Biblical Leadership

Providence Baptist Church

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Amen. Christ is King. In October of 2022, a crazy thing happened.

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Elon Musk bought Twitter. It's a strange way to begin a sermon,

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I know, but hear me out. When Musk bought Twitter, he essentially walks into the office and he starts cleaning house.

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He fires executives, he lays off folks, he introduces reforms.

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Now, you may or may not agree with all of that, but that's not the point that I want to make here.

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The point here is, do you know why Elon Musk did that stuff?

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Because Twitter is his now. He is essentially the boss.

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It's his company and he can structure that company however it is that he sees fit.

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That brings us to the point today. Elon Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter.

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So he bought it, he purchased it, he can run it as he sees fit.

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Not to be Jesus -juki here, but think about that.

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2 ,000 years ago, Christ bought the church with something far more valuable than $44 billion.

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Acts 20, 28 says it this way, that he purchased the church with his own blood.

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So what does that mean for us today? Well, actually it means lots of things, but for today, the focus is this.

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Since Christ purchased the church, she is

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His. And He can do whatever it is that He sees fit with His church.

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Christ, the head of the church, who loves the church, who gave His life for the church, has dictated to us in His Word how it is that He desires the church to be.

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And that's what we're doing in this series. We're preaching a series which is really different for me. Usually it's through books of the

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Bible, but right now we've paused Ephesians and we're preaching a series on ten distinctives of Perryville Second Baptist Church.

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We're seeking Christ's vision for the church. And today we come to the distinctive of leadership.

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And in Christ's church, He has appointed two offices. Elders or pastors, interchangeable terms, and deacons.

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Turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter 5. Today we talk about the distinctive of biblical leadership.

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We must have Christ's vision for the church when it comes to the leadership of the church.

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Now again, just listen. Think for just a moment how serious these matters are since Christ has purchased the church with His own blood.

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For example, if you do this thing, you can do this now, I would never do this.

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Well, number one, I don't have the kind of money to just do this transaction online, but also

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I just like to see stuff. But if you want to, you can custom order a vehicle on the

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Internet. You can pay for exactly what you want. And let's say, I don't know my vehicles well enough to make this analogy, but let's just use it.

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Let's say you pay for a nice truck, four wheel drive, four door, a beautiful truck.

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And what you get when you show up is a minivan. What are you going to do about that?

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You're not going to accept it. Why? It's not what you paid for. So listen, Christ purchased the church with His own blood.

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Not merely individual persons, but He purchased a people, the church. How serious then are local churches to be about what

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Christ wants in His church? And so we've been looking at these distinctives, and I'll read the preamble.

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We've read it a few different times, but it's important. The preamble is, our distinctive says,

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We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ, truly God and truly man, risen from the dead and now seated at the right hand of God the

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Father Almighty, as King of all, is worthy of a healthy church in Perryville, Arkansas.

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We believe taking these ten distinctives together sets us apart as a local church in the location where God has planted us.

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These distinctives do not exhaust all of our beliefs as a body, but they are a non -negotiable part of who we are as a local church.

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We hold these truths according to the Bible for the purpose of the good of one another and the good of our community, and ultimately for Christ's honor and glory.

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We're seeking to be a healthy church. We're a Baptist church, which I equate with biblical, but we're seeking to make sure that everything that we do is under the kingship of Christ.

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So far we've covered biblical sufficiency, biblical holiness. Today, biblical leadership. Would you stand with me? Surely you've found 1

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Peter 5 by now, and let's honor the reading of God's Word. So Peter says this in 1 Peter chapter 5.

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He says, so I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

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And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

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Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your Word. We pray that you would bless the reading and preaching of your

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Word today. Lord, may we sit under the preaching today with this reality in the forefront of our hearts and minds.

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Christ is King. Lord, may our answer right now to you be yes.

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Our answer is yes. Now instruct us what it is that we're to do from your Word. Challenge us today.

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Encourage us today. Equip us today. Convict us today. Lord, there are some here who need to be converted.

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Draw them to yourself. I pray that they would repent and believe the Gospel. That they, even today, that they would choose

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Christ because of your grace that moves first.

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We pray, Lord, that Jesus would be honored in all that we do. And we pray that the church would be healthy.

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Help us to always be reforming according to your Word. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated.

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So let's look at this biblical leadership. This is in your bulletin insert, but I'm just going to read that.

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We believe local churches... This is our distinctive here, the leadership of the church. We believe local churches are to be led by qualified godly men who are able to teach.

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In the Scriptures, these men are referred to as elders, pastors, bishops, overseers.

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These different titles make up the one office ordinarily referred to as elders or pastors in the

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New Testament. Each local church had a plurality of elders who were responsible for shepherding

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God's flock. As churches are able, they ought to have a plurality of elders as well. These pastors are equal in oversight over God's church, but each is gifted differently so that the main preaching duties will ordinarily fall upon one man, particularly in smaller churches.

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We believe the only other office besides pastors in the local church is that of deacons. All church members ought to serve the church, but the office of deacon is particularly designed by God for qualified men to assist elders with the physical needs of the church so as to help free the pastors for labor in the ministry of the word and prayer.

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To me, I read that, obviously, I wrote it, so I agree with it, right? But I read that, I was like, that is so, to me, plain in the

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Scriptures, but I hope to flesh that out today. Now, three things I want to emphasize based on that. Number one, churches who have qualified men ought to have a plurality of elders.

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Not every church out there, per se, necessarily has qualified men in order to have a plurality of elders, but if a bigger church ought to, but if, you know,

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I'm thinking of a real small church or whatever, but a church that has qualified men ought to have plurality of pastors.

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Number two, just three things to emphasize about what I just read. Number two, it's

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God's responsibility to call pastors, okay? God calls pastors. It's the church's responsibility to affirm that call by observing the lives and abilities of men who aspire to the office of elder.

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In other words, you can't just walk in and you just say, I want to be an elder, right? I want to be a pastor.

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No, no, it's a God -called thing, and the church's responsibility is to affirm that call if it really is the

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Lord calling. Well, no, because of the evidences in your life. So if God is calling a man, the church ought to affirm that.

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And then thirdly, a deacon's responsibility is not oversight, but to help the operations of the church run smoothly.

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In essence, assisting the elders or the pastors so that the mission of the church continues without hindrance.

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So just three general things to emphasize there. Now, we're going to begin our sermon in 1

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Peter 5, but we can't stay here ultimately because it doesn't talk about deacons, but we're going to talk about first and foremost pastors.

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Then we'll talk about deacons. But let me say this. I think that there are men in the church that meet the qualifications of pastors and deacons that we'll look at.

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And so church, my charge to you this morning is, you must be wise. We must be discerning.

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We must seek the Lord. And then we must obey what God has called us to do. So the whole church in this morning needs to listen carefully to this message as we think about the days ahead.

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Now, number one, first thing to consider, who are pastors? So verse one, who are pastors? So the text says,

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I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ.

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This is Peter writing to the dispersion, the elect exile, sorry, the elect exiles.

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And so Peter says that he exhorts, that is he makes an earnest appeal to the elders among you.

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Now, in Baptist life, the term elder is, we don't use it that much. It can be foreign to us, but it really shouldn't be because the term elder is just a biblical term.

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It doesn't mean old people. It's just talking about an office here. Well, how do I know that? Because look at what it says in verse two, shepherd the flock that we'll learn later in the sermon.

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That means to pastor the flock. So he exhorts the elders to shepherd, right?

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So who are the shepherds? Who are the pastors? Who are the elders, the bishops, the overseers?

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This is all one office. So some denominations, they try to just, you know, they got pastors, they got elders, they got bishops, they got whatever.

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Okay, those are all the same thing. Elders, pastors, overseers, bishops. It's all one office. The office of pastor, the office of elder.

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And then there's the other office, the office of deacon, okay? So number one, what is a pastor?

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It is an office. It is an office. That should be in your outline. You can look at Philippians 1, 1,

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I'll just read it to you. There's two offices in the church, pastors and deacons. Philippians 1, 1 says this, listen carefully because, don't you love the

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Word of God? Each word matters, and whether it's in the singular or the plural matters.

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So listen to this. To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, so he's writing to the church at Philippi, and then he says, with the overseers, plural, and deacons, plural.

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So in the church at Philippi, for example, the elders, the pastors, the overseers, the bishops, plural, deacons, plural.

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So think about that as we go on. All churches in the

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New Testament had a plurality of pastors.

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Now, what does that mean? Now, listen, the scholarship here is just going to blow your mind. The word plurality, do you know what that means?

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Just get ready, brace yourself. It means more than one. That's all it means, right?

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Big word for a simple concept. So it means two or three or more.

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Plurality, it's all it means. In order for Paul to say, for example, at the church at Philippi, overseers, there had to be at least how many?

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At least two, right? So that's all we mean by that. Let me give you another example, and you can turn here if you want,

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Acts 14. But in Acts 14, do you remember what happens to Paul? He's sent out on his first missionary journey.

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He's sent out by the church at Antioch. Listen to his boldness. He's preaching at Lystra, and the

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Jews come down there and they stir up crowds against him. And so they pelt him with rocks. They stone him and they think that he's dead.

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And so they drag him out of the city. Now, I don't know about you, but I know what I would be tempted to do after that.

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If I weren't dead, I would be tempted to crawl away and get away as far from Lystra as I could.

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But what Paul does is he gets back up. He's not dead. He goes back into the city.

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And the next day he's preaching the gospel. And you know what happens when the gospel's preached in Acts?

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Go look. I think sometimes we misunderstand Acts if we don't get this point.

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When the gospel's preached in Acts, guess what happens? Churches are formed.

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And so churches are formed. And so Acts 14, 23 says this. Listen very carefully to the grammar.

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And when they had appointed elders, plural, for them in every church, singular, with prayers and fasting, they committed them to the

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Lord in whom they had believed. Now, I love that the Bible is so clear. God could have made it confusing if he had so chosen.

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I mean, he couldn't because he's not a God of confusion. But for example, the verse could read like this. They appointed elders in all the churches.

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So you could or they appointed all the churches had elders or whatever. Like you could have had churches, plural, elders, plural, and you could have been confused.

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Well, maybe not every church should have a plurality of elders because you can't really tell. But the verse is so plain.

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What did the first church do? They appointed in every church, singular, elders, plural, okay?

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So God thought that it was wise then to have a plurality of elders in each of his local churches.

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Now you hear that and you think this. Yeah, okay, Quattro. I hear you, but, but I've never seen it done that way before.

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Now that's every Baptist favorite verse, isn't it? I've never seen it done that way before.

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It's not a verse, right? Let me say this. When something is done for a long period of time, it's actually unwise to be hasty about just saying, well, that's right, let's get rid of that, right?

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Here's what's happening real quick, if I may. In the world today, there are people looking at Christianity and they are seeing a problem, right?

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Everybody's seeing a problem with Christianity. And so there's two major responses to this problem. One response is we're throwing out all tradition.

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We're doing everything new, get rid of everything that feels like it was old, like get rid of the hymnals, get rid of all that kind of stuff.

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And we're just everything, fog machine, laser lights, everything will dance up here. We'll do all this crazy stuff because we want to reject everything that's wrong in the church today.

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That's not what we're doing. Because the other response is this. We're going to examine the church today and we're going to do what is biblical.

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And if there are things that are traditional that need to stay, they ought to stay. And if there are things that are traditional that need to be dismissed, they ought to be dismissed.

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So you don't just throw something out quickly just because it's tradition. Right now, let's think this through.

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In the New Testament then, the churches had a plurality of pastors. That is multiple men, more than one man, who was responsible for the oversight, for the preaching, for the teaching of the church.

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But today, a lot of churches don't do this. Why is that? Well, I'm not going to satisfy your curiosity because I've read,

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I've studied, I've examined the scriptures, and ultimately here is the answer that I have for you. I don't know.

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I don't know why so many churches are doing that. I mean, I have theories about westward expansion in America.

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It makes sense in my mind as we came further and further west, and as men came, and as churches were planted, maybe you had smaller churches, and you had less qualified men, and so you had churches just kind of start with a pastor and deacons.

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Maybe, but I don't have a good answer. But the point is, somewhere we just quit doing what the

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Bible says when it comes to church leadership. One biblical tradition we did keep is what?

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And by the way, I think this is biblical, but we kept a plurality of deacons. Most Baptist churches maintain a plurality of deacons.

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That means more than one. Why is that? Well, I think, one, it's easier to be a deacon in this sense.

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In this sense, the qualifications of a deacon, they require, and we'll look at these later, holy men, but they don't require the gift of teaching.

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A pastor must be able to teach. A deacon is not required to teach. But here's another reason, and this is on pastors.

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Another reason I think this is the case is because pastors have done a poor job shepherding the flock like Peter says.

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That is, pastors come to this or that church. They spend a year here. They spend two years over here.

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They spend six months over here, and they come in, and then they move out so fast that the deacons have understandably, though unbiblically, taken upon the role and responsibility of elders, even though we have to keep a distinction between deacons and elders.

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But the point remains here. Tradition has become that we have one pastor and a plurality of deacons, and then these deacons wind up being a sort of governing arm of the church, an authoritative board, if you will.

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Okay, let me say this very clearly. I hope everybody's tuned in and listening. You will not find this model in the

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Bible. I challenge you. Go home this afternoon, search the scriptures, and look for one place in the scripture that shows you one pastor and a plurality of deacons who sit over that pastor as though they are the governing arm or governing board of the church.

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In fact, even look in the, find one church in the New Testament that only had one pastor.

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You will not find that. And the question is, is the Bible sufficient to instruct us?

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Furthermore, these things matter to our

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Lord Jesus Christ. He purchased the church with his blood, and he gets to decide how the church is to be ran.

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So how did this happen? The short story is it just solely progressed over the years, in my opinion, so that the biblical model now, you start talking about this, people think you're a weirdo, but that's because of our tradition.

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But what we're trying to do here is to consider not my vision or your vision or a culture's vision or the

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Bible's vision. We want to know Christ's vision for the church. And so we don't just dismiss tradition altogether, but we do weigh it against the

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King's book. And if the King's book says our tradition is an error, then we go with the Bible over tradition.

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So hear me, we cannot get lazy here, right? We have to surrender to Christ's vision for the church.

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So that is the model that we have to take as God gives us qualified, God called, holy, mature men.

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We examine their lives, and as biblical prudence dictates, we place them in the office of pastor.

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It's actually very simple. So who are pastors? Number one, it's an office. Secondly, pastors are men of proper character and gifting.

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Number one, it's an office. Number two, they're men of proper character and gifting. Look at our text. Go back to 1

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Peter 5 verse 2. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

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That is, these men that Peter is addressing are to be holy examples to the flock.

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They're not to be greedy for gain. They're not in this for the money. They're not in this for the pride to domineer, the text says, over those in their charge.

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We could spend months preaching about this, but the overarching point is not just any person can be a pastor.

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Now go to 1 Timothy chapter 3. We'll be back over here in just a minute for deacons, but flip to your left if you're in 1

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Peter. Flip to your left to 1 Timothy chapter 3. Let me just read. I'll just read and just mention.

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And then we'll go back to 1 Peter 5. So it's important. This is just kind of the classic text. This saying is trustworthy.

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1 Timothy 3 verse 1. The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, that is overseer, pastor, elder, bishop.

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If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Okay, so what must an overseer be?

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Therefore an overseer, verse 2, must be above reproach. The husband, is that, that's important, right?

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He must be the husband of one wife, sober. By the way, that doesn't mean that he can't be a single man.

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It means that, it means that if he's married, it's to the same woman, okay?

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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.

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He must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive.

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For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?

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He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

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Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.

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So here's the point. Pastors are godly men of qualified character and gifting.

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Two, or three, sorry. Back to 1 Peter. Pastors are not a higher class of Christians, okay?

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What is a pastor? It's an office. Two, pastors are men of proper character and gifting. Three, pastors are not a higher class of Christian.

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Here's where I get this, 1 Peter 5. So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as partaker in the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God that is what?

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Important. Among you. Among you. In other words,

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I'm warning us here. I'm cautioning us. We should be careful of over -professionalizing the office of pastor.

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In fact, I think this is a huge problem in the Southern Baptist Convention today if I can go off on a little bit of a tangent.

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That is, we have worried about men of degrees and men of doctorates, and we have neglected to care about men of calling and conviction and character.

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Friends, I'm not saying that degrees are wrong. Education is good.

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Degrees are good. Study is good. But we must be wary of over -professionalizing the ministry.

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The text says that they are to shepherd the flock of God among you. That is, they're not CEOs. They're not locked in an ivory tower.

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They are pastors in the pastor, as it were, with the flock. They are called out among the local church body to pastor.

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They're pastors. Sorry, they're Christians first, they're church members second, and they're pastors third.

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A pastor is a man of character and possesses the gift of teaching. He's called by God. He's set apart by the church to pastor, and we must be careful of over -professionalizing the office.

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All right, big point number two. What do pastors... Okay, that's what a pastor is. A God -called, God -gifted man, husband of one wife, man of character.

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Okay, but what do pastors do? Well, the text says this in verse 2, 1

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Peter 5, verse 2, shepherd the flock of God. So what do pastors do?

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Well, here's what they do. They work one day a week. They golf six days a week, right?

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Shame on pastors that that has become the trope. There are pastors who do that, and the pastors that do that are charlatans.

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What do pastors really do? 1 Peter 5, 2. They pastor. That's what the word means.

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They shepherd. That's where the word pastor comes from in verse 2. It's a verb, really.

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We talk about pastor as a noun, and that's mentioned in Ephesians 4, 11. It is a noun there, but it's also a verb.

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To pastor is to shepherd. That's what 1 Peter 5, 2 means. It's the Latin word.

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It comes from the Latin... Sorry, the word pastor comes from the Latin word, which means shepherd.

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So when Peter exhorts the elders of the churches, he exhorts them to pastor.

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Pastors gotta pastor. But what does it mean to pastor? What does Peter mean by shepherding the flock of God?

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Well, let me remind us of something real quick. The church is not the pastor's flock, right? Verse 2, shepherd the flock of God.

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There is gonna be a rude awakening. I can preach against pastors, right? I am a pastor. There's a crisis of unconverted pastors.

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There's a crisis of lazy pastors. There's a crisis of careless and cowardly pastors in pulpits today.

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And one day they'll stand before God, and they will give an account to God because the flock that they are pastoring is not their flock.

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Whose flock is it? Verse 2, shepherd the flock of God.

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Again, Acts 20, 28. Paul says, pay careful attention to yourselves. This is to the plurality of elders at Ephesus, by the way.

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Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which

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He obtained with His own blood. The church is Christ's church. It is not the deacon's church.

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It's not one group of people in the congregation's church. It's not the pastor's church.

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It's God's church. And God purchased a church with His own blood.

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Friends, on the cross, a purchase was made. The blood of Christ paid for His people bearing the full measure of God's wrath.

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Jesus bought the church so that all those who turn from their sins and put their faith in Christ are accounted among that number.

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And then that's why it's so foolish to hear the silly things we say in our world today.

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Like, you don't have to go to church to be a Christian. You're like, wait a second, but Jesus bought the church.

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What a glorious transaction. And so the church gathers and we know that Jesus's payment was enough because Jesus rose again from the grave and forgiveness of sins is proclaimed in His name.

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We go out to every door in Perryville and we proclaim the full and free pardon of sins for any person that will repent and believe the gospel.

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And the church is God's church. And let me say this, friends. The verse in 1

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Peter makes zero sense without church membership. In other words, look at verse two. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, right?

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Look at verse three. Not domineering, listen to this. It's so like church membership, it like reaches out from the

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Bible and just slaps you in the face. But I don't know, it's like people just miss it. Or at least look at verse three. Not domineering those in your charge.

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How does a pastor know the flock of God that is among him? How does a pastor know those who are entrusted to his charge?

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Well, it's my argument that we don't understand these verses apart from some type of formal declaration of church membership, right?

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So this is one reason you ought to be a viable member of the local church because Christians need pastored.

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Now, what does it mean to shepherd the flock? I would say this in verse two again. Shepherd the flock of God.

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What does that mean? Well, I would say the primary, according to the scriptures, the primary shepherding that pastors do is what we'll call word ministry.

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So that is laboring to study and to teach the full counsel of the scriptures to the people of God.

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So this is publicly teaching, publicly preaching, privately counseling, evangelizing, word ministry.

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In fact, let me say this. The Bible must be everything to the pastor. Do you hear me? The Bible must be everything to the pastor.

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So much so that if we have a visitor that comes in and they sit in one of our chairs and they leave the building and they say this,

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I don't really believe the Bible. But that man behind the pulpit does.

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Because the Bible is everything. We have to be serious about this book.

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The pastors must lay aside pragmatic nonsense. They must lay aside the fear of man. They must pick up their

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Bibles and they must preach the word of God to the people. And they must be holy men.

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Pastors must be holy men preaching and living out God's word.

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Pastors labor in the scriptures. It is a soul caring ministry. A pastor, listen to this very carefully.

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A pastor must be more concerned about your soul than anything else about you.

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Not that he's not also concerned about other things. You have to have the cancer spot removed on your arm. He's concerned about that.

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He visits you in the hospital. He prays with you. He's concerned. Your vehicle is out and you need some help.

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You need some money in order to restore your vehicle. And he's concerned about that. He's concerned.

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However, what he is concerned about you more than anything else, more than your car, more than your children as it were, more than your health issues, more than your money, what he's concerned about more than anything else is your soul.

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Shepherding is word saturated, soul caring ministry. In fact, let me say this.

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Sometimes pastors have to make the hard decision of hurting someone's feelings if it is for the good of their soul.

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That's just reality. I would also say this. Pastors must keep the gospel at the forefront of their ministry because the gospel is everything.

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That is the finished work of Christ and God reconciling sinners to Himself through Christ by His righteous life,

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His substitutionary death, His vicarious death, victorious resurrection.

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And the fact to think about this, God is for the church. Did you know that? God is for the church.

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Man, I know that we're... I'm going to say this at the end, but I'll say it again right here. I think that God is working here. And I think that God is doing a work here like I've never seen in my own ministry.

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And I'm so encouraged. I've talked with people about baptism and church membership and visitors and all those things.

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Like all these things are happening and people are hungry. And so what we're doing here is not just for show and not just like Christ is king, you know, like trying to be prideful or anything.

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Like we're humble and God is at work here, but there's no one that is more for the church than God.

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He's for the church. And the fact that God is for us in Christ and the beauty of grace and God's sovereign work in our lives.

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All of this is at the forefront of pastoral ministry because we've got nothing here without Christ.

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In fact, part of the gospel reality is that Christ loves the church so dearly that he's given her pastors to shepherd his people.

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That's what Ephesians 4 says. So pastors are charged by God to make the gospel not just a priority in their ministry, but the priority.

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So their teaching and their lives commend the gospel. They're holy men. They're godly men.

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They are patient men. They are knowledgeable men. They are faithful men. They are courageous men. They are humble men.

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And now listen to this very, very quickly because they're not perfect men. So they are also repenting men.

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Man, if there's anybody that can lead out in repentance today, it ought to be pastors because of Christ.

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And then I want to make one more point here in verse 2 where it says, that is among you shepherd the flock of God that is among you.

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Okay, just a re -emphasis here. Pastors got a pastor in the pasture as it were. What I mean is that I have a slight beef here.

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Listen, pastors have to live among the people. What I'm saying is they don't just show up on Sunday and preach and then you can't find them the rest of the week.

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They don't give you their cell phone number. If you can't reach them, you need to talk to the department over here or whatever.

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They treat the church like a CEO. No, don't get me wrong.

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Time off is important. Family time is vital. Personal time is necessary. But we can't have pastors who distance themselves from the people that God has entrusted to them who are not available to visit, not available to counsel.

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They pastor in among the flock. They must be vigilant in soul care, praying for the flock, counseling, teaching, preaching, evangelizing.

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And I would also add, this involves protecting from wolves. What kind of shepherd lets wolves in to destroy the flock?

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Verse two, shepherd the flock of God that is among you. You understand that there's an aspect of shepherding that is beating the wolves over the face, right?

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Okay, let me say this. And I actually, I want to say this carefully and helpfully.

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And if you have a question about what I'm going to say, let me, just ask me after church. I want to talk to you more about it.

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But in 2000, whatever, when Barack Obama was president, they, there was this big deal that they signed a whatever, executive or whatever it was.

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They made it where women could fight on the front lines. Okay.

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And so there's a lot of people that celebrated that. Look how great, look how wonderful, look how progressive we are and look how equal we are in the world today that we let our women, we let our daughters and we let our sisters and we let our moms and we let our wives fight for us on the front lines.

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That's not progressive. That's putrid. That's cowardly.

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Men stand on the front lines. Men go out to battle. Men fight.

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Okay, so take this into the pastoral ministry. There's big, big dust up in the

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Southern Baptist Convention today. Can women be pastors? Let me say this.

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Not only is it, it's obvious, it's clear from 1 Timothy 3, we've already read it, right? The husband's one wife. Well, also 1

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Timothy 2, Paul says, I don't permit a woman to teach. I have authority over a man. Okay, but let me also offer this.

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For a man, I actually read this this week, for a man to say to a woman, you can be a pastor, is just as cowardly as putting a woman on the front lines.

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Why? Because part of the pastor's job is to do what? Fight wolves. And so we say, the godly men are the one who stand on the front lines in the church and who ward off the false teachers and who ward off the wolves.

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We don't put that burden or responsibility on a woman. Not because they're not godly and holy women. Praise God that they are, but because God hasn't trusted men.

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He's called men, not because men are better, but because this is the way that God has designed it in His good roles for creation.

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Pastors must ward off the wolves.

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Okay, so much there. There's one more thing I need to say about this. Turn to 1

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Timothy 5, because I think this is important for our church as we think through this. So go back to your left a little bit and go to 1

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Timothy chapter 5, and then you can just stay there because we'll go to 1 Timothy 3 in just a minute. But pastors labor in the

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Word. They pray. They shepherd the flock. They love the flock. They lead the flock.

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They lead the flock. They fight for the flock. They equip the flock for the work of ministry.

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So much more I can say there, but in 1 Timothy 5, 17, it says this. This is important. 1 Timothy 5, 17, let the elders, plural, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.

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Okay, what is this? We see a plurality of elders here given responsibility and oversight, but we see a bit of a distinction here.

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We see this group of elders who rule well, but then we see especially those. There's a distinction made among the elders, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.

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What is this? This is what we call, this is an important phrase here. This is what we call the first among equals principle.

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The first among equals principle. That is God's design is a plurality of elders, but not every elder is gifted in the same way.

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Some are going to remain in full -time work outside of the church. Some will be cared for by the local church to end up shouldering the majority of the teaching and preaching duties.

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That's the ones in 1 Timothy 5, 17, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.

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So the question has been, what will that look like here? What will that look like at Second Baptist Church of Perryville to affirm a plurality of pastors?

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Well, some things might look different, but a lot of things are going to look the same. I've had conversation with this months ago with some people and they're just confused about this, but I believe rather strongly, right, that I'm called here to be the main preacher and teacher.

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Like I am right now. But what we think about is as God brings others or we observe the life of others and we feel they're called to ministry, we add them on as an equal in pastoral oversight and care and responsibility for souls.

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But that doesn't mean that now Quattro doesn't ever preach. No, he preaches the vast majority of Sundays, mornings that is.

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So this is what I mean by first among equals principle. But before moving on, we're going to get to deacons. Before moving on, let me just ask.

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This is the question I've been wanting to ask you the whole sermon, but we had to get to that stuff first. So here's the question.

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Why think about this rationally for just a moment and humbly under the authority of the scriptures? Why would a church not want this?

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Think about that. Why would a church not want more qualified men praying for you, shepherding you, serving you, caring for your soul, pastoring?

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Let me say this. Surely there's no one in here so foolish as to think this. But do you look at me as an infallible man?

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You should not. Because I am not. I am a man in need of grace and it is

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God's good design for you and for me and for the church to have the church led by a plurality of qualified men for our good and Christ's glory.

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So listen very carefully. Write this down. Like, you don't take notes. You got a pen and paper. Write this down because I'm fixing to give you an assignment.

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Here is your assignment. You ready? Your assignment is this. Study the scriptures and pray.

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And right now, you begin with your, as my kids say, two beady little eyes.

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You begin with your two beady little eyes to watch men in this church, men of maturity, men of faithfulness, men of teaching abilities, men of holy character.

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And then it's the church's responsibility to say, if we have men like that, and I believe we do, it is the church's duty to examine the lives of such men who desire the office of overseer.

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And if they meet the biblical qualifications to enjoy, that is

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I -N -J -O -Y, in joy, affirm them in the office of overseer for the good of our church.

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Let me again reiterate, the reason a church must do these things is because of her love for Christ. This is

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Christ's book. This is the instruction we're obligated to follow and not just obligated to go by, but it's our joy and delight following God's word.

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Okay, next, thirdly and briefly. What about deacons? So you're already in 1 Timothy 5,

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I hope, go to 1 Timothy 3 again. What about deacons? What about deacons? 1

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Timothy 3, let's start in verse 8. 1 Timothy 3, let's start in verse 8. Deacons, likewise.

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So here's the two offices. 1 Timothy 3 is kind of the main portion. Two offices, overseers, deacons, elders, pastors, bishops, overseers, one office, second office, deacons.

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So deacons, verse 8, deacons, likewise, must be dignified. Not double tongue, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain.

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That is dignified, honorable character. Not double tongue. That is they shoot it straight.

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They don't tell this person one thing and that person another. They're men of honesty. They're not addicted to wine or other substances.

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They're not greedy. Verse 9, they must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.

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Okay, deacons are obligated before God to be gospel grounded men. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.

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A deacon is not called to preach in the same way that a pastor is, but he's called to know the faith and to live that out consistently.

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Now, he may street preach, he may preach the gospel, evangelism, such like that, but he's not called to preach in the same way that a pastor is called to preach.

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The point is deacons aren't perfect, but they should be able to say this. I'm holding the faith with a clear conscience.

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In other words, follow me as I follow Christ. A deacon's life ought to commend you to Christ.

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I made fun of pastors or I got on the pastoral bit, so let me say this about deacons. In Wake Forest, they have a mascot.

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Do you know what the mascot is? Wake Forest mascot. The demon deacons.

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Why is that a thing? Yeah, it's a thing because there are examples in the history of the church of such a thing.

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Deacons are not to be demon deacons. Their lives are to commend us to Christ.

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You ought to see the beauty and loveliness of Christ in the words and actions and beliefs of deacons.

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Deacon means servant, and you remember, Christ is the model servant, right? Christ came to serve

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His people, to give His life as our ransom. His service caused Him to suffer for us, to die for our sins.

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Deacons then have this model to follow. This is the model. The model is Christ, and they're to hold the mystery of the faith.

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They are to commend Christ in their words and actions. They must be

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Bible men. A deacon must cherish the book. They must read it. They must think on it.

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They must apply it. They must memorize it. They must teach it to their families. All Christians are to be people of the book, but even more so, those who've been called to a leadership position in the church like deacons.

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Verse 10, and let them also be tested first. Then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.

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In other words, you don't just say, you know what? I got to be careful about names because, you know, he's tossed out a name. You're talking about somebody.

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Let's say Zachariah. You know, Zachariah, he ought to be a deacon. Yep. All right.

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He's a deacon. No, that's not what the text says. Let them be tested. Then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.

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Verse 11, their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober minded, faithful in all things.

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Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children in their own households well. Now, I know there's disagreement over this, but it's my opinion for a couple of reasons.

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Biblically and practically, deacons are to be men. The reason holy men,

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God called men. The reason I think that is because I think of verse 11 when it says their wives, I think it actually refers to deacons, and pastors wives.

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I think the whole point Paul's making because he just kind of interjects that here. And I'll talk more about that in just a minute.

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And then he says, let deacons each be the husband of one wife. So I think it's biblical that deacons are men.

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I also think it's practical because deacons have to work very closely with the elders, with the pastors.

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And you don't want a situation where it's a woman and a man having to work together and late nights or whatever.

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It's just not wise. It's not practical. So I think both of the things are important. But notice back in verse 11, their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanders, but sober minded, faithful in all things.

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Listen very carefully. There's no office of pastor wife in the church. There's no office of deacon wife in the church.

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But it is true that the lives of the wives of deacons and elders must mimic that of the husbands.

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An unsaved or immature, ungodly woman, wife would disbar a man no matter what his character may be from being an elder or a deacon.

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Verse 13. For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

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I'll sum up verse 13 like this. A deacon's responsibility is great, but the reward is also great.

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Serve well, serving well. You make the gospel look beautiful. Now, what do deacons do? All right.

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The role of deacons is not overseer. It's not manager. It's not authority over the church, over the elders, any such thing.

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Rather, the role of the deacon is to come alongside the elders or pastors and to help assist them in such a way that the pastors can focus on the ministry of the

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Word. Phil Newton puts it this way. Elders cannot do everything that needs to be accomplished in the church.

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Deacons serve in partnership with elders as the second of two offices of the church bearing particularly the load related to service in physical and temporal areas.

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A strong deacon body lays the groundwork for effective elders, allowing elders to focus on their particular responsibilities while the deacons relieve them from necessary but mundane tasks.

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So here's a few thoughts I jotted down. What do deacons do? Here's a few thoughts. One, free the pastor up to focus on Word ministry.

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So that might be visitation at times. It might be working behind the scenes, prayer. Two, assist with church finances.

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This is a thought I have. I think it's why Paul says that deacons shouldn't be greedy. So I think it's helpful when deacons are involved with the finances of the church, not to lord it over the pastor.

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I'm just going to tell you from experience and from conversations. Sometimes deacons treat pastors as hirelings as though you work for us.

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No, no, no, no, no. That is not the biblical model. Next serve. That's what the word deacon means.

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A servant, but a deacon should be a leader in the church by serving in and with the church.

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Serve when no one else is watching. Serve when no one else knows that you're serving. See needs and address those needs.

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And those needs may be little. It may be like there's a piece of trash on the floor. I'm going to pick it up. It may also be like there's a window broken.

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Let me just, I'll just, I'll just say there's a window broken. Here's a great thing.

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Sure, you can run it by Brother Quatro, but you can also say there's a window broken. This is what happens at church.

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I'm not getting on anybody. This is what happens. This is what happens. I've been a pastor now for a while, been in ministry for nearly 20 years.

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This is what happens. Hey, Brother Quatro. Yes. Hey, there's a commode broken. OK, I just thought you needed to know.

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OK, let me stop studying. Let me stop the ministry of the word.

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And let me go fix the broken toilet. Now, I have no problem fixing a broken toilet.

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I have no problem cleaning a toilet. I have no problem doing many of the physical needs. I do those things. I do those things.

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I do them with joy. And don't think that I'm saying that I'm complaining. I'm not griping. I'm trying to show you the biblical.

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I'm trying to teach you the biblical model. The biblical model is the deacons come alongside and they say, hey,

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Brother Quatro, I want to let you know something. Yeah, there's a broken toilet. Oh, there is. Well, there was, I should say, already fixed it.

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Oh, praise God. You understand the difference? That's how it works. OK, next, be a model church member.

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So that is give and pray and serve and be involved. Yes, deacons work a lot behind the scenes, but they're also visible in the life of the church.

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So if someone comes to me and says, hey, what does a model church member look like? Then the church should be able to say, the elders should be able to say, look at the deacons.

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That's what a model church member looks like. Prioritize the Lord's day. Actively promote unity within the church.

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Help the church with building needs or with trip planning needs or with church van needs. Physical things to help the pastors be able to focus on word ministry.

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That's what deacons do. Well, somebody put it this way. Elders lead ministry. Deacons facilitate ministry.

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The congregation does ministry. I think that's pretty good. Elders lead ministry. Deacons facilitate ministry.

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The congregation does ministry. We're all in this together. This is the model for a healthy church.

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And Christ is worthy of a healthy church in Perryville, Arkansas.

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Think about this for just a moment. And don't take this rudely. What's he going to say when he prefaces something like that?

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We are in a podunk, out of the way, nowhere USA. I know you think a lot of Perryville and I do too.

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But 99 .99999 % of people in our country, probably 80 % of people in Arkansas or more, don't even know that Perryville exists.

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And yet here we are. Podunk USA. And here we are with all these people.

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And what are we trying to proclaim? The name of Jesus. Christ is King. And we're saying even here in this backwoods, out of the way place, this place,

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Christ is worthy in this place to have a healthy church. And that's what we're doing.

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So as I said with elders, I'll say with deacons, our church does not currently have deacons.

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But I think we have some qualified to be deacons. And so it's the church's job to consider the lives of the men of this church and to pray and to examine them.

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And then if they're called to affirm them as deacons. So this is Christ's vision.

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Christ's vision for the church is that these two offices of the church, a plurality of elders, plurality of deacons, would partner together for the furtherance of the kingdom in the area in which

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God has planted the church. For us, that's right here, Perry County, Arkansas. And the question is, will we surrender ourselves to Christ's vision?

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Will we trust Him in His word? Is Christ worthy of our obedience or not?

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Close this way. I think that God is doing a beautiful thing here. I said that earlier. But I think that as soon as God is doing a beautiful thing,

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Satan is ready. He's ready. To blow it up.

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So will we be on our guard? I think that we'll only see

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God's work here grow as we step out on faith and trust

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His word and obey His word. Will we trust and obey Christ's vision for the church?

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And I'll say one last thing. I really am gonna stop. Okay, because there might be some people here and this is your problem.

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Your problem with the church is that you're not in it.

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What are you talking about? I'm in the church. Where am

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I if I'm not in church right now? No, no, no, no, no, no, listen. Your problem is that where you stand right now is outside of what

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God is doing in this place. And the only way for you to be a healthy, viable part of what

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God is doing in Prairieville, Arkansas is to bow your knee to Christ, to repent of your sins, to stop thinking that your good works commend you to God, to stop thinking that your righteous deeds commend you to God.

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Rather, to repent of your sins, to turn away from yourself and to look to Christ alone, to believe

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His gospel, believe the gospel you heard today about the shedding of Christ's blood for His people, for the full atonement and free pardon of sins, repent of your sins, and run to King Jesus even now.

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And say, yes, Lord, I've failed, I've sinned, but I want to be a part of your glory and what you're doing in this place.

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Let's stand and let's sing. Let's pray first. Father, we thank you for your word. We pray,

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God, that we would be an obedient people, that our answer to you would be yes, and that we would seek to align ourselves with your word, that Christ would be honored, that we would respond to this message, that every single person in this room would respond to this message in obedient faith, and that we would trust