1 Timothy 3:8-13 Who is a deacon?
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 10 viewsNotes
Transcript
Open your bibles back to 1 Timothy 3 this morning… And lets stand for the leading of God’s word.
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.
Last week we looked at what a Deacon. Meaning, the nature of the office. Right, there is a difference between what and who. We saw that a deacon is a servant. And we worked that out and saw that a deacon is a servant that takes their task seriously because they are not just a good helper, but they are a servant devoted to Christ and His body. And there is a difference between being a good servant and being a servant devoted to Christ right? Many people can serve well… If you recall the story of Mary and Martha. Martha welcomes Jesus to her home and began to be distracted by much serving… While mary sat at Jesus’ feet while he taught. Martha got mad, Jesus, tell my sister to get up and help me, there is a lot of work to be done! And Jesus said, oh Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but Mary has chosen the good portion. Martha was found a great servant, devoted to her work, and by our cultures standards a regular Rachel Ray hero…. And Mary was found a good servant, devoted to Jesus.
Which one did Christ say had chosen well?
So that what is important… But the “who” as we will see, is just as important.
Pauls first word to outline the character qualities of a deacon is in the positive, Dignified… a deacon is a man who is dignified.. the word is one of gravity. He carries a gravitas about him. There is substance. He is a respectable person, who is taken seriously. Not one who blemishes their reputation with immature tendencies. Being a word that is heavy this also carries with it a sense of maturity. You will see this throughout the qualifications of deacons and elders, but those who are holding offices in the church must not be flighty of mind… we will come back to this shortly.
But he moves on from the positive to a prohibition..
Not double tongued… not someone who speaks out of both sides of their mouth. Who says one thing to one person and another thing to someone else. Like a politician who wants to keep the peace and make everyone happy. Or like a slanderer who wants to save face by declaring their loyalty but then turns around and runs their mouth in a derogatory manner. No, these first two qualifications shine a light on this fact. That a deacon must be trusted. Deacons we to go to peoples houses and serve the weak and sick and vulnerable. They were to handle church resources. So, they must be dependable… and not dependent. That is the next phrase
Not addicted to much wine… addicted is not the best phrase here. Addict gives the implication in our modern words of two things 1) that there is a disease involved. Literaly addiction is classified as a neuropsycological disorder…. A disease is implied. Alcohol addiction is not a disease. It is a habitual choice. And that is where my second issue with this word comes in, it is often implied that 2) that is who you are. Often people will say “I am an addict”… no you are not. You are choosing and worshipping a thing, but it’s not who you are. One definiton in our modern dictionary says, “someone who cannot help but choose a thing”… We can help it. The choice of alcohol is not who you are, it it what you love. And this is especially true if Christ is in you. Don’t let someone cal you an addict if you are struggling with a sin like drunkenness, or glutony, or sexual immorality. You are in a battle for your soul. It is not who you are. You are choosing a worse portion! and your flesh loves it! but we can crucify the flesh. We can kill the habit.
So, a better phrase is given in the King James Version. It says not given over to… there is the issue. Given over. You have chosen to give yourself to, in this case, wine. A deacon must not be given over to drunkenness, or his dependence on alcohol as an ok thing.
There is not a prohibition of alcohol, but a strong warning towards it. So, when considering a Deacon, has alcohol become their answer to their pain? Is it the ward of their anxiety? Is it what keeps them in a happy state? Is it the place they run for pleasure? Anything that becomes our refuge, steals Glory from our God who is himself described as our refuge, our salvation, our strength and our joy.
Next he says,
Not greedy for dishonest gain… which is what the false teachers were practicing. Their entire ministry was built on the premise that they needed to say what the hearers wanted them to say so that they would give them their money. This would be equivalent to church leaders today saying, “well we don’t want to upset so and so because they are a good giver and we don’t want to lose their support…” ..I have heard this more times than I care to admit and every time it makes me upset. Why? Don’t you want to protect the offering? Listen, life is more than money. And salvation doesn’t cost money… you can’t buy it. The mindset of, “protecting our good tithers”, is not pure… it is prostituting Jesus out. It Uses him to get what you want. No and again no… what we want as Christians is Jesus!! If he blesses us with funds outside our needs along the way, cool. We will steward them well. If he doesn’t, praise the father, we have the Lord of Heaven as our guide, what more could we need? So, is a deacon motivated by money, or Christ?
Holding the mystery of faith with a clean conscience…. This is, in my interpretation, thee key character quality of a deacon. If you look back to 1 Timothy 1:18-20 Paul tells Timothy to wage warfare on the spiritual realm with a good conscience FOR(because) those who have made shipwreck of their faith have rejected their good conscience…Meaning, they do not have a good conscience.
Holding the mystery of faith is a common expression of Paul’s. By it he does not mean mystery as in something that can’t be known. He means that through spiritual maturity, through spiritual discernment one has been given eyes and ears to understand the truth that the immature and the unbelievers don’t understand. He says in Colossians,
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
The mystery is Christ in you. The mystery of our faith is how can God love a sinner like me? How can I know God? How can I be transformed? The answer is found in Christ. And those who know the mystery understand what I am saying and their hearts are pierced with refreshment when they consider it, and those prideful think ah yeah i know what he means….who are immature are left wondering, what are you talking about…My friends, God loved you first before you loved him, but he didn’t actually love you first, he loved his son first… He wasn’t committed to your glory, but His. His passion is set on Christ. His son. His glory. His praise. And So are we… we are not Christian’s who are concerned about our own glory. Who cares what people think about us.
I have heard it before… My dad was a deacon in the church… said as if that should mean something to me in terms of importance of title… Title doesn't matter.
What really matters and what we should really care about is what people say about our concern for Christ.
This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
One should regard us… Not as proped up worthy ministers in the church… But A Christian servant leader, a deacon, is faithful when they are found as a servant of Christ holding the mystery of faith with a clear conscience.
Now, he says clear or pure here in verse 9 and not good as he has before in chapter 1.
The conscience is more than the place that you think. The conscience is a God given part of your soul where you judge right and wrong. It is deep within you. Yet it is involved in making your everyday decisions. Romans 2:14-16 tells us that the conscience bears witness that we are created with a residue of the law in us. It’s that look that children give. When they know they aren’t supposed to be doing something and yet they are doing it anyway. They are going against their conscience. Their conscience condemns them, they know they should not have done it.
So a clear conscience is that which is obedient to God. There is no outstanding disobedience. You can say with a whole heart that you have been done ll that God has asked you to do and withheld from all he has asked you to refrain to the best of your knowledge. Let a person be a deacon who can say this. I know the mystery of the faith, I know I have been saved, and transformed, I dare not tell you why, but I know how, my Lord, by his grace, has saved me and is changing me… and I hold it with a clear conscience.
Now, verse 10 says let them be tested… we discussed this a bit last week but I want to make clear that this testing is not one to see if they are good people… I have heard of churches before saying, well so and so hasn't been here in a while and if we make him a deacon maybe he will come more regularly… Yeah, that is a sure testament to the health of a church. This is immaturity. Not just anyone should fill this office. What should drive the church to select a deacon to stand out front and serve our body is a test of faith. What does their sincere love of faith look like? And this is where we come back to the immature v.s. mature.
The goal of ministry, Paul says in Ephesians 4:14 is for the church, that is you and me, to be built up into maturity. He says, No longer tossed to and from by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine. Meaning, and this is the testing, that a deacon should prove himself steadfast in the midst of the trials of life. Meaning, will they fight the good fight of faith… Typically when pressed we will fight, flight(just run away), or freeze and do nothing… the fighters are who we want serving out front. Not the runners.
And likewise, when false teaching comes blowing around, who you want out front leading the way are people who will come back to the word and says “chapter and verse please” and will take time, time, to interpret, and pray, and seek the spirit together… rather than someone who says, “well I see it this way”… So this is the way it has to be.
Let me finish this way…
11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Let it be with the office of deacon, and the desire of our hearts, to not be Children in our faith living on milk, but childlike. Willing to lean on our father, yet found good stewards of the mystery of faith that we have been shown which is Christ in us.
