1 Timothy 3:1-8; Acts 6:1-7
You may be seated. Please turn
in your copy of God’s word to Acts chapter six. We’ll read
together verses one through seven, and then we’ll also take a look
at first Timothy chapter three, verses one through seven. Several weeks ago in our study
of Acts, we looked at the occasion in chapter six, verses one through
seven for the need for deacons. And then last week we took the
opportunity to look at what is a minister today, what is an
elder, and then next week, what is a deacon? So we want to look
at the three offices of ministry in the church. And in light of that, we want
to consider how God might use us and grow us in grace together
through these Christ-given offices. Look, if you will, at Acts chapter
six. Before we read, let’s pray together.
Lord, give us eyes that see and ears that hear and hearts that
perceive how you are at work in the world through your church,
all for your glory, all for our good. And we ask it in the name
of Christ, amen. Acts chapter six, verses one
through seven, it says, now in these days when the disciples
were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenist arose against
the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily
distribution. And the 12 summoned the full
number of the disciples and said, it is not right that we should
give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore,
brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute,
full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint
to this duty. But we will devote ourselves
to the prayer and to the ministry of the word. And what they said
pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man
full of faith, and of the Holy Spirit, and of Philip, and Prochorus,
and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of
Antioch. And these they set before the
apostles. They prayed and laid their hands
on them. And the word of God continued to increase, and the
number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great
many of the priests became obedient to the faith. Then turn, if you
will, to first Timothy chapter three. First Timothy chapter
three verses one through seven. Paul is writing to Timothy, the
young pastor at the church at Ephesus, and he speaks to him
about elders and then deacons will read just the section on
elders today, section on deacons next week. First Timothy chapter
three verse one says the saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires
to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore,
an overseer must be above reproach. The husband of one wife, sober-minded,
self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not
a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not
a lover of money. He must manage his own household
well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For
if someone does not know how to manage his own household,
how will he care for God’s church? He must not be a recent convert,
or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation
of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought
of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace or into
a snare of the devil. Amen. The word of the living
God. Well, back in the fall of 2003, I think it was, I had a
rude awakening. I came out of uh, seminary. Uh, some of y’all are thinking,
Oh, here goes another church story. Um, I came out of seminary
and went to my first session meeting. I went to my first session
meeting and it was a meeting about officer nominations in
the church where I was serving. Now, a little backstory, I had
been there two years already. I was a member, I was a pastoral
intern and um, I was just now ordained and now on the staff.
So I was on the session. And the way our church back then
did elder deacon officer nominations, we took a list of every male
in the congregation and there had to be a minimum age, maybe
30, 35. I guess we figured you had to be 35 to be the president
or something. Um, so every male certain age was put out there
and the congregation would take that list of males and it was
like open season and, and they would suggest or nominate to
the congregation those they wished. And so this list of nominees,
and it would be the top number, and I think we’d had to have
eight per year, something like that. We had to have eight per
year, and so the top eight would get put on the ballot. And they
would get elected by vote of the congregation. And so I went
through this first cycle of nominations, rather horrified, to be honest. I remember sitting through one
of the elder meetings, and they were talking about who they thought
ought to be elder. And I kid you not when I say this. One
of them said, let’s get Johnny back on the session. We haven’t
seen Johnny in church in a couple of years. Maybe if we make him
an elder, he’ll start coming back to church. I put my head
between my legs and braced for a crash. It was horrifying. This is how
elders, this is how deacons get elected in the local church where
I’m serving. What a gap there was between
what’s in the scripture and then what was taking place in the
church of Jesus Christ. What a gap there was. But what
I figured out after talking with other pastors and now having
been in ministry for a good while, this is a pretty common practice.
a pretty common practice in the life of the church. And I want
to suggest to you, it’s not good for the church. It is not good
for the church just to make a list and see who’s popular. That’s
how you pick a prom king. That’s how you pick a class president
in high school. But it is not how you choose
those who will serve for your spiritual good in the life of
the church. There’s a book that I keep on
my desk. I refer to it very often. It’s
called The Glorious Body of Christ. It’s a book that was published
I think about 75 years ago. It’s very helpful on every aspect
of the life of the church. You look up a word like elder
or deacon or worship service or something of that nature and
it gives you a brief description of why in the glorious body of
Christ we do what we do the way we do it. And it’s a helpful
little memory jogger to help you think through what would
be good and right. in the life of the church for this particular
subject. Well, in the glorious body of Christ, it points out
three things that have killed the church, that have hurt the
church in America. One would be worldliness. We
probably agree on that. The second thing that this man
thinks has hurt the church in America would be dispensationalism.
I know we have a couple dispensationalists around. We love you very much,
but I think he’s right. Dispensationalism in the last
150 years, And the church has been very destructive to our
eschatology, to our hope, and to the, well, how we view history. The third thing that he says
is dangerous or deadly to the church would be doctrinal indifference. We probably agree with that.
Indifference. Oh, Jesus doesn’t care what you
believe as long as you are sincere. I don’t think Jesus would say
that. and sincerity will not get you
through persecution. Let me just tell you. So those
three things, worldliness, dispensationalism, uh, doctrinal indifference, this
man have said it hurt the church pretty badly. Well, I think I
would add a fourth thing, and this is not my own language.
This is the language of a teacher who I, I wrote down everything
he said in class that was on the test. But I wrote down everything
he said that was off the cuff and helpful to pastoral ministry.
And he said this, nothing has hurt the church in America more
than persecution than rotten elders. And that’s a serious
accusation, but I think it’s a truism. Rotten elders have
hurt the church badly. There’s another little saying
that I think is a very helpful saying. You get what you pay for, right?
You elect rotten elders, what are you going to have? A rotten
church that probably is going to have doctrinal indifference
and worldliness. And so what we want to do today
is think through three aspects of elders. Three aspects from
the scriptures about elders. Let’s leave aside, you know,
bring Johnny back. He hadn’t been to church in three
years. Let’s leave aside the popularity contest. Let’s leave
aside the, you know, we got to elect the doctors and the lawyers
and the influential people. That’s usually the way it goes
as well. But let’s think about life, labors,
and leadership. Life, labors, and leadership.
Think about life, the life of the elder. the life of the elder. I want to create a contrast for
you. If you go in your doctor’s office
and you look on his wall, you expect to see a MD, right? You expect to see board certified.
You expect to see that he did a fellowship. You expect to see
that his staff are up to snuff. You know, that he’s got RNs and
LPNs and whatever all the little letters and things mean. You
expect this doctor in his office to have certified people doing
medical procedures on you. The same if you go into the dentist
office. You hope he went to medical school. You hope he’s not sticking
sharp objects in your mouth with great force. Because he slept
in a, what is it, a Holiday Inn Express? Isn’t that what makes
you smart? How about the attorney’s office? You want to make sure
he passed the bar. You want to make sure that he went to law
school. The big one, you go into a restaurant,
what is it you look for on the wall? The safety grading, yeah. I’m told if it’s an A minus or
less, you need to turn around and go, because it takes a lot
to get docked on those things. Well, why is it in the life of
the church, and at least this was my experience back in 2003,
that the qualifications for a man’s life be two, that he have a pulse
and that he be a male. That was it. That was my conclusion
after sitting through my first elders meeting as a young seminary
graduate, newly ordained. And sometimes we graduate to
money. and status and influence. And our passage tells us very
differently. It says, if a man aspires to
the office, he aspires to a noble task. It is a good thing to have
a desire to be an elder in the life of the church. He aspires
to a noble status. And if you look at the list of
Qualifications that you find here in 1 Timothy 3, you can
also find a very similar list in Titus chapter one. I count
over 20 qualifications. And it’s one of my pet peeves
when I sit through a sermon and they say, well, this word means
this, and this word means that. And so I’m gonna spare you the
definition of these 20 words, but simply read that this person
must be above reproach. He must be a one-woman man. He
must be sober-minded, not arrogant, self-controlled, respectable,
hospitable, able to teach or apt to teach, not a drunkard,
not violent, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must
be gentle. He must manage his home well
with dignity, with submissive children, with saved children,
with behaved children. He himself must be a mature believer,
well thought of out in the community. Or the list from Titus, Titus,
he’s above reproach. He’s the husband of one wife.
His children are believers. They’re not open to the charge
of debauchery or insubordination. He must be above reproach. He
cannot be arrogant, quick-tempered. He cannot be a drunkard. He cannot
be violent. He cannot be greedy for gain, but he must be hospitable,
a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.
And he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so
that he might be able to give instruction and sound doctrine.
Well, what do we think about all this when we think about
the life of an elder? There’s things he ought to be,
right? There’s things he ought not to be. There’s his reputation
within the church. This man is a peaceable man.
This man is a godly man. There’s his things that he ought
not to be. Lover of money, greedy. a drunk,
those sorts of things. But then he ought to be well
thought of out in the community, not because he’s a doctor or
a lawyer or the typical big status things we usually see in the
eldership of the church. But what do his employees say
about him as a boss? What do his neighbors say about
him as a next door? A couple of, well, it’s been
longer than that ago. It’s been back since maybe 2008,
2009. I was up for a pastoral job, and they did a They used a consulting firm to
hire. And usually, usually in the life of the church, you meet
with a group of people on a public committee. You know, how are
you? Nice to see you. You know, can
you preach? They listen to some of your tapes.
They ask you some questions. You ask them and, you know, they
kind of go on their merry way and you go on yours and maybe
they’ll call you. Maybe they won’t. Well, this consulting
firm, uh, did a background check. They did a credit check. Uh,
they wanted to know what my references were, but they wanted to know
what my neighbors thought of me. Uh, and then I found out
later because I was given a printout of the report about two years
later, They hired a private investigator to do a little digging. Now,
that may be a little bit overkill. But should we not be careful?
and the selection of those who will serve us spiritually. How
many scandals have there been in the life of the church by
picking a pastor poorly or picking elders poorly? But their life,
their life ought to be in the direction of godliness. I love
what R.C. Sproul says about this section of scripture. He says,
you will never have perfect elders. And I think the elders are breathing
a sigh of relief. Oh, good. But are they moving
in the direction of godliness and holiness and knowledge of
the scripture and knowledge of theology and knowledge of you
so that they can serve you well? Their lives ought to reflect
these things. Let’s think about the labors.
Second point of our sermon today, the labors. So many sessions,
so many groups of elders have become a board. They’re bored
to make decisions. And that’s where it stops. They
are decision makers. And in a lot of churches, it
is believed that your elders represent you much like your
senators to the state or your representative in the house.
And in fact, our former government says very differently. It says
elders, when they are seated together in session are to seek
the will of God for the church. And so we don’t ride them out
on a rail like old Southern politicians when they don’t do what we want.
You didn’t buy a youth band. You didn’t buy a piano for the
choir. You didn’t build the gymnotorium for whatever. No, we as a session
are to pray and seek the will of God for the spiritual health
of the church. In fact, it’s good to understand
the work of elders in two ways. There’s spiritual oversight and
governing oversight. And the spiritual oversight is
the spiritual health of the church. How will we worship? When will
we worship? What will we teach? What do our
people need? How can we best help them grow
in grace? But there’s also governing oversight.
This week we had two building use requests. to come to the
session, so we took care of them. We have finances we oversee. There are all kinds of little
governing things, and we follow our form of government and govern
the church, but our main job is spiritual oversight. And if
you’re not careful, you can do all the governing stuff and none
of the spiritual stuff. Our approach is this, you come
to church, come early, stay late, mix in with the congregation.
We’ll get to know you, you’ll get to know us, we’ll all be
hearing the same things, and that’ll take care of most of
the shepherding needs of the church. And then that frees us
up when there are deaths. Or there are sicknesses or there
are hardships and heartaches. And we can go on occasion when
those things arise and we can meet those needs. But what of
the labors? What of the work of the session? It’s spiritual. It’s governing.
Yes. Well, A session is a group of
men who sit together. And when they sit together, they
serve for Christ in the rule and the governance of the church.
But they shouldn’t just sit. No, they should stand. They should
walk. Sometimes they should run after
the sheep. And most appropriately, they
should be on their knees. They should know their Bibles,
know their confessions, know their creeds, know their theology.
They should know the doctrine and the order of the church.
Yes, they should be gatekeepers keeping the enemy out. They should
be guards promoting the true religion of Jesus Christ. And
of course, they should visit, they should pray, they should
instruct, they should counsel and comfort. And they should
nourish and they should warn and they should set an example.
They should be evangelists. Remember last week we talked
about the office of the minister. And the office of the minister
is really for one who is set apart. It’s his vocation. It’s
his day job. The ruling elders, the elders
of the church are their volunteers. They have work. They have other
duties in life that are significant, but as long as they are able,
they are there to be co-pastors with the minister. He’s set apart
and has more time and of course does this work as his profession,
but the elders should be seen as co-pastors, co-laborers with
the minister of the gospel. In fact, it is such an important
task that God says to ordain these people, lay hands on these
people, give them the power of God to do this work of God. So
a little about their life, a little about their labor. Let’s think
about their leadership. Moses was a busy man. We just
read Jethro, father-in-law comes in and sees Moses is all day. morning, all midday, all afternoon
and even into the evening, he is judging the people. You need
some help. And so from the earliest days
of the formation of God’s people, we have been a people ruled by
elders. That word comes from the Greek. It’s like a Presbytery word. An elder is a presbyter. He’s
an old man. Usually it’s also there’s also
a bishop word, an overseer. And so he’s a he’s a He’s a shepherd,
he’s an overseer. He is in charge or over the care
of people’s souls. He is the first among others. And so serving as an elder is
a leadership position. He serves in the courts of the
church, in the session at the local church. He serves in the
Presbytery, the regional church, and he serves at the Senate at
our national church. They keep the church in order.
They set things straight. They keep things strong. Several
years ago, we did a little study of the book of Titus and in Titus
chapter one, at the very outset, Paul says to Titus, he writes
a little pastoral letter, two to Timothy, one to Titus. And
he says to Titus, the reason I left you on the island of Crete
was to set things in order. And then he goes on to tell him
how to set things in order. And what’s the first thing he
says, you need elders. You cannot have an orderly church
without the leadership of the elders. Some of you have braces. Some of you are wearing braces.
Some of us didn’t have braces and it spared us hardship in
middle school. But what are braces? They’re
something from the orthodontist. And ortho is a straightening
word, if I have my definitions right. And so in the church,
we need to have orthodoxy, right belief. We need to have orthopraxy,
right or straight practice. And how do we best do that? Do
we call an orthodontist in? Who straightens out the church?
Well, it’s the elders. They straighten it out and they
keep it straight. But I wanna end with this final
thing that we ought to know and understand. Elders are under
shepherds. They are not the end all, be
all. I am not the end all, be all as your pastor. No, Christ
is. We are under shepherds serving
on behalf of the risen and exalted Jesus. And as the risen and exalted
Jesus has ordered the offices of the church, minister, elder,
and deacon in your local congregation in this one, He’s given you ministers
and elders, and their job is to point you to Jesus Christ.
And so while we should think much of elders, in fact, we should
give them the honor that is due, the respect that is due. Book
of Hebrews 13 says we should make it easy on them. It says,
don’t be a pain in the tuchus, church member. That’s my translation,
but it’s a good one. Make it easy for them to be your
elders by giving them prayer and honor and respect. but they
serve for Jesus Christ. And by that, we are blessed.
Pray with me. Our God, we thank you that your
church is well-ordered. And when we follow the Bible,
we’re well-served. Lord, forgive us when we get
off the beaten path. Forgive us when we reinvent the
wheel and we say, we’ll do the Lord’s work in the world’s way.
We’ll do the Lord’s work in our way. Lord, we want to do your
work in your way, and your way is the word. So may these things
be precious to us in this hour. And we ask for your grace, help,
and blessing in the name of Christ. Amen. We want to sing Psalm 134
together. This is a psalm of praise to
God, and it was sung by the leaders of Israel. And so I thought it
would be a neat thing for us to sing as we close our service. Let’s stand and sing together.