Thursday 27 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."

We thought yesterday about how one of the dangers that growth posed to the New Testament church in Acts 6 was division, a highlighting of difference which when grumbled about resulted in an overturning of the gospel.  But that isn't the only danger which growth posed for the church, there is a second danger that is attendant with growth and division: distraction.

Specifically, verse 2, the Apostles being distracted from their task of witnessing to Jesus.  What was causing them to be distracted from it?  Distributing the food to the needy in church.  The point here isn't that that was a wrong or bad thing to do, in fact that’s a good thing for the church to do.  The church reflects God’s heart and concern for the widowed as it does that.  But the issue is it’s distracting the Apostles from preaching God’s word.

One of the first thing that strikes me as I read that is that it is not where I am most prone to distraction.  This isn’t the distraction we struggle with; Facebook, twitter, TV and whatever it is that keeps us from being on task.  This is distraction with a good thing, a thing the church should be doing.  But it is dangerous because it is stopping the Apostles teaching about Jesus.  In Acts 4:29-30 we see that persecution won’t stop them teaching about Jesus, in 5v42 they leave the Sanhedrin with bloodied backs but the good news of Jesus on their lips. What persecution couldn’t prevent distraction with a good thing is in danger of stopping.

Acts 6 isn’t setting up a priority list for the church.  We preach and pray and whatever left over energy and time there is, if any, we spend doing mercy ministry.  No, the danger is that the Apostles are distracted from what they have been called to do; preach Jesus.

As people, and as a church, we must ensure that good things don’t distract us from preaching Jesus. So practically as churches must ensure that those who are set aside to teach the Bible aren’t overloaded with other things so that they’re distracted from preaching and teaching.  We have to ensure they have time to do what we have set them aside to do.  And again the danger of that grows as we grow in number.

So in Acts 6v1-7 we see the twin dangers of growth; Division and distraction.  It's worth stopping and asking ourselves are we in danger from either of these?  Actually in some ways that's the wrong question because there is always those dangers.   The question we need to ask ourselves is has difference led to complaining which results in division?  Has distraction lead me to miss out of the most important thing?  Are those who teach in our churches distracted by other tasks?  So how do we ensure those dangers don’t derail us as a church?  Tomorrow we'll look at the answer Acts 6 provides.

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