Theological term
Servant Leadership
5 sermons · All terms
The Qualifications for Elders
What qualifications does Scripture require of a man before he may serve as an elder in a local church? Expounding 1 Timothy 3:1–7, this sermon establishes that the elder, overseer, and pastor are three terms for one office, and that the qualifications Paul lists are not recommendations but binding mandates. The sermon works through the first qualification — a genuine, rightly-motivated desire for the office — and frames it within four criteria for evaluating a call to ministry: right motives, graces indicating genuine Christian experience, gifts indicating divine provision (especially aptness to teach), and providential opportunity. The congregation is exhorted to apply these standards carefully and not to install any man, however virtuous or personable, who lacks the God-given ability to preach and teach the word.
The Qualifications for Elders, Part 2
What does Scripture require of a man before a church installs him as an elder? Expounding 1 Timothy 3:1–7 alongside Titus 1:5–9, this sermon completes a two-part treatment of the biblical qualifications for elders, focusing on the elder's maturity in the faith, his good testimony before outsiders, and his indispensable ability to teach. The danger of rushing a novice into office is pressed from multiple angles — pride, the church's welfare, and the man's own protection — before the sermon closes with practical exhortations to the congregation on praying for, identifying, examining, and where necessary excluding candidates for eldership.
The Mission of the Son of Man
Matthew 20:20–28 confronts the persistent problem of pride and the inverted logic of kingdom greatness. Against the backdrop of Christ's third passion prediction, the ambitious request of James and John exposes a desire common to all God's people: the crown without the cross. The sermon works through Christ's twofold instruction — rejecting the Gentile model of top-down authority and embracing servant-greatness — before landing on the theological heart of verse 28: the Son of Man gave his life as a ransom for many, a payment securing the definite salvation of his people and providing the interpretive key to the entire passion narrative of Matthew 21–27.
The Necessity of Family Religion
Joshua 24:15 — 'As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord' — is not a slogan but a covenant demand that defines the believing household. This sermon expounds the husband's responsibility to lead, love, disciple, and nourish his wife after the pattern of Christ and the church in Ephesians 5, the father's responsibility to train and admonish his children without provoking them to wrath, and the subject matter that must fill family worship: the events of Sinai and, for new-covenant households, the events of Calvary. The governing disposition is sincerity and truth — a whole-soul commitment to Yahweh that is infectious to children precisely because it is genuine.
Paul's Sufferings for Christ and the Church
Colossians 1:24 confronts the assumption — doctrinal or practical — that the Christian life is one of health, wealth, and prosperity. Paul's declaration that he rejoices in his sufferings for the church raises two difficult questions: what does it mean to fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, and why would any apostle rejoice in prison, beatings, and stonings? This exposition works through both questions, demolishing the Roman Catholic reading that Christ's atonement was incomplete, and arguing instead that Christ so identifies with His body that their sufferings are in some sense His own, and that Paul's willingness to absorb suffering on behalf of the church is the pattern of genuine Christian ministry and churchmanship.