Sermon Tone Analysis

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

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

God

Ezek.

37.1-10

God sanctifies His people through the preaching of the Word

Ps. 119.

God shepherds His people through the preaching of the Word

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

Remember

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

and now again

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

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

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

Luke