1 Timothy chapter 3 tonight. We finished out chapter 2 last week and tonight we are in
1 Timothy chapter 3. Both this passage and the passage last week there is much that can
be said. There is a lot of disagreement even among Christians here on these two passages
that we've looked at in their interpretation. There is certainly some difficulty that comes
with these passages and we talked about some of those difficulties last week at the end
of 1 Timothy chapter 2. And tonight we will look at another passage that I suppose on
the surface doesn't appear too difficult, but yet if you spend much time looking into
this passage and reading different interpretations of it, you'll find that there are lots of
different things perhaps that people consider about this passage that maybe we don't consider
sometimes. So we'll do our best to make it through this tonight and try to understand
it and draw closer to the Lord. So let's pray and we'll get started. Father God, we come
to you tonight and your word is good. And there are parts of your word, dear Lord, that
maybe we don't always understand as good as we would like to. Dear Lord, your word, however,
is not confusing. I pray, dear Lord, that I would not make it confusing tonight, but
that we would do our best to understand it, dear Lord. Even as brothers and sisters in
Christ, God, there are sometimes disagreements in what your word says. But we want to understand
it as best we can. Let your Holy Spirit lead and guide us that we would be those who seek
your will and who seek to live by your word. And I pray, God, that you would just hide
me behind the cross tonight, that I would preach and teach in a way that brings glory
to you, that we would read this passage like any other with a hope to understand it and
grow in it so that we grow in you. And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Now,
Paul has been giving Timothy some instruction. And Timothy really started receiving that
instruction in chapter 2. Paul says, look, here are some things that are going on. Here
are some things that you need to be aware of as you're going to encounter these people
in Ephesus. Here are some things that you are going to need to address, some things
that you may come up against. And here tonight in 1 Timothy chapter 3, what we're going to
see is that Paul is going to give Timothy the qualifications for being an overseer.
Now among the translations that are probably in here tonight, our translations are going
to either say bishop or overseer. That's going to be the two words that we're probably going
to see in most of our translations. It's possible you have a translation that says elder, but
it is unlikely. Now, we need to talk about a little bit about kind of the structure of
this idea of overseer in scripture or elder in scripture or bishop in scripture or pastor,
because all of those words really describe kind of the same office. Now, it may surprise
you to know if you haven't ever researched this, we don't see pastor mentioned, but one
time in the whole New Testament, it's only mentioned in one occasion. That's Ephesians
chapter 4 verse 11. Now we do see this term overseers or elders a lot, and it appears
to be plural. That is that in these bodies of Christ that are gathered together, there
are multiple elders over the church or there are multiple overseers or multiple bishops.
Now that looks a little different in some of our churches today and maybe not in a good
way. Now, typically the structures that we see in our churches today are this idea of
a lead pastor. Some churches will have elders and then deacons will be below them. Sometimes
what we see in our churches is that the pastor is given a lot of authority and some pastors
really like that authority and they like that idea of being in charge of everything. But
what we see, I think, with what elders are called to do or pastors are called to do is
this idea of shepherding the flock and serving the flock. Really what I believe we see in
scripture is we see the office of overseer, bishop, pastor, elder. We see that role, that's
one office. Then we see the office of deacon. These are the two that Paul is addressing
here in chapter 3. He says, look, there are some who are going to be overseers in different
churches and there are certain qualifications that need to be met. Now, this passage in
particular is good for somebody who feels that they are called to the ministry. Now,
maybe there are some in here that are feeling called or may feel called one day into the
ministry. This is a good passage for us to read for myself as an overseer. This is a
good passage for me to read to make sure that I'm doing good and see if there's areas where
I'm not doing good. This passage is good for those who seek the office of overseer or currently
in the office. It's good for the rest of the church to know, hey, these are the standards.
These are the standards that we need to look for. These are the standards that you should
look for in me to see if I'm living up to these standards. If I'm not, then that needs
to be addressed. These are the standards that the next pastor that comes in here need to
be able to live up to these standards. This is true for any church, for any body of believers
or brothers and sisters in Christ. The office of overseer or elders, whether it's one that
we see in our churches today, which may or may not be a good thing, or whether it's multiple
overseers or elders in a church that have this ability to lead and to teach and to preach
in this way. Regardless of what the structure is, there is a high bar that has been set
by God. This is not just for anybody to do. Quite frankly, there are very few who are
qualified. Maybe there are many in our world today who are serving who don't meet these
qualifications. Paul gives these to Timothy and says, hey, look, there are some who are
going to aspire to be an overseer. If they are going to be an overseer, these are the
things that they need to meet. These are the qualifications that they need to meet.
In 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 1, he says, this saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to
be an overseer, he desires a noble work. An overseer therefore must be above reproach.
Now, this covers a lot of ground right here. Now, Paul is just to go through and he's going
to list some major areas here. But if there's anything that Paul doesn't cover here, this
idea of being above reproach is important. Now, if I ask you all to think of somebody
right now and I were to say, think of somebody that you don't think would be qualified to
be an overseer, a pastor of a church, an elder, you probably could think of somebody. You
could think of five or six reasons why they don't qualify. Well, a person like that is
not above reproach. If you can instantly think about somebody, well, I don't know about that
person because they act this way and they act that way and they do this thing and they
do that thing. If there's those questions in the life of someone who aspires to be an
overseer, then they're not qualified to be an overseer. They're not qualified to lead
God's church. And so that's an important thing that we need to recognize is those who seek
to be an overseer, are they above reproach? Are there obvious things that we know about
their life that are not good, that are not right, that are problems, that are issues,
that are sin that people are living in? Now, Paul doesn't give an exhaustive list here.
However, the list he gives is pretty good. It covers most situations, but even the situations
perhaps that it doesn't cover, I believe that this above reproach covers a lot of ground
right here. So if there are obvious sins that we see in somebody's life and yet they say,
I want to be a pastor of a church, then that qualification is not there. And so he says,
number one, number one, above reproach. Now, typically when we make lists, we sometimes,
maybe most of the time, put things that are most important at the top. Number one, you
make your Christmas list. What's the present you want most? You're probably going to put
it at the top. This is what I want. And so Paul lists this first and we see that first
in this list. And I believe above reproach is also first in his list he gives in Titus,
which is very similar to this. Okay. So number one, the person who seeks to be an overseer
needs to be one who is above reproach. The next part there in verse two, the husband
of one wife, self-controlled, sensible, respectable, hospitable, and an able teacher. Okay. So
what are we to make of some of these qualifications? Well, here's where we get our first hiccup,
our first disagreement among some Christians on this verse. The fact that it says the husband
of one wife. Well, what exactly does that mean? Well, some have said, well, that means
they cannot be divorced. There are many who would hold to that view that Paul says a person
who seeks to be an overseer, they, if they're divorced, they are disqualified. However,
that's not what he says there. At least that's not what he uses. That's not the word he uses.
He could have used the word divorce there. However, he did not use the word divorce.
Now it's possible that that's what he meant. It's possible that that is what Paul meant.
And that's why there's much discussion and much, much debate here. It's also possible
when he says husband of one wife, that is you don't have multiple wives. You're not
married to two or three women. You don't have two or three wives. That's another possibility
there. And so this is, this is hotly debated. There are, there are plenty of churches who
would say if someone has been divorced, they are disqualified based on this particular
passage. Now I'll let you guys pray about this and decide on this for yourself. What
you believe that God's word says there, it says the husband of one wife. It doesn't say
divorced. Does he mean divorced? Possibly so. But at the very least, he needs to be
the husband of one wife, which brings up another question. Does someone who is an overseer have
to be married? Well, that's another topic of debate. Some would, would look at this
list in a very rigid way and say they have to be married. And as we're going to see the
mention of children, they have to have children. If someone is not married and have children,
then they cannot be the pastor of a church. Now there are certainly Christians and, and,
and denominations that would hold to these things very, very strictly that they must
be married. Others would say, well, no, it's not saying that they have to be married so
much as that if they are married, they can only be married to one person. And if they
are married, they need to be a respectable husband. If they are married and have children,
then their children need to be well behaved as we see here, as we continue on. And so
this particular part of this passage is very much debated. And you may have encountered
people who want to, who want to argue about this, but we're not going to argue about it
because look, we want to try to understand God's word as best we can. And we pray about
it and whatever we feel the Holy spirit convicts us of, then, then we have to live by those
convictions and there are times we encounter other brothers and sisters in Christ, it would
have a different interpretation in those things. And there are certainly people who have, who
have left churches over, over things like this because a pastor has been divorced and
some would say they're not qualified are in the passage we talked about last week about
women, women's involvement in the church. Some would say women can't have any say in
if they do, I'm going to leave. Some would say, well, women can pray, but they can't
preach and if they preach, I'm going to leave. Others would say, if women can do anything,
they can pray, they can preach, they can talk, they can do whatever. These, these types of
things are, are very, they're prominent even in our culture today. We see that in our culture
today. We talked about last week that Saddleback Church was voted out of the Southern Baptist
Convention because they held to the view that women should be allowed to preach. We see
a problem in the Methodist church for the last couple of years that there are many in
the Methodist church that believe it's okay for a homosexual to be a pastor. And there
are several Methodist churches who have ordained and placed homosexual men and women as pastors
in the church. And so there's a big controversy right now in the Methodist church and many
Methodist churches have split off and broken away from, from that group that supports that.
So certainly there is some disagreement, but for those who would fall into the sin of homosexuality
or any other sin that's not listed on this, on this list that Paul gives us would fall
into that category, I believe, of not being above reproach. So therefore they would be
disqualified on that grounds. And so when we look at passages like these, we need to
be aware of what they say and we need to be familiar with them and we need to pray about
it and we need to come to grips and an understanding of what we believe that God's word says because
we want to be able to stand by God's word. So when we have people that come up to us
and say, you know, I don't think God's word says it's wrong for a homosexual to be a pastor.
Well then that should throw a red flag for us. That should be an instant red flag and
we should say, no, that's a sin in scripture. And there are lots of sins listed in scripture
and anyone who's living in unrepentant sin is not qualified to be an overseer of the
church. They are not above reproach. So pick your sin, whatever sin you choose. If there's
someone living in unrepentant sin in that way, then they're disqualified. And we need
to have high standards for those who are going to be elders and overseers in the church.
We need to hold these men to high standards and too many times perhaps churches don't
hold to that standard. We look at God's word and we pick and choose and we pick it apart
and we make it kind of be, well, I don't think it means this and that's old times and these
are new times and maybe it means something different. No, we need to understand the severity
of these, these, these instructions here and these qualifications. This is serious. This
is serious things that we need to be aware of as brothers, sisters in Christ. The next
one on the list that they are to be self-control. Okay. You don't want somebody that's going
to be a leader that cannot control their self, that cannot control their attitude, that cannot
control their actions, that cannot control their tongue. That's not a good quality. You
can't have someone leading a church if, if, if they have that tendency and they often
do that. That's not a good, a good thing. Somebody who is sensible. Again, this is,
this is very practical. You don't want somebody that's not sensible, somebody that's unreasonable
to be the leader of God's people. It needs to be somebody who is self-controlled and
who is strong and can, who can, who can make a rational decision when leading God's people
and teaching God's people. Respectable. This is an easy one to see. If you say, okay, we're
looking for somebody that's going to be an overseer of this church or somebody that we
want to ordain, maybe somebody within the church or maybe somebody that's, that's coming
in that we're searching for, are they a respectable person? That's pretty easy to see. You know
which people are respected and which people are, are not respected. That's an easy qualification
for us to look at. Hospitable. Are they hospitable? Some people are not hospitable. Some people
are rude and some people don't care, but other people are very hospitable and they're kind
and they're giving. This is the kind of thing that we should see in those who seek to be
overseers of the church. Enable teacher. Can they teach the word of God? Can they preach
the word of God? Now that's not to say that they, that everybody who is overseer is going
to be just a fantastic speaker or a fantastic preacher or teacher. There are plenty of overseers
that have been wonderful, godly men, but perhaps they haven't been the best teachers in the
world or the best preachers in the world, but did they have some ability to teach? Do
they have some ability to understand the word of God and teach it to those that are in the
congregation? Well, there has to be some ability there to teach and to preach and that's a
good quality that we need to look for. Certainly there are some teachers who are better than
others and preachers who are better than others, but the overseer needs some ability to teach.
Verse three, not addicted to wine, not a bully, but gentle, not coralsome, not greedy. Okay,
self-explanatory. You don't want a drunkard leading the church. Now it doesn't say here
that you can't have any wine. It says not to be addicted to wine. If somebody's a drunk,
then guess what? Well, they're probably, they're not going to make a good leader. They're not
going to make a good boss at your office place and they certainly are not going to make a
good leader in God's church. So you don't look for somebody that drinks a lot, somebody
that has a problem with drinking, not a bully. Okay. You don't want somebody who's going
to be a bully, somebody who's going to have a bad attitude, somebody who's going to be
forceful. That's not a good quality. That's not the quality that Jesus had. Jesus had
the other quality that we see and that is to be gentle. Okay. So you need somebody that's
going to be gentle, somebody that's going to be compassionate, not a bull in a china
shop. That's not a good quality. And Paul says, look, somebody that's a bully like that,
somebody who has that type of attitude, they don't qualify to be an overseer, not quarrelsome.
Okay. You don't want somebody that's always quarreling with other people. Not a good quality,
not greedy. Okay. That's, that's important. You certainly don't want someone who's greedy
because what's, what's the motivation? Is it to watch after the people of the church
or is it to make money? If the motivation of the one who's the overseer is to make money,
then then everything they do is going to revolve around how much money they can get or whatever
they can get for themselves. That, that type of greed is not a good quality. That's not
a quality that an overseer should have. So Paul says, Hey, avoid such people. Verse four,
one who manages his own household competently, having his children under control with all
dignity. If anyone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of
God's church? Okay. This is a good qualification and that this is something that, that probably
can be seen by those outside of the church. Now it's certainly possible for an overseer
to be abusive to their children and to their wife and for their household to be a complete
wreck and to keep that a secret. But most of the time you probably can be able to tell
those things. You can see if an overseer and their wife have a good relationship. You can
see if the overseers children are good children. That's not to say they're going to be perfect.
Kids are still going to be kids, but, but, but there's a certain point where you can
say, well, boy, these kids are just out of control. Well, that's not a good thing. Paul
says, Paul says that, look, those who are going to be overseers, they need to be good
leaders both in their home and in the church. And if they're not good leaders in their home,
then they're probably not going to be good leaders when they lead God's people. So Paul
says, look, this is an important qualification. Now, again, some would say, Hey, this is evidence
that that if someone is going to be an overseer, that they have to have children. I don't see
that passage this way, but some would see it that way. Then the question arises is,
well, at what age are they not accountable for their children anymore? Say they raise
their children and their children are good, respecting citizens and their children are
16, 17 years old. And then all of a sudden the child goes off the deep end. Does the
child have to be 18? What is the age in our culture? We say 18 is adulthood, but that's
just kind of an American thing. But, but is there a point in which the, the parent is
no longer responsible? Is it the point that the child is out of the household? Is it as
long as a child is in your house, you can raise them, you can teach them and, and they
may be good, but once your child gets out of the household, as scary as it is, you're
not in control of them anymore. They have to make their own decisions or those who are
in overseer pastor positions, are they responsible for what their children's do as an adult?
I would not think so. However, some would, some would say, nope, those children have
to continue to live a good life. But, but I believe that once a child becomes an adult,
that they have their own household, that they become their own wife or husband, or they
become their own mother or father. And so therefore they're not under your household,
but their own. But again, this is a qualification that this is an easy thing to see for, for
those around. Does this person manage his family well? Does he have a good family, good
wife, good kids? That's a, a, a qualification that Paul is listing here. Verse six, he must
not be a new convert or he might become conceited and fall into the condemnation of the devil.
Okay. This is pretty self-explanatory. Somebody hears the gospel of Jesus Christ. They say,
I'm going to, I'm coming to Jesus Christ. I'm putting my faith in him. Praise God. That's
great. We want to celebrate that. We want to love that person. We want to, we want to
disciple them and teach them God's word and, and give them good examples. But we don't
want to say, Hey, do you want to be a preacher? Do you, do you want to, do you want to be
the overseer of the church? You don't want to immature Christian who's just come to the
Lord who hadn't had time to really grasp God's word and understand God's word and to mature
in God's word. You don't want to throw them into a leadership position. So Paul says,
look, this person must not be a new convert. Okay. And what does he give his reason for
this? He says, uh, he must not be a new convert or he might become conceited. That is he might
become proud and fall into the condemnation of the devil. So they might begin to think
too highly of themselves. They get saved. They become proud. They in this position of
being an overseer, they're not prepared. And next thing you know, everything falls apart.
Now how long must someone be a, be a believer before they can get into a position to oversee?
Well, I don't know. I don't know what the answer to that question is. I suppose you
just would have to examine the person's life. Uh, I suspect it would probably take years
that you'd be able to look at the person. You'd be able to see the person. You'd be
able to see that growth in them. And if you can see that, then you probably, you probably
will begin to see the qualities that make up a good overseer. And maybe you know some
people in your life, some, some, some young men who've walked with the Lord for years
and maybe you know them and you see them and you say, man, that, that, that guy's a, he's
a godly man. He's a good man. And maybe you, you see these very qualities in somebody.
And uh, perhaps it's good for us to point that out. If we see godly young men, if we
see these qualities in them and we see God working and we see him mature, perhaps it's
good for us to encourage them in that way. Maybe God wants to use them in some way. And
when we see these qualities, maybe, maybe they don't see him. Maybe they don't realize
they've got them. Maybe, maybe God can use us to encourage others if we see them, uh,
in this way with these qualities that Paul lists here. But new convert doesn't need to
be an overseer. It needs to be someone who's walked with the Lord and grown in the Lord
for some period of time. Verse seven, furthermore, he must have a good reputation among outsiders
so that he does not fall into disgrace and the devil's trap. Okay. So he needs to have
a good reputation of Christians, but he also needs to have a good reputation among outsiders.
What do people outside of the church think about the overseer? Is the person outside
of the church, can they relate to an unbeliever? Can they, can they hold a conversation with
the unbeliever? Do they have a good relationship even with those who are outside of the church
that don't want anything to do with church that don't believe in God and don't believe
in the Bible? What kind of, what kind of relationship does the overseer have? Now a good overseer
would probably get the respect even of those outside of the church. And I think that's
what Paul is saying here. Furthermore, he must not, he must have a good reputation among
outsiders. Now, why is that? What, who are we trying to reach in the church? Those who
are outside of the church, if the overseer of the church is not one who is approachable
and not one who is respected by the community, then how are they going to be able to effectively
go out and try to reach people for the Lord? They're going to have a bad reputation. And
what's that going to mean? That people are going to say, Oh, here comes that preacher
and that golly wants to do all the time is shake his finger and condemn me all the time
and tell me this and tell me that. And I've seen the way he's lived his life. I'm not
going to listen to him. Well, all of a sudden you got a bad overseer. He's not above reproach
because even the outsiders can see a sin and they don't want to listen to him because they
don't respect him. And so these qualifications are important qualifications. And that's why
Paul gives them to Timothy. He says, look, there needs to be good leaders. There needs
to be good men who are going to lead God's people. And there are likely very few people
who meet these qualifications. There are likely lots of, lots of men who are serving as overseers
that probably do not meet these qualifications, but it's important a for me as an overseer
to try to live by these qualifications and B for you as a church to hold whoever your
overseer is or whoever your elders are to hold them to this standard. This is the highest
of standards. And this is important for God's people to recognize these standards. They're
not compromised. We need men who are going to be strong leaders and compromised leaders
make compromised churches and weak leaders make weak churches. And that's not effective
for the kingdom of God. We want strong leaders and we want strong churches and that's going
to be strength in the world. That's going to be a strength that builds the kingdom of
God. So a man who's not above reproach, a man who doesn't meet these qualifications
is not going to be able to, to build up the kingdom of God. But Paul says, look, look
for these men, look for these who, who hold these qualifications. And these are the ones
that need to be placed in a position of leadership. So that's what we want to live by. We want
to live by this high standard. We want to live by the standard that God has put into
place so that we can be the strongest church we can be for the kingdom of God. Let's pray.
Dear Lord, we thank you for these words and God, I know that passages like these, it's,
it's a lot of different interpretations and views, but dear Lord, I pray that you just
help us to seek to be a church who looks for strong leaders, dear Lord, that we would be
a church that, that tries to live by your word, that you would help me, dear Lord, to
be the best overseer I can be, that you would help me to see areas where if I fail in some
of these ways, dear Lord, that you would convict me, that you would help us as a church to,
to live to this standard, to not compromise, dear Lord, to, to not, not be those who are
weakened by not listening to your word, but to be those who stand strong on your word,
dear Lord. So I pray God that we would take these words seriously and I pray God that
you would help us to, to follow these words as best we can. And I ask these things in
Jesus' name. Amen.