Why Elders Must Be Appointed – part 1
Titus 1:10-16
March 23, 2025
AS YOU’RE WELL-AWARE,
We’ve spent the last few weeks discussing the qualifications of an elder.
• We looked at his home life,
• His maturity,
• Even his reputation among those outside the church.
Certainly every word of that is important for a congregation to know
When it comes time for them to recognize and ordain their leaders.
This morning we are going to move FROM THE WHAT TO THE WHY.
We see what an elder is supposed to be,
This morning we are going to examine why we need them.
The command to Titus was very clear back in verse 5.
Titus 1:5 “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you,”
We certainly don’t forget what Titus was left on the island to do.
• He was to travel from city to city all over the island.
• First he was to “set in order what remains”
• And secondly he was to “appoint elders in every city as I directed you”
This wasn’t a suggestion from Paul, this was a command.
And Paul went directly into explaining exactly
What to look for in a potential elder.
But up to this point, Paul has yet to answer the question of “WHY?”
• WHY did Titus need to appoint elders in every city?
• WHY was this so important?
Couldn’t Titus just go and teach all of the congregations
And then move on and allow them to just sort of “self-govern”?
What was Paul’s reasoning behind this?
Well, that is the question Paul answers now beginning in verse 10.
I do remind you what we learned last Sunday night in verse 9:
Titus 1:9 “holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.”
We talked about the ability of an elder
And how he must be able to exhort and to refute.
After that Paul goes directly into why we need such men.
(10) “For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially of the circumcision, who must be silenced…”
With that statement Paul is revealing to us why elders must be appointed.
• There is a predator that threatens the flock of God.
• There are deceivers who threaten to do tremendous harm to God’s flock.
God’s design is to appoint elders who will do the job
Of protecting the flock from those destructive attackers.
And this is an important point to grasp from Paul.
When talking about why the church needs elders,
It is not about tradition, nor is it about preference.
The church needs elders because of the dangers she faces.
And that is what we want to discuss this morning.
We’re going to divide this text up into 3 main points and hopefully by the time we are finished we will all see why the church needs elders.
We’re going to begin by taking a detailed look at the threat.
#1 THE WOLF
Titus 1:10-12, 15-16
Jesus said:
Matthew 7:15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
In Acts 20 Paul warned the Ephesian elders:
Acts 20:29 “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;”
Those “savage wolves” are clearly on Paul’s mind here.
When you read these 7 verses,
There is no doubt where the main focus is.
• Paul is focused on the threat to the church.
• He is describing the wolves.
The description of the threat dominates the text.
In verse 10 he calls them:
• “rebellious men”
• “empty talkers”
• “deceivers”
In verse 12 he calls them:
• “a prophet of their own”
In verse 15 he calls them:
• “defiled”
• “unbelieving”
In verse 16 he calls them:
• “detestable”
• “disobedient”
• “worthless”
It’s not hard to see where the focus of the passage is.
As Paul reveals the importance of appointing elders in every city,
The chief reason is the threat that faces the flock.
Before a congregation will ever understand her need for leadership,
She must first understand the danger she faces.
THE CHURCH HAS ENEMIES
1 Peter 5:8 “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
We know about the roaring lion.
• We’ve certainly all read the story of Job and how Satan attacked him.
• We certainly remember the way Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness.
• We remember Satan’s attempt to sift Peter like wheat.
• We remember Satan entering Judas to coerce him to betray Jesus.
But we should also know about
His numerous servants whom he sends to wreak havoc in the church.
• Jesus called them “ravenous wolves”
• Paul called them “savage wolves”
Ultimately they are false teachers and false preachers in the church.
2 Peter 2:1-2 “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;”
You see
• The warning of false teachers who will secretly introduce destructive heresies.
• How they succeed in leading many away from the truth through their sensuality.
These are dangerous men and even women who threaten the church.
Later in the same chapter:
2 Peter 2:17-19 “These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.”
Jude warned of them as well:
Jude 12-13 “These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.”
They are a dangerous threat to the flock of God.
Now, if we were talking about a literal flock and a literal wolf,
And were trying to explain to the flock how dangerous a wolf is,
HOW WOULD WE DO IT?
If you had a sheep who had never seen a wolf, but you wanted to explain to that sheep how dangerous they are, what sort of things would you tell that sheep?
• Perhaps you’d mention their teeth or their claws.
• Perhaps you’d mention their size or their speed.
• Perhaps you’d mention how they run in packs.
• Perhaps you’d mention their brutality and lethality.
• Perhaps you’d mention their natural instinct.
THE POINT IS, you’d want that naïve sheep to understand that,
• Even though you may not see them this very moment, they are out there.
• That wolves are not to be messed with.
• Who is set to protect them from those wolves.
Well, that is what Paul is doing here.
He is explaining why the spiritual wolves are so dangerous.
• It’s not about their teeth or claws or anything like,
• It’s their deception that is their threat,
• But they are lethal and brutal none the less.
So church, listen as Paul explains to Titus
About these wolves that threaten the flock.
1) DECEPTIVE MESSAGE (10)
“For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,”
The first aspect of the wolf that Paul reminds Titus of…
The reason the church needs elders is because
“there are many rebellious men”
The word “rebellious” there is the same word used earlier in verse 6
When Paul spoke of the overseer’s children not being “accused of rebellion”.
It is simply a life void of submission to authority.
It is just someone who yields to no one.
And Paul points out that there are “many” of them.
• It is a bigger problem than you know.
These are men who do not subject themselves to the truth of God
Or any authority that God hands down.
Paul also calls them “empty talkers and deceivers”
And the word really needs no further explanation.
They talk and they teach and they preach,
But they don’t say anything of any value.
There is no weight to their words.
There is certainly nothing true about what they have to say.
Paul warned Timothy about such men too:
1 Timothy 6:20-21 “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”— which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you.”
That would be these guys here too.
• Just men who give “what is falsely called “knowledge”
• But it’s nothing of value and it’s nothing of truth.
In reality they have rejected the truth.
In reality they have rebelled against God’s revealed word.
Perhaps that is why Paul goes on to say, “especially those of the circumcision”.
We think about the Jews of Paul’s day
We understand them to have been men just like this.
Romans 10:3 “For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.”
And while Paul does not get specific about the message the preach,
The rest of the New Testament certainly gives us some ideas.
Later in verse 14 Paul will say,
“not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.”
And that gives great insight to us.
Paul warned Timothy:
1 Timothy 1:3-4 “As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith.”
In Judaism you are aware that
• They certainly have the Mosaic Law or the Torah,
• But of more interest to them than that is the Talmud which is the writings of rulings of Rabbi’s throughout the centuries.
They were oral traditions and rabbinic explanations
That really grew to govern Jewish life.
And in many cases “myths” is just the word.
I was reading part of it this past week regarding Sabbath laws,
Specifically carrying a load on the Sabbath,
Even more specific than that, how a man is forbidden to take a load from inside to outside or outside to inside on the Sabbath.
And it is quite extensive.
• If a man outside reaches in and sets his load inside, he is guilty.
• If a man inside reaches out and takes the load from another and brings it in, he
is guilty.
• If a man inside takes a load and sits it down, he is guilty.
• If a man outside reaches inside and takes a load, he is guilty.
BUT…
• If a man outside reaches his load inside and it is taken by a man inside and sat
down, neither is guilty because they each only broke half of the command.
And I mean, it is endless nonsense like that.
It is utter stupidity.
And you see referenced in Scripture
How such “myths” threatened the church.
Think about the Colossians.
Colossians 2:16-23 “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.”
• Some Jewish zealot no doubt was convincing the Colossian believers
• That to be pleasing to God they had to adhere to all of these ordinances of their self-made religion.
The Colossians needed someone to expose all of that nonsense.
Or we think about the Galatians, who were being compelled to be circumcised.
Galatians 3:1-3 “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
I remember years ago at Crawford
Getting into a pretty strong disagreement with the man leading the youth
Because he decided to take all the youth through “Lent”.
They were going to give up something for lent
In order that they might grow closer to God.
But that is not how you grow closer to God.
“Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
Paul told the Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 8:8 “But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat.”
AND WE COULD GO ON AND ON,
But what you have there are wolves coming into the church
And seeking to destroy the faith of the congregation
By subtly leading them away from their dependance on Christ
And by pushing them toward dependance on their own works.
Those types of myths are dangerous.
AND ANOTHER PROBLEM
Is that people seem to gravitate toward such nonsense.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”
• As Paul told the Colossians those types of myths certainly have the
appearance of godliness and the flock is deceived.
• Other members of the flock actually like it, for legalism is very self-gratifying,
and they gravitate toward such teachers.
THIS IS WHY THE CHURCH NEEDS ELDERS.
That is why Timothy was called to faithfully preach the word to them.
But “myths” aren’t the only deviation from the truth that threaten the flock.
Paul also mentioned “commandments of men who turn away from the truth”
We think of Jesus conversation with the Pharisees.
Matthew 15:1-9 “Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? “For God said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,’ and, ‘HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.’ “But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,” he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. ‘BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’”
• It was all of this nonsense about whether or not the disciples washed their hands.
It had no bearing on the heart.
Jesus would say later:
Matthew 15:17-20 “Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. “These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.”
YOU SEE THE POINT.
We are talking about men who attack the church
By introducing subtle yet destructive heresies.
• They are legalistic myths
• They are ceremonial traditions
• They are subtle but they are destructive
And the ultimate threat is that they “turn away from the truth”
WE SEE SUCH MYTHS AND TRADITIONS TODAY
• Listen to Catholicism discuss Purgatory
• What about liberal theologians who promote universalism
• What about legalistic denominations that deny SOLA FIDE and insist upon
works to secure salvation.
• Baptists were always notorious for not being able to dance.
• I had a great-grandmother who was convinced if you played cards you were
a heretic.
Over the years we’ve heard people elevate things like instruments in the church, or dress codes to salvation level behavior.
There are an endless number of ways in which the flock of God
Can be attacked by the deceptive message of savage wolves.
There are no shortage of myths or traditions that can lead men astray.
Colossians 2:4 “I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument.”
Colossians 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”
You get the idea.
The wolves the church faces today
Are those who are “rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers”
And the church needs elders to spot those dangers.
There must be men who are (9) “holding fast the faithful word in accordance with the teaching”
Who are “able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.”
A church that thinks they don’t need elders
Is like a flock of sheep who thinks they don’t need a shepherd
To spot the dangers around them.
We are dealing with wolves who have A DECEPTIVE MESSAGE.
2) DESTRUCTIVE INFLUENCE (11)
“who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.”
We’ll get to the “silenced” part later
But look again at the threat of these spiritual wolves.
“they are upsetting whole families”
Paul wrote to Timothy about Hymenaeus and Alexander:
2 Timothy 2:16-18 “But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some.”
That would certainly be an “upsetting” message.
Telling believes that the resurrection has already occurred.
• Talk about robbing a congregation of their hope.
• Talk about taking away the motivation of eternal reward.
Or what about the people at Corinth?
1 Corinthians 15:12 “Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”
• At Corinth they didn’t say it already occurred, they just said it wasn’t real.
• What a message to preach to the church.
Or how about the wolves that wrote that letter to the Thessalonians and turned their world upside down?
2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 “Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.”
• The Thessalonians were suffering extreme persecution at the hands of the
Jewish zealots in their region.
• Apparently someone wrote to them and told them that the reason they were
suffering so much is because they had offended God and were
experiencing the day of the Lord judgment.
They were obeying God and suffering as a result
And some wolf told them God was punishing them.
It is certainly deception, but it is deception with a purpose.
The goal is to destroy faith.
THAT IS THE DANGER WE FACE IN THIS WORLD.
They are wolves dressed up in sheep’s clothing.
And they come to destroy the sheep.
• Wolves have no interest in playing with sheep.
• Wolves don’t enjoy the company of the sheep.
• Wolves are only here for one purpose and that is destruction.
They come to ruin the faith of believers.
They come to turn your confidence upside down and inside out.
THINK OF THE GALATIANS,
Just as happy as could be, having been told of Christ
• Until some Judaizers came in and convinced them that until they were circumcised they really weren’t pleasing at all.
Here were the Colossians,
Happy in Christ,
• Until the Jews came and told them that if they weren’t self-mutilating they would never be holy before God.
Here were the Ephesians,
Trusting in Christ,
• Until Hymenaeus and Alexander told them they’d missed the resurrection.
YOU GET THE POINT.
They were ruining people’s faith by distorting the gospel.
These wolves were:
“teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.”
We think of Yohan Tetzel
• In the days of Martin Luther showing up at Wittenburg
• Telling those crowds that their parents were burning in Purgatory
• And “every time a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from Purgatory springs”.
Give Tetzel money and your mom and dad can get out of Purgatory.
What a lie!
Just as disastrous as the prosperity preacher on television
• Who tells the person with cancer to sow a faith seed gift of however much money and God will heal them.
• And then when God doesn’t, the preacher blames it on their faith.
• And before long that person has no use for God or faith.
Wolves are out to destroy the flock.
That’s what they do.
The church must have elders to spot and silence such deception.
Deceptive Message, Destructive Influence
There’s a third aspect we see about these wolves
3) DEPRAVED NATURE (12-13a)
“One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true.”
What was Paul’s point here?
• You can give a wolf a bath, and put a suit on him.
• You can teach a wolf to eat with a fork and a spoon.
• You can house break a wolf and teach him to be civilized.
But deep down you know what he is? A WOLF.
Just because you put him in sheep’s clothing doesn’t change who he is.
Paul said even their own prophets know that.
“Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons”
LET ME ASK YOU.
What motivates a wolf to go after sheep?
HUNGER
• A wolf has no problem deceiving a sheep, trapping a sheep, or eating a sheep,
because that is what a wolf does.
THAT IS ITS INSTINCT.
Church, do you understand that you have such an enemy.
Wolves that will infiltrate the church for exactly the same reason.
They do not care about you. It is their instinct to destroy you.
Peter described them:
2 Peter 2:12-15 “But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;”
Wolves are not ashamed of being wolves.
• They are proud to be wolves.
• They love being wolves.
The church cannot be naïve about this.
There are many of these wolves.
Jesus said it, Paul said, Peter said it.
They come in with a deceptive message
That is meant to destroy your faith
So that they can devour you.
Their only use for you is to satisfy their own belly.
They will tell you whatever they need to tell you so long as it benefits them.
• They don’t care if you end up in sin or judgment or hell.
• They don’t care if your marriage falls apart.
• They don’t care if your children rebel.
• They don’t care if you end up denying the faith.
They just want to satisfy their own flesh at your expense.
IT’S WHO THEY ARE.
Let me give you one more:
Deceptive Message, Destructive Influence, Depraved Nature
4) DEFILED CONSCIENCE (15)
“To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.”
What does that mean?
“To the pure, all things are pure”
Basically this.
That a man who has morals and integrity,
He will want those morals and integrity to govern his entire life.
There are things that a pure man won’t do because his conscience will bother him.
• He has character, he has integrity, he has morals.
• He will be true and pure to himself if nothing else.
But these wolves are not like that.
They are “defiled and unbelieving”
To them, “nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.”
You do realize that a wolf will eat a baby sheep right in front of its mother.
There is no compassion there.
Wolves have no conscience.
That wolf isn’t going to go home, look at its own cubs
And feel remorse for robbing some poor sheep mother of her lamb.
It’s a wolf.
It will be back tomorrow to eat the rest of her lambs and then her.
And that is true of the false teachers that infiltrate the church.
Church we are dealing with a terrible enemy.
• They don’t care.
• They aren’t worried about your soul.
• They aren’t concerned about your relationship with God.
They have no conscience at all.
1 Timothy 4:1-6 “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer. In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following.”
Some of the examples Paul gave are things like “forbidding marriage”
Or advocating “abstaining from foods”
The idea is that they are going to try to get you to trust in yourself for salvation instead of the work of Christ.
They try to get you to entrust your soul to your own piety.
How much can you do without? (beneficial when they want you to give)
They tell you that the way to go to heaven is to abstain from certain foods
• (Hello Seventh Day Adventist)
They tell you that the way to go to heaven is to stay celibate and never marry
• (Catholics have done this with priests and nuns)
And the problem is NOT
That you might miss out on some special food or the joy of marriage.
The problem is that you might think God owes you eternal life
Because of the earthly sacrifice you made,
And won’t you be shocked on the day you stand before him.
But on that day, when Jesus Christ says, “I never knew you!”
• And you are saying, “But I never ate pork, and I never got married”
• And He still says “depart from Me!”
ON THAT DAY, that false teacher who convinced you to earn your way to heaven won’t care at all.
• He has no conscience.
• It does not bother him that he lied to you.
• It does not bother him that he misled you.
Like a wolf eating a sheep, he doesn’t care how much it hurts the sheep.
CHURCH THE WARNINGS ARE CLEAR.
THERE ARE SAVAGE WOLVES.
There is an enemy prowling around to destroy you.
• They will come and deceive you with empty words.
• They will come and upset your faith.
• They will come and lead you to believe something false.
• They will come and condemn you and not think twice.
They are crafty and cunning and smooth talking.
They are deceptive to the core and good at what they do.
But God has accounted for this threat.
GOD’S SOLUTION IS THIS.
(5) “appoint elders in every city as I directed you.”
God’s solution is to appoint qualified elders to shepherd his flock.
• They must be men who know the truth and who can teach the truth.
• They must be men who can spot error.
• They must be men who know a wolf when they see one.
• They must be men who are devoted to facing the wolves.
• They must be men who keep watch over your souls.
CHURCH, GOD LOVES HIS FLOCK.
CHRIST LOVES HIS BRIDE.
And in that love He has ordained that elders be ordained to protect them.
• Godly men who manage their families well.
• Godly men who are mature and gentle.
• Godly men who are faithful and consistent.
• Godly men who know the truth and can preach it and use it.
And God’s plan is to appoint them over the church
For her leadership and protection.
And certainly more than one, for if a flock only has one elder and he is a wolf, who is going to deal with him?
THERE IS MORE TO DISCUSS ABOUT THIS TONIGHT,
• But see here God’s desire that His flock be protected from savage wolves,
• See His love for the flock,
• And see God’s plan to protect it.
