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Alright, we're there in Acts 6, title of the sermon tonight is The First Deacons. The First Deacons. And even though we don't have the word deacon mentioned in this chapter, it is, whenever you're hearing about deacons, people will often turn to this passage here in Acts 6 and demonstrate this is where the process or the choosing of deacons was first instituted in the church. And I believe that as well, even though we don't have the word deacon there, as we commonly are aware of it, but I do want to teach on this, I want to just, you know, just take my word about it. That's about deacons. You know, I want to be able to prove that to you from the scriptures. So the first deacons is a title for the sermon tonight. Now you may recall that we're still talking about Jerusalem. We're talking about the 12 apostles preaching the gospel, seeing thousands upon thousands come to Christ as their Saviour all began there on the day of Pentecost. And they had 3000 souls saved on the day of Pentecost. Of course, many of those that got saved on the day of Pentecost were not, were not people that lived, what's the word I'm looking for, they did not live on the land, right? They were coming from other nations and they had other languages and so they got saved and then they went back in their own, their own nations. And so there's been like this changeover period of people coming and going into Jerusalem. And then we have, you know, we've seen that just Peter and John themselves see, how many did that get saved? What was it? Was it 5,000? 5,000 saved between the two of them, something crazy like that. And so we're talking literally thousands of people making up this Jerusalem church. Now we don't have a lot of detail as to how this church functioned. We know that they would meet at the temple, they would come together at a public place like a temple and preach and teach and fellowship together. There are other passages that speak about them going house to house and preaching the gospel. It might be, you know, I'm just throwing it out there with these thousands and that with these thousands upon thousands getting saved, it might be that the 12 apostles potentially took, you know, a portion of the believers and another one took a portion, another one took a portion. It could be 12 churches in Jerusalem meeting in people's houses and we don't know the exact nature of how they organize themselves, but obviously there's a great number. And we also saw that many of these people getting saved had sold their houses and their lands, right? And they wanted to give that to the work of God and they were given to the necessity of the saints. You know, anybody that had needs, they just wanted to give and share, not just to the work of God, but also to the needs that are found there amongst other believers. And so we get to this part here in verse number one. I mean, when we start thinking about numbers of thousands, like it starts to make sense why this is happening, but in Acts six, verse one, it says, and in those days, when the number of the disciples most multiplied, like in thousands, thousands upon thousands, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. And so we can see here that widows were being taken care of. So why are widows being taken care of? Well, remember people are selling the lands for the necessity of the saints. They're going, whoever has need and many times, of course, widows, uh, the widows, because they've lost their husbands. The husbands were primarily the breadwinner going out there working a job, providing these for his wife. And so widows many times did not have the necessities of life. So this is where the church came in. You know, if this widow was saved and she had a need, the church would come together and take care of the widow's needs. But what we see here is there are certain Grecians amongst the Hebrews. So we learned something else. It's not just Hebrews and Jews getting saved here in Jerusalem, but there are those from other nations or the Grecians, the Gentiles, right? Others that spoke in Greek, they too had their widows and the Grecians felt like it says here that their widows, the gentle widows are not the priority of the church. They feel like the Hebrew widow has been taken care of, but not the Grecian widows. So now we have one of our very first church arguments. And what is it related to money? How's the money being spent? How are the resources being used to take care of these widows? And that's why I often say, when we talk about money, I always want to be clear and transparent and open about it all. You know, taking care of the needs of the church first. It's so important because straight away we see, you know, it doesn't matter what you do. It doesn't matter how well, you know, your intentions are, you say, well, there are widows, let's take care of these widows. There are going to be others that say, what about these widows over here? And it's just how it is. You know, whenever you're in a position of leadership, you're always going to get criticized even when you have good intentions. It's just how it is, right? If you ever want that position brethren, just get ready for the criticism. Now it is legitimate criticism. Like the apostles recognize, yeah, you know, some of our widows, they're not having all the needs met. You know, some of this stuff is not working out. And so it says in verse number two, then the 12 called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, it is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Now, serving tables, there is of course, a euphemism for taking care of the widows. That's the issue at the moment. Okay. They're like, look, we're stretched. There's 12 of us. There's thousands of you. There are widows. Look, we just can't keep serving the needs of other people. Yes, I know the finances have come in. You want us to delegate it to this person, to that family, to that situation. And so look, like for us to stretch ourselves that far, we're neglecting the word of God. We cannot neglect the word of God. We start to see what the priority is of these apostles when it comes to the church. Now, why is this chapter about deacons? Well, verse number two, let's read it again. Then the 12 called the multitude of disciples unto them and said, it is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. The word serve there, if you go back to the Greek, it's the word Diakoneo, Diakoneo, okay, is the Greek word there for serve Diakoneo, that Diakoneo, that sounds like deacon. Yes, that's where we get the English word deacon from. The word deacon simply means to serve, okay, to serve. It doesn't necessarily mean to serve tables like a waiter or necessarily to take care of widows. So that was a necessity here for this specific church, but it just means a servant, okay? Someone that is willing to serve. Now, the truth is we're all deacons. The truth is anybody like brother Oliver right now, served us by song leading, right? Brother Matthias served us with the Bible reading, Sister Prue serves us and Sister Cindy with cleaning the church or we've had the decorations of the church. We had the ladies serve us, you know, when we had our fellowship lunch on Sunday, you know, anytime we, whatever we do, right? In the house of Lord, we are servants, we are deacons. And so keep your finger there and come up to with me to Romans 16, Romans 16. And so the thought then that comes up in many churches is, well, if anybody can be a deacon, then what's wrong with women deacons, surely we can have female deacons. Because the word deacon just means servants. Well, you know, again, as a pastor, I'm just a minister, I'm just ministering, which is service. All these terms are often associated with service because we're doing it for other people. We're not doing this work for ourselves, we're doing it for the larger body of Christ. But this idea of women deacons comes from this passage here. In Romans 16, I just want to show you this, Romans 16 and verse number one. It says, I commend unto you, Phoebe, our sister, which is a servant of the church, which is at Cenchrea. Okay, so when it says there, Phoebe, our sister, which is a servant of the church, well, that's the word servant, if you go back to the Greek, is diakonos, which is just a variation of diakonel, right? It's the same word, like, you know how it is in Greek languages or Latin languages, they can have sort of similar words for the same word. Diakonos, they say, well, there it is, Phoebe, our sister, is a diakonos of the church. So then people say, well, see, you can have female deacons. Why don't you have female deacons, Pastor Kevin? Sometimes people say to me, Pastor Kevin, your church is unbiblical. Why? Because where are the deacons? Where are the deacons? Well, come back with me to Acts chapter six. Acts chapter six, we see the need for the deacons. But would we say before this day, so before the day they choose deacons, would we say that it wasn't a biblical church? Like the day before they said, we need some deacons to serve tables, take care of these widows. It's a legitimate church, legitimate church, okay? You know, this is the Church of Jesus Christ. These are the New Testament churches and the very first New Testament church that we read about, of course, is the church there in Jerusalem. A deacon does not make a legitimate church. But when a need is brought forward, when we realise, look, that there is service in the house of God that is going undone, our past has been stretched too thin. And we decide, look, the pastor needs a helper. The pastor needs a servant. We may very well decide as a church to choose a deacon here at New Life Baptist Church. But whether we have a deacon or not have a deacon doesn't mean we're biblical or unbiblical. It's when the need comes up and we recognise a certain need for our church, then we can decide it's probably time for a deacon. You know, I believe next week, I believe this coming Sunday, I should say, down at Crown Baptist Church, I believe if the whole church is on board, they're going to ordain brother Sam there at Crown Baptist Church as a deacon, okay. And why would they need a deacon? Well, it makes sense if Pastor Gary Tingson believes that man is qualified and can can meet the work and, you know, without a pastor there, boots on ground, they say, look, we need a designated leader, we need someone to organise things there, boots on ground. Because Pastor Kevin will be obviously at a far distance, won't be able to travel on a regular basis. And so they decided to ordain a deacon. And I believe that's going to happen this coming Sunday. That makes a lot of sense. I can't be there physically. There's a great need there in Crown Baptist Church. And so the decision is to choose a deacon for that church. And that makes perfect sense to me. But we continue there in Acts 6 and verse number 3. So I've brought up a few questions, right? We see that deacon means servant and then we say, well, what about women? Can women not be deacons of the church? Verse number 3. The answer that the 12 apostles give here is, wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven women of honest reports. I read that wrong, didn't I? Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest reports, okay, of an honest reputation, men who have a good reputation, a good and honest report among you. They say look, and he's saying this to the church, look out for seven of these men. And then that's one of the things they need an honest report, number two, full of the Holy Ghost, someone that's clearly been moved and erected by the Holy Ghost, right? They've got a Christian testimony about themselves and wisdom. We want these seven to be wise, honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wise, whom we may appoint over this business. Because look, go out there, we need to focus on God's Word. You need to choose seven men, and we're going to give them the task to take care of the widows. All right? The apostles recognise we're being stretched too thin, we need to focus on preaching the Word of God. And so when we see then that verse of free whom we may appoint over this business, that word ordination is synonymous with the word appoint. To appoint someone is essentially to ordain someone. And so we have there the need to serve tables, the aconel, we have an appointment, which you'll soon see to be our official ordination that takes place. And they've said, look, it's got to be seven men. All right, now let's tie all this up together. Keep your finger there and come with me to 1 Timothy, please. Come with me to 1 Timothy, chapter three, first Timothy, chapter three, please. First Timothy, chapter three. So I hope so far, you can kind of start to identify what is the role of a deacon? You say to take care of the widows. What if we have no widows in this church? I guess they do nothing. Now it's whatever the church needs, okay, every church is going to have different needs from another church, okay? One church might have a lot of widows where the church is taken care of. Some churches may have no widows, but there are other needs, right? Maybe there are financial matters that the deacon should take care of. Maybe it's organizing fellowship events. It might be, you know, even the song leading, other administrative tasks that we might have in this church that, you know, whatever it is, whatever need is pulling the pastor or the apostle away from preaching God's word is the need or the service that the deacon needs to accomplish, okay? The point is not so much specific tasks for the deacon, but rather that the pastor or the apostle can focus on preaching the word of God. Now in 1 Timothy, chapter three, you guys know this to be a pastoral epistle from Paul to Timothy and Paul, of course, asked him to ordain elders, number one, into positions of a bishop, but secondly, to ordain men as deacons. And so what we see here in 1 Timothy, chapter three, verse number eight, we have the qualifications, further qualifications that we need to have of these men. It says, likewise, must the deacons be grave. That word grave means serious. It doesn't mean they can't joke around or have fun, but when it comes to the business of God, when it comes to the house of God, the work and the service that they've been called on to, they must take that seriously, right? Church is not just fun and games. This is serious business as we come here to serve and worship our Lord Jesus Christ. It says not double tongued, okay? He means what he says. You know where he stands, you know what he believes, right? It's not like he gets up one day and preaches on faith alone, on Christ alone, and then he gets up and, but brethren, you've got to turn from your sins as well. And you're like, well, how do you believe your double tongues? Oh, he says, you know, brother so-and-so is a great man. Praise God for him. And then later on, he's like, backstabbing, double tongue, like, I don't know where you stand. I don't know. I don't know what you do. I don't know what you believe in. I don't know anything about you. You're, you're, you're flip-flopping, you know, like we, you know, our deacons gonna be someone we know where they stand, who they are, what they believe. Not giving too much wine, obviously, not an alcoholic, not greedy or filthy Luca, not chasing greediness of wealth or, or, you know, filthy there being like, attaining wealth from, you know, nefarious ways, you know, like, you know, his, the wealth that he has is, is from honest work, and honest living, honest work, honest jobs, right? That's not something that is done in a way to just desire greed or covetousness. And verse number nine, have been the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. You guys know how often I talk about a good conscience, a clear conscience or a pure conscience. These things are very important to me. We want to make sure this man, you know, with his faith, it's, it's, there's purity. And you know, he speaks and he preaches or says, because we see that the mystery of the faith, they're like, we know that he's not, again, he's not a novice. He knows the faith. He knows God's word, right? And he stands by those things with a pure conscience. Verse number 10, and let these also first be proved, okay? So before we say, okay, it's time for a deacon, you know, and this guy just showed up last week and is willing to be a deacon. No, no, he's got to be proven, right? He's got to like a while in the church and say, hey, look, this guy loves the Lord, he loves God's people. And you know, he's willing to serve no matter what, he's not just after a title, he cares for the house of God. He's been proven. Then it says, let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless. Wow, there's the blameless one. That's a very hard one. You know, we all recognize that blameless doesn't mean without sin, because we're all with sin, but obviously, probably great sins, you know, things that destroy someone's reputation. Deacons being found blameless. And then look at verse 11, even so must their wives, hold on, their wives. So a deacon's got to be what? Not just a husband, but a man, right? A man, okay, a man, even so must their wives be grave. Okay, so this is why we don't have female deacons, because this deacon's got to be married to a wife, okay? Therefore, this deacon must be a man, even so must their wives be grave. So the wives have also, you know, be serious about the things of God and not slanderers, right? They're not going around causing division and, you know, false accusations or gossiping behind people's backs, sober, faithful in all things. Let the deacons be the husbands. There it is again, right? You got to be a husband. Let the deacons be husbands of one wife, ruling their children, they've got to have children. I believe children there is plural, at least two. And their own house as well, you know, they're, you can see their household, their family is in order. Verse number 13, for they that have used the office of a deacon will purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. So being a deacon is a good degree. It's a good degree, it's like a high degree, it's looked up to, it should be an office that is desired. You know, if someone serves the deacon, they ought to be considered a faithful and God fearing man. And you know, one to be not, we don't want to be respect of men, but you know what I mean? You know, holding that person highly as well, someone who serves and holds that office. You can see there again, verse number 13, for they that have used the office of a deacon. So even though we're all deacons as servants, there's a difference though, there is an office of a deacon, there is an office of a servant, and that is given to someone that meets these qualifications. So if we go back to Acts 6, please, back to Acts 6. So when I look at verse number 3 again, of course, look, the Bible's just capturing, like when we talk about this, and we read the scriptures here, obviously there's much more conversations going on than what is recorded for us in this chapter. All right. I personally think when they say in verse number 3, we're for brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report for the Holy Ghost and wisdom. I'm sure all these other qualifications are being laid out as well. Well, he's got to be married, he's got to have kids, he's got to have his house in order. He can't be a drunkard, right? He's got to be someone that holds the faith, his faith in pure conscience, in a pure conscience, all these things, attributes. So I believe that these seven men that they choose, we're all married men with children, with families, you know, I believe all these men that they've chosen line up with the qualifications that we see of deacons in 1 Timothy chapter 3. And then we get to verse number 4. Now the apostles say this, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. All right. So they're making it very clear by running around and sorting out all the issues of the widows, that they're not having enough time to be in prayer continually, they're not have enough time to minister in the word. And so to combat this, we need these other seven men to take on these other administrative tasks so they can be free to pray and to minister in the word. All right. So these are apostles that are speaking here, but one of the, the main apostle that we read about that we've been reading about all these chapters through has been Peter. Okay. Now, Peter was also a pastor. That's what you need to understand. Not only did he hold the office as an apostle, he had the office as a Bishop or an elder or a pastor. Okay. Now, if you can keep your finger there once again, I know it's a bit of a Bible study, but come with me to second Timothy. Come with me to second Timothy. I know you were in first Timothy not long ago. Sorry. I should tell you. Anyway, come with me to second Timothy, please. Second Timothy. And what I want to show you here, brethren, is we don't have apostles today. I explained that an apostle was someone who had seen the resurrected Jesus Christ, you know, physically with his own eyes. I've not done that. I lived too long after in history after all that took place. Okay. So my time was not to see Christ resurrected from the dead with my physical eyes. That's why I don't believe we have this apostleship today. Okay. But we do have pastors and I want to show you something here in second Timothy chapter two, second Timothy chapter two, verse number 15, this is a very famous verse, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now this is a verse that we can all apply. We all should study God's word. We should all rightly divide the word of truth. But I always want you to remember when we look at scriptures, there's always one truth. And then there are many applications. Okay. This one truth is the apostle Paul writing to pastor Timothy. Okay. And he's telling pastor Timothy, study to show thyself approved unto God. Okay. Who should be studying God's word? Pastors. You say, no, you should be, pastors should have studied God's word. So they went to Bible college and now they're studied. And now they're preaching. Look, of course, the pastor should know God's word back to front pretty well, should have a good grasp of God's word, but a pastor is to continually study. My knowledge should be getting greater as the years go by. Right. So I need time to what? Study God's word. Okay. So I'm not ashamed. Okay. But I rightly divide the word of, and that doesn't mean dispensationalism. That's what they tell you. Right. You got to study it so you understand dispensationalism. No, that's not what it says. Rightly dividing the word of truth. You know, right now in Acts chapter six, I'm rightly dividing the word of truth. I'm showing you why this is about deacons. I'm showing you why females cannot, women cannot be deacons. We're looking at these pastors, we're rightly dividing the word of God. We're breaking it down. We're explaining it. So it starts to make sense and maybe answer questions that people may have. And all of that comes down to the man of God, which is the title that is given, uh, uh, to pastors and to Old Testament prophets, by the way, but that man is supposed to study God's word. Okay. Now, I don't know, like, I don't know what you think a pastor does or is pastor Kevin just sitting there doing nothing. Many times I'm just studying God's word. Like to prepare a sermon, if all I did was just write down notes on a piece of paper, I could prepare a sermon in half an hour, but more often than not, I'm just studying God's word. I'm just reading God's word and comparing scriptures. I've got verses and texts that you'll never hear. I've just got things that I've looked at, looked at, compared with, and then I'm like, all right, now that I've studied God's word, now I've got to create this into a sermon. So I start stripping away all the excess. You know, I start to form it into a sermon style and then I preach God's word. Can you come and meet there? You're in 2 Timothy chapter four, same book, 2 Timothy chapter four, 2 Timothy chapter four and verse number two, again, instructions to pastors, 2 Timothy 4-2, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. So Brethren, what happens if the pastor or the apostle in these days was not preaching God's word in season or out of season? It allows false prophets, false teachers to creep into the church, scratch the ears of the hearers. I like that pastor instead. Man, he says better things, nice things, but they're not biblical things. And so the importance of studying God's word and to preach God's word is a necessity that is laid upon pastors. That is, I strongly believe that is the number one responsibility. I think we see it with the apostles. They said, look, we need time to pray and we need time to minister in God's word. That is the priority, you know, and there are so many churches, decent, great churches with a lot of activities, a lot of programs. They might have the school, they might have the Christian school, they might have the youth groups going on every week in, week out, and they may have all kinds of camps and there's nothing wrong with those things in of themselves, but you know, they've got a lot going on. They've got the choirs, they've got whatever, they've got all these, you know, the Sunday school programs, they've got the kids clubs, they've got all of these programs and then you go to the church and sit down and the preaching is lacking. You're like, oh man, what's up with the preaching? It's not deep, it's not meaningful, there's no zeal, there's no passion, I'm not learning, I'm not growing, and people often say, I'm not being fed, isn't that what they say? I'm not being fed, but you've got all the activities going on. What does that tell you? Look, the activities themselves are not wrong. You need to understand that, right? But many times pastors are caught up with all the other activities, they're involved in everyone else's family problems, you know, going from one house to another house, fixing that marriage, fixing those kids, you know, fixing these issues and then he gets behind the pulpit on a Sunday or a Wednesday and like, I just don't get a lot out of the preaching. I'm sure you've heard, seen churches or heard preachers like that and you're like, I don't get anything out of this. It's because they're neglecting the main things, studying God's Word, preaching God's Word. And look, I would love to have lots of activities here in this church, but we need others that would say, pastor, can I do that? I'll take care of that. Pastor, I've got a good idea for the church. Remember, he who speaks, owns. Great, I'm glad you got a good idea, are you willing to take care of it? Because I've got to focus on studying and preaching God's Word. Come with me to some other passages, come with me to Titus now. Titus is another pastoral epistle, Titus chapter 1, Titus chapter 1, just the next book over, Titus chapter 1 verse number 9. One of the qualifications for a pastor in Titus 1, 9 or one of the requirements let's say as a pastor in Titus 1, 9, holding fast the faithful word, as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. You can see the responsibilities to hold fast the faithful word, to better convince the gainsayers with sound doctrine. The gainsayers means you're against, gain against, you're, if someone's against what they're hearing, I ought to be able to convince you with sound doctrine, why you ought to see it the way I'm teaching it, right? And that is a requirement of a pastor. Come with me very quickly to John 21, come with me to John 21, John 21, I know we've looked at these passages, but I believe it's important if we understand the necessity of the deacons, we need to understand what the pastor's requirements are, what his responsibilities are. And when the pastor's being driven away from those main responsibilities, that's when we need to start wondering, do we need a deacon or do we need others in the church to help to alleviate the burden from the pastor? But in John chapter 21 verse 15, John 21, 15, so when they had died, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, love us thou me more than these. He saith unto him, yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, love us thou me. He saith unto him, yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, love us thou me. Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, love us thou me. And he said unto him, Lord thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep. Brethren, one reason that, I don't know, I hope when you hear me preach, I hope you can say pastor, I've been fed, I hope, I hope the sheep can say I've been fed. And you know, that's my goal. My goal isn't to have the biggest church on the sunny coast, it'll be nice. My goal is not to have all these programs, so it'll be nice, you know, to do these things. But my goal is to love my Lord Jesus Christ, and if I love him, then the commandment that is given to a pastor is to feed the lambs, to feed the sheep, okay. Now come with me to first Peter chapter five, first Peter chapter five. Jesus Christ says these words to Simon, who's one of the apostles, one of the twelve, okay. And Peter, we see in his, the main character really, so far in the book of Acts, you know, they're essentially saying, look, we need to continue to minister in the word. I mean, Jesus told Peter, feed the sheep. And he's having, like he's realising, I've been stretched way too far, you know, I'm taking care of widows and their needs and people still complaining, I need to get back to ministering in the word, okay. And so when we get to first Peter chapter five, verse number one, we have Peter, who says these words, the elders, which are among you, I exhort, who, who am also an elder, he himself is a pastor, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partake of the glory that shall be revealed, verse number two, this is what he says to the elders, feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy Luca, but for of already mine, so you can see some of the qualifications of a pastor or a deacon I found here, he says, look, feed the flock of God. Jesus told Peter, feed my sheep, feed my lambs, and now he's telling every other pastor, hey, feed the flock of God, which is among you. Can you come with me to another passage, Acts chapter 20, you already kind of got a finger there in Acts, so come with me to Acts 20, Acts 20, I just want to show you that over and over and over again in the Bible, we see this great emphasis needed by the elders or the pastors, you know, those that have been given oversight over a flock to feed the sheep, to feed the flock, what are we feeding you with? Pizza heart, red rooster, no, God's word, isn't that, of course, God's word, and Acts chapter 20, verse number 28, this is the apostle Paul speaking to the elders, verse number 28, take heed, therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost have made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he have purchased with his own blood, this is why, for I know this, that after my departing, shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock, also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. So why is it so needful that we feed the church of God or the flock of God, because if we don't do the feeding, who's going to creep in? The wolves, you know, the wolves in sheep's clothing, they're going to creep in, when you've got soft preaching, unclear preaching, that opens the door for anyone to go, I can come in and influence this church. You say, Pastor Kevin, why haven't we had, like, you know, I mean, we probably have, but over the years, why haven't we had like these false prophets and these false teachers try to creep in and, and draw away disciples away? Primarily it's because we're feeding God's church, we're spending time in God's word. You see, it's very hard for someone to creep in with false doctrine, when they come into a church and they hear preaching with authority, they hear clear preaching, they hear sound preaching, in their minds, it's like, how do I influence people? This is too hard to influence people and they'll come in and they'll leave. But when we drop the sound preaching, when we drop the feeding as a, as a principle, a primary in the church of God, this opens the door for all kinds of wicked people, all kinds of wolves to easily creep into the church with their false doctrines. Now this isn't about pastor so much, but I want to show you the emphasis of preaching God's word. So if someone says, pastor, I think you need to be taking care of the widows. I want you to understand that's actually not really my responsibility. If it's, if it's going to cause me to neglect the ministry of God's word, the ministry of God's word, if it's going to cause me to neglect praying for the flock that God has given me, then we need to point that role to someone else. And if that means we need a deacon put in place, then so be it. We need to find a man who meets these qualifications. That's something else. When someone says it's an unbiblical church because you don't have deacons, what if the church has nobody that meets these qualifications? Do we break God's laws just to make it a biblical church? No. Okay. You've got to wait for someone to meet those qualifications. You've got to wait for the need to arise, and then we can make that decision to appoint a deacon in the house of the Lord. Come back with me to Acts 6, Acts 6, verse number 5. And the saying, please the whole multitude, everyone's happy, yeah, seven more people to take care of these widows. And now they choose the men, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip. So these first two names, they're the two main characters that we're going to continue to read about in the coming chapters in the book of Acts, okay? So the reason Stephen and Philip come up first is because they're the main ones that we read about, okay? And then, and we've got other men here and Prochorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmenas and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch. Now all these other five men, we never hear about them ever again, okay? It doesn't mean they're not good faithful deacons, they probably serve the Lord faithfully, they've probably done great work for the church there. It's just that we don't really follow their stories as much as we follow Stephen and Philip in the coming chapters. Now when we look at all these men that are named there, we end with the last one there, Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, that's quite an interesting word, a proselyte there of Antioch. Now the word proselyte just means a convert, okay? If you weren't aware, it just means convert. Now if you can, can you come with me, I just want to show you how this is used in the Bible. So if you just come with me to Acts chapter two, come with me to Acts. So we're introduced to this word proselyte in Acts chapter two, and in Acts chapter two verse number five, now remember Acts chapter two is the day of Pentecost and we have Jews from all of the nations, right? And they were either born in those nations or they would just live in those nations, they've learned the foreign tongues, they've learned the native tongues of their own nation and so they're hearing God's word being preached in their own languages. And in Acts chapter two verse number five it says, and there we're dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven, so I want to show you that, Jews out of every nation under heaven. So these are Jews that are dispersed in other nations, they've come to Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost. Drop down to verse number 10 where we have some languages, it says here Phrygia and Pamphylia in Egypt and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, interesting Jews now and proselytes, Crete and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God, all right. So we can see here that proselytes and Jews are mentioned, we saw that Jews of other nations are coming to the Pentecost but who else has come? Proselytes have come, converts have come, okay, so these proselytes are people from these other nations but they're not Jews themselves, they're Gentiles, they're foreigners, okay, but they've been converted, they've been converted to I guess what we would call the Jews religion, okay. Now the Jews religion in this time had just like today, Christianity today has many kind of subsets I guess you could say, right, like we're Baptists and some people say well there are the Presbyterians, there are Catholics, there are Orthodox, all right, all under that Christian umbrella. When we talk about the Jews religion there are also like these subsets that fall under the Jews religion, okay. We know about the Pharisees, that's one, we know about the Sadducees, okay, we also have just honest like the true Old Testament religion of the Jews, okay, that were you know people like the disciples, those that followed after John the Baptist, you know they were those that were faithfully following the commands and the processes found under the Old Testament covenants, okay, but under that umbrella comes all these groups and so these proselytes are people that were foreigners, they had other faiths, other religions and then they thought this God of the Jews, this God of the Bible seems like the better one and so they've been converted to that religion, all right. So the proselytes and then they hear the preaching of the gospel and then what happens? Then they can get converted to Jesus Christ, okay, and so sometimes these proselytes they go through this process, like it's not like oh they were just you know believing something false and then they heard the true gospel and they caught upon them Lord and got saved. Sometimes it's like well we recognise the Jews kind of have it right and that's better so we'll go there and then hopefully they take the next step and they hear the true gospel of Christ and go to the right faith. Some of you guys probably have a similar journey in your lives where you know you didn't just go from unbelief to belief on Christ but there was something in the middle, you know you're seeking the Lord and you've gone from one place and then you've come to realise the truth of the gospel message. If you can come with me quickly to Matthew 23, you can keep your finger there in Acts, come with me to Matthew 23 and I just want to show you this is the first reference to the word proselyte and this is when Jesus Christ is rebuking the Pharisees and in Matthew 23 verse number 15, Matthew 23 verse number 15, Matthew 23 verse number 15 the Bible reads woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for you can pass sea and land to make one proselyte and when he is made you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. So here we have the Pharisees going out, compassing sea and land, so what are they doing? They're crossing sea and land right, they're going to other nations, they're going to the Gentiles and they're converting them to the Pharisee religion and Jesus Christ says you've made one proselyte, you've converted that proselyte, so the same concept, they're going outside of their normal boundaries of their nation and they're going to make converts of other nations and they're called proselytes there, so you can see the consistency, it's talking about not Jews being proselytes but people that are non-Jews, Gentiles coming somewhat closer to the right religion, now obviously the Pharisee religion is a false one and therefore they're making some of these people of course twofold more the child of hell. Now come with me to another passage, come with me to Acts chapter 13, Acts chapter 13, we're just looking at all the references to the word proselyte okay, again it just means convert but the way the Bible uses the word proselyte is very consistent okay, it's always about Gentiles converting to a Jewish style religion. In Acts 13 verse 42, Acts 13 42, oh and this is in Antioch and now we have the Apostle Paul, he's operating, it says here, and when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, so Acts 13 42, and when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas who speaking to them persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. So you can see verse number 42, the Gentiles are asking Paul and Barnabas continue preaching to us and then we have them going into the congregation there and we have the Jews and the religious proselytes, so these are Gentiles that are following, trying to be Jews, trying to follow the Jews religion and then you've got this situation of Paul and Barnabas turning up and of course they're seeing many people come to know Christ as their saviour. So I just wanted to point that out, when you go back to Acts 6 and verse number 5, we have Nicholas a proselyte of Antioch, because Antioch is in Turkey, he's not a Jew, he's a Gentile and Nicholas is a Greek name, so you can pretty much tell this Nicholas guy, he's not one of the Jews but he's there amongst the other believers. Okay let's continue, verse number 6, whom they set before the apostles, so they set the seven they've chosen before the apostles and when they had prayed they laid their hands on them. So the apostles, the 12 apostles lay their hands on the seven, they pray, okay they're appointing these deacons into this position and then what happens, verse number 7, and the word of God increased, see and the word of God increased, because the apostles, running all the other admin duties right, and now they're focusing on the word of God, it says and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith, even the priests now are getting saved, remember the priests so far have been like the enemies, like you know the high priest they've been taking these people and arresting them overnight, now some of these priests, because there's the clarity of God's word being preached, they're being converted to the faith of Jesus Christ. Verse number 8, and Stephen, so Stephen's won that first name that's mentioned, one of the first deacon there, and Stephen full of faith and power did great wonders and miracles among the people, then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians and Alexandrians and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. So you've got, now I need you to understand something here about the word synagogue, when we think of the word synagogue today, we think of the false religion of Judaism right, it's kind of synonymous, like we think synagogue, false religion, but you need to understand like if you go back to study the etymology of the word synagogue, it just means, I should have written it down, but it means like a gathering, a group, it's a community centre is what it is, it really, like what we call community centres today, if we leave the time, you know they're in Jerusalem, we just call them synagogues, okay, they're used for many things other than just preaching or religious practices. So it appears to me that synagogue, the religious or the community centres has different groups all in the same synagogue, they meet probably at different times, like the synagogue of the Libertines, the synagogue of the Cyrenians and the Alexandria, they probably meet on different days or I don't know, maybe on Sabbath, but all different times on the Sabbath, something like that okay, but they're all disputing against Stephen, like Stephen's doing a great work of God, he's preaching Jesus Christ and then verse number 10, and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake, so you can say like these, you know Stephen as a deacon, he's not just looking after widows, he's also out there preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ okay, he's not just an admin kind of guy, he knows God's word, he knows the Great Commission, his heart is to see souls saved and so that's of course what I want in a deacon as well, if we ever had to choose a deacon, I don't want just someone that can run the business, but someone that can actually speak God's word, that is important. Verse number 11, and they suborned men, which means they bribed men okay, which said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God and they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and came upon him and caught him and brought him to the council, so he's preaching wonderful things, he's preaching Christ, performing miracles and you've got these men being bribed, making false accusations, saying he speaks blasphemous words against Moses and against God, you know one of the saddest things about being a preacher, just in general, is that people love to take your words and twist it and make it seem horrible, you know, it's happened to me, it's probably happened to you, you know, for example, this church believes in a post-trib pre-rath rapture, so I'll preach that Christ is coming after the tribulation and before God's wrath and then what happens? People come up, speak about your church, they're looking forward to the antichrist, they're not looking for Jesus Christ, they're looking for the antichrist, you've turned the blessed hope into the blasted hope, it's like what are you talking about, of course we're looking for Christ, like I'm looking forward to seeing my wife because she's not here tonight, you know, but I've got to go for a few stops and a few red lights and a few, doesn't mean I'm not looking for my wife just because there was a few things that need to happen beforehand, oh we preach about, you know, the Jews are not God's chosen people, oh they're anti-semitic, they're racist, they hate the Jews, I hate Judaism, I hate false religion, I hate all false religions, but we want to see Jews saved, I'm not going to give them this false hope, don't worry, you're fine, you're God's chosen, you know, we love you all the way to hell, just die and go to hell, no, you need Jesus, you need to get saved, it's a false religion, there's nothing special about you, God can turn stones into children of Abraham if he wants, right, that's what it is, you're anti-semitic and, you know, the blast, you don't believe and you're not looking for Christ, you're looking for the antichrist, it's like you're just preaching the truth of God's word, like you all know because you're on the same page as me, you know, it shouldn't be controversial, but you always have idiots that want to turn the truth of God's word into, oh it's blasphemy, and they just twist, it's how it is, and, you know, it frustrated me early in the ministry, but then at some point you just got to get over it, does it still frustrate you a little bit, maybe a little bit, because I've got the flesh, okay, but, you know, as time goes on, you get more and more experience, so then someone says, pastor, did you know what this person said about you, I don't care, I don't care, I don't need to know, don't let them bother you, whoever they are, but it's just how it is, you know, it's one of the saddest things, I want to be able to preach God's word and, you know, with liberty and without fear, I guess that's part of growth and maturity, you know, we ought to fear God and not fear man, and so, but it's just how it is, brethren, if anyone ever wants to be a preacher or hold an office, you're going to be told that you've said all kinds of crazy things, I just get it all the time, pastor, remember you said this, I'm like, I don't remember ever saying that, I was like, can you point me to my sermon, where someone is loving that sermon, between the lines, like, ah, I try my best to be transparent, even when you try to be transparent and clear, it's still there's something there between the lines though, it's like, no there isn't, if there was something between the lines, I'll tell you exactly what it is, but anyway, it's easy for people to take your words and weaponise them against you, oh, you meant this, you said that, just the wickedness of the hearts of men, anyway, verse number 13, and set up false witnesses, which said, I already read that, oh no, did I? I'll just read verse number 13, and set up false witnesses, which said, this man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law, but we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us, so they're making the same false accusation about Christ, remember they falsely accused Christ, that he's trying to destroy the temple, but he meant the temple of his body, you know, he'll build it up in three days, he will rise from the dead in three days, they're saying the same thing, you know, he's saying the same thing as Jesus, that they're going to destroy this place, and change the customs, who cares about the customs, but that's because, you know, they believe their salvation is by keeping the customs and keeping the commandments and doing the processes, and they're still even saying, no, it's just Christ, it's just faith from Christ alone, and so, isn't that what we get accused of as well though, when we say that salvation is by grace through faith alone, how do they twist our words, you're giving people a license to sin, you're trying to change the commandments of God, no we're not, we believe the commandments, but we believe that Jesus kept them perfectly for us, and that it's faith alone, and yeah, now that you're saved, try to keep the commandments of God, of course, we want to live holy lives, we want to walk in the spirit of course, but it's amazing how people say, you're giving people a license to sin, I don't need to give people a license to sin, every single human being on this planet has sinned already, and I never had to give them a single license to do it. Verse number 15, and all that sat in the council looked steadfastly on him, that's on Stephen, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel, now pastor what does that mean, I don't know, what does it mean to have the face of an angel? I guess we could think about it a few ways, I assume in heaven with the brightness of God's glory, you know, when Moses was in the presence of God, his face shone, maybe Stephen's face is shining a little bit, I don't know, maybe he's just at peace, you know, even though he's arrested and false accusations are being made against him, he's probably just at peace, I'm serving the Lord, so be it, calm, you know, just happy, rejoicing in his accusations potentially, okay, but obviously, what this is essentially teaching us is he's not responding like they want him to respond, he's not fearful, he's not afraid, he's not sorrowing, he's not, you know, fighting for his, you know, in his defence or anything like this, he's not being argumentative, I just think he's at peace, he's at calm, and they're like, what's this guy doing? Why isn't he fighting back? We're making all these accusations about him, why is he just peaceful and calm? That's how I see it anyway, by the face of an angel. Anyway, brethren, we finished the chapter there, title for the sermon was The First Deacons, and I hope I've helped you understand when the need of deacon might be for our church, and of course, when that happens, if that need ever happens, it's because we're pulling the pastor away from his primary job to pray and to preach God's word, and I just want you to understand that I give that the priority, okay, I'm not some lazy pastor that's not organising this event or that event, I'd rather just study my Bible, I'd rather read my Bible, sometimes I'm just over the Bible, because I spent so much time in God's word, right? I'd rather much be doing that, that's going to be more beneficial for all of us in the long run, and if we need any other jobs done, any other things done in the house of the Lord, then hey, if you're willing to do it, let me know, so I can give you some tasks and responsibilities, because we don't need the office of a deacon to be a servant, we all ought to be servants to the house of the Lord, alright, let's pray.