Faith-Fueled Servants

Hey, good morning. How are we doing today? Good. Happy Mother’s Day to everybody. Like Al said and like Becca said earlier, motherhood comes in a variety of forms. Traditionally, we think about biologically. You’re a mother to the children that you produce, but some of us in the room, we’re raised by or are adoptive or foster mothers. But any woman in the room can also be a spiritual mom, helping nurture the faith of others that come after you. So I just want to say thank you to that.

We do have roses for all the ladies in the room because we know that variety or motherhood comes in a variety of forms. So we have some that are going to be given out at this doorway and some in the back. So all the ladies in the room, Al, I know you want a rose. This is for Beth, okay? All right. So for ladies on your way out, please do grab a rose. It is just, just a token that shows our appreciation for you and the beautiful job that you do as a mom, you know.

Well, you know, last week we did something a little different for us that I think was really good, really healthy. We began this time of the service with prayer. And as I think about motherhood, I think about the prayers of a mom. I’ve never been a mom, but I’m married to one. I was raised by one. I know that moms are deeply concerned for their kids, deeply concerned, especially for their children that aren’t walking down the right path. So what I want to do, grab a neighbor, and we’re just going to pray. Pray for a family member that does not know Jesus, a family member that’s walking down a hard path. We’re going to pray corporately as a church. Just take a few moments to do that. I’ll collect us back, and then I’ll begin my sermon, all right? All right, let’s pray.

Father, thank you. God, one of the incredible things about You is that unlike us, You can hear all of our prayers at the same time, and You’re not overwhelmed. God, I think about my two beautiful children. When they both want my attention at the same time, I get overwhelmed pretty quickly. But God, here we are, a room full of Your children, all clamoring for Your attention. We don’t have to worry if You’re divided. We don’t have to worry if You’re frustrated. But God, You have bent Your ear to us, and You’re listening still. Lord, I pray for all the names that were just lifted up to You. God, the sons and the daughters, the aunts and the uncles, God, that were prayed for. And I’m asking, God, that You would draw them to Yourself. Father, today, would You please speak to them today? Lord, that they would not harden their hearts like the Jews did in the wilderness. Lord, like Pharaoh did against the plagues. Father, they would soften themselves to You. And they would be able to say, Mother’s Day 2024, something started in my life. Lord, please let that be so. Father, I pray for this time that You would protect me and my words. Lord, that I would not overspeak, that I would not say anything that is untrue. Lord, that we would all be good soil to receive Your word this morning. And Father, just like the rain that came through the early part of this week, Lord, bring it forth a whole lot of grass and a lot of other stuff. God, I pray that Your word would go out. God, it would produce something in us, please. Lord, we love You. And it’s in Your great name we pray. Amen.

Praying for family members is not something that we just invented here in 2024. Moms have been doing that for all time. I genuinely believe that ever since God was called upon, ever since people began walking in a relationship with God, there were moms standing in the gap calling on God’s grace for the sake of those kids. I think about a lady. Her name is Lois. She had a daughter that was married to a nice guy. I don’t remember what the husband’s name was. Her daughter, though, was named Eunice. So you got Lois. She’s this grandmother. You have Eunice, her daughter. And she’s praying for Eunice because she hears about some trouble at home. You know, daughter and son-in-law, not exactly on the same page about how to raise their son names, Timothy. And you have this lady named Lois, and she’s praying for her daughter, saying, Lord, can you just please, please, please give my Daughter, wisdom to know how to bring these things up with her husband, how to raise that precious grandson of mine. And you’ve got Eunice, who’s just trying to figure out how in the world do I incorporate faith into this boy’s life? Me and his dad, I love him so much, but we’re just on different pages. How do we do this? Some of y’all recognize these names. These aren’t, this isn’t a preacher story. This isn’t somebody down the street, but this is actually taken right from Scripture. There’s this young guy named Timothy. Timothy was a ministry protege of the Apostle Paul. And he was a pretty important deal. Whenever the Corinthian church had some issues, Paul sent Timothy to go deal with it. Whenever the Ephesian church was unfinished, it was half-baked, Paul sent Timothy to go deal with it. Timothy, his mom, this lady named Eunice, we know that from Scripture that Timothy’s dad was an unbelieving Greek guy. So you have Timothy. He comes from this really interesting home where mom and dad aren’t exactly on the same page when it comes to spiritual matters. But Timothy’s grandma, Lois, she loved Jesus deeply. And their legacy of faith through this young man, Timothy, is something that we are still drinking deeply from today.

For the past month and a half or so, we’ve been in a series called Blueprint, where we’ve been examining what would it look like if God was building a church. And the good thing is, we don’t have to imagine that. We don’t have to invent that because God has actually told us explicitly in His word. In 1 Timothy chapter 3, I began with this passage. Paul, writing to Timothy, raised by two incredible ladies, says these words, God has given us some explicit directions on how to build a house. He’s given us a set of blueprints by which we can follow. And that’s what we’ve been studying for the past six weeks or so. And that is a legacy and a heritage that we are tapping into on Mother’s Day. So if you will, open up your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 3 as we’re going to continue this study. It’ll be on the screens, but it is so much better in your hands and in your laps. 1 Timothy chapter 3, verses 8 through 13. I’ll read it for us.

Deacons, likewise, should be worthy of respect. Not hypocritical, not drinking a lot of wine, not greedy for money. Holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. They must also be tested first. If they prove blameless, then they can serve as deacons. Wives, likewise, should be worthy of respect. Not slanderers, self-controlled, faithful in everything. Deacons are to be the husbands of one wife, managing their children and their own households completely. For those who have served well as deacons acquire a good standing for themselves and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

So, first week of this series, we looked at the church kind of broadly. Then we’ve spent a couple weeks examining elders and pastors. And this morning, we have turned to the topic of deacons. The main truth that I want you to walk away from with this morning is this. Deacons are faith-fueled servants. I want to unpack that. But first, I want to look at this term deacon. You see, deacons, this is a common term. It is used 27 times, at least in the New Testament by itself, to describe any sort of servant or minister. Like in the book of Matthew, chapter 20, verse 26. Jesus gives this exhortation to His disciples. And He says, hey, if you want to become servants, then this is what you need to do. Or if you want to become leaders, you must become servants. Or in John, chapter 2, Mary is speaking to the servants who are attending this wedding in Cana. And she looks at Jesus and says, Jesus, there’s a problem. There’s no more wine. And then Jesus says, what does it have to do with me? And then she turns to the servants, the deacons, and she says, anything my son tells you to do, do it. That’s a mom for you, right? Or you look at Romans chapter 15, verse eight. It’ll be on the screen as well. For I say that Christ became a servant, literally in the Greek, a deacon of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth to confirm the promises to the fathers. You see, 27 times the Greek word diakonos, deacon, is translated as servant. That makes it a really common term in the Bible. But it’s also a rare term because only five times Is it used to describe the office of a deacon, what we’re discussing this morning? You see, three times of those five, it happens in this passage: deacons, deacons, deacons. It also comes up in Philippians 1, verse 1, where Paul is addressing the church of Philippi. He says, “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers”—that’s what we’ve been talking about—“and the deacons.” That’s the first time, the book of Philippians, the first time somebody is explicitly referred to, where the office is explicitly referred to.

It also comes up in a bit of a contested passage, Romans chapter 16. This is the only time the word “servant” in the Greek, deacon, is attributed to a person. And it says, “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant”—literally a deacon—“of the church in Cenchreae.” Pretty interesting. It’s a common term, it’s a rare term, but it’s also a bit of a debated term. Because if you return to this passage in 1 Timothy 3—and I’m going somewhere—verse 11, you look at that word, “wives.” Pretty fascinating going on there. There’s some reasons to believe that that means wives of deacons, and there’s some reasons to believe that Paul is actually referring to a potential female deacon sort of a role. And for some of us in the room, even the mention of that debate or that possibility makes us feel a little bit odd. But let me take you through some of this.

You see, some people would say this just means wives of deacons. Because in verse 2, it says, “An overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife.” And then in verse 12, it says, “Deacons are to be the husbands of one wife.” That word, wife, wife, wife, all the same thing in Greek. And why would Paul interrupt his flow of thought? Why would he say there’s elders, there’s male deacons, there’s female deacons, and then return back to these male deacons? Why would he do that? It’s because—or it might be because—that word “wife” actually more often translates as “women.” Look at chapter 2 of 1 Timothy. I’m starting at verse 9. “Also, the women are to dress themselves in modest clothing, with decency and good sense, not with elaborate hairstyles, gold, pearls, or expensive apparel, but with good works as is proper for a woman who professes to worship God. A woman is to learn quietly with full submission. I do not allow a woman to teach or to have authority over a man. Instead, she is to remain quiet.” There’s some other things in there I’m not going to address this morning. What I’m bringing up is the fact that the word gynē, some of our folks are going to recognize that, is translated as wives and as women. And it’s pretty interesting, if Paul is talking about wives of deacons, and he starts attributing some qualifications, why wouldn’t He do that for the elders’ wives?

I bring all this up to say, this term deacon, we have loaded so much history on it, we’ve loaded so much meaning onto it, for a term that’s not actually used very often in the New Testament, and some of the uses of it are actually pretty debated about what exactly Paul is writing about. Nevertheless, I return to my main point. Deacons are faith beings. Faith-fueled servants. And that’s what I want us focusing on. Deacons are faith-fueled servants.

You see, Paul says in these qualifications that deacons must be holding the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. It’s not just any faith in Jesus that’ll do. It’s not just any sort of profession of Jesus. It’s not just any sort of thoughts about Jesus. He already told us what it is. Look at verse 16, just a little past our passage this morning. “Most certainly, the mystery of godliness is great: He was manifested in the flesh”—that’s Jesus—“He was vindicated in the spirit”—that was Jesus—“He was seen by angels”—Jesus—“He was preached among the nations”—Jesus—“He’s believed on in the world”—Jesus—“then He was taken up in glory.” Jesus. There is a certain faith about Jesus that must be believed if someone is to be a deacon. It’s not just any old Facebook post. It’s not just any devotional. It’s not any evangelistic preacher. It’s a certain faith about who Jesus is, God in the flesh, in His glory, who died a sacrificial death for all people. That is what someone must believe if they are to be considered to be a deacon. And it’s not just saying these things. It’s not just agreeing with these things. But it’s a personal faith in Jesus. Personal faith in Jesus is the most important qualification that a deacon could fulfill. The most important. Deacons don’t need to be able to teach the Bible like elders do, but they certainly must know the Bible, the message about Jesus Christ. They must know these core tenets of our faith, and they must know how to spot what is not true. You see, the unraveling story of God’s redeeming work is a mystery that culminates in Jesus Christ. And deacons must understand that He is the key to the message of the Bible and to live unashamedly in light of that fact.

Deacons are faith-fueled servants. In fact, if they serve well as deacons, Paul makes a promise. He says, those who have served well, this is verse 13, acquire a good standing for themselves and great boldness in the what? In the faith that is in Christ Jesus. From faith to faith, deacons are servants with deep confidence in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I like how Dr. Sam George put it a few weeks ago. He was the gentleman that runs the ministry from India. And they have, one of the facets of this incredible ministry is that they have a pastoral church planting training school. And he said that they train these men and these women in theology. They get a robust theological education. But he said that they also train them in what he called neology, which means all of the students of this ministry school are deeply spiritual, deeply personally tied to Christ. So that what they’re taking in their heads is never replaced by what they actually give to God in their piety, in their personal relationship. And for someone to be considered a deacon, I would say that is true. Not just masters of theology, but very well versed in neology.

That faith in Jesus Christ does something. It fuels a particular lifestyle. That’s why I said deacons are faith-fueled. And that’s where you get these qualifications from. I wanted to start off there. I wanted to start off by saying deacons must have a deep personal relationship with Jesus. Because if I led with the qualifications and say these are these checklists they’ve got to match, these boxes they’ve got to cover, then that would make serving in this office purely about the external behaviors. That’s not what it’s about. Christianity is not about the external behavior. Christianity is not about the things you add to your life or the ways you present yourself. Christianity is about a deep relationship with a God that loves you. And loving Him and being loved by Him produces something in your life.

This is what it produces in the life of the deacon. There are positive qualifications, things they must have. There are negative qualifications, things they must not have. And there are situational qualifications. These are just components of their life. So it’ll be on our screen. Positive qualifications begins with this kind of overarching one in verse 8. Deacons, likewise, should be worthy of respect. That means to be considered as a deacon means you handle yourself with distinguishment so that others want to follow you, not so that you demand respect from people, but that you would earn it by the testimony of your life.

I had a boss one time who I would ask questions. I just didn’t understand. I said, hey, can you just help me connect A and B? I just, I’m happy to do B, but can you help me understand the why behind it? And every time he would say, I’m your boss, just do what I tell you to do. really fly anymore to lead like that. Our generation, we kind of, we have a bit of a, hey, can you prove it? Can you just help me understand? I certainly wasn’t trying to be disrespectful or anything. And I had that at multiple spots. And I started thinking, okay, to be a leader must mean that you just demand respect based off position. But what Paul is saying here is he says deacons should just carry themselves such that they are worthy of respect.

Being worthy of respect then would also mean that they’re self-controlled. Paul says deacons ought to be self-controlled. They handle their desires well. They only do what they should. And on top of that, they are faithful in everything, which means they do all of what they should. They’re worthy of respect. They are self-controlled. They are faithful in everything. They handle their commitments well. That is a strong personal life.

But there’s these negative qualifications too. Paul starts off. He says they are not hypocritical. Their walk and their talk, they match. It’d be hard to be a servant of the church if what you said you were going to do and what you actually do don’t actually match, right? Or if you said you’re not going to do something and you end up doing that thing, it’d be hard to be known as a servant.

Not only not hypocritical, but also not drinking a lot of wine. In Ephesians chapter 5, Paul says, don’t be filled with wine, but rather be filled with the Spirit. And that will produce the fruit of the Spirit in your life. Deacons then aren’t filled with any substance, but they’re under the influence of the Spirit.

And not only not hypocritical or not drinking a lot of wine, deacons as well are not greedy for money. It’s pretty clear you can’t prioritize serving others if you’re just thinking about your pockets. It’s hard to put others’ needs and desires above your own if you’re just thinking about your own wants and your own bank account.

Paul says there’s these positive qualifications, there’s negative ones, but there’s also some situational ones. He starts off, he says, verse 10, they must be tested first. If they prove blameless, then they can serve as deacons. That’s kind of this question of what are they already doing? Are they serving without the title? Are they filling the position without being in the position? So are they serving already? Are they being tested?

They would then also be husbands of one wife. That’s another situational qualification. I think that’s only applied to if you’re married. If you’re married, are you the husband of one wife? Are you faithful to your spouse? Because if you can’t be faithful to your spouse, you can’t be faithful to the church. If you’re going to be a servant of the church, you’ve got to be able to be faithful to the church. If you can’t be faithful in this relationship, you’re not going to be faithful in that relationship.

And finally, then you’d also be managing your household competently. That’s one of the carryovers from the qualifications to be an overseer. Like for elders, overseers, pastors, the home is the proving ground for service as a deacon. There’s a major question. Is your household better because of you? Are the members of your household flourishing because of your presence?

Now, when I say household in 2024, it’s easy for you to think spouse, kids, but the Greek word household, oikos, actually means something a little more expansive. Your household will be anybody that’s directly impacted by your presence. So it would be your family members. It may also be your children’s teachers, your work supervisor. It’d be your friend. It’d be the barista at Starbucks you go to. It’d be your coworker. It’d be your neighbor.

In the Greek culture, the home was a much more interactive place than it is for us. I’ve never been part of a culture quite like what the Bible describes as the Greek or the Bible and history tells us of the Greek culture where people are all the time in and out of a home. That’s a household as Paul knew it. So it’s not just, are your kids walking the right way? But is it the fact that the barista at Starbucks or the server at the filling station, do they know that you love Jesus? And are they better off because you’re there? Your neighbors, whether they’re 10 feet away or a quarter mile away, are they better because you live at your house or not? Paul is saying those that we consider to be deacons must manage that household competently so that the people that that person interacts with are bettered for it.

And along with faith in Christ fueling qualifications, faith in Jesus also fuels deacons as servants. Let me retell the story where all this comes from. Acts 6. The word deacon and the word pastor does not show up in Acts 6. The template for the local church offices is there.

In Acts 6, you have this burgeoning church in Jerusalem. Thousands of people are coming to faith in Jesus because people are just sharing the gospel. God’s attesting to it. God’s giving them signs and wonders and miracles. And the church is just growing like crazy. So naturally, they have some administrative and some management snafus. Majorly, at the top of the list, they’ve got this food distribution program that’s going out to all the widows, sort of. There’s two major groups of widows. There’s the Jewish background ones and there’s the Hellenistic background ones. The Jewish ones, that’s major culture. That’s the majority of the group. They’re being taken care of. They’re getting all the food they could want plus some. But the Hellenistic ones are being overlooked. So some folks come to the apostles and they say, “Hey, we got a problem on our hands. Some folks, some ladies are being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. What could we do?” And the apostles, instead of them dealing with it themselves, they said, “Hey, how about you guys? Y’all elect seven men, full of the Spirit, full of wisdom, that would be right to take care of this.” So the church in Jerusalem elects those seven men, and the seven men then start taking care of that. They meet this administrative need that deals with a tangible issue that also resolved relational disunity, that also was connected to the spiritual vibrancy of the church in Jerusalem. And what happened was the church continued to grow because of that. The church was bettered off for it.

And we look at that as our template. We say, “Okay, that’s what a deacon does. They are servants. They are faith-fueled.” So specifically then, there’s three things I want you to note that deacons do according to Acts 6 and according to this passage in 1 Timothy, as we can read between the lines.

The first thing is deacons meet tangible needs. Deacons meet tangible needs. See, deacons recognize what needs to be taken care of and how to take care of it. Those seven servants in Acts 6, for them, it was a problem of food distribution for widows. But I wonder, what are some of the modern situational problems deacons can help solve? I’m thinking about things outside of us, kind of like caring for foster children in the Lowcountry. See, next week we are going to have Tana Dukes. She is the Connie Maxwell representative for the Lowcountry. She’s going to come and share a little bit about what that ministry does for foster children and foster families in the Charleston area and beyond. It’s going to be a really good way for us to gain some awareness of the needs of our community, some extreme tangible needs. May is also Foster Care Awareness Month. That’s kind of why we led with that. Deacons would help solve something like that.

Deacons already here, this church, help handle tasks for shut-in members. Deacons, I know the deacons here are thinking about who were our church family members that are not able to be part of our regular gatherings and how can we serve them. Deacons are thinking about assisting the aging with needs and education and resources. I think Paul, his vision here is that there be a group of people that would consider, how is our community doing and what can we do about it?

Deacons meet tangible needs. And as they do, they do the second thing. They protect church unity. That original problem back in Acts 6 dealt with widow’s food distribution. That’s a tangible need that the apostles and the leaders could have written off and said, “Oh, that’s just about the body. That doesn’t matter. That’s not spiritual in nature.” But that’s not what they did. They instead said, “You know what, that’s important. We have got to deal with this.” And if they wouldn’t have that, it could have torn the church apart. Deacons meet tangible needs and they protect the unity of the church. They don’t fight unity. They protect the unity.

And in both of those, they support the word ministry of elders. That’s number three. The third task of a deacon is that they support the word ministry of the elders. In that Acts 6 moment, the seven servants were appointed to make sure that the apostles could focus on the ministry of word and prayer. Without the seven being appointed, the apostles would have had to take away their time and their energy from doing what they knew they were supposed to do. To take care of needs that were legitimate, but weren’t their responsibility. And like in Acts 6, the deacons of Sauldam Baptist Church and of the church today free up pastors and elders to teach and preach the Bible and to lead and shepherd the flock. That’s what deacons do.

But all of this is possible because of someone else. All of this is possible because there is a better servant that has gone before them. All of this is possible because of what Christ has done for us. Al already read it during the call to worship this morning. I’m going to read it again. This is Philippians chapter 2. It says this, “Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. No, no. Instead, He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a servant. In the Greek, you know it at this point, a deacon. He was taking on the likeness of humanity. And when He had come as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason, God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee would bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue will confess that Christ Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Here’s the deal. We have some incredible people at Sauldam Baptist Church. But none of those qualifications are natural to a person. No, we are all born needy. We are all born in sin, as Ephesians chapter 2 says. Which means, as Romans 6 would say, we have all sinned. And the wages of that is death. But here’s the good news of the gospel. It’s the fact that God, who is sitting on high, did not just do his laser pointers down at us and restart with us. No, He instead said, I am going to empty myself of what separates the two of us. And I’m going to go in their likeness. And I am going to accomplish for them what they could not do for themselves. So that they could live forever with me.

While we were still sinners, Christ came, Christ died, and Christ rose. He was the ultimate servant that met the ultimate need to recreate the unity between God and man we were designed to have, but through sin has been severed and broken. Like a choir, we are supposed to be able to sing a chorus with God with our lives and our words. But we are the ones who are on the broken record that is off key. Who is never on the same timing with God because of our sin. So God came to reestablish everything so that we could be a beautiful song to His glory and grace. That we could sing, how great thou art, God.

That is why Christ came. That is why anybody could step into the role of a deacon. Not because they have been born with innate qualities of greatness inside of themselves. Not because they have a servant attitude that was just given to them by an incredible mother. Though those things can be true. Anybody steps into the role of deacon first because Christ has done the work to save them. Because He was the ultimate servant. You see, true service is not possible in ourselves. Nor are these qualifications natural to ourselves. What we contribute to the equation is all the bad stuff. But God overwhelms the bad with His own good so that we could become good. That is the beauty of the gospel. And that is the hope of a deacon. To exemplify the incredible, original, greatest servant, Jesus. By meeting needs, restoring unity, and making sure the word of God is taught, believed, enjoyed, and embraced. That is God’s blueprint for the local church.

Pray with me. Lord, you’re good. We have some incredible men here, Lord, that I am honored to walk beside. And I’m honored to serve this church alongside. Father, would you give us more? God, as the needs of our congregation grow and as the needs of this community grow, would you give us more? More men, Lord, that, like the song we sang earlier, could step to the work. More men that would be proclaiming with their lives and their voices how great thou art.

Lord, I confess, God, I could be quite selfish. I struggle with my own desires. Lord, I struggle to place others’ needs and their wants above my own. God, oftentimes I want to demand respect instead of just living worthy of it. God, I’m sorry. Lord, I pray for our church that you would continue, Father, to bless us, please, such that this area would feel it. Lord, as you continue to do a beautiful thing inside the heart of this group of people, God, that we wouldn’t help but be able to just overflow with it, Lord. God, that the spiritual blessing you are lavishing on us would splash on others that don’t even know you yet. Please, Lord, let that be the case.

God, I pray for the mamas in the room in all their forms. Lord, as they are serving their households, God, that they would know they have ultimately been served perfectly by you. And everything they do is an overflow of that. Lord, would you give them dignity in it? Would You give them worth in it? Would You give them excitement and joy in it, please? God, we love You. And it’s in Your beautiful name we pray. Amen.