The Proper Care & Feeding of Elders

, anyway, let me have you guys turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 5. 1 Timothy chapter 5 for our time of study and the word we're Doing a verse by verse study through the book of First Timothy and as we continue in our study of this book, we come this morning to 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse 17. And my goal this morning is to try to cover verses 17 through 20, but I'm going to warn you ahead of time that in the last couple of verses 19 and 20, we're gonna no doubt leave some loose ends that we will be coming back and sweeping through and trying to, take care of in, in the weeks to, to come.

So I don't think today we're going to answer every imaginable practical question that verses 19 and 20 might raise, but we're going to do the best that we can with the time that we have.

As for the title of the message, I I'm getting some help from Dr. Laura Schlesinger. Her book, The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands, the title of this message is the Proper Care and Feeding of Elders. literally, this passage, teaches you, the people of God, the congregation, how to take proper care of the elders that God has blessed your life with.

And as we begin this morning, I just want to take a minute to say that passages like this, when I come to them, make me extremely grateful for the blessing that is mine to be here at Cornerstone amongst this congregation. We all know that there are good pastors and there are bad pastors, right? do we not all also know that there are good congregations and bad congregations, right? and, in all honesty, I personally know men, who graduated around the same time that I did, good men, better men than I, who have had the misfortune of going to churches where the congregations literally chewed them up and spit them out before they even knew what happened.

And there are bad congregations out there, and I could have landed in one, but by the grace of God, I am here. in fact, 18.5 years ago, the elders of Cornerstone were doing a pastoral search, looking for someone to pastor this church, Cornerstone, and they sent out word that they're receiving applications for the position, and a number of people applied, and one of the guys that applied, I have his folder here because I know him personally. I got to know him afterwards, he applied, filled out the questionnaire and everything, and There's even some correspondence back and forth.

The elders actually considered this guy.

He didn't get the job because I did. but, This guy ended up, moving on, because he didn't get the pastorate here and he assumed another pastorate of a church, let's just say in Southern California. And to make a long story short, he thought it was a good situation coming into it. On the first Sunday, the head of the leadership board came up to him and asked him a theological question that should have been asked during the interviewing process but wasn't.

And when this pastor gave a very humble answer to that theological question, the head of the leadership board said, Mark my words, you will not be pastor here alone. And that's just not a good beginning. And true to his word, just, and I got to know this guy after that point because things started unraveling fast. 6 months into his ministry at this church, he showed up for the services on a Sunday morning and he got there early to unlock everything and to put the finishing touches on his His sermon and he tried to get into his office and he couldn't get in.

The key wouldn't work. He tried several other doors and none of them worked. It was then that someone from the church, from the leadership board showed up and the pastor said, I can't get into my office. And the guy said, I know we've changed all the locks and effective today you're no longer pastor of this church.

So that that guy and his wife ended up attending Cornerstone for several months after that, just taking some time to heal before they moved on. But guys, there are bad congregations out there, and I am very grateful to be here at Cornerstone. I am not sending out resumes at other churches. I know a good thing when I see one, and I'll go wherever God leads, but until he clearly leads, I am here for life and I'm happy to be here.

Yeah. thank you for that. But I love this passage because I love this church and because you guys do the things that are modeled here. Nonetheless, I think there are things in this text that you'll find yourself instructed by.

I know, I know, I was, a passage like this will answer questions like how can I show honor to my elders? What do I do if someone comes to me with an accusation against an elder? What do I do with that? What if 3 people come to me with the same accusation against an elder?

What do I do with that? What should the church do if, God forbid it ever happens that an accused elder is found to be in sin? That's possible. That happens in churches.

It happens in good churches. It can happen here. What do you do as a congregation if The accused pastor or elder is found to be guilty of some significant sin. Well, some of these questions to some degree, we'll find the beginnings of an answer to them and definitely there's a lot of information in these verses that will provide some direction for us.

So basically, guys, if you want to take care of the elders in the church that God has, has graced your life with, then you'll find in these verses essentially 4 instructions that Paul gives to Timothy, that ultimately show the church how to treat the elders, properly. Let me begin reading in verse 17. We'll read through verse 20, and then We'll begin to work through this a verse at a time. Paul says the elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.

For the scripture says, you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing. And the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses, those or those elders who continue in sin, or literally those elders who are sinning. rebuke in the presence of all so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.

So there's more even in the verses following, but we'll just focus on these 4 verses, today, 4 instructions that Paul gives to Timothy to provide direction for Timothy and thus for the congregation of the church and how to properly care for, their elders. And the first instruction is found in verse 17, and that is this, I think God lays upon, his people, this responsibility, and that is to consider elders who are ruling well to be worthy of double honor. Consider this, this goes to primarily how you think about elders.

Certainly, there's actions that flow from that.

But he's primarily getting at the root at how you think about your elders. And what he teaches in verse 17 is that you are to think you are to reckon, you are to consider elders who are ruling well, to be worthy of double honor. Look at verse 17, the elders who rule well, are to be considered worthy. Of double honor.

However, we understand this verse and we're going to break it open, clearly the sense that you get is that you need to prize elders in your life. Some people think they don't need elders and they're a bother and they're fine without them. They're forgetting the fact that in Ephesians 4, Paul actually. Christ died, was buried, was raised, and went up to heaven in order that from that position he can give gifts to the church.

Among those gifts are pastors or elders. They are gifts from Christ to you, and he doesn't give gifts that are not necessary. So value elders. And their role that they play in your life.

In fact, in this verse, he says, give them double honor. The question is what does that mean to render double honor to, an elder. Let me help you out with this, guys. in fact, I don't want to bore you with the details, but there's like 8 different possible meanings of what double honor, means.

Some say that Paul is saying whatever you're giving to the widows, give the elders twice as much. There's some who understand it that way, and there's other ways that I don't want to get bogged down in, but just to help us. To understand the very least of what Paul is saying, go back to chapter 5, verse 3. Paul says, Honor widows who are widows indeed.

We have seen in previous weeks that obviously what Paul means by honor is we know he means pay respect to, treat in an honorable way, but we also know from the context that when Paul says honor, he means Something material provide financial support and assistance for widows. We see that in verse 16 when he says, if any woman who is a believer has dependent widows, she must assist them or give aid to them, and the church must not be burdened so that it may assist those who are widows.

Indeed, to honor widows is to provide financial and material assistance for them. So whatever Paul means in verse 17 when he says, consider elders who rule well to be worthy of double honor, whatever he means by that, we have to understand that a part of what he's indicating is providing financial or material support for elders while they do their spiritual ministry to you, the people of God.

Some suggest that double honor. is in the sense that you respect the elders because they're elders and the role that they play, and you respect the elders who rule well because those elders are doing a fine work and they're doing the fine work well. That's the double honor in the minds of some. At the very least we can break it down this way.

Some say that it means you give the elders respect and you give them remuneration. Big word just means you pay them, or you give them honor and honorarium. And I like that because you have that same word honor there. There are times where I'm asked as a pastor to do a wedding or a funeral, and sometimes people will ask how much do you charge for your services, and my answer is always, I don't ever charge anything for my services.

I'd be real uncomfortable with that even when I speak somewhere else. I never, I never ask for a particular honorarium. It's just whatever the Lord leads them to give, that's fine. But what people often will do is they will give an honorarium.

And the use of that word in that context, the word honor being inserted in that to speak of that tangible financial gift that is being given, the origin, the origins of that go back to 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 17. They're paying respect and they're also giving honor in a tangible way and that's why it's called an honorarium. So I think at the very least when he says give them double honor, he's at least saying, give them honor and all the intangible ways, but also honor them through tangible means.

Now, what elders do we as the church render double honor to?

Look what he says in verse 17. Paul says, the elders who rule well, are to be considered worthy of double honor. the word rule literally is the Greek word that means to stand before. That's the visual that I want you to have.

The elders that stand in front of you, the people of God, they're in front of you and they're facing towards you. and the idea is that from that position, they are often speaking and they are providing leadership for the people of God. This word rule is used in 1 Timothy 3:4. Regarding the qualifications of elders that he, the elder, must be one who rules his own household well.

That's exactly the same word. And what does that mean? Look what it says, keeping his children under control with all dignity. His children are under control, and this elder maintains control of them, not through temper tantrums and by scaring them to death with his anger, but with dignity and with respect, by being respectable to where they care what he thinks.

And by giving respect to his children, he has them under control. Paul says if a man does not know how to manage, there it is again, his own household. How will he take care of the Church of God? So this word rule means to lead, but it has the idea.

Not of lording it over people, but leading in a way that reflects tender and compassionate care. And he says the elders who do this well are to be considered worthy. Of double honor. Now when Paul says, well, I think the idea, and a number of commentators and writers go this way is it's not that on the elder board, it's like, well, there's, there's these elders who rule well, they're doing a good job.

And then there's these elders that are doing a bad job and we don't pay them. So everyone knows who's doing the bad job because they don't get paid. But the ones that are doing a good job, they're the ones that are getting the salary. That's, I don't think what Paul is saying.

In fact, from this qualification you see on the screen behind me, every elder rules well to one degree or another. If an elder's not ruling his household well, it's the same adverb there, then he can't be an elder. All right? But I think Paul says the elders who rule well, more from the standpoint of the elders that Their rule is exceptional primarily from the standpoint maybe of gifting, but also they are devoting themselves full time to the ministry of eldering.

So of course, because they're devoting themselves full time to that ministry, they're able to end up accomplishing things that would exceed what some other genuinely godly, faithfully serving elder would be able to accomplish. Who maybe is working at another job and he cannot give this elderly responsibility the amount of time that a full-time elder would be able to. When he says elders who rule well, I think he's talking predominantly about elders who are employed. Full time or they give a sizable chunk of their time of dedication to the ministry and they're doing a good job of it and it's these elders Paul says that I want you to consider worthy of double honor.

He continues his thought. Look at what he says, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. I want you to notice that like in Paul's mind he says the elders who rule well, those that are devoting themselves to significant amounts of time each week to serving the body of Christ in the local church, and then he says, especially those that are working hard at the task of preaching and teaching. Thank you, Mike.

OK. So, he's taking care of his elder. So he says, the more specifically those elders that are laboring in this arena, those that are working hard at the task of preaching and teaching. what guys, Christianity is a religion where a lot of communication is intended to happen.

There's a God in heaven who saved his people, and he speaks to His people. He's revealed Himself to his people through a book. We are a religion, amongst other things, a religion of the book. And God wants to reveal his heart and his mind to His people, and one of the means that he does that through is through elders that He gives to the people of God, and they work hard at the task of understanding the mind of God and the heart of God and the will of God as it's revealed in Scripture, and they work hard at communicating that to the people of God.

Look at the wording here. They work hard at preaching and teaching. I hope that you appreciate the fact that a ministry of preaching and teaching the word is a ministry that involves a tremendous amount of toil. That's really what that word translated work hard means.

It means working. to the point of fatigue and even exhaustion both in the preparation process to understand the word of God, doing that exhausting work of understanding the text of scripture, and then there's the battle of now that I understand it, how do I communicate it? That's a whole other art form, a whole other genre of communicating verbally. What one is understanding from the text of the Bible, and that's, that's hard work that's being engaged in and then frequently preaching and teaching and often preaching and teaching the same thing with great patience and with doctrine.

It is a difficult and a hard ministry that elders are engaged in for the benefit of the people of God. And Paul is saying you need to value those men in your life, and the hard work they do to such a degree that your thoughts should be, what, I happily will give them compensation, so that they can devote themselves to this hard work and render this invaluable service in my life of preaching and teaching to me, the Word of God. value this and, and also hear God as God is talking to Timothy, listen in on what he's saying to Timothy, and realize, man, I need to be a part of a local household of God, a local church, where there are men that are working hard at the task of understanding God's word, and then speaking it, teaching it to me and to my brothers and sisters in Christ.

I'll throw one thing in regarding the hard work of preaching and teaching that I found in the ministry and I did not expect this coming into the ministry.

I thought I'm gonna become a pastor, I'm gonna be sitting in my office 20 hours a week and I'm gonna be studying and I'm gonna be just loving my study. And and what, I don't want to be down on that. There's a lot of blessings and a lot of thrills along the way, but what I have found week after week, year after year, is that that preparation process is spiritual battle. The devil is not passive, going, Oh, look at him, he's enjoying his study.

And, and he's just discovering truths in scripture. He's not sitting idly by. What I found is that I have to have the tools of exegesis in one hand and a sword in the other, and I got to get ready for bloody battle throughout the week. And it's almost as if there are Spiritual beings that are stationed around every truth in the text of the Bible that are going to fight and do everything they can to keep me from getting at those truths.

And so it's more than just opening up a commentary and having a dictionary and saying, oh, yeah, I know what this means. No, to get at those truths, it's warfare. And then you engage in that warfare, and it's like, finally, it's like, OK, I Understand the text, but then how do I communicate it? Well, the devil doesn't say, Well, I lost that battle.

He understands the text, so I'm just going to let him go. No, he's like, the devil then goes into overdrive, trying to make it difficult to communicate. You guys know how that is. You understand something from God's word, and then how do I communicate that?

It's a whole other thing altogether. It's spiritual battle. And then standing in front of you guys and preaching as a result of the hard work that's been done, now the hard work needs to be done on your part to actually listening. to God's word as it's being preached, the devil's now going after you, the listeners, to the word of God, in addition to me, and he'll do everything he can to have you as distracted as possible to where you're sitting here and you're sitting upright, but your mind is a million miles away and you're totally distracted.

In fact, there might be people in this room right now that are so distracted that you don't even know I'm talking about how distracted you are. That's, that's actually very possible. And there are Sundays where, where I see people sleeping, and I'm not going to judge you for that, but I'm just thinking, man, that's a lot of hard work wasted in that person's life. they're not getting any benefit from the hard work that's done.

And so, and the devil doesn't just start his attack on Sunday morning. He's trying to keep people up as late as he can on Saturday night and just so that you can just be tired and exhausted, not even come to church on Sunday, and then if you do come, your body's here, but, but the rest of you is in bed at, at home. And then if you, if that's, if that exchange does take place, God's word is understood by me, it's communicated by me, and it reaches you and you understand it, then the battle still continues because the devil will do everything he can to make you content with just understanding and having heard the truth.

And so the battle goes on all week, every day, it's a battle on the part of those that are preaching and teaching and even on your part.

To be listeners and appliers and doers of the word of God. So be in prayer for the pastoral staff and also for yourselves as the people of God that will all do the hard work that's involved in getting the most out of God's word. Paul says the elders who rule well, especially those that do the hard work of preaching and teaching and maybe through their gifting, and training and whatever, that's what they're devoting their time primarily to. You need to, you need to honor them, in fact, consider them worthy of double honor, respecting them for the role they play in your life and also providing compensation for them.

Now, having said that, Paul comes into verse 18 and he gives two arguments, not that you guys need these arguments, but he provides them for why you should provide material support to the elders and pastors that play a role in your life and the ways described in verse 17. Argument number 1, Paul says, is the Old Testament teaches it. And you're like, really, the Old Testament teaches Christians in the church? To pay their pastors.

Wow, where would I find that? Well, Paul says it's in Deuteronomy 25:4. You're like, Whoa, OK, what does it say? Here it is.

You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing. I rest my case. Isn't that crazy? But, this is Paul's a deep thinker, and he doesn't just look at what's on the surface in the text of the Bible.

Paul himself did the hard work of Of plumbing the depths of what is taught and what is implied and what can be legitimately inferred from scripture. I don't want to get bogged down on this, but you guys probably have a sense that they would harvest the grain and put it on the ground in a really hard packed area and then there would be oxen that would go around on the grain and they would be pulling a cart that had studded wheels that would grind into, the grain to separate the grain from the, the husks, or the, the oxen would be pulling a large board that had stones and sharp objects embedded on the underside of them, and people would stand or sit on that, that board that's being pulled, and it would just grind that, that grain as a part of the threshing process.

And there were people in ancient times who muzzled their oxen when they did that because they're thinking we don't want them to slow down at all. We don't want them to eat this stuff.

That stuff is for us. And so they muzzled the oxen. Some cultures did that, but God in the law said, Hey, Israelites, let me tell you how to treat your oxen when they're threshing. I want you to, leave them unmuzzled.

I want you to allow them to eat and care for themselves. While they are threshing the grain so as to make it ready for you, so that you can be fed. Now, Paul doesn't comment on this. He just quotes it, but I would give you guys the reference 1 Corinthians 9, verses 9 and following.

Read that chapter. Paul is talking to the Corinthians who never gave him a dime of financial support, and that bothered Paul. more so for the sake of the Corinthians, not that he wanted their money, but he's like, what, it's not right that they would disrespect me and my ministry, the way that they do. And he uses this very verse with them.

1 Corinthians 9:9. He says, it is written, You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing. And then here's his exegesis of that, or at least his application. God is not concerned about the oxen, is he?

In a way, God is, but by way of comparison of oxen, to humans, no, he's not concerned with oxen as much as he is humans. Verse 10, or is he speaking altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written because the thresher is to thresh in hope of sharing the crops. And here's his application.

If we have sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? Paul says the scripture says that you need to provide for your pastors while they are doing the work of threshing, and I have the picture here, I don't want to press this too far of threshing the scripture and just, just, breaking things open and understanding what God's saying in his words so as to prepare that for the nourishment and provision of his people. The elders who are doing that need to be cared for and provided for by the people of God while they render that service on behalf of the people of God.

Well, there's a second argument that Paul gives at the end of verse 18.

And in that argument, he quotes from Jesus. So he says, the Old Testament teaches what I'm saying, and the New Testament or Jesus Christ teaches what I am saying. Look at the end of verse 18, and the laborer is worthy of his wages. And you'll find this, reference in Luke chapter 10 verse 7, when Jesus is sending out the 70 to go into various cities.

In advance of Jesus actually being there. And look at what Jesus says. He sent them in pairs ahead of him. Verse 2, and he was saying to them, The harvest is plentiful, so I'm sending you guys out to work the harvest.

Verse 7, Stay. When you come into a city, someone offers you hospitality, accept their offer. Stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Now, all I want to say about this is what's interesting to me is that Jesus makes this statement, not to people saying, come on, guys, you need to care for my disciples because they're doing a good work.

Jesus is making the statement to his disciples, in order to make them more comfortable with receiving. From the kindness and the generosity, because I, I'm sure the disciples at times would be, look at this verse 7, stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you, that I know as a pastor, sometimes when people in this church are being kind to me, I'm feeling, I don't deserve this. What do I do for these people? And, and I, I feel like, man, I, I owe them something in return or I wish I can do something for them and sometimes I even express that to some of you and you're like, oh no, no, this is a return.

on what you do for us. And something about that reminder helps make it more palatable to receive that. And so Jesus is like, just relax, man, when people are loving you, and they're being generous to you, whatever they give you to eat and drink, don't feel like you got Go do something else to earn it. This is your pay.

These are your wages. The laborer is worthy of his wages and the food, the eating and the drinking and the hospitality and whatever else is involved. These are your wages, Jesus says, which teaches you that in addition to whatever pay the pastors receive, that we also can receive food. And drink from you.

So make note of that, be encouraged. I like, macadamia nut, cookies. what? Seriously, Christmas, Pastor appreciation, month.

You guys, we get tons of food, from people in this church. You guys are already doing all of this, and that's, Jesus would say in a moment like that, Milton just received that. Receive that. This is just a part of how I'm blessing you, and loving you, providing for you in return for the work that you do on my behalf.

So, I just love that touch. Jesus is trying to make these disciples comfortable with what they, receive. by the way, if you do give food, before we move on, If you give it to me, you need to identify that it's for my family. If for me and my family, if you just say me.

Then it probably won't make it home, OK? That, that has happened. So, you would need to specify that. Anyway, moving on.

Don't you love exegesis? here's the second instruction that Paul gives, and this turns us more to a more concerning and negative note, and that is, refuse to formally entertain unsubstantiated accusations against an elder. Paul is talking to Timothy and keep in mind now, Timothy, he's in a different position than you guys are. Timothy was the, how do I say this?

He was the apostolic delegate who had oversight and supervision over all of the Ephesian congregation. So Timothy essentially was an elder to the elders, a pastor to the pastors, and if someone in one of the Ephesian congregations had a complaint about an elder, Timothy was the guy they would come to because he was the guy that had oversight over all these congregations. Does that make sense? And what Paul is saying to Timothy in verse 19 is do not formally entertain unsubstantiated accusations against an elder.

Look at verse 19. He says, do not receive. An accusation. Now when he says do not receive, what he's saying do not formally, I want you guys to have a picture in your head of not just someone coming to Timothy saying, hey, I've got a concern about, about an elder and I need to know, what we should do about it.

This is someone who has a beef with an elder, an accusation against an elder of some significant sin. And that individual from the church, or he may not even be a believer, but he's attending church and he's trying to cause trouble, that single individual comes to Timothy as the apostolic delegate over the Ephesian congregations and says formal action needs to be taken against such and such elder. And Paul says, Timothy, don't receive. Do not formally entertain.

An accusation against an elder. By the way, the word that's translated accusation is the word against combined with a word that speaks of a public place. This is not just some private thing that someone's just coming with a private concern and they want it kept private. This is someone who is wanting this to go public.

Timothy, I want a public hearing on this. I want this elder brought in. And get people involved, and I want a formal complaint to be lodged against this elder. And Paul says to Timothy, if one person comes to you wanting some public formal hearing against an elder, do not receive, do not formally entertain that accusation against the elder if it's just that one person.

Now look on the screen behind me, Paul, because he goes on in the end of the verse to say, except on the basis of two or three witnesses. Paul is alluding to Deuteronomy 19:15, where it says a single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or in any sin which he has committed. On the evidence of two or three witnesses, the matter shall be confirmed. Please understand when I say this, that, that this provision in Deuteronomy 1915 applied to all Israelites.

In the church, God would want this provision. To be a justice and a courtesy applied to every single believer. Everyone gets this privilege. Are you following me?

So when Paul says that elders get this privilege, he's not telling Timothy, you need to treat elders differently than other people in the church. What he's saying is, Timothy, give to elders the same justice, fairness, and courtesy. That everyone else in the church gets. Which is interesting because what it indicates is that often elders in the minds of some don't get the same courtesy.

That they might want for themselves. In fact, John Calvin complained about this even in his own day. Accusations fly, and he observed the way members of the congregation just latch on to whatever accusations there are. He says as soon as any charge is made against ministers of the word, it is believed as surely and firmly as if it had been already proved.

Just people hear an accusation and their attitude is, man, where there's smoke, there's fire, and this accusation, it sounds true. In fact, this is probably just the tip of the iceberg. they don't even believe, just simply believe the accusation, but they even go further and assume that there's almost certainly more involved here and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Guys, understand.

and accept the fact that in the path of doing ministry God's way, accusations will happen. Don't freak out when they happen. Don't think that automatically someone has done something wrong. It may be, and we'll get to that.

But, but accusations, false accusations are a normal part of the lot of those that do ministry God's way. And in Scripture, we see this all over the place. Joseph, He was accused by Potiphar's wife of sexually assaulting her. She even had evidence.

She had one of his garments as evidence, and everyone believed the lie, the false accusation, and he was imprisoned for that. David, before he became king, Solomon's or King Saul's advisors were telling Saul that David was intending to do Saul harm. And Saul believed those false accusations, and was therefore trying to kill David. And David had to say, why are you believing these false accusations that your advisors are making against me?

How about Jesus? Never made any mistake in his life and ministry, never sinned, and yet was falsely accused. In fact, he got crucified. Because of false accusations that were lodged against him, and those accusations were believed and he was punished and sentenced as if those accusations had been true.

Paul throughout his ministry, had to deal with false accusations leveled against him. There were people telling him, you're just in the ministry for money, and if you read 1 Thessalonians chapter one carefully, you'll even observe that there were accusations against Paul that he was in the ministry simply for sexual opportunity. Paul has to say, oh no, no, I'm not, I'm not. So really, Terrible accusations against these characters in the Bible and there's so many others.

Just understand that accusations are a part. Of the lot of those that are seeking to do ministry God's way, and Paul is saying to Timothy that if someone comes to you by themselves with an accusation against an elder and they're wanting to go public with some hearing against that elder and to lodge that accusation against them, don't even entertain it. Do not formally entertain an unsubstantiated accusation against an elder brought to you by one person. Having said that, There's a 3rd instruction, and that is to Timothy, that we can infer from verse 19, and that is Timothy, do formally entertain substantiated accusations against an elder.

Timothy, if there is sufficient evidence, if there are 2 or 3 witnesses, and they are coming to you, they've taken all the appropriate steps that are identified in Matthew 18, and they're basically giving the same testimony, then you are required, Timothy, to formally entertain their accusations that have been substantiated by witnesses. You don't know whether those Accusations are really true or not yet, but you do need to entertain those accusations and take them seriously.

Bring the elder before you. Bring the accusers into the room and essentially have a formal hearing where those accusations are leveled and the elder has an opportunity to respond to the accusations that his accusers are wanting to level against him.

So do formally entertain. These accusations if they're verified by 2 or 3 witnesses. Look at verse 19, do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of 2 or 3 witnesses. You see the balance here, guys?

Paul, in this passage is warning us against being so credulous, that we believe every accusation against the spiritual leader. But he's also warning us against being so incredulous that we refuse to believe in the possibility that an elder has committed some sin in spite of evidence that is indicating that. There are some people that have the mentality of, you dare not touch the Lord's anointed. Don't ever bring a charge or an accusation against one of God's anointed, one of the elders, one of the pastors, and people will use that theme in scripture to shut down anyone that is trying to bring a legitimate criticism or accusation against elders that may be in sin.

This passage clearly goes against that. Paul is saying to Timothy, you do need to entertain accusations against an elder, if it is verified by two or three witnesses. You do need to address this. What this indicates is that it is possible that the accusations are true.

That an elder has sinned in some notable or grievous way. And he's saying to Timothy, you need to be open to this possibility. And for us as the people of God, we learn, don't be so gullible and quick to believe any accusation, but at the same time, you, if it's substantiated accusations, you need to allow for the possibility that maybe some wrongdoing has been done by an elder. And so let's say the formal accusations are entertained and the elder ends up being acquitted, essentially that, Timothy observes that this elder is not guilty of these accusations.

OK, great. That played out well, but what if the accusations are brought and, and it is seen that the elder has committed sin. And the accusations are true. Well, that leads to the 4th instruction that Paul gives on how to take care of, the elders in the church, and that is publicly rebuke an accused elder.

Who is found to be in sin. Now notice the wording of this publicly rebuke an accused elder who is found as a result of this inquiry, this formal inquiry to be. And sin. Paul is not saying, guys, like, in fact, just look at verse 20, those who continue in sin, and literally in the Greek, it's just simply those who are sinning.

So it could mean those who are found to be in sin. It could have the idea of those who even go on after the inquiry continuing in sin, but just understand that it could mean just simply those that are found to have sinned, and the accusations were true. Even if the elder may say, I won't ever do it again. What Paul says here often still applies to an elder who promises they won't do something again, but nonetheless they have sinned in some grievous way.

Paul says those elders who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all so that the rest will be fearful of sinning. Talking about public rebuke, Paul is not teaching us at Cornerstone that if, for example, I were to find out that one of our elders had his personal devotions only 6 days out of 7 this past week, that, any challenge to any elder, any rebuke, no matter how large or small, heavy or mild, that all of that needs to happen publicly. That's not what he's saying. He's talking about an accused elder.

Obviously, this matter is public enough that accusations have been brought. All right, and a hearing has been held. The elder has been found to be guilty of what he's been accused of doing. In such a case, Paul is telling Timothy, blow.

lid off this thing and take care of this elder and his sin. Rebuke his sin, expose his sin, and do so in the presence of all. Now, no doubt there may be situations where we need to apply wisdom to this. Some may be failures on the part of an elder.

It may just be a lack of wisdom or he didn't follow the best path or he made a mistake in his ministry. I don't think Paul is saying to Timothy that all that needs to be public. But we all know that there are that there's levels of sins and violations of trust and false doctrine and immorality, that there are certain sins that if an elder is found to be guilty of those breaches of trust, That those things do need to be handled publicly rather than just concealed over or, ignored.

Does that make sense?

For example, if, if an elder at a church is accused of committing adultery, there's witnesses that can verify that something like that has gone on, and, That those accusations are formally entertained and the elder is found to be guilty of adultery, if that elder says, well, what, I was guilty, but I promise I won't do it again. Does, does the leadership of the church just say, OK, we'll just keep that hush hush when you already know some in the church know about it because they brought the accusation.

In a situation like that, the best path is to blow the lid off the thing and to go public. And to rebuke that elder, certainly lavishing him with grace if he is repentant, but rebuking his sin and exposing his sin in the presence of all.

Paul says, because look at the value of this. I think we'll talk about this more next time so that the rest will be fearful of sinning. They'll realize the magnitude and the seriousness of sin. I there are churches that have handled matters like this differently, and some have lived to regret it.

I know of one church where the pastor was found to have committed adultery. And the accusation was brought. They found out it was true. The pastor said, I, I've repented of this, and I'm never going to do anything like this again.

And because so few people knew the, the board of elders at that church said, what, we'll just, we'll let him continue. He seems repentant. He'll continue in ministry here and we'll just keep this hush hush. Well, how things like this are.

Eventually, word got out, and this man ended up not only losing his ministry, but this elder board lost a significant amount of trust. From the congregation because of how they concealed the matter. By way of contrast, there's a church in Indiana called, I think Granger Community Church. I don't honestly know hardly anything about this church, but I read about an incident in a book that we as elders were reading a few years ago, and I'm gonna let their pastor tell the story of what happened and how they Handled it and this is what I'll close with this morning.

The pastor's name is Tim, Tim Stevens. He says it was May 2002 when we got the report that one of our key pastors was involved in deep immorality. Within 24 hours, we learned that it was not a one-time incident, but rather a pattern of wrong choices and sinful actions over the previous two years. We had, in response, several options.

We could ignore it. We can handle it quietly. We could help our fallen pastor but not take any action that would alarm the church, or we could dismiss the pastor but hide the reason. No one had to know.

The official explanation could be he is dealing with some personal issues in his life and will be stepping. Out of ministry so they entertained those possibilities, but the last option was this we could care enough to be completely honest. We could leave no room for gossip and lift the banner for integrity in the church by covering nothing up. Which should we take?

The last one. But see, they had a problem. and doing that last one, which is what they ended up doing, he says after seeking counsel from several pastors who had faced these types of issues and after much prayer and discussion, we chose the last option. The only problem was that the following Sunday was Mother's Day.

And we had just mailed out 30,000 invitations to the community to attend the launch. Of a new series. However, we canceled the plans for the weekend and took the entire service on Mother's Day to address the issue of sin and leadership. We were completely honest about the sin when we found out about it, the steps we were taking to help with restoration, how we were caring for the family of our fallen friend, how the church should respond and our expectation of integrity and leadership.

We communicated with love and compassion, but called for holiness and righteous living. I am sure that was an extremely difficult step for them to take, but they took that step. And what was the fallout? He says now several months after our crisis, we do not know of one member who left because of how we handled the situation.

Instead, our attendance has grown, and the church today is stronger and healthier than it has ever been. That's the path of wisdom, as difficult as it is, and that's the path of wisdom that Paul would counsel regarding certain sins that indicate such a breach of trust and a violation of the Christian ethic to such a degree that an elder who is guilty of such sins should be publicly. rebuked and exposed, and that is the most loving thing to do for that elder. That's good for that elder.

You don't bash them publicly, but you expose the sin. God will use that even in that elder's life, and it's good for all the other elders and for everyone in the congregation to teach us the fearfulness of sin. Well, we have much more to learn and some loose ends also, but we'll be picking up here as we continue in our study through this book. let me ask you to bow your, heads.

This morning, let's just take a moment to ask the Lord to watch over us as a church. If this passage teaches us anything, guys, it teaches us that this stuff can happen here. Don't think that your elders can never be guilty of any compromising or disqualifying sin. It can happen.

Let it, let it motivate you to pray all the more diligently for yourself and for your leaders. But let's also be careful how we respond to accusations that we hear about. We're going to give you an opportunity to give to the Lord, and, our ushers are coming forward and you'll have an opportunity to give as the Lord leads you to do so in just a moment. Let's pray together.

Lord, we thank you for your word and for the helpfulness of it. You just, you bend so low, Lord, and speak to us with such specificity. and practicality that Passages like this, Lord, are good as gold. Help us to have the backbone to, to do what we're taught to do here.

But Lord, I, I just want to thank you for this congregation and the fact that these people love your word. They love the preaching and the teaching of your word, and they, they want to be doers of the word and I thank you for all the ways that, that I learned from them, all the ways that they model the very things that are taught in this passage. Bless these dear men and women, Lord, that you have shed the blood of your Son to purchase for yourself. And thank you for the blessing that is all of ours to be a part of this community.

Help us to grow together, to grow in love for one another, and as sin arises in our midst, that we would deal with it responsibly, graciously, compassionately. And in a holy manner. Thank you for the opportunity to give of our offerings to you, Lord. Receive these funds and make much of them for the glory of Jesus Christ and the grace that can be found through Him.

At the same time, we give ourselves to you in Jesus' name.