In 'The New Testament Deacon, Part 7,' Jason Dohm discusses the significant role of deacons in the church, reflecting on his own experiences as both a deacon and an elder. He emphasizes that deacons are not just an executive board or maintenance crew, but are integral to the church's operations, serving in roles that require integrity, wisdom, and spirituality. Using Acts chapter 6, Dohm illustrates how deacons allow elders to focus on prayer and ministry of the Word by managing other crucial church functions. The proper functioning of both roles ensures the church is well cared for, with each group focusing on distinct but complementary ministries. The sermon stresses the importance of selecting deacons based on specific criteria such as good reputation and being full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, aligning with the qualifications in 1 Timothy chapter 3. Dohm concludes by highlighting the need for a balanced church environment where all members, not just deacons, are encouraged to serve.

It's great to have Jason Dome here from Sovereign Redeemer Community Church. Most of you know him. Some of you don't know him, but Jason and I have been going to church together for over a quarter of a century. How about that? And I've been his elder.

We've served together side by side in home groups, Bible studies, and different things like that, men's groups, and he has been an elder. After he was an elder, he even became a deacon, and then he became an elder again but it's a joy Jason to have you here to come and teach us about something that you've been working with over under around and through for a long long time so please welcome Jason Dome. Well thank you. Our topic this afternoon is the New Testament Deacon. The ministry of the New Testament Deacon.

As Scott mentioned, I've been an elder for a number of years before I ever became a Deacon, and I had a young family. Scott and I had started Hope Baptist together, and a couple of years in, we still didn't have deacons, and we didn't have men who felt like they was at the right time of their life to take on that work. And I had just really been inspired by reading Alexander Strouk's book on the New Testament Deacon. And I desired the work, especially as a young father, I was finding that it was very difficult to bring my family into the work of an elder. But seeing many opportunities to bring my family into the work of a deacon and in serving the church in various ways.

And so I did that for over a year with the intent of just keeping on being a deacon. And it worked out over a year later that circumstances just made it advantageous to become an elder again. But the theory proved true, really. Our family worked together in some increased ways and wonderful ways being a deacon and serving the church together. So I really value my time as a deacon.

If you grew up In a church, especially a Southern Baptist Church, you might know of deacons as forming an executive board. They make decisions, they hire and fire pastors. Or sort of on the other end of the spectrum, you might know of deacons who are building maintenance and the grounds crew, and the janitors who really just take care of the menial labor that is required to keep churches functioning. Whether you have experience with either or both of those, neither one of them originate in the Bible. That's really not, neither one of them is anywhere close to what the Bible would say about what deacons are and the work that they should be doing in local churches.

If you have not read Alexander Strouk's book on the New Testament deacon, I just highly recommend it. I meant to bring it to hold it up, but I forgot it. And you know what books look like, it looks like that. As we come to the scriptures, we're gonna turn to Acts six and spend our time there. Let's ask the Lord to help us.

Father, I thank you for your people. We were not a people, but now we're the people of God because of the mercy of your Son, Jesus. Thank you for His grace in our lives that you have brought us together to live lives in a local church, to make progress in the faith, to lift up Jesus, to worship you in the communities where you placed us. Thank you for the different gifts that you put in every church, the diversity of gifts among all the members of the church and the offices of the local church, elders and deacons. Your wisdom is on display in it.

We desire to embrace your wisdom. Pray that you would teach us from Your Word today in Jesus' name, amen. So if you're open to Acts chapter 6, I'd like to read verses 1 through 7 and then talk about them. Acts chapter 6, beginning in verse 1. Now in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.

Then the Twelve summoned the multitude of disciples and said, It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the Word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Tymon, Parmenes, and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. Then the Word of God spread and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.

In Acts chapter 2, in the lead up to the text that we're looking at, in Acts chapter 2, it's the day of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit comes and the people gather to see this curiosity. The Christians there are speaking in all the languages that are represented at Jerusalem at the time of Pentecost. And Peter preaches a very powerful sermon and 3, 000 people are converted and baptized. So the church grows from 120 people to 3, 120 people in one day. Talk about church growth.

And in Acts 6, the problems associated with that kind of growth began to catch up with the church. In verse 1, there's a complaint. So now you know that the honeymoon is over. I'm sure it was a sweet honeymoon with the Holy Spirit being so present in that church. But now things are not right and people are complaining.

In Acts chapter 2, they had all things in common and they were breaking bread from house to house with gladness and sincerity of heart. In Acts chapter 6, people are complaining and it's not just any complaining, it's complaining over a real failure in the ministry of the church. In other words, it's not made up. There's a real failure in the ministry of the church, and it's resulted in unhappiness bubbling up in the church. There's a daily distribution of provision for widows.

That's good, but there's a big gap. The Hebrew widows are being cared for and the Greek widows are not being cared for. So you can see the sensitivity of this. First, it has to do with money. A lot of problems in churches have to do with money and how the money gets allocated.

Secondly, this has to do with ministry to the most vulnerable women in the church, elderly widows. And thirdly, they're not starting from scratch. The nerves are already raw. And from these three sensitivities, it deals with money, it deals with ministry of the most vulnerable women in the church, and the nerves are already raw. This is not something that you would just pick someone randomly to handle, agreed?

This is not just someone you would say, you know, you, you, and you. You definitely want to appoint people who you are sure will handle it with integrity and in a godly way. And this is what we see happens. In verse 2, the 12, the men responsible for leading this church in Jerusalem bring the church together and they outline the problem. They say, it is not desirable that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables.

Now that word that's been rendered serve, serve tables there, is the base word for the same Greek word that's rendered deacons. In other words, if we were translating consistently, we would say, it is not desirable that we should leave the Word of God and deacon tables. Because a deacon is really just a word. If you were to literally bring it over, you would just say servant. A deacon is a servant.

A servant is a deacon. It is a specific official office in the church. But the Greek word itself means servant. And here's a question for you. Have you ever fixed a problem only to discover that your fix was actually, it compounded the problem rather than solving it.

The apostles see that they're in great danger of fixing the problem in a way that actually compounds the problem rather than alleviating. Here's what I mean. They know if they become the solution that they'll abandon their posts as men who ought to be devoted to prayer and the ministry of the Word. They understand that the problem isn't the problem. The problem is a symptom of the problem, which is the church has not set aside men of verified integrity to serve in that capacity in the church so that they can serve in their capacity of the church.

They understand that what the church needs more than anything else is prayer and the ministry of the Word. The Twelve understand that these two things must be their priority. Verse four, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. We will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. At the same time, they acknowledge that there are other very important ministries in the church that also require devotion.

In other words, If we're making a pyramid, at the top of the pyramid, we would put prayer in the ministry of the Word, but it doesn't mean there's nothing else to the pyramid. There are other important things in the church that need attention, require attention, and care of the widows is a great example of that. When I first became a Christian, there was a pamphlet going around called Tyranny of the Urgent. Has anybody ever read Tyranny of the Urgent? It was really going around in the late 70s, early 80s.

Here's the premise of it. Charles Hummel wrote it, and he observes a conflict between important things that are not as urgent, In other words, they're really, really important, but they can wait until tomorrow or the next day. And urgent things that are not as important, not to say that they're not important, but they're not as important, but you have to do them right now. You have to drop what you're doing and giving them attention now. And Hummel in the Tyranny of the Urgent observes the tendency of the urgent things to win out even over more important things.

In other words, if I'm faced with something that has to, I have to drop everything and do now, my tendency is to drop everything and to do it now and to put off until tomorrow the thing that was more important but not as urgent. This is true of any elder team at any church. It really seems like sermon prep can wait until tomorrow, and that praying for the church, the activities of the church, the teaching of the church, the people of the church can wait until we tackle this urgent thing except that there's a never-ending stream of those urgent things. In other words, As soon as I settle this urgent thing, there will be another one tomorrow that will put off sermon prep and praying for the church another day, and then there will be another thing and the prayer and the ministry of the Word will never get the devotion that God is calling for. So God has given us separate but complementary ministries in the local church.

That's what we have with elders and deacons. Separate but complementary, meaning they fit together, hand in glove. And the effectiveness of any elder team is tied directly to having or not having a team of qualified deacons who are functioning properly. I'll say that again because it's really sort of the thesis, I think, of this text. The effectiveness of any elder team is directly tied to having or not having a team of qualified deacons who are functioning properly.

In other words, unless you have that, your elders cannot devote themselves continually to the work that God has given them to do to focus on shepherding and prayer in the ministry of the Word. The elders shepherd the church, leading and devoting themselves to the prayer and the ministry of the Word, and the deacons apply themselves to serving people in sensitive areas like distribution to widows that need to be handled by Christian men whose maturity in the faith has been verified. There's always something like that going on in the church where it needs attention by Christian men whose maturity has been verified. Having separate but complementary ministries keeps the church out of a situation where prayer and the ministry of the Word compete for resources with mercy and benevolence. Do you want that in the church?

Do you want an environment and circumstances and your structure to be where prayer and the ministry of the Word competes for limited resources with mercy and benevolence. In other words, when mercy and benevolence wins, prayer in the ministry of the Word loses. When prayer in the ministry of the Word wins, mercy and benevolence loses. In Acts Chapter 6, the apostles answer that with wisdom, knowing they do not want a structure in the local church where these things compete with each other because they're both so essential to the life of a local church. So the deaconate, the group of deacons, is not a step on the career path to eldership.

Now last week we had one of our deacons that we installed to become an elder. There's nothing wrong with that, but that's not essential either. A deacon is not an elder in training. A deacon might be an elder in training, but not necessarily. A man in the congregation can go from being a member in the congregation to an elder as easily as a deacon can become an elder.

There's nothing inappropriate for an elder saying, this is the time of my life, I'm inspired by what I see, the deacon ministry and being in the church, I'd rather not be an elder now and become a deacon. That's completely appropriate from time to time. The deacon ministry is a separate ministry that supercharges the eldership by allowing them to be devoted to prayer and the ministry of the Word. And does that mean that elders don't serve and deacons don't preach? No.

They are preaching deacons, praise God, for them, and they are serving elders. Elders, I know I do my fair share of set up and tear down at Sovereign Redeemer Community Church. I'm happy to do it, and it doesn't distract me from prayer and the ministry of the Word. But the question is, what are you devoted to? What are you devoted to?

Elders can never be devoted, can never afford to be devoted to prayer in the ministry of the Word unless there is a robust deacon ministry in the church. Verse 3, Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business." Now what do we learn from this verse? First, responsibility is given to the brethren. Alexander Strauch argues, and I believe argues compellingly, that deacons are actually nominated from the membership, from the brethren in the church. And in this text we see the apostles calling the brethren brethren and treating the brethren as brethren.

They actually give them the responsibility to identify the men who will serve the church in this way. But at the same time it isn't a blank check. This process that we see in Acts chapter 6 happens under the direction of the leadership of the church and they give the brethren guidelines. They say seek out men who fit four criteria. They're men, by the way if you're if you're going to argue anywhere for women deacons, I think you would argue for it in Acts chapter 6, because it is ministry to widows in the church.

That's why I believe that Deacon is an office of the church that ought to be restricted by men because that's what we see here. They say seek out men who fit four criteria. They're men, they're of good reputation, meaning They've earned the esteem of their brethren in the church. They're full of the Holy Spirit. How do you know if someone's full of the Holy Spirit?

Well, it's not that they speak in tongues. It's that they have the fruit of the Spirit. Fourth, they're full of wisdom. Deacons are going to be engaged in sensitive mercy ministry in the church, and they must be full of wisdom. And this is exactly what we see in 1 Timothy chapter 3.

In 1 Timothy chapter 3, we actually get a list of qualifications, and Paul in 1 Timothy 3 says these first must also be tested, meaning you have to test them against the qualifications in 1 Timothy chapter 3 before they serve as deacons. But if you were to take that list and compare it to men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit, and full of wisdom, you could map them. You could map all of those qualifications to one of these broader categories that's mentioned in Acts chapter 6. A specific number is given, seven. Is that a magic number?

Should all churches have seven deacons? I don't think so. I think they sized it probably to the work. The importance is having a plurality of men who can attend to those needs in the church. And then they say, whom we may appoint over this business.

So again, it's not a blank check. They give criteria for the men that are to be sought out, And then they will be the ones to appoint them over this business after they're brought forward by the congregation. In the following two chapters, we learn a lot about the caliber of the men who are deacons. In Acts chapter 7, it's Stephen, the deacon, who preaches one of my favorite sermons in the New Testament and then he's martyred. That's the caliber of a man who was a deacon in that church.

In Acts chapter 8 we see Philip the deacon who is an evangelist who baptizes the Ethiopian eunuch, a powerful spiritual man of God. So again, this is not the maintenance team. This is not the grounds crew. These are spiritually powerful men who are given a distinct and important role in the church that fits hand in glove with the elders and the responsibilities that are given to them. In verses 5 through 7, we have the conclusion.

What's the conclusion? The approach pleases the whole multitude. In verse 5, remember, we started with complaining. Now we have a pleased multitude. So this puts on display the wisdom of what God is doing in the church through the apostles.

We started with complaining, now we have a pleased multitude. They choose seven men and the apostles pray and lay hands on them, the laying on of hands is to commission them to begin doing the work that God is giving them to do in the church. And it shows the seriousness of it. If this wasn't a serious matter and if this wasn't serious men being put into serious work, you would not have them brought before the congregation with the laying on of hands and initiating them into the work in that fashion. Verse 7, then the Word of God spread and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.

It worked. It worked. The bomb, the contention bomb that we started with has been diffused, and the ministry of the Word is flourishing in this church. The gospel is being preached with power. You have a church that's being well cared for.

The ministry of mercy and benevolence is being handled in a godly way. There are no more gaps, at least not at this time, because these seven men who are spiritual men are attending to the work and The apostles are continually devoting themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word, and people are being saved. Conclusion, the local church needs deacons. Every local church, if it's going to have effective elders, must have effective deacons for all the reasons that are apparent in this text. This is an office established by God for the blessing of the local church.

It is a separate but complementary ministry to the eldership, And it allows both groups to devote themselves to important needs of the church without those needs competing. I think that is the big takeaway from this text. It allows both groups, the elders and the deacons, to devote themselves continually to important needs of the church without those needs competing for limited resources. So that when prayer and the ministry of the Word wins, it doesn't mean that mercy and benevolence loses. Or when mercy and benevolence wins, it doesn't mean that prayer and the ministry of the word loses.

They can both flourish within the same church at the same time. It increases the ministry of mercy in the church. This is about, I should have said this in the first sentence, this is about care for the Lord's people. Okay, on both sides, the elders caring for the Lord's people and the deacons caring for the Lord's people. God wants His people lavishly cared for, and He's given us these two offices.

And that is the great end to it, is that the Lord's people would be cared for well, lavishly. One caution, I'll end with this caution. A culture can be created where the brethren aren't required to serve. Meaning if you have really hardworking deacons, they can create an environment where the rest of the church just has to show up and be fed. You know what?

If you want a miserable church, do that. Deacons should try to work themselves out of things that they're doing so that they can focus more of their time on mercy ministry within the church. And so that other members of the church also have an opportunity to have responsibility for things that don't necessarily require a deacon but are in need of the church. We're all more happy when we're invested here. Nothing makes us miserable by coming, having nothing to give, nothing ever being required of us.

So deacons, especially particularly competent, hard-working deacons, have to be aware of the danger of that. They can do it. They have the ability and energy to do it, but it robs the church of the blessing of serving the church. You don't want all the service consolidated in the deacons. So, these are complementary functions.

It's not like the executive branch and the legislative branch where it's a balance of power. That actually happens through plurality of eldership, but they work on different things so that both teams can be devoted to different distinct but important needs within the church. Let's pray. Father, I pray it would be so. I pray it would be so at Sovereign Redeemer.

I thank you for the deacons that you've given us there and a blessing that they are to the church every week. The things, I don't even know how they function. They just function reliably. How well people are cared for when there's a need for benevolence or mercy within the church, how those things are handled by godly, spiritual, faithful men in a way that allows me to focus my time on prayer and the ministry of the word, shepherding. God, I pray that you would give Hope Baptist this in increasing abundance, that this would be a church that other churches look to see well cared for people in the church.

Oh, let your people be lavishly cared for. Make us all a people, whether we have an office in the church or whether we serve in ways that are outside an official office. Let us all be people who are willing to spend and be spent for the good of your people and the advancement of your kingdom. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.