We continue today with our series on biblical church government, and having finished our three-part study of the office of elders, we now turn our attention to the office of deacon. And there's really no better place to begin than Acts chapter 6, as I trust we'll see in our time today. Acts chapter 6, verses 1 through 7, let me read this for us, this is what God's Word says. 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 Nicolaus, 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. Amen. Let's pray together. Our gracious God and Father, we see in the book of Acts your mighty hand at work to build up your church. And so we ask now that As your word is preached, would your spirit teach us, instruct us, and construct this church according to your good and perfect will. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. When we began our study of church polity, which is how God designed the church to be governed, We saw how the Apostle Paul addressed his letter to the church at Philippi in the opening verse of the book of Philippians by saying, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers, meaning elders, and deacons. So to the church in Philippi with the elders and deacons. And so the elders and deacons of that local church comprise the leadership of the congregation, which tells us that not only elders, but deacons are quite important because after all, they are one of only two offices that God established for the church. But unfortunately, it seems that the office of deacon is greatly misunderstood and misapplied in the church today. There's simply a lack of understanding of what a deacon is And what it isn't. And if we're honest, we probably have a hard time seeing why they're so important. Because a lot of times, it's nothing but just a label. Just a title. Where even those who have held that title of deacon in a church aren't quite sure exactly what they've been called to do. And so, you ought to ask, what exactly is a deacon? I mean, what does the word deacon even mean? It's kind of a funny word. Well, it's a funny word to us because it's actually a Greek word that's been transliterated. And the word deacon just means servant or attendant, like a flight attendant. It's someone who serves and ministers to the needs of others. And it's often used, it's quite more often used as a verb in the New Testament. To deacon is to serve, to attend to, to minister. Now, perhaps all of this adds to the confusion because that's what all Christians are called to do. All Christians are called to serve one another. In fact, 1 Peter 4.10 says, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's very grace. The word there literally, use it to deacon one another. Huh. And Jesus says in John 12, 26, if anyone serves me, that is, if anyone deacons me, he must follow me. And where I am, there will my servant, my deacon be also. If anyone deacons me, the father will honor me. So clearly all Christians are called to be deacons with a lowercase d, if you will. And so if that's the case, there must be something distinct about the office of deacon that sets them apart from all the other members of the church, let alone constitute a formal office in the church. And so that's the real key question. What is it? What's unique about how deacons are called to serve the church? And the answer is that deacons serve the church by serving the elders. Deacons are called by God to be specialized official assistants to the elders to help them shepherd the congregation. And the way that they help the elders shepherd is not by shepherding the flock with them, but precisely the opposite. By taking care of everything else but shepherding, so as to clear the elders' plates and free them up for the task of shepherding and pastoring God's people. In other words, God has established deacons to take on the administrative and the logistical demands of church governance, the earthly burdens of a church, so that elders can focus solely on bearing the spiritual burden of church leadership, like teaching, preaching, praying, and watching over souls. You see, God has called elders to be the governing leaders of his church, to care for the congregation and to lead the corporate body. But the reality of ministry is that caring for God's people and leading a church entails many, many aspects and elements that demand attention, which are not always the purely spiritual matters. from big picture organizational matters like managing the church's facilities, or managing the church's finances, to relational matters like caring for people's tangible needs, making sure that people who are sick are being tended to, that they're not forgotten, or ensuring that there is a general harmony amongst the members in their relationships with each other, or even their relationships with the leaders. All of this is part of caring for the flock. But the problem is, if a church's elders are engaged in all of these matters, then they will have very little bandwidth left over to focus on pastoring people's souls. I mean, just on a real practical level, there would be no time and energy left for studying the word deeply. laboring and teaching the word, discipling people, praying for and praying with church members, counseling people in their spiritual struggles, providing marital counseling, premarital counseling, conducting weddings, funerals, all that stuff. This is the spiritual work that God has charged elders to do and to concentrate on. And so that's why God established deacons to be the officially delegated assistance to the elders, to relieve the elders of the many other demands outside of that focused spiritual scope. You see, deacons are those who are set apart to be special attendants to the elders. They serve the church by serving the elders. A deacon is not someone who just heads up a ministry in the church. I mean, that's great, but that's not what makes a deacon. But a deacon specifically works closely with the elders to be those whom the elders can lean on, depend on regularly, and delegate a lot of responsibility that would otherwise fall on them. The office of deacon is a subsidiary office to the office of elders. We might call it something like the office of the secretary of the elders. And so needless to say, it's a high calling. But do you see the big picture here, the wisdom of God's design? That God established deacons for the ultimate purpose of safeguarding the spiritual priority of the church. The existence and establishment of deacons shows how essential is the spiritual life of the church, fueled by the elders' ministry of God's Word and prayer. That is to say, what's most important in the life of the church is to be trained up in the Word of God. Every member, to be trained up in the Word of God and to grow spiritually together. And everything else comes second. This is what God is communicating to the church by giving and establishing as deacons. And again, there's no better place to see it than in Acts chapter six, which is when the whole concept of deacons came into being in the early nascent church. Now, on that note, Acts chapter six was not the formal establishment of deacons. There is no mention of the title and office of deacons in this passage. But the concept is clearly there, which we'll see in a moment. Because Acts chapter six is what you might call a prototype of deacons that were established because there was a need for them. And this is the context that in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 2, as you guys know, was Pentecost, when the church in Jerusalem was birthed. Peter filled with the Holy Spirit, preached the good news of the risen Christ, and 3,000 souls that day alone were converted to Christ and baptized into the church. And throughout chapters 3 through 5, despite opposition, persecution, and even internal sin within the church, by the grace of God, the church kept growing as thousands more came to saving faith in Jesus. And so by the time we get to chapter 6, the Jerusalem church had grown tremendously. Verse 1 says the disciples were continuing to increase in number. I mean, this church wouldn't stop growing. I guess we could say that the first megachurch was in the book of Acts, in Jerusalem. But, with a bigger church, there's new issues. Because more people, more problems. That's just inevitable. And that's what happened in this booming Jerusalem church. A complaint by the Hellenists, it says, arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. Now, who are the Hellenists? The Hellenists were Jews who spoke Greek. Whereas the Hebrews were Jews who spoke Hebrew, or probably Aramaic to be more precise. But in any case, there's a whole history and a context behind all of this, whereby there was great tension between these two, even though they're both Jews. Because the Greek-speaking Jews, the Hellenists, were those who were part of the dispersion, the Israelites who were dispersed and scattered into foreign nations all over the map from the exile in the Old Testament. And they were scattered, dispersed into what would become the Greek-speaking world. You guys know in ancient history, Alexander the Great, head of the Greek Empire, and he just conquered the whole lands, the whole Mediterranean world, such that Greek, the language of Greek became the lingua franca, kind of like how English is today, it's the lingua franca. And so, the Greek-speaking world is where they were scattered to, and that's why, because they lived abroad, they were foreigners, they spoke Greek and knew very little Hebrew. But many of them, or some of them, they returned later to settle in Jerusalem to spend the rest of their days there because they wanted to be near the temple. But when they returned and they settled in Jerusalem, they were looked upon as second-class Jews, not only because of the language barriers, but because of cultural differences, because they were clearly influenced by the Greeks. And so they were being viewed as tainted with pagan culture, hence second-class Jews. And on this day, as the church in Jerusalem was filled with both Greek-speaking Jews and Hebrew-speaking Jews. A complaint arose because the Hellenists accused the Hebrews of neglecting their widows, the Hellenist widows, when it came to the daily administering of food. As we see in Acts chapter 4 verse 35, the early church shared amongst each other various resources such that no one was left needy. And it was a really beautiful thing that the church members were taking care of each other, providing for each other's needs through their own benevolence. And so this became a regular practice to provide food even at great cost to those in the church, especially for widows who in the time were unable to work and provide for themselves. And so it was during this daily distribution of food that the Hellenist widows felt neglected. Now, who knows if it was intentionally because of discrimination or if it was just because of miscommunication, given that there were so many people, things could get lost in the mix. And it could have been just the perception of the Hellenist widows who assumed that they were being intentionally mistreated because they were fully aware of the tension Now the text doesn't say outright how it happened but only that it happened. And one way or another the result was that the massive congregation needed to be cared for in this regard by the leaders who were at the time the apostles in the nascent Jerusalem church. One could say that the apostles in the church in Jerusalem at the time they were functioning like prototypical elders as they were the spiritual leaders of the church. And so for them to tend to this issue. There were a lot of logistics to sort out for thousands of members. and a lot of hurt and tension that needed to be smoothened out with what would probably amount to a lot of time needing to be spent engaging in individual conversations with people, hearing their concerns, providing explanations for what happened. Oh no, I know you felt like that, but that's not really what happened. No, no, no, we didn't neglect you. We knew, we're here to help you and all that kind of stuff. And the apostles were going crazy. And so with that in mind, they reacted like this in verse two. And the 12 summoned the full number of the disciples and said, it is not right. It is not pleasing to God that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. And so brothers pick out from among you seven men, seven faithful men to appoint to this duty. And we instead, we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. The apostles knew that if they were to engage in every possible aspect of tending to the congregation's needs, they would be spread out way too thin and quickly be burnt out. Because God wasn't calling them to do all these different things. No, they just needed to be focused on two things. Prayer and the ministry of the word. Now remember, the word deacon, as a verb, it means to serve, to attend to, or to minister. And here, in this passage, it literally says this in verse 2, it's not right for us to be deaconing tables. That is, it's not right for us to be serving physical food, meeting the church's temporal needs. In verse 4, we need to focus instead on deaconing the word. That is, serving spiritual food, meeting the congregation's spiritual needs, ministering the gospel. Giving people the bread of life, Christ himself, that must be our focus. And it's not because the temporal needs of the church weren't important, but it's because that wasn't their calling. And they were called, remember, in John chapter 21, what did Jesus say to Peter? Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed them with the word of God. I mean, look, you don't expect a dentist to be able to do plumbing. I mean, if he can, that's great. That's wonderful. But if he, while he's fixing people's teeth, if the pipe breaks, and he goes, sorry, let me go do that now, and he spends all day fixing the pipe, then he never gets to people's teeth. What kind of a dentist is that? He might be a great dentist, but he's lost his focus. Now listen, both trades are important. Dentistry and plumbing are both very important. I would know because last Sunday before Easter service in the morning, my main water line burst and it was like a geyser in front of my house. And again, the devil at work to try to disrupt the ministry of the word. But by God's grace, someone came and I was able to get to church. They're both important. But at a dental office, The work of dentistry is kind of the most important priority. And the dentist should really ask somebody else to fix the plumbing. In the same way, in a church, the work of the gospel is the highest priority. Ministering to people's souls is the very bread and butter of God's church. Other needs are important too. It's all necessary for the church to function. But elders shouldn't be the ones to do all of them. And that's why the apostles were moved by the Holy Spirit to appoint seven men for the special service of being their delegated attendants to clear their plate and go in their stead to tend to these other matters. Now let me just mention here. The question of whether or not women can be deacons, we'll discuss more thoroughly next week. But for now, I just want to comment that faithful believers and faithful churches differ on this issue. And that's okay. But as a church, for us, we believe that qualified women are also called to the office of deacon. And because Acts chapter 6 is not a formal establishment of the office, it's only a prototype. So the fact that it was just the men here, that's not really saying that much because as we'll see and as I'll argue in 1 Timothy 3, men and women there are formally established to the office. The only thing is, we have to be very careful that women deacons or deaconesses are functioning purely as deacons and not venturing into quasi-elder functions. Because deacons, male or female, they do not have, they are not given independent governing authority in the church. Again, it's a subsidiary authority. They are delegated assistants and authorized representatives of the elders and their governing authority. But more on that next week, Lord willing, when we talk about the qualifications of deacons. Suffice to say for now, the apostles here said, let's appoint seven men for this need that has arisen. And so they picked out seven qualified men to figure this thing out. And verse five says this pleased the whole gathering, the whole church, and they chose Stephen, who was the first martyr, Philip, the evangelist, as you see in Acts chapter eight, and some of the other guys, Procrus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus. And so they went and they handled the matter entirely. And thanks to them, the apostles could devote themselves to the task of praying for the church and studying and teaching the word to the church. Now, do you see from this passage what is really the essence of the office of deacon? Deacons are those who fundamentally guard the pulpit. Deacons are those who value the church's ministry of the word and prayer so much that they're willing to put themselves in front of the elders and shield them from anything that would take them away from it. Even good necessary things in the life of the church. But that's what's unique about a deacon. The heart of a deacon is a specific orientation toward the elders ministry to the church. It's a certain protective mindset, if you will, that says to the elders, it is not right for you to be doing this or that. Let me do it instead. You focus on just studying, teaching, and praying. Let me tend to the congregation and all these other matters. Entrust that task to me. Let me stand in front of you and be your liaison. That is what makes a deacon. It's this mindset. You see, a deacon is not just any servant in the church, but a deacon is a public servant on behalf of and in assistance to the elders. You know, some of you, many of you in the church are members. You love to serve in the background, and that's great. Praise God for you. Keep doing that to the glory of God. But a deacon is someone who is willing to serve in the foreground. A servant who is willing to come into the spotlight, not just behind the scenes. In some respects, deacons are like the face of a church. So that whenever any issue arises, big or small, an issue that's not distinctly a spiritual need, The congregation knows to look to them first and not the elders. The first people they would think of to call is not the pastor, not the elders, but the deacons. That's God's design for them to function as a buffer. Deacons are God's gift of servants in the church who are called to tend to the church's earthly tangible needs. Now, this is all conceptual thus far. And so you might be wondering, okay, but what does a deacon actually do? I mean, what does a deacon's function look like in practice? Well, it's hard to give a rigid answer because deacons can do all kinds of things as need arises. In fact, in verse three, it can be rendered more literally, pick up seven men whom we will appoint to this need. And so deacons are ready servants to meet whatever urgent need or crisis comes into the picture. But in terms of just a general categorization of their function, there are three practical roles or three practical aspects of a deacon's role that we can gather from this passage. First is that deacons are to be caregivers in a church in a tangible way. Now that is to say, deacons are called to tend to the congregation's physical welfare and to meet their temporal needs. Here in Acts chapter 6, these seven men were tasked to make sure that all the widows were equally fed. So they were to be mindful of the congregation's bodily and material well-being. Again, by contrast, elders are called to meet spiritual needs. They are servers who serve spiritual food. And so to relieve them of everything else, deacons are earthly servers. And that's why throughout church history, deacons have been those who have been entrusted with the relief of the saints, the benevolence funds of the church. They provide congregational care at this temporal level. They're aware of who's sick. Who's new? Who's lonely? Who's struggling financially? Whose car just broke down? And they go to minister to them in those very real earthly needs, in the love of Christ. And it's not that deacons are necessarily the ones who do everything, but they mobilize people in the church to meet those various things because deacons are those who are watching for those needs. They are the spearheads of congregational care. They're constantly aware of the congregation's well-being on an earthly level. And secondly, deacons, as you can see here, are called to be peacemakers, meaning they are those who foster the congregation's relational and emotional welfare. Now, obviously, the issue in Acts 6 wasn't just hungry widows who spoke Greek. But there was a relational tension between the Hellenists and the Hebrews. And not only that, it says that the complaint arose. So that word, complaint rising up, begs the question, rising up where? Rising up to the leadership, up to the apostles. Again, they were functioning like elders here. In so doing, it was probably a very common complaint to the leadership, hey, don't you see that we're being neglected? hey church leaders elders oh how come you're not noticing us you don't care about us how come you're not listening to us how come you're not doing anything about it and meanwhile here the apostles are going what in the world we had i don't know who you are there's like 8 000 of you hi are you even a church member here i can't keep up with all of this none of it is intentional we're about to go crazy You see, there's always bound to be a lot of miscommunication, especially in a growing church. Members can feel easily neglected or not heard. But it's not necessarily because the elders are neglecting them or shutting them down. I mean, sometimes it is, and it's because they're just being bad elders. But a lot of times, it's because there's just way too many people to manage, and it's really hard to keep up, whether a church has 100 people or 10,000 people. And so what did these seven men do? They didn't just go and serve the food, but they resolved miscommunication. They were there to safeguard unity in the church and be that liaison between the elders and the rest of the congregation and bring mutual understanding. This is why it is essential for deacons to be on the same page as the elders and share their philosophy of ministry. There may be wonderful servant-hearted members of the church who even want to and desire to relieve elders from all these other responsibilities. But if they don't easily see eye-to-eye with the elders, and if they're constantly wanting to be heard by the elders, and the elders have to spend a lot of time explaining to them their decisions and why they do this and justify everything, then it's just not going to be effective. It defeats the purpose of a deacon. Now, it's not at all to say that deacons should just be silent yes-men, but it means that deacons should be on the same wavelength as the elders, on the general direction and philosophy of how to manage the church, because only then can they be effective peacemakers as accurate representatives of the elders and their thinking so that they can foster greater unity and mutual understanding in the congregation. And thirdly, and lastly, deacons, as we see here, are called to be problem solvers. That is, that they have a knack for coming up with solutions to logistical or administrative needs. I want you to notice something in this passage. The seven men were appointed to fix the problem, and they were given zero instruction on how to do it. They weren't told how to do it. They were just told that they needed to do it. And these seven prototypical deacons figured it out all on their own. Now that is an amazing blessing to the elders. You see, deacons are not just people who do what they're told, who just follow the instructions, but they are go-getters. They take initiative. They are resourceful. They'll figure out a way to get things done. Just tell me what needs to be done and I'll get it done. And in this way, they can truly be reliable, go-to assistants for the elders. The deacons are to be proactive protectors of the elders' time and ministry. And so these are the three general aspects that give a rough picture of the function of deacons. Now, not every deacon needs to equally focus on all of these three aspects. Different deacons can be focused and gifted in different areas. And deacons can be raised up for different purposes and needs throughout the life of the church. But generally speaking, these three aspects encompass the unique office of deacon. Although all believers are called to serve, This kind of service is the set-apart office according to God's wisdom and design. And so as you can tell, there is a real weight to the office. And the church shouldn't take the office of deacons lightly any more than the office of elders, even though they're different. I mean, think about this. The Jerusalem church was how many members? Thousands. And how many prototype deacons did they appoint in Acts chapter 6? Seven. Seven deacons for thousands of members. Clearly, God cares more about quality than quantity. And so just like with elders, a church should not be appointing deacons willy-nilly just to fill up some seats. It's better to have one deacon fit for the office than ten deacons who don't quite fit because this is a weighty calling. In fact, notice in verse 6 that these seven men were set before the apostles and then what happened? They prayed and they laid their hands on them. They ordained these seven. Yes, the office of deacon, just like the office of elders, is an office of which those who take up the office ought to be publicly ordained, committed unto God before the public, set apart and consecrated for special service, because ordination represents the seriousness of the office. That's why there's qualifications in 1 Timothy chapter 3. You see, A deacon is not just a label or a title, but it is an office to which one must be called by God. And when it is rightly understood and practiced, deacons are one of the most valuable components to a healthy local church. And this is the wisdom of God in calling special servants to assist the elders for the sake of the gospel. The office of deacons shows how gospel centered God is. Because throughout the book of Acts, you could see the devil constantly at work to take away from the church's mission. Again, from the very beginning of Pentecost, we can see Satan inciting persecution against the Apostles. But of course, filled with the Spirit and filled with courage, they didn't relent, but they continued to preach. And even as they were persecuted, they only rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ. And so the Lord kept adding to the number of the saved. And so in chapter five, what did Satan do? He pivoted. He moved on from the external threats to the internal threats with Ananias and Sapphira, hypocrisy and sin from within the church. But of course the Holy Spirit exposed it and sanctified his church. Okay, so that didn't work. So now what? Well, in chapter six, it was a new strategy. Hinder the ministry of the gospel, not by threats of destruction, but with distractions, with logistics, disunity, miscommunication, and all the urgent needs, the busyness of running a church. And again, the Lord came through and provided his solution, which were deacons. And so how does this whole passage end? In verse seven, it says, and the word of God continued to increase because of the deacons. and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests even became obedient to the faith. And might we add, the implied words, the word of God continued to increase, the number of disciples multiplied greatly, many came to faith, thanks to these seven men, thanks to these seven deacons. You see, The existence of deacons points to the centrality of the Word of God in the life of a church. That is the recurring theme all throughout the book of Acts. What God does through the preaching of the Word in and through his church. Now church, what all this shows is how much God cares about your spiritual well-being. He cares about your physical and material and temporal needs, no doubt. That's why he established deacons. But remember the picture, that deacons are there to point to the ultimate priority of our spiritual need. A church without deacons can exist and function, just not as optimally and ideally as it should. But a church without the ministry of the word and prayer cannot exist because that is no longer a church. And deacons exist so that word and prayer might flourish and take center stage. Man does not live by bread alone. Man does not live by the church's quarterly finances. Man does not live by a good AV system or nice events or fun potlucks, as great as all those things are. But man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God, prayerfully ministered and served from the church's leaders and from the pulpit. Man lives by the gospel day in and day out. That's God's priority for us, to feed us, to nurture us, and to build us up with increasing depth of understanding His love for us through Jesus Christ. That is our bread, you see. And so church, let all of this instruct you of the true and highest priority in your life, to care for your soul. The Word of God and prayer, communion with God, that you might grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. That is your lifeblood. Because Christian, your life is now hidden with Christ in God. And if you're here today and you're not a Christian, let this also show you how much God cares about your soul, such that He intentionally designed His church for maximum output of gospel truth, so that more and more people might hear and come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. This is how much God wants to reach you with the good news of Christ. That you might know that you're a sinner before God, unable to save yourself. And although God has every right to condemn you eternally for your sin, in His love for sinners like you and me, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be condemned for sinners. The eternal punishment that we deserve fell upon Him on the cross where He suffered and died. And if you just humble yourself and confess your sinfulness and put your trust in Jesus' saving work for you, then you will be forgiven of all sin, reconciled to God, and received and accepted and adopted as His beloved child. That is really good news. That Christ has done for us what we can never do. And this is the good news that God is delivering to you. This is the good news that was preached by the apostles and the early church all throughout Acts. And this is the same message that God calls us to preach today. And so friend, understand that God cares about all of your needs. He cares about your daily bread. He cares about your health. He cares about your financial situation or whatever stressful thing that's going on in your life. But most of all, He cares about your soul. Because all those other things, they're just temporary. They won't last forever. But your soul is forever. And it is in God's eternal love for you that He calls you to come and be reunited to Him by faith, resting in His presence forever. and so come and enter His presence through faith in Jesus Christ and He will welcome you in His love and grace. Let's pray together. Our gracious God and Father, we thank you for your great love for souls and for your wisdom in how you have ordered your church. We thank you that you are so gospel-centered because the gospel is the very heart that you have revealed through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And we thank you for reminding us even through this, how much you intend to care for our souls, to nurture us, and to feed us with the true bread of life. And so indeed, it's with that in mind that we now prepare to take the Lord's Supper. by which we proclaim that Jesus is the bread of life. That as we feed on him, as we take the bread and the cup, these ordinary elements as supernatural representations of the very presence of Christ, Lord, we proclaim that he is our life. And so help us to receive it by faith and build us up in the most holy faith, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.