I invite you to turn in the scriptures tonight to the book of 1st Timothy, the book of 1st Timothy chapter 3 as we are looking at the offices of the church and tonight we're looking as has been said the office of deacon and that is found if you're looking for that on page 1263 in your pew bible. I'm reading at verse 8 through verse 13 tonight of 1st Timothy 3. This is the word of the Lord. 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. May the Lord bless tonight the hearing of His Word. It's a true story that in World War II, when the Netherlands were occupied by the Germans, the deacons of a Reformed church took the responsibility there to care for the persecuted, supplying food and providing secret refuge for them. And the Germans caught wind of this and made a decree that the office of deacon should be eliminated. You imagine if the office of deacon was legislated against, what would we lose? They had a synod meeting in 1941, and here's what came out of the synod of the Dutch Reformed Church. Whoever touches the diaconate interferes with what Christ has ordained as the task of the church. Whoever lays hands on diakonia lays hands on worship. Fascinating. I raised that tonight because we're considering the qualifications of the office of deacon. And this office, as I said, in my humble opinion, has been sort of the second-rate office when it comes to the office of elder and not appreciated as it should be. It is a rather sad development that in the life of the church we have come to view these offices as sort of a step thing. And rarely do we put people in the office of elder unless we think they have first been tested in the office of deacon. Then we think down the road they might be worthy enough to get in the office of elder. That's not really the approach we find in the scriptures, even though that has been a common mentality among our churches. But it's a very wrong view. office is often treated with less dignity and less honor than the office of elder, which simply is not true. It would be interesting to survey what people think tonight the office of deacon primarily is. He is often represented as somebody who just takes care of the money or is the money counter in the church and the administrator who keeps the lights on and the air conditioning going, and boy do we need that now my goal tonight is to give us a fresh appreciation of the office of deacon i hope we don't look at this and think oh that's just not that exciting of a subject it's it's immensely important and matters so much to our lord oh it matters so much to our lord that the lord gives weighty qualifications for the office so so what i what i want to do tonight is look at first simply two things I want to accomplish. It's simply to look at what a deacon is and then to look at what a deacon should be, looking at the qualifications, especially as you anticipate elections in the very near future. The word deacon is, you know, the Greek word diakonos that is quite significant in and of itself that it is given that word when Paul says, the deacons be this. It is singling out certain men in the life of the church who have a desire to serve in a different kind of matter, a specific kind of service. The word itself means to serve at tables, to serve at tables. It has a connection back to the Old Testament Levite. In the old sacrificial system the levites were were called to serve at the altar making sacrifices of what the people brought to the lord you remember that so the descendants of levi were set apart specifically to prepare the people's offerings for sacrifice on the altar they would be about that kind of service and a very important kind of service they were in charge of serving and preparing these sacrifices to make offerings for sin and other blessings. So there's a direct connection of the office of deacon right back to the Old Testament Levite. The word meaning servant tables takes on a very special function in the life of the local church. Where did this all start for us? Where do we get a basis for this? Well, you know, Acts 6 becomes a very important passage in looking at the origination of this office in the new testament church you know the passage now in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying there arose a complaint against the hebrews by the hellenists because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution then the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples and said it is not desirable that we should leave the word of god and serve tables there it is therefore brethren seek out from among you seven men of good reputation full of the holy spirit and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the word and the saying please the whole multitude well you can learn a lot about the office right there what it was what its design was and what a deacon was supposed to be. At this point in the early church, the church was flourishing. And in the book of Acts, we're seeing its development to the ends of the earth, it going out the gospel to the ends of the earth. But a particular problem had happened along the way, and there was a great dispute in the church. In Acts 6, you had the Greek-speaking Jews complaining that in the daily distribution of food and care for the widows, the Hebrew widows were getting better treatment than the Hellenists, the Greek-speaking Jews. So what was the answer? Well, the twelve got together and they said, look, it's not desirable that we should leave the Word of God in prayer to serve tables. So we need another office here. We need something that would be beneficial to meet the needs of the people we can't neglect the ministry of the word and sacrament the teaching ministry of the church cannot afford to be compromised we need to give ourselves to prayer which is something important to say for the office of elder isn't it word of god and prayer and and if we give ourselves they thought to to the table ministry then these things will suffer so they appointed men and they sought out from among themselves seven men full of good reputation full of the holy spirit and wisdom to be appointed over this business of table service so here we're looking at the importance of distinguishing the offices and this is what paul is essentially doing here in 1 Timothy chapter 3 as now he addresses specifically the office of deacon. What is the purpose of deacons? Why do we have deacons? Well, it's very clear that the purpose of the entire office of deacon was to supply a different kind of service and need that would allow and free the elders to be given to the ministry of the word. We've seen this sort of approach in the New Testament writers of emphasizing the importance of this, that John says, listen, let us not love just in word, but also in deed. The office of deacon is an added gift to the church that Christ gave so that we can show love in deed. That complements the work of the elders and takes up the responsibility of tending to the needs of people, of helping people. Why does that matter so much? i could say a lot about this tonight but the deacons represent christ's care for the poor how much did he tell us about the poor how much did he tell us about the needy how much did he love them how much did he help them how many times was jesus out laying his hands on the sick how many times was jesus out feeding people whom he saw that didn't have food you remember the multitudes they're scattered i'm concerned for them how many times did he help people who were severely messed up the diaconate was set apart to show the people what mercy looked like what mercy looked like to distribute to the needy and the poor these gifts that come from people who have thankful hearts it's an office of intense servanthood if you will it's trench work it's getting the hands dirty it's being willing to get your hands dirty in the service of others that's a thing that society rarely sees our society is all about our own individual advancement our society is about us i said narcissism in the prayer were all about us we'd rarely think about others that that was the common saying of the time plato even once said how can a man be happy when he has to serve somebody can you really be happy serving the answer is yes in essence the office here is based upon and given through christ's loving care for people for the needy remember what jesus said whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life a ransom for many. Christ loves His church. He loves you so much that He continues to want you to receive the kind of same selfless care and love, he wants his people to continue to see that go on in the life of his body, that they're nourished and cared for. And so he desires to see that continually carried out in his church. In his absence, he sets up an office to demonstrate that so that we all would have that mindset. Remember, that's the goal of these offices. It's not that these are the super elite. It's that these are the people whom the Lord has given these gifts to model it so that everyone would strive for this, that everyone would want this, that everyone would want to become a servant in this way. Can you imagine if we had a church full of servants that exemplified what we're about to look at? Oh, it'd be a powerful, powerful place of word, sacrament, and then a deed, a loving of people in this kind of way. I want men set apart in the life of the church who exhibit continually the kind of self-giving love that i have shown to you and giving myself says christ that's the whole intent here i want the church nourished i want needs met i want cups of cold water given in my name remember that's what's raised on the last day i did all that for you i did all that for you so i want you now to go do that for my brethren remember on the cross jesus is dying and he looks at his mom and he looks at john and he says behold your mother you take her you care for her you provide for her i want that spirit i want my care continually put on display i want it made known that you are a group bound together by love. It's an office of love. R.B. Kuyper once said in his book, The Glorious Body of Christ, deacons represent Christ in his office of mercy, and the exercise of mercy certainly entails the consoling of the distressed. The deaconate is rightly described as an office of love. That's what a deacon is. Now, with that in mind, we turn and look at some of these qualifications here tonight. I won't be able to go into any, largely any real depth into all of these, but I want to give sort of the big picture so you understand the importance and look somewhat at these so that you understand what the Lord has put in place and why it's so important that we do not view this office as the caboose on the train. Verse 8, the apostle begins, likewise, you'll notice there, deacons likewise must be dignified. Dignified. Great word. He says, I want you to look at the character of the man who you're considering, but I want you to look at it in a kind of different manner, a different way than you did the elder. It begins with dignified, which is telling us something about the nature of the office itself. The word dignified here means worthy of great respect when you look at his behavior. He has an observable behavior. He's a serious-minded man. So when you're looking at this man, you know him to be won by his actions. they are respectable it's a noble man it's a man that you think man that that is a servant right there if i've ever seen one now this quality remember the sort of quality that launched all the other qualities into all the other qualities was an elder had to be blameless this word dignified functions in the same way from this great overarching quality everything else follows to explain what a dignified deacon looks like. You know a dignified man. He's not a child. And I have to say, I believe that we sort of treat the office of deacon as the office where we could put the younger man in since the office of elder means older, therefore the young guy should go in the deacon. That is not necessarily the case at all. In fact, I would encourage us to fill it not just with younger men, but with older men we need older men in this office a dignified man is something that often comes and is earned with age testing we'll look at that in a moment testing paul raises here for this office testing testing testing first so from dignified he explains then how you can discern if a man is dignified and set apart for this sometimes the best thing to do when you're looking at somebody is telling him what he should not be and he does that with three qualifications that follow to say this is what he should not be three negatives he is beginning with not double tongued it gives the sense of insincerity and speech saying one thing and doing another it's double talk he's engaged in double talk and then he goes on not um addicted to wine and and not greedy for dishonest gain. Those are one way, as it said, our translation says, yeah, not addicted to wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. It's not a love for money, we'll go on and say in a moment. All of these issues here, these three negatives have to do with the sincerity of the man. Sincerity. And remember what I said earlier, these are things every Christian should aspire to. This is sanctification and holy living at its best. That's why I love studying this. This is what every Christian should be aspiring to. You need exemplary men in this position to model this and pattern this for the body. So notice here what he does. If a man is double-tongued, he's a flatterer. He says one thing and does the other. Can you imagine that in the office of deacon? That's the worst kind of character flaw for the office. How could someone have sincere care for people who flatters with the mouth but never makes good on the care. Who flatters with empty promises but really is not out there really helping. Sincere words with love and sincerity win people. And if the office is designed to bring healing, you see how important the tongue is. The tongue is vital for the office. The tongue and sincerity of speech is everything. The deacon is called to give constantly a word of encouragement to the broken. a word you could go on if the deacon's enslaved to alcohol you understand that this is a this is an office that's intended and you're going to find people who fought who face these problems left and right whose lives have been wrecked by these abuses how can a man do that if he's given to it the same is true with the third negative quality not greedy you'll notice here for for money or dishonest gain. You see the value of that qualification that he's dealing with the monies of the church and the people's gifts in the life of the church. Money's not the root of all evil, but the love of it is. And if he loves it, how in the world is he going to rightly help those when he's dealing with other people's money? So if he can't handle these desires, if there's insincerity in these things he's not a man for the office so you're looking at character again character character character remember i said we all look at gifting first character character character from which gifting will flourish and i believe paul summarizes this importance by saying next that you should look at the man's ability to not discriminate i love the next quality something we all should be so caring about and that's verse 9 they must hold the mystery of faith with a clear conscience i love that i absolutely love that quality paul tells us what that is all throughout the new testament he calls it the mystery of the faith the best definition of it is given in ephesians chapter 3 when you read this you can perceive and here it is my insight into the mystery of christ which was not made known to the sons of men and other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit this mystery is that the gentiles are fellow heirs members of the same body and partakers of the promise in christ jesus through the gospel You say, what in the world does that have to do? Well, a lot. How did the office originate? Under what kind of problem? The Hellenists were being discriminated against. Remember, the Hellenists complained because the Hebrew women got better treatment. Paul tells us in the New Testament, the mystery is God's opened the door to all tribes, tongues, peoples, and nations. Those boundaries, ethnic boundaries, racial boundaries, those boundaries that we raise even between men and women, not in terms of serving in the office, but in terms of salvation, he's ripped that down. All this unfair treatment has gone on in the history of the church. Here's the mystery. The mystery is Jesus has opened the door to everyone. Every different kind of people. Now, do you see how important that would be for the diaconate? You can't show favoritism. You can't say certain things about certain races that they're better. We have to long to help all recognizing that Christ is building His church from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation and holding the mystery of faith with a clear conscience is absolutely integral to the office and design of Christ's ministry of mercy. clear conscience on this because the fact is you seem to understand this mystery we show partiality i mean james warms about it in different ways that we show partiality with the rich we give them the best seats we honor them in society and the common problems in the church are we those who are different from us we shun we have people who are stable and people who are not so stable and what is our attitude well we know these people here let me give you the attitude they don't change they don't change one problem after another and we see people who have needs and what is easily the deacon's first question that can happen well we need to open the books or someone walks in off the street that has been had a pattern of we have a concern about them our first thought is they won't change we know these people they work the system see why sincerity matters what if they do work the system shouldn't we help them bitter spirit develops and we can easily just throw money at people I guess with a passive aggressive spirit but not really invested to love and help I've seen more debates in deacons, among deacons in the years, over going the cheap route. Always going for whatever's easiest, whatever's best. The cheap route. Good enough, good enough, good enough, good enough. That's the spirit. What happens if you look at that situation? What often develops in the diacon is a ministry of scrutiny and no longer a ministry of mercy. It's a ministry of mercy. It's a good thing I'm not a deacon. I'd give away way too much. I'd give away way too much. I'm not saying we shouldn't be responsible. We should be responsible. But we should have men who are so eager to help broken people. Listen, if you didn't have any of these problems of people messing up their lives with alcohol abuse and money problems, you wouldn't even need the office of deacon. You understand that? If you didn't have these problems, you wouldn't need the office of deacon. It's a ministry of mercy to messed up people and we're all messed up. The deacons have to be shining lights when it comes to showing mercy to the down and outs and treat them the same. Bringing in people who are different. Working with the poor. Working with the rich. You'll notice our church order says as resources permit, even to those on the outside. Some who are hard to get along with. Some difficult. some who are way outside the mold and grain. The deacons are to model getting down in the trenches and getting their hands dirty and working with great sinners. Salvation is going out to the ends of the earth and I remind you, it was Judas who held tight to the money bag. It was Judas who snapped when he realized he wasn't getting what he wanted out of it. It was Judas who held the purse. In short, the deacons have to love as Christ did the tax collectors and the sinners. What an important qualification. He must hold the faith with a mystery with a clear conscience. Third, look at the evidence. Verse 10. Verse 10. And let them also be tested first, then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. I read that, and again, we seem to make the office of deacon the training ground for the office of elder, but the Bible just doesn't do that. The Bible doesn't do that at all. The office has so much dignity, so much honor representing the mercy of Christ that it says before anyone ever gets into the office, they need to first be tested. That's a call to test them. That doesn't mean they go through additional testing. what it means is stress is you have to give careful assessment when you consider the man as to the candidate's life to ensure that we're not putting somebody in that position that should be representing the mercy of Christ who would never do it and that's been the point stressed look at the servants among you our danger in the rotating of offices is that we view it like a light switch we turn on and turn off a deacon is a deacon an elder is an elder whoever is a deacon is demonstrating it right now if he's not in office so you have to look and say look at their involvement look at their service look at their love for people a deacon's a deacon god gave him the gift gifts are not like light switches so give due attention to these men knowing for sure in your hearts they're qualified to demonstrate and exemplify such a high and wonderful ministry of mercy to the people now finally tonight uh here's the last one similar to the elder look at his home look at verse 11 verse 11 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 some translations read verse 11 the nas women must likewise be dignified not malicious gossips and so on that nuance is huge and we need to think about it just for a second if you translate it just women that could give the idea that you have in justification for the office of women being deacons the office of of deacon having women in the office but if you look at the original design for the office of act six the Holy Spirit specifically said, set aside seven men. It was a calling for men to be in these offices. And chapter two deals with authority structures and men and women, not in a degrading way, but in a complementary way and in a role setting way. The clear precedent for the office of deacon is that it is to be men in this office. So it's best to understand this. And I do believe this is really beautiful here, that the early church viewed wives of deacons as a sort of combination approach to the office. In other words, deacons' wives were vitally important to the maintaining of the man and helping him serve in his office. In fact, you know this, there are those circumstances when it's just better to employ a woman to go help another woman. to counsel another woman. That's exactly what went on in the early church. And maybe Phoebe is a good example of that in Rome where she is called a diaconess. So mentorship and involvement of women to use their gifts to help the wives of deacons to help in that service was very important and a beautiful thing, even though they aren't designated as being inherently part of the diaconate in the sense of they're not being called themselves, There are qualifications given for deacons' wives. Isn't that fascinating? Look at this. Let the wives of deacons be reverent. Same word as earlier, respectable, serious-minded. He used that word dignified. Same thing. Then what does he say next? Not slanders. Not diabolos in the Greek. Not, from where we get the word diabolic, not devilish. Fascinating. Which translates and we here have in some translations malicious gossips when things don't go their way. She can't be prone to being a gossip. Paul knows this and by saying let the wives of deacons not be this, he knows that the wife of a deacon can destroy the work. She needs to be temperate and trustworthy, of a sound mind, dependable. She has to be just as on board with her husband. If she's not, then the man will not be able to serve in the capacity, in the way that the office is designed. It will hurt the office. It will hurt the office. What an important responsibility for all women in the church. When the Bible calls men to serve, it recognizes that behind a man is a good man serving is a good woman. A good man serving is a good woman who's supportive and godly and striving to fulfill her role who wants to see the church built up and is not running around gossiping. This is the design. This is the inspiration of the Spirit. And so he ties it together in verse 12 concluding the requirements, let the deacons be husbands of one wife. We looked at that last time with the elders. Ruling their children well and their own house as well. He has to love his wife. It's a commitment to his wife in a culture where there was very little of that and infidelity was rampant. Loving his wife, cherishing his wife and his children, respecting him and the house being managed well. Just like the elder, the key mark of his ability is to lead is how he demonstrates his leadership in the home. First being the husband of one wife, committed to her in the relationship of sexual purity and love. How important is the office of deacon? How important is the office of deacon? It's sad we've given it a sort of second-rate office, isn't it? The Lord doesn't. I want to say one other thing tonight. The office of deacon, being an office of love, and I'm speaking now for pastors, for elders, for deacons. It is a general principle that if a pastor is going to serve well, he's got to love the city that he's in and he's got to love the people that he serves. You've got to love where you are to serve well. You've got to love the people to serve well. I have noticed that since the office of deacon gets second rate, last lowest rung on the totem pole, We'll get, and this is not necessarily here, just notice this is patterns. We'll get people who come into the office of deacon. Maybe it's just family rotating in and out. Maybe it's just the tradition rotating in and out. They may not even love the church. Their eye may be over there. They may not even want to be in this church. If you don't love this people, if you don't love this church, don't step into this office, please. you'll never give your heart for them and you'll never demonstrate the love christ has for these people right here so christ loves these sheep i've got to love you elders have to love you fervently deacons have to love with the kind of compassion and ministry to the hurting and broken that christ wants us to have that means you've got to be invested here you got to love worshiping here paul has a great statement at the end of this for deacons to close this out tonight what an encouragement at the end of this this is for deacons right here verse 13 for those who have served well as deacons a great statement who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in christ jesus that is quite a reward that is quite a reward he puts for the deacons and i'm convinced he did that because of our low view of the office you will gain a good standing for yourselves and great confidence in your faith i love that that is in christ jesus so tonight you obtain those things and the lord encourages us if you have these gifts and you're called upon, step forward. The Lord will equip you. Being blameless, being dignified does not mean being sinless. I fully say that. Our sufficiency is always in Christ. But what a privilege. Oh man, what a privilege it is to represent the Lord Jesus Christ's mercy to his people until he comes again on the clouds of heaven and then that will be needed no more let's thank him tonight in prayer heavenly father we bow the head so thankful for these offices and thankful for your care and it challenges us we we need to be challenged we need to be challenged because our motivations have to be tested about what is most important and why we're doing what we're doing would you please give us lord hearts of service in this place hearts that love to represent becoming a slave of all and that our whole church would be given to the word of god loving the gospel we understand there are many glory roads that people pursue and want the glory now but let this be a place where the word of god flourishes in the hearts of your people. They're growing in their love for Christ and understanding the gospel. And as that overtakes them, they want to live thankfully as servants of the king, denying themselves and becoming slaves of all. May that be most exemplified among us in this office of deacon so that the compassions of Christ would be witnessed and that those who have great needs, they would be met so that ultimately they would come and hear Christ's word and receive forgiveness, pardon, grace for the wilderness way and learn more and more how to love you with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.