Thanks for listening to this audio sermon from the pulpit of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America. You can learn more about us by visiting our website, www.covenant-pca.com. Take your Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 6. As you do, I will just say this to our guest who may have not been with us. that we are in the middle, well, actually not in the middle, on the front end of a series of sermons from the book of Acts. And we've come to chapter six in this wonderful, wonderful book. The Acts of the Holy Spirit, as the Holy Spirit establishes His church in this post-crucified, post-risen, post-ascended period. In other words, during the day of the Lord. Scriptures talk about this period from the first coming of Christ till the second coming is the day of the Lord. We live in the day of the Lord. The church is structured so to care for God's people and to be his witness during this entire period, the day of the Lord. We have a great privilege to be in Christ's church. Today in chapter six, We come to another wonderful little occasion where the Lord shows his wonderful mercy and grace to provide for his people. Let's read together chapter 6, verses 1 through 7. For those who've been here for a while, you recognize that we've been here before. In fact, if you mark your Bibles and put marginalia out there, You've probably got notes from at least two other sermons on this text. Because in my time here, when we've ordained and installed deacons, I've used this text along with some collateral text. But you know, and I will say I started to skip the text as I'm going through it now, verse by verse. But I thought, no, there's still plenty here. And while some of it will be some repetition for some, we have plenty of new folks and they need to know the Lord's heart on this as well as our own heart about the office of deacon. So follow along as I read aloud God's holy word. Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenist 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's 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, the apostles, 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. Grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our great God endures forever and ever. Amen. Father, we thank you for your word, and we ask you now to illumine our minds that we might indeed hear you. Grant us faith. that we might receive it as a word from our own great God to his loved people, for it is indeed that. And we pray this in the wonderful name of the one who loved us and gave himself for us, the King of the church, Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, you see the context, the Lord's adding numbers to the church. We saw that even in the midst of the sin of Ananias and Sapphira and the fear that came upon the people, God still quickly comes back into the midst, begins to work, doing great things. And again, from house to house and in the temple, they didn't cease teaching and preaching, the apostles preaching and teaching, and the results were great. Still something going on here that we need to take note of. I think you can probably trace this back to the Ananias and Sapphira episode. There's something has happened back at the end of chapter four, the people were giving. They were giving. They were selling things that they might not need at this time, going up in the attic. I often think of it this way. You know, it's amazing what we hoard, what we store up that we don't need. Isn't it? You know, when we moved five years ago, we gave away and sold stuff. You know, you sell what you can sell, and then you give away the rest, the stuff nobody wants, you give it to them. And we did that. And then we moved over here. Well, we had another episode. And the statistics on the people who rent these storage compartments, these climate controlled and otherwise, they rent because they filled up their garage in their attic. I've read this. So if it's wrong, I got it out of magazines that do statistics on all this stuff. Amazing. We do. We keep things we don't really need. These people would go out and sell these things and give them to one another as one another had needs. It was a wonderful time in the history of the church and a very imitable time, one that we should follow. We see here in this passage that, and from the preceding passage, that the Lord wanted His church not only to be concerned about the spiritual affairs of people and their eternal destiny, but he wanted them to be concerned about their physical needs as well. We see this in the life of our own Lord. Jesus Christ was a compassionate man. Yes, he could be hard. He could go into the temple, pick up the tables, and slam them on the floor and crash them all over the place to make his point that you're misusing my house, this house of prayer. But he was a compassionate God. He cared for hurting people. When he took the little girl and raised her from the dead and expressed the compassion, you see it clearly when he healed those who were in need. When he spoke to Zacchaeus and said, come on, I'm going to go to your house, our Lord was a Lord of compassion. The people here show that as well. We also see in this passage that not only about our Lord and his compassion toward his people and toward all people, in fact, but we see here that the Lord is a God of order. Now, we know that. If you go back to Genesis 1 and you look at the creation event, and as you see it rehearsed throughout history, you realize that God is a God of order. That's why sometimes we ought to assess our own lives and say, you know, everything seems to be in disorder, then we're not really living the way we should live because we should be striving to be orderly just as our God is. You see him ordering the church here. giving it another little detail in order to facilitate the church, to help it function the way it can best function for His people. So let's look at this passage. Very briefly, and I will from time to time just say you need to perhaps go and listen to those two previous sermons. They're available. There's more detail on some points than others, because this is new material that I'm dealing with here today. The first thing I want you to see is this, is just the compassion of the church in this. In these days when the disciples were increasing in number a complaint by the Hellenist, that's the Greek-speaking Jewish community rose against the Hebrews. A complaint came up. Now there's been countless scholars in their commentaries and in their treatises have outlined how we usually respond to complaints. James Montgomery Boyce gave five and he said he felt real good about those five complaints until he talked to Roger Nicole. Nicole who taught at Gordon Conwell Seminary for years in his retired years in Orlando Florida at Reform Seminary and died in just recent years. Nicole said he knew at least 10 good complaints that should have come up against this this church. But here or rather 10 responses to the complaints I should say. But here, all the scholars point out that the church didn't respond to the complaint in a negative way. And that's the point that so many make. Normally, our responses to complaints are not good responses. They're defensive responses. They're excuses as to, well, this is why I didn't do it. Instead of responding out of compassion, they responded out of compassion. A complaint came, and they don't say, oh no, look, that's unjustified, or look, you know, you ought to be taking care of one another, or any number of complaints, or ways they could have responded to the complaint, but they don't. They don't because God's using this in his providence to provide the church a good provision. and that is a provision of the deacon. The response becomes one of compassion, it's one that's from the heart, it's one that's, they take seriously the problem here and they respond to it very deliberately, very thoughtfully, and as we'll see, in a very God-like fashion. So, oh and by the way, This thing about the widows, I should address that just a moment. There was a complaint against the Hebrews because their widows, the Greek-speaking portion, were being neglected in the daily distribution. There seems to have been the assumption that there should be some care being given to these women. And that's because there should be care given to widows. And if you go to 1 Timothy chapter 5, you'll see how the Lord outlines that. Paul sets it forth very clearly. If you're a widow indeed, that is you're a widow that does not have a family who can care for you, then the church is your family. Often I will say to to Sadie Cox, now listen, if you need anything, you let us know. I will. And if Sandy can't do it, I'll call you. Now, Sandy's her daughter, as many of you know. Sadie has the right perspective there. And when you read 1 Timothy chapter 5, you realize that's the biblical perspective. Family first, natural blood family first takes care of the widows. And if there's not a family there to care for them, then guess what? We're it. We're the family. We're the backup. We become primary. And that is executed primarily as we find in this text and we learn in 1 Timothy. through the office of the deacon. So you widows out there when you find yourself not able to get your family members on the phone or they're not able to care for you, you call your deacon. It's a compassion of the church to care for widows who are widows indeed, widows in need. Second thing I want you to see is not only the compassionate nature of the response here and therefore the way the church is to respond always, and it's a good lesson to us all, isn't it? Because frankly, when people complain, it's easy not to respond well. The knee-jerk reaction is usually not a good reaction. This is a good passage to remind us that we need to be responding out of compassion at all times. We don't always know the circumstances, do we? We don't always know what's in the heart and mind of people. This was brought to stunningly to my attention just in the past week when one of our sister churches, Second Presbyterian Church in Greenville, a man of the church committed suicide having arrived at church last Sunday morning. Now, to the rational mind, I'm like, no, I'm not going to church if I'm going to kill myself. But obviously, there's something more serious going on there when that happens. And it reminds us when someone's perhaps having problems or complaining inordinately or any little simple complaint, our response must be one of compassion, not assuming anything, because we don't know what's going on there. It's our job as brothers and sisters in Christ and as deacons in the church and elders in the church to learn what's going on so that we can respond compassionately as our Lord did. I've been known to say in past in conferences and in retreats with elders and deacons that the office of deacon is really the office of compassion. The deacon really is the front line for showing the compassion of Christ. They've been given this calling. So deacons have a heavy burden there and we want to pray for them in that. Second thing I want you to see in this passage is the character of the diaconate. I'll go through these very quickly again referring you to previous sermons but not just to send you to listen to more sermons but just so you can get more details if necessary. The first character point here though is that it's a set apart office. This is not a man-made office. God gives the church the office. The apostles, speaking under the authority of God, say to the church, let's pick some men, let's be sure they're qualified, and we will ordain them to the office. We'll set them apart to the office to serve this office of compassion. And so, God gives the church this office that's set apart with great work to do. Notice what their work is. Here's where men often, I was doing a conference for a church, and at the end of the first day, I was just dealing with the responsibilities of the diaconate, and then of the elders, according to our book of church order, as it's based upon the holy scriptures. And at the end of the first day, the pastor, around the dinner table with all the men gathered around said, well, That was a Friday, by the way. He said, well, tomorrow's Saturday. And I'm sure looking forward to it. Right now, I feel pretty miserable. Because, see, what we've been talking about was just plain and simple. What our responsibilities are as deacons and elders. And he confessed right then and there that I've not been doing my duty as an elder of this church. And he said, I think I can say on behalf of all of these brothers, they've not either. And they smiled, and some of them grimaced, and we prayed, and the next day was a more encouraging day to help them think through how to do those things. And it is a duty put upon deacons that's heavy. Notice what their work is. Verse 2 tells us what it is. The 12 summoned the full number of disciples and said, it's not right that we, the apostles, should give up preaching the word to serve tables. Down in verse 4, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Now, when you get into the rest of the New Testament and you study, That office that succeeds the apostle in the preaching and teaching ministry is the office of elder. Shepherding the flock in its totality with the primary responsibility of the teaching ministry and the preaching ministry is the elder's primary responsibility. What does that leave for the deacon to do? I would argue everything else. from caring for the widows, the mercy ministries in general, to the physical structures of the building, of the church properties, to managing, executing the financial aspects. It's a big job. Sometimes I think we forget this. Sometimes I think we have the idea that, well, the deacon's work is just to be sure that the light bulbs are all in, and I think they are this morning. You know, or if there's something wrong with the toilet, go get a deacon. Well, that's pretty mundane. And that is under their appointment. It's not all there is. We see this here in this passage, the successor on the teaching, preaching side, the elders are to keep up the ministry of prayer and the word and the deacons are responsible for everything else. Now, notice I said they're responsible for everything else. They're not supposed to do everything else. They're supposed to serve us in all those other areas. That's the second character note. They're to serve. He says, The 12, some in the number, says, it's not right for us to give up preaching. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit, whom we will appoint to this duty. We will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. And what they said pleased the whole gathering. They chose Stephen. They said before the apostles, they prayed and laid their hands on them. They were to serve these widows. That's the duty. It's an office of service. We see here Christ's likeness again. What does the scripture tell us? Jesus came not to be served, but to serve. And so deacons are an office of service. It's a servant office. Third thing I want you to see is that while they're serving us, not just anybody can carry out this office. They're to be highly spiritual men. Pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the spirit and of wisdom." Full of the spirit and of wisdom. Now, if you want to see in detail what that means, go to 1 Timothy 3, verses 8 and following, you'll see a detail of the qualifications for the deacon. By the way, we get our word deacon from the Greek word servant, diakonai, diakonos. We take our word deacon from that. So when we refer to the deacon or the diaconate, we're just simply referring to those who have been set apart, specially ordained, as we see in verse six, to this office. They're to be spiritual men. This leads us to another character trait, and that is that it's an office that complements. It complements the elder. The work of the deacon meets the physical needs of the congregation, whereas the office of elder meets the spiritual needs of the congregation. In other words, the whole man is to be cared for in Christ's church. We don't just go out and save souls. God saves the whole human person. And that's ultimately seen in the resurrection, isn't it? We're going to be raised to newness of life, not only in this life, but then resurrected bodies in the life to come. The deacon is part of God's provision for the church that helps us remember that every day of our lives. God cares. Not only that I'm going to be in heaven forever, but that I'm going to have a resurrected body there. in the new heavens and new earth as well. He cares about me in my totality. So he's provided deacons along with the elders. It's a complimentary office. And so I'd encourage you not to think of the office of deacon as a lesser office than the office of elder. In some churches, you may have heard it, you may have even seen it where the deacon was seen as sort of a stepping stone, sort of a junior elder, you know. And when he grows up, He'll be an elder, but right now he's just a young one, and so he'll just be a, no. A deacon is a high calling in itself. These men are to be spiritually gifted men, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom. Just as the woman is not inferior to the man, though she has different functions in life than the man, she is to be seen as a complement to the man. Go back to Genesis, to the Creation Act, and you'll see exactly that. Our wives compliment us husbands. They're not lesser than us, they're compliments to us. And so the deacons are compliments to the elder. The last thing I want you to see, not just the compassionate nature of the church as it's executed, particularly through the deacon, and also the character traits of the deacon as we've just seen. But notice the contribution that it makes to the church. They obviously meet the need of the widows, the complaints met internally. But as I've been saying all the way through this series, it also has external effects. Isn't it interesting that we keep moving back and forth from the church out in the public and the response of the people, to the preaching of the word, to inside the church and the church dealing with internal affairs, and then back out into the community again, and the preaching goes forth. As the church goes internally, so the church goes externally. In other words, do you notice the effect here? The word of God continued to increase. When we do things the way we're supposed to do them, sinners though we be, when we pursue God's ways, we desire to do it God's ways, whether it's the elements of worship, whether it's the way the elders carry out their work, whether it's the way the deacons carry out their work, whatever it is, it will ultimately support The proclamation of the word out in the countryside, out in the streets. The word of God continued to increase. The number of the disciples multiplied greatly. Great many of the priests became... Why did God choose to put that one in there? It's men and women. Last week, we saw great multitudes of men and women. Now, it's great multitudes. And oh, by the way, there's priests thrown in there. I don't know. I'm going to speculate, and you know I don't do that much. I don't think the priest of these days in the Sanhedrin context saw much compassion. I don't think they experienced much compassion in the religious orders of that day. From what we know, they didn't. They were a harsh people. They were not given to a lot of compassion. We see that in the way they've treated the disciples so far. We see that in the way they treated our Savior. And they began to see a people who were changed and were compassionate toward one another. A religion that made a difference in the way they lived day to day. They loved to be with one another from house to house and in the temple. They saw people who loved each other. They enjoyed eating together. They enjoyed being together. They enjoyed worshiping together. They enjoyed singing the Psalms together. They saw this and many of them became obedient to the faith. Certainly that is not what saved them. It was faith in Jesus Christ that brought them to obedience. But they saw the results of faith. made them jealous, no doubt, to have what those people had. And you see here this wonderful testimony, a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. Listen to what John did, one of our forefathers, great 19th century Scottish Presbyterian commentator, theologian. He says, it's the amiable character of the Messiah that in a temporal as well as in a spiritual sense delivered the needy. The charitable spirit of the gospel excited the wonder and the envy of the Gentiles. And Julian, the mortal foe of Christianity, reluctantly confessed its unrivaled excellence when he attempted to graft upon the decayed, sapless trunk of paganism its fairest fruits of love and beneficence. See, Julian of the Roman Empire decided he would try to make their system a little better, a little more kind, and so he took up some of these same kind of activities that the church was doing to try to make the Roman Empire a kinder, gentler place. So Dick says even Julian recognized this, though he hated the church, and even tried to adapt it for his own causes. So, a wonderful passage we have. We've taken a really brief look at it. That's why I've said two or three times, you may want to go back and revisit some of those earlier sermons to get the details, to see the basis for biblical ordination as we practice it today from verse 6, to see the specific qualifications as they're outlined in 1 Timothy chapter 3, to understand why we believe that only men, verse three. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men, and they're the very definite masculine type of good repute. Why they have to be spiritual men. This is not just an office for men who, well, you know, they don't know their Bibles quite so well, but they sure have good strong backs. So, you know, we'll put the Bible reading, Sunday school attending, people in the eldership, and we'll put the guys with strong backs over here to do the deacon's work. No. All the little details here paint for us a portrait of an office that's a full-orbed, well-rounded man, full of the spirit of wisdom, who loves to serve. So I want to encourage you, as a church over the next few weeks, Be in attendance as often as possible. Various functions we have from worship to the first Sunday evening meal, to the regular midweek meals, to the prayer time around Sunday school hour. Observe the men. We'll be coming one of these days to nominating time again for elders and deacons. And you will need to have an idea who the men are who already serve. So you don't choose men out and then hope they'll serve down the road. You choose men who are already serving. You'll see God makes the deacon before we do. God's the one that's already developing the man into the deacon, and he lets us see that. And so we start looking, is this a man of compassion? Is this a man of service? Is this a man who's full of the Spirit? Is this a man who's wise? Listen to his conversation. Does he answer the common questions with biblical, theological thoughtfulness? In the meantime, as you observe, be praying for those men that God's already put over you, that have been appointed over you for the office of deacon. Pray for them regularly. Come alongside, volunteer to help them in this gargantuan task they have. Let them know, I'm available. Remind them often, they forget. Let's make our church such that the world cannot but notice the compassion we have for one another. That affords us the opportunity to tell them of the one who is all compassion, the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us even to death on the cross. Father, we thank you for your word and ask now that you would bless us with it. Grow us up to be the people of God that we ought to be. Help us to be the church we ought to be, serving the way that we ought to be so that Christ can be glorified as he ought to be. We'll pray this in his name. Amen. Thanks again for listening to this audio sermon from the pulpit of Covenant Presbyterian Church. 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