“Elders in Every Church” Acts 14:21-23

God is good, amen? We’ve already seen this morning, today is a special day. It’s not every week that we do what we’ve done here this morning. We’ve been able to obey the Lord in his command to the church, and that is to appoint and ordain elders. And what I’d like to do this morning is, because it’s a special day and we’ve just observed these things, is to consider why it is that we’ve done what we’ve done here this morning.

The sermon title for this morning is Elders in Every Church, and that’s taken from our passage this morning in Acts 14. So if you’d like to turn there, we will be in Acts 14 here momentarily, but first we need to consider why it is that we do anything that we do in the church. And quite simply, we do what the head of the church tells us to. The head of the church is Jesus Christ our Lord, as we just sang. The church’s one foundation, the beginning of it, the source from which the church derives all things, is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is Lord of the church and he is head of the church.

We see this in passages like Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5 verses 23 and 24 says this, For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is head of the church, he himself being the savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. So in Paul’s instructions on marriage, we even see some revelation about the church. Jesus is the head of the church, and the church is subject to Christ. So to be subject to Christ means that we do what he wills. We do what he wishes. That is what the church is supposed to do. That is what the Lord Jesus Christ desires us to do.

So when we consider things like how the church is supposed to look, how the church is supposed to be structured, the things that we do like we’ve done this morning, like ordaining elders, this is not simply a matter of our opinion. We don’t do what it is that we feel like we should do. It’s not about what we like. It’s not about what we think will work best. It’s not about what we want. It’s not our church. It’s his church. And we need to do what he says. So when we want to hear what Christ says about the church, we need to consider all that his word has to say about matters like this. And the specific matter we are considering this morning is what we call the plurality of elders, or that we have multiple elders.

We’ll really be asking the question, why do we have more than one elder? Why do we have more than just one elder in the church? Why have we done what we just did this morning? We have ordained elders, and this evening, as a congregation, we will vote on elders. And as a church, a Fellowship Baptist church, Upon the addition of John and Ben, pending our vote this evening, our church will have seven elders, five non-staff or unpaid elders. We have Chuck Smith and Dave Marsteller and Harold Comings. And then with the addition of John Shelburne and Ben Mulaparthi, that will be the non-staff elders. And we have two staff or paid elders, and that’s Pastor Piatt and myself. And together, those seven elders make up our Council of Elders, or our Board of Elders, or however you’d like to call it. Our Constitution calls it the Council of Elders. So why do we have multiple elders? Why do we have a Council of Elders?

We also have a Board of Deacons. And we considered these offices a couple years ago now, back in, I think it was January of 23, that we did a series on the church leadership and how the church is supposed to be structured. We considered both elders and deacons. But if you look around, there’s a lot of new people here. And we need a little bit of a refresher or a reminder on what the church is to be doing as subject to Christ, what Christ tells us to do in the church. And as we saw in that series, deacons are to serve the church. That’s what the word deacon means. It’s a servant, a servant of the church. Deacons serve in a manner that they take care of the material needs of the church. They manage the facilities. They take care of the buildings. They manage the money. They take care of widows, and so on and so forth, and those service ministries of the church. And our deacons do a wonderful job of fulfilling their biblical role of serving.

And elders are different than deacons. There are two offices in the church. Deacons are one and elders are another. And elders are a different office of the church. Elders are leaders of the church. They lead the church. And those of you who were here for the series we did on church government, you’ll remember some of these things that I’ll briefly review here in our introduction to our text this morning. But there are really three terms we see in the Bible for what we consider as the office of elder. And a lot of you have heard this before, but you have three biblical words. We have presbuteros, which is the Greek word for elder. And that’s the term that we’ll use this morning is elder. But presbuteros is one of those terms. Then you have the term episkopos, which is bishop or overseer. And then you also have poimen, which is shepherd or pastor. And all three of these terms are used interchangeably. They’re used for the same people. And you see that throughout the New Testament. So an elder is a bishop, is a pastor. All three are the same exact office. So what do these terms mean?

As I said, Presbuteros is an elder. And in the New Testament, we see that elders are one who rule, who lead, who represent, who judge, or who govern. And those are various descriptions of what an elder does, what an elder functions as. This is a pastoral office. And this is a term that’s brought into the New Testament from Old Testament usage. It was a Jewish office. Moses set up elders to help him oversee the tribe or the nation of Israel, the tribes of Israel. He set up elders to help him in those leadership and oversight capacities. Then you have the term Episcopos or overseer, or sometimes it’s used as bishop. We don’t use the term bishop as much, especially in our circles, but to be an overseer is one who obviously oversees or superintends or guards or provides directive care.

The term overseer is used in the New Testament as part of the pastoral office. And that term really came from Greek culture and those that would serve in overseeing roles in their different Greek governments and so forth. So that term, what they were to be doing as overseeing, that was brought in under the pastoral office as well.

And then the third term, poimen, which is pastor or shepherd. That’s obviously one who shepherds. And what does a shepherd do? He feeds, he guides, he cares for, he protects. God has used this term of himself, and he appoints men to carry out this function in the church, to carry out this role of being a shepherd in the church. And again, all three of these terms are used interchangeably of the same office in the church, that of elder or pastor. You can see this in several places like Acts 20 and Titus 1, but we’re going to look this morning at 1 Peter 5 as we introduce our text this morning.

So if you want to turn to 1 Peter 5, you can keep your finger there in Acts 14, but in 1 Peter chapter 5, right in the very beginning of the chapter. We see Peter’s instruction. 1 Peter is written to the believers who are dispersed throughout the world there. And as he comes to chapter 5, he gives some instructions for those who are leading the dispersed church, the church who has been scattered. And he speaks to them as the elders.

He says in 1 Peter 5, chapter 5, verse 1, therefore, I exhort the elders among you. So these are the dispersed church, and yet they still have elders. among you, as your fellow elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker of the glory that is to be revealed. Shepherd the flock among you, overseeing, not under compulsion, but willingly, according to God, and not for dishonest gain, but with eagerness, nor as yet lording it over those allotted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. This is Peter, an elder himself, speaking to fellow elders and reminding them of who and what they are.

But the reason I bring you to this passage is because speaking of the same people, Peter uses all three terms. He says, I exhort the elders as a fellow elder.” So there’s the first term of elder. But what does he tell them to do? Number one, shepherd the flock. That’s that term poimen, to be a shepherd. As an elder, be a shepherd. And then secondly, overseeing, to be an overseer. Overseeing not under compulsion, but willingly, according to God. So elder, pastor, and overseer are all three here in this text, all speaking of the same office. They’re all associated with a called and set apart office of leadership in the church. That’s why we don’t distinguish between an elder, a pastor, and a bishop like some circles of churches do. They’re all speaking of the same person, the same office. So that’s what elders are in the church, in the description of the office of the church that Christ has given us. That’s what an elder is.

But what are elders to do? What does the Bible say that elders should be doing? Well, the names of the office give us some insight into that. The term elder, shepherd, overseer, those terms give us some insight into what a shepherd or an elder should be doing. There are several places in Scripture that tell us specifically what elders in their God-appointed office and role should be doing, how they should function. And I’ll give a brief survey of some of these texts. We won’t spend a lot of time. But if you’d like to either write them down or follow along, these are some different places where elders are described very clearly in Scripture. One of them is Acts 20. Acts 20, Paul’s speaking to the elders of the church in Ephesus. And Paul reminds these elders in Ephesus that the Holy Spirit had placed them in the church for this very reason, as overseers, as shepherds.

In Acts 20, verse 28, he says, be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. So again, here’s another place where he’s speaking to elders, he’s telling them to shepherd and to oversee. Later on, in verse 31, he tells the elders to guard the church from false teachers. These false teachers are a constant threat to false doctrine. So one of the jobs of an elder or a pastor is to be on guard against false doctrine. Later on, verse 35, Paul reminds them to work hard, to help the needy, and to be generous. And that’s what Paul has as his parting instructions in Acts 20 for the elders in Ephesus there.

So we see there some imperatives for elders today. This is what elders are to be. They are to be taking care of the flock. They are to be overseeing. They are to be guarding against false doctrine. They’re to be working hard, helping the needy, and being generous. Another place we see some insights into what elders are to be doing is James chapter 5. In James 5 verse 14, James instructs his readers, is anyone sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. So elders are to be praying for their people, especially those who are sick, praying for the healing of the sick.

We’ve already seen in 1 Peter 5 the different terms that are used, but as we came through that passage, we see different charges that Peter gives to the elders there. They need to shepherd. They need to oversee. They need to not be too authoritative in the sense that they’re lording it over. They don’t need to be reveling in the authority that God’s given them. They need to lead gently. God has given elders authority, but they don’t need to be lording it over people. Peter promises the elders that when the Lord Jesus returns, pending that they’ve led well as elders, they will receive the unfading crown of glory. So, Peter encourages them in verse 5 to be clothed with humility.

So to really sum up all of these passages and several others, like 1 Timothy and Titus where we see the qualifications of elders, but really all together what the Bible says elders or shepherds are to be are those who oversee and protect and lead and feed and teach the people. The elders are those who provide spiritual care for the flock. They are shepherds of the church. So that’s what an elder is and what an elder does. And really this has all been introduction to our focus this morning, which will be in Acts 14. And we will focus on why it is that we have a plurality of elders, or more than one elder.

So turn again back to Acts 14, and our passage will be verses 21 through 23. And I read it earlier, but I’ll read it again here for us this morning. And it says, Acts 14, 21, after they had proclaimed the gospel to that city, they had made many disciples and they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying, through many afflictions, we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders from them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. We see here in this text a summary of Paul’s ministry here with these people.

A summary of Paul and Barnabas’ ministry in the region of Lystra and Derbe. In a few verses prior to this, in Lystra, Paul had just been stoned to death. He was stoned to death for preaching the gospel. But verse 19 says, they dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. They thought he was dead. They thought they had killed him. But verse 20 says, But the disciples stood around him, he rose up the next day, or he rose up the city, sorry, he rose up and entered the city. And the next day he went with Barnabas to Derbe. So they tried to kill him and they failed. He wasn’t dead. He got up and went right back into the city. But probably on counsel from some of his friends with him, the next day they left. It’s probably not a good idea to hang around here after they just tried to kill you. So he leaves Lystra and he goes to Derbe.

Now Derbe was about 60 miles away from Lystra. But one thing I want you to notice in this text is that Paul is not alone. Paul’s not alone. Paul had, at very least, Barnabas with him. Barnabas is mentioned. And often when we think of Paul and his missionary journeys, we think solely of Paul. But Paul is almost never alone. He always has companions with him. And I want to show you three observations from this text this morning about the Lord’s design for ministry. About what the Lord wants the ministry of someone like Paul, someone who preaches the gospel, an elder to be.

And the first thing we observe here in this text is that ministry is a team effort. Ministry is a team effort. Paul was not a one-man show. Paul, we rightfully recognize often as one who accomplished a lot in service of the Lord. But Paul did not work alone. Yes, Paul had authority as an apostle. He was specifically set apart for his ministry to the Gentiles by Jesus Christ himself. And Paul devoted his life to that work, but he didn’t do it alone. It says in verse 21, after they had proclaimed the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra.

So they went to Derbe, Paul and Barnabas. and whoever else may have been with them, and they all preached the gospel. Yes, Paul was their leader, but they went, they preached, they made disciples. In the New Testament, we see many men who were co-laborers with Paul. Men like Barnabas, and Silas, and Mark, and Luke, and Timothy, and Titus, and Gaius, and Demetrius, and so on and so forth. Paul had many, many co-laborers. He was not a lone ranger, and he didn’t view himself as above anyone else in ministry. Paul subjected himself to the authority of other elders. We see this in Galatians.

In Galatians chapter 2, if you want to turn there this morning, Galatians chapter 2, Paul describes his submission to other elders. Galatians 2, Paul’s speaking of, as he’s preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, there were those who were coming and telling them they needed to become Jews. And he says in Galatians chapter 2, after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along. So there’s the men traveling with Paul. And I went up because of a revelation, and I laid out to them the gospel which I preached among the Gentiles. But I did so in private to those who were of reputation.” He’s speaking of the other apostles. “…lest somehow I might be running or had run in vain.” Paul’s submitting himself to the other leaders in the church. He wants to make sure that they’re on the same page. He’s not doubting his ministry, he’s having the other apostles come alongside him and to give him affirmation and counsel in his ministry.

And he continues, but not even Titus, who was with me, though he was Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. But this was because of the false brothers secretly brought in who had sneaked in to spy our freedom, which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to enslave us. But we did not yield to subjection to them even for a minute. so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. But from those who were of high reputation, What they were makes no difference to me. God shows no partiality. Well, those who were of high reputation contributed nothing to me. But on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised, for he who worked in Peter unto his apostleship to the circumcised worked in me also unto the Gentiles, and recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, these were the ones of reputation he spoke of earlier, who were reputed to be pillars gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship so that we might go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was also eager to do.”

This is Paul’s describing his counsel, his encouragement, his seeking wisdom from his fellow laborers in the gospel, the apostles. There was a team of them. And he didn’t doubt that he was in the wrong there. He just wanted to make sure that he was not running in vain, he says. And he comes to the apostles, Peter, James, and John, and to get their right hand of fellowship. And Peter, James, and John sent them on to the Gentiles. So Paul sought out the authority of these other elders, of these other apostles. Even though he has authority himself, he sought authority of others. And then you see in Acts 15, the Jerusalem council.

Now some disagree whether this is the same account as you see in Galatians or not, but in Acts 15, Paul seeks the council of the apostles again. I won’t read the whole chapter, but these Judaizers were causing trouble for Paul as they usually did. And in Acts 15 verse two, Luke says this about Paul. It says, when Paul and Barnabas had not a little dissension and debate with them, the brothers determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. So he was encouraged, go get some counsel, go meet with the other apostles and elders and see what they have to say about this.

Now Paul, as we know, never doubted his authority as an apostle. He knew that he was set apart for this by Christ. And yet, he goes up to the other apostles and elders to talk with them on this issue. Later on in verse six, it says, both the apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. And so after hearing what Paul and Barnabas were doing and how they were preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, down in verse 22, It says, it seemed good to the apostles and the elders with the whole church to choose men from among them, Judas called Barsabbas and Silas, leading men among the brothers to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.

So the Jerusalem council meets and they agree that Paul is doing the right thing here, that he is preaching the gospel to the Gentiles and they send men along with him. But the point that I want you to see in looking at these different passages, that Paul was not acting by himself here. He was not a lone ranger in ministry. He shared the responsibilities of the ministry with those who were with him. He shared the authority of the ministry with other called and ordained men. And Paul saw that ministry is a team effort. Ministry is a team effort. That’s our first observation of our text here in Acts 14.

So turn back to Acts 14 with me this morning, and we’ll see the second observation to be made here. First, we saw ministry as a team effort. Secondly, ministry is a multiplying effort. Ministry is a multiplying effort. So as we see in verse 21, after they had proclaimed the gospel to that city, that’s Derbe, they had made many disciples and they returned to Lystra and Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith, saying through many afflictions, we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed and fasted, they commended them to the Lord in whom they believed.

See, Paul didn’t see this as his work alone as an apostle. This was a team effort, and this is a multiplying effort. Paul and Barnabas made more disciples. As they went to these cities, they multiplied the disciples, those who would give their life to Christ, who would trust in Christ for salvation, and they taught them. And not only did they multiply disciples, they multiplied the elders. They made more elders in these cities they went to. As they spent time teaching and preaching in these cities, it says they strengthened the souls of the disciples, they encouraged them to continue in the faith, and they warned them that this Christian life is not an easy one. It says, through many afflictions, we must enter the kingdom of God. And so as they discipled and brought these men along, They saw men emerge that had met the qualifications that we see in 1 Timothy and Titus. And it says in verse 23 here, they appointed elders for them in every church. This was the ministry of Paul and Barnabas. This is what they did. They made disciples and they appointed elders. There’s a couple of things to notice about this phrase here in verse 23.

First, we notice that Paul and Barnabas did this together. This again is a team effort. Paul didn’t do this himself. It doesn’t say that Paul appointed elders. It says they, Paul and Barnabas, they appointed elders in every church. Paul didn’t see this as apostles work only. They did this together.

Secondly, Paul and Barnabas didn’t see these churches in Lystra and Derbe as their churches. This isn’t Paul and Barnabas’ church. They didn’t see the need to hold on to this role of authority for themselves. They didn’t see themselves as the chief leaders of these churches. No, once these churches were established and they had built up some believers and discipled them, they passed the torch on. And they continued in their work of making more disciples in other cities and appointing elders in other cities.

And thirdly, we see that they set up multiple elders in every church. That’s what it says here, verse 23. And when they had appointed elders, that’s a plural, for them in every church, that’s singular. Every single word and every single letter in scripture is breathed out by God. It is God’s word. Every single way that a word is written, every tense of every word is inspired. The way this is written is intended to tell us something. This is the way that Paul, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, sought to order the Lord’s church. Multiple elders in every church. Jesus is designed for the church.

And in case you think this is the only place where I could cherry pick this out and support the idea of multiple elders in every church, there are many other passages that speak in the very same way. You can turn to these as I show them to you, or you can just write them down in your notes. But one we’ve already looked at is James 5.14. James 5.14, James instructs them again, is anyone sick among you? He must call for the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him. Now, James doesn’t say, call your elder. He says, call the elders of the church that you belong to, and they are to pray over him. There’s multiple elders here. There’s multiple elders. They are to come pray over him. There are multiple elders in the church. The elders would come as a team and minister to these sick people.

Another passage we see, this is Philippians 1. In Philippians 1, verse 1, as Paul introduces this letter to the church at Philippi, he says, Paul and Timothy, slaves of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who were in Philippi with the overseers and the deacons. Paul addresses the saints, the overseers, and the deacons. We see multiple elders here, just like we see multiple deacons in the church.

First Timothy, we see a lot of pastoral instruction, as Paul teaches his pastoral This young pastor, Timothy, how to order the church, how to set up churches. As Timothy was to follow behind Paul, as Paul was passing from the scene, Timothy, these are the instructions that Paul gives. First we see, Paul gives Timothy instructions on what to look for in an elder. And then pastor read earlier, 1 Timothy 4. Do not neglect the gift within you, this is 1 Timothy 4.14, which was given to you through the prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the council of elders. Now this gift is recognized in Timothy, that he’s been called to the pastoral office, to being an elder through the laying on of hands.

Now laying on of hands does not magically communicate anything to the one who’s being his hands laid on. It’s not some like magical seance that we do that automatically makes him all of a sudden now worthy of an elder. It’s a recognition. We did an examination. of the elders to see that they are fit for the ministry. And the laying on of hands is a symbol, a recognition that yes, God has gifted and called these men to the office of elder. And that’s exactly what happened with Timothy in 1 Timothy 4. Timothy himself was appointed by a team of elders, a council of elders.

And then the next chapter. as Paul gives Timothy instructions on, now that you have elders, how are you to treat the elders in the church? What are you to do with elders in the church? 1 Timothy 5, 17 says, the elders who lead well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor at preaching and teaching. So the elders, plural, they’re discussed in plurality here, The elders who lead well are worthy of double honor, or as he goes to explain in the next few verses, wages for a job well done. But Paul is speaking to Timothy with the language of the plurality of elders. There’s more than one elder here.

Again, in Titus, Paul instructs Titus, for this reason, Titus 1.5, for this reason I left you in Crete. Crete’s an island. He leaves Titus behind there Why? That you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you. Titus was to appoint elders in every city. Again, there’s that plural singular. Crete was not a big island. In fact, Crete was about 3,200 square miles. Polk County is about 2,000 square miles. So Crete’s a little bit bigger than Polk County. And at that time, there was roughly around 20 cities on the island. And Paul tells Titus to set up elders in each one of these cities.

In the book of Acts, there’s other places we could go to to look at this language of multiple elders. Luke records a plurality of elders in Acts 16. And then we read Acts 20 earlier in Ephesus. As Paul is leaving the Ephesian church, he gives instructions to the elders in that church. So again, we see many examples referring to multiple elders in the church. But the question is often asked, does that mean that every church must have more than one elder? Is that what this is saying, that every single church, in order to be a church, has to have more than one?

Well, I don’t think that’s what it’s saying. I don’t think it’s teaching that you’re not a church unless you have multiple elders. Paul didn’t always have multiple qualified elders when he planted a church, for example, when he started churches in these cities. Although I think having men like Barnabas and other men along with him is instructive. But there are obvious cases where a church cannot have more than one qualified elder or pastor. You cannot just make someone an elder because you need another elder. There needs to be qualified, called men. So there’s obvious cases where a church cannot have more than one. But is that supposed to be the norm? Is that supposed to be what we strive for? I don’t think we’re supposed to strive for having only one elder. I think the Bible clearly teaches that the pattern is for multiple elders.

This is the concept, as I’ve been speaking of, of the plurality of elders. And I think, according to what we’ve seen this morning, every church should have a goal of developing and ordaining a team of elders to lead the church. Now, you see all of this, the way that the Bible speaks about these things, and you might wonder, well, I wonder why. Why would Christ set it up this way? Why should it be? What are the benefits of having more than one elder?

Well, there’s a few that we could look at. And we’ll just briefly mention these for sake of time, but the division of labor. Multiple elders allows for the needs of the flock to be more easily met, especially the bigger the flock, the more elders you need to shepherd. This was why Moses established elders in Israel, so that he could divide the labor among them, because he couldn’t answer all of the cases that were coming before him. Another benefit is the specialized gifting of each man. Every elder is gifted differently. And those gifts that Christ gives to the church in elders, each man can meet different needs better than others. So a variety of gifts among the elders allows the council of elders or the board of elders to meet the needs, the multiple needs of the church. Another benefit is the multiple input from different men. Multiple elders are able to share different perspectives in decision making.

Another benefit is the encouragement of multiple elders. Pastoral ministry can be lonely. There are not many who think like pastors think, who face the issues that pastors face. So having multiple elders, multiple pastors within a single church helps a man from bearing so much of the load from being a man on an island. It brings encouragement from other men who share in the same concerns and see the same needs in the church. And then lastly, another benefit is that it brings a stronger form of leadership. Multiple elders leads to confidence in decision making because there’s more input. There’s more wisdom coming in from multiple voices. So that when the elders come forth with a decision, then you know that multiple voices went into it and this was not a single input.

And again, these can all be supported in scripture, but we don’t have time to dive into all of that this morning. But Proverbs 11, 14 is instructive for us. It says, where there is no guidance, the people fall, but an abundance of counselors, there is salvation. And then just practically speaking. as you think of our charge as the church, to teach and disciple, to raise up believers and disciple them into being mature believers. When we raise up mature, spiritually mature men, men who are qualified to be elders, men who feel the call to elder ministry, are we just supposed to tell them, sorry, we already have one pastor, We’ll have to find another church for you to go to. Or do we raise them up from within the church and ordain them as elders? Sometimes, yes, we do send men out when God has called them to go somewhere, but we see in Scripture this pattern of raising men up from within the church and ordaining them within the church. And that’s why we do what we’ve done this morning.

That’s why we have a council of elders here at fellowship. That’s what we believe God’s word says is the design for the church. We have one more observation to make here in Acts 14. We’ve seen that ministry is a team effort, and ministry is a multiplying effort. This is a summary of Paul and Barnabas’s ministry. And the third observation we see is that ministry is a Christ-exalting effort. The end of ministry ought to be to exalt Christ. As we see in verse 23, they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. They commended them to the Lord.

Again, Paul and Barnabas saw, most importantly, that this is not their ministry. This is not their ministry. Paul and Barnabas were not building their own legacy. They were not concerned with whether or not these churches remembered them. They were not seeking to create little copies of themselves to install into these churches. They saw this is Jesus’ church. This is Jesus’ ministry. This is Jesus’ work. Jesus is Lord and head of the church. And they commended these men to the Lord. Earlier we read from Ephesians 5 and saw that Jesus is the head of the church. Well, why does Jesus have the right to claim such a thing?

Turn back to Ephesians 5 as we close this morning. Why would Jesus have the right to claim to be the head of the church, to claim that the church is subject to him. Ephesians chapter 5, we saw in verse 23, the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, he himself being savior of the body. As the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands and everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. Jesus bought the church with his own blood. Jesus lived the perfect life for the church. Jesus never sinned. He lived in perfect obedience to God’s will. And he did that for the church.

Then Jesus died for the church. Jesus was crucified. He hung on the cross in the most cruel and gruesome death imaginable. He gave himself up for the church. Why? Why would he give himself up for the church? Surely he knows he is the most significant man who ever lived. He is the Lord of the universe. Why would he give himself up for the church? Verse 26, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory. having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. He did it so that she would be His.

The church belongs to Jesus. He bought her with His own blood. So if you do not yet know Christ as your Savior, you need to come to Him today. You need to trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the perfect payment for your sins. You need to come to him today so that you can be part of his church, the ones he purchased with his own blood. The church belongs to Jesus. And Jesus gets to say what the church does and how the church operates. It’s his church.

So as we asked the question at the beginning, why do we do what we did here today? Why do we ordain elders? Why do we have a team of elders that leads this church? Because we get to. Because we believe that’s what Jesus wants us to do. We believe that’s what he’s told us to do, and it’s our privilege to do what Jesus commands us to do. Because as we’ve seen in our text this morning, the ministry that elders are called to, it’s a team effort, it’s a multiplying effort, and most importantly, it’s a Jesus Christ exalting effort. We get to obey the Lord in his church. We have the privilege of serving the ancient of days.

Let’s stand and close in a word of prayer this morning. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the opportunity you’ve given us today. We thank you for the gift you’ve given us in men who are called and qualified to the ministry of an elder. Thank you for the opportunity you’ve given us to obey your word in ordaining those who are called to eldership. We pray for the ministry of this church as we seek to obey what your word has to say. We know this is your church. This is the church of Jesus Christ. He has purchased her. He is our head. We pray that as we Seek to serve you as a church that we would keep you first, that we would seek to see what your word has to say, and that we would seek to obey it. We thank you for our time in your word this morning, and we pray that as we go from here, we would consider it and seek to see how we can be more conformed to the image of Christ. We pray all these things in Christ’s name. Amen.