Message: In Acts 6 as the church was growing,
complaints started coming in that the widows were not being properly cared for.
The apostles listened to these complaints and chose 7 men “of good reputation,
full of the Spirit and of wisdom” to manage this while the preaching and
teaching of the gospel continued. What really stood out to me here was verse 7 “so
the preaching of God flourished, the number of the disciples multiplied, and a
large number of priests became obedient to the faith. There are no further
details mentioned about these priests to shed light on what caused their
obedience to change. The footnotes in my Bible suggest that because of their
temple duty functions this may have put them in a better position to hear the
apostles preach on a regular basis. That may be so but what I thought about as I
read this was that the church was functioning in a healthy way. Practical needs
were being met while the gospel was being preached. People respond to the
gospel when they believe someone also cares about their practical needs. You
can’t witness these things without being impacted. I’ve heard so many people
come back from missions trips where they expected to make an impact by sharing
the gospel, and they themselves were impacted because they got their hands dirty
and met some practical and very critical needs like digging wells and building
shelters.
Command: We need to care about both the
sharing of the gospel and meeting practical needs.
Promise: When our lives are in balance with
these two things, the church will be balanced. When the church is balanced, she
is healthy. When the church is healthy it grows, thrives and functions in
unity.
Warning: If our balance is shifted heavily on
one of these things more than the other, we will not be as effective as we
would if they were in balance.
Application: What this means to me as I apply this
to my own life is that in order for the church to thrive and be healthy, we
ourselves need to be healthy. Not perfect, but healthy. We need to care about
both the practical needs as well as the sharing of the gospel. Sometimes we
believe that we are one or the other. This may be true of our giftings, but we
are all called to do both. Some of us will never stand on a pulpit to preach
but we are all supposed to be teaching someone. We are also supposed to be
aware of those around of who have practical needs. If we are waiting for a
church ministry to handle the practical needs we see, we are missing our call
to action. This COVID-19 season is a huge opportunity to pay attention to the
friends, coworkers, neighbors and acquaintances in our lives that are
struggling and need either practical needs met like some food or toilet paper,
or the spiritual needs of people who need encouragement or reassurance. The
gospel multiplies when the church thrives in both of these areas together. It
reminded me of the famous quote “People don’t care what you know until they
know you care.”
