So in our discussion of Presbyterian church practice, we move from a discussion that probably stirs up the most controversy, last week talking about worship, to one that probably stirs up the most yawns, Presbyterian church government. Who really gets excited about church government, right? People kind of get, who gets excited about congregational meetings and, and presbytery meetings? There's a few of us who love those things, but most people tend to think, oh, this is boring. This is, this is okay. Maybe it's a, it's a necessity, but it's a very boring necessity. Church government produces yawns until it doesn't. Until it doesn't, which usually is the time when difficulty strikes. And some of you might have been there. Maybe there's a local pastor, and he starts acting like he's a dictator, controlling everything, mistreating the sheep, condemning everything and everyone he doesn't agree with or who dares to challenge his authority. Then all of a sudden, the yawns about church government disappear. Now all of a sudden, everybody wants to talk about talk about church power, church office, how things should run, what might be right and what might be wrong. Welcome, come on in, come on in. Let me move this out of the way for you. We're just introducing things this morning to our topic of the week, talking about church government, church government. And we said, oh, perhaps that's a subject that seems boring to some people. Perhaps church government is something that's boring to some. Boring until all of a sudden it isn't. Controversy in the church, right? Maybe it's a pastor who starts acting like a dictator. Or maybe it's a case of church discipline. Maybe it's a case of church discipline that gets handled badly. I have people I know and love who were victims of this. Discipline, that's a good thing according to scripture, an important, necessary thing. But if it gets handled wrongly, mishandled because of the leadership structure, the government structure of the church, then people get hurt. And sometimes that damage is deep and long-lasting. And all of a sudden, questions of government become vital. As people around look on and say, well, hold it. This isn't right. It doesn't seem right. Maybe it's according to the rules of which we do things, but it doesn't seem wrong. Is there a way to help? Is there some appeal we can make for justice here? So all of a sudden, the issues that might have been boring otherwise, church courts, issues of connectionalism, all of a sudden they become very interesting and even critical. So church government is vital, and a good understanding is vital to protect the church, to care for the sheep, to honor Christ, and to advance the gospel in the world. And God's word isn't silent about how the church should be run, about how Jesus wants his church to look what he wants it to look like. We're not left to our own ideas. And certainly these are matters where where good Bible-believing Christians disagree, but yet I think we can say some very important things from the Scriptures that help us to understand what church government practice should look like. The first and most important thing we need to say about government in the church is that Jesus is the head and king of the church. There's where we have to begin, where everything needs to focus. Jesus is the head and king of the church. And so verses that are critical to this, Ephesians 1, 22 and 23. Put all things under his feet speaking of Christ So and the father put all things under Christ's feet and gave him as head over all things To the church, which is his body the fullness of him who fills all in all So you see Jesus pictured as the king and the father granting all authority to the king for the sake of the church, all rule, putting rule and all things under his feet. Matthew 28, a very famous verse, the Great Commission, go and make disciples. Here's the mission statement for the church. But what is the mission of the church founded upon but the government of the church? All authority, Jesus says, in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples. The going, what's it all based on? government, rule of the church, Christ has been given all authority as the king. Now even in both these verses, hopefully you picked up this idea, this notion of Christ's kingship and headship over the church is a different notion of kingship than we spoke about earlier in our study of God being sovereign over everything. God being the king over everything. God always has been the king and always will be. Nothing's out of his control, yes. But here, this kingdom that we're talking about, this kingdom that comes, this kingdom authority that Christ is given in space and time, we're speaking about his mediatorial kingdom. His kingdom, this is the salvific kingdom, the saving kingdom. This is Christ as not only God, but here Christ as mediator, Christ as savior, Christ as as the Messiah and Christ is the king and head over the church as the savior of the body. That may seem very basic to mention that, Christ is the king of the church, the head of the church, but it's critical. Everything flows from this as we think about authority. So if Christ is the ultimate king and head of the church, that means any other authority you have within the church is only derivative. only flows from him and so if you have a pastor I can't just do whatever I want whatever feels good to me right I can only do that which Christ delegates me to do I only have the authority that he gives me because he's the king I can do no more than And at the end of the day, he will hold me accountable to how I do my job as a leader in the church, and hold all leaders accountable. He's the chief shepherd. Any other shepherds are but under-shepherds, accountable to him. So it changes our view of authority, the kingship of Christ. It also dictates our standard. So if Christ is king, That means that His Word will be our guide. Now, of course, we will need, in the midst of ordering the details of the Church, we will need wisdom. We don't have everything laid out in exact detail in Scripture. So you can't go to your Bible and say, well, what time should Sunday school start? Or do we buy a building or do we not buy a building? There are certain matters that Scripture doesn't address. We need Spirit-inspired wisdom. a spirit given wisdom from the principles of the word to deal with those specific details. But at the end of the day, what is the standard for our government? Well, it's the word of Christ. Why? Because he's king. Because he's king. As we'll see in a minute, we can't make new laws because he's the king. So our view of Christ as the king, it orders our view of authority. It dictates our standard. It imposes our goal. We can't just shoot for whatever we want to shoot for in the church. So our goal must be the glory of Christ, the advancement of His kingdom, the sanctification of His people. It imposes our goal. It also, if Christ is King, dictates our manner. We can't do whatever we want. We also can't do it in whatever way we want. If Christ is the head, that means it's going to change how we do government in the church, the manner in which we do it. Here's Jesus talking about that in Luke 22. I think I put these verses on your sheet, Luke 22. And he said to them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors, but not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, the leader, as one who serves For who is greater, the one who reclines at table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table, but I am among you as the one who serves? Or as Christ says, I came for the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. He's saying this to the apostles. Here is how you're going to do leadership in the church. He's going to give them authority. as apostles, powerful authority. But they can't just exercise it however they want. They have to do it in a Christ-like manner, which means doing it as one not who lords it over, because that's the way the Gentiles do it. Dictatorial rule, selfish rule. You do it as one who serves. You do it as one who's laying down his life, because that is what I do. That's how I lead, so that's how you're to lead. It's got to be a Christ-like manner. Christ-like manner. So the first key principle of church government is Christ is the king and head of the church. A second is this, church power is spiritual. Church power is spiritual. Here is Jesus talking to Pontius Pilate. You remember these words and the claim comes up, you know, everybody says you're a king. Are you a king? Jesus answered Pilate, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from the world. In a sense, you know what the whole issue is, Jesus as king is a threat to Caesar and his power. And Jesus diffuses this and said, no, no, my kingdom is not of this world. That doesn't make it less powerful, less significant. In fact, it makes it more so. But it's not a kingdom like Caesar's kingdom. It's not of this world. In Luke 20, you see that same distinction come up as they're trying to trap Jesus about taxes. And Jesus says, let them then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. My kingdom, my arrival as the king, doesn't threaten Caesar and his taxes. Because that's not my kingdom. My kingdom is not of this world. It's spiritual. It doesn't make it less so. It actually makes it greater. But spiritual in the sense, not in the sense of ethereal, but in the sense of not earthly, not fleshly. We need to keep that in mind as we think about church government. The spiritual kingdom of Christ is entirely distinct from the kingdom of Caesar, from the United States. It's not that the United States government isn't important to God. It is important, and God's word says things about how governors are to rule. But it's just that the role the church has is different than the role the government has. U.S. government is mandated by God to make laws, to punish evil, to protect its people. It has certain power to accomplish it. It can levy taxes. It can use the power of the sword. But the church is different. The church has a different mandate, a different mission. The church is calling as that visible Kingdom of Christ, we said that before as we were talking about kingdom. We're in church. Can you see the kingdom of God? Well, in a sense, yeah, you can see the kingdom of God. Where do you see it? The church. The church. So the church, as what you see in the kingdom of God, the visible kingdom, has a different mandate than the church government. The mandate we read earlier, make disciples. Make disciples. The mandate is different, so the power is different. U.S. government, the power to, the mandate to punish evil, and so it can levy taxes, to raise an army, and to execute justice, earthly justice. Church power is different. Church power is spiritual. The kingdom of Christ is not to grow by the sword. Not that people haven't misused it in that way, but it's not to. That's a wrong use of church power. Church power is not the sword power. It grows instead by the preaching of the word, the administration of the sacraments, the careful exercise of discipline within the church. And that discipline within the church is never to be mixed up with with local authority. This is one of the things that our Presbyterian forefathers really wrestled with and I think came to the right conclusion, that we need to be very careful, very careful about how we think about the distinction. This got John Calvin in trouble in Geneva, got him kicked out because he and the other pastors there in Geneva said it has to be the leaders of the church who get to decide who can take communion and who can't. And the rulers in Geneva didn't like that. So they got rid of Calvin. Calvin says, no, we can't compromise on this. It's not up to the earthly powers to decide the spiritual matters of the kingdom of God. And he was right. And he was right. And Presbyterians in England had the same thing, as you had the Anglican church very much mixing earthly power and kingdom power. So that everyone within the realm had to tithe to the church. And our Presbyterian forefathers were adamant. That mixing is dangerous. That's something not right here. Because the kingdom of this world, the earthly kingdoms, as good as they are, mandate from God, are not to be confused with the kingdom of Christ, with the church. So church power is spiritual. Church power, as a third principle, is ministerial and declarative, not legislative. Here I'm giving you kind of classical Presbyterian language. I'll explain what I mean. The pastors, the elders of the church, they have the power to minister and declare the word of God. Declare the Word of God. Declare the Law of God. Not to make new laws. That's what legislators do. They make laws. And that's right if you're a member of Congress. To make new laws for the United States. But elders in the church can't make new laws. Because we have God's Law right here. We have God's law right here, God's commandments for his people, what we are to believe concerning God, what duty God requires of man. We have it. It doesn't mean we don't have any power as leaders in the church, but it describes what kind of power we have. It's not legislative power, let's make some new laws, but declarative power. Let's declare, authoritatively declare, This is the Word of God. This is the Law of Christ. Declared authoritatively. People of God, you must believe this Word of God. But we can't add new laws to it. We can't add new laws to it. And this too, incredibly practical if you come to grips with it. This limits and puts an important control on how church leaders are to use their power and authority. It's only power to declare, not power to legislate, not power to come up with new laws. There was a dear, still is, a dear saint at the Belmar Church, and when I was still working there and got to know her very well, she helped out at the church, and so I got a chance to to get to know her pretty well. And she'd just come from another church, independent church. And there, it was very clear that the pastor was in charge. He was the dictator. And it was just understood, she said. It was just understood that if you were making any significant life decision, you had to run it by the pastor first. And he had to approve. So you were going to pick a new job? You went to the pastor, and you got his counsel, and you better follow his counsel, right? You were to buy a new car, buy a new house, consider moving, right? You had to go to the pastor. That was just understood. That's the way things work. That's the way things work. Well, is that an abuse of power? Perhaps instinctively we say, that just doesn't seem right. Now, why? Is it because we're just Americans caught up in our own culture and we hate authority? Let's be honest, Americans don't like the idea of authority. Is that the reason why that kind of makes us uncomfortable? Or is it because we have a powerful principle in God's Word that church power is ministerial and declarative, it's not legislative? That the pastor, as a leader of a church, can't come up with new laws. You shall follow my advice on everything. If not, you're rebellious. I have authority over the job choices you make. There's where our principle is. And that affects how we do things as a church, and we need to, as leaders, wrestle with that. There's important things that I need to be careful about how I speak, even if it's personal convictions that I might have on certain things. So, for example, I can't stand up here in the pulpit and tell you, you need to homeschool your kids. Because as I look at Scripture, that would be going to Scripture and coming up with a new law. I can't legislate. Even though I might be convicted, that's what God wants me to do in my family. To say, thus saith the Lord, that would be coming up with a new law. I can't say it, and I won't. Or to tell you what presidential candidate you must support. Or to tell you you're not allowed to have a glass of wine with your dinner. I might have convictions about those things, but unless I can show you from Scripture, unless I can declare what God has already said, the law that God has already made, for me to make a declaration like that would be coming up with a new law, would have me legislating, or the session legislating. And we can't do that, that's an abuse of power. So church power, rightly understood, cannot obscure Christian freedom. Christian freedom. Again, this was a huge concern of our Presbyterian forefathers. This was a big deal as they thought about the Roman Catholic Church and the extra rituals that Rome added and the extra laws that Rome added. You had to fast on certain days. How do you come up with that? Is it wrong to fast? No. But we can't eat meat during Lent? Where do we see that in Scripture? That seems like a legislative thing. That seems like an abuse of power. And similar things in other contexts. So church power cannot obscure Christian freedom where the Bible gives it because church power, church leaders don't have the authority to legislate, only to declare. So how is church power exercised? What does it actually look like? You can break it down quickly into three ways. You could speak about... Well, let me stop here. Let me see if there are questions. I've just been rolling along passionately here. Questions, as you've thought through so far this whole issue of church power and what it looks like. One of Paul's letters to the church, he just throws in there, so-and-so must agree Okay. Right. Oh yes. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So he's, in that case, I mean, Paul's in a unique position in that, as an apostle, he is both inspired by the Holy Spirit, but he also takes on the role of an elder. As Peter, the apostle, says, I'm also a fellow elder with you, as he writes to the elders of the church. But certainly in that case, you can see how he's declaring what God has already said. We are to be unified. We are to solve conflict. So he uses that in Philippians 4, I think is the example you're thinking of. He uses that. Here's this dispute. He can say that there must be reconciliation here. And he puts his authority behind it. Rightly so, because he's declaring what God has said. So it's not saying that church leaders just make suggestions. But the declaration has to be declaration of what God has said. Yeah, go ahead. When you were talking about the Lent, not eating meat and things like that, doesn't the Catholic Church, I don't know that I understand it correctly, but don't they place some of those things under the term tradition? Yeah. Versus... Yeah, and that certainly is... That's part of the key controversy, then, is it goes back to what we talked about. What's the standard of authority that we have? And there's a disagreement about standard of authority between Protestants and Catholics. For Protestants, it's scripture alone. And for Roman Catholics, there's a threefold authority. There's scripture, yes. but also the traditions of the church and also the teaching office, the magisterium, the pope and leaders of the church and their teaching capacity, this kind of threefold authority that kind of works together. And so, yeah, so they say, oh, we do have that authority because God has given us in terms of tradition. And again, yeah, Protestants come in and say, we don't see that. scripturally that tradition isn't wrong in and of itself, but it has to be conformed to the Word of God. Scripture is the norming norm, is that which settles all disputes and speaks to other standards like tradition. Any other thoughts? Yes, Jesse? Do you ever find yourself preparing a sermon to check yourself against an impulse to make a rule or, I don't know, find someone's conscience? Sure. Yeah. I mean, definitely. Definitely. If you have any other questions, in the midst of preparing or counseling, do I ever have to check that impulse to, oh, here's another rule? No, I think you're right. Definitely. There is, and certain individuals, certain preachers are, I think, challenged with this more because perhaps they're very good at application or very good at counseling and so they're counseling from the pulpit and they want to get concrete and specific and so there can be that challenge in application that we don't bind someone's conscience. But it is, it is a challenge and we do need to call people to specific action, because God's word does, and help them see what that might look like, but also make sure as we do it, we're not coming up with new laws, which is a tricky thing and something that we need to pray through. And absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. In that circumstance, I'm interested to understand what the church believes about what authority or responsibility the members have if this circumstance were to happen in light of bringing it to attention or addressing it with the pastor or others, or do the elders speak to that matter first? Yeah. No, it's... If a pastor makes a law that's clearly, you know, from the pulpit, not a law. Right, right. Yeah, I mean there is, and we're going to get into some of how specifically it looks like in Presbyterian Church government there are these checks and balances to, you know. It's not a coincidence that there was some really strong Presbyterian influence in our Constitution, that Presbyterians, specifically John Witherspoon, had a real strong effect on the constitutional thinking of our country as a Presbyterian. Because I think scripture gives us that idea of accountability, and no one has absolute power. But I think the short answer is it's kind of a both-and thing. Certainly, elders have a role in speaking to and, if need be, challenging, even rebuking, a pastor who has misused his power. Presbytery has that role, the gathering of elders within a region. has that role, but there can be, done rightly, a role for individual members as brothers and sisters in the Lord where we're called to rebuke one another. So there's a way in which that can be done and should be done. And so if we want to be careful of ever getting to the standpoint of, oh, this person, they are untouchable. I can't challenge them because of who they are. Do it in the right way. You don't want to do it publicly. Go to them privately. Follow Matthew 18 as best you can. Go privately. Perhaps you've misunderstood. If not, take two others along. Probably in the case of a pastor, the two or three others you're going to get are session members, elders. But there is recourse. You can appeal those things. And I think that also becomes a very strong argument on a practical level of why we need to have connectional churches versus independent bodies. Because there is that place of accountability. One of the dangers that I see in independent bodies is it stops. Once you've reached a certain point, there's nowhere to appeal. It's okay, you can leave if you don't like it, but this is the way I run my kingdom, and there is no one higher than me. I think God provides accountability beyond the local church, and we'll see how that, I think, flows out of Scripture. So no, it's a good question. It's a good question. Certainly if you're, you know, if you see that and are concerned with that, with me, I want to hear it. For the sake of my own soul, if nothing else. But certainly for the sake of the sheep. Maybe there's some misunderstanding we can work out, but maybe there's something that God needs to teach me and you coming in a spirit of love might be exactly what the Lord has for me. Or some other shepherd as well. And honestly, if you have a shepherd who wants no part of that, automatically I'm worried. Automatically, that's a red flag to me. Again, because the spirit at which Christ talks about his leaders, right? Not those who lord it over, but those who serve, right? Again, if the spirit is, no, no, no, you may not rebuke me. Who of us haven't been rebuked by our kids, who have kids? And sometimes we need to hear that. Of course we want them to do it in a respectful way. And sometimes we need to challenge them. But sometimes we need them to speak, even in a childlike way, to be able to say, Daddy, You're shouting. That hurts me. That concerns me. That cry for help can be a strong rebuke. Okay, well let's dive in then and talk about how church power is executed. Three ways. If it's ministerial and declarative, what does it look like on a practical level? How do you execute church power? First, the church has power to declare its doctrine. to declare what the scripture teaches. We've said that. Through preaching publicly, through private preaching, counseling and encouragement, declare, thus saith the Lord. But also power to order its worship and ministry. So a declarative power, also a ordering power. Things have to be ordered within the church, just from a practical level. And scripture tells us. Here's what's often described as Presbyterian's favorite verse in the Bible. 1 Corinthians 14, 40. That all things should be done decently and in good order. You might remember the context. It's talking about worship within the church and in the apostolic age context. Well, what about people speaking in tongues and prophecy and the instruction that Paul gives about how to do things. Above all, all things should be done decently and in good order." Well, who's responsible? Certainly church members play a role, but part of the church power and the authority given to leaders of the church is to arrange the details of how things are done to keep them orderly. According to the wisdom of God's Word, for the glory of Christ and the blessing of His people, there needs to be that ability to order. Also, church power is exercised in the discipline of the members of the church. Discipline we can understand in a very broad sense. Fathers are called to discipline their kids or parents discipline their kids in the broadest sense in that you're guiding. You're requiring obedience. The same is with the church. You're calling people to obedience. And then those who stray, you're endeavoring to turn them around, rebuking them when they refuse to obey Christ, restoring them when they do return, all in the right spirit for the right purpose. But still, this is authority that's given to the church, the authority to exercise power in such a way to discipline its members. Its spiritual power, as we said before, So I don't have the power to throw someone in jail, or the gathered elders of the church don't have someone to throw someone in jail. There is someone who does, has that power, that's the governor of the church. So you take an example, you have the horrible sin of a husband who is abusive towards his wife. How do you handle that? God gives authority and power to handle that. Gives different authority, different spheres. And both spheres should be active, right? The church declaring, thus saith the Lord, you better repent from this. Using the discipline of the church, barring that person from the Lord's table, even going so far if there's refusal to repent, to excommunicate that husband. But at the same time, there's a whole other sphere that has different authority, and that's a different phone call that should be made, right? Two phone calls you make in that case. You call the pastor and the elders for spiritual power. You call the police because they're the earthly authorities. And that husband should face the civil authorities and can ultimately be jailed for that. And should be, if that's the case, if that is real, a crime has been committed. Should be, both at the same time. This helps us and sees part of the difficulty that the church sometimes gets into, and we've seen it a lot more recently in cases of sexual abuse. Oh, we'll handle this privately. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. In the sense of we won't get the authorities involved. No, no, no, no. They have their role. God has given it to them. Let them do it. Not that the church doesn't get involved, but you make two phone calls. You call the elders and you call the police. Church power has authority to discipline its members. So then we need to talk about, well, who is that church power entrusted to? We need to talk about church officers. A couple principles under church office that we want to talk about. First of all, church office begins with Christ. That's what we said. It all flows from Jesus. It does. Here's Ephesians 4. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. in saying he ascended, what does that mean? But that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth. He who descended is the one who also ascended far above the heavens that he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for the building up of the body of Christ. So here you have the resurrected Christ. What does the resurrected Christ do? But he gives gifts to men. He gives gifts to men, everyone in the church, right? To each one of us, Paul says. For the benefit of the church, for the building up of the body, the church is equipped. And he apportions, Christ does, gifts in different proportions, different amounts. Not everybody gets the same thing, according to his wisdom. No source for pride here if you have a gift that's different than another. Because Christ is the giver. It's not you earned it, you worked for it. This is grace. The resurrected Christ, based on what he has purchased. They're gifts. And it's the gifting of Christ that forms the foundation for the offices in the church. And here you get a couple examples. A couple examples of what we could call extraordinary offices. Apostle, prophet. Ephesians 2 talks about Paul in the same letter, right, just earlier, that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. The apostles and prophets speak the word of God, direct inspiration from the Lord, right, so they're not proclaiming scripture, they're receiving direct inspiration from the Lord, and Paul says that's the laying of the foundation of the church. Well, you only lay a foundation once, and then you build on it. In the foundation-laying era of the church, you needed apostles and prophets because you didn't have the whole Word of God. But now we do. And so the extraordinary offices of prophet and apostle have passed away. And as you get on in chronological time in the New Testament, you see Paul giving instructions about the next generation. And it's not, OK, call more apostles or get more prophets. It's Paul saying to Timothy, well, go and appoint elders. Here are the qualifications for deacons. So you've got these extraordinary offices, but then others that we might call of as ordinary, continuing into the fullness of the church age. We read of evangelists, shepherds and teachers. That probably is to be combined grammatically, shepherd teachers. Shepherd just means pastor, right? Where do we get the idea of pastor in scripture? Here it is, shepherd. shepherd teachers, right? The ministry of the word in our day, right? Evangelists and teachers, what do they do? They declare the word that has already been written, that has already been written. So it starts with Jesus, the resurrected Christ gives gifts, and those gifts form the foundation for offices in the church. So another principle of office in the church, we need to think about the officer terms, the terminology of Scripture. We want things to flow out of Scripture themselves, itself. So we need to think of what are some of the scriptural terminology that we think. A few things to notice. First of all, it's the idea that the scriptural word elder, from the Greek word presbyteros, presbyter. This is where we get Presbyterian, by the way. Presbyterian just means rule by elders. So you could say, is Presbyterian scriptural? Well, yeah, the word is right out of scripture. So the word, the term in scripture, elder, presbyter, is the same as the word bishop. It describes the same thing as bishop overseer. That's the word episkopos. That's where you get episcopal from. It's just the Greek word that sometimes in your Bible translated overseer, if you're looking at an ESV, or if you're looking at a King James, it's bishop. You might know that part of what episcopal forms of government do, right, Episcopal as opposed to Presbyterian or Congregational, Episcopal forms of government, think Roman Catholic Church, think Anglican Church, United Methodist Church, what you have in Episcopal forms of government, Episcopal Bishop, is that what you have is you have local ministers pastoring churches, and then over them, in a hierarchical way, you have bishops who then pastor the pastors. And so it goes up in hierarchy. So you have bishop, that's a different thing from local pastor, local minister, right? Different rank. Of course, the Catholic Church keeps going and talks about archbishops and cardinals and ultimately Pope. So you have to say, well, in scripture, is this idea of elder, presbyter, different from bishop and overseer? Well, if you really look at how those terms are used, you realize they're used to talk about the same thing. I gave you two passages where that's the case. Here's Paul talking to Titus, one of the pastors, the young pastors that he ministers to. He encourages Titus, the church planner on Crete, He says, this is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put in order, so you might put what remained into order. Order in the church, that's your task. Appoint elders, right, Greek prespiter, appoint elders in every town as I directed you. And then he goes on to talk about. those elders. If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, episkopos, bishop, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant, et cetera, et cetera. So you get the flow of the argument. Titus, your job, go out and appoint elders in every church. And they're to be men of integrity, men of good character, because overseers are stewards. They must be above reproach. You see, clearly, he's talking about the same thing, not a different rank here. Same thing that Paul does in Acts 20. Paul, in Acts 20, as I gave you there, verse 17 and then into verse 28, 17, Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. All the elders gathered together. And what does he say to them? You elders, pay careful attention to yourselves and all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, which the Holy Spirit has made you bishops. So clearly he's talking about the same thing. I'm not talking about two different, OK, I've got the elders over here, I've got the bishops over here. It's two ways of describing the same thing. It's not one office being of higher rank than the other. Slightly different focus. When the word overseer is used, it gives attention to the function, overseeing the flog, versus elder, which gets at the character. This person is to have a level of spiritual maturity. to be an elder in the faith. But we're not talking about two different ranks of things. The other thing we see in Scripture is that elder is used as an umbrella term to describe two different types of leaders. Two different types of leaders. 1 Timothy 5.17 is the key verse here. Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. So here's this word, elders. We said it's the same thing as bishops, or same thing as overseers. Let those elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor. Double honor here refers to they can get paid. They're worthy of getting paid. Honoraria is the idea. especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. So apparently you have within that one umbrella term, elder, you have two different groups. One group that all they do is rule, and another group who rules as well, but also labors in preaching and teaching. You see that? Elders who rule well, we consider worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. So not everybody labors in preaching and teaching. You see this reflected in how we do government here in our church. So you have Jesse, who rules, and in my opinion, rules very well, as a part of the body of elders in our church, as a part of our session. And then you have me. I rule as well, but primarily my calling, my gifting, is to preach and teach. And so that's where I put my time, put my energy. I get paid for it, the double honor, so I'm freed up to be able to focus energy on it. But you can think of it within this one umbrella idea of elder, and two different groups. those who just rule, and those who rule and teach. Now, there's an intramural discussion among Presbyterians about these two groups. Are they two separate offices, or are they two separate classes of the same office? You know, some people get really excited about this whole thing. You know, there's some Presbyterian circles that want to, in a more passionate way, tends to be those that came out of the South, PCA primarily, that thinks, you know, what you have is you have one office of elder, and you have two different classes, teaching elders, ruling elders. In the OPC, we tend to talk slightly differently. We talk about ministers of the word, pastors, evangelists, and ruling elders. Because in the North, the theological trajectory is more to talk about three separate offices, deacon, which we'll get to in a minute, and ministers, or teaching elders, and a separate office of ruling elders. That's kind of an intramural discussion, whether we're talking about three offices or two. There is key things that we all agree on within Presbyterian circles, and that's important. One is that there's parity. However we talk about it, separate offices or two classes within the same office, there's parity. In other words, there's no greater rank. Jesse's voice on the session, his vote on the session, is of no greater or lesser weight than mine. Parity. Equals. All share rule, whether it's ministers or elders or teaching elders, ruling elders. There's a sharing of rule. Everybody agrees that there's different qualifications. Because ministers, pastors, labor in preaching and teaching, they have greater educational requirements. And so in order to do my job, I had to go to seminary and be examined more rigorously in my doctrine and understanding of Scripture. Ruling elders don't officiate the sacraments. Everybody, all Presbyterians agree on that one. Because word and sacrament go together in scripture, Jesse is not going to stand up and officiate the Lord's Supper or baptize someone, but I can as a teaching elder, as a minister of the word, because word and sacrament go together. Okay, so, talked about elders and that umbrella term for two different groups. ministers of the Word, ruling elders. We can also talk about deacons. We see that in Scripture. Philippians 1 has Paul writing to the leaders, the whole church and the leaders in the church, right, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers, right, bishops, the overseers, elders, and deacons. Here are the different kinds of leaders. What's a deacon? What's a deacon? Well, what we would point to is Acts chapter 6. Acts chapter 6. There you might remember this passage. I won't take the time to read it because we're kind of running out of time. You're probably familiar with this. Here there is a dispute within the church. Here are the Greek-speaking widows within the church in Jerusalem. They're not getting fed with the daily distribution of bread, this mercy need within the church. And the apostles stand up and say, it's not right that we should give up the preaching of the word to serve tables. He's not, they're not saying this is beneath us, but saying like, we need to dedicate ourselves to the ministry of the word in prayer. So what does he say to do? Pick from among yourselves seven men of good repute, full of the spirit, we will report them to this duty. That word for serve, that word for serve, serve tables. That's the word, the verb diakoneo, deacon. And so Presbyterians traditionally have connected this to what you see later in Scripture as clearly defined office of deacon, a group that Paul can write to them, to the overseers and the deacons, and Paul can give qualifications. Here's what a deacon is to look like and be. And that's their job, not to rule in the church, not to preach and to teach, but to minister mercy needs within the church. Care for mercy, the physical needs within the body. in part to free up those who are called to preach and teach to be able to focus more on that task. So whether it's a single mom who needs help shoveling snow in the wintertime or a family that needs help with moving, here are the deacons who can help and lead the congregation in helping and things like that. Okay, we need to quickly then go to practice of Presbyterianism. What does this look like within the church to practice this? A couple of key principles. uh... leaders are chosen by the church leaders are chosen by the church because because that this special office of pastor, or deacon, that flows out of the general office of believer, the same spirit that's in all of us. And therefore, it's the church that picks those who will rule over them. And you see that in the Acts 6 passage I mentioned with deacons. Who's to choose the deacons? Is it the apostles who do it? No. The apostles say, pick from among yourselves. Pick from among you, seven men. They have to be qualified, right, full of the spirit and wisdom. We will appoint them to this duty. Lay on hands, ordination, but pick from among yourselves. It's the church that chooses their own leaders, which is why we have... How would we get a new elder or a new deacon? Well, it's because someone from the church would nominate someone, the session would approve that nomination, and then there would be a vote of the congregation, the congregation picking. So there's no one who rules over you who you have not chosen. It doesn't mean complete democracy because you can't vote someone out if you don't like them, but there is a choosing from among yourselves. Second principle of practice. Local churches are ruled by a body of elders. A body of elders. Not one man rule, but a body. So you have Paul's practice in Acts as he plants churches. Acts 14. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church. Multiple elders in every church. says the same thing to Titus. I left you in Crete. Put these things in order. Appoint elders in every town as I directed to you. Multiple elders, a body of elders. And that's what we mean by session. It's just, that's the group of elders within a local church. Session just means a sitting together. Sitting together for deliberation for judgment But a sitting together of elders and that's how decisions are made It's not because the pastor decrees it but because the body of elders you can see the wisdom here of God Because we know that power corrupts And absolute power corrupts. Absolutely. You don't want One man to run the show in a church. That's dangerous. You don't want that from my sake and for me to be the only guy. Please don't do that. I'm not wise enough to handle that. It protects the sheep. It gives wisdom in a multitude of counselors. In a multitude of counselors, there's wisdom. Local churches are organized. This is the third principle, practice. Local churches are organized and connected for cooperation and accountability. So our local churches, you have groups of elders that rule local churches, but what's the connection between them? You look in scripture and you see there is a connection between them of accountability and cooperation. So the best example of this is Acts 15. You might remember the story. There's a dispute in a local church. It's about circumcision. The church in Antioch. There's there's a dispute about circumcision should the Gentiles be circumcised and It's a dispute. They can't handle locally and it has broader implications for the whole church So what is what is done with that case? It's referred to a body of elders right here Apostles and elders they gather in Jerusalem a higher court They gather together they debate the matter There's discussion debate They come to a decision as a joint body. It's no like one Pope Peter who says, here's what we're going to do. No, together they come to a decision and that decision is announced to the churches as something that's authoritative. Here's what you will do. Gentiles don't have to be circumcised. And apparently that settles it or should settle it. And so that is how we work things within our church. So you had a dispute like Jonathan brought up. Local pastor seems to be abusing his power. And maybe a session can't handle it, doesn't handle it. There can be appeal to a higher court. And I give you the courts of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Local session, plurality of elders. Then you have presbytery. regional body, there's no one higher in rank, there's no super bishop that's in charge, but it's a gathering of ruling elders and pastors that gather together to work together, do home missions within the state of New Jersey in our case, but also hear appeals. There's this dispute in Medford, we need to help out. Maybe rebuke a pastor who's gone off the deep end. And then there is a higher body in the OPC, the General Assembly, which is the entire church, discussing matters that pertain to the entire church, hearing appeals that Presbytery can't handle, or that affect the whole church, a matter of doctrine for the whole church. So that bell tells us we're out of time. Some good questions here. If you have questions, let's keep talking. But hopefully some good things to think about. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your love and your care for your church. Be with your people, protect and guard and guide, we pray. Lord, for the good of your sheep and the glory of Christ, in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you guys.