OPEN: Back in 1964 Leicester Hemingway (the little brother of author Ernest Hemingway) made a decision. He was tired of following the rules of human governments and so he decided create his own kingdom. He built an 8 by 30 foot floating bamboo platform 7 miles off the coast of Jamaica and anchored it to the ocean floor with a Ford engine block.
Hemingway bragged to reporters: "I can stand on the platform, walk around on it and salute the flag…all of which I do periodically. There are no taxes here, because taxes are for people not smart enough to start their own countries."
But apparently, Hemingway wasn’t smart enough to keep his country together. Part of the country was destroyed by fishermen in search of scrap wood; the rest sank in a storm.
APPLY: There are several possible lessons to be learned from this story, but the one that appeals to me is this: if you want things done YOUR way… start your own kingdom.
And that’s just what God did.
With the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus God established the Kingdom we know of as the church and He set it up just the way He wanted it run.
According to what we can see out of Scripture, the local church was set up to be taken care of by at least 3 types of servants:
· Preachers (like myself)
· Elders (like Jim, Dave and Don)
· And Deacons (presently, Wayne, Charlie, and Dave B.)
As I’ve pointed out in the last couple of sermons, the responsibilities of the 1st two are clear
· The job of the Preacher is to preach and teach
· The job of the Elders is to pastor/shepherd the flock
But when it comes to the deacons --many churches struggle with what to do with them. And part of the reason for this is that the Bible is a little vague about what deacons do.
You see, the word Deacon comes from the Greek “Diakonos”.
And Diakonos simply means “servant”.
Many times in Scripture, the word applies to the general description of servants..
· When Jesus turned the water into wine, his mother instructed the servants (diakonos) of the house to do whatever Jesus told them to do. (John 2:5)
· In some of His parables – Jesus spoke about good servants and bad servants (diakonos)
· Romans 13:4 Paul tells us that pagan rulers are used by God as his diakonos/servants
Then there’s the times when God uses the word to describe each and every Christian’s responsibilities
· Jesus said every Christians who wants to please Him must be His servant/diakonos (Jn 12:26)
· And that if anyone wanted to be great in His kingdom they must become servants/diakonos of all (Mt 20:26, 23:11, etc).
The word is used widely throughout the New Testment to simply talk of someone being a servant.
But then, there are a few (very few) texts that talk about a group of men who perform SPECIFIC responsibilities within the church.
· Here in Acts 6 we find seven men being selected to be deacons to take care of the needs of the Grecian widows in the Early church.
· And then in I Timothy 3:8-13 we find these words:
“Deacons, likewise, are to be men worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain. They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience. They must first be tested; and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons.
In the same way, their wives are to be women worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything.
A deacon must be the husband of but one wife and must manage his children and his household well. Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus.”
And that’s pretty much it.
Those two texts tell us about all we know about Deacons in the early church.
As a result, churches have tended to not know quite what to do with them.
Some churches consider the fact that the role of deacons is to “serve.”
Well, how can we have these men serve?
I know! We’ll have them SERVE communion and take up the offering.
And that’s just about all those men get to do.
These churches select Deacons so that they know who will sit down in the front row each Sunday and complete those basic tasks.
Other churches take the Deaconship to the other end of the spectrum.
They think: “If these men are going to have a position of responsibility in the church… we should give them some major authority!”
Thus, in some denominational churches that means creating a “Deacon Board” where the Deacons perform the role of Biblical Elders – managing and overseeing the affairs of the local church.
Now, our churches would NEVER do that, would they? We know the difference between the role of Elders and Deacons, don’t we?
Well, not all the time.
Many of our brotherhood have “Church Boards.”
You know what a Church Board is? A Church Board is an American tradition where the local congregation is governed by an American system of Government.
In the American system of government, you have a President, the Senate and the House of Representatives. And so, in those churches:
· The Preacher is the President
· The Elders are the Senate
· And the Deacons are the House of Representatives
And every once in a while the Senate and the House get together and impeaches the preacher!
In that sort of arrangement, the Deacons make up a 2nd tier of voters on the Church Board wherein the Elders and Deacons sit down together and decide church policy.
In theory the Deacons will always defer to the judgment of the Elders… but it doesn’t always work that way.
ILLS: I know of one church where several members were upset with changes the preacher had made.
So the Elders and Deacons got together and had a “Board Meeting”.
The Deacons wanted to fire the preacher and the Elders didn’t.
So they had a vote… and the Deacons won.
The Preacher was fired.
Now, we need to be clear on a few things
1st - Church Boards are NOT Biblical (It’s not like churches that have them are going to hell, it’s just that when a church does something that’s not Scriptural they can create problems)
2nd - There is absolutely no record in the Scriptures of Deacons EVER deciding church policy
By definition, a deacon is a servant of the Church… and servants don’t make policy, they carry it out.
So (you might ask) then why have deacons?
I’m glad you asked that question.
1st – we have deacons because the Early church had deacons.
That may seem like an overly simplistic answer but, you can rarely go wrong when you try to do things like the early church did. SO… if the early church had deacons, we want to as well.
2ndly – deacons are servants of the church.
Whereas, when Paul tells Timothy and Titus to appoint Elders in the church, Elders are specifically called to Pastor the church; to lead and protect the congregation. Paul tells Timothy that Elders are to “manage” or “oversee” the church.
By contrast, when Paul talks about Deacons, he tells Timothy that once they’ve been tested, Deacons can then “serve as deacons.” 1Timothy 3:10b
Since “diakonos’ literally means “servant, Paul was saying that these men were to “serve as servants” (diakoneo diakonos)
And that’s what we see here in Acts 6.
The first deacons of the church were selected specifically to serve people in the church. These 7 men didn’t make policy for the church (they didn’t vote on anything). They stepped up and took the responsibility of making sure the Greek widows got food.
Now, over the past years, you have been blessed with some really great deacons at this congregation. They may take a turn at serving communion/ taking up offering but that was not their primary job… and they know it. They are servants of this Church and try to meet the physical needs of the believers here.
o Charlie has always taken communion to the sick and shut-ins
o Dave has overseen the Sunday School program
o And Wayne works with the Food Pantry
And they may do a number of other things I don’t even know about.
A good deacon is one who has a specific ministry (ministries) they focus on.
Bill S. used to make his ministry visiting people in the Nursing Home. It didn’t matter whether they were members of our congregation or not, Bill would feed/read and read to anyone he worked with. That’s what makes for a great deacon.
Some deacons make it their job to look after the church building.
Others work with they youth ministries or the camps their church supports.
But no matter what, a good deacon looks for ministry and serves the people of the church.
And ideally, the men a church selects as Deacons should be people who are already involved in ministry. They’re not just sitting back waiting to be chosen for the job.
Paul says these men must first be “tested” and I suspect that means – given responsibilities to see what they do with them.
So – first we have deacons because the Early Church had them
And 2nd those deacons are the servants of physical needs of the congregation (whereas the Preachers and Elders focus on the Spiritual needs of the church)
And 3rd – the position of Deacon appears to be part of a discipling program.
There are some who view being a Deacon as a stepping-stone to becoming an Elder. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but I think it’s a bit short sighted.
Notice in Acts 6 that seven men were selected as Deacons.
They were chosen because they were “… known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.” Acts 6:3
These men were not just “hangers-on”.
They don’t appear to be the type to be satisfied with just being “part of the group”.
They stood out.
Out of a church of 5000 people, these seven were the cream of the crop.
And it appears they did their job so well that their ministry contributed to the fact that “… the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. Acts 6:7
But of those 7 men, there were two that did even more amazing things.
One of those deacons was Stephen. In the remainder of Acts 6 and the whole of Chapter 7 we read this man was so in love with Jesus that he just couldn’t help but preach to people. And his first sermon was a powerful one. He drew a large crowd and was so successful in getting his point across that the crowd tooks him outside the city and they stoned him to death.
One sermon? And he dies afterward? You might think that his preaching career was a failure.
But among those who killed him was a young man named Saul of Tarsus. We know him as Paul the Apostle. Stephen’s single sermon and subsequent death had such an impact on Paul that he wrote:
“… I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.”
1 Timothy 1:16
Stephen’s short stint as a preacher shaped the ministry of the Apostle Paul, one of the most influential and powerful leaders in the early church.
Then there was the deacon named Philip.
In Acts 8 we learn that Philip traveled up to Samaria and planted at least on church there. He was so faithful in his service to Jesus, that God chose him to convert and baptize an important Ethiopian official. There are many scholars who believe this Ethiopian may have influenced the spread of Christianity in Africa.
These two dynamic young men started both had powerful ministries.
Preaching, Planting churches, being missionaries.
But both started out as Deacons who took food to widows
Being a Deacon is a proving ground for men to grow into other ministries
· Sometimes that ministry is being an Elder of a church.
· Sometimes it’s to become a preacher/ church planter/ missionary.
· Or sometimes it is just being a really good deacon.
It’s hard to tell how God will direct a man who starts out a Deacon/Servant of Church
Now, you might be inclined to think that the role of Deacon is lowly one. I mean after all – all the important stuff seems to be done by preachers and Elders and such. But that would be a grave miscalculation.
The role of Deacon is perhaps THE most important task in the church
In fact, you don’t even have to be an “official Deacon” to be the most important member of the church. You simply have to be someone committed to being a servant of others in the family of Christ.
You want to know how I know that?
Jesus said so.
In Matthew 23, Jesus tells the crowd
"The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.
They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. Everything they do is done for men to see:
· They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long;
· they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues;
· they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’
"But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. Matthew 23:2-10
Then Jesus capped off his lesson by saying this: “The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Matthew 23:11-12
I have been in churches where Eldership was the prize plum.
Being a deacon was “OK”, but the men tho’t they’d ARRIVED if they made Elder.
But Jesus tells us that if you want to be great in HIS Kingdom seek out the role of the servant.
Thus, a Deacon that really does his job well, is regarded by Jesus as being one of the greatest ministers in His Kingdom.
And of the most important reasons that is true is because
· a great Deacon sets the pattern for the rest of the church.
· a great Deacon shows what it means to be a servant
Their servanthood should be so evident that others in the church follow their example and become servants too.
The Deacons you’ve had over the years are one of the reasons this is such a great church.
In many churches, 10% of the people do 90% of the work.
Because your Deacons do their jobs well… this church has more like 50 to 60% doing ministry.
ILLUS: One of our previous youth ministers moved on to a larger congregation who could afford to pay him what he was really worth. But some time after he left to take that ministry he talked with me and said “You know, even though this new church is larger than the one in Logansport, they don’t really do as much as you folks do.”
Why? Because this is a church where many people understand the idea of servanthood. And it’s a church where your Deacons set the pattern of what true servanthood is all about.
CLOSE: I want to close with this interesting illustration.
Now (don’t say anything out loud)… but how many of you know who Albrecht Durer was?
In the early 1500’s Albrecht was a struggling artist who shared a room with his friend - another struggling artist. They formed a pact: one of them would work at manual labor to support their physical needs, while the other worked at his craft until it developed the patrons necessary to pay the bills... then the other artist could begin his artistic work.
Durer’s was the first to work at his craft and his friend spent his time earning whatever he could as a laborer. Durer eventually became recognized and began to sell some of his work. It was time for his friend to develop his skills. However, the friend had used his hands so much in hard labor that they had become gnarled and stiff and unable to continue in his calling. Durer was heart broken.
Then one day, as Durer was working on a painting, he heard mumbling in the next room. Thinking something might be wrong he rose from his seat and walked to the door. There, he saw his friend bowing over a meal of bread and wine, his hands folded in prayer. From that scene, Durer painted one his most remembered paintings and gave a memorial to the faithfulness of his friend’s hands.
(show picture of Durer’s “Praying Hands”)
Most of you didn’t know who Albrecht Durer was…but all of you knew that painting.
You didn’t know the artist, but you knew the hands of a servant.
In the Bible, that’s exactly the same image God wants to impress on your minds.
In all of the New Testament I cannot remember the name of a single Elder. But I know the names of the first 7 Deacons. That’s because God holds servants as being the most important members of His kingdom.
