Faithful Deacons
Acts 6:1-7
This morning we come back to our series through the book of Acts. We arrive at chapter six. One of the things that Luke, the inspired author of the book of Acts, has done is to comment regularly on the explosive growth that was happening in the early church.
He first comments on it in Acts 2:31: So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. Acts 2:31
And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Acts 2:47
But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand. Acts 4:4
And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. Acts 5:14
Then he begins chapter 6 with these words:
1Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number… Acts 6:1a
Here’s what’s interesting about that brief description: In all the previous descriptions of growth he says the Lord was ADDING people to their number. But here in chapter 6 he uses a different word to describe the rate of growth. The word here means “multiplied.” In fact, the exact same word is used in verse 7, and it’s actually translated as “multiplied.”
The church has gone from addition to multiplication. It has gone from 1st grade math to 3rd grade math. The church is multiplying and it is experiencing incredible rapid growth. It is estimated that the church at this time is at least 20,000 members. This is incredible and it is huge church. And God is working supernaturally among them.
The fact is, God wants his church to grow. Whether you have a small church or a large church, God wants that church to grow. Jesus said, “Upon this rock, I will build my church.” God wants his church to reach those around us with the gospel. Some may say, “well I just want the church to stay the same size it is, because I know everybody.” That’s fine if you have that opinion, but that opinion is contrary to God’s design for His church. His design for His church (remember, it’s not our church, though we feel it is) is for His church to experience multiplied growth.
Now what follows this tremendous, explosive, multiplied growth is this: growing pains. Just like when human bodies grow, they experience growing pains – so too does a local church.
Let’s read verses 1-7 of chapter 6 and then I will briefly discuss the solution the apostles put in place to deal with the growing pains they were experiencing. 1Now 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. 2And 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 (DIAKANEO) tables. 3Therefore, 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. 4But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5And 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. 6These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. 7And 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.
When I read those verses and see that there were actual problems in the first church, that actually encourages me. Do you know why? Because some times when you read the book of Acts and see God working in such incredible ways, the impression is, "wow, we could never be like that." But when you see the New Testament church with the best Pastoral staff ever assembled. You do know who is leading this church right, the 12 Apostles. These guys were trained by Jesus Himself. You can’t get better seminary training than that.
The Holy Spirit is moving and working and miracles happening almost every day. The church was growing. And yet even in this super church they had problems. That encourages me. Because it doesn’t matter what church you are in, every church is going to have some problems. As long as there are people in the church, there is going to be some problems.
And the way the leaders of the church chose to deal with this particular problem was to spread the responsibility of leadership among a group of men that would serve as the prototype of the office of deacon in the local church. As we consider this text this morning there are four aspects I want to point out that we see in this episode of the ongoing saga of the church on mission. First of all I want you to notice…
I. MURMURING Members
Now this idea of murmuring members is so foreign to me, I really don’t understand what they’re talking about. We never have any murmuring members here at Lookout Valley. a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
Now literally the word for complaint is the word murmur. The root word here means to speak in a low tone; What is murmuring? We know what that is. Murmuring is basically where we are half saying it out loud and half keeping it in. But we are saying it out loud just enough to spread a little bit of gossip. And we keep just enough in to make ourselves look like we are not spreading gossip. So we do a little of murmuring here and a little there. You know how it is. We get hurt or offended or things don’t go our way and the next thing you know, we start talking. And rather than going to the person who’s offended us, we go to other people that will listen to our complaints. And out in the parking lot or in the halls we start our talking and little murmurings go on.
Now the fact is, it happened there and it happens here. Was it right there? No. It is right here? No. In the Old Testament in Exodus 16, it says the nation of Israel was murmuring against Moses and Aaron. They were the leaders then. But look at Ex 16: So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we that you would grumble against us?” Ex 16:6-7
Now most of the people of Israel would have said, NO, No, No. God we are not murmuring against you, we are murmuring against Moses and Aaron. The leadership. But God says, you don’t understand how it works. I am a sovereign God and I have placed these spiritual authorities in your life. You murmur against those I’ve placed in authority over you, then you’re murmuring against me. Paul uses the exact same word in Philippians 2:14. Do all things without grumbling (Phil 2:14) We have got to be careful.
So here they were murmuring. But notice why they were murmuring. They felt there were some inconsistencies in the ministry focus toward widows; they felt some of their needs were going unmet. Bottom line – unmet expectations. And that is typically the root cause of most relationship issues – unmet expectations.
Now remember, this is a multi-ethnic church. It started on Pentecost when multiple nationalities had come to Jerusalem for that festival. They heard the good news about Jesus' death, burial and resurrection and they were converted.
Now here's the deal: because the truth about God's salvation was so powerful and life-changing, they stayed in Jerusalem instead of going back to there homes. So a multi-ethnic congregation exists here. One of the ethnicities was the Hellenists. And they felt their group’s widows were being neglected. So part of this murmuring includes a hint of racism or discrimination. That's not just a 20th century phenomenon.
Now let me ask you a question: do you think that the Apostles were actually racist and discriminating against these Greek widows? Of course not. Was it intentional that the apostles were not taking care of these women? No. But that is often how it is in churches. People’s needs get neglected, but it’s not intentional. But when we get hurt or neglected, we start thinking bad things about the other person. We start questioning their motives. And wondering about why they did what they did – or didn’t do what we felt they should do. That’s what was happening here. They thought, my goodness, the apostles are discriminating against the Greek, Hellenistic widows. So how did they seek to correct the problem? That leads to the next thing…
II. DELEGATED Duties
The apostles made a proposal to the church that really is an administrative decision they felt would mitigate the problem. It is found in verse 2-4. 2And 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. 3Therefore, 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. 4But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word."
So that was their proposition to the congregation. Now this is an important principle. Often times when we encounter a problem in our life, there are different ways we try to deal with them; and ultimately we discover those ways are deficient and inadequate. Some of us will just ignore it. Sort of like, OK, I see that Red warning light on my car, but I am just going to ignore it and not believe that it is there. I’m just going to ignore it. Some individuals when problems come into their life will point the finger and say, it is your fault. This isn’t my problem, it is you - it's the blame game. Then others will try to handle it all on their own. They will strive and try to fix it and get all stressed out trying to handle on their own.
Well the apostles did not respond in any of those three ways. The apostles decided that they were going to delegate. Delegate. Now that is a great word isn’t it. Delegation.
Here are the apostles and they recognize – our primary responsibility as the under-shepherds of the church is to Preach and to Pray. Fair and equitable food distribution is not the priority task for us. We shouldn’t be neglecting the word of God and praying for this need in our church. We have got to delegate this.
And so from this passage and from many other passages in the Bible, you see the two offices in the church begin to emerge. The office of elder and the office of deacon. The office of elder or pastor in a church carries out the primary spiritual leadership in the church, and the office of deacon carries out practical areas of ministry in the church The word deacon literally means, servant. So deacons are the leading servants of the church.
Now there’s a word I want you to note in verse 3. The very last word of that verse, what is it? Duty. That word literally means a task.
Here’s the deal, in the Bible, the deacons did not function like a governing board of directors; they didn’t function like a decision making body. They were given practical tasks, duties, to do. And they served the church in those ways.
That’s the way our deacons are organized. Again, not as a decision making body, but rather they serve the church in practical ways through tasks that they perform. For instance, the men being ordained today – Mack Ridge will be a deacon of buildings and grounds, he will help us manage our facilities and campus. Garrett Reagan will be a deacon of benevolence. He will help us in caring for benevolence needs that arise with members in our church or people in need in our community. Dusty Tuders will be a deacon of Missions. He will work to continue to develop our missions strategy as a church. Chad Wilson will be a deacon of youth ministry and will work in that area.
Every single one of our deacons has a particular task or area of practical ministry they carry out. Those mentioned and also audio/visual, ushers, finances, ordinances, children, seniors. They have a particular task or duty that they are responsible for just like the early church.
In addition to those particular tasks, our deacons are assigned about ten families in our church. Whenever there is a need that you have, you call your deacon. If there is a prayer request, a death, a surgery, a financial need. Call your deacon and with God’s strength and ability, he will do his best to minister to you during the time of your need.
Now as your pastor, I will seek to minister to you the best way I can. But it is impossible for me to personally minister to every practical need all the time. That is why our deacons deac. So the solution the apostles put forward to solve this dilemma was delegated duties. But tucked inside this solution they let us know that not just any person should be enlisted to do this task. Which leads to the third point this morning:
III. PERSONAL Prerequisites
The apostles lay out the prerequisites that they require for the deacons in verse 3. 3Therefore, 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.
Four things we see about these men.
First, they were saved, “brothers.”
Second, they had a good reputation; they could be trusted.
Third, they were spiritual. Just because they were serving in logistical, practical needs did not mean they were spiritual babies. These were mature men who were full of the Spirit.
Fourth, they were Wise. They were to be full of wisdom. As these men make decisions within their areas of responsibility, we need to pray that they have wisdom to fulfill their role well.
In fact, look how Paul describes the prerequisites, the qualifications for these servants: 8Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. 9They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. 10And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. 11Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. 12Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. 1 Timothy 3:8-12
Those are the expectations of our deacons. They are pretty high. And we have put these men to the test and they have passed. First, these men were nominated by members of this church who know them well.
Next, they each filled out an initial questionnaire and then met with our 5 elders for a deacon interview. Then they were recommended them to the church, and our church voted to call these men as deacons. Then they filled out a 6-page theological questionnaire and they each met with our active deacons and elders for an ordination council. And our ordination council recommends each of these men wholeheartedly to serve our church as deacon.
My point is, great thought and consideration went into selecting the first deacons and in selecting these deacons.
Well, what was the result of this administrative, delegating decision by the apostles as they led the first church? That leads to the fourth and final point this morning
IV. SUCCESSFUL Solution
7And 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. I mentioned earlier that the word translated “multiplied” here is the same Greek word translated “increased” in verse one. However, in this verse there's an adverb attached to it. It says that they “multiplied greatly.” What has happened? The church had a problem. The church dealt with the problem and God said, now that you have dealt with the problem in the right way, I am going to bless you supernaturally. You thought I was growing the church before, I am really going to grow the church now. Why? Because the church was healthier - and healthy things grow.
How did it grow? The word of God continued to increase. What is the word of God? It's the word of testimony about Jesus. Gospel.
It’s my prayer and the prayer of our elders that God would grow this church for His glory. How is he going to do that? Well that leads to my last thought:
Last Thought: As we align ourselves to the BIBLICAL model of church leadership, we can expect God to provide the GROWTH.
