've

got to

be

spiritual

people

like

imagine

how fragile

these

relationships

were

between

years

of

prejudice

experience

between

one

another

these

people

put in

charge

had to

be so

saturated

in the

gospel

and

careful

in

how

they

handle

this

situation

so

to

be

spiritual

isn't

just

to

teach

like

I

am

you

need

to

be

saturated

in

the

truth

of

Jesus

to

handle

practical

situations

gotta

be

spiritual

and

the

church

loves

that

because

the

apostles

commissioned

them

they

approved

their

choice

it's

a

wonderful

picture

of

family

I

think

and

a

unity

of

yes

let's

be

witnesses

for

the

gospel

centrality

of

the

word

but

also

how

they

make

the

decision

is

as

family

it's

a

wonderful

picture

and

what's

the result

verse 7

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

the

word

increase

the

apostles

were

freed

up

to

keep

speaking

we

see

that

two

of

these

men

go

on

to

be

evangelists

I'm

not

sure

if

I

can

say

this

but

maybe

the

authority

given

to

them

by

the

church

empowered

them

to

go

on

to

other

things

as

well

so

it

increased

in

that

way

it

increased

in

the

way

that

how

they

come

to

this

decision

and

that

they

are

treating

one

another

as

family

between

the

Greek

and

Hebrew

speaking

I

suspect

that's

why

Luke

talks

about

the

priests

I

suspect

it's

that

they

saw

in

this

church

led

by

the

apostles

a

unity

that

they

didn't

see

in

the

synagogues

that

unity

that

goes

across

cultures

and

they

submitted

themselves

even

though

they

were

priests

in

the

temple

system

teaching

the

law

of

Moses

they

submit

themselves

to

the

authority

of

the

apostles

going

you

apostles

are

the

true

leaders

of

God's

true

people

priests

doing

that

I

think

that's

because

of

the

winsomeness

with

which

they

solve

this

problem

it

seems

to be

the

connection

that

Luke

is

drawing

anyway

so

the

Lord

didn't

only

protect

the

church

he

used

the

threat

to

cause

the

gospel

witness

to

increase

that's

how

unstoppable

he

is

now

example

came to

mind

of

our

church

last

week

we

just

had a

grace

kids

meeting

I

didn't

go to

the

meeting

mind

you

I

just

want

to

say

that

Catherine

just

does

such

a

stellar

job

I

didn't

feel

like

I

needed

to

be

there

but

grace

kids

now

I

am

super

encouraged

there

are

so

many

people

helping

with

grace

kids

this

year

it's

a

wonderful

thing

but

if

you're

new

to

the

church

you

may

not

realise

the

fruit

we're

reaping

today

was

born

out

of

controversy

five

years

ago

was

it

there

was

a

dispute

in

the

church

for

those

who

were

here

it

was

a

tension

point

like

some

people

were

ready

to

leave

because

they

thought

we

weren't

prioritising

children

and teaching

children

others

were

really

worried

that

sending

the

children

out

would

be

not

treating

them

as

family

they

should

be

part

of

the

family

gathering

bad

prejudice

violin

and

saw

this

story

by

their

1 and 7, which is the increase of the Word of God.

What was driving the concern of the apostles and the Spirit-filled church was the witness

of Jesus.

I'm not sure what internal threats we're going to face this year.

Updating the Constitution, what great way to debate and set up 20, 30 different arguments.

We could if we chose to make a battleground on certain things.

It's always a threat, I think.

Clicks in the church, relating to one another based off personal preferences and even prejudice,

remaining prejudice.

Who knows the toxic spirit of complaining without seeking true solutions or maybe neglecting

serious practical love for one another.

Maybe it's drifting away from devoting ourselves to the apostles' teaching.

The impact being in Acts has had on me is it's calming my fears of the unknown.

Because it's making me ask the right question.

If we can trust the Lord to sustain us, even using internal threats to cause us to grow,

we've just got to ask the right question.

Threats will come.

They're here now.

They're more than what I listed.

But the question is, what will be a compelling witness to the life found in Jesus' people,

of belonging to Jesus in his people?

I think the takeaway here is asking the right question.

What's going to be a witness to how good it is to belong to Jesus?

Because once we ask that question, we'll go back to Scripture to get guidance.

And whatever threats do come this year, being back in Acts, I'm taking comfort and I'm taking

confidence that we can see that nothing can hinder the risen Lord.

Not external, not internal threats.

Nothing.

Not the Jewish leaders with all their power, even putting Stephen to death, as we're going to see next week.

That just spreads the gospel.

It's not unbelievers who make it their mission to destroy the church, like Saul.

It can't stop Jesus.

It's not inside the church, like we've seen today, remaining prejudiced and being hesitant to include Gentiles.

Jesus transforms his church from the inside out.

It's not secular leaders like Herod, who's eaten by worms.

And then the next sentence is like, but the word kept spreading.

It's not even...

There's real losses, like the martyrdom of Stephen.

We're told James is put to the sword.

There's some serious things that happen.

But Jesus' church keeps going.

It's not legalism inside the church, adding laws to going, you want to be a true Christian, you need to also do this, this, this.

It's not religions and secular opposition from Greeks when they take believers to court and there's riots and there's beatings.

That doesn't stop Jesus.

It's not the doctrinal incompleteness of Apollos.

It's not even natural phenomena like shipwreck and snake bites can stop Paul.

It's not imprisonment or house arrest.

The gospel isn't chained.

While we're in Acts, we've got to see the big picture.

Nothing's stopping Jesus and the spread of his church.

So we should take comfort from that and trust him to guide us through whatever's coming, whatever we're in right now.

And I think just ask that simple question, but the right question, what will be a compelling witness to how good it is to belong to Jesus and his people?

Will you pray with me?

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you that you are ruling, that you are ruling this church family.

It's your church.

Lord, I pray for each one of us that in the moments where it feels anything but family with, there's going to be things that feel so awful.

And so I pray that in those moments that you would help us remember your words and remember the encouragement of Acts, that you will complete your church.

You will continue to grow your church.

So I pray that you would comfort us in that knowledge and drive us back into your word and being dependent on your spirit to guide us.

Please use us, God.

Please use us to spread the knowledge of you so that others will come into your family and be saved.

Please use us.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks, Dave.