Appointing Elders

Good morning, Church.

Today's reading is from Titus 1, 5 through 9.

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.

If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charges of debauchery or insubordination.

For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach.

He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.

He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

But I'm filling in for James as he's uh he's on vacation with his family.

Um it looks like a lot of other people are too.

Maybe they maybe the word got out that I was preaching this morning.

And um, but you guys didn't get the memo, so you're here, and it's good to be here with you all.

Um, I'm gonna go ahead and pray.

We'll kind of uh set the stage a little bit with where we are in uh the book of Titus, and then we'll start to move through our text.

God, we we're grateful to you for this church.

We're grateful um for the structures that you've given us for the good gifts um that we have.

God, help us to see um see the structures that you've put in place as gifts from you.

Help us to learn how to uh humbly participate in them so that your gospel may uh may spread throughout this world.

Um we thank you for this morning, and uh we just ask that um I just ask that you'd be with me as I as I speak, that these would be your words um and not mine.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

So last week uh we started through uh our our series, it'll be about a seven-week series, um, on Paul's letter to Titus.

And so James set this a little bit last week, but um just to recap that a little bit.

So Titus was a a Greek follower of Jesus.

He was a Gentile and he was um a trusted co-worker and traveler with Paul.

And so he received this assignment from Paul to go to the island of Crete in order to um kind of restore or bring order to these Christian churches that were on the island.

So Crete was a pretty good-sized Greek island, um, had a bunch of ports in it.

It was also full of um mercenaries, men that were soldiers for hire.

It was a it was a place that was um notorious for its greed, its gluttony, corruption.

Um okay, so who who here has seen the movie Pirates of the Caribbean before I all right, good, good.

So um so the island of Crete, what we just watched this with uh my son this past week, so it's kind of fresh in my mind.

Um Crete is the island of Tortuga.

Okay, so like in my head after watching Pirates of the Caribbean with with Jack, I thought um, and I'm preparing the sermon, it's like, you know, they show up on this island and all of a sudden it's like people stumbling around, drinking and punching each other in the face and getting in fights.

That's that's what I picture Crete to be like.

Um, although Titus was there to bring some order to the Christians on that island not to recruit pirates to go find the black pearl.

Um so so this is where we are now is is on this island of Crete, and Titus is receiving instructions from Paul about the churches there.

So, see, the church is how God intends to bring his redemption into the world.

This is the vehicle in which he has set up to bring the gospel into the world.

And because of this, church is not a man-made thing.

This is not something that we've come up with.

This is not a human invention, but this is a this is a gift created by God.

So this morning we're gonna look at the office of eldership as Paul described it here in Titus 1.

But before we do, um I want to I wanna talk just a little bit about leadership and how our culture looks at leadership in uh in contrast to how the Bible teaches us about leadership.

See, um our culture typically thinks of leadership in terms of power structures, right?

So the higher up in the leadership chain you are, the more power you can have to exert over those underneath you so that they can serve you um in order to drive whatever goal you have further, right?

So it's it's it's this idea of these power structures.

That's how our culture views leadership, but we see exactly the opposite described in scripture.

The ultimate example, obviously, being in Christ, who came not to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.

That's Mark 10, 45.

This is also described in 1 Peter 5, verses 1 through 3.

1 Peter 5:1–3

It says here, so I exhort the elders among you, and as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as 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 for the flock.

See, as as leaders, we are called to serve those in our care.

We are called to sacrifice.

We are um we are we are called to shepherd, and this is not for our own gain, but but as examples.

So this is an important distinction to understand because oftentimes I think in leadership, and honestly, I think, and especially in church leadership, there can be this idea that um those in leadership, the the pastor, the elders, the the worship leader, you know, we're the um you know, we're the varsity, right?

Like James is probably the quarterback, and I don't know, maybe I'm catching some passes or something.

Zach's the kicker, that's for sure.

Um I'm I'm just kidding.

Um and then and then everybody else is kind of on the JV, and it's um, but that is not that's not what we see found in scripture, and that's not how we should look at this.

And in fact, it says in 1 Corinthians 12, 14 through 20, it says, the body does not consist of one member, but of many.

The foot if the foot should say, Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body.

And if the ear should say, Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing?

If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?

But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

If all were a single member, where would the body be?

As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

So see, we all have a role to play in God's church.

We all have gifts that we're all expected to bring to bear in this body.

And and for some of us, it it's gonna look like leadership or eldership.

Um, for others, it's gonna be it's gonna be bringing your your gifts of music into this place or or ministering to the children here.

Or maybe it's it's even less formal than that, and it's just building relationships.

Some of you have the ability just to uh to be there for each other, to be um to build these relationships with one another.

That is um absolutely crucial.

So as we move forward and we look at the office of eldership, I don't want you to think of this in terms of value.

I want you to think of it in terms of structure, which God has given his church as a gift, so that our church, so the church at as a whole, and our church in particular can flourish and can grow.

So let's go ahead and move through the text this morning.

Titus 1, verse 5.

Titus 1:5

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you.

You see, our God is a God of order.

Where there is chaos, he brings structure.

And we see this, we see this patterned throughout Scripture.

See, in we see this from the very beginning when um in Genesis it says the earth had no form, and then he gave it form.

And then and then what did he do is he took he took the light and the darkness and he separated them so that we could actually have day and night, right?

Which ultimately gave us time, that's order.

And then even um he took the water and the land and he separated those, giving them boundaries so that we can have both oceans and land, so that we can live on them.

See, and then and then what did he do is he put humans over it to tend it and to work it so that it may um so that it may flourish and grow, to watch over it.

See, this is also the same structure that we see in the family.

We see that a husband is to be submitted to the Lord leading his wife and his children.

This is so this is a similar pattern that we see throughout scripture.

So as we move through these qualifications listed here, I also don't want you to think about these qualities as exclusive to the office of eldership.

But this is all these are all qualities that we should all be striving for, things that we should be um uh trying to embody.

And as I read through these, I couldn't help but think many of them are also uh fruits of the Spirit.

So uh in verse 6, Titus 1, verse 6, if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers, and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

Titus 1:6

Above reproach, I think that uh it's interesting that these were all kind of grouped together.

You could see um where kind of the sentence ended.

I think these are all um could fall under above reproach.

So what does that mean?

Above reproach.

Well, what are all the parts of a man's life like?

See, it's it is interesting.

Like, um, what does the public and the private life look like?

Is he the same at home as he is at the office, as he is at church, as he is with his friends?

This is being above reproach.

The husband of one wife.

So we would we would understand this as is he faithful to the wife that God has given him?

Does he serve her well?

After all, if he cannot serve his own bride well, then how can he be entrusted to serve the bride of Christ, which is the church?

Now, a couple of asides on that, um, and and just kind of clarifications, we well, for one, we would not uh we would not take this to mean that a man must be married in order to um be an elder.

And we we can we can know this because Paul has spoken on this elsewhere in 1 Corinthians 7, where he he describes the benefits of being unmarried in ministry, and he he himself describes himself as being unmarried.

So that is one that is one just um distinction I want to make.

And then the other um would be this would not we would not take this to mean that if a man's wife has passed away and he gets remarried, that that would also disqualify him from eldership.

But what he's really saying is, is this is this man faithful to the wife that God has given him?

And next it says, are his children believers?

His children are believers.

So this one uh this one can often be kind of overlooked, I think, um, in the church.

And the reason why I think this gets overlooked sometimes is because I think it's easy for us to think of, well, if if salvation ultimately belongs to the Lord, and then um how can how can we be made, how can this be made a qualification for me if salvation does ultimately belong to God?

And there is truth to that, but see, God has revealed himself as a covenantal God who deals faithfully, not just with individuals, but faithfully with families.

And so we tell our children that they too can look to the repent, look in repentance to God for salvation, teaching them that we cannot save them, but that God can and will if they call upon him.

And this is why we're given instructions, like Deuteronomy 6, 6 through 9.

It says, And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart, you shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and you shall walk and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates.

Um I mean, this is really backing us into a corner as parents, isn't it?

I mean, he's literally talking about every facet of life to diligently teach the truth to your children when you're at home, before you go to bed, when they wake up, when you're walking around town.

All of these things.

And um, we also see in Proverbs 22, 6, it says, Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he shall not depart from it.

So while we certainly cannot earn salvation for our children any more than we can earn it for ourselves, um we are, as parents, led by the husband, as parents, likely, not likely, um I think we are the biggest tool that God uses to draw children of believers to himself.

And so in in so in 1 Timothy, um Paul has also given a similar set of instructions to to Timothy.

Um they essentially say the same thing, but they're said a little bit differently.

And so in First Timothy, in the qualifa qualifications for eldership, it's phrased, manage his own household well.

Is he training his children in the love and the admonition of the Lord?

Are there fruit are the fruits of his love, teaching, discipline?

Are those being born in the lives of his children?

This is something that ought to be able to be exampled to others as well.

And and also this is also meant this is meant to be a grace that that the Lord has given us, a a safeguard for us in leadership, actually, because this lines out a clear priority, a clear set of priorities.

And what is what this is being conveyed, what is being conveyed here is that the family, your wife, your children that God has entrusted to you comes before the office at the church.

And that's important because sometimes, you know, we see in the church, we see um men who they they really they step over their families in service to the church.

Because after all, what a noble thing to be serving the church.

And it is, but not at the expense of his wife, not at the expense of his children.

So we must deal faithfully first with those that God has put inside of our own home.

And if we can be faithfully, if we can be faithful with it what God has entrusted us there, then our responsibility can expand to outside of our home.

Not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

Um, again, I think I think this would fall under the being above reproach.

Um are there dark parts in a man's life, personally?

Um, are there areas of his life that he is pushing back on other authority that God has put in his life?

Because after all, as an elder, we are not at the top of the food chain here.

Um one, we are in submission to one another.

There's there's more than one of us.

We're in submission to each other.

We have recently um joined a denomination, we've joined the PCA.

So there are there are there's a structure in place there that we are submitted under.

And then ultimately, we are submitted under Christ, who is the head of the church.

So if we can't be um in submission to the Lord, in submission to the sorry, in submission to the authorities that the Lord has put in our lives and other places, how can we be expected to be in submission to Him as we lead this church?

Let's move into verse 7.

It says, For an overseer as God's steward must be above reproach.

There we go again.

He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain.

So this sounds a little, I mean, this sounds self-explanatory, right?

I think um I I assume these are we don't want leaders with these qualities.

Um not in the church or or really anywhere, right?

Um But I think that um if we look at the inverse of these, we will see many of these, uh many of the fruits of the spirit displayed here.

Um while not a fruit of the spirit, we see humility rather than arrogance, peace and patience rather than quick-tempered, self-controlled rather than a drunkard, gentle rather than violent, and also while not a fruit of the spirit, we see generous rather than greedy.

These are all these these are qualities we should all be striving for.

And I think they are qualities that we would want to have modeled for us in leaders of God's church.

Verse 8, we have but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.

So hospitable, you know, that's uh that that's an interesting one to be here.

I don't think that that's one that we necessarily think of.

Um I would assume that we know a lot of these qualifications of eldership, but that was actually one that um I don't know, that that one is.

Not jumped off the page before to me, and um until I really studied this in preparation for this, but hospitable.

What is his home like?

Is it is it welcoming?

Is it is it warm?

It's interesting that this is put in here because I think that uh so much of life, so much of ministry is done around the dinner table.

See, the the ability to create space for others to come into and have a refuge from the stresses of life is it's just such a crucial part of how a community is built.

And and because of that, that's actually that's a big reason why we have at this church, why we do parishes.

And and in those parishes, um we have the people in that parish over to our house for dinner or or for a lunch, and we we host people and we eat.

And and that is because we want to we want that flavor of hospitality, we want that flavor of having an open door to be throughout this church.

And we want we don't want that just to be something that we do, we want it to be something that everyone does, not just for each other that are in this church, but for those that are not in this church.

Because after all, if with your non-Christian friends, the truth is it is so much more likely that they're going to walk through your front door and sit at your dinner table than they are to walk through the doors of this church.

Your homes are a gateway into this place.

So I encourage you to have them open, to bring warmth in into other people's lives through your homes.

So hospitality, this is incredibly important.

Um a lover of good, self-controlled, upwhat, upright, holy and disciplined.

Um these are these are kind of the inverse of what was described in verse 7.

Verse 9, he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also rebuke those who contradict it.

Acts 20, 28 through 31, beginning of 31, says, 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 he obtained with his own blood.

I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.

Therefore be alert.

So this was a warning that Paul gave to the uh elders at the church in Ephesus, and that warning was there's going to be wolves that are going to attack the flock.

There's going to be men that are going to come and they're going to speak twisted things, and they're going to look to draw people away from the gospel.

And so, as I was thinking about this, when wolves attack, what do we need?

We need a weapon.

We need a weapon, and and that weapon is a sword.

We need a sword in order to defend those in our care.

And that is exactly how Paul describes the word of God in Ephesians 6 is as a sword.

We are called as elders to stand between those in our care and those that will come against the church.

And in order to do that, we have to be armed.

We have to be armed.

And we have to be armed with sound doctrine.

This is the very word of God, and it can be used to defend what the Lord has put in our care.

But not only is it used to defend, but it's also used to teach.

It's also used to teach sound doctrine to others.

It can be used to also equip others so that they might be able to defend themselves.

Now, I don't think that this is exclusive to the pulpit.

In fact, um it certainly includes that.

I hope.

So is as an elder, are you able to speak the word?

Are you able to teach it in a way that others can receive and grasp and grow from?

You see, just as we just as it said here in Acts, it said, the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.

So this means this is not of our own doing.

It's his doing.

And if it's his doing, if this is a work of the Spirit, that he will surely equip those that he has called by his word.

So I do want to take a minute to touch on a distinction that exists in within eldership.

In 1 Timothy 5, 17 through 18, it says, Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching, for the scripture says, You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, and the laborer deserves his wages.

So this is speaking about those elders that are in full-time ministry, those that actually work and labor inside the church.

This says they ought to be paid for their work.

And this is actually why, this is one reason why we and in the PCA we make a distinction between teaching elders and ruling elders.

Teaching elders, um, these would be these would be referred to commonly as pastors, right?

This is what James is.

Um and it and it tells us that a double honor is due to them because not only are they taking the responsibility of eldership, but they've also um they've chosen not to divide their time to be able to pursue other means of making a living.

So this is this is truly this is a special thing for for a man to make his life's work the business of building up the church.

So uh, yeah, just I want to take just a few minutes to speak very particularly about this because we've got we've got two elders at this church who who work here.

Um James is James and Zach.

Um we've got we've got a young pastor who has just such a a gift of understanding and devotion to the scriptures.

And he's pouring his life into this place.

It's a gift.

It's a gift, and you guys should see him in that light.

And Zach as well, um, while not a teaching elder, he his his uh his role as an elder, he's actually volunteered for that.

Um that's not part of his job description, but he's volunteered for that in addition to working here.

And just, you know, so you you all know like half of it, right?

Half of it is what you get to see up here, which is we've got likely the most talented worship leader in, I don't know, a long ways, I would I would say.

Um a long ways.

So let me know if you find find one better anywhere close.

But um actually don't because you you probably um but um but also he he also has a lot of other things here that that keeps the wheels from falling off this place.

And so you I I I want to point that out because this is a practical outpouring of of the dynamic that that God has put in place.

And because of this, as members of this church, we ought to be generous in making sure that we can that these men can remain in these roles.

We labor outside of this place, myself included.

Um we labor outside of this place, and we get paid to do so.

They labor inside of this place, and we should pay them to do so as well.

That brings me to the last responsibility that I want to touch on, and that's your responsibility as the as the church body.

What does this all mean for you?

And how do you participate in this structure that the Lord has put in place?

In Hebrews 13, 17, it says, Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls.

As those who have to give an account.

So, look, that's extremely uncomfortable.

For for a few reasons.

One, as one of the elders here standing up here and saying you need to submit to your elders, um, that's you know, it's just a little awkward, but um but if this structure's real, if it's real, and God has given it to us, then this is something that we can trust that he's given us to govern his church.

And we have to trust that it works.

And we have to trust that if Christ Himself is the head of this church, then that's that's who we're submitted to.

That's who we're submitted to.

Um the other the other part of that verse that makes me even more uncomfortable is the phrase, for they are keeping watch over your souls, who will have to give an account.

So that's heavy language.

Um honestly that that's that's an impossible task that the Lord has given us.

And I think that he designed it that way.

He designed it that way because so we can depend on him.

Because without his grace, without his mercy, it's it is actually impossible.

Um what is what does James like to say?

If we if we served a weaker God, he would do this with stronger men.

Uh but we don't serve a weak God.

Um we serve a God who's strong enough to lead his church and and to and to lead his church with guys like us.

Um so lastly, I would I would ask, please, please pray for us.

You know, I'm doing this for the last six years, um, and tell you, it's both it's both heavy and wonderful.

It's such a blessing.

Um But we we do, we we carry burdens.

We also share in great joys.

So pray for us, pray for, pray for wisdom.

Um that we that we lead this place well.

Um also as you pray, pray that the Lord raises up leaders in this church.

Pray that the Lord raises up godly men who will also be called by the Spirit into eldership in the future.

Pray for them.

Pray for your future leaders.

Kind of like praying for the future spouse of your kids.

Pray for your future leaders.

And, you know, as you as you think about this today, as we move through the rest of the book of Titus in the next, I think, five weeks to come, um, we need to think about Christ's church as a real thing that is set up by God.

This is not a man-made thing.

This is not just a 501c3 nonprofit that you guys get to kind of float in and out of on a weekly basis, but this is a real thing that God has set up with the intention of bringing his redemption into the world.

And we are all called to participate in it, all of us in the roles that God has given us faithfully.

Uh do we have any do we have any questions this morning?

No, no questions.

Okay, so I'm gonna go ahead and pray, and then I'm gonna invite up uh Davis Morgan.

He's a teaching elder in the PCA.

He's gonna, he's actually gonna administer communion for us this morning.

God, thank you for your grace.

Thank you for uh bringing order into the into your church.

Um God, I ask that you would help all of us, both uh us as as leaders um and and those as members here at this church, that that we would be able to participate faithfully and humbly in the roles that you have given each of us in order to build up the body, in order to serve it, um, so that it might be made stronger, that others may be drawn in.

We just pray that you would um use the church and this church to bring about redemption in this world.

And we have faith that you will do that.

Um so we thank you for your blessings.

We and we we thank you for for the gifts that you have given us.

We pray these things in Christ's name.

Amen.