Faith Church Norwalk
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Faith Church Norwalk
Growing in Maturity | Group Bible Study
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Growing in Maturity | Group Bible Study
Series: Acts: The Story Continues...
We're in Acts chapter 6. Just starting chapter 6 today, we're only going to go through verse 7. We're going to walk through this passage today in Acts chapter 6, verses 1 through 7. The whole chapter only has 15 verses. Did any of you guys have a chance to read in advance this section? It's okay, you're not in trouble. There's no grades in this. So when we get to this section, as we come to Acts chapter 6, we're hitting what becomes another in the book has really been. Sorry, we're struggling with the online stream suddenly. The struggle, the focus has been on the apostles. It's been on, you know, Jesus' ascension, the coming of the Spirit, the birth of the church, the you know, the signs and the wonders, Peter's preaching and the thousands that are coming to faith. And so the church has been expanding rapidly in Jerusalem. It's really growing. They're starting to draw the attention of the religious leaders. Let me just get off of what. Okay, hopefully we can stabilize our live stream. As we come to chapter six, um, what we're coming to is a church that's really had explosive growth and it's becoming large. And now what we need is um we as what we see is we see the church starting to see some maturity in it. So at this point, it's always been the apostles that are sort of running things, they're in charge. People go to the apostles for everything. At this point, we're gonna start to see it get beyond that, to where there becomes a need for more help, more leadership in the church. And so um the chapter I said I wrote here, the chapter also prepares us for one of the most important figures of Acts, and that's the um the man Stephen, and he gets introduced as one of the seven who are chosen to care for the needs of the body. Um, and yet we're not just, you know, when we find Stephen here, what we see in him is he's not just some guy that was willing. Hey, I'll volunteer, I'm not doing anything, you know. He was also a person that was filled with the spirit, he was filled with wisdom, he was powerful with the word, um, he was powerful and bold in his witness, and he was prepared.
SPEAKER_01How did that happen? Was he hanging out with Jesus?
SPEAKER_00Well, no, do you remember in Acts chapter one in verses 42 through 47 when it said that they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching? Okay, or that was um chapter two, verses 42 to 47. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the breaking of bread, you know. So, yeah, so they were they were sitting under the apostles' teaching, so they were being discipled. And that's what that's what it constantly refers to the people of the church as, as disciples, not just believers. They weren't just people who believed and now they came and now they become spectators, they're participating in learning and growing and becoming who Jesus is calling each individual to be. So at this point, Stephen is one of those seven, and so let's just read through the passage real quick. It says in verse one of chapter six, now 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's 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 Procurus, and Niconor and Temon, and Parmanus, and Nicholas, apostely of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and the apostles prayed and laid hands on them, and the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. Okay, so there's big things happening. And we've been reading, you know, each week it seems like as we read, it's saying, you know, this happened, and then thousands were added to the church, and this happened, and the number came to five thousand, and then this happened, and the number of the disciples continued to multiply greatly, both men and women. Everybody was coming, you know, and seeing what God was doing in the church, and they were coming to faith in Christ and joining the disciples, becoming part of the church. Okay. But it says in verse 1, now these days the disciples were increasing in number. Okay, what problems arise in the church as the number of disciples increases? What kind of things do we see happen?
SPEAKER_01The way they're supposed to be done. There's a multiple.
SPEAKER_00Right. Now it says there was a daily distribution. So I mean, pulling from what we've talked about in Acts before, what do you think that means?
SPEAKER_01That's all those guests that were brought in, right?
SPEAKER_00Right. Remember, people were selling their possessions, they were selling their homes, they were selling their land, they were bringing it and they were laying it at the apostles' feet. We even had some imposters, you know, come in and they were trying to emulate the same thing, but got called out.
SPEAKER_01Um it says about the widows.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01We're not getting their share.
SPEAKER_00And so what's happening is basically the church at this point in history was pooling their resources. Those who were wealthy and had a lot, and those who were poor, just bringing what they had, laying at the apostles' feet. And then the apostles were distributing it to each as any had need, it says. So really, you think about it, you go, okay, you know, the apostles are probably living on that. The the rich are living on that, the poor are living on that. Says everything, everyone had all things in common. So this is Koinania. This is them having all their possessions as one. So they're coming daily, and they're just the person that donated his home is coming and receiving their daily bread.
SPEAKER_01I'm here to get my share.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's like they they were giving up all their responsibilities, but expecting the disciples and the group to provide everything for them forever.
SPEAKER_00Well, well, yeah. I mean, this is really what it is. Because, you know, it's not like they all quit their jobs, you know, they probably still had their jobs and their careers and their farms or whatever they had, and so they're, you know, they're they're bringing their possessions, and so they probably continue to do that as they make a living, and maybe they're not donating every cent. They don't, they weren't required to. There was no requirement to do any of this. This is something that was spontaneously happening in the church at this moment. And so what's happening is that there's basically a daily distribution, so this becomes an administrative issue, right?
SPEAKER_01The apostles can't preach anymore.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they're too busy distributing and they can't preach.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so now why do you think Luke intentionally tells us that this problem arose during a season of growth?
SPEAKER_01Because that's what happened.
SPEAKER_00Because it's just what happened, huh?
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's out of control.
SPEAKER_00Well, you know, if he didn't put this in here, what would be what would be we'd be tempted to think about that this worked perfect that way? That everything just worked perfectly, and they had, yeah, we would romanticize it, right?
SPEAKER_01Man and food, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we would we would tend to romanticize this period of the church and look back on it and go, everything was perfect. And be, you know, it's like the apostles were there and the spirit was powerful, and you know, everything just went exactly as planned, and but but it didn't. It was growing, and as happens, as something gets bigger, there becomes more to do.
unknownResponsibilities, yeah.
SPEAKER_00But the apostles had been called by Jesus to be his witnesses, right? They'd been called by Jesus to preach his word and teach the disciples to obey all the things that he had commanded them. And so they're being pulled away from that to serve tables, and so um something has to be done about it. What does this teach us about the reality of church life even in the early church?
SPEAKER_01Everybody needs to take part.
SPEAKER_00Amen. Everybody needs to take part. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um whether you're a leader or a pretender, uh-huh. Everybody needs to shake part.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Hi Clarissa. And there's there's a there's something we've done in modern church. How does it look different than what you're saying? How do we do church that looks a little different than what you're saying right there? Everyone needs to take part.
SPEAKER_01We don't need to go every day.
SPEAKER_00Well, okay, there's one thing. We yeah.
SPEAKER_01We have a leader in each facility. In the churches, we pick our pastors. And think we're done. The church does not provide movies and stuff for us on an ongoing basis to eternity.
SPEAKER_00Right. Okay, so um, one is we don't gather every day, he said. So we're not, so church has become like a weekend thing. We go, that's something we do on a Sunday. So, okay, so church life has become a one day a week thing rather than a daily interaction. So they were gathering, you know, from house to house, they were breaking bread together, they were praying, they're devoting themselves to these things and to the apostles' teaching. This wasn't something that just happened one day of the week. Secondly, you said we pick our pastor and we think we're done. You know, that's true. And that's and I'm not saying, you know, here is I I've received a lot of help here. That's been good. So I'm not, this is not about me. It's about church in general.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we as Christians think, okay, I went to church, I'm done for the week, you know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like I did my part because I showed up on Sunday and I sat in the pews.
SPEAKER_01And don't tell me I gotta bring people.
SPEAKER_00Right. And it's not about like a guilt trip or like you're not doing enough. It's not about that. It's it's that we've I feel like what we've done is we've we've switched from what this looked like to the congregation is an audience that sits and watches the professionals perform.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00And then critiques that the performance wasn't how they wanted, you know? And it's like, well, back then there there really was, it wasn't like this. There, there was no sanctuary and pews and a pulpit, you know. It was discipleship under the apostles, and then as others rose to maturity, they also were able to become teachers of the word. Okay, and so there was discipleship that was happening. There was koinania, the the sharing of life, not just property, but the sharing of life together, doing life together. Okay, there was there was growing, there was worship in the context of they would go to the temple, but they would also go to each other's homes. They would go to lunch or to coffee or they'd meet up during the week. You know, it wasn't um just this, okay. I went to church on Sunday, I sat in the pews, I watched the performance, the music was okay, you know, the the sermon he's had better, you know, and it's this performance, you know, and what happens is um it becomes like, well, the church down the street does that a little better, and the one over there, they're big church, they have you know the resources and they have a more professional, you know, performative display of worship, and and they have the best speakers over there at Cottonwood, and you know, so it becomes really just about you know, my flavor of what do I like better to watch. But God hasn't called us to show up and watch. He's called us into the mission, right? I got off track a little bit, but sometimes people imagine that a healthy church would have no tensions, no misunderstandings, no challenges, but Acts is showing us something very different. The early church was spirit-filled, powerful, growing. The apostles were alive, and still made up of imperfect people learning how to live together as the body of Christ. Verses 2 through 4 says, it's not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. So, question number one is Were the Apostles saying that caring for the widows was unimportant?
SPEAKER_01No, but it was taking all their time.
SPEAKER_00So caring for the widows was not unimportant, it was taking all their time.
SPEAKER_01So they didn't get to actually share scripture or you know important things to the people that they need to do in their lives to be more connected with God.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So they're saying it's not that it's unimportant to serve the daily distribution and the widows and those in need, but it's also extremely important that we continue to do what Jesus told us to do, which was to teach the word, to teach them to obey all the things that commanded them, make disciples, you know. And so what needs to happen?
SPEAKER_01Other people need to start coming in and doing preaching.
SPEAKER_00Other people rise to the occasion and they start taking on things. Now, according to verse 4, what do the apostles believe they needed to remain devoted to? Let me read. Yes, devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word, right? Okay. Why is prayer and the ministry of the word so essential to the life and health of the church?
SPEAKER_01We need to know what God wants us to do. You're not gonna find out by just sitting there and it's uh because you're not having a close relationship with him, really. You're just and when you have that, that's where the growth comes. Right. And if you don't have a close relationship, how can you interest anybody becoming?
SPEAKER_00Well, really, yeah, what what is the thing that what's the purpose of the church?
SPEAKER_01Right. To preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the purpose of the church is to be one with Christ, to be one with God in Christ, right? And to become like him, that we're being sanctified, that that our lives begin to reflect his, that when people look at us, they might in some small way begin to see Jesus in us. You know, probably more perfectly when we're together than when we're all alone, right? And so we can't be changed, we can't become who God's calling us to be unless we have the word and prayer. And so it's not that the social work that they were doing was unimportant. It was extremely important. Otherwise, they would have said, well, forget that. Everybody feed fend for themselves, we're just gonna focus on the word. And so they're saying, look, Jesus told us to do this, this is what we're gonna continue to do, but you choose from among yourselves seven, what does it say?
SPEAKER_02Seven.
SPEAKER_00You choose from yourselves, let me see. Pick out from yourselves seven men of good reputation. So they have a good reputation, they're filled with the spirit of God, of wisdom and of God, and whom we will appoint to this duty. And so they raise up capable people filled with the spirit, filled with wisdom. These are spiritually mature people, and they put them to the task of the distribution. So the apostles understood that the church needed both practical care and spiritual nourishment. The solution was not ignore the widows, and the solution was not abandon prayer and the word. If we abandon prayer and the word, we just became a social justice organization. That's all we're about. And unfortunately, some in the church have gone that direction. If we abandon social justice, then we are just a religious group and we're not actually fulfilling all of our mandate.
unknownOkay?
SPEAKER_00The other thing that I want to point out and I want to remind you guys again of is this daily distribution. Was this just a charity line for everyone in Jerusalem?
SPEAKER_01It was just believers, wasn't it? The people who were coming and doing the work and listening and it was the church. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00This was a distribution to those in the church. This was koinanea. This was them. There was not a needy person among them, is what the Bible says. It's not that I'm not saying that it's bad to feed the hungry or anything like that. But at this point in this this story that Luke is telling us in the book of Acts, you're talking about the church, that there's not a needy person in the church. Now imagine if that was true of us.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm there's a lot of needy people in church still.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I don't know if we're trying to meet that need or yeah.
SPEAKER_00So there's a call here, there's an example here set before us, not to necessarily sell all our houses and all our possessions and give the money into the church. It's that part of this thing that this example that the church was doing was that they were caring for those who were needy among them.
SPEAKER_01They were taking care of their flock.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Distributing to any as any had need within the church. That's what they were doing. I don't think we should be insensitive to the needs of those outside the church, and I think we should help whenever we can, and that's part of our witness. But the the primary thing that they were doing here had to do with actually the church. Okay. Verse three, there's that section, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the spirit and wisdom. What qualities were the apostles looking for in these men? Good repute.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I guess that would observed and they they act like a Christian. They are interested in the word. They're concerned about their community and what God wants them to do. They were living a Christian life.
SPEAKER_00So their words match their life.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's another way to say that. If you guys online want to contribute to this, feel free. I'm trying to watch for you in case you have something to add to us. So they're they had a good reputation, so they could others could speak up for them. They said, choose among yourselves, right? So out of all the thousands of disciples that there were at this point, they got together and picked these seven. So good repute, full of the spirit, full of wisdom. What stands out to you about these qualifications? Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01Your life has given you wisdom.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Why do you think spiritual maturity mattered even for this just practical thing of distributing food and supplies to people who had need? Why do you think spiritual maturity mattered for that? They weren't saying you need to, you know, preach every Sunday, right?
SPEAKER_01You have to have compassion. You have to be filled with the spirit to do it or other way to be competitive.
SPEAKER_02Right?
SPEAKER_01And that's not up to the individual setup.
SPEAKER_00Right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Appropriate to each other.
SPEAKER_00Well, you can see in this too, like there's there's already factions sort of beginning to develop, right? And isn't that funny how that happens? You know, you get a group of people together and suddenly there's these factions that start to rise up. People just see things differently. They align with people who think the same way they do. And then, you know, in order to try to navigate through that and lead through that, you have Have to be able to kind of get outside of that and not sit with inside the factions and try to try to look at a bigger picture. So that takes the ability to even step outside of your own natural sometimes leanings. You know, you have to be able to go, okay, but what's really true, you know? The the Hellenists, there's, you know, so these are people who are basically not native to the area of Palestine in Jerusalem, maybe. So they might have been born in a Greek nation or something like that. Um, and yet they were they were they were Jews, they were Jewish people. Okay, so um the disagreement was between them and those who were, you know, native-born Israeli people. And so um they needed people who could just navigate the disagreement and sort of see both sides and treat them fairly and equally and be spiritually mature through all that.
SPEAKER_01Um and that's hard when you you're a certain group and and all these other people show up. Right. You have to make connections, you have to be accepting. That's right. And if you're not accepting, you're not gonna be a good leader.
SPEAKER_00Right. You have to be able to keep the ultimate mission and goal in mind. And that's hard because um even even you know, when you if you step into a role where you're supposed to arbitrate, or you know, you have to be able to, you have your own opinions too. You have your own preferences too. And so, yeah, that's the temptation, but you have to be able to go, no, there's a bigger picture than this. What is God wanting to do in this situation for these people? And you realize He's called them, He's called them, He's called them, He desires all of us to be saved, He desires all of us to come to a knowledge of the truth. He desires all of us to come to spiritual maturity. And so they weren't chosen just because they were available, they were spiritually formed people. Okay, so they were trustworthy, wise, spirit-filled, they were grounded in faith. The church was never meant to function, I put, as a small group of leaders doing everything while everyone else watches. The body of Christ matures as disciples grow into participation in the life and the mission of the church. I think that's how I began to grow, was when I moved from just listening and watching to serving somewhere. It's just, you know, it's like you have skin in the game now. You're part of the mission, you're moving, you're trying to move the kingdom forward, you know? And um the body of Christ matures as disciples grow into participation. Yeah. So in verse 5 it says, and what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. What does Luke emphasize about Stephen immediately?
SPEAKER_01Man full of faith.
SPEAKER_00Full of faith, full of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he's gonna need me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know it's coming for Stephen. Why do you think he introduces Stephen this way before telling us Stephen's story?
SPEAKER_01So we look for those apologies in ourselves, yeah. Full of faith, but even to learn from the way Stephen had things.
SPEAKER_00Right. He had he really, like you said, he had to be, right? What was coming was was big.
SPEAKER_02It was horrendous.
SPEAKER_00But part of it came because he was full of wisdom and full of the Holy Spirit. If he hadn't have been, they wouldn't have bothered with him. It's like if you're just floating along, sitting in church, you're not really actually a follower of Christ, you're just showing up and you're not participating and you're not a disciple, you know, um why would Satan bother with you? You're right where he wants you to be. He doesn't care if you go to church as long as you don't believe, right?
unknownUh-huh.
SPEAKER_00But if you start pushing in his, you start following Christ and obeying Christ and doing what Christ has called you to be, well then you're a target.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So Stephen's chosen to help serve widows, yet in the verses that follow, especially chapter 7, we're going to discover that Stephen was also deeply grounded in Scripture, able to teach, able to defend the faith, spiritually courageous, prepared to stand up before opposition. He stood in front of the religious leaders. Again, these people who had really the ability to stir up the same persecution Jesus received. Okay. But he'd clearly been discipled. That's the point. He had been discipled. So he didn't just show up and eat the meals and hang out and this was a person who had sat under teaching, and you know, there's a verse in Philippians chapter 2. Let me read it because I don't want to misquote it. It's in it's in my brain, but it's not coming completely clear yet. Hold on. Let me read it. It says, as you have always obeyed, not so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Okay, that sounds like, ooh, that's your responsibility to work out your own salvation. That's what it sounds like, right? You know, work it out with fear and trembling. In other words, take your faith seriously, take your spiritual growth seriously, take your discipleship seriously. Because salvation is not just the altar call. Salvation is not just praying the prayer or being baptized. Salvation is justification. That's that moment when we're declared righteous before God. It's sanctification, the life of being formed in his image and discipled and growing and becoming mature and becoming like Christ. And then ultimately when we die and we go to be with him and we're glorified, it's glorification where we're actually finally made perfect. We're made like him. Okay, not God, but we're made in his image without the sin nature anymore. But then the next verse says, For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Oh my gosh, that sounds like it's my job. For it's God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So really we get to participate with what the Spirit of God wants to do in us, but he's also motivating us. He's working in us to will. That means to desire, to want to, even. Because otherwise we don't want to. If we don't want to, we're not going to do it. He's working in us to will and also to work, to do what we need to do for his good pleasure. So Stephen had done this. He had learned the apostles' teaching teaching. He had grown in spiritual maturity, he had become equipped for ministry, and when the moment came, he was ready. Ephesians 4, we read this as elders recently, verses 11 through 13, it says that God's given the apostles and prophets and pastors and teachers and evangelists for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. According to that passage, who's called to participate in the work of the ministry?
SPEAKER_01I missed it.
SPEAKER_00Let me say it again. God's given apostles and prophets, pastors and teachers and evangelists to equip the saints for the work of the ministry and for the building up of the body of Christ. So according to that passage, who is called to participate in the work of ministry? It just says the saints. Who's the saints? Oh when the saints come marching in. Who are the saints?
SPEAKER_02Everybody.
SPEAKER_00Everybody, every believer. You ask the Roman Catholics, it's it's only those ones who, you know, those special ones. But the Bible calls all of us the saints. And so the job of the pastor is not to do all the work of the ministry. And the job of those apostles, that same passage says, is not to do all the work of the ministry. The job of the pastors and the apostles and the prophets and the evangelists through the church history was always supposed to be to equip the saints for the work of the ministry and to edify the body of Christ. And so what happens in churches all over the world is that congregations turn into audiences and they spectate and they sit and they watch the pastor do all the work of the ministry, or maybe a team of pastors. And then it's easier for the pastors to do all the work of the ministry. And yet what happens is then the church never actually participates in the work of the ministry, which they're called to do. They're supposed to be equipped and discipled and brought to spiritual maturity, and so they begin to do the work of the ministry. And that's not just here, the work of the ministry is out there too. That's the primary place where evangelism happens. Not here. Oh, we hope some happens here too. But it's out there. And so it's important for us to get these things and these order of the way things are supposed to work correct. You know, especially in a season where we're saying, Lord, we want renewal, we want your life, we want your revitalization. Well, what we begin with is we begin with aligning ourselves with how the Lord has designed the church to work. And the way that he's designed it to work is for us all to grow in spiritual maturity, to be discipled, and to become what he's calling us to be. And by the way, there's no age limit on that. You know, there isn't. I'll probably, I was, I was uh, there's a couple different stories about that, but I don't know if it was John Wesley. And there was one, uh, Ron Nash, he was a theologian, but um his friend went to visit him in the hospital and he was surrounded by theological textbooks on his on his um deathbed. He had a terminal illness, and he was in the hospital, and he was just basically biding his time. And he walks in and goes, What are you doing? What are you doing? Crunching on deep theological textbooks when you know you only have you know weeks. He says, I'm about to meet the king.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he's gonna test.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I wanna I wanna be ready, you know. It's like our whole lives are supposed to be preparation for that and to be useful while we're here. And so there isn't any limit. What's the difference between attending church and growing into spiritual maturity?
SPEAKER_01Basically, not just showing up and sitting in the pew. When you when you when you go back home and you're talking to your neighbor, you say, I need to tell you what we I mean, this is so exciting. And tell them about it. And and then pretty soon maybe they would want to go with you.
SPEAKER_00Right. And maybe it's just, you know, hey, maybe it maybe the conversation and them coming to faith in Christ is over a coffee. You just invite them in for a coffee and some cookies or something, you know, because you've been equipped, you've been discipled, you know the word. And you don't have to bring them to pastor in order for them to hear the gospel.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Because you know the gospel. Stephen wasn't an apostle, he was just a normal person that was converted along with everybody else.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm noticing that theme through here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Just a normal person. He was converted, he came to faith, probably through the preaching of Peter. He was really a preacher at that time. Okay. And he was equipped, though. He sat under the apostles' teaching and he was equipped, and he came to spiritual maturity, and he didn't need the apostles to come speak in his place. He could speak, he could articulate the gospel because he had studied to show himself approved unto God, a worker that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Why is discipleship essential if believers are going to become mature servants and witnesses of Christ?
SPEAKER_01So they don't fall aside, you know.
SPEAKER_00What is the purpose of physical maturity? You know, the grand scheme of things.
SPEAKER_01You don't have to think hours and hours of what is a real thing to do.
SPEAKER_00You just know it in your bones. Yeah. You know the gospel, you know the commission, you know the purpose. You know, saying, what's the purpose of physical maturity? To grow up, to become a mature person that self-sustains, that reproduces. Like that's the purpose of physical maturity, right? Sustains relationships, grows to maturity, helps others to mature. You know, you help your kids to mature and become, and then they they do the same thing, and it's just multiplication and reproduction. That's the purpose of physical maturity. Well, spiritual maturity is no different. That we don't become Christians and believers and followers of Christ and then stay spiritual infants. We need to mature, we need to grow, and we need to reproduce. Okay, let's get to the last section here. The word of God continues to increase. What was the result of the church responding wisely to this situation and not trying to keep all power and control to the apostles only? What was the fruit of them choosing these people to be deacons and responding wisely to the dispute between the Hellenists, the widows, uh, the Hellenists of the widows and the other widows. Says it right there in red.
SPEAKER_01The word of God continued to increase.
SPEAKER_00The word of God continued to increase, and the disciples multiplied greatly. The disciples multiplied. That's what disciples do. Disciples multiply. It's not addition. If it was addition, it would be the apostles only. They're teaching and people are being added through the apostles' teaching. But when you have generations of Christians now all sharing the Word of God through their actions, when their lives match their words, when they can articulate the gospel and their hope, when they're ready at all times to give an answer to everyone who asks them for a reason for the hope that is within them, with and to do so with gentleness and respect. Like you don't have to be able to preach a sermon. You just have to be able to tell somebody what Jesus has done in your life and why you have hope in him, despite the fact that not everything goes perfect for you all the time. You know? That's how we preach the gospel with our lives. So when that begins to happen, now there's not just addition coming from the apostles only, now there's multiplication that's happening. And so Acts 6 prepares us for what's about to happen next. In the next passages, persecution is going to intensify. Stephen is going to boldly proclaim Christ. The church is going to begin being scattered because of that persecution. The gospel is going to move beyond Jerusalem. And then this is just a reminder of what we already said. Here's something to think about. One of the central figures in this movement is not one of the apostles, it's Stephen, a mature, spirit-filled disciple raised up from within the body itself. This section reminds us that the church is not meant to remain spiritually immature. Christ forms people through his word, prayer, discipleship, participation in the life of the body, and as believers mature, the ministry of Christ begins multiplying outward through his people. The story continues not merely through apostles and pastors, but through ordinary believers who are being formed into faithful servants and witnesses of Jesus Christ. Yeah, there is. So it is. I thought this really does. It matches up perfectly. And it's not that it's not so much that we need help, it's that why wouldn't we invite the congregation to participate in the work of ministry? That's what Jesus called them to do. So that's what we're gonna do. And then what we're really doing over the overall is we're preparing ourselves to become equipped to be spiritually mature disciples within this gathering of believers so that we're ready for what the Lord wants to do and we can be effective when he does it.