Jesus once said that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Though it is smaller than other seeds, when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. Matt. 13:31-32
Jesus also compared the kingdom to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour. Soon the leaven spread throughout it all!
God’s kingdom grows and spreads. It is spiritually organic and alive and God has initiated the kingdom of Christ on earth to reach out and gather in whosoever will. We are light and salt in this world for Christ. God has equipped us for growth and for facing the challenges growth brings. Acts 6 demonstrates both of these.
Imagine what would happen if this congregation grew by just another 160 members this year. What would we do? How would we handle it? A more important question might be, why are we NOT planning and working for this to happen? I mean, in light of what Jesus commissioned us to do, where is our faith? Where are the works that demonstrate our faith?
Multiply 160 by 10 or by 100. Imagine 1600 members of this congregation… how about 16,000? Why can’t we even think in those terms today? What have we become that would stand in the way of unleashing God’s power to reach people for Him today? When we study Acts, we see God working in the church in ways that can blow our minds.
The church in Jerusalem was increasing daily. If we did that, it would mean more than 160 by December 31. Look back with me from Acts chapter 2 at the growth statements God’s word gives us. Remember when you read and hear these that these are from your Bible. This is not my idea, or our elders’ idea. This is God. This is God at work. This is Jesus building His church, ok? Listen and answer this: is God interested in numbers in His church? We want commitment, we want maturity, we want spiritual depth, but God shows us that where you have commitment, maturity and spiritual depth, you tend to have growth in numbers. Acts 2:41, 47, 4:4, 5:14, 28, 6:1, 7. Now go ahead to 9:31. Did you hear that? The church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria! From 120 gathered in Acts 1 to pray before Pentecost, to thousands throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria… and this in just a few short but amazing years.
I have been here at Signal Mountain for 15 years. This church more than doubled in the first five years, then we ran out of space and we have stopped growing in number. What has happened to our vision and growth? Surely none of us here wants to face God some day and say that we liked the size of our congregation too much to make room for more, do we?
God’s word challenges us, does it not? When we get comfortable, and satisfied with where we are and stop reaching out and sharing our faith in Jesus Christ, we are in danger of becoming lukewarm. We are in danger of being salt that loses its flavor. God wants more from us than attendance and contributions toward missions elsewhere. God wants us to love Him enough to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, His Son and bring others to Him here too.
The simplest thing you can do is invite someone to come with you to church. Can you do that? Is that too much for God to expect from you? Surely all of us here can ask someone to come to church with us. Maybe you can’t take someone through the scriptures and show them how to become a Christian. Maybe you can’t answer all the questions that someone may ask you. Maybe you can’t do a lot of things for Christ that you see others doing. But, you can ask someone to come to church and hear about Jesus and experience His presence among us, can’t you? Sure you can! The only real question is will you do it? What might happen if all of us took seriously this one challenge and prayerfully, looked for someone to invite to church with us and did it. Just one a week!
What happens when you grow in number? We see that you must also grow in leadership.
Not only that, but we must also grow in involvement from the membership.
Acts 6 is a pivotal point in this book. We are about to meet Stephen and Philip. These two men, God used to take the church to the next level.
Up until chapter 6, Luke has centered our attention on the apostles and their ministry. Now we begin to see how they extended their reach through passing on responsibility to other qualified workers. The church has outgrown the capacity of its leaders. What should they do?
Imagine the possibilities here:
They could say, well, we are finally big enough! We’ve reached our limits, so let’s just settle back and grow deeper instead of larger. We need a break from all these baptisms anyway. Our backs are killing us and some of us are getting tired of having to wash all those baptismal garments every day! Let’s be reasonable here. We kind of like this size anyway, so let’s just keep house with who we’ve got. Right?
Or, the apostles could just try to redouble their efforts and work night and day to handle the increasing responsibilities of the growth. Let’s see, we have 12 apostles, so maybe we could split up with some in charge of the widows needs and the rest try to handle the preaching and teaching ministry. What if the apostles didn’t trust members of the church to handle its own ministry needs? What if all decisions about everything had to go through all the apostles before anyone could do anything? What would that do to the growth of the church? What is the biblical model that we have here in Acts 6?
Here’s what they did do.
Look at verse 2. They called together the multitude of disciples and stated their plan.
First, it would not be good for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God and prayer to serve tables. Principal one – They need to keep doing the work of proclaiming the gospel and meeting the spiritual needs, instead of taking care of the physical needs of the congregation. Not that these needs are unimportant! They are! But the body of Christ is empowered by the Holy Spirit to build itself up in love. Eph. 4:16
This step of delegation of responsibility and sharing of authority MUST take place for the church to continue to be healthy and grow. Do you think the apostles knew all the members of this church? Did they feel the need to manage everything that went on in the church?
Verse 3 – The congregation selects its own servants, but the apostles guide the process. The number = 7, the gender = men, the association = membership (among you), the three qualifications = known, (they have established their reputations by their lives), full of the Holy Spirit, (they are in Christ and demonstrate God’s presence in their lives), wisdom, (they are mature enough to handle relationship issues that require discretion, and seasoned skill with people).
The apostles will give them charge over this ministry while they devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word.
We have among us, elders, deacons, teachers, ministry staff, and jobs for every member.
This summer, on Wednesday evenings, we hope to have our deacons sharing with us about each of their ministries and inviting all of us be involved.
Our elder selection process has led us to announce David Bible and Earl Turner as candidates for shepherding and overseeing this church. God is blessing us and good things are happening. Is God preparing us to grow? Are we willing to let God increase our faith and our number? Are you willing to work toward that end?
When the church in Jerusalem added leadership, what was the result?
Verse 7 - So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.
It was growth.
Remember the parable Jesus told of the talents? This church is a five talent church. Just look at what God has given us! What happens when we put our talents to work for God’s glory? They will increase! If we bury our talent, we may remain the same, but God will not be pleased. Let’s put our talents to work for the Lord and the spread of His kingdom!
Let’s start by committing to inviting someone to come to church with us. We give an invitation every time we meet, but who is here to respond to it? We make the call to come at every service. If you bring someone to church you may help them come to Christ!
Doris's story: Doris was lost. She was raised in a family that did not follow Jesus Christ and she learned the ways of the world early in life. She met and married a drug addict and had several kids. He worked sporadically, and they needed more to feed the family so Doris got a job at a restaurant as a waitress. Soon after she got that job another woman came to work there named Betty. I can’t remember her last name, but Betty was a Christian and unashamed to confess her faith and invite others to follow Christ. Betty’s usual method was to invite her friends to church. She asked Doris. Doris said that when Betty asked me, I laughed in her face and told her what I thought about church. Betty didn’t give up. She cared. She listened to Doris and demonstrated God’s love. Doris said she often tried to be mean to Betty and hurt her feelings, and once brought her to tears, but Betty kept responding kindly, telling Doris she was praying for her and wished she would just come to church with her one time. As weeks past Doris’s experienced a difficult turn and she said she decided to take Betty up on her invitation to church, but just once. It only took one time. Doris saw something among those Christians that turned her heart to God. Within a few weeks Doris was baptized into Christ.
Do you think God might have put you right where you are so that you will be salt and light for Him?
Will you let your light shine? Does your salt still have its savor? God is increasing our leadership, will we increase our influence and grow?
