SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/30/2017 10:23
AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Requirements
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 6:3
Message of the verse: “3
“Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full
of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.”
What we have been
talking about are things that came out of the first organizational meeting of
the church to solve the problem of making sure the Hellenistic widows were
being fed. We discussed the “reason” in
our last four Spiritual Diaries and today we begin to look at the requirements
found in Acts 6:3.
We learned in our
discussion of Acts 6:4 that it was most important to the church that the
apostles needed to continue in their quest of Bible reading and also prayer,
but this problem of feeding the Hellenistic Jews remained which is what we are
discussing this morning.
How was this problem
to be solved? Well the apostles wanted
the congregation to select seven men of good reputation and also full of the
Holy Spirit and wisdom to put in charge of this task that was before them. John MacArthur writes that “The word
translated select is from the verb episkeptomai,
meaning ‘to oversee or to supervise.’
The congregation was to look over the men who were respected and present
their choices to the apostles. They
would make the final decision regarding their appointment to the task, as
indicated by the words, ‘whom we may put in charge of this task.’”
Let us now look at
five required requirements: 1. The first
requirement we see is that they must be men, men who would led the church. When we look at Titus 2:3-5 we read “3 Older
women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor
enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, 4 so that they may encourage the
young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be sensible,
pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the
word of God will not be dishonored.” These verses speak of duties that women are to
perform in the church, but leadership belongs to men as Luke writes “seven men.” As we look through the New Testament we can
see prominent women mentioned like Dorcas, Lydia, Phoebe, Priscilla, and
Phillip’s daughters. 2. The phrase “from among you,” is the second
requirement. Church leaders should be in
the process of developing good church leaders from the younger men who are in
the congregation. These men must come
out of the church congregation as we will see later on in the book of Acts when
Paul and his team would go to help in the appointment of leaders in the
churches they began. 3. The men from the congregation must be “of
good reputation.” In Paul’s writing to
Timothy and Titus he gives requirements of men who are to be leaders in the
church and this certainly is one of them. 4.
The men must be full of the Spirit, as “they must be fully yielded to His control in every area
of their lives.” 5. The final requirement is the men must be wise
they must possess wisdom. Wisdom is one
of the attributes of God and so leaders in the church must also possess wisdom
in order to lead the church.
Now I realized that
once we got to this section in the book of Acts that there would be discussion
on whether or not these men were the first deacons who were appointed in the
church and I must say that this is a difficult subject to write about. The churches that I have always gone to since
I became a believer have been “Baptist” churches and that term Baptist can mean
different things to different people.
Our church and the one that I used to attend to are in the “General
Association of Regular Baptist Churches.”
We know that there are other associations associated with Baptist
churches like “The Southern Baptist Association.” The GRABC began in the 1940’s and it began
because other Baptist organizations became liberal in their teaching. Our Church and the church I use to go to have
deacons in them while the church that John MacArthur pastors is somewhat
different in that they have “Elders” in them.
Now an Elder is another name for Pastor or Bishop, but different than
deacons. His church may indeed have
deacons, but the leadership of his church, I do not believe includes deacons
like the church I attend does. John
MacArthur has written a book that I have mentioned in an earlier SD entitled
“The Master’s Plan for the Church,” and in that book he describes different
plans for leadership in the church, different in that some have deacons and
others do not. I read that book probably
10 years ago and one of the things that I remember from it is the
following. MacArthur states that whether
your church has deacons or elders in leadership capacity is not the main
thing. The main thing is that the
quality of these men must be like what Luke is talking about in the verse we
are looking at this morning. You could
have what you think is the right way of having leadership in your church but
the men are not like the qualifications we have just discussed and the other
way could be true too. I have to say as
I have stated that I believe that the Lord led me first of all to Grace Baptist
Church in Westlake, Ohio and the first two pastors and also the deacons we had
under these first two pastors were wonderful leaders, but things changed and I
had to move to First Baptist Church of Elyria, Ohio. The first Sunday that I visited First Baptist
was the Sunday after the Thursday that their pastor had died. He had been there for 25 years and the church
had grown so much that a new addition had to be built. First Baptist Church of Elyria, Ohio is 180
years old, as it began around the time of the Civil War. God has blessed this church over its 180
years of existence and I am very happy to be a part of it. That first day I went to visit First Baptist
it was for me like going from a desert which I had been for the former five
years to finding a wonderful refreshing oasis where springs of water could be
found along with palm trees and fruit.
It was a wonderful experience.
Some later on the church called its pastor who has been there since 2011
and he reminds me of our second Pastor we had while attending Grace Baptist
church, a man who I had great respect for.
Our leadership is made up of five pastors and a large number of deacons
of which I believe all fit the things we have been talking about from this
verse we are looking at today. No church
is perfect, as I can see from studying the seven churches in Revelation 2-3,
but attending a church that has been around for 180 years gives me confidence
that God has and my prayer is to continue to bless our church for many years to
come, hopefully until the Lord comes.
In our next SD we will
look at the quote from John MacArthur’s commentary as he explains his feelings
on the subject of deacons.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I want to say that I am thankful for the Lord
leading me to First Baptist Church of Elyria.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “430 years” (Exodus 12:40).
Today’s Bible question: “What
kind of tongues should deacons not have?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/30/2017 11:11 AM
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