Serving In The Church Series

SERVING IN THE CHURCH

Text: Acts 6:1-7

Introduction

1. Illustration: C. Peter Wagner states in his book Your Spiritual Gifts on page 19: "Martin Luther permanently changed Christendom when he rediscovered the priesthood of all believers. Still, Lutheranism retained much of the clericalism of the Roman Catholic Church. One wonders why it took more than 400 years for the churches born of the Reformation to rediscover the biblical teaching of the ministry of all believers."

2. People in the church have done church backwards for many years. The pastor or the minister is seen as the hired hand and the congregation is merely there to be at best ministered to, at least to be entertained.

3. However, we are all called to the ministry. Some are called to preach and lead, while others are called to do the work of the ministry with their own gifts and callings.

4. We can see this truth truly illustrated for us in Acts 6:1-7.

5. Read Acts 6:1-7

Proposition: The church is at its best when we are all following our calling.

Transition: Acts 6 begins with…

I. The Problem (1).

A. Rumblings of Discontent

1. Here’s the reality, all churches have problems, even the early church.

a. Any time you get a group of people together you are going to have problems, because none of us is perfect.

b. If you find the perfect church, don’t join it because you’ll mess everything up.

c. The truth is there are no perfect church. The secret is that when problems arise, we need to deal with them in a godly way.

2. That’s what happened in the early church. Luke tells us about the problem the early church had in v. 1, where he tells us, “But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food.”

a. The first thing we see is that the church was growing, and they were having growing pains.

b. The Greek speaking believers were complaining that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food.

c. Keep in mind that widows in the first century were dependent upon others to take care of them. Once a woman lost her husband, she was dependent upon her sons to take care of her because they received the inheritance once the father died. So, they were expected to care for their mother.

d. However, for these Greek speaking women, who were not from around Jerusalem, didn’t have any nearby relatives to care for them.

e. The next problem was that there was a language barrier. Most local Jews spoke Aramaic, but the Greek speaking Jews spoke Greek and their native language, but not Aramaic. So, they had a communication issue.

f. Also, they had a numbers problem. The church was growing so rapidly that they couldn’t keep up with the need.

g. They had more mouths to feed then they had food. All of this was causing problems within the church.

h. The phrase “rumblings of discontent,” was a harsh word like the word used in the OT for the grumblings against Moses in the desert.

i. So, the leaders of the church had to come up with a solution, and they had to do it quickly.

B. Royal Priests

1. Illustration: “The New Testament pictures the church as an every-member ministry. The “priesthood of all believers” is not just a Reformation watch word but a biblical ideal.” (Greg Ogden).

2. We are all called to the ministry.

a. “But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Pet. 2:9).

b. There was a problem in the early church that still exists today: pastors are expected to do it all. The church has come to expect it, and pastors let them think that way.

c. That’s why there is an epidemic of burnout among pastors. They try to do it all, but all they do is wear themselves out. Nobody can do it all!

d. The bible tells us we are all priests and ministers.

e. We are a chosen people, which means we have all been handpicked by God.

f. We are royal priests; we are all called by God to serve in the church in some capacity. In bible times, the priesthood was a full-time occupation. It was a preoccupation and not a past-time. If you were a priest, it was all you did.

g. We are a holy nation; we are set apart for service to God. God has set us apart to serve in his church, and we have been equipped by God for our own ministry.