Sermon: What is a Presbyterian? (Titus 1:5)

What is a Presbyterian?
Sunday, July 13^th, 2025
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Titus 1:5

Prayer

Father, we thank you for this letter of the Apostle Paul to Titus, through which we are taught the truths necessary for our salvation, and the kind of life we must live if we would see the kingdom of heaven. We ask for your blessing now as we hear this word preached, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

After the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, it says in Acts 1:3, he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

• Now just as every kingdom has a king, so also every kingdom has some form of government. We call a government a monarchy when there is one supreme ruler at the top. And in God’s kingdom, Jesus is that monarch who is called King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev 19:16). That is to say, Jesus is that monarch from which all other lesser monarchs and lords, receive some delegated power to govern.
  • Paul puts it this way in Romans 13:1-2, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
• Now just as Christ rules as King in the civil realmthrough various lesser magistrates, so also does he rule in the church.
  • And we said in our first sermon on Titus that the primary purpose of this letter is to teach us how Jesus wants the church (which is his garden and vineyard) to be governed and cared for, and by whom.
  • Moreover, we read in Ephesians 4:11, that after those 40 days of speaking about the kingdom with his disciples, He ascended to heaven and gave gifts to man.
  • What were those gifts? It says, And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. Paul says likewise in 1 Corinthians 12:28, And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, varieties of tongues.
  • Notice that of all the gifts Jesus could have given at his heavenly coronation ceremony, he thought that what we most needed was church officers. And if that surprises you, just imagine a church without the apostles, the prophets, and the four evangelists. Imagine you have no New Testament scriptures and no pastors or teachers to explain those writings you do not have. It turns out that without church officers, there is no church.
    • Paul puts it this way in Romans 10:13-14, How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
    • So the gifts that King Jesus gives at his ascension are people. And these people, full of the Holy Spirit, preach and write and evangelize and start churches, and then they appoint successors to care for those churches after they die. And this is what the book of Titus is all about.It is about giving us the particulars, the details, of how Jesus governs his church.
    • We call this government of Christ over the church his ecclesiastical hierarchy. It is a form of government with Jesus at the top, then the twelve apostles, then prophets, then pastors and teachers, and down the line.
• And why does this ecclesiastical hierarchy exist?
  • Paul goes on in Ephesians 4:12-16 to explain. He says they are, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
  • That is why church government exists: For the unity of the faith, for the health of the body, for the building up in love. This is why Jesus has given you elders, pastors, teachers, and deacons.
• Now I begin with this overview of Jesus’ monarchical rule over the world and the church because this morning in our text, we have a specific form of church government under that monarchy, described by the Apostle Paul. And it is a form of government that today we call Presbyterian Church Government.
  • Now if we were to look around at these United States, and surveyed all the different churches, and denominations, and the many networks and tribes and governmental structures that exist, we would discover that there is a lot of confusion in our day about how the church is to be governed, and by whom.
  • And so this morning I want to explain from the Scriptures, why our form of government is called Presbyterian, and why God commands the church to be ruled this way, and not the way that many other churches today are governed.
  • There are three questions I want to answer this morning.

Outline

• 1. Where does this name Presbyterian come from?
• 2. What is essential to Presbyterian church government?
• 3. Why does this form of Presbyterian government matter for the health of the church?

Q#1 – Where does this name Presbyterian come from?

• Surprise surprise, it comes from the Bible, and we have an example of it right here in Titus 1:5.

Verse 5
For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:

• That word elders in Greek is πρεσβυτέρους, from which we get the English word presbyters.
• What is a πρεσβύτερος/presbyter?
  • There are two main senses in which this word is used in Scripture.
    • 1. In the first sense, a presbyter/elder can refer to any man who is of older/elder age.
      • And because Proverbs 16:31 says, The silver-haired head is a crown of glory, If it is found in the way of righteousness, it became customary for those who were older and wiser men to also govern and rule the community.
    • 2. Therefore, this word presbyter/elder also came to be used in a second sense to refer the office of government in Israel.
      • So a presbyter can be any elderly or older man. Or it can refer to the office of presbyter/elder which is for those who are more mature and older in knowledge and wisdom.
      • To give you just one example of this from the Old Testament, when Moses feels that leading the nation is a burden too heavy for him to carry alone, God says to him in Number 11:16-17, Gather (Συνάγαγέ) unto me seventy men of the elders (presbyters) of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee. And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone.
    • First observe that an elder is an officer who carries a heavy burden. In Scripture, leadership and government is akin to carrying something heavy. What is that heavy thing? It is the responsibility to act justly towards those under your care. And therefore, the qualifications to be a presbyter in Israel, are that you must be wise, understanding, knowledgeable and without partiality in your judgment (Deut 1:13-17).
    • Second, observe that these presbyters function as representatives of the people. In Deuteronomy 33:5 Moses says, And he [referring to himself] was king in Jeshurun, When the heads of the people And the tribes of Israel were gathered together. So in Israel, the hierarchy of God’s government was that God speaks to Moses, Moses speaks to the presbyters, and then the presbyters speak to their respective tribal heads, and so forth.
    • We see that Moses father-in-law, Jethro the Midianite advised this presbyterian form of government in Exodus 18. There we read, So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said. And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves (Ex 18:24-27).
    • This is the original Israelite form of presbyterian government, and it becomes the pattern for the nation of Israel, the pattern for the Jewish synagogue, from which the apostolic church sprang forth.
• Summary: We call our form of church government Presbyterian, because it is presbyters who rule the church. Presbyters represent the people before God, and they represent God towards the people.
  • So returning to Titus 1:5 we see that Paul has left Titus in Crete, because the church lacked presbyters, and it was Titus’ job to oversee the appointment/ordination of presbyters in every city.
  • This brings us to question 2.

Q#2 – What is essential to Presbyterian church government?

I should flag here that within and amongst Presbyterians, there are a bunch of variations in our polities are organized. And that is because God has given us a measure of liberty to organize, for better or worse, according to the light of nature and general Chrisian wisdom. But what I am asking here is, What is essential to Presbyterianism that distinguishes it from Independent Churches and Episcopal Churches?

• Of the three major forms of church government, Independents have no authoritative rulers outside of their individual and local congregation. There is no higher court of appeal beyond the pastor or elder session that hold them accountable. That is called Congregationalism or Independent Church Government. You can hear it in the name Independent, they depend on no outside pastors or churches to govern their church.
• On the other side of the spectrum is Episcopal church government, which also has many variations within itself, and some are very close to Presbyterianism, while some variations are quite different.But for example, the Roman Catholic church has an episcopal form of government where there is a pyramid of authority with a single bishop, the Pope at the top who claims to have universal jurisdiction over the whole church.
• So against the Roman Catholics, Presbyterians deny that any one man can possess such jurisdiction over other elders and churches. And then against the Independents, Presbyterians deny that any one church can be disconnected from the broader church and without accountability.
• And so what is essential to Presbyterian government, is that the church is only a complete church, when it is governed by a plurality of qualified presbyters of equal rank.
• Let me now prove this to you from the Scriptures.

First observe in verse 5 of our text, what Paul commands Titus to do. He says, ordain elders in every city. In that sentence is virtually contained the essence of Presbyterian government. Let me draw this out for us.

• Notice that Paul says presbyters in the plural. Nowhere will you find in the New Testament any church that has only one person who governs it. Even when a region is newly evangelized, like the church in Crete, not even the Apostle Paul is a sole ruler of the churches he plants.
  • Instead, what we find universally, in every instance in the New Testament, is that a church is only a complete church, when it is governed by a plurality of qualified men called presbyters, who when they convene together constitute a presbytery. Every single church in the New Testament was under the authority of a presbytery, and it is the presbytery that ordains and sends men to preach and minister.
    • Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:14, Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.
      • Notice, Timothy was not ordained by Paul alone, but by the laying on of hands of the presbytery.
    • In Acts 14:23 we are told how Paul and Barnabas organized the churches they had planted, And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.
      • Observe again that the while the church is in the singular, elders is plural.
    • It says in Hebrews 13:17, Obey them (plural) that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
      • See that God commands members in the church to submit to church government, but it is not to a solo senior pastor but rather to a plurality of male rulers.
      • He says a few verses earlier in Hebrews 13:7, Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
    • The Apostle James says likewise in James 5:14, Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders (presbyters plural) of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
• Many other examples could be given. But I want you to see that the essence of Presbyterian government is that the church must be ruled by a plurality of qualified presbyters.
  • No one man, except the God-man Jesus Christ, has absolute power in the church. And therefore, any church that lacks this plurality of qualified presbyters who are held accountable for their life and doctrine, is a deficient church, or in Paul’s words a church that is wanting/lacking/incomplete.
  • Sadly, there are many many deficient, diseased, and disordered churches in our land today, and what is worse, they don’t even know it.
  • We wonder why our nation is such a mess. Why abortion and adultery and divorce are so rampant. Why drugs and homelessness and crime are on the rise. We have to look in the mirror. We have not obeyed God in how we govern the church and who we ordain to office. And so God is giving us a taste of our folly so that we will repent!
• God says in Jeremiah 5:30-31, An astonishing and horrible thing Has been committed in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule by their own power; And My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?
  • God’s warning to the American church, is that unless you repent and kick out all the wolves, these self-ordained teachers who are accountable to no one, these gay and lesbian bishops, unless you return to the biblical standards for elders/presbyters, your churches and nation shall continue to degrade.
  • Once upon a time in America we had sabbath laws. Murderers were executed for their crimes. School children were taught the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Magistrates had to be Christian men. But now today we have pedophiles and transexuals openly promoting vice.
  • God says in Hosea 4:6-9, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. As they were increased, so they sinned against me: Therefore will I change their glory into shame. They eat up the sin of my people, And they set their heart on their iniquity. And there shall be, like people, like priest: And I will punish them for their ways, And reward them their doings.
  • As the shepherds go, so go the sheep. And our Chief Shepherd, the Lord Jesus, has not told us plainly in His Word what his under-shepherds (pastors) must be. In a future sermon we will look at those qualifications for elders, but for now let us consider our third and final question.

Q#3 – Why does this form of Presbyterian government matter for the health of the church?

• I have three reasons, but before I give them, let me just warn you by saying that no mere form of government can in itself prevent apostasy, corruption, and abuse in the church. Presbyterian government could not save the nation of Israel from crucifying the Messiah. In fact, it was their highest court, their Sanhedrin, the passed the death sentence, and later persecuted the apostles. So unless you have good and godly men in that government, the form hardly matters.
  • To take just one modern example, consider the so-called Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUSA). Once upon time they were actually presbyterian. But then they abandoned (amongst other things) the biblical standards for who may be a presbyter, and so today something like half of the pastors under age 50 are women. They are flying rainbow flags outside of their church, and not as a sign of God’s promise to never flood the earth.
  • And so as “Bible Believing Presbyterians,” we must not pretend that just because our form of government is apostolic, therefore presbyters and presbyteries always get it right. Any honest and experienced presbyter will tell you, we don’t always see clearly and do justly. Which is why we like the checks and balances that good presbyterian government provides.
• So in closing let me give you three reasons why Presbyterian government matters for the health of the church:
  • 1. Because presbyters are sinful and fallible men. And therefore, we need to be held accountable to our ordination vows, and to the biblical qualifications to continue in our office. And so we need a higher power than us, presbytery, to keep watch over us.
  • 2. Because the members of every church deserve a higher court of appeal in the event that their pastor or local presbytery (elder session) sins against them.
    • For example, if a church discipline case comes up, and we excommunicate someone, but that person thinks we judged unjustly. They have a right to appeal to Anselm Presbytery, to our Presiding Minister Michael Kloss, and then a committee would be formed to investigate how we handled that discipline. And if there was a miscarriage of justice, they have the power to correct that.
    • So Presbytery is an added layer of protection for the sheep, if a shepherd goes astray, the Presbytery can call him back. And then above Presbytery there is a Council, so if an entire presbytery goes astray, Council can correct them. And if Council goes astray, then there are other Presbyterian denominations who you may join.
  • 3. Third and finally, Presbyterian church government acknowledges in practice, that Christ’s body is far bigger than any one congregation. What’s more, we believe that we are better and stronger when we work together, when we acknowledge the validity of other church’s discipline. When we pray for one another. When we stand united against evil in the public square together with one voice.
    • It says in Psalm 122:3-6, Jerusalem is built As a city that is compact together, Where the tribes go up, The tribes of the Lord, To the Testimony of Israel, To give thanks to the name of the Lord. For thrones are set there for judgment, The thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you.
    • What is this psalm about but the church of Christ. The many tribes of Christendom who go up and are allied together for the testimony of Jesus.
    • This is what our form of government is aimed at. To make Jesus known through our unity of love, our unity of judgment, even upon a plurality of thrones. For it is in this unity that the church has peace and prosperity, and for this we do pray. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.