of the church, and how that authority is derivative of Christ's authority that he has. So, Ephesians chapter 1, verses 15 through 23. For this reason, Paul writes, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you. Remembering you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you. What are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe? According to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." So, as we consider this, The aim of this little series that me and Joe are going through is not necessarily just so that we understand what the church is. We're trying to put a fine point on this so that at the end of this, we're going to come to very practical exhortations to how all of us individually should be living towards one another in the body of Christ. And everything that we're doing before we get to those practical exhortations, what we're calling the one another's of scripture, Everything before that is supposed to kind of build the foundation of our knowledge and Brother Joey has labored over the past four weeks to do that very well. So, so far we've considered the universal church. And specifically, that Jesus Christ has chosen elect people from every nation, tongue, and tribe throughout all time periods to be saved and part of this one body. This universal church, as Joey has taught us, will never perish, will never die, will endure till the end of the age, till the coming of Christ, and will be in all eternity with our Savior. Then we began to look at the local church. We considered what a local church is. What the true marks of a church are. And what Joey was telling us is that it's all wrapped up in the gospel of Jesus Christ. A true church is a church that's marked by the preaching of the gospel, the administration, the right administration of the sacraments, which is a visible display of the gospel, and church discipline, which is who is one of these new covenant members, who's been saved by the Lord, and who has not. And then last week, we considered what makes a healthy church, going through Revelation ...two and three. Right? And so today we're going to kind of transition... ...from talking about the differences between the universal and local churches... ...to considering the authority of the church. Right? So if we're going to think about... ...the fact that we're supposed to strive towards being a healthy church... ...and avoid becoming a false church... There needs to be some authority to how we do that, right? Who has the authority to make those decisions of whether we're healthy or not? Of where we're going to go as a church. And today I want us to consider that Jesus Christ is the head of his church. And what I want us to be convinced of today, I hope, is that Christ as the head of the church has delegated that authority. two local congregations. Okay? So, we'll dive into that. Now, the first thing I want us to realize is that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. Now, I don't think that there'd be anybody in this room that would argue that fact. In fact, it might seem like something that doesn't even need to be brought up, it's so obvious. We read it in Ephesians chapter 1. And notice that Christ as the head of the church is put in a very specific category. We know that Jesus is the ruler of the entire cosmos, right? That every person, every atom obeys his sovereign will. But Paul points in a very specific way that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. And he, in verse 22, put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that fills all in all. Now, a couple of other passages to have in our mind as we think of Christ being the head of the church is Ephesians chapter 5. In verses 23 and 24 in particular, we read, I'll start in verse 22, wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for as the husband is the head, notice that language, head of the wife, even as Christ is head of the church, his body, and is himself its savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands, everything to their husbands. Turn with me to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1, verse 18. We'll read verse 17 as well. And he is before all things. And in him all things hold together, and he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he may have preeminence. And then in chapter 2, verses 9 through 10, lastly today, there's more passages we can go to. Notice, Paul says, for in him, that's in Christ, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. And you have been filled or complete in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. So we have the language of Jesus Christ being head of the church used over and over throughout scripture. And I want us to know that there are two possible ways that that language can be taken, right? The word head, what other word would you use other than head to describe what these passages are talking about? What does it mean that he's the head? Yes. Yes, absolutely. And so as we think about a head related to the body, what does that mean? What does it mean that Christ is the head and we're the body? Directs the body? Yeah, he has authority over the body, right? He has authority over the body. But there's another sense in which that could be as well. Because all life, in some sense of the word, flows from the head. Now, we could, you know, the head of a river or something like that, right? And so the idea with head is either authority or the source of something. And both of these things are true in Jesus Christ. I want us to realize that. When we say that Jesus Christ is the head of the church, it's because all things living and spiritual flow from our Savior to the body, right? This is another way of saying that we're united in Christ as He is our Can we think of any passages that speak to that reality? Christ is our head and therefore spiritual life comes to us. Think of John chapter 15, right? He is the vine, we are the branches. We can do nothing if we don't abide in Him. Christ being the head is essential for the growth of individual Christians and churches because we're united to him. Can we think of any other illustrations of Christ being the head in an organic way that gives life to the body? What about husband and wife, right? Now it certainly means that Christ is the head over the wife in an authoritative way. But it means more than that. We are one with Him, right? We are one flesh with Jesus Christ in some sense of the word. And He gives us His life. Yeah? Oh, I think that that's certainly true. Because we come to Christ when we eat and drink communion, right? We're reminded of that organic relationship to our head. That it's only through Him that we have any life, right? That's why we feed on Him and drink Him. He's also the authoritative head over the church. He's the authoritative head over the church. Now, he rules over all the church, and he does it in a very specific way, and that is through his word and his spirit. He sends his spirit and his word throughout the world to gather in his people, right? And we're gonna consider next week the word of God. And how the Word of God is the declaration of Christ's authority. Where any man, or anybody that has this authority, the congregation derives that authority. Knows what their head says to them and how to conduct the things of the church. Jesus Christ is our authority. We consider that, like I said, that doesn't seem like a mind-blowing concept to us or maybe even something we need to have firmly rooted in our mind, but there are a lot of misconceptions that are absolutely detrimental to Christianity if we get this wrong. What are some examples that we can think of of not having Jesus Christ as our head but something else? Roman Catholic Church, the Pope. If you look up the Roman Catholic Catechism, they would say that Christ is the head of the church, but the Pope exercises, and I can't think of the exact language, but Absolute authority over the Roman Catholic Church. Everything that he decides is absolutely authoritatively binding. And he's even called the Vicar of Christ. The mouthpiece of Jesus Christ. Now that is absolutely blasphemous because who is the Vicar of Christ, theologically? It's the Holy Spirit, right? Jesus Christ ascended on high, was seated at the right hand of the Father, and He poured out His Spirit onto the church to teach us and guide us into all things, to point us to the Word of God. The Pope is an absolute catastrophe of this doctrine, a denial of this doctrine, I think, in every practical term, that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. What's another biblical example of somebody Giving away the headship of Christ to another entity. Yeah, I know what you're saying, but that's not where I'm thinking. I'm thinking of Revelation. Revelation 13 makes it very clear that the state can usurp the authority of being the head of the church. This is what the beast does in Revelation 13. He asks all people to bow down and worship Him. And even in 2 Thessalonians, we see that when that false prophet comes at the end of the day, that Antichrist, that man of sin, he's going to stand in the church of God, I would say, the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. And I think in practical terms, in local churches, we can often treat the pastor as if he is head of the church of Jesus Christ. Yeah, brother. Oh, yeah, I think that that's a good point, brother. Yeah, I mean, bow down before me and I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world, right? I think that there's some correlation there. But we have the pastor can usurp that authority in some churches where he doesn't necessarily even look to the Word of God, he just directs the church how he sees fit. We need to be aware of these dangers because if we reject the headship of Jesus Christ and substitute any other head in its place, the danger is that we lose the mediation of Jesus Christ. Because there's only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, right? And to maybe put a point on that warning, this is the point of Colossians chapter 2 and verses 16 through the end of the chapter. Or he says, therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food or drink, Colossians 2.16, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you. Notice that language. That's strong. Disqualify you. Insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensual mind, and notice, not holding fast to the head. from whom the whole body nursed and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with the growth that is from God. If we make anything else the head of Christ or any other ritual intercede for us, we have the danger of losing Christ and not holding fast to our head. Now, Christ has all of this authority and as we've already said, He tells us His authoritative plan and rules in the Word of God which He has given to us. But he has entrusted this authority to people on the earth. Now, I think we briefly have to talk about what are some different models of how Christ entrusted that authority. So some would say, like with the Pope. Yeah, Miss Erica. Yeah. Well, no. This would be interpretation in the Bible. That's a good question. No, that's a good question. We'd say the Pope, right, as one example. The Pope considers himself to be the universal bishop of all the churches, right? That he is the one singular head of the universal church of God. But the Pope is an extreme example and it comes from a broader ecclesiology of Episcopalianism, okay? So Episcopos is a word derived from the Greek in the New Testament, which means bishop, right? And in the Episcopal system, there are three offices in the church. There's the bishop, there's the pastor, and then there are deacons. The bishop oversees multiple churches, right? And is a pastor of pastors, so to speak. And then, that's where the authority is really delegated to the man. the Episcopalian, the Episcopos. What's another way that we could view how Christ delegated this authority? Elder rule, yes. So elders ruled the church and we could expand that a little larger, Presbyterianism, right? which would say that a college of elders or a board of elders from different churches come together in a kind of a bigger church to make decisions for the rest of the congregations, right? And that affects how the local church, like Joey said, because the elders are really the ones that make the decision. They have the authority in the Presbyterian system to guide the church forward to what they would consider health or non-health, right? And the third is what we would defend and what we would say the Bible teaches is congregationalism. That the Lord Jesus Christ has entrusted to local churches as a whole the authority that he has to direct the church to health according to his word. Does that make sense? We shouldn't confuse Baptist with the, so sometimes when we think congregational, we just think independent, right? And any church that is separated from a hierarchy or hierarchical, it doesn't matter, structure, you know what I'm saying, is congregational in some respect. But that's really not true, and that's what Brother Joey brought up. Even within Baptist churches, small churches like we have that are independent from any other kind of denominational structure, They can be an Episcopalian Baptist church. What do I mean by that? Where one pastor, the senior pastor they would call him, rules over all things, makes all the decisions, and deacons go out and help him make those one decisions, right? That is not a system where the congregation is entrusted to make decisions on how the church is to operate, but the one man, he's an Episcopalian, so to speak, in his one church. there's also elder rule churches which a lot of our fire churches are and we love them though we think that they're mistaken in this where really they have a Presbyterian structure of church government but within the local congregation without a hierarchy if that makes sense and what I want to tried to prove to you today is that the Bible, when it speaks of the authority of the church, it speaks to congregations, not to pastors, and not to a single pastor, but to the whole church. Now, brother, did you have a question? Yeah. It definitely would. I thought you were going somewhere else, because Corinthians is one of the main places we'll go. So I think, When we think about the authority of the church, first we have to answer what authority? Authority to do what, right? It's not authority over everything, obviously. It's not authority to take over the civil government, right? It's not authority to make traffic laws. What is the authority that is invested in the local church? Yes, yeah. And that's exactly right. So turn with me to Matthew chapter 16. And we'll go to Matthew chapter 18. And I think even a clearer image that we ought to have in our mind about the authority given to the local church is keys of the kingdom. This is the language that Jesus Christ uses, right? He gives keys, the keys of the kingdom. Now, what does a key do? Unlocks a door or locks a door, right? Either one. A key is a symbol of authority to let things in or to put things out. So, Matthew chapter 16, I'm going to read this and then we're going to go immediately to chapter 18. In verse 18, I tell you, you are Peter, on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you bind on earth shall be bound. And whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then he strictly charged his disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. Now, if we were to read that verse all by itself, we might conclude that Peter alone is given the keys and the authority of the church. And this is the verse that Roman Catholics used to say that Peter and the Roman Pontiff, which we'd have to do a lot of work to show that Peter was the Roman Pontiff, that we're not going to do, but that is refuted very easily by turning two chapters later to Matthew chapter 18. Jesus isn't giving Peter sole authority over the Church of God, rather He's using Peter as a symbol of the church as a whole, which makes this confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And we see this in Matthew chapter 18 and verse 15. Well, I'm going to skip a little bit. We see church discipline outlined there. And verse 18, we see, truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth, and that's plural. It's no longer to Peter, it's to the church. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you, if two or three, if two of you rather, agree on anything on earth about what they ask, it will be done from them by their Father in heaven. For where there are two or three gathered in my name, there I am among them. And notice in verse 17, this is in reference to the church making the decision about excommunication. The keys of the kingdom are given to the church of God. Now, as we consider those two passages, I think it's helpful to consider that the congregation has authority of the who and the what of the gospel. And this is taken from 9 Mark's book on what is understanding the congregation's authority and I think it's very helpful. So first we have to consider that the congregation has authority over the what of the gospel. Can we think of any examples of that? Yeah, so we know the truth of the gospel is static and does not change. And so what we're not saying is the congregation has authority to change the gospel, but rather what the doctrines that teach the gospel are, right? Because it's on the basis of what we believe the gospel is that we let people into the church or put people out of the church. It's our declaration to what the gospel actually is. And I'll tell you, we did this very recently in our church meeting. we voted to adopt as the Confession of the Elders, right, 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. And as a church, you made the decision that that is an appropriate rule and confessional statement, doctrinal statement, for the elders of the church. Also, The church long ago decided what our doctrinal statement was in the back of our Constitution that every member sees and agrees to live by that doctrinal statement. Me and Joey do not have the authority to just go in anytime we want to and cut pieces out of our doctrinal statement or put pieces into it, right? The congregation must be taught what the gospel is and come to a realization of that to agree what the gospel is. Does that make sense? But I think more clearly in scripture, it's the who of the gospel that we're talking about. The congregation has authority to determine who is a member of the new covenant and who is not. Now it doesn't do that absolutely perfectly, but when we invite people into membership, we vote, we use that key to open the door to a new covenant local church and let people in. We have seen their testimony, heard their confession, which lines up with the what of the gospel, right? And we decide to let those people into the church. And that is the basis for excommunication in church discipline. When somebody's life is destroyed, they've destroyed their profession of the gospel by living contrary to it or by adopting things that are contrary to the what of the gospel, right? We turn that key the other direction and we say this person is not part of the new covenant. There's nothing in them that would make me think and have confidence that they're part of the new covenant. The church removes or uses its authority rather. to show that. Do we have questions about this? Brother. Yes, absolutely. And again, that's a good point. This is invested in every local congregation. Where can we go to see that? Did this authority... Yeah, brother. Yes. Amen, brother. Yeah. And that is that is the clear truth. And that's a very good connecting thought to Christ being the head. And now it's been delegated or delegated. It's probably not the best word. It's been the church has been given authority because of Christ's authority. And so where do we get evidence in the scripture that the church, the local church, is the one that has the authority to do these things? Right. Yes. Yes. Yeah, amen. And we have that explicit language in Matthew chapter 18 when two or three are gathered together in my name. There I am in the midst of them, right? So it's when the people of God get together in a local assembly that the idea of church discipline is hearing witnesses. An individual has witnessed somebody in sin, living in sin. They go to that person privately. They tell them. And then they bring two or more people or one or more people with them to validate that witness, right? This is according to the Old Testament principle that by two or three witnesses everything will be established, right? And then if they won't hear them, they bring it to the church. So this evidence that the two or three have gathered is presented to the body of Christ and the church makes a decision. Now, I'd ask, how do we know that a church makes a decision? There's got to be some way of doing that. They don't necessarily have to vote, but I don't know of any other way that the church would do that. The congregation has to express its will in making that decision. I hope that makes sense. We see this also in 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. Now this is the very explicit way that we can show this. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. Notice what Paul says in verse 3. For though absent in the body, I am present in spirit, and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. And notice what Paul doesn't say here. He doesn't say, therefore, I've already cast him out of the church. Don't let him take communion anymore. He says, when you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you, that's plural, You are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord. 1 Corinthians is not written to the elders of the Corinthian church. It's written to the Corinthian church itself. And Paul tells you, y'all, right, to do this thing. Can we think of any other examples in Scripture where the congregation is given this authority? Yep. Yes, that's absolutely right, brother. In Galatians chapter 1, Galatians chapter 1, notice in verse 9. And as we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. Now this isn't just in your mind, they're a cursed person. casting them out of the church. They are taken out of the kingdom of God and handed over to Satan like we just read in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. If anybody preaches another gospel, let him be accursed. He needs to be cut off from the body. And so I think we see very, very clearly in cases of church discipline that the congregation itself is given the authority to do these things. And the three texts that we should have in our mind Matthew 18, Galatians 1, and 1 Corinthians chapter 5 for that. I'll give you one more though, I'm sorry. 2 Corinthians chapter 2, this language is very strong and I think implies strongly a congregational effort to excommunicate somebody. 2 Corinthians chapter 2, I'm scanning here, in verse 6, Now, read verse 5. This is probably talking about the same man that was excommunicated in 1 Corinthians. Now, if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure, not to put it too severely to all of you. Notice verse 6. For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough. Right? Now, again, I'd ask the question, how would you know that there was a majority that did something? probably by taking a vote in some way, shape, or form, right? And it said that this man, his punishment was inflicted, not by Paul, not by the elders, but by the majority, okay? So, we see that there. In church discipline, it's very clear, but also with the election of church officers, we see the congregation's authority to do this. I have no authority to pick a man, I'm looking at all sorts of people, and say, You're an elder now. This is your job. Where do we see that in Scripture? We've got nine minutes. Where do we see that in Scripture, that the authority of the congregation chooses its elders, deacons? Any of them, but yes, sure. Elders or deacons. Act 6, yes. So the language in Act 6, again, we need to pay very close attention to because we are trying to build our church on the example of Scripture and what the Scripture tells us. Notice that in Acts chapter 6, there comes a very significant problem where the Greek-speaking Jews weren't given the proper needs that they had. And Peter comes and says in verse 2, the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, now notice what they did. first, and say, okay, we're going to go out and pick seven men. They said, we're going to assemble the full number of the Jerusalem church. That's important. And they said, it is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, and we will whom we will appoint to this duty, right? The congregation is given the authority that you pick out these men and you bring them forward and the apostles, the elders I think in our context, they ordain this man to ministry. What other examples can we think of? No, either one. Prototype of that, yeah? He did. And I think that we should deal with that. It's maybe a little tricky to deal with in the short time that we have. But notice in Acts chapter 14, we see in verse 22 that the apostle Paul, he's on his his second missionary journey, I believe, at this point, and he says in verse 22, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. Notice verse 23, and when they had appointed elders for them in every church with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they have believed, right? But I want to, the pronouns that are used here, the referent isn't extremely obvious. says that they appointed elders in every church. The they could be referring to the apostles or to the churches that they just visited. But even if the apostles appointed these men, we see the same language in Acts chapter 6. That the church chose out seven men, right, and the elders ordained them into service. And I think that's what's going on in Acts chapter 14. Because I don't think that we should think that the apostle Paul entered into Lystra in Iconium without knowing any of the people there, and then randomly chose somebody, he seems like a good elder. I think the apostle would say, who do you think is a gifted brother in your congregation? Because that's the theme that we find over and over. But I don't think that Acts chapter 14 is clear that even the apostles were just choosing people willy nilly here. Quickly, we see in Acts chapter 1 as well that when they were going to replace Judas, Peter, again, puts the authority on the people of God. Let's see. In verse 21, so one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness to the resurrection, and they put forward too. So the congregation of people that existed in Jerusalem at the time, Peter put forth the qualifications, they had to have walked with Jesus, and they, the congregation, chose two men and put them forward. But then a lot was cast. Yeah, brother. Yes. I think it's certainly safe, and what we certainly gather from First Timothy is that a person needs to be involved with the local congregation so that they can make the decision, right? Now, that charge was given to Timothy directly, but I believe it was Timothy directing the church in how they ought to operate. So, very limited time here, one second. So we see, I think, very clearly, exceedingly clearly, that in church discipline, the authority is given to the congregation. And I think that very clearly we see in the choosing of church officers as well. Do we have any questions about that? Again, hopefully I got my point across that the main thing I want us to know is that all of you, if you're a member of this church, have been invested with Christ has given you the authority to lead and guide the church in the what and the who of the gospel. Does that make sense? There's any questions, I certainly want to hear them, if not now, anytime. But, yeah, Miss Heather. Yeah. On the what? Yes. Acts chapter 15. I should have brought that up. Acts chapter 15. So we have the Jerusalem council here. So in the Jerusalem Council, there was a great debate going on because, let's notice a couple of things. There were men that came to the churches saying, unless you're circumcised and obey the law of Moses, you cannot be saved, right? And so I want us to notice, I'm scanning here, notice in verse two, it's after this controversy arised, And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question. Now notice, the apostle Paul just didn't say, well I'm going to go and make an authoritative decision, nor did he say, well I'm going to go and talk to them. Notice that the apostle Paul and Barnabas, they were appointed to go to the Jerusalem church. Now who appointed them to do that? I would say the congregation appointed them to do that. And as they go through this text and they have debate about whether they need to obey the law of Moses or not, notice what James says in verse 19. Therefore, my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from what has been strangled, and from blood. For from ancient generations, Moses has in every city those who proclaim him, for he has read every Sabbath in the synagogue. And so we might say, well James made that decision, right? But I want us to see that James counseled the church, notice verse 22, then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders with the whole church to send men from among them and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, right? So the whole church agreed that this was good. This wasn't just the elders coming together and making a fiat decision, this is what the other churches should do. The whole church of Jerusalem, now I'm redundant and forgive me, maybe snarky, how would they know that the whole church was good with this? They probably had some system to know that the church agreed with what was done. So I think that that's the clear example that I can think of. Yeah, absolutely. Any other questions? Okay, I'm going to pray for us. Lord, we come before you in the name of your son. We thank you for your word and Lord, I pray as we continue to go through this and next week as we consider how the congregation ought to use that authority and how we ought to understand the Holy Scriptures in order to use that authority rightly. I pray that you would continue to work in each and every one of our hearts, that if we've been given this duty and privilege by Jesus Christ, we ought to take it very, very seriously, that my own personal growth in holiness, my own personal knowledge of the Bible is not just for my sake and my own personal growth, it's for the whole people of God. I pray that you would continue to work and help us in this, in Jesus' name, amen.