Deacons Likewise

Well, please turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 3.  1 Timothy 3.  We are going to be reading together verses 8 through 13.  1 Timothy chapter 3, verses 8 through 13.

If you’re visiting with us, maybe even new tonight, we’re picking up in our study of this letter that Paul wrote to Timothy.

1 Timothy chapter 3, verses 8 to 13.  Pay careful attention as we read together from God’s Holy Word. 

“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.  Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things.  Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well.  For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.”

Let’s pray together.

Father in heaven, we do pray now that as we reflect upon Your Word, that Your Holy Spirit would bless not only the reading of Your Word but the preaching of Your Word as well, that Lord we would hear the voice of Christ speaking to us, that Your Word would sink deep into our hearts, that it would be an encouragement to us tonight. To think, Lord, about how You’ve appointed deacons to serve Your body.  So we ask all these things in Jesus’ name.  Amen.   

Well, dear people of God, we continue tonight our study in 1 Timothy.  This letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to Pastor Timothy, the pastor at the church of Ephesus, instructing Timothy how he is to feed the church, how he is to lead the church.  You might recall from our study of this book so far that in chapter 1 the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy about the importance of holding to the apostolic doctrine, that he needs to steer clear of false teaching and hold to the faith and a good conscience.

In chapter 2 he wrote to Timothy about how he is to go about conducting public worship, talked about prayer in the church, talked about men’s and women’s roles in the church, and then here in chapter 3 he writes about the qualifications for officers.

Last Sunday Pastor Kevin preached on the qualifications for overseers and elders, shepherds in the church, and this evening we come to Paul’s instructions about deacons.  And Paul’s emphasis is that the health of the church is dependent upon the church being led by godly, qualified and faithful officers.  It’s what the Ephesian church needed; it is what the church of the Lord Jesus needs today. 

I find it interesting how similar the list of qualifications are for elders and deacons here in 1 Timothy 3.  Paul begins this section by saying deacons likewise, or in other words, he says deacons in the same way as elders need to be men of godly virtue and character so also do deacons.  I think we all understand how important the office of elder is for the life of the church, that their task is to exercise spiritual authority over the church, shepherding and teaching the church of God.  

But the similarity and the extent of the qualifications that Paul lists here for deacons reminds us also how important the office of deacon is for the church.  Deacons are not junior elders.  Deacons are not elders in training, although some deacons may become elders, but that is not primarily what deacons are.  There is not here a lesser list of qualifications for deacons.

But these are what deacons are, this is what deacons are.  Deacons are God’s appointed servants who lead the church in showing the love of Christ through a ministry of mercy to the poor, the needy, and afflicted.  I’ll say it again; deacons are God’s appointed servants who lead the church in showing the love of Christ through a ministry of mercy to the poor, the needy, and afflicted.   

Our outline tonight is the same outline that Kevin gave us last week.  I thought that’s a great outline for elders, it’s a good outline for deacons.  So three questions:  Why do deacons matter?  What do deacons do?  And how should deacons live?

So that first question.  Why do deacons matter?

Well, as we find our way through the Bible, we see the foundations for the diaconal ministry, and the roots and the foundations for that ministry begin in the Old Testament.  You will not find the office of deacon in the Old Testament but the roots of diaconal ministry are there as the Lord taught His people how to care for the poor and the needy.

In the Old Testament we find various categories for the poor.  The poor might be a peasant farmer or landless poor person, day laborers as it were, in the Israelite community.  There were widows and orphans who were without physical and economic protection, so no husband or father in the house, and therefore they were vulnerable to mistreatment and exploitation.  We might think, for example, of Ruth in the Old Testament.  There were sojourners, strangers, foreigners.  These were non-Israelites who at some level had come to join the people of God.  They were either permanently part of God’s people or just in a temporary case before they went back to their homes, but because they did not belong to God’s people, they, too, were subject often to economic mistreatment.

Then there were the Levites.  The Levites had no property as an inheritance, so all the other tribes got a portion of the land, but the deacons, or the Levites did not, and therefore they were counted with the poor because they were dependent upon the support of the rest of the community. 

And God said these various groups of poor need to be cared for, cared for in different ways, but they ought not to be neglected.  Compassion should be shown to them.

So you find various examples of this.  The poor, for example, were allowed to glean from the leftovers in the field.  So a farmer is out harvesting and he harvests his crops and some of the grain falls on the ground and the poor are able to make their way through the field and pick it up.

The Levites, they were supported from the offerings of the people.  The needy were allowed to borrow instruments to work the fields without having to leave their cloak as a pledge.

These are just a few examples of many, many, many different instructions of how God’s people were to care for the poor among them, as the Lord had compassion to Israel in their affliction, so Israel should serve and care for others in their midst.  They ought not to neglect the poor.  The poor were responsible to work, to labor, and the community, sometimes it was families, sometimes the society at large, other times the state under the rule of the king, they ought to assist those who were needy among them.  Old Testament roots.            

We also see the roots for the diaconate, even more in the ministry of Christ Himself.  Remember this famous, these famous verses from Jesus as He describes His ministry in Mark chapter 10:43 to 45.  Jesus says whoever would be great among you must be your servant, your diakonos is the Greek word.  And whoever would be first among you must be slave of all for even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, diakonato, the verb form, came to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.

You might say Jesus came to deacon, not to be a deacon, but He came to serve, to diakonato.

Luke 22 also describes this service ministry of Christ.  Luke 22:27 – Jesus asked for who was greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves?  Is it not the one who reclines at table?  But I am among you as the One who serves.

Keep those words, “serving at table,” in mind as we keep moving our way through this sermon.

But Jesus’ service, of course, is very practical.  It was practical service, practical love, practical compassion that He gave to others.  He healed the sick.  He fed the hungry.  He reached out with compassion to those who mourned.  He called people to find life in Himself.  You remember He said, “come to Me for I am gentle and lowly.” 

Our Book of Church Order establishes the office of deacon in the example of Christ. It says the office of deacon is one of sympathy and service after the example of the Lord Jesus.  In other words, deacons take their cues from Christ, observing Christ, watching Christ, emulating Christ, Christ as the chief example.

Well, people of God, as we move into the early Church, that is when we see the diaconate formally starting to be established.  In Acts 2 and Acts 4 it says that in the early Church the believers had all things in common.  They were selling their possessions and distributing to any as they had need.  So we see in the very earliest days of the Church diaconal work or at least diaconal care within the body of Christ.  People bringing their gifts, bringing their offerings, to those who were needy among them.

In that passage that Derek read for us from Acts chapter 6, we start to see the real seedbed for the office of deacon.  There was a complaint against the Jews that the Hellenistic widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food, so here’s a very practical need.  Looking around the Church and some say, “Hey, wait a second.  The Hellenistic widows, they’re not being served in the same way that the Hebraic widows are being served.” 

So the disciples, the apostles, decided to appoint seven, as the text says, to serve tables so that they could focus on prayer and the ministry of the Word.  A division of labor in the early Church.  The apostles say, “We need to devote ourselves to preaching, to prayer, let these other men devote themselves to serving tables.”  So the Church picks these seven who were of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.  They set them apart and they prayed over them and they laid their hands on them. 

We don’t find the word “deacon” in this passage, so whether this is the official establishment or the diaconate or not could be argued, but at the very least here is the seedbed for the office of deacon.  The seven are set apart to do diaconal work.  Even something like an ordination service here, laying on of hands and prayer over them.  At the very least, the diaconal office is beginning to develop, and by the time then that we come to our text here tonight, as Paul is writing to Timothy, it is formed, it is established, it’s well-known in the Church.  Paul doesn’t have to explain it, he simply writes about who is qualified to fill it.

See the very same things in the letter to the Philippians, chapter 1 verse 1, where Paul says, “Paul and Timothy, to the saints in Christ Jesus, who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons.”  Those offices found in that local church.

Well, the second question tonight is this then:  What do deacons do?  If that’s a background in how the diaconate is established or at least where it finds its examples from, what is it deacons do?  What are they called to do?  And there’s a very simple answer to that – they are called to serve.

That word diakonos, where we get the word deacon, can also more broadly mean servant.  Deacons lead the way in serving the needy in the church.  They lead the way in serving the needy in the church.  And this again I think is where Acts 6 is instructive for us, as we look at what these seven were called to do.  They were called to serve tables, or as some translations put it, to wait on tables.

And that phrase helps us, I think, think about both the core and the extent of diaconal ministry.  The core of diaconal ministry is to serve in very practical, hands-on ways.  So in the Acts 6 example, what are those seven doing?  Well, they’re distributing food.  They’re serving tables.  They’re giving to these widows as they had needs.  Deacons might reach out to those who have been hospitalized.  Make a phone call after a hospitalization, “Hey, brother, hey, sister.  Might you need some help in paying those hospital bills?  Are you doing okay?”  They might set up meals for someone in that kind of situation.

They might help a member who needs help paying rent.  They might coordinate an effort for someone who needs their yard mowed or their lawnmower fixed.  They might offer a ride to somebody who needs to get to work or has to make their way to a doctor’s visit.  They might help clean somebody’s apartment, organize a team to help somebody move, visit the lonely or the hurting, reach out to those who are in prison.

You see, there’s all kinds of very, very practical, hands-on ways that the deacons serve the body of Christ.  When I think about the ministry of our deacons here, Derek prayed for it tonight, for the mercy committee.  We have a mercy fund and that fund helps people in situations like I was describing, giving them assistance.  So there’s very practical ways of getting hands dirty, but also financial assistance that helps in these same kinds of ways.

That is the core of the ministry of the deacons.  But I think in Acts 6 we also see the extent of their ministry, and the extent of their ministry is found in that word “table,” that these seven were to serve tables.

One author describes that word like this, that the word “table” isn’t only referring to something like a kitchen table, so distributing food or providing a meal, but it also may describe a banker’s table, or a money changer’s table.  I think this helps us realize the broader scope of the work of the deacons, that they hold financial responsibilities within the church.  They serve the church by providing practical or meeting practical needs, but they also serve as the financial stewards of the church.

So our deacons evaluate causes.  They look across organizations and ministries and ask the question, “Is that a good ministry for our church to help and support?”  And as they evaluate those causes and ministries, then they might recommend some of them to us.

Think about our special offering this morning, or the special offerings that accompany other celebrations of the Lord’s supper, it is our diaconate that plays a big part in determining what those causes are, that we’re going to give collections and offerings for. 

Deacons are called to inspire stewardship in the church, so they’re to come alongside the rest of us and help us learn the practice of giving and helping us learn to be generous people.  Sometimes they may come alongside of an individual who needs that kind of teaching and they might learn, they might help that person learn to budget their resources.

Or deacons might teach a Sunday school class on stewardship, or some kind of like topic.

So our deacons, they serve by getting their hands dirty, financially stewarding the resources that we have here as the church, that elders primarily as a ministry of the Word, the diaconate is primarily a ministry of practical service and mercy.

Thinking again about what our Book of Church Order says, that the ministry of the deacon is a ministry of sympathy and service.  It’s compassion.  Sympathy for those who are in need.  And then serving those who are in need.

Well, then this last question:  How should deacons live?

This is really the bulk of what the Apostle Paul was talking to Timothy about, or teaching Timothy about.  The character of a deacon, the lifestyle of a deacon.  I think we could break this section, this text, down into three parts.

First of all, the Apostle Paul writes to Timothy about the deacon’s life.  This is the lifestyle to be like.  Paul begins with an over-riding summary qualification just as he did for elders.  I remember from last week, remember that Paul says to Timothy that elders must be above reproach, kind of a summarizing category for the rest of what follows. 

And Paul does the same thing for Timothy here when he’s talking about deacons, but he says here deacons, they must be dignified.  That’s that summarizing category.  They must be worthy of respect by those both inside the church and outside the church.  Some translations put it that they must be serious, they’re not flippant, but they’re leading a dignified, worthy of respect kind of life.

Paul describes, goes on to describe then, what this dignified life is like.  He says deacons should not be double-tongued.  They should not be two-faced, insincere, hypocritical.  Deacons, in other words, must be men of their word.  They must be men who tell the truth and they must be men who keep their commitments.  They are not to be too addicted to much wine.  You see here a deacon doesn’t need to practice abstinence, but a deacon must not be given to over-indulgence.  He must be a sober man.

He is not to be greedy for dishonest gain, like the elders, he must not be a lover of money.   So he is to practice self-control in speech, in drink, in attitude towards wealth and money. 

I wonder if you can see here why these qualifications are so important for the work of a deacon.  It’s because deacons are often dealing with some of the most personal areas of people’s lives.  Deacons are often privy to the most personal things in people’s affairs, their needs, their struggles, their finances.  You see that deacons cannot be loose-lipped, they cannot be gossips, they cannot be men of broken commitments, lacking self-control, covetous, greedy…  Any of those kinds of things.  It would ruin their ministry among the people of God and the trust of God’s people would be jeopardized.

The very ministry that they have requires these kinds of qualifications if they are going to be effective at caring for the very tender needs that God’s people have.  The deacon’s life.

Paul then talks about the deacon’s doctrine.  Verse 9 – they must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.

When Paul uses the word “mystery,” and this was really true throughout the New Testament, when Paul uses the word “mystery” he’s not talking about something that is a secret, something that only a few people know.  You know.  Hey, I want to know about that.  Right?  That’s not what Paul is talking about, but the word “mystery” rather is a truth that at one time was hidden but now has been revealed.

You can see a great example of the use of “mystery” by Paul in Ephesians chapter 6 when he’s talking about marriage and talks about marriage as being a mystery, and the reason he uses that word is he’s wanting to say to us, “You know, we might not have caught onto this for a long time but with the coming of Christ, what has been revealed to us is that Christian marriage is a picture of the relationship of Christ and the Church.”  It’s a truth that at one time was hidden, now has been revealed.

Mystery is not something we don’t know, mystery actually is something we do know, it’s something that has been revealed to us now.

Well, the mystery of all mysteries, of course, is the Gospel of our salvation in Christ Jesus as the Scriptures revealed it to us in the early parts of the Bible.  The book of Genesis, Genesis 3, we heard about it this morning, the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent.  First Gospel promise.

But as we go through the Scriptures, it unfolds.  Doesn’t it?  Gets clearer and clearer, revealed to us more and more, and Paul says it is the mystery of all mysteries.  In fact, he will go on to talk about it in the next text, verse 16 of chapter 13, great indeed we confess is the mystery of godliness.  And he describes it there that Jesus was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up into glory, the life, death, resurrection, ascension, and reign of Christ.

Paul says deacons are to hold onto this mystery with a clear conscience.  In other words, deacons must know the fundamentals of the faith.  They ought not to be uncertain with the truth.

That’s why we spend just as much time training our deacons for office as we do our elders for office.  And in fact, we train in them in very similar things.  We take them both through the Westminster Confession of Faith and want them to be familiar with the Scriptures.  Because deacons, like elders, must hold onto the mystery of the Gospel with a clear conscience.

It is also why Paul says they ought to be tested first.  You know the best way to find out if a deacon is doctrinally sound is to examine him before he becomes a deacon.  You need to go through a testing before he becomes a deacon.  And isn’t that what the early Church determined in Acts chapter 6 as they were thinking about these seven who were going to serve tables.  They landed on men who were of good repute and they were full of the Spirit, full of wisdom.  There was some kind of evaluation, some kind of a testing, before they took up that task.

So we have the deacon’s life, the deacon’s doctrine, and then the deacon’s family.  This takes us to verse 11, probably the most controversial verse in this text.  You read there that their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers but sober-minded, faithful in all things. 

The Greek word there for “wives” at the beginning of verse 11 could also be translated “women,” so their women likewise must be dignified.  This has led some people to think that Paul might be referring here to another office, the office of deaconess, so we have elders, we have deacons, do we have here a third office of deaconess?

And the support for this view is that the opening words of verse 11 are the same as those of verse 8.  Paul begins at verse 8, “deacons likewise,” and here verse 11, “their wives likewise.”  Paul’s beginning to talk about a new office in verse 8 so it appears that maybe Paul is describing a new office here in verse 11 as well. 

Then others will point out that if Paul was talking about wives, he could have just said “their wives” or “their women.”  And you see it actually here in the ESV, it says that, “their wives likewise,” but the word “their” is not included actually in the original language.  So Paul could have just said “their wives” in the original Greek if he was talking about wives instead of women, or instead of another office.  So it seems like Paul may be talking about something other than deacons’ wives.

But people of God, I think there are several reasons why this should be translated wives and not women, therefore not alluding to a separate office.

And the first reason is this.  It would seem strange that Paul would interject a discussion of an entirely different office in the middle of his discussion about deacons, describing what deacons ought to be like, how they ought to live, what their doctrine ought to be like, and then an interjection here in verse 11 of an entirely different office, it seems strange that Paul would do that.

The second reason.  If Paul was talking about the office of deaconess, he could have said that instead of simply using the broad word “woman” when he uses the Greek word again in verse 12.  So this word translated either “women” or “wives,” he uses it again in verse 12, it clearly means wife – let deacons each be the husband of one wife.

So it seems for consistency that Paul is not talking just about women in general, which might lead us to think about this other office, but Paul is indeed talking about the wives of deacons.

Then a third reason.  And that is Paul doesn’t include testing for women as he does for the deacons.  So he says a deacon must be tested, as we saw already, but he doesn’t go on to say that for a deacon’s wife or for these women.  And if a deacon ought to be tested, wouldn’t we think that if Paul is describing a separate office of deaconess, that they, too, ought to be tested before they take office?

Then let me give you one last reason.  Paul includes character qualities, you see here in verse 11, for the deacons’ wives, so he says their wives, they must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things.

When you look back at the section where Paul is describing the qualifications for overseers, Paul does not use character qualifications for elders’ wives.  We might say, well, okay, why is Paul describing deacon wives with these character qualifications, he doesn’t do that for elders’ wives.  Why the difference?  I think the difference is for this reason, that Paul had in mind that these wives would be assisting their husbands in diaconal kinds of work, and Paul did not have that in mind for the office of elder, because of its authoritative character, because of the nature of shepherding and teaching.  They would not be helping their husbands in the same way that the wives of deacons would help their husbands.

And the qualifications then, I believe, suggest partnership in ministry, not a separate office in ministry.

Now I think it needs to be said tonight, having said all of those things, there is nothing to keep women from serving in diaconal type work in the Church.  The Bible is full of examples of that kind of ministry.  So we have Dorcas, Acts 9.  She was full of good works and acts of charity.  She was serving among God’s people.  Phoebe, a servant in the church at Cenchreae.  And again, one more time, back to our Church Order, our Church Order says it is often expedient that the church should select men and women to assist the deacons in caring for the sick, widows, orphans, and prisoners.

I don’t think I’m overstating it to say tonight that in these very practical, hands-on types of service ministries, that it’s often the women of the church that excel in these.  Praise God for that.  There’s nothing here at all that we’ve said tonight that ought to keep women from doing that.  In fact, ladies, we need you to do that.  Diaconal service, even without ordination to a diaconal office.

And then just one last thing about Paul’s words to Timothy regarding the deacon’s family.  This is verse 12.  Paul says the deacons each should be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own household well.  This was said last week about elders.  This isn’t saying that deacons need to be married, that a single man cannot be a deacon.  It’s simply saying that a deacon ought to be a one-woman man.  Faithful to his wife, not sexually promiscuous.  Then note also a good leader in his home.

People of God, all of this leads us to the final verse here where Paul also gives us a deacon’s reward.  He said for those who serve well as deacons, they gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.  Those who serve well, they again a good standing.  It’s not exactly clear exactly what Paul is saying here.  He says a good standing with God.  Is this a good standing within the church?  Not sure it’s either one of those things, but probably both and, but to gain a good standing, a good reputation with others in the church, a good standing before God, and then also a great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

God grants an assurance of faith and notice it doesn’t come through introspection, it actually comes through service as deacons serve well. 

I don’t think it needs to be said tonight these are great rewards.  These are great rewards for the deacon, for the diaconate, because the work of the diaconate is demanding, just as is the work of the elder.  It’s difficult sometimes as a deacon to discern the real needs of people.  Sometimes the same requests from somebody who has a need comes up over and over and over again and sometimes deacons are scratching their head and saying, “Do we help here?  Do we not help?  What responsibility do we put on people?”  Those are often difficult decisions to make and the work of the diaconate is often behind the scenes work.

Paul is reminding the deacons among us here tonight of this truth.  God sees, God notices, and God will commend you for your faithful work.

So, people of God, we at Christ Covenant Church, we need to thank God for our deacons, for their faithful service among us and their faithful service to the poor and to the needy.  I am encouraged many, many times and I’ll just kind of catch wind of a deacon who is going to somebody’s apartment and helping them clean it out before an inspection is made, before the landlord comes and checks it out.  Or a deacon is giving a ride to somebody to a doctor’s appointment, or to a job interview.  And how encouraged I am by these godly, faithful, committed men who love the Lord and love His people.

So as we close  tonight, I encourage you to pray for them, support them with your gifts, with your tithes and offerings, encourage them in their work.      

Let’s pray together.  our heavenly Father, we’re thankful for Your kindness to your people.  I think Kevin mentioned it last week that when we go through a chapter like this and we’re talking about church polity matters, that we’re able to say that the Bible give us direction for these things.  It’s not as if the Church, in the early days of the Church, just ran into problems and said we’ve got to figure out how the Church ought to be governed.  What do you think?  What do you think?  And yes, in certain situations that happened.  But Father, we have Your divine Word, Your revelation to us about the qualifications, the work of our overseers and elders and the qualifications and the work of our deacons.  So thank you, God, for establishing these offices and thank You for raising up faithful men her at Christ Covenant Church to serve the rest of us in these ways.  We pray these things in Christ’s name.  Amen.