“Conflict in the Church” (Acts 6:1–9; 7:2, 51–60)
1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The message from God’s Word this morning comes to us from Acts 6. What does the church do when it has conflict and fighting within it? Well, today in our text we’ll see how the early Christians dealt with it. The message is entitled, “Conflict in the Church,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. As a pastor I’m in a unique position to watch people worship on Sunday morning. Many have come to worship our crucified and risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But, at the same time I notice from time to time other attitudes being displayed. A few people, while preparing for the awesome privilege to worship, see an activity in the bulletin they don’t like. They turn to their neighbor and say, “Did you see what the Vacation Bible School is doing? We would never have done that when I was growing up.” Then the Pastor calls the church to worship. “Let’s turn to the hymn Amazing Grace and sing our praises to Jesus.” The people sigh and reach for the hymnals. What was the number again? Amazing Grace? We sang that three weeks ago. Why don’t they pick something else? Then the Pastor says, “Let’s stand as we worship Him.” Stand, why do we have to stand? We’ll sing all four stanzas, the Pastor says. All four stanzas! Why not sing one and get on with it? The lips move as they sing but the heart is far from him. Then the Word of God is preached. 20 minutes into the sermon someone is checking his watch to see why it stopped.
3. The way we worship says a lot about the condition of our heart and our attitude toward God. I think that there are times when God weeps on Sunday morning. When His people acknowledge Him with their lips, but their hearts are far from him. Too many times people complain about the length of worship, or the songs that were sung, or the length of the Pastor’s sermon, etc. etc., but how often do people complain about the length of a movie or TV show that they’re watching. Or, about the length of time it takes to watch a football or baseball game. It’s been said that the average person watches over 6 hours of TV a week. And we have people complaining about an hour and 15 minute worship service?
4. When Pastor Joe Stowell was preparing to go into an evening service one Sunday night he heard that Bob his friend had just collapsed on the church’s sidewalk. As he approached, the ambulance pulled up. When the paramedics came to Bob’s body they didn’t attempt to rearrange his motionless body. They didn’t try to straighten his tie or comb his hair or polish his shoes. This was no time for cosmetics. They went straight for the heart. And so to in worship God goes straight for your heart. It’s where He evaluates us. The call to being a Christian is to have a heart toward God. And that requires that we move from externals to internals. Jesus said that it’s not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of him that makes him unholy. For out of the human heart all sorts of evil comes. In order for God to change us from the inside out we need to be willing to let His Holy Word soften our hard hearts, take away our sinful thoughts, words and actions and make us clean and whole once more.
5. Well, just as there is conflict in the church today, so too there was conflict in the early church back about 2000 years ago. Where two or three are gathered together there the devil is with them also. It’s not just the Holy Spirit who is working to change our hearts. The devil is working as well. Acts 6:1–7 says, “1Now 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. 2And the twelve 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. 3Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. 7And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”
6. It’s helpful that stories such as this one are found in the Bible. We would like to believe that the first church had a perfect congregation. That there were always new faces at the worship services, which showed that the church was growing. Of course the early church was alive and revealed the love and care they showed one another. But, a vibrant Church also consists of sinners unable to shed, unable to hide the old Adam. As they say, the old Adam is a good swimmer he always comes up for air, even though he’s drowned through the waters of Holy Baptism. In Acts 6 we see that the church members were complaining and criticizing, saying that the daily distributions were unfair. These complaints still take place today. But, we see here in our text that the early Christians solved the problems without bitterness.
7. We see in Acts 6 that when Grecian Jewish Christians complained that their widows weren’t getting a fair share when food was distributed, the church listened to them. Then the Apostles got the whole church together, suggested that they choose seven known to be full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, and let the seven solve the problem. What’s fascinating is that every one of the seven that the church chose had a Greek name. What does that mean? Simply, that the church instead of slapping on the label “troublemakers” gave the people who experienced an injustice the power to correct it.
8. In the process it was the Hebrew Christians who became vulnerable. They surrendered their rights to those who had felt and had been victims to their injustice. So how did the Jerusalem church put down troublemakers? It didn’t. Instead it lifted the troublemakers up, and gave them authority they needed to solve the problem that they complained about.
9. So can this radical kind of solution work in Christianity today? Yes, if we keep three things in mind. First, don’t view people with problems as troublemakers. Take their concerns seriously. Second, Don’t be defensive, or try to fix blame for past failings. The past isn’t the issue, the problem is. Third, don’t be paternalistic. Don’t think that the leaders are the only ones who can solve the problems. Select wise Holy Spirit filled people who know the problem firsthand, and give them the authority they need to solve it.
10. What’s the church’s final answer to conflict? It’s to look to our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who bore our sins in his body on the tree and who became a curse for us by dying for our sins. The one who had it all, but laid it aside for our sake to set us free from sin, death and the power of the devil. Listen to what the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 2:3-11, “3 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
11. Notice that Paul says in order to have a mind like Christ we must put aside our human pride. To make a change from selfishness to selflessness requires a change that is caused by our Lord Jesus. Our thinking must be released from sin. Our mind is rendered sorry for what we’ve done wrong. Our soul is moved to praise the Lord in thanksgiving for all that He’s done for us in Christ. Our Lord Jesus laid aside His divine glory and humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death for our sins. This is our greatest blessing. What a joy it is to receive from Him the forgiveness of our sins. So, when we see conflict arising in the Church, let us first look to Jesus, set aside our pride, and ask Him to help us solve whatever difficulty we’re facing. Amen.
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