Leadership of the Gospel-Centered Church

Good morning, Harmony!

We’ve been in the book of 1 Timothy for the past few weeks now, and last week we talked about the roles of men and women in the church. This week we sort of continue that conversation, shifting to leadership in the church.

Today after service we have a business meeting, and a potluck, but next week we have another business meeting where we are going to be voting on the acceptance of four men that are being presented as elder and deacon candidates.

The names and bios of those individuals are available in the Foyer, so I would encourage you to first, be praying for these men, and second, as we are going through today’s passage, 1 Timothy 3, which happens to be the qualifications for elders and deacons, to look at these men and see if they fit these qualifications.

As you are turning or scrolling to 1 Timothy 3 in your Bibles, our main point for today is that:

Main Point: A biblical model of church leadership is critical for the gospel-centered church to display the glory of Christ in worship and witness.

A biblical model of church leadership, the elders, and the deacons, is critical for the gospel-centered church to display the glory of Christ in worship and in witness.

That means that we must have gospel-centered, Bible-believing men to serve as elders and deacons, who desire for the church to be continually growing in the gospel so that the church displays the glory of Christ as a church in worship and in witness.

Beginning in verse 1 of 1 Timothy 3:

1 Timothy 3:1–13 CSB

1 This saying is trustworthy: “If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work.” 2 An overseer, therefore, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, self-controlled, sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not an excessive drinker, not a bully but gentle, not quarrelsome, not greedy. 4 He must manage his own household competently and have his children under control with all dignity. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of God’s church?) 6 He must not be a new convert, or he might become conceited and incur the same condemnation as the devil. 7 Furthermore, he must have a good reputation among outsiders, so that he does not fall into disgrace and the devil’s trap. 8 Deacons, likewise, should be worthy of respect, not hypocritical, not drinking a lot of wine, not greedy for money, 9 holding the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. 10 They must also be tested first; if they prove blameless, then they can serve as deacons. 11 Wives, likewise, should be worthy of respect, not slanderers, self-controlled, faithful in everything. 12 Deacons are to be husbands of one wife, managing their children and their own households competently. 13 For those who have served well as deacons acquire a good standing for themselves and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

Prayer.

In churches today, you can find all kinds of “elders”. Some churches will have women pastors, others may have those that profess to be practicing homosexual and trans-sexual lifestyles serving in leadership roles. Frequently we will see a story in our social media or in the news about a pastor or a ministry leader who has been accused of sexual abuse of one of the members of the church they are responsible to care for and protect. Oftentimes, these men and women are selected on the basis of their abilities rather than on the qualifications found in the Bible, leading us to select dynamic leaders on the basis of how well they do at business or how good they are at speaking rather than focusing on what is being said or how their walk with Christ draws people to seek Christ rather than themselves.

As you can see from our passage today, the process of selecting elders and deacons is not a popularity contest. We don’t choose our best friends; we don’t choose the people who are rich or give the most to the church. Though the word elder tends to mean “person older than me”, in this sense we don’t choose men based on physical age, and we don’t select men who are good at public speaking or who are politicians.

Our passage today speaks about the two foundational leaders of the gospel-centered church.

The Foundations of Gospel-Centered Leadership are: Elders and Deacons

Our elders and our deacons are the only church leaders that are Scripture-designated offices of the local church.

That isn’t to say that we cannot have other offices, such as the worship leader or the family ministries director or the church administrator, it simply means that the foundation for all church leadership is rooted in the offices of elder and deacon.

That means that for these particular church offices, we have biblical qualifications that tell us as a church who should and should not be church elders and deacons - and, again, being a body of a gospel-centered church, we need to examine these qualifications closely as we select our elders and deacons.

That means that we need to examine just what these qualifications are saying, and some of that means that we have to go back to the original language and the original audience to gain a firm understanding of what Paul is saying to Timothy and how the selection process needs to take place.

And when we do that, we’re going to have two lists of responsibilities for these men. When we look at the qualifications, we can see through these qualifications the responsibilities that comes along with their selection as elders and deacons in the local church.

The first list of responsibilities is:

1. The FOUR responsibilities of elders, vv. 1-7.

The first thing that we see in verse 1 is that if anyone aspires or desires to be an overseer, that’s a pastor or an elder, he desires a noble work.

Looking back a last week we saw that Paul said that he did not permit a woman to have authority over a man, and this continues from there, remember, these are letters - when they were originally written they did not have chapter and verse, that was done later for referencing purposes.

So, Paul is continuing where he left off with the women and their roles, and now he’s expanding upon who should be the leaders of the gospel centered church.

And I’m not just saying this because I am a man, Paul wasn’t saying this just because he was a man, Paul is saying this because that is the way that God ordained it to be back in Genesis and then throughout the New Testament in places like here, and Titus, and 1 Peter, and Ephesians - the very first qualification is that he is a man.

From there Paul continues to describe just what this man looks like - he must be above reproach - now as we go through this list, there needs to be an element of perception as well as an element of grace, and I’ll explain that as we go. The bottom line is that I don’t think any one person meets all of these requirements all of the time - this is a where are they at, right now, as we select them type of list. Do they meet all of these requirements right now, not how did they behave 20 years ago.

But the very first thing that an overseer should be is above reproach. It should be really, really hard to find something that is going to diminish their character. How does that work? Paul continues to describe what features demonstrate a good overseer, he says he should be the husband of one wife - I know there are a lot of different approaches to this text, but the Greek does say that he is to be a one-woman man, and contextually at that time in the Gentile world polygamy was a thing as was divorce.

Now the wording choice here to me is intended to be that of being a one-woman man. The reason I say that is because Paul doesn’t say that the man is not to be divorced, and words still matter, and the context of the time frame and what all is going on thee in Ephesus and throughout the Roman empire seems to point in that direction, so in the case of a divorced man being called as an elder, I think that is situational.

I don’t pretend to have all of the answers, but I believe that each case must be looked at individually when it comes to divorce, because there are biblical reasons for divorce, and even then, every case is different. Is the man able to remain above reproach in this area. How long ago was the divorce? Has there been reconciliation? Is the divorce something that is going to be a stumbling block for others or is it something that is so far back or so far removed from the individual that it has no bearing on their life. Was the man a believer at the time of divorce - lots and lots of factors here that we need to look at as a church. Every case is different.

And I say that knowing that myself, and both of our elder candidates, are still married to the only brides we have ever had.

He then goes on to being self-controlled, sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not an excessive drinker, not a bully, not quarrelsome, and not greedy.

That alone is a hard list - but all of those lean into what it looks like to be above reproach, and again, if I told you today that I have always met this list of qualifications, I would be lying to you.

There have been times in my life where I was pretty quarrelsome. There have been times in my life where I have chased the dollar. There have been times where I have not been self-controlled, or hospitable. By God’s grace I have still been considered above reproach because those things don’t define me, and have not defined me, because those times were brief or in my past and the idea here is that at the present time, this person is above reproach, because the evidence or the fruit of being a Christ-follower is present.

And that term must be at the beginning of the verse is directing us that these men must be that in the current time and that as we test and as we evaluate these men then we are able to see who they are right now - right now, in this moment, are they above reproach? Are they demonstrating right now the maturity in Christ that is compatible with this list?

Continuing on Paul says that this man must be able to manage his own household well - again, not slavery, not by threats, but with competence and with dignity. That does not mean that his children are little robots or that they won’t turn from God, but it does mean that he handles it all with dignity and with competence - they are under control, in the sense that while they live under the family roof they are treated according to God’s Word. If the man chosen for elder, who is an overseer and a caretaker of God’s people, cannot faithfully manage his own family according to God’s Word, then how can he manage God’s people?

He must not be a new convert - the blind leading the blind would not be a good situation. We need mature believer who faithfully study God’s Word and who have had the opportunity to demonstrate that by living out their faith in their daily walk.

And then Paul says that this man must also have a good reputation among outsiders - that does not mean that he has to be able to win a popularity contest, only that the only thing that the world can find against this man is that he is a God-fearing believer who walks by faith.

Are there some things from a man’s past that are going to prevent them from being an elder? Sure, there are some things that happen in the past that are going to prevent us from ever being above reproach in this life.

That doesn’t mean that you are not free from that or that there isn’t forgiveness, but there are some things that are going to consequentially not allow a man to serve as an elder. Consider that last part where it talks about having a good reputation among outsiders - there are crimes or situations or even just accusations where we may not be able to overcome the thoughts of this world of things that we did in our past.

Or maybe it was an ugly divorce, and there is still a situation where you are unable to reconcile the situation completely.

That doesn’t mean that you should not desire or pursue to be the man of this list.

This is a list that every man who is a believer and a follower of Christ should be desiring - we should all be wanting to grow to a point where we as men today are obedient to this list, even though we may never be able to serve as an elder or a deacon - we still should be pressing on for the purpose of maturing in Christ.

Now, how does all of that translate to responsibilities of the elder?

Paul has this concept in mind as he writes this passage, and as we look at these first seven verses there are some things that stick out as responsibilities. The first responsibility is that the elder must LEAD THE CHURCH UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST.

The entire principle of an overseer is that he is going to manage something, and in this case that something is the church. The overseer is called to lead the church in a way that is guarding, celebrating, and fighting for the Gospel of Christ - remember, all of this still ties back to chapter one.

And when we look at all of these traits, this person is very different from the world in Ephesus 2000 years ago - and it’s very different from the way the world acts today. We should be wanting this list to be true in our lives. But in order to have this maturity and in order to have this level of above reproach can only be accomplished if we submit to God and we allow Him to change us, otherwise we’re going to mess it up.

Elders must lead the church under the authority of Christ.

The second responsibility that elders have is to CARE FOR THE BODY OF CHRIST. Elders must care for the church as one does for the family - consider verse 5, where Paul says how can one take care of the church if he cannot take care of his own household.

If you don’t have Christ then you aren’t going to be able to manage your household in a way that represents Christ, and you aren’t going to be able to care for the body of Christ. To be an overseer or an elder is not a job that is taken lightly.

I’ll tell you; these men are not taking this charge lightly. They have been tested and they have been interviewed and they have had to answer some hard questions - all because how they manage their households and how they are to be mature believers is paramount to the New Testament Church.

Paul believes so strongly that the men that have this level of responsibility must be men that are capable of leading the church and caring for the church that the list of qualifications is not an easy one to achieve outside of the grace and righteousness of God.

The third responsibility of an elder is that he must be able to TEACH THE WORD. Elders are someone who is able to teach the Word of God and its truths to his family and to his church family.

The process of calling men as elders of Harmony started back in the June or July timeframe of last year, and the two men that are being presented for consideration have had the opportunity to both preach in my place and to teach in different settings so that we could be sure that they are able to teach faithfully the Word of God.

The final responsibility of an elder is that they MODEL THE LIFE OF A CHRIST FOLLOWER. Again, when we look at this list of qualifications it isn’t a question of who is the most popular, it is a question of who models the life most closely of a Christ follower - who demonstrates the love and the righteousness and the grace of Christ to the church and to the world that causes others to want to follow Christ more?

That is the responsibilities of the elder - they are to be qualified in every respect, in order to meet the responsibilities of their office and in order to lead the gospel-centered, Christ-centered church.

Now let’s look at:

2. The THREE responsibilities of deacons, vv. 8-13.

Again, Paul gives this listing that talks about the qualifications for deacons.

And here again, I think that this is a man’s office within the church, and I’ll explain that.

First, this passage is following the one where it talks about women in the church, again where Paul says that he does not permit a woman to have authority over a man.

The term “deacon” in this sense is being outlined as an office of the church, but it also is just the plain word for servant and minister.

Now there may be some here that want to ask, “what about Phoebe, wasn’t she called a deacon?” Yes, yes, she was, in Romans 16:1

Romans 16:1 CSB

1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church in Cenchreae.

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church in Cenchreae.

Same Greek word, translated to servant here in the CSB, but the word used still contains the root word “diakonos,” but with some slight differences.

First, when it comes to the Greek, each word has a masculine, feminine, or neutral form. It’s like they attach he, she, or another special form that is non-gender associative to each word.

The complete word for deacon used here in Phoebe’s case was feminine, and it was not clear on pointing to a church office.

The word used here in 1 Timothy 3 for the office of deacon, is masculine, indicating the expectation of a male filling this role.

There’s a difference between the uses of the word. There’s the challenge of how this fits in the letter as a whole. And the deacon list of qualifications is similar to that of elders, the only main difference comes in the area of teaching and instead of a deacon being “above reproach” they are to be “worthy of respect.” Notice that this includes not being hypocritical, living out their faith in truth, not a drunkard, not greedy - again, these are all things that we should be desiring in our walk with Christ, as we are holding on to that mystery with a good conscience.

They must be tested first - again, these men that are going to be presented next week have been tested in the sense that they are servants for Christ who are living and walking in a way that demonstrates a faithful walk with Christ.

Their wives are to be tested - if they are married their wives are to be worthy of respect, not gossips, self-controlled, and faithful - their wives are essential to their qualification, because more than likely they are going to be serving alongside in a way that is complementary to their husbands if the deacon is married.

And then it goes into how they should be the husbands of one wife, again same thing here, one-woman man, managing their households well.

Now what is the purpose of the deacon? How is the deacon different from the elder? Here’s where the three responsibilities of the deacon come in. All of these qualifications point us in the direction of the functions and responsibilities of the office of deacon.

The first responsibility of the deacon is to MEET THE NEEDS OF THE CHURCH ACCORDING TO THE WORD. What does that mean?

The term deacon is still a word that means servant. This person is a servant-leader. They are going to lead in efforts of service to the body of Christ. In a corporate sense they are the ones that handle the efforts for church ordinances - they prepare the Lord’s supper, they prepare the baptistry, they serve in ways that are behind the scenes. They are the ones that lead us to serve those that are in need.

When a need arises in the church these men are the first to respond. Any time there is a service opportunity, these men and their families are there.

When we tested these men, what we found in each of them was that at every point that they were called upon to do something that served the body, they were there.

The second responsibility of the deacon is to SUPPORT THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD. These men are to support the full mission statement of the church, and that means that they are there for almost every outreach opportunity and almost every growth opportunity and are excited to serve and see God work.

That means that these men are excited about the mission to go and make disciples. They are excited to see people grow in their walk with Christ, they are excited to be growing in Christ. These men are all in on a gospel-centered mission to share the message of the gospel in every area of life, and they are excited to see you come along with them.

The third and final responsibility of the deacon is to UNIFY THE BODY AROUND THE WORD. The deacons of the church are to be a unifying force, squashing rumors, and gossip, protecting the ministry of the body that is the church. They are going to be mindful and seeking to unify the body of Christ around the Word of God, they are going to be unified in the mission of the church, and they are going to be very, very protective of the body.

And they are going to do all of that and be known in the Kingdom and they are going to have great boldness to serve in the faith because they are living lives that reflect that of faithful servants to Christ.

We as a church must have a high view of church leadership. The Bible is clear on God’s expectations for elders and deacons - they each have responsibilities that are critical to being a gospel-centered church. They each have qualifications that demonstrate their maturity and their walk with Christ above all else.

And that is what it all boils down to. Does my walk with Christ demonstrate a life that is persistently growing and maturing in Christ? Are we as men living a life that demonstrates these qualities in our families, in our church, in our communities, or are we only holy on Sunday? Are we living above reproach or worthy of respect, or does our lives reflect the hypocrisy that the world charges us with?

Ladies, are you submissive to the role that Christ has called you to? Men, are you submissive to Christ?

I love how Paul kind of just lays it all out there-this is the level of maturity and the level of holiness and righteousness we are all called to.

And for the past couple of weeks, we have heard a lot of things that are hard to hear. It’s been painful. It’s been real though. As authentic believers in Christ, the words of Paul in 1 Timothy, these are the standards that Christ has called the church to live by.

At the same time, as authentic believers in Christ, His grace is sufficient for us. By the grace of Christ, we are able to be made holy and righteous. It is by His grace that we are saved, we are healed, we are transformed into the newness of a life that is able to display the glory of Christ in worship and in witness.

So, it really boils down to this.

Have you submitted your life to the gospel of the one you profess as Lord of your life, or are you still hanging on to who you were before Christ? Who or what are you submitting to, and does it glorify Christ?