Lake Martin Presbyterian Church July 19, 2026 Podcast

Join Rev. William Skinner for this week’s message from Acts 6:1-7, "And the Word of God Continued to Increase." Explore Scripture, hear thoughtful teaching, and let us encourage you in your walk with Christ. For more information and resources, visit lakemartinpca.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Lake Martin Presbyterian Church Podcast. We're glad you're listening. Lake Martin Presbyterian Church is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America, located near Lake Martin, Alabama. Each week we share the preaching ministry of our church and pray it encourages you in your walk with Christ. Here's this week's message.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

This morning is uh a big part of the history of our young church. We're not even three years old officially yet, and uh we're moving to ordain our first deacons. This morning we'll move to lay hands on men to set them apart as the first deacons of Lake Martin Presbyterian Church. And so, in light of this historic moment in the life of our church, we're going to pause from our regular expositions through Mark's gospel. We're going to look this morning at the book of Acts in chapter 6, verses 1 through 7. Now, this passage is the historical account of the establishment of the office of deacon. The early young church in Jerusalem was growing rapidly in this passage. And the entire church was governed by twelve apostles. And as far as we can tell, these twelve apostles were carrying out all of the demands of ministry. They were conducting the official ministry of the word and sacrament, as well as management of physical property, caring for the distribution of property to the poor and the needy of the church. And it's in this passage, it's in this setting in the book of Acts that by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God gave the first deacons of the church. The apostles decided to have the first deacon election in the history of the church, and they laid their hands upon the very first deacons in the history of Christ's church and ordination. And they did this, as we'll see in the text, for one very important reason: that they might devote themselves to the ministry of prayer and the word. The apostles could not forsake that ministry. The ministry of prayer and the word. That was the ministry that Christ entrusted to the apostles. To disciple the nations, to baptize them, to teach them obedience to all that Christ had commanded them. And for that mission to succeed, the apostles must not forsake or be distracted from the ministry of prayer and the word. And so the main thing that I want you to see in this text that we're going to study this morning is that the office of deacon is an essential part of the church's mission. The office of deacon is essential for the church to accomplish its mission. The office of deacon is a God-given gift to the church, that the word of God may go forth and that the church may increase. The office of deacon is something that you must prize, something that you must cherish. Because in this office, God is keeping us on our mission. He's keeping our nose to the grindstone to disciple the nations and to preach Christ crucified to sinners. So I want us to consider three things in this text this morning. If you're a note taker here, this will be my outline. First, in verses one and two, the necessity of deacons. The necessity of deacons in verses one and two. Secondly, the calling of deacons in verses three through six. The calling of deacons in verses three through six. And thirdly, the fruit of deacons in verse seven. The fruit of deacons in verse seven. The necessity, the calling, and the fruit of deacons. Before we read the text, let's pray and ask for God's blessing upon the reading and preaching of His Word. Let's pray together. Abba Father, Holy God, we come before your word, dependent upon your spirit. We know our own hard hearts. We know our tendency to be distracted. Our tendency to think about the cares of the world or any number of things which might distract us, but we're coming before your holy word. And so we ask that by your spirit you would unstop our ears, you would focus our minds, you would soften our hearts, that we might hear what your spirit has to say. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Acts chapter 6, beginning in verse 1, this is God's holy, inerant, and inspired word. Give careful attention to the reading of God's word. Now in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews, because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of disciples and said, It is not right that we should give up the preaching of the Word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Procrus, and Nicanor and Tymon, and Parmenus, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch. And they set these before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. This is God's word. Look first with me, if you would, at verses 1 and 2. These first two verses set the stage for the creation of the office of deacon. Now that may come as a surprise to you that in God's providence, he didn't have the apostles, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, set out a manual for church operations, for church governance. He waited until a situation arose that necessitated the officers of the church. Deacons came gradually as the church had need of them. And John Calvin makes the point that that's actually a good and helpful thing. That in God's good providence, the church in Jerusalem and we today are able to see the need for deacons, the necessity of deacons, before we have them. It's not simply an office in the church that exists, it's an office that Christ gave to solve a need in the church. In the first two verses of this chapter, Luke describes the situation that led to the establishment of deacons in the church. First was growth. We see that the church was growing in Acts chapter 4, verse 4. The report was that there were some 5,000 men who followed Jesus in faith and repentance and were called disciples. And since that report in chapter 4, there have been other reports, continuously in the book of Acts, that this young church had grown considerably. Some biblical scholars on the book of Acts suggest that the number of members in the church in Jerusalem at this point could have been closer to 10,000. What you see in this text is that as the church grows, the needs of a church grow in proportion. The church in Jerusalem at least has somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 members, and they had 12 men who were doing the work of ministry for that church. And what's clear here is that as this church grows, the needs grow with it. And that's what you see. A complaint arose in the second half of verse 1. Everything in the early church, everything in the book of Acts had been great. It had just been good, better, best. Except for that one detail, if you remember Ananias and Sapphira, who lied to the Lord with their gift and were struck down by the Lord dead. Besides that little blip, everything else has been positive. The church has been growing. Everything has been from good to better. But then here we have this problem. As the church grows, problems come with it. As you have more people, more problems. The problem in the church in Jerusalem is that the Greek-speaking Christians, the Hellenists, the Greek-cultured, Greek-speaking Christians complained in the church that their widows were being treated worse than the Jewish widows, the Hebrew widows. So the Greek culture, the Greek widows were receiving a poorer treatment than the Hebrew widows. Now it's worth noting that the scriptures don't actually tell us the facts of what was actually happening with the widows. We don't know if there's a substantial truth behind this claim, but the complaint was made. That one group in the church took a difference with another group over ethnic reasons. And they were convinced that the church was acting partially according to these ethnic differences. And the subject was the distribution of physical property to the widows in need. Now, widows in the ancient church, in the ancient Roman world, were in a particularly vulnerable position. Widows had no means to care for themselves. They were completely dependent upon their family, their children, their grandchildren. And if they were rejected by their children and their grandchildren, they were completely hopeless. And you have to remember, this is the Christian church, where when you profess faith in Jesus Christ, you might very well be rejected by your family in this culture. And so many of these widows were probably rejected by their family for their faith. And they were made dependent upon the church. And the church took the initiative to take care of all the widows. The church was committed to taking care of the widows. And as the church grows, a complaint comes. A complaint is leveled that the Greek widows are not being cared for as the Hebrew widows. So, in other words, this church has a problem. It's using its resources to take care of a need in the church, a physical need among its members, and they were met with resistance due to sin. There's a complaint. And this is not a minor problem. This might seem like a minor problem, just a small little problem, but this is a major problem. Because the apostles, the twelve apostles who were doing the work of ministry in this large church, were having to devote their time to settling this complaint between these groups. To having to take care of the church's distribution to the widows themselves. And by implication, that was distracting them, that was taking away from the ministry of the word and their ministry of prayer. If they were doing this, they couldn't do this. There were only 12 of them. There were probably 10,000 members. And now with complaints arising, they can't do it all. And this is upsetting to the apostles because prayer and the word, the ministry of the word and prayer are the tools of gospel ministry. We've been seeing that in the Gospel of Mark. It's the preaching of the word and prayer that saves sinners. It was through the preaching of the word and prayer that this church in Jerusalem had grown to some 10,000 members. And the apostles recognize that we must care for the widows. It's a non-negotiable. We are the church of Jesus Christ. We have to do this thing. We have to care for the most vulnerable members within our church, but it's a great problem for us right now. This small complaint leveled by the Greek Christians is actually an attack from Satan against the church, trying to prevent the word from going forth. And that's what the apostles say in verse 2. It's not right. We can't do this. We can't give up the ministry of the word to wait tables. The church can't grow, we can't get the word out. We can't serve our Lord Jesus Christ if we neglect the ministry of the Word. Whatever ministers of the gospel do, they cannot neglect the ministry of the Word. The preaching of the Word is God's chosen means to convince and convert sinners, to build up his church in holiness and comfort. And if the ministers of Christ's church neglect this duty, no one else will do it. It's a non-negotiable. It's primary, it's of first importance. The ministry of the church is a ministry of the word. So in response, the apostles state there is a need to be filled. The church needs something. There's a need to be met to prevent Satan from distracting us, to keep our mission focused on the word, the preaching of the word. And the God-given solution is deacons. So I hope you see that clearly in these first two little verses, the necessity of deacons in the church. In our church in particular, in your church, it's necessary for deacons to handle mercy ministry, to handle the distribution of physical property, the maintenance of the place in which we worship, and the stewardship of our resources. It's a necessary role for deacons in the life of the church. I hope you see how essential the ministry of the deacon is. That's the necessity of deacons. Let's look now in verses 3 through 6 at the calling of deacons. The calling of deacons, look with me in verses 3 through 6. Having identified the need for deacons, the apostles now proceed to call deacons. And I want you to notice three things in these verses about how deacons are called: the character, the calling, and the ordination of the deacon. First, the character. The apostles assemble the church and had the church put forward men of high character, of a good reputation, full of the spirit and of wisdom. And later on in the scriptures, in 1 Timothy chapter 3, the Apostle Paul writes out a detailed list, in chapter 3, I believe, verses 8 through 11, of the character qualifications of a deacon. And the essential point that the scriptures teach us is that a deacon is not simply a man who's qualified by the world's standards. A deacon is not someone who's just good at getting stuff done, someone who's organized. A deacon is someone who must be qualified according to Christ's standards. Those who will serve in Christ's church as officers, those who will serve as deacons must look like Christ. They must possess a tangible amount of godliness, a tangible amount of godly character to serve visibly in Christ's church. The character of deacons, secondly, the calling of deacons. The apostles told the church to pick out from among yourselves seven men. And the congregation chose seven men. Now, this is such an important part of church governance. This is a crucial part of church governance, and this is something that we as Presbyterians hold especially dear. The right of a congregation to call your own officers. It's a right that we can never infringe on. We hold that the church is governed and taught by elders, and it's served by deacons. But no one can take away your right to call your own officers. Christ, by his spirit, gave us the character requirements of officers in his church. And he entrusts the ordination of officers to elders. But in calling officers in his church, he uses the voice of the congregation. God uses you to call the officers of his church. That's the calling of deacons. And thirdly, the ordination of deacons. The congregation calls its deacons, but it is the apostles who ordain them. And continuing in the church today, the apostolic age having been ceased, it's now the elders in Christ Church who are to lay hands in ordination. Now, strictly speaking, ordination is a ceremony. It is a ceremony. And it's the ceremony that we're going to proceed to later on in the service. But I don't want you to think of ordination and installation of officers as simply a ceremony. It's much more than just a ceremony. It's a spiritual offering up and setting apart of these men by the laying on of hands and prayer to God. It's a solemn act where the elders of Christ Church are setting these men apart to a sacred calling, setting them apart for a holy function in Christ's Church. Yes, it's a ceremony, but it's a spiritual ceremony where God is setting apart his chosen servants for the work of ministry. Called by the voice of the congregation, ordained by the elders of Christ Church. And yet it's all God's process of ordaining his servants to ministry in his church. That's the character, the calling, and the ordination of deacons. And I hope that's clear in this verse, in these verses. But what I want you to see in all of that is that this is not just some man-made process that we came up with. This is not some man-made office in Christ's church. These character qualifications are Christ's character qualifications. The calling is God's calling through his church on a man to serve in his church. And the ordination is God setting apart men for sacred service. This isn't something we do because we think it's practical or wise or even good. This is something we do because we love and trust and obey our Lord Jesus Christ. This is Jesus' plan for his church. We do this because we trust in Jesus. And the apostles emphasize again in these verses the purpose of all of it. Why are we calling deacons? Why are we ordaining deacons? That they may devote themselves to the ministry of prayer and the word. All of this is done in obedience to Christ, and all of it is done for the gospel of Christ. All of it is done for his mission and his message. So I want you to know that what we're doing today, what we're going to do in just a little bit, is not just some business matter in the church. It's not just some administrative detail that we need to take care of. This is no less than obedience to Christ and fulfillment of gospel ministry. This is kingdom work done in obedience to Christ. And your part in it was first to call these men, whom you've called to the office of deacon. And then, secondly, will be to fulfill your membership vows by submitting to the governance and discipline of this church. You've called the men, and now you have to trust these men. Let your elders and your deacons and this church do the work that God has given them to do among you. They meet the character qualifications given by the Lord Jesus. They're called by God through your voice, and they will be ordained by the elders of this church as instructed in the scriptures. So in trusting and submitting to the officers of your church, you are trusting and submitting to Christ. Do not grumble, don't complain against them, don't make their ministry a burden. Support them. Encourage them, pray for them, and thank God for these men whom He's given you as gifts to support our church as we carry out our work. In the calling of these deacons, you see that God has given our church gifts to help us achieve the work of ministry. That's the necessity of deacons, the calling of deacons. Now let's consider. The fruit of deacons. Look with me at verse 7. Here in verse 7, Luke records for you the result of deacons in the church in Jerusalem. How did deacons impact the ministry and mission of the church? Luke tells us that the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. There are three parts to that statement. First, the word of God increased. The word of God increased. Secondly, the number of disciples multiplied greatly. And thirdly, a great many priests became obedient to the faith. So for starters, when you read that the word of God increased, Luke isn't telling you that all of a sudden, because of deacons, a lot more books of the Bible were written. That's not at all what he's saying. He's saying after we got deacons in the church, the quality of discipleship increased. The ministry of the word increased in our church. The quality of disciples, the quality of Christians increased. The word was working. People's lives were changing. Sinners were repenting. The people in our church started looking more like Jesus. That's what Luke's telling you. People's lives began to change. People were dying to sin and living to righteousness. In other words, their faith was working. The word was doing its work, and their lives were being reformed. The quality of the disciples was improving. The first deacons in the church allowed the apostles to teach the scriptures in such a way that the church was growing in grace. Secondly, the quantity of disciples was improving. The quantity of disciples was improving. Upon receiving the first deacons in the church, the word went forth and were told that the number of disciples multiplied greatly. People were professing faith in Jesus Christ. They were being born again of the Spirit and the Word. Now, numbers aren't everything in the life of a church. You can't completely judge a church by numbers. If a church is growing in quantity, but not in quality, in other words, if the number of disciples is multiplying greatly, but the word is not increasing, there's probably something wrong with your church. You're probably preaching a false gospel. But if the word is increasing, if lives are being changed, if people are growing in grace, and you're growing in numbers, if the church is growing in both quantity and quality, that's a sign of health. That's a sign of growth. Here in this young church in Jerusalem, aided by the ministry of deacons, the disciples were growing in number and in the word, both in quantity and in quality. And that's a mark of a healthy church. And then thirdly, a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. Now Luke singles this out. He doesn't single out any other group that was coming to Christ. He said, the number of disciples multiplied greatly, meaning there's a bunch of people coming to the faith, but this group of people, the priest, he isolates. This group deserves special attention. Because the priests were what you might call the most unlikely converts. Men who were fiercely opposed to Jesus, who were fiercely opposed to the ministry of the apostles. They were now coming to embrace the faith which they once tried to destroy. The word of God was overcoming barriers. It was overcoming cultural barriers, turning even the enemies of the gospel into believers. And if you think about how this passage started, go all the way back to verses 1 and 2, that's really quite remarkable. We began with an ethnic complaint, where the Hellenistic widows were complaining against the Hebrew widows that they were receiving different treatment. And now by the end of the passage, the priest who were opposed to Jesus and his followers are being converted. We began with the vision, and now barriers are being overcome. Because of the ministry of deacons, because of this office of deacon in the church, instead of being divided, now the church is being united and sinners are being reconciled to Christ. So in this one verse in verse 7, I want you to see that following God's plan for church governance, trusting in God's appointed means allows for the church to grow in both quality and in quantity. It allows for the word to work, deepening the faith of disciples, adding to the number of disciples, and it overcomes barriers and makes enemies brothers. When the church is functioning properly, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, pagan nor priest, all are one in Christ. And brothers and sisters, this is why we must, you must, trust in the government which Christ has given to his church. You must trust the government Christ has given to his church. It might seem like the most boring thing on earth to you. It might seem like such a practical, mundane, trivial matter. But when done in accordance with God's word, it frees us all to do what Christ has put us here to do. To disciple the nations, both in quality and quantity, and to overcome all obstacles in our way. The church doesn't need to invent new programs or policies to grow in the faith. We don't need to create new models or methods of outreach or attraction. We don't need to come up with new gimmicks or shows to get people's attention. All we have to do is trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. The one we've been studying in Mark, who does all things well, who opens the ears of the deaf and the eyes of the blind, who gave his life for your sins. That Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ, loves his church far more than you or I ever could. We need to remember that. Jesus loves the church more than you do. I promise you. He died for her, he gave his life for her. And he decided to give her elders and deacons. He gave her the ministry of prayer and the word and mercy. And with these things, if we trust them and do them right, we will succeed. We will trust his plan and we will flourish and we will grow. If you trust Jesus with your soul, if you trust Jesus for all eternity with your soul, won't you trust him with the governance of his church? Won't you believe that the church will grow both in quality and in quantity with the means that he supplies? All we must do is trust the Lord Jesus and do as he commands. The church in Jerusalem had a complaint over ethnic division regarding the distribution of property. And the Lord gave them deacons. And the fruit of those deacons was the word was able to work. The church grew both in quality and quantity. Divisions were not only removed, but other divisions were overcome. Even a great many of the priests came to obey the faith, to trust in Jesus Christ. Let me conclude. In this passage, first you saw the necessity of deacons. That the ministers of the word must be devoted to the ministry of prayer and the preaching of the word. And you see the calling of deacons, that God, through his church and his elders, sets apart certain men to a high and holy calling to accomplish that ministry of the word. God uses the calling of deacons to accomplish the ministry of the word. And you see the fruit of deacons. The fruit of deacons is that the ministry of deacons enables the word to go forth and grow the church both in quality and quantity and even overcome barriers. The main thing I want you to know this morning is that the office of deacon is essential for the church to accomplish its mission. The office of deacon is a God-given gift to the church that the word may go forth and increase. And your deacons, the men that we will ordain in just a moment, are God's special gift to you, to our congregation, to serve you, to serve this church, that the word may go forth and increase. So let's pray and receive these men with joy and thanksgiving. Let's pray together. We thank you for how much you love us. You've given us your only son. And we thank you that you've given us a plan. You've given us a purpose. Help us to trust you. Help us to trust you and to receive what you've given us with thanksgiving, with joy, and to delight in your plan for us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's respond to the preaching of God's word and sing, not in your order of service. I need to get myself a hymnal. If you have the little blue hymnal, sorry, come down here. I got some here. If you have this, it's page 50. If you have this, it's page 297. Let's stand and sing the church's one foundational.

SPEAKER_00 32:50

Thank you for listening to the Lake Martin Presbyterian Church podcast. If this message encouraged you, please consider sharing it with someone else. To learn more about our church, including worship times and upcoming events, visit LakemartinPCA.com. We'd love to have you join us.