Maintaining the Ministry

Introduction

Good Morning CrossPointe

Excited to continue on our series in the Book of Acts. Today we will be in Acts chapter 6. Next week Justin Serra and his family will be with us. Justin was our Student Pastor for several years and left in June to begin a Lead Pastor residency in Kansas City. Excited to have him share with us next week.

Prayer

Read

Big Idea: The early church experienced a conflict that was resolved as the church worked together to share leadership as the gospel continued to be proclaimed.

3 Points:

1) Church in Conflict

2) Church in Partnership

3) Church on Mission Again

Church is Gowing

“In these days when the disciples were increasing in number...”

Church is healthy and growing. It’s not perfect, as we saw with Ananias and Sapphira, but it’s healthy

Church Conflict

God is moving, people are coming to Jesus, signs and wonders and being performed, people are gathering in homes, others are financially generous.

Isn’t this the kind of church you would want to join? We see things from the outside

Great teachers, popular, known

Fastest growing church in the city (only church…)

The church is about one year old at this point

Unity in the church though is delicate.

The church is about one or two years old at this point based on some timelines I researched.

The honeymoon phase is over and we see that unity is delicate. - They’ve reach nearly 10,000 people

When you get a lot of people from different backgrounds close together and sharing life together there will be issues.

Sometimes we have an unrealistic expectation in churches that there will never be problems but this isn’t true.

Even in the best of churches where the Apostles are leading, where the spirit is moving, where people are coming to Christ in massive numbers

Even here - there are complaints and divisions

Why is this Important to understand?

Americans shop churches like we shop for churches like we shop for cars.

Denomination is brand - we’re loyal to certain makes (Toyota and Honda are reliable like Acts 29 and Gospel Coalition, these don’t have the same quality but they have a long history)

Get the right size, compact, sedan, crossover, SUV - mega-church, family -church, house-church.

Pick the interior your want - permanent facility, nice chairs, lights, - the leather seats and premium sound system or OK with the basic options of school cafeteria benches and tile floors.

Church is so much more than a car or something we consume or shop around. Church is family. Can you imagine talking about your wife or kids this way?

My wife is getting kind of old. I’ve had her now for 22 years.

I like kids but mine are teenagers now. Sometimes the whine in morning but can run all night.

NO! I love my wife and kids. They are amazing and we don’t shop around for a family.

Big Idea: The early church experienced conflicted that was resolved together so that disciples continued to be multiple

3 Points:

1) Church in Conflict

2) Church in Partnership

3) Church on Mission Again

Church in Conflict

“A complaint… arose”

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

Who & What: Two Groups

Hellenists -

Greek speaking Jews. They didn’t speak Hebrew because they lived overseas for centuries but returned to Jerusalem because it was their Holy City. Many returned just so they could spend their final days of life in Jerusalem.

As a result there was an abundance of Greek-Speaking women who outlived their husbands.

Many people resented and discriminated against the hellenistic Jews. The Pharisees help them in contempt, considering them second class Israelites.

Hebrews -

Hebrew speaking Jews who lived their whole lives in Israel. They belonged. They were there first.

The problem - Discrimintaion

Realistically they hadn’t been there much longer than 450 years since the Jews lived in captivity but that is quickly forgotten

So what was happening

Prejudice & Racism

Our widows aren’t being cared for like their widows.

Us and Them - Not the body of Christ being the body. Not we are all the same at the foot of the cross. They sound different. They are different. They aren’t like us.

Conversion did not erase prejudice

Can I help us see the obvious here:

Does prejudice and racisim still exist in the church today?

If someone speaks a different language?

Looks different or has a different culture.

In the past, church isolated and separated out blacks. I remember while in Bible College we had an older gentlemen from the civil rights movement come and share in chapel and he said some things that were lacking in theological accuracy. The class was talking when my biblical theology professor walked in. He was African American and

If people come in from another country - are they full Americans or partial Americans.

Yes! The American church has a sad history. Blacks weren’t allowed in some churches or seen as full and equal members. Blacks weren’t allowed in most seminaries for theological education. There was one school on Oberlin, Ohio but it wasn’t until less than 70 years ago that that other institutions were open to blacks.

Even in moving from Lake Nona to here I heard a couple say they were not comfortable making the move if they were the dominant demographic.

Church in Conflict Explained

The description of conflict in this passage is prejudice and racism. I think we can relate to that in application

I also want to acknowledge that there are other reasons people complain. Some complaints are helpful and some are not. Some complaints hold weight while others don’t.

What do we do with our complaints?

It seems like they brought there complaints to the Apostles, to the leaders.

Church unity is delicate and your words and attitudes have power to heal and to harm.

Conflict in the church is NOT BAD.

How we handle that conflict though is what matters.

Church in Partnership

Worked together with all the disciples

It seem s like in reading this passage that the people brought their complaint to the apostles. They didn’t just talk about it amongst themselves but they brought the issue to the leaders. This is important. Complaining that spreads among the people without bringing it to the leadership threatens the unity of the whole.

It also seems like the complaint came with a suggestion that the apostles should be the ones to directly fix the problem. There was an issue in how the funds were being distributed - earlier passages tell us how people were laying money at the apostles feet for them to distribute as they saw fit. Now they didn’t like how the apostles were distributing funds or whoever was managing this detail.

This suggestion was not going to serve the church well so the apostles responded in three ways:

There Responses:

Call everyone together to be part of the solution

Define Responsibilities

Pray and Release

Call Everyone together - “the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples…:

Maybe this was the first congregational meeting

The Apostles didn’t assign blame or make excuses but they invited the people to be part of the solution.

This is significant and important as we continue to grow as a church family.

We as leaders are not perfect. I’m not perfect. Not just in general, not just as a funny saying or false humility. I really mean, I’m not God’s gift to the world as the greatest leader who is always right.

You are perfect either. You aren’t God’s gift to the church and now that you’re here everything will be perfect.

Yet - together, I believe we can be a better expression of of Christ’s body then anyone of us calling all the shots.

It is important to recognize how the apostles did begin to clarify responsibilities

Focused Responsibilities

Apostles - Focused on the ministry of the word and prayer

(6:2) “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word to serve tables.”

(6:4) But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

I can’t imagine what kind of temptation this would have been for the apostles to agree to personally oversee the distribution of food.

No one wants others to think they see themselves as above “common work.”

Do you think yourself better than Jesus who said the greatest must become a servant. Didn’t Jesus wash your feet?

If we don’t do then who else could get it right? If you want it done right then do it yourself?

The Apostles though knew they had to focus on the health of the church by focusing on the ministry of the word and ministry of prayer.

In application, it is important that we don’t simply equate the apostles equally to the role of elders in the church today. The elders are not apostles but the scripture .

Responsibilities of Elders:

1 Peter 5:1-3

1) Model godly character

We see this in the qualification listed in . Everything an elders does must flow out of godly character.

above reproach, faithful to his wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, gentle, not quarrelsome, not greedy, etc...

2) Lead the Church

instructs elders to “shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly

Elders are called to lead the church. The goal isn’t to lead a church to become an efficient organization but rather to lead church partners toward maturity in Christ.

efficient organization but rather to lead church partners toward maturity in Christ.

3) Teach

One of the unique requirements we see in is that elders are called to teach and preach. This doesn’t mean just preaching on Sunday morning but the ability to clearly communicate the truth of God’s word regularly. This may be in a community group or over coffee.

The Apostle Paul instructed the young preach Timothy to guard his doctrine closely for himself and for his congregation.

4) Prayer

Elders are called to pray for the church.

A recent survey by the magazine Christianity today said that American pastors pray less than 3 minutes a day.

This should be shocking. As elders we have a growing conviction about the amount of time we are spending in prayer. This is becoming more and more central when we meet together each week.

The temptation is to simple pray when we start the meeting and then pray at the close. This isn’t sufficient though.

Helpers Needed - “

Congregation selected the 7 men - Servants

The elders can and shouldn’t do everything.

The apostles realized this and called the congregation to select 7 men who would serve beside them.

(6:3) “7 men of good reputation, full of the Holy spirit, given responsibility”

Good Reputation

Full of the Holy Spirit - this isn’t something special or unique but rather someone is living faithfully under the authority of scripture.

Full of wisdom

Given Responsibility - “whom we will appoint to this duty” - they are serving the congregation is specific way in partnership with the elder.

Partnering in the ministry to serve the needs of the church.

These men were under the authority of the apostles and given authority and responsibility to carry the weight of the ministry and care of the church.

There is a biblical president for shared, participatory leadership.

We aren’t a pastor-led church

We do have a plurality of elders

The leadership structure also does not end there. We also believe that the bible teaches on the role of deacons (servants) and partners.

??? Are these men deacons???

Later in the Bible we are taught on the office of deacons and some say this passage is the first reference to deacons functioning in the church.

Interpreters differ on whether these 7 men should be considered deacons:

On one hand, the noun for deacon (role) dos not appear.

On the other hand the verb for deacon does appear which simply translates as ‘serve’ tables in verse 2. This is a common word that is used frequently.

I don’t believe this passage is teaching on the office of deacons but I do think it is an example that ultimately leads to what we understand to be deacons.

Deacons Are:

Also given a list of qualifications in

dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to wine, not greedy, hold to the faith with a clear conscience, etc.

Not much else is said concerning the role and responsibilities other then serving as leaders to assist the elders with the ministry and care of the church.

Freedom in how we live our our shared leadership based on the needs of our congregation and community.

Who we consider Deacons:

We consider our community group leaders to be deacons

We consider our main ministry directors to also be deacons (Children’s director, productions, hospitality, connections, finance, eyc)

Church on Mission Again

“And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Fruit of Shared Leadership:

The Word of God increased - apostles teaching

Disciples are multiplying - people are trusting in Jesus

Even priests, were coming to faith

Prayer

Have the leaders stand

Encourage people around them to introduce themselves and pray for them

Pray for new leaders, names of those who stand out as leaders

Pray for the Leaders

Pray for our Unity