to the point where they thought they would be so good at lying that they could even lie to the Holy Spirit and get away with it. Now, God judged their sin very swiftly and very severely, and their deaths brought fear to all those that heard about it, and in that way, the church became more pure than it was before. Sin is serious, and Acts 5 tells us that. And last week we saw the increasing external threat to the early church as persecution escalated and the apostles were threatened and flogged. Yet their response was they went away rejoicing that they could suffer shame for Jesus' namesake. And it didn't hinder them at all. Our text says that they continued to preach the gospel daily in the temple and from house to house. It didn't slow them down. Persecution did not keep them fulfilling Jesus' commandment to them to be his witnesses. This week in Act 6, we're going to see the second internal threat to the early church. And this time it's going to be due to factions that were developing because of the sheer logistics of trying to get everything done. It became very difficult to do all things equitably. And those who were being neglected began to complain against those who were not being neglected. So Acts 6 verses 1 through 7 tell us not only about the problem, but the solution and the result. So please follow along as I read Acts chapter 6 verses 1 through 7. Now at this time, while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose in the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. And the twelve summoned the congregation disciples and said, it is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables, but select from among you brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And the statement found approval with the whole congregation. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Procurus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch. And these they brought before the apostles. And after praying, they laid their hands on them, and the word of God kept on spreading. And the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith." Does that sound like things that still happen? People complain? It's not going right? I don't like it, so they complain? Now, it's interesting here. In verse 1, what our text starts off with is the church is multiplying. And it's in the midst of this, in fact, it's a preposition. While it is multiplying, now the complaints come. That's often still true. While great things are happening, there's something else that starts coming up, something to cause division within the body. It happened in the early church. Persecution did not slow down the church's growth, but that very rapid growth caused its own problems. Now, remember that this is a time in the church when the needs within the church were being met by those who had the means. They were selling property, or if they had extra houses, they were selling these things, bringing the money from those sales, laying them at the apostles' feet for distribution to those who had need. That was what was going on here in the early church. And by Acts 6, we find that the apostles can no longer keep up with the logistics of it all. And strife begins as people start to grumble against one another. Now, our text specifically states that a complaint arose by the Hellenistic against the Hebrews. That's actually how it's stated there. If it says Jews, it should be in parentheses or in italics. It says from the Hellenistic against the Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving. If it says food or something, that's added in. It just simply says the daily serving. The term for serving here is diakonia. Diakonia, because we're going to see another form of this later. And this word primarily means waiting at table. It is the action of waiting table. It's that thing you're doing, not the person who's doing it, but the action of waiting at table. And from that also came the wider sense of providing for any bodily sustenance. It could be the actual food, or it could also refer to the finances necessary for food, clothing, and shelter. It is in that sense that's being used here. Now, many of the Jewish families that had remained in the lands after the captivity, both the Assyrian and Babylonian, they stayed in those lands. They were part of what they called the diaspora. They were dispersed and they remained there. Well, they lost their language. The trade language at the time was Greek. They learned Greek, and they ended up learning a lot of the cultures of whatever lands they were. When they came back to Jerusalem, where we find them now, they brought with them the Greek language and some of these cultural traits. And so they were called Hellenists, and that's all they're referring to. These Jews from the Diaspora, they've acquired Greek language and cultural traits. The Hebrews here refers to the natives of Jerusalem, the Jews born in the land. And they spoke Aramaic or Hebrew since they were just referred to as the Hebrews. Now there was some contention between these two groups to begin with. The non-native Jews with the native Jews. The non-natives were looked down upon. They were not liked because of the cultural things they had brought in. They weren't seen as pure. In fact, the Pharisees often were extremely harsh towards them. And it would seem unlikely that that tension doesn't have something to do with the problem we see here in Acts 6. There is a tension that's already been there. However, I think we can all also easily understand how this neglect would naturally have occurred. It wasn't purposeful. I don't think we can charge the apostles of purposely neglecting the Hellenistic widows. But you have a church that is rapidly growing. Remember on the day of Pentecost, you had 3,000 saved. Within a week or so, you've got at least 5,000. And after that, Luke loses count. He said, men or women, multitudes of them are being added daily. They can't keep up with it all. Logistically, they just can't keep up with it. And we all know that the normal reaction of any of us is you will meet needs that you are aware of, and you will not meet needs you are not aware of. That just seems logical, doesn't it? So you will meet the needs of those people you know the best simply because you know more about them. You know more of what their needs are. Those you don't know about, you may know their name, you may recognize them, but you don't know what's going on in their life. You're probably not going to meet their needs. That is normal. You know what? That's normal here in this church, too. A lot of times I don't find out what your needs are until someone comes and tells me after the fact. Someone told me it was in the hospital. Did you know that? I said, no. Had a good visit, prayed with them, encouraged them. Well, how are they doing? Well, they're great now. Praise the Lord. You know what? I don't have to meet all the needs, do I? Roy, do you have to meet everybody's needs? No. I'm going to pick on Roy because he's in the front row here. You're out of place. I'm used to you over there. I've got Sam over there. I'm going to break my neck trying to figure out where all you normally are. And the Solomons are over there. Okay, this is getting ridiculous. You're all supposed to have your assigned seats. You can't meet everybody's needs, but you can meet the needs you're aware of. So this would be a normal thing that would be happening. Now, when you add to this overwhelming numbers where you can't keep up with it, somebody's going to get neglected. Who will get neglected? Those you don't know as much about. That would just be the normal course of things. And I believe that is the situation that's developed here in the early church. The apostles simply cannot handle the logistics anymore. It's too much. And note here as well that it specifically mentions it's the widows. The widows are the ones who have the least resources to take care of themselves. Now that may not make as much sense to modern Americans because let's face it, single women in America can pretty much do about whatever they want. You can find a decent paying job. You can supply your own needs. That's not true in their culture. There wasn't much that a single woman could do. She was very dependent on either her father or when she got married, upon her husband to provide for her livelihood. If her husband dies, she either needs to have children who will take care of her or other family members will take care of her. Or if she can get a job, it's going to be a very menial job. If she's older, she may not have the physical ability to even do that. She then has to be dependent upon the charity of others. Now, in Judaism, there was a system for trying to take care of it. The church was more effective at it, as we've seen. But now we see, here's what's going on. You have those who are being helped, and some are not being helped, and they don't have any resources. Over in 1 Timothy 5, Paul is going to give specific instructions later on to the care of widows in the church and who is supposed to be the widows indeed, those who are godly individuals who don't have any family, the church is supposed to help. Otherwise, family has first priority and responsibility in taking care of their family. But here you have widows. They need help. Some are being neglected. Some are being taken care of. You have an opportunity for dissension, complaining, grumbling. Now, this problem actually is made a little worse by the fact that it's causing the apostles to start neglecting the thing that was supposed to be their priority, which is the Word of God. They were becoming so busy trying to take care of this, they couldn't accomplish both. And so they tell exactly that to the congregation there in verse two, that they can't keep neglecting this. This is not good. They call a congregational meeting for all they can gather, and they're just going to lay it out. Here's what needs to be done. So here's the problem. What are we going to do about it? Now in verse three, we find that they put the responsibility of finding somebody to help with this distribution, first of all, upon the congregation. They're going to have to be part of the solution. And they're going to have to find people who are qualified to meet these needs. Yet at the same time, it's important to note the apostles reserve for themselves the appointment. You find who's qualified, we'll check them out and then appoint them. That's basically what's being done here. Now that's still a principle we seek to follow here at Grace Bible Church. I don't know all of you. I wish I did, but I don't. I'm of limited capacity and I probably can't know all of you. But you know each other. Different people know different people, right? So if I want to find out who is actually living a very godly life, where can I go if I need to find that out? I go to the congregation. You choose from among yourselves who you know has a good reputation, is full of the spirit and wisdom, which are the qualifications given here, and bring them forward because you're interacting with them all the time. You know who was there when you needed help. You know how, well guys, any golfers here? Oh my, boy, this must be a redneck church, no golfers, okay. Softball. I know some of you guys play softball, right? You're out there watching each other. You know who acts godly on the field when they strike out or they get thrown at base because they run too slow or they made an error, right? You know where godliness counts. You've seen it, right? So this is all they've done. They've gone to congregation. Pick out from among yourselves those who meet these qualifications. Bring them to us and then we'll appoint them. And that's what's going on. We do the same thing here. Any member of our church can nominate any other member of the church to church office. They're brought forward. We have a whole system by which we try to make sure they're qualified and then they're appointed. We actually have a second safety net for ourselves because sometimes you may know them one way, but someone else knows the real truth about them. So we go back to congregation for an affirmation. As after we're ready to appoint them, we say, this is who we're looking at. We give everybody a couple of weeks to know who they are, and then they can come to us and say, I don't know if you should appoint that person because, and we can check that out. But if it's affirmed that this person meets the qualifications, then they're appointed. And so we actually try to follow the principle given here in Acts 6 within our own church. Well, as this passage goes on, we find there were seven men to be appointed. Now, the number seven, is simply the number of men needed to accomplish the task at hand. I'm amazed how many want to get into the number seven and come up with all sorts of things. Now, admittedly, the number seven is used in some Bible passages with the connotation of either fullness or completeness. But it's used a lot more as simply, this is the number of things that were present or a number of people who were doing whatever. It's just a factual number. And that's the case here. This tells us that this is a big need. They needed seven men to help meet the need. It's a large church. There's a lot of needs out there. Those churches that have taken this as a passage to mean that this is the number of church officers, and you have to have seven, have jumped off into mysticism that distorts the text. In this particular text, we need to understand that these men are not being appointed as officers of the church. They are being appointed to minister to a task. And we're going to see this later. They are not deacons. They are servants who are fulfilling a ministry. And in all the passage in the New Testament that deal with offices in a church, none of them mention a number of people that need to be in the office. It's simply appointed as they did here, according to the need and qualifications. You got the people qualified and you have the needs that are there, then you put them in that position so those needs can be met. It's as simple as that. Seven is not a mystical number in the passage. It just tells us there's a big need here. And they chose enough to accomplish the need. Now the particular qualifications given for the seven is that they are going to carry out this ministry of distributing food to the needy widows. They have to be men of good reputation, they need to be full of spirit, and they need to be full of wisdom. Now, it's inherently reasonable that they are men of good reputation. This term refers to men who are known well, they're spoken of well, they're men of high integrity, they're honest men, and they're known to be that. And let's face it, if you're going to put someone in charge of finances, those are good qualifications, integrity and honesty, right? But in addition, they have to be men who are godly, men who are following the Lord, sensitive to His Spirit and His leading, as well as having wisdom. They're going to be going out into some difficult situations. They're going to have to have compassion for those who have needs. At the same time, they have to have wisdom to discern between real needs and someone's demands and wants. We don't need to meet people's wants, we need to meet their needs. God is the one who's in charge of the wants, not us. And usually he says, yes. Isn't that nice? Because he blesses the socks off us. We are so blessed, but he doesn't even always give you what you want. Because he knows if he gave you what you want, it'd be bad for you. Right? He knows what we need and what we can handle. So you have to have wisdom to do that. They're also going to have to be men of great faith and walking with the Spirit because they have a lot of needs and there's probably only so much coming in at any one point. They're going to have to have faith that God's going to meet the needs as they're going out and seeing how much is out there. God will have to meet it, as well as the wisdom to distribute what's on hand to those who have the need. A close walk with God, full of the Spirit, His leading, the kind of compassion that only God can give you, and the discernment to do with all the logistics of it. And so that's the qualifications for these men. Now, we actually use that same list here at Grace Bible Church for our treasurer. He has to be someone who meets these qualifications. We also throw in one of the deacon qualifications from 1 Timothy, free from the love of money. That's probably a good one for treasurer too. Maybe a love for working with figures, but free from the love of money. We want a person who handles church finances to be someone with integrity, the wisdom to handle it correctly, and a personal walk with God to trust him. If you ask our treasurer, John Halpin, he'll tell you about how much trust you have to have in God. because as you see the figures come in each week, some weeks it's about budget, some weeks it's down in the basement, and some weeks it skyrockets. It is a rollercoaster ride, and if you're not walking God very well, you're not going to be able to handle it emotionally. Am I right, John? Okay. So we actually use the same thing here. We can trust God's promises, and we want our treasurer to exhibit that to a congregation. We can trust him for the needs that we have, and we can. Now, the final thing to note here in verse three, it says the apostles were going to put these seven men over the need, or as the New American Standard puts it, in charge of this task. That means that they do not necessarily have to be the ones physically doing it. It means they're giving the oversight of it. They're making sure the task is being fulfilled in the proper way, not that they themselves are going out with either the food or the finances to give to the widows. Now, that's an important leadership principle to follow as well. Just because you're appointed to something doesn't mean you yourself have to go do it. It simply means you've got the responsibility to make sure it's done and done properly. Now, we don't have too much of a problem here at this church, but sometimes we do run into folks that have the idea that the church leaders are supposed to do all the ministry. That's not what scripture says. Actually, church leaders are to train up the congregation for going doing the ministry. Everybody's involved with it. We all get involved with it. And it's wonderful to see, like our problem downstairs with the basement, how many are coming in and helping. It's not the responsibility of Ricky and Eddie and Jim and myself and John to go down and do all the patching and taping and all that stuff. Now, we do have a responsibility to make sure it's going to get done. But everybody gets to help with that. And we're so grateful for all of you who have been coming and some of you during the week and you're by yourself, but you're busy down there cutting up a board and putting in there and taping it and plastering it. And we praise God for that. That's the way it's supposed to work. Now in verse four, we find that the 12, that it's referring to the apostles, they make it clear they're God given priority. And that is prayer and the ministry of the word. Now it's interesting here, they use the very same word, diakonia, we saw it earlier. It's the exact same word, except they add the phrase of the word to it. And so we actually have a really interesting juxtaposition here between the two. The seven men that were chosen are going to devote themselves to serve the task of caring for the distribution to the widows, while the twelve, the apostles, are going to devote themselves to the serving, or the task of ministry, of the distribution of the Word. And the word distribution, devotion, and service are all the same. So one is serving the physical needs while the other is serving the Word. And really, what a beautiful way to talk about delivering the Word of God. Just as you would serve a table and you'd put food on it for people to eat, so their responsibility was to take the Word and put it out so people could feed on it. That was the priority they would have, and to prayer. making sure that this was really being done by following what God wanted and not their own wisdom. Now, it's also important to note here that the apostles are not saying this from any idea that they're too good to be involved in the physical needs. That's not true. They were involved. In fact, the reason there was a problem is they just couldn't keep up with it. They needed other people taking on different tasks, and so they were. They're simply pointing out they need to keep the priority God had already set for them. And that's another good principle for us. How many have ever gotten so involved with something that was really not something you necessarily had to be doing that you ended up neglecting the thing you were supposed to be doing? I'm glad a few people nodded on that one. And I'm not the only guy who does that. It's tough. Whatever gifts, ministries we have doesn't mean that we should not be involved in other things. We should. God gives us lots of different commands, but he has given us priorities. The question is, are we keeping the priorities in God's balance? Are we letting other things sidetrack us? We all have to be careful of being sidetracked so that we don't keep the priorities God has set. Well, what are his major priorities to all Christians? Well, first is your relationship with him. I don't care what else is going on. If you're missing your relationship with him, you've been sidetracked off the priority he's given you. You've got to have a proper walk with him. Then we can go down the list. Your second priority, men, it's your wife. Ladies, it's your husband. Third is your children. Fourth goes into using your gifts in ministry to those in the church, then without the church. And I would have to say using your primary gifts first, and then your secondary gifts, and we all have a multiplicity of gifts, but we've got to be using them. The problem comes of the tyranny of the urgent. Something's come up and I'm responding to current needs, pressing needs, and suddenly I'm distracted, and the next thing I know, the priorities God has set have been completely neglected. And they're not being accomplished at all. It's not saying there aren't emergencies and you deal with the emergency. What it's saying is that, overall, have you kept the priorities? Tragically, so often I go to pastors' conferences and I end up talking to some guy whose kids have made it into their teens, or maybe in their twenties, and they're asking for prayer because their teen is an absolute mess. Sometimes in jail, sometimes on drugs, sometimes off doing who knows what. They don't even want to say it, they just say it's bad. And you start talking with them, and they have ended up so much trying to minister to the church, they forgot the priority that God gave them. They neglected their family. And their family was out of control. Does that mean that your children sometimes are not put on secondary as you had to deal with something that's come up? Of course they are. But if you don't keep the priorities pretty soon, that's all there is. You've neglected them, and the priority's been lost. So, we all need to be careful of that. Now verse 5 goes on, it tells us the congregation approved of the apostles plan and they chose seven men. Luke specifically points out that one of these men, Stephen, was full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. Now he points that out because he's going to become the key figure in the sermon next week. Acts 6, 8 through chapter 7, verse 60, Stephen is the man. He is the one who is going to be the first martyr of the church. So already Luke points out something special about this particular individual. Of the other men, only Philip is mentioned again. He is the one who takes the gospel into Samaria, so he's mentioned in Acts 8. He's also mentioned in Acts 21 as Philip the Evangelist, one of the seven. Paul stays with him. All the other men, we never hear anything else about. We'll have to find out in heaven when we get there. We can look them up and say, so tell me about the rest of what you did, because we only have that you got appointed. What did you actually do? I'm looking forward to finding out a lot of information like that. But then again, I'm curious. But the men prove faithful to the task, because in verse six and seven, we find that they're ordained and they fulfill their ministry. Now, a curious thing that I noted here is that all seven of these men have Hellenistic names, they have Greek names. Now, some have said, well, that's because they were meeting the needs of the Hellenistic Jews. Maybe, if so, what a gracious way to handle the problem. Okay, they're being neglected, the other's being taken care of, you point men and we'll just make sure they're taken care of. We have to remember that Greek names were not uncommon among the native-born Jews. Remember the name of one of the apostles is Philip? It's a Greek name. It's not a Hebrew name. So it's not uncommon to have Greek names. So we can't say that that's definitely what happened, although we can say at least one of them is definitely Hellenistic because the last one, Nicholas, is a proselyte from Antioch. He's not even Jewish. How about that? A Gentile who's a proselyte of Judaism from Antioch serving already this early in the church in this capacity. Well, these six men are brought, the apostles, and they ordain the seven. Ordain simply means to lay their hands on. That's how it's put there. And it's still the procedure by which the church marks off those who are called and set aside to ministry. And that's what they did. They set them aside. publicly. These are those who are going to be serving in this task. Now, the seven carried out the duties of ministry in the church. The complaints were solved, the contention ended, and the church again gave full focus to the priorities of its commission. And that was to proclaim Jesus Christ. And that's what we find in verse seven. And the word of God kept on spreading. It kept going out. That was what they were supposed to be doing. And a number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, more and more added to the church. And a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. So the gospel spreading, more and more people in Jerusalem were becoming disciples of Christ. And I need to point out here the disciple, the disciple is simply a follower of a teacher. That's all it means. It's used of pupils or students. In fact, we find it is the most common name for those who are Christians in Acts. It's used 28 times. The term Christian is only used twice, twice in Acts, once in one of the epistles, but the term believer is used three times in Acts and seven times in the epistles. It is the most common name for Christians. Why? Because they put their emphasis upon that if you are someone who believes in Christ, a quote-unquote Christ one or a Christian, you're his follower. You are a student of him and you are desiring to become like him, as Luke 6.33 says. When a pupil is fully trained, he will be like his teacher. And that's our goal, isn't it? To become like Christ. That's what it means to be a Christian, a disciple, a believer. That's where we're going. Now, Luke also points out here in Luke 7 that a great many of the priests are becoming obedient to their new faith. Interesting phrase to put it. They have been obedient to the law of Moses Now they're being obedient to this new faith, a faith in Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Now this didn't include the high priests or any of the Sadducees, but the common priests. They were coming in great numbers and becoming part of the church, part of the Christian community. And in the flow of Luke's historical account here, and I'll point this out again next week, this is probably one of the reasons for the strong reaction against Stephen in the rest of the chapter and in chapter 7. If those who are your leaders of your religion, the priests, are now switching and placing their faith in something else, and this is happening in great numbers, is not your very religion under severe threat? It is. And so there was a strong reaction. But I'll talk more about that next week. Now Acts 6, 1 through 7, then shows us the importance of having structure within the church. Because without it, ministries are going to be neglected. Things that should done are not going to get done. People will be neglected. And that is not our desire and it's certainly not God's desire. He wants us to use our gifts, our abilities, our ministries to serve one another, to help each other become more like Christ, to meet the needs that are really there. Now, without going into a lot of the detail, I do want to give you a brief overview of the structure within the church. Now, to begin with, you need to understand we live in a time and in a society that increasingly is antagonistic not only to authority, but also to structure. Now, there's several reasons for this, and I'm not going to go into all of them, but one of them is a fear of commitment. It's something that when I go to pastor's conferences, we note this all the time. People are more and more afraid to commit to anything. And so we keep trying to change our programs around so it's the least amount of commitment, at least to get their foot in the door and get them started. They don't want to commit to things, so you try and make it easy on them to at least start working with them to bring them to commitment. So that's one. Another one, and I think maybe a more foundational one, is the stress on individual independence and autonomy within our society. We want to do what we want, when we want, without anybody saying anything about it. That's become American society. We want to be autonomous. Tragically, that also is the way people approach the church. They go from church to church looking for whichever group is going to cater to their felt needs the most with the least amount of commitment on their part. When I get together with other pastors, we simply refer to them as church shoppers and hoppers. Sorry, just some insights, and pastors are human too, and we have our own slang. But you know what? That's contrary to the nature of the church. It's contrary to the nature of what the body of Christ is about. There has to be a commitment to one another to meet the needs that are there. The early church there, look at the sacrificial nature and their commitment to each other. It comes out. They want to meet each other's needs. They're intent upon this. They're meeting from house to house daily. Remember, go back to chapter two. Daily, they are in each other's homes doing all sorts of things, but it include study of doctrine, praying together, they were sharing meals with each other, they were even celebrating communion together. They were committed to each other. And their commitment to submit to and serve God then results in this corresponding commitment to serve one another. Life was no longer about them. It was about God and his working through them. And that is why the disciples who had run away when Jesus was arrested are now the apostles who rejoice, though they've been flogged, and they continue to boldly publicly teach and preach Jesus Christ. despite the threats that have already been made against them, and they know it can happen again. Being obedient and serving Jesus is more precious to them than their own lives. That's commitment. And sadly, it lacks a lot in modern churches. Now here in Acts 6, we see the beginning of the structural development of the church. The apostles are the clear leaders. They are the authority in the church. And as ministry expanded, assistance were needed to carry out some of the logistics of trying to meet the needs of all the folks that are out there. So with the help of the congregation, the apostles appoint the seven to be those who will carry out the task. Now, I said earlier, these are not deacons. Some want to make them deacons, but they're not. It's true that they are the first group of men given a responsibility over a particular task of serving, but this is not the establishment of a permanent office. One commentator put it this way, and I think it's a good summary. Though these men do not hold the office of deacon, that is going to be established later. They could be called the proto-deacons, or those who set the standard, because they do establish the precedent for what the office deacon will later become. But they're not deacons themselves. The word deacon never occurs in the text, and none of these men are ever called a deacon. That never happens. Philip's called an evangelist. We find Stephen preaching. They had their own tasks, but they were those simply called to serve. By Acts 11, we find another development within the church. And this is the office of elder. And early on, they had the responsibility over the finances that came into the church. In Acts 11.30, we find that Paul and Barnabas, that's the apostle Paul, they bring a gift down from the church of Antioch to the church in Jerusalem to help with the poor in Jerusalem. And in Acts 30, it says that then when they got to Jerusalem, they gave that gift to, it says, the elders. It doesn't say the apostles, it says to the elders. In the first missionary journey, we know this office was already important because in Acts 14.23, we find that Paul and Barnabas are appointing elders in each church they were establishing. They were the leadership structure. In Acts 15, we get an additional insight into what these elders are doing because this is the Jerusalem council. There was a question of doctrine. The church in Antioch sent down Paul and Barnabas again to bring this to the church in Jerusalem for their insights. And what it says is the apostles and the elders. that end up going through and making a decision and advice of what they're supposed to do. And that happens over and over again. And I have all the verses listed there for you. Acts 15, 2, 4, 6, 22 and 23. It's the apostles and the elders that are involved with this. In Acts 20, 17 through 35, Paul charges the elders from the church in Ephesus with the responsibility of guarding the flock, which the Holy Spirit had made them overseers and to shepherd the church of God. They were responsible both for the care and the feeding of the flock, that is the ministry of the Word, as well as protecting them from wolves that would arise even from among themselves, teach false doctrine, and bring disciples away to be their own followers. They had additional responsibility. It should be noted in Acts 21.8 that James, and James is the brother of the Lord, he presided over the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. He is referred to there as one of the elders. The Apostles Peter and John use the term elder for themselves, 1 Peter 5.1, 2 John 1, and 3 John 1. In the book of James, he writes, probably the earliest New Testament book written, he writes the church that had been scattered, and he expects them to have church structure already. For he says those who were sick were to call for the elders of the church to come and pray with them. So that's another responsibility that belongs to them, James 5.14. Paul told Titus that he had left them in Crete in order to set in order what remained and that included appointing elders in every city that a church had been established. So very early on we see a structure developed within the church, a primary one is elders. Now let me give you a little bit more about elders because there's confusion within the church about who these folks are supposed to be. There are three terms that are used to refer to the same individual. The first term is elder, the Greek is presbyteros. And the other term that's used for them is, in English it's translated as bishop or overseer, that's episkopos. And then there's pastor or shepherd, that's poimain. They're all referring to the same individual. In Acts 20, 17, Paul calls the elders to himself. And then in verse 28, he tells them specifically that those men, they are overseers. So he calls the presbyteros and tells them that they are episkopos. Now, if you didn't understand the Greek terms, that's okay. He called the elders and said, your overseers, your bishops. In 1 Peter 5, 1 and 2, the apostle says the elders are to feed, quote, or slash pasture, which is the actual word there, shepherd the flock of God. In Ephesians 4.11, Paul says there are four offices within the church. There's the apostles and the prophets. They laid the foundation. They laid the word of God for us. There's the evangelists. We have Pastor Carrera, who's our evangelist, and there's pastor-teachers. That's not pastors and teachers. It's pastors slash teachers. It's the same individual. Two different aspects of his duties and responsibilities. They're given the church to equip the church to go to the ministry. not do the ministry, equip the church to go do the ministry. That means for Pastor Kerr and myself, our major task is to help you go do ministry, not to do it on your behalf. We're here to help you do what God has called you to do. But it's interesting, he puts this here and then over in 1 Timothy 3.2 and Titus 1.9, Paul specifically says that overseers in one passage, elders in the other must teach. That's exactly what is here in Ephesians. So all three terms refer to the same individual. The position is that of elder, the responsibility is that of overseer, the activity is that of pastor or shepherd. It's all the same individuals. Elders, pastors, overseers, they're men who also have to have certain character and skill qualifications. Those are listed out for us in 1st Sympathy 3, 1-7, and Titus 1, 6-9. And combining both passages together, because one just gives a little more insight into the other, they don't contradict each other in any way, it says that these are men who are above reproach, and the terms used means there's nothing that you can accuse them of, and if you did accuse them, they can't stand up in court. They are to be husband and one wife. And the literal phrase there is one woman, man. So it doesn't mean he has to be married. His mindset, he's committed to only one woman, his wife. if he's married. That also excludes single guys who want to play the field. They're not a one woman man. Next, they are to be temperate, prudent, respectable. That means they're sensible, just, devout, and self-controlled. They're hospitable. They're able to teach, which in Titus he explains it means that they are able to exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict. That's the ability of being able to handle the word of God. They are not addicted to wine or pugnacious. They are gentle. They are uncontentious, meaning they're not self-willed or quick-tempered. They're to be free from the love of money, one who manages their own household well. They're to keep their children under control with all dignity. And the Passion Titus adds that means the children are faithful. They're not accused of dissipation or rebellion. They're not newcomers and they have a good reputation outside the church as well as inside the church. Those are the qualifications for those who take on this responsibility of being elders. Now, those who currently hold the position here are myself, Pastor Carrero, and then we have four men that are working on it. John Halban, Ricky Jordan, Ed Colon, and Jim Pagonis are all working towards becoming elders. That's their desire. And 1 Timothy 3 tells us that those who desire the work of an elder or an overseer desire a good thing, and they desire it, they're working on it. Now, the congregation's response toward elders include Counting those who rule well and labor diligently the Word of God worthy of double honor first Timothy 5 17 Submission to them because they keep watch over your souls Hebrews 13 17 that passage actually goes on and says that's for your benefit and Then if they mess up there not to be accused except by two or three witnesses It has to be established as something that's really true first Timothy 5 9 and if they continue in sin They have to be rebuked in front of everybody. So there is a higher standard there if they mess up and And since it's easy to accuse people of things, you have to make sure it's really true. And if they don't change and they continue, they have to be public rebuked, period. So those are responsibilities you have towards those in those positions. Now, another office in the church are deacons. Deacons are referred to in Philippians 1.1 as one of two offices. Paul writes, his salutation is to the saints at Philippi and to the overseers and deacons. And then over in 1 Timothy 3, 8 through 13, Paul spells out the qualifications for a deacon. So this is an office. And their character qualifications are almost the same as for an elder. They are to be dignified, not double-tongued. They're not addicted to much wine, not fond of sordid gain. They are husband and one wife, same phrase we have for the elder, one woman, man. They are good manners to their children and their own households. They hold to the mystery of faith with a clear conscience. They are to be tested and then allowed to serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach. And then a third office is deaconess. This is 1 Timothy 3.11. Now, in many churches, this particular office is referred to as deacon's wives, and that's because 1 Timothy 3.11, which lists out their qualifications, is a bit unclear about exactly who's being referred to. Now, here we take this to mean deaconesses and not deacon's wives for several reasons. Now, the literal translation of the phrase there is this, okay, women, likewise, dignified, not malicious gossips, temperate, faithful in all things. That's all it says. Just says women. Now, whether that's a wife or just a woman is the debate. Now, the fact is, is that in verse eight, you start with the qualification of deacons. So eight, nine, 10 are dealing with deacons. Then it simply says women likewise, verse 11. Then it continues on on deacon qualifications in 12 and 13. So it's stuck right in the middle of the deacons. So that's one reason we would think this would be deaconesses. Second, there is no feminine form for the word deacon. There just isn't, and that's why I put up here Romans 16.1. This is Phoebe. She's referred to as a diakonos, a neuter term, because that's all they can use for her, and well could be, meaning a deaconess, a woman who is a servant. Remember, deacon simply means servant, a table waiter. Third, if the wives of deacons had been what Paul had meant, he easily could have designated that by just putting back a possessive pronoun, the wives of deacons, or the wives of them, or something like that, the women of them. That's not there, it just simply says women. And then fourth, another reason we use this is that you have qualifications for deacons' wives, you can take it that way, but no qualifications for elders' wives, and that doesn't make sense. Why would you have qualifications for deacons' wives but not a qualification for elders' wives? So here we've taken that this is deaconesses. What do they do? Well, much like those of the seven here in Acts 6, they're simply servants. They take on whatever ministry task is assigned to them by the elders for the benefit of the whole church. That's it. That's what they do. It could be all sorts of different things, but it's simply there to serve. And that's what the word means, one who serves. And we have three men serving currently in that position, Jim Pagonis, Ed Colon, and Ricky Jordan. Two other men are working on it, and we're hoping to install them pretty soon, Randy Ryan and Morris Cushmar. And then we have six women. I think I got all the women right. Diane, my wife, Mary Galately, Nancy Halpin, Sandy Garcia, Melanie Colon, and Karen Ryan. And then Joan Pagonis is working on it, and we're hoping to install her fairly soon as well. But we want more. We want more. Because the church always needs more. Because our goal is to keep expanding. As the church expands, guess what you need? More servants. Hopefully you have them prepared. They had an Evangelical Church that had people prepared already. We have to prepare people. And so I'd encourage you again, if you are interested in something like that, or you know someone that meets the qualifications, nominate them. And then we start pushing them through with things. Let's get going. And if they're serious about it, yes, they can be. You can meet the qualifications. I believe every Christian should eventually meet these qualifications for simply being mature Christians. That's really all it amounts to. So let myself or any of our church leaders know. Now, if you don't know who they are and you're new to the church, you can always find our church leaders out on the board as you walk out to the right. The church leaders, their pictures are up on top. That's just so you can find our faces. Don't feel bad if you're up there staring. I do it all the time trying to figure out who all you are. That's so-and-so. I've got to remember their name. It's okay to do that. That's why it's there. One final point. In a way, it's a simple point, but it's an important point. Jesus said in Matthew 20, 25 through 28, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant. Whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Church leadership is about increasing service, not power. And those who pursue leadership positions for the purpose of power, they do a disservice to the church. And they're going to find themselves very frustrated because, let's face it, American volunteers don't take kindly to authoritarian commanders. And then third, they're going to find themselves fighting against God because God resists the proud. And those who want power, there's pride that always goes with that. We're simply there to serve. And every single man and woman that is in one of these positions, they will tell you, it just means increasing service. more and more commitment to how can God use me in the lives of other people, setting aside your own desires to do something else. That's what it's about. But that should be the desire of every Christian. Can I become more and more what God wants me to be? How can I serve him more than I am today? Let's pray. Father, we are again grateful for your word. Father, and I'm grateful for this particular passage as it tells us the heart of this early church and how quickly they would respond to things that were going on. Father, the logistics sometimes are overwhelming, even in a small group like this. I can't begin to imagine how difficult it would have been for the apostles. And yet a solution was found quickly to make sure that things were done fairly and equitably and that the focus would go back to what it needed to be on. And that was proclaiming your word to those around. And so the church continued to grow. I thank you that your word also gives a structure for the church, that we're not left to just come up with whatever we can come up with. But we have the foundation upon which to build. We have the framing upon which we decorate and ornate it, but it's all there. I thank you for those that you have already raised up within this local congregation, those who are called to a greater degree of service and sacrifice themselves for your glory, for your honor, and to meet the needs of the others in the body. Father, continue to raise up more. Father, not for the glory of this church or anybody in it, but for your own namesake. Father, we might have those that would be used to plant other churches in the area, or those that would go off to new locations and plant churches. For missionaries that would go and take the word to other cultures, to places that has not yet been heard clearly. Father, that would be our desire. That is our longing. We ask your Holy Spirit to work in our hearts to prod us to do exactly that. It would be less of us and more of you in all things. In Jesus name. Amen.