Read Acts 6:1-7 Completing the Mission That Jesus Began Organization of the Church Acts 6:1-7 Page 1 of 10 The first church was reaching people for Christ and growing rapidly. As a result, I am sure there were many problems that arose. One of those problems was recorded for us in is this passage. The Grecian Jews complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the church chose 7 men filled with the Spirit and with wisdom to meet the needs of the widows. This is an example of the church creating a ministry and an organizational structure to meet needs and to facilitate growth. To be organized simply means that something functions in an orderly and efficient way. 1 Corinthians 14:40 But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way. NIV The God of the Bible is a God of organization not chaos. God s creation is extremely well organized. Your body is so organized that it operates year after year without any adjustments. From the microcosm, to the macrocosm, every dimension of God's creation is organized. We can see from the Scripture that God wants His church to have good organizational structure.
Page 2 of 10 There's been a long running debate about how the church should be organized and how much it should be organized. There are two extremes when it comes to organization. One is no organization at all, where chaos reigns. The other is organization that is so structured with multiple layers of bureaucracy that it inhibits creativity and flexibility. Often times churches create bureaucracy because there is a lack of trust or a desire to control. Ill. There was a pastor who asked a talented Christian musician who was not a member of the church to come to the church to play the keyboard and sing and lead the worship in the Sunday morning service. The pastor agreed to pay the person $50. One of the members thought that was too much. That church member received $50 for cutting the grass. So he came to the next business meeting of the church and made a motion in a business meeting that they should never pay more than $25 for someone to lead the worship music. The motion passed. From that point on, it was the law. Sometimes churches unknowingly create an organization that is so ridged and unchangeable that in essence they are telling the Holy Spirit that He must operate within their structure or not operate at all. When it comes to organization, one extreme is just as bad as the other extreme. We are going to look at three aspects of the organization created by the first church.
Page 3 of 10 The reasons: Why did the church need organization? The requirements: What were the requirements and parameters for the organization? The results: What happened when the church created the organization? T.S. Let s begin with 1. The reasons: Why did the church need organization? In Acts 6:1, we see reasons. Acts 6:1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, NIV (1.) The number of disciples was increasing rapidly. That s a great problem to have. God wants His church to grow. So the church should expect this kind of problem if it is doing what God expects. Notes that the 12 apostles are serving as the pastors of the church. You could call them the elders or overseers or pastors of the church. The terms pastor, elder, and overseer are used to refer to the same office in the New Testament. There were more people than the 12 men could care for. That was true from the first day that the church started and now there were many more. A conservative guess would be about 20 and 30 thousand. Now that's a large congregation and a large administrative responsibility.
Page 4 of 10 With fast growth, there is need to adjust and create organization. The church was a few months old and it had 20,000-30,000 people. They had to create organization for that growth to continue and to take advantage of the fantastic opportunity God had given them. The church must have had some organization already. Several times Luke tells us how many believers there were, which meant somebody was counting the people and probably writing it down. Luke got his information somewhere. (2.) There were tremendous spiritual needs. These were all new believers and needed to be taught the teachings of Christ. With so many people, just handling the spiritual needs of the believers was a great challenge. (3.) On top of that, there were physical needs of caring for the poor among them like the widows. Making sure that the poor got the food they needed, collecting the money, purchasing the food, and distributing it was a great challenge. There was preparation to be done for the worship services and Lord's Supper. Somebody had to figure out how many people were going to be there so there was enough food. Someone had to decide when and where the church was going to meet and who was going to teach. Somehow they had to communicate with all the members. The number of home groups must have been tremendous. Someone had to baptize all the people that were coming to faith in Christ. Can you imagine the pressure the apostles were under? Church members had to have taken responsibility for all of
Page 5 of 10 these things and many more. The 12 could not have done it by themselves. In addition to all of that, the church was in the process of beginning to fulfill the four-fold goal that Christ had given them in Acts 1:8 you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. NIV They had filled Jerusalem with the teachings about Jesus (Acts 5:28) and they were beginning to move out into the provinces of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria. They were on the threshold of a great movement of God. Acts 6:1 the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. NIV (4.) This problem could have easily divided the church along ethnic lines. This would have been devastating because, to be effective in reaching people the church must be united. So it had to be dealt with in the appropriate way. As soon as the church gets on the threshold of something big, Satan always begins to work. Satan has three tactics he uses. One tactic is persecution. It may be emotional persecution, like ostracizing the believer from society or ridiculing him. Sometimes it is losing his job, imprisonment, or even physical abuse. Satan uses these kinds of tactics to attempt to get the Christians to lose their nerve and to become afraid to share Christ. Satan used this tactic on the first church.
Page 6 of 10 The Sanhedrin flogged the disciples and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus. Acts 5:40 Much of the energy of the church today is spent trying to get the saints out of the pew and into the world boldly telling people about Jesus. In most churches in America, most of the members are afraid to tell anyone about Jesus. The church that cannot get its members to tell others about Christ will die. The second tactic is living a sinful lifestyle. Satan tries to get church members to live a lifestyle that is incongruent with the teachings of Christ. He did that with Ananias and Sapphira. The third tactic is dissention. Get the church members so busy fighting with each other, that their witness is lost in hypocrisy and their energy is dissipated in internal quarreling. That s what Satan does in Acts 6. Now there were two kinds of Jews in the church. The Hebraic Jews that were born in Palestine their native language was Aramaic. There were also Grecian Jews or the Hellenist Jews that were born and reared outside of the Jewish state. This group included Gentile converts to Judaism who had become Christians like Nicolas from Antioch (Acts 6:5). The Grecian Jews could not speak Aramaic, they spoke Greek and the native languages of the country in which they were born. They lived in Asia Minor, North Africa, and other parts of the world. They had maintained Jewish heritage and came back to Jerusalem for Passover and Pentecost each year. In the Jewish world, ethnic tensions existed between the Grecian Jews and the Hebraic Jews. Hebraic Jews tended to
Page 7 of 10 looked down on Grecian Jews. This had to be dealt with because there is no room for prejudice or racism in the church of Jesus Christ. It is incongruent with all that He taught. The 12 recognized the problem, but there were higher priorities and they couldn't do both. God had called these men to the ministry of the Word and prayer. That had to take priority. Ill. One time a young man came to a great Bible teacher and said to him, "I'd give the world if I could be able to teach the Bible like you do." The teacher looked the young man in the eye and said, "Yes, and that's exactly what it will cost you. The apostles knew that. It takes lots of self-discipline to teach the Word of God. Notes: the words serve and ministry are the same word in Greek, (dee-ak-on-eh'-o). What the Apostles are saying is, We'll serve in the ministry of Word; and you serve in this ministry. It does not mean that this was the only thing the 7 did. The seven were telling people about Jesus as were all the members. We certainly see that in the life of Stephen and Phillip. In Ephesians 4, it says that the Lord has given to the church apostles, prophets, teaching pastors, and evangelists to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry (dee-ak-on-eh'- o). T.S. So those are The reasons why they needed the organization? What are
2. The requirements: What were the requirements and parameters for the organization? Acts 6:3 choose seven men from among you. Page 8 of 10 (1.) The leaders or servants or ministers for this ministry came from the congregation. (2.) They were chosen by congregation. (3.) They were approved by the apostles. Acts 6:6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. NIV The laying on of hands signified an identification and solidarity with them and an approval of them in their ministry. (4.) They were to have a reputation of integrity and wisdom. Acts 6:3 known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. NIV They were to be controlled by the Holy Spirit, dead to self and living according to the Spirit dictates. They were to have knowledge of the matter to be dealt with. Notice all seven names are Greek. They chose Grecian Jews. They knew how to address the needs. Nicolas was a Gentile. He had converted to Judaism and became a follower of Christ. By placing these Grecian Jews and a Gentile in leadership, they helped to conquer prejudice in the church. (5.) The responsibility was delegated. (Acts 6:3 We will turn this responsibility over to them NIV.) There was no
Page 9 of 10 micromanagement by the church. This was an empowered team. There was trust and so they were empowered to carry out the ministry unencumbered by unnecessary bureaucracy. This is how God had the church address the problem. T.S. We have seen the reasons, the requirements. So what were 3. The results? What happened when the church got organized as the Spirit directed? Acts 6:7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, NIV (1.) There were more ministers, servants, leaders. (2.) The apostles who were serving as the pastors of the church had more time to pray and teach the Word. (3.) The church was united and harmonious. (4.) Prejudice was overcome. (5.) The members of the church were telling people about Christ and the number of people being saved increased rapidly. (6.) Acts 6:7 a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. NIV This was probably a hard group to reach. I image that any priest that became a believer would have been kicked out of the priesthood and out of the temple. He lost his job and his livelihood. So there was a real spiritual awakening among the priests.
The church was a beautifully functioning organic organization fulfilling the Great Commission. Page 10 of 10 Can you imagine what Satan thought? Shot down again. He tried to sow discord and it resulted in beautiful unity and harmony and the growth of the church. 4. Lessons Learned: (1.) The church is to accommodate what the Spirit is doing. It should be the Holy Spirit who dictates how ministry is done, not the organizational structure. (2.) God wants His church to have good organization that facilitates fulfilling the Great Commission. (3.) The church needs to create organizational structures to facilitate ministry so that it can function smoothly and efficiently. (4.) Those chosen to lead ministry should be full of the Spirit and wisdom. They should be trustworthy and knowledgeable. (5.) Ministry teams should be empowered with no micromanagement. (6.) The organization of the church should be flexible, simple, and changeable as the Holy Spirit leads.