Acts 6 The little things

Acts 6:1-7

But as the believers[a] 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.

2 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. 3 And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. 4 Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.”

5 Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the Jewish faith). 6 These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them.

7 So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too. (NLT)

The Little things

plot pivot: its the big things to the its the small things.

Big churches do big things. That is what I have come to see, come to have noticed and heard. Big churches, do big things. The spectacular. Haven’t you heard? Small churches are out, big churches are in. The mundane, the small, miniscule, theres no need for any of that.

Why come see the small southern pastor who talks with a lisp when you can hear the well trained, well dressed, pastor who has 20k followers on youtube, 35 books, and leads three conferences a day? It is all about the numbers.

I used to think, what you win them to, is what you win them with. But at least they win them, right? Let's win them to something, then we can worry and fret and stress about what they are won too.

Oh I don’t know how we compete, I don’t know how we can stand in a community with churches averaging hundreds or thousands. We struggle to make it to 50, let alone 250.

Haven’t you all seen? Haven’t you all heard? The little things are out, the big things are in!

I have seen churches drop Easter eggs from helicopters, baptize with water slides, I have seen churches in texas, everything is bigger in Texas, have flying angels for Christmas, Santa clause in a sleigh gliding down from the roof like they were doing a rendition of circque du soleil.

One pastor I read about said it is a sin to have a boring Sunday service, and the Sunday service should be the most exciting thing you do all week! But that takes money!

A different big church pastor said “When I hear adults say, ‘I don’t like a big church. I like about 200. I wanna be able to know everybody.’ I say you are so stinkin’ selfish. You care nothing about the next generation. All you care about is you and your five friends. You don’t care about your kids, anybody else’s kids.”

He might have a point, I have seen churches with mission budgets 4 times our yearly global budget. I have seen churches bring in more in a weekend than we bring in a year.

Do you know how many food banks you can staff, how many unhoused you can house, and how many orphans you can adopt with that many people and that much money?

It's all about the big things. We are a culture who love the big things. We see it in movies, in order for a movie to be good it must have a budget of several hundred million.

The bigger the sound system, the better; the bigger the roller coaster, the bigger the soda, the bigger the burger. Everything is bigger is better.

Why do you think the state of Georgia tore down that measly Georgia Dome to build the Mercedes-Benz Stadium? If the stadium itself is not big, elaborate, and expensive enough, consider its very name. No one wants to go to the Hyundai Accent Stadium for the Super Bowl. Trust me, I drove one, it didn’t even have cruise control or Bluetooth.

Bigger is better.

To prove it I will share one last illustration.

The other day I was driving, I saw this bumper sticker that said “size does matter.” I said yep, he gets it. Now, the person driving knew this to be true, but he must not have had the money to live up to it, because he was driving a prisus

But he knew it to be true! And deep down, despite being at what is now a small church, you know it to be true as well. That is why I hear so frequently all of you who have been here a while talking about the good old days when we needed not one sunday school room, but two or three.

When we needed every spot in the parking lot and then some. When every seat was full and we needed more than one service. Size matters. Big things matter.

Think of the stories just before our passage; you had a man who had been unable to walk, unable to crawl even, since birth, and he was 40 years old. Forty years old? The average life expectancy at that time was only 30-35 years old, and this man hadn’t walked since birth and he's over 40, and then Peter with nothing but his words tells the man to stand up and he does.

The very first few chapters of Acts consist of flaming tongues, speaking brand new heavenly languages, and 3k people being added to their numbers in one day, from one speech! Miraculous! Extraordinary!

The church right before this was somehow meeting the needs of everyone who was poor, apostles were walking out of prison without so much as guards eye catching them, they stood before the Sanhedrin defending God without reckless courage bearing the marks of whips as they tore their flesh with joy and rejoicing in their hearts.

They stood in the temple and preached and they had so many people come to Christ they had to hire additional people to help feed them because they had so many joining the church. What an outstanding problem to have!

But woe is us. Woe is me, woe is you. Who are we? Who am I? Oh if only this was the good ole days.

I have preached dozens of sermons, taught tons of lessons, and spoke many times one on one, and no one has come to Christ, no one has been baptized on account of my words and my messages, since the first time i shared my faith and testimony at a campfire at the end of a highschool summer camp.

It has not happened since, oh woe is me. Maybe it was that camp fire that night leading to repentance and life change, not my words. Not my story or it would have done it again. In regards to success in ministry, I’m closer to your uncle Paully who smokes a pack a day than I am to the apostle Paul.

I’m closer to your second cousin Bill, who has not been to Church in a year than I am to Billy Graham.

Big things matter, yes indeed.

In the midst of all this persecution, all these miracles, we get this silly little story about table waiters, about the apostles being too busy catering to all the newcomers. So what could we possibly learn from this?

You want to know what brings people to Christ and gets people revved up? Want to know what pleases God?

Look at Elijah and Mt. Carmel.

In this story Elijah has finally been called by God to confront Ahab, Jezebel his wife, and the false prophets of Baal. So he invites all 450 of them up onto the mountain with a challenge. Call down fire from heaven to your sacrifice. And ill do the same, then we will know who the winner is. The false prophets of course do everything imaginable to get their false God to do something, but it does not work.

Elijah douses the altar and sacrifices with dozens of gallons of water just to make it harder, and instantly in a short prayer fire descends from heaven in a bright and all consuming blaze.

That is what is what we want to see right? Miracles, false prophets being cast out in embarrassment, the tyrants and kings who stand opposed to God being struck down in shame and agony, God is clearly victorious and everyone worships him!

But this? Small rinky dink churches trying to stay faithful to God and trying to pay next month's bills? No! Of course not, we are human. We are not drawn to that! Give us the big, the extravagant, the amazing!

But right here in this seemingly unimportant message about table waiters there must be something we are missing because Luke once again says, their numbers continued to grow.

Through persecution , through death, people are still coming to faith rapidly, even the priests. That is a sign, a blinking light to an important moment in the history of the church, an important description of what the DNA of the church is meant to be.

Let me give you one more example, this time from the apostle Paul. In one chapter, he lays out the most incredible things a believer can do. He says, have the gifting to speak in the tongues of men or angels.

Seek to have the gift of prophecy, and help people understand all the mysteries and obtain all knowledge available. He goes on, give all that you have to the poor, even look to give your body up to hardship and give your life up in martyrdom. For those big sacrifices are what really matters.

But.. that isn’t what it really says is it?

If we actually walk through 1st Corinthians chapter 13 we see a very different idea of what matters.

Here is what Paul says in verse 1,

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“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” 1 Cor 13:1-3

It is almost like for Paul, he believes the focus is on the small things, the basic things. The most important thing is serving people with love.

Likewise, while Elijah is perhaps most well known for his battle on Mt. Carmel, arguably the most important moment of his life, comes right after it. He was not the closest, most confident, or most secure in his faith on Mt. Carmel. No, his faith was restored, and he found out who God truly was on Mount Sinai.

After this miracle of momentous proportions, Elijah runs down, afraid of Ahab and Jezebel, and there he is called to climb Mt. Sinai, where it all began for Israel all those years ago. God calls him out onto this cliff and immediately a huge gust of wind is upon him and it begins to rattle and break apart the surrounding rocks.

But God is not present in it. And then, as soon as the wind stops an earthquake begins to rumble and shake the very foundations of the land he stands upon, but God is not in it. And then a scorching, burning fire crosses the valley right before his very eyes, but God was not in it.

And then, in a small, quiet whisper, God speaks for the first time. It was not in the powerful wind, the bright and flashy fire, or the frightening earthquake that God showed up, it was in the quietness of a small whisper. Once again, there seems to be a focus on the little things.

What makes Acts 6, our original text, talked about so much is that this is the first time someone outside of the apostles is anointed for the work of God in the church. In fact, both the role and name of what we have gone on to call deacons shows up here for the first time.

And it is that greek word, diakonia, those who are serving the widows with bread. Like many of the words we do not think about, the church takes words for the first time and shapes them to be something unique and meaningful.

For example, the Greek for church simply meant a gathering of people for a specific reason. The Greek for love that you have often heard described as the special love of God, agape or agape, however you say it, did not originally have the meaning it now has.

And here, we see a word that might have described a waitress, or was used as a verb for something someone did, now coming to mean a position and role in the church. But how we think of it now differs greatly from how they thought of it then.

We now consider deacons to be mostly leadership positions where people make decisions about the church. And there is a leadership idea to them, but they are founded upon the idea that they… serve.

This is why in Matthew and Mark, Jesus uses the same word to describe his own actions and goal. In both of those gospels Jesus says this exact same thing,

Slide

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served (diakeneo), but to serve (diakeneo), and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45

So, what this story in Acts and Jesus himself as the leader of the church seems to be telling us is that the leaders of the church, from top to bottom, lead by serving first. They do the little things.

We can even turn to look at James, brother of Jesus, and what he has to say in his letter.

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“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” James 1:27 (NLT)

Basically, you can know God approves of a religion if it SERVES.

Finally, Jesus tells us, as one of my professors once told me, the climax of all of Jesus’ teaching is summed up right here in Matthew 25, did you feed the hungry, did you clothe the poor, house the unhoused, visit the imprisoned, and give water to the thirsty.

That is what Jesus seems to imply is the difference between the true Christians and the fake ones. And how does this refer to these people we are to take care of?

The least of these. The smallest in the kingdom of God: the marginalized, the left behind, the forgotten, the untouchables and the condemned. Jesus' entire ministry can be summed up in doing the little things for the least of these in the name of and for the glory of God.

Yes, Jesus says, "Take up your cross daily in service to me.” Yes, he tells the rich young ruler to give up all he owns and give it to the poor, yes, Jesus says to deny mother and father.

But he is the same one who, in his last few hours before his death he did not preach a sermon, or perform a multitude of miracles, or call fire down on his enemies, no. Jesus got on his hands and knees and did what servants and slaves do; he washed the feet of the very people he taught.

This is why Richard Foster writes about how we prefer the call to the big, amazing, and extraordinary things rather than service.

Because in

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“In service we are banished to the mundane, the ordinary, the trivial." -Richard Foster

We may want to be on the stage, we may want to prepare the lessons, perform the miracles, and do the big things, but it always starts with the small things.

Look again at our main passage today. Two people who start off as table waiters go on to do some of the most amazing things we see in the book of Acts.

What follows for Stephen is that he delivers one of the most theologically profound sermons in history. In fact during his defense of the gospel, it is written that his face glowed like an angel, and then at the end, he literally sees where he saw Jesus at the right hand of the Father.

Phillip, likewise is whisked away by God to go evangelize an Ethiopian man who then becomes the first African convert to Christianity, and then that man evangelizes and preaches the gospel to his entire country. You would be hard pressed to find two better men in all of the book of Acts, but they started off as‌ table waiters…

It is all about the little things. We can not, and likely will never attempt to compete with the large churches in our area with 5k programs and 30 staff and giant marketing budgets.

But we can far exceed their ability to do the little things, to the least of these, all the time. We can serve, ‌volunteer, and love every single person who enters through our doors from the first minute to the last.

When the church appointed 7 men to wait tables and feed widows, they did not know they would anoint a martyr and an evangelist who would be central in helping create one of the first countries to formally adopt Christianity as the state religion.

And you do not know what will come from your table waiting either. There is a table here for you this week. Your table might serve at Mom Co., serving with queens academy, joining the prayer team with Gina or celebrating with birthdays at the local juvenile center. Maybe it is none of those and your heart is somewhere else, let's work together to find where your heart is.

But there are many tables and many unfed widows. Let's start by serving like our savior Jesus and see where it takes us.

SLide

It was Brother Lawrence who said,

“That we ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.” Brother Lawerence

NOTES

we want to be known for our service above all else.

a church lives and dies by the little things. a faith lives and dies by if the christian is willing to care for the little things, the little people, the little habits.

everyone wants to be a leader, no one wants to be a table waiter. but every leader started as a learner, table waiter, and follower.

story of man at mens confrence whole sermon is just ask your wife how can i help.

we come to church saying I want this actvity, i want that activty, I want this person to visit me in the hospital, and I want to hear this song, and learn about this thing.

theres so many people telling me the things we need to do and have to do, and things they want to do, but what we really need are people telling us, “how can i help?”

for jesus did not come to be served but to serve.

matthew 25:31-40 care for the people no one cares for

luke 16

10 “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. 11 And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? 12 And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?

end with come and ask what you can do. we live and die by who can serve.

The highest honour in the church is not government but service.

John Calvin (French Reformer)

We are not saved by service, but we are saved to service. We Endeavor, Page 6

Charles Spurgeon

Skye is a college student visiting Tarsus with others wondering around and it’s getting dark and weird and a Muslim family invites them all in to eat. They are eating but the family isn’t, he asks why and the student says because they gave us their dinner

Do little things as if they were great, because of the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ who dwells in thee;and do great things as if they were little and easy,because of his omnipotence.

Blaise Pascal (French Scientist, Polemicist and Christian Apologist)

Brother Lawrence said: That we ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.

Brother Lawrence

Celebration of discipline

 "In some ways we would prefer to hear Jesus' call to deny father and mother, houses and land for the sake of the gospel, than His word to wash feet. Radical self-denial gives the feel of adventure. If we forsake all, we even have the chance of glorious martyrdom. But in service we are banished to the mundane, the ordinary, the trivial."

Huxford hens and roosters blog

About ten years ago, a new hardware store – Complete Hardware – opened in Tyrone. We’re still a pretty small town, and by now, one of the big-box stores is in nearby Peachtree City. When I found out who was opening it, I immediately thought something like, “I hope he makes it, but a hardware store in Tyrone? With Home Depot ten minutes away?”

From all I can tell, it seems to be thriving. Last Friday morning, I needed some deer corn. I walked in the front door and someone greeted me and said, “How can I help you?” I said, “I need two bags of deer corn.” He remembered that I drive a black pickup and said, pointing to a guy behind the counter, “I’ll put it in your truck and he’ll check you out.” By the time I got to my truck, the young man was closing the tailgate and said, “Have a nice day; come back.”

If two angels were to receive at the same moment a commission from God, one to go down and rule earth’s grandest empire, the other to go and sweep the streets of its meanest village, it would be a matter of entire indifference to each which service fell to his lot, the post of ruler or the post of scavenger; for the joy of the angels lies only in obedience to God’s will, and with equal joy they would lift a Lazarus in his rags to Abraham’s bosom, or be a chariot of fire to carry an Elijah home. John newton

1 cor 13 if i speak in tongues, if i have prophetic powers, understnad all mysteries all knowedlge, faith to move mountains, if i give awat all i have and deliver body to be burned.

moses and jethro

never hear these names again. and yet their names were written in the Bible because they chose to do the little things.

they started as deacons but became martyrs and evangelists (acts 21:8)

our church is just like that church at the beginning. A handful of jews surrounded by a whole host of gentiles. Not eager to diversify and change. soon the church would be mostly gnetiles. are you okay with that?