Are Deacons Needed Today?
Acts 6:1-7
The age old struggle in the realms of Christianity has been a fierce fight. On one side, seeking to advance the Kingdom of God, we find the Holy Spirit and the Church. On the other side we see Satan and all of the forces of Hell.
Satan had been trying to figure out a way to stop the church from moving forward:
o So in Acts chapter 4 we see the bitter persecution aimed at the early church, but the apostles stood firm and God came to their rescue.
o In the 5th Chapter we see Satan at work through Ananias and Sapphria, who lied to the Holy Spirit and death pounced on them. As a result great fear fell upon the people and a great number believed and were saved.
o Still in the 5th chapter we see that the disciples were arrested by the religious leaders. They were beaten and told to no longer preach Christ, however they went out rejoicing, proclaiming the Gospel stronger than ever.
Lucifer saw that after each persecution the church went through they came out stronger than before. Now we must never underestimate how wise and cunning he really is. He comes up with a perfect strategy – if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
He comes into their ranks and attacks from the inside. He starts a campaign of criticism and fault finding. He gets the people in the church to turn on each other.
It works that same way today. We really don’t have persecution in America – yet. There isn’t anyone coming and dragging us out of the church to prison – or worse. There isn’t anyone going to stand in front of this church and tell us that we can’t have church here today. This is because Satan has figured out that the best way to attack a church is from the inside.
One of the disgraces of Christianity today is that we have so many church quarrels and split-ups. When this happen then lifelong friends are divided, people are hurt, sweet relationships are broken, some quit church all together and then whole generations are lost to the service of the Lord.
The majority of the time when churches squabble it is over some form of gossip, hearsay, misunderstanding or some other trivial matter. It is never about things that matter like great fundamental doctrines of the faith.
There will NEVER come up one single thing in this, or any, church which cannot be settled in prayerful conference – if we are “full of the Holy Spirit”. Then when we march forward in unity the devil will tremble and run away.
Look at how the early church handled this attack and you will see the need for deacons in the 21st century church.
I. The Mumbling of The People.
A. The number had grown substantially in the church.
1. There were two groups: The Jews and The Greeks.
a) To help all those in need, every church member made contribution to the treasury.
(1) Each gave as they were able.
(2) Some gave all they had
b) This was then divided so that no one lacked anything.
2. The problem is that the church was now so large that this distribution was a major task.
a) The Greeks felt that some of the Grecian widows were not getting their fair share, so they complained.
(1) The devil loves it when the church focus on something other than spreading the Gospel.
B. So they had a conference to figure out the best way to handle this matter.
1. Imagine what happened:
a) Perhaps Peter was the first to speak, he was the leader of the church by now --
(1) “Brethern, here is the trouble, Several of our greek brothers have complaint that their widows were being neglected. I have investigated this matter and I have found that their complaint to be justified. Now, of course, no one meant to do this -- we have been so busy preaching and baptizing new converts that this matter has gotten out of our hands. What do you think we ought to do about it?”
b) Imagine John stood up and said:
(1) “Brethern, I too am sorry that this thing has come up and of course, we must correct it. Our church is going along so fine we do not want such a disagrement to cause the Lord’s work to suffer - the world would laugh at us -- they have noticed how we love one another.
c) Then perhaps Philip said:
(1) “There are two courses we can take; We are either to be preachers of the Gospel or we are to be welfare workers. Now you remember our Lord commanded us to go and preach the gospel, so I think that we ought to give our time to the preaching and let the church elect some men to take care of this matter.
(2) Now I think these guys should be wise, spiritual and faithful and I think that seven would be enough.”
d) Then maybe Thomas made a motion that Philip suggestion be enacted and Andrew seconded the motion. It was carried unanimously.
2. Now, I don’t know if this is how it happened but what I am saying is that problems should be handled with order and decency.
a) Problems should be discussed by the leadership and then resolved with much time spent in prayer.
C. The Apostles wanted to put the redemptive side of the Gospel before the social side.
1. But the social side should NOT be completely over looked.
a) We should try to meet the needs of the people.
b) We should help people who need food and are unable to provide for themselves.
c) We should take care of widows & orphans.
d) People are not going to care how much we know until they know how much we care.
2. But what the apostles are saying is that the most important part of the churches work is presenting Christ to people.
a) We must preach the Gospel of Salvation through the blood of Christ above everything else we do.
(1) So they come up with an idea to help take care of the social side of the church.
b) When men come to a right relationship with God through the Blood of Jesus – then everything will take care of itself.
c) It all works out so beautifully.
II. The Meeting of the People.
A. The Church is now called into a business meeting, so to speak.
1. Peter tells everyone about the problem and then how the Apostles have been led to fix the problem.
a) Then verse 5 tells us that it pleased the whole multitude.
b) There was a motion and a second followed by discussion, then a vote was taken and it passed.
2. The crowd knew that the Apostles were Godly men.
a) They knew these men had spent much time in prayer before bringing such a motion before the church.
b) The crowd saw this to be the best thing for their church.
3. I am sure that some didn’t want to do this.
a) Some might not have voted for it.
b) But everyone was pleased.
(1) Because they trusted their Lord.
(2) They trusted their leaders that their Lord gave them.
c) This is how a church should do business.
(1) Too many churches have lost their effectiveness because they let votes by the church body cause further splits.
B. What was this solution?
III. The Men form Out of the People.
A. The word “deacon” is not used here.
1. However it is widely believed that this is the calling of the first deacons in the church.
a) Later on in the New Testament the office of deacon is mentioned:
(1) Once in Philippians and 4 times in 1 Timothy
(2) They are shown to be New Testament Church officers.
b) There is no other place outside of this 6th chapter where we are told such men were appointed.
(1) We have every right to believe that these seven men were the first deacons.
2. What kind of men were they?
a) They were proven men.
(1) Men should not be elected deacon until the church has every reason to believe that they are fit for the office.
(2) They are to prove their worthiness by their good lives, their faithfulness to all church life, their tithing and their spirit of cooperation.
b) They are to be consecrated men.
(1) Men full of the Holy Spirit.
c) They are to be sound in Scriptural principles.
(1) We wouldn’t want men serving as deacons who didn’t believe that the Bible is the Word of God, without error.
d) They need to be men of intellectual Capacity.
(1) They don’t have to have a college degree necessarily;
(2) They should be men with common sense.
(3) Men “full of wisdom”.
e) They should be Loyal.
(1) To Christ,
(2) To Their Convictions,
(3) To their Church,
(4) To their Pastor.
f) Some churches have experienced troubles because they didn’t go by these Biblical qualifications
B. The word “deacon” means “servant”.
1. Deacons are servants of the Church.
a) They are not runners of the church.
(1) Many think that if they hire the right pastor and vote in the right deacons to “keep the pastor straight” then they don’t have to do anything.
b) Deacons are not here to do what God called you to do.
2. They were elected to help settle disputes.
3. Deacons should go to the limit to maintain peace and harmony.
4. Notice the names of the men.
a) In the Bible names meant something to the people.
5. Look at the names of the men you have chosen:
a) William Kenneth Freeman:
(1) Born of fire
b) Terry Niles Shoemake.
(1) Champion.
c) Christopher Kenneth Thornton
(1) Bearer of Christ
d) Emmett Easterling
(1) All-containing; strength.
e) Ricky Adams
(1) Strong power.
f) Tommy Campbell
(1) Twin or double.
g) Greg Carter
(1) watchful, alert.
h) Keith Culpepper
(1) Wood, (ex. Hickory).
i) John Gleason
(1) God is gracious.
j) Gary Mayo
(1) Spear; warrior.
k) James Ray Sanford
(1) Supplanted, to step into the shoes of
l) Brent Stansell
(1) Hill, steep( like a fortress).
C. What did they do next?
1. The church set the men apart.
a) That is what we are doing tonight.
b) Ordination is the “setting apart” of these men for the work of the Lord.
2. They did it by the laying on of hands and prayer.
a) In a moment this is what we are going to do.
b) This is not a “Baptist Thing”.
(1) It is a New Testament thing.
(2) We should always try to do things like the New Testament says to do them.
You now what happened when they handled things the way God led them to handle them?
o The word of God was preached throughout the area, because the apostles had time to preach.
o The newly called deacons handled problems as they arose and took care of the widows and such.
o The end result was many were saved.
o Even priest from the temple were coming to faith in Jesus.
This should happen in ever church. The more good deacons we have doing the work of a deacon, then the more people we should see coming to salvation in Jesus.
We could have a revival every Sunday.
