Principals of Delegation-Part II

Last week we began looking at Principals of Delegation and we will continue to look at Principals of Delegation and especially principals of delegation within the church.

The church is an organism, like a tree or the human body, it is alive and like any organism each of the parts of the church organism must function correctly and function together in order for the organism to be effective and productive. The church as a whole is made up of many different people with many different gifts. With the church made up of people there is a bit of an issue. There are always needs that arise within the church. The first and foremost need within the church is the spiritual need. We are all fallen human beings which means we all have a sin nature. We are all prone to walk away from God to follow after the desire of the heart which are the empty, depraved things that only lead us away from God. Our spiritual need is to know God, honor God and seek God and we do all this through Christ Jesus His Son. The second need we have is physical needs. The physical needs we have vary from food, to warm clothing, a roof over our heads and as I have argued transportation. The church is a place where we should not be lacking in either of these needs. The thing is within the church no one person can supply all of these needs.

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians this about the church in .

1 Corinthians 12:14–26 NASB95

For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

This passage demonstrates that all the people within the church are all different and all have different gifts but for one purpose to function together to build one another up and to help one another. No one part is more important then the other but they work together to accomplish one goal. This makes it clear that just like a body is a complex organism so is the church and each part must function properly so other parts don't need to over work themselves.

That is why within the church there is no menial task. There really isn't, and everyone within the church functions to serve God not themselves.

The church is an organism and it should work together and help one another. I am not the head of the church, I am only one part of the body connected to the head, I guess I would be the neck.

Look at what Paul tells the Ephesian church about the body and the head of the body. Paul writes this,

Ephesians 4:15–16 NASB95

but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Ephesians

See this Jesus is the Head which means He is the leader of the church. In the same way our brains send the signals down our neck through the nerves in our arms to the muscles in our forearms which tells our fingers to close are grasp an object Jesus does the same for the church. He is the Head fitting us together and providing what the body needs. When we are thirsty our body sends the signal to our brain and our brain functions by send the signal out to the necessary parts of the body, hand, mouth, throat, stomach, to make sure the body is properly hydrated and functioning correctly. The same goes for the church. No one person can do everything and no one person should ever be expected to do everything. There is order and signals need to be sent and the body needs to be cared for. So responsibilities within the church need to be delegated out to people so just as the body function for a purpose the church can function with a purpose also.

Three Principals of Delegation are Requirements, Relief and Ratification

We began look at delegation last week and this morning we will continue to look at the principals of delegation and we find these principles of delegation in ,

Paul teaches the Corinthian church this very lesson in 1 Corinthians

Acts 6:1–7 NASB95

1 Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. 2 So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. 3 “Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. 4 “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 The statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch. 6 And these they brought before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them. 7 The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.

We began looking at this text last week and we saw there was an issue that arose in this brand new growing movement. The church was exploding, all of Jerusalem had recieved the gospel and even other nearby cities are bringing people to Jerusalem for both physical and spiritual healing. So this has become the first mega church and all they did was stay faithful to the message of the gospel. Well a problem comes up and this problem is the neglect of some Jewish people who are not native born Israelites. There were the Hellenistic Jews who were from Greek speaking countries, like Antioch and Asia and Cilicia, just to name a few. They felt the native born Jews were neglecting the service of food and money to their widows. So in order to fix this problem the apostles decide there is a need for delegates. What is funny is they even delegate the responsibility of selecting the delegates to the congregation.

Requirements

Four Requirements

Men

Good Reputation

Full of the Spirit-love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control

Wisdom-outworking of the power of the Spirit

This is done because the apostles need to focus on something that is very crucial and they have been called to do, study and pray, they can’t neglect the word of God and prayer to serve tables. If they did this they would never study the Word of God and pray. So we looked last week at the first two of the three principals of delegation. First we looked at the requirements of a delegate. In verse 3, the requirements of a delegate are first, they must be men. Men are crucial in the leadership of the church. Just as God created Adam first and gave him the command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which he failed in doing, God wants men to be the leaders in His church. Of course these are men who are godly men who are submissive to God and who love God. The second requirement is they must be of good reputation, their character must be above reproach. They can’t be viewed by those in the church as having a temper, being crass, always drunk, cheating and swindling others, they must not defame God or Jesus Christ in any way. The third is men full of the Spirit, meaning they evidence the Holy Spirits work in their lives and their actions. Being a godly man is extremely evident to those around them and they are obviously demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. This is what a delegate exhibits when he is filled with the Spirit. The fourth is an outworking power of the Spirit which is divine wisdom in any and ever circumstance. This is an important requirement for the those who are to care for those in the church. The wisdom to see were the need is and the wisdom to provide for that need. All very important requirements.

So the congregation now armed with the list of requirements they are able to select those who will not only care for the physical needs of the people but also even more importantly offer relief to the apostles so they are not neglecting the task that will benefit those in the church and the church as a whole. The delegates with these requirements will bring relief to the apostles so the apostles can spend time in the Word and in prayer. If the spiritual needs of the church are not met then what difference does it really make to provide for the physical. I am not saying physical needs are useless but in truth there needs to be priority within the church. The main priority is the spiritual needs, the spiritual needs of the apostles and then the spiritual needs of the congregation. The same goes for the church today. The spiritual needs of the pastor is very important, if my life is a mess, how in the world am I going to help you with your messy lives. I have no business in your life if mine is a mess. So my spiritual life is paramount and I need the relief from the people in the church to be sure I am taking care of business, my own heart. Then you can be sure if I am connected to the head then the signals can flow easily through the neck as I said I was earlier. I have the greatest job in the world, as heavy as it can be at times there are times, many more then you can ever know, that I think to myself, I don’t deserve this job and it is such a privilege to have the opportunity to poor my heart and time into God’s word and to preach it on Sunday mornings that it is like a dream sometimes.

Relief

I sat in a job interview to be a part time counselor not long ago and I was asked what would be my dream job. I sat and thought about it for just a second and I looked at the director right in the eye with a smile on my face and said, being a pastor. There is nothing I would rather be doing then what I am doing write now. Sure I would like to write books and do some teaching but this, the study during the week, the times in prayer after the service, the Bible Study, the brick and morter ministry, (that’s what our discipleship is called) and even just the time talking to each one of you is incredible. This is what I was called to do and in order for me to function correctly God has placed men in this church to alleviate tasks so I can fulfill that call. I have never received the impression that anyone here thinks a job in the church is beneath them. But let me put it to you this way if that ever comes across your mind. Ever job you do in this church from set up to break down to closing the blinds, to making the coffee making sure the food is served, there are enough chairs. Everything you do in the church helps me to get ready to preach and also be able to minister to you. So those little things all add up to relief.

The first principal is requirement, the second is relief, now the third is ratification.

Ratification

In verse 5 and 6 we read, "the statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch. 6 And these they brought before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them." The congregation agreed with what was said. They found approval in the statement and acted quickly in selecting the men. Only two of these men have any kind of description. The first one selected Stephen and the last one in the list Nicolas. Nicolas has the simple designation 'a proselyte' which means he is not born a Jew, he is a convert to Judaism. This means he adheres to the Jewish laws including the right of circumcision. He is legally a Jew even though not born a Jew which demonstrates that as they selected people they looked at their character. They kept to the qualifiers. The other one with a designation is Steven. You could say since he was the first martyr of the church they hold him in very high esteem so Luke is here giving a eulogistic description of Stephen. This very well may be. Seeing as how I view the Word of God as being written by the Holy Spirit through the hands of men like see this as God's description of this man. This is not just how Luke saw Stephen but this is the reputation the twelve meant in verse 3.

It was clear to all that Stephen fulfilled the qualifiers of the task at hand. And as we continue through out chapter 6 and chapter 7, Stephen is very much the focal point and this description of him takes front and center, meaning there is no denying he was a man 'full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.'

One more thing I would like to point out about the seven men chosen here. There names are all Greek. The men chosen by the congregation are all Hellenistic Jews. They weren’t pc about it, think about it. If this were to happen today they would pick three from the Hellenistic Jews, three from the Native Jews and one proselyte. No they didn’t do this they selected the men from one group. This helped to end the infighting that was going on. It was wise to allow the congregation to select them and the congregation were the ones who had spent the time with these men and know about these men. And they wisely selected seven Hellenistic Jews. They weren’t the final say in the matter. These men still had to be presented before the apostles and the apostles had to charge them for service. They needed to ratify their calling.

Then in verse 6, we have the apostolic charge. There was the instruction along with the qualifiers on who to pick but it is the apostles who have the last word and the authoritative word as to whether these men are the ones for the task. The seven men were brought before the apostles. These men were presented to the apostles, more then likely this was a church service so the congregation of people were gathered together for this. This makes it a public declaration of the candidates that have been nominated for this task. This isn't a secrete and there is ample opportunity to speak up if these men do not fit the qualifiers laid out. Then there was prayer for these men, because you can not, I must stress this, can not present people for service to the Lord with out prayer. Jesus demonstrated this when He selected the apostles. The apostles demonstrated this in when they selected the twelfth apostle who would take Judas' place and here we have them do this once again. Never select anyone for a leadership position without ample prayer. Finally they laid hands on them which is just a symbolic way of transfer of responsibility. When I graduated from seminary the very last thing the seminary did was to bring everyone up to the front of the church and all of the professors and elders of Grace Community Church gathered around us and placed their hands on us as they prayed over us and the ministries God had already set for us to accomplish. There is nothing supernatural in this it is only for the purpose of commissioning.

Listen to Paul instruction to Timothy in

1 Timothy 4:11–16 NASB95

Prescribe and teach these things. Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.

The delegates must be commissioned for service in the church. At Cornerstone it is a process of watching and spending time with people and the people are to be affirmed by the congregation. The leadership are the ones who select the leaders and the leadership are the ones who ratify the selection. It is important that the leadership fit the qualification and the congregation knows the qualifications so they can voice their concerns if they have any in respect to a potential leader and the leadership can confirm them and ratify the decision, through prayer and laying on of hands.So we have the principal of requirements, the relief and the ratification, now let's look at the result.

The commissioning and selection of delegates is so important and that Paul even warns Timothy later in his first letter to him by saying this in ;

1 Timothy 5:22 NASB95

22 Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others; keep yourself free from sin.

This is why those who are placed in positions of leadership are to be tested first and show themselves approved. It is also why the church can bring a nominee to the leadership but the leadership must not rush to lay hands on them.

Result

In verse 7 we find, "The Word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith." Now in the book end here Luke makes it clear the result of this delegation of responsibility was the spread of the word of God. This is due largely because the apostles are able to focus on the word of God and prayer. They can focus on the spiritual growth of the church, and spreading the gospel message. They are confident the physical needs of the people are also being taken care of by competent godly men who will care for the people physically and not defame the name of the Lord Jesus Christ or cause His church to be blemished by dishonest gain or seeking power or control but caring for the people because these seven men love God and so they love God's people.The result of the word of God spreading of course is the growth of the church numerically. Not only is the church growing but even the priests of the Jewish faith are now excepting the truth of the gospel that Jesus is the Messiah. This is because of the apostles persistently proclamation of the gospel message in the temple where the priests serve and where the priests are each and every day. This is why it is important for the church not to be lead by just one man and why the church must have others leading alongside with the goal of taking care of the people. The responsibility of the deacons of the church is to take care of the needs of the people to serve in a capacity so that I can focus on making sure the spiritual needs of the church are met. My job is to bring you the truths of the scripture and that is my number one priority, what that means is to be very honest, I shouldn't be worrying about the coffee, the bagels, the set up, the breakdown the counting of the money. My responsibility is to your spiritual wellbeing and that means I need to be focused on the study of the Word of God, praying for each and everyone of you, and making sure I am walking in the path of God's commandments. Cornerstone is a small church so there is more that I need to do and I have to jump in quite often and I don't mind doing that, but the deacons of the church are here to help alleviate the burdens on me so I can be in God's word. It is better for me that I am and it is better for you too.

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