Sermon Tone Analysis

Go ahead and open your Bible to 1 Timothy 5:17-25.

Our study over these last several weeks has been on how we are called to fight the good fight of the faith.

We have seen how we fight to keep the truth of the gospel centered in our own hearts, and how we join together with other believers in the church to make sure that same message is proclaimed and lived out.

As we went through, we mentioned that God had called two unique groups of men to help lead that fight: overseers and deacons.

Remember that we said that the New Testament uses the terms elder, overseer/bishop, and pastor all to refer to the same group of men.

The difference often comes with what particular part of that role is being emphasized.

Elders/overseers/pastors are the men called to preach, teach, and lead the church, while deacons are called to assist the elders in their work of ministering to the the needs of the vulnerable, both inside and outside of the church.

In our passage this morning, we are going to find a few more instructions on how we are to relate as elders and the church.

I will acknowledge that this passage is challenging, because right now, I am the only elder this church has appointed.

However, as you will see, there is an indication that churches may and should have more than one elder, so these principles may well one day apply to more than just me.

We see that right off the bat in verse 17.

Read that with me...

There are a few principles about elders we want to pull from this passage before we really get into the message itself, so bear with me as we look at this.

First, notice that the term “elder” is plural here.

This letter is written to Timothy, who was serving with the church at Ephesus.

Using the plural indicates that there likely was more than one elder at that church.

They may also have had different roles.

Although every elder must be able to teach, based off the qualifications in , there may be some elders who serve as the primary teachers of the church, while other elders use their giftings to help serve and lead more.

I don’t want to get too deeply into this this morning, but I do want you to notice that there is Scriptural precedence for having more than one elder, even if one is still the primary preacher and teacher.

With that in mind, no matter how many you have, there are certain ways we need to relate as we fight this fight together.

We are going to see three principles today on how we relate to each other as elders and the church.

The first we see is that churches are called to...

1) Support your elders.

1) Support your elders.

Look back at verses 17-18.

Here we see that churches are called to support the men who serve the church as elders.

In fact, they are called to give them, “double honor”.

Most commentators break this down into two main categories: respect and remuneration.

In other words, those who serve the church well as God-honoring elders are worthy, at the very least, of respect.

That ties into what we saw back in ...

I have told you many times that I am, by no means, a spiritual giant.

However, men who step into the role of an elder are opening themselves up to an incredible challenge.

Yes, there is a tremendous blessing of doing this work, but there are great burdens as well:

Anyone who teaches, but especially those who serve as elders, will be called to stand before God and give an account of how they taught and led.

That is why the writer of Hebrews encourages churches to respect their godly leaders:

1 Peter 5:

At first glance, this sounds great if you are an elder, right?

People have to listen to what you say.

Right!

And, you have to stand before God and give an account for how you cared for those God put under your charge, how you pointed them to Christ, and how you lived out Christlikeness before you.

If anyone wants to be an elder because of the notoriety, he has missed the implications of his calling.

Back to 1 Timothy, we see that the church should hold men who serve as elders in honor since they are carrying this weight out of obedience to God’s call.

With that, the idea of “double honor” includes the idea of financial compensation.

It is a good and biblical thing for a church to support their elders financially, especially for that elder or elders who are charged with the primary teaching and preaching responsibilities.

Just like with honor, getting a paycheck should never be the primary motivation for a pastor’s service to the Lord:

There should be an eagerness to serve the Lord that is based off a desire to please him, not just earn a paycheck.

1 peter 5:2

For support, Paul uses an Old Testament quote, summarizes another OT idea, and possibly even quotes Jesus’ teachings.

That doesn’t mean

Read verse 18 again...

The command not to muzzle an ox may not make a lot of sense to us, but think of the picture.

In those days, an ox would be the power for your mill.

As the ox was pulling the crank to move the millstone, he might occasionally bend over and grab a mouthful of grain.

Some would try to stop the ox from doing this by muzzling them, but the Old Testament law said that he should be allowed to grab a bite now and then.

He was doing the work, so he deserved to be paid.

That was the idea behind the second reference.

If a worker did his job, then he should get paid.

If that is true of farm animals and day laborers, then shouldn’t men who labor to study God’s word and lead God’s people to greater knowledge of him be compensated for their work?

By the way, my family and I are so incredibly grateful and blessed at how this church has cared for us over the years.

This church has faithfully provided what they could for our income, even when things were really tight for the church.

For that, we are incredibly grateful.

That is how it should be.

That frees me up to serve the church well without having to balance another job on top of it.

Although there isn’t a command that every elder has to be paid full-time salary, we should seek to provide for our elders’ material needs as God gives us opening and opportunity.

Beyond that, we should show honor to those who serve well in this office.

Showing honor leads to the next way churches should relate to their elders.

Look at verse 19...

2) Defend your elders.

Part of showing honor to your elders is to treat them with the same fairness you would expect anyone else to be treated with.

There are times when a person may try to assassinate an elder’s character, and a wise church will closely examine the accusations.

This is the same pattern that has held true for God’s people since the Law was given.

It is possible for one person to make up an accusation against an elder to try to defame them.

The church is called to defend their elders against rumors, gossip, and hearsay, which we are called to do for each other anyway.

Now, if we stop here, some of you might say, “Wait a minute…so we are supposed to pay you, and we are supposed to just believe what you say without question?”

That isn’t at all what we are saying, which will become more clear as we see more of this passage.

What we are saying is that, if a man is serving as an elder, and the church has recognized that God has placed his call on this man’s life, then you should give him the benefit of the doubt.

That is part of what the honor we show.

If there aren’t multiple credible witnesses to the actual events, not just people who heard about it, then you need to defend the character of you elders.

That does bring up an interesting challenge in our current culture: what if an elder is accused of sexual assault or abuse?

In those instances, there may only be one person who is aware of what took place.

Accusations of sexual assault or abuse must be thoroughly investigated and addressed, even if there is only one witness.

The Southern Baptist Convention has recently released a curriculum called, “Caring Well for the Abused,” and we are looking for ways to implement that and to become a church that truly does care well for the abused.

That will include, to quote J.D. Greear, “promot[ing] the protection of the victims, not the guarding of your reputations.”

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Our priority as a church, should an accusation of that manner be made, will be to protect the victim.

It takes great courage for a person to open up about such deep wounds, and we want to acknowledge that right up front.

So, then, those issues will be dealt with differently than other accusations against an elder.

The same would be true of other accusations regarding legal issues.

Now, if we stop here, some of you might say, “Wait a minute…so we are supposed to pay you, and we are supposed to just believe what you say without question?”

When other accusations are made, they must be corroborated.

An elder shouldn’t be rebuked based off hearsay or gossip.

Instead, it must come directly from multiple sources.

When two or three credible witnesses come forward, that establishes that there may be a serious issue with the elder’s character.

It is no longer a personal vendetta, but something that the church needs to handle.

At that point, the church needs to move forward with the rest of what Paul says to Timothy.

They need to move decisively to...

3) Protect the church’s purity.

The Bible never calls for blind allegiance to anyone but Jesus.

In fact, it is very clear that we are to hold leaders to high standards.

Look at verse 20.

A public leader, like an elder, is to be rebuked in public for not continuing to live a life that is above reproach.