One of the things that this text teaches me very strongly is that the great threats to the church in our day are anything that jeopardizes the centrality of the word.

So what comes to your mind when you think about threats that might jeopardize the centrality

of the word?

I'm Dan Kroover.

In this episode of Light and Truth, John Piper turns to Acts 6 versus 1 to 7 to

look at a problem that we might not consider, at least initially,

to be a threat to the word. This message was originally delivered at Bethlehem Baptist Church

on March 17, 1991.

One of Luke's purposes in writing the book of Acts is to celebrate and to document the spread of the church, the increase of the number of Christians, disciples, day after day after Jesus had gone back to heaven and sent His Holy Spirit to empower his church.

You can see this as a focus in the book.

If you just run through and pick out all the places, there are 10 of them at least, where he says

this sort of thing. Let me just run through some of them to give you a flavor of the repeated

emphasis in the book of Acts on the growth in the numbers of disciples in the early

church.

Acts 241.

So those who received the word were baptized and there were added that day 3,000 souls.

247.

And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Chapter 4 verse 4.

Many of those who heard the word believed and the number of men came to about 5,000.

Chapter 5 verse 14.

More than ever, believers were added to the Lord, multitudes, both men and women.

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