Qualifications for Elders

Eldership  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  22:41
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Big Idea: To be a leader of God’s holy and dearly beloved people a man must be gripped by the gospel, transformed by the gospel and competent to instruct others in the gospel.

Holy Ambition - A target for all God’s people

I’m not sure how your ambitions have changed as the years have gone by.
Someone has said, “Ambition usually progresses through the following stages: to be just like Dad…one day I’m going to be famous…I may even become a millionaire… … I hope I can keep enough money to pay these bills… maybe I can hang on long enough to get a pension.”
Compare that to Paul’s ambition listed in 2 Cor 5:9-109 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”
Last week we thought about the foundation for unity in the church and the advantage of having an orthodox, publicly scrutinised and agreed understanding of both the width and depth of crucial doctrines systematically laid out in our WCF.
We celebrate our unity on the crucial doctrines outlined in our subordinate standard and we allow different understandings on many non-essential teachings without trying to force everyone else into accepting our understanding of these things.
Today we are considering the qualifications for eldership.
And Paul says is “if anyone sets his heart… aspires… is ambitious to be an overseer… he desires a noble task.

Choosing New Leaders

You guys have just experienced what a long, drawn out and traumatic experience it can be choosing a leader for the church.
You chose a group of a dozen or more people to form a selection committee. Then there are meetings, discussions, what do we want… and who’s available? Talk to the candidates… there are lots of questions… more meetings… we wish he had more of this and less of that… but finally… let’s go with him.
It was a process that took 18 months or more.
It’s a rigorous process because leadership is so important.
As the leadership goes, so goes the church.
If the leader is godly, transformed by the radical love and grace of Jesus and the gospel, sincere and open minded… then that’s what the church will tend to generally become.
But if the leader is unloving, narrow, stingy and worldly… then that’s what the church will tend to slowly become.
The Presbyterian church has seen the wisdom in the Scriptures of having a “plurality” of elders… some elders.
At present the NRPC have two elders and a minister… which is the absolute minimum for a session meeting.
And two of our elders naturally go to Macksville.
So we need to ordain and induct more men as elders.

Do Elders have to be men?

The question is: Which men?
Well… maybe first of all do they need to be men?
Well, technically no, not necessarily in PCNSW.
But the elders in this church are of the view that in Scripture men and women are both made in the image of God and equal as persons before God, that means equal in dignity and value before God. However we believe God has given men and women different and complementary roles to fulfil in his family.
You might have noticed that God assigns us certain things without asking us.
For example, we didn’t decide which century we would like to be born in; whether we would have simple country folk for parents or sophisticated world travelling city professionals; nor does he inquire of us whether we would be male of female.
Had God consulted me I would have gone with some more brain power, perhaps more hair and maybe chosen a particular spiritual gift or two that I would particularly like!!!
But God is God… and he has given each of us certain attributes but not others.
We thank him for who we are and we work with him to become the best that we can of what he has made us to be under the lordship of Jesus.
We believe that men have been given the role of leading his church because for many reasons… including the reality that Jesus came to earth as a man, the last Adam.
And Jesus appointed 12 men to be apostles.
If Jesus had wanted to change the patriarchal OT model wouldn’t he have appointed six women… or at least one? But he didn’t.
And so like many other PCNSW churches we believe elders are men.
However we are mindful that it’s easy for men to think that because God has chosen them to lead his church that we might just be a little bit better in some way than the ladies… and we let pride and arrogance in… and wonder why it’s hard to lead!
Jesus lead his church by loving, instructing and dying for her! Jesus honoured women and encouraged their faith and service of God and his people.
Christian leadership is about sacrificial service so that those they lead flourish.
So today I want to look briefly at one of the two main passages where the qualifications for eldership are laid out in the NT.

Godly men who long to sacrificially serve God and his people

Now I think if I just work systematically through the list of qualifications most people will say, “That’s a super saint. None of us can measure up to that!”
But I think that’s a misuse of the text.
Paul has already told us what he wants in chapter 2. v1 Pray for everyone… 1 Tim 2:2-3 “2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior,”
In v8-10 he says he wants prayerful men and modest women who do good deeds.
(Not that I think he means women don’t have to be prayerful nor men modest and doing good deeds!).
That’s what’s good and pleases God.
But it’s not what comes naturally to a group of people.
Godliness, harmony, prayers, holiness… no anger and disputing.. adorning the gospel with good deeds so that the invisible God is made manifest in his people.
But to do that requires chapter 3.
1 Timothy 3:1 NIV84
1 Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task.
The first thing to notice is that there will be people who set their heart on being an overseer… (other Bibles… aspires) it means reach for, to eagerly long for, desire to accomplish something.
I think we ignore this at our peril.
Some men run a mile at the thought of becoming an elder.
Maybe they feel inadequate, maybe their heart leads them to serve elsewhere… maybe something else is going on. Good to know and acknowledge.
Sometimes it might be something of substance so that person should not be coerced.
Or maybe they’re just shy of stepping up… but other people who know them well believe they really would be suited for the job.
But some people really desire the position.
They need to be honest with God, themselves and others.
Maybe for them they just like the thought of finally being recognised for all their wisdom or hard work.
Does anyone remember Adrian Plass? Adrian (is) a writer that has you rolling in laughter at some story he’s telling… but then suddenly you realise the point he’s just made… and it points directly at you.
His most famous book is “The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass”, written in 1994.
I read it 20 or more years ago and I remember he was reminiscing about when his church made him a Bible study leader.
He said he strutted around for a month: Him… a Bible study leader. WOW! He’d finally made. He carried his Bible everywhere… ready at any moment to answer and deep theological question with clarity and insight and wisdom that only the Spirit of God could give to a man of such deep spirituality.
He came home one evening and there was a note on the table. There was a family waiting in a cafe for some love and care and spiritual wisdom to get their lives back together again because their breadwinner had abandoned them.
He picked up his Bible and thought to himself: WOW. This is right up my alley.
What Bible passages would apply? How will the gospel help this poor family? What demeanour would he adopt to let them know how deeply touched he was about their plight?
He came round the corner… and there’s the cafe. He walks in the doorway and looks around and spots his wife and kids sitting at a table. He looks at them… looks around the room… back to them. Then he says, “what are you guys doing here? I had a note to come and help an abandoned family at this very cafe!”
Yes, they said, that’s us!
Being ambitious to be an elder… well, actually if you have a look there is nowhere in 1 Tim 3 that mentions elder.
Talking about an elder, as Paul does in chapters 4 & 5, is about the dignity of the office.
Here he talks about those who desire to be overseers… and talking about overseers is talking about the same office, the same job… but the emphasis on the hard work doing the job well will entail.
He’s talking about church leadership which consists of serving and leading.
The ambition is to see the name of Jesus honoured and the church of Jesus flourishing… and the recognition that this will involve costly sacrifice.
Becoming an elder is about sacrificial service.
It will mean sometimes making tough decisions and having tough conversations with people.
It will mean agonising over what’s the best for the Name of Jesus and the good of his church.

Confession of Christ

Sometimes elders are chosen because they are men of substance in the world. They are really good businessmen; they are capable organisers - they have ideas and they can implement them.
The Holy Spirit does not take control of any man or body of men against their will. When he sees men elected to positions of leadership who lacks spiritual fitness to cooperate with Him, He quietly withdraws and leaves them to implement their own policy according to their own standard but without his aid. The inevitable issue is an unspiritual administration. (Spiritual Leadership. Page 71)
As I write these words I’m aware that that’s probably not an issue here.
Is the issue here that no man is good enough to be an elder?
In one sense Paul does set a pretty high bar.
Look at the list.
An overseer MUST BE… above reproach; a one woman man; restrained; self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, not a drunk; not violent but gentle; not quarrelsome (that’s huge… they’re hard work in any group!) not a lover of money; not a recent convert and have a good reputation with outsiders.
But is that really a high bar?
Goodness me… that’s simply a mature Christian… isn’t it?
That’s what everyone should be longing and working and praying to become… isn’t it?
These are about a person’s character… a tested, developed, growing, maturing character.
The only skill explicitly mentioned is that they must be able to teach.
I take that to mean that they can open their Bibles and share with others what it means… at home, at a Bible study, after church or in a sermon.
I’ve only been here a few weeks and I know that there are men here who can do that.

The Test: Ambitious to p(r)ay the price to see Christ’s church flourish

Why has a church with this many men and maturity needing to have elders appointed from other churches?
It could be because some here have a background of the baptism only of adult believers?
That’s something that must be worked through for sure!
Could it be because there are local customs that baulk people?
Now I’m a creation in six literal days man… but I think we go to far if we make that the test of whether or not a man can become an elder in our church.
I’m not saying that’s unimportant! That is important.
The WCF says God made the universe out of nothing in the space of six days… and all very good.
But there are other things that are very important as well.
What about the person of Jesus?
What do some of these capable men believe about his two forms of being.
How is it that the baby born of the virgin Mary is actually God?
The WCF says… “So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God, and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and man.”
What about the resurrection of Jesus? WCF VIII.4 says “On the third day he arose from the grave, in the same body in which he suffered. in it he also ascended into heaven… that seems to be very important… if we’re going to have assurance that our bodies and our physical world is important to God.”
So how many men here in their 30’s, 40’s… 50’s have a holy ambition to serve the church? To see the men and the women and children in this church flourish and grow and mature to the glory of Jesus?
You desire a noble task.
We need to start a conversation.
For the rest of us, who would you like to have doing the hard work of being an overseer of God’s holy and dearly loved people?
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