Authority in the Chruch
A christian response to authority • Sermon • Submitted
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1 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge,
But he who hates reproof is stupid.
“That mean old biker church preacher just called me stupid” No I didn’t - God did.
Lawrence County: Schtupid
Ba’ar. Hebrew. King James - Brutish.
Most other translations just say stupid.
I don’t know if I have every said the word stupid from the pulpit.
Now, Its hard to stop......Stupid.
If Martye was here, she would be giving me that “ok, move on” look.
Do you remember being a kid and thinking you know everything? Bait-caster story.
Arms out....I know, I know, I know.
FAA Test Story. 59 right. I wanted to know about the one.
I wanted correction.
King David prayed to God to correct him.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.
If you claim to be a Christian and not searching the bible and your own heart to make sure they line up with one another, your stupid.....
God knows that we can all be stupid from time to time.
That is why he gave us each other. To spur one another along. To pray for each other. To correct each other, and to grow in out faith and understanding of the Lord.
He also provides for leadership in the church.
Important note: OT you had Prophets, Priests and Kings.
Jesus is the ultimate Prophet, the ultimate Priest, and the Ultimate King. He is the head of the Church.
Within His church, he spreads out leadership. This morning we will look at the leadership of the church, as well as each of our roles in keeping the church as a whole on task.
17 From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church.
26 “Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men.
27 “For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.
28 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
29 “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;
30 and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.
31 “Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.
Every person that has either rejected Christ or never accepted Him, has a story about the hypocrites in the church.
And I want to say, You don’t know the half of it. The saints, those that are born again, filled with the Holy Spirit, have right standing before the Holy God through Christ… still have fleshly bodies....still suffer temptation to sin....still fail....On top of that we have wolves in sheep’s clothing trying to tear us apart from the inside.
Matt Chandler says that the job of the Overseer in the church is to hunt and kill the wolf.
We are a unique church in that we are at seeker church.
And so, we have to be all the more vigilant that someone comes to this church, claiming to be a believer, but tries to undermine the teaching of Christ, cause dissension. They will be corrected, or asked to leave.
That job, if you will, is to be taken up by the elders of the church.
1 It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.
2 An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
3 not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.
4 He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity
5 (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?),
6 and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.
Female deconess. Phoebe.
Core Teams: A married couple, or a single man.
1 Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed,
2 shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness;
3 nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.
4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
5 You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Three types of Church discipline .
Formative: Baptism, Lords Supper, Attendance, Giving, Service.
Corrective/Restorative Discipline
15 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.
16 “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed.
17 “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
18 “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
This should be a constant practice in the church.
More than once, I’ve received a phone call or someone has come to me and said, “you said this on Sunday, but God’s word says this. I think you missed it.”
I welcome it!!!, You should too.
Well your judging me!!!! Yep.
Punitive Disipline :
1 It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife.
2 You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.
3 For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
5 I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?
7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people;
10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.
11 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church?
13 But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.