Faithfully Living in the Household of God - Elders

Introduction:

Our current sermon series focuses on one primary point, “learning how to live faithfully in the household of God, which is the church, the pillar and buttress of truth. We are not concerned with behavioral changes, that is the self-help industries mission.

What we are concerned with is Christians being conformed to the image of Jesus, and non-Christians hearing the Gospel of life. Being transformed from living under the wrath of God and enslaved to sin, to being sons and daughters of the King of Glory, that is the mission of the church.

The problem though is that too often we are far more generous with ourselves than we deserve, because humility is not something we naturally walk in. We see a great example of this from the disciples as they walk with Jesus.

Mark 10:35–37 “And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”

These are the men who became the first leaders, elders, pastors, missionaries of the Christian Church, and we get to see them in all their greatness seeking to get a leg up on the other disciples.

Leaders have the ability to make or break a church, organization, family or social group. For the church though, this is not a game of pragmatism, as though the pastor or elder is a super human leader whose main focus is to run the church like a business enterprise with a focus on profitability. Instead, as Paul indicates, the elder is to be a man shaped and driven by the word of faith the good doctrines and his relationship with God, driving the church community to faithfully live out the gospel.

1 Timothy 4:6 “If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed.” Timothy is a good elder because he provides the church what is necessary for healthy grow and maturity. Instead of succumbing to the temptation to give them what they want, namely to make much of them and excuse their sin.

Paul provides two principles for the household of God regarding elders that we will focus on this morning. First how to honor them. Second how to handle accusations against them and how to correct them when they sin.

The Faithful Elders Honored and Compensated:

Paul begins his discussion on elders by saying in 1 Timothy 5:17–18 “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.”

From the beginning, Paul makes it clear what type of elder ought to be honor. Namely the elder who rules, or leads well, that is faithfully. He is operating as a good servant of Christ Jesus; that is Paul’s primary stipulation for the Christian, that he is a servant of Christ.

This means that the elder does not serve for personal gain or solely for his benefit, but rather he serves to please the Lord Jesus Christ. And out of that love for the Lord Jesus Christ, flows his love for the church. The elder then is a man of God, who orients his life to serve as a guide to the people, as they seek to be conformed to Christ.

Mark 10:44 “and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.”

He recognizes that as he leads the church his purpose is to help the family of God in their process of sanctification, that is the process where a Christian is made holy by the work of the Spirit. He takes what the Lord has taught him, by the word of God and instills it in the hearts and minds of others.

The elder contrary to many churches today is not interested in developing a better version of you. Rather, he is interested and has tunnel vision, on forming you more and more into the image of Jesus Christ. Meaning he desires that you take on the character of Christ, that is the goal of sanctification.

Paul gives us this mindset in Galatians 4:19 “my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!”

His singular goal is to glorify God, by ensuring that those who he leads have Christ formed in them. This is achieved through faithfully leading the church according to the word of God, calling people to repentance and counseling them to greater devotion to Christ.

Paul adds a qualifier here for us, 1 Timothy 5:17 “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.”

Paul, draws our attention to those who preach and teach. The idea in this verse regarding the task of preaching and teaching, is centered on the word labor. The greek here has the strong meaning of performing strenuous labor. Showing that the elder who serves well in preaching and teaching is the one who works hard in the word of God and trembles at the word.

Isaiah 66:2b “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

It does not mean that he is the most gifted and dynamic presenter of information, rather it means that he labors or toils in the word of God so that he may bring out of it a message fitting for the people of God. For in faithful preaching and teaching the elder cuts the people with the word, hammers their hard hearts with the word, and heals their wounds with the truth of God’s faithfulness and love, all by teaching them to tremble at the word of God.

1 Timothy 5:17 “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.”

Therefore, the elder who leads or rules well is to be honored by the people of God. This does not mean he is set up on a pedestal or viewed as holier than others. But rather he is to be respected by all in the church, loved and prayed for, encouraged and built up. This is not an ego boost, but a humble recognition of the labor he performs.

Furthermore, Paul makes it clear that if the elder so desires he ought to be financially compensated. This is made clear by Paul’s use of two passages.

First, Deuteronomy 25:4 ““You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.”

And Jesus’ words from Luke 10:7 “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.”

In 1 Timothy 5:18 “For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.””

This does not mean that every elder must be paid by the church , but at least this must be something the church seeks in good faith to provide or make available if possible.

Paul makes this point in 1 Corinthians 9:3–7“This is my defense to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?”

Therefore, if the church is able to financially support an elder they ought to seek to do so, and not just to the minimum standard but to take care of him so that he does not need to worry or seek alternate employment. For the elder who serves faithfully is to be considered of double honor.

How to Handle Accusations and how to Correct them when they Sin:

But what if an elder does not lead faithfully and sins, what should be the churches action steps for correction and reconciliation? This is a difficult area and often times an area in the church that causes the most amount of problems. There are two primary reasons why this is the case.

First, because most elders are type A men who have big personalities or very strong opinions and know how to get their way. When coupled with faithfulness and humility they provide great direction and strength to the church. But when exercised in the flesh, this makes the elder almost untouchable, as he will bully his way through any resistance and treat most opposition as a personal attack.

The second reason, is the immaturity or in some cases the unregenerate nature of those who comprise the members or attendees of the church. The immature Christian is less likely to approach a highly emotional and difficult situation from a biblical perspective. The unregenerate person definitely will not as they do not have a biblical foundation, and do not have a category of dealing with conflict from a Biblical perspective.

Therefore, when an elder sins, or there is just the appearance that he has sinned, or maybe there is a misunderstanding, these situations are handled according to worldly principles and not the word of God.

We do not realize that when we talk bad about someone, let alone the pastor, we are putting poison in the minds of other people regarding that person or pastor. And if we poison the minds of people about their pastor, destruction is around the corner, in form of fights, church splits and the pastor leaving, not to mention the wounds and hurts that will take years to heal.

Therefore, when it comes to the household of God and handling accusations against an elder Paul is clear. He states, 1 Timothy 5:19–20 “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.”

The Biblical consideration for an accusation being credible is whether there are at least 2 or 3 witnesses to the sin. That means if one person is making a complaint against an elder and nobody else can provide context, additional information, or further the accusation, then Biblically, the other leaders along with the church should not allow the charge to move into discipline.

This is a safe-guard against people with a vendetta or seeking revenge against an elder or someone misunderstanding what an elder says, from causing significant issue in the church and devastating the elders life.

People jump to hasty conclusion without having all the details and then in their immaturity they gossip about it and get it firmly set in their minds that this elder did something or said something wrong without fully knowing the truth. Therefore, it is the sin of that person not the elder that is the problem, and you should repent of your sinful behavior.

Therefore, the right response when something comes up regarding an elder or anyone else is to go to that person first and talk to them about it.

Matthew 18:15–17 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

Let me give you a word of caution here, Paul is not talking about an elder committing a crime, stealing money, abusing people physically or sexually, etc. Those are crimes and according to the Bible are to be dealt with by civil authorities who been given the role of dealing with crime. Therefore any accusation of abuse must go directly to the police.

Now if there are at least two or three witnesses, then the charges must be to deemed credible and direct action must be taken. Paul says, 1 Timothy 5:20 “As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.” The greek simple says “Those who sin, in sight of all rebuke.” The CSB gets it correct here, “Publicly rebuke those who sin.”

Therefore, the elder who sins without repentance must be corrected publically or in front of all, so that the other elders may know or as Paul says “stand in fear.” Knowing they cannot do whatever they want but they will be held accountable.

Paul gives an example of rebuking in public or before all. Galatians 2:11–14 “But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?””

We need to notice what Paul did and did not do here. What Paul did was simply confront Peter in front of those who where present regarding his public sin. He did not pull him aside and say hey why did you do this, nor does Paul set up a mock trial and ambush Peter. Rather Paul honors Peter’s role as an apostle/elder and then held him to that standard publicly.

What tends to happen when an elder sins, is we like to call church wide meetings, drag the elder in front of everyone and shame him. But our task in correction is never to shame or throw someone under the bus. Instead it is to correct for the sake of sanctification, maturity, and reconciliation.

We do this by pointing out the sin, calling it sin and then calling the elder to repentance. Questions of how could you do this, or how dare you, are questions that immature Christians or non-Christians ask because they think they are the most offended party, but they forget that God is always the most offended party, and they forget that the elder is still a man with a sinful nature. And they therefore act out of their emotions and seeking retribution, rather than out of a desire to see the one who has sinned corrected and restored.

Paul said that he opposed Peter, because Peter stood condemned. Indicating that Paul desired Peter to be restored and his sin to be corrected in the community. Therefore, we handle accusation against an elder with the Bible in our face, because that if he has sinned we desire our brother to walk in repentance for his sake, and the sake of the church. The elder who leads well will take that correction as grace and mercy, walking in repentance because his focus is not himself but the church and glory of God.

Conclusion:

Paul's teachings underscore the vital role of faithful elders within the church and the necessity of handling accusations against them with biblical wisdom and integrity. Elders are called to lead with humility, devotion to Christ, and a commitment to the spiritual growth of the congregation.

When accusations arise, careful consideration and adherence to biblical principles are essential for maintaining the church's unity and integrity. By honoring faithful elders and addressing sin with grace and truth, the household of God can continue to be a beacon of light and truth in a world desperately in need of God's redeeming love and grace.

Ultimately, these principles serve as a guide for maintaining the integrity and health of the church, ensuring that elders lead with humility, integrity, and a steadfast commitment to the truth of the gospel.

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