1 Timothy Seriies - The Leading in the Church Part 2

 

The Leading in the Church - Part 2

1 Timothy 3:1-16

John Maxwell was one of the leaders I followed as a young pastor. He said, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” There are many men and women out in the world who call themselves leaders, but they are mostly about themselves. But with God, he chooses the leaders for his church who know the Way of God, who lead in the ways of God, and they project the ways of God in their lives. These are the qualities that the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to exhort Timothy to establish in the churches. So let’s look at the first portion of the text, “The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.

Paul in his letter to Timothy is guiding his young overseer in the Godly qualifications of a leader. For it is God who has chosen men and women to be overseers of God’s flock, the church. He gives specific guidelines for those who aspire to this office.

 First the person must be above reproach, in other words a person who knows godly truth, and that no one will or can question. Second, this person’s marital status is impeccable. Not only with his wife but also in his children, they are amenable to the Word of God and the yielding to the Holy Spirit in obedience. Third, their personal qualities are in-line with the teaching of God. They are sober-minded (serious and sensible) about the work of God as overseer, self-controlled (bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit), respectable with those in the world and in the churches. They are able to teach because of their training in the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of the Word of God (Proverbs 9:10). 

Last, the person mustn’t be a person given to drunkenness, violence, not argumentative, and not given to money scans and desires of making money in a corrupt worldly manner. They can’t be a new convert, untrained in the Word of God or not filled with the Holy Spirit because the devil is looking for every way to manipulate, distort, and misinterpret the scripture to deceive as many as possible through ignorant and naive believers.

Application - It is said in the proverbs, “Where there is no vision, the people perish…” (29:18a KJV) But a godly leader must also seek the wisdom, knowledge, understanding and instruction of God in their lives as well as in their leadership of the church. Being an overseer (Pastor, Bishop, Elder, etc titles) is a noble task, but also a very sobering and serious task. They are called to the correct teaching of the scriptures as food for the sheep. The lack of training and discipleship in the Word of God is fatal to the sheep as well as in the life of the leader. Paul was the discipler of Timothy, and it showed in the wisdom and knowledge he projected in his life as a leader. Paul reminded Timothy to fan the flames of the Holy Spirit, “This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.” (2 Tim. 1:6) for the qualities of the leader were evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit he bore. In establishing leaders to assist in the governing of the church, Timothy and the elders in Ephesus were warned of other leaders who have other motives (ungodly), “For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!” (Acts 20:27-31) There will be wolves in sheeps clothing, who will poison the sheep with corrupt and worldly doctrines that sound smooth and pleasurable to the ears but deadly to the soul.

So if you aspire to be an overseer of God’s flock, please examine your lives to see that these qualities are present and the gifting aflame by the Holy Spirit. Then you will be approved by God for the task he has appointed you too. Remember, He loves the sheep even more than you do and hears their voices. “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27)

Next, Paul addresses those who are placed in a support role in the church (Acts 6:2-6) Deacons, like Stephen and the others in the early church in Jerusalem. So let’s read the next portion of the text, “Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well.  For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. 

LIke their counterpart the overseers, deacons were to be respectable and dignified in their attitudes, as well as in their lifestyles. First, they were to be solemn and serious in their role in the church. Like Arron and Hur who held up the hands of Moses during the battle against the Amalekites. They came not for themselves but to assist the leader especially in troublesome times.

They were to be like the overseers, to be temperate with their mouths (James 3:1-12) and in drinking of wine (Eph. 5:17-18), and honest in their financial abilities. Most of all they were to know Jesus as Lord and Savior, able to give a clear testimony of their hope and salvation by grace through faith (1 Pet. 3:15). 

Paul, like Peter, told Timothy to let them be tested through trials to see if their faith was genuine (1 Pet. 1:6-7). They were as well to be diligent as a husband and manage their families in a godly manner. Their wives must be submissive to the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. She is to be supportive and submissive to her husband as well. They need to be able to stand in good conscience before God and man in their faith in Jesus Christ.  

For Paul saw that the structure of the church relied upon the responsibility of the leaders and total dependance on the Truth of God’s Word. They were the church, the pillar and buttress of the truth.

Application - Again, the leadership in the church should have the qualities exhorted by Paul to Timothy. For the mouth will get us in a world of trouble as James told us as well. “Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?” (3:5-11)

As well, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit, the new wine Jesus spoke of, “Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Matt. 9:17) For the new life in Christ is filled with the new Wine (Holy Spirit), whereas the old life was filled with the world and its evils and it cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit. As light can’t dwell with darkness, so the Holy Spirit can’t dwell in the body of sinful darkness. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor. 5:17)

This leads to the testimony of our lives and actions as leaders. For our lives should testify as well as our mouths of the reasons for our new Hope in Christ Jesus. “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” (1 Pet. 3:15)

Our lives should be the testimony of the testing by God to show the genuineness of our faith in Christ Jesus. As Peter said we shouldn’t be surprised when we are tested, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” (1 Pet. 4:12) 

Our lives will be the testimony to others to encourage them in the testing and trials for they bring encouragement to others in the church. “...their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Col.2:2-3)

So as leaders in God’s church, let us endure the testing, be filled with the Holy Spirit, and tame the tongue to be the vessel used by Jesus to admonish and encourage the church.

Lastly, the mystery of godliness, Jesus Christ our Lord is the head of the body, the church. And the church has its godliness through Him. Let’s read the last portion of the text. “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”

Paul had been the proclaimer to the mystery of God in salvation through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. For he had preached it as his only text wherever he went.

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Cor. 1:18,23-24)

Salvation in Jesus Christ is the mystery of God, for it was Christ who had died for our sins and had been raised from the dead for our justification and that by trusting in this alone one can have salvation. Paul has given Timothy the marvelous fundamental elements of the mystery. First the manifestation of God in bodily form, the Word incarnate (Isa. 7:14, 9:6, 1 John 1:1-3) Timothy had not seen Jesus while alive as God on earth (Emmanuel) or as the risen Lord who reigns at the right hand of the Father in heaven, but Paul had seen the latter. It was this Jesus to whom Timothy was to believe and teach to the Ephesians. First,the baptism of the Holy Spirit was manifested like a gentle dove, symbol of peace, yet it was the vindictive work of God the Holy Spirit that astonished the world and held the devil and his cohorts in fear to the Son of God (John 16:8-9). Second, the angels celebrated the birth of the King of kings with the shepherds. (Luke 2:13-14) Third, they attended to Him after the temptation, during His praying in the Garden of Gethsemane (Lk. 22:43), at the tomb (Matt. 28:2), at His resurrection (Matt. 28:5-6), and His ascension (Acts 1:10). 

The apostle and others proclaimed Jesus in Jerusalem, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. “...you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8), and they were believed by the world ( “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands,” Rev. 7:9), and taken up into glory “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” (Jn.7:33, Acts 1:10).

Application - We are to join in with those who went before us to proclaim what the angels had said, and what the disciples saw, touched, and proclaimed to the world. This is the mystery, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is Emmanuel, God with us. It is in him that we have godliness, righteousness, and are redeemed for the day of salvation appointed by our heavenly Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord Holy Spirit. As is His return to gather us to be with him in His Kingdom, where he has prepared for us a place in His Father’s house. Oh what joy, to know the mystery of God. 

Let us boldly come to the throne of grace so that we can obtain mercy and find grace through our faith in the only One who could save us. “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb. 4:16)

I’m again including the ABC’s of salvation (JD Farag). Please, Jesus, God the Son, came to this world to save all who would believe and trust in him. He desires to reveal himself to you, He is the Light that overcomes the darkness of this lawless world. He hears your prayers, and all authority in heaven and earth have been given to him. He will answer you if you will truly believe. If you haven’t asked him to be your Lord and Savior, today could be that day.

 First, A - Admit that you are a sinner. This is where that godly sorrow leads to genuine repentance for sinning against a righteous God and there is a change of heart, we change our mind and God changes our hearts and regenerates us from the inside out. Romans 3:10 - As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one." Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (We are all born sinners which is why we must be born spiritually in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven). Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The bad news is that the wages of sin is death, in other words our sin means that we have been given a death sentence, we have the death penalty hanging over our heads, that's the bad news. But here's the good news: The good news is that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 2:8-9 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. Second,

 B - Believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and that God raised Jesus from the dead. This is trusting with all of your heart that Jesus Christ is who he said he was. Romans 10:9-10 - That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Third, 

C - Call upon the name of the Lord. Every single person who ever lived since Adam will bend their knee and confess with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Romans 14:11 - For it is written: "As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God." Don't wait until later — do this now. Romans 10:13 - For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." "O God, I am a sinner. I'm sorry for my sin. I want to turn from my sin. I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son; I believe that He died on the cross for my sin and that He was buried and You raised Him to life. I have decided to place my faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior, trusting only in His shed blood as sufficient to save my soul and to take me to heaven. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for saving me. Amen."

Please share this with someone this week, the Lord knows that we and they need it.

If you would like other lessons, please go to http://pmdinhisservice.blogspot.com 

Until next week, In His Service Mike Davis