Grab your Bibles, guys.
We're going to jump right in this morning.
We're going to Titus chapter 1.
We are not wasting time.
And as you're turning there, I want
to start this morning by presenting to you
a hypothetical situation that will probably never
happen in your life.
But it's still good to consider.
Let's say you have a friend who is
going to a church that is really, really struggling.
And they share with you that here's
a situation with my church.
The teaching and the preaching is weak.
There's disunity and divisions in the body.
Immorality is commonplace.
Everyone seems to be doing their own thing.
So the one and others aren't being lived out.
And there's a general lack of spiritual maturity in the body.
And this friend looks at you and says, OK, can you help me?
What would you recommend that we deal with first?
Don't answer out loud what you would say.
But what would you recommend?
It's the number one priority, the top thing
that you should recommend to fix that type of a church.
Would you say, go hire a better preacher?
Get a better worship leader.
Start midweek small groups.
Change the way you do Sundays or something else.
Well, this is what the Apostle Paul
was dealing with in Titus 1 when he
was looking at the churches on the island of Crete
that had all of these deficiencies in them.
And if you look at verse 5, in Titus 1,
you'll see exactly what Paul thought
was the top priority that needed to be addressed.
Look at verse 5.
He says, for this reason I left you in Crete, Titus.
This is why I left you there, he says,
that you would set in order what remains.
Some translations say, I left you in Crete
to set right what was left undone.
And what was left undone?
Appoint elders in every city as I directed you.
Now, just to recap, last Sunday we
looked at the entire historical, cultural background
and context of this book.
If you missed it, by the way, be good for the rest
of the series if you went back and listened
to that on one of our audio platforms.
But we talked about the history of the island of Crete.
And it's very interesting.
Both the origins, both mythological and ancient
origins of the people that settled that island.
We talked about how we think the original church on Crete
was planted.
And we saw how Paul later in life, on his way to Rome
as a prisoner on a ship, first stepped foot
on the island of Crete and then returned soon after that.
We also looked at a profile of Titus, who was not a Jew.
Very interesting, as a member of his ministry team,
he is a Gentile with a very common, very strong Roman
name.
But he was a key member of Paul's ministry team.
He was a guy, even before he was assigned this job
on the island of Crete, he had been sent by Paul
to deal with some very tough issues in the church
at Corinth, which was a dysfunctional church.
And he had proved himself to be both faithful and effective
in ministry there.
So Paul has confidence in this young man.
Now for those of you who missed last week,
or I see all the students who are back this week,
welcome back.
Great to see you guys.
Let me show you just a couple of the important slides
that we looked at last week.
We looked at a map.
That's not a surprise.
We looked at a map and we talked about establishing boundaries
in the west.
The red dot on the top is Rome.
In the east, you have the blue dot
on the bottom, which is always Jerusalem.
The orange dot there is Syrian Antioch.
That is where Paul's missionary journeys are launched from.
Then we have the, just for some context,
the black dot is Thessalonica.
In the area we call Macedonia, northern Greece.
The green dot is where Ephesus is.
The purple dot is where Corinth is.
And circled there is, right in the smack in the middle there,
is the island of Crete.
So that's what we're talking about here.
We talked about the topography of this island.
It is very rocky and very mountainous.
This is what it looks like today.
So you get an idea of what Crete looks like.
Be some beautiful shorelines.
But not a lot of flat farmland.
It's very volcanic and rocky.
So just to give you an eye on some of those things.
Good?
So we also looked at the last few years of Paul's ministry.
There was a time in between his time in Rome under house arrest
and his ultimate execution around the year 66.
It appears that he was released for a few years
to do more ministry.
And we talked about during those last couple years of freedom,
he spent time visiting churches in Asia Minor and in Macedonia.
And then we read right here in verse 5
that he also went to Crete.
He went to Crete with Titus.
And he says he left him there.
And then he took off back to Macedonia.
So he left Titus there with another tough assignment.
Like, look, dude, you did a great job with Corinth.
Now I've got a real tough assignment for you here on Crete.
So he says set things in order.
Set things in order.
Put in place the thing that should
have been done from the very beginning but as of now
is lacking.
And what is that thing?
The establishment of church elders.
Titus, I want you to go through the entire island.
And we looked at it.
It's about 160 miles.
So it's not a cross.
It's not a small island.
I want you to go through all the cities where churches have
been planted.
And I want you to make sure that you put qualified godly men
in place as elders.
So that is the focus of our message this morning.
The proper leadership structure of a local church.
Because we have a lot said about this in the New Testament.
And by the way, we call this ecclesiology, right?
The study of the ecclesia or the church, ecclesiology.
And so this is the correct answer
to that hypothetical question that I just posed to you.
When a church is struggling with a variety of deficiencies,
the number one priority that needs to be addressed
is leadership.
Leadership.
And not just any kind of leadership,
but leadership is defined in the pages of the New Testament.
And that is an authority issue that we have got
to get straight in our minds.
That is an authority issue that we
have got to sort of flesh out together this morning.
For example, do we have permission from God
to dream up our own church structure?
Because it makes sense to us.
Because can we employ our own wisdom and say, well, look,
Lord, I see what you were saying in the first century.
No, thank you.
I'm going to do my own thing.
I'm going to do it a way that makes sense
to me in the modern world.
That's an important question.
Do we have that freedom?
Or should we look at biblical instructions
like we see here in Titus 1 as prescriptive for us
in the church today?
Now, before we read the full passage for this morning,
let me just first of all share with you
a brief outline of the book of Titus,
because we're going to come back to this throughout our study.
And it's a really simple outline.
The three chapters of Titus sort of lay out
pretty neatly for us.
Paul is going to talk about three places where godliness
is required for those who profess to know Christ.
Chapter 1 is all about godly leadership where?
In the church.
Chapter 2 is about godly saints living in the home.
Chapter 3 is about godly citizens
living in culture or society.
So that's the way this is going to break down.
Now, let me break down chapter 1 for you, where we are now.
Last week, we looked at the greeting, verses 1 through 4.
Now we're getting into godly leadership in the church.
And this breaks down into two sections.
Verses 5 through 9 is how to find qualified elders.
Verses 10 to 16 is how to identify disqualified teachers.
So you don't have to know all that today,
but we'll keep coming back to that so that that outline sort
of gets reinforced in your mind.
All right, why don't we stand for the reading of the word?
Let's read our passage.
Good to stretch our legs and stand to honor God's word.
Let's back up to verse 4, and we'll
read all the way down to verse 9.
To Titus, my true child in a common faith, grace and peace
from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
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.
Namely, if any man is above reproach,
the husband of one wife, having children who believe,
not accused of dissipation or rebellion,
for the overseer 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, but hospitable,
loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled,
holding fast the faithful word which
is in accordance with the teaching,
so that he will be able to exhort and sound doctrine
and to refute those who contradict.
Amen.
Go ahead and have a seat.
Now, I find this so interesting.
Paul greets Titus in just four verses,
and then he jumps right into the meat of his letter.
He is not wasting time, because these churches in Crete
are in need of help immediately.
And again, this is so significant to note.
Paul's immediate prescription for these unhealthy churches
is get godly, qualified leaders in place.
That is the front line strategy that Paul recommends.
If the Cretan churches are going to adorn the gospel
in this very difficult culture, they have got to find.
Titus, by the Holy Spirit, has got
to identify men on this island who can step up and step
into these roles as leaders.
And they've got to be qualified.
They've got to be godly men.
Now, that list of character traits
you see in verses 6 through 9, we're
actually going to cover those in detail next week.
For today, I just want to drive home
some really important points about what a biblical structure
should look like.
And I'm sharing this with you today,
because I know that many of you will not
be here at Oak Hill forever.
Did you know that?
At some point in life, there'll be some transition
that'll happen.
You'll move on.
You'll take a job.
You move out of the area.
You'll go back home, whatever.
And when that day comes, I want to help
you understand how to find your next church home.
What should you look for?
Did you know it's not an easy thing
to find a good, healthy church when you move to a new area?
So we can learn some things here.
I want principles, the principles
we're going to talk about this morning,
to be solidified in your heart and mind
so that you can take them wherever you go
and wherever God leads you in terms of finding a new church
home.
But I'm not trying to chase anybody out of the church.
I love all you guys.
Hope you stay forever.
But that's not likely.
But these principles will go with you.
So make sure you understand this.
And know this, the strength or weakness of a local church
is always going to lie on a spectrum
based on the spiritual maturity and the soundness of doctrine
of the men who lead and teach it.
So leadership is a critical thing
to look at when you're searching for a church.
So let's talk about elders for a second.
If I asked you, actually let me back up.
If somebody, a non-believer, walked up to you in the street
and said, hey, I understand you're a Christian.
I hear about these things in the church called elders.
How would you define an elder?
Could you do it?
Could you describe for them what an elder is biblically?
Let me give you just a concise general definition.
An elder is a spiritually mature man
who is knowledgeable in the scriptures, who
is recognized and affirmed by the members of a local church,
and who is tasked with both the privilege
and the responsibility of working with the other elders
to do these things, to shepherd, teach, oversee, and equip
for ministry the flock that Christ has entrusted to him.
Make sense?
Anybody scared by that, elders?
You guys scared by that definition?
It's a big deal.
It's very, very important.
Paul tells Titus, this is critically important.
Now, an elder is not part of a board.
In fact, get rid of that.
If you've ever heard that, it's a board.
Board committee, these are terrible words.
Elders are not part of a board that sort of stand apart
from the flock and just make decisions.
Up and down, we just make decisions.
That is not what they are.
In fact, it's quite the opposite.
A biblical elder is a shepherd.
And a shepherd has to be deeply ingrained in relationships
with the members of the flock.
And in all my experience in ministry,
this is one of the greatest weaknesses
that I have seen in church leadership.
Men who come to the office of elder
for all the wrong reasons.
The reason they want to be elders
is they want to be shock callers.
They want to move the church in a direction
that suits what they want.
That's their goal.
They often want to rule.
They want to teach.
But the one thing they don't really want to do
is build relationships.
They don't want to get down in the trenches with people
and actually care for the flock.
They just want to be shock callers.
And that's not good enough.
In fact, that's dangerous.
Those men are dangerous to a local church.
Because biblically, the office of the elder is a servant role.
Just as Jesus came to serve and not be served,
elders are servant leaders.
And yes, it does come with authority.
Elders have authorities in the local church,
but only in the sense that we're serving as under shepherds
under the chief shepherd.
And because elders serve under the authority of Christ,
it's true the flock is called to honor and respect
and follow them.
But elders have to wield their authority among the sheep
always with humility and gentleness.
So it's a very delicate dance that
gets done in the local church.
Now, in spite of all the traditions
you see among the churches of the world,
when you look at the pages in the New Testament,
how many offices are there in a local church?
Two.
Just two.
Count them.
Just two.
Two God-sanctioned offices in the local church.
What are they?
Elder and deacon.
It's consistent throughout the New Testament.
And you would think that would settle the issue,
that every church after the first century would say,
this is the structure we should put in place.
Because it's God's word, right?
But alas, that has not happened.
We're going to talk about some of that today.
Again, just sort of a warning to those of you who someday may
have to look for a new church home.
You should understand these principles.
Now, as I say, there's only two offices.
It's possible that a particular verse popped up in your brain.
And if it did, good for you.
Good job.
Ephesians 4.11.
Anybody know that verse?
Just, I don't have to shout it out loud,
but you know that verse?
It's sometimes described as the fourfold ministry
of the church.
I'll put it up on the screen.
We'll recognize it when we see it.
It goes like this.
And he gave to the church some as apostles, some as prophets,
some as evangelists.
And the grammar on this basically
says that this last office should be read as one thing.
Pastors and teachers, for what purpose?
For the equipping of the saints for the work of service
to the building up of the body of Christ.
So I have no doubt that God gave these roles, these offices,
to the church, because that's what the verse says.
But there's an important follow-up question here.
If that's true, does Paul mean to say
that every local congregation in the history of the church
has to have all four of those offices?
Think about that.
Is that what Paul means?
Because surely that can't be true, right?
Because apostles, the guys who Christ chose,
the guys who walked with Christ, some of whom wrote scripture,
those guys haven't been on the earth for 1,900 years.
So they can't be true.
And no matter what you think about the charismatic gifts,
I think we'd all recognize that not every congregation today
has a resident prophet.
And in terms of evangelists, that's
a role that, yes, some Christians feel gifted and called
to take up, but often as part of a parachurch ministry.
It really doesn't fit as an office
in every single local church.
So the roles here in Ephesians 411
have technical definitions that seem
to reflect the very unique need of the church
in the first century.
Because apostles were active in the first century, right?
And prophets were necessary in the first century
because the New Testament canon was still being written.
And our best understanding of evangelists in this context,
they were men who went with the apostles,
guys like Peter and Paul, on mission into the Greek world.
The other thing I should point out on this subject
is the truth that comes out of Ephesians 2.20,
where Paul says the church has been
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets
with Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.
You don't keep laying a foundation over and over again,
do you?
You lay it one time, and then you build on that foundation
in other ways.
So my opinion is that those offices in Ephesians 411
were given to the church in that unique part
of redemptive history.
But those four offices were not all
to pass on to every single local church
for the rest of the New Covenant era.
Now, what about that last role in Ephesians 411, pastor-teacher?
Well, it's interesting.
This is something that my opinion on this
has shifted in my years of studying ecclesiology.
I certainly understand the common use
of the term pastor today.
It's probably the most common and popular title
to give one of those guys who leads the church.
But we often can't even define what pastor means.
And I'm not comfortable with accepting it.
And I'll tell you why.
First, it's a term that found in its noun form, poeminos,
is found how many times in the New Testament?
Just once in Ephesians 411.
That's the only time in the entire New Testament
that someone is called a pastor.
And yet, it's the most popular term used today.
Second, it's group of those other offices, which, again,
I don't believe carry forward to local congregations today.
So I'm hesitant to apply the term pastor even to myself.
Even though I understand that many of you
grew up using that term, it's sort of a colloquial term
that you're still using.
Some of you guys will walk up and call me Pastor Jeff.
And that's fine.
Because I understand what you're doing.
You want to show honor and respect.
And I greatly appreciate that.
But honestly, can I be honest with you?
I'd prefer if you just recognized me
as one of the elders that serve here at Oak Hill.
Because that's the most biblically common term.
Now, don't call me Elder Jeff.
Don't do that.
Because now we sound like the Mormon church, right?
Don't do that.
You could just call me Jeff.
That's fine.
And by the way, in a technical sense,
poeminos, in the verb form, poimeno means to shepherd.
In the verb form, it just means to shepherd.
So honestly, if I were to translate Ephesians 4.11,
I wouldn't even use the word pastor there.
I use the word shepherd.
That's the more accurate translation.
It means to shepherd a flock.
So just to recap, I'm not 100% comfortable receiving
the term pastor.
But if that's your habit, because you grew up with it,
or you just want to love me in that way, amen.
That's wonderful.
OK, let's expand on this just a bit more,
especially in looking at Greek titles, because they matter.
In the Greek New Testament, there
are two words that are used interchangeably
to describe this one office of elder.
Let me give you what they are.
The first one is presbuteros.
And that is often translated just elder.
And the second one is episkopos.
And it's translated overseer.
Now, you probably recognize we get prespetarian
from the first one.
And we get episkopal, or episkopalian,
from the second word.
So in its most basic meaning, presbuteros
refers to somebody who is of an older age.
He's an elder.
And that term is borrowed from Jewish culture.
It referred to a man who, by virtue of his older age,
his wisdom and experience, he gave leadership
to the community of Israel.
So you see this in the New Testament gospels
in particular, the elders of Israel, it says oftentimes.
They're grouped together, or they're
linked with the chief priests and the elders.
So this term sort of carried on into the New Testament.
Now, episkopos, in its most basic form,
refers to somebody who does inspections.
Biblically, we call them overseers,
which speaks to another important function
that an elder is called to.
We shepherd and we oversee.
So those are the two words.
Now, there are several good reasons
to believe that both of those Greek words
are referring to the same office in the church.
This is the important thing, the same church office.
First of all, look again at your text in Titus 1.
And you see both of those terms used,
and they clearly refer to the same office.
Look again at verse 5.
Paul says to Titus, appoint presbuteros in every city
as I directed you.
Then drop down to verse 7.
Paul starts to give the qualifications for elders,
and he switches terms.
For the episkopon must be above reproach.
So same office, two different words.
And this happens multiple times in the New Testament.
It's very clear.
Acts chapter 20 is another great example.
Paul calls for the elders from the city of Ephesus
to meet him in Miletus.
And then he tells them that the Holy Spirit has made them
overseers in charge of shepherding the church.
So all those terms are lumped together in that passage.
And you see there the verb form of pastor,
to shepherd the church of God.
So elders are to oversee the flock and pastor the flock.
Again, all describing functions of the very same office,
elder.
One more really important passage, 1 Peter 5.
We have to look at this.
Peter says, I exhort the elders among you
as your fellow elder.
What should you do?
Shepherd, pastor the flock of God among you,
exercising oversight.
So Peter calls himself an elder.
He talks about other elders.
And then he instructs them what they should do, shepherd
or pastor and oversee.
It's all one office, guys, with a series of functions.
Does this make sense?
Good.
I don't like throwing Greek at you for no reason,
but it does sometimes really, really matter.
So the point I'm trying to make with this
is the organizational structure of the first century church
that was given to the church by the apostles is very, very
simple.
We don't have to complicate it.
Wherever churches were planted, qualified godly elders
should be appointed there to lead and serve the church
under the lordship of Christ, being guided by the scriptures
and by the Spirit.
That's it.
That's the ecclesiology of the church.
Now, how has the church done over the past 2,000 years
in following that simple model?
Have you ever done a religious survey of Christendom,
air quotes?
It's not pretty.
We haven't done this well at all.
And it's because of the nature of sinful man.
Why is it we always find a way to say,
I'm going to do my own thing.
I'm going to do it my way rather than trust God's instructions
in spite of what we see with our eyes say,
yeah, but God told us how to do this.
So we're going to do it that way.
We don't do this well.
So in that vein, let me run some numbers by you.
So the term overseer is found five times in the New
Testament.
The term elder is used 33 times, right,
from Acts to Revelation.
So that's a lot of times.
These terms are all over the New Testament.
Now, how about some other common titles in Christendom today?
How many times do you think you see the word pope in there?
Drip in with sarcasm.
How many times you see cardinal or archbishop
or ecumenical patriarch or vicar or reverend or abbot
or nun, zero.
Where did it all come from?
Come from the mind of man.
What about the term priest?
Now, we know as we look at the Hebrew scriptures
and under the old covenant, there was a priesthood in Israel,
right?
But what about under the New Covenant?
Should there be priests in the church today?
No.
There's no need for it.
There's no office given to any clergy in the New Testament
under the title or the function of priests
because we don't need them anymore.
Hebrews 7 is clear that the death of Christ
annulled the Levitical priesthood of the Old
Testament because his sacrifice was fully
sufficient for the forgiveness of our sins.
So we don't need fallible sinful men to intercede for us
any longer because we have the ultimate sacrifice in Christ.
We don't need them.
And this was literally demonstrated for us
in the tearing of the veil that prior to the cross separated
man from the Holy of Holies.
Now we have access, direct access,
to the throne of grace without the need for a mediator.
Now, there is a mediator between us and God.
Who is that?
The great high priest.
We don't need little priests.
We have a great high priest who sits
at the right hand of the Father.
And Paul makes this so clear in 1 Timothy 2, 5.
There is one God and only one mediator between God and man.
And that's Christ.
How many mediators?
One.
Priests are irrelevant to new covenant believers.
In fact, Peter tells us that every new covenant believer
is now a priest.
You are a priest if you're found in Christ this morning.
We are priests in a new temple that Christ is building with us
as living stones.
Now we don't bring physical animals to an altar anymore.
But Peter says, and the irony is dripping,
Peter said to be the first pope, Peter
says we offer up spiritual sacrifices to God
through Jesus who is our great high priest.
That's what we do.
And friends, there is a word of caution in this.
I'm not sharing this with you just to say, well,
all these other models aren't right.
There's a caution in this that comes from the Lord himself.
When it comes to ecclesiastical titles and functions
like bishop or reverend or priest,
we should heed the words of Christ on this.
Now I told Adam this morning, I decided
to do this late last night.
I'm going to touch the third rail of church structure
this morning.
You know what the third rail is, right?
Is that one thing you're not supposed to touch
because it's dangerous?
Turn your Bibles to Matthew 23.
Matthew 23, this is getting towards the end
of Matthew's gospel.
Jesus is beginning to see the cross looming
in the near future.
And he's speaking to crowds, and his disciples are present.
Look at verse 1.
Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples,
saying, the scribes and the Pharisees
have seated themselves in the chair of Moses.
Therefore, all that they tell you, do and observe,
but do not do according to their deeds.
For they say things and do not do them.
They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders,
but they themselves are unwilling to move them
with so much as a finger.
But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men.
For they broaden their phylacteries
and lengthen the tassels of their garments.
They love the place of honor at banquets
and the chief seats in the synagogues
and respectful greetings in the marketplace
and being called rabbi by men.
You see what Jesus is pointing out here?
Were the Pharisees focused on the glory of God in their role?
Were they focused on shepherding the sheep of Israel well?
Not at all.
What they wanted was to draw attention to themselves.
They wanted to be noticed.
In fact, they even customized their garments
so that they could make themselves distinct
from the common people.
And yet, even with their desire to be separated
from the peasants, they expected to be honored and greeted
by them and to get special favors because
of their position.
And from that example, Jesus warns his disciples.
And by extension, he warns us in the church today.
Look at verses 8 through 12.
Look at the warning.
But do not be called rabbi.
For one is your teacher.
And you are all brothers.
Do not call anyone on earth your father.
For one is your father, he who is in heaven.
Do not be called leaders.
And the better translation there is either master
or instructor.
For one is your master.
That is Christ.
But the greatest among you shall be your servant.
Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled.
Whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.
So don't be like the Pharisees, he says to the disciples.
Now, Jesus knows the future.
These guys, these disciples, are going
to be put in positions of power.
Jesus says, when you get there, don't be like the Pharisees.
You're to be a humble servant among brothers.
You're not to be high and lofty, separated from the rest.
And this is what we do in the church.
We create this clergy laity thing,
where the clergy is the peasants down here,
and the clergy are high and lofty.
Don't do that.
Don't take on titles of honor that further create this divide
between you and your flock.
Lay aside any sense of entitlement
that you think you deserve, because you're in this position.
Don't demand the applause of men.
Don't put on special garments that say,
I'm different than you, or I'm better than you,
or I'm holier than you.
Now, by saying this, Jesus isn't denying
that there are still functional leadership roles in the church.
That's true.
And he's also not saying you can't
call your biological parent father.
That's not what he's saying here.
He's talking about ecclesiastical titles,
and the postures, and the attitudes that
come with people who take those titles on.
We need to be careful about this.
As a Christ follower under the new covenant,
you have one true rabbi, he says.
You have one true teacher, one true father, one true master.
It's true.
We minister to each other.
And you may be blessed and served
by your brother in Christ who's in the local church.
But it's all in Jesus' name, and it's under his lordship.
He alone is the head of the church.
He alone is the source of every good gift.
So avoid these pitfalls of creating this distinction
between clergy and laity.
Now, here's what amazes me.
The language here is pretty clear.
Jesus gives a clear warning, and yet, how many Christians
have completely ignored him?
Completely ignored.
Like, we're going to read right past this passage.
And do what?
We're going to do our own thing.
We're going to do what makes us happy in our own wisdom.
J.C. Ryle, great theologian, says,
the Pharisees are not the only people who
have imposed austerities on others
and affected the sanctity of apparel
and loved the praise of man.
The annals of church history show
that far too many Christians have
walked closely in their steps.
That is the truth about church history.
How many churches within the realm of Christendom
have done the very things that Jesus says not to do here?
You look at the three major divisions of Christendom,
Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism.
Two of them boast in having priests.
And how are you supposed to address the priest?
You call them father.
The very title that Jesus condemns in this passage.
How is that possible?
I know what you're thinking.
Did they not read the scriptures?
The Protestant leaders have their own set of problems.
We're not spared from this.
Some leaders insist.
I mean, insist.
You must call me pastor.
You must call me bishop.
They won't even respond to anything else.
Or worse, they'll run around saying I'm an apostle
or I'm a prophet.
We see this all over the place.
Titles and veneration and applause and, of course,
special garments that come with it.
All of these things feed egos and build up
the pride of weak men.
And then there's a whole other thing where by doing this,
we create pastoral celebrities.
And we're not following Christ.
We're following this guy or that guy.
And too many of these men are comfortable soaking up
the flattery.
They're soaking up the praise.
And they're soaking up all the wealth and power
that goes with it.
This is all over the church, you guys.
It allows leaders to actually feel untouchable.
In some cases, they can get away with all kinds of evils
because they put themselves in a place where they're, well,
I'm too important to be touched.
I'm too important to be accountable to anybody.
I do as I please.
And I could stand up here, and I could give you
a whole long list of men who have fallen into that trap.
Jesus warned us about this.
Now, seriously, for a second, I want you to think about this.
The church today, in any one of those forms, Protestant,
Catholic, Orthodox, think about what it looks like today.
Look in the pages of scripture.
Look at the New Testament church in Crete, in Ephesus,
in Corinth.
What do those churches look like?
Groups of common people gathering in homes.
Groups of people, just common people, gathering in homes
to sing songs, to pray, to study the Bible,
all under the oversight of appointed elders.
How did we get to this?
How do we get to this?
How do we get to these things?
Does this look like New Testament to you?
How do we get buildings like this?
I think there was one more.
Nope.
How do we end up like this?
Have you seen the Vatican buildings?
Have you seen the billions of dollars
that reside within the structures of the Vatican?
How do you think Peter would feel that his name
is attached to the Basilica in the Vatican today?
How would Peter feel about that?
How do we get this from the New Testament?
So let me ask you to speculate on something else this morning.
If you were to ask the average churchgoer,
who runs the church?
How many would say the pastor does?
It's the most common answer.
Who runs the church?
Oh, the pastor guy.
Or you ask the same people, what model of organization
is the church based on?
How many of them would say, like a corporation,
like a business?
So many Christians today believe that the pastor is
some kind of weird spiritual CEO,
that he runs everything, calls all the shots.
The other church leaders, elders, deacons, or whatever,
they're the board of directors.
And you know what that makes you guys?
You're the customers.
I kid you not when I say that's what
the majority of churchgoing people today believe.
That's where a couple of generations
of shallow unbiblical teaching has gotten us.
Now, is the church an organization?
To some extent, it is.
But it's so much more than that, right?
It is a living organism.
It is a moving, breathing, functioning body.
That's why it's called a body, with Christ as its head.
That's what the church is.
And like a human body that needs all of its parts
to work together, the local church
is a living unity, where each member is
a vital part of the body, different in gifts
and function, but mutually dependent on one another.
It's actually such a beautiful picture
that God gives us to in scripture.
What do people say?
No, it's a business.
It's so sad.
The main idea of biblical church government
is to let Jesus have his way in the church,
to let Jesus function as our guiding head.
It's our role to align all of our desires and ideas
and will with his will.
That's what church leaders are supposed to do.
And that starts with structuring his church, his way,
according to his word.
Not dreaming up things on our own
or doing things in our own wisdom,
because it just seems to make sense to us.
And yet, once again, most of Christendom has chosen
their own path.
Again, how many offices in the New Testament church?
Two.
I went online yesterday to see if I
could find all the levels of ecclesiastical authority
in the Roman Catholic Church.
I got to 75, and I stopped.
Yeah.
I did the same with Eastern Orthodox.
I counted about 26.
Layers of titles and authority and structure.
But this is also true in mainline Protestant
denominations.
Methodist, Anglican, Episcopalian churches,
they have archbishops and bishops and regional dioceses
and vicars and ministers, and on and on it goes.
The Presbyterian form of government
is probably the most complex of all.
They have local ministers and elders.
Then there's a group of members that
becomes something called a session.
And then part of the session becomes
part of a presbytery, which is regional.
And then it gets even wider.
The presbytery becomes the synod.
And then the synod is a national thing
called the General Assembly.
Layers and layers of authority and bureaucracy
with less and less autonomy given to the local church,
where the Bible says that's where the decision should
be made by qualified elders.
And sadly, historically, it's usually out of that bureaucracy,
the top layers, where most of the heretical stuff happens.
You've got bureaucrats coming to decisions about doctrine
and laying down the law.
And it trickles down into the congregations.
And pretty soon, everybody's teaching heresy.
Now, branches of evangelicalism don't escape this critique
either.
On one side of the scale, you sometimes find Baptist churches
that have said, well, we reject all the bureaucracy.
They've swung the pendulum from overly complex
to overly simple.
You have Baptist churches in America today
that have a single pastor model.
One guy does everything.
He runs the whole show.
He runs every aspect of church life by himself.
He makes every decision, every decision that he makes.
He makes every decision, every decision.
He directs all the ministries of the church.
He alone preaches and teaches.
He is the man in every respect.
And everybody in the church has to call him what?
Pastor, pastor.
He doesn't even have a first name.
He's just pastor.
I know people who grew up in churches,
fundamental Baptist churches like this.
That guy's not accountable to anybody.
Nobody can question him.
He's not relying on collective wisdom from other godly men.
If he has a deacon team, all they
are is yes men who run around and do what he says.
This is so common in American churches.
And then we have the mega churches of our day.
And they're built almost exclusively
on the charisma and personality of the one guy.
The so-called senior pastor, the celebrity figurehead
of the church who does the majority of the preaching.
And sometimes that kind of church
will have a Biblical structure, at least on paper.
But who actually makes all the decisions behind the scenes?
The guy.
Why?
Why does the guy get to make all the decisions?
Because he fills the seats.
And he brings in the tithes and offerings.
And he's the reason why the church, the building is so big,
it takes six city blocks because of his charisma
and personality.
Guys, we're a mess.
The church is a mess.
Now, Oak Hill is not a perfect church.
It's not.
I'm not a perfect elder.
None of our guys are.
There's all kinds of room for improvement.
But you have to know, friends, a couple of things about Oak Hill.
I'm not the pastor.
I know we talk about that in membership matters.
But let me just say it again out loud.
I'm not the pastor of Oak Hill.
When people think of Oak Hill, don't think it's Jeff Knows
Church.
Please, Lord, don't let that happen.
It's always Jesus' church.
I'm not the pastor.
I'm one of seven elders who oversee and shepherd
this church family.
I don't run the church.
We're not organized like a business or a corporation.
This church is not a customer service organization.
And you're not customers.
You're vibrant members of a living body.
So important to understand this.
And again, if you ever have to go out there and look
for another church, please understand
these principles are critical for your spiritual health.
So here at Oak Hill, we're guided by simple biblical principles.
You ready?
Qualified elders and qualified deacons.
That's the amen moment.
Two offices operating under the lordship of Christ,
just as it was on the island of Crete in the first century.
Because that's prescriptive for us today.
This all, by the way, comes back to authority.
Do you know everything eventually comes back to,
well, what's the authority?
What tells you what is true?
What tells you what you should be doing?
And so why do we always talk about the Reformation
principle of sola scriptura?
Because the Bible alone is the ultimate authority
in all matters of faith and practice.
The ultimate authority.
Now, does that mean church history doesn't matter to us?
How dare you?
We love church history here.
Does that mean church traditions have no value?
Absolutely not.
Church history, church traditions
are wonderful things to take into account.
Did you know we have our own traditions at Oak Hill?
We do.
We do things that are not in the Bible
that have become traditional for us.
For example, we have a Good Friday service.
That's not in the Bible.
Right?
We have other annual, we have a chili cook-off.
Are you kidding me?
Annual events, they're traditions we enjoy.
You know, I put up quotes from great theologians
and preachers of the past.
That is tapping into church history.
Yes, we have a basic Sunday liturgy that
is rooted in Reformation worship.
All these things are good, healthy church traditions.
But sola scriptura reigns.
It is the ultimate authority.
And this is not complicated.
All traditions have to be constantly reviewed
and held up to the single standard of scripture.
And if necessary, subordinated to divine truth.
So there's freedom where the Bible is silent.
But if any tradition or any teaching contradicts scripture,
we as stewards of Christ's church, as elders,
must stand up and lay it aside, reject it.
That's all sola scriptura means.
Now I'm going to close this morning with one more thing.
And it's the one thing I want to leave with you this morning,
because I think it's so important.
And this may seem simple to you, but it's really important.
The number of elders in a local church.
How many elders should a church have?
That's a key word.
Well, Paul doesn't tell us.
Wouldn't it be nice if he gave us like a percentage?
2.5% of your member role, you should have elders.
He doesn't give us a minimum number.
He doesn't give us a maximum number.
But all biblical authors do say one thing consistently
about the number of elders.
There's always more than one.
It's what we call, Jesse said it, a plurality of elders.
In our church, we call it a team.
That just sounds nicer than plurality.
But you hear me say our elder team.
It's the group, it's the plurality of guys
that are qualified to serve in that role at Oak Hill.
Let me just say it again.
So the principle seeks in, there is
no example in the New Testament of a single pastor
or single elder led congregation.
It's not there.
In fact, in the New Testament letters,
I went through and looked last night.
We read of a plurality of elders in the churches in Jerusalem,
Pasidena, Antioch, Lystra, Iconium, Derbe, Ephesus,
Philippi, and in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia.
Multiple elders in all of those local churches.
Is that prescriptive for today?
You bet.
And knowing the nature of man and the propensity
that we have towards pride and the accumulation of power,
does that principle not make a ton of sense?
I mean, God's pretty smart.
He's pretty wise.
He's done a pretty good job of setting up his church.
If we would only listen.
By placing the responsibility in the hands of a group
of Godly men rather than in just one individual, what we see
is God safeguarding his church against the detrimental effects
that come from certain men who have overbearing personalities
or authoritarian tendencies or just a love
for the praise of men.
In God's good design, when it's properly organized,
a Godly team of church elders has to work together.
And that's a good thing.
Some of you guys, if you're a member of this church,
you can come to our elder meetings and see us do this.
We are forced to work together.
And guess what?
Seven guys, seven opinions.
But we've got to work together.
Everybody has a voice.
Everybody contributes in their own way.
When elders function as a team, we
have to depend upon the wisdom of one another.
And it's a good thing.
Newsflash, I do not have all wisdom.
I need to rely on the wisdom of my fellow elders.
Sometimes we just have to submit to one another.
I feel strongly, but the other five guys are like, nope.
I got to submit.
OK, I'm down with you guys.
Great.
Sometimes we have to make really hard decisions.
And that means we have to come to a agreement.
We're led by the Spirit in prayer,
and we come to an agreement on things.
This is God's design.
And it's so smart.
It's so wise.
Now, that equality among the members of the team
doesn't mean that everybody is the same.
How boring would it be if every elder was the same?
Each man is unique.
Some have stronger teaching gifts.
One is really good at music.
Another couple are really good disciplers and counselors.
And I mean, all of these gifts come together.
God calls men, puts us together as a team,
and we got to work it out.
So what is it that elders do?
Have you ever wondered what are the actual functions?
Well, we provide oversight to the church.
And yeah, that involves some administrative functions.
But primarily, guys, our job is to make sure
that this local church is healthy and growing.
That's what we want to do.
So that means we have to lead you guys.
So Oak Hill is a pasture with a fence around it.
And we want to, is it OK if I call you sheep?
It's a biblical picture.
So as shepherds, we want to lead you guys, our sheep,
into the best part of the pasture and be fed the word of God.
We want to make sure you get the best possible food.
We want to guard you while you're eating,
guard you from false teaching and unbiblical ideas.
We need to determine the ministry philosophy of the church.
Where are the sheep going?
We need to make decisions about the needs
and direction of the body.
We need to disciple and mature those sheep.
Some of you guys are still lambs who want you to grow up.
That's part of our job.
So we care for the flock.
We bind up the wounds of the injured.
We nurse the sick back to health.
And we help the young lambs grow into maturity.
Yeah, we have to do some practical things,
like oversee church finances.
And we have to equip the members to do the work of ministry
and then to come alongside them so that they grow in that.
Listen, elders don't have to do everything,
but we have to make sure things get done.
And sometimes that means delegating to other ministry
leaders and deacons.
And can I just tell you, it's the greatest job in the world.
I have the best job in the world.
That I get to work with these men on our team
and work with you guys and see you grow
and see you be transformed.
I cannot tell you how exciting it is as a shepherd and as an elder.
So all these things require that elders keep a finger
on the pulse of the body.
And this is what I think, and I think all my fellow elders
would agree, one of the things that really makes Oak Hill
unique is we really know our members as shepherds.
And the sheep know us.
That is a huge priority for us.
If you really want to test the health of a church,
you talk into a friend, say, what are the names of your elders?
Do they know?
Have they been in their homes?
Have they met them?
Do the shepherds even recognize them?
These are important questions, right?
It's one of the best tests on whether an elder team is
fulfilling its God-given mandate.
Do the shepherds know their sheep?
And do the sheep know and trust, trust their shepherds?
For that to be true, these elders
need to be men of high character.
And that's what we'll talk about next week.
Amen?
Let's bow our heads.
Father, thank you for the amazing design of your church.
Sometimes we take it for granted, Lord,
and we only think pragmatically and we
don't think about the beautiful design, the theology behind it,
the way that you have formed this living body over 2,000
years now since the time of Jesus.
Father, I am grateful that you have raised up godly men here
at Oak Hill to serve on our elder team
and that you have put in the hearts of our men
a desire to know the flock well and to be known by the flock
and not to separate ourselves and act
like we're holier than now, but to be with our brothers
and sisters on the floor with one another,
even right here today, to be amongst the body,
not standing off, not separate, but with the flock.
God, thank you that you have put on our hearts
a desire to stay true to scripture,
to stay anchored in your word that is prescriptive for us
in the church today.
Father, protect us from ever straying from that principle,
that you would continue to solidify
what it means to look to scripture alone for all
of our standards for faith and practice.
So Lord, thank you for this practical teaching today.
I don't know the hearts of everybody out here
this morning, Lord, but you do.
And so I pray that you would work in their hearts,
that you would encourage them if that's what they need.
If you need to convict them of some truth, Lord,
would you do that by your spirit?
And would you lift us up and encourage us
and unite our hearts more and more together as a church?
Thank you for this time this morning.
We love you and we praise you in the name of Jesus, amen.