Back In the Day, Acts 1-9 VI

Um, I'm in my 24th or 5th day of fighting a virus, unlike anything I've ever had in my life. And it's, it's really got a hold on me. I think there's a song that holds me by that. But this thing has gone up and down. It's all upper respiratory. Started in my throat, moved around, went down in coughing, then up my head, sinuses, and landed in my ears. And for the last two weeks, I've had difficulty hearing very well. So if I start yelling, just wave. Or if you can't hear me, wave or stand up. That's why I came a little bit late for worship. Not that I don't love the worship, but it, uh, music just drives me crazy. But nonetheless, I'm looking forward to being with you. And I'm going to be out there to shake all of your hands right after the service. So it'll be safe. I've got the thickest protection that I've got. It's not incommunicable. I am really thrilled to be here. So why don't we pray and look into God's Word together, and let's just believe Him to speak to us tonight. Father, it's such a joy to hear Your name lifted up in worship. It's such a privilege to gather, Father, and know that You are present because Your Word promises that. And therefore, all things are possible in these moments. So let healing break forth, Lord, and let restoration and reconciliation happen. Let those of us who need lifted up and who need hope find that tonight. And may we discover in Your Word the very words of life as You intended them to be. I ask it, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. I want you to take your outline out of your notes if you haven't done so already. How many of you have been following with interest the amazing chain of events that have happened over in the Middle East, particularly in Egypt? Of course, it goes without saying that great implications on that particular situation. Here it is, a nation, I guess you've heard of 80 million people. Did you know that I read that over 50 percent of the adult population under the age of 30 make two dollars a day, and that the gross national income of Egypt is less than the state of Missouri? Friends, why is it such a big deal then? I mean, such a small impact in terms of the global economy. Why? Why? Because of where it's located, right next to the tiny little land of Israel and all that that means. And so we're all watching. I wrote to our friend David Hunter, who is, I think, an expert on what's going on in the Middle East, and he said, just keep watching. Just keep watching. Nations are in play. It's an exciting time to be alive, an exciting time to consider what God is doing. One night I was wondering, as I listened to a commentator who said, you know, how we're watching history in the making, and I thought to myself, yeah, that's 80 million people and all this stuff, and it's national this and that, and it's all over the world media. And I thought, one of the nights I wasn't sleeping real well, how did 500 relatively unknown Jewish people who witnessed the resurrection of an obscure Jewish carpenter in a land that had no media, no exposure, no great outlet to the world, how did those 500 people manage to turn the world upside down in one generation? That's literally, there's a scripture, if we could put that up, Acts 17 and verse 6. This is the, I come back to this frequently. Here it is on the screens for you. These men have turned the world upside down, and they are now coming here to destroy or disturb our city. Talking about Paul and Silas and the spread of the gospel. You know, if you're a skeptic or a doubter, we're glad you're here to check things out. But for that reason alone, many people have given credibility to the power of the gospel, because in one generation, the world was affected. Now, 2,000 years later, here we are, two billion strong around the world, believing in this one man, Jesus Christ, who died on a cross for our sins, was resurrected, sent it into heaven, and poured out His Spirit. And if you put your trust in Him, you can know blessed assurance. You can know peace. You can know with certainty your eternal destiny. You know, even social historians acknowledge Jesus as the most influential man who ever lived. And though He never wrote a book, never left His little tiny nation less than the size of Vermont, and lived only 33 years, Jesus changed the world. So how did He manage to create something so strong that it would withstand horrible persecution, government onslaughts? You know, Nero burned Rome to the ground, and then turned and blamed the Christians, and had them murdered by the masses, martyrdoms. Throughout the early centuries, Christians, as you know, if you've read about the Colosseum and all that, they just suffered horrific persecution. How did the church manage to not just exist, but to thrive? It's absolutely and utterly amazing. It's just a story, isn't it? It's just a pure story level. But the answer, friends, is all around us. Just look around right now. Not at the walls, but look at one another. The answer is Jesus left His Spirit with His church, and that's you, the people. Now, we've been in the midst of this, and from your feedback, this incredibly engaging series that we've entitled, Back in the Day. And if you've been attending, you're probably thinking right now, well, the reason why the church was successful, and the reason why it withstood all that, and the reason why it persevered, and has lasted and endured, especially back then, was because of the great demonstrations of power that we read about, and the signs and wonders that Pastor Kurt talked about a couple weeks ago, and the radical community that Pastor Kent mentioned last week, and the devotion to prayer and teaching, and all those things. And see, up until now, we've not seen any kind of problems in the church. The church was just on a roll, and the people were being engaged and embraced, and there was love amongst them unlike anything people had ever seen. But how many of you know that somewhere along the line, the church started to encounter problems? How many of you know somebody who said, well, I believe in God, but I don't like the church? Anyone ever talk something like that? I do all the time. The famous theologian John Lennon said this. Come on, John. Jesus was all right, but His disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me. I mean, that's how a lot of people say, I don't buy Jesus. He was, Jesus was all right. You're thick and what, ordinary. But I want to just submit to you there's something different going on. Let's be clear. How many of you are here today, and you've either heard of or been part of a church where there was just a series of conflicts, one after the other. People didn't get along, and maybe you were there for a while. It was your home church, and finally you just got so fed up, you just left. How many people been or heard of a church like that? I mean, to be really honest, almost all of us have probably at one time, if you've been in a spiritual journey, have been part of a church where there's been conflict after conflict, and splits, and division, and the church just never seemed to get along. Well, today we're going to see that this early church also faced problems. Now, I love this, the way we set up the teaching schedule. All the teaching pastors get the miracles, and the signs, and the wonders, and the radical, and I get the problem passage. I appreciate their favor. But the reality is, the Lord's going to show us today how we can take a problem and turn it into a success. Now, how many of you would like to see that happen in your life? Every problem you face moves you on up to the next level. Anybody up for that at a personal level and at a corporate level? We'll see how to do it in this passage. Now, this isn't on your outline, but there are three what I'm going to call pauses in this message where I'm just going to share my heart for a moment. Not on your notes, but they're very important. This is the first one. I'll be real honest with you. From the platform especially, whether it be here or on any of our campuses, we don't talk about our problems that much, and no church does. And the reason is, we feel a compelling mission to lift you up, to encourage you, because we know how much weight you carry throughout the week. We want to send you out here with hope, and a sense of confidence in God in you, and wisdom to live in the world. And so, we don't talk a lot about problems. We don't make that public discourse. But the reality is, friends, that we face problems, and conflicts, and challenges all the time. And that the evil one, if he possibly could, would cause this church, like so many others, to divide, and split up, and go away. Because we are so intent in advancing the mission of Jesus. Now, I'm talking here just about simple cosmetic things. We get the, you know, the weekly sort of input from everybody about what they don't like, about what people wear, or the lights, or the sound, or whatever. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about real issues. I'm talking about relational issues. I'm talking about people who are struggling with the way things are, all that kind of stuff. But if we learn to face these real issues, that really ultimately are an attack on our unity as a church. If we face them with openness, and humility, and a blend of practical and spiritual leadership, well, guess what happens? God puts his hand of blessing on you, and you just keep on growing and deepening in the grace of God. That's what we're going to look at today. Now, let's read the text. I'm a lot farther along in the message than you think, so don't be worried. In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the twelve, that's the apostles, gathered all the disciples, that's all the other followers together, and said, it would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the Word of God in order to wait on tables. So brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom, and we will turn this responsibility over to them, and we will give our attention to prayer and ministry of the Word. Now, this proposal pleased the whole group, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Acanter, and Timmon, and Prometheus, and Nicholas, and Manioc, who was a convert to Judaism. And they presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid their hands on them. And verse number seven, so the Word of God spread, and the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. We'll come back to that in a moment. So, what was the conflict that the people were facing? Well, notice that it was a consequence of them growing. The number of disciples was growing, and so with growth comes the potential for problems, right? I mean, it's true of, in my experience of any organization, the church not accept it. Churches who are growing, or churches that are growing, have problems because there are more people, there are more things to manage, and so on, so on. But can I tell you something? Churches that are stagnant and dying have even worse problems because the people start to devour each other and turn inward. So, the early church was facing this problem. The Hebraic Jews, and those were the basically, the commentators would say, the purer Jews, the ones who lived in Jerusalem and Judea, and the ones who spoke probably Aramaic of the time, the ones that were closer to the heart of the center, or where the temple was, and so on. And the Grecian Jews were the ones that a little more spread out. It's not real clear who they were. They probably spoke, they were Jewish, but they may have spoken the Koine, or for common Greek of the time. But what this indicates is that there was some diversity in the church, and the widows of these two groups, when it came time for them to get food, remember last week, Pastor Ken talked about radical sharing? Well, the widows needed some food, and so when they sat down at the tables, the Grecian widows seemed to get overlooked some. They didn't get as much, or maybe none at all at times, and so finally people spoke and said, this isn't right. Now, I don't believe this was a willful or intentional discrimination. I just think it was a function of the size of things, and the fact that the Grecian Jews would have tended to be just a little more withdrawn, because they were not at the center of the action, if you will. They were not part of the core. But at its root, I want to just underscore again, it was an attack on the unity of the church. Now, just to be clear, how many of you are not surprised that the first real conflict in the church was about food? How many of you grew up in a family with some siblings, brothers and sisters, and food was a big issue in your family? How many know what I'm talking about? When it came time for you to get the cereal that you wanted in the morning, it was gone already, right? Or if you wanted that, you know, the certain cookie or something, those kinds of things. I mean, food, whatever it was, if you were in a family, I mean, it was whoever got there first got the most, right? Food was a big thing, and it's just part of life, and it's an important thing to us, and so, you know, we're still kind of protective of it, right? I want to tell you, my kids are long gone. My brothers and sisters, I mean, they've forgiven me, but it's still happening in my house. And my dear wife, we came back from the cheesecake factory, and I didn't finish my whole piece of cheesecake. I tucked that little morsel away. Not that day, but the next. Late at night, I awakened, and I just couldn't sleep. I just needed something sweet. It would be so good. I went down, and I started rummaging through the refrigerator. Where's that cheesecake? And you know, my wife is, I mean, she hardly eats anything, and she had snarfed my cheesecake down that night. The next morning, I got up. I said, look, did you have cheesecake last night? Her face got so red. Friends, there's potential division when food is involved. No, I said, happy Valentine's Day, and we're fine. Now, notice what the apostles did. This is brilliant, okay? This is what they did. The council of the apostles, number two. The apostles gathered the people together, and made an administrative decision to address the problem. I want you to notice this. Not everything that happens in the church is deeply spiritual. Someone could have said, oh, there's some kind of spirit of greed here. We got to pray. No, they just said, right, we got a problem. We need to fix it. I love this sort of hands-on. Let's take the problem on and get it fixed. They made a very swift decision, which quelled the complaining, and that word complaining, by the way, is the same word that you see in the Old Testament when the people complained against Moses and his leadership. What did that cost them? Remember, what was the penalty of their complaining? Forty years of wandering in the desert. So, don't think that this wasn't a deal. I mean, again, this was an attack on the unity of the church. Their decision helped to create a leap forward in the organizational structure, which we'll look at in a moment, and it resulted in even more growth, as I've already mentioned. Now, that's what I call discerning leadership. That's what I call the kind of leadership that helps a healthy church keep on going and fulfilling its mission to spread the good word of who Jesus was. So, here's what they did. They gathered all the disciples. So, it was a manageable number of people, and they said, look, it wouldn't be right for us to neglect the ministry of the Word of God for this problem. Now, notice they didn't say, we're better than you, and we do the praying and the teaching. I, it's very important that you see that. I think they just feared that the Lord had said, look, you're to teach and share and minister what I give you from the Word of God, and not to be distracted with a practical problem. So, here's what they said. They turned to the disciples. They said, you fix the problem, friends. You take care of it. You go out and choose, and we have a little outline of this. You go out and choose seven men from amongst yourself, and there were three qualifications. First of all, they had a good reputation. In other words, they had managed their lives well and their families. They were full of the Spirit and wisdom. Now, I just want you to soak on those three, because wherever you are in your journey, those are three character qualities and spiritual qualities to cover for anyone who wants to be a real servant of the Lord. And so, they said, you pick those folks out, and we'll bless them, and lay hands on them, and send them in, and they'll fix the problem. Letter B, this was a brilliant idea. The apostles held fast to their calling, which was their ministry of the Word and prayer, and they assigned the fixing of this distribution of the food to these seven men. Now, by the way, the word for distribution is the word diakonia, which, if you're picking up, that's the word from which we get deacon. Some say this was the origination of the office of the deacon. Isn't it interesting that the first place in the Bible where we see someone appointed to an office was in serving others? This was before elders even existed. Interesting, huh? Second big pause, friends, okay? Remember, I said three. Here's the second one. Make no mistake of one thing that I treasure in my heart. Whatever blessing, whatever effectiveness, whatever success, whatever impact this church has had in this city over the last 30 years has not been primarily because of what's happened up here. It's been primarily because of what you have done out there, your willingness to pick up a towel and to serve, to get your hands dirty with some kids, to go on a retreat and just give your time away, to come alongside someone who's sick and help them through it, to be part of a group that's growing and maybe serving them by leading them through a Bible study, to be someone out there in the parking lot in a cold day that helps others to get in, to be a greeter out in the lobby, to serve by doing something as basic as putting the notes together as a group of our seniors do every Friday faithfully. That thing you hold in your hand doesn't just magically appear, friends. People sit down and make it happen. And I'm here to say that we've made a difference as a church because you've, many of you, have learned that God's given you a ministry. Listen, it was Jesus who said even more profoundly that the greatest of all wouldn't be the preacher necessarily, as many people unfortunately think, or the television guy or the worship leader or whoever, the miracle, it would be the servant of all. And so I want to just again encourage you even more that when you do something like this, when you, you know, serve behind the scenes as a tech person or you you go to visit someone who's shut in and no one has done that for a while, Jesus said when you do it to the least of these, you are doing it to me. One of the most motivating things in my life to do some of the things that are hard for me to do, go on a hospital visit with someone who's really, really hurting, is a reminder that I'm visiting Jesus. And I want you to know whatever you do, you're doing it unto Him. And you know what? The responsibility that we have up here is simply to equip you to do that well. If you could put up Ephesians, I skipped over the, Matthew, put up the Ephesians 4, 11, and 12 if we still have that, guys. Thanks so much. See, it was He, that is the Spirit, who gave some to be apostles and prophets, evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, here's why, to prepare God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up. My function, our function as teaching pastors is to help you to be successful, and God has abundant blessing. For some of you, the Christian life has not been fulfilling only because you haven't yet discovered what your ministry is, and I recognize this. Maybe you just never understood it until today. Maybe you think, I don't have time to be doing that kind of thing, I'm really busy. You know what? Right next to wherever you are, there's somebody who probably needs a touch, and God's put you there, and you don't know, you just haven't tuned into it yet, and if you just need equipped, we can help you with that. We can help you learn how to be confident. Here's my third and final pause. To the best that we know, it's just a calculation, about a third of the church overall, and all the campuses, a third of the people who regularly attend are involved in some sort of meaningful service that we know about. That means two-thirds of us kind of come, enjoy what happens, and then we go. Now, that's a guesstimate. Maybe the number's higher. Maybe in a small group things happen, and so I'm not discounting it, but I just wonder what would happen if all of us said, Lord, show me what my ministry is. Show me how I can become part of the solution to a problem and a need. This church would become transformed, and people would be drawn to it by the thousands. I'm telling you why. Here's how I know it. I'll turn you out. Look, just turn your outline over. The consequences of their action was this. The church grew even more. It says many, right? The Word of God spread, and the number of disciples increased rapidly, and so the speed of growth even happened. Why? Because unity attracts. When there's a buzz going, people want to be there, don't they? Have you ever seen that? I'll never forget the first time I drove up to Saddleback Church way out in Southern California, and I got there kind of early, like a lot of you, you know, to get there pretty early, get your seat, and there were already parking lots filling up, and there were people in the parking lot helping each car to park. Got out of the door, was greeted, and I walked up a long way. There were people, I don't know, every 30 feet or so, I was just saying, hey, good morning. The closer I got, I could hear music, and then I more people just handing me things, and I got into the place. The buzz was so exciting before the service even started. This was probably 10 or 12 years ago, that I couldn't wait, because I could tell that those people believed that something dynamic and life-changing was going to happen in their church. Unity draws people. It always has, and it always will, and the more we serve, the more we do, and the more we participate, the more we will see these potential conflicts just vanish in front of us. The steam rolled out of the way of the Spirit. Now friends, we're gonna have conflicts. Later on when we read in Acts, you're gonna see the conflicts get even more profound, and we'll hit that in Acts chapter 15, but this must never keep us from our primary mission, which is what? What's our mission, friends? To free people to follow Jesus, right? And we need, if nothing else, let me just kind of end with this. We need many of you to pick up the mantle to say to a world that's kind of searching, can I share with you something I've discovered? I mean, it may not be right for everybody, but it really worked for me. I had just a wonderful brief exchange with one of our really bright, sharp, young interns who's serving full-time here at North Way at a minimal salary to try to discover his calling in ministry, and here's what he told me. He said, you know, I'm just so aware that sometimes I've got to go where the people who don't go to church go because they won't go to church. How many of you find that's true? Many of your friends don't even want to go to church. So last Saturday night, maybe a couple Saturday nights ago, he and his buddy from here in the church decided to go to one of the local sports bars, which I won't name, where they know that they show on Saturday night the mixed martial arts competition. You know what that is? That's where they teach people how to basically kill each other one way or another. I mean, it's just really violent stuff, but so they walk in this sports bar and all these bars, and they made a commitment that they would sit at the bar and one guy would talk to the guy on his side, and the other guy would talk to the guy on the other side. Well, I'm sitting here talking, and I said, what's your guy like? And he said, he said, Jay, he was covered from here to everything I could see down to here with tattoos, and he was proud of him, and he started telling me what this one was and this one wasn't, you know, and he lifted up his shirt, and he had a big Harley on his chest. He said, it was the perfect segue to the car cruise. I see you're in the, and the car cruise led to talking about the church, and he said, yeah, what goes on up there? I mean, that place all, you know, and that led to talking about all the things that God is doing, and then ultimately to how Jesus had changed his life. Now, that might sound a bit corny to some of you or a little extreme. Can I say, I have a word for that? That took a lot of guts. I don't have that kind of guts. I just want to share Jesus. I want people around me to know it, don't you? And the church exists for that reason. The minute we give up on fulfilling our mission is when the blessing of God will be lifted from us, and if we continue to fulfill it, if we continue to move forward, it will be here like it was back in the day. Here are your three primary takeaways. Number one, we will not, I'm sorry, we will take on conflicts and not cover them up. So, when things happen, you can count on us to say, all right, let's confront these things, because if we do, God's going to bless us, and we're going to move forward, and he's going to increase his power upon us. Number two, we will seek to be part of the answer and believe that God can and will use every one of us. In other words, if you see something that you can make a difference in, step in and do it, and if you're not sure what to do, come to a pastor or come to one of the here. How do I do it? I want to, I want God to use me, and then finally, we will expect God to keep increasing the number of people that come to Jesus, and I want to add to that, and the presence of his blessing upon us as we face our conflicts. Let God use us and turn this into a place where he changes lives day in and day out, because we have committed ourselves to serving him. Back in the day, the church had conflicts, but the conflicts made them stronger. Friends, if you have a conflict today, believe today that God wants to use you now to make yourself stronger because of it. Let's stand and pray. Lord, I know that these words can sound somewhat challenging and difficult, but I am so encouraged, Lord, so encouraged by the Spirit in this church that has always stepped up in times of need, in times of opportunity, and such as we have now times of growth, and with so many new people, and so many people hungry to know more of who Jesus is. Help us all, Father, to face the things in our lives personally and corporately that will enable us to sense the blessing of your Spirit and believe that you will bring us through victoriously. In Jesus' name, amen. Now, just before you're seated, remember that young guy I just told you about, the one that went to the bar? We've got a couple of young couples like that, intern couples, who they're selling out to serve here, and they need some housing. Now, I don't know if any of you, I'm going to share this with all the services here in Wexford. If you know of a place, maybe you have ownership of a place or access to a place that's, you know, a decent place, no junk here, no, you know, there's a few holes in the roof and the water doesn't, no, I'm talking about a place that you could make available to a couple, a reasonable rent, or maybe you have an in-law apartment that has its own, you know, kind of entry that you're not using, and you'd love to, you want to be blessed, have a couple, a sharp couple, just share that home with you, would you just let me know? Call my office and talk to me personally about it, and I'll put you in touch with these couples, and you can talk to them and see if it might be a way for you to solve a potential problem and make it a blessing in your life, all right? Go ahead and be seated. Pastor Kenneth, we have great announcements here that keep you up to speed. Great. Thanks, Pastor Jay. You know, many times when we come to this portion of our service, a lot of people pack up their gear and get ready to go. Well, I want to remind us that we're not done.