Dennis Tuuri

We recognize that really it’s going to be a generational thing. We’re to raise our children with understanding that the men that are to be elders and deacons before God and the women are supposed to also share in the government of the family under the husband’s jurisdiction and authority and be a servant to the family as well. And so when people bring forth their children to have them baptized, that’s an indication that they recognize God’s authority over that child.

They’re teaching the child from the very earliest days of their life that they’re under the covenantal authority of God administered through his covenant community. We said many times that we don’t believe that baptism regenerates the individuals involved. We don’t believe necessarily that the child ultimately will be saved, but we presuppose they will be because they’re part of the visible covenant community of God.

And so baptism is important. It’s important to recognize that God instructed the people of the old covenant that they didn’t bring their children forward for circumcision on the eighth day, they were cut off from the covenant community. And so it’s important to bring our children early to God, placing his name of protection upon them, his name guidance upon them, and his name of authority over them as well.

The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness to his children’s children to such as keep his covenant to those that remember his commandments to do them. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom. For the promises to you and to your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Dearly beloved, the sacrament of baptism is of divine ordinance. God our Father, who has redeemed us by the sacrifice of Christ, is also the God and Father of our children. They belong with us who believe to the membership of the church through the covenant made in Christ and confirmed to us by God in the sacrament which is a sign and seal of our cleansing, our engrafting into Christ, and of our welcome into the household of God.

Our Lord Jesus said suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for such is the kingdom of heaven. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms and put his hands upon them and blessed them. St. Paul also declared that the children of believers are to be numbered with the holy people of God.

In presenting your child for baptism, do you confess your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? And do you promise and dependence on the grace of God to bring up your child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Yes, we do.

Let’s pray. Most merciful and loving Father, we thank thee for the church of thy dear son, the ministry of thy word, and the sacraments of grace. We praise thee that thou hast given us so gracious promises concerning our children, and that in mercy thou callest them to thee, marking them with the sacrament as a singular token and pledge of thy love.

Set apart this water from common to sacred use. And grant what we now do on earth may be confirmed in heaven. As in humble faith we present this child to thee. We beseech thee to receive him to endow him with thy Holy Spirit and to keep him ever as thine own. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

What is the Christian name of this child? Nathaniel Victor. Nathaniel Victor McConnell. I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

May the blessing of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit come upon you and stay upon you now and forevermore. This child is now received into Christ’s kingdom, and you, the members of this congregation in receiving this child promise with God’s help to be his sponsors to the end that he may confess Christ as Lord and Savior and come at last into his eternal kingdom. Jesus said, “Whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.”

Let’s pray. Almighty and everlasting God, who in thine infinite mercy and goodness hast promised that thou shalt not only be our God but also the God and Father of our children, we humbly beseech thee for this child that thy spirit may be upon him and dwell in him forever. Take him, we entreat thee unto thy fatherly care and protection. Guide him and sanctify him both in body and in soul. Grant him to grow in wisdom as in stature in favor with God.

Amen. Abundantly enrich him with thy heavenly grace. Bring him safely through the perils of childhood. Deliver him from the temptations of youth and lead him to witness a good confession and to persevere therein to the end. Oh God, our Father, give unto thy servants in whom thou hast committed this blessed trust the assurance of thine unfailing providence and care. Guide them with thy counsel as they teach and train their children.

Help them to lead their household into an ever-increasing knowledge of Christ and in a more steadfast obedience to his will. We commend to thy fatherly care the children and families of this congregation. Help us in our homes to honor thee and by love to serve one another and to thy name be all blessing and glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Scripture this morning is in 1 Timothy. We turn to chapter 3. We read verses 8-13. 1 Timothy 3:8-13.

Likewise must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved; and let them use the office of the deacon being found blameless. Even so must their wives also be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.

Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children in their own houses. For they that have used the office of a deacon well, purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Let’s pray. Almighty God, we thank you for your scriptures. We thank you, Father, for the clear guidance you give us in terms of government, both self-government, family government, church government, and civil government.

Help us, Father, to understand the nature of these things better now as we look at your scriptures to our corrective action in our own lives that we might walk in obedience to these things you’ve instructed us in. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

The children are dismissed now to go down to their Sabbath schools downstairs. These are the same ones we had before. I believe it was in December or November that we started this series with these qualifications for elders.

And it’s laid out well. I have 35 copies—we wanted enough for one for every family. I’m going to be having you, if you want to write some things on these sheets as we go through the qualifications for deacons as well. The way this was laid out: characteristics are numbered and then we have coordinated the list from 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, which are both lists of qualifications for elders, overseers, or bishops—all being the same office.

And then the two phrases there—the top phrase of the King James Version translation, and the bottom phrase of the New American Standard Version—show the way it translates that phrase. Now, what we’re going to do is where the numbers are, there’s a blank spot in there. What I’m going to ask you to do is write certain things in that column that apply to deacons and coordinate those qualifications also to this same list.

Okay? And then off to the left of the numbers, we’ll be writing some things having to do with wives of deacons. But we’ll give you more instruction on that as we go through this.

Next week, we’ll be concluding this series of talks on the government of the church. We’ll be dealing with the next couple of verses—14 and 15—out of 1 Timothy 3, and concluding these series of talks. And again, we’ll have more references in terms of these qualifications and perhaps a list of questions that will help you understand a little bit as well.

Both to ask of your own performance as men and women as well. Most of these characteristics apply to both. And then also to begin to develop a checklist for people that you think might be considered as elders or deacons in the church.

This morning, though, we’re going to talk specifically about the office of deacon. First, we’re going to do five things hopefully. First, we’re going to talk about the qualifications themselves in brief form and coordinate them to these lists. Secondly, we’re going to talk about the relationship of those qualifications to all the scriptures and the other scriptural qualifications for other offices in the Old and New Testament. Third, we’re going to talk about the role of deacon and elder and differentiation of the roles. Fourth, we’re going to talk about the question of women in this passage.

There are qualifications for women. We’re going to talk about whether that means female deacons. Does that mean wives of deacons? What does it mean? And fifth, we’ll talk about the term deacon itself and conclude some remarks about the nature of the term itself, the church office, and some important things the term itself teaches us.

So the qualifications, the relationship of those qualifications to all scripture, the role of deacon and elder differentiated, the women discussed in this passage, and then the term deacon itself. And we’ll have to move fairly quickly.

First, in terms of qualifications: verse 8 begins with the phrase “likewise,” indicating we’re not talking about a separate class of office but saying in the same way as the elders, these are qualifications for deacons.

Additionally, although I’ve not seen any commentators that have pointed this out, I believe there may be some connection between the first qualification listed and the last qualification listed for elder in verse 7, which was that they have a good report of them which are without. I think that “likewise” may also indicate the deacon should also have a good report of those people outside of the church. But as I said, I haven’t found any other commentators supporting that.

But I believe that’s something that may be well with the pastor’s teaching us.

In any event, we then have a series of qualifications given to the office of deacon. The first qualification is the term grave in the King James Version: “Likewise, the deacons must be grave.” I was talking about this yesterday with Marge Jones. She says, “Does that mean that the deacon has to have one foot in the grave?” That’s not what it means.

And it doesn’t mean either that the deacon must be real sober-faced, you know, sober as a deacon or whatnot, never smiling, never enjoying, I guess, the blessings of God in this life. That’s not really what the phrase means.

Now, as I’ve made a little bit of levity here, you’ll also notice that in this list, I’ll get the other one out of the way quick here so we don’t have to worry about it anymore. The other joke I have today: the other thing you’ll notice in the qualification list there are things like number nine, “no striker,” and 12, “not a brawler.” Those things are not repeated for the office of deacon. But I don’t think we can conclude from that the deacon, because of his serving tables, has to be a striker or a brawler. Although that obviously is not the case.

But any move now into a serious consideration of these terms—gravity. And I said that firstly for a purpose. Grave doesn’t mean here, as I said, so face necessarily. Because the word grave here—the root word for it—is translated in other portions of the New Testament as worship or devout.

People that worship God are said to be grave in their relationship to God. People that are devout in terms of their walk and their life being centered around the person of God himself. The same word is translated in 1 Timothy 2:2, where we’re talking about the prayers for the authorities over us, that we might live a quiet and peaceful life. And that word “quiet” means that same word—grave—a reverent life, a life spent in devout apprehension of all life being centered on the person of God himself.

By the way, I mentioned that 1 Timothy 2 passage. If we believe, as I’ve said in the last couple of weeks, that these passages relate to the public offices of the church, the institution of the church, then these prayers mentioned for those in authority must relate primarily to the institutional church as well. Of course, it’s true of individuals, but I do believe that there should be a place in the worship services of the church for prayers for those in authority and for all men.

And we’re going to start implementing that in the next couple of weeks. We’ll work it into the order of service.

But in any event, that same word is translated there as a quiet life. The word grave has been of dignity, a dignity that inspires reverence or awe in those people that come in contact with that person. Holiness is said, for one commentator, to be a combination of gravity or reverence and awe and consecration of all one’s life to God.

And so this characteristic of gravity, I think, has to do with the fact that the major focus of his life totally centered around God and reverential toward what God has done for him, inspiring all for God then and those around him as well. In other words, what it’s talking about is somebody who is wholeheartedly committed to God and demonstrating that commitment to God in every area of his life. Okay?

And that’s what the word grave here means: devout. A devout man understanding that all life is to be governed by God’s word.

I might point out here, though, that, again, as many other qualifications of elders, we pointed out are required of all men. So this term also is required of all men. In Titus 2:2 it said that the older men must be grave. The same term is used—senos is the Greek word. And then in Titus 2:7 it says the young men must be grave as well.

So young men and old men covers all men, and so all men must have this sense of gravity or reverence about them. This is what we’re to aim for as Christians. We see all our lives in relationship to God. And so our life should then be devout in terms of understanding God’s purpose for our life and applying that in everything that we do.

It then has reference to a life of holiness and consecration. And I thank God, by the way, that I’m in the midst of a church here where by and large, many people in this, most of us in this church are approaching that more and more. We’re understanding more and more the implications of God’s word in all our life. We’re becoming more reverent of God in terms of applying his word to everything that we do. That’s true reverence—obedience.

And so we’re manifesting that gravity in our congregation, and I appreciate that.

That said, that true gravity—you can write “grave” rather—and long to next to number 21 on the last page, which says the elder must be devout, in the second column referring to the Titus passage out of Titus 1:8. I originally had put the word grave alongside number four, which was “sober,” reproved. But as I said, that’s really not what this term means. This term has more of a sense of holiness or devoutness to God.

And so we liken it to the qualification number 21 for the elder. So there’s a parallel there to the elder’s qualification.

Secondly, it says the deacon is also not to be double-tongued. I didn’t really find any place in the list of qualifications where double-tongued fits in. It’s obvious, though, that when the elder is one who teaches, which is one of his primary job functions, he can’t be double-tongued. But the deacon is not to be double-tongued specifically.

Now the word there is dialogos, which means like two words—you know, dialogue is two people talking together. So you have two sets of conversations going on. Some commentators have thought that refers then to talebearers who tells things that are told to him to somebody else and says twice then. And certainly talebearing is a sin that’s condemned by God in his word.

But I think here one of the ideas is: one commentator relates it to given to double talk—talking out of both sides of your mouth—talking, giving one impression to one group of people about a particular thing that occurred and another impression to another group of people, which really has roots. One of the roots that will produce double talk, of course, is being a man-pleaser.

The deacon can’t be a man-pleaser. He can’t vary his speech in accordance to what he thinks his listeners may want to hear. His speech must reflect the truth of God relating to a situation. Now, of course, that’s true of all of us as well. This is a very easy sin to fall into.

It’s not the last sin we’ll talk about this morning in relationship to the tongue. There’s another one. And I think that we have to recognize here that whenever we look at these lists of qualifications or the sins that God lists in the scriptures, the tongue is a prominent part.

And I think that we have to just pause very seriously at this point in time and remind ourselves that if we have sin in this area, we should confess it. We should be, as we said for the last couple of weeks, like David who sinned and confessed it and got right with God and with man—not like Saul, who tried to cover his sin over.

If you’ve been guilty of double talk or of talebearing in your own lives, endeavor, strive not to do that anymore. The deacon can’t be a man whose life is characterized by having a double tongue. He has to be forthright, forthright in his speech.

Third, the deacon cannot be given to much wine. That correlates to qualification number eight on your list. You could write that in the blank spot next to number eight: “not given to much wine.” That was a qualification listed both in Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3 of the elders as well.

I just want to point out there a couple of short things. Most of us know this already, but you see it says they are not given to much wine. Okay? Those people who would say that alcohol is completely forbidden in scripture because wine is grape juice—it, this word, this phrase really is kind of ridiculous, isn’t it? “Not a person who’s given to much grape juice.” I mean, who is given to much grape juice? You know, so we’re talking about wine here, right?

It’s got to be alcoholic beverages. And then, second, now we’ve cleared up the problem of whether it’s wine or grape juice. It says “much wine.” It doesn’t say somebody who drinks wine. It says he can’t be given to much wine. Well, that means that not much wine is okay.

Now, most of us have gone through that in this church, but it’s important to point that out. There’s another verse that indicates the appropriateness of drinking, one of the gifts God has given to us, which is the gift of wine in moderation. And of course, that’s the last thing the verse clearly teaches is that drinking of wine, which is legitimate, must be in moderation. Man can’t be given to much wine. He can’t be drinking a lot. Okay?

Then the fourth qualification is he can’t be greedy of filthy lucre. And that correlates to number 10 on your list. You could write that in there: “greedy of filthy lucre.” Same phrase used in the earlier portion of 1 Timothy 3 relating to the elder.

And almost exactly the same phrase in Titus 1 referring to the elder as well. And notice here that it doesn’t say that money itself is bad. It says that it’s filthy lucre that he can’t be greedy of. Lucre refers to money or gain—actually is what it means there. And filthy means ill-gotten gain.

And so it’s ill-gotten gain that is spoken against in this scripture. And some commentators say that if a man is greedy of money, then whenever he gets that money, he’ll probably be ill-gotten. And there’s probably some truth to that. But anyway, what I’m trying to point out here is that money, of course, is not evil in and of itself.

You’ll notice on qualification number 13 for the elder, it says “not covetous, free from the love of money,” referring to the elder. And again, there the idea that you shouldn’t have inordinate love for money. Money shouldn’t be your first in your list of priorities. Obedience to God and his word should be. But money itself isn’t bad. But it is very important, and all the rest of these qualifications, to not gloss over this fact because God again continually restates the need to avoid covetousness in terms of the offices of the church.

These men have real authority. And we’ll look at that a little bit later. The deacons have real authority as well. And so if they’re a covetous person, they can use that authority for bad purposes. Certainly, one of the functions of the deacon, as Acts 6 points out, is to distribute the tables to those who were in need—to the widows and to other people.

If they’re going to be involved in the distribution of alms to the poor, then certainly they can’t be greedy of ill-gotten gain because they probably fall into that sin dealing with the money of the church. But overall, every officer throughout the scriptures is talked of as not being covetous.

And you remember we pointed out that Samuel in his farewell address, where he turned over the reigns of government to King Saul, said the same thing: “I didn’t take anybody’s goat. I’ve acted uprightly in your relationship to you. I haven’t made ill-gotten gain out of my position.” Paul says the same thing. Remember in his farewell speech in Acts 20 to the Ephesus elders, he says that he didn’t covet anything and he worked for his own money.

And of course the other thing to keep in mind there is that Judas, who betrayed our Lord, also was covetous and he was greedy of ill-gotten gain, and he engaged himself in that. So it’s important, although it doesn’t seem like many of us would fall into this sin, it’s important again to let these words of God root out that desire for ill-gotten gain out of all of us in this church as well. And it’s important to use this qualification when we examine people for the office of deacon or elder.

And then the next qualification says the deacon is to hold to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. Now, you may get confused by the term mystery here. The word mystery as used in the New Testament always refers to the fact that there is something that has been hidden but is now revealed to the saints. It is no longer a mystery for them. It’s a mystery to those outside of the church, but no longer for the saints.

There are many verses that talk about this. One of the better ones is Colossians 1:26-27. Paul’s talking about “even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints. To whom God has made known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Mark 4:11, Jesus says unto them, “It’s given unto you to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, then to them without all these things are done in parables.”

Romans 11:25, “I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery,” then he goes on to talk about that if they were they might be wise in their own conceit.

The point I’m trying to make with all these passages is that this term mystery means that something has been hidden from other people but revealed to the saints. And so the deacon should be holding to the mystery of the faith. It doesn’t mean he holds to some kind of thing that can’t be understood. He holds to the comprehension of the faith which is taught in the scriptures, which is taught to us by the Holy Ghost and applied to our minds by the Holy Spirit.

So the deacon then has a qualification to have an understanding of the faith and all the implications of the faith. Remember we talked about the gospel a couple of weeks ago in Acts 20 and then in 1 Timothy 1 as well, and the comprehensiveness of the faith, the comprehensiveness of the gospel. The deacon has to have that kind of knowledge—the comprehensiveness of the faith. And you must hold to it.

But it isn’t good, as we pointed out throughout this series, to just have orthodoxy without putting it into practice. A life must be lived on the basis of that. And so this qualification says the deacon must hold to the mystery of the faith, understanding the fundamentals of the faith, with a clear conscience.

His life must be lived in obedience to that teaching of the mystery of the faith. It must be lived in obedience to all the claims of the gospel. And so he’d have a clear conscience. So what we have here is the need for correct understanding of God’s word and a correct life built, worked, lived on the basis of that word in obedience to it.

Orthodoxy, orthopraxy—correct understanding and the knowledge of the faith that’s been revealed to these saints now and a correct life lived in obedience to that knowledge. Faith and works. That’s what’s required of the deacon as well as all of us, of course, to have that same thing.

But he must understand the faith in a comprehensive fashion and then walk in obedience to it. Okay?

Then in verse 10 it says, “Let them also first be proved, then let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless.” The indication here is that if you’re not sure commends a deacon material or not, or if… then you would put him through a period through which you would evaluate him in terms of his responsiveness to the requirements of the office and these qualifications as well.

You may not know how well qualified he is, and so you may put the person to a test. It indicates here that it says “let these also first be tested.” I think the clarification for that is that the elder also, if need requires, must be tested for a period of time before he’s given the office. And so this “also” ties it into both offices of the church. There could be a probationary period placed upon the office holders of the church. At the end of that time, then let him use the office of a deacon being found blameless.

Blameless relates to number one on your list. 1 Timothy 3:2 and in Titus 1:6 it says the elder must be blameless. And that word blameless—this verse helps us to understand that word a little bit better. The word blameless doesn’t mean that he never sins. We know that would be not a qualification any of us could meet.

What it means is there’s no charges pending against him. So you’ve got the idea of this deacon having a period of evaluation through which he may serve and have his qualifications be examined, and if no charges incur against him, then he can use the office of a deacon. Okay? That’s what it means by blameless: no charges coming against him.

Scripture goes on, read then in verse 11, “Even so must their wives be grave.” We’re going to put that consideration of that verse aside till later to our one of our later points. We’ll talk about those verses as a whole. And then in verse 12 goes back to the office of deacon.

Verse 12, “Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife.” And that, of course, correlates also to number two on your list, where the elders are to be husbands of one wife as well. And I think that while we don’t want to spend a lot of time this morning, and it has been a controversial verse in the past, I think that what it probably means is that the guy can’t be married to two women or can’t have his mind on two women either.

He must be devoted to the wife that he has at that period of time. I do not believe, and I don’t want to spend a lot of time on it this morning, but I don’t believe that the verse means you cannot remarry. If a person is remarried, he can’t be an elder or a deacon. I don’t believe that means that. I’m open to more study on that. And if you believe that to be the case, I’m open to get together and discuss it.

But I don’t believe that’s a qualification that the person can only have been married once. Most, you know, you notice that all these qualifications are things that all of us hold to the requirements really of all of us. We’ve gone through that with the list of qualifications for elder. And this would be a very strange thing if God now imposed a requirement upon the elder or upon the deacon that isn’t imposed upon all men either.

It would be a strange thing. Certainly God may do that, but in the absence of a clear indication, I don’t believe we should hold that to be the case. And it simply means I think a one-woman man. Okay?

The next qualification says he must rule his children. It says in verse 12 again, “Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife ruling their children in their own houses.”

Well, now that’s interesting, isn’t it? Because that’s a qualification on our list as well—number 14 for the elders—where the elders would have to rule their own household. Well, in Titus it says they have to have faithful children, not accused of riot and debauchery and not being ungodly or unruly rather.

And we talked about that in relation to the fact that God says that a man must rule his household. He must stand before them as presiding officer. We talked about that last week. It indicates his authority over the family and the exercise of that authority in terms of the way he serves the family and so carries out the authority God has given him.

Well, now we have the deacons—which we don’t normally think of having as office of authority, as simple servants and not very important ones, attached traditionally in the church. Now we have the same qualification required of them. Well, that’s interesting to me, and I think that there’s every indication that the office of deacon is one of real authority in their particular realm. We’ll talk a little bit more about that later.

Remember that in the qualification of 1 Timothy 3, it says that a man must rule well his own household in terms of the elder. Now in verse 4, that he might care for the church. If he can’t manage his own household, if he can’t preside over the household at home, how can he care for the church?

Well, the deacons are certainly those people that have to care for the church. And that caring then has the implication of authority in terms of the elder and of the deacon in their particular functions. So the deacon, I believe, has real authority. And so he must have exercised that authority properly in his own home.

Verse 13 says that “they that have used this office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.” This verse has been used by some people to be a text that indicates that if a deacon does his job well, he be promoted to the office of elder or bishop.

I don’t believe that’s a necessary reading of the text. I believe that all it’s really saying is that they purchase themselves a good grade as a deacon, a good standing as it were in the community and before God as well in terms of their office. I don’t think there’s any indication here that it would be a promoting position.

Now there are some elements of the church that we respect greatly who believe that these deacons are apprentices to the elders. I don’t see any indication of that, however, in what we’ve discussed in the scriptures and we’ve looked at most of the passages by now of the various offices. This verse may be the only indication of that, and yet it really is stretching it, I think, to think that they then would be able to go on to another step. But again, I’m open to studying that out further. But I think basically all it means is they have a good grade, a good apprehension both by men and God of how well they do their task.

That completes the list of qualifications. And you see that most of these qualifications—except for the double tongue, which is certainly implicit in the elder’s qualifications in terms of his teaching—are shared by the other office holder, the elder, as well.

Now the only difference there in terms of a difference in the way it’s worded has to do with number seven on your form, which in terms of Titus 1 and the elders said you had to hold fast the faithful word and be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince the gainsayer.

The deacon—and I might not have pointed this out—the qualification: the deacon must hold to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience should be put in number seven here. I believe there’s a difference there though in emphasis, isn’t there? We’ll talk about that in a little bit. But most all these qualifications—you see in Titus it says hold fast the faithful word, then be able by sound doctrine to exhort and convince.

That isn’t attached to the qualification for the deacon. He’s to hold fast the word of faith with a clear conscience. We’ll talk about that difference in a minute. But all those qualifications pretty much are also made of the elders. And so there’s a continuity of qualifications.

Our second point then is that there’s a commonality of characteristics or qualifications for office holders throughout the scriptures.

Remember we talked in Exodus 18 where under the direction of Jethro, Moses chose heads of tens, fifties, hundreds, and thousands. And the qualifications listed there in Exodus 18 were that men must fear God. They must be men of truth and hating covetousness. Okay?

In Deuteronomy 1, where we have that Exodus 18 brought together with Numbers 11 and the selection of the officers, the 70, as it were—the 70 administrators of the covenant community in the wilderness in terms of the distribution of the administration of the covenant community—in Deuteronomy 1, he says he picked out wise men, men of understanding.

In Acts 6, when the first set of deacons were selected, we read that the men had to be full of the Holy Ghost, men of wisdom and of honest report. Now all these things are general categories that are common throughout the scriptures. The fact, for instance, that we read this morning that a deacon must be grave, we can see that means full of the Holy Ghost, having a reverence about it—having a devoutness about it. It indicates that the Holy Spirit has led him into an understanding of God and his implications for all of his life.

He’s not be given much wine—controlled not by the wine but controlled by the Holy Ghost, which is to be full of… he’s a clear conscience, honest report—all these qualifications then in Exodus 18, Deuteronomy 1, Acts 6, and then here in this list in Titus and 1 Timothy all have basically the same line of thought to them.

That is, I think, because they’re all manifestations of the spirit of the Lord. In Isaiah 11, just turn there for a couple of minutes. Isaiah chapter 11, talking about the coming of the Messiah. “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”

Those are characteristics. The way this verse reads here, what it’s saying is the spirit of the Lord. And by the way, the term they’re used for Lord is Jehovah, the covenant God of Israel. Okay? It indicates the relationship of God to his covenant people. The spirit of that covenant God is what’s being described here.

J. Alexander in his commentary on this passage talks about the fact that the term Jehovah here means there’s a more explicit reference to both the government and edification of the church in mind with the listing of these qualifications, these characteristics of the Messiah who be filled by the Holy Ghost.

The spirit of Jehovah, then—the covenant God of Israel—having to do with authority and reign over the church. That spirit then is the spirit that leads to, or yields forth, or gives the spirit of wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge of the fear of the Lord. It’s the Holy Spirit, the spirit of Jehovah, that yields or gives those gifts—those specific manifestations of the work of the Holy Spirit in the life, in this case, of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now it’s obvious, and Calvin points out, that these verses must be talking about the humanity of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ in his deity, of course, was full of all these things to begin with. That’s where these things come from. It’s from the person of God, the triune God. So it’s not talking about Jesus getting these things in his deity. It’s talking about his assuming these things, being given these gifts by God in his humanity.

And the purpose for the giving of these things to his humanity is that he might turn around then and give those gifts to the church. Remember we talked many months ago from Ephesians, where Christ descends on high and gave gifts to men. These are the gifts of the Holy Spirit that he gives to men, who gifts them for particular tasks or functions.

What I’m trying to point out here is that all these characteristics are common to these three sets of couplets of these characteristics: the knowledge of wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and the fear of the Lord. All those things are indicate, or you could lump all the qualifications they’ve talked about for elder and deacon under those general headings.

I’m not saying this list is necessarily comprehensive, but I think it gives you the general headings under which men operate in terms of their relationship both to God and their relationship to man as well.

Spirit of counsel and of might—be able to understand and plan out a series of things that are necessary, and might—having the strength of the grace of God to carry out the task that you’ve planned and to complete it to their completion rather. The elder and deacon have to have that as well. They have to have a spirit of wisdom and understanding of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

And so we understand then that these things are characteristics that characterize office bearers in Deuteronomy 1, Acts 6, Exodus 18, and also in the passage before us. There’s a commonality of the requirements of office throughout the scriptures. That commonality is that office bearers must be men who demonstrate the gifts of the Holy Spirit in their life. They have to be gifted men, being given those gifts of God through the Holy Spirit.

And the gifts of the Holy Spirit demonstrating those gifts to be able to function in those offices. That’s important.

This commonality of qualifications leads us to understand then that there’s a commonality in terms of the authority of the office involved as well. There’s a difference in function, but there’s a commonality of authority, which takes us to our third point this morning, and that is that while elders and deacons differ in functions, yet both are a manifestation of Jesus Christ and his reign.

That’s what’s being talked about in Isaiah 11, isn’t it? Says that a rod will come out of Jesse, a rod to rule. Jesus Christ reigns. His government is described here. And it’s characterized by the spirit of Jehovah, the covenant God of Israel. And these manifestations, the elders and deacons both have characteristics required of them that match these characteristics. And so they’re manifestations of the reign of Jesus Christ in different functional areas. Okay?

Now, the different function is pointed out, as I said, in summary form in verse 7, talked about the qualifications for the elder being one to be apt to teach. Now I might say here by the way that these qualifications don’t necessarily give us a job description. Remember we looked at Acts 20, the Ephesus elders, and then at 1 Timothy 1 for more of a job description for the elder.

He was to guard the church, to guard the truth, to do that primarily by the teaching and preaching of God’s word and its implications for all of life. The preaching of the gospel of the kingdom is what the elders to involve himself in. He’s a minister of the word and he fulfills that function when he preaches and teaches that word.

And so these qualifications don’t give us job description. They give us minimum qualifications for people involved in that office. But it is true that the elder must be apt to teach. It’s obvious that’s the case, and God reminds us of that in the list of qualifications for elders.

The deacon, however, does not have that qualification listed under his duties. Why? Because he’s not a teacher. That’s not his primary job function. He is a servant in a different area, a minister of tables as it were, administration of the church.

Remember we talked about Deuteronomy 18, how they went into the land. They had to appoint judges and officers in each city. They had to have judicial reign. They had to have the administrative reign also, the sharing in the old covenant. We said then there were characteristics of the sharing that were made common to the work of the deacon. And we saw that in Acts 6.

Let’s turn to Acts 6 for a second and remind ourselves what we learned there several months ago about the deacons.

Now it’s important to recognize here that apart from Philippians 1:1, where Paul addresses his letter to the church and to the deacons and elders at Philippi, we don’t really have any other teaching in the New Testament about what the deacon does or is. Okay? There’s no specific job description like we have the Ephesian elders and then gives us the job description for the pastors. That’s one more good reason for believing that Acts 6 and the selection of the seven gives us that job description of the deacon, and it correlates with what we’ve seen here in difference of the qualification involved in terms of “apt to teach” or “not apt to teach.”

Acts 6: Remember that what happened was the number of disciples were multiplying. Let’s just stop there for a minute. They didn’t have deacons, or these seven, that is, until the number of disciples multiplied and became a need for more of an administrative function to be performed in the community. When it was small, they didn’t have the need for administration, did they?

Now the same thing is true in Acts 14. We read that Paul through the churches he had evangelized appointed elders in every church. Doesn’t say deacons. In Titus 1, there’s no mention of deacons. Why? Titus was ministering in Crete. God had used Titus there, and Paul sent Titus to the church that was growing, and he says to Titus specifically that you might appoint elders in every city. When he appointed elders in Acts 14, initial starting organization of the church—okay? And the first thing that’s required is eldership. We don’t have large groups of people yet. We don’t have the need for administration, so there’s no deacons mentioned.

But Timothy, on the other hand, is analogous to this Acts 6 situation. The church at Ephesus was well-defined. It was growing. There were large amounts of churches there by the time Timothy got there. And so there was a need for administration, and that need was understood. And so the qualifications for deacons are listed as well as the qualifications for elders.

Acts 6 and 1 Timothy 3 correlate then in terms of the need for administrative function, indicating the reign of Jesus Christ in that community. Okay?

In Acts 6 it says the disciples multiplied, and then there came up a problem with ministering of tables. We went through this several months ago, but then there’s appointed the seven to take care of that need. It’s important to recognize there that the apostles say… well, the apostles rather (and we talked a couple weeks ago, the apostles and their inheritance as it were given to the elders. Paul, for instance, transferring over his authority over the churches of Ephesus unto the elders).

But the apostles say, “It’s not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.” Okay? They say that in verse 4. “We will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” That word “ministry” there means servant. Service, deact. It’s a form of diaconia. Okay? It’s a form of diaconia.

So it’s the same root word for the word deacon. What Acts 6 tells us is there’s two kinds of servants. Servants of the word and servants of tables. The apostles and the elders are servants of the word. The deacons are servants of the table—of administration. The specific problem here had to do with food. It had to do with widows.

But I don’t think we want to restrict the office of the deacon just to widows. Their gift is administration. The serving of tables, the serving of taking care of more the temporal needs of the covenant community as it grows.

We don’t turn that function over to management types who have been trained by secular management philosophies. We turn it over to men who are full of the gift of the Holy Spirit and manifest the gifts of the Holy Spirit in wisdom and understanding, knowledge and the fear of the Lord, counsel and might from Isaiah 11.

And these qualifications for elders, for deacons rather, that we’ve been talking about this morning meet those lists. And so the deacons are servants of tables, and that’s their difference in function.