So, we're reading from Acts chapter 6, and we're just reading the first seven verses.
Now, in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists
arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said,
It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.
Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom,
whom we will appoint this duty.
But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.
And what they said pleased the whole gathering.
And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit,
and Philip and Prochorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmenas and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch.
These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.
And the word of God continued to increase,
and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem,
and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
Well, good morning, everyone.
Will you pray with me as we come to God's word?
Father, we use the word church family a lot in this church,
and I pray that through your living word this morning,
that you would send your spirit to move
so that you might create us more and more into the likeness of the family that we are,
because of Jesus.
So please speak to us through your word.
Humble us.
Give us listening ears.
And I pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, we're getting into the book of Acts, obviously, from the Bible reading,
but we haven't been in Acts for three years,
so I had to go back and look that up,
so I can't remember, although I can't remember a lot of things,
but I'm guessing you can't remember where we're up to.
Now, as we come to the book of Acts, we may not realise it,
but we Christians often read the stories in Acts very differently
from how we read the stories in the rest of the Bible.
Like, we're starting our church lunches again next Sunday after the Lord's Supper,
and I'm not expecting anyone to bring on this beautiful platter
some locusts and wild honey beautifully presented
while they're wearing camel skin clothing,
because they just think, John the Baptist, I need to follow his example.
No one's expecting that.
And yet, we read the book of Acts,
and many Christians just assume and use it as a point of debate.
It's obvious we should do this.
We read it very, very differently.
I think it can cause us to...
You get a sentiment sometimes,
and I've fallen into this myself,
where you think,
the church, if only we went back to what it was like in the early days.
We need to go back there.
But we don't realise that we're romanticising what Luke didn't paint a rosy picture.
They had problems.
If we romanticise the book of Acts in the early church,
it can actually lead to too much disillusionment in the church today.
It's in a very unhealthy way.
So, that's all to say.
We need to, as we're coming into the book of Acts,
we need to get our bearings.
What is it about?
How do we read it?
What is the book of Acts about?
So, if you've got your Bibles,
if you don't, just listen along.
Acts chapter 1, verse 1.
Let's go to the first verse.
So, Luke is the author,
and he says,
So, this is following Luke's gospel,
and that word began.
The focus here, from the word go,
isn't on the apostles.
It's on the Lord.
What Jesus began in his earthly ministry,
he is continuing in his heavenly ministry
by sending his spirit through his apostles,
through his church.
Jesus is the hero, in other words.
The apostles are not the heroes.
Jesus is.
Empowering his apostles.
Luke pauses throughout Acts
to give this narrative summary statement
so many times,
and in effect, they all say,
And the word of God increased.
The word of God spread.
The word of God multiplied.
All throughout, you'll find it.
The focus is on Jesus and his word.
He's gathering in his church.
The other key to helping us get our bearings for Acts
is, I should have stayed in chapter one,
stay in chapter one and look at verse eight.
Verse eight.
You will receive power.
Jesus talking to his apostles.
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem
and in all Judea and Samaria
and to the end of the earth.
And then the book finishes with Paul in Rome,
the center of the Gentile world,
and he's still nothing stopping him from teaching God's word.
So the emphasis that Luke wants to paint,
he doesn't actually trace all the stories of the apostles.
He's not telling us a history of this apostle did this
and this apostle did that.
No, it's tracing where the word is going.
And he's not even tracing everywhere that the word went.
He's picking these stories in particular
to show us the word going from Jerusalem to Samaria
and out even to the Gentiles,
and we finish up in Rome.
So the emphasis is on Jesus gathering in his church
and he's making his church witnesses,
witnesses to the gospel,
to the truth of the goodness of belonging to Jesus.
And he's empowering his church through the Spirit to do this.
So the focus is on Jesus.
The theme is about being witnesses.
Jesus is gathering in his people
through the proclamation of the word
and through just the winsomeness of the church.
If you remember the story,
the first church after the first sermon,
it's this beautiful picture
of they're sharing all their goods in common,
they're having fellowship.
Anyway, I'll let you go back and read it.
So it's a witness.
Witness is bigger than just telling someone about Jesus.
It's bigger than that.
It's the witness of the character of the church.
It's how we go about things.
It's got to be word central,
but witness is a bigger term than evangelism.
So the focus is on Jesus.
Witness and the spread of the word is Luke's focus.
The third theme that we see through Acts
is that this happens despite serious threats.
And some of those threats are outside the church,
external pressure, persecution.
And some of the threats are inside the church.
But Jesus is unstoppable.
His word keeps spreading.
But don't expect the unstoppable Jesus.
It's not going to be smooth and easy.
So the external threats,
I don't think I need to go into this too much.
They're pretty obvious, aren't they?
Like the apostles are warned
and then beaten
and then imprisoned.
And we're about to come next week
to the first martyr.
The external threats are obvious
when you read the book of Acts.
I think we can skim over
and lose sight of the fact
that the internal threats
could have destroyed
the witness of Jesus
and the church being gathered.
So for instance,
it's doctrinally impure
and it's morally mixed.
So for instance,
chapter 5,
Ananias and Sapphira,
out of love of money,
they lie to God
and they lie to one another.
If that had spread,
it would have just been toxic
for the church.
You've got the power-hungry Simon
in chapter 8.
You've got the fearful
and retreating John Mark
on the missionary journey
he pulls out.
You've got the bitter dispute
between Paul and Barnabas.
You've got Apollos,
who doesn't,
his doctrine isn't quite complete.
He's a bit doctrinally confused.
You've got professing Christians
in Ephesus
who for a long time it seems
were hiding the fact
that in private
they were still practicing black magic.
All these internal problems,
and I think there's more,
but the risen Lord
is unstoppable.
He can use our sin and weakness
and he keeps going,
not to excuse that,
but he can also transform his people
from the inside out.
Now that's a long intro,
but I think it's important
as we come into chapter 6.
The focus is on Jesus.
It's about witness,
and there's external and internal threats
to Jesus gathering and building his church,
and here in chapter 6
I think we see another occasion
of internal threat.
And we've got two.
There's two dimensions to it.
So have chapter 6 open in front of you
if you've got your Bibles open.
The first one,
verse 1,
that kind of rhymes,
disunity.
Now in those days
when the disciples
were increasing in number,
a complaint by the Hellenists
arose against the Hebrews
because their widows
were being neglected
in the daily distribution.
Now I don't want to look over
the amazing fact
that early on
this very early church
had set up a system
for caring for the widows
in the church.
Already,
they're caring for the most vulnerable
in the church.
Their identity in Jesus
is controlling their wallets.
Like we read
that the rich
were selling their property
and laying it
at the apostles' feet
and they were distributing it
as anyone had need.
No one had any need
because
the transforming power
of belonging to Jesus' people.
It's a beautiful picture.
It's fulfilling
what God had commanded
in the Old Testament.
So Deuteronomy 24,
you may want to look it up
or just listen as I read it.
21,
when you gather the grapes
of your vineyard,
so you're a farmer,
you're gathering in the grapes,
you shall not strip it afterwards.
So once you go through it,
there's bits left over,
leave them there.
Why?
It's for the sojourner,
the visitor,
the fatherless,
and the widow.
Go.
You shall remember
that you are a slave
in the land of Egypt.
Therefore,
I command you to do this.
Throughout Scripture,
God has a heart
for the vulnerable.
James chapter 1,
James is probably here this day.
He's saying,
if you say,
go,
be warm and well fed
and do nothing to help,
if you've got the ability
to help,
that is,
and do nothing to help,
that faith,
it's worthless.
Why?
Because your love of money
is greater than your love of God
and love of people.
God is a heart
for the widows.
We see in James,
we see in Deuteronomy.
And there's signs
that what God commanded
through Moses
wasn't happening
in the Jewish society
of the day.
So,
I thought of Mark chapter 7
where Jesus,
he condemns the Pharisees.
He says,
you set up your own laws
above what God commands.
You say,
in effect,
I don't need to look after you,
mum and dad
in your old age,
as long as you give that money
to the temple.
And Jesus is like,
you're setting aside
God's word.
You should be caring
for your mum and dad.
And,
so they were teaching this.
And Jesus condemns
the Pharisees for it.
Another thing we see
in the Jewish society
in Jerusalem
was there was division
in the synagogues.
there were some synagogues
that were Hebrew speaking
and there were some synagogues
that were Greek speaking.
And we see that
in the next paragraph.
The synagogue
of the freedmen's
and they're from
different countries.
Because,
even though they're all Jews,
some Jews
had been dispersed
among the nations
and they only spoke Greek.
So you can imagine
that this language difference
created cultural difference
and you could imagine
that the Hebrew speaking
are more pure.
They haven't been mixed
with the other nations.
You could imagine
that prejudice.
It's a problem
that the synagogues
couldn't,
they didn't solve.
But here we see
that this division
has come into the church.
This prejudice
has come into the church.
It's a real problem.
If this was left unaddressed,
if the Greek,
Jewish,
converted to Christianity
women
weren't looked after,
it would basically say,
well,
you're not quite family enough
to be cared for.
It would totally undermine
what the gospel says.
The gospel says
who are God's people?
All who come to Jesus
as Saviour and Lord.
There's no distinctions.
It would undermine
what the church is,
the household of God,
if we didn't care for,
if they didn't care
for all their widows.
It would undermine
the witness
that Jesus' word
and spirit
can actually create
our hearts
after the heart of God
who does care
for the widows.
If this wasn't addressed,
it's the age-old problem.
We wouldn't be
practicing what we preach.
It would undermine
the testimony.
Here in our church,
why would we expect
friends and visitors
to want to come in
to this family of faith
if our family is marked
by the sorts of things
that you can find out
in the world?
Why would they want
to come in?
But how compelling
would it be
if our practical love
for one another
demonstrated who we are
as family
so much
that
we even
surpassed
what
biological families do?
What a witness
that would be.
What a witness
if
any difference
that you find awkward
in this church,
someone that you're like,
I'm not sure
I can talk to them,
for whatever reason,
whether that's
a language thing,
cultural thing,
or whether it's
a dispute thing,
that's an opportunity.
Disunity
is not just a threat,
it's an opportunity
to demonstrate
who we are
in Jesus.
So this is a real threat
to the church
going forward,
but it raises
a second threat
if it's dealt with wrong,
in a wrong way.
Now I'm guessing
the first threat
of disunity
we kind of all agree with.
I'm guessing
it's not controversial
at all,
but the apostles
are wise
to see another
just a serious threat
and that's being distracted.
Being distracted
from word and prayer.
It's not right,
verse 2,
it is not right
that we should give up
preaching the word of God
to serve tables.
Now,
Jesus washed
his disciples' feet.
Is serving tables
beneath them somehow?
I don't think
that's the point.
It's not a matter
of they've got
a higher status.
It's not about that.
It's that
they've been set apart
for a specific task
to teach,
to proclaim.
you could imagine
to deal with this problem,
the emotional
and mental
and time
resources
required
to navigate
the relationships
and to practically
address this
would have
eaten into
their prayer
and their preparation
and their proclamation.
they would have
been distracted
from the word of God.
So a very,
there's a need here
that needs to be addressed
but if they dealt
with it themselves
they would have
stripped the church
of the lifeblood
of the word of God
and prayer.
apparently Charles Spurgeon
who
if you're in
church land
you'll know his name
he's got the title
Prince of Preachers
because
God used him
powerfully
to save many people.
His preaching was
that,
it was very powerful
and apparently
anyone
any kind of
anyone visiting
his church
he would take them
downstairs
into this
very empty room
which apparently
he called the boiler room
and it's just
these bunch of chairs
spread around
and while he was
preaching
there was just
dozens of people
praying
and he was
in effect saying
I give all the glory
to God
it's
he's
he's praying
I wonder if we have
that view
of
the centrality
of the word of God
and prayer
it's
that the word
it's what creates us
it's what sustains us
it's what transforms us
it's our lifeblood
I think if Satan
can't get this church
to be quiet
from external
social pressure
to compromise
he'll try and undermine
our witness
through scandal
and disunity
oh they call themselves
family but
look at how they treat
each other
if he can't do it that way
he'll just
get us
being busy
with everything good
except talking
about Jesus
and
learning from
his word
his schemes
are not new
they're not new
they're right there
in the early church
but the risen
Lord
through his
apostles
he protects
his church
from both
threats
they bring
a proposal
brothers
pick out
from among you
seven men
of good repute
full of the
spirit
and of wisdom
whom we'll
appoint to
this duty
now
I think we can
treat this as
a bit of an
illustration of
deacons
we're going to
actually do a
sermon next week
on deacons
so I'm not going
to spend much
time on that
but the word
deacon here
as a title
isn't used
so it's not
precisely
but anyway
we'll come to that
next week
what I'm amazed
by is
even the way
they go about
the solution
to this
problem
demonstrates
being family
in Jesus
I love
that there's
not
political
manoeuvring
here
there's not
backdoor
conversations
going on
there's not
identity
politics
going
okay fine
we'll get
four Greek
men
and three
Hebrew
men
on this
committee
it's not
political
it's not
whoever
gives the
money
to the
church
gets to
decide
it's the
whole church
gathered
whole church
deciding
we're told
that they're
all pleased
with proposals
so the
Hebrew
Christians
they're
going
yes
we love
you
we love
you
Greek
speaking
widows
we do
they're
pleased
with this
proposal
they're
pleased
with the
proposal
in the
sense
that
yes
we
agree
the
word
and
prayer
must
remain
central
if
we're
going
to
survive
and
be
a
witness
they're
pleased
with
that
the
church
is
entrusted
with
appointing
those
put
in
charge
it's
not
an
autocratic
decision
nor
is
it
just
pure
democracy
it's
led
by the
apostles
but
they're
also
given
it's
like
a
family
it's
calling
a
family
meeting
around
the
dinner
table
they decide
together
that's the
picture that
comes to my
mind
anyway
and they
gladly use
the gospel
criteria
they've
got to be
of good
repute
these
men
their
character
must
be
known
to be
trustworthy
but
notice
they've
got to
be
full
of
the
spirit
be
worth
talking
at
morning
tea
how
you
tell
if
someone's
full
of
the
spirit
I've
got
some
ideas
but
I'll
let
you
talk
about
that
they've
got
to do
a
very
practical
task
but
they've
got to
be
spiritual
men
they've
got to
be
spiritual
people
like
imagine
how fragile
these
relationships
were
between
years
of
prejudice
experience
between
one
another
these
people
put in
charge
had to
be so
saturated
in the
gospel
and
careful
in
how
they
handle
this
situation
so
to
be
spiritual
isn't
just
to
teach
like
I
am
you
need
to
be
saturated
in
the
truth
of
Jesus
to
handle
practical
situations
gotta
be
spiritual
and
the
church
loves
that
because
the
apostles
commissioned
them
they
approved
their
choice
it's
a
wonderful
picture
of
family
I
think
and
a
unity
of
yes
let's
be
witnesses
for
the
gospel
centrality
of
the
word
but
also
how
they
make
the
decision
is
as
family
it's
a
wonderful
picture
and
what's
the result
verse 7
and the
word of
God
continued
to
increase
and
the
number
of
the
disciples
multiplied
greatly
in
Jerusalem
and
a
great
many
of
the
priests
became
obedient
to
the
faith
the
word
increase
the
apostles
were
freed
up
to
keep
speaking
we
see
that
two
of
these
men
go
on
to
be
evangelists
I'm
not
sure
if
I
can
say
this
but
maybe
the
authority
given
to
them
by
the
church
empowered
them
to
go
on
to
other
things
as
well
so
it
increased
in
that
way
it
increased
in
the
way
that
how
they
come
to
this
decision
and
that
they
are
treating
one
another
as
family
between
the
Greek
and
Hebrew
speaking
I
suspect
that's
why
Luke
talks
about
the
priests
I
suspect
it's
that
they
saw
in
this
church
led
by
the
apostles
a
unity
that
they
didn't
see
in
the
synagogues
that
unity
that
goes
across
cultures
and
they
submitted
themselves
even
though
they
were
priests
in
the
temple
system
teaching
the
law
of
Moses
they
submit
themselves
to
the
authority
of
the
apostles
going
you
apostles
are
the
true
leaders
of
God's
true
people
priests
doing
that
I
think
that's
because
of
the
winsomeness
with
which
they
solve
this
problem
it
seems
to be
the
connection
that
Luke
is
drawing
anyway
so
the
Lord
didn't
only
protect
the
church
he
used
the
threat
to
cause
the
gospel
witness
to
increase
that's
how
unstoppable
he
is
now
example
came to
mind
of
our
church
last
week
we
just
had a
grace
kids
meeting
I
didn't
go to
the
meeting
mind
you
I
just
want
to
say
that
Catherine
just
does
such
a
stellar
job
I
didn't
feel
like
I
needed
to
be
there
but
grace
kids
now
I
am
super
encouraged
there
are
so
many
people
helping
with
grace
kids
this
year
it's
a
wonderful
thing
but
if
you're
new
to
the
church
you
may
not
realise
the
fruit
we're
reaping
today
was
born
out
of
controversy
five
years
ago
was
it
there
was
a
dispute
in
the
church
for
those
who
were
here
it
was
a
tension
point
like
some
people
were
ready
to
leave
because
they
thought
we
weren't
prioritising
children
and teaching
children
others
were
really
worried
that
sending
the
children
out
would
be
not
treating
them
as
family
they
should
be
part
of
the
family
gathering
bad
prejudice
violin
and
saw
this
story
by
their
1 and 7, which is the increase of the Word of God.
What was driving the concern of the apostles and the Spirit-filled church was the witness
of Jesus.
I'm not sure what internal threats we're going to face this year.
Updating the Constitution, what great way to debate and set up 20, 30 different arguments.
We could if we chose to make a battleground on certain things.
It's always a threat, I think.
Clicks in the church, relating to one another based off personal preferences and even prejudice,
remaining prejudice.
Who knows the toxic spirit of complaining without seeking true solutions or maybe neglecting
serious practical love for one another.
Maybe it's drifting away from devoting ourselves to the apostles' teaching.
The impact being in Acts has had on me is it's calming my fears of the unknown.
Because it's making me ask the right question.
If we can trust the Lord to sustain us, even using internal threats to cause us to grow,
we've just got to ask the right question.
Threats will come.
They're here now.
They're more than what I listed.
But the question is, what will be a compelling witness to the life found in Jesus' people,
of belonging to Jesus in his people?
I think the takeaway here is asking the right question.
What's going to be a witness to how good it is to belong to Jesus?
Because once we ask that question, we'll go back to Scripture to get guidance.
And whatever threats do come this year, being back in Acts, I'm taking comfort and I'm taking
confidence that we can see that nothing can hinder the risen Lord.
Not external, not internal threats.
Nothing.
Not the Jewish leaders with all their power, even putting Stephen to death, as we're going to see next week.
That just spreads the gospel.
It's not unbelievers who make it their mission to destroy the church, like Saul.
It can't stop Jesus.
It's not inside the church, like we've seen today, remaining prejudiced and being hesitant to include Gentiles.
Jesus transforms his church from the inside out.
It's not secular leaders like Herod, who's eaten by worms.
And then the next sentence is like, but the word kept spreading.
It's not even...
There's real losses, like the martyrdom of Stephen.
We're told James is put to the sword.
There's some serious things that happen.
But Jesus' church keeps going.
It's not legalism inside the church, adding laws to going, you want to be a true Christian, you need to also do this, this, this.
It's not religions and secular opposition from Greeks when they take believers to court and there's riots and there's beatings.
That doesn't stop Jesus.
It's not the doctrinal incompleteness of Apollos.
It's not even natural phenomena like shipwreck and snake bites can stop Paul.
It's not imprisonment or house arrest.
The gospel isn't chained.
While we're in Acts, we've got to see the big picture.
Nothing's stopping Jesus and the spread of his church.
So we should take comfort from that and trust him to guide us through whatever's coming, whatever we're in right now.
And I think just ask that simple question, but the right question, what will be a compelling witness to how good it is to belong to Jesus and his people?
Will you pray with me?
Let's pray.
Lord, thank you that you are ruling, that you are ruling this church family.
It's your church.
Lord, I pray for each one of us that in the moments where it feels anything but family with, there's going to be things that feel so awful.
And so I pray that in those moments that you would help us remember your words and remember the encouragement of Acts, that you will complete your church.
You will continue to grow your church.
So I pray that you would comfort us in that knowledge and drive us back into your word and being dependent on your spirit to guide us.
Please use us, God.
Please use us to spread the knowledge of you so that others will come into your family and be saved.
Please use us.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thanks, Dave.