Acts, to the book of Acts. And tonight we're going to begin to, we're going to begin a series on Acts chapter 6 verses 1 through 7. Acts chapter 6 verses 1 through 7. So if you turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 6 and then follow along with me as I read verses 1 through 7. Acts chapter 6 verses 1 through 7. Now at this time, while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. So the Twelve summoned the congregation of disciples and said, it is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. The statement found approval with the whole congregation, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Procorius, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, Nicolaus, and a proselyte from Antioch. And these they brought before the apostles, and after praying, they laid their hands on them. The Word of God kept spreading, and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. The title of the message tonight is, When the Church Produces Challenges. When the Church Produces Challenges. Let's go to the Lord and ask Him to bless our time in His Word. Let's pray. Great, mighty, oh God, it is just our extreme privilege to come to you at this point in every service that we have, just before we begin the preaching of your word, just before we begin to come to your word and look for instruction from you from your word, to come to you and to ask you to bless this preaching, to bless your word, to bless it in such a way that we understand its truth, to bless it in such a way that we accept its truth, And most importantly, to bless it in such a way that the preaching is accurately according to the truth of your word. Certainly, Lord, what we want most of all is to accurately represent, to accurately present the word of God in a way that glorifies you and honors your word. So, Father, help us to glorify you and honor your word as we come to look at your word tonight. We pray these things in your son's most holy and precious name. Amen. Again, the title of the message tonight is When the Church Produces Challenges, and this is the first part of a three-part series. We'll spend the next three Sundays looking at this concept of how the church handles challenges. The church will always produce challenges. Let me review just a little bit of what we have studied in the past. In Acts 4, verses 1-31, we saw that Satan was using persecution to derail the growth of God's church. A mighty work of God had began within the church. After two great sermons that were preached by the Apostle Paul, there was many multitudes that were being added to the church. And as many multitudes were being added to the church, the Apostle Paul is preaching the Word of God. He's preaching the Word of God in such a way that the Holy Spirit takes that preaching, brings conviction upon those who hear, and allows them to come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. And the church is growing. Multiple people are coming into the church, and what you see Satan responds to that by bringing persecution into the church. And then in chapter 5, what we saw is Satan trying to derail the church with sin. He brings sin into the church to try to derail the church. There was again a mighty work of God going on with the church. We saw that in chapter 4, verses 32 through 37. We saw great spiritual unity. We saw the standard of preaching being upheld. We saw a practical expression of mutual concern, and we saw individuals rising to exemplary standard. And as that was taking place, as the church was becoming all that God intended it to become, Satan tried to derail the growth of God's church by bringing sin in the church. And of course, that sin was the sin of Ananias and Sapphira. But then again, after we studied the sin that came into the church and how the church dealt with that, Dealt with that sin in a very biblical manner, we again saw the church growing. In Acts 5, verses 12-14, we see that Jesus is continuing to build His church by causing her to develop the traits necessary to accomplish her mission. In our last study of the book of Acts, we saw the church developing the traits that are necessary for her to accomplish her mission. There are many different ways that we can express the mission of the church, but we summarize the mission of the church this way. We summarize the mission of the church as making sure that the Lamb of God receives His just rewards. that the Lamb of God would receive His just rewards. And if you remember, we looked at John 17, verse 4, and we read, They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word." Jesus came to accomplish the work of His Father. And His Father had given to Him certain members of His kingdom so that He could glorify His name. Here we read that the reward that Jesus is to receive for having glorified the name of the Father and His willingness to be obedient to the point of death are these souls that were given to Him. So the mission of the church is to be sure that Jesus Christ receives His just reward. For His obedience to His Father, for His willingness to be obedient to the point of death, the Father gave Jesus certain ones. And the mission of the church is to ensure that Jesus receives His just rewards, that Jesus receives the rewards that the Father is giving to Him because of His obedience to the point of death, even death on the cross. And as that is being accomplished in the church in Acts, we see different elements that are necessary for the church to accomplish that purpose. And the first element that we saw was the purity of the church. And then we saw the power of the church. We saw the persecution of the church. We saw the persistence of the church. And we saw the productivity of the church. With these five elements present within the Church, the Church will be accomplishing her mission. More and more true followers will be added to the Church. More and more of those whom Christ died for will be added to the Church. The Lamb of God will be receiving His just rewards. But with this advancement of the Church, a whole new set of challenges will arise. How does the Church handle these problems? How does the Church handle these challenges? That is what we're going to be spending the month considering. How the church handles the challenges that will come when the church is being all that God called the church to be. When the church is all that God calls the church to be, you can expect challenges. We have seen that the challenges can come from persecution. We have seen that the challenges can come from sin. And today we're going to see the challenges coming from a different source. How does the church handle the challenges that accompany God-honoring growth? Tonight we will look at the particular chance or the particular challenge the church faced. We will look at the priority that the church maintained. We will look at the biblical handling of this challenge, and we will look at the means to measure the success in overcoming the challenge. So, first of all, let's take a look at the challenge. In verse number 1, we see the cause of the challenge. Verse number 1, chapter 6, verse number 1. Now, at this time, the disciples were increasing in number. This is the cause of the challenge. The church is growing. Church growth will produce challenges. It is just a given. that as a church grows, it will produce challenges. Now at this time, while the disciples were increasing, this is the cause of the challenge. In Acts 2, verse 41, we read, So then those who had received the word were baptized, and that day there were added about 3,000. Acts 4, verse 4, But many of those who had heard the message and the number of men came to be about 5,000. Acts 5, verse 14, In all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number." So we see that the church is constantly growing. It is constantly increasing in size. The church is made up of those who are among the chosen race in the royal priesthood. They are a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. They are people who proclaim the excellencies of God, who call them out of darkness into His marvelous light. And the number of those making this proclamation is growing at an astronomical rate. However, the rapid church growth is going to create problems. It's going to create challenges. Now also in verse 1, we not only see the cause of the challenge, the church is growing, but we see the very nature of the challenge. Here's the nature of the challenge. And a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. The early church took this responsibility of taking care of their widows very seriously. Remember what Jesus said in the upper room. We see it in John chapter 13 verse 35. By this all men will know you are my disciples if you have love for one another. The church took that challenge, took that teaching very seriously. They knew that the way that the church would know or the way the world would know that the church is the true church is by their love for one another. And they took this responsibility very seriously. Church members would sell what they owned and give the proceeds to the leaders of the church. The leaders would then use those proceeds to care for those within the church who were needy, especially widows. With the rapid growth, there were some among the church that were being overlooked when it came to this sort of help. What made this matter even more serious is that it appeared as if the sin of partiality and prejudice was involved. It appears that not only were there certain ones being overlooked, it appears as the reason they were being overlooked is because of the sin of partiality and the sin of prejudice. Who are these Hellenistic Jews that came with the complaint? And who are the native Jews? The Hellenistic Jews were members of the Diaspora. The Jewish Diaspora occurred when Jewish people were scattered from their homeland. This Diaspora began with the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. During the great returns of Nehemiah and Ezra's day, many Jewish people began to return to their homeland, yet many more did not. As empires rose and fell, the Greek Empire began to have a wide influence among much of the world's population. Many of the Jewish people who lived outside of their homeland learned to speak Greek and not Aramaic and Hebrew. These Jewish people became known as the Hellenistic Jews. They were considered to be second class citizens among those who are known to be native Jews who spoke Hebrew and Aramaic. The reason the Hellenistic Jews are now part of the church in Jerusalem was because they had come to Jerusalem for the Passover and the Pentecost feast. And while they were there for the Passover and the Pentecost feast, they had heard the preaching of the apostles like Peter, and as a result, they had been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. They were granted faith in Jesus Christ. They were true members of the church. They, too, were part of the reward of which the Lamb was slain. Yet it would seem that they were still being treated like second-class citizens. The Hellenistic Jewish widows were not being taken care of. This is unacceptable. So a complaint was brought to the leaders of the church, the apostles. So these Hellenistic Jews, who are naturally considered as second-class citizens because they don't speak Hebrew and Aramaic, they had become Christians. They were there in Jerusalem in the area because of the Passover and the Pentecost feast. And of course, after the Pentecost feast, Peter, being anointed with the Holy Spirit, began to preach the gospel. And as he preached the gospel, the Holy Spirit took that preaching among all who would hear and caused them to see their need to trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. And part of those that had trusted in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of the sins were these Hellenistic Jews. They became a part of the church. And in the church, there are no second-class citizens. In the church, you don't pay attention to who is a Hellenistic Jew and to who is a native Jew. Everybody is a Christian. Everybody comes to faith in Jesus Christ. Everybody has that same standing before God. But for some reason or another, the widows of these Hellenistic Jews were being ignored. Now, taking care of widows was something that was always prominent in the work of God. God always wanted His people, He's always instructed His people to take care of the widows. Let's look at some passages that show this, even back in Old Testament times. Turn back with me to Deuteronomy 14. Deuteronomy 14, verse 28. Deuteronomy 20, Deuteronomy 14, verse 28. So every third year, The people of Israel were to bring a tithe, to bring 10% of all that they had raised, to bring it into a certain place, and that tithe was meant to be for the Levites, it was meant to be for the orphans, it was meant to be for the aliens, and it was meant to be for the widow. So here you can see that God has always had a deep concern for the widows. Look with me also in Deuteronomy chapter 24. Deuteronomy chapter 24. Verse 19, when you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back and get it. It shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not go over it again. It shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow. You shall remember that you are a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore, I'm commanding you to do this thing." So not only were the people of Israel to set apart every third year a tenth of their produce in order to take care of the widows, the people of Israel were not supposed to be so concerned about gathering every little piece of their harvest. They were to leave some there for the widows. So you can see even in Old Testament times, the people of Israel, the people of God, knew they were supposed to be taking care of the widows, and nothing has changed in the New Testament. In James 1, verse 27, we read this. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this, to visit the orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. So pure and undefiled religion, whatever you think it might be, also must include taking care of the orphans and taking care of the widows. The Apostle Paul teaches on this in 1 Timothy 5. 1 Timothy 5, if you like, you can open your Bibles up to 1 Timothy. And look at chapter 5 with me, 1 Timothy chapter 5, and I want to read in verses 3 through 5. Honor widows who are widows indeed. But if any widow has children or grandchildren, they must first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family and to make some return to their parents, for this is acceptable in the sight of God. Now she who is a widow indeed, who has been left alone, has fixed her hope on God and continues in treaties and prayers night and day. The one who is a widow indeed is supposed to be taken care of. Who are the widows indeed? Well, if a widow has grandchildren and children, and those grandchildren and children are taking care of her, she is not considered to be a widow indeed. However, if those grandchildren and children don't have the means to take care of the widow, Or if those grandchildren and those children don't care or don't understand the necessity of taking care of the widow, you don't just let the widow out there floundering. You take care of the widow. The point is God has always had a place in his heart for the widows and the true church will always be taking care of the widow. So this complaint on the part of the Hellenistic Jews is a legitimate complaint. When you're looking at challenges and you're trying to deal with challenges, one of the first things you have to do is to make sure that that challenge has a biblical basis. If it doesn't have a biblical basis, then you don't try to solve the problem of the challenge. You try to solve the problems that are truly biblical problems. In this church, it is growing, it is growing, it is growing, and there was a true biblical problem. There were widows that were not being taken care of, and it appears they were not being taken care of because they were considered to be second-class citizens. So certainly that is a problem. So after we've looked at the challenge of the problem, let's look at the priority of the church that must be maintained as you deal with the challenge. Go back again with me to Acts chapter 6, and there's a priority of the church that you must not neglect in dealing with this challenge. The church wants to be sure that it deals with the proper biblical problems, but it wants to be sure that it always maintains the priority of the church. So look with me in Acts 6, and this time, let's first of all read verse 2. in Acts chapter 6. So the Twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, it is not desirable for us to neglect the Word of God in order to serve tables. So the first thing that we see in the priority of the church is it's not wise to neglect the serving of the Word of God. It's not It's not good for the elders to move away from taking care of the Word of God. But there's something that even comes before that, and we see that in the second part of verse 3. Therefore, brethren, select among you seven men of good reputation, full of spirit and wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. So here's the first aspect of the priority that I really want to look at. It is the aspect that the priority of the authority of the church must be held. Who is ultimately the one who's going to decide who's going to take care of this problem? The leaders of the church, which aren't really elders at this time, it's just the apostles. Elders have not been established, and I say just the apostles, not as if they're any lesser than the elders. They're certainly not that, but the apostles are the leaders of the church, and the apostles have looked out to the church, and they say, go choose men whom you think can take care of this problem, and then we will appoint them to their proper position. So the priority of the church is always to maintain the proper church leadership. The second priority of the church is the Word of God, and that's where verse 2 comes in. It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. And then also in verse six, we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. The word of God is always the priority within the church. And no matter how you deal with the proper biblical problems, with problems that are really biblical problems, you must not neglect the authority of the church and you must not neglect the word of God. The example of not neglecting the word of God we see in Jesus. Let's look at the example of Jesus, if you want. Turn with me to the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Mark, chapter one, verse thirty four. Jesus exemplified the priority of the preaching of the Word in Mark 1, verse 34. And he healed many who were ill with various diseases and cast out many demons. And he was not permitting the demons to speak because they knew who he was. And so Jesus has been healing many with all kinds of diseases. He's been casting out demons. Now verse 35, in the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went away to a secluded place and was praying there. Verse 36, Simon and his companions searched for him. So Jesus has had this marvelous ministry of healing people with all kinds of diseases, of delivering people from their demons. He's gone away and he's prayed. And now his apostles, his followers are looking for him. Where did he go? They don't know where he went. They found him, verse 37, and they said to him, everyone's looking for you. Jesus, everyone's looking for you. You've done all this healing. You've done all these miraculous works, and now people are looking for you. Why would they be looking for Jesus? They want more of the same. They want more of the healings. They want more of being delivered from the demons. But look what Jesus says in verse 38. And he said to them, let's go somewhere else to towns nearby. let's leave these people and their need and let's go to towns nearby and he also says here so that i may preach there also for that is what i came to do you see the priority of jesus christ certainly he had a heart for those who were sick for those who are ill and for those who are demon possessed but his main priority was to preach the word of God. We also see the same example in the lives of the apostles. Look with me in Mark 3, verse 13. And he, that is Jesus, went up on the mountain and summoned those whom he himself wanted and they came to him. And he appointed the 12, okay? So he's gone up on the mountain and he's chosen 12 of all of his followers, he's chosen 12 to be his apostles. And he chose them so that they would be with him and that he could send them out to preach. the number one priority of the apostles was to preach the Word of God. And then if you were to go to Mark 6, verse 12, let's just go ahead and turn there. We're pretty close where we're at. Mark 6, verse 12, they, that is the apostles, went out and preached that men should repent. The apostles demonstrated the priority is the preaching. And not only did Jesus demonstrate the priority is preaching, and not only did the apostles demonstrate that the priority is preaching, the example of the church shows us that the priority is the preaching. Remember what Paul says to Timothy, the pastor of the church, in 2 Timothy 4, verse 1. Preach the word in season and out of season. As you study the history of the church, you go back to the very beginning, go back to Jesus, go back to the apostles, go back to the church, and you see that the priority is always the preaching of the Word of God. Next week, we're going to spend the entire evening looking at the priority of the preaching of the Word of God. God's primary means of communication is through preaching. From the time of creation, through the Old Testament, through the New Testament, through the early church, through the church in the dark ages, through the church up right up to today, the priority has always been preaching. That is His primary means of communication. Therefore, no matter what you do to deal with a proper biblical problem, you must not abandon the priority of the preaching of the Word of God. Now, there's another priority that we must not abandon, and we also see that there in Acts 6. Acts 6, I think it is verse 4. Yes, Acts 6, verse 4. But we will devote ourselves to prayer. Not only are they devoting themselves to the ministry of the Word, they're devoting themselves to prayer. So whatever we do in dealing with a proper biblical problem, we do not want to neglect prayer. You don't go out and deal with a problem and neglect prayer. You must not neglect prayer. Again, you see Jesus as an example. We saw it in Mark 1, verse 35. What did He do? when He had healed all those people and delivered them of the demons. He went by Himself to a secluded place and He prayed. We also see the priority of prayer in the life of Christ in Luke 6. It was at that time that he went off, this is talking about Jesus, it was at that time that he, Jesus, went off to the mountain to pray and he spent the whole night in prayer to God and when day came he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them whom he also named as apostles. Jesus knew that the choosing of the apostles was a very, very important decision. It was very essential that he spend time in prayer. We're talking about the Son of God here. The Son of God Himself knew that before He makes this very important decision, He had to spend time in prayer. And not just any amount of time in prayer, He spent all night in prayer. That's another reason why prayer is a priority of the church, and no matter how we deal with the issues of the church, we must not neglect prayer. We also see this exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ in Luke chapter 11, verse number 1. Luke chapter 11, verse number 1. And it happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, just as Jesus also taught his disciples. And that's when he gives the apostles what we refer to as the Lord's Prayer. It's more accurately referred to as the Apostles' Prayer. This is how they are to pray. This is the Lord's Prayer. When do the disciples ask Jesus to give them the Lord's Prayer? It's after they watch Him pray. They're watching Jesus praying and there's something about the prayer life of Jesus, there's something about the prayer habits of Jesus that causes these apostles to think, Lord, we don't know how to pray. Teach us to pray like you pray. We're looking at the time you spend in prayer, we're looking at the frequency that you have in prayer, and we need to be taught how to pray. And so they asked Jesus how to pray. Again, we're seeing the priority of prayer in the life of Jesus. We also see the priority of prayer in the life of the apostles. Look with me in Mark chapter three, verse 13. Mark chapter three, verse 13. That's not the right verse. Yeah, Mark chapter 10, verse 9. Mark chapter 10, verse 9. I still don't have the right verse. Honey, these glasses are giving me more problems than we thought they were going to give me. It's like I just can't quite get that progressive thing right. It's Acts chapter 10 verse 9, and we don't need to turn there. In Acts chapter 10 verse 9, that's where Peter is at the sixth hour praying on the housetop. Peter himself was praying. And we can also see the example of prayer here in Colossians chapter 1. Turn there with me, Colossians chapter 1. I finally got the right part in my notes here. Colossians 1, verse 3. We give thanks to God for the Father. We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. Look with me in 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 2. 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 2, We give thanks to God always for you, making mention of you in our prayers, constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and the steadfast hope you have in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father. Look with me at these very well-known prayers in Ephesians. Ephesians 1 and Ephesians 3. And we can see that the Apostle Paul gives us a great example of what it means to be a man of prayer, what it means to be sure that you have prayer within the church. Look with me in Ephesians 1, verse number 15. Paul writes here, for this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. He never ceases to give thanks for them, always making mention of them in his prayers. that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. Paul was constantly praying for the saints there in Ephesus. You see it again in Ephesians 3, verse 14. Ephesians 3, verse 14. He says, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power, through his spirit in the inner man. He's constantly praying for the church there in Ephesus. So you have this example of the apostles who are always praying. Anthony Conaris, a pastor of many years ago, believed every sermon must be bracketed with prayer, for only God can prepare the soil in a man's heart for the effective, fruitful reception of the seed of God's word. This means that preachers should be praying all week for the sermon they preached on the previous Sunday and for the one they will preach the next Sunday. All preachers need to be constant men of prayer because whether they realize it or not, the well propelled sermon, well prepared sermons are nothing more than the meandering thoughts of a weak and useless human being without the work of the spirit. But if the spirit is working in the preacher's preaching, no sinner is too far gone. to be out of reach of the long arm of God's mercy. We must pray that the Almighty God would win over the hearts of men for his namesake. The preacher who truly understood his dependence upon God would not dare to step behind the pulpit without crying out to God, God help. The preacher must plead, Almighty God, let thy word burst forth from my mouth like a flood upon the barren land. Let thy mercy fall from my lips like drops of rain on the parched ground. Again, that's a quote from Anthony Kornaris. If you study the life of Christ, if you study the life of the apostles, if you study the life of the church, you will see that the church has always understood the imperative need for preaching. I've read it several different times that Charles Spurgeon, when he would walk up those steps to preach, every step he repeated to himself, I believe in the Holy Spirit, I believe in the Holy Spirit, I believe in the Holy Spirit. Why did he say that? He knew he was totally dependent upon the power of God. If we understand our dependency upon the power of God, we are going to be men of prayer. We are going to be a church of prayer. How do we most demonstrate our dependency upon God? We most demonstrate our dependency upon God by the way we pray. What demonstrates our most independency from God? It is our lack of prayer. So the whole point is, is that no matter what the problem is, And we're going to deal with just biblical problems. But when we deal with those biblical problems, we must maintain some priorities. First of all, it's the leadership of the church that must be the ultimate decision makers on dealing with that problem. Secondly, however we deal with that problem, however we deal with the challenges that come from church growth, we don't want to abandon the ministry of the word. And thirdly, however we deal with the challenges of ministry, we don't want to abandon the priority of prayer. we must maintain those three priorities. Now, once those three priorities, what is the next step in dealing with the challenges that come with church growth? Well, we handle those challenges in a biblical manner. Let's go back here now again to Acts chapter 3, or Acts chapter 6. We handle those challenges in a biblical manner. Luke writes here in Acts 3, verse 6, Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation. So we see a biblical criteria here. The biblical criteria is, first of all, those that you're going to look to solve this biblical challenge within the church, they must be believers. Therefore, brethren, select from among you From among you, first of all, they must be believers. You need to make sure that those that you are looking to, to take care of the challenges in the church, they must be believers. Not just confessing believers, but people who actually have lives that demonstrate that they have true, genuine, saving faith in Jesus Christ. Now, in this particular situation, and this is not a criteria that is needed for all challenges in the church, but in this particular situation, the biblical model said they must choose men. Notice there again in verse 3. Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men. And so that's another biblical standard for this particular challenge that the apostles were faced with here in Acts chapter 6. We must be sure that those that we're going to put in charge of overseeing this problem, they must be genuine believers and they must be men. Not only that, they must be men of integrity. Seven men of good reputation. Again, you don't just pick anybody. You don't just pick some new believer that you don't know anything about. You pick men that you know something about them. They must be men of good reputation. You must have enough knowledge of those men that you know these men have good reputation. They have good integrity. Fourth, they must be yielded to God, full of the Spirit. They must be controlled by the Spirit. They must be filled with the Holy Spirit. To be filled with the Holy Spirit means you're dominated by the Holy Spirit. To be filled with the Holy Spirit means you're permeated by the Holy Spirit. To be filled with the Holy Spirit means you're controlled by the Holy Spirit. These must be people who are totally yielded to God. You don't want to pick somebody to deal with the biblical problem in the church that is not completely yielded to God. They must be people that are completely yielded to God. And not only that, they must be full of wisdom. full of the Spirit, and full of wisdom. So it's very important that when you go to deal with biblical problems in the church, that you handle them in a biblical manner, using biblical criteria. And so for every problem that the church brings, that comes to the church, it's very important that those that are going to have the final say on how that challenge is dealt with, it's very important that they have spent time in the Word of God, making sure that the way they're handling this Challenging the church is according to God's Word, making sure that they're not going to forsake the preaching of the Word of God, making sure they're not going to forsake the priority of prayer, and making sure that everything that they do is done exactly according to the Word of God. Now the next thing that we see here with this biblical pattern is that it was accepted. This was well received by the entire congregation. Look here in verse 5. The statement found approval with the whole congregation and they chose Stephen, a man full of the faith and love of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Procorius, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte from Antioch. and these were brought before the apostles and after praying they laid their hands on them. The whole church accepted this. This is very important. If the church is going to meet the challenges that are brought to it in a biblical matter, it's very important that the church recognizes the authority of the church and is in agreement with the authority of the church. If there's not agreement between the church and those in authority of the church, then you're going to have problems. So it's very important they follow the biblical criteria And it's very important that the whole congregation was in agreement. There was unity within the congregation, unity between the congregation and the leaders of the church. That is exceptionally critical that you have that unity. Now, just as a side note, many times when people study this passage, they think this is the first example of biblical deacons. Nowheres do we see these men called deacons. So they're probably not officially deacons, although they exemplify the office of deacons. The office of deacons doesn't really come into play. You don't even see it in the Book of Acts. This is before we even see the establishment of elders. So this is not an establishment of deacons, but it does give us a picture of how deacons should operate. Looking at these men give us a picture of how deacons should operate. Now before we look at the standards that must be kept, let's just consider the men that were chosen. Stephen and Philip were chosen. Our next study in the book of Acts is going to cover Stephen. Stephen was a great preacher and he was an evangelistic preacher. And then we're going to study the life of Philip, another evangelistic preacher. With Stephen and Philip, we do see where the Bible gives us much more information about them. They were both evangelistic preachers. Pecorius was possibly connected with John. We don't know that for sure. The Bible doesn't say he was connected with the Apostle John, but history, church history, says he was connected with the Apostle John. Church history also says he became a bishop, and church history also tells us that he was martyred for his faith in Antioch. Nicholas, some people believe that he became the leader of a heretical group called the Nicolaitans. However, there is no solid evidence that Nicholas ever became the leader of the heretical group named the Nicolaitans other than the similarity in name. So some people will connect Nicholas with this heretical group just because of the similarity in names. We don't want to do that. With the other men, there's nothing said at all. So it's very interesting that with these men that were chosen, there's really only two of them that we know much about. The rest of them went about doing exactly what they were told to do, doing exactly what God had chosen to do, and then you hear nothing more about them. So we've looked here at the challenge, we've looked here at the priorities, we looked here at the biblical way of handling those priorities, now let's look at the biblical standard that must be kept. The biblical standard of success that must be kept. Look here in verse 7. The Word of God kept spreading, and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith." This is the ultimate test of whether you've handled the challenge successfully. Now Luke doesn't tell us that the church began to take care of the widows of the Hellenistic Jews. But we can assume that that took place. And I don't think that is an exaggeration. I'm sure that these widows were taken care of. But Luke never says, and the widows were taken care of. Luke never says, and the complaint was gone. What does Luke say? The ministry of the word continued on. If at the end of dealing with this challenge, the challenge is taken care of, but the ministry of the word does not continue on, the church has failed. If you take care of the temporal challenge and the ministry of the word discontinues, the church has failed. And I think it's a failure of astronomical proportions. Because if you deal with the problem at hand, and the Word of God is not continuing on, you'll look at the problem that has been dealt with, it's dealt with at hand, and you'll feel good about yourself, you'll think you're right where God wants you to be, because the temporal problem that you can look at has been dealt with. And if the Word of God is not being preached, you think you're right along doing just fine. But if you understand the standard, the standard is that the Word of God is preached. And notice the results of the Word of God being preached here. The number of disciples continue to increase greatly in Jerusalem. Even as they dealt with the problem, they dealt with it in such a way that it didn't stop the advancement of the Gospel. The Gospel was increasing greatly in Jerusalem, and not only that, a great number of the priests, a great number of the Jewish priests were coming to faith in Jesus Christ, and they too were preaching the Word of God. This is the standard. This is how you measure, are you dealing with the problem in a way that really glorifies and honors God? Are you dealing with the problem, are you dealing with the challenge in the way that God wants you to? Certainly, you want to be sure that the challenge is dealt with. You want to be sure that the biblical problem is dealt with in a biblical manner. You want to be sure that that doesn't continue on. If it's something that is not in line with the word of God, you want to correct that. But you also want to be sure that as you focus on that temporal problem, as you focus on that horizontal problem, you do not neglect the vertical importance and the vertical reality that the church is meant to be a minister of the Word of God. The ministry of the Word of God is what you must always protect. And I think that is key in the way that Luke tells us. What is the result? The Word of God continued to spread. More and more people were coming to faith in Jesus Christ. Even those that were preaching Judaism were abandoning their Judaism and they were preaching the Gospel. Here we see an example of the early church dealing with the challenges that come with church growth in a manner that glorifies God, and in a manner that the church can continue to accomplish her mission, being sure that the Lamb receives His just rewards, being sure that those for whom Christ died come to faith in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we are grateful tonight for your Word. We are grateful tonight for the way that it teaches us, guides us, and directs us. We pray, Father, that we would always come to your Word and look to your Word to deal with everything in life. We understand, Father, that everything that pertains to life and godliness is given to us through the power of your Holy Spirit and the knowledge of God, our Savior, who called us out of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved Son. So we pray, Father, that we would never abandon The truths of Scripture, the standard of Scripture, it is a light unto our path, and help us to never forget that, I pray. Almighty God, may we always be a church that honors You in the way that we deal with Your Word. We pray in Your name. Amen.