Biblical Leadership
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Introduction
Introduction
As we approach the text of Titus today remember it was written by Paul to Titus for the sake of the churches in Crete. From this letter we are discovering what God’s plan for the church is. Last week we saw that the basis of all our work on earth is the hope of eternal life that drives us to submit to God’s Word and sacrifice for others for the sake of the Gospel. As we continue to part two of our series called FOUNDATIONS: A BIBLICAL COMMUNITY we are reminded that God uses the Church to evangelize the lost and equip believers for the work of the ministry. Let us begin our reading today of Titus 1:5-16 and remember this is Paul speaking to Titus with the rest of us reading over their shoulders.
New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 1
Qualifications of Elders
5 For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you,
6 namely, if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion.
7 For the aoverseer must be above reproach as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain,
8 but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled,
9 holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.
10 For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,
11 who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.
12 One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”
13 This testimony is true. For this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith,
14 not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.
15 To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.
16 They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.
May God bless the reading of His word. Let us pray.
(Prayer)
Illustration: Doctor appt.
Identifying the problem, rectifying the problem. Explain.
Paul issues Titus a task in VS: 5, spells it out for us. Set in order what remains: Set in order explain...
“to set straight besides or farther; that is, should arrange what remained to be set in order after Paul’s departure. Used by medical writers of setting broken limbs or straightening crooked ones.”
Marvin Richardson Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, vol. 4 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1887), 333.
Titus was to set things right by appointing elders in the church.
Titus knew why he was in Crete, but it was said by way of giving authority to Titus. The directive to appoint elders is a major reason 1 Tim, 2 Tim and Titus are referred to as Pastoral epistles. But the reality is very little direction is given to church organization, it seems that flexibility is offered in the specifics, but some more general patterns and principles can be identified.
In order to get into the meat of the passage I want to layout my own convictions based off study and prayer, I am not overly dogmatic in this toward other churches as we see some variations in the New Testament, maybe sometime we can have an in-depth Bible study together on it, but here are my convictions.
Elder (Presbyterous) is translated as aged man, however the context of New Testament church organization it is an official position, ie elder, technical term signifying church leader. Think about carry over from Synagogue leadership.
In Titus he is to appoint elders (plural) in every town (local). The New Testament pattern appears to reflect a plurality of elders in each church.
Overseer, Elder, Bishop, and shepherd appear to be used interchangeably with little to no differences.
You may agree or disagree with me on these, but this is how our church government is set up and they coincide with my personal conviction as to how it is reflected in the New Testament. You may have a different church background and want to discuss it with me and I am glad to do so later.
The beauty of this flexibility afforded to the church by this absence of rigid rules and regulations allows the local congregation to be organized in ways appropriate to its own situations and circumstances yet following the obvious pattern of Scripture.
With this in mind we jump into the main point of this text, that,
For a church to be a healthy biblical community we must recognize three things! The Risk, the Responsibility and the Reward.
There is a substantial risk to the church, in Paul’s day and today. Unhealthy churches thrive in America today. Let us examine what Doctor Paul says about the Church in Crete and see what his diagnosis is.
The Risk of an unhealthy Church
The Risk of an unhealthy Church
Paul alerts Titus The rebellious in Crete vs 10-16. Look at vs. 10. “For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,” we see two types of the same coin, the coin is rebellious men, who are empty talkers and deceivers. He highlights those of the circumcision.
Paul seems to run into these characters every time a church pops up in the New Testament. It seems when a church starts to grow, in come men who plant these other seeds of deception. It seems that no church is immune to the risk of Legalists or False teachers. Both are a grave error in the church and can cause a healthy church to get sick and die spiritually.
The risk for us A tale of two ditches. (mraps in Iraq)
Legalists (Side A)
Paul calls these legalists the circumcision party. These were men who would come into the church and affirm Christ but would add that the Jewish law must also be kept. Also referred to as Judeizers. These people were so concerned with the Jewish law that they were overturning, destroying, ruining households. What we know from the other Pastoral epsitles many of the teachings involved are rules against certain foods and prohibiting marriage. vs. 12-14 flesh out this type of legalistic teaching.
The risks for legalism to enter the church today is also high. Think about rules about faith that you heard growing up or perhaps watched on a TV show. Maybe you heard that if someone drinks a beer from time to time they cant be saved, or they are sinning? That is legalism. Now for the sake of clarity the Bible speaks clearly against drunkeness and I personally do not drink because of my past abuse of alcohol. So it would be wise for me to abstain from drinking, however we are not baring fellowship to someone who likes to have a beer or two. Thats one small example, but legalism can be damaging to the health of the church, lets be guided by our Bible and not by what seems right to us. Because we exclude people based on our opinion like some of the Apostles were doing in Jerusalem and it ruins the unity of the Body of Christ. But the other side is also just as damaging and that is false teachers.
2. False teachers (Side B)
This covers people who say that it doesn’t matter what you do in this life, God loves and accepts you. It could be called lawlessness. These people teach that you can remain in sin and keep sinning and still be considered a Christian. This can be popular in some circles that want to live in sin and feel good about themselves. Teachers that avoid any and all talk about hell and judgment are often in this category. False teachers tend to teach what they think people want to hear. If people like what they say they will be popular. Their motivation is personal gain. They teach error and many are devious at this.
3. Greedy Both
Paul says at the root of both of these are they are teaching for personal gain. Paul calls it disgraceful or shameful gain. People are gaining, getting paid for teaching false doctrine, teaching lies. The clearest example of this is seen in what has been dubbed the prosperity gospel. What is this prosperity gospel? Well one of the teachings is that God wants you to be rich, wealthy, healthy. They grab Bible verses out of context and apply wrongly. The most crafty of these serpents have convinced thousands of people to send them money as some type of seed that they say will produce blessing in the life of the sender. These false teachers are selling people money trees and people are buying it! This manipulation of God’s word is trick straight from the pit of hell, it is shameful!
vs 15-16 is the crux
New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 1
15 To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.
16 They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.
At first glance this seems to be out of place. But in the context of the legalism of the Judiazers demanding purity to the human commandments, pure is mentioned 3x in this verse, Paul states the basic Christian principle that all things are pure to those who are pure, and the second principle is that those who are not believers are already impure and nothing they do can be made pure.
Basically Jesus Christ is the moral and religious cleansing that we need and this cleansing frees us to live a life that is holy, pure.
An unhealthy church will fall into errors, these errors will damage your faith, instead of living as part of a Church family and growing in your God designed direction you will fall into one of the two errors or stay in spiritual infancy which is an embarrassment to any believer. Just as a 20 year who cannot tie his shoes will cause us to about their physical health, so a 20 year believer who is negligent in Bible study and Prayer makes me concerned about their spiritual health.
For the church that is at risk which we all are there needs to be response. Just as a doctor will proscribe exercise for an obese person and preventative measures to help with the health of the body, Paul proscribes measures for the church to take. He says
The Responsibility of a Healthy Church
The Responsibility of a Healthy Church
For the church that is at risk which we all are there needs to be response. Just as a doctor will proscribe exercise for an obese person and preventative measures to help with the health of the body, Paul proscribes measures for the church to take. He says
vs 5. Appoint elders, but they cannot be just any person they must be of a certain character. Because of the issues that damage the church the foundation of a healthy church requires a certain type of leader.
The potential elder must present the acceptable qualifications in three basic areas, marriage and family, his character and his faith.
His marriage and family (v. 6) look at verse 6, he says the potential elder must be above reproach, now this can be taken to mean all sorts of things if we are not careful. Above reproach is repeated twice here, and it is the overall nature of the character of a potential elder and also used for deacons in 1 Tim 3:10. A potential should be above reproach that is should not be have the charges against his character based on the following list. This does not mean that an elder is perfect, but that each of these characteristics are marks of his life.
One woman man, vs 6 The potential elder must be a one woman man. Lots of ink has been bled on trying to figure out what this means and doesn’t mean. We will explore a couple possibilities. Does this mean that an unmarried man cannot be an elder? I do not think this is true because Paul himself was unmarried, and his teaching 1 Cor 7 would seem to go against this idea, so being married is not a requirement. What about a man who is remarried, either by the death of a spouse or divorce? Paul’s teaching on 1 Tim 5:14 about the good of younger widows to remarry seems to make it unlikely that Paul is baring a remarried widow. Now this is the area I think the most disagreements arise. Divorce. Depending on how you understand the teaching of divorce in Scripture will determine in large part how you understand this. It seems prudent for us to consider the overall charge of blameless. When choosing an elder who might have a divorce in their history it is necessary to examine the situation in which the divorce occured. Was this divorce on account of marital infidelity on the mans part? Then he is in part to blame in this divorce, ie not blameless. If the woman is adulterous and refuses to reconcile than he may not be the one to blame for the dissolution of the marriage, this is in accord of what Jesus says about divorce in Matt 19. That divorce is only permitted on the basis of sexual immorality, and Paul also adds that if an unbeliever leaves the marriage that too is grounds for divorce. So the circumstances of the divorce and remarriage need to be examined. Now let us also look at married men, if a married man addicted to pornography, if he is an adulterer even though he is only married to one person he is not living to reflect this. He is disqualified. The principle is this, that a potential elder is commited to one woman for life. It is necessary that leader of the church be a model of marriage and faithfulness for the church and the world. Evangelicalism has not always been consistent on this and that is spiritual malpractice. If a pastor or elder has been unfaithful to his wife then he has disqualified himself from present AND future service as an elder. Now I can hear some objections, what about if he is repentant shouldn’t we allow him back as a pastor, or elder? No, because we violate this very clear principle of above reproach, the man who commited this sin if repentant may of course be part of the body of Christ and serve as a member but the name of Christ is at stake here. The elder because of the leadership and visibility as well as the higher standard placed on his life must be above reproach. We do not appoint elders just because of their speaking talents and teaching talents, character comes first.
Believing children, The next aspect of marriage and family is his children. A potential elder does not have to have children in order to be qualified, but for those with children this applies. vs 6. The word used to denote possession of children is implying that this is talking about the children that are in the authority of the home. So are the potential elders kids must be primarily the ones in the home, the next statement is believing or faithful which are than qualified by not accused of dissipation or rebellion. Paul uses similar language in 1 Tim 3:4-5.
4 He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity
5 (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?),
In both the Titus passage and Timothy passage the elder is evaluated on the basis of his control of his children and their conduct. As long as these children are in the home of the elder, under his authority they are not to be characterized by rebellion and undisciplined behavior. A man’s character is most clearly displayed in how he is at home. Children can sniff inconsistency better an any adult. How can we expect a man to manage and be a steward of God’s church if his family is in shambles. It is indeed a high standard, but a necessary one.
2. His character traits (v. 7-8), connected to his family traits. 7 virtues, 5 vices. A similar list can be found in 1 Tim 3.
Paul repeats blameless introducing the functional title of overseer, using a different name for the same office because it emphasizes the first negative trait that an elder must not be! God’s steward, God’s overseer must not be self-willed or another way it is translated arrogant.
So an elder must not be: Arrogant or self-willed, Angry or quick tempered , Addicted to wine or a drunk, not a brawler or bully, not greedy for money. All these represent root sins such as Pride, anger, desire for drinking, dominance, greed. Being controlled by any of these are bad for any person but most especially bad and disqualifying for an elder.
Now Paul contrasts the list with virtues an elder must have, vs 7. Hospitable, Loving what is good an overseer is to love people and desire to help them become what God wants them to be. Just that is a life that reflects right living, devout or put another way living a live pleasing to God, and self-controlled or disciplined. These characteristics must make up an elder. This is the picture of what an elder should like, now this last characteristic is so crucial because an elder cannot carry out his responsibilities without it.
3. His devotions to God’s Word and Prayer, teaching the Gospel message (v. 9).
The elder must cling to the and be devoted to the Word of God. Paul tells Titus that an elder must cling to the teaching of Christ and the apostles which we have in the form of the New Testament. The elder must be men under the authority of Scripture. The elders must be men of the book for with it they are able to exhort with sound doctrine, and refute those who go against it.
This is the culmination, because of the risks to the church, a church must have elders that are responsible for the spiritual needs of the family, this means they not only speak the right doctrine, the Word of God and refute those who would contradict it, but they have to have a life that reflects the transformed lives they claim to have.
Elders are the antidote to the sickness of false teaching and legalism that creeps into churches.
The Reward for a Healthy Church.
The Reward for a Healthy Church.
Illustration: Allergies, how many of you have allergies? have you ever watched an allergy commercial? You have these people out doing activities in the outdoors and enjoying nature. Yet there is this fine print scrolling and its all the risks of this drug that will make you feel better, you can enjoy the outdoors but this drug can cause headaches, dizziness constipation and even death.
I suppose it is good marketing to place the good stuff in high definition and risks in small letters.
We don’t get that type of marketing in Scripture. We get reality hard hitting reality. The Church is Gods vehicle in attacking the gates of hell, and while we know Christ will build His church and the gates of hell will not overcome it, Satan is going to try to sabotage every individual church he can. The risks are out there and they are in here, we must guard our hearts we have a responsibility to the church to ensure that it is healthy for our own souls and the souls outside of these walls.
Last week I asked you who is your One? I said pray that God would bring one person into your life that you would disciple, share the gospel with and invite to church. I ask you today to do the same thing if you do not have one yet, keep praying that God would point you to a person. As we are being discipled through preaching and Bible study we need to be pouring into others lives for the purpose of the Gospel. Our church needs to be a launching pad for the mission of reaching the world for the Gospel. We have to build a firm foundation on Christ and this requires a foundation of leadership.
Healthy Church has a foundation of leaders with character.
Next week! We will be in Titus 2 and examine the character and conduct of Church members.
Prayer