Unified in Mission: Overcoming Setbacks
Book of Acts • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 3 viewsIn this message, Pastor Leger explores a challenge to unity faced by the early church as it grew. A timeless principle is uncovered that will guide our modern church to see setbacks as setting the stage for greater growth and unity.
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Unified in Mission: Overcoming Setbacks
Unified in Mission: Overcoming Setbacks
Let’s look together in God’s Word at Acts 6:1-7
The early church has been rocking along and growing dramatically. A sin issue has been dealt with by God. Now another issue that threatens their unity crops up.
Read with me the situation and the solution in Acts 6:1-7
1 Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. 2 Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. 3 Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; 4 but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
5 And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch, 6 whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them.
7 Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.
Pray with me as we ask God to guide us in the study of His Word.
A thriving church had two great initiatives underway. First, the congregation had become outwardly focused. They were “praying and going.”
Second, they were remodeling major portions of their church facilities. They knew the old building was not adequate for the post-pandemic world.
There was a lot of excitement. Participation was high. Growth was occuring every week.
Then it stopped.
The pastors and the elders called the Church Answers team for a consultation. They were desperate to find out what happened. It didn’t take long for the team to discover the problem.
The church was reconfiguring its worship center and foyer. They needed a larger welcome center and a larger place for informal fellowship before and after worship. So they reduced the worship seating capacity from five hundred to four hundred. The church’s average attendance was three hundred, but they were in two services. They had plenty of space. As the church continued to grow, they could add more services. The larger foyer or welcome center was the priority.
In the interview with the church members, they heard a lot of excitement about the Pray and Go Initiative. But for those more involved in the renovation project, the attitude was almost the opposite. Those members were discouraged. A few were even angry.
The main sticking point was the remodeling of the worship center. The old pews had been removed. They were meeting in the family life center during construction. But the decision had to be made for the renovated worship center: pews or chairs?
No one anticipated the strong emotions that resulted. So much so that the controversy became known as “the pews versus chairs” argument.
In the meantime, the growth of the church came to a standstill. The steady flow of guests stopped almost completely. It was a huge setback.
Disunity affected the kingdom effectiveness of the church.
No church is immune from potential issues that threaten to disrupt unity and derail gospel-focused growth.
We are prone to have disagreements and conflict in the body of Christ, the church. It's a given. It will happen because we are fallen human beings.
The early church had a situation that threatened not only their unity and unconditional care for one another, but their kingdom effectiveness as well. Their entire mission was threatened.
But we should not let setbacks set us back. In light of that, what should we do when it happens?
This passage answers that by showing us how the early church responded to problem that threatened their unity by accepting a solution that tackled the problem, and allowed unity to be restored so the gospel could move forward.
Let’s begin by looking at the problem.
Acts 6:1 (NKJV)
1 Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.
I. The early church is presented with a problem that threatened their unity
As we saw in the previous chapters, the church was growing daily. But with growth came potential problems.
A. A certain group within the church began grumbling.
The dispute began between with Greek-speaking believers complaining against the Aramaic-speaking believers.
The “Hellenists” were the Greek-speaking Jews who had come to Palestine from other nations.
B. The complaint was that the Greek-speaking widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.
The fact that the “outsiders” were being neglected created a situation that could have divided the church.
The word neglected, or the Greek word used here, literally, overlooked indicates that this neglect was neither direct nor intentional. The busy apostles had not appointed anyone to handle these matters, so they simply slipped through the cracks.
But this could have grown into a serious problem. It’s the age-old problem of prejudice. It was a cultural problem. These “outsiders” didn’t act, talk, or live like the “pure-blooded” Palestinian Jews, so it’s possible some were treated like second-class citizens.
But as we’ve seen earlier, the believers truly loved one another and took care of one another. But this communal-style living soon gave way to the selfishness of the old nature. The Grecians, who evidently were a minority group, felt neglected and demanded that their widows be given equal consideration with the Hebrews.
The church had a problem. How do we respond when a problem arises in the church? Do we grumble and complain among ourselves and hope it gets taken care of somehow? Or maybe goes away? Or do we stop complaining and take it to someone who has the authority to do something about it?
This was a problem that threatened the church’s unity, so it was brought to the attention of the apostles.
And...
II. The apostles prescribed a solution that tackled the problem (2-6)
A. The apostles studied the situation and concluded that they were to blame; they were so busy, they hadn’t appointed anyone to handle these matters, so they simply slipped through the cracks.
2 Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.
We get a little more clarification in the NLT...
2 So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, “We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program.
The tables (trapezais) may refer to tables used for serving food or to money tables, that is, banks. Probably it was used here to refer to the place where funds and supplies were administered for the widows.
The apostles were simply too busy trying to do everything.
They were serving by doing the physical work. diakonein: to render assistance or help by performing certain duties, often of a humble or menial nature—‘to serve, to render service, to help, service, help.’
They weren’t saying the work was “beneath” them. There were certain things only they could do, and running the food bank could be taken care of by others.
The key idea seems to be that ministry is ministry whether it consists of teaching God’s Word or taking care of widows.
We tend to look at a passage like this and make distinctions of importance between taking care of widows and teaching God’s truth.
Luke does not seem to make such distinction, and I don’t think that was what the Twelve intended.
Yes, teaching and prayer claimed priority, but not all disciples were involved in that.
God calls different people to different kinds of ministries, and the key lies not in spelling out some level of importance, but being faithful to the call.
D.L. Moody used to say that it was better to put ten men to work than to try to do the work of ten men.
But they still had the problem of discord.
When a church faces a serious problem, this presents the leaders and the members with a number of opportunities.
For one thing, problems give us the opportunity to examine our ministry and discover what changes must be made. In times of success, it is easy for us to maintain the status quo, but this is dangerous.
Henry Ward Beecher called success “a last-year’s nest from which the birds have flown.”
Any ministry or organization that thinks its success will go on automatically is heading for failure. We must regularly examine our lives and our ministries, otherwise we start taking things for granted.
B. The apostles studied the situation and gave the responsibility to others.
3 Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; 4 but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
They gave their recommendation on what to look for.
Full of the Spirit
Full of wisdom
And be known for these things, i.e., the previous two qualities were to be their reputations.
C. The church listened to the recommendation and implemented the idea
5 And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch, 6 whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them.
Church problems also give us an opportunity to exercise our faith, not only faith in the Lord, but also faith in each other.
Problems also give us the opportunity to express our love.
The Hebrew leaders and the predominantly Hebrew members selected six men who were Hellenists and one man who was both a Gentile and a proselyte!
What an illustration of Romans 12:10, giving honor and preference to one another, and Philippians 2:1–4, not looking out only for their own interests, but for the interest of others!
When we solve church problems, we must think of others and not of ourselves only.
We commonly call these seven men of Acts 6 “deacons” because the Greek noun diakonos is used in Acts 6:1 (“ministration”), and the verb diakoneo (“serve”) is used in Acts 6:2.
However, this title isn’t given to them in this chapter. But you do find deacons mentioned in Philippians 1:1 and their recommended qualities given in 1 Timothy 3:8–13.
The word simply means “a servant.” These seven men were humble servants of the church, men whose work made it possible for the Apostles to carry on their important ministries among the people.
The deacons’ main task was to take care of material needs and so relieve the apostles for their spiritual ministry of teaching and leading the church.
When the apostles put their hands on the heads of the deacons, it meant that now the deacons would be partners with them. They were together in this service.
It showed that these men were set aside for this task, and commissioned to this ministry.
I'm sure that the apostles weren't consciously forming a new "church office" at this time. They were simply solving a problem as the HS led them.
The church was not afraid to adjust their structure in order to make room for a growing ministry. When structure and ministry conflict, this gives us an opportunity to trust God for the solution.
It’s tragic when churches destroy ministry because they refuse to modify their structure when necessary. The Apostles were not afraid to share their authority and ministry with others.
The early church always seemed ready to adjust its organization to meet needs.
We tend to get so locked into structure that we bypass needs if we have no pattern to handle them.
In the New Testament church, structure only developed to meet needs. Structure developed to support the mission. As the needs changed, so did the structure.
How will we respond to our growing pains?
We should not let setbacks set us back. Let's rely on the Holy Spirit to give us the solution and move forward.
And move forward the early church did. Look at what happened when the early church listened to their leaders and took care of the problem.
7 Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.
III. Unity is restored and the gospel moved forward
God’s message continued to spread.
What was the result? The blessing of God continued and increased!
God is always exalted and the church grows when it’s unified around the mission.
A number of years ago God began to open Denver youth minister Mark Hallock’s eyes to the spiritual emptiness in Denver’s doughnut, that area between the hip-cool inner-city center and the mostly wealthy suburbs outside of Denver.
God led Hallock to Calvary Church in Englewood, Colorado. The church, nearly sixty years old at the time, was on life support and had only thirty people in attendance most weekends.
When Hallock became the church’s pastor, he and the remaining members made a priority of three commitments. They would love their neighbors authentically. They would share the gospel each and every week. And they would preach through the Bible verse-by-verse.
Hallock focused on mentoring the men in the congregation. At the time the church had a fairly traditional structure with a senior pastor and several deacons. He began pouring his life into them and modeling following Jesus for them.
He said, “In many of our churches we’re great at getting men involved when it comes to fixing a broken pipe or mowing the lawn. I’m talking about spiritual leadership, modeling a love for Jesus and our families.
Eventually the church transitioned to appointing elders as well as training deacons. Elders focused on using their pastoral gifts to attend to the church’s spiritual needs. Deacons used their gifts of serving to help meet the growing congregation’s physical needs. Today the church has eight elders and twenty-one deacons, and a few deacons-in-training and a few elders-in-training.
The church was multi-generational. Hallock looked for ways to better connect young and old so they could share their lives and hear one another’s stories.
Hallock said that the most significant chapter in Calvary’s journey came during a retreat early during his ministry there.It became evident that two streams of the congregation were developing. The older thirty people who were already attending when he first came, was Calvary 1.0. The second stream, the thirty people who had joined the church since his arrival, was Calvary 2.0.
Although those who made up Calvary 1.0 were excited about all God was doing in their midst, they were still a bit unsure about the many changes in the church they had grown to love throughout the years. Calvary 2.0 shared the excitement, but was eager to reach more people and wanted to move forward.
On the first evening of the retreat, Hallock gathered everyone in a circle. He talked first to Calvary 1.0. He had them share their stories of Calvary, many had been in the church for fifty years.
The next morning Hallock asked Calvary 2.0 to share their stories and their vision for the future. Time after time the longtime members heard the younger, newer members talk about how much they appreciated the work the church had done in the past. They now wanted to invest their lives in the neighborhood, and they couldn’t wait to see what God would do through this church in the years to come. As the two groups shared, the Holy Spirit brought unity and a shared vision.
That afternoon the two groups came together as Calvary 3.0 to dream about what God would do in the future.
Six years into the replanting efforts at Calvary Church, the thirty regulars from Calvary 1.0 have turned into seven hundred regular attenders in Calvary 3.0. And it’s clear that God is still on the move.
We should not let setbacks set us back. Let's rely on the Holy Spirit to give us the solution, become unified in the mission and move forward.