“Growing Pains”
Text: Acts 6:1-7:60
5-7-2023
In the name of Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, dear friends in Christ. Is pain a good thing? Dumb question, right? In our modern world we spend billions of dollars and tons of time trying to eliminate or prevent pain. But regardless of how hard you try; you can never totally avoid it. It’s part of our world. From the oldest to the youngest of us, we all get our own share of pain. And some of us feel we get more than our fair share. You may not like it, but you have to accept it as a fact of life in this fallen world. Truth is, pain is due to mankind’s fall into sin.
Considering all that and our natural dislike for pain, it may sound counterintuitive when you hear me say that pain can actually be good for us at times. For example, when a person is trying to build up their muscles it’s painful, but it’s a good kind of pain because they’re growing stronger. And we also speak of another pain in a positive light: growing pains. When I was a child, my mother would attribute just about every ache and discomfort to growing pains. That seemed to make sense as I envisioned my bones stretching with each inch that I grew. However, many doctors will tell you that it’s not really the actual growing that causes this pain in a child. Rather, they say it’s due to their increased activity as they grow and are able to do more things which then leads to aching muscles or joints. Even if that’s the case, you could still call it growing pains because it’s directly related to a child’s increasing size and maturity.
Well, organizations like the Church can also experience growing pains as a positive thing. We see such an example in our First Reading for today from the Book of Acts. The Christian Church had been undergoing some dramatic growth spurts. Think back to the readings from the past couple of weeks. In Acts 2, on that spectacular Day of Pentecost, 3,000 new believers were Baptized and added to the Church. Last week you heard how the Church continued to grow. At the end of chapter 2 it says, “The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” In chapter 4, Peter and John healed a lame man in the name of Jesus, and it says, “Many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.” Again, in chapter 5, St. Luke reports, “And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.” If you’re keeping a tally then we can safely assume that they had grown to perhaps 7 to10 thousand. And all of this in a short period of time.
Ah, but just like a child’s growing body, this growth of the Christian Church was not without pain. Go back and review those chapters that I just shared and you’ll see what I mean. First of all, the very same religious leaders who had orchestrated the crucifixion of Jesus were now turning their attention to the disciples. They verbally threatened the apostles thinking that would be enough. And why not? Immediately after the death and resurrection of Christ, the followers of Jesus were running scared and hiding. Imagine the frustration of those Jewish leaders, though, when the events of Pentecost took place. Those timid disciples were now bold and fearless. They even took the message of Jesus to the Temple courts. To top it all off, the disciples were now performing miracles in the name of Jesus and teaching that He was the Savior. The number of Christians was growing. So, the religious leaders escalated their threats by beating and imprisoning some of the apostles. But it didn’t work.
There were also internal growing pains. I don’t know why, but the lectionary system we use never includes the first 11 verses of chapter 5. That’s too bad because there’s a powerful lesson in it about faking your faith. Anyway, it’s the story of Ananias and his wife Sapphira. A few of the wealthy believers had sold some of their property and gave it to the Church in order to help those who were in need. Ananias and Sapphira did the same except they got greedy in their planned giving. They secretly held a portion of it back for themselves. That was their prerogative to do so. The problem was that they lied about it. They wanted the praise and admiration of others by making everybody think they had sacrificially sold this whole chunk of land as a gift to the Church. It wasn’t true and they paid for that lie with their lives. God struck them dead. You see, the growing pain here was that the popularity of the Church had attracted some insincere people who joined merely for appearances.
Another internal growing pain was how the increasing needs of the Church affected the duties of the Holy Ministry. This is exemplified with the problem in our text for today. The number of church members was multiplying again. That’s a good thing. And they were obeying Christ’s command to help the widows and those in need. That’s also a good thing. Unfortunately, though, some of them were not being treated fairly. We can only speculate as to why. But regardless, the 12 disciples who were leading the Church wisely determined that they were being stretched too thin and couldn’t properly administer this important task. So, they called a meeting where 7 men were chosen who were assigned to oversee this distribution. Please notice, these men were to be devout, Spirit-filled believers. With them in place, the disciples could concentrate on spiritual needs through preaching, teaching, and administering the Sacraments while these 7 men took care of the physical needs that arose.
It was an excellent, God-pleasing solution to this problem brought about by a good growing pain. And what was the result? Verse 7 tells us that “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.” More growth. And not only that, it included the priests which means that Christianity was infiltrating the ranks of the religious leaders. Which lead to another growing pain. Stephen was one of the men chosen to assist with the distribution to the widows and the poor. However, that’s not all he did. He also boldly confessed his faith. In fact, he was so good at it that his opponents couldn’t come up with an argument to shut him down. So, he was forced to stand trial before the Jewish council; the same one that had condemned Jesus. It’s not in our reading, but he gave a long speech defending the Christian faith. When he got to the part where he pointed out that they had killed the Son of God, that was the last straw. They ground their teeth in rage and put their hands over their ears so that they wouldn’t have to hear another word about Christ. In other words, they refused to let God’s Word grow within them. Instead, they tried to stop that growth by killing Stephen. He was the very first Christian martyr. As those men were stoning him to death, they laid their coats at the feet of Saul who would soon go out and seek to destroy every Christian he could find.
The death of Stephen was a very excruciating growing pain. And yet, it was a good growing pain. How could it be good? Well, an early Church Father named Tertullian once said, "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." He wrote that in response to the persecution and executions of Christians. He was saying that killing the followers of Jesus wouldn’t decimate the Church. Quite the opposite. It would make it grow because all that suffering and death was an opportunity for the Gospel to be spread. When people witnessed the peace and calm with which these martyrs died, it would speak volumes about their faith in Jesus Christ. And others would be attracted to the Church to learn more. The harder they tried to stomp out Christianity, the more it grew. By faith, Stephen had outgrown his life here on earth. He was quite ready to move on to the place in heaven which Jesus said He was going to prepare for all believers.
Standing up for the truth when it’s unpopular isn’t easy. Especially not when people tell you that it will decrease and destroy the Church. And yet, the opposite is true. The Church grows even in the face of opposition and persecution. Just look at the early Christian Church or at the wondrous growing pains that God caused through Luther and the Reformation.
What I’d have you see in all this is that the Church today continues to experience growing pains. Oh sure, it would be nice if our pews were so full that we had to consider a new building project. It would be nice if we needed to elect 7 men to distribute money and food to the needy from a bursting treasury. But you’ll notice in our text that what was behind these growing pains in the early Church was the increase of faith within people. That inner growth is what caused the external growing pains. That’s what verse 7 is talking about when it says that “the word of God continued to increase.” It caused the number of believers to multiply. God’s method hasn’t changed. We shouldn’t first look at the number of bodies in our Church, rather, we should look for spiritual growth within our members.
So let me ask you, “Are you growing in God’s Word?” That’s what happens as you immerse yourself into the Scriptures here in Church and at home. That’s what happens as you receive the Sacrament regularly. The warning in our text is to not be like those Jewish leaders who covered their ears and refused to listen because the words of truth were stinging their ears. God’s Word can and will convict you of your sins which is very painful. But it’s a good kind of pain. If you will only listen, God will lead you to confession so that you can hear the soothing words of His forgiveness. And once you do, then you will grow spiritually. You will grow in His grace. If you will allow the Holy Spirit to work in your heart, then like Stephen your faith will increase to the point that you outgrow your life here on earth. And that’s when God will call you to your eternal home in heaven. May the Lord keep us in this one true faith until that blessed day. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!