Sermon Tone Analysis

“In these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, ‘It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.

Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.’

And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.

These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

“And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”

[1]

There is a crisis in Baptist life today that cannot be resolved by bigger budgets, better programs or more sophisticated systems of data processing and mass communication.

It is a crisis of identity rooted in a fundamental theological failure of nerve.

The two major diseases afflicting contemporary congregations are spiritual amnesia (we have forgotten who we are) and ecclesiastical myopia (whoever we are, we are glad we are not like “them”).

While these maladies are not unique to the people of God called Baptists, they are perhaps most glaringly present among us.

It is commonly said that Baptists practise a democratic form of church governance.

This is not strictly correct, though the members of the Continental Congress during the formative days of the United States adapted Baptist polity as a model for the democracy practised by the American states.

Democracy, as practised in the early days of the American Republic, is not the same democracy that is practised today.

At the first, and as a significant aside, those who had nothing invested in the republic were not given a voice, though participants in democracy were enjoined to consider the need of all citizens when passing legislation.

Democracy was about giving, not about taking.

Democracy assumes that the will of the majority shall rule over a political entity.

The church is the Body of Christ; it must not be reduced to a political entity.

The church is a spiritual entity with Christ Jesus as its Head.

Therefore, the church is to model unity, submitting to the rule of God.

The rule of God is exercised by the revelation of His will through the Word which He has given and under the guidance of His Holy Spirit.

Above all else, the church that will be pleasing to the Lord God is to seek the unity of the Spirit.

We do have a mechanism by which we can appeal to a vote in order to accomplish the work of God, but we should consider such remedy as a means of last resort—an admission of failure to achieve unity.

Always and ever, as a community of Faith, our first priority is to seek the unity of the Spirit, discovering the harmony which characterises the presence of God, and expressing the peace which marks all His works.

Despite these issues, Baptist polity has stood as a foundation for our Faith since earliest days.

The study of how we conduct our daily business and how we organise our congregations is worthy of our most careful study during this hour.

A BAPTIST CHURCH IS TO MODEL RESPECT FOR AND ACCEPTANCE OF EACH MEMBER.

Foundational to the concept of the polity practised among Baptists is Christian courtesy.

We are called to model respect for one another and acceptance of one another.

Throughout the warp and woof of the fabric which constitutes the Church that Jesus built is mutual respect and trust.

In the text before us, mutual respect had begun to break down, and the Christians were beginning to segregate into “us” and “them.”

Unfortunately, “them” are not necessarily those outside the Body of Christ.

Our language betrays our heart, which is not surprising in light of Jesus’ words.

“What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.”

That which comes out of the mouth is nothing less than the expression of what is in the heart.

“Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” [MATTHEW 15:18, 19].

What is imperative for us to see is that the thought precedes the word, just as the attitude precedes the action.

If we think divisively, we will be divisive.

If we endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit, we will be unified; it depends upon us—our attitude, our spirit.

Perhaps the best way in which to avoid reducing others among the people of God to the underclass of “them” is to train ourselves to speak of Him.

Whenever a church ceases to speak of “they” and “them” and begins to speak of “He” and “Him,” it is well on the way to being an apostolic church.

I suggest that the world desperately needs to see at least one church which has adopted the language of Zion and seeks to unite the people of God.

The early church was being divided into Hellenists and Hebrews.

They were not putting into practise the will of the Father.

Paul would later address this particular issue.

“You … are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” [ROMANS 8:9-11].

The reference to “serv[ing] tables” is not intended to be derogatory.

The word for “serve tables” (diakoneîn) is one of the great words of the New Testament.

That same word (diakonía) is used when referring to “the ministry of the word” in verse four.

The verb is the root of our noun, “deacon.”

Growing out of this conflict in the early church would be the appointment of the first deacons—spiritually mature individuals who would be assigned the task of caring for the inward, physical needs of the congregation.

It is crucial for us to recognise that the Apostles were admitting that there was a vital ministry to outsiders rendered by preaching the Word and an equally important service to insiders rendered by distributing assistance to those in need.

The two tasks must never be in competition or conflict.

Neither the church nor its leaders should be forced to choose between evangelism and ethics, between growing and giving, between Word and welfare.

However, once the congregation has begun to divide into factions—“we” and “them”—none of the vital functions of the church will be fulfilled.

It is impossible to serve Christ or one another so long as we are divided.

The root problem in the grumbling of the Grecian Jews was the assumption that the church’s leaders should give up one ministry in order to care for another ministry.

Such a reordering of priorities was declared “not right.”

Quite literally, the word the Apostles used indicated that it would not be pleasing [to God] were they to cease preaching the Word in order to care for this particular matter.

The Grecian Jews had a perfect right to expect their daily needs would be met in equitable fashion; but they did not have the right to expect attention at the cost of neglecting another equally essential ministry of the church.

In effect, the Hellenists were emphasising the immediate to the exclusion of the permanent.

In the South we used to caution, “Don’t sacrifice the permanent on the altar of the temporary.”

The Hellenists saw the issue as one of either/or, when in reality it was an issue of both/and.

We must reach out, and we must care for those we have already reached.

Focus for a moment on the teaching of the New Testament concerning our response to those whom God brings into our midst.

Paul, in Romans writes, “Accept anyone who is weak in faith, but don’t argue about doubtful issues” [ROMANS 14:1 CSV].

[2]

Clearly, the teaching of the Word is that we are to receive one another as equals before God.

Paul does not have in view some form of grudging acceptance; rather he envisions a welcoming of one another as a brother or as a sister.

This truth is iterated in ROMANS 15:7: “Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”

The expectation of mutual acceptance is perhaps shown even more clearly in the First Corinthian letter.

“There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills” [1 CORINTHIANS 12:4-11].

Certain truths from this passage are germane to our study.

Every member has a divinely assigned role in the church.

This is restatement of a truth which I have emphasised throughout the days of my service to the churches.

Though we say we join a church, we recognise that we are actually placed in a given church by the Spirit of God.

Therefore, we are each equipped for and given a role within that congregation wherein God has placed us.

My purpose in this statement is to encourage each member of this Body to fulfil his or her assigned role in the church.

Find a place of service and begin today to make the Body stronger through the exercise of your gift.

This is your responsibility before God! Christians are saved to serve!

Moreover, faithfulness to the assembly is expected of each member.

Every member is a gift from God to the church.

Each Christian has received a gift; and in the same manner, each member is a gift to the entire Body.

When we begin to inspect the gifts exercised within the Body, our focus on the Giver can become blurred.

If we are focused on the particular expressions of His grace we have a tendency to rank one another, failing all the while to see that it is the person gifted and given to us for our benefit who is the expression of God’s grace.

Receive one another as divinely given gifts.

I urge you to make every effort to esteem one another as the precious gift of God.

Each member must recognise the worth of every other member.

No one of us has every gift; it is only as we live in unity that we benefit from all the gifts.

Though I would that we had many more missionaries within the membership, not all of us are apostles to be dispatched on mission for God with accountability to our congregation.

I could wish that we had a number of individuals able to express the mind of God, yet not all of us have that ability to reveal the mind of God to our generation.

Fortunately, not all of us are teachers or we would each be grousing that we could do a better job than the pastor-teacher we now have.

Instead, if we will be a church which honours God we will recognise the worth of every other member and rejoice in the presence of each one.

Each member must realise that the assignments are given by God.

If we recognise the worth of each member of the Body, we will shortly begin to recognise the sovereign hand of God at work directing and placing the members of the Body as He desires.