Qualifications of Deacons

I suppose that pastor and Deacon jokes are about as common as mother-in-law jokes. And I read a few this week, not mother-in-law jokes, but pastor and Deacon jokes. Sometimes it's a good idea just to get into a joke book every once in a while. Laughter does good like a medicine. Three pastor, Deacon jokes, I want to tell you this morning, the good news, bad news, kind of joke in regard to pastors and Deacons. Good news for the pastor. The Deacons have approved unanimously the new job description that you have composed for your job. Bad news, they have now formed a search committee to hunt for the person they think can best fill that job description. Good news, the Deacons have decided to pray for your recovery after your surgery. Bad news, the vote was five to four. Good news, the Deacons have decided to send you on a trip to the Holy Land. Bad news, they've waited to reschedule that trip until the next Middle East war breaks out. Well, as I would say with mother-in-law jokes, I've never had the experience to identify with mother-in-law jokes. I have wonderful relationship with my mother-in-law. She was such a blessing to me. So I never identified with those jokes. And I can honestly say that I don't identify with those jokes about pastors and Deacons either. God has, as a part of my ministry through the years, given me the special joy and blessing of serving with some amazing men, of being, of making friends with and serving alongside some godly men who've been a great challenge to my own life personally. That has certainly been true here. It's been true all through my ministry, men like Roland Monroe and Bill Comer and Jerry Bean, Chuck Harvey, Jim Draper, Jack Sleester. And so many men here that I could mention as well, including men that are now serving as Deacons, have been such a blessing to my heart. And I am thankful for that good relationship that we've always had. I believe that God intended for pastors and Deacons to work closely and well together. In fact, when Paul is talking about church leaders in 1 Timothy chapter 3, where we are this morning in our journey through Paul's epistle to Timothy, when he talks about church leaders, he talks, first of all, about pastors and the qualifications for pastors. We saw that two weeks ago. And then he jumped right into the next office in the church, which is Deacons. And he says in verse 8, Deacons likewise or in the same manner indicating the two positions in the church, the two offices in the church of overseer or pastor and Deacon are to be together in their pulling together and working together in a harmonious relationship. Now before we jump into what Paul says about Deacons here in this passage, a little background probably is necessary and good for us as to where Deacons came from. The word Deacon itself means servant. That's the literal meaning of the word. One who serves, it is possible that the origination of Deacons is in Acts chapter 6, not entirely clear, but it's possible. What happened in Acts chapter 6 is that the early church faced its first crisis, its first real problem. And that is, the church was caring for a number of widows because of the needs of folks in there in Jerusalem. And some of the widows of Greek background were complaining to the apostles that they were getting slided. And the widows who were Jews or had a Hebrew background seemed to be getting favored status. And so the apostles immediately recognized an organizational problem, a serving problem that needed some help. And so here's how they responded, the verses on the screen, Acts chapter 6 and verse 2. So the twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, it would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. The apostles recognized in this large, quickly growing church that for them to be hands-on, controlling everything that happened administratively or servant-wise in the church, serving the needs of people, they would quickly lose their focus on the primary task, got it given them. And that was the ministry of the word, the ministry of the word of God, which is the primary was the primary task of the apostles and would become the primary task of pastors. So they instructed the congregation, you choose some men, which they did. They chose seven and those men began to take that position of serving the church. Now they're not called deacons here in this passage. But you see the words at the end of that verse to wait on. That comes from the same word, later translated, deacon in the New Testament. It's the verb form of the word deacon. And so these men who were set apart to serve the church, that whole concept probably later grew into the office of a deacon. Certainly 30 or so years later, when Paul writes a letter to the Philippians, it is an established office in the church by then. Here's how Paul addressed his letter to the Philippian church. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all God's holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi. That's the church people. And then he says, together with the overseers and deacons, as we saw a couple weeks ago, the word overseers, a word for pastor. So there are two officers positions in the church, in distinction with all of God's holy people, and that is pastors and deacons. So obviously by this time, it has become an office, a position in the church of servanthood. And then we come to 1 Timothy 3, where Paul, in giving instructions for the qualifications for church leaders, deals with both pastors and deacons. Now I must say, in all fairness to the New Testament concept, technically in the New Testament, a deacon was not a leadership position in the sense of providing direction and making decisions as to what the church should do. That was the role of the apostles, and then that role passed down to the pastors. That's what the term overseer means. One who provides leadership for the church. Deacons were to serve the needs of the flock, the physical, material, financial, and so forth, needs of the flock, so that the pastors could focus on the ministry of the Word and prayer and providing leadership as overseers. In our culture, especially in the Western world, other responsibilities have been added to the role of a deacon as they come alongside the pastors to give advice and counsel and help in knowing how to lead the church. And we are very grateful for that. But the original concept had more to do with serving the physical, material, needs of the church so that the pastors could be free to minister the Word of God and to shepherd the flock in a leadership capacity. So when Paul gets ready to talk about deacons, that's what he's talking about. And he lays down some qualifications for them. These qualifications have to do with five areas of a man's life that must be examined or considered before he becomes a deacon. And I will assure you that when the church officers committee presents to the pastors and deacons a list of names of men in this church who they believe would qualify as deacons. And by the way, there are a lot more than just the two that are elected each year. There are a lot of men sitting here that have never served in that official capacity who are qualified to do so. It's one of the blessings of this church. Good number of qualified men to serve as deacons. When we receive that list of names, we read this passage and we consider these qualifications before we start asking people, would they be willing to be put on a ballot to serve as deacons? What Paul does is he groups these qualifications into five categories. Let's look at them quickly. The first area of life is his character. Look at verse eight, Paul says deacons likewise are to be men worthy of respect. Now if you have a King James Version, you may see the word grave there. And that has kind of evoked the idea of a deacon as a poker face, austere, unbending character in the church. And so that caricature of, oh, he's a deacon. And he's an austere, unbending kind of person. The word really means someone who is worthy of respect. And so the NIV has translated it very appropriately for our language today, a person who has gained the respect of the church. A deacon must be a person who has gained the respect of the church, worthy of respect. Then notice the second character qualification, sincere. Now here, the King James actually translates it better. Double tongue. The word is actually a combination word of the Greek word for word and the Greek word for two. Two word, double spoken. And the concept in this word is someone who says different things to different people about the same issue. In other words, when they're with this person, they may say, oh, that's a great idea. I think it's wonderful. Then when they're with someone else, they might say, oh, that's, that stinks. That's no good at all. Now, deacons are in a unique position that where they could face temptation in that regard. They're working alongside pastors, talking about a lot of issues regarding the church and the future of the church and planning and so forth. But they're also representing, really, in a sense, the people of the congregation. And oftentimes people in the congregation will come to deacons before they come to pastors and say, here's an issue we think needs to be considered or here something we're concerned about. If a deacon is a man who will say one thing to that church member and something totally different to the pastor about the same issue, trying to play both sides, trying to, to curry favor maybe on both sides, that person's not qualified for leadership. A deacon and also a pastor has to be the kind of person who can be trusted with his words to be honest, to be consistent, to be faithful. So not double tongue. Look at the third character qualification, not indulging in much wine. This is the same qualification that is given for a pastor when it says he's not to be guilty of drunkenness. And remember when we talked about the pastor, we talked about the fact that wine was a common beverage of the day. It was the table drink of the day. It didn't have necessarily the same alcoholic content as wine today, didn't have the associations of strong drink today. So there were some differences, but quite frankly, it was the common table beverage of the day. And so the Bible does not rule out all use of wine, but the Bible does make it clear that a pastor and a deacon should never be controlled by, come under the influence of alcoholic beverages. Now we'll deal with that whole concept a little bit more when we get to chapter 5 in verse 23, which by the way is some people's life verse, where Paul tells Timothy because of your frequent illnesses and stomach issues, stop just drinking water, take a little wine also for some people has become their life verse. We'll talk a little bit more about the whole concept of wine and so forth and New Testament times then. But the point is clear here, a deacon cannot be a person who indulges in much wine. That's literally what it says. You cannot be the kind of person who is under the influence of alcoholic beverages. Notice the fourth character qualification, not pursuing dishonest gain or not pursuing disgraceful gain. And the idea here is how you get it, whether or not you have wealth or a good amount of financial resources, that's not the issue, the issue is how you got it. And the issue of how you get it speaks to a deeper heart issue because the idea here really is the kind of person whose heart is set on as the major ambition in life, attaining as much wealth as possible. And if that's your goal in life, if that's really your ambition in life, then you will have a tendency to do anything to get there, including do some unethical things, cutting some corners and some shady business dealings or some disgraceful dishonest unethical ways of gaining. And the whole reason for that is, Jesus Christ is not the central focus of your life. Money is. And when money takes the place of an idol in your heart and life, you'll do anything to get it. And so that's the concept here, especially for someone who because of their very role is going to be making decisions or handling church finances. How do we address benevolent needs? How do we address helping folks in our congregation? For one who makes those kind of decisions, Paul says he has to have the proper spiritual perspective on his own finances before he can be involved in this kind of position in the church. Fifth, doesn't it? All of these character qualities are very reasonable, fit very well with the role of a deacon. So those are the character qualifications. Then the second area of his life is his doctrine. Notice if you will verse 9, very interesting that he would talk about the deacons and their doctrinal beliefs, but he does. He says they must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith. Again, the King James really translates it more literally here when it says the mystery of the faith. It literally is the word for mystery, but because the English language has changed so much and we think of mystery as an agatha of Christy Thriller or something like that, Sherlock Holmes, that's a mystery. We've lost the biblical concept. The biblical concept is truth that is revealed in God's words, specifically in the New Testament, truth that was not revealed in the Old Testament, but is now revealed by God in his word. So the point here is those truths that are revealed in the Bible. The deacon must be a man who holds those, who is willing to have convictions and hold them strongly to be true to the word of God, true to God's revealed truth in his word. But notice he combines that with the phrase, he must keep the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience. That's the third time that phrase has appeared in this letter. It's important to Paul. It has to do with living the kind of life that is godly, honorable, holy, so that your conscience is not always accusing you because of sin in your life. So the idea is you couple what you believe with the way you live. It's a beautiful balance. We believe the truths of the scripture, but we also seek with all of our heart to live them out. A person must have that perspective if he's qualified to be a deacon. He must hold firmly the truth of scripture, but he must equally have a passion to live out the scriptures and to live out what the word of God teaches. That's his doctrine. Doctrine that influences his life, belief that drives behavior. Those two are beautifully wed by the Apostle Paul here. So his character is doctrine. Then notice Paul speaks to the third area of his life and that is his maturity. Verse 10. They must first be tested, tested a word which means to test with the goal of approving someone. This is a test that everyone must go through before they become a deacon or in any position of spiritual leadership in a church. They must first of all be tested. They must be examined with the goal of approving them. The goal is not to disaffrood. The goal is not to trick or deceive or to say, I caught you. You're not as perfect as you think you are. That's not the goal. The goal is to approve someone. When I was in seminary, I spent a year as a teaching assistant to Dr. John Whitcom, who was the main professor of theology there at Grace Seminary. And in my very first meeting with him at the very beginning of the semester, the first thing he said to me was, I want you to completely redo all of my exams. And I said, okay. He said, here's the reason why. The last guy who had this job was getting his doctorate here at Grace. And he kind of wanted to show how much he knew. And so he made all of the exams in the theology classes ultra tricky. In other words, if you had a multiple choice question, there would be three answers that were so similar, nobody could tell which one to pick. And he was just trying to trick people and show with little fine shadings of words. He knew more than anybody else. And after what comes said, that's not the purpose of an exam. The purpose of an exam is to approve the person who has studied hard and done his work and reward him for that. And so he said, I want you to change him all. And that's the meaning of the word here. This is not a scrutiny that whose goal is to find something wrong. The goal is to prove someone so that they are ratified and qualified to be in this role as a deacon. And so here's what he's saying. This is not a formal examination, but it is the general judgment of the believers in a church. That this person has demonstrated the kind of character and balance of doctrine and life that qualifies them to serve as a deacon. They've been proven. Now that takes some time. It takes some time to get to that point. So this means that a person who has had time to be tested, obviously that means that you don't just put a new convert into a church leadership position into the office of a deacon or a pastor either one. You don't take someone who's just newly saved and immediately thrust them into that position. They have to have had time to prove themselves, to be tested. And then he says, notice the end of verse 10, if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons. Now then nothing against them fits with all of these qualifications. In other words, if there is not an accusation regarding these things that Paul has talked about being qualifications, if there's not an accusation that would seriously disqualify someone, then let them serve. Let them serve as deacons. So the purpose of testing is to prove the spiritual maturity of men who have had time to show themselves faithful and gain and earn the respect of the congregation. That's his maturity. And then the fourth area of his life that Paul talks about is his household. He says several things about his household in verses 11 and 12. The first has to do with his wife, verse 11. In the same way, their wives are to be women worthy of respect, not malicious talkers, but temperate and trustworthy in everything. Now, we have to first of all figure out who exactly is he talking about here? I mean, it may seem like that's clear. The deacon's wives. But there are many who believe this passage is not talking just about the wives of deacons or maybe not even about the wives of deacons at all, that it is talking about a whole different office in the church of women deacons or deaconesses. And here's the reason why there are many who believe that. First of all, Paul says in the same way. Well, that's kind of like he said in verse 8, likewise. It almost sounds like he's leaving one office and starting to talk about another. And so for that reason, there are some who believe this is a totally different office. And then also the fact that he uses the word not for wife, but actually a general word for woman. So you'll find some translations, and most of your translations will have a footnote here that says something about, or women, or even deaconess. So there are some who believe that this is not the wives of deacons. After all, he never addressed the wives of pastors. So why would he all of a sudden address the wives of deacons if he never said anything about pastors' wives? So for those reasons, there are many who say, this is a totally different office. However, however, there are good reasons not to believe that. And I don't think this is a unique office of deaconess. For this reason, a couple of reasons. In verse 12, he goes right back to the deacons. So he hasn't left one office and started the other. He's still talking about deacons. And in verse 12, he's talking about their family. So why not in verse 11 also? It seems better just reading through the text that he's talking about the deaconess household here. And also it is true that he uses the general word for woman and not wife, but he uses that same word in verse 12. The husband of one wife, a one woman man. And it's obvious there he's talking about the wife of the deacon. So I think it best to say, yeah, he's talking about deacon's wives here, not a special office. I wouldn't say that having deaconesses in a church is wrong. That's not a heal I would die on. I wouldn't start a new denomination over that. The no deaconess's church. I wouldn't do that. In fact, in our church in Indiana, where I was for nine years, we had deaconesses. And there were women who served in capacities of preparing fellowship meals, of decorating the church with flowers and so forth. They took care of benevolent needs and those kinds of things. They served in a great role, not in a leadership role, but in a great role of serving the church. I wouldn't split hairs over this. I just think this text really lends itself more to talking about the deacon's wives. So deacon's wives. Did you realize that there are some qualifications for you too? There are four of them in your character, verse 11, in the same way their wives are to be women worthy of respect. Same qualification as deacons, they have the respect of the congregation that they are spiritually mature, godly women. Secondly, he says, not malicious talkers. That is a very interesting word. It is the word Diabloos, which is the Greek word we get the word devil from. The literal meaning of the word is devil. So what he's saying is don't be a devil. Now, actually, the concept is a slanderer or someone who gossips with the intent to hurt others. That's a malicious talker. And the Bible says a deacon's wife. And by expansion of this whole concept, if he's just referring to the wives of all church leaders, which by application certainly could be pastor's wives also. And because these are qualifications that are to be sought out from among the congregation, every woman. He is for every woman and every man, as someone told me after the first service, this was for all of us, not just for deacons and their wives. And it is. None of us are to be devils in the sense that we maliciously slander people with the desire to harm them. There's a third qualification for deacons' wives. They are to be temperate. It's an interesting word too. It means self-controlled or serious-minded about things. It doesn't mean you can't have a sense of humor, but it does mean that a deacon's wife should not be a flippant, giddy, silly person who does not have a serious approach to life at all. There should be the ability to understand when to be serious about life and not just be silly and giddy about everything. Now, I will add this. It does not say you can't be blonde. So if you're blonde and you're a deacon's wife, it's okay. That's all right. But it just says that you can't be giddy or silly or unseurious about life altogether. Those are the qualifications of a deacon in regard to his wife. But his wife. Just the next, he talks about his marriage. Look at it, if you will, in verse 12. A deacon must be the husband of but one wife. Same phrase he used of pastors, a one-woman man which indicates faithfulness to your marriage covenant with your wife. Again, it does not disqualify necessarily a man who's been divorced. But it means that a man should be faithful to his wife. He should demonstrate, I mean, a guy may have been divorced early in his life, maybe even before he got saved. And he's gotten his life right with God. He's remarried. He has lived faithfully to his covenant vows with his wife. Since that time, I think he would qualify. The qualification is a one-woman man, a man who's faithful to his marriage vows. And then the third home qualification he deals with is his leadership. He says, any must manage his children and his household well. Just like we saw with pastors, this does not mean he has to have a perfect family. Because there are no perfect families, there are no perfect parents, there are no perfect children. The only perfect parent who ever lived in the universe was God himself. And the two children he made and put in the garden of Eden both rebelled against him. So you're going to have some difficulties and problems in family life. No matter who you are, this doesn't mean your family has to be picture perfect. What it means, and quite frankly, what it says, is this man knows that he is the spiritual leader in his home. And he has willingly, firmly, humbly taken that position of spiritual leadership in his home. And so he will love his wife, his Christ, love the church. He will discipline and train love and affirm his children in a godly way. So he will lead his household. He will manage his household. And when problems arise as they always do, he will manage those. He will lead the family through those. That's his household. And then Paul closes this whole section on Deacons with not another qualification, but actually a blessing. And this has to do with his reward, the reward of a Deacon. Notice verse 13, those who have served well. In other words, those who have been faithful in the role which has been entrusted to them, the ministry of serving as a Deacon. If you've done that well, then here are two things God blesses you with, an excellent standing. What does that mean? The word standing actually is a word which means rank. It actually refers to a rung on a ladder or another step up. And so the idea seems to be that if you serve well and faithfully as a Deacon, you gain further esteem and respect. You move up in the respect level of the congregation who entrusted you with that responsibility. It's one of the blessings of serving well. The other blessing is more eternal in its outlook, great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus, great assurance or boldness or confidence literally in your relationship through faith with Christ. And I think what that's referring to is that if you serve well in the responsibility you've been entrusted with, then when you stand before Christ at the judgment seat of Christ, you will be rewarded for that. And really that's true for all of us, isn't it? Not just Deacons, but the Bible indicates that all of us will give an account of ourselves to the Lord at the judgment seat of Christ and what we've done in the body according to the Second Corinthians will be judged whether good or bad and we will receive the rewards for that which we've done for the glory of God. It was not out of prideful or sinful or fleshly motives and it was not done in a way that would dishonor Him. Whatever we've done, wherever He's placed us as a physician, as a lawyer, as a teacher, as a factory worker, as you've served God faithfully in your role where God has placed you and been a light and a salt testimony for Him. And whatever you do in serving the Lord in the church or the community, when you do that faithfully, God rewards you, you will hear a well done, good and faithful servant when you see Him. It's quite a group of qualifications, isn't it? And I would say this in closing, first of all, to those of us who are pastors, what a joy and blessing it is to have such men to serve alongside. And we have been blessed here with men like this and I'm confident that Rusty and Bill will fill that role faithfully and will serve in ways that will cause us to rejoice and be blessed. So what a blessing it is to us pastors. I would also say to each deacon here, both new and old or recent serving and long serving, maybe it would be better way to say that. I would say to you, commit yourself to seeking growth by God's grace in those areas that you may have seen, you know, I'm a little weak in this area, I need to grow some more here. And again, that's true of all of us. But this morning, especially for men who serve in this role, I urge you to commit yourself to further growth by God's grace in these areas of character and doctrine and maturity and household. And then I would say this to us as a congregation. Each of us should also be checking our lives as to whether or not these qualifications are true or we're making progress in growing toward them in our lives. But I would also challenge all of us at Johnston Chapel to pray faithfully for those men that we've entrusted the responsibility of being a deacon to because it is an awesome responsibility and no one can faithfully fulfill it without the grace and strength of our Lord. And so I encourage all of us to be praying faithfully not just for Rusty and Bill, but for all of the men who serve as deacons here at Johnston Chapel. Could we pause just a moment? Could I have each of you where you are? Just lift your hand if you're serving as a deacon right now. You saw many of them up here before. Could I just have you raise your hand, please? Keep it up. Raise it high so we can see it. This is not boastful or proud. Anyway, look around you. Spot someone that is currently serving as a deacon and will you commit to praying for them that God will protect them and keep them close to him just like Pastor Dan prayed earlier. Please, I encourage you to do that. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for Godly men, for faithful men. Thank you that you've given us an abundance of such men here. So many that could be at our qualified to serve in this role. I thank you for those that you have placed your hand upon and through the vote of the congregation, if sovereignly placed in this role to serve us as a church. I pray for them that you would bless them, protect them, use them, help them to be faithful to you. And then Lord, I pray for all of us that we will measure our lives by the standards you give in your Word so that we may seek to grow and be faithful as we represent you in this world wherever we are. Help us. We cry out to you by your grace and with your strength of your spirit. For it's in Jesus' name we ask this. Amen.