Godly Governance

Well, good morning to everybody. So glad to see you. I'm guessing that most of you have probably heard of Mark Twain before. Maybe if you're younger, you're going, I'm not sure who that is. Obviously, his real name's Samuel Clemens, but wrote under the name Mark Twain. And he wrote predominantly in the late 1800s. Maybe you've read "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," so you know something about that. But Mark Twain was one of the most quotable writers and humorists in the last two centuries. And if you know anything about Mark Twain, sometimes when he talked about things related to the church, he was a little bit sarcastic and a little bit snarky. For instance, he said this. He said, "The church is always trying "to get other people to reform. "It might not be a bad idea to reform itself a little "by way of example." Okay, fair enough. I don't know exactly what may have gotten under Mark Twain's skin, but the story, unsourced as it is, but told very often, is that when he was a young Samuel Clemons, his mother, who was a good example of what it meant to be a follower of Jesus, took him to church, pointed him to church, all of those things, but that he saw too many church leaders who were pious on Sunday, but were cursing and abusive and philandering during the week and it put a really bad taste in his mouth. And as a result, some of what he talked about related to church or to the things of God would sometimes be a little bit sarcastic and a little bit snarky. Well, the truth is is that maybe he's right, and I don't how different it is today. I know that we certainly know more today than we did back then, because everything is on blast everywhere for everyone to see. But I think it's fair to say that there is, at least to some degree, a crisis of godly leadership in the American church. We have seen way too many times, stories that are coming out about those who are in church leadership of some type who are abusers or who are demonstrating infidelity in their marriage relationship, or who lack integrity in terms of how they handle money or those types of things. And we've seen it far, far too often. Now there's many explanations and many articles have been written, studies done. Why is this the case? Why does it seem to be amped up even more in the context of the American culture in church and the there's lots of different articles that talks about lots of different reasons, whether it's the cult of celebrity that sometimes, pastors try and leaders try to engender for themselves with massive followings on social media and maybe speaking outside of their lane too often. And that gets them caught up. Maybe it's an oversexualized culture. Maybe it's people placing talent over character. In other words, they've put people in positions because they're talented, but they have outrun their ability to demonstrate character in the leadership that they give. Maybe it's because of unaccountable systems or maybe it's because of bad theology that leads to bad behaviors and outcomes ultimately. There's probably 100 more explanations that we could add to this growing group, but the bottom line is this, is that a lack of character in church leadership, it can do a lot of harm. When there's a lack of character in those that are called to serve and lead, it can do a whole lot of harm. Now by Paul's commission, when we come to 1 Timothy, which is what we're studying, and I hope that you've got a copy of God's Word with you, whether it's a hard copy or a digital copy, by Paul's commission, Timothy is now staying in Ephesus, and he's dealing with the fallout of what is going on there, a lot of which circled around false teaching that was happening in the church at Ephesus. Now the difficulty is, is that it also included a failure of those who were charged with leading in the church, that they were in part responsible for the false teaching that was going on in that context. And this should not be a surprise to us looking back on it, because when Paul, when he initially founded the church and was leaving, when he was leaving the Ephesian elders, he actually told them that this was in their future. It's in Acts chapter 29. And notice what it says, Acts 29:29-30. Paul says that, "I know that after I leave, "savage wolves will come in among you "and will not spare the flock. "Even from your own number, men will arise and distort "the truth in order to draw away disciples after them." He was talking to the elders of the church of Ephesus, and he said to them, "Even from your own number, "we will see this begin to rise up." Now it's possible that these false teachers that we're looking at in 1 Timothy, in the church at Ephesus, it's possible that some of them may have been elders in the church at Ephesus at that time. In fact, Paul actually names some of the false teachers in 1 Timothy chapter 1 and in 2 Timothy chapter 2, he names Hymenaeas and Alexander and Philetus, all men, and it's possible that one or two or three or a handful of them may have been elders in the church at Ephesus, and so, what Paul is doing now in 1 Timothy is he's having to give Timothy some additional instruction as to how to bring order in the context of the chaos that had been created. We've been looking at that in chapter 2, and now that we get to chapter 3, Paul is giving some qualifications of those who are supposed to be serving and leading in the context of the local church. But obviously, he's giving Timothy some relatively new information or maybe some more structured information, because Timothy had traveled with Paul, maybe at this point for close to a decade, and so that means that he'd been in places where Paul had appointed elders and those types of things. But now in the midst of the chaos of Ephesus, Paul is having to speak to Timothy very clearly about some very structured ways of looking at what those who are serving the church should be, particularly if you were talking about some of the ones that are creating the chaos, were elders in the church at Ephesus that should not be in that role any longer because of their false teaching. So here's what Paul does. He shares this with Timothy and it begins after talking about bringing order into the midst of the chaos, he begins to outline some qualifications for those who are leading in the context of the local church there in Ephesus. Here's what 1 Timothy 3, beginning in verse number 1 says. Paul writes. "Here's a trustworthy saying. "Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task." Now it's interesting to me because what he's doing from the outset here is he's talking about the role of overseer being a noble task. Now, the reason is because in all likelihood, is that it was being kind of thrown, this role of overseer, was being thrown maybe into disrepute by some of those who were supposed to be functioning in that context who are now preaching false doctrines. And now Paul is having to say, okay, I know that that looks bad, but know this, that the role itself is a noble vocation. This is something that is important in the context of the local church. And he says, "Whoever aspires to be an overseer." Now that word overseer, maybe depending on the translation that you're reading, it may be translated bishop. Either one of those translations is perfectly fine. It comes from a Greek word, which is episcopos. If you maybe go, that sounds familiar, well, have you heard of Episcopal churches? That comes from that root word, episcopos, which talks about the idea of overseer or bishop. Now in some other passages, there's also some other Greek terms that are used to describe those who are given some sense of charge in leading in the local congregation. There's the word presbuteros, where we get our word Presbyterian, right? Presbuteros means elder, or there's the word poimen, in the Greek language, which means pastor. And there's a number of places where these terms are used in the same group of verses, and in some senses, they are sometimes used synonymously and sometimes interchangeably. I'm not suggesting that they're all exactly the same. They each have a breadth of meaning, but when we look at them all together, they're somewhat used interchangeably or synonymously. But what Paul does in he's about to unpack, in this code that he gives to Timothy, or this list that he gives to Timothy, he's actually unpacking what kind of person is supposed to be in this role. When he says those who are in the, who are overseers or bishops, desire a noble task, he's out outlining what kind of people those people, overseers or bishops or elders or pastors, you know, we can use all of those somewhat synonymously, what kind of people are they supposed to be? Now what I realize is, and you're probably putting this together in your head, you're realizing, Jerry, it sounds to me like in just a moment, you're going to be preaching to yourself. Well sort of. But isn't that the job? The job is the whole council of the Word of God. And so if it pertains to me, I'm still accountable to what the Word of God says in the presence of God's people.

- [Congregation] Amen.

- That we don't get to just avoid that and say, hey, nobody look over there. Don't look behind the curtain. It's just a guy. You know, it's not really a wizard, it's just a guy back there pulling stuff. Don't mind the dog, Toto, who's already come and exposed all of this, right? That's not what we're supposed to be doing. And so, if it involves preaching to myself to some degree, then it does. That's just a part of what we do when we preach the whole council of the word of God. And I realize, as well, that as we look at this, you might be saying, well, this doesn't necessarily pertain to me, but it actually does when we look at it in whole. It's important for all of us when we begin to unpack it. Now what Paul does here with Timothy, when he talks about the idea of overseer, and we're gonna get to a little more past overseer, but when he talks about that, there's actually 15 characteristics that he outlines. Now, I'm not gonna list out all of those, but we are gonna go verse by verse very quickly, not super quickly, but quick enough to be able to see them all in the context of what Paul is writing. So look with me, first of all, in verse number 2. He says, after saying, "Those who desire the office "of overseer desire a noble task." And he says, "Now the overseer is to be above reproach." That phrase above reproach does not mean that someone is supposed to be perfect. What it does mean is this, is that there are no obvious places where Satan has a foothold, such that the testimony of Jesus would be compromised by their life. They are to be above reproach. In other words, their life doesn't give an indication that it would bring reproach to the name of Jesus or to the testimony of the church in Jesus' name. Then it says that he is to be "Faithful to his wife." That translation there for overseer being faithful to his wife means a one-woman man. That's exactly what this phrase means, literally in the Greek language, a one-woman man. Now, pause for just a second. You may be thinking to yourself, well, what is that suggesting about the overseer? Well, obviously, many people would look at that and go, well, he can't be a polygamist. If he has to be a one-woman man, it means he can't be a two-woman man, he can't be a five-woman man, can't be a polygamist. Well, true, being a polygamist would be disqualifying for somebody who's leading in the context of the church. But that wasn't a particular issue at that time. It wasn't a big issue in Ephesus. There wasn't a lot of polygamy at that moment. So what does it mean? Well, it also doesn't necessarily refer to that which was their life before Christ, right? It's not really referring to that because everybody, mostly, was coming out of some kind of pagan background and who knows what that looked like between marriage or marriages or whatever that looked like. He's probably not referring so much to that. He's also probably not referring to other teaching that he has, when something has happened to interrupt a marriage relationship. Like they were abandoned because they had come now to faith in Jesus and were left, which Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians, or that their spouse was unfaithful to them, maybe also still living in paganism when this person came to faith in Jesus. I don't think he's talking about that. What he's about is this translation, that he's faithful to his wife. He's a one-woman man. He's not cheating on his wife, he's not unfaithful to his wife, but he is faithful to her because that is a picture of Christ in the church and that's to be magnified in the life of those who are leading spiritually. Then it says that he's to be temperate. That means sober-minded, or clear thinking. to be self-controlled, that means that both the emotional life and the thought life is such that it doesn't lead to behaviors that are inconsistent with the life of Christ. But instead, are yielded to the Lordship of Jesus, that they are respectable. That means people can view their lives as ordered and as non-chaotic and that they can see them and respect them, that they are hospitable. That means they're willing to share, whether that's sharing their home or sharing their resources and able to teach. That doesn't necessarily mean standing up here doing what I'm doing, but it certainly could include that. But it means that they have the ability to be able to discern false teaching and to reject false teaching and to correct false teaching where needed, which was a big issue in Ephesus. But in fact, all of the elders may not have been specifically charged with the teaching side, like what I'm doing right now, all the elders may not have been charged in that direction because when you look a little further in 1 Timothy chapter 5, you actually see this statement in verse number 17. "The elders who direct the affairs of the church well "are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work "is preaching and teaching." So what you see actually, is a distinction. There are those elders that maybe are charged with more on the governance side, but then there are those who give specific attention to the preaching and teaching side, as well. So sometimes it's a little bit of a, maybe a distribution of labor, so to speak, with those who are leading or governing in that way. Verse number 2 says this. Sorry, verse number 3 says this. It says, "They should also not be given to drunkenness." I think that's self-explanatory, right. Part of the reason, by the way, I don't think that, you know, for a believer, that it is stated in the New Testament, you can never have a glass of wine or you could never have a beer or any of those things, but the consideration, actually, is about others, about not causing other people to stumble. It's why I don't take a sip of alcohol. It's why I don't do that in Western New York, because I don't want to be, I'm willing put aside what may be my freedom. If I wanted to have a glass of wine and be free to do that as a Christian, I'm putting aside my freedom for the sake of love of the people that are watching my life, because that's a responsibility that I believe I have in spiritual leadership. "Not given to drunkenness, not violent, but gentle." In other words, and it also says, not quarrelsome. The idea there is that it's not someone who's always looking for a fight, but someone who knows that strength in Jesus actually shows itself in gentleness and peacefulness. "Not a lover of money," in other words, not doing things to be able to just accumulate for themselves and not guided or controlled by the lust or the love of money. The next verse goes on to say, in verse 4 and 5, it says, "He must manage his own family well "and see that his children obey him "and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. "If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, "how can he take care of God's church?" The idea there is not only with faithfulness in the context of marriage, but actually, the whole of home life as a husband and as a parent. And then verse 6 says this. "He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited "and fall under the same judgment as the devil." What's interesting is that Paul has taken Timothy on all of these, on his journey that he was on, and Timothy's probably traveled with Paul for a decade prior to this, and now Paul's saying, "No recent converts." Do you know what pretty much all of the elders in all of the churches that were founded were? Recent converts. How could they not be? They are just coming to faith in Jesus Christ, right? Paul says here in Ephesus, that cannot be the case because of all the craziness that has happened, and the reason is he doesn't want a new convert, because they have not had a character that has been developed and tested over time. And as a result, that's probably what happened with some of these elders who are false teachers, is that their character had not developed and had not been tested over time. And then verse number 7 says this. "He must also have a good reputation with outsiders "so that he will not fall into disgrace "and into the devil's trap." It's interesting that there are times where, and people mean really, really well by it, by the way. And I appreciate it very much when people will say to me, "Hey, you just shouldn't care what anybody thinks." Well, I can't help but care what some people think, because I have to know that I've got a respectable reputation with those outside the body of Christ, that I'm actually leading a life of godliness outside of the body here, and that those that are watching are paying attention to that because listen, that reflects on you. It reflects on our whole body. And sometimes, by the way, how you live can reflect on all of us too. We all have to keep in mind as brothers and sisters in Christ, that the way that we live as brothers and sisters who carry the name of Jesus, it actually matters to the whole family, and so we have to pay attention to that. And certainly, as leaders, we have to pay attention to that. Now you probably picked up that in this qualification list, when it came to overseers, that it was distinctly masculine in its direction. He must do this, he must do this, husband of one wife, all of those things. Most scholars that I have been reading kind of assert that it's obvious that in the New Testament, they use the term, the preference of the New Testament, is actually for qualified men to fulfill the role of overseer or elder or pastor or bishop, whichever one you want to use. There is some debate over, with godly people, by the way, debate over whether or not God is demonstrating here, his preference, or is demonstrating his demand. It certainly is contextual. There was a problem in Ephesus that was needing to be addressed and it was addressed, but this should not be a surprise when we see this list as masculine in nature after what we just read in 2:11-15. We studied that last week. If you weren't here, you should go back and look at that passage of scripture because we unpacked that last week and make sure that you go back and read that. So this is just a continuation of the same kind of thought process that Paul is giving. Now that said, I also should point out, and I think it's important just in terms of intellectual honesty, that we point out that even though this list that's given here is in masculine terms, there are precedent for lists that are given in masculine terms that apply to both men and women. That does also happen, even in the context of scripture. Let me just give you a quick example. Some of you're familiar with The Ten Commandments. Right? Okay. I was just making sure we were all still here. Checking in with you at every campus. We're all still here, right? You're familiar with The Ten Commandments, right? Well, there's a statement in The Ten Commandments that a man is not to covet his neighbor's wife. Right? Just checking in. Is it cool for a woman to covet her neighbor's husband then? Absolutely not. Right? So there is precedent, at times, for those that are lists that are given in the masculine that have application for the whole. There also are some ancient inscriptions, interestingly enough, if you were to do a little work in archeology, some ancient inscriptions that are found both in grave markers and in places where ancient churches used to be. There's probably about a couple dozen, in fact, that have been found that use the term, a woman's name, and then use the term presbutera. Now presbuteros is the male form of what it means to be an elder and presbutera is actually the feminine form. And when these are read, what we have to make sure of is that we don't know if what's being spoken of is a female elder or a woman who is being shown honor in her old age, because that term prebuteros or presbutera can be, depending on its usage, can describe someone who is an old woman, or presbuteros, an old man, or can be describing the office of elder. And it really depends upon the context. The truth is, is that we don't know. We just, we literally don't know when it comes to that. What I do know is this, is that the Council of Laodicea in 364 AD, actually prohibited female overseers in that context. Were they doing that because some were emerging? Were they doing that because they just felt that was what they were supposed to do? I don't know. Keep in mind, the Council of Laodicea, not inspired by God, not the same authority as the Word of God. So you have to kind of understand that, but that's just something that we know from history. So Paul talks about the character nature of those who are going to be leading as overseers, or elders, pastors, bishops in the context of the local church, but he also highlights another role, and that's the role of deacon. Now you may have heard of the origin of deacons because in the book of Acts, it talks to us about that origin. And it says this in Acts chapter 6. It says, "In those days, when the number of disciples "was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews," that means the Greek-oriented Jews, "among them complained against the Hebraic Jews," the Jew Jews, right, the Hebraic Jews, "because their widows were being overlooked "in the daily distribution of food." In other words, those that were of a Greek Christian background felt they were being overlooked in favor of those who were from a Jewish Christian background, because this was, you know, in Jerusalem, and like, it was a Jewish place, right? "So the Twelve apostles gathered all the disciples "together and said, 'It would not be right for us "'to neglect the ministry of the Word of God "'in order to wait on tables. "'Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you "'who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. "'We will turn this responsibility over to them, "'and will give our attention to prayer "'and the ministry of the Word." You see, this is where kind of functionally, the idea of the diakonos. Diakonos, in the Greek language, simply means servant, right? Some would use the term table waiters, because of the Acts 6 reference, that the diakonos is a servant group of people. Now what's interesting is that you know that this is now a different category from what we're talking about with a overseers, because of the way that Paul introduces it in verse number 8. He says, "In the same way," or likewise, now you kind of see a new category developing, right? "In the same way, deacons," servants, diakonos, "are to be worthy of respect, sincere." We talked about that in the last couple of weeks, "Not indulging in much wine and not pursuing dishonest gain. "They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith "with a clear conscience. "They must first be tested and then, "if there is nothing against them, "let them serve as deacons." That's an interesting phrase there. "Let them serve as servants, let them serve as deacons." Right? So same kind of idea here. This is actually about the nature and the character and the maturity of those who would be charged with the responsibility of serving the body of Christ. They have to have godly lives, they have to have a discernment of the truth so they won't be easily swayed by that which is false teaching, but can handle that and they must be tested. In other words, these are people that you know that you've seen and you've been able to observe all along the way. So same kind of idea here. This is actually about the nature and the character and the maturity of those who would be charged with the responsibility of serving the body of Christ. They have to have godly lives, they have to have a discernment of the truth so they won't be easily swayed by that which is false teaching, but can handle that, and they must be tested. In other words, these are people that you know that you've seen and you've been able to observe all along the way. Then in verse 11, we see a new category. "In the same way." It introduces it the same way, right? So likewise, "The women are to be worthy "of respect, not malicious talkers, "but temperate and trustworthy in everything." Now when this begins in the same way, it does so the same way that the previous verse did. It is distinguishing between the overseers and the deacons. And now we have, "In the same way, the women "are to be worthy of respect." Who are the women? Well, it would either mean the wives of deacons, or it would mean deaconesses, women deacons. Now, if you wanna know what I think, and there are people that view this differently. If you wanna know what I think I'll tell you, but I would also tell you that I'm holding this with humility and with open hands, I believe that it's talking about women deacons, deaconesses. And let me explain to you why I believe that to be the case. First of all, because he's introduced it as a new category, just like he did previously with deacons. Secondarily, you would expect, just in terms of linear thought and the way that Paul operates, you would expect that if there was a, if there were categories of how the wives of deacons are supposed to behave, then there would be a category for the wives of overseers and how they're supposed to behave, right? But there is no category for the wives of overseers, but there is a category distinct from that of deacon, very specifically named here. I would also point you to the fact that what Paul said about Phoebe, when he was in Rome, in Romans chapter 16, was this. Romans 16:1 says, "I commend to you our sister Phoebe, "a deacon of the church in Cenchreae." Right? Now, could that just mean a servant of the church? Yes. Does it have to be referring to office? It doesn't. But it's interesting that Paul is commending her as this in the church. That sounds to me like she is holding a position of deaconess in the context of the church. By the way, many scholars believe that it was Phoebe who delivered Paul's letter to Rome to the Romans. Could you imagine that, by the way, just being that person anyway? Paul's written Romans. You've tucked it in your, whatever that, your cloak and basically, Phoebe is traveling with the future of Christian theology tucked away in her cloak and delivering it to the church at Rome. What a remarkable thing, really. So I actually believe this is talking about women deacons and that they're supposed to also be respected and that they are to know how to control their tongues. They're not supposed to be malicious talkers. Paul says that very, very specifically. And then in verse 12 and 13, Paul ends this by coming back to the deacons and says, "A deacon must be faithful "to his wife and must manage his children "and his household well. "Those who have served well gain an excellent standing "and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus." And so he's reminding them again, the deacons are to be faithful in their marriages, and certainly as a parent and within the context of their home. Now, given that he's talked about overseers and deacons and talked about this in the context of order, bringing order where there was kind of false teaching and chaos, some of which may have emerged in some of those who were leading in the context of Ephesus, I think that you can sort out these two ideas of overseer and deacon this way. Overseers serve through leading, and deacons lead through serving. This is not an original statement with me. It's been a statement that's been around for quite some time. Nobody knows where it originated but thanks to whomever did. Overseers serve through leading, and deacons lead through serving, and they are to work together for the good of the body of Christ. Now what's clear in this passage of scripture is that it's Christian character that is of paramount importance. When you are reading through this list, what you're not hearing so much about is a bunch of pragmatic do's. What you're hearing is about be. Here's who you are to be, not so much what you are to do. When we look at the New Testament in whole, what we see is we see every church may not be structured exactly the same way, but there are some consistent things principally throughout all the churches in the New Testament. I mean, outside of 1 Timothy and Titus, there's really not much on structure in the whole New Testament. I've done the work. I've gone through every book in the New Testament. I wrote about a 10 page article a number of years ago on kind of this idea, and that's why, in some of this, I'm actually plagiarizing myself because I wrote on this and I went through every single New Testament book and asked this question. What does it say about structure and governance in the local church? And do you know what you find? Not much. Outside of 1 Timothy and Titus, right, where we are right now, you don't find much at all about structure. What you do find is you find a lot about character, and so modern structures may look a little bit different in terms of local churches. Maybe some of you came from different church backgrounds and whatever. Modern church structures may look a little different. Some break out overseer, and distinguish it from elder and they have bishops over a number of places. And then you've got elders that operate kind of together in one local context. You've got some that use terminology related to pastors. You've got some that use terminology related to boards. You've got the interesting nuance of cultural nuance because you've got the legality of functioning as a church in state to state or country to country. So sometimes, the structures and the names and the legality may be a little different from place to place. But what's important is that we embrace the principles of the New Testament that are transcendent, right? If I were offering you a handful, I would just say, when we look at church structure or church governance, we ought to look at just a handful, there's a handful of principles, maybe, that I would offer to you. There's more than this, and I've written on more than this, but I'm gonna give you just a handful real quick. Okay? Here's the first. Healthy leaders equip and mobilize the church. That's what healthy leaders do. They equip and they mobilize the church. Now, why do I say that? Well, I say that very specifically, because when Paul is talking to the church at Ephesus here, he's already written a letter to the church at Ephesus. It's called Ephesians, right? This comes after that. He wrote a letter called Ephesians that was about the church and it was a really high water mark in terms of the church. And interestingly enough, in that, he did not outline full ideas about the structure of church. And this is like the high water mark for what it means to be the church. But he did in 1 Timothy, because there was obviously a very specific issue going on there that he needed to address. But Paul, in the book of Ephesians was talking about those who are fulfilling functions of leadership in Ephesians chapter 4, and he says, "so Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, "the evangelists, the shepherds or pastors and teachers," to do what? "To equip his people for works of service, "so that the body of Christ may be built up "until we all reach unity in the faith, "and in the knowledge of the Son of God, "and become mature, attaining to the whole measure "of the fullness of Christ." In other words, what healthy leadership does is that it equips and mobilizes the church. That's what we want to see. We want to see the people of God, you, being equipped and mobilized in the work of God. Some of that will be organic. It will just happen in your sphere of influence that you live in. Some of it will be directed where we can say, hey, here's a way we can mobilize you into this context, but we want to see you equipped and mobilized. I think, you remember back years ago, Home Depot was running ads and they said, "You can do it. We can help." That's a good adage for church leadership. You can do it. We can help. Because what healthy leadership is supposed to be doing is mobilizing and equipping the church to be engaged in the mission of God, and that's something that we certainly want to endeavor to do. Secondly, healthy leadership is multiple, not individual. Healthy leadership is multiple, not individual. When you read the book of Acts, you have to remember that you're not reading the Old Testament context. Listen very carefully. There are no more Moseses on the mountain. That doesn't exist anymore. Moses was kind of a type for what we would see in Jesus, who was prophet, priest and king all at the same time, but there are no more Moseses on the mountain. In other words, it's no more about one singular individual who goes away and then comes back and says, "This is what God said, and everybody go do it." This actually is supposed to be more multiple, not individual because in every single one of the churches that Paul planted, he planted them with a multiplicity of leaders, not one singular, isolated individual. I think that's important for us to understand in the context of church governance. Now there are some places that we could look to and we could see that what emerged in some of those contexts was a leader among equals. Like for instance, in the church of Jerusalem, you see that with James, the half-brother of Jesus. He emerged as a lead in the church of Jerusalem, but among the eldership. So he wasn't alone, but he just emerged as a leader among equals, right? You see that with Peter in Rome. He said, I am a fellow elder. That's what he said, but he emerged, obviously, he was an apostle, right? So you kind of just go, dude, hats off, you're an apostle. I understand. So that can emerge and granted, but generally speaking, we are talking about healthy leadership is multiple, not individual. I think that's good for the discernment of the Spirit and for accountable purposes and all of those types of things. Thirdly, healthy leadership should be Christlike in character. This is really the fundamental nature of what we're reading when we read these lists is that healthy leadership should be Christlike in character. Character in Christ, maturity in Christ is paramount when we talk about these things. Just because someone in church leadership can produce does not mean they should lead. I realize I'm preaching to me and my kind of people, but it's just true. Just because someone can produce doesn't mean that they should lead because character is of imminent importance. Christlikeness is of paramount importance. There are certainly, you know, places and listen, I'll make some up and you're gonna go, oh man, if you name my vocation, I'm gonna be so mad at you. Don't be, I'm just making stuff up. You could be a salesperson and be addicted to substances, but as long as you're making sales. Right? That's how some people would view it. Okay. You could be a whatever. Politician, I'm just making stuff up at this point. You could be a politician and you could lie and manipulate, but as long as you're forwarding the agenda that some people want, eh. Right? You could be a whatever. Insurance broker. You could be carrying on as a woman or a man with another woman or man outside of your marriage, but hey, you're selling stuff. It's all good. Company's happy. Shareholders are happy, right? You can kind of move on and overlook that stuff. I'm generalizing when I say those things. But in church leadership, it is fundamentally a vocation of Christlike character. That is what it is. That is what Paul is saying. It is fundamentally a vocation of Christlike character, and we have to make sure that healthy leadership should be Christlike in character. Doesn't mean perfect. It does mean ever-maturing and growing in the likeness of Jesus. Fourth, healthy leadership should arise from within the local body at least as much as possible. Healthy leadership should arise from within the local body at least as much as possible. Now here's what I realize. There are some occasions where there's a need for outside help. That's what you saw here in Ephesus, by the way. Timothy, need you to go there. Right? That's what we see in Crete. Titus, need you to go there, right? Because they needed some outside help to bring some order and that kind of stuff. But the goal was Timothy's going in with instructions from Paul about how to raise up the kind of leadership that needs to be there from within the context there in Ephesus. That's actually, I think, the ideal goal is that leadership arises from within the local body, at least as much as is reasonable or is possible. Now I say all of this and walk through all of this, recognizing that a lot of this is aimed in a direction of people like me, but this is something that we all ought to understand because this would've also been read to the church there in Ephesus, that the whole body needs to understand what's being said about all of these ideas, because there's something that I think that you need to know, and I need to know, and that we need to be assured of and it's this. Write this down, if you have an opportunity. Godly conduct in the household of God gives others a more compelling reason to join the family. Godly conduct in the household of God gives others a more compelling reason to join the family. You see, what I'm saying basically is this. Mark Twain, wasn't all the way wrong there. That what happens is that when you have really bad influences from those that are in church leadership, or even those that claim the name of Jesus, when you've got people that don't model the life of Jesus, as imperfectly as that happens, but continuing to move in the maturity of Jesus and the growth in Christlikeness, when that's not happening, there are people that are just looking for an excuse not to be attached to the body of Christ. And that gives them all that they need. What we wanna do is we don't wanna give them those opportunities. We want them to be able to see a compelling witness of imperfect, yes, people, but people who are submitted to the Lordship of Jesus in such a way that it testifies to the transforming power of what God has done for the world, that God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him would not perish, but would have everlasting life. And that when we recognize, when we submit ourselves to what Jesus has done on our behalf, standing in our place, taking our sin and satisfying the justice of a holy God who poured his wrath out on our sin, on the perfect Son of God, Jesus, who willingly went to the cross on our behalf, and that through his resurrection paid for our sin, conquered death and who we now put our faith in, and he puts his Spirit in us, who transforms us from the inside out, where we are now jars of clay, but have inside of us, the beauty of the glory of Christ, and we see the growth and the likeness of Jesus growing in our lives. When that happens, both with those who are leading and serving, and those who are in the body of Christ, all of a sudden, the world gets a sniff of the aroma of Christ from the people of God. And that's what we want to see. Godly conduct in the household of God actually allows people to experience a winsome and a beautiful and a sweet smelling witness to the transformation that comes in what Jesus has done through the cross and the resurrection. That's what we need to remember. And all of us, not just leaders, though, they must be held accountable to this. And I stand before you as being accountable to this and to being accountable to the Word, but all of us have an accountability before God when it comes to how we conduct ourselves in the household of God, which is why Paul is writing to Timothy and teaching him all that he's teaching him here. It matters because it matters to the whole family. And it matters to those who are not yet family, who we want to see in the family, but we don't want to see them near as much as God wants to see them in the family. That's his desire. That's his heart. And Paul has already stressed that to Timothy, as we looked at in 1 Timothy chapter 2. God's heart is that all should be saved, come to a knowledge of the truth. Let's not get in the way of that, either as leaders and servants of the church, or as those who are making up the body of Christ. Let's not get in the way of what God wants to do by not submitting ourselves to Jesus and being continually transformed so that people can see the beauty of Christ in us. Let's take a moment together and let's pray. As we take this moment to pray together, I'm gonna pray for us, I'm gonna pray for myself, but I would simply say, if you're here and you've never before entrusted your life to Jesus, then I want to encourage you that when we dismiss in just a moment, we would love it if you'd walk straight across the atrium, into the fireside room, we'd love to take just a moment and talk to you about what it means to have your sins forgiven your life made new, to be transformed by Jesus and to be welcome into God's family. That is the best family to be in, and that is what we would encourage you to do if you've never before solidified that in your own heart by faith, because of the grace of what God has done for us in Jesus. So Father, I ask you now to speak and to minister to each of us, to recognize that even when we begin reading, all of the characteristics around those that are to serve the church of Jesus Christ, that we recognize that we are held to an account and we are held to a standard of life that doesn't call for our perfection, but does call for our sanctification, for our maturity, for our Christlikeness in every sphere, in private, in our homes, in public, in the local congregation and outside of the local congregation, that we would have the respect of outsiders. God, would you help us as those who lead and serve in this ministry, would you enable us to model Jesus, the humility of Christ, the grace of Christ, the love of Christ, the truth of Christ in our lives, in our behaviors, in our choices? And Father, I pray you'd help all of us as the people of God, because we realize that godly conduct in the household of God becomes a beautiful and a sweet smelling aroma and witness to those who are not yet in the family, and Father, how we long to not get in the way of the work of your Spirit in the lives of people. We want to cooperate with your work, so would you, Holy Spirit, continue to transform us into the likeness of Jesus so that those around us may see clearly the beauty of who Jesus is? And we trust you to do all of these things now. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.