Nobody likes cliques, especially when they invade the Sunday morning worship service.
What should a church do when cliques begin to form in its membership? Have you ever thought about that?
Isn’t it strange how a group of believer’s can come together to worship the Lord, praise God through singing and preaching of the Word, and yet gather in small huddles later on and gossip about others in the sanctuary?
Weird. Sinful. Rather uncool, really.
Nobody Likes Christian Posers
The early church in the book of Acts had the same problems we do today. There’s nothing new under the sun, after all.
Here’s what Acts 6:1 says: “Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews.” The church in Jerusalem was increasing numerically to such an extent that elderly Hellenist widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food.
This problem suggests that things were getting more than just slightly out of control there in the city. Limited resources were causing a fracture in the fellowship.
Overcrowding and the shortage of daily resources became such a formidable problem that selfishness crept into the fellowship. There simply wasn’t enough bread to go around.
It became such an issue that the organized church was forced to select, dedicate, and appoint seven godly men to deal with the problem. One of the men chosen was a man named Stephen, who was a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.
Despite the fact that the disciples were not being wholly obedient to our Lord’s revealed will to take the gospel beyond Jerusalem, however, it is noteworthy that the Lord still honored the obedience that was present. God is so faithful to bless those who bless Him. No amount of faithfulness will ever go unnoticed by our omniscient Rewarder.
In Acts 6:7 we then read, “The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith” (italics mine). Yet even here, in the midst of many blessings and conversions, we see the problem at hand. Everything was happening in Jerusalem. No one was taking the gospel into Judea and Samaria.
Life was just too comfortable. Jerusalem had become the soft pew of early church Christianity.
Faithful Regardless Of The Cost
In order to publicly give glory to the Lord, sometimes you have to exit the place of refuge. Such was the case concerning a story I heard about the bravery of a young girl during China’s Boxer Rebellion of 1900. It reminds me of how important remaining faithful to the Lord really is, even in the face of certain death.
During that rebellion, nearly one hundred students barricaded themselves inside a mission station. Every gate was blocked, except for one.
The insurgents placed a wooden cross on the ground in front of that lone open gate. The students were told that if any of them came out and trampled the cross beneath their feet that they would be granted—not only their freedom—but their lives as well. But any who refused to do so would be immediately shot and killed.
Slowly, seven terrified students walked through the gate, trampling the cross beneath their feet. True to their word, the insurgents allowed those seven to walk away unharmed.
An eighth girl soon followed but, instead of trampling the cross, she knelt before it in prayer, petitioning her Lord for strength in the midst of certain death. Having renewed her trust in the Savior, she stood up, made her way around the cross, and walked toward the firing squad where she met her end.
Emboldened by her example of faith in the Savior, the remaining students each made their way out through the gate, around the cross, and into the hands of the firing squad where every one of them forfeited their lives for the glory of God.
I was reminded that it sometimes hurts being a worshipper of the true God. Being faithful to Christ may cost you your life in the end, yet every one of us must pass through the gate and decide who we will serve—Jehovah, or the god of self-preservation.
Choose wisely.
* Image credit: Danny J (Creative Commons)