The Church That is Alive

Welcome to the Enduring Grace Sermons Podcast.

This is the home for the weekly teaching and ministry of Pastor Ben Hill.

Our mission is to share the timeless truth of God's Word with the world in need of hope.

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And now, here is this week's message.

It is good to celebrate the faithfulness of the saints.

And so it is an honor to be able to stand beside Jan, who, when asked, I know, said it was interim.

Interim means short, typically.

It was anything but.

And so she has been faithful, and we're just so thankful, and we're also excited about what God has for our church and the ministry that Clay brings as well as he also gives God glory and praise through the ministry of worship.

Hasn't it been awesome to worship both in baptism and in music this morning?

It's been incredible and offering.

And now we get to worship the Lord through the preaching of his word.

And I want to encourage you to take your Bibles and turn to the book of Acts as we continue our study in the book of Acts.

Now, this summer we're going to take a little reprieve from Acts.

So we got a few more weeks to go, but we will be transitioning to the Old Testament to look at the life of David this summer.

I'm excited about that.

And then we'll pick back up in Acts at the beginning of the school year.

But right now we're in Acts as a church family, and we've studied extensively the life of the early church.

We've seen how God is blessed.

We've seen growth in the church.

We have seen how the church has prospered under the Lord.

And so this morning I want to talk to you about how the church is alive and that this specific church and our church today can be alive as well.

And so if you're taking notes and you want to write a little title down, it's simply this the church that is alive.

And then we're going to be in Acts chapter 6.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

Now you might be wondering, okay, so the church that is alive, aren't we all alive?

Yes, we are.

But there are churches all across America that would be called a dying church.

You go to England and you'll see real quick that churches die.

They become museums if they are not careful to take care of right doctrine, to take care of the right faith.

And what we're going to see this morning is that a growing church does not mean a church without problems.

Did you know that growing churches, healthy churches, churches that are alive, have problems?

We see this in the early church.

And also, in addition to that, what we're going to see is that there is a solution to problems in the church.

And they are a Christ-centered solution.

And we're going to see how that unfolds in the text.

And so this morning, as you take notes, I want you to see from our example in this early church that there are four realities of the vibrant alive church that allows her to remain healthy.

And so this morning, if you have found your place in Acts chapter 6, would you please say word?

Acts 6 · chapter mention

Because we love God's word here.

And would you stand in the honor of the reading of God's word?

It says, Now in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because the widows were 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 to 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 Procorius, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenius, 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.

Let us pray.

Father God, I pray that you would allow this text to not just embolden the church, but encourage the church to be faithful, to be obedient, to see that we are to follow you in all circumstances, Lord, and that you have a plan for the church.

That you have a desire for the church to be vibrant and alive for your glory and praise.

We love you, Lord.

We thank you for the morning that we've already had.

We pray for your continued presence and blessing as we study your word together.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

You may be seated.

The first reality for the church that is alive that I want us to see is that problems can emerge in growing churches.

This church is no exception.

You've got to remember in the book of Acts, we've already seen a couple of great movements of God where a multitude of people have been saved.

The church in Jerusalem is growing rapidly.

They have added to their number number every day, is what the text says, said uh previously.

And we see that even though that the early church, uh the apostles and those that are uh the disciples that follow Jesus are preaching and proclaiming, they are still facing persecution.

In fact, being jailed, flogged, and they counted it as uh worthy, they counted it as a blessing.

They rejoiced as they left because they had experienced persecution.

And that the church continued to grow even in the midst of that.

And so the church has already faced problems, but it's been external for the most part, with the exception of Ananias and Sapphira, where we saw that they lied about the gift that they were giving and they died in the church because of their lie.

Now, this morning, what we see is that there is another problem that arises in this growing church.

Now, I don't know about you, but uh the reality is, in my experience, the more people you put together that have to be united and unified, the harder it gets.

For example, you take a church that's got basically 20, 50 people in it, it's a little easier for them to agree on those things, typically.

But you add more people to that equation, it gets harder and harder.

You've got more and more opinions.

There can be divides.

And if you grow the number even greater and you look at our nation, just look at how divided our nation is.

You have opinions everywhere.

And so there is no different within the church.

The more people you add to a church, the more natural it is that one person over here is going to think differently than the person that sits across from them.

So what is the solution?

Well, in this text, what we're going to see is the solution is the empowerment of the church to rule within the church.

But the first thing is that we see is that this number of increasing has caused and led to complaints.

Now, the word complaint in the original language is in the is a participle implying that it is a continuous, rapid growth that the church is experiencing.

So when the disciples were increasing in number, sorry, uh, that means that it's continuous.

It's rapid.

And then when they say a complaint, that term really means marm murmuring, means talking under their breath.

They're whispering behind closed doors.

It's kind of the intention of that word.

And so what we see is a complaint by the Hellenist.

Now, Hellenist is a term we don't really use, but just think of it as a Greek-speaking Jew.

That's the simplest way to think about it.

Is it is a Jewish person who has traveled to Jerusalem, uh, that is a Greek speaker.

They don't speak Aramaic natively, more than likely, and that they have kind of brought on some of the Greek uh practices in their life.

So they're culturally a little different from their Hebrew, Aramaic speaking Jewish brothers who are natives to probably Jerusalem.

And so here they are, these two different groups, and the Hellenists, their complaint is simply this that their widows are being neglected.

That's a pretty serious thing in the Bible times.

Widows wouldn't have had really a source of income that was on their own.

They would have been at high risk for need.

And the Hellenists are saying we're coming together as a church and we're supposed to be unified, and everybody's needs is supposed to be met, and yet this group is not being met.

We got a problem, church.

We have an issue because people are being neglected in the daily distribution.

Now, this daily distribution, if you remember, you reflect back, they were selling their property for the purpose of making sure no one had need.

Keep in mind that this church is growing rapidly, so the needs are growing by the day.

When you have a growing church, needs grow by the day.

And we have a calling to meet those needs.

And so this problem arises.

Now, growing up, uh I was used to a big kitchen growing up for the most part, and then when Catherine and I got married and we moved to Hooks, Texas, we had a tiny kitchen.

I'm talking it was a narrow little hallway of the kitchen.

You could be at the sink, turn, and be at the stove.

That's how small it was.

As we added to our family, you know what happened in that kitchen?

It was hard enough to slip by Catherine when we were trying to move in that kitchen together.

When you add kids to the equation, it's impossible.

There was a need that arose.

We needed a bigger space, or we had to work differently.

We had to think of it differently.

And so we were blessed eventually to move to Georgia and also here, and we had bigger kitchens.

It was a much more uh enjoyable experience to have us all in the kitchen at the same time because when you're making food, you know where your kids want to be?

By your side.

In the church, when needs arise, we have to think through those processes in order for us to address them correctly and rightly.

We have to pray through those issues.

We don't ignore them, we change the course.

We don't want to be in the danger of allowing murmuring to sit in the church or really to have complaints that go unheard, unheeded, and unaddressed.

Because when you have unaddressed complaints, it becomes a poison to the body that sickens the whole church because it becomes a bitterness issue.

So if you have a complaint as a church member, you shouldn't hold it back.

You should address the complaint with the party that the offense is with.

And if guess what, you can't win them, you go to another brother or another sister that has also had that same complaint, and you take that person, you go to them, and you try to win them again.

And if that doesn't work, then guess what?

You get your pastors involved.

And we go together.

And if they still won't listen and it's a sin issue, then we have to address as a church.

That's a church discipline issue.

And the church was not afraid to do that.

But there's also the complaints that, hey, we don't do enough ministry in this area of our life.

Maybe we're not satisfied with children's ministry, or maybe we're not satisfied with student ministry, or maybe we're not satisfied with worship ministry, or maybe we're not satisfied with preaching ministry, maybe we're not satisfied with our senior adult ministry or our widow ministry.

The list goes on and on.

But if you see a need or an area that's not being met, there is a responsibility as a church member not just to bring that forward to the church leadership, but also when you come, you come willing to be involved in that problem.

You come with a solution.

Or if you don't have a solution, is hey, I've noticed this.

What can we do?

And I'm willing to step in that gap.

Because God has laid that on your heart.

If you see an area of need and you are simply wanting to complain about it, then you have misunderstood what the Holy Spirit's laid before you, and that is a desire and a need that you can see that you have been called to help address.

Far too often in our churches, we oftentimes are quick to go, hey, we need to fix that, but we never want to get our hands dirty to get involved in it.

We have to be a church that gets involved.

We have to be a church that's willing to prioritize our essentials.

Which brings us to a second reality that we see in the text is priorities are essential in a growing church.

Not only do problems arise, not only does uh needs arise in the church, we also see that there are priorities that we have to prioritize in our own life to be able to grow as a church.

Because when the church grows, priorities shift.

There's bigger priorities, there are bigger needs, and not everyone can do everything.

We've all been called and equipped for specific ministry that God has selected you specifically for.

One of my favorite books is Eat That Frog.

Uh, and eat that frog, it's like what you it sounds like uh it's talking about if you basically have an African bullfrog and you've got a tiny little tree frog and frogs in between, you don't want to eat the tiny little tree frog first because by the time you eat all the frogs and you get to that big one, you might not be able to eat it.

You want to start with that big frog first.

Now it's a disgusting illustration, but here's the point is that if you will prioritize in your life the biggest issues first, those smaller issues become easier to deal with, but there's also some that you just need to remove from your life.

When you're going through a list, you should prioritize first priority, second priority, third priority, and then there's some things on the list that is can wait, and then there's some you have to eliminate.

The disciples understood, the twelve understood that they had to eliminate something from their plate.

As this church is growing, there's a need for them to prioritize.

Look at verse 2 it says, 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.

Now, in if we remove that and we just look at it, it looks a little like they're saying, I'm above serving tables.

But we know that's not true.

Remember, they've been serving people from the beginning of Acts.

They've been serving people with Jesus long before this.

What they are saying is not that I'm above serving, it's that my serving has to be prioritized in prayer.

Look at what it says.

We should give we should that we should give up preaching, that it's not right for this to take place.

It is not right for us to give up on preaching.

The disciples and the apostles were specifically called for the preaching ministry for the purpose of proclaiming Christ, his gospel message, that faith is through Christ alone.

And so, what is their solution if this is going to take them away from being able to have a vibrant preaching ministry and prayer ministry?

Is that they needed other people that could serve in the gap.

Look at verse 3.

Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit, and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.

What he says is, hey, church family, you've got a complaint.

We hear you.

We know that it's a need.

But it's not good for us to meet that need because our priority is glorifying God in the calling that He's called us, which is the preparing and preaching of God's word.

We've got to pray and preach.

So we need seven men that you choose to be able to meet this need.

But here's the rules.

Notice what the rules are.

First, they have to be men.

He says, seven men.

Not only are they to be seven men, they have to be not just any men, they have to have a good reputation, good repute.

They have to have a good reputation among the church.

Also, full of the spirit.

That means that they have to have proof of salvation in their life.

They have to be walking in faith.

They have to be honorable.

But also they need to be wise.

And we know that wisdom comes from the Lord only.

So that comes from the Spirit, as they are full of the Spirit.

And then it says this, whom we will appoint to this duty.

So what the process was for this church that is laid out before them is that they're going to select seven men for the purpose of making sure that these widows are cared for and that they are going to be taking that their needs are going to be met equally to that of the uh Hebrew Jew.

And so this right here, as many scholars have argued, is the first deacon.

Because their reputation is the same, but these qualifications are reflected in First Timothy and Titus.

These are able men, wise men, serving faithfully.

I'm go I'll just brag on our deacons here for just a moment.

I love our deacons.

One of my favorite things is our prayer time that we have every single deacon's meeting, and we have men that are willing to serve in the gap to minister to the church body.

I know when we go see people at the hospital, it is not uh uncommon to run into deacons visiting the families that are in the hospital.

It is an incredible ministry arm of our church, and they're meeting a need within our church.

That is the way God intended for the deacons to serve the body of Christ so that the pastors can focus on praying and preaching God's word effectively.

We still do ministry and the shepherding and going and visiting and doing those things, but it frees us up where we don't have to be there every day.

It allows deacons to step in the gap, to minister to the church.

And that was the intention of the disciples when they're telling them, these twelve, that we need seven men who are godly men to serve in this regard.

And then they remind them in verse four of why.

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

The most important element for me as a pastor is to spend time with the Lord in prayer and the preparation of preaching this word, because if I don't do that, I'm unfaithful.

I can't equip the saints, I can't encourage you in Christ.

I can't be up here and in good standing to say that I have put forth my best effort for God's glory.

But I cannot neglect my time with the congregation because I can't preach effectively if I'm not with you.

So as a pastor, it's both people are our deacons and also servant leaders in the church that aren't deacons.

Where they come in is that they help the ministry grow and be vibrant so we can have an even bigger impact across all areas of our church.

That was the goal, is that they wanted to be able to continue to do the work of the Lord so that the Lord could be glorified and his church could be alive and vibrant.

It's all about good versus best.

There are good things that we can do, but we want to prioritize the best things that we can do.

What are the best things that you can do?

We're not talking about church members needing to be busy for busyness' sake.

What is it that God has gifted you specifically in that only you can do?

Think about that.

God has gifted you uniquely for the purpose of being able to do something only you can do.

I think about back to my student ministry days.

My biggest priority at Abilene and also in much of my time at Texar Canada was building my leadership team of adults.

And the reason for that is I understand that every person has a different group of people that they're more gifted in reaching.

While I might be able to relate with a Bunch of different people as a pastor.

I am less effective in connecting with someone who doesn't have the exact same interests or hobbies as I do.

For example, if you're a Cardinal fan, we would get along just great.

We can talk about Cardinals until I'm blue in the face.

But if you're a Cub fan, I'm going to say, that's great that you got a good team.

My team is not good this year.

Won't be probably for a long time.

But the fact is, I don't know any of your players.

I can't really connect with any of those things because I don't follow your team.

We have to connect with those on that God has gifted us with that have similar hobbies.

For example, Pastor Ted can take somebody out fishing and know all the good fishing spots that may tell you, I like fishing, but you're going to have to show me all the fishing spots because I'm not good.

He can connect with those guys out there in that way.

Take me to a golf course, I'll hit a ball, but it's going to be bad, but we're going to have fun doing it.

You might help to help me find my golf ball.

But we're going to have fun.

The reality is, is God has gifted you uniquely, but not just in connecting, but also in ministry.

Some of you are incredibly gifted with children, and you're able to communicate on their level, and you need to be serving in children's ministry.

Some of you have been incredibly gifted in students, with students, and you're able to connect powerfully with them.

And you're able to say, hey, I understand I've been there.

I've done that.

And you can connect.

For others, you're able to connect with senior adults because guess what?

That's your life right now.

But you can be leading and serving in senior adults.

Some of you are gifted singers who are not up here.

I'm going to talk about that until I'm blue in the face, right?

Because I want you up here if you're a gifted singer.

So does Clay.

So does Jan.

Because our church is vibrant when our people are involved in the ministries God has gifted them in.

Some of you are gifted teachers and you're not using your gift of teaching right now.

Maybe you are in the pew and you're like, man, I don't know what I'm good at.

Come talk to me.

I'll help you.

We'll figure it out together.

I'd love that comment.

It'll be great.

And we'll get you connected with someone, and you're not going to have to start from scratch.

It's one of the things that we're working towards, we want to create a vibrant church because we're prioritizing the essentials.

But here's the reality of it: it only works in prioritization if you empower people in growing churches.

So the third point is simply this: people are empowered in growing churches.

The responsibility of the pastor, whether it's me or Keith or Jack or any pastor, is to empower the saints for the purpose of glorifying God for the ministry that God has called them to.

We're in an equipping business, essentially.

We're in the encouragement, equipping, and sending business.

We gather, grow, go.

We gather together for the encouragement of the saints, for the purpose of growing in Christ-likeness, so that we can go and be the disciples God has called us outside these walls.

That's how we reach our one more.

That's how we proclaim the good news of the gospel to people far and wide, is because we prioritize and we empower the whole church for the purpose of ministry.

That's the only way this church can be healthy.

If you want to know my leadership philosophy and specifically leadership development, you can read Matt Lake's book, The Multiplication Effect.

Highly recommend.

It is an incredible philosophy of leadership development, which essentially is this the church has to be empowered, and not everyone can be at the top of the ladder.

And the reason for that is if you get too many people at the top of the ladder, there's no one that's willing to do the other things or able to do the other things.

So you might not be called to be a director of a ministry.

You might not be called to be the teacher of the classroom, but you could be called to be the phone caller.

You could be empowered to be the person that's going to set up missions opportunities for your Sunday school class.

You could be the person that's going to be in there and not teaching the children, but helping work on the projects with the children.

We've all been called to serve a part in the church.

And here's the reality: if we're not empowering the church to be vibrant in the ministry that they've been called, this is the reality.

What happens to the church is we lose an arm.

And before long we lose a leg.

And then we lose the other leg.

And before long we're on life support and the church dies.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

Because healthy churches are empowered churches where the people are the church and doing the ministry of the church.

We're partners in ministry.

We are not different.

We are not separated.

We are in the trenches together for the purpose of glorifying God.

It just looks a little different for a pastor, maybe, than a person in the pew.

It can look a little different for a teacher of a Sunday school class than maybe the person that's in their classroom.

But they have been equally called to the ministry to serve uniquely in the gifting that God has given them.

And for some of you, that means that God is slowly equipping you to be a teacher.

You might not be there yet, but you're getting there.

For others, it might be that God has called you to children and you're just sitting there going, I don't want to do that.

I did that before.

And you're white-knuckled.

But the Lord said, Hey, I need you in my children's ministry here at First Baptist because you connect with children in a way that other people can't.

I'll tell you, I love my children to death.

But I do not enjoy trying to connect with a three-year-old in a classroom.

That's not my skill set.

But we have ladies like Jamie and others, they absolutely get excited about the stuff.

I'm sitting there like, this is awesome.

I would have never come up with that in a million years.

That's the church being the hands and the feet of Jesus.

Are you serving the Lord faithfully?

Or do you feel that you haven't been empowered to serve the Lord faithfully?

And if that's you, that you don't feel empowered, come talk to me.

Let's figure it out.

Let's get you empowered.

Because God has uniquely called you to the ministry of the Lord as a servant of the Lord.

These men understood that.

And they took on that responsibility.

And they said, We will serve.

We see that in Stephen's life, and the next uh next week we will look at Stephen.

And then we also see Philip demonstrate that he is the evangelist.

Both Stephen and Philip are some of my heroes of the New Testament because they are simply lay people that are faithful.

There is nothing more special than watching someone who is not obligated to serving the Lord faithfully.

It is a glorious, worshipful reality.

But here's the thing is that it's not just about them being empowered, but they're sent.

Look at verse 6.

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

They commissioned them for the ministry to the widow.

It's because we want to empower them and commission them to the ministry.

And it's not just deacons that should be empowered.

It's also our lay leaders in the congregation.

When you become a member of First Baptist Church, Georgetown, you're saying, I'm ready to get involved and serve because we are a partnership.

We're one body and many members.

But not only that, we also see forth the result of a healthy, vibrant church who deals with their problems, who prioritizes and empowers people, is that it leads to prosperity.

Fourth point is prosperity is evident in a growing church.

Look at verse 7 again.

It says, 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 faith.

Luke's report progress right here is simply this.

He says, Hey, uh this whole thing that's unfolding with the church, guys, including this problem and this process and this new system that was implemented within the church where they're empowering these seven men, it led to prosperity for the church because it grew.

It continued to grow for God's glory.

It continued to increase.

The ministry, the word of God continued to increase.

The pastors, the disciples, the apostles who were preaching the word were empowered to prioritize the word of God.

And as a result, the church flourished.

And the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.

Here is the reality of a church that is empowered by the leadership of the church, but also that are empowered for ministry and they understand the purpose of their role in serving the Lord faithfully because they're serving in the areas that they have been called to, is that the church is multiplied.

People get saved.

People respond to the gospel and communities transform.

If you want to know why people don't respond to the gospel regularly, even in Georgetown County, it's because not enough of us are investing in other people faithfully, consistently for the purpose of winning them to Jesus.

If every person in this room was able to reach their one, and their one lived in Georgetown County, and their one decided that they were going to come and be discipled and equipped and empowered here, if our average attendance is around 350, that means that we would have over 700 people in our service at the end of the year on average.

There should be 1,400 people reached for the glory of the Lord.

That means we would have two services fully packed.

By year three, you're talking about having to have as many as four services.

But here's the thing is that those people don't stay in one church.

It empowers us to plant and grow and reach more areas of our community across the region.

Which is what the book of Acts is all about, is planting churches in the gospel reach, growing and reaching to the ends of the earth.

We're not done yet.

And so as a church family, what I'm going to encourage you is to really pray and ask the Lord, where should I be prioritizing my time and ministry at First Baptist Church, Georgetown?

Where should I invest my effort?

Because many of us, many of you physically aren't able to go like you used to.

So it could be that I'm going to invest more time in my prayer time.

But many of you are still very able to serve physically.

And so you need to get involved physically in a ministry.

Because if we're going to be a vibrant church for God's glory, the whole church has to serve the Lord faithfully.

But in order to do that, we must have a personal relationship with Jesus.

Do you have that personal relationship with Jesus?

Have you ever said yes to Jesus?

See, Jesus died on the cross to pay the ultimate price for our sins so that we could receive the grace of God and the forgiveness of our sins, but it requires us to place our faith in Jesus and to confess our sins.

Have you confessed your sins to the Lord?

Have you prayed to receive Jesus as your Savior?

With every head bowed and eye closed this morning.