What's Next: Acts 6:1-7
When the church grows, problems grow with it. In this message, “What’s Next,” Mark Magee walks through Acts 6:1‑7 and shows how the early church in Jerusalem faced a real complaint, a threat to unity, and a turning point for the mission. At The Crossing in Milton, DE, this passage speaks into our own “what’s next” moments when tension rises and the enemy tries to distract and divide.
In clear, practical language, Mark explains how the apostles gave wise attention to the complaint, protected the core mission of teaching the word of God, empowered new leaders to serve, and bathed every next step in prayer. This message is for anyone who wonders how the church should handle conflict, what to do when leadership feels stretched thin, or how to keep the gospel central when there are so many needs. It offers biblical help for people wrestling with anxiety about the future of the church, questions about spiritual leadership, and doubts about whether God can still work through imperfect people.
Acts 6:7 says, “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.” (NIV) Mark shows how that kind of impact can still happen today in places like Milton, DE and beyond when churches evaluate wisely, make decisions that guard the mission, empower others for ministry, and depend on God through prayer. If you’re searching “how should a church handle conflict,” “how does the Bible guide church leadership,” or “what to do when church problems surface,” this teaching will help you see a biblical pattern and a hopeful future.
In this message, Mark Magee invites those who do not yet follow Jesus to explore who he is, consider repentance and baptism into Christ, and step into a community centered on the gospel. For believers, he challenges The Crossing to respond this week by praying over decisions, looking for ways to serve and lead, and choosing unity and mission over preference.
A church should give wise attention to the problem, listen to those who feel neglected, and respond in a way that protects unity and the core mission. In “What’s Next,” Mark Magee shows from Acts 6:1‑7 how the early church faced a complaint about widows being overlooked and addressed it honestly instead of ignoring it. At The Crossing, this means caring for people, naming the issue, and making decisions that honor Jesus and keep the gospel central.google
Acts 6:1‑7 teaches leaders to focus on prayer and the ministry of the word while empowering others to serve. Mark Magee explains that the apostles refused to neglect teaching Scripture in order to do everything themselves, and instead invited godly people to carry specific responsibilities. The Crossing applies this by training and trusting new leaders, so ministry is shared and leaders are not burned out.google
The Bible shows that leaders must say yes to the mission and no to distractions, even when the distractions are good things. In “What’s Next,” Mark Magee points out that the apostles in Acts 6 chose to guard the mission of proclaiming the word of God and the gospel of Jesus, while still making sure widows were cared for. At The Crossing, that means every next decision is filtered through the call to make disciples, baptize into Christ, and teach obedience to Jesus.
Acts 6:1‑7 shows that God looks for people who are full of faith, wisdom, and the Holy Spirit, not just those who are most gifted or most visible. Mark Magee notes that the apostles did not choose the loudest voices or biggest givers, but men with godly character to serve widows and protect unity. The Crossing encourages ordinary members to grow as leaders by pursuing godliness, serving faithfully, and being ready when the church needs them.google
Acts 6 ends with the word of God spreading, disciples increasing rapidly, and even a large number of priests becoming obedient to the faith. In “What’s Next,” Mark Magee explains that when a church evaluates wisely, focuses on the mission, delegates ministry, and prays, the result is greater gospel impact, not decline. The Crossing trusts that Jesus is still building his church today, and invites people to respond through repentance, baptism, serving, and prayer so the next season brings more people to faith.google
Hey! Thank you, Maddox. Thank you, Brian. Praise team. Isn't it good to be here today? I just have to say, way to go, church. Coming into this morning, there were 40-seven have been baptized into Christ on the year so far, and just encountered a couple more between services. I think there's a couple more scheduled. So, way to go, church! Right? Yes. And I tell you, just so many great things happening. I understand in a couple weeks we're going to be ordaining about five new elders on the team-that's incredible! Way to go, church! We got the build stewardship campaign. We got building plans. You know, getting ready to be on. Way to go, church! And a couple weeks ago, we had some friends of ours from out of town come and visit, and they won't stop raving about how welcome they felt when they came here for the first time. I just want to say, way to go, church! Is there anybody else excited about what's happening around here? Right? Yes, yes, yes. So, in my new role, I serve as a regional catalyst for Waypoint Church Partners, and basically, I get to be a pastor to pastors. It's so cool, and I get to spend a lot of time helping churches and church leaders get on mission and stay on mission of Jesus. I love what I do. I really love what I do. So I want to say thank you, church, for supporting me. Thank you for your encouragement of me. I am so grateful. I love what I'm doing. The worst part of my new role with Waypoint is that it keeps me from being around here often. Angel and I so miss you. We really do. So good to be back. But I get to because of my role. I find myself often trying to help churches who are struggling, struggling, and I've realized there's about five common challenges that I tend to find myself assisting, right? And I thought I would start today sharing those five top challenges that I find myself, you know, trying to assist. And I really call it the church funk. A lot of churches, number one, a lot of churches, their only vision is next Sunday. Their focus, you know, whatever needs to happen to make next Sunday work, that's called maintenance mode, and they really never spend good time to plan for a better future, their only vision. Number two, a lot of churches they they only rely on this discipleship process. We hope you come back. That's their discipleship process. We just hope they come back. Like no, just you know, clear discipleship pathway. Like no easy steps for brand new people to take. No, their only plan is we hope you come back. Not very effective. A third problem I see that when I start talking to people, I start realizing virtually no one is attempting to share their faith, like no one in these struggling churches are out there trying to share the good news of Jesus, which tells me they're not taking the mission of Jesus very seriously. Not good, right? And number four, what I most churches are convinced that they're a friendly church. church, and they are to one another, but not so much with the newbie. In fact, the last church angel and I visited, we walked in, and I tell you what, not one person, not one person expressed any interest that we were there in their service. Okay, then let's go to lunch. So my question today is: How can how can we at the crossing avoid falling into the church funk? How can we avoid that? Well, our next passage in this series through the book of Acts, Acts chapter six is going to offer us some really great help. Acts chapter six. We're only going to look today at the first seven verses, and I tell you what, this is gold. And in this, from this passage, we're going to look at what's next. I'm so excited about all the things I'm. Hearing about happening around here, but I'm most excited about what's next. What's next? Acts chapter six. Let's start with verse one. Acts chapter six, verse one. In those days, when the number of disciples was increasing, yay! The church is growing, right? The disciples are increasing, and that's this is awesome.
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In those days, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. Oh boy, the church is growing, and so are the complaints. And you already know this principle: mo people, mo problems. Let's keep reading. So the 12, the apostles, gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word in order to wait on tables. Tables, brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them, and will give our attention to prayer and ministry of the word. This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, also Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parminius, and Nicholas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. Lord Jesus, bless the giving and the receiving of Your Word in this place. Amen. I tell you what, I love this passage. I love this passage. In fact, I put a lot of leadership stock into this passage. In fact, I think it's the greatest leadership passage in all of the Scripture. In fact, if you're a leader, can I challenge you this week maybe to do a deep dive into these seven verses? It is so rich. In this passage, you can find leadership prototypes. In this passage, you can find the church's core values. In this passage, you can you can see the solutions to conflict resolution. This passage is so rich, I love it, and one of the reasons why I love this passage is because it's about the church. It's about the church of Jesus, and when you start talking about the Church of Jesus, I just need to remind you that our thinking needs to be in the context of we, not just me. Does that make sense? When we're talking about planning about the church, we need to start thinking in the context of we, not just me. In fact, when we start talking and playing about the church, we need to realize that we need to be talking about and making decisions that are for our good and His glory, not just my preference. Right? In fact, in the in the kingdom of Jesus, my preference matters least. All right, we have one person. You know, I would embarrass you to say stand up and shout it, but I'm going to say that again and give everybody an opportunity. All right, in the Kingdom of Jesus, the reality is my preference matters least. Okay, you scared me there for a minute. Thank you, but it's true, and here's why. Jesus said in in Matthew 16 verse 18, "I will build my church. I will build my jur my church. Jesus said, "Listen, I want you to know that Jesus majors in construction. He does. He majors in construction, and the Bible tells us that right now He's up there building a place for us, preparing a place for us, and He's also right now down here building His church." And he's invited us to assist. Wow, right? And because he's majoring in construction, our enemy, the devil, is majoring in destruction. Destruction. The church started in Acts chapter two on Pentecost, and ever since then, the devil's been trying to kill it. In Acts chapter four, he tried to kill it with opposition and persecution. You'll remember, right? Tried to kill it, but that didn't work. In fact, when the devil realized that he couldn't stop it, he decided to join it. Huh? Yep. When the devil realized that he wasn't going to be able to stop the church by from the outside, he changed his strategy and started working on the inside, and you'll remember in Acts chapter five he started with corruption and deception. Remember the story of Ananias and Sapphira? That didn't that didn't work out good for them. And then in this passage, Acts chapter six, we're seeing the devil from the inside. He's going to use distraction and division, distraction and division.
Speaker 1 11:30
And I can tell you, church, the devil's going to work overtime here at the crossing, trying to distract us and divide us, but that's not going to happen. Acts six tells us and empowers us what to do when that devil tries to distract us and to divide us. All right, so you ready for it? I'm excited about what's next, Acts six one through seven helps us understand what's next. And number one, what's next? Our next challenge, and there will be challenges. Our next challenge will require wise attention and evaluation. Our next challenge coming our way as a church is going to require wise attention and evaluation. Do you know what we do in our culture? I hate this, but here's what we do in our culture: when we're part of a church and something happens in the church that hurts our feelings or that we don't like, you know what we do? We log in digitally. We rate a one-star rating. We log our complaint and we just leave. Consumerism at its finest, and we have forgotten that we are not building our church. Jesus is building His. Thank you, Connor. It's His, right? It's His, and I want you to notice that in this first part of the passage, the apostles, when they detected, when they detected that there was a distraction out there, and that when there was a cause of division out there, they took immediately action because they understood that unresolved problems usually multiply. So they took action. Leaders take responsibility. I love the fact that they didn't just conclude. Well, that's their problem. No, they concluded this is our problem, and they took responsibility. And there's two reasons why they took responsibility, and and they took immediate action. There's two reasons, really. Number one, if the complaint was true, that means people were being neglected. That can't happen. That can't happen. And the second reason, and more importantly, is their unity and their harmony with the mission of Jesus was being threatened. They realized that if this wasn't handled correctly, it could have landed a church split. Have you ever been part of one of those? They realized that if they didn't handle this correctly, it could have resulted in a church split. And if this church split, the spreading of the word of God would have been thwarted. And so Luke records this episode for us, really to show us it was a defining moment. This was a defining moment. You see, the church was growing, and then tensions were rising, and the disciples knew that the next decision would either stunt the mission or propel it forward. Our next challenge has to be met. It will require wise attention and evaluation. Right. So, what's next? I'll tell you what's next. The next decision needs to protect the mission. The next decision has to protect the mission. Our text says this. So the the 12 gathered all the disciples together and said it would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. They weren't going to be distracted from their ministry of the word, right? Jesus told them in Matthew chapter 20-eight, "Hey, go preach. You know, go into all nations, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them everything I've commanded you. That was their mission. In Acts chapter eight, he reminds them, or chapter one verse eight, he reminds them, "You you will be my witnesses. Acts chapter two verse 42 they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. Acts four verse 33 it says the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of Jesus. And then in Acts chapter five verse 41 the very verse that sets up our passage today, says this every day in the temple courts and in each other's homes. The apostles never stopped teaching and proclaiming that Jesus was the Messiah. They knew their mission, and they were laser focused. And the core reason the church exists is for the spreading of the word of God and the gospel of Jesus. And these disciples were not; these apostles were not going to be distracted. In fact, their example provides the top priority for all church pastors. Their example provides the priority, you know, the top priorities for all church leadership members.
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It's praying, preaching, and preparing others to lead. Praying, preaching, and preparing others to lead. So I I love that their mission. The next decision protected the mission, right? So what's next? I'll tell you what's next. The net, the next step would have to involve other people. Their next step would have to involve others. Look at this passage. Did you see verse three? Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them. They involved other people, and they knew they would have to, because they had to protect their mission and their calling to be witnesses. And so they had to involve other people. And I love this because healthy leadership knows that responsibility has to be multiplied, never hoarded. Healthy leaders know and understand that responsibility has to be multiplied, never hoarded. And did you catch the qualifications they used for for recruiting the next round of leaders? Did you catch that? Notice they did not say, "Hey, I want you to look for the most gifted people. Didn't say that. Nor did they say, "Hey, I want you to look for those who've been attending the church the longest. I want you to look for those who have the strongest personalities. I want you to look for those who've given the most to the church. Did you see what he said? What what the requirements were? They need to be full of faith, full of wisdom, and the Holy Spirit. Now giftedness matters; it really does, but not before godliness. And competency matters; it really does. They need to be able to lead, but it can't trump character. It can't. Kingdom leadership, character, and godliness first. Amen. So what's next? Well, I'll tell you what's next. The next step had to be bathed in prayer. The next action had to be bathed in prayer. Look at what they said in verse six. They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid their hands on them. Priority one is prayer. Twice in this passage, the emphasis is on the priority of prayer. Prayer. Prayer, and before they were going to, you know, ordain these guys for this responsibility, they pray. They talk to Jesus about the decision, and I want to encourage us today to to know nothing good in the kingdom is ever going to happen unless it's the result of us talking to Him about it. So, so before we implement a new plan, before we implement a new strategy, before we take our next steps, before we get the next round of people involved, we better be talking to Jesus about it. Amen. Prayer, top priority. Talking to him, and we do all these things. And here's what I love about this: we do all these things. So here's what's next: our next season will be more fruitful. Our next season will be more fruitful. Here's what we find in this passage: the church leaders addressed the problem. They kept their focus, they involved others, and they prayed, and that set the church up for more fruitfulness. And the word of God spread. Look at listen to verse seven. So the word of God spread, the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. Isn't that cool? Those apostles, they they embraced the challenge, they addressed the problem, they focused, they involved others, and they prayed, and the results were miraculous. Really, when you think about it, the results were miraculous. Did you catch the results? There's two results. Here's how I want to call label the results. First of all, is the communion of the saints, and then the conversion of the lost. Communion of the saints and conversion of the lost. Verse five. Did you catch it? Verse five says this: The proposal pleased the whole group. You're kidding me. the The church now is of 10,000 plus in number, and it says they gathered the whole group, and this proposal pleased the whole group. You gotta be kidding me! I have a hard time for my own family agreeing on anything, and right now we're only two. What? The whole church got together and they all agreed. That's miraculous. That's miraculous. But the second miracle is the conversion of the lost. Did you see what it said?
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And a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. What priest? You only have to go back two chapters, and you'll realize that Peter, John were out there preaching, and it were the it was the priests who were annoyed. So the priests show up to the next service, and they brought the temple police, and they had them arrested, and flogged, and commanded them to stop preaching. And so, the very people responsible for persecuting the church are now coming to Christ. You know what that tells me? Don't you give up on anyone? Don't you give up on anyone? I love this passage, and here's what I know: the devil is going to be working overtime here. He does not like what's happening here at the crossing. He does not, and he is going to be working overtime. Listen, he can't stop it, but boy, can he distract it, and he's going to work overtime to distract you and to divide us. And that's not happening, not today, Satan, not here, right? Because we know how to handle it. Now that we've read Acts chapter six, we know how to handle it, and so the next challenge-and there will be challenges-it's going to require wise attention and evaluation. Therefore, the next decision needs to protect the mission. It does, and the next step needs to empower others. And our next action better be bathed in prayer, so that our next season can be even more fruitful. Amen. Can I ask you this question, though, personally? What distractions is the devil using on you to keep you from fully participating in the mission of Jesus? How is he distracting you? Church hurt, offense, mindless scrolling, politics. Politics, comfort, pleasure, materialism, busyness. Don't let the enemy distract you from the admission of Jesus. I want to read to you verse seven again because this whole passage crescendos at verse seven. This is the real story. So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. Church, here's what's next. Here's what's next. Not necessarily bigger buildings, not necessarily more programs, not necessarily you know more comfort, but verse. verse seven: the word of God spreading, disciples multiplying, and the lost coming to Jesus. And may the Lord Jesus make that story true for us here too. Pray with me, Lord Jesus. I am so grateful today that I had the privilege of having this assigned text. Thank you, Adam. Lord, thank you for your simple words in this passage that help us know how to deal with the next challenge coming our way that's probably intended to distract us and maybe even to divide us. Would you allow us to follow the examples of these apostles who followed your Spirit to not avoid problems, but to navigate faithfully through them. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us be reminded, and then empower us to realize that in the context of the church, we need to think we, not just me. And would you give us a spirit that really demonstrates that in the kingdom of Jesus our preference matters least, because we realize we're not building our church. You're building yours, and we are so grateful you invited us to be involved. Thank you, Jesus. In His name, we pray.