Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Noble Task: The Divine Call, Biblical Character, and Ecclesiastical Recognition of the Elder

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The Noble Task: The Divine Call, Biblical Character, and Ecclesiastical Recognition of the Elder · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back. You are listening to Reformed
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  Thinking. Today we're opening up a topic
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  that feels, well, it feels weighty.
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  And I don't mean that in a boring, academic way.
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  I mean, it feels heavy, like we're looking at the blueprints
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  for something structurally critical.
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  It definitely has that kind of gravity to it.
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  What we're discussing today isn't just a matter of
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  preference or church style. Our sources treat it as a matter
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  of spiritual life and death for the church.
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  The topic is church leadership and.
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  I want to be really clear for you right at the top about what
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  we're not talking about about we're not doing a deep dive into
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  organizational charts or how to run a nonprofit more
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  efficiently. We are digging into the Biblical
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  office of the Elder. It's one of those topics that I
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  think most people in the church think they have a handle on.
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  You know, you see the elders, maybe their names are in the
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  bulletin. But when you really start to
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  examine what the Bible demands for that office, it's often a
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  world away from what we see practiced.
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  You're so right. And the sources we have in front
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  of us, which lean heavily on First Timothy and Titus, they
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  start by calling us out. Really.
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  They point to this modern tendency to run the church like
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  a secular business, like a startup.
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  Or a social club, or in some cases, a political organization.
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  Yes, we look for the CEO pastor. You know the type I'm talking
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  about. He's got the dynamic
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  personality. He's a visionary, commands a
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  room. He looks good on social media,
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  knows how to build a brand. We want the guy who generates
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  buzz. And that's a great model if
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  you're trying to launch a new sneaker line.
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  But the church isn't a company selling a product.
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  The sources are incredibly clear on this.
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  It's the household of God. And because it's his house, he
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  sets the rules. He provides the blueprints.
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  That's our mission today, to look at those divine blueprints
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  for leadership. So we're intentionally setting
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  aside our cultural ideas of what makes a good leader, and we're
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  submitting ourselves to what Scripture actually says.
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  And the stakes couldn't be higher.
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  This is not about choosing your favorite management style.
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  No, not at all. It's a question of covenantal
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  obedience, and it's about protecting the flock.
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  A flock that we have to remember was purchased with the blood of
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  Christ himself. When the leadership is wrong,
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  either corrupt or just biblically unqualified, the
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  sheep are the ones who get hurt. Let's start unpacking that,
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  because before we get into the fine print of the
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  qualifications, the sources make this massive point about the
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  historical context. They draw a sharp line between a
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  priest and a shepherd. This is such a critical starting
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  point. If you get this wrong,
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  everything that follows will be distorted.
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  So think about the Old Covenant. The central leadership figure
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  was the priest. In the Greek, the word is
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  hierius. Hierius OK and his whole
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  function was mediatorial, right? He was the go between.
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  Exactly. He stood between a holy God and
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  a sinful people, and how did he get the job?
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  It wasn't an internal call. It wasn't because he was a good
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  person or a gifted speaker. It was hereditary.
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  You were a priest because you were born into the tribe of
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  Levi. It was all about your bloodline.
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  Your job was sacrifices, ceremonial purity, and you had
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  restricted access to God's presence.
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  But then with Christ, the whole system changes.
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  The sources describe it as a seismic shift.
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  It's a complete revolution. The veil in the temple is torn
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  in two. The shadows are over.
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  Because the reality Christ has come, and because Christ is our
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  great and final High priest, we no longer need an earthly
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  priesthood. That's why the New Testament
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  never ever uses that word Hierius for a church leader that
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  uses a different word presbyteros Elder.
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  Yeah, that's a distinction that gets blurred so often.
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  I mean, if a church is structured in a way that the
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  pastor is seen as the dispenser of grace, the one you have to go
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  through to get to God, they've effectively hit the rewind
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  button and gone back to the old covenant.
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  They have. That's the core era of
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  Sacredodilism, which you find in its clearest form in Roman
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  Catholicism. The idea that a priest re
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  sacrifices Christ or acts as a necessary channel for grace is
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  something Reformed theology absolutely rejects.
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  There is only one mediator, and it's Jesus.
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  The elder's job isn't to dispense grace, it's to announce
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  the gospel of grace. It's even a change in the
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  primary sense we use in worship, the sources say.
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  We move from a visual spectacle, you know, watching an animal
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  being slaughtered, to an auditory 1.
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  Hearing the word becomes the central act, and This is why the
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  primary metaphor for the elder is an under shepherd, as Peter
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  calls him. He is not the owner of the
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  sheep, he's accountable to the chief shepherd.
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  So his main tool isn't a sacrificial knife, it's the
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  shepherd's staff of Scripture used to guide, comfort and
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  protect the flock. That framing is perfect.
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  So we are not looking for a priest, we are not looking for
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  CEO, we're looking for a shepherd.
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  OK, so let's dive into the text itself.
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  First Timothy 3 verse one. The saying is trustworthy.
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  If anyone aspires to the Office of Overseer, he desires a noble
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  task. Our sources spend a ton of time
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  right here on this idea of the call.
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  As they should, Paul prefaces this by saying the saying is
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  trustworthy. Pistos ho logos.
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  Whenever Paul uses that phrase, he's planting a flag.
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  He's saying pay attention. This is a foundational doctrine,
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  not just my personal advice for your church in Ephesus.
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  And he uses 2 words for this. Desire, aspires and desires.
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  The Greek here is pretty fascinating.
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  The first one is or a Jettai. Or a jettai.
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  The literal picture is to stretch oneself out for
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  something. Imagine reaching for a book on
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  the highest shelf. You're straining, putting an
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  effort to grasp it. It's an active pursuit.
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  And the second word, epithemae, carries the idea of a deep
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  passion, of setting your heart on something.
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  OK, but hold on, let's talk about that for a second.
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  We're in a reformed world here. We believe in God's sovereignty.
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  We're generally pretty wary of human ambition, self promotion,
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  all of that. So how does this idea of a man
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  stretching himself out for an office fit with the idea that
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  God is the one who calls? It sounds a little worldly.
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  It does sound like attention, doesn't it?
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  But the way the sources resolve this is by saying that the
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  desire itself is a work of the Holy Spirit.
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  God's primary way of calling a man is by giving him this holy
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  desire for the work. But, and this is the absolute
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  key, we have to look at what he's desiring.
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  Paul says he desires a noble task.
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  The Greek is Coloss Ergon. And ergon means work.
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  It means work, toil, labor. It implies getting your hands
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  dirty, spending energy, feeling exhausted at the end of the day.
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  So if a man desires the title, if he wants the respect, if he
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  wants the corner office in the church building, but he despises
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  the thought of hours of study, messy counseling and difficult
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  meetings, he is stretching out for the wrong thing.
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  So wanting the platform but not the plow means you're not
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  actually called. That's a great way to put it if
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  you want the microphone but you don't want the towel and basin
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  to wash feet. It isn't a divine calling.
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  It's just human, Edo. The sources use a great term for
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  the biblical model, A pneumatocracy.
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  Rule by the Spirit, yes. Acts 20.28 is so clear.
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  Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock
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  in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.
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  The Spirit does the appointing. So the church isn't a democracy
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  where we just vote for the most charismatic candidate.
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  And it's not a corporation where you climb the ladder through
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  ambition. It's a pneumatocracy.
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  God sovereignly gives the desire.
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  The Spirit gifts the man, and then the church's job is to
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  recognize what the Spirit has already done.
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  It's a synergy, then the internal call from God and the
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  external confirmation from the church.
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  But before that confirmation happens, there's a list, a
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  checklist. And it's not a list of career
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  accomplishments. It's what our sources call the
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  mirror of the law, the qualifications in First Timothy
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  3. And this is where we have to be
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  so careful not to read our own cultural biases into the text.
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  The very first qualification, the one that acts as a sort of
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  canopy over all the rest, is that he must be above reproach.
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  A. Greek word is an epileptos.
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  The definition our sources give is not to be taken hold of or
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  without a handle. That's such a great word
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  picture. It's incredibly vivid.
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  I mean, think of an accuser, whether it's a critic in the
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  community or the accuser, Satan himself, he's looking for a way
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  to grab this man, to get a handle on him and drag his
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  reputation and by extension, the gospel, through the mud.
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  But he can't. There's no glaring sin, no
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  pattern of hypocrisy, no standal to grab onto.
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  So this doesn't mean he's sinless, right?
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  Because if that were the standard, we'd have no elders.
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  No, of course not. Only Christ is sinless.
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  It's about credibility. It means there's no settled,
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  unrepentant pattern of scandalous sin in his life.
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  It means that his life is so consistent that if an accusation
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  were to arise, the natural reaction of those who know Him
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  would be. That just doesn't sound like
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  him. I don't believe it.
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  His character itself becomes his difference.
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  And one of the first places people look for a handle is in a
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  man's home, the text says. He must be the husband of one
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  wife. This line gets a lot of debate.
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  It really does. The literal Greek is MIAs
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  kanikos Andra, which translates to a one woman man.
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  The sources we're using hold to a firm complementarian view here
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  that the office is for qualified man.
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  But this phrase seems to go much deeper than just your marital
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  status or your gender. It's not just a box to check.
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  Not at all. It's a matter of the hearts
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  affections. A man could be married to the
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  same woman for 50 years, but not be a one woman man.
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  If his eyes are constantly wandering, if he's addicted to
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  pornography, if he's nurturing an inappropriate emotional
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  relationship with someone who isn't his wife, he's
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  disqualified. It's a call to singular,
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  faithful devotion in heart, mind and body.
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  And that domestic focus continues with the next
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  qualification managing his own household well.
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  The home is described as the proving ground.
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  The logic Paul lays out is just plain common sense.
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  He basically asks, if a man doesn't know how to manage his
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  own family, how in the world can he take care of God's church?
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  The family is the little church. It's the laboratory where his
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  leadership is tested every single day.
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  Let's make that practical. So you could have a guy who's an
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  amazing project manager at work. He's efficient, he gets results,
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  he's respected in his field. But you go to his house and it's
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  chaos. His kids are out of control,
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  he's emotionally distant from his wife.
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  He's a tyrant. Is he qualified for eldership?
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  Absolutely not. He's disqualified the character
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  traits needed to shepherd a family well.
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  Patience, kindness, consistency, discipline, love are the very
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  same traits needed to shepherd a church.
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  A man who is a bully at home will become a bully in the
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  church. A man who is passive and checked
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  out at home will be a hireling who abandons the flock at the
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  first sign of trouble. That is just such a sobering
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  reality check. It completely flips our modern
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  script for evaluating leaders. We tend to focus almost
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  exclusively on public performance and gifting.
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  Scripture starts with private character and faithfulness.
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  And it gives us both negatives and positives.
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  He must not be a drunkard, not violent, not quarrelsome, not a
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  lover of money. Buddy must be hospitable, A
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  lover of good, self controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.
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  Let's pick up on not violent In the business world, a certain
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  kind of aggressive, domineering leader is sometimes celebrated.
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  They're a hard charger. They take no prisoners.
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  That might get you a promotion in a corporation.
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  But it gets you disqualified in the church, a violent man, and
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  that can mean verbally and emotionally, not just
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  physically, will wound the sheep.
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  The character of an elder must reflect the character of the
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  chief shepherd, who is gentle and lowly in heart.
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  You can't beat the sheep into following you.
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  So after this long list of character traits, we get to the
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  one qualification that is distinctly a skill.
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  It says he must be able to teach the.
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  Tacticos This is the defining gift that separates the office
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  of Elder from the office of Deacon.
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  A Deacon must hold to the faith with a clear conscience, but the
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  elder must be able to explain it, defend it, and apply it.
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  Now, our sources are very specific about what this
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  teaching entails, framing it in what's called the cessationist
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  view. Can you breakdown why that's a
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  relevant distinction here? Yeah, that's a key piece of the
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  theological framework. To be able to teach in the new
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  covenant sense does not mean the elder is receiving new direct
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  revelation from God. He's not a prophet getting
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  downloads from heaven. The conviction here is that the
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  Canon of Scripture is closed, God has spoken fully and finally
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  in His Son, and that word is recorded in the Bible.
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  So if he's not getting new information, what is his
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  teaching job? His job is exposition and
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  preservation. One of the best analogies our
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  sources use was that of a waiter.
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  The elder is not the chef. He didn't create the meal, God
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  did in his word. The elders job is to deliver
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  that meal to the table faithfully.
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  He doesn't add his own spicy opinions because he thinks it's
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  a bit bland. He doesn't remove the hard
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  teachings because he's afraid the diners won't like it.
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  He serves what the chef prepared, pure and
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  unadulterated. I love that analogy, but it's
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  not just about feeding, is it? There's a defensive or polemical
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  aspect to it. Titus 1.9 says he must be able
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  to give instruction and sound doctrine and also to rebuke
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  those who contradict it. Right.
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  The Greek for rebuke is Ellen Shine.
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  It's a strong word. It means to refute, to expose
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  error, to convince the opponent. This is where the shepherd's
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  staff has to become a protective rod.
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  He has to be able to identify and dismantle false teachings
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  that threaten the flock. And the sources give some modern
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  examples, like the prosperity gospel or critical race theory
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  or easy believism, what's called antinomianism.
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  That's right, it's not enough for an elder to be a nice guy
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  who loves Jesus. If he can't open the Bible and
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  clearly, patiently and biblically dismantle the
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  prosperity gospel and shake why it's different gospel, then he
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  is not qualified. He's leaving the sheep
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  vulnerable to wolves. He must have the theological
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  skill and the courage to say that is false, and here's why
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  from Scripture. And the ultimate goal of all
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  this teaching, all this refuting, isn't just to be the
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  smartest guy in the room or win a debate.
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  It has to be Christ centered. Absolutely.
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  It has to be coherent with the whole of Scripture, the analogy
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  of faith, and it must always point to Jesus, like Christ did
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  with the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
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  The elders job is to open up all the scriptures and show how they
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  are about him. If his teaching is just a set of
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  moral rules, be a better person without grounding it in the
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  person and work of Christ. He's not feeding the sheep, he's
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  just giving them a heavier burden to carry.
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  OK, so we've covered the internal call that spear given
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  desire. We've walked through the mirror
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  of the qualifications, that high bar of character, and we've
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  looked at the specific gift of teaching.
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  But a man can't just look at that list, check all the boxes
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  himself, and then declare that he's an elder.
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  No, that would be a disaster. That brings us to the final
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  crucial piece, ecclesiastical recognition, the external call
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  from the church. This is the objective check and
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  balance on a man's subjective, internal sense of calling.
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  There are no lone wolf elders in the New Testament.
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  Authority has to be given by the body.
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  It can't just be taken by an individual.
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  The Bible talks about a period of testing.
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  Let them also be tested first. The Greek word here is dokimazu.
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  Dokimazu. It's a term from metallurgy.
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  It's what you would do to a piece of gold or silver.
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  You'd heat it up. You'd scrutinize it to see if it
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  was pure or if it was full of dross, worthless impurities.
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  So that implies a process that involves some heat, some
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  pressure, some serious examination.
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  And it implies time. This is not something you can do
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  in a couple of interviews over a weekend.
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  You can't dokimazu a man's character by reading his resume.
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  You have to watch him over time. How does he react when he's
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  wrong? How does he handle criticism?
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  How does he serve when no one is watching?
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  It is a prolonged season of observation by the Church.
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  Which leads directly to that very stark warning Paul gives in
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  First Timothy 5.22. Do not be hasty in the laying on
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  of hands. This is one of the most
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  frightening verses for a church leadership team.
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  The prohibition of haste. And Paul gives the reason right
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  after. Nor take part in the sins of
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  others. He's teaching a principle of
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  corporate solidarity. If a church is in a hurry,
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  they're desperate to fill a vacant pulpit, and they rush to
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  ordain an unqualified man. They become partners in his
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  future sins. When he damages the flock, they
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  share in the guilt. They are coinies, partners or
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  sharers in his sin. Wow, that really puts the brakes
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  on the pragmatic temptation to just, you know, get a body in
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  the role. It should.
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  A vacancy in the pulpit is a real problem, but a wolf in the
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  pulpit is the catastrophe. It's always better to wait
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  patiently on the Lord than to hastily install a man who will
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  tear the church apart. So on a practical level, how
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  does this recognition happen? The congregation has a role to
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  play. Yes, the principle is laid out
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  in Acts chapter 6. The apostles tell the people,
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  pick out from among you men of good repute.
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  The congregation, being filled with the Spirit, is given the
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  wisdom to identify men in whom the Spirit is already at work.
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  And this process leads to ordination, the laying on of
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  hands. Right.
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  An ordination is not just a nice ceremony, it's a solemn act of
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  worship. It's the church publicly putting
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  its seal of approval on a man. It's the elder saying on behalf
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  of the whole church, we have tested this man, We recognize
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  God's call on his life. We affirm his character and
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  gifting, and we are now setting him apart and authorizing him to
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  preach the Word and administer the sacraments.
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  It's a weighty covenantal act. When you lay it all out like
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  this, the incredibly high character standard, the
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  necessity of deep biblical knowledge, the long testing
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  period, it just throws into sharp relief how distorted our
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  modern models of leadership can be.
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  Our sources actually identified 4 specific modern distortions
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  that are counterfeits of the biblical model.
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  Yes, and it's good for us to be aware of these.
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  The first one is pragmatism. This is the results oriented
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  approach. The world says if it works it
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  must be right. Growth validates the leader.
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  And Scripture says do not be hasty.
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  It says fruitfulness takes time. You can have a church that is
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  growing numerically with a big budget and lots of programs, but
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  be spiritually toxic. Administrative success is not
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  the same thing as spiritual maturity.
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  We have to remember that cancer also grows quickly.
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  The. 2nd distortion is celebrity culture.
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  This one is everywhere in our time.
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  The world equates fitness for leadership with platform size,
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  social media followers and brand recognition.
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  If a guy is famous, he must be qualified.
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  But Scripture points us in the opposite direction.
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  It says leadership is demonstrated in quiet holiness
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  and faithfulness in the home. That's right, the elder is
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  called to be a local example, not a global performer.
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  And celebrity culture is so dangerous because it often
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  insulates a leader from real accountability.
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  He becomes too big to fail. But in God's economy, the leader
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  is the one who should be under the most scrutiny, not the
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  least. OK, the third distortion is
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  mysticism. This is the person who plays the
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  God told Me card. They say God has called me to be
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  the pastor here, so who are you to question it?
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  It's a way of short circuiting the whole testing process.
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  It is. It tries to substitute a private
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  subjective experience for the objective public standards of
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  Scripture and the confirmation of the church.
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  But the Bible tells us to test the spirits.
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  A true call from God will always humble itself and submit to the
• 18:45
  testing process. A man who refuses to be tested
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  because he claims a special word from God has already revealed A
• 18:51
  disqualifying level of pride. And the final one, moral
• 18:55
  minimalism. This is the mindset that says,
• 18:58
  well, as long as he hasn't committed a felony or had a
• 19:00
  major public scandal, he's good to go.
• 19:03
  It prioritizes talent over character.
• 19:05
  You hear it all the time. Yeah, he can be a bit arrogant
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  or he's not great with people, but man, can he preach.
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  That's moral minimalism in a nutshell.
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  But the biblical standard isn't not a criminal.
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  The standard is above reproach. Character is the non negotiable
• 19:21
  foundation. If that foundation has cracks,
• 19:24
  it doesn't matter how beautiful the rest of the building looks,
• 19:27
  it will eventually collapse. This is all incredibly
• 19:30
  challenging. It really forces you to take a
• 19:32
  hard look at what we value and prioritize in our churches.
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  It should. It should change everything, how
• 19:38
  we pray for potential leaders, how we identify them and how we
• 19:41
  train them up over the long haul.
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  So let's bring this all home. What's the application for you
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  listening today? Well, if you're a man who feels
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  that desire that aregitai to be an elder, the message is this.
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  Pursue the qualifications, not the office.
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  Focus on becoming the man the Bible describes.
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  Work on your character, your marriage, your family, your
• 20:01
  knowledge of the Word. Serve faithfully where you are
• 20:04
  and trust God to open the door in His time and trust His Church
• 20:07
  to recognize His work in you. And for those already in church
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  leadership? The application is to build
• 20:13
  slow, patient pathways for developing leaders.
• 20:16
  Resist the urge to be hasty. Take the time to Dokimasu to
• 20:20
  really test men and value holiness more than you value
• 20:24
  charisma. And for everyone else, the
• 20:26
  person in the Pew. Pray.
• 20:28
  Pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers and learn
• 20:31
  to value the right things. Don't be drawn to the flashy
• 20:34
  celebrity pastor. Instead, learn to cherish the
• 20:37
  faithful, perhaps even boring shepherd who week after week
• 20:41
  simply opens the Word and feeds your soul.
• 20:43
  That is how a church stays healthy.
• 20:45
  The process God designed is benevolent, not bureaucratic.
• 20:49
  It's Christ who calls. It's Scripture that qualifies,
• 20:51
  and it's the church that recognizes.
• 20:53
  And the final thought from the sources is the ultimate
• 20:55
  motivation is from first Peter 5.
• 20:58
  The reward for this difficult work isn't a bigger church or a
• 21:01
  book deal. The reward is that when the
• 21:03
  chief shepherd appears, the faithful under shepherd will
• 21:05
  receive the unfading crown of glory.
• 21:08
  And that's the only approval we're having a.
• 21:10
  Perfect place to end. Thanks for joining us for this
• 21:12
  deep dive into the Shepherd's mandate.
• 21:14
  A high calling indeed. It certainly is.
• 21:16
  We'll see you next time on reformed thinking.