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He could give new revelations of God. And those new revelations have what quality to them? We believe in the scriptures being inspired, but also infallible. Now, granted, they don't argue that the Pope and everything that he says is infallible. And there's good reason why they argue that, because it's very clear that many popes have said things that aren't true. And they know that too. So they don't say that the pope is always infallible, but they say when he speaks ex cathedra, or ex cathedra, I don't know how you pronounce the Latin, because I'm just a podunk drywall hanger. I didn't, oh, I hear my voice. We're getting, Getting something through the PA here that's a double voice of me. Is there something on the computer that's playing? It says my mic is muted. I'm getting messages that my mic is muted. Sorry. Okay. Should be working now. I just got a text message from Dan Banning. Dan, text me back if you still can't hear me. All right. So what we've been arguing here, just for everybody who's sick at home, we're reminding everybody the distinction between the apostolic and the post-apostolic church and that this is foundational for our Christian faith and our right understanding of the scripture and the way God is at work. And again, to get back to the church, the way he's at work in his church today to guide and to lead and to govern it. That's the point we're getting to. The Roman Catholic Church fails to grasp this distinction between the Apostolic and the Post-Apostolic Church, and we see that in their ascribing primacy to the Pope and giving him to the attribute of infallibility. He's a new revealer who can give infallible revelation. No, no, no, we say, that was only the Apostles who saw the Lord Jesus. They were given the Spirit who gave them new revelation. But how else does the Roman Church compromise this distinction? What else do they see continuing? Not just new revelation, but what else? When they canonize saints, what are they looking for? There's the statue of Mary or the crucifix, right? And when it cries, it cries blood. And so what's that got to be? A miracle, right? So they believe in the continuation of miracles. So, you see how those two things go together? New revelations and miracles. They see those things continuing. Our answer to that is no. That was part of the foundational apostolic age. And once the apostles died, that was done. Now, what other communion, not Romanist, commits the same error, but from a Protestant side? Pentecostal church. How do they believe in new revelation? How does that manifest itself in the Pentecostal church? Right, so it's a more personal thing, but what is God's will for me in my life, right? And they pray, and they ask for this rushing of the Spirit, and sometimes direct communications where God will tell them, like, marry this person, take this job, et cetera, et cetera. They believe that. Our answer to that is, as sincerely as you think that you heard God's voice, we know from the Scripture that those things don't continue. It's really hard to argue with somebody's experience, right? So what do you say? You say, well, I wasn't there to hear your experience, but I know what the Scripture says, and the Scripture says that those new revelations, those ceased with the apostles. Because, and this is the way you can argue with a Protestant, if they're arguing this, say, wait a minute, don't you believe the Bible is sufficient? You believe in the sufficiency of Scripture? Yeah, I believe in sufficient Scripture. So why do you think you need a new revelation of the Spirit? Well, it's an important decision in my life. Okay, yeah, I don't disagree that it's an important decision in your life, but do you think maybe a better way to think about how we make decisions is not to wait for God to directly tell us, but maybe God's giving us wisdom from the Bible that we have to then learn and pray about and wrestle with and then make a wise decision based upon what scripture says. That's the reformed answer to that, right? Now, does God not lead us? In that view, that's what the Pentecostal, well, we believe in God leading us. I would say, well, I do too. Well, you don't believe in the spirit leading you. Well, yeah, I do. I just believe that the spirit is going to lead me. Through this, right? Through the means of the word. But this is the New International Version. So we'll say, not that one. No, I'm kidding. New International Version, it has problems with it. There's some good things about it. If you read the NIV, I'm not saying you're a hair ticker or anything like that. It's a joke, OK? Take it easy. But ESV, I think, is a better translation, although it's not perfect. So we believe in the leading of the Spirit, but we believe in the leading of the Spirit through the Word, because the Word of God is what? It's the sword of the Spirit. So we, just as much as the Pentecostals, believe in the leading of the Spirit, we just believe that it happens through the Word of God and through prayer, through the ordinary means. And of course the Pentecostals also will argue for miracles and, most famously, speaking in tongues. Now, the irony, of course, of the Pentecostals, when they argue for speaking in tongues, is that when you read Scripture carefully, speaking in tongues is a form of revelation. And if somebody's speaking in tongues, and there's no one there to interpret, what does Paul say you should do? Sit down and be quiet. Why? You're not identifying anybody, you're just... right? And I tell you, I've been in Pentecostal churches, my first Pentecostal churches were like that, and every time I saw somebody speak in tongues, there was nobody to interpret. They just blabbered on. And I just said, you know what? If this is a manifestation of speaking in tongues, you ain't doing it right. Because the purpose of the speaking in tongues is understanding. And that's another thing to recognize. In the New Testament, the gift of speaking in tongues was primarily so that the gospel could be spoken to people in other languages. The Gospel's going to the nations, to all these sub-dialects. You don't have trained translators. God equipped with signs of the Holy Spirit, that's why there are tongues of fire, so that it could be understood. And on the day of Pentecost, that's what the people say. We're all from these different areas, and we're hearing the wonders of God in our own language. The tongues were a form of revelation, which was supposed to be clear. It wasn't, as many Pentecostals tend to argue. I want to be fair, because there are some that try to rebalance all this stuff. But I'm just saying the common folk religion, if I could put it that way, the common view of many Pentecostals is that the speaking in tongues is really a sign that God is really emotionally alive in you. That's what it's a sign of, that there's a real emotional experience. would there have been an emotion connected to it? Well, I can't deny that, right? I mean, who wouldn't be amazed at that? But that was not its main purpose, to be a sign of the genuineness of the person's faith. It never was that. It was expression of revelation. In fact, I think what the Holy Scripture says is there's many who will say, Lord, Lord, but won't enter the kingdom, and they'll say, hey, didn't we do many, many works in your name? Didn't we reveal many things? Weren't we agents of revelation? And what will Jesus say to them? depart from Me, I never knew you." This kind of special equipping of the Spirit is not a sign of salvation. So that special equipping of the Spirit in the Bible where it does appear, it's not a ratificatory sign that the person is really a Christian, or as many Pentecostals argue, a sign that the church is really a true church. That's really where they end up going. Those Presbyterians where all they do is stand up and sit down. That's about the greatest physical manifestation of the Spirit you see in a worship service in a Presbyterian church. People sit down, people stand up. We got the Holy Spirit because we can still move, right? No, that's not the purpose. But the point here, to go back to this, is that with the continuation of Revelation and the continuation of miracles, there are many other groups that in different ways fail to acknowledge and appreciate this distinction. They fall into those same errors. So as Presbyterians, we believe in this distinction. We believe it during the apostolic era, through the apostles, and we will acknowledge through those in the immediate apostolic circle. So you think of it this way. You have the 12, and then you have this immediate circle. And you do see, in some places, And especially if you look at the deacons who were established in Acts 6, right? And then Philip, the evangelist, goes, right? So it's like the Spirit's special gifting of the apostles kind of spills out to those right next to him a little bit. But once they die, we transition to the post-apostolic age in which miracles cease and new revelations cease. Why is that? Because the canon of Scripture is now closed. Remember, the New Testament didn't drop out of heaven all at once. Neither did the Old Testament, did it? There's a gradual process over the period of time between the death of Jesus and his resurrection, and his equipping and sending the apostles on the day of Pentecost, and their death. Basically the first century, right? Maybe 90 AD is about the year, roughly, that we could say. Once that last book of the New Testament is closed, we then have a sufficient scripture to guide the church. So, in the Bible, Ephesians 2.20, it speaks of the church being built on the cornerstone of Christ, along with the apostles and prophets. Christ is the chief cornerstone, and the apostles and prophets are its foundation. And in what respect? in the sense that they are the ones through whom revelation comes. It's built on God's Word, right? So many of the hymns we sing, right? How Firm a Foundation. It's all about the Bible. When we sing How Firm a Foundation, and when we confess that we believe in an apostolic church, we're not saying that we believe in their persons, that we believe in them. It's in the revelation that the apostles gave. ratified by miracle, given in special revelation, and then left for us in the Holy Scriptures. So these offices of apostle and prophet have ceased. But there are other offices that continue, and that's really what we're going to get into today. And if you think of it, if this is the foundation of the church, then there's the building. So if you think of it as, sorry, I'm getting overlap here, but I won't, just take time to erase it. But if you think of it, when you're building a house, okay? Right, Tim? When you're building a house, the first thing you do is, who do you hire? Before the designer, after the designer and all that, who do you, they pour something, what do they pour? Mm-hmm? They pour a big foundation. But once they're gone, you bring in different workers to then build upon it. So what we're saying is the apostles and prophets, they ceased with the time of the apostle, but then who's left here to build a church? What officers? And what we find in the scripture is that there's three of them. And we give them these names, pastor, elder or ruling elder, and deacon. And if we read Ephesians carefully, we see a preliminary outline of this. If you go to Ephesians, I want to get the infallible translation here. If you go to Ephesians, it outlines this, not completely, but it speaks in Ephesians of Christ ascending on high. and giving gifts to his church. So here you've got the cornerstone ascending into heaven. This is Ephesians 4, right? And from heaven it says he gave the apostles and the prophets, that's these officers, verse 11 of chapter 4. And then he moves on and he lists evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Now, why does he focus on them here? Why doesn't he mention ruling elder and deacon? Because in the context, the focus is on revelation. So these are the bringers of new revelation. Then the pastors and the evangelists and the teachers are the expositors of it. Pastors don't give new revelation. Teachers don't give new revelation. Evangelists don't give new revelation. They explain and expound the revelation previously given. So these are the teaching officers, pastors, evangelists, and teachers. And then, of course, we find, as we'll see in the rest of scripture, the office of ruling elder and deacon. So that's what we want to talk about. Let's just think generally about these offices and why we have them. Well, in one respect, you can think of the threefold office that God gives to the church as it corresponds to the three basic needs that we have as Christians. And one need that we have is that we need to be taught. In our sin, we're ignorant. We don't know what we should know. We don't come into this world knowing things. And so God gives us pastors, teachers to teach us. We're in darkness and we need light to guide us. So there's that fundamental need we have as sinners that we need to be taught. But we also need to be led. I mean, how many of you have ever listened to somebody instruct you on, say, how to perform a certain task or how to perform a science experiment? And you can listen to everything they say. And you're like, OK, I got it. I got it. And then you're like, but how exactly do I do that? It's like fixing your car. You ever get the manual out to see how to fix your car? And you read through all the instructions, and you're like, OK, I understand every sentence. But then you look at the vehicle, and you're like, I don't even know where to start. So what do you need? You need not someone just to instruct your mind, but then to lead you through the process by example and by coming alongside you and showing you how to do it. Some people are very, very handy and just have a mind that somehow they can bypass that step in certain areas. But it's the difference between learning from a book and learning from watching somebody do it. So we need to be taught, we need to be led, but then we also need to be cared for. Let's use the example of fixing a car. Because every man or lady who's ever tried to fix a car knows that you can read the book, you can watch somebody do it, but when you get down there and have to stick your hand into certain areas, the book says, turn the bolt with your 10 millimeter wrench. By the way, it's always 10 millimeter. Ask anybody who works on cars, like, hey, you got a 10 millimeter wrench or ratchet head that you can spare? Like, nope, because they're all broken. Because everything is 10 millimeters, or 12 millimeters. That's the other one. But once you get your hand up there behind the engine, you can't actually turn it. So the book says turn the 10mm wrench, and the video you're watching, this guy has this special tool with this long extender on there, and he just does it in a minute. Or he has a gun, just and off it comes, but you've just got to do it by hand. And what happens to your knuckles when you smack the top of the motor? You know what I'm talking about, don't you? Yeah. I remember one time I had fixed my clutch. I had a 1998 Ford Ranger pickup. I know I drive a more expensive car now, but for most of my life I drove beaters. I had a 1998 Ford Ranger pickup, and I changed the clutch on that twice. I remember when I got to the point where I had to take the transmission off. I got underneath the vehicle and you know it said get your transmission jack right and position it under the transmission and then lower it and I'm looking like one guy saying you can use a transmission jack but they're hard to find you can just lift it off and roll it off your belly. So I get under the thing and I'm like okay I'm about ready to pull this thing off and then lands on my stomach, transmission fluid has poured all over my body, I roll over, push the thing to the side, and I've got wounds all over myself, right? And it was funny, after that I went online and watched a video of the guy who wrote that, and the same thing happened to him, and he was saying a lot of interesting language to his transmission. And I was writhing in pain a few minutes before that, but after I watched, I was laughing my head off. I was like, OK, well, if that's what that guy did. So what did I need? I didn't just need somebody to teach me. I didn't just need someone to guide me through it. I needed a deacon to come and help me with my wounds. That's what we need as people. And as Christians, in one degree or another, and as families, parents with our kids, You get this, right? This is what we do for each other. We teach each other, we set an example for each other, we lead each other, and we care for each other. Well, God in his wisdom has established officers that essentially correspond to those three basic needs that we have. Not just physically, but more important, spiritually, right? So we'll dig into more of the details, but that's one way I think we can see God's wisdom in giving us the three. Another way to look at this is to see how the three offices in the church have a general correspondence to the offices of Jesus Christ as mediator. What are the offices that Jesus has as our mediator? There's three. Now, a teacher, a pastor, what one would that clearly correspond to? a prophet, right? Because the prophet, and Jesus executes the office of the prophet by revealing through His Word and Spirit the whole will of God for our salvation. That's what Jesus does as our prophet. And it's clear to see how the pastor, although he's not prophet capital P in terms of giving new revelation, he is prophet in small p in the sense that he expounds the Word of God. Now there's also the king. And Jesus, as the King, subdues us to Himself, He protects us from all our enemies, He guides and He rules us. So you can see how a ruling elder, in that respect, would serve that function. Now, what's the third office? Priest. Now, I don't think there is direct correspondence here, to the degree that there are there, but I do think that in the sacrificial work, right, to feed and to care for the people. We see a little bit of that in the priest who offers sacrifice, then some of that is as food in terms of fellowship and bringing us near to God, and also the work of prayer, right? There's a caring function. I'll be honest, there are people who run with this and make this like dominant. I'm not one of those. I don't think priest corresponds all that well to the office of deacon because there's a sacrificial component, which is unique to Jesus. And the other aspect of the priest is prayer. By the way, if you want to remember easily, what's a priest do? He pays and he prays. pays for sin, will sacrifice, and he prays for sinners. And that's what Jesus does as our priest. But there is a sense in which the priest has to have sympathy with us in our weakness, Hebrews. So there is a sense of this sympathy and care that is at the basis of that priestly work. So I think that's helpful to think of it that way. And so when we think of the three offices, we outline the unique function of each, although there is some overlap. A pastor, he has a function that he himself is specially responsible for, that's teaching. The elder, the ruling elder, has a task that's mainly his, which is to shepherd and guide the people in their Christian lives. And then there's the deacon, who according to their physical needs and necessities expresses the care of the church, care of Christ, the love of Christ for the church according to their physical needs. Now, there is some overlap here, right? Why is there overlap? Well, there's overlap between pastor and elder in that the pastor shares with the elders in this shepherding and guiding function because they both have equal authority as elders. They're both elders. One's a teaching elder, one's a ruling elder. We'll talk a little bit about where that distinction comes from. And likewise, the elders, they have to be apt to teach as well. Part of the job of the elder is to oversee the pastor, especially in his preaching, to make sure it's biblical. So they have to have some degree of ability to teach, or at least evaluate the teaching. And likewise, in the early days, before there were deacons, the apostles and elders were tending to the physical needs of the people. So there's some overlap here. But properly, and I think in a maximally functioning situation in a church where you had enough manpower, The pastor's focus would be on teaching, the elder's focus would be on shepherding and guiding the people in their Christian lives, and the deacons would really tend to the physical needs of the people. There wouldn't be so much overlap. In other words, as manpower and the ability and the size of the church enables, there's a little bit more specialization. And there kind of has to be. Because if you have a larger church where there's more instruction needed and classes, the pastor's going to end up doing more teaching. And as you have more elders, you have more people that can do more shepherding and guiding. But there's people who will disagree with it. The point is, there's a focused division of labor with some overlap. So now we need to dig more into these offices and kind of where they come from. Let's first talk about the ruling elder. In history, where do we first see the office of ruling elder arise? In the time of Moses. If you look at the beginning of Deuteronomy and Exodus, it speaks of how Jethro, his father-in-law, gave him some advice, and it turned out to be providential advice from the Holy Spirit, that Moses was wearing himself out, trying to do everything alone. And so judges were appointed, who were elders, who basically helped solve disputes between the people. Now you might say, wait a minute, that sounds more like a civil court system, doesn't it? There's kind of like the regular court, then there's a superior court, and then there's a supreme court. And it sounds like these elders mainly are spending most of their time settling disputes. Yeah. And why is that? Well, it's in part because at that time, the church was a nation. They were a civil entity. And so there's overlap there between the court system in the civil realm and the court system in the spiritual realm. But nevertheless, I do think that that principle continues today. Elders do not micromanage the lives of each individual and each family in the congregation. They only enter in the picture when they're needed. So even as in the Old Testament they were there to settle disputes, elders are there so that they can take up the cases that can't be resolved among the people of God. Again, remember the picture that's painted in the Bible and in our church order is of a church in which every member is equipped to serve and to help, to teach, to guide, and to care for others. And the body, rightly working, is building itself up in love. Where there's gaps, where there's problems, that's when the leaders come in. We see it similarly with deacons. For the picture we have of deacons in the Bible is not those who come by everybody's house multiple times a week saying, hey, just want to make sure you bought all your groceries this week. And by the way, where did you shop? Did you go to at least four different stores? Because if you didn't go to four different stores, you're not being frugal. You gotta shop the sales. That's not what deacons do, do they? No, each family makes its decisions about how it's gonna purchase and buy its food, and it's accountable to God to that. When do the deacons step in? When there's a need, right? When the person can't feed themselves, right? And likewise, we see it even with widows. If you look in 1 Timothy, Paul outlines in copious detail how the deacons are to focus on widows. And remember, at this time, there are a lot of widows. And what's he say the church needs to do in its care of widows? Who has the first obligation? The family of the widow. The children repay the parents. And he says something very strong there. He says, if you don't care for your widows and your family, and especially the members of your own household, you've denied the faith and you're worse than an unbeliever. Whoa. That's because God has instituted family, and that's the first line of defense, as it were, for the teaching, the guiding, and the caring of the people. Now, he says, if there's a widow who doesn't have family, then maybe the deacons need to help. Maybe. If what? It's also true of this widow. That she's really out of money, and she has a history and a long track record of sacrificial service. This is very, very different. Many people appeal to the Bible and the love of Jesus for his people and the obligation of Christians to care for the poor as proof of government social services. If you're going to use the Bible as proof for civil government services for the poor, you're going to run into some problems, at least the way they're often advertised today. Because often the way it's advertised today is just, hey, if you're under a certain income threshold or you meet these certain qualifications, here's some free money. That's not the biblical view of this, right? The person has to really be in need. And that's one of the things that the deacons are there for. They have to make sure, is there really a need? If there's really a need, The church needs to care for that person. They are obligated to do it. The orphan and the widow. If there's not, what's the Bible say? If a man won't work? He won't eat. So the Bible cannot be used as proof for communism, either in a spiritual commune or in the civil arena. Far from it. There is a safety net within the church, but it's a small one. It's only to catch certain people. Because Christians, they should be godly, productive, God-honoring people who are willing to work hard. In Ephesians, we're told that the thief should no longer steal, but work hard so that they can do what? Share with somebody who has a need, right? We want to be educated, productive people who make a good living for themselves, that they can be a help to others. All right, but the point here is that these officers aren't here just to do everything. It's the body, generally, that has that obligation. And the elders, and the deacons especially, step in where there's those special needs. And we see that, again, with Jethro's advice. Well, when we think further about the office of ruling elder, we see it as an Old Testament institution, Jethro's advice. But we also see it reiterated in the New Testament, especially in the pastoral epistles. For example, in 1 Timothy, the pastoral epistles are called that because they're written to pastors, Timothy and Titus. And in 1 Timothy, we read about the qualifications for an elder, an overseer, in chapter 3, verse 1, that he must be above reproach, husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, et cetera, et cetera. Same thing in Titus. Let's go over a few more pages. We have the qualifications for the elder right at the beginning. And note what he says, this is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order. And he preached the gospel, he evangelized, now he needs to put it in order by appointing elders in every town as I directed you. As the church, God's kingdom is established, There needs to be elders to oversee it. And of course, there's a pastor there, isn't there? Who's the pastor? I'll give you a hint. His name's right there. Titus, right? So this is, again, the government of the churches is being established. And so we have the office of elder. Well, what about the office of deacon? Where do we see that established in the Bible? It's in Acts. You're close. It's Acts 6. And in Acts 6, we read about this situation in which a complaint arose by the Hellenists against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So what's going on here? We have to remember at this time, the church is still basically in one town. What town is it? Jerusalem. The church, the universal church, is in one town. And the apostles are there, and it's just received the Holy Spirit, and it's just barely beginning its work. And a problem arises. The Hellenistic Christians, Greek Christians, are upset at the Hebrew Christians, because the Hellenistic widows aren't getting food. So again, there's some overlap here between the church and the town. because of the special circumstances. And daily they're gathering together and those who are impoverished in their midst are getting food. They're getting cared for because apparently they don't have family. But those who share their ethnicity are upset because apparently the Hebrew widows are getting fed first and there's nothing left for the Greek. Now why? Why would that happen? Yes. The Hellenists, the Greeks, they were the goyim, right? They were pagan. They were in the nations. And although there were some God-fearing Greeks, they weren't fully circumcised, they weren't full members of Israel, but they were respected in the Jewish community because of their love and service to them and their belief in the Old Testament scriptures. They were still kind of, at best, second class. They weren't physical children of Abraham. And so here's this problem, and what a beautiful picture in the New Covenant church, where God is making one new man out of the two, where he's saying, no, wait a minute here. It doesn't matter if you're Jewish or if you're Greek. If you're a widow, you need to be cared for as God would want. And so how do they address the situation? Well, what's the problem that they're facing? Well, notice there's a dispute, right? And it's about food. It's very interesting because there's a parallel between this and Israel in the Old Testament, right? What are they complaining about when they're in the wilderness? Their food, which has to do with their earthly situation. And you can imagine the apostles, right? They're sitting here like just, I could just see them in the room, you know. Here we are, you know, giving these people like the fullness of New Testament revelation. Christ, there's mighty signs and wonders here. And you guys are complaining about food? What about the spiritual food of the Word of God, right? You can almost hear it in their voice that they're exasperated by that. So the twelve summon the full numbers of the disciples and they say, it is not right that we should give up preaching the Word of God to serve tables. The most important thing that the leaders of the church do is proclaim, maintain, and sustain the ministry of the Word of God in the church. Now, that can be a hard thing for people to accept, especially if they're in a situation where they're feeling that their earthly needs aren't being met. And I don't just mean their stomach, but other needs, emotional needs, friendship needs, other kinds of needs. And we must have great sympathy with people who feel those needs. But the point is that the teaching function of the church has a primacy. And so what do they do? Well, they recognize, yeah, the teaching function of the church has a primacy, but we do need to care for each other. So what do we do? It says, therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word. So note a few things here. First of all, note that the office of deacon is very much an assistive office. If you go through the scripture, it's hard to find just like a direct job description of everything a deacon would do. That's because the office of deacon is an assistive office, right? The pastor and the elders focus on the doctrine and the morals of the people, making sure that their doctrine, their way of thinking is correct, and that they're living a life that's faithful to their profession. The physical needs and well-being of the people is important, but that's given over to a different office so that this work won't be neglected. The greatest neglect of the people is not when they don't get their belly filled. It's when they don't get their soul filled with the Word of God. The famine of the Word of God is the worst. And so, to make sure all these things are cared for, a specific office of deacon is established, and it's an assistive office. The other thing to note here, and this is true of all the offices, notice how they are appointed. Did the apostles just pick them out and put them in office? No, what did the apostles say? pick out from among you seven men of good repute." So the gathering, the church, elects the officers. And we'll see this throughout the church order is there's this kind of balance that the officers originate from within the congregation. And that includes the pastor and the elders. They're also part of the congregation, so they could also nominate. But the nominations come from the congregation, Their candidacy is ratified by the existing leaders. And then finally, they're elected by the vote of the congregation. And we see that not only here for deacons, but we see it elsewhere with respect to elders. Now let's think also about pastors. We've seen already pastors and teachers. But where do we get the idea, first of all, that they have the same authority? They're basically two aspects of one office of elder, teaching and ruling. And then also, where do we get the distinction? There's an important Bible verse on this that I think best encapsulates it, although it's evident elsewhere. If you look in 1 Timothy 5, you hear the apostle says in chapter 5 verse 17, he says, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching, for the scripture says you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain. So notice what Paul does here in this verse. He distinguishes between a class of elders who rule, and of course here he's commending those who rule well, and then in a kind of subclass, especially we have those who labor in preaching and teaching. And of them, what does he say in particular? The following verse, he says, they're a bunch of dumb oxes. See, that's the problem with going too far with analogies. He's not saying that the pastor, the teacher is a dumb ox. What's he saying? Don't muzzle the ox. Well, it's trading the grain. What's that mean? What's the point of that? Is it for oxen that God is cared about? No, it means that the preacher is paid. Whereas for the ruling elder, they're not. And why is that? Because, in fact, that's why I tell people, I say, the hardest job in the church would be a ruling elder. Pastor is set aside from all his other labor and he gives his full time to teaching. The elders don't. They work full time jobs. By necessity, by qualification, they are active family men caring for them. And on top of that, they carry the burdens of all the other families and individuals in the church. Usually with only a sliver of time that they have available to them, again, by necessity. If you're going to work to support your family, that's 40 plus hours a week. If you're going to be engaged in the lives of your kids in a meaningful way, that's a lot of hours. If you're going to be there for your wife, that's a lot of hours. You have this sliver of time left. to be an elder. Now, unless you're a retired elder, and retired men who are elders are invaluable to the church, because they have more time available. But the younger men who are working men, they are true servants of the Lord. And the elders aren't here today, but I just want to speak on their behalf, because they don't speak on their own behalf. That's part of the reason I want to commend them, right? But man, these are guys that are faithful in every aspect of their lives, which is demanding enough. And they take on these extra burdens. And they're there for me when I need somebody, when only an elder can be there. You have, right now, elders that are just wonderful servants of God and take on some pretty heavy burdens. So anyway, I could say a lot more about the elders. But notice in the verse, these are distinguished. A ruling elder from a teaching elder. So that's where we get the distinction. But although they have a division of labor that's a little different, they're both elders. This is the key principle in a Presbyterian church. We believe in rule by elder. And every elder has equal authority. The guy that was just ordained last week and the guy that was ordained 50 years ago. the guy whose sermons are broadcast online and are watched by thousands of people every day, and the guy who pastors a 20-member church in a rural area. They all have the same authority. They all come to their meetings, and they all listen, and they all deliberate, and they all vote. Now, the more experienced ministers Do they sometimes carry a little more weight in what they say? Yeah, they do. And by the way, that's one blessing of being a minister and getting older. The old guys at Presbyterian, they can say whatever they want. The young guys, the hotheads, they want to get up there and fight. And everybody's like, sit down and shut up. Don't say anything. It's not your turn yet. But the old guys, they get up and just say exactly what they think, and everybody just lets them talk. One of the blessings of being able to just speak frankly. I've got some funny stories. It's always quite something when somebody gets up to argue against the point you made and the first line they said was, son, I remember when I preached in your church and you were in diapers and your mom took you out to get changed in the middle of the sermon. Kind of puts them in their place, doesn't it? No, I'm kidding here. We don't pull those things so much. The point is, they all have equal authority. And so in our church, I'm the pastor, but I'm not the CEO here. And we're all, as elders, very careful to say, what do you think about this? What do you think about that? We don't come, and this is very, if you're ever thinking about being an officer and elder, if your attitude is, I'm gonna study something, I'm gonna come what I know is the right decision, and I'm just gonna argue until I convince everybody of it. You've got the wrong approach. That's not the way this works. God doesn't give the whole spirit to you and not to others. Everybody receives the same portion of the spirit. And you have to come to the table of the session humble, saying, you know, I thought about this. This is what I think. But what do you think? And what do you think? And sometimes your meeting is going to be saying, OK, well, God's given us each wisdom. And we're all seeing different sides of this. How do we put all of that together in a way that's coherent and works and is consistent? Now, you might do that and still disagree. That's fine. But the attitude is one of, I am not the chief here. The attitude is, we're all together trying to discern the will of God on the basis of Scripture, and we're going to humbly listen to one another. And it's just so important, because if you take the other approach, it just produces tension and division, and you don't build the consensus that you need to build. So we want to get ourselves out of the way as much as possible, and we want to make sure it's God's Holy Spirit expressed in our humility, bowing before the Word of God. Practical application of all that. But those are the three offices that are indicated in the Holy Scriptures. Instead of moving on, I think we're about out of time. But are there any questions or comments about any of that? Just an asymptotical thought on what we were, or inquiry on what we were talking about in terms of review, the apostolic versus post-apostolic church, and we base that largely on 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, the sufficiency of Scripture. they'll bring up that, I think they feel that that's an overly wooden understanding of biblical sufficiency, and they would argue that Paul's writing that before the scripture is completed, even though we don't have a complete canon of that. That's true. What do you intend to say to folks? Well, I'd say that, yeah, it's true that the canon isn't complete yet, but he's talking there about the Old Testament. And as the apostolic age is ending, he's commending to Timothy, at that time, the sufficiency of the Old Testament, apart from direct apostolic presence there. So again, remember in Paul's letters, there's this kind of like, hey, Paul, come to us to fix this problem, because you're an apostle. Paul's saying, look, I'm not there, but you got the Bible. You got the Old Testament. Well, if the Old Testament is sufficient to that degree, even before the closing of the New Testament canon, I'd say, how much more so now, right? I think the other thing to do, too, is to say, we're not just rooting it in the sufficiency of Scripture, per se, right? That's one cornerstone of it. We're reading the sufficiency of the Scripture in terms of redemptive history and the patterns there. And the pattern of redemptive history is, every time God does a major event, He raises up new revealers that explain it, and then the revelation is inscripturated. So, for example, with Moses, there's the Exodus. And in the Exodus, there's the Deliverer, Moses. And he has miraculous works he does to ratify him. The event is performed. It's completed, as it were. And then what happens? Moses' ministry is written down. You have the first five books of the Bible. Then you have the conquest, and all that takes place, and the miraculous signs, and then the book of Joshua. So what you have are major events. with miraculous work and revelation followed by inscripturation. And that pattern repeats in Moses, in Joshua, in the kingdom, and in the exile. And so when we come to the New Testament, it's the same thing. And what we see between these punctuated major redemptive events coupled with revelatory words are long pauses where there's nothing new. between Malachi and the first book of the Bible, it's 400 years, right? And we're in a similar situation, where the apostles have come, there have been major revelatory words through them, and events, namely the death and resurrection of Christ, and the descending of the Spirit at Pentecost. And we're in an interim period where we're working with the revelation that's been given. So for example, Israel was to live on the basis of the law of Moses to the law and to the testimony during that period. And so we're in a similar period where the death and resurrection of Christ has happened. And we're awaiting the second coming. And it's only at the second coming that we're going to have another major revelatory redemptive event. And that's where we can expect new revelation again. So I know that's two minutes. But what you try to do is map out that big picture. And what they will say in response is, well, it's not that simple. You can still find occasional miraculous events here and there. And I'm like, well, yeah, fine. But first of all, that was before Jesus had come, the fullness of revelation. That's one exception in terms of the Old Testament. And number two, it doesn't negate the clear correspondence between major revelatory acts of God to deliver, accompanied by a flood of new revelation. Do you think that there's any merit to the argument, so when Peter refers to Paul, he says, he's calling his writing scripture, Paul's writing the rest of scripture, that these men knew they were writing scripture, they knew that they were finishing the canon, John appears to know he's finishing the canon. Oh yeah. Definitely. Paul, is it possible, is this a meritorious argument to say that the apostles had the full body of doctrine from the Lord that they were preaching, it wasn't scripturated yet, but they knew that it would be. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, Galatians 1 and 2, Paul says, I receive this all from revelation. Like he's got it, like downloaded into him. And as he's alive, he's communicating that to the people. Now again, that doesn't mean the apostles don't err. They do. I mean, we see that with Peter especially. But it's scripture that becomes the reason and basis for Paul's proving them wrong. That's the other thing, is that in Galatians, Paul appeals to Scripture, right? Genesis and all the passages in the law to make his case. He doesn't say, oh yeah, well Peter says this, but God told me this. He says, no, this is what the Scripture says. And similarly in Acts 15, I know we're over time, sorry about that, but in Acts 15, when we have the first Jerusalem council, there's apostles present. They don't settle the debate through a direct revelation of the Spirit. I mean, the Spirit's active then. The Spirit could have come and just said, look all you idiots. Can't you see that the Gentiles, oh, he kind of did that with Peter in the vision. But when they argued it, James got up and made an argument from the prophet Hosea, or no, Amos, the prophet Amos. So they still, at that time, see Scripture as the final authority, and the spirits of the prophets have to be tested by Scripture. Okay, we're out of time, sorry. Go ahead and prepare for worship. We can preach till midnight and you'll all be dead.
2023-11-26 - Sunday School - Church Government
Série Church Government
Identifiant du sermon | 1126232016541451 |
Durée | 50:53 |
Date | |
Catégorie | L'école du dimanche |
Langue | anglais |
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