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Good morning my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends,
This week we’ve been looking at some powerful things God has to say about leadership in the Bible. We’re in Paul’s letter to Timothy who Paul has commissioned to provide leadership to the Christian movement in Ephesus in about 64ad or so. Ephesus was a big, diverse, complex city, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which Paul had brought there some years before, (Acts 18,19) had taken root in the hearts of many people had who formed several small house churches in that city. Timothy’s challenge was to encourage them, teach them God’s truth, straighten out some confusion, and develop good leadership so the movement could continue to grow healthy churches of followers of Jesus.
Let’s look again into 1 Timothy 5, beginning in verse 19 and 20 “Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses. Those who sin are to be rebuked publicly, so that others may take warning.” That’s big isn’t it friends? The truth is no one is perfect, not even Pastors or other church leaders. Certainly we’ve seen plenty of that over the past decades and lots of people have been hurt in the process, all over the world, right? Do you see the Holy Spirit leading Paul to instruct Timothy that church leadership accountability is a big deal? Accusations of church leaders are to be taken very seriously, especially if brought by multiple witnesses. There’s a big difference between serious accusation of church leadership wrongdoing and rumor or gossip or slander, isn’t there?
Have you noticed my friends that the two deepest wounds we can experience in life, those that cut most deeply all the way to the core of our hearts, are FAMILY wounds and CHURCH wounds? Do you know why? When we are wounded by the people we love, and we believe they love us, it cuts very deeply. When we are wounded by the people we trust and with whom we feel safe, those wounds that break trust are very hard to recover from.
In the church setting, when we are wounded by what we believe to be fellow Christians or worse, leaders in God’s church… oh the damage that is done to our souls! That is why abuse, abandonment or rejection, broken promises, broken trust, backbiting etc. either by our biological or church family hurts so bad, does such deep damage, that it can be a very long time in a healing process.
So Paul deals with it head on in 1 Timothy 5:19,20. Multiple witnesses, to be sure an accusation is accurate, fair, honest, truthful, and then public rebuke so the church can be assured cleansing is being accomplished and restoration is in process. Now watch this friends. God style discipline and even judgment is always for the purpose of correction, cleansing from sin and the damage of sin, and restoration into holy relationship with God and holy health for God’s people. I’m sure we understand the key to cleansing and restoration is repentance, right? That is God’s pattern throughout history and Scripture.
To show you how serious this is for God, I offer Numbers 16 and the divisive rebellion of several leaders against Moses. I also offer Acts 5:1-11 and the deceitfulness of Ananias & Sapphira regarding the sale of land and their major financial contribution to advance the Jesus movement. Please notice Paul’s statement about how serious godly accountability of leadership is with God’s people: “I charge you, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, to keep these instructions without partiality, and to do nothing out of favoritism. Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.” (1 Tim. 5:21,22) Wow! Leadership is serious business to God isn’t it my friends?
Why would Paul mention the ‘elect angels’ and who are they? You may recall when God created the huge company of angels they were holy, all living in God’s holy presence. One of the highest ranking angels Lucifer, evidently had close proximity to God and was a key leader of worship in God’s presence until his heart became envious and he wanted the glory, the accolades for himself. Evil jealousy and envy crept into heaven and divided the angels, and God threw Lucifer out of heaven along with any and all angels who chose allegiance to him. (Isaiah 14:11-15; Ezekiel 28:12-17) These are the demons who along with Lucifer, Satan, are fully opposed to God, God’s people and God’s purposes. The angels who remained faithful to God and are in heaven with Him now, are His messengers and are those Paul refers to here as “elect angels”. Paul uses them as an example of the need for holiness and integrity in leadership.
May I give you just a word about verse 23 which has caused confusion with many people over the years. For most of history, up until modern times, safe drinking water, free from water-born bacteria, has been very hard to find. Even today, in many parts of the world, pure, safe drinking water is simply not available without great cost or great effort. In many places I’ve been, the time demands to daily find and fetch safe water prevent some children from attending any school. Daily thousands of people die globally from water-born parasites. Thus Paul instructs Timothy to counter the bad water that he often was drinking with some wine which would be safer for his health.
Verse 24 and 25 are very interesting aren’t they, and so true in our modern world. Frequently the news alerts us to things uncovered in the distant past of a person which suddenly cause such concern, they are shamed to resign their positions or are even arrested and put in prison. By the same token, sometimes we hear those wonderful stories of some who have done heroic or very honorable things which were not publicly known at the time, and when finally they become known a celebration results, even if posthumously.
So this causes all of us to look back over our lives… and aren’t we grateful for the forgiveness of God which is possible because of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross? Do you remember the powerful truth of Psalm 103:10-12 “…for He (God) does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” Oh thank you Jesus for God’s forgiveness of us which You earned for us!
Do you often find yourself overwhelmed by God’s “Amazing Grace “?
God’s grace that so loved our sinful human race He would send and sacrifice His Son Jesus? (John 3:16)
God’s grace that allowed you and me to repent of our sin and be forgiven, rather than kill us in our sin, as we deserved? (Ephesians 1:7)
God’s grace that allows you and me who have trusted Jesus Christ for our salvation and been changed by His Holy Spirit, now given the privilege of living life representing Jesus as His Ambassador? (2 Corinthians 5:20)
God’s grace that reaches through His people to love and help and serve the great needs of our world? (Matthew 5:13-16)
In closing our time together today, crawl down into the belly of a ship with me… 200 years ago. Not just any ship, a slave ship, sailing from west Africa to the new world. You can’t imagine the stench as these Africans are shackled with very little room to move, for many days. We cannot imagine their agony or what awaits them when finally that ship docks and they are sold like animals.
At the helm of this ship is captain John Newton. His heart has been hard for a long time. For him, it’s simply a job. A terrible job, but a job none the less and those below decks… well, they are nothing to him. But as he listens to their cries, their groans, and even their songs in their despair, God softens this slave ship captain’s heart, and he remembers his puritan mother who died near his 17th birthday but had prayed for him and urged him to consider Jesus, especially when his sea-captain father was away for long periods of time.
God used the cries of the slaves in agony in the bowels of his slave ships, the memories of his praying mother, and the despicable life he had lived, with all his shameful past, to finally draw John Newton to consider the Amazing Grace of God which sent Jesus to the cross, and out from John’s heart finally poured these words “amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me…”
No one sings is more powerfully in my humble opinion than Wintley Phipps. Oh let’s close our time today thanking God for His grace that can change any life… even a slave trader. Here’s a link for Mr Phipps singing it in Carnegie Hall.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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