Caring for Elders
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Last week caring for widows; this week caring for elders
The bulletin said 17–25. Your notes say 17–25. But I finally gave up and decided: we’re not getting through v. 25 today
So this will be part 1 of caring for elders
That’s what this whole passage is about: caring for elders. How should we think about them, how should we pay them, how should we care for them rightly when they sin, or are accused of sin?
So this morning, Compensation of Elders. Next week, dv, Correction of Elders. But read whole thing for context
Read
Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.” Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure. (No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.) The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.
The Compensation of Elders
The Compensation of Elders
Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.
Remember from last week: Honor = “show high regard for” but also “set a price on; value” as in money. How tell which? Context. For example
1 Timothy 6:16 (ESV)
…who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
Obv. not paying God; talking about honor in sense of high regard
What does the context here suggest?
For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”
Pretty strong clue: money
So just as church obligated to financially support widows indeed, so obligated to financially support elders. Two questions:
Which scriptures?
Which elders?
Which Scriptures?
Which Scriptures?
graphe, “writings”
50x in NT, always referring to Scripture. For ex:
Have you not read this Scripture:
“ ‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
So what means here; “scripture” is a good translation. The Scripture says, then 2 quotations. If footnotes, tell where
First is
“You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.
May remember Paul uses this somewhere else: 1 Cor. Paul just reminds Tim of it here, but when writing to Corinth, spells it out for them:
For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned?
Is God concerned for oxen? Yes, but not like He is for His image-bearers. The children of Israel were supposed to understand the principle behind that law
The principle is simple: the ox is entitled to sustain himself from his work
So Paul goes on to explain to Corinthians,
Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.
In case they still weren’t getting it, he makes it super obvious:
If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?
Goes on to say,
Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?
In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
Just like the ox, the preacher is entitled to eat from his work
So Paul says the Scripture says, then quotes Moses in Deuteronomy
Now, of course Paul considered Moses Scripture. All the Jews of his day did, and Paul wasn’t just any Jew, he was formerly a Pharisee. The man devoted his life to the study of the Scriptures
But then he has a 2nd Scripture quotation: “the laborer deserves his wages.” What part of the OT is that from?
It’s not.
When Jesus sent out the 70, he told them
And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house.
Matt records the same thing, but the wording is slightly different. What Paul says exactly matches Luke’s gospel
Paul quotes Luke quoting Jesus. Luke’s gospel was probably written just a couple years before Paul wrote 1 Tim. But apparently it had already made the rounds, Paul familiar… and he calls it scripture
This is Paul. Raised on OT, had no higher authority in his life—and he refers to existing NT books as “Scripture,” on the same level as Moses and the prophets.
Constantly amazed at the internal testimony of the Bible
One more thing: “the scripture says”—that “says” is in the present tense. The Scripture didn’t say, it says
Paul regards the writings, the Scripture, Old and New Testament, as God directly speaking
In the same way, these verses we’re studying didn’t just speak when Paul wrote them—they are speaking today, because God is speaking
Which elders?
Which elders?
First, know word can refer to older man or office. Same word in 5:1 “older man” and 5:17 “elders”
How know? Context. C in vv. 1-2 age and sex, so older man. What about here in 17?
“Rule well” — exercise leadership. “Labor in preaching and teaching.” Those are the functions of the office of elder
And a quick note on “those who rule well”—this isn’t comparative. He’s not saying, “those who rule well deserve double honor, those who rule poorly deserve half honor”—he’s saying, are they doing the job as I’ve been describing it in this letter?
Most of you know Antioch outlier among Baptist churches already recognize elders in NT seem to always be plural
But here’s a way we’re not unique—pretty much every church that recognizes plural elders also recognizes: they don’t all draw a salary
Different distinctions: lay/staff, ruling/teaching, but pretty much all have some elders who draw a salary and some who don’t
Where did we all get the idea that some would be paid and some would not? Get basic idea by taking all the NT says about elders, putting together, applying some wisdom and common sense. But you get it spelled out in this verse. Here’s what I mean:
Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.
What is double honor?
Ever been to a Bible study where you read a text and the leader asks, what does that verse mean to you? Here’s what this verse means to me:
When Paul talks about honor here, he’s referring to the financial sense; valuing them. As the next verse illustrates, a preacher ought to be able to earn his living by that work. So double honor means, church should take whatever they think he ought to get paid to be making a decent living, and double that
Sounds good to me, but before we put new budget up for a vote, I don’t think that’s what Paul means
I think he means double honor in terms of honor in both senses, regard highly and value financially—honor them highly and pay them well
You’ve heard the word honorarium? Money paid to a preacher, usually use it to refer to a financial gift to a preacher for a wedding or a funeral, but it just means financial compensation
That’s the idea here: the elders who rule well, in particular those who labor in preaching and teaching, should receive double honor: honor, and honorarium
So now, do we have 3 offices: paid elder, unpaid elder, and deacon? No, we still have 2: deacons, and elders. But within the elders, all of them rule (let the elders who rule well), and that rule is equal. There is no hierarchy of authority
But they do not all equally shoulder the burden of preaching and teaching
Preaching and teaching, literally word, or speaking, and teaching. Those two ideas we’ve considered before of explaining the text and exhorting and applying the text
And here’s the thing: you know in Eph 4 when Paul says
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
There, like here, Shepherds and teachers aren’t separate offices—they are, as one commentator put it, “distinguishable members of the same group.” He goes on to say,
The Pastoral Epistles Compensation, Discipline, and Ordination of Elders: 5:17–25
It is likely, therefore, that here, too, he is speaking of a subgroup of the “overseers” that consists of those who are especially gifted by God to teach, as opposed to other overseers, who must all “be able to teach” (1 Tim. 3:2).
Now I know some people think the full-time pastor only works one day a week, but the truth is that it’s demanding work. You’ve seen that already in how Paul describes Tim’s work in this book. He uses that word again here we’ve seen him use before: those who “labor” in preaching and teaching. The basic idea of that word is to become weary or tired. It means to exert oneself, work hard, toil, labor
You need more than one elder to lead a church. But you can’t ask all of them to do that level of labor *and* support themselves financially
The ones who do, those who “labor in preaching and teaching,” we show double honor—we give them the respect of the office, and since we’re asking for so much extra work from them, we don’t muzzle them — we let them earn their living from that work
Here, I’m the one who primarily labors in preaching and teaching. So you consider me worthy of double honor. That doesn’t mean respect me twice as much as our 4 other elders. It means you esteem my position, like theirs, and you value my position, as in I’m paid for it
So how much should we pay an elder who labors in preaching and teaching?
We see both extremes, don’t we? I’ve seen plenty of pastor job postings with a salary that’s not enough to support the pastor and his goldfish, let alone a family
At the far end, you’ve got the prosperity gospel preachers who have multiple mansions and private jets
So what’s right? Somewhere between those two extremes.
A guy who’s in ministry to get rich is in the wrong work for the wrong reasons. Remember, basic qual of elders in ch 3 is he must not be a lover of money
On the other hand, sometimes churches look at that requirement, he must not be a lover of money, and think: it’s our job to make sure he’s never tempted—it’s our spiritual duty to keep him poor
That’s not what Scripture teaches. As we saw,
In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
Or as Paul told the Galatian churches,
Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.
“Share all good things,” not “share a little so he doesn’t starve.” I would summarize and say the Biblical model is we are to pay our pastors according to the spiritual value we get from them
But it turns out that humans are often very bad at making such estimates
The prosperity gospel preacher with the private jet: how much spiritual value are his people getting from him? It’s not zero—it’s way less than zero. He is damning his hearers with a false gospel. He ought to be paying them to listen to him. But do you know any really excellent, solid pastors who have private jets?
And it’s not just the rank heretics. Who tends to get paid the most in evangelicalism? The guys who draw the biggest crowds. And they do draw some crowds. But how much spiritual value are those crowds getting?
If the state of modern evangelicalism is any indication…
You are living in the shallowest, most biblically illiterate few generations in the history of this country
If you wonder, “Does it matter that Christians are shallow and biblically illiterate, as long as they love Jesus?” I want to say,
Have you taken a look at the state of our country lately? Of course it matters if churches are shallow! The salt is losing its savor!
But if he’s actually providing spiritual value, what’s that worth in terms of material goods? If, after a few years of your pastor laboring for you in preaching and teaching, you see Jesus Christ through His word more clearly, value Him more dearly, worship Him more truly, are better prepared to live and reign with Him forever—what kind of price ought we to put on that?
So as in all things regarding giving in the NT, there isn’t some rule that the HS lays down for us: give 10%, pay the pastor X or Y. Instead, the rule is love and generosity, according to the measure by which God has blessed us
Pray
Lord’s Supper
Lord’s Supper
We have proclaimed the good news of God’s salvation through singing and feasting on His Word, it’s now time for us to proclaim it through Lord’s supper
One at each side up front, (late service two in back)
Leave seats, come up outside rows, receive elements, back down center to your seats
Gluten free, need assistance
This is the Lord’s table, not Antioch Southern Baptist’s table, and we invite all those who belong to Christ, who have called in faith on His name and been scripturally baptized, to partake
Deacons come forward
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,
Distribute elements
and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
eat bread
pray
In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
drink cup
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
pray