The NXR Podcast - May 20, 2024


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


Episode Stats


Length

1 hour and 3 minutes

Words per minute

176.34938

Word count

11,126

Sentence count

496

Harmful content

Misogyny

35

sentences flagged

Toxicity

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

38

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, we talk about the church growth strategy and what it means to be an "undercover" FBI agent. We also discuss the upcoming members meeting and what we plan to do with the position of Deacons.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
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