The Growth Of A Church

MAY 11, 2022 STUDY NOTES ACTS 6:1 BIBLE TEACHER: CLIFTON JONES THE GROWTH OF A CHURCH INTRODUCTION The growth of a church should be numerical and spiritual, both are important There will be “growing pains” that come with church numerical growth Growth does not come without some problems, those problems will not all be bad ones Any-and all problems can be turned from something potentially bad to something super good Satan will see to it that the church has problems, Paul testified to that, 1Co 16:9 For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries. When God opens a door of opportunity Satan will seek to close it with a door of opposition Satan is the adversary seeking to devour the growth of the church, 1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Satan is the source of “many adversaries,” he uses his demonic forces against the church, Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. His opposition can come from inside or outside the church Satan used the Sadducees and the Sanhedrin Court to attack the church from without in Acts 4 In Acts 5, Satan works from within the church through Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11) But the growth of the Church was not hindered, Act 5:14 And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.) Satan again works from without the church through persecution of the Apostles (Acts 5: 17-41) But the problem of persecution only strengthened the Apostles, Act 5:42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. In Acts 6, Satan seeks again to trouble the church from within Satan’s goal was to discourage the leadership and divide the membership Satan was seeking to distract the Apostles from their God-given responsibilities The Apostles had been called to pray, preach, and teach God’s Word Without the teaching of the Word of God there would be no defense against Satan, Eph 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Satan still seeks to destroy the teaching and preaching of the Word of God Act 6:1And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. And in those days, the days of Satan’s opposition, the days of problems and persecutions Those days were also the days “when the number of the disciples was multiplied” In the NT, the word “disciple” is used to identify the “followers of Jesus” “Disciples” are the believers who desire to learn more about Jesus and grow spiritually, Joh 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; The church had continued to grow numerically since its beginning, and it must continue to grow Their number was multiplying, but a growing number of people brought about “growing needs” New people, different people, new problems and needs, more members, and more needs Different kinds of people coming to church means different kinds of needs Page 1 of 5 If a church is going to continually grow it must reach out to different kinds of people The problem with the average American church is that of not breaking the racial or social barriers Churches are not to have their mind set on reaching a certain kind of people We must not want only the people just “like us” to come to our church Churches want the same kind of people with the same kinds of problems that they already have Too often they don't want to deal with new people with new problems and more needs That is why there must be “spiritual growth” if there is going to be “numerical growth” The Apostles knew that they must continue to grow spiritually in-order to grow numerically Spiritual growth is required in-order to take care of the growing pains of numerical growth The church in Jerusalem had new problems because they had new people They also had “Spiritual leaders” and “Spiritual members” who would take care of the problems Their current problem was coming from within the church Church growth always upsets Satan, that’s when he goes to work any way that he can Satan had a plan in mind, a division between Church leadership and Church membership Satan’s goal was to discourage the leadership and divide the membership A plan that has been working so well for Satan for many years, it certainly works today Satan knew that he must attack the spiritual growth of the church, “there arose a murmuring” “There arose,” at the very time everything was going so well, which can be expected The Apostles already learned to expect Satan’s attempts to close doors of opportunity The Church that is growing today can expect “growing pains” and increased opposition The problem was the “murmuring,” a complaint coming from dissatisfaction It can be loud and outspoken, or it can be a grumbling under the breath Murmuring often goes on today during casual conversations, known as gossip sessions Their complaint was justifiable, there was a problem and the problem needed to be corrected But they were handling it in an unfavorable way, complaining from one person to another “There arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews” “Against” refers to an indirect approach rather than the direct face to face contact with leaders The Grecians and the Hebrews were both Jewish groups, tension was common among them The Grecian Jews were born in lands other than Palestine They were foreign-born Hebrews who had come to Palestine from other nations Jerusalem was probably a retirement center for the Grecians They spoke the Greek language and were people of the Greek culture Their language and their lifestyle were Greek, they thought and behaved like Greeks Their outlook upon life and their attitude was more like a Greek than a Hebrew The Grecians had their own synagogues they worshipped in Their Bible was the “Septuagint,” a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures They talked different, they acted different, they were different, but they were now saved Jews They were now a part of the New Testament Church Family Their tendency was to associate with those of like character, to sit together and share together A very common practice among Christians today, it even happens at Prairie Grove Baptist Satan can and will use any separation of Christians in the church family to bring about division Separated for any reason to disrupt the harmony of the family We must always remember, Rom 2:11 For there is no respect of persons with God. The “murmuring” of the Grecians was, against the Hebrews The “Hebrew” Jews were born in Palestine They were Palestinian natives and proud of their heritage They spoke the Aramaic language, the common language spoken in Palestine during that time They were careful to preserve the culture and customs of Jews They were a very self-centered people, not unlike many churches today Page 2 of 5 Their Bible was the O1d Testament in the original Hebrew language The problem was a murmuring of Greek speaking Jews against the native speaking Jews There were many differences but when Christ enters the life there should the right difference He is the One who is to make a difference in the way we think and act, especially toward others A spiritual difference will make all other differences right, 2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Being prejudice has always been a potential problem, a problem that the church of today still has Satan likes to take little problems and turn them into great big problems The sure success of Satan is to turn one believer against another believer Murmuring is one of the most common ways of Satan turning believers against each other That is why Paul tells us in, Php 2:14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings: Satan wanted to use the murmuring to destroy the testimony of the church But God would use this occasion of murmuring for church growth The church would learn from this problem, all problems are a potential learning experience The opposite of the attitude of murmuring is the spirit of cheerfulness The problem of murmuring is not the main emphasis of this passage, it was not the main point The main point is how the problem was handled and the result of handling the problem properly The church grew stronger, it continued to grow spiritually and in number The witness for Christ continued to spread and the church continued to grow The need was for more people to become involved in the ministry of the church More people needed to be doing more than sitting and listening to the apostles teach Their complaint was, “their widows were neglected in the daily ministration” No one was deliberately being neglected in the early days of the NT Church The early church cared for all-of the needs of all of the church family, Act 2:44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common; Act 2:45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. The church had already taken on the responsibility of providing for the needs of the widows The Apostles had been responsible for this ministry, through their hands the food was passed out Because of the rapid growth of the church the need had grown, the number of widows had grown And there were some widows who were being neglected The word “neglected” means being overlooked, not something that was being done on purpose They were being overlooked because the Apostles were too busy, they simply could not do it all It was the same problem that Moses had in the O1d Testament (Exodus18:13-27) Moses was the judge of God's people to determine God's will in their disputes Jethro, his father-in law, said, you cannot handle this alone Jethro advised Moses to choose capable men and have them serve as judges for the people Moses had been faithful and successful in his ministry, Moses was not the problem The problem was, there was not enough of Moses to go around The problem in the early church was not the Apostles They had been faithful in their ministry, but there was a limit to what they could do Problems always come with success; success can be dangerous unless success is evaluated The problems of success provide for an opportunity to evaluate ministry Church ministry must be evaluated from time to time, so should our individual ministry The Apostles knew that what the Grecians were saying was true And it was happening on a regular basis as they had said It was time to do something about this daily distribution of food I wonder how the average church of today would have handled this problem They probably would have elected a committee to investigate the problem The committee would report back to the Pastor Page 3 of 5 The Pastor would then call the Church Council together, who would then call a joint meeting of-Financial Committee, Benevolence Committee, Kitchen Committee, Transportation Committee Their first recommendation would be to turn this problem over to the W.M.U., let them solve it They would also give the authority to the W.M.U. to work with the local “Meals on Wheels” The final decision of the church might be these people shouldn’t be a part of the church anyway Then they would recommend that this relief program be done away with because of its problems The answer to the problems of ministry is not doing away with ministry That is the first steps to what is known as a dying-church Many churches are not growing because of their decision not to face and correct problems Churches who resist change and hold to tradition do not plan to grow and will not grow Churches who practice discrimination do not plan to grow and will not grow Discrimination is more than racial prejudice--Discrimination can be seen in churches who: Are poor and don't want the rich--Are rich and don't want the poor Are young and don't want the elderly--Are elderly and don't want the young Like a small church and don't want to grow Discrimination of some type is one of the leading factors of church decline The church must minister to all others in-order to grow The meaning of “daily ministration” is administrating the work of God, it is called “ministry” Ministering to others is serving God by meeting the needs of others It also has the meaning of “Table Waiting” which refers to a service that supports others The Greeks considered being a servant to others as something shameful To care for someone else was-considered to be a humiliating experience Why should someone surrender their time for the sake of others? A Greek’s duty was to care for himself Why should Christians put forth effort to help someone else? Because we are the “followers of Christ,” We have the example of Jesus, Mat 20:28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Jesus did not come to earth to be served, Jesus came to earth to serve us Jesus gave himself for others, Jesus came to teach us a new value system of life He taught us how important others are to God, they are of eternal value He taught us that serving others is the road to success, that giving to others is greatness He taught us that grasping all we can for self is not gain, but giving to others is the way to gain To follow Jesus and to minister to others is the way to find life, Mat 10:38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. The Apostles did not want the church to fail in its ministry to the widows or anyone else The Grecian widows were not intentionally being neglected they were being “overlooked” “Overlooked” because there were too many other things for the Apostles to see after The Apostles did not want this ministry to the widows or any other ministry to be hindered They knew that ministry to others was a part of the NT Church, James also confirms that, Jas 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. The daily ministry of the Church must be in as many different areas as possible Every Church member is to be a part of the daily ministry of the Church The daily ministry of a Church should equal its membership The ministry of the local church is determined by how many members will minister to others How many doors of opportunity are closed in churches today because of the lack of servants? The Apostles were given to the Church, Eph 4:12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Page 4 of 5 Through the “saints” the problem could be solved, Eph 4:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: Every member ministering, Eph 4:16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. The church can grow through faithful leadership and membership Page 5 of 5