The Saintly Seven

May 3, 2015

Deacons:  “The Saintly 7even”       NOTES NOT EDITED

Acts 6:1-6

SIS—The primary call of a deacon is to be a problem-solver.

Sir Karl Popper (died, 1994) is considered the greatest philosopher of science in modern history, or perhaps ever. He said, “All life is problem solving.” That seems so commonsensical that we shouldn’t need a great philosopher to point this out. Think back to the day of your birth (get help from a parent if you have trouble recalling this event). Your first act of living was: how to solve the problem of living in air, not water. Your lungs had been breathing liquid for nine months. Then other problems would charge at you in rapid succession: how to get around without working limbs, how to get warm, and how to get something to eat! Oh, and then there was the matter of planning for revenge against that man that smacked you on the bottom (for those of us born before the modern age). Life is full of problems. Any church with at least one member will face problems. Add other people to the mix, along with the fact that the Devil hates the Church, and the Church becomes an arena of problems. The Bible’s first line of defense against the church being overwhelmed by problems was the office of a deacon. Deacons were appointed to “solve problems,” the greatest of which was to protect the ministry of those charged with teaching and preaching.

There are three primary problems a deacon needs to help solve.  Let’s read about them in Acts 6:1-7.  CONGREGATIONAL READING.

Before we examine the three problems facing every church, let me explain the meaning of the word, deacon, a bit.  In this passage, the English word, deacon, does not appear.  Most scholars see this passages as foundational to the office and function of a biblical deacon.  While the English word, deacon, does not appear in this passage, the root word or words from which the English word is derived appears several times. 

The word, “deacon,” does not appear in this passage. This passage uses a related noun, “διακονία,” (“distribution,” vs. 1, HCSB) and the related verb form of, “διακονέω,”  meaning “to serve.”  Our noun, deacon, comes from another related form, “διάκονος,” which means, “servant.”  The King James Bible influences the modern idea of a honorary office by “transliterating” (transferring Greek letters into English ones: δ=d, ιά=ea, κ=c, ο=o, ν=n, ος) instead of translating (giving the English meaning for the Greek word, “servant”).  This puts the emphasis on the title, not the function, as was the practice in the Church of England.  This error in the translation process has led to the corruption of the office of a deacon in modern church life.  It has become a position of power and prestige, instead of a place of serving leadership.  This issue, as much as any other error, has contributed to the weakened state of the Church.

This foundational passage, and the other passages throughout the New Testament, puts the emphasis on the function of a deacon, which is problem-solving through service, not the position or title.  The three problems a deacon should devote himself to solving are:  1) a problem the church should have had but didn’t; 2) a problem the church did have but shouldn’t; and 3) the problem that caused the first two.  Let’s examine these.

1.  A Problem the Church SHOULD have, but DON’T (1a)

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing

If one word was able to describe the Early Church in the Book of Acts, that one word would be, “growth.”  Perhaps two words would be even better, “explosive growth.”  Just three short years before the period described by the Book of Acts, Jesus birthed the Church by selecting twelve ordinary men.  The Book of Acts opens with this description in chapter 1:

⁵ In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty)

Fifty days after the death and resurrection of Jesus, Peter preached the Pentecost Sermon (Acts 2).  At the conclusion of that sermon the Bible says:

⁴¹ Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Now there were 3120 disciples—a 250% increase in one day.  Not more than a few days later, Peter and John were again preaching and the Bible says (Acts 4:4):

But many who heard the message believed,

and the number of men grew to about five thousand.

The custom in those days was to only number the size of a crowd by the number of men.  Those becoming believers who were women or children could have been two times or more the number of men.  But, just numbering the men the disciples in a few days grew from 120 to at least 8120—that’s well over a 6000% increase!  How many of you would like to have an investment that would pay 6000% in just a few days?

With such explosive growth (which would not slow down for another 300 years), any group or organization will experience “growing pains.”  The basic idea goes like this:  the more people involved, the more problems to solve.  Financial problems increase with growth.  Relational problems increase with growth.  Organizational problems increase with growth.  Spiritual problems even increase with growth because the Devil doesn’t have to waste time trying to kill a church that is already dead.

As the Church began to move across Turkey and the rest of the known world, it not only grew in size, but grew in diversity.  At first, the movement of the gospel was primarily among the Jews who came to realize Jesus was the long awaited Messiah.  Soon, other cultures were being reached.  At the Pentecost Sermon, the Bible describes the diversity of the crowd (Acts 2:5):

⁵ Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews

from every nation under heaven.

With such explosive growth comes the challenge of reaching men, women, and children of every culture—with all the various ideas and preferences unique to every culture.  These to factors:  size and diversity put a strain on the small band of 11 apostolic leaders.  A problem arosd described in Acts 6:1:

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

There were no doubt many problems to deal with as the Early Church exploded in growth, but the Bible here mentions the specific issue of assisting the widows.  The reason for mentioning this issue is clear:  taking care of widows (true widows), orphans, and those disenfranchised by society is not a peripheral responsibility of the Church, but a primary responsibility.

Deuteronomy 10:18 says, He [that is, Yahweh] defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.   James reminds us, ^1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Explosive growth creates problems of various kinds, but this is a problem a church SHOULD have! It is a problem a church SHOULD have but so many DON’T have.  The call of a deacon is to lead in reaching others for the Kingdom of God.

2.  A Problem the Church Should NOT have, but DO! (1b)

There arose a complaint.

I don’t even have to use a whole verse to describe a problem most churches have but SHOULDN’T—just four simple words will do. Only two words are needed in the original:  gongysmos egeneto—complaints started.  God’s people have been perpetually plagued by a persistent penchant for complaining.  The Bible addresses this unholy habit of complaining in both the O.T. and the N.T.  Too many verses discuss the issue of complaining to mention them all.  A few verses will be helpful.  One verse appears in the N.T. admonishing God’s people to avoid complaining and refers to an instance of complaining in the O.T. (which shows that complaining is as old as Adam’s first complaint about Eve).  The Bible gives us this warning and instruction (1Cor. 10:8-10):

⁸ Let us not commit sexual immorality  as some of them did,  and in a single day 23,000 people fell dead.  ⁹ Let us not test Christ as some of them did  and were destroyed by snakes.  ¹⁰ Nor should we complain as some of them did, and were killed by the destroyer.

The event about the snakes killing thousands for various sins, including constant complaining about the leadership of Moses, comes from Numbers 21.  Complaining is not only “unholy,” it is unhealthy, and downright deadly.

The Book of Jude talks about false disciples who come into a church unnoticed and create strife and division.  One of the characteristics of false disciples in the fellowship is that they are always complaining, especially about the leaders of the church.  Jude, verse 16 says:

¹⁶ These people are discontented grumblers

(same word as complaining).

One significant problem many churches have that they should not have, are too many complainers.  Complaining is not depicted in Scripture as a “positive virtue.”  Complaining is like a rocking chair—it will give you something to do but it won’t take you anywhere.  The opposite of a complaining attitude is an attitude of content.  Paul models this virtue when he confesses (Phil. 4:11):

For I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

I am not saying we should accept bad circumstances with passionless stoism.  I am saying, “don’t waste energy complaining about your circumstances that you can use to change them.”  Complaining is useless.  Complaining is not only unproductive, it is counter-productive.  I came across this story that sounds too ridiculous to be true, but it appeared in a human interest article in the Associated Press.  Apparently a man by the name of Arthur Bundrage had a grievance with the level of service he received from a bank.  According to the AP story, Bundrage approached a Syracuse, New York, bank teller and demanded $20,000. When he got home, he discovered he’d been shortchanged. Outraged, he stormed back to the bank to tell them what he thought of their service. The police arrived and he was quickly arrested.  Church is nowhere for complaining.  It is a problem we have that we shouldn’t.

Not growing is a problem we SHOULD have, but don’t.  Complaining is a problem we SHOULD NOT have but do.  There is a third problem mentioned in our text that deacons should solve:

3.  the Problem that Causes the Other Two (vv. 2, 4)

² Then the Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, “It would not be right for us to give up preaching about God to handle financial matters.

……………………….

 ⁴But we will devote ourselves to prayer

and to the preaching ministry.”

The most important task for a minister is to “pray and preach.”  I refer to this as one task because you cannot do the latter unless you are firmly rooted in the former.  Prayer without preaching is selfish.  Preaching without prayer is impotent.  The church today suffers because the pastor (bishop or elder) is so busy with the practical matters of keeping the church going that the spiritual matters are neglected.  Or, pastors who are serious about their spiritual calling are run into the ground or burned out trying to give sufficient time to the ministry of prayer and the Word, while doing everything else needed to keep the church going. 

Without deacons who are dedicated to protecting the ministry of prayer and the Word the other two problems will surely crop up like weeds in a neglected garden:  the church will become stagnant in growth, and people will begin complaining and grumbling.  A deacon’s calling is to take care of the matters of necessity in building a church so the minister can attend to the spiritual matters in building a church.

The HCSB may be a bit misleading in translating the last two words of verse two (diakonein trapezais) as “financial matters.”  Literally the words mean, “to serve tables,” or to wait on tables.  It is an idiomatic expression, like our expression, “to kick the bucket.”  An idiom is a group of words that have a different meaning from the literal meaning of each word in the phrase.  So, the last two words can refer to financial matters, or any practical matters related to running a church.  The point is this:  deacons should handle the practical details of meeting the needs of the church to allow the ministers (pastorss, bishops, elders) can focus on the spiritual matters.

If one peruses the gravestones found in many European grave yards especially, one would likely come across a name with the initials, V.D.M., following.  This was a common designation for members of the clergy a generation or more ago.  The intials stand for the Latin phrase, Verbi Dei Minister, or Verbi Dominni Minister.  It means, Servant of the Word of the Lord, or Servant of the Word of God.  Many clergy have earned advanced degrees such as a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) or a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)  Most clergy in generations past preferred the intials, V.D.M., as it designated what was the central calling of those who preach and teach the Word of God—Servants of the Word of God.

A major problem in many, if not most churches, is that the pastors (bishops, elders) are kept so busy with the myriad details of administration that they neglect the ministry of the Word.  Deacons must work diligently to solve that problem.  The preaching and teaching of the Word of God MUST remain the primary focus of the pastor of the church.

As the philosopher Karl Popper said, “All life is problem solving.”  This is as true in church as it is in science, business or any other area of life.  Any church with at least one member is going to have problems.  The role of the deacon is to solve the problems that arise such as the problem we SHOULD have, but don’t, which is explosive growth; and, the problem we SHOULDN’T have, but do, which is a tendency to complain; and the problem from that causes the first two

which is allowing the myriad details of ministry to squeeze out the time that a pastor needs for prayer and preaching of the Word.

God calls “men of good reputation and wisdom” to serve as deacons in order to be the primary problem solvers in the church.

One of the best movies I’ve ever watched was the 1995 thriller, starring Tom Hanks and directed by Ron Howard, about the 1970 Apollo 13 mission to the moon.  Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American Apollo space program.  Apollo 13 was the third mission intended to land on the Moon.  The lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days after launch, crippling the Service Module upon which the Command Module with the astronaut depended.  Three men were stranded in outer space—about as stranded as a person can get.  In the midst of this crisis, the flight commander, Jim Lovell, quotes this famous line, “Houston, we have a problem.”  (one of many versions of Lovell’s actual quote).  “Houston” is a reference to the NASA Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas, which was in charge of the flight.  Almost immediately, Mission Control, began working on the problem from hundreds of thousands of miles away in order to solve the problem and bring the three astronauts home safely.  I’ll let you learn more by reading the book or watching the movie.

Mission Control took on the role of “deaons.”  They were problem solvers.  If, as Karl Popper states, “All life is problem solving,” then a healthy church needs a good group of men who understand the three problems that most significantly plague the church. 

Are you willing to serve as a deacon and be a problem solver in the church?

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