The Biblical Standard for Deacons

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The Value of Deacons in the Church and Spurgeon's Example

Sermon. Well, I must say every time I preach on a different passage, there's always a struggle that I go through in the course of my study, and that is, how do I introduce this topic? And maybe that is evident as you watch me introduce the topic every week.

I think that one time our brother Alex said, you know, your introductions are getting longer and longer. It's because I'm seeking to introduce the subject better and better. And this week in the course of my studies, I came across an interesting picture.

It's a picture of a young Charles Spurgeon that I found rather fascinating. It was taken in the year 1856, about three decades after the invention of the camera. And you can tell it by the looks of the men's faces in the picture.

I have a copy of it in my Bible if you'd like to see it afterwards. And in this photo, there is a 22 year old Charles Spurgeon standing upright at a small desk, flanked by six very serious looking men who served as his deacons at the New Park Street Chapel in London, England.

And besides the fact that it's a very old picture of a baby-faced Spurgeon, I found it fascinating because it hints at the sweet relationship that Spurgeon enjoyed with his deacons of all people. You see, there were many times in Spurgeon's life when he was made to walk through deep waters.

And oftentimes while experiencing this heartache, he had to endure the added affliction of sneers and derision from many people who professed to be Christians and yet truly despised him. We see examples of this, for instance, in the same year that the photo was taken.

It was in the year 1856 that 22 year old Spurgeon went into a pulpit on a Sunday afternoon at the Royal Surrey Music Hall. And they're standing before a congregation of 12 ,000. They had just moved there to accommodate the growing church, standing before that church.

Just as I did a moment ago, he went to open the service in prayer. And as every head was bowed and every eye was closed, some malicious scoundrel in the audience shouted at the top of his voice, fire.

And with everyone's eyes closed, not knowing what was happening around them, chaos ensued. And there was a stampede in that packed building. And in the course of that stampede, seven people were killed and nearly 20, or sorry, nearly 30 were severely injured and hospitalized.

Now you'd think that when the news broke, that people would blame the scoundrel who had yelled fire, but instead people placed all of the responsibility upon Charles Spurgeon. Why would he have 12 ,000 people in a building that could hold 12 ,000 people for a church service?

And yet in the midst of all of this, most remarkably, the deacons of that New Park Street Chapel and of that building or that church that was meeting together, they stood beside their pastor and they took the blame along with him.

And they encouraged him as he fell into what became a deep depression, helping to relocate and find a new building to meet. It was said of Spurgeon at that time, to use a direct quote, that perhaps never a soul went so near to the burning furnace of insanity as Spurgeon did then, and yet his deacons were with him.

But that wasn't the only crisis that he went through with his deacons. During the downgrade controversy later, a few years later, when Spurgeon was in the sunset years of his life, he stood up for Christian orthodoxy in the face of many opponents, not from without, but from within his own Baptist union, who were beginning to deny important doctrines like the inerrancy of scripture and the penal substitutionary atonement of Christ, seeking to usher in theological liberalism.

And as Spurgeon went through that, he said to his church that it was the greatest conflict of his life. And what did his elders and his deacons do? But they authored a public letter and signing it together, they stood there with Spurgeon and took the ire from those who were their own brethren.

It wasn't enough. As well, if that wasn't enough, Spurgeon's deacons relieved him from many of his ministry tasks and helped him as he cared for his ill wife, who lived as an invalid for the better part of their marriage.

It was the deacons of the church who helped implement and activate the plans to create orphanages in London, Spurgeon's famous orphanages that cared for a myriad of children. It was the deacons who supported in prayer, Charles Spurgeon, if you've heard of his famous boiler room, the place that he credited with the power in his preaching, a group, a room that met together to pray for the ministry of the church earnestly.

A great number of those people that met in the boiler room were Spurgeon's deacons. And so it should be no surprise that Spurgeon maintained a very good relationship with his deacons, hence my interest in the photo.

And yet it also provides us context for something that Spurgeon would say in his ministry, that he said that, and I don't think he was overstating it either, that it was the ministry of the deacons among the whole ministry of the church that could either make or break a church.

On one hand, he said that to deprive the church of her deacons, this is a direct quote, she would bereave herself of her most valiant sons, that the deacons served a vital purpose in the church. And at the same time, on the other hand, he was the same man who said that if those deacons were not of the biblical sort, that the elders would have to expect to do battle with them as if they were the dragons of ministerial life.

That the deacons could be either the valiant sons or the fire-breathing dragons that wreak havoc upon the church. And as we saw last week, the great difference between valiant sons and fire-breathing dragons is whether or not these deacons are biblically qualified to carry out their office.

You see, to the extent that a deacon's character, or to the extent of the deacons, sorry, meet the character qualifications of their office and fulfill their duties accordingly, they will ensure that the vital needs of the church are met.

They will promote the ministry of the word and prayer in the church, and they will foster unity in the body. But to the degree that deacons fall short of those God-given standards, the church will suffer.

And as we saw last week, this will bring the gospel of our Lord Jesus into disrepute. And so this week, just as we looked at last week, the qualifications of elders, this week we're going to look at the qualification of deacons.

How do we ensure, as a church, that the deacons in our midst are valiant sons who do the church great good, as opposed to fire-breathing dragons who tear the church apart, limb from limb. As we learned last week, the qualifications for the officers of the church is not optional.

And I would say to you as well, to know truly, to understand, and to uphold the character qualifications of the officers of the church is not optional either for every member of the church. That it is vital that if we are to survive and thrive as a church, that we would not only know, but that we would uphold these vital qualifications.

And so we're going to spend our time looking at these qualifications today. Nicole always asks me every week, is this going to be a good sermon? I never know the answer to that. I said, it is going to be a regular sermon in that there's not a lot of conferences on the qualifications of deacons.

And so in that way, it's rather ordinary, except that it is the word of God. And so it's very extraordinary. And so let's open our Bibles, if we haven't already, to 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 8. And we're going to look at verses 8 through 13.

I'll read the text in its entirety, and then we will unpack it as we go. So this is God's word for us today. It reads, deacons likewise must be dignified, not double tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain.

They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them also be tested first, then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things.

Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. For those who serve well as deacons, gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

So as we consider these character qualifications in chapters 3 verses 8 through 13, I want to show us three aspects of the character qualifications of deacons. We're going to look together at the deacon's character.

We're going to look at the deacon's family. And then we're going to look at part and parcel with that at the deacon's reward. And so first looking at the first set of qualifications, let's look at the deacon's character.

And we see that laid out for us in verses 8 through 10. Just as we saw last week, Paul is laying out the non-negotiable standards for the two officers of the church. Last week, we looked at the elders and we concluded that the biblical standards that are laid out for us insist upon godliness first, and then giftedness in the area of teaching.

And now in verse 8, Paul directs our attention to the office of deacon. Now it's interesting that the passage more or less assumes the duties of a deacon. It does not explain to us what a deacon does.

And I don't want to burst your bubble, but I'm not going to explain it long either. We looked at it a couple of months ago when we were in Acts chapter 6, and we read there about the prototypical deacons, if I can call them that, that were in the Jerusalem church.

And if you remember back to that time, what we agreed on, what we saw from scripture, I trust, is that the primary function of the deacons is to serve the church as assistants to the elders. The Greek word diakonos, after all, it means a couple of things.

But the two most important and most prominent meanings of that word diakonos, from which we get our English word deacon, is to serve or to be an agent of. That is to act on behalf of someone else. Acts chapter 6 showed us how these seven men were selected by the Jerusalem church, and there they carried out the service delegated to them by the apostles in order to facilitate the apostles' indispensable ministry of the word and prayer.

And because deacons continue to carry out this crucial role in the church today, because they occupy a true office in the church and a place of prominence, because they play a major role in maintaining the unity of the church, because they safeguard the ministry of the word and prayer in the church, it is absolutely essential, then, that they possess the character qualifications needed to fulfill their office.

And as we did last week, we're going to look at these character qualifications bit by bit as we make our way through the verses. And as you'll see at the end here, what I'll do is I will go through points one and two, and then we'll make some applications before going to point three.

So in verse eight, the very first thing that we are told about deacons, if they are to be qualified, is this, that they must first be dignified. Now, I don't know about you, but in my experience, if you were to examine how men are selected for deaconship in many churches today, you might be led to believe that the chief, the primary, the principal, the first qualification that is required of all deacons is what?

That they would be handy men, right? Men who are able to fix the plumbing or to deal with the electrical concerns of the church with some measure of ease. That they are those who know how to stand on a ladder properly and change light bulbs and shovel sidewalks and fix snowblowers.

That's not, however, where the apostle Paul begins his list of qualifications. Before deacons are to be handy, before they are to be technically minded, even to be a little bit controversial, before they are to be servant hearted, these men must be, as Paul says, dignified.

Now, what does that mean to be dignified? We saw a close parallel in the passage about elders last week. It means that the deacons are to be reverent, serious minded men long before they serve as deacons.

For those of you who are reading out of the King James Version, I love the way that they translate that. It's a good weighty word where it reads there that the deacons, it says, likewise, must the deacons be grave.

Now, does that help us at all? What does that mean? It means that the deacons, like the elders, must be men of gravity. Men who possess a certain kind of gravitas that when they are with you, you recognize that their presence means something in the room.

And this is demonstrated both by their godly character and by their godly conduct that commands respect. To borrow from the words of Robert Murray McShane, who was a 19th century Presbyterian minister in Scotland, he said of himself, he said, my church's greatest need is my godliness.

The church's greatest need of its deacons is their godliness, that they would be truly dignified in every respect. And there must simply be, we must never allow any substitute in this regard. Now, as we continue in verse 8, we read the deacons must not be double tongued.

Now, what does this mean? What this means is that the deacons communication must be marked by both honesty and consistency. He should not be the kind of person, and we've all met people like this, who can speak about the exact same set of details with two people, and each person hears something entirely different.

He should not be the kind of person who is exceptionally gifted at speaking out of both sides of his mouth. You know, those people who go to one person and say one thing, and then with the same set of details go to another person and say a different thing.

Now, what would it possess a person to be that way in the first place? I like what Matthew Henry says. He says a double tongued person or a double tongue comes from a double heart. And what we mean by that is that it is a double tongue that is rooted in an inconsistent life.

We know this in others, and I trust to some degree we know this even in ourselves, where a man or woman lives and speaks in one manner in one setting and then lives and speaks in another manner in another setting.

It is the definition of hypocrisy. Or it might be that one is double tongued because they are too fond of men's praises or too fearful of men's scorns. And so they give the good news to one person in one tongue and the good news to another person in another tongue.

But in stark contrast to this, if we're to expect deacons who are not double tongued, these deacon qualified men must be men whose lives demonstrate a keen awareness that God is with them in all of life, that God is watching them in all of their life, in all of their communication at all times.

Brothers, if you aspire to the office of deacon, you must live a life that is, if I can say this way, Coram Dale. Ever lived before the face of God because you know that God is always watching, that God is always with you.

He sees everything you think, everything you do, and everything you say. And your life must reflect that. Paul tells us moreover, the deacons must not be addicted to much wine. And I think we glossed over that one last week.

And so I'll touch on it briefly. What it means is that this deacon should have self-control when it comes to alcohol consumption. Of course, that it means that. But I would suggest too, because we live in a very different time and culture as the apostle Paul, it should mean that a deacon should never know what the inside of a cannabis shop looks like.

Those shops that seem to be appearing on every street corner in our cities. That you should be one of real, not only of substance, but of self-control. And it is important that if one is going to be the leader of others, he must first know how to lead himself.

Furthermore, we're told that the deacon is not to be greedy for dishonest gain. And this is a qualification that I think perfectly fits the job description of a deacon. Why is that? Well, it's because deacons are tasked with concerning themselves with the practical and the material needs of the church.

This means that there will be times when they will be entrusted with large sums of money. They will be given supplies to distribute to the needy as the need arises. They will be put in positions of great trust where careful stewardship is required.

And therefore, the worst kind of deacon that one could find, that one could appoint, would be a deacon like Judas. A deacon who, we're told in John chapter 12, had charge of the money bag that was to be used for the relief of the poor.

And yet what did he do? He would help himself to what was put in it. Moreover, he must be a man who no longer lusts over silver and gold, but who treasures Christ and treasures his people, his church, above all of these things.

I'm reminded of one example in the pages of church history. It's an example that I heard about. As a matter of fact, I use this as an illustration in the very first sermon that I preached in 2009. And it's a story that I think about often.

There was a man named Lawrence who lived in the fourth century in the early church. He was one of the seven deacons in the church in Rome during that time. And one day while Lawrence was engaged in his business as a deacon of the church, he was summoned by the Roman prefect.

And the Roman prefect had heard that the church was in possession of a great mass of wealth, a great treasure or store of riches. And he was incensed that this deacon and that this church was not sharing that wealth, at least as it belonged to the taxation to the emperor.

And so he summoned Lawrence to himself and he said, I hear that you have a great treasure that the church is to relinquish that treasure to the Roman emperor. And Lawrence asked, he said, well, I can't get all of the treasure today.

Can I bring the treasure tomorrow? And the prefect allowed him to do that. And so the following day, Lawrence came up the steps. He left the treasure of the church on the steps of the Roman praetorium and appeared before the prefect.

The prefect came with him and he asked Lawrence, where is the treasure of the church? And what did Lawrence do? But standing at the top of the steps of the praetorium, he pointed down at the lame and the poor and the weak and the sick, all of those that the church was tasked to care for, all those that the deacons truly treasured.

And he said, this, sir, is the treasure of the church. Now the Roman prefect was so furious by that, that he took Lawrence, he put him on a steel grid iron and he roasted him to death. That's his penalty.

The deacon qualified man is one who could care less for obtaining riches, but one who truly treasures Christ and his people. And we see in verse nine, Paul goes on, that a deacon qualified man must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.

Now, what does Paul mean about this or by this? Paul uses one of his very favorite words. He uses the Greek word mysterion. And that does not mean something that is kept secret, that cannot be known from God's people, from the average person, but rather these presences or these appearances of the word mysterion always refer to truths that were at one time hidden and have now been revealed to the saints.

In scripture that we see the words mystery or secret used often to refer to the deposit of truth that was entrusted to the apostles and then subsequently to the church. So that in Matthew chapter 13 and verse 11, we see Jesus telling his disciples, to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them, to those outside, it has not been given.

Every believer in Christ who is ultimately chosen of God has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. And the deacon is to be no exception to the rule. Now you will tell me, because we learned this last week, that the main qualification that separates a deacon from an elder is what?

It is the ability to teach. But just because the deacon is not called to teach or is not particularly gifted to teach, this does not mean that the deacon should not have a very sound understanding of Christian doctrine.

That this deacon should not have a thorough understanding, not only of the gospel, but of the whole scope of Christian theology. I agree with John Calvin when he says that it is absurd to appoint a deacon who has not studied in sound doctrine.

And this is why if you were to ask the brothers who are in our deacon training program, you will find that the lion's share of what they are doing over the course of this time is studying the Bible and theology.

You can ask our brother Bernie after the service, what was it like during the first month doing nearly 40 pages of word studies? It is because the deacon must know God's word. It is because the deacon must have sound doctrine.

It is because I would go so far as to say that the deacon should have an above average ability to explain the basic and the fundamental truths of the Christian faith. So that you can come to anyone who is appointed as a deacon here, and you can ask them a question about the doctrine of the inerrancy of scripture, and you should expect a reasonable and intelligent answer.

So that if a Jehovah's Witness were to come through those back doors, we could have a deacon just like the elders defending the doctrine of the triune nature of God. To understand that God is Father and that Jesus Christ is Son.

And that the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son. And that there is a real set of relationships within the Trinity. And to explain that well. I want you to consider for a moment, those seven that were chosen to serve tables in Acts chapter six.

In Acts six and verse three. As the church is having this infighting because some of the widows are not being served their daily distribution. What did the apostles say to the congregation in Jerusalem?

They say, therefore brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute and what? Full of the spirit and of wisdom whom we will appoint to this duty. Men who are not only of good repute, but men who are full of the spirit and of wisdom.

Who have something about their understanding of who God is and how to live in this world a right and are able to apply it wisely. One example is in the case of Stephen. In Acts chapter six and verses nine and 10.

And I love this example. Where it says that he was debating there with the freed men and the Cyrenians and the Alexandrians and those from Cilicia and Asia. And in verse 10 it says this, as they disputed with Stephen, they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking.

That we should expect those who will serve as elders should be able to silence those who oppose the gospel. That that should not be the exception to the rule. That should be the rule. Or as God's providence would have it.

As we read in Acts chapter eight today. As Philip is going along, he finds the Ethiopian eunuch reading from Isaiah chapter 53. And what does it say? Beginning with that text, he explained the truth of the gospel to him.

By saying beginning with that text, it implies that he had other texts in mind. And he was not working with the New Testament scriptures, but with the old. So if I could give you a little challenge. If we were to have a little exercise after the service today.

And I were to say, give me the gospel only from the Old Testament. Could you do it? Only from the Old Testament. Certainly our deacons must be able to do that. And then we read in verse 10. Let them first be tested and then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.

Now, some will argue that this speaks to a kind of probationary period that the deacons should go through. Others say, absolutely not. That's not what it's saying. I think that in this case, Christian wisdom might dictate different approaches in different scenarios with different people.

There's room here for flexibility. But what we must be certain of is this, that this verse requires that the character of deacons be meticulously scrutinized before they are appointed to the office of deacon.

These men must not only be found then to be blameless, but maybe if we can expand upon that, they must be above reproach. Just as we saw in the first part of chapter 3, as it deals with elders. That is in fact part of the semantic range of that word blameless.

And so this is what we must look for as this church appoints deacons, at least in part. But Paul gives us a second category, a second set of qualifications, and that relates to the deacon's family. And we see that in verses 11 and 12, where it begins with their wives likewise.

Just like the office of elder, how the deacon's family is managed, how the deacon's family runs is an important aspect of his qualifications. And when we read in verse 11, their wives must be, at this point, we enter into something of an important debate as it relates to who should serve as deacons.

And I'll put the question to you, should this church appoint female deacons? Is this passage teaching that the church should appoint female deacons? There are various approaches to this word. It all centers around that word, wives, or in the Greek, gynae.

So who are the gynae in this passage, or the gynaecos? Now some would hold that this speaks to female deacons. If you're reading, I think, a new NIV for sure, it will translate this way. It will say, women likewise must be.

So that would perhaps be in relation to female deacons. Others believe that this is speaking to a recognized group of assistants to the deacons. So these are deacons assistants. Some think that this refer to a sub office or third office that we might call the deaconesses of the church.

And then some believe this refers to, as we see in the ESV, the wives of the deacons. And what does this word gynae mean? And how should it inform our approach? We must not say, well, we are a church that holds to biblical manhood and womanhood.

We are complementarian or patriarchal or whatever term you want to use there. And therefore we will never have female deacons. I think we need to come to the bottom of this and understand, what is this text teaching?

Well, this word gynae, it's important to know that it is used consistently. Almost half of the uses refers to either wife or bride or widow. And so within the semantic range, wife, bride, widow, all of these can be implemented there in verse 12, or sorry, verse 11.

The mention of women or wives you'll see with me is not a section all to itself, but it is a loan sentence sandwiched in a paragraph about the qualifications for deacon. I think that that is relevant and important to note.

If we look in verse 2 and then we look at verse 8, we see the introduction of new sections where we see, therefore an overseer must be above reproach. That's in verse 2. And in verse 8, we see likewise deacons must be dignified.

Now, if this was referring to a third office or a sub office like deaconess, you might expect then that Paul would say, likewise, deaconesses must be, but he does not. When we look at verse 11 and we look at the qualifications that wives must be dignified, not slanders, but sober minded, faithful in all things.

At the very least, we must admit that it is an abbreviated list compared to the office of elder or deacon. And so if this stands to reason that we are giving qualifications for either female deacons or deaconesses or assistants to the deacons, that we would expect them to have the same qualifications as the deacons.

That there would be a same listing that we would see in comparison to the elders and the deacons. But we do not. And if we interpret this passage in its canonical context, we need to ask ourselves, do we find any other places in scripture where a third office in the church such as deaconesses exists?

Or where there is any other place where women are appointed as deacons? Well, in Acts chapter 6, we looked at it a moment ago when they were finding, what does it say? Men of good repute. Specifically, it's called for that seven men be chosen from among the Jerusalem church to appoint deacons.

So we don't see an example there. In Philippians chapter 1, as Paul greets the church, he greets the elders and the deacons. Not the elders and the deacons and the deaconesses, but just two offices. Now some will point out Romans chapter 16 and verse 1 that they say there were female deacons because Phoebe is called a deacon.

Well, it depends on the translation of the Bible that you're reading. Because if you read the ESV, it doesn't say that she was a deacon, but that she was a servant of the church. And that is because it is just the common word that can sometimes be translated as deacon and sometimes as servant.

But because Phoebe is a servant in the church, does that then mean that she is an officer, a deacon in the church? I praise God that there are many sisters in this church who are servants in this church and yet who do not serve in the office of deacon.

Now hopefully I haven't tangled you up here in a knot or a web, but what I'm seeking to demonstrate here is that I think the most compelling case can be made for the fact this is specifically relating to the wives of deacons.

That it's here sandwiched in the deacon qualifications because when we get to verse 12 and verse 13, again, we're dealing with deacons. Even verse 12 itself, the immediate context seems to relay this when it says, let deacons each be the husband of one wife, does it not?

And so when we come here to 1st Timothy chapter 3 and verse 11, I think that what we must conclude is this, that in the absence of all other evidence, we cannot simply, this single verse does not bear the weight that is required to establish a whole new office in the church.

But in fact, we are speaking about the wives of deacons. And I would go so far as to say that this list should be equally applied to the wives of elders as well. That their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober minded and faithful in all things.

There's that word faithful, a grave woman, a woman of gravity. Now I will be the first to admit that there is no such thing in scripture as the office of pastor's wife. There's no such thing as the office of deacon's wife.

And yet it is inescapable that the wives of those men who serve as elders and as deacons will be looked at as examples for the congregation. I was reading in a book just this week about one particular woman who was engaged in a certain practice and it was perfectly lawful to do, but maybe not all that helpful to do.

And what she found is that another woman in the church began doing the same thing, which was wreaking havoc in her home life because the elders wife was doing the same. And so as the husband and wife would get into arguments, she would say, but so-and-so does this.

And therefore it must be, it is vital. It is vitally important that if you're a man, if you're the wife of a man who seeks to enter into ministry, who seeks to be a deacon, who seeks to be an elder, you must be dignified, a woman of gravity.

It says that deacon's wives must not be slanderous. And what's fascinating about this is if you look at it in the original language, the word there is diabolos, like Diablo, if you know that. Literally meaning, like the devil.

The deacon's wife must not be like the devil who is slanderous, who is the accuser of the brethren, who is a malicious gossip. That is the worst thing that you can have as a man who is entrusted with the stewardship, not only of resources, but of knowledge of the understanding of what is happening in the church.

To know who is struggling and who is not. To know whose marriage is in tough shape and to have a wife who is going about maliciously slandering with that information. And so just as a deacon must not be double-tongued, a deacon's wife must watch her tongue.

She must be sober-minded. That is giving careful thought to everything that she does. A woman of discretion and discernment. She must be faithful in all things. Meaning that she is absolutely trustworthy.

So that if you are a wife of a man who serves or aspires to serve as an officer in the church, you must be just as intentional as your husband in cultivating a godly attitude that commends the gospel and that adds or that commends, adds credibility to his ministry.