Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: 1 Peter 5:1-4 | Date: October 5, 2025 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

I mentioned last week that we are taking a break from our regular expositions from the Book of Psalms in order to address a topic here in the church that is of particular relevance to us at this point in our life as a church. And we are, as you know, looking to bring in another pastor when we are able to.

So we thought it would be helpful to take the time to, with the congregation collectively, frame out for us a good understanding of church order. And last time we began at—how do we say it—at the bottom or at the top, whichever it is, and dealt with Christ as the head and the apostles as Jesus’ spokesmen. And so there’s the foundation of the church. And today, we come now then to look at the subject of elders or pastors in the church. Then we, just if you’d like to look ahead, after we’re done with that, we’ll look at deacons and fellow workers, and then we’ll look at a few membership issues as well to give us an understanding of what the church is and how it works. But today, the subject of elders or pastors in the church.

1 Peter chapter 5, we’ll begin here: “So 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 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 the unfading crown of glory.”

Well, we saw last time that Christ is building his church on the foundation of the apostles. The apostles have the unique role of being Christ’s spokesmen. We used the word “imposed” last week—that Christ imposes his will on the church by means of his apostles. Their writing, their teaching is the standard of faith and practice for us, and that is what we as a church are obliged to follow.

We saw that part of that function of the apostolic leadership in the church is to impose order in the congregations on a local level. We saw that they do that. We come now to answer the question today: how then is that apostolic rule to be administered in the local church? We have various local churches all over the world. We have apostles who are to rule over them all. How is that rule to be administered in the church? Well, the apostles give us direction here as well. It’s not up to us to determine that. They have determined it for us. And the answer is pastors, elders in the congregation. So this morning is a study in the obvious.

You wonder, why do we need attention to this? I’m not going to apologize for my sermon, but I will make a confession. There are certain topics in the Bible, all of which you have to preach on—you must—but there are certain topics that, how do I say it, are just not as comfortable for me, not as of greater interest to some, all of the above. And that’s the case this morning with the subject of elders, and for two reasons.

One, preaching at its best ought to be, and is, taking a passage of Scripture, unpacking it. We call it expository preaching, where the point of the sermon is the point of the text, and we go through that. There’s another called topical preaching. And there are times when that’s necessary to take a topic, and that’s what guides you through the Scriptures to find what the Scriptures teach about a given topic.

And so as we look at 1 Peter chapter 5 here, for example, I’m not this morning going to be dealing with it entirely in context. I’m not going to walk through the passage entirely. I’m going to pull out some observations from the passage related to our selected topic of elders, and then we’ll go to some other passages and pull out of them the same.

We call this systematic theology, where you take a topic and find what the Bible everywhere says about that topic. And that’s necessary sometimes, too, in order to fill out our understanding of something. Walter Kaiser was an Old Testament scholar of the last generation, still living. He’s famous for saying that topical preaching is okay to do once a year, so long as afterwards the pastor will repent of it and get back to expository preaching.

Well, I’m not going to repent of it, and I’m not really going to apologize, but I will confess up front that there are some topics that I’m not as comfortable with. One is talking about money. The Bible has much to say about that, and I’m always very hesitant to talk about that because churches often have a terrible reputation of people thinking all they want is your money, and I desperately don’t want people to think that about RBC. But another is about elders because, well, it puts a certain pressure on me, a certain awkwardness, because I’m preaching about an office that I hold myself along with, in our congregation, three others.

But this is very important for the church to see and understand as we move forward together. Well, as I say, the apostles give us direction on this score. How is the apostolic authority in the church to be administered? And the answer is through elders or pastors.

And we find this here in 1 Peter 5, verses 1 and 2. Notice in verses 1 and 2, he writes to the elders. Verse 2, “who exercise oversight.” That’s our focus today: elders who exercise oversight in the congregation. Now he qualifies that carefully and very importantly in verse 3, “not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.”

But, verse 2, nonetheless, exercising oversight in the church. Well, that’s the New Testament pattern in a nutshell that you’ll find everywhere. In a nutshell, the message this morning is that the apostolic order is to be administered on the local level by elders. There you have the whole sermon in a nutshell.

As you can imagine, because I’m a preacher, there’s a longer answer to all of that, and so we’ll be exploring some of that as well.

Their Titles

First of all, then, their titles. Let’s look at the titles that Paul gives us. I think we all understand this here, but let’s firm it up just in case.

Verse 1: “I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder, a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed, shepherd”—that’s our word pastor, but it’s the verb form—”shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight”—that’s the verb form of the word bishop, overseeing, 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 the unfading crown of glory.”

Now the point here that I want you to see is that in verse 1, these men being addressed are elders; they’re called elders in the church. Verse 2, they’re referred to as pastors, those who do the work of shepherding or pastoring the congregation. And then, verse 2 again, “exercising oversight.” The older translation, the “bishopric,” exercising the office of a bishop, overseeing the people. So we have three titles here, all referring to the same office. An elder is a pastor, is an overseer. Or if you like the older language, an elder is a pastor, is a bishop. Jim Greider refers to me as bishop all the time. I told him I’m waiting for him to call me Pope. He’s not going to do that, he said.

Note here, by the way, a couple of parallels that Peter gives us here, and I’ll pick up on these a little bit later, but just notice that while we’re here, he has some parallel expressions. Verse 1, he refers to himself, an apostle, as a fellow elder. And then, in verse 4, he refers to Jesus as the chief shepherd. We’ll come back to that in a little bit. So an elder is a bishop is a pastor.

This seems tedious, but let’s look at another passage, at least one, Acts chapter 20, where you’ll see the same. In Acts chapter 20, we have Paul on his missionary journeys. It’s his second missionary journey. He’s making his way through various places, Macedonia, Greece, and we have in the middle of chapter 20, or earlier half, we have this man named Eutychus that many of you can sympathize with—the man who slept through the sermon.

And then he comes to verse 17 and Paul is making his way back now to Ephesus where he had been and established ministry there. In verse 17 it says, “From Miletus he sent to Ephesus,” so he’s calling the elders at the church at Ephesus to come to him. “Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him.” And verses 18 and following, he gives them exhortations to follow his example of his work among them.

And then verse 28: “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.” There’s our word bishops or overseers again. “To care for”—there’s the verb form of the word pastor again—”to shepherd or to pastor the people,” to “care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood.” So again, you’ll see very simply, a pastor is a bishop is an elder.

All these terms referring to the same. I think I’ll wait to point out any more and let you turn to them, but you’ll want to note 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1—there the Apostle Paul gives the qualifications for elders. Actually, in 1 Timothy 3, the qualifications are for an overseer. In chapter one of Titus, it’s the qualifications for an elder who is an overseer. Same terms overlapping again. A bishop is an elder, is a pastor.

Now, as many of you know, of course, some various ecclesiastical structures have been built around these terms in the earlier centuries of the church. Pastors who were in more prominent places—Rome, Constantinople, whatever, more influential centers of the Christian faith—they tended to be called bishops, and their influence was more widespread. And those pastors in the smaller congregations out in Franconia, Pennsylvania, or whatever, they’re referred to as presbyters, or elders. The word elders, presbyteros in the Greek, so presbyters, is what they tend to be referred to. And so since then, there have been ecclesiastical structures built around these things in the Roman Catholic Church, in the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church. You have Episcopal structures. We have bishops at the top, and lesser pastors underneath, and so on. And what I want you to see here is that a bishop is an elder, is a pastor. Whatever you say about those denominational structures, the terminology in the New Testament refers to the same office.

Now these interchangeable titles do give us something of a job description. They are descriptive terms of the pastor or elder and the job that he is to do, various functions that he has. An overseer—that refers more to his responsibility to manage, oversee the affairs of the church; it has to do with watching over all that is going on and managing it, overseeing in that sense. Then you have the word pastor that has the idea of caring, protecting, correcting, corralling back in, applying the Word of God on an individual and a corporate level.

And then you have the word elder, and that speaks more to the man’s maturity. There’s to be some relative maturity as measured to the congregation. And we’ll see more of that in a later message. But we have these terms then describing his office, describing his function. We have some related descriptions of them as well.

We’ll see these a little bit later, but just to mention them, one is important here is in Titus chapter one. He’s called an elder, he’s called an overseer, and then he’s called a steward. He’s a steward of God. And a steward is one who has been entrusted with something. He’s been given responsibility from a higher authority. It’s given to him and he’s entrusted to it. So here again is the idea of the apostles with their authority in the church. But now that’s been entrusted—the administration of that authority has been entrusted to the elders as stewards of God.

Their Position And Their Function

All right, enough of that then. We have plenty of passages with that. We’ll see some more of them this morning. So much for their titles. Let’s look at their position and their function in the church. In brief, as I’ve said already, the elders are to be administrators or administers of the apostolic rule in the church.

And that’s what was involved with what I’ve already mentioned, Titus 1 verse 7, where the elder is referred to as a steward. He’s been entrusted with a responsibility to administer the rule of God that’s been given by the apostles. We have, if you’re still in 1 Peter chapter 5 here, we have an example of that when I already pointed out that Peter refers to himself as a fellow elder. Now there’s something significant about that because in some measure, in some sense, the apostolic office has become associated with the office of elder. We see that several times in the New Testament. Now the apostles—don’t make any mistake here—the apostles are unique.

They alone have authority over the church and so on. But what we find in the New Testament is that the administration of their unique leadership and directive in the church has been entrusted to elders to administer it on the local level. We have elders, then, who are administrators of the apostolic rule in a given local setting. They do not have apostolic authority or anything like that. They are not the standard of their own teaching. They’re not left to their own imaginations as to what to do in the church. All of that is given to them, but they are responsible to administer that authority or that rule in the church that’s been given by the apostles.

And that’s why, by the way, in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, chapters 3 and 4, the Apostle Paul there is dealing with the office of pastor. You remember in 1 Corinthians they had this big fight over who’s the best—Paul, Apollos, Peter, and all of that. And Paul’s dealing with that and dealing with their responsibilities. And he sums it up in a wonderful way in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 1.

The defining responsibility of an elder, of a pastor, the defining responsibility is that he be faithful. And that idea is he’s had certain things entrusted to him. And his defining responsibility is faithfully to administer that rule of the apostles that has been given to him. The elders are not a law unto themselves. They’ve been entrusted with a responsibility. They’re responsible and they’re accountable to carry that out.

1 Peter chapter 5 actually gives us another parallel in that regard, and that is when it refers to Christ as the chief shepherd or the chief pastor of the church. 1 Peter 5 verse 2, the elders are responsible to shepherd the church and the flock of God under the direction of the chief pastor, that is the Lord Jesus. So that is how Jesus, the chief pastor of the church, cares for his congregations. He does it through the administrating of the pastors that serve under him. He appoints apostles—apostles to set the direction for the church—and he assigns elders to administer that direction in each local congregation.

Now, I feel like I’m pursuing the obvious here, but I do want us to see how pervasive this is in the New Testament, and I want us to survey a few other indications of it in the New Testament. In the book of Acts, for example—Acts, as you know, is the first record of the spread of the Christian faith in the world. Jesus had given his commission to his apostles to make disciples of all the nations.

Just before his ascension, he tells them, “You’ll be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth.” And that’s what we find in the book of Acts. In the early chapters of the book of Acts, we have particularly Peter, but some of the apostles, ministering in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and then the last half of the book of Acts, we have Paul as the main character, and he’s taking the gospel to the ends of the earth, to the Gentiles.

We come to Acts chapter 13, then we find Paul’s mission. It’s central to developing of the Christian mission in the world. In chapter 14, we find a very important statement here. Paul and Barnabas have been to Iconium. They’ve been to Lystra, ministering the word of God, establishing a witness. An important statement in Acts 14 verse 23: “When they had appointed elders for them in every church with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.” So their practice was to go establish a witness, make disciples, and then before they leave, establish and appoint elders in each local congregation to oversee and to carry out the rule given by the apostles.

Acts chapter 20 we find another indication of the same, where Paul brings to him the elders of the church at Ephesus. We’re not given an account of how these elders were appointed. We find earlier in the book of Acts that Paul ministered for a couple of years in Ephesus, established a witness there, made many disciples. We read that. And now we have elders, so we assume that before he left, he appointed elders there as well.

And then in Acts 20, he calls them to himself to give them a final charge and to say goodbye. We have another indication of that in Acts chapter 15, where we have in the Jerusalem church, we have that great council that is met. They have to decide a theological problem. Do you have to become Jewish in order to be a Christian? It’s a major turning point in the book of Acts and in the history of the Christian church, for that matter.

We find that the apostles and elders—the apostles and elders, not the apostles alone—the apostles and elders came to arrive at their conclusions and made their pronouncements accordingly. We find the same then that the apostles then fall off the scene at the church of Jerusalem, and it’s just the elders there administering their rule.

That same pattern we find again coming up in the pastoral epistles in particular. Paul leaves Timothy in Ephesus to lead the church there. He has various responsibilities that we saw last time: combat false teaching, establish order in the congregation, appoint qualified elders, and so on. We find the same in Titus. Titus is another of the so-called pastoral epistles. Paul writes to Titus because he has left him there in Crete to lead the church there, and there he tells him, “You put in order in all of the cities what is lacking,” and that is appoint elders in each city.

So there’s an administrative capacity that is passed on. You have the unique role of the apostles in their authority. That’s in an administrative capacity passed to the elders. They are responsible to carry that out in the congregations. Here’s some language from the pastoral epistles, their responsibilities: the elders must be prepared to teach, to command, to urge, to remind, to charge, to insist, and then the congregations in return are obliged to comply and respond accordingly.

And in fact, then we find in 2 Timothy chapter 4 that Timothy and Titus were not the only ones that were appointed. We have some lesser known names, names we really know very little about. In 2 Timothy 4, there’s a man named Crescens who has gone to Galatia. Titus, who has gone to Dalmatia. We have Tychicus, who has gone to Ephesus. We have Carpus, who’s gone to Troas. Erastus in Corinth. And then in Titus chapter three, he mentions Artemas and Tychicus. These are other men that he has sent to lead the churches in the various places. Now, that raises an important question, and I think I’ll have more to say about this before we close this morning, but it raises an important question.

Just what authority—what authority then does an elder or a pastor have? And the answer in brief is none. It’s important that we start there. The authority in the congregation is given to the apostles. They are the ones who impose the will of Christ on the congregations. I have to start there and say, elders have no authority.

But again, I’m a preacher, there’s a longer answer to that, and we have to see that in the New Testament as well. Because at the same time, when the authority is not invested in them per se, at the same time they are appointed to lead, to guide, using language like “rule” in the congregation—the congregation in turn is obliged to respond with submission and an obedience. We find that kind of language throughout the New Testament as well.

So let’s try to sort that out and work that through next. How does this work with elders and congregation? And I’m going to look through a few passages here where we find both the responsibilities and the role of the elder or pastor, but then also the corresponding responsibilities of the congregation. We should keep in mind, as we saw last time, this is the will of Christ as he’s imposing it on the church for our direction. 1 Thessalonians—we’ll go there next. 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 12 and 13: “We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.”

Now, first of all, let’s look at the role of the elders as it’s described here. The first expression of interest is, they are “over you in the Lord.” I’m not entirely comfortable with that translation because it’s not a bad translation, but it can leave the connotations of spiritual superiority, something like that. That’s not the intent here. We are not priests. We don’t have a superior standing before God or anything like that. But this word that is translated here, these who are “over you in the Lord,” does mean something. And the Greek term here is—I don’t give you Greek words often, but here’s one that you’ll like—it’s proistemi, where we get our word to preside, or the word president. And it means to lead, to rule, to guide. So he’s dealing here with a structure of leadership. I think the New American Standard Version here translates it, “those who have charge over you.” The idea of leadership, rulership, guidance, something like that. But then we have another expression of their function in verse 12: “They admonish you.”

They admonish you. Some of you are familiar with the term nouthetic counseling. That’s the word here, noutheteō, which means to admonish. It means to counsel, to teach. It has a wide range of implications, but in particular it has the connotation of correcting wrong behavior. So here’s part of their function: to administer the apostolic rule even to the point of correcting. It’s one of the less enjoyable parts of pastoral ministry. It involves, then, this idea of correcting. I’m tempted to park there a little bit. I think I’ll move on.

Notice the corresponding responsibilities of the congregation. Verse 12: “We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord.” There’s a particular recognition, a particular deference that is to be given to them because of the office that they hold. Verse 13: “to esteem them very highly,” that is to hold them in high rank, but “in love.” So there’s an appreciation for them, and he tells us why here: “because of their work.” That is, with regard to their oversight of your souls, with regard to their ministry of the word, and they’re applying that to your lives individually and to the congregation corporately—because of their work, esteem them highly. Hold them in high rank. All right, let’s move on.

First, just a couple of pages over, look at 1 Timothy chapter 3. Here we have a familiar passage where the Apostle Paul is giving us the qualifications for the office of elder. And here in verse 4, he says, “He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?”

We have two words used here: “manage”—and it’s used, that’s “manage his household well”—and it’s used in parallel with another expression, “caring for God’s church.” So “manage”—that’s our word proistemi again, to lead, to guide, to rule, to preside over. And then “to care for,” that is to provide what’s needed. And he draws this parallel: he must be able to manage his home well. Because if he can’t manage his home well, how can he care for the church? It’s an argument from the greater to the lesser. If he can’t handle simple addition, how can he handle algebra? If he can’t manage his home, how could he possibly care for the church of God well? But again, the idea is that of overseeing and managing in the church.

Maybe just across the page or the next page, 1 Timothy 5, verses 17 and 18. Here he specifies again their ruling or leading function in the church: “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and in teaching. For the scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves his wages.'”

Here again, we have this word proistemi, to rule: “let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor.” So the elders rule; elders lead in the congregation. And notice the distinction that’s drawn here in this verse: “let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the preaching and teaching.” So there’s some kind of a distinction. Now don’t misunderstand this. This is where a Presbyterian church gets their distinction between a ruling elder and a preaching or teaching elder.

I have no quarrel with that at all, so long as we understand what Paul is saying here, and that is that all elders rule. Some may be particularly gifted in preaching and teaching. But they rule, and all of them must be “apt to teach,” as we find in 1 Timothy chapter 3 as well.

And then he says—and here’s the one I’m really uncomfortable with preaching about—”let him be considered worthy of double honor.” Pay him twice. Consider him worthy of twice as much money. Now, I don’t know that Paul here is saying you have to pay them twice as much money. Paul himself refused to be paid in some places, like in Corinth. And you know that I have declined raises here many times over the years. He’s not saying it has to be done. He’s saying consider them worthy of it. Because of their work, recognize the value of the ministry of the Word, your need for it, the high value of it, and so consider them worthy of double honor. Value their work and remunerate them accordingly. It’s not so much the practice anymore, but it was for years wherever it seems like, looking back, that churches were just really content to let their pastors live on pittance and live on nothing. It’s just a blight on the history of the church.

My dad lived through some of that, where mom and dad would tell the stories of Thanksgiving Day, and they had nothing, nothing to eat. And somebody shows up at the door—thankfully, a farmer shows up at the door with a basket of eggs and a loaf of bread. So they had egg salad sandwiches for their Thanksgiving dinner. That’s all they could afford. Pastors could tell those stories forever.

It’s just a blight on the church. I don’t think it’s as much that way. It is not in this congregation. But this passage speaks to that. Look at 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 4. Here it speaks particularly with their responsibility to preach and teach.

2 Timothy 4 verse 1: “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing of his kingdom,” and notice here five commands: “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” Five commands here, and all of them have to do with the administering of the apostolic rule. What is it we preach? Well, it’s what the apostles have given to us.

And what is it we’re ready to do in our reproving, rebuking, exhorting? It’s the apostolic rule, applying it on individual levels, applying it on a corporate level. It even entails the more unpleasant function of leadership, that is rebuking and reproving. That is one of the things that makes pastoral work very difficult. We have a volunteer organization. You don’t have to be here. And when you’re here, you’re asked to pay those who preach and teach. And then those, in turn, who preach and teach are responsible, when necessary, to rebuke you. How’s that going to work out?

Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews 13 verse 7: “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way and imitate their faith.” Here they’re called leaders. This word is used for general leadership, governing, various connotations like that. And he says, to remember them. That has the connotations of honoring them. It entails a certain degree of deference that is to be given to them and recognition of their office. And the reason is given: these are the ones who have spoken to you the word of God. So we’re back to the idea of valuing the ministry of the word in your own life. Consider the outcome of their way, imitate their faith, consider them to be models, and follow along. We’ll deal with that another time when we deal with the qualification of elders.

Drop down to verse 17, Hebrews 13, verse 17: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” Again, they’re identified as leaders, those who rule, and he has two commands to the congregation: “Obey them and submit to them.” Now keep in mind 1 Peter 5, verse 4—not domineering, not lording over them, but being examples, but exercising oversight nonetheless; and now the congregation is called then to obey and to submit accordingly.

And here then is something that states the seriousness of this responsibility with regard to the elders. And I want you to see it in verse 17 here: “Obey your leaders, submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.” That’s a phrase, an expression that can just be haunting to an elder.

If he takes his responsibility seriously at all, he must remember in the exercise of his leadership in the congregation, what he does and how he does it both, he’ll be called to give an account for it. There’s an attending command: “let them do this with joy and not with groaning.”

For a number of years, as you know, I hosted a pastor’s conference. One of the aspects every year of the conference became an occasion of help and encouragement to hurting pastors. Every year, it seemed like, I think without exception, some pastors would come and they’d want to talk and to pray and get counsel from other pastors there because, man, it’s rough in their congregation. There are some congregations that are known as “preacher eaters.” Some of them have had that. And each year we would go back—he and I would go back after the conference—and thank God for the church that we had. We didn’t have that in our own experience, but there it was every year.

They would hurt. I’ve seen, of course, pastors who are dictatorial and tyrannical over the congregation. I’ve also seen congregations who are preacher eaters. And what he says here is significant: “Let them do their ministry of oversight. Let them do it with joy and not with groaning.” And then notice the explanation, the reason that’s given: “For that would be of no advantage to you.” Not only would it be hard on them, but one, you’re not fulfilling your responsibilities. And two, I think probably involved here is that because of the groaning and the difficult aspect of the ministry that they have, their ministry won’t be the quality that it should be either. And that would not be of advantage to you.

Now this Hebrews passage is particularly, I think, significant because some have objected that this whole idea of spiritual authority in the church is inconsistent with the idea of individual priesthood. But this is interesting here because there’s no New Testament epistle—no epistle in the New Testament—that emphasizes individual priesthood more than the book of Hebrews. And yet there’s no epistle in the New Testament that stresses more the obligation of the congregation to submit and to obey. So for the writer of the book of Hebrews, there’s no inconsistency. Individual priesthood, yes. Individual lordship, no. And they’re given for that capacity; we need the oversight.

What Authority Does An Elder Have?

Now a couple of questions then before we close. Number one, what about the elders themselves? To whom are they accountable? And the answer here is pretty simple, and I will develop it more next week. And that is, this is part of the wisdom in the New Testament of assigning multiple elders in each congregation. I’ll deal with that more next time. Maybe a more pointed question is this: what if they exceed their authority? What if an elder, pastor, team of elders, exceed their authority? Elders are not lords over your conscience. Your conscience is your conscience. I frankly don’t want your conscience. Your conscience is your conscience.

So what if they exceed their authority? Well at that point, you have to decide some things. And the first thing you have to decide at that point is: are they in fact exceeding their authority or are they simply carrying out the function of leadership in the congregation, perhaps in a way that you would not prefer? You’ve got to make that distinction. You’ve got to ask yourself a question. On the one hand, they have no personal authority themselves, but they are entrusted with the responsibility to administer order in the local congregation on an individual level, on a corporate level as well. They must decide. It’s theirs, finally, that they have to decide how to best carry out the work that the apostles have given to us and how to carry that out in an individual local church experience.

Again, I’ve seen autocratic pastors. I’ve seen them become dictators. I’ve also seen autocratic church members, frankly. If a pastor makes a decision, finally, and someone in the congregation doesn’t want that decision, and he then insists, “No, let’s do it this way,” and if the pastor does not comply, the pastor’s a dictator. It’s his way or the highway. And sometimes that’s the case. Sometimes it’s a dictatorial church member.

And you’ve got to sort those things out. These passages tell us that the elders must be given some kind of deference. Whether we agree at every point is really not the point. The question becomes, have they exceeded their authority? If they have genuinely, and you’ve honestly determined they’ve exceeded their authority, well, then you’ve got to work it out. You deal with it. You address it. At the end of the day, if it’s not a leadership you in good conscience can follow, then you need to find another church where you can respect the leadership and follow accordingly.

So then, Christ is head of the church. He delegates his rule in the church to the apostles, and they rule over the congregations. And then in each local church, God intends for the elders to administer that rule of the apostles faithfully, carefully, gently, yet prepared to rebuke, correct, and all of that. That’s the apostolic model. I’ve said this to my wife many times, and I find this just absolutely fascinating: that the church is the one institution that our Lord founded in order to carry out his purpose in this age. No other—the local church. That’s what he did. He didn’t establish seminaries. He didn’t establish parachurch ministries. He established a local church. And to lead the local church, he put it in the hands of fallible sinners. And I’m sorry to tell you this, he fills the church with fallible sinners too. And that’s the makings of some real problems.

I’ve said this many times over the years to my wife, just shaking my head—it’s just so remarkable. What a testament to the sovereignty of God that the church survives. And I mean that deeply. I laugh when I say it too, but it’s a testament to the sovereignty of God that he can found this one institution and trust the leadership to fallible sinners, fill it with fallible sinners, ripe with all kinds of potential problems, and yet the church endures and continues to grow. Fascinating thing that God works that way. The Lord Jesus orders that his beloved, blood-bought church be led by fallible men, who are quite capable of mistakes. That’s amazing how he has made it work.

One obvious implication of all of this, and we’ll see this more another time, is that we each need spiritual oversight. Not just the congregation, but the elders as well, and this is another reason for the plurality of elders. We each need spiritual oversight. Whether it’s viewed individually, organizationally, corporately, we need spiritual oversight.

And so he appoints elders in the church. We’ll see more of that next time, and then we’ll move on to other offices in the church: deacons, fellow workers. In the meantime, we really need to pray that God will instill this order in our minds and in our hearts and keep us each from pride and mistake and bless his work among us.