Sermons
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Sermons |
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Sermon preached by John Cooper at Christ Church on 23/2/03. It was on the topic of A Purposeful Task and was given at the morning service. The day's Bible reading was from chapter six of the book of Acts and reading from verses 1 to 7. |
Bible
Readings: Main
Themes: At a first glance this just seems to be the sensible thing to do but there are fundamental lessons to be learned from this simple solution: Firstly, the apostles felt they could not neglect the 'ministry of the Word and prayer' (v5) to sort out domestic problems. They put preaching and teaching at the very top of their agenda [2] and were not prepared to compromise that in any way. Secondly, they prayed for God's guidance [3] in selecting the men to whom they would delegate the supervision of the food distribution. The decision was not taken lightly. They had to be 'full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom' (v3). When the decision had been reached the apostles laid hands on them and prayed over them and then they were appointed to their tasks. Their role was seen as one of the highest importance. To some people this might seem a bit over the top for distributing a bit of food to the poor but many aid agencies would do well to take their example on board today. Consider how much food, clothing and medicine destined for the destitute abroad goes astray because those in charge of its distribution are corrupt! Thirdly the decision on who was suitable for the task was done by the church membership and so the whole church [4] was pleased by the result (v5). Decisions have to be pleasing to the church and accepted as its own wishes. The apostles set a standard for all church leaders. "The ministry of the Word must never be neglected". This is something that must be remembered by all church leaders in today's church [5]. Pastoral visiting, caring for the sick and housebound however worthy must never be allowed to take precious time from sermon preparation. The big danger for today's pastor is the demand administrative duties make on his time. The church membership cannot and must not expect the pastor to do everything himself [6]. We all have gifts, skills, and abilities, which can be used to lift the church leader's burdens. I think that this passage is actually saying the role of the clergy is to preach and pray whereas the membership needs to get on doing everything else! We need to look at ourselves - are we really [7] doing what God would like us to do or what we want to do? Each one of us has to pray and consider how we can serve and then, if chosen, get on with the job cheerfully. However, care must be taken about selection. The wrong person in a job can be disastrous. It would be better to close down a Sunday school class than to appoint an unsuitable person to teach and care for our children. The congregation needs to have confidence in those entrusted with key jobs. What happens if someone volunteers for a job but is not felt to be appropriate for the task? Great tact will be needed in rejecting their offer of help! So talking about our church on a personal basis - why are so many jobs unfilled [8]? Why are there very few to clean the church, make the coffee, or assist in Gateway and the young people's groups? Is it because we do not have the right people? Is it because people do not want to be tied down to regular week-by-week attendance? Is it because people do not understand the need for more help or is it because we are too few in number and everyone is already stretched to breaking point? Are there just too many things to do? Are we too few, perhaps with too many ambitions or do we just not care? Or is it, and I say this humbly, because our preaching is not good enough? I do not aspire to have the answers to these questions - I am simply asking you to think about them and to pray for the church leaders, for each other and for the Holy Spirit to call the right people and for those people to respond in a positive way. In v7 notice the word 'so'. Because the apostles were allowed to get on with preaching the church grew [9]. The message spread rapidly, reaching all levels of society so that even some of the Jewish priests were converted (v7). It is possible that, if we all pull together, the Word of God [10] could today, here and now, penetrate the barriers people put up. Marriages could be saved, family break up averted, people of other faiths drawn to an interest in the Lord Jesus. We need to pray for each other and for those in the outside world and we will grow. Who knows maybe a Rabbi (as in the passage) or a leader from the Moslem or Hindu faith may find Christ as his Saviour. The secular world will ask the question "in a pluralist society should there not be room for every religion?" Should we be evangelistic? In the Book of Kings, Elijah is told to anoint a new king for Syria thus demonstrating quite clearly, even this early in Biblical history, that our God controls the destiny of all nations, not just Israel. Therefore one could argue that we should be sharing the gospel message [11] with other nations and other faiths because ultimately their destiny is in God's hands and they need to realise that. There is much to be learned from studying the Old Testament books. For example the young king Josiah fears for the safety of his own people and tries to lead them back to the Lord by a number of reforms. He has the Law read aloud to them, celebrates the Passover and repairs the Temple, much as we do week-by-week in our churches. However the people were not really interested. They had come to believe that God would never allow Jerusalem or its Temple to be destroyed because it was holy ground. How wrong they were because in 586 BC the Babylonians captured the city, reduced the Temple to a pile of rubble and carried its leading citizens into exile. Exactly the same thing happened just after Jesus had tried unsuccessfully to call Jerusalem to repentance. Do we believe, perhaps subconsciously, that because England is a so-called Christian country [12] that we have some sort of divine protection and that we cannot be overthrown and persecuted? Perhaps we should think about the fate of Jerusalem and its inhabitants if we are ever tempted to feel smug. The Early Church with all its difficulties grew [13] whereas today's Church is shrinking. It is not just about knowing what scripture teaches or how sincere or effective the church leadership is, if the hearts of the church members are not right, the church will not grow. The kingdom of God can only exist on earth if God's people are prepared to look beyond their own immediate concerns [14] and demonstrate a genuine spirit of love and concern for each other. We must remember that God is truly the Father of all nations and all peoples and that everyone deserves the opportunity to hear His Word. ref: 03/1
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Web page last updated 24 Oct 2006 |
