Charge for Deacon Ordination

INTRODUCTION

Just a handful of years after the Lord had ascended to heaven and His Spirit had fallen at Pentecost, the church was under threat and on the verge of tearing apart at the seams.

And the issue was partiality.

There Hellenistic Jewish people of the church—Greek Jewish people— had a complaint against the Hebrew Jewish people, because they felt the Hellenistic widows were being neglected in the distribution of food.

This is a serious allegation.

The threat, however, is bigger than the mere division.

The threat is also regarding the distraction that this could become for the Apostles.

Are they going to step away from their focus upon teaching God’s Word and caring for souls through prayer, in order to settle this?

If they have to give up shepherding for serving tables, what will be the result for the church’s health?

Maybe they could stem the tide of division, but who will divide the Word?

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.

If we read this text and understand that the men chosen from among the congregation represent a prototype for the office of deacon that would be explicitly established by Paul’s letters, then we get a really good idea tonight of the crucial role that deacons play in the church and how that role meshes with the role of a pastor.

THE TWO OFFICES OF THE CHURCH

We only see two offices for the local church in the New Testament.

Pastor and Deacon.

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:

Overseer or elder, shepherd and pastor would all be interchangeable terms in the New Testament.

And here they are greeted by Paul, right alongside deacons.

In 1 Timothy 3, Paul writes to Timothy and lays out the qualifications for pastors and deacons.

The qualifications have to do with character more than skill or ability.

And if you read those passages, the descriptions of these men are remarkably similar, save for one big difference.

When it comes to the office of overseer, Paul says this:

1 Timothy 3:2 ESV

Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

The overseer must be able to teach, a qualification that is absent from the description of deacons.

This shows us how pastors have a responsibility to lead the church through the ministry of the Word of God.

But the deacon plays a large role in the teaching of God’s church in the sense that the deacon facilitates an environment where a pastor can focus on fulfilling this high-calling of governing the church with the Word.

And we see this in Acts 6.

The deacon-prototypes are there to take care of needs and ministry situations that, if neglected, would hinder the ministry of God’s Word.

And the deacon-prototypes are there to help support the overseers as the overseers govern according to God’s Word.

In each case, church leadership is being exercised.

The apostles, whom we could call pastoral prototypes in this situation, serve by leading.

The seven men, the deacon prototypes, are leading by serving.

Hand in hand, the two roles are seeing to the Word remaining in its primary place and the unity of the people of God being maintained.

They are working together for the health of the body of Christ.

A SETTING APART FOR THE SAKE OF THE WORD

So tonight, as we set Chuck Hedden aside and lay hands on him, because we believe that through this congregation’s nomination and affirmation, God is calling Chuck to deacon work, understand that this is a setting apart for the sake of the ministry of the Word.

GAP-FILLING

Let’s think about the gaps that our deacons fill.

Preparing and helping to serve the Lord’s Supper

Overseeing the church’s benevolence fund

Ministering to our widows

Helping with Children’s Ministry on Sunday morning

Helping to facilitate funerals

Helping to look after homebound members

On top of all the ways they serve the church as individuals.

We have deacons that teach Sunday School

We have a deacon who leads our kitchen

We have deacons who serve on different committees

We have deacons in the sound booth

We have deacons cutting the grass

Imagine if these men were not here to do these things. Imagine if the church looked to Pastor Ben and I to do all of these things.

I can tell you this—the sermons wouldn’t be very good!

And when you call for counseling, we would often have to say no

When you ask if you could come in for a word of prayer, we would have to schedule you three weeks out

But preaching and counseling and praying together—these are the very sorts of ministries described by Peter, when he says, “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.”

It is not that taking care of widows’ food is not important.

It was vitally important for practical and spiritual reasons.

They needed to eat and the church needs to not divide over an allegation of partiality.

It is simply that the apostles could not do all of it, nor were they called to do all of it.

Without the help of our deacons, filling these ministry gaps, the preaching of the Word and the labor of prayer would suffer in the office of pastor.

We simply could not do it all and it would be to the detriment of our church.

So tonight, we set Chuck aside, to fill gaps.

SHOCK-ABSORBING

Furthermore, as I mentioned, this situation in Acts 6 has the potential to be volatile.

It is essentially a charge of racism in the church.

If churches have split over carpets, they will certainly split over race relations.

So as these seven men were filling the gap of waiting the tables, they were also there to help absorb the shock of the difficult situation for the church.

They were there to help maintain unity and stem the tide of controversy.

Imagine if we had no deacons and instead we had a little complaint box outside of the church office and the pastors would start each week by fielding complaints and trying to smooth over every speck of consternation and frustration.

That is probably all we would do.

But thankfully, instead of that, church members will sometimes ask a question to a deacon about why we started doing one thing or we stopped doing another.

Often, that deacon, who has been informed by our pastors, is able to field the conversation and lay the concern to rest before it ever lands at the pastor’s door.

In helping absorb any shocks that are reverberating through the congregation, the deacon is once again protecting the ministry of the Word by keeping the pastors in a position to focus on governing according to the Word.

The pastor is able to be there for the struggling marriage, as opposed to always attending to the ministry question.

THE MINISTRY OF CONCRETE

When you combine these two roles—gap-filling and shock-absorbing, Phil Newton says you get a ministry of concrete work.

I’ve learned a little about concrete work in the last month, as we have had work happening around the church grounds.

When concrete is poured on a foundation, the work is not over.

It looks pretty, but in order for it to keep fulfilling its purpose, there must be maintenance.

Cracks may form. And if the cracks are not filled, grass and weeds start to grow through.

The concrete starts to shift and fracture even worse.

This is why people will often seal concrete, in order to prevent moisture from seeping in or weeds from growing.

This is a picture of deacon work.

Deacons spot the cracks and they go and fill them.

They sense where extra work is needed to keep fractures from taking place.

They maintain the unity of the concrete by helping to repair damage before it gets too bad.

And so tonight, I charge Chuck and all of our deacons, with this concrete ministry.

Fill the gaps.

Repair the damage.

Keep the weeds from growing.

And in doing this, the pastors are able to keep trekking along in the ministry of the Word.