Increasing and Multiplying
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 17 viewsNotes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Introduction
Introduction
Overview of all that we have looked at thus far.
I will point out again that we see the enemy attacking from within.
We have seen the enemy attack the church through threats and persecution coming from outside the church.
We have also see the enemy attack the church from within through hypocrisy, through the threat to unity that was posed by Ananias and Sapphira
Again we see the enemy attack the church from within.
As we end chapter 5 we see the Christ is still being preached, Christ is being shared from house to house at the end of chapter 5.
We come to chapter 6 and we see the disciples were increasing in number.
But then we also see the threat.
A complaint arose from within the church. There was the threat of division.
One group complaining about another group. And this was a particularly sensitive division because it was along cultural lines.
Hellenists were complaining against the Hebrews.
What is that all about?
More than likely amongst the widows in the church that were being cared for by the church there were
Hebrew widows that is Jewish widows who were natives of Palestine and who spoke Aramaic, they were deeply immersed in Hebrew culture
Hellenists would have been Jewish widows who had come from the Dispora (dispersed Jews living outside Palestine).
They would have spoken Greek and had been heavily influenced by Greek culture but were now living in Palestine.
Of course both had heard the gospel and had believed in Christ and were seeking to follow Christ but one group feels that it is getting the short end of the stick.
Maybe there was a feeling that the Hebrew widows were being shown favoritism.
Of course this could have been a very explosive situation but instead we see the early church handle the situation through what I believe to be the installation of the diaconate, or the office of deacon.
We have looked at this passage before at a deacon ordination and we talked about how the deacons in the early church
were servants who helped care for the physical needs of the body
encouraged unity within the church
supported the ministry of the Word by freeing up the apostles and the elders to give their time to that
Today what I want to do is to consider the church’s response to this threat to unity, to notice what things the church considered important as it worked through this problem and notice the Lord’s continued blessing on the Church.
I. Prayer and Proclamation in the Church
I. Prayer and Proclamation in the Church
First thing that I want us to notice is that, though the leaders of the church knew that the problem needed to be addressed they also knew that they could not compromise on prayer and on the preaching of the Word.
v.2
It is not that the apostles thought that serving tables was beneath them but they also knew that they could not give themselves to both serving tables and preaching the Word.
They also understood that
They understood the centrality of preaching the Word. Yes, the widows needed to be taken care of, yes physical needs do matter; but if all that we do is take care of physical needs and we neglect the preaching of the Word then we are no longer the church of Jesus Christ.
Here we are reminded of the importance, the centrality of the preaching of the Word of God for the Church of Jesus Christ.
Why is it that the preaching of the Word is so central? We will look at this more tonight but I will quickly go over a few things
God creates His people through the preaching of the Word
God has always used the means of His Word to call His people out of the world, to create His people.
Think of
where God literally creates all things by His Word
God calls Abram out of Ur by His Word
as God is calling His people out of Egypt He begins by speaking to Moses out of a bush
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
God
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
Ezek. 37.1-10
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
God sanctifies His people through the preaching of the Word
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
Ps. 119.
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
God shepherds His people through the preaching of the Word
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
And we could add to this that God keeps His people from the way of destruction with His Word
I think of 2 Peter that we began looking at this past Wednesday night
The church was being threatened by false teaching and so Peter calls them to grow in grace and in knowledge
May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Remember
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Eph. 4.
Brothers and sisters we are reminded of the importance of the Word of God.
But we also see an emphasis on prayer by the early church.
We have seen this before
All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them,
and now again
But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
They early church understood their dependence upon the Lord and therefore they were at His feet seeking His power, seeking His grace, seeking His favor regularly.
I bring this up again brothers and sisters because it is in the text again,
Brothers and sisters make no mistake about it, the Lord was working powerfully in the church in Acts because they were devoted to prayer.
A prayerless church is a powerless church
But a church, a people who will give themselves to pray can be used by the Lord to change a city, a county, a country, a continent.
May God make us a praying church!!!
II. Practice of the Church
II. Practice of the Church
I will give you list of things that I see within the church that are healthy.
These are practices of the church that we see here that we can learn from:
deal with problems and do not sweep them under the rug
issues must be dealt with within the church if the church is to expect that Lord to continue to bless.
Notice the leaders of the church lead in dealing with the problem within the church, but they also enlist the whole church to help with the solution.
The leaders understand that the church is the body of Christ and as the body of Christ the church would be able to recognize men among them that are full of good repute and
do not tolerate any hint of partiality
The problem was the impression of partiality and that would not be tolerated.
care for physical needs within the body (love for one another is seen in the text)
care for one another (love for one another is seen in the text)
expected godliness (especially from their leaders)
Notice when they are seeking for men to lead in this ministry within the church.
Do they look for a warm body that is willing to help out?
Men of good repute
full of Spirit and wisdom
v.5 we are told that Stephen was a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit
III. Prosperity of the Church
III. Prosperity of the Church
The picture that we have of the church here in chapter 6
Committed to prayer and to the preaching of the Word
Committed to caring for one another
Committed to leaders that meet Biblical qualifications, that are living faithful lives
Then we come to v.7
Word of God continued to increase
The Word was being proclaimed and it was having it’s effect.
The Word was increasing in the number of people that were being saved by the preaching of the Word
The Word of God was increasing in the lives of believers in it’s sanctifying power
The Word of God was increasing in that the church was growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ and were being strengthened against false teaching.
Number of disciples multiplied
Notice what it does not say, it does not say that the number of church members multiplied, now that is true, but the significance is that it was disciples
Disciples of Jesus Christ, followers of Jesus Christ.
Oh what a plague it is upon the church when it has a list of church members and few disciples but what a blessing, what a sign of prosperity when the number of disciples are multiplying.
What is a disciple? Well Luke tells us
Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Luke
Genuine Christians, genuine followers of Christ were multiplying not just professors, not just people who raised their hand or prayed a prayer and then continued life as it was before
But a multiplication of genuine disciples.
Oh brothers and sisters, that is true prosperity within the church.
Oh that God would bless TBC with a multiplication of disciples.
Of those who have counted the cost and who follow Jesus Christ knowing that it will cost them their life.
Those who have seen Jesus Christ to be more precious than the world or anything that the world can offer.
Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ? I am not asking you have you prayed a prayer
I am asking you, are you a follower of Christ, do you desire to live for Him? Do you desire to see His Kingdom come? Do you desire to serve Him?