The Office of Elder


Sermon by David Strain on November 7, 2021 Acts 20:17-38

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In the run up to our new elder elections, which will take place before Sunday school on Sunday morning, December 5, we are beginning a short three-part series of messages on the office, the character, and the ministry of the elder. As you may know, our elders have already gathered nominees from among you, from our membership. Thirty-six men have been nominated or are still standing for election after that process. They’ve undergone training and instruction. They’ve been examined on their lives and their doctrine and their character and their calling by our elders. And you can see their names; they’re printed, all 36 of them, in the bulletin for your prayerful consideration.

Now it really belongs to one of the core principles of the Presbyterian church that the congregation, the membership of the congregation, have the right to elect their own officers. When you look in the New Testament for an example, an actual worked example of the church selecting new leaders, there is only one. It’s in Acts chapter 6 when the first deacons were appointed. And the apostles say to the congregation, “Pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and wisdom, and we will appoint them to this duty.” Notice who is doing what. The congregation select the deacons on the basis of their qualifications for the work, and having made their selection, the apostles ordain them to office. And so later in verse 6, Luke lists the names of those first deacons and then he says, “These they set,” the congregation set, “before the apostles and they,” the apostles, “prayed and laid their hands on them.” Here’s the point. Congregational election to sacred office is not just an expedient method for obtaining the buy-in of the membership in a decision that the leaders have already made. Rather, congregational election seems to reflect the best evidence of the New Testament itself for how the first leaders of the church were appointed. The members chose their own officers and the elders ordained them. That’s the Biblical pattern.

And given that sacred responsibility then, that falls to every communing member of this church in just a few short weeks to proceed with such an election, I thought it might assist you in your deliberations to take some time to think about the doctrine of eldership in a more focused way. And so beginning tonight, we’ll think about the office of the elder. And then interestingly, next week, I’ll be away actually serving at an ordination service, and so Wiley Lowry will complete his excellent series of sermons studying the book of Ecclesiastes. And then when I come back, we’ll pick up and look in the last two weeks of November, God willing, at the character and then at the ministry of an elder. So tonight we are thinking about the office itself. What is an elder, according to the New Testament? In a minute we are going to read from Acts chapter 20, which is one place where Paul addresses New Testament elders, although we are going to be looking at a number of other texts that are important in this discussion. And so I think it will be helpful to you to keep your Bible in hand and as you are able to turn to the various passages to which I will appeal as we go along. But do turn for now to the book of Acts, chapter 20. We’ll read from verse 17 in just a moment. Before we do that, let’s pause and pray and ask for the Lord to help us. Let us pray.

Abba Father, we pray that You would give us the help of the Holy Spirit, that You would give us teachable hearts, You would give us grace to embrace Your truth and to live in its light for the glory and praise of the name of Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Acts chapter 20, beginning at the 17th verse. This is the Word of God:

“Now from Miletus he,” that is, Paul, “sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them:

‘You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’’

And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.”

Amen, and we praise God for His holy, inerrant Word.

As a young teenager in Glasgow, I worked in a coffee shop one summer cleaning dishes. And there was one lady who waited on the tables and she was really lazy. She was really lazy, always standing around gossiping with the customers while the rest of us cleaned up behind her and did her work for her. Now I was painfully shy back then, but one day even I had had enough. And so in an uncharacteristic moment of boldness, I dared to express my frustration. And even though, as rebukes go, frankly it was pretty lame, she was mad as a hornet. “Who gave you your stripes?” she asked me. She thought I was acting like a sergeant major, you know, telling her what to do. She was incensed. She just lost it. I think I immediately retreated back into my introverted shell for at least another ten years after that, but I’ve never forgotten that look of absolute outrage on her face that day; that anyone would dare challenge her right to do as she pleased.

It struck me then, it strikes me still, that it doesn’t matter who we are, we really don’t like to have our authority challenged. Do we? We want to be in charge. But of course that mood, so prevalent in these days, really runs directly contrary to the way the Lord Jesus has organized His Church. In the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, Paul was speaking in Acts 20 to the elders from Ephesus. He wrote a whole letter to them. In Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11, Paul writes about the officers that Christ has given with authority to govern and lead and take order in His Church. Paul says, “Christ gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry.” Jesus has established in His Church, contrary to the mood of radical autonomy that so characterizes our society in these days, Jesus has established in His Church, officers who exercise leadership and real, though delegated authority.

You notice what these officers are called. Some of them are extraordinary and they are temporary – apostles. They were eyewitnesses of the resurrection, called directly by Christ to be His own spokesmen and the inspired interpreters of the meaning and significance of His life, death and resurrection, through whom we have received the New Testament scriptures. Alongside them there were prophets, directly inspired by the Holy Spirit, and they functioned in the New Testament church while the New Testament itself was being written, almost in lieu of a completed canon of holy Scripture to provide for the fledgling Church that the Word of Christ, the risen Christ, interpreting and applying His Word to their hearts while the Bible was still being composed. And then alongside the apostles and prophets there were also evangelists. Probably here Paul does not mean what we tend to mean by that word, “evangelist.” We typically mean someone who is really gifted at speaking to anybody about Jesus and bringing people to faith in Christ, having the gift of evangelism. But in the New Testament, the office of evangelist was held by special apostolic delegates, men who were sent by an apostle with delegated, apostolic authority, to bring order and settle matters in the disrupted life of a church in a particular region. And so Timothy, for example, in 2 Timothy 4 verse 5, is told to fulfill his ministry and do an evangelist’s task by setting things in order in Ephesus.

Alright, so there are apostles and prophets and evangelists and these are extraordinary offices. They are temporary in their nature and design. They belong to the foundational years of the Church. There are no more apostles, no more prophets, and while people certainly have the gift of evangelism and may be called “evangelists” colloquially, in the more technical New Testament sense, there are no more apostolic delegates that we might call evangelists like Timothy was an evangelist today either.

And that means that if you look at Ephesians 4:11 again there is only one office remaining in the list. Paul calls them “shepherds and teachers.” You might even call them “pastor-teacher;” not two offices, one office – “pastor-teacher.” And of course we have already referred to Acts chapter 6. We can add to that ordinary and perpetual office of pastor-teacher the office of deacon, appointed to serve alongside the elders in the vital area of mercy ministry. That means there are only two perpetual, ordinary offices that remain in the church of the New Testament today, and that is the office of elder and the office of deacon. Is everybody still with me? Very good!

So our task tonight is explore the office of pastor-teacher, the office of elder. What is it according to the New Testament? And we’re going to do that by looking at two very simple things. First of all, we’re going to look at the names or the titles of elder that we find in the New Testament scriptures, and then we’re going to quickly notice that those elders served together in a plurality. So the names and titles and then the plurality of New Testament elders.

The Names and Titles of Elder in the New Testament

First of all, the names and the titles for an elder in the Scriptures. Look at Acts chapter 20, the passage we read together a moment ago. In verse 17, notice Paul calls for the elders from Ephesus to meet him on the beach as he is about to take ship to head back to Jerusalem. He meets them on the beach in Miletus. And they all arrive, and in verses 18 to 35, he delivers his farewell address; very poignant and moving scene. They weep and kiss him because he tells them they’ll never see his face again. And in the middle of his address to them, he issues this charge. Look at verse 28. “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you” – what? We expect him to say, “In which the Holy Spirit has made you elders.” He’s talking to the Ephesian elders. But that’s not what he says, is it? “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God.”

Now the Greek word for “elder,” you may know, is the word, “presbuteros.” We get our word, “Presbyterian,” from it. It means a church governed by elders, presbyters. The other Greek word here, translated as “overseer” in our version, is the word, “episkopas.” Sometimes in older English versions it’s translated as “bishop.” We get our term, “Episcopalian” from that Greek word to refer to a church that is governed by a system of tiered, hierarchical leaders. But it’s clear here in Acts chapter 20, isn’t it, that overseers or bishops and elders or presbyters actually refer to the same group of officers; the same class of individuals and leaders. They have different names, to be sure, to emphasize different dimensions and aspects of their work and their ministry, but they are the same individuals, the same officers, both overseers and elders.

And by the way, you remember how, in Ephesians 4:11 that we read a moment ago, that Paul speaks about shepherds and teachers, or pastors and teachers. Well here in Acts 20, he uses the verb form of that same word in verse 28 when he talks about the overseers who must care for the church of God. Literally, they are to shepherd the church of God, or pastor the church of God. So do you see the point? Elders are bishops and the elder-bishops are pastors; they’re shepherds.

Or let me give you another example. Turn forward this time to 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. First Peter chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. Peter writes, “I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. Shepherd,” or “Pastor the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, doing the work of an overseer.” So Peter, likewise, is writing to elders, and he, again, uses the verb forms of the noun, “pastor – shepherd or pastor the flock” – and “oversee,” the verb form of the noun for “overseer.” “Exercise oversight of the flock.” So once again, for Peter, just as for the apostle Paul, a pastor is an elder, an elder is a bishop, a bishop is a pastor. These are interchangeable terms, do you see that in the New Testament? Different terms for the same office bringing out slightly different dimensions of their work. Outside of the band of the apostles themselves, there is no hint in the New Testament of any kind of hierarchical structure with authority vested in single individuals, anything like what we might see in an Episcopalian type of church government. Church power rests in the hands of groups of elders, councils of elders. So we have these three interchangeable terms.

Elder

Let’s think about what each term tells us about what these officers do for just a moment. First of all, I hope you understand that the term, “elder,” does not mean that these officers must be older men, chronologically older. Remember that Timothy likely was in his 30s, for example. Age itself has very little to do with it, but spiritual maturity, that’s the note that is sounding here. As we think about electing new elders, that’s what we are looking for – spiritual maturity. Gray hair and worry lines are no guarantee of spiritual maturity, are they? They don’t need to be older men, but they do need to be men who love the Word, who love the Lord Jesus, who love the Lord’s Day, who love the worship of His people, who love the flock of God. Spiritual maturity is the mark of an elder. So that’s what the word  “elder” is pointing to – spiritual maturity.

Pastor

Secondly, they’re called pastors, shepherds. That reminds us their principle task is to tend and care for the flock of God with gentleness, with attentiveness, with patience, understanding the needs of the flock, going after the wandering sheep. We are looking for men, praying, I hope, for men who will deal tenderly with the vulnerable and the hurting and the wayward and the guilty and the doubting and the afflicted. We’re looking for leaders who will defend the flock, for those that Paul in Acts chapter 20 warns them will arise who are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They need to be spiritually mature. They’re elders. They need to be pastors, shepherds, who care for the flock.

Overseers

And thirdly they’re called overseers, which reminds us we are looking for men who will take charge of the governance and spiritual direction of the church as a whole. They need to be men of Biblical vision and Scriptural wisdom who will steer the church carefully through the rocks and eddies and swirling currents of our challenging cultural moment, always seeking to move the congregation towards faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t we need to pray earnestly for God to raise up elders who are pastors and overseers like that? The titles for an elder in the New Testament. Do you see them? Interchangeable terms for the same basic office.

The Plurality of New Testament Elders

Then in the second place, I want you to notice those elders served together, collegially. The plurality of elders in the New Testament. When Paul called for the leadership of the Ephesian church in Acts chapter 20, we saw he called for the “elders,” plural. In Philippians chapter 1 verse 1, Paul writes to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the “overseers and deacons.” There’s a plurality of leaders at Philippi – overseers, bishops, elders, pastors and deacons. In 1 Timothy 4:14, Paul writes to Timothy in Ephesus and he tells him, “Do not neglect the gift that you have which was given to you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.” He’s talking about Timothy’s ordination to sacred office as a minister of the Gospel. And it took place, you’ll notice, not by Paul’s individual apostolic authority acting on his own. It took place, rather, by the council of elders together. That phrase, “the council of elders,” is just one word in Greek. It’s the word, “presbytery;” a presbytery, a council of elders ordained Timothy and set him apart for his sacred work.

Billy Dempsey, one of our ministers, David Felker and Jamie Peipon, as well as several of our ruling elders here, they’re all in Meridian tonight because the presbytery has gathered to do exactly that. They are to ordain Kevin Vollema who has recently been an intern in our congregation. He is being set apart for Gospel work. Next week I’ll be traveling to Arkansas to do the same thing myself in another former intern of this congregation, James Ritchie’s ordination to Gospel ministry. This is the work of the presbytery, of the council of elders. I hope you see a picture beginning to emerge. There is a local council of elders, a local presbytery in Ephesus; another governing the church in Philippi.

And then if you were to turn to Acts chapter 15, you see yet another council of elders, another kind of presbytery, gathered this time to deliberate on matters concerning the life of the whole church with elders from distant places joining together to make decisions and issue their findings that would be delivered by letter throughout the churches that were being planted. So there’s a basic system, do you see it, of graded presbyterial gatherings of the church and of the elders, each with slightly wider spheres of jurisdiction. Some are very local in a particular congregation, some in a region, and some even larger than that. That’s the basic pattern of historic Presbyterian church government. There’s a plurality of elders who govern and lead together as a council, a presbytery, at every level of the church’s life – locally, regionally, and nationally.

And let me make one further point before I draw out some lines of application by way of conclusion. In 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 17, 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 17, we read this. Paul again, writing to Timothy as Timothy tries to bring good order to the chaotic life in the church of Ephesus. He writes to him, “Let the elders” – plural – “who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.” The important detail there for our purposes is the distinction that Paul is making between two classes of elders within that one basic office. You see the two classes of elders? There is a single council of elders in Ephesus. They came to the beach at Miletus to farewell the apostle Paul. And now he has sent Timothy to minister in their midst and to bring some leadership to that group of elders. And every one of those elders together, along with Timothy, exercise a function of rule and governance. And yet among them, according to verse 17 of 1 Timothy chapter 5, there are some of them set apart and dedicated in particular to the work of preaching and teaching.

Now, so let’s step back a little bit and put all of this date together for a moment and see if we can’t get the big picture clear in our minds. So first of all, there are only two perpetual offices remaining for Christians in the New Testament church. There are elders and there are deacons. And the elders serve collegially, together, in a council, in presbyteries of varying sizes and scope – locally, regionally and beyond. And then within the one office of elder, there are two classes. All of them rule, all of them pastor, all of them shepherd, all of them exercise oversight, all of them teach to some degree or another. But some of them, in addition to those functions, are especially called and set apart for the ministry of preaching the Word and teaching the flock. That’s why in our own denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America, we speak about ruling elders and teaching elders. I am a teaching elder. Crane Kipp, who led us in prayer a moment ago, is a ruling elder. But we’re all elders together. And teaching elders don’t have any more authority in the councils of the church than ruling elders do. We’re all simply elders.

Now as we bring all of this to a close, I hope I’ve not wearied you over much with a survey of the government of the church; I hope you haven’t found it too prosaic or tedious. It seems to me important from time to time to remember the government of the church is not an indifferent matter, regulated according to our own whims and preferences, or even by the latest models of good governance found in, say the business world. No, the Lord Jesus Christ, let’s remember, is King and Head of His Church, and He has appointed a government for His Church in the holy Scriptures. And if we are going to be faithful to Him, it matters that we all ensure that our church is rightly ordered according to the Word of God. And so I want you to know and to feel that calling new elders is not a light or trivial thing. It’s not just some traditional routine that this congregation goes through from time to time. I want you to feel the weight of the fact that God has invested you, the members of this congregation, with a solemn and sacred duty to prayerfully select the elders who will lead you and shepherd you, and that that belongs to your calling as Christians and members of the body of Christ. We are Presbyterians you see, not for pragmatic considerations only, not by default, not by tradition. We are Presbyterians because it is the form of government taught in the holy Scriptures. And the good order of the Church matters to God. And so it must matter to us.

Pray for Your Elders

Well pastor, so what? What difference should all of this make practically as we prepare for the election and ordination of new elders? Let me suggest three things and then we’re done. Number one, pray for your elders. Pray for us. Pray that we will be men of spiritual maturity. Elders, men who shepherd the flock with tenderhearted care and compassion. Men who exercise oversight with Biblically constrained wisdom and godly discernment. Do you pray for your elders? They bear a heavy load of responsibility, you know. They walk through many crises with you. They weep with you and rejoice with you. They serve on countless committees, not just in this congregation but also in our own regional presbytery and at a national level as well as they seek to guide the church in its mission. They pour themselves out for your sake. Some of them are here almost as much as the paid ministry staff are here, laboring for the welfare of the cause of Jesus Christ. We have a remarkable team of elders and we should be full of gratitude that God has called them to lead us.

But oh, how we need your prayers. We are sinners, after all. And we need grace just to live as men of God and we are, I think, the special target of Satan’s malice. And so we need the protection and power of the Holy Spirit that we might stand firm even in the evil day. We grow weary in well doing as we wade through the muck and mess of broken lives, trying to find the words to say to shepherd, trying to find some way to help. And we desperately need the Lord our God and His grace to sustain us and preserve us. Do you pray for your elders? I’m pleading with you as an elder, pray for us. Pray for us. And pray particularly for men of God to be raised up from within the membership of this congregation who will be qualified and equipped for this weighty responsibility and holy calling. Pray for your elders.

Submit to Your Elders and Follow Their Lead

Number two, submit to your elders and follow their lead. Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.” I’m not talking about abject, unthinking obedience. I’m not talking about the exercise of authoritarian leadership. Those are the marks of a cult and should be fled from. But when you see elders who are filled with a sense of their accountability to the living God for your welfare, then you have found men who you can follow, who you can be confident have your interests on their hearts. And to such men the Scriptures call us to submit. You know you’ve taken vows, do you remember them, when you became a communing member of this congregation to submit yourself to the government and discipline of this church and to study its purity and its peace. That’s what the Scriptures call us to – to pray for our elders and to submit to them, to support them and to follow as they lead.

Trust Yourself to the Chief Shepherd

And then finally, back to 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 1 and 2 – or maybe a little more like verses 1 through 5. As you think about elders, do not trust yourself to them. They are undershepherds. Trust yourself to the chief Shepherd, to whom they all point you. First Peter chapter 5, speaking about elders, they are called to “shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive an unfading crown of glory.” They are undershepherds at best. There is a greater Shepherd. And their job, elders’ job, my job, is to point you always to Him. Do not trust in elders. Trust in the great Shepherd Himself. He is the One your heart really needs. And as you pray for elders, pray for men who will be living signposts, seeking to be like the chief Shepherd, seeking to fill their mouths with messages from the chief Shepherd, from the holy Scriptures, who will point you to Him and say, “Look to Christ. Rest on Christ. Cling to Christ. He is everything that your heart needs.”

You need the chief Shepherd, even while we think about the Lord’s call on the lives of men in this congregation to serve us as undershepherds. I wonder if you are looking today to the Lord Jesus Christ for your own salvation. Are you? It is, I think, one of the great measures and marks of a faithful elder. Not that he is an effective businessman, not that he has a great reputation for strong leadership or has a brilliant instinct for decision making. But the great mark of a faithful elder is that he will find a way always to point you to Jesus Christ, the chief Shepherd. Pray for such men and look where they are pointing you to Christ and rest upon Him. Let’s pray together.

Our Father, how we plead with You, even as the Lord Jesus taught us, that the field are white unto harvest. And so we plead with You, O Father, raise up laborers for the harvest field. Lord, raise up men of God, elders, spiritually mature men who reflect the character of the Lord Jesus Himself. Raise up shepherds, pastors with tender hearts that break for the flock, that weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. And raise up overseers who, with Biblically constrained wisdom and sound judgment and godly discernment will lead us through these difficult and challenging days in the paths of faithfulness to the praise and glory of Your name. Bring us such men. And we pray with great gratitude for the elders You have given us. Thank You for their Christlikeness. Thank You for their compassionate hearts. Thank You for their great wisdom. We pray that You would protect them and sustain them and make them more and more like the chief Shepherd Himself. For we ask this in His holy name, amen.

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