The Deacon: A Steward in the Household of God

The point: Turn in your Bibles and follow along as I read.

Martin shares the wonderful news of his wife's cancer pathology report showing 'no tumor,' illustrating God's goodness and mercy and prompting gratitude for prayers, setting a tone of rejoicing in God's work.

Some of you would have left your churches and the place of your normal dwelling before your pastors or someone in your church received an email that we were delighted to send out from the church office yesterday, apprising the people of God literally all around the world who have borne in this trial that we have had in the past year and a half with my wife's bout with cancer, the wonderful news that in our consult with the surgeon yesterday, I took away in my hands, and I've practically memorized it, the report from the pathologist, and in the three major groupings of tissue that were removed,...

0:28 - 1:51 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines a steward as 'one officially entrusted with the management of the property or possessions of another,' emphasizing accountability to the master. He extensively uses…

He humorously notes the lack of 'emails and overnight delivery' for the unrighteous steward to notify creditors, highlighting the steward's cunning in altering accounts before his dismissal was widely known.

So with no emails and no overnight delivery for the boss man to send a notification, to all of those with whom he had accounts, this scoundrel has been relieved of his responsibility, anticipating that it hasn't yet reached out to all of those with whom he had accounts. He goes ahead and he alters those accounts and chops down what is owed. And then the master later on commends the unrighteous steward, verse eight, because he had done wisely. Now, without raising the questions, this passage inevitably raises, when we read it and try to understand it, raises more questions if we try to preach i...

13:00 - 13:43 Read in full sermon

Driving home: A steward is often a slave to whom his master and owner entrust property which he is to administer. In both terms, attendants, servants, and stewards, the prominent idea is that of complete subordination to a master, and…

Martin quotes Lenski's commentary on 1 Corinthians 4:1-2, which clarifies that a steward is subordinate to a master, administers property, and is specially accountable, reinforcing the biblical definition of stewardship.

A concept that would assume that he は that would have registered in the minds of those who heard this letter read to them in the first century. A steward is one officially entrusted with the management of the property or possessions of another, is under solemn obligation to manage the owner's goods according to the owner's revealed will and in the consciousness of his accountability to the owner. Lenski underscores these various elements in his comments on the stewardship passage in 1 Corinthians 4, verses 1 and 2, where Paul speaks of himself and his fellow laborers as both servants and stewa...

20:05 - 21:20 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin answers that a good steward is found 'faithful' or 'trustworthy,' as seen in 1 Corinthians 4:1-2 and Luke 12:42. He reinforces this with the commendations in the parables…

Martin quotes John Brown's perceptive statement defining unprofitable, unfaithful, and unwise stewards, which helps to clarify by contrast what a faithful steward is not.

He who neglects the gift that is in him is an unprofitable steward. He who converts it into a means of gaining selfish objects, the gratification of his own private taste, or the purposes of self-interest or ambition, instead of devoting it to the edification of his brethren, such a one is an unfaithful steward. He who, instead of cultivating and exercising his own gift, attempts to exercise a gift he has not received, and in this way occupy a field for which he is not fitted, and others are fitted, is an unwise steward. So the faithful steward is the opposite of the unprofitable, the unfaithf...

32:20 - 33:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not be tempted, in the more practical, mundane affairs of the diaconate, to think there is no need for a felt sense of the strength, the might of God for that service.

Martin uses the analogy of God 'throwing curves' by linking divine strength explicitly to serving gifts rather than speaking gifts, challenging common assumptions and highlighting God's unexpected ways.

Well, it's interesting that the reference to the might of God is not in conjunction with speaking gifts. If any man speaks, speaking as it were oracles of God, but it's if any man serves, if any man deacons, as of the strength, as of the might which God supplies. God loves to throw curves at us. I wouldn't have put it that way, would you?

36:26 - 36:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize your particular gift or gifts with sober assessment and be content with what God has given, not grousing or grumbling.

He describes Peter's heart 'jumping in between his head and his pen' when writing about God's glory, illustrating the apostle's deep emotional response and passion for God's ultimate purpose.

And he says when those people who recognize their gifts and their identity and function as stewards of those gifts of God's grace and they do so out of the strength which God supplies, the great end secured is the glory of God through Jesus Christ. And he cannot say those words without his heart. Jumping in between his head and his pen, to whom be the dominion and the glory, or the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

38:36 - 39:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize your particular gift or gifts with sober assessment and be content with what God has given, not grousing or grumbling.

Martin uses the vivid metaphor that 'God is showing off in His church' to principalities and powers, emphasizing that the church's faithful functioning brings glory to God.

Amen. This is Peter's echoing of Paul's words in Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3. That wonderful text that speaks of God's purposes in the church in the present day to the intent that now, verse 10, unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God.

40:54 - 41:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Glory and revel in the privilege of being gifted to be a deacon.

He reminds deacons that Christ said, 'I am among you as He that deacons,' and 'I then your Lord and Master washed your feet,' illustrating that diaconal service reflects the very disposition and character of Christ.

I am among you as He that what? As He that deacons. I'm among you as He that serves. I then your Lord and Master washed your feet.

43:47 - 44:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Continually and periodically remind yourself that your position as a deacon is a constant reminder that God is determined that the priority of preaching and prayer will not be eroded.

He recounts the historical context of the diaconate's origin (Acts 6) when the devil sought to challenge the priority of preaching and prayer through a noble ministry to widows, illustrating the deacon's role in protecting the church's core mission.

And when you remember that this office came to birth when the devil was seeking to challenge through a very noble ministry the ministry to needy widows was seeking to challenge that priority of preaching and prayer. Your position in that office is a constant reminder that God is determined that that priority will not be eroded even by something so sacred as ministering to widows tables. And you ought continually and periodically to remind yourself of this. And then go back over that wonderful promise.

45:33 - 46:11 Read in full sermon