The Deacons

The Deacons- Acts 6:1-7

We ended our study of the first five chapters of the book of Acts with an incredible statement, “And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.”

We transition to first portion of chapter 6 which witnesses the establishment of the deacons as well as the introduction to Stephen, a godly man and the first martyr of the Church.

This portion of Scripture is vitally important to the church leadership structure, or government, or polity. How the church is operated is vitally important for a variety of reasons. However, our goal tonight is to look at the deacons and from other passages of Scripture determine the structure of church government. Do we line up with Scripture? Or, has humanity’s view of the church influenced our roles and responsibilities?

Our main focus from this passage will be this:

God appointed deacons to serve, pastors to shepherd, and the people to work in the Church for God’s glory and our good.

I. The Problem of Neglected Widows- 6:1

A problem arose concerning the widows. There are two groups of widows listed, Hebrews and Hellenists. The Hebrews were Hebrew, and the Hellenists were Grecian.

For whatever reason, the Hellenist widows were “neglected” in the daily distribution. Luke does not provide the reason, and we are to assume that it was an honest mistake. Motivations behind, this was a problem. Women in the biblical accounts were often mistreated and neglected, and here we see that one particular group was ignored (the Hellenists).

This is a problem, and one that we must constantly be on guard against. The Church is to look out for its own. There should never be a member that is not provided care.

II. The Predicament of the Apostles- 6:2

This problem comes to the attention of the apostles, how, we do not know, nor does it matter. What is important is that the apostles, the foundation of the church (see Eph. 2:20), recognize this problem and seek to address it.

This presents them with a predicament. What should they do? They need to pray and preach the Word of God, but there are individuals who need help.

And do we not face these type of predicaments on a regularly basis? Think about Scripture reading. We know that we need to do it. But we also have other responsibilities. What do we do? Unfortunately, we tend to take care of the “pressing” issues rather than the “needed” ones.

The same appears on a congregational level as well. We want our church to grow, we want to see young people come, so we push toward that end rather than obeying God’s revealed will through the Scriptures.

It is not right, they say, that we should give up preaching the Word of God to serve tables. Our role, in other words, involves the ministry of prayer and preaching. They make their decision, but they do not neglect the widows. They offer a proposal.

III. The Proposal of the Apostles- 6:3

Their proposal is wonderful. They tell the church (the full number of disciples) how to choose the deacons (i.e., servants).

They list out requirements, three to be exact, for these men. First, they are to be “of good repute.” In other words, they are to have excellent reputations. Now, we must be careful here because there are extenuating circumstances that we need to briefly comment upon. This does not mean that a man seeking to be a deacon must be perfect (or, without any flaws). No, it is a matter of reputation (similar to John’s thought of walking in 1 John). There should be nothing that marks the man in any sinful way.

Secondly, they are to be full of the Spirit. That is, they are to be controlled or umpired by the Spirit of God. A perfect example of what this looks like can be found in Galatians 5:22-23.

Third, they are to be full of wisdom. Now, this does not mean that they will be knowledgable. A man can have an enormous amount of intellectual capital and be unqualified to serve as a deacon. “The fear of the LORD,” writes Solomon, “is the beginning of wisdom.” (Prov. 1:7) Wisdom is knowing and living God’s Word.

These are deacons, men of good repute, full of the Spirit of God and of wisdom. If we were to take the time to compare this section with 1 Timothy 3:1-7 (for pastors/elders) and 1 Timothy 3:8-13 (for deacons) we would see similarities, though Paul’s instructions in Timothy are more elaborate. The only difference between the qualification for the pastor/elder and the deacon, by the way, is the ability to teach. All other requirements are exactly the same.

Thinking about the pastor/elder, how many churches have been destroyed or greatly damaged because an unqualified man assumed the office. How has the name of God been blasphemed among the nations? Now, I wonder how many churches have been damaged and hurt by the failure to obey the Word of the Lord in admitting unqualified men into the diaconate?

You see, God has laid out His views on the leadership of the church. There are to be a plurality of elders/pastors, and there are to be deacons. We will pick this idea up toward the end of our time together. However, the proposal would allow the apostles to fulfill their God-ordained purpose: prayer and preaching.

IV. The Purpose of the Apostles (or, Pastors/Elders)- 6:4

The reason it was important for the apostles to return to the ministry of prayer and the Word was not that it was unimportant to help the Hellenistic widows. It was because their role and responsibility, as commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ, was to pray and to preach.

That was their purpose, and they established deacons for the ministry of service. This would free up the apostles for the ministries of prayer and preaching.

I put pastors/elders in parentheses because it is our role and responsibility as well. We could look at numerous passages in the NT (particularly in Titus and the two letters to Timothy) to establish this biblical fact. And I put pastors/elders in plural because, according to the NT, there was never a senior pastor. There were pastors, or elders, in the church.

Here are a few references that establish a plurality of pastors/elders in a church:

Acts 14:23- “appointed elders”

Acts 15- “the elders”

Phil. 1:1- “the overseers” (overseer, or bishop, is a term referring to pastor/elder)

1 Timothy 5:17- “the elders that rule well”

Titus 1:5- “appoint elders”

James 4:14- “let him call for the elders of the church”

1 Pet. 5:1- “I exhort the elders…shepherd the flock”

You can see, then, that the church has always needed multiple shepherds. And our history is one of multiple elders, at least in the earlier days. I am not sure when it became popular to switch from a plurality of elders to one pastor and a deacon board, but the biblical testimony is that there are a plurality of elders that lead and feed the church, while the deacons serve the church.

So, the problem was apparent, the predicament was handled through the proposal of the apostles, but how did the church respond? The Church performed. They submitted themselves to the elders (Heb. 13:17).

V. The Performance of the Church- 6:5-6

It “pleased the whole gathering,” a remarkable statement considering the size of the church! They immediately choose seven men as led by the apostles.

What is more remarkable to me than the unity is the immediacy with which they chose these men. Why? These men were already known for their godliness and wisdom. Such is often the case in churches today. When you ask for the spiritual people, you can typically get people to give you names. They brought them before the apostles (the leaders of the church) and they laid their hands on them and set them apart, praying for them as they took this role of service.

The church did what their leaders required of them. Churches flourish when biblical leadership is practiced and biblically submission is followed. Now, with that said I want to emphasize the biblical part of that assertion. For in the church at Berea, the members checked what the apostles were teaching against the Scriptures (Acts 17:11). With that said, as the pastors/elders lead the church, the church is responsible to follow their leadership. They are called to perform, in other words.

VI. The Productivity of God- 6:7

What happened after all of this transpired? The Word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly, including a great many priests.

It is important that we note that correlation does not equal causation. In other words, this is not a formula to church growth success. In other words, it is not a secret way to produce growth. We can become discouraged when we do the right things and fail to grow. Is that biblical? We need to keep in our minds two passage of Scripture: 1 Cor. 3:6-7 and 15:10-11. Paul acknowledges his and Apollos’ role in the church’s growth, but they are only tools, God is the one who provides the growth.

Likewise, Paul realizes his salvation and sanctification are from God, but rather than lying back and resting, he says, “On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them.”

In other words, it is God’s prerogative to provide growth, and our responsibility to obey His Word and function as the church in the way God has commanded.

Now, what does that mean for us? Let’s look at our response as a church and then as individuals.

First, as a church, we should follow the biblical example of church leadership. Effectively, our deacons function similar to elders. I would love to see us transition to being led by pastors/elders. This does not imply that elders must be paid in the same way that I am. Nor does it determine how many elders a church should have. They should have enough to shepherd God’s flock. We were built on multiple elders in our history, and I would love to see us return to that.

We also need to realize the spiritual maturity God expects of our deacons. They are to have a good reputation, to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. Do we see the role of the deacon in that light? It is a serious commitment requiring a serious life. It is not something that we should take lightheartedly nor to view as a subset of the buildings and grounds committee.

Finally, as a church, we need to realize our responsibility to submit to the biblical leadership of the church. Strauch Quote, 291-292