Speaker 1: Let me start again.
Speaker 1: The 2001 miniseries Band of Brothers depicts an American company of soldiers in World War II, and Lieutenant Richard Winters commands Easy Company until he's promoted to executive officer over the entire battalion that company's part of.
Speaker 1: During one engagement, he and his CO are overseeing the battle from their command post.
Speaker 1: When Winters sees his old company in trouble, his instinct is to get up out of his seat literally and get into the fight, but his commander reprimands him and tells him to sit back down.
Speaker 1: Everyone has their part to play, has their part to play, and his is in field command, directing the troops, not pulling a trigger, and success depends on everyone doing their assigned roles.
Speaker 1: The church in Acts we've been tracking through was facing threats externally from opposition, and they've faced something internally through immoral behavior, through lying, now faces another test, and the response of the apostles will prove critical to both the crisis at hand but also the success of the church's mission.
Speaker 1: So we're going to be reading from Acts, chapter 1.
Speaker 1: In those days as the disciples Acts chapter 6, verse 1, in those days as the disciples were increasing in number, there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution.
Speaker 1: So there was no welfare system in the ancient world and vulnerable people relied on family or the kindness of strangers.
Speaker 1: And in chapter 4, a few weeks ago, we saw one of the first responses of the church the newly spirit-filled and spirit-formed church was to care for the poor among them quite radically, and this included widows who presumably didn't have any family support.
Speaker 1: As the church grew, it's not hard to imagine that this ministry grows with it and would have become quite difficult to manage.
Speaker 1: So in this case, the Greek-speaking widows, that's, the Hellenistic widows, were being overlooked in the church's welfare program.
Speaker 1: Now, these women, in fact all the Hellenistic Jews they were Jews but they were from other countries.
Speaker 1: They were part of the Jewish diaspora who had probably come to Jerusalem for Passover and Pentecost and stayed when the church was formed.
Speaker 1: Contemporary sources back then tell us that there was no love lost between Hebraic, the local Jews and the Hellenistic Jews.
Speaker 1: But the church was different.
Speaker 1: Unity crossed ethnic lines and it was essential to the witness of the church and actually a natural part of the church.
Speaker 1: Hellenistic widows probably weren't being deliberately snubbed, they were just falling through the cracks because different communities, they were moving in in circles and so on, but it was still unfair and it posed a threat to the church's unity.
Speaker 1: As grumbling began, as some translations put it so clearly, something urgently needed to be done.
Speaker 1: The Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said it would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God.
Speaker 1: The 12 summoned the whole company of the disciples and said it would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables.
Speaker 1: The apostles have been overseeing the ministry up to this point, but to keep managing it well as it grew, they need to shift focus.
Speaker 1: But the thing was, jesus didn't call them to wait on tables.
Speaker 1: He called them to proclaim the gospel and, like Lieutenant Winters and Band of Brothers, their role was to lead the church through the ministry of the word.
Speaker 1: So Steve Jobs, the late founder of Apple, once said people think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got your focus on, but that's not what it means at all.
Speaker 1: It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are.
Speaker 1: You have to pick carefully.
Speaker 1: Innovation is saying no to 1000 things, 1,000 things, because you know there's only so much one person can do, and while you can do anything, you can't do everything.
Speaker 1: So, for the apostles, prayer and the ministry of the word took precedence over church administration.
Speaker 1: And, as important as care for the poor was, the church needed them to keep to their lane.
Speaker 1: This is how churches and the kingdom of God grow, but the administration and care for the practical concerns of the church were still real needs.
Speaker 1: So how could the apostles keep focus on what they were meant to be doing without the widows missing out?
Speaker 1: Well, the answer was to bring more people to share in the ministry.
Speaker 1: Brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty.
Speaker 1: Why seven?
Speaker 1: Well, seven is an important number in the Bible.
Speaker 1: It's the number of completeness.
Speaker 1: It's sometimes linked to abundance and was a significant number in tabernacle worship, in the ordination, for example, as well as other things.
Speaker 1: And in fact, apparently many Greek civic councils had seven members, so maybe there's an allusion to that as well.
Speaker 1: But they weren't to choose just any seven.
Speaker 1: The ministry, frankly, was too important for that.
Speaker 1: The apostles weren't ignoring it because it wasn't important, and so it needed people of good reputation who were filled with the Spirit, and wise.
Speaker 1: In other words, they're trustworthy, spiritually mature problem solvers.
Speaker 1: Spiritually mature problem solvers.
Speaker 1: The language of being filled with the Spirit keeps cropping up in Acts.
Speaker 1: What's going on?
Speaker 1: I mean, the whole church was filled with the Spirit at Pentecost.
Speaker 1: Then, at the end of chapter four, the believers were filled with the Spirit again when they prayed after the apostles' first arrest.
Speaker 1: So aren't all the believers spirit-filled?
Speaker 1: Well, yes, in the sense that every believer receives the Spirit when we're born again.
Speaker 1: That's actually what being born again means.
Speaker 1: We're born again of the Spirit.
Speaker 1: But in John 15, jesus said the key to fruitfulness is abiding in Him.
Speaker 1: If we abide in Jesus through the Spirit, we abound in much fruit.
Speaker 1: Do you know?
Speaker 1: I have learnt to play four instruments in my life?
Speaker 1: I've learnt organ when I was a child, piano, ukulele and guitar.
Speaker 1: Do you know what else?
Speaker 1: I can't play any of them.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because I didn't remain with those instruments.
Speaker 1: I didn't abide in them.
Speaker 1: I want to pick on Ivan here.
Speaker 1: Compare that to Ivan, who I'm sure can play multiple instruments in his sleep.
Speaker 1: I think you'd call Ivan music-filled.
Speaker 1: He remains in the music and the music remains in him.
Speaker 1: There's a few others here as well.
Speaker 1: He remains in the music, and the music remains in him.
Speaker 1: There's a few others here as well.
Speaker 1: It's the same thing with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: And so, just as Jesus called his apostles to be with him in Mark 3, I think it is, we might say the church called men who had been with Jesus in the spirit, and these men were going to be put in charge of a sizable sum of money and care for some of the most vulnerable people in the community, let alone in the church.
Speaker 1: So it was essential that they were high capacity people.
Speaker 1: Luke even tells us the name of the seven.
Speaker 1: So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit, and Philip Prochorus, nicanor, timon Parmenas and Nicholas, a convert from Antioch.
Speaker 1: Now, what's interesting about these names and I think why Luke mentions them, even though only two will come up later is the church seems to have put foreigners in charge of this ministry, because these are all Greek names, and what this did was to ensure that the Hellenistic widows and all the Hellenistic Jews could have confidence in the system, and it also sent a strong signal about church unity.
Speaker 1: We are all in this together.
Speaker 1: We're all equal in Christ.
Speaker 1: Just as an aside, although we're not told how they actually went about the process of selection.
Speaker 1: This is actually a key text in the Baptist practice of members electing leaders as well.
Speaker 1: So the church chose the seven, but they were still under the authority of the apostles.
Speaker 1: So in verse six they had them stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
Speaker 1: And laid their hands on them.
Speaker 1: Although Luke doesn't call them deacons here, this ministry is widely regarded as the establishment of the office of deacon.
Speaker 1: The word for ministry and the word for serve are the same word in the Greek.
Speaker 1: Ministry comes from the Latin is all, and deacon, diaconessess is that word in the Greek.
Speaker 1: In our church we call deacons ministry leaders.
Speaker 1: The Bible tells us almost nothing about the role of deacons in the early church, but I think we can take the seven here as a model for the diaconate, the seven here as a model for the diaconate.
Speaker 1: And we also, I think, see precedents in the Old Testament Levites, and these were a tribe of Israel who helped the priests.
Speaker 1: The priests came from the Levites, but not all Levites could be priests, but the Levites helped the priests in the tabernacle in the worship.
Speaker 1: They served as worship leaders, administrators and in many other roles as well.
Speaker 1: Although deacons have a practical focus in the life of the church, practical doesn't mean it's not spiritual.
Speaker 1: They do spiritual work and in fact later we see that Stephen and Philip are not confined to their roles as deacons and in fact they're powerful evangelists.
Speaker 1: How does this apply to us today?
Speaker 1: Well, before we look at that, we need to take a step back and look at another office in the New Testament, that of elders.
Speaker 1: As the church spread out beyond Jerusalem into other countries and the apostles over time died, elders took on the leadership of the church.
Speaker 1: The Bible, again, doesn't actually go into very many specifics about how the early church was run and that's why we see so many models of how to run a church today, because everyone's got a different idea and frankly I think that's okay and I think there's only one way to do it.
Speaker 1: But it's clear that elders had a particular function in the early church in leading leadership, prayer and the ministry of the word.
Speaker 1: So in 1 Peter 5, 1 to 3, the apostle Peter writes I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and witness to the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory about to be revealed.
Speaker 1: Shepherd God's flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion, but willingly as God would have you.
Speaker 1: Not out of greed for money, but eagerly.
Speaker 1: Not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.
Speaker 1: Peter says to shepherd the flock.
Speaker 1: Shepherd is another word for pastor, again in the Greek, the same word.
Speaker 1: We just get them from different languages.
Speaker 1: In the English and today we use the word pastor in a specialized sense.
Speaker 1: But we pastors are simply elders who have a vocational calling and ordination.
Speaker 1: In Hebrews 13 and 17, we're exhorted as a church to remember your leaders who have spoken God's word to you and submit to them, since they keep watch over your souls.
Speaker 1: Ministry of the word and leadership.
Speaker 1: James 5.14 says Is anyone among you sick?
Speaker 1: He should call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil or her in the name of the Lord.
Speaker 1: This is starting to sound a bit like the apostolic role that we were reading about.
Speaker 1: Ephesians 5.11, one of them anyway.
Speaker 1: It says and he gave himself, gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ.
Speaker 1: Ephesians 4, 11 and 12.
Speaker 1: Again, the role of elders is to equip, prepare for ministry, build, up up.
Speaker 1: The ministry of practical church care and administration is a vital ministry for the health of the church.
Speaker 1: But you don't have a church without the ministry of the word and pastors and elders are called primarily to the care of souls through the word, prayer and oversight of the church.
Speaker 1: To the care of souls through the word, prayer and oversight of the church.
Speaker 1: So why all that detour onto elders Like the apostles of long ago?
Speaker 1: Today there are more and more demands that threaten to keep pastors from prayer and the ministry of the word, that threaten to keep pastors from prayer in the ministry of the word.
Speaker 1: We live in an era when there are, frankly, a huge amount of legal safety and insurance compliance requirements just to be able to run a church and, most significantly, more significantly than all of that, and some of that is about people care.
Speaker 1: But in an age when people are more disconnected than ever, caring for people well is more important than ever, and certainly my experience is there's a lot of stuff that I do and that Fletcher does that interfere with what you and what God has called us to actually do and, as a result, prayer and the ministry of the word and the care of souls suffer, especially given we're both only part time.
Speaker 1: In fact, nothing we do gets done really well when we've got so many scattered things that we have to do.
Speaker 1: And so it's in this environment that deacons are actually vital, or ministry leaders as we call them.
Speaker 1: And look, friends, we are blessed in this church with a lot of willing helpers, and I really do thank God for all of you.
Speaker 1: And I was saying to Andrea the other day I am just loving it here at Bentley, but here's the thing we don't have many deacons or ministry leaders in that official sense, and so there are roles Fletcher and I have to cover that pull us away from what you really need us to do.
Speaker 1: But I think in this regard I actually owe you an apology.
Speaker 1: It's kind of sometimes easy to hide behind administration, but when I or Fletcher take up those diaconal tasks, we rob you of opportunities to step up into leadership for some of you and into service.
Speaker 1: And of course, as I've said, we rob you of the vital ministries of prayer, the word and the leadership we should bring.
Speaker 1: And I'm not just saying that.
Speaker 1: Actually, as I was reflecting on that, I realized, yeah, this actually does interfere with leadership and prayer in all sorts of ways.
Speaker 1: Now, and I say we, fletcher and I, but the reality is the fault mostly lies with me as the lead pastor.
Speaker 1: I just want to say I'm really grateful for Fletcher up the back.
Speaker 1: Fletcher pulls up so much slack.
Speaker 1: I just can't thank you enough, fletcher, for your ministry in the church.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing I actually do have an aversion confession time to delegating tasks because I don't want to burden people, and I know a lot of you are really busy.
Speaker 1: We live in an age with double income families and people are time poor.
Speaker 1: So I don't want to burden you but as a result, probably a lot of you don't even know what the needs in the church are, because I haven't shared them.
Speaker 1: So I hope you will forgive me for that, and can I please ask you to pray that I do better in that regard.
Speaker 1: You will forgive me for that and can I please ask you to pray that I do better in that regard?
Speaker 1: This passage teaches us that ministry is not just for pastors, it's for everyone, and leadership is shared in different roles across the church and so when each person contributes their gifts and skills so that others can be released into what their gifts and skills and callings are, especially the various leadership gifts, the church flourishes.
Speaker 1: But here's the other side of the equation.
Speaker 1: To me not asking you because I know you're busy there is a cost to leadership.
Speaker 1: When Jesus calls us to follow him, he also calls us to sacrifice, to lay down our lives for him and for his church.
Speaker 1: That's one another, not the institution, but the body.
Speaker 1: And again, you can do anything but you can't do everything, and this applies to every realm of our lives.
Speaker 1: When we choose to pursue other things which may be perfectly valid and good, whether that's recreational or in the community and sometimes we need to this is where it gets hard, because we want to be in the community but we are saying yes to something.
Speaker 1: We have to say no to something else.
Speaker 1: And, friends, if we want to see God's kingdom come in our world, we're going to have to say no to some things to make space to pursue it.
Speaker 1: So what's this got to do with serving in diaconal ministry?
Speaker 1: The level our church can reach won't rise above the level of the leadership in the church, both the elders and the deacons, and I don't mean the kind of driven leadership that can burn people out.
Speaker 1: Anyone who knows me knows this.
Speaker 1: I am not a type A leader I don't like, obviously, driving people.
Speaker 1: I'm not driven, but I do mean the kind of leadership that looks like it's been with Jesus, loves people and is leading others to him.
Speaker 1: I mean the kind of servant leadership that cares for the church and wants to see the ministry flourish.
Speaker 1: I mean the kind of leadership that has a good reputation, is filled with the Spirit and wise.
Speaker 1: So here's my question who are the seven in our church?
Speaker 1: I don't mean literally seven people, but in that role.
Speaker 1: Who are they?
Speaker 1: Do you think?
Speaker 1: Because when everyone is ministering, so that the ministers of the word are released and the widows, so to speak, are cared for, we see the word of God spread.
Speaker 1: The disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.
Speaker 1: The revival that was happening, that was in danger of being sidetracked, actually heated up even more.
Speaker 1: Let's pray.