Aug. 20, 2017 PM Service - Their Dignity And Their Support by Pastor Josh Sheldon

The Church’s Duty to Its Pastors in 1 Timothy 5

Will we continue our way through 1st Timothy? We have a book of church order that we've been in for several weeks now. This morning we'll attend to 1st Timothy chapter 5, verses 17 to 25. Let me read these for you.

It's the word of the living God. Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, and the laborer deserves his wages.

Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels, I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality.

Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.

The sins of some men are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden. So we find here that the church has a special duty to her pastors.

A passage, honestly, that I, with many of my fellow pastors, are somewhat reluctant to preach because it seems a bit self-serving. Say, well, you know, you owe me, or you know pastors, you owe them double honor, and guess what?

Here I am, your pastor, so give me the double honor. And it just feels a little, I don't want to say it because it sounds like it's just so all about me. But Lord willing, you know me well enough that I can just preach plainly what the Word of God says for us.

In this book, as I called it a moment ago, of church order, that tells the pastor his duty to the congregation, and the congregation their duty to the pastor in a mutual book. They're telling us how to behave in the house of the living God.

So the church does have a special duty to her pastors, here called elders. We understand that to be one and the same person, executing, perhaps in some cases and contexts, different functions within that office.

So care is to be exercised in their material support, in their treatment, and in their selection. Timothy had been given the duty of straightening things out in Ephesus, and he had first to do what? He had first to silence the false teachers.

False Teachers, Church Order, and the Dignity of Persons

The ones who were teaching useless speculations, who their teaching resulted in the endless genealogies, the ones whose teaching promoted only controversy. Paul excoriates them in verse 17 of the first chapter.

They teach without understanding either what they are saying, or the things about which they make confident assertions. About 20 centuries later, we would just say, they don't know what they're talking about.

In chapter three, Paul detailed the qualifications of church leaders. And then chapter four, he wrote how people will depart from the faith following men who don't measure up to the standards that he insists on for church officials, following men like the false teachers of chapter one that I just described very briefly.

And in chapter five, through the second verse of chapter six, he's dealing with how various classes, various demographics within the church, if you will, are to be treated. In verses 17 and 25, it's about the pastors, the elders.

And pastors would be treated with the dignity that comports the gospel in which they labor. This includes their material support. It includes special care for their reputation. And before all that even, though it comes last in Paul's exposition, it includes care in their selection.

And we noted when we started this chapter, chapter five of 1 Timothy, that the illusions Paul has in mind are from Leviticus 19. The idea being that people are to be treated from the viewpoint of God's perspective.

We see others as God does. We look back to creation. We remember that all flesh, all humanity carries the image of God within them. Leviticus 19 then commands us certain particular dignities to be rendered.

To the aged, so you stand in the presence of the gray-haired man. To the stranger, we treat them with a special deference and thank them for coming. To widows and orphans, which are simply symbolic of those who are defenseless, those who cannot take care of themselves, those who need help but have no resource, be it their own strength, their circumstances, their finances, whatever the case.

Orphans and widows, those specific, and they are actual literal people, emblematic of our care for, our view of those who simply need help. And now pastors, the ones who make sure that the church follows these rules in the gospel.

Paul's concern about pastors is how they are treated. First, that they receive material support commensurate with the church's ability, and second, that they not be subject to slander. So material support and then their reputation, these two things take front and center here.

Verse 18 gives two points of reference for that first point. The first point being the material support, the stricture against muzzling an ox is from Deuteronomy chapter 25 verse 4. And we spoke about this a week or so ago, and I want to remind you, we don't have to turn there right now, but when it says you shall not muzzle the ox while it's treading out the grain, remember that that comes right after, in Deuteronomy, the limitations for how many blows you can give to a malefactor.

Remember? Remember? Forty. Not forty-one, because if you give forty-one, you're going to take away his dignity. It's too much. You haven't punished him. Now you're being cruel. This is why Paul said, five times I received from the Jews forty lashes less one.

They wanted to be so sure in case somebody lost count that they'd stop at thirty-nine in case somebody got the count wrong earlier, and they didn't want to break that rule, but that's where it's from.

Forty is punishment. Forty-one is just lording it over him. You're taking away dignity. Remember, dignity was one of the themes that we found going throughout Leviticus 19, cited here in relation to pastors.

You wouldn't mistreat the ox, how much less a man is sort of the question there. And this is the framework that Paul casts over the church's support of her pastors. Now the second reference is from God himself.

Now it's interesting the way Paul says it. Did you pick it up in verse 18 of 1 Timothy 5? For the Scripture says you shall not muscle an ox. That's Deuteronomy 25, verse 4. Now back then they didn't have that numbered or named like that, but they'd open up the scroll and there it is, Deuteronomy, and it's in there.

It's the Word of God. The other one that he cites, the laborer deserves his wages, is also Scripture. But that one is not from what we call the Old Testament. That's from the words of Jesus Christ himself.

He's the one who said that, and I like the way Paul tells us that the Scripture says, and then he quotes Deuteronomy, and the Scripture says, and then he quotes Jesus from Luke chapter 10 in verse 7 when he sent the disciples out, and he said, now I'm going to paraphrase very quickly.

When you go to a house and you preach the gospel, if they bring you in, then take what they give you. They might give you some material support. They're going to give you some food, a place to live. The laborer deserves his wages.

Scripture, straight from the mouth of a living God, Jesus Christ, while he walked on this earth. With Paul's reference to Deuteronomy 25, we can say that to not pay a pastor would be to first, treat him with less regard than is bestowed on a beast of burden, and second, to rob him of the dignity of providing for his and his family's own needs.

It sends a message of the value placed on having a man laboring in word and prayer on the church's behalf. Now, I will tell you that here at Providence Bible Church, the pastors have always been I think generously provisioned.

The man who was before me had a good salary, and as long as I've been the pastor here, my salary has been an important issue. When I first was called, it was very, very small, and we could only manage the honorarium, the weekly honorarium that we might give to a guest preacher, and that was as generous as anything because that's what the church could afford.

So as we go through this, understand that my opinion is, and I would defend this church to the end, this has always been a very generous place that takes care of this and pays close attention to it on my behalf.

He speaks of those who rule well. The word rule here is not the most commonly used word for ruling, that word that means to govern or to rule, the one that's used for kings and emperors and rulers and the like.

This word that Paul uses means to exercise a position of leadership, to direct things, to be at the head of something. Now it does mean to rule, that's a good translation of it, but it's not quite the sense that you have with an emperor, a king, an appointed governor with that kind of authority that they had back then in the Greco-Roman times.

It's actually a compound, I just wanted to give you a little bit of background on what this word is, I think it's kind of important. It's a compound of the word pro, P-R-O, before, and the Greek word histemi, which means to stand, so before something, to stand, to stand before something.

Only used eight times in the New Testament, all by the Apostle Paul, and twice in Titus, four times here in 1 Timothy. So it's a special type of leadership, it's a special type of ruling. It takes away any chance that the pastor is one who lords it over with a strict authoritarian kind of rule, the way Jesus says, you know, the Gentiles lord it over each other.

That's not what this is. This is superintendence. Pastors have some very deep authority in some areas that is given to them by scripture. Many of you who have known me for a long time know that I don't think our authority is as wide as some think it is, but where we have the authority is very deep, very well laid out, and an authority to be exercised, but it's a superintendence authority, and it's a going ahead kind of authority.

Standing before, leaving room, for example, our view of congregationalism where I, your pastor, serve here at the indulgence of you who've given me the honor of being the pastor, but understanding that this word is less of the strong, autocratic, that's the word I was looking for, the strong autocratic kind of rule.

That would be left out by what Paul says here. It's a superintendence and it's a leading by example. Double honor, he says, let them be worthy of double honor. It doesn't mean double the money, of course.

Money is not what's in view there, nor do I think it means that a pastor is twice as good as anyone else. There's a lot of theories on just what Paul means here, and good commentators have all kinds of different ideas about it, but I don't even want to give you a brief survey.

I'm just going to tell you plainly what I think Paul means by double honor. Whenever I see double in relation to men, I think of the double portion of the inheritances due to the honored or the eldest son.

That's Old Testament law. It's what was in play in Luke chapter 12, verse 13. Do you remember when the man in the crowd goes to Jesus and says, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

Now Jesus says, who made me the arbitrator of this matter? And then he goes on and arbitrates it. The elder brother in that case, though, he was getting the double portion. He was getting the double honor, if you will.

But you see, it's not just money. It's what Elisha asked for from Elijah before Elijah was taken away in the chariot of fire. Remember that in 2 Kings chapter 2, verse 9, he said to Elijah, let there be a double portion of your spirit on me.

Show these, the sons of the prophets were looking on, show these that I am truly your successor. Give me the honor due an eldest son. Give me a double portion of your spirit. The respect due a man who stands in front and declares God's word.

I think that's what Paul has in mind here. And then verses 19 to 20, if we talk about material support and honor in that sense. Now verses 19 and 20 speak of how charges are to be brought against the pastor when needed.

He says two or three witnesses are required. Now if you think about that for a moment, it's really no different than for anyone else. Matthew chapter 18, verse 16 is enough to prove the point where Jesus says if your brother won't hear you, go and get one or two or three witnesses, whatever is necessary.

I think I added the three, but the point is that Jesus is saying, go get the witnesses you need to establish every matter. To get the facts out on the table. So when Paul says do not bring a charge against an elder except with two or three witnesses, that's no different than for anyone else.

When we get into this matter of sin being established, repented, forgiven, it's no different than for anyone else. Hello? I thought I was getting a little feedback. I was like, amen. This one is actually a little bit tough to figure out.

What charges does he have in mind? Does he think of financial misconduct? What if he was found out to be a con man or something? What if he were found to have been divorced and to have another family that came to light?

Those things, according to 1 Timothy 3, 1 -7, would have disqualified him at the beginning. And a pastor is no more allowed to practice sin than anyone else. And we're right to expect him, the pastor, to be more sensible to sin, to be more sensitive to it than others.

So I spoke earlier about extra measure of protection for the pastor's reputation. I think that's what's going on here. It seems this slanders what he has in mind, something pastors are especially vulnerable to.

We live in a fishbowl of sorts. Every word is magnified. A man once was a candidate here long before my time, and he was declined because of the testimony of one man who complained of a phone call, a single phone call that hadn't been returned.

As that sort of thing, I think Paul would say, no, you should not have denied him based upon that, but bring in two or three witnesses, and let's talk this thing over, and let's see if this is a real issue.

When you stand here week in, week out as the point person, if you will, sort of 21st century language, everything you say is magnified. As we go through Romans 9 through 11, the dispensationalist who's hearing me might just go, you know, off in another direction and take some things very intensively.

We all have our hot buttons. We all have the thing that we expect to hear, and everything that comes out of here is not magnified just because of the amplification, but because of the authority with which we speak.

So Paul's saying, you are especially vulnerable to this, and so when a charge is brought, two or three witnesses do what? Well, the two or three witnesses might just say, you're on a hobby horse. This is not right.

We're not gonna go any further with this, just as for everyone else, by the way, in Matthew 18, 16, where Jesus says, get the one or two witnesses. You see, most of us are assessed by a husband or a wife, by your spouse, by your employer, a pastor ministers to all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds, and even at so small churches, ours, the demographic range from age and sex and marital condition and health and ethnicity and education, financial situation, doctrinal commitments, it's amazing, and for each, there are different priorities, different hot buttons, different mannerisms, and so on, and so what does all this say?

Why do I need a little extra measure of protection when I stand up here? Because it's so easy to offend. When you speak into a microphone, I'm raised up, two steps, so that everybody can see and hear.

It's extremely easy to unwittingly cause offense, and that's why Paul gives this extra measure of protection for the pastor. He insists that the offense be brought forward. Now what's the difference between bringing it forward than anything else?

I would suggest that not bringing it forward is gossip, slander. That small deal today is tomorrow's nuclear holocaust. To put it plainly, if someone has an offense, and this includes not just against the pastor, this is what Jesus spoke about in Matthew 18, this is what we're doing in our peacemaker curriculum, what we're doing in Sunday school now for the next several weeks.

If someone has an offense that they will not bring forward, that they will not go and get the two or three witnesses and bring to the pastor, that they will not go one on one and then get the witnesses when it's, you know, a brother or sister in the Lord having this offense, if you will not do that, listen carefully, you have no right to the offense.

If you will not do that, if you will not follow Jesus Christ's explicit and easy to understand instruction and go to your brother, go to your sister, just the two of you, get one or two witnesses if you need later.

If you will not do that, and someone will say, I don't like confrontation. None of us do. Some of those people will say, well, I do like confrontation so I'm extra careful not to do it. The Word of God says, tough.

If you're not willing to go to your brother or sister and resolve it the way the Scripture, Jesus Christ's own words, command us to, you need to repent of having the offense at all and divest yourself of it.

Or, if by prayer and supplication looking at the Scripture you say, yes, I do have an offense, this is something I do need to talk to him or her about, follow the Lord's instruction. Is it really, really hard?

Yes. Will God help you? Jesus Christ himself in that exact context in Matthew 18 says, where two or three are gathered on my name, there I am in the midst of them. Exactly that context. So trust him by faith that he will help you.

Understand that charges are not simply to be dropped. Your discernment of a sin might rescue the church from grief, especially if it was me, the pastor, or any pastor at a church. It might be the means that God uses to protect our reputation, to protect his reputation.

When the man is brought before the church and rebuked, that might be the moment he sees his sin for what it is. He repents and depending on just what it is, returns to his labors a better man for it. Let all things be done decently, orderly, and with humility and circumspection before the Lord.

Rebuke, Impartiality, and the Fear of God

Now verse 20, as we work our way through this, verse 20 after all this is really pretty simple. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear. So sin is sin.

An elder's sin is sin. A pastor's sin is sin. A deacon's sin is sin. Your sin is sin. It's just that simple. If the church takes no care for it in their pastor, in he who preaches repentance for sin, he whose task it is to preach the gospel and God's wonderful forgiveness of sin, the pastor who keeps before you the awful price that Christ endured for our sin, if that one should persist in sin, he has to go.

He has no view of sin. He holds sin so lightly that the view he holds of the cross cannot be high. He who persists in sin must go like anyone else. The only difference is the circumspection with which the charges are brought and to make sure it's not simply because of this magnifying glass that is this pulpit and this amplifier that is this microphone.

Now just how important is this? Just how important is this? Look at verse 21. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels, I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality.

So who's watching? Well, God and Jesus Christ. That's pretty self-explanatory. If you read John 17, who indwells you if you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? God the Father, God the Son, by the work of God the Spirit in converting our souls and bringing them into this home where Jesus says that they will dwell.

The elect angels, who are those? Are those the ones looking down from heaven? I think those are like the ones in 1 Peter 1 .12, the ones who are looking over the shoulders of the prophets and wanting to look into, wanting to inquire about the salvation that is being prophesied to come in Christ Jesus, a salvation they have no part in because Christ didn't die for angels.

He died for people, for us. So before that gathering, before God and Christ Jesus and those angels looking in to see this gospel played out here in this church, watching us to see what does salvation mean to us as we deal with one another in all these different ways Paul is speaking about, the angels looking down, saying, what does this gospel of salvation really mean to them?

Inquiring after 1 Peter 1 .12 before that assembly, Paul charges Timothy with this instruction of how to treat the pastors. That last verse about in the presence of God and charging him to keep it without partiality and giving this great assembly who's watching, there is some question as to whether it's fortifying the ground we just covered about charging the pastor with wrong or whether it's for what follows.

And I think it's both. It's a hinge of sort in literary jargon we call it a Janus, J-A-N-U-S, that ancient mass that looked two ways at the same time. It's looking up to what just came about how to charge a pastor and it's looking down to what comes.

In this presence, in this company, God, Jesus, and the angels, we go to the end where he says, the sins of some are conspicuous going before them to judgment. The sins of others appear later so good works are conspicuous and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.

Now you notice if you're reading along with me that I left out verse 23 that parenthetical and that's caused no end of controversy and we're not going to talk about wine and water and what first century wine really was and how's it compared to wine today and all that alcoholic content and all that stuff.

I just want to talk for a moment what's verse 23 doing there. Of all my reading of the Pauline texts, I think verse 23 of 1 Timothy 5 is the one true non-sequitur of all of it. Of the whole corpus of Paul's writing.

Here's the non-sequitur. All of a sudden in verse 23 Timothy gets a little health advice. So what is happening here? Why is that there? My theory and this is sheer speculation but I can't figure out what it is in there for how it's working through Paul's argument.

I think it's something like this. I'm guessing that his dear physician Luke was there. And as Paul was writing this or dictating it to the grammatus to the secretary Luke came and kind of gave him an elbow and said hey Paul don't forget to tell Timothy what I told you.

Remember I'm a doctor. I told you how to take care of his stomach. And Paul said something like yes Luke we'll get to that but I've got to talk about this business of disappointing pastors. And so Luke's looking over and he says well you're almost done with chapter 5 there Paul and you haven't said anything yet.

He says yes but I'm talking about Jesus Christ and God and the angels being there. Give me a second Luke. And so Luke goes and gets a cup of coffee and he relaxes and he comes back and says Paul you're almost done.

Come on. Okay. Paren. Timothy. Take care of your stomach. Now I'm having a little reverential fun with that. But I with all the other commentators can't quite figure out how that works into the argument and honestly it doesn't.

It really seems to me like Paul put that in there because of his love for Timothy and because he didn't want to forget it. I think Luke might have been there as a physician reminding him I do know with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength that the Holy Spirit of God inspired it to be there.

How it follows his argument I think my guess is as good as any but it does belong there. It was a little reverential fun. I wasn't making fun of it at all. The last three verses commend patience. Do not be hasty in laying on of hands nor take part in the sins of others.

Keep yourself pure. Now it makes sense that God and Jesus and the angels are looking in again with verse 23 explained the way I did. It's serious. It's severe. The church needs to hear this. When we too quickly raise a man up if we have given into being respecters of persons if a man should come and enthrall us with his looks with his eloquence if he comes with a resume of churches that are bursting at the seams as anxious itching ears are piling in if we raise up a man we have not tested and examined and gotten to know them before God and Jesus and the elect angels what does Paul say?

We are partakers in their sin. Once that sin is revealed if we have too quickly and carelessly ordained him we are partakers we have shared. It's that serious. The value of patience simply verse 24 the sins of some are conspicuous they go before them to judgment others appear later so also good works are conspicuous and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.

Take your time. Be careful. This is a serious undertaking to raise up a pastor. If the church can they owe him double honor of support. They owe him extra care in watching out for his reputation. They owe him that extra measure of respect in all ways.

Take your time. Let's be sure we know who the man is. Numbers 32 23 says your sin will find you out and Paul adds to that so will your good works and so let's know a man well enough before he's raised to this position that we know his good works are really good works that they're something he consistently does because he loves the Lord Jesus Christ and let us get to know him not in a sanctimonious way not spying on him and to know if there are sins to be found out.

Sins he needs to recognize sins he needs to repent sins for which he needs restoration. The scriptures insist that we know a man well enough that we before God and Jesus and the angels can say yes we know his works.

Does it mean perfection? Of course not. So many churches have run into such trauma over this where they have taken all right measures and taken all right precautions and with the safety of many counselors and raised up a man and made mistakes it turns out later but not conscious mistakes not mistakes because they didn't obey God's word not mistakes because they got too anxious.

So we don't talk here about an iron clad guarantee or anything of the sort we talk simply about understanding the importance of the position and the need for circumspection and patience and prayer and faith.

We need to be able to say before God our Father who chose us and his son Jesus Christ to gain the redemption that he wanted on the cross and Christ Jesus our Lord who loved the church and gave himself up for her we have done with due diligence and deliberation by prayer and supplication applying wisdom and grace to our study of your holy word we have arrived at this man to rule well over us.

Dignity, Selection, and the Church’s Care for Its Leaders

So that's first Timothy 5 17 to 25 and especially the treatment of your pastor. After having spoken about the widows and those who were true widows and all those things that we worked our way through and what is coming is those who are under the yoke as bond servants slaves and some some other translations talking about the way we treat one another and I think Paul's overarching allusion is back to Leviticus 19 and so all things to be done decently all things to be done orderly all things to be done in a way that maintains the dignity of fellow image bearers.

Amen? Well let's prepare ourselves for the table.