This morning, we're going to look away from the life of David for a little while, just today, and turn to the New Testament, to Acts chapter 6. So, I'd ask you to take your Bible, the Word of God, turn with me there to the 6th chapter of the book of Acts. Fourteen years have passed since I arrived at Grace Community Church. Fourteen! It seems like I just got here, and I'm thinking about how amazing it is that time flies. But as you think about that many years, today marks the first time that we are ordaining a new deacon in the time that I have been here. We've ordained two elders, but this is the first deacon ordination in the last 14 years. So I thought it appropriate this morning to spend our time in God's Word in the book of Acts where the office of deacon in the local church got off the ground. So let's read together from the Word of God, His holy, inerrant, and life-giving Word. Would you please stand with me as we give attention to what He inspired and breathed out through the Dr. Luke. Acts chapter 6. 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 Nicholas, 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." Let's pray. Lord God, we come to you this morning grateful for the opportunity to be involved in the special nature of our gathering today. Always we worship and honor you. We gather to hear your word. We want to hear it explained. We want to hear it applied. And so we pray for your Holy Spirit to be at work or without him. Our efforts are meaningless and worthless. We pray for your Holy Spirit to apply the truth to our minds and to our hearts and prepare us for the significant and special opportunity that we have to recognize a man that you have raised up within this congregation, whom we have together seen is someone you desire to serve in the office of deacon in this body. So we praise and thank you for John. And Lord, we praise and thank you for the deacons that already are serving. And we thank you for all the leadership in this body that guides us in your truth and sees to the needs that we have. And we thank you for this body as a whole, that it's like a flock of sheep. And we pray that through the leaders that you have brought, you will shepherd us well to keep us not only affirming truths, the truths that Your Word underscores, but also living them out in day-to-day life for Your glory. And may, Lord, the power of Your Word continue to spread and abound from this place. And may the number of disciples that You have brought to Yourself grow and increase as we seek to be the church body that You have called us to be. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, children sometimes experience an inexplicable throbbing in their legs, whether in the knees, the thighs, or the calves, and often these pains awaken them in the middle of the night. Now, there is not evidence that growing causes pain, but we call these growing pains. And if you are growing, then you might just experience them. Well, growing pains gripped the early church. As the number of disciples multiplied, the ministry of the church became more and more complex. A new community was born, and as it grew with it, came some internal matters that would not resolve on their own. Even though there was a transformative impact going on in the world, there were some things going on within the body that needed attention. And so the office of elder was already well established through the role of the apostles. Now I'm not equating an apostle with an elder, but I'm saying in the early church where the shepherds were the twelve apostles, they basically were the formative position that would become the elder in other churches that were then subsequently planted. So the office of elder was already well established, but circumstances demanded another office. One that would work hand-in-hand with that of the elder. And so, the sixth chapter of Acts details how this office came about. As we turn to key issues in the text this morning, we're going to start with, and that's why I'm just going to outline key issues in this text one by one, and build the message I have for you around that. So, the first key issue of this text that we will start with is challenge. Challenge. There was a challenge. As the disciples were increasing in number, a challenge arose and it came in the form of a complaint. Now, a complaint indicates that all was not well in the life of the early church. This new blossoming body of believers is like bodies of believers all around the world, some of whom have been around quite some time. There are sometimes struggles. There are sometimes complaints. And you know, when do complaints come? They come when somebody isn't happy. And somebody may complain for reasons that we really ought not to complain about, but sometimes there are complaints that are raised because there is a need to address a problem. And that seems to be what happened here in the early church. A complaint needed to be registered. The complaint that arose in the early church signifies a legitimate concern that was happening here. So I'm not authorizing a church to be a bunch of complainers, but rather if there is something that needs attention, we need to get the word out. So the problem here was that in its ministry of mercy to the widows of the church, those of Greek background and language, they were called the Hellenists, they were being neglected. The Hebrews refers to native Palestinian Jews whose main language was Aramaic. whereas the Hellenist would have spoken Greek. So maybe, could you imagine if we had two primary different language speakers in this body and how communications might break down sometimes and people might get overlooked. And well, that may be exactly what was happening in the early church. The Greek-speaking Jewish widows were somehow being left out in the daily distribution of food, so they were going hungry. And so there were those who recognized it, and they had to bring it to the apostles. Now, this kind of thing does happen in churches, right? I mean, it just happens. On occasion, from time to time, someone gets overlooked. Someone gets left out. It's not what we aim for, but it's almost unavoidable, especially if, you know, the bigger, the more people there are, the more likelihood, the greater likelihood that this will happen. Well, what happened in Acts to address the issue is, we can take a lesson from this today. Where there's a challenge, when someone is overlooked, when something is being overlooked that we ought to be doing, then somebody needs to know. We always need to be patient and humble about it, but we can't be okay about it. So in the day, in that day, the word went to the apostles and the functioning elders of the early church and they addressed the situation. So there was a challenge. And they responded to the challenge. So that's our next key word. The response of the apostles can be summed up in the word commitment. commitment. Because in response to this challenge, the apostles wanted to address the things that were most important and to which they were committed and to which they would be committed. So this apostolic response was to communicate to the full number of disciples that to which they were absolutely committed. The communication set forth what is the top priority of the elders in the church. The apostles made it abundantly clear that they were absolutely committed to the preaching of the Word. This priority could not be compromised. It is a first concern in the church. The preaching of the Word of God is a fundamental task of the elders in the local church, and nothing can be allowed to get in the way. So, if you ever wonder why we are so dead set on preaching the Bible in this church, Here is your explanation. The apostles couldn't give way, neither can we. We do not exist to entertain. We do not exist to cure social ills. We exist above all to point people to Christ through the proclamation of the Word of God. To know God, to know Christ, to rest in Him, to believe in Him, and be built up as a body in Him through the teaching and preaching of the Word of God. At the same time, however, there are other tasks to which we should be committed without their taking over the top spot in the list of priorities. The Apostles recognized the importance for looking out for those in need in the church. So while they were committed to the preaching of the Word of God, they were also committed to seeing that the challenge they were facing be overcome. So they set forth a solution. So there was a challenge there was an announcement of what they were committed to, and then there was a solution to the challenge that we could sum up in the word consignment, which means to basically entrust someone with the task. The apostles would appoint the seven men selected by the disciples to the duty of what they called serving tables. The other thing that was referred here, it was referred to as the daily distribution. the feeding of those who were among the church body that especially needed to be helped. And so these that were selected would oversee the task of distributing fairly the food provided for the widows. This was to be a task entrusted to specific men chosen and set aside for the purpose. It was a hands-on task. It was a roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-involved-in-the-task kind of work. It was a serving role. Now, it's interesting, in our English translations, the word deacon does not appear in these verses, but the word serve does. The English word serve is the translation of the Greek word that looks just like deacon, because the root for servant and serve are the same. And when we say deacon, what has happened is, in the Greek language, to bring it over to English, instead of translating deacon and putting the word servant in there, recognizing that in the New Testament this became a role and an office of responsibility, what they did was they just transliterated the word, which means just bring from the Greek language, bring that word and put it into English. And so here we have not the word literally saying a deacon, but we have this verbal form of the word deacon, to serve. And we are mindful when we think about serving and this task to which these deacons would be consigned, that this was the task of serving. They were chosen to be in charge of the tables, which was fundamentally to serve. It's the same root word that Jesus used Himself when He spoke of Himself. When He said, The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life a ransom for many. If you just imported now the word as a transliteration, then the statement would be like this, For the Son of Man did not come to be deaconed, but to deacon and give His life for many. So, Jesus showed us that the ultimate expression of what the task of a deacon is, is when he laid his life down at the cross. He acted to serve his people by dying in our place and bearing our sin debt on his own shoulders. He gave his life for his church. He obtained his church for himself with his own blood and in this way he served us. Jesus, you might say, is the ultimate deacon. You might say that in preaching the Word, the elder points to Jesus with words. And in serving, the deacon points to Jesus with actions. He administers care for the lowly. He employs physical strength to accomplish the tasks associated with the office. Whereas the work of the apostles, which is carried forth through the elders and pastors, is a lot of heart and mind and tongue, The work of the deacons is heart and more practical and physical exertion to address physical needs and circumstances. Alexander Strauss, in his book on the New Testament deacon, writes about what deacons specifically are to do. And he says, as long as the deacons enable the shepherds of the church to carry out their primary duties, and as long as the deacons minister to the congregation's welfare needs, they are doing their job. Now in order to serve the church in this capacity, and in the name of Christ, officially recognized by the church, there's a fourth key issue that arises as we look at Acts chapter 6. And that key issue is character. Character. The apostles instructed the disciples to pick out from among them seven men, not who were the most popular, the wealthiest, are the best looking. The apostles instructed the disciples to pick out from among themselves seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom. When it comes to leadership in the church, character counts. God looks at the heart. He is far more concerned with the holiness and godliness of leaders in the church than he is natural leadership abilities. So these three main items were designated by the apostles. Good repute, full of the Spirit, and wisdom. Now when we turn to 1 Timothy 3, which we'll read later on this morning, but when we turn there we discover a more specific list of deacon qualifications. It says, Deacons must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. They must be tested. A deacon must be faithful to his wife and manages his children well. Well, each of these aspects of character detail how the three character traits listed in Acts 6 are lived out. Even though we've got greater detail, I think you could say, if the first three that are talked about in Acts are there, then this is some of what you will see in the life of a man who the Word of God would say is qualified to be a deacon. So one would serve as a deacon, to do so, to be considered to be put into that office, he must be of good repute. That is, he is a good reputation. He is thought of well by others. It's not a mere surface reputation, but where there is godliness, one's reputation will demonstrate it. He may not be the most popular, he may not be the most well-known, but he is among those that folks think well of. Deacons will be of good repute. Secondly, they must also be full of the Spirit. One is full of the Spirit when the Holy Spirit has control of them. And what happens when the Holy Spirit has control of a man? The fruit of the Spirit flow forth from his life. A cup is full when you can't add any more. Liquid fills the entirety of the cup. Every cubic millimeter is occupied. Now we are filled with the Holy Spirit when we are yielding complete control to the Spirit of God. Every part of our lives, our thoughts, our emotions, our bodies, and our actions, it is when we are doing God's will. Pay attention as I read from Ephesians 5, what Paul writes about the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Holy Spirit there. He writes, Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence. for Christ. So if we walk by the Spirit, relations, if we're walking by the Spirit, we will not carry out the desires of the flesh. And if we're full of the Spirit, then the fruit of the Spirit will overflow in love and joy, peace and patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. the fruit should be evident and increasing in the life of every Christian. This is what we're striving for, reaching for, this is what we hope to see more and more in every one of our lives. And so the suitable candidate for the office of deacon is one also whose life is overflowing with godly character. Now the third qualification set forth by the apostles for this specialized office in the church is that they would be full of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is what is in their hearts and they operate wisely. They can apply the principles of God's Word in a discerning way. Their life expresses the message of Proverbs. And one of the key ways in which wisdom is manifested is in the godly and effective management of one's own household. Then it is brought to bear upon the household of the Lord. And so it is evident also then in how a man deals with people in his discernment and wisdom. But the bottom line is that the disciples were not to look among themselves again for popularity, attractiveness, or wealth. They were to value character first. Who stands out as godly, submitted to the will of God, and wise. This kind of man is the man who would be suitable for this important office. Such a man is actually the model toward which we should all strive. And this installation of a deacon this morning is a good opportunity for us all to step back and do a self-evaluation. Are we letting our light so shine before others that they may see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven? Are we living full of the Spirit? Are we cultivating a heart and life of wisdom by increasing in our knowledge of God and His Word? Let's value these things in such a way that it's obvious that our first and only allegiance is to the Lord and that we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. And while we're here, we should also turn to the Lord and say thank you to Him for placing men like this in this body who meet these qualifications and who serve Him well. God is to be thanked for the deacons here at Grace Community Church. And I'll close with a final key issue in this text and that is commission. When the disciples had made their choice, they set men before the apostles. They set them by name and reputation, and what they were known for is they were put in that list. And then what happened? The apostles accepted them, affirmed them, and prayed and laid their hands on them. This was a visible way of commissioning these new deacons to their task. The laying on of hands demonstrates the importance of the task and the authority that's being invested in them. And it represents also a plea, a prayerful plea for the power of the Spirit to be upon them so that they may fulfill the task well. So think of it. I'd say this is akin to Jesus when he was baptized. The Spirit of God descended upon him like a dove and he was anointed Son of God and set apart into the task of redeeming sinners. And in ordaining a man to the office of deacon, we are publicly setting him apart, praying for God's Spirit to empower him mightily for service in his kingdom. He's being publicly commissioned and authorized to this task. And so, it is a solemn, though joyful and gratifying moment in time. It's a blessing that the Lord has placed such a man in our midst, and it is always serious when we are pledging ourselves to serve well in the roles set forth by God. So, this is what we're doing today. God has confirmed through the church His choice of a man to be placed in the role of deacon, and we are following through on this appointment. So, may the Lord bless Grace Community Church as He did the First Church in Jerusalem, We noted at the outset this morning that the growth of the church brought about the challenge which was resolved by the institution of this office. At the end of the passage, we see that the effective work of those in the office of deacon contributed to the ongoing increase of the church. They were set before the apostles and the apostles prayed and laid their hands on them and the Word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. And so as we seek to just follow in the footsteps of the example set for us by the early church, we pray not only that we will be ordaining a new deacon, but that God will continue to magnify and multiply the impact of His Word through this body and the power within that we might grow as disciples and that we might see other disciples added to the kingdom of Jesus. Let's pray. Our Father, we come to you this morning with grateful hearts. We are so thankful that you are working, that you are at work in this body. Help us to realize, help us to celebrate, to rejoice in the fact that you are working here and that this body is a body of believers that you have called to yourself and that you've called us to have an impact on the world. And we pray that the way we operate internally itself would magnify the glory of God and would increase the strength and power of your gospel being preached throughout the world. And we pray now that as we Follow the steps that we see indicated in this text and set John Ivey apart, that you would bless this part of the service, that it would honor you, and that it would work strategically in each one of our hearts. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.