Month: November 2015

The Indonesian government is about to employ crocodiles as prison guards.  The country has strict laws against drug dealers and is having problems keeping those sentenced to death in prison.  Apparently through bribery and blackmail of prison guards these drug convicts are able to escape.  The problem is at the point where the government is seriously considering building a prison on an island and having crocodiles as guards.  The Anti-Drug Chief Budi Waseso said crocodiles can’t be bribed, and, so he is making his proposal all while searching the country for as many of these crocodiles as he can get.  Personally I think he’s on to something.  A crocodile has 3700 pounds of bite force, compared to a humans 150 pounds, Chief Waseso is hoping to take a bite out of the flow of escapees.

 

How would you like to have a moat around EFC with some crocodiles in it? Well, we may not have a moat, but, the Bible teaches that pastors are to be crocodiles guarding the church.  Like David protected his father’s flocks and herds from lions, bears and wolves, pastors are to guard the flock of Christ.  Now, while the croc’s guarding prisons in Indonesia are to keep people in, pastors are to keep certain people “out”.  And just like the escape of these drug criminals from prisons would endanger society, so too the infiltration of certain people into the Church endanger it.  So, there needs to be vigilant and toothy crocodiles insulating both Indonesian prison, and local churches.

 

#1: The Description of these False Teachers (v10, 12)

Paul describes these false teachers in verse 10, “….” And then notice verse 12.  Notice the contrast in character between the pastors who were appointed, as described in the previous verses, and the character of these false teachers who were to be dealt with.  Pastors have outstanding character and false teachers are reprehensible.

 

He describes them as “many”.  In 2006, a New York Times article was published where former director of National Intelligence John Negroponte said the U.S. had nearly 100,000 people as spies throughout the world “assigned to stealing secrets and analyzing information”.  That’s a lot of people actively infiltrating foreign governments.

 

How many covert operatives do you think Satan has trying to infiltrate the Church? There are lots of them – not a few, but lots of them.  After all, it was Jesus who said in Matthew 7, “wide is the road that leads to destruction and there are many on it.”  First John 4:1 says, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”  When speaking of false teachers in Second Peter 2:1 says, “But there were false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.” There is a reality of an imminent, continuous threat of false teachers attempting to infiltrate and subvert the mission of the Church.  We are told continuously to “Be aware”, “be alert”, “be on guard”, “keep watch,” and so on.  It is a normal part of church life to give attention to those false teachings and teachers.  Paul dealth with Judaizers.  Peter faced off with Charlatons.  Jude warned libertines.  John the Apostle battled the Gnostics.  On and on, down through today it continues.  The fact that there are many false teachers means we will be forced to engage them often.  Contending for the faith, pointing out error, warning against false teachings will all be normal in a good church.

 

Then, secondly, Paul describes these men as “rebellious”.  Rebellious here means unruly, unwilling to come under authority, out of control and ungovernable.  This is the same Greek word used in verse 6 about children.  They are grown men acting like wild children.  It’s the picture of a wild horse that hasn’t been broken.  They are all about breaking down, overthrowing, and undoing everything that God has ordained and established in His word.  They sneer the sneering at authority:  “You aren’t gonna tell me what to do” and “No one is the boss of me”.

 

These rebellious people on Crete refused to recognize the authority God has placed in the Church and instead they run around rebelling against sound teaching, telling everyone a bunch of religious nonsense. People like this get a sense of pride in being un-submissive, feeling like they’re in control, bucking authority, like they’ve got some special knowledge, new or re-discovered.  Titus had the hard task of confronting these men, and asserting the authority Paul gave him over them.  That’s why Paul says in chapter 2 verse 15, “Encourage and rebuke with all authority.  Do not let anyone despise you.”  Do not let anyone despise your authority Titus.

 

Rebellion is driven by pride and a prideful person God opposes. Rebellious people are ungodly people.  Scripture emphasizes the dignified maturity of submission and orderliness in a believer’s life.

 

Thirdly Paul describes them as “mere talkers”.  They’re windbags.  Their speech has absolutely no value or benefit for anyone listening.  All they do is push a lot of air around with their mouths.  Ephesians 4:29 says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”  Clouds without rain, trees bearing no fruit.  They do a lot of talking, but they don’t do any good.  One thing you can be impressed with about false teachers:  they are very active.  They are zealous to promote their false teachings, and this requires the Church be zealous to refute them.

 

Fourthly Paul describes them as “deceivers”.  These men are liars.  Unlike the elders Titus was to appoint, men who were to hold to the truth (v9), these false teachers let it go and gave way to false teachings.  When they are teaching they are not telling you what is true.  Either intentionally – which would be malicious, or unintentionally – which would mean incompetent, they arrogantly talk about things as though they are experts even though they have no idea.  Paul said this in 1 Timothy 1:7, “They want to be teachers of the Law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.”  Their words lead people away from truth, not to it.  Their words confuse and twist the truth, rather than clarify it.  Their teachings are obstructions to the truth.

 

Notice Paul says, “especially of the circumcision group”, which is a reference to Jewish Christians.  Quote Phillips, p249.

 

This specific problem of Judaizers made Titus the right man for the job. As a Gentile Titus was never convinced he needed to be circumcised to be acceptable to God (Gal. 2:2-3).  Jews wanted to weigh believers down with all the commandments of Judaism, Illustration:  Obama’s challenge to read the Obamatrade, 3 ½ feet thick.

 

Christians do not need to follow the Law in any part – the ceremonial or the moral.  We don’t need the Law to be saved, or to be sanctified.  People today tell us we need to follow the Law to grow in Christ, but, Paul rebuked that idea in Galatians 3:1-5. Here is the point:  We don’t start out with faith and end with Law.  When we come to Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit doesn’t then lead us to the Law.  We are not under law, we are in Christ.  The only law we must fulfill is the law to love (Romans 13:8-11).  The only debt remaining for us is to love.  All teachings in the NT expound on how to do that.

 

Paul’s description of these false teachers continues in verse 12, when he quotes Epimenides, who lived around 600 BC and was one of the 7 wise men of Greece.  “….”  Paul rounds that description off with his own affirmation of its accuracy.  The reputation of how bad the Cretans is the stuff of legend.  Leonidus said, “When was there ever an upright Cretan.”  Like there is not one good Cretan, not one to give some redemption to all Cretans.  Polybius, the famous Greek historian declared, “…you will hardly find anywhere characters more tricky and deceitful than those of Crete.”  The lying and cheating of Cretans were so notorious that the Greeks invented a word “kretizine”, which meant to lie and cheat.  Then there was a proverb that developed out of the depraved reputation of the Cretans, “to Cretize against a Cretan”.  What did that mean?  It meant to match lies with a Cretan.  In other words you were trying to out-lie or out-cheat a Cretan.  Good luck!  They’re experts.

 

This is a bad way to be described as a person, especially as a supposed believer.  This is a bad way for a supposed teacher of God’s Word to be described.  James 3:1 says, “Let us not all aspire to become teachers, brothers, for we know that we who teach will be judged more severely.”  Let us not give ourselves to such men so that we may be a good church before God.

What the Pastor Must Be

Nine Ways to Pray for your Pastor

What are you looking for in your pastor? What do you want him to be?  What do you pray that I am?  Here is your guide for how to pray for me as your pastor.  Here is your guide in what to expect of me as your pastor.

The Pastor’s Character

We are going to cover 9 ways to pray for the pastor. We will see these 9 fall into 2 categories.  The first six points have to do with character.  The last 3 have to do with necessary skills the pastor must have.  First of all there are 6 points of character to pray for.

#1: Hospitable

First of all the pastor must be hospitable.  Arnold Glasow said, “Some folks make you feel at home. Others make you wish you were.”

A guest of the Marriott hotel discovered that her sister had just died.  She was upset and share her sadness with a hotel employee.  The employee, named Charles, took a sympathy card to the staff and had them all sign it.  He gave it to her with a piece of hot apple pie.  The guest wrote a letter of thanks to the President of the hotel chain.  She wrote, “Mr. Marriott, I’ll never meet you.  And I don’t need to meet you.  Because I met Charles.  I know what you stand for.  I want to assure you that as long as I live, I will stay at your hotels.”

Pastors need to be hospitable. The Greek word literally means “lover of strangers”.  Romans 12:13 speaks to all believers when it says, “Share with God’s people who are in need, practice hospitality.”  Hebrews 13:1-2 makes a fascinating statement, “Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.”

Being hospitable, a lover of strangers means someone had a fondness, or a soft-spot for hosting and caring for others in their own home. I think the fact that the Greek word means lover of strangers conveys someone who is always ready to open their home to anyone who comes their way.  Hospitality is the opportunity to share your home, your food, your resources with someone else.  In a small way it meant having folks over for dinner and fellowship, but, in that day it was a vital part of the spreading of the Gospel.  With the intense persecution of Christianity many Christians ended up homeless; Hebrews 10:34 says, “You joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.”  It became practical then for believers to shelter each other whenever and wherever possible.  A pastor no doubt needed to be someone who in shepherding other believers would take them under his own roof if they were in need.  While we don’t have those circumstances in West Michigan today, the spirit of hospitality and the attitude needs to be there.  You can tell.

#2: Loves what is good 

Secondly, the pastor must be someone who loves what is good. Verse 8 says, “Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good…”  But the clear implication here is that there is evil and there is good and the man of God must characteristically be attracted to what is intrinsically good.  Why? First of all because the man of God loves what God loves.  God loves what is good and hates what is evil.  SOURCE.  And so, as a man of God becomes more godly his desire for good increases.  But secondly, the man of God hates evil and loves Good because He loves God – and God alone is good.  The more you love God, the more you realize He is good, and the more you love all that is good.

There is good and there is evil. Satan’s goal to get society to call good evil and evil good starts by getting society to call everything neutral.  There aren’t things that are intrinsically good, and, there aren’t things intrinsically evil.

All that is good is a reflection somehow of God’s infinite goodness shining through the created goodness of the creation. A sunset is good because it shows the power, wisdom, beauty, loveliness and goodness of God.  If he does he will think on what is good (Php. 4:9) and will personally be conforming to what is good. Furthermore, his passion for what is good will cause him to passionately hate what is evil, as Romans 12:9 implies, “Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.”  He won’t be the kind of guy who is indifferent towards it, or is unaffected by it.  He is moved with righteous anger in the face of evil to respond to it for the sake of goodness.  But what is good?  Whatever is good is so because it reflects God who is Himself good.  Jesus said that only God is good – no one else.  That means He is all by himself good it is something made by God and accurately reflects Him as the Creator.  PICTURE:  Psalms???

#3: Self-Controlled

The pastor must be hospitable, a lover of all that is good, and thirdly, he must be self-controlled. Notice verse 8 again, “Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled…”  The word self-controlled is sometimes translated as “sensible” or “temperate” or “sober”.  The Greek word is “sophron” and it drives home the picture of a man who is in control of himself – his mouth, his mind, his emotions.

Illustration:  British statesman Edmund Burke argued, “men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains on their own appetites. Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there is without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.”

I like what John MacArthur says here: “The sensible man is in control of his mind.  He has control of the things he thinks about and does.  He does not allow circumstances or the foolishness of others to distract him and gain his attention and interest.  He not only does not become involved in things that are outright immoral and unspiritual but also avoids things that are trivial, foolish, and unproductive.  He knows his priorities and is devoted to them.”  PICTURE:  Jesus Christ kept Himself under control when on trial.

#4: Upright

Fourthly, the pastor must be upright.  This word is often translated as “just”.  The pastor must be just-IN.  J  It is also often translated as “righteous”.  It’s a Greek word meaning that something is proper, fitting, appropriate, or right.  If a pastor is just it means that he is fair.  He gives to others what is due to them.  He doesn’t deprive anyone of what is due to them, and he doesn’t unfairly give to others what they shouldn’t receive from him.  Morally equal.  Pharisees woman in adultery John 8:1-11.

#5: Holy

Closely related is the word “holy”, which the pastor must be.  Sometimes it is translated as devout, or pious.  But what does that mean?  He is set apart to God in in the purpose of his life – he sets himself apart by an act of his will and determination to obey God’s will for his life.

#6: Disciplined

The pastor must be disciplined.  He must be master of himself.  This is closely associated with self-control mentioned earlier, but, it differs in the sense of the way the pastor orders his life.  How does he manage his time?  His priorities?

The Pastor’s Skills (v9)

 

#1: Knows the Word

The pre-eminent skill the pastor must possess is knowledge of the word of God.  He’s a steward of God’s people, and a steward of God’s Word.  These words are not his own, but God’s.  Second Timothy 1:13 says, “What you have heard from me keep as the pattern of sound teaching…”  He is responsible for knowing the word and correctly handling it, 2 Timothy 2:15 says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed but who correctly handles the word of truth.”  A pastor who neglects the word of God in his ministry to others – preaching, teaching, etc. – is as bad as a parent who starves his children.  It is a malicious thing to the people of God to give them something other than the pure milk and meat of God’s word.  He must know the word, and build his ministry on the word of God.

#2 Encourager

Secondly, a pastor has to be able to encourage others using the word of God.  Not humanistic, cliché phrases that often lack the substance of hope.  He must be a Barnabus, warming the cold soul at the hearth of sound doctrine and shining the light of God’s word into people’s darkness.  He must give others who are discouraged eyes to see their circumstances with the glasses of God’s promises.  When you are on the stormy waters walk to you on the waters with the word of God to calm the storm within you. Mourn with you when you mourn.  Rejoice with you when you rejoice (Rom. 12:13-14).  Reset your eyes on Christ above (Col. 3:1-3).  Point you to the joy set before you beyond your trials (Heb. 12:1-3).  Come alongside you.

#3 Refutes false teachings

Titus 1:10-16, 1 Timothy 1:3; 4:1-2; 2 Timothy 4:1-3; Jude 3-4; When the lions, wolves and bears of false teachers start stalking the flock, like David the Shepherd turned king he needs to go out and meet them, fight the good fight against them to protect the flock of the Lord, keeping each lamb safe, and well fed on the pure diet of the word of God.  A grossly negligent shepherd is he who whistles out in the pasture and acts as though wolves are of no concern to him or those entrusted to him.  The unity, strength, growth, and usefulness of the flock are entirely dependent on the purity of the teaching they receive.  Paul said false teachings “spread like gangrene” (2 Tim. 2:17), corrupting those who listen, reversing any growth they’ve had and making them obsolete in the hand of the Lord.  False teachings are the most dangerous threat to the Church of Jesus Christ.  The pastor is the front line against it, wielding the sword of truth.

Conclusion:

Will you pray for me? Will you pray these things for me?  Will you pray that I am:  Hospitable, love what is good, self-controlled, upright, holy, disciplined, am true to God’s Word, and that I skillfully use God’s Word to encourage and refute false teachers?  Will you pray these things for me?

What a pastor is at home is the first area he must be proven.  At home he fulfills two principal roles:  husband and father – and it is in these two roles he must be proven.  His example in marriage must be exemplary – his marriage must be worth imitating.  This week we turn to the pastor as a father.  He must be a faithful father.

The Pastor Must Be A Faithful Father (v6b)

Paul says, “An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.”

Just like a pastor doesn’t have to be married, neither does he have to have children if he is married.  There may be physical reasons they cannot have kids, they may be young and have not started to have children and so forth.  But, I would argue that with children he has an advantage because parenthood, like marriage, is crucial to a man’s character development.  Leading a family at home requires skills that are also necessary to lead the family at church.

So, what does all this mean?  It means that if he is a father, a pastor must be a faithful father.  His children must be taken into account when considering his qualification for the pastorate.  This qualification is important enough to be listed over in 1 Timothy 3, another passage describing the qualifications to be the pastor.  Paul says in verse 5, “He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?”  The point is again made that leadership at home either qualifies or disqualifies him for leadership in the church.  What kind of father is he?  What he is will play out in the way his children are turning out.

Does this refer to young children in the home or teenagers and adult children out of the house?

Well, when we look to the pastor’s children, what ought we to look for? According to verse 6 Paul requires two things of the pastor’s children.  First, they must believe.  Second, they must behave.

First they must believe. He must be a man “whose children believe”. If a man cannot lead his own children to faith how can he lead others?  Leading lost people to Christ and explaining the way of salvation is a core task of the pastor.  If it’s not successfully being done at home can it successfully be done elsewhere?  His concern for the lost starts in his own home.  His first mission field, as every man’s, is those under his roof.  This infers something very important:  He is concerned for people coming to Christ for salvation.  Has a man been concerned for his children’s salvation?  Has he taught them about salvation in Jesus Christ?  Has he lovingly, respectfully, and intentionally sought to bring them to the cross of the Savior?

This raises an obvious question for us: How can a man be held responsible for his children coming to faith in Christ? If it is each person’s individual choice and it can’t be forced or coerced, then how can he be held responsible for someone else not coming to Christ – even his own children?

Warning:  We need to avoid the extreme ends of the spectrum here.  On the one hand, our children coming to faith in Christ is not the guaranteed result of a formula.  In other words, if we plug in church, Awana, Sunday School, Christian School and “Christian parents”, it does not automatically result in a child becoming a believer.  Every person has free will and is to choose for themselves what they will believe.  Including the children of good Christian parents.

On the other end of the spectrum however, we must not lose sight of the powerful influence parents have on their children and the way they end up seeing God, the world and life decisions. How well do parents explain to their children the way of salvation in the home?  How do parents live out their faith at home?  Are they sincere, humble and concerned for what pleases God?  Or are they hypocrites – expecting of the children what they don’t expect of themselves and pretending to be one thing at church while in reality what they are at home is vastly different?

So we have here a balance between the free will of children to accept or reject the Gospel, and, the tremendous persuasion parents have on the way their children will exercise their free will.

Second, they must behave. They cannot be accused of being wild and disobedient.  If he cannot lead his children to proper obedience, how can he lead adults to proper obedience?  He must have successfully taught them to honor their parents (Eph. 6:1-3) and learn the godly virtue of submitting to authority.  Behind a child’s willing obedience is a father who holds that child’s love, respect and honor.  He has not and does not exasperate them or make them bitter towards him (Eph. 6:1-3; Col. 3:18?)

Being the pastor of a church is a role that has powerful influence on how other people live. The expectation is that a pastor’s teaching and lifestyle are leading people to faith in Christ and a faithful Christian life.  That’s the point:  if you’re going to step up to a position of influence in the church then you need to demonstrate how you have been an influence at home.  It is absurd to demand a man can force his children to believe.  But it is equally absurd to say those under his roof have not been under the profound influence of his teaching and example.

What if the children are too young to believe when he candidates? What if his children are all moved out?  What if he doesn’t have kids?  Can a pastor lose his job if his children reject the faith and live wildly over the course of his career at the church?

Warning: We must be careful to avoid forcing his children to live in a glass bowl always being judged by the church.  Wisely and graciously we must balance the requirement his children believe and obey on the one hand while having a gracious allowance for growth and mistakes on the other.  Too many “PK’s” have marred their father’s role as pastor in part due to the unrealistic expectations put on them from their dad and from the church.  There is this bizarre contradiction people seem to hold in their minds where the pastor’s kid is expected to be the perfect Christian child and yet the rebellious child as well.

What the pastor must be is what everyone else should be, or should becoming. It is one thing to recognize our weaknesses in these areas and to press on in growing where we are weak.  But it is another thing altogether to excuse myself from growing in these character traits because I’m not the pastor so I don’t need to be.  The pastor must be all of this in his character precisely because that is what God expects the people he leads to be in their character as well.  He is a visible, in the flesh, example of what everyone else should be like, or becoming like.

What the Pastor Must Not Be (v7)

Our next section contains the traits most undesirable of those becoming pastors.  Paul begins this list of 5 negative traits by stating a second time that the pastor must be blameless.  Iin verse 6 Paul says he must be blameless, particularly in his home life.  In verse 7 Paul reiterates that he must be blameless, and moves to describe specific areas of his individual character.  What you will notice is that these 5 areas demand in different ways the pastor be self-controlled.  He must keep himself under control regarding his will, his use of authority, his passions, and his wealth.   Then he will be blameless – if these five things don’t characterize him.

First, he must not be overbearing.  Someone who is overbearing is someone who is self-willed; someone who is going to have it their way one way or another.  He lords it over people, seeing them more as his servants than redeemed brothers and sisters who are members of Christ’s Body and gifted by the Holy Spirit.  The overbearing pastor disguises his arrogant self-interest in Christianese, making it sound like it’s God’s will when at the heart the man is concerned only about his own will for the church.  A pastor must not be overbearing.  He must see himself as a servant:  first to Christ.  Then the outworking of his service to Christ is service to the Body of Christ.  Matthew 20:20-25

Secondly, the pastor must not be quick tempered.  Not being quick tempered means he can’t have a short fuse.  He has to keep his angry emotions under control and not be the guy that loses his cool as a first reaction to everything.  James 1:20 says, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and even slower to become angry…” God takes seriously a man’s ability to be self-controlled.  Moses served God for 40 years leading the whole nation of Israel to the Promised Land.  Because of one instance where Moses lost his temper God forbid him from entering the Promised Land.  James 1:20 goes on to say, “For the anger of man does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”  Now, people learn from the pastor.  People should be able to look to the pastor as someone to imitate.  What happens when the pastor is the guy you should avoid because of his quick temper?  Proverbs 22:24 says, “Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered.”  If you shouldn’t make friends with one you certainly shouldn’t make one your pastor!  (See also 14:29; 15:18; 16:32; 17:27).

Thirdly, the pastor must not be a drunk.  Notice the way Paul says it:  “not given to drunkenness.”  The language of “not given” impresses the idea of devotion.  He can’t devote himself to drunkenness.  He can’t hand himself over to drunkenness.  Now while the strict reading here cannot be understood to forbid ever having an alcoholic, I believe it is wise for those in leadership to adopt such a practice.  It is my practice and the practice here at EFC of church leadership.

Fourthly, the pastor must not be violent.  He cannot be a man who is quick to fight.  This means physically as well as verbally.  As awful as it sounds I have heard more than one story of church meetings ending with fist fights.  All I can say is “despicable.”  But a man can be verbally “violent” if not physically.  He can abuse people with his words, striking them with his violent mouth; hurting and injuring people by his way of speaking.  Describing people with violent mouths the Psalms uses graphic language like that in Psalm 64:3, “They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their words like deadly arrows.”  Their mouths, like weapons of war, are used to verbally stab, slash, and shoot down others.

Violence is the way controlling people react when they sense they are losing control of what they selfishly want. That’s the problem:  what they selfishly want.   Their agenda, their ideas, their plans, their wants.  Not Christ’s.  A pastor must never see himself as the one who “controls” the Body of Christ.  Teach, preach, encourage, rebuke, correct, train?  Yes.  Control through intimidation, abuse, manipulation, flattery?  Never.  I’ll suggest this:  man who is obsessed with controlling others is only doing so because he is not controlling himself.  He is not displaying the fruit of the Holy Spirit:  self-control (Gal. 5:23).  Second Timothy 2:24 describes the proper attitude of a pastor, “And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.  Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth”.

Fifthly, he must make an honest living. Paul says, “not pursuing dishonest gain.”  What Paul brings together here is both a man’s money and a man’s integrity.  He can’t cheat, steal, or compromise his character to get ahead financially.  His gains must be displays of his integrity and not strikes against it.  In his heart he can’t be greedy, exploitive, or be angling his ministry around how he can achieve affluence.  He has to set his heart on riches above to come, not riches here and now.  His desire must be for the wealth of heaven he is promised, not the wealth of this passing world.  He can’t think ministry is a place to make money.  It’s not a place that a man should become impoverished, as his spiritual work is compensated materially.  Nor, however is his service to God a means for becoming rich.

I read of a student who made a mistake of identification. He was in the college chapel and, looking at the order of service, groaned aloud. The middle-aged lady next to him asked what was the matter. The student replied, “It’s the preacher. He’s my director of studies. I have to go to his lectures and he’s the dullest man alive, utterly boring.” “Oh,” said the woman, “Do you know who I am?” The student looked at her and said he didn’t. “Well,” said the woman, “I’m the preacher’s wife!” The student said faintly, “And do you know who I am?” “No,” said the professor’s wife. “Hallelujah,” said the student!

A good church has: 1) A reverent opinion of Scripture, 2) an awe of who God is, 3) the right leadership. And so we begin part 2 of our mini-series on Pastoral Leadership in a good church.  A good church must know what God’s criteria are for leaders and maintain that criteria for its leadership. There are four areas these qualities of leadership fall under:  1) The Pastor at Home, 2) What the Pastor must not be, 3) What the Pastor Must Be, and 4) The Skillset of the Pastor.

The first place Paul says a pastor must be evaluated is in his home.  A man’s home life is of first importance when assessing his qualification to lead the church.  Not his business success.  Not his wealth.  Not his popularity.  Not his looks.  Rather, What is he at home?  What is he as a husband?  What is he as a father?  If you can’t put your confidence in him as a husband and a father, then beloved do not put your confidence in him as a pastor.

#1: He Must Be Modeling a Faithful Marriage

The Pastor must be modeling a faithful marriage.  Notice verse 6 when it says, “An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife…” The husband of but one wife.  The Greek literally says, “one woman man”.  This phrase – this qualification – is the first thing Paul says in 1 Timothy 3 as well.  Both Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3 are passages where qualifications for church leaders are laid out.  Both lists start the same way:  he must first be blameless and second, he must be the husband of one wife.  Why is this observation important? The pastor must be blameless in his marriage.  “Is his marriage an exemplary marriage?”  When we look at him as a husband is there anything that stands out that is a problem?  Or do other men do well to emulate him as a husband?

If we can look back and see the degradation of marriage in Paul’s day we will begin to see why he put this at the top of the list.  Barclay (pg 85-88)

With this picture of marital disaster we can see where Paul was coming from.  Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, instructs us that the marriages of Christians were expected to stand in sharp contrast to those of the pagans all around at the time.  And the pastors marriage was to be one of the foremost examples to a godless world of what a godly marriage is.  The marriage between Christians should be like an flourishing exotic island surrounded by the tumultuous sea of pagan relationships.  So what did Paul mean by “one woman man”?  Some commentators want to narrowly define this phrase, but, I think it is has a broad meaning including the following:

#1: This is obviously a prohibition of polygamy.  He cannot be married to more than one woman at a time.

#2: This is a clear expectation of exemplary marital conduct.  It has been said that wherever Christianity is purity is restored.  How do we know this is what Paul meant as well?  First we understand the breakdown of marriage in society during Paul’s day and see that Christians marriages should be beacons of light in the darkness around.  But, secondly, the pastor’s marriage is the very first issue Paul goes to after saying he must be blameless.  The pastors marriage must be blameless.  Pastors must be husbands that love their wives as Christ loves the Church (Eph. 5:25), who are not harsh with them (Col. 3:19), who treat them with respect and know they are co-heirs of the gracious gift of life (1 Peter 3:7).  What the pastor is in his marriage should be worth imitating by other men.

#3: That a man be married is preferable, but not required.  Paul was not married.  However, I would caution a church from seriously considering a man who is not married.  He would have to display character and skills in an even more exemplary way.  If a man does not have his own Bride, how can he properly understand Christ’s Bride, the Church?  He should be experiencing marriage to minister to the One Christ is married to.

The Church is a family first, and the a man’s family at home is his training ground and proving ground for leading the larger church family. Marriage matures a man, gives him the platform to experience leading others in his own household, forces him to face his character deficits and grow to make the relationship flourish.  He learns to handle relationship difficulties personally, applying God’s Word in his own intimate relationship with his wife and children.  He learns to put someone else first every day, to forgive, to ask forgiveness, to live by grace, to live in someone else’s grace, to communicate and to make mature priorities, responsibly providing for the physical, emotional and spiritual well-being of his wife.  He learns what commitment is in practice.  So much of what is learned in the daily experience of marriage is necessary in the daily experience of church leadership.

One consideration much more pertinent to us today is “can a man be a pastor if he is remarried?”  Paul says, “a one woman man”.  Does that rule out a man on his second wife?  Or third?  It depends on if the remarriage was Biblically sanctioned or not.  A widower who has remarried may become a pastor.  The Bible states clearly in Romans 7:2,3 and 1 Corinthians 7:39 that someone is free to marry if their spouse has died.  Therefore a remarried widower is not disqualified from being a pastor.

The next obvious question is, “If the pastor is to be a one woman man, can a man who is divorced and remarried become a pastor?”  Good question.  We live in a day where the divorce rate is very high, even among Christians.  So this becomes a very relevant question to us today.  Some men teach that divorce is not the point of this passage but the purity and faithfulness of the man in his marriage is the point.  I would argue that the phrase is broad enough that it speaks to this issue, and, besides, if it were about marital faithfulness then Paul could have said those very words.  On the other hand, some believe that a divorced man may not become a pastor no matter what the reasons were for the divorce.

Still others, including myself, believe it teaches that a divorced and remarried man may become a pastor so long as his divorce and remarriage were sanctioned by Scripture. To answer the question if a remarried man is Biblically qualified to be a pastor or not we have to answer if he was Biblically qualified to get remarried.  There are 2 conditions Scripture allows for divorce, and therefore a remarriage:  1) when a spouse engages in unrepentant marital unfaithfulness (Matthew 5), and 2) when an unbelieving spouse refuses to live with the other person and abandons you (1 Corinthians 7).  My basic point is that if the Bible did not prohibit his remarriage then it does not prohibit his becoming a pastor.

Other important qualifications for the pastor need to be recognized here as well. His wife must be a believer.  First Corinthians 9:5 Paul says, “Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?”  We can see that a man in church leadership can only marry a Christian woman.  God strictly forbid Aaron and the Levites from marrying foreign women in the OT.  They were restricted to marrying women who met certain criteria (virgins, couldn’t be divorced, must be Israelite women).  In the same way pastors are forbidden by God from marrying spiritually foreign women.  They must marry women who are in the faith.  Again, he is an example to the rest of the Christians because all believers are commanded “not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers” (2 Cor. 6:14).  Christians are forbidden from marrying non-Christians, how much more are pastors?

Another qualification that we observe today is that the pastor must be a man.  And a naturally born man.  A woman cannot have a sex-change and then qualify to be a pastor.  She is still a she just like God made her to be.

But the bigger point here is that church leadership is for men. I cannot suffer a man who would sit under a woman’s authority.  Women can lead and have authority and teach but it must not be over men.  Other women and children, yes, but men, no.  Let us explore this briefly, understanding then that a good church will not put women in pastoral positions.  Here are 7 reasons pastors are supposed to be men.

#1: It is clearly stated.  Look at Titus 1:6 again, “the husband of one wife”.  The whole passage speaks of men, “he must be blameless” (v7); “he must be hospitable” (v8).  “He must hold firmly…” (v9).  The same male-specific language is used in 1 Timothy 3.  Pastors are clearly to be men.

#2: Women are clearly prohibited from having authority over men (1 Tim. 2).  And since pastors have authority (Heb. 13:17) women cannot become pastors as it will put them into a position where they have authority over men.  The question may be asked: What if a woman isn’t a pastor can she teach a Bible class with men in it?  Biblically the answer is “No” because according to 1 Timothy 2:11-13 the act of teaching is an expression of authority.  So women are not to have authority over men either by office or by teaching.

#3: Since the man is the authority in the home, men are also authority in the Church.  It makes no sense at all that a man would be the authority of his wife at home but at church she would be his authority.  The Church is the “household of God” (1 Timothy 3:15), and in His household men lead.

#4: Apparent exceptions do not become the rule (Deborah, Priscilla).  For whatever reason in Biblical history there were some apparent exceptions.  Rather than tackling these exceptions I’ll say this which I believe is more practically important:  you do not make exceptions the norm.  You don’t build ministries on the rare exceptions to the rule.  You build your ministries on the clear teachings of Scripture and don’t let those be upended by apparent exceptions.

#5: Male leadership based on Creation (1 Timothy 2:13).  Man was created before woman.  There is authority in that fact.  Furthermore, woman was created from man, which establishes male authority even further.  Go back and read Genesis 2 and you’ll see that God’s command was given to Adam (v16) before Eve was created (v22).  Eve heard it from Adam.  In other words, the man taught the woman God’s word, not the other way around.

#6: Women’s restriction from teaching men is rooted in Eve’s deception (1 Timothy 2:14).  When Satan wanted to deceive he went to Eve.  Adam’s fault was failing to take the authority he had been given and respond to Satan with God’s Word.  Instead he sat back and let his wife be deceived.  Vulnerability to deception is inherent in women more than it is in men.  Yes, men can be deceived – it happens all the time.  But women are more susceptible to spiritual deception than men.  And when 2 Timothy 4:3 says that there will come a time when they will not put up with sound doctrine but to tickle their ears they will surround themselves with teachers who tell them what their itching ears want to hear I am telling you many of those tickling teachers are women.  Take note, every denomination that is ordaining homosexuals started with ordaining women.  It is the mark of abandoning the authority of Scripture and becoming liberal.

#7: A woman’s ability to teach is not the basis for her authority to teach men.  There are plenty of women who are good teachers.  But they can’t teach men.  It doesn’t mean being a man means you’re automatically a good teacher and being a women means you’re automatically an inferior teacher.  Gender has nothing to do with ability.  Authority is given to one gender.  God’s sovereign determination that men lead the Church is the basis for the prohibition against women teaching men.

I know a woman – not in this church – who is very intelligent and strongly believes she should be able to teach men. She believes she has the ability to teach and should therefore teach classes with men in them.  The fact that she can’t see the Bible doesn’t allow her to teach men demonstrates her inability to correctly study and interpret the Scriptures, which actually casts serious doubt on her ability.  If a church has no one but as woman who is competent to teach the word of God then the  best thing that woman can do is refrain from teaching men.  All the lessons she may teach men will never be as valuable to those men as the lesson that men are not to be under the authority of women.  A woman’s ability to teach is not the basis for her authority to teach men.  God has given authority to men in the home and in the Church.

Conclusion

None of this is chauvinistic or sexist.  None of this devalues women.  Women are equal with men as image-bearers of God (Gen. 1:27) and co-heirs of the gift of life with men (1 Pet. 3:8).  The value women bring to the life and ministry of the home and church cannot be measured.  However, to deny the clearly ordained order of the sexes in the home and in the Church  is to rebel against God and what He has determined.  And a good church will make sure to put a man who is a godly husband at the helm.