The First Deacons are Appointed

Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.

Before we look into how we should understand this text, it is helpful to review the challenges to the unity of the church we have already uncovered. The unity of the Church is an important theme. When we go back to Acts 2:1, we see that they were all in one place and in one accord on the Day of Pentecost. This was the great demonstration of the Spirit’s power. We can discuss whether the falling of the Holy Spirit brings this unity or the unity of the Church brings forth the power of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps both are true. But one cannot deny from Scripture as a whole that God desires His Body, the Church be united. On the other hand, it is Satan who desires to disrupt the church and cause dissension. This attack comes in two prongs. The devil uses external persecution to intimidate the church. We saw the arrest of Peter and John after the healing of the lame man. They bore bold witness to the faith, unlike the cowardly flight on the night of Jesus’ arrest. They were threatened and commanded to no longer preach in Jesus’ name. When they returned, all the assembly closed ranks with Peter and John and prayed for even more boldness, and the place was shook by the power of the Spirit. the end result of this persecution was that the multitude of the believers were of one heart and soul. (Acts 4:32) We see a similar attack in chapter 5 when all of the Apostles were arrested, tried and beaten. The response of the Church was to continue to preach and teach about Jesus, even in the Temple. There are other times in the Book of Acts that we will see Satan persecuting the Church in the attempt to break it.

The other prong was to try to disrupt the church from within. This is, perhaps, even more sinister than external attack. We see this, for example, in the incident of Ananias and Sapphira. They tried to say that they had given all the proceeds from the sale of a piece of property when they had only given part. There are those who knew how much the property sold for, and when they saw that Ananias and Sapphira had lied, it could have caused dissent withing the Church. But the Lord intervened quickly and struck them dead before more damage could be done. Great fear fell upon the Church, and the church continued its mission.

This morning’s passage is another attempt to destroy the unity of the Church. The text begins by noting that the church was continuing to multiply greatly. This expansion had come to the Jews who only spoke Greek as well as the Jews who spoke Aramaic. There was some animosity between these groups of Jews. The Aramaic-speaking Jews saw the Greek-speaking Jews as compromising with the worldly culture of the Graeco-Roman Empire. The Greek-speaking Jews saw the Aramaic-speaking Jews as being uncultured. these Greek-speaking Jews had their own synagogues. We need to see this natural distrust of each other as underlying what happens here.

Part of the ministry of the Jewish people which was also followed in the church was the care of widows and orphans. A widow without a family was very vulnerable, so the community undertook to see that they were cared for. the charity shown them was not just a handout. They were employed in prayer and care ministries. We see this in Acts 9:36-43 that Dorcas was employed in making garments for the widows. The care for the widows and the poor should act as the means of uniting the Church. In fact, in mainline denominations where there is great and insufferable distinctions in doctrine, the two sides seem to be able to agree in care for the poor and vulnerable. But this was not the case here. a dispute broke out between the perceived distinction that the Greek-speaking widows were being neglected. This may well have been the case, and if so, the Church was showing partiality which is a sin much condemned in the New Testament. This disruption needed to be dealt with swiftly.

The Apostles had witnessed the great growth of the Church. It had grown to the point that they were being burdened with the cares of the church as well as their regular duties of preaching and prayer. Even with the help of the Holy Spirit, there was only so much that they could do. The cares threatened to divert the Apostles from their main mission. We see here a parallel between what had happened to Moses who had become burdened with having to judge matters between the brethren in addition to his regular duties to be the mouthpiece of Yahweh. In Exodus 18:13-26, we read that Moses’ father-in-law advised him to task others to help him from the leaders of Israel. Moses would judge the hard cases, but the elders would judge the lesser. In Numbers 11:16-30, we hear of the appointing of seventy elders to assist Moses which seems to be a further upgrade to the need for more help. Here, the Holy Spirit fell upon the seventy to empower them for the task.

The caring for the widows is an important task. So the Apostles advised that seven men who were full of the Holy Spirit be chosen for this task. They were to serve as deacons, which comes from the Greek word for “servant.” It is important to note that all seven of the deacons had Greek and not Hebrew names. Surely there were many Aramaic-speaking men who were filled with the Holy Spirit and qualified to serve in this capacity, but it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to the Church to appoint these seven men. So it was magnanimous to select the deacons from the aggrieved party. The widows of the Aramaic-speaking Jews were already being cared for. This selection made sure that the widows of the Greek-speaking Jews would be equally treated. the Apostles laid hands on them and commissioned them. The result was that the number of disciples multiplied greatly, and even a large number of priests became obedient to the church. When we realize that the Sadducees and priests tended to be Greek speakers, we see this witness of the Church was powerful to the priests. Unity was restored. This was the first act of reconciliation by the Holy Spirit in putting two groups who were naturally distrustful and often hostile of each other together. This reconciliation would later extend to the Jews and Samaritans as well as the Jews and Gentiles. Whom God puts together, let none cast asunder. The Church grows when we put our common faith in Jesus Christ over our ethnic, social, and other divisions.

This passage has often been referred to in discussion of how the Church is to be governed. there are three forms of government which claim authority from this passage. Examples of these are the Episcopal, Presbyterian, and congregational. In practical terms these forms of government center whether the church is ruled globally, a mixture of global and local control, or purely at the local level. All of these methods of government have their strengths and weaknesses which I will address in a later sermon. what theses differences of government have done is to weaken the unity of the church.

For example, we only need to look at the Westminster Assembly which met in England in the 1640’s in which decisions were to made concerning the doctrine of the Church of England, its common worship, and the means of government. Representative from all forms of church government came. After several years, they came to agreement on a common faith expressed by the Westminster Confession of Faith. After some more discussion, they agreed on a Book of worship. But they never agreed on the form of government. Seeing that most of these men were sincere Christians and very learned and could not agree on a common government, perhaps we should not overlook our common faith and anathematize other forms of church government.

God’s form of government for the church is an absolute monarchy. Christ is Head and King of the church who governs alongside the Father and the Holy Spirit. This we must not forget. How the church is to be governed below this must keep this fact in mind. We see that in the beginning that the next level of the government was Apostolic, in which the twelve ruled over the Church. This is why it is important that those who are selected for leadership and ministry in the Church be filled with the Holy Spirit. No form of Church government really works in the sight of God if the Spirit is not in control.

We should see that the leadership and ministry of the early Church changed with the times. when the Church was small, the Apostles pretty much managed everything. They perceived by the Holy Spirit and Scripture that Judas needed to be replaced which happened at the first governing meeting appointed Matthias to replace Judas. But here, when the Church grew, it became necessary to appoint deacons to meet the physical needs of the congregation. As the Church spread throughout the Roman Empire, it became too big for the Church at Jerusalem to manage. Local assemblies or appeal to Paul the Apostle dealt with the local issues while keeping the big picture in mind. Paul wanted the churches he dealt with to take up offerings to help relieve the distressed saints in Judaea, for example. When a big issue came up, such as whether Gentiles needed to be circumcised in order to have full membership in the Church, it was referred to Jerusalem who held the first global council of the Church. Later on, as the Apostles died, certain large cities such as Antioch, Alexandria. Ephesus, and Rome became regional centers to decide issues within the region. In other words, the government of the Church adapted to the changes and growth of the church.

Whatever form of government is employed by the church or denominational assembly is important. but what is more important is that the role of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ, Matthew 28:16-20 describes the worldwide mission of the Church as it bears witness to the world. The first task is to win people to Christ, of which conversions are confirmed by baptizing the converts. This is why those who are called to the ministry of the Word and prayer to be able to conduct their calling without being overburdened by the other cares of the church. If we don’t win them, we cannot disciple them and teach them to observe whatever Jesus commanded. The diaconal ministries of the church are of vital importance also. these involve instruction (catechizing) the believers and service ministries of the Church.

The internal unity of the Church is vital to its witness and effectiveness. disputes need to be resolved, sometimes by going overboard such as we see in the selection of deacons from the aggrieved Greek-speaking Jews here. The church must also be united against external opposition. It needs to be wary of wolves in sheep’s clothing coming into the church with their false teaching. For a church to be a church, it must be united in the Apostle’s doctrine, understanding of Scripture, and unity in the Spirit. There are many denominations today who are only united in name. There are leaders in these churches who deny central doctrines such as the bodily resurrection, the deity of Jesus, the virgin birth, the atoning death of Jesus, and the coming of the Kingdom. This is not unity at all, and the church must either expel these heretics, and if they cannot, leave that body and join with believers who hold to orthodox beliefs.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones rightly teaches us that before we do church today, including its management, we must first consult the book of Acts, because it is the only authoritative account of the early Church, This does not necessarily mean that we follow what they did slavishly as far as church polity is concerned, but it had better be grounded in the same Spirit of the early church. I have overheard many discussions in the coffee shops of teams of people discussing the planting of a new church. I hear a lot of organizational concepts such as those espoused by Peter Drucker. who appreciated the organizational strength of the church as a means of bringing unity to society. It is not by any means certain that he ever confessed to be a Christian. I hear others who follow the “megachurches” and try to ape what they did. It would be far better to imitate the early church than this. I hear a lot of psychology and business theories, What is sad is that I have heard of few appeals to Scripture, no less the Book of Acts. It is as if us moderns know more than they did.

Lloyd-Jones notes much in his sermons on the Book of Acts of the different ways the church of his day tried to adapt the church to meet the needs of his day, such as replacing the sermon with dialog, the use of skits and plays, coffee hour instead of Sunday School and the like. The churches in England we certainly in decline in his day. did these modern methods help? It seems to me that the few churches who survived and thrive to this day remained true to Scripture and the faith that was “once delivered to the saints (Jude 4). We do not need gimmicks or human wisdom. The early church had real power and influence, even though there were “not many wise” among the membership (1 Corinthians 1:26). We need leaders who are filled with the Holy Spirit and God’s wisdom. May God raise such men up. Amen.

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