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What Kind of Desire Leads to Godly Leadership? 1 Timothy 3:1–7, Part 2
This is our second session on 1 Timothy 3.1-7, which is a focus on the qualifications of the office of overseer, which I argued last time, is the same as elder or pastor. The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a good work. So Father, as we ponder, again, the nature of the desire and why it is that men, rather than women, are being referred to here, and what it is to lead or be a person who stands before a congregation with responsibility to preside and guide. Show us how precious this is, how good a work it is, and use this Lord to awaken in appropriate ways, the aspiration, and the desire in qualified men that you are calling. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Let's ponder for just a few minutes these terms desire and aspire. The desire to be a pastor is a good thing, provided the desire is what? I mean, you can imagine desires to be in the office of pastor that are unworthy. So here's my list that will then take us into these qualifications. If it is a durable desire and by that I mean it's not a flash in the pan. There wasn't a hyped up service or at a camp meeting and a 16-year-old heard the call to be a missionary or a pastor and he felt overwhelmingly desirous for it and then he just went away and he went back to living in his old way and it never came back again. It needs to recur over and over and be a durable desire. It should be a servant desire. Does he want to have an office of oversight in order to lord it over people or to serve people? It needs to be a holy desire. By that I mean a desire which is strongest when you are at your best. Some desires get strong when we are in a worldly frame of mind and some desires get strong when we are in a godly frame of mind, which is it? Fourth, it is an informed desire. He is not ignorant about the nature of the work, about what it will be required of him and what the word of god actually says is it's an informed, not an ignorant desire and then finally it is a qualified and by that I mean what is coming next. It is a desire that is marked by these things. The overseer needs more than mere aspiration or mere desire. It must be of a certain kind and then it must have these qualifications. In the last two sessions I'd be referring to this person here as a man rather than a woman. Why have I been assuming that? Because of two things, one, he says, Paul says that the overseer must be apt or able to teach right at the heart of his calling which distinguishes him from the deacons that are coming next is that he is fundamentally a handler of the word of god. He is a teacher, he's able to correct with doctrine as the description is in Titus 1. Secondly, he is an overseer, that is he is a ruler or governor or a presider as it says later in 1 Timothy, let the elders who lead or sometimes translated rule or sometimes translated govern, preside, well be considered worthy of double honor. Those two facts, leadership and teaching are the two things that Paul said a few verses earlier in 1 Timothy 2 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. So the men of the church are to bear the responsibility for leading the church and teaching the church and that's why I've assumed men as we begin the discussion of qualifications here and it might be good just to take just another minute on that issue of lead or rule or govern here and say a brief word about the spirit of that word. There's a lot that's been said both positively and negatively about leadership in the church as I'm recording this and I want to stress two things. There are cautions to be given for the abusive leadership and there are cautions to be given for those who are so skittish about leadership that they hardly believe in leadership at all. This word right here, prayestame is the same word used back here in the text. He the elder, the overseer, must manage same word. He could translate it lead, rule, govern his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive for if someone does not know how to lead, manage, govern his own household, how will he care for the church of God? So the least you can say is that this overseer here is to lead, rule or govern in a way similar to a very good, loving father. The analogy is with a father's role in the house. And the word used to put a feeling on this is if he doesn't do this in his own house, how will he? And then he doesn't say manage or lead or govern the church. He says, care for God's church, that's the word used for what the Good Samaritan did to the man he found on the road, he cared for him. So managing or overseeing or leading or governing is for caring. And there's a lot said today about servant leadership and the reason for that is because of what Jesus said in Luke 22, Jesus said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles exercised lordship over them and those in authority over them are called benefactors, but not so with you, rather let the greatest among you become as the youngest and let the leader," So that's what we're talking about here, overseers are leaders, pastors are leaders, elders are leaders, let the leader become as one who serves. And that's a word for serving at a table, like a waiter, a server. And you see that in the next verse. For who is greater, the one who reclines at table or the one who serves, in other words, the one sitting in the expensive restaurant or the one doing the waitressing or the serving. And his answer is, is it not the one who reclines at table? Well, yes, but I, Jesus, am among you as one who serves. So the point is there is real leadership. I've heard people misuse this text as though this actual cancels out leadership. And I always say something like this, you know, when Jesus took off his outer garment and wrapped himself with the towel of the slave or the servant, got down on his knees and washed the disciples' feet as a servant, nobody doubted for one instant who the leader was in that room. He was the leader and they knew it and they tremble at what he was doing. For a pastor, an overseer, an elder to become a servant of his people who cares for the church of God does not mean he ceases to be leader. So I have as much concern as I record this with not only with abuse of leadership, that damages the cause of Christ, hurts the gospel, hurts people, sets back the mission. I have a concern for that. I don't want that to happen. I don't want men to go into the ministry with a desire that's sick and unhealthy and pathological in the way it uses and abuses people. No, we don't want that. But I don't know whether it's the case or not, but many churches, whether more, I don't know, many churches flounder and perish because the pastors don't lead. They can't lead. And without a leader, factions will inevitably destroy a church. So I end on this note here in 1 Thessalonians, we ask you brothers, respect those who labor among you and are over you, lead you, preside, manage, govern in the Lord and in one issue and esteem them very highly in love. Not because they're perfect, not because they're above correction, but because of their work, be peace among yourselves. the Lord. You
What kind of desire sends men into ministry and keeps them there? Durable desire, servant-hearted desire, holy desire, informed desire, mature desire.