Qualifications of Elders - part 5

The books of Timothy and Titus deal with the issue of leadership in the church.

Very important - we need Godly leadership!

The Church needs to return to the Bible in its establishment of leadership.

Our day:

Churches compromise on the Word of God to appease worldly norms and expectations

Churches water down biblical expectations to fill leadership roles

Churches take decidedly unbiblical positions on matters to appease onlookers

May 1, 2024 The United Methodist Church voted, 692-51, to allow LGBTQ clergy to serve in the church

Reversing a 40-year denominational rule forbidding “self-avowed homosexuals” from being ordained or appointed as clergy members.

Spitting on the eternal Word of God

Other churches in America (LGBTQ permitting)

Episcopal Church

Evangelical Lutheran Church

Mennonite Church (USA)

Presbyterian Church (USA)

United Church of Christ

We must be careful of becoming like the church in Ephesus:

Revelation 2:4 (Jesus speaking) I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

Can you imagine that? A church leaving their first love?

Many churches today have abandoned their first love for the opportunity for 15-minutes of fame and acceptance as the “church who loves, welcomes, and affirms all.”

Revelation 2:5 (Jesus’ warning) Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Back to the UMC

David Meredith With the approvals and acceptance of the things today...we're beginning to see the unwinding, unravelling, dismantling of the heterosexism, the homophobia, the hurt and the harm of the United Methodist Church.

There is a lot to unpack in that comment.

Some truly needed repentance in the church, I am sure.

Definitely some clear kowtowing to the world.

But no greater concern than the fact that the UMC has abandoned the Word of God.

As a result, the Lord will remove their lampstand from its place.

As we have seen in Titus 1:5-9, it is very important that a church have qualified leadership at the helm.

The Apostle Paul identifies three areas where a man who is to serve as an Elder is to be above reproach:

Family life

Personal conduct

Teaching

The qualifications are not particular to church leaders, as they are expected from all believers.

However, leaders are to serve as models to be emulated and must be possessors of these qualifications… bar none.

An Elder must be the husband of one wife and have children who are obedient in the home

An Elder must not be arrogant, given to anger, ruled by alcohol, abusive in anyway, or seeking wealth at any cost

An Elder must be hospitable, zealous for good works, in control of his passions/desires, upright, holy, and righteous inside and out.

As important as these qualities are, we now arrive at the most important of the list, as it is what leads to the previous qualities being present in the life of an individual.

Read Titus 1:5-9.

Throughout the pastoral epistles, Paul repeatedly emphasizes the critical importance of elders carefully and consistently preaching, teaching, and guarding God’s truth.

hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught

The Church cannot be governed in any other way than by the Word… and the Elder should hold it fast, not only being well instructed in it, but being constant in living it.

In order for an Elder to be an effective teacher of the Word, he must be unwaveringly loyal to Scripture.

hold firm = cling to

Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Rather than longing for the big payday, preachers of the Word ought to long for the Word of God.

Hold it tightly and don’t let go.

the… word = λόγος is often used as a synonym for Scripture (the written Word of God)

Paul speaks of Scripture to Timothy as the good deposit entrusted to you (2 Timothy 1:14) and as the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:15).

The Word of God is given for the purpose of growing in wisdom and knowledge of Christ

Elders, particularly, must commit to the Word which has been entrusted to them

EXAMPLE: The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14ff)

The servants who were entrusted with 5 and 2 talents made 5 and 2 more talents… well done good and faithful servant.

The servant given the one talent hid it until the master returned… wicked and lazy slave.

Which servant are you? What are you doing with what has been entrusted to you?

Paul goes on to reveal the fact that all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

He also commended the Elders in Ephesus to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified (Acts 20:32).

Peter called Scripture the pure spiritual milk by which believers grow in respect to salvation (1 Peter 2:2).

Elders are to love the faithful word of God, respect it, study it, believe it, and obey it.

Elders are to be trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine (1 Timothy 4:6), which involves a commitment to the authority and sufficiency of God’s Word as the only source of moral and spiritual truth.

The truth of the Word must be woven into the very fabric of an Elder’s thinking and living.

John Calvin There are some fickle persons who easily suffer themselves to be carried away to various kinds of doctrine; while others are cast down by fear, or moved by any occurrence to forsake the defence of the truth… nothing is more dangerous than… when a pastor does not stedfastly adhere to that doctrine of which he ought to be the unshaken defender.

It is through the Word that a believer grows in knowledge and understanding:

Of the character of God

Of the will and purpose of God

Of the power and glory of God

Of the love and mercy of God

Of the principles and promises of God

Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

It is through the Word that a believer comes to understand [repeat each time]:

Justification, Sanctification, Glorification

The enemy and his powers of darkness

Their own helplessness to resist and overcome sin apart from God

It is failure in the area of holding firm to the trustworthy word that is responsible for the superficial, self-elevating preaching and teaching in many evangelical churches. “Sermonettes for Christianettes” are becoming the common meal for churches today.

be able to give instruction…and rebuke

One thing an Elder must be able to do as a teacher/preacher in the church is give instruction in sound doctrine. Bottom line: they are to build up the Body of Christ to maturity in the faith.

Read Ephesians 4:11-16

No reasonable, sensible Christian man would take the role of pastor-teacher on himself without the Lord’s calling.

James 3:1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

Neither would sensible Christian man attempt to fulfill that calling by preaching/teaching whatever ideas might come to his own mind.

He will preach and teach nothing but sound doctrine.

Another thing an Elder must be able to do as a teacher/preacher in the church is rebuke those who contradict [sound doctrine].

Calvin aptly states, the pastor ought to have two voices: one for gathering the sheep and another for warding off and driving away wolves and thieves.

Peter warns of the ever present threat of false teachers:

2 Peter 2:1–3 false prophets also arose among the people [in the OT], just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words.

False teachers in the church can exist in different forms [they are not all “teachers”].

But they are enemies of sound doctrine and therefore of God and His people.

It is from the authority of Scripture and conviction of sound doctrine that an Elder can both exhort the believer and rebuke those who oppose it.

He is to proclaim and defend God’s Word

In the eyes of many people (believers and not), to denounce false doctrine is to be unloving, judgmental, and divisive.

But compromising Scripture in order to make it more palatable and acceptable is not speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).

It is speaking falsehood and is the farthest thing from godly love.

The faithful Elder tolerates, and teaches his people to tolerate, only sound doctrine.

The faithful believer is like the Jews in Berea, who received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so (Acts 17:11).

2 Timothy 4:2–4 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.