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.

Everybody likes to have nice things said about them, in fact some people will go to nearly any length to obtain a favorable review by others. There's nothing wrong with someone having a good opinion of you, but the moment you switch from earning a good reputation to courting a good reputation, the reputation you seek becomes all but worthless. And worse than that, it just might lead to destruction - or worse than that, being trapped into following the devil.

Please open your Bibles to 1 Timothy 3:7. Finally we come to the end of this section on the requirements for an Overseer. This last requirement is just as important as the first for while all of the other requirements have focused both upon Character and Personal Maturity, this final requirement centers in on how a prospective overseer is perceived in the unbelieving community.

I want to get us back into the mode of studying First Timothy and Church 101 so a very brief review is necessary. In the first chapter Paul touches on Pastoral Leadership, the Foundation of the Gospel as the core of the church and the fullness of God's grace. It seems that in the church people were missing the point. There were teachers who were teaching the law wrongly. They had forgotten that the Law's singular purpose is the convict sinners and direct them to Jesus. Paul himself serves as the primary example of the chief of all sinners. If God can save Paul the blasphemer, the persecutor and the violent agressor than God can certainly save you. Amen? (I expect at least a few amens!)

The second chapter launches us into ministry. As children of God we are first commanded to pray. We must pray at all times for all people with every kind of prayer, intercession, requests, conversational, and above all prayers of thanks. The fruit of our prayers may well be the salvation of many souls.

The men are specifically commanded to pray without anger and dissension. The Women are specifically required to dress appropriately and to be devoted learners of God's word . Elsewhere we learn that women must teach other women but here we discover they must neither teach men nor exercise authority over men.

Now considering the context of what has gone before - specifically in terms of Paul's statements concerning women in leadership it is only natural that he begin to explain the requirements for leadership in the church but also to a certain extent to defend leadership.

This is why he begins the third chapter with "It is a trustworthy statement, if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do." In this statement Paul demonstrates a few principles for us to adhere to when it comes to church leadership.

In preparation for 1 Timothy three, I heartily recommend a read through Mark Driscoll's "Elder Government located

James Hamilton over at "for his reno