Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.
And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their
children and their own households well. For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
This section in I Timothy sets before us the requirements of deacons as the previous paragraph did for elders. I would encourage you to read Acts 6:1-7 as well as I will refer
to it over the next couple of mornings due to the fact that it gives us the life-lived introduction to the church’s first deacons.
A few years ago, Dana and I went to a concert…well actually it was a kind of rock concert. The band is one we have followed for many years due to a connection one of our sons
had with them and after all these years they have risen to be kind of in the middle, not a big-time band but much more popular than when we saw them in tiny venues some years back.
When I told my son Caleb that we were going to this particular rock concert, he simply said, “When are you guys going to grow up? You will be the oldest one there by 25 years!”
Well…he was right. I looked all night for someone who might be about my age…but no…all the kids, and that is what they were, singing along and I felt like the chaperone for all 6,000 of them. At one point Dana whispered to me…I feel kind of silly. And we
concluded, that would be our last concert, at least our last rock concert. There was a culture…and it wasn’t ours…we didn’t really fit in and we were fine not to fit in.
We have talked about this before, how culture is inevitable, we all participate in culture, our country has them, our homes have them, our schools and workplaces have them, we
cannot avoid culture because it is impossible. However, the question is which culture defines you? Which culture do you allow to mold your thinking, your feeling, your wants and desires, because that is what cultures do.
Cultures invite you to belong to something, something bigger than yourself and Holy Scripture sets for us that as the church, the people of God we have a culture that is very
distinct, or at least it is supposed to be very distinct from the cultures of this world and we are to be saturated in it. We must be careful that we do not allow competing cultures, sports teams, neighbor groups, and our work place to usurp the role the church
has as THE culture for the people of God.
One cannot read the book of Acts without seeing the seriousness with which these Christians took their calling to be devoted to the Lord and to one another. The church was growing,
as we see in the very first verse, but something was going wrong and murmuring broke out regarding how the money was being distributed to help the widows. There is no indication that anything malicious or purposed was happening, but there was a disparity between
these two groups of widows.
Both of these groups were Jews, the Hellenists were Greek-speakers who had perhaps in some cases come back to Jerusalem from being scattered in other places, but they were more
Greek than Hebrew in their personal and family culture. They would have attended synagogues in which Greek was spoken rather than Aramaic. The Hebrews or Hebraic Jews in most cases had been born and raised in the Holy Land and spoke Aramaic as their native
tongue, and were more Jewish in their culture, than they were Greek.
Something had happened that gave the Hebraic poor an advantage over the Hellenists’ poor. The church was incredibly generous in those days and was very careful to take care of
the poor, but now a problem has surfaced with respect to that very generosity. Some were receiving more than others however unintentional.
Acts 6, is the text that establishes the office of deacon in the early church. Interestingly the word “deacon” is not used in the text. In verse one the word translated distribution, “some
were getting neglected in the daily distribution”, is the word, diakonia, it ordinary means ministry, or service, or in its noun form, servant. This is the same word that is used in verse 4 in the phrase the ministry of the word, or the service of the
word. The apostles had their service to the people and these men would have their service to the people.
No one is looking out for themselves or thinking themselves better than anyone else…there is just servanthood according to one’s gifts and graces! And this is the principle of
the apostolic church; ministry, service is spread out over the church as a whole. The Holy Spirit gives gifts and those gifts are to be used to bless and serve others.
If I give you a gift for your birthday, that gift is for you, you get to use it for your own pleasure. But in God’s economy, gifts given are to be used not primarily for you,
but for your service to others. Your gifts are to be a blessing to the rest of us!
The apostles were very proactive when the problem presented itself as good leaders always are and addressed the issue quickly. The apostles could not attend to this need without
neglecting theircalling, they were servants of word, sacrament and the text says THE prayer, that is the public worship of God’s people.
These were the responsibilities historically of the priests, the apostles would take over those responsibilities as do ministers today: Word, sacrament and the administration
of worship, that is the calling of a Christian minister. So, the decision was reached that they would set apart 7 men who were committed and competent to serve wisely and well. This satisfied everyone and seven men were chosen and as a result of this ministry
of mercy, we read the church continued to grow. The exercising of gifts given…you using your giftedness, me using mine, are the means for the gospel to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
Prayer: Father, thank you for gifting the church that we might be used for Your Glory. I thank you for the righteousness of Christ without which I would have none
and I pray that I would live humbly and boldly out of the mercy I have been given, showing mercy to all who are lost, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
Hymn: There is a Fountain Filled with Blood
