House Rule #7 Select Qualified Elders (1 Timothy 3:1-7) | Adult Sunday School

We look to you, we look to you, in your strength we will endure, in your strength we will endure.

Deliver us from evil, Lord Our hearts so quickly run astray

Temptation crouching at the door To turn us from the narrow way

We look to you, we look to you

Deliver us from evil, the devil seeking to devour

With trembling hearts we hear his roar But your strong arm will crush his power

We look to you, we look to you

Come and end his earthly reign We look to you, we look to you

Lord deliver us we pray We look to you, we look to you

You will come again to reign We look to you, we look to you

All the earth Bless your praise to sing

Father glorious Embracing us before all time

You made us heirs with Christ on high And by your spirit now we cry

Majesty Face to face We worship and adore

Forevermore Speak now incarnate word

Endless love Bearing our fatal curse

With your living blood Rushing in Help us see your cross again

You're the rock on which we live Jesus savior

All the day Great one in three

We finally behold Your majesty Face to face

We worship and adore Forevermore Grace to weary hearts

Bring back the Good morning everyone.

Good to see each one today. We're glad you're here. Welcome to Kootenay Community Church adult

Sunday school class. There are outlines for today as usual.

If you need one, Rick will hand that to you. This morning we're back in 1st

Timothy. This morning moving into chapter 3. House rules for God's church.

This is rule number 7. Select qualified elders. Before we begin our study, let's commit our time to our

Lord and ask his blessing. Our father, we do thank you that we have the privilege of being able to gather together.

In the name of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. To fellowship with one another.

To sing praises to you. And to now study your word. We pray that you would be our teacher this morning.

That you would be with us as we move through this passage. That you would teach us what you would have us learn.

And that you would help us to be obedient to all that we learn. And we just ask it in Jesus' mighty name.

Amen. This morning before we move into chapter 3. Just a brief review of what we looked at last time in chapter 2 verses 11 -15.

We saw last time starting in verse 11 that Paul commands women to learn.

And really as we move through this part of the text. We see that, you know, we're moving into chapter 3.

So there's a great big 3 there in your Bible. But remember that Paul is probably setting up chapter 3 by what he talks about.

All the way through from chapter 2 down through 11 -15. What we saw last time.

And so by commanding women to be learners in the church. He really is doing a couple of things.

One is he's dealing with what could have been a pretty prominent teaching by the unregenerate rabbis of the day.

That because Eve sinned in the garden. Women were somehow lesser people than the men were.

And in many circumstances women were not allowed to be part of the teaching ministry of the church.

They weren't allowed to be learners. And we know that this even extended well into the church age. And some churches even divided the churches up into men and women.

But Paul just takes care of that right out of the starting blocks in verse 11. And commands that a woman learn.

She is to learn quietly with all submissiveness. But she is to be part of the teaching ministry of the church.

She is to learn. And we know later on he talks about that she is to also be a teacher in the church.

As we know throughout the rest of the pastoral letters. And then he makes this statement in verse 12.

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather she is to remain quiet.

Paul clearly prohibits a woman from serving as an elder or a pastor teacher as we call it in the church.

And he gives the reason why in verse 13. Probably the focal point of this little passage.

Why? It's not about her value. It's not about her ability even. She is created in the image of God just like men are.

It's not about what is fair in the culture she lives in. It's not about rights as we hear so much about.

He goes right straight back to creation. And he just anchors that truth in God's created order as we saw.

It's about God's created order. For he says or because Adam was formed first then

Eve. Very simple. Very concise. He doesn't elaborate on it.

But then he doesn't have to. When he just goes back to creation he says this is the way God created things.

That's the end of the argument. Try that argument out today with people. And you'll see how that goes over.

Right? Well that tells you something. That tells you that the world and the spirit of the age is way far removed from God's created order and what that means.

And then the illustration of what happens when God's created order is violated is in verse 14.

Adam was not deceived but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

And then he says yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self -control.

We saw verse 15. A little bit difficult to discern what that means there. But when you take it in its context and you see what his argument is.

Yes she did sin but she will be saved. Okay? And so when

Paul anchors this truth in creation he doesn't let Adam off the hook by any means.

If you turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 5 real quick. We can see what

Paul does. And in this well -known passage in Romans chapter 5 Paul is arguing of course that he begins this by talking about what it means to be justified.

We have peace with God he says. But then as he gets to verse 12 he says therefore just as sin came into the world through one man.

That would be Adam. And death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

Adam is the head of the race. And so when Adam did not exercise his headship over Eve and in his presence.

Because it says in Genesis he was there with her. He allowed her to sin.

Allowed her to be deceived. And then he then becomes responsible for her sin as we saw.

And this is Paul's argument here. And once again Paul is anchoring his truth in history.

Okay? This is a principle that's just critical to see throughout Scripture. That all true doctrine, all biblical truth is anchored in history.

That's what he does with his argument in 1 Timothy about the woman cannot be an elder or a teacher.

Why? God created it that way. The greatest historical event of course is creation. And so all theology, all

Scripture, all the Bible, all of God's program stands on creation. It is historic fact.

And you're going to see this all through Scripture. Here's an example right here. Death spread to all men.

Why? Historic fact. All sinned. Okay? Show me a man that's never sinned.

Right? You can't do it. There's a one to one correspondence between every single human being and sin and death.

Okay? I mean unless there's somebody out there that's outside that framework. But I haven't found it.

Scripture says they're not there. So we have to understand that. So all biblical truth is built on history.

Okay? This is why the genealogies are so important. I know when we come across those sometimes we think, oh man, you know, the begetting, the begetting, the begetting, the begetting.

And you sort of flip past that. But they didn't have chromosomal blood work.

They just had genealogies. This anchors that person and that event in history.

One more just brief example of that, again from Romans, Paul's salutation in Romans.

He says, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised, an event in history, beforehand through his prophets, real men in history, in the

Holy Scriptures. Objectively they exist. Concerning his son who was descended from David.

Historic fact, historic person. According to the flesh. And was declared to be the son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness, by what?

By his resurrection. An event in history. All theology is grounded in actual historic events.

And, by the way, back to chapter 5, verse 8.

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners,

God just felt so good about us. Does he give some kind of an emotional, psychological argument there?

No. How do you know that God loves you? Christ died for the ungodly, right?

He shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

It's an historic event. So sometimes you might just kind of roll across these statements.

But remember, your theology, everything you believe, is anchored in historic fact.

And the ultimate historic fact, of course, is creation. This is why creation is so important. And this is why it's such a tragedy and a travesty if contemporary professing

Christian theologians somehow compromise on the creation story.

Because it's not sophisticated and it gives them a little more credibility in the academic community.

They give up an awful lot. In fact, they give up the rest of the Bible. That's what it amounts to. You give up Genesis 1 and 2 in the creation story, and the rest of the

Bible is up for grabs. That's what it amounts to. That's what's at stake here. So, women are not to serve as preaching elders, as pastor teachers in God's church.

And it's not about her ability. There are a lot of highly qualified women out there, some brilliant women scholars out there.

They teach. They teach at the graduate level. Really smart. And academically qualified, the whole thing.

I have read their articles. I've read some of their commentaries. Not one of them is qualified to be an elder in God's church, simply because that's how

God made it to be. And by the way, those who are conservative

Bible -believing, highly qualified women theologians out there would agree with that.

And they do in their commentaries, okay? So, that's real important, just as foundational truth from the

Word of God and from what we saw last time. And therefore, when you see a woman in a preaching position in a church teaching men, okay, know this.

Something has gone wrong behind the scenes, and it's with the men, okay?

Yes, she shouldn't be there. That is sin that she's doing that. But she's just like with Adam and Eve.

She sinned, but Adam was in headship over her, and he's held accountable. The men are not exercising headship in those situations, in those churches or denominations or whatever it is.

Probably also in the home, that sphere of influence, okay? So, as we move into 1

Timothy chapter 3, that's the foundation for it. Paul has already dealt with the issue of women in the position of elder within the church.

And now he's going to move right into the issue of what does qualify men to be elders, pastor, teachers within the church.

And on your outline there, so this is Roman numeral 1, we have the office. He talks about the office.

And we should remember that each one of these issues is here because Paul is making some very necessary corrections to the church situation there in Ephesus.

And he's commissioned Timothy to be there, to stay there and do that while Paul's someplace else up in Macedonia.

He's urging Timothy to work out these issues, some very serious problems in Ephesus.

And Paul had worked to establish this church. He had spent a lot of time there, a lot of effort. He had trained these elders that were there.

He had been instrumental in their selection, of course, and in educating them, training them in pure doctrine and how to lead the church.

And back in Acts chapter 20, verses 28 and 29, he calls the elders of Ephesus to meet him.

He's on his way back down to Jerusalem. And we've looked at this passage several times, but it really is foundational because these are the elders in the churches that Timothy is going to be trying to minister to.

And several years before, Paul had said this to them as he met with them. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the

Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Now that word, he's going to use it again here in chapter 3.

To care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. There it tells you the gravity of the responsibility there.

I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.

And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.

There's a lot here in this little passage, but one thing we can see here is the responsibility of the elders in the church.

They're overseers, and we're going to talk about that word here. What Paul had prophesied that day, that from outside are going to come fierce wolves, but from inside there's going to be perversion and corruption, had come to pass.

Not only had false teachers come into that church to lead people away, but some of those elders had probably perverted the gospel, were teaching false doctrine, false gospel, and so on.

And at the top of Timothy's list, the things that he needs to deal with are the false teachers and their false teachings.

Now, we looked at that in chapter 1. It's right at the top of the list. Probably two of those are named in verse 20 of chapter 1,

Hymenaeus and Alexander. So Paul was willing to name names. It's kind of considered a little out of fashion nowadays, there's a false teacher to name a name.

But Paul did, perfectly comfortable with doing that, and he should, and we should as well. And so, we move into chapter 3 now, and he wants to work his way through these issues, plaguing the churches at Ephesus.

Remember, these are probably house churches. And it only makes sense that he's going to deal with the situation of elders, those who lead.

Probably the most critical area of correction that Timothy has to deal with. This may be the most important thing he has to focus on here.

As the elders go, as the leaders go, so goes the flock, right? The sheep tend to follow the shepherds.

That's why it's so critical. The false teachers of Ephesus that he talked about, they lead people astray.

They're not content with just coming into a church and teaching false doctrine. They want to gather a following.

You see this all the time, right? Some guy who's a false teacher who is put out of their church because of some heresy or something that they've done wrong or teaching wrong.

They don't just disappear. They just don't go off over the horizon, and they're gone forever. They're only gone for a little while.

Pretty soon, they'll pop up someplace else, right? Because Jesus told them to plant a new church, and there they are.

They have to have influence. They have to have a following. And this is what happens.

So selecting qualified elders is critical to dealing with them in the church and for making sure the church is trained to recognize them and so on.

But what we see here, first of all, in verse 1, he talks about the office, the office.

The office is to be desired. It is a good work, and it is God's design. He says in verse 1 of chapter 3, the saying is trustworthy.

If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.

This is one of the five trustworthy statements that we find in the pastoral letters. We saw the first one in 115, the saying is trustworthy.

And if you're taking notes, this one here in 3 .1, he says it again in chapter 4, verse 9.

He says it again in 2 Timothy 2 .11 and then in Titus 3 .8. So five times in the pastoral letters, he says this is a trustworthy saying.

Probably a saying that was well -known among the churches, had been taught and repeated over and over again to the point that people understood it.

It's kind of an axiomatic truth. And what is that? If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.

So the first thing he says is it's to be desired.

It's a work that is to be desired. The person should want to do that. If you remember back in Acts 20, what does he say?

The Holy Spirit has made you overseers. So it has to be a man who is led by the

Spirit to want to desire to do the work of an elder. Of course, it comes internally. I know it's historically in the churches popular to talk about a call.

I got called. I answered the call to preach or something. But in my opinion, that's a really tough thing to document, to show in Scripture.

What I see is that a man has an internal compulsion to serve the Lord or to preach. It comes from within.

So in other words, it's a work of the Spirit. And so this is what he says.

If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. When he says anyone there, someone might say, oh, see, there you go, women.

Because it's anyone, right? Well, no, Paul's already dealt with that up in verse 11 through 15.

And anyone then has to include just men. And I think what he's doing here, he's going back and he's referencing what he said back in verse 7.

The fact that he is a preacher and an apostle, a teacher of Gentiles in faith and truth.

The early church was Jewish, right? Day of Pentecost, and the church probably grew among Jews. But very soon it moved out into the

Gentile word and began to include Gentiles. And I think he's talking about here anyone,

Jew or Gentile. The man does not have to be Jewish to be an elder in the church. He could also be a

Gentile as well. And the office of overseer, the word office doesn't actually occur there.

It's actually if anyone desires oversight of the church. He says that it is to be desired and it is also a good work.

The word good there is a word that appears over 20 times in 1 Timothy. It means excellent in nature and its characteristic, intrinsically or inherently good.

He says that about the law back in 1 8. We know that the law is good. And so to serve in the office of an elder is a good work and it's also work.

Don't miss that, okay? To do that is work and it's hard work. Ask the elders if you don't think that's true.

It requires a lot of time spent, a lot of effort, and it's also highly stressful.

When you realize the responsibility that you're over people to care for them, that Christ purchased with his own blood, that's a tremendous responsibility.

So it's a work, but it's a good work. It's inherently good. Well -suited for its ends is another way to look at that.

And Paul says it's a trustworthy saying. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble or good work.

And then we move into Roman numeral 2. Well, before we do that, let's look at this little issue of a plurality of godly men because that's important as well.

It's God's design. And if you want just a good working definition, I think, now you could probably come up with another one.

This may not be the only one. I think a good working definition to the question, who is to lead the church or the churches?

I think a good working definition is just a plurality of godly men, a plurality of godly men.

It looks like there's more than one. Back to Acts 20, prior to when he gave that little address, it says in Acts 20 verse 17 that he called the elders of the church, plural, elders of the church of Ephesus.

In 1 Timothy 5 .17, which is another passage in 1

Timothy that deals with elders, from the perspective of how the church is to treat them, it says, let the elders, plural, who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.

This is in the context of remuneration for their work. Double honor is in the context of money, what they're paid.

But notice, it's plural. The elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.

So there's multiple elders, but there's also multiple roles, even within an elder board.

There's not a cookie -cutter type of situation. So you have more than one, and it's also more than one, sort of a division of labor, you might say, even in a given church in a given elder board.

Titus 1 .5, again, Titus is where Paul has left Titus on Crete. Very important because you can sort of compare the two requirements there.

And in Titus 1 .5, Paul tells Titus, appoint elders in every town.

So plural, it seems to be plural. Multiple references also to leadership in Acts chapter 11.

They're called apostles and elders. And even when Paul writes to the Philippian Christians in his salutation to them in Philippians 1 .1,

he says, Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons, plural.

And he uses the same word that Paul uses here in 1 Timothy, apeskapas, who is an overseer, and diakonos, or deacons.

So even there, you can see there's elders, plural, and deacons, plural, in Philippi when

Paul writes them. It's just the way it was. And he uses the exact same word here.

But what we're going to see is there's other words that are used to describe this office that are basically used synonymously with what he says here.

So there's a plurality of godly men. He's going to deal with the godly issue in the rest of this passage, but it's men.

Already dealt with that in 11 through 15 of chapter 2. The negative command that a woman is not to teach or exercise authority over a man.

And teaching the word of God is the exercise of authority in a church. Doesn't matter who is doing it.

The authority is not with the individual. The authority is with Scripture. This is why we are commanded to pass the

Scripture down. We're not passing down an office. We're passing down the authoritative word of God within the church.

And so a plurality of godly men. I think that's a good working definition of who is to lead the church.

All of the requirements are directed to men. The original disciples were all men. The original apostles and all of the apostles were all men.

And here the elders are all men. Everything in all of these requirements in 1

Timothy and also in Titus and elsewhere in Scripture is all directed to men. You could look at other passages and I mentioned

Titus 1 -5. Listen to Titus 1 -5. Now remember Titus is left on Crete.

So Crete is the island that's southeast of Italy out there in the Mediterranean. But Ephesus is up in western what is now

Turkey. So it's really important to see. You've got two different geographic positions and two different cultures.

But listen to how similar this is here. This is why I left you in Crete.

This is Titus. So that you might put what remained in order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.

Requirements. If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children are believers.

That could also be translated faithful. And not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

For an overseer as God's steward must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick -tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain.

But hospitable, a lover of good, self -controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.

He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught. So that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine.

And also to rebuke those who contradict it. So in both Titus 1 -5 here through 11.

And as we're going to see in chapter 3 of 1 Timothy. He uses the word above reproach two times.

This is a very important characteristic of the elder. And it's the first thing we're going to see in the qualifications.

His reputation in the church is to be above reproach. And what you see is he uses this here.

He used it twice in 1 Timothy. And he uses it here twice in verses 2 -7.

First thing, above reproach. And then he ends this in verse 7, above reproach.

That's a different word, but it's essentially the same thing. Many of the English translations translate it the same way.

But they sort of serve as bookends in his description of what an elder is supposed to be.

It's a description of his reputation in the church. And you can take all of these things and sort of categorize them, you know.

Into categories, which I've done here. His reputation in the church, his marriage as a measure.

You can sort of bring them all under this single concept of being above reproach.

It's the overarching qualification for an elder in God's church. It is observable, it's objective, and it gathers up all of these other qualities.

And what we see here, it's kind of interesting. There's only three verses here in this passage. Verse 1 is a sentence,

I mean three sentences. In our translations, you know, seven verses. But there's really three sentences.

Verse 1 is a sentence, verse 7 is a sentence, and 2 through 6 is a single sentence.

So this is sort of a list, okay. Bible teachers and expositors like lists, okay.

Compared to the exegetical and interpretive difficulties of this last passage, lists are kind of a refreshing thing.

But even though they're not without their interpretive issues, it's a little easier when you have a list, you know.

And so this is the list. It starts and ends with above reproach, so that kind of gathers everything up.

But we can walk through these and see. But you can sort of categorize them in certain categories here.

His reputation in the church above reproach. Notice that it does not mean without reproach, okay.

Very important. He's not talking about a man who is sinless. That's impossible, right. It's possible for elders or deacons, and it's possible for all the rest of us as well.

Absolutely impossible. He has to be above reproach. The Apostle Paul was reproached all over the place, was he not?

He was accused of all kinds of things. And the only thing he was guilty of that he was accused of was preaching the

Word of God, preaching and teaching, right. But he was accused of being an apostate. He was accused of preaching for money.

He was accused of all manner of things because the people that he encountered hated the

Word of God. But he was above that reproach. And, of course, the supreme example, of course, would be Jesus Christ, right.

He was not without reproach. People hated him. They slandered him. They accused him of doing miracles by the power of the devil.

All kinds of things. Even all the way to including his crucifixion.

Remember, the people were just slandering him and cursing him as he hung on the cross.

And even both of the thieves, it says, were reproaching him. There's a lot said in Scripture about the reproach of Christ and what that is.

He had a lot of reproach. And he still does today. Always above it. Above it every single time.

The word actually means, and it's kind of a negative frame here, above reproach, unable to grab a hold of him.

Unable to grab him. So, it's like all of the accusations and the slander for being a preacher or teacher of God's word can't grab a hold of him.

He's above it. If a man stands for the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and desires to live for Christ and his church, he will have reproach.

He'll be slandered. He'll be accused of all kinds of things. Remember in John 15, I think we looked at this passage a few weeks ago.

In John 15, Jesus is in the upper room. He's preparing his disciples for his departure the next day.

And he's beginning to sort of prepare them and warn them. And he says this,

John 15, 18, and 19. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

So, we can come back around and apply this again. When you see professing teachers, pastors,

Christians who want to be accepted by the world, they want to be intellectually approved by the world, this verse has application to them.

We are not here to please the world. The world is the enemy of God and the enemy of the church.

And an absolutely blistering statement by James in James 4 .4.

James just really hammers this concept of trying to please the world, trying to make the world like you.

And maybe if the world likes me, the world will like Jesus. That's not going to happen. Listen to what

James says. He writes this to professing Christians. You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Pretty plain, pretty stark. Don't do it. Don't try it. Elder is to be without reproach, above reproach, but not without reproach.

He's going to have reproach. He's going to be slandered. He's going to be ridiculed. He's going to be laughed at and mocked.

In 2 Timothy 3, Paul's recounting his persecutions and his sufferings to Timothy.

And he says in verse 12, Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

That's not just true for elders and leaders in the church. That's true for every professing believer in Jesus Christ. And so, an elder in God's church must be above reproach.

He may have all kinds of slander and lies. He's going to. If he's a man of God, if he's standing for the truth, preaching and teaching the

Word of God, he's going to have all kinds of ridicule. And you know as well as I do, nowadays, with social media and everything, you take a stand for Christ and there's going to be all kinds of opposition to it and everything.

And so, but he has to be above that. He cannot be guilty of it. And in 2

Timothy 5, 1 Timothy 5, he is to be considered above reproach or accusation.

Back to that passage again in 1 Timothy 5, Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

And he basically goes back to Deuteronomy 19, which required that if you're going to accuse somebody of something, there has to be two or three witnesses.

That's a biblical standard for accusations. So if somebody you hear is accusing an elder of something, you could just say, wait, time out.

Do you have two or three witnesses? And if they don't, say, then we're done talking. Don't listen to an accusation against an elder, except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

That's the biblical standard. They are also held to a very high account, by the way, as for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.

And he says, in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, do this without any kind of partiality. So elders are held to a very high standard, but they're also held above reproach.

They're supposed to be above reproach. You're not to entertain accusations or gossip or things about them, except on the evidence of two or three witnesses, but they are held accountable in Scripture.

That's a great balance of the Word of God. They don't get to just sin with impunity, right? Not one of us does or should.

So his reputation in the church, the overarching requirement is that he be above reproach.

And then B, his marriage. His marriage. That's really important. It is not required that an elder be married, but if he is married,

Paul says, you can look at his marriage as a measure of his ability to lead the church.

This is probably the major interpretive focal point of argument concerning this issue.

Often people want to wrangle, well, is it about the number of marriages or is it about the quality of his marriage? The issue of divorce, of course, comes up in this.

And then when you want to talk about divorce, you have to talk about does the Bible allow for divorce or does it not?

And if so, when did that divorce take place? Was it before he was saved? After he was saved?

And all of those issues need to be worked through. And very often, since these questions often do come up, elder boards will get together and they'll work through these things and they'll create a statement or a position paper and that kind of thing to be able to hand to people and say here's what the board of this church has decided about these issues.

And that's a good thing to do because these questions do come up and that way you can have a unified response to this by the board.

But really, the key here, I think, is that it says he is to be a one -woman man.

This is very same construction here is used in Titus 1 .6.

It's also a requirement for deacons in the rest of chapter 3. It is also a requirement, not that she be a husband of one man, but that she be a wife of one man.

Same construction is used in chapter 5, verse 10, because it's talking about widows who are to be put on the role of the church to receive financial help from the church.

It says she is to have a good reputation if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of saints, has cared for the afflicted, has devoted herself to every good work.

Verse 9, let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than 60 years of age, having been the wife of one husband.

Virtually the identical construct there, a one -man woman, but the elder is to be a one -woman man.

He is to be totally committed to his wife. He is to be faithful to his wedding vows and faithful to her.

He cannot be distracted by other women, and he's also careful about how he relates to other women.

And, of course, all these other considerations have to be brought into the picture as well, even whether or not he is a widower.

I've only known of one elder who took this idea that he is to be a one -woman man.

His wife died, he was still an elder, but then he remarried, he stepped off the elder board, because his conscience told him that he was now not a one -woman man.

That's probably pretty rare. In fact, he's the only one I've ever heard, a very godly guy, a great teacher and a professor and everything, but that was his conscience, so he stepped off his elder board.

I personally think that the stress here is on his faithfulness, his commitment, and his ability to be called a one -woman man.

Good illustration, it tells you when I first taught this. Former President Bill Clinton, as far as I know, he had one marriage, right?

Some of you are chuckling. As far as I know, he was a one -marriage man, but was he a one -woman man?

I think that's a good illustration of what Paul's talking about here. And then we come to see his mastery of self, and there's a series of words here that he uses.

Sober -minded, self -controlled, respectable. This idea of sober -minded, even in our

English, we have this word sober -minded, and of course the background of that is the idea of not drunk, right?

In fact, the word here, it actually means wineless, but I think, of course, he's using this in the very same way we would use this

English phrase sober -minded. Somebody who's sober -minded, he's able to think about important things with the gravity that the topic requires.

Temperate is another way. Wine is not prohibited in Scripture, nor is it prohibited by Paul.

1 Timothy 5 .23, he even tells Timothy, use a little wine for your stomach's sake. But what this means here in this context, he's to be watchful.

He's to be vigilant. He's to be clear -headed about the decisions that he needs to make and how to lead the church.

He is called an overseer here in this passage and elsewhere. This is the one who is able to stand above the flock, not because of his status, but because he's watching over, like the shepherd.

The shepherd leads the flock to some grass, and the sheep have their heads down, and they're grazing on the grass.

He would usually find a place up high, up on a little hill or something, where he could watch out over, and then he can spot a predator coming and respond to it.

Well, this is what the shepherds of the church have to do. They have to be vigilant over the flock, personal care, of course, but also stand back and be able to kind of watch and see.

As you well know, the fads come down the pike, or I think we, a few weeks ago, likened it to the old, what do you call it, whack -a -mole game.

And I was wrong about the whack -a -mole game. I thought it had nine holes. The original arcade whack -a -mole had only five.

But now, if you're going to respond to heresies and the fads that come down the line,

I mean, it's like a whack -a -mole game with maybe 100 holes and all these moles popping up, and you need two mallets to whack them all down.

Part of the job of an elder is to stand back and evaluate these fads and to be able to say, is that biblical or is it not?

Or how unbiblical is it? Because usually, I've got an old saying, if it's new, it ain't true.

Now, you still have to evaluate that by the text of Scripture, but this is part of his responsibility.

He is to be sober -minded, self -controlled, and respectable. This is that word he uses up in 2 .8

to speak about how women are to adorn themselves with respectable apparel.

And remember, we said that word comes from the word cosmos or world. Well, what does that have to do with the world? Well, when

God made the world, he ordered it. So an elder has, in part of his mastery of his self, he has to be able to think through issues, think through topics, think, evaluate all of the different aberrations that come down the pike and take the

Scripture and apply it to each one of those situations. And then his ministry to others, his ministry to others.

He is to be hospitable, able to teach. This word hospitable comes from a compound word, from the word love and stranger, phyloxenon.

You ever heard of xenophobia? You know, if you believe a nation should have borders, you might be called a xenophobic.

That's Greek too, you know, fear of strangers. Well, an elder is supposed to be a lover of strangers. In the ancient world, people who traveled needed places to stay.

And Christians who would travel would want to stay in a place other than, you know, the

English word inn, you know? Stayed in the inn, no room in the inn. When you think of an inn nowadays, that's not what they had, okay?

It might be an English word to describe that, but inns back then, they were filthy, they were expensive, they were immoral places, they were dangerous places because people knew people traveling are going to be carrying money or valuables and so on.

They would be ready targets for being robbed and so on. So for Christians traveling, it would be very important to be able to find a home to stay in, some kind of accommodations where you can maybe stay with Christians for a night or two nights while you were on your journey.

And the elders were to lead in that ministry. To the best of their ability, they are to be open to the flock.

And by the way, this is also applied to all believers. Just virtually every single one of these is applied to all

Christians, by the way, okay? It's very important to see that. Romans 12 .13, it's applied to believers.

1 Timothy 5 .10, again, to the widow. She is supposed to be someone who is hospitable, okay, if she's going to be put on the list.

Hebrews 13 .2, 1 Peter 4 .9, it mentions it. This is universally applied to all believers.

One of the one -anothers is that we be hospitable to one another and so on. And then the only qualification related to giftedness and his functioning would be able to teach.

He is to be able to teach. And this, of course, is stated again in the requirements that Paul gives

Titus for the elders he's appointing on the island of Crete. It says, verse 9,

So he's got to do two things. He's got to know and teach what Scripture says, and he also has to have the spiritual manhood, the guts, to be willing to go to somebody and say, what you're teaching, what you're believing, is not biblical.

And nowadays, you know, that can trigger all kinds of emotional trauma. I mean, even if you tippy -toe to them and say, you know, you could be accused of, you're not loving, you're mean, you're not loving, you're mean, you're not loving, and all kinds of other things, right?

Simply because you just simply challenged something that they believe. But he's got to be able to do that, whether or not they want to hear it or not.

In 2 Timothy 2, 24 through 26, Paul says, And the Lord's servant, and here he uses the word doulos for slave, so he's not only an overseer, he's also a slave, must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil.

Why? Because he's going to be sniped at, picked at, criticized. Correcting his opponents with gentleness,

God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.

He's going to talk about snare of the devil here in just a minute also in 1 Timothy. But he's supposed to be able to teach.

Primary task, to be a teacher of God's Word. Communicate Scripture to people.

And it's very interesting in Titus, that requirement there, one of the reasons he gives further on down in that passage, talking about false teachers, he says,

Their mouths must be stopped. Must be stopped. He used a very graphic word there. Word for stoma.

We even have that word. A stoma could even be considered a surgical opening, like a tracheotomy. But it's a word for mouth.

Stoma. And it says, put over. Put over stoma. Cover their mouth.

Stop their mouth. Shut their mouths. I always imagined a great big roll of duct tape, but they didn't have duct tape back then.

So even then, how do you apply that now? With social media. You don't have to go out and find false teaching.

It's going to come and find you. So it requires discernment. It requires knowledge of Scripture.

And it also requires the ability and the willingness to say, Hold it. Time out. That's not biblical.

Because the fads come along, and they just roll through the church, and much of the church, professing church, absorbs it, believes it, teaches it, and so on.

Just because a lot of people in evangelical circles go after some teaching does not make it scriptural.

You always, always, always have to bring it under the scrutiny of the Word of God. And this is one of the jobs of the elders.

They have to do that. And they have to be willing to say, That's not biblical. And warn their flock away from it.

So, as ministry to others, hospitable, able to teach. And then his temperament. His temperament.

It says in verse 3, Not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, and then not a lover of money is a different category.

First thing under temperament, not a drunkard. All of the usages of this, and there's two of them in scripture, speak about one who is addicted to wine.

Addicted to wine. He cannot be addicted to wine. And of course, we know in our generation, 21 centuries later, there's a whole lot of things somebody could be addicted to.

He cannot be addicted to them. Why? Because what you are addicted to controls you. He must be a person who is controlled by the

Spirit of God. This is what Paul does in Ephesians 5 .18, that famous passage about being filled with the

Spirit. He sets that over and against being drunk with wine. Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the

Spirit. Why? If you're drunk with wine, you're controlled by the wine. If you're filled with the Spirit, you're controlled by the

Spirit. You are controlled with whatever fills you. And if you're filled with an addiction of any kind, you cannot be filled with the

Spirit. People, even in Scripture, are filled with rage. And if they're filled with rage, they do things that are sinful and wrong.

And this is why he can't be a drunkard or addicted to wine. And it's very closely related to not violent.

And that just makes sense. Not a striker. Not somebody who is quick to want to go to blows, as it said, about something.

And this is right next to being a drunkard in this passage and also in the passage in Titus 1.

And you can just think, why? Because how often do you hear of a report or a news story about some kind of a stabbing or a shooting or some kind of violent crime outside of a bar?

Talk to any law enforcement officer and you can say, what's the connection between drunkenness or drug use and violence?

And they're going to tell you, well, there's a lot of connection here. Not a drunkard. Not violent.

In contrast to that, but gentle. He says, but gentle. He has to deal gently with people, lovingly.

Doesn't mean he's not willing to reprove, rebuke, and exhort, as it says in 2 Timothy, but he can do that in a gentle way.

And then not quarrelsome. It means without quarrels, very simply.

He's not somebody who wants to fight about everything and even to argue about things. No, there's nothing wrong with arguing about Scripture.

It depends on how you do it. Some people want to, and you know so well, in the comments.

There could be a statement that's very straightforward and sound. Somebody writes a little article, and then the comment, comment, comment, and it just degenerates.

Somebody is offended by somebody else's comment and so on. They just want to fight over every little thing.

This is not something elders should do, participate in. They shouldn't be like that. His temperament needs to be not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome.

And again, he says in Timothy, he's going to have to endure evil, right, because he's going to be spoken against.

He will. He just can't help it. If you stand for the Word of God, if you stand for godliness, if you teach it and preach it, you're going to be criticized no matter what.

But he can't respond in an inappropriate way. Okay. And then, F, his money, without the love of money.

It doesn't say without money. Okay, back to first chapter 5.

He is to be, if he's a preacher and teacher, he's worthy of double honor. But he just cannot be addicted to the love of money, and money can't be his motive for what he does.

That is something that disqualifies him from being an elder. And we all know you can just easily find so many examples of that out there in the broader evangelical world, so to speak.

The word evangelical just has lost its meaning as far as I'm concerned. I can't think of a better word. Somebody needs to invent a better word.

But for now, I guess we'll just use it. Bigger quotes, right? And then, G, his household management.

It says that in verse 4, he must manage his own household well.

There again, this word good being used as an adverb. With all dignity, keeping his children submissive.

And then verse 5, it's kind of a parenthetical statement telling you why.

Four, if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? Rhetorical question, answer is he can't.

He will not be able to do that. His household, his children, with dignity, submissive children.

Why is it important to keep children submissive and with dignity? Because they don't want to be. And so it can't possibly mean, it doesn't mean sinless or perfect or anything like that.

We all know, if you're a parent, you know there aren't going to, if you've ever been a child, you know that it's not about perfection.

Basically, what he's saying, you've got to control their sinful tendencies. And that's part of management of a home.

Not perfect, not in absolute squeaky clean perfection.

If you see that, it's probably not really true. His household management, though, is how he needs to be, one of the ways, one of the parameters that he can be evaluated for his responsibility for the church.

If he cannot manage his own household, of course, what he's saying is that he may not be qualified to be a manager of God's people within the church.

And then H, his spiritual maturity, not a new Christian. He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

We get our word neophyte from this word here. Not a brand new Christian. And that just makes common sense, right?

How can you put somebody in charge over a group of people? They're spiritualized and they're feeding and leading a flock if he's a brand new believer.

Time is your friend in these situations. Time is your friend, time and maturity. What happens if you do put him in that position?

He may become puffed up with conceit. And if that happens, he may fall into the condemnation of the devil or into the judgment of the devil.

Pride was the original sin of Satan, Isaiah chapter 14. Repeatedly he says,

I will, I will, I will, I will ascend to the most high, and so on. And this has to be understood.

What is he talking about, the pride of the devil? Does he mean he'll fall into that sin, maybe, or the condemnation that Satan incurred by falling into that sin?

That may be part of the picture as well. Certainly, he could, if he's puffed up with conceit, it's not going to go well with him.

It's a negative thing. He could fall into the judgment that the devil incurred, but he could also come under the condemnation by the devil.

Satan loves to point out flaws in Christian leadership. He just loves to do that, whether they're real or not.

And so his private life being critical to his ability to be qualified in the public arena of the church, if he's a brand -new

Christian, he may not have the spiritual maturity to endure all of these other things. And even he may respond to criticism in a way that is biblically inappropriate.

And then, once again, we sort of come full circle, his reputation outside the church. It says, moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.

Verse 6, the condemnation of the devil, here, into a snare of the devil. Some translations use the word reproach there as well.

It has the same concept, even though it's a different word. He brackets this whole thing by saying he needs to be above reproach.

There can be all kinds of attempts to accuse him, to attack him, as it will, with anybody who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus.

But if he does that, if he's not thought of by outsiders, he may fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.

Satan wants to set snares. He wants to accuse. He wants to bring disgrace upon the church and upon the gospel.

And it's important that those who lead the church, as well as the rest of us, make sure that the accusations are not true, or we could fall into a snare of the devil.

He uses this word devil there. It means slanderer, liar. Satan is a liar. He wants to lie about the church, lie about its people, lie about its leaders.

So, the position of elders is very important in the church.

Probably the most important thing that Timothy has to do here with these churches here in Ephesus while Paul is away.

It had gone wrong to some level as far as the elders were in this church.

And it's so important that the churches select qualified elders. So, a lot of ground to cover there, probably some questions.

Do you have any questions or comments about any of this that we've seen so far? You have to bring in the other passages as well.

Titus and other passages in 2 Timothy. Well, let's go ahead and pray since I've used up all the time.

Oh, and before we pray, let me just make a little practical application here. The importance of elders in the church.

You and I and all of us, we should thank God that we can come to a church that has a high view of Scripture and that has a doctrinal statement that reflects a high view of Scripture and that has leadership that wants to implement that in the ministries of the church.

It's a dying species in our country and around the world. And you need to thank

God, and so do I, that we can be here and experience this. So, additional practical application.

If you're not a member of this church, why not? If you're a Christian, join this church. Help out.

We don't know what the future holds, and what you see now going on out there could get worse.

It may not, but we need to pull together and help this church. Pray for the leadership in this church because it's dying out in this country and around the world.

So, before we pray, I just want to make sure you know that the elders did not ask me to say that.

Okay? They did not ask me to say that. They wanted to pay me to say it, but I said, no,

I can't do that. That wouldn't be ethical. No, they didn't. They didn't at all. I really truly believe that. So, let's pray.

Father, we do thank you for your Word today, for the clarity of your Word, the conviction that it brings, but also the fact that we know if we're obedient to it, there's a blessing to be had.

We thank you for your Spirit who is our teacher and for what you are accomplishing through your Scriptures. And now,

Father, as we gather to worship you, we pray that you would give great strength and encouragement to those who lead us, to those who lead us in song, to the preaching and teaching of your

Word from the pulpit. We just thank you for that. We know it's a privilege that we have. So, give great blessing to those who lead and help us all to be quick to obey what we hear and learn.

And we just thank you in Jesus' name and ask that you would accomplish all of these things for your great glory.

In Jesus' name, amen. Forgiveness Jesus, He has risen

Jesus, He's alive

Opened the gates of heaven

His death has brought us life

Come see what