Sermon – Keeping Focused on The Mission
Scripture Lesson- Acts 6:1-7 “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. So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, “We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program. And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.” Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the Jewish faith). These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them. So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.”
Introduction: Having proper priorities can help any ministry to maintain its focus. Organizations of all sizes acknowledge the importance of setting strategic priorities to focus their time, energy, money, and human resources to accomplish the mission. One of Satan’s most successful attacks against the early church was to attack the leadership. He wanted to distract the disciples from their most important task of prayer and ministry of the word. Where could they do the most for the church and where should they place their attention, time, and energy in supporting the mission, Jesus gave them? Prayer and the Word!
It’s no secret that we’ve all got a million things going on. As many of us are going back to our jobs and our lives beyond the pandemic. It’s easy to get overwhelmed as we try to find balance in ministry, family, work. Our lives are all full of things we need to accomplish, spiritual, social, and vocational demands that fight for our attention. All needs are not created equal, and we shouldn’t give them the same weight in our lives. That’s where a practice of healthy priorities comes in.
As believers, God’s glory should always take that number one spot in our lives. Regardless of what’s going on in our lives or what has happened to our schedule. We’ve been experiencing a season where our schedules, routines, and our lives are in a constant state of change. In cultural moments like these, we need to realize that even if the events of our lives are changing, our priorities can remain firmly in place. Jesus talked about this in Matthew 6. When he talked about the anxieties of the heart, he said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, And all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:33
As we’re adjusting to the changes of life, it’s important that we keep our priorities straight. When we keep those priorities straight, we can experience life the way God intended. With every decision we make, we need to make sure our priorities stay in the right place. If our decisions distract our focus from God’s purpose, our mission diminishes, and we need to rethink our priorities. We all need to do a priority check every now and then. We need to consider how much time and attention we are giving to each area of our life. If you find that your priorities aren’t lining up the way they should be, don’t be discouraged. God wants to do a work in you! Spend some time with the Lord and ask him to help you align your life with his goals. When our priorities look like God’s priorities, we will find that our lives are balanced in the best way.
Establishing and maintaining proper priorities was the secret to the disciples staying focused. There is no way to avoid the challenges in the life of a fast-growing church. Challenges will come. We can be assured that the Holy Spirit can lead us safely through the challenges of life and ministry. The early church needed the Holy Spirit's guidance as they faced the challenges of ministry. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the early church had successfully overcome outside persecution and inside hypocrisy. Now, the Holy Spirit must guide the church in resolving inner conflict among its members. Any growing church will face new challenges. We must always remember that growth brings changes, changes bring challenges and unresolved challenges become problems. These Spirit filled leaders were able to keep the church focused, united and on mission. The people came together to address the conflict which resulted in more cooperation and additional church growth.
1. Seek to Resolve Conflict. It seems as if the church leaders had an open-door policy. The membership had the liberty to bring their concerns forward. The leader addressed the conflict openly. Satan was attempting to use conflict to divide and conquer. Satan’s efforts are often successful when the church allows unresolved conflicts to distract them from their focus. When the focus is lost, the mission is abandoned. All of Satan's efforts to hinder the church through persecution failed. Instead of hindering the Church, the church membership increased and grew. Real growth demands change. It is impossible to experience real growth without change. Change has a way of creating challenges, conflict, and confusion. The early church experienced all three. The church attracted people from all walks of life. Although, the church was still primarily made up of Jewish Christians, there were both Hebrew speaking Jews of Palestine region and Greek speaking Jew who had lived in other parts of the Roman Empire within the congregation.
Perhaps, Greek speaking Jews, being strangers in Palestine, felt that they were being overlooked and underserved. They were probably not as well-known as the Hebrew speaking Jews from the region. We have no reason to believe that the neglect was intentional. Mistakes will occur, and if not rectified they may create ill will and division. The leadership recognized that this conflict could become a major distraction. They chose to address the conflict head on. When internal challenges arise in the church, decisions must be made, and actions must be taken to quickly resolve the matter. What persecution and hypocrisy had failed to do, Satan attempts to do through internal conflict. Conflict within the church is one of Satan's choice weapons to bring disharmony and disunity in the church. This conflict seems to have stemmed from perceived favoritism within the church. It was probably unintentional and unrealized. Anytime some are favored, others will feel slighted. The quickest way for Satan to hinder the work of God is to create conflict which involves actual or perceived favoritism. For an Old Testament example, when Joseph was favored by his father, Jacob, he was despised by his brothers. One of man’s greatest struggles is to resist that feeling of being overlooked or unappreciated. The more Joseph dreamed, the more his brothers despised him. They hated his coat of many colors, his dreams, his father’s favor, and his confidence in God. His father, Jacob, never addressed the conflict.
A New Testament example is found in Luke 15, when the prodigal son returned home, his father ran to meet him, showered him with kisses, killed the fatted calf, put a ring on his finger and clothed him in the best robe and threw him a party. His elder brother, who had not transgressed at anytime, felt slighted, became angry and resentful and would not go in. The father went out and immediately addressed the conflict and sought a resolution.
2. Demonstrate Concern for All. What the Greek speaking Jews felt was real. People will always remember how you made them feel. Today, the church still has two groups within her, one who feels favored and one who feels slighted. Whenever the church fails to address the issue, confusion, conflict and disunity may occur. The Greek speaking Jews approached the disciples with the problem. The disciples immediately addressed the problem. This conflict could be addressed because the church had created a climate of openness and inclusion. Each member felt appreciated, and that their opinion mattered, and they were valued. The disciples appeal to the church for assistance in this matter. The leadership seemed to understand the power of conflict that can short circuit momentum and sap energy from the Church.
Conflict is an old tactic of the enemy to divide and conquer. Satan used the same tactic in the life of Job. Job was a perfect and upright man who worshipped God daily. God allowed Satan to tempt Job. Satan attacked every external thing in Job's life, his flocks, herds, and material blessing. Then Satan attacked Job's family, his children, and his wife. Finally, Satan attacks Job himself, first his body, his mind, and his integrity. The enemy was allowed to try Job’s inner strength and fortitude. Could Job maintain his focus under all this pressure? Will Job curse God and die? Will Job throw in the towel and quit? Or will he maintain his integrity. Job maintained his integrity and his focus and said, "Though he slay me yet will I trust him."
These disciples had confidently dealt with the storms of persecution against the church, but now they must deal with resolving inner conflict without losing their focus. Long after we overcome outside pressure, we may find ourselves dealing with inner conflict. Satan’s attack comes as the number of disciples was multiplied—when the will of God was being done and the purpose of God was being fulfilled—There arose a murmuring. Before they were in one accord, with all things common, one spirit, one heart and one mind. Now the voice of praise has been replaced with murmuring. Church leadership demonstrated concern for all. Every Challenge can be faced, and conflict resolved when people feel free to bring their concerns forward and feel that someone cares. Be open to resolving conflict and then demonstrate concern for all.
3. Delegate Authority to Other Capable People – God never intended for the leadership to handle every task personally, Leaders must delegate! The day of Pentecost changed the landscape at Jerusalem. Many Jews had been converted to the Christian faith and had remained in Jerusalem. Many had no way to meet their basic needs. The disciples had begun a voluntary ministry of kindness program to ensure the temporal needs were being met. They used the freewill gifts to minister to the widows and other needy persons. Those who murmured in our text had moved from receiving a gift to demanding their rights. We must be careful to maintain an attitude of gratitude even if we feel slighted. Their concerns were real and needed to be addressed. Conflicts will not resolve themselves. Unresolved issues will create problems that cause distractions. The disciples recognized this conflict as attack of Satan to distract the church from its purpose. If Satan can distract the leadership, the church will lose its focus and eventually lose ground.
The leadership refused to neglect their God given assignment of prayer and preaching the gospel. They were led to delegate that assignment to others. The Same Holy Spirit that empowered them to face persecution, expose hypocrisy and overcome fear, gave them the wisdom to delegate authority so others could share the burden of ministry.
Suppose the disciples abandoned their post and began serving tables, what would become of the church and its mission? If Satan can overload the ministers of the word with menial task, their life in the word of God and prayer life will suffer. When prayer and the word are neglected the work of the church suffers. How did they address the problems? Church Leaders were open to delegating the authority to others.
The leadership recognized this conflict as an opportunity to involve more people in the work of the ministry. Others within the church must be selected for the necessary ministry of serving tables. The leadership set the guidelines and qualifications that were needed for this place of service. Then they encouraged the church to choose seven men from among them, men of good report and full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom and honesty to set over this work. The Greek speaking Jews complained, noticed seven men with Greek names were selected and presented to be set apart for this special work. The leadership prayed for them, laid hands on them and sent them forth to do the work. If the Church is to grow in ministry and outreach, members must do more than complain and point out the problems. They must become a part of the solution. The leadership was comfortable with the selection and eagerly sent them to do the work. The proper delegation of authority allowed the leadership to give themselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. They stayed focused on the mission. The church growth was enhanced. The kingdom of God was more established and continued to expand.
Ministers of the Gospel should not and must not neglect their duty for any reason. It is nice to feed the hungry, and meet the physical needs of the community, but not at the expense of neglecting prayer and ministry of the word. The church can only increase as the minster’s prayer life and study of the word of God increases. These disciples realized that they were not called to do ministry alone, they didn’t have to change the world single handedly. The body has many members given to assist them in this great work. If the leaders faithfully touched others with the word of God, those around them would touch others until the movement could be felt around the world. Don't ever feel like your part is unimportant or insignificant, with everyone doing their part, the mission can be accomplished. The disciples made a conscious decision to stay focused. "And the saying pleased the whole multitude." Even if the multitude is not pleased, we must stay focused. The multitude of our text was pleased because they understood the mission of the church. They understood the assignment of the disciples, so they gladly accepted some responsibility.
4. Seek to Maintain The Unity of the Church - Why didn't the early church suffer a church split? Why didn't the Greek speaking Jews leave and start their own Church? After all, they felt slighted and overlooked. They seem to have really understood the mission of the Church. They would not dare do anything to hinder the church from fulfilling its mission and answering its call. Many people today had felt slighted and left their church family after becoming bitter and resentful. They have become angry with the church and even angry with God. Some despise God’s favor of others. Others abandon their ministry gift to the church, without considering the impact on the church. They simply forget about fulfilling their calling and accomplishing their goals. They decide to live outside the will of God. I don’t know if many believers today really understand the mission of the church.
There was harmony and progress after the conflict was resolved. The selected seven eventually became preachers of the gospel and greatly aided the leadership in the work. Not only vast multitudes of common people, but many priests and religious leaders became obedient to the faith. Never underestimate the value of unity and harmony. Misunderstandings may arise among the most loving and devoted followers of the Lord Jesus. If leaders address conflicts quickly and effectively such misunderstandings can be healed. Cool headed, honest hearted, active love, and godly wisdom should prevail in the church. This is a beautiful model for resolving conflicts. Those in the majority and well-favor should remember to love, be kind and be inclusive of all. We should be very cautious about sowing discord and division in the church. We dare not hinder the mission of God’s church for personal reasons. Those who feel slighted, in the minority, must seek resolution without lusting for power. Sometimes the lust of power and position can be so strong, division becomes inevitable.
The Disciples demonstrated a great measure of trust and confidence in those selected by the Christian community to serve over the temporal affairs of the church. The word of God increased, and many priests were added to the faith. When ministers of the gospel are wholly and earnestly devoted to their appropriate duties and are faithfully assisted by brethren in the church who are pious, wise, able, and active in doing good, religion will generally prosper; and not only many of the common people, but of the educated, intelligent, and influential, may be expected to embrace the faith. The influence of the church will be unlimited. Having proper priorities is the secret to staying focused on the mission. How did this spirit filled Church stay focused on the mission? The Holy Spirit gave them wisdom to resolve the conflict. The leaders demonstrated genuine concern for all. All knew they were loved and valued. The leaders delegate authority to other capable people who selected the congregation. Their action maintained the unity of the Church and increased its influence. The same formula will work today. Just as the Holy Spirit empowered the church to confront, overcome persecution and hypocrisy, the Pentecost effect allows the Church to resolve conflict and continue to grow. "Lord, do it again!" Amen.
