140525 The Church in Conflict

Acts 6:1-7 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. ² And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. ³ 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. ⁴ But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” ⁵ And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. ⁶ These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

⁷ And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit called together the beginning of the church. It was immediately recognized that it would be an international church with branches in all parts of the Roman Empire! The core of the church was men and women who were primarily local Jews. There were some from Jerusalem and Judea and there were some from Galilee and perhaps even Samaria. On the day of Pentecost people were called to faith in Christ from Parthia, Media, Elam, Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Pontius, the province of Asia, Phergia, Pamphylia, Egypt and Libya as well as visitors from Rome. They all heard the gospel in their own language.

So far as we know, there was no “unknown tongue” on the day of Pentecost. Those who talk about speaking in tongues as a Pentecostal experience need to recognize that the experience of speaking in an unknown tongue came later, if at all! What did happen and would be very pleasing to all missionaries is that suddenly the disciples who had been in the upper room were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in known languages so that the gospel could get out clearly to the great crowd gathered for the celebration. Suddenly the church went from, maybe 500, to more than 3000. Some people have a problem with 3000 being baptized by immersion in the same day. There are more than 100 people who could do the baptizing and there were many baptisteries available that were used by the people when they entered the temple as a part of a cleansing ceremony. So there were plenty of places to baptize and plenty of people to do the baptizing. Beginning with 3000 converts on the day of Pentecost…

The emphasis of Acts is on growth. Let’s look at several passages of Scripture beginning with Acts 2:41.  So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. That influx of new believers was not “a flash in the pan”. This was part of an ongoing process as we see in verse 47. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.  They went about their day-to-day activities and as they did so we see the result in Acts 4:4. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand. As the new believers continue to share their experience with Christ many more believers are added and it’s interesting to me that they actually kept a count of the total number of people (men at least) but by Acts 5:14 they began to lose count. And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, notice that here they included “men and women” in the multitudes. As of today, we are not seeing in the church in America anything like that kind of growth! But if we will follow the pattern of the first century church something important will happen. Let’s look at Acts 6:7. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. The key to their growth was not found in the variety of their Sunday worship or in the quality of their music. Their growth was not based on their fine buildings (they had none)! The key to their growth was found in the fact that the word of God continued to increase and as a result the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. Many of those who came to faith were priests. The priests had been the primary opponents of the new church which, by the way, was called by some the Way! Any time the people of God are making significant headway the enemy moves in. Whenever the Holy Spirit is at work…

Satan brings conflict. Listen to Peter’s experience found in 1 Peter 5:8-11.  Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. ¹⁰ And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. ¹¹ To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

If Satan cannot keep us from salvation, he will do everything possible to keep us from being useful to the kingdom of God. As Peter had come to understand, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for anyone who is weak so he can pull them down! We need to remember that the Bible also says, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9) Never feel like you’re all alone when the enemy attacks you. However, any time things are running smoothly and people are coming to faith in Christ the devil will try to throw a wrench into the gears and bring the progress to a halt. As the church began to grow it became necessary for the apostles to take care of the needy because they were being cut off from the temple system. We have no evidence that the apostles had a meeting and set up a food bank and a clothing ministry it seems that that was simply and quickly done by God. As soon as the church began to grow…

A system had been put in place. We can see how the Lord began to move as recorded in Acts 4:34-35. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold ³⁵ and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

I believe this is a record of individuals selling land and houses that they owned. I doubt that the people were selling their homes. Of course, that might’ve been the case. People with a nice large home might be willing to sell it and move into a smaller place. We know that Barnabas began the process when he sold a piece of land that he owned and brought the money to the apostles to take care of needs in the Fellowship. But the record in the book of Acts tells us that as the body grew it became harder and harder to provide for the needs of all those without some serious organization. So…

Conflict began to arise. Listen while I read Acts 6:1. 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.

Greek was the language of the Roman world and many of the Jewish people adopted Greek as their spoken language. These were known at the time as Hellenists. Those who spoke the language of Israel were called Hebrews. In the beginning of the church all of the leadership were Hebrews. Naturally, they had day-to-day contact with the others who spoke their language. So very rapidly there came to be two parties in church. Greek speaking and Hebrew speaking. Satan saw the opportunity and moved right in! The Hellenists were not being cared for as well as the Hebrews and they began to complain. Complaining wasn’t the problem! Lack of organization was the problem. One of the gifts of the Spirit is administration and the spirit moved in the apostle’s minds and gave them a little direction. In fact, the direction was amazing! Remember, anytime the enemy attacks our God knows what to do. Satan came in like a roaring lion and…

The Holy Spirit had an answer. Let’s see what happened by reading Acts 6:3-6. 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. ⁴ But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” ⁵ And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. ⁶ These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

The apostles immediately called a business meeting and had a plan for how to settle the problem. I suppose there was more than one way but this is the one that God guided them in. Instead of the apostles appointing men to guide the benevolence program of the church, they called for nominations from the floor! Guided by the Holy Spirit they knew that the body of believers would have wisdom to solve this problem. They asked for seven men to be chosen. We do not know what the process was in choosing these men. But when the meeting ended the apostles appointed the seven that were chosen. I think it’s important to note that the apostles did not choose them. Instead, the body of believers chose them! It’s not obvious to the English speaking person how important this decision was.

Let’s compare what they did to what our own government is doing today. A select committee has been appointed by the House of Representatives. Since the Republicans are in the majority this committee is made up of seven Republicans and five Democrats. That’s not at all what was done in the early church.

All seven man were Hellenists. Even though I’m sure the Hebrews were in the majority, the church chose seven men of the minority party to make the decisions about the daily distribution of benevolence. It’s important to note that these men were men full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit. That’s the kind of men we need in roles of leadership in the church and also in our government.

We too live in a changing world…

Today, there is growth in the church.  I recently looked at a news report and found this information: in 1900, there were approximately 10 million Christians in Africa. By the year 2000, there were 360 million. By 2025, conservative estimates see that number rising to 633 million. Those same estimates put the number of Christians in Latin America in 2025 at 640 million and in Asia at 460 million. The sad part of the whole report is that Christianity appears to be declining in Europe and North America. The areas where there is decline is where liberalism dominates the church. The areas where there is growth is where biblical conservatism dominates the church.

There hs not been a significant revival of Christianity in North America in more than 100 years. In fact, about 100 years ago liberalism began take over the church.

Let me tell you about a Chinese man by the name of John Sung. He was the son of a Methodist pastor and he came to America to study so he could be a professor in China. He went to a major university in the Midwest where he was taught that the Bible is just simply a book of fables. This was confusing to him since he had always believed the Bible was the word of God and fully to be trusted. After completing university studies he decided that he had to go somewhere to regain his faith. He could not return to China believing what he now believed. So he enrolled in seminary and found that they were teaching the same things. The liberal theology of the day was no help to him. He turned to his Bible and began to read. He was told by the professors that, of course, Jonah is just a fairytale because there is no known fish that can swallow a man and him stay alive. Also, he was told, among many other things, that there could not have been a worldwide flood.

As he studied his Bible he found that Jesus spoke of Jonah as a real experience and the flood was a real event! He said that he had a life-changing experience from reading the Bible. Very soon the professors at the seminary had him confined in an insane asylum where he stayed for 193 days. Since he was a foreign national he was isolated from the general population. So far as the doctors could see he was not harmful to anyone so they allowed him to have his Bible and he spent that time studying the word.

John was released and returned to China to lead in one of the greatest revivals of the 20^th century. Satan tried to destroy his witness through the teaching of theological liberalism. God intervened and put him somewhere where he could study and grow spiritually for the benefit of China.

The same tactics, on a much wider scale, seemed to be being effective in Europe and North America. I want you to know something, God is not deaf to the prayers of his people and his arm is not weak! At the right time he will bring about great revival. In fact, he may use missionaries from Africa and Asia to bring about the revival. Please Lord, don’t delay in changing the hearts and minds of people!

The mixed growth of the church today is…

Just as Jesus had promised. Let’s look at the account in Matthew 13:47-50.”  “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. ⁴⁸ When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. ⁴⁹ So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous ⁵⁰ and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The kingdom of heaven is the church in the world today. Of course, it includes all those who go before and who will come later. But our concern is for what is going on around us right now.

The church is a mixed catch and pretty fishy! A net has been cast across the world and many different people are being gathered up by it. It will be full sometime. I don’t know when the net will be full but when it is it will be drawn in and the angels will take charge of the harvest. Just as Jesus promised…

God will sort out the good from the bad.

There is a real danger in trying too hard to make sure the church is pure. I am not suggesting that we should not insist on good teaching and sound theology. But I am saying, from past experience, that only God can sort out the good from the bad.

I remember a pastor was saying that when he was in seminary he pastored a church on the weekends. During his course of study one of his subjects was “Church Discipline”. After being thoroughly indoctrinated he went to his church and preached a few sermons on “church discipline”. The result was that they removed from the church roles about half their membership in an effort to make the church pure. He then said that about six months later it became obvious that they had removed the wrong half of the church! We need to be careful how we exercise church discipline.

We are, right now, not blessed with being a part of the growth of the church locally. Yet I’m convinced that God is preparing for a revival in the United States and the Western world. My prayer is that it will happen during my lifetime. When it happens there will be many problems as thousands of people come to faith in Christ and fit together as part of the body of believers. The enemy will bring in false teachers, and already has. Some people will simply be confused and need instruction. Others will be hesitant to do what God is leading them to because they think they have to do it in their own strength. Again and again throughout history the church has repeated the problems of the book of Acts. Always the Holy Spirit sorts out the problem and guides the local church to a good answer. One thing for sure you can always trust God to give his people the organization they need to do his ministry. Have you trusted him as Lord? Today is the day for you to become part of the answer.

All scripture quotes are from: The Holy Bible: English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.