... Deacons

David Poland

The Church Needs... • Sermon • Submitted 4 months ago • Presented 4 months ago

0 ratings

· 3 views

Sermon 2 in a topical series on what the church Needs

Notes

Transcript

Although this is a little bit different, it feels right still to start with a: good morning. Church.

I Pray that you are blessed fellow shipping together with the saints. I know that i am already missing you and it's not even Sunday when i'm recording this right now.

This morning, we're going to be continuing our sort of mini topical sermon series on what the church Needs. And we'll be covering here. What's often known as the second office of the church. There are, traditionally, only two official offices of the church. These are the jobs in the church with official Biblical names. We talked about the first one last week. There are elders, those who lead and guide and there are Deacons.

And so this morning, we will be turning our attention to the church needing Deacons. But what are deacons? what do they do? I was talking to a pastor friend a while back, And, We were talking about the need of All churches, really, the need of listening to god's leading. Searching, his scriptures understanding how he's called us to operate. And then living in light of that. And he made the comment that, you know, the problem is we don't often function properly. We don't let our elders eld and we don't let our deacons deak. was the comment he made. But what does it mean for a deacon to do deacon work? What did deacons do? What's the heart? How do we do these things?

And so much like last week, where we laid out the the role, the The qualifications, but then ultimately the responsibility of elders. They are the ones who will Ultimately give an account before the lord for your souls. They are to guide and shepherd and guard and protect. That's what the elders do. We are going to do a similar thing but asking: what are the deacons do? One thing that we will be sewing Slightly differently from last week instead of jumping around to a few different texts. There's one main text, we're going to camp in, and then we're going to, we're going to go to another secondary text for one of the points. But we'll be spending the majority of our time. In Acts chapter 6, we will be looking at verses one through seven.

And though the title of deacon does not show up here, this passage is often referred to as sort of the proto- deacons before deacons was in office before they were an officially named thing, the job and role was defiantly a thing.

We have this story that shows the important need for Deacons doing, what deacons Do. So, our text this morning is Acts chapter 6, starting in verse 1. Let's read god's word together this morning.

Acts 6:1–7 ESV

Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. 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 what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. 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.

These are the words of the lord for us this morning. Let's open with the word of prayer.

Our father in heaven. Holy is your name. We do Thank you once again, for today. Another day that you have made a day where we may rejoice and be glad in it. We thank you for Your power and your might, we thank you for your wisdom. And we thank you that you give us that wisdom in your Word. Help us to hear from you this morning. Open our ears to hear. Give us eyes to see what you have said, what you have done. Help us to glorify you and all that we do. Help us as individuals. But also we pray that you would help us as a church to live lives in light of what you have commanded. May you be with us this morning. It's in jesus name, we pray. Amen. And amen.

To lay a little bit of context for, for what's going on here in the beginning of Acts, starting in Acts really acts 2 and and peter's sermon at Pentecost, the church is exploding in size. It went from right.. we could go all the way back... The church went from I mean, there are 12 disciples at the last supper. And even those guys sort of disappeared, we had jesus by himself, And then, He's resurrected… ut even right before the resurrection. There was two women who were willing to go minister to jesus. And so in some sense we could say the church at that point was these two women. But then jesus resurrected, he calls the disciples. They they get reinvigorated seeing The resurrected jesus. And it grows, and there's Now a handful a small church amount if we wanted to look in like modern terms, one church amount (it was 120 people) who are praying at the day of Pentecost, in the upper room. And the holy spirit comes and the church begins to explode and we have thousands... sermons are preached and thousands come to Salvation and then the fellowship believers is growing and the lord is adding to their number day by day. Those are being saved. And so the church is ballooning. In an unprecedented way that has never been seen in history before and probably in sort of Like, mathematical increase numbers of percentage points, never will be seen again. The church is just exploding.

But the problem as the church grows, The church now experiences new problems that it didn't have before. And here specifically, there's this problem where certain widows are feeling neglected and left out. Not just in sort of a personal emotional way they're feeling neglected and left out in the fact that they're not eating. They're not getting food. And so that's the sort of impetus for this whole story. That's what sparks this whole thought. And so the first question we need to wrestle with is what do deacons do?

What do deacons DO?

And we could loosely say directly from this. Text, they “serve tables”. Acts 6:2 says that… But that's not super helpful. And it doesn't really necessarily mean much to us. What does that mean?

Well, let's think through and walk through the details of this story to understand what exactly is happening here.

So we start verse one. There's two sets of widows. There's the Hebrew widows, the Jewish ones, who sort of grew up in that culture speak Hebrew went to the synagogue, all their lives, that's sort of their culture. And on the other hand you have the Hellenist widows. These are Greek speaking, possibly Gentile. Definitely They've been indoctrinated we could say in the Greek culture even if they're still Jewish widows. We don't know exactly the details there, but there's two cultural groups of widows

The churches would endeavor to make sure all of them are being taken care of. But that's not happening right. Be it Unknown biases that were had... be it, some sort of overlooking for whatever reason, maybe there were some ADHD problems… the Hebrew widows are being cared for but yet the Helenist They're being neglected as the food is being distributed. This end of itself is a problem, the the 12 realized, it's a problem but there's sort of a problem on top of it.

The problem is, The 12, the apostles. Are called to a very specific ministry. The ministry here, the word they use is Preaching The word of god. They are called to teach to proclaim… Think of peter standing up in front of thousands of people and thousands are getting saved. The disciples are getting dragged before the sanhedrin. They're facing the bulk of the persecution. They have a certain calling in a job. And they know that this is what the lord has called them to. And it's not right that they give up what God has called them to. To handle this problem.

I'd like to pause a note. It's not that the preaching of the word is the most important and they don't have time for these other things That are not important. They just sort of are trials and troubles. The way this is painted is There's two EQUAL problems.

God has called us to something AND the church isn't functioning right. How can we make the church function right And still do what god has called us to do? … We get some deacons.

Pick out from among yourselves seven men. Pick out from yourself, seven men, who can help do this... peter James, john, the disciples. It's not for them to work out the delivery of meals to these widows. It's not for them to to work on these sort of tangible tasks of the church that are vital and important. They need to be able to devote their mind and heart to preaching the word. Someone has to do these tables. So it has to be seven. Men. We know this is an important Job because it is not just anyone… Seven Men of good repute.

They can't just have a good reputation. They must also be full of the spirit and wisdom, and we will give them this duty, that will be their job. So what do deacons do? The simple way we could phrase it is, they perform the task that the church needs to have done so that those who are called for other things can focus on what they are called to. It is taking care of tangible tasks so that spiritual tasks can be accomplished.

One, pastor, i talked to we were talking about elders and deacons and this is the phrase, he use elders. And we talked about this last week, we are called to be servant leaders. Those who lead the church in a, with a servant's heart, a servant mindset. We are called to serve, but deacons are called to be the leading servants. They're the ones who lead in the tangible practical tasks of the church. They're the ones who do the sort of day-to-day operations that without The church will suffer without those within the church will suffer, they are called to fulfill this role.

And so, what do deacons do? They meet needs. They love and care for those who need love and care. They supervise the distribution of what the church has to give to those who are in need. They Pick up the slack in the places that the elders may not have the time energy or focus to be able to deal with. They help the church run smoothly. They are a vital. Important. Parts. Of the church.

But who can do that? This is the same question we asked last week with elders. We looked and we said well who can be qualified to being elder? Who's the one who's able to do these things?

Who can be a deacon?

What are the qualifications? Well here in Act 6, we actually have some qualifications, we just looked at them.

They must be Full of the spirit and wisdom. They must have a good reputation. That sort of... here in the short “spark notes” version. But the church has had deacons since this time, And Paul in writing to Timothy laid out some qualifications that that he needed to look for as he was helping select men to be deacons. And so this is where i'd like to look very quickly.

Ultimately, it's important. We remember i'm going to repeat a lot from last week because this is a very similar thought. As we laid out the qualifications for elders, we said well we can summarize in one phrase above reproach.

And then we needed to find men not who were perfect. But who we could look at and read this passage and think yes. They fit this bill, maybe not perfectly but in a way that is is satisfying to both god and the church. Let's keep that same thought in mind with deacons. What are the qualifications for deacons first Timothy chapter 3 starting in verse 8.

1 Timothy 3:8–13 ESV

Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

Who should be a deacon. Deacons are those who must be able to adequately and properly do the jobs that have been set before them. So they must not be double-tonged… the kind that says they can and will a job but really cant or won’t. they must be dignified. not addicted to wine. They must be in control of their lives and in control enough that they are able to look at the church and the way the church runs and make sure that is also running smoothly.

They must not be greedy because ultimately the deacons may be in charge... in fact here at the church the deacons are fully in charge of the benevolence account of money... But they can't be greedy for dishonest gain. To think back to our acts 6 context… Imagine if we go back and some of these deacons were were greedy. And they heard someone saying, oh well, some of the, the Hebrew widows were like, well, we'll pay you a little extra if you deliver us our food first. And you know what? If you give us a little more Don't worry if you run out, just give us a little more, we'll make it worth your while. Or the Hellensts made some plan with some of the deacons to profit off of this whole thing by immoral means… Well now because of their greed, maybe the job that they're called to doesn't get done properly. Maybe as they oversee, the affairs of the church and they are put in charge of some of the purse strings of the church, they're now not able to do that. Well because They're addicted to wine, or they're too greedy. In other words, they must live lives. Worthy of being able to be put over the things that deacons are put over.

And they must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. We don't just Let anyone be a deacon, it's someone, who by their life, by their Growth and their maturity in the lord can say with a clear conscience i endeavor to follow. Christ.

There's a note here. Let them be tested First. we don't just submit anyone. We don't just think, you know what we like you... you'll be a deacon, they have to prove themselves and they're faithfulness and their ability to overlook these things. Deacons, like elders, Must have control over and must Have a properly functioning household. This.... there's similar thoughts… part of the reason elders. We said this last week part of the reason, this isn't all of it. But part of the reason that elders and their wives, you know, the wives and the children of elders matter is because if they can't control their family, how can they control their church? Well the same thing can be said for deacons then as well. If they can't manage their family properly, how will they manage the affairs Of the church.

They must live these lives. That glorify god. And in doing so they bring glory to The church. Who should be a deacon? those who are willing to Stand in front of the church. As a servant. But as one, Who leads In their faith.

Notice for deacons. Nowhere in here is there the qualification to be able to teach or defend doctrine or anything like that. That is the elders job, as they devote themselves to the preaching of the word and prayer. As they dive deep into these issues of doctrine and sound faith.

The deacons aren't called to wrestle through and protect in that way, just hold on to their faith.

We can note, we should note, Steven the first deacon we read of called in acts will be called to defend the faith.

and stevens Sermon To defend. His faith is one of the most beautiful sermons Of all time. (It gets a standing ovation form Jesus!) We are not saying deacons cannot do these things notice. What are they called to do? So, who should be a deacon? Here's how i would shortly put it. Anyone who is responsible enough? To be a good example. In faith. Love. Purity.

Anyone who's responsible enough to be a good example? Anyone that the church can look at and say, you know, You should endeavor to have faith, like so. And so, A servant's heart like so. And so, Anyone who can hold the mystery of faith with a clear conscience and serve the lord, that's who should be a deacon.

But so what? What is the benefit? Of deacons.

What is the benefit of dacons?

Well, i'd like to look at this in two different ways as we try to wrap this thought up. The first one is sort of implicit in all that, we've said. it allows the elders to do their job. And it allows to ensure that Both sets of widows get what they need… in other words here The church gets What it needs.

But we can do a little better. What is the benefit of deacons? Well, there's a benefit for the deacon themselves. 1 Timothy 3:13: “For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.”

There is a benefit to the deacon of strengthening and deepening their faith. While also receiving Good standing. It's a position. Worthy of honor. And respect. It's a position worthy of praise. It's a position worthy of Accolades. So, i say this and i can say this extra boldly because I am not there to feel awkward putting them on the spot... not being there. You should thank your deacons. You should honor. Your deacons. We have two serving right now, Allen and Forest.

They're worthy. Of some. Thanks. And some honor. As they serve, the lord earning good standing for themselves,

but also for them. There is the deepening of their faith. There's a confidence as you serve the lord. Your faith is strengthened empowering you to serve the lord more. So what is the benefit? There is a benefit for the deacon themselves. And that's a good one. But it gets better.

I want to dive into the very last verse. Of acts chapter six… that's actually the last verse, we read of Act 6, To just lay out the situation once again to remind us what happens in Act 6. The church is exploding in growth but there are some serious problems. Problem serious enough. If they don't get fixed, there will be hostility anger, faction splitting within the church. Everything bad That you think of, when you think of a church, anything bad that could happen would have happened here.

There would have been segregation the Hellenist and the Hebrews. There would have been. Different. Levels of ministry going to both, there would have been hostility. There would have been accusations of unlovingness, the word of christ would not be proclaimed. The name of christ would not be glorified. That was what was at stake here!

So, the deacons were called to fix this problem. And they did. So, instead of the church splitting, the church imploding, the church dividing, Us not having acts seven and following Because the church ended here... because of their lack of ability to get this thing together. The deacons, cause the church, To continue And grow And flourish.

Acts 6:7 (ESV)

And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem

What is the benefit of deacons? The church is healthy. It grows and flourishes. People have their needs met physically and spiritually through the work of the deacons. But i want to dive in deep. There's a last thought here. \

Acts 6:7 (ESV)

and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

The deacons. Doing their job rightly. Melted the hardest hard hearts. In the world.

Who was it That drug jesus To trial? It was the priest. Who was it That orchestrated his death Its the the priest? Who is it? That's been persecuting throwing the disciples in prison if they can. The priests. But what happens in Acts chapter 6. There's a crisis, a problem. The deacons are called to fix it. And now Luke wants us to know. Through this effort. The hardest hearts. Can be melted.

I could not overstate the importance. And the value. And the weight. Of deacons.

They meet needs. They care for and love people. They make sure things happen. They may not happen. Otherwise, They help things roll along smoothly.

And for themselves, they gain a good. Standing. And, Their faith is strengthened. That's why the church needs deacons.

So what's the application? This one's going to be a little bit different. We have currently two deacons. I already mentioned them. We're about to lose one. Because he's moving. So this is not just a general “the church needs” but a specific THIS church needs...

So, here's a call to the church. Do you read this and hear this? And think? I could serve tables. I could do that. Well then come talk to the elders. And we'll put you before the church. And possibly, that's your role. Or, maybe you're sitting there thinking Well, i may not be there, but I know this person who might be able to… Go back to the elders. Let us know.

The call was in Acts chapter 6. Verse 3, pick out from among yourselves seven men of good repute.

Well, there's not thousands of us, i don't think we need seven (though if seven came to me I would be ecstatic!) . So, if you feel like, You either could fit this role or, you know, someone who could come talk to us. Because the ultimately the church needs. Deacons.

And now for you as the church, here's your other sort of application thought. If you find yourself in need, if you find yourself in a position where you need help assistance, if you see something that maybe needs to run a little differently or you whatever it is, That's why we have deacons, that's what they're called to do. Go talk to them. Part of the reason we have them come... in case you didn't catch on to this, we have the deacons. Do the scripture reading on Sundays.... the reason that we do that Is so that you can see them and say, okay, that's my deacons. That's who i need to go. Talk to It's an important vital job in the church.

One that is desperately needed. Maybe glorify god as we endeavor as a church to live out life as he has called us to.