08) 1 Timothy Sermon - Church Leadership
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
We come this week to chapter 3 of 1 Timothy. Feel free to turn there we recap the context of chapter 3. Paul has sent this letter to the his beloved son in the faith Timothy. If you recall Paul has spent countless hours for the better half of Timothy's life as mentor and friend. Paul entrusts many responsibilities and actions to this young man and he is currently been directed by Paul to serve and lead in the church in the city of Ephesus.
Looking back at the beginning of the letter we see Timothy has been instructed to deal with false teaching that has arisen in the church
3 As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine 4 or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith.
The teachers of this time were the leaders of the church and he has been charged to deal with the false teachers and the consequences of the effects of these teachings. The effects are summarized in later in chapter 3 as improper or ungodly conducts in the church.
15 But if I should be delayed, I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
Chapter started the instructions on conduct and he started with prayer as the church was neglecting to pray for certain people including the country leaders and we starting to turn their attention away from the message and teachings of the apostles to the “New” teachings of these false teachers.
He instructs men and women on how to conduct themselves in the worship services of God. That both men a women were failing to grasp the reason to gather together. The reason was to worship God and God alone. Paul instructs the men to pray with holy hands and to put away anger and disputes. He instructs women on appropriate adornments for coming to the worship service. Men were drawing the people away from worship in their disputes and women were drawing attention of the people to their wealth and status.
Paul is addressing the motives to come and worship God. That men and women are to gather and make God the only focus of their attention and to be weary of drawing people away from that purpose.
These were a constant issue for the church as we see in the new testament scriptures. And they have continued for 2000 plus years into today’s churches. There are new ideas and myths being taught as truth from those that would proclaim to be leaders of God’s church. The worship gathering turn more and more man centered and geared to appeal to the temporal wants and needs of the man of the world than then to aspire to worship the holy perfect creator, sustainer, savior, our God.
Timothy is to be an guard and to deal with these false teachings.
20 Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding irreverent and empty speech and contradictions from what is falsely called knowledge.
So with this back ground Paul turns to church leadership. So turn with me and we will read our text for the morning.
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.
The primary issue of the church is that those that claim to be church leaders were not qualified to be leaders. Paul gives Timothy the fruit and output of men in the church that are to be leaders. This is two fold, the first is so that he has clear grounds for removing these false teachers from positions of authority and for also seeking out to find those that God has appointed to be the leaders of his church.
Early on in my time here at Dishman probable about 15 years ago I got invited to attend a group of local pastors that would meet once a month for 6 months at the beginning of the year. I had no ambition for being a pastor but I was interested in learning so that I could help the small groups that I was leading.
It was great to brainstorm and to hear from these men and the challenges they faced and what they were doing in their church. I heard about the blessing when church leaders saw their people growing and things happening but I also heard about the times when the leaders struggled to see eye to eye with their church. To see men worn out and tired, dejected and hurt by the people they were trying to lead.
One of the topics that has been continuous over that time that has been in the background and that is “What is a church leader?” Who are they and what are their titles. Over the last 15 years I would say that the conversation has gone from discussion to disagreement to open hostility. Not so much with these men but in the church.
There are many opinions about church leadership. The reason I call them opinions is that most of them conflict with each other. So they all cannot be truth. I have been digging into this over the years as I have had many conversations with both of the previous pastors here about church leadership and where we thought God wanted us to guide the church.
So today we come to start to answer the question “Who has God appointed to be the leaders of his church?”
You may have noticed that I have been using the term church leader. I am doing that on purpose as a generic term until we can explore the scriptures together. Church leaders today have titles like Pastor, Elder, Priest, Bishop, Reverend, Overseer, among others. Why so many titles? How about confusion. So we will use leader until God’s word has been explored.
The Trustworthy Saying
The Trustworthy Saying
1 This saying is trustworthy: “If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work.”
This is the second trustworthy statement in Timothy. It was a statement that was know by the church and would have been recognised by the people.
What is clear here is the basics of the statement itself. There are people who are overseers of the church and it is a noble work. It is a good duty.
The trustworthy statement says uses to words to describe the motivation of those that are pursuing to be overseers of the church. The CSB translates them as aspires and desires. The first work describes the effort that a person exerts to accomplish a goal. It means to strive for something. If one of your children says they want to be a chief when they grow up, what would your encouragement be.
You would tell them you will have to work hard, learn a lot. Try many many times and there will be many times that things don’t work out. Or what if they tell you they want to be a professional athlete. Won’t you tell them that there is much work to be done. That they will have to work harder and put in more effort than anyone else around you a achieve your goal.
What your child had the same goal in their 20s. But your child has put zero effort into achieving there goal. No cooking classes no reading, they do not cook at home. There is no effort or how about sports. Your child still says they want to be a pro sports athlete but they did not do highschool sports or collage sports. They do the bare minimum to be even called an athlete. There is no effort or energy.
To aspire to something is to put in effort and energy to achieve the goal.
The second word that is translated as desires speaks of the intense desire for something to crave for something. To be internally burdened to not have what you seek.
Those that want to be overseers of the church seek a noble work. To be an overseer of God church is a very high task. One that carries the highest responsibility and accountability. Done well will participate in incalculable blessings in their own life and others but done poorly the results can be devastating.
He will continue will the qualifications of this overseer of the church but here is where the confusion about church leadership begins.
The Overseer
The Overseer
Of the common translations that I know that are used here. The word here is overseer, bishop, or supervisor. Some less familiar ones will say elder but that is not a common translation of the term here. The word here is episkopos. It means:
overseer (church) n. — a leader who watches over, directs, cares, and is accountable for an assembly of believers.
Paul is speaking of someone who is seeking to oversee the church. This is one of 4 words that is used to describe those that God has appointed for the leadership of his church.
This is the least common word used.
28 Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.
1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus: To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons.
Paul uses it in the scriptures we are looking at today and the parallel section in Titus.
And it is used as a title for Jesus
25 For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
It was used in the Greek translation of the old testament 13 times to describe commanders and men in charge of various groups or tasks. It seems Paul is speaking to those in the church that were seeking the place of authority in the church.
But if this is the primary section we use for the qualifications of church leaders, then why do we not call our leaders overseers of bishops.
The Elder
The Elder
Paul was involved in starting the church in Ephesus and if you remember the history we looked at, he would leave the church to continue his missionary journeys and would come back some years later and gather the church leaders.
Acts 20:17–28 (CSB)
17 Now from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and summoned the elders of the church. 18 When they came to him, he said to them, “You know, from the first day I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, 19 serving the Lord with all humility, with tears, and during the trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews. 20 You know that I did not hesitate to proclaim anything to you that was profitable and to teach you publicly and from house to house. 21 I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus. 22 “And now I am on my way to Jerusalem, compelled by the Spirit, not knowing what I will encounter there, 23 except that in every town the Holy Spirit warns me that chains and afflictions are waiting for me. 24 But I consider my life of no value to myself; my purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God’s grace. 25 “And now I know that none of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will ever see me again. 26 Therefore I declare to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, 27 because I did not avoid declaring to you the whole plan of God. 28 Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.
The leaders of the churches were called elders as Paul gathers them to himself in this moment that he says good by to them as he continued to Jerusalem and what waited for him there. In verse 28, he tells the elders he has gathered:
28 Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.
This is the same church and most likely many of the same people. And he warns them that there will be people from inside the church that will distort the truth.
29 I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Men will rise up even from your own number and distort the truth to lure the disciples into following them.
The elders were called together by Paul. The word translated to elder is the second Greek word used for church leadership.
Presbyteros - Christian elder n. — an elder over an assembly of Christian believers (as an appointed or elected position).
This is the the most common word used for God’s leaders.
Elders were not new to the new church. God’s people always had elders among them.
21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select an animal from the flock according to your families, and slaughter the Passover animal.
The were appointed
16 The Lord answered Moses, “Bring me seventy men from Israel known to you as elders and officers of the people. Take them to the tent of meeting and have them stand there with you. 17 Then I will come down and speak with you there. I will take some of the Spirit who is on you and put the Spirit on them. They will help you bear the burden of the people, so that you do not have to bear it by yourself.
There were elders along side other authorities.
6 Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon when he was alive, asking, “How do you advise me to respond to this people?”
32 Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people and praise him in the council of the elders.
They were accused of ungodliness
14 The Lord brings this charge against the elders and leaders of his people: “You have devastated the vineyard. The plunder from the poor is in your houses.
16 The Lord himself has scattered them; he no longer watches over them. The priests are not respected; the elders find no favor.
12 He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his idol? For they are saying, ‘The Lord does not see us. The Lord has abandoned the land.’ ”
The elders were there along side the other religious leaders.
20 The chief priests and the elders, however, persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to execute Jesus.
12 After the priests had assembled with the elders and agreed on a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money
31 Then he began to teach them that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and rise after three days.
Elders were common in the nation of Isreal and would have naturally been a part of the NT church. There were recognized elders in churches and cities.
4 When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles, and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them.
The elders were appointed
23 When they had appointed elders for them in every church and prayed with fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
5 The reason I left you in Crete was to set right what was left undone and, as I directed you, to appoint elders in every town.
The elders were appointed by other elders and the apostles. They were left to oversee the different churches. They were to have authority and responsibility for the church. The elders that Paul gathered in Ephesus he states that they were appointed by the Holy Spirit.
28 Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.
God is the one who selects his leaders, his elders for the church. Could it be said today that many times it is men who are doing the appointing on their own. That they seek to find men that glorifies them as they are instead of glorying God as it reveals the truth of their lives.
3 For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. 4 They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.
So even though there are men that aspire and desire to be overseers there is a correct way for them to be appointed. We will discuss this in the next couple of weeks but so far we have church leaders were called elders and one of the responsibilities that they had was the oversight of the local churches.
Maybe you are going to ask Kyle when are we going to talk about what the bible says about pastors? What are their qualifications? When did they show up in the church?
The Pastor
The Pastor
This is where I think much of the confusion today has crept into the contemporary church.
Depending on the translation that you use. You will find probably a single verse.
11 And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,
This verse is in the context of church unity and the gifts that have been given to different believers for the equipping of the saints, building up the body, maturing the church so that
14 Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. 15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ. 16 From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.
It is a single reference which places it kind of on an island when we study it. Many today believe that there is a difference between an elder, a bishop or an overseer, and a pastor. And if that is what is imagined in the mind of the believer then there is this person over here called an elder and a person over here called a pastor.
If that is true then all of the hundreds of scriptures that speak to elders and overseers moves over here to be with the elder and the remaining one sits over here by itself. This is a disastrous error.
The reality is the Greek word here is
poimen - a shepherd
God routinely used the picture of a shepherd to communicate the heart and care of his leaders. Many times God calls out the elders as being bad shepherds to his people, his flock
1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says to the shepherds: Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding themselves! Shouldn’t the shepherds feed their flock? 3 You eat the fat, wear the wool, and butcher the fattened animals, but you do not tend the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bandaged the injured, brought back the strays, or sought the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty. 5 They were scattered for lack of a shepherd; they became food for all the wild animals when they were scattered. 6 My flock went astray on all the mountains and every high hill. My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and there was no one searching or seeking for them. 7 “ ‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. 8 As I live—this is the declaration of the Lord God—because my flock, lacking a shepherd, has become prey and food for every wild animal, and because my shepherds do not search for my flock, and because the shepherds feed themselves rather than my flock, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord! 10 “ ‘This is what the Lord God says: Look, I am against the shepherds. I will demand my flock from them and prevent them from shepherding the flock. The shepherds will no longer feed themselves, for I will rescue my flock from their mouths so that they will not be food for them. 11 “ ‘For this is what the Lord God says: See, I myself will search for my flock and look for them.
21 Since you have pushed with flank and shoulder and butted all the weak ones with your horns until you scattered them all over, 22 I will save my flock. They will no longer be prey, and I will judge between one sheep and another. 23 I will establish over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will shepherd them. He will tend them himself and will be their shepherd. 24 I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be a prince among them. I, the Lord, have spoken. 25 “ ‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and eliminate dangerous creatures from the land, so that they may live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forest. 26 I will make them and the area around my hill a blessing: I will send down showers in their season; they will be showers of blessing. 27 The trees of the field will yield their fruit, and the land will yield its produce; my flock will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the power of those who enslave them. 28 They will no longer be prey for the nations, and the wild creatures of the earth will not consume them. They will live securely, and no one will frighten them. 29 I will establish for them a place renowned for its agriculture, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land. They will no longer endure the insults of the nations. 30 Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people. This is the declaration of the Lord God. 31 You are my flock, the human flock of my pasture, and I am your God. This is the declaration of the Lord God.’ ”
This idea continues into the scriptures of the new testament as one of the images God uses to demonstrate the care and concern that his leaders must have. It is not a separate position it is an attitude of the elder.
1 Peter 5:1–5 (CSB)
1 I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and witness to the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory about to be revealed: 2 Shepherd God’s flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion but willingly, as God would have you; not out of greed for money but eagerly; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. 5 In the same way, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
We see all of these in harmony with one another.
Why then do we use the title Pastor so much when the bible calls its leaders elders? I do not know the answer to that but when ever there is a translation of a bible or a confession recorded. There is an attempt to explain the doctrines of God using the common words of the day.
We see this in our own Baptist Faith and Message. From the SBC website there is a comparison of the 1925, 1963, 2000, and 2023 amendment.
The 1925 uses the terms bishop and elder for the church leader.
Its Scriptural officers are bishops, or elders, and deacons.
The 1963 uses a single term of pastors
Its Scriptural officers are pastors and deacons.
The 2000 amended in 2023 uses the terms pastor, elder, and overseer.
Its two scriptural offices are that of pastor/elder/overseer and deacon. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
As you can see each of these are in response to something that is closely related to what is happening in 1st century Ephesus. The leadership of the church will always be an object attacked by the enemy. If there is confusion and failure in who can and who does lead Jesus’ bride then much damage can be done.
When the scripture is looked as a whole we will find that the church had appointed leaders. These leaders were called elders and they were called that because of their proven wisdom and the life they lived. The other elders would pray and fast before they would appoint leaders as there was a responsibility to be careful to discern those that the Holy Spirit called. One commentary suggested that the elders took this very seriously as they believed they were accountable for hasty appointments. So this was a serious en-devour.
These elders were responsible to oversee the church and to shepherd God’s flock. In engineering I was always taught that if you wanted to measure something that you needed a three legged stool. You had to have 3 opposing parts of information in order to make sure things were going well. For instance if I only reported on the schedule of the project and focused on that one part of the project, there is a tendency to bypass quality and disregard cost. If cost was the only factor then schedule and quality are at risk. Same with quality. To focus on one compromises the others.
I see much the same here the overseer or authority of the leader, the wisdom and experience of the elder and the heart care and concern of the shepherd. Each of these must be in place for a stable stool. Only looking at the authority can lead to CEO managers or church overlords by putting either uncaring or inexperienced people into this role. If only wisdom and experience is focused on then there can be a lack of anything but knowledge. Lives that thrive on the knowledge alone. And if we only focus on care and compassion then there is not leadership or experience to balance it out.
But God has called for his leaders to be responsible for the church, be wise and experienced, and to care for the sheep that God has put in their care. If the church is careful to find these men then the word of the author of Hebrews becomes a blessing and not a burden.
7 Remember your leaders who have spoken God’s word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith.
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, since they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
When a church has these men standing in the appropriate place with the appropriate motives the flock with be blessed.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Paul uses the responsibility of overseers to make his correction to the church. The term elder may have been too vague for his purposes as he was correcting those seeking to be in authority. In no way was he creating something else as he had already appointed elders in this church in the past. But they have fallen into elders who are teaching false doctrines.
Paul will give the qualification to deal with these men and also how to appoint or affirm others.
So what do we do with this do we now start calling me overseer Harrison. Please no. My concern here not which title we use Pastor/Overseer/Bishop/Elder but that there is no compromise in who are our leaders. I believe it would be best to move to the term elder more officially in the future as I believe we should stay as close to the scriptures as possible.
The loose ties that the word Pastor has to elder, is why I believe there has been such a shift in church leadership in the last 100 years.
Many use different reasons for dismissing the scriptures about God’s leaders so that unqualified may lead them.
But the underlining issues have not gone away.
There will always be people that are willing to compromise truth to give people what they want to hear. They will help the worldly christian feel comfortable in their sin and encourage them that God will do what every they want for them. There will
There will be others that seek the position of authority in the church and will become lords and kings in their own minds. They will use the church for their own selfish gain and pride.
I believe almost everyone here has had encounters with church leaders who have hurt them or betrayed them at some point in time. It is unfortunate that these things happen and many times the response is to take away the authority and give it to other people in the church. The authority is given to deacon boards, long term families, or the congregation of believers. The issue with this is that now people that have neither aspire or desire to oversee and who have not been appointed are now doing the overseeing of the church.
This seems wise but what are the lasting consequences. Can the sheep lead themselves and the shepherd? That is the democracy of many churches today. That the most unwise sheep has the same voting power as the wisest sheep in the room. The elder sits before the Word of God that tells him to feed and care for the flock. To move them from danger to better pastures. To guard them from the wolves. The word tells them they are to give an account of how they watched over the souls of the sheep to the Great Shepherd.
But the elder says, I have only been hired for preaching and administration.
And there is what I think is the greatest issue. Early church elders were long term members of the community. They were known and known well by the community. How does the church today expect a resume and a view of a call to reveal a man who can do what scripture is calling them to do. They are hired and then put kind of in charge. This isn’t working. The average pastor tenure is somewhere between 2 and 7 years depending on the study.
In the end vi does not matter the name you give a man Elder priest, bishop, it is the heart of the man that is important. And that will be proven in his moral fruit and his home life. This is what we will look at over the next couple of weeks as we dive into the biblical qualifications for overseers of the church.
Let us pray.
Let us pray.
Prayer
Communion
Warning
Children, Lost, Sin
19 And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and said, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Prayer
Song
Closing
Blessing/Benediction
20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
