Roles and Relationships of the Diaconate

The Origin and Distinction of the Diaconate in Acts 6

0:01 The following is the second session, delivered on April 14, 2000, during the Trinity Baptist Deacons Conference held at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. The speaker is Mr. Chuck Davies, Chairman of the Board of Deacons, and is entitled, Roles and Relationships of the Diaconate. Well, we heard very capably from Pastor Dunn on some of the background to the formation of the diaconate,

0:36 and it's my purpose to talk about that diaconate as we see it start to be fleshed out in the life of the New Testament Church. Obviously, when we go to the Book of Acts, we have to have a caution flag that goes up immediately and says, just because it was...

0:57 If it was done this particular way, we're reading historical record. We're not reading something that says you must do it this way. We don't say every church has to have seven deacons because they had seven deacons, but we're seeking to extract from the principles of that Book of Acts. We're seeking to extract principles from it that give general guidance.

1:24 We believe that the Book of Acts does have something. It does have something to say. It does have something to say. It does have something to say about that because we see later on the formation of a diaconate and even just a little name dropping in the Book of Philippians.

1:38 In the first verse, Paul sends his greetings to the saints at the Church of Philippi with the elders and the deacons. So there is obviously a mature church envisioned there where these offices have taken place. We also have the qualifications. Not for six or seven offices, but for two offices in the Book of 1 Timothy as Paul is seeking to tell them how the Church of God should be ordered in his absence.

2:08 He's talking about qualifications of these two offices. So we see that there would have been, and we don't have all the facts and information about what happened in those times, but we at least have those offices formed. Now, how did they...

2:27 How did they come to be? And we believe that the passage in Acts 6 at least gives us the seed form of much of what happened in the definition of the elders and the deacons. So I'm going to ask you to turn with me to Acts chapter 6. Obviously a familiar passage.

2:48 I'm not an expert at exposition by any means, as I will demonstrate in the next little while. But I'm at least a fair reader, so I will read it and then make some comments. Now, at this time, while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. And the twelve, that is the twelve apostles, summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, It is not desirable for us to neglect the Word, the Word of God, in order to serve tables.

3:31 But select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. And the statement found approval with the whole congregation, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch. And these they brought before the apostles, and after praying they laid their hands on them.

4:07 We have in this section two groups, and I'll just comment briefly on them. The apostles who saw a problem. The problem was brought to the apostles, and they saw it as a danger to be avoided. They looked at this, they assessed the situation and said, There's something that could go wrong here if we got ourselves, into the task of the serving of these tables.

4:32 There would be a problem here. And then God gave them light on a response to that. That this should be something given to another group of men to administer on their behalf. Who were those men?

4:49 Well, first of all, they gave some qualifications. They said they should be of good reputation. They said they should be full of the Spirit. They should be full of wisdom.

4:59 And so, and not only were those graces required, but they asked the people, the disciples, to choose out men in whom they recognized such graces. It was a, they called it this matter, whom we may appoint over this matter. It was a focused task. It was an assignment for them to accept.

5:27 And the elders appointed them. And so they were given that task. We see in verse seven, God's favorable response. As Pastor Dunn mentioned the last, last hour that the word spread, that we're continuing to be added more disciples.

5:45 And even the priests were, a number of the priests became obedient to the faith. So obviously God was pleased with the resolution of this potential danger. In the end, God was pleased with the resolution of this potential danger. So obviously God was pleased with the resolution of this potential danger.

Three Brief Observations on Elder-Deacon Roles

6:01 So obviously God was pleased with the resolution of this potential danger. In their work. Could I mention three, three short brief observations and then three more extended. The three short is there's definitely an us and a them in this passage.

6:15 There is not, is not right for us to neglect the word of God. And then they say, we choose out men whom we may put in charge of the task. And when they had, I'm sorry. Verse six, when they, they laid their hands on them.

6:34 So obviously remained intact. That would be the grouping of the apostles. They were not split for one of them to go do this task, but they stayed at their task. But there was this other grouping there of men who would take that responsibility.

6:52 Again, we see the seed form of the two distinct offices of the pastor or elder and the deacon in, in, this passage. Secondly, they perform different functions. There was going to be a serving function for the deacons. They were going to take over the daily, verse 1, the daily deaconing of food, the daily serving of food. And the elders were going to keep on their

7:25 primary task in verse 4. We will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. So different functions, two groups and each one having its own function. Thirdly, there was a subordinate relationship. There was both the appointing in verse 3. The elders were,

7:52 the apostles were putting these men in charge of the task. But they were appointing them into that. And also they were commissioning them in verse 6. They laid their hands on them, the act of commissioning them to a work. Well, who

8:09 commissions who? Well, the man in charge commissions the other man to do his work. So I think both of those suggest, at least again in seed form, that we have a relationship of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, Hmm, not, not being equality but being a superior and subordinate. That's the first step that I'd like to enlarge upon as I look at some broad three broad principles that are derived from this basic text. Here's the first is the principle I'm sorry. Uh,

Principle of Work Priority: Elders' Primary Task

8:49 again, it's here. Yes. The principle of work. Priority principle of work. Priority. You,

8:57 uh this landing. I'm taking a like this introduction pass along was an original according principle. Well here, you saw you're doing an Institute lecture or I forgot I wrote writerı, this was, The apostle said, shall we leave the word of God and serve tables? And the response was, no, that's not the right thing to do.

9:07 There's something that's not fit or desirable. And I think the commentators argue about what the nuances of that particular word are. It's not appropriate. It's not right.

9:18 It's not fit for us to forsake the word of God and to serve tables. So they saw clearly at that time that their work was the work that could not be left for this other type of work. They had a priority on the prayer and the ministry of the word at that time. And we as deacons need what we do as deacons needs to have this ultimate purpose that we help our elders stay at their primary task.

9:53 That what we do, we try to keep their hands on their task and let them continue in that more spiritual work. That they not be distracted like these apostles might have been distracted by a legitimate need. It was a crying need. They were being, the widows were being neglected.

10:17 God has a heart to those widows. The apostles had a heart to those widows. And yet they said, it's not right. It's not right for us to leave our task and to go over and serve that legitimate need.

10:30 And we need to help our elders to stay on track with the work that they are doing.

Principle of Delegated Responsibility: Elders' Umbrella Oversight

10:40 The other aspect of that, the one that merges with that is what we heard last hour of God's benevolent heart to the needy. That we take that and we blend that. That work, this is a special area where we should come and help our elders in extending benevolence. And extending, doing the practical deeds which contribute to the revealing of God.

11:09 The revealing of Christ and the gospel to people. So there's a, first of all, a principle of work priority there. And secondly, there's a principle of delegated responsibility. We see that here.

11:25 That the, there's definitely this word of appointment. We choose seven men that we may appoint over this matter. Principle here is that elders retain responsibility for all areas of church life. They are the men who must give an account for the, for the life of the church.

11:49 They, Peter says to them, tend the flock of God. God exercising the oversight. He doesn't say the spiritual oversight. He says the oversight of the flock of, of God.

12:02 And there's no, there's no cutting of the turf, if I can say that, into something that the elders would handle and others would, the deacons would handle. Negatively stated, there's no areas that are the exclusive domain, domain of the deacons. Any more than there would be areas in the church. Where someone, some other group would take exclusive domain.

12:32 Do we have a nursery in our church? Yes. Are the mothers in charge exclusively? No.

12:39 The elders have an umbrella responsibility for all aspects of the life of the church. Do we have gifted, competent musicians in our church? Yes. Is that an exclusive area of their expertise?

12:55 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

12:55 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

12:55 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

12:55 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

12:57 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

12:57 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

12:58 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

12:58 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

12:58 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

12:59 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

12:59 No. The elders have that umbrella responsibility for all aspects of the life of the church. And we need to recognize that even when there are special gifts in special areas, the elders are responsible for the entire life of the church. I need not go on to teachers and other groups.

13:21 So we might argue, well, we have deacons who are really, really good. good at handling finances. And so is that an area that should be split off and given responsibility? No. The elders are responsible for the entire life of the church. It might

13:41 be argued that in the household, the father has responsibility for every aspect of the life of the family. And a wife might want to say, well, there's this area that he's really bad at, and I need to take it over. Well, that's not her prerogative, is it? The prerogative, the responsibility of the father and the husband is to be responsible for all areas. Now, if he's a wise father, he will ask that competent wife for her headship,

14:21 or I'm not. Headship is the wrong word, but for her responsibility in that area. But he will still keep his, he'll keep that as delegated responsibility. And we need to see as deacons that the responsibilities that we have remain delegated responsibilities, that the pastor, the elders of the church are like that father in the household. They are responsible for

14:53 the entire household. I might also note here that in some cases, just because of shortness of time and availability, an elder may do a deacon's work because he's the father of the household, if I can say it that way. But it doesn't work the same way around. The deacons must not do the work of the elder.

15:24 We need to be aware of that. We need to embrace that as God's ordering that is a delegated responsibility. We are in a ministry of helps. The deacon is to come and help, and he's to do what he can to free that man in areas of church life where otherwise he would be encumbered and kept from his primary spiritual work. My third principle is, again, not to beat a dead horse, but to see

Deacons Serve, Elders Rule (with Nuance)

15:56 where that man has gone. I've seen in the teaching, it's not a demand for the deacon to be on the spiritual side of it but a demand that he should be on the spiritual side of his role. t's really important. What I'm trying to do is speak of the, that we have the, the responsibility to serve in the office of the deacon, not to rule.

16:08 I'm going to cloud the issues for a little while here. I'm going to demonstrate that that deacons do rule. I'm going to demonstrate that the elders do serve. The deacons are called on to rule if they're in a house. They are a father. If they are

16:27 on one of the qualifications in 1 Timothy 3. Maybe we could just turn there for a minute. 1 Timothy 3. It does say that deacons are to rule.

16:43 As we go down through the listing, starting at 1 Timothy 3, verse 8, deacons likewise must be men of dignity, not double-tongued nor addicted to much wine or fond of sordid gain, but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. Let these also first be tested, then let them serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach. Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things. And a better man than I would be needed to say exactly who is this woman.

17:22 Some say the wife of the deacon. Some say women who are helpers to the deacons. It might be both. We see those aspects.

17:31 And when we see those women in our midst, it makes more sense that women are to rule. I don't know why this is here, but verse 12. Let deacons be husbands of only one wife and good managers of their children and of their own households. 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.

17:57 They are to be managers of their own children. They are to know what it is to rule their own households and their children well. Men are called into deacons or called often into other arenas of leadership. I'm sure some of you are owners of your own businesses or managers, supervisors in your vocation in other aspects of the church.

18:25 Perhaps a teacher leading a class in perhaps even society taking responsibilities of leadership. So a deacon does know what it is to rule. But as he comes into the area of the church he's called on to serve.

18:44 Likewise going back to Acts chapter 6. The last words in verse 4.

18:57 Here we have a blending. The elders the apostles asserted but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the and here's the word for service the deaconing of the church. Of the word. An elder knows what it is to deacon.

19:17 He knows what it is to serve but he's serving out the word of God. And all those other references in the New Testament which flood in on us. He who would be master must be servant of all. The one who would be first must be last.

19:35 An elder must have a servant's heart. He must reflect the servanthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But again in our office when we look at our pastors and we see a servant's heart we must not think that he's well he's ready to slip in under us because he's so good at serving. No we can't let that happen.

19:58 We need to remember although he has a servant's heart his office is a ruling office. And the pastor the elder is to be in that place where he is ruling and the deacon is serving. And we need to keep that intact and to have that as an example even to our people to the people in our congregation that this is this is the priority this is the regular the the regulative guidelines that Christ has set out for his church is that there are to be these ruling elders and the next office is to be a serving office. And despite how much

20:42 responsibility we have how good we are at our jobs as we would be successful in the world or successful in even outward ways that we would still promote a viewpoint to our own people that we still respect our office as a serving office. And as we come into the church and we work as deacons that we're working in a serving office under these men. Despite how many responsibilities we have despite how good we are if I can say it that way at performing our office that it would be manifest it would be obvious that we are not taking onto ourselves

21:25 a ruling situation but that we would again keep ourselves as servants.

Three Defective Models of Elder-Deacon Relationships

21:34 May I speak to three models that I think are defective three models that are defective in this church. In this area of possible relationships between the deacons and the elders. We live in a a country that's been blessed. A country that was men very wisely saw the possibility of tyranny in civil government and they developed under God's guidance a system of government here checks and balances of controls in the central government

22:18 so that no one branch of government would become too strong and too powerful. What I'm afraid is that we are so have that imbibed in us straight from probably third grade when we learned that there's two houses of the Congress and there's three branches of government and who can veto what who can override how the Supreme Court works that we bring over into the church. that we bring over into the church. that we bring over into the church.

22:45 that we bring over into the church. this this model of a check and balance system of power or of government and that that is one where where we might envision well you have the pastors over here and you have the deacons over here and it's just nice that the two of them don't quite have all the power controls this one controls that and they they work on each other and they control each other as far as not getting into a tyrannical situation. Well that's good for government we can be glad that it's the government of our country we've enjoyed many blessings because of that it's not a perfect system but

23:27 there are many advantages to it but that is not what we have in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's done it a totally different way. We're in a monarchy here with Christ as the head of his church ruling through his word. He's done it a totally different way. We're in a monarchy here with Christ as the head of his church ruling through his word.

23:44 ruling through men who serve as under shepherds who carry out that rule as they teach and bring the word of God to bear in the life of the church. There's not in that sequence or that hierarchy there's no check and balance system of the deacons showing up like the cavalry coming over the hill and say we'll save you and keep this thing in control. No we must Remember, the deacons still are in that position of service. We're not in a check and balance arrangement between the two.

24:24 There's a second model, which is often very effective, and that's for the deacons to serve as a controller, or I always say comptroller, so I know how to spell it. I looked it up, and they say it's just an erroneous spelling, but many of the companies have a comptroller. He's the man with his finger on the purse strings or on the checkbook, and nothing happens without his signature, and it can become an aspect, well, this is one of the ways that we're going to control what happens around here and make sure everything is in agreement with the way that the deacons see it,

25:05 and that's to serve as a controller to the operations of the church. Again, no justification for that. If you start out and you say the elders are in charge of everything, then the elders are in charge of the checkbook, and we have to recognize that, again, we are administrators of that rule for all areas of the church. We look to them for spiritual direction, where it's explicit in the scriptures.

25:35 We look to them for judgment. They may ask us. They may counsel us, just like that. A wise husband asks his wife and counsels with his wife, but ultimately the responsibility and the decision-making is his, and that is the model that we ought to have.

25:54 We ought to avoid this other more defective model of thinking that the deacons are the ones who control things because they control the purse. The third defective model is to see the elders as a figurehead, they are not thezechos. They control the business, they have their particular area of work, and that's a spiritual work. They are in charge of preaching.

26:24 The deacons will take care of the rest of the business. Essentially what we're doing, we're dividing the life of the church into something that we call spiritual and something that we call physical or real. We're making a major error. God made us body and spirit, body of the church, body and spirit together. And again, you may complain, you say, well,

26:50 my pastor doesn't understand finances. He's not good at knowing how we should build a building. Well, there's probably a lot of things that your wife would say about you that you're not particularly good at either. But that doesn't mean that she gets to divide the household into the things that you can do and the things that you can't do. No, we

27:11 need to see there's a uniformity here, a solidarity between the physical and the practical aspects of the church, and that we fight against anything that would start to divide that into two camps and say, well, he's good at that, and I'm good at this, and that's the way we're going to do it. No, we have to work, again, with that umbrella concept of the full responsibility of the elders. And for us to be, if I can say, the gracious wife who helps make him look good, just like your wife tries to make you look good, because I don't know how to pick out ties, that's

27:51 obvious. And so she's the one that keeps me going day by day in many categories. Well, we need to bring that same gracious spirit to them and see that the whole household of God operates as one unit, and that there are spiritual aspects of it that permeate down into the practical aspects of it. So having laid out those three defective models, if I may speak of four effective models for our

Four Effective Models for Relating to Pastors

28:32 relationship with our pastors, four effective models for relating to our pastors. And these are, in brief, I don't think it's anything new, but if I may emphasize, again, number one, that we cultivate a subordinate and superior relationship, something that we're not used to. Especially you guys from California. But all of us have the same part of independence of spirit, and all of us don't like anybody telling us what to do.

29:16 Well, may I encourage you to look for those relationships in Scripture, and see where they are. The fifth commandment, honor your father and your mother, that it may be well with you, and all the things that flow out of that. Here, God speaks to the most basic unit of human life, the family. And he says there's going to be order.

29:46 in that relationship of parent and child. The children are going to be subordinate to the parent. From that flows the analogy of every other type of human relationship, of the worker and his employer, of the master and his servant, of the church man and his elder. Every aspect of life, and you can play that out and think about that, that God is a God of order.

30:21 There is a subordination that is in place in all of God's world, and we need to embrace that and not be intimidated by it, but to see that we are to be citizens, we're to honor the king. All the places, I hope, start to jump out at you in this.

30:42 In Psalm 123 it says, as a, maybe we could turn there, Psalm 123, Psalm 123, here's a picture of the subordinate who does not resent that, but embraces that position and seeks to glorify God in it. Psalm 123, verse 2, Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he shall be gracious.

31:23 Here's the picture, again, set in general terms, a servant who looks to the hand of the master, the eyes of the maiden looks to her mistress. I had a very real example of that just a year ago when I was privileged to go over to Pakistan. There was a man there who was a house servant. He had been raised as a house servant in a well-to-do house, and his elderly mistress had died, and the trustee of the estate was there just on like two weeks every once in a while,

32:05 and Arif and I went and visited him while he was there. Well, we were having tea with this trustee, speaking to him, a man from England. The man's servant was over in the doorway right at his place. Well, he was trained from youth to be the, the servant, but this was especially exciting to him because this man only, he only had someone to serve every couple weeks out of a year.

32:36 So here's the man casually sitting there, and he would move his finger just even to express, say something, and you'd see the man's servant, he'd lean over to see if he was wanted. He would be looking at him, just always looking at him, and if the trustee, if he turned his head, that was all over him, and he was there like a shot to see what he could do. Well, can we be like that? Can we be like that in our churches?

33:06 First towards God, obviously, but then towards our pastors. Can we have that same relationship of a subordinate who loves his place and serves God in that place? We're looking. Is there anything I can do?

33:23 Is there anything I can do? Again, we're all, in the midst of many different demands on us, there are legitimate duties, and this is not a perfect world. You can't always do everything you'd like, but do we have that eye of the servant or the eye of the maid to look and to help where we can? We have the centurion in Luke 7, the man who says, I know what it is to be under authority.

33:51 I'm a man who has others under authority, and that we would, take those types of examples out of the scriptures and try to live those out in our own places. We would be earnestly seeking to embrace that subordinate and superior relationship in the right sense. Number two, the other effective model is a model of faithfulness. We would be faithful in our tasks.

34:23 Under this, two ideas, two headings, and there's much in the scriptures, to talk about faithfulness, and I just commend it as a key word where it talks about a faithful man. Are you being a faithful man in what you do? Do you see that the tasks really do get completed, that are done? Isn't that one of the most frustrating things if you're in a position of management, that you give a task, and then you have to remember to follow up and see that it really got done the way you wanted it to get done?

34:56 Well, if you do unto others as you would like them to do to you, where you have a task that you can do, wouldn't it be one of the ways in which you would keep your elders from being distracted from their principal work if they gave you an assignment and you did it, and you just got it done no matter what, you followed through? Well, that principle of faithfulness could be a great encouragement and could be a great means of seeing that the work, is accomplished, that the elders don't need to think about it, and that you gain that reputation with them that when they ask you to do something, they can forget about it because you're going to stay with it

35:39 until it's either completed or at least maybe perhaps brought back to them. If it didn't work, what do I do now? But at least they know that you're going to stay with that and see that thing herded and shepherded until it gets resolved. So faithfulness can be, part of that effective model.

36:00 The other aspect of it is to prove faithfulness in little things and take those little things and do them well and see that those lead to faithfulness in greater responsibilities. We are all anxious to see much accomplished in the kingdom of God. I'm sure you're men of ambition that you desire to see Christ glorified in his church. And we'd all like to do big things, big things, well, the secret to that is to do little things well first.

36:32 And we would learn faithfulness in the little tasks and then faithfulness in much.

36:40 The third effective model that I would list here is humility in our service. First of all, that we have the spiritual humility to maintain the qualifications for our office. That we would take seriously what it is that these are spiritual qualifications and that we would bring a sense of dependence upon God to keep us qualified for service. That we would have that poorness in spirit which God is pleased with.

37:22 God opposes the proud but he gives grace to the humble. Where we need grace, we need humility. In those areas. That we would be humble in the tasks that we're requested to perform.

37:38 I'm sure there's things that we all get called in. The plumbing, the other things that are distasteful, small.

37:49 When there's a nest of yellow jackets, they don't call the elders, they call the deacons. There's little things that are going to be around, things that are in one sense humiliating. Can we turn that humiliation into humility and say I'm not going to be humiliated by the smallness of the task or perhaps the distastefulness of the task. I'm going to do this as unto the Lord.

38:16 I'm going to turn this, God sees it, and I'm going to turn it to his glory and at least I will be doing it with a heart of service toward him. Like that, when your service, when your service is not seen, when it's not noticed, when it's not appreciated, that's a time when pride is not real happy. Pride likes to be noticed. And probably none of you complimented us on our painting job out in the foyer.

38:49 You probably didn't even see it. Well, it got done and it went away as a project. And we're quite proud of it, actually. I think.

39:00 But, but no one knows. And that's what's going to happen with a lot of your work. When it's done right, it's not even going to show. And we just have to embrace that.

39:11 Again, God sees it. God knows. God knows our heart. And we would bring humility to that.

39:18 And that we would be glad that we have set up the environment where the word of God can be preached. And the word of God is the thing that is seen and heard. And it's not all these other side aspects that have distracted people's minds. But things would be done decently and in order.

39:36 The church finances would be done in order. It wouldn't be chaos in that category so that the principal work of the church can go on. So that's a call to humility. It's a call to forgetting about yourself, losing yourself in your work for the sake of the gospel.

39:58 And finally, the model of communication with our elders. We need to have clear lines of communication of elders. We obviously could overkill that. You could be on the phone with them to distraction.

40:19 And you could be telling them about every little thing that's happening and make an email test out of yourself. And that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that there does need to be firm communication, clear communication, and those lines of communication that serve us in the church. If you might turn to Matthew chapter 12.

40:57 God is a communicating God and Christ was a communicating Savior. In Matthew 12, 34, he puts in here a principal in the second half of verse 34 of Matthew 12. He says, For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. And here's the principal of communication.

41:24 We need to look not just to the words, but we need to look to our heart. When we're talking about our relationship with our elders, we need to look at what is our heart toward our elders. The good man, out of his good treasure, brings forth what is good. We need to cultivate a heart of love, affection, respect, honor to our elders and have that in our heart first and then to see out of that heart come forth good communication towards them.

42:02 That in a few categories. One is general information. Probably the one that, again, is elementary. It's everyday, ordinary type of thing.

42:14 But we would communicate with them. We would be consistent in our communication of what we are working on as deacons and that we communicate that to them. We don't make them ask us. We don't make them meet with us for that.

42:34 But that we would take the extra effort to communicate things to our elders, our pastors, about what we're doing. And that we would, again, if you can come back to that principle, we want to keep them on task. We want to keep them on their task. So the communication, we may need to make an extra effort at that communication.

43:00 We may actually have to write it down or get it to them in written form of some kind about what is going on and be the bridge to foster that better communication. We need to seek counsel from them. We need not to be reserved about that, but to have that line of communication open that is a two-way street where we're ready to ask counsel from our elders in this area. Thirdly, we need to be an encouragement to them.

43:38 You, in your office, your pastor probably counts you as one of the people that he wants most to know and wants to know what you're thinking and seeks encouragement from you. And to set a good example to the rest of the people, that you would be a primary source of encouragement to your pastor. Finally, loyalty and support. I'm not talking about blind loyalty.

44:08 I'm talking about blind love. Love that covers a multitude of sins and loves the pastor, and shows loyalty and support for them, both during the peaceful times when those bridges can be built and developed, the bridges of communication and affection, and then during the turbulent times when you need to walk across those bridges and that he needs to know that you're with him in those difficult times and that you can have those types of communication with your pastors so that during times

44:51 when there might be questions arising, that he knows he can come right to you and speak eye to eye, face to face, and that you've nurtured a relationship there that will be ready for those times when either the church is under stress, the church is under attack, he needs to know that he can speak to you. So may I encourage you to have those clear lines of communication and to give attention to those. How can I build those lines of communication? How can I encourage that?

Deacons' Relationship with the Congregation

45:30 Finally, just a brief word. We've always spoken about the relationship of the deacons to the pastor as I've spoken in this. What is your involvement with the congregation? How does this fit in?

45:49 And I have two headings under this. Where do I as a deacon, how do I relate to the people in the congregation? Again, I can't speak to every issue, but I have at least two here. One is to be a good example to them, a good example of what it is to be a servant, even in a position of responsibility and of greater visibility in the church, that the people would see, here's a man who is seeking to be like Christ in his servant's heart and giving himself as an example.

46:27 My second point, it takes a word that's been bandied about and applied too many times, and that's the word facilitator. And we have people saying, well, the pastor should be the facilitator of a church. And he should, you know, preaching is out, facilitation is in. Expression of a gift is where we're at.

46:55 We need to fight against that. Obviously, we need to keep on track about the preaching of the word as being the most important business that we're in. But I wonder if we can view ourselves as greater facilitators. It comes from the root word to make or to do.

47:14 And I like that, because I like to make things, I like to do things. I'm sure you do too. But it's to make it easier or to make it less difficult. And the thing I'm thinking about is the rank and file of the people.

47:30 It says in Ephesians 4 that Christ gives pastors and teachers for this purpose, for the equipping of the saints to the work of service. So Christ's intention is to give the pastors and teachers to equip the people and to send them out into works of service. Now, we're in that business of service and we can help them find those arenas, areas of service in the church. And so we can facilitate the work of the people of God to do their work, to find places where they can serve in the church.

48:15 And to give ourselves there as far as developing opportunities for service for the people of God. And we, again, sometimes it takes more work to get work done than it does to do work. Does that make sense? Sometimes it's easier to just go wash the car than to have your kids help you.

48:38 But we need to facilitate them in their gifts of service and developing their gifts of service. And so it does take time and effort to encourage others to work in the church. But may I encourage you to do that, to put that in, to set yourself as a good example and then look for opportunities for those other members to exercise their gifts. In conclusion, I'd like to say, just as a word of exhortation, you have a role as a deacon.

Exhortation: Act as a Christian in Your Role

49:20 You're embracing a role as a deacon. Act as a Christian. Act as a Christian man would act. This is a principle in every role that God gives us.

49:32 He gives us the role of a citizen. We ought to act as a Christian would act as a citizen. A husband, a father, a son, a worker, an employer. Every role that God gives us, we need to say, how would a Christian work in this role?

49:48 As we come to the role of deacon, how do I work as a Christian man should work in this particular role that God has given? Understanding the role, the role is one of service. We don't graduate very far from that in our life together. It's always going to be the role of service.

50:10 God's not going to rewrite His word. But in that role, how do I act as a Christian would act? The world desperately needs to see men acting as Christians in their roles. And we need to see godly churchmanship.

50:28 And the world might, hopefully the world is looking at us as the way we order our churches. That we would have godly men as pastors. We would have godly men as deacons. We would have godly people in the pew.

50:41 But in our particular role, are people going to see a man acting as a Christian, as a deacon, in the church? That's the question. I'm sure in our church and others, you're not dying off, you're not just an elderly population, but you have young people in your congregation. They also are seeing you and the way that you act in your role.

51:05 And the rising generation also desperately needs to see men acting as Christian men in their roles. And so we hope that as the next generation comes along, that they would see, well, that's the way he acted as a deacon. It was a godly way. I'm going to imitate that as I aspire to that office.

51:27 And that we would see this work continue. So let's have an eye towards those young people, that they would see us acting as Christian men in our position as well. God is going to be most glorified when we do his work in his way. First of all, the glory is going to come to him.

51:49 Second of all, it's a losing business proposition to us to do it any other way. We may as well do it his way and be successful at it. So let's look at doing God's work in his way and see his hand of blessing upon it. I'd like to close just turning to Psalm 90.

Closing Prayer for God's Confirmation and Permanence

52:08 These words are very precious words to us. Moses gives us this overview of the person of God, the majesty of God. He speaks about man and his creatureliness in Psalm 90. Beginning at verse 7, he talks about man's sinfulness, his forfeiting of any right to stay on God's earth.

52:37 And then he has a prayer that begins in verse 13. Do return, O Lord, how long will it be? And then to verse 14, O satisfy us in the morning. Verse 16, let your work appear to your servants, your majesty to their children.

52:56 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us. And do confirm for us the work of our hands. Yes, confirm the work of our hands. My translation, the marginal reading of that word confirm is give permanence to.

53:13 Praying that God would give permanence to the work that we're doing. And that permanence is in this world as permanent as this world is. We do hope that God is going to be pleased to use our work to establish churches that would continue in the coming years and to give our hearts to that work. But also there's a permanence that's a spiritual and an eternal permanence.

53:40 And that's the privilege that we have, that we're not just in business to make money, but we're blending our efforts with the work of proclaiming the gospel and seeing lives changed and men and women saved and to see spiritual and eternal fruit in what we're doing. So it's a great calling that we're called to, to blend our efforts into this. And we can pray that God would give permanence to the work of our hands, that God would be pleased to use what we're doing for the good of souls and that we would have eternal fruit. And be pleased to see it.

54:17 Thank you very much. Let's pray together. Our Father, we do thank you that you have given us a desire to serve in your church, that you have ever turned our hearts away from ourselves and given us hearts to love Christ and to love his people and desire his glory. We pray that as we interact with the pastors that you've given to us, we would recognize that we all have remaining sin in us.

55:02 There are many things which provoke and stir up sin, but we pray that we might live under the rule of Christ and see his church ordered in his way. You would give us a love and an affection for our pastors and a desire to serve with them and to be happy in that service, even when it is unnoticed. We pray, Lord, that you will grant us, as we live as deacons, the grace that we need to continue and to see your work done your way and to know your blessing, to see both the progress of the churches with our eyes, but also with the eyes of faith

55:47 and of hope that there is a great consummation coming when Christ shall see of the church the prevail of his soul and be satisfied. So please give us grace and help in furthering that work and that we might see spiritual fruit from our labors. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.