Appointed To Serve

Introduction

I’m so thankful that they’re here and I’m just thankful to see all of you here today. It is good to be together to worship God and to study from his word. And I want to encourage you to go ahead and get your Bible out right now and turn over to the book of Acts, whether paper form or digital form. Go ahead and crank out those Bibles and go to Acts chapter 6. I want to read some verses in just a moment from Acts chapter 6. As you turn to Acts 6, I want to begin by asking a question.

And my question is, do churches have problems? Do churches have problems? If you answered no to that question, then that likely means a couple of different things. First, it means that you probably haven’t been in the church for very long. You likely are a new convert or a new disciple. And then secondly, it also likely means that you haven’t read the book of Acts. you haven’t read this book that we’ve turned to this morning because when you read the book of Acts, you see that in addition to telling us about how churches grew in the first century through aggressive evangelism, the book of Acts also tells us about problems.

It also tells us about problems in the church. It tells us about problems that threatened the growth of the church. That’s what we see here in Acts six. You see here in Acts chapter 6, we learn that when the church in Jerusalem was growing and thriving and increasing, a problem arose. A big problem arose in the church. Some henistic Jews, that is some Jews who had taken on Greek culture, they became upset because they felt their widows were being neglected.

They felt that their widows were not being properly cared for by the church. They felt that the Hebrew widows were getting proper benevolence, but theirs were not. And keep in mind that this is taking place during a time when there are no social security and retirement benefits left to widows. And there could have been a lot of these women in the church. There actually could have been maybe hundreds and hundreds of these widows in this church. I say that because in Acts chapter 4:E4, the Bible says that there were at least 5,000 adult males in the church at this time.

This church in Jerusalem was growing at a tremendous rate. And this problem with the widows could have really started hindering that growth. It could have really divided this church and distracted the apostles from doing the work of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the question is, what were they going to do? How was this problem going to be solved? How was this fire going to be put out so that the work of God could continue to grow and thrive?

Are you in Acts chapter 6? Look at verse number two. After telling us about this problem that was going on in the church in Jerusalem in verse one in Acts 6 and verse two it says so the 12 that is the the 12 apostles they summoned the congregation of the disciples and said it is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. We don’t have time to deal with this problem. Therefore, verse three, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. The statement found approval with the whole congregation. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Procreas, and Nikonor, and Timoth, and Parminius, and Nicholas, a procelite from Antioch. And these they brought before the apostles, and after praying, they laid their hands on them. Notice very carefully what the Bible says was going on in the church at this time.

Do you see it? Notice how when experiencing a crisis in the church, when experiencing the threat of division and hostility between brethren, when facing a time when the apostles could have been distracted from the primary work that God had given them to do, the scripture says that seven spiritually qualified men were appointed by the church. They were appointed to serve by the church. And some of these guys like Stephen and Philillip are already familiar to us.

While the other guys in verse number five who are mentioned are not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible, but they were equally important. They were equally valuable and vital to this work. In fact, I believe, brothers and sisters, that these seven men who were appointed by the church at this time were likely the first deacons appointed in the church. And we cannot under underestimate the value of their work. We cannot underestimate the value of good, godly, and hardworking deacons.

I’m reminded of what Paul says Philippians 1 and verse one. When writing to the church in Philippi, Philippians 1 and verse one, the apostle Paul, he writes to the church that held a special place in his heart. He begins the letter by saying, “Paul and Timothy, bond servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and the deacons.” Notice how this church, this church in Philippi was a scripturally organized church.

Do you see that? This church had everything that God wants a church to have. It was made up of saints. It was made up of holy ones. It was made up of Christians, followers of Jesus who had been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. This church was made up of the people of God, of saints. And part of that was having overseers. It had overseers. Some of your translations there rendered this word bishops. That’s talking about the elders. That’s talking about the shepherds, the pastors of the church.

This church had overseers. It had pastors and it also had deacons. It also had men that I that were like I believe those who were appointed in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 6. The question is what exactly do these guys do? What is their work and their role in the church? I mean, a couple of weeks ago, if you remember, we talked about how elders have been given the primary work of shephering and spiritually caring for a local flock of God. But where exactly do deacons fit in the plan of God?

What exactly do deacons do in a local church? I believe those are questions that we need to spend a few moments answering because they’re very important. You see, while there are many misunderstandings about the work of shepherds in the church, there may even be more misunderstandings about the work of deacons. You see, while shepherds lead, feed, and tend to the flock of God, and while preachers devote their time to studying and teaching and preaching and evangelizing the good news of Jesus Christ, many people in the church today see deacons as nothing more than maintenance men.

They see them as merely maintenance men. They see them as men who were nothing more than some guys who were married and they got some kids and are able to fix stuff around the church building. Some see deacons as merely just maintenance men in the church. And then others see them as junior elders, junior elders. In other words, they see them as men who must occupy the office of a deacon before they can become an elder. That is an unscriptural way of thinking.

The Bible does not teach that. The Bible does not teach that there are levels of rank and a corporate ladder in the church that a man must climb before he can become an elder. While elders do lead the people of God, while they do have authority in the local church, God never wants them to be viewed as spiritual CEOs or a spiritual board of directors. And becoming a deacon is a necessary step you got to take to get on the board. No sir, no ma’am.

The church is never described as a as a corporation or a business and you got to climb a spiritual ladder to get to the top. But that’s how some view this. They view them as maintenance men. They view them as junior elders and then you got some in the church who are just plain clueless. They’re just clueless about the work of deacons. Many of you know my mentor Max Dawson very well. Max Max has preached here on several occasions in the past. And one of the things that Max does is he goes around the country and he works with different elderships in private.

He talks with them about about shephering. Probably no one in the country is doing that more than Max right now. And one of the things I’ve heard him say on numerous occasions is in many local congregations, what’s going on is the preacher is doing the work of the elders. He’s doing the work of shepherds and the elders are doing the work of deacons and deacons just floating around not having a clue what to do. They just wearing the title of a deacon.

They’re clueless of their work and many of the regular members are too. In fact, maybe that describes you. Maybe you’re clueless about the work of deacons. soul, then I want to do my best to use this time to clear up that confusion. If you don’t mind, I want to do my best this morning to open up the word of God and remind all of us of what the Bible says about deacons and why they are so important. While now that we have spent our time over the last couple of weeks, two weeks ago, talking about elders and their work as shepherds, I think it’s important that we spend some time now talking about deacons and what deacons do in the church.

1. Deacons Are Servants

And let’s just begin by first pointing out that deacons are servants. We just sang about that, right? Make me a servant. That’s what deacons are. They’re servants. They are appointed to be servant leaders in the church. In fact, that’s exactly why the Holy Spirit uses the word deacon to describe them. That word deacon that Paul uses in Philippians 1 and verse one comes from the Greek word diacinos and diacinos means servant. It means minister. It means attendant.

It means helper. It even means one who executes the command of another. That’s what it means. In fact, this word diocinos is used dozens and dozens of times throughout the New Testament. Sometimes is used as a noun to describe someone who’s a servant. And sometimes it’s used as a verb or as an action word to describe the service of someone. And sometimes this word in the Bible is used to talk about Jesus. Did you know that? Did you know in the Bible Jesus is called a diaonos?

He absolutely is. Back in Matthew chapter 20, brother Aaron read earlier from Matthew 20. Look back at that verse please. In Matthew 20 and in verse number 28, in Matthew 20 and verse number 28, Jesus says just as the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Do you see the word serve there? That word serve there is diagonos. It is a word that Jesus is you using to say I’m a servant. He is telling us here that he’s not just the chief shepherd.

He’s also the chief deacon. Jesus uses this word for deacon to describe himself and how he served us in the highest possible way by dying on the cross for our sins. Sometimes diaonos in the Bible is used to describe Jesus and sometimes it’s used to describe the apostles. That’s exactly how it’s used in verse number 26 of this same chapter and Matthew 20 verse number 26. It is not this way among you but whoever wish to become great among you shall be your servant.

The word servant there is donos. It’s being used here to talk about the apostles. They were to be diaonos. They were to be deacons servants in the church. And then you add to that 2 Timothy 4 and verse 5. And in 2 Timothy 4 and verse 5, this word is also used to describe a preacher because Paul tells Timothy here to fulfill your ministry. The word ministry there comes from this word docos. It the deacon, the word deacon is used to describe a preacher there.

And then you go to Romans 16 and verse one and the word diacinos is used to describe a woman in the church named Phoebe. She was diacinos. She was a servant in the church. She was a servant of God. She was a servant of the brethren. She wasn’t serving in the official office of a deacon. That’s not Paul’s point. Instead, he’s using this word to talk about how she was a servant like God calls all his people to be servants. She served the people of God.

And then in 1 Corinthians 16 and verse1 15 the word diaonos is used to describe the household of Stephanus. Paul there says that that household had devoted themselves to ministry to service. There Paul’s used the word diaonos to describe that family. And then in Romans chapter 13 and verse4 this word diacinos is even used to describe the government. The government is described as diacinos. is described as a servant, as a minister of God to execute justice.

And then look at these two passages, please. 1 Peter chapter 4 and in John chapter 12. In 1 Peter 4. In 1 Peter 4, Peter here is talking to the people of God, the Christians, people like many of us in the room right now. And he says in 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 10, as each one has received a special gift, implore it in what? Serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. That word serving that you see there comes from this word diaonos.

And Peter is saying that as Christians, we all have been given a gift. We all have been given a talent or ability from God. And God expects us to use that talent or ability to serve to be deacons. The word deacon there is being used to describe all Christians. All of us in a sense are to be diacinos. And then you put that what Jesus says in John the 12th chapter. In John the 12th chapter, look at verse 26. Because in John the 12th chapter in verse 26, Jesus says, “If anyone serves me, he must follow me.

And where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, the father will honor will honor him.” Notice how Jesus again uses this word diacinos. And he used it in two different ways. Uses it as a noun and as a verb. He uses it to refer to his people as servants and to describe acts of service. What I just want you to see is throughout the Bible this word for deacon is used and it’s used to describe ultimately all of us as the people of God.

We all should be diacinos. We all should be servants, ministers, helpers, attendants in the body of Christ. That’s what the scripture says. But for the purpose of this lesson, let’s go back to 1 Timothy 3. Let’s go back to 1 Timothy 3. Because in 1 Timothy chapter 3, another place brother Aaron read from this morning, Paul says this in 1 Timothy 3 and in verse 8. 1 Timothy 3 and verse 8. Deacons likewise must be men of dignity, not double tonged or addicted to much wine or fond of sorted gain, beholding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.

These men must also first be tested that let them serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach. In verse 11, he describes the character of their wives. And then in verse 12, he goes on to say, “Deacons must be the husbands of only one wife and good managers of their children and their own household. For those who have served well as deacons, obtain for themselves a high standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.” So notice again how Paul uses this word deacon, diagonos over and over again in this text.

And he is using this word not to talk about Jesus or the apostles or people like Phoebe or all disciples in a general way. Instead, he’s using this word to talk about men who’ve been appointed to an office. He’s using this word to talk about special servants or ministers who’ve been appointed by a local church to minister to specific needs. Just like we saw in Acts chapter 6. You see, like the men we saw in Acts chapter 6, men who were or appointed to be deacons in the church today are to be men of high character.

And they are to be men who are viewed as very dependable and godly and trustworthy by the church. They must be men who are faithful. and they are passionate about service and they’re even willing to equip and use other people to perform works of service. Think about those guys back in Acts 6. Think about those guys who were appointed to serve in that Jerusalem church. I mean, do you really think they solve that problem all by themselves? [snorts] Do you really think that those seven guys, seven guys attended to all those widows in that church all by themselves?

Do you really believe that they purchased all the pots in the pans and they cooked all the meals and they personally went around Jerusalem delivering all those meals to all those widows? Does that make any kind of logical sense to you? Does it make sense, logical sense, to believe those seven guys? Did all that work for those widows all by themselves? Or does it make more sense that they ensured this need was met by enlisting the service of others?

Does it make more sense that they involve some good brothers and sisters in the church to help cook those meals and prepare those meals and deliver those meals and join them in this work of ministry? That’s what good leaders do. Good leaders delegate. They involve others in their work. That’s no different than how some of our deacons here enlist help and running the camera upstairs. Or they enlist help in controlling the PowerPoint slides during the singing.

2. Deacons Are Over a Specific Work

Or occasionally they enlist help in tending to the needs of this facility or helping give a disciple here without a car a ride to the doctor’s office. Good leaders delegate. They get others involved in works of service. Deacons are servant leaders in the church. And I also need to emphasize to you that they are over a specific work. They’re servant leaders, which means that they’re over a specific work. And the Bible makes that very clear. Look back at Acts chapter 6 again. Please go back to Acts chapter 6 and notice carefully the language of the text.

In Acts chapter 6 and in verse number three, in Acts chapter 6 and in verse number three, after the apostles say to the brethren, we don’t have time to stop what we’re doing to deal with these widows. In verse number three, they then say, “Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

Do you see the part at the end of verse three where they say, “Whom we may put in charge of this task?” Some translations say whom we may put over this task. That language is critical. That language shows us that deacons are appointed by the church and they have assigned task. They have assigned works in the local church. They’re not just men who hold a title. They’re not just men floating around wearing the title of a deacon. They’re not just appointed to fill a slot on the church website while elders have the authority to set up the parameters of their work.

Deacons, according to the Bible, have tangible work that they are over. They are men who have some authority. They have authority over the work they’ve been assigned. They have authority to make decisions in regards to their work. They have authority to be supervisors and managers of their work. They should be trusted as men who are capable of making good decisions and have good judgment in regards to their work. Otherwise, they shouldn’t be appointed there in the first place.

In fact, Acts 6 and verse three makes that clear. Going back to Acts 6 and:3, the apostles say, “These men must be men of wisdom.” Wisdom involves judgment. They can make good decisions. What the apostles are saying here is they didn’t want to micromanage these guys. These guys were not micromanaged by the apostles. The apostles didn’t have to hold their hands. In fact, the apostles make it very clear here that they didn’t want to do that with these guys.

I mean, c can you imagine the apostles advising this church to appoint these seven men to be over this work of benevolence? But every single day, they got to hold their hands. Every single day, they got to constantly worry about them coming up to them and asking them, “Hey, can we have permission to buy some more pots and pans?” or every single day they keep coming to them asking them, “Well, can we use this person to help make meals or can we use that person to help make meals or is it okay for us to include certain widows on this list?

Do they qualify for benevolence?” The apostles didn’t want to have to do that. In fact, if that was going on, if the apostles had to micromanage them and hold their hands every single day, that would have defeated the entire purpose of them being appointed in the first place. just cut the middle man out. I mean, if that was going on, the apostles would not have been able to stay focused on the primary work God had given them to do, which was pray and preach.

By these seven men being over this work, the apostles were freed up. They were freed up to do evangelism. They were freed up to pray. They were freed up to preach and to continue spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s why these guys were appointed. And I’m glad to say that same thing goes on here. In our case here at South Bumby, the work of our deacons, the work of the five men we have as deacons allows our shepherds to focus on shephering, to focus on watching over souls, to focus on allowing making sure that members of this flock are not slipping through the cracks unnoticed.

Their work allows our shepherds to do their work which is shepherd. And when it comes to me as a preacher, when it comes to JR as a preacher, the work of our five deacons blesses us with the opportunity to focus on the main work that God has given us, which is preach, which is read, which is study, which is teach, which is build up to save and try to win the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let me tell you something, brothers and sisters. I would not be as prepared to stand before you today and preach this lesson if I had to use all last week to fix on stuff around this building.

And I would not be as prepared to stand before you and preach and teach today if I had to spend all last week keeping up with the church finances and loading sermons on YouTube and trying to organize men to worship to lead in worship today and having to tend the widows and shuts and keep up with the attendance here. There is no way in a million years I could fulfill my responsibilities as a preacher while at the same time focusing on that kind of stuff.

And I thank God that I don’t have to. I thank God that here we have faithful, godly, and hardworking deacons who are over those works. They are in charge of those works. They are under the oversight of our shepherds and they make sure that those kind of works are accomplished so that shepherds can shepherd and preachers can preach. That’s God’s plan. Deacons are over a specific work and I want us to understand that that work is critical is critical to the growth of a local church.

3. Work Critical to the Growth of a Local Church

Going back to Acts chapter 6 again, let me ask you something. When you go back to Acts six and look at that problem that was going on in that church, what kind of problem was that? What kind of problem was really going on with those widows? Well, I submit that that was a twofold problem. First, that was a physical problem. There were physical needs in that church. Widows needed bread. They needed food. They needed physical food to get in their bellies.

This was a physical problem, but it wasn’t just a physical problem. It also was a spiritual problem. Why do I say it was a spiritual problem? Well, notice verse one says that this issue of some widows being possibly neglected was causing some people in the church to grumble. It was causing some to complain. It was threatening the unity of this church. But the appointment of these special servants helped put that fire out. It helped put that divisive fire out. In fact, beyond doing that, their appointment also enabled the apostles to stay focused on the work of evangelism.

And look at what verse 7 says in Acts chapter 6 and verse 7. Look at what that verse says. After these seven men were appointed to be over this work of benevolence in verse number seven it says the word of God kept on what? Spreading and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem. The church is growing. The gospel is getting out and a great many of the priests even some of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.

Notice how by these men fulfilling this physical need in the church, the devil was crippled. The devil was not able to hurt this church’s spiritual health. The widows were taken care of. Unity and peace was achieved in the church. The apostles could stay focused on evangelism and the church was able to keep growing. You know what that’s called? That’s called the wisdom of God. What you see there is the wisdom of God. You see the love of God for his people and God’s care and provisions for his work.

The question is, do we see that today? Are we constantly aware of that today? Are we constantly mindful of the fact that because of the work of our deacons here, so much good is accomplished? So much good in the kingdom is accomplished. So much good on the Lord’s day is accomplished. Do you remember a few weeks ago we had some air conditioning issues? Y’all remember that? And there was some units that were down and there was a section of this building where it was really hot and people were fanning a lot.

They were fanning way faster than than you were, Sister Kim. There was a lot of that going on around the building. But do we have that problem now? Well, today they’re all, from my understanding, they’re all running. They’re all working today. And who took the lead in that? Our deacons did. Because of their work, we have a comfortable building to worship God in. And because of their work, we have available to us this morning these screens on each side of me.

They display a foreign language so that everybody here can understand the preaching of the word of God. And because of their work, the money that’s collected today, it’s going to be counted and it’s going to be accounted for. And some of that money is going to be sent to preachers around this country and around the globe that we support. And because of their work, we have this morning prepared. We have a prepared baptistry this morning in case somebody wants to come forward into the glory of God, obey the gospel, and be baptized.

And when we baptize them, because of the work of our deacons, it’s not going to feel like the Arctic. And because of their work, many of our widows are looked after and they’re cared for. And we have a well functioning security system. And we got a nice clean building this morning to worship God in. We got a clean restrooms this morning. And each month we have an updated worship assignments list. And tomorrow, guess what? This sermon is going to be loaded on YouTube for the whole world to hear.

Conclusion

All that stuff is work that our deacons lead us in. These are wonderful works, works of service, works of ministry, and I thank God for them. I thank God for Tony Thigpin. and Andrew Fix and Steve Barker and Mike Maner and Sean Codwell. These men are our deacons in this church and they do very important work. In fact, I want to close very quickly by asking you to do a few things for them. First, very quickly, I want to just ask you to please be mindful of their work.

Always be mindful of their work. Get caught up to speed on their work. Talk to them about their work. Get educated on the work they’ve been given charge of by our elders. Understand that while their works are mostly done behind the scenes, they’re not done in front of the curtain, they’re still very, very important. They’re important to the service of God and the ministry of the gospel here in this place. So please be mindful of their works and please encourage them in their works.

Be a Barnabas to them. Remember in Acts chapter 4, Barn Barnabas was commended by the apostles because he was a great encourager. He encouraged the people of God. And we can be that today. We all can do that. We can encourage our shepherds. We can encourage our song leaders. We can encourage We can encourage our deacons. We can text them some words of encouragement this week. We can write them a card with some words of encouragement. We could go to them face to face today and just say, “Thank you for your service and your work in the gospel and for the Lord.”

Be mindful, be encouraging, and then be inspired. Be inspired to imitate them. Imitate their zeal. Imitate their humility. imitate their desire to serve the Lord and his people. Understand that while you may not meet the qualifications to serve in the office of a deacon, you still can be a servant. You still can be like Jesus. You still can put the needs of others even before your own needs. I can do that. You can do that. We can do that. In fact, we can even go to our deacons and ask them, “Is there anywhere where we can help them?

Is there anywhere we can be useful to them? Is there anywhere in this church that we can serve alongside them to the glory of God? There’s nothing wrong with doing that. Be mindful, be encouraging, be inspired by their service. And then finally, please make sure you’re always praying. Always pray for them. Pray for their work. Pray for their families. Pray for their wives. Pray for their children. Pray that God will continue to give them wisdom and good judgment.

Pray thanking God for their work because it accomplishes so much good and it enables other servants of God to stay focused on the work God has given them to do. Always be praying for the elders and for the deacons. In fact, let’s do that right now. Will you pray with me, please? Let’s pray together. Almighty God, we’re so thankful that we’ve been able to be here today to worship and praise your name. We’re so thankful for Jesus and his blood. And we bow our heads as your people at this time offering a special prayer on the behalf of of our deacons, the five men here who serve in special ways, who are servant leaders.

I pray that you would continue to bless them with zeal, with a servant’s heart, with good judgment and wisdom as they serve your people under the oversight of the shepherds here. I pray that you will bless them and bless their work and bless their families. And I also pray for our shepherds. I pray for the for the men, the four men here who lead us so well, that you will bless them. I pray for their families. I pray that you will bless us all at this church as we strive to be united, as we strive to love and serve alongside together and to be able to spread the gospel here in this community.

You’ve blessed us with so much talent and so many resources. And we pray, Father, that we’ll be good stewards of these blessings and use them for your glory in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for listening. So well today we have focused on what the Bible says about these special servants called deacons. But I want to close very quickly by asking you to think about the greatest servant of all and that’s Jesus. Right? Jesus in Matthew 20 verse 28 describes himself as a deacon as a servant.

He served us in the highest possible way by dying on the cross for our sins. And maybe you need to come to him today. Maybe you need to obey the gospel for the first time today through faith and repentance and baptism for remission of sins. Or maybe you’re out of service. You’ve left the Lord and you need to repent. If there’s anyone here who needs to come to the chief shepherd and the chief deacon, who is Jesus, come to the front right now as we stand and we sing together.