“Distracting Dissension” – FBC Morning Light (11/21/2024)

Well, good Thursday morning to you. Today in our Bible reading we're reading the rest of Acts chapter 5 and then chapters 6 through 8. I want to zero in on this situation at the beginning of chapter 6 and help us to realize that, you know, it didn't take long for potential division to attack the church.

Here it is, the church in Jerusalem. It's a baby church, an infant church. Yeah, there are thousands of people, thousands of people have come to faith in Christ in recent weeks in the Church of Jerusalem, but very quickly in the founding of this church there's the potential for great division to afflict the church and, you know, even perhaps tear it apart.

And as is often the case, that potential division isn't over some serious doctrinal matter, you know. It's not like there's a faction in the church that's, you know, denying that Jesus physically, literally rose from the dead, or that he was born of a virgin, or that that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

There wasn't anything like that. It was all about, our widows aren't being taken care of fairly and effectively and properly. It was a very personal matter. Now, did the people who noticed this, were they right in being concerned?

Yeah, I mean, it seems like some favoritism was being shown, and therefore this is a situation that needs to be addressed. But here's the thing, as is so often the case, those, relatively speaking, insignificant issues have the potential of being raised to first-tier issues that can tear the church apart.

So, for example, I knew many years ago a pastor friend who, in his church, it wasn't a large church, but in his church he had, I think, like half a dozen shut-ins, and they were elderly people, all lived in their homes, there was a couple that couldn't get out, and then there were some single people that, because of physical infirmities, they could not get to church.

They couldn't drive anymore, some were wheelchair-bound, and so forth, and so they just couldn't get out to church. So shut-ins, okay, every church has them. And there were some people in his congregation who thought he ought to be visiting those shut-ins and ministering to them every week, every week.

Now, it sounds nice, doesn't it? But here's the thing, if you've ever been involved in shut-in ministry to elderly people who live in their homes, you don't go in and stand there for five minutes and read a passage of Scripture and have a brief word of prayer and walk out the door within 10 or 15 minutes.

It just doesn't happen. It just does not happen. And so what some of these people were asking, expecting of their pastor, was completely unreasonable and unrealistic. I mean, this is a pastor who, again, it wasn't a large church, he was the solo pastor, so he had the responsibility every week of teaching a Sunday school class, preaching the morning message, preaching an evening message, preparing Bible study for Wednesday night, preparing all of those things in addition to all the other tasks of pastoral ministry.

And so the thing is, what I want to get at is this, if he were to do what those folks expected him to do, something's gonna have to give in the important things that God has called him to do. And you know, the Apostles give some guidance to those of us in ministry and to the church.

When they say in Acts 6 -4, they said, you know what, this is a real need. But we're not going to be distracted by taking care of that need. We will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.

These are the top two priorities of the pastoral staff, the pastoral leadership in a local church, giving themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word. Now, are all these other things irrelevant and insignificant, and do they not matter?

No, they matter. The Apostles affirmed that, hey, this has to be taken care of, but not by us. Let's get some men who can take care of this kind of thing. So what my pastor friend needed to do, I can't actually remember if he did it, was to enlist the deacons.

This is what deacons are there for, to enlist the deacons to help in this ministry to the widows, and ministry to the shut-ins, to make regular visits. Dividing up those shut-ins to those various deacons, and giving each one the responsibility of going and visiting their shut-in weekly or bi-weekly, however often it would truly be necessary, but to make sure that they all got covered.

And then the pastor, visit them once a month, visit one shut-in a week, or something of that nature, just to divide up that responsibility so that the pastor can give himself to that which is the most important work that he has to do, prayer and the ministry of the Word.

Those of you who are not in full-time pastoral ministry, let me encourage you to not allow, don't allow, secondary, tertiary, or lower issues to rise to the level of such significance that you demand your pastor be drawn away from those most important issues with which he needs to occupy his heart and his mind and his ministry.

Instead, help him take care of those little things that are not quite so important. Our Father and our God, we do thank you this morning for this very wise and practical guidance, and help for pastors to give their attention to what is most important, and help God's people to be sure that their pastors can give themselves to these things, we pray.

In Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. All right, listen, have a good rest of your Thursday. I trust the Lord will bless you in it.