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Our Heavenly Father, we stand
in awe of your grace and glory and in reverence for your voice
that speaks to us with such power and clarity through your word.
And we pray as we wait upon you that you will speak to us because
your servants are listening. Bless us now, we pray, through
this ministry. In Jesus Christ, our Teacher's
name. Amen. Please be seated. Our scripture reading this morning
is from the first letter of the Apostle Paul to Timothy. First
Timothy, chapter 3, and we read from verse 1. We come near the end of our series
of studies on Sunday mornings in the New Testament's teaching
about the church and we come today to the subject of leadership
in the church. And a few weeks ago I promised
the nominating committee for elders and deacons that when
we came to this theme I would particularly and specifically
preach on the subject of elders and deacons. There are, if my
memory serves me, only two passages in the whole of the New Testament
where elders or bishops and deacons are brought together in the same
place. One is in the greeting in Paul's
letter to the Philippians and the other is in this passage
in a more extensive way in 1 Timothy chapter 3. Let us hear God's
Word, page 992 of the Pew Bible. The saying is trustworthy. If
anyone aspires to the office of overseer, which in the New
Testament, the word overseer or bishop is the same ministry
as the elder, if anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he
desires a noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be
above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled,
respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not
violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must
manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his
children submissive. For if someone does not know
how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert,
or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation
of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought
of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into
a snare of the devil. Deacons likewise must be dignified,
not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for
dishonest gain. they must hold the mystery of
the faith with a clear conscience. And let them also be tested first,
then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. Their wives, or possibly the
women who serve as deacons, their wives likewise must be dignified,
not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons
each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their
own households well. For those who serve well as deacons
gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in
the faith that is in Christ Jesus. All over the world today people
are crying out for leadership Perhaps in some measure that
is because in our media conscious and media driven society we are
more and more aware of the fragilities and the frailties of our world
leaders and of the enormous and perplexing burdens that they
face. whatever the reason, in almost
every country in the world to which one goes, people are saying,
would to God that we had real leaders in our country. And we
might say exactly the same thing about the church of Jesus Christ. We need leaders whose absolute
integrity we can respect. whose lives we can admire, whose
discipleship of Jesus Christ serves as a wonderful inspiration
to us in the fellowship of his people. We desperately need leaders
who are spiritually tall enough to be able to see where we should
be led. We need leaders that we can love
and who serve to us as models of the life of Jesus Christ. There are some famous words of
the American writer E. M. Bounds that have rung in my
ears since I was a teenager. God is not looking for better
methods. God is looking for better people,
because people are God's methods. And hence, from the very beginning,
our Lord Jesus Christ selected men whom he could train and equip
and then send out to serve. And they, in turn, the apostles
in every place where churches of Jesus Christ were established,
selected people whom they trained. and prepared and equipped and
then sent into the work of spiritual and material ministry. And because
we are in the process in our fellowship of beginning to look
to nominating elders and deacons in our church, it is salutary,
vital for all of us And not least for those of us who are already
elders and deacons, or who may become such, that we be very
clear-minded about what it is that we are looking for from
our leaders. And so I might say this morning,
if you are a leader in this church, this sermon is for you. And if you are a member of this
church, This sermon is also for you, so that we may wisely lead,
so that we may spiritually nominate, so that we may become a church
that is strong in our leadership, in our service in the kingdom
of Jesus Christ here. And so, for a few minutes this
morning, we turn to this extraordinary passage in 1 Timothy chapter
3. It has many remarkable elements
about it on which we cannot linger, but one of the most remarkable
is this. Did you notice what this passage
says about what elders and deacons do? You would be very shrewd if you
did. Because these passages tell us
almost nothing about what elders and deacons do. Perhaps this
was assumed in Ephesus, where Timothy was, because the Apostle
Paul had spent almost three years there. He had given a very special
address to the elders from Ephesus. It's recorded in Acts chapter
20. And perhaps all that was assumed. But perhaps what the
Apostle Paul is really saying that what elders and deacons
do flows from what elders and deacons are. We have a couple
of little hints in this passage that elders engage in spiritual
oversight, that deacons and their wives or deaconesses need to
be the kind of sensitive individuals, wise and practical individuals
who are able to deal with practical and sometimes material matters. But in a sense, for the Apostle
Paul, what we do is always secondary to what we have become by the
grace of Jesus Christ. And it's for that reason that
if you reread this passage, you'll notice something very interesting
in the description of the elder and the description of the deacon. Almost identical things are said
about both. In the New Testament, a deacon
is not a second-rate elder. A deacon is not somebody who
hasn't quite made it in the spiritual stakes. Deacons and elders are
children of God given different gifts, but the quality of their
lives, the apostle is saying here, is to be one and the same. And for that reason, most of
what I want to say from this passage this morning applies
to both elders and deacons. And there are three things I
want you to notice with me. First of all, the privilege of
this calling. Second, the primary qualifications
for this calling. And thirdly, the priorities of
this calling. First of all, the privileges
of this calling. You'll notice that Paul refers
to these in the case of the elder in verse 1. If anyone aspires
to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. And then later on in verse 13,
those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves. It's two different ways really
of saying the same thing. that there is great nobility,
there are high privileges, there are honors for those who serve
as elders and deacons, as leaders of the people of God. Now we
might think is that not a form of arrogance and pride that the
Apostle Paul is encouraging here when he says if anyone aspires
to the office don't we sometimes say if somebody really wants
to be an elder that's a sign we should never make them an
elder. Not in the Apostle Paul's book for this reason. that the
aspiration to be a leader in the church of Jesus Christ is
an aspiration to get down lower in the service of God's people,
to bear their hearts, to share their suffering, to help their
spiritual lives and to be their bond slaves for the sake of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And in that sense, we could aspire
to nothing higher in the Kingdom of God than going down lower. Because the Church of Jesus Christ,
as our Lord says in the Gospel, is not a multinational corporation
with shareholders. In this Kingdom, Leadership is
humble service. Leadership is costly ministry. And of course, in the New Testament
church, leadership, as in many churches throughout the world
today, meant you would be on the front line of all the suffering
that the church might ever endure. So, the Apostle Paul is not blissfully
ignorant of the costliness of becoming a leader. I have, in
the last version of the New International Version I used, written across
the top of a passage in which the Apostle Paul speaks about
the costliness of Christian service and leader. I've written some
words of Martin Luther where he says, if I were to tell people
of the troubles I've had in Christian leadership, nobody would believe
me. And so to aspire to this is to
aspire to bear the burdens of others, to lead the people of
Jesus Christ in such a way that the knocks and the difficulties
will come to me as a spiritual father rather than be borne by
the rest of the family. But you see, when we engage in
that kind of leadership as elders and deacons, when we stand out
as leaders in that humble way, oh, the nobility of the task
and oh, the honor that the children of God give to us. And so we
need to be clear, says the Apostle, that there is enormous privilege
in this high calling. And it's because it is such a
privilege, it is such a high calling, that he also emphasizes
not only the privilege, but the primary qualifications of those
we call to serve in this ministry. Paul details them here in very
many different ways, but essentially I think he is saying three things.
He is saying those we call to be leaders among us must first
of all in their personal life be marked by deep spiritual integrity. Verse two, in the case of the
elder, he must be above reproach. He must be sober minded. That means he must be a serious
Christian. He must be self-controlled. He
must be respectable. Now, that doesn't mean he must
do the decent thing. It means he must be worthy of
our respect. He must be hospitable. That doesn't
mean he must have a big house. It must mean he must have a big
heart. He must not be a drunkard or
violent or gentle, not quarrelsome. Isn't that interesting? I've
met some of the most quarrelsome people in the church who believe
they should be elders simply because they have a gift to quarrel
you into the ground. And Paul is saying we don't want
that. Why? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
was never, even in controversy, he was never quarrelsome, but
gentle, not a lover of money. And similarly, do you notice
with the deacon verses, he mustn't be double tongued. His word must
be his bond. He mustn't be addicted to much
wine or anything else for that matter. He mustn't be greedy
for dishonest gain. They must prove themselves blameless. The women must be dignified,
not slanderers, serious Christians, faithful in all things, in personal
life marked by the deepest and the most manifest spiritual integrity. Second, in family life, they
must be, if they have a family, marked by parental stability. Verse 2, in connection with the
elder, the husband of one wife, or perhaps most simply, a one
woman man, absolutely committed resolutely to his wife. And,
verse 4, he must manage his own household well, with all dignity,
keeping his children submissive. Why is that so important? Because,
says Paul, if a man can't manage his own bairns, his own children,
how is he going to cope with the bairns, the children of God,
in the fellowship? And you notice similarly with
the deacons. The deacons must be, verse 12,
the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own
households well. The Apostle Paul recognizes,
as C. H. Spurgeon once said, it's possible
to be a deacon in the church and a demon in the family. It's almost as though he's saying,
If you were nominated to be an elder or a deacon and you came
home on the Sunday for lunch, would your children say, Dad,
you are just the right kind of man? Mum, you are just the right
woman to serve as a deaconess in this church? Or would they
be surprised? So spiritual integrity and personal
life parental stability in family life, and doctrinal orthodoxy
in spiritual life. The elder must be able to teach. The apostle elsewhere speaks
about the elder needing to know the Word of God so that he can
use the Word of God to instruct and direct the people of God. We ought to be able to go to
our elders and say to our elders, How does this work out in my
life, this biblical exposition I'm getting from the pulpit,
what I'm learning in Sunday school class, what I'm reading in the
scriptures. And don't you notice how interesting
it is that something very similar is said about the deacon. Verse
9, the deacon must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. You see, the difference between
a deacon and an elder is not that the elder loves and knows
scripture and the deacon, it doesn't matter. The only difference
is that as the elder receives the scriptures, his gift is to
use Could I put it this way, his tongue to impart the wisdom
of the scriptures to those to whom he ministers, the deacon
receives the same glorious gospel from the scriptures and his gift,
or if she is a deaconess, her gift is, as it were, to use her
hands and her feet. in order to take the wisdom of
Scripture into the life of the congregation, that we may in
some measure meet all the needs of our fellowship, and none may
go away spiritually or physically empty. One of the most telling
things the Apostle Paul says about this, and I've often wondered
it because I've never in my life known a church that has ever
done anything about this. Paul says the elder, verse 7,
must be well thought of by outsiders. Isn't that something? Isn't that
something? What's he like to work with? How is he as a manager, as a
business owner, as an employee? Now, why is this so important? Because the church of Jesus Christ
has always been judged primarily by its leadership. So, Paul speaks about the privileges. He speaks, too, about the personal
qualifications. And he speaks, thirdly, about
the priority in our tasks. There's much here. Let me simply
point you to one thing that Paul says to the elders that I think
is equally applicable to the deacons. Verse 5, if someone
does not know how to manage his own household, How will he now
notice the word? How will he care for God's church? That's what we're looking for,
my brothers and sisters. Elders and deacons who will care
for God's church. We are grateful for the care
for our buildings. But you know, that's not what
Paul is talking about here. For Paul, the church is God's
people. elders, deacons, who will, in
the name of Jesus Christ, care for us. And you see what that
means. They must be those who know us
and our needs as they move among us. They must be people who know
the resources of God in his word and the resources that God has
provided in the gifts of our fellowship. They must be those
who can lead us in prayer and wisdom for the blessing of God
upon our congregation. They should be those to whom
we can go without fear for spiritual and practical help. They must,
in a word, be people who simply love the church of Jesus Christ. and its members. And so I want to suggest, as
we close two simple applications, for those of us who are elders
and deacons, this is our calling. I challenge you in the name of
Jesus Christ to give yourself afresh all over again and yield
to these claims upon your life that you may serve us well. And to all of us that we pray
and long for such leadership, that we give honor to such leadership
and that we are blessed by such leadership. No wonder when Paul
speaks about this kind of thing for himself, he says, oh, who
is sufficient for these things? Where is our sufficiency to be
found? My dear friends, especially those
of you who are elders and deacons, our sufficiency is to be found
in this. that these two ministries, the
ministry of the bishop elder, the ministry of the deacon, are
both, first of all, the New Testament tells us, the ministries of our
Lord Jesus Christ. He is described both as the great
shepherd and the chief bishop of our souls, and as one who
was a deacon among the Jews for the sake of the salvation of
the Gentiles. Our resources do not lie in ourselves,
but only in Jesus Christ. And so our great task as elders
and deacons is to look to Jesus Christ to supply all the resources
we need for leadership. And our great prayer as a fellowship
is Lord Jesus Christ, King and Head of the Church, Bishop of
our souls, Deacon of our lives, Pour out your spirit upon our
fellowship that we may have leaders whose hearts beat in tune with
your heart for all you plan to do among us. Oh, may God give
to us such leaders. Our Heavenly Father, We pray
that in your grace you would not only teach us your word but
grant that in our very midst we may see your word at work
in those who lead us. And this we pray for Jesus Christ
our Savior's sake. Amen.
The Church and It's Leadership
Series The Church
| Sermon ID | fpc-032606am |
| Duration | 25:12 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | 1 Timothy 3 |
| Language | English |
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