Welcome back to Tabernacle Tidbits. We are today in 2 Timothy, Chapter 2, and verse number 2, Paul writing to Timothy.
These are, if you will, kind of Paul's last will and testament, and he's encouraging Timothy on what he needs to be doing. And he started off, as we read yesterday, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And then he gives him this admonition in verse 2, what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
This is honestly one of the verses that has most influence on how I understand my ministry as a pastor. This is the call that God placed on Paul's life, and then subsequently what Paul gave to the successive generations.
This is very similar to what Paul would tell Titus in Titus chapter 1 where he tells him that he needed to set up elders, he needed to appoint elders in every church in that island of Crete, he says, just as I commanded you.
And here's how God has designed his church to work, in his infinite wisdom. A church can still exist without any pastors, any elders, or any deacons.
We know this is true from the fact that God through Paul sent Titus to Crete to set up elders in every church because they had not previously existed there.
Same in, I believe it's Acts 14, when Paul and whichever one of his, if you will, his accomplices was with him at that time. They went back through the churches that they had planted and they set up leaders, elders within those churches.
And we are all the way in Acts chapter 6 before we begin to see deacons being set up in churches. So churches can exist even if they don't have leadership.
However, healthy churches will always have leaders and they will always have a plurality of leaders. That is, it won't just be one individual, but there will be several people that are leading together. This is the way that God has set it up.
The only circumstance in which you don't have that is, number one, if there's not qualified individuals, but the truth of the matter is that if you have one qualified individual in a church, there is more than likely some other ones.
Now, they might not all be, if you will, at the same maturity level, either spiritually or academically. Maybe one might be more gifted in some areas than another. But God's plan is for a plurality in leadership.
And here what Paul tells Timothy is what you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses. So Paul says, I taught tons of people all across Israel and Palestine and Asia Minor and Greece.
You have heard me preach in all of these locations and everything that I taught other people. He says, I want you to commit those things to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
He says, Timothy, I have given you the teaching that Jesus and the apostles gave to me. And he says, I don't want it to end, first with me. He says, I don't want it to end with you.
I want you to pass it on. And who does Paul tell Timothy to pass it on to? He says, what you've heard from me, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
God's plan in his wisdom is that the leaders of a church, your pastors and elders, those ones that would, if you will, they're not the greatest authorities in a local church.
That would be the congregation at large as they decide on some of those really, really important things that God has given to them, namely who makes up the church, if you will.
When you look at Jesus's example in Matthew 18 of the keys of the kingdom, it's who is in the kingdom and what constitutes the kingdom.
So I think I've heard it phrased before, who are true confessors of the gospel and what is a true confession of the gospel. So doctrine and individuals is what a church is called to decide together, corporately.
He doesn't tell Timothy, okay, here are the people that you are allowed to bring into a church or kick out of a church. Instead, he tells them this, your job is to train the saints for the work of the ministry.
You can look at Ephesians chapter 4 mentions that. That is the job of church leaders, is to equip the saints so that they can deal with the most important questions. But who's going to teach them those things?
Who's going to teach them the right things? It's going to be those faithful leaders, your pastors, your elders, your overseers, your bishops. If you are at a particularly old-timey church, those are the people who are going to teach others.
And so Paul says, I don't want the faith to die with me. I want you to pass it on to faithful elders who will be able to teach others also. Are you investing in others so that God's work can continue to go forward?
You don't have to be a pastor to pass on what you've been given. But do you listen to your pastors who are continuing to teach you what Paul taught Timothy and what the apostles in Jesus taught Paul so long ago?
Are you continuing to pass that on to others? And are you grateful for those that have taught you everything that you have learned about the Lord in your life? Let's be faithful both to receive and to pass on what we've been given.
We went a little longer today, so thank you for your time. Looking forward to verse number three tomorrow.
