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Please open your Bibles to the book of Titus, chapter 1. For the fourth time today, we'll be reading verses 5 through 9. This is Titus's, or the words of the Apostle Paul to Titus about the qualifications for a pastor. Titus chapter 1 verses 5 through 9. This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant, or quick-tempered, or a drunkard, or violent, or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word is taught so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. Let's pray. Father in heaven, the words we sung are our hymn to you. That you and your son, Jesus Christ, might abide with us. Particularly now, as Your Word is preached, we ask that that might be the case, that we might hear the words of our Savior as He speaks, that we might know His presence among us, and that we might respond in gratitude and in belief. So help us in this hour as we seek to understand your word so that we might stand upon that rock which keeps us from floundering. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. What are the most important things to look for in a pastor? Or more particularly, if you are involved in training a man for the ministry, what would be the most important things to focus on? Or to think of it another way, if you were part of a pastoral search committee, some of you have been there in the past, what are the primary things that you look for in a man that you may be considering? There are a number of different kinds of answers that you get to that question in various different churches. There are some churches who are looking for a man who is like a businessman. He will be able to manage a staff and handle money and do those sorts of things. But the church is not a business, and a businessman is not what is needed. That is not to say that a businessman could never be qualified, but it's not his skills as a businessman that are needed for the pastoring. Although we could say that is very often a helpful skill set to have for the diaconate. But we're not looking primarily for a businessman. Other churches want a man with vision. That's one of those nebulous things that people say. We want a man with vision. I've never really known exactly what that means when churches say it. I desperately hope that it does not mean someone who is able, out of his own mind, to imagine grand new places for the church to go. Scripture lays out for us very clearly exactly where the church is to go, and it doesn't require any vision to grasp those things. We're not looking for a man with some nebulous sense of vision. Some churches want a man with the right amount of cool factor so that the young people will be drawn to stay. It's funny that usually the young people are the ones who see right through that sort of thing, and it's utterly ineffective. Besides, we want people to stay for the Word of God, not for some cultural idea of what it means to be cool or hip. Some churches, perhaps getting a little bit closer to home, are looking for a good blend of systematic theology and practical theology. Systematic theology and practical theology. And we're getting a bit closer to the mark here. And in fact, I think you can find both of those elements contained in our text here, especially in verse 9. But that's still not enough. It's not enough just to look for a man who knows theology and its system and how to speak it. The two things that are most needed in a man are the knowledge of God, which we call theology, and godliness. Knowledge of God and godliness. Godliness, or piety as we sometimes call it, is often overlooked when considering a man for the pastorate. but it ought to be the very first thing that we look for. Not the only thing, but the first thing. The great Puritan John Owen, perhaps the greatest English-speaking theologian, said this. He says, wherein we desire that the educating of youth in the knowledge of God and the principles of piety may be, in the first place, promoted. We desire that these two things, the knowledge of God and the principles of piety, may be in the first place promoted. He goes on to say, experience has taught that where learning is attained before the work of grace upon the heart, it serves only to make a sharper opposition against the power of godliness. In other words, he's saying that godliness must, to some extent, godliness must be in place even before the education and the learning is added to it. Otherwise, education only serves to create obstacles for growth and grace. Godliness must be the first place. And then we look to the theology, to the knowledge of God, and then we can go beyond to these other lesser matters. Now this statement by John Owen fits exactly with what we find in scripture. In fact, most of the instructions in the Bible about the qualifications for the ministry have to do with godliness. In our own passage, Titus 1 verses 5 through 9, there is a significant list of graces that are needed. Only at the end is the gift of knowing and teaching of the word of God mentioned, and it's the only gift. All of the other items are graces. Now, we cannot and we will not ignore or dismiss the need for the gift of teaching, but we sometimes make the mistake of downplaying godliness. But brothers and sisters, that is a fatal error for a church to make. It's a fatal error. Now, let's briefly review what we've already seen about these verses. Last time, particularly last time, we saw the importance of the phrase above reproach, which is which is repeated a second time. We find it in verse 6 and in verse 7. A minister is to be above reproach and we said that that serves as a filter through which all of the other qualifications must be viewed. It means that there is a publicly observed reputation. Many people have seen these things in regard to each of the qualifications. The man has proven himself to have had some measure of success in these different graces. That is, he is not open to a charge of scandalous sin in regard to any of them. We looked then more particularly at verse 6, where he saw the instructions that a man must be a godly husband and a father. That is, if he has a wife or children, he must have demonstrated competence in caring for them so that we know that he is also competent in caring for the church family over which he has been placed. So we begin with his home life as a way to view his ability to function in the ministry. And that's as far as we got moving through the list. Today, we want to get through the rest of it. And because those first ones really required more explanation, we're able to go through the rest of it much more quickly. I don't expect there to be any difficulty in getting through the end of verse 9. We want to look at this under three different headings. First, we want to see verse 7. There is a list of what I've called negative graces, which simply means the things that a man must not do or must not be. He cannot be arrogant, quick-tempered, drunkard, etc. Negative graces. Secondly, in verse 8, we get the positive graces. There's a list of six things that he must do or that he must be in a positive way. And then thirdly, we will look at verse 9 where we see that unique gift that he must possess in his ability to know and to teach the Word of God. So the negative graces in verse 7 is where we begin. There are five of them. Five things a man must not do if he is going to be qualified to be a pastor. Let's examine each of them. The first thing that man must not do, must not be, is he must not be arrogant. He must not be arrogant. This word could also be translated as something like self-willed. Self-willed. It's referring to somebody who seeks to please themselves. When it comes to matters that are not issues of sin or of truth, The arrogant man must have his own way. He lacks the humility that expresses itself in allowing someone else's opinion to win out. The arrogant, self-willed man must have the last and definitive word on everything. Of course, the problem with a pastor acting in this way, arrogant and self-willed, is it shows that he thinks of the church not as Christ's church, but as his own church. Pastor is simply a steward, managing the master's church. For that reason, he must indeed be strong-willed when it comes to the matters where their master has left clear instructions. But in those matters where the master has not spoken, it is not for him to assert his will above that of anyone else. Imagine a steward. Here's a man who's been given the task of managing someone's household. And he's perhaps been given a clear list of things that need to take place. Let's just say that this list includes, it's his duty to make sure everyone in the household is provided with three meals a day. Now, the steward has that authority to enforce this. Everybody gets their three meals a day, and he must make sure that it happens. But that steward does not have the right to decide to enforce six meals a day. As much as he may think that's a good idea, that's not part of the authority that has been delegated to him, and so he may not pursue it. That is, if he starts to add additional items and try to enforce them with the authority that he has from the master, he is really abusing that authority and treating it as though it's his own house, as though he gets to make the rules. But that's not the case at all. A pastor must remember he is just a steward. He must not be arrogant or self-willed. Second item on the list, a pastor must not be quick tempered, quick tempered. He must not have a short fuse. He cannot get angry easily. And I think in particular, we can say he's not easily set off even when someone else is being inflammatory. You know, we often use the sins of others to excuse our own sins. That's what little kids do when they say, oh, he started it. As though me hitting my brother back is OK simply because he hit me first. No, his sin doesn't excuse my sin. It's the same way with anger and arguments. Just because somebody is being inflammatory to a pastor does not give the pastor the right to respond in an inflammatory way himself. He must have that patience. which is able to endure even inflammatory language and assaults. A pastor must not return evil for evil, so that even if someone is being provocative still, he is patient. He is able to put into practice what Proverbs 15 verse 1 says, a soft answer turns away wrath. He doesn't stir it up within himself, he doesn't stir it up within others. He's able to diffuse the situation, patiently enduring even the barrages that he may face from others who are acting in sinful ways. He's not to be quick-tempered. The third thing that he must not do is he is not to be a drunkard. He is not to be a drunkard. With many of these items, they are pretty self-explanatory and don't require a whole lot of explanation. Here, drunkard, he is not to be at the local bar getting drunk all of the time. He's not to be... It's a matter of self-control, right? He knows when to stop. I suppose you could say that in not being a drunkard, this actually somewhat implicitly tells us that Drinking as a whole is not forbidden, but it's the abuse of it. A man who would be pastor must know how to drink in moderation and not in excess. He knows when to say no. He knows how to control himself, his desires and his body, so that he is able to stop. Yes, he can have a drink or two, but he knows what his limit is and he knows not to go beyond it. He's not somebody who could be out driving and be pulled over for a DUI. No, he is sober and moderate in these things. He is not to be arrogant, quick-tempered, a drunkard. Fourthly, he is not to be violent. Not to be violent. And the idea here is that he is not to be a bully. Not to be a bully. That is, he does not force others to his side through any form of intimidation. Some of the older writers would have said, he must not be pugnacious. I think that's a fun-sounding word. It sounds like it fits. It means someone who's eager or quick to argue or quarrel or fight. It's similar to being quick-tempered, but it's a bit broader than that. And it really means that he's gentle. It means that he's gentle. not quick to fight, not eager to argue, and he doesn't manipulate and force people, intimidate people in any kind of way. It doesn't just have to be physically. It can be emotionally or mentally. He doesn't force people. He doesn't bully them to take his side, to come to his view, to accept his position, to agree with him, whatever it might be. He is instead gentle. And then the fifth item is, he is not to be greedy for gain. He must not be greedy for gain. Sadly, there are too many men in the ministry who've fallen into this sin. Which is kind of funny, because most of the time being a pastor is not a terribly lucrative job. If I think of the pastors that I know, there are far more of them that are struggling along than the ones that are doing quite well through their ministry. There are many men who make a modest living, but at least in our own circles, you don't find a lot of very rich pastors, or if they are, it's not because of their pastorate. But it's sort of like Hollywood or professional sports in that if you, as we say, make it big, you can make quite a lot of money. Very few people do. Most of the rest spend their lives on the lower side of the financial curve, but there are some who make quite a lot of money. It seems as though if a man was greedy for money, he should stay away from the ministry because his chances of making much money on it are slim. However, the presence of all kinds of televangelists and false preachers who are simply trying to accumulate money for themselves prove that that's not always the case. And really, it's not just the frauds on TV, is it? There are at times, even in our own circles, men who are far more concerned with their paycheck than they ought to be. But a man must not be greedy for gain. Now, that does not forbid a proper concern for one's paycheck. After all, a man must take care of his family and a worker is worthy of his wages. It's not wrong for a man to seek the needed financial remuneration to be able to take care of his family, but that's very different from being greedy for gain. And this greed is expressly forbidden. that must not be a man's motivation in his pursuit of the ministry. So there are five items that a man must not be. Arrogant, quick-tempered, drunkard, violent, greedy for gain. And if you notice, there's a little bit of a pattern that runs through them, a common thread. I think most of these are particularly what we call sins of passion. sins of passion that have to do with a lack of self-control. Lack of self-control, especially quick-tempered, drunkard, and violent. But the others could fit that description as well. And we'll see among the positive graces that we're told a man must indeed be self-controlled. So as we turn the corner to verse 8 and the positive graces, we will find the very opposite things described for us. So then six graces that a man must display in his life. The first one is that he must be hospitable. He must be hospitable. This is a word and a concept that is easily misunderstood today because it's a little bit different in our culture than what it referred to in the time of the Apostle Paul. Being hospitable does not refer, at least not directly, to the simple practice of inviting friends over for dinner once in a while. That's not the kind of hospitality that's in mind here. Not that that's a bad thing for a pastor to do, but that's not what's required here, at least not directly. It's speaking more of the way that pastors are to help those who are in need. Pastors are to help those who are in need. It has reference especially more actually to strangers than to friends. Though it applies to everyone who has a need. But the word that's used actually has that connotation more of kindness to strangers. It's describing someone who is generous with what he has. See, in the ancient world, travelers were often dependent upon the kindness and the hospitality of strangers to give them food and beds at night. After a long day of travel, they would end up in a town and need some place to stay. Do you remember the story in Judges chapter 19 about the Levite who's traveling with his concubine and they stop in the town of Gibeah and they're preparing to sleep outside in the town center until a man comes along and invites them into their home. into his home. The same thing happened in Genesis 19 with Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah. Remember the angels came in, they appeared just as men, but they were going to spend the night out in the open square and Lot invited them to come into his house. That's the kind of hospitality that's in mind here. It's somebody who is in need. If you see a stranger who's out in the town square and doesn't have a place to spend the night, you invite him into your home, you give him a meal, you give him a bed to sleep in. Now, that doesn't happen for us, right? If you go and travel, you've already made reservations at the Best Western or wherever it might be that you're staying, and you go to a hotel and you've got a nice place to rest. And so to some extent, it's actually a little bit difficult for us today to apply this particular qualification because our cultural circumstances are so different. I think the simplest way to approach it is to say that a pastor needs to be generous with his things to those who are in need, especially those of the people of God. Pastor is to be generous to those who are truly in need, especially those who are of the people of God. And this is what is meant by being hospitable. Not so much inviting another friend over for dinner, but taking care and helping those who are in need. So a man is to be hospitable. We're told, secondly, he is to be a lover of good. A lover of good. Again, fairly self-explanatory, isn't it? That is, it refers to someone who approves of and rejoices in those things that are profitable and glorify God. Someone who approves of and rejoices in those things that are profitable and glorify God. That is, goodness, truth, and beauty are things that he pursues and enjoys. If something is good, if it brings God glory, then the man rejoices in it. For instance, he ought to rejoice at the success of other believers or of other ministers as they bring God glory. He is not to be envious or covetous of the ministry of other men. He sees the good that is being done and he rejoices in that good. He enjoys those things that are truly beautiful while disapproving of those things that are wicked. There are many things in our culture that are wicked. Man of God, the minister, must not indulge in those sorts of things. He is to follow the instructions that we find in Philippians 4, verse 8, to meditate on those things that are excellent and praiseworthy. Those are the things that he meditates upon, that he pursues, and that he even enjoys, rejoices in them. He is to be a lover of good. The third description, the third positive grace, is that a minister, a pastor, must be self-controlled. Self-controlled. I actually prefer here the New King James translation. If you have that, you see it says, he must be sober-minded. Sober-minded I can understand why they would move away from that language since it's not something we really say today But it captures better what this particular word means because this word The Greek word really does have particular reference to someone's mind Sober-minded that is the way he thinks It refers to his his inner life his mind and his heart his emotions his thoughts He has some measure of self-control over these things so that they're not running wild in all kinds of ungodly and unprofitable ways. Even in his inner life, there is self-control. He does not indulge himself in fantasies or in wicked and unprofitable daydreaming. He does not foster ungodly hopes and dreams. He does not meditate upon those things which are wicked, but upon those things which are good. Even in his mind, he is controlled. And we'll come back to this idea of self-control in one of the later items, so we'll leave it at that for now. The next two items I want to take as a pair, that is upright and holy. upright and holy. I think these ought to be taken together as referring to two perspectives on the same sort of grace. Being upright here refers to someone who is law-abiding. It has reference to a man's relationship to his own culture and society. He follows the laws of the land. He demonstrates love to his neighbor. That's what it means to be upright. Holy, then, refers to someone who is pious. That is, they're not just outwardly good to those who are around them, but they are obedient also in matters of religion and the man's relationship to God. He is faithful in church attendance, in prayer, in meditating upon the Word. He has obeyed the command to be baptized. He's obeyed the command to become a member of the church. In both his relationship horizontally with those around him, he is upright. In his relationship vertically with God, he is holy. He follows God's command in both spheres. Really, these two words are getting at his obedience to the law of God. Whether it points to his neighbor or to God, he demonstrates the love that is required and is demonstrated through careful obedience. He is law-abiding, and he is pious, following all of the religious instructions that are given to us in God's Word, upright and holy. And then the final positive grace is a man is to be disciplined. Here we come back to that sense of self-control. The previous one, sober-minded, was self-control with regard to the inner man, the mind and the heart. Now here, disciplined, this is focusing more on the body. He is not to be a man who is prone to to passions, those sins of passions which are stated negatively in verse 7. He is able to keep himself in check with regard to these things. This applies, as I said, to many of the previous qualities, that is, going all the way back into verse 6, his relationship to his wife as a one-woman man. not being a drunkard or violent. It also includes things like gluttony and the proper use of diet and exercise. He is able, in his own body, to control himself. and obedience to God. He does not use his body in sinful ways, but he uses it for good and he cares for it in promoting that life which God has given to him. So he is to be disciplined in these things. So we've seen here the positive description of what a pastor must be. He is to be generous, a lover of good, self-controlled in his mind and heart, he is to be law-abiding, he is to be properly religious, and he is to be disciplined or self-controlled with respect to his body. Well, let's turn to verse number nine. Up to this point, all of the qualifications for an elder, for a pastor, are things that ought to be present in every single believer. Everything that I've just said about the description for a minister ought to be true of every one of us. Every Christian should be faithful to their spouse. Every Christian should be generous. Every Christian should be a lover of good. Every Christian should not be a drunkard, so on and so forth. But in verse nine, we come to a qualification that not all Christians are required to have, at least not in the same way. And that's because it's not just a grace, but it is a gift and a skill. A gift, a skill that God gives. We read in verse nine, he must hold firm to the trustworthy word is taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. By holding fast to the trustworthy word, he is able to instruct in sound doctrine and rebuke those who contradict it. There are a couple of different parts to this, and we've spent a little bit of time on this verse in the past, so we won't go quite as deep into it as we could have. I can refer you to the previous sermons if you'd like. It begins by holding fast, latching on to the trustworthy word, having seen and having known it to be faithful, believing that it comes from God, he holds fast to it. And it is the source. It is the only source that he has for engaging in the work which he's been given. And as he holds fast to this, it leads to two effects. He is able both to instruct and to rebuke. which I think are really just positive and negative sides of the same thing, aren't they? It's knowing that way to practically apply the word of God in positive and in negative ways. First, we have the positive. That is the teaching, instruction in sound doctrine, or you might say in exhortation. That is, a minister needs to know his Bible and understand theology so that he is able to lay out before the congregation what it is that God teaches in his word. He must have. He must have a knowledge of the word so that he is able to explain it to the church. Therefore, he needs to have, as we said at the beginning, a competence in systematic theology. If you look closely at verse 9, it says that he is to give instruction in sound doctrine. In sound doctrine. You could also translate that as give instruction in healthy doctrine. In healthy doctrine. That is, he needs to be engaged in that practice where we find the regular supply of the truth. Provides the basic nourishment that all believers need and He must be able to do this This is that aspect of preaching that it's it's sometimes hard for us to really latch on to We tend to prefer those types of sermons which leave us feeling all excited and ready to go Sound healthy doctrine It's like parents who are feeding their kids the essence, those important bits of healthy food each and every day. And the kids might not get all excited about the vegetables that they have to eat again, but those are the things that they're given every single day. And over the course of their lives, it sustains them. It gives them the strength and the health that they need. It's the same thing in teaching. This is why I don't get too upset about the fact that I have a fair bit of doctrine in most of my sermons. It doesn't always leave us with this excited feeling as we leave the building, but brothers and sisters, these are the basics that we need, the staples that we must have week by week by week, which provide that healthy doctrine, that nourishment, we need to be sustained throughout the Christian life. The preacher must be able to do that. And then on the negative side of it, he must also be able to rebuke those who are in error. The next passage in Titus really fills that out a bit more, so we'll add on to this as we go next week. It means a couple of things. It means that he must have the discernment to be able to see error. He needs to be able to see and to identify error. Again, that requires a deep knowledge of theology. If a man doesn't know his Bible, if he doesn't know his theology, how will he be able to see the error in order to rebuke it? And then he needs to have the biblical knowledge to be able to address it. And I think you can add to that, this tells us a man needs to have the courage that it takes to stand before those who are in error and try to draw them back. I can tell you personally, at times this can be a really difficult thing to do. It can be a really difficult thing to do, to look someone in the eye and tell them of their error, either doctrinally or practically. It's a hard thing to do. But it is part of the calling, the requirements of a pastor, to be able in gentleness and in love, but with firmness, holding to the trustworthy word, to be able to address someone who is in error, to call them back from their sin, to show them where they have violated God's teaching and his law, and to urge them to return. Well, let me bring things to a conclusion with a couple of notes, sort of observations. We've made it through the list here in Titus chapter 1 verses 5 through 9 of the qualifications for a pastor. We do need to notice that this is not an exhaustive list of the qualifications of a pastor. It's a good list. But we know from other places in Scripture that there are additional items. For instance, the list in 1 Timothy. That's the next most natural place to go. And there are other items on that list which are not here. And so we don't want to say this is all that we look at when we consider whether a man is suited for the ministry or not. But these do provide a good starting place for us. They do help us to focus upon those things that are most important to God and considering what qualifies a man for the ministry. Sometimes people fall into the error of placing extra biblical requirements upon a man before allowing him to enter into the ministry. And we must be careful that we do not do that. It is wrong for us to place a requirement upon a man that God has not placed upon that man. If the man meets God's requirements, then he ought to meet our requirements as well. But these are things that God has told us are needed, and so we must seek them as we evaluate men for the ministry. And I want to draw your attention again to the fact that the emphasis here is more upon the graces than upon the gifts. not excluding gifts at all. You know me well enough, I think, to know that that's not the case. But the emphasis must not be missed, that it is in fact ungodliness. And this is the first and most necessary qualification for the ministry. Perhaps I can put it this way. It would be better to have a pastor stronger in godliness and weaker in gifts. than to have a pastor who is stronger in gifts, but weaker in godliness. I didn't say one without the other, because they're both required. Better to find a man, though, whose strength is in graces. Well, let me again conclude with one final application, a very simple one. Brothers and sisters, please pray for me. Please pray for me. Pray that I might grow in these graces, that the Lord would preserve me, that he would enable me to be above reproach on each of these items. and pray that I might also grow in the gifts, holding fast to the trustworthy Word, so that I am able both to give exhortation and rebuke as it is needed. Please pray for me. Let's close in prayer.
Qualifications for Pastors (part 2)
Serie Titus
Predigt-ID | 1014161037405 |
Dauer | 40:57 |
Datum | |
Kategorie | Sonntagsgottesdienst |
Bibeltext | Titus 1,5-9 |
Sprache | Englisch |
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