The NXR Podcast - THE SERMON - Deacons： The Most Misunderstood Office In The Church

00:00:00.960 Amen.

00:00:04.660 Well, you may have noticed there's not a whole lot of room today.

00:00:07.300 Praise God, that's great, that we're continuing to grow.

00:00:10.660 I do believe in church growth strategy.

00:00:12.660 I just don't believe in the church growth strategy movements of the 1990s and 80s.

00:00:17.060 The idea that you would appeal to the reprobate who, according to Scripture in Romans chapter 3 and multiple other passages, hates God.

00:00:24.300 The church is not for goats.

00:00:25.980 First and foremost, the church is for God.

00:00:28.600 Secondly, it's for God's people, for sheep. 0.62

00:00:31.300 But that is, in that, there's still a church growth strategy of sorts.

00:00:35.380 It's twofold. Here it is.

00:00:36.440 Number one, the Bible says, my sheep hear my voice, speaking of Christ.

00:00:40.300 So preach God's word, preach it faithfully, preach it unapologetically,

00:00:44.480 and you will ordinarily, not in every case, sometimes churches shrink because of faithfulness.

00:00:49.880 But ordinarily, in many cases, the church will grow.

00:00:52.800 It'll grow by God's people, not the reprobate, but by God's people,

00:00:57.140 the sheep hearing the voice of christ ringing true ringing clear and being drawn to that and

00:01:03.100 the second way it'll grow is um the fbi um that is a church growth strategy i just assume 15 people

00:01:10.640 here this morning that you are undercover fbi agents and that's a wonderful ministry as well

00:01:15.160 because that one's evangelistic right doesn't require the pastor to compromise you preach god's

00:01:20.020 truth uh clearly faithfully unapologetically and christians will come right the sheep will come

00:01:26.760 The FBI will also come because they can't stand the truth of God.

00:01:30.860 And so they'll sit there, but then they'll hear the word of God preached and they might get saved.

00:01:35.260 So if you are an FBI undercover agent, welcome.

00:01:38.640 We're glad you're here.

00:01:39.620 And hopefully by the preaching of God's word, you will get saved today.

00:01:42.860 So that's our church growth strategy, preaching Christ unapologetically from his word to where Christians are drawn.

00:01:50.460 And so are the FBI and hopefully they become Christians.

00:01:53.080 All right. So that being said, we are taking a break. Connor, I keep wanting to call him Uncle Connor. To our kids, you know, we always refer to him as Uncle Connor. But Elder Connor preached a wonderful sermon last Lord's Day, finishing out our series through the book of Ezra with Ezra chapter 10. 1.00

00:02:12.520 And so now we're going to take a brief pause before jumping into the Gospel of Matthew.

00:02:18.300 And so it'll probably be three weeks at minimum, and perhaps maybe as far as five or six weeks.

00:02:25.720 The task set before us for this next few weeks is to teach on church polity,

00:02:30.860 to teach on the ecclesiastical offices within the church,

00:02:34.600 to teach on elders and deacons and then church members.

00:02:39.260 And what we're going to do is begin actually with the diaconate, beginning with deacons.

00:02:44.240 And the primary reason for this is just a practical, it's not really a theological reason,

00:02:48.700 but practically we're going to be having a members meeting, Lord willing, on June 2nd.

00:02:54.820 So that's two weeks. It's a Sunday, June 2nd, two weeks from today.

00:02:59.340 And so we'll have church in the morning at 10 a.m., just like we normally do.

00:03:03.120 But that evening, instead of having our typical potluck where anyone and everyone is invited,

00:03:08.620 whether you're a member, a covenant member of the church or not. We are actually going to have a

00:03:12.840 members meeting, so it'll only be open to those who are members of the church. Again, that's two

00:03:17.640 weeks from today. It'll be right here at Dale's, not in the morning. We'll have our typical morning

00:03:21.640 service, but in the evening, June 2nd, 5 p.m., and we're going to skip the potluck, but I remembered

00:03:28.320 last week I said there'll be no potluck that day. I should have known better. There's always a potluck

00:03:32.280 somehow, someway, and so there actually will be a potluck, but it'll be for lunch. So we'll do our

00:03:37.540 potluck lunch that we typically do on the first Sunday of every month, because it will

00:03:41.660 be the first Sunday of that month, June 2nd, morning service at 10 a.m., potluck lunch

00:03:46.800 immediately following that, but then no potluck in the evening and no worship in the public

00:03:52.120 square at the courthouse in Georgetown like we typically would do on the first Sunday

00:03:56.300 of the month.

00:03:56.720 Instead, we'll come here, Dale's Essenhaus, 5 p.m., June 2nd, members only, and one of

00:04:03.160 the things that we're going to be doing is we're going to be examining and also voting

00:04:07.480 in regards to three deacon candidates, three men that Connor and I put forward as potential

00:04:14.220 deacons. And before taking a vote, we're going to allow the members of the church to examine.

00:04:21.140 So Connor and I will be with those three men and we'll be sitting together and then allowing all

00:04:26.300 the male members of the church to ask questions. And if you're wondering why only the male members?

00:04:32.120 Well, this is why.

00:04:34.460 I'm not of the position that in every single setting that only the men should speak.

00:04:40.900 If it's a Tuesday afternoon and you're doing a Bible study in your home

00:04:44.600 and one of the women have a question or something like that,

00:04:48.540 I don't apply 1 Timothy 2 or 1 Corinthians 14 to that context.

00:04:55.520 But the reason why I would apply it on Sunday evening is not, despite popular opinion,

00:05:00.200 and it's not because of my just raging commitment to misogyny, 0.74

00:05:04.980 but it's because 1 Corinthians 14.35 says it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.

00:05:11.400 And because this is a members meeting on the Lord's Day,

00:05:14.480 and it's still the Christian Sabbath,

00:05:16.160 because right now we're in the summer months,

00:05:17.780 so the sun doesn't go down to like 12.30 a.m.

00:05:20.960 You know, so the sun is up, and it is the Lord's Day, and it is church.

00:05:25.860 I know we typically think, well, church is in the morning,

00:05:27.780 and then we do this potluck kind of thing.

00:05:30.460 But it is actually church.

00:05:32.420 And so a Sunday evening service on the Christian Sabbath,

00:05:35.700 the Lord's Day, that is a part of the ecclesia,

00:05:39.820 the gathered assembly.

00:05:40.820 And so I do believe that 1 Corinthians 2, verses 9 through 15,

00:05:44.940 or that's 1 Timothy 2, 9 through 15,

00:05:48.040 and 1 Corinthians 14 do apply. 1.00

00:05:51.180 And so if you are a woman, 1.00

00:05:53.220 I've already had a couple single women reach out 1.00

00:05:55.220 and say, how would we, if we had a question, 0.98

00:05:57.320 and we were able to talk through that and say,

00:05:59.660 well, is there another man in the church

00:06:00.880 that you feel comfortable running your questions through him

00:06:03.000 in the same way that he would represent his wife and children?

00:06:06.360 He's going to be asking questions, not just on his behalf,

00:06:08.880 it's representative government.

00:06:10.320 This is not a crazy idea, by the way.

00:06:12.040 This is like our whole country until 15 minutes ago

00:06:14.900 when all of a sudden it became a raw democracy,

00:06:17.740 which really means just, you know, according to polls,

00:06:20.440 20% of people are going to vote however Taylor Swift does.

00:06:23.680 So that's really rough, by the way.

00:06:25.640 but before that what we actually had was not just a raw democracy none of the founders said

00:06:29.940 anything positive about a raw democracy and neither does anything in the bible right the

00:06:34.140 people said crucify him raw democracy right the people said we want a king raw democracy every

00:06:39.920 single time it's negative okay representative federal headship right federal headship at a

00:06:45.940 at a national level at state levels and counties and cities and households families that is the

00:06:51.960 pattern. That is the pattern. This atomistic, individualistic, it's just me and no one can

00:06:57.200 set my destiny. You know, I am the master of my own destiny. I'm an individual. I have a future

00:07:02.640 and I, you know, hear me roar. That's, that is not biblical. It's not Christian. It's not even

00:07:07.900 American. That's just the divine feminine heresy, false doctrine send you to hell. Don't do that. 1.00

00:07:14.100 Don't do that. So again, women will have a voice. They will have a voice as all of us have a voice. 1.00

00:07:20.780 I don't get to make every decision in the world, but I have people who are representing me, right?

00:07:25.600 Think of the centurion man. He comes to Jesus. He said, I'm a man who's in authority and under

00:07:29.360 authority. I get it. I'm not a snowflake getting offended every five seconds. No, I'm a man. I

00:07:36.420 understand how authority works, right? I've got guys under me, but I've also got guys over me.

00:07:41.600 So Jesus, you do the thing. You're the real authority here. You do your thing. I get it,

00:07:47.220 right? Wouldn't it be amazing if we could have, you know, put on the big boy pants and have that

00:07:52.480 kind of attitude as Christians, right? Jesus marvels, by the way, the response is Jesus

00:07:58.000 marvels at that man's faith. It's like, he gets it. He gets it. Jesus esteems him. So if you are

00:08:05.300 a single woman, if you're a married woman, then, then talk to your husband, right? That's what 0.79

00:08:09.980 he's there for. Talk to your husband. If you're a single woman, then find another man in the church

00:08:14.640 that you trust. And if there's not one that you feel like you're comfortable with, then talk to

00:08:18.720 me or Connor. And just ahead of time, here are some of the things I hope get addressed during

00:08:23.520 this examination of the deacon candidates. And then we'll say, okay, thanks for talking to us.

00:08:29.160 And we'll do our best. So none of this is meant to be oppressive or misogyny. It's literally,

00:08:32.900 here's the thing. I know this bothers people, but here's the thing. I'm just trying to obey the

00:08:39.900 bible right i just i don't know i don't know what you want i don't know what you want but but the 1.00

00:08:47.060 bible literally says first corinthians 14 it is shameful for a woman to speak in church it's

00:08:52.920 sunday night church on the lord's day the christian sabbath you're gonna obey the bible or not 0.99

00:08:58.320 right so if it bothers you then find an unbiblical church you'll be happy then

00:09:02.940 but if you want to be not happy but you want to be holy then i encourage you to love the word of

00:09:11.360 god see it first as right and then as god grows you through sanctification you will come to see

00:09:17.600 that that which is right is also good it's good okay so that's going to be our our members meeting

00:09:24.840 lord willing june 2nd 5 p.m right here members only and we're going to be dealing with uh deacons

00:09:30.600 But we're also, all that being said, back to the FBI, you know, watch list, church growth strategy, evangelism thing.

00:09:35.800 We're also going to be talking about a building because we do need more space.

00:09:38.880 We'd like to have more space.

00:09:40.420 And so Connor and I are going to present an option that we have right now in the province of God that could be great.

00:09:47.040 It could really be the Lord's hand.

00:09:49.040 Or, you know, like Star Wars style, it's a trap, you know.

00:09:52.260 So just because there's something on the horizon doesn't necessarily mean it's good for the record.

00:09:57.240 But we think it might be.

00:09:58.540 So we want to present that, talk through that a little bit and see if God would be so kind that we might eventually be able to have a building that's one, bigger, two, better, primarily better in the sense of right now we have two spaces in our building, right?

00:10:14.940 And that is the sanctuary and then immediately outside, right?

00:10:20.280 There's no auxiliary space.

00:10:21.740 So it's I'm in the sanctuary or my kid starts crying and we live in Texas.

00:10:26.100 So what that means is I have to go outside.

00:10:27.680 there's no auxiliary space. So I'm in the rain, I'm in 110 degrees, or it's freezing. Like those,

00:10:35.700 it's never comfortable. You can bet on that. So we would like to have, you know, a building that's

00:10:41.020 bigger for more people, better, more accommodating, especially to mothers and fathers, but especially

00:10:46.460 mothers. And then lastly, just, I think of security. Just having something that we're not

00:10:53.060 just renting that we're beholden to someone else who on a whim. I don't think Dale is going to do

00:10:57.680 this. He's treated us really well. By the way, if you ever come and eat here and patron Dale's

00:11:02.500 Essendon Host, which you should, bless them and tell them thank you. Say, I'm a member or I'm an

00:11:08.140 attender of Covenant Bible Church. Thank you for the ways that you've served us. But it is possible

00:11:12.180 that, you know, they could just one day change their mind. And so it would be nice to have a

00:11:17.040 little bit more security. So something bigger, better, and more secure. So that's another thing.

00:11:21.100 So deacons, and we'll also talk about building June 2nd, 5 p.m., members meeting.

00:11:25.200 Okay, here we go.

00:11:26.060 So starting with deacons, because that's on the docket.

00:11:29.240 It's coming up in two weeks, and it may take me two weeks to do this.

00:11:32.060 I'm going to do my best today.

00:11:33.080 Maybe we can do it in a week.

00:11:34.580 Maybe it takes two weeks.

00:11:36.080 We'll see.

00:11:36.780 All right, this is the text.

00:11:37.740 Let's go ahead and stand for the reading of God's Word.

00:11:39.840 I'll read our text in its entirety.

00:11:41.480 When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say this is the Word of the Lord,

00:11:44.440 at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to God.

00:11:48.960 Now, I recognize at the top of your notes, the text is 1 Timothy 3, verses 8-13.

00:11:53.980 We will get to all the meat of that, because that's all the qualifications for a deacon.

00:11:57.960 But I'm going to pull an audible, and we're going to actually read a different text.

00:12:01.220 We're going to read not a prescriptive text for the qualifications of deacons,

00:12:04.920 but rather a descriptive text for the duties of deacons.

00:12:09.000 Because the qualifications are, like I just said, they're explicit and prescriptive.

00:12:13.540 Prescriptive meaning they're prescribed, they're commands, they're precepts.

00:12:17.240 It's exactly what God is saying.

00:12:18.960 a deacon must be blank, blank, blank, blank, blank. And so what comes with that, that pre-scriptive

00:12:25.260 language is clarity. It's very clear. What's a little bit less clear in scripture is not so much

00:12:32.420 the qualifications of a deacon, but the duties of a deacon. What does a deacon do, right? I understand,

00:12:38.240 you know, must be this tall to ride the ride. I get what a deacon must be in order to be qualified,

00:12:42.480 but once he's qualified and once he's ordained to the office, what does he do? And I think that

00:12:46.820 Acts chapter 6 is one of the best pictures that we get. It's not prescriptive saying a deacon must

00:12:51.740 do this, only this, always this. It's descriptive, but the descriptive language of Acts chapter 6

00:12:58.960 of these seven men filled with the Holy Spirit who are appointed to the diaconate, it at least gets

00:13:03.420 us in the ballpark. It sets us on the right trajectory, the right direction for understanding

00:13:08.080 not just what a deacon must be to be qualified, but what he must do. So we're going to read that.

00:13:13.040 This is Acts chapter 6, verses 1 through 7.

00:13:16.200 The Bible says this.

00:13:43.040 and of wisdom whom we will appoint to this duty but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the

00:13:50.220 ministry of the word and what they said pleased the whole gathering and they chose Stephen a man

00:13:55.740 full of faith and of the Holy Spirit and Phila and Prochorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmenas

00:14:06.140 and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles and they prayed and laid

00:14:12.960 their hands on them. And then here's the result. Seven guys appointed to the diaconate and what

00:14:18.660 happens? The word of God continued to increase and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in

00:14:24.360 Jerusalem and a great many, even of the priest, became obedient to the faith. This is the word

00:14:30.020 of the Lord. All right, let's go ahead and be seated and we will dive right in. I love that

00:14:35.560 Because again, it's a descriptive text.

00:14:38.200 So it's not, it doesn't have a level of perspicuity,

00:14:41.020 the level of clarity as a prescriptive text.

00:14:43.780 But I think there's a lot that can be accurately

00:14:46.880 and faithfully gleaned from this passage.

00:14:50.660 Deacons, number one, here's the thing.

00:14:52.280 We're going to get into this a little bit. 0.84

00:14:54.440 Can you have male and female deacons? 0.80

00:14:58.080 And, you know, short answer, 0.97

00:14:59.080 because I don't want to just keep you on the edge of your seat

00:15:01.140 and bated breath, you know.

00:15:02.360 Short answer is, spoiler alert here, no.

00:15:04.820 No, the Westminster says no.

00:15:06.400 The 1689 says no.

00:15:07.780 Everyone says no until the 1960s.

00:15:11.540 Okay, so the answer is no.

00:15:13.240 And not just because everybody says no,

00:15:14.660 but most importantly, because God says no.

00:15:16.720 The Bible says no.

00:15:18.320 And so we'll talk about that

00:15:19.260 because people try to make a strong argument for,

00:15:21.620 you know, within even conservative evangelicalism,

00:15:24.480 which, by the way, is not that conservative,

00:15:27.060 but within conservative evangelicalism,

00:15:29.620 they'll say, whoa, yeah, yeah, elders should be male,

00:15:31.520 biblically qualified men,

00:15:32.600 but the deaconate can be both male and female because, well, after all, 1 Timothy chapter 3,

00:15:38.620 when it begins to speak about deacons in verses 8 through 13, it gives a list for men, but then it

00:15:44.480 gives a list for women. And they'll, you know, put a lot of weight on that word that's translated

00:15:50.300 wives and say, well, really that word is, should be translated women. And I think that that's a

00:15:55.840 poor argument. And then, you know, they'll begin to fluff up their position by saying, but Phoebe,

00:15:59.900 you know, Paul says that she was a deacon. Yes, she was a servant of the church. See, here's part

00:16:04.740 of the problem. Part of the problem with the word deacon, and I'm not saying that, you know,

00:16:08.600 God knows what he's doing, but it's a good word. But part of the apparent problem, perceivable

00:16:15.860 problem, is that, transfer it for a moment to pastors, okay? I could say this man is a fantastic

00:16:22.960 pastor in his home, and that does not necessarily mean that he holds the ordained ecclesiastical

00:16:28.880 office of pastor. It doesn't mean he's a capital P pastor in the formal official sense, but he is

00:16:35.520 being pastoral, right? The word shepherd is another word for pastor, and it's a word that the New

00:16:40.800 Testament uses, right? So you can say this person, and without even the qualifier, the prepositional

00:16:46.700 phrase of in his home, you could just say so-and-so, a wonderful shepherd. You know, I could be writing

00:16:55.100 a letter to someone so-and-so who was a wonderful shepherd and then hundreds of years later somebody

00:16:59.480 could read that and say oh so-and-so must have held the ecclesiastical formal office of pastor

00:17:04.400 because Joel referred to him as a shepherd well no not necessarily they could but but that language

00:17:11.680 does not require that interpretation it allows for it it allows for that interpretation but it

00:17:17.880 is not a necessary inference it does not demand that interpretation so when Paul says Phoebe is

00:17:23.860 a servant of the church. That's the word deacon. Just means servant. Well, there is capital D

00:17:28.660 deacon in the ecclesiastical ordained official formal sense as a office of the church. Just

00:17:35.380 like there's a capital P, right? A pastor for that ecclesiastical ordained office of the church.

00:17:41.460 But there's also a sense of being a lowercase p or lowercase s. Hey, this guy, he's a fantastic

00:17:47.020 shepherd. Or this woman is a wonderful servant of the church. So you can say that Phoebe is a

00:17:52.980 servant of the church, and she was. And what we can tell about Phoebe is that she particularly, uniquely,

00:17:59.440 was a massive benefactor of the Apostle Paul and his ministry. She was rich. She was well off.

00:18:07.660 Now, whether that be because she was a widow and her husband was wealthy and left that

00:18:12.680 inheritance to her or whatever it might be, but she was well off and she had a church that was

00:18:17.540 meeting in her home. And one of the reasons why, it wasn't that the church was meeting in her home

00:18:21.800 because she was the pastor of that church,

00:18:23.780 not even close,

00:18:24.980 or even that she was a deacon

00:18:26.720 in the official ordained sense in that church.

00:18:30.020 No, it just means they're literally,

00:18:31.500 the church is meeting and the place where they meet.

00:18:34.040 Dale, right?

00:18:35.500 Dale is not an ecclesiastical officer

00:18:37.500 of Covenant Bible Church.

00:18:38.820 Did you know that?

00:18:39.380 Crazy, right?

00:18:40.880 But you meet at Dale's Essenhaus.

00:18:44.160 Right?

00:18:44.380 This is not hard. 1.00

00:18:45.820 It's hard if your brain has been melted by feminism. 1.00

00:18:48.800 Then sure, it's hard.

00:18:50.400 But it's not hard if you can just slow down and think like every single person has thought

00:18:55.740 for thousands of years since the beginning of humankind up until about 15 minutes ago.

00:19:00.680 It's not that hard.

00:19:02.240 Right?

00:19:02.440 We meet at Dale's Essenhaus.

00:19:03.820 And by the way, it's not just a random name.

00:19:05.720 It really is a guy named Dale.

00:19:07.680 And he owns this place.

00:19:09.520 But not only is he not the pastor of the church or a deacon of the church,

00:19:12.680 he's not even a member of the church.

00:19:14.840 Right?

00:19:15.160 And so we can say, hey, we're grateful for Dale.

00:19:17.500 Like I just told you like 10 minutes ago,

00:19:19.820 I said, hey, you should patron the restaurant and say, if you see him, if you meet him,

00:19:23.940 Dale, thanks for, I'm a part of Covenant Bible Church.

00:19:25.860 Thanks for being so kind and generous to us and letting us meet here.

00:19:28.740 And none of that says that Dale formerly holds ecclesiastical office in the church.

00:19:33.320 Same with Phoebe.

00:19:34.780 They're meeting in her home.

00:19:36.920 Why?

00:19:37.960 Why in her home? 1.00

00:19:38.860 Well, because she holds an office of authority. 1.00

00:19:41.340 No, because she's rich and her home is large. 1.00

00:19:45.160 That's it.

00:19:46.140 It really is that simple. 0.64

00:19:47.800 She's got a big house.

00:19:49.020 Now that people don't have as big of a house, it makes sense to meet there at Phoebe's home.

00:19:54.560 And she is a servant of the church.

00:19:57.420 Uniquely so in her energy, her devotion, her faithfulness, and in her charity, her generosity.

00:20:04.100 That in some sense, she was one of the major donors, benefactors for the entirety of all the Apostle Paul's missionary evangelistic trips and missions.

00:20:15.500 So thank God, as Paul says in Scripture, inspired by the Holy Spirit, thank God for Phoebe.

00:20:22.600 Wonderful woman, godly woman, might have a spot closer to the throne of God in heaven than I do,

00:20:28.840 and yet still not an ecclesiastical officer of the church.

00:20:31.840 Both of those things can be true. 0.98

00:20:33.380 We honor this woman, and she's not a pastor, and she's not a deacon in the formal ordained sense.

00:20:39.600 Does that make sense?

00:20:40.660 Okay, so that's the Phoebe thing.

00:20:42.200 Well, what do you do with this whole word?

00:20:43.660 it doesn't mean wives in first timothy chapter 3 verse 8 through 13 it means women well this is

00:20:51.240 what you do okay here's one argument one argument is it absolutely does mean wives the wives of male

00:20:59.380 deacons it's not a list if you're a man aspiring to the office of deacon your qualifications are

00:21:04.740 this now if you're a woman aspiring to the office of deacon you have a separate list of qualifications

00:21:10.320 that look like this. It's not that, I'll tell you, here's a few reasons. Here's one reason why.

00:21:14.780 It is not two separate lists for male deacons and then women deacons, female deacons, but rather it

00:21:21.220 is a list for male deacons and then a list of qualifications for those male deacons' wives.

00:21:25.940 It's that, the latter, the male deacons' wives. Not two lists for one kind of deacon, namely a deacon

00:21:31.760 who's a man and then another kind of deacon, a deacon who's a woman. The reason why it's not that

00:21:35.920 is because the Bible does not promulgate affirmative action.

00:21:44.620 Think about that for a moment.

00:21:46.260 What? Affirmative action? How did it get there?

00:21:48.480 The Bible does not promulgate or uphold or endorse affirmative action. 0.99

00:21:55.100 Affirmative action is wicked. 0.96

00:21:57.060 It is not just. 0.78

00:21:59.400 It's one of the negative consequences that came out of the civil rights movement. 0.68

00:22:03.540 It is not just.

00:22:05.920 And the Bible does not promulgate those things which are not just.

00:22:09.980 Think about that.

00:22:10.720 If this is translated as women, and it's not,

00:22:13.460 the first argument is, no, the word just, it literally means wives.

00:22:16.440 It's a bad argument.

00:22:17.200 That's the first argument against it.

00:22:18.620 The first counter is, no, the word is wives. 1.00

00:22:21.420 There's a reason why everybody has translated it that way 0.98

00:22:24.200 until again, very recently, due to feminism.

00:22:27.380 Oh, well, it doesn't actually mean wives.

00:22:28.920 It just means women. 0.90

00:22:29.880 So the first counter argument to female deacons

00:22:33.560 is that the word is wives, not women. 0.60

00:22:35.960 Secondly, to shore up that argument, make it even stronger,

00:22:39.560 if it is women, then you have two lists and they're differing lists. 0.97

00:22:44.840 And notice this, one list is shorter than the other. 0.96

00:22:49.520 One list is more robust.

00:22:52.180 It sets a more thorough and you can easily argue a higher bar,

00:22:58.440 namely the list for deacons, men, male deacons.

00:23:02.620 if you read the wives part as oh no no this is just not the wives of those male deacons but

00:23:08.840 rather this is a separate list for female deacons then you would have to conclude this

00:23:13.480 the bar is yay high if you're a man to be a deacon but to hold the same ecclesiastical office

00:23:20.920 with the same degree of rights and authority if you happen to apply and you're a woman lower bar 0.95

00:23:27.940 so you must be this qualified to hold the office if you're a man but you only have to be this 0.93

00:23:34.840 qualified to hold the office if you're a woman that's literally affirmative action

00:23:40.180 no no if you're a deacon you're a deacon and you have to meet the qualifications of

00:23:45.620 a deacon there are not two separate lists for the same office now there are two separate lists

00:23:50.820 in this chapter, 1 Timothy chapter 3,

00:23:53.920 for two different offices, right?

00:23:57.000 So elder has one list, and it is a higher bar

00:23:59.900 than the list for deacons.

00:24:01.940 But to subdivide the deacons and say,

00:24:04.440 oh, but there are actually two sublists

00:24:06.520 within the deacon category,

00:24:08.280 one for male deacons,

00:24:09.580 and then a lower bar for female deacons,

00:24:11.920 then you're saying that in the mind of God,

00:24:14.280 He actually prescribed that the same office

00:24:17.380 could actually hold to separate, 0.78

00:24:19.820 different, two different standards based off of someone's gender, and the bar would be lower for 1.00

00:24:25.760 women because God expects less from them. That's actually the more chauvinistic argument.

00:24:32.800 That's actually the more chauvinistic argument. Instead, the more life-giving, affirming, esteeming,

00:24:39.160 and honoring argument for women is to say, no, no, no, no, no. There's just one standard for deacons, 0.95

00:24:45.180 And part of it is that they would be men.

00:24:47.520 But the diaconate, there's a uniqueness to this ecclesiastical office which differs.

00:24:53.600 It's distinct from an elder.

00:24:54.800 And one of the distinctions is that the diaconate will involve his ministry to the church.

00:25:01.340 His ministry to the church will involve necessarily by way of implication his wife joining him in that ministry

00:25:10.060 in the way that a pastor, his ministry, as an elder to the church, will not.

00:25:16.240 Let me flesh that out for just a moment.

00:25:18.740 As a minister of the Word, right?

00:25:21.040 So I'll make it as concise as possible.

00:25:23.540 Elder? What is an elder?

00:25:25.640 Not just how do you qualify, right?

00:25:27.640 The qualifications, again, are prescriptive.

00:25:29.500 They're very clear. We'll get into them.

00:25:31.380 But in terms of the duties, what is an elder?

00:25:35.100 An elder is a man who has been tasked to the ministry of the Word.

00:25:41.000 A deacon is a biblically qualified man

00:25:43.300 who has been tasked to a ministry of mercy.

00:25:45.540 I'll say that again.

00:25:46.780 This is a generalization, but it is generally true, right?

00:25:50.200 There's more specifications underneath,

00:25:52.420 but the 30,000-foot view is this.

00:25:54.720 Elder, ministry of the Word.

00:25:57.780 Deacon, ministry of mercy.

00:26:00.780 My wife, who is incredibly godly by the grace of God,

00:26:04.660 she does not partner with me in my ministry

00:26:08.160 in the ecclesiastical formal sense as an elder very much.

00:26:13.580 She partners with me in my overarching Christian ministry

00:26:17.520 because my overall life ministry

00:26:20.880 involves more than just my formal ministry to the church.

00:26:24.440 It involves a lion's share of our ministry,

00:26:28.040 my wife and I together,

00:26:29.460 is to these four little kids and a fifth one on the way.

00:26:32.740 And so we're doing a lot of ministry there

00:26:34.620 and I cannot do it without my wife helping me in that ministry.

00:26:39.800 But as it pertains to the church, from time to time, my wife will join me.

00:26:43.720 Maybe it's marriage counseling or premarital counseling or something like that.

00:26:46.960 And sometimes my wife will join me and sometimes she won't.

00:26:50.360 And usually the reason she doesn't is never because she doesn't want to.

00:26:53.300 She enjoys providing godly counsel for others.

00:26:55.960 She loves the women of the church.

00:26:57.520 But sometimes I go and do counseling most of the time.

00:27:00.300 I go and do counseling and my wife's not there.

00:27:02.280 Why? 0.99

00:27:02.780 Because she has kids.

00:27:05.460 And the predominant portion, the lion's share of her ministry is in our home.

00:27:12.320 And a lot of my ministry is also at home, but also in the formal sense with the church.

00:27:17.560 And here is the ministry, because I hold, by God's grace, the office of elder.

00:27:21.700 The majority of my ministry in the church, my formal ministry, is what I'm doing right now.

00:27:27.880 Namely, preaching.

00:27:30.220 The overarching general ministry of an elder is a ministry of the word.

00:27:34.620 and the word is to be taught by biblically qualified men and so the nature this is what

00:27:41.220 i'm getting into not just um not just here are the duties and their specifications but but think

00:27:46.340 about in an overarching sense what is the nature of a pastor's ministry versus the nature of a

00:27:52.940 deacon's ministry the nature of a pastor's ministry an elder and pastor these terms are synonymous

00:27:58.460 by the way if you haven't figured that out i probably should have said it up front but i'm

00:28:02.200 saying it now. Let the record state pastor, bishop, elder. These are synonymous terms. Shepherd.

00:28:08.960 It's the office of elder. The ecclesiastical office of elder. There are only three offices.

00:28:14.760 Ecclesiastical offices that exist in the church. Elder, deacon, member. And member is an office.

00:28:19.900 And it comes with certain rights, privileges, and duties, responsibilities. Just like deacon and

00:28:24.860 just like elder. Back to elder, okay? So an elder pastor, the nature, the overarching nature of his

00:28:30.420 ministry is a ministry of the Word. And the Word we see in Scripture, not just in 1 Timothy 2 or

00:28:35.980 1 Timothy 3 or Titus 1 or 1 Corinthians 14 or this and that and that and this again and again and

00:28:42.060 again. Not only do we see from Scripture that the ministry of the Word, the public preaching

00:28:49.120 and teaching the Word is to be done by biblically qualified men. It is uniquely a male office. 1.00

00:28:55.140 Not only is that in Scripture, but in practice, in a practical sense, if it is to be done by men, 0.97

00:29:02.460 then my wife is not going to be practically joining me in this ministry on a regular basis.

00:29:09.120 What would it look like for my wife to join me in tandem with the office and the duties of an elder,

00:29:16.440 which are primarily a ministry of the Word? 0.92

00:29:18.380 What would look like me calling her up right now, tag teaming her.

00:29:22.140 all right i did half the first half of the sermon you get the second sound familiar churches do this

00:29:28.640 by the way all the time the evangelical church all the time go and look at the your average sbc

00:29:35.060 church god help them go go and look at their website and and you will see pastor so-and-so

00:29:43.900 a man his picture his name and co-pastor so-and-so his wife it's not pastor so-and-so and his wife

00:29:51.840 it's two pastors and they're both on the payroll both paid by the church both holding office in

00:29:58.680 the church both having the title in the church and that is unbiblical that is unbiblical see

00:30:04.580 the way that a wife would join her husband if he's an elder and the the nature of an elder's

00:30:10.180 ministry predominantly being a ministry of the word public preaching and teaching for a wife to

00:30:15.180 join him in that necessarily almost almost almost guaranteed will require her to step into a realm

00:30:23.260 that the bible strictly forbids her to go it will require her to function as a pastor which she's

00:30:30.360 not called to be it will require her to join her husband in public preaching and teaching exercising

00:30:37.100 authority and teaching even over men which is strictly prohibited by the scripture now that

00:30:44.160 being established back to today's topic deacons when it comes to the role of a deacon not the

00:30:51.620 qualifications but speaking of his duties the the overarching general nature of his ministry

00:30:58.300 the ministry of an elder is a ministry of the word but the ministry of a deacon is a ministry

00:31:03.020 of mercy the deacon he may teach both the westminster well the 1689 for sure westminster

00:31:11.800 not so much on this one. They usually, I mean, it's 99% the same, but this is where one example

00:31:16.760 where they would differ. But the 1689 would say that a deacon may preach on the Lord's Day,

00:31:24.060 but an elder must. Ordinarily, the regular steady diet of a church's preaching should be coming from

00:31:33.640 elders, but it is permissible for a deacon to preach, but that is not the overarching general

00:31:42.000 nature of his ministry. It may, it is permissible to include some public preaching and teaching,

00:31:47.860 but that's not going to be the primary makeup. The primary makeup of the duty, the role, the nature

00:31:54.820 of a deacon's ministry will not be ministry of the word, but rather a ministry of mercy. And most of

00:32:00.600 that mercy ministry will be carried out, not publicly behind a pulpit on the Lord's day,

00:32:06.160 but privately Monday through Saturday. It'll be going to the poor, to the downtrodden, to the

00:32:13.400 lonely, to the sick, to the hurting. And guess what? What that can, without crossing any bounds,

00:32:19.940 without breaking any prohibitions, guess who that can include? His wife. So why, here's the point.

00:32:28.180 Why does 1 Timothy 3 give a list of qualifications for pastors, male pastors,

00:32:33.240 and then give no qualifications for the wives of a pastor? 0.90

00:32:36.940 Because that's the feminist argument, right? 1.00

00:32:38.760 I'm just setting you up.

00:32:40.480 Some of you already know this, but some of you may not. 0.99

00:32:43.280 The feminist argument, the egalitarian, which is just, that's feminism.

00:32:47.620 The feminist argument for female deacons is this. 0.99

00:32:50.820 They'll say, well, there's no qualifications for the wife of an elder, 1.00

00:32:55.540 but then there's qualifications for the wife of a deacon well that makes it sound if elders a higher

00:33:01.300 office a higher ecclesiastical office in the church then it makes it sound like you know the

00:33:06.780 wife of a deacon which is actually a lower office there's all of a sudden more more expectations for

00:33:12.700 the wife of a lower office and the wife of a higher office that can't make sense so it must

00:33:17.620 not mean wife of a deacon it must simply mean women deacons no no the reason why qualifications

00:33:25.020 for the wife of an elder are not mentioned

00:33:26.920 is not because elder is a lower office than deacon.

00:33:30.220 It's because a wife of an elder

00:33:32.020 will not join him in his ministry 0.74

00:33:34.200 to the same degree that the wife of a deacon will.

00:33:38.140 The nature of the ministry of the deaconate

00:33:41.020 being not a ministry of the word primarily,

00:33:43.440 but a ministry of mercy primarily

00:33:45.380 will necessarily involve his feminine wife

00:33:49.300 with all her nurturing inclinations.

00:33:52.060 it will necessarily draw her into his ministry with him

00:33:56.080 in the way that a public preaching ministry for an elder

00:33:58.760 will not draw his wife in with him.

00:34:01.360 That's why. 0.61

00:34:02.720 So the reason why there are qualifications for the wives of deacons listed

00:34:07.000 and there are not qualifications for the wives of elders listed

00:34:10.540 is not because the deaconate is a higher office than elder.

00:34:14.120 No, elder is higher than deaconate.

00:34:15.960 And it is also not because the wives actually is supposed to be read women,

00:34:20.980 men, female deacons, because that would mean that if you're a male deacon, must be this tall to ride

00:34:26.040 the ride. Got to be pretty legit. But if you're a woman applying for the office, we make exceptions. 1.00

00:34:31.340 The bar is lower because, you know what, women have been oppressed and we got to get them into 1.00

00:34:34.840 the ecclesiastical workforce. Don't read it like that. Don't be a feminist. Okay, so that's a little

00:34:43.440 bit about feminism, deacon, the overarching nature of the ministry of a deacon, ministry of mercy,

00:34:50.080 all these kinds of things. There's two qualifications that I want us to focus on

00:34:53.360 today. And then we'll get a little bit more into the weeds of the duties. And I, yeah, if it's too

00:34:59.440 much, we'll just have to do a part two. But I think I maybe could do it. I'm feeling a little

00:35:03.860 bit hopeful because I've been talking super duper fast. All right. So these are the qualifications

00:35:08.760 looking at the qualifications for a male deacon. Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double

00:35:15.600 tongued not addicted to much wine not greedy for dishonest gain they must hold the mystery of the

00:35:20.900 faith with a clear conscience and let them also be tested first then let them serve as deacons if

00:35:27.020 they prove themselves blameless then it gets into the qualifications for the wife of a deacon we'll

00:35:32.060 stop there that's verse 11 so we're just looking at verses 8 9 and 10 right now of all those

00:35:37.660 qualifications the the at least the general essence of each of these qualifications is listed as well

00:35:45.340 for for the qualifications of an elder with two exceptions and really only two right a deacon

00:35:53.020 needs to be a good husband he needs to be a good dad he's got to manage his household well he can't

00:35:58.560 be a drunkard there's there's but but those are mentioned as well for elders so this isn't novel

00:36:04.100 by this point i know we're going back we're going backwards again for a practical reason because

00:36:08.320 we're going to be voting on deacons in two weeks otherwise i would have started with elders but if

00:36:13.460 you're reading the text in order, then you've read the qualifications for elders first in verses

00:36:19.220 1 Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 through 7, and now you're getting to deacons. And if we were reading

00:36:24.560 the text starting with verse 1 of 1 Timothy chapter 3, we would have read all the qualifications for

00:36:29.360 elders. And then by the time we get to verses 8, 9, and 10, the qualifications for deacons,

00:36:34.420 we would notice that it's kind of a repeat for the most part with, again, two primary exceptions.

00:36:40.220 And I believe the two exceptions are this.

00:36:42.960 Number one, not double-tongued.

00:36:45.800 And number two, holds the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.

00:36:50.840 Say it again.

00:36:52.400 For the most part, the qualifications for a deacon are a recap of the same qualifications for an elder.

00:36:58.240 It's character.

00:36:59.720 Primarily dealing with character.

00:37:01.520 Personal character.

00:37:02.380 and the manifestation of that godly personal character,

00:37:07.700 which will play out ordinarily primarily in the home.

00:37:10.960 Good dad, good husband, good family.

00:37:14.060 Okay, that's for elders. 0.93

00:37:15.520 Same thing for deacons.

00:37:17.080 Very much the same.

00:37:18.560 But where the qualifications for a deacon

00:37:21.200 begin to take a little bit of a detour

00:37:23.600 from the qualifications of an elder

00:37:25.060 are, again, in two primary regards.

00:37:27.660 Number one, there's nothing with the elder qualifications

00:37:31.540 that highlights that he must not be double-tongued now hear me does that mean that if you're a pastor

00:37:38.020 now if you're a deacon you need to be a stand-up guy but if you're a pastor feel free to lie

00:37:42.900 of course not of course not so none of that is meant to imply a pastor can be double-tongued

00:37:50.400 because paul didn't say it no no neither of these for the elder or for the deacon are exhaustive

00:37:55.540 list did you know that in galatians chapter 5 for this matter while we're on the topic

00:38:00.400 that the nine fruit of the Spirit is also not an exhaustive list?

00:38:05.800 It is not to say that, you know, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

00:38:11.060 It is not to say these are the only fruit of the Spirit and there can never be any others.

00:38:15.540 No, there are times where in the apostolic writings inspired by the Holy Spirit,

00:38:20.240 they're giving a list of certain qualities, certain characteristics, and they are true,

00:38:26.440 but it is not necessarily meant to be an exhaustive list.

00:38:30.100 Humility, we can say that humility is a fruit.

00:38:33.220 It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit,

00:38:34.700 although it is not specifically mentioned in Galatians 5

00:38:38.820 in this list of nine fruit of the Spirit listed out by the Apostle Paul.

00:38:43.380 But certainly the one who is filled with the Holy Spirit

00:38:45.800 will and should exude in his life certain degrees of humility

00:38:51.600 as he's being sanctified and formed more into the image of Christ.

00:38:55.880 So neither of these are exhaustive lists,

00:38:57.720 the qualifications for an elder or the qualifications for a deacon. So if it doesn't

00:39:03.100 say an elder must not be double-tongued, it doesn't mean, oh, well then it's okay for an elder to be

00:39:07.880 double-tongued. He can say one thing to one party and then something that directly contradicts that

00:39:12.800 to the other party. He can lie. He can practice hypocrisy. No, of course not. But it does still

00:39:19.720 bear the question, although it is not permissible by way of implication, we should assume it's not

00:39:25.400 permissible for a pastor and elder to be double-tongued but we should at least beg the

00:39:30.300 question not is it okay for an elder to be double-tongued but we should instead ask this

00:39:34.660 question why does Paul feel that it is necessary to explicitly mention the not double-tongued

00:39:40.800 characteristic in the deacon list and I would simply humbly suggest to you one overarching

00:39:48.860 reason. Because again, back to the nature of the diaconate's ministry. What kind of ministry is

00:39:57.080 this? Why are there qualifications for his wife, but not an elder? Because he's doing a ministry

00:40:02.820 of mercy, Monday through Saturday most of the time, privately, where his wife is going to

00:40:09.780 necessarily join him in that. Whereas the elder is doing a ministry of the word publicly on the

00:40:14.740 lord's day where his wife is not going to join him in that well same kind of idea with the double

00:40:19.740 tongued qualifier the nature of the ministry of a deacon not being a public ministry as the highest

00:40:26.620 office in the ecclesiastical setting an elder the public ministry of the word instead being a

00:40:32.160 ministry of mercy and being the second highest office within the ecclesiastical setting the

00:40:37.700 local church because he's this there's elders up here think of it like this elders here members

00:40:44.120 here deacons are right here in between so why does jesus think that it's important right because

00:40:52.260 this is inspired by god jesus is god you get it it's pretty straight line there why does jesus

00:40:56.440 think that it's important for deacons not to be double-tongued because they're in between

00:41:02.500 and they are regularly going to be posed presented with the temptation to say one thing to the

00:41:10.620 members, and then go back and say another thing to the elders, and vice versa. The deacon, think of mom

00:41:17.640 in a family, in a home. The husband is the head of his wife. He's the head of the household. 0.83

00:41:23.960 But then the husband, in his role to provide and protect, ordinarily is going to spend a decent

00:41:29.700 amount of time out of the home, working out of the home in order to make provision for the home. 0.68

00:41:34.540 Whereas the primary ministry of the wife, the mother, is going to be in the home. She is going 0.82

00:41:40.440 to be managing the home on on a day-to-day basis in terms of just just feet on the ground in terms

00:41:46.800 of hours in the day she is going to be spending a lot more time with the kids than her husband

00:41:52.600 and the husband may make certain decisions especially as the kids get older right so not

00:41:59.220 just your two and three-year-old you know little pitter-patter feet you know the the toddler phase

00:42:03.520 but when your kids start getting older and you've got teenagers in the home and they have some

00:42:09.580 opinions some of those are strong opinions and dad's got some opinions too but dad's actually

00:42:15.540 in charge it's his home and he's seeking to be faithful as best he can by the spirit of god and

00:42:21.040 by grace and he says now ask for me in my house xyz and he says that in a loving way not domineering

00:42:29.220 but in a loving way with his wife hey you're going to be managing the home i'm going to be

00:42:33.640 gone 40 50 60 hours a week this is the decision i've made for me and my house and for our children

00:42:39.840 I believe it's right.

00:42:40.960 I'm not doing this to destroy anyone.

00:42:43.900 I'm not the destroyer of fun.

00:42:45.460 I'm not trying to, I want good for our family.

00:42:48.360 I believe that this is good.

00:42:49.800 I've made the decision,

00:42:51.040 but there are going to be multiple times

00:42:52.960 throughout the week where I'm going to be gone

00:42:54.280 and you're going to be the one I need.

00:42:55.840 I'm counting on to help me enforce this decision.

00:42:58.680 And if it's not obeyed by the children,

00:43:00.480 then let me know when I come home, I'll deal with it.

00:43:04.120 Now, what are the children tempted to do?

00:43:06.760 Especially older boys, sons.

00:43:09.480 girls do but especially older sons if dad's gone and as much as you can dads take sons with you

00:43:18.020 those older sons take them to work with you as much as you can I recognize that not everybody

00:43:23.260 can I understand there are different vocations and you know we're we have a goal in mind yeah

00:43:29.420 we're all working it would be nice right it'd be nice that we're all self-employed we all own our

00:43:34.480 own business. We're also all part-time farmers, you know, and, and we all, you know, live in the

00:43:38.840 shire, you know, and, and, you know, that's the goal, right? So that's the goal. Let's, let's keep

00:43:43.060 working. But being a little bit reasonable here and saying that may be the goal, but we're not

00:43:47.260 all quite, quite there yet. And some of you guys, you know, bring your son to work day is not 365

00:43:53.060 days a year. I get that. Like it's just the nature of your job. You're not able to always bring your

00:43:57.720 son. As much as you can though, do it. As much as you can include your older sons, dads, in the

00:44:04.460 work and seek to pass it down to them teach them that trade and bring them into productivity

00:44:11.220 working for the household with you but when you can't and ordinarily for many of us in the nature

00:44:16.840 of our work you won't be able to all the time and in those moments when you can't and and your son

00:44:22.860 is at home with mom and you father have made a decision that you know your 14 year old 15 year

00:44:28.700 old 16 year old son doesn't really he just doesn't quite have the same point of view that you do

00:44:34.680 what is he going to be tempted to do with mom when you're gone

00:44:38.280 he's going to be tempted to rebel against her see her in his sin in his sin he's going to be tempted

00:44:48.780 to see her as the weak link in the chain dad's gone here's my opportunity this is my moment

00:44:54.680 to get my opinion across to do things my way and and then what would mom's temptation be

00:45:02.080 who loves her son doesn't want to lose her son i don't want to be too hard on him and push him

00:45:09.060 away which by the way just moms if you're ever worried am i too hard on my kids the answer is no

00:45:14.760 like almost always no the answer is no but but the mom might be tempted to give her word

00:45:22.320 to her husband the head of the house to dad but then go back on her word with dad with her son

00:45:29.840 when dad's not there right dad kids mom same thing in a church right i'm just giving that as an

00:45:36.880 example so you can visualize i'm trying to illustrate here same thing in a church dad mom

00:45:42.400 kids elders deacons members and not only that so there's a temptation to be double-tongued

00:45:50.180 saying one thing to these two parties elders being one party members being another but then

00:45:55.400 here's another scenario there's also for the deacon a unique temptation to be double-tongued

00:46:00.280 within two parties that are both made up of members even with elders not being involved

00:46:04.940 and that's precisely what we read in Acts chapter 6 two groups two parties at odds with one another

00:46:12.220 and it's not elders against members it's members against members who are they the Hellenistic

00:46:17.580 jews and the hebraic jews they're at each other's throats there is a stark serious conflict between

00:46:29.420 these two parties over what the hellenists are saying that their widows allegedly we don't even

00:46:35.160 know if it's true from the text it doesn't specify explicitly whether or not this objectively was the

00:46:40.220 case but what we do know is they at least thought it was the case it may have been it may not have

00:46:45.920 been? That doesn't matter. What matters is that there's one group in the church, namely the

00:46:50.520 Hellenists, who are saying our widows are being overlooked in the daily distribution. 0.99

00:46:55.440 Our widows aren't getting their needs met on a daily basis the way that the Hebraic Jews are.

00:47:02.660 And that's not fair. And then what do the elders decide? And recognize these are apostles, Peter's 1.00

00:47:08.020 among them. These are apostles in the church of Jerusalem, but they're holding a dual office,

00:47:13.100 which does not exist today by the way but for them it did they're apostles of christ but also

00:47:17.980 functioning as elders of a local church which local church the church at jerusalem the church

00:47:24.740 at jerusalem which by the way right this is the first century back when they were faithful you

00:47:29.280 know they didn't do mega church right all their churches were in homes now the church in jerusalem

00:47:33.260 was at least 3 000 people how do we how do you know that because peter preached at pentecost and

00:47:40.180 3,000 were added to the faith that day in Jerusalem. This is a large church. Large churches

00:47:46.360 are okay. Large churches are not inherently wrong. They can be wrong, and often are wrong,

00:47:53.380 but not inherently so. If you have a large church, but you happen to have 12 elders,

00:47:59.780 and those 12 elders have godly character like Peter, James, and John, and those 12 elders then

00:48:05.860 see the need to appoint and raise up seven deacons and you have strong pillars of families

00:48:12.980 and heads of households throughout the membership of the church you could technically have a 3 000

00:48:18.280 member church and it'd be perfectly biblical and perfectly faithful it's not inherently wrong

00:48:23.680 now ordinarily though it's going to be hard to pull off right because not every elder is like

00:48:29.700 peter james and john in fact very few arguably none so i'm not saying hey every church should

00:48:35.340 be 3 000 people but i am saying inherently it's not it's not evil it's not wrong so all this being

00:48:40.920 said you got the deacons and what are the elders doing the elders hear the problem first the problem

00:48:46.000 comes to them hellenist our widows are being passed up and then the hebraic jews saying uh-uh 0.95

00:48:51.520 right and that's that's usually how arguments go in the church right it's usually a strong 0.93

00:48:56.020 counter argument of uh-uh and and that's going on and the 12 elders what do they say they say

00:49:02.900 well you know what we're going to spend a lot of time on this no they say you know what we're not

00:49:07.120 going to spend any time on this great biblical answer good response godly leadership no we're

00:49:15.480 just we're just not going to spend any time on this um not because it doesn't matter and not

00:49:19.920 because no one's going to spend time on it but we're not going to spend time on it because we

00:49:23.400 are going to devote ourselves to the preaching of the word and prayer and so instead what we're

00:49:28.560 going to do is appoint seven men to the office of deacon. And this is really, this is from what we

00:49:33.900 can tell from all of scripture, this is the origin of the diaconate. The elders at Jerusalem

00:49:40.580 recognized with a large growing church, they recognized that there was a need for another

00:49:46.520 kind of ministry that did have authority. It was an officially ordained ecclesiastical office,

00:49:52.760 but it wasn't an elder and here we have the origin of the diaconate a ministry of mercy

00:49:59.700 and what's its purpose here's the deal this is what we're getting at what is its chief purpose

00:50:05.160 again 30,000 foot view its chief purpose is to free the elders of any and all distractions so

00:50:11.860 that they can focus primarily on the word so from this text which again remember this it's

00:50:18.460 descriptive not prescriptive so from this text on deacons because especially baptists

00:50:25.480 they don't always understand hermeneutical categories and prescriptive and descriptive

00:50:30.300 these kinds of things what have baptists done with deacons because of acts chapter six

00:50:34.680 but you got the good old classic deacon food drive brother the deacon food drive you walk

00:50:41.040 in that foyer of the church and there will be a box and there will be canned beans and corn

00:50:46.500 in that box so help me and basically other every southern baptist church in the world

00:50:53.460 and has been for decades now is it wrong to have the deacon food drive no but but is that

00:51:02.220 the the overall essence of the deaconate no see the role of a deacon this is what i'm getting at

00:51:11.560 the role of a deacon is not waiting on widows and orphans. The role of the deacons in the first

00:51:18.600 century at this exact moment, in this exact place, namely the church in Jerusalem, was to wait on

00:51:24.500 widows and orphans. Because that happened to be what was distracting those elders there from their

00:51:31.780 primary duty of preaching the word. So what is a deacon's job? Feeding widows? No, not exhaustively.

00:51:40.020 that could be part of their job that would fall underneath their purview but what's the overarching

00:51:45.300 that could be one of the things listed on all the bullet points but what's the headline if we were

00:51:51.020 to sum it up in one general phrase what does a deacon do it's a ministry of mercy for what purpose

00:51:56.760 to glorify god to bless the membership of the church and to free up the elders

00:52:03.740 so that the elders can predominantly doesn't mean they can't ever do anything else but that

00:52:09.840 the the primary portion of an elder's work and ministry would be in the realm of preaching

00:52:16.180 that he's ministering the word preaching the word and when other things that are not preaching the

00:52:23.840 word oriented come up in the life of the church as they always do that's perfectly normal there

00:52:30.340 would be another team not just one but another team of biblically qualified men with also

00:52:37.600 biblically qualified wives not to hold the office themselves it's not deacon sally but it is deacon

00:52:44.140 sam with his godly wife sally and there's a massive distinction between those two scenarios

00:52:51.300 and that they would be ready and eager and qualified and willing the moment that some issue

00:52:58.900 comes up hey pastor i got this let me take it off your plane you preach you preach you preach

00:53:05.800 that's the role the duty of a deacon what was distracting the elders there food widows now

00:53:14.140 another thing to say real quick the deacons are not because i want to elevate the office here's

00:53:19.580 a deacon in america in evangelicalism in america is basically this if you're a member of a church

00:53:26.140 you should volunteer and serve and you know what we've got a spot for you on our parking team

00:53:30.660 if you're a deacon of a church you're the lead parking attendant

00:53:34.700 and that's all it is what's the difference between a deacon and a member a member is on

00:53:41.100 the parking team a deacon he's the lead parking team right he's the lead parking attendant and

00:53:46.760 that's that literally if you ask the average christian and i'm talking even in fairly decent

00:53:51.580 churches right i'm going to teach on elders but i probably won't have to teach as much on elders as

00:53:56.680 I do on deacons. The deaconate is the most neglected office by fall in evangelical churches

00:54:04.920 and in reformed churches. And I'm talking good reformed churches. Otherwise, in many other

00:54:10.980 capacities, they still, I think, are dead wrong when it comes to the office of a deacon. They

00:54:17.800 literally see the deacon as a lead volunteer, and that's it. The deacon's ministry is strictly

00:54:23.220 practical. It's never theological or spiritual or anything else. It's only practical. And it's

00:54:30.280 basically just he's the team lead. We have volunteers for this. We have volunteers for that.

00:54:35.860 And a deacon, he leads that particular volunteer team. A deacon in most churches is going to be,

00:54:41.420 we've got children's ministry. We've got 20 volunteers with the children's ministry.

00:54:45.720 And our children director who leads that team of volunteers, there's your deacon. 1.00

00:54:51.700 If it's a bad church, there's your pastor, and it's a woman. 1.00

00:54:56.660 If it's a good church, there's your deacon, and it's a woman. 0.98

00:55:00.960 That's an okay church. 1.00

00:55:02.060 If it's a good church, there's your deacon, and it's a man.

00:55:05.520 And if it's a great church, you say, no, no, no, deacons are more than this.

00:55:09.840 Deacons are more than this.

00:55:11.340 That's not, it's Acts 6 is descriptive, not prescriptive.

00:55:15.740 Now, even from the descriptive text of Acts 6, notice this.

00:55:19.520 they're not appointing seven men filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom to carry bowls of soup.

00:55:26.900 Think about that for a second. Think of Ephesians 4, that Christ, as head of the church, appoints

00:55:34.880 as gracious gifts to his church, which is his body, leaders, and multiple capacities, multiple offices.

00:55:41.440 He gave in the first century to lay the foundation of the church. That's Ephesians 2.20. The foundation

00:55:46.520 is Christ and the apostles and the prophets, the apostles and prophets with Christ being the

00:55:52.280 cornerstone. So in the first leg of church building ministry that Christ is undergoing,

00:55:58.380 he first, in the first century, gave the apostles and prophets and himself as a corner capstone to

00:56:04.340 lay this foundation. And then evangelists and pastor teachers or shepherd teachers, which is

00:56:10.560 just pastors, two sides of one coin, pastors. So evangelists and pastors to then on top of the

00:56:15.600 foundation that's already been laid and inscripturated right here prophets and apostles

00:56:19.780 on top of this foundation to then put up walls and put up electric and plumbing and everything else

00:56:26.360 and roof and that's that's what's going on that's what's been going on for the last

00:56:30.140 2,000 years so Christ gives leaders to his church as a gift to his church and what do these leaders

00:56:36.860 do Ephesians 4 goes on and says they equip the saints for the work of ministry so who does the

00:56:43.940 work of ministry if we're thinking of an executive office and we shouldn't think of churches as

00:56:48.180 businesses but if we're thinking of an executive office who is the executive office in the

00:56:54.360 ecclesiastical realm in a church it's not the elders it's not the deacons it's the members

00:56:58.380 you are the executives you execute who carries out when when the rubber hits the road

00:57:07.120 who actually carries out the mission of the church who gets it done you the membership of

00:57:15.260 the church they're the ones who do the work of ministry leaders in the church equip and train

00:57:20.480 the saints to carry out the work of ministry so who's who do we think and i know i'm truncating

00:57:29.220 it a little bit here but just getting you the language helping you to see illustrate painting

00:57:34.460 a picture in your mind who's carrying the soup to these widows the Hellenists and the Hebraic Jews

00:57:39.540 well Stephen and Philip right seven men filled with the Holy Spirit we need Holy Spirit filled 0.85

00:57:46.640 soup carriers no that's not what James and John and Peter and these 12 are thinking like we've got

00:57:53.240 we've got 3,000 people for that the church the saints so then what are the seven deacons doing

00:58:00.720 Well, deacons just do the food drive.

00:58:01.980 They just carry the soup.

00:58:03.000 No.

00:58:04.160 You know what they're doing?

00:58:06.260 Mediation.

00:58:09.520 They are bringing restoration, reconciliation, resolution to conflict.

00:58:16.760 And not just conflict in one household, in one marriage between one husband and one wife.

00:58:23.000 No, this is a 3,000 person church with two groups that make it up.

00:58:27.800 each one of these groups likely being in the hundreds if not a couple thousand each the church

00:58:34.160 is threatening to split apart this is a big issue right here they are posed with the temptation and

00:58:43.080 on the brink of splitting one of the first churches the epicenter of the new testament church

00:58:48.780 where all the apostles are serving as elders and the whole thing is about to break apart

00:58:55.000 and who do they need it's a big issue and it's not just what we need soup and we need it stacked

00:59:01.140 no no we need conflict management we need mediation we need relational reconciliation

00:59:09.380 we need counseling we need teaching we need help we need help and who's going to do it

00:59:17.880 seven men filled with the Holy Spirit. They're going to do it. Stephen is not to be trifled with.

00:59:27.080 Stephen, that boy could preach. He preached such a good sermon, it got him killed.

00:59:34.200 Philip is not to be trifled with. Philip is not your lead parking attendant.

00:59:40.180 Philip is a godly man, a strong, courageous man. He is a leader. He's an evangelist,

00:59:45.660 that philip and he's also a credo baptist

00:59:49.380 but the ethiopian that's what that's my view that's my that one was a joke slightly serious

00:59:56.820 slightly joke so all that being said deacon is not we have so devalued the office of a deacon

01:00:03.920 in the church in america today especially evangelicals it means something so why is

01:00:09.480 our church by god's grace we'll see you're going to vote as the congregation you're going to

01:00:15.080 execute we're trusting you we'll see what god does through the agency of the priesthood of all

01:00:24.480 believers spirit of god dwelling in you baptized believers you will vote whether we ordain or

01:00:32.040 whether we don't with these three men but lord willing if they are approved by you and ordained

01:00:39.140 be the following sunday on sunday mornings that'd be june 9th that we would ordain them connor and

01:00:44.220 laying hands on them and ordaining them for the office of the diaconate through prayer.

01:00:50.380 Then, then why are we doing all this? What, what, what, what is that going to result in? Here's my

01:00:56.660 prayer. And I want it to be your prayer as well. Pray this, please, with me. My prayer, and hopefully

01:01:02.940 your prayer, would be that it would all result in this. Acts chapter 6, close my Bible too soon.

01:01:08.000 Acts chapter 6 verse 7. After they appointed these seven men, what was the result? And the

01:01:17.360 word of God continued to increase and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem

01:01:22.540 and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. That's my prayer. I humbly ask you

01:01:30.900 to join me in making it your prayer as well that in pointing three men be it that they are truly

01:01:39.280 qualified if that be the case I believe they are you must decide that as well but if they are

01:01:44.880 qualified if they are godly and they are in God's sovereign will appointed to this office and it all

01:01:50.020 comes to pass then my prayer is that the result would be that these three men would be able to

01:01:54.480 serve you to help you to love you to equip you in such a way that other men namely Connor and

01:02:01.900 myself and Lord willing one day Michael as well that we would be uniquely freed up to even more

01:02:08.280 public preaching and teaching so that the word of God would increase and disciples would be

01:02:14.980 multiplied that's the prayer let's pray dear God we just pray that now we pray that if it be your

01:02:21.200 will, that these men would be ordained to the office of deacon, that they would serve this

01:02:25.660 church and congregation well, that we would honor them if they are appointed to that office, that we

01:02:31.200 would not see deacon as merely lead parking attendant, but we would see it as a legitimate,

01:02:35.760 valid, ecclesiastical office in the church, that we would honor them, and that they would be equipped

01:02:40.560 by your spirit, the spirit of wisdom, to serve well, and that the church would be blessed by

01:02:47.620 their ministry of mercy in all the varying capacities and that that would free up the

01:02:53.100 elders to preach and teach the word even more that the word would increase and the disciples

01:02:59.020 would be multiplied all for your glory and the good of your people we pray this in jesus name amen

The NXR Podcast - May 20, 2024

THE SERMON - Deacons： The Most Misunderstood Office In The Church

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