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Originally Posted by Kevin  I know that this is the standard response, but I don't find it (very) convincing. Does anyone have something more than "he has to be an elder because he has to be an elder"? |
Yes, Matt 28:19 is good precedent about who Christ authorized to baptize and have an authoritative teaching/preaching ministry. Speaking to the apostles, he says, "19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
This commission was given to the apostles (and not the laity), officers of the church. The apostles were all elders. They also directed the people to regard ministers as stewards of the mysteries of God. See 1 Cor. 4:1, for example, which speaks about how people should regard officers of the church (Paul, Peter, Apollos, etc.).
From Calvin's Commentaries on 1 Cor. 4:1 (this text was commonly used by the reformers to limit the adminstration of the sacraments and other pastoral duties to pastors - you see it in confessional proof texts, commentaries, and the like):
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1. Let a man so account of us As it was a matter of no little importance to see the Church in this manner torn by corrupt factions, from the likings or dislikings that were entertained towards individuals, he enters into a still more lengthened discussion as to the ministry of the word. Here there are three things to be considered in their order. In the first place, Paul describes the office of a pastor of the Church. . . . Now the medium observed by Paul consists in this, that he calls them ministers of Christ; by which he intimates, that they ought to apply themselves not to their own work but to that of the Lord, who has hired them as his servants, and that they are not appointed to bear rule in an authoritative manner in the Church, but are subject to Christ’s authority
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As to what he adds — stewards of the mysteries of God, he expresses hereby the kind of service. By this he intimates, that their office extends no farther than this, that they are stewards of the mysteries of God In other words, what the Lord has committed to their charge they deliver over to men from hand to hand — as the expression is 210210 Our Author makes use of the same expression when commenting on 1 Corinthians 11:23, and 1 Corinthians 15:3. — Ed. — not what they themselves might choose. “For this purpose has God chosen them as ministers of his Son, that he might through them communicate to men his heavenly wisdom, and hence they ought not to move a step beyond this.” He appears, at the same time, to give a stroke indirectly to the Corinthians, who, leaving in the background the heavenly mysteries, had begun to hunt with excessive eagerness after strange inventions, and hence they valued their teachers for nothing but profane learning. It is an honorable distinction that he confers upon the gospel when he terms its contents the mysteries of God. But as the sacraments are connected with these mysteries as appendages, it follows, that those who have the charge of administering the word are the authorized stewards of them also.
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Scott