The Responsibilities Of Elders (to the local church)

Okay, today, it's 1 Peter, chapter 5, verses 1 through 4. We're at responsibilities of elders in the local church. So that's what we're doing. I'll read the four verses of 1 Peter chapter five, one through four. Therefore, I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ and partaker of the glory that is to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily according to the will of God. and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness, nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory, And I have a note at the bottom, a heading at the bottom that says, I'm gonna go with a topical study today, primarily on the subject of elders. We're gonna break that out and we're just gonna look what an elder is, what his function is, what his qualifications are to be.

And then at the end, we'll go through these four verses and fill in, you know, kind of do a word study on the four verses, if that's okay. And hearing no objections, I think that's okay. Okay, here's my first, and a visual is worth a thousand words, as I always say. But here's from Roger and Hal's major Bible-themed study as a chart, showing all the different...

So, Andrew, we can't see it. We don't have anything up yet. Oh, I don't? No, you're not sharing. Do you see that? No. Oh. Huh. Let me go back to... not sharing. Share screen. Oh, maybe I somehow... How's that? Is that it? Okay. So let me go back to this first slide, because it's so pretty. Look at that. That's our subject today. Let me start over. We're studying the responsibilities of elders. There it is. We did the verse and our study is going to be topical. So here, you see that? Yes.

Okay, so that's from Major Bible Themes, that old study from Roger and Hal, and I'm just We have the different type of church organizations there. And you can see that they're organizational charts with, for instance, Catholic Church, the Pope is at the top, cardinals are below him, archbishops, parish priests, things like that. And my only point in this chart is to say that is the church an organization? such as these?

And the answer is no. And I made this red X. Remember the family feud with Richard Dawson? That show when they would ask survey says and if they were wrong, the big X with the circle comes up. So that's what I'm doing there to show that no, this is not the way a church is. It's not a hierarchy. There's not organizational charts like this in a biblical church. What it is, is this. So I have a big check mark here for what a church is. And it's a body and it's made up of local churches with members of that local church and elder in scripture. And I'm loosely call them offices for today's study. There's only two, elders and deacons.

An elder is a prasbuddharas, and it's simply an adjective term used to, generally it's one who is older or more mature spiritually. It's, and it goes way back in the Old Testament, the Hebrews used the term as Zekin, as you, I think it's Zikwan, as you can see, it might be a G, I'm not sure, but it's similar in meaning to the Presbyteros in the Greek. So generally it means you're mature and you've been around the block a bit. So that's one meaning of that word, prasbuteros. And then it's also got a... dual meaning of to lead, okay?

The only other office or position in a church is a deacon, which is diakonos, diakonos is how I should say it, and that's one who serves, simply serves in one capacity or another. And the first time this is used in Acts, Acts chapter 6, where the apostles, there was some, they needed to take care of these widows. They needed to feed these widows. And the apostles said, you know, we don't want to take away time from devoting ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word, why don't we choose some spiritually qualified men to serve tables, to be basically waiters, and to set up tables, tear down tables. We've all done that before for some function or another in church, and otherwise you set up chairs. So the apostles just said, let's appoint some men to do that serving, and we'll do the teaching and the overseeing.

So that's where that diakonos comes up in the Bible. So there's only two, elders and deacons. At Holly Hills, here's how Holly Hills functions. I got this right off of our policies and procedures for Holly Hills, and it shows that What I said before, elders do the equipping, the teaching, the overseeing of the flock, the shepherding of the flock. The deacons do the things like facilities and finances. a benevolence, whatever you fill in for the word benevolence there, and the operations. So they're the administrators. They're kind of the, they get the things done. The elders do the teaching, the mentoring, the equipping, things like that.

And Roger, I assume that's still a good chart Yes. And that's how we function. Great. So let's look at the qualifications of an elder and just let's focus on the middle from Titus chapter 1 verses 5 through 9 to start because that's the That's the long list of the very specific qualifications that an elder should have.

He should be above reproach. An elder should be the husband of one wife. Or at one time, my dad said, he translated that a one woman man. Possibly meaning that he doesn't, you know, have a roving eye or something like that. Have believing children or his household is in order.

He's not self-willed. He's not quick-tempered. He's not addicted to wine. He's not pugnacious. And pugnacious is a bruiser. A bruiser who's ready for a fight, you know, is how that translates out. He's not a lover of money, he's hospitable. He's a lover of good, he's sensible, he's just, he's devout, self-controlled, and he holds fast to the word. He's able to teach sound doctrine. And that's one of the most important things.

And he's then able to refute objections to that sound doctrine. uh... you'll see on the right hand side there myself i added this in uh... some things from at acts chapter twenty and that's where uh... paul had gone back to emphasis uh... after a riot and he was going to go back to jerusalem and kind of face the music so he was done with his ministry went back to acts to say goodbye to the elders in the church there, and it was a very tearful goodbye. And he made a little speech about himself, and he said things like, of himself, he served the Lord with all humility. He was making a defense of his ministry.

He served the Ephesians through trials and tears. He didn't shrink away from declaring the profitable things of God. He taught publicly, and he declared the whole Word of God, the whole purpose of God. Whenever wolves would appear, he would take on those wolves with their perverse doctrines. He didn't covet riches. He worked hard. He was a tent maker. He continued to do that. He helped the weak, and he gave over receiving.

And so that was Paul saying, because he was an elder too. He was an elder of these churches, and he was an apostle. uh... and that's how it and and eldership should function there on the left-hand side we have our uh... we have our uh... verses from for today that we're going to look at an elder should serve willingly not under compulsion according to god or in the will of god uh... not for shameful gain An elder should not lord it over the flock. He should lead by example, and he should be accountable to the chief shepherd.

And then up above that, Timothy from 1 Timothy chapter 3. I'm on the left top now. An elder should be temperate, gentle, able to manage his household as we saw in Titus. Not a new convert. and well thought of by outsiders. So there's a whole, if you wanna measure of how an elder should be, that's the master list there. So here are the functions of an elder, how an elder is to function.

And there's two things, two basic things. They are to oversee and they are to shepherd. oversee and shepherd. And the Greek, I have this, this chart that I pulled right from our policies, which is very helpful. And it's a, it's a, it's a good handout, if you want to get that from Mike or Roger, they'll, they'll send it to you.

But an overseer is an episkopos, And down below there are where the verses that Episcopal appears and then they are to shepherd And there's on in the blue There's the verses in Acts 20 Ephesians chapter 4 and 1st Peter 5 to 1 of our verses for today where an elder is to shepherd and So shepherd and oversee, or oversee and shepherd, are the two things that we should take away from today. We already looked at the word elder, presbuteros, so now we're just looking at the Greek word episkopos.

Poimane is the word for shepherd, Poimane. And in Ephesians chapter four, verse 11, that Poimane is translated as pastor. And I didn't know this, but that's the only time that the word pastor appears. You see it Ephesians chapter four under Poimane is the only time that the word pastor appears in, I think, the New Testament, or at least Paul's epistles. So let's look at the functions of an elder in detail, the shepherding, the poimaino. And that's the verb.

They are to poimaino the flock. Acts 20, 1 Peter 5, 2, that's our verse for today. And that entails, and I like this list that was given in our handout, our policies and procedures. They are to guide and lead and protect and seek out pastures and waters. select paths for the flock, correct the path of some, rescue, mend wounds, attend to illnesses and things like that. So of course that is drawing on Christ is the good shepherd, right, from John chapter 10. And it's an analogy of a shepherd to a sheep. And it's just a great, it's a beautiful word picture of the function of poinmino, the word for a shepherd.

He's also to oversee, isn't he? That's the second function of an elder. Episcopeo, or Episcopal. And you have the scripture references there. And that involves overlooking the condition of the church and taking a broader view of it, being proactive, jumping in, tweaking it, fixing it. it's under his care as an overseer, you know. Another word for that is down below you see it as superintend.

He is to superintend the local church or to preside over it. We saw this in that in those verses from before, but he is to be on guard and on alert for threats coming in to lure away the flock with false doctrines. He is to be ready to take on those spiritual wolves that could come in and attack the flock. And one of the most important things, besides shepherding and overseeing, the elder should be able to teach. And that's the Greek word didasko, didasko.

And he should be able to discern and convey sound doctrine. as it says in Ephesians four and then the uh... first book of timothy and of course titus and often they call timothy and titus the pastoral epistles uh... i think it would be i have an idea that they should more accurately be called the um... eldership epistles uh... timothy the two books of timothy and titus the eldership epistles because that's what Paul is really conveying to Timothy as how to be an effective elder. Part of that eldership is due to experience and time on the earth and the fact that an elder has been around the block and is a mature believer, he can rule the local assembly. Just like the elders had a ruling function of, let's say, in the Old Testament with the tribes of Israel. An elder is to work hard down there at the bottom and help the weak. So those are the functions of an elder. Now we're pretty much experts on what an elder is and what he does, right? I really like that chart from those policies and procedures. Now we go to this fact of shepherding, the poimaino, or the word for shepherding. And of course, that comes from Jesus Christ himself.

Jesus Christ is our good shepherd, he's our great shepherd, and we see today in verse four of chapter five of 1 Peter, he is our chief shepherd. The Good Shepherd comes from, of course, Psalm 23. And when you read Psalm 23 and meditate on that, you see exactly What a shepherd does, a good shepherd for a sheep, he finds pasture, he leads to gentle waters, cool running waters, and he protects the sheep. He has that staff that has a hook on one end and then almost a spear on the other so he can prod the sheep. to where they should go and if one falls he can rescue it by the crook of the neck or the thunder belly with that crook and pull it up from from like a ravine or something.

Christ is our great shepherd. He died for us and that primarily comes from Hebrews 13, 20, right? The great shepherd who died and that God raised the great shepherd up from the dead according to the eternal covenant is Hebrews chapter 13, 20. Isaiah 53 describes his crucifixion and that he, not so much that he's a shepherd there, but he was a sheep for slaughter. And then the chief shepherd, the chief shepherd is coming again to reward and reign. And that's our verse today. Also, you see that in Revelation in some verses. He's coming quickly and he has his reward with him from Revelation chapter 22. So the main scriptures of the above three characteristics of Christ is John 10, I am the good shepherd, that good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

He is not a hired hand. He who is 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 them up and scatters them. He flees because he is 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, even as the father knows me, and I know the father.

And I lay down my life for the sheep. Oh, I could put John chapter 10 up there with the fact that he died for us, the great shepherd portion. Couldn't I? I don't have it up there. And then there's Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. We all know that. Look over at that 1 Peter chapter 225 there on the right that I have. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd, and that's our word poimen. and guardian, and look at that, that's the word episkopos, overseer. You have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. So it's very simple, we have these two words, poimen and episkopos, and that's what a shepherd does, that's what an elder does. John 21, this is important because this is where This is where Christ really laid out, he really tasked Peter with the fact of shepherding or being an elder.

So when they had finished breakfast, John 21, 15 through 17, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Barjona, do you love me more than these? And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know I love you. And he said to him, tend my lambs. And then he asked him a second time, and I've truncated the verses up at the top, but he asked him a second time, do you love me? And the Lord said, shepherd my sheep. Then he asked a third time, he was restoring Peter back to the fellowship because he had denied him. And he said to him in verse 17, tend my sheep. So three times, there's three present active imperatives from the chief shepherd himself.

And it's interesting that I have a note, note to whom Jesus was speaking to there in those verses. Well, it's Peter himself, isn't it? And Peter is writing these things to, the people scattered up in Galatia about an elder and in chapter 5. So he knows, think of how intimately he knows this stuff, because he was told these things directly from the chief shepherd himself. It's very personal to him. It's in his heart. It's in his gut, because he was there, and he was told by Christ to do these things.

So in verse 15, to tend my lambs, that's bosco, and that's to feed. You might see these verses, feed my sheep, feed my sheep, feed my sheep, three times, but there's actually some different Greek words in there. One is bosko, to feed, pasture, fodder, keep. The second one is poimaino, which is what we looked at before, and that's shepherding. And that's also ruling and governing, nourishing. And then in verse 17, he repeats the word bosko again.

So here we are to our four verses, and we're just going to read through these. And this is sort of my lazy man's way of doing an expanded and explained version, or an amplified version. Not as good as Roy's, but this is mine. So here we are at chapter, or verse one of 1 Peter chapter five.

Peter says, therefore I exhort the elders, and that's Presbuteros, among you as your fellow elder, And a fellow elder is sumprasbuddharas, prasbuddharas, with that little sum in the beginning of the word, and that means together with. So he was identifying himself as an elder, which is pretty cool, being that he was one of the twa. He was an apostle. He was an apostle of the Christ, but he identified himself with these elders to whom he was writing, up to the scattered sheep in Galatia and things like that. So as your fellow elder and witness to the sufferings of Christ, and Peter could witness, not only was he an eyewitness to the sufferings of Christ, his suffering on earth and then his suffering on the cross, he was an eyewitness, but he also, it's a stronger word than that, he could testify to it in court under oath.

So it's a legal term there. So as your fellow elder and witness to the sufferings of Christ and partaker of the glory that is to be revealed, Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion. And let's look, let's back up and look at the glory that is to be revealed. verse 1 and I've put down at the bottom John chapter 17 verse 24, Father I desire that they also to whom you have given me be with me where I am so that they may see my glory and you have which you have given me for you love me before the foundation of the world.

So when we're raptured, we're gonna actually see his glory and we're gonna be with him. And we're gonna partake in that glory, aren't we? And Peter, he also witnessed the glory of Christ when he was here on earth. He saw him transfigured on the mount, right? He witnessed that and he witnessed Christ's radiance. So he's a witness of that.

So verse two, shepherd the flock among you, exercising oversight. And there's our word, poimeno, or poimeno. Interesting that the word flock is poimeno, and see how they're related? They're very close. Poimeno, or poimeno, and poimeno. Poiminiana, and I can't speak Greek too well, so I apologize for my butchering of it.

So shepherd the flock among you, exercising oversight. And there's our word episkopeo from episkopos. And that's what an elder does. Interesting to note that you can also substitute the word bishop in there. We don't use that word, but bishop is episkopos as well.

So exercise oversight, not under compulsion, which is forced or constrained, but voluntarily, and I'm in verse two here, according to the will of God, and not for sordid gain. And I have here in parentheses, we looked at the qualifications of an elder and he is not to be a lover of money and he should not covet riches in Acts 20 and Titus 5, 9, but he should serve, continuing in verse two, with eagerness. And eagerness is cheerful readiness. all alacrity so she had elders should have spring in a step and shouldn't judging kind of dragging his feet in doing it you know under compulsion is how that is first-rate nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge and lording it over is at downward downward lordship. It's uh... catechurio, it's the Greek, and it's a downward, you know, ruling down from, is the idea there. not lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples.

And examples is a type, like a typeface on an old Smith Corona typewriter. You have the type and it strikes the ribbon and it makes an image of that typeface. So that's what that word examples means in Greek or conformity to a pattern. So, but proving to be examples to the flock.

And when the chief shepherd appears in verse four, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. So the chief shepherd is coming again in glory. And we know that from first Thessalonians 4.17, which is the rapture, right? We're going to be caught up to meet Him in the air, and right there, we're going to physically see His glory. And that'll be a wonderful thing. I also put down here, you could also take it to mean the second coming, when He appears in the clouds, not for His saints, but with His saints, with us.

Isaiah 40 I have down below spelled out, every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, and the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. And I love that verse because I I just think of music when I hear that, because it's a movement in Handel's Messiah, if you're familiar with that. You know, it's, every valley shall be exalted, da-da-da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da-da. And then the men come in and they say, let's see. uh... out and there's a solace saying that the cricket passionately made straight uh... on the bases come in and and they say for all of them how old so the war has spoken it's a huge movement and it's wonderful and i just uh... i i just think it's cool and i use verses that are from the handles inside is the only point i'm making and rambling on here So, let's look at this.

When the chief shepherd appears in verse 4, these elders will receive the unfading crown of glory. And in that, you have that these elders are accountable to the chief shepherd, aren't they? You have accountability involved in that. And when will they receive this crown of glory? and i think it's right when we are raptured uh... there's and we studied this uh... couple weeks ago with uh... roger in first corinthians chapter three the pima judgment seat of christ so we're gonna be raptured and he's good uh... lamb and his church his bride uh... marriages to happen right there then you know then we'll spend time with him and then the millennial kingdom will come, right?

So there's my quick and dirty expanded or explained or amplified version of our four verses for this morning. And just one more thing, I just want to look at this elder's crown of glory for faithful service. And I've just simply I copied this nice little handy chart of what the five crowns in scriptures are in the New Testament. There's the victor's crown, the church founder's crown, the rapture's lover's crown, and there's our elder's crown for service from 1 Peter chapter 4 and verses 2 through 4.

And there's a trial crown, isn't there? from James chapter 1 and Revelations 2.10. And those crowns are the Stephanos, those victor's crowns given to athletes who run the race. And they're those crowns. Things made of garlands, whatever, but that's the meaning of that. And there's three rewards.

We're not dealing with that today, but there's a solid foundation reward, a voluntary service reward, and an inheritance reward. So we'll get those rewards and crowns according to how we serve. and whether we serve by the power and control of the Holy Spirit and our works to Him are acceptable. So, final deep thoughts here.

I've quoted Patrick J. Brennan, who did this really cool kind of thesis on elders and the fact that the church has gotten away from the biblical version of organization with elders and deacons. And he says, I believe the emergence of a monarchical system of leadership in our churches today was due to a strain from apostolic teachings and has been accepted without investigation. I think scriptures are clear And that biblical principles clearly show that this model is in opposition to what God intended for his church. Just as Israel was not intended to be ruled by a king, Christ's church is not to be ruled by a pastor. And I have over on the right there, kind of the modern day version of how churches are structured.

Many, many of them have a senior pastor and then associate pastors under them and then small groups and then small group leaders and things like that. And usually they have a leadership council at the top. So just, we don't have time to discuss it, but just kind of think about whether you agree with his statement there that he makes the point that there should be elders and deacons and, you know, one elder can take on the pastoral role, but there's no magical pastor, you know. We have rock and roll pastors these days at these huge churches.

You can see where Brennan, it all started in Third John, chapter one, nine through 11, where John writes, I wrote something to the church, but Diostrephes, who loves to be the first among them, does not accept what we say. For this reason, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds. And so he's calling out an elder John is, later than what Peter wrote this book. And you can see that, John says, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good.

So this elder isn't being an example to the flock. And then I'll close with Ignatius, who lived 50 AD to 110 AD. He was the first kind of early church father who kind of developed this class system of bishops and supervising and things like that, and then the pope.

So there you go. There's a little history of how it kind of strayed from what we just studied here, elders and deacons. So any thoughts or questions? Andrew, that's good. You did a good job. Yeah. I thought it would go. I wanted more discussion at the end there, but time flies when you're having fun there. Yeah. So, and I just wanted to codify all that, you know, so when people look at the presentation, it's, you know, it's very clear. Elders, deacons, Episcopos, Poimane. And that's, it's really simple. That's all it is.

Yeah, also, it's important also that in the first part that the church is an organism. not an organization. If you can get that in your head and keep that in mind, it really fits so much better with what Christ, what Scripture says and what Christ has planned. It's a loving institution, not a hierarchical institution. Usually, your body loves other body parts. I mean, your toe gets hurt, usually you're concerned about it.

Yeah, and you say, and it's often brought out and people forget, that the real ministry of a church is going on between its members, right? And that's where the ministry is happening. And your job, Roger, is just overseeing that and feeding it good doctrine. So the real ministry occurs with one-to-one, believer-to-believer, and things like that, and helping. So now we're going to grade Roger on a scale of one to five.

Send your balancing. And I don't mean to say, Roger, that when I say, you know, elder should have age, I'm not saying that you're a certain age. I am old, that's true. Well, we need more springs in your feet. Yeah, I noticed I need to be bouncing. I like that part of having a spring in my step. I guess I'll have to get, you know, get busy on that part. And I didn't cover this, but one final point is the number of elders. There's and I thought this was interesting.

There needs to be a group of elders because if one like let's say if Mike is teaching transubstantiation. He teaches the identification truths, but he just, he can't get rid of his Catholic days and he believes in transubstantiation. So he's teaching that to everybody. So Roger, you would have to come and say, hey Mike, boy, you know, that's a doctrine that, you know, but it's only Roger. So scripturally it should be two elders, Yeah, two or three come together and say, Hey, Mike, yeah, let's look at this and you can't know transubstantiation. I know you, you like that doctrine, but you can't. So, so yeah, and the only thing I'd say is I and I think you guys are looking to add an elder so amen.

And that would be good. That's the reason from moving down to Denver. Well, you'd want two or three, you know. Take one, though. We'll take one. Yeah. Three would be nice. Well, I see a lot of, you know, I see a lot of gentlemen there in the church who, you know, I would vote for, you know. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, we appreciate your teaching and your insights. Yeah, thanks for being part of our body and joining us. Yeah, oh no, this is great. Actually, Lord's actually, I'm just amazed with all these bad things that have happened, that doing this remotely through Zoom has actually opened up both for teaching and for people listening, whole new avenues of ministry. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and that is cool. I do like that.

Well, we probably better... Folks who want to travel and be here for the second service. So thanks again. OK. Actually, I think I'll be the one to close the meeting here, I guess. OK. Yeah. All right. Yeah. OK. Yeah. OK. Thanks, everyone. See you next week. Zoom into the main service. OK. See you then. Bye bye.