Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Let's turn to acts. This is
after the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark,
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Luke and John, I mean the
New Testament, acts chapter six.
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This morning I'll be reading verses one
through seven. I'm doing so as we
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can continue to consider the work of
Christ's the work of Christ and his church,
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particularly in the mercy that is given
to his people, mercy and tangible
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ways, mercy that extends not only
to our souls but also to our bodies.
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So let's your God's word. Now
from acts chapter six, verses one
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through seven. Here we have the
institution of the Office of Deacon. Now,
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in these days, when the disciples
were increasing in number, a complaint
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by the hellenists arose against the Hebrews
because their widows were being neglected in the
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daily distribution. And the twelve summon
the full number of the disciples and said
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it is not right that we should
give up the preaching of the word of
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God to serve tables. Therefore,
brothers, pick out from among you seven
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men of good repute, full of
the spirit and of wisdom, whom we
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will appoint to this duty, but
that we will devote ourselves to prayer and
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to the Ministry of the word and
when they said that, and what they
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said pleased the whole gathering, and
they chose Stephen, a man full of
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faith and of the Holy Spirit,
and Philip and pro chorus and Niko Noor
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and Timm and and Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselytite of Antioch. These they
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set before the apostles and prayed and
laid their hands on them, and the
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word of God continued to increase and
the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem
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and a great many of the priests
became obedient to the faith. Amen.
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Well, for the past couple of
weeks I, as I mentioned before I
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read the passage, have been we've
been focusing on the care of the Lord,
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the care of Christ and his church
for the physical needs of his people,
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and this is a great and wonderful
thing, and we begin by thinking
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about how God calls all of us, every member of his body, to
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serve one another, in spiritual ways, but in physical ways as well.
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I'm providing for those in need,
and we see that going on here in
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acts, chapter six. We see
that there is a need that is happening
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among God's people. There's a daily
distribution and it involves the whole church.
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When this problem comes up between the
Hellenists and the Hebrews on the twelve,
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summon the full number of a disciples, because it infects, affects the whole
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church. The controversy is within the
whole body. Everyone on matters here well,
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as we've seen the work, the
diachonal work, the work of service
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that we are all called to give. We've seen that this is because we
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share in the heavenly calling of Christ
and we care for those in need of
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material things, just as he did
in his own ministry. Many times we
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saw the Lord giving the way food, healing bodies as well as souls.
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We've also seen, as in the
passage last week from Second Corinthians, how,
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when there is a culture of giving
and receiving, when within the church,
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when that Ministry of Christ is mature
within his body, when it's done
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from faith and to the glory of
God, these seeds result in a big
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harvest, a harvest not only of
provision for those in need and rejoicing for
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those who give, but a whole
body of harvest, of Thanksgiving and praise,
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as the needs of God's people are
taking care of through God's people ultimately,
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through the work of the spirit of
Christ, God is glorified, his
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work is seen among us, it
is testified to us, the love of
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Christ is made known. Well,
so, now that we've seen the work
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of Christ at work in his body
as a whole, throughouts all its members,
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I want out why? Want now
to turn to the Special Office of
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Deacon and Tell You why God ordains
some of his members, some of the
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members of the church, to serve
as ordained officers, as deacons that are
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specifically called to this task. And
what we will see is that, as
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the Church has tangible physical needs that
must be provided for and as the Church
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has tangible resources that can provide for
those needs, God is keen, God
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desires to match those up, to
put those together, to use the body
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to help the body. But we
also know from experience, and we see
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here in the word, that there
are very significant challenges to that. God's
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grace in his church is necessary because
there is still sin in the Church,
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there is laziness in the church,
greetiness in the church, excuse making in
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the church, lack of of in
the church, hardness of hearts in the
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church, and these are bad things, as we see here in act six,
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they threaten great danger. Three threaten
our souls, they threaten the unity
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of the Church, they threaten our
worship, they threaten our witness, they
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threaten our togetherness. And so in
this God or Dain's servants to oversee this
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work, to make sure that it
is not neglected. He makes sure that
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there are connectors and helpers, people
particularly called in the government of the church
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to ensure that these good things are
taking care of. As we consider this,
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I want to begin by considering the
fact that this is not a new
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thing, that this pattern follows a
pattern that God set even in the Old
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Testament. Now there are no deacons
in the old testaments, as we will
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see, but there are very similar
overlaps. In the Old Testament God cared
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for the poor as well. It
wasn't just something that once Christ came now
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all of a sudden God cared for
the poor. Now this is a dominant,
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major theme throughout the Old Testament and
it is God instructs his people as
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he gathers them together after their redemption
out of Egypt, and he calls them
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to do exactly that. Families had
a responsibility to care for that poor and
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this was enshrined and codified in various
laws. The closer you were at to
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up someone in need in your family, the more responsibility you had. These
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duties of family members to take care
of their own form the backdrop of bow
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as is redemption of Ruth and Naomi, that whole if you know that story,
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the Kinsman Redeemer and all of those
things that are going on, those
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are intimately tied with these laws about
poverty, about caring for one's own.
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We also see that these that not
only were families responsible to care for the
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poor, there are poor, society
as a whole had a responsibility to care
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for the poor. We see that
in some ways with the gleaning laws,
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even again in the story of Ruth. But in other ways we the fields
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were not to be totally stripped bare, but left some was to be left
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for the poor to gather. That's
one of many, many, many examples.
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I WON'T GIVE I won't get into
that in depth, but simply want
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to point out that society as a
whole had a responsibility to care for the
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poor, especially when there were no
family members available. That's why the refrain
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about the fatherless and the widow is
those two categories of people are mentioned over
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and over again. They don't have
family, they don't have people there to
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care for them, and so God's
people, as the family of God,
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is called to be responsible for them
as brothers and sisters. God was very
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serious about this. When we see
the prophets prosecuting God's people for their breaking
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of the law, a lack of
care for the poor was one of the
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main themes that comes up over and
over again. Right alongside idolatry and chasing
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after other gods, is the lack
of care for those who are in need.
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This general command to society is mean
many places. Here's one from Deuteronomy
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fifteen seven through eight, deteronomy fifteen
seven through eight, which sets kind of
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general command, the general direction of
things. If among you, one of
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your brothers should become poor in any
of your towns, within your land that
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the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or
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shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to
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him and lend him sufficient for his
need, whatever it may be. Notice
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how this command is grounded in a
gift, just as we saw in Second
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Corinthians nine last week. When you
come into the land that the Lord your
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God is giving you out of these
resources that you have just been given.
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Do not then shut your heart against
the one who is in need, just
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as you were moments ago. So
families had a responsibility to care for the
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poor, society as a whole had
a responsibility to care for the poor,
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and the government of the people in
Israel also had a responsibility to care for
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the poor. This would be seen
an Israel in the prosecution, not only
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against Israel as a whole, but
in her kings in particular. Turn with
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me, if you will, to
Psalm seventy two. Psalm seventy two,
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here in this prayer of Solomon,
we have a prayer of his, psalm
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of his, and which he asks
a God for kingly things related to the
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poor. A few verses from here, first versus one through four, listen
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to Solomon's words. Give the king
your justice, O God, and your
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righteousness to the Royal Sun. May
He Judge Your people with righteousness and your
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poor with justice. Let the mountains
bear prosperity for the people and the hills
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in righteousness. May he defend the
cause of the poor, for the of
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the people, give deliverance to the
children of the needy and crush the oppressor.
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This is the king's job and this
is what Solomon, as king,
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is praying for, that God would
be plentiful in giving prosperity and righteousness to
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the people and the in that righteousness, the king would act. He would
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defend the cause of the poor,
he would crush in judgment those who oppressed
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the poor. And now take a
look at verses twelve through fourteen, for
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he delivers the needy. When he
calls the poor and him who has no
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helper, he has pity on the
weak and the needy and saves the lives
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of the needy from oppression and violence. He redeems their life and precious is
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their blood in his sight. Well, if you have been I'm joining us
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for afternoon prayer and we've been going
through first kings, you know about the
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great wealth of Solomon, fantastically,
amazingly wealthy. Every awhere around there was
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prosperity. How awful it would have
been for the king, who had been
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given so much, in a land
that had been given so much, to
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then shut its heart to the poor
in need or, even worse, to
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shut its heart to the poor in
need who had then also been oppressed in
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their need, who had been crushed
in their need or even been killed in
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their need. No, the king
is not to be is not to overlook
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them and seek only those who might
bring him glory, but he is to
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outstretch his protection and his love and
his heart. The government of God's people
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is to outstretch the heart and love
of Christ himself. And so we see
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in the church in the Old Testament, in its particular arrangement, a responsibility
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at multiple levels for the poor,
for family members, for neighborhoods and towns
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and tribes, and then the government
of the kingdom as well, to ensure
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that these things take place. The
point is is that God cares, he
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cares deeply, and that he will
he and that he works through these means,
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and when the people refuse to do
this, they will be judged for
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their sins. That same care that
we see of God for the poor and
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the needy in the old covenant,
in the Church in the old covenant,
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is also true of the Church under
the new covenant. Family members, for
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example, have a particular responsibility to
care for their own Paul says to Timothy
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and first timothyve eight. But if
anyone does not provide for his relatives and
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especially for members of his household.
He has denied the faith and is worse
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than an unbeliever. Families have a
responsibility to care for their own, especially
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their immediate family members and those that
are in their household. And, as
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we have seen in the previous two
sermons, the church as a whole is
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of course called to care for the
Church family, brothers and sisters, both
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those that are near and those that
are in very distant places. But what
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about government? What about the government
of the Church? Is the government of
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the church also have a particular responsibility
to oversee and protect and care and ensure
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that this work is done? The
answers yes. Just as of the old
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covenant was ruled by a King,
so are we in the old covenant.
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All that love and care that was
commanded among the people and was to exhibit
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that love of Care of God,
an Exalt of God himself, was to
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be in the king, in his
office, in his work. King Josiah,
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for example, Jeremiah twenty two,
fifteen and sixteen says he did Justice
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and righteousness, he judged the cause
of the poor and the needy and he
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was a good king. He has
commended for this. And you know what?
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This work of Josiah, this prayer
of Solomon, anticipated the rule of
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God's Messiah, the coming King of
Israel, the one whom Isaiah prophesied in
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eleven, Chapter Eleven, verse four, a prophecy of, of course,
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our Lord and Savior, the Great
King, Jesus, with righteousness to judge
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the poor. He will come and
decide with equity the meek on the earth.
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And did Jesus do that? Do
we see his care and his compassion
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for for the poor and for the
meek and for the humble and the outcast
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and the down trodden? Absolutely,
it's all over the place. When you
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read the Gospels. Chapter after chapter
after chapter is devoted to seeing our Lord
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is the great king, fulfilling this
calling. So what we see in all
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of this is that the Church and
the new covenant is also ruled by a
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king who oversees the care of the
poor. So why deacons then? One
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answer is that after the inauguration of
this new and Better Covenant on the Cross
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and after his ascension into glory,
are King's ascension into glory, The Lord
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did not cease his work but continued
it and strengthened it through the work of
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the spirit and the church as a
whole, in part by calling, ordaining
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and gifting men to the Office of
Deacon to ensure that the government of his
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church, under his authority, was
also keen to ensure and establish and protect
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this ministry to his people. Another
way we might put it, as we
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consider acts six, is that just
as Christ's word is administered to those in
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need by pastors and his order is
maintained by his elders, his material care
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for the needy is overseen by his
deacons. This is his work in the
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church and for the church. Now, as a side note, amazingly,
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God cares also for his people and
for those who are not his people,
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even those who are outside of his
church. God cares for and he even
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gives us additional coverage, you might
say, additional protection and care, even
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in our lives outside of the church. Consider Matthew five hundred and forty five,
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something we experienced here even this week. Matthew five hundred forty five,
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for he makes his son to rise
on the evil and on the good and
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sends rain on the just and on
the unjust. God provides Sun and rain
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for those who are his people and
those who are not his people, for
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the righteous and the unrighteous, for
the just and the unjust, or axe
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fourteen seventeen. Speaking to gentiles,
the word says he did good by giving
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you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts and food with gladness.
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The New Testament, in the New
Testament, the apostles call on unbelieving
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pagan people, I dollar trust people, and said and says to them.
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Wake up, look at all the
ways in which God has provided for you,
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day after day, generation after generation. Don't let this kindness and forbearance
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be an excuse to continue in your
sin, but instead see it what it
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for what it is, as God's
grace. And so we see God's grace,
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I'm not only his special grace on
the church, but his common grace
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on all people as well. It's
not just Christian families who are called to
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take care of their own, but
unbelieving families as well, and by God's
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grace, so many of them do. He also brings the stemic goods through
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societies as a whole, through things
like rain and sun, the enactment of
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good laws and many other things.
The government as well is called to care
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for its people. Now, of
course, we know that doesn't always happen.
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ECCLESIASTES points this out. Says if
you see oppression of the poor and
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denial of Justice and righteousness in the
province, do not be shocked at this
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site, for one official watches over
another official and there are higher officials over
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them. I think ECCLESI, the
author of ECCLESIASTES, here is pointing out
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that, though the government is charged
with this task of maintaining the righteous cause
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of the poor, often officials just
end up watching each other's backs and bureaucracy
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levels and levels of bureaucracy pile up
and the poor are neglected. And when
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this happens, the word says don't
be shocked. This is life under the
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sun, this is life in a
cursed world, but nevertheless you still sense
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the expectation. They're right. The
commandment that is there. God's civil government,
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his ministers, is deacons. In
civil government, these magistrates are called
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to rule and righteousness, a core
component of which is the protection and care
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of the poor. Now there's much
to think about here. In this is
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not the primary concern of acts six, and we're going to move back to
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the government of the church in a
moment, but I simply want to point
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these things out so that you might
be amazed at the overflow of God's grace
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to you and on this world.
When God takes you out of the world
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and causes you to share in this
heavenly calling in Christ, when he makes
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you a citizen of the Kingdom of
God, he puts on you this extra
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protection, this special protection, because
we're are adopted into his family, we
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are cared for as his own children. This is partly the blessing of what
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it means to belong to his church, to belong to his people and to
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receive the government and the care,
the special care, of his deacons.
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In the Church there is a love
that God reserves only for his bride,
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a God, a love that God
gives specially to her, to us,
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to people didn't earn it, to
people that are only here by His grace
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but are here nevertheless and loved by
him. And so we turn to act
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six in particular and we see what's
going on here. Before this, there
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was a lot of good happening.
Note the setting of this events of NACT
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six. God's people had just experienced
a new exodus. There are many ways
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that the scriptures point this out.
I won't bring this out now, but
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there was a new exodus. Essentially, God's people had come out of slavery
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and bondage. So the worst kinds, not just over Pharaoh, but over
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Satan, over death itself, over
idolatry. Christ had risen from the dead
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of victorious over the grave. And
now, as the spirit of God has
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been poured out on God's people,
the Kingdom of Heaven has come and there
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is joy and love to be shared
by all. So listen to the result
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of these things. In acts to
acts two, verses forty two through forty
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seven. This is after the coming
of the spirit at pentecost, Peter's great
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sermon, thousand three thousand souls being
saved that day. And then acts forty
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two, and they devote here's what
happened next. They devoted themselves to the
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apostles teaching and the fellowship, to
the breaking of bread and prayers, and
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all came upon every soul and many
wonders and signs were being done through the
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apostles, and all who believed were
together and had all things in common,
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and they were selling their possessions and
belongings and distributing the proceeds to all,
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as any had need, and,
day by day, attending the temple together
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and breaking bread in their homes,
they received their food with glad and generous
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hearts, praising God and having favor
with all the people and the Lord added
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to their number day by day.
Those who are being saved amazing right,
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and here are. So we see
here the experience of the Salvation of Christ
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is not just an experience in our
souls, it also is something that we
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experience in our bodies, as we
share food with one another, as our
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tummies are filled up, as we
feel better and rejoice at fellowship meals gatherings,
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were we provide for one another and
especially to those who had need.
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You've got a need, brother,
don't worry, I'll take you'll sell some
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of my stuff, and then you're
done. We're a family now, we
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belong to something new and in all
of this great rejoicing, glad and generous
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hearts. So this is the background
of at Acts Chapter Six. But in
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acts chapter six we see a problem
coming. As the church was growing and
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growing, the needs grew and a
problem arose. The particular problem acts tells
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us is that there was a complaint
by the Hellenists. These would be Greek
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speaking Jewish Christians, Jewish Christians who, nevertheless, we're not a part of
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that core, you might say.
These are people in farther places, Greek
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speaking Jews right who had become Christians, but they're upset. There's a cultural
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problem going on because the Hebrews.
They rose against the Hebrews, the the
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the the Hebrew speaking Jewish Christians,
because their widows, that is the speed
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widows of the Greek speaking Jews,
were being neglected in the daily distribution.
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So these widows who were in need. There were widows on both in Jerusalem
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and outside of Jerusalem, among the
people of God, as the Church as
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arising, and there's seems to be
a brakedown even along cultural or ethnic lines.
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However we might classify that there is
a problem of exclusion, a problem
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of distinctions, of one group not
receiving what another group has because of their
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background, their history, which shouldn't
make any difference in the body of Christ
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because in the body of Christ we
are one, sharing with one another as
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we have knees, without preference to
our backgrounds, are our history or any
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of these sorts of things. And
these conflicts were very serious, even as
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they are today in our churches.
Similar kinds of things happen when there is
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exclusion and privilege and separation among people
on when our unity is to be in
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Christ it's a bad thing, and
here it was so bad that the twelve
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apostles gathered the entire church together to
talk about this, to deal with this,
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because there were multiple things under threat. One threat, as we have
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seen, is the care of the
widows. Right that chief complaint. They
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had to be taken care of.
They must be taken care of. James
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says, is if we neglect the
poor and the widow, if we neglect
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the orphan and the widow, what
good is our faith at all? That's
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no good, it's useless. It's
a dead faith. To neglect, to
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say, and stop your whining.
It's the neglects is to exhibit a heart
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that has not been changed by the
faith of God. We're taking care of
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our own, why don't you deal
with yours? We've been an awful thing.
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The hellenists were right to make a
complaint. They were right to say
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that there was something wrong, because
something was indeed wrong, and we see
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this because of the apostle's reaction the
apostles didn't say, you guys just need
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to work harder or you guys need
to stop your complaining. No, the
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apostles responded to a need. It
was a legitimate need, it was a
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legitimate complaint. It was right to
be made. One particular problem that I
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think is helpful to understand in the
background is if you remember that as Israel
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was called to care for their own. Often synagogues would indeed care for widows.
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So imagine you are a Jewish Christian, or a, let's say,
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a Jewish woman in a synagogue who's
cared for, a widow who's cared for
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in the synagogue, and now you
become a Christian. What just happened?
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Listen to John Twenty two. His
parents said these things because they feared the
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Jews, for the Jews had already
agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to
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be Christ, he was to be
put out of the synagogue. John Forty
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two. Nevertheless, many, even
of the authorities, believed in Jesus,
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but for fear of the Pharisees,
they did not confess it so that they
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would not be put out of the
synagogue. I know some of you have
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experienced this yourselves, that you belong
to families, to groups before you were
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Christian. That was your network,
it was your support it was your support
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system, your emotional support system,
your material support system. These were people
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that cared for you, that were
there in times of need, and that
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when you confess Christ, you gave
that up, that there was a cost
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to that, that you said,
I'm going to follow the Lord Jesus,
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even if it means I no longer
have the supports that I've always relied on.
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And that's what was happening to these
widows as they confess the Lord Jesus
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Christ. Even some of the we
read that in John Twelve, even some
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of the authorities, people in power
and authority or not willing to confess the
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Lord Jesus because they were afraid of
being put out of the synagogue. Can
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you imagine doing that if you didn't
have authority, if you didn't have power,
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if you were very, even totally
dependent upon other people? Now imagine
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going into the Church of Jesus Christ
saying, you know what, I'm going
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to do it anyway, I'm going
to follow the Lord Jesus, because that's
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what matters more than anything else,
and you say I believe in the Lord
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Jesus Christ. You're kicked out of
the synagogue and now you go. You're
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a part of God's people, this
church, this community, and they won't
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provide for you because you're a Greek
speaking widow. Bad, really bad.
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So you can see why the apostles
responded as they did, and notice that
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they didn't respond by saying, boys, we got to double down, we
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got to work harder, we got
to work faster, we got to work
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more efficiently. They said we can't
do this, this is impossible for us
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to do, this work cannot be
done, and so they go to the
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church. In a way that I
see a similar thing going on with the
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first exodus. Do you remember when
Moses brought his people, brought his people,
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God's people, out from Egypt and
he brought them out and then in
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exodus eighteen, his fatherin law comes
to him and says, what's a matter
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with you, Moses? You are
all the day deciding disputes. There's no
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way you can keep up with this. God's grace has so abundantly poured out
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on you that there's no way you
can handle this. What you need to
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do is a point leaders who are
wise and responsible and gifted and qualified to
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support you in this work. Otherwise
your work won't be done. And that's
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what that's what Moses did. He
set a pattern, then, for government
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going forward. We see something similar
happening here in the new covenant. After
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the exodus, coming out the apostles
of functioning as Christ's emissaries and authorities on
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earth, even as Moses did under
the old covenant, they find themselves in
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those some ways swamped by the grace
of God. As the Lord adds to
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the number more and more and more
and more. Something needs to be done,
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a pattern needs to be set and, much like happened before, we
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see we see a people being established, a government being established, and so
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that's what happens here. A pattern
is set for us, a pattern which
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we follow today. In verse two, we read that the twelve summoned the
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full number of disciples and says it's
not right that she we should give up
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the preaching of the word of God
to the Acono tables, to serve tables.
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Therefore, brothers picked out from among
them, from therefore, brothers,
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pick out from among you seven men
of good repute, full of the spirit
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and full of wisdom and we will
appoint and we will appoint, sorry,
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whom we will appoint to this duty, but we will devote ourselves to the
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prayer and to the Diacono. The
service is the same, word of the
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word. They had a diaconal calling, in a way, lowercase D,
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to the Ministry of the word and
to prayer. But there was another diaconal
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need that was needed, the the
bodily care of the poor. Into that
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they called the deacons. And that's
what happened. The they gathered the church
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together and the Church chose and the
apostles appointed, through the laying of on
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of hands, these seven men,
interesting, Allt Lee, who all have
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Greek names here, probably not by
accident. And what happens is the result
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of all of that. We read
in Verse Seven. And the word of
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God continued to increase. We see
the Holy Spirit's blessing on all of this.
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The apostles aren't going rogue here.
They're not. They're not shirking their
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duties, they're not giving up.
Know the word of God blesses this even
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as he blessed the people of Even
as God blessed his people in the old
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covenant. The word of God continued
to increase and the number of disciples multiplied
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greatly in Jerusalem, and a great
many of the priests became obedient to the
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faith. Disaster averted and a pattern
set for God's people going forward. So
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back to the original question, why
deacons? Well, ultimately it's because the
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Lord cares for his people. The
Lord cares for us. He knows us,
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he knows our needs and he loves
us and he knows that we have
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needs in this life. He knows
that we need clothes and shelter and food,
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and he promises to take care of
us and he does that in part
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through his church. He also knows
that the church will struggle at times with
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greediness, with laziness, with exclusivity, with infighting, and these are not
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good and so, in part to
help with that and to strengthen love and
400
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to set an example and to ensure
that these things are not neglected and don't
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fall apart, the Lord, by
His grace, gives us ordained officers do
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beacons, to protect us in the
name of the Lord, in the Ministry
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of the Lord, doing his work
as his hands in his feet, to
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set an example for us in our
own giving, in our own serving to
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be connectors and helpers and make sure
that everybody's taken care of, that the
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needs are known, that the needs
are men and in all of this we
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see our common calling in Christ being
shared. We see God's name being lifted
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up, we see the word going
forward, we see the glory of His
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name and a harvest of Thanksgiving and
praise, and the Word of God Goes
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Forth pee more and more people are
brought in, more and more people are
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entering into the worship of God,
more and more are saved. So when
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we consider the Office of Deacon,
ultimately what we are considering is the love
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of Christ for us, for people
who are needy and who are provided for
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by our king. So let us
offer up to him lives of sacrifice and
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Thanksgiving and praise. Even now,
let's pray
