Church 101: Slaves and masters / Workers and Employees.

Most of us have been exposed to bad workers. I could list off a number of bad work habits I've had to deal with.

First of all there is “always late Leroy” you can almost set your watch to five minutes after by the way he peals into the parking lot and runs to the time clock to punch in, only to stand around for a few minutes tucking in his shirt and putting his stuff in order so he can report to his workstation fifteen minutes after he should have. Then of course there is “Geraldine the gossip queen” you can always count on Geraldine to be neck deep in a conversation about all of the latest dirt while simultaneously managing to ignore her responsibilities. You get the feeling that if she put ½ the effort into her job as she did her jaws that she would outperform everyone else on the job. Don't forget “Long lunch Leonard”, “Early to Exit Edgar” and the closely related “Sometimes Sick Sylvia”. They've always got an excuse not to finish their task, or call off, quit early or just plain not come in. The list could go on but you get the point.

Now take any of those people – call them a Christian and call their boss an unbeliever. What happens then? A recipe for disaster, because there is more at stake than a bad performance review or a pink slip. That boss is going to look at the behavior of his “Christian” employee and have opportunity to curse God and to malign the gospel. And worse than that – a man may be kept out of the Lord's kingdom because someone calling themselves a Christian is lazy, mouthy and inconsiderate.

The New Testament reflects an elder based church government. Three interchangeable terms are used to describe the position of elder-leadership in the church. “Elder” (Presubteros πρεσβυτερος) describes spiritual maturity, “Pastor” (Poimen ποιμην) describes shepherding, feeding, guardianship and protection, while “Overseer” (Episkopos επισκοπος) describes authority, oversight and leadership. The general title of the leadership appears to be the elder and the general picture of leadership in the church is that of a plurality of elders who are responsible to guide and care for the church.

On the flip side, the church also has responsibilities to her elders. The church must properly provide for, protect the reputation and holiness of elders and select her elders properly.

How Should The Church Choose Her Elders?

Instantly we have to ask the question, “How should the church choose her Elders?” The answer to that question is the purpose of our text today. Please turn to 1 Timothy 5:22-25. While you're turning there I'll remind you of some of the background.

Early on in the church the Apostles (Acts 14:23) then the apostolic delegates (Titus 1:5) and finally the elders in the churches (1 Tim 4:14) were responsible for the actual ordination of elders in the church. The selection of Deacons, we can see in Acts 6 was done by the entire body of believers and their acceptance and subsequent ordination was performed by the Apostles.

When it comes to the care and feeding of that elusive creature: The Elder – the church has some specific responsibilities. The first is to provide which we covered last week. The second is to protect.

In 1 Timothy 5:19-21 we have a few simple guidelines for protecting the reputation and holiness of an elder. Church discipline is never a fun topic – but it is a necessary one.

The principles of Church discipline are laid out in Matthew 18:15-20. Let's read that text again for a refresher. <read it> The quick principles then are:

1. Go talk to a sinning believer in private to urge them to repent.

2. If he refuses to listen, take one or two witnesses with you for another private meeting.

3. If he refuses to heed all three of you, inform the entire church.

4. If he refuses to heed the church – have nothing to do with him until he repents.

I feel the need for a brief rabbit trail here to motion to Matthew 18:19-20 there and ask you to pay attention to this church discipline context. This is not a gang up on God and you'll get what you want prayer formula. This is a confirmation that in the midst of the distress of church discipline the Lord is there to confirm his word of holiness.

The question of our text in Timothy is whether or not the procedures are somehow different for an elder. The answer to that is “NO”. The principles of Matthew 18 are brought to bear on the pastor/elder as well as any Christian. The focus on this passage however looks at the first aspect with a desire to protect an elder's public integrity.

Very early on the in the newborn church the Apostles provided the initial teaching (Acts 2:42ff), but later , other teachers who understood the gospel began to travel from town to town teaching as best they could. For instance consider Apollos in Acts 18:24-28. He came first to Ephesus and then went on to Corinth to teach.
As the church continued to expand, they appointed elders to guide them. The elders were responsible to leading and teaching the church. The church in turn had a responsibility to the Elders. This passage provides some guidelines for the Church in taking care of her Elders. The first aspect of this is in the area of finances.
Now I have to be direct here: this is a very uncomfortable passage for me to teach because it can be misconstrued to be self serving. To a certain extent I suppose it can be. But quite frankly if it wasn't “the next verse” I just wouldn't teach it because it really does make me uncomfortable. But you know when I was called to the ministry I made an intentional decision to teach exactly what the word of God said no matter what. And many times I've preached passages that were difficult in other ways and I've done it without regret. For the same reason – and because this is the word of God I'm going to bring this message today without regret.
Please open your Bible to 1 Timothy 5:17-25 and read it with me.

Provide Their Living VV17-18

The honor here is not only respect but, as with the widows in v3 means financial compensation. The principle at work in this text is simply that: Provide for the financial living of your elders.

Pay the Elders What they're worth.

Over the last few weeks we've looked at the church's responsibility to Widows, this week I want to turn the corner and look at the widow's responsibility to the church reflected in the same passage. Please open your Bibles to 1 Timothy 5:3-16 where we will see that there is a dual classification of widows in the early church. In verses 3-8 we have the broader category focused intentionally on helping those who cannot help themselves and from verses 9-16 we turn the corner and we see a specialized – sacred ministry of widows in the early church who through taking a personal vow dedicated themselves completely to the Lord Jesus alone.
When we look at this passage we note that it raises the bar a bit. While it is important that we do good to everyone, it is especially vital that Christians help Christians. But there is a clear expectation that Christians be Christlike. A widow who is truly in need, whom the church should assist is a godly widow, it should not be the church's practice to reward godlessness which is why as we look through the perspective of the widow in this passage we see first and foremost that she has fixed her hope on God.

Personal Godliness is Primary (v3-8)

In the text, every Widow must be Godly. Above all we are seeking for faithfulness. There are three general characteristics in view.
The first we see in verse five is that she has “Fixed her hope on God”. Remembering the circumstance of a first century widow was incredibly dire. She had no means of taking care of herself and was thus dependent upon others for her daily needs. Ultimately however a godly woman is one who has fixed her hope on the Living God. She trusts the Lord to take care of her.

It is a Christian virtue to want to help people who need it. But in terms of how the church operates what begins as an honest desire to help whomever needs it can often devolve into a frenetic attempt to meet every need presented until cynicism and low coffers cause the church to fail on it's commitments or to end up accidentally helping those who don't truly need it while rendering itself unable to help those who truly do need it. The only way to fix that situation is to establish some guidelines. This is what Paul does in our passage this morning which is 1 Timothy 5:3-8.The Apostle acknowledges the need to honor widows and encases it with some reasonable guidelines meant to spiritually protect those helped as well as protecting the church from unnecessary burdens and slander. Out of that list we gain some helpful principles. But we have to learn these principles in the context of what appears to have been going on.Apparently the Ephesian church,being eager to help had committed itself to support some local widows who could not take care of themselves in that culture. Apparently the financial strain on the church was too much. Somehow, whether by trying to achieve some perceived ideal of “fairness” they had taken on too much. By looking at the requirements here you canalmost get a sense that among the widows being supported were a number of young widows, godless widows or even widows who had other means but who were feeding off of the church.

While the presidential candidates spar about one policy or another, today I want to talk about welfare reform or rather, Welfare as God intended it. Redistribution of wealth through the federal government is not God's plan for taking care of those in need. God's intent from the beginning is that God's people take care of those who cannot take care of themselves. Those who are capable of taking care of themselves should continue to do so for as long as they are able. Please turn to and prepare to read 1 Timothy 5:3-16 where we will be focusing today on verses 3-8 which describes this church's requirement to care for widows. (Read it)

God's passion for The Helpless

Throughout the scriptures a significant measure of righteousness has been "What do you do with the helpless?" In particular two classes of people have always required God's special protection. In that culture especially the orphan and the widow typically had no social standing and thus were helpless. God describes himself as "A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, Is God in His holy habitation."^{(Ps. 68:5)} For this reason godly people will spend themselves on the widow and the orphan because like their Father they strive to deliver those who cannot deliver themselves.

Put yourself into this difficult position. In the course of your day you hear a rumor or know of another Christian who is sinning against the Lord. What do you do? Sadly most of us are so out of touch with godliness that we have an immediate reaction to just ignore it after all, what is it to me if another Christian is living in sin? But the reality of Scripture is that you are your brother's keeper. We are indeed responsible to help others be holy; and when we see that holiness failing we should help to bring about that change with an appropriate rebuke.

While our text this morning will come from 1 Timothy 5:1-2; a plain application of it comes right from Galatians 6:1 " Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted." (NASB95)

Please open your Bible to 1 Timothy 5:1-2 and read it with me. Read 1 Tim 5:1-2.

Respectfully

If we could summarize the rule for interacting with other people we could do it with one word: "RESPECT". Aretha Franklin Got it right. When we are preparing to confront another believer in sin we must keep in mind that this is a brother (mother, father, sister) in Christ - treat them that way.

He starts with older men and older women. Treat them the way you would your own father or mother. Paul is obviously drawing a connection to the Leviticus 19:32 injunction to stand before the grey headed and honor the aged in connection with revering God.

Dabbling is defined as “a superficial or intermittent interest, investigation, or experiment.”
¹I can enjoy dabbling in a lot of things. I like to dabble in technology. I work with it just enough to feel good at it. I dabble with woodworking. I'm learning to cut things straight. I feel good about a little something that I've built now and then – but if the results aren't exactly perfect, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. I'm willing to bet that a number of you have dabbled in certain things.But there is one thing in particular which no one can afford to dabble in. You cannot afford to dabble in your faith. A little dabbling will not do it. Jesus said in Luke 9:62 “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
We cannot start to serve God and get distracted with other things. But we do. We need to be reminded of 1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

Dabbling in our relationship with the Almighty will only leave you wanting. If upon serious reflection you can see the tendency to go light in your walk with Christ than today I want to call you to getting serious about your faith.

Now to a certain extent you may already be taking your walk with Christ seriously. But if we are truly following Christ there really is no point short of perfect Christlikeness at which we can say, "it is enough. I am full of God enough to satisfy me so I do not need to walk with him any more than I do." there is always something in our lives which must be surrendered.

Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ author: Mr. Harold W. Hoehner asin: 0310262119

The Prophets Still Speak: Messiah in Both Testaments author: Fred J. Meldau asin: 091554041X

The New Testament does not stand alone, it is the direct outgrowth of prophecy and it's fulfillment. The very reason that the new testament is accepted as God's word is because it meshes in perfect union with the first testament. For the first testament does the unthinkable. Not only does is tell the historical story of the people of Israel from it's inception; but it also contains in that story dozens upon dozens of explicit prophetic descriptions regarding the entire sum of the “ancestry, birth time, forerunner, birthplace, birth manner, infancy, manhood, teaching character, career, preaching, reception, rejection, death, burial, resurrection and ascension” ¹ of one called The Christ in Greek, The Messiah in Hebrew, the Anointed One in English.

Woven throughout the text of the old testament prophets, laws, songs and history are predictions spoken and written hundreds or thousands of years before they were fulfilled to the smallest letter in their detail. It is as if at the founding of the United States of America someone had written a complete biography of Ronald Reagan. Such a feat is not only impossible but to have done so would have marked not only the character of the writer himself as being lead by God but would have marked Ronald Reagan infinitely more important than he was as a mere mortal.

To everyone who has ever wondered and perhaps still wonders if Jesus really is a savior I would urge you to consider not only the words and fulfillment but the circumstance of the prophecies of Jesus. The Prophecies were given so that you may see them fulfilled and seeing them, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God.