A Well Oiled Machine

Acts 6:1-7

Imagine a machine that has been running beautifully for a long time. Every gear is turning, every part is doing what it was designed to do, and the whole machine is accomplishing its purpose for which it was made.

Now imagine that this machine is getting bigger an bigger and becoming more and more complex. Which is a good thing! It’s growing and its doing more, it has more functions and more potential. For example think of smart phones, they used to be really small right, I can remember getting my first one was only a little bit bigger than the palm of my hand. Or Computers, they used to be able to only do simple calculations But now they can do so much more than the old smart phones or the old computers.

But the problem is that as things get more and more complex you need to have more room and processing power on whatever it happens to be. Do you remember what would happen on the first smart phones as you filled up that massive 4GB or of you were really lucky 16GB hard drive?

The processor starts to suffer. The phone starts to slow down and now suddenly, it is unable to efficiently do what it was designed to do. If you kept on pushing it and adding and adding to it, it would eventually get to a point where you really couldn’t use it anymore unless you started to get rid of things.

In Acts 6 we come to a point where the Church is growing which is in credible, however, the Apostles are now going to face an issue with that growth, one that will require the Church to make some much needed changes in order for it to flourish.

So if you Would follow along with me in your Bibles, to Acts 6:1-7 and if you’re using a pew Bible that is page 914.

-Lets Pray-

Up to this point in acts a lot has happened the Church.

It has grown exponentially to the point where Luke pretty much stops using numbers and just starts saying a multitude or thousands.

The Gospel is being preached continually and not just preached but people from every tribe, tongue and nation are hearing the Word of God proclaimed but it is changing people in the wildest of ways.

Miracles are happening left and right, think of the Lame beggar from Acts 3, Pentecost in Acts 2

You have fulfilled prophecies, again Pentecost where Peter quotes the Old Testament prophets and says that they were being fulfilled that day in their hearing. Or when Peter and John are before the Jewish council and Christ Promised that the Holy Spirit would be with them and give them the words to say.

We have seen the Church grow into ways they could have never imagined. It has become a living and breathing organism.

Just like a machine or like you and I has all of these moving parts that are all vitally important. If any one of those parts has an issue the whole thing has an issue.

Again, if a phone or a computer is trying to do to much the whole phone begins to suffer, or when we get sick, if even the smallest of virus enters our body, the whole body suffers. We may function but we know we are not going to function to the best of our abilities.

Likewise, we have a situation here and have had multiple situations where the early Church faces some opposition where a virus attempts to enter the Body of Christ to hinder it and slow it down, or even stop it in its tracks.

A couple times the Apostles have been before the Jewish council

They have been arrested

We had Ananias and Sapphira attempted to lie to the Holy Spirit, to the Church, and puff themselves up.

We have seen attempts at Spiritual warfare by the enemy and as we can see he they are getting more and more subtle.

Acts 6 is no different, while it may not look like it on the surface we have another attempt by the enemy to stop the Church in its tracks and to play the same play that he always does and that is to silence the gospel. So here Problems will arise in the Body of Christ and their subtle, the Church will have to come up with a solution that both honors God and seems pleasing to the Body.

Outline

Acts 6:1-2 - The Problem

Acts 6:3-6 The Solution

Acts 6:7 The Outcome

The Problem Acts 6:1-2

Here we have two types of problems, one good problem and two bad problems.

“In those days when the number of disciples were increasing”

The Church is growing, and it growing at an astounding rate. Again if we think back we had what was once a few hundred people to thousands of people to now Luke simply says that they were increasing in number.

It is also no small thing to note that Luke calls all followers of Christ not just believers, but for the first time in Acts calls them all disciples. That is all of those who not only believe in Jesus and follow his teachings but also see him as Lord and Master, by which they seek to be like.

It is not that they are disciples of Peter, John, or James but rather, that they are disciples of Christ, each and every one of them. Which that mindset continues today, you and I are all considered to be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. A disciple is one who learns under a master, who walks closely with their teacher, and yearns to be live more like that person each and every day, to bee an imitator of their master.

It is the Spirit of Christ that lives within us and his Body by in large.

It is the Spirit of Christ that teaches us, whose wisdom pours out upon us from his very Word.

It is the Spirit of Christ who makes us more like Christ, causing us to be imitators of Christ.

That is what we see here, for the first time in Acts. A body of believers who are walk with Christ, who live by the words of Christ, who are imitators of Christ, who are saved by Christ. That body is growing and that is a Great problem to have!

and I hesitate to call that a problem because in reality this is exactly what is supposed to happen until one day the whole world by the Power of our Lord Jesus Christ is like this. But the numbers will become a problem and in fact they become a problem in the very same sentence.

“a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.”

Complaining within the body breaks out.

Or Rather the greek word used here can be better translated as Murmuring

Murmuring goes beyond a simple complaint, this was likely not a one and done situation it means that it has caused complaining or caused chatter amongst the Hellenists, that is the greek speaking Jews. Many commentators reference the Murmuring in the desert and around Sinai pointing back to Numbers and Exodus to give you an idea. Again, this would have been a continual complaint against the Hebrew speaking Jews.

However, lets not downplay what they were murmuring about as there was a real need that was being neglected now weather it was intentional or not we’re not entirely sure and scholars seem to be a bit split on the matter.

There was some cultural tension between these two groups and quite honestly, I am inclined to believe that there was still some of that lingering around in the early Church, weather what was happening there was intentional or not.

Either Way, the issue is still there, Widows are not being taken care of.

Which if we were to go back to Deuteronomy 10:18 and Exodus 22:22 what was the Church always supposed to do?

Care for the widow - there is not distinction as to which widows but simply, they are to care for the widow.

And whats happening? - There is Sin among the believers.

On top of that the body of believers has become a complaining body of believers.

Does Paul not say in Philippians 2:14

Or Peter in 1 Peter 4:9

From the Outside the Body of Christ could be seen as one who complains and does not take care of its own.

The issue was more, however, than one of cultural tension. The apostles discerned a deeper problem, namely that social administration (both organizing the distribution and settling the complaint) was threatening to occupy all their time and so inhibit them from the work which Christ had specifically entrusted to them, namely preaching and teaching.

“It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.” It has nothing to do with the fact that have to serve tables but it has everything to do with what God has gifted them to do and that is to Preach.

“In every task of the church, the ministry of the Word of God is central. It is the Word that calls us to worship, addresses us in worship, teaches us to worship and enables us to praise God and to encourage one another. By the Word we are given life and nourished to maturity in Christ: the Word is the Sword of the Spirit to correct us and the Bread of the Spirit to feed us. In the Mission of the Church, it is the Word of God that calls nations to the Lord: it is the teaching of the Word we make disciples of the nations. The growth of the church is the growth of the Word: Where there is famine of the Word, no expertise in business administration or group dynamics will build Christ's church.” - Edmund Clowney, the Church.

Quite honestly, a Church without the preaching of the word and prayer, is a Church that loses its voice. Above all else it needs the gospel to be preached and proclaimed within its walls, it needs those who will stand as daily prayer warriors who are shepherds to the sheep.

You see at the root of all of this strife and all of these issues I think that it is fairly clear.

We have another attempt by the enemy to stop the word of God in its tracks. As Calvin calls this in his commentary on Acts, it is the subtlety of Satan who to this end may try and take the gifts of God from us. But the Apostles are diligent, they have faced spiritual warfare already and they will face it again.

In the same way, you and I are to always be diligent. When it comes to the workings of the Church, the spreading of the gospel, and the care for the needy, the very image of God. The enemy hates it all and he will do anything he can to attempt to silence God’s people and as we’ve already talked about in Acts, thats his only play. When it comes to both the church and our own lives, we need to address the issues that come up, if we ignore them then they can become a foothold where by we are faced with more and more problems, more and more warfare.

So there needs to be a solution.

The Solution Acts 6:3-6

First and foremost the Apostles did not see themselves as the solution, they again were to do what the Lord ordained them to do, which God had gifted them to do, and they saw the importance to that. Though they also saw the importance of the matter at hand, something that needed to be dealt with.

So what do they do?

Acts 6:3

The solution is the “Proto-deaconite” its the electing of deacons and maybe even some eldership in here too and it is the congregation that is to elect these Men. It’s Presbyterianism at its finest!

7 has no major significance other than it was common for Jewish councils to have 7 men sitting on it and an early Jewish/Christian Church that makes sense that they would say pick 7.

Men of good repute

Their Character at home, at Church, in their day to day life, Men of good reputation.

Men who are full of the Holy Spirit, that is they must be a believer and that should also be obvious in their actions.

Full of wisdom. They must not be a baby Christian or someone new to the faith.

These men are to be spiritually mature, experienced men who are of good Character.

That’s the Solution, for the Church as a body, to raise up these 7 men to be over the Ministry of Care, or the Ministry of Tables to be able to turn back around to the congregation and come along side of it and see to the physical and even at times spiritual needs of the flock and along side of the Apostles or what would later be the Pastor who is over the Ministry of the Word while they care for the Spiritual needs and sometimes the physical needs of the Church.

Both gifted in specific ways both just as important as the other, serving the body of Christ and addressing the subtle needs of the congregation.

The idea is that Ministry should never just be one person, the Pastor is never supposed to be the go to for every little thing. The Lord has ordained and gifted other individuals to serve the body by in large along side of the Pastor and the Congregation. Ministry is not supposed to be done in Isolation.

But it does even deeper than this, it trickles down to the individual level as well. One John Stott in his Commentary on Acts says this:

The Message of Acts c. The Principle

All Christians without exception, being followers of him who came ‘not to be served but to serve’, are themselves called to ministry, indeed to give their lives in ministry. But the expression ‘full-time Christian ministry’ is not to be restricted to church work and missionary service; it can also be exercised in government, the media, the professions, business, industry and the home. We need to recover this vision of the wide diversity of ministries to which God calls his people.

Do you see the vision in the larger context here?

Ministry cannot be done in Isolation, it cannot be done by anyone person, it requires the whole body. An eye can only see, and arm can only lift, a foot can only walk. Without the mouth, or the hands the body cannot truly function.

Even when it comes to what we talked about in the first point, the subtle attacks of the enemy, do not fight that alone, come along side of your brothers and sisters of your Pastor, your elders, your deacons, let them fight with you. And come along side of them and fight with them.

Never fight alone, Christ has given us each other for a reason. We walk together, we serve together, we mourn together, we rejoice together. That’s the solution.

This is not exclusive, though Yes, the specific offices are reserved for men. But even then what does Stephen, who is a deacon, do in just a chapter? What about Philip? Their stories are recored so that you and I the believer can be edified and encouraged, to go and do the same.

By in large that is the goal of the whole Church is to proclaim the gospel unashamedly. To care for the widow and the needy, to care with one another. That my friends is for everyone, for each of us. That is the solution.

The Outcome Acts 6:7

But Here’s the Outcome Acts 6:7

As the Widows were cared for or the physical needs of the Church were cared for and the Apostles were freed up to preach the Word and devote themselves to prayer. As the Ministry of the Word and the Ministry of Service now have the attention they need and the people whom God has gifted to do these things are placed over them the Church increased rapidly.

When everything was how it was supposed to be, when it was properly ordered, It began to run like a well oiled machine.

Not only that but by the grace of Christ the Church upheld the law. I don’t just meant that we are saved by his grace and Jesus upheld the law on our behalf, though that is true.

Let’s go back to the first verse. Widows were being ignored, not being taken care of. What does the law of God say? to take care of the widow. Who is it at the end of verse 7 that converts? It’s the Priests, the levitical priests, when they see that the Church is not stained with dissection or division. Rather they see the people of Christ actually do what has been laid down in the law by God. That when they live in the way Jesus instructed them they actually look like what they were always meant to look like.

The outcome for is that the world will see what the Body of Christ is really like, they won’t see a church murmuring, or forgetting to help the needy, or a Church that doesn’t preach the gospel. But they will see a people who have been radically changed by Jesus Christ and letting that radical change effect everyone around them.

That’s what happens when the Church actually follows what scripture lays out.

It is never supposed to be one person running the show or one ministry over another. The body of Christ is meant to work together in unity.

So pray for your elders and your deacons, pray for our pastor, but also participate in the ministry and work of the church. Pray for its health and prosperity, pray that non of the enemies schemes ever get a foot hold. Know that Christ is its head and that Jesus has already crushed the serpant under his heal. Pray that this body and every other body be a beacon to the world showing them what the kingdom of God is really like.

Let’s Pray

Benediction

Numbers 6:24-26