1 Timothy 5:17-25

Introduction:

Good morning New Life Fellowship church! Another day in the house of the Lord amen! No place we’ed rather be. New year, same God….new year same God amen. I am grateful to be back behind the pulpit this Lord’s day. I just wanted to say that with the new year being off to a relatively new start. I know that Pastor Love and I have been praying that God will make this upcoming year fruitful and we are excited about some of the things we are expecting the Lord to do for us as a congregation. With that being said we continue in our journey through the book of 1 Timothy. Last month Jeremiah took us through the first half of chapter 5. Breaking down for us the many ways that us as the Church should be leading and relating to others. This morning we continue in chapter five by talking about a rather sensitive subject especially in today modern church. That is the topic of Church leadership. Keep in mind the whole scope of the book of 1 Timothy revolves around proper church worship and conduct. Remember we talked discussed earlier in chapter 3 when Paul said that the church is the “pillar and buttress of truth”. And of course if the church is the pillar and buttress of truth, specifically God’s truth, and 1 Timothy is all about instructions for the Church, it only makes sense that Paul would eventually have to talk about leadership in the Church. At the place I work at we have a saying amongst the leadership there, we say “Everything rises and falls upon leadership”. I am going to say that agin “Everything rises or falls upon leadership”. And if thats true in the secular world, how much more true should it not be in the household of God as one expositor says “Paul must have knew that as goes leadership, so goes the Church”. Background information also tells us that the Church of Ephesus (The Church Timothy was instructed to take care of). Suffered from many forms of false teachers. Its not secret that some of those false teaches had made their way into the Church of Ephesus’s leadership. Therefore Paul instructs Timothy as a young minister and us today as a local body of Christ, to take our stand and acknowledge the high responsibility that God has called upon the lives of those who lead his Church.

So this morning we have three observations. Then we are going to see how this text points us to Christ. Then we have two application’s that we can take home with us this week from this mornings texts. Three observations, how this text points us to Christ, and then two applications that will drive this passage home for us. I will list out my observations right here in case anyone would like to take notes.

1.) Renumeration

2.) Regulation

3.) Ordination

Renumeration, Regulation and Ordination.

Therefore if you have your Bibles please grab them and either open or scroll to the book of 1 Timothy chapter 5 beginning in verse 17. If you’re here this morning and you’re new to the Bible or may not be familiar with it. You can find 1 Timothy in the New Testament towards the latter part of the Bible. Those big numbers you see are the chapter numbers, and the little numbers you see next to the letters those are the verse numbers. I will give everyone a second to get there, you can say Amen once you have gotten there.

1 Timothy 5:17–25 “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.” Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure. (No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.) The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.”

May God richly bless the reading, hearing and doing of his word. Shall we pray!

Observation 1: Renumeration

Our first observation comes from verses 17-18. Perhaps many of you may not know what the word renumeration means, essentially what renumeration is “Money paid for a work or a service”. Some of you may find it strange that money is one of the first things that Paul talks about when it comes to church eldership. That is because money has been known to be a touchy subject in the Church. We see pastors and preachers fall into scandals and outside of affairs the leading cause for Church scandals always seems to be money. Usually that results in people leaving the Church all together. But the way Paul talks about money here is far different and more noble than what we see in social media or the news. Look at what he says in verse 17 “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching”. Did you catch what the Apostle Paul said there? He said let those who rule well be considered worthy of DOUBLE honor. Now don’t get it twisted brothers and sisters Paul is not saying Pastors should get paid twice as much or way more than anyone else. Rather when Paul says “Double Honor”. He refers to what translates in the Greek language as “ample honorarium”. Meaning that pastors shouldn’t get paid more or less rather they should get paid plentiful for their labor. I remember talking to some people I work with about how pastors get paid. I told them that that almost every pastor I know gets paid in some way shape or form. And they looked at me and it was like their faces were in shock. One young lady even told me “Your pastors get paid? Shouldn’t they do it for free?”. And to that my reply was simple, I said “You don’t do your job for free do you?”. You see beloved there is no where in scripture where you will find the idea that those who minister shouldn’t get paid. We could even trace this all throughout the storyline of scripture because even in the OT, tithes were a thing. As in Numbers 18 verse 21 when God was giving Aaron the duties of the priests and levites, He said “To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they may do their service in the tent of meeting”. Paul even quotes directly from the OT in verse 18 by saying “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out grain”. Again we see this theme running throughout the whole of scripture as Paul quotes Deut. 25:4. He also quotes the very lips of Jesus in the same verse when he says “The laborer deserves his wages”. Now, does this mean that money is the main thing? Of course not, but as a body of Christ we are called to show double honor to those who are elders in our congregation. Double honor not meaning double pay but honor in two ways. Honor in respect and care for those in charge as well as honor in the way we financially support those in charge. And this not just as call for those who are under the authority of church elders. It is also a call for those who are currently in the position of church eldership. Because what does the verse say? “Let those who rule well”. and “those who labor in preaching and teaching”. So if you’re and elder in the Church or lead in some way shape or form this is call not just for you to make money, as some people think it is. Rather this is a call for you to steward your church responsibility well. Especially if we are people who labor in preaching and teaching. I think it was Charles Spurgeon that once said “The Pulpit is no place for lazy ministers”.

Observation 2: Regulation

Which brings me to my second observation. Now that the hard part is out of the way. You know you can’t talk for too long about money right Elder Grant? People would end up leaving. No but seriously we move on to our next observation which is regulation. I used that word regulation as way of saying regulate. Thats because when you regulate something you sort of control it or direct it according to certain rules. We see this all over society, we see it in our jobs with safety regulations, we see it in our everyday lives with traffic regulations and so on. Most of the times regulations are in put in place in order to keep things from getting out of control. In a very real sense, there are some things that need to be regulated in the Church. Not to sound robotic or extremely authoriative but I get the sense here from this text that Paul even had in mind some things that needed to be regulated. One of those things were accusations against church elder’s. This is something that is very important, I have heard so many stories of Church hurt and congregational breakups because of false accusations and silly arguments over the color of the Church walls and other crazy things like that. If we get down to the root of everything we are sinners, and sinners can be some pretty divisive people. Therefore I am not shocked at all the times I have heard Pastors being falsely accused of things. Paul knew that situations like these don’t help the Church they actually breakdown the Church. Thats why situations and instances like these must be regulated. As verse 19 says “Do not admit a charge against and elder expect on the evidence of two or three witnesses”. What this text does not mean is to ignore genuine concerns you may have about someone in eldership rather, those concerns should be regulated by the testimony of two or more witnesses. Brothers and sisters its already bad enough that the Church suffers from living in a pagan world. Do we really need to add more affliction to ourselves by failing to regulate certain situations? And it is not just specific situations that need to be regulated sometimes its people themselves. As verses 20-21 say “As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of all the elect angels I charge you to keep these rules without, prejudging, doing nothing from partiality”. You see Paul here gets at the fact that even Church elders are not infallible and still subject to sin. The thing is there is a huge difference between those elders who fall in sin and those who persist in sin. We see it all the time, and we will explore a little bit more in my next point that there may some church elders who persist in sin. Similarly to the money scandals I talked about in my previous observation it seems that more and more there are people who rank high in the Church, just for the public to find out later that the whole time they have been engaging in persistent unrepented sin. So what we need beloved as a body of Christ is to regulate those who persist in sin. And we do so by according to verse 20 rebuking them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. One of the best pieces of advice ever given to me in young adult life was this… Someone told me that in order to mature you should learn from the mistakes of others. That piece of advice has stuck with me ever since I first heard it. In a similar way the Paul exhorts us to rebuke those in sin, not so that stuck in anguish. Rather so that we may learn from the mistakes of others and use the fear of falling into the same mistakes as a guard rail against falling into the same trap of sin. And of course we do without judging and without showing partiality. But keep in mind we also do this before the very presence of the almighty God. Keep in mind that elsewhere in the Bible it says that all things that are hidden will be revealed this is a warning to those who are in eldership, that we must be on guard against unchecked sin in our lives. This is also an exhortation to the Church as a whole that we need to regulate certain situation, as well as we need to be regulated ourselves when we find ourselves in sin.

Observation 3: Ordination

Which brings me to my third and final observation which is ordination. That is because our two previous points funnel down into our third observation which is the ordination of elders. As verses 22-25 say “Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure. No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden”. I get the sense here that Paul knows that who the church ordains matters, and it matters greatly. The problem we have today is that there are many people who are ordained who perhaps shouldn’t be and there may be some who are not ordained and perhaps should be. That why Paul tells Timothy in verse 22 don’t be so quick to lay hands on someone. That term laying hands essentially means to appoint someone to something or someone. But Paul tells Timothy don’t rush the process and make sure that you yourself are being kept pure. Don’t rush the process because that is how many false teachers may sneak their way into church and specifically church eldership. For some people it is super obvious that they shouldn’t be appointed to eldership or ministry because they lifestyle says otherwise. What I find scary or shocking here is that the text doesn’t just say that their sins should lead them to not be appointed, it says their sins go before them to judgment. Making it obvious who shouldn’t be in eldership. Yet when we keep reading we get the hard part that for some people their sins don’t appear until later. As I said before it seems that more and more prominent leaders in the Church are being exposed for sins they have kept hidden. I was just reading an article just last week about a relatively prominent Christian leader and famous author, I wont say names, who was caught up in an eight year affair with someone who was not his wife. You see what the text is saying beloved? It is crucial that we don’t be so hasty in the appointment of our leaders and elders. As some peoples sins appear much later. And even so, as it is with sins so it is with our good works. That sometimes peoples good works aren’t always seen, and people may be overlooked. But as I said before the Bible teaches that one day all things will be exposed so in the same way that a persons sins cannot remain hidden neither can a persons goods works. And this is how it should be for all faithful leaders and elders. As Jesus said in Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is Heaven”.

Now before we get into our application. We need to see how this text points us to Christ. You know usually when it comes to church structure and how the church should be ran. There is much debate of who is in control of the Church. But before we even get to that question we need to understand that the Church is a theocracy not a democracy. Theocracy meaning us as the Church, while we do commands in scripture to appoint leaders, elders and ministers, we are under the rule and care of someone else. We are a theocracy in the sense that we are under the rule and care of Jesus Christ. As Jesus said in John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”. While yes beloved as the Church we do appoint elders and leaders. And while yes we live in a world broken world of so much church scandals, church divisions and fallen leaders. There is good new’s beloved. That there is someone who is the head over all, who is watching over his flock. That is Jesus Christ, as there is no better elder, there is no better leader, there is no better minister, there is no better shepherd than Jesus Christ himself. Because he is the good shepherd and the only shepherd I know who has been sufficient enough to lay his life down for the sheep. Amen.

Application 1: Take Care.

This brings us to our application this morning which my first one is take care. Take care brothers and sisters. I know most of you are listening and aren’t in positions of church leadership or eldership. But don’t think this text doesn’t apply to you, because it does. Remember our first observation Paul said those in charge should have double honor. So all of us leaders or not have a call to treat those God has placed in positions of authority in our church with great honor. Wether it be in a financial giving or the respect we show. So as a congregation New Life we need to take care of those who are our leaders and elders as well as each other.

Application 5: Take Heed.

My final application is take heed brothers and sisters. Take heed. We need to take heed to the commandments and warning that are given to us in this text. As the idea of rebuking elders persistent in sin, and not being hasty appointing elders. These are not suggestions these are commands straight off the pages of the Bible. Nor are they here for no reason, they are here to guard us from falling into the same traps we see so many other people fall into. Therefore beloved us as a church must take great heed to these instructions give to us in scripture.

To conclude to talked about showing double honor to those leaders God has give us. We talked about the regulation of situations and leaders. And we went over the responsibility of appointing faithful leaders and elders. And most importantly we talked about the person who is the most faithful leader of all, Jesus Christ. But there may be some of you in here this morning who have yet to what is to come under the lordship and leadership of Jesus Christ. Well if thats you, and you’re here this morning and you want to experience the power and presence of God. Jesus is inviting you to come under his leadership today, bow the knee in faith, surrender to him, and he will become your great shepherd also. Amen.