Title: Servant Leadership (part 1)
Scripture: 1 Timothy 3:8-10
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
One of the fundamental realities of Christianity is the supremacy of Jesus Christ. In fact, the motto of the early church, which is actually the motto that got them fed to lions and burned at the stake, was this, that Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord.
He is Master. He is Sovereign. He is King.
And as the Sovereign Lord, He deserves to be worshipped and served by His people. And that was the expectation of the Jewish people at the arrival of Messiah, that He would arrive, He would be coming into the world, that He would subdue their enemies, that He would reign on the throne of David, and He would rule over the whole world. However, when He arrived, He did quite the opposite.
He was born not in majesty, but in humility. He did not come on a conquest, but He came in compassion. He did not come to receive homage, but to give generously to others.
In fact, Mark 10.45 records the words of Jesus, where He says, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. And so day in and day out, for three years, Jesus exhausted Himself by serving others. And even in the Gospels, we see the account of Him teaching and healing and caring and ministering and praying and feeding and encouraging.
All He did day in and day out, to the point of exhaustion, was ministering and serving other people. In fact, the Last Supper in John chapter 13, Jesus stripped Himself down to just a towel, filled a basin full of water, and began to wash the disciples' disgusting feet, all as an expression of love and humility and service. Yet He says in John 13.13, you call Me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.
But then He says this, but if I then, the Lord and the teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. And so if Jesus, the God of the universe, could lower Himself to serve His disciples, then certainly the disciples could serve one another. And that's what He taught us to do as well.
Matthew 20.26, whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant. John 12.26, if anyone serves Me, Jesus says, he must follow Me. And where I am, there My servant will be also.
If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. And so we see in Scripture this unbreakable chain woven together or linked together whereby Jesus served the Father in everything that He did, and He received honor. And then as an example, He served the disciples with the expectation that the disciples would both turn around and serve both God and serve one another.
And so we have service, leadership and service demonstrated to us by none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. But that's what the disciples understood, and that's what they were taught to do, and that's what they taught others to do as well. Paul told the Galatians in chapter 5, verse 13 of his letter, for you were called to freedom, brethren.
Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. We are free in Christ, and apart from violating the commands of Scripture and sinning, we have freedom to do pretty much anything under heaven. But he says, don't use that freedom, that Christian liberty, as an opportunity for selfishness.
We should be looking for opportunities to serve others. First Peter 4.10 says, every member of the body of Christ has received a special gift, Peter says. We're all blessed with talents and abilities and gifts and prosperity.
We all have been given richly by the Lord. And he adds, all of this has been given to employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. We are to use our gifts to serve others.
All of us. Again, every believer, every single believer has an opportunity and a responsibility to serve one another, and by serving one another, beloved, you are invariably serving Christ. Think about it this way, that one of the ways that you serve Christ is through how you serve other people.
It is not just about me and God and no one else matters. Loving one another, serving one another, bearing with one another, because you love and serve Christ Jesus. That's how we ought to think about our service.
And yet we know that there are those who are especially gifted in serving other people. Again, all of us are called to serve one another, but there are those who specifically and especially serve others. Not only are they themselves able to do this, but they also possess the ability to encourage and lead other people in serving as well.
Ever meet somebody like that? Not only are they a servant, have a servant's heart, but they're able to rally other people. It's like anytime someone's around them, those people just want to get involved and they want to serve too. There's sort of this desirable quality of the joy of service.
When a church identifies those kinds of individuals who are willing to lead in service, the Bible teaches that they can be appointed to a special office for the purpose of serving the church, and those individuals are known as deacons. And they will be our focus for the next couple of weeks. And so if you have your copy of Scripture, turn over to 1 Timothy chapter 3. The New Testament church recognized two official positions within the body of Christ.
In fact, Philippians 1-1 addresses them as elders and deacons. In a modern church, we have a lot of business ideas that have crept into the church. We have lots of teams and ministry leaders and trustees and whatever we want to call these offices.
And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with using different language for different kinds of tasks, but if you were to look at what the Bible, what the New Testament teaches about, what are the official offices of the church, they are elders and deacons. The elders are responsible for oversight over the entire church. It is not just spiritual realities, it is everything.
Anything that happens within the confines of Christian ministry in the local body, the elders are responsible to oversee from teaching to shepherding to administration to fostering unity. I've even told our elders and our deacons before, everything is spiritual. Everything.
A light bulb is spiritual because all those things point to and connect to and minister to the needs of the body of Christ. And so every element of church life falls under the responsible care of the elders. However, elders must be gifted and qualified and desire to minister to the church.
Therefore, these men are considered as they are to be evaluated according to the qualifications listed in 1 Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 through 7. I want to just review these very, very quickly. We spent seven weeks in these first seven verses, but I think there's more to look at here because there's a connecting point between the qualification of elder and the qualification of deacon, and I just want to see those two together. So very quickly, 1 Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 through 7, Paul writes, it is a trustworthy statement if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.
An overseer then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity. But if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God? And not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil, and he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
And so as we've seen here, looking at these verses, the key requirement for elders is that they must be above reproach in all areas of life and ministry. Not only must they be qualified in character, but they also must be able to teach. That's one of the key delineating factors between elders and deacons is the ability to teach, but there is more than just the ability to teach.
There is more of difference between elders and deacons, because wrapped up in the requirement to teach God's Word is also the authority to hold the church to it. There's something about the authority of ministering the Word of God that not every other office possesses. Deacons, on the other hand, they have no such responsibility.
Deacons are not required or expected to minister the Word and bear such authority, but they must possess godly character, which Paul outlines in chapter 3, verses 8 through 13. And so that's where we're going to spend the bulk of our time today, is looking at these verses. And we're going to do this in two parts.
That's my plan, at least, to cover half of the passage this week and the other half of the passage next week. So let's look at these all together. 1 Timothy 3, starting in verse 8, deacons likewise, now that's the reason I went back to the first seven verses, because there is a likewise in there that's going to connect, as we'll see.
Deacons likewise must be men of dignity, not double-tongued or addicted to much wine or fond of assorted gain, but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. These men must also first be tested, then let them serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach. Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things.
Deacons must be husbands of only one wife and good managers of their children and their own households. For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a high standing and a great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. So these qualifications for deacons are similar to those of the elders, which is why Paul uses this word likewise in verse 8. He doesn't mean that they're going to be held to the exact same standard, but they must still be above reproach.
You can't read verses 8 through 13 and conclude that being above reproach doesn't matter in deacons, because it certainly does. As for the differences, we see that deacons are not responsible to teach. They're not responsible or even authorized to wield biblical authority, nor is there also a requirement for them to practice hospitality, maintain their reputation, or not be a new convert.
Again, those are the differences between the passages. However, we also understand that this is not to say that they must function now as polar opposites. It doesn't mean that because they're not required to be hospitable that they shouldn't be hospitable.
It doesn't mean that because they're not required to be not new converts that they all must be brand new believers. So we see that there is the polar opposite is not also true. We see that there's wisdom, and even if they are able to hold to other qualifications from the first seven verses here.
But the weight of the requirements is not the same. I think that's my point, is the weight of the requirements is different. Yet in verses 8 through 12, we see the required character of those who would be deacons.
But then that brings us to the question, well, what is a deacon? And I think especially for the churches in New England, these titles elders, deacons, pastors, overseers, all these different titles have gotten very mixed up and confused. There are lots of churches in New England that hold the position of deacons that are doing something very different than what the New Testament describes. And so it's important for us to understand this and nail this down.
In verse 8, we see this word here, deacon. In the singular, it's diakonos, which literally refers to a servant or to one who ministers to other people. It is not a glorious, necessarily honorable title.
It's rather one of selflessness and generosity and humility. A deacon, a servant, is a lowly responsibility, a lowly designation. Many people in Scripture are referred to by this same word in the plural, it's diakonos, servants or deacons, but they're not necessarily always holding the office of deacon.
For example, in 1 Corinthians 3, Paul, who is himself an apostle, writes then, he says, who then is Apollos? What is Paul? He says, we are servants, diakonoi, servants through whom you believed. He's not bringing himself to a different place in his qualification. He's not going from apostle to deacon.
He's not saying that. He's talking about just the nature of service. Speaking of the apostles and minister, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6, 4, in everything, commending ourselves as servants, diakonoi, servants of God.
Beyond this, Tychicus is called a diakonos, a servant, in Colossians 4, 7, he's a pastor, as well as Phoebe in Romans 16, 1, diakonos, servant. And so again, not particularly the office of deacon, but regardless, it is a devoted servant nonetheless, a devoted servant. But what about those who are called to the office of deacon? What must they be? Verse 8 says that similar to elders, deacons functioning in that office must be men of dignity, dignity.
The word that's used there in the Greek is semnos, which refers to something that is respectable or noble, worthy of respect. A person who is not respected and not esteemed by the congregation is going to have a very hard time as a servant leader, because how can you lead others to serve if you're not yourself respectable? Alexander Strzok notes in his book about deacons, the term semnos describes a person whose attitudes and conduct win the admiration of others. It refers to a respectable, well-thought-of person, end quote.
And so, how do we measure such a person? How do we know if somebody is honorable or noble or well-thought-of? Well, Paul gives a series of three negative statements to try to deal with how to qualify this. Sometimes the Bible gives positive statements to be this and do this. Other times it says, don't be this and not like this.
There's different ways to evaluate, but here Paul's using three negatives, three negative statements addressing their speech, their disciplines, and their motives. Their speech, their disciplines, and their motives. And he's going to unpack this a little bit for us.
First, he says that deacons must not be double-tongued. In the New American Standard Translation, double-tongued. The Greek word is dialogos, which literally means double speech, double speech.
It refers to someone who is insincere or duplicitous. We have a saying, we know this to be true, a person who talks out of both sides of their mouth. We understand that a person who's doing that is a duplicitous person.
They're not sincere. They talk one way with one person and one way with another person. There's no integrity in their speech.
And so, it's not just about what they say. It has to do with displaying their character in the way that they speak. That's what this is referring to.
The question is, are they credible? Are they trustworthy? Are they honest? Are they sincere? And that bears itself out in how they speak to people. A person who does not possess integrity in speech and in heart is not a good example of a servant leader. After all, Ephesians 4.25 says, therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak truth to his neighbor, for we are members of one another.
These qualifications, the office of elder, the office of deacon, the reason why these offices exist and the reason why there's qualifications is because there has to be a standard set. Now, all of us are called to this. There's not a single person who's allowed to be insincere in speech or to be double-tongued.
But in terms of those who are leading in such a way, they have to be examples of character. They have to be examples of honesty and integrity. Truthfulness in speech reflects integrity of the heart.
Jesus says, out of the heart the mouth speaks. It's vitally important for deacons that they must have integrity in their speech. Secondly, He says, they must also not be addicted to much wine.
This is very similar to the elders' qualification. The word that's used for the elders is literally to be alongside wine. You must not be a person who lives their life alongside wine.
Deacons are not to be this way either. Of course, there is a deeper issue. It's not just about do you drink, don't you drink, how much do you drink? That's not the ultimate issue.
The deeper issue here is self-control. The issue is discipline. After all, Ephesians 5.18 says, do not be drunk with wine.
We're commanded not to be drunk, for that is dissipation or debauchery. But rather, what is the inverse of that? Rather, be filled with the Holy Spirit. You cannot be Spirit-filled if you're filled with something else.
Addictions, substances, things that impair you or distract you away from fidelity to the Lord. To be filled with the Spirit is not to be a person who has given themselves over to their appetites. A person who's controlled by alcohol or addictions will not be devoted to serving the church wholeheartedly.
Rather, they must be self-controlled. They must be sober-minded. And so, we need people who are going to be like that, sober-minded in how they conduct themselves.
How else must deacons be dignified? Lastly, he says, they must not be fond of sordid gain. Fond of sordid gain. This is the issue of greed.
Greed. Now, not every single deacon has the opportunity to be greedy and take from the offering box, so to speak. Not every single person who serves here has access to the church finances, and that's for good reason, even though we do have a level of oversight over the resources.
But there are those who are in charge of stewarding the resources of the church, and the larger the church, the larger the pool of resources. And so, if you have a deacon who is greedy, who is fond of sordid or ill-gotten gain, there'll be a risk of sinful or illegal practices. I hear stories all the time of deacons or elders or treasurers or trustees or whatever people within the church who have a trusted opportunity.
They're entrusted with much, and they're pilfering and stealing. The same thing happened in Jesus's own ministry. He had Judas doing the same thing.
There's always a risk. However, we are to be upholding the standard, not of greed, but of integrity in that regard as well. Deacons must be trustworthy and not have a desire to be greedy for money.
But there's another issue I think that's even deeper than just the greed for ill-gotten gain or sordid gain. The deeper issue here is one of motivations. What is your motivation? Why do you desire? Maybe you're listening to this, and I think the general principle is service.
So, all of us are applicable here in terms of how we serve the body of Christ. But say you're a person who is a deacon, or you desire to be a deacon, or you're considering, maybe you've never thought about this before. And I would even ask, what would hinder you from being qualified as a deacon of this church? But say you do desire it, there is something else going on.
It's not about monetary greed alone. Some people desire to be seen as being one who serves. They like the idea of having a title.
And I'll tell you, titles can be really dangerous. They can be very dangerous. Because in that situation, it's all about appearances.
Maybe they're not greedy for gain, but maybe they're for applause. That they want to be congratulated, or thanked, or lauded highly for their service to the church. In my experience, however, some of the greatest deacons I've ever seen are those who, they never even tell you what they're doing.
They just do it. They just serve, and you never even know. I remember at another church, I remember there was a man who was a staple.
He'd been at this church for 30 years. And I remember telling him one time, we were just talking about the deacons were having their rotation of doing things in the front of the room. And I said, hey, his name was Ralph.
I said, hey Ralph, how come you never get to the front of the room? He goes, oh, I don't like to be in the front. He goes, I love to serve in the back where nobody sees me. And he believed that.
That wasn't just false humility. He wanted to do things and not have anybody see him. He only wanted to serve for heaven's applause.
And that's got to be the goal, the motivation. Are we serving one another for the sake of heaven's applause, or for the applause of others? Do we want to do this for the Lord's attaboy and congratulations, or are we doing this because we want to get someone else to pat us on the back? Why do we serve others? Why do we do the things that we do? And so the exhortation is this, serve because you love God and serve because you love his people. Let that be your motivation.
Not be double-tongued, not be duplicitous in your speech, not be addicted to much wine, be self-controlled, not be fond of sordid gain, have your motivations correct. And then he gives a positive qualification. After three negative ones here, he gives a positive qualification for deacons in verse 9. So again, they must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to wine, not fond of sordid gain.
He says, but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. So here, when Paul is talking about the mystery of the faith, he's talking about the Christian faith, the mystery, all that entails in this wonderful, mysterious, marvelous Christian faith. The body of teaching that comprises what we believe.
These are things like the authority and the inspiration of the Word of God, the person and work of Jesus Christ, the doctrine of the Trinity, the gospel, justification by faith alone, the doctrine of conversion and regeneration, the unity and the blessedness of the church, the imminent return of Christ. These are just some of really the core doctrines of the faith. These are wonderful things.
They are mysterious things. When Paul talks about the mysteries of the faith, he's not necessarily always talking about what is speculative or unknowable. He doesn't always mean that.
But there is something about the mystery, the marvel, the awe of the Christian faith, that a person would be so enamored with the truth of Scripture, the truth of the doctrine of what we believe, that it motivates them and drives them on. We should always be approaching the Word of God and the Christian faith with a childlike curiosity. It's almost like, and I know you've all seen this too, when you have a small child.
And what's amazing about small children is that when they discover something, they're discovering it for the very first time. The first time they open up a box to look inside, that's the first time. And when they see that silly little toy inside, they celebrate like it's the most amazing thing they've ever seen.
Or when they see a butterfly, or the first time they see a waterfall. I mean, that's the excitement of childlike discovery. And I'll tell you, we oftentimes as adults, we can miss that.
It just becomes very casual and very plain to us. Well, the same thing can happen with the Christian faith. New believers, they're reading their Bible for the first time when they're seeing things and they'll come to you and they say, did you know about this? And you're like, oh yeah, I knew about that.
But shame on us if we become so cavalier and plain about what we believe. That there always needs to be some level of childlike curiosity about the mysteries of the faith. That the person of Christ to be all the more wonderful and glorious to you.
That the unity of the body of Christ would be sweet to you and precious to you. That the brilliance of the Word of God would not exhaust your curiosity. That you would hold to the mysteries of the faith.
Again, how do you hold to these things? I think rather here what Paul's referring to is that, again, the distinctiveness, the wondrousness of Christianity. The NIV actually renders this phrase, they must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith. That's interesting.
The mysteries, the deep truths of what we believe. And he says they must also do this with a clear conscience. So not just enamored with the things of God and interested in the things of God and wanting to come to the Word of God and wanting to come to the Christian faith, but also they must do so with a clear conscience.
Well, how does this refer to or relate to serving as a deacon? Why do I have to have a clear conscience when I study my Bible? Why is that part of it? Well, I believe that the sense of this is that deacons must not be particularly unspiritual men. Not particularly unspiritual. What does that mean? Well, it doesn't mean that they have to be pastors and theologians.
Deacons aren't required to do the same kind of study and deep dive, even though certainly you're welcome to and it would be wonderful if you did. But rather, this is referring to the fact that deacons must be inherently conscientious believers. Conscientious believers.
They need to be settled in their convictions with no objections or issues with the church's doctrine. Does that mean you have to know everything? No, of course not. But that there is nothing that is holding you back from affirming what we hold to be true.
That they must hold to this faith with a clear conscience. Why? Why must a deacon hold to the Christian faith, the mysteries of the Christian faith, with a clear conscience? Nothing that's bothering them about the faith. Well, because there's going to be times when their faith is going to come into contact with their duties.
I remember I was in a deacon's meeting years ago one time, and we were talking about spiritual things, and one of the men piped up, and I think it was sort of a tongue-in- cheek, and he says, I don't even know about all that. He goes, I just serve a building. And the pastor was very quick and corrected him, and he said, well, with all due respect, brother, no, you don't.
Maybe your work is in the building, but you're not serving the building. You're serving the body of believers that are in this building. And not only that, but there's also people outside in the community that come in here.
And so when you're here, you're representing the body of Christ. And you may have evangelistic opportunities with someone who receives benevolence. It's not just about giving a gift card away.
There's always a person on the other side of that. There's evangelistic opportunities when you serve as a deacon. You may have doctrinal questions that are asked of you.
Maybe you're the first person from Harvest Bible Church that a person outside is coming into contact with, and they might say, hey, I've got a question for you. You serve there, don't you? I do. Well, I've got a question about the faith.
I've got a question about what you believe and what you teach and what you do. And you can't just say, well, I'll have the pastor call you. Don't do that, by the way.
You've got to be able to answer some basic questions. Be an advocate. Be someone who is an advocate for what we believe here.
Be an ambassador of the faith. You should be able to answer some basic questions about who we are as Christians. Or maybe you're going to have situations where you're going to have a conflict.
Maybe there's going to be issues of conflict even on the deacon board or people inside the church. Maybe you're bickering and fighting with somebody. Maybe you don't see eye to eye with somebody else.
Well, guess what? It's not just serving empty. You have to be able to know how to deal with your conflicts and your issues as a Christian. There are spiritual requirements to serving other people.
We must be not unspiritual people but spiritual people to hold to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. Again, you don't need to function as an elder, but you do have to be able to function as a faithful believer, to function as a Christian. Incidentally, this is why the apostles insisted that the very first deacons in Acts chapter 6 be, quote, men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom.
Well, why? They're just serving tables. It's not about the tables. And we're going to go to this passage in a second here, but there were widows who were eating those meals, and the deacons had to deal with those widows and those who had been hurt by other people.
They were ground zero with some of these conflicts. They had to be spiritual people. They had to be men of good reputation, full of the Spirit, and full of wisdom.
It's imperative that they were able to hold to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And then he says in verse 10, these men, referring to deacons, must also first be tested, then let them serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach. This word translated being tested is dokimadzo, which refers to an examination or a test for genuineness.
Now, Scripture does not specify what this examination is to look like, but there are several key elements of it. I think one element has to do with the examination of the candidate's faith in life. And whenever we've examined someone, we have a meeting.
It's our practice when we interview somebody to be a deacon, you know, we don't give them an elongated theological examination, but we do ask them about their faith, about how they're doing spiritually. We do ask them about their life and about their testimony. We want to know them a little bit more on that level, because at that point, we've already been looking at them for some time.
We don't just draw names out of a hat. I mean, we examine, we look around, you know, who's serving well? Who's running well? How are they doing spiritually? What does their family-like life look like? And actually, this comes into play in verse 12. Look at verse 12.
He says, deacons must be husbands of only one wife and good managers of their children and of their own households. So just like with elders, deacons need to be the husband of only one wife. That implies marital faithfulness.
You have to be faithful to their spouse. And so you have to ask the question, how is their marriage? How is their marriage? Again, Alexander Strach writes, this phrase, the husband of one wife, encapsulates the characteristic of being devoted exclusively to one's spouse. And I would add, if a man could not learn to serve his own wife well, he will not be able to effectively serve Christ's bride either.
Husbands, you must learn how to serve and love your wives. What about his children? Verse 12 notes that deacons must be good managers of their children. Again, it's not that the deacon's children must be perfect, that's impossible, no child is perfect, but are they well managed? A man who domineers over his children will be a tyrant to the church members.
And someone who's an absentee father will neglect the responsibilities of the body. And so if you want to get a look at what they're going to be like serving in the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, look at how they're doing at home. Are they faithful at home? And again, not just with children, but verse 12 also includes deacons being good managers over their households.
If a man leaves his own home in chaos and disrepair, he's also most likely going to leave the church in chaos and disrepair. But if a man is faithful, if he's faithful in his marriage, in his children, with his children, with his home, he will likely be faithful in his service to the church as well. But there's more to a deacon's testing, I believe, than even just that.
I believe it's also important to look at the man's track record within the church. Is he already serving the body of Christ? How is he doing? Is he faithful? I mean, just to be very honest with you guys, it's not some big mystery. We're always looking around at that.
You know, when we sit down and have, you know, we're always thinking about who can we approach about elders, who can we approach about deacons, who can we teach, who can we train, who's doing the work. I mean, that conversation's happening probably monthly on the elder board. All the time looking, okay, who's doing what? And it's not that we're looking judgmentally.
It's just, is there someone who is sort of stepping forward? Who's running well? Who's doing well? Who might we want to talk to and consider? What's their track record like? I'll tell you, if someone tells me that they want to be a deacon but they're not faithfully serving this church already, it's kind of a hard sell that you're somehow going to magically just turn it on when you become a deacon and get the title. Do you already have a firm grasp on what it means to love and serve the body of Christ? And so they must first be tested, the Bible says. And after they've been examined, after they've been looked at and tested, the Bible says they may serve as deacons, Paul adds, if they are beyond reproach.
They must be found to have no glaring or disqualifying blemish, or their name would reflect poorly on the name of the church. And so beyond reproach means upright and honorable, reputable and dignified. Now, at this point, we might be asking the question, well, what are the responsibilities of the deacons? I mean, are they just a bunch of folks who sit on a board and talk about what we'd like to do in the future? Is that what we do? There are responsibilities, and we're going to cover this question and quite a few other questions next week.
We jumped over verse 11, we're going to get to applications, we're going to get to a lot more things next week, but I do want to look briefly at the time we have remaining, I want to look at what deacons do and the benefit and the service that they do provide to the body of Christ and to the ministry of the gospel. And so I want to go back in time a little bit, we're going to look at the book of Acts, Acts chapter 6. And so if you have your copy of scripture to go to Acts 6 here, Acts 6 is really the first place we see a type of this office. The word deacon is not used in the passage, but scholars generally agree that this passage is really the beginning of this diaconal ministry, Acts chapter 6, and it occurs much earlier on in church history.
But we see this account here in the early years of the church, Acts chapter 6, Luke writes this, now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, it is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the spirit and of wisdom, who we may put in charge of this task.
But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. The statement found approval with the whole congregation, 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 Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch. And those they brought before the apostles after praying, they laid their hands on them.
And the word of God kept on spreading, and the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. And so again, rewinding in time here, this is the time when the early church was beginning to grow and expand. It goes beyond the bounds of just that small gathering of 120 in the upper room in Jerusalem.
Now it's growing and expanding. It's reaching the farthest reaches of the Roman Empire here, and as the church is growing, the needs of the church are growing. And at a point, verse 1 tells us that there was a complaint.
A complaint arose. A complaint in the church? Really? Yes, it does happen. Well, who is this complaint from? In this situation, the Hellenistic Jews, so these are the Greek Jews, are complaining that their widows are being overlooked in favor of the Hebrew widows.
This isn't a small matter, because there were literally widows who were in the care of the church, and for many of them, they don't know where they're going to get their next meal. The church had taken them on, and they were actually feeding them, quite literally feeding them to keep them going. But it's not just about that.
There's more going on here. It isn't just the food. It's not just that some of their widows were going without the food.
There's also happening now a rift between the Jews and the Gentiles, between one brother and one sister and another brother or sister. And this is how this happens. This is an issue of church unity now.
See, again, a meal is not just a meal. A light bulb is not just a light bulb. A pew is not just a pew.
I mean, there's people attached to this stuff. This is about a rift that's forming within the church, and a rift that is not dealt with appropriately biblically. Any one small fight within the body of Christ has the potential to divide the entire church.
Did you ever think about your conflicts that way? That your beef with somebody else in the congregation could actually balloon up to something larger and destroy the church? Well, that sounds pretty heavy, Pastor. Well, of course it's heavy, and hopefully not everything comes to that. But if it goes unchecked, if you don't learn to deal with your conflicts biblically, it can escalate, and many times in churches it does.
I've heard so many stories, and I know you have too. I'm sure many of you have been part of churches in the situation like this, where a church will happen. There'll be a split.
Half will just up and leave one day. Well, how did that happen? Did that just happen overnight? No. There was a rift that started very small, and it grew and grew and grew, and to the point where it polarizes the church.
So this is what's happening here. In this church is that you have the widows who are being overlooked. Division is forming, and so something has to be done, and they go and they tell the apostles about it.
Hey, there's a problem with the food, but it's bigger than that, guys. There's a problem with unity. In fact, the church wanted them to deal with the problem.
They brought it to them because it was becoming a massive problem. However, if they devoted the needed time and energy to the matter, they knew the ministry would have suffered as well. This is a very real issue even today.
There are so many things that happen on any given day, any given week. I mean, there's a lot. With this church, with the size of it, with the different families, and the dynamics, and there's a lot of things.
The day-to-day operations of just ministry, life, and decisions to be made, and bills to be paid, and all kinds of stuff. There's a lot going on all the time. I know some of you think I work just one day a week here, but I actually come back during the course of the week, believe it or not.
I live here. No, but there's so much going on, and they knew that this was a huge problem, but they knew if they had to go in and deal with this problem in the manner that really needed, that it would damage the ministry of the Word of God. And so, what did they do? As soon as the issue arose, they came to the office here.
The challenge is, they have to be tackling this faithfully. Otherwise, it's going to run the risk of hindering the ministry of the Word. And so, that's what they do.
They recognize that it has to get addressed. Again, there's endless tasks that can be done in church that's not involving preaching. Preaching, this is not the only thing that comes across the ministry here, but it's so important.
They recognize that they did not want these other matters to get in the way to the point where they were serving tables at the expense of gospel ministry. And so, in Acts 6, what do they do? They go to the church, and they say, I want you guys to select people. Make recommendations.
Make suggestions. Select for yourselves seven faithful men who can be called to deal with this task. Find faithful men who are able to manage and to help in this.
I want you to note this, that here these men are called not only for the purpose of helping the church's widows. That's not the only job here. They were ultimately responsible for assisting the elders.
Assisting the elders in fostering unity so the elders could go and do their job. That's why these men came into this ministry, to make sure that the Word of God would not be hindered. And that's ultimately what deacons do.
We can talk about all the nuts and bolts, and we'll talk about some of it next week, but ultimately what the deacons are responsible for doing is helping the leadership of the church so that the ministry of the Word can go forward. That preaching can go forward. That counseling can go forward.
That teaching can go forward. Defending doctrine. Shepherding people.
Training up other leaders. There's a lot of ministry that has to happen, that's bound up in the Word of God, that can't happen if we're constantly doing other things. That's why deacons exist.
To assist the elders so they can devote themselves completely to gospel ministry. And so what happens in Acts 6? What was the result? Look at verse 7 here. It says, the Word of God kept on spreading, and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.
This happened so well. The problem got solved. The matter got dealt with.
Unity was upheld and fostered, and the Word of God began to go forward, and more people were coming into the faith, and to the point where he says, even the priests. What does that mean? Spiritual leaders who were stuck in Judaism, even they were being reached. I mean, this is a huge task, a Herculean task, of reaching people for Christ.
And ultimately, you have to see here, it is not just about serving tables. Serving tables serves the people. Serving the people serves the ministry.
Serving the ministry serves the mission. Everything we do is connected to the greater mission. It is not just about keeping the lights on in the building.
It's not just about having meetings to have meetings. It is ultimately about the gospel going forward, people coming into the faith, having their lives transformed eternally, and then growing here in this assembly. There are eternal consequences to the ministry we do.
And we have to keep that in our minds as we think about service. Your service matters more than you even realize. It is not just about cups and tables and wires and chairs and meetings and food.
It's not just about those things. It is about unity. It is about love.
It is about truth. It is about the gospel. That's why this ministry exists.
And so you know this ministry was working when the Word of God was able to go forward unhindered. Again, that's what this is about, that the gospel of Jesus Christ would be able to go forward unhindered. And so that's why the church has deacons.
That's why we call those to serve in such a capacity so that people can hear and know Christ and respond to Him by faith. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word.
We thank You for the conviction that it brings. And Lord, even though we're talking about deacons and qualifications and church government and all these nuts and bolts kinds of things, we also understand and realize that the Bible has so much more to say. This is about character.
This is about faith. This is about integrity. This is about magnifying the name of Christ.
This is about the gospel going forward. And Lord, we want to reach people with the gospel. And we want Your truth to set a blaze in the hearts of Your people, O Lord.
And so we don't want anything to hinder that important ministry from happening. And so Lord, even as I stand here and contemplate the truths of the gospel, Lord, we're reminded that what is that message? It's the message that Jesus Christ has come. He's come in human flesh to bear Himself on the cross, to bear our sin on Himself, and to die on the cross, to give His body, His life as a ransom for many.
You came, O Lord Jesus, to serve us and You came to give us Your life so that all who would turn away from their sins and confess their sins to You would not just find forgiveness, they will find forgiveness, but they'll also find hope and they'll find life in Your name. And so Lord, I pray if there's anyone who does not know You here today, if they have never put their faith in You, Lord Jesus, if they've never confessed their sins and put them at the feet of the cross and asked for You to forgive them of their sins and change their life and change their heart, Lord, would You please, by faith, would You change them today? And Lord, let this never be something that's tired and old and common. Let this be the tip of the spear to everything we do, to have a door wide open to lead people into eternity, Lord, through this ministry.
Thank You for the ministry of the Word, but Lord, thank You for the deacons. Thank You for those who serve You selflessly. And Lord, we thank You for every member of the body of Christ that dies to themselves, takes up their cross, and follows You to serve other people.
Lord, we are never more like You than when we love and serve others. Help us to have that implanted in our minds and hearts even today. We ask all of these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.