Untitled Sermon (39)

One of my favorite movies is Patch Adams. It’s based on a true story. Robin Williams plays Hunter Adams…he’s a doctor but he’s also a guy who is horribly depressed and finds himself in a mental institute.

In one particular scene he talks with this older patient who seems wise. Asks him to hold up his hand up in front of his face. And then asks how many fingers are you holding up.

You can do that right now even…put four fingers up. Now count them…how many fingers are there? Well, duh.

He says four. And the guy is like “no, no, no, no!!!” Okay. Found out why this guy is here.

But as the movie progresses…some things start to click for Patch he goes back and visits this guy again. And he asks him the same question…four.... no, no, no, look through your fingers…how many do you see.

Try it. Don’t look at your fingers look through them…for me it’s not really clear…they get all fuzzy and it looks like I don’t know 6 or 8 maybe.

Light bulb. When we look through our problems we see thing differently. Now I’m sharing that illustration to say that one of the things that we humans like to do is make people to either be monsters or heroes. We don’t do so well with grey.

How many fingers? Four. We like to pigeonhole people. We don’t tend to look through things…we don’t feel their weight, we don’t think through their story, for good or for ill. And so we see them and say “four…four fingers.”

There is something like this that is happening in the first century. The early church was growing. People are coming to Jesus from all walks of life…but you know change isn’t instantaneous…it’s not like the second they come to know Jesus every thing is just wonderful and they view the world and other people and everything exactly right.

Well in that culture widows were particularly disadvantaged. And you know how when you have things just stacked against you and it feels like things just never go your way…and you kinda start to get jaded…you get a little stabby....

It seems like that was happening here, and happening particularly among this group of widows who were Hellenists. You’ve got Greek speaking widows and Aramaic/Hebrew speaking widows. The pastors…they spoke Hebrews.

So lets be a little jaded here. Things are happening and it really appears to the Hellenists widows that things just aren’t fair. “Well of course they are favoring the Hebrew women!” That’s what they do...

It goes back to a long-standing rivalry. It was there before they came to Christ. That means they were probably primed to take offense here. Yes, Jesus is healing this…but their going to be bent towards this.

And we know this right, that when you pigeonhole someone like that it’s almost impossible for them to get out from under that. Because everything they do is seen through that lens.

Misery loves company. So does complaining and rehearsing our offenses. This issue, which is a real issue by the way…you’ll see in a moment that the text says “were being neglected in the daily distribution.” They aren’t exactly making things up…but this thing is getting out of control.

We feel 100% of our own burdens. And we have a tendency to make any thing a full-scale fire. This HAS to be dealt with…this HAS to be handled…to these Hellenist widows the whole integrity of the gospel, of these apostles, is being called into question.

What do they do? It’s a legitimate issue…should they pivot from their ministry of the word?

Listen to what happens.

Acts 6:1–7 ESV

Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Sermon Introduction:

How’d they solve the problem? Many believe that these seven are the first deacons. And that’s what we’re going to talk about this morning—the difference between deacons and elders.

But let me pause for a moment and say that this is more than just about some abstract theological concept. This has real bearing on hurting people.

If you’re one of those Hellenists widows…look at the care of God here. He hears your cry. There is a legitimate injustice happening…probably not intentional. And they might have been jaded and viewing things through a wrong lens a little…they might have taken things personal that weren’t meant to be personal.

But the Lord is providing for them here. But he’s not only providing for them…He is also providing for others and not halting the ministry of the Word and prayer. It’s a beautiful thing really.

This is why I would argue that a church is going to be functioning the best, loving the community, loving and caring for the flock, the absolute best when there is a plurality of pastors/elders and of deacons. That’s what I want to show you today.

First, we need to answer…why two offices. Or to say that different…what is the difference between elders/pastors and deacons?

I. Why Two Offices?

We see in Philippians 1:1 that both are mentioned. Philippians 1:1

Philippians 1:1 ESV

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:

Overseers are synonymous with elders. By the time there is a church at Philippi we see both.

Secondly, in Acts 20:17-38…I’m not going to read the whole thing but in verse 17 you see elders (plural) and church (singular). And verse 28 refers to the same people as overseers..who give careful attention to the flock and who care for the church of God.

Then we see what we do in Acts 6:1-4 where there is a clear delineation of tasks or callings. Some are given to the ministry of the Word and prayer and some are given to serving tables.

That’s not to say that those who are given to the ministry of the Word don’t serve…or that those who serve tables don’t have any kind of ministry of the Word. But we’re talking here about emphasis.

It can be simplified this way…the ministry of the Word and the ministry of tables.

One more piece of evidence we see in 1 Timothy 3:1-13. There we see both groups…and we see the qualifications are very similar. Same type of character in each. But there is one big difference...”ability to teach”. That only appears in the qualifications for elders/pastors/overseers. Why? Because that is the ministry of the Word.

Both require character…and really these are all things that ought to be present in every believer. But as we see in Acts 6 there is something exemplary about them…full of the Spirit…they are just oozing with this character.

We see in the NT two offices (or positions of service) within the church—that of the ministry of the Word and the ministry of tables.

Let’s look at little closer at each of these roles. First, the ministry of tables. Or what we might call deacons. And let me say before we begin here…we have an amazing group of deacons.

I’m not just saying that. They have a heart for serving others. Every one of these men have the heart of servants. When we talk about these things here..I want you to know that our guys are doing this.

But let me say here how I think making this change of elders/deacons might help us a little. Don’t hear me wrong in what I’m about to say…Acts 6 made it VERY important that those who are given to this task need to be full of the Spirit.

But I also think that what has happened historically is that in many Baptist churches (and again Calvary it seems has been really good about NOT doing this)…but in many Baptist churches the deacons kind of function as elders.

And sometimes the congregation has this expectation of them to do those things. They expect deacons to be calling shots…overseeing things in a way that ought to really be what elders/pastors are doing.

Now what happens from this is that we get this view of a deacon that is really elevated…again, don’t hear me wrong…we honor these who serve in our church…and they need to be those who are full of the Spirit…they need to have exemplary character, who have wisdom, but I think what happens is that we put this elevated status and that means there are several who probably ARE doing the stuff of deacons, serving as deacons, but they’d say…oh man, I could never be a deacon.

So, our guys go to them and say, “hey, we think you’d make a great deacon…and what we have pictured in our mind is something entirely different than what we see in the New Testament. So, it’s like…oh, man, no way...”

From Acts 6 we see three big things.

1. Care.

They care for and equip others to care for, the physical needs of those within the church. This is the waiting on of tables.

Deacons are set apart to provide benevolence and to meet the needs of the people. Once needs arise the deacons are called to react and meet those needs.

What does this look like practically?

Okay, let me give you a couple of things here. To kind of envision how something like this would work similar to Acts 6.

One of the needs we have here at Calvary is a really good system for welcoming, greeting, getting folks acclimated into the life of our church, showing guests around—how to navigate, things like that.

Now this is a huge ministry. There are so many ins and outs to this. And it needs to be done well. Calvary is a very friendly and loving church. Almost every person who has visited that I’ve talked to will say that. Y’all do a great job of that.

But we struggle sometimes at really acclimating people in. I think it’s why we’ll have visitors…they’ll enjoy the service, we’ll be friendly, but they will just kind of drift off. We need something to acclimate.

What happens if I (or other elders) take this on? It’s a big project. That means that my own ministry of the Word will take a back seat to this administrative challenge. Time in prayer. Time in counseling others. All of those things we’ll see in a moment for an elder…they will diminish.

OR and let me tell you this is what usually happens. I don’t neglect those things because I know that’s my calling and I know that is what I will give an account to God for…BUT this ministry gets neglected. Just like those Hellenistic widows.

And some people who are really passionate about this are disappointed. They are disappointed that the pastor isn’t better at administration…isn’t better at leading in this…doesn’t give this the focus its needed…big huge gaping hole in our church pastor. Why aren’t you focusing on this?

But what would happen if we had someone…let’s say a deacon like in Acts 6…or even a group of people…to really focus on this issue. To make it their area of focus?

They can recruit other people into this. But it becomes their baby. The thing they are focusing on. They fill in that gaping hole.

But do you know why that sometimes doesn’t happen? Because we’ve got our roles all crossed. Deacons are often spending their time doing elder things…and then you’ve got this void.

You could plug many other issues into this. Visiting the sick. Putting together a ministry plan for those who used to come but aren’t anymore and really aren’t going anywhere. What to do with some of the cosmetic or structural needs within the church. What to do when people in the community call and need help with electricity. What to do about our website and social media. How to focus on what is now the “front door” of our church.

That’s care. Meeting these kind of practical needs within the body.

Secondly we see that they cultivate unity within the body. The church in Acts was experiencing disunity because of administrative neglect.

So these people are put in position to cultivate unity. That doesn’t mean that they are playing defense necessarily…gathering up all the gossip…swallowing it…then saying, “pastor, people are talking...”

That’s now what that means. It means that they see the issues…they listen, they care, they try to meet those needs.

Now sometimes what happens here…and you could have seen this in the first century. Let’s say that Peter is one of the apostles. And this Hellenistic widow says, “I’m not getting the food distribution I need Pete. Why did you come by her house and not mine?”

Pete realizes this oversight and says, Oh, man. We’re so sorry. We don’t want you to be neglected. I’ll tell you what I’ve got Stephen on hand here…he’s going to be the one delivering your food now.

I don’t want STEPHEN. I want YOU Pete…I want YOU to fix the problem. The church doesn’t care until YOU fix it.

You see that’s not going to work. And we get the idea from the beautiful results here that they didn’t response here. The issue was the neglect. The neglect was fixed they were happy.

That’s what deacons do. They see those places of disunity, those sticky points, those places where there might be some grumbling, some discontent. And it’s not, “Hey elders…y’all better fix this.” They certainly don’t join in the grumbling…but they see it as a call to action.

They cultivate unity. And then we also see that they champion the work of the ministry of the Word.

When we first came one of our deacons asked me a question. He said, “how much time will you be in your office with your door shut.”

I was like…oh man, uhmmm....how do I answer this…what’s this guy wanting here…but I just decided to be honest. I said, “Well, I’ll have an open door many times, I want to be available, but I’ll be honest, there will be quite a few times when my door is shut because I’m praying or I’m doing sermon prep or focusing upon my ministry of the Word.”

“That’s good,” he said. That’s where we want your focus to be. That is what God has called you to. We’ll try to help with all those other burdens…you focus on the Word.

Friends, that is the third thing here…to champion the work of the ministry of the Word. To know the importance of not only a Sunday morning sermon but also, a Wednesday morning Bible study, counseling others, writing, shepherding, just all of those things.

These three things I’ve mentioned here are really saying only one simple thing:

A deacon is a shock-absorbing servant.

They see needs, they plug in those holes. It doesn’t mean that THEY have to be the one who does it…but they make sure it gets done.

If it isn’t overseeing, ministry of the Word, or prayer, they do everything they can to take it off the plate of the elders…so they can focus on their job.

What is their job? We’ll do this quickly because I’ll spend some more time here next week.

Four things elders are called to do:

Doctrine---establish the doctrine of the church, guard it, etc. Responsible for the teaching of the church. Whether teaching themselves or overseeing certain aspects of the discipleship ministries of the church.

Discipline—Not just discipline in the way that we think about it…like that final stage of correcting…removing members, that stuff…but also to shepherd. To disciple. To help others grab hold of Jesus. To make sure your relationship with Christ is growing.

Direction—To provide vision and direction and oversight for the church. To say this is who we are, this is where we’re going, this is how we need to get there.

Display—To model what it means to be a follower of Jesus. To be an example for the church.

Again, we’re going to circle back to each of these next week…but what I want you to see this week is that we aren’t diminishing the role of deacons here. We are actually hoping to expand it. We are hoping to focus it, to target it…and then to have more to focus upon this ministry of the Word.

I’ll try to put it simply…this will be overly simplistic here…but it will help.

This may not be the most helpful way of saying it because it has certain pitfalls but the elder ministry is primarily progressive in that it builds, establishes, creates, directs, teaches, etc. Whereas the deacon ministry is primarily reactionary in that it sees a need and attempts to meet it. Whether that need be the physical need of a member, reacting to a disunity issue, reacting to the direction set by the elders (needing to champion a cause).

A healthy church will have both, elders and deacons. And they’ll be staying in their lane but also co-existing and serving one another…a symbiotic relationship.

Now as we close this up…why does it matter?

Because Jesus love you. He loves His bride. He loves those he has called to be elders/pastors. He loves those he has called to be deacons. He loves those he has called to be saints ministering within the church.

His ministry is not meant to be a burden. It’s meant to be a joy. But we overload it with all sorts of things. As we labor together as the hands and feet of Jesus it ought to be a beautiful thing....working together. Meeting needs.

Christ calls us to this because He cares about people. He doesn’t want to see widows neglected. He doesn’t want to see ministry not happen. He doesn’t want to see the community not engaged with the gospel.

And He doesn’t want to see people burned out. That’s why we see what we do in Acts 6. Jesus wants His Word…sometimes spoken in the way that elders do it…and sometimes lived out through the ministry of tables…He wants to see His word go forth.

Look what happens when it does. Acts 6:7

Acts 6:7 ESV

And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

The word of God is what makes things happen. And the early church worked together to unleash it. How can we free up our ministry of the Word? How can we maximize this?

If you’re one of those Hellenistic widows....truly and honestly harmed by the church. I’m sorry. Sometimes it’s an oversight. Sometimes it’s our system is messed up and makes it almost impossible. It’s not at all meant to be intentional. Sometimes we don’t even know. Sometimes it’s our own personal sin and rebellion…our own selfishness which causes harm.

But you need to know that Jesus cares. He cares so much that He sets aside people to focus upon these things. To unleash the Word and to care for tangible needs. Oh what a beautiful thing Jesus is doing here.

Let’s follow him in this.