We will now read from two passages in the Bible.
If you have a Bible with you,
and then please turn to Acts chapter 6.
It's also printed in your bulletin,
and you can see it on the screens.
There are, however, Bibles at the back
if you would rather like a hard copy in your hands.
So first, Acts chapter 6,
verses 1 to 6.
Now, in these days,
when the disciples were increasing in number,
a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews
because their widows are being neglected
in the daily distribution.
And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said,
It is not right that we should give up
preaching the word of God to serve tables.
Therefore, brothers,
pick out from among you seven men of good repute,
full of the Spirit and of wisdom,
whom we will appoint to this duty.
But we will devote ourselves to prayer
and to the ministry of the word.
And what they said pleased the whole gathering,
and they chose Stephen,
a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit,
and Philip, and Prochorus,
and Nicanor, and Timon,
and Parmenas, and Nicholas,
a proselyte of Antioch.
These they said before the apostles,
and they prayed and laid their hands on them.
And then the second passage is 1 Timothy 3, verses 1 to 10,
which talks about the qualifications for elders and deacons.
The saying is trustworthy.
If anyone aspires to the office of overseer,
he desires a noble task.
Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach,
the husband of one wife,
sober-minded, self-controlled,
respectable, hospitable,
able to teach,
not a drunkard,
not violent but gentle,
not quarrelsome,
not a lover of money.
He must manage his own household well,
with all dignity,
keeping his children submissive.
For if someone does not know
how to manage his own household,
how will he care for God's church?
He must not be a recent convert,
or he may become puffed up with conceit
and fall into the condemnation of the devil.
Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders,
so that he may not fall into disgrace,
into a snare of the devil.
Deacons, likewise,
must be dignified,
not double-tongued,
not addicted to much wine,
not greedy for dishonest gain.
They must hold the mystery of the faith
with a clear conscience,
and let them also be tested first.
Then let them serve as deacons,
if they prove themselves blameless.
This is the Holy Word of God.
Amen.
All right, well, we are in a month
where we are nominating
both elders and deacons for office.
And so, in a season like this,
a lot of questions come up.
Who can be an elder?
Who can be a deacon?
What is an elder?
What is a deacon?
Who should we choose?
What do they do, for that matter?
Why do we have church leadership
in a structure like this
with elders and deacons?
There are more questions
that might come up for you
than we can answer today.
So, let's do the most foundational thing,
the most fundamental things
with this call for elders and deacons
that we're having right now
and look together at Acts 6.
So, we read from Acts 6
because this is one of the few places
in the Bible
where we see elders and deacons
working together in a really live way.
The apostles acting as some of the first elders
and then the first seven proto-deacons,
as we often say,
called here at the beginning,
right in the earliest moments of the church.
And let's see the realism of the church
that gives way to deacons,
the reality of what the church is like,
the need for deacons, in other words,
the priorities of elder and deacon,
and then lastly, the people themselves.
Okay, so first, the realism,
the circumstances,
the reality of the church
that gives rise to a need for deacons.
That's what we see here.
So, in Acts 6,
there's a couple circumstances taking place
that give rise to the office of deacon
for the first time ever.
First, the church was growing explosively.
So, Jesus died,
He rose from the dead,
He commissioned His apostles,
and now the church is expanding really rapidly.
And so, we learn in Acts already twice,
3,000 people came to faith in Jerusalem
in a weekend, in a day.
5,000 people in the next chapter
come to faith around Jerusalem.
And then, in the passage just before this,
Acts 5, 14,
it says that a multitude of men and women follow Jesus.
And so, there's this explosive growth,
and they're trying to figure out
how to do church and churches
in the light of all the people
coming to faith in Jesus
and following Jesus.
The other circumstances,
we see really clearly
from the very beginning of the church
that the apostles,
the disciples,
the first leaders,
were really, really committed
to daily distributions
of food and clothing
to the poor.
So, that's the context
that this passage is all about.
Now, to understand that,
you've got to understand
that in the first century,
there are a lot of people
experiencing abject poverty,
true poverty.
So, we have the materially poor,
poor people
who struggle with material poverty
in our city.
And here in the first century,
you would have had
the type of poverty
where truly people
could often not find clothing.
So, when Jesus says,
feed the poor,
give a cup of water
to the thirsty,
and clothe the naked,
he was serious.
It was not,
that was not just a metaphor,
that was very real.
There were people
who literally
could not find clothing.
And so, there's a lot
of abject poverty here
in the earliest moments
of the church in Jerusalem.
Just in a couple chapters
previously,
Barnabas,
one of the early evangelists,
he, we're told that
when he experienced
the gospel,
the transforming work
of the gospel in his life,
he turned around
and sold his land
so that he could give
the money
to cover the clothing
and food needs
of the poor in Jerusalem.
And so, people were doing
that all the time.
This was not
communism.
No, it was people
who had been transformed
by the generosity
of Christ in the gospel.
And so, we're willing
to give away everything
to meet the needs
of the people
all around them.
They had a real needs ministry.
And they learned that
through God's generosity
to them,
the generosity
of the cross,
the love of God
in the gospel.
So, we read in James,
Jesus' brother,
James, biological brother,
who did not believe
in Jesus
when Jesus was doing
his ministry,
but after the resurrection
came to faith
in his biological brother,
his Messiah, Jesus.
In the book of James,
chapter 2,
this is what he says
about needs ministry
that Georgie was talking
about,
what we read about here.
He says,
if a brother or sister
is without clothing
and in need of daily food
and one of you says to them,
go in peace,
be warm,
be filled,
but you do not give them
what is necessary
for their body
to make them warm
or fill them up with food.
What use is that?
Even so,
even so faith,
even with faith,
if it has no works,
it is dead.
So James says,
faith without the living act
of service of people
in need is dead faith.
Faith loves,
faith works,
faith exhibits itself
in transformation.
And so caring for one another
was a really,
really big deal
in the early church
and we learn here
just from the example
of Christ,
the example of the apostles
that faith in Jesus
must be accompanied
by care for one another,
by loving works,
by good works.
And we learn that
from who?
From God himself
in the Old Testament.
One scholar talks about
the quadrilateral
of the vulnerable
in the Old Testament,
this fourfold way
of understanding paradigm
for who are the most vulnerable
in the Old Testament
ancient Near Eastern society.
And he says,
they are the widow,
the orphan,
the sojourner,
the person who's traveling
without a home,
and the materially poor.
And we all across
the Old Testament
see God say,
I care for the widow,
the fatherless,
the sojourner,
and the poor.
Psalm 68,
Isaiah chapter 1,
do good,
do justice.
I am a father
to the fatherless.
I am a home
for those who have poverty,
God says.
And then he turns
and he says to God's people,
go and do likewise.
Jesus said,
love as I have loved.
So he gives the church
really clearly
this example
in the early days
of the church.
Now,
the specific issue
in Jerusalem,
this specific issue
we're reading about here
in Acts chapter 6,
is that
when all these thousands
of people
came to faith
in Jerusalem,
there were largely
two groups of people
that came to follow Jesus
in the beginning.
They were Hebrew-speaking Jews,
Hebrew and Aramaic-speaking Jews
on the one hand,
and on the other hand,
Greek-speaking Jews.
So that's what's referred to
here in verse 1
as the Hellenist.
And so you've got Jews
spread out all over
the Roman Empire,
and many of them
have come back
to Jerusalem.
And so they would have
spoken the lingua franca
of the day,
which was Greek,
not Hebrew,
not Aramaic.
And so what's happened
is all these people,
all these Jews
have come to faith
in Christ,
but some speak Hebrew,
some speak Greek.
And you know that
when you have
different languages,
you're often separated,
and there's cultural difference.
And so in the daily
distribution for the poor,
the widows who spoke
Greek said
that they were getting
neglected
by the apostles
in the daily distribution
of food and clothing.
So we don't know
all that was going on
in there,
but we learned a couple
things about that.
One is,
and here's the realism
of the church.
The church,
as it grew,
was struggling
administratively,
was struggling
organizationally.
Now,
I'm sure you've never
been in a church
that struggles
administratively
and organizationally,
right?
You've never been
in a church
that fails to communicate
well.
You've never been
in a church
that struggles
to get it all in order
and get all the volunteers
in place,
right?
Look,
the realism of the church,
churches struggle
organizationally.
And the longer
you've been around
the local church,
the more you know that.
And we see that
right here.
Even the apostles,
they couldn't keep
it all together.
They were
all over the place
trying to meet
everybody's needs
and there was just
too many people
and they couldn't do it.
You know,
the church is much more
of a family
than it is a corporation
and so sometimes
there's a lot of struggle
in the midst of that.
The second real thing
we see here
is that
we don't know for sure
but it very well
may have been the case
that there was prejudice
involved in this.
So when you're speaking
a different language,
when you're a Hebrew speaker
and there's the Greek speakers,
but you're all
in the same church,
there's a lot of
cultural difference,
a lot of divide,
and it's just a natural thing
that probably many people
were favoring those
that speak their own language
from their own culture
and community.
And there was maybe
an element of prejudice
in all this
and there's relational messiness
from the very beginning
even with the lives
of the apostles here.
And that means
we see
that churches
can be organizationally messy
and relationally messy.
We are not
perfect people
and this is not
a perfect place
and that is the culture
and the context
that gave rise
to the office of deacon.
Quite unremarkable
in many ways,
so important
in another sense of it.
But what we do see
is that
in spite of
the messiness,
the relational messiness,
the organizational messiness,
the two things
we learn about here
that they would not
let go of
is the apostle said
we have an intense
devotion
to the ministry
of the word
so we will not neglect
the preaching
of the gospel,
the opening of the Bible
on the one hand
and we will not neglect
the caring
of the daily distribution
on the other.
We'll do whatever it takes
to figure it out.
Even God
in his providence
creating an office
called deacon
to satisfy this issue
and satisfy
these needs.
Look,
in the early church
the historians
will tell you
Rodney Stark,
Larry Hurtado,
they will say
these great scholars
of church history,
they will say
that what gave rise
to the rapid growth
and expansion
of Christianity
in the Roman Empire
in the first three centuries
was two things.
One,
people going around
in the first generation
saying
I saw Jesus Christ
die on the cross
and I saw Jesus Christ
alive three days later.
And then
that's called
the preaching of the gospel,
the sharing of the gospel
and the apostle said
we'll never let that go.
On the other hand,
the historians
will tell you
the other thing
was the churches
care for the poor
anywhere they were.
And so many people
were attracted
to Christianity
through that means.
And it wasn't just
care for the poor
within the community
of faith
like our needs
ministry does,
but it was care
for also outsiders,
those who are yet
to become Christians
as well.
We learn this
in Galatians chapter 6.
Paul says,
do not neglect
to care for the needs
of all,
especially those
in the household
of faith.
He says,
do not neglect
the care
of the needs
of everyone,
especially those
in the church community,
meaning both inside
and outside.
In the late
fourth century,
the late 300s,
Christianity
had really
gathered momentum.
A lot of people
had come to faith
in Christ
across the Roman Empire.
But there was
an emperor
named Julian
called Julian
the Apostate.
That's his nickname.
And he was
a big enemy
of Christianity.
He sort of
took the charge
on the last ditch
effort to try
to rid the kingdom
of Christianity.
So there was
a grand persecution
across the empire
in that time.
But we have a letter
from Julian.
And Julian
writes a letter
to the priests
of polytheism,
the priests
of the Greco-Roman gods
across the empire.
And he writes
a letter
about the church,
about the Christian church.
And listen to what
he says about it.
This is what he says.
He writes this
in an age
where polytheism
is in decline
and he's really
worried about it.
Okay, that's the context.
Why do we think
that what we have done
is sufficient
and do not observe
how the kindness
of the Christians
to strangers,
their care
for the burial
of the dead,
the sobriety
of their lifestyle
has done the most
to advance
their cause
in the kingdom?
Each of these things
ought to be practiced
by us.
Tell the priests
to stop drinking
so much.
I'm devising a plan.
Erect hostels
for strangers
in all the cities.
Be kind
to strangers
for it is disgraceful
that when no Jew
ever has to beg
and the Christians
support not only
their own poor
but our poor
as well,
all men see
that our people
are lacking
aid from us.
So this is
Julian's attempt
to try to battle
the Christians.
He said,
look at what they're doing.
Look at how they love people.
Now in the midst
of that point too,
we learn in the midst
of a context like this
the priorities
of the elders
and deacons.
And it's real simple.
We've already said it.
It said,
they said,
we will not neglect
the ministry of the word,
opening up the Bible,
preaching and teaching
the gospel,
and will not neglect
the ministry of love.
Right?
So we see the priorities
of elders and deacons.
Very simple.
The two offices
and what they're supposed
to be doing.
So here,
the apostles say,
we will not give up
our focus on preaching
the gospel to serve tables.
And it's really fascinating.
What does it say?
It says,
we will open up the Bible
and do the ministry
of the word
like we're doing now
and we pray.
So the apostles,
it says,
devoted themselves
to preaching
and prayer.
But then they say,
nevertheless,
let's raise up seven men
to fulfill this task.
Now,
today,
we're in a time
where there's a lot
of resurgence
in the church communities.
And this has happened
over really the past century
in Scotland especially
for recovering
the ministry of mercy.
Recovering the focus
that the church
is in the Bible
called to take care
of the needs of the poor.
First inside the church,
then also outside the church.
So we've had
a century of resurgence
and talking about that.
And notice here
that the apostles say,
no,
we're serious about that.
But a lot of times
in our culture,
in our past century,
that has been
at the expense of
and neglect
of preaching the word,
right?
So churches might focus
on the ministry of mercy,
on social causes,
on justice
in the broad sense
of the term.
But oftentimes,
there's a false dichotomy
or a zero-sum game.
Where that just means
that the gospel
is no longer preached anymore.
And you see
what the apostles do here?
They say,
we will never stop
preaching the gospel.
And we will appoint
seven men
to make sure
that the ministry of love
is taking care of
the ministry of mercy.
So for them,
it's never a zero-sum game.
It's never a false dichotomy.
It's always a both-and.
They refuse to choose.
And we see
all throughout the Bible
that God's people
in the Old Covenant,
Israel,
and in the New Testament,
the church,
fulfilled through Jesus,
they're always called
to both ministries.
The ministry of the word,
the ministry of God's grace,
telling people about Jesus,
and at the same time,
the ministry of loving deeds,
of loving service.
Now,
very simple.
Elders,
the apostles
were the first elders,
right?
And first ministers
of the church.
The elders' job
in the church
is to be exemplars
and lead us
in the ministry
of the word
and prayer.
The deacon's job
is to lead us
in the ministry
of tangible deeds
of love,
tangible deeds
of service.
And these two
go together,
they fit together,
they work together perfectly.
You don't become
a Christian
by committing
wonderful acts of love.
You don't become
a Christian
by deaconing.
You don't become
a Christian
by serving the community
or showing works
of mercy.
You don't.
No,
you become a Christian
only.
You become a Christian
only by placing faith
in the great deacon
himself,
Jesus Christ,
who served you
all the way
to the point of death.
That's the only way.
And faith
works itself out
in love.
Transforming faith,
the experience
of the grace
of God in Christ,
transforming faith
does work itself
out in loving deeds.
It shows up
in the loving deeds.
The deacons
are there
to lead us
in loving deeds.
The elders
are there
to lead us
in the ministry
of the word
of the gospel,
focusing on Christ.
Now we see
that these are never,
it's so not a false
dichotomy,
so much so
that all across
even the book of Acts
we see that elders
will do the work
of mercy,
deacons will do
the work of preaching.
So Stephen,
even in this passage,
in the very next passage,
Stephen,
this first,
one of the first deacons,
he preaches
for two whole chapters
after this.
Right?
And think about Paul,
the great elder,
the great apostle,
the great minister.
What does Paul do?
He says in Galatians 2.10,
when I was commissioned
to go and share
the gospel,
the ministry of the word,
in prayer
to the Gentiles,
they told me,
do not neglect the poor.
And he said,
and that was the very thing
I was most eager to do.
You see,
elders,
deacon,
and deacons,
elder.
And that's because
they're exemplars
for all of us.
Each of those offices
lead us
in each of those two things,
but it's the whole work
of the church,
right?
And so we saw,
if you were around last week,
Ephesians chapter 4,
Jesus Christ gave
the apostles,
prophets,
evangelists,
shepherds,
and teachers
to do what?
To equip
the whole church
for the work of ministry.
So who gave us elders?
Who gave us deacons?
Who gave us apostles,
prophets, evangelists?
Jesus did.
And he did that
for what?
So they could lead us
in the whole work
of ministry
that we're all called to do.
It's everybody's ministry.
And that means that
we learn here
that deacons are,
it's not an A team,
B team situation.
Elders are not the A team
and deacons the B team.
You know,
you don't become a deacon
and then graduate
to an elder.
No.
These are two distinct callings
that are clearly
interrelated for life.
So what's an elder?
And I'll move to
the final point.
An elder,
I like how one
early church theologian
wrote about it
in the fourth century.
He said,
an elder is
a spiritual physician.
An elder is
a spiritual doctor.
And not in the sense
that they do this
for status or prestige
or to be called doctor.
You know,
instead,
an elder is a
carer of souls.
So an elder
is not a CEO,
an elder is not a CFO,
a chief financial officer.
An elder is not
a trustee
or a board member,
though sometimes
they have to do
all this sort of stuff
in the life of the church.
An elder is a doctor
of the soul.
I'll use
Harold Sinkbeil,
who's recently
wrote a book
about eldership
and pastoring
and caring
for people's souls
so that the current elders
don't get mad at me
for this,
so I'll quote
somebody else.
Harold Sinkbeil,
he says that
elders are nothing
but errand boys,
errand boys
for Jesus.
I like,
he puts it
in another metaphor,
he says elders
are the sheepdogs
of the church.
What is a sheepdog?
You know,
a sheepdog,
you've got the great shepherd,
Jesus Christ himself,
the great shepherd
of the sheep,
and then you've got
the sheep,
the people,
and then you've got
the sheepdog.
And the sheepdog
is not a master,
you know.
What does the sheepdog do?
The sheepdog has one ear
and one eye
always on the master.
Being commanded,
being told where to go,
being told how to serve.
And then the sheepdog
has his other eye
and his other ear
always on the sheep,
protecting the sheep,
nourishing the sheep,
caring for the sheep,
making sure the sheep
don't get captured
by the wolves,
right?
So elders,
they never come
for status,
no.
They mustn't
come for status,
they must come
as sheepdogs,
errand boys
for Jesus Christ,
the first servants.
What's a deacon?
A deacon
is not a position
of status.
There is no money,
there is no glamour.
I can tell you
at St. Columbus
there is no money,
there is no glamour,
there is only service
to be had
in this ministry.
And that means
that deacons
are not mere
building managers,
they're not finance team,
they're not a finance team,
they're not a board
who makes sure
that our liability
insurance
is covered fully,
and it is,
by the way.
We checked that
this week.
deacons,
I'll read to you
one book,
it said,
deacons are men
who desire to serve,
who embrace the faith,
who live the Christian life
in an exemplary way,
especially
in being a model
for tangible,
concrete,
Christian love.
They're the first
to show up in crisis,
they're the first
to serve.
That's a deacon.
Lastly,
finally,
the people themselves.
Now,
in Acts chapter 6,
verse 3,
there's a brief list
of qualifications
for what it takes
to be a deacon here,
and this also,
I think,
applies to elders as well.
So it says,
pick brothers
from among you,
seven men
of good reputation,
full of the Spirit
and wisdom.
So we learn there
that these men
must have a good reputation,
they must be full
of the Holy Spirit
and of wisdom.
And then we read
from 1 Timothy 3 as well,
and if you just
cast your eyes
across 1 Timothy 3
and see some
of these qualifications,
okay?
And I won't go through
them in detail,
don't worry,
but just what does he say?
He says,
they must be above reproach,
the husband of one wife,
sober-minded,
that means not given
to extreme behavior,
self-controlled,
respectable,
hospitable,
opening their homes
to people,
opening their homes
to strangers,
able to teach,
not drunk,
not a drunkard,
not constantly drinking,
not violent,
literally not getting
in fights,
not quarrelsome,
not a lover of money,
gentle,
meek,
a manager of their
own household.
You can go through
these lists,
deacons not double-tongued,
not,
as the King James put it,
interested in sordid gain,
right?
Interested in loving money
too much.
Now,
you could read
a list like that,
full of the Holy Spirit,
wise,
above reproach.
The very last
qualification listed
in 1 Timothy 3
about deacons,
blameless,
and say,
where are these people?
Who are these people?
And,
that's so important
to ask,
that's so critical
and necessary to ask.
Let me give you,
let me just highlight
three qualifications
to look for.
Number one,
we're told here,
1 Timothy 3,
verses 8 to 10,
and Acts 6.
We see in Acts 6,
the apostles say,
we will not neglect
the ministry of the word.
And then,
1 Timothy 3,
8 to 10,
a deacon must hold
to the mystery of faith,
of the faith,
with a clear conscience.
What's that saying?
That's saying that
the first thing to ask
is in elders and deacons,
and your own heart
as a Christian,
if you're a Christian today,
do I hold
to the mystery of faith?
What is that?
He's talking there
about the doctrines
of the Bible.
Very simple.
He's saying,
are these men
that we're choosing,
are you holding fast
to the doctrines
that the Bible teaches?
The gospel itself
and the answers
to questions like,
who is God?
Who am I?
What is wrong with me?
Is this world redeemable?
How has Christ done it?
How can I be saved?
What is to happen
at the end of the world?
These are the doctrines
of the faith, right?
And so,
in the Bible,
sometimes there is two uses
to the word faith.
There is the faith
that we believe by,
so your personal faith.
When you rest in Christ,
that's faith.
You believe in more
than your eye can see right now.
Then there is the language
of the faith,
the mystery of the faith.
What is the faith?
It's not your personal faith.
It's the objective faith
that can be written down on paper
and said,
this is what the Bible teaches.
So the first thing we learn
is that an elder and a deacon
and all of us are called
to open the Bible
and say,
what does the Bible teach?
Orthodoxy,
we call it.
Right teaching.
That's a necessary step
in choosing any leader.
That has to be there.
But secondly,
it says they must,
and I'll just focus on this
because this encompasses
that whole list,
that elders and deacons
must be beyond reproach
or blameless.
That's the word that's used.
Now,
does this mean
that all of these character qualities
that we read about here
in 1 Timothy 3 and Acts 6,
when we read the word blameless,
that's a summary word.
We're looking for men without sin,
that they've gotten past it,
you know,
they've beat it finally.
And if it was saying that
after 2,000 years of church history,
we would still be looking forward
to the first ordination
of elders and deacons,
okay,
this is not saying
that we are looking for perfect people,
that we are looking for men without sin.
No,
not at all.
Instead,
if you could summarize
the whole list
and the concept of above reproach
or blameless
in modern language,
it would be something like this.
Not engaged
in two different lifestyles.
Where on the one hand,
they're saying,
I'm an Orthodox Christian,
I'm a follower of Christ,
I'm walking the walk
in this community,
but then living
a completely different way
outside of it.
Not living differently privately,
not hypocritical.
That's the concept
of above reproach.
They're not living
two different lives.
In other words,
you could say it like this,
they are the biggest repenters
in the room.
They're the first to repent.
They're daily confessing their sin.
They're daily looking to Christ
once more for gospel grace.
They're daily coming
and saying,
I need thee,
oh,
I need thee.
Every hour,
I need thee.
That's what it means
to be above reproach.
Not hypocritical,
but truly behind closed doors,
Christian,
walking with Christ,
in Christ,
towards Christ,
all the time.
Lastly,
thirdly,
Acts 6-3 summarizes it
so well,
I think,
full of the Holy Spirit.
What does that mean?
Full of the Holy Spirit.
It means so many things.
We can't,
I can't,
you wouldn't allow me
to talk about it
too much right now,
but one thing
that means this
is that we're looking
for leaders
who are not interested
in serving
because they want
to be good people.
They're not interested
in serving
because they want
to earn their way
to heaven.
They're not interested
in serving
because they want
to be known
for status and reputation
of being a great servant.
Or they're not interested
in serving
because they want
to be known
as an elder
in the community.
No,
none of that.
Full of the Holy Spirit
means we're looking
for people
who have been transformed
by the grace
of Jesus Christ,
that the Holy Spirit
has encountered them.
They've had an encounter
with God
and they'll never
be the same
because of it.
That's what it means
to be full
of the Holy Spirit.
Think about Paul,
Paul who gives us
some of these lists
of qualifications.
Paul says,
I am the worst
of sinners,
but by the grace
of God
I am what I am.
Full of Holy Spirit,
elders and deacons,
men,
do you know,
men,
leaders in this room,
do you know that you,
have you had an experience
of grace that you're
daily being transformed
by saying,
I am the worst.
I have the biggest need
of God's grace
in my life.
That's the leaders
we need.
That,
the Holy Spirit
at work in your heart
that you can say
that every day.
Think about Peter.
He gives a list
of qualifications
for elder
in his letter.
Peter,
he's the one
who committed treason
against Jesus Christ
and he was restored
by the grace
of the gospel
by the Holy Spirit
and encounter
with God the Holy Spirit.
Elders and deacons
are not perfect people.
They are men
that are willing
to say alongside Paul,
I'm the first person
to express my need
of grace.
Close with this.
What we're looking for
is Christians.
Christians,
because elders and deacons
are just examples
and the calling
that we've read,
the list of qualifications
here in large measure
with some add-ons,
with some takeaways,
this is what we all
want for ourselves.
people in need
of grace growing
and that's why
God has given
the church,
apostles,
elders,
prophets,
evangelists,
pastors and shepherds
and deacons
to equip the saints
for the work of ministry.
The work of ministry
is grow in Christ
and serve people's needs
and it's all
of our calling.
So what we're looking
for here in this
is leadership
where we know
these people
do not have
functional saviors
other than Christ.
They're not
lovers of money.
They're not
so interested
in career
that they've been
taken away
from the work
of the ministry.
Non-functional saviors.
In other words,
they point us
away from themselves
and to Jesus,
the great deacon
and the great shepherd.
We have a letter
written by a man
named Clement of Alexandria.
Sorry,
a lot of early church today.
We have a letter
from a man named
Clement of Alexandria
in the early 2nd century.
He became a Christian
underneath the Apostle John.
So the Apostle John
who wrote the Gospel of John,
he wrote the book
of Revelation
and he discipled
this young man
named Clement
and Clement
became a leader
in the church.
Clement tells a story
about the Apostle John,
one of the early elders
of the church.
John had founded,
planted the church
in Smyrna.
We read about that
in the book of Revelation.
Smyrna.
And John
had shared the Gospel
with a young man
who was an orphan.
And the young man
came to Christ
and started following Jesus.
And John
had to be taken away
from pastoring the church
to another town
for a long, long time.
So John left.
And Clement writes
that he turned
to the minister
that they had chosen,
the elder
that they had chosen
in Smyrna
to replace John
and said this,
In earnestness,
I commit this youth
to you
in the presence
of all here
and in the presence
of Christ.
Now what they did
was they took this young man
in front of the church.
It'd be like me
calling one of you
saying come up front
right now
and saying
I commit you
to Simon
in the presence
of all
to be discipled
for the rest
of your days.
Don't let this man go,
this young boy
that's come to faith
from a rough background
come and disciple him.
John leaves.
He comes back
years later
and when he comes
back to Smyrna
he asks,
Clement records,
where is the young man?
And we learn
that the young man,
the pastor says,
left the church
and he is now
living in a cave
outside of the city
with a gang
of the text says
bandits.
Classic word,
bandits.
And John says,
Clement records,
you are a fine guard
of that brother's soul.
Sarcasm.
In the next breath
John said,
bring me a horse
and a guide,
lead me
to where he is.
And so they take
John out of the city
to the caves
and John comes across
a member of this gang
and as soon as he's there
he says,
take me to your captain.
And the men are shocked,
this old man
coming to this group.
And he shows up
and there
the captain
is the young man
that he had discipled
and brought to Christ.
And Clement says
that as soon as
the young man
saw the apostle John,
he ran
in fear
and shame
and guilt
as soon as he saw him
and this is what John said,
my son,
why do you flee from me,
your father in the faith,
old,
unarmed?
See my compassion for you,
my son.
Fear not.
You still have hope.
I will pray for Christ's forgiveness
for you.
If needs be,
I will take your death
as the Lord died for me.
For you,
my son,
I will surrender my life.
Stop and believe
Christ has sent me
to you today.
Now,
there's a story
of forgiveness
and mercy
available to anyone
no matter what.
And there's a story
of a great elder.
Right?
That's a great elder.
The sheepdog.
He won't let him go.
He's chasing after him.
How did John become like that?
He looked at the true deacon.
He looked at the true shepherd,
the true deacon,
Jesus Christ,
in John 13,
on the night
that he was betrayed,
facing the horror
of the cross,
about to be murdered
for our sin.
What did he do?
He got down on his knees
in the most demeaning act
you could do
in the first century
and he washed
the dirty,
stinky feet
of the men
who were about
to betray him.
He was about to go
to the cross for them.
They were going
to betray him
and he washed their feet
and he said,
I serve you.
I serve.
I came,
what did he say?
I came
not to be served
but to serve,
to give my life away
as a ransom for many.
Do you know
what that word
to serve is
when he says that?
It's the word deacon.
I came to deacon for you.
John became like that
because he looked
at the ultimate deacon.
He looked at the true elder,
the great shepherd
of the sheep.
In John chapter 20,
when this same one
who died for your sins
rose again,
for your justification,
he was there
in the garden
and Mary Magdalene
comes to him
and she doesn't recognize him
and she says,
is this the gardener?
And what did he do?
He said her name,
Mary.
And she would have been there
in John chapter 10
that we opened
our call to worship with
when he said,
my sheep hear my voice
and when I call their name,
they come to me.
And all he does
is he says,
Mary.
And the blindness,
gone.
She, it says,
we're told in the text,
she clung to him,
she embraced him,
she wrapped her hands
around him
and would not let go.
And he said,
you've got to let me go.
I've got to go
and send the spirit
to the church.
Right?
She wouldn't let go of him.
Now look,
how did John become
an elder like that?
We need leaders
who help us all
cling to Jesus
and not let go
and say,
I won't let go.
That's the leaders we need.
Let us pray.
Father,
we pray for these shepherds,
these deacons,
and we ask that you would
teach us all as Christians
to cling to Jesus
and to see the true deacon,
the one who washed our feet
at the cross,
the true elder and shepherd,
the one who would run
to the uttermost far country
and give his life away
for the sheep, Lord.
Teach us the grace
that that is
and then how to love
like that as well.
We pray for that
in Christ's name.
Amen.