{"id":18500,"date":"2018-11-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-25T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/ecclesiology-041\/"},"modified":"2018-11-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-11-25T06:00:00","slug":"ecclesiology-041","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/ecclesiology-041\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecclesiology 041"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[99],"series_event":[484],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18500","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-1-timothy","series_event-ecclesiology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Ecclesiology 041","sermon_date":"20181125","sermon_month":"11","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":6242,"sermon_slides":6243,"sermon_mp3":6247,"sermon_id":"112518154034446","series_or_event":484,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":99,"chapter_and_verse":"3:8-13","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nEcclesiology 40, Philippians 1:1\n\n11-25-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 41\n\nFather, we\u2019re thankful for today and we\u2019re especially grateful that the season that we\u2019re in when we in our culture pause to really focus on what we have and we have so much Father, and so we have things materially and those could be taken away in a moment so we\u2019re very grateful today for the fact that we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.\u00a0 And He has not called us to crawl on a bed of nails to gain favor before You; You told us that You already have it and it\u2019s just\u00a0 a matter of exploring the owner\u2019s manual and figuring out what we already have.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So we are in a tremendous place of blessing today in the church age and particularly as American Christians materially as well and so we thank\u00a0 You for that.\u00a0 I just pray that You\u2019ll be with our services, the Sunday School class, church service that follows, and\u00a0 Your Spirit would be at work illuminating truth to us so that we can continue to live for You as\u00a0 Your people in the devil\u2019s world.\u00a0 And we\u2019ll be careful to give\u00a0 You all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026\u00a0 Amen!\n\nLet\u2019s open our Bibles to 1 Timothy, chapter 5 and verse 17.\u00a0 Just to remind you where we\u2019ve been in our study of Ecclesiology; a lot of people have been asking me when am I going to show slides on our trip and all that stuff and I think my goal is to do that in Sunday School but I want to finish Ecclesiology first and I think the rest of the study will go by fairly fast and then I\u2019ll do the trip and the biblical sites once we finish Ecclesiology, so a few weeks down the road if you can hang on that long.\n\nEcclesiology of course is the study of the church (as you know) and these are all of the things we\u2019ve looked at the study of Ecclesiology.\u00a0 Before I left we had gone over the activities of the church which you find in Acts 2:41-47.\u00a0 And then from there last week we completed the government of the church and we saw that of the major views concerning church government within Christendom the one that really has biblical support, the best biblical support is the elder rule model where a church is basically governed by a plurality of godly men.\n\nThat leads into officers of the church, since the church is governed by a plurality of godly men then there must be an office for that and you\u2019re correct; that office is called the office of elder.\u00a0 You say well, are there any other formal offices within a church.\u00a0 There are and there\u2019s another office called the office of deacon.\u00a0 So now we\u2019re moving away from the whole subject of church government at large to looking at specific office holders in the church and the New Testament reveals two offices, the office of elder and the office of deacon.\n\nSo we\u2019re starting here with the office of elder and we started looking at that last time if memory serves, and if the authority structure in a church rests with a plurality of godly men then\u00a0 you would expect somewhere in the Bible to have an enumeration of their qualifications.\u00a0 In other words, what qualifications does a person have to have to serve as elder?\u00a0 And there are two areas of the Bible that reveal that and you should just take these two verses, addresses anyway, and memorize them so you know where they are because part of what we do at Sugar Land Bible Church is we put forth elder candidates that are confirmed by the congregation. So how do you know how to vote on somebody\u00a0 unless you read God\u2019s manual on the subject.\n\nSo the office of elder, the qualifications thereof, are found in the pastoral letters; there are three books of the New Testament that are written to pastors so we call them the pastoral letters.\u00a0 And those are 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and also Titus.\u00a0 And in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9 you\u2019ll find the qualifications for elders, primarily moral qualifications.\u00a0 And we read those verses last time and went through those qualifications, general qualifications, moral qualifications, personality qualifications, domestic qualifications, Christian experience qualifications, reputation qualifications, knowledge qualifications.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find all of that in those two lists.\n\nAnd before leaving the subject of elder there\u2019s just a few more things that we want to talk about concerning elders.\u00a0\u00a0 Beyond qualifications how many elders are you supposed to have exactly.\u00a0 One person says you\u2019ve got to have three because there\u2019s three members of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Another person says no, you\u2019ve got to have five because when David went to kill Goliath he had five stones in his backpack.\u00a0 Another person says you\u2019ve got to have seven because seven is the number of completion.\u00a0 Another person says you\u2019ve got to have twelve because Jesus had twelve disciples or apostles.\u00a0 Another person says no, you\u2019ve got to have twenty-four because we studied last week in the Book of Revelation twenty-four elder in heaven. \u00a0Another person says no, you\u2019ve got to have seventy because Jesus sent out the seventy.\n\nThe reality is how many do you have to have and the answer is the Bible never tells you and that relates to the nature of the church.\u00a0 The church is not like the nation of Israel which was confined to a specific geographic area on the coast of the Mediterranean.\u00a0 Israel is a country and is\/was a nation.\u00a0 Song of Solomon that\u2019s why when you go to the Old Testament and you look at Israel\u2019s leadership structure there\u2019s no flexibility at all in it because Israel is a specific locale.\u00a0 When Jesus formed the church He intended it to go global so part of the great commission is go into all the nations making disciples of all nations; preach the gospel to every creature.\u00a0 So the Holy Spirit\u2019s design for the church is that it would be transnational and international.\u00a0 So once a movement becomes trans\u00adnational or international then you can\u2019t have fixed rules like you have for a specific nation.\n\nSo look at all the different kinds of congregations that exist on the planet.\u00a0 Having a set number of elders, like seven, might work really well in one part of this city or one part of the world but it wouldn\u2019t work well in another part of the world.\u00a0 It might work well for a congregation that\u2019s smaller but what do you do with a mega congregation, what do you do then?\u00a0 So the Holy Spirit or God knew that this would happen so in the church age what he has given us is not fixed rules like you have for the economy of Israel.\u00a0 But what you have are generic principles and you see this is the mistake, because people often ask well, you know, I\u2019m a Christian, I want to give part of my income to the Lord, how much should I give, and always looking for a fixed number like it\u2019s part of the United States tax code or something.\n\nNow if you were living in Israel you would have a fixed number; it\u2019s basically three tithes, two annually, one every three years, you would be giving twenty-three and a third percent of your money to the Lord if you lived within Israel.\u00a0 Just like in the United States of America you don\u2019t have the option concerning how much tax money you\u2019re going to pay.\u00a0 But the church is not a country; the church is not a nation; the church is transnational and so you don\u2019t have a fixed number.\u00a0 What you find with the church, just like with the plurality of elders, is a general concept or generic principles that you\u2019ll find in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.\u00a0 So it never gives you a number; what it\u2019ll say is give joyfully, give cheerfully, give secretly, give generously, give sacrificially, give proportionately as the Lord has prospered you.\u00a0 And why don\u2019t we have a fixed number?\u00a0 Because it relates to the nature of the church not being a nation.\n\nSo going back to my earlier slide when we were talking about the different issues related to the church you might remember there in Roman numeral five we spend several weeks on that\u2014Israel church differences.\u00a0 If you can grasp the idea that Israel and the church are different entities, one more of an earthly body, the other one more of a heavenly transnational body, then\u00a0 you\u2019ll start to see why the Old Testament reveals fixed numbers for Israel but the church has generic principles and that\u2019s true in the area of giving.\u00a0 And it\u2019s also true in this view of how many elders do you have to have?\u00a0 There is no number; every local congregation is given liberty to work on that in and of themselves via prayer.\n\nThe only thing the New Testament is going to do is give you a principle and that principle is this\u2014there has to be a plurality of elders.\u00a0 So authority doesn\u2019t rest with one person; authority rests with a plurality of elders.\u00a0 Now do you have three, do you have five, do you have seven, do you have twelve, do you have twenty-four, do you have seventy?\u00a0 The Holy Spirit says well go to the Lord in prayer and work that out amongst yourselves because something may work in one part of the world and not really work in another part of the world or something may work in a large congregation but not in a smaller congregation.\u00a0 But the principle is still there, it\u2019s a plurality of godly men.\u00a0 And we went through last time several verses that reveal the elder model in the New Testament.\u00a0 Let me just give you a few of those again, I won\u2019t go through all of them but just so you catch this idea of a plurality.\n\nActs 14:23 says, \u201cWhen they had appointed\u201d what\u2019s the next word?\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ll read it again, \u201cwhen they had appointed\u201d what\u2019s the next word, \u201celders\u201d it doesn\u2019t say how many, it just says a plurality.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say when they appointed a dictator because a lot of pastors sort of have this mindset that this church is a theocracy and my name is Theo kind of thing, and that\u2019s not the right model either.\u00a0 It\u2019s a distribution of power amongst a plurality of godly men.\n\nYou may remember we brought up Philippians 1:1, you might want to look at that again just for a second.\u00a0 Just go over to the Gospels, then you have Acts, then you have your big books, Romans,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, and then just remember G<\/u>o E<\/u>at P<\/u>opcorn, or G<\/u>od\u2019s E<\/u>lectric P<\/u>ower C<\/em>ompany, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and over in chapter 1, verse 1 it says there \u201cTo all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi\u201d including the what? \u201cOverseers, a plurality of godly men.\u00a0 [Philippians 1:1, \u201cPaul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons:\u201d]\n\nIf you slip over to the Book of James, which is a little further to the right, chapter 5 and verse 14, it says, \u201cIs anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the\u201d what\u2019s the next noun, \u201celders\u201d it\u2019s a plurality of godly men, \u201celders of the church and they are to pray over him\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 So that\u2019s sort of the generic concept.\n\nSo we have the qualifications for elders, we\u2019re not given a specific number concerning how many elders you have to have. I think our church currently is functioning with six,\u00a0 if I remember right, I wasn\u2019t at the last elder meeting because I was traveling abroad so I\u2019m trying to remember how many elders exactly we have.\u00a0 Someone back there is going like this so six sounds good; that makes sense because God created the world in six days so there we go, we\u2019re standing on biblical authority here.\u00a0 And so the numbers aren\u2019t addressed in the Scripture but the concept is, it\u2019s got to be a plurality.\n\nAnd something else that\u2019s very interesting about elders is not all elders do the same thing.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that interesting.\u00a0 Go over if you could to 1 Timothy 5.\u00a0 Of course when you say 1 Timothy that carries a little extra weight concerning church government because that\u2019s one of our pastoral epistles.\u00a0 And it\u2019s interesting that not all elders do exactly the same thing.\u00a0 There seems to be s distinction among elders.\u00a0 It say, \u201cThe elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.\u201d\u00a0 [1 Timothy 5:17]\u00a0 So you\u2019ll notice there that\u00a0 you\u2019ve got some elders that are ruling or governing and then you\u2019ve got other elders that are preaching and teaching.\n\nAnd people like to refer to me as a pastor which is fine, the gift of pastor-teacher is in the body of Christ to help bring the body of Christ to maturity, but if you really want to be technical about it I\u2019m more of what you\u2019d call a teaching elder.\u00a0 Based on our constitution\u00a0 I\u2019m a permanent member of the elder board and my primary responsibility at Sugar Land Bible Church is a teaching ministry. Now not all of the elders fill that role; all elders must be apt to teach but some are very good at other things, like governing, like keeping care of the budget, watching over the small groups, the shepherd\u2019s groups that we have, etc.\n\nAnd we as elders probably need to do a little bit better job I think communicating to people what different elders do because it\u2019s not until you actually come to an elder meeting that you start to see this very clearly.\u00a0 But there is within the Scripture a concept were not all elders do the same thing; some focus more on some things and some focus more on other things.\u00a0 And you see the distinction happening here in verse 17 where it talks about some ruling and some working hard at preaching teaching.\n\nBut having said all that what is the general responsibility of an elder?\u00a0\u00a0 What are elders supposed to be doing?\u00a0 An elder, and I\u2019ve gone through some of this before when we talked about spiritual gifts, the best way to understand an elder or a pastor is kind of like what a shepherd does in the natural world.\u00a0 What does a shepherd do, because God, the Lord Jesus is the ultimate shepherd and He has appointed in the body of Christ\u00a0 under shepherds, 1 Peter 5, shepherds shepherding under Him.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [1 Peter 5:1-3, \u201cTherefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your<\/em> fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, [2] shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of<\/em> God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; [3]nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.\u201d]\n\nAnd you can sort of figure out what a church leader is supposed to do based on what a shepherd does in the natural world.\u00a0 A shepherd basically does three things in the natural world over his flock of sheep.\u00a0 Number one, he guides them.\u00a0 These all begin with the letter g.\u00a0 He basically gives them direction, he leads them in other words.\u00a0 He is also responsible for guarding them or protecting them from pernicious or dangerous influences from the outside, like the wolf that seeks to come in and devour.\u00a0 And he is also responsible for grazing them or feeding them.\u00a0 So when you look at those three things that a shepherd does in the natural world those are basically the three things you look for in what an elder does.\u00a0 He\u2019s, they together, are responsible for guiding the flock, guiding the sheep, guarding the sheep.\n\nYou wouldn\u2019t believe the bad influences that want to come into a church, either to teach false doctrine or you\u2019ve got issues with people want to come in to sell something or they want to come in to sort of cause trouble.\u00a0 Or God forbid you have situations happening in some churches, thankfully this has never happened here and we have policies in place to protect us from this but\u00a0 you have people that want to work in the children\u2019s ministry and it turns out that they become pedophiles and things like that.\u00a0 So we have background checks on people that want to work in nursery or with children.\u00a0 We have a two person policy in every children\u2019s room, someone is exercising oversight over children.\u00a0 So there\u2019s some practical things that you can do to kind of protect yourself from that.\n\nBut this all falls under the purview of elders, how are we going to protect the sheep?\u00a0 So he guides, he guards, and then the last thing of the three major things he does is he grazes which means he feeds the sheep.\u00a0 So how are we to be fed?\u00a0 How are we to grow spiritually?\u00a0 Through the Word of God, right?\u00a0 \u201cMan does not live by bread alone but by\u201d what? \u201cevery word that proceeds from the mouth of God.\u201d\u00a0 Matthew 4:4\u00a0 Notice it says \u201cevery word that proceeds from the Word of God.\u201d\u00a0 You grow in a church when\u00a0 you\u2019re under a ministry that\u2019s teaching you \u201cevery word\u201d of the Bible.\n\nSo that\u2019s why on Sunday mornings we don\u2019t float around from topic to topic; our policy is to start in a book of the Bible and go all the way through until we finish it and we largely get our ministry philosophy from that verse, \u201cMan shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, God put every word in the Bible there for a reason and if you skip words or skip chapters or skip verses then it\u2019s sort of like skipping a food group. So when I\u2019m preparing my sermons it\u2019s always interesting, I\u2019m always looking at the verses because I don\u2019t have any real flexibility in terms of what I\u2019m going to teach on since I\u2019m committed to a verse by verse exposition I teach on whatever happens to be next in the chapter.\u00a0 I\u2019m looking at some of these verses saying wow, how is this going to relate to people?\u00a0 And it\u2019s interesting the comments you get from people, they say man, I\u2019m so glad you covered such and such because I really needed that and the fact of the matter it\u2019s really not my job to know who needs what, God knows that.\u00a0 My job is to just give them all the food groups and how it applies to their lives and who comes that particular Sunday God will take care of.\n\nSo anyway, that\u2019s what an elder is supposed to do and so at least\u00a0 you have sort of an idea what the general duties are, if you will, of an elder. So we have qualifications for elders, the number of elders, the distinction among elders, duties of elders.\u00a0 Well here\u2019s a sensitive one, can an elder be removed from office?\u00a0 I mean, are elders granted life tenure, you know, like at a university\u00a0 you get tenure and you just have a lifelong security.\u00a0 NO, for one reason is we have terms for elders at Sugar Land Bible Church, and you say well aren\u2019t you a permanent member of the elder board?\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, by virtue of our constitution I personally am a permanent member of the elder board.\u00a0 But I can be removed if the plurality determines that I should be removed.\u00a0 And you say well is this found in the Bible, and it is, if you go over to 1 Timothy 5:19-20 you\u2019ll notice what it says here.\u00a0 It says: \u201cDo not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses.\u201d\u00a0 It says, [20] \u201cThose who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.<\/em>\u201d\n\nNow you look at those two verses and you study these out it\u2019s amazing the wisdom found in these two verses.\u00a0 First of all clearly an elder can be removed because it says here do not entertain an accusation against an elder absent two to three witnesses so the implication is if\u00a0 you\u2019ve got two to three witnesses indicating that an elder has moved into a moral failure, doctrinal failure, that that elder can be removed.\u00a0 So God designed the church in such a way that those in leadership are also under the authority of the Word of God and if it\u2019s determined that such a person is living in a way or teaching in a way contrary to the Word of God then that elder can be removed from his office if the plurality of elders determine that\u2019s to be the case.\n\nBut notice also the balance here, even though an elder can be removed it\u2019s very clear that do not entertain an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two to three witnesses, so you\u2019ll notice also that there\u2019s protection for the elder because what people will do is they\u2019ll come into a church and their preferences aren\u2019t met in some way, you know, they want things to be run, they don\u2019t like the color of the carpet, I mean\u2014who could complain about our carpet, I just think it\u2019s fantastic.\u00a0 Or they, you know, you part your hair on the wrong side of the head or you shouldn\u2019t wear a tie or you should wear a tie, your sermons are too short, [laughter]\u00a0 I haven\u2019t had that accusation hurled against me.\u00a0 Really what a lot of people do is they elevate their personal preferences to the level of a biblical maximum.\u00a0 And so they\u2019ll want to remove people from authority just based on that.\u00a0 So you\u2019ll notice that the Bible protects elders from the rumor mill or from the gossip mill or from people who just don\u2019t like something on the basis of preferences because you cannot remove an elder unless you have two or three witnesses.\n\nNow I really don\u2019t want to get too far into politics but we just emerged from a whole national catastrophe or a nightmare where an accusation was brought against someone that was nominated for the Supreme Court, Kavanaugh, regardless of what you think about Kavanaugh, thumbs up, thumbs down, you\u2019ll notice that in that whole scenario disqualification was never satisfied.\u00a0 There was never two to three witnesses against this man; it was something that was done basically from a rumor based on one person and what they were saying and\u00a0 you don\u2019t have two to three witnesses seeing the person do what everybody says that he did.\u00a0 And you have this whole national nightmare taking place because the nation, by and large, has forgotten God\u2019s Word and we just want to remove people from office based on things we make up because we don\u2019t like their politics.\u00a0 And so what I\u2019m saying is that would happen in a local church I think pretty regularly if this principle was ever abandoned -- two to three witnesses.\n\nSo can an elder be removed?\u00a0 Absolutely.\u00a0 Can you remove an elder without evidence?\u00a0 No you can\u2019t because the evidential standard is very high here, you\u2019ve got to see the elder, two to three witnesses involved in doctrinal or moral failure, then\u00a0 you can remove the elder from office.\u00a0 So it\u2019s a beautiful balancing act that the Holy Spirit has given us here.\u00a0 Yes\/no they can be removed but at the same time there is protection of the elder based on this very high evidential standard.\n\nAnd what do you do with a sinning elder? Verse 20 is very clear, \u201cThose who continue in sin,\u201d now who are \u201cthose\u201d?\u00a0 The elder that just got removed.\u00a0 \u201cThose who continue in sin rebuke in the presence of all,\u201d why would you do that?\u00a0 \u201cso that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 So if\u00a0 you have a situation where an elder is actually removed what the New Testament calls for is a public rebuke of sorts.\u00a0 When you tell the congregation that this is what is going on, this is what\u2019s happened and you do that for the benefit of others who are thinking about going into the same sin.\n\nNow I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve ever been in an environment where that\u2019s actually happened.\u00a0 It\u2019s always painful to watch and you say to yourself wow, these folks take sin pretty seriously here.\u00a0 And it really gives you deterrence or you think twice the next time you think about going down that particular road of sin.\u00a0 So these are all generic principles that govern the office of elder and there\u2019s a lot of other things we could probably talk about related to the office of elder.\u00a0 But you have to understand these principles to understand how God\u2019s church is supposed to function.\n\nSo let\u2019s leave, for just a moment the office of elder and let\u2019s go to the office of deacon and let\u2019s go over to a familiar passage, Acts 6:1-7.\u00a0 We basically know what an elder does; an elder is like a shepherd fulfilling the three \u201cG\u2019s, governing a congregation through a plurality of elders. But what is this office of deacon all about?\u00a0 Take a look if you could at Acts 6; look at verses 1-7 and this is the origin of deacons.\n\nIt says, \u201cNow at this time while the disciples were increasing in number,<\/em>\u201d so the early church was growing, \u201ca complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews<\/em> against the native<\/em> Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food.<\/em> [2] So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, \u201cIt is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.\u201d So a real need arose here in early Christianity, in fact, these folks weren\u2019t even called Christians yet but there was a new movement that started, an offshoot of Judaism, and these folks trusted in the Messiah the nation rejected.\n\nSo this is the beginning of the church.\u00a0 And it was growing and you have a situation where some of the widows were being overlooked in the distribution of food and so everybody ran to the apostles, who were the functioning elders of this group, and said fix this problem. And so you have a crisis because the apostles got involved in all of that as admirable a project as it is they would be neglecting their primary responsibility.\u00a0 What exactly is their primary responsibility?\u00a0 Their primary responsibility is to feed the flock of God through the Word of God.\u00a0 And of course if you\u2019re involved in all of these service projects you don\u2019t really have time for that nor do you really have time for prayer.\u00a0 So what is early Christianity going to do?\u00a0 Acts 6:1-7.\n\nPicking it up at verse 3, \u201cTherefore, brethren,\u201d an important word, \u201cselect from among you seven men\u201d an important word, \u201cof good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom,\u201d all important words, \u201cwhom we may put in charge of this task.\u201d\u00a0 What task?\u00a0 The distribution of food to the widows.\u00a0 But we will end up watching cable the rest of the day and going to the mall and relaxing.\u00a0 NO, \u201cwe\u201d since we\u2019re alleviated from that responsibility, [4] \u201cBut we\u201d since we are alleviated from that responsibility \u201cwill devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.\u201d\u2019\u00a0 If the church hadn\u2019t made a decision here the ministry of the Word and prayer could have stopped right there in its tracks.\u00a0 And I think Christianity or the life of the early church would have been derailed.\n\nSo this is a real crisis that emerged and so they resolved the crisis through the appointment of another office called deacons who took care of the service project thereby liberating the elders to doing what God called them to do and look at the result, verse 5.\u00a0 \u201cThe statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen,\u201d here\u2019s your first deacon, Stephen, \u201ca man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit,\u201d and here\u2019s deacon number two, \u201cand Philip,\u201d and then it mentions five others, \u201cProchorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch.\u201d\u00a0 And then it says in verse 6, \u201cAnd these they brought before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them.\u201d\n\nSo this office is established, we now have our first seeded deacons in the church.\u00a0 And look at the result, [7] \u201cThe word of God kept on spreading;\u201d why did the Word of God keep on spreading?\u00a0 Because the apostles could focus on what God called them to do.\u00a0 The Word of God can\u2019t keep spreading if the apostles get bogged down in a service project as important as that service project is.\u00a0 \u201cThe Word of God kept on spreading and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem,\u201d why is that? Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word, if you don\u2019t have the Word of God being taught you don\u2019t have conversions.\n\n\u201cThe Word of God kept on spreading and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem,\u201d and look at this, \u201cand a great many of the priests\u201d now aren\u2019t all those the folks that rejected Jesus, the enemies of Christianity, even those people started to get converted because of the perpetual teaching of the Word of God.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026 a great many of the priests were became obedient to the faith.\u201d\u00a0 So there it is, right there in black and white, the origin of the office of deacon.\u00a0\u00a0 What is a deacon?\u00a0 A deacon is a second office within the church besides elders, designed to take care of service projects or other things that happen within a church.\n\nYou look at all of the things that happen in our church, you look at building codes and taxes and parking issues and the printing of bulletins and cleaning the church and it just goes on and on and on.\u00a0 You get an elder, a teaching elder like myself involved in all of that stuff and the quality of the teaching will disintegrate very quickly.\u00a0 I really have to protect and guard my study time because I do this at this church three times a week and so praise the Lord for other elders who rule alongside of me and also for deacons who pick up the slack with the service projects, therefore liberating us to the ministry that God has called us to the Word of God and to prayer.\n\nYou notice in a lot of churches really what\u2019s suffering is the pulpit; the messages are sort of topical, they\u2019re sort of anemic, they\u2019re sort of weak, and they\u2019re very short and it\u2019s usually three points and a poem kind of thing.\u00a0 And you look at the people in the church and you ask yourself are they really growing in the things of God?\u00a0 Are they really being brought into maturity?\u00a0 And you really can\u2019t be brought into maturity as a Christian hearing the same sermon about the need to get saved every single week because once the child is born the child needs to grow and unless the teaching position of the church is protected so that the teacher has time to study and teach you can\u2019t really expect a lot of depth in people concerning their Christian life and their Christian walk.\u00a0 So you start to see the logic here of the Holy Spirit raising up this very important office called the deacon.\n\nNow if\u00a0 you look at the qualifications for deacons, let\u2019s take a look at those for a minute, you see some qualifications right there in Acts 6:3, don\u2019t you.\u00a0 \u201cTherefore, brethren,\u201d qualification number one, they have to be a believer, \u201cselect from among you seven men\u201d now I know a lot of you are wondering about the gender limitation on office of elder and deacon and I\u2019m hoping I can talk long enough this morning where I don\u2019t have to address that issue, but we\u2019ll address that at least next week because\u2026 and you might be surprised at my answer, but there seems to be a gender limitation.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026 select seven men, \u201c now why seven?\u00a0 Well seven worked for the church in Jerusalem but that may not work well for the church in Antioch or Ephesus or Rome so the Book of Acts does give you a number but the Book of Acts, we look at it as a historical book, not so much a doctrinal book.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot of things happening in the Book of Acts that you don\u2019t find in the epistles.\u00a0 For example, does anybody here own a home?\u00a0 Nobody owns a home?\u00a0\u00a0 See you all are in sin because the Book of Acts says you should have sold your home and given it to the Jerusalem saints.\u00a0 So obviously there are things in the Book of Acts that we look at as historical rather than normative or doctrinal.\u00a0 Now you don\u2019t find the number seven in the epistles but you find the number seven here because it worked well for the church in Jerusalem.\n\n\u201c\u2026seven men of good reputation,\u201d there\u2019s another qualification, \u201cfull of the Holy Spirit, and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.\u201d\u00a0 What task?\u00a0 The task of the distribution of food to the widows, thereby liberating the elders (which in this case was the apostles) to pray and to teach so that the Word of God can continue to expand and\u00a0 you get more conversions and you get more depth in God\u2019s people.\n\nSo looking at Acts 6:3 what are the qualifications?\u00a0 And we vote on deacons too, don\u2019t we?\u00a0 So you should probably know what these qualifications are.\u00a0 Number one, the deacon must be a believer, obviously.\u00a0 Number two, the deacon must be a man, at least according to Acts 6:3.\u00a0 But before you pick up stones to stone me to death wait till I get over to 1 Timothy 3 because there\u2019s a caveat in that which I\u2019ll try to explain to you.\u00a0 The deacon must be a person of good reputation; I would take that to mean inside the church and outside the church.\u00a0 The deacon must be honest; now why does the deacon need to be honest?\u00a0 Because who do you think does the counting at Sugar Land Bible Church with the offering money that comes in week after week?\u00a0 The deacon\u2019s responsible for that and to protect people from being tempted to embezzle me we also have a two deacon policy where you have two deacons whose character is trusted back in that office counting the money.\u00a0 But obviously you can\u2019t have dishonest people in that position or the temptation is too great to do something that we in the legal system call embezzlement.\n\nThey must be Spirit filled according to Acts 6:3. [Acts 6:3, \u201c\"Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.\u201d] In other words, these are people who continually walk and depend upon the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 They must be wise; what is wisdom?\u00a0 It\u2019s the application of knowledge.\u00a0 A deacon must be someone who is not just someone that has their mind filled with biblical data (which in and of itself isn\u2019t wrong because you can\u2019t apply what you don\u2019t know) but they have to have sort of a life where they\u2019re known to take biblical truth and apply it to daily life.\n\nAnd in this story here, this historical account of the first deacons, you have two people mentioned; the two guys right out of the gate are Stephen (deacon number one of the seven) and the second is a guy named Philip.\u00a0 [Acts 6:5b, \u201c\u2026and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip.\u201d]\u00a0 And I bring this up because there\u2019s a mindset in people that a deacon is some kind of low level position, you\u2019re kind of a glorified maintenance person.\u00a0 And may I just say to you that\u2019s not at all how God views the office of deacon.\u00a0 Being called or selected to be a deacon in a church is actually one of the most honorable things that you could do and I know that because of who these two men were.\u00a0 The first deacon was Stephen, the second was Philip.\n\nNow who was Stephen?\u00a0 Well, like Philip he was a worker or miracles.\u00a0 He was the first martyr of the church age and he is the only person that I have record of in the New Testament where Jesus is standing up, I don\u2019t want to say salute but maybe a better word is giving honor to Stephen when he died.\u00a0 When\u00a0 you go through the New Testament what you\u2019ll see over and over again is Jesus is not standing up but He is doing what?\u00a0 He is in a seated position.\u00a0 Hebrews 1:3 indicates that to show that Jesus\u2019 job was completed because his final words on the cross were \u201cIt is finished.\u201d\u00a0 [Hebrews 1:3, \u201cAnd He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.\u201d]\n\nAlmost every time you see Jesus in His present session at the Father\u2019s right hand He\u2019s in a seated position but you might want to jot down Acts 7:56.\u00a0 [Acts 7:56, \u201cand he said, \u2018Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.\u2019\u201d]\u00a0 \u00a0Jesus is actually standing for Stephen, the first martyr of the church age, when Stephen\u2019s immaterial part was separated from his body upon being stoned to death and his soul went into heaven or his immaterial aspect went into heaven, you\u2019ll see Jesus standing there and I think He\u2019s standing there whereas normally Jesus is seated He\u2019s standing there to honor Stephen, not only the first martyr of the church age but also the first deacon.\u00a0 So all of that to say that being a deacon in God\u2019s church is not just some kind of forgotten low level maintenance position but as far as God is concerned it\u2019s a very high honor.\n\nThe second deacon selected there in Acts 6 is a man named Philip. Philip is a big deal because he is the one that brought the gospel to the Samaritans, Acts 8.\u00a0 And what you have to understand is the Hebrews and the Samaritans hated each other\u2019s guts for seven centuries.\u00a0 You want to talk about racial division, there was a sharp racial division between the Samaritans and the Hebrews, really going all the way back to the removal of the northern kingdom seven hundred years earlier.\u00a0 And they brought in another group that became kind of a mixed breed, a hybrid race called the Samaritans, they intermarried with some Jews, they wouldn\u2019t go to Jerusalem to worship the Lord like the rest of the Hebrews did.\u00a0 They went to Mount Gerizim, the mountain of blessing.\u00a0 Remember when Moses entered the land all the way back in 1400-1500 B.C., actually Moses didn\u2019t enter the land but he gave instructions to the Jews that were about to enter the land and they were to go to Ebal, the mountain of curses and read the curses of the Law, and they were to also read the blessings of the Law and obedience to the Law from Ebal.\u00a0 That\u2019s where these Samaritans went, they went to Ebal, the Mount of blessing and they didn\u2019t go to Jerusalem like the rest of the Hebrews did.\n\nAnd from that point in time there was an intense religious and ethnic hatred between the Hebrews and the Samaritans for seven hundred\u00a0 years.\u00a0 This is why everybody is astonished that Jesus is talking to a woman from Samaria, John chapter 4.\u00a0 This is why James and John, the sons of thunder, went into a Samaritan village, Luke 9 and the village rejected the ministry of Christ and they said \u201cshould we not call down fire from heaven to consume these people.\u201d\u00a0 [Luke 9:54, \u201cWhen His disciples James and John saw this, they said, \u2018Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?\u2019\u201d]\n\nWhy would someone say something like that?\u00a0 You have to understand the racial hatred that existed for seven hundred years between the Hebrews and the Samaritans.\u00a0 Seven hundred years of racial hatred is a longtime.\u00a0 I mean, the United States of America has only been here a little over two hundred years; think of seven hundred years of hatred between two groups.\u00a0 And who is the guy that the Holy Spirit selected to resolve this problem?\u00a0 This guy named Philip, because he took the gospel to Samaria and everybody was stunned that the Samaritans started getting saved in the age of the church.\u00a0 And so in this one instance only the giving of the Holy Spirit was postponed.\n\nNormally when you get saved you get the Holy Spirit instantaneously but in this case it was postponed. And the Jerusalem apostles had to travel to Samaria to lay hands on the Samaritan believers so that everybody could see that this was true that these Samaritans got saved.\u00a0 And so when they laid hands on them then the Samaritans received the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 That way Jerusalem would understand that Samaria now belongs to Jerusalem in the church age and Samaria would understand that Jerusalem now belongs to Samaria because we are all what in the body of Christ?\u00a0 One!\u00a0 Galatians\u00a0 3:28 is very clear, \u201cThere is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.\u201d\n\nAnd so that was a huge ethnic bridge that had to be overcome and who is the man that the Lord picked to overcome that hurdle?\u00a0 This guy, Philip, deacon number two.\u00a0 So when you actually get into the background of the first two deacons, Stephen and Philip, you can see very fast that American evangelicalism might look at deacons as some kind of low level maintenance grounds-keeper but as far as God is concerned it\u2019s one of the highest honors you could ever have, serving in a church as a deacon.\n\nAnd by the way, one other thing I forgot to mention about Philip is he was actually caught up into heaven, I mean, talk about a high honor (no pun intended) and the word caught up (Acts 8:39) is the same word used to describe the rapture of the church.\u00a0 [Acts 8:39, \u201cWhen they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing.\u201d]\u00a0 So Philip was caught up, and then of course he was brought back down but Philip is a man of great reputation and he is deacon number two.\n\nNow while we\u2019re on this subject of deacons let me give you a parallel passage from the life of Israel and if you go back to Exodus 18:21 almost the same scenario is occurring as the nation of Israel is leaving the promised land and going to Mount Sinai there on the Sinai Peninsula.\u00a0 [Exodus 18:21, \u201cFurthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens.\u201d]\u00a0 Once they go the base of Mount Sinai Moses is standing out there all day long and you\u2019re dealing with, if we take the numbers literally, and I have no problem taking the numbers literally in the Bible,\u00a0 you\u2019ve got about a million and a half people out there.\u00a0 Think about that?\u00a0 And Moses is standing out there all day long and he\u2019s judging every concern that the people have.\n\nAnd consequently he\u2019s wearing himself out and his father-in-law, Jethro\u2026 and you ought to listen to your father-in-law, you can get some good advice from your father-in-law, his father-in-law, Jethro, says what you\u2019re doing is not good.\u00a0 You\u2019re going to wear yourself out doing this.\u00a0 What you need to do is\u00a0 you need to appoint a lower court system and let the lower court system handle the minor disputes while you put yourself over the major disputes that the lower court system can\u2019t handle because you\u2019ll function as sort of a Supreme Court.\u00a0 And so the nation of Israel is preserved from judicial chaos here through Moses listening to the advice of his father-in-law and appointing a lower court system.\n\nSo just as the lower court system within the nation of Israel preserved Moses to do what God called him to do, deacons in the church age preserve the elders and protect the elders from being bogged down in endless assignments so the elders can do what God has called them to do so the church can continue to grow and flourish and mature.\u00a0 So when you study Acts 6:1-7 you should also study alongside of it Exodus 18 because it\u2019s basically the same story, one for Israel, one for the church.\u00a0 And when you go over to Exodus 18:21 it lays out the qualifications for lower court judges, just like Acts 6:3 laid out the qualifications for deacons.\u00a0 And you find virtually the same qualifications.\n\nFurthermore, \u201cyou shall select of all the people able\u201d qualification number one, \u201cmen\u201d number two, \u201cwho fear God,\u201d number three, \u201cmen of truth,\u201d and number four, \u201cthose who hate dishonest gain, and you shall place these \u00a0over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens.\u201d\u00a0 So Moses you\u2019re liberated because you can focus on what God wants you to do and this lower court system is going to handle these other matters.\u00a0 But you\u2019ll notice, just like with deacons there\u2019s a heavy character qualification to qualify to be a lower court judge within the land of Israel.\u00a0 So these are all very important Scriptures to take a look at when you start thinking about qualifications for deacons.\n\nNow having said all that let me go to one more list, go over to 1 Timothy 3:8-13, I may not have time to get into every detail but here becomes the major passage that you look at besides Acts 6:3 and Exodus 18:21 when you\u2019re trying to figure you who is qualified to be a deacon.\u00a0 And notice what it says there.\u00a0 By the way, where do we find the qualifications for elders?\u00a0 The prior paragraph, 1-7.\u00a0 So now we\u2019re learning about a different office, the office of deacons which we\u2019ve defined that we learn about their qualifications in verses 8-13.\n\n1 Timothy 3:8, Deacons likewise must be<\/em>\u201d what? \u201cmen of dignity, not double-tongued, or addicted to much wine\u201d does it say no social drinking ever?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say that, does it, it just says not \u201caddicted to much wine, or fond of sordid gain, [9] <\/strong>but<\/em> holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. [10] These\u201d what? \u201cmen must also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons if they are\u201d what? \u201cbeyond reproach.\u201d\u00a0 Now here\u2019s the debate about gender which I won\u2019t get into today, praise the Lord.\u00a0 Verse 11, \u201cWomen\u201d look at what it says there, \u201cWomen must<\/em> likewise be<\/em> dignified\u2026.\n\nThe debate here about \u201cwomen,\u201d it\u2019s the word guna<\/em>.\u00a0 Is this talking about the office of deaconess, in other words, can a female be a deacon in God\u2019s church and hold that office?\u00a0 A lot of very good people say that\u2019s so.\u00a0 Dr. Thomas Constable, whose notes I use and recommend to you all of the time, takes that position.\u00a0 That\u2019s a legitimate position.\u00a0 Other people say no, the word \u201cwoman\u201d guna<\/em>, is not talking about the office of a deaconess; it\u2019s talking about the wife of a deacon.\u00a0 Who holds that position?\u00a0 Charles Ryrie holds that position.\u00a0 The problem is both positions have weaknesses and the problem is the word guna<\/em> can refer to a wife or it can refer to a woman, depending on the contest.\n\nNow I used to be very dogmatic on certain subjects but as\u00a0 you kind of grow in the things of God you kind of learn to be less dogmatic about things.\u00a0 If a church wants to ordain the office of deaconess, now that\u2019s not our current trajectory at Sugar Land Bible Church, but if a church wants to do that I am less likely to pick up stones and accuse them of heresy as I once would do.\u00a0 Now as I\u2019ll be showing you, the office of elder is very clear that that is to be held by a male; the office of pastor-teacher is very clear that that is to be held by a male but the subject of a deaconess in a church, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s as clear as I once thought it was.\u00a0 But that\u2019s my personal heresy and I\u2019ll go into that as we progress in this study.\u00a0 But there\u2019s a big debate there about that word \u201cwomen,\u201d guna<\/em>.\n\n[1 Timothy 3:11] \u201cWomen must<\/em> likewise be<\/em> dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things. [12] Deacons must be husbands of only<\/em> one wife, and<\/em> good managers of their<\/em> children and their own households. [13] or those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a high standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.\u201d\n\nSo what qualifications do you have to possess to be a deacon?\u00a0 And there are so many qualifications here, I\u2019ve got 8, 10, something like that, too many to do in the next two minutes so I will postpone that for next week.\u00a0 [Elder qualifications: General qualifications, Moral qualifications, Mental qualifications, Personality qualifications, Domestic qualifications, Christian experience qualifications, Reputation qualifications.]\n\nBut that\u2019s the direction we\u2019re going as we\u2019re looking at these offices, what the offices represent and how do you become qualified in God\u2019s church to serve in these offices.\u00a0 So I\u2019ll stop here.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t