Philippians chapter one. I'm just going to be reading
a scripture here to recap this a little bit. We won't be harboring much long
here in Philippians, but we do want to read a passage here to
kind of remind us of our subject of course. Philippians chapter
one. Let's bow and have a word of
prayer. Father, we thank you today for
your mercy. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ as we always
do. We know that because of him,
Father, we have life and we have it abundant. Because of him,
we have this time together, together in his name, that we have the
presence of the Holy Spirit promised if we do such. Lord, we thank
you. for all that you are to us, for
us, through us, in us. Heavenly Father, we just pray
now, Lord, that you might be with us now as we open up your
words. Help me, Father, to preach the
message before me today, to faithfully exegete the word of God, to teach
the things in which it says, that they may accord with truth,
Father, I pray that you might edify your people that's here
today. Father, we're thankful for this week that we've had
and celebration and thanksgiving with our families and our friends.
Lord, the safety that you've given us all in our travels and
the good time that we've had to spend with our family and
friends and able to reflect upon the things that we're thankful
for. the provisions that you've given us, the way that you take
care of us each and every day. Lord, we're so thankful today
for Jesus. We're thankful that he died for
us, that his blood atoned for our sin as we just sang about,
and that we have forgiveness before you, that we've been reconciled
to you, that we have no wrath over us, that we have a righteousness
imputed to us, that we freely can serve you in love and serve
our brothers and sisters. Father, what a blessing it is
to be able to be in the Lord's Church and to be able to be a
minister of the things of the kingdom of God as we gather together
this morning. We know that we should not take
this lightly, Father. We know that many desire and
yearn for churches that preach the truth and hold to your faith
and practice, and yet are in places that they cannot find
that. By your providence, they've been placed in these places,
and Lord, they desire to have fellowship, and we pray for them.
We pray, Lord, that you would bring other believers to come
and to fellowship and to be edified together under the word of God.
Father, we pray for our church. As small as it is, Lord, we are
thankful that you have sustained us all these years. We're thankful
for building us up in the faith, for teaching us, directing us,
using us in what little way that you have. I say little, Lord, I don't know
the magnification of that and how it's working out beyond the
means of what we see, but Lord, we do thank you. for what ministry
you've allowed us to have. And we do pray for our church
that it might grow numerically, not so that we can tout about
numbers, but Father, we pray that there might be a place here
for other believers in this town and surrounding communities and
areas that desire to hear the true gospel preached and to be
with other believers who believe these things and to fellowship
and to serve with each other. Father, we pray that you might
bring them to to join us and to serve with us. Father, we
pray for our members that are not here this morning. We pray,
Lord, that you would be with them. Lord, we truly desire them
to be with us. And we ask, Lord, that you just
might work in their heart and that you might bring them to
understanding and desire for your church. And Lord, we pray
that the things that are hindering them from coming, the things
that might be keeping them away. Lord, we pray that you might
remove those things and that you might bring them back to
us again. Lord, we just are so grateful
again for your son, Jesus, today. And we pray that we honor and
glorify him in all that we do. And so we ask help for that and
the enabling of the Holy Spirit. And it's in Jesus' name we pray,
amen. All right, well today we're going
to be looking at the office of deacon. We've been looking at
our study of the church, the Lord's church, the New Testament
church, the ecclesia, whatever title you want to put on that.
We have been looking at the Lord's church and different aspects
of that. And we've been in the subsection
of the officers of the church and within the subsection of
the officers of the church. I guess we have a sub-subsection.
I don't know what you would call it below the subsection. That's
my ignorance and unlearned speaking coming out. But anyway, we're
looking at the deacon, the office of deacon. Now we have seen already,
and if you look there in Philippians chapter one and verse one, we
see that we have made a distinction that there are basically two
offices within the local church. There's the office of bishop
or that term bishop is synonymous with elder. It's synonymous with
pastor teacher. Okay, we've done went through
that. If you didn't catch that, you can go back on Facebook and
watch the previous lessons on the office of pastor. or the
officers of the church introduction. And you'll see that there is
a synonymous nature to, or synonymous use of the word elder, bishop,
and pastor in the scriptures. And that that office is one office,
and that that office is distinct from the office of deacon. And so we have two offices within
the local church. We have the office of pastor
or bishop elder and deacon, okay? Bishop and deacon. And if you
look there in Philippians, we'll see that this is lined out here
as Paul addresses the church at Philippi. He says, Paul and
Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ
Jesus, which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.
So Paul here, and a lot of people, they want to cast out the introductions
or the greetings and say that there's nothing important in
the greeting, or there's nothing teachable in the greeting, that
it is what it is, it's just a greeting. I've actually heard that said
just recently from a preacher that I listen to on the internet
once in a while, and he made that comment. He said that, you
know, can't put a lot of stock into the greetings because they
are what they are. They're just greetings. There isn't a lot
of stuff to be learned from those things. But we have a lot of
things that we can actually learn from the greetings. And maybe
one of these days I'll actually preach a message that deals with
the doctrine in the greetings or something like that, you know.
But here we see that Paul is addressing the church at Philippi.
He is... greeting them, he is introducing
who he is and who's with him, okay? Of course, they already
knew who he was, but he's, you know, opening the letter. You
know, whenever I write an email at work to one of our customers
and I'm sending them something and everything, I know who my
customer is and my customer knows who I am. And my customer may
even be expecting this email, but yet I will usually put in
there, you know, Dear so-and-so, this is Mike with Ozark Imaging,
just responding back to your blah, blah, blah, whatever, okay?
Okay, what is that? Well, that's my greeting. I'm
replying to them, or I'm greeting them, letting them know who I
am and who I work for, and this is what I'm here to write about,
okay? That is the introduction, that
is the greeting of the letter, and this is what Paul's doing.
Paul has a letter that he is writing to the Philippian church,
and that he is addressing himself and Timotheus as the ones who
is there, the service of God, who is at that time, whenever
he's writing that letter, Timothy's there with him, okay? And they
are discussing these things, they're talking about these things,
and as the Holy Spirit, by the inspiration of God, gives Paul
to write this letter, he writes this letter to the Philippian
church, but who else is there with him? He says, Paul and Timotheus,
the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus,
which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons, okay? So
he's writing this not only to the church, but the church that
is there, and addressing that with the bishops and deacons,
okay? The ones who are there with the
bishops and deacons. So we see here in the text, we
see the church, we see the bishop, and we see the deacon, all separated
there. There is the saints there at
the church at Philippi. There is the bishop of Philippi
Church and the deacon or deacons at Philippi Church. Okay, so
we see the bishops and deacons are there with the church at
Philippi. I've said that to show that the
office of bishop and deacon are separated. Now, we want to talk
today about the office of deacon. The office of deacon is much
like the office of pastor in some regards as far as some of
the qualifications and also some of the duties that the deacon
does is some that the pastor may endeavor to do as well. The first thing I'd really like
to say this morning about the office of deacon is that we need
to get our understanding as we should from anything that we
hold to. All of our doctrine should fall
under this category, but we need to understand the office of deacon
from scripture and not from man's traditions, okay? None of the
doctrines that we hold to should come because of a doctrine of
man. None of the practice that we practice should be because
it is from the doctrines of man. If we don't find it in the scripture
and God doesn't prohibit it, you know, there's nothing wrong
with tradition. You know, we have a tradition here of, just
like we did last Sunday, we have a Thanksgiving dinner and a time
of testimony of thanksgiving here every year before Thanksgiving
holiday. That's a tradition. The scriptures
doesn't command us to do that. It doesn't prohibit us to do
that. And there isn't anything in there that keeps us from doing
that, okay? The Bible does teach that we
are together. The Bible teaches that we can
eat meals together. The first church met often to
meet and eat together. And then they also said to give
thanks one to another. And they often, Paul often showed
his thanks to the brethren and the churches and the ones who
ministered alongside of him. And so tradition is not bad if
it doesn't go against scripture or if it doesn't contradict the
things of scripture, then tradition is fine and not to be held as
authoritative though, right? Okay? If we have a Thanksgiving
dinner every year before Thanksgiving, I can't tell the church down
the street, well, what do you mean, you don't have a church Thanksgiving dinner?
Well, what's wrong with you? Here's a good example. You mean
to tell me your church doesn't celebrate Easter? Well, you should
be celebrating Easter, okay? See, a lot of people impose that
upon us, right? We don't celebrate Easter here,
but yet those in the mainstream, they celebrate Easter. And they
look at us and say, well, what's wrong? You're a church and you
don't celebrate Easter? The traditions of man have now
become authoritative then. They think that you're not a
good Christian church if you don't celebrate Christmas and
Easter, which we don't here. And so we now take the traditions of
man and elevate them to the authority of scripture. and we shouldn't
do that. Tradition should be just that, tradition. Now, if
the tradition is found in Scripture, the Bible even speaks about that,
that there is traditions of good and that we should keep the traditions.
The Bible says that we are to find the old landmarks and to
follow in those things. That kind of tradition, when
it speaks of that, the tradition of the church, like the tradition
of the church was preaching the gospel, carrying
out the gospel, following the doctrines of Christ. That's the
tradition of the church, is doing those things. That is the things
that we should be following that is authoritative, right? So we
need to get our understanding from scripture, not from man's
tradition. So often man's traditions have
enveloped our mind when we've been trained, we've been taught,
and to some degree brainwashed. And I'm not necessarily saying
everybody that has taught this in the past, is brainwashing
people in a nefarious way, okay? But what I'm saying is that because
somebody takes something and has heard it, they're, you know,
whenever I was a child, my great-grandpa taught me this, taught my grandpa,
my grandpa taught my dad, my dad taught me, now I'm teaching
my kid, and I mean, we just teach what we know over and over and
over again. I've often quoted Brother Royce,
whenever he has said this before, but the greatest hindrance to
our learning is what we already know. A lot of times the greatest
hindrance to what we are trying to learn, or wanting to learn,
or needing to learn, is what we already know. Meaning that
we're already set in our ways, well I've already learned that,
or this is a tradition that we've had, or this is how we've done
it all my life, or I've not heard anybody else preach that. And
so we've held so tight to that, that we're not open to look at
God's word and whenever another brother or sister comes with
something different than what we've heard, to at least not
look into it. The Bible says that it's folly for a man to
judge a matter before he listens to it or before he searches it
out. And so we should be open to listen and to examine these
things, just like the Bereans did with Paul, examine these
things to see whether they'd be true. And if they hold forth
in the word of God, even though we may not necessarily understand
it or believe it or agree it, at least, you know, don't go
off calling them heretics. Don't go off, you know, lambasting
them all over the place. At least begin to look at it
and pray. You know, often I've prayed.
I've looked at some scriptures that a brother has come to me
and he's got a different viewpoint of it and a different understanding
of it that I've not ever heard or never been instructed by the
spirit by. And he brings that and, you know,
I haven't understood that. And I'll pray, hey, Lord, hey,
this is truth. Change my mind. If this is what
your truth is, then bring me to that truth. Help me understand. Help me see. Change my thoughts
and understanding of that. Show me in the scriptures how
it works. Because I definitely want to preach the truth. I want
to teach the truth. I don't want to preach a lie.
I don't want to be deceived in my own mind, thinking that I
know this is the truth when it's really not. Bring me to, show
me what the truth is. And the Holy Spirit will definitely
do that as we pray and as we look into God's word. So, our
understanding should come from scripture, not man's traditions.
Now, as it pertains to the office of deacon, there is a lot of
tradition that governs how a deacon is chosen and how a deacon works,
okay? And listen, I can tell you, many
a church has been hurt and even split because of the misunderstanding
or misuse of the offices of the church. You know, I know one
little church that's not too far from where I grew up that
because of the overreach of the deacons, there were pastors that
couldn't even stay there and pastor. They were always run
off by the deacons. They was always held to a standard
that, you know, the deacons was in charge and we just let you
come here and preach type mentality. And these deacons held sway over
the people by their prominence within that church from being
there for years and years and years. See, abusing the office
of deacon is just as bad as abusing the office of pastor. If a pastor
is a dictator or a lord over God's heritage as a as one who
drives the flock instead of leads the flock, then that is abuse
of the office. Same with the deacon. If the
deacon uses his office for personal gain, to rule over the Lord's
people, then he is misusing his office. And so, one of the things that we see
And I'm just gonna speak from experience, I'm gonna speak from
life learning in the past on this, that what I've seen as
far as erroneous office of deacon use is that one, there are men
who churches make honorary deacons. I don't know if you've ever heard
that or not, if you've ever experienced that, but This brother is an
honorary deacon, okay? He's not a real deacon, he's
an honorary deacon, okay? That means that he's deacon in
name, but not in service, okay? We've given him a name because
he's a very prominent man in the church, or he's been in the
church for, he's a founding member of the church, so we've made
him an honorary deacon. We have made him an honorary
deacon because he bought all of the big gym that's, We built
next door for all the kids to go play in. And he, we've made him an honorary
deacon because his daddy was the previous pastor of the church. Okay. See what I'm talking about
there? Honorary deacon is not found
anywhere in the scripture. The office of deacon is something
that somebody is called to and qualified for, not something
that we bestow the name upon somebody. And the reason for
that is if we bestow a name as honorary deacon when the man
has not been called and not been qualified, then what we're saying
is there is this ruling body or board of deacons that is something
over everybody else. And that is not the case. This
man is worthy to be deacon even though he's not called or qualified. That's what people are saying.
And you see how that's a contradiction? It doesn't go with God's word.
People might make deacons deacons because of their wealth. Because
this man is wealthy. Because they have influence.
Maybe they're influential in town. In the little town that
I grew up in, I know of one man who was a deacon. He wasn't a
deacon in the church that I grew up in, but in one on the other
side of town, another prominent church on the other side of town.
And this man was a deacon in that church, but yet he was very
scrupulous, unscrupulous in his dealings in town as a businessman. And in private, he didn't act
very well. He did a lot of things underhandedly. And I don't want to go into too
much detail on that, but whenever I found out the guy was actually
a deacon in the church across town, I was kind of shocked to
be, and he was actually a Sunday school teacher too, and the church
had Sunday school, and he was a Sunday school teacher, and
I was kind of shocked about both of those things. But anyway,
because they have influence in town doesn't mean that they need
to be a deacon in your church. Again, there's a misunderstanding
of what the word deacon or what the office of deacon is all about. Another erroneous teaching that
we find on the office of deacon is that deacons form deacon boards. Have you ever been in a church
or seen a church or heard of a church that the deacons form
a deacon board? Well, there was no such thing
as a deacon board in the New Testament. The deacons never
formed a board, okay? The Bible has placed the pastor
as the overseer of the church. He's the one that is to oversee the workings of the church and
the spiritual nature and aspect of the church,
okay? The deacons are not put in a
place of overseeing. They are put in a place there
for serving, not for overseeing, and we'll see that here in a
minute. And then the deacons, they think that they, another
wrong understanding is they think that they can rule the church.
I've heard many a stories of how the deacons try to rule the
church, that they are the ones that tell the pastor what to
do, which is just the opposite, by the way. The pastor is the
one that tells, is usually what tells the deacons, or asks the
deacons, not tells the deacons, but asks the deacons to do certain
things as far as serving and helping within the church, the
things that need to be done. And so we see these are the erroneous
men tradition understanding of the office of deacon. And just
because there is bad things like that, men trying to rule over
the church, men being called honorary but not qualified, or
men who have influence and wealth that are being made deacons,
All these things and the misuse of the office doesn't negate
the office, okay? Just like with pastor. Just because
there is bad pastors and unqualified pastors doesn't mean that that
negate, that we should negate or deny or quit practicing having
a pastor or bishop teacher, elder. Same thing with deacon. Just
because there is a misuse of that office doesn't mean that
we deny or rule out that office. Now, as we've seen here in Philippians
1, we see that the deacon is the second office in the church.
The office of deacon is that other office, and that's what
we'll be looking at today. Now first, let's see what the
word deacon means, how it is defined in God's word. This word deacon, is a word that
means to wait upon. It means to serve or an attendant. I've heard it said a lot that
this was a server or a server of tables. They waited upon tables,
okay? And that a deacon was someone
who waited upon the tables. But the word means to wait upon,
to serve or an attendant. In the King James Bible, The
word is found 37 times, the word behind this. 15 times it is used, I'm sorry,
37 times as the word deacon. 15 times this word is used to
minister to. 10 times this word is used to
serve. And five times this word is used
miscellaneous as to minister. to attend, to serve, to wait
upon. Okay, so that's why we say God's
word defines the word deacon as a minister that serves. They serve, their ministry is
serving. Their ministry is attending upon
or waiting upon others. Helping others, that's the gift
of helps. The Bible talks about those who
have the gift of helps. Here it is, the gift of helps
Now, you don't have to have the office of deacon to have that
gift, but one who is a deacon will surely have the gift of
health. There'll be one who wants to serve other people, okay? And so the way God defines this
term really gives us great evidence that the modern-day understanding
of this office is all wrong. See, the modern-day understanding
of this office as a deacon is the one who rules the church
or who rules some part of the church, that they have some higher
authority within the church and that they should be obeyed and
that they should be followed by other people, but yet that
is completely opposite of how God's word defines the word deacon. The word deacon means to serve,
to be a hand servant, to be a hand, not a hand servant, to be a,
A handmaid, I guess would be the word. A maid, a servant,
one who attends upon another, okay? So a deacon is a servant
that is distinguished from other servants and has a particular
ministry though. The deacons, now everybody in
the church is called to serve one another, right? And some
people within the church may have the gift of helps. meaning
that they serve and, you know, generally everybody in the church
to some degree serves. Now, not everybody, but generally
does. But then there are those who
have a higher gift by God, and they're just compelled to always
be serving, always be serving. And that is common among everybody. But the office of deacon is one
who is not only a servant, but he is called unto a specific
ministry of serving. And let's see what that ministry
is. And the first place that we find
this ministry is in Acts chapter six. So if you wanna turn back
to Acts chapter six. Acts chapter six. We'll read through here. And again, this is the first
occurrence of where the office of deacon came in. Acts chapter six. And we'll start reading in verse
one. My fingers don't like to cooperate. That's all right. Acts chapter
six, verse one. It says, in those days when the
number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the
Grecians among the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in
the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude
of the disciples unto them and said, it's not reason that we
should leave the word of God and serve tables. Okay, so here
we see that the first priority for the pastor, for the elders,
is not to wait upon tables, Right? What is it? Wherefore,
brethren, look ye out among yourselves, look ye out among you seven men
of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we
may appoint over this business. But we, the 12, the ones who
were called as apostles, and in this case, the elders of the
church at this point, And we will give ourselves continually
to prayer and to the ministry of the word. So the pastor, as
we've seen, his first and foremost job as pastor is to preach the
word. And of course, prayer in the
ministry is very important as well. We pray not only for understanding
of God's word, but we pray for those who we minister to. and
for the ministry of the church, okay? And so we give ourselves
to the ministry of the word and to prayer. That's what the bishops
are for, all right? And so the acts of service, the ministration
of service is not primarily the pastor's duty, okay? Now, that doesn't mean he can't
do that. It doesn't mean that he shouldn't do that or that
he doesn't want to do that, right? But that his first priority to
the church in the office that God has called him to is to minister
the word of God and to pray for that church. That's his first
and preeminent priority is that. Now, as a pastor, we like to
go visit the sick when they're sick. We like to go help those
who are in need in the church. If someone is moving, we wanna
go help them move. If they're needing assistance
with something, let us go assist them. We like to do those things. But yet that is not the, the
priority or the first things that the pastor should be doing.
If the pastor's taking his time and having to deal out going
out and doing all those things, it takes away from his time of
being able to study and to reflect upon God's word, to meditate
upon God's word in prayer. Okay? And so they need somebody
to help them do the things of ministry while they can attend
to the things of study. It says here, it says, that the
widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the
12 called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said,
it is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve
tables. Now here's just an admonition
to the church. You should recognize that about
your pastor, okay? That he shouldn't be out having
to do all the things that are serving the church as far as,
you know, whatever the church may need in the physical ministration
of things. Okay? That in doing so, that
takes away from his time, not only with the word of God, but
it takes away the time that he has to spend with his family.
And if he's a working man, he has to now split the work, the
family, and the study all up. And so we want to as a church,
we want to be mindful of our pastors, that we support them,
and one of the ways we support them is making sure that they
are not cumbered by a lot of earthly, physical, and especially
trivial things, but that we might bear that load so that they might
have more time in the study, and that's gonna be profitable
not only to you, but to him, okay? It is not reason that we
should leave the Word of God and serve tables. Wherefore,
brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full
of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this
business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to
the ministry of the Word, and the same please the whole multitude,
and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy
Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenios
and Nicholas, the proselyte of Antioch, whom they set before
the apostle, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands
on them. And the word of God increased,
and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly,
and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith."
Now, as a side note that I'll say here about this in verse
seven, if you'll notice this, You know, I'm not saying that
this is a set in stone thing, that if we do all the mechanics
of what's being said right here, that God is forced to make this
happen. But what I'm saying is it doesn't
hurt to follow the examples that we find in scripture whenever
we're asking, hey, does the church, do we want this church to grow?
Well, here's one way that it grew. Whenever the pastors weren't
encumbered by the ministration of tables and the things of physical
nature, they were able to study God's Word. What happened? The
Word of God increased, okay? The Word of God increased, and
the number of the disciples multiplied. So whenever there is a ministry,
for the one who ministers, then there is an increase in the Word
of God and there is a increase in the disciples. And so, while we don't want to
be dogmatic, like I said, that this works in every case and
every scenario, we certainly know that this is one way that
it does. Not as a formula, but that we
can pray, Lord, let this happen here. Okay, so we see that the
deacon was formed out of a necessity, right? The office of deacon was
formed and that Christ give this office in the church as one of
necessity. There was a necessity that there
would be some who would serve on the daily physical things
of the church so that the pastors would not be encumbered And so
they chose men, and we'll see here that there is a qualification
for these men that they had to choose from. But the qualifications
of these men shows that this office is not to be underestimated. It's not to be under esteemed. That it is an important office,
and it is a separate office because there is qualifications. That's
another reason why I believe that the word deacon doesn't
just mean someone who serves in the church. and that it could
be anybody, because the Bible does lay qualifications. There's
only two offices that the Lord has given that has qualifications
to be in that office, okay? Everything else the Lord has
not given a qualification for to participate in, but to participate
in the office of pastor and to participate in the office of
deacon, there is some qualifications. Now, before we get to those qualifications
though, Let's look and see how was the deacon chosen? How should
a church choose a deacon? Well, number one, we're gonna
see that there are qualifications that must be met, but look here
if you would in Acts chapter six. First you'll notice that
the office of deacon was established as a separate ministry from that
of the pastor, and that that office was separated to aid the
pastor Okay? In the ministration to the church.
Okay? The office of deacon was made
to help the pastor in ministering to the church. And so they were
taken away from the physical things that needed to be done
so that he can harbor more on the spiritual things of the ministry. And so the deacon now has come
alongside as a helper for the pastor to serve the church in
its needs, okay? The office came from a necessity
of help so that the one preaching and teaching the word of God
could have plenty of time for study and prayer, okay? It didn't
come because we have to have the office of deacon. See, we
don't have a deacon here at this church. We're a very small group,
okay? It hasn't so far taken a great
need of ministry Now, I will say it is sometimes taxing. You
have to do a lot of things around the church that we do, but you
know, this isn't about me and I don't want to get into that
about me, but there are some churches that may not have that
particular need. It may be small and there doesn't
need to have that need. But yet, if there is not a deacon,
that doesn't mean that you're not a church, okay? It's not
a necessity, and I'll mention that later, but the main thing
that we see here is that the office of deacon is given to
assist and aid the pastor. Now, it's not just the pastor's
gopher. He's not just the pastor's errand
boy to use and abuse and do whatever he wants with. Now, the pastor
uses the deacon and asks the deacon for things that needs
to be done around the church, whether it be the upkeep of the
grounds, whether it be the workings within the church, whether it
be going and visiting somebody, going and checking in on somebody,
assisting somebody, distributing the funds of the church. Those
types of things are what the deacon does. But if you'll see
how they're chosen, they're chosen out of a necessity, okay? So there comes a necessity. Second,
notice that the deacon was chosen by the local visible assembly,
the church. Notice if you would, begin with
me. He says, then the 12 called the multitude of disciples, okay? Now, let's kind of think back
about our teaching so far about what a local church is and what
the commission was. Remember, a church is a gathered
congregation. And they were the ones that was
given the commission. And what was the commission?
To make disciples. So whenever it says here that
he called the multitude of the disciples, then we are to understand
that these people called disciples are ones who have been, by the
preaching of God's word, been made disciples, and because they're
in the church, have been baptized, and then brought back and gathered
with this local congregation for them to be taught all things
whatsoever Christ has commanded, okay? So we see here that the
multitude of disciples is speaking of that gathered congregation. Then the 12 called the multitude
of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we
should leave the word of God and serve tables. Now look here
in verse three. Wherefore, brethren, look ye
out among you. Okay, now let's just stop there. Look, brethren, look ye out among
you. Well, the brethren speaks of
those who are the people of God, okay, so a deacon, just like
a pastor, isn't somebody that goes to school and is awarded
a degree or is declared to be a deacon because of any kind
of thing outside of the calling of God and the ordaining of the
church. So it's among the brethren, look
ye, okay, remember we taught that the word ye there means
a Collective, right? It is speaking of the whole people,
not a single person. Out among you, the word you also
is plural, okay? Among you, seven men of honest
rapport, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom whom we may appoint
over this business. But we will give ourselves continually
prayer to the ministry of the word. Now look here in verse
five. And the saying pleased the whole multitude. So see,
the congregation was involved in the choosing. The congregation
was the one who said, yes, this is what seems right according
to the scriptures and what we should do. So it pleased the
whole multitude. And they, the whole multitude,
looked among themselves and chose Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor,
Timon, Parmenas, Nicholas. It was the congregation that
chose. Look at verse six. Whom they,
the congregation, set before the apostles. And when they,
the congregation, had prayed, they, the congregation, laid
their hands on them. So here we see how a deacon is
chosen. He's chosen out of a necessity,
and so the office will be filled out of necessity. The office
will also be filled by one who, as we'll see here in a minute,
make these qualifications, but one who the church looks and
examines and finds whether there be a man qualified and called
for this ministry. A lot of the same as what a pastor
is. Pastor has to have qualifications.
He has to be called and show forth that he has these things
by God and called by God and has this gift. And so we see
that a deacon is someone that needs to be examined. We'll see
that also here in just a few minutes, okay? So it was the
multitude, the brethren, the ye, the you, the they, that did
the choosing. Now thirdly, notice that it was
not just any person, but one who had qualifications laid out
by God and delivered by the apostles. They had qualifications. Look
if you would there, it said, look ye among yourselves seven
men, here it is, of honest report, meaning that he's known to be
an honest person. Okay, so someone that's gonna
be a deacon needs to be someone who is known to be an honest
man. Now, every Christian ought to be known as an honest person,
right? But as a deacon, he ought to
be known for his being honest. Now, why would God make that
a qualification to be a deacon? Well, number one, an honest man,
if he's out serving the church, Think about this, if he's out
serving the church and he's going into homes and checking in on
the widows, going in and checking in on the sick, the elderly,
if he's going to visit people in their homes, well, you'd want
an honest man, not someone that you are afraid to let you come
in your house, because he might steal something or take something. You want an honest man who tells
the truth and is not a liar, because you don't want somebody
that's out there backbiting another brother or sister in Christ,
or whenever he goes out to minister to those, if they in confidence
talk to him about their problems or their needs or things like
that, that he doesn't go blabbing it all over town and all over
the church, that they have his confidence. You want a man that's
honest because if he's gonna administer the finances of the
church whatever they have need of to purchase, or whatever they
have need of to pay for, and things like that. You want a
man that you can trust that's not gonna do wrong with the church's
money, with the finances. Okay, you want a deacon, a man
who serves, that is of honest report. It says, full of the
Holy Ghost and wisdom. Well, of course he's gonna be
indwelt by the Holy Ghost, otherwise he wouldn't be in the church
to begin with, right? But besides that, he should be
full of the Holy Ghost, meaning that his life is led and directed
and guided by the Holy Spirit, and that he seeks God in all
that he does, that he follows after, that he is, shows forth
a life that is exemplary, okay? And wisdom, okay? Again, if the
man is going to be doing the service of the church, if he
is going to be ministrating the things to the widows, to the
orphans, if he's going to be ministrating things to the needy
and the sick, if he's going to be taking care of the grounds
of the church, he's gonna be taking care of the supplies and
the finances and all that kind of stuff that the deacon will
do, then he needs to have wisdom in doing that, right? So that
he does things properly, so that he does things in a wise way,
to the best interest of the church and the kingdom of God, that
he might be doing things physically and, what's the word I'm looking for? I don't want to say worldly,
but the physical things of life, the temporal things of life,
that he deals with those in a wise way, okay? And then it says,
whom we may appoint over this business, and these are the ones
that we're looking for. Now, there's other qualifications,
if you would. Turn with me to 1 Timothy, 1
Timothy, chapter 3. So far we've seen that he needs
to be a member of the church, needs to be a man, because it
did say choose among yourselves 12 men or seven men, right? It
didn't say men and women, it said seven men. He should have honest rapport,
meaning that he has a good reputation in the assembly and outside the
assembly, one that is honest. Handling the affairs and the
money of the church needs to be honest, right? Needs to be
filled with the Holy Ghost and wise. Now let's see what it says
in 1 Timothy, chapter three, and we're gonna start in verse
one. Oh, I'm sorry, verse eight. It
says, likewise, Now, what does likewise mean?
Well, the word likewise mean in the same manner. What was
just before this, okay? What was just before this in
the same manner this should be? Well, what was just before this?
Well, it was the office of bishop or pastor, and it was the qualifications
Okay, so for a man, and what did it say? This is a true saying,
if a man desire the office of bishop, he desireth a good work.
Likewise, same for the deacon, if a deacon desires the office,
or if a man desires the office of deacon, he should likewise
have the qualifications just like the pastor has here, he
has qualifications. The pastor has the qualifications
of, and we double chose the last two weeks, Well, here, likewise,
the deacon has qualifications. It says, likewise, must the deacon
be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy,
a filthy lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in pure conscience,
and let these also first be proved, and then let them use the office
of a deacon being found blameless. Even so must their wives be grave,
not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. Let the deacons
be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their
own houses well. For they that have used the office
of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree and
great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus." Okay? So here we see more qualifications
for the deacon. Now we see here, and actually
I should have stressed this out in verse seven,
if you look in verse seven at the very end of the bishops,
it said, moreover, he must have a good report of them which are
without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Likewise,
must the deacon. grave. So, a good report is is
a qualification for the pastor. It is also a qualification for
the deacon. But that coincides with what
Timothy said or excuse me, what they said in Acts, right? In
Acts chapter six. There must be a good report.
So, again, we see that he needs to be a man of good report or
he must have a good reputation. The next one that says here,
it says, He should be grave. What does the word grave mean?
If someone is grave. Well, that word comes from a
word that means someone who is honorable, someone who is venerable,
devout. It also is a word that means
worshipful, okay? That word is translated worshipful. in the King James Bible. So this
man, whenever it says that he needs to be one who is grave,
it doesn't mean that he needs to be sullen. A lot of times
we think that that word grave means sullen. He doesn't need
to be a Baal Humbug type guy to be the deacon. Although I've
seen a lot of deacons who are all the time Baal Humbug. The word grave means to be honorable.
goes along with what was said in Acts. He needs to be of honest
report, right? He needs to be honorable. The
word honorable, if somebody is honorable, then that means they
do what is right even when others aren't looking. They are honorable. They do that which is right.
They live the way that they feel that is right. They act in the
right way. They always choose to do the
right thing. They're always thinking about
whatever I do is going to be a reflection upon the church,
a reflection upon the Lord. OK, so the deacon needs to be
great. He needs to be an honorable person,
one who is thoughtful and mindful of my actions and that I should
perform my duties in a way that is honorable, not only to the
church, but to the Lord Jesus Christ. So if a man isn't thankful
or thoughtful on those things. If he isn't an honorable person,
you know, if he's a sluggard, if he's a, you know, a drunkard,
if he is a man that doesn't have any care for how people think
about him and whatnot, you know, this man here is not an honorable
man. It says devout. That means that
he does his job and he sticks to it. Okay. He's very devout
to that thing. Devoted is where that word comes.
The word devoted comes from that. He is devoted to the office of
deacon. He is devoted to serving the
church. There are those who like to serve
the church now and then to gain applause of men. There are those
who like to serve as long as their service can be seen or,
you know, plaqued up on the wall, you know, Oh, I give money for
the recreation center. Now we have a plaque up there
that says, in honor of so-and-so for their contribution. You know,
we was just at a church the other day for a wedding, and I was
out in their foyer, and I was reading some of the literature
that they had, and there was a wall up there, and they had
all these plaques, and all these things that was in this church,
and how they were bought by certain people. They engrave their name
in gold on these little plaques in honor of, you know, the organ
purchased by in honor of, or purchased by so-and-so. We honor so-and-so for purchasing
this. I mean, it was just, you know,
the Bible says that whenever you do your alms, don't let the
left hand know what the right hand's doing, okay? Don't tout
your alms before everybody else and pat yourself on the back
or make it well known, do it in secret, okay? Not that if
it gets out and people know about it that it's bad and you've lost,
you know, quote-unquote your reward, but it means don't go
around telling everybody what you're doing, what you've done,
how great you are, how great of service you've done, okay?
Or expect recognition for that, okay? The man who is grave is
devoted to serve the church, whether he gets the accolades
for it or not. One thing I'll say down in Covita,
at the Covita Baptist Church, they have some deacons there
that are truly deacons, that I can honestly say that those
men are godly men. They are devout to the church. They are helpful to the pastor,
always looking to see how they can help him so that he might
be able to minister to them better. They're always looking for ways
to help those within the church. And listen, they do all these
things for the church, the upkeep of the property, the going out
and visiting, the checking in on people, the delivering of
things to people that have need in the church, all this stuff.
They do that, and a lot of times they're doing that behind the
scenes, and hardly anybody ever knows that it's getting done.
They never say anything about it. They're just all the time
looking for what should be done in the church. And without any
desire for accolades or anything like that, they're very humble
men. And it truly has been a blessing
to see deacons that serve like that and everything. And so I
always, every time we're down there, I think all the work that
goes into some of the things that that church does and those
deacons are there. doing that so that the pastor
is able to concentrate on studying for preaching the Word of God. And what a blessing that is.
But that's what this word grave means. It means to be honorable,
venerable, honest, devout, worshipful. It means to be worshipful. The
deacon should be one who is a worshiping type person. He should be, for
one, he should be attending the assembling of the saints together.
You don't need a deacon who is never at church. How can he serve
the church if he's never there and he never knows what's going
on in the assembly? He needs to be one who is always,
and I say always, as often as he can, to be at church, faithful
to the assembly of God's people. But also he needs to be one who
worships, that his heart truly is given to worship God, not
out of rote or by habit, Not out of, you know, for status,
but truly he is a man who loves God and worships the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what the word grave means.
The deacon should be those things. The next thing it says there,
holding the mystery of the faith in pure conscience. What does
that mean? Holding the mystery of the faith. Well, one thing
we know is the Bible teaches that the word of God that the
gospel is something that is hid and only given by the revelation
of the Spirit of God. So number one, if this man holds
the mystery of the faith in pure conscience, then this means that
this man, number one, has been born from above if he even has
the ability to know these things. Because God only reveals these
things to his people whom he has quickened. Okay? So that's just kind of an evident
thing. But what does holding the mystery of the faith in pure
conscience mean? Well, it's not just to know, but it's to hold.
He holds this mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. That means that the deacon should
believe the faith once delivered to the saints, that body of doctrine
that Jesus has given us to teach and to preach. And whenever disciples
are made to instruct them in, as we bring them in as babes
and begin to teach them into maturity of the faith, that the
deacon is the one who holds that faith as well, and he defends
it. It means that he believes it.
It means that he defends it, okay? He believes that doctrine,
okay? A deacon should never be somebody
in your church who he doesn't, well, I really don't believe
like they do, but I still wanna serve the people, okay? The deacon
should, in serving the people, in that service be able to reiterate
and uphold and to convey and to confirm the doctrines of that
church in the service of the church. If the deacon is out
serving but has a different doctrine that he believes, then that's
opposing things, okay? And so we need to have deacons
who know the true doctrines of the church, of Christ, of what
he has given us to believe and to teach and to hold to. He should
know these things, but he should be defending these things. OK,
if there are those who come in the church and they have another
gospel or they believe something different than what that church
believes and holds to, then that man should be able to defend
that thing. He should be able to go and confront
those who oppose what that church is holding to. and to be able
to take them to the Word of God and to instruct them and to correct
them and to rebuke them. And so the deacon needs to know
that. That's why one of the reasons
that the Bible says that he should be apt to teach, okay? The deacon should be able to
believe the Word of God and defend the Word of God, but also, whenever
it says, holding the mystery of the faith in pure conscience,
That means that he truly believes what he knows, okay? He isn't saying, well, I just
have to say that because that's the beliefs of this church, okay? Then that's not good, okay? That's
not good that you have a deacon that doesn't believe the doctrine
that the church believes, and yet he says, well, I believe,
you know, I'll hold to those, but that's not really what I
believe. Okay, that's a double-minded man. He's unstable in all of
these ways, okay? We don't need that type of man
as a deacon. But not only that, to tell it. Holding the mystery,
look at that, holding the mystery of the faith in pure conscience. That means that whenever asked,
he in pure conscience can say, yes, I believe that. Well, that
is true. Well, of course that's what we
believe. Well, don't be talking about our pastor that way. in
what he said, because that's exactly what the Bible says.
You don't have an issue with our pastor, you have an issue
with God's word. See, he has a pure conscience to be able
to instruct those in the mystery of the faith. With a pure conscience,
knowing that it is truth, knowing that it is profitable. See, to
hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience means to
know the truth, to know that the truth is profitable, and
to not be ashamed of that. Look at the next word. It says, holding the mystery of the faith
in pure conscience. Oh, I skipped over a couple. Not double-tongued,
okay? Not double-tongued. What does
that mean, to be double-tongued? Well, if you're telling the pastor
one thing that's going on, and then you're going out and telling
the people something else that's going on, or what I just was
saying as far as doctrine, you're saying, okay, I'm a deacon of
this church, and I believe what this church believes, but then
going out and saying, well, I really don't believe that, and I don't
believe that, and I don't believe that, but I go there anyway. The deacon ought to believe the
things that the church holds as its doctrine. and not be double-tongued. But the word double-tongued also
means taking two sides and speaking two different things. So say
we have a deacon here, and I send a deacon out, and there's an
issue with, say, a member that is unfaithful to the church,
okay? And me and the deacon is talking
about that, and I say, well, why don't you go check on old
brother so-and-so? and see how brother so-and-so is doing and
how come he hasn't been here in five months. And we both know
that the Bible says not to forsake the assembly of ourselves together
and that we ought to be here serving and worshiping together
and serving the Lord. And the deacon says, yeah, you're
right. Old brother so-and-so should
be here. Yeah, I'll go out and see him. Then whenever he gets
out there to old brother so-and-so, he says, Well, I didn't, you
know, brother, I'm not coming out here, you know, not because
I think you're doing anything wrong, but the pastor asked me
to come out here. So I'm coming on the pastor's behalf to see,
you know, how you're doing and everything. Hey, I know the ox
falls into the ditch. And, you know, I know the Bible
says that we're not, you know, under law that, you know, if
we miss Sunday, it's not going to be, you know, when I will
be condemned for that and everything. So, you know, I'm not saying
you're doing anything wrong, but the pastor is kind of wondering
where you've been and what you're up to and all like that. Well,
he's saying one thing to the pastor, he's saying another thing
to the person he's going to visit. Well, that's a double-tongued
man, okay? He's saying two things, and a
deacon shouldn't be that way. Now, if the deacon disagrees
with the pastor, you ought to tell the pastor, brother, I disagree
with you on that. What about this? And be able
to take him to the scriptures and maybe correct him. It says
also, not given to much wine, that's also part of what the
pastor is under as well, not given to much wine, he shouldn't
be a drunkard. Okay, we don't need a man out here serving the
church if he's a drunkard. By any means, let's not go visit
the poor widow in the church whenever you've soused yourself
and now you're drunk and you're going out there belligerent or
going out there drunk as a skunk, all right? men to be drunken,
not giving them much wine, not greedy for filthy lucre, okay?
Not greedy for filthy lucre. Again, this goes back to the
fact of that if a man is going to be handling the finances and
the affairs of the church, if his ambition is money and greed
and he's out there to do it to make a buck or even for recognition,
you know, that he doesn't need to be there. He'll be doing things
for the wrong reason and in the wrong way. Okay, so sorry I skipped
over this. But now let's look at verse 10.
And let these also be first approved. Okay, so one of the qualifications
before becoming a deacon is that the deacon must be proved. What
does this word proved means? Ta-da, there he is. Proved to you, there he is. No. The word proved, it means to
be tested, to be tried, examined. So Paul here is telling Timothy,
before you lay hands upon a deacon and ordain him into the office
of deacon, this man needs to be proved. Let him be tested. Let him be
tried. How does a church do that? There's
a couple of ways, but how does a church do that? Well, one of
the ways they test and prove and examine is to see, number
one, whether he be of the faith. Does he believe what the church
believes, what the Bible believes, I should say? Does he believe
what the Bible teaches? Does he hold to those things?
Is he grave? Is he not double-tongued? Is he not given to much wine? Is he not greedy for filthy lucre?
Does he have honest report? Okay, all these things that are
qualifications of a deacon, you examine this man to see, oh,
wait a minute, that would be judging. Oh, we can't judge. Judge not, lest ye be judged. The Bible here is saying the
man who is to be put into the office of deacon should be tried,
examined, tested to see whether or not he meets the qualifications
that God has laid out. Not what man has laid out, what
God has laid out. To see if he will be able to
handle the things that's required as well as fit for those with
these qualifications. Another way, not only are you
to examine him as far as the qualifications are concerned,
but one of the things you should do is to put him into service. Before you ordain him in the
office of deacon and give him the office of deacon, then you
ought to give him some service to do. See how he responds. See if he responds in the way
that the qualifications require of being grave, holding the mystery
of the faith, being blameless. being faithful, being of honest
report. See whether or not he is able
to do those things. See whether or not he buckles
under the pressure. After service, because I can
tell you, after you serve people after a little while, you can
get very agitated. You can get very discouraged. You can, you know,
you can get very selfish and greedy. So, put him to the test. Give
him some things to do as far as services is concerned and
see how he does under those tests. So, the so the deacon should
be proved. This is then let them use the
office of a deacon being found blameless. Let them use the office
of the deacon being found blameless. So, if they are found blameless. If they are proved, if they meet
these qualifications, then the Bible says, let them use the
office of deacon. Now that, what does that tell
us? Okay. Well, it tells us number one, he needs to meet all these
qualifications and be blameless in them. But it also says that
the office of deacon is something to be used. So that means that
there is a using of the office to accomplish something. The
office of deacon is given to accomplish something for the
church. The man who meets these qualifications
is given by the church recognition and authority to use that office
to accomplish the things that the office was made for. The
office of deacon was made to serve the church, to administration
to the widows, to the orphans, to the people of the church that's
in need to visit the sick, to visit the poor, to take care
of the physical things, wait on the tables of the church,
whether it be keeping up with the property, keeping up with
the finances, the things of the church, all the material things,
all the temporal things, the physical things that have to
do with the church, then this man is to use the office of deacon
to carry that out. That means that he is doing that
under the authority of that church, and as one who is under the authority
of that church, he is accountable to the church for what he does,
okay? So whenever a man, he doesn't
just take the office out and he goes out and serves and does
whatever he wants without giving accounts for what he does. Not
coming in and bragging about what he does, but coming in and
giving an account. So, you know, the church, and
I've heard this down at these churches, These brothers that
are faithful, they come back to give an account of what all
has been done, and they always use the church. The church helped
out. They didn't say, I went out and
helped them. The church came out and they
said, well, what do you mean? Well, who was there? Then they might
say, well, me and brother so-and-so went and did this or that and
everything, but they never make it about themselves. They give
an account, or they come back to the pastor and report to the
pastor, hey, we administered, they had this need, we went out
and bought them some groceries, We did that for them, okay? So the deacons, if they're found,
or these men, if they're found blameless, are able to use the
office of a deacon, but to use the office of a deacon in the
manner in which the office was intended, okay? Not to rule the
church, not to create a board, not to run the preachers off,
not like that. It's used to minister tables,
to serve the people, okay? And so they need to be blameless.
Now, the word blameless doesn't mean sinlessly perfect. That
means that they are blameless in all these things that are
being talked about. Are they a good report? Yes.
If not, nope, then they're blamed. Okay? They have blame. If they
are a good report, they're blameless in that. Are they drunkards? No. Well, then they're blameless
in that. Are they giving to Philly Lucre? No, then they're blameless in
that. It doesn't mean sinless perfection. Now, we also know that they need to
be a faithful husband. You say, well, wait a minute,
where does that say that? It says something about the wives. Oh, wait a minute, verse 12.
See, if you skip down to verse 12, First you'll see 11, even
so the wise must be grave and not slander, sober, faithful
in all things. But look at verse 12. Verse 12
is there, brethren. Let the deacons be the husbands
of one wife. Same qualification as that as
a pastor. There's a lot of people in their
traditions of men who have deacons who does not meet these qualifications. Let the deacons be the husbands
of one wife ruling their children and their own houses well. Why? Why does a deacon have to be
blameless in this area? Once again, if he's going out
to minister the things of the church to those within the church,
and he cannot rule his own family, and by that rule mean govern
over his family, then how's he gonna govern over the administration
of the things of the church? He's not gonna be able to govern
over the things of the church, okay? He needs to be one who
is faithful in those things. But look, it says, even so must
their wives be grave. Now, we've seen that the word
grave means honorable, venerable, honest, devout, worshipful. In
examining your deacon, if he doesn't have a wife that
meets those specifications, then that deacon is not blameless
in that area. his wife is gonna be a detriment
to his ministry. If I had to worry about my wife
every time I went somewhere to minister, whether it be going
to a Bible conference somewhere to preach, or going out to visit
somebody, or going to check on somebody who's sick, going to
the hospital, and my wife doesn't meet those qualifications, she
can be a detriment to the ministry. She can be an embarrassment,
To me, she can be dishonorable and bring blight upon the church
and upon the Lord's name. So the wife too, behind the man,
because the husband and wife are gonna be, you remember Aquila
and Priscilla? They worked as a team there. Aquila and Priscilla was, was
a husband and a wife, and that wife, you know, she was a good
name to her husband. And so if a man who is serving
the church in the capacity of deacon has a wife that brings
detriment to that, then it could bring detriment upon the church.
It could bring a bad name to Christ and the church. So that's
why that the scriptures have in here the wives should be grave,
not slanderers. They shouldn't be out talking
about people, slandering their characters. It says, to be sober. Okay, so
they shouldn't be drunkards either. They should be serious about
the business of the ministry, and they shouldn't be drunkards.
That word sober can be used in both ways. And faithful in all
things. Okay, so that's the whys. Let
the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling the children
of their own household. For they that have used the office
of deacon. Okay, now we see that once they
have used the office of deacon well, if you have a faithful
deacon, okay, just like you have a faithful pastor. Remember in
our study on the pastor, said if you have one that rules well,
that you should give him double honor, Okay, well here it says,
for the one who is a deacon, who used the office of deacon
well, purchased to themselves a good degree and great boldness
in the faith, which is in Christ Jesus. So the one who is a deacon
that does his job well should be respected for the job that
he has done. There ought to be some sort of
a respect for that man for doing the job, getting out in the,
as it was, in the dirt and the mud of the things of the church
and having to deal with the things that most people don't want to
deal with, and doing them in a cheerful way, in a right way,
in a faithful way. If they do those things, then
they ought to be respected for that. That's what that word,
good degree, who purchased themselves a good degree, it means to a
good respect. They purchased for themselves
a good respect. It says, for they that have used the office
of Deacon Will purchased to themselves a good degree and great boldness
in the faith, which is in Christ Jesus. So those who have used
the office of the deacon well, they will receive great boldness
in the faith, which is in Christ Jesus. The Lord will bless them
in their ministry to continue to do that, to stand in that
ministry. and not grow weary in that, I believe. That's what
that to mean. And it may be, you know, if anybody
has any other thoughts on that, that's as I understand it and
everything. So, all right, so that is the
qualifications for the deacon. Now, let's look at, lastly, one
thing that I want to make as a side note to this is the wrongful
use pertaining to the office. Now, we've already talked a little
bit about lording it over God's heritage and doing all this kind
of stuff. But there are some who say that
the office of deacon isn't just for men, that the office of deacon
can be held by women. And the reason for that is because
they know that the word deaconess, deaconess, deaconess, is found
in scripture. And they say that there are women
who were servants in the world, because the word deacon, the
word behind that, again, means servant. And that in the King
James Bible, there are some places that the word deacon is translated,
or excuse me, the word behind deacon is translated servant. Turn with me, if you would, over
to Romans chapter 16. Romans chapter 16. Look at verse one. Romans 16. Verse one. It says, I commend
unto you Phoebe, our sister, which is a servant of the church,
which is at Centuria. That ye receive her in the Lord
as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business
she hath need of you. For she hath been a succorer
of many, and of myself also." Okay? Now, the word servant up
there is the same word that is translated deacon. And so some
say, well, see there, Phoebe was a deacon of the church, which
was in Centuria, okay? Now, just as in the word apostle,
okay, the Greek word apostle can mean one who holds the office
of apostle, but it also can be used as a one who is a messenger,
okay? Epaphroditus was called a messenger. an apostle, but he did not hold
the office of apostle. Okay? So, just because Phoebe
was called a servant does not mean that she held the office
of deacon. See, we can't deny the plain
understanding of Scripture that says that the office of deacon
is a man, and that that man should be the husband of one wife. It
didn't give any instruction of that that deacon could be a woman,
the wife of one husband, but the husband of one wife. And then it gives the descriptions
of how the wife should be, distinct from what the husband should
be. See, if you take that and move that backwards and make
it that the woman is the one with a, and she's faithful to
her husband, Well, then the husband has all of the qualifications,
and she only has the small things to be considered. But here, again,
we want to press on that the word apostle can mean messenger. The word deacon definitely means
servant, but it doesn't always, as in the case of the apostle,
mean that they hold the office of apostle. There were only 12
apostles. 13, counting Paul, the apostle to
the Gentiles. But originally there were 12
apostles that was given the office of apostle in the local church.
And then there was an apostle to the Gentile, Paul, while he
was a member at Antioch, he was an evangelist also that was sent
out from Antioch that went around. And as the apostle and evangelist,
he went out and around and shared the word of God all over the
place, not being confined to the local assembly. So he did
not have the office of pastor. He did not have the office of
deacon. He did not have those things, but he was a apostle
as a office to the Gentiles. Now, so Phoebe is not an illustration
of women deacons as far as the office is concerned, okay? But look here, let's read over
in Acts chapter one. Look with me if you would in
Acts chapter 1. I'm sorry, Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16. This is the account of Phoebe. Or I'm sorry, not Phoebe, Lydia.
It says, starting in verse one. Then came he to Derbe and Lystra,
and behold, a certain disciple was there named Timotheus, the
son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess and believed, but
his father was a Greek, which was well reported of by the brethren
that were at Lystra and Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth
with him, and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which
were in those quarters, for they knew all that his father was
a Greek. And as they went through the cities, they delivered them
the decrees for to keep that were ordained of the apostles
and elders which were at Jerusalem. And so were the churches established
in the faith and increased in number daily. Now, when they
had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were
forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after
they were come to Messiah, they assayed to go into Bithynia,
but the Spirit suffered them not. But they passing by Messiah
came down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night.
There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, come
over into Macedonia and help us. And after he had seen the
vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly
gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto
them. Therefore, losing from Troas,
we came with a straight course to Samothracea, and the next
day to Neapolis. and from thence to Philippi,
which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony,
and we were in that city abiding certain days. And on the Sabbath,
we went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made,
and we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia,
a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped
God heard us, whose heart the Lord opened that she attended
unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized
and her household, she besought us saying, if ye have judged
me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide
there, and she constrained us." Okay, so here we see a place
where Lydia also was a servant. And how did she serve? Okay,
she wasn't holding the office of deacon, but she served by
these men who were going around from place to place, and she
provided hospitality for them, brought them into her house,
and attended upon them while they were there. When she was
baptized, her household, she besought a saint, if ye have
judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and
abide there. So she opened up her house to
those who were ministering the gospel. So one way that women
are servants of the churches, and that doesn't necessarily
mean the office of, or it doesn't mean the office of deacon, but
to be a servant, you can be a servant by doing the things just like
we've seen with Phoebe and with Lydia. Phoebe was sent to, the
church there as a representative of Centuria to do a few things,
to help with a few things. And she went and she did that.
But the Bible doesn't say that she had the office of deacon.
Here again, we see Lydia, she opened herself up. Whenever you
ladies open yourself up in hospitality to people who, preachers or other
believers who come, and visit or whatever, then that is your
way of serving the church. That's one of the ways that you
serve the brethren. And I remember whenever we went
down to Texas earlier this year, to the Bible conference down
there, there were several members of their church that opened their
houses up, because there was a lot of preachers that came
to that thing. I mean, a lot. I don't know how many, there
was like, I don't remember how many pictures we took, it was
like 10, 15 maybe, preachers there. But for the most part,
a lot of the preachers were put up into homes. Matter of fact,
whenever we were there, they said, if you guys come next year,
we wanna put you up in a house instead of a hotel. We stayed
in a hotel and they paid for our hotel, but the church did,
but they put us up in houses. While we're at some of these
Bible conferences, the ladies, they provide the food for the
people to have stuff to eat, and they take care of all that. So there is a lot of ways that
the ladies are able to serve the church, but they don't hold
the office of deacon. They don't use the office of
deacon to perform those things which the deacon performs. They do that just in the regular
service, but not as the office of deacon. So, you know, just
because the word deaconess is in the Bible, it means that they
are servants of the Lord. The word deaconess also can be
used to signify the wife of a deacon. The wife of a deacon can be considered
a deaconess, not that she holds the office, but that she is the
wife of a deacon. having to have also the qualifications
so that her husband can be deacon. She has to have the deacon's
wife qualifications. And so that she would be considered
a deaconess. And if you remember in that passage
there, you'll see that there was, where was it here, Acts
chapter, 1 Timothy. You'll see there it
said that they must be grave, not slander, sober, faithful
in all things. You know, that is the qualifications
of a deacon's wife, and so she would be a deaconess, meaning
that she is the wife of a deacon and everything. Now, in closing,
I'd like to say these two offices, pastor, and a deacon. These two offices are not necessary
for the existence of a church. They're not necessary. This church,
at one time before I came here, operated as a church, but yet
they did not have a pastor and they had not a deacon. That didn't
cause them to cease to be a church. Officers are not necessary for
the existence of a church, but they're necessary for the well-being
of a church. See, the officers are necessary
for the well-being of a church. Why is that? Because the bishop
or pastor takes the oversight of the things of the church and
its spiritual affairs and in the worship of the church, and
the deacons take the oversight in the physical operations of
the church and the serving of the church and making sure that
the things of the church is done. And so it's for the well-being,
they serve the church. Both are servants of the church,
one in a more spiritual way, the other in a more physical
way. And these gifts, both these gifts are from God. and they're
for the church and for their edification. And so, yes, while
there is a great misuse and abuse of these two offices, we don't
negate that. It doesn't negate the fact that
we should look to those things and have those things and that
we should give due respect to those who hold those offices
as the Bible teaches and as they administer those offices. Again, Those who rule over you
well give double honor. It doesn't say those who are
dictators or those who are not good pastors give double honor,
okay? It's the office that respect
is earned, okay? Whether it be the pastor or whether
it be the deacon, the respect that's given to them is an earned
respect for the well job that they do, for the good job that
they do, okay? And we should be willing to give
that to them if they are doing that good job. Okay? If they are not, we should hold
them accountable. And if they continue to not hold that office
correctly, then the church is the one who can remove them from
that office. Just because one is called to
be a pastor in a church, doesn't mean that he's called to be pastor
for life, no matter what. Same thing with deacon. And by
the way, Just because you're a deacon in one church doesn't
mean if you go move to another church that you just automatically
become the deacon of that church. Okay, you need to go through
the same scenario. You can be commended by this
church. Hey, we commended, just like Phoebe, while she didn't
hold the office, they commended Phoebe to that church, said,
hey, this woman, receive her into your membership and help
her with whatever she needs to do, because she is a good servant
and worker in the Lord, okay? There was a commendation by that
church. We can commend if a deacon says, you know, I'm having to
move over here, and he moves somewhere else, and he's going
to join another church, and he calls and says, you know, hey,
I'm joining this church. We can send a letter of recommendation,
or I can call, we can call and give a recommendation to that
other church and say, yes, this brother is a faithful minister. He was a faithful deacon. He
did all this. And then they can consider him to be a deacon and ordain him to such. There
was a man in our church down in the town I grew up in, and
he was a deacon in another church. And he thought because he was
a deacon in another church that he just automatically became
a deacon in this church. And that's not how that really
works. Just because I'm a pastor of
this church doesn't mean I can go somewhere else and just walk
in and say, well, okay, well, I'm a pastor, so I'm gonna preach.
tell the preacher that's there, I ain't gonna preach next week.
Okay, I can't do that. Why? Because it's the church
that calls those men, as God directs them. So we look at these offices not
as places to be dictators or to hold it over the Lord's heritage,
but we look to these as servants. And really, brethren, if you
have a pastor and you have a deacon who are following and truly what
the Bible calls to be pastors and deacons. And they are doing
that job well. It is such a blessing. It is
tremendous to see that work within a church and to see a church
in turn honor and give respect to the pastor and the deacons
that do well, that serve well, to give that respect and for
that love to be there. And like I said, whenever we
went down to Brother Royce's little thing, where they honored
him for 30 years of ministry at their church and everything. It wasn't something to put him
up on a pedestal of who he was, but to say thank you for all
of the years of service that he'd given to that church. And humbly, he kept trying to put
it off as not about himself, but it was wonderful to see the
church and how much they loved and appreciated their pastor,
not because of what awesome guy the guy was, but because he was
a faithful pastor. I mean, that was what was given
over and over and over again. Hey, our pastor was always there
when we needed him. He prayed for us and he preached
God's word. He always is preaching and studying
God's word and bringing us what God's word says and what his
opinion is. I mean, that was the testimony
over and over and over again of the people that how he was
conducting the pastoral work faithfully, not because he was
Dr. Roy Smith, it was because he
was a faithful pastor. And you see that love and reciprocity
that that pastor is able to serve without restraint, but yet the
people are able to love and to support and to do without being
lorded over. So it's a wonderful thing. All right, does anybody have
a word before we dismiss? Let's bow and have a word prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, we
come to you now thanking you so much for the Word of God.
We thank you, Father, that we