What about us?
I can’t leave this subject without pointing out the responsibility of the believer. God uses the believer in many ways to build His church. For this position I will turn to the 6th chapter of Acts and look in verses 1-7. In verse 1 we see that disciples were multiplied which is our commandment. We are to go and make disciples. The number of disciples was multiplied: Multiplied meant to them that souls were added to the kingdom and the church was growing. I need to mention here that growing pains were felt as the church was growing just like it happens now-days. There were two sides involved in this church, the Grecian Jews and the Hebrews. Apparently the Hebrews were being slighted and there was some complaining going on. We see in verse 2 the Apostles were responsible for the church and they had to carry out both a spiritual ministry and a material ministry of helping the needy.
The church then lived very close. They shared everything and knew what everyone was doing. They had everything in common and probably had something like a commissary. When the Bible mentions “tables” they are actually stations where money and food was distributed. Each day the food and other things were given out according to need. This is where the problem arose regarding some of the widows allegedly getting more than others. By the way, all widows were completely taken care of by the church. What a great concept! Oh, one other thing, we must realize that we are not apostles. Apostleship was unique and not something we can repeat. We are not apostles. This is one of the “river of differences” between then and now.
The church was to look among the congregants to appoint seven men that were spirit-filled to act as “deacons”. The word deacon literally was not present and I use it as descriptive. (They were to look for men of honest report and men full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.) This will allow the apostles to continue in the ministry they were appointed to and continue steadfast in prayer and the ministry of the word. The Apostles wanted to remain devoted to the most important duties. Notice the priority of prayer first. Pray steadfastly! They appointed Stephen, Philip, Prochurus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas. All seven men have Greek names showing that they came from the Grecian numbers to represent them fairly.
In verse 6 they prayed and laid hands on the men. Laying on of hands was used in the Old Testament to confer blessing, transfer guilt from sinner to sacrifice and to commission a person for a new responsibility. I notice they prayed first and then laid hands on them. Most of the time today we do it in the opposite pattern, we lay on the hands and then pray.
The last verse, verse 7, shows the number of disciples multiplied and a great number of the priests were obedient to the faith. This meant they were accepting the preaching of the apostles that proclaimed a sacrifice that made the old sacrifices unnecessary. They became obedient to the faith. Luke pauses throughout his story to summarize the progress of the gospel and the growth of the Christian community. This last verse was one of five summaries he gave.
We can see a theological principle here. God makes his will known to believers in the book of Acts. God uses a variety of means to guide his people. In this passage he uses other believers. Theology of work is evident in this passage. It is service… Serving God, serving society and serving wherever needed. The spirit filled men that were chosen as “deacons” to take care of the tables did not complain because they couldn’t do what the apostles did. They served where they were needed. Overseeing the food distribution was just as important as the work of preaching the word of God. Commitment to service needs to be our foundation. “The one constant is that God directs our paths in a variety of ways—of this we can be confident!”
So then, how should individual Christians apply this principle today?
We should all be willing servants of the Lord wherever we are needed. We need to understand that being filled with the spirit and having wisdom equips us to heal any division in our communities or churches. It allows us to assist in the growing pains that will naturally occur from church growth. Every job is reliant on the Spirit to do good work. Every work we do has the capacity to be a means of participation in God’s plan for the world by the power of the Holy Spirit. Believers’ need to serve where we are needed. If we are obedient to the Lord and follow His word then He will do the rest.
There is so much more in the Bible about what we are to do as believers and I could do over 100 posts on this subject alone. I probably will before I am done. If we take the big picture it comes down to one concept once we are part of the Kingdom and it is ‘The Great Commission’. You can find it in Matthew 26: 16-20. Simply stated, ‘The Great Commission’ is comprised of three parts: 1) Make disciples, 2) Baptize them, 3) Teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you. That is Divinely Authoritive and The Great Commission is job number one of ‘The Church’ and so it is job number one for us. This is the umbrella under which all of our functions should take place.
Over the years man has distorted what God’s word has brought forth and people go to organized churches today that are miles away from what God intended. People are getting false teaching and heresy and the only way they can see the difference is to read and listen to the truth. The truth is God’s word as it was written. As I mentioned in the first post, the message has been dumbed down, changed by mankind to suit their needs and watered down to draw crowds and not offend anyone. The truth is needed! True disciples of the Lord are never offended by the truth! We seek it, and we want to get to the meat of true spirituality.
We are to be intimately involved with each other and every saint to insure that others are equipped for ministry and then they can go on and minister to others. We are to equip others to the building up of the body of Christ. The body of Christ, wow! That is ‘The Church’ we have talking about.
I am out of space today and need to close by asking you to go to the Word and read these scriptures: Proverbs 3:5; Colossians 2:8-11; Proverbs 1:25-30; Proverbs 8:14-17; Isaiah 5:21; Isaiah 30:1-3; Isaiah 40:13-14, Job 38:2-7; Ecclesiastes 12:13-14; Romans 3:18; timothy 3:16-17; and last but not least 2 Peter 1:2-4.
Do not rely on the wisdom of men for it will let you down. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding”, Proverbs 3:5.
(Click Here to) – Join me in the next post as we look at the necessities of being a healthy “New Testament Church”.
May God bless your day today,
“The Tubthumper”