Respect Your Elders

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. Well, you meet me in your Bibles at 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, and we'll be looking at verses 12 and 13 this morning. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, then you'll get to the pastorals. Get past Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and you'll get to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter five, if you're using your pew Bible, you can find that on page 1050. 1 Thessalonians chapter five, beginning at verse 12. Hear now God's perfect word.

And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. Be at peace among yourselves. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint-hearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all, so that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursues what is good, both for yourselves and for all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things. Hold fast what is good. Abstain from every evil.

Prayer for Illumination

Thus ends this portion of the reading of God's word. Brothers and sisters, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God, the word of our God endures forever. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day, and we thank you for your word. We pray now that as we read your word, that we would have eyes to see, ears to hear. We pray that our minds would be attentive as we sit at your feet. In Jesus's name, amen.

Sermon

Well, when I was at grad school in Chicago, I was still struggling whether I was supposed to go and do PhD stuff, or whether I was supposed to be a pastor, and I was really wrestling with this. And once a week I'd meet with Pastor Rhoda at the church, and he and I would talk about this, and he just kept admonishing me. He just kept saying, just go to seminary and figure it out there. Just go to seminary and figure it out there. Just go to seminary and figure it out there. Week after week after week.

And finally I thought, well, maybe I'm not supposed to go to seminary. I'm just going to not listen to my pastor. But then I started worrying about, oh no, we're having a third kid. How am I going to feed these kids? So then PhD stuff went out the window. Seminary was somewhere way out there. And I was like, I'm just going to go back into the Navy.

And I remember Pastor Rhoda, he was so smart, he said, I want you to preach from Matthew chapter six. And he gave me the verses. He had known that I knew how to preach and that I'd been trained for that previously. And he said, why don't you preach from this? I said, okay, that's fine. I wrote it down and I went home and the passage is, do not be anxious about anything. Do not worry. He admonished me. He looked at my life, he knew where I was sitting, he knew where the struggle was, he had wisdom, and he stepped into an area that I desperately needed.

There's so much wisdom that God has given people in the church. It's one of the reasons why we need more than one person to lead the church, but the Proverbs say that in the multitude of counselors, there's much wisdom. And so he's given us elders to rule the church. He's given us overseers to watch over the people of God.

And so what I want you to walk home with today, what you should take home with you, is that you need to have a healthy respect for the elders in the church. Have a healthy respect for the elders in the church. First of all, let's look at, we need to recognize the elders, period. We need to recognize the elders, verse 12. And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you. First of all, you just need to know, right, that the word here is literally to know them. You need to know who your elders are.

For you in the congregation, you have three elders here. John Smith, Jim Pilling, and myself, we're your three elders. And in our denomination, we think that there are two different types of elders. One who's given primarily to teaching, so I'm the teaching elder. But these are your ruling elders. We need to know who they are, and they need to know who you are. They want to shepherd you. They pray for you. They love you. They call you. They check up on you. If you're in the hospital, they might show up to see you. You need to know who your elders are, and they need to know who you are, but not everyone should be an elder. The idea here of recognizing the elders carries with it an idea of respecting the elders.

I want to keep your finger in 1 Thessalonians chapter one, or chapter five, but just flip over a few pages to 1 Timothy chapter three. 1 Timothy chapter three. God gives us some qualifications for who the elders are supposed to be, what type of men they're supposed to be like. 1 Timothy 3, verses 1-7, this is a faithful saying.

If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. The word there for bishop just means elder. A bishop then must be blameless. Must be the husband of one wife. I love the more literal translation of that. I think we get it really clear. He needs to be a one-woman man. An elder must be a one-woman man. He must be temperate, sober-minded. You don't want to drunk as an elder.

Of good behavior, hospitable. Somebody who, we think of hospitality when we think about having friends over and stuff like that, you know, people we like over to our house. Hospitality is the word philosinos, which is loving the stranger. Someone when there's a visitor who comes to church is able to show them love. Someone who is able to open up their home to other people and want to entertain people at their home. Someone who they don't... I'll never forget, John and Rosalie didn't know me from Adam when they invited me out. I got an email saying, you want to come preach in Morning Sun, Iowa? I said, where's Iowa? I don't know.

And so as I was looking it up, I said, oh, sure. So they said, well, you can stay with us. And I thought, oh, this is wonderful. And they had a room there. And they had a bathroom just for me. And then surprise, surprise, February in Iowa, can you believe what happened? It snowed. And my flight got canceled. And they didn't just say, well, we'll get you a hotel because we got plans. They canceled their plans. And they had me stay an extra day.

An elder needs to be someone who's hospitable, able to teach, not given to whine, not violent, Not greedy for money. You don't want a Judas as one of the elders. 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. I love this parenthesis here. What does verse five say? This is just kind of common sense.

For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God? So when we're thinking of the men who are worthy of respect, and this, by the way, I did not plan when this was going to come about, but the Lord in His gracious providence is having us do an elder election, and we just happen to be in this passage. But when we look for what type of men we want to elect as elders, we're looking for men we respect. This doesn't mean that their life is perfect. But is there any scandalous sin in their life? When you look at their household, does it look like that's the type of household I wanna have? Not a novice, not a new convert.

Less being puffed up with pride, he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. You don't wanna elect someone as a leader of the church who's only been in the church for maybe a year. You want somebody who's experienced in the faith. Moreover, he must have a good testimony among those who are outside. You can say you're a Christian all you want, you can look good on Sunday, but if you got a business that's ripping everyone off and you got a bad name in the neighborhood, don't elect that guy as an elder. That's what it's saying here. Lest he fall into reproach. and the snare of the devil.

These are the type of men we are praying for, the type of men that the scriptures say are in the church. This is not such a high and lofty ideal that you're looking for the perfect man, that this perfect person, you're never gonna find that type of person in the church. But do they look like Christ? Do they love Jesus Christ? Do they love Jesus' people? Do they treat Jesus' people with love? Does it seem like they're still in love with Christ?

Those are the type of men we should be respecting. Respect and recognize the elders. Secondly, know the elder's responsibility. Look with me at verse 12 again. I urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you. I'd like to say that there are three different job descriptions here that an elder of the church has. The first is labor. The first is labor. If you're going to have somebody who's going to be a leader in the church, it is hard work.

I love leaving coffee almost every day, and I just get to tell the guys at coffee, see you later. And they go, well, have a good day of vacation. I say, I only work one day a week. But elders in the church pull long hours, 40 plus, 50 plus hours at their normal jobs, and then come and labor in the church. Then come after they've tried to provide for their families, after they've worked on the farms, after they've put in hard work at the factory, after they've taught for hours, and then are working for you. It's one of the reasons why we should respect them, because they work.

And if you're anything like me, I know that I'm not an easy person to love. Go ask my wife. Elders are called to work. Elders are also called to rule. The second job description here of their responsibilities are elders are expected to rule. and are over you in the Lord."

That's not as... New King James is a great translation. This is a little bit weak for what the word is. The word really is to rule over, to have authority over you. This is not an inherent authority though. I don't have any authority in myself as Brian to have authority over you. Jim and John have no right in and of themselves to demand anything of you. No, it's a derived authority. Notice what the text says.

And are over you in the Lord. Any authority that God has given to the elders is only because we are in Christ. And this is the way that Christ has organized the church. So that means there are biblical bounds, scriptural bounds, that we can't say to you guys, all right, guess what?

Everybody needs to sell their car and be like me. We're all going to get white cars. No, there's nothing in scripture about that. There's no inherent authority I have to tell you that type of thing. So there are limits to this authority, but it's Christ's. Authority.

Elders rule over in things like setting vision for the church, setting the schedule, how are we going to organize things as best as possible, trying to plan for what we need to do in upcoming months and years, the preaching schedule. Did you know that we meet at the beginning of the year and I give the elders a whole calendar for what my preaching is going to look like for the year? And sometimes John and Jim say, no, you're not going to do that. We want you to preach on this book instead.

This is what the elders do. They have authority. And this is one of the things I want to pull back again and say, in many churches, and in many polities, polity is just a fancy word for how the church operates, and in many churches, it's the pastor. And then the elders or the deacons are just kind of under them. But we see that nowhere in Scripture. Even Peter himself calls himself a fellow elder. John and Jim and I have equal standing, they outvote me all the time on the session.

I love when I called John one time and I said, John, I have a cockamamie idea, and he started laughing on the phone. And he said, I think I get what my job is now. And I said, what's that, John? He said, I'm the muffler to your crazy ideas. And indeed, that's because they can tell me no, slow down, no. No, we have equal authority, one vote each person. keeping track of the membership roles, pastoring, praying for you. There's this authority that is there, but it's a loving authority. It's an authority that Jesus Christ left, right?

What did he tell Peter right before he went up into heaven? Peter, do you love me? Feed my lambs. Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. Peter, do you love me? Lord, you know I love you. Care for them, right? Care for my people. He had given the keys to the kingdom to the hands of the elders. This is what Jesus designed. And when we go away from this, it hurts people. There's another job description here of their responsibilities.

Look with me again at verse 12. This is a very unpopular one in our society today, to recognize those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you. Oh, no one likes being admonished, myself included. We don't like being told you're doing something wrong. Hold on here. Nobody likes discipline and yet that's what this is calling.

That the leaders in the church are called to be those who tell people, this is the wrong way, you're going the way of the world, you need to come back onto the narrow path. The elders are called to be those, when somebody is in doctrinal sin or in moral sin, that we say, no, no, come back, come back, come back, come back. Sometimes that means we do that, you might receive phone calls, you might receive letters, I might come to your house, we might ask you to meet with a session, we try as best we can. That's what the elders are called to do, to admonish. This is why in our vows, when people come up for church membership, in the fourth vow we say, in case you might need correction in doctrine or life, do you promise to submit to the rule and authority of the church? Because you make that promise if you're a member of the congregation, that you recognize that what we do here at the church is founded upon God's word. And so if you start straying from the Lord's word, we're gonna say, come back. Come back.

Might mean warn, might mean rebuke, but some people might say, ah, but that doesn't sound very Jesus-like. You know, Jesus was very accepting. Jesus was very careful. Jesus was very gentle. That's true. Jesus said he was lowly and gentle. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Jesus did say that, but you can, if you ever read through the Gospels, notice how Jesus interacts with people like the Pharisees. Jesus is the one who called them whitewashed tombs, you brood of vipers. And even when he talks to Peter and Peter is trying to dissuade him from going to the cross, what does Jesus say to Peter? Get behind me, Satan. There are times when you read through the Gospels and you can just see in your mind's eye Jesus just shaking his head.

How long? How long am I going to be with you and you don't get this yet? Even the apostles needed to be rebuked by Jesus, admonished by Jesus, to turn away from sin. This might not be popular. It might not be popular, but it's needed. I need it in my life. I need it in my life when John, during prayer, I can't tell you how often on Sundays, John will rebuke me in his prayers all the time, I love it.

I remember one time I went to an ordination service down in Kansas, and we drove six, seven hours, something like that, down there. Came, started driving back home at like 10 o'clock at night, so I didn't get home until like four o'clock in the morning. Men's study was at seven, so I was at men's study, and John just sits there and had men's breakfast and goes, God, please teach our pastor to have sanity. Like don't do that, that's dumb. That's what John was saying and he was admonishing me. I haven't taken any more 4 a.m. trips since then. This is what the elders do, this is one of their responsibilities to admonish. Thirdly, esteem the elders in love. Point three, esteem the elders in love. Look with me at verse 13. and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake."

This idea of esteeming, thinking highly of someone is again why I told you a few minutes ago when July 14th, is it 14th that we're doing elections? Yeah, July 14th comes and we have elder elections. You need to ask yourself, is this someone I actually esteem? Is this someone I look up to? Is this someone that I look to and say, yeah, I want them guarding my soul. I want that person setting vision for the church. Do you esteem that person? But why?

Why should you esteem the elders in love? Well, it's because love for Christ is shown in love for each other. As the elders pour out their lives, their hours, their resources, their mental, spiritual, all the capital that they have, sometimes their money, to care for you all, They're showing their love for you. As we spend hours after hours a year praying for every single individual in the congregation, esteem them in love because they love you. Because they've served you for years upon years.

How can you show them esteem? Non, or shameless plug for Chalk and Talk. This is an application point we can talk about this afternoon. How you can esteem the elders in love. But just a few ideas here. Prayer. Pray for Jim. Pray for John. Pray for myself. Pray for wisdom as we look forward to electing a new elder. Pray for us. Another way that you can esteem us in love, that you can encourage us, is just to be here at church. Our hearts are always concerned when we don't see people coming and regularly feeding upon God's word. Come to the worship. Come to the worship of God. That's one of the ways to show love for Christ and love for the elders.

Encourage us. When something goes right, go tell John, wow, that really worked well, good job. But also with that, on the flip side is, also come to us with honest feedback. One of the ways that you can show respect to the elders is instead of sowing division in the congregation or maybe grumbling and complaining in your own family, is to come straight to Jim, John, or myself and say, I don't think that was a good idea. And we'll hear you. We wanna hear from you.

One of the ways that you can esteem the elders in love is by showing them that love and going and talking to them. Maybe one last way here to show esteem and love for the elders is show us grace when we mess things up. Show grace when we mess things up, and I promise you, I am going to mess things up as one of the elders. One of the things I love about the elders and deacons here, and I brag about as Presbytery, is that you all let me fall on my face, and you just say, that's all right, do it again. And you let me try something new again. Showing grace even when something doesn't work out the way we want it.

The last verse here, part of this verse here that we need to look at though that ties together with this is the end of 13. Be at peace amongst yourselves or live at peace with each other. Could you imagine? Can you believe that God had to tell people in the church to get along with each other? That's what he's saying here. Live at peace with each other. I mean, it's so easy for people in the church to have these adversarial relationships. We call each other brother and sister. We're supposed to love one another, right? That's how Jesus says people will know us if we love one another, and yet how often we will just, you know, things irritate us, rub us the wrong way, and all of a sudden that person who we really liked last week becomes our enemy this week.

And there's these adversarial relationships that can develop in the church. And one of them is the adversarial relationships between the elders. There are many churches that the elders get in these pockets of one camp against the other. One elder's not happy because things aren't going his way and he just is going to brood over it. And there has to be that love even amongst the elders to live at peace with one another. This can happen between the elders and the deacons.

Can you believe that? Elders and deacons don't always see eye to eye. And yet God's word here is command for us is that we need to live at peace with each other, fostering this sense in the church of teamwork and mutual love for one another, even though we might not agree on everything. But even this can go broader than that.

The elders can alienate themselves from the congregation. where the congregation starts to not wanna talk to the elders, start holding grudges, and instead of coming to the elders and telling the elders what's on their hearts, just kind of sowing division within the congregation until it's us versus them, even though the elders are part of us. And this can happen. And God is saying, God is recognizing that this can happen in the church, and he's saying, live at peace.

I've made this structure where these are the leaders of the church, we're to esteem them, we're to respect them, so live at peace. That's what the elders of the church, that's how God designed the church, is so that we could have peace. Not so that we could have division and fighting.

And there's a harmony. There's a harmony that happens in the church when there is mutual trust and love. between the elders, the deacons, and the congregation. When there's teamwork, that happens, and open communication, and people will talk with one another.

And even though we might not agree on every situation, oh, if COVID taught us everything, we will not agree on the answer to every problem. But if we'll show each other love, we'll be able to live at peace. Well, that all sounds good. So does that just mean we ignore the problems? No. No, right? There are real problems. This is not a sermon saying, okay, here's the rug, sweep everything underneath it, and it will just all be fine, and we'll just sing Kumbaya, and while we're in the Psalm singing church, that won't work, but we'll just ignore it, right? No, that's not what this is getting us to either.

Avoiding confrontation is not godliness. But a few questions to ask yourself. before you enter into confrontation with someone, or if you're in the midst of it now. First of all, ask yourself, is this a moral issue? Is this a moral issue, or is this just a preference? Is this a biblical moral issue, or is this just a preference? I just want it this way. Well, preferences we can overlook. So.

First Point

First, is this a moral issue or a preference? Secondly, can I cover it over in love and just bear with it? If it is just a preference issue, can I just say, well, don't really like that we're having a fellowship meal on 4th of July, but I'll just go down and eat the donuts and be happy. Okay. Can you bear with it in love if it's just a preference?

Next is something that Jesus tells us to do in Matthew chapter seven. Before we go and To get that speck out of our neighbor's eye, maybe we should stop and examine my own heart. Before I go and enter into confrontation with someone, make sure that I'm reflecting on myself. Do I have a log in my own eye? Do I need to repent of sin in my own life first before I go and I worry about this other person, this other issue?

But if you've gone through those three questions, then indeed, go to Matthew 18. Don't run and talk to me right away if you got an issue with someone else in the church. Go and talk to that other person in the church. It's one of my favorite things to do when people have a problem with someone else in the church is I get to say, have you talked to them about it yet?

Okay, then wait to talk to me. Go, show honor, show love to that person, live at peace with them. Go and try to work it out amongst yourselves. Sometimes, Between one room and another, as you realize, oh man, I actually gotta go talk to that person, you realize, you know, this is just a preference. I don't need to deal with this.

But if it is a sin issue and that person continues to sin, then go and take another Christian as a witness. Go with two or three witnesses to try to bring your brother or sister back. But if even then, they won't, then come and talk to the elders. Then come and talk to John, Jim, or myself, and the elders will step in and get more involved with it. But love one another. The commandment here is be at peace among yourselves. That's rooted in love.

I don't know about you, but I know it's really hard to live at peace with me. I know it's really hard for my children to say, yes, dad, when I've made a decision. I know it's really difficult to live at peace with someone you know who's a sinner. God's calling you to live at peace with your elders, even though we're sinners, even though we make boneheaded decisions sometimes.

Why? Have you ever thought about how much Christ loves you, even though you might make bad decisions sometimes? How God loves you, not because you're perfect, but because he decided to love you and has made you his child. He lives at peace with you because he loves you.

This is how others will know that you're Jesus' children, that we love one another. So esteem the elders. Esteem them because you love Christ, not because the elders are perfect. Respect the elders because it's Jesus's church, and this is how Jesus has ordained his church to operate. But most of all, love Christ. And out of that love for Jesus, love one another.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Oh Father, I thank you for the elders you have placed in my life. Lord, I pray for all of us here that we would trust in you. Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit would press the truth of your word deep down in our hearts, that we would give honor to where honor is due and respect to where respect is due. And Father, I pray that if there were things I said today that were wrong, Father, please let them be blown away. And let the gold of your gospel remain in the hearts of your people. In Jesus's name, amen.

And 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.