Christ Calls Deacons

Amen. If you have your Bibles, you can turn to Acts chapter 6,

Acts 6 · chapter mention

and we'll just be reading verses 1 through 7.

Acts chapter 6. This is the holy and inspired Word of God, so listen accordingly.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

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 twelve 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 Prochorus,

and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch.

These they set before the apostles, and they prayed, and laid their hands on them.

And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied

greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

This is the word of the Lord. You can be seated.

Let's pray together.

O Lord, our God, send your Holy Spirit to be with us that we might see and hear

and know everything that we ought to from this text, even though it's simple in so many ways.

Bless us as a church through it and turn us ultimately to our Savior,

Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

So, as we work our way through the book of Acts, we're looking at the selection

of the first deacons of the church.

And remember that Acts is being written by Luke. Luke is an historian.

This is the second installment of his work on the history of the church,

the first being primarily the life and ministry of Jesus, and then the second

being the establishment and development of the church.

The book of Acts is a divinely inspired church history book,

the history of the newborn church of Jesus Christ brought into existence by

the remarkable gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Now keep that in mind, that is always something that people are constantly thinking

about when it comes to gifts and tongues and miracles and signs and wonders,

but the structure of Pentecost is there very importantly to remind us of the reversal.

Of the Tower of Babel.

That was that great event in the history in Genesis chapter 10,

Genesis 10 · chapter mention

and where we see this table of the nations in Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel,

and Genesis 12, the call of Abram, who would become Abraham.

So in the book of Acts, we're seeing actually the fulfillment of the promises

to Abraham in Genesis 12 in contrast to the Tower of Babel.

And we're going to see this morning in the selection of the first deacons,

Stephen being the first named, that the Tower of Babel is being reversed very

practically in ways of love and kindness through the diaconate.

The diaconate is an institution or an office, if you will, that Christ has established

through the apostles. This is going to be.

I'm going to keep, I guess, digging. It depends on how you see it.

I think it's helpful constructive theology. But if you're one of those house

church people out there, kind of making up your own stuff, making yourself as

your own leader and yourself as your own pastor, I guess you ordain yourself.

I don't know what you do exactly.

But this is actually the history of the real church, the true church,

which is an institution.

The church isn't just something you do at home. How do I know?

We see it right here. This is the development of an institution.

I know Americans are always like, it's a relationship, not a religion.

It's a relationship that brings you into a religion and into the church.

There is no relationship outside of the religion of Christianity. The two go together.

Yes, churches sometimes abuse the institution. Yes, they make up traditions.

Yes, we abuse our authority. Pastors go too far, et cetera, et cetera.

But what you're looking at is the word of the Lord. We said that.

Thanks be to God. This isn't something that I made up. I didn't make up the

diaconate. I didn't make up the ministry of elders and deacons.

Christ did through the apostles, okay?

There's a little, it's not really anti-house church. It's just kind of like,

come on, guys, listen to the word of the Lord.

And the word of the Lord has structured an institution that we call the church

with deacons and elders and pastors and apostles who founded it.

The Spirit of God empowers the people of God to be transformed into this new institution.

And as they grow, as they grow, you would expect that with them grows the institution

and the needs of the church to have oversight in what would eventually become pastors and elders.

And here are now deacons who help with the mercy ministry of the church.

It makes sense because the church is growing, and man, is it growing.

As you look through the history here, Luke doesn't just write about this great

growth because he's personally optimistic. He's a post-millennialist.

Are you with me? He writes it because it's actually happening.

This is the way it's going on. He's highlighting the powerful and unstoppable

and incredible work of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit brings Christ to us.

Just some of these activities in Acts 2.41. It says, those who received the

word were baptized and there were added to them 3,000 souls.

Hallelujah. What a great experience. That's in Jerusalem.

Acts 2.47, the Lord added to the number daily, day by day, those who were being saved in Jerusalem.

Acts 4.4, many of those who heard the word believed and the number of men came

to about 5,000. Again, this is just in Jerusalem.

Remember the outline of Acts is gonna be from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria

to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Acts 5.14, more than ever, believers were added to the Lord,

multitudes of both men and women.

Acts 9.31, so the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace

and was being built up and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort

of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

Acts 13.49, and the word of the Lord spread throughout the whole region in the region of Pisidia.

Acts 16.5, so the churches were strengthened in faith and they increased in numbers daily.

It goes on and on and on, as if God is fulfilling his promises,

because he is, and Luke records it for us. It's exciting.

These statements of transition propel us through the history of the newborn

church, and as the newborn church is moving to the power of the Holy Spirit,

and as she grows, she also develops.

Again, the development of the institution of the church is not surprising.

It would be expected, and it's done under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

It's not just a loose confederation of a bunch of people who got saved and are

no longer going to heaven, hell, but now they're going to heaven.

It's an institution. Are we together?

It's an institution. People don't like the word, but I'm telling you from the

word of God, we're seeing it.

It develops into an organized, ordered institution.

And it happens as the church is suffering through the work of the cross.

That's how it does. That's how it moves. As we said last week,

we're taking a bit of a hiatus from persecution, which we'll get back to.

Trust me, Stephen, you're not going to get away with it. Stephen,

who's selected here, will be the one who becomes the first recorded martyr.

So our chapter begins and ends with a reference of growth. Now in these days,

when the disciples were increasing, and down in verse 7, and the word of God

increased in the number of the disciples, greatly multiplied in Jerusalem,

and a great many, even of the priests, were obedient.

Look how it's expanding. It's moving into even the priest of the area.

So we have sandwiched between this passage, the threat of the Christian movement

to be overcome by persecution and hatred and so forth.

The victory of the resurrection is always coming through the struggling of the

cross, the way of the cross.

It's not just an unending move up forward, right?

The apostles don't just go to the temple, heal the man, yay,

everybody believes, and off they go into the wild blue yonder.

They do go, and then what? They get arrested, and then they get told to stop

and they were quarreled with and then they even get beaten.

So persecution comes and yet they grow. So it's not just unending growth up

to the top of the mountain.

It's some growth, it's some decline, some growth up and down as one might expect.

But there is ultimate growth.

And now we see one of the problems that we haven't seen yet.

Well, we saw it with Ananias and Sapphira, although the apostles took care of it rather radically.

Remember, did you saw this? Yeah.

They died Here we have a problem that's coming from within the church And as

you would expect Within the church, as the church grows And as this situation

where the apostles are gathering,

Monies that's sold from land And items that are given in exchange and so forth

The apostles have things brought to their feet And then they give them to those

as they have need We saw that, sort of that From each according to his ability

To each according to his need,

It's not Mark's, by the way That's the apostle here, right? Are you together?

That's my first joke of the whole year. I gotta make sure that you're ready for jokes this year.

So the problem is within, it says, look in verse six, chapter one.

Chapter six, verse one. In these days, when the disciples were increasing in

number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because of their

widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

So again, you have nearly, let's say 8,000 people, various nationalities and

various languages trying to get along with each other.

Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but I was just at Christmas last week, right?

And I don't have in my family various nationalities and tribes from all over

the different nations of the earth.

We do have some actually international, but we're just one small family.

And even with one small family, there's a few problems, right?

Who brought this? Who brought that? I wasn't supposed to bring that.

That was so-and-so. She brings the broccoli casserole.

And that's just one small little group meeting for Christmas.

8,000 people roughly here are trying to gather together and organize.

And one of the problems is there's a great number of poor people who are needy.

How do you get those poor people taken care of? How do you organize to take care of them?

Obviously, with all the multiplicity of languages and nations gathered together

here, it becomes a challenge and squabbles break out.

The principal issue seems to be between primarily Jewish folks and the Greek believers.

Now, in case you haven't noticed it yet, you will notice it in the book of Acts.

This will become the most important

tribal issue in the history of Christianity, Jews versus non-Jews.

Many of the Jews in this particular time period believe that all of the promises

of God had always been promised for the ethnic nation of Israel.

So it will be, and you'll see it, especially when Paul begins to minister to

them and Peter gets a vision.

Peter will even get a vision. He'll say, not me, I'm not gonna eat that. No, Lord.

So this will become an issue. Now, now they're together.

It looks like most of them are Jewish converts, but they're Jewish converts

from Mesopotamia and Babylon and Egypt and North Africa and various places all over the world.

The very same people that we saw gathered at the table of nations in Acts chapter two.

Remember the table of nations at Acts chapter two is a table of nations that

will be reversed by the table of nations.

Or reversing the table of nations

from Genesis chapter 10 and the story of Genesis 11. Are we together?

Genesis 10 · chapter mention

So all of these nations, that's why they're all speaking different languages.

The miracle of tongues is they were suddenly able to understand people of the

other language, which brought them together in Christ.

Now that they're brought together, there's still a struggle.

A great deal of poor people.

Widows who were dependent on the aid that were given out from the temple funds.

It's likely that when these people became believers, they were eligible for

aid or they were ineligible for temple aid.

And so now they were completely dependent on the aid coming from the apostles.

This would mean that these were truly needy people, not the kind of people that

you could just say, get a job.

They weren't able to do it. They were needy. We can assume that they were genuinely needy.

So you have this logistical problem that creates fertile soil for troubles in

the church, believe it or not.

And I know we're in the early stages of, yay, we have a new pastor and we have new families coming in.

We're just now starting to grow. But believe it or not, when we grow,

and I pray by God's grace, we will, and I believe we will, it will be a challenge,

because you have more people.

You're like, we want more people. Yes, we do.

But it means we have challenges with more people.

And some people, believe it or not, it's gonna be hard to believe, they complain.

I know, I'm shocked. Some people, when they see a problem, instead of going

to the pastor or elders to fix it, they complain to other people.

That's what seems to be happening. It says, There was not a needy person among

them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the

needs of prosy. This is from Acts chapter 4.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

They brought them to the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

But there was murmuring, it says.

I love this word. This is that word that we saw or could see if we've studied

the book of Philippians, where it says, do everything without complaining or arguing.

It's a super cool Greek word. It's what I think in English we call an onomatopoeia.

You guys are the English, all the homeschool moms. Of course I know that.

It's an onomatopoeia is basically, it sounds like what it is, right?

So in other words, kerplunk. You know, when you see the word kerplunk,

it sounds like a stone dropping in. And here the word is gurguzomai.

It's like, you know, it reminds you of Yosemite Sam.

I may have said that before, where he's, you know, you don't even know what

he's saying, do you? But do you know he's not happy?

Because he's gurgling, he's complaining. That's the word that's used here.

So it doesn't look like it was actually the widows themselves,

but someone was complaining about it.

These widows aren't getting as much as, that's how it goes. That's what it,

and it's the word, by the way, if you think sometimes that pastors or elders

are like making fun of you for complaining, we're not. The word itself does.

It's the kind of grumbling and murmuring that just stirs trouble.

It doesn't help. The word is indedicative of people who weren't really trying to help.

They just wanted to stir things up. You know, some people, there was an old

television show we used to watch where the person says, you know what,

I think you're the kind of person that doesn't really think you're living unless

you're involved in some sort of trouble, like controversy, causing trouble.

It looks like, believe it or not, there may be people in the church like that.

So this particular dispute was being stirred up.

Accusation may or may not have even been true. It doesn't really say.

The problem does look like a real one, but we're not really sure that anybody

was doing it on purpose. It may have just been happened and so forth.

So a typical of church disputes, it begins to drain the energy of the church from within.

Praise be to God. We don't have that here. I'm so thankful as I'm starting the

new year, making thankful New Year's resolutions.

And so this church doesn't have any, but pay attention to the text church and let's keep it that way.

So when, not if, when there are problems and there will be, we are not perfect.

I cannot promise you a perfect new year. I will make mistakes.

Elders will make mistakes.

Deacons will make mistakes when they do. Remember this passage that all you're

doing by gurgling and grumbling and complaining is undermining the work of Christ in the church.

John MacArthur says that a church

wracked by internal conflict finds its message lost in the conflict.

Its energy dissipated, spizzles out.

And the church is thus focused now on itself, trying to fix the problems and

unable to reach out to a lost world.

So it's good for us to remember that.

Such problems often come with great blessings as well As we see here,

again, thousands of people There's an economic crisis There's the ability to

handle it Because people are bringing money They are bringing things generously

Barnabas, we saw, sold all the land that he had And he gave it away.

But we see now that there's prejudice also involved in this culturally diverse

new community. The Christian church is culturally diverse.

It's Catholic with a small c. It's universal. Keep that in mind.

That's what happens at the Tower of Babel.

When the Tower of Babel is reversed, suddenly you have all these people with

diverse tribal backgrounds, which immediately causes strife.

We talked a little bit about it in Sunday school. Different tribal groups,

different ethnic groups, different nationalities think differently.

And if you think differently, it's not always easy to sort out the differences in how you think.

Language and culture and boundaries are a blessing when they're brought together

in Christ, but they're also a challenge.

We hear cries today from politicians all the time about racism in America.

Guess what? There was racism in the first century early church.

Jews didn't like Greeks. Greeks didn't like Jews. They thought so-and-so was

getting more than such-and-such because she's Hellenistic or she knows so-and-so

or he knows such-and-such.

They were divided along intense ethnic and religious rivalries,

and it's no different today.

But I do want to encourage you to know that the answer is still in the church,

who provides this solution with the diaconate and begins to minister to all

these tribes and nations and tongues and people of the earth, these needy people.

Different languages and different cultures. It's exciting to think about,

by the way. This is also where, as I was reading for Sunday School,

I'm reading Leslie Newbigin, and I was interested.

Newbigin says one of the great challenges of any church that's indigenous to

any culture is that they need to be involved with the global church.

They need to hear from Africans, and they need to hear from Chinese people,

and they need to hear from Ukrainians, and they need to hear about their problems

and how they're solving them,

what they do in worship, what they do at their Presbytery meetings,

all those things which could infuse within us a global sense that we're the

people of God worldwide, not just Wilmington,

not just OPC, not just America, but worldwide.

You see this. The early church is an international community. It's a glorious thing.

I thought about that. I was looking at the stats, even when we were on Mulberry

Street, when I was preaching through Pentecost, I thought, wow,

how can Wilmington reach out to the international community?

And then I looked up Clinton County, we're like 93% white.

So there's not really that much to do in terms of reaching out to the global

community in Wilmington.

And by the way, as a side note, it doesn't mean we're bad because we're mostly white.

It can't help it, right? 93% of us are here in Clinton County like that.

But it does mean we can actively and consciously listen to the global church

from missionaries and missionary works from all around us and pray for them

and think about them and learn from them as well.

There's no shame, in other words, in being from Clinton County and not being,

you know, have multiculturalism and diversity. It doesn't exist here.

So, but it does exist in the church. And as we inform ourselves with the global church, It blesses us.

So it's natural here to give in to fallen nature. There's conflict.

They're fighting and so forth. And you'll notice it's hindering the word.

That's the main thing. It's a setback to the movement because it says that we

don't want to give away the time we're having for the word of God to serve at tables.

Sounds kind of funny, doesn't it? They say, well, we as elders don't want to

give up our time, quote, serving at tables.

Does this sound condescending to you?

I would have, geez, the elders, they think they're better than the deacons.

By the way, there's always, there's always in every church I've ever been to

a little bit of hint, and if it's not cared for properly,

it can develop into the elders are better than the deacons, because all the

deacons do is care for tables and budgets and poor people.

Well, it's not like that in the story here. It's not like that at all.

When they say, we don't have time to do this. We don't have time to distribute the alms.

We don't have time to count it and be a treasurer.

We're preaching and we're teaching and we're developing these things.

It's not like we're better than you.

They're simply distinguishing roles. That's all.

In fact, you'll notice when it comes to the qualifications for deacon,

they're no different than an elder.

A deacon is to be a spiritual man in charge of a spiritual duty.

And it's not just counting money and organizing chairs.

It's caring for the welfare of the people of God, spiritually speaking.

You don't wanna think of it like many people do like, well, I don't think he's

quite ready to be an elder, so let's just elect him as a deacon.

As if, you know, deacons here, elders here, he's not ready.

And men, maybe if he serves well as an elder, we'll kind of boost him up.

And there's nothing like that in the text this morning.

These are distinguished. Stephen, by the way, is also a preacher.

He's the first martyr who dies.

He's a glorious deacon who's preaching the gospel on the streets,

completely capable as any minister that they had.

So the roles that are distinguished are not superior and inferior.

They're simply different.

But the major focus is so that the church, through the apostles and through

the work of the preaching and teaching can focus on the Word of God.

The effect of not having deacons would be of leaving the Word of God and doing

something that needs to be done. You'll notice it has to be done.

We need to be doing this. We need to be caring for them. But it would be a strategic

mistake to try to have one person do everything.

Are we together? It's not that deacons are less than elders.

They have a different job than elders.

In an ideal world, deacons and elders are equally qualified to be either one.

They're not less than elders, they simply have a different job.

Now, it is the case, in point of fact, that many times deacons that serve a

long time as a deacon are ended up being elected as elders because of the practical

needs of a congregation. But it's not so from the text.

It's not as if being a deacon is a stepping stone to being an elder.

It's a glorious, wonderful job that requires someone to be spiritually mature.

So the apostles say that this is one of the things that makes the heart of the

ministry of the word beat in the life of the congregation and the community.

The deacons began to minister to the needs of widows and orphans and those who

are in need, which provides, as it were, an embodied experience of the gospel

for the community to see as well.

By the time this thing is all over, it's so amazing. Not only have they heard

the word of God, not only is it preached with eloquence and with power and by

the Spirit, but now it's lived among them.

No poor person goes unserved. No one goes neglected because pure and undefiled

religion, says James, is what?

To look after orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

This is the essence of pure religion, the work of the deacons in caring for

the needy and caring for the poor.

Yes, and even sorting out who really is a needy person.

Guess what? Surprise, surprise, and the deacons know this already.

Some people will come to you wanting things that they shouldn't get.

And it's the glorious, exciting, isn't it, guys? The glorious,

exciting job to sit down with these people who, surprise, surprise,

lie to you. I don't take any drugs. No.

And it's a difficult, challenging job to do.

We need spiritually mature people to do it. We need to pray for our deacons,

that they will do it, that they can do it.

And that it's understood that their job is just as important as an elder's job

or a pastor's job. It's just a different job.

And you'll notice when it happens, and it's an amazing thing,

it's another burst of energy for the church of Jesus Christ.

The widows were cared for. The ministry of the word of God was not forsaken

because both were utterly crucial.

And the church begins to thrive and prosper and grow.

And the community sees and says, wow, praise be to God.

And you'll notice here come the Greeks. All those deacons, by the way, are all outsiders.

They're Greeks. I said, here come the Greeks.

We had a family in our church years ago that was Greek, and he used to love

to see all the New Testament passages where the Greeks came into the church.

So here come the Greeks, all these Greek names. They were chosen.

All of them are Greek, by the way. You say, well, what's the big deal?

What's the big deal? We're in Jerusalem.

All of a sudden, all the new deacons of the church are not indigenously from

Jerusalem. They're from outside. They're Greeks.

They were probably Jewish Greeks that had come there, but they were Greeks nonetheless,

less indicative of where this church is going.

This church through the mercy ministry of Christ, the preaching and mercy ministry

of the deacons is going to explode and go to the whole world.

And then you'll notice they took all these Greeks and they ordained them.

This is another slap in the face to the whole, I want to start my own church at my house movement.

These men were ordained. Well, you don't find the word ordination in the Bible.

No, you're right. I'm using the word ordination.

Oh yeah. What does it say? Verse six, they sat before the apostles,

they prayed them and they laid hands on them.

You don't have to call it ordination. You can choose another word.

It's just the historic traditional word that an organized church uses to indicate

that God through the church has chosen men and has set them aside.

We call it ordination for the laying on of hands that the Holy Spirit is not

imparted so much through the hands as it reminds us of the symbol that as these

men are chosen by the church, they're chosen by the Holy Spirit and God unto a spiritual service.

Praise be to God for the deacons.

Don't think of them as bean counters or chair movers or the ones who do all

the stuff that nobody else wants to do.

Although, as they know, they do a lot of stuff and no one else wants to do.

I told my son once who was invited to be a deacon, I said, you have a truck.

You have a truck. So what does that mean? I said, every weekend you have a truck and you're a deacon.

So just saying, they work so hard. They do so much and we need them as well.

We need to pray for them. Look at the qualifications.

No different really than the elders.

Honest, grave, not double tongued, not a drunkard, not desiring filthy lucre, pure in conscience,

someone who's been proven, someone who's capable, who has his life in order,

whose ministry can't be ruined by the actions of his family that he doesn't also have in order.

His wife and his children are also godly and in order.

And they're all there to assist the work of the elders in the preaching and

teaching of the word. The word diakonos essentially means servant.

They are ordained servants of God in the church.

And George Grant notes this, he says, that is because the church is the only

institution on earth that can actively nurture the values of faith,

family, and work in the poor, anywhere else for that matter.

Through the word revealed, the word made manifest, the word become incarnate.

The deacons are, as it were, the hands and feet and arms of the love of Jesus

Christ that is preached to the servants of God, without which the church cannot function.

They're essential and vital to the work of the church. And they're ideal servants

that remind us of the work of Jesus Christ himself, who came not to be served, but to serve.

The deacon is likened to even a slave. The word Matthew uses is the word doulos.

They're servants or slaves of Christ with no authority per se, but that of service.

Like Jesus Christ. In Christ, we have the ultimate example of the doulos or

the servant or the slave who came not to be served, but to serve.

Like your savior Christ, who served without regard to his own suffering,

we also must serve without any expectation of honor and glory and praise.

And that's the office of deacon, exemplified, as we'll see in a moment,

with Stephen dying a martyr's death.

Oh, what a heart filled with vain glory don't we all naturally possess, says one author.

Oh, how we all struggle to put off the old man of selfishness and pride.

Oh, how we struggle to serve others without regard to reward or personal acclaim.

This is the office of the deacon.

This is the kind of service that Jesus Christ himself offered to his Father.

Whoever wishes to be great must become a servant. No self-glory, no self-interest.

That is the way of Christ. And this is, by the way, I have preached portions

of this sermon for deaconate ordinations and installations.

So you're like, wait, I thought you were trying to encourage me, Pastor.

No glory, no honor, no praise, only work, only service. It's the blessings of Jesus Christ.

It's a model of Jesus Christ that our deacons serve for us. Thank you.

Where Philippians says, Let nothing be done by selfish ambition or vain conceit,

but in lowliness of mind let each other esteem others better than himself.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form

of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of

no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of man.

Deacons are to be this example of service to us.

And that example of service will never return empty or void.

It yielded awesome results in the first church, in the first century church.

And it yields amazing results as well.

Not to be calculated by how many poor people we help and how many people we

get into the church and grow.

But in the sense that God declares in Isaiah 55, my word that goes out from

my mouth, It will not return empty to me, but it will accomplish what I desire

and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

You will go out with joy and you will be led forth in peace.

The mountains and hills will birthed into song before you and all the trees

of the field will clap their hands.

Instead of the thorn bush will grow the pine tree. Instead of the briars, the myrtle will grow.

This will be for the Lord's renown for everlasting sign. This is the work of

the deacons in the church. It's a glorious work.

Praise God for the deacons that we have in our church. Pray that God would raise

up more and pray that they would be the hands and feet of the gospel ministry

that we preach at Wilmington Reformed Church.

And if it is, we'll grow just like the early church.

But we'll see a full-fledged ministry of word and deed together,

the embodied church of Jesus Christ, the embodiment of the gospel lived out

in the life of the deacons and in the life of our church, per se.

And this will be the amazing means by which God reverses the curse of Babel,

bringing all people, poor people,

rich people, foreigners, all types together as one in Jesus Christ.

Amen. Let's pray together.

Lord, how we thank you for the calling of the first deacons.

It is even a calling of Christ himself who says, Come to me, all you who are thirsty.

Come to the waters, and you who have no money, come and buy and eat.

Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

Why do you spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the

richest affair. give ear and come to me, hear me, that your soul may live.

Oh Lord, as our deacons do the job that they're called to do here,

and as deacons across the church Catholic also do their jobs,

Lord, may it be the embodiment of the gospel.

May people who are needy hear and see and feel the touch and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And may your name be given all glory and praise because of it.

We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.