More People, More Problems - Ben Stuart

Well, if you were alive in the 90's, and I know dozens of us in here were, you might remember the band Oasis, led by the Gallagher brothers, Liam and Noel. In 1993, their first album became the fastest selling debut album in UK history. And their second album, released two years later, made them global superstars. But if you recall, they were not just famous for their Britpop sound, but they were famous for their very public, profanity-laced, often physically violent, sibling rivalry. That little small interactions could suddenly become major melees between these brothers because one had a talent for writing songs, the other had a better voice, right? And so there were famous moments, like when Liam hit Noel with a tambourine while on stage. Or Noel famously used a cricket bat to destroy their entire recording studio. There was a moment in an interview where Noel said of his brother, he is the angriest man you will ever meet. He's like a man with a fork in a world of soup. The band famously broke up in 09 because they got in a fight backstage. They were about to take the stage in Paris, and it got so crazy they were swinging guitars at each other, and the band broke up. And for 15 years, didn't write or perform a song until 2024, they announced a reunion that they were going to get back on tour now as brothers in their 50s. But if you liked their music, you go, wow, but for those 15 years, so much music and so much momentum lost because you couldn't figure out how to resolve conflict. Now why do I mention that? Because we're in the book of Acts, and we're covering Acts in like three seasons. So we're in season one, and in season one, we're looking at the birth of the Christian church, like the exciting earliest days of this movement in Jesus. And in the last chapter, Acts chapter five, we saw this young church navigate some internal drama and external drama, persecution from without, and then some deception from even within their own ranks. And if you recall, we use the Hoberman spheres and illustration of how Luke likes to tell their story, that the focus becomes on expansion as they lead the gospel further and further out.

And then they move towards an internal focus as they work on themselves, that they move out into the cause of letting the name of Jesus be known to the nations, and then have to move internally to work on the culture to make sure that the kind of team Jesus called them to be. And as you look at the book of Acts, it's constantly this expansion moving out, and then this movement internally to work on the culture, right? And so last time we looked at the book of Acts, it was about externally the gospel expanding further and further out as more people respond to the good news of Jesus. Today, our focus is internal, because we're gonna watch them have to deal with a problem. And the beauty of this moment is we're gonna watch a healthy church navigate conflict well. It's interesting, Pastor Louie was here last week, and he talked about, famously, remember the king of Assyria attacking Judah, and they were just mowing through all these nations in unstoppable force. What could possibly stop Assyria? And you realize it wasn't another external army, it was the king's sons murdering him back in the palace. That internal drama can shut down a movement, right? What happens when internal drama enters a church? So we're gonna talk about how to navigate conflict in a marriage, in a work business, in a friendship, in countries maybe, a little bit, but mostly in a church. And we're gonna do it really kind of moving through three basic places. We're gonna see the problem, we're gonna see the solution, and then we're gonna see the result. We'll spend most of our time on the problem, because that's life. All right, number one. You see the problem in verses one and two, but it starts actually with some good news in verse one. It says, now in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number. That's great news, because Jesus had commissioned his apostles, go be my witnesses. He said, make disciples of all nations.

And here you see the making of disciples is happening. The mission's being accomplished. And notice, they're not just making attendees, they're making disciples. A disciple is a learner with an action orientation. So it's not just more people, it's more growth as a result of their encounter with faith in Jesus. That's awesome. And incidentally, let me say, this is the moment we're in in our church, Passion City, D.C. We're in these days. We did a survey in February, and I keep promising you I'll show you some of the results. And I've realized, oh, it's kind of helpful to just kind of meet them out as their illustrations, so we'll keep doing that. But a couple ones, we'll put up this first slide. The survey in February, you indicated that a... 11% of you in the room on a given Sunday, 11% of the people in the room, this is your first time ever here. And we're so glad you're here. 26% said, I've been at this church, but for less than a year. That's pretty wild to think over a third of the people in this room have been on this journey with us for less than a year. And what's even more interesting to me personally is that 13% of you indicated this was your first church experience ever. And we're so glad you're here and are excited about being able to walk through that experience with you.

Yeah, amen, it's awesome. We also asked you about midweek gatherings where we try to help you deepen in community and deepen in your understanding of faith. And here's how that turned out. 36% of you said you've been to a neighborhood night. That's the dinners we host once a month in different neighborhoods that we can share a meal together and get to know one another better. 12% of you have attended a core class. Those are seminary style classes where we can answer some more heady theological questions for you to understand your faith better. 27% of you, about 1 4th of this room, says you're in a family group. Those are our smallest groups where we try to get you together with a few people that you can confess to, confide in, pray with, and have support you as you apply what you're learning in places like this. Obviously, there's people that attend different ones and some that attend multiples, which we like. And so all told, 39% of you in this room indicated that you've attended a midweek gathering of ours in the last four months. I don't know what the right percentage is. So if you're like, is that a win or not? I don't know. I'm happy about that. 39% of you attended a midweek thing.

That's fantastic. You don't want it to be 100% because that means you're not welcoming any new people. Do I want it to be more than 39%? Yes, absolutely. So I hope you show up at stuff. But I'm pretty happy about that. And what that shows me is we're not just growing in number, we're also growing in our faith, right? And that's awesome. And that's where we see the church starts, here. But then I want you to notice the main verb in verse one. Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose. Uh-oh. We got a problem. The number of disciples is increasing and the number of complaints are increasing. Ain't that the truth? It's like the more people we come across, the more problems we see, right? That's it. Can you have a growth in disciples and a growth in drama at the same time? Yes. Both can be true. And not only can both be true, they're always true. That growth brings problems. It does. It's better than dying problems.

But growth brings problems. My son just ran into this. As a 10-year-old boy, none of his pants fit. That's a problem. But it's a growth problem. It's because he's a healthy young boy and he's growing up. So it's a growth problem, but it's a problem. The boy needs pants, right? And so here, let me just say this. Healthy churches have problems. So if you're looking and saying, we just need to get back to the pure early church where they had no problems. No, they had problems. All healthy churches do. So if you're seeking the purest church, you'll always be disappointed. The Puritans left Europe and came to America to establish a pure church. And then they had kids and realized there are sinners among us, right? That churches, even the best of ones, are on a world that's fallen. Thorns and thistles will grow. In this life, you will have problems, right? And so I would just say, you want a healthy church, but there's no perfect church. So be careful about a consumer mentality that's quick to demand, quick to critique, and slow to contribute.

Even the best of us have problems, right? So what's the problem? A complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. That word distribution in Greek is the word diakonia. We'll come back to it later. It means service, right? At its simplest, it's an organization problem. An increase in people has led to an inefficiency in food distribution. That sounds pretty simple, pretty easy to solve. But this is a problem with some real danger baked in. Danger that could poison and kill this young church before it even gets off the ground. Could kill ours, too, by the way. It's almost like Oregon Trail. I've never played that game. My kids are playing it now. The simplest thing. Oh, I got scratched by a thorn. Oh, it got infected. Oh, I have gangrene. Oh, you're dead, right? And you're like, wow. We went from a little Neosporin to you're dead, right? That little problems can become big problems. And we're gonna see here, this is a problem with some real danger baked in. Because it's an organizational problem,

but it's also a community. Communication problem. When we encounter conflict, how will we respond? Notice the verb here was a complaint arose. That's a fun word in Greek. Greek's the original language the New Testament was written in. It's the word gongouzmos. And it's a fun word because it's an onomatopoeia, which are words that sound like what they are, like boom or pow, right? Gongouzmos, we translate grumbling because it sounds like that, right? Gongouzmos, right? And so you realize when there's a problem, the most natural human response is to murmur about it, right? So it's a fun word, but it's a real problem because I don't know if you remember this from the Old Testament. That's what got the people of God in the Old Testament in trouble. That is, they were journeying in the exodus across the desert. They were constantly murmuring and complaining and whining until finally God said, I can't bless y'all. And the blessings I intended will go to your kids. Y'all won't get them because their community was fractured

by all the grumbling. And so grumbling can not only destroy a community, it can derail a cause. That's what Paul said to the Philippians. He said, do all things without grumbling and complaining so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world as you hold forth the word of life. He says, our job is to hold forth this word like a light in the darkness. But he says, that won't happen if you're grumbling and complaining. People don't wanna hear your gospel, your good news, if your community is a bunch of grumblers that say, why would I wanna join you? You don't even like being you. I got enough problems. I don't need to add your problems, right? And so grumbling, if it continues, it can destroy a community and derail a cause. The gospel's at stake in how they handle problems. Now, this doesn't mean you don't surface problems. What's important is how you handle them. Are we looking for a solution or are we promoting dissolution, right? That's the issue. I say this to young couples who are getting married all the time.

You know, I'll do premarital counseling. And I'll say, tell me about when y'all disagree. And they'll go like, oh, we never disagree. We never fight, we are one. And you're like, okay, well, you know, just keep me updated, let's see how that goes. And you know, right at the outset in America when you're getting engaged, we make you plan a massive social event with all your loved ones. We just put you in this pressure cooker of stress. And suddenly some issues pop up. And whenever they do, I go, okay, whatever the issue is, plates, his mom, your dad, it's a problem, but it's not the main problem. This problem surfaces the problem of how do you two solve problems? Because if y'all can figure out how to speak the truth, but in love, to seek unity on the other side, not victory in an argument, if you cannot lash out in anger or freeze out the other person and make them guess, if you can communicate in a way that solves problems and then moves through them, then problems become opportunities for deepening in trust. But you gotta figure out how to communicate. But you don't heal a broken leg by ignoring it. You'll die that way. And so here they got a problem. You can't turn your eye away from it.

You go, how do we step towards this problem and communicate in a way that's redemptive, not destructive, right? But it's not just a communication problem. It's a value problem, right? What do I mean by that? The problem was widows are being neglected in the daily distribution, diakonia, service. That is the provision of a physical need, food, probably some clothing, some money. Why widows? Well, because they were widely recognized as the most fragile members of the community because they had no family to take care of them, particularly older widows, right? Most work back then was primarily physical. Women could work. Read Proverbs 31. She's selling real estate, she has a textile business. Women could work. But as you age, if you didn't have a family around you to care for you, you were suddenly in a very fragile position, right? Some of you have felt that a bit if you moved to D.C., that you took for granted the community you had around you until you moved here alone. And then you realized, oh, I didn't know what I had, all the support, until it was gone. And so you have women who are aging who lack support to take care of them

right at the age they need it to most. And here you have widows that are being neglected. And the problem with that is it is a core value of the people of God from the outset that we care for those in need. You can read it all through the Old Testament that God says this is a hallmark of my people, right? That you visit the orphan and the widow. It's in the law and the prophets. I want you to care for those who don't directly benefit you. I cared for you when you provided me no benefit. And so I want you to care for others even if they can't advantage you because I want you to be a picture of my grace and love to the world. He says this is a hallmark of my people. This is a core value, right? And in the New Testament. James, Jesus' brother, wrote the same thing. He says, religion that's pure and undefiled before God is this, visit the orphans and widows in their affliction. He says, that's the baseline of what we do. We care for these people that have need, which incidentally, I thought about here talking about how we meet the needs of people who are hurting in our city. But we mentioned earlier that for the city class, where we really go into that in detail, of going like, hey, if people are hurting in the city,

how do we move towards them in a way that's truly helpful but redemptive in nature? So I won't do it all the way, but if you give here, participate here, you'll figure out that a lot of what you do is aimed at helping the city thrive and particularly those in need, right? And so we have to do this. But there's something even more serious happening here. It's not just a value problem. It's a cultural problem. You go, what do I mean by that? A complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because it's the Hellenist widows who are being neglected. So don't miss this. Within the early church of Jesus, there's two tribes, so to speak. There's an us and a them, and they are neglecting us, right? So this problem of bread distribution is dangerous. Why? Because it's touching a preexisting cultural fault line in the culture. Friction in the wider culture has now entered the church. And we got different cultures entering in, and this church is in danger of fracturing right in half on a cultural fault line over this issue, right? You go, what is this issue? Who are the Hellenists and Hebrews? Well, ethnically, they're all Jewish.

So this isn't an ethnic challenge. It's a cultural challenge. Now, ethnicity and culture obviously are like a Venn diagram with a lot of overlap, right? But you're gonna see some of the ethnic cultural challenges happen as the gospel goes beyond the Jewish community into all the earth as we continue to move through the book of Acts. Here, it's still localized in the city of Jerusalem, which is primarily Jewish. So you've got people who are ethnically the same, but are culturally different. Culture being defined as a set of shared beliefs, attitudes, practices of a particular group. So it could be an ethnic group like the Greeks, or it could be just American culture, or Southern culture, or youth culture, or skater culture, or cancel culture. You can have all kinds of cultures, right? And so here there's a gap between these two cultures, right? An existing cultural tension that's now in the church. The Hebrews were ethnically Jewish, but more than that, it carries the idea that they prioritized conserving their ancient traditions. So they were more sensitive about the law and the prophets. Also probably means they could read and speak Hebrew, right? We don't have time to go into all this, but in the Old Testament, when the people of God were cast into exile in Babylon, they learned Aramaic, the Babylonian language.

And then when they were allowed to return to this land, they all spoke Aramaic, the language of Babylon. When Jesus walked the streets, he spoke Aramaic, right? But the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. So if you were serious, you learned Hebrew so you could read it in its original language. That's how we knew you were a real one, right? The apostle Paul called himself this. In 2 Corinthians, he's like, are they Hebrews? So am I. To the Philippians, he said, I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. He said, man, I was the best in that group at conserving the traditions of my people. Now he said, people use that as a value to make them better. He says, I don't think that's what made me better. I count all things as a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. He said, so I won't be defined by this primarily. It's not the major storyline of my life. But Paul identified himself as this. The Hellenists, by contrast, were ethnically Jewish, but they were more influenced by the Hellas. That is Greek. You might remember Hellenization from social studies. You remember that? It's what Alexander the Great did. As he conquered, he wanted to teach people Greek culture. So they spoke Greek, sure, but everybody did. That was kind of the language of trade, right?

But here you had people that were just more influenced by the broader culture and how they speak, how they dress, maybe a little less committed to some of the traditions of their ancestors, of the law and the prophets. That doesn't mean they couldn't communicate, but it means they were just more like the broader culture. That's why in Acts chapter two, when the Holy Spirit landed, suddenly the believers were speaking in multiple different languages. Why? Because you saw in the Old Testament, when the Jewish people came back from exile, yeah, Nehemiah came back to Jerusalem, but an Esther stayed in Babylon. And you had all kinds of Jewish people kind of scatter among the nations, the diaspora. And so when they showed up on Pentecost, their heart language, their original language, was from a different nation because they grew up in an other place. Ethnically the same, but culturally different, right? That's the idea. And so here they are from different cultures entering the church, and so they're different. But different doesn't necessarily mean bad. Different can be kind of fun culturally, honestly. I remember for me, we'll start with an easy one. I remember I was told when I was a kid I had a lot of Italian blood in me,

and I thought that was kind of cool. Ooh, I'm Italian, right? And so I'll never forget when we first drove in our suburban up to Pennsylvania to meet the Italian relatives. It's interesting, now my little nieces and nephews all refer to me as Uncle Benny, because my brother and sister think that's hilarious. Because when we showed up in Pennsylvania, it turns out our great Uncle Benny believed, rightly or wrongly, it's hard to say, that I was named after him. And so when I showed up as a middle school kid, Uncle Benny was like, hey, and grabbed me and kissed both of my cheeks, and then so would Uncle Gino and Aunt Rosie, and suddenly it was wine at midnight, and pasta, and parties late into the night, and some relative trying to very vehemently explain to me that he was not in the mob. And I'm like, I've never had someone feel like they had to explain that before. And it was just, it was the most fascinating experience for me, because I was like, oh, we're the same blood, but I'm far more culturally Texan. But I just didn't know that. But it was kind of a fun thing to experience. And so you can be the same ethnically, but different culturally. You'll see it often in various African cultures

and African-American culture. Some of you are like, should you even be talking about this, white pastor? I don't know, we're about to find out, but let's go with an easy one. There was a video around this week, I don't know if you saw this, where it was three black men, one of them spoke Zulu, he's African, and two that were raised in America. And the American guys realized, like, oh my gosh, so you could translate the opening song from the Lion King. Ah, the one, and they were like, what does it mean? And he said, it means, look, there's a lion. Oh my God. And they burst out laughing, they're like, no way. That song is so transportive, we thought it was something deep about our ancestors or something about the heavens. They're like, no, it's just identifying a lion and expressing surprise to the deity. And they had a laugh about it. That this language barrier and cultural barriers actually can be something kind of interesting and fun, right, it can expand your horizons to be in a multicultural environment, but it can bring some challenges. I remember the first time I spoke at the Martoma Church. It's a denomination from India.

And so all the leadership still lives in India and is very culturally Indian. They asked me to speak. I think I was the first American, Westerner, white person to speak. And it was because so many of these 20, 30 year olds had grown up in America as first generation members of the Martoma Church. So the leadership had come over from India and here they had their children now speaking English as their common language. And it was just an ongoing dialogue. It wasn't hostile about like, what aspects of our culture do we wanna conserve? What's okay that you've adopted from American culture that we're okay with? And it was just this ongoing dialogue of hey, we're the same ethnically, but there's some differences culturally. And that's not a bad thing. But it can cause some friction. It can be a fertile ground for misunderstanding. Particularly because it's a natural human experience to wanna hang out with people who are like you. We have the same music interests. We have the same food interests. The same pastime interests. So there's something easier about hanging out with people that have the same culture as you. And that's not wrong.

There's nothing wrong about that at all. And yet, here in the church here, and naturally, people hanging out with the culture like them. But then, you can see what started to happen. The Hebrews, who were far and away the majority, it was probably 10% Hellenist in Jerusalem. The Hebrews knew all the other Hebrews. And so they knew the Hebrew widows. And so when it was time to distribute food, they gave it to all the widows they knew. And so by the time the Hellenist widows showed up, they had run out. And you realize, maybe this wasn't even malicious, but suddenly a cultural difference is touching on a value interest. And here's where people can get hurt. And you realize, uh-oh, this could break the church in half, particularly if we respond to it the way people often do here. If they just said, you know what, we're gonna get online, assume the worst motives possible, and burn you down, tear you apart. That is so much the way to handle cultural conflict in the world today. And if that happens, the gospel never gets to Gentiles like many of you and like me. And so here in this moment, they got a problem, potentially combustible, because the crack is on this cultural fault line.

How do we solve it? The church responds swiftly. And here you see it in verse two. The 12 summoned the full number of disciples and said, it's not right. that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. The complaint's legitimate and they do the right thing. They take it to the leadership. Incidentally, that's how you handle a complaint, right? You go to the person with the authority and power to resolve the issue. If someone's hurt your feelings, you can either go to them because they have the authority and power to help resolve the misunderstanding, or you can go, no, it's no big deal, and then gossip about it to 10 of your friends. And now you've become cancer in an organization, be it your business or your church. Here they do it right. We got a problem. It's becoming murmuring. Let's take it to the people in authority who can do something about it and solve it. That's healthy. And yet here in this moment, notice that the apostles say, this is a vision problem. It's not just a communication or a value or a cultural problem, it's a vision problem.

Because they say it's not right, meaning it's not pleasing to God, for us to give up, abandon, neglect, or leave behind the preaching of the word of God to serve tables. He says, hey, this is a real value problem, but we got a vision issue here. Jesus was so clear, be my witnesses to every tribe, tongue, and nation. I have to keep speaking, so Peter and the guys are like, I can't divert from the clear call of Jesus to handle this organizational food issue. I can't do it, right? It's interesting, somebody asked me this a while ago at church. They said, why are you so obsessed with growth? And I was like, that's kind of a weird way to say it. I don't like the verb obsessed. But I wouldn't say I'm obsessed. But do I want people to hear the gospel? Absolutely. Do I want as many people as possible to? Absolutely, because I believe hell is real, souls matter, and we got our marching orders from the king. He said, make disciples of all nations. So it's not an option, it's actually priority one. That's the vision. Why are we here? Because the number one issue in the Bible is reconciling humanity with God.

That we have broken from our maker, and yet he has made peace with us to the God-man Jesus Christ, who stepped into our world, took our sin upon him, died, was buried, and rose again victoriously to reconcile us with God, that you can have peace with God. That is the number one story we have to get out. A close second is reconciliation among people. And you see it in Ephesians chapter two, that we've been reconciled to God. And then he says, hey, when God is our father because of the sacrifice of Jesus, behold your family, brothers and sisters, that God is knitting together a family across formal barriers of hostility, that God's love is displayed to the world when our love jumps expected boundaries, culturally and ethnically. And so God cares about reconciliation with God and reconciliation among humans. They both matter, and yet Peter looks here and says, you gotta keep them straight. One's priority one and one's priority two. Both matter, we gotta deal with this. He says, but I can't abandon preaching the gospel to handle this issue, I can't do it. And so he's identifying there, it's a leadership problem. That's your last problem. It's a leadership problem.

He says, we've hit my limits, right? He says, I can't preach and diakonane, serve these tables. That doesn't mean he's too good to serve widows. It's an admission that he's not good enough to do it all. It's interesting because when I led a college ministry in Texas for years, it was culturally the same. I mean, it was all Texas A&M, Aggies, 18 to 22 at the same university, Farmer's Fight, Ekin, Gil. And the idea was that almost every illustration I could use would be A&M or 20-somethings, and they would get them all. It was just so much easier because it was kind of monocultural at A&M, right? You get here, you're from all 50 states and multiple countries. No Aggie stories really work, right? And so I have to use all kinds of different touch points. That's why I'm quoting Shakespeare and Jay-Z. I'm just trying to get some range, okay? Hit as many people as I can, right? But it's funny, when I was at Breakaway, people would ask me, what do you do for a living? And I was like, I'm the director of Breakaway. And they'd say, what's that? And I got to tell them, and they believed me. When people ask me now, what do you do? And I say, I'm the pastor of a church. No one goes, hmm, what's that? They all know what that is, and they all have a definition, except all y'all's definitions are different. And so it's funny, when we're out in the lobby,

people are like, how come we don't sing more hymns? How come we don't sing more gospel songs? How come we don't do communion every week? How come you wear black all the time? What's going on with you? And so all these kind of, and I don't mind, I stand in the lobby and take all covers, I like you guys, right? But the reality is, there's all kinds of different cultural challenges. But in that, I'll have people say to me, how come you don't do all the weddings? How come you don't do all the community groups? How come you're not, pastors are supposed to show up at everything. Pastors are supposed to be, you're supposed to meet with me for every coffee. And I realize, hey, you know what? It's not that I'm too good to meet with you, it's I'm not good enough to do it all. I've hit a limitation. I got kids. I gotta go home sometimes and raise them, right? And so the reality is, they say, we are not gonna let the expansion of the gospel be limited by our personal capacity. We can't do it. Some leaders have a hard time doing that. I only want the organization to grow as big as me. It's hard to release authority and responsibility.

And yet here Peter says we can't do it all. So what's the solution? Growth. Verse three. Therefore, 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, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry, diakonia, of the word. Diakonia means servant or service. It's what deacon means. And so here the apostles are saying we're all servants. I will serve you by preaching this word. He says that's what we'll do. By prayer and the word, I'll talk to God about you and I'll talk to you about God. And but we need some more people to step up and serve so we can serve all the physical needs in our community and in our city. We all gotta step in and serve, but we will do it in different ways. And so his solution here is hey, we are going to increase our organizational capacity by elevating more leadership. This is bigger than just Peter, right? And that's good. And I love that. Notice he calls them brothers. We're family.

Let's keep that in mind. We have some differences, but God's made us family. And then he tells them, you identify people and we'll appoint them. But then he tells them, but here's your criteria. They gotta have a good reputation, be of good repute. Well, based on what? Two criteria. Full of the spirit and wisdom. If you're gonna lead in a church, you gotta be full of the spirit. What does that mean? It means this is a spiritual movement. So it needs to be led by spiritual people. And not just any spiritual, not generic spirituality. The Holy Spirit whom Jesus Christ imparts to those who believe in him. That's the clear message of the New Testament that having believed, you're marked with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit guaranteeing what's to come. And so I've submitted myself to Jesus and he has put his very spirit into me. And then you have a good reputation because you're manifesting the fruit, a result of that spirit's presence. The spirit has different gifts he gives people, but the fruit of the spirit's available to all. Love, joy, peace, patience, nobody? Okay, we'll memorize that verse later, right? And on it goes, right?

That there's all kinds of different character manifestations of love and joy and peace and kindness, gentleness, self-control. These kind of things are manifest to those who are submitted to the spirit of God, right? So they have to be spiritual men. This is a spiritual movement. And they have to be wise. That means skillful. So they need godly character that's recognizable in the way they treat us. And they need competency to solve the task. Because it's awesome if they love the Lord, but if they're completely lost in bread distribution, we're still gonna have some hungry widows. So we gotta get someone who's got character and competency in this given task. That's who we're gonna put in charge, right? Some of you have amazing capacity as leaders, but you have not yet submitted your life to Jesus. You should not lead in a church, right? Because you have amazing organizational skills and you will rally those to take us in the exactly wrong direction. So we can't give you any leadership, right? Others of you love the Lord, but do you have the skill and capacity to serve in a given context? Some of you absolutely are prayer warriors, but if I put you in a finance meeting

and you're like, that's a lot of numbers. Like, that's not your spot, right? Not all of us should be up here doing this, right? We should all sing, not all shall have microphones, right? I mean, that's a gift to all of us, right? That we just say, you know what? It needs to be spirit and skill. Godly character in all of us and the capacity in a given task. And so how is the church gonna grow? How are we gonna reach the city? It's by all of us saying, I will serve and I'm gonna be submitted to the spirit of God and then we're gonna put you in a place where you have some skill and capacity to be a contribution to the community. And here they elevate leaders this way, which is what we've done. I don't have time to go into it all in the history of our church. That's what we did, that we appointed team leaders that lead door holder teams that serve among you, right? And put them in places where they can lead us. We were able to reach more people because we've elevated more leaders and we've got team leaders that serve. Some of you from a church context may have heard the title deacons, they serve like that. To help lead the teams that help pull off a Sunday in all our midweek gatherings, right?

This is also what's happening broader at Passion. We don't have time to go through all this, but it was why Pastor Lou was here last week. We talked about it a lot in our US Conference that Passion City Atlanta launched us. And in the early days, so much of what we needed to have happen here in DC was provided by the church in Atlanta. That we launched and I was like, hey, if I could launch without hiring an accountant, that would be great. And so they did all that for us. But now as we've grown as a church, we've realized, you know what? Everything we're leaning back on Atlanta for, we are now in the next few months, taking all of it. on ourselves, because we've grown up and matured enough to handle the weight, right? And so you'll see some of those changes in the giving portal and in our database systems. We're still under oversight and leadership, but the reality is we're growing up. And so like a good kid, you need to help dress your little kid. You don't wanna dress a seven-year-old or a college kid. Maturation is the goal. And so we're still very much a part of the passion family, but we're able to handle all of our own finances, resources, every bit of it.

Now, that's not just to give Atlanta less to do. It's so they can help, Lord willing, raise up other churches. And Lord willing, we can do the same. That we've been in a process of maturation because it started with Pastor Louis. He says, you know what? I'm not gonna let the limits of passion be my limits. And so that's how I got here. And Lord willing, we're gonna keep raising up more leaders so we can reach more and more people, right? So that's the solution from the apostles. And here in verse five, what they said, pleased the whole gathering. Yay, everybody's happy. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith into the Holy Spirit. He's awesome, we're gonna see him more later. And Philip, we'll see him more later, and he's pretty impressive. And Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Pumbaa, and the rest. Two things I wanna point out. And Nick, the proselytite. Two things I just wanna say about these guys real quick as we're landing it. Number one, all the names are Greek. So that doesn't mean they were Hellenist, but it kinda suggests it. That here you have the leadership is becoming more diverse.

Diverse culturally, but unified in mission and morality. There's no compromise. They have to be full of the Spirit. They have to be submitted to the Lord Jesus Christ, full of faith in Him. They're not wavering in what they believe, right? And they have to have wisdom, skill, that begins with a fear of the Lord. Same mission, same morality, but diverse in their cultural expression. That's the kind of church Jesus sought to build. Every tribe, tongue, and nation in his kingdom. And so that's what they're building, right? And so it's interesting, at the very end of that, you see Nicholas, a proselytite from Antioch. A proselytite is someone who is not ethnically Jewish, but converted. And so here you have the first non-ethnic Jew becoming a believer in Jesus. The interesting thing is, he's not ethnically a Jew, but culturally he's like a Hebrew. So he's like the safest non-Jew to let in, right? They just took a little tiny step out, right? And it's gonna get a lot bigger as we go through this series. But that's a big step that Nicholas is in leadership. Diverse culturally, but united in mission and morality. And look at the result. Verse six, they sat before the apostles, they prayed on them and laid hands on them.

They commissioned these men, and look what happens in verse seven. The word of God continued to increase. What could have been a problem that tore them apart, when the friction was handled, the word didn't just keep going out, it let the word go out further. That as more and more people step forward to serve, and more and more people are elevated into the leadership because they manifest godly character, we're able to reach more and more people. And I love that the word of God gets the verb. It's the word of God going forward. The God's word goes, we get the privilege of being along for the ride, right? And it says the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. The word went out more and more and more people came in. More word, more people. Lord, let what is true in that capital city be true in this one. That the word of God goes out more and more and more people say yes to the grace of God available in Jesus Christ. And then I love where Luke ends, and a great many of the priests become obedient to the faith. Why does he say that? Because the priests would have been the Hebrewiest of the Hebrews, right?

And so what you see is it's not just, and here's how the church became more Hellenist. No, the church said, we're bringing in Hellenists. And yet, the Hebrews have a place too. That suddenly you got more and more Hellenists being provided for, but we haven't lost the Hebrews. That God is growing a church of every tribe and tongue and nation, and here you see, in the first little threat of a break, you see suddenly, no, God has solved it, and you see this massive increase in mission because they solved this problem in a healthy way. Lord, let this be true in our day.