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Redeemer Community Church is located in the historic Avondale neighborhood of Birmingham, AL. Our church family exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
For more information on who we are, what we believe, or how to join us, please visit our website at rccbirmingham.org.
If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to Acts chapter four and also chapter six. And yes, we are skipping over chapter five, not because chapter five is not important. It's because we're not actually going through the book of Acts. We're talking about the life of Peter, and we've only got two weeks left in that study, so we've got to skip some things. Although, I've got to admit, I was really tempted to look at chapter five because if you're familiar with it, it's the story about Ananias and Sapphira.
Caleb Chancey:They sell some property in order to give the proceeds to the church. They didn't give it all. They lied about it, and Peter struck them dead. I was like, can that line up any better with a capital campaign? But I decided to not do that.
Caleb Chancey:I really do love chapter five though. I'll I'll preach on that another time. But I I instead of just completely skipping over it, let me just pull out one little detail because it really sets the stage for what we're about to look at. When Peter looked at Ananias, he said, Satan has filled your heart to do this. When he says that, that's actually the first mention of Satan since before the resurrection.
Caleb Chancey:It it's like Satan has been keeping a low profile, but finally, he's coming to the surface as he's come up with strategies to destroy or tried to destroy God's church. He he couldn't stop the resurrection, but perhaps, could ruin the church. And we're we're gonna look at these strategies. That first one you find in Acts five, well, it was deception. He got Ananias and Sapphira to lie, and they were the first Christians to wear a mask in a church and to play pretend.
Caleb Chancey:What we're gonna look at this morning are two of his other strategies, in which he's gonna try to divide the church. He's going to sow these little seeds of of of discord. People are gonna begin to grumble, to dissent. And then, we're going to see how he wants to try to divert the church. He wants to divert the church from its focus in order to deal with the dissension that's happening.
Caleb Chancey:And, he believes that if he could do those two things, that he could ruin the church. And so, we're gonna look at those two strategies that the devil has, and then how the apostles, how they they took those things head on, and they led the church in the right direction. And so, we're gonna begin reading Acts chapter four verse 32. Now, the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power, the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
Caleb Chancey:There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold, and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Go to chapter six. Now, in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the 12 summoned the full number of the disciples and said, it is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.
Caleb Chancey:But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Perchorus, and O'Connor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch. These, they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. This is the word of the Lord.
Caleb Chancey:You pray with me. Father, I pray that you would not just bring clarity to this text, but through your spirit, bring conviction, you would open up our hearts and minds to receive your word because we wanna look more like Jesus. And so, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Caleb Chancey:Amen. I've got a cousin who is six foot seven, another cousin who is six foot ten. When I was in seventh grade, I was already six feet tall, and I didn't know why I'd already peaked. That was it. Never grew another inch in seventh grade.
Caleb Chancey:However, the the high school basketball coach didn't know that. They could see my trajectory, and so they actually, from middle school, they would after school was over, the bus would take me to the high school in order to practice with the high school team because the coach was looking at me, he was like, the sky is the limit. But then, of course, I moved from center to power forward to small forward to shooting guard to guard because I never grew again. I wasn't sad about not growing anymore, though. I had already achieved my goal, which was to be taller than my brother.
Caleb Chancey:That was it, and then, with that goal achieved, I I was fine not growing because I was sick of the growing pains. When when you grow that fast, you hurt all over, and my knees were just always killing me. And, perhaps, some of you who grew went through a really rapid growth spurt, you felt the same things. That's what we see here in this passage in the church, growing pains. It grew so fast, the joints just couldn't keep up with the rest of the body.
Caleb Chancey:I mean, Peter, he preaches his first sermon, 2,000 people saved, added. Then, he preaches just a little bit later, and you have 3,000 or 5,000 saved, and it just keeps growing and growing and growing. Of course, that is a reason to celebrate because every one of those people has a soul saved, but boy, does that also come with some problems. A simple church just got really complicated overnight. I mean, before, like, you know, if if a couple visited and you're like, hey, I want to add them to the home group, you just pull out your phone, you just call up Peter and like, hey, I got a new couple.
Caleb Chancey:Can can we add them to your group? It's like, sure. Great. You see a benevolence need, text Andrew. Hey, somebody needs their power bill paid.
Caleb Chancey:Sure. We're on it. Done. I mean, those things can operate when a church is really small, but what about when the Lord just adds to the number and it gets really large? It gets a little complicated.
Caleb Chancey:And, as it was growing, keep in mind, the apostles keep getting arrested, so the leadership of the church keeps getting him put in prison, then taken back out, and all this. And so, of course, during that time, complications arose, Cracks began to form. Now, to be clear, growth was not the problem. If you think growth was the problem, well, then you have to say the Lord was the problem because the Lord was the one causing the growth. He was the one adding people to the church.
Caleb Chancey:The church was alive with His Spirit, and living things grow. They grow. The growth like this happening, well, it's not a surprise that cracks began to form. The only question was, who was going to fall through them? Was it going be the youth?
Caleb Chancey:Was it going to be the singles? Was it gonna be the young, marrieds, maybe with kids? Who who's gonna fall through the cracks? And the answer here was it was the most vulnerable. It was the widows.
Caleb Chancey:The Hebrew widows, they were being provided for, but the Hellenists fell through the cracks. The Hebrew widows, they were the ones who lived in Jerusalem, they spoke the local language, Aramaic, they knew the system, the culture. The Hellenists, they were the Jews that had lived outside of Jerusalem, but for some reason or another, they had come back to Jerusalem, but they spoke only Greek. They weren't as familiar with the systems and the structures. And as a result, the widows, these widows, they were the ones who fell through the cracks.
Caleb Chancey:I mean, when the church started, they weren't thinking, we need to develop at the start a complex welfare system to take care of thousands. They weren't thinking that, but they needed it. Now, the fact that these widows were being cared for by the church in the first place is just absolutely remarkable. Don't miss that. Because normally, widows were not taken care of by an outside group.
Caleb Chancey:Children took care of their parents. Widows were being taken care of by their biological children or by their closest relative, but what we see here is that the church had become these widows' family. They were a new family, and they said, we will take care of these people. It's it's absolutely remarkable what they were doing. They're experiencing that hundredfold blessing of the church, in which these widows are receiving many more brothers and sisters and families and homes as the church surrounds them.
Caleb Chancey:That type of church was described back in chapter four, back in the good old days of the church, where we read that there was such togetherness, no one said that any of the possessions were their own, they shared everything, and then we read that as a result, there was not one needy person among them. I mean, people are selling houses, lands in order to just get the money and lay it at the apostles' feet, who then would go and distribute to those in need. I have personally never witnessed anything like that. It's it's remarkable how this early church lived, and I might just add a little convicting. And, by the way, have you ever wondered why the church did this to take care of those in need?
Caleb Chancey:They had the apostles, and the apostles were doing a whole lot of miracles. But one miracle that the apostles never did was multiply bread. They also never multiplied money. And think how convenient that would have been if they could have just, oh, here's a problem. Well, no problem at all.
Caleb Chancey:We'll just multiply bread like Jesus did, or or we'll just multiply money. They they never did that. They spent their time healing the sick, they cast out demons, they did all of these other miracles and acts, but they didn't do those things. Why not? Well, miracles are not just random supernatural displays of power.
Caleb Chancey:The miracles that the apostles did were to point to Jesus. The miracles were to show what the kingdom of God is like. Was it the kingdom of God invading this world, and you just get a glimpse of what that kingdom looks like as a as a person's health is restored, or as evil has to flee when they cast out a demon, you get a glimpse of that. But, in the kingdom of God, money, well, that's not the prized possession. Money is not something you have to hold on to for happiness or for security.
Caleb Chancey:Actually, it's the giving of those away and becoming part of the greater family of God. That's where the joys of heaven come in. And so, the apostles, they rightly know God actually has already provided for all of us, and He's made us family, and now we get to have the joys of sharing with one another. And that's why food is not just magically put on the table, money isn't instantly just falling in people's purses. The church saw themselves as family, one really big family.
Caleb Chancey:And, when you're a family and you're all living under the same roof, no one says, Oh, this is mine, this is this is my table, this is my rug, this is my counter. You don't say those things like that. You share. In our house, if you've ever been there, we have one shower that we had to actually put in. Who knew, like, houses over a 100 years old, they they don't have a shower.
Caleb Chancey:So I put in a shower that's actually downstairs away from all our girls. Three girls, one shower. Actually, four. Lauren, you know as well. That that's, you know living in that, that's kind of like having 2,500 adults and four toilets in here every Sunday.
Caleb Chancey:But, we're family. You just share everything. And, if you were to go in our shower, you're going to see bottles, like, so many bottles. There's there's there's you know, I don't even know what they're for. There's there's shampoo bottles, there's conditioning bottles, of course, there's shaving cream, and and who knows whatever else, but it's a free for all.
Caleb Chancey:It's just whatever bottle has the most. That's what I use, and so sometimes, like, I'm just grabbing. Sometimes, I smell like peach lavender. Sometimes, I'm like a lumberjack musky, you know, it just depends what I grab. It's family.
Caleb Chancey:We share everything in common. We smell like one another. I mean, it's it's it's beautiful. But, let me ask you this, what happens when a family doubles in size overnight or triples? You've got to work out some things really quick.
Caleb Chancey:I got to a front row a front row seat to see that happen with our next door neighbors. You all know Josh and Laura Halzen, our next door neighbors. Josh is our executive pastor. They also had triplets. And, so, the Lord didn't add them, like, add to their number, He multiplied.
Caleb Chancey:They doubled overnight. They went from three to six people. And, when that happens, things have to change instantly. There's no longer deciding if you want the nice sports car, minivan it is. Choice has just been made for you.
Caleb Chancey:You've got to add a bedroom, maybe a bathroom, time to buy stock in Pampers, do whatever it is, like, things have got to change because new life was brought in, new joy was brought in. You'll regret it for a moment, but things have got to change quickly. Well, because the church was changing so rapidly, growing so rapidly, it did not adjust to the challenges quick enough. And, Luke is very honest about this as it goes through Acts. Cracks were formed.
Caleb Chancey:Certain people were getting neglected. And, it's here that Satan saw his opportunity to bring dissension into the church. The Hellenists, they began to complain, perfectly understandable that they would, if by complaining here was meant they were, they were appropriately bringing up an issue in order for it to get resolved. But that's not what's happening here. That word complaint is translated elsewhere in scripture as grumbling or murmuring.
Caleb Chancey:It's the same word that's used to describe after God saved the Israelites and he brought them into the wilderness. They began grumbling, murmuring over a lack of food and over the leadership. Same things. This is the type of grumbling that's really just sowing seeds of dissension. And here, the church is actually facing a far greater threat than what we saw last week with Peter being arrested.
Caleb Chancey:No internal threats like this are far greater than any outside persecution. Peter getting arrested, not a threat. This is a threat. I mean, seriously, let let me ask you this question. Which would more likely cause you to consider leaving the church?
Caleb Chancey:If Congress all of a sudden passed some law that forbid you to ever pray in public, or for you to be part of a home group in which you just have several people just grumbling all of the time, Which would cause you to leave or to considerate? Which would make the church less attractive to the world? Having some powerful, maybe politicians or celebrities or whoever it is, speak loudly against Christian beliefs or for Christians to grumble against one another online? Which more damages the church's reputation? Grumbling devastates the church.
Caleb Chancey:It destroys our witness, it robs us of our joy, and it doesn't solve a thing. All it is doing is sowing these little seeds of dissension. The Hellenists, they're just grumbling. They're grumbling about how the church has changed, how no longer are their needs being met. So when the apostles hear about this grumbling, they immediately stepped in before it grew even more, and they took a very decisive action.
Caleb Chancey:They gathered everybody together, And then, we read this in verse two. It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Now, if that response right there sounds a little defensive, it's because it is. It absolutely is. The these people, they were grumbling against the apostles.
Caleb Chancey:After all, I mean, it was it was the apostles who they gave the money to. It was the apostles whom they they would hope would exercise wise leadership and get it into the hands of those who need it. And so, if that wasn't happening, whose fault was it? Well, it was the apostles. And so, they were grumbling at the apostles.
Caleb Chancey:And, all they wanted the apostles to do was just redirect their focus. Hey, could you just give more time and energy towards taking care of these widows? Stop doing the other stuff you're doing and focus on this because this is really important. Seems like a reasonable request, doesn't it? This is a problem that needs to be fixed.
Caleb Chancey:And, can't we all agree that the church needs to help widows? We need to help the least of these, that's a really good thing. James even tells us that pure and undefiled religion is taking care of the widows and orphans. So the question here is not whether the church should be taking care of these widows. Absolutely, it should.
Caleb Chancey:Non negotiable. The question is this, is that the foundation of the church? Is that what the church is going to be built on? That's what the apostles are having to wrestle with at this moment. And, their answer is, no.
Caleb Chancey:That's not the foundation of the church. Here, we see another one of Satan's tactics to try to ruin the church, and that is through diversion. First, through dissension, and now he's trying to divert the apostles' attention. He starts some kind of dissension there, some grumbling, and then it's like, now, I need the apostles to change their focus to deal with the dissension that just came up. He wants to divert the apostles' focus from what God had called them to do to just something that's good to do.
Caleb Chancey:There's a difference between what God has called you to do versus just what's good to do. Satan wants the church to quit preaching the Word of God, to quit studying the Word of God, and he wants to do this so much, he will even divert the church's attention to just giving in to good works. I gotta tell you, the apostles had enormous pressure to give in to this. I mean, if they had done this, you know what would have happened? Okay.
Caleb Chancey:Alright. We're just gonna give in to this. They would have received the world's applause. Way to go. I mean, they would have no longer been arrested.
Caleb Chancey:They would have gotten pats on the back. Look at all the good you guys were doing. Thank goodness you finally dropped that Jesus stuff. Thank goodness you you finally started, you know, teaching as if you guys had the truth, and you did what was really important, you just you just cared for those in need, you're taking care of widows, you know, kudos to you, way to go. I mean, the church would have gotten the world's applause if the apostles took that route.
Caleb Chancey:It would have also meant the church's destruction. Remember those four pillars we looked at a couple weeks ago, those four landmarks of the church found in Acts two forty two? Very first one, the church dedicated themselves to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, to prayer, foundation of the church. The apostles' teaching and prayer were two of those pillars. Without those things being primary, the church would absolutely sway, no matter how good the intentions were.
Caleb Chancey:And the apostles also knew this, if they quit devoting themselves to the word, if they quit proclaiming the word, then eventually, the church would quit caring for the poor. It might not happen overnight, but make no mistake, eventually, the church would lose its heart for the poor because where did that heart come from? It came from the Word of God. It was the Word of God coming into us, changing us. The apostles knew that if they quit, you know, in a sense, serving living bread, the bread of life, the church would actually stop eventually serving bread itself.
Caleb Chancey:It's God's word that comes to us, changes our hearts, teaches us the dignity of every human and how we are to love and we are to serve one another. I'm gonna read Peter in first Peter. In a couple of weeks, we start that series. I'm hoping as we go through that, you will see all of these connections back to the life of Peter. One of the first things he points out is what we're looking at here.
Caleb Chancey:In first Peter one, he says, you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the grass. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. Thank you, Peter, for preaching that good word because that's how people are born again.
Caleb Chancey:And this is why Peter and the rest of the disciples here, they say it's not right that we should give up preaching the word in order for us to serve food. It's not right for us to divert our focus. Yet, at the same time, serving these widows is a nonnegotiable. It's what the God has called the church to do. So that means they have to delegate.
Caleb Chancey:They have to delegate their power. The ministry of the church can't just rest on them in order for the church to fulfill her calling. Everyone is gonna have to get involved. And that's what we see here is the apostles, they begin just empowering the church to go and to serve. They suggested that the church bring forward seven men, pick seven men who are full of wisdom, full of the Holy Spirit, and they would charge them and empower them to lead this task of caring for the poor.
Caleb Chancey:And the church thought, that's an excellent idea, so they selected these seven men. And I don't know if you noticed this or not, but they all have Greek names. Makes perfect sense since it was the widows who spoke Greek who were being neglected. Well, let's put some people who actually understand the language, their culture, let's put them in charge, let's empower them to take care of this. Now, we don't know what they did.
Caleb Chancey:Did the issue get resolved? We actually don't know. I mean, you kind of wonder, like, so how did they organize this? How did they do? What did it look like?
Caleb Chancey:You're not told because that's actually not the focus of what Luke is trying to communicate here in Acts. I mean, we assume it did, you got the right people in the right place, but but you don't know exactly if it did, you don't know how it worked out, but the point was this, the church had a crisis. The crisis was this, dissension was starting to come up. They were going to divert their focus away and the apostles said, no. The Word of God must be central.
Caleb Chancey:And, if we ever leave that, we leave who we are as a church. And, from that Word of God, we're given hearts to care for the poor and now let's empower some people to do it. That's the point of this. And, we do read of the larger result of their decision in verse seven. And, the word of God continued to increase, and the numbers of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
Caleb Chancey:Now, up to this point in Acts, Luke has well, he's described the growth of the church in different ways. He he would say things like, and the Lord added to their number, or 3,000 people were saved, 3,000 souls were added that day, or believers were added to the Lord. But notice what he says here. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly. This is the first time we see these two phrases.
Caleb Chancey:They will be repeated later. But here, see the church didn't just grow, the word of God increased. People were not just added to the church, disciples were multiplied. And, what we see here is that the church is not just growing, the church is growing up. It's maturing.
Caleb Chancey:It's not just growing a mile wide and an inch deep, but it's growing in breadth and it's growing in-depth. And, the rest of Acts, you're gonna read about how that word keeps multiplying and how disciples, not just believers, but disciples keep increasing. This is the calling of the church. It's also the calling of our church. We want the word of God and disciples to increase in our city and all in the world.
Caleb Chancey:We want souls to be added to the church. We want us to pray. We want the word of God to be taught, and we want that word to be a fuel for us serving the least of these. In order for that to happen, it's not just on leadership, it's on the entire church membership. Everyone is needed to jump in and to serve in order for the church to fulfill its calling.
Caleb Chancey:Pray with me, church. Lord Jesus, thank you for your gift of family to us. Thank you for saving us. Thank you for growing us. Lord, I pray that we would never stray from your words because your words are life.
Caleb Chancey:And we'd also never stray from our calling to live out those words in our community, and to be a light shining in the darkness, and to come along those who are poor and needy, and to give them a physical demonstration of your gospel. Lord, may we hold true to both of those things, And, we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.