Today's scripture reading is from the book of Acts, chapter 6, verses 1 through 7, and may be found on page 1,083 in the Bible underneath the seat in front of you. Acts, chapter 6, verses 1 through 7. In those days, when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the 12 gathered all the disciples together and said, it would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the Word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom, we will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer in the ministry of the Word. This proposal please the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith, end up the Holy Spirit. They all so fill up, Prochorus, Nicaner, Tyman, Parmenus, and Nicholas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid their hands on them. So the Word of God spread, the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. This is the Word of the Lord. The honeymoon's over. Have you ever said that? The Jews of Alabama football are probably seeing that today. Well, Gator fans probably said that starting a couple of weeks ago, the honeymoon's over. Suppose that you just got a new job, and at first, when you get a new job, they throw the red carpet out for you, right? Everything's going great. And then week four, week five, the boss announces to you. So we don't really pay much attention to job descriptions around here. And you think to yourself, hmm, the honeymoon's over. Or maybe you just bought a new house, and you find out that the neighbors next door have a teenage son who's starting a garage band. And the band practices in your neighbor's garage, and your neighbor's teenage son is the drummer. You say to yourself, hmm, honeymoon's over. Well you might say that in Acts chapter six, the passage that you just read, the early Christians would have said the honeymoon's over. Because they had experienced explosive growth. I mean, if you go back earlier into the book of Acts starting in chapter one, you find out that at first, in this early church, there were about 120 believers. And then by the time you reach the end of Acts chapter two, after the day of Pentecost, the church explodes in growth to over 3,000 people. Acts chapter three describes some miracle healings that were taking place in the city streets of Jerusalem. Acts four describes an almost idyllic Christian culture in the church of that time. It says in Acts four, that all the believers were one in heart and in mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but everybody shared things that they had and much grace was upon them all. I mean, that is the situation earlier in the book of Acts. But here you turn to Acts chapter six, hardly any time has passed and you all of a sudden find the first church split in history. Or maybe I should say it was a potential church split because it was handled and it was handled very, very well. Verse one says what that crisis was. Verse one says that in those days, when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. Now notice first that this was a really good problem for the church to have. If problems can be good, this was a good problem because it was the byproduct of this growth, this dynamic growth that was happening in those days in the church. People were getting converted right and left. Acts two, forty-seven says that the Lord was adding to their number daily those who were being saved. So what that we had problems like the one described in verse one. I mean sometimes I hear people say, especially at the late service, 10, 45 service, is hard to find a seat. And I think, well that's a good problem. And sometimes people say, I don't know anybody at UPC anymore. There are so many people I've never met and I want to respond that is a good problem to have. But this problem, though it was the byproduct of good things happening, it was also a devastating problem for those who were most affected by it. Let me explain what I mean. See there was ethnic diversity in the early church at this time. There were these two groups, there were Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. And within the Jewish group there were also two subgroups. There were what scholars would call the Hellenists, that is those who came from outside Palestine and spoke Greek. And then there were the native Palestinian Jews who had become Christians. And that was everybody else. That was the original disciples and all of the original followers of Jesus. They spoke Aramaic. Now both of these two subgroups were Jewish people. They believed in Jesus, but one group was tempted to think of themselves as the insiders. And the other group, well that makes them the outsiders. And whenever you have insiders and supposed outsiders in the church, there's great potential for hurt feelings. There is exclusivity and there is possible division. I was the pastor of a church one time that had terrible division. There were two distinct groups in this particular church. And the division happened to be over the subject of worship style preferences. You had the younger, younger people who were criticizing the older, you had the older people criticizing the younger. And both groups pointed the finger at the other and said you guys are the outsiders. And it was horrible. It was a terrible time in that church that I was part of. So this too was a huge challenge to the unity and the peace of the early church. You see these Greek-speaking Jews were grumbling and they were murmuring about the situation. They felt that their widows and their elderly and their single moms were being ignored by the church. And the allegation was probably true. They were getting the short end of the stick. But you've got to understand what a huge job it was to make sure that everybody in this church was treated equitably and fairly. I'm sure that the apostles had a plan by which they hoped theoretically that everybody's needs could be well supplied. But you need more than a plan, right? You need to execute the plan. And it wasn't going so well. And so I think these early Christians could have said in Acts 6. I guess the honeymoon's over. Well what do we learn from this episode in the life of the early church? How does it relate to our theme? Right now our theme is living missionally every day. We're talking about getting out and living out the Christian life in our community so that others who aren't in the church can see the reality of the gospel. What does this chapter have to do with living missionally? We've been looking at Matthew. The reason we're looking at Acts today is because of what we saw going on earlier today. The ordination and the installation of new officers. And I wanted to make sure everybody gets it. What is an elder? What is a Deacon? And that's the teaching of this chapter. Three things I think you're going to take away from this study this morning. And the first thing I want us to learn is that people need leaders. People need leaders. Look at verses 2 and 3. Those verses say that the 12 gathered all the disciples together and all the disciples are this church, this early church that consisted of well over 3,000 believers in Jesus. The 12 gathered all the disciples together and said it would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the Word of God in order to wait on tables. And when they say wait on tables don't get the idea that we're talking about a server in a restaurant. What they're meaning is this serving of the widows, the widows that were in the church very, very numerous people were being cared for, were being attended to, their needs were being met. That's what they mean by waiting on tables. So it wouldn't be right, they say, for us to neglect the ministry of the Word in order to wait on tables, brothers choose 7 men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We'll turn this responsibility over to them and we'll give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the Word. Now that's good leadership. That's really good leadership. Remember what we learned last week, if you were here last week, we were looking at Matthew chapter 9 and the message was about the fact that Jesus sees and he really saw people and we saw in Matthew chapter 9 that when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were helpless and harassed like sheep without a shepherd. See Jesus cares about leaders being in place because he loves people, people need leaders. Well, here in Acts chapter 6, the apostles saw the crowds and they had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, they didn't have adequate leadership. But the apostles were wise enough to recognize that they could not execute the plan that they had put into place by themselves. You see, there were only 12 of these guys, 12 apostles, 3,000 people, that's not a very good ratio, the apostles needed help. Not only could not they do all the work, but they also felt that they shouldn't do all the work because they weren't called to wait on tables. It wasn't the calling of the apostles to make sure that the widows were being adequately cared for. So here in this passage is the first time in the New Testament where God says that there ought to be two offices in the church, elders and deacons. Now I know you don't see the English word elder or deacon in this passage, but both of these offices are implied in what we've read. First of all, you've got the 12, you notice that phrase in verse two. The 12 were the first apostles, the 12 apostles. One of the jobs of these apostles was to raise up and to equip elders for the church. And as the apostles started to die off, the elders moved in and continued the work that the apostles had started. And while you don't see the English word deacon in this passage, the Greek word for deacon does show up here. If you knew Greek, you would know that at least two times in this passage, the Greek word for deacon shows up in these verses. For example, see the word distribution in verse one. At least that's what it is in my translation, the NIV. That little word distribution in verse one is the Greek noun deaconia. Do you hear the word deacon from that? So the distribution of the food was the work of a deacon. And also in verse two, you see the word weight or serve. It might be in your translation. The word means to serve or provide relief or care. It's the verb, the Greek verb deaconia, again, from which we get the English word deacon. So what's the main job of the elder according to this passage? Verse four makes it very clear, prayer and the ministry of the word. What's the work of the elder? What about the deacon? What's the main job of the deacon? This passage makes it clear serving or helping or caring for people like widows and single parents in the elderly and other neglected groups of people. Let me give you a simple way to remember what the difference between elders and deacons is. Elders are shepherds of the people and deacons are servants of the people, shepherds servants. The elder is someone who spends time with the people of God. He prays with the people. He protects them. He nourishes them in the word. He equips the people of God for the work of ministry. He makes sure that the people of God are healthy, strong, and that the church is unified. That's the elder or the shepherd. And the deacon is someone who gives mercy or relief or cares for those who are like these Greek speaking widows who are neglected and forgotten in the church. He's equipped the church to reach out to the poor and the marginalized in the community. They relieve suffering within the church and they make sure that the physical needs of God's people are being met. Two very different offices and the people of God need them both. God's people need elders to be elders, prayer, ministry of the word, and God's people need deacons to be deacons to serve, to help, to encourage, to provide relief and care. So the first thing we learn from this passage is that you and I need leaders. But then we go on to the second thing I want you to take away from our study this morning. Not only do you need leaders, but this passage teaches that it is your job to choose them. It's your job as the followers of Jesus to choose your leaders. Look at verse three. Verse three is where the apostles are speaking to the church. And they say brothers and of course they mean brothers and sisters. They say brothers choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the spirit and of wisdom. And then in verse five, this little fledgling church, very young church, but explosively growing church, they call a congregational meeting. And the members of this church elect seven men to be their deacons. Their names are given. They are in verse five, Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicaner, Timon, Parminus, and Nicholas. These are the first deacons in church history. And shortly after they are elected, what happens, but verse six says that they were ordained and they were installed by the apostles by prayer and the laying on of hands, just exactly like what we did a few minutes ago. So see friends, it's your privilege. Indeed, I'll go further and say it is your responsibility to identify and to encourage and to challenge the men of our church to serve as elders and as deacons based on this passage of scripture right here. But here's the question that you ought to be asking, how do I know whom to choose? How do I know does God's word provide any direction for me to know whom should I ask to be an elder or a deacon? Who should I elect if that is indeed my responsibility? I saw an ad in a newspaper one time. A man was looking for a middle-aged female, and here's the way to add red, men looking for middle-aged female, must have strong arms, must like fishing and not mind digging for worms, must be able to get into a boat, must have a boat, send picture of boat. So that guy knew exactly what he was looking for, didn't he? Well the Bible makes it very clear what you should be looking for as you think about the responsibility of nominating men to be your elders and deacons. Look at verse three. Verse three says that they should be known, underline that word known. It means reputed to be, have the reputation of the men who you elect, whom you nominate to be elders and deacons should be known to be full of the spirit and of wisdom, to be filled with the spirit. What's that mean? It means that you are repentant and that you are repenting. Someone who is filled with the spirit and this applies not only just to elders and deacons. This is church-wide. This is for you, if you're a follower of Jesus, to be filled with the spirit means that you are a humble person, you are aware of your need of grace. It means that you are taking logs out of your own eyes daily before you pick specks of sawdust out of other people's eyes. To be filled with God's spirit means to be broken over your need of grace and of gratitude that God has saved you and made you one of his own. The fruit of the spirit are evident in the life of someone who is filled with the spirit. The Bible helps us out even further if we're going to be electing men to be elders and deacons. In 1 Timothy 3, here's a list of some of the qualifications that are listed in 1 Timothy 3. Deacons, take a look at this list. The interesting thing about this list is that the qualifications for elders and deacons are almost exactly the same for both groups. The big difference between the elder and the deacon in terms of these qualifications is that an elder needs to be able to teach the Bible. That is an elder has enough of a handle on the scriptures, enough of a handle on theology and understanding God's word that he is able to communicate God's truth and that doesn't mean necessarily up here behind a pulpit. It could be teaching in one-on-one settings in a discipleship relationship. It could be teaching children in a Sunday school class or teaching a small group or leading a Sunday school class of adults. But an elder needs to be able to teach. It says in 1 Timothy 3, other than that, these qualifications are nearly identical for both groups, elders and deacons. The point is what God is saying by this is that the way that you select elders and deacons is not by looking around the church and selecting people who are good businessmen. It's not by looking for people who have a lot of money or a lot of power. It's not by picking people who know the Bible well. There are a lot of people who are scholars in the Bible who are not filled with God's spirit. It is not by looking for people who have necessarily served as an elder or deacon some other church. That doesn't mean they're called here. No, you choose elders and deacons because they are godly men who are in love with Jesus and in love with God's people. Now we've got a problem, don't we? Somebody stopped me after the early service and they said, you know, based on this list, I don't know whom I could nominate because nobody is this, right? I mean, this is a description of Jesus, we might say. So we've got to make sure we understand that nobody is perfect. The criterion for being an elder or deacon is not that you've got it made and you've figured it all out and you're perfect. If that were true, if perfection were the criterion, I certainly would not be up here in front of you being an elder of UPC. No, these are not impossible goals to strive for. By the grace of God, many men right here at UPC are above reproach. By the grace of God, many men right here at UPC are temperate and self-controlled, are hospitable, are good stewards of money. We've got men right here at UPC who by God's grace are great family leaders and managers, people who are honest, people who are sincere and faithful to their spouse and all those other things. Sure, they haven't arrived, nobody has arrived, but viewed through the eyes of grace. You can look out into this congregation and see these qualifications. They can and often are met by people in the church. So I've got to ask you a question. You know, I realize that sometimes I play it safe in sermons. I'm not going to play it safe. I want to talk directly about something. Why do so few of you take the time to nominate men for the office of elder and deacon? I mean, elders and deacons don't just magically materialize, right? It all starts with the nomination process. This little sip of paper, this is the third Sunday that it's been in your worship guide. And for three weeks, I have also written a description in my weekly email update about what this is and why we're asking you to fill out the nomination form. Do you know how many we've gotten? Five. I have a membership of almost 600. Some of you have handed in one or more of these nomination forms. My goodness. As a member of UPC, you should be walking up to guys and saying, I'm going to nominate you to be an elder. You look like an elder to me, you certainly minister to me, or you should be walking up to men and saying, I'm going to nominate you to be a deacon. You serve so well, once you consider being an elder or deacon, this ought to be something that lights a fire under you. And if somebody says no to you, when you say I want to nominate you, if they say no, I don't want that, you ought to get lovingly mad at them. And you ought to say, hey, you know what? I don't buy that because I see that you're a man full of the spirit and of wisdom. And I believe I want to challenge you to serve. And to those of you who have been nominated in the past and have said no, I got to ask you to why do you say no to the opportunity to lead the church of Jesus Christ? I realize that some of you have doctrinal differences with official positions of our church. That's valid. I totally buy that. And I'll pray that you change your mind. I'm just kidding. No, I'm not. I realize that a lot of you have doctrinal difficulties with things like infabaptism, predestination and so on. And you know, the bar's pretty high. You've got to be able to say yes, like these fellows did today. I believe this. I believe this Presbyterian stuff. So I realize that does block some of you. But I hear men saying yes to all sorts of time consuming obligations outside the church. I hear them saying yes to serving on HOA boards and training for marathons and going back and getting a degree at school and taking up some expensive time consuming hobby and being a leader of some civic group and things like that. So what is it about being a leader in the church of Jesus Christ that turns you off? Maybe it's the time that it takes to get trained. Really. It is it is long. Maybe it's the fact that being an elder or deacon means long meetings, emotional draining subjects, sleepless nights because of the fact that you love these people. I really understand all that. But you know what? All that just proves what I great and high and holy calling it is to be an elder or deacon in the church of Jesus. Tell you a story about my childhood. I grew up in a Presbyterian church. We had elders, right? And one of the elders in my church was a man by the name of Jean Whitlock. Mr. Whitlock owned and ran a gas station. I remember the day when it fell to him to drill me on the children's catechism. You had to go through the catechism class to become a member, just like we tried to do here. And so my mom dropped me off at Mr. Whitlock's gas station. And I walked in there and he was dressed in his overalls, walked into his office sat down on his broken little chair. I can still remember the scene. I was probably eight, nine years old. And around me were the stuff of a gas station, boxes and boxes of air filters and oil filters and the smell of oil and gasoline, dirty rags sitting around everywhere and everything. And I handed Mr. Whitlock my little catechism book and he started drilling me. Who made you? God. What else did God make? God made all things. Why did God make you and all things? For his own glory. How can you glorify God by loving him and doing what he commands? On and on and on. We went through the catechism. And I wonder what was going through Mr. Whitlock's mind. I wonder if he was thinking, what differences does it make? You know, or I got so much to do today and I need to spend time with this little boy. I don't know. I don't know what was going on in his mind, but what was taking place in my heart was life changing. And I'm here today partly because of the time this elder took investing in my soul. Do you want a legacy? Men, some of you are to be elders and deacons and this is the legacy to which God is calling you today. I hope that you'll take it seriously. I hope that you'll consider it. It is so very important. So to you of UPC, I just got to say there are men in our church who are needed in the battle for the souls of people in East Orlando. I'm not, look, I'm not saying that there aren't plenty of other legitimate callings. I'm not saying that the only way to live missionally as a man is to be an elder deacon. God doesn't call all men to be these two leaders. But what I will say is that some of you are to be called, are to be ordained and installed one day and you need to begin getting ready for it now. First Timothy chapter 3, 1 says that if you aspire to be an elder, you desire a noble task. First Timothy 3, 13 speaking to deacons says those who have served well as deacons gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus. Aren't those things you want? I certainly do. The Bible tells us how to get them. Well, what we've learned so far is that people need leaders. It's your job to choose your leaders. Here's the third and last thing I want you to take home with you today. And that is this, that when leaders lead with wisdom and gospel sensitivity, the people of God flourish. Say that again, when leaders lead with wisdom and gospel sensitivity, the people of God flourish. Check out verse 7, verse 7, after the seven deacons that were listed there in verse 5, were ordained and installed. It says in verse 7, that the word of God spread, says that the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. Wow, what an advance for the kingdom of God, right? Scholars have estimated that there were as many as 8,000 priests serving the Jewish faith in Jerusalem. A lot of them, a great company of them, it says, were converted and became followers of Jesus. Now notice what I'm saying, I'm saying that when leaders lead with wisdom and gospel sensitivity, you know what wisdom is, but what about gospel sensitivity? What do I mean by that phrase? Well, think about, again, the crisis that the people of God faced in Acts chapter 6. This crisis was very delicate. It could have gone one of two ways. It could have crashed and absolutely burned. The apostles could have easily blown it. For example, they could have ignored the problem and just hoped that it would have disappeared. They could have written a position paper and hoped that they would stop the complaining with some official edict, or they could have done what many times we do in the Presbyterian Church went in doubt for a committee, right? And they could have given it over to the committee. They didn't do any of those different things. No, the apostles went to the people and they talked about the problem openly. They said, you know, we see that this problem exists and we want to do something about it. But we also want to be faithful to the calling that God has given us. So they said to the church, we need your help. We need you to choose seven men from among your number who are gifted in serving and we're going to delegate this responsibility to them. They can do a much better job than we can of making sure everybody is treated fairly. So they were honest with the people. They were proactive. They were direct with the people. They said, let's solve this problem together. And they did. And then I want you to notice something else about gospel sensitivity. Did you notice that all seven of these deacons have Greek names? Now think about that and don't miss that. That's so important. Here you have a predominantly Hebrew church. Seeing six men who were Hellenistic Jews and one who was a Gentile convert, what does that mean? It means that they resisted the temptation to stack the deacon board with more of them. Now they didn't want more of them. They wanted these non-Palestinian Jewish Christians on the board. They've been over backwards to say to these Greek speaking Jews, we are sorry. We are sorry that this has happened. We don't want this to keep happening. And to show you that we mean business, we want our entire deacon board to be Greek speakers. You know what that is? That's love and action. That's people honoring one another above themselves. It's the insiders welcoming the quote-unquote outsiders and treating them as insiders. And isn't that exactly what the Gospel of Jesus does for people? See Jesus died on the cross to make everybody who trusts in him and inside her. If you're a follower of Christ, you're a part of the family. Regardless your skin color, regardless your social class, regardless your gifting, you're on the inside with God because of Jesus and the fact that he died and rose again for you. So now, because you are an insider, please do two things. If you're a member of UPC, I want you to take your responsibility seriously and nominate some elders and deacons. I know I said today was the due date, but I'm a nice guy. So I'm going to give you another week to fill out this form, the nomination form you've got in your bulletin. And I expect to see a ton of nominations by next Sunday. And those of you who are nominated, I don't want you just to immediately say, no, not enough time. Don't want to. I want you to really weigh the fact that you have been nominated to be a leader of God's people. Because you want to take the Gospel and make it take root in our community. You want the Word of God to spread in East Orlando. I know you do. So do your part by nominating men to serve. And secondly, second thing to do, honor those men here at our church who are already elders and deacons. Pray for them, follow their lead, become their allies in the battle. And find a place to serve so that they together with you can help this church be a place where people know God, grow together and serve others. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much that you are shepherd. Jesus, thank you that you are shepherd, such a good shepherd you are. And I thank you for the elders among us who teach and equip and lead and rule and pray, because they love you are shepherd. And Jesus, I thank you that you are our servant, our perfect servant. Thank you for these deacons in our church who serve and care and help and encourage. And Father, thank you that you have not let us left us without instruction in this area. You have given us so much to think about regarding the leaders of our church. I also thank you for the leaders in our community that worship here. The bosses, the employers, the business owners, the entrepreneurs, the teachers. Thank you for the leaders of Sunday school classes, the leaders of small groups, the leaders of D groups. Thank you for leaders who take a place of influence in our community and civic functions and so on. Father, we pray that all of us together will exercise our leadership gifts, whatever they might be. And we ask for the prospering of your kingdom because of these things. In Jesus' name, Amen.