00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
So God has not left us to wonder
how churches are to operate. He has given to us these these
books here to illustrate that some of us were talking about
this right after the service last week. We were notice noticing
how the book of Titus is like an abridged version of the books
of first and second Timothy. They cover a lot of the same
content. Of course are both written by
the apostle Paul and they're both written or I guess I should
say all three are written to the church. These three books
are the pastoral epistles and because of their their similar
aim and and and instruction. That's why they are all together
in our Bibles first Timothy second Timothy and then Titus. They
teach us how to operate within the household of God. God has
inspired this so that we can know how we are to operate as
a church. Of course, with this being a
shorter letter, Paul quickly gets into the message of how
to manage the churches. And he is speaking to Titus,
of course, whom he has left on the island of Crete for a purpose. As the old King James has here,
there were things that are wanting in these churches. There are
things that are wanting in these churches. And so Paul has commissioned
Titus to fulfill that need. What is that need? Well, specifically,
it is the appointment of elders in the churches. And Paul will
leave Titus with elder qualifications so that he can know who to choose.
And we see that in verses 6 through 9 here. Who should he look for? What kind of men should he appoint? it's all there in verses 6 through
9 and it parallels what Paul again wrote to Timothy and specifically
what we see in 1st Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 through 7 there. And so these are qualifications
for these particular men. Why does Paul write so much about
this? Because elders are an essential component to church life. He doesn't want us to wonder
about this. But we might wonder, we might
scratch our heads, because honestly, in many American evangelical
churches, there is no role listed that is called elder. You don't
typically look at websites for churches that you might be looking
at. Maybe you're visiting a town or whatever and you look at the
website. You don't usually see elders listed there. You usually
see perhaps pastors listed there, but not elders. And so it might
seem foreign. There are churches that have
elders, but you might think, well, that sounds like a Presbyterian
thing or something like that. And every time I teach on this
subject, I always receive questions about who elders are. What are you talking about with
elders? It is a common question. And
so we're going to take our time as we go through this text. I
preached once through the book of Titus and I preached through
verses 1 through 9 in a single sermon. We're obviously slowing
quite a bit down because I want to answer that question. Who
are elders and what do they look like inside of a church? And
so as we take our time walking through this, we're going to
answer several questions this evening as to who elders are. We're going to be looking at
their role. We're going to be looking at
their qualifications in the coming weeks. But we are also going
to be looking at what they do within a church. And so let's
first begin with the basic question that is over all of this. Who
are elders? Who are elders? Who is it that
Paul is saying that he that Titus must appoint in all the churches
in every city? Well, again, as I said a moment
ago, it sounds especially to Baptist ears like a Presbyterian
thing. Elders, you know, that's not
something that Baptists have. But, in fact, the Greek word
for elder is presbyteros, which is the word, yes, that we do
get our term Presbyterian from, or presbytery. And so, yes, it
does sound very Presbyterian, but we don't want to be anachronistic.
It's not that Paul is a Presbyterian. My Presbyterian brothers may
disagree with me on that. But Paul is giving what a church
should look like. And we want to have a biblical
church as well. And so what is being discussed
here? This is something that that that
as Baptists, we certainly should consider and adopt. Well, the
basic definition of an elder shouldn't surprise you. But the
very basic definition of an elder is someone who is, quote, relatively
advanced in age, someone who's older or older, according to
one one Bible dictionary here. In 1st Timothy 5.1, Paul contrasts
elders to younger men. And so, yes, okay, that makes
sense. That's kind of the way that you might use the term elder
today in everyday vernacular. At least older people sometimes
still say this, that younger people need to respect your elders.
You don't hear that as much. It is important to respect our
elders, it's true, but it doesn't seem like you hear that one as
much, but it is still common to hear that as a reference. In fact, after this morning's
service, I had mentioned something about teaching on elders tonight,
and my daughter just came up to me and said, doesn't elder
just mean old people? Doesn't it just mean old people?
And yes, it does in a sense. But everyone ages naturally. And Paul is telling Titus to
appoint elders. And so it seems like there's
something more to the meaning here. It doesn't just mean someone
who's aged. He's talking about recognizing
people and authorizing them for an office. And so what is he
what is he saying there? Well, the way the term is used
in scripture most often is that it's used as an office for instance,
and I'll just read off a few references here to you Joshua
20 and verse 4 talks about each city in the in the in the promised
land there that they've conquered that they have conquered each
city is to have elders who will hear cases within the city, issues
that might come up. And that becomes important later
when we get to the book of Ruth, because in Ruth, you might remember
the city elders are instrumental in hearing Boaz's case so that
he can eventually marry Ruth, right? And so the city elders
were important for that. Now that's not the only time
that we see this. There are also elders within
the religious context that God has appointed. For instance,
let's all turn to Numbers 11 for just a moment. Numbers 11,
this here so we don't lose our place. Numbers chapter 11. And
this is God speaking to Moses. Moses, obviously being a leader
of the people. And there in verses 16 and 17,
this is what God tells Moses, 16 and 17, the Lord therefore
said to Moses, gather for me 70 men from the elders of Israel. whom you know to be the elders
of the people and their officers, and bring them into the tent
of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. Then
I will come down to you and speak with you there, and I will take
the Spirit who is upon you, and I will put him upon them. and they shall bear the burden
of the people with you, so that you will not bear it all alone. And I really empathize with Moses
there. I'm sure Moses was saying amen.
Hallelujah. I don't have to bear the burden
alone. This is a good thing that the
Lord is doing that. And so these were elders and
they were specifically chosen to help Moses to carry on the
leadership of the people. And Moses would burn himself
out. You might remember Jethro telling
Moses that you're going to burn yourself out. You need to appoint
people who are going to help you. And God tells him that here
in numbers 11. Now, eventually, hundreds of
years later, there are going to be elders who are going to
be in synagogues, who are going to be in leadership roles in
Israel. In fact, as we get into the New
Testament era, they are going to be in the Sanhedrin and a
vital part of religious life in Israel. Now, of course, they
are among those who rejected Jesus. In Matthew 16, for instance,
we see elders there who rejected to Jesus. So the elders aren't
always right, but they are there and they're important for the
leadership of the people. Scripture also calls for elders
in Christian contexts, which is what we see here as the Reformation
study Bible notes here. Elders are a group of individuals
charged with the general care of a local church. And then Paul
will say this to the elders of Ephesus. In fact, let's turn
there for just a moment. Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter
20. We'll see that God is calling
elders within a Christian context here. Acts chapter 20 and verse
28. And we could even look back to
verse 17 of chapter 20 and we can see that he sent to Ephesus
and called to him the elders of the church and they gather
up and then down in verse 28. He says this be on guard for
yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has
made you overseers to shepherd the Church of God, which he purchased
with his blood. And so he calls them to be on
guard. God calls elders for the task
of caretaking, for the task of looking over or overseeing his
sheep. And so this is an important task. Now, that still hasn't quite
answered the question, if this is such an important task, why
do so many churches not talk about elders? Well, other words have cropped
up over time. For instance, if we were to look
at the, I think it's the current Baptist Faith and Message 2000
edition of the Baptist Faith and Message, it talks about elders,
or excuse me, it talks about pastors and deacons, but if we
go back to say the early 1900s, the usage there did reflect Elder
language elders who are pastors and deacons. And so we do see
that language there. It's just something that is not
used that much and people seem to have just forgotten about
this terminology. There are other terms that are
used. In fact, here in Acts 20, verse
28, we see three terms. We all we've already seen. Well,
verse 17, the term elders. But here we see that the Holy
Spirit made them overseers. So we have elders, we have overseers,
and we see that they are there to shepherd. to shepherd and
so we might call them shepherds as well another term for shepherd
is pastor and so these are interchangeable terms that are being used for
this office Back here in Titus chapter one, we see that he's
supposed to appoint elders. He starts to give him the descriptions
of what an elder should be. Verse six, a man who's above
reproach, et cetera. Verse seven, for the overseer.
Wait a minute, I thought we were talking about elders. Well, yeah,
and an elder is an overseer. Older translations might translate
their bishop. So there's yet another word there.
Bishop. Who's a bishop? A bishop is an
elder. Who's an elder? An elder is a
pastor. Who's a pastor? A pastor is an overseer. We can
see these are all terms that describe the same office. and so the term pastor is the
popular one today and as a social cultural convention you know
i often just refer to people or refer to myself uh with people
as pastor sean um rather than elder sean especially since because
of the rise of mormonism people will think i'm some i'm talking
about A different church, right? If I say I'm Elder Sean, they
might think I'm, you know, from the Mormon Church, especially
wearing a dark jacket and everything. They really might think that.
And of course, that's not the case. But an elder is a pastor,
is an overseer, is a bishop. You know, these are all these
are all terms that describe the same office. And the Bible, even
though we use the word pastor perhaps most commonly, the Bible
uses the term elder most commonly. And so it is not incorrect to
refer to your pastors here as elders. There's just explaining
that to someone someone was asking about that and I said, yes I
know that's the it's not a common way of hearing it, but we do
have elders here. We have Myself and pastor jorge. We are elders of the church Because
biblically speaking that's what a pastor is. He's an elder. We
might even call ourselves bishops, but you know that that raises
other pictures to mind so just culturally sometimes it's easier
to just say pastor but biblically speaking we're elders and so
that is what we see the office of an elder is that of the pastor
it is the pastoral role And it is essential to the life of the
church. It is essential to the life of
the church. And so this is why Paul leaves Titus there in or
on in Crete, because he needed to appoint elders. He needed
to appoint elders. But elders. Why not like say
an elder for every church? Why elders? Because note that
there's a plural there. Elders in every city. How many elders is he supposed
to appoint? But that brings me to the next
point. The next question that we'll ask here. I'm hitting right, but it seems
to be going backwards. There we go. I'm not sure what's
happening. I'm hitting the same spot. It's
going up and down. How many elders are there to
be in churches? How many elders are there to
be in churches? Well, as I said, it's elders,
plural, in every city, singular. Now that's the pattern we already
saw in Acts 20 that Paul called for the elders of Ephesus. That was the church in Ephesus. They had elders. If we look back
at Acts 14, the apostles were appointing elders in every city. Elders, plural, every city, singular. Or elders, plural, in every church,
singular. And so that is what was being
practiced there. Now that sometimes runs afoul
of what we see as typical practice. Many churches don't practice
that. I think, if I'm not mistaken,
the Calvary Chapel churches you can have different Southern
Baptist churches. But but the typical the structure
that you see in Calvary Chapel churches is something they call
the Moses model where you do have a single person at the top
of pastor Is in charge and then he appoints people who appoint
people etc. And you know, hey and that's
how it goes I would say that's probably not the most biblical
model because God said that Moses needed people who would help
him But many people see that some people don't look to Moses.
They look to American corporations and there was even a pastor who
said perhaps we need to get rid of this whole shepherding business
and we need to refer to the pastor as the CEO. No, no, we're not doing that
either. The pastor is not the chief executive officer of the
church. He's not the president of the
church. But many megachurches actually do follow that model.
And then sometimes it's just, you know, an issue of pragmatism
of what works. If a church is small, sometimes
all it can have is a single pastor. And so it's just a decision of
necessity. But the question for us is what
is the best practice and what does God call us for? And here
we do see that there should be multiple elders. There should
be multiple elders in every church. There should not be a single
man occupying the office of eldership. if it can at all be avoided.
Sometimes that is necessary, and God might call that. There
might be a time where you have a Paul in a church, and it's
for a temporary time until people can be trained up. But as soon
as that can be avoided, it needs to be. Why? Because a single
man who is serving as a pastor all by himself is open to temptation
to either be abusive of his power or just temptation in general
to personal sin. He's open to loneliness. He doesn't have any counsel. And so it's important to have
multiple elders. Now, if a church has that, they
will have a team of men who they will call, and they will either
say there's a team or a board. You know, sometimes that language
is used so that there will be the multiple men who are there
serving in this role. Now, the churches that do this
typically will only compensate maybe one or a few of those elders. It's not that every elder is
compensated. Sometimes there will be, in fact,
one particular elder who may be the primary teacher, the pastor
teacher, you know, like John MacArthur's church, he's referred
to as the pastor teacher. That is to just kind of set him
apart from the other elders. He's compensated specifically
because he is doing the lion's share of the teaching at his
church. But there are many men there
who can teach, many men there who are elders, and they can
step up. Some of them are there on a volunteer
basis. They are working other jobs.
They are not compensated by the church, but that does not mean
that they are any less elders than the ones who are compensated
by the church. They are all elders. They are
all on the same level. Some of them work other jobs,
some of them are bivocational, and some of them are just full-time
ministry. but they're all elders, they're
all elders. And it's important to have both, I think. It's important
to have elders who are both compensated and non-compensated for the sake
of transparency and unity within the church. I think that's important.
But they are all to be elders now. I said how many well scripture
doesn't tell us how many It just gives us that pattern of appointing
elders in every city and so A church is going to have some freedom
to prayerfully consider for themselves how many elders it needs. And
a church may say, okay, well, we can have one full-time pastor,
maybe even just one full Part-time pastor who because we can't pay
a pastor full-time just yet And then we'll have one of the men
or two of the men in the church be elders with him And and and
that is perfectly okay, and the church will need to periodically
reevaluate that if a church grows it may need more And so church
is going to need to reevaluate that God's given us freedom though
on that The freedom he hasn't given us though is to say okay. Well, we're going to do it our
own way I had a church tell me once, well, it's not in our bylaws
that way. So, well, then you need to change
your bylaws. I mean, that's just how it is. If it's not biblical, then it
should be changed. And so that's the question of
how many there should be. And the answer is there should
be a plurality. It's not a single man. There
should be a plurality. Well, what is the role of elders?
Okay, so if they're important to the church and we need them,
why? What do they accomplish within
the church? Well, that question brings us
to another question, the basic question of church government,
of church government. How is the church run? Sometimes
that's called church governance or church polity. How is a church
managed? Many Baptist churches exercise
something called congregationalism. That is something that is seen
in many, many churches. I don't know what the percentages
are. It's probably a large percentage.
And it is something that reflects, to use something from secular
politics, it reflects a pure democracy. This is where every
member gets a vote, and the pastor, for instance, gets a vote, and
the rest of the church gets a vote, and the pastor's vote doesn't
weigh any more than anyone else's vote. Everyone gets an equal
vote. And some see that as a good cure
for potential abuse of power by pastors and staff. And abuse
of power is certainly a concern to address. The question is,
is that a biblical model? Well, that is mob rule, and what
we see with that form of government is that it's often fraught with
pitfalls. A lot of times what we see is
that the most unspiritual people in the church are having sway
over the votes of the church. rather than what should be happening,
the more spiritual people, perhaps who are tempered and not given
to emotion or given to sinful excess, hopefully, they are the
ones who are supposed to be making decisions for the church. Mob rule is never a good thing. Our country, by the way, is not
designed that way. Our country is not a pure democracy. Our country is a representative
republic. And there's a reason for that,
because pure democracy is not a benefit to society. But a representative
republic is. And that's why we have stood
as long as we stand as a country. Well, more important than that,
it's just simply an unbiblical form. We don't see Congregationalism
taught anywhere in Scripture. And so if that's not the case,
then what's another option? Well, a lot of other churches
have a modified version of that, a deacon-led Congregationalism. This is where a congregation
elects deacons who will be, and as I've heard it said many times,
they are the voice of the people. They meet together. They discuss
issues that maybe the rest of the congregation doesn't need
to know. And I think that's important because if, say, there's a person
who is having financial difficulty in the church and the church
needs to decide how to best enact benevolence for that person,
the whole church doesn't need to be involved in that. That
doesn't need to be a whole church folk. There do need to be times
when you have men set aside to make decisions like that. And so this is what a lot of
churches have settled on. The deacons will be the voice
of the people in all matters. They will make decisions in all
matters, including telling the pastor what he can and can't
do. There are times when the pastor has to answer to the deacon
board, and then the deacons representing the people can make evaluations
based on whether the pastor is doing a good job or a bad job.
And then the deacons will just bring before the congregation
the big issue items like budgets and, you know, capital improvements,
that kind of thing. But the deacons will make the
decisions of the church during their deacon meetings, including
the hiring and firing of pastors and what should be done about
church discipline issues, et cetera, et cetera. This is also an unbiblical pattern
because what we have are people who don't feel perhaps that they
are called to be pastors who are operating in a pastoral role.
Why? Because this is an elder role
that they are fulfilling. It's better in some sense because
you have men who are coming aside. Hopefully, they're godly men.
Hopefully, they're godly men, although we've seen ungodly deacons
in churches before who can ruin churches, in fact. But let's
say that they're godly men. That's good. Let's make them
elders, because that is the third form here. And that's what we
see in scripture, that elders are supposed to take charge in
churches. And that's what we see in various
places in addition to elders and pastors or shepherds and
overseers. Overseer, that definitely gives
us a clue as to what a pastor should be. Here are some other
terms. Romans 12, 8 and 1 Thessalonians
5, 12. Paul calls elders rulers there
to be rulers Hebrews 13 17 there the Lord calls elders leaders
and so these are all terms that are applied to that office This
is why the office is so important. The ones who occupy this office
occupy it with an authority that is granted by God. And with that
said, it is important that that we find the right people. But there are other terms that
are used here and I want to go over just a few of these terms
so that you see exactly what what God is saying here. First
elders must oversee the people again here in verse 7. We see the term overseer in Acts
20 verse 28 Paul says the Holy Spirit has made you overseers
This is a term that is applied to elders 1st Peter 5 1 and 2
let's take a look over there for a moment for just another
example First Peter 5 One and two. God says, therefore,
I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder and witness
of the sufferings of Christ. And as a partaker also of the
glory that is to be revealed. Shepherd the flock among you.
That's good. That's what elders should do. They should shepherd. But what
he says next, exercising oversight. exercising oversight. And so
elders are to exercise oversight and he gives some qualifications
to that. Not under compulsion. We don't
force an elder to be an elder. He exercises it voluntarily according
to the will of God. He doesn't do it according to
his own will. He does it according to the will of God. He doesn't
do it for money, not for sordid gain, but with eagerness. and
not lording it over those allotted to his charge, but proving to
be examples to the flock. So there is an oversight that
elders are to exercise, and so they do oversee God's people,
and they also care for or manage God's people. Let's take a look
over at 1 Timothy now, 1 Timothy 3. 1st Timothy chapter 3 and verses
4 & 5 Paul says there that the overseer
or the elder must be one who manages his own household well
Now, already that's going to it's going to mess with some
folks who are egalitarian. They think, well, maybe maybe
it should be a man and a woman sharing responsibility 50 50.
No one's really in charge. But actually, the Bible says
that husbands are to leave their homes. And here we are looking
for someone who manages his household well, keeping his children under
control with all dignity. And note this, but if a man does
not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care
of the Church of God? And these terms are interchangeable
in this text. To take care of the Church of
God is the same as to say he is managing the household of
God. And so this is another term that's
used here. Leadership in the home becomes
a quality to examine for the office of overseer because the
overseer is going to exercise leadership over the church. And
so you're looking to see, okay, is he operating with leadership
in his home and how is he doing that? And so elders must oversee,
they must manage, they must decide. They must decide, too, for God's
people. Look over to Acts 15 for a moment. Acts chapter 15. And we could start all the way
at the beginning, I think here in verse. Verse one, there were
people who came down from Judea who began teaching the brethren,
unless you are circumcised, according to the custom of Moses, you cannot
be saved. OK, so this is a theological
problem, right? Some people are saying you've
got to be circumcised to be saved. And when Paul and Barnabas had
great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined
that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to
Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. And so they come up so that the
apostles and the elders can hear the issue. Of course, they're
received by the whole church. In verse four, we see that they're
received by the whole church in Jerusalem. And they hear the
report of what God has done, but then debate breaks out there
as well. Verse 5 says some of the sect
of the Pharisees who had believed stood up saying it is necessary
to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the law of Moses. So the debate is happening right
there in the middle of a church meeting. Can you imagine that
a debate in a church meeting in a congregation that there's
just no imagining such a thing. So so how do how do the apostles
and the elders handle it? Well, we read in verse six, the
apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter.
Now, wait a minute, aren't they already together? Well, this
must mean that they are coming together in a separate location. So they withdraw, if you will,
and they come together to debate the pharisaical claims. And this,
of course, is what should happen. We come and we compare what people
are saying to the word of God. And so they debate what the Pharisees
had been saying. We see in verse 7, that after
there had been some debate, Peter, one of the apostles, stood up
and he addressed the assembly, the gathering. He addressed them. Who's the
them, by the way? Well, just tracking. It's the
apostles and the elders. And as we continue on, skipping
down to verse 12, we see all the people kept silent. Well,
who are the people there? Well, they are the apostles and
the elders, the ones who have come together to debate this.
And so this is an assembly. who are gathering to hear the
testimony of Peter, to hear the testimony of Paul, to hear the
testimony of Barnabas, and to weigh these things out. And then
after that, verse 13 says, James answered. Now, James is not one
of the apostles. Well, since the apostles and
the elders have gathered together and James isn't an apostle who
is James by way of elimination, he's an elder. Yeah, so he's
one of the elders of the church. He's the leader there in Jerusalem. And for the sake of time, we
won't read all of what he says there in these verses down through
verse 21. But after that, as an elder,
what he did say had final word in that final letter that they
sent out. After he gets done speaking,
verse 22 says that, it seemed good to the apostles and to the
elders. And so they they have made a decision and then the
whole church comes in the church comes in and and they decide
to choose from among them to send Judea who's excuse me Judas
who's called Bar Sabbath's and Silas. leading men among the
brethren. Maybe the church said, yes, we
affirm this decision by the Apostles and the elders and we nominate
these men. That could be something that
happened there. We're just not told the exact process there.
but they do come up they do give that that affirmation and as
we get as we get through here what James had said in verses
19 and 20 specifically is reflected in verses 28 and 29 for it seemed
good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater
burden than these essentials that you abstain from things
Sacrifice to idols and from blood and from things strangled and
from fornication if you keep yourselves free from such things
you will do well farewell That's the letter that they send out.
It's a letter from the apostles and from the elders By the way,
if you were wondering, you don't have to be circumcised to be
saved. That's what they that's what their decision was. And
we're thankful for that decision. But they do say that, OK, for
the sake of the of the consciences of the people, just abstain from
these other things. And also, it's it's good for
you. And so they go out with this
letter And they travel with it to show that decision. I was looking to see exactly
where I should go next. I think 16-4 is a good place
here. We see now as they were passing
through the cities, They were delivering the decrees which
have been decided upon by the apostles and elders who were
in Jerusalem for them to observe. So no, it's not by the congregation.
It's not by the it's not by the people. It's by the apostles
and the elders. Now, today, when we have a question
and we need to debate it. The elders of a church should
get together, and they might involve elders of other churches,
especially if it's something that affects a whole community. They will get together with the
apostles. You say, wait a minute, where
are the apostles? Right here. Right. And so they will get together
with the apostles and they will decide things. And so they are
they are decision makers. And that's exactly what we see
in Acts 15. And that's just one example.
But for the sake of time, we will just leave it at the one
example. Elders also lay hands on people
as they are ministering. And that's exactly what we see
with Titus here. Titus is to appoint these elders
as he is going through each city. He's to appoint them He's to
lay hands on these people. And so he does have the task
of appointment here And that's what we see. We see that with
Timothy. He was elders ordained him first Timothy 4 11 says that There's actually a transition
that happens because at first we saw the apostles appointing
elders, but at some point then we see elders appointing elders.
That is what the apostles intended. Why? Because the apostles were
passing away. The apostles were only there in the first century.
The elders would pick up that baton. And so elders are to be
involved with that process, and they are to be laying on hands
or ordaining those who minister to God's people. They are also
to rule God's people. And they're supposed to do it
well. They're supposed to do it well. And that's what Paul
says in 1 Timothy 5, 7. 1 Timothy 5, 7. He says there that the this first Timothy 517, excuse
me, 517, the elders who rule well are to be considered worthy
of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and
teaching. And so, yes, elders are supposed
to rule the people. And as one Bible dictionary notes
here, the word means to exercise a position of leadership, to
rule, to direct, or to be at the head of. And that's why the
New American Standard Bible here translates it rule, as well as
the English Standard Bible or Standard Version, the King James
Version, New King James Version, even the Revised Standard Version
all translate this word rule. They are supposed to rule. And
finally, they are to instruct and rebuke the people. They are
to instruct and rebuke the people. Look back at Titus here. One
of the reasons Paul says it is so important to appoint these
men because in verse 9 he's supposed
to a qualification is a supposed to hold fast to the faithful
word which is in accordance with teaching so that he will be able
to exhort and sound doctrine and refute those who contradict
for there are many rebellious men empty talkers and deceivers
especially those of the circumcision What were they saying? Well,
like you have to be circumcised to be saved. And so it was important
for for a an elder to be able to instruct God's people so they
would know what true salvation is, what the gospel message is,
so that they would understand, hey, wait a minute. No, I don't
think I need to be doing extra works like getting circumcised
to be saved. He needs to be able to rebuke
those who contradict. He needs to be able to say that's
false teaching. That's not popular to say that
today, but that is something he must be able to say. And so we see several several things
that elders are supposed to be doing in churches. And if if
we just take that at face value, yeah, it is important then that
all have someone like Titus appointment who are going to be elders in
these churches because otherwise these churches are going to be
wanting. There have to be elders in these churches. Now, as we go through some of
these terms, we're not gonna be comparing it to deacons tonight,
but we did that a few weeks ago when we had our deacon ordination. As we consider these terms, though,
you may be thinking, okay, oversight, care, management, decision-making,
ordination, rule, instruction, review. I mean, it sounds like
there's a lot of power centered in the elder. What about potential
abuse of power. Well, I mean, we're already addressing
that earlier. What about the abuse of power? Well, that's
our final question for this evening. What about elder abuse of power? Well, one of the key protections
that scripture gives us right here, what we're going to be
studying over the next couple of weeks, and that is the qualifications
of elders. If we find men who are qualified,
that is the number one firewall against people who might be getting
into positions like this, who might be using it for their own
gain. If we find qualified people,
we are finding people who are hopefully not going to abuse,
but people are people. People can change over time. And so there do have to be other
checks that we have to bring in. For instance, in 1 Timothy
3, 6, there's a possibility of elders who become conceited and
fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. And so scripture
tempers the authority of elders in the following ways. First,
scripture does not give elders unchecked authority. Scripture
does not give elders unchecked authority. We see just in the
example of our Lord, the great shepherd, he contrasts himself
to the leaders of his day. And he says that he is gentle
and humble in heart. This is what our leaders should
be. They should be gentle. They should
be humble in heart. Think of it like this. If an
elder is supposed to manage his own household well and keeping
his children under control, yes, that requires leadership, but
does it not also require gentleness to be a parent? Yes. And just
like that, a pastor or an elder should be gentle as well and
humble in heart. He told his disciples that those
who want to be first must first serve all. They should be servants. This is where the term servant
leader comes from. Now, many people don't have to
have a problem with the term servant. They do have a problem
with the term leader. Pastors are to be leaders, but
they're supposed to be servants as well. They're supposed to
serve and they're supposed to lead. When the disciples ask
about seats of prominence, Jesus tells them about the importance
of sacrifice and suffering. Pastors do that too. They should
be willing to do that. He highlights that the self-important
leaders of their day love titles and honors, but the humble will
be exalted. And you'll see that sometimes
when the pastor wants to be called all these different things. If you just call me Sean, I'm
not going to be offended whatsoever. You do not have to refer to me
as Pastor Sean. You don't have to refer to me
as Elder Sean. You don't You have to refer to me as Reverend
Sean. In fact, I would ask specifically
that you don't call me Reverend Sean, because I don't like that
term being applied to me because only God is to be revered. I
know that that's a historic term. I'm not going to be offended
that you use it, but I'm going to ask that you not use that
one specifically. We shouldn't desire these titles. Why? Because there are people
who like to lord their positions over others, who like the power
trip that comes with all of that. An elder is supposed to be a
servant leader. Remember that God condemned the
shepherds of Israel for treating the people, the flock of God
harshly. He does not want his New Testament
shepherds to use force and harshness with his people. And in the New
Testament, God calls elders to manage or care for the church
well. And that first Peter excuse me
first Timothy 517 passage that we just looked at remember it
said double honor for those who are Leading well those who are
leading. Well, there should be a good
application of the leadership those who labor in preaching
and teaching And so We should pay careful attention to that. Elders should pay attention to
the flock we read. Elders must hold firm to the
trustworthy teaching, as we just read here in verse 9 of Titus
1. There are all kinds of qualifications
given there. First, the first Peter passage
we looked at a few moments ago, first Peter five, one through
three. He says that this is supposed to be done without seeking shameful
gain, without domineering. We should be exercising our leadership
well, not with authoritarianism. Now, I do have to say this because
it is Just the time in which we live,
people think leadership is authoritarian. Any authority is authoritarian.
People don't like hierarchies. They want to tear down the hierarchy.
They want to tear down anything that might smack of leadership.
I don't know why. I mean, it seems like some folks
desire anarchy. I don't know exactly what it
is. You know, some people say I don't want to go to an organized
religion. Why do you want disorganized
religion? I mean, God does. God is a God
of order. God and God has created hierarchies
within our lives. The simple existence of authority
is not authoritarian. We have to recognize that. God
does call his elders to rule. And if he didn't call his elders
to rule, he wouldn't give them so many warnings about ruling
with a heavy hand. They are supposed to rule. They're
just supposed to rule well. And so that's what God has called
of elders. They don't have unchecked authority.
One of the checks on that authority is that there's, as we've already
noted, there's supposed to be a plurality of elders. This is
not a one-man show. This is not where the senior
pastor, a title, by the way, that is not in the Bible at all.
The Bible does use the word pastor like a verb like shepherd, but
it does not use the term senior pastor. And it certainly doesn't
talk about the pastor as the single person who is running
the church. No, there is supposed to be a
plurality of elders within the church who will help keep any
one man in check. Just think about Jeremiah 17,
9, the deceitfulness of the human heart. We need multiple men in
this role. Proverbs 11, 14, there's safety
in an abundance of counselors. And so a board of elders will
guard against self-interest in any one individual man. And hopefully,
it will encourage each of its members to continue to grow in
godliness. There certainly should not be
within a church a cult of personality. So so there should be a plurality
of elders. And one of the other checks that
is given in scripture is that the members of the congregation
can bring charges against an elder. Yes. Just like just like
there can be church discipline against a fellow church member,
there can be church discipline even against elders. And this
is something that is not often done. And on the one hand, I
would say that sounds like a good thing that it's not often done
because elders should be should be men of honor who don't need
church discipline. But actually, what happens is
that if there's something that happens, say the pastors found
to be, you know, engaging in, I don't know, pornography or
something like that. The church just fires the pastor
and no one really knows what happened. That's not the proper
process. The man is disqualified. I'm
not saying he's not disqualified, but there is a disciplined process
that the church should go through so that all may fear God and
all may learn the truth of what needs to happen in each of our
lives. Now, We're not called to blindly
follow our leaders if there is an unrepentant sinful way within
an elder He is to submit to the same Church discipline process
now first Timothy 5 if you take a moment take a moment there
first Timothy 5 19 through 21 Paul says, do not receive an
accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three
witnesses. So we're not practicing church
discipline against an elder just because someone got mad at the
elder. There needs to be two or three
witnesses, just like with any other case. Those who continue
in sin. So, you know, we're considering
that Matthew 18 process. Those who continue in sin rebuke
in the presence of all so that the rest also will be fearful
of sinning. So see how that happens. It's
not just we fire the pastor and he quietly goes away and he goes
to another church. And isn't that what the world
complains about with like pastors who say, and do the most shameful
things like abusing kids or something like that. And then they get
fired from one church and they just go to other churches. I
mean, no, we need to rebuke them publicly. We need to rebuke them
harshly so that everyone else is going to be in fear and realize,
no, we take sin seriously here. And really, the law needs to
be involved there too. He doesn't need to just quietly
go away. We involve law enforcement. And I have seen that done once
or twice. I can share that at some other
time. There is a proper way to do that. But no, if two or three
people are confirming a pattern of unrepentant sin within an
elder, then the church needs to call out that pastor. And so, no, the pastor does not
have unchecked authority within the church. If he is abusing
his office, if he is using the office to expand his bank account
in some way, you know, through embezzlement or whatever else,
if he is abusing church members, either spiritually or physically,
physically in some way, that all needs to be brought to the
forefront. We uncover the works that are
done in darkness. That's what Christians do. We
uncover the works, the deeds that are done in darkness. An
elder is supposed to be above reproach. That's what Titus says
here. Any man who is above reproach,
verse six, that's what Timothy, first Timothy says, three, two,
he's supposed to be above reproach. If he's not above reproach, that
doesn't mean without sin. We'll talk about that next week.
But if he is involved in sinful ways, then he needs to be called
out and he is not qualified to be an elder. And so scripture does give those
protections there. So let's wrap this up. I'm spending
a lot of time on this, obviously, because there are a lot of questions
about who elders are, what they're supposed to be, because we don't
typically use that language. But that is the biblical language.
And we want to look upon the office as biblically as possible,
just like we want to do everything else in this church as biblically
as possible. Our church does have elders,
even though we use the term pastor. And as we look at that terminology,
we're just using synonymous terms. We're just using them parallel
to one another. Now, as we consider that, this
is not just a call for elders. All people should be serving
in some way. In fact, the elders are supposed
to be an example to the people. You never know exactly what the
Lord has for you in the future. It could be that you yourself
as a man, for instance, might be called up to be an elder one
day. You never know what that may
be. And so as we're looking at these qualifications over the
coming weeks, I want you to consider that for yourselves. This is
something that we're all called to do. Even if you're a woman,
you should be living in this way. You should be living a life
that is above reproach. And so this is a call for all
the congregation. It's not just a call for elders,
but we do have specifics here that we need to see in regards
to eldership because it is important. And as a congregation, you also
have to consider what God has called you to do in light of
the leadership of elders, for instance. 1 Thessalonians 5 says
this, But we request of you brethren that you appreciate those who
diligently labor among you and have charge over you in the Lord
and give you instruction that you esteem them very highly in
your love because of their work live in peace with one another
and then Hebrews 13 17 says this obey your leaders and submit
to them. for they keep watch over your
souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this
with joy, not with grief, for this would be unprofitable to
you. So that's why it's important
to have qualified leaders because you want to know that they are
people you can submit to. Now, with all of that said, I
want to add just one more thing here. I am, as far as my personal
self, I'm very thankful to be here and I'm thankful for all
of you. And I understand we are just
going through scripture and I'm trying to explain it. And so
I'm not bringing any of this out because I have beef with
anyone or anything like that. I'm just wanting you guys to
know what the scripture has to say about these issues. that
we can all grow together. And that's all that is. I'm thankful
for y'all. I'm thankful to be here as a
pastor. It's been a joy to serve you
guys. And if you fire me now because
you don't like what I thought about this, OK, that's fine.
But it's been a joy up until this point to serve with you
guys. And I do appreciate it. And hopefully you will pray for
me, pray for Pastor Jorge, pray for all the deacons of the church
as we seek to glorify God in all that we do.
“Understanding Elders, Part 1” (Titus 1:5)
Series Titus: Godly People, Godly Chu
What are elders? Join us as we delve into Titus 1:5, exploring the biblical concept of eldership in churches, their roles, and the importance of plurality in leadership.
What are elders? Join us as we delve into Titus 1:5, exploring the biblical concept of eldership in churches, their roles, and the importance of plurality in leadership.
(If you want to give to our ministry, visit https://www.lwbcfruita.org/give for more information!)
| Sermon ID | 423241753436838 |
| Duration | 1:03:02 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Titus 1:5 |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.