Biblical Elders (1)
The Church of the New Testament
was an extraordinary work of the Holy Spirit.
But then everything the Spirit does is extra ordinary. It grew and
spread at an exponential rate. There was a hunger to know and understand not
only the teachings of Jesus, but what His death and resurrection meant. Love
became the defining characteristic of the groups of believers in Jesus, and
that love won more and more people to the Way. (John 13:35,
Acts 9:2)
At first the believers worshiped in the synagogues, but as they shared about
Jesus as fulfillment of the prophecies of Messiah, Jesus words came to pass. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in
fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a
service to God. John 16:2 (NIV)
Groups of believers that met in homes sprang up in city
after city. When a home became too small for the number of believers, a new
house would be made available and there would be two house churches. (Romans 16:5)
As the believers were increasingly non-Jewish and spread into the Roman Empire,
new difficulties arose. Everything from home life to trade guilds to civic life
was centered around one of a number of gods to whom you offered a pinch of
incense before meetings began. Christians could no longer feign worship to
these false gods (1John 5:21]),
so they were rejected by their families, work guilds, and eventually even by
the government. No wonder they became known as the church (ekklesia), which
means “the called out ones”. It cost a great deal to become a Christian, yet
Christianity thrived and spread. (Acts
2:47)
How did those home gatherings function? Did they organize in
some way or was it a free for all? If we find the New Testament church,
established by the work of the Holy Spirit, was structured in a certain way, do
we have the option of changing it? If we
do, then to what degree? Though the
church is made up of believers in Jesus Christ, and though believers organize
themselves in different ways, what is God’s way?
Certainly we should not change fundamental beliefs in the
person and work of Christ. We have creeds that sum up the basics of our faith.
In these creeds, government is not mentioned. We must understand then that we
are studying something that is not central to our faith and which should not be
a divisive issue. Yet, if the Holy Spirit led the Apostles to establish a form
of government, can we assume that there is a reason for that form? Should we
endeavor to stay with that pattern that the Spirit revealed to the Apostles as
much as is possible in our culture and situation? If it is irrelevant, then we
should change the topic for next week and continue with a short history lesson.
If it is significant and was revealed to help us avoid error, and that is the
case with all of Scripture (2Timothy
3:16),
then we should carefully search the Scriptures to see what we can learn about
it.
Before we look at the Scriptures dealing with church
government, we should understand a point that is in our creeds, the
priesthood of the believer. This was one of the greatest discoveries of the
Reformation. (1Peter 2:5,9)
This concept is important to understand when considering church government. We
should not be seeking to place priests in office, for a priest is a mediator
between God and man, and all believers now have the privilege to go directly to
God. The veil was torn (Mark 15:38)
and we can enter into God’s presence because of Jesus’ righteousness that is
credited to us. (Hebrews 4:16)
During the Old Testament era we had priests that represented
us to God, and prophets who were the voice of God. God had promised through the
prophets that the day would come when He would personally live with us.
Christ’s atonement made that possible and the promised Holy Spirit was sent.
Now we read the Word and pray and the Spirit speaks to our hearts and teaches
us directly. Our High Priest is Jesus. (Hebrews
4:14)
He is the only mediator between God and us. (1Timothy 2:5)
We each can stand before God because of what Christ has done for us. We need no man to represent us except the One
who bears the marks that paid for our sins. You can hear from God just as well
as any pastor.
The other important factor to keep in mind is that God’s
ways are different from man’s ways. (Isaiah
55:8)
If man were to organize a church, you would have a CEO, a board that gave
special attention to the main investors or acted on their vote, and hired
employees whose main job was to increase the productivity or membership of the
organization. Oops! I think I accidentally described 90% of church governments.
In case you need your memory refreshed on God’s ways being
different from man’s, consider the following. Man would never have put the
no-no tree in the Garden of Eden (Genesis
2:17]),
or built a boat to hold all the animals when they’d never seen rain (Genesis 6:13-14),
or left Ur to go to an as yet undisclosed location (Genesis 12:1,
left the security of Egypt to follow a cloud in the desert with a million
people (Exodus 13:21),
entered the Promised Land (we almost got our own way with that one (Numbers 13:33),
taken on army 450 times larger (Judges
8:11),
or believe in a crucified Messiah (1Corinthians
1:23),
or spread the story of Him at the constant risk of your own life, or love
others and deny yourself (Matthew
16:24).]It
just isn’t human nature. So though we are priests, now that the Spirit has
come, mankind also has a difficult time doing things God’s way. We see a great
potential for good, and for evil. I won’t go into the many examples of man
making the wrong choices, even “Christian” men. You are surely familiar with
numerous examples in the Bible and in history.
The best thing we can possibly do is let God lead. His Word
says we can be co-laborers with Him. (1Corinthians
3:9)
He picks the job and the method, and we join Him in what He is doing. Scripture gives us the guidelines to
recognize if we are going the right way. This is what we already know to be the
will of God. So what has He revealed in His word as to the nature of church
structure? We don’t find any detailed instructions, but there are many clues.
Lets examine them one at a time and see if we can draw out information that we
could apply.
John Legg, in his paper on Eldership: The Biblical Doctrine,
written in 1969, states that "…there is to be found in the Bible a
divinely ordained system of church government. I do not claim that every detail
is to be found laid down, even to Sunday services at 10 a.m. and 6.30 p.m., but
I do claim that what we find is a pattern and a sufficient one. We must assert
that what we find in the pages of Scripture is for our use and that having
discovered, as best we can, the Apostolic practice, it is our duty to follow
it."
The church was founded by the Apostles. (2Peter 3:2)
The word “apostle” can mean an official representative, but in regards to the
twelve disciples of Jesus, it came to mean those who conveyed His life’s
message and were witnesses to the resurrection. (Acts 1:21-22)
Some churches today use the title for their uppermost hierarchy, but certainly
we can say that those with the title today are not the ones who conveyed to us
the eyewitness account that became known as the Apostles’ teaching. (Acts 2:42)
There is no record of how to appoint an Apostle. It is my opinion that the
office ceased with the death of John the Beloved. He was the last eyewitness to
convey the teachings of Jesus and witness of His resurrection from the dead.
What we do find are instructions to appoint elders (plural)
in every town (singular). Titus 1:5 (ESV) 5 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you
might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I
directed you— When the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy and Titus, he gave a
list of qualifications of elders that they were to appoint. We should also note
that the congregation did not vote on who would be their elder. Why would that
not be the case?
Though each believer in the congregation should be a vessel
of the Holy Spirit and in tune with the Holy Spirit, these were new churches
with many new believers. Spiritual immaturity means that a vote would tend
toward who was popular or who you personally liked rather than who fit the
qualifications. The solution was to have the Apostle’s representative discern
who was qualified and appoint them. They had spent time in these places and
knew the men there. (1Timothy 3:10
5:22)
They did not choose them the first time through but on the return trip. Maybe
they wanted to see how they did in their absence before appointing them. Then
with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they put their
trust. When was the last time you saw men pray and fast over the appointment of
men to a church office? Do we take it
that seriously?
Since we no longer have Apostles or their representatives,
who would be least likely to lean on man’s ways and most likely to look to the
Lord in prayer and fasting? Who are the spiritually mature in your
congregation? It should be your elders. They should watch individual member’s
maturity level and the knowledge of the Word and love expressed, the testimony
of each life and consider who might be added to the elders. Elders act as
elders before they are given the title. Their primary focus should be the Word
of God and prayer. (Acts 6:4)
The terms bishop or overseer (episkopous) and elder (presbuterous)
and pastor or shepherd (poimen) are used interchangeably in Acts 20:17,28,
Titus 1:5,7],
and 1Peter 5:1-2.
They are simply different titles for the same office. The term elders is always
plural and the implications are that they hold an equal standing. We never find
a letter from Paul to the Senior Pastor of any city. We never find a letter to a staff. Paul never asked to meet with any one head of
any individual church but instead met with the elders of the church. (Acts 20:17)
Though there is evidence of someone leading the elders in the position of what
became known as the “first among equals”, the one who may have done the
majority of the preaching when they assembled, the elders were equal and
accountable to one another. They recognized that the head of the Church is
Jesus Christ and not an individual. (Ephesians
5:23)
The qualifications for an elder are laid out in Titus (our
text for today) and 1Timothy 3:1-7. They are almost identical. I’ll combine
them so as to give the fullest description. They are to be blameless, in other
words not having any valid accusations against their character in the community
or the church. They are to be husbands of one wife, which has also been
translated as a one woman kind of man, disciplined, self-controlled,
respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, gentle, not
quick tempered, not greedy for money, to manage their family well, with obedient
children, not a recent convert, with a good reputation in the world, not
overbearing, loving what is good, holding firmly to the message, and holy.
Well, with that description, we can say that there is no one
qualified in our congregation including myself. When I first talked to some of
our elders about becoming an elder, and read over these qualifications, every
one of them said they did not qualify. I like that, because it’s honest. If
someone thought they fit the bill, I’d be concerned that they lack humility and
therefore should not be an elder. This description is the goal, a goal we
should all strive toward. Elders will be men that come as close as possible to
that goal.
Here is how John’s disciple Polycarp described the office: 6
And let the presbyters (elders) be compassionate and merciful to all, bringing
back those that wander, visiting all the sick, and not neglecting the widow,
the orphan, or the poor, but always providing for that which is becoming in the
sight of God and man; abstaining from all wrath, respect of persons, and unjust
judgment; keeping far off from all covetousness, not quickly crediting an evil
report against anyone, not severe in judgment, as knowing that we are all under
a debt of sin.”
The early church father Clement described the office like
this: Clement wrote: 44 Our apostles also knew, through our Lord
Jesus Christ, that there would be strife on account of the office of the
episcopate (office of elder). For this
reason, therefore, inasmuch as they had obtained a perfect fore-knowledge of
this, they appointed those (ministers) already mentioned, and afterwards gave
instructions, that when they should fall asleep, other approved men should
succeed them in their ministry. We are
of opinion, therefore, that those appointed by them, or afterwards by other
eminent men, with the consent of the whole Church, and who have blamelessly
served the flock of Christ in a humble, peaceable, and disinterested spirit,
and have for a long time possessed the good opinion of all, cannot be justly
dismissed from the ministry. For our sin will not be small, if we eject from
the episcopate those who have blamelessly and holily fulfilled its duties.
Though this is not Scripture, it is Scriptural and gives us
a very early indication of how the church was led. The elders nominated new
elders to take the place of those who went to be with the Lord and the church
would consent or not to their appointment.
. Though some churches have other governmental systems, our
desire is to be as close to that of the New Testament church as possible as it
is the design of the Holy Spirit. The further we get from the original, the
more of man’s input and design enter in.
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