The Appointment of Godly Elders - Titus 1:5

0:39Yes. Put that on them. Margaret Moore is also graduated with their MTS. So they're all over in North Carolina, and you can congratulate them when they get back. And while we're talking about it, we're recruiting for a new one-year cohort. So if you want to be a part of that, John and Ryan and Travis all just finished. And if you can catch them while they're not studying or sleeping and you ask them about it, I think they'll tell you that they know the scriptures so well. And it is a big sacrifice for that one year that you're giving up a lot of your time to study and work hard. But I think it is pretty life-changing the way that they know the scriptures, they know theology at the end of that year. So if you have any interest in that, come and talk to me. But turn to Titus chapter one.

1:30At Southern Oaks, we're teaching through the book of Titus to start their revitalization. Ramiro, their pastor, Ramiro Castillo, and I are kind of team teaching that together. And we thought that the timing worked out well with our nomination process. We just started this morning a nomination process for new elders and new deacons. There was an insert in your bulletin this morning. If you didn't get one, I'm sure there's still some extras floating around. Where every year at Emmanuel Baptist, we, Emmanuel Baptist Church, we nominate elders, we nominate men to be elders and deacons. I've heard one teacher say that, well, I'll tell you that later.

2:17But we thought it was timely because we just, at Southern Oaks, I just taught through the qualifications of elders and why we have elders, what are elders, what are deacons, all of these kinds of things. And so we thought it'd be a good way to start off the summer, start off this nomination process by just remembering again from the scriptures what is the role of an elder. Why do we have elders? What is the role of a deacon? I don't know what kind of church background you come from. The church background that I grew up in was totally different than this. I grew up in a hierarchical church where there were bishops and archbishops and priests and things like that. All the things, all biblical terms that we, I mean, all. Terms that we would reject as not the biblical structure that we see in Scripture. And so maybe you've come from a different background. Maybe you've come and your church growing up always only had one pastor. Or maybe your church growing up had a deacon board and they kind of ran the church almost like a corporate board or something like that. And they would select a preacher. And if the preacher wasn't like what they wanted, then they would fire that preacher and get a new one. I don't know where you've grown up, but at this church, we believe that the church is to be led by elders, men who are qualified by God according to the scriptures, according to the qualifications that we find in the scriptures. And that deacons are servants. That's what the word deacon means. Maybe in kind of a more official capacity. They help the elders. They assist the elders. They serve the church. This is when I was going to say what I was going to say earlier. I've heard a teacher say before that elders serve the church by leading. And deacons leave the church lead the church by serving. I'll say that again. Elders serve the church by leading. I just thought this was a good little summary. Elders serve the church by leading. Deacons lead the church by serving. Thank you.

4:30I'm not going to say it again, so hopefully you got it that time. So turn to Titus chapter 1. Let's start in verse 1. I'll pray before we begin. Father, we pray that you would bless our time. Help us read these stories, read these passages of Scripture to come to a fuller understanding of what your word says about how a church should be structured, how it should be well organized. Help us be a congregation that loves to obey your word and submit to your word.

5:03Help us be a congregation that's protected from the wolves, from false teachers. We thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Titus chapter 1, verse 1. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect in their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began, and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior to Titus, my true child and a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus our Savior. So this is a letter from Paul, an apostle, called for the reasons listed here in the text, to Titus, writing a letter to Titus. Paul to Titus. And this is how he starts in verse 5. He says, This is why.

6:00I left you in Crete. 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. So, Paul had one goal for Titus, and that was for Titus to get the Cretan church, Cretan churches, in line, to get them in order. Now, if you were thinking of different New Testament churches, I think you could immediately think of some that were ordered and some that were disordered. You know, what are some things that you think of when I say the word Antioch, the church in Antioch? How would you describe that kind of church?

6:45Solid, ordered, right. What else? Missionaries, right. You remember they're the church that sent out Paul and Barnabas. They're the church that worked with the apostles early on. They're a well-structured, well-ordered, good-taught, well-taught church in Antioch. What about the church in Ephesus? What comes to mind when you hear about the church in Ephesus? Do you remember anything about that church? They also did pretty well. You know, Paul wrote them a letter. Paul stayed there for at least two years. In one spot, it says three years. So it's two to three years he lived there straight and just ministered there. Ministered and taught week by week by week to the church in Ephesus. They were a well-ordered church. But when I say that the church in Corinth, chaos, right? That's right. It was chaos. They had all kinds of disaster going on in their church.

7:47They had immorality. They had unstructured churches. They had so many questions for Paul that they sent to him in a letter that he's writing back that apparently the leaders at the church couldn't answer. So you can tell, even in the New Testament, even with these early churches, that the apostles were there. They would have touched and felt and been around those churches. Even among those churches, there were well-ordered, strong churches, and there were churches that needed help. There were churches that were unstructured, that were chaotic, they were disordered, they were out of line, they didn't have good teaching. Well, Paul has a man named Titus. Titus has served with him and worked with him. Paul trusts Titus. And at some point, Paul seems to have visited Crete, the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea. We don't hear about this trip in Acts. Most people think that it's probably after his time at Acts. Remember, and the book of Acts ends when Paul is still in his first Roman imprisonment. So we don't get all the way to the end of Paul's life in the book of Acts. So probably after the book of Acts is over, at some point, he visits the island of Crete. And there's some kind of disorder there. There's churches there that have been planted. There were Cretans. I don't know if you remember this. There were Cretans all the way back at Pentecost. You remember when the apostles were speaking in all these different languages and the Spirit had moved among them? It says that there were Cretans there. So maybe these churches of the Cretans, maybe they had been planted a long time ago, and Paul is just visiting, or maybe Paul goes and plants these churches, whatever the case. There's disorder, there's work left to be done.

9:33And Paul leaves Titus there to take care of it. He wants things to be ordered. He wants things to be structured. Verse 5 again: 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 charge 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 contradicted a little bit later, Paul says, One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons.

10:44It's not a very kind thing to say, right? But Paul's quoting someone else, and that person was probably a Cretan. He says, one of their own, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. Hopefully, you're not thinking of somebody in your mind when you think of that kind of person. But whatever the case, they had this reputation for being lying, evil people, gluttons, lazy. If they truly were a people like that, then you can imagine that their churches would become disordered pretty quickly. They would need some kind of structure. And Paul says to Titus, I left you there to man a post and to make sure that they have elders, to make sure that things are ordered, organized, and taught. He says, in verse five, he says to appoint elders. That's the first word he uses for them. And then down in verse 7, he says, for an overseer. Those are synonyms.

11:52You can hear some of our denominations in the words themselves. So that word for elder is present. Buderos. What does that sound like? Presbyterian, right? The word for overseer is episcopas. What does that sound like? Episcopalian, right? And in some older translations, that word is translated as bishop, which is where we get our English word for bishop. But it just means to look over, to oversee, an overseer. Elders, overseers, they're synonyms, and that's who is going to cause order in the churches in Crete.

12:34The question is: what is the main job description of what an elder is? What does an elder do? We've seen a little bit of the qualifications, and that's what we're going to study next week as we come back to this text. But before we do, I thought it would be good to kind of trace some of the stories that we see in the book of Acts and get our minds around who are the deacons? Who are the elders? What is their job description? Where did they come from?

13:03So why don't we turn over to the book of Acts now? We can start in Acts chapter 6. I think that all of us can agree that if we're part of a church, we want it to be a well-ordered church. We want it to be not just a well-ordered church, but a church that is ordered after the design. Design of God, right? The design that He's written into the scriptures, the design that He wants for His churches. And so, as we search the Scriptures, we don't find a book that's necessarily a step-by-step manual on how to do this, on how to nominate our elders and deacons. We have a process for that that we've come up that we believe lines up with the scriptures. But a lot of times, what we have to do, if we're going to get a true understanding of what the elders and deacons are meant to do, is we need to look at the stories that we find in the book of Acts. And so, we're going to start in Acts chapter 6.

14:09The church is doing well. It says at the end of chapter 5, every day in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. The church is growing, but there are some issues with the church. Look at chapter 6, verse 1. Now, in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

14:44So, the church was growing enough to where they already had some of these set ministries already by chapter 6 in the book of Acts. They had some of these set ministries where there were widows to be taken care of. And some of these widows were being neglected. Weren't being taken care of. The Jews who had become Christians, their widows were being looked after. But the Hellenists, who had become Christians, their widows were being neglected. Verse 2. And the twelve summoned a full number of the disciples and said, It is not right that we should give up preaching the Word of God to serve tables. Let's stop there for just a minute. So the twelve are the twelve disciples, the twelve apostles, those leaders in the early church who had been with Jesus throughout his ministry. This issue is brought to them, and their first response is not to take care of it right away. Instead, what they say is, we need to gather the church. It's not right. We need to talk about this. It's not right for these 12 apostles to give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. These apostles, these disciples, they had a role, and they needed to fill that role. And they couldn't neglect that role by doing something else. And so he says in verse 3: Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.

16:30So, this is the first time that we have instructions for the church to choose men to lead in a certain area. And he doesn't say, make sure it's the men who are the most captivating speakers. He doesn't say, make sure it's the men who are the oldest. He doesn't say, make sure it's the men who are the best looking. He says, make sure that these seven men are men of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit, and full of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. That's what qualified these early servants to serve. They had a good reputation, they were full of the Spirit, and they were full of wisdom. Now, remember, in the New Testament, when we hear, when we see the word full of the Holy Spirit, usually that's distinguished for us between being filled with the Holy Spirit.

17:33Being full of the Holy Spirit is somebody who's walking in step with the Spirit, full of the Word of God, a mature man, a godly man, full of the Holy Spirit. Filled with the Holy Spirit is what we see throughout the Scriptures as something more miraculous. You know, they're about to prophesy or lift the city gate or conquer an army or something like that. And so here it is, full of the Holy Spirit. They're looking for men that are godly, that have a good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit, and full of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. Verse 4, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip and Procorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmenus and Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them, and the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. So we can add Jerusalem to our list of churches that are well-ordered and well-structured, multiplying under the guidance of the apostles. But what I wanted to notice was that these men are qualified in a kind of peculiar way. You're trying to find men that are mature, that are godly men, that are wise men. That's who they're looking to serve these tables. Now, the question is, who does this line up with? Are these elders? Are these deacons? It just calls them the seven. It just says they're going to wait on tables. They're going to take care of that widow ministry. Well, I think it's important that we don't say, you see, these are the first deacons. I don't think we can say that with 100%.

19:30Strength. And here's what I mean. Because what we'll see by the end of the New Testament is that in the church we have elders and deacons, and it's a pretty well-set up system. But here, it's not exactly the same as elders, it's apostles, right? These are the 12 disciples. And these men are not exactly deacons, they're at least not called deacons. But I think it's safe for us to say that this is kind of the prototype for what becomes the elders and the deacons. The apostles, even though they are the apostles, they do, for the most part, become the elders of the church in Jerusalem.

20:13And something like this is exactly what we would expect for deacons to do. Something like this to be appointed to a specific service in order to help the elders. And so when we come to a text like this, I think it's important for us to realize that, number one, these are the kind of men that we want in leadership, full of the Holy Spirit, full of wisdom, having a good reputation. But also, I think we get this prototypical example of what it can look like in the church: that you've got elders, people teaching the word, focused on teaching the word, praying for the church, and deacons, people focused on serving the church on behalf of the elders. Let's turn over to Acts chapter 20.

21:10We have another story. Paul has just raised Eutychus. Do you remember that story? He falls out of the window while Paul is preaching, and Paul goes down and raises him. Well, after that, Paul needs to get back to Jerusalem. If you remember, on his missionary journey, the goal was not only to strengthen the churches that he was visiting, it was not only to plant new churches, it was also to bring a gift back to Jerusalem. The Jerusalem church needed help. And Paul was soliciting this financial help from all these churches that he visited and getting them to send money back to Jerusalem that was experiencing so much suffering and hardship.

22:04Well, on the way back, remember, he had already spent three years in Ephesus teaching there. And so you can imagine, many of you maybe have spent three years in one church for a long time, and you get close to people. At least you should get close to people in three years. It's hard to rip yourself apart from those relationships when it's time to move on. And you sense a little bit of that as Paul stops. In Miletus, and calls the Ephesian elders to come down and visit him there.

22:36He doesn't have time. He needs to go to Jerusalem. He needs to deliver this gift to Jerusalem, but he at least wants to talk to the elders of the Ephesian church. So let's look at what he says in verse 17, Acts 20, verse 17. Now, from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them, You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying to both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

23:59And now, behold, Behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Let's stop there. So, what is he saying so far? That's a real question. What are some of the things he's talked about so far to these elders?

24:33Right. He says, I don't know what's going to happen to me in Jerusalem, but essentially, I know it's going to be bad, right? That imprisonment and affliction await me wherever I go. What else did he talk about? Right? How he lived among the Ephesian church and he worked hard, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews. He worked hard in Ephesus. For three years, he had tears and trials and suffered in order to be able to teach and proclaim the word there.

25:17What else? Well, toward the end, you see, verse 26. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. So, during that time, during that three years, Paul's saying, I told you everything, and I guarded that church with tears and with trials. And so, I am innocent of the blood of that church. And I think that implied, and we'll see this made more explicit later on in the passage, I think, implied in that statement of I am innocent of the blood of this church, implied is now it's your turn.

26:11I've done my part for three years, elders. Don't mess this up. This is in your hands now. He's saying, Now, behold, I know that none of you, this is 25, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. So, you can imagine how sad this would be. These are probably some of his best friends in the world. He's saying, I know it's going to get really bad when I go to Jerusalem. I'm not going to see any of you again. This is the last time I'm seeing you. I'm telling you, I'm innocent of the blood of your church.

26:54And then he's got a message for them to hear. So, with all that set up, let's read the message. Verse 28. 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. Again, you get the picture, right? He's saying, I did my part. I worked hard for this church. I cried over this church. I taught this church. Now you need to pay careful attention.

27:38Elders, he calls them overseers here, but these are the elders that have gathered to him from Ephesus. 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 think he's very clear that this is not their church. This is not the elders' church. This is the church of God. The elders aren't the ones who redeemed the people in this church, in the church in Ephesus. Instead, it was God, and he redeemed them with his own blood. Care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. At great cost, God obtained this church.

28:30Now, these elders are called to pay careful attention over themselves and over all the flock. They're to keep watch as overseers. They're to look out at every single member of that flock and make sure that they're not letting somebody kind of slip through the cracks. They're to care for the flock. Why? Verse 29. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Here's a question for the kids: since we have truth and grace in here. What do you think he means by that? Why is he telling the church that after he leaves, I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock? Who do you think the wolves are? That's a question for a kid. Any kid have an idea who the wolves are? Yeah, Jack?

29:30Right, false teachers is a good answer. Right? That these false teachers are going to come in. They want to prey on the flock. This flock has been obtained by the blood of God. But these wolves want to come in. And after Paul leaves, they're going to come. The wolves are going to come. So the elders need to keep watch. Verse 30. Not only on those who come in from the outside, but verse 30. And from among your own selves. Will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. So people are going to rise up, even in the church, and they're going to begin to love the attention that people will give them if they start to speak twisted things.

30:19Verse 31. Therefore, be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. So he's saying, be alert. Remember my ministry. Remember Paul's ministry there for the three years? How he didn't cease to teach and admonish? I think he's saying this is what it takes. It takes admonishing. It takes tears. It takes hard labor for years. That's what keeping alert looks like. And he's telling the elders, you keep alert. You work hard for this.

31:13But also, we trust God in this. Verse 32. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Saying that as they are alert, They pay attention to the flock, as they oversee, these elders are commended to the grace of God who's watching over them, who's caring for them, who's caring for the flock. Paul again speaks about his example in verse 33. I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way, we must help the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And so one more time, he reminds them of his example that even though, as we read in 2 Corinthians, even though Paul could have, as an apostle, he could have accepted payment from the church, as some of the other leaders of the church were doing in his day, but Paul wanted this as an extra reward for himself before the Lord, as an extra trophy that we read about in 2 Corinthians, that he wanted to work with his own hands. He didn't want to accept payment, at least for his own sake, from any of the churches. And so he was tent making. He was working hard with his own hands. And he's saying to the Ephesian elders, again, consider my example. Consider how I worked hard for this. Consider how I labored there, not just in admonishing and teaching, but also worked with my own hands to provide my own way. That's how important this was to me.

33:00You get the picture? He's saying, take care of this. Don't let all my work go for nothing. When he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all, and there was much weeping on the part of all. They embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship. So it's an emotional moment for them, right? One of their closest friends in the world has just told them he's never going to see their face again, that he's about to go and be persecuted.

33:38But he's not just a close friend to them, he's the Apostle Paul, who lived there and taught for three years. And he's charging them, saying, remember how hard I worked for this church. And your job, number one, your duty as elders of the church in Ephesus, your duty is to pay attention. Don't be lazy. Keep oversight over the flock. Watch over the flock. Take care of the flock. Because it's not neutral. It's not a neutral situation. It's not just once you get a church going and it's going well. That's not when all of a sudden you can kick back and stick your feet up and relax, thinking that everything's on autopilot and the church is just going to keep. Going well. No, when a church is doing well, that's more and more the time to pay attention, right? When a church is doing well and you see signs of life, those same signs of joy that we experience, those same things that we love to see life and joy and growth in the church, relationships being built, those are the very things that the wolves want to come and prey upon. They want that life and they want it for themselves. They want to teach twisted things.

35:02Even people in the church, as he said, men from among you, from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. As elders watch over the flock, there's also a need to watch those in the flock who have started to love the praise of men, who have started to covertly teach different things and draw attention to themselves. That, I believe, is the chief job description of what an elder is. Notice here that he calls them elders as they come down to Miletus. He calls them overseers.

35:44He also says, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock. That's where we get the term shepherding the flock or pastoring the flock. That's what. Why we call some men pastors is because they're pastoring over the flock. In 1 Peter, we'll turn there in just a moment. He says, Shepherd the flock of God among you. And so, an elder, a pastor, an overseer, these are all synonyms for the same office in the church: the men who are doctrinally in charge of paying careful attention to themselves and to the flock. Any questions so far?

36:27Any thoughts about what we studied tonight? So, I think if we're building a picture from the book of Acts and we're looking at what the job descriptions are of these different offices, if you're wondering, as you looked at the bulletin insert from this morning and you see there's a little checkbox after you write the name of the person that you're nominating for this office, and then you see a box that says elder or deacon, which one are you nominating that person to? Well, I think as we're building this picture from Acts, we start to get a picture in the early church that there's a group of men in a church who are required to lead the church by diligently staring, paying attention, staying alert, watching over the flock, watching out for wolves, watching out for false doctrine, and setting things in order, like he says in Titus.

37:31And then from Acts 6, I think we start to get this picture that there's this other group of men in the church that can be tasked with service roles, even official service roles. You know, these seven men that they chose, they weren't slouches, right? I mean, who were a couple of the seven men that they chose? Stephen, right? Have you read Stephen's sermon in Acts chapter 7? The first martyr of the church? You know, he was not your average Joe. He was full of the Holy Spirit. He was full of wisdom.

38:12Another one, Philip, right? The evangelist, used by God to speak to the Ethiopian, correct me if I'm wrong, but speak to the Ethiopian eunuch, speaking to the community where Simon, the magician, believes, and then they call the apostles over. And so God used these deacons as well, but they seemed to be men who were in authority over this ministry to the widows that were qualified in similar ways to what we see from the elders. Let's turn to another place: 1 Peter chapter 5.

39:05This is one of the few passages we have in the epistles that speaks directly to elders or directly about elders. Look at 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 1. So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. So how did Peter just introduce himself again? As a fellow elder, right? A fellow elder. So he's saying, I exhort the elders among you. This is to believers who are scattered abroad. I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight. There's another form of that same word, overseer.

40:08Shepherd the flock. Again, another form of the word for pastor. 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. Your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. I think this is such a special passage coming from Peter. Do you remember that story at the end of John?

40:53Jesus, as he's restoring Peter and he's saying, Do you love me? He's saying, Feed my sheep. You know, this commission, this call was given to Peter to feed the sheep, to take care of the sheep. And now Peter is saying to all the elders, I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder. He's saying, I'm in this with you, just as another elder. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And so he's speaking about the attitude of these elders, that they are to be serving in this way. They are to be keeping watch over the flock. They are to be organizing things, keeping things well ordered, but not in a way that's domineering, not in a way that's greedy, where they're just looking to increase their paycheck.

42:01Earn more for themselves or something like that. Take advantage of people, fleece the flock. Not under compulsion, but willingly, eagerly. I think you get the picture that these elders are meant to joyfully serve, eagerly serve. Yes, work as hard as they can to watch over the flock, but do so joyfully, eagerly. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. So throughout the New Testament, we see that there is this office of the elders, that they are eldering in front of the eyes of the chief shepherd himself. They're waiting for his reward. And they have a job description, and that's to care for the flock, watch over the flock. A couple of points that you might have noticed as we went through is as we're talking about this.

43:03Every time we run into this in the New Testament, it's always plural. Maybe this point has been made to you before. But every time we see the word elders or it's talking about the elders of the church, it's always plural. Now, that doesn't mean necessarily that maybe he was speaking to all of the elders in Ephesus. As if there were six different house churches and each of them only had one elder. Okay, maybe you could say something like that. But it seems like, as you go through the New Testament, the pattern, at least of a mature church, is that there's several men in charge of the church, that there's several men that are exercising oversight over the flock.

43:53It's never to an elder singular over the flock. Now, some of you grew up in churches like that where all it was was the pastor. That's the only elder. That's the only overseer. That's the only pastor, and there's only one. There are a lot of different traditions where that's the case, and there's a lot, even in, you know, a church like ours, that that might have been the case at some point when the church was small and there was no other option because there was only one elder. If a church is continuing on with only one elder, I don't think it necessarily means that they're continuing in sin. But I do think that the example that we see in the New Testament is that a mature church drives toward this idea of plural eldership. It's a team, it's a team of elders that came down and visited Paul from Ephesus. That these elders are the godly men in the church that are exercising oversight together. Does that make sense?

44:56Another assumption that we see as we go through this text is that. They're men. You see that in every single passage: that these are men who are full of the Holy Spirit, that these are men set apart to serve, these elders. There's male leadership of the church. We'll see that again next week as we go through some of the qualifications. But the pattern that we see in the New Testament and the instruction that we receive from the apostles, the people who are caring for the church, that are shepherding the church and overseeing the church, are men who are qualified by God. Hopefully, a team of them.

45:36Any other observations as we went through these passages? Well, I think that's enough for tonight, but we're going to continue on with this next week. We're going to talk more about what the qualifications mean, what does it practically look like in our church. But I think by now, after looking at the story in Crete and the story in Acts chapter 6, and the story in Acts chapter 20, and then this message from Peter to the elders, I think we can start to form as we piece together these different passages, I think we can start to form what the New Testament expectation of church leadership is meant to look like. It's a team of elders, men who are looking out over the church, watching the flock, being alert, paying attention, not allowing wolves to creep in. And there are teams of deacons underneath serving, appointed to service. We'll spend a little more time on the deacons next week. As you consider that bulletin, the bulletin insert to nominate elders and deacons, if you're a member of this church, I encourage you again, as Matt said this morning, there's a little pamphlet in the resource center, unless we're out of them. If we are, then swap them around. Is that the right word? You know what I mean? Trade, share.

47:04But I encourage you to read that, to read up on that. It's written by a man named Alexander Strzok. And if you can get anything by him on church leadership, it's really helpful and really good. He's got a big book on eldership, and he's got a big book on a medium book on deacons. And then he's got that little pamphlet, and that's the one that we're talking about that's in the resource center. So be reading up on this. Be nominating elders and deacons. Right now, if you are curious, maybe you have no idea about this. Right now at this church, we have five elders and one deacon. The five elders, and correct me again if I'm wrong about this, the five elders are Tom Baber, Pat Johnson, Russell McGee, Matt Gentry, and myself. We're the five elders. And then there's one deacon, and it's James Mohan, who heads. Up our ministry over technology and audio-visual and all of that on behalf of the elders. And so we encourage you, especially, I think that you could tell already we need a few more deacons, right? If the deacons are the ones that are in charge of this service of the church, if they're the ones that are helping by administrating over these things on behalf of the elders, we could use some more. So I encourage you to read up and check that pamphlet and fill out the bulletin insert and nominate some deacons.

48:36True. Sometimes the deacons decide to step back a little while because that's playing alike and mark us. Although I will say, though they're inactive, they're very active. Right. Amen. Right. Right. Well, any other thoughts or questions as we close? Well, hopefully that was a little bit helpful. Let's pray as we close. Father, we thank you that we can be together, even tonight, that we can be together, adults with the children. And we pray that as we seek to understand what you would want for this church, we pray that you would make us humble.

49:21We pray that we would submit to what is written in your word, to the patterns that we see in the New Testament. Of wise leadership. Help us be a church that joyfully and eagerly longs to match what the apostles teach in scripture. Help us not be stubborn or kick against what we see in the scriptures, but instead help us learn from the scriptures and apply what we learn. Father, we do thank you so much for the godly men who have led this church for so many years. We thank you that there have been men to man the post and watch out for wolves.

50:22Protect the church and teach the church and admonish the church. We know that there's always a threat for wolves to come. We know that there's always a threat for prideful and arrogant men, even among the congregation, to love the praise of men, to elevate themselves and start to teach strange teachings. I pray, Father, that you would continue to protect us. We pray that you would continue to protect us. Protect us from false teaching. Help us stay true to your word and be a well-ordered church. In Jesus' name, amen.