Sermon Tone Analysis

Last week I led us in a discussion of something we don’t talk much about, church polity, which is just simply church government.

Some of you are back today, thinking to yourself, “Are we really going to talk about this again?!”

Well this is the last week, I promise.

Why is this so important that I would take two weeks to discuss this with you?

There are several reasons:

First is that next Sunday morning, we will be voting on a bylaw change to shift us from a Pastor Led polity to an elder led polity.

I talked about the difference between these polities last week.

This is an important change.

And, one that I believe is the wisest and most biblical way for God’s church to be governed.

I’ve been leading us this direction for years now.

After having a very difficult transition at Mount Gilead, I asked the church to nominate some advisors to the Senior Pastor.

And, the church did just that.

They had to be biblically qualified as elders, as I am.

The six men are: Andy Maxwell, Carl Blackman, Patrick Davenport, Greg Vinson, Jim Whaley, and Bobby Martin.

For years now, I have treated them as elders.

I’ve not made a single decision that didn’t have the wise consent of the Pastor Advisory Team.

Each of them, have become extremely dear to me.

I believe it is time to change our polity officially to reflect a biblical, elder led polity.

The second reason is that when the church doesn’t have good leadership, the gospel message and mission is compromised.

So many people have been hurt in churches and even turned away from God because the church had a unbiblical leadership structure where people are fighting to get power or keep power.

This is completely foreign to what we find in Scripture.

The model we see most clearly in scripture is the church being led by a group of leaders described as elders, overseers, or pastors.

Each of these refer to a different aspect of this leadership role.

Elder refers to the fact that a leader in this role should not be a new believer.

They should have some wisdom and experience with Christ to them.

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

I. Elders should follow Paul’s example.

The term “overseer”, this is also translated “bishop.”

God wants the work of his church to be administrated well.

And “Pastor” is the work of the shepherd.

The people of God should be protected, fed, and loved.

It’s really important to understand that these are all the same ordained position.

In our text, .

We see them called “elder” in v. 17 and in v.28, they were called “overseers.”

These are the roles of the ordained position of elder.

Elders are servant leaders.

They served the Lord by leading the church.

The only other ordained position are the body of deacons.

Deacons are servant leaders.

They lead in their service work for the Lord.

We see both of these spoken of in Paul’s letter to the Philippians.

We are use to thinking of deacons as a group of men.

And, we see a plurality of deacons referred to here.

But notice that we also see a plurality of overseers referred to here.

In the same way, we see a plurality of elders in Acts 20.

A group of elders that he had won to Christ, discipled, and the church had ordained.

+Some ask, “Why not allow the Senior Pastor and the the Associate Pastors of the church be the elders?

That’s a group.”

That’s a good question and some churches do that.

The problem that I see with that is the Senior Pastor has the authority to fire Associate Pastors.

Which makes it unlikely that they are going to be able to Senior Pastor accountable if they are afraid that they are going to lose their job.

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Now let’s get into our text.

What we see here is a very touching scene of Paul leaving the elders that he had grown to love deeply after spending almost 3 years in Ephesus.

The first thing that he does is to point them to himself, his life, his character, and his work.

It’s like that he’s saying, “I’ve sought to show you what it means to lead the church and train you to do the same.

Now you go and do likewise.”

John Maxwell said, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”

Paul says that elders should Follow Paul’s Example.

So, how should elders live so that they are following Paul’s example.

I. Elders should follow Paul’s example.

A. Paul lived serving the Lord (vv.

18-19)

Acts

Acts

Paul had earned credibility with the people.

People could see that he was the real deal.

From the first day, they could see that his faith was real.

And, the reality of his faith could be seen in his life.

His faith could be seen in his attitude.

He was humble.

His faith should be seen in passion.

He served with tears for God’s people.

His attitude and his passion is what carried him through a great deal of persecution by the Jews.

+For an elder, serving the church can’t be a hobby or something that you do in your free time.

It must be who we are.

It must be something that we feel deeply and we are passionate about.

We will serve the Lord when we love the Lord.

And when we love the Lord, people around us know it.

B. Paul lived declaring the gospel (vv.

20-21)

Paul declared the gospel.

He built the church on the gospel.

He knew that the gospel was profitable to people.

It’s why we do evangelism and why we go to mission around the world, because the gospel is profitable.

1. Paul would teach anywhere.

(v.

20)

It didn’t matter where Paul was he would teach the gospel.

He would share in the market place.

He would go from house to house.

The idea here is that he took every opportunity to teach.

2. Paul would share with anyone.

(v.21)

This is a big deal.

He shared Jesus with everyone he could.

Even with the Jews.

The Jews had tried to kill him.

But he didn’t care.

C. Paul lived sacrificing for the gospel (vv.

22-25)

He’s going to Jerusalem.