The Deacons’ Authority

Acts 6 and the Need for Deacons

Good afternoon. I'm sorry. Turn on my mic there. All right. So we are in Acts 6, if you'd like to turn to Acts 6. All right, I will read the first seven verses. Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, It is not right that we should give up preaching the Word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. And what they said pleased the whole gathering. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch.

These they set before the apostles, and they prayed, and laid their hands on them. And the Word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

These are the words of the Lord. So, today we will be talking about deacons. Now, churches differ greatly. But one of the ways there's more variety than there often is otherwise is in the office of a deacon.

Look at some churches. Some churches have no deacons, and don't have an interest in having deacons. Some churches, the deacons are like a board of directors. And some churches, deacons take care of different things.

Like, you have a deacon of the sound board, and deacon of the library, but they're not really in charge of the whole picture. Or, in some traditions, deacons are in charge of the sacraments. So, you have all these very different ideas about what the deacon's authority is.

So, what is the deacon's authority? A lot of people, I think, I think there's several reasons for this variety of thought, and I could attribute it to several things. But one of those would be, I think a lot of people aren't interested.

And even if they're mildly interested, they feel like, well, this isn't really my job to figure it out. Well, two weeks ago, we talked about how the ultimate authority in the church, in the local church, you know, below Christ, of course, is the congregation.

So, guess whose job this is to figure it out? It's yours. So, we're going to be doing that today. We're gonna, we're gonna talk about what the authority of the deacon is. And we're going to see that the deacon's authority is to manage the physical resources of the church, to meet the physical needs of the church.

And we are going to see what you can do to help with that ministry, and also how this relates to the gospel. So, just like in the previous weeks, we're gonna look at one verse, and we're just gonna ask several questions about that verse, and then end off with asking, how does this relate to the gospel?

Why Deacons Are Needed to Protect Joy, Unity, and Gospel Proclamation

So, we're largely looking at verse number three here. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. This word, duty, implies, you know, there's some need.

So, my first question is, why are deacons needed? Verse one says, now in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews, because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

So, here you have the need. There are physical needs in this church. There, there are widows that are not being taken care of as they ought. And so, a physical need has arisen. But the, the problem is really more insidious than just physical need.

Church is a, is a, it's a spiritual thing. There's, there's spiritual matters afoot here. The gospel is at stake, and the gospel is at stake in several ways. One, our salvation is supposed to be experienced with joy, and the joy of salvation is being threatened for these widows, right?

Instead of joy, what do you see instead? There's complaint. And, so, let me give you an example of this. Proverbs 30, 7 through 9, says, two things I ask of you, Lord. Do not refuse me before, before I die.

Keep me far from falsehood and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much, and disown my God and say, who is the Lord? Or, I may have too little, and become poor, and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.

So, there you have, in the Proverbs, a prayer instructing us to pray not to become too poor, so that we are not tempted into sin, and the joy of our salvation stolen, right? To make an analogy, it's like, imagine if you were on a desert island, and you had this great treasure there, but you also have no food, right?

How could you, how could you enjoy that treasure? That is what it's like to have the wonderful treasure of the gospel, but then to have physical needs that keep you from enjoying this, this joy. Now, another way the gospel is being threatened, is that the unity of the gospel is being threatened, right?

Jesus died to unite all kinds of people together, to unite Jew and Gentile, and here you have a fraction, not even among Jew and Gentile, right? Among Greek-speaking Jews and, and Hebrew-speaking Jews.

That's what a Hellenist is, by the way. That's a Greek-speaking Jew, and it's even worse than just, you know, some kind of disunity, because that unity is happening along ethnic lines, right? It's happening across the demographic, and that is, that is how physical needs often work, is they, they occur disproportionately among demographics, and so present special threats to unity.

If you think about how politics work, and why different demographics tend to side with different political sides, why is that? It's because different demographics have different needs, and, and think about all the division that causes just in, just in politics, or you have the same problem in the church.

The difference is that politics, any political solution does not offer the gospel as an answer to that unity, but we have that here. So, another way that the, that the gospel is being threatened is that the proclamation of the gospel is at stake.

In verse 2, it says, and it's 12, that's the Apostles, summon the full number of the disciples and said, it is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. So, they're not able to, obviously, they're not able to do this job well enough by themselves, and then on top of that, their preaching ministry is being threatened by the time that's taken away, right?

They need to pray, as it says later, it doesn't say that in this verse, verse 4, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word, and they need to devote themselves to studying and to preaching, right?

Prayer, studying, and preaching, and they can't do these things if they're worried about meeting the physical needs of the church. So, here you have this need for deacons. This is, yeah, this is where you see this need.

The Deacon’s Authority and the Congregation’s Support

And so, they decide that they will have deacons to address this need in the church. Now, another question I might ask about deacons are, what is the authority of deacon? So, as we've already said, it's the authority to manage the physical resources of the church, to look out for the physical needs of the church.

And you see that in here when it talks about duty. Once again, duty implies some kind of responsibility. That means that there must be something that they're authorized to do. If you have responsibility, you have to have some kind of authority to do it.

Now, a lot of people look at this passage, and I don't know if you notice, but it doesn't mention deacons in here. So, a lot of people look at this passage and say, this actually doesn't have anything to do with deacons.

This is something entirely different that just happened one time in the book of Acts. Well, in response to that, I would say, well, they seem to function an awful lot like deacons do later in the New Testament.

And secondly, later in the New Testament, it's just assumed that there's been some kind of establishment of this office of deacon. And where would that come from if it were not here? And on top of that, I would say that it's very obvious that we have an office that is being established, given the way they're spoken of as the seven.

And later on in Acts, they're once again called the seven. You know, just like the twelve. You have the twelve apostles. You have the seven. And the apostles are functioning sort of as the first elders.

And here you have the seven functioning sort of as the first deacons. So there is some authority. So just because deacons are not ones who typically are, you know, giving orders to other people the way an elder might, it is still an office that has authority.

It is authority over these physical resources so that your tables can be served, so that people's needs can be met. And all these things come together to give us the whole picture. So if you imagine a triangle, on top you have this responsibility that must be met, and then you have this authority.

There's a part missing because just with responsibility and authority, that doesn't necessarily make things happen. You need one more thing, and that thing is you need the ability to do it, right? The power to do it.

And that is, in many ways, where the congregation comes in. Because deacons don't by themselves have much power to do things without the congregation's support. So one way the congregation can support deacons is by giving, right?

If there's no pooled resources like you have described in the previous chapters of Acts, where they're all gathering the resources together to minister to the needs of others. If you don't have that, then deacons have no power to serve.

Another way is that you can ask deacons how you can help. Because sometimes giving financially isn't always the best way, or maybe the best way that you're able to. Maybe you have some other gifts that can be shared.

You know, when you see some of the things that are donated to the church, it's not just money, right? It's land. And presumably, people are offering their time and other resources that they have. So that's another way that you can assist with the deacon's work.

One other way that you can assist with the deacon's work is by deferring to deacons. If deacons are trying to manage meeting needs, whether they be needs around the property or needs of those who are poor, you can defer decisions to them as opposed to resisting.

You know, unless there's some need to resist if something is dangerously wrong. One other way is that you can respect the office of a deacon by referring people to the deacon if they have needs. Now, that might seem a little obvious, but I think for a lot of people it is far, far from obvious.

It's going to the deacon is one of the last things they think of when they think of their needs. And I'll give you a couple of examples of this. At the time of the Reformation, it was very difficult for them to restore the office of deacon from being something other than just someone who served the the Lord's table.

And the reason why was because the governing authorities had taken over the job of taking care of the poor. So a lot of people put that burden on somebody else. Oh, there's this service over here that will provide for my needs.

There's this service over here that provides for my needs. And the last thing they think of is the God-ordained service to provide for your needs, which is the deaconate, the office of the deacon. Another thing that comes to mind is I once knew a person who was involved in a church where he had deacons willing to help him and had a pretty significant financial need.

But the way he went about trying to raise money for his need was not by going to the deacons. It was by going to maybe one or two people in the church and then going to another church that he was friends with and asking around various friends he had there.

And there's several problems with this. One, that's not how, you know, that's not the picture we have here. And then two, this can be a little embarrassing for the church. So this person, you know, is that this this church is not able to meet this person's needs.

So he has to go to these other churches to beg around. Right? That that's problematic. That can that can lead to to tarnishing this picture that we're supposed to be building of a body that takes care of each other.

So that's that's an important way to that you can support the work of a deacon is by referring people who have needs to the deacon. Now another another question I would ask about this is how do the qualifications of a deacon relate to the authority of a deacon?

Qualifications for Deacons: Reputation, Spirit, Wisdom, and Faithfulness

So when I mention qualifications of a deacon, maybe some of you are already thinking about 1st Timothy 3. That's that's later. And that's much more complete. But here we have a couple of qualifications.

Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and wisdom. Okay, so we need people full of good repute, full of the Spirit and wisdom. Now repute was something that we just addressed, right?

The reputation of the church is on the line. We're answering the question now. Is the church capable of taking care of itself? Is Christ taking care of the church? Or is it something that's going to fracture and not not be able to meet the needs of its own people?

And so as the reputation of the church is on the line, the reputation of the deacon is important as well. Because if you have deacons that have a bad reputation, that could tarnish the the name of the church.

And that's something you see also in 1st Timothy 3. And of course, if they have a bad reputation for certain reasons, it could indicate they're not they're not capable of doing the job. They're supposed to be full of the Spirit and of wisdom.

Now interestingly, it doesn't say they have to, you know, understand accounting to the nth degree or understand property management to the nth degree. But they must be full of the Spirit and of wisdom, because there are many decisions that get made, especially when you're talking about interacting with the lives of those who have needs.

And you're thinking about, how are we going to manage the resources in the way that prioritizes the gospel? Not just, you know, manages money effectively, but prioritizes the gospel. You need someone who is full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom.

Now, as I say that, one of the, well, one of the things that comes to mind is this person cannot be greedy. If they are, they are managing the resources of the church, and they are greedy, you're going to have problems.

Even if they're not actually embezzling, you could have all kinds of abuses of money. And I think of Jesus and his disciples, before they came apostles, and were sent out, he had a deacon of sorts, right?

He had someone who managed the physical resources of the set of disciples. Does anybody remember who that is? Judas, right. Judas. Now, was Judas full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom? No. And how did that turn out, right?

You see him saying, you know, this woman should have donated her money, rather than spending it all on this perfume. And then later, he betrays Jesus for money. This is what happens when you have someone, you know, not that Jesus was unwise for allowing Judas to do this.

He had his reasons. But this is what happens when you have someone who's not full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom in charge of the physical resource of the church. Once again, the gospel is along the line.

Now, little did Judas know that by his actions, he would establish the gospel, you know, indirectly. But, you know, imagine other circumstances today. That could go very poorly. It could ruin the whole church.

So, yeah, we're answering the question of the qualifications. So, yes, these qualifications show you, they show you that why it is that a deacon, how it relates the Holy Spirit and having authority over money.

Hopefully, you see that those are not related—these physical resources of the church and someone being wise. So, a way you can help here is the church needs to raise up deacons. You can encourage people to pursue the study of the Word, growing in the Holy Spirit and wisdom.

And you can identify people who are capable of this work. This is not, this is not something where you just sit back and you wait for, you know, someone else to do the work. Even if it's not you that's going to be doing it, you can be looking around and asking, you know, who could help out with this work?

You know, right now, I'm the only deacon and boy would I love help. So, yeah, you could be thinking about these things. Next, I'd like to ask you, what is the source of the authority of the deacon? Now, at the beginning, Josh gave you, you know, that list and I'll give it to you in a minute, but plainly said, it's the elders, right?

The Source of Deacon Authority in the Elders’ Delegation

The elders lay hands and they're delegating. Now, some traditions have the deacons, well, some traditions have the deacons above the elders as some kind of board of directors, but a lot of traditions have the deacons beside the elders.

I think, given this passage, it's pretty clear that the deacons are subordinate to the elders, that you have the elders, one, already doing this task, right? They're already doing the work of a deacon.

So, their their scope of authority is larger than that of a deacon and they are, and they are delegating this work to the deacon, this subset of the work. And on top of that, you see them laying on hands and choosing these men to serve.

So, it's coming from the elders. Now, you have, at this point, a chain. Remember, we said that Christ has been given authority from the Father, right? Not that, and for those who weren't here in previous weeks, the Son, you know, eternally has all authority, but as a man, he has been given authority from the Father to establish this kingdom on earth.

Now, that authority passes on to the congregation. The congregation chooses elders, appoints them, and gives that authority to the elders. And then, the elders delegate authority to the deacons. So, that is, that is the full chain.

And that chain is very helpful in having us understand how that authority is supposed to operate. Because, just like with the congregation and the elders, the, the kind of authority is not one where the elder gets to decide everything, right?

The elders, generally, are in charge of managing the teaching, the, organizing the teaching ministry of the church, but the congregation always has authority to remove the elders or to add new ones. And so, it's the same thing with the deacons.

The deacons have authority over the physical resources of the church to meet the physical needs of the church. But, the elders still have authority over that to, to step in if they need to, and the congregation has authority over that to step in if they need to.

But, in general, deference should be occurring, right? The elders should be deferring to the, to the deacons to allow them to do the job. The congregation should be deferring to the elders and the deacons over the teaching ministry and the, the physical resources ministry of the church.

And we've talked about this a little in the past, but one of the ways you see that is in how we do our, our church meetings, our members meetings, is that instead of, instead of presenting many options for people to decide how they would, how they would do it, instead, it is deferred to the deacon, you know, to decide what the, we haven't done a budget before, but we have done specific items.

Anyway, is this in accord with the gospel to spend this much on fixing our heater that exploded about a month ago, right? And the, and the question is, does this, does this accord with the gospel? You know, will I defer to the deacon in this?

It's, it would be not deferring to the deacon to instead say, like, let's pick these, you know, let's present all the contractors that are available to fix the heater, and then, you know, figure out how the, the physical needs of the church will be addressed that way by, by essentially offloading the, the duty of the deacon onto the congregation.

That would, that would lead to issues. So, so, yeah, we have this source of authority, we have the qualifications, we have the authority itself, and along with all that, I'd like to point out just these first deacons, how they are faithful men.

So, Stephen, you have Stephen, who in the next chapter is martyred, right? And then you have Philip, who goes on to preach, and maybe you haven't noticed this before. I, I know I never noticed this, but Philip isn't called, you know, Philip of Caesarea or anything interesting like that.

So, this is the same Philip that you see elsewhere in Acts. This is the apostle. One of the twelve is one of the seven. Now, that, that kind of blew my mind, because, you know, that's one of the elders essentially deciding he's going to do the work of a deacon, because this is very important stuff.

So, he's a faithful man. And then you have Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch. That means that he didn't grow up Jewish, but he became Jewish later. Something that, you know, testifies to the fact that he's really committed himself to this, to this faith.

You know, once again, is there not people like Judas? So, in conclusion, I'd like to, I'd like to ask you, lastly, how does the gospel relate to this authority? Well, I would say that, first of all, in instituting deacons, it shows us that Christ cares about his gospel, right?

Christ the Servant King and the Gospel Stakes of Deacon Ministry

We said that the, the unity of the gospel, the joy of the gospel, the, um, the preaching of the gospel, all these things are at stake. But not only that, the office and authority of deacon doesn't just point to Christ as someone who cares about his church, but it points to Christ a little more directly as one who himself is a deacon.

Now, maybe you're used to thinking of Jesus as the great shepherd of sheep, right? The greatest elder, the greatest pastor. But he's also the greatest deacon. Now, uh, the word deacon, uh, means to, means servant.

If you weren't aware of that, you know, uh, some of you might know my son is named Deacon. His middle name is Melech, which is, uh, Hebrew for king. So, together, that's Greek for servant and Hebrew for king, servant king.

Right? Uh, and we have this word all over scripture, speaks of serving. Deaconeo means to serve. Deaconess, uh, is a servant. In Matthew 20, 28, says that Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve and to lay down his life as a ransom for many.

That is, uh, yeah, I, I'm privileged to stand in this office and, uh, and point to him by my actions. Of course, I come far, far short from that. But this is, this is the gospel of the, of the authority of the deacon, is it points to Christ, who is the greatest servant of all, who laid down his life so that those who, uh, trust in him can have salvation.

That is a beautiful thing. And the— we talked about how the joy of the gospel is at stake. The joy of the gospel. Jesus said, uh, well, not Jesus, sorry, Isaiah said in Isaiah 53, 4, that he, uh, he bore our sorrows, right?

Jesus bore our sorrows on himself so that we might have joy. This is, uh, this office is a picture of Jesus, his care for the church, uh, in providing it, but also his care for the church in having served in a greater way than I could ever hope to serve.

And if we are looking to him in these things, in the life of the church, uh, we will keep our sights set rightly so that, um, we understand the importance of watching out for these physical needs. It is not, it is not just a matter of, you know, making sure that people are happy or comfortable.

It is a matter of making sure that the, the gospel is maintained, that the preaching of the gospel is maintained, that the, that the joy of the gospel is maintained, that the unity of the gospel is maintained.

Hebrews 6, 12 says, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Now, when you hear a verse like that, you think, okay, the battle that we fight is just out there in the ether, right? But occasionally, it reaches its arms out into the physical world and physical needs, threatening the gospel.

And that is what, uh, that is what we address here by meeting physical needs of the church, by having an office that takes care of the physical resources of the church to do so. And as you, as you think about that, I would like you to think about how it is that you could help in encouraging others to pursue holiness and encouraging others to pursue the office and identifying people who can, and giving to the church of your, of your time and energy and money and, uh, and referring people to deacons who could use that help.

I would ask you also, of course, to be looking to Christ, the greatest deacon of all, who laid down his life as a ransom for many. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, uh, we thank you for instituting the office of a deacon.

I pray that I here would do my job well as one. I pray that you would send us more. We also thank you for sending your Son to die for us, to lay down his life as a ransom for many. I pray that we would, uh, look to him and his service to us, and that we would be transformed by your Holy Spirit to serve others.

In Jesus' name. Amen.