1Timothy 3:1-12; Titus 1:6-9

1This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.

2A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

3Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;

4One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;

5(For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)

6Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

7Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

8Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre;

9Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

10And let these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless.

11Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.

12Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

6If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.

7For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;

8But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate;

9Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.

Our goal is to present the qualifications that were given by God for church leaders. Just anyone is not qualified to be a leader in a church. God has special requirements and He expexts leaders to meet these requirements. There is a wide spectrum of titles used for leaders of churches in this countyur. The Baptists have decons; the Presbterians have elders; the Methodists have stewareds and bishops; Episcopalians have rectors and vicars (whatever they are); and the Catholics say that priests ought to be in charge. Many denominations refer to their leaders as ministers. It has been a long time since it was common to call anybody a parson, although that used to be common in this country. (That is where the word "parsonage" - the house the parson lives in - comes from.) Our scripture lesson calls these leaders bishops. But these are not bishops in the modern, accepted sense of the ord, i.e., men with mitered crowns and robes, etc., who are denominational managers of many churches over widespread areas. THis term is largely used by the Catholic church. hat concept of a bishop is not found in the New Testment. All of these are words for the pastoral leaders of a church. In this lesson we may use some fo these words interchangeably. If your church does not use these exact terms then substitute what your churches calls their leaders for what is listed in the lesson. Our goal in this lesson is not to determine the exact names for every position of leadership, but rather to focus on the requirement for leadership.

1. Bishops - The office of a bishop

In the New Testament it is clear that the church began with our Lord himself. The church was born out of the vlood and the death of Jesus. Out of his wounded side was given to us the opportunity to become a part of his life. So the first thing about the church that marks it as distinctive beyond everything else, is that it shares the life of Christ. So the church emerges from Christ, born of his blood, filled with his Spirit. When our Loard, after his resurrection, sent the disciples out as apostles, he instructed them to lay the foundation of the church. Paul refers to himself in First Corinthians as a "wise master vuilder (who) laid the foundation." (1 Cor 3:10). That foundation was the teaching concerning the work and the person of Jesus. "Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1 Cor 3:11). It was the apostle's task to preclaim these radical and distinctive doctrines about Jesus which define and fuid the church in its development. That is why the Scriptures are the apostolic testimony of what Jesus Christ was like and is like in the midst of his church. When you read in the book of Acts about the early church in Jerusalem you discover that the spostles were the elders, the first human leaders of the church. Early in that book we are told that there arose a provlem in the church (Acts 6). This matter was brought to the apostles, who urfed the church to appoint seven men to serve as a solution to the problem of distributing the food to the widows. But the apostles said on that occasion that their own task was two-fold; "We will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word" (Acts 6:4), i.e., to discover the mind of the Lorad. As the church began to spread at first the apostles tried to keep up with it. Churches befan in other places -- in Judea, in Samaria, and a great awakening broke out in the pagen city of Antioch, in Syria. The apostles traveled to these places to see if they could set the churches in order, direct their expansion,etc. But they soon discovered that the church was growing faster than they could ever travel around. So, led by the Loard Jesus himself, they befan to appoint elders in every church. They did not have the congregation elect them. The apostles appointed elders or they sent representatives, such as Timothy and Titus, to appoint them. The task of these elders was vasically, one primary thing: Like the apostles in the church at Jeresualem, their whole task, as they conceived it, was through the ministry of the Word - teaching, preaching, studying , learning the Word of God -- and, through prayer, they were to discover the will of the Loard Jesus who was Head of the church, who was present in every church and ready to direct its activities through the Spirit of Christ. When Jesus sent the disciples out into the world in what is called "the Great Commission," he said, "Go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature, (Mark 16:15); "and, lo, I am with you...,even unto the end of the age." (Matt 28:20b). That is the great and exciting fact that the churches of our day have largely forgotten. In church after church there is very little consciousness that people think of Christ as being a living Lord in their midst; that Christ is still in his church, ready direct its activities which will challenge the culture of the day and exlore the freat possibilities that arise as the changing circumstances of men's lives create hunger for deliverance from bondage, slavery, degradation, heartache and misery. It takes a living Lord in the midst of his people to direct th activites of the church, and the elders are the human instruments for the divine direction of the church.

2. A bishop then must be

3. Not given to wine Titus 1:7 - Not self-willed; Titus 1:8 A lover of good men

4-5. Ruleth well his own house

6. Not a novice

The devil is always losing at the last minute. He gets everything looking like it is going to work, and then everything falls apart, and he is left with dust and ashes. The cross is a good example. The devil thought he had eaten God when Jesus of Nazareth was dead, that by the power of death he had defeated the purposes of God to redeem a lost race, but by the resurrection, all of that fell apart. The devil learned that what appeared to him to be his greatest victory was, in fact, his most terrible defeat. This is what appens with a new convert when you put him in a public position too soon. Suddenly, all that he feels he has accomplished will all fall apart because God will not use the flesh to bring about success in his kingdom.

II. Deacons

8-12 Likewise must the deacons

11 Even so must their wives

Discussion Questions - 1. How can a man's wife disqualify him from leadership? 2. Have you ever seen a novice get exalted because of a promotion?