Look For An Overseer

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Will you turn in your Bibles with me instead of to Mark chapter 10, we're going to turn to 1st Timothy chapter 5. 1st Timothy chapter 5. No, 1st Timothy chapter 3. We'll be in 1st Peter 5 later. 1st Timothy chapter 3. 1st Timothy chapter 3. If you're using your pew Bibles, you'll find that on page 1053. 1 Timothy chapter 3, beginning at verse 1, and we'll read through verse 7 together.

Hear now God's perfect word. This is a faithful saying. If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous, one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence. If a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God? Not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride, he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover, he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Prayer for Illumination

Well, in this portion of the reading of God's Word there, the grass withers and the flower fades, but surely, brothers and sisters, the Word of our God endures forever. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word and we pray now that You would please. Father, we need wisdom. We need Your Spirit to take these words and lift them from the page and bury them in our hearts, make them marrow in our bones. Let them be sweet to us. and a guide for faith and life. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Sermon

Well, I was meeting with someone recently, and you had maybe seen it in the announcements last week, and I mentioned it in the sermon, we're going to be having an elder election on the second Tuesday of August, or second Wednesday, sorry, second Wednesday of August.

And so John, the clerk, will be reading the, or Jim, I don't know who's going to read it, but one of the elders is going to read the announcement for two weeks. And one person I was talking to this week about this, they asked me, they said, So do we just like have elder elections every year? Right? Do we just do this all the time until every single person is an elder or something? And that's not what's going on. They didn't say it quite that way, but... No, we've come into this good problem. We try at Sharon to have active shepherding. Not passive shepherding.

We try to be engaged in people's lives, pray for you every single session meeting, encouraging you throughout the week and every Sunday. And so to do that, we divide the congregation up. It's actually on the back wall where each of you are assigned to a different shepherding elder. And we try to keep that between five and seven family units per elder. The problem is now I have 10 family units, Jim has 10 family units, John has 10 family units, and Ben is maxed out at 7 already. And so we find ourselves in the need to have another shepherd join the session. This is a good problem to have.

And so because of that, the Lord actually dovetailed. What we've been looking at in Mark chapter 10 with those who wish to be first must be servants of all. And for those who are of the Gentiles, lord it over them, exercising authority. But not so amongst you. Chief amongst those who rule in the church must have those qualities. And so we're going to look specifically at verse 1 this week in 1 Timothy chapter 3. And I want to pick up on these words. This is a faithful saying. If a man desires the position of a bishop, He desires a good work. That phrase, the position of a bishop, is going to be the topic of this week's sermon.

What is a bishop? What do they do? Is a bishop somebody who walks around in fancy clothes with a pointy hat and a crook that he walks around with? That's not what a bishop originally was. It wasn't meant to be that either. No, the word here, what is a bishop? Bishop comes from the Old English, biskop. And it's directly tied to the Greek, episkopos.

Scope, we know that word, right? You have a telescope, you look into space, you have a kaleidoscope, you turn it, you look through it. But epi means on top of or over. It means an overlooker or an overseer. A bishop is somebody who is overseeing the flock of God. Somebody who's watching out for people. And if we went to Titus chapter 1, and we could go there, you can do that yourself, you would find that the parallel qualifications for an elder, a presbyter, are the same here. They're synonymous terms. Whether you're being called a bishop, an overseer, a presbyter, an elder, all of these are the same terms for the same office.

A shepherd of God's people. So if somebody is an overlooker, an overseer, does that mean God wants you to pick someone from amongst yourselves who's going to breathe down your neck, who's going to be a micromanager in your life, and is just going to constantly be looking over your shoulder? No, that's not what a bishop is. That's not what an overseer is.

For this, I think it's actually helpful for us, as we look at this position of a bishop, to look at The words from Peter himself. 1 Peter chapter 5. There's six things I want you to notice that Peter brings out. Especially our Roman Catholic friends are going to say, well, see, Peter is the chief bishop. He's the bishop over all the bishops. He's the bishop over all the church. That's what the Pope is. But that's not exactly what we find in 1 Peter chapter 5. Let's notice six different things that the bishop does.

1 Peter chapter 5, the elders, that's the word presbyteros from Titus chapter 1, the elders who are among you I exhort, I am a fellow elder. Notice first who Peter is writing to. He's writing to the elders, plural. The assumption is that Peter is writing to not just one elder of a church, but there is a plurality of elders. There's not just one head honcho of the church. There are many leaders in the congregation. It's not just one, but there is a plurality of presbyters.

But notice number two, notice Peter's humility. To the elders who are among you, I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ." Peter writes this and he humbles himself. He does not think of himself as highly exalted, lording it over everyone, but he sees himself, he calls himself, I'm just another elder. I'm a fellow elder. I'm one of the many flock's overseers. And I wonder as we pick up on this, this humility of Peter when he says, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ.

How did Peter witness the sufferings of Christ? We don't have any knowledge that he was actually there at the cross. Where did Peter witness the sufferings of Christ? When he was being tried. Peter remembers seeing his Lord arrested, cutting off a man's ears, most likely Peter, but then going to the trial, hiding himself, and denying Jesus three times. The Gospel of Luke is so poignant at this. It says that when that rooster crowed the second time, it didn't say, and Jesus looked at him, it said, and then the Lord looked at Peter.

Peter was humble because he knew that his office as a fellow elder was one given to him by grace. Peter is humble, but Peter also has a hope In his humility he has a hope. And also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed. And Peter is humble, both in him calling himself a fellow elder. Peter is humble in remembering where he was when his Lord was suffering. Peter also is humble as he knows there is a glory yet to come. And that glory comes from Christ. It's not in himself, it's not in his own office, it's not in his own person. But he looks to his Lord.

But notice number three, the third thing to notice is, notice Peter knows that there's work to be done. Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers. God gives shepherds to care for His flock. Shepherding is this idea is tied with overseers. Did you notice that? Beginning at verse 2, shepherd the flock of God, which is among you, serving as overseers. This idea of shepherding and overseeing is tied together. If somebody is to be an overseer, they are a shepherd, not a micromanager.

To oversee someone is to care for them. See, sheep are skittish. I absolutely love going around some of these farms. I always think, for some reason in my naive brain, if I go around a farm and there's sheep, I'm going to be able to walk up to the sheep pen, and I'm going to be able to say, here, come here sheep, and they're going to come to me. They'll never come to me. They don't know me, they run away from me. In a herd they run away from me. Because they don't know me.

Some of you have asked in previous elder elections, why don't you guys nominate someone so we know who we should be voting for? I think the ruling elders have wisdom here as they've told me, no, we want the people to tell us. Do they hear the voice of Jesus as they hear one from amongst themselves leading them already? As you think about electing an elder from your own midst in the congregation, are they somebody that when you hear them, you say, that person sounds like Christ. That person keeps giving me the same message that the Lord gave me in His Word.

See, sheep know the voice and the appearance of the shepherd, and they know that versus a stranger. A sheep watch. If you go to a bunch of sheep and you talk to shepherds who watch over these sheep, the sheep are able to tell who are the people who are just hirelings and who are the ones who are actually shepherds.

I remember hearing a story just a couple weeks ago from a guy and he was saying he was trying to learn how to shepherd a whole flock of sheep and he was not very good at it at all. Actually at one point his daughter said, Daddy, you're not a good shepherd. And the sheep just wouldn't trust him. They wouldn't come near him until one day a sheep gave birth.

And as that lamb was laying there, it was almost dying, it couldn't breathe, he was trying to figure out what to do and the only thing he could do was to put his mouth over the nose of that sheep and suck in the afterbirth as hard as he could to clear the lungs of that sheep. You might say, eww, right? Eww, right? But he said from that day on, all of a sudden the sheep started to follow him.

Because he showed care for the lambs. Who's showing care amongst you? Who's looking out for your little ones? Who have you seen sacrifice even doing things that you might think, ugh, they did what to the toilets? They did that? They're willing to get messy because they love. Sheep watch to see who's the gentle one with their lambs late at night. Sheep take note of the shepherd who carried the water to them when it was blistering hot on their own back. Sheep knows when the shepherd versus the cowboy. Do you know the difference between a shepherd and a cowboy?

I beg you, do not elect a cowboy. A shepherd goes in front of the flock. is willing to walk into the danger for the flock, carries the rod and the staff, is willing to say, I'm going to go here first, I'm going to lead you where I know, and I'm going to protect you along the way. Versus a cowboy rides on his horse behind with a whip and forces his people where he wants them to go. Elect a shepherd who's leading from the front, not a cowboy who's whipping from the back.

Sheep know the difference between also a shepherd and this sheepdog. Right? There are many elders who parade around like a sheepdog, thinking that if they just bite enough heels and they just try to wrangle around and run enough and get in everybody's business and get them, then they could get them right in the corner that they want them. That's not a shepherd. That's a sheepdog. Sheep can tell the difference from a willing and loving shepherd. versus a lazy and reluctant shepherd.

Lazy and reluctant shepherds won't give you the Word of God, won't bring to you the fruit of their own labors in God's Word, won't bring to you the fruit of their own prayer for you in their own lives. They're too busy about themselves to care about you. If somebody isn't caring about you now, please do not elect them as an elder. How they are caring for you now is a good indication of how they will continue to care for you in the future.

Fourthly, from this passage, notice whose flock it is. 1 Peter 5, verse 2. Shepherd the flock of God. I need to warn you, brothers and sisters, as you think about who you would elect as an elder from your own midst to be an overseer, if that person, you get a hint that they think this is their church, Meaning, if I could be an elder, this is the way I'm going to do things. That's a tyrant waiting to happen. Rather than somebody who wants to work with the elders for the people.

It's God's flock. This is one of the reasons I remember one day at VBS, I was out here, you know, giving all the kids high fives as they were coming in, and one little boy innocently said, you own the church, right? And I said, no, Jesus owns this church. Jim doesn't own the church. John doesn't own the church. Ben doesn't own the church. I don't own the church.

This is God's flock. You are God's people. This is why we sing Psalm 100. We are the sheep of His pasture. He's the one who has loved us and cared for us. Fifthly, notice in 1 Peter 5, verse 3, notice what attitudes they are to have. Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion, but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly, not being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock." Not lording it over those entrusted to you.

This is the exact same verb Jesus used last week in Mark 10.42. the Gentiles lord it over them. And Peter here is saying, elders are not to lord it over their people. Do not elect a man that you think will lord his office over you, but rather, look at what it says again, but being examples to the flock. This word for examples is typos, a type, an illustration, an example for you.

Are they the type of person that you want to lead? Are they the type of person you can point to and say, that looks like somebody who's striving to be like Jesus. That's someone that I want my boys to grow up as. That's someone that I want my children to learn from.

This idea of them being an example is what Paul is going to use in the rest of 1 Timothy chapter 3, when he says the different qualifications for an overseer. If they're going to be an example, they need to be blameless. They need to be the husband of one wife. If they're to be an example, then they need to be temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior. If you want to learn how to do hospitality, if you want to grow in that gift, elect someone who's doing hospitality.

If you want to have good teaching in the church, Who are the people who are already teaching in the church? Who are those who are already setting this example? If we're to have an example for ourselves and for our children of what it means not to be a drunkard or violent or greedy for money, find that person who it looks like they're already that man in the church.

Okay, and we could go through this list. I'd encourage you more. We're going to spend three weeks looking at some of these. And so, I'm not going to exhaust them here, but the point is find somebody who's already setting an example. Not the person who might someday set a good example. They could become that good elder. No, who is the man who's already setting that example?

Sixthly, from 1 Peter chapter 5, also notice the overseer must have the right motivations. Verse 2 and verse 4, shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, motivation, not by compulsion, but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly. And then drop down with me to verse 4. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away."

The motivation for an overseer, for a bishop, for an elder in the church must be one who is not under compulsion, but willingly. There have been men before who we have elected as elders, as a congregation, and thank God they went home, they prayed about it, they thought about it, and they said, I don't think I should be an elder. And there's a reason why the session didn't force them into it. Not under compulsion, but willingly. Not for dishonest gain. But instead, they're eager to serve and do good for others. But notice verse 4.

Why would somebody want to be an elder? What would motivate them? When the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. I need to warn you about something with that, right? He who desires to be a bishop desires a good thing, right? If somebody has, if there's a man in the congregation and he esteems to that office of being an overseer, an elder, that's a good thing. But you have to ask yourself.

Is this the type of person who's just after the crown? Or, are they the type of elder that you see in Revelation? Who when they receive their crown and they're in glory before Jesus Christ, what do they do with their crowns? They cast them at the feet of Jesus and they say, worthy is the Lamb. Do they receive that crown only to bring glory to Jesus Christ? to love Him and to serve Him. Are they looking to Him or do they just want the glory for themselves?

There's a world of difference between those men. Avoid the men who are all about their own crowns. Look for the man who loves the chief shepherd. Look for the man who wants the commendation of Jesus, well done and good and faithful servant. And you'll notice here that I'm going to switch points two and three in your outlines. Look for an overseer who protects with foresight. Look for an overseer who will protect you with foresight.

You know, Peter, when he left Jerusalem, before he ended up in Rome, he was actually installed as the pastor in Antioch. That's what the church fathers tell us. And as he was in Antioch, he mentored and raised up another pastor. His name was Ignatius, and he wrote in the early 100s. And this is one of the things this man wrote in the early 100s. He says, I keep watch over you previously, as my beloved, for I foresee the snares of the devil.

Do you therefore arm yourselves with gentleness, and recover yourselves in faithfulness, which is the flesh of the Lord, and in love, which is the blood of Jesus Christ? Right? You need to look for a man who seems to walk with spiritual wisdom. That he has some spiritual rubber underneath his tires, right?

He knows the road that he needs to drive on, because he's been there himself, and he's able to look at a person, he's able to say, If you go down that line of reasoning, it's going to lead you da, da, da. You need to be careful. If you pick up this habit, you need to be careful because there's danger right here for you. If you're about to marry this person, you need to be careful because this is what can happen in your life. They have foresight. This is why God says that if you're going to elect an elder, he must not be a novice. Not a new convert.

Is he able to see the possible dangers ahead? Or is he the type of guy that just rushes headlong into every theological weird place and every life circumstance that could lead them astray? Or does he stop and is he thoughtful? Has he studied the map of life and is he able to steer you from the pain of upcoming sin and unwise choices? He shouldn't be a new convert.

All right, why? Why? Because he can be filled with pride. Puffed up with a sense of his own self-worth and own desire for glory. Is he the type of guy who's, even if he's a young guy, has he shown a pattern of listening to the older elders? I gotta tell you, there is a wealth of wisdom on the session that God has provided for you.

I love when John tells me, Brian, you need to stop doing that. And you need to go love your wife. Brian, I don't think you should do that because I think you need to go spend more time with your children. You only have one opportunity to disciple them before they're out of your house. That's the type of foresight we need.

People who are able to speak into your life truths that we may not like, but we know that are good for us. A new convert does not mean you can't elect anybody young. Actually, that would be kind of a contradiction here, because Paul is writing to Timothy, who is a young man himself. He actually says in 1 Timothy, don't let anyone despise you for your youth, but instead, what are you supposed to do?

Set an example for them in godliness. He had been taught the Word from his youth. His grandmother, Lois, had given it to him. He had been discipled and mentored by Paul. He had been put on as an elder by the laying on of hands by the presbytery. And then, he had been set in Ephesus to be the pastor there. He's a missionary pastor, but he's not a dummy.

He's got wisdom beyond his age. So maybe it's a young guy you're looking for, maybe it's an old guy, I don't know. But it shouldn't be a new convert. The last question I have for you is, this is all fine and dandy, right? An overseer is supposed to be a shepherd, but where do they lead you to? Where does an elder lead you? Well first, choose a man who will living waters.

Look for the man who knows God personally. Does not just know God as an idea out there, but someone who has come to the living waters, has come to Jesus Christ, has drank deeply himself. Someone who can show you the humility of Jesus Christ because he is motivated by his Lord and Savior who would humble himself into the likeness of man and become a servant of many and he is now serving you. Look for a man that when he talks to you about the good news of Jesus Christ, he doesn't just talk about sin as if it's everybody else's problem, but he knows his own sins have been covered by the blood of Jesus. Look for the man who confesses his own sin to you and says, I know I failed as a dad. this. I know I didn't lead my family rightly in this and I had to ask God for forgiveness. Look for the man who is actually contrite for sin and knows deep down in his soul that it is only by the blood of Jesus Christ that he has any hope before God.

Look for the man who actually believes in the risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Look for the man who actually believes in the resurrection from the dead and encourages you that someday your Lord and Savior is going to come back again. Who is encouraging you with the good news of Jesus? Who has talked to you about who Jesus is and what He has done in their lives and is encouraging you to walk in that way? That's the man you want to follow because he knows where the living water is. He knows where to take your thirsty soul. But where else does he lead you? He leads you to the green pastures.

He knows that there are times in your life when you need the roughage of Deuteronomy. And other times when you can snack on the sweet corn of the Gospels. But you can't live a steady diet your whole life on the epistles. Know the man who knows where to go in the word to bring you a word in the right season at the right place in your life. Who knows that there are times that he needs to just sit with you and tell you, I don't understand. Who can learn from Job's friends and when there's death in your family, who knows how to just sit with you.

A man who knows the applications that come from Ecclesiastes, who knows vanity, vanity, all things are vanity and vexation of spirit, is able to tell you, look I've been down that road, I've chased that dream and I'm telling you at the top of the ladder there's nothing else. Go to the man who Irenaeus says that he was talking about the elders in Ephesus, even to the twelfth pastor there, he said, the bishops still had the preaching of the apostles ringing in their ears. Go to the man who knows where the green pastures are, who will lead you in that way. Go to the man who loves Jesus, who's humble, and who sets an example for your faith in life. He's not gonna be perfect. You're never gonna find a perfect elder. If you do, please elect him right away. Tell me who he is. But elect one that strives to be like Christ.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you have blessed the church with this office of an overseer. Lord, we pray that you would give us wisdom in seeking out who that man would be in our own midst. And Father, we pray that you would give us courage by your Holy Spirit to even ask the hard questions. Maybe we need to call some wives. Maybe we need to talk to some children. Father, we pray that you would let us do so lovingly. And we thank you that for 175 years in this congregation, You have not forgotten us, but that decade in and decade out you have provided us with faithful elders. We pray that you would continue to do so.

In Jesus' name. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.