Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
The book of Acts chapter #6 and will be apart from our Series A
man after God's own heart will be back to that Lord willing
next week. But I thought we would go back
in the book of Acts to a message that I hope be complimentary to
what we looked at this morning with Tabitha and was felt the
leadership of the Lord to do so in Acts chapter 6.
As we look at the issue of what biblical deacons are, the issue
of biblical deacons, you know, sometimes people will say when
they leave a church. I've heard this before, and I no
doubt I would imagine most pastors have at some point.
Maybe there's a ring of truth to it for some pastors, maybe
there's not. But people will say something
like this, I don't feel like I'm being fed.
You ever heard something like that or maybe heard someone say
that I don't feel like I'm being fed.
And you know that certainly is a heavy indictment for a pastor to
be able to hear because part of the charge of a pastor is to
first Peter 5, to feed the flock of God, which is among you,
taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but
willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of already mind that God has
placed a heavy burden upon me to be able to make sure that I am
feeding the flock of God every time that I come up to the pole.
But not to come up and just give some platitudes to make you feel
good. Not just to kind of reheat
something that I found online from sermons.com or to just
repeat something I heard some other pastor preach.
You say sermons.com, don't go there.
You might hear something you seen before for me.
No, I'm just kidding. But the point is to what feed
the flock of God. This is what we are called to do
the job of a pastor is to prepare meals that are
scripturally nutritious so that the people who are listening and
by the way, also so that the pastor is spoken to while he's
in the study and making sure that I'm not just telling you
thus say it the Lord, but that I'm making sure I'm taking it in
myself. But here in Acts chapter 6, we
have a very interesting situation where there are
literally people that aren't being fed, but it's not in the
traditional way that you may have heard me talk about just a
few moments ago. But there were literally people
in this church at Jerusalem, remember, which exploded
overnight. We've looked at this over the
last several weeks, how countless scores, thousands of
people were getting saved and added to the church at
Jerusalem. It's just natural that there
were going to be some growing pains.
It was just natural that there were going to be some problems.
And there were literally some widows who weren't being fed.
No, no, not talking about being fed from the Word of God.
They weren't being fed physically some food that had
been promised to them by those who were there in the church.
Now, this was in many ways one of the church's first real major
issues. Of course, we've seen Ananias
and Sapphira already in chapter #5 but this is something that
spreads its tentacles farther throughout the church because
there are those who are complaining and murmuring about
this issue. So we find that the apostles
have an answer, and the answer is the biblical office of
Deacon. So perhaps you've heard of
deacons before and this issue of deacons within a Baptist Church.
But what are they? What is their function?
What are they supposed to do? And we're going to look at this
by God's Word tonight, not in through tradition, not through
just what it normally is because we're Baptist.
But what does the Bible say about?
This issue of having biblical deacons.
Would you stand, please, for the reading of God's Word?
Acts chapter 6, beginning in verse #1.
And it says this. And in those days, when the
number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a
murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because
their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.
Then 12 called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and
said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God and
serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, looking out
among you, 7 been of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost,
and wisdom, that whom rather we may appoint over this business,
But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to
the ministry of the Word, and the saying, please the whole
multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man
full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Procurus,
and Nycanor, and Timon, and Parmanius, and Nicholas, a
proselyte of Antioch, whom they set before the apostles.
And when they had prayed, they lay their hands on them, and the
Word of God got increased, and the number of the disciples
multiplied in Jerusalem greatly. And a great company of the
priests were obedient to the faith.
You see, there was this opportunity for great dissension
to take place within the church. But because it was handled
biblically, what happens? The church ends up growing even
more and God is glorified. And a lot of that has to do with
this issue of the deacons that were brought to the work.
And we'll look at what that means for us and how it applies
to all of us here this evening. So why don't you be seated and
then let's pray together. Heavenly Father, do thank you
for this night. And I do pray that as we look at
this issue that may seem so remote and far away for so many,
I pray that we would find personal application and what we
see here this evening. Thank you for this biblical
office. Thank you for what it means and
help us to learn how we can serve tables in our own.
Way this evening and we do ask it in Jesus name, Amen.
Well, as we look at our text, first of all, I see this,
there's the people's protest. There was a protest that was
taking place there in chapter 1. In fact, we see a word that
starts with the letter M that we really haven't seen much well
since the Old Testament where we saw it a lot in the Old
Testament, particularly that 40 years of wandering in the
wilderness. And that's the word murmuring.
The church was doing well. In fact, the church was doing so
well, we saw that it was established by Jesus Christ and
the disciples, the explosion that took place on the day of
Pentecost. They were saved, baptized, and
added under the church, meaning the church was already in
existence on the day of Pentecost, but now empowered by
the Holy Spirit, which is now indwelling the believers.
The promise of the Holy Spirit fulfilled.
Then we saw that there was some persecution, but despite
persecution, the church continued to grow. 3000 saved,
5000 saved, multitude saved. The church is growing and
growing and growing. And listen, we would be foolish.
They would be foolish to think that it would grow exponentially
like it is without there being any problems whatsoever because
churches are filled with people and people bring problems.
You say, pastor, who are you talking to?
A bunch of people that have problems and you're talking or
you're looking at a pastor who also has problems, Right.
Because we're people and we're not perfect until we get to
glory. And so here there are, there's
murmuring that takes place. Well, what is this murmuring?
It says, was murmuring was of the Grecians against the Hebrews
because their widows were neglected in the daily
ministration. And so the Grecians and the
Hebrews were not necessarily, I believe, different ethnic
groups, but it's very likely that they were different Jews
that spoke different languages. And I believe you could probably
go back to Acts chapter 2. Remember when the Speaking of
tongues took place and all of those people came to Jerusalem
and heard in their own tongues Jews from all over the known
world who came for that feast at the day of Pentecost?
Well, some of those would have been naturally incorporated into
the church, particularly if they had lived in Jerusalem or if
they stayed in Jerusalem after the day of Pentecost.
And so it says that there were some widows there of the
Grecians and there were some windows of the Hebrews, and
there was a daily administration that was taking place.
Well, what is this daily administration?
It was the fact that the church had taken upon themselves to
take care of the real widows in the church, by the way, far
before the government ever took care of those who were in need.
It was the job of the Church to take care of those who are in
need. The only reason the government
has got its tentacles into all of these different programs over
the years to take care of people is because the church stopped
doing the job that it was supposed to to do many years
ago. That's not popular, and you may
not like that, but I believe that that's just the way it is
that God has tasked us to take care of those particularly who
are within the body. And it talks particularly about
those who were the widows. This is a real problem here,
that there are those who are supposed to be taken care of
every day and somehow because there's only 12 apostles and
there's all these widows, we don't know how many of them, but
the church is numbering probably over 10,000.
There's got to be a whole lot of widows, and there's only so many
apostles. So what happens?
Women are not getting what they need.
They're being promised food. These widows are, and they're
not receiving it. And so because of it, there's
murmuring It very, very well be that some are saying, well,
perhaps they're taking care of the ones who are the Hebrews,
but they're not taking care of the ones as much who are
speaking the different languages as people being people.
There could have been even some of that complaining took place.
There was a real possibility of dissension causing the church to
fracture here in this very early moment.
And by the way, churches should take care of those who are the
widows. In fact, the Bible calls it in
First Timothy 5, three honor widows that are widows indeed,
meaning this widows who have no children to take care of them.
They have no other family to take care of them, that it's the
job of the church to take care of them.
First Timothy chapter 5 in general gives much guidance for
how the church is to take care of widows that the ages the
family what is needed that gives given by Paul to Timothy so that
as he is administrating his young church that he's able to
care for those widows in the right way.
James chapter one verse 27 pure religion and undefiled before
God and the Father is this pure religion meaning this there is a
good religion. We don't often think about that
because our connotation of religion is bad, isn't it?
It often is because we think of religion from a very high
church, from a very Catholic sense.
We think of religion as well many times leading people
straight to hell, don't we? There is a pure religion that's
out there, and I know that because it says it in God's
Word. But listen to what it is, pure
religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to
visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and
to keep himself unspotted from the world.
We've had the opportunity over the years to be able to win, to
winister, to minister, to many widows.
There it is. I was kind of trying to get the
words out a little bit quicker than I needed to, to minister to
several widows over the years. The very first two women that
walked into Liberty Baptist Church were two widow ladies
that we had met here in town and when we were at Parkview School
and I was standing at that front door just praying that somebody
would walk through the door. Jim was one of them, thank the
Lord. But as we were just standing
there praying that someone would show up, there are two widow
ladies that my wife went to go pick up and listen.
If someone had said they lived in Connecticut and they needed
to ride to church, we would have picked him up.
You know, the first Sunday we'll get whoever we need to in here,
you know. But there are two little ladies
that lived on Lincoln St. Dorothy and Joyce.
And it was such a joy to be able to have them in the church for
the first couple years before each of them moved, one to Ohio
and the other to Connecticut. But, you know, we took it upon
ourselves as a very young church to make sure their needs were
met if there was a snowstorm, to make sure that they were
shoveled out. But to make sure that if there
was any type of physical needs or if there's any type of
financial needs, that we wanted to be able to be a help and a
blessing as we could. Because in those cases, there
wasn't really a child that was close by that was able to help
them. And So what do we want to do?
We want to help those who were widows in deep.
This lady wasn't a member of our church.
But a few years ago there was a lady named Karen Peters.
And some of you remember Misses Peters and what a sweet lady
that she was. And she is but has moved away
over the last few years. Her husband was a pastor in
Weymouth. He passed away and it just so
happened that even though he passed in Weymouth, they lived
across the street just a block away from where we were.
And we knew that there were some needs that she had and we raised
money to be able to help her with those needs.
And we helped her with moving and we helped her with expenses
and we helped her with different things.
Why? Because this is what God tells
the church to do to help those who have very little ability to
be able to help themselves. And a widow lady who has no
children to be able to help or no children that are at least
close by. Listen, the church needs to be
able to do what they can to be able to help in those
situations. And you can go all the way back
to the Old Testament. God put in provisions to make
sure that the widows and the the orphans and those who were not
able to take care of themselves were taken care of, and they
were taken care of by other people.
What did you do? Well, you weren't to oppress the
widow. Exodus chapter 22 You shall not
afflict any widow or fatherless child.
If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto
me, I will surely hear their cry that you were not to take
advantage of a widow. Deuteronomy 2417 That you should
not pervert the justice or the judgement of the stranger, nor
the fatherless, nor the widow's raiment to pledge.
You can go to Deuteronomy chapter 24 verse 19.
And I just read this this morning, Leviticus 19 verse 10,
where it talked about when someone was a widow that they
could go out into the fields that have been gleaned, and the
corners were to remain ungleaned so that the widow could pick
from those. Or if anything had fallen on the
ground, that whoever was gleaning was not to pick up any
of the grain that fell on the ground, that those who were poor
or those who were the widows could go and pick up that grain.
And that's where we find that beautiful picture in the book of
Ruth, where Ruth went out into the field of Boaz because she
was a widow, just like Naomi was a widow.
And she was granted rights by the law of God to go into the
field and to be able to glean that which was there.
God had made provision. That was true in the Old
Testament. It's true in the New Testament,
and that's true today. Those who are widows are those
that we are to help take care of.
And so we find that there was the people's protest in verse #1
which meant that their disciples had a problem #2 the disciples
had a problem. What was the problem?
Well, look at verse #2 it says this.
It says then the 12 called the multitude of the disciples unto
them and said, it is not reason that we should leave the word of
God and serve tables. Now here's what they're saying.
He's not saying the OR. They rather are not saying the
apostles that the needs of the widows are unimportant.
They are not saying that the needs of these women are
something that they are exaggerating or it's just within
their own mind. They're not saying that at all,
but they're saying this. These 12 apostles who are trying
to minister to likely 10,000 people are saying this.
We can't do this. We don't know how to be able to
handle this ourselves. Why?
Because God had laid a very special and holy calling upon
their lives. They couldn't serve tables.
By the way, we're going to see that the word, the Greek word
diakonos literally means table server.
The idea of a Deacon is someone who serves tables.
They are a servant. They're not a leader in the
sense of well, it's a I'm a board member.
Well, before you were ever a quote, UN quote board member,
you're a servant. That's what you were called to
do. But the disciples said this.
We can't go around and do this ourselves.
We're drowning. We can't do it.
We, we know that these women need to get taken care of, but
we can't do it now. Why couldn't they do it?
Look at verse #4 it says. But we will give ourselves
continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.
It is the job of a pastor. It is the job of a leader of a
flock, first and foremost to make sure that, as it says and
first Peter, that we are feeding the flock of God.
My first job before I do anything else for you, before
the bulletins get done, before social media gets taken care of,
before the books are balanced, or whatever the issues may be.
My first and foremost job is this.
I have to preach the Word of God and I have to make sure that I
rightly divide the word of truth.
Not that I just again, find something online and just kind
of Polish it up and give it to you or or not that I'm just
trying to to be able to throw something together at the last
minute, But that God has called me to feed the flock of God.
And that means that sometimes there has to be some adjustments
to the way things are accomplished because there are
certain things I cannot do because my job first and
foremost is to be able to preach the word.
Now again, I mentioned this before.
That doesn't mean that I don't do other things.
There's administrative work that a pastor has to do.
There are some things that a pastor, I wish I could tell you
that I just sit in my office for 40 hours a week and just prepare
sermons. I mean, I can't imagine.
How glorious in some ways, that would be.
It'd also be pretty lonely, if I think about it, to sit in the
office for 40 hours a week. But I need to be visiting people
and I'd be around people and to be finding new people and
sharing the gospel with those new people.
These are all things that need to be done.
But there are some things where it just gets to the point, well,
I can't do it all now. I'll say from the heart of a
pastor tonight, I, I want to and I desire to, and I hope that you
know that that I work hard and I work hard for you as a pastor.
I know many of you, almost all of you, depending on your
situation of life, are working and you're working 40 hours a
week and sometimes more just trying to keep food on the table
and doing what you need to do. I want you to know that your
pastor is laboring as well, that your pastor is not just sitting
around the church office spinning in his chair all day,
you know, with a beanie on his head, you know, spinning that
around too. And does, hey, man, it is great
to work one day a week. And listen, they'll pay me for a
whole week. Isn't this great?
It doesn't work like that. I want you to know that I want
to work and I want to work hard, and I do work hard, but my first
and foremost laboring is this. I've got to be in the word and
have got to be in prayer because churches can fall apart because
of administration. Sure, it's true.
But they fall apart more because the word of God is not preached,
or the word of God is not defended, or the word of God is
not rightly divided. And the apostles say this.
Listen, the widows are important, but we can't do it
all because we've got a job to do.
And so there's a need that's to take place.
And so they call this business meeting and they explain to the
people, this is what our job is. We can't serve tables the way
that we want to. We have to give ourselves
continually by the way, that we're continually meaning this.
Just every day on and on, more and more.
You know what happens tomorrow, You think may tomorrow's Monday,
Pastor, it must be good because you don't have to worry about
preaching. You know, you preached 2
messages, 3 messages on Sunday. You don't have to think about
it. Guess what?
Sunday's always coming. You know, it's happened on
Monday. Another Sunday is coming up
Wednesday before that. Amen.
And so there's always something coming.
And so they say, listen, we've got to continually give
ourselves to this. So what do we need to do?
Well, we need to make sure that there are others who are able to
help and they say it is not reason that we should leave the
Word of God and serve tables. Again, that word talking about
serving tables, that word for administration in verse #1
diaconos meaning this. This is where we get the term
for Deacon. And the term for Deacon is
something that is so vitally important.
A Deacon is important in many churches.
Now, before we get too far down the road here this evening, you
say, well, pastor, who are deacons at Liberty Baptist
Church? And the answer is, well,
currently we have no deacons and we have not had deacons at
Liberty Baptist Church over the years that we're here.
We have trustees who handle financial matters.
And of course, legally we have to have trustees here at the
church. And I'm thankful for the
trustees we've had over the years.
And we have several men who are here tonight who have served
faithfully as trustee here at Liberty Baptist Church.
And I'm so thankful for them to help provide guidance and
oversight to the finances so that when you give, you know
that every penny of every dollar is accounted for.
And to make sure that what we say we're going to spend money
on is where it's spent. I'm so thankful for that.
But we've not had the ability and we've not had really the
need to this point to have biblical deacons.
But I will say this, the church grows.
The time's coming. As the church grows, it's
important for us to at least understand who they are, and
it's at least important for us to understand what their true
ministry is. And in many ways, the deacons
are to do the things that the pastor would do if he had the
time but can't because he's continually giving himself to
the Word and to prayer. That's the primary job of a
Deacon. It's not about being on a board.
It's not about having leadership over a pastor.
The Bible doesn't teach that. But you do see that there are
many churches where the Deacon board is the one who tells the
church and tells the pastor what to do.
You know, we don't see that in the Word of God.
What do we see? This is someone that is helping
do the things that the pastor is not able to do because he is
busy preaching the Word and busy in prayer.
I've told you before that I worked at Gordon's Jewelers and
Kay's Jewelers in college. Of course, I mentioned
build-a-bear, but I want to talk too much about that.
But at Kay Jewelers, I moved up the ladder there enough and
there was probably only 10 people that were there working
in that store. But over time, even though they
knew I wasn't going to be there very long, they made me a third
key manager. And I told you that meant I got
all the responsibilities of being a manager without getting
an increase in pay. So I'll tell you they they saw
me coming from a mile away because I was 21 years old.
I thought I'm a manager. They said you are a manager
getting paid like everybody else.
And so that was the best of both worlds for Kay Jewelers.
All right. But what I had been as a manager
basically was this. I was doing the things that the
owner could not do. I was doing the things that the
higher ups could not do. I was acting in their place.
It was not for me to say, well, hey, what do you want that ring
to be? Hey, tell me a price and I'll
give it to you. No, that was said already.
The price was set. I just had to sell it on behalf
of the one who was above me. Oh, you know, hey, let's change
the hours of the store. You know, I'm not supposed to be
open from 10:00 to 8:00. But, you know, I think, you
know, why don't we open at noon and then close at 5:00?
Because it's really been, you know, kind of quiet around here.
No, I couldn't do that. I was just doing that which I
was told by those above me. And so we can almost look at it
this way, that as a pastor, I cannot act independently.
Say, what do you mean? I cannot act outside of that
which God has delineated. In his word.
I don't have authority that is apart from the word of God.
But yet the Deacon is also in that line where we have the Lord
who, who is the founder of the church, who is the head of the
church. But we see Jesus Christ and then
we see the pastor as the physical leader in the church,
but not in the place of Christ because only Christ is the
shepherd. He's the chief shepherd.
I'm the under shepherd. But then what do we see?
That the deacons are those who stand in the place of the pastor
and do the things that the pastor could not do because he's
busy with the prayers of the Saints and busy in the ministry.
Of the Word of God. So these deacons were vital in
this situation. So we see there's a protest,
there's a problem. But then the people had a quest
#3 this is this, the quest was this.
We got to find some, some people that will fulfill this ministry.
And look at what it says here in verse #3 they weren't just
picking people out of a crowd. Eenie meenie miney Moe.
All right, you and you and you, yeah, we don't know your name,
but you, you know, we like the looks of you.
You get up here and we're going to make you the new deacons.
Nope. They had this leadership from
the Lord, and they said this. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out
among you. Meaning this.
The church had to recognize this.
This was not just the pastor identifying it, by the way.
That's why we would have a vote and we had votes on trustees,
because we have to make sure that the church recognizes that
this person has these qualifications, that ye may look
out among you 7 men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost
and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business.
And we'll look more at that in a second and what those
qualifications mean. But there was a quest.
They couldn't just pick any everybody.
There were some that had specific things that were
qualifications for them. And in verse #5 it says that
that pleased everybody. And that's what they did.
And they chose several. And some of them you may be
familiar with. Stephen was a man full of faith
in the Holy Ghost. By the way, this Deacon was a
preacher because he's going to preach.
And Stephen's going to be the first martyr because he's going
to preach with such authority that the Pharisees aren't going
to be able to take it. And we find that even when the
rocks were raining upon him as they stone him, the Bible says
that his countenance was like that of an Angel, and that he
died in a way. That was honoring and glorifying
to God and even says that he looked up and it saw that
heavens pardon, He saw Jesus Christ standing on the right
hand of God. By the way, the only time we see
Jesus standing on the right hand of God, typically he's seated.
And it was almost as if Jesus Christ was standing up to give
him, if we could, a standing ovation or to welcome him to
heaven. That that great sign of respect.
We don't see it anywhere else in the Bible.
It's absolutely incredible. And Philip, the one who preached
to the Ethiopian eunuch and the one who preached to those who
were of Samaria, that these weren't just men who were, were,
were pencil pushers or men who were going to sit in a meeting
once a month. And one takes the minutes and,
you know, they talk about some complaints and they talk about
some good things and make sure, you know, everything's in order
and they call it a day. You know, these were men who
were purposeful about ministry, and they had to find them as a
church, and the church had to identify them.
They had to know. And it says that when they were
chosen in verse #6 when they set them before the apostles, when
they had prayed, they laid their hands upon them.
Now this laying of hands does not mean that any type of
special power was laid upon them, but it does mean that
there was a sign of authority that was given to them.
Meaning this. The apostle said this.
You are now acting in authority of the Church of Jerusalem.
You are now acting in authority as the agents, as the deacons
here in the Church of Jerusalem. And we want everyone else to
recognize the authority that you have.
By the way, that's why it says in First Timothy 522 lay hands
on no man suddenly meaning this, that when it comes to pastoral
ministry or even when it comes to the ministry of a Deacon,
that you don't just give that. Authority to somebody, quickly
or hastily, that there has to be some real thought.
There has to be some real prayer.
In fact, one of the qualifications of a pastor is
this, not a novice. Listen, I'm not saying a 22 year
old can't be a pastor. In fact, my best friend David
Corley is about to celebrate his 20th year of ministry and not 20
years like me at two different churches, 20 years pastoring the
same church. But he's an exceptional soul in
so many ways. I can tell you stories of
pastors in the New England area just over the 10 years that
we've been here that have blown in, blown up and blown out
because a church laid hands far too.
Quickly on someone who is not prepared for pastoral ministry.
And so it said this these men, they need to be able to be
chosen from among the group and that the authority is conferred
upon them. But be careful who you give that
authority to. So there's the people's protest,
the disciples problem, the people's quest.
But then I want us to focus on this the next few minutes.
The deacons qualifications. What were the qualifications of
Deacon? Some of those we find here in
Acts chapter 6, and others will turn to First Timothy chapter 3
and look at those in just a moment.
We've already alluded to them in verse #3 It says, wherefore,
brethren, looking out among you 7 men, stop right there.
So we find, first of all, there is a restriction on men as being
the ones who will be eligible for deacons.
You say, pastor, is it fair for it to be just men?
And I will say this, the Bible says that the position of Deacon
is to be filled by a man. This is what the Bible says.
And the, of course the the world today would not understand that
the world today would look at us as sexist or is that we don't
care about women or anything like that.
But God has given very defined roles to both men and women.
Of course, the world today wants to blend those roles together,
blend the genders together to make one unigender, but not to
have a man and a woman as the Bible clearly says, each having
God-given responsibilities, God-given tax tasks.
And by the way, God-given abilities that one, each one has
a role, but not one is more important than the other.
But it does say here that is to be a man.
We'll see that reiterated in First Timothy 3 in just a few
moments. But what type of man?
Well, men of honest report means that they have a good testimony.
The Deacon has to be someone that has a good testimony within
the church full of the Holy Ghost that we understand that
when we are saved that the Holy Ghost comes within us and
tabernacles with us, Amen. And we have the Holy Ghost that
lives inside of us. But listen, we can suppress.
We can't. What's the Bible word?
Quench the Holy Ghost within our own life because we don't listen
to what He tells us to do. He convicts us of sin and we
push Him down more. He gives us direction and we
push Him down more. These are men that must be full
of the Holy Ghost. When the Spirit speaks, they
listen. They have to be spiritually in
tune to the things of God. But also it says that they are
men of wisdom. Now we understand that the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
We talked about that this morning here during our men's
prayer time, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom. Knowing who God is helps us to
understand how life ought to be. And there's a lot of people who
are knowledgeable, but there's a big difference between knowledge
and wisdom. There's a lot of people who know
a lot of things and they push God at arm's length.
They may be knowledgeable about certain things, but they are not
wise. And So what do these men have to
be? They have to have a good
testimony. They have to be spiritually
sound. They have to be mentally sound.
They must be the type of men who can lead other men and women.
They have to be the type of men who can stand before others and
if necessary, preach the Word of God as Philip and as Stephen
specifically did. And no doubt the other seven or
the other five as well. Seven in total.
But what else does the Bible say about the deacons?
Well, turn to first Timothy chapter 3.
You don't need to save your space there in Acts chapter 6,
but go to first Timothy chapter #3 Now First Timothy chapter 3
and Titus chapter 1 give the requirements of a pastor.
A pastor does not get to decide his qualifications.
A church does not get to decide the pastor's qualifications.
Some of these are difficult. Some of these are harder to
quantify, and some of them are harder to understand.
Some of them are very easy for us to understand and identify in
the life of a pastor. And I'm not diminishing any of
them, but I'm saying some of them are a little bit more
difficult to quantify. Some of them are much easier.
You'll see what I mean in just a moment.
But what do we say of the of the deacons?
Well, look at verse #8 it says this likewise because it's just
been given the requirement, 17 requirements at all for the
pastor. Likewise must the deacons be
grave. There's a seriousness not double
tongue must be truthful in what he says not given to much wine.
And of course, verse #3 talks about the pastor not being given
to wine and the idea is this that that person who is of a a
Deacon and you say, well, is it not given to much wine and
meaning that well, it's OK to drink a little wine.
Well, as we look at the balance of the word of God again, the
Bible says that wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging.
Whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
Understanding that Paul even told Timothy that there were
times for him to take a little bit of wine for his stomachs
sake. But the idea was not that that
was something that he was to do in general as a way for
pleasure. But that is, he was literally
taking medicine, if you will, because of what it was.
And the Deacon was to be especially careful, even
medicinally, in the use of wine because the the Bible is very
clear about not being deceived by alcohol, not greedy, a filthy
lucre that deacons not looking for money, holding the mystery
of faith in a pure conscience. Could I maybe condense that into
saying this? This is someone who understands
the mystery of the gospel and wants to be able to give it to
other people. Can I put it to you this way?
A Deacon has to be a soul winner.
A Deacon has to be someone who participates in outreach because
if you're not helping reach out to people in community, well
then you cannot fulfill the qualification of a Deacon,
particularly as we saw those deacons were preachers.
They stood up in front of men and women and preach the word of
God. Verse 10, Let them all first, so
first be proved that they have to have some approving time.
Let them that use the office of Deacon be found blameless.
Again, a good testimony. And look, there's even
qualifications for the wives. Their wives must be grave, not
slander, sober, faithful in all things.
Look at this, let the deacons be the husband of one wife.
Again, that would teach us that not only is the Deacon to be a
man, but the man is not to be divorced and remarried.
And that is one of the qualifications, as here of the
Deacon, the husband of one wife, ruling their children, and their
own house as well. For they that have used the
office of a Deacon well purchased to themselves a good
degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Meaning this, those who have the office of a Deacon do well if
they fulfill that calling which is laid upon their life.
Their job is to assist the pastor, not to be a board that
simply runs the church. And this picture is shown in
Acts chapter 6. And we find the qualifications
here not just in Acts chapter 6, but First Timothy chapter 3
verses #8 through 13 so. Let's get to this for a few
moments, because maybe you say something like this.
OK, Pastor. You say we don't have any
deacons right now, and from what you're saying, only certain men
could even be deacons in the 1st place.
So what does this message do for most of us here?
What does this have to do with any of us?
Well, first of all, I think it's important for us to understand
the functions and the offices of God's church, that it's
important for us to understand how God has structured his
church because again, it's his church, not our church.
It is not for us to be able to decide how we are to
administrate the church. We administrate the church God's
way when we don't have anywhere where the Bible tells us exactly
what we are to do. We have liberty to do what we
were to do, but we cannot do anything that is apart from the
biblical teachings and the precepts that we find in the
Word of God. Maybe even tonight you're
hearing this and you're saying pastor.
This message isn't encouraging to me.
Maybe you would say as a woman in the church, this doesn't even
pertain to me. What good is it?
Maybe you're a man who has been divorced and you say, what good
is this to me? Is there even any value that I
have within the church? And could I say in both of those
situations, and I want to say this aesthetically as possible,
so I want you to look at me and my beady eyes so that you know
what I'm saying here tonight is that if you are a member of
Liberty Baptist Church, you have great value in this church.
That just because you may not be able to hold a certain office,
that you have great value and dignity to Almighty God and God
can still use you. Pastor Pert, of course, our
pastor for a couple of years before we came and started this
church. Pastor Pert told the story to me
many years ago of a man that was part of his church in Saint
Catherine, Florida. Yeah, how do you like Saint
Catherine Baptist Church? That's a weird sound in church
name is that sounds like Catholic and Baptist thrown
together, isn't it? But was Saint is Saint Catherine
the area? But actually it got incorporated
into Bushnell, FL. So Saint Catherine didn't even
exist anymore, but you still had Saint Catherine Baptist Church
and it's like we don't believe in Saints.
But anyway, they changed the name.
But anyway, getting back to to what we're saying is Pastor Perk
taught on being a biblical Deacon and their church was big
enough at that time where there was the need for two or three
men to be deacons. He had a faithful man that came
up to him after church, been divorced and remarried.
He was heartbroken. He said, pastor, I want to be a
Deacon and brother Pert said, well, you understand what the
Bible says. I would want nothing more for
you, but I can't do above and beyond what the Bible says.
You understand that I have to hold to what?
To the word, what the word of God says.
And he says, no, I do pastor, I do, but breaks my heart.
I didn't always live for God, but I'm living for him now.
And I just want to help. I just want to do more.
I just want to serve. And Pastor Pert said this, and
it's something that I've said so many times.
Over the years he looked that man in the eye and he said this.
He called him by name. He says do you want the title or
do you want the job? He says you may never hold the
title of Deacon because of what the Bible says, but you can have
the job of being a server of tables.
And that man was faithful. I think at the beginning of
Liberty Baptist Church, and I've told you the stories before
about how we went out and went on deputation.
We met Dan and Dora Woodward, and through the situations of
their life, Dan Woodward was not able to be a biblical Deacon.
I remember talking to him once and there was some sorrow on his
part as well of not being able to fulfill that type of office.
And I remember telling him the story that I just told you.
And I said, Pastor Pert said, do you want the title or do you
want the job? I said, you boy, you can, you
can be a help to me so I can labor in the word and prayer.
And can I tell you, for those first few years before God moved
them back to Syracuse, I can't think of a man or woman that
were greater helps than Dan and Dora Woodward, A man that was
divorced disqualified, a woman disqualified.
But boy, did their ministry count at Liberty Baptist Church.
So if you take from what is said here tonight, well, I guess I
can't serve God, you've missed the point because God can use
you greater than you can imagine.
And you may not be able to fulfill the office of Deacon,
but you can serve tables. You say, what should I, you
know? You know, you work at a
restaurant, something like that. Serve tables.
Now, listen, I tried that once and it was 3 days, the most
miserable three days. I don't believe in purgatory,
but if there was a purgatory, it'd be a lot like serving
tables at IHOP. It just would never end, all
right? You just keep going and keep
going and never ends. But there is no purgatory.
So don't get weird on me, OK? But the idea is this is that
serving tables just means this. I'm going to serve others, and
I'm going to serve others on behalf of those in leadership
who can't do those things. Can I just give you a little bit
of my heart here for the last few minutes?
I hope I've given you my heart for the last 30 or so minutes.
But there are things as a pastor that I know that I'm not doing
as well as I need to do. There are things that I know as
a pastor that I would like to do during a typical work week, if
you will, that are sometimes very hard to do Why?
Because there's a lot of administration that takes place.
There are bulletins that have to be made.
There are orders of service that have to be prepared.
There's social media that has to be put together, you say, well,
as a social media big deal in and of itself, no, But it does
help us reach people who are out in the community.
And we found that for low cost or sometimes no cost, we're able
to reach a great amount of people.
So, so yes, it, it's needful there.
There's more paperwork than you could possibly imagine for a
church that averages around 50 people on Sunday morning.
It's amazing. But you know what my heart is?
There's people that need to be visited that every week I need
to be out there visiting. There's new people that I need
to be at their door. Just I'm from Liberty Baptist
Church. I'm the pastor.
I'd like to tell you about Jesus Christ.
There's people have gotten saved that need discipleship.
There's messages that need to get ready and prepared.
Well, you say, pastor, do we need deacons?
Let's sign them up, let's get them.
Let's have a vote tonight. That was not my purpose.
But I would say this, what we may not need is people with
Deacon titles, but we do need people that will take the job a
little bit here, a little bit there.
A lot of it's my fault because I'm loathe often time to be able
to give some of this work to other people.
Because again, I want you to know how hard that I work for
you. And I don't want to give some of
these things to other people who are already working 40 hour a
week jobs. But I can tell you this, that if
I was not to do a bulletin, or if I was not to do computer
work, or if I was not to do graphics, I could find some
other things to do that deal with ministering the Word of God
and prayer. And I would love that.
What does it mean? It means that all of us, as best
we can serve tables, wait to serve me.
No, that that's the opposite. Serving tables means you serve
others. That I can't do it all the
apostles couldn't do it all someone else had to So do we
have biblical deacons tonight as a church, we do not will we in
the future by God's grace, we will.
I don't have a timeline on that. I'm not purpose to put a exact
timeline on it. It's not needed.
We'll just pray and as the Lord leads we'll we'll look at that
in the future. But I do know this you may not
have the title. It could be you could never have
the title, but you have value to God.
You can serve God and you could have the job.
It reminds me of someone named Dorcas, a woman, a woman who
ended up helping a whole church that loved that church and serve
that church so much that they were willing to go out on a limb
and bring Peter from another town and say, could you bring
this woman back to life because we need her.
If that woman could change a church, it doesn't take a Deacon
to change a church. It just takes someone who's
willing to serve tables. Thank you for listening to the
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
info@mylibertybaptist.org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.