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“The Leaders and Servants of the Church” (1 Timothy 3:1-13)
God has a good design for all of His creation. That’s where we started last week’s sermon, and we want to continue to acknowledge that wonderful reality as we move into today’s sermon.
Last week, we learned that God had roles for men and women in the worship setting.
One of the realities that I kept coming back to last week is that God has placed someone in an authority position over the life of the church and over the worship service of the local gathered church.
Church, God has a design for the church and how it should operate.
Paul is writing to Timothy in these verses to tell him about the qualifications for two positions, or offices, in the church. These two positions are pastors and deacons.
So, let’s talk a little bit about those qualifications this morning.
First, let’s pray together and ask God to supernaturally speak to us.
(prayer)
Ok, let’s look at these two positions in the church, which Paul discusses in
1 Timothy 3:1-13
.
First, let’s look at the position of pastor.
I. Pastors must be godly leaders.
In a nutshell, what Paul is telling us from these first few verses is that pastors must be godly leaders.
How do we know that? Well, let’s look at the passage and go from there. Look at verses 1-7.
1 This saying is trustworthy: “If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work.” 2 An overseer, therefore, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, self-controlled, sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not an excessive drinker, not a bully but gentle, not quarrelsome, not greedy. 4 He must manage his own household competently and have his children under control with all dignity. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of God’s church?) 6 He must not be a new convert, or he might become conceited and incur the same condemnation as the devil. 7 Furthermore, he must have a good reputation among outsiders, so that he does not fall into disgrace and the devil’s trap.
First of all, notice that in the CSB, we have the word “overseer.”
The Greek word that Paul is using here is episkopos, which can be translated as overseer or bishop.
Elsewhere, the New Testament uses the word presbyteros to refer to pastors. Presbyteros translates literally as elder.
It’s clear from their usage in the Bible that these titles for pastors are used interchangeably. The terms elder, shepherd, overseer, bishop, and pastor all refer to what we know of today as the leader of a local church, a pastor.
Notice in the passage that Paul spends most of his time focusing on character traits of a pastor. Let’s walk through these quickly but succinctly.
An overseer is to be “above reproach.”
This means that no one can bring a credible accusation against a pastor.
For example, I hope that if someone claimed that I was a raging alcoholic who doesn’t love his family, most of you would say, “That doesn’t sound right. Pastor Matt seems to be different than that.”
Also, we see that a pastor should be the husband of one wife.
This literally means that a pastor is to be a “one-woman man.”
Although some think that this verse means a pastor cannot be divorced, it more likely means that a pastor must be exclusively devoted to his wife.
Now, there are some other items in this passage (and the rest of the Bible) that have implications for divorce, but if Paul was speaking primarily about divorce in this verse, he probably would have just said, “An overseer should not be divorced.” But Paul didn’t say that. So, even though a divorced man may raise concerns about being a pastor, that’s probably not what Paul means here.
Next, we see Paul say a pastor must be “self-con
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By First Baptist Church Bartow
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God has a good design for all of His creation. That’s where we started last week’s sermon, and we want to continue to acknowledge that wonderful reality as we move into today’s sermon.
Last week, we learned that God had roles for men and women in the worship setting.
One of the realities that I kept coming back to last week is that God has placed someone in an authority position over the life of the church and over the worship service of the local gathered church.
Church, God has a design for the church and how it should operate.
Paul is writing to Timothy in these verses to tell him about the qualifications for two positions, or offices, in the church. These two positions are pastors and deacons.
So, let’s talk a little bit about those qualifications this morning.
First, let’s pray together and ask God to supernaturally speak to us.
(prayer)
Ok, let’s look at these two positions in the church, which Paul discusses in
1 Timothy 3:1-13
.
First, let’s look at the position of pastor.
I. Pastors must be godly leaders.
In a nutshell, what Paul is telling us from these first few verses is that pastors must be godly leaders.
How do we know that? Well, let’s look at the passage and go from there. Look at verses 1-7.
1 This saying is trustworthy: “If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work.” 2 An overseer, therefore, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, self-controlled, sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not an excessive drinker, not a bully but gentle, not quarrelsome, not greedy. 4 He must manage his own household competently and have his children under control with all dignity. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of God’s church?) 6 He must not be a new convert, or he might become conceited and incur the same condemnation as the devil. 7 Furthermore, he must have a good reputation among outsiders, so that he does not fall into disgrace and the devil’s trap.
First of all, notice that in the CSB, we have the word “overseer.”
The Greek word that Paul is using here is episkopos, which can be translated as overseer or bishop.
Elsewhere, the New Testament uses the word presbyteros to refer to pastors. Presbyteros translates literally as elder.
It’s clear from their usage in the Bible that these titles for pastors are used interchangeably. The terms elder, shepherd, overseer, bishop, and pastor all refer to what we know of today as the leader of a local church, a pastor.
Notice in the passage that Paul spends most of his time focusing on character traits of a pastor. Let’s walk through these quickly but succinctly.
An overseer is to be “above reproach.”
This means that no one can bring a credible accusation against a pastor.
For example, I hope that if someone claimed that I was a raging alcoholic who doesn’t love his family, most of you would say, “That doesn’t sound right. Pastor Matt seems to be different than that.”
Also, we see that a pastor should be the husband of one wife.
This literally means that a pastor is to be a “one-woman man.”
Although some think that this verse means a pastor cannot be divorced, it more likely means that a pastor must be exclusively devoted to his wife.
Now, there are some other items in this passage (and the rest of the Bible) that have implications for divorce, but if Paul was speaking primarily about divorce in this verse, he probably would have just said, “An overseer should not be divorced.” But Paul didn’t say that. So, even though a divorced man may raise concerns about being a pastor, that’s probably not what Paul means here.
Next, we see Paul say a pastor must be “self-con