More Than Spectators | Sunday Sermon

More Than Spectators | Sunday Sermon

Series: Acts: The Story Continues...

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

I want you to remember where we are up to this point. So at this point in the book of Acts, we sort of hit a turning point in the story. Up to here, we've talked about how Jesus ascended to the Father after giving instructions to his disciples to go to Jerusalem. They've waited for the Holy Spirit and they've prayed. The Holy Spirit has been poured out upon the church at Pentecost. They spoke in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. They went outside and the people ran together. Peter preached a sermon, and 3,000 were added to the church in a single day. So they went up to the temple a couple weeks ago. We talked about John and Peter going up to the temple. They saw a lame man laid hands on him. He was healed. They went into the temple. Peter preached again, and many more were saved, and the church came to 5,000. We've talked about how the Lord has been purifying his church. We've talked about how persecution is beginning to arise against the church, and the community around them is starting to take notice. It says that none dared to join them, yet the people held them in high esteem, and multitudes of both men and women are being added to the church every day. Massive growth is beginning to happen in the church, and with that growth comes some issues. And so in verse 1 it says, 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. So there's a couple things I want you to notice in this passage. The first one is that the early church wasn't perfect. To me, that's kind of good news. Amen? Because if they weren't perfect, oh, we have a chance, right? And I think it's great that Luke put this in here because if, you know, if he didn't, we would tend to want to look back on that first century church and think, well, man, everything just went perfect for them all the time. It was just so perfect and anointed. Everybody got along and everybody was loving all the time. But here we see that a dispute rose between two different parties. Number two is that the church already had some diversity in it, okay? Everybody was not the same. At this point in the story, everyone in the church is Jewish. Okay, there's no Gentiles in the church. And yet, some of those people, not all of those people, were born or native to the land of Israel. Some of them were born in Greek nations or other places around the kingdom. And so my point is that in this church, in his church, God brings together different people from different backgrounds, puts them all together in one body, which, as we know, that also is another way that can cause some division. And number three, I want you to notice that there was a daily distribution. Remember, we talked about how the church had koinia, they had all things in common. People were selling their possessions. In verse 34, chapter 4, verse 34 and 35, it says, There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were the owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. In other words, every disciple who had a need could come to the church. They needed some food, they could come to the church. They needed some clothing, they could come to the church. And the church could provide the need so that there was no one needy among them. But at this point in the story, there's thousands and thousands of people that are being added to the church, and the workload is becoming a lot for the apostles, because up to this point they're pretty much leading everything. And so the apostles come up with a solution. In verse 2, it says the twelve summoned the full number of disciples and said, It isn't right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. The problem is as the apostles, the church grows, the apostles are starting to be pulled away from what was their primary responsibility. Remember what Jesus told them? Go into all the world, make disciples, baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teach them to obey all the things that I've commanded you. He said, I'm with you until the ends of the age, right? And so what they're saying is it's not right for us to give up what the Lord told us to do. He told us to teach them, to make disciples, he told them to develop them, to bring them to maturity. He's saying, raise up disciples. It told us to do that. So it's not right for us to stop praying and teaching the word of God to do practical things like waiting tables. And so there's a contrast between kind of spiritual nourishment versus physical nourishment here. Okay. And I think sometimes in the church we go one way or the other. We want to emphasize one thing or the other. But what they're not saying here is the word and prayer and discipleship is so important that forget all those poor needy people. We're not going to worry about that. It's more important that we just stick with the word. Okay? What they're also not saying is practical needs of people are the priority. How could they worship God if they don't have something to eat? And so we're not going to even worry about the word and prayer and worship. We're just going to meet their physical needs. See, many, many churches, many groups, many organizations, they take one of these two paths. What they're saying is this what we're doing and called to do is so important that we can't stop doing it. But this other ministry of provision to the needs of the saints is also important. And so we need to raise up others who are qualified to continue the practical work of the ministry. In verse 3, it says, 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. So they give the disciples, they gather the whole church together, and at this point, again, there's thousands of them. They all come together, they lay the problem out before them, and they say, Look, here's what we're gonna do. We want you to pick out seven people from among the disciples, and here's the qualifications. Good repute. It means good reputation. It means their words and their deeds line up, okay? They're not hypocritical people, their lives match what they say they believe. Okay? They're full of the spirit. How can we know someone's full of the spirit, church? The Bible says by their fruits, you'll know them. The Galatians 5 says that the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace and patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Okay, these are the fruits of the Spirit. You begin to see evidence in people's lives when the Spirit is working in them, the evidence of sanctification that they're being changed and molded and shaped into the image of Jesus. And then it says, full of wisdom. Is wisdom the same as knowledge?

SPEAKER_00 7:11

Hello. Is anybody out there?

SPEAKER_01 7:20

No, right? No. You could go to university and you can get a doctorate degree, and you can come out with your head just stuffed full of knowledge till it's coming out your ears and be an unwise person, right? So they have to be filled with wisdom. Okay, they have to be filled with wisdom. Wisdom is something that comes with experience in life. It comes from maturity, it comes sometimes from making a whole bunch of errors and making bad choices and paying the penalty of those choices and then learning from them and the next time not doing those things, learning a better way to walk. Sometimes it just comes from listening to people who have made those mistakes before you to guide you so that you don't have to do that. I've kind of done both things in my life: learned wisdom the right way and the hard way. And so they said, You pick out three that are of good repute, that have full of wisdom, full of the Spirit of God, and we'll appoint them to this duty, and we'll devote ourselves to prayer and the word. And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, Philip, and Procurus and Nicanor and Temon and Parmenus and Nicholas, apostely of Antioch, and they set these before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. I like how it says it pleased the whole congregation. Okay, so at this point, like I said, the ministry, the leadership had all happened by the apostles pretty much. But now they've raised up spiritually wise, mature disciples, and they're entrusting leadership to them. Okay, so it pleases the assembly. And there's a point that I want to make here that the body of Christ was never, ever, ever meant to be an audience. I think there's something that's happened in church culture that I don't think is healthy. And I'm not coming in as the guru to try to, you know, critique all of church and I do it right and everybody else. No. I just, I'm just trying to observe, right? The church and us, looking in the mirror at ourselves. I think there's something that has come to pass in church culture that's not always healthy. And it's that congregations have become audiences. That we become good little Christian consumers who go and attend performances by a select few that do everything up in the front and run all the ministry. And we come sometimes to spectate or observe or watch from the sidelines. And depending on who we are and what our motivation is, sometimes we're coming to be entertained or inspired or have our senses tickled. And what's funny is sometimes we'll actually taste test worship services, you know, or churches. I've seen people, you know, I've even done this myself in life, go around from church to church tasting, you know, like I like the music here, but the preacher's really boring. And well, that guy over there, he can preach really good, but the music's too old fashioned, or it's too loud, or it's too short, or it's too long, or it's too new, or it's too, too, too, too. Or that church has a coffee bar. That one's got a smoke and light show. It's amazing. But what we don't realize is that God never intended his church, his people, his bride to be an audience, to sit and observe worship services for 10 and 20 and 30 and 50 years. God's called us, each and every single one of us, to participate in his body, in his spirit, in his baptism, in his calling, in this mission on this earth. Do you remember what he said in 1 Peter? The Apostle Peter said, You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him, who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Church, we're called to so much more than watching other people serve Jesus. You are called to the work of the ministry. In Ephesians chapter 4, the apostle Paul says this. He gave the apostles and the prophets and the evangelists and the pastors and the teachers to do what? Let's read this together. To equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. I have a question. In churches all over the world, what do we see pastors running around doing? I'll answer. All the work of the ministry. You see the leaders, okay, up in the front or running around, and the leaders are doing all the work of the ministry, right? We have hired a minister to do the work of the ministry, and the minister runs around and the minister does all the work of the ministry. But let me ask you this: what does this passage say that the pastor's job is? To equip who? And who are the saints? Who? Who? Who?

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Who? Remember that song? I got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart. Where?

SPEAKER_01 13:26

I like that one. See, in the first century, Jesus didn't intend for his apostles to continue to do everything, did he? What was their job? Yeah. Their job was to go make disciples, baptize them in the name of Jesus and teach them to obey all the things he commanded. In other words, he was their job was to equip the saints for the work of the ministry and to edify and build up the body of Christ. That was their job. And that's exactly what they did. You know, that's the thing, is you know, you see this list of seven people. It says, choose out from yourself seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit of God, full of wisdom. Where did these people come from? Lori asked that at our Bible study on Thursday. She's like, Well, where did Stephen even come from? Well, he was a disciple. The apostles discipled him. He came as the fruit of the disciples, disciple of the apostles' discipleship ministry. He sat and devoted himself, like Acts chapter 2, verse 42 says, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayers. And so he was really the fruit. These men were the fruit of their discipleship. Okay. And God has called all of us, his church, to the ministry as royal pre as a royal priesthood, like Peter said. It's a priesthood of all believers, and our focus should not be on, hey, I kind of like the music, but maybe we can sprinkle in a little of this. Nope, nope, a little more salt here. The focus should be devoting ourselves to becoming the people that God has always attended us, intended for us to be. The focus should be on us being disciples and participating in the work of the ministry and making sure that we're equipped for what God has for each and every one of us in this life. And Stephen and the others weren't just some dudes that happen to be available. Man, we really need some people to wait tables. Oh, I mean, I'm not doing anything, I could do it. No, they were men who had been prepared for service to the king. And so the question you might be asking is saying, So what you're saying, Jeff, is I can't really serve Jesus until I've been trained and equipped and I'm spiritually mature. Is that what I'm saying? I had this kid when I was at um Park Church, I made this transition from ministry back to just running my business full time. Okay. And this kid, Daniel, was part of my worship team. He played electric guitar. He started as a teenager. So, you know, 16, 17, he's playing with me in the worship team with Jennifer, you know, and we're we're playing. And then he turned 18 and he sort of just wasn't going anywhere, you know. And right around that same time, I happened to, you know, go push back into the business world. And so I started, you know, doing work on RVs and stuff. And what I did is I said, Daniel, come on, dude, you're working for me. So I took him under my wing. And it was funny because when he started at this point in his life, he had no driver's license, he had no drive, he had no vision, he had no real like world like real world skills. He didn't have much of anything except for a whole bunch of time. And so I took him under my wing, and when he first started, he couldn't even use a drill. You know, just basic tools. He just didn't know how to do it. And so I taught him how to use tools, and I taught him how to do the job. I helped him get his license. We went and found him a car. I taught him how to work hard, you know? It's like it's hot, Jeff. Yeah, and the sooner we get it done, the sooner we're done. We can go back inside. So let's get this done. And it's amazing because God used that time to equip Daniel. And he rose to the occasion, that kid. He became one of my best workers. He was a hard-working kid, just show up, put his head down, put his music in. He would just work all day long, and I'd get drama from these older guys that had more experience and more skill. But Daniel, he'd just work hard all day, get his work done. I never had an issue from Daniel. And what's so cool is that season really God used that to equip him, to build him up, to prepare him for life. Daniel's now a business owner. Daniel is married, has a wife, he has a son now, and he just bought his first house. Yeah, you could applaud for Daniel. He's not here. Maybe he'll see this someday. But my point is that discipleship is not the prerequisite for participation. Daniel didn't need to come to me already trained. He didn't need to come to me already knowing how to take the roof off an RV and put a new one on. He didn't know how to use any, didn't need to know how to use any tools. Participation in the work is one of the most important parts of discipleship. I have to learn by doing things. You know, I didn't go to school to play guitar. I just had to start doing it. My mom showed me the chords she knew, and then I just kept going. I didn't go to school to learn my skills. I had to just do it by working with my dad and showing me how to use tools. Participation in the work is one of the most important parts of discipleship. And so the truth, the thing that I think I wanted you to get here was that discipleship, we tend to think of it as learning. But it's not just accumulating knowledge, it's an overall preparation and becoming who God called you to be. And so another question you might ask is, well, okay, when am I done? When am I done being equipped? And for that I wanted to point back to Ephesians chapter 4. It says, How long does it say that we need to be equipped and be built up? It says until, right? Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So some of these things might be attainable in this life. Like I could see attaining to the unity of the faith. We might be able to strive. That's a difficult one, but if we really press into Jesus and come together and are forgiving and loving toward one another as we grow in Christ together, we might be able to attain to the unity of the faith. Attaining to the knowledge of the Son of God. And I don't think we're going to ever really know in this life everything there is to know about Jesus, but we can, but we can probably know a lot about Jesus and we can know Jesus Himself or maturity. I think spiritual maturity is attainable. But do you think there's any point that we can stop becoming more mature? So that's something that has to keep going. How about this one? To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. When are we going to reach that one? Maybe when we go to heaven. So what's that saying then about our discipleship? It means there's no age limit to becoming more Christ-like. There's no point that we can sit back and declare ourselves mature enough. There's no time when we can stop being equipped. There's no time in this life when we can stop being disciples. I heard a story, um, I've actually heard it a couple times, and I've heard a couple different names behind the story. So I don't know the true source of it, but there was a um uh a Christian teacher, so a pastor, a theologian, okay? And see, he had a terminal illness. He's in a hospital bed, he's he's slowly fading, he's there basically as hospice. He they know he's gonna be going in the next week or week or two, maybe. And his friend went to visit him, and he's going and he's somber, and he comes in the room, and this guy's surrounded in theology textbooks, and he's got the Bible open on his hospital bed, and he's just studying away and writing notes, and the guy comes in and he's like, What are you doing? What are you doing studying theology when you you're you're you don't have much time left? He's like, I just want to be ready, I'm gonna meet the king, you know? I just want to be ready. And that's just such a beautiful picture. Because all of life up to the very end is sanctification. It's all becoming more like Jesus, it's all reflecting Jesus to the world, it's all preaching Jesus with our lives and our words and becoming. The version of us that God desires us to become. And you're like, okay, we'll participate in the life of the church. Yeah, but I can't do all the things I used to be able to do. My mama has trouble walking right now because her knees are hurting her. So she's probably not going to be the one that's going to stack chairs, right? She's going to be the one that does laps around the church. That's not a thing. I don't know. Not everybody can stack chairs, not everybody can preach and teach, not everybody can lead whole ministries, but every member has a place in the body. Because all of us can pray, all of us can encourage, all of us can disciple, all of us can intercede, all of us can serve, all of us can love, all of us can mentor. All of us have our place in the mission of Christ. And so the question is, before we close, what does this mean for faith church? I think the question we need to ask ourselves in this season is this what kind of church are we becoming? And I mean this seriously, like slow down and think about this question. What kind of church are we becoming? And what kind of church would we like to become? Do we want to become just another consumer church? Do we want to become another church that's just trying to attract an audience by improving our music and improving our lighting and improving our production and product our entertainment value and making a little bit better experience? Do we want to? Yeah, I just want to say this. There's nothing wrong with any of that stuff, right? I mean, I want to do the best I can when I'm leading worship up here. I want to play the best I can. I don't want to make mistakes. I want to facilitate worship. I don't want to get in the way by being clunky, right? And playing bad, right? There's nothing wrong with doing these things. But the the point I'm trying to make is these things aren't the point. The point I'm trying to make is those things aren't the point. The point is becoming who Jesus is calling us to be, completing the mission that God has called us to complete. I want to become a church where every person is growing, where every person's praying, where every person is investing in someone, where every person is encouraging someone, where every person is becoming more like Christ and participating in the life of the body according to their own unique calling and how God has wired them. And that's what we see happening in the book of Acts. Stephen didn't just appear out of nowhere. Philip didn't appear out of nowhere. These men were the fruit of the church that was devoted to Christ. It was making disciples, it was equipping believers, it was helping ordinary people to become spiritually mature. And the result of it in verse 7 is 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. Why? Because of their excellent marketing strategy. Because they put a billboard right next to the temple. No. It's because the body became healthier. Disciples matured, and so the mission advanced. One of the things I've been thinking about this week is that the apostles had no idea who Stephen would become. At this point in the story, he's just one of seven. They're like, hey, this kid's mature. He's doing good. Let's put him on in charge of this thing, right? But they have no idea that he's gonna preach one of the greatest sermons in Acts. They'd have no idea that he's gonna become the first martyr. They don't know that his death is gonna be the spark that lights the next movement of the church to Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. They don't know the effect that his martyrdom is gonna have on a young man named Saul who would become the apostle Paul. And church, I don't know who the next Stephen's gonna be. I don't know who's gonna walk through this door in the next year or two or five. And I don't know who God's gonna raise up from the people who are already here, but I do know this. Your calling is not to sit in an audience and just watch ministry happen. Your calling is to become mature disciples of Jesus who pray and grow and serve and encourage and disciple and obey Jesus. And if we devote ourselves to becoming the people Christ has called us to be, then just like in Acts, the Word of God will continue to increase and the disciples will multiply. On the back table, I've played put two papers here. One of them is a list where you can kind of sign up for there's a list of things that we could, you know, that you could participate in there. And so we have changes happening in the church. We're opening up opportunities for people to serve. And this is not because Pastor Jeff needs help. I can keep doing everything myself. I just don't think that's right. Okay, so there's a list in the back for ways that you can participate. Um, there's gonna be changes in audio, visual, and social media that's gonna happen. If you want to participate in that, you can participate in that. Worship team, um, greeters, you know, helping with the snack ministry out here, there's all kinds of ways that we can just participate. And it doesn't have to be this big, long, burdensome thing. It's just a small way that God's gifted you that you can participate in the life of the church. And there's another one back there for discipleship. If you're interested in growing in your faith and becoming the person God's called you to be, and not just trying to spiritually mature on Sunday mornings over the next four decades. Instead, just begin to step into that and become who God's called you to be, then sign up on that discipleship sheet back there and we'll get in touch with you. But um, anyway, I would encourage you to do both of those things. Let's pray.