As a father in heaven, we begin here where Eric finished that you would snatch some from the fire and maybe many from the fire through faithful elders, pastors and local churches through their congregations, who would find the biblical balance on what it means to have an appropriate concern for what outsize them.

So would you give us much grace here? Father, we are dealing with complexities, with tensions that all of us walk through, and I pray that you would give us guidance and clarity in our local context, in our pluralities of leadership for the glory of Christ, the good of your people, and the adding to your people from the world, snatch them in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. So I take it that this session in this track called Ministry in the World is supposed to push the other way, means to push us back into the world.

So Stephen was assigned to address the chaos and the confusion, and Eric, the sexual revolution, and both of these, you might say, begin with our being of the world and our thinking about how we can live and minister in a way that is not of the world.

And now in this session, we start off with the force going the other way. As Christians, as pastors, we are not of the world, and we have been sent back in to snatch some from the world.

This is how Jesus prayed in John 17, that's the force of his prayer in John 17. The world has hated them, he prays about his disciples, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, he says, but that you keep them from the evil one, keep them from the snare of the devil.

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world, sanctify them in the truth, Father, your word is truth, as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

John 17, 14 to 18. So you hear the direction of Jesus prayer, a different direction. Instead of saying, they're in the world, help them not be of the world, he says, they're not of the world.

Help them as I send them back in with my commission, with the fellowship of other Christians, with the power of the Holy Spirit. So Jesus doesn't just play defense, he goes on the offensive, big time, marches on the gates of hell to snatch some back, which in its own way is the thrust of the final elder qualification in 1 Timothy 3, 7.

We'll look at well thought of by outsiders. And if you guys have come across Bob Yarborough's 2018 commentary on the letters to Timothy and Titus, it's fantastic.

Like a manual for pastoral ministry, I recommend it. This is what Yarborough has to say about 1 Timothy 3, 7. Paul assumes that there will be a live connection between those inside

and those outside the church. In settings where church communities or their members have grown isolated from outsiders, this verse is a reminder that social separation for which there is some justification in Paul's references to a Holy people, saints, 12 times.

This verse is a reminder that social separation can be overdone and detrimental. So as we take up 1 Timothy 3, 7, it might be good to acknowledge that for some of us, this is a pretty unexpected qualification. This is surprising.

Hopefully, when we hear that pastor elders must be able to teach, we think, yes, they must. It's critical. Not a drunkard. Of course. Not violent. Yes, please. Not quarrelsome.

Okay. That sounds freshly relevant now in a way that maybe it didn't a few years ago. But well thought of by outsiders, hold on.

Does this mean that outsiders get to have a say about who leads the local church? If we didn't already know what was coming in verse 7, we hadn't already seen it before.

Would we ever guess this would be there? Some of us might have assumed the opposite. In fact, that the collective disdain of unbelievers would be a great badge of honor and would show what a significant weapon a man is in the cause of Christ.

Now clearly, we have a place in Christianity for holy disdain for what outsiders think. Holy H-O-L-Y, holy disdain for what outsiders think.

Romans 118 tells us that unrighteous men suppress the truth of God as creator, as a stainer, all the more that he would speak in the Scriptures and that he would redeem in Christ in the gospel.

So we know this. Shouldn't be surprised when the world is the world. In fact, it's the words of Christ himself that best prepare us not to be well thought of by outsiders.

Blessed are you and others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil falsely against you on my account.

If they have called the master of the house be alzable, how much more will they malign those of his household?

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