The Pastoral Epistles Pt.2

This morning we are going to be continuing our series on looking at the pastoral epistles. Today we are going to concentrate a little bit on church leadership. We are going to talk about the qualifications for an elder and also the qualifications for a deacon. We are going to look at some of the duties of each of the offices. Now one thing that I want you to keep in mind, is these are very important offices in the church. These are not offices that should be taken lightly. These are offices in the church that are very important, both spirit. Really. And physically. Because both officers have a job to do, both the offices have something to do for the church. And like I said, they are both very important. We cannot forget that.

Now, this morning, we're not going to look at a comprehensive list of all of the scriptures that talk about elders and deacons. For the sake of time, however, we are going to look at several of them. We're going to start off with elders by looking at Titus chapter 1, verses 5 through 9. It says, “For this reason I left you in Crete, so that you would set in order what remains to appoint elders into every city as I directed you. Namely, if any man is above reproach, husband of one wife having two, having children who believe not. Accused of dissipation or rebellion for the overseer must be above reproach as God's Stewart. Not self willed, not quick tempered, not addicted to wine, not punctilious. Not fond of sword gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self controlled, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able to both exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict.”

So we know that Paul is talking about elders here, and he's talking about a little bit of the qualifications of an elder. And just some of those real quick. First of all, was above reproach. Now, being above reproach does not mean that you are perfect. We know that none of us are perfect. None of us can say that we have not sinned. We all have. And we don't expect anybody to be in that perfect role except Christ Himself. But above reproach means good standing in the community. I saw one commentary one time that read above reproach meant not standing in any scandals. In other words, someone that people look up to in the community, someone who is doing good. And I love those verses 8 and 9. Hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just devout, self controlled.

That word self controlled is something that can get out of hand for all of us. I'm not just talking about elders right here for a second. I'm talking about every single one of us is being in control of ourself. Is that a bad category for any of us to have? Is that a bad characteristic for? Any single one of us to have. Self-control is something that is very important. Because if we have self-control, a lot of the other sins will just kind of go away. We won't have to worry about them anymore. A lot of things are taken care of when we have self-control. And again, I'm not just talking about our elders here. I'm not just talking about our deacons. I'm talking about us all. These are characteristics that all of us need to have.

Now, one thing that I want to mention real quick when we're talking about leadership. God wants His church and His Word handled properly. And the reason I say that is because Scripture points out the qualifications, the duties for elders and deacons. If God didn't want His church and His Word and His people handled correctly, then He wouldn't care who was in the leadership role. He wouldn't care who was taking care of his church, who was shepherding his people. But the fact remains, He does care. He wants us to do it the way that he wants it done. He directs us in the Scripture to do these things. They're important. We cannot. Forget that.

There's another part of that verse 7 it says not fond of sordid gain. Now that's not some words that we use very often here in our day and time today. Kind of what we're talking about here is humility. We're not in it for ourselves, not in it for personal gain. You know, I know we have all seen on TV and in our own lives and I'm not going to get down to mentioning names here, but I know that we can all relate to someone who is in the ministry or in church relation activities for their own personal gain. We've seen that. That's not a just 21st century problem. That will happened in the 1st century as well. That's why Paul made it clear. An elder must not be in it for his own gain. Humility. An elder should be there to serve God, to serve the church, to serve the people. The elders job as well as the deacons is very important.

We're talking about these characteristics. We should all have those characteristics in our lives and if we don't, we should be striving towards it because none of these things are bad. None of these things. Or things that we shouldn't already be doing. But we should have these characteristics in our lives as well. And like I said, these verses that we're looking at, this is just a sample. This is not a complete list of the qualifications for an elder or the qualifications for a Deacon or when we get into the duties. Not just a complete list, there are other things that we just don't have time to look at this morning.

But as members of the church, we need to support our leadership. We need to pray for the leaders of this church. How often do we do that? How often do we pray for the leadership of the church? How often do we pray for our elders or deacons? How often do we think about these people who are doing God's work? Who have took it upon themselves nobody held a gun to them and made them take the position. How often do we pray for God's guidance? Sometimes elders and deacons have to make choices. They have to make decisions that affect everybody. Have to make decisions and make sure that God's church is being handled correctly. Pray for them. Pray for all the leadership here at the church.

Also, when talking about prayer, we've got to touch on this for just a second. James chapter 5, verses 13 through 15. We're talking about prayer and we're talking about the elders. I want to make sure we touch on this. Take a look at these verses. It says, “Is anyone among you suffering that he must pray? Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing songs of praises. Is anyone among you sick? And he must call on the elders of the church and there to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, the prayer and offering and faith. Will restore the one who is sick. The Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.”

So like I said, I want to talk about this for just a second. If you have something going on in your life that you need prayer. Don't hesitate another minute to ask one of these men to pray with you, to ask one of these men to pray for you. I know they won't hesitate. Not one second. Here on Sunday morning, right after invitation, we have a time where you can come up and receive prayer, have somebody pray with you and pray for you. If you have something going on, don't let that time pass by. Because a lot of times our seats get too comfortable. We don't want to get out of them. That's not necessarily a bad thing. They're nice while you're sitting there. But what I'm saying is our seats get too comfortable. We don't want to take that leap of faith. We don't want to get up and have somebody pray for us. We don't think about it. Our seats are too comfortable. Sometimes we have to take that step of faith. Sometimes we have to get out of our comfort zone a little bit, walk in front of everybody and go ask for prayer. Please don't let that time pass by.

So we've talked about elders for just a few minutes. I want to skip over and look at the book of Acts chapter 6 verses one through 4. Now I want to tell you right before we look at these verses, these verses don't explicitly talk about a Deacon. However, what we're going to see is some of the duties that we're going to look at here. Were also some of the duties of the Deacon. In other words, what we're gonna see here is the disciples realized that they needed somebody to help. They needed somebody to do some other roles here. So let's look at Acts chapter 6 verses one through 4. It says, “Now at this time, while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the hell Asthenic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. So the 12 summoned the congregation of the disciples, and said, It is not desirable for us to neglect the Word of God in order to serve tables. Therefore, brethren, select among you 7 men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.”

So like I said, these verses don't explicitly say the word Deacon. But it does kind of show some of the duties here. They do share some of the duties as later deacons would take care of. They were there to make sure that everything was physically being taken care of, while the elders, if you will, were devoting themselves to prayer, to ministry, to doing the spiritual side. The others, the deacons now, if you will, what we know is a Deacon now would take care of. The spherical side of the church take care of the church building and grounds take care of the widows.

And the reason that I put these verses in there this morning is because they realized from the very beginning, those original disciples. We realized that there had to be a couple of offices here. There had to be groups of people to do different things because there were so many different things to be handled. It couldn't be handled by one or two people. Just like today, the preacher myself, I can't do everything. Preacher and every church has to have some help, has to have some help with the building, the grounds, with visiting, with prayer, with all kinds of other things. There has to be a blend here. Because 1234 people can't do it all.

And this is also not to say that if you're not an elder or a Deacon. That you have nothing to do because there is always things to be done around the building for the Kingdom of God. There's always people that need visited, there's always stuff to be done, always people to call, people to check on. All these things still need to happen.

So let's jump on down, look at some qualifications of a Deacon. First Timothy, 3/8 through 13. It says, “Deacons likewise must be men of dignity, not double tongued, or addicted to much wine, or found of so fond of sordid gain, but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. These men must also be first tested, and let them serve as deacons if they are beyond. Approach Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things. Deacons must be husbands of only one wife, and good managers of their children and their own household. For those who have served well as deacons obtained for themselves a high standing and a great confidence. And the faith that is in Christ Jesus.”

So again here one thing that we have seen both times is not in it for their own gain. And like I said when we were talking about the elders, this is not just a 1st century problem. The problem today as well. It's been a problem all throughout history. We need to make sure that we are not in this for our own personal gain. No matter where you look at the qualifications for an elder or a Deacon, there is always an emphasis on personal integrity. There's always an emphasis on living a life pleasing to God. There's an emphasis on spiritual maturity. All of these things are not only qualifications for these offices, but something that we all should be doing as well.

Especially spiritual maturity. When we're more spiritually mature, we are able to see and understand false teachings. That's one of the very important things here. Because false teachers are out there. There are people out there who are preaching false doctrine. They're preaching things that are not in the book. We need to be able to understand that, we need to be able to catch that. Because you have no idea how detrimental that really is. Take a look at First Timothy chapter 1 verses one through 11. It says, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, according to the commandment of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope to Timothy, my true child, in faith, grace and mercy and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus our Lord, as I urged you upon my departure from Macedonia. Remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies which give a rise to mere speculation, rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men, straying from these things have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the law even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about. Which they make confident assertions. But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious and the ungodly and sinners and unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers and for immortal men and homosexuals and. Kidnappers and liars, perjurers, whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.”

Want to say something about this real quick? False teachers can destroy a church. I'm sure that most, if not all of us here today know and understand that. But we cannot get complacent. We cannot get to the point that we don't think that false teachers are there. It doesn't take but a quick Google search, a quick YouTube search to find people out there preaching things not in the Bible. They'll take God's Word and take one or two words of it and twist it and turn it and make it into something that it does not say. We cannot do that. We need to make sure that we are able to read the Scripture for ourselves, to understand God's Word for ourselves. We have to be aware of this.

One more set of verses this morning, Matthew Chapter 7 verses 15 and 16. It says, “Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they?” What's these verses tell us? We need to pay attention. We need to be aware of false teachers and false prophets, people who are out there trying to deceive you. Because it will happen. It happens every day. There are people who are wolves who put on sheep's clothing. They'll try to tell you things that God does not say. They'll try to teach you things that are not in the Word. Be careful with that.

He even tells us what to look for here. Jesus even says you'll know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorns. Figs are not from thistles. You see, a lot of times our fruits show us where our heart is. A lot of times what comes out of us shows us where our heart is. Because you might be able to fool somebody for a while, but after you know them for a few years, you find out truly where their heart is. Be careful, be aware of that. Don't think that it doesn't happen, because I'm telling you it does every single day.

I just want to recap just for a minute, a few things we talked about this morning. First was to pray for the leaders. I can't stress enough how important it is to pray for the leaders of this church. Pray for the leaders of the churches in our area, in the nation, and our world. Leaders in their churches all over the world are making decisions every single day, decisions that not only affect them, but affect everyone else. Decisions on what direction for the church to go, decisions on the finances for the church, all kinds of decisions are being made every day by church leaders. Pray for them. Pray that God will use them for his will. Pray for them to follow God's will. Pray for their family. Sometimes being in one of these positions takes a little bit of sacrifice. Sometimes that's very difficult for a family. Pray for their family, pray for them.

This next thing that we talked about is something that we all can do. Actually the last two are but live a life pleasing to God. Not only for the leadership of our church, but for every single one of us. Live a life pleasing to God. Do what he tells us to. Don't do what he told us not to do. And finally, be aware of the false teachings. Be aware that there are people out there who preach things that are not in God's Word. Beware of that. Be careful with that. That's why it's so important to read our Bible ourselves. That's why it's so important to know God's Word and to study it. That's what I want us to think about this coming week. Are we going to do that? Are we going to pray? Are we going to study God's Word? Are we going to live a life pleasing to God?