Sermon Tone Analysis

Last week we began looking at Principals of Delegation and we will continue to look at Principals of Delegation and especially principals of delegation within the church.

The church is an organism, like a tree or the human body, it is alive and like any organism each of the parts of the church organism must function correctly and function together in order for the organism to be effective and productive.

The church as a whole is made up of many different people with many different gifts.

With the church made up of people there is a bit of an issue.

There are always needs that arise within the church.

The first and foremost need within the church is the spiritual need.

We are all fallen human beings which means we all have a sin nature.

We are all prone to walk away from God to follow after the desire of the heart which are the empty, depraved things that only lead us away from God.

Our spiritual need is to know God, honor God and seek God and we do all this through Christ Jesus His Son.

The second need we have is physical needs.

The physical needs we have vary from food, to warm clothing, a roof over our heads and as I have argued transportation.

The church is a place where we should not be lacking in either of these needs.

The thing is within the church no one person can supply all of these needs.

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians this about the church in .

This passage demonstrates that all the people within the church are all different and all have different gifts but for one purpose to function together to build one another up and to help one another.

No one part is more important then the other but they work together to accomplish one goal.

This makes it clear that just like a body is a complex organism so is the church and each part must function properly so other parts don't need to over work themselves.

That is why within the church there is no menial task.

There really isn't, and everyone within the church functions to serve God not themselves.

The church is an organism and it should work together and help one another.

I am not the head of the church, I am only one part of the body connected to the head, I guess I would be the neck.

Look at what Paul tells the Ephesian church about the body and the head of the body.

Paul writes this,

Ephesians

See this Jesus is the Head which means He is the leader of the church.

In the same way our brains send the signals down our neck through the nerves in our arms to the muscles in our forearms which tells our fingers to close are grasp an object Jesus does the same for the church.

He is the Head fitting us together and providing what the body needs.

When we are thirsty our body sends the signal to our brain and our brain functions by send the signal out to the necessary parts of the body, hand, mouth, throat, stomach, to make sure the body is properly hydrated and functioning correctly.

The same goes for the church.

No one person can do everything and no one person should ever be expected to do everything.

There is order and signals need to be sent and the body needs to be cared for.

So responsibilities within the church need to be delegated out to people so just as the body function for a purpose the church can function with a purpose also.

Three Principals of Delegation are Requirements, Relief and Ratification

We began look at delegation last week and this morning we will continue to look at the principals of delegation and we find these principles of delegation in ,

Paul teaches the Corinthian church this very lesson in 1 Corinthians

We began looking at this text last week and we saw there was an issue that arose in this brand new growing movement.

The church was exploding, all of Jerusalem had recieved the gospel and even other nearby cities are bringing people to Jerusalem for both physical and spiritual healing.

So this has become the first mega church and all they did was stay faithful to the message of the gospel.

Well a problem comes up and this problem is the neglect of some Jewish people who are not native born Israelites.

There were the Hellenistic Jews who were from Greek speaking countries, like Antioch and Asia and Cilicia, just to name a few.

They felt the native born Jews were neglecting the service of food and money to their widows.

So in order to fix this problem the apostles decide there is a need for delegates.

What is funny is they even delegate the responsibility of selecting the delegates to the congregation.

Requirements

Four Requirements

Men

Good Reputation

Full of the Spirit-love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control

Wisdom-outworking of the power of the Spirit

This is done because the apostles need to focus on something that is very crucial and they have been called to do, study and pray, they can’t neglect the word of God and prayer to serve tables.

If they did this they would never study the Word of God and pray.

So we looked last week at the first two of the three principals of delegation.

First we looked at the requirements of a delegate.

In verse 3, the requirements of a delegate are first, they must be men.

Men are crucial in the leadership of the church.

Just as God created Adam first and gave him the command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which he failed in doing, God wants men to be the leaders in His church.

Of course these are men who are godly men who are submissive to God and who love God.

The second requirement is they must be of good reputation, their character must be above reproach.

They can’t be viewed by those in the church as having a temper, being crass, always drunk, cheating and swindling others, they must not defame God or Jesus Christ in any way.

The third is men full of the Spirit, meaning they evidence the Holy Spirits work in their lives and their actions.

Being a godly man is extremely evident to those around them and they are obviously demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

This is what a delegate exhibits when he is filled with the Spirit.

The fourth is an outworking power of the Spirit which is divine wisdom in any and ever circumstance.

This is an important requirement for the those who are to care for those in the church.

The wisdom to see were the need is and the wisdom to provide for that need.

All very important requirements.

So the congregation now armed with the list of requirements they are able to select those who will not only care for the physical needs of the people but also even more importantly offer relief to the apostles so they are not neglecting the task that will benefit those in the church and the church as a whole.

The delegates with these requirements will bring relief to the apostles so the apostles can spend time in the Word and in prayer.

If the spiritual needs of the church are not met then what difference does it really make to provide for the physical.

I am not saying physical needs are useless but in truth there needs to be priority within the church.

The main priority is the spiritual needs, the spiritual needs of the apostles and then the spiritual needs of the congregation.

The same goes for the church today.

The spiritual needs of the pastor is very important, if my life is a mess, how in the world am I going to help you with your messy lives.

I have no business in your life if mine is a mess.

So my spiritual life is paramount and I need the relief from the people in the church to be sure I am taking care of business, my own heart.

Then you can be sure if I am connected to the head then the signals can flow easily through the neck as I said I was earlier.

I have the greatest job in the world, as heavy as it can be at times there are times, many more then you can ever know, that I think to myself, I don’t deserve this job and it is such a privilege to have the opportunity to poor my heart and time into God’s word and to preach it on Sunday mornings that it is like a dream sometimes.

Relief

I sat in a job interview to be a part time counselor not long ago and I was asked what would be my dream job.

I sat and thought about it for just a second and I looked at the director right in the eye with a smile on my face and said, being a pastor.

There is nothing I would rather be doing then what I am doing write now.

Sure I would like to write books and do some teaching but this, the study during the week, the times in prayer after the service, the Bible Study, the brick and morter ministry, (that’s what our discipleship is called) and even just the time talking to each one of you is incredible.

This is what I was called to do and in order for me to function correctly God has placed men in this church to alleviate tasks so I can fulfill that call.

I have never received the impression that anyone here thinks a job in the church is beneath them.

But let me put it to you this way if that ever comes across your mind.

Ever job you do in this church from set up to break down to closing the blinds, to making the coffee making sure the food is served, there are enough chairs.

Everything you do in the church helps me to get ready to preach and also be able to minister to you.

So those little things all add up to relief.

The first principal is requirement, the second is relief, now the third is ratification.

Ratification

In verse 5 and 6 we read, "the statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch.

6 And these they brought before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them."

The congregation agreed with what was said.

They found approval in the statement and acted quickly in selecting the men.

Only two of these men have any kind of description.

The first one selected Stephen and the last one in the list Nicolas.

Nicolas has the simple designation 'a proselyte' which means he is not born a Jew, he is a convert to Judaism.

This means he adheres to the Jewish laws including the right of circumcision.

He is legally a Jew even though not born a Jew which demonstrates that as they selected people they looked at their character.

They kept to the qualifiers.