Grace Baptist Church Eureka
1 Timothy 3:1-7 - Qualified Church Leadership

      • Psalm 45:1–2ESV

  • How Great Thou Art (Hymn #4)
  • Grace Greater Than Our Sin (Hymn #201)

      • John 1:9–18ESV

  • There Is A Fountain (Hymn #196)

  • Pray

    Father, thank your speaking to us through your Word.
    Thank you for showing us what you want us to be and do as your church.
    I pray that your would speak powerfully through me this morning to change us all into the likeness of your Son, Jesus.
    Lord, I don’t have any ability to do that.
    I need you to do this work in us because I am powerless.
    Please use my simple faithfulness to do your mighty work through your Word and your Spirit in our hearts.
    I ask that you would make us willing and eager to do what you’ve called us to do, to live and love like Jesus.
    It’s in his name I pray. Amen.

    Intro

    We’re trucking right along in our series through 1 Timothy.
    And this morning we’ve come to, 1 Timothy 3:1-7, a passage that’s familiar to a lot of us because it describes the qualifications for church leaders.
    If you’ve ever tried to get a job, you know that any job comes with qualifications, and only those who are qualified for that job even have a shot at being hired.
    That’s because any job comes with goals and standards the employer requires of his employees.
    And leading the local church is no exception.
    But instead of being accountable to a secular boss who sets the qualifications for his employees, church leaders are accountable to God and to the church members to follow the goals and standards set by God in his Word for those who lead his church.
    Let me give you a bit of a recap of the first two chapters of 1 Timothy to understand why Paul mentions the qualifications for church leadership here.
    In chapter 1 Paul entrusted Timothy with a charge for the leaders in the church to stop teaching against the gospel.
    And then he offered his own testimony and Timothy’s purpose in his role in the church to show just how important and effective the gospel is in the ministry of the church, to transform people’s lives to look more and more like Jesus in grace, mercy, and peace.
    The leaders in the church of Ephesus were teaching and living against the gospel by devoting themselves to myths and endless genealogies which led to fighting against the civic leaders who were persecuting them instead of praying for their salvation and giving them a genuine offer of the gospel.
    Their wrong teaching and behavior also allowed feminism and promiscuity to leek into the church from the local cult of the Greek goddess Artemis.
    This is why, in chapter 2, Paul identified these two things to be repented of: instead of fighting, pray and evangelize, and instead of adhering to the world’s way of living, do life God’s way promoting the good, God-given roles in marriage.
    These wrong attitudes and actions in the church of Ephesus were allowed to infiltrate the church because the leaders weren’t qualified, they weren’t leading according to God’s goals and standards for his church.
    So, now in chapter 3 Paul turns to identify these qualifications in both the spiritual leaders and the leading servants in the church.
    This week, we’re looking at the qualifications for church Elders, and next week the qualifications for Deacons.
    This topic was so important for the church in Ephesus, and it’s really just as important for every church in ever era and in every culture.
    It’s important because we all tend to hold church leaders to worldly leadership qualifications rather than God’s leadership qualifications.
    A good, successful leader according to the worlds standards in business is generally measured by how profitable he is, how much money he makes and how much money he makes for his investors.
    In the political sphere, a good, successful leader is measured by how prosperous the people he governs are, how many of the people are employed, how many are educated, how many are fed and housed, how low the crime-rate is.
    The goals of worldly leaders are generally focused on physical needs and comforts.
    And the standards reflect those goals.
    Anyone with the competency to lead people into physical profit and prosperity is deemed qualified to lead.
    And the only character qualities in view are only those that would affect the profit and prosperity of those following the leader.
    So, anyone who can make you physically rich and comfortable is deemed worthy to lead.
    But God’s goals for the church are very different from the world’s goals.
    And God’s standards reflect his goals, also very different from the world’s standards.
    So, not just anybody should take up leadership in God’s church.
    Because we tend to get these qualifications confused, God, through Paul, has outlined three aspects of what makes a qualified church leader: (1) their calling, (2) their character, and (3) their competency.
    We’re going to walk through each aspect, so first, let’s look at how God calls church leaders in verse 1.
    1 Timothy 3:1 ESV
    The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.
    This verse begins Paul’s description of a qualified church leader by highlighting their…

    Calling (1)

    This is another “trustworthy saying.”
    Paul already mentioned one trustworthy saying back in 1 Timothy 1:15 “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”
    That first trustworthy saying was a simple articulation of the gospel.
    This trustworthy saying is about the worthiness of the office of overseer.
    How anyone who aspires to this office desires a noble task.
    Why would this saying be considered trustworthy like the previous saying about the gospel?
    Well, Paul’s life was changed so drastically and dramatically by the gospel.
    And everyone who has put our faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins because of his death and resurrection on our behalf has also been changed drastically and dramatically by the gospel.
    But remember what Paul said back in 1 Timothy 2:7 “For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.”
    Paul was appointed, called by Jesus himself to preach the gospel to the Nations, to the Gentiles.
    And the overseers of the local church are called by Jesus to do exactly the same thing, to preach the gospel just like every believer is called to preach the gospel.
    So, the gospel itself is a trustworthy saying.
    And the encouragement of those called to lead in preaching the gospel… to do so in the local church is also a trustworthy saying.
    I want to briefly explain what Paul is referring to by the term overseer.
    Paul is talking about the office of overseer, but this same office, this same leadership position is described using two other titles.
    A church overseer is also translated as a presbyter or a bishop, but that same position is also referred to elsewhere in Scripture as an elder, and as a shepherd or pastor.
    All of these titles refer to the exact same position.
    Peter actually uses the terms interchangeably in 1 Peter 5:1–2 “So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight…”
    Now, verse 1 here doesn’t actually use the word “calling,” but we tend to throw that word around a lot.
    “Called into the ministry.”
    “Called to be a missionary.”
    “Called to be a church planter.”
    “Called to be a kids Sunday School teacher.”
    “Called to be a husband or a wife.”
    But what do we really mean by that word.
    Scripture only ever uses this word to describe salvation, but we tend to use this word to describe activities we pursue in life after we’ve been saved.
    We understand that God want’s each of us to do certain things, that’s why so many people are searching for God’s will in their life.
    And we say that you’re “called” when you have a certain measure of certainty of what God wants you to do.
    So, really, being called by God starts with a desire to do what God wants you to do and that desire is either confirmed or redirected by God.
    Why is it important to be called by God into church leadership?
    Well, either a church leader ends up in leadership without really wanting to be there, or a church leader ends up in leadership without God wanting him to be there.
    The church in Ephesus was dealing with church leaders who God didn’t want to be there because they were not leading the church to pursue God’s goals, and they weren’t working toward those goals themselves.
    That’s what the whole rest of this passage is about.
    But the other side can happen as well, those who don’t really want to lead, but they’ve been pressured into leading.
    Peter describes this in 1 Peter 5:2 where he told the church leaders to do their job “not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you…”
    When a church leader is unwilling to lead the way God wants because its hard work, they don’t do a very good job.
    If you’ve ever been forced to do a difficult job that you didn’t really want to do in the first place, then you know how tempting it is to do a poor job.
    So, church leaders need to desire to do the job of a church leader.
    It’s a difficult job, but it’s also a rewarding job, a good, noble, worthy work to pursue.
    Because church leaders are on the front lines of seeing people’s lives changed drastically and dramatically by the gospel.
    My job description is basically to do everything I can to encourage people live and love like Jesus, to help people find peace by doing life the way God has always intended, and to equip other believers to do that job as well to the best of their ability.
    All of that happens by keeping my focus on the gospel, and drawing everyone else’s focus to the gospel as well.
    Because Jesus changes lives through the preaching of the gospel.
    It’s difficult, but it’s worth it.
    Church leaders need to desire this good but difficult work, the work itself, not any perceived power or prestige.
    The only power in church leadership is from being used by almighty God to do his will and work.
    And the only prestige in church leadership is that of a slave.
    Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 20:25–28 “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.””
    So, qualified church leaders are called by God to this difficult but worthy work, and that calling is initiated by their desire to do the work and confirmed by the rest of the qualifications.
    Next Paul gives a list of character traits necessary in order to confirm a church leader’s desire as a genuine calling from God in verses 2 and 3.
    1 Timothy 3:2–3 ESV
    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.
    Here, Paul gives us a list or traits describing a qualified church leader’s…

    Character (2-3)

    It’s important to remember that no church leader is going to perfectly display these character qualities.
    Only Jesus has this character to perfection.
    But church leaders need to be pursuing a Christlike character as examples so everyone in the church can see what pursuing Christlike character looks like.
    Perfection isn’t possible this side of glory, but the pursuit of Jesus’ perfection is required by all believers, and we all need leaders to show us how its done.
    These character traits are grouped into positive traits to pursue and negative traits to avoid.
    In verse 2 Paul lists 7…

    Traits to Pursue (2)

    He starts off this list with the word, “Therefore.”
    The pursuit of leadership in the church is a good, worthy, wonderful work to pursue.
    And because of that, their character must fit that work, or else the work won’t be done the way God wants.
    The first character qualification is a sort of catch-all, to be above reproach.
    The Greek word is a compound of the root verb lam-BA-noh, meaning to “take or receive” and the preposition translated as “above”.
    It’s living a life that would make being arrested for breaking the law incomprehensible to everyone who knows you.
    People may toss accusations at you like rings in a ring-toss game, but your character is such that you have no pegs for those rings to hang onto and none of them would ever stick.
    There’s no question about where your moral compass is pointing at any given moment because it’s always pointed toward righteousness like Christ, even if you stumble a bit on the way.
    The rest of the character traits are all different aspects of this one, and all ways that we are to pursue righteousness like Christ.
    Qualified church leaders are above reproach in their faithfulness to one woman like Jesus is faithful to his bride, the Church.
    We should all be striving for faithfulness like Jesus, and a qualified church leader gives a tangible example of that faithfulness for the rest of us to follow to be like Jesus.
    The ESV translates this as “the husband of one wife.”
    Literally a one-woman man, or a one-wife husband.
    This is about character not circumstances, so it’s not referring to marital status per-se but faithfulness depicted in a faithful marriage.
    A man who has never been married can still be a one-woman man as he treats all women with respect waiting for the one who may possibly become his wife.
    A man who has been remarried as a widower can still be a one-woman man as he displays the faithfulness of Christ in his own faithfulness to his current wife.
    Even a man who has been divorced and remarried can be considered a one-woman man if he is displaying the pursuit of exclusive faithfulness to his current wife.
    There are a lot of different what-ifs, different scenarios and circumstances, but the principle in view here with this character qualification is faithfulness.
    So, however the circumstances work out, the qualified church leader will be actively pursuing marital faithfulness.
    A man who is not a one-woman man is someone who is actively unfaithful to his wife.
    Some see this qualification as restricting leadership in the church to only male leadership.
    But that was established in the previous chapter in 1 Timothy 2:12 when God through Paul said, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.”
    This qualification simply assumes male leadership, and adds the character of faithfulness in marriage as an example of the faithfulness of Christ for all the marriages in the church to follow.
    Qualified leaders in the church are above reproach by being sober-minded like Christ.
    This describes someone who understands the gravity of what’s at stake.
    He doesn’t get distracted from doing his job, he remains watchful and vigilant and thinking rightly.
    We have a job to do in the church, a serious and important job that has to do with the eternal state of peoples’ souls.
    Qualified leaders in the church are above reproach by being self-controlled like Christ.
    This describes someone whose behavior reflects their sober-mindedness.
    Both their minds and their behavior are focused on Christ and the gospel.
    Because we can’t afford to have leaders who are distracted in their minds and distracting in their behavior.
    Qualified leaders in the church are above reproach by being respectable like Christ.
    Now, this Greek word carries a nuance of orderliness.
    It has more to do with ordering priorities according to God’s priorities than it does with commanding respect from people.
    What’s the most important thing according to God’s priorities?
    How can we pursue order in our lives according to God’s order?
    Solomon asked this same question, and after trying all kinds of different priorities he discovered the answer and wrote it down for us in Ecclesiastes 12:13 “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
    Someone who fears God and keeps God’s commands as a priority in his life is respectable, orderly according to God’s order.
    This is someone who focuses on who God is and what God has done in the gospel, focusing on the person and work of Jesus Christ, and focusing on obeying God’s commands to be like Christ.
    Qualified leaders in the church are above reproach by being hospitable like Christ.
    Lovers of strangers.
    Treating people they’ve never met or know very little as if they were family.
    We were all once strangers to God.
    Paul told all of us Gentiles in Ephesians 2:12–13 “remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
    We’ve all received Jesus’ perfect hospitality, and we all need to pursue living and loving like Jesus by being hospitable to others as well.
    And we can see a tangible example of pursuing that hospitality when our church leaders open up their lives to love those they don’t even know.
    The last trait of those the leaders in the church are to pursue is an odd one, able to teach.
    At first glance this seems more like a competency than a character qualification.
    But what makes someone a good teacher?
    The measure of a teacher is not in what he says or how he says it, but in how his teaching is received.
    You can have the most knowledgable person with the most well thought out points and outline to convey his knowledge and the most eloquent speech to keep peoples’ attention.
    But if the teacher doesn’t care to figure out how his hearers will best understand his teaching, then very likely they will not be taught.
    It’ll go in one ear and out the other.
    A good teacher makes sure his hearers understand his teaching.
    A bad teacher simply spouts his knowledge and hopes that perhaps somebody will understand it.
    So, this qualification of being able to teach really is a character quality because it’s the concern for others to understand the truth of the gospel.
    Jesus was perfect at this, that’s why he had such a large crowd of people following him around calling him “teacher.”
    He cared that they understood what he was teaching.
    He taught the crowds in parables and then carefully explained their meaning to his disciples because he cared that they understood his teaching.
    And church leaders need to also care that those in the church under their shepherding understand the truth of the gospel, the truths of Scripture rather than just spouting their knowledge.
    Next, in verse 3, Paul switches it up and lists 4 character…

    Traits to Avoid (3)

    Church leaders are not to be drunkards.
    Scripture never condemns drinking alcohol outright, but it does say that getting drunk is a sin and that it’s foolishness.
    Because of that, alcohol should be avoided among leaders in the church as a means of remaining sober-minded and self-controlled and respectable or well-ordered.
    This character qualification also has to do with succumbing to addiction.
    Some people are more prone to be controlled by addictions than others.
    But regardless of how difficult or easy it is for a particular church leader, the qualified leader will habitually avoid being controlled by addiction as an example of pursuing Christlike devotion to God rather than personal comforts.
    Church leaders are also not to be violent but gentle.
    Paul helpfully gives us the opposite trait here to clarify both what to avoid and what to pursue in one breath.
    The violence he has in mind is anything decidedly not gentle, and the gentleness he has in mind is the opposite of physical outbursts of anger.
    The word he used translated as “violence” is the Greek word, PLAYK-tays, which describes someone who easily comes to blows, someone who has a short fuse and lashes out physically when his temper is hot.
    The opposite of that violence is gentleness.
    Instead of blowing up at someone who is attacking the church or Christianity, a qualified church leader would respond gently.
    Proverbs 15:1 “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”
    Jesus described his gentleness in Matthew 11:29 “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
    Jesus was mistreated and unjustly accused and killed on a Roman cross, but in the face of all of that antagonism, he never got violent, he remained gentle.
    Peter described it this way in 1 Peter 2:23 “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”
    Church leaders are also not to be quarrelsome.
    This goes hand-in-hand with not being violent, but it has more to do with starting fights than with ending them.
    Not being violent but gentle is ending a disagreement with gentleness rather than violence.
    Not being quarrelsome is refusing to start a fight in the first place because your goal is peace.
    It reflects the pursuit of peace that Jesus came to the earth for in the first place, and that same pursuit of peace he’s sent us into the world to pursue.
    Qualified church leaders shouldn’t be looking for fights or stirring things up just to prove a point or make others look bad.
    The last character qualification is an important one, qualified church leaders are not to be lovers of money.
    This is an important qualification because so many sins and evils and disqualifications can be traced back to a love of money.
    Later on in this letter Paul explains in 1 Timothy 6:10 “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”
    Loving money indicates a lack of faith in God’s provision for you as the author of Hebrews wrote in Hebrews 13:5 “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.””
    Loving money also indicates wrong priorities as Jesus taught in Matthew 6:24 ““No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
    Peter mentioned this as well in 1 Peter 5:2 how leaders in the church should lead “not for shameful gain, but eagerly;” desiring the reward of the work itself, not any kind of monetary compensation.
    Now, this does not mean that church leaders should never be paid because this is addressing the heart, the character of the leader not how the church cares for their leaders.
    Church leaders should not be seeking to get rich from leading the church, but the church still needs to care for their leaders and provide for them financially.
    Paul’s going to go on to explain this later in 1 Timothy 5:17–18 “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.””
    The point is that leaders in the church follow Jesus’ example as examples for everyone in the church of what it looks like to live the way God wants us to live.
    Jesus said in Matthew 6:19–21 ““Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
    And leaders in the church are examples to everyone in the church of what that looks like.
    So, leaders in the church must be qualified in both their calling and in their character.
    Their character confirming their desire for the good work of leading the church as a genuine calling from the Lord.
    But there’s one more aspect that confirms God’s calling in the life of a church leader, and that’s their competency to actually do the work they aspire to.
    These competencies are explained in verses 4-7.
    1 Timothy 3:4–5 ESV
    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?
    1 Timothy 3:6–7 ESV
    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.
    This is all about a qualified church leader’s…

    Competency (4-7)

    Paul lists three competencies here that a church leader must have because they’re the three things that the church was designed by God to do.
    The church is designed by God to shepherd his people, to promote growth in Christlikeness among the church members, and to bring the light of the gospel to the world starting with the community the church is located in.
    The qualified church leader is the one God has raised up and equipped to shepherd his people through wise management of the church like a family.
    The qualified church leader is the one who spearheads the discipleship within the church as a sufficiently discipled believer.
    The qualified church leader is the one those outside the church look to as a first point of contact as the church engages the community with the gospel.
    You might remember our study through the book of Titus which Paul used these very same categories to describe what a healthy church looks like.
    Healthy leadership, healthy discipleship, and healthy outreach into the community.
    In verses 4 and 5 of our passage, Paul highlights a qualified church leader’s…

    Wise Management (4-5)

    He brings up the management of the church leader’s household as an indication of how well the church leader will manage God’s church.
    This is because the church should look more like a family than a business.
    We’re brothers and sisters in Christ, not shareholders.
    We care more about spiritual growth than capital growth.
    We focus on building our relationships with each other and with God instead of climbing some corporate ladder.
    So, the management in view here is not the management of a system, but the management of people.
    How well does the church leader care for his children, teaching them how to be the way God wants them to be and to do what God wants them to do.
    How well does he teach and encourage and discipline his children to be like Christ?
    As he does in his home, so he will do in the church.
    But this does not mean that those who don’t have children can’t be church leaders.
    It just means that the competency to care for God’s people must be indicated in other ways.
    What this does mean is that a church leader who doesn’t care for his own family will also not care for the people in the church.
    If a church leader sacrifices his family on the altar of ministry, then he will likely sacrifice the people of the church for said “ministry” as well.
    Church leadership is about caring for the souls of God’s people, starting with the church leader’s family and extending to the rest of the church.
    Next up, in verse 6, Paul brings up the qualified church leader’s…

    Humble Discipleship (6)

    When Paul mentions the qualified leader not being a recent convert, he’s really talking about their spiritual maturity, not necessarily the length of time they’ve been a Christian.
    Very often spiritual maturity comes over time, but not always.
    Sometimes people have been believers for a long time, but they’re still spiritually immature.
    That’s what the author of Hebrews chastised his audience for in Hebrews 5:12–13 “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.”
    Another goal or purpose of the church is to facilitate and promote discipleship, growth in Christlikeness through our interactions with each other, pointing each other to the sufficiency of Christ.
    Paul used the metaphors of a building being constructed and a body growing to describe the nature of discipleship in the church in Ephesians and Colossians.
    Paul indicated the the growth in discipleship is growing in faith and love in 2 Thessalonians 1:3 “We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.”
    Peter identified discipleship growth as grace and knowledge of Jesus in 2 Peter 3:18 “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
    Peter also described discipleship in terms of growing from infancy into salvation and he described it as being built into a house as each of us is shaped and fashioned by God to look like Jesus, the cornerstone.
    1 Peter 2:2–5 “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
    Now, church leaders are tasked with spearheading this discipleship, this growth in Christlikeness.
    And if they haven’t been sufficiently discipled, if they’re still spiritual infants, then the discipleship process, that growth in Christlikeness will be stunted in the church.
    Paul says at the end of verse 6 here, that putting a spiritually immature believer into leadership in the church opens him up to the temptation of pride.
    Pride is the very same sin that Satan fell into that caused his downfall.
    He wanted to be God.
    And the same thing can happen very easily with an immature believer in church leadership.
    He can very easily take God’s responsibility in the church on himself, and pridefully try to be the Holy Spirit in the lives of the people he is leading.
    Now, this can happen even with spiritually mature believers, but it’s much less likely because they have been discipled to look like Jesus and to humbly come to this task of discipleship understanding that it’s God who works in people’s hearts to live and love like Christ, not the church leader himself.
    This is why I pray the way I do before every sermon.
    I know that it’s God who works in our hearts, not me.
    I’m just a tool that God uses to do his miraculous work in each of our hearts.
    The last competency qualification Paul explains in verse 7 is the qualified church leader’s…

    Honorable Outreach (7)

    Being well thought of by outsiders, those outside of the church, those in the community.
    It’s important for a church leader to be well thought of in the larger community because yet another purpose of the church is to spread the truth of the gospel.
    Churches who don’t do this die very quickly.
    They become insular, stand-offish, and more of a detriment to the larger community than an asset, a distraction from the gospel instead of shining a floodlight on the gospel.
    We cannot expect God to bless our church with peace and joy and growth and satisfaction if we aren’t doing what he wants us to do, what he’s intended for us to do.
    And the church leadership is sort of the face of the church to those outside the church.
    So, if the church leader is not well thought of by outsiders, then the church isn’t going to be very effective at reaching the community with the gospel.
    That’s what Paul means by falling into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.
    It’s a disgrace to be ineffective at what you were created to do.
    It’s a snare of the devil because Satan’s whole goal is to distract people from the gospel.
    It’s disgraceful when one of God’s main tools in spiritual warfare, the church led by church leaders, becomes a tool wielded by the enemy to hinder God’s purposes.
    So, church leaders need to remain honorable in the view of those outside the church so that the church doesn’t become a hindrance to the gospel in the minds and hearts of those in the community.
    Just like the servants in Titus 2:10, qualified church leaders should adorn the doctrine of God our savior, not make it less attractive.
    Live and interact with the community in such a way that the gospel is seen as beautiful.

    Conclusion

    Now, I want you to notice something.
    The confirmation of God calling a man into church leadership is their character and competency to live and love like Jesus and lead others to do the same.
    These qualifications are not designed to be so high that only a select few could ever be qualified.
    They’re simply how we all ought to be pursuing life and love like Christ together.
    And some people in the congregation do that better than others.
    God has called to church leadership those men who look more like Jesus than others and who are able to and desire to help others look more like Jesus.
    That’s what a qualified church leader is and does.
    He’s been changed drastically and dramatically by the gospel, he wants others to be changed by the gospel both inside and outside of the church, and he’s equipped by God to be used by Him to help others be changed by the gospel in shepherding care, discipleship growth, and gospel outreach in the community.
    A qualified church leader is all about the gospel, an unqualified leader is all about himself.
    Church leadership, and really all of church life is all about the gospel.
    How Jesus, God’s Son became a man and lived a perfect life and died in our place and rose from the dead all so that we could be forgiven and saved from the eternal death penalty for our sin and given eternal life to live in Jesus’ loving and infinitely satisfying presence forever.
    That’s good news!
    And the way that you can have that forgiveness and eternal life is by believing the truth of the gospel and trusting Jesus to take your place and submitting to him as the Lord of your life.
    Romans 10:9 says that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
    So, if you haven’t done that yet, then I beg you to do it right now.

    Pray

    Father, thank you for letting us know how you want your church led.
    I pray that you would help me to be this kind of a leader here at GBC.
    And I pray that you would help us identify other men in the church who you have called to lead with me.
    Please help us all live and love like your Son, Jesus.
    Help us grow in our Christlikeness.
    And help us share the love of Christ with our community.
    I ask for your help to do this, God, because none of us are able to do this without you.
    It’s your power, your responsibility, your job to save who you have called and change our hearts to be more like your Son.
    We only do what you’ve called us to do as instruments, tools, in your sovereign and powerful hands.
    I pray all of this in the name of your Son, Jesus. Amen.

    Communion

    Well, it’s the first Sunday of the month, the first Sunday of October already… can you believe it?
    So, the first Sunday of the month is when we celebrate communion together.
    And if you are visiting with us, and you’re a baptized believer in good standing with your home church, then you’re welcome to join us in this celebration.
    As the bread and the cup are passed out, I want to draw your attention to something I mentioned earlier in the sermon.
    In 1 Timothy 3:7 Paul wrote that a good church leader “must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.”
    Because the church is always presenting something to those outside the church.
    If you think of it the other way around, those outside the church always have some sort of opinion about the church based on how the people and the leaders in the church behave.
    What does that have to do with communion?
    Everything.
    Communion is a proclamation of the gospel to people both inside and outside of the church.
    Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:26 “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
    It’s a way to communicate the truth of Jesus’ sacrifice for us to each other, and a way to show outsiders how important Jesus is to us.
    It makes our pursuit of Christlikeness make sense to those who otherwise would think that we’re crazy.
    They already think we’re crazy for believing in Jesus, but…
    If Jesus loved us so much that he would die for us, then it makes sense that we would try our hardest to love like him, out of love for him.
    Participating in communion is one of the many ways that all of us can be well thought of by outsiders in order to promote the gospel instead of distracting from it.
    This is the job Jesus has given all of us as disciples who make more disciples.
    Matthew 28:19–20 Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””
    This is what we need to be about, this is our mission statement, these are our marching orders.
    And the way to make disciples is by proclaiming the gospel in word and deed, and part of that proclamation is the very tangible picture of communion, Jesus’ body broken like bread and his blood poured out like a cup of wine all to secure our forgiveness and eternal life in the new covenant with God.
    We need to be well thought of by outsiders so that our message, the proclamation of the gospel, including this celebration of Jesus’ death on our behalf, is not hindered by any negative reputation in the community.
    Our instructions about communion were given by Jesus himself as recorded in Matthew 26, Mark 14, and in Luke 22.
    And Jesus passed on those exact same instructions to Paul after he was saved.
    And Paul passed on those same instructions to the corinthian church because they weren’t doing it right.
    They were using the communion celebration as a means of sinning against each other in selfishness because some had to work late, but the rest went ahead and didn’t wait for them and ate and drank more than they needed, so all of the bread and wine were gone by the time they got there.
    Paul called them out on their sin and then explained the purpose and significance of the communion celebration in 1 Corinthians 11:23–25 “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.””
    If outsiders were to look at how the Corinthian believers were treating each other in communion, they would not be well thought of.
    So, as we share in this celebration, let’s consider how to love each other as Jesus has loved us, and adorn the gospel so that outsiders will be drawn to hear about Jesus’ love and sacrifice for them and perhaps they will be saved.

    Pray

    Father, thank you for showing us how much you love us by giving us your best, your own Son so that we could be forgiven and adopted into your family.
    Please help us proclaim Jesus’ death until he comes through our words and actions and our loving celebration of his love for us.
    Please keep the truth of the gospel at the front of our mind and on the tip of our tongue to remember and tell everyone about your great love for us.
    Please help us to keep our behavior, our reputation honorable, loving others like you have loved us, so that we don’t end up distracting people or diverting people away from the gospel.
    Please bless us as we remember and proclaim Jesus’ death until he comes.
    It’s in his name we pray all of this. Amen.

      • 1 Timothy 3:1ESV

      • 1 Timothy 3:1–7ESV

      • 1 Timothy 3:2–3ESV

      • 1 Timothy 3:1–7ESV

      • 1 Timothy 3:1–7ESV

      • 1 Timothy 3:1–7ESV

      • 1 Timothy 3:4–5ESV

      • 1 Timothy 3:6–7ESV

      • 1 Timothy 3:1–7ESV

      • 1 Timothy 3:1–7ESV

      • 1 Timothy 3:1–7ESV

      • 1 Timothy 3:1–7ESV

  • Jesus Messiah

      • Hebrews 13:5ESV

  • Benediction

      • Philippians 1:9–11ESV

Grace Baptist Church Eureka
gbcworship220@gmail.com
8 members