Peter Barnes | 1 Timothy 3:1-7
SERMON NOTES
THE QUALIFICATIONS OF AN ELDER, Part 1
Numbers 11:16-30; 1 Tim. 3:1-7
– the eldership is not a parliament; for almost all these qualifications, Christians should have them, the elder must have them.
1. The man aspires and the church tests.
– 1 Tim.3:1; faithful saying (e.g. 1:15)
– not honour or influence but a good work (see Eph.4:12; 2 Tim.4:5)
2. The elder must be blameless.
– 3:2-3; Rev. Theophilus Msimangu in Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country: ‘I am a selfish and sinful man, but God put his hands on me, that is all.’
– Yet the elder must be consistent in the areas of wine, money (see 1 Sam.12:1-4; Acts 20:33), and temper (2 Tim.2:24-25)
3. The elder at home.
– 3:2, 4-5; ‘a one woman man’, not suspect in this area
– he looks after his children well (same word in Luke 10:34)
– the gospel is true and it works.