Titus 1:5-9; An Elderly Church

Introduction

Image

Need

Topic

Referent

Titus 1:5-9

Organization

The Need for Elders (vs. 5 and 9b)

The Elders Need to (vs. 6-9a)

Sermon in a sentence:

I want godly leadership for God’s people.

Structure

v. 5: order by appointing elders (those that can teach/oversee/pastor)

v. 6-8 : Requirements for an elder

v. 9: hold firm (keeping straight) by teaching and rebuking

The Need For Elders (v. 5 & 9b)

The NT pattern for a church is to have elders/pastors/overseers.

Paul tells Titus to appoint leadership in every church. He uses the term elder (v. 5) and overseer (v. 7)

Paul gave Timothy this same pattern in 1 Timothy 3:1-7. There he also told Timothy to choose deacons to serve the church. 1 Timothy 3:1–2 “1 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,”

Paul assumed elders and deacons in his teaching (Philippians 1:1 “1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:” )

Hebrews 13:7 “7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.” (leaders/rulers)

1 Peter 5:1–4 “1 So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: 2 shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; 3 not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.”

Acts 20:17–21 “17 Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. 18 And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; 20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, 21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Acts 20:26–28 “26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for (to shepherd) the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.”

We need a reform on Baptist ecclesiology. The Second London Baptist Faith and Message and the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 have taught that the church has two offices: elders/pastors/overseers and deacons. The modern American Baptist church has moved away from that. We now have churches that are run like business. We have a lead/senior pastor that works as a CEO. Most churches have an associate pastor, youth pastor, and children pastor. All the staff answers to the lead pastor. He does a weekly team meeting and then everyone goes back to their ministry in the church.

(Zach C.) The New Testament teaches that the church is run by a plurality of elders. I have a friend that graduated this year from seminary. He moved back to Virginia to pastor in his home church. They have a plurality of elders there. But they hired him as a pastor but not an elder. He preaches like the other elders. He goes to the elder meetings like the other elders. He can make decisions like the other elders. BTW they are elder ruled not congregation ruled. He is paid like the lead elder. He has a book allowance for the year like the lead elder. They give him all the rights, responsibilities, and rules as an elder but not the name.

(Deacons) Saints, as you know, we had a meeting with Providence on the 5th of last month. The meting was a brief introduction to the elders of Providence and then the rest of the time was questions from your fellow church members. Someone had a really good question and comments. He said in that meeting that Colgate hasn’t had elders before. The deacons have basically served as elders.

I had another member kindly ask me why I wanted to change our constitution. They said the church has always been run by deacons and committees. Why do I want to change it? I kindly told them that was the wrong question. The question should not be, “Why do you want to change?” The question should have been, “What does the Bible say?”

The thing is, people are not against a position that does what the Bible commands and elder to do. In my experience, they just don’t like the title. I have seen so many Baptist churches have a body of deacons that serve as elders without the name. They give the pastor the annual performance review. They oversee the pastors income. They lead the committees.

Someone said the other day that the deacons are over the pastor. I ask you to find one passage in the NT that says the deacons are supposed to oversee or rule over the plurality of elders? In Acts 6, the disciples/apostles go to the congregation to choose the first deacons. Once the congregation has found worthy men, they apostles lay hands and anoint the deacons. Literally the NT teaches us that it is the elders that are supposes to oversee the deacons.

Elders are need to serve as guide rails that keep the saints in the will of God.

The Elders Need To (6-9)

These requirements are to be used prayerfully and wisely.

Paul is going to give 3 preliminary requirements that are like the most basic requirements before giving 6 negative and 6 positives requirements.

“above reproach” literally blameless. Not sinless but without recourse or above scrutiny

“the husband of one wife” - “a one woman/wife man” Probably an idiom for marital faithfulness not speaking of divorce or even polygamy.

Polygamy wasn’t a common practice in the Roman empire. Prostitution and concubines were common though.

άπολύω - literally let go, loose, divorce.

ἀποστάσιον - to stand away from, where we get apostacy.

χωρίζω - to depart, put asunder

Λυσίας - to loose, or set free

“children are believers” - children are faithful. Aaron’s sons: Nadab and Abihu. Eli’s sons: Hophni and Phineas. David’s sons : Solomon. Samuel’s sons: Joel and Abijah. I remember Lester’s two sons playing basketball and listening to the worst music while playing in the church’s gym.

Negative

Blameless :again

arrogant/self-willed: full of himself or boastful. headstrong for the wrong reason

quick-tempered : everything is a problem or angry response

drunkard - controlled or driven by substances

violent - bully (csb) what a description of someone in power right?

greedy for gain - many people want to use the gospel as an object to sell and profit from. I have taken steps to not be in ministry for the sake of money. This month was the first month I stepped away from going to the admin meeting (month finance meeting) because I did not want people to think I am taking advantage or using the church.

Positive

hospitable - first positive requirement is not teaching, preaching, praying. All important things! But hospitality. Is this a dead practice?

lover of good - tastebuds for the things of heaven. Does this world excite your pastor or yourself more than the things of God?

self-controlled: moderate. not given to the highs and lows. the little things don’t matter that much. being able to control his flesh

upright : literally righteous. He isn’t problematic. He’s not hiding skeletons.

holy - set apart/devoted person of God. LXX pares upright and holy in Deut 32:4, Psalm 145:17, Prov 17:26.

disciplined - similar to self-controlled but it also has more to it than that. I can control my self to not look at my phone for an hour. But I want to be disciplined that I am going to study, pray, meditate, or some other spiritual discipline for that hour. One can be control and the other can be formation.

Conclusion

Application

Come to know the only perfect shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. No human can be perfect. No human can always lead you in the right way. Unless his human is the God-man, Jesus Christ. The perfect shepherd who looses none of his sheep.

Rethink your ecclesiology and repent if you need to. You may have disregarded the plain teaching of Scripture for years. Don’t do it anymore. Now, pray for God to raise up elder qualified men among Colgate. Pray for God to raise up deacon qualified men.

As you are praying for God to bless Colgate you can als read over the new constitution that we will vote on in January and come to our special Q&A on November 30th.