Amen, turn with me in your Bibles. Our sermon text this evening comes from the book of Titus. Titus chapter one, verses five through nine. Hear now this, the word of the living God. For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you. If a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of dissipation or insubordination, for a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word, as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict. This is the word of the living God, and we say, thanks be to God. Amen. Please be seated. Let's pray together for the Lord's blessing upon his word. Our Father in heaven, we're grateful for the way that you meet our needs in Christ Jesus. We thank you for this opportunity to hear from this book of Titus, and I pray that this word will speak to us, that it will convict us, that it will encourage us, that it will instruct us We pray for our church that we will be a healthy church. And we pray that this text here will play a part in having that healthy church come about all the more. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Well, for many in our culture, to become a leader, it's an end in and of itself. To be a leader for some people, it is the goal. This is so often the case in business, it's the case in all sorts of career fields, it's the case in sports, school, elsewhere, wherever you work, if your workplace is anything like mine, it's likely that there are workshops for you to go to so that you may become a leader in the workplace. There are college courses in leadership. There are entire college degrees nowadays in leadership. Master's degrees, even doctoral degrees in leadership. It's a buzzword. Leadership is. And it has been for some time. And if you want proof of that, you can look at the New York Times bestseller list. If you're in the airport even and you're walking past a bookstore and you look over, it's likely that you're not going to see just one book on leadership. It's likely you're going to see several books on leadership or how to wield your influence. It makes you wonder, there must be a market for this. Why are so many people interested in leadership? Why is becoming a leader so appealing? for so many. I want you to ask yourself a question. Could this be one of our culture's idols? Could it be that self-fulfillment through becoming a leader is one of our culture's idols? Achieving leadership status, that's something people strive for out of some sort of idol worship. For many, to become a leader validates their sense of self, to be in a position of prestige or influence. It feels good. People measure their self-worth based on the breadth of their influence. This is true even in social media. And for many of those who want to be leaders, for one reason or another, if they don't become a leader, it crushes them. If they do not get the role or the prestige they want, it depresses them, for they've made it an idol. And for those who do achieve leadership status, it can puff them up. It can do awful things to their souls. Well, our text this evening regards Christian leadership. What are we to do with the fact that there are supposed to be Christian leaders in the church? In our text this evening, it stands, I would submit, in utter contrast to much of the leadership we see in the world. Christian leaders are called to oversee others in the church, yes, but they do so differently. Remember when the disciples were arguing about status? One wanted to sit at the left hand of Jesus and the other at the right hand. A little squabble breaks out and Jesus comes and he tells them that the lords of the Gentiles, that is the leaders of the Gentiles, they enjoy their leadership status and they love to lord it over others that they have this status. And he rebukes them. And Jesus' pattern is foot-washing. Leaders in the church are foot-washers. And don't get me wrong, leadership is a good thing. We'll see that in our text tonight. Paul actually says elsewhere that to desire to be an elder is a noble thing. Indeed, it's part of God's design. We don't shy away from it, not at this church, and we shouldn't. Rather, we recognize it and we establish it. But we do so within the proper bounds that Scripture has laid out. So that's our text this evening. Four headings. Our first one is this. Elders are necessary for healthy churches. Or if you like, healthy churches require healthy leaders. So Paul's purpose I'll give you some background information. In writing this letter, as you recall, it's to encourage Titus to complete the task of establishing healthy churches on this island of Crete where he has left him. And we looked at verse five in some detail some weeks ago, and that verse says to Titus, Titus, set in order the things that are lacking. Paul leaves him there because the churches are not yet established. There are converts there. There are some churches there in some sense, they are in great disrepair. And there are a number of things Titus must do to instruct the churches towards health and vitality, but one thing is most fundamental of all, and that's the end of verse five, and it's this topic tonight. Titus must establish elders in each city. Verse five, set in order the things that are lacking and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you. You remember that I said that the theme of this letter is that first half of verse five, Titus, establish healthy churches. That's what this letter is all about. But in the same sentence, in the same breath really, Paul says to Titus, Set in order the things that are lacking and appoint elders. This is fundamental. If you want healthy churches, appoint elders. Stay in Crete. Clean up the churches. The fundamental way to do that is to establish elders in all of the churches. If Paul wrote a job description for which Titus had to apply, at the very top of the job description would be this. Establish elders. The goal being, of course, healthy churches. And elders, that's the word in verse 5. Titus is to establish elders, but take note of verse 7 before we dive into this. Verse 7 says, bishops, elders are called bishops. These two words are There are different words in the original language. Elders has a sense of this man who is a seasoned believer. An elder is a ruler in the church, a presbyter. Bishop is a word that means overseer. So elders and bishops, even though we see both words here, it's the same person, it's the same office. There's a third word also used. in the New Testament to describe this office, and that's the word shepherd or pastor. And we can look elsewhere in the New Testament to see this, 1 Peter 5 being one example. You can actually see all three words being used interchangeably, elder, bishop, pastor, it's one man. And these terms kind of draw attention to one task or another. So Paul writes that Titus will help with building up this church, calling pastors to lead them. Now we don't know exactly how Titus is going to do this, what the process exactly looked like. But it does tell us what sort of men Titus is to identify as worthy of the office. It's likely that Titus went around city to city, and it's not as if Titus, just Lone Ranger style, just said, you're an elder, you're an elder, you're an elder. Rather, the process probably looked like he went to a city, gathered with the believers, and as a type of moderator in these elections, helped the people, helped these early, early churches, identify men within their own ranks to be their elders. That's Titus's job. He's not some super authoritarian figure. It's likely he's a moderator, an assistant of Paul. So this is the first order of business. We want healthy churches, Titus. Establish elders. This is first and foremost. We're transitioning now into verses six, seven, and eight of our text. I want to draw your attention to several things. An elder is to be, and an elder is not to be. So our second heading is this. 10 things, this will be brief actually, 10 things elders are to be, and then we'll have five things elders are not to be. So to be, and not to be. Verse six, here we have a list, qualities that we should look for in establishing an elder. If a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of dissipation or insubordination. And then we see verse seven, we see some more information. These are things that he should be, that he should, exhibit. He's a steward of God. He's hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled. Just draw your attention briefly to two groups within this. First of all, we see this word blameless. It's mentioned twice. This is the controlling quality. If an elder is blameless, he's gonna meet the rest of these qualities. But notice, really, it's listed in two ways. There's blameless, and then it lists he's the husband of one wife, and then he has faithful children. So he's blameless in his home life, in his domestic life. And then a little bit later on, we see this other set of categories. An elder will be blameless in his character or in his public life. So let's briefly mention each of these qualities. So to be blameless is to be above reproach. There's nothing counted against him. He hasn't committed a crime. He's not on the run from the law. He cannot be called into account for something. He's above reproach. There's nothing against him. And then it says, he's the husband of one wife. Now we could begin to ask questions already, can't we? What do you mean one wife? Does that mean he has to be married? Does it mean if he's divorced? There's all sorts of questions we could say, but I wanna draw your attention to the fact that this list could actually be much longer than it really is. What's the purpose of laying out this list of to be and not to be? It's to give Titus a sense of the sort of man that should take on this role. Frankly, we could have listed all sorts of qualities that are not listed here. So when it says the husband of one wife, we have to get a sense of what does Paul really mean here? Well, he needs to be blameless at home. He needs to be blameless in his marriage. If he's married, is he faithful? Not just outwardly, but behind closed doors? Does he meet his marital obligations? Or since here could be, is he a one-woman kind of man? If he's not married, that would be a good question. Is he the sort of man that would stay faithful to one wife? And then it says that this man must have faithful children, not accused of dissipation or insubordination. Now, I've been surprised just in my research here, even looking at some church fathers Almost everyone believes that this is not exclusively saying that a man's children must be believers in order for him to qualify to be an elder. Rather, does this man's children act faithfully towards him? Do his children seem like they grew up in a household where there was a Christian man present? If he doesn't have children, this man, he could still qualify for the office of elder. But is he leading his life in such a way that if he were to have children, you would expect them to grow up in the faith? Are they respectful? Are they genuine? Do they love their father? These are good questions to ask, Titus, as you go about finding these elders. Well, then there's a second set of character traits. And here we see in verse seven, we see that word blameless again, but then it says steward of God. Does this man, does he see himself primarily as a steward of God? Does he see himself as one endowed with gifts from God to be used for the sake of the church? Or is he a selfish man? Is he using what God has given him for his own ends? Don't choose him if so. Is he hospitable? That is, is he generous towards guests? Now to be hospitable, it doesn't mean that you have to cook the fanciest foods or have the best of houses in order to have people over in. But rather, is this man welcoming? Is he generous? Does he genuinely love people? Does he wanna be around the flock? Or does he quickly, get out of town as soon as church is over? Is he around the people? Is he a lover of what is good? Does he love what God loves? But more than that, is he devoted to good? Is he devoted to good works? What's he busy doing? Is he busy wasting time? Is he busy doing good works? What does he love, even in his private life? What makes this man tick? What makes this man happy? Do good things make him happy? Do evil things make him angry? Is he sober-minded? Does he curb his desires? For all men, all women, we have these fleshly desires that come upon us. Does he push them away? Does he not give way to these impulses? Is he temperate? He's not prone to extremes. He's really, really happy one day, really, really sad the next day. Is he just? That is, is he upright, virtuous? Is he keeping the commands of God? Is he impartial? If he's impartial, well then have nothing to do with him, Titus. Impartiality is that sin of giving favor to some and not to others. Imagine an elder, we're gonna separate the church and we're gonna put certain kind of people over here and a certain kind of people over there. Or does he love the flock? Does he love all of the flock? Not just those he shares common interests with, or those who have more money, those he can get something from. Is he just? Does he treat people properly? Is he holy? Is he devout? Is he unlike the world? Does he flee from wickedness? Is he morally pure? And then self-controlled is the last of these. And this too is a guiding principle. But self-control has this strength to it. To be a self-controlled man requires this robust sort of energy. Does he control his passions? Does he restrain himself again? Is he temperate? And the list, of course, as I said at the beginning, this could go on. Is he courageous? Well, it doesn't say that, actually. Is he good-mannered? Is he honest? Sincere? Is he full of integrity? We could add more to this list, but that's not the point. The point is, Titus, we want you to look for men who are after God's own heart. There's a number of applications from this, but immediately, if you study this and you read through this list, I think most immediately, an application for myself at least, is to go to the mercy seat of Christ. You read a list like this, it's somewhat like reading the Ten Commandments. You ever read the Ten Commandments and what do you do when you get to the end? I think you should do this from time to time at least, is you see your sin, that's one of the great purposes of the law. You see your sin and you fall on your face and you ask for mercy from Christ. Because when you look at this list, perhaps the question that goes through your mind is not, am I qualified? Is anyone qualified? Have I met a man who really meets this list? So we fall on our face. It's one application. We draw close to the mercy seat of Christ because by his grace and by the power of the Spirit, he can equip us to grow in holiness, temperance, courage, and in all of these other qualities. And by God's grace, there are actually men in the church who qualify, even meeting these qualities, to become officers in his church. It's all grace. Another application is to put on these traits. We can read this all over the New Testament. We put on Christ. We put on his likeness. We can read a list like this. That's a good meditation for us from time to time. Am I just? Am I hospitable? These are good reminders for us. But this list is meant to be, in a sense, one. Am I blameless? Is the elder candidate blameless? And another application, of course, is that this informs our prayers. This is how you can be praying for your elders. This is how you can be praying for yourself. This is how you can be praying for the churches around the world. This is the sort of men they need. And if you've spent time in certain other countries in the world, you will find that it's hard for people coming out of a non-Christian background to suddenly take on these qualities when they do not have good Christian examples in front of them. What a grace it is in America that we have so many people that can meet these qualifications. Well, the third adding, five things elders are not to be. Five things elders are not to be. This verse seven, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money. These items are what one scholar calls no-brainers. If a man is guilty of these, Titus, do not have him as one of your elders. If he's self-willed, It's a complete contradiction. The Christian is one who is after Christ's will on earth. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. That's the heart of the elder. We're not to be self-willed, arrogant, godless. We're to seek God's will. Nor is an elder to be quick-tempered. Often in men, anger can be an issue. Men are told in their parenting even, not to be harsh with their children. So it's interesting here that this is mentioned. Cannot be quick-tempered and then be a pastor in a church, for it will require much patience, much diligence, walking around with people for years. He cannot be given to whine. Again, he must be self-controlled. Nor can he be violent. And when you think of violence, go a little deeper than just striking another person or the desire to strike another person. Is he quarrelsome? Does he love to get in arguments? Is he contentious? And then says, not greedy for money. What's he after? Is he after God or is he after mammon? So these are things that an elder must be. These are things that an elder is not to be. I went through that briefly because my goal here this evening is not so much to dwell upon these qualities. I wanna draw your attention to the context that this is situated in. So our fourth heading here is what I'm gonna focus on the most. And the fourth heading is this. The one thing elders are to do. The one thing elders are to do. Verse nine says this. Elders are to hold fast the faithful word as they have been taught, that they may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convict those who contradict. Now I say there's one task that elders must do. Why do I say there's one task? There's many tasks that an elder must do. Consider all of the things, for instance, especially Pastor Ryan, consider all of the things that he does week to week. I can't name all of the things and I see him some of the week. How many things, what does his task list look like actually? You can ask him after the service if you're really curious about that question. But for my purposes, I've said that there is one thing they are to do because I think that's what the text says. Hold fast the faithful word. That's the action. Elders are to hold fast the faithful word. That may not seem like it's all that difficult, hold fast. But holding fast in some context, it demands all of your energy if you think about it. Imagine a man drowning and someone throws him a life preserver. What's he doing with that life preserver? He's holding fast to it. Every ounce of his energy goes into holding fast to that life preserver. That's a big difference than, say, picking a leaf off of a tree because he thought it was pretty and you hold it and a few minutes go by and you don't really know what happened to it. That's not holding fast. You held on to something, it didn't matter to you much, and it drifts away. The elders have a different sort of task. They hold fast to the faithful word of God. They read it, pray it, consider it, preach it, meditate upon it, memorize it. They teach it to themselves, they preach it to themselves, they preach it to their families, to others. Elders live by the word, die by the word. That's their task. They hold fast to this word. They hold fast to the one apostolic faith, especially the gospel of Jesus Christ. They don't depart from it. They depart from it, they're done. Take them out of the office. If any elder in this church or any of them, if they depart from that central gospel message, they are disqualified. Jesus Christ came. to save sinners. And all of us in here, if we read that list, we're all guilty before the throne of God. And but for the mercy of Christ, we would all perish in hell. But thanks be to God, Christ came and he died and he paid that penalty that we deserve and he paid it on our behalf. Now we have this eternal life we talked about a few weeks ago. Elders hold fast to this word. They don't deviate from it. And when they do so, They meet the qualifications to be an elder. When they do so, they fulfill their purpose as an elder, and that's the end of verse nine. They will shepherd the people well. Specifically, they will exhort those and convict those who contradict the one true faith. And in the book of Titus, this is their primary task. Titus, raise up elders that they may convict those who are now preaching a false gospel in your neck of the woods. That's what's going on on the islands. In Crete, Judaizers have come in. And now Titus' job is to raise up elders who will contradict them. Stop the false gospel, Titus. Raise up men. So why must they meet all of these other qualities that we want? Why do they need to be hospitable and self-controlled and just? Why do they need to meet all of these qualifications? So that the church can have the sort of man that you can trust. Because their task is to hold and handle, to decipher the word of God. In the book of Acts, there's this sweet picture of the first Christians gathering together, and there's a description of them that teaches us much of what we need to know early on in Acts. The Christians continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers. And elders, they They're there to lead their churches into this same pattern. They do not create new doctrines. They do not create new systems of church government. Elders are people who hold on to what's already been said. They don't have this self-will. They don't want to create something new. And so often leaders today, they want to do something new. They want to step out and do something that's never been done before. That's not Christian leadership. Christian leadership is doing the opposite. It's saying, I don't really have anything new to say. I have an old, old story to tell, and I'm gonna tell it again, and next week I'm gonna tell it again. They don't depart from it, and if they do, again, they're disqualified. They are to exhort, that is they are to encourage. They're to speak into your life. They're to confront and convict those who are contradicting God's word. So let me now draw your attention to just two more applications. If you have a physical Bible with you, you can look. Just look at the chapter that we have in front of us. If you look at Titus, and you look at the layout of this first chapter, we have these qualifications for elders, and then you look, verses 10 through 16 talks about the elders' task. So to put this in context, my last two applications, they might seem like they contradict one another, that's not the case. These two things, these two applications I'm about to say, are true at the same time. So the first application is this. The message of Christ is the focus of this passage. So Christ is the focus of this passage. You know, some are gonna say, hey man, like, these are instructions about qualities that an elder needs to meet. How are you gonna weasel your way into saying this is about Christ? Well, here's how. The focus of this brief letter, again, it is about the need for healthy churches, and because that is the focus, it draws our attention away from these leaders. So as you look at this chapter, look at where these qualifications are and line them up to where the task is. It's almost as if, when you read this, my senses, when you read this, elders are almost in the background, and the message of Christ is put into the foreground. Paul mentions qualifications for an elder, and then he quickly gets into what they must do for the sake of the churches. In our day, becoming a leader is an idol. When you read this scripture, I think elders are in the background. I don't want to say that they're unimportant, but they're in the background. And remember when Paul, he goes up to Jerusalem to meet with those whom he perceived to be pillars in the faith, to make sure that he was preaching the right gospel. Remember what he says there? He goes, I met with those who I perceived to be pillars in the faith, and he says, what they are makes no difference to me. And then in 1 Corinthians, he scolds them for saying I am of Apollos or I am of Paul. Paul's ethic, Paul's heartbeat, if you will, is to say that the focus is not on elders, the focus is on the message of Christ. So what then is the preacher? The preacher is simply a herald for Christ. Some of the prominent preachers some years ago, some that I looked up to, these are men now, who have taken a turn. These are men now that I don't even really trust. I don't really want my children listening to them. I don't want you listening to some of them. And then lastly, Even though I've just said, elders are in the background of this text. I'm still gonna say this, church leaders are a gift from God. There's warnings here to be had, many dangers in seeking prematurely the gift of leadership. But none of these warnings are meant to deter us from bringing elders on board. It's right to consider how faithful shepherds, faithful overseers, are God's gift to us. So Jesus, of course, is the great shepherd. And if you look at Psalm 23 and you read that text, that is the most wonderful shepherd of all. He leads us beside still waters. He restores our souls. And under shepherds, If you think about it, they do the same thing. We would not say that an under-shepherd, we would not say of Ryan or Chad or myself or anyone else, we would not say that they are the chief shepherd, of course. We would not say that in them my soul has no lack. But we would say that a faithful elder is a gift and that a faithful elder is going to lead us beside green pastures, beside still waters, And there's even a sense here where we could say a faithful shepherd is going to restore our soul. This is the preaching of the word. We're also gonna say a faithful shepherd is going to lead us in paths of righteousness. We're gonna say that even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for my pastor is with me. And how many of you in this room can actually say that, especially about Pastor Ryan? That in your darkest of moments, you've met with him. Perhaps in depression, or perhaps in temptation. And of course Christ is there. But in another sense, a pastor is there. And you can say, my pastor's rod, his staff, is with me to beat back the wolves. For some people came into the church and they started bringing in this message, and I hadn't quite heard it before, I didn't know what to think. And next thing you know, my pastor got really serious, and he scolded those people, and he said they were wolves. A pastor does that. We can also say that a pastor prepares a table before us, even in the presence of our enemies. We can say that a pastor anoints our head with oil, We could say that our pastor brings the blessings of Christ to mind, and that through him I see that my cup overflows. And that's what we do every Sunday, is we reminisce about the blessings of Christ. And we can say with the psalmist, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever, for my pastor tells me so. Leadership is good, it's God's design. Healthy leaders help fashion healthy churches. And that is why Paul writes these instructions to Titus. And it's why we must pray to the Lord of the harvest that he will raise up workers. That the message of Christ might be made known among every tribe, tongue, and nation. That's the context of Titus. Titus raised up elders. for the sake of the gospel. Let's close now with prayer and let's sing together. Our Father, we thank you for this book. We pray that we'll see the beauty of your design, even in this text. We thank you for the faithful shepherds that you've put into our lives, at this church and elsewhere. We thank you for the way that Jesus Christ models himself as the chief shepherd of our souls. How he meets our needs and leads us into green pastures. It's in his name we pray.