The church's health and effectiveness depend on its faithfulness to the word. Faithfulness to the word depends on biblical church order and qualified leadership.

The church's health, well-being, and ability to guard the gospel that has been entrusted to it depend on being biblically ordered and led by qualified elders. This is not an issue only for church leaders. Every church member must be invested in and concerned with the proper ordering of the church and choosing biblically qualified elders.

This passage teaches two requirements for a church to guard the truth of the gospel faithfully.

Church leadership can be a complicated subject. Tradition and customs often have more weight on how we structure church leadership than the biblical witness. And there is always the human concern of who has more power than who.

The word elder is almost exclusively used in the New Testament in the plural form. The only references to a singular elder are greetings and instructions on how the church should respond to accusations against an elder. The point is simple: the church is to have a plurality of elders.

The office of elder is sometimes referred to as overseer or pastor. Every reference to elders recognizes the elders as the ones who have authority over and responsibility for the church.

I am confident that the more faithful we obey God’s word, the more the church will be effective and blessed. Thus, in this sermon, I hope to be as biblically faithful as possible, knowing that we do not perfectly reflect this teaching in our church and may find this uncomfortable. I do so that we might constantly examine our faithfulness to God’s word and continually move toward more faithful obedience.