...but what did DEACONS get to do???
Fighting against centuries of "theological thinking" (much of it if we are honest amounts to UNBELIEF), we have been convinced that much of what we read in our New Testaments doesn't "really" apply to us today.
Can we 'really' live like Jesus?
Except for a rare few, most teachers don't hold out the expectation that we can do what Jesus did. And if you do, you will quickly be labeled a false teacher. (and yes, I have some experience to back my claim!)
So, for the sake of argument, let's give them/you? that one. The life Jesus lived, and in particular the Kingdom power He moved in, isn't to be aspired to. An entire theology known as "Cessationism" contends that such miracles "ceased" with the death of the Apostles in the 1st Century AD. If only such scholars were familiar with the the 2nd and 3rd Centuries, because miracles continued thereby falsifying the Cessationist position.
Some theologians will argue further against believers imitating Christ's miraculous life because they contend that He did many of those things out of His Divinity which, for them, by definition excludes us imitating Him with regards the supernatural things He did while on earth.
Note: Even the most zealous in the recent WWJD movement, didn't really expect to be doing the miraculous things Jesus did while on earth. It was a great movement. If only it had gone further and expected more!
What about Apostles then?
In spite of the fact that Paul COMMANDED US to imitate him, the vast majority of Christians throughout Church history don't "really" believe we should expect to live the life that Paul and/or the other Apostles lived.
Of course in recent years an entire movement has emerged that argues they have recovered/restored the "lost" office of the Apostle. I won't waste my time critiquing that movement here, except to say that the vast majority within that movement who think they are Apostles ARE NOT.
The earliest Christians wisely dropped the "title" Apostle in deference to the original Apostles (and of course Paul). Those apostles had a unique authority, for example, their writings constitute scripture.
But the fact is, apostolic ministry did continue on in the church. It was carried on under different titles - be that bishops (Gk. epískopos) which is sometimes translated overseer or supervisor, or even evangelist or missionary. We can look at men like the great St. Patrick who by all accounts had an apostolic life that rivals what we see in the New Testament. As for his Biblical "office", he had been consecrated as a Bishop/Overseer when he was sent to Ireland to evangelize and plant churches.
I go with the earliest Christians - I believe we should drop the title "Apostle" today entirely. First of all, it is confusing. The Apostles of the Lamb in the 1st Century were clearly different and the church dropping that title early on minimized that confusion. The abuse we see today in the movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) illustrates why NO ONE should be called an Apostle - from excessive control and spiritual abuse to the "invention" of new doctrines (i.e. so-called 'Apostle' Kathryn Krick who believes her teaching to be the "new wineskin" that Jesus spoke about. She is a heretic).
In addition, the characteristics of a New Testament Apostle are almost never seen in the lives of those who have 'Apostle' on their business cards today.
Most genuine apostolic ministries today are busy doing Kingdom work and don't often even consider themselves to be apostolic. Humility is one of those characteristics that marks the genuine apostolic because it doesn't care about who planted or who watered but rather with God who causes the growth" (1 Cor. 3:6-9).
Note: The Cessationists are wrong again when they contend that the miracles ceased with close of the Apostolic Age at the end of the 1st Century. For more on CONTINUATIONISM, which the position that the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Spirit continued after the Apostles, check out the following quotes from Irenaeus & Tertullian (late 2nd Century) - LINK
Clarification: Before shifting to the topic of deacons, I have conceded the final two points for the sake of argument and to get us to the real point of this blog post. I believe we can and should aspire to live like Jesus and His Apostles, even the miracles. Why? Because Jesus expected His Apostles to do what He did (John 20:21) and He instructed His Apostles to obey EVERYTHING that He had commanded the 12 Apostles to do (Matt. 28:20). Beyond that, Paul COMMANDED Christians to "imitate me as I imitate Christ" (1 Cor. 11:1). Jesus, nor the Apostles, ever 'qualified' the teaching with "except for the miraculous stuff"!
I also believe all of what I've just written about being like Jesus and His Apostles is subject to God's sovereignty and control in our lives. Many Christ followers have NOT handled God's power and/or Kingdom influence well at all. For that reason, our prayer is, "Lord, give us whatever 'power' our character can handle".
...which brings us to DEACONS, what can they do?
Deacon (Gk. diakonos) means a servant or a minister. Most Christians agree that this is one of our primary roles as a follower of Christ; we are servants as Christ "did not come to be served but to serve" (Matt. 20:28).
Almost every Christian tradition believes that deacons continue on in the church today. In 1 Timothy 3:8-12, the Apostle Paul lists the qualifications one needs to be a deacon. From the 1st century onwards, deacons are found wherever Christianity spread and churches were planted. Today, Catholics, Orthodox and many Protestant denominations continue to have deacons serving in their churches in an official, recognized role.
In many cases, it is an ordained ministry and in other cases it is a commissioned one. Even in conservative cases where women are not ordained as deacons and do not allow their women certain functions within the church, those same traditions acknowledge and affirm women as gifted and serving in many of the ways their ordained male deacons do.
So far, so good. Many would agree with what I've just written concerning the ministry of deacons in the church today. The Biblical vision I am about to cast for deacons would be rejected at worst and minimized at best. Both of those responses to be constitute unbelief.
Acts 6-8 describes the choosing of the first deacons and focuses in on the lives/ministries of two of them - Stephen and Philip.
Rather than simply a "unique" time in the history of the Church that wasn't be emulated or repeated, let us consider that God wanted to cast a vision for the lives of ordinary believers. It wasn't ONLY Christ and His Apostles who would be used powerfully and in supernatural ways. It would be ordinary "deacons" whose initial job description was basically to take care of the practical needs, i.e. "serving tables" so that the Apostles could focus on the "spiritual ones". (Acts 6:1-3)
If only that was the end of the story. But if one reads the rest of Acts 6, Acts 7 and Acts 8 we learn absolutely nothing about the 7 men's "table serving". Did they do a good job? I assume so. Did it free up the Apostles to do the more "spiritual" stuff? Probably. But, we don't get anything about any of that.
What do we get? What did the first deacons actually do??
The Ministry of Stephen (Deacon #1)
We discover that after the Apostles laid hands on them, that Stephen "was performing great wonders and signs among the people" (Acts 6:8).
In Acts 6:15, it seems that like Moses in Exodus 34 and Jesus in Luke 9:29, that Stephen got to "glow"!
And then there was/is the preaching - Stephen starting apparently in Acts 6:10 and carrying on throughout Acts 7 is preaching and teaching in such a way as to confound unbelieving Jews who were disputing his message!
Deacon Stephen has what is sometimes called an "Open Vision" in Acts 7:55-56 wherein he sees God's glory and the Lord Jesus standing at the right hand of God! Such experiences were normally the domain of prophets and/or the Apostles themselves.
Stephen's final miracle was the ability to like Christ, forgive those who were killing him (Acts 7:60) and he thus becomes the first Christian martyr in the history of the Church. Yes, the rest of the Apostles, except John, went on to die a martyrs death but it was a deacon named Stephen who had the distinct honor of being the first to die for Christ!
But we can add to Stephen's ministry resume that he sparked a persecution of the Church that led to believers having to leave Jerusalem. While initially, I am sure there were other Christians who were angry at him for messing up the good thing they had going there in the city. But in God's sovereign purposes, Stephen's ministry and martyrdom MOBILIZED the Church to get on with the Great Commission, a task at that time had stalled a bit and was only focusing on Jews in Judea! (more on that in a moment).
His martyrdom also sheds light for us onto the type of man Paul was, a persecutor of the Church, before he met Christ. Paul was a 1st century terrorist who had blood on his hands for his complicity in Stephen's murder and as one who "ravaged" the Church, imprisoning Christians (Acts 7:58, 8:1-3). God uses ALL thing together for our good (Rom. 8:28) and he used a deacon's death to reveal more about the Apostle Paul's life so that we can all the more appreciate his ministry as almost certainly the greatest Christian who ever lived.
At this point, you can see why the multitude of churches who have deacons might become a bit uncomfortable with this "expanded vision" for the ministy of deacons and by deacons I mean THEIR DEACONS TODAY!
Before turning to Philip, let me say that about 25 years ago, while studying to be ordained first as a deacon and then as a presbyter, one of the deacons at that particular church was the best preacher in the church - and that church had deacons, presbyters/priests and even a couple of bishops/overseers. Like Acts 6 & 7, they recognized the gifting of one of the deacons and let him use that gifting!
Admittedly, I don't know all that deacons are allowed to do in the churches I've mentioned above but years ago, one Coptic Orthodox deacon, taught me how to chant the Scriptures in Arabic. That was one of his roles in church.
The Ministry of Philip (Deacon #2)
Let's consider briefly this "expanded vision" in the life of Philip.
I mentioned the mobilization of the church before but interestingly we have new dynamic - the focus of attention is taken entirely off of the Apostles, "God's A-Team" who remain somehow safely in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1)
Jesus' Gospel mandate in Acts 1:8 was first to 'Judea', then 'Samaria', followed by the 'Ends of the Earth' (Gentiles).
While the Apostles "heard" that they seem to have "understood" something quite different. They didn't care about the Samaritans. They considered them a heterodox cult and ethnically inferior.
God used a deacon named Philip to get the Gospel enterprise out of the first gear and into the second - Samaria! (Acts 8:4) I'll bet they had received many prophetic words to move, to mobilize, but they stayed put. So God used the persecution to do what they had been unwilling to do. And even then, it was NOT the Apostles who mobilized. They were somehow being "protected" in Jerusalem by influential believers (my theory).
The funny thing is that down in Samaria Philip wasn't doing his job - which was to "serve tables". He wasn't doing what was "expected"!
Instead Philip becomes the FIRST cross-cultural missionary in Church History. Going from the Jews of Judea to the Samaritans was truly a cross-cultural ministry endeavor. From one ethic group to another. And not to one the Jews liked.
What does Philip do? He "began proclaiming Christ to them" (Acts 8:5). Beyond evangelizing, he is "performing signs" (Acts 8:6), casting out demons and bringing physical healing to afflictions caused by demons (Acts 8:7). Samaritans are getting converted to Christ and he's baptizing them (Acts 8:12) and just in case someone didn't read 8:6, a deacon, NOT an Apostle, is doing "signs and great miracles" (8:13).
And what does this incredible ministry down in Samaria produce? It gets the Apostles "interest" (Acts 8:14-16) who feel 'led' to LEAVE JERUSALEM and go down and make sure everything was doctrinally in order (sarcasm intended but I believe my assessment is in fact what motivated them).
Note: this reminds me of the STUDENT INITIATED AND LED Asbury Revival that broke out on February 8th, 2023 that eventually led to many so-called "Apostles" making their way to Kentucky. Thankfully, they weren't given the reins, they sat up in the balcony and from start to finish it was a group of student 'deacons' who God used to lead it!
This is beyond the scope of this blog post, but we do see something that Apostles had authority to do that deacons did not in the visit of Peter and John in Samaria. (Acts 8:14-17)
I believe, however, that far more important than the differentiation between Apostles and Deacons was the mobilization of the Apostles to get out of Jerusalem, out of their 'Judea' and to see God moving amongst the Samaritans. And the result? Peter and John start to do the same thing that the deacon Philip modeled; they began "preaching the Gospels to MANY VILLAGES OF THE SAMARITANS" (Acts 8:25). God used a mere deacon to get the Apostles back on task, to mobilize them towards the intent of the Gospel to spread all over the earth!
Philip's story doesn't end in martyrdom as Stephen's did - the next thing we see is that Philip has an angelic visitation (Acts 8:26) and is given his next ministry assignment, to preach Christ to the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-38) culminating in the Ethiopian's baptism! You may not know this, but an ancient tradition, relayed by Irenaeus in around the year AD180, is that his same man preached the Gospel in Ethiopia and helped establish the church there! That would mean that the deacon Philip ultimately raised up Ethiopia's first evangelist and church planter!!!
Oh, the things God uses deacons to do!!!
Beyond that, Philip gets translocated (Acts 8:39) to Azotus which is about 20 miles away to do what? To find tables to serve? No! There he preaches the Gospel in village after village from Azotus all the way to Caesaria which is about 53 miles!
It is no wonder that when we catch up with the deacon 20 years later, in Acts 21:8-9, we find a new designation for him, "Philip the evangelist" which is obviously what the table-serving deacon had become and had faithfully continued to do. He was CURRENTLY Philip the evangelist! And not only that, he had raised up 4 daughters who were prophetesses! (v. 21:9) a gifting that was available to women in the early church! Oh, that we would see more of them in our day! Notice, we don't hear about their names or their platforms! There isn't any self-promotion. They were Philip's daughters who happened to have prophetic giftings that were used in Caesaria (and beyond?) to build up the church and further the Gospel.
Note: I mean GENUINE prophetic people who actually hear from God. Many make this claim today, some of whom I believe started with actual prophetic gifting, but have ceased to be those prophesying under the Holy Spirit of God! Not self-promoting, idolized counterfeits - which is what much of the Charismatic church has witnessed in our day!
What I have just blogged is where many of the aforementioned churches get nervous again - yes, they have deacons, but deacons need to be "reasonable"! Thankfully, God's Word doesn't admonish us towards that type of UNBELIEF. I love reason and those that use their intellectual gifting to further the Gospel, but in the name of being "reasonable" many Christians live powerless Christian lives and/or have largely powerless ministries - powerless in comparison to the ones we have just read about in the lives of Stephen and Philip!
It challenges us to ask the question - and I won't ask it of the other "churches" before I ask it of myself. There is a reason that we are commanded to "fix our eyes upon Jesus" (Heb. 12:2) instead of on the lives/ministries of others! He is perfect. He lived out His calling and destiny perfectly and completely. He never sinned. He never fell short. And everytime we focus on Him, instead of others, we will find ourselves convicted. We will never get into comparison and/or feeling ourselves superior to anyone else, if and when our eyes of focused on the Lord Jesus Himself!
So, my question (our question) must be:
Am I moving in ALL that God has made available? I am seeing ALL that God wants me to see?
But beyond that they preached the Gospel, they saw demons cast out, they saw people healed and many were baptized. The language Luke uses is that they saw "signs and miracles". In other words, we don't even know ALL of what happened. There was just supernatural Kingdom stuff happening.
I know for a fact, and like them I have had "Apostolic hands" laid upon me, that I am often not living like Stephen or Philip! I would venture to say that the vast majority of "deacons" in Church History didn't get a vision for their ministry from Acts 6-8 and Acts 21.
I don't know what God will do, but let's believe Him for MORE. Let us with a type of "holy dissatisfaction" contend for lives wherein the Lamb of God receives the reward of His suffering, as the great Moravian Missionary Movement used as their prophetic cry!
What will God call you after 20 years? In addition to you faithfully carrying out your "table serving" assignment (your job, vocation, etc). Will you also be called:
An Evangelist?
A Teacher/Preacher?
An Exorcist?
A Prophet/ess?
A Worker of Miracles? (1 Cor. 12:10)
This was what servants (deacons) did in the 1st Century and the last time I checked, Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever (Heb. 13:8)
LET THEM HEAR!
Mark 4:9 - said by Jesus 3 times in the Gospel of Mark, 2 times in the Gospel of Luke and 8 times in the Book of Revelation)
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