Two Journeys Ministry with Pastor Andy Davis. Biblical teaching to guide you to spiritual maturity. A passage that you just heard Mike read for us. And with this passage comes the question, how should the Christian church best be organized for ministry? How could the Christian church be best organized for ministry? The medieval Roman Catholic Church had a top-down structure with the Bishop of Rome called the Pope at the top and then hierarchy of authority, layer upon layer, college of cardinals and archbishops and bishops and abbots and priests and all kinds of structure that really actually many senses continues to this day. That was their structure. During the Reformation, Martin Luther and other reformers began to identify a doctrine called the priesthood of all believers in scripture, saying that all Christians are priests of Christ, we don't need a human mediator to go between us and Christ, and they started seeing more and more of the ministries of lay people and that no one Christian was more valuable than another. And then as the Reformation continued, some free church offshoots began to take this concept more and more seriously and advocated a complete leveling of all organization. Most extreme of these groups were the Quakers, the Society of Friends, who meet without any pastors or officers at all, no deacons, no church board. They just assemble and wait for the Spirit to move on any one of them, and the leadership is something done collectively. So that's how they approach church organization. In our day and age, some megachurches have overwhelming organization, with hundreds of ministries and a structure not different from the American corporate setting. with an org chart and clear lines of authority and power from the senior pastor down through associate, assistant pastors, and various committees run by chairs of those committees. Now in our passage today, we see the beginnings of the organization of the Christian church to meet specific needs that arise in ministry. We see how the Spirit moved the leaders of the church to delegate certain tasks and functions to other members of the church so that they could, as it says in the text, focus on prayer and the ministry of the word. And so therefore I believe this passage is given by the Holy Spirit as a timeless display of some vital themes in church organization for maximum fruitfulness in the gospel ministry. As we come to the Bible and we study it, we come to a God of exquisite order. God is a very orderly being. And as applied to this topic, the church is ordered as well. But the church is an organism, not an organization, some have said. And I think there's validity to that. Corporate America is highly organized, but it is not like the church. Why? Because the church is spiritually alive. The images of the church are that of the pulsating power of the Spirit moving through the body of Christ. So the church is likened, as I just said a moment ago, to a body. the body of Christ with life flowing through each of its members. Or in other images, it's likened to a developed olive tree with a root system and nourishing sap drawn up from the root system to each branch. And we, Gentile believers in Christ in Romans 11, are grafted into that living tree and receive life-giving sap from the root system. A similar image is in John 15 where Jesus said, I am the true vine and you are the branches. And so again, it's an image of life, of fruit bearing through abiding in Christ. All of these images show the living nature of the church. The church is also pictured architecturally as a structure in which God dwells by His Spirit. But amazingly, in 1 Peter 2, this architectural image is made up of living stones. What is that? What are living stones? But that's what it says, as you come to Him, Christ, the living stone rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him, you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house. And so there's a structure and order, but it's pulsating with life. And so that's why I like what it says when people say the church is an organism, not an organization. And yet, within this organism, we see organization, as we do with all living things. As I was doing some work on creation and evolution, I started to realize the complexity of the living cell, and each living cell is astonishingly complex. like a city with all kinds of biological functions going on within the cell walls, it's remarkable. But how much more a higher order of creature like human beings with various systems such as the circulatory system and the respiratory system and the nervous system and the digestive system, all of these systems with specialized cells enabling the body to live. So you see the exquisite ordering of God even within this organism that is the body of Christ. And so in today's passage we see that order, that organization coming in the context of spiritual life. and the organization of the body of Christ to meet certain needs. God made the church alive, he makes the church alive, and then he organizes it to fulfill all of its functions. Now the context of this organization is a problem that came to the early church, and that's in the context of its explosive growth. Look at verse one. In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, So we have this explosive growth. More and more people are coming to Christ. We know that 3,000 were added to the number of the church on the day of Pentecost. That's a huge in-gathering of genuine disciples. And then after the lame beggar was healed, the number of men, we're told, had grown to 5,000, similar to the feeding of the 5,000 where only men were counted, but then you would imagine probably a greater number of women and then children as well. So, we're probably looking at 20-30,000 disciples of Christ in the city of Jerusalem alone. But the church had continued to grow even beyond that checkpoint, which is the last numerical checkpoint we get in the book of Acts. But in Acts 5, we're told more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. And then in verse 42 of chapter five, day after day in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. So the church kept getting the gospel out, they kept proclaiming, and more and more people were coming to the Lord. The apostles have already, therefore, met the first checkpoint of the spread of the gospel geographically that we have in Acts 1-8. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So you can put a check in the box next to Jerusalem. That mission has been reached. As the enemies of the church said in Acts 5-28, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching. So everyone in Jerusalem's heard the gospel. They've done that. Now they're about to roll out, they're about to move out in Judea and Samaria, as we'll see in chapter eight, Philip goes to Samaria and preaches more and more coming through Judea. Probably it was already happening at that point in Judea, and they're gonna move out to Samaria. And then at some point, they're gonna move out, Acts 10 with Cornelius, to the Gentile world. So it's gonna keep moving. So there is a tremendous influx of believers, and that implies already a certain measure of organization so that there's not utter chaos for the ministries that we know were going on. So if the church was, let's say, 30,000 a number or more, consider what kind of organization would be needed for the basic functions. For example, evangelistic preaching done by the apostles But we also have Stephen and Philip doing this kind of preaching. So they're preaching, but who's going to do that preaching? Where are they going to go? What city, what part of the city and what part of Judea will they go? They'll be organizing that. Who's going to go where and do what? And then there would be discipleship of new Christians, as it says in the Great Commission, teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. And so there would be catechetical classes and doctrinal classes and discipleship classes. Who's going to organize that? So there'd be daily gatherings at the temple for corporate worship. There'd be teaching and public reading of scripture and worship and prayer, that had to be organized. And then there'll be regular meetings, we're told, in people's homes. So who's gonna go to what home? We have a tremendous home fellowship ministry here, and Andy Wynn, in particular, does a tremendous job, along with others, organizing that, who's gonna be in what home. You don't want 96 people showing up at your home. We'd love to have you, but we just don't have room. And so there'll be organization of those kind of home studies, even in the early church. Then there'll be baptism for new believers as people are being converted. He had it confirmed that they, understood the gospel that they actually had crossed over from death to life, there'd be some kind of process involved just in having baptism. Then where would you do the baptism? Who would perform it? Who would be there, et cetera. Then you have the Lord's Supper. There are elements of that, the bread and the wine. Who's gonna provide that? How much do you need? Who's coming? When is that gonna be done and how often? And then, closer to the home of the text, there's gonna be benevolence needs. We're told that people from time to time sold possessions and goods and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet. and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. So there's gonna be a distribution of resources to the poor and needy among the church. And so we're told that in Acts 2 and Acts 4, this kind of thing was going on. So this required a great deal of organization, work and organization. But in our text, a problem arises in the midst of all of this that showed a need for even greater organization. Now, we can see Satan at work here trying to derail the church, trying to stop the church. If you know what to look for, you can already see three great categories of attack on the early church that are really timeless. First, you've got persecution as the Sanhedrin is rising up and starting to threaten the church and ordered him to stop preaching the gospel under threat of imprisonment and death. So that persecution was happening. Persecution can make the church more timid. and weak, fearful of the consequences, or in some cases can actually inflame loyalty and boldness and courage as happened in the early church, and that's incredible. The apostles were beaten and they counted it amazing that they were worthy of suffering disgrace for the name of Christ, and they kept preaching even more. So that's persecution, and that's gonna keep happening more and more. Secondly, we've got the attack of sin within the life of the church, and we have this with Ananias and Sapphira. So Satan filled their heart. You can see the activity directly. Peter ascribes it to Satan, that Satan has filled their heart to test the Holy Spirit by, after they sold a piece of property, keeping back some of the money for themselves and lying about the amount that they were bringing to the church. And so Satan sought to to attack the church with sin, but God acted decisively. Ananias dropped dead, then Sapphira dropped dead, and the church was filled with a holy fear, and so that issue was addressed as well, but it's a continued issue. But then we have this third great attack, and that is division within the church on some issue that comes up. factions and divisions within the church. It's a terrible attack by Satan and it continues throughout all centuries of the church, discord and division. If Satan can cause disunity within the church, he can maybe stop it from its awesome evangelistic power and fruitfulness. You see, for example, in 1 Corinthians 1, it's a bunch of factions and divisions. I follow Paul, I follow Paulus, I follow Cebus, and they're at each other as factions, and they're divided. And this is a very great problem that Paul addresses in the Corinthian church. It says in James 3.16, where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder in every evil practice. So you're having factions within the church, and what James calls disorder. disorder and every evil practice. And so the remedy is spirit-led order, spirit-led organization. This problem is addressed by the apostles moving out and bringing organization. So let's look at the problem state, look at verse 1. In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them Hellenists in the ESV, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. Okay, so we got the issue of care of widows. Care of widows. So the ongoing care of widows was a major focus in church life. This is a big deal. James in 127 says, religion that our God and Father accepts as pure and faultless as this to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. So caring for orphans and widows. Paul also focuses on this in 1 Timothy 5 with what he calls a list of widows. A list that would be cared for by the church. But he's very careful about what names are going to go on that list. And he definitely doesn't want to put a widow on that list whose son is a church member. And Paul's very strong on this issue saying if you have not cared for your own mother, your own family, you've denied the faith and are worse than an unbeliever. But that's a list of widows that would be cared for with the resources of the church. So there's that. But then you've got a racial divide somewhat here. The Hellenists and the Hebraic Jews. Now these are all Jews. The church has not moved out into Gentile territory yet. It's going to, and that is very much the motion, the movement of the book of Acts from Jew only to Jew plus Gentile by the end of the book of Acts. But that divide, that continental divide goes over in Acts 10. although there's already some early converts, but it's really significant when Peter goes to the house of Cornelius. So we've not gone there yet, but we've already got this kind of racial tension between Hellenist, or Greek-speaking Jews, and Hebraic-speaking Jews. So this comes after the diaspora, after the spread of the Jews, with the Assyrian and the Babylonian exiles, the Jews were scattered all over the Mediterranean region. They were everywhere. And they grew up in those cities, and then Alexander the Great came and conquered that part of the world, and then Greek became the language spoken, the common language of that region. And so the Greek-speaking Jews were immersed in that culture. They come back regularly, they came back for the ceremonies, the Passover and Pentecost and all that in Jerusalem, but they were Greek in culture, though they were Jews. And so the Greek-speaking Jews, I think there's a sense in which the Hebraic-speaking Jews would think of themselves as more Jewish than the Greek-speaking Jews. They were more the true Jews. There was like a caste system of Judaism. And you know, Paul, you get a sense of that, where Paul says, I was excelling in Judaism beyond anyone else of my age. There's like, I'm more Jewish than you are, this kind of thing. And you definitely see this indication, definitely in the Jew-Samaritan divide. They're like, they're not even Jews. They're just seen to be just Gentiles, pagans, and all that kind of thing. And so the Jews of Jerusalem also looked down on Jews from Galilee. Remember how Nathaniel said, can anything good come out of Galilee or Nazareth, right? I mean, they were looked down on as like country bumpkins. You get this hierarchical true Jews, not so true Jews divide, this racial divide. And also, after the exile of Babylon, when they're coming back to rebuild the temple and the wall, Ezra and Nehemiah, there is a significant problem among the Jews there of intermarriage with pagan women so that the next generation of Jewish kids don't even speak Hebrew at all. They only spoke the language of their mothers, their mother tongue, and that was a very big deal and a shameful thing. And so all of this is set up for a hierarchy of holiness and a superiority within the church of the Hebrew-speaking Jews above the Greek-speaking, and that divide is set up there. Now that Christ has come, we're gonna find out in Ephesians 2 that the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile has been removed entirely. and that God's intention was to create in Christ one new person out of the two, thus making peace. And so if there's not gonna be any superiority between Jew and Gentile, why would there be any superiority within Judaism either? All of those divisions have been removed and dealt with, but they have to be addressed. And so that's what we're dealing with. So to sum up, we've got a practical issue. The daily distribution of food to widows, that's a practical issue. You got a racial issue of Greek-speaking Jews versus Hebrew-speaking Jews. All of this has to be addressed. We can see Satan able to use this to divide the church and stop it in its mission. All right, so a problem is there. The apostles lead the way in solving it. They make a proposal and they lead the way. Look at verse two. The 12 gathered all the disciples together and said, dot, dot, dot. So the apostles know that it's their job to solve this. The money from the sale of real estate and all that was put at the apostles' feet, literally and metaphorically, meaning it's your job to distribute this money. It's also a symbol of, in general, every problem, significant problem in the life of the church is laid at the feet of the apostles. Solve this. We need some answer to this. So it's laid at their feet, metaphorically. They've gotta solve this, and they do. They lead out, all right? Also, their priority structure's gonna be vital for centuries to come. Look what they say in verse two. It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. So the primary responsibility of the apostles is clearly stated, prayer and the ministry of the word. That's their top priority. Now not mentioned in that is what is going on that I just alluded to a moment ago, is leadership. The apostles' role is also leadership. So prayer and the ministry of the word and the leadership of the church, that's the job of the apostles. But the glowing heart of their ministry is prayer and the ministry of the word. It is by this powerful combination ultimately and above all else that Christ builds his church. It is by prayer and the ministry of the word that the lost are rescued from hell. It is by prayer and the ministry of the word that new converts are built up to full maturity in Christ. The ministry of the word is paramount. in the life of the church. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 3.15, the church of the living God is the pillar and foundation of the truth. Like what we do better than any other entity in the world is truth, the truth of the word of God and the truth of Christ. That's what we have to offer to the world. Also in Ephesians 2, 19 and 20, it speaks of God's household, the church, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as a chief cornerstone. So we are built on the scriptures, the apostles and prophets. That's Old Testament, New Testament. We're built on the foundation of the Word of God. Also, we know that individual sinners are saved by the word of God. Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ, Romans 10, 17. So by the clear proclamation of the word, our sinner's saved. So that's what they need to do. They need to minister the word of God. Paul says that the ministry of the word of God primes the pump for every other ministry in the life of the church. In Ephesians 4, 11 and following it says, it was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. And then he says a moment later, as each part of the body does its work. So we got this body image, but he starts with apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. What do all of those five roles have in common but the word of God? Apostles and prophets delivered the word to us, the Old Testament, New Testament. Evangelists take it to the ends of the earth physically, geographically. And then pastor teachers settle down in locations and teach it week by week. And he gave those the ministry of the word to prepare God's people, the saints, for works of service. So that's every member of the church is prepared for their works of service by these five roles. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. So that the body of Christ then builds itself up by those good works. So figuring it all out, the ministry of the word of God primes the pump for every other ministry in the whole church. And therefore, it's vital that the apostles continue to devote themselves to it. The works of service are primed by the word of God. For this reason, Paul commands Timothy to focus on this. 1 Timothy 4, 13, he says, until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to preaching and teaching. All right, so we would gather every week and read the scriptures together. and there would be explication of that and exhortation from it. This is expository preaching. 1 Timothy 4.13, you're reading the scripture, you're expounding it and applying it. And he says, three verses later, if you do this, you will save both yourself and your hearers. So that's my job description. I'm here every week to save you and me. To save myself and my hearers. From what? From sin. I want our salvation to be finished, and it's not finished yet. Justification is finished for, I hope, all of you. If not, I'm going to address some of you that haven't been justified yet at the end of the sermon, that you would believe in Christ and receive forgiveness of sins. But that's just the start of salvation. Then you've got this race to run, this marathon race, this sanctification race. I'm not done with that. Trust me, I'm not done with that. Or anyone who knows me, you know I'm not done with that. I have a long way to go. So do you. And so I'm here to save myself and you all, my hearers, by the preaching of the word. This is vital for us to understand that in the context of this whole thing with the Greek-speaking widows. the priority of the ministry of the Word of God. And the ministry of the Word of God is hard work, there's labor in it. First Timothy 5.17 it says, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who listen, labor in preaching and teaching. There's a labor in the Word of God. It's hard work. He says in Second Timothy 2.15, study to show yourself approved unto God, workmen who don't need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. So that's the labor of the word. And the apostle said it would not be right for us to neglect that. All right? There's tremendous study. But why does it say prayer and the ministry of the word? Why not just the ministry of the word? Well, they go together. Apart from the activity of the Holy Spirit, the word will achieve nothing. The word will achieve nothing on its own. It's got to also be the activity of the Spirit illuminating, convicting, making the word come alive in people's hearts. And so it's not enough to just preach the word, you also have to pray that God would bless and that God would be active and God would be moving. And so there is that combination of prayer and the ministry of the word that produces fruit. As Jesus said in John 15, seven and eight, if you remain in me and my words remain in you, then ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you. This is my Father's glory that you bear much fruit and show yourselves to be my disciples. Two requirements. You abide in Jesus and his words abide in you. Then what? Then you can pray. And as you then pray, you'll bear fruit. And so we see that prayer and the ministry of the word. God has to work. He has to work insight. He has to work conviction of sin. He has to work growth and maturity. And so the apostles combined the holy combination of prayer and the ministry of the word. By the way, no Christian leader displayed this combination better than the Apostle Paul, whose constant prayer life for the churches and individuals he was ministering to is clearly on display in his epistles. In Romans 1, chapter 9 and 10, Paul wrote this, God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times. I preach the gospel and I pray for you at all times. It's a beautiful combination. Now, it's very important that I say this. The apostles were not denigrating ministering to the widows, waiting on tables. Not at all. It was rather a division of labor. Religion that our God and Father accepts as pure and faultless is to look after widows in their distress. They're not minimizing that. Also, the idea of waiting on tables could be seen like a menial task, but Jesus himself elevated it, right? Listen to this, Luke 22, 27, Jesus said these words the night he was arrested, the night he was betrayed. Who is greater, the one who is seated at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one seated at the table, but I'm among you as one who serves? That's Luke 22, 27, that's a powerful statement. There's nothing menial in the body of Christ. And then even more amazing, this will blow your mind, In Luke 12, 37, Jesus talks about eschatology, the end of the world, second coming and all that. He said, it will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, the master will dress himself to serve and will have them recline at the tables and will come and wait on them. In heaven, you'll be at the banquet table of heaven and someone will tap your shoulder and say, do you need some more drink? And you'll look up and it'll be the Lord. How awesome is that? So there's nothing menial about waiting on tables. It's a glorified task. All of the ministries of the church are vital, it's just that the apostles were specifically called to labor and prayer in the ministry of the word. So the sense of this organization of the church as a body in which each member is vital, is fully developed in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12, just as each of us has one body with many members and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts according to the grace given us. So that's how God organizes the body of Christ by spiritual gift ministry. All right, so that's all the theory. What's the solution? Look at verse three and four. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and we'll give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word. So first of all, they delegate the choice to the church. So you all choose some men. All right, so the apostles lead, but this is a kind of a early version of congregationalism, and the church has the right to choose these men, these leaders. So the requirements, first of all, male leadership in this particular case. The Greek word andros specifically means male. And so they were to be men who were to lead, as opposed to women. God has ordained male leadership generally in the church. He makes this very clear in 1 Timothy 2. But here in this verse, it's surprising. Sometimes when we have the word men, it just means people. But here it's very clear. And again, this is in no way to denigrate women, not at all. Any more than it denigrates the men who are not chosen for this leadership role. Most are not chosen for leadership roles. Nobody's denigrated. It's just that these are the requirements for the specific function that's going to be played. Secondly, they're said to be full of the Spirit. In other words, they give evidence of the Spirit of God at work in their lives. They give clear evidence of the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. You can see the fruit in their lives. They're Christ-like. They've got this. And it says not just full of the Spirit, but full of wisdom. Okay, what does that mean? Well, wisdom is a practical, kind of rubber meets the road insight, an administrative skill, the ability to solve problems, all right? The Greek-speaking widows have been overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So what's involved in that? I don't know, it's not my gift, but I could imagine there would be different regions of the city, And there would be a numbers of Greek-speaking widows in some parts and in others, some more, some less. There would be the need for a food supply, whatever that was, what kind of food was distributed, we don't know. And wouldn't be maybe just food, but also resources, maybe money, other things like that. And so they've gotta solve all that. And it's daily, friends. Every day, there were needs, it never stopped. So they had to be full of wisdom. A lot of practical wisdom. And also people skills. They had to be the kind of people that people like to work with, you know what I'm saying? They were amenable, they were socialized, and they were skillful with people, and they could minister well. So that's what we've got, full of the Spirit and full of wisdom. And then it says, we will turn this responsibility over to them. So the key to this is delegation of tasks. We're gonna give you this job, and then we're gonna get to what we're doing. Prayer in the ministry of the word. So you gotta be willing to cut the string. I think about what Joseph said to Potiphar's wife in Genesis 39, eight. With me in charge, my master, Potiphar, does not concern himself with anything in the house. Think about that. He doesn't concern himself with anything in the house. He's put me in charge. So taking that verbiage over to this, the apostles don't need to concern themselves anymore with the whole Greek-speaking widow thing. They just delegate that to these seven men and they can move on, all right? They can entrust this matter entirely. It would be bad for the pastor elders, or the apostles in this case, or pastor elders, to be micromanagers, all right? And it'd be bad for the people to need micromanagement. So you need the right men in the right situation and then you just need to give the job to them and not have to micromanage the things. So that's what they do. And then they can, it says in verse four, we will give ourselves continually to prayer in the ministry of the word. So there's actually an intensified in the Greek. They are going to devote themselves to this. They're gonna give themselves continually to this ministry. This is their work. Okay, well that's the proposal, and the proposal is accepted, and the men are chosen. Verse 5, this proposal pleased the whole group, so everybody's happy with that. A sense of relief has come over the church. The problem's being addressed by the apostles. Everybody can calm down and move back from DEFCON 2, if they even had that back then, they probably didn't. But they're coming back off of this, off of the brink, everything's gonna be okay. And so then the men are listed in verse five. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. Also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, Nicholas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. Now right away, though you may not know this, we understand all of these names are Greek names. These are Greek men, Greek-speaking Jews, all of them. And so it's really interesting how a lot of times, you know, when you have a committee, you're gonna have the different factions represented, like a search committee. You can have some of this, some of that, one of that, for this group. They didn't do that. They just went entirely for seven Greek-speaking men to look after this problem. And it's beautiful. Now, two of them would be famous beyond this list. Stephen, one of the great heroes of early church history, one of the great, great men. a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. We're gonna study him closely in the rest of this chapter and then on into his magnificent sermon and presentation of Christ in chapter seven. So that's coming up. I believe He was the key human factor in leading Saul of Tarsus to faith in Christ. I'm gonna argue that. Just an incredible man. So that's Stephen. And then we got Philip, so-called the evangelist, whose exploits are recorded for us in Acts 8, where he goes to Samaria and preaches the gospel there. And then we've got his famous encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch and that whole story in Acts 8. So we get to that. Other than that, the other five, we don't know anything about them. Again, we don't see them again. Now, the question rises, were these seven the first deacons? Were these seven the first deacons? Well, the text doesn't say that. It doesn't use the noun form, deacon. It does use the verb form, diakonene, which is to serve. weight tables, et cetera, from which the word deacon comes in English. However, I think these men, Stephen and Philip, they act much more like elders, even somewhat like apostles. Stephen does. He did signs and wonders. He's a great leader. So I don't know that we necessarily can say the seven were the first deacons. Philip also had a higher level in the church than deacon. We do have these two offices, elder and deacon in Philippians chapter one. and also in 1 Timothy 3. So those are the two offices. Traditionally, churches have seen elder and deacon, and then have reasonably asked the next step, okay, what does a deacon do? And we don't know. The deacon's qualities are described in 1 Timothy 3, but we don't have any job description. Like, what are they supposed to do? So traditionally churches have gone to Acts 6 and have taken this kind of practical addressing of a physical need in the life of the church so that the apostles can give their attention to prayer and the ministry of the word as a cue for what deacons should do. And so deacons therefore do practical ministries, taking kind of practical things off of the elders' hearts and minds so they don't have to attend to it. So this would be practical like benevolence needs within the life of the church or other type things, caring for widows and others, and then beyond that. They're just practical things. Or whatever the elders ask them to do. that would be helpful for them. And so I think that's beneficial. But we don't have that link for sure. It's more traditional. Does that make sense? So beyond that, I just don't have a job description for deacons in the Bible. Well, order and fruitfulness is restored as a result of this in verse 6 and 7. They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid their hands on them. So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly. and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. So there's like a bookends aspect to this. In verse one, the number of disciples is increasing rapidly. In verse seven, the number of disciples is increasing rapidly. So you really get a sense in the Holy Spirit that the problem has been addressed. The problem has been solved and the church can keep doing its evangelistic business. It's very encouraging. I also think it's amazing how it says a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. This is really incredible. I have a sense, I can't prove it absolutely, but I'm gonna talk about it, that Stephen had a clear understanding of the movement to the new covenant. And the time for animal sacrifice was over. That Jesus would change the customs that Moses handed down to us, namely animal sacrifice. Was it true? Yes. It was true, the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The old covenant sacrificial system is obsolete, but they didn't really know it yet. There's still this momentum, it was still going on. And I think it's really cool that this text tells us that a large number of priests became believers in Christ. And I think they were the source of the information that the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. How would you know that the next day? You wouldn't, unless you'd been there when it happened, and you watched it happen. So I can imagine some priests seeing that miracle, wondering what was up, and in the course of time, coming to a genuine faith in Jesus Christ. How awesome is that? All right, applications. First and greatest application of every sermon from this pulpit is the same. Repent and believe in Jesus. How do I get this from this text? Well, the ministry of the word of God is implied in this text. People are coming to faith in Christ. That needs to continue. This problem can't derail. The greatest need every single sinner has is forgiveness of sins, salvation through faith in Christ. So there's no point in you coming and hearing a sermon on church organization and walking out of here lost, dead in your transgressions and sins. So what do you need to do? All you need to do is trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Look to Christ, it's the gift of eternal life that was given. The indescribable gift is salvation through faith in Christ. So repent of your sins and trust in him and you'll find full forgiveness. This is the most important application. But secondly, for us as Christians, that we would see and delight in the beautiful ordering of the church. That we would see the orderliness of God in the church. And we'd see the primacy of the word of God in prayer. It's the most important function in the life of the church. Because what good is it to have full stomachs and empty souls? What would it profit someone to gain the whole world and lose their soul? So caring for widows doesn't save their souls. More important is that they would hear and believe the word of God. But their needs are still important. So Jesus said in John 6, do not labor for the food that spoils, but for the food that endures to eternal life. And that's the gospel. So we see the benefits and the importance of wise church organization and the value of every ministry in the life of the church, but also the primacy of the ministry of the Word of God in prayer. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time that we've had to study today. Thank you for the Word of God and for its clarity. Thank you for the Word of God and its perfection. I pray that we would take these words that we've learned and delight in the orderliness and the wisdom of God in the body of Christ, the organization of the body of Christ. I pray that every member of this church would esteem highly every other member. Every ministry in this church would be seen as valuable and essential, but above all, that we would esteem the word of God as central, that which saves our souls and that which prepares us for every good work, in Jesus' name. Stay motivated to grow to spiritual maturity by accessing free biblical content at twojourneys.org. Help others in their spiritual growth by sharing these resources, praying for Two Journeys, and supporting the mission financially by visiting twojourneys.org.