Church discipline is always a serious and usually difficult process. This seriousness and difficulty is, if possible, even greater when it is an elder of the church that is being placed under discipline. Elders are not a separate class of Christians who are above scrutiny. Like the rest of the church they are accountable to their brothers and sisters in the church and God has graciously given his church guidelines on how to deal with accusations against and the discipline of elders.

The following message is a presentation of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches where we're proclaiming the sufficiency of scripture for church and family life. More information about the NCFIC is available at www.ncfic.org. Is available at www.ncfic.org. Please open your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 5 and find verse 19. This message will focus on 1 Timothy 5 19 through 21.

As you're getting there I'd like to set these verses in their context. In 1 Timothy Paul is addressing a young pastor, Timothy, in the city of Ephesus. It was an idolatrous city, a highly sexualized city, And there were clues that the pressures were enormous upon young Timothy as a pastor. And it's most likely that he wanted to give up, so much so that the apostle Paul said to him, Remain on at Ephesus. Don't give up.

Imagine this young man in the midst of Ephesus. It was a highly prosperous city, and the idolatrous sexualization of this culture was very, very apparent. And it's iconic even today as people look back at what was going on in Ephesus. But when we get to 1 Timothy 5, the Apostle Paul is addressing various relationships where there ought to be a natural respect and a deference. But in each one of those relationships, there can be a twisted view of the respect.

And So the Apostle Paul begins with older men in verses 1 and 2. And he says, do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father. So He's speaking of how you deal with respect and honor of a father. And then he speaks of widows. There's a tenderheartedness and a respect that there ought to be with widows, and there's a way that one should deal with widows.

And so He speaks of widows in verses 3-16. And then in verses 17-18, he speaks of the tendency of congregations to actually dishonor elders by paying them poorly. And he tells them that they should pay them according to double honor. And so we read there, let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. For the scripture says, you shall not muzzle the ox while he treads out the grain and the laborer is worthy of his wages.

So he's speaking about how honor works with those who are in authority and how do you moderate your own personal inclinations and do the right thing. For example, a church might be inclined to starve his pastor to keep him humble. Paul says that's not how you should deal with him. You should deal him double honor. He's actually talking about financial things.

He's not just talking about an emotional sense of honor, but it should have an expression. So there are these various relationships of authority. But when you get to verse 19 and through 22, he's addressing the opposite extreme, where one might so highly value an elder that he'll has a twisted view of honor of that elder and how congregations have responsibilities to elders in dealing with their sins. Out of a twisted view of love and a misunderstanding of respect, a church might remain silent when they ought to say something to that elder. And while the Bible calls for respective elders and all authorities, they don't have exclusive and ultimate and untouchable authority.

And this passage deals with how you maintain respect to an elder and yet be a brother to an elder. And also, how do you be a rightly ordered church member with your elders? And so he details all these things. It all exists in this context of 1st Timothy 5 where there's a respect that you have for the older. You know the younger men shouldn't be rebuking older men.

They should be dealing with them as fathers. We render honor to whom honor is due, but often our sense of honor can become twisted. So in this text I want to identify nine ways that elders are held accountable. And I'll just read them for you and then we'll walk through the text and then identify each one of these. First of all, there's personal responsibility of church members.

Second, there's a stricter judgment upon elders. Thirdly, multiple witnesses are required for the kind of rebuke that's spoken of here. Number four, partiality needs to be avoided. Number five, accountability for what happened needs to be assumed. Number six, there ought to be a rebuke.

Number seven, it ought to be a public rebuke. Number eight, the church ought to have courage to cause fear. And then number nine, there ought to be a trembling at the seriousness of the matter. So these are the basic points that I'd like to cover. Now each year we see new stories of Christian leaders who get entangled and scandalous sin and our experience in the past has told us that we're going to experience it again in the future.

All of the scandal hasn't been revealed yet and there will be more. And we often ask, you know, who's holding these people accountable? And we ask, If I can't trust this seemingly godly man, then who can I trust? And what am I supposed to do about it as an individual Christian or a member of a church? It's appropriate to ask, how are we supposed to hold leaders accountable?

And this passage makes it very clear that if they are local church leaders then the Bible has extremely clear instructions for us and provides a clearly defined method for dealing with sin in elders. This passage of Scripture tells us about that. In this passage God provides a system to work through these kinds of problems and their direct commands that we find in this text. Let me read the text. Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses.

Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all that the rest also may fear. I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice doing nothing with partiality. Well the first thing that we see in this formula for how elders are to be held accountable is that there is personal responsibility and that's really the first matter here. Paul makes it clear that Timothy and the other church members have a very specific role. Every church member has a divinely appointed responsibility and a right to bring a charge against a church elder when it is necessary.

This opportunity is given to any church member. In other words, no one stands above evaluation. And so what we find woven in the midst of the relational and the sociological fabric of a local church is the assumption that at no time are elders above the evaluation of the people that they serve. That every person in the pew has a responsibility as a brother or a sister. I think this is probably written for us in our time and for all times because it happens that church members may not be aware that the Bible has given them a role in dealing with sin in an elder's life.

And as a result, in our modern church environment, this is one of the most ignored aspects of church life. In the church, there are various levels of relational obligation. This is especially true because we are a family. This is one level of the relational fabric of the church. We are brothers and we are sisters.

And as brothers and sisters, all of us, whether they are officers as elders or officers as deacons or anyone in the church, all of us sit under the authority of the particular commands of Scripture regarding the way that our relationships to work. In fact, there are over 50 one-anothers in the New Testament alone and those one-anothers define the reciprocal relationships that are in the church. They all apply to elders and deacons. There's not this priestly class in the Church of Jesus Christ that is untouchable by the other members of the church. So there are these obligations.

As family members we exist in the church accessible enough in order to speak the truth and love. There are many passages of Scripture that speak of these kinds of very tender and helpful relationships. Ephesians 4.15, Ephesians 4.25 and 6, Luke 17, 3 and 4, Galatians 4.16, Matthew 5, 23 and 24, Colossians 3.13. Well, there are many, many other places that we could go to explain just the beauty and the texture of this relational fabric that God has provided in the church. So Elders are not above the reciprocal responsibilities of brotherhood, where there is openness with one another, caring for one another, speaking to one another, and forgiving one another.

That fact of personal responsibility is very clearly stated in this text. And then there's also the matter of a stricter judgment and it's immediately evident from 1st Timothy 5 20 that the Lord has designed his church to have a specific set of rules for dealing with church elders when they sin. These are rules for elders not for everyone else in the congregation. Do you see the distinction? As we've been working through this conference, we've been talking about the various distinctions that exist.

There are personal offenses that are dealt with. There are scandalous sins that are dealt with. There are divisive people that are dealt with. And now we have a separate category where there are instructions that are not for the whole church. These verses are not for the whole church except for the way that the church is involved with it.

And so these procedural commands are focused on elders not the wider church. It's clear from this passage that eldership brings with it greater risks for a greater number of people and therefore they are subjected to what James calls in chapter 3 verse 1 a stricter judgment. Let not many of you become teachers. And so there is a higher level of scrutiny that elders receive. There's a magnifying glass of a little bit higher power.

And of course, it's the same light of the word of God. But there is a special focus that elders are subjected to. And so in this sense, church elders are treated differently. I don't know if you would call it more severely. Perhaps I think you could call it more severely than the general congregation.

And there's an accountability that an elder has and as a result a greater vulnerability to a public rebuke. An elder has a greater vulnerability to a public rebuke than any other person in the congregation. It really matters what elders do with their lives. I'm very well aware of this. It matters what I look at.

It matters what I think about. It matters where I go, because there's an effect. I hope the people in our church care about what I look at and what I listen to and things like that. You know I care a lot about what they look at and what they listen to and sort of who they are hanging out with in this world through the various particular media opportunities that are there. But it's particularly critical for an elder to understand that it matters who he is and where he's going.

Now in this matter of rebuke there must be multiple witnesses and so holding church elders accountable has requirements and it's explained here. Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. And so notice that he's speaking of an accusation. Now I want to make a distinction here. This is not the same thing as having a personal conversation with an elder about any matter that a brother or sister might have.

Like for example, an individual in the church can go to an elder and confront him about something without even engaging in this larger process that it's identified here. A person in the congregation can inquire of an elder of a particular sin that he might see. And so this is just what we do as brothers. I don't think in this text he's speaking about the normal conversations that happen in a church. A pastor will likely not preach everything with perfection.

He might use a wrong word. Oh, I do it all the time. And I'm grateful for people who come up and say, Scott, you know you said it like this is that what you really meant that's not what he's talking about here these kinds of conversations should be happening a brother should be able to come up and say I think you missed it on that text I think you misinterpreted that passage and taught us wrongly It's acceptable for that to happen just in normal church life. This though is not that. There is a natural vulnerability.

You know Ephesians 5 21 says submit to one another in the fear of Christ. This is just the way that the church submits to one another. There's this general way that we moderate ourselves toward one another in love. And so in many ways we are all submitting one to another. It's not just that the church submits to the elders.

There are ways that elders actually submit to the people in the congregation as they are sensitive to them, they have knowledge of them, and they moderate themselves. There are kinds of accusations that people might bring to elders in a legitimate way, but that's not this. This is a particular kind of thing. He's speaking about a settled accusation and notice that the Lord is commanding that there's a careful process that includes particular elements. And first, there must be a personal witness.

And then, in order to bring an accusation, that person is obligated to bring a minimum of one or other witnesses. And so the language implies a vigilant examination and a verification process where there's collaboration on the matter. And this does a number of things. It is a protection. It protects from trivial or false accusations.

Often there are trivialities and falsehoods that people have in their minds. They get obsessed with them. And this protects an elder from those kinds of things. It also protects from just simple rumors, from Accusations that have risen out of gossip or internet slander or things like that. In other words, there has to be a quality about this accusation that rises above gossip and slander.

But I think everybody recognizes that being an elder carries with it a certain territory and part of the territory is that elders are targets of criticism. They are imperfect in their life, in their doctrine, and the best of men can be picked apart. You know I happen to be one of those pastors who reads a lot of commentaries and one of the most remarkable things about reading commentaries is just you know how often one man differs from another. And when we find ourselves in glory, we will all be corrected, probably more severely than we had thought, in the things that we got wrong. So It's normal that elders are targets.

Were there many words, there's much sin. That's a real problem, you know, but that's part of the territory. And furthermore, elders are often subjected to unrighteous criticism because the standard to which they are held is often higher than an elder is even able to meet. Thankfully the lion's share of church members are not like that but there are some who would try to hold an elder to a higher standard than he's even capable of. So anyway it's common for church members to fall into a merciless criticism because elders are sinners.

They have weaknesses and inadequacies. But this process in 1st Timothy 5 protects elders from unnecessary accusations by immature or by unnecessarily offended or envious parties. So there's a screening that takes place in the confrontation of an elder. Now the requirement that Paul outlines here, It seems to me really to be for flagrant, public, or more scandalous sins. If the sins are private and lesser in nature, the rebuke should be less severe and spoken privately between brothers in the normal course of church life as brothers relate to one another speaking the truth in love in that sense.

But if a public rebuke for serious sin is to be delivered it has to be delivered upon the testimony of witnesses and these witnesses are evaluated and if found to be truthful then the rebuke is required now there's a foundation for this principle in the Mosaic law In Deuteronomy 19 15 Moses communicates this matter of the law of witnesses and this is where the Apostle Paul derives this principle in 1st Timothy 5. We read in Deuteronomy 19 15, one witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter is established. So Paul establishes a careful and an orderly environment where hard evidence is gathered, not rumors, and the testimony is examined. Okay, the next point. Partiality has to be avoided in these kinds of situations and Paul makes it clear that there must not be any partiality.

He says, I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice doing nothing with partiality." Well partiality has many faces. Sometimes it's based simply on age. You know Timothy as a younger man might have been reluctant to confront an older elder than he, perhaps even more experienced. We don't know who Timothy's fellow elders were, but Timothy as a young man may have just been more reticent to deal with the situation. And sometimes it expresses itself when there's a very gifted elder and because of his charisma, his unique persuasiveness, his position, people would hold him to a lower standard when they should be holding him to a higher standard.

That often happens. It also can be manifested in a desire to continue seeing the benefit of that elders life and we may think that he's done so much good and and all of it will be lost. These are all expressions of partiality. Sometimes partiality is promoted in the thinking that says so many people will be hurt so I can't say anything or it'll be so hard on his family. It's just better to keep it quiet.

Now there may be other people that would enter into the sin of partiality for fear. Fear of reprisal, of rejection, or for a forever altered relationship with that elder. And sometimes partiality happens because you just think that the worst thing that could possibly happen in your relationship is to have it broken with that elder. So the Apostle warns against partiality and there are various ways that partiality works in our hearts. Now partiality occurs often when church members have a low view of sin, a high view of themselves, and an unhealthy affection for outward appearance.

Those are different drivers of partiality and so they feel that it would be too damaging to expose the sin when actually the worst thing that can happen is that the sin just continues on in the man, unconfronted. It's bad for the man, it's bad for the church. But we often are led into the sin of partiality in times like this. And so partiality is one of the great dangers to fulfilling these direct commands that the Apostle brings here in this passage. Fifthly, there must be accountability for what happened and Paul is advocating accountability for the sin in the phrase those who are sinning rebuke it's not swept under the rug but there's an actual accounting publicly for it.

And the phrase that the Apostle Paul uses presents an exegetical challenge. One of the commentators, William Mounts, observes that what appears initially to be a straightforward verse actually has many exegetical problems. And this matter of those who are sinning, that's really the question on the table. And there's some who maintain that the elder should only be rebuked if he's persisting in the sin because the present tense participle is used to advance the view and this Greek participle does in fact indicate continuing action. In other words the argument is this the elder must be rebuked only when he continues in a particular sin or sins, but if he stopped the sin there's no need for rebuke.

While this interpretation is possible, it seems at odds with the purpose of the whole command here in this section. This interpretation renders a rebuke to be a very rare occurrence when an elder sins. It makes the command almost pointless for the lack of its usefulness and almost unemployable as a command except in the most rare cases. Like for example, in the case of sins of a financial or a moral nature, the very act of getting caught almost always brings these sins to immediate stop. You know, if a man is caught embezzling funds from his church, it stops.

So because it stopped, then Does that push it under the carpet? You know, if a man is called an adultery, he usually stops, or at least for a while, because it's something that drives him to tears and things like that. So in order to avoid a rebuke, all an elder has to do is just stop for a little while. In his commentary on 1st Timothy 5 20, George Knight explains it like this, although the note of persistence may be intended by Paul, the more probable understanding is that the accusation is found to be true and the present tense is used to designate present guilt and that it's the committing of the sin that is at the issue here. So in order for there to be a public rebuke, there must be an act of biblically defined sin regarding morality or doctrine.

And so the elder must be truly guilty of the sin. So the issue isn't is he continuing in the sin or whether he's sorrowful over the sin but rather was he actually guilty of the sin. In so doing he's no longer above reproach as the Apostle Paul speaks to Timothy in 1 Timothy 3.2. So the question is does this passage give an indication that repentance suspends the rebuke? In fact, there is no mention of repentance in this text.

Paul's instructions are very clear. And the purpose of the rebuke is not to produce repentance in the elder as important as that is but the purpose is really quite different it's to cause fear that is the purpose of the rebuke and so the issue here is not excommunication whether this happens or not the issue is the public exposure and reproof of an elder who holds an office No one gets a pass in Christ's churches when it comes to sins that really need to be dealt with and especially not elders. If repentance suspends the need for rebuke then the command would be rarely put into practice. It would mean that the command to rebuke would only be applicable if the elder was belligerent and wanton and willfully continuing in his public sin. But in most of these kinds of cases the sins actually stop but the point is this when an elder sin is discovered and verified by witnesses then it is to be publicly rebuked in order to produce in the hearts of his fellow elders in the congregation a holy fear let's talk about the rebuke a little bit more here if the accusations brought by multiple witnesses and it establishes that the sin is real and it's discovered not to be trivial.

Then the rebuke is designed to expose and bring the sin to light. And so the word that Paul uses here of exposing and convicting and disapproving or publishing, that's what the word means. It's to bring a public disapproval of that sin. Depending on the severity of the sin, there should be wisdom measured according to the severity of the sin. And even the disposition of the offender.

There could be a simple public rebuke. There could be a temporary removal. There could be even excommunication later on depending on factors involved but the punishment should be delivered according to the nature of the crime itself. Now let's talk about the public rebuke because the seventh point here is that this is a public rebuke. The rebuke is to be delivered before the whole congregation.

Now you have to grapple with this. The language that the Apostle Paul uses is in the presence of all. There's a tendency in many situations to try to protect people in the congregation from hearing about other people's sins. And sometimes in an attempt to express sympathy or to act out of a sense of kindness. There's this desire to have a private meeting or of only a subset of the church and while I would grant that there may be situations that would require that, It's difficult to see that in the text because here the text says the rebuke takes place in the presence of all and I understand this to mean the entire congregation not just be for the elders only which some maintain not necessarily just before the members as some maintain but the whole congregation it's a debatable matter Matthew Henry explains it like this those that sin before all rebuke before all that the plaster may be as wide as the wound, and that those who are in danger of sinning by the example of their fall may take warning by the rebuke given them for it that others also may fear.

Now if an elder has a national or an international presence, it's necessary for the rebuke to go beyond the local congregation and to cover the reach of that person's ministry. And so Paul uses the term all and it should at minimum I believe be defined by the scope of the influence. Or you may say no only that local church but at least you have to grapple with this language in the presence of all who's all you have to define that there must be a courage in the church to cause fear. Now this is a difficult matter in a world that we live in today which is so redefined love and we think that love means that you never have to confront anyone and that's the environment that we live in. In today's church we prefer a positive, upbeat church free from guilt, free from repentance and fear.

But here the Apostle Paul is very clearly saying that the rebuke is so that the rest will fear. So the rebuke, at least in this passage, is not primarily for the elder himself. Of course, it would have a profound effect on him, absolutely. But the purpose of it is for the sanctification of the church to do something in the hearts of the people in the church to actually make them fear sinning. They see the sin in their brother as a mirror and they see the same sin in their own lives.

We all sin in the same ways. So it's a way of causing fright in the congregation for their own sins. By the way, Paul is using very strong language to communicate this. The word he uses for this fear, it indicates alarm, fright. Paul desires there to be a fright of sin in the congregation.

Perhaps you know a congregation has begun to take sin too lightly and so in God's Providence an elder is rebuked and it causes them to examine themselves and to actually have a fright for their sins. And so there's good that comes from an elders rebuke in that it causes everyone to search their own hearts for ongoing sin. And so in this sense the elders rebuke is also the church's rebuke. God uses a double-edged sword here. He deals with the elder with the same blow he deals with the congregation because God is desiring to purify a church.

And so there's much good that comes from it. It heightens the fear of sin, it restrains wickedness as is right in a congregation. Number nine, the trembling at the seriousness of the matter. The trembling should be happening in the entire church. Every church member should ask itself this question, Does our church have the courage to cause fear at the proper time?

Or are we so deciding to hide from our own sin that we would refuse to deal with the sin in our elder? Okay, the night's trembling at the seriousness of the matter. The requirement for rebuke is to be engaged with extreme seriousness and you see this grave handling of the matter. It's identified by an incredibly sober warning. He says this, I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing with partiality.

Now, it should startle us that nothing less than God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His holy angels are watching how churches deal with sin in their midst. There is a great cloud of witnesses, but there's a greater cloud of witnesses in heaven. You know, many years ago there was a church bell that was stolen from a small country church around here. The story reached national reach and the deacons of the church ended up on National Public Radio. This is a little church about a half mile from my house and I'll never forget one of the deacons was being interviewed by one of these liberal commentators on National Public Radio and she said were there any witnesses and I'll never forget what he said.

He said, well there were three witnesses. There was the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And that's what he's speaking about here. I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels. These matters are spectacles to the heavenly hosts.

This is why I suspect John Calvin underscored the seriousness of this issue by declaring that to ignore this is to promote the entire dissolution of the church. John Dagg, the Baptist theologian, expressed this same sentiment when he said, When discipline leaves a church, Christ goes with it. Well all of these things happen under the watchful eye of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and all the holy angels. And as that deacon of that country church said, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. There's this remarkable sobriety that this whole process needs to be covered in.

This kind of process unleashes blessing. Blessings always flow when Scripture is obeyed. It causes the power of the gospel of repentance to be seen. It shows that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That as someone said, the ground is level at the foot of the cross and so there's this warning and restoration you know David called the rebukes of God excellent oil And he was the direct beneficiary of a man who came and confronted him in his sin.

And he said in Psalm 141 5, let the righteous strike me. It shall be a kindness and let him rebuke me. It shall be as excellent oil. Let my head not refuse it." What a blessing it is when a church is holy and humble and righteous and enters into a loving rebuke for the sake of the love of God in a local church and that the elder would say let the righteous strike me. It is a kindness.

This is a picture of a man under authority as well. He doesn't exist as the supreme authority in a church but he's a fellow sinner among sinners. You know it should be a great comfort to us that God has organized the church in this way to know that the church is not left to just figure it out on his own when there's sin in that church and God provides us with this passage to give us an orderly way, a healing process to deal with sin not just in the elder but in the congregation so that when the finger is pointed at the elder there are always three pointing back at the church members. It's the way that the church comes humbly under the ministry of the Word of God to properly deal with sin to recognize the greatness of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, that He does atone for sin. So here are a few questions.

Is your church afraid to expose sin? Is there partiality? Are you personally reluctant to play your role for an elder who's trapped in sin? You know, refusing to engage in these things that are here blemishes the public reputation of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is the pillar and ground of the truth.

And when elders continue on without dealing with their sin, it marrs the reputation of the pillar and ground of the truth. And it tells the world that a man really can exalt himself over everyone else, which is a complete misrepresentation of the Church of Jesus Christ. That the Church of Jesus has a head and He is the Lord Jesus himself and that all are under his authority including the elders of that church. So I leave you with these nine things. The personal responsibility, the stricter judgment, the multiple witnesses, the avoidance of partiality, the accountability for what happened, the rebuke, the public rebuke, the courage to cause fear, and the trembling at the seriousness of the matter.

And I just want to close by reading this short text one more time to drive it home. Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all that the rest also may fear. I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing with partiality. Amen.

Would you pray with me? Oh Lord that you would you would come and pour your spirit out upon our churches that we might be cleansed that we might be made a holy church. You've given so many ways to make us holy. You've given us your word. You've sent your spirit and you've provided us with one another so that we might deal truthfully about things and that we wouldn't be high-minded against a sinning elder but that we would have fear in ourselves for our sins.

Lord thank you for for bringing us into a family for making us brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers and grandfathers and grandmothers. You're so kind to bring us into such a beneficial fellowship. Thank you, Lord. Amen. Where you can keep up to date on what is new, as well as find articles, videos, audio sermons, and much more at no charge.

The N.C.F.I.C. Exists to proclaim the sufficiency of Scripture for of church and family life.