Titus: Elders Pt. 2

This morning we're going to continue to think about the qualifications for elders, those who are particularly charged with overseeing the life of the church. If you are a deacon who in our form of church government basically fulfilled that role, I think, of elder, you want to see if you meet these qualifications. You want to examine yourself. You want to seek to be the type of person that the scriptures call for you to be. at the same time if you're if you don't happen to be in one of those positions you want to know about these qualifications because you want to play your role in helping to assure that the church has those types of leaders so this is something i think that's important for all of us to understand let me say a word about the greco-roman world as we get back into this A contemporary of the Roman emperor, Julius Caesar, said of Julius Caesar, he was every woman's man and every man's woman.

If you get my drift.

The Greco-Roman world was a very promiscuous world. That's not true of Jewish culture. Jewish culture was very proper about sexual matters. But once you got out into the Gentile world, the Greco-Roman world, anything went. And it was a world dominated by men, males.

It was men that were in charge of the relationships. It was men that controlled the family life. It was men who were the ones who took the lead in society. So when the Apostle Paul wrote to Titus and said, look, you need some leaders in your church there at Crete. And one of the first things I'm going to tell you you need to look at, you need to be sure that these people are qualified in the way they run their families and in their family lives.

And then secondly, he's going to talk about their personality and character traits. And thirdly, their devotion to sound doctrine. Last week we began by talking about Paul's admonition that the leaders, the elders, had to be the husband of one wife. He wanted people who were not like those in the Greco-Roman world. He wanted people who were faithful in their marriages.

We dealt with the naughty issues, and I'm not going to rehash all those we started with last week. if you have a difference of opinion, feel free to come and talk with me and do your own research. I highly recommend Hayne Griffin's commentary on Titus, which is an excellent commentary where he deals with issues like, can a divorced person serve as an elder? And Hayne concludes the same conclusion I did. You've got to look at that requirement in light of the overall requirement, the overarching requirement that the elder must be blameless.

So the question is, does this person have a demonstrated record of exemplary conduct? It doesn't mean that people have to have a perfect past, but it means at the present when they're elected, they must have a demonstrated record of being blameless. If you're interested in the issue that we touched upon, whether or not women can serve as elders, and I gave you my perspective on that. There's been much debate in evangelical circles on that. There's a list of books that I've put on the back table and part of the list is up here.

One good book to read is Women, Authority, and the Bible, which collects folks who all believe in the authority of Scripture but take some different views on that point. A great book by Craig Keener. Paul women and wives, and someone who takes a little different view from Keener, Keener would say women could serve as elders, Hurley would say that women shouldn't serve as elders, man and woman in biblical perspective. I find it helpful to read people on both sides of the issue so that you be sure you're getting all the perspectives on that. But do some study if that's an issue that you are particularly interested in.

And it was my conclusion that Paul is not intending to foreclose women from serving in that role, particularly when you look to the examples of people like Phoebe, who I think most probably was an official representative, a deacon of the church from Synchria, who carried the letter to the church at Rome. Deborah, the judge, the prophetess, and so forth. But that's a whole series. But if you're interested in that, there's some books you can go read and study that issue. But let's go on to the next requirement, children.

This is still family life.

Paul first looks at marriage. He wants people who are faithful in their marriages. And secondly, the person who would serve as elder must have control of children. Let's look at the text here and just read the passage. We're in Titus 1, verse 6.

The elder must be blameless, that's the overarching requirement, the husband of but one wife, a man, this is the NIV translation, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. And Paul gives us a couple of other naughty issues to wrestle with here. And before I start wrestling, let me pray for some guidance as we go forward. Lord again as we look at your word open our hearts and minds to understand the truth of your scripture help us to be people who submit to the authority of the word help us to think clearly help us to realize the importance of the leadership of the church help us to be people who support our church leaders and those who are in leadership positions may we be people who always pray for them and lift them up before you may be guided by godly people seeking to do your will here on this earth. For it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.

Most newer translations, when they translate Titus 1-6, say that the children of the elder must be believers.

but that greek word could mean he must have children who are either faithful children or dependable children and so this is a translation issue is paul saying the children must be believers in the lord jesus christ or is he simply saying that the children must be faithful or dependable children who are not wild and disobedient. It's a close call from a translation standpoint, but I'm going to go with the older translations here. I'm going to argue that Paul is saying the children, he's not requiring that the children of elders necessarily be believers, but he is requiring that the elder have control of the household and the children must be faithful or dependable children. think in this case faithful to the parent. They are going to be dependable when it comes to their relationship between with with the parent and that being a faithful child or a dependable child is the flip side of not being a wild or disobedient child. So he gives states it positively the children must be dependable or faithful children and on the other hand it means they're not wild or disobedient.

So I think he's giving both sides. A couple of other reasons I believe he means faithful or dependable children are these. I went and looked at every use of this Greek word in the New Testament. 63 verses use this word. 12 times it's used to mean believing or a believer, but most of the time it means faithful in most usages.

The third reason I believe he means faithful or dependable children is I went and looked the parallel requirements in 1 Timothy 3. Turn over to 1 Timothy 3, 4 with me. Because you remember, Paul has another list of requirements for elders. And in 1 Timothy 3, 4, he writes of the elder, 1 Timothy 3, 4, he must manage his own family well he must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. But he imposes no requirement that the children have to be believers.

And it seems to me if that was going to be a requirement he would have stated it in the parallel passage. So I think it's more likely in Titus 1.6 or faithful children who were not wild and disobedient. So let's talk about what that means just a moment.

First, who is a child that is not wild? What does that mean? I've heard somebody say one time, boy, I can't believe we've got these people serving as elders. I saw his son running down the halls of the church after Sunday school. That child is wild, you know.

How can he be an elder? were running down the halls of the church. Well, that's not what the word means. I mean, it's not saying children can't be children. It's not saying children can't be rambunctious.

But it's saying, when it uses the word not wild, it's a word that is, the word wild was used to describe the prodigal son. Remember the prodigal son in the book of Luke? The prodigal son went off and engaged in a life of reckless and immoral behavior. wild living. That's what this word wild means.

To be wild is to be reckless, to engage in immoral living, to engage in riotous living. So it's really going to the morality, the outward morality of the child. And Paul is saying that the parent must be able to control the child and not let the child be wild and engage in that immoral and reckless behavior. And he says the child must not be disobedient. That is, not rebellious against the parental authority or insubordinate when it comes to parental authority.

The whole point is that if you're going to be an elder, you've got to be able to control your own house. and if you can't control your own house you should not be in a position where you are overseeing or controlling God's house.

Well you begin to ask some questions here. What about when a child grows up is no longer under the control of the parent that child is now an adult and goes and engages in some reckless, immoral behavior. Is the parent then excluded? I don't think so. I think Paul is speaking to people, to situations where the child is under the control of the parent.

While that child is in the household, before adulthood, under the control of the parent, The parent should and must be able to control the conduct of that child. And if that parent can't, that parent then should not be an elder in the church. Again, you go back and if you're dealing with a particular problem with parenting, I think you want to ask the question, is given this situation, would people looking at this parent say the parent is above reproach? That the parent is a person of exemplary conduct? And I would submit there may be situations particularly where adult children who are no longer under the control of the parent go off in the wrong direction, but the parent is above reproach in that situation and thus eligible to be an elder.

But if their 7-year-old child is doing crack cocaine, you've got a different situation.

again as Peter said Paul is sometimes hard to understand he leaves us these little naughty issues he doesn't answer every question but I think we get the general drift here he made me questions about that point

Paul goes on to say the beginning of verse 7 since an elder is entrusted with God's work is how the NIV translation. Again, I'm going to be a little critical of the NIV translation here. I generally like the NIV, but it's literally

the overseer is God's steward. And this is still talking about the household. The root word in the Greek word that we translate steward is the word house.

you understand what I just said? the Greek word that we translate steward has as its root or base the Greek word for house so the elder or the overseer is the manager of God's house is the steward of God's house and I think that use of the word house again relates how the elder is able to control his own children that's a first requirement be the manager of God's house. Let me make one other point about the elder being God's steward. He is God's steward. The elder does not answer to the church, ultimately.

He's God's steward. He answers to God. And I think those who serve in leadership positions, the church must always remember their ultimate boss, their ultimate master is Jesus Christ. Now in a sense, they have responsibility to the body, no doubt. But sometimes the body can head in the wrong direction.

And it is then when the elder must stand firmly and with conviction and say, I serve Jesus Christ. I will stand by him. to do his will, even if everybody else thinks that's the wrong thing for me to do. Okay? All right, now let's go to some personality and character traits.

The first major set of specific qualifications is family life. Good marriage, good parent, able to control children, but now some personality and character traits. I've given you a little table there in your handout that lists the negative characteristics stated negatively, there are five, and then six that are stated positively. And I just want to say a word about each one of these, so you may want to jot down a note or two as I go through these.

Let me find my page here.

Okay, here we go. The first requirement is that the elder not be overbearing. What does that mean? It's literally the elder is not to be self-willed. The elder is not to be someone who is stubbornly arrogant and just seeking to do what he wants to do.

Instead, the elder is to be somebody who is seeking to do God's will not his own will. He is not to be a dictator. He is not somebody who says, I want it this way and that's the way it's going to be because that's the way I want it. Instead, the elder is to be flexible particularly on secondary issues and he is to be very considerate of others' opinions willing to listen, willing to consider views in the situation. He is secondly not to be quick-tempered. In other words, the elder should not be a contentious person who is easily angered. The elder should not let minor things upset him, and he must be able to control his emotions.

This is particularly important because those leaders are often dealing with sensitive issues. Issues where it's easy to get easy to get red in the face. Some of you who have served in leadership positions, you've been in any of those meetings, the hackles start going up, you need people who aren't quick-tempered, who don't easily take offense. Thirdly, you need people who are not given to drunkenness, not given too much wine. It doesn't require total abstinence, but it does require temperance. And this is particularly are given the much wine tend to be people who can't control themselves and who are easily angered, who easily get into the fight, who easily quarrel. A little too much to drink?

Some of you remember your college days? I know you weren't the one drinking, but I mean those others. Do you remember how easily situations could get out of hand? People could get quarrelsome, difficult to control. So you've got to remember, these are Cretans Paul's going to have as leaders.

And the Cretans were people of bad character, widespread bad character, so bad that the poets wrote about how bad their character was.

So Paul says you've got to look for people who are temperate, not given to drunkenness. Fourthly, people who are not violent. Literally, it's people who are not strikers. In other words, you want elders who aren't quarrelsome people, people who aren't bullies, who are people potentially prone not only to physical violence, but the kind of verbal attacks on people, where they strike out at people verbally, or willing to injure another's reputation if need be to get what they want. You don't want that kind of person.

you don't want people who are pursuing dishonest gain the elder should not be pursuing dishonest gain in other words the elder must not be a covetous person person who covets wealth or money you want somebody who is honest who is a person of integrity who would never use his position to try to get financial gain from it. You want somebody who is content with what God provides, not always wanting a bigger home, a bigger car, but people who have a contentment and thus aren't going to do things to try to enhance their financial position, particularly in a dishonest way.

Stated positively, you want elders who are hospitable.

loving. Elders must be people who are willing to share their home with others, even strangers. Because often in this day where you didn't have some of the social services and other available means that we have to take care of people, it would be the elders who would be called upon to house people, even people they didn't know in their homes. Elders must be concerned about the welfare of others and willing to use their own resources to help others. The elder must also be one who loves what is good. He must love people who are good. He must love philosophies about life that are good. An elder should love good things, things that are wholesome, beneficial, helpful.

He's not going to love those things that are unholy, evil, and despicable. He's going to be a lover of those things and those people that are good. He must be self-controlled. This word has the idea that he is somebody who is sensible, who is sober, who is serious. It's the type of self-control that produces order and sensible decision-making within the church.

You want the elders, when they face a problem, to not get angry or upset, but to be able to think clearly, to think soberly, think through the issues and the ramifications of those issues, and come to a decision that shows that they've been careful in their decision making. The elders must also be upright. They must be righteous and good people. People who practice what they preach. The kind of people who when you see them on Monday are just like they were when you saw them on Sunday.

Who in private do what's right when nobody's watching but God. That's the kind of person that you want to be an elder. The person who doesn't drift in his character when he's alone. or away from the church. You want men and women who are holy,

that is, dedicated to God, who are devout Christians. Being a Christian and devoted to God is not part of their lives, it is their lives. That is first, foremost, and always in their lives. In everything they do, they live their lives separated unto God and devoted to Him. is no part of their lives that they do not seek to present to him and to honor him with.

And the last positive characteristic is they must be disciplined, must have control over his desires, his emotions, must display discipline in how he lives life. This is not an exhaustive list of characteristics. There are others you and I could think of characteristics for an elder but Paul has given us a good list that help us to analyze people who would serve as elders you notice if you go back and read 1 Timothy 3 he's left off one requirement that Timothy was told to have for elders Timothy was told that elders must not be recent converts that requirement is not in the list in Titus and there's probably a reason for that what would be the reason? They're all recent. Probably the church at Crete was so new that everybody was essentially a recent convert. So Titus was going to have to appoint elders who met the requirements, but they might in fact be recent converts. But in general, if you have older converts, a church that is more established, you would want people who are mature in their faith, not recent converts.

You typically don't someone save tomorrow and elder the next day. You want a chance for them to mature in the faith before they're placed in those leadership positions. The last major area of requirement is devotion to sound doctrine. Elders must, as the text says in verse, let's look at verse 9. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

Literally it says, the elder must hold firmly to the teaching of the faithful word. In other words, elders are supposed to be people who are devoted to the truth of Scripture. who hold firmly to it they do not drift with the winds of culture but instead they stand fast on the truth and authority of God's word and they are people who are able to encourage people in the faith and to follow the true word of God and at the same time are able to refute those who oppose it. And that word refute means that the elder must be able to convince, correct, reprove and even convict those who oppose the faithful word. So I'm going to give you several implications from this idea that the elder must be devoted to sound doctrine. If you want to jot these down you can but just listen.

The implications of the idea that the elder must faithful word and maybe it must be able to encourage those who need to learn the word and refute those who oppose it. These are the implications, I think. An elder must be a student of God's word. An elder must know and understand Christian doctrine. An elder must be able to teach and communicate clearly.

He must be able to convince and persuade people about the correctness of his position. In other words able to present the truth of Scripture in a way that is clear and persuasive. An elder must not be blown by shifting opinions when it comes to the essentials of the Christian faith. He must stand firm when the whole world is going in the other direction. He must be able to stand against opposition and must have the courage of his convictions.

An elder must be the kind of person who you would want standing with you when the chips were down, who you know will not run and hide when things get difficult, but will stand by his convictions.

The question is, how do we get such leaders? We've talked about the family requirements. We've talked about the character traits. We've talked about the necessity of devotion to God's word. The question is, how do we get those kinds of leaders in the church?

How did they get them on Crete?

Well, on Crete, verse 5, Titus was charged with the responsibility of appointing elders.

Now, particularly Baptist commentators will say this doesn't mean necessarily that the church didn't play some role in the appointment. In fact, they may have. The church may have presented a list, a slate to Titus, but ultimately Titus oversaw and gave the final approval of those who should be appointed as elders. and that's not to say that in our situation that only one person should have that responsibility but I want to suggest to you that the church needs a process by which there is a careful consideration of people before they are appointed to leadership positions

it could mean that there's a committee appointed to interview potential leaders to examine them. And the questions need to focus on the kinds of things that Paul says Titus, told Titus were important for leaders. There need to be questions about family life. There need to be observations about one's character and conduct. There needs to be an understanding about what the elder believes.

does the elder hold to the essential truths of the Christian faith all of these are questions that should be asked before someone is put up either for a vote by the church or for selection by a committee there should be some process some method and I'm not I don't know what the exact method is but some method used to make sure that only those who are qualified end up in the leadership positions In our church, the practice has been, I believe, for the pastor and I think often the deacon chair to interview prospective deacons and to examine them. That's good. There needs to be some process where there is that. I think that, you know what the difficulty is? We shy away from this, don't we?

We don't want to ask the hard questions. We don't want to look like we're prying. we don't want to say to someone you know we're sorry but you just don't meet the qualifications maybe the first thing to do is to ask people to examine themselves and I think we do that we need for people who are even considering being leaders to understand what the requirements are and say look examine yourself first if you believe you meet the requirements then we'll go to the conduct an interview and a screening. I don't believe it should be just left to the conscience of the prospective candidate, whether or not he feels he meets the qualifications. I think there needs to be an independent group that examines personally so that we're assured we get good leaders.

Why is this so important, this process? We're talking about the leadership of God's church. It is so critical, so important, As the leadership of the church goes, so goes the church. And if you're not willing to go through the process to assure that you have good leaders, that's probably going to have severe implications for the church, at least over the long haul.

Baptists aren't as structured as some denominations and how they approach some of these issues, but it's good even as Baptists to have some structure that makes sure that we get the persons who meet the qualifications.

So let's close with some lessons for life. Let's do our part to ensure godly leadership within the church. If you're nominated to serve, examine yourself. If you don't meet the qualifications, don't serve.

if you're voting for someone

think about that person in your mind from what you know about that person does the person meet the biblical qualifications to serve if church leadership leaders who have interviewed prospective candidates tell someone that they don't meet the qualifications that they can't serve we need to be supportive of that process the knee-jerk reaction is someone, who are you to say? How could you dare say he can't serve?

Folks, we need to have a process where no sometimes is the answer. And we need to recognize it's not a matter of wanting to harm anyone. In fact, the goal is to help the church as a whole. Secondly, lesson for life, a good leader in business may not be a godly leader in church.

you've probably never done it but there may be some who look and say wow that guy's got a great business and things are going well successful you know all the right ingredients in our world to look like a great leader and sometimes those good business leaders get plugged into those leadership positions and nobody stops to ask what about his marriage what about his children Is he a contentious person, quarrelsome? Is he hungry for money and stuff?

Let's don't let the world's standards for what leaders should be supplant God's standards. Now, a person may be both good in business and a good godly leader, but the two do not necessarily go together. Thirdly, let's pray for our church leaders. Their responsibility is enormous.

pray they will not fall into sinful behavior that will harm the witness or reputation of the church. Yesterday I got a letter about a leader of a Christian institution had to resign his position and it was all related to stuff happening over the internet of a sexual nature.

That kind of stuff just goes at the heart of the church the church up for ridicule by those who are unbelievers and really hurts the witness and reputation of the church. But where does Satan want to hit? Does he not want to take down the leaders of the church? I know Satan was just dancing a jig when Bill Bennett finally came out about his gambling.

Because in the eyes of the world, Bill Bennett's identified with Christian things and he got torn down. How many leaders, pastors Have you heard about some great sin in their lives becomes apparent? Satan goes at those folks. We need to be praying that they will be protected. In their sexual lives, when it comes to issues of money, when it comes to the issue of power, about all the things that people fall into, fall into one of those.

And we need to pray for our church leaders that in those areas they will be godly people.

Fourthly, let's be considerate of the opinions of others. If you are in a leadership position, maybe it's not just a deacon. Maybe you're a chair of a committee in the church.

Let's learn to be considerate. Let's learn to listen. Let's learn to give the time necessary to understand where people are coming from. and let's avoid some of this knee-jerk reaction where we really injure one another in the body of Christ because we're not willing to be respectful of others and at least listen to the opinions that they want to present. Let's pay attention to our marriages.

I don't think we can say enough about the importance of guarding marriages. If the enemy has a tactic, besides taking down your leaders in some area, it is probably the one area he wants to go out most is at the marriage. If he can destroy the marriage, he's gained a great foothold. So those of you in leadership positions, guard your marriages. One way to guard is keep your spouse close by.

You know what? Keep them close.

All of us sometimes have to go out of town, maybe without our spouses, and then you've got to be real careful. But as much as possible, keep that spouse close. You want to keep them close because you love them. But boy, it keeps you from a lot of trouble too. Guard your minds.

Guard what you get involved in. Be careful. Pay attention to your marriage. Let's train and discipline our children in the way that they should go. Train and discipline.

there was a period in our I think we are reversing it a little bit but in this country we've seen a real swing back and forth about how to raise children the biblical model is you discipline your children children don't just get to do whatever they want to do parents are to draw boundaries and lines and expect and make their children stay within the lines you are stronger than your three year old believe it or not You are. Well, I've got a strong-willed child. You may. But maybe God wants you to learn to be stronger. You are stronger.

Do not surrender to your children. Be their parent.

If you let your children do whatever they want to do, you may think that's loving.

wrong because you're letting them go in the direction that will harm them in life. Keep them in line. Is spanking okay? You bet. Rightly done in the right way.

And it's the most effective for young children because it's quick and done and they get the point.

That's another whole series. Gee, let's be people of conviction, not blown by the winds of the culture. I'm ready for the church to stand. On the essential issues of the faith, to stand. Not to wilt.

And folks, we're going to be called, if not in our lifetimes, our children's lifetimes, we're going to find out if we're going to wilt. We've wilted some, but the challenge is coming. Homosexual marriage is going to be permitted in this country at some point. It's coming. It's coming.

I mean, you just get ready for it. We're going back to Rome, folks. Homosexual relationships are going to be stamped with the seal of governmental approval. Church cannot be silent on issues like that.

In our culture, the test is going to be, is Jesus Christ the only way? That's already the test. You stand up and say, Jesus is the only way of salvation? Graham what that does for you. Will the church stand firm and be the light? Let's pray for our leaders that they will be people of conviction. May we be people of conviction as well. Chapter