Deacons God's Special Servants

DEACONS: GOD’S SPECIAL SERVANTS

            ACTS 6:1-6

Bruce Larson, in his book Wind and Fire, points out some interesting facts about Sandhill Cranes. He says:

These large birds, which fly great distances across continents, have three remarkable qualities. First, they rotate leadership. No one bird stays out in front all of the time. Second, they choose leaders who can handle turbulence. And third, all during the time one bird is leading, the rest are honking their affirmation and encouragements.

You know, that’s not a bad model for the church. Certainly we need leaders who can share leadership, and can handle turbulence.  But most of all we need to be a church where we all of us are sounding off encouragements of all types to our leaders.

Sandhill Cranes do one other thing, without which they all would get lost. They follow God’s built-in, inner direction, or, as it’s commonly called, their instinct. The very reason these birds can lead is because they have the built in ability to follow.

Sandhill Cranes don’t have choice whether or not they’ll follow the directions God built in to them by instinct. But you and I do have a choice. God’s doesn’t drag us to where He wants us, but calls us. He doesn’t force His desire into us, but He calls us according to the gifts we’ve received by the Holy Spirit. These men who have been chosen by the church to serve as deacons have chosen to serve as models for us all, and especially for others that will walk in their shoes later on. Their service as deacons will be blessed as long as they know we support and encourage them in their ministries.

In Acts 6:1-7, we’re given a brief look at some of the earliest appointments of leadership within the church of some of those who have become known as the best followers of Christ.

READ ACTS 6:1-7

We see here a church growing in numbers by leaps and bounds. Anytime membership grows, responsibilities increase. Very early in the church’s history, one of the ministries that experienced such growth was taking care of the rising number of widows.

Acts 6 pictures our Lord’s apostles facing up to this problem. What happens when you have more tasks to do than you can possibly keep up with? Which s best: to put ten men to work, or to give the work of ten men to one man? As the Lord grows our fellowship, and more and more needs are created among the members, that’s God’s way of telling us that He trusts us to do what needs to be done.

In his parable of the talents, Jesus said that the Master said to his servants,

“ ‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have abundance. But from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

To whom does God give more responsibility? To the one who is growing and proves capable of bearing more responsibilities, of course! God gives greater responsibility to the one who is putting to work what God has already given him. God will continue to do this according to His will, according to His provisions, and according to our willingness. God does this as a trust. As the church is blessed with increasing numbers of members, God blesses the church with more workers to handle the increased responsibilities. The more we have, the more we must put to work what God gives us; and the more we do this, the more God will give us.

That’s kind of scary, isn’t it? Now you know how the apostles felt. As they faced church growth, they faced the limitations placed on them by their primary calling, which was prayer and preaching the Word of God. They didn’t dare bury their gifts and hide them in the avalanche of ever-increasing responsibilities. As more and more Jews and Greek came to Christ through the ministry of the apostles, the apostles easily could have thrown up their hands in dismay as the workload increased more and more. The text suggests that the apostles saw this possibility, so they challenged the church to choose seven men from among themselves to handle the day-to-day ministry of caring for the Greek widows, who believed they were being overlooked in favor of the Jewish widows. Their decision kept down a lot of possible strife in the church.

It’s interesting that scripture has a lot to say about what kind of person the one chosen to serve as a deacon should be like. Even here in Acts 6, those chosen were to be “men. . .who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.” Yet all that scripture says the deacon is to do is to “serve tables.”  Does that mean then that the church chose to do this task only those who had experience doing it, or those who weren’t doing anything else in the church? No. Those chosen to serve widows in their daily needs must be spiritually qualified. They must be “full of the Spirit and wisdom.”

As the church has grown through the past two millennia, more and more responsibilities have been added to the ministry of the deacon. Many of these are:

·         Missions support

·         Local outreach

·         Worship

·         Facilities

·         Families

·         Youth

·         Personal spiritual growth of members

These ministry tasks aren’t just the work of the pastor (what the Greek text calls a  “bishop”), and the deacons. They must be shared by other members whose lives evidence the working of the Holy Spirit, are full of wisdom, and who have been gifted by the Holy Spirit to do ministry.

In the last section of chapter six of Acts, and continuing in to chapter seven (7), Stephen, one of the seven chosen to serve the church, is highlighted. Stephen was doing “great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.” Certain Jews from other countries argued with Stephen about the gospel of Jesus he was sharing, but they were no match for Stephen’s wisdom and Spirit. Stephen was on mission for Christ, and as chapter seven tells us, unable to quiet him or defeat him, the Jews martyred him. It wasn’t one of Jesus’ apostles, but one of the church’s choice servants—a deacon, if you wish—who was the first to shed his blood for the cause of Christ.

Then over in chapter eight (8), we’re told that, after the stoning of Stephen, the church in Jerusalem and the surrounding area was scattered. Verse 4 tells us,

“Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.”

One of those who was scattered was Philip, another of the chosen seven. Philip did somewhat the same things Stephen had been doing. He even led the treasurer for Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who also happened to be a eunuch, to Christ on the side of the road that led from Jerusalem to Gaza. Philip also baptized him. (In case you didn’t know it, Jewish law prohibited eunuchs from entering the temple of God to worship.)

Pretty special servants, wouldn’t you say? These servers of tables were actively growing the body of Christ. What these men did wasn’t just the apostles’ and bishops’ job. They shared the responsibility.

Deacons are God’s special servants, for they help meet the needs experienced by the church as it grows. What we see in Stephen and Philip, two of these special servants of the church, is their active participation in growing the church and then serving those who came into the church. We are safe to say, I believe, that others were added to the seven as the church grew. Churches today still follow their leading.

These men who will be ordained as deacons today by the laying on of hands do not choose, as do so many in our church, to fill a comfortable pew and then disappear until next Sunday. They seek to fulfill the high calling of God in their lives. They know Jesus didn’t secure their forgiveness by the blood of his cross so that they could sit back and live in ease.

Jesus died, as he did for all of us, so that we can see how to live our lives for him. As it was for those first seven who were chosen by the church to serve, and who willingly offered themselves to Christ and the church, these our brothers stand ready to deny themselves and make the sacrifice necessary to serve.

Deacons are God’s special servants, for they take on themselves the responsibilities of deacon in the church, in the midst of lives already filled with families and jobs. They will follow the lead of their ancient forebears and serve us all. As they follow the greatest servant who ever lived, their Lord Jesus Christ, lead the church, bearing the turbulence that often accompanies such a ministry, let’s affirm them and encourage them every step of the way. We will begin doing this today we set them apart by ordination.