God's House Rules #7 - Gospel Order in God's House #2: Fundamentals of Leadership (1 Tim 3:1-7)

1 Timothy 3, 1 -7.

Brothers and sisters, these are God's words to us this morning.

This saying is trustworthy.

If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work.

An overseer, therefore, must be above reproach, a husband of one wife, self -controlled,

sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not an excessive drinker,

not a bully, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not greedy.

He must manage his own household competently and have his children under control with all dignity.

If anyone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of God's church?

He must not be a new convert, or he might become conceited and incur the same condemnation as the devil.

Furthermore, he must have a good reputation among outsiders so that he does not fall into

disgrace and the devil's trap.

These are God's words to us, and I pray that he would bless our reading of them and our understanding of them as we come to them.

Allow me to pray, ask for God's help, and we will dig into his word for this morning.

Well, Heavenly Father, we ask that as we come to your word this morning, and that as we come to this section of your word that is

so critical and so pivotal, I ask that you especially help us.

May your Spirit be at work, both in the one who speaks and in your people who hear.

May we see not just the necessity of what we see in this passage,

but may we see the glory of it, the goodness of it.

Open our eyes that we would see wonderful things out of your law, even on a topic that we may be tempted to think doesn't apply to us.

Father, normally we pray for one of our local area churches, but this morning I pray for all the churches in our valley.

Christmas is coming up.

Churches will no doubt be having various things going on.

I pray that you would use all of the various outreaches that are happening to draw men and women, boys and

girls to yourself.

May your gospel go forth with clarity, with power, and may your Spirit be pleased

to use the ministry of your word to bring people to the Savior.

Be with us once again as we come before your word.

I ask in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen.

Please be seated.

I usually have some kind of attention -grabbing introduction each week as I come to the preaching

of the word.

That's how I was trained to preach, and so I don't think I'm more intelligent than people who trained me.

So I do that every week, but I'll be honest.

As I came to this passage and as I studied this this weekend, I put pen to paper and I started to write.

I did have an introduction.

I'll use it for another sermon.

That's the beauty of sermons.

They're kind of like Build -A -Bear a little bit.

So I will use it for another sermon, but as I looked over this material and I began to think about

it again, I'll be honest.

The weight of what we're going to study hits me pretty hard this week.

So for a moment, I'm going to break the rule of a lifetime, and I'm actually just going to speak from my heart for a moment.

The next four weeks are a massive part of why some of you I know have been like, we were going to do Luke.

What happened?

Well, what had happened was I make a habit

of reading 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus once a quarter.

That's something I've done.

My pastor gave me that recommendation years ago, and I've not veered from it.

And so about six months ago, I started reading through this letter.

And for some reason, not only the Spirit of God knows, what was said in this letter,

especially 1 Timothy, really hit home for me.

And so much so that by the time that I had gotten done, actually, I didn't make it through all three letters like I normally do.

I just read 1 Timothy over and over and over again.

And by the time that I was done, I said, yeah, Luke would be great, and we will

get to it.

This feels more urgent.

And a part of why I basically blew up my preaching calendar and

had to start over in the middle of the year relates to my own personal ministry story over the last few years.

I moved to this valley in 2017.

I left London, across the pond, left a thriving, wonderful church, was

engaged in great ministry there, moved here in 2017.

For the first two years, my wife and I served at a local church here in this valley.

Don't need to name it because it's not really relevant.

But we were there for about two years, the first two years of our marriage, until the Lord saw fit to move us along.

There was some stuff that, again, maybe not for messages being live -streamed, you can come talk to me in private.

I'll be happy to tell you that story.

In 2019, we became part of, you're technically supposed to say the core group, but we didn't know what we were doing when we

planted this church, if we're really honest.

And so in 2019, we became part of the core group, if you want to call it that, of what later became Redeemer.

There's a long story there, again, grab me for lunch sometime, I can tell you that long story.

But this year, 2024, that just passed, actually the first Sunday of June, marked

five years since Redeemer, what became Redeemer Bible Fellowship, began.

Our first service was about that direction, Central Point Library, in a

tiny meeting room, because there's only like eight of us.

Five years since RBF began, and about seven since I got to this valley.

And in that time, whether you pick the seven or the five, I've interacted with a lot of believers in our

valley.

And when you talk to believers, obviously one of the questions you're often asked, especially when they're not in the church you go to is, oh, what church do you go to?

And they'll tell you.

And then when you ask, okay, well, great, how's that going?

Well, people will talk about, more often than not, the leadership at the church they're at.

And I began to notice something that, I remember I told my wife at the time, it began to bother me.

The thing that began to bother me that I kept noticing was, people would often talk about their pastors and they would complain

about their pastors, which is nothing new.

People complain about leadership because that's what leaders are there for.

But what I noticed was the complaints that they had, had nothing

to do with what the Bible says a leader is.

In fact, the passage that we're going to look at this morning, in fact, actually for the next four weeks,

this passage almost never came up.

Okay, let's just notice that.

But then I would hear what they were complaining about, what they were judging their pastors for.

And it was even more concerning to me because it wasn't just this passage is not coming up.

Do I think you have to quote the reference every time?

No, but the general theme should be in your mind.

The general themes weren't though.

What I began to realize was, some of you maybe have experienced this if you've worked

before, had to apply for jobs.

You ever apply for a job and the job description is not clear?

Yeah, like, I don't know if you've ever had that happen to you.

You're applying for a job and the job description is not clear.

I began to realize that for lots of Christians in our valley, and I speak to our valley because I live here.

I can't deal with the world.

I deal with the world around me.

I began to notice that for lots of Christians in our valley, they were judging pastors and Christian leaders by everything except

the job description.

And then what usually I started, I started to notice this and I would ask people and say, yeah, it's kind of a thing around here.

Well, the pastor doesn't do the things I think he should do.

Nevermind.

Okay.

I don't know what God's job description for him is.

That's what you start to see this habit.

Some of you who've been in the valley long enough know that this is a thing.

People just bounce from church to church every couple of years, but they're not happy where they're at, or I need to change, or I need something else.

And sometimes part of that is, I mean, there's a legitimate reason maybe you need to move churches.

That's fine.

But sometimes it's just, I don't like the leadership there.

And the leadership doesn't do the things I think they should do.

Are they Bible things?

Well, no, but what ends up happening is that

people start looking for leaders who, they do the things that people think

a Christian leader should do.

Not the things that this book says they should do.

If I can really boil down what I'm trying to say, in one word, there's a lot of confusion out there

about what a church leader is and what a church leader does.

And in fact, that confusion exists among people at times that it really shouldn't.

I put it to you that there are some leaders who are confused about what a church leader is and what a

church leader does.

Now, I had to learn a long time ago, I am not responsible for everyone everywhere.

I have a little bit of that problem.

I think it's my brother, my brother, Joshua.

He sometimes says, Kofi, you have a Superman complex sometimes.

And what he means by that is I have this tendency where I think I can solve problems everywhere.

And I've had to learn I'm not responsible for problems everywhere.

I'm not responsible for everybody everywhere, but I am responsible for this house.

And the confusion that I think exists out there, I don't want to exist here.

And here's the thing, that confusion might be real, but it is not inevitable.

You know what I mean when I say that?

Just because people are confused on this subject doesn't mean we have to be confused.

Because God in his goodness gave us a book.

And in the book that he gave us, he tells us about this thing that we've been talking about for the last

seven weeks called God's house, his church.

And part of what he tells us in this book is who are the people who should exercise

leadership in his house?

And this text, 1 Timothy 3, 1 through 7, answers that question for us.

Who are called?

Actually, I'm going to skip that word called, I'll come back to that later.

Who qualifies to be a leader in God's

church?

The reality is if Redeemer is going to be the most healthy church it could be, it is critical for us

to understand what faithful leadership looks like.

I'm sorry, I understand that we have all been told that our opinions matter.

Your opinion really doesn't matter.

I apologize if I sound blunt and really short this morning, that's not my intention.

But the reality is, I think on this issue, God has been clear enough that really there's only two things that

you can ground any lack of clarity on.

Either it's willful ignorance, I deliberately don't care,

or it's laziness.

I just don't know what God's word says and I haven't done the work to find out.

I want neither of those to be the case.

Like I said, I can't fix everywhere else.

I can't even fix here if I'm honest, that's the spirit of God's job.

But what I can do is open up this word and allow this word to

speak to all of us about what qualifies a man for spiritual leadership

in God's house.

Those of you who were here last week when we looked at 1 Timothy 2, 8 through 15, I said that God's house has a definite order

and that it's in following that order, in keeping to that order, that's the only way in which

the house flourishes.

And a very key part of that flourishing that God desires for

every local expression of his house is understanding the leadership that

God has put in place over his house.

And Paul would agree.

Look with me at verse 1.

1 Timothy 3 verse 1, Paul says, this saying is trustworthy.

If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work.

In our study, you remember I've pointed out to us that when you see that phrase, this saying is trustworthy, or this is a trustworthy

saying, you should let your ears perk up.

You should lean in.

Because what Paul is doing is he's taking a statement that the early Christians would have used.

And he's reminding them of that statement to make a point.

Whenever you see this phrase in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus, this phrase, this is a trustworthy saying, this is something that

every Christian, or at least the majority of Christians in the world of the New Testament would have known to be true.

Now we'll come back to the second half of that statement, of that verse in just a moment.

But let me just point out something real, to point out something here real quick.

Remember what we've said about this letter that yes, Paul writes to Timothy, but he's essentially expecting the church to

eavesdrop on this, if that's the case.

And I put it to you that the qualifications for leadership, they aren't just something that only leaders should care about.

Apparently the early church thought so because they had a statement that

talked about the goodness of the work of oversight.

The early church knew the importance of faithful leadership and knew it well enough that they could even have sort of

confessional statements that talked about this.

In fact, I go so far as to say that they thought leadership was critical.

And I think we should think leadership is critical because I put it to you that the fact that God devotes a lot of space in His Word

to the subject of who should be a spiritual leader, that tells us that this is critical.

And so I'm going to break a habit of mine.

As you all know, I like to generally work through paragraphs in letters.

Some of my friends like to do real deep dives and do like single verses, more power to them.

I don't have that kind of gifting, but I am going to do that for this series.

We are going to slow it down to a crawl.

We're going to be in 1 Timothy 3, 1 -7 for four weeks.

Why?

Because by the time we're done, I don't want there to be any confusion about

what qualifies a man as a faithful minister and what qualifies a man as an unfaithful

minister.

And so we come to 1 Timothy 3 verses 1 -7 this morning.

Now, 1 Timothy 3 doesn't tell us everything about Christian leadership.

Actually, no one text does.

So for a few moments before, I'm going to take a while before we get to 1 Timothy 3, because what I want

to do for a few moments is I want to paint for you the big picture of Christian leadership.

I want to take a quick trip through the New Testament and to paint a picture of what Christian leadership looks like in

general, and then we'll come and see how 1 Timothy 3 fits into that.

There are a number of ways we could do this.

What I'm going to do is I'm going to use the major words in the New Testament for Christian leaders.

As you all know, I generally don't use Greek in sermons, and I'm not going to make an exception today.

I'm just going to describe the words to you, and we'll look at some places where they appear, and we'll learn what they

are.

Each of these words teach us about the nature of Christian leadership.

So I've got four things I want you to notice about Christian leadership as you read the New Testament, and each of them come from

the words that are used for a leader in the New Testament.

First of all, Christian leaders are men of spiritual maturity.

Christian leaders are men of spiritual maturity.

So when you read the New Testament, the predominant word used for a Christian leader

is not pastor.

Actually, the word that's used 60 times in your New Testament, the majority of them referring to the

church and its leaders is the word elder.

So Acts chapter 14, Paul starts to double back on some of these churches that he had

planted, and it says that in Acts chapter 14 verse 23, that as they visit these various churches, they're

strengthening disciples, they're helping them in their faith.

Verse 23, when they had appointed elders for them in every church and prayed with

fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

Acts chapter 15, a doctrinal issue rises among the churches, and so a council essentially is called

by the believers in the church at Jerusalem.

It's interesting, Acts chapter 15 verse 4 says, when they arrived at Jerusalem, this is Paul and Barnabas,

when they arrived at Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles, and the elders.

So between Acts chapter 1, where you had just the apostles, and Acts chapter 15, you now have the development of this

office we call the elder.

Verse 6 of Acts chapter 15, again it says that the apostles and the elders gathered

to consider this matter, this issue of what do we do with the Gentiles who've come to faith, they need to keep the law.

It's not just the apostles now who are making these decisions, there's now a group called the elders.

It becomes apparent that the apostles began to consider themselves as part of this group of people called the

eldership.

So you read 1 Peter chapter 5, Peter says, I exhort the elders among you as a

fellow elder and witness to the sufferings of Christ

over and over and over again.

And by the way, did you notice that every time elders mentioned in the plural, I

have to say this in passing, God's design for the church was never for the church to be led by one singular person.

The biblical model is a plurality of elders.

Now you may have one person who is the first among those elders, first among equals, so you even see that among

the disciples.

Who's the main guy among the disciples when you read the gospel?

It's the big mouth guy, his name's Peter.

In fact, when the disciples are listening, Matthew chapter 10 explicitly says Peter is the first.

So it's not that you don't have maybe a primary person or a lead person, but you don't have an exclusive

person.

God's design is for the church to be led by a plurality of elders.

And it's kind of interesting, like I said, for most people, if you see a leader in a church, the first word they go to is pastor.

It's never elder.

It's interesting though, one of the books I read this week, John McArthur's Commentary on Ephesians, he said this, that in general

usage, it may be that elder is a more appropriate term for our day since it is free from

many of the unbiblical connotations imposed on the word bishop, we'll come to that word later, and even pastor

throughout much of church history.

Unbiblical connotations, whatever could he mean?

I'm gonna just let that sit there, we'll revisit that in our study for sure.

For our purposes though, leaders are those that this word elder, it carries this idea of spiritual

maturity.

The word itself comes from the root for a word for an old man.

In fact, there are still some ways in which this word is used in that sense today.

So the pastor who discipled and in my opinion, trained me for the ministry, Dr. Tom

Dreon.

Years ago, Tom got diagnosed with an eye condition called presbyopia.

Presbyopia.

He started having trouble with his vision, with things up close, and the reason the term gets his name is

it's a condition for folks who are getting older.

That's the name.

Presby part refers to an old man, an opiate to do with the eyes.

Now, the fact that the word that's used for elder means an old man, that doesn't mean he has to be a certain age, that's not

really the issue.

In fact, we'll see later in chapter 4, Timothy's not all that old himself.

No, the idea is not that he's older in age, it's spiritually speaking, that he is

mature.

And that maturity is important because elders have an important role in the Bible.

The role that the elder has is that he sets an example to the flock.

So Paul could say, Philippians chapter 3 verse 17, join in imitating me, brothers and sisters,

and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you

have in us.

We'll see this in a few weeks in 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 12.

Paul says, don't let anyone despise your youth, but set an example for the believers in speech, in

conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.

Hebrews 13 7, we'll come back to this verse later, but Hebrews 13 7, remember your leaders who have spoken

God's word to you, as you carefully observe the outcome of their faith, imitate

their lives.

Elders are to be men of spiritual maturity.

Why?

Because they are meant to set an example, an imperfect example to be fair, but an example nonetheless

for God's people to imitate.

So Christian leaders are men of spiritual maturity.

Number two, Christian leaders oversee the work of the ministry.

Christian leaders oversee the work of the ministry.

The second term the New Testament uses for a leader is the one that actually appears in our passage.

So again, look at verse 1, if anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a

noble work.

Overseer is not a word that we use all too often in our culture, so let me swap it for another word which actually is exactly the same thing,

supervisor.

Actually, that's the Latin form of this word, to look over, to oversee.

So we go to 1 Peter 5 1, 1 Peter 5 2 says, to shepherd God's flock among you, not

overseeing out of compulsion, but willingly.

Christian leaders oversee the work of the ministry.

Now, Christian leaders are not the only people in the ministry.

Ephesians 4 makes that very clear.

God gives leaders to the church to equip the saints for the work of the ministry,

but they are not the only ones in the ministry.

They have a role of overseeing the work of the ministry.

They have a responsibility for the direction and the deployment of resources in that

work.

Not only do they have that in relation to their work, but the Bible makes it very clear, Hebrews 13 17,

that they keep watch, just not over the work, but over the souls of God's people.

So it's not just a faithful minister comes and does the functions of ministry.

Yes, he does do the functions of ministry, but he also looks over the souls of the people

committed to him.

So Christian leaders are men of spiritual maturity.

They oversee the work of the ministry.

Thirdly, Christian leaders shepherd God's people.

Christian leaders shepherd God's people.

This is the word that most of us think of when we think of a leader, a pastor,

a shepherd.

I'll be honest.

I'm not sure why we've latched onto this term pastor as the label we give to Christian leaders more than any other one.

The reason I say that is, do you know how many times pastors are referred to in the New Testament?

One time.

Ephesians 4 11.

He himself, the ascended Christ, gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and

teachers.

In fact, anyone have an ESV in the room?

English Standard Version.

I'm not sure if the newer version went in line with everyone else, but I remember when I used to use the ESV, the early edition of the ESV

used to say the shepherds and teachers,

because that's the actual word.

Pastor is just the Latin form of the word shepherd, but it's by far not the

most frequent title.

That's why it's number three on my list.

It's the most frequent title.

It's the title of an elder.

If I put it to you that the title is not really the point, you see, the title might not be the most frequent,

but the function.

Ah, now that appears a bunch in the Bible.

So John chapter 21, Jesus is with Peter post his resurrection.

He's restoring Peter after Peter's failure in faith.

John chapter 21 verse 16.

A second time he, Jesus, asked him, Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Yes, Lord, he said to him, you know that I love you.

Shepherd my sheep, he told him.

In Acts chapter 20, Paul gathers the elders again in the plural of the church at Ephesus.

And when he gathers them, he gives them this exhortation.

Acts chapter 20 verse 28.

Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, which

the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers to

shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.

While I may have questions about why we use this title of pastor all the time, I do think that we cannot ignore the

function of a pastor, the function of a shepherd, that he is to shepherd God's

people, which is to feed and to care.

In fact, actually, there are four things we can say about shepherding from the New Testament, which is going

to be good for us to define because I've heard people who say, oh, this pastor is not a shepherd.

Well, what does that actually mean?

Well, here's the thing.

God has not left us in the dark.

We can actually go to his word and see what that means.

Shepherding means four things in the Bible.

First of all, it means knowing the sheep.

Shepherding is knowing the sheep, having knowledge of and awareness of the needs of the sheep.

Shepherding involves knowing the sheep, which, by the way, that's another argument for church membership because

if you don't know who the sheep are that you're called to watch over, that can get a little problematic.

Shepherds know the sheep.

They feed the sheep.

It's not enough for shepherds to just know the people and know their needs.

No, they must meet those needs.

But what has God given the shepherd to meet the needs of his people?

He's given his word.

And so, shepherds know the sheep.

They feed the sheep.

They minister to the needs of the sheep through the ministry of the word.

And the ministry of the word is not just preaching.

It's a variety of ways in which the word of God is brought to bear on the life of God's people.

So, they know the sheep.

They feed the sheep.

They leave the sheep.

We'll talk more about this in just a second.

They exercise authority for the good of the flock.

So, shepherds know the sheep.

They feed the sheep.

They leave the sheep.

And they protect the sheep.

The reality is the sheep are not without potential threats and dangers to their health.

And so, God in his goodness puts men in place who are able to protect the sheep from potential threats

and dangers.

I think it's especially important for us to define this term properly because in my experience,

again, it's just my experience.

Some of you maybe have had better experiences.

I've been thankful for.

But in my experience, Christians treat this term the way that Africans treat ice cream

containers.

Some of you are like, wait, what?

Let me bring you into the home I grew up in for a moment.

Let's leave the Rove Valley.

Let me take you to East London in the 90s when I was growing up.

So, in our house, my mom's probably watching this.

Hi, mom.

A lot of cooking went on because my mom was a really good cook.

And still is.

Yeah, she still is.

I mean, I say that because I don't eat her food as often these days.

But when we were growing up, yeah, absolutely.

She could cook.

And obviously, like, there were six of us growing up.

Mom, dad, and I have three siblings.

There were six of us.

Which meant a lot of cooking happened.

And that doesn't mean that obviously all of us eat different amounts.

So, there'd often be leftovers.

Now, what we would often do to store food for later was we didn't do Tupperware

because Tupperware was expensive.

So, what would you do?

Well, you buy, like, back in the day when we weren't all so hung up on the environment, all the ice cream came in plastic containers.

So, what did you do after you had finished ice cream?

Well, in our house, and it wasn't just our house, lots of African houses growing up did this.

You'd put leftover food in the container and put it in the fridge.

Okay.

So, apparently that happened here, too.

Okay.

But here was the funny thing about that.

Sometimes stuff would be in the freezer for a really long time and you'd forget.

So, along comes me, who has a sweet tooth and still does.

I go in the freezer.

Oh, it's ice cream.

And imagine just the trauma you feel when you open this container

expecting ice cream.

Oh, it's rice, which I like rice, actually.

So, I was like, I'll have some rice.

Okay.

But the reality, what happened in that moment?

The label on the front said, like, vanilla ice cream, which was always the one in our house.

But something else had been emptied out of its contents a long time ago and random stuff had been put in it.

Can I put it to you that sometimes we do this with this word, pastor?

That we just empty the word of its biblical meaning and we have substituted a cultural meaning.

And then when someone doesn't meet the cultural expectation, we say, he's a bad pastor.

He might be, but he might not be.

Shepherding is a great Bible theme.

And can I suggest that a great many Christians have done everything they can to ruin that Bible theme.

But it's a good Bible theme because Christian leaders shepherd God's people.

So, Christian leaders are men of spiritual maturity.

They oversee the work of the ministry.

They shepherd God's people.

Number four, Christian leaders exercise authority over God's people.

They exercise authority over God's people.

This might be where a lot of people really struggle.

You see, I told you there were different sets of New Testament words and we're just describing them.

There's a whole set.

There's actually two of them.

Two different words used in the New Testament for Christian leaders that carry the idea of not just leadership, but rule.

So, 1st Thessalonians 5 .12, Paul says, now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to give recognition to those who labor

among you and lead you.

My translation of CSB says, if you've got the English Standard

Version, it translates that are over you.

The recently released Legacy Standard Bible says, they have charge over you

in the Lord and admonish you.

1st Timothy 5 .17, the elders who are good leaders.

Not a great translation in my CSB.

The word there is literally rule well.

In fact, if you've got an ESV, they get top marks for this.

They translate that as, the elders who rule well are to be considered of double honor,

especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.

So, Hebrews 13 .17 says,

obey your leaders and submit to them.

That word leaders, different word, but same connotation.

It's the word for somebody who has rulership over a group.

Why are you laboring at this point?

Very simple.

Leaders have real authority.

At the risk of sounding somewhat condescending, and that's not my aim, but leaders actually lead

people, which means that people are meant to

follow them.

My pastor used to say all the time, it's funny when somebody says they're a leader, the first question he would ask is, well, who's following you?

Now, people hear that and they can say, whoa, whoa, whoa.

I don't know if I like that.

Well, for a moment, let's allow the whole Bible to speak.

Let's be clear.

Only Jesus has absolute authority over the church.

So, Ephesians 1 .22, the Bible says that God appointed him head over everything for the church.

Colossians 1 .18, he is the head of the body, the church.

So, yes, pastors have authority, but they don't have absolute authority.

There is only one man who has absolute authority over his church, and his name is Jesus.

But the one man who is the head of the church delegates authority to qualified men in the church.

So, remember we quoted Ephesians 4 .11 a few minutes ago?

He himself gave some pastors and teachers

whatever authority a spiritual leader has, it's a given authority.

But let's be clear, just because it's given doesn't mean it's not real authority.

It's still real authority, which is to be wielded carefully and obeyed and submitted to

in as much as it conforms to the Word of God.

Now, I've taken us on this trip through the New Testament because these various words, the elder, the shepherd

pastor, the overseer, the ruler, they're all speaking to the same

person and the same work.

It's just different aspects of that person and different aspects of that work.

Now, for the purposes of our study for the next four weeks, I'm going to keep using the word that Paul uses here, which is the

word overseer.

But in your minds, when you hear me say overseer, that's the same thing as a pastor, which is the same thing as an elder, which is the same thing as a

ruler.

If that's what Christian leaders do, these four things

that we've looked at, that they're men of spiritual maturity, which means they also set an example,

that they are not just men of spiritual maturity, but they also oversee the work of the

ministry.

And if they are also men who shepherd God's flock and they are men who exercise authority over God's people, if

that's what they do, how do we know when somebody should be a leader and somebody should not?

Do we just, I want to be really careful here, but do we do what some

churches do?

You've been here a while, people like you, or

I've seen this in some churches, including churches I grew up in, this person, oh, this person's in the business world.

He's got leadership experience, he'd be great here.

Is that what we do?

Do we just fill up a quota with men who, you know, they're available and they've got a pulse and

people might just listen to them?

Oh no, actually, that's why we're going to be in first Timothy three for the next four weeks.

Now, let me just say, before we finally get to our passage this morning, these are not going to be like my typical sermons.

You know, typically I have a big idea, you know, kind of flesh out that big idea with various points.

I'm not really going to do that for the next few weeks.

We're just going to kind of just have some Bible study together, march our way through each of these qualifications.

This morning we'll feel more like a typical sermon, the remaining three definitely won't.

We're just going to take these in order, mostly, I'll explain why one of the weeks.

I'm just going to look at what these qualifications are and just trace them through the Bible.

And my hope is that as we do that, whatever cultural frame we've developed, I hope that we will quite frankly smash it

and replace it with a biblical frame.

Well, let's begin the process.

This morning, we're going to lay a foundation for our study by just looking at verse one and the first part of verse two.

For the rest of our time, I want to consider two fundamental qualifications that's going to frame our study of this passage

so that we can identify faithful leaders in God's house.

If we're going to identify the kinds of leaders who should be leading in God's house, I think there are two fundamental

qualifications we need to consider, and Paul gives them to us in verse one and the beginning of verse two.

First of all, I want us to consider point number one, what I call the forgotten qualification.

The forgotten qualification, desire for the work.

I call this the forgotten qualification because I think that we can often make assumptions about how a man

even thinks about entering into this work that might need some questioning.

So look at verse one.

This saying is trustworthy.

Here's the saying, if anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a

noble work.

Paul says that Christian ministry is something to be aspired to and to be desired.

Let me just pause for a moment.

I don't know if some of you have heard this kind of teaching.

I unfortunately very recently have sat under people who held this view that if

a man wants to be in ministry, you shouldn't be in ministry.

That God has to basically break you before you can even think about wanting to be in ministry.

So if you want to be in ministry, that's bad.

That's sinful ambition.

Now, before I unload on that bad idea, let's be clear.

Are there bad reasons for desiring the work of ministry?

Of course there are.

So for some people, it runs in the family.

So I am a second generation pastor.

My dad is a pastor, still is.

Growing up in the church I grew up in, it was a very, forget unspoken, it was a very spoken expectation

that pastor's oldest son is going to be a pastor.

Nevermind, I didn't want to be a baby pastor growing up.

Because my dad was a pastor, I'm his oldest, and I was involved in mostly tech things at church.

So I was very visibly involved.

Baby pastor.

So for some people, it's that thing of, oh, it runs in the family.

Let's not pretend that there aren't some folks, another bad reason.

There are some folks who just think, you know what, I should be in charge.

I have a theory.

It's maybe not the most scientific theory, but I have a theory.

If somebody likes being in charge, they probably shouldn't be in charge.

Now Kofi, hold on, you just said that, didn't we just read that you should aspire to be an overseer?

There's a difference, I would argue, between, you know what Paul says, if anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work.

There's a difference between I aspire to the work of the ministry, and I aspire to the perks that come with that work.

I like being able to tell people what to do when they listen.

Well, that's not a good reason.

And again, I talked about low expectations.

You know, you find a guy in the church, I think I played a video clip this summer with an example of this.

You find a guy in the church, he likes his Bible.

He's a really nice guy.

He's been around a while.

He's involved.

Oh, he'd make a great pastor.

Might I suggest that liking your Bible, being nice, and being involved in your church is just normal Christianity that doesn't necessarily qualify you to be a

pastor?

No, I put it to you that Paul gives us a little bit more to work with here.

With these two words he uses, aspire and desire.

Think of them as two sides of the same coin.

I want to take for a moment, just do a little bit of a deep dive on those two words.

Firstly, the term aspire.

This term was interesting when it carried this idea of reaching for something, stretching out for something

with your hand.

It eventually came to mean the idea of seeking to accomplish some kind of goal.

And actually, this word appears a few places in the Bible.

I'll just highlight two of them.

One positive, one negative.

So a negative, 1 Timothy 6 .10, we'll get to that in a few weeks, Lord willing.

1 Timothy 6 .10, Paul says, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

And by craving it, the word for craving, same word for aspire.

And by craving it, some have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many grief.

They were reaching out, they were straining out for illicit money.

And Paul says, as a result, they've wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Hebrew chapter 11, verse 16, here's the positive use.

The author to the Hebrews is talking about these people who had faithfully served the Lord in a variety of ways.

Hebrews 11, 16 says, but they now desire, same word, but they now

desire a better place, a heaven.

They are now reaching out, they are straining towards a

better place.

I would argue he's talking about the resurrection, the fact that right now they are in heaven, they are in the presence of the Lord, and yet they've not experienced the

resurrection yet.

That they are waiting for that day when the resurrection happens and we enter into a new creation.

That they are reaching out, they are straining out, stretching out for that goal.

And the author says they do this for God has prepared a city for them.

This word, if we understand what this word is saying, it's more than just, oh, that would be nice.

No, it speaks to a desire that leads to action.

Essentially, that, catch this, the person who wants to be a spiritual leader is making

careful moves towards that goal.

That he's striving for the work and he's making effort towards it.

The Paul says that if anyone aspires to be an overseer, and again, he's not saying this is a negative.

This is why this idea that, you know, if somebody wants to be in ministry, no, we've got to humble that because that's a bad thing.

No, it's a good thing.

Now, he may not be qualified, but that's what qualifications and testing are for.

But we should not quench that desire, we should seek to, if the motivations are right, we should seek to encourage that

desire.

But Paul doesn't just say that they should aspire to it, does he?

He says, if anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work.

This second word is different from the first.

The first one is about outward effort.

This second word is more about the internal passion.

Actually, this is the word in the Bible that's often translated as lust.

Same word.

Again, context determines how you translate things.

Really, the word itself is, in its neutral sense, it's just a strong desire for something.

So not only is the man who would want to do this work of oversight, not only does he,

is he making efforts towards this, but those efforts are fueled by an internal strong

desire for the work.

And again, note how Paul describes this work.

He says that it's a noble work.

You've seen that word already in this letter, actually, where he talks about fighting the good

fight.

It's a praiseworthy work.

It's a work to be celebrated.

But that does raise some questions.

It raises some questions.

And again, for a lot of these I'm going to be speaking very, very pointedly to the context in which we find ourselves here in

Southern Oregon.

Here's a question that I often have.

If oversight is good work, I mean, is it?

Paul says oversight is good work.

And he says it's something that's to be reached for and to be desired strongly.

Here's my question.

Why is it in so many churches nowadays, you can't find men who are aspiring to this work?

I talk to pastors a lot, both in this valley and outside.

They all note that finding men to even consider ministry is a challenge.

Some of you have heard me quote this article before.

If you want a copy, I'll send it to you.

Christianity Today last, no, two years ago published an article saying that by 2030, that's January 1st

is fast approaching.

That'll be five years.

So in five years, one in four pastors will retire.

And of that one in four who's going to retire, 77 % of those pastors can't find men to replace them.

Why can't we find men who embody this?

Can I share with you my theory?

I'm not a big conspiracy theorist, but I do have one.

I personally think the language that we use as evangelicals fights us more than it helps us in this regard.

Kofi, what are you talking about?

Okay.

How many of you have heard somebody say, or say about somebody else, that person is called to the ministry.

So -and -so, or they're called to ministry, or I feel a calling to the ministry, or

let's flip it in the negative.

I don't feel called to the ministry.

Here's my problem.

And this, it began to bug me a few years ago and I started to look into this.

And finally I realized I'm not the only person who's noticed this problem.

You know, the problem with that language, the Bible nowhere uses that language

for this work.

Allow me to kick a sacred cow and make hamburgers with it for a moment.

So you read the Old Testament, prophets and priests and kings are called.

Israel as a nation is called.

And Isaiah, the servants of the Lord, the servants of Yahweh, he is called.

The apostles were called by Christ, but you know where you never see that language used?

Pastors, elders, overseers.

Language is never used for them.

In fact, when you read the New Testament and in relation to the church, calling only means one of two things.

There's the call to salvation.

So 2nd Timothy 1 .9 that Paul says about our God, that God has saved us

and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which

was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.

That's not a reference to ministry.

It's a reference to salvation.

There's the call to salvation.

You know the other way word calling is used for the church, the call to holiness.

Galatians 5 .13, for you were called to be free, brothers and sisters.

All you don't use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.

Ephesians 4 .1, remember how that section begins?

I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received.

The calling he's talking about is not about salvation.

It's a calling to walk as the people of God.

One more passage, 1st Thessalonians 4 .7, God has not called us to impurity, but to live

in holiness.

There are two calls in the New Testament, the call to salvation and the call to holiness.

Now, some of you who are good Bible students say, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, Kofi.

Isn't there somewhere in the book of Acts, it's chapter 13,

Acts 13 .2, as they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart to me Barnabas and Saul

for the work to which I have called them.

See, people being called for the ministry.

Well, two things about that.

First of all, if that's the case, all the people I hear use this language of calling, they don't refer to

that as the Holy Spirit directly speaking to people.

That's the first thing.

And second of all, Paul's an apostle.

He's being called to a specific assignment.

It's not a general nature, a general call to ministry.

Paul is an apostle and this is a unique work.

So I think my point still holds.

Nowhere in the Bible do we see this language of an ultimately subjective call to ministry.

But think about it.

When I said that a lot of you put your hand up or agreed, you've heard that language.

I want to ask, why do we use that language when the Bible does?

I'm going to have more to say about that as we conclude this series of studies in a few weeks, but let me just say this for now.

Paul doesn't say, did you notice in his passage, he doesn't say a word about calling.

He talks about aspiration and he talks about desire.

He simply knows that you should want this, you should be making efforts towards it, and then he lays out qualifications that

help us to know if somebody should be doing this.

Being an overseer is something that a man, under the guidance of the Spirit, to be fair, but a man

nonetheless should want.

It should not be forced upon them.

I call this the forgotten qualification because it's a critical one.

There has to be a God -given desire for the work.

And might I suggest that, quite frankly, in my opinion, a great many of our churches have done everything to squelch that

desire.

So we don't provide opportunities for men to serve, we don't provide opportunities for men to grow and learn.

Part of a healthy ministry, in my opinion, again, it's just my opinion, there's no chapter and verse, but in my opinion, healthy

churches replicate.

So if you don't see in a church where there are men who are interested in sitting, I think

sit under the ministry of the Word, hey, I want to do that.

You need to question the health of that ministry.

Again, that's just my opinion.

But I think if we were to take that a little more seriously, we might not

have the problem where we can't find men to serve because you're creating a culture where

even if a man maybe isn't qualified, at least he's willing to find out.

This is the forgotten qualification, but it's not the only qualification.

So this might be the forgotten qualification, but point number two, there's also a foundational qualification.

A foundational qualification, which is being above reproach.

So look at verse two.

Since the work of overseeing God's people is a good work that we should aspire to and desire, who we put in

that role is pretty important.

Here are the qualifications.

What's the first one that Paul puts on the list?

An overseer, therefore, must be above reproach.

An overseer must be above reproach.

Now, before we get to what it means, again, let me do a little bit of deconstruction.

This is what this word does not mean.

Number one, it doesn't mean perfection.

First of all, not only is it impossible to achieve perfection in this life, it's just not realistic.

But I say that because, can I put it to you that we can know that in our minds and yet in

practice, we don't practice it.

You all know I love the distinction between the law and the gospel.

The distinction between what God commands of us in his law and what God graciously gives us in Christ.

That distinction doesn't just apply to salvation and sanctification.

I think it applies to even how we approach ministry and how we assess one another in that.

I fear that so many Christians out of either fear or ease or whatever it is, I

think there are a number of reasons why this might be the case.

But there are a great many Christians who unfortunately take this phrase, being above

reproach, to mean he's meant to be perfect.

And then when they discover that the man standing in front of them puts his hands on one leg at a time,

they get mad and go find the next person who they think will be perfect.

And then when that person is not perfect, well, I'm going to go over here.

And so you're perpetually in this tailspin of trying to, you're in this holding pattern.

There's always like trying to find the next perfect person, which you can't find.

There's no perfection.

It also doesn't mean that he never sins.

Again, we may say we agree here, but just in case, leaders are human, which means humans will

sin.

Now let's be clear.

There are some sins of leaders that are egregious enough that when they sin, you should remove them.

Paul's actually going to give us that in chapter five.

So don't worry, we'll get there.

But can I put it to you that not everything is a egregious sin that requires removal?

There are some sins that, guess what, since he's a Christian just like you, the Bible says you're supposed to forgive your brother and sister,

leaders will screw up sometimes.

And sometimes they have to come and eat humble pie in front of everyone and say, hey, I messed up.

That doesn't mean he's not above reproach.

It also doesn't mean that you can't accuse him of stuff.

People can say all kinds of things.

There's a pastor I listen to.

He's actually from Scotland.

His name's John Monroe.

A few years ago, accusations were brought towards him.

I think he's retired now, but he was the pastor of Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Really great preacher.

If you can find his stuff, his radio program is called The Verdict because he was a lawyer before he became a preacher.

Great Bible teacher.

I enjoy his material a lot.

But years ago, he had an accusation that was brought towards him.

The accusation was later proven to be untrue.

But the reality was for some people in his church, in fact, there was a whole article, I think it was Christianity Today, where this was written.

The accusation being true or untrue didn't matter.

For some people in the church, the fact that he could ever be accused of that, I had to leave the church.

Now, the reality is people can say all kinds of things.

This country has a First Amendment that protects people's right to free speech.

People can say whatever they like, which means people will say things about leaders.

It's about as certain as death and taxes that if you're in leadership, people will accuse you of something at some point.

But people talking is not what Paul means here.

Okay, Kofi.

Okay, Kofi.

You've told us all the things it's not.

What does it mean?

Well, again, let's allow the Bible to define its own terms.

The word that's used here, it's kind of a complex word, actually.

It carries this idea of not being able to be held.

Here's the word picture, that here's this man, he's doing this work, but there's something that can be

said about him that holds him back from this work.

There's some flaw or some sin that needs to be addressed, and it's holding him

back from being able to do this work.

Paul says that whoever serves in leadership needs to not be that.

There should be nothing that can be said that holds him.

It's not that people can't say anything.

The way I heard this described years ago was helpful to me.

It's not that they can't say anything, but that whatever is said doesn't actually stick.

It can't be said to hold the person.

New Testament commentator William Hendrickson says, enemies may bring all manner of accusations, but these charges are proved to

be empty whenever fair methods of investigation are applied.

In the case of this pastor I mentioned, John Monroe, they investigated it thoroughly.

It was found to be completely baseless.

Again, in chapter 5, Paul will lay out how to bring accusations against church leadership, but here's the thing, the faithful

leader ought to live the kind of life that catches this you can't make accusations about in the first place.

Okay, I think we're getting there, but let's put this into a little more focus.

Notice that this is top of Paul's list of qualifications.

Here's something, try this to emphasize this week, think about this with me.

Can I put it to you that above reproach is the headline and every other thing he's going to mention here is an

expansion of what it is to be above reproach?

What does it mean to be above reproach?

I think real simple, it's being the kind of man that verse 2 through 7 is going to describe for us.

Yes, you can judge an overseer, you can judge somebody in leadership, but might I suggest,

first swing of the hammer against this cultural frame that we might have, might I suggest that the only

things you can judge him by are these things?

Which means stuff like, I don't like his personality.

That's where we learn to, Ephesians 4, bear with one another.

I don't like how intense he is.

I've heard that one directly actually.

Yeah, I am very intense and I don't apologize for it.

But again, is that a disqualified?

No.

And here's the thing, we may have,

we may all have subjective things that we would like in a pastor, which is fine.

But if they're not these things, I'm going to suggest that those are preferential things.

They're not grounds for him being unfaithful.

Let me put it another way, faithful oversight is, catch this, objective.

It's objective.

You can actually determine what it is and what it isn't.

Why?

Because God and his word are objective.

Overseers will never be perfect.

They'll have ample opportunity to repent for sin.

And those people will say all kinds of things, but the overseer, the pastor, the elder is to live

by a, catch this, a standard, a clear, definable,

measurable standard.

And if that is true, let's make a point of application.

I'm If there is an objective standard by which a leader can

be judged, that means we must be careful about the subjective

preference level things we might be tempted to judge a leader by.

And let's be honest, we're in church, you shouldn't tell lies.

We all have subjective things we judge leaders by.

I'll be honest, I don't like a leader who jokes too much.

I love my pastor back home.

This is one area where he and I would occasionally struggle.

He had a sense of humor that I didn't always appreciate.

And sometimes I told him, you know, PT, I don't think that was funny.

And he was, again, great man, very humble in lots of ways.

And he'd be like, you know what, brother, if that's how you genuinely feel, then I'm sorry.

And it was cool and we'd move on.

But is a pastor unfaithful if he has a different, why, I have a sense of humor.

I enjoy comedy like anyone else.

I just kind of wish you don't bring it into the pulpit unnecessarily.

But is a pastor unfaithful if his sense of humor is calibrated difference.

Of course not.

That's a preference.

And if he's faithful in the areas that count, then I have to say no to my flesh and how my flesh might feel about that and say

yes to what God's word says.

You see, an overseer is above reproach when he lives in the kind of way that we're going to see

in the next few weeks in verses two through seven.

This is the frame by which we judge.

If you want a checklist, I mean, we all have an internal checklist that we all like to run people through.

If you want a checklist, here's your checklist.

I'm pretty much done.

Let me leave you with just one thought and we'll come to the Lord's table.

I encourage you over the next few weeks, read this section.

We're going to be in it for the next, well, this is measure number one, one of four.

You've got three more opportunities to take time and read this section.

The things we're about to study over the next month are pretty serious and we should treat them seriously.

They are weighty and they are heavy and they are not to be treated lightly.

But in another sense, no leader will live this perfectly.

In fact, can I put it to you, there's only one person who lived this perfectly.

There's only one person who had perfect zeal for the Lord's work that we'll see

next time.

Obviously, he's supposed to be the husband of one wife and that doesn't necessarily mean that he's married.

It means that if he is married, his commitment is to the one woman that God has given him.

Jesus is the only perfect husband to his bride, the church.

He is supposed to be self -controlled.

Jesus was a model of self -control.

Look at all the times in the gospels when people rise up on him, as it were, and he never says a word.

An elder, an overseer, a pastor is supposed to be hospitable, welcoming to strangers.

Jesus was called the friend of sinners, especially those who were rejected by society.

An elder is supposed to be able to teach.

That's going to get a single message, all its own, on just that one.

But here's the thing, no teacher is a greater teacher as the Lord Jesus was.

He perfectly communicated the truth about God and an

overseer is not supposed to be ruled by his desires.

Jesus wasn't.

Can I put it to you that Jesus was not just a overseer over God's house, he is, as we've already said, the head of

God's house.

In fact, do you know what the Bible calls Jesus?

My last verse, 1 Peter 2 .25 says that, for you

were like sheep going astray but have now returned to the shepherd

and the overseer of your souls.

There's a title that became really popular in the 90s and I'm glad it's starting to pass off the scene.

You hear some people say, oh, he's the senior pastor of the church.

How dare you?

There's only one senior pastor of the church and his name is Jesus Christ.

He is the chief shepherd.

He is the overseer with a big O of the souls of God's people.

All human shepherds are but pale reflections of the great shepherd and the great

overseer.

So I want you, as we read these words over the next few weeks, ultimately, this is a picture not just

of a good leader, it's a picture of a Christ -like leader.

Let's pray.

Lord, these are weighty things.

These are things that we should not take for granted.

These are not things that we should assume we understand in full.

Even as we've studied this, there's still so much more that we could get into.

Father, we pray that as we begin this series of studies thinking about the kinds of men you would have

serving leadership, I pray for two things to happen.

Firstly, I pray that you would stir a desire for this work among some of the

men in this room.

Maybe a bold thing to say out loud, but Lord, while we may not say that there is a

subjective call to the ministry, there is the work of your spirit in stirring up a desire.

I pray that you would do that.

I pray for those who maybe don't have that desire, that they would at least be aware of what makes a faithful leader

a faithful leader.

May we all come away from this study, better following you and better following those you

have called to lead because of our time in this section.

Be with us now as we come before the Lord's table and we ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen.