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Coming back to 1 Thessalonians
chapter five, please. 1 Thessalonians in the chapter
five. And we are really only going
to be looking at two verses together this morning. The verse 12 and
the verse 13, we've read the chapter together. And we're going
to be reading just these two verses, verse 12 and verse 13. And we'll read them now. The
word of God says, and we beseech you, brethren, to know them which
labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish
you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's
sake, and be at peace among yourselves. Amen. We'll finish at verse 13,
and God will bless His word. to our hearts. Last Lord's Day,
we looked at these first 11 verses of the chapter, and really, we
concluded the primary section in the epistle where Paul deals
with the return of the Lord. He will make one more reference
to it, and we read it when we read the whole chapter. He refers
to it again in verse 23, where he talks about the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's really referred to it at the
end of each chapter in this epistle. But he has finished now addressing
the theme of the day of the Lord that we have read about in verse
2. And at the end of the section
last week, what we noted in verse 11 was where he said, wherefore,
comfort yourselves together, and edify one another even as
also ye do. Twice in the subsection from
chapter 4, verse 18, down to chapter 5 and verse 11, when
Paul dealt with the catching away of the church and the day
of the Lord, On two occasions he spoke about how these ought
to be things that bring comfort to the church. The church should
comfort themselves and the church should edify one another with
regard to these great prophetic truths. Now I'm not going to
do a recap of last week. I don't think I have the time
to do a recap, but what we did note at the end of last week
was that there was an implication for us as believers, those who
are the children of the light and the children of the day,
that we should continue to be awake and active until the return
of the Lord. And as we have looked at those
themes over the past few weeks, I suppose the takeaway for us
is that until the Lord returns, we have a responsibility to focus
upon living and serving the Lord as we are able to do so. So now
Paul has concluded that section, And he returns now to a slightly
different theme, a theme with regard to exhortation for the
life of each believer and in life for believers. In his concluding
remarks from verse 12 down to verse 24, before he signs off
the letter, in verses 12 to 24, Paul deals with two main themes.
He deals with life in the local church in verses 12 to 15, and
then he deals with life as individuals in God's will through Christ
from verse 16 through to verse 24. And over the next few weeks,
God willing, we trust that we will learn from these verses
what Paul is seeking to tell the church in Thessalonica, but
by extension to tell us as the church of Jesus Christ today.
As God has used Paul, as God by his Holy Spirit has inspired
the apostle Paul to write these words, for the edification of
the local church. So at this stage, In these verses,
verse 12 and verse 13, Paul brings them to the topic of leadership
in the local church, leaders in the local church. I'm gonna
say, as I'm working through this, I will sometimes talk about the
title pastor, I will sometimes talk about elders, I might talk
about oversight, I might talk about shepherds. In the New Testament,
those four titles are all interchangeable. pastors, elders, oversight, and
shepherds. And overseers are really elders. The overseers of the church are
the elders of the church. And those titles, those four
words are used interchangeably in the New Testament. I just
wanted to say it at the start so that I avoided any confusion
as I work my way through what we're saying here. Paul here
talks, and I'm going to start by talking about the office of
the elder. The office of the elder It has to be seen as an
office, first of all. It has to be seen as a biblical
role. It has to be seen in one sense as distinct from the individuals
who fulfill that role or who occupy that role. but it's also
the case that the person who does fulfill that role or occupy
the role of elder, pastor, whatever title we want to use, they must
labor to fulfill it in line with the word of God. That's the responsibility
of the person who occupies the role. or who occupies the office. So what I'm saying at the very
start is it's not enough for an elder or a pastor to simply
say this, I'm an elder, I'm a pastor, you must obey me. It doesn't
work that way. That's very clearly not what
Scripture teaches. And we're going to see that,
God willing, this morning. That is not how eldership or
the role of a pastor operates and works in the New Testament.
But on the other side, It's also not biblical. In fact, it is
carnal to determine that because we don't like or don't agree
with individuals fulfilling the role, or we don't like the decisions
that have been made pertaining to that role and that office
of leadership in the church, that we will not submit to that
role. It's unbiblical to think that. If those men who occupy that
office, whoever those men might be, and I'm gonna say this right
now, this is really hard to preach when you occupy the role. But
if those men are living in line with scripture, seeking faithfully
to fulfill the role as God has ordained and outlined in his
word, and are not on the fundamental tenets and doctrines of the faith
leading you astray, then by biblical imperative, you are required
to submit to them in the local church. That's what the Bible
teaches. And any believer in a local church
who refuses to do that is at odds with the plain teaching
of the word of God. And I'm not gonna say, first
of all, you must submit to the elders. What I'm going to say
is, if you refuse to do that, you must first submit yourself
to the Lord. Submit yourself to his word.
And when you do that, you will find that you will submit yourself
to those who occupy the office of elder, pastor, whatever title
you want to put on it. Now that I've said that, It is
suggested as we get back to the text by some commentators that
Paul needed to address this issue because Timothy has alerted him
to a problem within the church in Thessalonica. And the problem,
it's believed, stemmed from the Thessalonian, Thessalonican church
being a young church populated with young believers. Paul and
Silas and Timothy have gone there and they've planted the church
and people have got saved and they've come into the church
and everybody's coming from the same place. There are no mature
believers in the church. And it is the case, even though
that might be the case, that Paul's church-planting ministry,
elders were supposed to be appointed in every church that was planted,
in every city that Paul went to. And as you read through the
New Testament, you'll see that the practice is there. It's defined
in Acts 14, verse 23. You'll find that when he wrote
his letter to Titus, in Titus 1, verse 5, that he was to appoint
elders in every city. It's possible that because of
the circumstances when the Apostle Paul was in Thessalonica and
had only been there for a short period of time and was still
teaching the church and still building them up in the basic
doctrines of the faith, and then he was chased out of the city
in a hurry and he had to flee. It is possible that elders hadn't
been appointed before that happened. And I'm firmly of the view that
that is probably the case, but I'm also firmly of the view that
whenever Paul sent Timothy back to Thessalonica, one of the things
he sent him back to do was to appoint elders in the church. And maybe it was in response
to that that there arose a problem in the church. Some people weren't
happy. Some people weren't happy about
those who had been set apart for the role as elder. Maybe
they felt that, well, I've been here just as long as them. It
should have been me. Elders are not appointed based
upon length of service. Elders are appointed to a spiritual
role, and it is God who guides and directs to the men of his
choosing by the Holy Spirit. And so as this issue has arisen,
perhaps, in Thessalonica, and Timothy has come back to Paul
and has highlighted this issue, to address it at the time, but
also, as I've said already, as directed by the Holy Spirit,
Paul has given these steps for the church today regarding church
leadership, how it's to be worked out, how they are to be treated. And there are three things in
these two verses that we want to look at this morning. I want
you to see, first of all, that there's a recognition of God's
leadership pattern in the church. Verse 12, the first half of verse
12, Paul says, and we beseech you, brethren, to know them. We beseech you, brethren, to
know them. Now the verse goes on and says who they're to know.
To know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord
and admonish you. But we want to stop just there.
We beseech you, brethren, to know them. Sometimes in life and whenever
we're trying to deal or different people are trying to deal with
directing someone or perhaps even correcting someone and maybe
in the workplace, maybe in the family setting or wherever it
might be, there are different approaches that are taken to
try and encourage or direct someone to do the right thing. And sometimes
there does need to be a very direct approach taken, while
at other times a softer approach is required. And it's normally
best to try the softer approach first. But it is the case that
the soft approach doesn't always work, because some people don't
respond to it. Some people think that the person
making the response, they've come to you and they've been
very gentle and very soft in their approach, and therefore
they think that that makes the person a walkover, or a soft
touch, and sometimes people try to take advantage of that fact. I don't think, as we look at
how the Apostle Paul handled various conflicts and problems
in all the local churches in the first century, that we could
ever say Paul was a soft touch. When you read Paul's letters,
he certainly wasn't a soft touch. He wasn't afraid to speak directly
when it was needed to be done. But on this matter, on this occasion,
writing to young believers in a newly planted church, Paul
begins with a gentle approach. Because the language used in
the opening section of verse 12 is not challenging language,
it's not confrontational language. The word beseeched there really
could be translated as ask. Paul's really saying we ask you,
brethren, to know them which labor among you. He speaks to
them in a collective term when he calls them brethren. And while
that's a masculine noun, it's used in the epistles collectively
to describe the church, to describe fellow believers. And one of
the reasons why that is, or certainly it could be argued that one of
the reasons why Paul writes in that way and why the New Testament
makes that focus upon brethren is to demonstrate the order God's
biblical order in the church and in the home. It is the husband
who is to lead the wife and the family in spiritual life. It
should never be the other way around. It should never be the
case that it is the wife who's driving the agenda spiritually
while the husband sits back and takes a back seat. So maybe it's
the case here that that's an implication of the word brethren
here when Paul speaks, but he's including everyone. in the church
whenever he's writing these words. He says, we beseech, so this
isn't just Paul. Remember, it was Paul and Silas
and Timothy, chapter one, verse one, Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus,
they were all party to the writing of the letter, but it's attributed
to the apostle Paul. They're the men responsible for
the planting of the church under God, but Paul primarily, as the
apostle to the Gentiles, gave this gentle reminder to the believers
in Thessalonica. The word beseech is only used
four times in his epistles, and three times you find it in his
letters to the Thessalonian church. He's being gentle with them.
It's not a word of rebuke, but rather a word to direct them
into the right path. So what is it that he wants to
direct them to? He says, we beseech you, brethren, to know them which
labor among you and are over you in the Lord. To know them.
The word know here is the word that carries the weight in that
phrase. It's the primary verb. And it has the thought of acknowledging,
of recognizing, of paying attention to. It's a word that's used quite
often in the New Testament. In fact, it's used in that well-known
verse in Romans chapter eight and verse 28 that we love. It
says, and we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. We know that. We acknowledge
that. And we like it in that verse
because we take confidence in knowing the assurance of the
promise of God to us in that verse and in all of our facets
of living. But let's take the same thought
of that word and bring it across to 1 Thessalonians 5 in verse
12. We beseech you, brethren, to
acknowledge, to pay attention to, to recognize them which labor
among you and are over you in the Lord. You see, the men, and
it's men because that's God's order, the men who are placed
as leaders in any local church, we are to know them. We're to
acknowledge them. And we will know very quickly
that they are not perfect men by any stretch of the imagination.
And every man who occupies the office of elder or pastor will
tell you that there are times that they get it wrong. And they
know there are times when they will disappoint you. And they
even know there are times when they will upset you by their
decisions and by their actions. I think if I'm honest, it could
be said that that's doubly the case for the one who has the
primary responsibility of handling God's Word. To put yourself out
there every week, to stand up and preach. And if something
is said that pricks the conscience and we don't like it, well, it's
easy to blame the preacher. or something said that provokes
a response because it's not in line with what we think or what
we believe, even on things that are non-essentials, even on things
that are really of not massive significance, and yet, for some
people, that causes issues. And even in those situations,
that doesn't warrant a rejection of the biblical principle of
church leadership. Paul directed the appointment
of elders in every church, and the church was to acknowledge
that order, and to acknowledge, and indeed, as we go on through
these verses, to value the men whom God has placed into that
office. And we must never forget that
it is God who has placed them. Warren Weersbe writing regarding
this verse 12 says that the responsibility of the church towards spiritual
leaders requires that they accept them as those who have spiritual
authority from the Lord. As they follow the Lord, the
church must follow them. The church must also appreciate
them as spiritual leadership is a great responsibility and
a difficult task. It is dangerous when a church
family takes their leaders for granted, fails to pray for them,
work with them, and encourage them. So this is the first thing
which Paul highlights. There must be a recognition of
God's leadership pattern in the local church. But the second
thing that we see in the latter part of verse 12, is that there
are responsibilities placed upon those who lead. And we know that. Your elders know that, that we
have responsibilities. In this verse it says that we
are to know them which labor among you and are over you in
the Lord and admonish you. So there is instruction in this
verse for elders with regard to the weight of our responsibility. And listen, we understand, I
understand that Paul is reinforcing this to young believers lacking
in spiritual maturity in a young church where everybody was at
the same level in this regard. But while that's the case, there
had to be someone who took on the leadership. There was someone
who God had appointed. They were not self-appointed. I've said it earlier already
that in line with their requirement to appoint elders in every church,
it was possible that Timothy, when he returned to the church
on Paul's behalf, as he spent time there, he had observed the
church. He had observed the believers. He had watched them, how they
were laboring, how they were working. Those who demonstrated
the requirements for leadership, those who had those spiritual
attitudes and who had the required gifting in certain aspects. And
then they're chosen. And they're chosen above others
and placed in leadership above others despite their inexperience. And Paul here wants to encourage
them in the role. And he's encouraging the church
to know them and to value them. And as he does that, he outlines
the role. And in verse 12, it appears to
have three components, which is they that labor among you,
are over you in the Lord, and admonish you. But when you actually
break it down, it's actually only two components. And we're
going to look at them under two headings. I want you to see,
first of all, those who labor. Them which labor among you. In the 21st century church in
Northern Ireland, people have all sorts of ideas about what
the Word of God might indicate as the work of the elder or pastor.
In fact, some of those ideas aren't really even grounded upon
the Word of God. They're grounded upon what is
common practice, what has become custom and practice, if we want
to put it like that. Some people have this idea that the preaching
side, it's just a couple of hours a week. And every pastor knows
the old line that he's heard a thousand times. I wish I had
a job like yours and only worked one day a week. I wish I had
a job like that too. That would be fantastic, but
that's not the reality of it. There are some who think that
the pastor, his main role should be that he should be in houses
all the time. And then he just gets up on a
Sunday morning and preaches whatever comes into his head. Others think
that the pastor should be at every single meeting and every
single ministry and every single outreach of the church, whether
it's a pastor or an elder, you should be at everything all the
time. And it is important that the
elders of the church show their support for the efforts and labors
and ministries of the local church. Those things are all important.
And they're not undervalued. But the word of God tells us
plainly where the elders should labor diligently. Over in Acts
chapter six, we read in the opening verses of Acts chapter six about
the appointment of deacons in the New Testament church. And
the reason those deacons were to be appointed were to take
responsibility of the care of the widows from the apostles.
Now why were they doing that? Well, Acts chapter six in verse
four tells us. so that they could give themselves, now let's notice
this, give themselves continually to prayer and to the ministry
of the word. So they could give themselves
continually to prayer and the ministry of the words. We often
leave out that word continually. The primary labor for the elder,
the pastor, is to labor for the church in prayer and in the ministry
of the word. And that word continually means
to give unstinting attention to something. It's not there
by chance. It's not there because somebody
decided to slip it in. It's there because that's what
God told Dr. Luke to write when he was writing
the book of Acts. Now, whenever we think about
that, and we bring it back then to this idea of laboring among
you, well, the word that's translated as labor in 1 Thessalonians 5
and verse 12, it's the Greek word kopeaou, and it literally
means to toil with wearisome effort. To toil with wearisome
effort. The ministry of prayer for the
local church requires strenuous effort. It doesn't just happen
in a prayer meeting on a Thursday night. or in the prayer meetings
before the service on a Sunday. I can tell you now, your elders
are men of prayer who pray for you on an ongoing basis. The
ministry of the Word requires care and attention and effort,
and I can speak from personal experience that many times it's
done through weariness, which has been brought on by spending
time in the Word when you can find time for the Word because
you're running about doing lots of other things. but yet the time needs to be
spent in order to rightly divide the word of truth. Whenever we
were looking at 1 Thessalonians chapter two earlier on in our
studies, we saw how Paul likened these roles to parental roles.
He talked about the nursing mother who was feeding and the guiding
father who was leading. And the elders have to take those
responsibilities very seriously. One Bible commentator puts the
labor in these terms. He said, spiritual shepherds
must proclaim the gospel, explain and apply the truth, warn and
admonish the sheep, and counsel them from scripture. Now the
responsibility for that teaching ministry, in many ways, in a
local church, in this local church, if I speak personally, the ministry
of the word sits primarily with me. And I can tell you now, I
can assure you now, that nothing comes without effort and application
to study the Word. You speak to anyone who has sought
to be a faithful pastor, and they'll tell you the same thing.
I'm reminded often, and I'm more often reminded, sometimes I wish
I hadn't done it. I have a friend who, I read a
quote one time, and it really challenged me, and I asked a
friend to put it onto a plaque for me, which now is in my study.
It's the words of a pastor, a preacher called H.B. Charles, Jr., and
he said this. He said, a passion to preach
without a burden to study is a desire to perform. I'm not
here to perform. This is not a performance. I'm here because God called me
to labor in his word, to minister his word, to preach in this local
church in order to glorify him. That's my calling. I want you
to notice something else here. They labor among you. They're available, accessible,
because they're among you. All leaders are part of the flock
of the chief shepherd, all part of the local church, who will
labor for the Lord among you. But then look what goes on, because
not only do they labor, but they lead. Because it says, and are
over you and admonish you. Society is teaching people today
to rebel. To rebel against authority in
so many different things. And there's this culture, this
mindset today that we're in control of everything ourselves. And
that if we don't like it, we can just stamp our feet and say
no. I coined the phrase that maybe children might say, you're
not the boss of me. Children say that. You're not
the boss of me. That is filtered into the local
church mentality. And it has. And yet when we come
to the word of God, and listen, I want you to understand, in
general life, in everyday life, the elders are not the boss of
you. But in the local church, the elders are over you. They
are among you, but they are over you. And that's the word of God. They have the right to admonish
according to Scripture in line with Scripture. There's a contrast. They labor among, but they are
over. It's very difficult to be among
and to be over at the same time, and yet that's the organic structure
of God's church. There are those who have the
responsibility to lead. And the Apostle Peter wrote in
1 Peter chapter five and verse three that as they lead, they're
not lords over God's heritage. We're not lording it. We're simply
seeking to honor God. Simply seeking to glorify Him.
And they are to take the oversight. and they are to feed the flock
of God, and they are to lead the flock of God. I think whenever
I preached on elders, whenever we did our series on the New
Testament, or what is a Baptist actually, back in 2021, and I
preached on the two offices of elder and deacon, and I think
at that time I said something like this, it's not that elders
are dictators, elders are directors. And the responsibility of the
elder is to direct the sheep to look away to Jesus. That's
my responsibility to you. To direct you to look away to
the one who is the Lord of the church. We're not lords over
you. There's only one Lord of the
church and it's Jesus Christ. Elders should labor actively
to be examples to the flock. Not perfect men, we'll get it
wrong. But labor to obey this book. and to be an example to the flock.
Leadership brings responsibility. That responsibility includes
instruction, that responsibility includes exhortation, it includes
admonishment, and folks, listen, even at times, it includes discipline. And that is God's design, and
it is God's book. It's God's word and it's God's
way. And we must not respond to the
structure that God has given for his church by applying worldly
ideology to it. That brings us now to our third
point, verse 13. We have a recognition of God's
leadership pattern in the church, we have the responsibilities
of those who lead, and then we see in verse 13 the regard for
leaders which is required. The regard for leaders which
is required. Look at verse 13, read it with
me. and to esteem them very highly
in love for their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves. You see, Paul goes back now to
how elders are to be considered in the church and by the church.
He has touched on it at the start of verse 12 when he talked about
knowing them, but now he goes further. And he breaks it into
two aspects. Again, this verse breaks down
into two parts. The first part is this, that
they're to be esteemed in love. Esteem them in love. The word
esteem, of course, is Greek. It's the word hegeomai. It's
a verb which is associated with how leaders are to be viewed
by those who are under their authority in the local church,
how they ought to be regarded by those in the church. So this
is how you're to regard the elders of the church. It's to be done
in a certain way. Very highly in love for their
work's sake. Very highly in love. I know how
hard I am to love. I understand that. We're all
like that a little bit. That little phrase there, very
highly, is a compound superlative. It literally means exceedingly
overflowing all bounds. That's the literal meaning of
those words. Exceedingly overflowing all bounds. Do you know why we've
had really dry weather for the past two and a half weeks while
the kids have been doing their exams? And once the exams are
over, we're going to get a lot of rain, OK? And the ground's
all dried up, and the water has nowhere to go. And then we have
floods. exceedingly overflowing all bounds. There's your picture. There's
your picture. And I'm sure, and I'm not gonna
be hard about this, I don't want to be seen to be ungracious about
this, but I'm sure there are some who are already struggling
with that thought. I struggle with it. Perhaps even
thinking that's beyond what I can do. Or maybe thinking that's
beyond what I'm willing to do. Listen, I'm personally not comfortable
preaching this because I'm standing up here asking you to do this
to the elders. It draws attention to me as an
individual. But maybe you're uncomfortable
hearing it. But neither of those feelings
is reason to ignore what God says in his word. We can't ignore
it if we want to be faithful. We can't ignore it if we're going
to be obedient. We can't ignore it if we expect God to bless
in this local church. We can't ignore it if we want
to see Him move in power and the saving of souls. It cannot
be ignored because it's God's Word. And the elders, as examples to
the flock, have to manifest this as well. We have to love the
flock. We have to demonstrate that by
our work because this is to be reciprocated for their work's
sake. That's what verse 13 says. And
we've already defined this work. What is their work? Continually
in prayer and the ministry of the word. That's the standard
that you hold your elders to. That's the standard. Not that
they didn't do this, didn't do that, or didn't do the other,
but this. John MacArthur writes this, he
says, the work the shepherds do is the ministry of the word
which feeds the souls of the flock. God has called these pastors
and set them apart for the important work of leading his church. Therefore,
the people under them are to lovingly acknowledge their ministry
labors, overlook their non-sinful human frailties, encourage them,
and give their best for them. That's really what it means to
esteem very highly in love. But Paul doesn't stop there because
he goes on and he finalizes this subsection of the letter by linking
this regard for elders with peace in the local church. Look what
he says at the end of verse 13. Be at peace among yourselves. Who's he writing to? He's writing
to a church. He's writing to believers. And he's saying be
at peace. It's a relational statement.
There's an acknowledgment that the elders rule over the church,
lead the church, but there's also contained in this sentence
that reminder again that they are also among the church, be
at peace among yourselves. That word's repeated twice. It's
repeated in verse 12, then it's labor among you, and then it's
repeated in verse 13, be at peace among yourselves. And this reference
to peace among the fellowship is absolutely vital. This should
be the normal environment which we strive for as fellow laborers
for the Lord. but so often it's not there in
the local church. Often that comes from discord.
Often it comes from disunity. Very often it comes from a rejection
of or a rebellion against those who have the rule over you. That's why it's here in this
place, after Paul has dealt with those issues. It's here for that
reason, because that's the primary reason why there's not peace
in the local church. One commentator says this, every
believer, every believer, this hit me hard, every believer has
enough of the flesh in him to divide and wreck any local church. We want to know the Spirit of
God move in our midst, don't we? We want to know God blessed. We want to know that God's going
to move in power, that he's going to move in our midst, that we're
going to experience the Holy Spirit moving in our lives, and
that we're going to see that manifested as souls are saved,
as believers are built up, as the church grows, not necessarily
in terms of breadth, but in terms of depth. We want to see that. We need
to assure we have this right attitude. And that's both elders
and those who are not elders. It's everybody. Maybe you think
it's not possible, and certainly it's very hard. But as we seek
to glorify God, and as we seek to submit Him, we're reminded
in the Word of God that the things which are impossible with men
are possible with God. We beseech you, brethren, to
know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord,
and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for
their work's sake, and be at peace among yourselves. And we
remember that God's design for the local church is for his glory,
not for anybody's elevation, not so that we have something
to boast about. but that we lift our view, we
lift our gaze, we lift our attention to the one who is the Lord of
the church, our Lord Jesus Christ. May God bless His word to our
hearts this morning.
Life In The Local Church - 1
Series Waiting For The Son
| Sermon ID | 51825105492691 |
| Duration | 37:47 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 |
| Language | English |
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