Ryan Center Bible Conference: Jim Shaddix

All right. Well, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hang on one more time. Acts chapter 6 in your Bible. We spent two sessions in the Old Testament.

Let's come over and look at the role of God's Word in a time of renewal, I think, maybe revitalization in the life of the New Testament church.

Familiar passage of Scripture, Acts chapter 6, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Luke writes in verse 1,

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's 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 to this duty.

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and 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 Procorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, Parmenas, Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.

These they set before the apostles, and they prayed, and they 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.

How many of you want to see your church grow?

See, hopefully that's all of us.

If you don't want to see your church grow,

then you probably hadn't read the book of Acts, much less much of the rest of the New Testament.

We have a tendency, I think, to be a people who react against abuses in so many areas of Christian life and ministry.

So we see something that's abused, and instead of just correcting that abuse,

we react to the other experience.

And I think that's a very extreme.

It happens all the time.

It's happened in many of our own tradition in Baptist life and a number of years ago

with regard to the work of the Holy Spirit.

We watched what we consider to be theological abuses in some circles with regard to, you

know, things that New Testament wouldn't really bear out as being characteristic of the Spirit.

And instead of just correcting that theology, we react to the work of the Holy Spirit.

And I think that's a very extreme.

We reacted to the other extreme to the point of basically ignoring the work of the Spirit

and also many expressions of worship that may have been associated, we felt, with charismatic

theology and practices and what we saw as some theological abuses.

Happens in methodology as well.

I've seen it happen.

. .

The bas compartmentalization of morality.

I've seen it happen.

When we I talk about folks in faith that struggle and regret Jeder Lect hinter Has SuCH.

What many of us are familiar with regard to a public altar call or invitation, something

that I grew up with, something that was just part of every worship service and every sermon.

And yet there are many that saw abuses of that, saw manipulation and coercion take place

. . .

and a de-emphasis on really the weightiness of the conversion experience.

to where we began in many contexts to just equate walking an aisle with salvation.

So we saw those abuses and we said, no, we don't want that.

And consequently, many today, especially among you younger guys,

have reacted to the other extreme and said, we're not going to do that.

As opposed to correcting the abuses, we end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater

and now what we find is a whole lot of preaching today that has absolutely no call for a verdict.

And I'm not talking about an invitation or an altar call.

I'm just talking about a calling on people to say yes or no for the truth that is God.

So we get a lot of information that is dispersed, a lot of good sermons that are put out there,

but no call on people's lives to say yes because we reacted.

And so we've seen the abuse and instead of just correcting it,

eliminated some things that are very good.

Church growth is like that sometimes.

We've seen the abuses, haven't we?

We've seen the easy believism.

We've seen the emotionalism.

We've seen the programming.

We've seen the presentation and the big show.

And we've seen the reduction of the substance of the gospel.

The gospel itself.

We've seen an emphasis on being seeker-driven,

that we do everything in the church for the unbeliever.

And consequently, many have looked at so much of that stuff and more and said,

no, we don't want to do that.

We don't want to be a part of that.

But instead of just correcting the abuses

and maintaining a healthy,

healthy perspective of reaching people and winning people,

we gravitate to the other end of the spectrum

and we say things that we think are spiritual like,

well, we're more interested in quality than we are quantity.

Or we say that we don't want that.

We don't want to be a mile wide and only an inch deep.

So we want to go deeper with our people.

And without realizing it in our reaction against abuses,

of church growth,

which certainly there have been some,

we go to the other extreme to where we quit putting any kind of emphasis

whatsoever on the growth of the church,

on numbers,

on counting people.

And that's even affected some of our ideas of church membership.

You can't come to the book of Acts,

and especially Acts chapter 6,

without understanding,

understanding that church growth is a big deal.

It's a big deal to God.

He desires the church to grow.

This is a passage about church growth.

Now, Acts chapter 6 has been taught and preached,

and I will say I myself have been guilty of what I'm about to describe for you.

I think it has been taught and preached

with many sub-themes,

with many sub-themes.

This passage is being the major theme in the passage of Scripture,

consequently causing us to maybe miss

why this passage of Scripture is actually in the canon of Scripture.

This passage has been looked at for years

by many as the foundation of the office of deacon.

There are many that have come back here and said,

okay, this is the first deacon body.

There's really not a lot in this passage of Scripture

that would suggest that.

But traditionally,

it's probably the most common understanding.

And so consequently,

Acts 6, 1 through 7 has been preached that way

as a foundation of the deacon body.

Others have used it to teach on racial equality,

which is a very, very important subject

and one that is back,

thank the Lord,

on the forefront of our thinking

and on our radar today

because you've got, no doubt,

some prejudice, some bias

that seems to be reflected in the problem

in this church at this particular point.

A lot of times this passage,

I know I did this early on in my ministry,

looked at this passage as a text on conflict in the church,

dealing with conflict in the church.

And there's no doubt that there is a conflict

that is going on in this passage of Scripture.

But the thing that rarely gets the airtime

in this text of Scripture

is a very important theme in Acts,

and that is the growth of the New Testament church.

I think specifically what you have

in this passage of Scripture

is some teaching on overcoming barriers

to church growth,

maybe even more so than the growth of the church itself.

Let me show you where we get this.

Did you know that?

Did you notice that this passage

begins and ends at the same place?

And this is a pretty important interpretation,

Bible study principle.

We see it a lot in Hebrew poetry in the Old Testament.

Oftentimes the author would begin a poem or a song

and end it the same way.

And those bookends will give you some indication,

will give you some indication

as to what's in between

and the heartbeat of,

the theme of the psalm.

But you have that in other biblical writing as well,

and I think that is the case here.

This passage begins with church growth.

In those days when the disciples were increasing in number,

this incident took place.

Conflict arise,

the leaders of the church,

the apostles lead the church to address it,

and then the passage closes this way in verse 7,

and the word,

of God continued to increase

and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.

The passage ends where it began.

It began with the church growing

and then there was something that hindered that,

that came in and threatened

the possibility of the church continuing to grow.

The church addresses that

and then this segment,

this pericope is ended by telling us

the church grew,

continued to grow again.

As a result,

of them addressing the problem.

This is a passage about church growth.

It's a passage about overcoming barriers to church growth.

This shouldn't scare us.

Characteristic of the book of Acts,

by the way,

characteristic of Old Testament as well.

God's so interested in numbers,

he named Old Testament book of the Bible after it.

But in the book of Acts,

we see this emphasis even more specifically,

more tangibly than throughout the book of Acts than maybe even we do in Acts chapter 6 verses 1 through 7.

You know, in Acts chapter 2 the church was birthed.

Peter preached that message.

Jesus fulfilled his promise to pour out the Holy Spirit

and fulfillment to the prophecy of Joel and others.

And the text tells us that 3,000 people were saved at the end of chapter 2.

And verse 41 actually gives us a number.

You go on down further to the end of the chapter,

verse 47 in Acts chapter 2,

the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

You skip a chapter and come over to chapter 4.

Verse 4 says,

But many of those who heard the word believed,

and the number of men came to be about 5,000.

Luke gives us another number.

He adds,

to this in his commentary.

You go to the next chapter,

chapter 5,

verse 14 says,

More than ever believers were added to the Lord,

multitudes of both men and women.

You come to chapter 6.

If you go beyond chapter 6,

just as an example,

go all the way over to the end of the book of Acts to chapter 21,

or toward the end of the book of Acts,

chapter 21.

Luke is not done with this emphasis.

In Luke,

in Acts chapter 21,

verse 20,

when they heard it,

they glorified God,

and they said to him,

You see,

brother,

how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who believe.

The word thousands is actually a word in the language of the New Testament

that probably is better understood as tens of thousands.

Myriads,

it's translated in some English translation.

We can't come to the book of Acts without realizing that the Holy Spirit is not only,

not afraid of church growth.

He provides a lot of information about how the church navigated this.

So if we don't get anything else from this passage,

we need to get this.

This is something we ought to be interested in.

Yes,

we need to be interested in quality,

but we also need to be interested in quantity.

I asked the people,

the church where I'm an interim pastor,

just in the last week,

or the last couple of weeks,

are you interested,

are you interested in those empty seats that are next to you this morning being filled?

Because every one of those empty seats represents a soul that is going to spend eternity somewhere,

either in heaven with our Lord and fellowship with us,

or separated from God in an eternal hell.

We ought to be interested in numbers.

When we come to Acts chapter 6,

we find,

the passage about the growth of the church.

Now,

let me press pause right there,

and let me put an asterisk right here.

You are not hearing me say,

that that means that every local congregation is going to grow numerically,

is going to grow at the same rate,

see the same kind of fruit.

There are a lot of other factors in this discussion.

There's a lot of other parts of our theology,

that need to come,

come into play here when we think about church growth.

But,

when we come to a passage like this,

it's important for us to be honest with it,

and to let it speak to our hearts,

and challenge us in the ways that God intended for it to do.

So,

we come to this passage,

and yes,

we see the enlistment of some individuals that may or may not have been the precursor,

to deacons,

but certainly individuals that were serving in the church.

We come to this passage,

and we see the reality of prejudice,

and bias that seems to have affected the congregation,

and is addressed.

We come to this passage,

and we see conflict in the New Testament church,

and we see the church address it.

All of those things are here,

and certainly more,

but all of it in the context of this flow of the book of Acts,

in which is the church's growth,

Luke tells us at the beginning of this paragraph,

and something threatens that.

The church addresses it,

and then the church continues to grow.

It continues to multiply after that.

So,

what does this passage teach us about church growth,

or more specifically,

what does it teach us about overcoming barriers to church growth?

Really important subject in a day in which,

we're not only thinking about church planting a lot,

but long overdue in us thinking about church revitalization.

Churches that are not growing,

have stopped growing,

are dealing not just with threats to church growth,

but they're dealing with the effects of not having dealt with those threats to church growth,

to the point that they are dying,

are impotent,

and,

and desperately need the fresh wind of God to blow through them again.

I hope you have a burden for all kinds of churches,

including,

including those.

So,

what are some things that we learn from this passage of scripture?

Let me give you four challenges this afternoon.

We think about overcoming barriers to church growth.

We start at this point.

Grow by the word of the gospel.

We've already established the fact that,

that this is about growth,

and it's one of the primary themes in the book of Acts,

that Luke writes about is the growth of the church.

We're not arguing that point,

but what I want to think about is,

what does this passage teach us about how that takes place?

And if we don't look at this,

then we,

you know,

we find ourselves gravitating toward finding methodologies,

adopting new things and gimmicks sometimes to force this to happen,

putting an overemphasis maybe on the personalities of the leadership that we have

and other types of factors.

What does this passage teach us about how the church grows?

I think it teaches us that God has wired the church to grow by the word of the gospel.

Now,

this is a conference.

I want you to see this.

This is maybe a little bit different from what you,

this is a conference about the role of scripture in revival.

And I've come to this text right here for a particular reason in that vein.

I think this text is,

you know,

falls under that subject,

but I think sometimes,

sometimes we,

we jump to conclusions when we're thinking about the scriptures and its role in,

in our lives and in our churches.

This passage talks much about the word of God.

We,

we,

we see that the apostles,

they,

they see this conflict that is going on,

the complaint that is happening.

And so they,

they know they need to address it.

They get the disciples together and they,

they say to them in verse two,

it's not right that we should give up preaching the word of God in order to serve tables.

So there's the first mention of the word of God.

So they come up with a plan.

They address the issue.

Part of that plan is,

what they say and their resolve in verse four,

we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the what?

What does it say?

Well,

there it is again,

the ministry of the word.

So they say,

it's not good for us to give up the word,

you know,

in order to take care of this,

this issue here.

And they say,

here's how we're going to address it.

We resolve to maintain the ministry of the word.

And then you come on down in the passage of scripture in verse seven,

and it says,

and the word of God continued,

you to increase.

So three times,

three times in this passage of scripture,

the word of God is referenced.

Now here's,

here's the,

the,

the warning.

Here's the,

the,

the challenge at this particular point,

the temptation,

the temptation is because you and I are seated here in,

in March of 2019 in Jackson,

Tennessee at Union University.

And we're in a conference about scripture and we are holding in our hands copies of what we refer to as,

as the word of God.

The temptation is that we would take that understanding and that mentality,

and we would impress it upon this passage of scripture without ever thinking about the fact that these people didn't own copies of a Bible like we had the,

the Canon wasn't even with the New Testament hadn't even been written.

Not everybody had a copy of the Old Testament scripture.

It would be,

it would be wrong for us to take our perception,

our idea of these books that we hold in our hand this afternoon,

impress them upon here and therefore begin to talk about this passage as,

okay,

well look,

here's what the Bible,

the disciples says,

it's not good for us to stop preaching the Bible.

Stop preaching the scriptures in order to take care of this problem.

So we will devote ourselves to prayer and preaching the Bible.

And for us as pastors,

you know,

to,

to look at that and,

and,

and it say something to us about how much we ought to study and,

and how we order,

ought to order the schedules of our week.

But then to see in verse seven,

the word of God continue to multiply and impress upon that the idea.

Okay.

More people had Bibles and more people were aware of the Bible and more people studied the Bible and love the Bible and all of those things would have never crossed their mind.

That,

that idea of the word of God.

We have to,

ask the question,

what did the word of God mean to these people?

What,

what,

what is the Holy Spirit talking about when he inspired Luke to write this commentary as well as references to this throughout the New Testament?

What was their understanding of the word of God?

Now,

let me give you a little bit of relief here because some of you are wondering where you going with this.

Okay.

What are you about to tell us about,

you know,

our Bibles?

Well,

you are,

you're going to undermine it.

It's authority.

Well,

you know me better than that.

You know,

I'm not going to do that.

And I will,

I'll tell you,

I think there is a relationship between the reference here and the books that we hold,

but that would not have been what would have been on their minds.

So what was the word?

Well,

let me,

let's go back a little bit and let's let Jesus speak into it.

Hold your place here and go back to Mark chapter four.

Do you remember when Jesus was talking early in his ministry about,

uh,

about the growth of the kingdom,

some familiar words in Mark chapter four?

One of them comes right out of the gates with the parable of the sower.

You're familiar with it.

This farmer goes and he sows seed and it falls on different,

uh,

different qualities of soil.

And ultimately some felt falls on good soil.

And in verse eight produces grain growing up and increasing and yielding 30 fold and 60 fold and a hundred fold.

By the way,

remember what?

I said about churches growing at different degrees and not all producing the same fruit.

Listen to what Jesus says.

Now the disciples hear this and,

and they,

they don't understand it.

And so they,

they ask about it in verse 10,

ask him about the parables.

Look at Jesus response in verse 13.

Do you not understand the parables?

How then will you understand all the parables?

And at this point he begins to,

he begins to expound for them the parable of the sower.

Notice,

the first thing that he says,

the sower sows the what?

What does it say?

All right,

this is the audience participation part of our program this afternoon.

No,

you're tired,

you're sleepy.

We're going to go home in a minute.

The sower sows what?

The word.

Jesus makes an,

he makes a,

a,

an equation between the seed in this parable to what he's referring to here as the word.

And he doesn't,

he doesn't,

and he doesn't stop there.

Verse 26,

he talks about the,

the kingdom of God growing.

And he describes it this way.

It says,

if a man should scatter seed on the ground.

Now he's already told us what the seed is.

We already know what the seed is.

It is,

it is the word here.

This guy scatters the seed on the ground.

He sleeps and he rises night and day and the seed sprouts and grows.

He knows not how.

Pastors,

that's a really important truth about church growth.

Right there.

It's a really,

really important thing for us to remember.

We are responsible for putting the seed out there,

but we don't know how this thing works.

This is a mystery.

How God grows his kingdom.

It's not your job.

It's not my job to make this happen.

It's our job to make sure that we are posturing the church for this to happen in.

According to.

To the way that Jesus put this thing together.

And this is how he put it together.

The seed,

he goes to bed and it sprouts and it grows.

He doesn't know how the earth produces by itself.

First the blade,

then the ear,

then the full grain in the air.

But when the grain is ripe at once,

he puts in the sickle because of the harvest because the harvest has come.

I think that is one of the most important.

We're not going to dwell on it.

That's one of the most important realities pastors need to get with regard to church growth.

There is a mouthful.

They're but just I want you to note here.

Jesus already described this.

He's already defined the seed as the word.

Now this farmer is sowing the seed and then he talks in verse 30 about the mustard seed.

With what can we compare the kingdom of God or what parable shall we use for it?

It is like a grain of mustard seed,

which when sown in the ground is the smallest of all the seeds on earth.

Yet when it is sown,

it grows up and becomes larger than.

All the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nest in its shade.

So at least three times right here,

Mark four,

Jesus talks about the seed.

He tells us what the seed is.

The seed is the word.

This is the idea that people would have understood in reference to the word of God.

What is he talking about?

He's talking about how God has wired the growth of his kingdom and the growth of his kingdom is false.

Those who believe in Christ don't have any God.

lent Lot didn't know God.

No.

God would have said,

Mark four ,

Lot is not

Old.

Little is his seed.

The difficult.

Paul begins his letter after his greeting in verse 3.

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.

Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,

because of the hope laid up for you in heaven,

of this you have heard before in the word of the truth,

and then look at it, comma, he tells him what he's talking about when he says the word of the truth.

In the word of the truth, the gospel,

which has come to you as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing.

So it also does among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.

You see the same image of growing.

The seed is sown and growth is produced and there is multiplication

and there is development and there is reproduction

that all comes back to this word.

The word of the truth, and Paul tells us what it is.

It's the gospel.

Now what I would submit to you is that in Acts chapter 6,

the reference here to the word of God

is to be understood better as a reference to the gospel

than it is 66 books that you and I are holding in our hand.

Now, you know therein lies the connection with what I said a minute ago

that really there is a relationship

because we know that there is a relationship with God.

We know this, right?

This is a book that unfolds the gospel.

From Genesis to Revelation, this is a gospel book.

This is why we have this book.

It is the story of the gospel.

The big picture is the story of redemption.

So in one sense, yes, we are talking about the same thing.

But I think when we begin to think about church growth,

we need to lean into it a little bit,

put ourselves in the context,

here in the passage of scripture,

in the position of these people,

and ask, what would they have heard?

What would they have understood?

Because you see, if we don't do that,

let me tell you what can happen.

We can begin to think that the key to our church's growing

is us just having more Bible studies.

Or us just preaching expository sermons

or preaching through books of the Bible.

We can fall into the trap of thinking that

what is gospel?

is going to be the key to growth is us waving the banner and saying we are a people of the book and

we believe the Bible's the inerrant inspired word of God. All of those things are true

but none of them are the keys to what makes the church grow. What makes the church grow is the

gospel of Jesus Christ and I know churches where their pastors are preaching through books of the

Bible and they have a Bible study on Sunday morning in Sunday school and then one in the

expository sermon in the worship service they come back on Sunday night and they have another Bible

study during a training hour and another one in the Sunday evening service they come back

on Wednesday night even though they call it prayer meeting they have another Bible study

and then there are men's Bible studies and women's Bible studies and and and we've got all kinds of

Bible we are people about Bible study.

Let me tell you something you you can be a church that has a ton of Bible studies

but still not be featuring the gospel of Jesus Christ. Still not be holding it up as the key

to what produces life what bursts life in people and what causes growth and reproduction

and multiplication. There's a lot of there's a lot of churches that do a lot of Bible study

but they're not gospel.

centered. They're not gospel centered. We come to Acts chapter 6 we have to understand when the

apostles went and said it's not good for us to give up preaching this in order to take care of

this they were saying it's it's not good for us to stop preaching the gospel and when they say in

verse 4 down here in Acts chapter 6 we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word

they are talking about the gospel.

of Jesus Christ and when we come to verse 7 and it says the word of God multiply

multiplied it's talking about the gospel and so here's the challenge here's the challenge

Christian mom and dad make much of the gospel in your home if you want your kids to be disciples

of Jesus Christ and mature and grow make much of the gospel teachers and Bible studies Sunday

school classes make much of the gospel pastors.

make much of the gospels ministers of music make much of the gospel in the songs that you choose.

when you think about what is it that is going to enable our church supernaturally.

not talking about just getting a larger crowd but supernaturally the kind of growth that God has wired

his kingdom to have to experience that in a local congregation it's only going to come one way.

and that's through the gospel.

and we need to make much of this gospel grow by the word of the gospel.

secondly protect the witness of the gospel protect the witness of the gospel between these two bookends

and this resolve to make sure that the church continues to position itself to see supernatural growth

by making much of the gospel is the story of a conflict that has arisen.

and this conflict arises in the form in the way it's manifested itself in in the the Greek speaking Jews in the congregation feeling like their widows are getting the shorter end of the stick with regard to the the ministry to the widows in the church in other words they felt like and it probably was happening that's just admitted it probably that there was some favoritism that was being shown maybe to.

the Jewish widows a Christian widows in the the the church over the Greek speaking the Hellenistic widows and so there began to be a complaint about this now the apostles find themselves to some degree between a rock and a hard place what are they to do in this situation are they to do what happens so often I pastors and church leaders and that is to succumb to the voices and the murmuring.

a friend a colleague at New Orleans seminary and is also a member of the church that I pastor down there who who referred to this as as a net swarming and he used that as an analogy to those times a church comes when people are just doing this and there's all kinds of talk out there and you just feel like as a church leader you're just that's what you're doing you're just swatting it nets the the nets were swarming in the church here and.

a temptation.

was for these apostles to to you know to to just succumb to the voices the people okay we gotta go deal with this we gotta go put out this fire leave what they're doing drop everything and go deal with this and pour everything into that the other two in temptation was on the other end of the spectrum and and and that was to ignore it and and to say this is not important and and and when we're not going to you know we're not going to.

we're not going to do that well by the grace of God the wisdom of the Holy Spirit the apostles did not choose either one of those they they determined a way to do both and we'll talk some more about this method here in just a moment but I want us to think first about what they did specifically related to their roles remember they come to the crowd that the church at large and say in verse.

two it's not right that we should we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables and then in verse four after they give this counsel about picking out some people that will help with one of these tasks they say we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word now it's here that I have a confession to make to you and that confession actually I've already mentioned and that is that this is a passage of scripture.

that I really believe that I missed for a long long time in my past in in in my ministry I'm not saying I I got it all right right now but I I think I have a better understanding that I did certainly during the days when I preach this text merely as a way to deal with conflict or a foundation of a deacon body or one of those things I I moved on from that at some point as a preacher as a pastor and began to see.

this text with regard to its emphasis on my preaching ministry my ministry of the word because after all the resolution or at least part of the resolution to this problem in these guys minds was that they would resolve to do a certain thing and that is they say in verse four we will devote ourselves will give ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word I I can't

tell you how often I have looked at that verse of scripture and I think it's a very important verse of scripture and I've said okay that's this is this is what I need to be doing as a pastor I I need to be focused on on this I need to devote myself to these and consequently that needs to affect you know how I order my week and how much time I block off for study because after all I'm responsible for the ministry of the word and the ministry of the word is

central to this passage of scripture now let me just tell you I think in a larger study of the New Testament the things that I just said to you are true I think the New Testament beckons pastors to that preaching is not the only thing that a pastor does but I believe it better be the first thing that he does for all of the reasons we've already talked about in the role of the word and its nature and all the things last night and and in this morning this has to be the starting it's not all

that we do but it better be the priority it better be the first thing we do and I think there are passages in the New Testament especially the pastoral epistles that would compel us to to be disciplined and diligent in making sure that we have time to study the word of God and prepare sermons so that we're ready to preach to the people I think those things are in the New Testament but I don't think that's what this passage is talking about

let me show you why

there's an interesting phrase up at the beginning of verse 1 that really needs to flavor everything that we do everything we see in this passage verse 1 in chapter 6 begins now in these days all of this happened

you can look at that and just see it as a literary device a transitional phrase some something that just moves us from what was happening in chapter 5

to a new story over here or we can stop I think as we should and ask the question in what days because the Holy Spirit inspired these words now in these days number of years ago I began to ask that question about verse 4 the apostles say we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word I began to ask myself the question

What did the ministry of the word by the apostles look like in those days?

Now, let me go ahead and tell you.

I think it included studying the scriptures to teach the Christians in the church.

Acts 2.42, they devoted themselves to the apostles' doctrine.

There's no question.

The church was being taught by the disciples.

But if we put any kind of weight on the emphasis in the first five books of the book of Acts,

I think we find something different about this ministry.

Remember, not the ministry of the Bible, but the ministry of the gospel.

Do you know what the ministry of the word looked like in Acts chapter 5?

Well, in chapter 2, it looked like Peter going out in a public school,

square in front of all the people and preaching that sermon from Pentecost.

In chapter 3, it looks like James and John going into the temple,

which would have been an unbelieving audience, by the way,

performing a miracle, a crowd gathers, and they preach the gospel.

It looked like Peter and John being called on the carpet before the religious leaders

and preaching the gospel to them.

You see the same thing in chapter 4.

You see the same thing in chapter 5.

The first five books of Acts,

if we looked at it and we asked the question,

what did the ministry of the word for the apostles look like primarily?

You know what it looked like?

It looked like what I would call marketplace preaching.

It wasn't preaching in the confines of the safety of the gathering of believers.

Yes, they did that.

But it was preaching that they did in the dangerous place,

out where lost people were,

out where unbelievers were,

out where critics and cynics and haters were.

Now you take that and you plug it back in here

and you consider that in view of the ministry of the gospel

and all of a sudden you see a completely different,

or at least a radically different idea that is going on here.

We're not looking at pastors who say,

look, we need to take care,

you folks need to take care of these other things

because we need to give ourselves to prayer,

and sermon preparation so we can be ready on Sunday.

What you see is the apostles saying,

it is not right.

It is not right that we stop being out there

where lost people are proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to them

in order to deal with this issue.

It's not a good thing.

So here's a plan.

We're going to take care of this.

And part of this plan is we will devote ourselves to prayer

and to continuing to be out there where lost people are

proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to them.

You think about that in terms of the emphasis in this text on church growth.

Church was growing.

Disciples were increasing in number.

Conflict arises.

Problem arises.

Problem was a functional issue as well as maybe a racial issue,

a prejudicial issue a little bit,

but that stemmed out of the,

the form issue that they had.

They addressed that.

And the apostles say part of this means here's what we've got to do.

Whatever we do in this situation to solve this problem,

whatever program we land on to fix this situation,

the one thing we know we cannot do

is we cannot stop going out there where unbelievers are

sharing the gospel with them.

And so we're going to make sure we devote ourselves to that.

Now,

verse 7 in this passage,

about the word of God continuing to increase the number of the disciples

multiplying greatly in Jerusalem,

makes complete sense then as a result of that.

That didn't happen because they were gathered together

having a Bible study or hearing an expository sermon

on their Lord's Day worship.

It happened because somebody was out there.

And by the way,

lost people,

just like in our day,

we've come full circle.

We're just wandering into the gathering of believers during this day.

You know why?

Because you could lose your family,

you could lose your job,

and you could lose your life.

The whole idea of seeker sensitivity

wouldn't have been real during this day.

The Christians weren't sitting around

just waiting for lost people to come into their midst

so the preacher could tell them how to be saved.

Evangelism was done,

gospel advancement and proclamation was done

by taking the gospel out there.

That is what the apostles were protecting.

Now, pastors,

you come in here real close.

Let's talk about us just for a moment.

We were having a conversation about

bivocational ministry around the table a little bit ago.

You know one of the biggest challenges

that I faced as a pastor

who had the privilege of being able to put bread on his table

by his ministry.

In other words,

I've served as a pastor in full-time ministry.

I serve in full-time ministry.

If you want to turn as a seminary professor.

I know the blessing of being able to do that.

But do you know one of the biggest challenges

that I have as a pastor in vocational ministry?

I'm always around saved people.

All of my life,

all of my time,

if I'm not careful,

is spent around believers.

Visit them in the hospital,

counsel with them,

prepare sermons to preach to them,

and on and on we could go.

Hang out with them

and fellowship with them

and have social gatherings.

All of my time,

all of my time

spent around people like me.

Spent around believers.

That's what we have to draw

from this passage of scripture.

We've got to ask ourselves the question.

Are we protecting

the proclamation of the gospel

out there where unbelievers are?

Pastor, let me ask you.

Okay.

When you look at your calendar,

especially to those of you

that are vocational,

you put bread on your table

by your ministry.

When you look at your calendar,

are there places during the week

that you have blocked off

to make sure you are out there

where they are?

More, more than a resolve

to be hidden,

cloistered away in a study,

which I think is important.

I think we need that time.

But more in this passage

than a resolve

to be cloistered

away preparing a sermon for Sunday

was the commitment

on the part of the apostles here

to make sure whatever they did,

they protected being out there

where unbelievers are.

What does it look like

on your calendar?

If you're not careful,

you'd be like me.

You spend all your time

around saved people.

And beloved, listen to me.

That will not grow a church.

Amen.

The only thing that is going to cause

the church to grow

is when the gospel is proclaimed

to lost people.

Now, we need the gospel

proclaimed to save people.

Don't, don't, here, don't we,

we don't have to cover everything here.

I've already told you.

We find that in other passages

of scripture in the New Testament.

But right here,

we have to hear

the voice of the Holy Spirit.

So what do we draw from this

about how we overcome

barriers to church growth?

Let me tell you

what one of the biggest barriers is.

One of the biggest barriers is

we are a big ingrown

toenail in the church.

And we're festering.

We are festering

and we need something

that will address this.

And the thing that addresses this

is that you and I understand.

We may have experienced

here in the South a season.

A season in which

church life and revival meetings

were community events

and unbelievers liked to come

and hear the guest musician

and the guest preacher

because all of their friends were there

and there weren't other forms

of entertainment.

But listen to me, beloved.

Listen to me.

Listen to me, Bible Belt Christians.

We no longer live in that day.

They are not coming to our churches.

They're not going to wander

into your building.

They are not just going to show up.

I know there are exceptions to that.

And I know every one of us

could give a testimony of something

a lost person that wandered in.

But by and large,

that's not the way it happens.

And so we are called back

to this New Testament time

when it was similar to that day.

There was hostility toward the church

and the gathering of believers.

But the church understood

that the way God had wired this thing

and put it together

was for them not just to stay gathered together

but to scatter and take the gospel out there

where unbelievers are.

Christians, members of churches,

part of the family of faith.

You may not be a pastor.

You may not be a leader

by way of a teacher.

But let me ask you,

are you helping your church

make sure that you stay focused

on protecting the witness

of the gospel out there?

Are you sharing the gospel

as you go?

Are you calling unbelievers

to be saved through Christ?

And are you helping lead,

your church to make sure

that at least part of its programming

is staying focused

on the people that are out there

because the unbelievers are,

they're out there in the marketplace.

Envious of you

that have jobs,

you know, that you go to work every day

and you may find yourself

sometimes thinking,

boy, how cool it would be, you know,

just to be able to give all of your time to ministry.

Don't ever underestimate,

don't ever underestimate,

the reality of what it means

to be in the work world

with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Bivocational pastors,

this is what we were talking about.

I told these brothers a minute ago,

I completely have changed on my,

you know, my mentality

about bivocational ministry.

Had to come to the place

where I realized

there really isn't a scriptural basis

for this thing called

full-time Christian ministry

or vocational ministry

in the sense that

God owes it to us.

And so I still cringe

when I hear students at the seminary say,

God has called me to vocational ministry

and I always want to ask,

does that mean if you graduate from seminary

and you don't have a full-time church

that you're not going to do ministry?

You're not going to preach.

You're not going to pastor.

Most of the pastors across the globe

are bivocational.

This idea of full-time vocational ministry

is a western creation.

This is something that

we've come up with in America

and we now have backed God into a corner

and said, you owe this to me.

And therefore, if it doesn't happen,

we say, well, something happened.

God, you let me down

or I missed my calling

or it wasn't right or something.

Instead of realizing

there isn't anything in the New Testament

that would suggest God owes us

a full-time salary.

I pastored in Colorado.

65% of the pastors in the state of Colorado.

That's in the United States, you know.

60%.

65% of the pastors in the state of Colorado

are bivocational.

Those guys are my heroes.

But I was also envious of them.

Envious of them,

not just because they were pursuing the calling

God plays on their life.

Even if they weren't able to put bread on their table

by their ministry,

they were shepherds,

they were preachers and pastors

and they were advancing the gospel.

And I was envious of the fact

that they got to go to a job every day

where lost people were.

Automatically.

Out there where unbelievers are.

We've got to protect the work,

the witness of the gospel.

Well, real quick.

Let me show you these last two.

They're actually tied together

and they really hinge on an interesting phrase

that is often overlooked.

The commentary at the end of verse 7.

I want you to look at it.

And a great many of the priests

became obedient to the faith.

And you ever find yourself

just reading along in the Bible

and you just read something

and you go,

what's that about?

You know, it's kind of like over there

in John chapter 3

and it talks about John

wearing a leather belt around his face

or around his belt

and having, you know, hairy clothing

and eating locusts and wild honey.

You just look at that and go,

what's up with that, you know?

This is one of those passages for me.

It's one of those phrases.

Now most of the time when we,

you know, if we pause

and we check ourselves

and we ask that question,

what's that about?

If we don't have an immediate answer,

most of the time we just keep reading.

And I think that's what most of the time we do

with this phrase, this commentary.

A great many of the priests

became obedient to the faith.

We've got to ask the question, why?

Why did the Holy Spirit inspire those words

in verse 7 of chapter 6

at this point in history?

What is that about?

I think it holds the key

to these other two,

observations about overcoming barriers

to church growth.

So let me tell you,

here's the third one.

Share the work of the gospel.

We don't have to spend a lot of time here.

Share the work of the gospel

because it's pretty obvious.

Part of the plan that the apostles came up with

and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit

to address this issue

was basically to spread the wealth.

Let me show you how this was

part of programming issue.

If you go,

if you go back to the end of chapter 4,

you see the church program

for ministering to the widows.

It says in verse 34,

or excuse me, verse 32,

they had everything in common,

great power.

The apostles were giving testimony

of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

Great grace was upon them.

Verse 34,

there was not a needy person among them

for as many as were owners of lands and houses

sold them and they brought the proceeds

of what was sold

and they did what with them?

They laid them at the apostles' feet.

And guess what they did?

They destroyed them.

They distributed to each one

as they had need.

And then we're told about Barnabas.

He sells a piece of property

in verse 37

and he brought the money

and he laid it at the apostles' feet.

In chapter 5,

Ananias and Sapphira,

they do a similar thing

but they do it deceptively

and they sell a piece of property.

They bring part of the money

even though they told them it was so much

they kept back part of it.

But what did they do with it?

Well, in verse 2 it says

they laid it at the apostles' feet.

This was the program.

This was how they,

they were doing ministry.

The people leveraged what they had.

They brought their money.

They gave it to the apostles

and the apostles distributed.

Well, guess what?

The church grew

because the apostles were also out there

proclaiming the gospel

and Christians were telling their friends

and neighbors about Jesus

and people were getting saved

and the church was growing

and guess what?

Listen to me very carefully.

The way that they had always been doing it

became dysfunctional.

It didn't work anymore

because,

it worked when the church was a certain size

but now the church had grown

and consequently it didn't work anymore.

It wasn't functional

and so they needed to change it

but in the midst of that

before they changed it

they had to start making some calls.

Okay, we don't have time to give it to everybody.

Who are we going to give it to?

And maybe, just maybe

it seems that they were a little,

they were playing some favorites

with the Jewish widows.

Okay, we'll give it to them

and that's what gave birth to this conflict.

And so what did they do?

They didn't say,

we'll do one or the others.

We'll just stop preaching the gospel

and we'll take care of this

and they didn't say,

oh, that's not important

because we just need to be out there

preaching the gospel.

They said,

we're going to figure out a way to do both

and that's what they did

and the way was to spread the wealth.

They did what I think

goes all the way back

to Exodus chapter 19 verses 5 and 6

when God called the children of Israel

out of Egypt

and he said,

I'm going to make you a kingdom of priests.

And then he said,

he established the priesthood.

He established the priesthood

as a representation,

an icon of what that was supposed to look like.

People that connected other people with God

and led people to worship God.

And we come all the way over

into the New Testament

to Peter's writing

and he talks about this,

about how we are a kingdom of priests.

This is not a priesthood

from the standpoint of the pastor is a priest,

but we are all priests,

twice born men, women, boys,

and girls

who now play the role,

live out the role

of connecting people to God,

serving in his kingdom.

You know what?

I think this,

I don't think this is the foundation

of deacon bodies.

I don't want to argue about that.

I don't have a problem

if you believe that.

I think more accurately

it is the birth,

the expression

of the doctrine

of the priesthood

of all believers

in the New Testament.

This is where the apostles said,

you know what?

There are some more of you out there.

There are some of you

that deal with money every day

and deal with benevolent ministry

and know how to relate to people

and you actually have

some kind of affinity

or relationship with these people.

There are some of you

that can do something here

that is better than we can do it

and so we're going to bring you into this.

There were about 8,000,

historians tell us about 8,000

Jewish priests in this area

around Jerusalem during that day.

And I don't know

if you've ever thought about it or not

but those priests

had a legitimate calling

upon their lives.

You say, well,

how do they have

a legitimate calling?

God's the one

that invented the priesthood, right?

When you go back

into the Old Testament,

He's the one

that started this thing.

Those guys were part

of a legitimate call

but in the course of history

and the disobedience

of the Israelites,

they were now wrapped up

in a lifeless religion

that had perverted

the things of God.

Still a call

on their lives.

To be priests

but locked,

imprisoned

in a lifeless religion.

You know what it had to have been like

to look at those Christians,

hear about them,

see the growth of the church,

the vibrancy that was there.

Guys that had a call

on their lives

to serve God,

to connect people to God

but knowing something

was desperately wrong.

But also knowing

they couldn't go

and attach themselves

to those Christians.

They couldn't become

a Christian.

They couldn't embrace the God.

Why?

Because God had called them

to be priests.

They had a call

on their lives

and then this happened.

Up to this point,

the apostles had a corner

on the market

on service

and proclamation.

Those priests had to look.

They had to look

at the Christians

and say,

you know,

they're kind of like us.

The apostles do all the ministry.

The people are just kind of there

and then Acts chapter 6 happened

and the door was flung

wide open

for it not to be

just about the apostles

but for,

for men and women

in the church

to bring their giftedness

and their experience

and their vocations

and occupy

into the service

of the church

to spread the wealth

in order

to help keep

gospel advancement

at the forefront

of what,

of what they did.

And no doubt

this was a point

at which many of those priests said,

that's something

I can get in on.

I can now fulfill my calling

to be a priest

and I can do it

in that gospel community.

Beloved,

we have got to share

the work of the gospel

because you see,

built into the life

of every twice born individual

that names the name of Christ

is a calling

to the priesthood.

You are called

to be a priest

and you will never,

ever be fulfilled

if all you do

is go to church,

sit there

and listen to your pastor

or listen to your Sunday school day.

You will never,

ever be completely fulfilled

as a believer

if you are not serving

because you're a priest.

And so we need to make sure

that we share

this work together.

Pastors,

you are not a priest

in the sense

of being a Catholic priest

or the one that

is the only one

that does anything,

the only one that does this

and that,

the only one that can do that.

You have a room full,

a church full

of people

who have been called

to be priests

and you must share

the work of the gospel

with them.

Number four,

so much more

we could say there.

Display the wonder

of the gospel.

Display the wonder

of the gospel.

I think there's actually

something else

tied to this priesthood.

Early in my ministry

I used to come,

as I said a minute ago,

to this passage

of scripture

and those gnats swarming.

And I used to look

at this complaint

in verse one

about these Hellenists

that were complaining

about their widows

being neglected.

I can remember thinking,

you know,

that's the way it is

in my church.

Some people nitpicking.

They don't love the gospel.

They're not really concerned

about the advancement

of the gospel.

All they want to do

is complain.

And I'm sure that's the way

I preach this sometimes.

But then one day

I did a Bible study.

I did a Bible study

on widows.

And I found out

that not only was this

not some trivial issue,

this was a really big deal

to God.

I even wrote

some scripture down

in the back of my Bible

so that I could refer to it

from time to time.

Exodus 22,

God hears their cry.

Deuteronomy 10,

He administers justice for them.

Psalm 68,

He defends them.

Psalm 146,

He relieves them.

Psalm 15,

He establishes them.

Isaiah 1,

He tells His people

to plead their cause.

Jeremiah 22,

He tells the people

to do them no wrong.

1 Timothy 5,

He tells the people

to honor them.

James 1,

27,

He tells people

to visit them

as an expression

of what it means

to be truly religious.

Care of widows

is a big deal to God.

Now we could stop right there

and talk a lot about that

and our need in the church

and responsibility

to deal with that.

But let me show this to you

in its context.

The church steps up.

And the apostles

avoid the temptation.

They avoid the temptation

to say,

this is a trivial issue.

We're not going to deal with it.

We're going to stay out there

proclaiming the gospel

because that's what

we're supposed to be doing.

Instead of doing that,

they said,

we've got to find a way

to keep proclaiming the gospel

but also do this thing

that is part of gospel ministry

and we need to take care of our own.

And they came up with a way to do it.

Spread the wealth,

priesthood of all believers,

became a team thing

and they were able

to accomplish both.

This time in history,

the large majority

of those 8,000 plus priests

in the Jerusalem area

because of the dysfunction

of the Jewish religious system,

even though there were arrangements

in the Old Testament law

for them to be cared for,

by this time in the dysfunction

of the Jewish religious system,

the vast majority of priests

lived under the poverty line.

They had to scrape

the bottom of the barrel.

They had to figure out ways

to get by financially.

They were poor.

Can you imagine what it meant

to some of those priests

when they saw this group of Christians

not maintain some type of elitism

with their leadership

but to say,

you know what?

We've got a responsibility

in honoring God.

We're going to do

whatever we need to do

in order to demonstrate the gospel

not just to the unbelievers out there

but to the people

we're responsible for in here.

And they developed

a way to do that.

A way to make sure

that they cared

for disenfranchised people

in their own congregation.

And you know what, beloved?

That's the gospel.

That's gospel ministry.

Can you imagine what it meant

to some of those priests

who themselves lived

under the poverty line

to watch this group of Christians say,

we will demonstrate the gospel

to our own.

And a great number of priests

became obedient to the faith.

The church,

let me challenge you.

We have a wonderful gospel.

It is a gospel

that is the only way

that people are forgiven

of their sins

and get adopted

into the kingdom.

But listen to me.

It is a gospel

that is a constant reflection

of what our Lord did

when he left heaven

and came to earth

looking for disenfranchised people

like us.

And that gospel compels us

whether it is widows

or whether it is a church

or whether it is the poor people

or whether it is those

that are struggling

with homosexuality

or transgender temptation,

whether it is those

that are a victim

of racial prejudice,

whether it is orphans.

This is a gospel

that compels us

to constantly be looking

for how we can demonstrate

its wonder

by taking this good news

and being this good news

to disenfranchise people.

So let me ask,

who are the disenfranchised people

in your congregation?

You could start with widows.

Start right there.

That's for all of us.

But are there others?

Are there single moms?

Are there teenagers

that don't have a home?

Are there orphans?

Who are the disenfranchised people

in your community?

You want to overcome barriers

to church growth.

You have a beautiful gospel

that is about good news

coming to disenfranchise you.

Let me give you the challenge

of finding one of those pockets

of disenfranchised people.

You may not be able to do them all,

but you can do one

and say,

our church is going to own that.

We're going to own that

and we are going to display

the wonder of the gospel to them.

Let's pray together.

God, we bless you

and we thank you

for this glorious gospel.

Thank you, God,

for trusting us with it.

We're blown away,

we're blown away by that.

We pray, Lord,

that you would give us great grace

in the stewardship of your church

to always, always depend upon the gospel

to be what causes it to grow.

God, give us grace to make sure

whatever we do in our church programming,

God, give us grace to make sure

that a part of that entails us

being out where lost people are.

God, give us grace to live

as a kingdom of God.

God, give us grace to be a priest

sharing the work

of this glorious gospel

that it might be advanced.

And God, give us your heart.

Give us your heart

for the disenfranchised,

those that are victims

of injustice in this world,

those who are poor and needy

and cast aside.

God, give us grace

by giving us your heart

for those people.

And we pray you would use

all of these things, God,

to fuel your church,

and the advancement

of this glorious gospel

that your name may be exalted

among the nations.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.