Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Acts 6 | Date: October 26, 2025 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

I wanted to mention that, as the others have, that this is Reformation Sunday. We are Reformed Baptists, and there is some history behind that. The Reformers and their original generations were not really friendly with Baptists. And today still, some will dispute whether Baptists can claim the name Reformed or not. And actually, there was some discussion of that in the earlier times in the 17th century, the 1600s. There was discussion of that in England. And there were a couple of confessions of faith that the Baptists drew up: the 1644, and then the 1689, the Second London Baptist Confession that we use here. And when those Baptist pastors and theologians drew up that Confession of Faith, they intentionally borrowed. You’ll see many similarities. They intentionally borrowed extensively from the Westminster Confession of Faith that the Presbyterians used.

Now, they included, of course, their own distinctives—their Baptist distinctives—the differences primarily, of course, with regard to baptism and the nature of the church. And they wanted to articulate those distinctives and those differences. But they wanted to demonstrate also the unity that they had with the Reformers in their main emphasis. And the great emphasis of the Reformers was what we capsulize now in those five solas. And it was a wonderful thing that the Reformers did for us in restoring these truths: of Scripture alone is our sufficient and only authority; salvation is by Christ alone—He did all of the work that saves—and because He did it all, it all comes to us by grace alone and apart from works, received through faith alone. And because salvation is by Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, then God alone receives the glory for it. And we share wholeheartedly in those emphases that capsulize what the Reformers taught. And so we are glad to recognize that, and not just on Reformation Sunday, but throughout the year as well.

I’ve said it before for the sake of you who are new here and haven’t heard me say it—I’ve said it often on Reformation Sunday—that we are Reformed Baptists and therefore we can observe Reformation Sunday, but we are Reformed Baptists and therefore we don’t have to if we don’t want to. Or we can do what we did today, and we have a little of that. We talk about it some, we sing songs all about those major themes, and we observe it in that way. But in our message this morning, we will not be addressing that. In the Lord’s providence, I have to confess, I didn’t plan it this way, none of us did, but we are not looking at a Reformation theme; but we’re going through this brief series on the ordering of the church. We’re looking toward, in the Lord’s providence, bringing in a new pastor. And we wanted to have this in mind for that. And coincidentally, in the Lord’s providence, it also fell on a time when God has brought us three new deacons to serve in the congregation. That is a wonderful, happy thing for us. And so that is what we’re looking at today.

The Origin of the Office of Deacons

In Acts chapter six, we have what we believe is the original accounting of the origin of the office of deacons in the church. They are not named deacons here in Acts chapter 6, but we assume that this is the origin of that office because of the description that is given; and if this passage does not give us the origin of the office of deacon, then we don’t have any account of the origin of the deacon. So we think—and it’s on pretty good ground, I think—that this is it.

So Acts chapter six, verses one through seven:

Now in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the 12 summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Procorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, the proselyte from Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. And the word of God continued to increase, the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

The setting for this passage is, of course, in the very, very early days of the church, probably around A.D. 35 is the year for this. If you want to glance back at the immediate context in Acts chapter 1, we have Christ commissioning His disciples for their program for this age, and then Christ ascends into heaven. In the next great event, chapter 2, Christ the King, exalted in heaven to the right hand of God, pours out His Spirit upon the church, and there the Spirit now is to carry out Christ’s kingdom orders for this age. And what we have at the end of chapter 2, and then through chapter 3 and chapter 4 as well, and even into chapter 5, we have a marvelous picture of the early church and what it was like: that infant church searching the Scriptures, rejoicing together daily in the doctrine that the apostles were teaching, rejoicing in one another in the fellowship that they had in Christ, and we find them taking the advance of the gospel to their surroundings, as we see, as it’s summarized again here in verse 7: “The number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.”

The church was on the go. It was a time of blessing. It was a time of persecution as well. They were threatened by the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem. They didn’t want them preaching in the name of Jesus, and there were threats to that. In fact, in chapter 5, they were beaten for it. But it was a time of blessing for the congregation; in fact, even after they were beaten for their faith and warned not to preach anymore in the name of Jesus, the text tells us they went out from there. This is the end of chapter 5, verse 41. So they’re threatened against it, the church is on the go, the Jewish authorities are bothered by that, and so they threatened them, finally beat them, and they go out—not like you and I would go out—they went out rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ. It was a time of blessing. The church was on the go, and it was clear. There was a bit of a hiccup in chapter 5: Ananias and Sapphira lying about what they had given in the church offering, and God struck them dead. That’ll make you take the offering time more seriously, won’t it?

But with that, there was just this uninterrupted advance is what we see starting already in the early chapters of the book of Acts. There was nothing stopping it. It was a day of persecution, but it was also a day of blessing. And then we come to chapter six, and we get a glimpse here of the internal affairs of the early church. In particular, they had this, what verse 1 translates, the “daily distribution.” In particular, it had a focus on the widows. In the synagogue, in the Jewish synagogue, they had a practice of collecting money in the marketplace from people and even going home to home collecting contributions so that it would be distributed to the needy and to the widows. Evidently, the early church picked up that practice. It’s a practice that survives today in our church today; we call it the Benevolence Fund. They had something like that going on even in the earliest days of the church.

But verse one tells us that there was a problem that threatened the church. In those days, verse one—in those days, that is days of blessing, days of gospel advance, when the disciples were increasing in number—it says a complaint arose, griping. Hellenists against the Hebrews. Now the word Hellenists there has a range of connotations. In this context, in Jerusalem, we can assume that the Hellenists were Jews, and so they would have been Greek-speaking Jews. There’s a cultural difference because of their background and their heritage. They’re Jewish, but they speak Greek. The Hebrews would be those who spoke probably Aramaic. Hebrew was the language of the Jews, it was the language of the Scriptures, but ever since the Babylonian captivity, the language of the street was always Aramaic. So we have the different cultures clashing, different backgrounds, and the Grecians, the Hellenists, are saying, “You haven’t served our widows like you’ve served your widows.” And so this complaint is arising.

Now whether that neglect of the Hellenist widows was deliberate, whether it was something that was intentional, or whether the complaint was maybe overstated—more imagined than real—we’re not told, but evidently it was a real thing going on of some kind. And the hallmark of the early church in the early chapters of Acts was their love and their unity for one another. And you see that in some wonderful ways. Here we have people from everywhere have come into Jerusalem; they’ve been saved. We have people in the church, this infant church in Jerusalem, and they’re so marked by love and unity, such a sense of oneness with one another. They actually shared their goods together. Those that were well-to-do gave for those who were not well-to-do. You see that in chapters three and four and five as well. They’re sharing in some wonderful ways, and that was the hallmark of that early church, the love that they had for one another. Jesus said that would be the mark of His church, and it was, in fact, that mark.

But here now we come to chapter six and there’s a problem. There’s a complaint arising in the congregation. It seemed like nothing would stop this church. Opposition, even persecution is not gonna stop it. But I’ll tell you if anything can stop a church dead, it’s gonna be disunity in the congregation. And that’s the problem that they’re presented with here in Acts chapter six.

And so in verse two and following, the elders direct the congregation to the solution: Choose seven men to oversee this problem of the distribution, the daily distribution to the widows. And here we have a model of how, as we’ve been seeing the ordering of the church, how the elders direct the affairs of the church. They enlist now others to assist them in it.

Now again, I mentioned earlier that this, we assume, is the beginnings of the office of deacon. They’re not called deacons here, but again, if this is not the origin of deacons, then we don’t have an account of it anywhere in the New Testament. So I think we’re on good ground to say this is the origin of that office. The word deacon, diakonos in the Greek, is—we have “deacon” because it’s not a translation of the word, it’s just a transliteration; it takes the Greek word and puts it into English, “deacon.” If we just translate the word, it means servant. It’s used that way in the Scriptures many times, but here in particular, we translate it that way. In other places, like in 1 Timothy 3, when it gives the office of deacon, we give it a technical title, deacon. But if we’re just gonna translate it, it’s the office of servant.

That sounds like an odd thing: this esteemed office of servant. But that’s the way it is in the kingdom of God, isn’t it? Jesus Himself, we could say, is the chief deacon. He came not to be served, but to serve. And then Jesus Himself said that if you want to be great among you, be a servant. And here we have this office of servant entering into the life of the church.

Guidelines for the Office

Now some observations about this. Verse three: our series here is the ordering of the church, so we’ll find some of that. We have the elders then, the apostles, directing the congregation to become involved in resolving the problem. Verse three: “Brothers, pick out from among you seven men.” So they involve the congregation so that—I think this is a wise move on their part—probably so that the complainers themselves would be involved in resolving the problem. And so they did. They chose seven men.

And what’s interesting here is that the seven men who are chosen for us—verse five gives us their names—and all seven of them have Greek names. You don’t see any Adam or David, Solomon. You don’t see any of the “El” names, the Hebrew word for God—Daniel, Ezekiel. You don’t see any of the “Yah” names, the name for God, Yahweh. You don’t see any of that—Elijah. Here we got both: “The Lord is God,” “Yahweh is God.” You don’t see any of those kinds of names here. What we have is Stephanos, Philippos, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, Nicolaus—all of these are good Greek names.

And so interesting: the complaints arose from the Greek side of things in the congregation, and now all seven of the men chosen were Greeks, Greek-speaking Jews. You wonder how that came about. You’re tempted to think the rest of the congregation says, “You got a problem? Go deal with it. You can have it.” But I don’t think it’s quite that simple because the Jews, the Hebrew side of the congregation, certainly wanted their widows taken care of well as also. But they picked men, obviously, as we will see, men of good repute. These were upstanding men in the congregation.

So the apostles and the elders directed the congregation to be involved in resolving the problem. Second, the elders imposed guidelines. We find that again in verse three: “Choose seven men of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit, and of wisdom.” Those are the guidelines. You don’t just pick the chief griper in the congregation. We want men who are men of good repute, men full of the Holy Spirit, and full of wisdom. In other words, proven men.

Now we don’t know most of these names here. We have seven names. Three of them we do know. Stephen—we’ll find him in the very next chapter, Acts chapter 7, a martyr for the faith. And not only a martyr, but a man with an amazing grasp of the Scriptures. And that sermon that he gives in the next chapter shows a remarkable insight into the Old Testament and how it is all fulfilled in Jesus. That’s Stephen. Then we have Philip. That’s chapter eight. We have Philip meeting with the Ethiopian official in the desert and preaching from Isaiah chapter 53, that that’s Jesus.

Now there’s one other name here that is not given to us anywhere else in the New Testament, but we have this man by the name of Procorus. Church history tells us that he became closely associated with the Apostle John. He became the Bishop of Nicomedia, that’s up in Asia Minor, and then finally was martyred for the faith in Antioch. We have three men that we do know of. These were upstanding men, and these were the ones chosen, good men.

And then thirdly, the elders directed the congregation to become involved in resolving the problem. They imposed the guidelines, they stipulated what the qualifications would be. And then third, the appointment and oversight of these men would remain the responsibility of the elders, of the apostles. Verse six: “Whom we will appoint to this duty.” Presumably they retained the—or a—veto in case they happen to pick just the chief griper or something like that.

So we have the elders in verses two and three defining the solution for the problem, defining how it should be resolved. They determined the number of men that should be chosen. They stipulated the qualifications for these men. They determined the role of the congregation in it all. And then they appointed the ones who were chosen, working under their oversight and accountable to them.

The Significance of the Office

All right, well, there’s the narrative. What’s the point? What’s the point of all of this? Why did Luke see this important to include in the Scriptures for us? Is it just the historical account of the origin of the office of deacon? That, I suppose, would be enough—give us the answer to that question. But there’s clearly more to it than that.

And for that, I’ll have you recall again the context of all of this. Recall where this falls in the book of Acts. Chapter one, we have Christ’s commission to His apostles. We have His outlining the mission of the church age: “You’ll be a witness to me, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth.” Chapter 2, Christ bestows His Spirit on His church at Pentecost late in chapter 2. And then in the following chapters, we find a wonderful picture of the infant church. They’re in fellowship, they’re in love with one another, searching the Scriptures daily, rejoicing in the doctrine of the apostles that they’ve been teaching. And we have church growth, even under opposition, under severe persecution; the church is on the move.

And then we come to chapter 6, and we have this problem. First problem, really, in the congregation of the church. And it threatened the advance of the gospel. Church is moving, making its advance, and now it’s about to come to a screeching halt because the people in the congregation are quibbling with one another.

Now with that context in mind, notice how Luke himself characterizes this whole episode. Verse one: “Now in those days,” that is the days of early Christian advance, “when disciples”—he specifies here—”when disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose by the Hellenist against the Hebrews.” So this is a real problem. This is one that threatened the church’s witness and advance. And who was at the forefront of that witness and advance? It was the elders, the apostles.

Now that’s a real—now we have this internal problem in the congregation, and that’s going to threaten the advance of the gospel that these men were leading. That’s how Luke characterizes it. Look at verse two: “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

That is to say, this problem of the neglect of the widows, this is a real problem, it is a real need, and we must see to it. But we ourselves cannot be distracted by it. That’s the real issue going on here. Our priority, he tells us, must remain, verse 4, the ministry of the word and prayer. So we’ll oversee, but we cannot get bogged down into this.

And then Luke wraps up the account in verse 7 with the results of their decision: “The word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly.” So the widow problem in that congregation was a real problem, but it was not the primary problem. The primary problem was the threat that that posed to the advance of the ministry that was happening through the apostles and elders leading it.

And so Acts chapter 6 is a critical juncture from the life of the early church. And in a sense, all the following centuries and history of the church ever since, in a sense, turns on this passage right here. The ministry of the word must not be neglected. It must not be hindered. We can’t allow anything to come into the congregational life that would hinder the advance of the ministry of the word. That’s Luke’s point.

And those entrusted with the leadership of the church must keep focus: prayer and the ministry of the word. Now, if the apostles here had chosen instead to busy themselves in taking care of the widows themselves, then Christian ministry forever would have been misshaped accordingly. Pastors, elders would have become, at that point, “ministers of miscellany,” as I like to call it. The prayer and ministry of the Word would have been sidelined. There’s always, always, always, always, always something else that demands attention. And many of those needs, like this one in Acts chapter 6, many of those needs are real and legitimate needs that need attending to. The apostles speak up here: “We must address this issue, but we cannot adjust our priorities.” Prayer and the ministry of the Word must not be hindered. This is an enormously, enormously important event in shaping the church forever. In a sense, the history of the church turns on this passage. The character of pastoral ministry turns at this point. If they had chosen otherwise, Christian ministry would have become something else entirely.

Now, if that’s the point—and that clearly is the point—if that’s the point of the passage, then in turn, this passage defines for us the significance and the esteem associated with the office of deacon. That is to say, the office of deacon has a gospel purpose. That is, the specific work which the deacons are called to is not specifically gospel work, but it is in support of gospel work that it is called. And it is essential to the support of the work of the ministry, and that’s the character then of the office of deacon. It is in support of the work of the ministry that the church is called to do.

And so the apostolic ordering of the church requires teamwork. Not just a plurality of elders—a teamwork of elders—but also others joining in that work to ensure that the elders maintain their focus on the ministry of the word and prayer. So elders maintain oversight—we see that here—establish the structure, but then they delegate the work of that to others. And they are responsible then to tend to the needs of the congregation that would otherwise cause the elders to lose their focus. And that then is the value of the, say it this way, the “servant office,” the office of deacon. And that is the esteem associated with it. We get a hint of the esteem associated with it in Philippians chapter one. Paul writes to the saints that are in the church at Philippi, “with the elders and deacons.” They deserve pointing out. There’s a hint there of the esteem that’s associated with it. But that’s the value of the office. They are there for the support of the ministry—not because they do the primary work, but because they enable it.

Many of you have heard me say deacons are—there’s a long history of pastors and deacons conflict. Many of you have heard me say that the deacons are the unsung heroes of the church. They carry on work that makes the rest of the work—it enables the rest of the work. And if it weren’t for their work, the rest would be very difficult to move forward. Now, there’s an attending benefit and an attending responsibility to the office of deacon that we find here as well. These men, by their work, were essential to maintaining the peace and the unity of the congregation. Verse 1 tells us a complaint arose. Now you know how that works: a complaint arose. Don’t think when you read that that a very politely stated complaint arose. That’s just not the way it works. In fact, I took the time this week to look up in several Greek lexicons how this word is used—this Greek word that’s translated “complaint” here. It has a number of connotations, but none of them happy. In fact, the standard Greek lexicon gives us its first definition: “an utterance made in a low tone of voice.” Another one he gives is “behind-the-scenes talk.” Okay, you get the idea. There’s grumbling, there’s complaining, there’s rumblings in the congregation. “A complaint arose” states it very concisely, but almost too politely as well. And these men, functioning in their role, keeping things moving smoothly, needs met, results in a happy congregation and people are at peace.

Now it has been the case, and it has been known to happen, that deacons, on occasion, have in fact been the source of discontent in the congregation. That is a major fail. Part of the responsibility, part of the purpose of their office, is to maintain the peace and unity of the congregation. It’s an important aspect of their function.

Fellow Workers for the Gospel

So, the series here is the ordering of the church. The New Testament model is one of teamwork. Elders lead, they oversee the congregation, but with a particular focus; and then others join the work to enable and preserve that focus while addressing various needs of the congregation.

In Acts chapter 6, we find, we think, the origin then of the office of deacon. But we have other examples of this in the New Testament. And there’s a word, a range of words that are used to describe them as well—not the office of deacon, but others who come along and help.

Paul, for example, will often describe—he has a whole range of vocabulary that he uses to describe the work of the ministry. Mostly it’s translated “work,” but various words are used for that work and labor and things like that. And then Paul will also refer to himself as God’s fellow worker. He refers to Peter as God’s fellow worker, and Apollos as God’s fellow worker. In other words, this is God’s work. And so we’re fellow workers with God to do it.

And then in turn, we also find with Paul and in John as well, he would refer to others who help him in the ministry as fellow workers. And there’s that term cropping up again over and over in Paul’s writings.

In Romans chapter 16, some of these names are not as familiar as others, but we do have in Romans 16 Priscilla and Aquila, Urbanus, and then Timothy—we all recognize that name. 1 Corinthians 16, he refers to the household of Stephanus, who’s a fellow worker as well. And he speaks of them as those who devoted themselves to the service of the saints. And others in 1 Corinthians 16 who are unnamed as fellow workers. We find it in 2 Corinthians 8 for Titus. Philippians 2, Epaphroditus is a fellow worker; seems like he was a pastor. In Philippians 4, Euodia and Syntyche—you remember those names? Again, a squabble in the church. These two women at odds in the Philippian church and the congregation. Tell them to get along. But he refers to them and others in Philippians chapter 4 as his fellow workers. Colossians 4, Aristarchus; we have one named Justus as well. There are several others. Philemon was one; we assume that he was the one in whose house the church met for their meetings. And then 3 John verse 8 refers to fellow workers as well.

So here are others who have come alongside, joined in the work, all working toward a common cause. Acts chapter 6, we have the institution of the office of deacon, but we find the same principle working in the New Testament: virtually all coming together to be fellow workers toward the same cause. So the bottom line of all that is whether elders or deacons or fellow workers, we are all Christ’s fellow workers. Each in our own capacity, differing roles, but a common cause.

I mentioned last time in Ephesians chapter four—we spent some time there—that pastors and teachers are given to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body, the body building itself up in love. This is the point here: we’re joining together, each in a different role, but a common cause. Paul’s teaching of spiritual gifts fits into this as well: the congregation coming together in a team effort working toward the advance of the gospel.

Well, Acts 6 drives us to ask the question, and all of these considerations about fellow workers as well, drives us to ask: Why are we here? Why are we here? Why is RBC? What is it we’re doing here? There are, I suppose, several ways you can answer that. But the bottom line of it all is we are here to give a voice for God. We are here to proclaim Christ, to advance the gospel, to make disciples, to build up men and women in the faith. That’s what we’re here for. And whatever else we do, it is in support of that. This is why we are here: to give God a voice. And each of us with our own role, all aimed at this common goal, to advance the cause of Christ.

Acts chapter 6, without interruption.