Sermon Transcript
Well, we are continuing before we take a small break for Christmas and holidays in our series in 1 Timothy today. So, we are in 1 Timothy chapter 5, verses 17 through 25. You can turn there in your Bible. It will be up on the screen. It should be in your bulletin insert as well.
But 1 Timothy chapter 5, 17 through 25. We’ll just read the text to start with, and we’ll talk about it. So, verse 17, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, and, the laborer deserves his wages. Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of 2 or 3 witnesses.
As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and the elect angels, I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.
The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So also the good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden. So, from this passage this morning, we will see why you should care for your pastor and how to correct your pastor, why you should care for your pastor and how you should correct your pastor. So, first, I love the picture of what a pastor is in this text. Since the role described in verse 17 is elders who preach and teach, when we hear that, most of us probably instinctively think pastor, and it’s correct to think that way because, as we’ve talked about before, the words pastor and elder are interchangeable in the Bible.
What we’re talking about is we mean people who preach in an ongoing and consistent way and direct the affairs of the church, that is a pastor, that is a teaching elder. So, did you catch what he compares pastors to? Verse 18, oxen, oxen that tread grain, just your generic farm animal. Didn’t compare pastors to kings, didn’t compare pastors to governors or mayors or CEOs or presidents, or directors or chairman of the board, didn’t compare us to anything like that. He said, when you think pastor, think ox.
I happen to love that picture because, number one, it keeps me from thinking too much of myself, and number two, it helps point to the correct preposition we should use when we’re talking about pastors and preaching. So, think about this. Should we say that pastors preach to the congregation? Is that the right preposition? I suppose preaching to a congregation is better than preaching at the congregation, you know, like there you are and here it comes at you.
But at might make more sense than through, I suppose. We preach through you. I don’t even know what that would mean. Or above you. I don’t want to preach above you.
That’s not effective communication. What preposition are we supposed to use? Well, think about the ox. Does the ox tread grain to the farmer? If you’re not familiar with treading grain, I needed to look it up too.
Farmers needed to tread out or thresh grain to separate the grain from the husk that is around the grain. So, get rid of the husk and have just the grain. And the animals would walk back and forth over the grain, or they would pull something heavy and flat behind them on top of a threshing floor so that as it was pulled across the grain, it would kind of smash it and separate the grain from the husk. So, does an ox do that to the farmer? Like, I guess the farmer standing on the edge of the floor and the ox just comes up to him and stops?
I guess that could conceivably happen, but that is not quite what we are trying to say, right, when we talk about what an ox does for the farmer. We certainly don’t want to say that the ox treads at the farmer. That would be like a bull charging a matador in like Spanish bullfighting. And worse, right, if the bull wins in the matador versus bull scenario, he would go through the matador. So, we don’t want to say that is what pastors do.
So, what should we say?
The ox treads for the farmer. That is the right preposition. Pastors preach for the congregation. We don’t preach to the congregation, not at the congregation, not over, not under, not through. We preach for the congregation.
Preachers work for the congregation. That is the correct picture. Or as verse 18 also illustrates, the preacher is the laborer and the people are the supervisor or boss or probably in that time the field owner, meaning the preacher is the field worker. Being an ox is not exactly glamorous. That is why you laughed.
I doubt it is even any child’s favorite animal. You would pick something cool like tiger or shark. Or cute, like bunny or turtle, you probably wouldn’t pick ox. It’s not fancy. It’s not extravagant.
It’s much more overalls than it is tuxedo. But if you are a farmer, and this text says that you are, you need to take care of your ox. Why? I think the implication is The more you feed and shelter your ox, the better he treads out the grain, meaning you harvest more. But the less you feed and shelter and care for your ox, if you muzzle him, as this says, and don’t let him eat the grain while he is treading it out, the more exhausted and malnourished he becomes, making the ox weaker, making him tread less grain, meaning you won’t harvest as much grain, which might make you mad at the ox.
Because you aren’t harvesting as much, which might make you muzzle him even more in an effort to recoup some of what you think you’ve lost. But by doing so, it means you are taking care of him even less, making the ox even weaker, making the spiral continue until finally you are so frustrated with that ox you decide instead of treading grain, he could be much better utilized if he were sliced up on your plate next to your baked potato.
Which happens sometimes to pastors.
They get filleted or skewered.
But if you take care of the ox, treating him with double honor, you will get out of the ox what you need to get out of the ox. I believe that’s the implication. Because down at the end of this passage in verses 24 and 25, it talks about how nothing can really remain hidden forever. And of course, the main application of those verses is probably in reference to individuals, and if we are faithful or sinful, that it will all come out and be obvious to everyone eventually. You reap what you sow, and we’ll talk about all of that in a minute as it applies to pastors, but it also applies to how a church treats its pastor.
There are churches that have a history of wrecking pastors, like no one on staff has been there longer than a couple of years and it has been that way for 50 years. Pastors are overworked, underpaid, stressed, and for some reason, not very effective. And at some point, the church has to look itself in the mirror and say, you know what? Maybe it is not these decades of pastors we have had, Maybe it’s us. Likewise, there are churches that basically only have pastors who feel cherished and wanted and supported and cared for, churches who pay their pastors well, encourage their pastors, make sure they have the resources they need to do their jobs well.
Now, which church in general, of course, there can be exceptions everywhere, but which church in general do you think is going to have more fruitful pastors? Which ox is going to produce more? The one that is well-fed or the one that is starved? It’s going to be obvious how a church treats its pastor by looking at how the pastors are doing physically, emotionally, relationally, financially. It will all come out and be clear eventually, if not immediately.
The sins of some churches are conspicuous, just like the good works of some churches are conspicuous. So, point 1, if you haven’t written it down already, was feed your ox, you being the farmer, we being the ox, I guess.
And by doing so, he’ll probably turn around and feed you as well, get you the grain that you need. So, point 2, correcting your pastor. Like we just said with the church, the faithfulness or the sinfulness of the pastor will eventually be obvious. Like, I suppose if we use a metaphor of an ox again and not treading grain this time, but if we imagine an ox plowing a field and trying to plow a row that is straight to plant seed, if that ox is going down the row across the field and he is off 5 or 10 or 90 degrees, it is going to be obvious. It’s going to be obvious a whole lot quicker if he’s off 90 degrees than if he’s off 2, but by the time he gets to the end of the row, we will be able to tell whether that ox is staying true or not.
Is the line straight or does it trail off one way or the other? And when the line is not straight, correction will be necessary. Who a pastor is, what kind of character he has, will be proven over time Always. And by the way, that’s not just true of pastors. Verses 24 and 25 are a general principle that Paul is applying to pastors, but because it’s a general principle, it can be applied to everyone.
We just applied it to churches a second ago, but it’s the same for you. It’s the same for your boss. It’s the same for your kids. It’s the same for everyone. Who you are is going to come out to everyone.
Maybe right now only one person, probably your spouse, sees that you are self-absorbed or egotistical or put yourself ahead of others or are critical or demeaning or abrasive, but eventually more and more people are going to notice. Likewise, if you are humble, servant-hearted, put others before yourself, are merciful, compassionate, trustworthy, people are going to find that out. As well. Over time, people will deal with you through more and more circumstances. They will go through more life with you.
They will observe you longer and longer, collecting more and more data points to analyze, and eventually you will be known. You will be. You can fake something for a minute, but not for forever. It’s probably why in verse 22 he gives the instruction, do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, which is a reference to ordaining a new pastor. He is saying, don’t make someone your pastor until you have had a chance to observe this person over a period of time.
Watch him long enough to see him go through joys and sorrows and disappointments and challenges, to see what kind of person he is before you say, oh yeah, hey, we will follow that guy. Because if you install someone as your pastor who turns out to be Mr. Flaco, whose fault is that? It’s yours. It’s like you share in that guilt. It’s probably what he means down in verse 22, participating in the sins of others.
So, take the time to be sure. A small sidebar here, verse 23, which says, no longer drink water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and frequent ailments. That might seem a little random, like if you were reading through this in advance or just this morning when you heard it, It seems like Paul was writing about correcting your pastor and you reap what you sow, basically. And then all of a sudden he tells Timothy, hey, by the way, drink a little wine. That could seem random, like Paul has ADD or something, like he suddenly remembered, like, oh yeah, I wanted to tell Timothy about that and I got to write it down before I forget again.
Maybe, okay? He’s a real person. He’s writing a real letter. But you should know that my approach to Scripture is that I don’t believe anything in Scripture is random. I believe God put everything in there for a logical, knowable reason, and if it doesn’t immediately make sense, the problem is never with the text.
The problem is with my head. So, perhaps, here is a suggestion I will submit for your consideration. Perhaps Paul wrote this here because Timothy was someone who believed drinking any amount of alcohol could disqualify him from serving as a pastor or elder. Like wine would be something about which others would need to confront him if he had any at all. And perhaps Paul knew this.
Like perhaps in the middle of this paragraph about confronting your pastor, Paul stops to tell Timothy By the way, a little wine isn’t something that should burden your conscience. Obviously, don’t have too much, don’t get drunk, don’t be a stumbling block to others, don’t drink around alcoholics who you could easily lead astray, all these other kind of principles that Scripture would teach us, all of that is still true, of course. But at the same time, especially since this seems even potentially medicinal and Jesus drank and even— and Jesus even made some fantastic wine for a party one time, Don’t worry about having a little sometimes. So, if you hypothetically see your pastor at the grocery store with a bottle of wine in his cart, it’s okay. It’s okay.
Now, if you see him with enough wine to fill 14 shopping carts, that might be something to ask him about.
So, what about that? What if you do need to ask him about something? What if there is something that you notice is off with your pastor? What if you’re looking at your ox plowing the row across the field and he’s careening off course and needs to be corrected? What do you do with the pastor who has consumed 14 shopping carts full of wine, who, like those in verse 20 says, are persisting in sin?
How do we confront church leaders like that? How do we crack the whip on the ox, so to speak? Our passage gives us a 4-part protocol to use in that type of circumstance. So, part 1 is multiple witnesses. If you haven’t noticed, there have been a few scandals involving pastors.
In the last year. Some of those seem like they were probably handled correctly, and others of them seem like maybe they weren’t. The first protocol in this passage for confronting your pastor is on the evidence of 2 or more witnesses. You must have 2 or more witnesses to entertain an accusation. I will confess I am a little more than nervous to bring up this point given our current cultural climate, because we seem to be in a moment in history when one accusation from one person is enough evidence to determine guilt and can ruin a career and a ministry and a family forever.
And at the same time, we seem to be in a moment in history where if there is someone who thinks that there is something wrong with that, like if someone tries to pump the brakes a tiny bit and say, Hey, shouldn’t we collect a little more evidence before we execute this guy? Shouldn’t we find out for sure what really happened before we burn down a life and a reputation? If someone says that, they are immediately treated as viciously and unmercifully as the person who has allegedly done something wrong. So, even at the risk of inciting an angry mob, I am going to say it because the text does. You have to have more evidence than one witness.
There is something wrong with one accusation from one person being enough to determine guilt. There is something wrong with that.
And that is exactly the reason why 2 or more witnesses is part of this protocol. One accusation should not ruin someone because we don’t know. The accuser might not be a victim. Might be, might not be. We don’t know.
The accuser might just want to bring down the leader because of any number of reasons. And today, right now, in some cases, if the accuser has the right media exposure, One accuser can pretty much bring down one leader. And that’s not right. It’s not right. Now, I will immediately put an asterisk next to that by saying there is a problem with requiring 2 or 3 witnesses before entertaining a charge.
And we need to bring it up and then hedge against it. The problem with requiring more than one accuser is that it might— now, it might not, but it might— it might reinforce a lie in a victim’s head which says something like, oh, I shouldn’t come forward because I’m probably the only one. And that’s not right either. So listen, please listen. If you’ve been the victim of any kind of abuse, whether it happened here or somewhere else, Please come forward.
Don’t stay silent. Just come talk to us. Like, we want to listen. Now, by far, most likely, you are not the only one. And if you come forward, it could give the other victims to come forward as well, and then we will have a clearer picture of how to deal with the leader in question.
So, come forward. Come forward for yourself. Come forward to give others courage. Come forward to prevent future victims. But come forward.
Until you do, we don’t even have one accuser. If you come, at least we’re halfway there, right? So, come on.
Second part of the confrontation protocol is without bias. Verse 21, keep these rules without prejudging. Doing nothing from partiality. We could word or phrase this protocol as valuing truth over tribe, meaning just because you like someone doesn’t mean that that person is innocent, and just because you hate someone doesn’t mean that person is guilty. We must do the research, collect the evidence, speak to the witnesses to find out the actual truth.
Since it seems like everything that happens in our culture these days gets filtered politically, and our political affiliation is one of our, like, strongest tribes, let me just ask you, as a self-check for yourself, when was the last time you agreed with someone on the other side of the aisle?
When was the last time? Or have you just dismissed everything they say because they are from that other tribe?
And if you are thinking right now, if this just flashed through your mind, well, if they ever said anything of value, I’d agree with them, right? If you just thought that, you are hook, line, and sinker tribe over truth, and I’m talking to you.
Second check, when was the last time you were offended by something or someone from your own tribe?
When did you get offended from something that someone from your own tribe said? When was the last time? Or, and again, if you just thought, well, if someone from my tribe ever did something offensive, if that ever happened, I would be just as outraged. But since that has yet to happen, there has been no opportunity for me to be offended. If that is what you just thought, again, you are valuing tribe over truth, and you need to confess your bias.
I will tell you where I really need to check myself on this. Don’t worry, I am not going to tell you my politics. But for me, it comes up with Ohio State football.
I grew up in Ohio until middle school, and so I’m a big fan of Ohio State. It’s actually a little bit deeper than just big fan, but I’m not going to let you know how crazy I am right now. Occasionally, Ohio State is in the news. Actually, we’re always in the news because we’re such an elite program, but occasionally we are negatively in the news. Because everybody is jealous.
But sometimes there is something, a coach will get fired, a star player will get arrested, and people will ask me, so what do you think? And I am like, well, obviously Ohio State is perfect. We have never done anything wrong ever. The whole world is out to get us.
That is tribe over truth. And it’s not right. The truth is the guys who wear that little logo that I love sometimes do horrible things, and they need to be dealt with accordingly. There was one of the church scandals in this last year, an accusation came in against the pastor, and then another one, and then a few more. And while the accusations didn’t initially seem very severe, the elders of the church essentially just disregarded them.
They believed the story and response of the pastor, even to the point of holding a broadcasted town hall meeting on their website explaining all the accusations and their response. But as time went on, more accusations and stories came in, And eventually, all the elders apologized and resigned, saying that they let their personal love for their pastor cloud their judgment.
You must choose truth over tribe without bias. You must.
Third part of the protocol might be a little surprising. Make it public. Verse 20, rebuke them in the presence of all so that the rest may stand in fear. When the evidence has piled up to the point that you are going to have to fire the pastor, you have to make it public why you are firing him. You can’t work a deal behind the scenes where he agrees to retire or take another job, but nobody really knows why.
You have to take a stand. Saying, we do not tolerate that kind of thing here. If you don’t, other potential offenders might become actual offenders because they see there’s essentially no consequences for that kind of behavior. You’ve got to make it public so that others stand in fear. You want others to think, oh, I can’t do that here or I will get outed, and it will help keep them in line.
You also want to make it public because it is part of the healing process for the victim. It is a way in which you show compassion for the victim. Justice being served is partly how people begin to piece their lives back together after a tragedy. If someone is allowed to simply retire or take another job and the real reason is kind of kept hush-hush, what does that tell the victim? How would you feel if you were a victim and the person who hurt you simply got to walk away?
How would you feel?
It tells them that what happened isn’t that big of a deal. That’s what it tells them. And that’s not what you tell a victim. You say, you’re right, it’s a huge deal, and we’re mad about it too, and we’re going to do something about it. And we’re going to make sure it never happens here again to someone else.
The final reason you want to make it public is because if you have gotten to the point where you’re going to fire the pastor for an offense, you have to keep in mind that pastor is still going to have a cheering section somewhere in the church. And if you dismiss him, without explaining why, his fan base is going to be very upset and they will start complaining and causing division. But if you explained it, they would have said, oh, geez, he did that? There’s multiple witnesses? Really?
Yeah, he had to go. I mean, I’m his biggest fan, but Wow, you can’t do that, and it would help keep the church unified. So, you’ve got to make it public. Okay, 4th and last protocol for correcting a pastor, aim for gospel restoration. Aim for gospel restoration with your confrontation.
This is actually all contained in the word rebuke in verse 20. Rebuke doesn’t just mean, let me tell you that you are wrong. It has a bigger goal than that. If you look up the other places where this rebuke word is used in the New Testament, the idea is having light shine into darkness, having people give their hearts over to Jesus instead of having their hearts pursue sin. So, one example is Ephesians 5:11 and 13.
We’ll start verse 11, have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. That word expose there is the same word. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather rebuke them. Rebuke the dark with the light. Bring light to the darkness.
And then verse 13, everything exposed, same word, everything rebuked by the light becomes visible, and everything that is becomes a light. When we bring light into the darkness, the darkness becomes light. It is transformed. That is why we rebuke, for restoration, so that the darkness can become light. Or Titus 1:13, rebuke them, same word, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in faith.
Why do we rebuke? So that they may be sound in faith. It’s for restoration. Jesus, talking about the Holy Spirit in John 16:8-9, Jesus says, and when He, meaning the Holy Spirit, comes, when the Holy Spirit comes, He will convict the world. The Holy Spirit will convict the world.
That’s our word again. Convict here is the same as rebuke. So, the Holy Spirit will rebuke the world. Concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not know me.
Why does the Holy Spirit convict or rebuke the world? Why does he do that? It’s to get us to Jesus, that we may receive Jesus for forgiveness, for salvation, for reconciliation to God. When we rebuke, even if it’s to pastors, What do we want them to see? What does the Holy Spirit want them to see?
It’s that your sinful actions, as horrific as they are, have been paid for by what Jesus did on the cross, and you have been reconciled to God. Jesus saw what you did, but for some reason, He still wants you anyway, So, He paid the price that you owe in order for you to be together with Him. So now, turn away from that darkness and follow after the One who loves you so much. That darkness doesn’t love you that much. The darkness didn’t give itself that you could be redeemed, but the light did.
The light forfeited Himself for you and became darkness so that you could become light. Therefore, walk in the light. That’s why we rebuke. That’s actually what a rebuke is. So, if you find yourself confronting a pastor for a reason other than rebuke, for instance, you don’t like the pastor, or he made you mad, or you want to prove yourself right, or you want him to look bad, or you want to diminish his reputation, if that’s why you’re rebuking, you’ve missed it.
If the goal of rebuke is not restoration, it’s not rebuke.
So, let us join efforts with the Holy Spirit and rebuke persistent sin in a way that brings people into deeper love for Jesus and stronger commitment to Him. Let’s pray.
Father, we thank You for Your Word, how it always points us to You. Thank You for clear instruction on how to run a church. Lord, we need help.
I pray, Lord, that You will do as You said You will do and make everything visible. We pray everything comes to the light, and when it comes to the light, that it can be transformed.
We pray for all of us here, pastors and everyone, that we would continually be turning away from darkness and to You. Who love us so much. We ask all those things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
