1 Timothy 3:1-7 Seeing the Overseers

We are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsek preaches from his series, Blueprints for a Healthy Church, following the plan from the book of 1 Timothy.

Let's listen in.

Why Church Health Depends on Qualified Leadership

Well, welcome everybody. I'm Don Filsek. I'm the lead pastor here. And thanks for gathering together as God's people this morning. I am so grateful for the weekly cadence of the gathering together of God's people, which really, the gathering is the meaning of the word church.

We are in assembly and we need to assemble. That's part of the way that God has designed us. And so I'm really glad that you've taken advantage of that opportunity this week together with God's people.

There really is no such thing as doing church alone. And that is a complete misunderstanding of what church is. And although we had an attempt at that last year, that really doesn't function correctly.

And we experienced that. We are the local gathering or assembly of Jesus' people for the purpose of growing together in faith, growing in community, and growing in service. And the reality is, how many of you would just acknowledge that there's something about being able to see the corner of somebody's mouth that gives you a little bit better insight into what's going on in their lives?

Do you know what I mean? And how many of you know that it's a little bit easier to hide behind a mask? I mean, we'd say that figuratively, but I mean, literally over the last year, we've been hiding behind masks to a large degree.

And so there's something that's really good as we come out of this pandemic to be reminded that we need face-to-face contact. I mean, there's sometimes where the eyes and the corners of the mouth indicate that somebody needs a hug, right?

That they need some kind of connection. And so we've been missing that and really glad to be moving back in that direction. Throughout the book of 1 Timothy, which is where we're at, we find a book that is very concerned for the gathering together of God's people.

As Paul writes to Timothy, he's helping to guide him into setting things right there in the church of Ephesus, where there was a lot of brokenness. There's a lot of concern for orderliness and the organization of the gathering together of God's people throughout this book.

And just a word of comment about kind of announcements and kind of thinking through, how many of you are kind of like, some of you are new since the pandemic started and you don't even know that we're not doing things normal here.

How many of you would say, I didn't know this wasn't normal? Raise your hand if you're like, I didn't know this wasn't normal. Like I get up and I preach first and then we sing some songs afterwards. What we would normally do in over the past 10 to 15, 10 years really, is we would sing some songs at the start and we'd sing more songs than we've been singing recently.

And we wouldn't put that off until the end. And we would gather together and I'd give a little introduction to my message and we'd sing. We're going to be moving back towards that on July 18th. And so July 18th is when we're going to kind of be pulling back on the stops that we put in place for coronavirus mitigation and that kind of stuff.

And we're going to end up going back towards the way that we did things before, which will be the new thing for some of you. It'll be the old thing for others. And so that's kind of the direction that we're going.

And be ready for that July 18th. And there's going to be some announcements about that coming up in the next couple of weeks as well. But I could understand why you might be tempted as we look at the passage that we're looking at today in 1 Timothy.

While you might be tempted in your Bible reading through the year or something, this passage might not strike you like it does me, for example. At face value, it looks like a passage that only applies to leaders.

And as a matter of fact, 1 Timothy itself, I've heard it said that many pastors don't want to preach through 1 Timothy, primarily because many people assume that it's a book written to leaders about leadership.

And so it's kind of like used at pastors conferences a lot. And I can't tell you how many times I've been to a conference and 1 Timothy is the passage that's chosen because it's a gathering of pastors or something like that.

But let me ask you a few questions to clarify the importance of this message this morning. How many of you have heard recently, when I say recently, I mean the last 5 to 10 years, about high-profile church leaders that have fallen into disgrace?

I want you to raise your hand if you've heard of that. And some of you have some names in your mind, don't you? I can think of four situations since we started Recast in the Kalamazoo area, just in Kalamazoo.

Now, I'm not talking high-profile, I'm just talking about guys that I knew, guys I've sat down and had coffee with that no longer are pastors because of indiscretions or breaking the qualifications of eldership.

And since we've started Recast, there have been many higher-profile in the last 12 years, high-profile cases of pastors falling from grace. Four leaders and speakers that I've listened to over the years, guys that I was listening to and following closely, listening to their podcasts, one in particular that I would have said, I kind of would like to be like him.

I mean, he would be a guy that I'm going to talk about him a little bit throughout this message, but a guy that I remember when we started Recast 12 years ago, I was like, man, if I could just be that guy.

And he's fallen from grace. Mark Driscoll, C .J. Mahaney, Ravi Zacharias, Tully and Chivijan come to mind. I am sure that you have your own names and some of you are going, who's that and whatever. And I don't need to get into all the nitty-gritty details, but these are high-profile leaders who have failed the test of qualification of eldership that we're going to be looking at these qualifications here.

These are men that I listen to. These are men that I follow. These are men who I was thinking about emulating. And so why would I bring this up in this context? The qualifications for leadership are not a minor thing.

They are not a minor thing. They are significant for you. They are significant for you to understand. They are significant for you to take on. How in the world is this church not going to go the way of those other churches?

And I'm convinced that it's in part. By taking on messages like this. It's in part by taking these things that we're looking at here in this text seriously. These are checkpoints that need to be routinely assessed in our leadership, myself included.

Now, I don't want to create a culture here where I get 17 emails every day about things that I'm doing wrong, but I certainly want a relationship with you by which you can give me feedback and you can identify things.

And how many of you would just admit in your own personal life that there are people who can speak into your life in a way that nobody else can? There are people who have been here from the start of this church that can see patterns in my life.

That if they come to me and they say, Don, I'm seeing conceit in you. I'm seeing arrogance. I'm seeing you begin to demand your own way all the time. I'm going to listen. They know me. They've known me from the beginning.

Now, some of you, if you walked up to me this morning and said, Don, you seem conceited to me. And this is your first Sunday? And I've never met you before. I might say, Let's sit down for coffee and chat for a little bit.

How about we do life? How about you come over and meet my family? I'll meet yours. Let's do a little life together and then let's talk. Do you know what I'm saying by that? But we all need those people in our lives who can speak and say, I've seen a pattern in you and I've seen your life and here we go.

We may be tempted to think that, by the way, I think part of the problem when we look at these qualifications here in a minute, some of you maybe are even familiar with them, but we might be tempted to think they don't work.

And we think they don't work because a leader can hide, right? How many of you know that a leader can hide a lot of his crud, a lot of things that are going on under the surface and behind the scenes and he can be two-faced, he can be duplicitous, he can be living a life over here and doing things right here.

But I have a hunch that these qualifications primarily don't work because they're either ignored or not followed. I think that's the first part. It's making sure that we're attentive to them, making sure that we're aware of them, making sure that then they are applied in the life of the leader.

A leader who is leading a duplicitous life, a two-faced life, will likely, I suggest to you, begin to fail in these qualifications. But what is vital is that the church has a relationship with their leaders and the knowledge of these qualifications so that they can approve men to the leadership who are qualified up front at the beginning, but there also needs to be an accountability that stays in relationship with them on their journey through ministry.

Now, interestingly, I became aware of it this week. There's a podcast that I listen to and I rarely do this, but I actually listened to a podcast twice this week. It's called The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.

Now, Mark Driscoll was one of my favorite preachers and pastors back in the day. He started a church in 1996 in Seattle, Washington. Anybody are familiar with the name Mark Driscoll? He started in 96.

We started in 2009. They were quite a bit ahead of us, but I paid attention to his ministry a ton. And the interesting thing is this is a podcast that I think just maybe started this week or maybe the week before, but there's only one episode in it so far.

But the interesting thing that I wanted to point out in there is that all the ins and outs, he ended up being relatively abusive in his leadership style, and I don't know, again, I wasn't there. I just know what ended up causing the fall.

He was domineering in his leadership, even threatening to staff members, and just things got really ugly in his leadership. But there was a man who was there from near the beginning of that ministry, close friends with him, like as in he lived in Mark's basement while he and his wife were between houses.

Like they were that kind of friends, close-knit. And he came to Mark after Mark's fall. Mark has already been disgraced. He's already been publicly, he resigned, but he resigned under investigation with all kinds of problems and issues in his leadership.

And so he's already resigned. The church is being separated and all the parts are going on. They met at Panera and they had a conversation and it kind of went like this. This guy who knew Mark closely had watched him in ministry and he came to him and apologized to him.

He said, I'm sorry for not being a good friend to you. I chose what was easy and peaceful over truth, and I saw the slide in your life all along and I didn't have the guts to step up and say something.

And that's what we need, church. We need people who are willing to take these qualifications seriously. It's important. Church health, I mean, how many of you just say, I recognize church health depends on leadership health.

To a large degree, that's important. Churches split and divide and falter on the basis of unqualified leadership. And our church reputation, by the way, what matters in this is our reputation to the community, our reputation to unbelievers.

And how many of you know somebody who said when a high-profile leader falls, it's just, yep, Christians being Christians. That's what our society and our culture says and it validates them that we're no better than them.

Well, we're not any better than them, but we are forgiven and we are to live and we are called to a higher standard. So further, let me say before we read this this list is not unique to leadership. So when you think about why does this matter, it's not just as if, okay, well, you listen to this message so that you can analyze my life and the elders' lives.

These qualifications are to be exemplified in church leadership for the encouragement in the body to live likewise. This passage is certainly focused on the qualifications of elders and deacons in the church, but don't let that fact let you off the hook.

These standards for leadership show the kind of things leaders are to model to the gathering of God's people. These things required of leadership are meant to result in an increase of these things in your lives as well.

Whether an elder or a deacon or a person who is taking in the ministry of elders and deacons, let's walk through this passage with a holy awe of the things that God wants to work out into the life of his church.

And so if you're not already there, open your Bibles or your devices to 1 Timothy 3. We're gonna read just the first seven verses of 1 Timothy 3. Again, 1 Timothy 3, one through seven, and follow along as we hear God's holy and precious word.

A word to all of us, not just to me, not just to the leadership, but to all of us to take in. The saying is trustworthy. 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 and into a snare of the devil. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word that gives such practical guidelines to us as a church.

This is a very practical message. It's got a whole list of words that are easy to define but not so easy to live out. And so, Father, I pray that you would open our eyes to our roles in this. I pray that you would continue to protect our church.

I thank you. Father, it is by your grace and only by the power of your spirit that this church has been protected so far from that kind of disgrace. And I don't cast any mud at anybody in this message, but I recognize that it is by your grace and your grace alone that we are sustained and we are held together, that we have not split, we have not fractured, we have not had these kinds of abuses in our leadership to date.

And Father, I pray that you would continue your protective hand over this congregation. I love them and I rejoice in the privilege that it is to serve them. Father, I pray that you would just take each one of us and highlight in us the things that we need to model and we need to be exemplifying and the things that you would, by your spirit, convict us of and then help us to leave here with a plan to honor you more in these areas.

Father, I thank you for the leadership that you have put over our church right now. I thank you for the men, the godly men who seek to lead. And I ask that you would continue with each one of us to highlight even in those elders that are present here to press deep the trembling and fear and awe of these qualifications on each one of us.

I ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, well, I would like you guys to get as comfortable as possible over the remainder of our time and keep your Bibles open, your device open to 1 Timothy 3, one through seven, so you can kind of reference that throughout the message.

And then I say this every week, but if at any time you need to get up and get more coffee, juice, or donuts, while supplies last back there, you're not gonna distract me if you get up. And then restrooms, for those of you that aren't familiar with the facility, out the double doors, or the barn doors, down the hallway on the left-hand side is where the restrooms are in case you need those.

The Noble Task of Overseer and the Meaning of Above Reproach

Chapter three here in this text, in this letter, written from Paul to Timothy, looks like three lists of qualifications for three distinct groups. Now, confession, I was originally gonna preach this whole section from one to verse 13 in one sermon.

I sat down to write it, and I couldn't, I was already done after verse seven. I already had enough words, and we were gonna be here for two hours. I didn't wanna be here for two hours. I didn't think you wanted to be here for two hours.

So I thought, well, we'll just go ahead and nip that, and we'll take that later. So really, to outline the whole thing so you know where this is going, verses one through seven is all about the qualifications of servant leaders.

I say servant leaders, it's the elders, the pastors, the overseers of the church, three words that are used interchangeably in scripture, and those are the ones who are leading in the church, but they lead through service.

The second is leading servants, which I would call, which the text calls deacons, and that's verses eight through 10 and 12 through 13. That's gonna be my next sermon in a couple of weeks. I'm gonna be out for a couple of weeks up at Camp Barrichale working, but when I come back, we're gonna tackle deacons, and then also the third category is female leading servants or female deacons from verse 11, and again, that's gonna be taken in the next chunk, and so Paul begins verse one with what he says is a trustworthy saying.

He says, this is, you can take this to the bank. Occasionally, Paul, in his writing, wants to double emphasize something, and so he says, you can take this to the bank. This is trustworthy, and the fact that he begins this way shows what he is up against in needing to convince the Ephesians that pastoring and overseeing and eldering is a good thing.

He says that anyone who aspires to be an overseer in the church desires, and he calls it a noble task, a dignified thing, a good thing. Now, the word overseer is used interchangeably in the New Testament, I mentioned, for elders and pastors as well, and it's a word that forms to basically explain the leading group of people in the local church in the New Testament, a group or a gathering of men.

It's used plural in the context of individual churches, the ideas that a church will have more than one elder, and the emphasis is the high and good calling of that office of leadership. Now, it's interesting that he feels the need to say, this is trustworthy.

You can take to the bank that this office is a good thing. Why in the world would he have to say that? Anybody kind of confused by that? Why would he have to like over and double emphasize that, hey, if you want to be a pastor, you want to be an overseer, you want to be an elder, that's a good thing.

And the reason he does that is, I think by way of illustration, I think this will help. Think of it this way. Would you want to sign up for leadership in the Ephesian church? Well, what do I mean by that?

This church in Ephesus was in the middle of controversy, racked with false teaching and false teachers that needed to be kicked out, and a likely church split is on the way. How many of you are signing up for leadership?

I think very few. All of a sudden, it snaps into focus. Why in the world? Paul is telling Timothy, it's a good thing. I want to remind you, it's a good thing to aspire to this. It's a good office. And he has to convince them that that is so.

That's what Timothy is up against here as he stays behind to try to set the church in Ephesus in order. Paul is reminding him the task of elder is not merely a token board position. It is a high, noble, and serious calling that God takes seriously.

I want to be clear at the start of this that the roles of elder and deacon are not spelled out super clear. I believe that God gives us a lot of liberty and freedom in the church organization on purpose.

You will go to five churches in the area, and there'll be a different way and a different style of governing them. I think there's some things that are important. I think a plurality of leadership is a strong, strong indicator from the New Testament.

I think whatever church model you have, there should be more than one leader in it, and that's kind of a given standard. But aside from that, there's a ton of liberty, intentionally, I think, from the New Testament on how a church is structured and run.

But we have these two offices, elder and deacon, and those are significant, and we'll be talking through those. But everything between verses two and verse seven highlights the high expectations on the one who would aspire to this noble task of overseeing in the local assembly of God's people.

Now in verse two, he launches out into the qualifications with what, it doesn't appear that way in the text, but in the Greek, it's a big heading. It's not like one of nine things that he says here, but the very first thing that he says is the heading under which everything else explains that one heading.

Above reproach is the big heading. What defines and what is the primary defining kind of characteristic of a man qualified to lead in the local assembly? It's above reproach. Now that's a phrase, how many of you just probably used the word reproach 16 times this past week?

It's not a word you use very often, so it needs a little bit of explanation, but let me give you the nuance of the Greek word there so that you kind of don't just, to define the English word is not particularly helpful.

Let's get back to the Greek idea. Not easy to catch would be a way to define that, or not easily pulled down. Not easily tackled, you might say, and that would be a good translation of that word. Not easy to tackle, not easy to pull down.

It doesn't mean that a leader in the church must be perfect, but he must not be easily tackled. I think a good illustration of this, obviously a word picture would be a shifty little running back, and now picture that he's got all kinds of loops and handles like he took them right off of a Samsonite and sewed them on his jersey.

How many of you think that sounds like a good call? Okay, hit the line, linebacker, boom, grabbed by the handles, you're down. Do you get it? You get that image in your mind? I mean, it's kind of a foolish and a silly image, the idea of a linebacker.

I mean, I'm not a linebacker. Did I say linebacker earlier, running back? Like a running back looking like a piece of luggage, all kinds of handles on him and all kinds of loops and Velcro and stuff to grab ahold of and just yank him to the ground.

That's silly. But every impropriety in the life of a man who would seek this office is like a handle by which he can be pulled down, a handle by which he could be easily tackled. The man qualified to be an elder in the church doesn't have handles by which it is easy to tackle him.

By the way, above reproach does not mean impossible to accuse. How many of you know that anybody can accuse you anytime? You're always able to be accused. This doesn't mean he cannot be accused. It just means it doesn't stick well.

Like, yeah, you could accuse me of various things, but it's not gonna stick. Like, there's just not substance to it. When others try to pull him down, there just isn't much in his life to give a handhold to, to give credibility to the accusations.

And by the way, this isn't because he's good at hiding his stuff. It's because there just isn't much in his life by which you can grab and drag him down. That's a high calling. And all of these other qualifications seek to spell out the types of things that constitute handles that make him easy to tackle.

The Character Qualifications for an Elder

Many of you have probably recognized this phrase, husband of one wife. You've probably seen that before and have some idea that that's a qualification for eldership. But it would be better translated because really in Greek, the Greek is one woman man.

That's exactly what it says there. One woman kind of guy would be a really accurate and good translation. Now, I would just wanna point out that there's been all kinds of debate over the years about what this particular phrase means.

All the way from can he ever be divorced? What about polygamy? Must he be married? Some would read in this passage that he must be married. But if you read that literally into these qualifications, you also believe that he has to have more than one child because it says children in the text.

And so if you're gonna be really literal about it, you gotta go all the way. So what I wanna point out is that Paul had all kinds of language available to him when he wrote this phrase, one woman kind of guy.

He didn't wanna spell out the specifics for us. He intentionally left it a vague phrase. He had the words not polygamous. He had the words in Greek, must be married. He had the words faithful to his wife.

And although I think it encompasses that, it's not just that narrow. Or the words not remarried or not divorced or you can fill in all kinds of things that he could have said but that's not what he said.

He said one woman kind of guy. So he intentionally lobs a generic term for us to have to wrestle through and work through. He wants there to be wrestling over what this phrase means. But one thing is clear by the phrase and it's this.

He is looking for a spiritually principled man regarding his interactions with women. A spiritually principled man regarding his interactions with women. An elder doesn't have to be married but even if he is not married, this phrase I wanna point out still applies to him.

He is not a womanizer. He is not committed to pornography. He is not out at places he shouldn't go. He's not putting his eyes in places they shouldn't go. He is not a womanizer but a man committed to God's design for sexuality within the boundaries of monogamous marriage.

An elder will not have a handle of sexual indiscretion attached to his jersey. Second, it says in the text he will be sober minded which means he is able to be moderate. He is able to be serious when a situation calls for serious leadership.

It doesn't preclude a sense of humor otherwise I think I'd be out. I like to laugh. I like to tell jokes. I like to be funny but being serious when it calls for seriousness is a standard for the person who's in leadership.

Sober minded has the idea of temperate, not given over to extreme responses to things that are going on. An elder will not have a handle of extreme responses attached to his jersey but rather will be temperate.

He will be self-controlled which to my ears when I first read it sounds a lot like sober minded. Self-controlled, sober minded sounds like the same thing but this has a more internal focus to it. The word implies that the elder will have the ability to deny himself.

In other words, he in serving his interests and his desires is not the only priority that he possesses. The elder will not have a handle of self-centeredness attached to his jersey but instead will be self-controlled.

Respectable means that he's easy to look up to. The elder will not have a handle of a bad reputation attached to his jersey. Hospitality is mentioned in the text. It was very important, a lot more nuanced than it is today.

Hospitality sounds like having someone over to your house from time to time after church or something like that which is a good application of it but it was much more vital in the ancient world where hotels and inns were few and far between and so when traveling Christian speakers would come into town, they were hosted by the elders of the church or by others in the church who had the gift of hospitality and it was very vital for the spread of Christianity that the church was hospitable to outsiders and in some context, even people they hadn't met that were coming from, hey, they're in Ephesus, somebody's coming over from Colossae traveling through, they need a place to stay.

They stay with somebody in the church and in a very narrow sense, the elder must be willing and eager to share his home with other Christians coming to town but the elder will not have a handle of a reputation for closing others out attached to his jersey but instead, he will be welcoming and ready to use his resources to bless others in the family of God.

Able to teach is unique to the office of elder. We won't see that one repeated for the deacons. The deacons do not need to be able to teach sound doctrine or able to teach but the elder must be able to teach and as Titus has it, able to teach sound doctrine and clarifies exactly what he means by that and it speaks to an expectation of both knowledge and skill.

The overseer must be, and here's the key, able to teach meaning that not all elders will teach but must be capable of it. 1 Timothy 5 .17 indicates that some elders preach and teach while others do not and we'll get there as we march through this letter but 1 Timothy 5 .17 has two groups of elders, some who teach, some who don't.

The elder will not have a handle attached to his jersey of false doctrine but instead, will be able to teach what is true. The elder will not be a drunken nor a drunken brawler. Now, this is a pretty low standard.

Anybody with me on that? Like he's not starting bar fights down at the pub or anything like that. Now, those two words are often found together, linked in many Greek documents to the degree that they're kind of vice-less together.

So, not to be a drunkard is one thing but then the word violent there has to do with drunkenness as well. It's a drunken violence that's used. So, the word drunken is literally a person, it's a word picture in the Greek, a person who spends too much time hanging out with wine.

It packs a lot into that. A person who spends too much time with wine, hangs out with it a lot. Of course, drunkenness is a sin and so is harming others but the fact that this needs to be included shows who humans would put forward as leaders if we were left without guidance.

Oh, he's, let's think about what this is saying. Hey, by the way, if a guy is always drunk and fighting people with his fists, maybe don't let him leave the church. We have to be told this? Yes, we do.

Yes, we do. Look at who gets voted into, we have to be told this. Who do we put forward? I'm joking and I know it's funny and at the same time, it's true. It's silly. Who gets dominance in a culture that values power?

A guy with big biceps, a guy who's taller, a guy who looks a little more chiseled, that's obviously not me, so that I know that it's working here. The church is not, you know, putting people forward on the wrong front because that's not me.

But are you guys getting what I'm saying in this? It's a bit silly, the way that we would put people forward, but that is human nature. The strong guy gets forward. And by the way, he's kind of fun at the bar, right?

It's kind of fun to watch him fight. So I don't know. I mean, I think that's the way that people work in their minds. And how many people down through the ages have been elevated to leadership positions while struggling with alcohol or violent tendencies?

And even some of the podcasts that I listened to this week highlight that. To some degree, there are people who have a domineering approach, a power struggle attitude, and my way or the highway attitude.

And they achieve a lot in our culture, don't they? There are people that are easily put forward. This is not the way this works in the church, says Paul. Instead, the elder is to be gentle, which means he has to have the ability to give way to others.

Not that he has no backbone, not that he's a walking mat that everybody just walks all over. But think of it this way, the opposite of gentle is demanding or harsh. So a person with this quality of gentleness is able to arrive at compromise when possible.

Able to stand strong on the truth. Paul, there's no question that Paul was able to stand strong on the truth. He knew when to stand and when to pull back. And he's saying the leader needs to be gentle and have nuance in his leadership style.

The elder is not to be quarrelsome. Everyone here has a person in their friend group who disagrees just to disagree. How many of you can think of somebody in your friend group that is that person? Just disagree just to disagree?

If you're not raising your hand, then it's probably you. Okay, so if you don't know of one in your friend group, then it very well might be you. So I think that's often the case. We're like, oh wait, where is that person?

Oh no, it's probably me. If you have them in your mind right now, think of their name. We don't want them to be an elder at this church. Okay, I just wanted to just get that out there. I don't want them to be leading here.

If they're just always disagreeing, just to disagree, just to state their mind, just to always get it out there and always to take a contrary position, that is not leadership skills. An elder is not a person who loves money, the text says.