God's House Rules #10 - Gospel Order in God's House #5: "Able to Teach" (1 Tim 3:2)

So 1st Timothy chapter 3 and verses 1 to 7. If you have one of the red

Bibles that we give away, that's on page 1052. Page 1052, 1st Timothy chapter 3, verses 1 to 7.

1st Timothy chapter 3 and verses 1 to 7. If you're able to do so, can I invite you to stand with me out of respect for God's word?

1st Timothy chapter 3, reading in verse 1 and reading through to verse 7.

1st Timothy 3, 1 through 7. Brothers and sisters, these are God's words to us this morning. This saying is trustworthy.

If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work. An overseer therefore must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, self -controlled, sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach.

Not an excessive drinker, not a bully, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not greedy.

He must manage his own household competently and have his children under control with all dignity. If anyone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of God's church?

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

Furthermore, he must have a good reputation among outsiders so that he does not fall into disgrace and the devil's trap.

The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God will remain forever. Allow me to pray, ask for God's help, and we will get to work in his word this morning.

Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we ask that as we come to your word once again, that your spirit would use that word in all of our lives to glorify your

Son and our Savior, Jesus. As we think about the word of God this morning and the importance of its taught, pray that even as that happens now, your spirit would do a work of turning blind eyes into seeing eyes, turning deaf ears into ears that hear.

May your spirit be pleased to use the word to draw us closer to the living word, the

Lord Jesus. Father, as we pray, as we pray for our friends at Community Bible Church here in Central Point, pray for Pastor Kevin and the elders there as they gather on this first Sunday of the year.

Be with them, encourage them in the ministry of the word, may your people be built up and may those who don't know you come to know you through the ministry of the word there.

We pray that for CBC and we pray that for ourselves now, asking you in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Please be seated.

Well, if you are joining us anew this morning, we are in the final week of a deep dive that we've been kind of doing, working our way through 1

Timothy 3 -1 -7. As you saw when you came in, this is part of a larger series that we've been in called

God's House Rules. God's House Rules is an exposition of 1 Timothy. We've just been working our way passage by passage through 1

Timothy. But when we got to chapter 3, I made the decision that I wanted to slow the pace down considerably.

Because as I studied this letter and prepared to preach it a few months ago, I became convinced that this might be the most misunderstood section in this whole letter.

There are some complicated things in this letter, but none of them I think as misunderstood as what

Paul says here in 1 Timothy 3 -1 -7. And so I wanted to take the time and to look carefully at what

Paul says, what he means, and why it matters for us as God's people. And so I won't re -preach all, what's now five of the messages

I've preached, or four actually, in this section. But by my count, we have looked at 13 different qualifications.

I'll put them up on screen to look at again. So Paul says that, first and foremost, assuming that a man has a desire for the work,

I called that, if you remember, those of you who were here, I called that the forgotten qualification. It's assumed a man actually wants to do this.

Well, if he does, what kind of man should he be? Well, firstly, he should be above reproach.

And we saw that above reproach doesn't mean that he's perfect or that there's nothing you can say. It's that there's nothing serious that you can say that sticks.

And we said that that's something of a headline and everything else is indeed a detail of how he is above reproach.

So he's above reproach, he's to be the husband of one wife, literally a one woman man, not just that he's married, but that he is committed to his marriage, that he's known as a man of single commitment.

We saw that he's to be self -controlled, sensible, and respectable, and those three form something of a unit.

That he is to be somebody who's characterized by keeping his desires and passions in check.

He's to be sensible, someone who thinks well, and as a result, respectable, somebody who acts well, who acts with excellence.

We also saw that he's to be hospitable, that he is to be somebody who has a love of strangers, that he opens not just his home, but his heart to those he's not immediately connected to.

We also saw that he's not to be an excessive drinker, he's not somebody who is characterized by a love of any substance that can dull his thinking.

He's also not to be a bully, but gentle, not to be quarrelsome, that he's not characterized by the use of force to get his way.

He's also to manage his own household competently, that he exercises authority in his home in the kind of way that it elicits respect and submission from those underneath him.

He's not to be a new convert, there's a maturity that's to be expected there. And finally, he's to have a good reputation among those who are outside, that he lives in the kind of way that even those who don't know

Jesus can look at him and say, I might not believe he's Jesus, but I know he does.

So that's what we've seen so far. But there's one of them that we have skipped, we've looked at 13. But jump back up to verse two, if you've got it open in front of you, see those three words at the end of verse two, able to teach, some of your

Bibles might say apt to teach. That's the qualification I want to take some time and think about this morning as we come to the ministry of God's word.

Like I said, I think all of these are very easy to misunderstand. And I especially think this one, being able to teach can be easily misunderstood.

The thing about this one qualification is it's very different from all the others. The 13 that we've looked at so far, and if you missed any of those, or you want to catch up on that teaching, you can go to our website, we're on YouTube as well.

And we even have an app, you can find the teaching there in a number of ways. The thing about these qualifications we've looked at, the thing that links them all together so far is character.

This is who the man is. We've not spoken too much. We've kind of made some implications about what he does.

But the focus so far has been, who is this person? Today however, and by the way, the character that's assumed here is not a superhuman otherworldly character.

This is past the character versus everyone else. The point I've made over the last few weeks is that this is a character of a

Christian. He's just supposed to be an example of what a Christian looks like. This is not a superhuman otherworldly character.

It's spirit empowered, grace empowered, gospel empowered character. Like I said, most of this is character.

There is only one competency. There's only one skill. There's only one giftedness, if we can call it that, that an overseer according to Paul is supposed to have.

Those three words at the end of verse two, he must be able to teach.

So this morning, I want us to think about just those three words, I think I joked with my wife the other day that this may be the only time in history

I've preached a sermon on three words. But I want us to think about those three words, being able to teach.

I want to think about what that phrase means, what it looks like, and why it matters.

For those of you who've been here through this series, I've kind of broken with my usual habit of having a big idea for every sermon.

I'm glad to announce the big idea is back. For this message, I do actually have a big idea statement.

Here's the big thing I want you to leave here with this morning. It's very simple. The primary work of an elder is word work.

The primary work of an elder is word work. And to do that work, he must be able to teach.

The primary work, and please note the use of words here, primary, not only work, but the primary work.

The first work above everything else of an elder is word work. And to do that work, he must be able to teach.

One more time. The primary work of an elder is word work. And to do that work, to do word work, and I'll explain what that phrase word work means in a moment.

To do that work, he must be able to teach.

What exactly does Paul mean when he uses this phrase, able to teach? And why does it matter?

I'm convinced it does. And I hope maybe you're convinced, I mean, it's in God's words, it must be important.

But my hope is this morning to ask and answer that question of what is disqualification and why does it matter?

To do that, for the rest of our time, I want to consider three questions. I want to consider three questions that will open up the meaning of this phrase, able to teach.

I want to consider three questions. And my hope is as we consider these three questions, we will be able to ask and answer the question, what does it mean to be able to teach?

So three questions, question number one this morning, probably the most straightforward of the three I'm going to ask. What does the phrase able to teach mean?

That's probably a good place for us to start. Now, we start to hit a bit of an interesting situation with this question, because normally what you do is you go back in the original language and you, because again, the

Bible wasn't written in English originally, it's been translated into English, it was written in Hebrew in the Old Testament, another language called

Aramaic in a few places, but mostly Hebrew and Greek in the New. Well, normally what you do when you want to find what phrases mean is you look in the original language and you find the meaning based on what it originally said.

This phrase, however, is interesting because it's only one word. The word able to teach.

And in fact, Paul only uses it in two places. Uses it in this passage and he'll use it in the next letter,

Second Timothy, Second Timothy, chapter two. But that's about it. In fact, in every resource

I looked in and there are some resources that Bible nerds like myself like to use to try and get answers to these questions.

The most I could find in some was like three sentences because there's not much to say. He only uses it twice. And the word is pretty simple.

It just means able or skillful to teach. So, OK, well, that doesn't help too much.

Is there a way that we can figure out what Paul means by this phrase? Because he can't just have three words.

That was my sneaky suspicion, and as I thought about it, I realized, ah, he does explain this somewhere.

Take your Bible, turn with me two books over to the book of Titus. Titus chapter one.

So we're in First Timothy, you want to skip over Second Timothy and you'll land at the letter of Titus.

Titus is actually very similar to First Timothy in a lot of ways. Titus has been sent by Paul to deal with the church situation in a particular area.

The area is known as the island of Crete is a particularly challenging place and part of why he's there.

So look at Titus chapter one. Look at verse five, Titus one, five verses. The reason I left you,

Titus, in Crete was to set right what was left undone as I directed you and excuse me, as I directed you to appoint elders in every town.

OK, so Titus's job is there's some stuff that Paul didn't quite get to finish before he left Crete.

And so he says, Titus, I didn't quite get to finish, so I need you to clean this up for me and get this stuff done before we leave, before you leave.

And one of the things he's to do is to appoint elders. And so in Titus one, five through nine, you have a very similar passage to the one that we are in, in fact, very similar.

He uses pretty much the same words. And lays out qualifications for elders.

For our time, I want us to focus in on verse nine, so look at verse nine. So verse nine, he says, an elder must be one who is, this is how he says it, holding to the faithful message or the faithful word as taught so that he will be able both to encourage with sound teaching and to refute those who contradict it.

Can I put it to you, though? I think in Titus one, nine, Paul gives us an expanded version of what he gives us in first Timothy three.

What does it mean to be able to teach? It means this. Now, we'll get to the practice of this in just a moment, but now

I want to break down this one verse a little bit and show us three different facets of what it means to be able to teach, because, again,

I'm convinced that Paul is saying the same thing here that he said in first Timothy three, two. So what does it mean to be able to teach?

First of all, it means that being able to teach means having devotion to the word of God.

Notice what he says beginning of the verse. Holding to the faithful message as taught, holding present tense that he has a living active grasp of what

Paul describes as the faithful message or literally the faithful word. That he is characterized by a devotion to the word of God, the faithful message would be the message that had been preached by the apostles.

That was the word of God at that point. Scripture is still being written at that stage. And he says that a elder holds to the message as he has been taught that message.

He's characterized by a devotion to the word of God, there's one right to put it in a pastor, there is demanded not only learning, but such zeal for pure doctrine as never to depart from it.

So he says that an elder, a man who would be a leader in God's church or to use the language of our series, a leader in God's house.

He is to be one who has a devotion to the word of God. He has heard the word, he has not just heard the word, he has taken personal ownership of that word, and as a result, he's able to minister it.

Well, why does he need to have a devotion to the word of God? Did you notice those two words in the next part of the sentence?

He says, holding to the faithful message is taught so that. OK, what's the purpose of him having a devotion to the word of God?

Actually, there are two purposes, one of them positive, one of them negative. So being able to teach means having a devotion to the word of God, but it's not just having a devotion to the word of God.

Secondly, it means declaring the word of God. So not only is he to have a devotion to the word of God, he also needs to declare that word.

So again, the cover is Titus one nine. Holding to the faithful message as taught so that he will be able both to encourage with sound teaching,

I must stop there. The faithful leader knows the word of God and holds to it so that he can encourage with sound, healthy, wholesome, life giving.

Actually, the word that's used here is where we got word hygiene from. That which is clean.

Teaching encourages an interesting translation, I don't think it's personally the best one, it doesn't carry the sense of coming along, someone saying, hey, you're doing a good job, it's

OK, that's not the word here. There is a word for that. It's just not this one. It can mean that in some context,

I think a better way to translate this in the ESV translation, I think does a good job here. It translates it as instructing that he knows the word, but he doesn't just know the word.

He knows the word for the purpose of being able to declare that word, to be able to instruct

God's people in that word. He knows the word and so he can communicate it to God's people for their growth and for their obedience to Jesus.

Everyone still following me so far? So being able to teach means he has a devotion to the word of God, being able to teach means declaring the word of God, that's the positive side of word ministry, of word work, if you will.

But there's a negative, he needs to know the word, he needs to be able to encourage or to instruct in the word.

It also means he has to defend the word of God, being able to teach means defending the word of God. So notice again how

Paul ends this. So he says, according to the faithful messages taught, devotion, that he will be able to be able both to encourage a sound teaching, that's the declaration part, and to refute those who contradict it.

I'm sure I don't need to say this, but allow me to remind you of something that might be obvious to you.

There are lots of people who claim to speak for Jesus. There are lots of people who claim to be teaching and proclaiming the word of God.

There are lots of people who claim that they are speaking for God. But just because somebody says they're speaking for God doesn't mean that they actually are speaking for God, just because somebody says they are proclaiming the truth doesn't mean they actually are proclaiming the truth.

And the reality is when people when people who say that they are by the things that they say and the things they do, when they start to demonstrate that they aren't a faithful shepherd, a faithful overseer, a faithful elder has to catch this, deploy the word of God against that error.

The faithful leader doesn't have the luxury of saying, well, I just want to focus on the truth. I don't need to worry about that.

I just want to be positive, encouraging. I was going to say Caleb, but never mind.

He doesn't have that luxury. He has to know the word well enough, not just to be able to teach it positively, but that when somebody says something that my historical hero,

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, he had a quote about this. He said, the sermon is not the difference between right and wrong. He said, the sermon is the difference between right and almost right.

A faithful communicator of God's word doesn't just know the truth on a positive level.

He also knows that when you're saying something that's even a degree off, he can say, wait a minute. No, that's not what it says.

He has to know the word well enough to be able to know when someone is speaking against that word.

I've never worked in banking. I know some of you have. I am reliably told by people who have worked in banks, and I don't know if this is still the case today.

I know at one point. When they wanted to teach people that help me out here, if I'm right. My father in law was in banking for years, so he can back me up if I'm right on this,

I'm made to understand that when they teach tell us to know the difference between a fake note and a real note, they don't give him a bunch of fake notes.

They give him a real one and tell him to learn that. That's not about right. OK, so I'm right on that. He needs to know the original well enough.

I don't know, have you ever been burned by a fake note before? I have will never forget because it annoyed the life out of me for months,

I was I had a laptop, I was selling it, I sold it to somebody online. First mistake used eBay.

But anyway, I saw it somewhere online. The person came by the house, sold it for a certain amount. They gave me the money in cash.

So I count thing. I'm kind of in a hurry because the person was late and I had somewhere to go. So they had me the money. I can't.

It all looks fine. I go about my business. I get back home like,

OK, let me count this thing properly. OK, OK. What is this?

One of these 20 pound notes. Was clearly fake. It was not like the others.

Now I'm looking at all the other ones, I'm like, no, this pulled actual 20 out of my wallet. No, this looks. I just got burned.

Do I know if the person did that on purpose? I hope not. But how could

I know that this thing I'm holding wasn't the real deal? Because I've held enough of the real deal to know this, isn't it?

A faithful elder is the same. He's been around this book long enough. He knows the truth well enough that when someone comes along and they say something that's not quite what this book says, they wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

This isn't what I heard. This wasn't what this isn't what I've been taught. This ain't it.

That's what Paul means by being able to teach, I think. I think Titus one nine gives us the full version of what he summarizes in First Timothy three, that he must know the word of God and have a devotion to it, that he should declare that word and that he can refute those who contradict the word.

That's what it means to be able to teach. So for a moment, let's just ask, let's just clarify what Paul does not mean by this.

Paul does not say that the man has to have natural speaking ability. He doesn't say the man even has to be brilliant at it.

He doesn't say you have to like his style on a subjective level. Different people have different personalities.

One of my favorite quotes on preaching by Phillips Brooks, he said that true preaching is truth mediated through personality.

That means some people will have a personality and a style that doesn't appeal to you. That doesn't mean he can't teach, just means you don't particularly like the way he teaches.

I think you can personally, for what it's worth, as somebody who's preached a while, I want to pick up all the preachers and say sometimes we could all stand to be a little less subjective about our views on preaching.

If he's faithfully preaching the word, you don't have to like his style. Just be thankful he's faithfully preaching the word. So Paul doesn't say you have to like his style on a subjective level.

He doesn't say the man has to be confident in his ability to teach. Sometimes that can actually be more of a danger than a help, depending on the person.

Now, to be fair, I'm not going to say that being confident in what you do doesn't help. I'm not going to say that, you know, fine tuning your style and defining your own voice isn't a good thing.

I'm not going to say that natural speaking ability is bad. We praise God for those who are eloquent. I know I'm not, but I'm thankful for those who are.

All of those things are good to work on. In fact, I would argue that a good preacher can grow in those things. In fact, he should, 1st

Timothy 4, 15, he should make progress that is evident to all and all the style.

But like I said, styles can actually grow on people. If you give it enough time and you seek to be gracious, somebody's style with all of his differences might actually grow on you.

But none of those things, style, natural speaking ability, confidence, none of those things are essential.

What is essential is that he knows the word, that he can communicate that word, and that when someone is out of line with that word, he can point it out.

So, again, what does it mean to be able to teach? Having a devotion to the word, declaring that word and when necessary, defending it.

If that's what Paul means, and I hope you're convinced that it is, if that's what Paul means, then, well, why is it important?

Why would we want to take time to think about this? Thankfully for you, that's my second question this morning. So question number one, what does the phrase able to teach mean?

Question number two, why does this qualification matter? Why is it?

That both come back to 1st Timothy 3, that both in Titus and in Timothy. The only competence.

That Paul lists is this one. Why is this the one skill

Paul expects from every leader in God's house? I think to answer that question, you need to kind of zoom out a little bit and think about God's grand purposes in general.

I mean, to put a few pieces in place that might help us with this. Why does this qualification matter?

Well, first of all, consider would be the fact that God works in the world through his word, that God works in the world through his word.

You see this pattern right at the beginning of the Bible, when God creates, how does

God create? Well, that's a trick question. Seriously, how does God create? He speaks, his word goes forth and things are created.

So the psalmist can say in some, I believe it's 33 verse nine that let all the earth stand in awe of Jehovah.

Why? Because he spoke. And it came to be and all throughout the

Bible and God wants to do something before he does anything, he speaks first. That's a principle you see all through the

Bible. God speaks and then things happen. I think probably my favorite picture of this is in Ezekiel 37.

In fact, let's turn there real quick. Ezekiel 37, all the way back in the Old Testament, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Ezekiel and chapter 37.

One of the things about Ezekiel that makes it a very challenging book at times is that the majority of this book is basically one vision after another and they're very picture driven visions so much.

So you have to really pay attention because every detail matters. Pick up with me in chapter 37, verse one,

Ezekiel 37, one, the hand of Yahweh, the hand of the covenant God was on me and he brought me out by his spirit and set me down in the middle of the valley and it was full of bones.

He led me all around them. There were a great many of them on the surface of the valley and they were very dry.

Then he said to me, son of man, which is a term that he uses a lot for Ezekiel in this letter, son of man, can these bones live?

I replied, Lord Yahweh, only you know, know what God says, three, four. He said to me, prophesy concerning these bones and say to them, dry bones, hear the word of Yahweh.

This is what the Lord Yahweh says to these bones. I will cause breath to enter you. I will put tendons on you, make flesh grow on you and cover you with skin.

I will put breath in you so that you come to life, then you will know that I am Yahweh. God simply says to Ezekiel, speak my word to this valley full of dead bones, dry bones, all the connective tissue and all the muscle in them has completely gone away.

It would be like me walking into my doctor's office, has a skeleton in it. Not sure why he needs one, but there's one in there.

It would be like me walking up to that thing and say, hey, bones, wake up. It's not going to happen.

But look at verse seven. The prophet is obedient. He says, so I prophesied, I spoke as I had been commanded.

While I was prophesying, there was a noise. A rattling sound and the bones came together bone to bone.

The bones start to come together and they start to form. Jump down to verse 10, it says, so I prophesied as he commanded me.

The breath entered them and they came to life and stood on their feet, a vast army.

God tells the prophet to speak his word. He speaks his word and dead things come to life.

Funny, Jesus is the same thing. You're taking those John 5, 25. Jesus has an hour is coming and is now here.

He's not talking about the resurrection when he says this. He says an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will live.

Our God is to quote a title of a book that she recommended in this week's Digging Deeper page. God is a

God of word. He speaks so that things happen.

The God who speaks. Speaks so that things happen. And that God uses people to speak so that things happen.

That's actually the second reason why this matters. Not only is it important because God works in the world through his word, it's important because God's word comes to people through people.

We're reading a letter from Paul in First Timothy. When you read Paul, Paul is very clear.

That he viewed at the heart of his ministry, the proclamation of the truth.

So Romans chapter 10, verse 17, so faith comes by what is heard. And what is heard comes through the message about Christ.

One of the passages that we often use as a benediction here at Redeemer, Romans 16, 25. Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel,

I am the proclamation about Jesus Christ. 1

Corinthians 1, 21, it says for since in God's wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom.

God was pleased to save those who believe. How? What's the means?

Through the foolishness of what is preached. I put it to you that Paul has that priority.

Paul viewed the proclamation of the truth as central. Why? Because he got that from Jesus. Mark 1, 38, says that Jesus said to his disciples, let's go on to the neighboring villages so that I may preach there too.

This is the part that this week, I had to pause when I read this. He says, let's go on to the neighboring villages so that I may preach there too.

This is why I have come. Let's pause for a moment.

I have two questions. One's not that important. The second one is very important. My not important question is this.

If any pastor came out and said, I'm here to preach, this is why I'm here. What kind of response would he get in modern

American evangelicals? That's just an intellectual curiosity. That's not an important question.

This is the important question. Did you notice that Jesus says,

I came to preach? Here's my question.

How often do we think about the fact that Jesus came as a preacher? Think about it.

We often we just have Christmas. So typically during Christmas, we think about Jesus, the man rightfully.

So in terms of our salvation, we typically think of Jesus, the Messiah and rightfully.

So, but here's my question. How much thought do we give to Jesus?

The messenger, let me zoom out a little more for just a moment.

When you read your Bible, your Bible describes Jesus as having three offices. There are three functions that he performs on behalf of his people.

He's a priest because he offered himself as a sacrifice for sin, and he represents us before the father.

He's a king because he conquers our rebellion and guides and directs all things for our good as his people.

And the Bible also says, in addition to being a prophet, excuse me, a priest and a king, he's also a prophet.

So I won't read it because of time, but Deuteronomy 18. Moses is speaking to the nation of Israel, and he says,

Yahweh, your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.

Verse 18, I will put my words in his mouth and he will tell you everything

I command him. Well, when you read the book of Acts, you know, the book of Acts says that was talking about Acts 321, heaven must receive him,

Jesus, until the time of the restoration of all things, which God spoke about through his holy prophets from the beginning. Moses said, the

Lord, your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to everything he tells you.

The apostles understood that when Moses spoke about this prophet to come, that the prophet he was talking about as a prophet with a capital

P, he was talking about the Lord Jesus. That Jesus is God's great prophet, here's how our fathers in the faith put it,

Westminster, logic is in question 43, Christ carries out the office of a prophet in revealing to his church in all ages by his spirit and his word and in many ways of administration, the whole will of God in all things concerning their edification and salvation.

The Jesus that you and I worship is not just one who died and represents us before the father, glorious as that is.

He is not just the one who conquers sinners hearts and makes them willingly obedient to him and who right now is ordering everything in the universe for the good of his people.

True as that is, the Jesus that you worship is also the one who reveals, who declares the truth about God.

Okay, coffee, what does this have to do with being able to teach everything? Because here's what's happening when the word of God is being preached, that prophetic work of Jesus.

I don't believe preachers are prophets in the same sense as they were in the Bible. But I do believe this, that all faithful preachers are standing in the line of the great prophet who declared the truth about God.

So God's word comes to people through people. And why does that matter?

Because God's people, thirdly, receive blessing through God's word.

As God's people proclaim the word of God's great prophet, here's what the Bible tells us.

Wonderful and amazing things happen. We've already seen that people are saved because that word is preached, but here's some other things that happen.

Acts 26, 17 and 18 tell us that blind eyes are open, that those who are in spiritual darkness now encounter spiritual light.

If you've been a Redeemer, you know that I love Acts 20, verse 32. I quote it often. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified.

That's what the word of God does when it comes through people. Ephesians four tells us that people are equipped for service through that word.

That's why it says that Ephesians 4, 11, that he Christ himself gave some apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ.

And I put it to you that word work matters because it is through the word that God's purposes for his people, that God's blessing for his people comes to realization.

That's why this qualification matters. If that's how important this is, that God works in the world through his word, that God's word comes to people through people and that God's people receive blessing through God's word.

If that's how important this is, then the question becomes what attitude should a leader have as they do this work of being able to teach?

Well, that's my third question. This was a question number one. What does it mean? Question number two, why does it matter? Question number three this morning, what are the attitudes and actions of a faithful teacher?

What are the attitudes and actions of a faithful teacher? Now, in my big idea,

I use the phrase, but I'm going to pull it up again. I use the phrase, I said, word work, the primary work of an elder is word work.

I was very careful in using that phrase. It's not original to me. But I do love the phrase because I think it broadens what we mean by this, by this work of teaching in ways that I think the standard

English word that we use teaching doesn't necessarily do that. What do

I mean when I use this phrase word work? I promise I'll come back and explain it. Well, let me make good on my promise. Word work refers to any and all ways in which a leader brings the word of God to bear on the lives of those he is called to lead.

Let me say that again. That word work refers to any and all ways in which a leader brings the word of God to bear on the lives of those he is called to lead.

I started this message by saying that this is one of the most easy things to misunderstand, and I think part of it is we assume that when

Paul is able to teach, that just means one thing. What I'm doing right now, somebody standing up and delivering a sustained monologue to a group,

I'm going to say that is a part of word work. Let me put it like this. Preaching is word work, but not all word work is preaching.

Preaching is indeed word work. The public ministry of the word is part of this big idea of word work, but not all word work is preaching.

I guess a part of the confusion that exists is that we kind of pigeonhole this to mean one thing when

I'm going to suggest Paul means a few things. So what are the attitudes and actions of a faithful teacher?

Well, remember those three things we saw in Titus 1 .9, devotion to the word, declaring the word, and defending the word?

Well, those three things map to what he does in word work. So first of all, a faithful overseer, because that's the word we're using in 1

Timothy 3, a faithful overseer is a student of the word. My late mentor used to have a phrase burned into my brain.

He used to say, he cannot teach who is not himself first taught.

He cannot teach, a person can't teach who is not himself first taught.

Faithful overseers are students of the word before they are teachers of it. That's why

Paul can say 2 Timothy 2 .15, that you are to be diligent to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who doesn't need to be ashamed, correctly handling the word of truth.

A faithful overseer gives himself to the study of the word and not just on a surface level, they have catched this, the discipline of study that they give themselves wholly,

W -H -O -L -L -Y, completely to knowing

God's book. One of the great biblical examples of this is the scribe,

Ezra. In fact, I preached a message here at Redeemer years ago on this verse, Ezra 7 .10. Now, Ezra had determined in his heart to study the law of Yahweh, obey it and teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.

That order is important. He first determined in his heart to do what?

Number one, to study the law. Two, to obey it. And third, to teach it. A faithful overseer is one who has a commitment to the word of God.

One of my favorite preachers is Dr. H .P. Charles Jr., pastor of the Shiloh Church in Jacksonville, Florida.

He has a classic one -liner on this that actually I have it on a post -it note in my office. He says that quote, a desire to preach without a desire to study is merely a desire to perform.

I'm sorry if you say, well, I want to preach, but I don't like to study. Please don't. Like seriously, spare us all the pain of having to listen to you.

Thank you. Do us all a favor. Just please don't. A faithful elder, before he is a man who stands before God's people, he is a man who is a man of the book.

And again, remember what we said in first Timothy when we started this series, that Paul is not saying find somebody and make them this.

This is who they are already. So if you,

I'm just going to say some controversial things for a moment, but if you are a redeemer of any length of time, you know how I give it up.

So I apologize in advance. Not really. Anyway, I'm sorry. If a church picks a man to be an elder, and the man has no indication that he actually takes the study of God's word seriously, please don't pick that man to be an elder before he's appointed to the office.

You should know him as somebody who takes his Bible seriously. And then once he's in the office, he doubles down on taking his

Bible seriously. And what do we mean by that? Well, let's just think practically about this for a moment. For one thing, it might be good if he knows the actual content of the

Bible. Um, he has a working knowledge of the book itself. I don't know.

Controversial. I know, but it just seems to me, if he's going to teach the word, he should probably know the content of that word.

He needs to know the doctrines in that way, because the Bible doesn't just have content. It teaches us things. He should know all the teachings in that word.

He should know how to study a text and arrive at its God intended meaning so that he can communicate it to others.

So I just happen to think that since we're not I said this at the beginning of our service, since he's not the first person to have read the

Bible, you should probably have a little knowledge of how other people have understood God's word.

And with all of that ability. Imperfect, as it may be, with all of that knowledge, excuse me, you should have some ability, imperfect as it may be, to explain that to God's people in a way that ministers to them.

Let's just think practically about this. If an elder is going to do this, that means he needs time to be in this work.

One of the pastors in the last couple of years who's had a very welcome influence on me is a pastor called Jared Wilson.

He's a preaching pastor at Liberty Baptist Church in the greater Kansas City area. Years ago, he wrote a blog post, one of my favorites on ministry.

The blog post was called pastors are paid to stare out the window. And his basic point is you pay your pastor to think.

So give him time to actually do that. At the end of the blog post, he wrote this quote, church folk expect and encourage your leaders to tend to their intellectual and spiritual development.

We want them to be brimming with Bible. We want them to stare out the window and think that's what we pay them.

And by the way, when he wrote this, he wasn't a pastor at the time. He'd been out of the pastorate. He was teaching a seminary.

But he's writing as a lay person, essentially, at this point to other lay people is we want them to stare out the window and think that's what we pay them for.

And that's what will pay us, pay off for us in the long run. Part of this faithful work of being a faithful overseer is a elder, a overseer, but he needs time to be in the book, which means you can't distract him with all this other stuff he's expected to do.

But not only does he need to be a student of the word. He doesn't just live in the study and there's no mass Bible knowledge for the sake of it.

Secondly, a faithful overseer brings God's word in various ways.

A faithful overseer brings God's word in various ways. So like I said, preaching is one way that word work happens, but it's not the only way.

Now, Paul is going to be clear. We'll get to this in chapter five, that there are some elders who are set apart specifically for the work of preaching and teaching.

But that's just one part. Actually, I'm going to say that this thing has a few layers to it, and I'm going to do my best to kind of lay out these various layers for us.

What does it look like for a faithful overseer to bring, to declare God's word in various ways?

Well, for one thing, it looks like personal evangelism. He should know the gospel message well enough to be able to share it with others who don't know it.

So remember Second Timothy, Second Timothy 4 -5, right at the end of that section where he tells

Timothy to preach the word, be ready, in season and out of season, all that stuff that those of us who preach love. Remember how he ends that Second Timothy 4 -5?

He says, as for you, he said, people are going to deviate from the truth. They're going to amass for themselves teachers having itching ears.

He says, as for you, Second Timothy 4 -5, exercise self -control in everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist.

A faithful overseer doesn't just talk to Christians. He talks to non -Christians as well. He brings the word of God that brings life to those who are spiritually dead.

So personal evangelism is one. I think we can agree teaching the scriptures is another one. So Matthew 28, remember what

Jesus said in the Great Commission, the Great Commission involves teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.

Faithful overseer should be able to teach the scriptures. Now, at this point, there is a debate that I need to kind of address very quickly.

I'm almost done. The debate is, are you saying that every elder needs to be able to preach?

There are some who say no, including dear friends of mine that I love daily. I say, well, no, because they will argue, based on what

I'm arguing, that word work is bigger than preaching. Well, not every elder needs to be able to preach. He just needs to be able to apply the word in various settings.

OK, I understand that. I do, again, believe that there are certain men who are set apart specifically for that purpose.

But for what it's worth, I personally take the view that any man who is ordained as an elder should be able, again, not that he necessarily likes doing it or that he's maybe the greatest at it.

But one of my friends, Ian Hicks, he's been asking this question on social media a lot lately, and I think it's a good question.

Could any elder in your church get up, if asked, and proclaim the scriptures in your

Sunday morning gathering? I think it's a good question. I want to say I take the view that, yeah, he should be able to, even if it's not his primary way he ministers in the congregation, even if it's not maybe his preferred way of ministering, that he should be able to.

And again, this looks like a variety of things. It looks like pulpit ministry. It looks like Bible studies. It looks like specialized classes where he's digging in.

But he should be able to understand this truth and communicate it so that people can learn it.

Here's one we often don't think about. Counseling. Counseling will be number three counseling.

I sometimes think this word counseling has been like overloaded with meaning that I think it doesn't really need to.

Paul Tripp wrote an excellent book years ago. My pastor back in London made me read it. It was called Instruments in the

Redeemer's Hands. And in that book, he talks about the fact he doesn't use the word counseling very often in that book.

Actually, the phrase he keeps using is personal ministry. And I'm going to add a word to that.

I think it's a good phrase that we can make it a little bit personal word ministry. That a faithful overseer will, in his work of caring for the flock, minister the word to people's needs.

I'm in seminary, which means I have to read a lot of stuff. And sometimes I have to read stuff I don't particularly like or agree with.

I read this sentiment in a lot of books on counseling of ladies that I have a massive problem with. The sentiment goes, people don't, as a pastor, people don't need answers from you.

They don't need the word from you. They just need your presence. I was a speech and debate nerd at school.

So one of the things I'm very good at is when I read something, I think about all the logical holes in it. The big logical hole is you're making what we call classically a false dichotomy.

That it's the Bible or presence. I want to say, why not both? That, yes, you want to be present with people.

But you're present with people, why? To bring God's word to bear. And again,

I think the problem that I have with a lot of these writers that I read of that you keep making the sentiment is that they assume that, oh, if you're coming with the

Bible, that you're coming to answer people's questions. Not necessarily. God's word is given for our comfort.

Sometimes what God's people need is not an answer. What they need is just the comfort of God's word. I saw this in my own life.

Some of you know, I tragically lost my brother. He was 15 when he passed away. I'll never forget when my pastors came to, we had so many people come to visit in traditional

African culture, when someone dies, your house just turns into an open house, so people turn up pretty much all day.

And my pastors finally came to visit after a couple of days. And I'll never forget when they came.

I'd heard all manner of people say all sorts of things, some helpful, some absolutely not. I'm just brutally honest.

But I don't forget my pastors came and they were very simple. They came, they greeted my family.

That was actually the first time I think they met my parents, actually. Came, greeted my family.

They read the Psalms, a couple of Psalms, they prayed and they said, we love you because we love Kofi. In that moment, their presence was comforting, but why was their presence comforting?

Because they came with the comfort of God's word. The faithful elder, pastor, overseer will know the word of God well enough to enter into the world of hurting people and to apply the healing balm of God's word.

But catch this, you can't apply what you don't know. I think of all the aspects of word work that we may be tempted to not pay attention to, here's one that I think is tragically neglected by many churches.

You need to know the word so you can train Christian leaders. So many problems exist with this.

Often, especially churches of our size, which by the way, our church is about the normal size of a church in the US, I think the percentage is something around 90 % of churches in America are 50 people or less.

Often churches of our size will make excuses for not doing the work of training to the big ones I often hear.

You need a bigger church to be able to do this. Related to that, we don't have enough resources.

I'll just be honest, I don't think that's true. I know that's not to be true based on my own personal experience, but more than that,

I think the word of God gives us an answer. Tell me what it means, 2 Timothy 2 .2, if you've got one of the red

Bibles, page 1055, 2 Timothy 2 .2, what do you need to train

Christian workers, to train Christian leaders? Do you need a full -time person?

Do you need a staff of accredited teachers from a seminary?

Do you need thousands and thousands of dollars? I mean, all those things are helpful, but I'm going to suggest

Paul tells us, actually, you don't need all that. 2 Timothy 2 .2, Paul is giving some exhortations to Timothy, 2

Timothy 2 .2, he says, what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses commits to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

What do you need to train men? I think in this one verse, you get everything you need, four things. Number one, you need a body of teaching.

So again, what does Paul say? What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, there was a core of teaching that Paul had done, that Timothy had heard.

And he says, that stuff you heard from me, by implication, number two.

So number one, you need a core of teaching. Number two, you need someone to teach. He says, you heard it from me.

Paul taught Timothy and the implication is Timothy. What does he say? Commit to faithful men.

The things you heard from me, commit to faithful men. You, Timothy, ought to now turn around and kind of do it like this, like a relay.

I pass the baton of teaching to you. You now turn around, pass that baton on to other faithful men.

That's number three. You need a core of teaching. You need someone to teach. You need people who are willing to be taught.

That's what Paul describes. As it commits to faithful men, again, men in the plural. And number four, you need opportunities for those who are taught to themselves.

Teach is good. How does he end it? Commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others.

Also, those are the four things you need teaching someone to teach people who are taught and opportunities for the taught to actually do some teaching themselves.

That's about it. Now, let me ask you this. Do you need millions of dollars to do that?

Do you need a facility to do that? Well, you need a space where people can meet, but you need your own facility to do that. I mentioned

I'm in seminary. I'm not anti -seminaries. I think they serve a place. But I think one of the most tragic things the

Western church has gone into its head is this idea that the only way you can train men is by packing them up, taking them out of their local church, sending them in some cases thousands and thousands of miles away to go get trained.

They might not come back to that local church. And this is the best model we have.

I want to say absolutely not. I don't hear that.

God's design is that you are trained for ministry in the local church. But to do that, a faithful elder needs to know the word well enough to be able to teach others to know the word well enough.

I can vibrate the habit of a lifetime in 2025 and be less controversial. Can I put it to you that I think many leaders don't do this because if they were honest, they don't know enough to teach anybody.

You waste all your time doing all this other stuff that's not really your job. And then you wonder why you can't actually do your job. Who would have us to understand that a faithful leader is training up the next?

I use this phrase. We started a training effort here at our church. I said, I'm not really going to wait till our church grows to millions of people.

I can just start with what we have. And one of the things I often say to I've said it to the guys in our previous trainings and I'm saying

I think I said it yesterday to the guys that we started with. But one of the things we want to do in Christian ministry is to train the next man up.

It's a tragedy that church. You see this so often in churches. Pastor dies, moves on, goes somewhere else.

I mean, the Lord moves his people wherever he needs to. And the church is scrambling. We don't have anyone.

Oh, my word. Where are we going to find our next person? It's like, well, what were you doing all this time? I mean, we love

I'm being deadly serious. Why is it that we can't find somebody to step up? Well, maybe it's because we have basically said we exist to do everything but this.

But hold on, if a church is a disciple making church, which Jesus said, that's the mission, if a church is a church that's making disciples, one of the ways you're going to make disciples is you're training your next generation of leaders, a church.

Again, I want to be gracious and recognize that things happen and stuff happens beyond our control. That's fine. But I think the norm should be churches should be raising up men within the house.

Local churches, regardless of size. Should be committed to raising up future leaders.

This is not a matter of resources. Especially in twenty twenty five, I'm sorry, with the Internet. We are we have the potential to be the most well -taught generation ever.

There's not a lack of resources. I don't even argue. It's not even a lack of men. It's not a lack of time.

Let's just be honest. We all like to use it. I'm so busy. I don't have time. Listen, if it's important to you, you'll find time for it.

But these are all aspects. Evangelism, teaching the scriptures in the context of local church, counseling, training men, all of these are aspects of word work.

And the faithful pastor elder, obviously, is a man who every chance he gets declares that way.

Finally, I'm almost done. Finally, a faithful overseer can defend the word.

I think I've said this before, but when you read your New Testament, twenty seven books in the New Testament, you know how many of them deal with false teaching? Twenty six.

False teaching is the kind of thing we can't just bury our heads in the sand, do a best ostrich impression, pretend it's not happening. A faithful overseer knows what errors, whether it's in belief or behavior, he knows what errors are out there and he knows how to answer them.

So we read Titus one. It's interesting, the reason that Paul gives in Titus one, one, ten, eleven.

Why is it that Paul was to excuse me, Timothy was to appoint elders and set things that were undone.

Verse ten. Titus one, ten, he says, but there are many rebellious people full of empty talk and deception, especially those from the circumcision party.

Not what he says in verse eleven. It is necessary to silence them, not ignore them, not just say,

I'll preach the truth. I'll let God sort that out. No, no, no. Paul says Titus, your job is to silence them. The word is quite harsh.

He literally says to shut them up. There are some people, let's just call a spade a spade.

I'm kind of unwanted. Let's just camp here for a second. There are some people who a long time ago should have been told, please just shut up quite literally for the love of God.

Please stop talking. And what happened is someone didn't have the love in their heart to actually tell them you are not seeing anything that is please stop forces.

No, you must silence them. Why? Because they are ruining entire households by teaching what they shouldn't.

Again, we've talked about the fact that an elder shouldn't be someone who's quarrelsome, who goes looking for fights. Oh, but let's be clear. Once the fight comes to you, you can't back down.

Don't run now, don't back down now. By his knowledge of the truth, a faithful overseer will identify, he'll call out, he'll refute error when it arises.

I mean, let's just be honest. If an elder never says uncomfortable things, if he never has to rebuke anything, if he never calls out what is out of order, can we really say he's being faithful?

In fact, the very letter we're dealing with, first Timothy, he says, Paul, why you're here is there are certain people teaching things they shouldn't.

The ministry of the word isn't always positive. Sometimes, as my dad used to say, sometimes we have to crack bones. It's an

African expression. When we eat chicken or any meat with bone in it, we actually eat the bones too.

But sometimes you have to crack bones. The mission of the word isn't always positive, but it's always necessary.

I think I said it twice and I apologize for lying. I actually am done. I have some concluding thoughts and we'll be out of here. We spent the last month in seven verses.

I told you, we have slowed it down. I just want a personal note.

Living in seven verses for the best part of a month, multiple hours of my life spent in the seven verses, it does things to you.

I mean, I've read them before, I'll definitely read them again for sure. But as I've read this passage, probably the closest

I've ever read in my life, I've become convinced of a few things. And for a moment, if you're visiting,

I'm glad you're here. Love to have you with us. I want to talk specifically to this house. I've become convinced of a few things specifically when it comes to our body.

Number one, we must come to see eldering, pastoring oversight as good work.

Remember how Paul started this in 1 Timothy 3. One, if anyone aspires to the work of an overseer, he aspires a noble work.

And just to be honest to see, sometimes church culture has not made this look like a noble work, that we've not always treated those who aspire to this work well.

And let's be honest. Ross and I were talking about this yesterday, that if you treat people who are in ministry badly, people look at that and say, well, why would

I want to do that so you can treat me that way? I'm thankful for this church that that's not been a problem in recent years.

But I know enough about the culture and the context in which we find ourselves to know that this can be a problem.

And so we must come to see, catch this, elders, pastors and overseers are not your enemy. Many people in church unconsciously treat them like they're the enemy.

No, it's a good work. We have to get rid of them by starting this series, by saying that there's a cultural frame and a biblical frame.

And whatever that cultural frame is that we may have built up in our minds, we need to, quite frankly, smash it. We need to smash that cultural frame and reclaim the goodness.

In the real sense that there is a goodness to this work. So that and number two, we must pray earnestly for the

Lord to either raise up elders in our midst or send men who are interested. We prayed about it in our morning prayer meeting, by the way, the first Sunday of every month at nine o 'clock.

We'll be in that little room over there. Come join us and pray. We prayed about it in our morning time. I said, Matthew nine,

Jesus says that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. So pray to the

Lord of the harvest that he would raise up workers in his harvest. That can speak pointedly to our body.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. It was never God's design for a single man to lead a church. And I don't think it's his design for Redeemer Bible Fellowship, if I'm being brutally honest.

The more time I've spent in this passage, the more I have become convinced of the absolute necessity of more of these kinds of men, whether from our own number or the

Lord sends us some. Finally. We have to cultivate, we cultivate, we must cultivate the kind of body that makes raising elders easy.

Those of you who are medically inclined, you ever heard of the disease graft versus host? If you aren't familiar with that, it's what happens when someone gets a transplant, but the body refuses the transplant and now the transplant starts to basically fight against them.

There are some bodies, I'm going to be honest, this body is not one of them, praise the Lord. But there are some bodies that kind of act like that, that rather than promoting growth of men who can serve in this kind of way, they do everything to stifle it.

I thank the Lord for what he's done in the life of our body, but let me be even more clear. I think we could be doing so much more to be the kind of place that cultivates that.

I said last week, local churches, God's greenhouse, my friend that I quoted, you said that local churches,

God's greenhouse, things grow when they're planted in them. So let me leave you with this thought as we come to the Lord's table. Let's be the kind of environment in which men can grow and thrive in gospel ministry.

No matter how small we are, that's not really the issue, is it? The issue is, are we going to be faithful to this qualification of being able to teach?

And are we going to be the kind of body that raises up those kinds of people? Let me pray and we'll come to the

Lord's table. Our Father and our God, as we've come before your word, your word is a mirror.

It shows us who we are. It shows us where we may be lacking. It shows us where we may need help.

Father, for one qualification that is a competency, that is a skill, that is a giftedness in this list, is the ability to teach.

That must tell us something about how important this is to you. And if it's important to you, it should be important to us.

Help us that we would be the kind of body that values the ministry of the word. I thank you that we are already and that we can grow in that.

And Father, I pray that you would raise up men who want to be these kinds of men. Not just able to teach, but men of character.

Men who you are working in to be examples to the flock, both in word and in life.

Father, I pray for our body. Lord, you know our desperate need for more men who can serve in this kind of way.

Would you be pleased by the work of your spirit to raise up men from within our number.

Pray that you would send young men here who want to be trained. Who want to, as Paul said, spend and be spent for the souls of God's people.

Father, you told us to pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth workers. And so we pray that you would do that.

Even in our body. Thank you for all that you've taught us in this section of your word. And we ask it all in Jesus' name and for his sake.