Preaching the Word . . . The Word Increases

Acts 6:2-4 & 7

And 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. 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 of the word.” . . . And 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.

N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone (Part One)

As we saw at the end of chapters 2 and 4, those who were following Jesus had, from the beginning, shared their resources. This . . . was a sign that they knew they were called to live as a single family. They were the nucleus of God’s renewed Israel. . . . Like any family in that world, and many in today’s world, they would all own everything together (97).

In the present case, the apostles were quite clear what they should not do. They shouldn’t at once rush to do the work themselves. . . . [T]hey must delegate.

The heart of the apostles’ reasoning in all this was the priority of the word of God and prayer. Only when a crisis emerges do we see what is really important (99).

This whole way of talking about God’s word is a gentle reminder that however much work anyone puts into the task of expounding scripture, into teaching the message of Jesus which stand on the shoulders of the biblical witness, into explaining and applying the whole thing, it is still God’s work, not the preacher’s or teacher’s. Making “the word of God” as it were a kind of autonomous agent is, if you like, a way of keeping the apostles in their place. They are not “growing the church”; God is growing the church, and using their ministry of teaching and preaching as the primary way of doing so (100).