The people learned to fear the Lord, and those who loved Him went on serving Him faithfully, filling all of Jerusalem with their doctrine.
Look at Acts 5:28, We read, “Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.”
The purging of the church of hypocrisy, was a wonderful thing for the church.
The purging is still needed, because those who do not truly love the Lord, continue to do the same things Ananias and his wife did.
Illus: A little boy asked his dad, "What is a hypocrite?” The dad thought for a few seconds, and said, "Son, a hypocrite is like the man who smiles when he gives his wife his paycheck! "
Illus: Someone said, "A hypocrite is someone who writes a book on atheism, and prays it will sell."
When God purged the early church, it was because of the problem of hypocrisy. But once he purged the church, they had another problem, they began to multiply. This was a good problem.
The church became too large for the twelve disciples to take care of, and it was brought to their attention that some of the widows were being neglected.
I. THE SADNESS
Look at Acts 6: 1, We read, “And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.”
When a church begins to grow, they will have GROWING PAINS.
One of the problems was that the Grecian widows felt like they were being neglected. Look at-
A. THE MULTIPLYING
“And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied... "
Notice, the Bible says, "And in those days... "
This speaks of a definite time. The thing that makes this time period stand out is, “...the number of the disciples was multiplied... "
But, as a church grows, so do the number of problems.
Many churches have the mistaken idea that they need to grow, and once they have grown, they will not have any more problems.
Illus: That is as ridiculous as it would be for a child to believe that once they grow up, they will never have any more problems.
Church growth can solve some problems, but it creates a whole new set of problems.
We have looked at THE MULTIPLYING, but let us look at-
B. THE MINISTRY
There have always been groups of people here and there, who will start churches for the wrong reasons. For example, some churches exist today because of a:
1. COMMUNITY REASON.
Every new community has to have a new church. We all agree that every new community should have a church. But what people should be asking is, "Why does God want every community to have a Church?”
God would have a church in every community, BECAUSE many of the people in that community are lost and need to be saved, and need the spiritual guidance of God's Word.
They also need to be ministered to physically, from time to time.
Look at James 1:27, we read, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
Starting a church just because every new community needs a church, is starting a church for the wrong reason.
Another reason some folks start a new church is because of the conflict in the old church. This is the-
2. CONFLICT REASON
In some churches, it seems that every new conflict starts a new church.
I know of churches that have split so many times, there is not much left to split any more.
HOW DID THEY GET THIS WAY?
Every time a new conflict arose, several families split away, and begin having meetings in someone's living room. Soon these folks get mad with each other and that split splits.
Illus: A church in Newberry, South Carolina, had such a group. One rather large family became angry about something, and felt they had the numbers to have enough leverage to get things their way. When they found out they couldn’t, they pulled out and found a middle-aged preacher, and started a church in a house. They set out to prove to everyone that they could build a church. They all sacrificed and gave enough money to build a lovely church building on top of a hill.
After some time went by, the members of this group got mad at each other. Soon, there were only a handful of people attending that church. If you visit that church today, you will find two cars in the parking lot, because there are only two families left. Neither family will leave, because they are afraid the other family will sell the building and keep all the money.
Seldom do we find things that bad, but there are groups of people, meeting all over this nation, who built churches and the Lord did not have anything to do with it.
It is always sad to hear of a church building being sold and turned into warehouses, etc., but in some cases we should greatly rejoice, because it is best for the cause of Christ, because the people were not truly representing Him.
Some even go so far as to say they should be sued for impersonating a church!
That first church that we read about in the book of Acts, existed for the right purpose. Those Christians ministered by taking care of the PHYSICAL and SPIRITUAL needs of God's people.
The early church did that, but as the congregation multiplied, it soon became such an awesome task, that the disciples could not properly provide for the needs of all of the widows.
C. THE MURMURING
Look at Acts 6:1. We read, “And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.”
The disciples recognized this was a legitimate complaint. They did not refute what these widows were saying. It was a problem that could not be avoided as the believers multiplied.
Illus: We hear people complain about so many things in the church, that we have a tendency to put all complainers in group, and ignore the complaint. To do this is a mistake. We humans have limitations, and we are going to make mistakes! Peter and the other disciples were great men of God, but they could only do so much, and only had so much time in which to do it.
We looked at THE SADNESS of the Grecian widows. But let us look at-
II. THE SOLUTION
In Acts 6:2, we read, “Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.”
When the disciples learned of the problem, their first thought was to do something about solving it, for they knew they could not do all these things, and still have time for prayer and the study of God's Word.
They were neglecting the needs of some of the widows, because they were so busy. They were almost having to neglect the ministry God had called them to do.
WHAT HAD GOD CALLED THEM TO DO?
They were to pray for the people of God, and to study God’s Word, so they could feed the flock of God spiritually. They said, “It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.”
Illus: A particular preacher had a great personality, and a great love for people. He loved them so much that he spent most of his time visiting with them.
• He would visit people in the hospitals that he knew, and many that he did not know.
• He would visit shut-ins all over town, and go from house to house.
His church grew in attendance to about six hundred people. But then a problem came up. His congregation loved him because they knew he loved them. But it was common knowledge among the people, that when they arrived at church there would be very little spiritual food for them, because he had taken so little time in prayer and the study of God's Word.
That pastor kept such a pace, that he went to sleep one night and never woke up, he had a heart attack and died.
While this preacher was a kind and loving pastor, he was a failure in the sight of God, because he did not do the work God had called him to do.
The devil is pulling that same trick on many churches today.
Illus: This reminds me of the story of the pastor who went to sleep one night, and dreamed his congregation had hooked him up to a wagon like a mule. They had him in harness, and they were all on top of the wagon hollering, “Go faster! Faster! Faster!”
He dreamed he was pulling as hard as he could pull, but still he could hear some who were complaining because he was not pulling fast enough to suit them.
He turned his head and looked at them, and saw that some were actually dragging their feet behind the wagon, making his job even harder.
This may have been a dream, but many times this is the case. The disciples felt some of this same pressure, but they did not stop.
They found a solution. They said, "...It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. "
Peter and the disciples did not mean that the pastor should never visit, but that the man of God who spends sufficient time in prayer and the Word of God, does not have time to take care of all the other ministries of the church.
God's Word makes it clear, that His primary job description is to spend most of his time studying His word, and praying.
Show me a church where sufficient time has not been given to these two things, and I will show you a church, without God's anointing, full of spiritually under-fed Christians.
The apostles wanted to “nip this problem in the bud." They had the authority to make an arbitrary decision, so they chose to get the congregation involved in solving the problem.
The Bible clearly reveals that the church was governed by the elders; not by dictators, not as a democracy, but by loving elders. They did not say, “Let’s form a committee and study the problem.”
Look what they said in verse 3, “Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.”
Their attitude was, “We do not have the time to do all of this, so let’s pick some men in the congregation and assign them to do it!”
Notice, as they led, they tried to involve the congregation in the selection of men to do the job of taking care of the things that were going lacking.
Illus: Some pastors think that God has called them to be dictators. They want to make all the decisions, and they will tell you, without batting an eye, that is the way it is going to be in their church.
But this kind of pastor does not know the first thing about leadership. You have to get people involved.
The reason the church the church was having the problems at that time, was because the pastors of the church were doing everything, and some more folks needed to get involved. So they had to get others involved, and they wanted to get the entire congregation involved in selecting these deacons.
We can see the wisdom of the early elders, being an example for us, who could have made an arbitrary decision, but instead, they chose to:
1. Explain that they could not do everything.
2. Explain it was their duty to select men to do what they did not have time to do.
The congregation was sensitive, and reasonable.
Notice verse 5 says, "And the saying pleased the whole multitude ...”
III. THE SELECTION
In Verses 3-6, we read, “Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch: Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.”
They wanted men to be appointed over this matter, but they wanted to make sure they were the right kind of men.
Why? Widows are the most vulnerable people on this earth.
There are all kinds of people who prey on their:
• Loneliness
• Boredom
• Ignorance of finance
Widows have sent millions of dollars to these television preachers who are "Elmer Gantries".
But notice, the early church, in SELECTING deacons, made sure that the men who should serve in this capacity were the right kind of men.
They made sure they met certain requirements, three in particular.
(1) Requirement with man. “…of honest report…”
(2) Requirement with themselves. “…full of…wisdom…”
(3) Requirement with God. “…full of the Holy Ghost…”
Conclusion:
God honors those who will do things according to His will.
Look at the results those early Christians saw as they obeyed God.
Look at verse 7. We read, “And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.”
I. THE SADNESS
II. THE SOLUTION
III. THE SELECTION
