Sermon Tone Analysis

/Sermon 2:/

 

*Small Groups Make a Big Difference*

*to the People*

 

Turn in your Bibles to *Acts 6:1‑7.

*I want to make eight observations from this passage.

/The first observation is that an increase /of /people without an increase /of /pastors or people to/

/oversee them causes problems./

This is the first time in the church that we notice that strife has broken out.

Most of the people in this new church described in Acts were those who had grown up in the local community.

They spoke Aramaic.

They were like Mennonites whose parents spoke Low German or Pennsylvania Dutch and who had names like Yoder, Hostetler, and Kaufman.

These people in the early church knew each other well.

They knew who the widows were, and they knew who the people were who had special needs.

The early church seemingly took over a custom from the Synagogue.

Every Friday two collectors went around the market and to homes collecting for the needy.

They called it *the Kuppah or the basket.

*Some people gave money; others gave food, used clothing, or whatever they had.

Before sundown on Friday, that which had been collected was distributed.

Those who were in temporary need received some basic essentials.

The widows and shut‑ins received enough food for two meals a day for the next week.

You can be assured that the needs of the local people were well taken‑care of.

Acts 2 says that Christians even sold what they had so that they could share with whoever had need.

Giving alms for the poor was one of the greatest acts of devotion.

The problem came with the new people who were coming in.

The Jerusalem church was a growing church.

It was like a mustard seed growing overnight into a huge tree.

People moving in from Rome, from Greece, from Egypt, and from all over were impressed with what they saw.

They were giving their hearts to the Lord, and the Lord was adding to the church daily those who were being saved.

But the church had a hard time meeting all of their needs . . .

especially those who came from the outside.

They weren't in the grape vine.

The pastors didn't know all the people; they didn't know all the needs.

There is a reason why people come to church.

They come to worship God, but they also come to get their needs met.

When people get their needs met, they will keep on coming.

You come to Calvary because you get your needs met.

If you don't get your needs met, you will stop coming.

You will go to where you do get your needs met.

Some churches meet the needs of some people, while others meet the needs of others.

Abram Maslow has helped us by developing a hierarchy of needs.

Let me modify it a bit.

At the bottom is what we would call physical needs.

Everyone needs food, water, and shelter.

When basic physical needs are met, people can move to the next set of needs which are called safety needs.

People need to feel secure.

They need hospital insurance, police protection, and assurance of retirement.

The Amish and Hutterites provide these needs in a special way.

We do it as a family and in our small groups.

The next level of needs is *social or relational needs.

*We all need to feel loved.

We need to belong to a family . . . to a group of people where we feel accepted.

This need is connected with the next level of need which Maslow calls esteem needs.

We need to be recognized and affirmed for the gifts that we have or the contributions that we make.

If this need isn't met in the church, people are going to go elsewhere.

The most important need is *spiritual.

*The primary reason why we come to Calvary is to get our spiritual needs met!

We do that in the singing, in the prayers, and in the preaching of the word.

We come here to meet God!

There were people in the early church, especially those who had come in from the outside, who were not getting their needs met.

They were dissatisfied.

There was an increase of people without an increase of pastors.

They brought the complaint to Pastor Peter and to Pastor James, Pastor John, and the rest of the twelve.

What did they do?

/Observation number 2 is that the congregation came together to discuss the problem./

Verse 2 says, "The twelve gathered all the disciples together."

Why did they do this?

There was going to be a major change.

Up until now the pastors had done all the ministry.

But it wasn't working any more.

The church had become too large.

People's needs were not being met.

The Apostles, who functioned like a board of elders, were going to suggest a change.

They were going to suggest that some of the ministry be done by lay pastors.

This was going to be a major, major change!

Up until now the pastors had done it all.

Because everyone would be affected, they called the whole congregation together.

Most people don't like change.

When change is proposed, most of us are automatically against it.

We are used to having it the way it was.

Change is uncomfortable.

I heard of an old man who lived up in Maine.

He turned one hundred, and a reporter from New York went up to interview him.

He got out his legal pad and said, "Now, mister, a hundred years is a long time.

I'm sure that you have seen many, many changes during that period of time."

The old man crossed his arms, set his jaw, and said, "Yep, and I've been against every one of them!"

 

Change isn't always comfortable; but if we are going to make progress in our personal lives or in our church, we will need to make changes from time to time.

The church was faced with change.

The disciples pulled the congregation together to discuss it.

/Observation # 3 is that many needs force a pastor to clarify priorities./

It is interesting to note that Peter, James, John, and the rest of those early pastors came up with the same priorities that Jethro had advised for Moses.

As senior pastor of Israel, Moses was to pray for the people, to teach them the ways of God, and to lead a team of lay ministers.

Moses was trying to meet all the needs of the people; and Jethro said, "What you are doing is not good.

You are losing your focus.

You are wearing yourself out and the needs of the people are not being met."

Here in Acts 6 verses 2, 3, and 6, the lead pastors of the church declared their priorities.

Their priorities were prayer, ministry of the word, and leading the church.

/Leading the church leads us to observation # 4: Lay pastors were selected to assist the professional pastors./

Verse 5 tells us that they chose Stephen and six other men to assist in the ministry.

When Chairman Mao Tse‑Tung was leader in China, he observed that the population of the country was growing so fast, and the medical needs of the people were so great, that they couldn't train enough professional doctors to meet the need.

So they selected what they called "barefoot doctors."