Introduction & Biblical Framework

The Deacon's Uniform: The Servant's Towel

0:00 The following is the opening session delivered on April 14, 2000, during the Trinity Baptist Deacons Conference held at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. The preacher is Pastor Alan Dunn from the Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey, and is entitled, Introduction and Framework. It's often the case that various companies will give their employees visible emblems of their rank and their status in their organization. Perhaps they might give them rewards of various kinds that mark them out as particularly valued and distinguished men,

0:50 distinguished laborers in their organization. Perhaps they are such that these men even might wear a uniform. That would distinguish them and that would rank them, if you will, amongst those who labor for that particular company. and in our time together today and tomorrow, it's indeed our hope that you might come to a sense of your distinguished rank, if you will, your distinguished value in the church of Jesus Christ, that we might minister one to another something of the value that Christ places upon the ministry of the deacon.

1:39 upon the ministry that you have taken to yourselves by the grace of God amongst the people of God. So what kind of uniform ought you to be given in order to mark you out as a valued and distinguished laborer in the church of Jesus Christ? What kind of uniform should we give to men whose schedules are very, very demanding, whose responsibilities in the workplace are often above average because of the amount of labor that you're willing to give, the capabilities that God has endowed you with, what kind of uniform ought we give to men

2:28 whose hearts are large toward their families and whose concerns and cares for their home is a priority in their lives that are not willing to relinquish their responsibilities to their wives and to their children, to the stewardship of their home, while maintaining responsibility in the workplace and the demands upon them in so many sectors. What uniform do we give to men who have, nonetheless, very large hearts with a burning desire for the glory of Christ in His church? And men who, with their plates very full, with many, many demands upon their lives, yet are willing to open up their hands and to extend themselves in labor and in service for Jesus Christ.

3:14 What kind of uniform? Well, it's the uniform, I believe, that we find Christ himself wearing. In John 13, verse 4 and 5, where we read that he rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and taking a towel, he girded himself about. he poured water into the basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded.

3:42 May our time together encourage you to put on the uniform of the servant and to wear that uniform with the dignity that befits the ministry of the Son of God himself. May you be strengthened to serve Christ and to serve his people. For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a high standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. My assignment this morning is to attempt to set the ministry of the deacon in its biblical context.

Anchoring the Diaconate in the Doctrine of God: Identification with the Poor

4:24 I'm going to attempt to do that by anchoring the labor and ministry of the diaconate first in the doctrine of God, then in the doctrine of Christ, and then in the doctrine of redemption. Like that employee who puts on his uniform, that uniform and that labor represents the history of the company. It represents the integrity of their product. It represents the credibility of their entire organization.

5:00 So too, you as deacons need to see yourselves against the backdrop of all that you represent when you embrace the tasks of your office, that you come into serving Jesus Christ and his people, bearing testimony for his name, having something to say to men about the God that you serve, about the Christ in whose name you minister, and about the salvation that you are seeking to advance through your diaconal efforts. We want to first of all then this morning consider the ministry of the deacon is rooted in the heart of God. The ministry of the deacon

5:45 is rooted in the heart of God. We want to see, first of all, under this main heading, that God identifies with the poor. The heart of God is such that He gravitates toward the poor and the needy. You can always tell a lot about someone by the company that they tend to keep, the people that they seem to make effort to befriend.

6:13 The God of the universe, whose majesty and grandeur exceeds our capacity to comprehend.

6:24 This God takes a peculiar delight in befriending those who are weak, defenseless, and without any provider. We see Him in the Old Testament. identifying with a group of slaves in Egypt. People who have no defense, people who have no recourse, people who are oppressed, overwhelmed, and who are glaringly needy.

6:56 Those people are the people God draws near to and seeks to be their deliverer. Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians that God has chosen the foolish, the weak, the base, the despised, the things that are not.

7:14 God chooses nobodies, nothings. The things that would otherwise be not only unattractive, but in some degree even repulsive to us. And we're jolted by the preferences of God. He seems to be attracted to things that repulse us, that can even initially be somewhat offensive to us.

7:41 But Jesus tells us that that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God. God befriends the destitute, the needy, the impoverished. God puts his arms around people that are very hard to love.

7:59 And he does this so that he might demonstrate the power of his transforming grace, that he would take a despised and base and otherwise repulsive people and transform them into a nation of priests and kings, that they might become his royal family and bear the glory of his name among men. God's resolve to identify with the poor is an adamant resolution. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 10.

8:42 Deuteronomy 10 and verse 16.

8:51 In Deuteronomy 10 verse 16, Circumcised then your heart and stiffen your neck no more. For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. He executes justice for the orphan and the widow and shows his love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

9:37 God particularly identifies with the orphan and the widow, the outcast, the stranger, the one who does not have an awful lot of resource. and he tells his people that we are to reflect his preferences, that we are to reflect his inclination, to reflect his heart, and that we are to come to those who are the destitute, the needy, the aliens, and we are to be to them their protectors, their providers, remembering that we also once were in bondage under the tyranny of our own sin and in great need of deliverance as well. Throughout the pages of the Old Testament, this kind of reference is found

10:24 where God is adamantly resolved to identify Himself with those who are the destitute, the impoverished, and the needy. In Psalm 68, we read that He even takes His dwelling place among those characterized as the poor, the homeless, the lonely, the needy. Psalm 68, verse 5 and 6. A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows is God in his holy habitation.

10:56 God makes a home for the lonely. He leads out the prisoners into prosperity. Only the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

11:08 God dwells and makes a home for those who have no other resource of hope than him. the more we trust in Him to satisfy our need, the more we find that need abundantly supplied. Now notice the contrast in terms of who God is speaking of here. The opposite of the poor, in verse 6,

11:36 is not the rich, but is the rebellious.

11:42 And we need to bear in mind as we look at this subject of the needy and the impoverished, how the Bible defines who are the poor and the true needy among men. Yes, they are often found in the circumstance of material and economic need. But that is often the circumstance that surrounds the issues of real poverty, which have to do with issues of the heart. For thus says the High and the Exalted One who lives forever.

12:15 whose name is Holy. I dwell on a high and holy place and also with the contrite of heart and the lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. The God who seeks habitation for the fatherless and the widows, for the lonely and the impoverished is a God that looks not only at the circumstances of their lives, but looks at their heart disposition. It looks at the heart that is contrite, a heart that is lonely, a heart that is poor in a spiritual sense.

12:58 Now, we cannot minimize the reality of material poverty, but we cannot allow ourselves to define the word poor solely in material terms. Material destitution often signifies something about men in their obvious need, and it is their greatest need that we seek to minister to. Nonetheless, we cannot minimize, on the other hand, the fact that God takes men's material concerns into His view. And there's something about the heart of God that is naturally drawn out, that is instinctively immediately drawn out when he beholds one of his image bearers

13:43 in a state of destitution and in a state of need. The heart of God is immediately drawn to the defenseless, the weak, the poor, the things that we often deem to be despised, to be base, to be nothing. God's government, therefore, that government that you as deacons hold office in is to reflect something of the heart of our God. A heart that is tender toward those whose needs are glaring.

14:18 Solomon speaks to his sons concerning the exercise of righteous government among the people of God. And says in Proverbs 14, 31, He who oppresses the poor reproaches his maker. but he who is gracious to the needy honors him. You see the assumption is what I'm asserting that God is identified with the needy.

14:43 God is identified with the poor. To reproach the poor is to reproach their maker. Proverbs 22, 22 and 23 Do not rob the poor because he is poor or crush the afflicted at the gate for the Lord will plead their case and take the life of those who rob them. The ministry of the deacon is rooted in the heart of God, a heart that identifies with the poor.

Anchoring the Diaconate in the Doctrine of God: Provision for the Poor

15:07 Secondly, the ministry of the deacon is rooted in the heart of God, the heart of the God who provides for the poor. God not only empathizes and identifies with the poor, but God actively goes about to provide for the poor. Now we know that the Creator is the sustainer and provider of all life. They all wait for thee to give them their food in due season.

15:35 Thou dost give to them, they gather it up, thou dost open thy hand, they are satisfied with good. Psalm 104, verse 27 and 28. But we read in Deuteronomy 10 and verse 18 that God provides clothing and food for the orphans and for the widows. How does He do that?

15:59 Do we see Him just zapping it into existence? Just pointing His finger and clothing materializes upon the backs of those who are destitute? What does God do? He uses means.

16:14 and the means that God is most often pleased to employ is the generosity of his people he takes a people who are otherwise self covetous greedy hoarding any changes their hearts and makes them into a people who reflect his own nature as the God who in love is eager to give And a people who become generous, having the same heart for the poor that God has for the poor. In Deuteronomy 15, we read from verse 7 to verse 11.

17:01 Deuteronomy 15. If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers in any of your towns in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor close your hand from your poor brother, but you shall freely open your hand to him and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need and whatever he lacks. Beware lest there is a base thought in your heart saying, the seventh year, the year of remission is near and your eye is hostile toward your poor brother and you give him nothing. Then he may cry to the Lord against you and it will be a sin in you.

17:41 You shall generously give to him and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him. because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings for the poor will never cease to be in the land therefore I command you saying you shall freely open your hand to your brother to your needy and poor in your land. Christ refers to this passage in Matthew 16 and verse 11 and he encourages us by reference to this passage to tend to the poor by freely opening up our hands, by being a people whose heart is like that of God's, a heart drawn out toward the poor and the destitute.

18:29 God was so concerned for this kind of person, for these needs to be met among His people, that He instituted various civil laws in the old covenant economy that were designed to protect and to provide for the poor among them. There were laws that you can read of in Deuteronomy 24 that required that there be just wages paid for the common laborer. Laws that required that when that man's work was accomplished that he be promptly paid because he needs the money. He needs the provision.

19:09 and it was legally obligated upon the people that they not withhold payment. There were laws that regulated the practice of gleaning from the harvest that they were not to go and squeeze every fig off the tree. But they were to harvest it at harvest time. And then that residual growth that would come along afterward, don't go back with greedy hands and take everything you can.

19:37 leave that so that the impoverished would be able to come and take the gleanings and be nourished and provided for by the generosity of the hearts of God's people. Now notice, the impoverished were not rewarded in sloth. They had to go and glean. They had to go like Ruth and rise up early and take the wherewithal and give herself to work.

20:04 But the provision was there. Not to reward indolence and sloth, but to reflect the heart of the God who identifies with the poor and who makes provision for the poor. The rule stood in the Old as it does in the New Testament. In 2 Thessalonians 3.10, if anyone will not work, neither let him eat.

20:29 Not only were there civil laws instituted for the provision of the poor, but even aspects of the ceremonial law that was regulating the worship of God also had an impact to benefit the poor. Again, in Deuteronomy 26 and verse 12.

20:51 When you have finished paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan, and to the widow, that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.

21:11 The financial contributions designated for the upkeep of God's worship were also to be designated for the care of the Levite and the poor. Those who are associated most closely with God were to be supported by the generous giving and the tithing of the people of God. And those who are most closely associated with God are the priests, those who minister in his temple, who bear the responsibility of maintaining the honor of God's name among the people and along with them, the poor. God is identified with his priests and with the poor.

21:57 And the honor that the people of God have for God can be seen by the way they make provision. for the ministers of God and for the poor among them, for God identifies with them. They, in a peculiar way, bear the name and the concerns of God. The ministry of the deacon is rooted in the heart of God.

The Ministry of the Deacon Revealed by Christ: Prophetic Profile of the Servant

22:20 We see that God identifies with the poor. And then secondly, God provides for the poor. But we move then to consider secondly this morning the ministry of the deacon, not only rooted in the heart of God, but the ministry of the deacon, secondly, is revealed by Christ. The ministry of the deacon is revealed by Christ.

22:47 And as we consider this second aspect of our study, we want to reflect upon the prophetic profile of the servant of God or the deacon of God. Now we do not have the time to delve into the texts that show us that Jesus clearly understood himself in terms of Isaiah's servant of Jehovah motif. You can read of this motif in Isaiah 42, 1 and other passages where the prophet Isaiah begins now to present a picture and a profile of a particular man, the servant of Jehovah. And this servant would be identified with God

23:36 and assume the responsibility of suffering. And Jesus takes to himself this prophetic profile. and our interests are focused upon the fact that this is a servant that we are introduced to. And the word servant is of concern to us because that word is a synonym for the word deacon.

24:01 Jesus himself comes among men as the deacon of Jehovah, if you will. The servant of Jehovah. The servant is one who is doing the will of his superior. The word servant or deacon is translated as minister in the New Testament and closely related to another New Testament word that is sometimes translated either servant or son.

24:32 And when we blend these words together, we find that the service that is rendered to God is a service that comes again from the heart. God is concerned with the heart, and it's the service of a son rendering labor out of love for his father. That's the servant of Jehovah, the son of God, the deacon of God. And this servant of Jehovah is particularly interested to minister to the poor.

25:04 Look at the Gospel of Luke, chapter 4, when Jesus is ministering in his hometown of Nazareth. In Luke, chapter 4, we read from verse 16. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read.

25:30 And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. and he opened the book and found the place where it was written. And he opens the book to one of those passages of the servant of Jehovah motif in the book of Isaiah, in Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

25:52 He has sent me to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all of the synagogue were fixed upon him and he began to say to them, Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Now notice that there is a dual aspect to the ministry of this servant of Jehovah.

26:27 It involves, first of all, a preaching and proclaiming ministry to bring good news to the afflicted or to the humble, to the poor, to proclaim liberty and freedom. But it also involves a ministry of deeds of benevolence, for this ministry entails the release of captives and the binding up of the brokenhearted. This dual ministry of the servant of Jehovah, this filling out of the profile of this prophetic figure of the servant of Jehovah, this dual ministry, is what Jesus refers to in Matthew 11 when he makes answer to John the Baptist's question concerning whether or not he is the promised one.

27:17 You read in Matthew 11 from verse 2. Now when John in prison heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, Are you the expected one, or shall we look for someone else? And Jesus answered and said to them, Go and report to John what you see, what you hear rather, and see. Notice the dual dimension of his labor, what you hear and what you see.

27:51 The blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over me.

28:10 You see the dual aspect of this ministry. John's question concerns this prophetic expectation of the Messiah. a prophecy that John himself was responsible to deliver in his own ministry. John informed the people of the Lamb of God and identified Jesus as this prophesied Lamb who would come to baptize in the Spirit and also to baptize with fire.

28:46 and part of John's question concerns whether or not Jesus is the one that he has been prophesying of. Are you the one or should we look for someone else? And part of what John is asking there is should we look for a different kind of a Messiah? Someone who's doing something a little bit more along the lines of baptizing with fire like I was talking about.

29:14 but Jesus points to the two dimensions of his present administration of his kingdom baptism of fire is coming but not now now the emphasis of his ministry has to do with the proclamation of the gospel and the accomplishment of deeds of benevolence and kindness toward the poor and the needy the manifestation of the Messiah's ministry has these two primary dimensions, deeds of kindness and proclamation of gospel. And both of these aspects of Christ's government, of the Messiah's rule,

30:01 target the poor as the recipient of His labors. But we see not only the prophetic profile of the servant of God, but we also see the purpose of Christ's servant ministry. When we consider the ministry of the deacon as revealed by Christ, we see him filling out the profile of the prophesied servant of God. But we also need to pay attention to the purpose of Christ's servant ministry.

The Ministry of the Deacon Revealed by Christ: Purpose of Christ's Servant Ministry

30:32 And notice what it is. Notice what lies behind John the Baptist's question. and what lies behind Jesus' answer to John the Baptist. The issue is Jesus' identity.

30:49 John is saying, in effect, who are you? And Jesus responds and says, blessed is he who does not stumble over me. See? Yes, this is the ministry.

31:04 And this is what's being done. But the real question is, who is Jesus? Who are you? Are you the one?

31:12 Jesus responds and gives answer to the question concerning the nature of his ministry, but ends his answer by pointing at himself and saying, don't stumble over who I am. Don't be offended at me. You see, Jesus' preaching ministry was a means to a much more noble purpose. Jesus' benevolence ministry was a means to a much more noble purpose, and that purpose is the revelation of the God of Scripture.

31:44 That purpose terminates upon the identity of Jesus Christ Himself. The reason that Jesus is preaching, the reason that Jesus is doing the deeds of benevolence in filling out the responsibilities of the Messiah in the establishment of His kingdom has to do essentially with the communication of God to men. This is Emmanuel. This is God with us.

32:18 This is the one who is the very expression of God Himself. Jesus at the end of His ministry prays to His Father, I have glorified Thee on earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do, I have made Thy name known to them. And will make it known. John 17, verse 4, coupled with verse 26.

32:46 I've done the work. And what's the purpose of the work? To make the name of God known among men. To make the name of God known among men.

33:00 To make men understand that this is the God of the universe. This is the God of Israel This is the God of the orphans and the widows This is the God of compassion and grace and mercy and long and patience and kindness This is the God of righteousness and justice and truth This is the God who delights to come to the impoverished and the base, the poor and the needy, to identify with them, to become their deliverer, and to set them upon the heights of nobility, transforming them by grace and making them into a nation of priests and kings that they might bear His name because His determination among men is to glorify Himself and to make His name known. And that's what John is concerned for.

33:46 Who are you? And Jesus says, don't stumble over me. Because the issue in our preaching, the issue in the works of benevolence ultimately terminate upon the name, the identity of who our God is. the revelation of Jesus Christ.

34:07 Amen. You need to keep that in view, brethren. If you've been in this deacon business for any length of time, you've had probably experiences that we've had in our church where we've attempted, attempted to pour ourselves into the lives of people who at the end of the day, there's no other way you can interpret what's happened. We've been taken advantage of.

34:33 we've been taken advantage of.

34:37 At the level of our church, and not only at the level of our church, but when the right hand was not knowing what the left hand was doing, and private individuals within the church making contribution and making effort to minister to the needy and to the destitute. And at the end of that, nothing to show for it. we've been taken advantage of where do you get your bearings in a situation like that you come back and you say Lord was your name revealed in that was there something of the character of God that was made known even though rejected even though despised even though refused

35:24 were we nonetheless honoring your name did we maintain the integrity of your reputation did we demonstrate with some measure of accuracy the compassion and the grace and the love that is in the heart of our God and we need to be encouraged by that because that's our ultimate responsibility not so that we can show some sort of one on one correspondence we gave this amount and we got this back we invested in this one and we got this as a result but because we have maintained the integrity of the name of God we have done the works

36:09 that have revealed God in John chapter 8 we see again this dual emphasis John 8 verse 25 notice again the question that's posed. So they were saying to him, Who are you? And Jesus said to them, What have I been saying to you from the beginning? I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but he who sent me is true.

36:43 And the things which I heard from him, these I speak to the world. They did not realize that he had been speaking to them about the Father. Jesus therefore said, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He. And I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught me.

37:03 And He who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him. As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. The question, who are you?

37:17 The answer, verse 28, I am, referring to God's covenant name, Yahweh. And in that identity, validated and proven by the words that are preached,

37:31 making reference to His impending death and resurrection, that His words reveal His identity. Now, couple that with John 10, verse 37 and 38. John 10, verse 37 and 38. If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me.

37:53 But if I do them, though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I in the Father. Here now Jesus, having previously pointed to his words, now points to his works. And says the deeds reveal my identity. The Father is in me and I in the Father.

38:17 and the works are revelation of my identity. Now what's the point that I'm making concerning the purpose of our diaconal efforts and of our proclamation efforts? The point is that the purpose of Christ's preaching and Christ's benevolent ministry was to reveal God. No man has seen God at any time.

38:43 The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained him, John 1.18. The heart of God has been explained in the person and ministry of Jesus Christ. The heart of God that yearns to be the deliverer of the afflicted is enfleshed in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is the revelation of this God.

39:07 And He reveals this God through two dimensions of labor, proclamation and benevolent activities. Now I hope you can already see how these two aspects of Christ's ministry are reflected in the two offices of the Church of Jesus Christ.

The Diaconate's Redemptive Purpose: Promotion of the Kingdom

39:31 The office of elders, those apt to teach. The office of deacon, those who are to give expression to the benevolent labors of Christ. When you combine both together, they are to labor in tandem to give an expression to the full-orbed ministry of Christ, the servant of God. When you look at Romans chapter 12, without going into any explanation for this assertion, I believe there's reason to think that Paul, having yet to visit the church in Rome, not knowing the deposit of gift among them hoping as he says in chapter 1 to stimulate their gifts, their graces

40:18 that he might minister to them and they to him I believe that part of the strategy Paul envisioned in coming to the church was to be used of God to stimulate and make evident to the congregation those who the Spirit had endowed with gifts and capacities for the office of elder and for the office of deacon and I believe that what he refers to here in Romans chapter 12 through 6 through 8 reflects this effort on his part to activate and to make evident these two offices and their characteristic functions among the people of God. Notice how he seems to go back from describing what the elders do and describing what the deacons do. And since we have gifts that differ

41:04 according to the grace given to us, Let each exercise them accordingly. If prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith. If service, in his serving. Or he who teaches, in his teaching.

41:16 Or he who exhorts, in his exhortation. He who gives, with liberality. He who leads, with diligence. He who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

41:26 You can take each of those things and say, well, there's an emphasis that the elders are given more of a priority to. in the matter of prophecy, teaching, exhortation, and leading. And there's the emphasis where the deacons were coupled in serving and giving and showing mercy. The emphasis is so that there might be a full orb demonstration of Christ laboring in His church.

41:52 The ministry of the deacon is not only rooted in the heart of God, it is also revealed by Christ. But then thirdly this morning, the ministry of the deacon has a redemptive purpose. The ministry of the deacon has a redemptive purpose.

42:14 And under this third heading, I want us to consider, first of all, the purpose of the promotion of the kingdom. The promotion of the kingdom. We're ushered into final judgment in Matthew chapter 25, beginning at verse 35. Matthew 25, beginning in verse 35.

42:37 We come in at the point where Jesus is answering the question as to what it is that distinguishes the sheep from the goats. And we are informed as to the operative principle of justice as the judge sifts through the evidence and makes a determination on the basis of the evidence that is presented. Notice what he says in Matthew 25, 35. For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat.

43:09 I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me in. Naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me.

43:19 I was in prison, and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you, or thirsty, and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?

43:37 And the king will answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me. now final judgment will show us how important God sees ministry to the poor and the afflicted really is how committed God is to minister to the poor and the afflicted there are many who read that and they come away from this passage and say well we better get about the business of doing benevolence We better start a food and clothing distribution program.

44:27 We better enter into a housing program. And we better get about the business of being much more of a benevolent agency. Well, are these the things that we should be doing? Well, before we answer that question, let's look at something else that Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 28.

44:51 Verse 18 to 20. Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

45:16 The primary mandate is upon evangelism. Upon the building and enlarging and strengthening of local churches. That's what's envisioned here. Disciples who've been baptized.

45:33 And who are gathering in the presence of Christ to be instructed to obey and follow Him.

45:39 Now you have to see something here. We cannot think that Jesus is contradicting Himself with what He says in Matthew 25 and what He says in Matthew 28. Christ is not telling us that we're coming to final judgment to be judged according to the evidence given by our benevolent activity and then send us out in the Great Commission to do something that's going to hinder us from gathering such evidence and for coming to judgment with an accumulated testimony to our service for Him He's not going to say you're going to be judged on benevolence but now the last thing I'm going to tell you is go out and make disciples as though those two things are contradicting one another. They don't contradict one another.

46:24 They are in tandem with one another. They are in tandem. The two are coupled together. The proclamation of the gospel for the making of disciples is coupled with the works of benevolence that Jesus is so concerned about in the day of judgment.

46:44 Both of those dimensions of Christ's ministry promote and advance the kingdom of God. Both of them have to be redemptive in their intent and in their administration. In Matthew 11, verse 20, we read that Jesus began to reproach the cities in which most of His miracles were done because they did not repent. Notice the connection?

47:10 The doing of the miracles were intended to lead them to repentance. we think the preaching is intended to lead them to repentance. That's true. But the doing of the works were also intended to bring them to repentance as well.

47:25 In Mark 2, 11 and 10. But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, He says to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home. Why was the paralytic healed? In order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins.

47:43 There is a gospel purpose for the doing of the good. There is a redemptive significance to the doing of the good in order to reveal Christ as the God who forgives sinners. And that's exactly what the Pharisees understood Him to say. Who is this who can forgive sins?

48:00 None can forgive except God alone.

48:05 As the preaching of the gospel articulates and focuses upon the need for men to repent and to believe. Brethren, so too, the ministry of the diaconate focuses upon men's needs to repent and to believe. The ministry of the diaconate is no less a redemptive ministry than the ministry of the preaching of the gospel. The ministry of the diaconate is a ministry coupled with the proclamation of the gospel that is intended by Christ to promote and advance the kingdom of God.

48:40 Both offices and both labors work together to display the rule of Christ and the reality of the God who forgives sinners. This was the concern of the apostles in Acts 6 when they, in the history of the church, instituted the office of the deacon. In Acts 6 and verse 7, after bringing these seven men of good reputation full of the Spirit of wisdom who were put in charge of the task of ministering to the needs of the widows. As a result of that, look what Luke tells us occurred.

49:17 Verse 7 of Acts 6. And the Word of God kept on spreading. And the number of the disciples continued to increase. That's the Great Commission.

49:28 Make disciples.

49:32 The Word spread. The disciples increased. The kingdom enlarged. The church grew.

49:39 Why? Because deacons took responsibility for the task and those with their peculiar gift and responsibility were given more time and opportunity for ministry in the Word and ministry in prayer.

The Diaconate's Redemptive Purpose: Principle of Kingdom Priority

49:57 This brings us to understand, secondly, in regard to the redemptive purpose of the deacon, not only the promotion of the kingdom, but the principle of kingdom priority. the principle of kingdom priority it is this kingdom the kingdom of God this gospel focus that has to establish our priorities in the administration of our responsibilities and the exercise of our stewardship our service puts priority upon the advancement of Christ's kingdom as a preacher of the gospel not every opportunity to go and preach to people or to speak to people, let me say, is one that I necessarily am obligated to take.

50:45 I want to be discerning to identify with those ministries that are going to have a specific Christ-focused, gospel-oriented ministry to it. So too, in the exercise of the office of deacon, we have a priority placed upon the advancement of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, the enlargement of His church, the coupling of our labor with the proclamation labor to promote the gospel to see men and women, boys and girls, brought to faith and repentance and brought into alignment with the church of Jesus Christ. That's a very specific focus that we have. And that means that we have to get comfortable

51:30 with the nasty D word. Discrimination.

51:36 Discrimination. today men bow at the altar of equality and we offend many in our determination to be discriminating in the exercise of our office after citing Isaiah 61 verse 1 and 2 in Luke 4 where Jesus is preaching at Nazareth as we read earlier and how God has anointed him to proclaim the gospel to the poor and to release captives and to bind up the brokenhearted. After he gives that prophetic description of himself and announces its fulfillment in the midst of them, he goes on and tells them about how it was that God sent Elijah to minister to a widow in Sidon.

52:23 And how God healed, although there were many lepers in Israel at the time, Naaman the Syrian.

52:31 And the people were offended because Jesus let them know that this gracious, abundant benevolence of God is a discriminating benevolence and that it works on the principles of God's sovereignty and God's electing purposes. When you read, for example, of Jesus healing the lame man at the pool of Bethesda in John chapter 5 and you see what's there and you get the picture of what's going on in your mind, My impression is that Jesus literally stepped over people in order to get to that one particular man.

53:09 No doubt that man must have been totally flabbergasted. Why me? In the midst of all of this, why me?

53:19 Jesus was working His purposes. Notice what He says in Matthew 25 and verse 40. How often this passage is referred to, And this emphasis totally ignored. To the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even to the least of them, you did it to me.

53:42 Notice where the ultimate focus of our efforts comes to. You're doing it to me. You're not doing it for some abstract principle of do-goodism. You're doing it for me, to me.

53:55 we need to ascertain them and focus in upon those who are the brothers of Christ because it is by ministering to them that we ultimately minister to Christ we serve Christ by serving His brothers in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 10 the principle is articulated very clearly by the Apostle Paul in Galatians 6.10 so then while we have opportunity let us do good to all men and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

54:31 Galatians 6.10 God is God over all men. But you know, God only disciplines His Son.

54:42 Likewise, God is God over all and God provides indiscriminately for all. He sends His sunshine and His rain upon the righteous and the unrighteous. But God cares in a peculiar way for His people. and our labors as deacons and elders are kingdom labors should we indiscriminately just do good to anybody?

55:00 yes when we have the opportunity we should that's what Paul said yeah yeah we don't come up before we help the old lady across the street and say excuse me I'd like to give you a doctrinal exam here first before we cross you know I'd like to know what your views are on the Trinity I'd like to know we don't you know the woman needs help we come up we help her there's an indiscriminate character about what we do because there's an indiscriminate character about the goodness of God. And we reflect Him in that way. But not to the neglect of this discriminating point of reference that we see in Christ and in those who do Christ's work.

55:43 That lame man in John chapter 5 that we refer to at the Pool of Bethesda, or Bethesda rather, there's no record of him ever coming to faith. In fact, what we're told about him is that he later informs the Jews that it was Christ who healed him and that bit of tattletailing got Jesus into an awful lot of trouble that day.

56:06 Brethren, sometimes doing good to people will look like it's getting you into a lot of trouble.

56:15 And it doesn't work evangelistic. and it doesn't work a confession of Christ you come away and say whoa I just really helped that goat out a lot and he bit me on the leg and that happened to Jesus a lot too but the norm and the pattern and the primacy of Christ's work and of our work is that we are to do these things for the expressed redemptive purpose of ministering to see men converted and ministering to see the church strengthened and built up to keep kingdom purposes in view. The zealots in Christ's day saw Jesus as a ticket to advance their political agenda without any regard to the spiritual issues of the kingdom of God. And today there are those who would attempt to commandeer

57:01 Christian goodwill and Christian resources to try to redefine the word good in terms of their priorities and their agenda.

57:11 Many, many times I get telephone calls from people and they want to turn our congregation into a market for their particular product. They want to turn our congregation into a special interest gathering group for their particular political agenda, which I may have personal endorsement for. But I have to tell them, my dear friend, that's not why the people of God are gathering on Sunday. In order to become a forum for your particular concerns.

57:39 If you want to get to these people, these concerns, concerns, you're going to have to go about it by other avenues. My responsibility is to stand before the presence of the living God and to preach His Word to people who are going to judgment and who need to know the gospel. And I'm not going to be deterred from that. And you need to have the same kind of determination in the exercise of Christ's ministry through you as deacons, that there's going to be a distinguishing, a discerning, a discriminating dimension to what it is that you're doing.

58:15 That there's a stated purpose so that when you do minister to those outside, when you do minister benevolently, indiscriminately, without giving the theological exam, you're doing it coupled with the express intent that this is being done in the name of Jesus Christ, that this is being done so that you might understand something about the God who is calling you to repentance and faith. And I want you to understand how to interpret this good deed. This is not the Boy Scouts.

58:47 This is the Church of Jesus Christ. So don't let this good deed go without being defined in a Gospel framework. And then in the ministry to those within the Church of Jesus Christ, we take even the very least of them.

59:04 And we overlook the grave clothes that often cling to so many in the kingdom of God. That stinking, rotten, residual effect of the sin that they've been encumbered with. And we look at them and we see the grace of God in them. And for the sake of Jesus Christ and for the honor of His name, we minister to them and do them good and know that in so doing we're ministering to Christ Himself.

Discerning the True Poor and Glorifying Christ

59:30 Here's where we need to remember, brethren, how the Bible defines who the poor really are. We're going to look with spiritual eyes. We're not going to be callous to material need. We're not going to be callous to economic poverty.

59:44 But we're going to be careful to keep in view and to attempt to discern who the poor really are. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.

60:01 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.

60:14 Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. When we're doing our ministry, when we're giving our deeds of benevolence and doing the deeds of the Achanal service, we want to be careful and we want to ascertain, are we dealing here with the true poor in the kingdom sense of the term.

60:36 You see, kingdom poverty has more to do with spiritual disposition of heart than it has to do with economic and social standing among men. Yes, it is true. Not many mighty, not many noble.

60:52 But on the other hand, material poverty is no virtue either. yet it is often the case that it is very difficult for the wealthy to enter into the kingdom of God the fact of the matter is that God more often than not brings the gospel to be heard by those who know in their physical circumstances that they cannot rely upon themselves that they have to be saved they have to look for outside help and often times God works in those circumstances to make people responsive to the gospel as deacons you are to reflect the God who does good

61:38 to all men in their need but to put priority upon those who evidence some measure of kingdom poverty and when at all possible to engage in benevolence for the purpose of building a platform for the proclamation of the gospel so that the church may be strengthened. Together, deacons and elders, we are to labor to do eternal good to spiritually impoverished sinners. We try to minister to them in any way that we can to do them good and to proclaim the gospel of good news to them so that the name and the glory of Christ might be enlarged among men. So in sum this morning, we see that the diaconate is much more than the church attempting to simply harness

62:26 her brightest businessmen and transfer modern business techniques into the church.

62:35 We don't want to be pragmatically governed on the one hand, but we don't want to be impractical on the other. We ought to focus in upon kingdom issues. The diaconate is a very practical office, but its practice is based upon sound theology. The diaconate is an expression of the very heart of God.

63:03 The diaconate is an extension of the very ministry of Christ, which is designed to complement the ministry of the Word of God with the performance of deeds of mercy and grace. the diaconate's purpose is to reveal Christ to men to advance Christ's kingdom as a means of evangelism and as a means to build up his church as we seek to serve Christ to serve Christ himself by caring for even the least of his brethren well as we proceed in our conference today and tomorrow my prayer for you is that recorded in 2 Thessalonians 1

63:48 verse 11 and 12 to this end also we pray for you always that our God may count you worthy of your calling and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power in order that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in Him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Concluding Prayer for Worthiness and Glory

64:23 Let's have a word of prayer, brethren, before we dismiss.

64:32 Our Father and our God, we pray that as we commence our time together today, that our focused attention might be riveted upon You, the character of Your heart, the revelation of Yourself in Jesus Christ, and the glorious purposes of Your kingdom among men, that You might ennoble us in our tasks, that we might see our efforts against the backdrop of the glorious grandeur of King Jesus. Our Father, that we might be strengthened in our resolve to do good, that we might have a sense of Your pleasure upon us as we labor to handle the resources of the kingdom with integrity,

65:18 as we endeavor to promote the name of Christ and to advance the gospel of our Savior among men and to minister even as Christ, who touched the unclean lepers, who looked into the eyes of the needy and the hurting. Lord God, we ask for greater enlargement of heart. we ask for greater opportunity to do the work of the kingdom we pray our Father for wisdom in these things that your spirit would accompany the ministry of your word throughout the course of these days that your spirit would give to us grace as we speak one to another that we would stimulate each other that there would be information that was previously unknown that would be learned that there would be methodologies

66:05 that could be employed that would make more proficient the administration of Your home. But Lord God, in all of these things, help us to remember that we bear the name of Christ and that it is His glory, His honor, His reputation that we seek to promote among men. Make us to be humble servants. Fill us with Your Spirit and grant us grace to do the work of Christ, to be worthy of our calling and to do that work with power for the glory of Christ, our precious Savior.

66:37 Amen.