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.