The Need, Basis, and Work of Deacons

Well, as was mentioned already, we are taking a detour from the book of Exodus, as we have an opportunity before us that is somewhat historic, somewhat of a landmark for our little church.

This won't be perhaps the last time we will have opportunity to appoint officers, I'm sure, but this is the first time we will appoint deacons for Grace Reformation Bible Church.

So given that rare occasion and opportunity, we want to take a little pause from the book of Exodus just for a week before we jump into chapters 5 and following.

We want to consider the need, the basis, and the work of deacons. Now, this may seem like a sermon that would only be relevant for two or three men, but I hope we all come to recognize there's a need for all of us to understand this matter deeply, for all of us will be involved, not only in voting in a few weeks, but more important, all of us will be involved in prayerfully supporting and following after the function of deacons according to Jesus' blueprint for His church.

So this is something that I'm sure has immediate relevance for a few of us, but that doesn't mean the rest of us can now sort of tune out and daydream about the

Bruins or whatever you might do. This is a sermon that's very relevant. Deacons are very relevant, not only for the men, but for the church.

There will be a few that are perhaps sweating profusely as the morning crawls on, but I hope we'll all have attentive ears.

We want to consider first the need for deacons, second, the basis and work of deacons, and then third, some applications that flow.

We're going to start with the basis, or sorry, the need for deacons in Acts chapter 6.

Acts chapter 6. You could turn there if you have a Bible on your lap. Acts chapter 6, beginning in verse 1, now in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the

Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, it is not desirable that we should leave the

Word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the

Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the

Word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose

Stephen, a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they set before the apostles.

And when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. The first thing we see is the need for appointing these men.

Notice I haven't said yet the need for appointing deacons. We're going to get into a little bit of a technical point from Acts chapter 6, but that will resound toward the end, so do pay attention.

Verse 1, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the

Hebrews by the Hellenists. Their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So here's the context of the burgeoning church in the book of Acts.

Notice that it's not described yet as a church in a way that church would be familiar to us.

This is not yet churches that have spawned into local gatherings with ordered officers and established structures.

This is more ad hoc, apostles leading thousands of believers that are gathering on the eastern side of the

Temple Mount in what's called Solomon's Portico, and Luke is faithful to record that sense.

When the number of the disciples was multiplying, he says. Now that's the church, but he's giving us a different picture of what the church was like early on at this foundational stage.

As this amount of disciples is increasing, and numbers are being added day by day, and they're gathering together within these

Jewish believers, there's apparently a group that are called the Hebrews and a group that are called the

Hellenists. And what is the origin of the diaconate according to Acts chapter 6?

The origin is a complaint. Probably most things in the church have their origin as complaints.

Here the complaint involves, again, this group of Hebrews and this group of Hellenists.

Now, Hellenists, that comes from the Greek word Hellen, which is Greek, so it would be

Hellenistic Jews, perhaps Jews that had adopted the Greek language and maybe even Greek culture. There are certain aspects of Greek culture.

Hebrews most likely were those that had not been Hellenized, those that either did not speak

Greek, they primarily spoke Aramaic, or simply even if they knew some Greek, they did not give over to Greek forms of culture.

We certainly see evidence of a variety of Jews that speak many different languages and come from many different parts of the empire in Pentecost, in Acts chapter 2.

When tongues are broken out in the assembly, those that had gathered from the dispersion,

Luke writes, they all heard in their own tongue, in their own languages what was being said. So this could be simply a miscommunication.

This could be downright withholding, downright prejudice on the part of the

Hebrews withholding from those that were Hellenized. The result is verse 2, the twelve, the apostles, summon the multitude of the disciples, again notice not summon the church, lowercase c, local gathering, but this massive group of disciples are summoned by the apostles and this is what is said, it is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.

So the twelve apostles see twin dangers with this situation.

The first danger they see is the fact that there's this dissension in the ranks. There's a dispute, a division between believers that are called to oneness and yet are grumbling and withholding from one another.

But they also see the other danger would be to address that as apostles may cost them the ministry of the word and they recognize it would be a dangerous thing to spend all of our effort and energy resolving this tension and this dispute in trying to manage the daily distribution if the price of that is we're no longer able to study and proclaim the word of God.

Therefore, verse 3 and following, brethren, they say, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the

Holy Spirit and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

And this saying pleased the whole multitude. So this is what I would say, this is the birth of the diaconate.

This is the birth of the office of deacon in the early church. But, I'm choosing those words very carefully, but what

Luke records in Acts chapter 6 is not as formalized, is not as developed as we will find later in the

New Testament when instead of this massive indiscriminate group of disciples gathering by the thousands in the

Temple Mount, we actually have local churches spread throughout the cities of the

Roman Empire. And in these local churches, we have more formally the offices of elder and deacon established.

Notice we don't even have elders established this early on in Acts chapter 6. We have the apostles managing thousands of believers in Jerusalem.

So the apostles appoint seven men to serve. I do not say they appointed seven deacons because Acts 6 never describes these men as deacons, never uses the term deacon for these seven men.

And yet clearly how these men have come about and why they have come about in order to help the apostles is very much deacon -like.

So this is the birth of the deacon, this is the birth of the office, and yet these men are not quite deacons as we'll come to know them later in the

New Testament. Let me spell this out a little bit. There are some things that are familiar and become a part of the

New Testament office of deacon, and there are some things that are simply not familiar, which squarely belong in the context of the sort of early, immediately post -Pentecost church, not yet dispersed throughout the empire, still gathered under the apostles in Jerusalem.

That is not God's blueprint for the successive church. The local church is not to be structured under twelve apostles in one city gathering at the temple, rather they're to be dispersed into local churches working with and under deacons and elders.

So we have to see there's some differences here with Acts 6 and the rest of the New Testament.

So the question then, are the seven men prototypical deacons?

Are these deacon 1 .0s? Is this the prototype for the office of deacon? Yes and no.

Yes and no. On the one hand, we recognize that they are essentially the starting point for the very idea of what a deacon is and what a deacon will do.

On the other hand, we don't start with the idea of deacon as we find it later in the

New Testament and then read all of that back in to Acts chapter 6. When we pay careful attention to the way the book of Acts starts to unravel, we see that these seven actually function more like leaders in the early church rather than what we would know later on as deacons.

We see what happens, for example, as we follow the storyline of Philip. Once he's dispersed from Jerusalem, he goes and becomes an evangelist to the

Samaritans. The Samaritans experience a tremendous revival in Acts chapter 8.

We follow the storyline of Stephen. Stephen becomes the first martyr of the early church, an amazing teacher who explains the

Word of God to the leaders in Jerusalem. Later, in Acts 21, verse 8,

Luke records this. We departed and we came to Caesarea and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist who was one of the seven, and we stayed with him.

Please notice that we don't read, we came to Caesarea and we stayed with Philip the deacon, one of the seven deacons, no, no, no,

Philip the evangelist, Philip the early church leader who is most likely serving in Caesarea as an elder in the church then established at that time.

So, one of the seven is not called a deacon, but certainly as one of the seven, he was serving the church under the apostles.

In that sense, he's a forecast of what the office of deacon would become, something you should know about the word deacon.

It's simply the transliteration from the Greek verb diakonao, which means to serve.

A diakonos in Greek is a servant. Now, there's different words for servant. Dulos is by and far the most common, it has the connotation of slave.

Diakonos is more like the connotation of a steward or an administrator. And so when we have that verb diakonao, and you can see where we get that word, the

English noun deacon from, throughout the New Testament we find this word employed in a variety of contexts.

Paul refers to himself as a deacon, as a servant in that sense. So translators have to make decisions as they work through the text.

What is a capital D deacon, a formally appointed servant of the church?

And where do we have men or women being spoken of as servants in a lowercase d sense of that word deacon?

Phoebe, for example, in Romans chapter 16. So we have these men, they're appointed to deacon, they're appointed to serve, and yet they end up spreading out, they end up evangelizing, they end up in many ways leading the early church.

Scholars know that all of their names are Greek names. It could have been just the linguistic divide between the

Hebrews and the Hellenists that was even difficult for the 12th to manage. They would have been Aramaic speakers, especially those that were raised around Galilee, some smattering of Greek early on, market commerce language, but they would have had to grow in their ability to use that language.

But here we have these seven men, most likely Luke is recording very careful details here, the difference between all of the assembly gathered in Solomon's portico, summoned by the 12, and then later on in Acts chapter 5 we read they also met house to house.

We just read past that as if it's just the same thing. It could be that you have house churches being formed with these linguistic groups that are led by the seven, but then you also have the more massive group of Aramaic speakers that meet at Solomon's portico.

These are details that Luke may be reporting to us. The point here is worth noting. The seven show us a glimpse of how the deacon came to be in the church, meeting needs so that the ministry of the

Word would not be hindered. One more point on this that I think is worth noting.

Luke's a very careful narrator, he's also a very careful reader of Scripture. David Dobb points out there's a strong parallel between Acts 6 and the appointing of the seven and Numbers 11, where Moses needs help dealing with grumbling, dealing with a complaint, and 70 are appointed to help

Moses. So look at these parallels. In Numbers, 70 leaders are appointed to help

Moses. In Acts, seven leaders are appointed to help the 12. In Numbers, the spirit of prophecy falls upon Eldad and Medad.

In Acts, the spirit clearly fills the ministry of Stephen and Philip. And as David Powe in a great journal of biblical literature article points out, in Numbers, the very cause that sparks

Moses needing the 70 to be appointed is the murmuring of the people looking after bread, the daily distribution of manna.

Now the Septuagint takes that word murmur and they translate it in Greek as gungudzo.

When you're learning Greek, you have what we call mnemonic devices, ways that you can quickly memorize vocabulary.

And gungudzo, murmur, you get that word gong, murmuring, complaining like a big gong.

It's very annoying and irritating when it's out of place. And so you have this word, it's a relatively rare word, and yet it's the word

Luke chooses to use in Acts 6. There arose a murmur, a complaint, a gungudzo between the

Hebrews and the Hellenists. So you have the same context here, and I think it highlights the way that these seven functioned as leaders to the early church.

So here's the summary, and then we'll move on to more practical matters. Here's the summary of Acts chapter 6.

We look at the New Testament, the church is just beginning to be formed, nothing formalized or established yet in what would be recognizable to us as a local church, and yet we have the seven men who are presented forecasting the very idea and concept of what a deacon would become.

Pure and simple, the unfolding progression of the New Testament understands

Acts chapter 6 as the birth of the deacon. So taken in this way, what can we say about the need?

What can we say about the need? It's interesting throughout church history, there's sort of the rise and the fall of the biblical offices.

You have at times a very strong structure in church history, in certain traditions, in certain denominations, where churches are very biblically structured, where roles are taken very seriously, where there's accountability, and then you have times in church history where there's great slack, and offices are sort of creatively covered over, and rather than following the blueprint that is given to us in the

New Testament, deacons, elders, let's just do ministry teams and committees.

That's not what the Scriptures give to us. The Scriptures give us two offices for the local church, the office of elder and the office of deacon.

Now even among Baptist ecclesiology, Baptist understandings of the local church, over the past 400 years there's been no shortage of controversy and no shortage of inconsistency on this very matter.

A quick gallop through church history among the Baptists would show you can find churches that had elders without deacons, churches that had elders functioning like deacons, churches that had deacons functioning like elders, churches that had one pastor and all deacons, and then churches that had many pastors and only one poor deacon, and so on.

It seems like we love variance when it comes to church structure. Perhaps the most common view in generic churches today, maybe this is just how people assume the office of deacon is, they assume it's a non -spiritual office which handles various administrative tasks, in other words, a group of sanctified accountants and custodians.

We come back to Acts 6 for this very reason. Acts 6 is the birth of the diaconate.

It's not all that Scripture will have to say about it, but it's the starting point. And we ask the question, why was it so important for these men to be full of the

Holy Spirit if the role of deacons was merely to manage the tables and the bread distribution?

We see in Acts chapter 6 as Matthew Smethurst, a wonderful Nine Marks book on deacons, points out from Acts 6, deacons are model servants in the life of the congregation who are installed to assist the elders.

And they assist the elders in three broad ways. This is Smethurst, this is a wonderful summary. First, they spot and they meet tangible needs.

Second, they protect and they promote the unity of the church. And third, they serve and they support the ministry of the

Word. That is a wonderful summary. So first, deacons see and meet tangible needs.

As one said, a church whose elders are chained to the tyranny of the urgent is a church that tries to remove its heart in order to strengthen its arm.

The Twelve had the right priorities. We know that this is something that must be dealt with. There's a threat of division in the church if it's not dealt with.

And yet if we expend our effort to deal with it, we may then neglect the ministry of the Word, which might as well dissolve the church altogether.

The church is sustained by the ministry of the Word. So they recognize the twin danger and they recognize what manner of men need to be put in place to handle tables and bread, men filled with the

Holy Spirit. Why? Because they need to have men that see and meet those needs and protect and promote the unity of the church in a way that serves but also supports the ministry of the

Word. So we start here in Acts chapter 6 and we see these men as the foundational formation of what the office of deacon is meant to be.

To free elders for prayer and the ministry of the

Word, which is preaching and teaching. Later in the New Testament, elders and deacons are given a short list of qualifications.

We'll go into that in 1 Timothy 3 in a moment. The amazing thing is how overlapping those qualifications are.

They're essentially repetitious in 1 Timothy 3. The same qualities and the same dynamics being expected of both the elder and the deacon, except this, except that the elder is called to be apt to teach.

Now that is not something that's held back from deacons as though deacons are not to teach, are not to be instant in the

Word. It's rather to say that whatever elders must be qualified by, they must be also qualified in this, they must be apt to teach.

It is incumbent upon them to labor in the ministry of the Word. Deacons are appointed in a way that frees them to do so.

So the role of deacon is critical for this very thing. How do they protect the unity of the church?

Not only by meeting needs, but also by preventing any hindrances to the ministry of the Word. That's how they protect and promote the unity of the church.

They also, in meeting those needs, preserve the unity of the people.

Grumbling can quickly dissolve a fellowship, and when needs are not met, it will often drive people away from the assembly.

Deacons protect and preserve the unity of the church. So that's the need for deacons.

Secondly, let's talk about the basis and the work of deacons. 1 Timothy 3, 8 through 16.

You can turn there if you'd like. 1 Timothy 3, 8 through 16. I think we'll just go to verse 13 for the interest of time.

When we look at 1 Timothy 3, we see the basis and work of a deacon in three parts. First, we see the bearing of the man.

Second, we see the basis of the home. Third, we see the benefit of the work. So the bearing of the man, the basis of the home, the benefit of the work.

First, the bearing of the man, verses 8 and 9. Deacons must be reverent, not double -tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience.

I say this is the bearing of the man. I use bearing in this way. Bearing meaning a direction.

What direction are you bearing? Or get your bearings straight. In other words, we do not expect any man to have arrived.

It's the bearing of the man. It's the direction of the man that is in interest. And this list in every way is always in front of an officer, always in front of deacons.

And yet at the same time, they are in this direction. They are bearing these qualities, bearing these fruits.

And they have this bearing, this direction in their walk. What bearing must they have?

A deacon must be reverent. A deacon, in other words, must be serious, considerate, respectful, but also respectable.

Not unbecoming in the way he conducts himself, his life, his affairs, but honorable in everything.

A deacon must be reverent. A deacon must not be double -tongued.

In other words, his life has to show forth integrity, especially in his speech.

Not double -lifed, not double -tongued. And often the double life begins with the double tongue.

When we can speak out of both sides of our mouth, it's the overflow, the outpour of our heart.

Unwholesome words will not pour forth from this deacon's mouth like fresh water and brackish salt water.

He doesn't bless God with one side of his mouth and then curse one made in God's image with the other side of his mouth.

He is not, as John Bunyan would describe, Mr. Two Tongues, who lives in the town of Fair Speech.

Neither is he Deacon Brody. I wonder if you've ever heard of Deacon Brody.

He wasn't a deacon of a church. Deacon often would be used as a title for someone who was a chair in a guild.

And Deacon Brody, William Brody, in the 18th century, was the head of a cabinetry guild in Edinburgh.

Widely respected. He was a member of the town council. He rubbed shoulders with the gentry, with high society.

But later in his life, though he had an incredibly successful career as head of this guild, cabinetry maker, hobnobbing with the high society in Edinburgh, he began making wax copies of keys and he began breaking into wealthy aristocrats' homes by night.

And then also breaking into banks, almost just for the thrill of it. He started involving himself, by day, this very respectable, well -mannered man, and by night, this thief, this burglar that would break into people's homes and steal what he could.

And eventually, his crime spree was caught and he was hanged in Edinburgh. This alter ego was so fascinating to Robert Louis Stevenson that it was the basis for his novel,

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Split persona.

Someone who's very different by night than he is by day. A deacon must not be double -tongued.

There can be no spiritual schizophrenia in the life of a deacon. He is who he is regardless of where he is or who is in front of him or who is not in front of him.

No double tongue, no double life. He is who he is in his closet and no more. A deacon must not be given too much wine.

That is, this man must not be driven by his appetite. He must not have these insatiable urges that comport with a lack, a complete lack of self -control.

He must know how to restrain himself. A deacon must be a man who knows how to deprive himself because serving in this way in the kingdom of God requires often that you deprive yourself of certain comforts and things that are lawful for you to have.

You see that in 1 Corinthians 9 with Paul. Do I not have a right to these things? Other men that have the same status, the same bearing that I do, they even enjoy these things.

Paul says, I willingly sacrifice them. No one will rob this reward from me. So a deacon must not be given too much wine.

That is, he has a control over his appetites and his felt needs. Even good, right desires in his life are always ordered after a kingdom -mindedness.

He knows how to deprive himself if it's for the sake of someone else. He knows how to deprive himself if it's for the sake of love.

I'd rather be wronged, Paul says, than bring a lawsuit against a brother.

Let yourself be wronged, he said. Think in bigger terms than your immediate needs or injustices.

Think about the kingdom. A man who knows how to deprive himself for others' sake. A man who knows how to discipline himself for the sake of godliness.

That's what a deacon must be. A deacon must not be greedy for money. That is, he's not a man who's driven by ambition.

He's not a dog that's wagged by his tail, filled with discontentment, lacking godward dependence.

He's a man who knows that all things are provided by the Father's hand. Even in his exercise as a deacon, where he is the often hand of the church, meeting specific needs, he recognizes it's not his hand.

It's not the church's hand. It's not his ability to provide the resources he has at his disposal.

He's a steward. He's a servant. And he administers according to God's provision.

If it's true for those that benefit from his ministry, it's true for himself individually as well.

All comes from the Father's hand, whose eye is on the sparrow. And he trusts in that provision, even as his ministry is the means of provision for others.

A deacon must not be greedy for money. A deacon must hold the mystery of faith with a pure conscience.

I already said deacons are not required by Scripture to be apt to teach, able to teach. But they are required by Scripture to hold the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience.

That means that they hold, they grasp, they preserve biblical orthodoxy.

They learn what is right and they hold fast to what is true and sound. They test all things and hold fast to what is good.

They always do this with a clear conscience, not twisting or vindicating or justifying, but always seeking what does the

Word say and letting the Word be the final line. A deacon must grasp the great truths of the

Gospel with a deep reflectiveness, acknowledging always their weight in the glory of the faith, having a certain sobriety about doctrine rather than a flippancy.

Oh, why does it matter? Who cares about this stuff? This is all just jargon and technical controversy. Does this even really matter?

Where is the technical blogs? Where is the little life coaching session that I need? A deacon must not ever think in that way.

If God has revealed it, he must hold it with deep reverence and a pure conscience.

V. 10, let them be tested first, then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless.

This is one of those places in Scripture where you wish there was a little footnote by the inspired writer, and Paul would say, here's what

I mean by testing. He doesn't tell us what he means by testing. Let these also first be tested.

What does that mean? Do we set up some big obstacle course? Like American Ninja Warrior?

And you know, the candidates who make it will be able to serve as deacons? No. Do we have a sort of marathon match in the

Gaga Pit to appoint deacons? I wish, but no. It simply means he cannot be a novice.

He cannot be a novice. It means the congregation knows this man, knows his character, recognizes his gifts, sees his service, and part of that is they also see how he walks under pressure, how he reacts to difficult situations and difficult people.

He's tested in the sense that he has a consistency in his faith and in his practice, even when it's tried, even when there's wounds and offenses and irritations, even when there's tremendous pressure or deprivation.

His faith is clear and resounding. His desire to walk after God's will is evident to all.

There is clear evidence of not only his ability, but his willingness to serve the congregation, even when it is painful to serve the congregation.

And so that means part of this testing is recognizing not only a spontaneous character of service, but a service that has proven itself in time through various situations and trials.

Now, Scripture doesn't give us a timeline for that. Scripture doesn't say he should be tried under these specific trials, under these specific pressures.

It just says subjectively, let him first be tested, then let them serve as deacons.

And with such testing, if they're found blameless, that does not mean perfection, but it does mean above reproach.

When they've been found blameless, let them serve as deacons.

We read things like blameless and we go, that doesn't mean perfection, right? No, no, no one can be perfect except the

Lord Jesus Christ. But I don't think that's why we have verses like that. They're not there to be explained away.

They're to put before us the high and costly calling of holiness. Let them be found blameless.

Let them be found above reproach. Let not a whisper hold its weight against them.

That's the high and holy calling of a deacon. Second, we see there's a basis of the homes.

That's the bearing of the man. And then there's a basis in the home. Likewise, their wives must be irreverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.

Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own house as well. I won't go into detail on this, but there is a tremendous amount of debate and discussion, even to this day, over how to translate verse 11.

Options that are presented just by the terms themselves, their wives or the women.

Same word in Greek. Translators make the decision based on context, when to translate as wife, when to translate as women.

Obviously, for egalitarian positions, they would argue there's deaconesses that are established in 1

Timothy 3. First, you have the elders, and then you have the deacons.

And verse 11, you have also the women. The women must be qualified in this way, too. And they would point out, notice you have the same terms.

Let deacons be reverent. Let the women be deacon. Let the man be reverent. Let the woman be reverent.

Not slanderer, temperate, faithful in all things. And so they argue there's room for the office of a deaconess in the church or women serving as deacons.

Now, I don't think that's a good argument. Certainly, it could be translated in that way. But I think based on the context of 1

Timothy 3, especially when we put verse 11 with verse 12, that just does not hold water. We immediately go from let the women, if we translate it that way, let the women be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.

Let deacons be the husbands of one wife. Well, that doesn't really fit if we're translating deaconess or woman.

We immediately go to verse 12, let deacons. And the idea is it's a continuation of verse 11.

And it's in the same context. Their wives must be this way, and they must be this kind of husband, a one -woman husband ruling the children in the household well.

I would add to that simply the observation that we have seven men appointed in Acts chapter 6, similar to the case we have 12 apostles appointed by the

Lord Jesus. I think there's something to say about the headship structure and the purpose of that structure in the office of deacon.

Controversy abounds, and kind of like the NRA in interesting ways, where it's a defeat of a thousand micro -adjustments, where instead of just doubling down on your amendment rights, you simply say, well, let's make this capitulation, this capitulation, this capitulation.

And 30 years later, you're pretty far from the shore. And that's how it is with these egalitarian debates.

Because they're missing the grain of creational logic in the way that it outplays in redemption, the assumption is, well, if the terms let us squeeze our different views in, we ought to do it in that way.

And the Greek can be said as women rather than wives here, so let's make it women.

And then all the conservatives that are kind of on the anxious bench, they say, okay, we can grant deaconesses as long as they're not teaching and they're in the office of elder, that's fine.

And I say, no, follow the logic, follow the grain of what God's doing as the

Bible plays out. And you'll see it's not just the nitty -nitpickety details of the text itself, but the logic of what's behind the text.

The logic of a man and his wife and his children and the household and the house of God.

See how that all fits together and you'll make much better sense as to why our translation is right.

The wife is part of the basis of a deacon's appointment. The wife must be reverent, not cynical.

And it will be a temptation as grumbling and the gong sounds in the church, the gong of murmuring sounds in the church.

It will be hard not to become cynical. Cynical, cynicism is sort of a defense mechanism for bitterness or discouragement.

Oh, yeah, these ingrates. A wife must be reverent.

When she sees her husband falling into traps of bitterness or wrong views about people or situations or losing his first love, making it more about his life, his needs, the impact upon his time, his wife must always remind him, you serve the

Lord Christ. You look to Christ's reward. You serve him in faithfulness and love his bride, even when his bride is unlovely.

A wife must be reverent. Going in line with that, she must not be a slanderer. She perhaps will be more privy to situations in the church that deacons are meeting, that her husband is meeting.

The husband should be very cautious about how he relays certain needs or circumstances to his wife for this very reason.

But even with the information she comes across or the things that are being prayed for, the circumstances she's aware of, she must guard her tongue.

She must not be a slanderer. She must be temperate, not overreacting to situations, but being faithful and reserved, balanced, sober, temperate, and faithful in all things.

Scripture is clear that the man has certain things that must qualify him, and yet also that his marriage and his household are part of the basis for his service.

And then lastly, we see the benefit of the work. Verse 13, this is what's held out to those who serve well as deacons.

They obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

Now, to say those who have served well as deacons means there's a way of not serving well as a deacon, right?

For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith.

Well, what about those who don't serve well as deacons? Well, they don't obtain a good standing and great boldness in the faith.

And here's the great encouragement, not just to become a deacon, but to serve well in your office and in your capacity as a deacon, you will obtain a good standing in the faith.

What does that mean? It means your faith will grow. It will deepen.

Your own fortitude as a Christian will be fortified. You will have a standing in the faith that is good, not only recognized as good by others, but you yourself will see.

The Lord is using and utilizing my service to Him and His people. You will obtain this good standing in the faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

Also, you will obtain a great boldness in the faith. A great boldness because you'll become familiar with dealing with difficult people, difficult situations.

You'll be forced to think about things in a transcendent kingdom minded way. You'll have to be bold in your decisiveness, bold in your assertiveness, even as that boldness is clothed with a sort of velvet gentility.

Great boldness in the faith is held out for the deacon who serves well. So, third, applications as we move to a close.

Three applications. First, what appointing deacons does not mean.

Second, what appointing deacons will need. Third, what appointing deacons can produce.

So, first, what appointing deacons does not mean. We are not appointing deacons as the cream of the crop of GRBC.

I want to put that quickly to rest. In other words, appointing particular men of the congregation is not a referendum on the spiritual maturity or faithfulness of all the other men in that congregation.

Now, let me quickly qualify that before I emphasize the point. As we move forward with this process and as we have moved forward in this process, we would welcome, in fact, we would encourage men to take some time to reflect on, if I've not desired this office of service, why have

I not? Is it simply because I don't desire it? Where is that desire? Is it because I feel unqualified?

How might I be unqualified? Take the time to reflect on what may come out of this.

If not me, why not me? But at the same time, recognize there should be no offense taken as though we tried to find the best, most spiritual, most mature

Christians we could, and all we could come up were these three men. No, no. In fact, we're very grateful for the amount of men who have all sorts of wonderful comportments to 1

Timothy 3 in this manner. There's a lot more that went into this process than simple reflections on maturity.

So, no offense should be taken with that. There should also be an awareness that part of this is how

God has divinely distributed His gifts to the body. And there's certain gifts that He's given to the body so that men would be recognized and appointed as deacons.

And that's also part of the providential arrangement of the church and the arrangement of the details of people's lives and marriages and households.

So we look to God's providence, we look to God's gifting, and we see there should be no offense taken.

There should be an awareness of the Lord's hand, and hopefully that awareness will be shown in the unity of the church voting and appointing these men.

Let me also say there should be an awareness of Satan seeking to gain a foothold in the church, a foothold of resentment or bitterness.

It will be a temptation for people in the church, especially men who have not been appointed at this particular time, to look down on or to glare at or even three months on, six months on, three years on to say,

I can't believe you're a deacon. If only people knew, if only

I knew what I felt that I knew at the time, there can be none of that. There should be an awareness of Satan seeking a foothold, an awareness of God's providential work, a reflection on why perhaps you did not put yourself forward or you were not pursued, and yet this is not a referendum on the maturity or on the walk of every other man in the congregation.

What else does appointing deacons not mean? Well, deacons are not undercover elders.

That needs to be clearly understood by all. Deacons are not undercover elders. They're not junior varsity elders.

There is a separation of role in the church of God. There's a separation of authority in the church of God.

Nowhere in the New Testament are believers called to submit to the authority of deacons, but many places in Scripture are believers called to submit to the authority of elders.

That does not mean that deacons do not have authority. They hold an office. It means their authority is not exercised in the same way.

Deacons are not undercover elders. Secondly, deacons are not sanctified janitors, so don't overthink what a deacon is.

Also, don't underthink what a deacon is. Show the respect that befits the office.

Acknowledge them in their office of holy servitude to the church. They are not sanctified janitors.

They are deacons. Along these lines, we desire genuine spirituality far more than administrative competence.

Let me be frank. A trained ape can punch buttons on a calculator.

But a man full of the Holy Spirit is appointed to be a deacon. We're not concerned about administrative competence.

We're concerned about genuine spirituality. Is that spirituality a vibrant force in this man's life?

And is the force of that spirituality evident in his marriage and in his home? Is it something recognized by others in the church?

So that is what appointing deacons does not mean. Secondly, what appointing deacons will need?

Two things here. First, what appointing deacons will need on the part of the man who's becoming a deacon. And secondly, what appointing deacons will need on the part of the church who appoints the deacon.

So first, what appointing deacons will need on the part of the man? Two things.

Self -averting humility and faithfulness. Self -averting humility and faithfulness.

Not humility without faithfulness or faithfulness without humility, but both working together.

Both held together by a certain self -aversion, a certain turning away from yourself toward the needs and the concerns of others.

Jeff Chang, who runs the Spurgeon Library at Midwestern Theological Seminary.

I went to see him in March. He gave a conference on Spurgeon. This guy sort of eats, sleeps, breathes

Spurgeon for his living. What a great gig he has. And by the way, he's doing a conference with several other men in Bath, Maine, the very last weekend of May, which happens to be my birthday, the day of this conference.

It's called Spurgeon Maniacs. And I'm hoping we can organize a good group to drive up there. It's a little drive.

We'll have to go up early or maybe stay with Brent or something he offered. So talk to me at some point in the next few weeks, or at least an email will go out.

I'd like to go up there and have a little Spurgeon Maniac Saturday. That would be fun.

Well, Jeff Chang has written extensively about Spurgeon's relationship to deacons throughout his pastorate, not only at New Park Street, where he spent the bulk of his ministry, but even in his early years when he was a teenage preacher out in country churches like Water Beach.

And when he was a very young teenage preacher at Water Beach, he was encouraged and often exhorted by the very wise and humble deacons at that small country church.

And there was one deacon in particular that he wrote of named Mr. King. This is what

Spurgeon said. Mr. King once gave me a kindly hint in a very delicate manner. He did not tell me that I should speak more guardedly in the pulpit, but I had been using careless choices of words.

When I left his house, one Monday morning, I found a pin in my Bible stuck through Titus 1 -8, sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that he who is contrary may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.

Nothing could have been in better taste. The wise rebuke was so well -deserved and it was lovingly taken, it was so carefully given that its value was increased indefinitely.

Mr. King was a deacon of deacons to me and to that church. What a standard to aim for.

Humility, to not directly confront and discourage a young teenage preacher, but to see something that he has to be faithful to correct and exhort.

And so he puts a pin through the verse and that has more power and influence behind it than anything else

Mr. King could have done. And many, many years later, decades later, Spurgeon recounts on that. That was a lesson learned from a faithful, self -averting, and humble deacon.

Without knowing anything about Mr. King, you can almost appreciate a sense of his manner toward others, and also this desire to edify others.

I don't know if anyone ever saw this. You could even, if you ever saw the trailer for it, this was part of the trailer, but Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, perhaps mixed reactions to that, but it was at least a great performance by Daniel Day -Lewis on his part.

A very memorable portrayal of Abraham Lincoln. There's one particular scene in the trailer that was almost the selling point for the film when

Abraham Lincoln is trying to procure votes for the 13th Amendment and they keep on running the tallies and they're short.

And his cabinet men, his advisors are basically saying it's not possible for us to procure these votes.

And there's this famous scene where Daniel Day -Lewis, who's been sort of quiet and gentle and sort of, you know, modest in the way he leads and speaks with people throughout the whole film, all of a sudden has this great moment where he says,

I am the President of the United States of America clothed with immense power. You will procure me these votes.

And they all, like dogs with tails between their legs, scatter. And then, of course, the 13th Amendment is passed.

Well, that is not the spirit of Mr. King. To be mostly gentle and modest throughout the ministry and then have these moments where there's a need or a circumstance that's trying and all of a sudden you turn and you explode and you press authority and you demand from others rather than gently influence, pray and seek others.

There cannot be a day when any one of us here, I am the deacon of Grace Reformation Bible Church clothed with immense power.

No, no, no. Self -averting humility and faithfulness.

Spurgeon thought so highly of Mr. King for those very reasons. And it would be well if we could think highly of our deacons for the same.

We need pins in Bible verses rather than sons of thunder in the diaconate. Spurgeon, when he went to New Park Street himself, he carried this with him.

He sought men who would be men of peace working for unity in the church, just like we saw from Acts chapter 6.

And in his words, this is what he came to see. Deacons characterized by such grace would be sure to serve well and reduce chaos to order by the mere force of patience.

Let me say that again because it's such a good point. Deacons characterized by such grace would be sure to serve well and reduce chaos to order by the mere force of patience.

Few men believe in the power of non -resistance, but our faith in it is unbounded.

This is a helpful word for wives, by the way. A very helpful word for wives.

Let me read it as though to deacons and to wives.

Such grace would be sure to serve well and reduce chaos to order by the mere force of patience.

Few believe in the power of non -resistance, but our faith in it is unbounded. Who can yield will conquer.

Who will suffer most for the sake of love will wield the greatest power if they will but bide the time.

Very insightful. How will you do this? Speaking now to these prospective candidates.

How will you do this? How will you serve with self -averting humility and faithfulness?

Let me give you some encouragement along the way. First, keep before you always the awesome privilege of serving the bride of the

Lord Jesus. Remember that if you serve well, you attain a good standing in great boldness in the faith.

But that's if you serve well, not just if you serve. Remember that you serve the

Lord Christ. And to that extent, everything comes from His hand, not only for others through you, but to you.

Remember with Galatians 6 that whoever sows to please the Spirit from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

So don't weary in doing good. At the proper time, you will reap the harvest if you don't give up.

And be sure of this. Church members will not always recognize your service.

In fact, more often than not in the role of deacon, they will hardly notice your service. But the

Lord never fails to notice your service and the heart of your service. You are most like the

Lord Jesus Christ when you serve in this way. Not to the eyes of men, not to please the flesh, not for the benefits or the recognition that come with service, but simply to serve the

Lord Christ by serving the bride of Christ and serving those who are lost in the alleyways and byways and hedges.

You are most like the Lord when, Mark 10, 45, you recognize even the

Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, to give His life for many.

Greek verb there, diakoneo. You could, if you're not going to transliterate, you could go this way.

The Son of Man did not come to deacon, to be deaconed to, but to deacon and to give

His life for many. Deacons are most like the Lord Jesus Christ when they serve the

Lord Jesus Christ out of love for the body of Jesus Christ. So that's what appointing deacons will need on the part of the man himself.

What about the church? What will appointing deacons need from the church? Two things. Due recognition and prayerful support.

Due recognition and prayerful support. First of all, due recognition. Acts 6 gives us the blueprint.

Brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the

Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. So the pattern, though it's not exact from Acts 6, the pattern is clearly recognizable.

First, deacons are authorized. They're sought and they're appointed and they're given authority in their office as deacons.

So first, these men will be authorized. Secondly, they must be recognized.

They're authorized and they must be recognized. Our confession, the Second London Baptist Confession, is very clear about this order.

Chapter 26, which is on the church, paragraph 8, a particular church gathered and completely organized according to the mind of Christ.

You see that? It's not, well, what would work better? Don't committees work better? Wouldn't ministry teams have better optics for this generation?

No, no, no. What's the mind of Christ about how the church is to be structured? That's how we will structure the church.

So the confession says, a particular church gathered and completely organized according to the mind of Christ consists of officers and members.

Now, officers are members also, but not all members are officers. And the officers appointed by Christ in His Word to be chosen and set apart by the church are elders and deacons.

The next paragraph goes on to say this is by common suffrage. This is by the vote of the church, recognizing that though elders may appoint, it is the church that must vote, that must, by common suffrage, give the men this authorization.

And with that, they must recognize that authorization. So the church is going to appoint these men.

Make no mistake about it. The elders have a hand in the process of nomination and who is put forward to the church.

Most of that has been on our minds, in our prayers, and on our shoulders. But it is not ultimately our vote that will put these men forward or give them any authorization to be recognized.

It is the church's vote. It is the will of the church. Why? Because in our understanding of the church, that is how

King Jesus, by His Spirit, leads His church according to the will. He puts it on the hearts of those who are regenerate members, who have been baptized into the faith and stand in good membership with the local expression of His body.

So the church appoints. They collectively exercise discernment and wisdom and collectively in prayer trust that the

Spirit of Christ is leading them to appoint these men through the vote. And the outflow of that vote is the

Spirit of Christ exercising His will in the assembly. So what does that mean?

It means that no one who's thinking rightly can say, I didn't vote for them.

Not my president. No, your deacon. It's the will of the church led by the

Spirit. So if the deacon has to be humble for the sake of the unity of the body, then when the will of the body is given, perhaps some also need to be humble and recognize the will of the

Spirit as well. These men will be authorized and by the whole church, they must be recognized.

The church appoints and with that appointment, the church recognizes these men are not holy janitors, they are servants of the

King. And by the way, this is an occasion for joyous recognition.

Don't recognize them through gritted teeth and muttering, deacon.

This is joyous recognition. I don't want in a couple weeks time to have a vote and we all show up in sackcloth and ashes.

What does Acts 6 verse 5 say? The saying pleased the whole multitude. Like, yay, these seven men.

That should be something that we have, something that we capture. It should please the whole church that the Spirit has moved in a way that we can appoint men to be servants in this particular office.

Towards such men then we are not to be curmudgeons. That means for the church, we need to gladly receive help from the deacons.

When a deacon is seeking to meet your need or to understand if you have a need, don't be cold and distant and just kind of, you know, get out of my hair, leave me alone.

Recognize he has a spiritual office and him pursuing and seeking after you as part of his seeking to serve the

Lord. So don't make it more difficult. Don't be disparaging. Don't be indifferent.

Be gladly receptive to help from deacons. And also, be gladly willing to help deacons when they call upon you, when they delegate things that need to be done and they exercise the authority in their office to meet certain needs.

Offer that help gladly. They're here to free up the ministry of the Word, not free up everyone else to lounge around and sip lemonade.

In fact, having deacons might put more work on the body, not less. And that wouldn't be unbiblical in the least.

Remember the church vision of Ephesians four. It is saints being equipped by the church for the work of the ministry.

So what does that mean? It is the responsibility of everyone in the church to be a lowercase d deacon, to be a servant after the servant with a servant like heart.

Following in the steps of the one who became a servant for our sake. So these men will not be one -man bands.

They are simply exemplars and facilitators of all that we are called to do.

Now, there's going to be certain things that are exclusive to them, needfully managed only by them, but there's many other things they will delegate as they see fit for the order of the church, for the smooth function of the church, for the impact of the church in the community, and for the ministry of the

Word to go forth without any hindrance. And again, the point from Ephesians four is the guiding vision here.

The church equipping saints for the work of the ministry. What does that mean? It means elders lead the ministry of the church.

Deacons facilitate the ministry of the church. But members do the ministry of the church.

That's the vision of Ephesians four. 1 Peter 4, verse 10, as each one has received a gift, minister to one another.

What do you think that verb is? Diakono, deacon to one another, serve one another as good stewards.

What do you think that word is? Deacons of the manifold grace of God. That is what appointing deacons will need.

Lastly and briefly, what appointing deacons can produce. What appointing deacons can produce?

Three things. First, eyes of opportunity. By following after the example of deacons, the whole church will grow in having eyes of opportunity.

Deacons are men who are so filled with the Holy Spirit, like Acts 6, they recognize tables aren't just tables and bread is not just bread.

These things are about the kingdom and the unity of the bride and the impact of the gospel. Tables are always more than tables.

Crockpots are always more than crockpots. These are platforms for the gospel. By their example, not only will members of the church and community receive mercy, the church will be goaded and exhorted and encouraged to show mercy.

Micah 6, 8, what does the Lord require of you? But to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your

God. I love Micah 6, 8, because it doesn't say what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly and to practice mercy.

No, what does it say? To love mercy. Deacons then are perpetual illustrations of men who love mercy.

They love to show mercy. They look with eyes of opportunity for where mercy can be shown.

And by that example, they encourage others to have eyes of opportunity so that they can grow not just in doing mercy in a begrudging way, but actually love mercy.

And in this way, a deacon more clearly than perhaps anything else will remind us in clear, tangible ways that God loves to show mercy to bodies and souls because he overflows with compassion.

A deacon must have a genuine heart for the needy.

John 12, we read of Mary taking that pound of very expensive spikenard and anointing

Jesus at Bethany before he went to the cross. And we read in John 12, one of his disciples,

Judas Iscariot, said, why was this fragrant oil not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?

Now, if you were there, you'd go, deacon material. You know, what a heart for the poor.

This guy, he knows the cost, good at finances. He recognizes that more good could be done with better stewardship.

If we just sell the spikenard with the amount of money we get, think of all the good we could do. Isn't that loving mercy?

Oh, what a wonderful deacon Judas Iscariot would make. But what does John 12 say?

Not that he cared for the poor, but he was a thief. I don't think our deacons are going to be thieves,

God forbid. But they have to ask themselves, can you truly care for the poor?

Can you truly care for the needy? The Lord would not have men consumed with bottom lines, not have men consumed with exacting, harsh manner of accounting and stewardship.

He would have men that love mercy. Alongside responsible stewardship must be this desire for mercy, must be eyes of opportunity.

Second thing, hands of service, hands of service. Deacons are not meant to be pure administrators.

They're meant to be ministers that provide a platform for the gospel. Again, tables are more than tables.

Bread is more than bread. By having eyes of opportunity met with hands of service, the gospel will be able to be promoted.

The gospel will shine forth in the unity and love of the body, not only within the body, but without the body toward the lost in our community.

Let me just draw from Luke 5 quickly. I attempted to skip this over, but I think it's so important.

Again, a deacon who recognizes the opportunity with eyes of opportunity, hands of service is most like the

Lord who served. Luke chapter 5, so Luke, of course, wrote Luke and Acts, and throughout

Luke and Acts, there's this common motif of table fellowship. It's a major theme for Luke's theology. Things that take place at the table, parables that involve the table, those that come from afar, those who had been at the table cast out.

There's all sorts of dynamics to Luke's theology of table fellowship, not only in Luke, the gospel of Luke, but also in Acts.

Now, clearly, that's a part of Acts chapter 6 as well. What's the issue? Disputing over bread at the table, not having table fellowship, but having a dispute, and deacons, servants, serving in a way so that table fellowship can be enjoyed by the church and the unity of the church can promote the gospel.

We see the same theology going back to Luke chapter 5, Levi, the tax collector, Levi, the despicable

IRS agent, especially this time of year, having a great feast in his own house, and we read, a great number of tax collectors and others came and sat down with them.

And their scribes and the Pharisees complained. What do you think that word is? That's the gong sounding again, the murmur of Acts chapter 6.

The Pharisees complained against his disciples saying, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?

But what is Jesus doing? He's serving at the table. So, the murmur comes out against Jesus because he has a heart for the poor and the needy, a heart for the downcast and the outcasted, but there he is nevertheless serving.

What is Luke showing us between Luke chapter 5 and Acts chapter 6? Deacons are not summoned to the menial task of serving tables, no, like the

Lord Jesus himself. They're brought to serve tables so that fellowship with those who are oppressed and in need may occur.

Run that forward to Luke 22, the Last Supper. What is Jesus doing at the Last Supper? He's serving at the table with his disciples and he says,

I am the one who serves. And he says, if you would follow me, you must be ones who serve.

I did not come to be served, he says. I'm not like the rulers of the

Gentiles who lord it over. I came to serve. And if you would follow after me, so you must serve.

So by their example, appointing deacons can give us hands of service like Jesus himself.

Third, last, lives of patterned holiness. Eyes of opportunity, hands of service, lives of patterned holiness.

That is intentional, effort -fueled, structured, principled holiness.

People don't drift toward holiness, they drift away from holiness. Holiness is uphill. Indifference and apathy and worldliness is downhill.

It's always easier to roll downhill than climb uphill. Patterned holiness is intentional holiness.

What does 1 Timothy 3 go on to say? These things, is that the whole letter? Perhaps, but it's at least the qualifications for elders and deacons.

And what does he say in the very next verse? These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly, but if I'm delayed,

I write to you so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God.

So he's given us these offices so that as a church, we may know how to conduct ourselves in the house of God.

You follow after the pattern of holiness. Colossians 1 .5,

we find the same example in Epaphras. The word of the truth, Paul mentions the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you.

It's also come to the whole world and it's bringing forth fruit in the world. As it was among you since the day you heard it and knew the grace of God in truth, as you learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant.

Our dear fellow deacon who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the spirit.

So what sense do you get of a life of patterned holiness from Epaphras? He presents the word, he shares his life, and he gives not only his own love, but he promotes the love of the church to others.

And all of this is done in the spirit, he says. He's declared to us your love in the spirit.

How did the church get that kind of love? They followed after the pattern of Epaphras' love.

They followed after the pattern of the word that Epaphras shared and lived out among them. A life of patterned holiness.

And this is all done in the spirit. It takes the spirit for us to walk and grow in a pattern of holiness.

Everything must be done in and by the spirit. And perhaps we'll close with this very sentiment.

Spurgeon said this. Ministers, deacons, and elders may all be wise, but if the sacred dove departs and strife enters in, it is over with us.

We can have super deacons. We can have the greatest, most biblical, most dotted

I and cross T structure of ecclesiology. We can know everything about the qualifications and live those things out to a

T. But brothers and sisters, if we are devoid of the spirit of God, it is over with us. Brethren, Spurgeon says, our system will not work without the spirit of God.

And I'm glad it will not. For all of its stoppages and breakages call to our attention the fact of his absence.

So when we see stoppages and breakages, when we see dysfunction and disorder in the church of God, and we even appoint deacons to help sort out and free up the ministry of the word and bring order and unity to the church, even then, if it's devoid of the spirit of God, it is hopeless.

We must have the Holy Spirit. And this is why, far and above all, we must have men full of the

Holy Spirit to serve the bride of Christ.

And what's the result of having men appointed, authorized, and recognized because they're full of the

Holy Spirit? Well, what's the end of Acts 6, verse 7? Then the word of God spread and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly.

That is our hope. That is our prayer. When we appoint men filled with the Holy Spirit, that the word of God will spread and the number of disciples will increase greatly.

Let's pray. Father, we recognize all is hopeless, devoid of your spirit.

And so we ask him, Lord, to grant us his presence, his power, his illumination, that we would be unified,

Lord, as a church body in spirit and in thinking, Lord, that we would truly recognize that you have providentially brought us to this place, that in exercising our care as members of the church represented by households, as we move toward a vote,

Lord, we pray it would be your will being led by your spirit, and that that same spirit would fill the men who are appointed, that as a church we would be a spirit -filled church recognizing all due authority, and then following after the example of these men as they seek to follow after your example, you being a servant of servants, you being the son of man and a servant to all.

We pray, Lord, that from the example of deacons, we would learn how to be lowercase deacons.

We would learn from their selfless, self -averting, humble and faithful service how to serve in the kingdom, how to serve others even at our expense,

Lord, seeing it as better for your sake rather than what may be better for our immediate sake.

May we always look to your hand and to the promise of your glory, and may we all, in that sense, obtain a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus, in whose name we pray, amen.