Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

The late Rabbi Abraham L. Feinberg, in the mid-70's moved to San Francisco to be the “rabbi in residence” at Glide Memorial Methodist Church.

Questioned as to how he could hold such a position at a Methodist Church, Rabbi Feinberg answered that it was easy—as long as the Church is unconventional, doesn’t mention the word of Christ in its liturgy, and is concerned with people, not theology.

And that, he said, is the philosophy behind the Glide Church, which offers its worshippers a sometimes ear-splitting combination of live jazz music, light shows, singing, and rock dancing at each Sunday’s “celebration.”

Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996).

One must ask after hearing that, who is in charge of that church?

Thank the Lord that HE is the Head of our church and the universal church!

Since our local church is now without a pastor, and this church will be interviewing potential candidates for the senior pastoral position, I thought it best (with prayer) to share with you this morning the scriptural foundations as to why you, as the congregation, have the authority to choose a pastor.

After all, one might be questioning at a time like this, "does the congregation have any expertise in selecting a pastor?" or perhaps the question could be posed as "by what power, or by what authority do the members, who are laymen in the congregation, have in selecting such a suitable servant?"

Perhaps to make it more poignant: what gives you the right to make a choice of this magnitude for this church, Jesus' bride?

The answer is what the common churchgoer might not know, or think much about, yet should be able to answer.

This answer has to do with Ecclesiology/Church polity/Church Governing which is our topic this morning.

Lets look first to scripture 1 Peter 2:5-9

v5... a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ; then v9 ... a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

To whom is the Apostle Peter writing?

Usually, the quickest way to find out to whom a biblical author was originally writing is by looking at the opening words of the letter.

For instance:

Peter is writing to us, to the ELECT, to believers!

Which is the church abroad.

The Answer to those potential questions I first proposed is this: the doctrine of the Priesthood of the Believers--by means of Christ's once for all sacrifice on the cross and one of the Baptist distinctives found in the infallible scriptures-- this is what you may rest your God-given authority to make such weighty decisions.

We ought to accredit Martin Luther for his exposition of this forgotten doctrine during his adult life.

Also, it is interesting to note that it is not just Peter in the NT who calls us Priests, but also the Apostle John (ἱερεύς - same word in the LXX for the OT priests) in Revelation 1:6 & 5:10

What is the Priesthood of Believers?

Christ, as you know, is our only and ultimate High Priest by being a propitiation or providing the true covering for our sins and becoming, by rite, the only mediator between God and us, fulfilling the role of priesthood once for all and since He sent His Spirit into us, we now can carry out the ecclesiastical functions of the priest within our local church assemblies as appropriated by Him, our high priest.

In the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Al Mohler writes about this doctrine:

"As the people of God, the church is now a 'royal priesthood' (1 Pet.

2:9), ministering together in the name of Christ.

Though we do not represent one another before the Father, believers are called to pray for one another, to encourage each other to good works, and to call one another to holiness.

Central to the doctrine of the priesthood of believers is the concept of the gathered church, or congregationalism.

Each church is comprised of believers who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ and now serve as priests together.

In its purest sense this doctrine refers to believers gathered together under the lordship of Christ, not to individual believers standing alone.

The doctrine does, however, rightly affirm that we need no human priest to stand between the individual believer and God.

As mediator, Jesus Christ alone fulfills that role."

Albert Mohler continues:

"The doctrine of the priesthood of believers thus affirms the right of every believer to fellowship with God through Christ, and the obligation of every believer to be a fully functioning member of a congregation, exercising Christian discipleship among the fellowship of other believer-priests."

R. Albert Mohler, Jr., "Priesthood of Believers", Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, ed.

Chad Brand, Charles Draper, Archie England, Steve Bond, E. Ray Clendenen and Trent C. Butler (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003).

1328.

What did the priests do?

Other than offering sacrifices to the LORD and being a mediator between God and man for sin, what else?

They were to:

Keep charge of the tabernacle - Numb 18:1-7.

--and so the members of a church are to keep charge of Church.

Keep the sacred fire always burning on the altar - Lev 6:12,13 --and so the members of a church are to continue worship without ceasing.

Bless the people - Numbers 6:23-27.

--and so we are to bless our community with the gospel hope.

Purify the unclean - Lev 15:30, 31.

We are to make that distinction between the holy and the unholy, the secular from the sacred.

Decide in cases of jealousy - Numbers 5:14,15

Decide in cases of leprosy - Leviticus chapters 13 & 14

Judge in cases of controversy - Deut 17:8-13; 21:5.

--here, our authority to exercise church discipline is founded from the OT

Teach the law Deut 33:8,10; Malachi 2:7.

--how are we to teach the law today?

Blow the trumpets on various occasions - Numbers 10:1-10; Joshua 6:3,4.

Carry the ark - Joshua 3:6,17; 6:12.

Encourage the people when they went to war - Deut 20:1-4.

Value things devoted to God - Lev 27:8.

As you can see, this is quite a lofty position to fulfill and all members of this congregation are priests as Christ is the High Priest.

What else were Priests?

Priests were sometimes sinful:

Greedy - 1 Sam 2:13-17

Drunken - Isaiah 28:7

Profane and wicked - 1 Sam 2:22-24

Unjust -Jeremiah 6:13 and

Corrupters of the law - Malachi 2:7-8

This is why the whole congregation must be working together in vital decisions--we are all sinners and sometimes blinded by our sin and we must count upon all the members to see past our corruption to God's leading.

Is there other scripture to back up the congregation's authority?

THERE IS-- this is why Baptists and "non-denominational" churches have their church piety/government as Congregationalism.

What is Congregationalism?

It is one of three structures of Christendom's church Piety/government that happens to have the most scriptural support.

There is also Episcopalian which catholicism modified & Presbyterian with the General Assembly as the ruling authority.

But for Congregationalism, the line of authority is simple:

first the congregation, who elects the Deaconate and the Elderships/Pastors,

then the Deaconate and the Elderships/Pastors LEAD, NOT RULE, the local church.

So what do I mean about the Pastor leading and not ruling?

Well, you'd need to study the pastoral epistles (the two Timothy's and Titus) for the complete answer, which I will assume you will with this opportunity to select a senior pastor for this church.

But for this morning, we see best scriptural support in the book of Acts, but instead of turning to the popular chapter 2 for the picture of the church, let's take a quick run through of the middle of Acts starting in Chapter 6 and ending at chapter 15.

Acts 6:1–7 (ESV)

3Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute...

5And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and...

6These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

We clearly see here that it was the congregation who chose the men!

Acts 11:19-22

22... and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.Here, it was the congregation sent out the men.

Acts 14:21-27

26and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled.

27And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.

--- The sent men reported back to who?

To the congregation!

And now Acts 15 - Acts 15 is used as a proof texts for all three of the Church government structures because when you come to this chapter, it is easy to read it with whatever your ecclesiological bent may be and quickly walk away supposing that it supports it.

So to prevent dogmatism from prevailing interpretation, we must slowly consider what is happening here in Acts 15 and let the scriptures speak to us about the direction of the flow of authority in the first century Church.

What is happening in Acts 15?

I. THE DEBATE IN JERUSALEM -- A special council is called by the Jerusalem church.

What's the debate?

(15:1): There is a disagreement concerning whether saved Gentile believers should be circumcised.

The pro-circumcision advocates (15:5) : These men were Pharisees before they became Christians.

The anti-circumcision advocates (15:2–4, 7–18)

Paul and Barnabas’s defense (15:2–4, 12): They review how God saved many Gentiles apart from circumcision during their recent missionary journey.

Peter’s defense (15:7–11): He speaks of Cornelius’s conversion and that of his Gentile household.

James’s defense (15:13–18): He reminds all present that the conversion of Gentiles was predicted by the Old Testament prophet Amos (Amos 9:11–12).