“Ministry: We're In This Thing Together, Part II”

Text:            Acts 6:1-7

Date:            January 15, 2012

Prayer for Illumination: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, for you are my Rock and my Redeemer. AMEN.

This morning we pick up where we left off last Sunday. Together with Exodus 18, Acts 6 stands at the heart of the Presbyterian way of exercising leadership and being the church of Jesus Christ. One of the primary reasons I chose to be a Presbyterian pastor was because of the vision of leadership articulated in the Book of Order which was given birth by taking Exodus 18 and Acts 6 seriously. Frankly, this text is about the organization of the deacons. But, I think it may have something to say to all of  us as well. So, as we dive into this text this morning, for those of you taking notes, we’re going to approach it from the perspective of a problem, a solution, and it's consequent effects.

First, the problem. Notice that the problem that the church in the first century had to face was due to the transforming power of the gospel. The gospel was having its way. Verse 1 says, “The number of disciples was increasing.” The church on the day of Pentecost began with about 120 members; by the end of the first day, the Holy Spirit added about 3,000 new believers; a few days later, there were 5,000 members. But, since Luke probably only counted the men, the number of actual members of the church by this time was more accurately between 15 and 20,000 people!

Anyway, the problem that the infant church was facing was because people were coming to Jesus Christ and the numbers of people that needed nurture and guidance and instruction were growing very quickly. What a problem to have, huh? In the midst of the excitement created as the church was just beginning, a complaint arose. Interestingly enough, the word that we translate as “complaint” in this 6th chapter of Acts, literally means “grumbling” and it is the same word we found last week in the Book of Exodus that describes what Moses experienced as he sought to lead the people through the desert into the promised land. The grumbling in Acts 6 had to do with one of the ministries the infant church had established, namely, distributing food to the widows.

Now, at its inception, this ministry was under the direct supervision of the Apostles. On the surface, the grumbling was about an apparent inequality over the distribution of the food. Luke says, “the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were overlooked in the daily distribution of food.”

The fact is, the problem ran much deeper. It went to the clashing of culture between those Jews from a Greek background and the Jews of Palestine. The food thing was but one symptom of the deeper tension. The good news here, however, is that both of these groups were being brought together, into the new community, centered in Jesus Christ. The problem was that each group came the party with their old prejudices.

And so, the Apostles found themselves in the middle of this kind of tension, which lead Luke to address the real problem of Acts 6. Needing to organize the distribution of food and trying to settle all of these conflicts was was beginning to occupy all the Apostles time and energy; the same kind of grumbling that Moses faced in his desert wanderings! This was beginning to divert them from their calling; the ministry of the word and prayer. According to Luke, this was the real crisis. Leaders too busy to pray; leaders too preoccupied to preach and teach. So, the Apostles gathered the whole congregation together and laid out the facts before the church. Verse 2 says, “So the twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, 'It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the world of God in order to wait on tables.'” The Apostles knew that without the ministry of the word and prayer, the church would not continue to grow or mature spiritually. The Apostles knew that without the word, prayerfully preached and taught, the church would die.

New Testament scholar, John Stott helps us to see that the Acts 6 problem is a much larger problem. He writes, “On the day of Pentecost, the risen Jesus poured out his Spirit upon the church. God had invaded history, not to be 'God with us,' but, 'God in us.'“ Stott goes on to say that right from the beginning, Satan, God's great enemy, launched a ferocious counter-attack. Stott adds, “Satan's strategy was carefully developed. He attacked on three fronts. His first and crudest attack was physical violence. He tried to crush the church through persecution. His second and more cunning attack was moral corruption and compromise. Having failed to destroy the church from the outside, he attempted through Ananias and Sapphira to insinuate evil into its interior life. His third and most subtle ploy was distraction. He sought to deflect the Apostles from their priority responsibilities of prayer and preaching to social administration which was not his calling. If he had been successful at this, an untaught church would have been exposed to every wind of false doctrine.”

The solution. The Apostles do not attempt to impose a solution on the church. Rather they gather them all together and share with them their proposal, “It would not be right,” they said, “for us to neglect the ministry of the word to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” It is important to note that the Apostles do not say that one of these ministries is more important than the other. Both the ministry of the word and table ministry are ministries of service. It's just that one person cannot do both and do both of them well. Expecting the Apostles to be involved in social service, diverts their time, energy and mental clarity from prayer and study and teaching. Just as expecting those who are involved in social service to preach diverts their time and mental clarity. It took great courage for the Apostles to do what they did. Some, in their congregation may have said of them, “They are lazy,” or “You're just trying to get me to do your job,” or, still others may have said, “You don't care for us.” But, they risked those criticisms for they knew the church of Jesus Christ would not grow and move forward unless those gifted to preach and teach were set free to prayerfully exercise those gifts to the maximum and those gifted to wait on tables are set free to exercise those gifts to the maximum. Just as the human body is made strong through exercise, the body of Christ grows and is healthy as people exercise their gifts. I love it on Thursday when I see a few folks come down here, folding bulletins for our use on Sunday mornings. Could the office do it? Sure, but when the folks who come together on Thursdays to “fold bulletins” they share in fellowship, friendship, laughter and provide a very needed service. Some may look at that and say, “Ah, they are just folding bulletins.” I say, “No way!” These saints are using the gifts and talents God as given them to build the body; their work makes our worship better. And that is just one example of folks exercising their gifts to strengthen the body of Christ.

The solution proposed by the Apostles and eagerly endorsed by the infant congregation is what the Presbyterian way is all about. It is a three-fold solution:

First, the Apostles affirm the validity of both ministries. Both the ministry of the word and the table ministry are THE ministry -- after all, we are all in this together! Second, they ask the church to find and appoint others to do the ministry to the widows. Third, they ask the church to commission and authorize those people to do those ministries.

Listen to John Stott's summary of the infant churches solution to this problem. “A vital principle in illustrated in this incident, which is of urgent importance to the church today. It is, that God calls all of his people to ministry, he calls different people to different ministries, and, that those called to prayer and ministry of the word on no account shall allow themselves to be distracted from their priorities.”

And this is at the heart of why I'm a Presbyterian. When we are our strongest, it is when we have Acts 6 operating. We share the ministry with one another. It is as I began to suggest last Sunday, “we are in this thing together!” We call certain people with certain gifts for the ministry of the word, prayer and sacrament. We call certain people with certain gifts and we set them aside for the work of Elder and Deacon. And, we call other people and we set them aside to interpret the mission of our church, to manage the churches business affairs, to tend to our fellowship, buildings and grounds, Adult, Youth and Children’s Christian education, whatever. We do not expect our ministers of the table to be ministers of the word, and we do not expect our minister of the word to be ministers of the table.

Problem -- Solution -- Consequent effects. So what were the consequent effects found in Acts 6? Luke tells us that seven people were presented to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them -- and the word of God spread and the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. That's what its all about. The life giving word of God spreading into the city. When the gifts of the Spirit are freed up, the word spreads and the number of disciples increases. Whether or not this church grows numerically or not is not the point. The point is, will every man, woman, boy and girl, in our communities have the opportunity to hear the word of God and experience the love of God in Jesus Christ? If we will just free one another to do what we need to do, it will happen.

As we begin this chapter of our lives together, I have a question for you -- each one of you? As you look around Matthews Memorial, what do you think needs to happen? As you look around, what would you like to seen happen? Put another way, what ministry do you sense God may be calling you to? We are all Christ’s ambassadors. We believe God has poured out his Holy Spirit upon us and distributed gifts -- spiritual gifts -- as He has determined for the building up the body. Many of you are already involved, and frankly, some of you are too involved. Some of you may need to cut back so you can give your best to God's best. And yet, the question for each one of us this morning is, to what ministry to do sense the Spirit of God calling you to? There is room for all of us and remember, we're all in this thing together.....

Let us pray:

Gracious God, as members of your church, you have called us to serve you, one another, and our community. What would you have us do? We thank you O God, for those who have heard your voice and who have responded to various works of ministry. Lord, to what other ministries are you calling us? Who else are you calling to serve? Thank you, O Lord, for your grace, mercy and love. For we pray in Jesus' Name. AMEN.