The text this morning is in 1 Timothy chapter 5. 1 Timothy chapter 5. Timothy was a new pastor in a young congregation in Ephesus. Timothy, new pastor. Paul, who writes this letter, is his mentor. You may think of it that way, his teacher. And Paul is giving Timothy instruction about church government, and if you read this epistle and the second one, especially this one, you'll notice that he gives instruction about all of the offices, minister, elder, and deacon. In chapter 3, Paul gave the qualifications of the elder and the deacon. And then in chapter 5, he explains the work especially of the deacon. So we read the chapter, 1 Timothy chapter 5. Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father, and the younger men as brethren, the elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters with all purity. And now begins our text, three through eight. Honor widows that are widows indeed. But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home and to requite their parents, for that is good and acceptable before God. Now that she that is a widow indeed and desolate trusteth in God and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day. But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. And these things give in charge that they may be blameless. But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. And now in this next section, Paul is talking about the widows that may be hired, as it were, by the deacons to do work that men might not be able to do. That's verse 9 and following. Let not a widow be taken into the number, that is the number of these women who were deacons' assistants. Under three score years old, having been the wife of one man, well reported of for good works. If she had brought up children, if she had lodged strangers, if she had washed the saint's feet, if she had relieved the afflicted, if she had diligently followed every good work. But the younger widows refuse. For when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will marry, having damnation, because they have cast off their first faith. And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle, but tattlers also, and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. I will, therefore, that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. For some are already turned aside after Satan. And now back to the topic, and verse 16 is part of our text also. If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged that it may relieve them that are widows indeed. Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the laborer is worthy of his reward. Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear, I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality. Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins. Keep thyself pure. Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thy often infirmities. Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment, and some men they follow after. Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand, and they that are otherwise cannot be hid." That's the reading of the scripture this morning. As I said, the text is 3 through 8 and 16. We will not reread them now. Honor widows is the subject. Widows who are widows indeed. In many churches, there's a great misunderstanding of what is the work of deacon. In some non-reformed churches, the deacons are looked at as a kind of janitor or an assistant to the elder to prepare for communion. or perhaps to carry out the decision that the chief executive officer, the minister, makes. And then in those churches, they might not have elders who rule. The minister is the rule, the deacons carry out the work of the minister. That's a very serious misunderstanding of the work of deacon. But our churches can also have misunderstandings, one of which would be that the office of deacon is simply the first step to get to the office of elder. And that's a misunderstanding because the office of deacon, though it may prepare a man for the office of elder, or evidence that he has gifts for that office too, the office of deacon is a completely different office. Its work is distinct from the work of the elders. There are qualifications that deacons need that elders do not. and qualifications that elders need that deacons do not. The work of the deacon is a very important work in the church. It's also a misunderstanding to imagine that the work of the deacons is simply to take care of the church's finances. You see them taking collection not only for the benevolent fund, but also for the general fund. You see them in the back of church in the consistent room counting all those offerings, depositing them in the bank, and having the oversight of those monies. But it's a very serious misunderstanding to imagine that that's simply the work of the deacons to be financial men, The qualifications for which office then would simply be that they're astute with regard to money. Now, the work of the deacon is the work of caring for widows, honoring widows, finding true widows, and supporting them with material and spiritual So let's look at the Word of God this morning with the time that we have left, the ministry of the deacons. Let's look first of all at the deacons, secondly at the poor, and then thirdly at the motivation that we have to supply the deacons with what they need to help the poor and to do the work of ministering to those poor. The ministry of the deacons, the deacon, the poor, and the motivations. To say it as simply as possible, the office of deacon is a ministry of mercy. Just remember those two words, a ministry of mercy. First of all, the office of deacon is a ministry, that is a service. a service of the poor's physical needs. Come from a word that really means wait on tables. If we could, it would not be wrong to call waiters and waitresses in restaurants deacons. because that's what a deacon does. He waits on tables. That's the description of the deacon in the book of Acts, chapter 6, when the deacon's office was instituted. The apostles were preaching and praying and waiting on tables. And when there was trouble, we'll see that again in a moment, they didn't have time to do all of that, they appointed seven men who would wait on tables, that is, bring a bag of groceries. Now the fact that the office of deacon is an office of service or a ministry shouldn't make us imagine that the office of minister and the office of elder isn't. They also are offices of service by definition. That's why I called attention to that when we read the form. A minister of the gospel is a servant. That's his name, minister. Whenever you find the word minister in the New Testament, you'll know or you may know that that word simply means servant. If the phone rings and you pick it up and it's the pastor, and you say someone the minister called, then be aware that you have just said the servant called. Minister is a servant. Elders are servants, but in a special way, deacons are servants. But before we talk about a special way that the deacons are servants, let's be reminded of that, that the offices in the church are just that. They are positions of service. We must never succumb to the temptation of thinking that they are high, elevated positions. Now, there is some elevation in their office. They are in a position of dignity and honor, and we ought to honor them for their work's sake, but the work they do is the work of being a servant of you. Imagine Jesus, the Last Supper, stripping down so that he needed to take upon himself a towel, girding with a towel, getting on his knees, and washing the feet of the disciples. That's the work that every office bearer does. And if you men who aspire to the office of elder or deacon, aspire to that office, and you may, just as a young man may aspire to the office of a minister, Just be very careful that you do not imagine anything else than this. You will become a servant. I say that's especially true of the office of deacon. The calling of the church is not only to provide from the spiritual treasury of Jesus Christ, spiritual goods for the spiritual needs of the people, But it's also the calling of the church from the physical treasury of the church to provide physical means for the physical needs of the people of God. This is the pastor and the elder. This is the work of the deacon. Money, food, clothing, shelter, medicine, and whatever else the poor may need. And we know that because the Word of God makes that clear. Acts chapter 6 is where we start. Read that for your family devotions at noon. Understand why the form appeals to that at the beginning. The church had a care for the poor. The apostles took that care and gave to the poor. And then when that work became too much for them, Along with their other work, they delegated that work to another office, the office of deacon. The result, if they hadn't, would have been a neglect not only of the poor, as happened in Act 6, there were Hebrew widows and there were Gentile widows. The Hebrew widows were cared for, the Gentile widows were neglected. If one man tries to take all that work, there's going to be a neglect not only of some of the poor, but also of the work that that man is supposed to do in his other office, a minister or an elder in preaching and teaching. So Acts chapter 6 was institutionalizing in the New Testament what had been institutionalized already in the old, and they all knew that. They all knew that the Old Testament laws were gone, that is, the ceremonial and civil laws were not applied as they were in the Old Testament, but they all sensed the fact that there needed to be an institution in the church to carry out this care of the poor. But in the Old Testament, it was institutionalized especially in three ways. Number one, the farmers, and most of them were farmers, were not permitted to go over their fields twice. If they missed some grain or crop the first time, it had to be left for the poor. That explained what Ruth was doing in the fields of Boaz. And that explained what Jesus and his disciples were doing on the Sabbath day when they were hungry. They were gleaning in the fields of the farmer. That was God's law for the provision of the poor. Second, in the Old Testament, there were certain festivals at which time the people were required not only to give to the priests and the Levites, but also a special offering for the poor, a portion. And then remember in the third place that there were certain years, the seventh year and the 50th year, that were called the year of release and the year of jubilee. On this year of release, anyone who had debts was free of those debts. And in the 50th year, anyone who had to sell his property because he had debt and maybe even sell himself as a slave, would have his person restored to freedom and his property given back to him. Year of release, the seventh year. Year of Jubilee, the fiftieth year. Institutionalized in the Old Testament. God will care for the poor. Now, come to the New Testament. When the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ came into the hearts of the people, that law now was written on their hearts so that they naturally cared for the poor. And that's what you read in the book of Acts chapter 2. They simply cared for the poor. No one considered what he had his own. They had everything in common. And it's a very serious misunderstanding to imagine that that was communism, as some say it needs to be. a law that everyone give everything they have to a common pot overseen by probably one or two people who say, what you have I want. But this was simply the manifestation in the hearts of the people of God what was institutionalized in the Old Testament. They loved to care for the poor. It wasn't a new concept for them at all. caring for the poor. It was what we sang about in Psalm 68, a father of the fatherless, a judge of widows in distress. It's expressed in the proverb, he that gives to the poor lends to the Lord. And in connection with those laws, God reminded them in the Old Testament, what Jesus repeated in His ministry, the poor you always will have with you. Which means that no matter how affluent we get, there always are going to be poor and there will always be a need for deacon. So it's not surprising to see what happened after Pentecost, as I said, that they spontaneously gave to the poor. It's not surprising to see what the Apostle Paul did in his ministry. In Acts 11, read about that. 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, read about that. Galatians 2, read about Paul's care for the poor. Especially Galatians 2, when Paul was recounting his conversion to the saints at Jerusalem, or to others, he said that the saints at Jerusalem reminded him to take care of the poor in his ministry, and Paul says a thing I was also forward to do. That is, that's what I was most eager to carry out, care for the poor. So it makes sense now when the Apostle Paul, mentor, is teaching young Timothy church government. He emphasizes also this work. Take care of the poor. It's a ministry. But it's a ministry of mercy. It's the expression of the merciful, sympathetic, compassionate heart of Jesus to the people he loves and cares for. Mercy is pity. Mercy looks at someone in distress and not only wants to deliver them from that distress, but delivers them from that distress. Christ, remember, has a heart of pity that addresses you in the consequences of sin in your guilt and enslavement to sin, But Christ also has a pity for you in the consequences of sin that sometimes manifest themselves in poverty. We may say that poverty always is a result of sin. that any individual is poor because of some specific sin, but the simple fact of the matter is that poverty in the world is a consequence of sin. And Jesus says, my heart yearns for my poor people who suffer those consequences of sin, and I want to care for them. To look at this more broadly, the church has three characteristics that are manifest in the three offices, minister, elder, and deacon. Three attributes of the church of Christ, starting with truth, the church is the pillar and ground of truth. and the one who is assigned to maintain and defend the truth is especially the preacher to teach truth, and the elders then also to make sure he doesn't teach anything other than truth. The characteristic of the church in the second place is righteousness and holiness, upright conduct, consecration to God, hatred of sin, and it's the assignment of the elders especially with discipline and admonition and encouragement to maintain righteousness and holiness in the church. But there's another characteristic of the church, and that's what the deacons address, and that is that the church is merciful. Don't elevate truth or righteousness above mercy. Put them all up high And if ever the church emphasizes one over the other or neglects one of the three, that church is a deformed church. We must be characterized by truth and righteousness and mercy. Don't diminish the importance of the ministry of mercy. Now, The unique nature of the text in Timothy, 1 Timothy 5, is not that we must understand the work of the deacon, but this particular aspect of the work of the deacon, how do we know to whom we are to supply benevolence? How do we know? That's an important question. It's a question that the deacons struggle with. It's often a very difficult question. Someone approaches them for help. The deacons need to know, is this man, woman, family a proper object of benevolence? That's why the form says, discretion and prudence are needed to bestow the alms only on objects of charity. And the scriptural basis for that question, be careful, who is it that is the proper object of benevolence, comes from this text. From this text. Where in three places, it speaks not just of widows, but of widows indeed. Honor widows, verse three, that are widows indeed. Verse five, she that is a widow indeed, And that's described as desolate. And then again in verse 16, when he concludes the matter, that the church may relieve them that are widows indeed. So the question is, who is a widow indeed? Who is a proper object of benevolence? Who is the poor that is? The text answers that in three ways. Number one, it refers to widows. And that's not because widows are the only ones that the church may support, because the church may support orphans. And the church may support other churches that are poor, as was evident in the history of the early New Testament. The church may support a man who loses a job and can't find another job for a while. The church may support someone who's injured and can't work. The church may support many different kinds of people who have need. The text speaks of widows because they were the outstanding example of the desolate in the New Testament church. A widow didn't have Social Security. A widow then did not have an insurance policy. A widow could not look at the available part-time jobs and make a living when she didn't need to take care of her children. A widow was indeed desolate. The outstanding example, those who symbolize all the poor, was the widow. The office of deacon, of course, originated because the needy widows in the church. And James then picks up on that when he says that true religion is visiting the fatherless and the widow, orphans and widows. God is a God of the widow. That number one, the text says, take care of widows, that is, poor. Number two, and we can be brief here, the poor in the congregation. The Apostle Paul is teaching Timothy not to do world relief, although there may be an element of our work that looks outside of the congregation. Pause just for a moment there, do good to all men, Galatians 6 says, especially those of the household of faith. That is, the deacons ought to have on their radar others outside of the church who might not even be Christians who come to them asking for help. And the deacons ought to have on their radar other congregations that may be needy when our benevolent fund is flush but we're not called to try to alleviate all of the poverty in all of the world. That's not our responsibility. It's an obligation that we simply cannot carry out even though we ought to be open to helping others and even eager to help others. The text is talking about widows in the congregation, but now it even narrows that down further, not all of the widows in the congregation, but only widows who are truly widows. That's striking. What is a true widow? Well, verses 4 and 5 of the text explain that. A true widow is a widow that does not have children or nephews. Verse 4, children. probably nephews could be translated grandchildren, but it's a reference to close family members. This widow who is to be cared for does not have close family members. That's why it says that she's desolate in verse 5. She doesn't have relatives left. No children to care for her, no brothers or sisters, no parents, just this family. And we'll come back to that too. But I say this family because the beginning of this chapter makes us think that way. Don't rebuke an elder, but entreat him as a father. The younger men as brothers, the elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters. All of this is a family from a very important point of view. But the Apostle Paul now after talking about this family, does talk about earthly, physical families. The family is called to support the family's widows. Now, that's easier to say than to do, which is why there's an old Dutch proverb that finds its place in many other cultures, too, that goes something like this. It's easier for one poor father to support ten children than for ten rich children to support one poor father. And you understand the sharp point that that proverb makes. It's not a matter of ability, it's a matter of will. A matter of will. We rich children might not be willing to support our poverty-stricken relatives, but we are called to do that. We're not called to tell them the state has support for you. We're not called to tell them visit the deacons because the deacons have a lot of money. We are called to dig into our own pockets and support them. Children, and grandchildren, and even nephews and nieces. Support your family member. The reason why is given in the text in verse 4 when it says they must requite their widows, their parents. Look at verse 4. Learn to show piety at home. This is speaking to children and grandchildren. How? by requiting their parents. That's not a word that we use very often. The organist was playing that song before we came in. The Lord is most righteous, the Lord loves the right, the evil he hates and will surely requite. We sing that, we need to remember what that word means. Requite simply means to pay back. The Lord is most righteous, the Lord loves the right, but the evil, He's going to pay back. Everything they did against Him, everything they failed to do to Him that they should have, God is going to pay back. To the level that they sinned, to that level He will requite them. Now that's the word that's used in our text with regard to children in relation to their parents. We need to pay them back. And to do that, we just need to think about everything that they did for us for 20 years. Think of the early years of our lives when they fed us and we couldn't feed ourselves, when they bought everything we needed, groceries, clothes, medicine, doctor bills, when they lost sleep because of us, when they couldn't do all kinds of things that maybe their other friends could do because they were committed to caring for us. Think about everything our parents did for us. Now, now, pay them back. The Word of God says, requite them. You might not be able to do many things you'd like to do because you have to support your aging parent. You may have to stay home, spend the night there, away from your husband or your wife. You might need to dip into that bank account that you hope to use for all kinds of other things. you may be required to suffer for them. But that's a privilege, people of God, to pay back our parents for what they did to us. You care for them so that the church can care for the broader family members who are truly desolate. The poor, are widows, the poor are mostly in the congregation, and the poor are those who are truly unable to have their needs provided by their family. And then, we gladly, willingly, liberally support the poor in the church, which brings up, before we come to the last point this morning, that the deacons have a very difficult calling when they have a widow in the congregation that they know has rich children in the church, maybe not this church, but Christians. The deacons have a responsibility to address them and ask them about helping their mother or their grandmother. That takes some boldness. but that's an obedience to the word of God in our text. If any man or woman that believes has widows, let this man or woman relieve the widow and let not the church be charged that the church may relieve them that are truly widows. You must. Now, you've sensed that in this second point. You must care for the widows, but the motivation for us is not the must. The must rarely motivates anyone. What is it that motivates us? Two things. To conclude this morning, two things. Number one, I want to manifest by my life, my faith, I want my faith, which is inside me, to be seen outside of me. And the way that that faith in me is seen outside of me is this way, that I, as a family member or as a congregation, care for the needy and the poor in my own personal family or in my church family. I want others to see that what I am inside me is true, or what I confess to be in me is genuine. Now where does that come from in the text? It comes in the text in a negative way in verse 8 when it says, if any provide not for his own, that is his own family members, and especially for those of his own house, he's denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. What the apostle is saying is, look out there in the world, even the unbelievers understand the responsibility of children to take care of their parents. Even they know that. And if we don't do that and shove that care of the parents off to the government or the deacons, we're worse than an unbeliever. We've denied the faith. We've taken the faith that we said is in us, and we've disowned it, as Peter denied Jesus, saying, I don't know him. I want no association with him. I repudiate him. That's what we do to the faith when we don't care for our poor. How is that, though? How do you understand that the faith in us is manifested by caring for the poor? Well, it's not so difficult to see when you think about it. What is that faith? My faith embraces Jesus. My faith knows Him, trusts Him, loves Him, depends on Him. Why? Well, because He showed mercy to me. He came down as a servant to give Himself, costing Him His whole life for me. That's my faith. I see Him. I know Him. I love Him. I'm thankful for Him. And I want everyone else to know that. And I let everyone else know that by my giving up of myself for the poor in the congregation. Don't deny the faith by failing to support the deacons in their work liberally so that they can give with open hands generously. And don't fail to support your own family members who are your own physical house. manifest, to put it positively, your faith by your works. Can you hear James? You say you have faith? Let me see it by your works. And here's a prime example of that. Motivation number two is that God is looking and I want to please him. Remember I said that in connection with our singing? We sing before the Lord, and now in our text we have that expression, not quite so clear here in verse four, but it's the same expression that's used earlier in the book, in the sight of God. Verse three of chapter two, this is good and acceptable in the sight of God. That same expression now is used here in our text in verse four, for that is good and acceptable in the sight of God. You children ever work differently when your teacher goes out of the room? You ever do things differently when your parents are gone, they tell you to work and carry out what you're supposed to do, but they're gone, and now they're not watching? When they're watching, it's not only that you work out of fear, but it's because you want to please them. They're watching. I want to make dad and mom happy. And now that's what comes up in our text in the end of verse four. God is watching. And we so love him, we want to please him. And we want to please him by acting in our lives as his own son acted in his, who gave himself for us. Everything, because he loved us. And God was watching and said, this is my beloved son, and I am so pleased with him. And God is watching us. And so we work, not out of fear, not because of a must, Although that must is there, we work and we want to work faithfully in this office in supporting the poor because our God in heaven is watching and we want to please Him. Gratitude for what He's done for us in Christ. Deacons, deacons, take care of the poor and let us as a congregation supply you with everything that you need. Amen. Let's pray. Lord God in heaven, we have seen this morning what we need to see with regard to life in the church. May we be a church that manifested by truth, that manifests itself in righteousness, but also that shows itself to be a church of mercy. And where we have failed in any of those three areas, Father, forgive us and strengthen us and equip us more and more to serve Thee well. We thank Thee for Christ and Thy mercy to us in Him. In His name we pray, amen.