KASUMIGAOKA
2017/09/10
SERMON: “An Elder Holds Fast the Word of God”
「みことばをしっかりと守る長老」
TEXT: Titus 1: 5- 2:1
I. INTRODUCTION
In the apostle Paul’s letter to Titus we are shown three kinds of qualifications for any man to be chosen to the office of elder. We have already looked at the first two qualifications. First he must be blameless in his own home. Second, he must be blameless as a steward in God’s house, the church. Today we will consider the third qualification: he must be blameless in his biblical doctrine. In Titus 1:6, Paul says, an overseer must be a man “who holds fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching.” 1 Timothy 3:2 says that an elder must be “able to teach.”
There are two things that we should realize about the importance of an elder’s teaching. The first is that an elder’s authority to lead the church depends entirely upon his relationship to the Word of God. An elder must believe and hold firmly the true teaching of the Scriptures. The second is that he must be able to apply the doctrine of Scripture to his own life and to the lives of fellow Christians. Let’s look more carefully at both of these aspects of an elder’s “ministry of the word.”
II. The Authority and Teaching of a Faithful Elder
A. The Source of an Elder’s Authority in God’s Word
There has been a lot of misunderstanding about authority in the church down through the years. That is because we are all sinners. Even mature believers sometimes fall into sin when we face temptation. Many of us easily fall into the snare of pride, by imagining our own ideas and opinions are better than the ideas of others. Some who have exercised authority in the secular world mistakenly think that they should also exercise a similar authority in the church. But Jesus warned His apostles not to fall into that error. In Mark 10:42-45, He said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. And whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. The leaders of Christ’s church should not behave like the unbelieving leaders of schools, companies, and government agencies. Christian leaders, including elders, must be different!
I think that some of the misunderstanding about the proper exercise of an elder’s authority comes from a wrong idea about ordination. I have heard many people say that when an elder is ordained to the office of elder he receives authority in Christ’s church. Some people–even some Presbyterians–think that an elder is given authority by the people who elect him, as in a democratic system of government. But I have never seen any evidence of such an idea in the Bible. Ordination does not confer “authority” on an elder. As I understand the Bible, ordination is a ceremony through which a “gift” is given to one who is ordained. In 1 Timothy 4:14-16a, the apostle writes to Timothy, “Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed upon you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress may be evident to all. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching.” But what was that “spiritual gift” bestowed upon Timothy when he was ordained? Maybe it was the gift of the “office” itself. Or, it is possible that it refers to the spiritual gift or gifts necessary to fulfill the duties of the office of elder. In Romans 12:8 Paul mentions several kinds of spiritual “gifts,” including “service,” “teaching,” “exhorting,” and “leading.” All of these are “spiritual gifts” needed by an elder, but “authority” is not mentioned here or anywhere else in the Bible as a “gift.”
Nevertheless, elders who rule well do possess a kind of authority. But their authority does not come through ordination. It comes from the content of their teaching. An elder speaks with great authority whenever he declares or teaches the word of God. An elder’s authority depends on what he says. If he speaks according to the Scriptures—the word of God, he speaks with authority. Otherwise, his words have no more authority than any other church member. So it is necessary that an elder be able to distinguish his own personal opinion about a matter, on one hand, and what he declares with authority as God’s word, on the other. Sometimes an elder must stand and say, “This is what God says to you!” But often, an elder can only say, with humility, “This is what I personally think about this matter.” A wise elder will make that distinction clear, and his fellow believers will come to trust his sound judgment.
In order to rightly understand the use of authority in the church we must understand the source of true authority. We must begin with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus told His disciples, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” All authority belongs to Christ. But He also gave authority to His apostles, so that they could go in His name and make disciples in all the nations. Jesus gave them specific authority to baptize; that is, to administer the sacrament of entrance into God’s covenant family. By giving this authority to the apostles, Christ gave them authority to establish churches in His name all over the world. He also gave them authority to teach the new disciples all that Christ had commanded them. Under the authority of the apostles the Bible was completed and accepted by the church as “the word of Christ.”
But we must remember that the apostles were never given universal authority. Their authority was strictly limited by Christ. They acted with Christ’s authority only when they spoke His word in order to build up the disciples of Christ. The apostles, in turn, passed on the responsibility of leadership to elders whom they had taught the churches to elect. The elders were given the same authority that the apostles had received from Christ. It was the elders who continued to oversee the administration of the sacraments and the preaching and teaching of God’s word in the churches. It is clear from the book of Acts that the apostles and the elders who gathered in Jerusalem held the same authority to oversee the affairs of Christ’s church (Acts 15:2, 4, 6, 15, 22, 23). Their authority was based on teaching what Christ had commanded them. That is why Paul said to the Christians in Corinth, “Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ, and as stewards of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy” (1 Cor. 4:1-2). Both apostles and elders must guard the word of God which had been entrusted to them.
The leaders of Christ’s church must never claim authority beyond what Christ had committed to them. A few verses later in 1 Corinthians 4:6-7, Paul writes, “Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn not to exceed what is written, in order that no one of you might become arrogant in behalf of one against the other. For who regards you as superior? And what do you have that you did not receive?” Paul is not greater than Apollos, nor Apollos than Paul, but each of them must speak only the word they had received—the word of God. And no one should “exceed what is written.” The written word of God, that is, the Bible, was already the one standard of truth and the foundation of authority, even during the days of the apostles. No one—not even Paul—was permitted to go beyond what was written in the Scriptures. The Bible is our only source of authority in the church. It is not the elder, the pastor, the people, or the Pope, but the word of God that is the source of all authority. It is God’s word that must rule our lives. And the elder’s authority comes from speaking that word. That is why Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves” (2 Cor. 4:7). The elder is only a “clay pot”; the “treasure” is the word of God he brings to the church.
B. The Teaching of a Faithful Elder
If we recognize the true source of an elder’s authority, we can understand the importance of the elder’s primary work in the church. It is sometimes called the “ministry of the word.” As the apostle says in v. 9, “He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.” An elder must be ready to encourage and build up the weaker members of the church by explaining the “sound doctrine” of God’s word to them. He must also be prepared to challenge those who oppose sound doctrine.
On the island of Crete, Paul says, were “many rebellious men, empty talkers, and deceivers.” Many of these were Jews who liked to assert their authority and advance their own novel, and even heretical, opinions. Some of them did so for the sake of “sordid gain” (v. 11). Paul tells Titus that only elders who hold firmly to the trustworthy message of God’s word can speak with the authority to refute and correct such “empty talkers and deceivers.” And elders must do this. “Whole families” were being upset by false teachers, and they must be stopped! Teachers of new religions, cults, and various heresies abound today, too, as they once did in Crete. They are deceitful, dishonest, worldly, sensual, and often lazy. They teach falsehoods because it seems like an easy way to become rich! There are some popular pastors and TV evangelists who do this today. How can they be silenced? Only by refuting them with sound doctrine–the truth of God’s word. Paul says in v. 13 that such men must be “reproved severely.” Their errors must be opposed and corrected by teaching the word of God with confident authority. This is the work of elders, Paul says.
When a faithful elder uses God’s word properly to challenge the errors of ignorant or unprincipled men, some of those “straying sheep” may be brought back into the safety of Christ’s flock. But others, even faced with the clear word of God, will refuse to change their views or repent of their sins. Such false teachers will not be persuaded. As Paul says in vv. 15-16, “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient, and worthless for any good deed.” It is a tragedy that there are some men and women of this type who lead churches astray; and those who blindly follow them will suffer for it. On the other hand, Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” When elders devote themselves to leading by that word, they will bring blessing and peace to their churches. Their members will be “equipped for every good work.” That is why the Lord Jesus has given “pastors and teachers” to His church—“to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:11-12). Teaching God’s word is the most important work given to elders. For that reason, Paul says to Titus in 2:1, “But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.”
III. CONCLUSION
When we call an elder, he must be a “man of God” who is “equipped for every good work” by his familiarity with God’s word. He must be a “servant of Christ” who shepherds his flock by following the Lord Jesus Himself. He is a “minister of the word” whose job is to feed our souls, even as deacons provide for the more physical needs of our bodies. The nurture of souls is the elder’s main occupation, and that is why he must be “able to teach.” And he will need the courage, the wisdom, and the grace to speak the word of God clearly to those who need to hear it. He must hold firmly the trustworthy message” of sound doctrine. Above all, God’s elder must be a man of God’s word. To his young friend and new elder, Timothy, Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 4:16, “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things; for as you do this, you will insure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.” That is the kind of man Titus was sent to establish in the churches of Crete. And that is the kind of men we should seek to be elders in our churches in Japan, too.