Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Servant leadership in Christ’s Church demands submission.

Last week began looking at 1 of 2 Biblical offices within the Church that still exist today.

The office of Elders/Overseers.

We looked at the Biblical significance of the office of Elder(s), which is plural mind you, and we discussed how in our denomintion we had slipped away from this Biblical office and instead we drifted into an unBiblical emeshing of Deacons acting as Elders.

The language we use is important and the intent of this series is to inform the church of what the Bible says that the Church body is to consist of.

We have also said that the goal of our pursuit of Biblical truth is to be a Church that is not built on man-made traditions (because men are flawed and make errors), but instead we want to be a Church that is built on the Authority of Scripture alone.

So within the first few weeks of our exploration in this quest we talked about the role of the body, our Covenant Membership.

Last week we began to look at the leadership structure starting with the 1st office of Elder, Overseer, Pastor, Shepherd, Bishop and the qualifications of what it means to be an Elder of the Church.

If we were to be analytical about how Concord is set up, it does not use the language of the Bible, nor does it recognize the plurality of Elders as the overseers of the church.

Technically, the church in its current leadership structure would only recognize me as an Elder, however, as many Baptist churches who have re-fashioned this leadership structure, I as the lone-elder or pastor, would be subject to the Deacons (an office we thankfully do have), yet this would be unbiblical.

In our quest to become a Biblical church, last week I informed you that I have asked men who I believe are qualified to serve as lay-elders/overseers and men who are already serving in a shepherding role here within our body to join in prayer and much study of what it means to be a Biblical church with a plurality of Elders.

In which we have begun just that.

I also asked you the covenant members of Concord to join us in that prayer and (soon a study) of the Biblical role of Elders and what this type of leadership structure would look like within the context of our body.

Thought the language is off, in some offices, Concord has already some to the role of elder by the Biblical standards.

Before I was called as the primary teaching elder of the church, the church called Lee Hyde, to the office of “Sunday School Director” which is language I personally can’t stand.

But in all actuality what the church called Lee too was the office of Shepherding and pastoring the education arm of the church.

Biblically, Lee Hyde is an elder, though his title is director.

But he shepherds those who serve through teaching our “Groups.”

Technically, Lee is Pastor of Groups.

Greg Neil is also an elder, as the church has called him to be Pastor of Growth and Connection.

Though he and Lee are serving this office in a voluntary capacity, they are overseeing and shepherding in there respective ministry positions.

Today, we are going to look at the 2nd office mentioned in the Scriptures.

The office of Deacon.

Now we are very blessed to have great men serving in this office.

And for each of you who are, this is not to diminish your role as deacons, if anything is to bring understanding to Christian leaders you are to submit yourselves to serving this body.

With that said let’s look at what the Bible says about deacons and start to connect the dots of how the Biblical leadership structure works.

Understand, the word deacon actually means “servant.”

And we are blessed to have such great servant leaders.

Servant leadership in Christ’s Church demands submission.

Exposition

The Servant Leaders Qualifications

v. 8. “Deacons likewise...” the word likewise instructs us that there is more to this that what is found in this verse.

Proper bible study should make us ask questions of the text in order to understand what the Biblical author is meaning for the intended audience (of the past) and the Supernatural Author’s dually intended audience (us, in the modern context of the local church).

God in His sovereignty used men to speak to the 1st century church, yet also allows the same truth for the first church of over 2000 years ago, to apply to the church today.

So Deacons “likewise...” means we need to investigate the text prior to see what deacons are being compared too.

And what we find is the text written by the Apostle Paul instructing the young pastor Timothy on his selection process of Elders first then Deacons...

As author Alexander Strauch states in his book Paul’s Vision for the Deacons: Assisting the Elders with the Care of God’s Church:

The key to understanding the deacons of is to accurately understand the officials with whom they are associated: that is, the overseer, superintendent, supervisor, or guardian.

1 Timothy

Because of their prominent position and critical role in the church, Paul delineates a list of qualifications for overseers, that is more comprehensive than those of the deacons.

Strauch goes on to say,

“According to the information we have from the New Testament, overseers/elders were appointed first before deacons.

Churches must have qualified overseers/elders, but they do not require deacons (as in ).

Titus 5:

Let’s be clear…this in no way says the office of Deacon is not needed.

What Scripture teaches is that Overseers and Elders carry a burden that is extremely heavy.

That burden is exactly why deacons are needed.

Church life is a life of burden.

Servant leadership in Christ’s Church demands submission.

2. The Servant Leader’s Call

2.

Acts

This is a great window into church life.

As John McArthur has stated before, “The church is an organism not an organization.”

However, humans have trouble discerning between the two and pride easily gets in the way, as well as agendas, and sometimes even neglect.

The church is always going to have problems…what makes us different is how we handle our problems.

Why does a growing church have problems?

Because a growing church means more people.

More people mean the opportunity for more ministry.

Yet more ministry to more people also means the obstacle of failing to serve and minister to those people.

is an example of one issue.

It was the catalyst issue that had the Apostles (acting Elders) to call for the church to appoint 7 men (a plurality), men of “good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, who we [the Apostles/Elders] will appoint to this duty.”

Notice the congregation (the full number of disciples v.2) selected...

Acts 6:

But the Apostles (the church elders) did the appointed.

Again, how do we know the office of Apostle (even though that office no longer exists) was also the current office of Elder?

Peter tells us,

The Elders of the church needed help in meeting the needs of the growing church.

So the congregation selected qualified men (the qualification were given by the Apostles) and the Apostles/elders appointed those men.

Now how did those men become to be known as deacons?

Again language is important, especially the original language in which the Bible was written.

In the NT [especially in we see the word] διακονία (de-ak-o-nee-ah) means 1. “waiting at table,” or in a rather wider sense “provision for bodily sustenance.”

The supervision of the common meals in the early church is called διακονία καθημερινή in Ac. 6:1

As the Apostle writes...

The supervision of the common meals in the early church is called διακονία καθημερινή in

It is also used 2. for any “discharge of service” in genuine love.

Thus the house of Stephanas gave itself to the service of the saints (1 C. 16:15)

This word διακονια (de-ak-o-nee-ah) [or a form of it] appears 3 different times in .

v1. the english word distribution is διακονια —which means “waiting tables”

v2. the english word serve is διακονειν (de-ak-o-nee-in) διακονέω has the special quality of indicating very personally the service rendered to another.

It is thus closest to ὑπηρετέω, but in διακονέω there is a stronger approximation to the concept of a service of love.

v4. the english word ministry is διακονια which denotes the act of διακονειν (diakoneō), serve; minister to

διακονέω has the special quality of indicating very personally the service rendered to another.

It is thus closest to ὑπηρετέω, but in διακονέω there is a stronger approximation to the concept of a service of love.v4. the english word ministry is διακονια which denotes the act of διακονειν (diakoneō), serve; minister to

v4. the english word ministry is διακονια which denotes the act of διακονειν (diakoneō), serve; minister to

(diakoneō), serve; minister to

(diakoneō), serve; minister to

Alexandar Strauch, deals with these various meanings and speaks to how scholars would even transliterate the Greek διακον (diakon) the root word for where we get our english word “deacon” to encompass each of the meanings we’ve talked about but to also carry the meaning of “assistant” or “agency.”

Strauch says because of this we must:

“interpret diakonos and it’s corresponding terms diakoneo and diakonia within the specific contexts in which they are used…

Strauch uses one scholars study of the word in which he breaks down 770 uses of the word from secular, Jewish and Christian sources dating from 6th century BC. to the early 3rd century AD.

This scholar’s study is the most comprehensive study to date...

So the the typical terms of “waiting tables,” servant, minister/ministry, is also interpreted by this Greek scholar as an “Agency.”

“…one who carries out the will of another, or a task on behalf of another.

In many contexts, the idea is that of a subordinate carrying out an assignment on a superior’s behalf and having full authority to execute the the superior’s delegate task.”

An an example would be , were Paul himself needed assistants to help him in his gospel mission.

Luke records that Timothy and Erastus served Paul as “helpers” or “assistants.”

Acts

Rom 13:

2 Cor