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Lesson 14: Elder Rule and Church Discipline, Overview

Speaker
Mark Twombly

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Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

This lesson explores the biblical design for church leadership through elder rule and shepherding. We are reminded that Christ is the supreme authority over the church and that eldership is not a human invention but God’s intentional design for leading His people. The passage teaches us that elders are not simply filling a job description—they carry an identity given by God, appointed by the Holy Spirit, and held to character qualifications that reflect Christlikeness.

Key Lessons:

  1. Eldership is an identity God gives, not merely a role to fill—the Holy Spirit appoints overseers, and the church recognizes whom God has already chosen.
  2. All elder qualifications except one are character-based; in God’s economy, character matters far more than skill.
  3. The plurality of elders provides essential protection and accountability—no single leader should go unchecked, and biblical leadership is the opposite of worldly authority structures.
  4. The four roles of a shepherd—knowing, leading, feeding, and protecting the sheep—mirror how Christ himself shepherds us.

Application: We are called to pray faithfully for our elders, to submit joyfully to biblical leadership while also holding leaders accountable to Scripture, and to recognize that God’s design for church leadership flows entirely from Christ’s example of servant leadership.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How does understanding eldership as an identity rather than a job description change how we view and support our church leaders?
  2. In what ways can we personally practice the character qualifications listed in 1 Timothy 3, even if we are not called to be elders?
  3. How should we navigate the tension between submitting to our leaders and holding them accountable when we have concerns?

Scripture Focus: 1 Peter 5:1-5 frames the lesson with Peter’s exhortation to fellow elders. 1 Timothy 3:1-13 outlines elder qualifications. Acts 20:28 reveals the Holy Spirit’s role in appointing overseers. Ephesians 4:11-16 shows God’s design for building up the church through gifted leaders. Hebrews 13:7, 17 teaches our responsibility to follow and submit to godly leaders.

Outline

Introduction

For coming in from the cold. It’s good to be inside, isn’t it? Praise the Lord for his provision of heat and shelter, clothing, all of that. Good to see you all this morning.

Well, today we’re going to continue our series in defending doctrinal distinctives. This weekend next, we’ll be talking about elder rule and church discipline. It can be heavy, but as always, we point to our savior, our great shepherd. We open today with this verse, a familiar verse no doubt to some of us.

Therefore I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder. Now this is the apostle Peter and notice what he says. As your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God among you, overseeing not under compulsion, but willingly according to God, and not for dishonest gain, but with eagerness, nor yet as lording it over those allotted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

With that and with focus on our savior, let me pray for us today.

Father, praise you for our perfect great shepherd Jesus. Praise you for your perfect design for your church that you have promised to build. May we as fallen sinners fulfill our individual roles and identities by submitting to Christ as the head and trusting him to build your church as he promised. Father, may we experience the clarity, joy, and strength of this marvelous design and being built up in love and in the image of Christ both individually and as a body in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Well, let me just walk through our road map for this week and next. For today it’s focusing on eldership and next week it’ll be on church discipline and I think you’ll see there’s just such an important connection that we look forward to unfolding for you. We’re going to walk through God’s authority and design, God’s designated shepherds, and we’ll walk through our statements of faith. We’re just going to walk through those together.

The example of Jesus, as we alluded to, our great shepherd, who we follow, how we follow, the role of the shepherd. There are four primary roles of a shepherd that we’re going to unfold today and talk a little bit about some terminology: elder rule versus elder-led. Then we’ll get into some Q&A. I hope to have some time for questions toward the end. But if not, we have another week. We may have to take advantage of that.

Next week, we want to talk a little bit about the purpose of discipline and corporate spiritual health. That’s really what it’s about and the shepherd’s heart. Part of shepherding is to protect sheep. That’s what church discipline is all about. When we think about Jesus and how he shepherds us, church discipline is a marvelous expression of that if carried out according to his design and with his heart.

The role of rescue. Scriptures talk about discipline as rescuing. That’s an important aspect of faithfulness for us. And then the design of discipline through Matthew 18. As we see in some of those chapters, church discipline isn’t simply for church elders. It’s for all of us as we teach and admonish one another with the word of God.

Think with me for a minute of what the word of God does for us. 2 Timothy 3:16 is familiar to us: All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. Two of those are positive, if you will—teaching and training. Two of them can be seen as negative, if you will—reproof and correction. But all are necessary and all are beautiful.

If we are ministering God’s word to one another and if we’re in the word daily, these things should be happening to us regularly. You and I need to be taught, reproved, corrected, and trained in God’s word every day until we get everything right, which isn’t now, but in glory. I encourage us to when we think about this topic, think about that in a personal way.

Take your Bibles and we’re going to look up some verses together. I’m actually going to flip through as we go here and just walk through.

God’s Authority and Design for the Church

This is from Statement of Faith, chapter 5, U, section six. We teach that the one supreme authority for the church is Christ. We’re just going to flip around here. It’ll test my paper skills.

1 Corinthians 11:3. I just want us to keep hearing the personal nature of God and his design for the church. This isn’t man’s invention. Some will view eldership as just one option for church leadership, one of several, and it’s not.

It’s God’s design, and we want to receive it that way from him.

“Eldership is God’s design, and we want to receive it that way from him.”

Christ as Head of the Church

1 Corinthians 11:3 says Christ is the head of every man, and the man is head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. This is part of God’s design. It’s interesting as he begins the chapter. Look a couple verses earlier: “Be imitators of me just as I also am of Christ.”

We don’t follow everyone and everything. We follow leaders who are following Christ.

We pay attention. That’s why our being in the word is so important so that we can see that. Ephesians 1:22 says, “And he put all things in subjection under his feet, that’s Christ’s feet, and gave him as head over all things to the church.” I’ll keep going: “Which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”

Ephesians 1:22: “He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him as head over all things to the church.”

Who do we follow? Follow Christ. He is the head. I love the analogies of the body and spiritual gifts, which we’ll actually be preaching on in a couple weeks. Christ is the head and we are the body. What happens to your body if parts of your body stop following the direction of the brain, the head? What happens? It’s not good. It suffers.

As I understand it, cancerous cells are that specifically. They’ve stopped taking orders from the head and they’ve gone rogue. And so it is spiritually for our spiritual health. Then Colossians 1:18 reminds us of the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ. Simply, he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself will come to have first place in everything. Does he have first place in our hearts this morning? Are we submitting to giving him first place as we are here together as a church?

It’s so important that we do that and that the church leadership, gifts, order, discipline, and worship are all appointed through his sovereignty as found in the scriptures.

The biblically designated officers serving under Christ in the church are elders who are males who are also called bishops, overseers, shepherds, pastors, and pastor teachers.

Let’s look at a couple verses there. I love Acts 20. It’s worthy of your time. Acts 20 is one of those passages that I read and I think this could have been written yesterday as we could see with much of the scriptures. The scriptures are more relevant than tomorrow’s news. It’s almost as if they had a divine and timeless source. It’s great for us to remember that.

Acts 20:28, Paul giving his last words to the Ephesian elders as he sets the tone for them in leading the churches: “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood.”

This is a sobering reality of spiritual leadership. It is not business leadership. It’s not corporate leadership. It’s spiritual leadership.

And who appoints the overseers? The Holy Spirit. One of the things I hope you recognize as we walk through this beautiful design today is that eldership is not a job description or a role that you step into. It’s an identity that God gives certain people in his church. And so when we appoint elders, it’s a process of recognizing who God has given to lead your church.

We see this in Ephesians 4, which we’ll get to later, that he has given some as leaders. He hasn’t just given gifts to people. He’s given certain people as gifts to the church to lead them. It’s beautiful.

“Eldership is not a job description. It’s an identity that God gives certain people in his church.”

God’s Gifted Leaders: Ephesians 4

And then Ephesians 4:11, which I think I got ahead of myself, which I often do.

And he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. That is who they are who elders are and it is what they are to do. Again I said he has given some I mean Galatians I won’t read the same will it?

He has given some as this. And some of you who know me hear that I’m kind of like a broken record with this. Ephesians 4:11-16 give I think more than any other passage the succinct design for God’s church and I encourage us to spend some time in it. This I’ll just pick out a couple verses there. The equipping of the saints. For what purpose?

For the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the full knowledge of the son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. So that we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, that is Christ, from whom the whole body, being joined and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the properly measured working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Ephesians 4:15: “Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, that is Christ.”

The church and local churches are from, through, and to Christ. He is its source. He is its sustenance. And he is its goal. And we do well to remember that in all we do. And that’s so important how unlike worldly leadership that is when we focus on people.

I’ll just say this and I’m getting ahead of myself a little bit, but it’s important to recognize this is why we have a plurality of elders because no one person has all of that. No one person is all of that, but Christ is.

Amen. And so it’s his design that we are carrying out. There’s much protection in this. Now we noticed there that I’m tempted to just spend the rest of the time on this, but I want to highlight a couple things in verse 14. We are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine. Isn’t that true? Hasn’t that been true of us at times? Isn’t that true of many of our professing friends?

Qualifications for Elders and Deacons

I know that. Look at Facebook. You can see this on full display. Just honestly, don’t you see that craziness from believers? Some, as I’ve gotten to know them, or these are people that I already know—often they are not in a biblical church that has biblical elders. And the result is that this kind of thing happens because they’re not being led properly. We have deacons as well, which are males, both of whom must meet biblical qualifications. Look with me at 1 Timothy 3.

Again, I hope you can appreciate the beauty of these passages.

I’m going to read 1 Timothy 3:1-13. There is some repetition in Titus 1, but I’m going to primarily focus on 1 Timothy 3. It is a trustworthy saying. If any man aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a good work. Let’s stop right there. It’s designed for people who desire the work. And it is work. As you unfold what the job is, I think we saw in Acts 20:28 the sobriety of wolves coming in to attack the sheep. And these are sheep whom Christ himself has purchased with his own blood. Right? This is a work that in some ways, when you look at it, you’d be crazy to want to do that.

It has to be God’s enabling and God’s design for you. I can attest to you, having spent more than half of my adult life in this role, it is work. It is heart-wrenching work, but it is so fulfilling. What I love about this, let me read some of these qualifications and then I’ll explain what I mean. An overseer then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but considerate, peaceable, free from the love of money, leading his own household well, having his children in submission with all dignity. But if a man does not know how to lead his own household, how will he care for the church of God? Not a new convert, so that he will become conceited and fall into the condemnation of the devil. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. And the remaining talks about deacons with the same qualifications.

“It is heart-wrenching work, but it is so fulfilling.”

Just point out a couple things about these qualifications.

Character Over Skill

They are all character qualifications with the exception of one. The only ability, the only skill required for an elder is the ability to teach.

Everything else is character. And I hope we understand as Christians that in God’s economy, character is way more important than skill. Skill doesn’t matter if you don’t have character. Skill is destructive if you don’t have character.

“In God’s economy, character is way more important than skill.”

And I know as a young man just coming out of college, as I studied this passage, it just gripped me and I thought, well, first of all, these qualifications are not just for elders. These are for all men, really for all Christians in a sense, except for the husband part if you’re female. But these are the qualities of Christlikeness that God calls all of us to.

And it occurred to me as I was studying this that I don’t know if God’s going to allow me to be in this role, but if I prepare myself by seeking these character qualities, that’s going to be really good for me.

The Ability to Teach and Refute

It’s going to be good for me as a person. It’s good for me and I wasn’t even dating anybody. Being a husband and a father were way in the future, but I was thinking about it. And I said, “Wow, if I seek these attributes, if I ask God to build these attributes into my life, I’m going to be a better husband and better father.” So I’m just going to do that and see where it takes me and ask God to build these things into me.

One of the things that’s a little bit distinct that’s helpful, I think, in Titus 1 is very similar in terms of the qualities it outlines, but it unfolds what the ability to teach is. One who teaches must be able to exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict.

That’s important to recognize because I find so often with teachers, they’re willing to do the former but not so willing to do the latter. They’re willing to do the positive stuff but not call out false doctrine. And as we go through this today and we think about the role of a shepherd, you have got to protect your sheep. I think we saw in that Acts 20 passage, there are fierce wolves coming from where? Outside? No, from among you, that will attack the sheep. And so part of the qualification to teach is to be able to both exhort and refute when it happens. It’s not always fun, but it’s necessary. Why?

“You have got to protect your sheep. Part of the qualification to teach is to both exhort and refute.”

Because we have the shepherd’s heart to protect the sheep. And I think when we get into the church discipline next week, we’ll see a little bit more of what that looks like.

God’s Designated Shepherds: Servants of Christ

Now, let’s talk a little bit more about God’s designated shepherds. What are they like? We’re going to unfold this a little bit more. We teach that the elders lead or rule as servants of Christ. Let’s talk about this. When we hear the word rule, I hope you understand this is not a heavy-handed rule like we see in the world. Jesus said in the gospels that the rulers of this world lorded over people. They exalt themselves. But what did Jesus say about that? It is not so among you. I’m among you as one who serves. I’ve heard it described this way: leadership in the world really is entirely opposite in one sense. Leadership in the kingdom of God is opposite from the leadership in the world. In the world, you think about a pyramid and the leader, the chief guy is on top and everybody’s supporting him.

Take spiritual leadership, turn that upside down. If we’re servant leaders, it’s not about how many people can serve you. It’s how many people you can serve and support. It’s entirely the opposite.

“It’s not about how many people can serve you. It’s how many people you can serve and support.”

It’s a different thing. And so you can see why that requires a certain character, right, and a certain mindset that can only come from Christ himself.

1 Timothy 5:17.

The elders who lead well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor at preaching the word and teaching. The scripture says, “You shall not muzzle the ox while it is threshing, and the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses.

Those who continue to sin reprove in the presence of all so that the rest also will be fearful. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of his elect angels to observe these instructions without bias, doing nothing in partiality. Do not lay hands upon anyone hastily and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others.

Keep yourself pure. And then we go to 1 Peter 5:1-5. So I think there’s a sobriety as you can see in these verses that someone must be tested so you can observe their life before they’re in that role. Right?

Sometimes people come to Christ and they’re really excited and enthusiastic and energetic and just plug them in. When my dad first came to Christ, the church he was in tried to do that. And thankfully my dad—because my dad’s a very—I’m a shy introvert compared to my father. Okay, just to give you a sense of it. Some of you have met my dad. And he’s a strong leader. And so seeing that in his temperament, when he came to Christ, churches wanted to just put him right into leadership. And thankfully, he said, “No, that wouldn’t have been good for anyone.” 1 Peter 5:1-5. We read part of this earlier.

Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder, a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God among you, overseeing not under compulsion, but willingly according to God, and not for dishonest gain, but with eagerness, nor yet as lording it over those allotted to you, but being examples to the flock.

Right? And I’m going to just leave it there because we’re going to unpack that a little bit later in the lesson. There’s authority in directing the church, but it’s a shepherding authority. It’s a caring authority. It’s not a domineering authority. It’s of a completely different nature. It’s the nature of Christ as the shepherd. The congregation is to submit to their leadership.

The Congregation’s Responsibility

Hebrews 13, I think we’ve alluded to this in this context several times. Very important verses 7 and 17 with regard to the responsibility that you and I have in how we view and how we follow our shepherds.

Verse 7: “Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.” Right? We don’t follow everyone and we don’t follow them in everything. We consider the outcome and imitate on that basis. And that has directed me sometimes away from certain environments.

Verse 17: “Obey your leaders and submit to them for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account so that they will do this with joy and not with groaning for this would be unprofitable for you.”

Hebrews 13:17: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account.”

We’re going to unpack this a little bit later, but I think we see a dual role here for us in submission to Christ. Each of us has a role in that dynamic.

The Role of Deacons

With regard to deacons, we teach that it is their responsibility to serve the elders as they lead the congregation.

Most of the ways in which deacons serve are through the meeting of physical needs as well as general acts of benevolence. Let’s look at Acts 6.

That is really instructive for us. Acts 6 is really an example of what it looks like when these roles are distinct. Some people have viewed deacons as junior elders, if you will, and it’s really not that. I think we can see this clearly. Let me just read the beginning of Acts 6:

“Now, in those days, while the disciples were multiplying in number, there was grumbling from the Helenists against the Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. So the 12 summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, ‘It is not pleasing to God for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this need. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the service of the word.’”

Acts 6:2: “It is not pleasing to God for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.”

You see the importance of distinguishing those roles. Early on in my first leadership role at a church, I was in a Baptist church where they called the board deacons, but it was really serving as both deacons and elders together. You can see how that could be really difficult. I’m much more oriented toward the shepherding aspect, the elder aspects. Others were much more oriented toward meeting physical needs, and you could just see the distinction in the room. Some were just built for that.

There were some guys that we would have people come to us for help with things, and they just knew how to navigate those difficult situations and really meet needs. To me, it was like magic. I’m like, “How do you do that?” Well, God had gifted them for that purpose. Others of us were getting a little bit frustrated because there are a lot of urgent, time-sensitive needs. If you’re focusing on those, guess what comes last? It’s the ministry of the word and of prayer.

I actually remember saying one time in this because I thought we were just not doing what this said: “Well, how are we going to really get to ministering the word and prayer to people? How are we going to do what this says?” And one guy actually said, “Well, that’s not important. We don’t need to do that.” I thought, I don’t know why I’m here then, but that was a guy who was much more of a deacon than an elder.

This distinction is just so important, and it’s what we have here. Deacons help free us up to do the ministry of the word and of prayer. We’re just so thankful for them. We’ve got a lot of them, and thank you guys. I know you guys are behind the scenes. You’re working with snow and different things like that, and we love you guys and appreciate you very much. That’s the distinction that we see there.

The Example of Jesus as Great Shepherd

Okay, let’s dive deep a little bit here on the example of Jesus. When we hear rule and authority, we just keep coming back to the example of Jesus. And let me just unfold a couple things for us that are helpful. Jesus said, “I have not come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me” in John 8. And so Jesus was saying to those who believed him, “If you abide in my word, then you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth. The truth will make you free.”

I think we recognize that as Jesus submitted to the Father’s will, so we are to submit to his will as he is our example. There’s a lot I could say about this, but I’m just so amazed as I read through the gospels that Jesus only said the things the Father gave him to say and he only did the things the Father gave him to do.

We’re going to—Pastor Dave’s going to preach later today on abiding in Christ, right? From John 15. Well, Jesus not only told us to do that, he was the best example of that, abiding in his Father. Amazing. You could say that with Jesus being the perfect Son of God, he could go rogue and do whatever he wanted to do and be totally fine. But as an example for us, he submitted to the will of his Father. And that’s what he calls us to do as well.

“As Jesus submitted to the Father’s will, so we are to submit to his will as he is our example.”

I love this from Hebrews 13: “Now the God of peace who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, equip you in every good thing to do his will by doing in us what is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. To whom be the glory forever and ever. And when the chief shepherd appears, he you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” We read that earlier.

The shepherd of this church is Jesus. And if we walk away from that, then it’s no longer a biblical church.

So the example of character, action, and accountability as we’ll continue to unfold all come from Jesus himself. This is his means of us growing into the image of Christ.

The Shepherd’s Heart: Philippians 2

Philippians 2. These verses here inform my prayers for the elders and have since I arrived here. God has put this on my heart to pray for the elders. And I invite you, I implore you, I beg you, pray this for us, would you please?

Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection and compassion, fulfill my joy, that you think the same way by maintaining the same love, being united in spirit, thinking on one purpose, doing nothing from selfishness or vain glory, but with humility of mind, regarding one another as more important than yourselves, not merely looking out for your own personal interests, but also for the interest of others. Have this way of thinking in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.

This is our charge. This is our role to derive those divine resources from Jesus himself to be united in them as fellow elders and to serve in them.

“Our role is to derive those divine resources from Jesus himself, to be united in them as fellow elders.”

We don’t derive authority, character, ability, any of that from ourselves. I hope you understand. I know I’m sounding like a broken record.

It’s so important to understand this. It’s from Christ. It’s from Christ. It’s from Christ.

That’s his design. We do well as elders to submit to that design. You do well to follow that design as well. We all do.

Who We Follow: Individually Qualified Leaders

We all have a specific role in following Christ. I hope you understand that.

Who we follow—we’ve talked about this a little bit, and I want to dive into it. People who are individually qualified according to the scriptures: an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, etc. Right? We read all those qualities earlier.

One of the things that I have both found difficult but benefited from so much is in the elder process. There’s this examination of these attributes. Does this candidate meet these attributes? And it’s going to lead to some conversations because none of us fulfill them perfectly. There are going to be areas of affirmation and areas of growth and difficult conversations. They have been life-changing for me, particularly with regard to my parenting.

At a former church, they had the kids chime in and there were some concerns they had—legitimate concerns. Lee remembers this not because he was in on the conversation, but because he was listening in the hallway, I think, as I recall, right? It’s important, and that’s good that you did that. I told the kids, “I don’t want to know what you write. I want you to be free to be honest.” These are things that I asked them to do, and then I regret it kind of when it happens. I’m not going to say a lot about this, but they appointed Luke, our oldest son, to kind of be the spokesman. He took me out to lunch and just laid it out like, “All right, I’ve asked you to do this, but I’m not really glad that you are.” But anyway, my point is none of us goes into this just having it all wired and perfect. These attributes are not about perfection, but they are about direction. Does that make sense?

You want people leading you who are heading there, right? And are open to correction when they’re not, right?

“These attributes are not about perfection, but they are about direction.”

That’s how it’s supposed to go. It’s a beautiful design. It’s a beautiful process.

I also mentioned this from Titus 1: all of the qualifications are character qualifications with one skill, and that’s the ability to teach. That’s going to vary between elders. Some have stronger abilities than others, but still to have that ability is a requirement for eldership.

So that’s who we follow. Able to teach—as I mentioned, I unfolded this earlier, actually a little bit ahead of myself. Holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able to both exhort in sound doctrine and reprove those who contradict. We have wolves who are attacking us and they need to be addressed directly, not with our opinion but with the word of God. That’s where this particular skill in the word of God comes from. You may remember that I preached earlier this year or last year on 1 John 3: test the spirits, right? We’ve got to understand what false doctrine is and address it because we love God and because we love the sheep. A qualified elder must be able and willing to do both. As I’ve said, particularly in this culture, I think there are fewer who are willing to call certain things and certain people out which need to be called out. Not because of our own arrogance, but because God’s truth is precious and his people need strengthening and protecting.

I’m glad to be in a place where we don’t shy away from that. I asked Jackson a few years ago, “How would you describe the preaching at Calvary?” And he said, “Fearless.” Yeah, it sounds about right.

Pray that we stay faithful.

Who we follow? Ruling in plurality. This is a huge concept, and I’m going to go through it a little bit quickly: plurality of elders. You notice elders are always referred to in the plural. It doesn’t say follow the elder of your church. Elders appoint elders in every church. “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you.” That is job one in establishing a church—establishing elders. When I was part of a church plant, that was a little difficult because we had one vocational pastor and we hadn’t yet established local elders, but we had remote elders speaking into us, keeping us accountable, keeping him accountable, and then I came along a little bit later. So important that we do that, right? “Therefore, I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed.”

“Job one in establishing a church is establishing elders.”

I do wonder how our Roman Catholic friends process this. This is Peter. How did he describe himself as a fellow elder with the other elders? I think we can see with Paul and in other situations that he needed to be accountable to them. He did not get everything right. Praise the Lord. That’s an example for us. It gives us hope.

There is no CEO or president of a biblical church. Some of you come from traditions where that’s kind of the case, right? I know I have friends where the pastor is viewed as the president or CEO and the wife is called the first lady. That’s really interesting. In one sense you appreciate wanting to honor those who serve you, but that’s a step too far. That is worldly thinking. That is not biblical thinking.

How We Follow: With Joy and Submission

That’s who we follow. And how do we follow? How do we follow? We saw this in Hebrews 13:1-17. Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account so that they will do this with joy and not with groaning. For this would be unprofitable for you.

Why do we obey biblical leaders? That’s for our joy. It’s a step of faith to trust imperfect men in plurality leading you. Which is why I beg you to pray for us. Please, please take that seriously. We all have a role in this. And since we have a plurality, we submit to one another.

“It’s a step of faith to trust imperfect men in plurality leading you. Which is why I beg you to pray for us.”

This is the beautiful protection that God has in this. No one person can go rogue without accountability.

Our role is to give an account to God as good examples, to do it with joy as you submit willingly to us. I remember this is interesting. I don’t think we’re particularly heavy-handed, but we want to lay out the scriptures for you, give you things that are biblical. Some of you were here during 2019, 2020, COVID kind of, I think, earlier stages of some conflict, cultural conflict. And I remember having a conversation with a couple young men who were really upset about how we were handling health regulations and masks and all that. They started talking to me about it and I said, “I’m the wrong person to talk to about it. If you have a complaint, talk to your elders about it.” But I quoted this passage to them.

I said, “They’re not asking you to do anything unbiblical. They are really seeking the Lord’s face to navigate through this. And so it will be your joy to just do it. Just submit to and trust God in that way.” And that’s what we do sometimes. You don’t have to agree completely. If it’s something unbiblical, that’s another thing. But if they’re asking you to do something and it’s not unbiblical, that’s God’s will for you. It just is. And so it is a step of faith for you to obey that. It’s a step of faith for us to seek God’s will to do the right thing. You understand that? But it’s all in submission to him. That is his design.

As we saw in 1 Corinthians 11, we follow those who follow Christ. I think the implication in what Paul said there when he said, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” I think the implication is to the extent that I’m following Christ, follow me. But to the extent that I’m not, please don’t. We saw this in Acts 17 with the example with the Bereans when they tested his words against scripture. He welcomed that. And so I think that’s our heart as well to the extent that we’re following Christ. It always comes back to Christ.

And then we follow Christ in submitting to his undershepherds with joy. That’s an important distinction. I think undershepherds is a better description than shepherds, right? He is the chief shepherd.

Praise the Lord. If it was just us, I don’t know that I’d step into this or that we would step into this.

The Shepherd’s Role: Knowing the Sheep

Our role is to submit to and point you to the great shepherd. I want to walk through the whole idea of shepherding. It’s a huge theme in the scriptures as God is our great shepherd. What I find really interesting is David was kind of the prototypical example in the Old Testament, right? He shepherded God’s people from the heart and guided them with skillful hands. We see that I think in Psalm 78.

So interesting, but also interesting when you look at it. If you’re going through the Bible a year, you’ve recently gone through Genesis and you saw Joseph and his brothers and all that. Why did they have to live separate from the land of Egypt? Because shepherds were odious to the Egyptians.

This is not a favored profession to the Egyptians or otherwise. It’s dirty. It’s smelly. It’s lowly. When the angels first appeared to the shepherds to announce Jesus’s birth, God was telling us something there, right? They’re the lowest of the low. Yet, this is the model that God has chosen to demonstrate his leadership of us and our leadership in the church. That’s incredible. That’s just incredible.

Jesus said this in John 10:

John 10:27-28: “My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give eternal life to them.”

My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give eternal life to them and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father’s hand. I and the father are one.

So the first role is that the shepherd knows his sheep. I’m going to recommend some books to you. One of them that I’ve really enjoyed that my father gave me is called While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks. It’s a devotional.

Tim Laniac took a sabbatical and he did research with Middle Eastern shepherds, getting to know them, seeing what they do, and reflecting on what the Bible says about shepherds. And I was amazed at how well the shepherds have to know their sheep just to do their job. Hundreds of them and they know each of them individually by name. They know their needs. They know specifically how stupid they can be. I mean, I was reading this going these are not dumb people. The level of intelligence and effort required to shepherd well is incredible.

So anyway, that’s just helpful to know that first of all the shepherd knows the sheep. Jesus says he knows his sheep and that he calls us as shepherds to know the sheep as well.

The Shepherd’s Role: Leading the Sheep

Lead. Second role is to lead. He also chose David. I referred to this earlier from Psalm 78. He also chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds. From following the flock, he brought him to shepherd Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance.

So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart and led them with his skillful hands.

This is not even in ancient Israel would not be seen as the greatest training program. But didn’t it train David perfectly for the task? I’m going to go back. I think about what David said as he was about to face Goliath. His shepherding equipped him for this. I’ve killed a lion and a bear with my bare hands. God enabled me to do that.

Psalm 78:72: “He shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart and led them with his skillful hands.”

God will enable me to do this.

Incredible. Incredible.

So that’s and I just love how it unfolds. This integrity of heart, skillful hands. I think you see those concepts echoed in the New Testament for leadership.

Jesus said follow me. Many times we saw that Paul said, “Be imitators of me just as I also am of Christ.” And then in Philippians 4, the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Practice these things and the God of peace will be with you.

So as elders, our role is not only to set an example for you, but to give you specific patterns to follow, tracks to run on, as I like to say. Our role, and it’s hard to do, is to make it clear to you both as a congregation and in your individual contexts to help you discern what does God want me to do? What does following him mean?

That’s a role for us. I think in some ways it is reflective of the Holy Spirit in us. What does the Holy Spirit do for us, right? He makes us alive in Christ. Now that’s beyond our pay grade as others teach us to understand God’s word. But it says he’s the paraclete. He’s the helper. He’s with us. He’s walking with us to actually do it.

I believe as parents that’s what God calls us to. And as shepherds that’s what God calls us to: to be personally engaged with people in helping them to follow Christ. As I like to say, telling someone what to do from a distance is no substitute for showing them what to do up close.

“Telling someone what to do from a distance is no substitute for showing them what to do up close.”

And I know for me, it’s kind of embarrassing. I’ll give you a little example of how I didn’t do well with this. As our kids were growing up, I wanted them to develop a habit of being in God’s word daily. And so with the older kids, as I was a younger parent, I showed them what I do in terms of preparing their heart, praying certain things, reading things, maybe journaling a little bit. I just maybe showed it to them once or twice and said, “Go do it.” I know you laugh, right? That’s ridiculous. It didn’t work very well.

The Shepherd’s Role: Feeding the Sheep

But as time went on, I said, “I think I need to just sit and do it with them more and show them.” I’m not sure I ever got great at that, but I got better, I think. And that’s what God calls shepherds to do and parents to do, to be quite honest. Feed, right?

And I will give you shepherds after my own heart who will feed you on knowledge and understanding.

Jeremiah 3 has some really interesting words about what God called his priests, his shepherds to do and what they weren’t doing. It’s quite an indictment actually.

You’re not feeding the sheep. You’re feeding yourselves. You’re enriching yourselves. You’re not enriching the sheep. Contrary to God’s heart.

Who then is the faithful and prudent slave whom the master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. This is what God calls his shepherds to do when he comes back. They should be in the business of feeding the sheep, doing his work.

Spurgeon said, “A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats.” Don’t we see that? Let’s feed the sheep.

“A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats.”

That’s our heart. This is not fun and games. Hopefully, it’s fun. Hopefully, it’s joyful. But it’s more than that.

The Shepherd’s Role: Protecting the Sheep

And then the last role. The role of the shepherd is to know, lead, feed, and finally, as I’ve alluded to, protect the sheep. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” He was a hired hand and not a shepherd who is not the owner of the sheep. Sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees.

And the wolf snatches and scatters them because he has a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. “I am the good shepherd and I know my own and my own know me.”

John 10:11: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

Earlier on in verse five, Jesus says, “A stranger they will never follow but will flee from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” This is where the whole concept of wolves and sheep in sheep’s clothing comes from.

Dangerous wolves arising from among you as it says in Acts 20.

I can think of at least one situation where it was very clear that a wolf was attacking the sheep. And I would rather not have been bothered with handling that. We as a group would rather not. It was hard. But when you realize this reality, we’ve got to protect the sheep. We’ve got to do something here. And so you could see how that requires both supernatural strength, supernatural resolve, drawing on the example of Jesus. And it’s this concept that will unfold more when we talk about church discipline next week. It really is about this shepherding aspect of protecting the sheep. And as we read earlier, be on guard. Be on guard for yourselves. It’s really interesting how the warnings were there for wolves and false doctrine very early on. Even Jesus spoke of this, and by the end of the New Testament they had already appeared. This was not theoretical in the Bible.

Elder Rule in Plurality

When we enter into that topic next week, church discipline, think this is your reference point. This is your reference point. The shepherd protecting the sheep.

Okay, couple things. Some of you may have heard different terms about this: elder versus elder rule, different ways that people define this. I’m going to go back to Titus 1:5.

For this reason, I left you and create that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you.

Appointing Elders: The Biblical Pattern

How are elders determined?

I think you hopefully see by now it’s not by popular vote. Elders are not elected or voted on. They’re affirmed by the congregation. You saw we went through that process and asked for feedback, which is vital for us. But qualified elders are appointed by qualified elders. That’s just how that goes. I think we saw in Acts 6 that when they were selecting men to serve tables versus minister the word, select men of a certain character, right? It’s not a signup list where you ask for someone to volunteer or who’s the most popular guys. We see this also in Exodus 18. And you may remember that sequence where Moses sat from morning to evening judging the people, and his father-in-law Jethro came and saw this and gave him some really good counsel. He said you will surely wear yourself out, you and the people. And then it gave him specific criteria for selecting certain men who would be qualified to lead.

And so I know there are various forms of church government in terms of selecting, voting, things like that. But the biblical pattern is appointing by qualified elders and affirming by the church. And that’s what we try to practice here.

“The biblical pattern is appointing by qualified elders and affirming by the church.”

Elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. And that’s where we get the concept of vocational elders. Not all of us are vocational. This isn’t our main job, but we have one who is, and actually two, as pastor Bobby is in emeritus status. Lord willing, God will provide another pastor for us when he retires. But that’s kind of where we get the concept of paid pastors. So elders are to be appointed by qualified elders after testing and examination among the local congregation. That is the biblical pattern.

Biblical Leadership vs. Worldly Leadership

Okay, I mentioned this before. When we think biblical leadership, we think service. Think about that upside down triangle, right? The rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you.

Could it be clearer?

I’m very wary when I’m in churches or see church leaders say we can draw from the corporate world for models of leadership, maybe with some logistical or administrative things, but not with leadership. You distinctly should not do that. I’ll say it this way: the church has more to tell the world than the world has to tell the church. It’s so funny. Some of you in corporate environments—the phrase servant leadership has been kind of co-opted in some business environments. Oh, we do servant leadership. Okay, you say that. Show me what that looks like. And when I’ve had conversations with people about where that term servant leadership comes from, I mention Jesus and it becomes a very short conversation. Most of the time they don’t want to hear anything about that.

“The church has more to tell the world than the world has to tell the church.”

Sometimes it’s a good conversation. Most of the time, oh yeah, you want to take this marvelous concept that God has given and act like you came up with it. Yeah, I don’t think so. I don’t think so.

Q&A: Questioning and Following Leadership

No one leads like Jesus. And as we’ve said, I think this is worth reflecting on. I encourage you to reflect on this for next week. Fellow elders, shepherding not under compulsion, not because we have to, but because we want to. I think we saw in the qualifications that if anyone desires the office of an overseer, it is a good work he desires to do. And as I’ve said, I don’t think anyone in their right mind, in one sense in the flesh, would desire to do that because it’s a lot. It requires supernatural strength. But to those whom God has given that desire and are in the right spot, that’s what you want. And so our job is to do it not because we have to but because we want to.

In the Christian life, sometimes the “have to” and the “want to” need to come together. You understand this, right? That’s what you want. And then us to follow, even us with one another as elders, to submit to one another’s authority. There’s great protection in that.

I’m going to propose a couple of questions to you. But before I go through these for your own consideration, let me open it up. I know I’ve given you a lot. Do you have questions? We have Arthur up here.

Thank you, Tony. For the sake of time, forgive me. This is going to be very brief. It’s going to be very awkward for me to say this, but I say it to the entire church. I’m hoping that our church will give another teaching on our responsibility to follow our leaders. And this is why I say this: as members of the church, we need to understand that there are times when we have to question our leadership.

That’s right.

And a good example, even though Peter was an elder, Paul corrected Peter, right?

He corrected Peter and he did it in front of everyone.

Yeah.

I’m not suggesting that was very sensitive. But what I’m saying is, for someone who has been in five different churches, and every church I was in, I was recognized as being someone that was gifted with teaching. And I went through the process that is described today. And of the five churches that I was in, only one of them was a church that I believe had sound doctrine.

Okay?

And in that church, I learned something: there are times when you have to question leadership. The last church I was at, Mark knows this church. I was an elder there. Because I had my own church for over twelve or thirteen years, when I went into that church, I went in with the attitude that I taught the people of my church. I would deliberately make mistakes sometimes to check to see if people would come and correct me, to show them that I’m not infallible.

See, I don’t do that deliberately. I just do it.

Yeah.

But again, I say this briefly: I would hope that our leadership would offer a class where we talk to the members and teach us how to approach our leaders, and not blindly follow them.

I appreciate that, and let me try to build some of that in to next week. That’s a great thing because there’s great protection in the plurality of elders as we’re accountable to one another and we have very frank conversations, and we value that. We treasure that. We need that. But we also need that feedback from you. I think you can see that if Paul invited that feedback, none of us are above him.

“If Paul invited that feedback, none of us are above him.”

Follow me as I follow Christ. And some of you have actually done that with me. And I really appreciate that. How can we be credible teachers if we’re not teachable, right? I think we’ve talked about this.

Proverbs 12:1 says, “He who hates reproof is stupid.” So that’s pretty plain. Glenda, you had something.

Going into that as an elder.

Hold on just a second. We want the online folks to hear you. Okay.

Going into that role as an elder, how does someone take that role very seriously? Because the people that they are preaching to, the elder has to give an account to God for everyone that they teach. So how is it a fearful position you’re going into, knowing your responsibility, knowing you have to answer God for all of those people you’re teaching?

In the interest of time, I’m just going to give a brief answer to that, but I want to explore that more next week. That’s such a great question. James says, “Let not many of you desire to be teachers because as such you have stricter accountability.” You quoted it right from Hebrews 13. We have to give an account for your souls. This is heavy. This weighs heavy. This is what keeps us looking to Christ because we are not all that. We can’t fulfill that perfectly. And if we’re not following Christ, we’re going to miss that.

I know for me in my first role, I had to be dragged into it. I was asked and I’m like, I don’t think I’m ready. You have to tell me why you think I’m ready because I was scared, and I think legitimately so. If we’re not scared, if we’re not living in the fear of God in a positive way, then something’s wrong. So again, please pray for us. Okay, let me pray.

Closing Prayer

Father, I’m so thankful to be here with people who have a heart for you and have a heart for your word. I’m so thankful to be with elders who know you, know your word, teach well, men that I can learn from, that we can learn from one another. And most of all, we worship you.

The great shepherd of the sheep who laid down his life for us, who speaks to us, who guides us, who strengthens us, who does everything for us. Father, we want to follow you in the roles that you’ve given us. Help us to do that. Father, protect us from exalting ourselves, but as the psalmist said, the Lord be magnified. May that be our heart in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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