Text:  Acts 6:1-7

Subject: Growing Pains

Introduction:  “Growing Pains was a sitcom originally aired on ABC from Sept. 1985 to April 1992.  It was about a family of five in which they all experienced growing pains.  In the text, this is what the early church is experiencing at the point of the text—growing pains.  The purpose of the sermon today is to outline features that stand out in the church’s growth and apply them to present situations in churches and even our lives.  The early church’s growth had exploded. 

          There are two extremes regarding the church’s explosive growth:  the church becomes a highly contrived corporation or a loose commune without any structure.  The church is neither: it is an organism.  It has both an organic unity and an operative life principle, since all members are connected to its Living Head, Jesus Christ. The church’s growth brought with it a need for further structure.  They had been keeping record of the number of members; they were going from house to house fellowshipping; money and goods were collected by the apostles and distributed among the people in need.  Sin had to be dealt with in the church.  But there became a need for further structure.  In Acts 6 the church faced its first serious organizational crisis.  To eliminate a potentially a church division further structure was necessary.

I.  The Problem/Crisis (vv. 1-2)

·         Face the problem.

·         There were some sore spots among believers.

·         Murmuring-a secret debate; a secret displeasure not openly discussed

·         Hellenistic (Grecians) complaining against the Hebrew Jews (Grecians were Jews born outside of Palestine and spoke Greek and adopted some greek culture; Hebrews (Hebraic) were Jews from Palestine and spoke Hebrew.

·         The problem their women were being overlooked in the daily serving of food.

·         Which led to further problems of the apostles having to busy with serving tables (literally working as waiters to the eating tables or even dealing with money matters) and leave their most important duties: prayer and ministry of the word.

II.  The Process (vv.3-6)

·         Apostolic Authority (Pastoral Authority) (v.3)

·         Qualifications (v.3a)

·         Responsibility (v.3b) (overseers/supervisors)

·         Congregational Support (v.3a, 5) “you look out”

·         Further Apostolic Authority—they prayed and laid their hands on them.

III.  The Problem Solved (v.7) – Further growth