The Origin of Deacons

I. At the end of the service today we will be ordaining two new deacons, so we’re going to talk about Acts 6:1-7 and the origin of deacons.
II. Acts 6:1-7
 A. The way this whole thing got started
  1. Jesus coming, announcing a new day, teaching, doing miracles, then dying on the cross for us upon the cross. Then being raised from the dead and ascending to heaven. Then pouring out His Spirit upon His people on the day of Pentecost. Many amazing things happened among the believers in those early days of the church.
  2. One of the effects all this had was the spontaneous generosity which occurred in the first church.
   a. Acts 2:44–45 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
   b. Acts 4:32–35 The full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common...34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
  3. So, two things:
   a. The people shared with each other as there was need.
   b. It was done through the apostles.
 B. Now we’re a couple chapters later
  1. In chapter 5 Ananias and Sapphira tried to use this new flood of generosity in a sinful way.
 C. Two kinds of Christians in the church of Jerusalem
  1. Two kinds of Jews in Jerusalem at Pentecost: Greek-speaking versus Hebrew-speaking
   a. Those who lived in the area, and those who lived elsewhere in the Roman empire, who were there in Jerusalem for the Passover.
  2. Two kinds of Jewish Christians in the church
   a. All the original apostles and followers of Jesus were Hebrew-speaking.
   b. 3000 predominately Greek-speaking conversions at Pentecost
   c. 5000 predominantly Hebrew-speaking conversions (counting men only) as a result of the healing of the lame man
   d. The Hebrew-speaking Jews were now solidly in the majority
 D. How did the two groups communicate with each other?
  1. Probably all of them knew Greek to some degree, but only as a second language, and with different accents.
  2. And the Hebrew-speakers continued to speak Hebrew with each other, and tended to think of this as God’s language as opposed to the world’s language.
  3. So communication was awkward at times between them.
 E. So far they’ve gotten along pretty well, as far as we know. Some of the Hebrew-speaking believers even sell their possessions and properties in order to provide for needs of the Greek-speaking ones.
 F. But now the Greek-speaking Jews begin to complain that their widows are being neglected in the daily distribution of food.
  1. (Hebrew-speaking Jews were probably in charge, thus the neglect. They were preferring their own to the neglect of the Greek-speaking widows.)
 G. The care of widows: couldn’t take care of themselves because their husbands were gone and they didn’t have the means to earn enough income.
 H. So the apostles gathered together to discuss what to do about this problem.
  1. It was obvious that this program of providing food for the widows needed godly oversight, and there was probably therefore some impulse to take over the distribution of food themselves to make sure it would be done equitably.
  2. But in the end it was decided that the Lord wanted them to find other godly men in the congregation who could wisely oversee this food distribution, and that these men should be selected by the congregation itself.
 I. So they called a congregational meeting and announced their decision and held an election by which seven men were chosen to serve in this capacity.
  1. The names of all seven are Greek names as opposed to Hebrew names: Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus.
  2. There are two possibilities of why a man would have a Greek name:
   a. He was a Hellenistic Jew. (What is a Hellenistic Jew?)
   b. He was a Hebrew-speaking Jew who spent a lot time in the Greek world, and was therefore given a Greek name (e.g. Cephas, Paul)
  3. So, the election of these seven men by the predominantly Hebrew-speaking congregation seems to show that they really didn’t want any inequity in the care of the widows.
  4. And the Hebrew apostles ordained these Hellenistic Jewish men with the laying on of hands, setting them apart for this ministry, conferring the authority upon them they needed and the blessing of God upon their service.
 J. And this episode concludes by saying that “the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and [even] a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.” (Perhaps this included some of Zacharias' relatives.)
III. There are two offices in the NT church.
 A. 1Tim.3:1-13 qualifications of both (elders referred to as overseers)
 B. Philippians 1:1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:
 C. But why then does it mention elders, deacons, and overseers (sometimes translated bishops)?
  1. It’s because overseers/bishops and elders are the same thing in the NT.
  2. Elder refers to their age and bishop/overseer refers to their task.
  3. The fact that they are the same office is clear from a number of passages:
   a. Acts 20:17-18, 28-30 Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. 18 And when they came to him, he said to them: “...Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.”
   b. See also Titus 1:5–9; 1Peter 5:1–3
IV. Why we think these seven men in Acts 6 are deacons
 A. No name is given to those in Acts 6 who are elected to serve in this way.
 B. Acts 6:4 Though the word deacon is not used in this passage, the cognate, diakonia, is used here for ministry and in v. 1 for serving.
 C. 1Tim.3:8-13 Qualifications of deacons: but without Acts 6:1-7, there is no description of what the role of a deacon is. Why would God give us the qualifications of an office without telling us what those officers are supposed to do?
 D. Deacon means servant, which seems very much in line with the role of these men in Acts 6.
V. Minor applications
 A. Problems arise in churches and need to be worked out.
 B. The church’s testimony must be protected. If something in the church is being done badly, it needs to be addressed. We can’t be a place where things get swept under the carpet.
 C. Congregational meetings are Biblical. Church officers are Biblical.
 D. The church governs itself through its elected leaders.
 E. It is possible to get sidetracked by legitimate needs from more important duties. (Priorities)
 F. There is a time to do a job yourself and there is a time to delegate it to someone else.
VI. Major applications
 A. Generosity in caring for one another isn’t the deacons’s work. It is the congregation’s work.
  1. Note how they cared for each other & provided for each other long before deacons were ever set up. Generosity & sharing of resources is an integral part of Christ’s church.
  2. Note the congregation’s responsibility to meet one another’s earthly needs in the epistles:
   a. Rom.12:10-13 “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.” (Cf. 1John 3:17)
  3. This doesn’t transfer the job of caring for one another to the deacons.
   a. The congregation is responsible to make sure the caring happens.
   b. The deacons simply manage and organize the caring.
  4. They were put in charge of overseeing it, not of doing it.
  5. And that’s exactly what deacons are supposed to do. They are not supposed to be the ones doing all the serving. They are not supposed to be the ones doing all the meeting of needs.
  6. Their primary job is to oversee the ministry of serving one another which believers have toward each other, to make sure it is done in a just and appropriate fashion.
  7. In doing this, they protect the elders from tasks which might distract them from their calling to minister the word and pray.
 B. Impulse and structure
  1. The diaconate was a structure set up to manage and organize the impulse of the Spirit.
   a. I don’t mean the HS didn’t lead them to set it up. I believe He did.
   b. But the impulse wasn’t enough. It needed to be organized.
  2. The church is a structure which God has set up to manage and organize the impulse of the HS too.
   a. The church is not the message of hope, the gospel is.
   b. But the church is the structure God has given us where the message is proclaimed and loved and hopefully lived out.
  3. The problem
   a. Sometimes the structure lives on after the impulse has died.
   b. And then sometimes those who have the impulse, being legitimately outraged or turned off by the presence of the struccture with no impulse, reject the structure (as if the structure is the problem).
  4. I believe that Christ’s call is to have the impulse and the structure, to have the house and the loving family living in it, to have the body and the life/breath which make the body alive.
   a. If we have the structure but no impulse, we have nothing.
   b. If we have the impulse without the structure, then the children of God wander around homeless.