Word of Salvation – Vol.51 No.22 – June 2006

 

Organising the Church

 

A Sermon by Rev Albert Esselbrugge on Acts 6:1-7

Scripture Reading:  Isaiah 55

 

Brothers and sisters, young people, boys and girls.

The New Testament church as we see it here in these early chapters of Acts was a church going places. It was booming in numbers and growing at a phenomenal rate. It’s been estimated that by the time we get to chapter 6 of Acts the New Testament church had grown from that initial 120 disciples that met in the upper room at Pentecost, to some 20 to 25 thousand disciples. Here was a church that was characterised by the preaching of the Word of God, by Christian fellowship and the sharing of goods and property, and under the special unction and blessing of the Spirit of God, His Word went out with power and returned to Him with a rich harvest of saved souls.

But our verses tell us about what was probably the first real dispute in that infant church. They tell us how that dispute was resolved, and that the resolution was the organisation of the leadership of the church into the two offices we now know as deacons and elders. And, as we look at our verses here, the first thing that stands out is that the leaders in the church are men with limitations and imperfections.

A murmuring rose up in that church here. It started among the Greek speaking Jews who weren’t happy about how the Greek speaking Jewish widows were being treated compared to the way the Hebrew speaking Jews were being treated. The differences between these two groups was that of language and culture. They were all Jews, but the Greek speaking Jews had been born throughout the Mediterranean region in the places where Greek was the main language, had relocated back to Jerusalem and there they attended Synagogues in which the services were conducted in Greek. Now both Greek speaking Jews and Hebrew speaking Jews had been converted; both groups are represented in the Christian church.

It was in this situation that a dispute arose between the two groups. There was a common fund from which widows were supported. But the Greek speaking Jews felt that their widows were being short changed, because the distribution of funds was being handled by the Hebrew speaking Jews. I can almost imagine that this church in Acts is the Reformed Church of (insert your church name here). We’re nowhere near the size of this church, and nor are we in dispute, but how easily division could happen, with our Afrikaans, Dutch, Indonesian and English speaking groups.

As is the case with most such disputes that occur in churches, there was nothing really substantial or theological in view, but some of the people had their feelings hurt, and the apostles had to act quickly to rectify things.

What session, what pastor today hasn’t faced this same thing? Church leadership can be overwhelming. The demands are enormous, and our elders know all about that, trying to juggle work commitments, family responsibilities, and the pastoral work of the congregation as well. There simply isn’t enough time or energy to meet all the demands, and not just the demands we make of them, but also all the things that simply need attention. That’s true of any congregation, but it’s especially true of a church that is growing and expanding as this church in Acts was – in a very dramatic fashion, and as we are, on or own much smaller scale, but growing nevertheless.

Congregation, there are no perfect pastors, or elders, or deacons. Just as there are no perfect churches. Even the apostles left some things undone or overlooked.

What we have described for us here in our verses is a dangerous time for the church. These are the sorts of times when some people give up. They are the kind of people who are already quite negative about the church, but when something like this comes along, it’s just what they are looking for and they use it to confirm what they thought all along – that the church isn’t very good at all, and so they quit.

These are also the sorts of times when some people simply reject their elders, and still other people pack up and leave to form other churches.

But that’s not what we see happening here. The people stayed, and the people addressed the issue of disagreement and sought to resolve the problem. We see what they did in the following verses. They stopped to reassess and evaluate what the priorities of their leadership were. The apostles examined what it was the Lord had called them to, and they realised that in the expansion of the church, they’d taken on tasks that really weren’t theirs and which took them away from their real calling. God had called them to prayer and to preach the Word of God, to explain and make understandable by way of proclamation the great and wonderful Word of life.

So here we have the first effort to organise the church around two distinct offices – those of the elder and deacon. And while the church is not a democratic body that operates and makes decisions based on what is popular, yet the apostles called a congregational meeting and asked the people to choose seven men, men full of the Spirit, men of wisdom, men who would openly seek to be led by the Spirit in all their dealings on how the poor, the widows and the orphans are to be treated. You see then, that the elders and deacons are men we have chosen by a voting process, at a congregational meeting – but these men are to have been chosen because they reflect this God-given quality of being God’s men. Men who will serve you by serving God, and seeking out what the Lord would want in all things.

These seven men of our text were also given a clearly defined task. By the way, those chosen here in our verse all had Greek names, and one of them, Nicolas of Antioch is described to us as a Gentile convert to Judaism. The Greek speaking Jews would have been assured that they would never be short changed again. So the congregation approved of the apostles’ proposal, the proposal (in verse 5) pleased the whole group, and the men were set apart, and in recognition that the call of God was upon them – the apostles laid hands on them and ordained them to their office. This is something that we must note. Those men didn’t get an ordaining power from the hands of the apostles, but the act of praying and laying on of hands was as a statement of recognition to all that those men were God’s men, men with a high and noble calling.

Their task was to serve. That’s the gist and heart of what the apostles said in verses 2 and 3. These men were to serve the congregation of the Lord; they were to take care of the business of the church – and so free the preachers, the apostles, the teaching elders if you like, for that equally important task of prayer and the proclamation of the Word of the Lord.

There’s another important point. This initiative on the part of the apostles wasn’t about them lording it over the congregation. They will have discussed the problem among themselves and developed a proposal. And they took that proposal to the congregation for approval, and then when the men were appointed, under the leading and unction of the Spirit of God, those men stood together and shared the responsibility of serving leadership in the church. Each had their task. And their tasks differed, but they were brothers on equal footing and status before the Lord in Christ Jesus.

Previously we looked together at the last verses of Acts 2, and we saw that a true church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a church that displays certain characteristics or marks. The Church of the Lord is a Church that is devoted to the Word of God as we find it in the Old and New Testaments. We saw that this Church is a Church committed to fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ through worship, the preaching of the Word and the celebration of the sacraments, and also fellowship with each other as we unite around our risen Saviour. And we saw that this Church is a people committed to prayer.

Here now in these verses before us we are given an additional characteristic. The church is led by two offices, elders and deacons. Elders which includes the minister whose special calling is to minister, to serve in the proclaiming of the Word and the administration of the sacraments, and while all ministers are elders, not all elders are ministers – the task of elders is to be devoted to prayer and the ministry of the Word, and then there are also deacons, who are devoted to the administration of works of mercy.

The elders are responsible for shepherding God’s flock, and ensuring that correct doctrine is the foundation of all the preaching and teaching, whether that teaching takes place in the pulpit or in the Sunday school class. The church is never served when ministers neglect their calling and involve themselves too deeply in the administration of the church, that’s primarily the task of the deacons. Neither is the church served when the minister sees himself or the congregation expects him to be a performer, manager, motivator, therapist or even as primarily a counsellor.

What we see here in Acts 6 is that we’re being told a great deal about the mission of the Church. Contrary to what so many seem to think, the mission of the Church according to the Word of God is to preach the Word, administer the sacraments, and minister to the poor, the widow and the orphan in its midst. It is not the duty of the Church to entertain, or to baby sit children, or to teach people how to be successful in life. There are better places than the church for those things.

What we see here is that the ministry of the church is to preach the law of God and His gospel, to declare God’s forgiveness of sin to you in the person of Jesus Christ, to instruct you and your family in the great doctrines of the Bible, to administer the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, to pray for each other, to worship our Lord God together with a single voice, and to care for each other by meeting each other’s spiritual and material needs as it was done by this New Testament Church in Acts.

The church that does this, the church which is true to its God-given mission and calling, is a united church – and look at verse 7 – the church was one again here (read vs 7). The Word of God spread further and further and people came to hear it. The number of disciples – followers of the Lord Jesus Christ – increased and multiplied. Many priests came to faith in Christ.

As someone else put it, “this is God’s multiplication plan”, every one working together, everyone devoted to the Word, to the worship of the Lord, and to prayer – arranged and organised according to God’s design with elders and deacons, and the church grows.

Let me ask you – how involved are you in your church? Understand the human limitations of your elders and deacons, but are you doing your part?

In the Word of God we have life, and through His Word, God establishes His Church, a Church which is to be devoted to that Word, and which, according to that Word, is to meet the needs of the poor, the widow and the orphan in her midst. Since the church is established by God’s Word, it will as God’s very temple reflect the glory of the indwelling Spirit of God and reflect the characteristics of God’s Church.

Here congregation, is God’s plan for church growth, a church devoted to the Word, a church which seeks to administer God’s mercy according to God’s Word. Only in that way will God’s Word spread and the number of disciples increase, and our Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified.

Amen.