The Passionate Deacon

Opening

Welcome to this special evening service, where we will be ordaining Tony Torres to the deaconate.

Tony has been a blessing to this church in many ways, not the least of which is his drumming. Tony loves playing the drums, and he’s SO skilled at it. And when Tony plays, there’s a passion for the drums and for the Lord that come together in that moment. The passion for the drums gives expression to His passion for Jesus.

As I was praying about the blessing of being asked to preach for Tony’s ordination, I reflected on this fact that Tony’s drumming shows this double-sided passion, and I realized that this is a topic that maybe we haven’t discussed regarding the deacon body—passion. A “passion” could be defined as a devotion to an activity, object, or concept. The deacon is to be a man with a passion.

The deacon is to be a man of passion.

I believe that Scripture has given us a couple of deacons to look at in this regard. Tonight, however, we will look at only one of them: Philip.

We’re going to have three focal passages tonight, but each one focuses at least in part on one particular deacon in Scripture.

1) Passion for the Lord

First of all, the deacon is to have a passion for the Lord. If he doesn’t have this, then why would he want to be a deacon? When the first church needed to appoint the first deacons, this idea of devotion was critical to the decision:

Acts 6:3 CSB

3 Brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty.

acts 6:3

Men of “good reputation” amongst the believers and unbelievers alike, full of the Spirit, full of wisdom. These men had to be devoted to Jesus to fit this bill. And then in 1 Timothy, Paul says this about candidates for deacon:

1 Timothy 3:9 CSB

9 holding the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.

1 tim 3:

They are devoted to the faith. They have a passion for Jesus. This should be a hallmark of every deacon in our church. Do they show that they are passionate—that they are devoted to—our Lord Jesus Christ?

Tony, as I’ve already said, I believe that you have great passion for Jesus. You are devoted to Him in your life, in how to approach both success and adversity, and in how you seek to give Him the praise and honor that He’s due both while you’re drumming and afterwards. Make sure you keep your focus where it needs to be—on Jesus.

Now of course, in the life of the deacon, there is a connection between the passion that we have for Jesus and our second point:

2) Passion for service

2) Passion for service

Paul even connects these two things when he writes to the church at Rome:

Romans 12:11 CSB

11 Do not lack diligence in zeal; be fervent in the Spirit; serve the Lord.

romans 12:11

This this is not exactly about deacons, I believe that the connection holds true. When we are passionate about Jesus, we will have a passion for serving as well. This is why Jesus connected the two in Matthew 22:

Mark 12:29–31 CSB

29 Jesus answered, “The most important is Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. 31 The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”

Matthew 22:37–40 CSB

37 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

So when the church called the first deacons, Philip was chosen to be one of them. This Philip is different than the apostle Philip. Remember that the point in calling to deacons was so that the apostles could focus well on the things that they had been called to do, namely, the preaching of the Word. So the deacons were called to do some more of the hands-on ministry. But I want us to notice the result:

Acts 6:5–7 CSB

5 This proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a convert from Antioch. 6 They had them stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. 7 So the word of God spread, the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.

acts

Following the appointment of these first deacons, what happened? The word of God spread, the disciples in Jerusalem greatly increased, and many priests came to faith in Jesus. In short, the passion of the deacons in serving was a part of the growth of the church as a whole, and of the success in fulfilling their mission of proclaiming the Gospel.

Deacons: your mission is a part of the greater mission of the church to proclaim the message of the Gospel and to serve the body of faith. As you fulfill your ministry, you strengthen the church as a whole in her ministry as well.

Tony, I know that you have a servant’s heart. You love to serve other people as you have time and resource with which to serve them. Continue to passionately serve those in the body, and those outside the body of faith.

We see two other places where Philip’s story continues in Acts, and it is in those that we keep looking for Philip’s passion. These two form another pair, like the first two did.

acts 8:

3) Passion for the Word

A deacon is also to have a passion for proclaiming the Gospel. When we come across Philip again in Scripture, it’s after the persecution of the church had begun and Stephen had been martyred. The church in Jerusalem had been scattered throughout the region, and we find Philip living out his passion for the Lord and his passion for serving others as he moves around.

Acts 8:4–8 CSB

4 So those who were scattered went on their way preaching the word. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. 6 The crowds were all paying attention to what Philip said, as they listened and saw the signs he was performing. 7 For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.

Philip goes to a city in Samaria and preaches about Jesus. It says that the crowds were all paying attention to what he said. He also performed miraculous signs, but what does Philip do first? He tells them about Jesus. He had a great passion for the Word of God.

Deacons: we must be passionate about God’s Word if we are going to be fully effective in serving others in the name of the Lord.

Deacons: we must be passionate about God’s Word if we are going to be fully effective in serving others in the name of the Lord.

Tony, my challenge to you at this point is that you keep growing in your understanding and knowledge of the Word of God. I know that you are super faithful to Bible study on Sunday mornings, and you gave evidence in your council that you are passionate about the Word, but we never arrive. We’re never done learning. And this one goes with the next one.

4) Passion for people

I read a tweet recently that said, “If reading your Bible doesn’t move you to love other people, you’re doing it wrong.” There’s a connection between being passionate about the Word of God and having a passion for loving people—especially lost people. We find one such lost person later in , and Philip’s interaction with him shows Philip’s passion for people:

acts 8:

Acts 8:26–40 CSB

26 An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip: “Get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is the desert road.) 27 So he got up and went. There was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch and high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to worship in Jerusalem 28 and was sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading the prophet Isaiah aloud. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go and join that chariot.” 30 When Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the Scripture passage he was reading was this: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who will describe his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. 34 The eunuch said to Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet saying this about—himself or someone else?” 35 Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus, beginning with that Scripture. 36 As they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Look, there’s water. What would keep me from being baptized?” 38 So he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any longer but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Philip appeared in Azotus, and he was traveling and preaching the gospel in all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

Philip’s passion for God’s Word and his passion for people met in this moment. He was comfortable enough with the Scriptures that he was able to explain about Jesus to this Ethiopian beginning in . He was willing to drop what he was doing in order to go and follow this chariot at exactly the right time to be able to help this man understand what God had done for him in Christ. He showed that he was passionate for people.

We see Philip one more time in the book of Acts. He hosts Paul and those who are with him on his way back to Jerusalem in . Again, he’s passionate for people, showing his hospitality to those in the body of Christ who are in need.

It can be so easy to get so focused on the tasks of ministry that we lose sight of the fact that people are the ministry. Without people to minister to, there’s no point in preaching, there’s no point in talking, no point in serving. People are the ministry.

How does Tony show this?

Tony, remember that we are called by God to passionately serve others as a part of loving Him.

Application to the church

Application to the church

Just because this is Philip who did this, does that mean that only deacons should be passionate for the Lord, for service, for the Word, and for people? No! Deacons are supposed to be some of the best examples for us to follow. The point in following an example is to be like the one we are following.

In , Jesus said, “It is enough for a disciple to become like his teacher...”

We should all be showing these qualities in our lives. Deacons, set the example for the flock that you serve to follow.

Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.