Establishment of the Diaconate

Turn with me please in your Bibles to the sixth chapter of the book of Acts.

Acts Chapter 6 and the Setting of the Diaconate

Acts chapter 6. Acts chapter 6. It's very good to see Dr. Barth with us this.

Morning. He has that what time of day is it anyway look, which some of us only know by about one-third, but good to have him here this morning. Acts chapter 6. If you have been with us in the preceding portions of this series we are not working through the book of Acts it looks like that at the moment but we are following the contents of a early papyrus of the New Testament called p45 was written around the year 220 and if it contains any portion of a chapter in the New Testament then we are covering that.

We've done that in John and now we are in the book of Acts because p45 contains portions of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts. It is the only gospel manuscript we have from the ancient world that has that combination and so we started in Acts chapter 4 and we have now moved into Acts chapter 6.

You may recall a number of weeks ago that we finished up looking at chapter 5 and Gamaliel's advice. We saw that that advice was not exactly what we could apply in many situations but that it had been given at that particular point in time.

It's another one of those incidents that gives us further confidence of the historicity of the New Testament text. That is, we know there was a rabbi Gamaliel. We have record of him outside of the New Testament and we have some understanding of where he stood and what he believed from other sources and so it's just one of those things we note in passing that places the text of the New Testament in its historical context which is very important today in light of many people who would tell us that the New Testament does not possess that historical pedigree.

But we're still in the early, early period there in Jerusalem. We have a primarily, well a completely Jewish or Jewish proselyte church and those days are about to come to an end and that is what is introduced to us.

The first portion of chapter 6 introduces us to a certain individual, Stephen, but in a different context and it is an important context for us though I must confess for most Christians it probably would not be considered to be all that important.

If you are like me, I was raised in the church and I was raised within a primarily strict fundamentalist camp and we didn't generally have a interest in looking outside of our own camp at why people did things differently we just assumed it was because they were going to hell.

So if you assume that you just don't necessarily take the time to ask the question, well why would they do that? So I remember I was already in in seminary the first time I was really faced with a challenge to think through why is it that we do church the way we do it and specifically why do we have the officers and people in the church?

Now in my context at that point in time you would have a pastor and if it was a really large church where which I was at then you would have a huge staff underneath the pastor and they were all pastors of this and pastors of that and then you had deacons and the deacons especially in smaller churches would pretty much function as an elder board.

They would vote on things and certainly in my experience as a younger person I had seen where deacons had kicked out the pastor and it'd be the deacons who were the ones that would choose who the pastor would be and so the pastor would serve basically at the behest of the deacons and very often what ends up happening in a situation like this is you end up with a a powerful group of families who are deacons but they control the church.

That's where that's where the power is and the pastor serves at at their wishes up until he preaches that sermon they don't like and then he's looking for a new job and then when you get divisions amongst the deacons that's when you know when someone wants to change the carpeting color that's when the deacons meet out church afterwards and after a few bloody noses and and black eyes the color of the carpet is determined by Victor.

You may chuckle a little bit but the reason us older folks are chuckling is because we all know this is exactly how it's happened for a very very very long time and so I remember when I was first challenged I don't think it's somebody who walked up to me and said you know that's not the way to do things I think it was just simply in studying the New Testament and going elders elders hmm and then you read Titus and you read Timothy and here are the qualifications for the elders and here are the qualifications for the deacons and they are different and they're distinguished from one another and huh these these elders are the ones that are accountable for teaching and rebuking and discipline and the deacons aren't supposed to be in charge of that they have a they have a different task and and I kept seeing that that elders and bishops well they're the same thing and huh they're in the plural all the time there's there's more than one and the Apostles go around when they they strengthen the church and they establish the church they they ordain elders in those in those churches and huh I hmm I wonder what this is all about.

And so you start digging in and and you start being willing to be challenged a bit on these issues and you go huh my my traditions don't seem to quite match up with with the New Testament and some of you know that a number of years ago I was invited to write a portion for a one of those multi views books five views on this four views on that whatever else it might be and it was on church governance.

Wow that was exciting. But it is in a sense and I remember that the the fellow who wrote the the single pastor defense started off saying I sort of figured the New Testament more strongly teaches that there's a plurality of elders but I've been asked to defend this abuse point so I will you know it's like okay all right.

It would have been nice they had found someone who actually really did believe that. And amongst the group there was those I defended the plurality of elders perspective. And then there was a the now since past dr. Raymond wrote the section from the Presbyterian perspective and to be honest with you we were the only two debating everybody else has to stop doing their thing but but he and I his presentations were absolutely maxed out max number of words in response to the other guy.

And that was where the that's where the debate was going on between myself and dr. Raymond. So what we have in in Acts chapter 6 is the establishment. The first glimpse we have in the primitive church of what eventually we see in Paul's writings is what we call the diaconate the office of deacon.

And this comes out really really plainly when you read the narrative in the original language because that term diakonos just simply means a minister ace one who serves others. And the terms used all the way through here and so it becomes very clear to us what is going on here in the in the early and primitive church.

The Complaint of the Hellenistic Widows

So chapter 6 now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number a complaint arose on the part of and now we encounter a translational issue literally a grumbling. That's that's my favorite word that I have mentioned to you a number of times out of John chapter 6.

But here it is again gungus mooing. I think that is the greatest Greek word to describe grumbling. Are you gungus mooing. Yes I'm gungus mooing. So gungus moss a complaint a grumbling. And it's literally of the Greek ones against the Hebrew ones.

Now your various translations will try to Hellenistic Jews. Hellenas is the term for Greek in Greek. So the the Greek Jews against the native Hebrews. Well these are all still Jews. But you have proselytes and you have those who were born into the the Hebrew nation in essence.

And so you have those who've come from outside and now they've been converted and you've got the others who've been converted who were born as as Jews. And there is a a complaint a grumbling on the part of the Greeks against the Hebrews because their widows that is the the Greek widows in the diakonia the diakonia the service the ministry their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food.

We saw earlier that there in the church in Jerusalem they were pooling their resources they were taking care of the poor amongst them and especially the widows there was a provision being made for them.

And the complaint is that the native Hebrew widows are getting what they should get but the Greek widows were not. So we'll go back to that and dig into it a little bit more in a moment. So the twelve summoned all of the disciples the the the fullness of disciples so you can say the congregation but it's just simply the full number of the disciples.

And said it is not desirable. It is not a a good thing for us to neglect the Word of God in order to serve tables. Therefore brethren select from among you seven men of good reputation literally martyrs.

Obviously that means they weren't used to serve martyr in the same way that we it has developed over time. Sir select from among you seven men of good reputation full of the spirit and of wisdom whom we may put in charge of this task but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

The statement found approval with the whole congregation and they chose Stephen a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit and Philip Prochorus Nicanor team and permanence and Nicholas a proselyte from Antioch and these they brought before the Apostles and after praying they laid hands on them.

The Word of God kept on spreading and the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. And so here we have the beginning of chapter 6 and obviously the almost paradisical situation the early church could not last forever.

I mean up to now you primarily have pressures from outside but the reality is you put a bunch of sinners together and there is going to be there are going to be some problems that are going to develop.

And so the first internal problem here is well you've already seen I'm not trying to minimize Ananias and Sapphira. That was certainly a problem but I'm not sure that it would be. It was the result of the natural fellowship of sinners with one another.

There's questions as to Ananias and Sapphira's spiritual state. But here you get an understandable situation. The church is seeking to do something to provide something for the widows to take care of them amongst the people.

And so what has happened is that there is an overlooking of some of the widows in the daily serving of food. Now why. Well we're not told. Some might speculate and come to the conclusion that there was some type of favoritism going on.

I would I would struggle with that as being the reason at this point in time. I think personally if I was to speculate as to the the reasoning it might have been a language issue. You have some who are more comfortable in the Aramaic language.

Maybe the the Greek widows speaking Greek as their primary language we're not as good in in Hebrew and hence maybe couldn't hear instructions as well couldn't follow instructions as well needed someone to translate.

I mean having just been over there we were very blessed to have a guide a very intelligent guide. I think I mentioned him to you who obviously was completely fluent in modern Hebrew and I think you just need to have someone like that to be able to get it out get in and out of the places properly and and stuff like that.

It's not that it seemed almost universal that everyone there understood English. That was that was pretty amongst the the Jewish people anyways everybody understood English. I walked into it was on Shabbat on the Sabbath day you can't get food worth nothing and I walked into a Arab falafel house and the young Arab kid there that was serving spoke perfect English so I didn't have any problem ordering or anything like that so but there wasn't any English back then.

And so was it was it a language thing what you know when you're when you speak the minority language in the majority group or something like that. Could that have been what was going on we're simply not told and there's nothing in what the Apostles say that gives us an indication that they were condemning any kind of sinful attitude on the part of anyone in the church and so I think we are out of our bounds if we attempt to make accusation that well here you've got some kind of thing going on where.

Well if you don't speak Hebrew those well as I speak Hebrew then you're not gonna get as much food type of situation. I don't don't see any reason to assume that this this actually existed. But there is a problem that has developed and it's brought to the attention of the twelve and I would imagine imagine that there is a a meeting and there is a discussion you know we need to get more people involved in such a way that will allow us there's a tremendous pressure upon us to be providing to the people teaching in regards to the Word of God.

I mean this is we stand upon the shoulders of Giants of generations after generation after generation we have an entire language and vocabulary that has been developed for us over time. They didn't have that at this point they are are still wrestling with you know the the teaching that they've received from Jesus only a matter of weeks ago months ago maybe after his resurrection.

And there is there are lots of questions being asked and and and they're probably having to spend a lot of time talking to one another and and and and dealing with these questions and and going what about this what about that so on and so forth and so they're under a tremendous amount of pressure and so they say it is not desirable for us to neglect the Word of God in order to serve tables.

Now we live in a day where people people have not been taught to think properly in categories. I blame you know the internet is is the greatest source of data and information everywhere but it is also absolutely corrosive to wisdom wisdom and maturity of thought and a lot of people these days if if if Peter tweeted it is not desirable for us to neglect the Word of God in order to serve tables.

Can you imagine the hashtags in response we love servers service is good don't put down servers you know and and all the rest of this type of stuff which he's not doing. It is not. There is nothing in the statement that says there's something wrong with serving tables but there is a necessary it is necessary for us to think in proper categories and to recognize that there can be certain callings that have a higher importance in the overall scheme of what someone's been called to do than something else.

And it's the Apostles who have been taught to minister and teach the Word of God and to explain this message of life in Jesus Christ. And it is a lesser priority to serve tables. And so it is not desirable it is not a good thing a proper thing for us to neglect the Word of God.

So that is a very high calling is the ministry of the Word of God and it's only the proclamation at Word of God that is resulting in this huge group we're gathering together called the church which then leads to the necessity of having to serve tables to take care of the widows in the first place.

So it's just a matter of having to think in the proper categories which I find again in our day to be one of the major problems that we face with so many people who struggle in this very area. And so there is a high priority for the Apostles.

They will not neglect the Word of God for anything else even if it is a good thing even if it is a proper thing even if it is a necessary thing this is the most necessary thing in their calling. Jesus had been ministering to them teaching him these things and now he's entrusted these things to them and they need to pass these things along.

That is of the highest priority therefore brethren. So speaking to the whole group of the whole congregation therefore select from among you seven men of good reputation seven men like I said who have who are martyrs who have a proper testimony and the term that is used is Andros men.

It's not a gym it's not Andros is even more specific than Anthropos is which get anthropology and so specifically the instruction from the Apostles is to pick from amongst you seven men full the spirit and wisdom and so there is to be an examination of their lives their relationship to God and they need to be wise because fact matter is dealing with issues like this in the church but there can be emotional attachment and emotional investment and things like that takes a lot of wisdom takes a lot of wisdom and so the congregation is told select from among you seven men good reputation full the spirit and wisdom whom we may put in charge of this task now.

Apostolic Authority and Congregational Participation

I'm not going to invest a tremendous amount of time on this but this is one of a number of texts that would need to be brought into into our view in asking the questions that come up in regards to the Apostles.

You have living Apostles right now. We do not have living Apostles today despite how many people want to call themselves that there are certain requirements as to what an Apostle is supposed to be. And so when the transition takes place from the apostolic period to what we would call the normative period.

Well there's a transition because Apostles die off over time. So there's a transitionary period. And so what's the relationship of Apostles then the elders bishops overseers they're all the same thing they're used interchangeably by Paul and by others in the New Testament.

What's the relationship of authority in the church at that point. And then these men the deacons those who are to serve. What about that. Well you know obviously we have Titus and and Timothy to give us a lot more information about that.

But we also have the rest of Acts and we're gonna see later on since p45 goes well into Acts all the way to chapter 17 we're gonna see later on that that one of the ways that Paul strengthens the churches that he's already founded is making sure they have this solid organization within them and he applies and he ordains elders bishops for them.

But it is interesting that though they're selected by the whole congregation and out of the whole congregation whom we may put in charge of this task not whom you may put in charge of this task. So the overall overarching authority of the Apostles is still seen it's not compromised.

But you have the congregation participating in the selection of these office holders who are then placed in that position by the Apostles themselves. So there is a lot of discussion it's doesn't happen a lot in the church because like I said most people in the church just sort of go with whatever the church does.

But there is a lot of discussion in the literature of exactly how things are to be laid out. And this would be one of those texts that would be relevant to our study of that that subject. So they will be put in charge of this task that is providing for the food for the widows so they are serving tables literally.

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And again that doesn't mean that deacons can't study the word I can't pray or anything you know that that kind of mindset. No but there is a proper and appropriate and notice it says the statement found approved with the whole congregation there is a proper and appropriate recognition of the supremacy the centrality the necessity of being devoted to prayer and the ministry of the word on the part of the Apostles and while we can I think appropriately step back and go man this was this is a very unique time period very very unique time period.

You have a situation here where what must it have been like for the Apostles to be trying to answer all of these questions. They had probably tried to ask as many questions as they could during Jesus's ministry to them after the resurrection.

But people can come up with questions you never ever ever thought of before and they can be very very challenging and and as they're now having more and more people coming into the fellowship that's more and more people from more and more different backgrounds who have a little different take on things and hence may hear what you're saying differently.

And so they'll ask questions and you're at first you're you struggle to even know where that came from and so you have to ask more questions and that makes you go back and I'm sure they're having to spend a lot of time together in prayer and in conversation with one another and I'd imagine that conversation would be something along the lines of yeah you know I had a brother ask me about this and and I'm really not sure how to answer that and then maybe one of the other Apostles would go well remember remember when we were walking from Capernaum to to Nazareth at one time and we asked this question.

Remember when Jesus said this might that shed some light on this. Well let's let's pray about that let's consider that let's you know let's let's look at what the what the the Prophet said I mean you're bringing all of this together at this point in time and I imagine it would be pretty much a a full-time task for the Apostles to be engaged in this kind of of work and while we don't have that kind of Apostle today it certainly was very very important at that time that they be able to devote themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word and so similar to what you have when when God's wisdom is given to Moses with the people in the wilderness you can't you can't be judging the people day and night this is a huge number of people you need to need to find some other men and you need to set up basically the a rudimentary legal system even while we're here in in the wilderness and that type of thing and that's what's going on here as as well.

And so they say this to the congregation the statement found approval with the whole congregation now again the unity of the church is great because I've been I've been in situations where no statement would have found approval with the whole congregation including the Sun is up now there might be some folks in some congregations that when everybody gets crosswise where doesn't matter what you say there's going to be disagreement and division at that point in time.

That's not what's going on here. It's we have this kind of of proper fellowship at this point and so the statement finds approval with the whole congregation. So what do they do. Well we don't know how long this takes it must have been a fairly short period of time.

I would assume we don't have a any evidence that they that they established a committee to do this because then it would be finished somewhere about acts 28 if you did it that way but somehow these men are chosen and you will notice.

And this is why I this is why I get the feeling that there was some kind of language barrier issue that isn't just brought out but do you notice something about the names. They're all Greek and so it seems that on a functional level what is done is the choice is made so that there can because there's a specific need here the specific need is to make sure that all the widows are treated fairly.

And so the fact that you end up choosing men who and we can't we can't know. I mean that as you know Saul is Paul and Peter is Cephas and so is it just that the Greek versions of their names are given here.

Or was that the normal name they went by did they have Aramaic or Hebrew cognates just as most of the disciples did. But they're just not given to us because of who Luke's writing to so give the name that would be most easy to understand and you don't have to interpret each one.

And I don't know I don't know we're not told but they all have these Greek versions which would possibly indicate to us a facility in the language that would allow them to make sure that overlooking that was happening before wasn't going to happen anymore.

Many people have made a huge deal out of they they all chose Greek names. And and the people with Greek names and so this was the church dealing with early divisions like I sort of hard to to substantiate that in light of the fact that we know and most of us can name the the extra names that people had back in that in that day because Greek had become such a lingua franca because of Alexander's taking over of the whole known world a few centuries earlier and spreading that that language it it functioned then similarly to the way that English does today in that area.

And so these are some of the questions that that we have. But Stephen is the first listed and he is specifically described as a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.

Now the problem is here that you all have already cheated you know the rest of the story you know what the next two chapters are about anyways. And so you're thinking ahead and when you think ahead sometimes you rush past what is being said in in the story right now it's just human nature it's just how we function.

But it does strike us that Stephen who we know is going to be the first Christian martyr. And we know he's going to preach a long sermon and we know that sermons going to be very straightforward and it's going to raise some difficult questions when you when you deal with critics of the New Testament and the doctrine of inerrancy as often as I do you have had to deal with a few things that Stephen said more than once because since he is going to give us pretty much an entire recapitulation of the history of the people of Israel when he puts things somewhat differently than what we have in other texts or scripture well those are going to be primary places that people are going to go to try to allege contradiction in the Bible.

And so we're going to have to deal with some challenging texts from Stephen's sermon though I want to try to avoid chasing so many of those rabbits or chasing the rabbits so far that we end up losing the cumulative effect of what Stephen did which then resulted in his in his being murdered and martyred for the faith which of course Luke then uses as his introduction to a man named Saul.

So you know I can't help but think of the very famous words of Tertullian a few centuries later when he says the blood the martyrs is the seed of the church. You have a clear illustration of that in what happens with with Stephen and then with the Apostle himself who likewise becomes a martyr after a very long and fruitful ministry.

So it's not surprising to me that when Stephen is introduced he is introduced first he's put the head the list. This is a practice that is going to be picked up by the early church and martyrs are always going to be put at the head of the list of anything they were involved in that they gave their lives and they that's how they're listed.

He's put the head the list and he is identified as a man full of two things faith and the Holy Spirit. Faith and the Holy Spirit. Now you would think that someone who is full of the Holy Spirit can be full of faith because saving faith is the work of the Spirit of God.

But we may call Stephen the first martyr. But I would think that one of the highest compliments that is given to Stephen in the text of the New Testament is this line. The very first introduction that he is given is that he is a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit.

And it is interesting to me as you know the story that as he is receiving the death blows of the rocks as he is being martyred he is granted to see into the heavenly realms while yet still alive at least briefly here upon this earth.

And certainly his bold witness knowing what could be coming toward him. It is foundational that first and foremost a martyr be full of faith and the Holy Spirit. And so we do live in a day where there are modern Stephens I mentioned to you at some point in the past because it's only been a couple of months the at that time 135 Chinese Christian ministers faithful men full of the Holy Spirit who had written a document and signed their names to the document.

And that was a document that not only held out the hope of salvation to the Chinese men who make up the government but likewise proclaimed the judgment of God upon anyone who would stand opposed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

And these are not Chinese men living somewhere else they live in Beijing and many of them have been arrested and many of their churches have been closed down. These are men who made this testimony fully aware of what the cost might be.

And this happens a lot and it's happening a lot in our day. It's just that Stephen gets to be the first one. Stephen's name is the first. We do not have a complete martyrology the martyrology of the church today we might look back upon and we can't necessarily tell whether someone who was martyred in the name of Christ was a true servant of Christ or whether they were not.

We can't see into their hearts. But someday we will know. Because if the book of Revelation tells us anything they are known to God and they are especially honored of God and we cannot underestimate the comfort that that reality has brought generations of Christians who have faced martyrdom in their experience and continues to bring to this very day when we read from the Revelation as we are reading right now and we sit there and I couldn't help but think about it as I was reading it I came from the old how Lindsay days and so so those scorpion things.

Wow looks like a helicopter to me maybe you know stings with the tail and up at the front and got guns up front and guns in the back and you know all this kind of stuff we are really really missing the point of how that text would have and does continue to this day minister to so many in its message of faithfulness in the face of great judgment martyrdom the world system whatever else it might it might be.

And so the story of Stephen is not one we should just simply look at and go. Ah yes Stephen he continues to have relevance to us even to this day. And as we will spend a fair amount of time together digging into his words it is best to begin to recognize that he was a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit.

And of all the descriptions that could be given to us of all the descriptions that you might want to have honestly inscribed upon your headstone someday would not full of faith and the Holy Spirit be about the best you could ever hope for.

That would indeed be a wonderful testimony. Let's pray together our grace. Heavenly Father once again we thank you for your word and how it ministers to us. And we do. Thank you for men of old who were full of faith and the Holy Spirit.

We thank you for Stephen and for the entire army of those who have followed in his footsteps since that day long ago. And Lord if you call us may we be found faithful. May we join those ranks we sing that song we say those words.

But Lord we know that we need now to be men and women of faith filled with the Holy Spirit. If we would ever hope to join their throng and so conform us. The image of Christ work within us your will. We pray in Christ's.

Name.