A Deacon of the Church

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Amen.
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You can take out your Bibles.
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We're going to turn to Acts chapter six and remain standing for the reading of God's word.
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We're going to be in Acts chapter six and we're going to be looking at verses one through seven.
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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.
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And the twelve summoned the number of the disciples and said, it's it is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.
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Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom whom we will appoint to this duty.
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But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.
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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.
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These they set before the apostles and they prayed and laid their hands on them.
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And the word of God continued to increase and the numbers of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
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Our father and our God, we thank you for the opportunity that we have to study your word.
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I pray today as we prepare our hearts for the appointment of a deacon and as we study the subject of service within the church and the office of the diaconate.
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May it be, O God, that our hearts understand afresh the role of deacons in the church and the role of all of us to serve one another.
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I pray that you would keep me from error as I seek to preach your word, and I pray that you would open the hearts of your people to the truth and that through this message you would receive all the glory and your people would be conformed closer to the image of Christ.
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And it is in his name we pray and for his sake.
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Amen.
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Within the New Testament church, there are only two offices for which we are given a listing of qualifications.
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The first office which we are given a listing of qualifications for is the office of elder.
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There are multiple Greek words which are used to describe the elder.
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Presbyteros, episkopos are just to name a couple of the words which are used to describe one who is called pastor or bishop or elder.
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These are all synonyms in Scripture.
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The elder is the overseer of the church.
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According to Scripture, he is charged with the responsibility of governing the church by the standards of the word of God.
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It's important to note, however, that the elder is not a priest.
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We do not believe that within the New Testament church there is a priesthood office.
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We believe that Christ is the high priest and that through him, as the apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 2.9, we all are a royal priesthood because we are able to go to God through Jesus Christ.
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So the elders do not act as a doorway to God, as some would believe that priests would.
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The elders do not act in any way as some type of conduit to God, but rather the elders operate as overseers, pastors, shepherds within the church.
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So the first office which is given in the New Testament is the office of the elder.
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The second office which is given.
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Is the office of deacon, and today we have a marvelous and wonderful opportunity as a church, because today is not a common occasion.
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Today is a day wherein we will appoint a man to the office of deacon, and this is not something we do often as a small church.
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We do not have a large diaconate.
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We do not have a large office of deacons.
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We have but a few men who have been charged with this sacred task.
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So when the time comes to appoint a man to this position, it certainly is due our attention to stop for a moment and to remember again what it means to be a deacon.
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So we're going to begin today by examining the passage where most scholars believe that the office of deacon was born, and it's the passage that we've just read from Acts chapter six, beginning in verse one.
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What we see in this passage is that the New Testament shows us that the organization of the church was somewhat of an evolutionary thing.
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It began in the wake of Jesus's ascension.
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The birth of the church came on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell as tongues of fire and there began to be organization in the church.
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And at the very beginning, the only real leadership in the church was the apostles.
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And so the apostles were simply trying to do everything they could to manage a church which was growing exponentially.
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They were seeing hundreds and thousands of people come and be baptized.
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And here are these twelve apostles trying to manage all that's happening in this in this birth movement that's growing.
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And so, as is the inevitable consequence of large numbers, there began to be complaints.
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And I laugh a little because as a pastor, I am one who is well acquainted with complaints.
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It just is part of what it means to be in the ministry.
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The other elders certainly can can share some of my pain on that.
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We know what it means when complaints arise among the people of God and it happens and it is a very real reality.
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And what occurs as a result of these complaints is the first division of labor in the church.
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The division of labor is established early on, and this division of labor would ultimately give rise to the two offices within the church, the teaching office and the serving office of the church.
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The men in this passage, if you notice, looking at Acts six, the men are not called deacons.
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In fact, some people have said this isn't really the birth of deacons, but I don't see any other way to read it.
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I don't believe that they are deacons in office in the sense that this is the establishment of the office, but I think that this is what gives rise to the office.
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If you figure this particular event probably happened very early in the church and by the time of the writing of First Timothy, which is where we're given the qualifications of deacons, you probably have about a 20 year span from the time of this event to the time of the writing of First Timothy.
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So you can see that this is a growth in the church, a growth of a seeing of a need.
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So then you come to First Timothy and the apostle under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit decides here we are going to write the qualifications for this office.
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But the office is born out of necessity for a division of labor, and we see the prototypes of deacons.
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If you want to call these men the seven, the prototypes of the deacons are chosen in a very similar way that we would choose a deacon today.
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It's interesting that we still maintain pretty much the same process.
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Notice first that they were commended by the congregation.
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It says in verse three, it says that the apostle said, pick out from among you seven men.
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So he goes to the congregation and the onus is on them to look among yourselves.
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And you know, the elders still do this.
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If you remember the church, you might not know that.
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But we are always within the eldership encouraging you to look within the congregation and tell us who are serving so that we might see these gifts and appoint them to this position.
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So this is something that we still practice today.
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We encourage the congregation to nominate from among itself deacons.
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Look and see who is gifted to this office and tell us so that we would not overlook one whose heart is gifted to service.
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So we see the commendation of the congregation and then we see.
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The scrutinization of their character again in verse three, it says, look for seven men of good repute filled with the spirit and wisdom.
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You see, it's not as if they are saying pick any seven men, any will do just send a seven.
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They said, look for seven men.
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Who are pursuing Christ, look for seven men who are filled with the Holy Spirit of God, look for seven men whose reputation among you is above reproach.
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This is actually what the apostle will say in First Timothy three about the qualifications for a deacon is that he is to be above reproach.
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He is to be one that the congregation can look to and say, yes, his reputation among us is a good one.
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Something else about this passage that I've often found very interesting is the wisdom which was in the decision making, because if you notice in the passage, the complaint that was arising was among the Hellenists.
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And if you're unfamiliar with that, the Hellenists were the Greek speaking Jews.
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The Greek speaking Jews did not communicate well with Hebrew speaking Jews any more than English speaking Christians would communicate well with with Chinese speaking Christians.
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You know, we wouldn't we wouldn't be able to communicate very well.
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And if we were in a congregation where everyone was speaking different languages, we'd have a difficulty in communication.
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And it's likely that that was the reason for this problem.
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That that that there and some people have said, well, there was there might have been some strife in the early church where the Hellenists and the Hebrews didn't get along and that there was possibly that it's likely that that might not have been the case.
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But what actually was the case was there's just a communication breakdown because language has a problem.
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So what did they do? They chose seven men.
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And if you notice all seven of these men, all of them are Hellenists.
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All of them are Greek.
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Their names are Greek.
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All of them.
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Why did those seven get chosen? Because it was wisdom on the part of the leadership.
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Choose from among yourselves.
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Choose seven who can fix this communication problem, fix seven who can actually do what needs to be done.
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So there's not only this reputation that is necessary, but also ability to fulfill the need is there as well.
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And as I noted, these men are not called deacons, but they are the prototypes of deacons.
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And we actually see the word deacon in this passage.
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Well, we would if we read the Greek language.
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But because most of us here do not read Greek, I will show it to you.
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If you look in verse one where it says a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution, that word distribution is the word the deacon, the deacon, which is the root for deacon.
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Likewise, if you go down to verse two where it says and the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said it is not right that we should give up the preaching of the word to serve tables, that word serve is the name.
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Another breakdown with the same root word for deacon.
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So here's the issue.
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These people are not receiving the deaconing that they need.
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We are not going to leave the ministry of the word of God to deacon them.
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So go choose seven deacons.
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So while the word is not there in the sense of an office title, the word is certainly there in the idea of the role that is being put to task.
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By the way, if I haven't mentioned this already, I want to make known now the word diaconess is the word for servant.
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That is what that word means.
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It is actually our deacon is an interesting word because our deacon is a transliteration, not a translation.
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And I don't know if you know the difference.
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A transliteration is when you take a word and you literally just transpose it into a different language rather than translating it.
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Like the word diaconess in Greek translates to service or ministry in English.
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However, the word diaconess also transliterates to the English word deacon.
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We created an English word to match the Greek word.
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So deacon is a servant, deacon is a minister in the church, and that's what we see.
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We see a division of labor between the teachers and the ministers of the church.
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I oftentimes I am called a minister.
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And what most people mean when they say a minister is a minister of God's word.
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And absolutely I am.
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But in a sense, the deacons are the ministers of the church and the elders are the teachers, the overseers of the church.
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But the ministry of the church is to go through the hands of the deacons, for it is their task and duty.
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And that's the division of labor.
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The apostles were there.
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They were teaching in the church.
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They were the leaders of the church.
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And by the way, there are no more apostles.
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That office died with the death of John.
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There are no more who have been tasked or given the office of apostle.
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There are people who claim that you'll see on billboards.
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Come see the apostle John Smith at this such and such Bible conference.
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It's it's not a office which is still in effect.
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And the reason why we know that is because the office of apostle was one who had seen and walked with Christ during his ministry.
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The only one who does not count in that sense is the apostle Paul, who himself said he was the exception of the rule.
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He was the one born out of season.
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He was the apostle that was not like the others.
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But yet he was still received a special revelatory call from the Lord Jesus Christ.
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So we still accept that he is an apostle.
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He was confirmed by the other apostles, especially by Peter in his writings, saying that Paul's writings were, in fact, scripture.
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So this apostolic office dies at the end of the first century.
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It dies with the death of John, the last apostle.
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After that, the office that takes the place of the apostolic office is the office of elder.
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That's the teaching office, it translates, in fact, Peter himself called himself an elder.
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First Peter, chapter five and verse one, he says, I am an elder in the church.
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So he is an apostle, but he's also an elder.
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And that translation happens in the New Testament going from apostle to the elders.
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And now throughout the ages, the elders have maintained the teaching office of the church and the deacons maintain the service office of the church.
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And why is it that there are division of labor in the church? That was a terrible sentence.
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Let me try it again.
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Why is it that there is a division of labor in the church? For two reasons.
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One, there will always be needs which arise within the body, which need immediate attention.
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This issue in Acts chapter six is not unique.
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There's always things in the church that need attention and need organized attention.
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You know, you could we could make the argument and say everybody's deacons, everybody should be serving.
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But there needs to be organization in the body of Christ.
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There needs to be organized service within the body of Christ to ensure that things don't get left undone because people left to themselves have a tendency to procrastinate.
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People left to themselves have a tendency to let things pass by and not not address them.
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People left to themselves have a tendency to expect someone else to do it.
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That happens, everybody say amen, because, you know, it's right, everybody expects somebody else to do it.
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So there's this office that's established for the purpose of organized service.
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Service is needed, everybody's supposed to serve, but because we know that if we leave each to his own, without any organization, things are going to get left undone.
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So we establish an office specifically to make sure things don't get left undone.
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That's the first reason for the office of deacon establishment.
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The second.
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Is that the teachers do not need to be the ones who do everything.
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The teachers need the time to commit to prayer and to the ministry of the word.
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This is what the text says.
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It says that the reason why the elders, the apostles said we cannot stop preaching the word of God, we cannot stop praying to serve tables.
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They are not saying I want to make sure this is clearly understood.
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They are not saying that they're too good to serve tables.
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I am not too good to wash dishes.
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I am not too good to mop a floor.
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I am not too good to to pressure wash the church building.
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But I have a calling to preach and teach the word of God.
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That is my job, my you know why you pay me so that I would not have to spend 40 to 50 hours a week committed to something else.
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You pay me so that I can spend my the lion's share of my time.
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Focused on prayer and the ministry of the word, why are deacons established? Because the elders have another job, the elders have a job of prayer and ministry of the word, and there are other things that need to get done.
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And if we don't organize a group to do it, it's not going to get done.
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That's why they're established.
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This is also a good reminder to us about the primacy of preaching, taking notes, that'd be a good little one to write down the primacy of preaching.
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The apostles from the very inception of the church tell us that there is one thing which is most important among the people of God, and it's the preaching of the word.
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How much is it to the shame of the American church that we have lost sight of the most important thing in the church? And that is preaching.
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We've replaced it with fancy light shows and music that's meant to to to create emotional stirs.
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And we've given up preaching.
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We've turned into preaching 15 minute sermonettes for Christianettes, and we don't preach the word of God strongly.
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And as a result, we wonder why the church is a thousand miles wide, but only an inch deep.
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So.
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This tells us that there's a there's a job in the church which has preeminency, and it is the job of preaching the word of God to the people of God, and it needs to have opportunity to flourish.
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And the only way it will have opportunity to flourish if there are men within the church who will step up and serve so that the man of God who prepares the word of God for the people of God will have time to do his work.
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It's in the text, this is not me standing up here saying I need more time to prepare.
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I'm telling you, this is what the apostles said.
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They said we cannot stop this most preeminent of tasks to do something else.
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We just can't.
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It's too important.
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Those who serve in the role of deacon are there to ensure that the teachers have the appropriate time and freedom to devote themselves fully to the ministry of the word of God.
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So based on all of this, which we drafted from the text, we've drawn this out of the text.
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I want to now make three application statements and expound on these three applications.
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This is our somewhat of an outline.
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Each one of the points is rather long.
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I might encourage you, rather than trying to write it down, maybe get the audio and spend some time with it later, but you can try three application statements based on what we've learned from Act six.
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Number one, the Bible says very little about the office of deacon, but it says a lot about deaconing in the church.
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I'll say it again, the Bible says very little about the office of deacon, but it says a lot about deaconing in the church.
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When it comes to the office of deacon, when I sat down to write this message this week, I knew I really only had a couple of verses to choose from if I was going to look at the office of deacon.
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Because really, you have the establishment of the office, Acts chapter six, you have the qualifications for the office, verse 70, chapter three, and after that, very little is said.
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If I was preaching on elders, we could go to multitudes of verses, but the office of deacon is not given a lot of scriptural real estate, it just isn't.
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However, the idea of deaconing is throughout the Bible, it's filled the Bible, especially the New Testament, it's filled with deaconing.
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I want to just share two passages with you.
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Go to Matthew chapter four and verse 11.
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If you remember in Matthew chapter four, Jesus had just been baptized.
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So he goes out into the wilderness where he is tempted not to prove that he had the capability of sinning, but to prove quite the opposite, that he was incapable of sinning, that he was, in fact, the God man to demonstrate his own impeccability.
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He went out into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan.
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And at the end of his temptation, it says in verse 11, then the devil left him and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
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That word ministering is deaconing.
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The angels of God deaconed the son in his difficult hour of temptation.
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So you think about what that meant.
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They met his physical needs.
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They came to him and they comforted him in a time of deep distress, in a time where he had just overcome temptations that you and I couldn't even understand.
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Satan put him to temptations that we have not in our lifetime ever been exposed to.
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And yet he stood against them when it was all done.
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He stood there having 40 days, had fasted, having gone through these temptations and the ministers of God, the angels come and comfort him.
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Now, turn with me to Philemon.
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Oh, yeah, Philemon, that small book with only one chapter, Philemon, verse 13.
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If you remember the story of Philemon, maybe you might not in this story.
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Onesimus is a runaway servant.
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He had run away from his master Philemon and the apostle Paul had ministered to Onesimus and he had he had received Christ.
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And so now Paul is sending Onesimus back to Philemon to get freedom, to go back and do what was right, to go back to his master and seek freedom.
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And he's sending this letter along with him to encourage his release from his servanthood.
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And this is what he says in regard to Onesimus.
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He says, I would have been glad to keep him with me in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel.
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That word serve there again is the word deacon.
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I would love if he would have stayed with me to be my deacon, to deacon me.
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When we see in the New Testament the word minister or the word serve, there is a good chance that the underlying Greek word is the word deacon.
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There are two other words that are used, doulos and lotteria.
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Lotteria usually speaks of service and worship.
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Doulos is the stronger form of the word servant, and it is typically translated slave.
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So when you see the word service or minister, it is either deaconess, doulos or lotteria, but all of them speak to the idea of servanthood.
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The Bible tells us very little about the office of deacon, but the responsibilities of the deacon are enumerated for us throughout the New Testament.
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Now, my second point, deaconing is a duty and an office in the church.
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Deaconing is a duty and an office in the church.
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Turn with me to First Peter four, First Peter, chapter four, verse 10, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another.
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What word do you think that is? Deacon.
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As each has received a gift, deacon one another with it as good stewards of God's very grace, whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves deacons as one who serves by the strength of God supplies in order that everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever.
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Amen.
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Notice what the text tells us.
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It says everyone who is given a gift, use it to deacon the church.
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Beloved, every one of you who is a Christian and my prayer today with that would be all of you.
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Every one of you who is a Christian is by default a deacon because you are by default a servant in the church.
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You can't say I'm a Christian, but I'm not a servant.
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Well, you might could, but you ought not.
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The problem with the modern church is that we've established so many categories where we talk about carnal Christians and sanctified Christians, and we talk about we talk about those who live in the spirit and those who live in the flesh.
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The problem is the Bible doesn't make these distinctions for us as if that they're good possible things that we ought to do.
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Well, this week I'm a carnal Christian and next week I'll be a spiritual Christian.
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That's nonsense.
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We're called to spiritual life and part of our spiritual life is a calling to the the position of service.
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But not everyone is called to the office of deacon because for the office of deacon.
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The office is an office of example, in fact, that leads me to my third point.
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The position or office of deacon is not one of authority, it is one of example.
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I don't know how many of you've ever been in other churches.
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I've been in this church my whole life, so it's hard sometimes for me to speak of other churches and what they do.
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But I but I did go to a Baptist seminary, so so I feel like I can speak at least somewhat intellectually and educationally on how I've seen it done in my Baptist friends churches.
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Oftentimes what we see in Baptist churches is something called a deacon board.
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I mean, you ever heard of the deacon board in the Baptist churches, the deacon board exercises authority within the church.
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They are an authoritative body in the church.
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Beloved, the Bible knows nothing of this.
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The idea of deacons having authority in the church is not biblical.
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The authority in the church is the word of God, the men responsible for interpreting and applying the word of God or the elders, the deacons are meant to apply the teaching of the elders not to establish their own authority within the church.
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It's just that's the way it's designed, however, that doesn't mean that it's not a leadership position because the deacon is a leadership position in this respect.
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It's a position of leadership by example.
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The whole reason for the establishing of the office is to give men in the church a position that others can look to and say, yes, that's who we ought to be being like.
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They are serving.
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We're all supposed to be serving here.
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These men serving.
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We are supposed to be doing that, too.
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It's supposed to create within the church examples of service.
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That is why when you read the qualifications for the diaconate, the qualifications are the exact same for elders, with one exception.
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The deacons don't have to be able to teach.
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The deacons do not have to have the gift of teaching.
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Other than that, they must have the same spiritual qualifications of the elders.
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They are to be men who are faithful to their wives.
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They are to be ones who have a good reputation both inside the church and outside of the church.
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They are to manage their households well.
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They are not to be drunkards, not to be greedy, not to be swindlers or connivers or fisticuffs, not ones who start fights or problems in the church.
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They are men who are to be respected in the church so that they can set the example.
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That is their task.
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They lead, but not in an authoritative sense, they lead by example.
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And finally and fourthly, the man who seeks the office of deacon is a man who seeks to emulate Christ.
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Turn with me finally to Matthew chapter 20.
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The man who seeks the office of deacon is the man who seeks to emulate Christ.
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We read this for our opening passage this morning earlier in the worship service.
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But I want to again reiterate what it says in Matthew chapter 20 and verse 25.
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This is right after.
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If you remember, the the the mother came to Jesus, grant my sons to sit at your right side in your kingdom.
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You know, grant grant.
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These are my boys.
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They're good boys, you know, granted that they'd be your sitting there with you.
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You know, you remember this story.
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And then Jesus turns and he says in verse 25, but Jesus called to them and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their great ones exercise authority over them.
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It shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant.
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Whoever would be great among you must be your deacon.
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That's what that says, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave.
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That's Dulos.
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That's the even stronger word for servant, even as the son of man came not to be deacons, but to deacon and give his life as a ransom for many.
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It's funny when you put the words where the way they should be, you put it in the Greek and you think about what Jesus is saying.
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I didn't come among you to be deacon.
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I didn't come among you to be served, but to serve beloved the man who seeks this office.
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The person who comes before the church of God and seeks this office is a person who seeks to emulate Christ.
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In his service, there is no better example of service and all of scripture than Jesus Christ and the man who seeks after it seeks after him.
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All right.
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I want to conclude with a practical application, if I might.
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I want to preface this by saying something.
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This what I'm about to read to you comes from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
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This is not the PCUSA.
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Recently, the PCUSA was was was in the news because they decided as a congregation to again demonstrate their willingness to abandon the gospel.
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And the PCUSA, the Presbyterian Church USA, is the very liberal wing of the Presbyterian Church.
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And one of the conservative branches is the OPC or the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, with which we would line up on many doctrines, not baptism, of course, but many doctrines, most doctrines we would line up very firmly with the OPC.
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Well, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church has a manual for elders and deacons.
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This week, as I was preparing this message and preparing for what I wanted to say to you all on the subject of the diaconate, I spent some time reading their manual and I came across something that when I read it, it it it not only confronted my own heart, it almost brought me to tears.
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And I brought my wife out of her room.
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She was in laying with the baby.
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I said, Come, Jennifer, I need to share this with you.
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And I read it to her and she, too, was almost moved to tears.
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So I want to read to you this list.
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And what this is, is what the deacons are supposed to be aware of in the congregation.
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Ten things that the deacons are supposed to be aware of in the congregation.
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One, the deacons should be aware when someone is a member of the congregation and that he makes the effort to mean something to them, visit them and establish a relationship with them.
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Number two, a deacon is to be aware when someone is elderly and that he concerns himself with those who may no longer be able to physically do for themselves.
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Number three, a deacon is to be aware when someone is house bound.
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Are they being visited enough and are they being offered transportation if needed? Number four, a deacon is to be aware when someone is hospitalized or institutionalized.
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Are they being visited and do their family members need assistance? Number five, a deacon is to be aware when a mother is ill.
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Does the housekeeping need to be assisted or do her children need to be cared for? Number six, a deacon is to be aware when someone has a sensory handicap.
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Can someone with a hearing or sight impairment follow the worship service or do they need assistance? Number six or seven, rather, a deacon is to be aware when someone is a widow, especially with children.
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Can she manage financially and does she have certain jobs in the home that need to be done? Number eight, a deacon is to be aware when a family is threatened with bankruptcy.
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Is it needful that we give temporary assistance and does the person need instruction and sound financial management? Number nine, a deacon is to be aware when someone is out of work.
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Can the family be helped by aiding the person in finding a job or offering temporary financial assistance? And finally, number 10, a deacon is to be aware when someone is a new church member.
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Are they being welcomed by the body and are they being made to feel like a part of the church community? Someone might say to me, Pastor, that's a lot to expect of our deacons.
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And my responsibility or I'm sorry, my response to that would be this.
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There's nothing on this list that you don't already expect of me.
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Think on that.
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The pastor is not the only one who can visit the sick.
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The pastor is not the only one who can offer guidance and wisdom.
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The pastor is not the only one who can comfort the hurting or visit the lonely.
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The elders and the deacons are called to serve together and the deacons are called to minister to the needs of the body of the church.
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We should all be doing these things.
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This list of 10 things should be posted and we all should be doing them.
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And the example should be coming from the deacons, for they are the ministers of the body of Christ.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for this opportunity that we've had to study your word.
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I pray that this has been convicting to all of our hearts about the responsibilities we have to all deacon in the church and particularly for the office of deacon and the persons that you have called to that office that they would seek to be exemplary in this position.
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I pray now as we seek as a congregation to appoint Chris to the office of deacon.
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That you would just watch over us, guide us and direct us in this time.
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In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray and for his sake.
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Amen.