Let's turn this morning to Philippians
chapter 1. Philippians 1, beginning with
verse 1, Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ,
all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the
bishops and deacons. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every
remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you
all making requests with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel
from the first day until now. Be confident of this very thing,
that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ. Even as it is meet for me to
thank this of you all, because I have you in my heart, and as
much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation
of the gospel, you all are partakers of my grace. Let me just remind
us as we begin the message this morning that we have seen that
the Apostle Paul was a prisoner at Rome when he wrote this letter. He had taken the gospel to the
city of Philippi about ten years before he wrote the letter, and
God had raised up a church. God had saved men and women,
and he had raised up a church in Philippi. We notice that he
directs the letter to the saints with the bishops and deacons. That's important to notice where,
or to whom, rather, he directed the letter. You know, if you just pick up
a letter and start reading it, the first thing you want to ascertain
is, is this letter to me? Is it directed to me? And wouldn't
you think this morning it would be wonderful if the postman brought
a letter here to the Lincolnwood Baptist Church that was written
by the Apostle Paul? We all would. And he has. He has. This letter Philippi,
or Philippians rather, is written to the saints and to the bishops
and deacons. And I've tried to point out last
time, the word saint It means to those who are set apart. That's
what the word saint means, to set apart. And all of God's children,
every child of God, every believer is a saint. Every child of God
has been set apart, chosen in him before the foundation of
the world that is in Christ. And you notice Paul says that
to all the saints in Christ Jesus. All of the saints were chosen
in Christ Jesus before the world began. We are sanctified by God
the Father. And all of the saints were redeemed
in Christ at the cross. We are sanctified by God the
Son. And sometimes in our life we
are sanctified by God the Holy Spirit. That is, he sets us apart
as we hear the gospel. As we hear the gospel, many people
hear the sound of the gospel, that is, with these ears. But some hear it, they hear the
voice of the shepherd, and they follow. That's the work of God
the Holy Spirit. He sanctifies his people. And
I could not help but think, when Paul wrote this letter, he directed
it to the saints in Philippi. He didn't write to the magistrates
at Philippi. He had met some of those folks
when he was in Philippi. He didn't write his letter trying
to straighten out the world and the political system. Believers
are the salt of the earth. And you know, salt keeps meat
from putrefaction, from rotting, as we might say. And believers
in this world, that's the way we have influence in this world. It's not by trying to straighten
out the political system and have all of these demonstrations
and marches. Paul wrote to the saints, to
the church at Philippi. And as God saves sinners, Then
the influence of the believers in everyday living, loving their
neighbors, praying for those in authority, all of these things
that we are taught to do as God's children, then this permeates
in society and has an influence upon society, yes. But the church
is here. When the church tries to straighten
out the world, you may be sure that the world has already got
into the church. And the church is no longer the
salt and the leaven that God says we are to be. So this word
is written to the saints. And we looked last time at those
who are called saints. Everyone in the church at Philippi
was a saint. That is, profess to be a saint. When a person hears the gospel
and God the Holy Spirit quickens that person and gives them life
and we trust, we repent of our sins, we turn from our sins and
we turn to Christ, then we profess our faith in baptism and we become
members of the local church. Now today, and I want you to
notice that word with. That's important. Paul and Timotheus,
the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus,
which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons. The last time I asked this question
concerning the saints Who are these people? And I try to answer
that from the word of God. Now this morning, let's look
at bishops and deacons. First of all, bishops. Who are
these people? Well, men have changed the meaning
of this word just like the meaning of the word saint. In the New
Testament, all churches, all local churches, were made up
of men who had been saved by the grace of God. There was not
different denominations, and there certainly were not national
churches. The Church of England, or the
Church of Scotland, or the Roman Catholic Church, which is a lie
in its own name. The word Catholic means universal. We believe in the Catholic Church,
but not the Roman Catholic Church. It cannot be the church at Rome
and be universal. There are local churches, yes,
but all over this world there is a Catholic church, a universal
church made up of all of God's children. All are saved by the
grace of God. There was no such things as Baptists
and Presbyterians and Methodists and Episcopalians and all of
these denominations that we have today. And because of these various
denominations, the meaning of this word bishop has changed. Because with these denominations,
there always comes hierarchy. There always comes some on top
of the other, you know. A system of ruling and things
like that. And so the word bishop has come
to mean, in many places, a person who is over several churches. That's not the New Testament
teaching, and that's what I want us to look at today. In the New
Testament, and when it's all said and done, when it's all
said and done, this is our authority for what we believe and what
we practice. Here it is. And as far as the
New Testament is concerned, there are three words which all refer
to the same office. Those three words are Bishop,
Elder, and Pastor. We're not talking about three
different offices. We're talking about one office.
And this one office is referred to in the Scripture as a bishop,
as an elder, and as a pastor. Now let's look at that. The Apostle
Paul, he gave Timothy and Titus, both in 1 Timothy and in the
letter of Titus, certain qualifications for men who are to be set apart
to be a bishop, an elder, or a pastor. Now I want us to look
at the list that is given to us in the letter of Titus. If
you will turn over just a few pages to Titus, chapter 1, beginning with verse 5. The apostle
tells Titus, for this cause left Ive and Crete. That thou shouldst
set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders
in every city, as I had appointed thee. Now it begins with qualifications
for elders. If any be blameless, the husband
of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot
or unruly, for a bishop. Now he's still talking about
elders, isn't he? He said he used to ordain elders in every
city, and then he begins to name the qualifications, and now he
says, for a bishop, he's still talking about the same man, the
same office. For a bishop must be blameless
as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to
wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre, but a lover of
hospitality a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate,
holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that
he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince
the gainsayer. You might say, well, Preacher,
I see elder and I see bishop, but I don't see pastor there.
Well, you do when you read in verse 9, holding fast the faithful
word as he hath been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine
both to exhort and to convince the gainsayer. The word that's
translated pastor is the word shepherd, and a shepherd feeds
the sheep. And so, yes, we do see in this
place that the same man who is an elder, he's a bishop, and
he is a pastor. He's apt to teach, or he is to
teach the Word of God. Now, some people say, well, the
word elder refers to the man. The term elder refers to the
man. The term bishop, to the office,
and the term pastor to the work, to the ministry. That is, he
is to feed the flock of God. Now it's interesting to me, when
you read this list and you look at the list that's given to us
also in 1 Timothy, of those who are set apart to the office of
a bishop, it's interesting to me that in looking over these
qualifications, Now listen to me. The one thing that most churches
consider today when they are deciding on a man to be their
pastor is not mentioned in either of these two lists. What is the
one thing? The one thing that every pulpit
committee and every church, local church, when they are looking
for a pastor, what is the one thing that they especially and
always ask? Where did you go to college and
seminary? That's always the question that's
put forth. Where did you attend college
and seminary? And that is not found in either
of these two lists. And I'm convinced more and more
that when a church finds itself without a pastor, maybe the pastor
dies, maybe he comes to the age he can no longer pastor, maybe
he leaves to go somewhere else. That first of all, the congregation
should look for a pastor among the members, and to see if there's
not a man in the congregation that meets these qualifications,
and ordain him to be the pastor. To go off looking somewhere else
for a man. Now sometimes I realize that
has to take place. But normally, look within the
membership. Is there not a man here? You
say, well, he's never been to seminary. That doesn't matter.
Does he know the gospel? Has he sat under the ministry
of a faithful preacher? And he's not a novice, he's not
a young man. And I see that here in this list
because he said his children must be faithful. Well, for a
man to have children who are faithful, they have to be a little
bit younger than one or two years old. Who knows if they're faithful
or not? Yes, all of these qualifications. We cannot improve upon God's
Word. That's the point I want to make.
I know we live in a day and people think that they've got better
ideas and they've got a better way of doing God's work, but
I'm here to tell you this morning there's no better way than God's
way. Study the Word of God and see
what God has to say and follow the Word of God. Well, you say, well, how does
a man learn and how does he come to know what he is to preach,
to know the Word of God? Well, listen to what Paul told
Timothy. This is in 2 Timothy 2 and verse
2. And the things which thou hast
learned of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful
men who shall be able to teach others also. Those things that
Timothy had learned of Paul, how did he learn those things
by Paul? By traveling with Paul, by hearing
Paul preach, by observing Paul's conduct, his doctrine, his manner
of life. He knew everything about the
Apostle Paul. And Paul said, you commit those
to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. Now I want us to look at one
other passage where we see these three words all speaking of the
same man, the same office. I want you to turn to Acts chapter
20. In Acts chapter 20, the Apostle
Paul is on his way to Jerusalem, in this passage, where he will
be arrested and eventually end up the prisoner in Rome from
where he wrote the letter of Philippians. But I want you to
notice in chapter 20, verse 17, first of all. And from Miletus,
he sent to Ephesus, that is Paul, and called for the elders of
the church. He sent to Ephesus and called
for the elders of the church. Now, we don't have time this
morning to read all this passage, but I want you to look down now
to verse 17. I'm sorry, verse 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made
you overseers. Now that's the word that's translated
bishop in our text this morning. To feed, to pastor the church
of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. So you see
he sent for the elders and the elders came and he tells them
to take heed over the flock, which the Holy
Ghost hath made you a bishop, to pastor, to feed the church
of God." Pastors are to feed the flock of God. Pastors are not in the entertainment
business. Someone told me they went to
a place and the pastor rode out on a motorcycle. It was one of
these big places. He came out on a motorcycle and
somehow made it slide, you know, and another person told me they
attended a place where the pastor came out on one of these three
wheelers. And he introduced himself that way. Foolishness, my friends. That's all you can say. Foolishness. that's going on today in the
name of pastors. Can you imagine the Apostle Paul
doing that? I can't. And I sure can't imagine the
Lord Jesus Christ doing that. And he's our example. He taught. He taught the apostles. That's what a pastor is. He's
a teacher. And what is he to teach to feed
the sheep of God? The Word of God. And it must
be line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there
a little. Because that's the way we as
the sheep of God learn. We learn slowly, don't we? Most of us are slow learners.
And we need to hear. And we need to hear, and we need
to hear again. I think it was Martin Luther,
someone asked about a pastor, he said, repetition. That's the
first rule of being a good pastor. Repetition, number two. Repetition,
number three. Repetition. Repeat. We're not here to invent a message. We are here to take the word
of God and to proclaim it, not to explain it even, but to proclaim
what God says, what God delivers unto us. Pastors are to feed
the flock of God. Now, second, these deacons, who
are these? Who are these people? Well, let
us consider the meaning of the Greek word here in our text.
I want you to notice again in Philippians chapter 1 and verse
1 the word that is here translated
deacons. The King James translators, and
that's the Bible, that's the translation I use. I know many
of you do as well. But the translators, and they
were, I tell you, you read the history of the translation of
the King James Version, and you will be impressed with those
men. Their knowledge and their commitment
to the Word of God. But they took the same Greek
word that's here translated deacons, and they translated it by three
different English words. In some places they translated
the same word servant, and in other places they translated
it minister, and in other places deacon. Now notice in our text
Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ. Now I said the
same Greek word is translated in some places servants, but
that's not the word that's translated servant when Paul refers to himself
and Timothy. This word servant here means
a bondservant, a bondslave of Christ. And this word servant
has to do more with the relationship of the person to the master.
Paul was a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Now I always think of
the fact that those Hebrew servants, the law of the Hebrew servant,
after a man served his master for seven years, he had to be
turned loose. But a person could say, I love
my master. I love my wife. I love my children. I want to remain a servant forever. And so to make that official,
they would bore his ear through, publicly so everyone in the town,
and they could say, well, this man's a servant. He doesn't serve
because he was sold into slavery. He sold himself into slavery.
He's a servant because he loves his master. Paul says, a bondservant of Jesus
Christ. He was someone who served not
because he was trying to win a bigger crown in heaven, He served because he loved him
who had first loved him and given himself in his place. That word servant, but this word
that's translated deacon, it's also in some places translated
servant, but it's not the bond servant. This word has more to
do with our relationship to our work, to our work. In Strom's Concordance, he lists
the meaning of this word as attendant, usually a waiter. Now hear me now. In one sense of the word, every
member of the church at Philippi was to be a deacon. If we understand
that word to be a minister, to be a servant, yes. Every member of this congregation,
all of us here today, we are to be deacons. That is, we are
in love to serve one another. Paul commended this woman by
the name of Phoebe in Romans chapter 16 and verse 1. It's
the same word. She was a deaconess of the church
at Corinth. He commended her for her service
to the saints. So in one sense of the word,
all of us are to be deacons. We are to serve one another in
love. But, now listen, the fact that
Paul shows there are certain qualifications to be a deacon
This shows us that while all of us as saints, as members of
the church of God, we are to serve one another, we are to
be deacons and deaconesses, yet some are set apart to the office
of deacon. That is established by the fact
that Paul gives us certain qualifications, and one of those qualifications
is let the deacons be the husbands of one wife. Now, that rules
out women as being set apart to the office of a deaconess. Are they to do the work of deacons?
Sure, we all are. But there are some men in the
church who are set apart to this office as a deacon. Now, it's generally agreed, if
you turn to Acts chapter 6, it's generally agreed that these men
who were chosen here were deacons, even though we do not see the
word deacon in Acts chapter 6, verses 1 through 3. And in those
days when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a
murmuring of the Grecians against 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 is not reason that we
should leave the word of God and serve tables. Wherefore,
brethren, look you out among you seven men of honest report,
full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this
business." You notice they were to serve tables, these deacons
who were set apart. they were to serve tables. I
want to give you an experience that I had a long, long time
ago. In fact, it's been over 50 years
now. But I was asked to preach for
a church over in Southeast Houston whose pastor was sick. And they
asked me to preach because I had a great uncle who was a deacon
in that church, plus I came cheap. In fact, if they had asked me,
I would have paid them to come preach. But after a few weeks
I preached there, the pastor recovered from whatever sickness
he had, and they were going to ordain a man to be a deacon.
And someone asked me, somehow, would you preach what they called
the ordination sermon? And I said, sure. I didn't have
a clue. Sure. And I thank God today for
John Gill's Body of Divinity. But in that part on practical
divinity, he gives an outline of how deacons are to serve tables. Three tables. There are three
tables that deacons are to serve. First, the widow's table. benevolence,
as we would say today. They are to take care of that
work of benevolence. Number two, the Lord's table.
And we have deacons here who serve the Lord's table when we
observe that ordinance. And number three, the pastor's
table. They are to make sure that his
material needs are taken care of. And after over 50 years,
I don't think I could improve on that at all. The purpose of
deacons. Who are they? They're servants.
We're all servants. We're all serving one another
in love. But there's some men who meet
these qualifications when the pastor has need. Church doesn't
just ordain deacons because we're afraid if we don't ordain that
man, he may go somewhere else. Men are ordained as there is
a need to do those three things that I've just mentioned. And
I'm so thankful that our congregation, we have, over the years, we have
had three, four deacons, and two of them no longer are able
to serve as deacons. But I tell you what, we've had
faithful deacons here. And I say that as a pastor. I could never have asked for
more faithful men to serve as deacons than those who've served
in this congregation. But every church, that's who
Paul is writing to here, to the saints, to the pastors, and to
the deacons. Grace and peace be unto you from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I pray that this
message would be a help and a blessing to us. We're going to sing a
hymn before we are dismissed today. Hymn number 127. Hymn number 127. Now let's stand
as we sing.