Honoring Church Leaders

Introduction

Good Morning, how are we doing this morning? It is good to see you…(lights?)

Thom Rainer, a well know Church consultant once wondered about the different kinds of complaints that Pastors and Church leaders have recieved, so he sent out a request through his network of pastors and he compiled a list of the top 25 craziest complaints that Pastors have recieved from congregants. These are my favorites:

“We need a small group for cat lovers.”

“You need to change your voice.”

“Our expensive coffee is attracting too many hipsters.”

“Preachers who don’t wear suits and ties aren’t saved. It’s in the Bible.”

“Your socks are distracting.”

“We need to start attracting more normal people at church.”

“Your wife never compliments me about my hair or dress.”

“I think you are trying to preach caffeineism.”

“If Jesus sang from the red hymnals, why can’t we?”

“You didn’t wrap the hot dogs in bacon for the church picnic.”

“The toilet paper is on the wrong way in the ladies restroom. It’s rolled under.”

Just so you know, I did not contribute to the list so if you remember saying one of these things to me - I kept your craziness confidential.

Tension

The reason I decided to share these with you today is that 1 Timothy gives us guidelines on how we are to behave towards the leaders in the Church. In our summer series we have been tackling God’s instructions for how we are to behave in his household, and most recently we have been looking at the repeated idea of “honor” in the household of God.

The Language of Honor is actually found throughout both the Old and New Testaments, but a good dictionary definition would be that Honor: a social term describing how people within a society evaluate one another. So to show honor to someone is to value them, to dishonor them is to declare them to have little or no value.

Last week we looked at how we are to show honor to everyone in the household of God. We are to treat them like family. And not on some sliding scale according to how we treat our individual families, but according to God’s good design for the family. So we should honor Older men as God has called us to honor our own father, treat younger men as brothers, younger women as sisters and Older women with the same respect that we would give our own mothers.

Then we learned about how the early Church was to “honor widows who are truly widows”. While some context is needed, the basic idea is that widows who were truly widows were left with no way of meeting their own needs except for God’s intervention, and they have been faithfully relying on God to meet that need. In these cases, God then mobilizes His Church to answer the prayers of those who are depending on Him in this way.

But it was not just about financial assistance, it was about helping them to find their place in ministering in the household of God. We each have a role to play here in the Church of the living God and Paul tells Timothy that these women should be allowed, even expected to minister in the Church according to their abilities, giftings, and certain qualifications - which he gives a list just like he does for the other Church leaders.

Which is the group that Paul circles back towards in our text today and he calls on the Church to show honor to them. To see what that looks like we will turn to 1 Timothy chapter 5, it is on page 993 in the Bibles in the Chairs. As you are turning there, I will pray and we will continue to look at this idea of Honor in the Household of God together

Truth

Starting in verse 17 of Chapter 5 it says:

1 Timothy 5:17–18 ESV

17 Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. 18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”

We Honor Church Leaders by Providing For Their Needs (1 Timothy 5:17-18)

Apparently Paul did not ascribe to the idea that everyone got a trophy, or at least that everyone did not get the same size trophy. Those who rule well in preaching and teaching should be considered worthy of double honor.

Of course, if we are to show “double honor” to some doesn’t that imply that we have been showing some honor already? The truth is that Church Leaders need appreciation and encouragement. We are all prone to discouragement and especially those of us who lead in some area. When you are the face of leadership in any particular group, people are quick to run to you with all of their important “concerns” (like “toilet paper direction” and “cat lover small groups”)

But seriously, Church leaders have people come up to them really excited when they perceive that something is going wrong, but when things are running smoothly... Where are the people to get excited over that? Where is the encouragement? Where is the honor that Paul is talking about here for the leaders who are leading well?

And yes, every Church leader and especially the Overseers of the Church primarily find their approval from God alone, but knowing how we all need encouragement, isn’t it probable that God would send some of His people to be that source of encouragement. Paul sure seems to think so. Along with these words to Timothy and the Church in Ephesus he told the Church in Thessalonica.

1 Thessalonians 5:12–13 ESV

12 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.

Instead of going to them just to request or criticize something? When was the last time you came to a Church leader just to “value” them, honor them as God’s Word instructs us to do?

There is so much that goes on behind the scenes when it comes to being an Elder, or Oversser as we call them here at Friendship. I have watched these leaders struggle as they work hard to hold down a full time job, be the kind of husband and father that qualifies them for this position, teach well in various roles and then still try and be patient with us and attentive to all the needs of everyone in the congregation. There just isn’t enough time in the week. And except for God’s call on their life, I know that everyone of them would gladly give up the burden of serving as our Overseers. None of them are in it for themselves, it just isn’t the kind of role that gives you that.

And Jesus cautioned us to not seek our own honor, and these guys certainly are not doing so and they are probably not appreciating me even bringing it up to you, but we I cannot help but do so as God’s Word tells us that we need to be looking for opportunities to “honor” them for their ministry, doubly so for those who preach and teach well.

You know traditionally, October is “Pastor Appreciation Month” and you lovingly recognize me each year and I appreciate it, but I am often very uncomfortable with the fact that doesn’t seem to extend to the other Overseers in the Church. Obviously it isn’t socially acceptable for me to tell you how to handle how you show gratitude to a group of people that I am a part of, but let me just encourage you to consider if not there, then where can we as a Church do a better job showing how much we value those who serve as Overseers here.

And if you feeling at all uncomfortable right now, I guarantee you that the Overseers are probably feeling twice as awkward, but if we are going to honor God’s Word then we need to honor our Overseers.

Anyway…lets move on …We can talk about me, or at least something that applies more specifically to me. If you ever wondered where Scripture affirms the idea of hiring and paying an Overseer as a Pastor then here it is. Not that the only way to honor an Overseer is financially, but Paul does make this connection with these verses. Let me read them again for us.

1 Timothy 5:17–18 ESV

17 Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. 18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”

A couple of pretty interesting quotes from other places in the Bible, so let’s stop for a moment and see where it is that “the Scripture says” these things.

“You shall not muzzle and ox when it treads out the grain” is found in the second giving of the Law in Deuteronomy 25:4 but “The laborer deserves his wages” is actually a quote from the New Testament. These are the words of Jesus that we can find recorded in both Matthew 10 and Luke 10.

Two things that are interesting about the coupling of these two quotes. The first one is that this is one of the few places where the New Testament uses the word “Scripture” to define something else written in the New Testament. Typically when we read of “Scripture” in the New Testament it is referring to the Old Testament, but by the time 1 Timothy was written, one of the Gospels, we believe it was Luke, was already available for Christians to be reading.

Secondly, these are interesting quotes to explain “honor” because neither of these comparisons are actually very honorable in and of themselves. We are not talking about treating an Overseer like a “King”. The one compares us to a beast of burden and the other to a day laborer out in a field somewhere. The idea being that even the position of a paid overseer is to be a humble one. Yes we need to be able to put food on the table in exchange for our hard work in preaching and teaching, but we shouldn’t expect to have the highest income in town.

We will have more on the pitfalls of that attitude next week in Chapter 6.

So We Honor Church Leaders by Providing for their Needs

We Honor Church Leaders By Protecting Their Public Position (1 Timothy 5:19)

One of the things that our culture is demonstrating vividly right now is that any position of authority is a target for accusations and personal attacks, and the political nature of the Roman Empire in Timothy’s day was no different. If someone didn’t like an authority figure for some reason, there was lots of ways to get them discredited with unfounded accusations. There is no room for that kind of backhanded behavior in the Church, and to that effect Paul says:

1 Timothy 5:19 ESV

19 Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

Hopefully this rings a bit familiar to you because you are already aware of the model for handling conflict that Jesus gave us in Matthew 18. Jesus gave us very clear instructions on how to handle it when we are sinned against by a brother or sister in Christ, and they are definitely worth our reviewing.

Step One: Go To Them Privately

Matthew 18:15 ESV

15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

So the first step is to go to him alone and settle the matter privately. Best case scenario is that the whole thing will start and stop right here, between the two of you, but if it doesn’t then there is a next step.

Step Two: Take One or Two Along

Matthew 18:16 ESV

16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

This is where things start to sound familiar, “two or three witnesses” is also what is here in 1 Timothy, but we will come back to that in a moment, because Jesus also gave us another step if for some reason this doesn’t work - even though the hope is of course that it will.

Step Three: Tell It To The Church

Matthew 18:17 ESV

17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Someone who is no longer treated as a part of the fellowship, but falls outside and is need of repentance and then restoration.

So what is the difference between the “two or three witnesses” here in Matthew 19 and the ones in 1 Timothy 5? The difference is really just in when these witnesses come into play.

For most of us, Step 1 is a private one-on-one meeting that hopefully will serve to resolve the accusation and restore the relationship. This can happen in one of two ways. One way it can be resolved is by the confession and repentance of the sin that they are accused of. That is a good and God honoring thing.

Another way an accusation of sin can be resolved is by the clarification of something that the accuser did not know or understand. In this second case, what was perceived as sinning against a brother was actually just a misunderstanding. When that misunderstanding became understood, the relationship is also able to be restored, even built up stronger. And that too is a good and God honoring thing. All of this happens privately between the two people.

But the public nature of the office of Overseer is such that misunderstandings can often get blown way out of proportion. Leaders are often targets of a lot of accusations because when you are leading a group of people, they don’t always agree on what should be done in any given situation. So leaders are sometimes forced to make decisions that no matter what they decide are going to make some people upset. And when a leader does not make a decision the way you wanted them to, it is easy to start develop a critical eye toward that leader. And when that happens, accusations come in a lot quicker. On top of that, the act of accusing a leader in the Church, whether it turns out to be unfounded or not, can place a question mark not just on that leader but on every ministry of the Church that he leads.

The big idea here is that because accusing an Overseer of the Church can be more costly than we realize, we need to enter into them with great caution. We need to make double sure that we are not just misunderstanding the situation by jumping ring in at step two and requiring two or three witnesses to our accusation before we even consider the charge. Otherwise Paul tells Timothy he should publically refuse to even admit the charge.

That being said, not every accusation is unfounded. Sometimes leaders do fail and Paul is just as clear in his instructions on how to handle it when that happens.

We Honor Church Leaders By Publicly Holding them Accountable (1 Timothy 5:20-25)

1 Timothy 5:20–21 ESV

20 As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. 21 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.

You can see how Paul is being very careful to bring this instruction on the potential of Church leaders sin into balance. We do need to protect the Overseers of our Church from unfounded accusations, but they are not unfounded just because we like the guy. Or just because he has played an important role in our Christian walk.

We can do everything possible to make sure that our leaders are chapter 3 qualified…but at the end of the day, every one of us is a target for the enemy and our leaders even more so. There is nothing that Satan loves more than to take down a Church leader, because it not only brings him down but it throws shade on every aspect of ministry that he or his Church ever participated in.

This is tough for me guys, because my heart breaks over some men in my life that have had a profound impact in my life and ministry and then later were found to be living in persistent sin that disqualified them from ministry, and in some cases even worse.

But here is how I believe that this verse gives us another way for us to honor Church leaders. The verse says that we rebuke them publically…so that the rest may stand in fear. Fear can serve a good purpose in our lives when it drives us to sharpen our preparedness.

I have told you before how I used to be a ropes course instructor at a camp and kids get up to me at the zip line and they would tell me how they were afraid. I often would say, “good” and they would look at me like that is not helping…until I explained. I don’t take this casually. I don’t goof around up here. Because I am afraid that I might fall and it is that fear that focuses me and drives me to be sharp. It has made me consider every move I make up here. To check every rope, every pulley, every clip, every harness, every piece of equipment that we are using. They have all been checked, rechecked and checked again. Because I knew that you were coming up here and even though you are rightfully afraid to take that step off this tiny platform three stories in the air - our fear of what God has created in gravity has been leveraged against our focus and preparations so that you can move past your fear to blissfully zip on down that line.

While it saddens me greatly to hear of the failure of other Pastors or Overseers, it also sharpens me. Some of these guys were mentors and counselors to not only me but other pastors. They knew where the danger lies…and if they could go down that dark path than..I fear that any of us could. But that fear can either cripple me so that I run from the calling that God has given me to lead in his Church, or it can sober me and make me sharp, so that I am considering every move I make. That I don’t take this position casually. That I don’t goof around, and think I can step up to the line and not fall off where so many other men have. I check, recheck and check again that I can move past that fear into the ministry that my King has called me into.

Finally, Paul cautions Timothy in the entire process, recognizing that it is not always easy to see who is ready for the “honor” of Church leadership.

As a quick side note, Verse 23 seems to be so disconnected from the rest of the flow of thought that the ESV puts it in parenthesis. All we really know is that it appears that Timothy had some stomach issues that wine was a common medicinal application for. Anyway, that aside the rest of Chapter 5 reads:

1 Timothy 5:22–25 ESV

22 Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure. 23 (No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.) 24 The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. 25 So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.

Some people have likened these thoughts to the Iceberg Principle. The idea that some of what a man is does not become visable right away, but lingers under the surface. At first glance he could seem like Church leader material, but don’t be too quick to appoint them. Could be there is much more to know. Over time the character of a man will be revealed, and either his sins or his good works, and God will show you if He is ready for leadership.

Gospel Application

So why is this important? In some ways sections of Scripture like this read like the instruction manuals that we only really look at to see how many strange languages they came in this time.

The design and behavior of the Church is important because it is God’s Church. The Church of the Living God, The Household of God, the Pillar and the buttress of the truth. How can we effectively be what He has designed us to be if we ignore the design that he gave us.

Have you ever wondered what Jesus said about the Church? Interestingly enough, he only mentioned the word for “Church” Ekklesia twice in all the gospels. But it is not the number of times that Jesus used the word “Church” that should concern us, but the weight of what He said.

Essentially, Jesus says two things:

“I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18).

“Tell it to the church” (Matt. 18:17).

There is no other earthly institution that Jesus promises to build but the Church. His Church. Do you see the personal pronoun there?

And in “His Church” there comes a time when are to “Tell (something) to the Church” Tell what? What is Jesus addressing here? We just talked about it didn’t we. Matthew 18 - That a brother is sinning, and he won’t turn away from that Sin, so “His Church” needs to organized and led in such a way that discipline for this man can take place. Because the Church of the Living God cannot be a place where sin is alive and well.

Landing

I’ll close with this:

Ephesians 5 tells us that...Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

How we do “His Church” matters. We are to be Holy. Set apart and obedient to His Word.

Let’s Pray