The Role of Deacons and Elders

At the end of his earthly ministry, Jesus only had 120 disciples. From this small nucleus, he launched what he called his church, his ecclesia, his group of called-out ones.

It's amazing the phenomenal growth that happened. Many people have doubted the fact that it says that early there in the early church that there were 3,000 people baptized in one day there in Jerusalem.

But archeology in the last, oh, I think it's been in the last five years, had discovered that out in front of the temple area, there were scores of little baptismal pools.

So it would be possible. It would take a day to do it, but it would be possible to baptize 3,000 people because they had these little baptismal pools all set up there for people to be baptized. But as the church grew, it's interesting when you go through the early church, and I find the book of Acts fascinating, especially if you go through the book of Acts and then read the different letters that were written in the time period in which they fit into the book of Acts, because many of the letters that were written by Paul and others were written towards the end of Acts. But you see a history of how the church started and where it went and how it grew and the problems that they had. And from the very beginning, there were problems.

Look at Acts 6.

Acts 6. This is a problem they had in the early church. Now, remember, this isn't long after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This isn't long after Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit had poured out on the church.

They had seen these tongues of fire. They were speaking in tongues in different languages.

The apostles were healing people left and right. So this is in the midst of one of the greatest times it is to be in the church. Surely everybody got along just perfectly.

They had to. I mean, this is such a great time, right? 1. Acts 6. Now, in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, so this is actually part of the result of growth. You know, anytime the church doesn't grow, there's problems because of that. If the church stays stagnant, there's problems because of that.

When the church grows, there's problems because of that.

Okay. Whatever state you're in, we're presented with a set of problems to go with them. In those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there rose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists.

Now, Hellenists, oh, well, these must be Gentiles. I mean, Hellenists means Greek.

But that's not really what this means here, because when you look at Acts, and you look at the first few chapters, it's talking about the church there in Jerusalem. These people are made up of Jews and proselytes. So, there would be some Gentiles, but they were people who had already converted the Judaism. Remember, these proselytes were in the temple on Pentecost. So, these were people that had already come into the Jewish world. Hellenists would also include Greek-speaking Jews, people who had come into Jerusalem from probably synagogues around the world who had adopted some of the Greek culture.

And that's why they're called Hellenists. When you look at Stephen talking to the synagogue of the Freemen, they were a Hellenistic church. They were a Hellenistic synagogue. They were part of the church, but they were synagogues. So, we have a problem in the early church between the people who were born and raised in Judea, who Aramaic would have been their first language. Many of them would have at least known Hebrew, at least some degree, because they're related languages. And these people whose primary language was Greek, and they'd come in, they were Jews or they were proselytes, but they weren't being treated the same because their widows were neglected in their daily distribution. The problem is that the Jews of Judea were taking care of their widows first, and the Jews who had some kind of Hellenistic background, their widows weren't being taken care of. So, these are the twelve apostles.

They summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, it is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit of wisdom, who we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to ministry of the word. The saying pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, the man full of faith, and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, Tybun, Paremonus, and Nicholas, a proselyte or Antioch. And they sent them before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. Now, what's interesting, of course, is these are Greek names. In fact, one of them has even said, this is a proselyte. He was even a Jew.

So they had to select, and the apostles said, okay, here's what we're going to do.

All of you look at the men who fit the qualifications of serving widows. Now, remember, this is a very specific situation and a very specific solution. You pick out the men who are good at serving widows. You bring to us, and we will ordain them.

You know, laying on of hands is one of the fundamental doctrines that is taught in Hebrew 6. So important that it's listed with baptisms, repentance, eternal judgments.

So in the early church, the laying on of hands is one of the fundamental doctrines.

The apostles said, okay, let's find the people who can do this, and we will ordain them as table waiters. I mean, that's basically what they were here. It doesn't give them, at this point, they're not described as having an office. And so you have these people that are now literally ordained. They're recognized, and they have a function in the church. That's a recognized function. Now, everybody's supposed to visit widows, right? True religion is to take care of the widow. So everybody's supposed to do that. And yet here we have in the church people publicly ordained to fulfill a specific function. The reason I'm giving this sermon, and it's something I've been wanting to give for a number of months now, is because I've given this sermon about, this will be, I think, the third time in the last 15 years. And there's a reason why.

You know, when I first came here, we had deacons. We had elders, men like George Peyton, Will Johnson, Bill Norrid, Bill Seeling. These men have died. Other men that have served in the ministry for years, Mr. McNair, Mr. Roger Foster, who are now basically retired. I mean, they're still elders, but they are retired. They can't function in the way that they used to. And every once in a while, we have to plan and move ahead for the future and replace those who have either died or are in a situation in life where that rigorous service is no longer able to do that. And looking ahead into the future, and its congregation is slowly growing, we are going to have to ordain some more men. So what I want to do is go through how this was done in the New Testament.

How did they fix this problem? Because they were spaced with the same problem. How did they do it?

So that we know as we do it that we're doing what is scripturally correct.

So, like I said, this is the third time that I've given a sermon like this. And the reason why is is because I'm always in the process of saying, okay, what do I have to do in the next five years? No, we're always in these five-year plans. What do I have to do in the next five years?

So that five years from now, if God continues to bless us, our congregation is still here.

And, you know, maybe it's grown a little bit, but we'll have to spiritually grow.

And none of us are getting any younger. So we have to think of these things.

And here, the congregation was involved in presenting names, which is, I've done that before, too. So we want to go through what was done here and think about it, and then what should we do?

We have in the New Testament the concept of the work of the ministry, the work of the ministry, the Econia, which is usually translated serving. But many times, especially in the King James, you'll see it translated as ministry. You'll also have a servant, the Econia, or the Econios.

The Deoconios is a servant, which you will see translated in the New Testament, sometimes a servant and sometimes as deacon. So that's literally, if you get to the word deacon, it means a minister, servant. You know, you can do that with either of them. It's a minister, but understand, minister in the word that is translated minister from Greek doesn't need exactly what we use it as. In English, the word minister can have multiple meanings, including someone who's ordained as an elder. We're going to show there's a difference.

And that's not an improper use of English, but we need to go back and see, okay, what were they doing here? You know, in Luke chapter 10, verse 40, it says that Martha was distracted with much the Econia, much serving. That's how it's translated in English.

So we have this idea of ministry, of serving. So in the New Testament, everybody is supposed to serve. We're going to show that. Every member of the congregation has an obligation to serve God and to serve each other and to serve the world, and being this light, this representative of Jesus Christ. Look at Acts chapter 1, Acts 1.15. Right away, the apostles were presented with a problem in that Judas had died, and there were supposed to be 12 of them. Jesus had appointed 12, and now there was only 11.

Acts 1.15. And in those days, Peter stood in the midst of the disciples. Altogether, the number of the names was about 120 and said, Man and brother in the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this service. He had a part to play in this service. Now this man purchased the field, and the wages of iniquity, falling headlong, he burst open the middle of it, and his intros gushed out. So, you know, he goes through and talks about how he died. Go to chapter verse 23.

Oh, well, wait a minute. Let's go back a minute, because I want you to notice something. Verse 20, For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his dwelling place be desolate, no one live in it, and let another take his office. So he takes some Scriptures from the Old Testament. He says, Okay, this man was cast out. It was cast out by Jesus. He said so, let another take his office. In other words, somebody else has to take his place. Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord went out and in among us.

Beginning from his baptism of John to that day when he was taken up from among us, one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.

So, as a replacement apostle, he said, Okay, to be part of the Twelve, there's 120 disciples here. We've got to replace this one of the Twelve.

The stipulation was he had had to have been with Jesus Christ from the baptism to the resurrection.

So this couldn't just be anybody. It couldn't have been somebody that came in and started following Christ in the last year of his life. It could have been somebody who had known Jesus always life, but just now, you know, because we know after his death and resurrection, there were lots of people said, Oh, I knew him. He is the Messiah. It couldn't have been a new person.

It had to be someone who met that criteria to be an apostle, the replacement of Judas. You had to have been with Jesus, which means, by the way, there were more than 12 guys with him that whole time. There were people who had come in and out of this group and been with this group and stayed with this group. They might have been with him every day, but they were there enough that they could say, okay, to be an apostle. So they had to come up with a criteria.

That's supposed to be 12. There's supposed to be 12. Somebody's supposed to take his office. What criteria do we have? And Peter said, he's got to have been with us the whole time of Jesus' ministry. So they proposed to Joseph called for Sabbath, who is certainly named Justice and Matthias. And they prayed and said, You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two You have chosen to take part in this service, in this ministry, an apostleship from which Judah, by transgression, fell, that he might go to his own place.

The last place in the Bible where you see lots being used to determine something. From this point on, it changed. This was the last time they cast lots to make this kind of decision. From this point on, it changed. So we see that ministry is something that everybody's supposed to do.

And every one of us has something we contribute, we bring. The other reason I want to emphasize that, because you have to understand there are people ordained in two functions.

But every one of us has a function. And we must not confuse the two.

Every one of us has a function. But there are people ordained in two particular functions.

Look at Romans 12. Let's go to Ephesians 4, because I really want to get into some other things, and I don't want to get bogged down here. But I really want to make this point. This Scripture has been read a number of times over the last couple of years for different reasons, and different sermons and a sermonette. So it's probably fresh on some of your minds. So let's use this one. Ephesians 4, verse 11.

Speaking of Jesus Christ as the head of the church, He Himself gave some to the apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. And then He says, why? In fact, He gave a sermon about this two years ago and went through and showed just these few verses that there's a reason the church is supposed to produce something. The church is you. It's the people. As the people are called out of God, something's supposed to happen. And for that to happen, Christ picks apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry. Now, sometimes you'll get some commentaries, they'll say, well, this work of ministry refers back to the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, pastors, and teachers. But when you look at the context of the sentence, it doesn't. Now, there's the reason these people are ordained in these positions is to get the church to perform its service, to do its ministry. Now, you have to say, oh no, does that mean I have to go out and proselyte to my neighbors? This is not what ministers do. I mean, the Greek word here doesn't mean that. So don't use the English word. It means your service, your service to God, your service to each other. So the reason God has ordained positions in the church is to help every member of the church find their place in service to God and to service each other, for the edifying of the body of Christ. It is to help everybody serve each other so that the church functions the way God wants it to function. And how long will this be?

Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, till we all come into the full character of Jesus Christ, that we should no longer be children. So remember, this is the context of why God does this. If we don't know why God does things, people get into ordained positions and they use them as dictatorships, or they use them for wrong purposes.

There's a specific purpose, outcomes, that God desires, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine. So one of the reasons is that we don't just become children, that every little doctrine, every little thing comes down, we just run around from doctrine to doctrine. By the trickery of men and kind of craftiness of deceitful plotting to make sure that people don't come in to a congregation and see people, speaking the truth and love, they grow up in all things, and to him who is the head Christ. From whom the whole body is joined and hid together by which every joint supplies every person has a function. According to the effect of working by which every part does its share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Once again, that's a sermon right there, that verse. Every person has a responsibility of ministry, of service, of giving, of helping. And in that, there will be conflict, by the way. There will be! They say, oh, there's conflict. Yeah. Christ comes back.

The Messiah comes back. And the first description of His reign is Him doing what? Trying to fix conflict. It is in the growth of the body and that desire for unity and our commitment to this that we stay together in spite of conflict. If we don't see this, we will not stay together if there's conflict. It's that simple. So we start to see that this is supposed to work together.

And this is why God does what He does. So we have these men who are ordained to help take care of widows. As the New Testament goes on, we see that there literally is an office of servant.

The ocanos. This office of servant. This ministry. And everybody's supposed to be involved in ministry, but there's a specific group of people that are ordained into, okay, you serve more.

You serve more. As we go through, if you go through the New Testament, you'll see over and over again that this concept of deacon is mentioned over and over again. In fact, in Philippians 1.

So this is a little later after Acts 6. We go through a number of years. After Acts 6, we see a letter that Paul is writing here.

And he says, Paul and Timothy bond servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus, who are in Philippi, with the bishops and the servants, the deaconess, the deacons.

Now, bishops there comes from Episcopos, which is a different Greek word, and we'll talk about that in a minute. So obviously, he talks to all the saints, but he says, also, I want to mention here a special hello to the Episcopos. Many times it's just a bishop. It's usually translated, a more modern translation, as overseers. To the overseers and the servants.

So he specifically mentions them, these ordained physicians. First Timothy 3. So now we're about 30 years after Acts 6.

We can further see how this is developing in the church.

First Timothy 3 verse 8.

Likewise, we're breaking into the middle of a thought, but we'll come back to it. Likewise, Deacons. So now we have these deacons. Now, remember, everybody's supposed to serve. So this is a person who serves more, serves and is recognized and actually ordained into this office of service. Likewise, the deacons must be reverent. So now we have, specific by this time, 30 years later, it's gone more from just, okay, everybody pick out some people. We'll look through the name, see which one we'll pray about it. And we'll pick seven of them or whatever, which is what happened in Acts 6. Now, false relativity. Now, when you go into the churches, you're going to have to ordain some of these servants. When you do, they have to meet certain criteria. This is a tough criteria. I'm glad I don't have to be a deacon. Then I look at my criteria and I'm scared to death. Literally, my criteria frightens me. They must be reverent, a worshipper of God, not double-tongued, you know, an honest person, not somebody that you know is going to stab you in the back, not somebody who gossips a lot, slanders, not giving them much wine, can't be somebody who likes to hit the bottle too much, not greedy for money.

Doesn't say they can't be successful, it just says they can't be greedy.

Holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. Now, we could spend a lot of time going through those criteria, but that's quite a criteria.

Verse 10, but let them also be first be tested. Then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless. In other words, you don't ordain somebody as a deacon and say, now you have to learn to serve. They're doing it anyway, and they would do it if you'd ever ordain them. They would stay the same if you never ordain them. That's one of the criteria you look for.

Because I've seen people who are great servants, and somebody else ordain the deacon, and they give up serving. Other people just serve and never even notice. They just do it.

You know, when Jesus Christ comes back, I don't think He's going to say, you know, I would like all the deacons and elders to get in front of the line. That's not how this works.

I'm not sure our jobs as deacons and elders will have much meaning once we're changed.

I'm not sure that means much.

But it still is a function of the body of Christ. And so they do it anyways, and they would do it if you'd ever ordain them. It doesn't matter.

I always tell people when I ordain them a deacon, I always tell them, I'm about to make your life more complicated than you ever wanted it to be.

Because now you will continue to do what you've always done, but you will be criticized for it.

You will do what you've always did. Nothing much will change, except you'll be criticized.

But see, somebody's got to take that, and it's you.

Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.

Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own households well. For those who have served well as deacons, obtained for themselves a good standing, and a great boldness in the faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Those who serve well will be used by God, used by Christ who is the head of the church.

Now, when it talks about the wives there, translators really debate over that, because it could mean that there are actually deaconesses, and that's the approach we have taken throughout our history. That there are women who can be ordained as this servant, in this servant role. And so we have deacons and deaconesses.

The deaconesses don't always get the recognition, sometimes the deacons. But, you know, that's why their deaconesses, they don't care. They just do it. They just do it because it's their character to do it. So, here we see this office of deacon that literally gets to the place that over a 30-year period of the church growing and dealing with this, and they're dating deacons, and you know what? You're dating somebody a deacon who isn't qualified, you end up with a mess. I've seen it.

I've seen it. You were dating somebody a deacon that goes to their head, you end up with a mess. I've seen that too.

Will that happen? Yes.

That's going to happen once in a while. You know how I know that too? Because if I read the New Testament, it happens then. But, fortunately, there's plenty of people called by God who are chosen to put into this role in some of their whole lives in humility.

They simply do it.

And in doing so, it helps all of us. It helps all of us to know, hey, I can call this deacon, and I have some physical issue, and he can help me figure this out.

He might come over my house. I'm a widow, and he might come over my house with somebody else and help me move my bed because it's too heavy for me to move. And he'll do that.

You can get anybody to do it, but sometimes the other person, you know, I'll have to call the deacon because I know he'll do it.

Now, as the church developed, you also have the idea of elders, which is a different function than deacons.

Elders is a concept that's all through the Scripture. In ancient Israel, the tribes were run by tribal elders. The elders set out at the gate, right? And there they set at the gate, and they would make decisions. The political priests would be there, and the elders, and they would make decisions. They would hold court sessions. Not every person was an elder. Now, elder, both in Old and New Testament, the word literally means an older person.

But we know that not every older person in the Old Testament set in front of the gate and made decisions. They had a criteria for that. There's nothing in the Bible that tells us exactly what the criteria was, because tribes were just extended families. And in those tribes, there were people who became elders and were recognized as elders, and they sat in the gates, and they held court. They solved problems between people. So we know we have that. We know that there was a point where God told Moses, okay, you need a council of elders. I use that word because in the Jewish society, this is what these people were called. Let's go to Numbers 11.

Verse 16. God is talking to Moses here, and He says in verse 16 of Numbers 11, I have become a member and The Romans would kick out high priests at a regular...they didn't like a high priest, they'd kick him out. The Jews would say, well, you can't do that. He's now a member of the Sanhedrin. So many times there was more, because every fired high priest became a member, too. But this is where this comes from in the New Testament, the idea of the Council.

So the early church has this word, elder. Now, we're going to talk about that. And there's another word, and we have to understand and figure out what is the relationship between them. And that is the word...well, we have presbyteros in Greek, which is elder. We also have another word, episcopos. I mentioned that earlier, where it was translated bishops and deacons.

So we have presbyteros and episcopos, presbyterians and episcopalian. So I guess those two sects were in the early New Testament church, and the end of the presbyterians. That's where they get those words from in English, by the way. Acts 14. So they have an interesting problem. The church is growing. What do we do? Twelve apostles can't do everything. Besides, they start local churches and they leave. And you start a local church and you leave, and pretty soon there's all kinds of conflict. And there's all kinds of problems over who does this and what runs that and who can do that and what doctrine do we keep and what doctrine do we don't keep and what about this understanding. And pretty soon you have a mess. So we have Acts 14.23.

Here you have Paul and Barnabas starting churches all over. And as they go and they start their churches, it says, "...when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commanded them to the Lord, in whom they had believed. They appointed elders." Now, literally, you know, you could say, literally it means older people.

Okay. If the criteria is you have to be 50... I'm just making that up. If the criteria is you have to be 50, you don't have to appoint anybody. Anybody over 50 is an elder.

And you can argue, and as we will see, the Presbyterios, the Episcopos were always men. You can argue, why not women? If it just means age, then it would be anybody over a certain age and men and women.

But as we go through here, just like deacons, deacons had a specific job, specific function that they were ordained into. This appointment is a recognition that this person now has a specific function within the congregation, within the body of Christ.

We do know in Acts 15, you have this meeting of the apostles. And it's very interesting. They had to solve the problem of having Gentiles come into the church. It's very interesting how they did that there. They had a meeting of the apostles, the elders, and the entire congregation came to, and listened to the discussion, which I think is an interesting openness.

Let's go to Acts 20, because here we have years of going by. Paul and Barnabas have been appointing elders, starting churches all over the world.

Paul, who had spent three years at Ephesus, all you have to do is read the letter he wrote to the Ephesians to realize the closest he had with these people.

Paul is traveling, and he can't get to Ephesus, but he wants to see the leaders of the Ephesians church. So he asked them to meet him. And we have this incredible, you know, just, he got up and just poured out his heart to the leaders of the Ephesus church that he brought together. Look at verse 17 of Acts 20. From Iletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church.

So he calls for the elders. Verse 28, Therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among whom the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. So there are presbyteros and episkopos. They are both. So these elders aren't just, it isn't just a matter of age. It is an issue that they have now taken a function within the church where they act as elders, and that's important. That is a tribal word.

If we ever make the church too much of a corporation, which if you've been around for 30 or 40 years, you've been through that from time to time. If the church becomes nothing but a corporation, it fails in its function. It cannot be.

The elders of the church can't be simply corporate officers.

Relationship is tribal elder. In other words, it's a member of the family. That is very, very important.

Elders describe what the relationship is between the people of this function and the other people. It's not president, king, cardinal. Okay. That's why bishop is the good word. English bishop means something different. That's a very bad translation. In his elder, elder what? Elder family member. Elder brother.

That's the relationship within the body. He says, but you were overseers. So now the relationship is this. The function is to act as overseers. Now, the overseer of a farm or a ranch didn't own the farm or ranch. The master owned the farm or ranch. The overseer just made sure it ran the way he wanted it run. And that's important to know, too. Elders don't own the church. They're supposed to make the church function the way Christ wants it functioning.

So elders and overseers, they're the same thing. And these become interchangeable terms throughout the Scripture in discussion of this position in the body. To shepherd the church of God, the pastorate, to take care of it, which he purchased with his own blood. He says, I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.

So he brings together the elders of the church, and he says, I'm just in agony because I know what's going to happen in Ephesus. There are people that are going to come in there and tear your flock apart. And then he says, verse 30, Also among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. He said, even some of you elders are going to try to divide the church up for your own benefit.

He says, Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. And he goes on and he tells them what they must do in pouring out of his heart towards these leaders of Ephesus and what he feared was going to happen to their church. Well, it's very interesting because you get about 40 years down the line and you get to the book of Revelation, and John says, you stood up against those who said they were apostles and weren't. And you survived it. In other words, what Paul worried about here, the church in Ephesus survived.

When even some of their own elders, that would be a horrible thing to have an elder in a church decide, okay, I'm going to tear this, break off a piece of this church for my reasons. So he deals with this and this congregation that he loves him very much.

So once again, if we go back now to 1 Timothy, Paul gave Timothy instructions. Okay, here's the criteria to look for. By the way, it can't just be age. When the apostles were made apostles, and even Peter says, I too am an elder. When the apostles were made apostles, they were mainly in their 30s. That means they would have been younger than a lot of the people in their own congregations.

Timothy himself, Paul said that Timothy was an elder. He said, don't let people despise your age, because you're such a young man. Who are you to come in here and teach us anything? 1 Timothy 3. Now, the reason this is important is because sometime in the future, I don't know when, I'm going to have to ordain some new deacons and elders, as I have done every once in a while. I'm very careful. When I first came into the ministry, one of the first things the man who trained me, which I have always looked back on his training, is being so amazing.

One of the first things he told me was, we've ruined many a good man by ordaining him. I have ordained, in my 30 years of the ministry, less than 10 people. I'm real careful, because I want to make sure that God is calling them. But I also want to make sure that this is why, before I ordain anybody, not only the wife asked to pray about it, I have the elders asked to pray, and they give me their recommendations.

And then I ask the church to fast to pray and give me their recommendations. Every time I've done that, I've always come up with the same people. Number one and number two might be switched, but it's always the same couple people. So, you read through this. There are three by five cards back on the information table.

Maybe next week, maybe take some time to think about this and pray about this, and come back and say, okay, let me put down someone I think would be a good deacon, or deaconess, or elder. It's anonymous, and just leave it back there. I'll sort through them. We'll take a look at it. This is the criteria we're looking at. Verse one, this is a faithful saying, if a man desires the position of a bishop, overseer, he desires a good work. An overseer must first be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach.

Now, by the way, able to teach isn't in the list of deacons. A deacon actually doesn't have to be someone who's really a good teacher. He has to be someone who's a good servant. In fact, we have to be careful sometimes. Keep your finger here. Go to James 3. We forget this sometimes, too. This admonition from James. James 3, verse 1. Because I see people say, well, he can't be a deacon.

He doesn't give sermonettes. He can't be a deacon. He's not a good teacher. Now, we're very fortunate here. All of our deacons are also good teachers. We're really fortunate. We're always so. That's not always so. Remember what James says in James 3.1, My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.

James says, don't let there be a lot of teachers in the church, because God holds teachers more responsible than anybody else. So there should be a lot of teachers in the church. That scares me, too. I ought to give a sermon like this when I have to, because it makes me very uncomfortable to give this sermon. It says, not given to wine. We're back in 1st Timothy 3, verse 3.

Not given to wine, not violent. Not greedy for money. Not violent. I've wondered if I have to give up the Pittsburgh's tealers. Cowboy fans, you can keep. Not greedy for money. Not gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous. What, who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence? For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?

Not a novice, not somebody that's new. Unless being puffed up with pride, he follows in the same condemnation as the devil. Verse 7, Moreover, he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he should fall into reproach in the snare of the devil. In other words, if someone in the church functions pretty well in the church, but always neighbors just think this is the weirdest, most unfriendly, hardest to get along guy, he says, don't ordain him an elder.

Because who of his neighbors are going to want to find out about a God that has a wacko guy like that? We see the same thing in Titus, in Titus where Paul tells Titus the qualifications of elders. Let's just go there, just briefly, to read that. Because you need to study this also, as you pray, and say, okay God, in the future, and probably about five years from now, if I'm still here, we'll be hearing a sermon like this. Because, okay, we've got to keep looking ahead. Where are we five years from now?

And are we going to need? And we will. Every five years, there's going to have to be some ordination somewhere. Titus 1, verse 5. I mean, sooner or later, I've got to replace myself. Sooner or later, I've got to train somebody to be a pastor, or I've got to work with the whole office to have them train somebody to be a pastor. We always have to be moving in that direction, in the direction of making sure that as long as God has a congregation, as long as He says, I want people here, that is taken care of in the ways that Ephesians says we must take care of it.

It is a responsibility to do so, that any elder, any deacon, is very serious about. In Titus 1, verse 5, he says, Paul says, Titus, for this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things which are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I command you. He says, I left you there in Crete to do this very thing, to go to all the churches there and ordain some elders.

Bring order to those churches. He says, if a man is blameless, the husband of his own wife, having faithful children, not accused of dispensation or insubordination. In other words, one of the things an elder has to do is he can't be a man that isn't willing to work as part of the team. Now that doesn't mean a mindless fool, okay? But an elder has to be willing, if he's insubordant, that means it's my way or the highway.

No one wants an elder that's like that, because he's always going to be fighting against the other elders, and he's always going to be causing a problem in the congregation. Always. It's just, you know, it's like low-grade fever in the congregation. Not insubordant. For a bishop or overseer must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, not hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled.

Holding fast the faithful word, as he has been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convict those who contradict. Or they're inventing insubordant, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, whose overt whole households, teaching things which they must not for the sake of dishonest gain.

See, you say, well, what was the problem that he was dealing with? Okay, on the island of Crete, he had a problem where there were Jewish Christians, those of the circumcision, who were convincing people of Jewish interpretations and taking them away from where the church was.

And in doing so, he says, you've got to ordain the elders to stop those people from doing that. It's always interesting to find out what was happening. Because, you know, we don't have any Orthodox Jews coming into our congregation and trying to do that.

So we're not facing this kind of situation, but they did. So every time we go through these things, look at what was the situation. It's always fascinating to say, wow, sometimes the problems we have aren't near as bad as the problems they had. There are some of the things they went through. 1 Peter 5. Here Peter talks about being an elder. 1 Peter 5, verse 1, he says, The elders who are among you I exhort.

So he said, look, Peter says, he writes 1 Peter. Peter is written to the church at large. It's one of the general epistles. It wasn't written to a specific church. So to all these churches now, all these churches have elders, he says, I want to talk specifically in my letter now for a minute to the elders.

He says, I exhort. I who am a fellow elder. So being an apostle, he was also an elder, which once again shows he had the function of an apostle. But he saw himself as an older brother. He saw himself as part of the church as a family. It wasn't just, hey, I am a, you know, it's a problem with the whole concept of the bishops and cardinals and priests and popes, and where it's a corporate structure.

I'm not picking on one organization out there. I mean, they just had to be the worst at it. He said, at a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed, he says, I was with Christ, and I'm going to be there when he comes back. He says, here's what he exhorts the elders to do, the shepherd, the flock of God, which is among you, serving as overseers.

So the elders, he says, you serve as overseers, not by compulsion, but willingly. If an elder ever is doing it, because he feels like he's just forced to do it, and he doesn't want to do it, then he needs to probably resign his eldership. He needs to say, hey, I can't do this anymore. Or, hey, I need a break, because we are to do it willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly.

Nor is being lords over those. So he tells the church at large, don't be lords over those entrusted to you. That's an important statement. This is God's flock, it's not yours flock, and you have been entrusted to take care of them. So don't you dare lord over these people. This is the exhortation to the overseers, by being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd, the one who actually owns the ranch, the one who owns the flock, when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.

So obviously here, when he uses this word elder, he's not just talking about an older person, but he's specifically talking about the elders who are the overseers. And you see these elders, these overseers, have other specific instructions. They are the ones who ordain other overseers and deacons. They are the ones who do baptisms and laying on of hands. It's interesting. Philip was a deacon. Philip was given permission to do baptisms. Philip could not lay hands on people.

Elders had to come lay hands on them. Laying on of hands is the function of the eldership. It says, when they are sick among you, go to the elders and they will lay hands upon you. They will pray for you. This is ecclesiastical function. It's a function of the eldership, the laying on of hands. There are also many instructions, by the way, throughout the New Testament on the relationship between elders and members of the congregation.

And it's very important. Some of the things the elders are really instructed to do is be sure you don't mistreat people.

By the way, if an elder commits a public sin, he is to be corrected publicly.

If he commits a sin and people know about it, he's to be corrected publicly. For one of the few times in the history that I have been an elder, United did that a year ago this month. It was one of the most painful things I have ever had to do. We publicly chastised an elder for something you've done.

That takes a lot of courage on the part of the person to take that. And he did. Without bitterness. That takes a lot of courage.

We're told not to have dominion over your faith. We can't rule your faith. That's why on occasions there will be something you and I will be talking about, and I'll say, that's a matter of your conscience. I cannot make a decision on that.

There are certain things that are a matter of your conscience. Now, there are things that aren't. There are things that I'm supposed to do. But there are things I am not supposed to do as an elder. It's interesting. All through the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians and Thessalonians and Hebrews, there are instructions on how this relationship is supposed to work. So it wasn't like they just said, okay, go find these people. Or dame them. And then, no more instructions. And it's interesting, once again, as you go through the instructions, they're always dealing with a problem. Oh, my! We've never thought of that before.

How do we deal with that? Okay, we'll give them instructions. A year later, oh, my! We never thought of that before. There's two instructions. This is a growing group of people that had to face their problems month by month and year by year. And sometimes they had elders that got off on the weirdest things. I mean, by the time you get to 3 John, there's an elder that won't let the emissaries of John come talk to the church. Now, how bad does that get? You won't even let. You don't even recognize the Apostle John as the minister of God. I think that elder was way overbounds, wasn't he? And all John said is, I'll try to get there and we'll have to fix this. He was disfellowshipping people, putting people out of the congregation who were following John. They had their problems, too, as they struggle with it. It doesn't change the fact that this is what God wants. So the early church had to do this. We see the office of elders and the office of deacons. When we use the word pastor, that just means shepherd. So, as the... I am an elder. We have elders in the congregation here. I, as the overseer, they are overseers also. It's just as the sort of chief overseer, that's my job. That's what I do. Deacons...and we have been blessed in this congregation. We have been blessed. I have thanked God many times and the time I've been here for every elder, every deacon, every deaconess we've ever had. Because I don't think you know how you've been blessed. And, in the future, we'll have to start replacing. And, some day, they'll replace me. And if Christ is here, the congregation will go on. We'll come and go. I'm not going anyplace. As soon as I say, oh, he's going, no, he's not. Eventually, I mean...

But the congregation stays together. Same doctrine, same teaching, same love, same attitude, same spirit. That continues. So, what I would like you to do is think about this, pray about this. And, once again, there are 3x5 cards back on the information table. You can take one, you just put down.

This person, maybe, maybe you have two people you think would be a good elder some day. Or, somebody you think would be a good deacon. Or, somebody would be a good deaconess. And, when we sit and we work through this process, I will look at every one of those. I will look at every one of those. Because I have a precedent. Acts 6. We have a precedent that we use to say, okay, how do we make these decisions?