Deacons and the Roles and Relationships of Our King

Ephesians 4:1-6; Acts 6:1-7
October 31, 2021
Abraham Hong

Sermon Script

Praise be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our church held a congregational vote last Sunday. And Aaron, Brian, Joey, and Tim were chosen to become ordained deacons.

This is exciting and historic. This is an opportunity for us to take a big step forward in the reformation of the church. Reformation means better church government, stronger diaconal ministry, greater compassion, care, and charity, and just more love here at Highland. And reformation means that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is honored and glorified.

Dear Highland, when Aaron, Brian, Joey, and Tim become ordained deacons, know this. There will be some changes with regard to roles and relationships in our church. And new roles and new relationships can come with new issues and new challenges. Today’s sermon is designed to offer some wisdom for us as we receive new deacons and as we navigate our roles and our relationships with humility, gentleness, patience, and love… in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

There are four parts to this sermon. We’ll consider elders, women, English-speaking members, and Korean-speaking members here at Highland.

First, dear Highland, may there be wisdom in the roles and relationships of deacons and elders. Deacons and elders are distinct in their offices. But deacons are elders are to work side by side in cooperation and collaboration with one another. Therefore, a lot of humility, gentleness, patience, and love is needed between deacons and elders. It is true that elders have the authority to generally govern everything that happens in the church. This means that elders do indeed have oversight over deacons. But a good session of elders will gladly allow deacons to exercise their diaconal authority to handle the collection and distribution of money. And a good board of deacons will gladly give an account of their activities to elders. Good elders and good deacons will trust one another well and not undermine the other office. Elders should not end up becoming like assistant deacons. And deacons should not end up becoming like assistant elders. This is going to take a lot of humility, gentleness, patience, and love. Please pray for our deacons. And please pray for our elders.

Second, dear Highland, may there be wisdom in the roles and relationships of deacons and women. Deacons are to minister the compassion, care, and charity of Christ to members of the church who are female. But deacons are to work side by side in cooperation and collaboration with women in general and with their wives in particular. Therefore, a lot of humility, gentleness, patience, and love is needed between deacons and women. It is true that our denomination believes that only men can be ordained to the office of deacon. But a good board of deacons will depend on the work of women when modesty or propriety or just common sense calls for it. A good board of deacons will regularly consult women for their decisions and ask women to take up special service and real responsibility for the sake of those in need. And a good board of deacons will empower and honor women who are diaconally gifted and talented. This is going to take a lot of humility, gentleness, patience, and love. Please pray for our deacons. And please pray for our sisters in Christ.

Third, dear Highland, may there be wisdom in the roles and relationships of deacons and all of us who are English-speaking church members. There is some overlap here with the previous part about women. But hear me out. It is true that Aaron, Brian, Joey, and Tim are going to be ministers of God’s compassion and care here at Highland. But that does not mean that all the compassion and care here at Highland falls on them. Deacons exist to lead us all and encourage us all and organize us all so that all of us can be diaconal. So that all of us can be compassionate and caring to everyone here at Highland. It must not be 10% of us doing 90% of compassion and care. It must be 100% of us doing 100% of compassion and care. We are all in this together. Not all of us are called to be ministers of practical love and care for everyone. But all of us are called to be a part of the ministry of practical love and care for everyone. This is going to take a lot of humility, gentleness, patience, and love. Please pray for our deacons. And please pray for everyone in our EM - in our English-speaking ministry.

Fourth and finally, dear Highland, may there be wisdom in the roles and relationships of deacons and all of our Korean-speaking church members. It is understandable to call Aaron, Brian, Joey, and Tim “EM deacons.” It is true that they came from the EM. And it is very likely that they will focus mostly on us, the EM. But make no mistake. Aaron, Brian, Joey, and Tim are not called to serve only us, the EM. Aaron, Brian, Joey, and Tim are called to serve the KM as well. We are one church. We have one deacon board. There is one body, one faith, and one Lord here at Highland Presbyterian Church. Therefore, Aaron, Brian, Joey, and Tim will have to consider the needs of the KM members as well. Therefore, the rest of us will too. This is going to take a lot of humility, gentleness, patience, and love. Please pray for our deacons. And please pray for everyone in our KM - in our Korean-speaking ministry.

There will be some changes with regard to roles and relationships in our church. And new roles and new relationships can come with new issues and new challenges. This will be exciting and historic. But this will not be easy. Reformation is hard. Better church government is hard. Stronger diaconal ministry is hard. Greater compassion, care, and charity is hard. Love is hard. But all of this is worth it. And we are moved do such hard things because of the joy of our salvation in Christ Jesus.

Jesus changed our relationship with him. And he changed everything for us by uniting us to him. Union with Christ. There is no salvation without it. You are united with Christ in his death. You are united with Christ in his resurrection. In Jesus you died, and in Jesus you rose again. Because of your union with Christ, you are justified and sanctified. Because of your union with christ, you have adoption in the family of God. You are united with Christ. This is a profound relationship. This is a wonderful connection that is like no other.

And there’s a gigantic application that comes with all of this.

If you are united with Christ and someone else is united with Christ, then you have a profound relationship and a wonderful connection with that someone. How then shall we do our roles and our relationships? Unity in the church starts and ends with union with Christ. Unity is one the fundamental reasons why our Lord created deacons in the first place. Remember how in Acts 6 a breakdown in manpower and logistics began to result in a breakdown in unity between Greek and Hebrew church members when certain widows were being neglected in the distribution of food. All I ask of us today is to think about this gospel truth as we receive new deacons and as we navigate our roles and our relationships with humility, gentleness, patience, and love… in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

To Aaron, Brian, Joey, and Tim, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of Christ. And I urge you to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

To every one of you, Highland, I urge you all to walk in a manner worthy of Christ. And I urge you all to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Soli Deo Gloria