“How to Minister to the Minister”
(I Timothy 5:17-25)
Well, this morning we are continuing in our series from the Pastoral Epistles we are calling “Footsteps of the Faithful.” Now let me recap some of what’s been covered in this series of messages. In chapter one we talked about the church and its message. In chapter two we talked about the church and its members. In chapter three we talked about the church and the minister and last Sunday night Bro. Lew covered the first part of the church and its ministry. And this morning I want to continue there. The first part of chapter 5 deals with the church’s ministry to our senior citizens and the older and younger widows. This morning I want to bring a message entitled, “How to Minister to the Minister.” Turn with me to I Timothy chapter 5. We’re going to be looking at verses 17-25 (Read).
A few weeks ago we were talking about authority and praying for those in leadership positions. And that’s something we should certainly do! One of the reasons we need to do that is this, there is a genuine lack of leadership in our society today. And not only that, there is also a lack of people who want to be led. There was a song from years ago that went something like this, “Nobody wants to play rhythm guitar behind Jesus. Everybody wants to be the lead singer in the band.” Folks, as funny as that sounds, it’s true! How many of you have seen the TV show the Apprentice? If you’ve ever seen that show, you that once those people get in that boardroom with Donald Trump, one of the top things he and his associates look at is how these were at leading the people they were in charge of. Now, first of all, why anyone would want to work for Donald Trump is beyond me. I mean, isn’t there enough pressure with the jobs we have? Leadership is high on the list for those in positions of authority.
In many ways there is a genuine lack of leadership today. And there are certainly areas where leadership is needed. We need leadership in the government. We need leadership in our military. We need leadership in our school system, and we certainly need leadership in the church today. It’s important for this generation to have strong church leadership. Churches need a take charge kind of guy because if they don’t, churches stay the same year after year without any change and that’s not healthy for any church because nothing much happens in a stagnant church. Now, in these verses of scripture you see the word “elder.” There is the word episkopoi which means “to oversee.” Then there’s the word presbuteroi which means “to be advanced in life or a senior.” Episkopoi refers to the nature of their work (pastor) and presbuteroi refers to their maturity of Christian experience. In the context of this passage of scripture, this is referring to the pastor or pastors. It refers to all of the leaders of the church in a sense, but mainly here it’s directed at the pastor as the overseer of the church. In the early church it was not uncommon for them to have several pastors or at least more than one. The pastor is the spiritual leader of the church. He is the under shepherd of the flock. His responsibility is to teach God’s Word, direct the church as God leads, keep the congregation focused on God’s plan, and to protect the flock from false doctrine. Plus be available when needed. But let me say this, the pastor may be the spiritual leader but that doesn’t make him a spiritual dictator. I Peter 5:2-3 says, “Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly. Nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.” That’s why there are qualifications listed in chapter 3. A pastor is to lead by example. Let me also say that this message wasn’t very easy to prepare for. As your Associate Pastor, I am one of the elders of this church and this message is aimed at honoring your spiritual leaders. I am always humbled when I get the opportunity to preach a message from God’s Word and a lot of times we don’t get to choose what we want to speak about. It just so happens that this is something this series from I Timothy deals with, so I’m going to deal with it too!
Now, I said a minute ago that there was a possibility that there were several elders in the early church. It’s evident that Timothy is the senior elder because Paul is directing this at him. But there’s a good possibility that Timothy was having problems with some of the other elders. You see, Timothy is a young man and he still has a lot to learn. And Ephesus is not is easiest place in the world to minister. It was full of sorcerers and astrologers and worship to the goddess Diana. To make things even harder, Timothy is following Paul as the pastor of this church. He has big shoes to fill. There was a lot expected out of him, just like it will be hard for whoever follows Adrian Rogers as the next pastor of Bellevue Baptist in Memphis. Paul had personally chosen Timothy to take his place. But in spite of that this young pastor was having a hard time. You know this could account for why Paul mentions in verse 23 about Timothy using a little wine for his stomach’s sake. Wine was used then and still is today for medicinal purposes. They didn’t have a drug store to run to 24 hours a day like we do. They had to use what was available at the time. And this is not an endorsement for the alcohol industry because in the context of this scripture it was used for a stomach ailment.
Did Timothy have stomach problems? Did he worry himself into an ulcer? Or did the thought of all the responsibilities and the problems in the church make him ill? Folks, that could very well be! Now as most of you know, I didn’t go into the ministry until I was 44 years old. And in some ways I’m glad God waited to call me because I don’t know if I could have handled the responsibilities of the ministry as a 20 year old or a 25 year old. I have seen numerous pastors go through all kinds of problems that resulted in their being sick. And I guess it depends on how strong you are and what kind of temperament you have as to how you react to problems. I’ll tell you this, I handle them different now than I did as a young man.
Folks, your church staff is close to many of you and you know who you are and you know what goes on up here during the week. We don’t sit up here and play cards and watch television all day. We work hard planning our services and ministering to different people throughout the week. There is so much you don’t see. You don’t see the hospital visits in the middle of the night and the families we deal with in a number of ways, the hours of visitation during the week, the hours of sermon preparation and prayer, the time we’re away from our families for associational work, then there’s all the work Peggy does from paying bills to typing power point presentations, the bulletins and the newslight. A church secretaries duties are too many to mention really. We really appreciate Peggy and Pauline and those of you who help during the week in so many ways we want to say a heartfelt thank you, thank you, thank you! The ministry is getting harder everyday. So there’s no wonder many pastors have stomach problems and other ailment that hinder their service.
Now, the reason I told you what goes on behind the scenes is not for you to come up after the service and pay homage to me, okay? I’m just saying there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes that ministers deal with every day. That’s part of the ministry and we knew that when God called us. We’re used to that. Never the less, the scriptures deal with honoring the spiritual leaders of the church. And in I Timothy 5, verses 17-25 I see four ways a congregation can do that. And as I mention these four things, please keep in mind that I am talking about churches in general, not just Philadelphia Baptist Church. I know as a staff person here that I am well taken care of and very thankful for that. The first way to honor or minister to your pastor is,
I. Financial Support (verses 17-18/ Read)
Should a pastor be compensated for his work? Yes, according to the apostle Paul. He has already addressed this in II Corinthians chapter 9. He says in II Cor. 9, verses 11-14, “If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Never the less we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.” Folks, that’s pretty plain!
But why does it say that the elders be counted worthy of double honor? Well, first of all, I don’t think this means double pay because a true pastor’s not in it for the money anyway. But one of the words we use for honor is “honorarium” which means giving payment for services rendered as an act of honor. But I also believe this means that spiritual leaders are worthy of an attitude of honor because of the role they play in leading the church. Folks, Bro. Lew and I would be crazy if we came up here behind this pulpit unprepared and tried to preach a message from God’s Word. We would fall flat on our faces. I takes hours and hours of preparation before we get up here because we want to honor God by being as prepared as we can in presenting God’s Word to you. I’ve heard of people not preparing at all before they get in the pulpit and then just rely on God to speak through them. Folks, that’s dangerous! (Quote II Tim. 2:15).
Now, in verse 18, Paul reaches back into the Old Testament to the book of Deuteronomy and quotes this scripture, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Then to Luke’s Gospel where he says, “The laborer is worthy of his wages.” What does he mean by those? Well, it’s really simple. You see in ancient times, farmers would bring an ox into the threshing floor, where they harvested their wheat. They would let the ox trample the wheat down with its hooves. What that did was help separate the wheat from the chaff so it could be harvested. They didn’t put a muzzle on the ox. They let him eat while he was doing his job trampling out the wheat. So in a way Paul says pastors are like oxen (not a very flattering illustration there, by the way). Just as an ox has a right to benefit from its labor so does the ones God has called to lead the church fulltime. And Paul says the laborer is worthy of his wages. In other words, if he works hard he should be paid well. So the first way a congregation can honor their spiritual leader is financial support. The second way is this,
II. Fair Treatment (Verses 19-20/Read)
Paul seems to jump from one end to the other here. He goes from paying the preacher to jumping on the preacher. But Paul gives careful instruction here because this is a delicate matter. To entertain an accusation against someone is to accept that accusation as true and accurate. Would you agree? Paul says that no accusation against the pastor is to be even considered as true unless that accusation comes from at least two witnesses. That was the Old Testament law. Why have two or three witnesses? Because church leaders live open, public lives. We are an open book for the world to see. We are vulnerable to false accusation. Every year pastors ministries are destroyed by false accusations. We have to be careful who we’re with, where we go, what we say, who we hug and how we hug them. Pastors get criticized a lot because of things we’ve said or decisions we’ve made as leaders but that’s just a part of being a leader. Trying to lead someone means some people won’t like you and will always assume the worst about you.
But on the other hand, there are times when accusations against a church leader are true and can be verified by more than one witness. In this case, church leaders who are guilty of open sin are to be rebuked publicly in front of everybody. Now, the disciplining of church members and how to do it is mentioned in several areas of scripture (Matt. 18, Gal. 6, I Cor. 5). But here it refers to the discipline of church spiritual leaders. What kind of sin is Paul talking about here? The kind that would disqualify them from being the public church leader they should be. He’s already given the qualifications in chapter 3. I’ll just tell you this and it goes without saying, if a pastor has an out of control anger problem or a lust problem, or a greed problem or teaches something contrary to scripture, he should be rebuked openly. And it should set an example for the other members of the church that they should act accordingly too! Verse 20 says, “that the rest also may fear.” The church should say, “we’re not going to put up with this.”
Paul then gives Timothy a charge to deal with all accusations against church leaders without prejudice or favoritism. Look at verse 21 (Read). Folks, when we make accusations that’s hard to do isn’t it? There was a study conducted by Christianity Today that stated that ¼ of all pastors can expect to be fired or forced to resign at least once during their ministry. And the problem is usually not sin, it’s a leadership conflict. You see, a lot of churches act like a sports team that doesn’t make it to the World series or the Super Bowl or has a few losing seasons. The team doesn’t produce so the manager or the coach gets the axe. And folks, I know that’s a harsh illustration but it’s true in many churches. Paul is just telling Timothy here to make sure people have their facts straight before accusations fly and when they do come into play, handle them in a way that would be fair. The third way a congregation can honor their spiritual leaders is by,
III. Expecting Integrity (Verses 22, 24-25). We’ll talk about verse 23 in a minute.
When it talks about laying hands on someone here, that’s talking about commissioning someone or acknowledging God’s calling in their life and setting them apart for that in a public way. When a person is commissioned to a special ministry, the church leaders place their hands on that individual in prayer as a way of acknowledging God’s calling on that person and the church’s approval of it. We do this when we ordain deacons. When I was ordained to the pastoral ministry last year, this is what the church did. But it says not to do this too hastily. Make sure they meet the qualifications and that they can handle the ministry. Make sure you know their character. And that takes time. It also says not to share in other peoples sin. Now in the context of this scripture that may very well be talking about the consequences of ordaining someone who shouldn’t have been ordained in the first place. Because when a church does that in a way they are to blame for some of the negative things that happen to the church. The spiritual leaders of the church are to be pure in the sense that they can’t deal with someone else’s sin if their lives aren’t pure.
I remember when a certain president was running for office. He made statements like, “this is not a character issue.” Folks, in the ministry and in the Christian life character’s not just an issue, character is everything! It’s who you are and what you believe. It’s what and who you stand for. Because we are dealing with peoples lives here! And people trust people whose character has been tested and tried and still stands at the end of it all. I know it sounds odd that expecting our leaders to act with integrity honors them, but it makes sense when you think about it. There’s an honor that goes with being a church leader because it’s a noble, honorable calling to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in His church .
But don’t confuse integrity with perfection. Because if pastors had to be perfect there wouldn’t be any. Integrity isn’t anywhere close to perfection. Integrity means that a person’s private life and their public life are consistent. I know I have my shortcomings. I don’t have to have anybody remind me. I already know I mess up all the time. But the desire of my heart is when I do fall I get that straightened out with my Lord and let Him pick me back up again and carry on. Only God knows the hearts of men so the church should be very careful who they call to lead them. The scripture say some men’s sins are evident because we can see them. But some men’s sins don’t appear until later after they’re already a church leader. Then there’s real trouble!
Folks, I’ve seen it happen and you have too probably at some point in your lifetime. But the good works are also evident in their life because even those they don’t do them to be seen by men we still see them. What Paul is trying to tell Timothy in these verses is the better a church knows its potential leaders the fewer surprises they’ll present after they’ve been appointed. But this may also be talking about being careful about recommissioning fallen elders back into service. Make sure their repentance is genuine, make sure their recommitment to Christ is strong. Make sure they have learned their lesson. That could be what this is referring to, letting pastors back in the pulpit after a time of counseling and discipline.
So we’ve looked at 3 ways a church congregation can honor their spiritual leaders. First with financial support, then with fair treatment. Then you can honor your spiritual leaders by expecting integrity from them. And the fourth and final way to honor them is by,
IV. Encouraging a Healthy Lifestyle (Verse 23).
Now, maybe you’re thinking, “what does this have to do with honoring your spiritual leaders?” Well, when you read these verses all together, verse 23 does seem kind of out of place. I really think the key to this is found at the end of verse 22. It says “keep yourself pure.” In chapter 3 Paul warned against drunkenness among church leaders, so most likely Timothy simply stayed away from alcohol completely, even for medicinal purposes. Like I said earlier, in the ancient world wine was widely used as a medicine. And Paul knows that Timothy has frequent ailments so he tells him to use a little wine to help his stomach problems or whatever problem he was having. Most likely it was stomach problems caused by problems going on in the church at Ephesus. And elder discipline may have been one of the problems thatTimothy was trying to handle and he didn’t know what to do about it. Have you ever had a problem that just thought about and thought about and obsessed over until you were sick? Maybe that was Timothy’s problem. You know, we all know everybody’s different in how they react to things and not everybody has the same temperament. Some people are real “in your face” type of people and Paul is probably that way but in a loving way.
But I get the impression that Timothy isn’t like that. He’s a whole lot more laid back. The reason I say that is this, and Bro. Lew will probably say more on this next week as he begins II Timothy. Paul reminds Timothy to stir up the gift that God had put in him and that God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Well, the New International Version and the New American Standard both use the word timidity instead of the word fear. “God has not given us the spirit of timidity”. So it’s very possible that Timothy was more of a shy type of person. And as you and I know it’s a whole lot easier for a “in your face” person to tackle problems head on than it is for a shy and timid person to deal with them. So that could be why he was having stomach problems.
But here’s another possibility. Since Timothy was probably drinking so much water, it could have been from the water they drank, which is another reason wine was used for meals and special events. The water in Bible times was not very clean or safe to drink just like many of the third world countries today. But Timothy also knew the law said in Numbers chapter 6 that a priest or minister of God must not touch the fruit of the vine when it was fermented. There are several possibilities that could be looked at. But what Paul tells Timothy is he not violating the scripture by taking a little wine as medicine. The key word here is little. This probably means no more than a few tablespoons full. Wine in bible times was generally pretty weak because it was diluted with water a lot of the time.
Now, before I became a Christian I was a heavy drinker. That’s just a part of my testimony. I never was much of a wine drinker though. But alcohol in general was a major problem in my life. And when I gave my life to Christ He delivered me from that completely and I’ve never had a desire for it since. But others who have had the same problem with alcohol can’t use a little wine because a little wine becomes a lot of wine. So abstinence from alcohol all together is best for them. But Paul knew that a little wine would help Timothy’s stomach problem. Now today when people have stomach problems there’s all kinds of over the counter medicines that we can take. But here’s something else we have to realize, not everybody can take over the counter or prescription drugs for this problem so wine is okay for them to use. Now we don’t want a bunch of you staggering around here saying you have stomach problems so you can drink wine okay?
We need to take care of our bodies and I know what my wife’s thinking, “buddy, you better start practicing what you preach.” Well, I’ll be the first one to tell you that exercise is not my favorite thing to do and I’m looking at some of you and I’m guessing it’s not yours either. The Bible does tell us that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit if we belong to Christ, so it is important for us to take care of ourselves. Because if the body is sluggish, then chances are our minds will be too. If our bodies not energetic, then chances are the spirit won’t be. Folks, our health is something we all take for granted sometimes and we shouldn’t because this body is the only one we get so we need to take care of it.
Paul knows that in order for Timothy to lead the church in the way it needs to be with strong leadership, he is going to have to take care of himself. And that’s something for all pastors to consider. Every pastor needs time away. Bro. Lew is away today for some much needed rest and time with his family. Pastors need time away to recharge because another one of the major problems of the ministry is burnout. And really the only cure for that is time away. I’m not saying Bro. Lew is burntout, I’m saying this is common among minister that work too long. So you be sure to tell him he was missed when he gets back.
How can a congregation honor their spiritual leaders?
1. Give them financial support
2. Treat them fairly
3. Expect integrity from them
4. And then encourage a healthy lifestyle for them
Your church leaders are available to you when you need us. It’s not just a job Folks, we love you!
Now, I know that this message has been basically a message to the church. But let me ask you this, are you a part of the church? Not just Philadelphia Baptist Church but a member of the body of Christ? Do you know Him as your personal Savior this morning? Are you sure about it? If you will admit you’re a sinner and turn from your sin and put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ with simple childlike faith, He will make you a brand new person and give you eternal life. Have you done that? Maybe you have other needs.
Recommitment
Church membership
Prayer
We’re going to stand and sing a hymn of invitation. You come as the Lord leads.
OFFERING
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Closing prayer
