Wednesday 26 August 2015

Bible Reading: Acts 6v1-7

"In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.  So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, ‘It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.  Brothers and sisters, 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.’

This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith."


As we've been reading through Acts we've seen that the early church has been growing explosively. Filled with the Spirit, proclaiming Jesus, seeing God’s word applied in people’s lives, and loving in action has led to growth from 120 to well over 5,000. But as they have grown so they have come under attack.  Satan has not been inactive or unconcerned, he has been trying to destroy the church. And he has tried using different methods; by persecution, twice, and once through internal corruption.   Each of those challenges has been met by a resolve to stand and witness for Jesus and to be his church that fights sin and stands firm on the truth.  Now, here Satan tries again using a different method. Here we see a new danger to the church though it’s one that might surprise us.

The danger this time is growth.  That sounds counter intuitive to us, we would love to see a growing church, especially for many of us in small churches where growth is slow an the going hard.  So how can growth be a problem or a danger?   After all it would be great to have a church of hundreds, just think of all the positives. Just think of all we could do, the impact we could have. And that’s true growth itself isn’t a problem. But it brings with it a number of potential problems, dangers which the church – which any church if it is to grow - must face and deal with.  I want to pick out one today and one tomorrow:

The first danger we see here is division in verse 1.  As the church has grown different people from different cultures have joined the church. There are two specifically mentioned here, the Hebrew speaking Jews and Greek speaking Jews. But this divide is about more than just the language they speak, they come from different cultures, different ways of thinking too. Having these different groups in the church isn’t a bad thing, in fact it’s a proper expression of the power of the gospel to cross divides. But the problem is that the Greek speaking Jews complained “their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.”

This isn’t prejudice in action, it isn’t discrimination, it’s not racism. It is just an oversight. We saw in Acts 4 that money was given to the Apostles for the needy and they distributed it, the same happens with the food for the widows. That was fine when there were 120 in the church, maybe even when there were 3,000. But now there are well over 5,000 it is an impossible task for the twelve apostles to combine with preaching, teaching and praying. Amid all the busyness one group is being treated better than another, and that leads to complaining. Notice here they “complained against the Hebraic Jews…” There is grumbling in the church about others in the church, differences are being highlighted and it is spreading.  At the outset of God's new community they face the danger the Old Testament people of God succumbed to - grumbling.

We live in a culture where complain is viewed as a British right. But the Bible is counter to our culture. Complaining and grumbling are dangerous. It’s like rust that gradually corrodes your car, or a boat or swing until they fall apart not longer able to hold together. But here it is corroding relationships between people in the church and therefore corroding the gospel that unites them. Complaining maximises differences and minimises the gospel. It sets up again barriers the gospel has knocked down, it disrupts the unity Christ has won at the cross, and it makes something other than Jesus’ death and resurrection central to our identity.

It is important that we see the division isn’t caused by the differences; difference isn’t the problem. Division is caused by complaining. We should expect church to be full of people who are different from us because that is the wonder of the gospel. That’s the joy of church. Different races, different ages, different likes and dislikes, different social backgrounds, different economic backgrounds but all one church. If we find ourselves bemoaning it or grumbling that there is no-one like us then we’ve misunderstood the nature of the gospel and of church. In fact what we are saying is I don’t want a gospel church.

The Bible would also warn us that if we find ourselves complaining and grumbling then we need to stop because it undermines church. If we have a genuine issue we will take it to the churches leaders. But don’t go round grumbling or complaining to individuals creating division in the church.

We also need to realise we mustn’t listen to others complaining either. Don’t listen and then stay silent because people assume silence means you agree with them. We need to challenge complaining and grumbling, especially about differences in our church family. Challenge them that those differences are a positive, a sign of the gospel being at work. Warn them that if they want a church full of people like them they don’t want a church Jesus pictures where the gospel is at work as we bear with others. And then send them to see the elders to talk about their grievances. If the grievance is genuine send them to see the elders and tell them not to grumble and moan about it to others because to do so is dangerous, it’s like rust undermining God’s people.

An oversight is the issue here, it’s not deliberate, and it needs correcting and the Apostles quickly correct it. It really helpful reminds us that our church leaders aren’t infallible, we will miss things, we will make mistakes, if the Apostles did we certainly will. But when you see that happening don’t grumble about it to others go and see your leaders so they can see what they have missed and act on it.

Differences aren’t the problem, they aren’t the danger. Complaining and grumbling is because division fractures Christ’s body and destroys the church and stops the spread of the gospel. Don’t allow differences to become division by grumbling or allow grumbling to destroy Christ’s church. That becomes more important than ever as the church grows.

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