in God's Word to two passages of Scripture this morning, Acts 6 and 1 Timothy 3. We probably won't get to both of those this morning, but we shall see. We'll read them both anyway. Acts 6 and 1 Timothy 3. Let's stand out of reverence for the reading of God's Word. Acts 6, verses 1-7. Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists rose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, It is not right that we should give up preaching the Word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. For 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 Pecorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, the proselyte of Antioch. These they sat before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. And the Word of God continued to increase and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. And a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith." 1 Timothy 3, verse 8, we have looked at verses 1-7 in the last couple of weeks, the qualifications for elders and now for deacons. Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience, and let them also be tested first, then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well, For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. May the Lord bless His Word to our hearts. You may be seated. Just about every day something happens that reminds me of the importance of an active, proactive, loving, faithful, exemplary diaconate. Somebody will call on the phone and they'll want support from the church. A need will arise within the congregation. We'll hear about one of our church planters who needs some money. or we'll hear about a worthy missionary calls that might need some support. All of these things bring up, in my mind, the need that we have for a Spirit-filled, godly, wise, knowledgeable group of men whom the New Testament calls deacons to lead the way in service. And I am very thankful that the elders of this church and the existing diaconate of this body recognize this need for help for the existing men, for intensification of what we're already doing, and for planning for the future. In our prayers, we study the office of deacon this morning and tonight, that you will be humbled and thankful that the Lord Jesus has made this provision for you. and that being humbled and thankful, you will also seek His wisdom and the wisdom of His Word in order to evaluate men from our midst whom the Lord might raise up to serve in this important capacity." Now, the office of deacon is important before we look at Acts 6 for several reasons. First of all, it is central to the government that the Lord Jesus Christ is instituted in the church. We learn from Acts 6 which we read, 1 Timothy 3 which we read, They're also mentioned in Philippians that the office of deacon was not of human origin, that it originated according to the movement of the Spirit of God, the appointment of Jesus Christ, and the oversight of the apostles, and that every regularly instituted church of the Lord Jesus Christ will, in addition to its pastor and elders, also have deacons. The origin of the diaconate, however, is the heart of God. Because the heart of God is a heart of love, who by His Holy Spirit fills our hearts with love so that we can have the desire and the ability to love one another tangibly, practically and physically. By nature you are not loving. By nature you are a selfish wretch. By nature, even the good things and the philanthropy that we see people do in this world today, Bill Gates, Ted Turner, it's selfishness. You can give away billions of dollars, but if you don't do it for the glory of God, according to His Word, motivated by faith in Him, you may as well give your money to the devil. Because it is not a good work in the sight of God. It has to have the right goal, right standard, and right motive. But in the body of Christ, things are different. Because we have the Spirit of God, and therefore the chief fruit of the Holy Spirit in our midst is love. And therefore that love is shed abroad in us and then it's extended to one another within the body of Christ. And so the office of deacon sets the lead in this. And that's why the Lord Jesus instituted this office in the church. There are two errors that often exist, are often committed with respect to the diaconate. The first one is that in congregationally organized churches, like our Baptist brothers, the deacons tend to do the work of the elders, which means both works suffer. The work of oversight of the life and doctrine of the congregation and the life and the ministry of service, because in biblically organized churches, these areas of responsibility are divided, because both is important. Both are important and require full-time work and oversight from the church. In Presbyterian churches, there's an error. Sometimes the office of deacon is allowed to fall into neglect. Maybe the elders think we don't really trust these guys. We want to retain all the power to ourselves. And so they're not allowed to function, given full authorization to minister to the body in its health, welfare, and education. But in every congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, there are legitimate physical needs that exist that must be met according to the appointment of Christ, according to the heart of God, which is love, and according to our own need, can only be met through personal and dedicated diaconal ministry. A second reason why the office of deacon is so important is because it is the appointed way the church takes care of her own members. One of the fundamental facts about biblical charity is that the church takes care of her own. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ takes care of her own. It's not government's responsibility in any context to take care of the poor and needy. And it's certainly not the government's responsibility to do so within the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see this, for example, in the Old Testament, the seventh year release from debt, the cleaning laws, the debt remission laws that were in existence, that God's people took care of the poor and needy within their midst. We also see it in the Jerusalem church. In Acts chapter 2 we see that, hey, everybody was everybody's responsibility. And so where there were needs and where there was poverty, those who had means sold some extra stuff they had and gave to those in need. And by the way, the remarkable thing about New Testament charity in the early church was that it was not enforced. It was not communistic. It was not socialistic. It was not a communistic enforcement of, from each according to his ability, to each according to his need. That is the tenet of Marxism. That is the tenet of the United States welfare state, which is a Marxist institution, and terribly wicked in the sight of God. In the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the deacon has been instituted to help provide assistance and organization to the congregation so that those who are in need can be taken well care of by the members of the body of Christ. And when the diaconate within the church in the past was active and energetic and on the hearts and minds of God's people in fulfilling this important duty, the church was a center of compassionate, gospel-focused, fervent, energetic, exemplary love. But unfortunately in this century and as a result of our capitulation to socialism, the diaconate has faded and our churches as a result have deteriorated both spiritually and economically and in terms of our example to the world. And the results of this are tragic. In our day and age, ministers of the gospel are more valued for their administrative qualifications, which is a diaconal function, more than for their preaching and teaching gifts. Members of the church run to government agencies in order to have their financial and health needs met, thereby entrenching the far-reaching power of the government's tyranny and bureaucracy in our socialistic society. Churches in our day are far more well known for their opulent buildings and the members of the church for their various goods than the church is for being a center of compassionate, focused, giving charity within and without. And just like I said about the office of elder and deacon, it's my conviction that the renewal of the church not only requires a more faithful outlook on pastors and elders, but on deacons as well. because they are of divine origin, and as much as any office in the church, if not more, show God's heart of love. Another reason we need to talk about the diaconate is because his office is sadly misused and little appreciated. The majority of Christians oppressed probably would not be able to give a biblical definition of the deacon's purpose and ministry in the church. Well, of course, the deacon's the guy who keeps the grass cut. Or in our case, he keeps the dirt level. And so it's his fault if there's not grass, as the case might be. Or he's the building superintendent. Or he's the church accountant. Well, as important and as legitimate as those things are within any body of believers, we need to avoid the extreme of thinking that the diaconate is just concerned with not very spiritual things. Because in God's mind, physical needs are very spiritual. God doesn't draw that distinction. We draw it because we're stupid. God doesn't draw it. God looks at the whole man. He looks at the total need of his people and says it's all spiritual. It's all something that by my Holy Spirit I have equipped by people to provide for those needs. So we don't need to think of deacons as glorified janitors and accountants. In fact, his office is specifically related to the relief of the physical needs of God's people so that God can be glorified, the church can be known for its love, and the pastors and elders free to pursue their important responsibilities within the body of Christ. I'm always reminded every time I think about this of what I believe was Pliny the Elder said hundreds and hundreds of years ago, talking about the menace of Christians and that they were responsible for the closing of the temples of the Roman world and everything else, but he said, oh, how they love each other. Oh, how they love each other. And what he meant was, it was the Christians who went and picked up the babies that the Romans left on the street and raised them and saved them from abortion. It was the Christians who were first concerned about, in Rome and later, making sure the sick were taken care of and not left on the street to die. These things are very important considerations. When the church has done these things, she has been known, just like our Savior said, for her love. Remember what He said about that. By this all men will know you are My disciples. By the fact that you love one another. And for men to recognize that we're Christ's disciples means that they also recognize the Christ of God. There's another error, and that is there has been a tendency in some more ritualistically oriented Reformed and non-Reformed churches to commit the same error that was taking place in the 3rd and 4th century, when deacons started serving in more governmental, ministerial functions like the preaching of the gospel. It was not uncommon in those days for deacons to be assigned to the bishop or priest and to actually lead in the worship service. Not because this was an apostolic sanction, but because it was a perversion of the order that Christ set up in the church. It was an illustration of ambition on the part of deacons. So on the other hand, we don't want to look at him as a glorified janitor. On the other hand, we don't want to look at him as having an office he doesn't have. I assure you, the office he does have is sufficient enough for us to give full attention to it and to understand it biblically. Another reason is, and this is the thing we'll close with, and this may or may not be in your notes, I can't remember what edition you have, but the diaconate reveals the heart of the gospel. The diaconate reveals the heart of the gospel. And to me, this is the most compelling reason or compelling aspect of the biblical deacon. The witness he gives in his office and work to the central tenet of the Christian faith. And that is the love of God. Now this is not to exalt God's love over His other attributes. For everything God is, He is infinitely, He is eternally, He is unchangeably, He is interconnectedly. What we are saying is, is that God's love permeates every aspect of His relationship to us. Remember, Paul says in Ephesians 1, verses 3 and 4, that our Heavenly Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world in love. Election in love. Remember that He sent His Son into the world to propitiate our sins because of His love. John 3, 16. Romans 5a. God showed His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Again here, we just need to let that sink in again this morning and remember that God didn't send Jesus into the world because we deserved it, because we were worth it, because we were really great people. We were dirty dog wretches. Rebels against God, alienated in our mind by wicked works. The Bible does not pull a punch in describing unbelieving man. But God, in His infinite love, finding reasons in His own glorious character, sent His Son into the world to die for us. In every season of life, Paul says, nothing can separate us from the love of God. Romans 8, 35 and 39, you remember those glorious verses that we are in a covenant bond of love with God from which nothing can separate us. And He shows this love for us in the concern that he has for our physical well-being as well, providing for our needs and leading us to contribute to one another's needs and the growth of his kingdom. Love is the hallmark of our Christian profession. It's the tie that binds It's the fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is the practice that causes all men to know that we are Christ's disciples. Love is so important, John writes in his first letter, that it is the proof that we know God. Because if we do not love one another, we cannot say that we love God. It is a lie. It is a lie. How does the deacon relate to this? Well, the deacon is the tangible, personal, and official reminder for the congregation that God loves us. And that His love is not just this esoteric, mystical, pietistic, verbal declaration on February 14th. that God's love is comprehensive. It pervades us throughout. It's not just concerned with what we would think of as spiritual things. It's concerned with the total person. Our bodily needs, our financial needs, our domestic needs. Biblical love is concrete. It's visible. It's tangible. It's not a force. It's not a sentiment. It manifests itself in its total concern for our financial our physical, our material well-being. Now, to the degree that we know God's love, and that the Holy Spirit has shed abroad this love in our hearts, to that degree, we will love one another, and we will be intensely committed to making sure that we share what He has given us with others. Now, this is hard, and I don't say that I have worked out all the details by any stretch of the imagination. And I'm convicted that my own practice is not what it needs to be. But I will tell you one thing right now. The Christian is not an accumulator. He is not a grabber. He is a giver. He is a giver. And that is because when the Holy Spirit of God unites us to Christ in a bond of covenant love and sovereign grace and saving mercy, what that Holy Spirit does is He releases us from the dominion of covetousness He releases us from the dominion of materialism and He makes us givers. And the reason for that is because God makes us like God. He makes us like Himself. And the deacon is a reminder to us. The deacon is an antidote to the Gnostic spiritualism rampant in the church today. It looks on the flesh as kind of sub-biblical or sub-spiritual or not important. God doesn't look at it that way. In God's mind, when He created us, the whole man, body and soul, heart, soul, strength of mind, everything we are, He looked at the whole thing and He said, it's very good. Very good. And He would have us be concerned through generosity, kindness, and sacrifice with the needs of our own families, with the needs of one another within the body of Christ, and to the degree that we can, toward the whole world. And through the deacon, God powerfully calls us to consider His total love for us through His Son. That even as we are called, filled, and surrounded with God's love in the totality of our being, our love must be just as comprehensively and concretely expressed for one another. Now I'm going to stop preaching here and go to meddling just a little bit before we move on to Acts chapter 6. I want to really stress this to you. I know from time to time we have said here that we love one another. And we do. And that's a good thing. And there are numerous evidences of this. Many of you from time to time have come up to me and given me money to give to a deacon, to give to other people. Some of you have given money to deacons to give to other people. This has been a very generous body. In the years I've been here, we have distributed tens of thousands of dollars internally to meet people's needs within this church. But let me encourage you that we do not do this. Just put this on the plane that it deserves. And again here, this is like three points and perhaps as well thought out as it needs to be, but it deserves to be said. Love is not natural to you. It is supernatural. So where there is sharing and giving and burden bearing and praying for one another in the body of Christ, that's not because you're a nice person. That is because God's grace powerfully changes you. And this is one of the things I've talked about before. You're going to have to have a stream of consciousness with me for just a minute. Our charismatic brothers. God bless them. We love them. We need to speak in tongues. We need to do all these things. Let me tell you something. Paul says in 1 Corinthians, speaking in tongues does not hold a candle to the expression of real, concrete, physical love for one another within the body of Christ. You can fake gifts. Hey, you can go, as I've told some of the folks down in Athens this last week, you can go down to Church of God here in Lawrence when you can take tongue speaking classes this afternoon. You can fake gifts. You can't fake grace. And where the Holy Spirit of God is working love within the body of Christ, working His fruit and His power in the body of Christ, where you're going to see it primarily before everything else is love. It's going to be shown in your hospitality. Yeah, I know my house isn't the greatest in the world, or I know it's not clean, or I'm not the greatest cook in the world, or my kids scream or whatnot. But you know what? Where I can, I want to love. I want to minister to people like this. I may not make the most money in the world, and I may have my own needs, but boy, I'd sure like to give $50 for so-and-so. And I may need that $50 for something for me, but I want to give it to so-and-so, because I've heard about a need that they may have. I'm just stressing this to me, and I'm stressing this to you, that that's real Christian faith. And it's important reform churches as well with our high emphasis upon doctrine which is biblical and right and true and good. Is that true if it is real and is not a hobby? will manifest itself in love, in sharing, in giving, in being open, in communicating, in distributing to the necessity of the saints. I would encourage you that where we have manifested true love as a congregation, don't pat yourself on the back. Fall down before the presence of the living God. Because He alone can make men loving. He alone can transform men from being selfish into being truly giving within the body of Christ. Now let's look at Acts chapter 6 this morning a little bit and consider the institution of the diaconate. Forty days after our Savior rose from the dead, He ascended to the right hand of the Father as the exalted King of heaven and earth. From His seat, He poured out His Spirit upon the church, which was a signal of His victory over sin, Satan, and death. It was a signal of His exaltation to the right hand of the Father. It was a signal of the empowerment of the church to begin to fulfill the Great Commission and make the nations His disciples. You probably are familiar with the story in Acts 2-5. The amazing growth of the church, rapid, quick, glorious, dramatic. It's estimated by most conservatively that probably within the first few chapters of Acts we've gone from 120 to about 20 to 25,000 believers living in Jerusalem. And they lived together in great harmony. They had material needs in their midst. Many of them were poor. And Luke's account records that those who had possessions sold what they had or sold what they didn't need immediately themselves and contributed to those in need. As I said earlier, the remarkable thing about this charity was it was voluntary because the Holy Spirit of God works this thing as a grace. Love is never love if it is forced. Love is love because it is a gift and the Holy Spirit transforms our hearts and our lives so that we desire to express biblical love concretely in every area of life. As the church grew, however, you can imagine that it became very difficult for the apostles, a group of 12 men after the selection of Barnabas, to take Judas' place. It became impossible for the apostles to know all the physical needs of the congregation, and so that need is what led to the institution of the diaconate. Now there's a little bit of disruption in verses 1 and 2 in Acts chapter 6. The Hellenists were Greek-speaking Jews. And generally speaking, the Palestinian Jews took a dim view of the Hellenistic Jews. Now, it doesn't mean that the Hellenistic Jews were idolaters, per se, or anything like this. It's just the Palestinian Jews tend to look down on them. You know, you're more influenced by Greek language and Greek thinking. And so it seems like maybe that was a contributing factor to the fact that the Hellenistic Jews, their widows, were being neglected in the daily distribution. We learned, by the way, if you want to put a footnote earlier, in Acts chapter 4, verse 35, that apparently the church wherever, probably in various locations, just had a daily food bank. Cooked food, put it out on tables, whoever had need could come. and eat. It would be great if we could take our meals together every day, whether we needed to or not. But that's what they were able to do in that particular day and age. But anyway, the need had grown so much that some of the widows were being overlooked. And so, the apostles came together and instructed the church, in verse 2, to select men, to seek out and choose men in order to be in charge of this ministry. You'll notice here that some of the qualifications that are given, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, verse 3, good repute, wisdom. that these qualifications certainly indicate that the apostles did not think of the office of deacon as sub-spiritual. They're only concerned with the physical needs while we do the really spiritual work. As a matter of fact, the work of the diaconate is so important that only men who are filled with the Holy Spirit, who are wise and have a good reputation, can be chosen for the office. I think there's two important things we can learn right off the bat here in verses 1 through 3. about the government of the church and taking care of needs that arise within the church. You'll notice first of all that is with the nomination of elders, God's people have a say in who their leaders are. that the apostles instructed the church to select for themselves men to fulfill this office. The apostles did not impose leadership on a duly constituted people. Second, after being chosen by the people, the apostles ordained them to office. They judged of the qualities of the candidates and after finding them acceptable, set them apart for the ministry by ordaining them. There's a beautiful picture here of how desire and organization, energy and order can come together within the body of Christ. What happens today when people perceive a need in the church? Well, let's just rush ahead. We'll work out the details later. Or let's create a parachurch organization because the institutional church is too slow. But that's not how the early believers thought. They understood, listen, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ has all the graces within itself necessary by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit to meet these needs. They had a body of qualifications. They didn't rush ahead in some kind of autonomy. They recognized that this ministry needs to be under the oversight of the leaders of the church. Now, it is sometimes said today that Acts chapter 6 does not speak directly to the office of the deacon. And I'd like to touch on that with you for just a moment because the seven, as they came to be called, Acts 21a, are not specifically called deacons. in this passage. Two of them, Stephen and Philip, we will encounter, well, when we studied Acts a few years ago, we did encounter, and you will encounter them again in your reading, as evangelists. They were preachers and teachers of God's Word. Well, I believe, nonetheless, this passage does indicate the institution, the origin, of the Office of Beacon. There are several reasons for this. Number one, Luke was a historian of the highest caliber. He omitted the title beacon because it just wasn't used then. At least in the same way it was used later in Paul's epistles. And in my mind, that increases his value as a historian. Now you see, you've got to go with me in the kitchen here for just a second. Biblical critics believe, that means people who don't really like the Bible and spend all their lives studying and paid for by churches and seminaries to undermine the Bible. Okay, that's what we mean. They say, well, no, the biblical books were written later and they were written by people who tried to read back what was going on then into the New Testament. Luke doesn't do that at all. He doesn't display any anachronistic tendencies in this context. He doesn't try to color it by what they came to be called under Paul's organization of the Gentile church. He simply reports history. I always love to read these words of Sir William Ramsey, one of my favorite archaeologists and pioneer in biblical research. He says, quote, it is rare to find a narrative so simple and so little forced as that of Acts. It is a mere uncolored recital of the important facts in the briefest possible terms. The narrator's individuality and his personal feelings and preferences are almost wholly suppressed. It would be difficult in the whole range of literature to find a work where there is less attempt at pointing a moral or drawing a lesson from the facts. The narrator is persuaded that the facts themselves in their bravest form are a perfect lesson and a complete instruction and he feels that it would be an impertinence and even an impiety to intrude his individual views into the narrative. So here's the first reason. I think we have to look at this as the institution of the diaconate because, one, Luke was an honest, trustworthy historian. Herodotus made things up. So did Thucydides. Many of the other Greeks. It's well known. They made things up. They put words in the mouth of people that they would have said or they thought they would have said if they had been there. Not so Luke. Second, Though the title deacon is absent, which is the word the iconus, its corresponding noun, the iconia, and verb, the iconeo, are in the passage. Verses 1 and 2. And basically these word groups mean servant, or minister, or to serve. It's likely that the official title, deacon, which Paul uses in 1 Timothy 3 and in Philippians, without explanation, by the way, grew directly out of the language in Acts chapter 6, to describe the nature of the office and ministry to which these men were appointed by the apostles and the congregation. So even though the specific title is not used, that's really irrelevant because all the other corresponding words are used. But to me, there's a third reason, and that is these men were ordained to office. They were ordained. This wasn't just an ad hoc committee. As a matter of fact, it would be absurd to go through all the motions that the apostles went through if they just said one day, hey, those widows are being neglected. Could you cook some more food and send it over there to them? It's absurd to actually go through a, here's the qualifications, we're going to publicly set these men apart, we're going to ordain them, lay hands on them, pray over them. No. These men in Acts 6 were chosen by the congregation, brought before the apostles to be examined, and ordained to office through regular setting apart. And this is nothing less than the Holy Spirit-filled and Christ-appointed apostles acting as His representatives at His command to create a new office in the church, one distinct from the ministers of the Word and Gospel and dedicated to caring for the needy in Christ's church. Now, there is an alternate opinion on this to which some attention should be given. It is suggested by some that since Philip and Stephen were also preachers, that's another reason why Acts chapter 6 should not be viewed as the establishment of the office of deacon. Now it is true that both Philip and Stephen are mentioned later in Acts as evangelists. Men who go out preaching the gospel in places where it was not formally heard in order to gather believers and create churches. But again, That was in their official capacity as evangelists within the church. There was nothing that would have prevented them from simultaneously serving as deacons in the local church at Jerusalem. In fact, it even highlights the office more. Here's these men. Oh, they're preachers. They're out there evangelizing, going down through Samaria and other areas, and yet when they came home, they didn't sit back on their laurels and say, hey, give me money. These men are saying, no, God's called us, He's equipped us, you want us, we're going to also serve as deacons within the local congregation. In other words, even the great evangelists, Philip and Stephen, gladly assumed the position of servant in the local congregation. I hate it, hate it, when people look down on the office of deacon. Loath it. Oh, that's a deacon's job. The church needs to be paid. That's a deacon's job. The carpet sprayed around, that's a deacon's. You fool. The church has greatly impoverished itself by looking at it. It is an honor. to be known as a man who loves and serves and can set an example in this capacity to lead the people of God in loving service. And the fact that Philip and Stephen would be an evangelist and would come home and gladly take the lowest position in one standpoint, being a servant, should greatly elevate the importance of the office in our mind, not undermine our belief that it actually existed. And by the way, just so you'll note here, The apostles clearly held other offices in addition to their apostolic one. In 1 Peter 5, Peter identifies himself as an elder. In John 22, Jesus tells Peter, feed his lambs, the word for pastor. Paul performed many diaconal duties. He went around the churches in Asia Minor doing what? Gathering a monetary collection for the impoverished saints in Jerusalem. There is no other way to appreciate Acts chapter 6 than to see it as a historical, Spirit-inspired, Christ-ordained account of the institution of the office of deacon, or as would later be called, the office of deacon. Now, the second thing here we need to remember is that the purpose of this office, notice, is to free the pastor and elders to fulfill their distinctive offices. Now, up to this point, the apostles were doing most of the poor relief. And there wasn't anything wrong with that. I mean, it's not like, you know, the biblical idea of a pastor is that he gets to sit on his laurels, keep his head in the clouds all day and books, and other people can scurry around and take care of everybody. That's not very biblical. But it came to the place where the apostles knew that their own ministry of preaching the word of prayer were in jeopardy. So many poor people were in their midst. So many physical needs existed that they were having to give up most of their time to wait on tables is the Greek word. Now, by the way here, I love that at some level and it just is so convicting at the same time. Here is Peter. and James and John waiting on tables. We tend to run over that real quickly. Not just because we know that that's just a secondary issue and that led to the need to get them off of doing that so they could get to what they needed to be doing, which is preaching and prayer. But just for a minute, let that sink in. Peter, James, and John waiting on tables. not clothed with the mitre and the pomp and circumstance of Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy and all of these things where the pastors and the bishops and the archbishops and super bishops and mega super bishops and super duper mega super bishops are all out there saying, kiss my ring. No. I think Peter and James and John and Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew, they learned something in the upper room that night, didn't they? They learned something. And it didn't take long. They learned something. Remember? Oh, Jesus, we don't want you to wash our feet. Why are you doing this? Jesus said, well, you didn't do it. And I set an example to you that I did not come to be served, but to serve. And as you've seen me do, you do. And they did. and they waited on tables. So, so much for this idea of pontifical church leadership that's beneath getting one's hands dirty. Just a thought. It's a thought for me. It's a thought for you. Luke makes an important point here, though, and that is that pastors of the flock must not leave God's Word in order to wait on tables such that their own ministry suffers. And why? Because if the ministry of the preaching of God's Word and prayer suffers, then God's people are going to suffer. Now notice, Luke doesn't say, well, one's high and one's low. Both are important! They were so important that the apostles themselves did it until it came to the place where they said, you know, we don't have time to pray anymore. We don't even have time to prepare to preach anymore. Go out and look for new converts because we're so concerned here and have to be with the physical needs of the congregation. And I think the import of what Luke is saying is, is that as important as love is, The preaching of God's Word and prayer are equally important. Now let that too sink in. Oh, how many lessons are in these early chapters in Acts. In our day and age, right relationships are more important than right doctrine. Oh, it's so much more important to be loving than it is to be doctrinally astute. Satan just smiles and says, I love that kind of talk. Can I join that church? Other churches say, no, no, we don't, you know. Our motto here is, lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way. We are truth seekers here. Don't bother us with great relationships. Satan says, I love it. I'll join there too. I'll join there too. Notice the biblical model is what? The biblical model is love is vital, truth is vital. There's no hierarchy here. As a matter of fact, they're so interconnected, it's even hard to distinguish them. in one level, because where there's love for God, there's of course going to be a desire to know His truth and to live it. And then where there's a time in God's truth and love for God's truth, and we're using the Bible rightly, not as a religious encyclopedia to scratch my intellectual itch, but as the revelation of God's Word and will for our lives, it's going to be a mirror that's going to be held up to me, and it's going to convict my heart, and it's going to humble me, and that's in turn going to make me more loving. So that the more loving I am, the more I'm going to love God's truth, and the more I love God's truth, the more humbled and the more loving it's going to make me. And there's no other way to see the connection between these two things. And one of the great problems today in the church is that we're constantly, we want one or the other. And the problem is if you choose one or the other, you get neither. You get neither. Because in truth, it just becomes this hard, cold thing that has no connection with the beating heart of God. Or love just becomes this syrupy, sweet, gooey, verbal, sentimental thing that has no defining connection to God's Word. It has no goal. It has no standard. It has no motivation. Which just means open hearts, open doors. Whatever you believe, that's okay. No, that's not the Bible's teaching. The Bible's teaching is that truth and love are equally important. Matter of fact, we've got what? We've got offices. Both, if you want to look at the broadest level, the two major ongoing offices in the church. Not the only offices, but the ongoing ones. The eldership and the diaconate. The eldership, you could look at, is the office of truth. The diaconate is the office of love. And you've got these two things because both of them are vital personally, congregationally, missiologically in terms of the gospel outreach into the world. The office of deacon is a vital office. It is not a second class office. Some have erroneously concluded from Luke's account that the diaconate is less important than the eldership in the church and that's not true. The diaconate is vital to the church. Without an active, efficient diaconate, ministers, elders can't devote their time to visitation, prayer, study and teaching of God's Word. And the result is that the entire church then suffers from a lack of food. It is absolutely necessary for Christian growth and effectiveness. Without a compassionate backing, the needy in the church, their needs will not be met. And the result will be that the church will lack that outward, vivid display of Christ's love in our midst that gives a legitimacy to our profession of faith. We cannot forget what Jesus says. By this, men will know that you are my disciples because you love one another. What Christ our Savior through Luke would have us appreciate in these verses is the importance of both offices. If either is neglected, the work of the church cannot proceed effectively in the world. And so we see two errors, two evils in the present church that must be remedied. On the one hand, we need pastors. and teachers in the church who give themselves to the Word of God, elders who give themselves to overseeing in terms of the Word of God, and proper attention to be given to truth. Of course, one of the reasons we don't do that is because we don't want to fight. Because we're afraid there'll be too many doctrinal differences. If we could just have a fight again about doctrine, it'd be great. If we could just have a discussion again about whether it's church government or baptism or election or what did Jesus' death on the cross mean, if we could just have some public discussions again, it'd be wonderful. John says that's a good thing. John says these false teachers sometimes rise up in our midst so those who are proved can be made evident among you. But we need this. And we also need a diaconate. that aggressively seeks to find, organize, lead, encourage, stimulate, facilitate visible, tangible expressions of Christian love within the body. Because the last thing we want is a body with cold and unfeeling, sterile dogmatism or the rise and the continued rise of the secular welfare state. These two things go together. We can't develop this in too great a detail. We can't do this in too great a detail. But wherever the church is not loving as a whole, socialism rises up and fills the void. It's happened every time. I'm going to give that as a thought. And maybe we can't change things right now broadly. OK, it's probably not. But again, we don't have to worry about that. We can't say we shouldn't make any changes because we can't change everything. Instead, we should seek here to implement a more apostolic rule within the body of Christ where we do care for one another so that there's no need to do that. There's no need to do that. There's no need to look outside to the nipple of a secularist, atheistic government for help. You come to the church. Now one last point this morning, and then we'll finish up tonight. And I hope you'll come back, because this is... I get more fired up talking about the deacon than the elder in some respects. I want to mention something about our confession, Seth P. And I've included this paragraph. This is on the chapter, the communion of saints. And I don't know what page is on yours, but it's under the foundation of the diaconate, the communion of saints. I want to read this paragraph. The Confession says, saints by profession are bound to maintain a holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God and in performing such other spiritual services as tend to their mutual edification, as also in relieving each other in outward things according to their several abilities and necessities. And as also in relieving each other in outward things according to their several abilities and necessities. That's anti-individualism. At one level, that's anti-sterile capitalism. That's body language. That's what that is. And it's saying there's no such thing at one level as you, me, Okay, there's us. There's us. Do you ever find yourself when you're praying, maybe you're alone, dear Father, we. Heavenly Father, we. Bless us. Or as always, my Father, bless me. Okay, now there's nothing wrong with using individual language, but I'm saying here that we don't make it, we're not going to be alone in heaven. We're going to be together. We don't make it to heaven alone on earth. There's no such thing at one level as I come to the garden alone. It's we come to the garden together. All the time. And there's this communion of saints. Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians. You know, the body being many members is one. So there's a certain sense here, and I think this is what the Westminster divines were getting at, is that when one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. And when one rejoices, all rejoice together. And when one has a need, the need is for everybody. I know we don't think that way anymore. We've really shot ourselves, not in the foot, in the head, in some respects, because we tend to think, no, my problems are my own. Doggone it, I've got to cure them myself. Doggone it, you know, I've got myself into this mess. I'm going to pull myself out here by my bootstraps. I am a self-sufficient American. I'd be a cowboy in the old days, just riding through the West myself. That's not the way the Bible presents our Christian profession. The Bible presents our Christian profession as togetherness, that we have a communion together because we are one body in Christ. Gospel love is very important, as this paragraph says here, for it to be tangible. That's one of the reasons why in Acts 2 we see such an emphasis upon material love. There was no such thing in that day as, oh, that's not really spiritual. We don't talk about money. We don't talk about needs. We just say, brother, be warm and filled. No. Money was real. Financial needs were real. Paul spent a significant part of his missionary time gathering the collection for the saints in Jerusalem. Why? Paul didn't even know a lot of these people. But he recognized, we're tied together. The success of one is the success of all. The weakness of one is the weakness of all. And here's where the deacon comes in on this point. The deacon facilitates this love among God's people. In fact, he's the leader and organizer. Deacons need to be alert to opportunities that the flock has to manifest this love, as well as needs where the love needs to be manifested right now. At some level, deacons need to be pretty much as involved in the lives of God's people as the elders do. I'm not prescribing necessarily household diagonal visitation, but at least a regular sense of, okay, is there a need here? How can we minister here? Calling our church planters. Hey, how are you guys doing up there? You guys need some more money? What can we do to get you full-time rather than being part-time out on the field? What about Sidney Anderson over there in the Czech Republic or William Farr down in Ecuador? Maybe stirring up and starting some mission trips to go down to these places and help these people and encourage them. That's what the deacon is. The deacon is the external manifestation of the church's beating heart of love and the communion that we all have one toward another. It's not too much to say that a loving church will have to have an active diaconate. It will need one. And I'll encourage you as we close this morning, as I look at myself, I look at you, we need to be challenged. Who do you love? Are you showing love? Are you so concerned about the needs of your own family? Your own spiritual, personal needs? Do you ever look beyond that and think, What about the needs of the body? Because I'm only as strong as the weakest member here within this flock. I have a duty. I should have a joy. I have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit should be shedding abroad God's love in my heart so that I want to reach out and minister within the body of Christ. I look forward to that day. We've seen it from time to time. God has blessed us richly. I look forward to that day when and pray for it, that God would so fill us with love that things like buildings and giving and missionaries, that these things are not only funded, but that they're supported with prayer and that there's an esprit de corps in our midst. And throughout our denomination, it's not based on, you know, Pet slogans. It's not based on common socioeconomic status in life. It's based upon one thing. God's heart of love has been implanted in our hearts. It's beating. It's beating. Looking for opportunities. Who can I serve? Who can I minister? Other people may not be serving me as much as I like. Maybe I don't get invited over to anybody's house, but you know what? I don't care. I'm going to do all the inviting I can over to my house. I may not feel like I'm getting served, but you know what? The quickest way I can forget about that is to lose myself in serving other people. And then that chip just falls off my shoulder. Doesn't matter. Because after all, we're all at one level supposed to deacon each other. Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. Who are we serving? And as you look around for men who may be qualified for this office, you look for men who have a beating heart for love and service within the body of Christ. Let's pray together. Father, we thank You for truth and love. Thank You for raising up offices to oversee and look at both of these important things. We pray that You guide us and bless us and fill us, Holy Spirit of God, the love of God shed abroad in our hearts and manifested in a thousand tangible ways. Help us all to be more selfless. Help us to be more others concerned. Help us to look not only on our own interests, but the things of others. We pray that You would make our congregation here, that You would indwell us. Because if You indwell us and work in us and sanctify us, there will be love. We thank You, Lord Jesus, that You are the great deacon. You are the Great Servant. What an example You have set for us, taking the lowest seat. We can't even comprehend it. The Son of God and Creator of the world, washing feet, touching lepers, being deprived, and giving Himself as a ransom for us all. We ask that You would work that character in us. We pray these things in Your name,