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1 Timothy 3:1-3 - What Should Pastors Be Like? · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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  you to know Christ, grow in his word and show his love to
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  others. Let's dive right in.
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  Hello and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk.
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  For everyone that is still watching or listening, after
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  last week's or no, after last episodes, super, super long
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  episode and very controversial thoughts, I'm glad that you are
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  here. And so today we are in First
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  Timothy chapter 3 and we're going to be looking at verses
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  one through 7. The letter of first Timothy is
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  from Paul, the apostle to his son in the faith, Timothy, who
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  is pastoring, leading the church there in Ephesus.
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  And Paul had left Timothy there so that Timothy would be able
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  to, if you will, contradict some of the false teachers that had
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  been teaching there in the church that Paul had started.
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  And there was just wicked both behavior and doctrines that were
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  taking place in the church. And we've looked at that over
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  the past several episodes, teaching of myths and
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  genealogies and speculations, people that had shipwrecked
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  their faith, people that were argumentative, people that were
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  angry, people that were being disruptive within the church.
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  And so now in verses one through 7, as we have heard a lot of
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  what the church is not supposed to be like and who should not be
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  teachers in the church at Ephesus, like Hymenaeus and
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  Alexander that we read about at the end of chapter 1.
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  Now Paul gives to Timothy, though Timothy is pastoring
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  there at the moment, he gives him an instruction for you need
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  more good, godly qualified individuals that would serve
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  along with you and that would be able to serve in the church
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  after Timothy was gone. And so let's read through verses
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  1. Let's read verses one through 7
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  and I'm super excited. This is a portion of scripture
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  that I've spent a lot of time on and I'll I'll stop there for my
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  talking for one moment. Verse #1 This saying is
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  trustworthy. If anyone aspires to be an
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  overseer, he desires a noble work.
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  An overseer therefore must be above reproach.
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  The husband of one wife, self controlled, sensible,
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  respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not an excessive drinker,
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  not a bully, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not greedy.
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  He must manage his own household competently and have his
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  children under control with all dignity.
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  If anyone does not know how to manage his own household, how
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  will he take care of God's church?
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  He must not be a new convert or he might become conceited and
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  incur the same condemnation as the devil.
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  Furthermore, he must have a good reputation among outsiders so
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  that he does not fall into disgrace and the devil's trap.
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  OK, one thing I want to note here.
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  Notice that Paul doesn't give to Timothy in this portion of
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  Scripture a job description of everything that a pastor and
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  elder and overseer should be doing, if you will.
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  This list of things is more about who is the type of person
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  that an overseer is. So I want to start off with
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  verse #1 because I need to define some terms real quick so
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  that As for walking together, we can get in the right place.
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  He says this saying is trustworthy.
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  If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble
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  work. Paul here does not give where
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  the saying is from. He just says this is a
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  trustworthy, this is a a good and a real thing.
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  This is the same type of thing that he said in chapter 1 where
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  he says, here's a faithful saying that's worthy of all
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  acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
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  sinners. And then Paul adds, and I am the
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  chief of those sinners. And so here there's another
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  saying that Paul says is trustworthy, that if anyone
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  aspires to be an overseer, he despires a noble, he desires a
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  noble work. Now, we don't often use the
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  phrase overseer in regards to church leadership.
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  Depending on your background, you might, you may have come
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  from perhaps like me, from a background where there was a
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  pastor of a church and there were several deacons that were
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  all male. And that might have been the
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  church leadership that you grew up with.
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  When I became a Southern Baptist couple years ago, I heard about
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  a, a type of church leadership that started in the 1900s called
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  a church council. And this was, you had a pastor
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  and you had the deacons of the church and then you had some
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  different like ministry directors, or I think sometimes
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  they may even have been called like a minister, like a minister
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  of music or a minister of youth or something like that.
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  And, and maybe that was a way that church leadership was
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  structured. If you came from perhaps a
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  Presbyterian background, you would have grown up with both
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  teaching elders and ruling elders.
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  Normally one teaching elder somewhat synonymous with what a
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  pastor would be in, in some Baptist churches.
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  And then you would have ruling elders as well as deacons.
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  And then depending on which kind of group of Presbyterians you're
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  with, there might have been just male deacons or male and female
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  deacons. And then over and above that,
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  you have the different presbyteries and synods, which
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  would be groups of those elders, you know, kind of going up the
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  ranks. And so lots of different people
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  have different church leadership structures that they know.
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  I'll, I'll put kind of our cards on the table here at Tabernacle.
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  We have what's called a plurality of elders.
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  So we have in Baptist theology, we believe that there are two
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  offices within the local church. There are pastors and there are
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  deacons. Or if you want to use the words
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  that are more common in the New Testament, we have elders and we
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  have deacons and scripture will utilize the words pastor, which
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  is the word shepherd. It's slightly frustrating to me
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  the the word pastor only shows up like one time as a noun
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  within the New Testament and sometimes it doesn't even show
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  up one time if you translate it consistently as shepherd.
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  So Jesus says I am the Good Shepherd.
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  That's the word poeman and that is a that's the word translated
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  shepherd. I don't 100% know at what point
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  someone said OK, well we'll use pastor.
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  I assume it came in from another language into English and so it
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  was often used to differentiate between what a shepherd is and
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  then this person that leads a church.
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  But it's the same word. Pointman is shepherd.
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  And then very rarely within the New Testament will you ever see
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  it translated as pastor. And many translations simply
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  translate it as shepherd the whole time through.
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  So while that is the verbiage that I grew up with, that, you
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  know, if people live, someone has to ask me like, hey, what do
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  you do? Say, oh, I'm a pastor.
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  I'm the pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church.
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  It is technically the least used phrase for the leadership of a
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  local church. The most common word that is
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  used to describe the leaders of a local church are the elders,
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  which is a group of men that have these descriptions of what
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  their life and what their character is like.
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  That they have been called by the Lord and by the congregation
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  and by the other elders to serve in this leadership capacity.
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  There in the local church then the other word that is used in
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  the New Testament, so you have shepherd or pastor elder and
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  then you have this word here overseer.
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  This would be the Greek word Episcopal.
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  That's so the word for shepherd or pastor is poeman in Greek.
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  The word for elder is presbuteros, which is where you
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  get the term presbytery or Presbyterian because it's those
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  elders together and then you have the phrase like
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  Episcopalian. So I think at least an urban
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  legend, Pepsi Cola was named that because the guy that
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  created the soda had a crush on a minister's daughter and the
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  minister was Episcopalian. And so the guy, you know, took
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  the letters of Episcopalian and made Pepsi Cola.
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  I don't know if that's true or not.
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  That's at least a story that I heard.
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  But here at Episcopos, this is one that is an overseer, they
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  are a ruler. It is your job foreman.
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  It is the person that overseas everything that is going on in a
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  particular place. And so the an Episcopalian form
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  of church government says whatever the Episcopos says
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  goes, whatever the overseer or older translations, whatever the
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  Bishop says, goes. So if the Bishop says, all
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  right, I'm trying to think of like a random church decision.
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  Oh, actually, this is helpful. In an Episcopal structure, a
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  singular man is in charge of the church and can bring members in
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  and can remove members from the church.
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  So kind of the ultimate Episcopalian model has as its
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  head the Pope over the Catholic Church.
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  And so that would be an Episcopalian model where there's
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  one person at the head. You can also have what's termed
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  a mono episcopacy, which would be 1 pastor and whatever that
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  one pastor says goes. So that's Episcopalian form of
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  church government. Then there's Presbyterian, which
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  would say whatever the elders of a church together decide, that's
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  what would happen. So the elders can can make a
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  person a member of a church or can remove a person from
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  membership at a church. Then there is what we would have
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  as Baptist, which is Congregational Church quality,
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  which does not mean that the congregation makes every
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  decision, but when it comes to the most ultimate decisions of
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  the church, which is the leadership, the membership, and
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  the stewardship of the church. That the congregation is in
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  charge of utilizing those keys to the Kingdom that Jesus talks
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  about in Matthew 18. That we say all together, yes,
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  we do believe that this person is a true Christian.
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  They've professed their faith in Christ, they've been baptized,
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  they are in agreement with our beliefs as a church, and so we
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  are bringing them together into membership.
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  It's not just the decision of Brian, It's not just the
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  decision of the elders. This is as a congregation, we
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  are bringing them in together. Or when someone is removed from
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  membership that I as the pastor, I can't remove anyone from
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  membership at Tabernacle. The elders cannot remove anyone
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  from membership at Tabernacle. That's a choice that together
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  the congregation makes. Or when it comes to church
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  leadership that I, as I told our elders when we adopted elders
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  went through that process at the end of 2024 and then beginning
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  of or have the congregation vote on that at the end of 2024 and
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  then they came into their roles as overseers, as elders at the
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  beginning of 2025. I told them I cannot make you
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  guys elders, only the congregation can do that because
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  that's something that the Lord has.
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  Paul in Galatians 1 blames the Galatian churches for the false
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  teachers that were there. He says, listen, if me and my
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  crew or an Angel from heaven or anyone preaches any other gospel
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  to you than the gospel that you received, which was Jesus by
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  grace through faith, He says if anyone preaches any other gospel
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  to you, let him be accursed. And so there's an onus put on
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  the congregation to say you are responsible for the leadership
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  that you have. And if you have wicked rulers,
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  if you have ungodly leaders, this is your fault.
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  And so if it's their fault, if they have bad teachers, then we
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  can make the assumption from Scripture that they have a
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  responsibility or they have a say in who their leaders are.
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  So the local church is responsible.
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  The congregation at large is responsible for the leadership,
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  membership and stewardship of the local church.
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  And they are led by their elders, by their overseers,
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  which is hear what Paul says. If anyone aspires to be an
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  overseer, he desires a noble work.
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  It is a good thing to be a pastor, to be an elder of a
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  local church. I also meant to mention this.
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  So these, these 3 words, pastor, shepherd, elder and overseer,
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  this is 1 office. We don't believe that there are
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  three different offices within the local church that comprise,
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  if you will, the senior leadership.
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  We believe that this is one thing and we can read about that
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  in Acts 20 and in First Peter 5. And I've spent a lot of time on
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  those other portions of scripture.
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  You can look up those episodes again, that's Acts 20 and first
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  Peter 5I talk about both of those at length.
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  So to be an overseer, to be an elder, you have to, at the very
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  least, the most basic thing that you need is a desire to be an
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  elder or a pastor or an overseer.
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  If someone doesn't want to be a pastor, they should not be a
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  pastor. And so that was one of the
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  things, even as I was training our prospective elders at
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  Tabernacle was, hey, if you believe that this is something
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  that the Lord might have for you that he, he wants for you,
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  wonderful. If you're like, oh, I don't
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  really want to do this. I don't feel comfortable with
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  this. I was like, that's OK.
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  Like that. That means God has not called
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  you to it. So there has to be a desire, the
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  most basic thing. Now all of the qualifications
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  stack on top of that, or if you will, the the character traits
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  accompany that desire. But it starts with a desire.
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  And if you have a pastor, if you have elders in your local
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  church, be thankful for them that they had a desire to serve
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  you having been in full time ministry.
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  Now this is my 8th or 9th year of full time ministry.
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  I I can tell you guys ministry is not an easy Rd.
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  Praying for people navigating through hardships.
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  Honestly just the struggle of fighting Satan in myself and in
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  my family and in my church and in my congregation like that is
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  a rough it is a tough road. And so if you have someone that
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  is passionate about it and they they love you, they love the
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  Lord, they love the work that God has called them to man.
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  Be thankful for your pastor. Be thankful for your elders.
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  It's not an easy thing. And we'll see some of that even
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  in the end verses as Satan is mentioned again and again as
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  being in opposition to what the church leaders are doing.
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  Also in chapter 3 verse #1 here, if anyone aspires to be an
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  overseer says he desires a noble work.
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  As we mentioned last episode, the pronouns that are used of a
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  pastor or elder or overseer in the church is exclusively male.
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  Within the New Testament. The women have many amazing
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  works that God has for them to do.
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  God has reserved the office of male only, the office of elder
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  only for qualified men. Verse #2 An overseer, therefore,
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  must be above reproach. This does not mean that no one
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  has anything bad to say about him.
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  A pastor will never ever be perfect.
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  Someone will always have something to say.
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  Hey, he, he's got this kind of mess up in his armor there.
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  He's got a, you know, this flaw or he misspoke in this instance,
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  or I didn't like this decision that he made.
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  If being quote UN quote above reproach meant that you had no
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  sin, then no person could ever be a pastor.
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  The thought here is that there are no handles that a person
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  could grab onto to say his defining characteristic.
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  Or he has a if you will, he has a besetting sin.
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  He has a sin that he holds onto that typifies his life.
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  That to know him is to be like, man, that dude is a liar.
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  That dude is a drunk. That dude is this, and for that
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  statement to be able to be true, that everyone would go, Oh yeah,
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  that is who he is. That should never typify an
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  overseer. Now, in this list, I think as I
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  mentioned as well, both in Acts 20 and First Peter 5 and in
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  Titus One, these lists of characteristics are not
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  something that's like unique for pastors that are not also to be
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  true about every single Christian.
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  A pastor is not a super Christian, but he ought to be a
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  faithful Christian. So an overseer must be above
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  reproach. There's nothing that you can
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  grab onto in his life that you would say yes.
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  This sin he holds onto, he embraces it.
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  He refuses to repent of it. He's not seeking for the Lord's
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  victory over it. He just loves this sin.
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  A pastor must be above reproach. He says, the husband of one
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  wife. I've read a lot on this
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  particular phrase. I know many people across the
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  years have had many different interpretations on it.
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  The clearest and most direct interpretation is that he ought
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  to be married. To only one woman, and if you
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  will, only one woman at a time. That this is a person who is
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  typified by his marital fidelity to his spouse.
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  This is a person that when it comes to his sexual ethics,
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  there is no doubt he is faithful to his spouse and to only her.
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  If you have any questions about that message, comment, whatever.
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  I've done a lot of reading on that, but I don't want to spend
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  a ton of time on that today. He is to be self controlled, one
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  of the fruit of the Spirit, as we all should be self
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  controlled. Also, we ought to all be a
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  faithful to our spouses. It says that he is to be
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  sensible. Certainly that ought to be a
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  descriptive of every one of us, but especially our church
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  leaders. They ought to be sensible
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  people. He ought to be respectable.
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  I know I am 28 years old. I think by the time this episode
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  comes out, I'll be encroaching on 29 years old.
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  I know that I'm young, but I hope that the way that I talk,
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  the way that I sing, the way that I worship, the way that I
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  pray with others communicates respectability.
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  That the office of an elder is something that I ought to hold
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  with some fear and trepidation and respect and awe, knowing all
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  right, if I'm going to care for people's souls, they ought to
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  feel like they can respect me. And so I need to watch my
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  language. I need to watch my actions and
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  my time and my calendar and thousand different things.
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  Are you a respectable person if you go, oh, I don't really care
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  if people respect me Here it is listed as a good trait,
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  something that we can pursue. The Holy Spirit of God lives
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  within you. And so being respectable doesn't
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  mean that you have to just be a stick in the mud and be stoic
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  and be grumpy. But are you respectable?
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  Are people able to say, man, I really respect this about you?
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  Let's have that as something we want to pursue here.
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  Hospitable, that someone wants to spend time with others, wants
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  to care for others, will have others over into their home.
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  I got to be really honest with you guys.
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  This is something that I always want to be doing more with
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  toddlers in the house. Being able to, you know, manage
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  everything and make sure there's not crumbs on everything can
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  sometimes be a difficulty. But I love whenever I'm able to
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  have people over or even when I'm able to be hospitable at
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  like a restaurant or something, and for people to be able to
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  spend time with me and I can vest the word into them and that
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  they know at the end of it, OK, you know, Brian will take care
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  of me. He's hospitable.
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  And so he is hosting me for this meal.
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  This isn't something that I have to pay for.
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  This is something that I am being cared for body and soul in
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  this moment. And so I want to encourage you,
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  especially if God's given you a good house, have people over.
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  And that can be something that is wonderful, like have him over
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  for a meal, have him over for a game night, have him over and
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  enjoy, I'll say, enjoy some drinks together.
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  I don't mean in the verse three sense where it says not an
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  excessive drinker, not that kind of thing.
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  You know, don't, don't, don't be getting drunk with people, but
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  have people over for coffee. Have people over, have a
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  wonderful time together, be hospitable.
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  And that's one of the ways in which you can show God's love to
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  others. Says that he needs to be able to
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  teach. Just because a person is wise
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  and has many other wonderful qualities does not necessarily
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  mean that they ought to be an elder, that they need to be an
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  overseer. In fact, Scripture would tell us
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  being able to teach a a capability to communicate God's
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  word, whether in, you know, kind of a preaching formal setting or
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  in individual discipleship and things like that is the
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  differentiation between an elder and a Deacon that a Deacon is
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  never called on to teach in in any setting.
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  But a elder is like that's that's their role within the
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  local church is they are those that are teaching.
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  Even as we look last episode at chapter 2 and verse #12 that we
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  exercise authority over the congregation.
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  And the biggest way that we do that is through our teaching.
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  If you are ever interested in becoming an elder or a pastor,
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  you have to be able to teach. So learn how to do that.
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  Teach your family, teach in a kids class.
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  Ask for opportunities from your elders to be able to teach in
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  maybe a men's group or a small group or something.
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  That would be, you know, kind of get your feet under you.
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  I, I preached messages even at, you know, nursing homes and in,
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  in teen class and, you know, different things like that.
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  And so I learned how to teach through teaching as, as well as
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  different classes and courses and Bible college and all that
• 25:28
  kind of stuff. But it is important for a pastor
• 25:31
  to be able to teach verse #3 not an excessive drinker, not a
• 25:37
  bully, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not greedy.
• 25:42
  Here in verse 3, instead of all of the good things that a a
• 25:46
  pastor is supposed to be, verse #3 gives Here's what elders
• 25:50
  should not be. They should not be here an
• 25:53
  excessive drinker. There should not be drunkenness
• 25:56
  that typifies the leaders of a local church.
• 26:00
  And we know certainly even from what the Pharisee said about
• 26:04
  Jesus, they said, listen, Jesus came along and he is a wine
• 26:07
  Bibber. That just being accused of
• 26:10
  something does not make it reality for you.
• 26:14
  But here someone is not dominated by their passions,
• 26:18
  they're not dominated by alcohol, they're not a bully,
• 26:22
  but gentle, that if a person is a bully, they should not be a
• 26:26
  pastor. And very unfortunately, people
• 26:28
  with strong personalities often want to accumulate leadership
• 26:31
  roles for themselves. And so many church leaders have
• 26:35
  been bullies. But that goes directly against
• 26:37
  what God's Word says here. And he should not domineer over
• 26:42
  people, but he needs to be gentle in the way that he deals
• 26:45
  with people. And then it says, not
• 26:47
  quarrelsome. An argumentative person makes
• 26:49
  for an awful elder. An elder shouldn't just be like
• 26:55
  a yes man of always agreeing, but constantly arguing is not a
• 27:00
  good trait to have. And it says not greedy, not
• 27:05
  dominated by financial funds. And even as a pastor, I always
• 27:09
  have a very holy fear. It's, it's why I work the amount
• 27:13
  of hours that I work. I am zealous that I would earn
• 27:18
  every penny that I am given by the Lord's church.
• 27:22
  And so I want to be faithful. And I don't want to be like,
• 27:27
  well, listen, I really want this, you know, I want this
• 27:31
  Bucati, I want this yacht, I want this, you know, $1,000,000
• 27:36
  house. And so you guys just need to,
• 27:38
  you know, give me more and more and more money.
• 27:41
  No, I, I firmly believe that pastors should be cared for by
• 27:45
  their church financially, even as we would read in First
• 27:48
  Timothy 5. And I think it's about verse 17
• 27:51
  talks about that, about caring well financially for those
• 27:56
  elders that are laboring in teaching and preaching.
• 28:00
  And so I think we should take care of our pastors, but pastors
• 28:05
  then have an impetus to not be greedy that no one would ever be
• 28:09
  like, oh man, Brian just keeps asking, you know, for a little
• 28:12
  more off the top and different things.
• 28:15
  He's like, hey, you know, I'm really hurting.
• 28:17
  Would you give me some money, you know, bypassing the the
• 28:21
  church in order to try and get funds.
• 28:24
  That kind of stuff is just abominable and totally unlike
• 28:28
  Jesus. I got to be honest with you
• 28:30
  guys, this is such a full section of scripture.
• 28:35
  I'm going to need to hop back into verses 4 through 7 next
• 28:39
  episode because I don't want to hold you guys for 37 minutes
• 28:44
  again. So we're going to talk tomorrow
• 28:47
  about how the home is the testing ground for pastors in
• 28:53
  the local church and that the way that we lead our homes is
• 28:57
  the way that we are called to lead the Church of God.
• 29:00
  So I'm looking forward to it. It is a great topic, but looking
• 29:04
  forward to diving into that with you next time.
• 29:06
  See you next episode.