Introduction

One Man Volleyball Team?

When I was in college, I was at a camp one weekend and the speaker was a volleyball protégé named Bob Holmes. Bob was a professional motivational speaker and a one man volleyball team.   By himself, he had won over 13,000 volleyball games – many of those games were against professional athletes! We put our best players against Bob that weekend, and true to his record, he beat every team at camp single-handedly.

Some pastors try to lead their churches like a one-man volleyball team. A one man team might work for a high school pep rally gimmick, but God never intended it to work for the church.

Before he left a city, it was Paul’s pattern to assign elders to the church. There are numerous examples of churches governed by a group of elder-qualified men and there are not any examples of a church ruled by one man. A church with a single man in leadership is inconsistent with clear instructions laid out in the New Testament.

Paul instructs the church to appoint elders in every town. (Acts 14:23, Titus 1:5) Every church named in the New Testament was led by 2 or more elder qualified men. This fact remains true in scripture whether the church is new and very small (like us) or if the church is older and large.

Paul was a highly effective evangelist. However, we’ll see in our text today that Paul wasn’t just concerned with evangelism, Paul was highly concerned with establishing healthy churches. In the establishment of healthy churches, Paul is deeply serious about the role of Elder.

Canyon Bible Church is an elder-led church. Even thought our church plant is just getting started, it already has the oversight of trusted, biblically qualified elders from the Prescott Campus. Our desire is that God would raise up elder qualified men here in the Verde Valley to help lead this church within the next 2 years.

Church elders are not just completing a task. It’s more than just sitting on a committee or on a board. There is a unique and heavy responsibility laid upon the elders of a church. Paul stresses the demands and risks involved in this ministry calling. Today, I want us to understand how serious we are about the role of elder at Canyon Bible Church.

As we consider our text, Paul is finishing his 3 year ministry in Ephesus. He has heavily invested in the Ephesian church plant and now is leaving to travel back to Jerusalem. Like he had done before in other church plants, he has trained up elder qualified men and is leaving the church in their care. In this section, he is speaking directly to these elders.

He begins by recalling his example of how he cared for the Lord’s church. In this first section, lets look at Paul’s example as he served as a church elder. Let’s read starting at verse 17….

Example of a Biblical Elder

¹⁷ Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. ¹⁸ 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, ¹⁹ serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews;

Leaders are proven during difficult trials. Paul faced massive opposition in Ephesus. The silversmiths in the Ephesus were threatened by the gospel. If people worshipped Jesus, they would no longer have a use for the idol that the silversmiths sold. They formed a mob at one point to run Paul out of town.

But notice that what Paul mentions here is the trials he faced from the Jews. The Jews were waiting for the Messiah. Many of them received Jesus as their Messiah. However, many were violently resisting Pauls message. Paul’s faith was put to the test over and over again and it was proven genuine.

Churches must be led by men with proven character. We often say time and truth walk hand in hand. If elders must be the kind of men who are consistently living for Christ and leading their families through difficult trials.

Canyon Elders are men who live by example, who are steadfast during trials and who’s spiritual maturity is clearly marked by humility.

Verse 20

²⁰ how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, ²¹ testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul has taught the whole council of God. He didn’t shy away from any demand, from any danger or from any difficult doctrine. He has lead a Christ-centered and Christ-exalting ministry. This is the kind of ministry we envision here at Canyon Bible Church of Verde Valley.

We usually teach through entire books of the Bible at Canyon so that you are taught the whole counsel of God’s word. Sometimes we’ll teach a short series on a doctrine when we think it would be helpful for that doctrine to be reinforced. We want to be a church that does not shrink from declaring to you anything that might be profitable.

Even in Kids ministry, we teach the whole council of God’s word. Tonight our kids are engaged in a Bible study that will take them through every truth and historical account in God’s Word over a 4 year period of time.

In our teaching, it is the Elders job to walk the borders of our church. False doctrine is always trying to creep in. Pray for me and pray for our elders that we will be able to catch and stop false teaching as soon as it tries to enter our church.

Verse 22

²² And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, ²³ except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.

Leaders model a radical submission to Christ. Radical submission to Jesus takes tremendous courage. Church leaders are not called to be soft – they are called to be fearless! Paul was not a man with soft hands. He was a hard-working man who was covered scars from the beating he endured for the gospel. Pauls actions remind me of the exhortation in Isaiah 41:10 “fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” The Spirit has told Paul that he will face prison and affliction in every city he visits, but he pushes on. Let’s take a look at what motivate such radical commitment to Jesus.

Motivation of a Biblical Elder

Verse 24

²⁴ 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.

Paul was a Pharisee. He thought that he was righteous before God because of his religious deeds. Paul thought the followers of Jesus were a dangerous, heretical sect. He thought the ultimate act of piety was to persecute the followers of Jesus. At that time, Paul didn’t know that Jesus was the Messiah promised in the Old Testament.

Then Paul was confronted by the risen Christ. He stood face-to-face with the living God on the Damascus road and what did the Risen Lord say to Paul? “Paul, why do you persecute me?” At that moment, Paul was devastated. The very God he thought he was serving, he was in fact rejecting. He felt the weight of his sin and the fury of God’s wrath towards him. And then, he met Jesus. He found forgiveness at the cross. He was swept into grace of God. It compelled him to say in 1 Timothy 1:12-15

¹² I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, ¹³ though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, ¹⁴ and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

Paul was motivated by the immense grace of God. When Paul discovered the immense grace of an awesome, holy, righteous, perfect God, he found a cause worth giving his life for. God is rescuing sinners from a terrible place of eternal punishment. BUT, God extends his grace to sinners as a free gift to all that would call upon Jesus as Lord and as Savior. However, the gift was not cheap. It was paid for with the blood of God’s Son, Jesus.

Now that it is time to for Paul to travel to Jerusalem, he refuses to leave his church unattended. It’s too valuable for that. The church was paid for by the Blood of Jesus on the cross at Calvary. Paul was motivated by the infinitely large price that was paid for our salvation. The price that was paid for the redemption of the church compels Paul to make sure that the people in Ephesus and the doctrine in Ephesus are carefully watched over. Elders are tasked with taking painstaking care of theology. Paul exhorts Timothy to take great care in the church’s doctrine. 1 Timothy 4:16 says:

¹⁶ Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

The church has always been a threatened church. Satan never takes vacations. Sin lurks at the doors waiting for the moment of moral or doctrinal carelessness. Paul here commands elders to stay awake….to be alert….to be on watch.   These are all part of the role of a Biblical Elder”

Role of a Biblical Elder

Verse 28

²⁸ 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.

Verse 28 says, “pay careful attention to yourselves.” Paul calls Elders to be an ever watchful guard over themselves.

Doctrine is vitally important, but holiness never stops at head knowledge.

In this address to the Ephesian Elders, Paul spent half of his time talking about his own life and work. Why did he do that? Paul wanted to prove that it matters what kind of person an elder is, not just what he believes. It’s both.

A biblical Elder must have good doctrine and they need to be a certain kind of person. Robert Murray McCheyne – was a well-known pastor and elder back in 1600’s – and he said , “what my people need most from me is my personal holiness.” McCheyne also said, “It is not great talent that God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus.” Pray for our elders that they would grow every day to be more like Jesus!

Verse 29

²⁹ I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; ³⁰ and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. ³¹ Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.

Paul calls elders to be an ever watchful guard over the church. Great danger always awaits the church. Verse 29 says, “fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.”

The incentive for vigilant watchfulness is that men inside the church will often aspire to positions of leadership in order to push forward their own agenda and destroy the church. Jesus says in Matthew 7:15

¹⁵ “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

These kind of men will slowly begin to speak twisted and distorted things about scripture. Unless the elders are spiritually alert and thoroughly biblical in their vigilance, the wolves will destroy the flock.

How does an elder detect false teaching? There is a reason that Canyon is committed to being a church that is saturated in the Word of God. Let’s finish up by looking at the “Tools of a biblical Elder.”

Tools of a Biblical Elder

The demand we just laid out is overwhelming, so Paul immediately reminds the Ephesians of the spiritual tools available to them

Verse 32

³² 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.

The first tool he have is God himself. It is God’s sufficiency

The sufficiency does not lie in the leaders themselves. In a profound sense, Elders trying to fulfill their responsibilities as Christian leaders in their own strength will fail. They must rely on a God who is totally sufficient!

The second tool the Elders have is God’s Word.

2 Tim 3:16 says

¹⁶ All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

Elders must be men of the Word!

Life Application

Pray for Biblical elders at Canyon Verde

We are currently borrowing elders from the Prescott campus to serve here at Canyon Verde. We will be looking for a couple of men from this area to serve along-side me to be elders here at Canyon Verde in the next year or two. Please be in prayer that God would raise up those men and that they would faithfully serve this new church.

Respect Elders, follow their example and give them double honor

⁷ Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Hebrews 13:7

¹⁷ Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. 1 Tim 5:17

Pray for those who labor in teaching the Word

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. James 3:1

Teaching Outline

Example of a Biblical Elder

Leaders are proven during difficult trials Acts 20:19

Churches must be led by men with proven character.   Acts 20:18-20

Leaders model a radical submission to Christ. Acts 20:22

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10

Motivation of a Biblical Elder

Paul was motivated by the immense grace of God. Acts 20:24

12 I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, 13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 1 Timothy 1:12-15

Paul was motivated by the immense grace of God. 1 Timothy 1:12-15

Paul was motivated by the infinitely large price that was paid for our salvation. Acts 20:28

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. 1 Timothy 4:16

Role of a Biblical Elder

Be an ever watchful guard over themselves. Acts 20:28

Be an ever watchful guard over the church.   Acts 20:29

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Matthew 7:15

Tools of a Biblical Elder

God’s sufficiency Acts 20:32

God’s Word Acts 20:32

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16