Elder Rule

Acts 15.1-21

But some of the men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers. Unless you are circumcised. According to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. 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 up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. So being sent on their way by the church, they pass through both Phoenicia and Symeria describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles and brought great joy to all the brothers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees Rose up and said it is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.

The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, brothers, you know how in the early days that God made a choice among you and that by my mouth, the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel in believe. And God who knows the heart bore witness to them by giving them the Holy spirit just as he did us. And he made no distinction between us and them having cleanse their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke of the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear, but we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus just as they will. And all the assembly fell silent and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

And after they finished speaking, James replied, brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take from the from them. A people for his name. And with this, the words of the prophets agree just as it is written. After this, I will return. I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen. I will rebuild its ruins and I will restore it. And that remnant of mankind may seek the Lord and all the Gentiles who are called by my name says the Lord who makes these things known from of old. Therefore, my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turned to God, but should, but should write to them, to abstain from things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood and from ancient generations, Moses has had in every city those who proclaimed him for he is red in every Sabbath in the synagogues.

Let's bow our heads and pray together. Once again, our heavenly father. Now as we have broke, open your word to see what your word has to say about elders and eldership. Lord in a very practical way for us as a church to celebrate this day because it is a significant day and we give you thanks for your, your workings here as a, as an elder body Lord, we have not attempted to want to feel we had the wisdom to design things, but, but, but rather Lord, we wanted to be faithful to truth and fatefully tend to the protection of the word of God and for the gospel message itself. And then to preach it and teach it both in this building and throughout our homes so that others may come to know Jesus thus apart fulfilling Lord your mission on for us, which is Matthew 28.

Lord, we don't pretend to be intelligent enough to be enduring enough Lord to be sharp enough to accomplish these things on our own. God forbid that any sinful pride would, would enter into our hearts, but Lord, we're thankful that you are continuing to apply your work of salvation across the globe. And Lord, we've seen it even demonstrated in our own myths to which we give you thanks and we glorify the name of our savior Jesus who has done these beautiful things. We ask though, that you will protect us and that you'll continue to lead and to guide and to direct us and Lord to the elders at large in particular for us, Lord, that you'll protect our hearts, that we'll be godly men in spiritual men that will seek your face and will in the things that pertain to our local assembly. And we ask and pray for these things in the name of Jesus and by the power of the Holy spirit.

Amen.

Well, nationally, this Sunday and going forward, the month of October is pastor appreciation month. And in particular for those of you that participated in the summer Bible class on the church, we spent the first three weeks in great deal of active conversations. I enjoyed it very much all three weeks on what it means to be an elder. In truth, we never got to this summation passage of acts chapter 15, where I was wanting to demonstrate it because of the conversation, which was again was awesome. But because of the other things we wanted to get to that pertain to the church, we went through the rest of the summer. This in part is the, is the final segment of that. But much more importantly, if you'll recall, those of you and there were a great deal of you that were in there that day. This is the day that we officially we'll move forward as co-pastor, pastor Alex and myself.

While announced that day, we wanted to take a particular Sunday to announce it to the church at large for lots of reasons for its own significance. And, and in particular, I will tell you this, in the awkwardness of, of being a pastor. So this would be for Alex and his family and, and for me and my family. And so in that regard, we're going FUBU for us and by us we're going to be S we're going to be selfish, well, not really selfish, but there can be an awkwardness because any institution organization that you're a part of in the work world isn't shaped like

The institution of a local assembly that God intended and much in the world or in even in churches would be shaped like there's senior junior pastor that junior pastor can be called an associate pastor can be an assistant to the pastor, even embarrassingly, some call it assistant to the pastor. And so you have these awkward tears that, that are given. And while I would tell you that we would never break fellowship with people who had a church government that differed from ours, that what we attempted to try to forge that began here over 15 years ago was derived what we believe that the new Testament teaches.

And that not only does it is it taught in the new Testament, but it really has been something that God has always had for his people. A group of godly, spiritual man helping to give spiritual oversight to his people. Acts chapter 15 is the first test of that. We often think in the month of October of the great reformation, which took place a little bit over 500 years. The reformation was really forged in acts chapter 15 because of this particular conversation in acts chapter 15 had this gone awry or the wrong way, more likely than not, none of us would be sitting here because what was being forged was what saves what brings or Gibbs someone eternal life. And God was doing a wonderful thing in the early church. And of course, all of that work was predicated on the chief cornerstone of the church which is Jesus himself through his sinless life, death and resurrection.

But formulations were taking place and it rested in this great debate upon godly men, godly men who would not succumb to the culture and what's being pressed on them at large. Because I do believe that this group that, that made this contention, if you look with me at verse one, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. And then verse five, this was the tension of this, of this counsel. It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses, this manifestation of their leadership for the first time that we see in the early church. And the first church of course was the church at Jerusalem that was made up of those apostles, right, that were visibly saw, Jesus resurrected. And as well as not only did they visibly see Jesus resurrected, but they were commissioned by Christ in his resurrected body to take the gospel to the world.

That's where we see in Ephesians that our faith is built on the Apostolic faith. What became the new Testament through in written form for us. They didn't have that of course at the time, it wasn't written in that regard, but this particular tax, the apostles, verse six and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter and the elders that are represented there. Of course the apostles would become pastors or missionaries. The elders are not a reference to someone who is older. Rather they are representative of bishops and pastors that Paul will then give criteria to through which we discussed much to great deal in first Timothy chapter three and Titus chapter one to kind of see the sobering reality of what is taking place here so that we would, that we would embrace that and we would see it much more than just some small debate. The Bible tells us in verse seven that after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and of course through the, the greater conversation, the gospel itself was protected as that conversation went through. And literally the Bible tells us here that at least four men were mentioned. It wasn't one superhero man. It was four men. And I have no doubt that the elders, the other slash pastors that made up that first truce church in Jerusalem, they contributed as well.

There was a healthy discussion and that discussion ensued and that God forged forward the protection of the gospel through a multiplicity of pastoral leaders. So why elder rule? Why is elder rule so important for a local church? Well, first and foremost, it's important because it's biblically based. Elder rule is the only form of government to a church that's given in the new Testament. The most well-developed new Testament church was the church at Philippi and, and Paul and his greetings to them identifies to that church at Philippi, to the church at Philippi. He's addressing the church itself total, but to the elders, plural and to deacons, which of course were made up both of men and women alike. Elders were given the spiritual oversight to a local assembly through a multiplicity of leadership. And through godly wise counsel, churches can find the mind of Christ.

This is how the will of God is forged. Of course according to the truth of God, where godly men wrestle with the truth. And that's what happens here in acts chapter 15. They wrestle with what the gospel was defined at from the head of the church, the Lord Jesus, just that we read, you know, from in the offertory from our form of government because Jesus is the solo hero of the church and that all men, all men, since the inception of the church are to seek to protect and pass on the faith down. And that's what's happened generation after generation after generation. God has forged the protection of the gospel and the word of God through the church. Now, don't get that wrong. It's always been sustained by God because, because Jesus is the true shepherd of the church, but he has worked in and through godly spiritual men as they gave themselves through local bodies, leading local bodies and giving spiritual oversight. There's a great deal of responsibility of that.

It's something that moves past. It has to do with a mantle, not with the individual. Okay? The mantle, meaning the office of pastor, the office of elder, and I don't know of any man that really feels they're worthy of the criteria and perhaps we'll look at the criteria in here in a few moments, but a multiplicity of leadership, there is protection, greater protection that's given to the body of Christ. Now we're, we're in the gospel of Mark, right? And the disciples are following Jesus around and we've just gone past a section where Jesus now and teaching the disciples, he's going to shoo them away from the comforts of their own life and he doesn't send them out individually.

He sends them out two by two. Then later after all of the nation of Israel had heard the gospel, he sends them out further, 70 men and he doesn't send them 70 men individually to cover more ground. He sends them out two by two. Now, why would Jesus do this? Why would Jesus send people out in two by two? You know, if, if, if you pay any attention to the evangelical scene today, you know, there's a lot of horror stories that are, that are coming along in the ministry. And it's even happening in reform churches, churches that we know hold to the truth and and, and, and Bible believing churches, people we would, we would be in agreement with where men are, are, are fallen by the wave side individuals and there's no doubt in mind my mind that a lot of that has to do with structure.

We create these kind of church type Pope's and mantels placed on singular individuals that even in my case, I've had conversations even with pastors in this area alone, that if crumbled under the weight of that in large part, the way I understood it, because the structure wasn't based on a plurality of leaders, God never intended it for that. I believe that Jesus cinema out two by two and here's, here's just a few of the reasons I listed. First of all, discouragement, discouragement, you know, they're out there, they're preaching the gospel. There's the world, the flesh and the devil that they're contending with inside the gospel. And the facts are, if men are honest, there's, there's a great deal of times of discouragement. It doesn't take long. If you were to Google how many men in ended up out of the ministry? I read one survey, and you've probably heard me say this before, that came from Duke university. I wanted to say it happened in 2005 we're nearly 80% of the men inside five years of the ministry quit. And, and as a part of that survey, one of the things that, that was one thing that was discouraging to be, the other thing that was discouraging was the fact how many even reject the faith. That was bizarre.

Pastors can get discouraged that discouragement can lead to a depression. That's what I think you're seeing now. And again, if you're in tune with the evangelical world, even some prominent pastors from mega size churches that are killing themselves over the weight and the pressure of ministry and, and what has happened inside their marriages in their home. And listen, I'm not putting that all on the church. I'm just, I'm just letting you know, that's a pastoral reality of that's really, I think, heightened because of what you're, what you're dealing with. You're dealing with, you know, eternal things. Certainly there's discouragement and depression in life in general and, and, and mental health issues. But I think Jesus sent them out two by two in part to help that in part to give encouragement. When one gets down, another one can help to build them up along the way. I don't think that's the only reason why Jesus sent them out two by two. And then with lay the foundation of a multiplicity of leaders. But then thirdly, I think this, I think it's according to giftedness, giftedness.

One of the beautiful things I think of our church is we're, we're crossing generations now and every church doesn't have that. Sometimes you either have a real young church or you have you know, a real old church boy that was above got all my knees went out. Thank God I got this thing. But it's, but it's true. And, and that, you know, churches go through seasons and I can just tell you and I can, I know in talking with Alex speak, there's this, this situation here is so beautiful with the things that God is doing. It's been such an unbelievable encouragement to us, but it's not something we just want to rest back, right? We certainly want to enjoy it in a right way, but there are things we want to continue to nurture because our elder ship body came through practically through two things.

Number one, through flock groups and number two, through dividing the Bible classes of the adult electives and then allowing men who had the desire to teach to teach. Every current elder that we have has either led or hosted a flock and has taught a multiplicity of times through our Bible class and through that and each individual men, there's a certain giftedness. Okay, now please pay attention to this. I'm not talking about they're special people, but God did. You could look this up in Ephesians chapter four verse seven through 11 his last gift that he would give to the church is the gift of pastor teacher that doesn't make those men special of their own, but, but God placed a compulsion on their lives to preach and teach. It is something of God's design he caused them. In Ephesians chapter four, the the, the grace gift, and in that supplying of these grace gift of gifted men, they are all gifted differently. They may hold some of the same gifts, but perhaps some of those gifts may be stronger than some than in others. That's one of the many beautiful reasons I love Alex. He is uniquely gifted by God who has sharpened that in his giftedness, in his own maturity for, for him to actually rise. It's a man who has been in the pastoral ministry for 10 years, at 30 31 years of age.

The chief part of that design came from God, but it wasn't just he sat back and wrestled it, right, rested in it. It was something that was sharpened. It was something that was nurtured. It was something that in this place was built because him and I talked in his first year, about one day being co-pastor. Now, why is that? So important? I think the makeup of our church, this has been forged by the spirit of God through what he's made and blended here too, which we hope to continue to do. So God gave for the two by two Jesus did in the 70 by 70 and also to those elders that would lead church through times of discouragement, perhaps even depression and encouragement, a certain type of giftedness. But that's not it alone. It's also accountability.

A man with absolute power. Over time, that power will absolutely corrupt him. Christianity in general. So you know, you're kind of setting out there and you're saying, you know, I have no desire to be a pastor or an elder. That's fine. Please pay attention to this. Christianity in general will fall apart without accountability. You are not living on an Island. As a matter of fact, all of our lives, the new Testament says, is not our own. We have been bought by the blood of Jesus. So in community, we want to, we want to live our lives under the authority of scripture. We want our lives to be led by the authority of scripture because the truth is for elders. If we sin in some regard, sometimes by some who sitting in the Pew, it brings greater weight. That's why eldership and the call should be taken very soberly.

No, you guys know this. You just know me decently. You know I'm a goofball and I love to have fun, but if a man's just given to be a goofball and have fun, he's not called to the ministry. Jesus sent them out in a multiplicity. Jesus gave multiple leaders to the church to work through these things and I don't doubt without for many other reasons. For time sake. Let's turn real quickly to first Timothy chapter three there's a few things I want to say to this in terms of the call. What is the call? What does it mean to be called?

I want you to know this. It is different. All of us, I believe we talked about this in the parenting class today. All of us are called to a vocation in life, right? Work was before the fall. There is a very healthy thing for all people to understand their vocation in life because that's God honoring. It's God pleasing. We have opportunities through work to point people and to have their minds shaped by the power of the gospel. Listen, there's nothing worse than a guy slamming everybody at work with a Bible that's a bum worker that does not shape the gospel well, and he then he goes around and tells everybody he hates his job.

We should be thankful for what God has given us in terms of vocation and vocation is an important place. I want to say this again, but there is a special vocation that's called the office of the pastor. No individual man. Since the inception of the church have the office of the pastor by a personal right. There's a criteria set which could lead to disqualification. He better take that very soberly, which means if you're on your job and you fall into some form of sin, you're not apt to lose your livelihood, relationship with your church and all of these kinds of things. Those are the pressing nature that God wanted them to be there. He wanted them to be placed on men. And so just as we said in the class, first Timothy three and Titus one is the criteria of being a pastor and it certainly must be of hell, but it really should be the criteria of every man, especially past the first verse.

Okay, here's the first verse and in three one if anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task in some translation, it's called a good work, which means the ministry itself and the role of the pastorate. God says it is of intrinsic value to the church, that what that man is giving himself to his unique edit is in different than any other type of vocation. From this perspective, it is God's task for eternal things. Okay? Now, let's just work backwards in this. If anyone or any man aspires to the office of overseer, he desires that were desired, there must have explanation that desire, there is not some sort of selfish ambition for power or for clout or for money, but that he is driven by a Holy spirit compulsion. Please listen to this to preach and teach. That's what a fusion is. Chapter four is where God calls upon a man's life and they are driven to preach and teach, and let me just say this in my witness of this and nearly 30 years of pastoral ministry as a, they want to do it in any environment.

They'll do it two by two they'll do it in a class with five they'll want to do it anywhere. That's their desire. Their desire is a Holy spirit compulsion and that compulsion is placed there by the Holy spirit to do what to preach and to teach, to give themselves to the noble task and overseer or elder or Bishop or pastor, all synonymous terms. That is their primary role to preach and to teach the word their primary work. It's not all they do, it's their primary role. Of course, along in, in praying, if any man aspires, that's where the evaluation comes in. Is the aspiration some self-centered movement or is it a Holy spirit compulsion? Now, that still doesn't end the call because what follows that and you see the pattern in acts chapter 13 and going forward is opportunity. God forges away to open ministry or he becomes a church planner.

There is no other call that's given in the Bible. There's not a call to be a music minister. There's not a call to lead in worship. There's not a call to any of those. This is what God has specified. Now, that's not to devalue all those other things. I'm just telling you that this is what God has ordained. That's what it means to be called. What follows. That is first of all, our relationship to his wife or relationship in his home. What kind of a a man and character, how he carries themself then to his church. Then to those outside of the church. He kind of sums up it there in verse seven. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsi outsiders, outsiders or those who are without the Fe so that he may not fall into disgrace into the snare of a devil.

I think that's coupled earlier with verse six. He's not a recent convert. We're not trying to push into the pulpit Hollywood conversions. God says there's to be a a maturation process and you know, it's been my experience. Every time this is violated, churches go awry, they get destroyed. You know what's interesting about to me, and I'm thankful our church has over a 75 year history and however long it is until Jesus comes. I pray that goes on and sustain. But here's what's interesting. You and I have assurance of our faith for eternal security, but that's not this case with local new Testament churches.

We can lose it. What has been passed down must be embraced by godly, spiritual men else. Local bodies can be destroyed, and how many churches have been destroyed by prideful, arrogant, sinful leaders who were to lead just the opposite of what they did. It is a sobering responsibility so one can feel called, but what's forged into church planning? What's forged in the local churches is something of God's design. I want to tell you this. In January of 1995 this place was nowhere near on my mind or heart. Matter of fact, I thought I was about to be elevated through a restructuring of national steals, local company, American steel, and in Detroit to be a part of the main corporate group. Oh boy. Was that wrong?

Well, let me just say this in the role of pastor, but there were things that Val and I gave ourselves two 37 years ago in marriage is to be a churchman. I didn't learn that at Bible college. I learned that from Betty and ch Maguire be a faithful churchman. You think about all the men that were called in the Bible, they were faithfully doing what God told them to do. Six weeks later in my life, our whole world got turned upside down. I thank God it did. I'm trying to tell you this. None of this was by our design. It literally forged. I didn't know a person over here, but a man named Dave [inaudible] ministry, godly leaders, elders are forged by God. Now, is it differently in Alex's case in mind, from those men who are, who are elders who worked separate jobs? Of course, it is not trying to sound silly.

Of course it is. When you go back to acts chapter 15 you know, you know who ultimately talks as James, I believe they all were preachers and teachers, but you see four men speak up. Paul does. Barnabas does. Peter then does. Then James do, and through that council, the mind of Christ, the will of God was forged. One of the beautiful things that, that I think Alex and I have is not just generational, it's giftedness, but I think in part of the giftedness is that in the separation of age, neither find themselves jealous over one another's gifts. I uniquely rejoice in God bringing this man to our congregation. I uniquely enjoy setting and hearing him preach and teach. There are many aspects of this man's life that I thoroughly love, him and his family. I tell you this, in seven years we haven't had a cross word and still have worked through times of strong disagreement.

What did that tell me about him? That he's a godly, spiritual man. And I'll tell you this as we close there, there are four things about his life that I've always wanted to model and I can still look down as someone who could be my son, who is my friend, who is a pastoral colleague, but as encouraged. My heart is that Alex, when you look at the criteria, loves his wife. When I see Alex Love his wife, it makes me want to love my wife better. That's an encouragement today. I see Alex Love his children. What does that to me? That's an encouragement to me to want to love my children. Well, I know that Alex faithfully loves this church. It encourages me to want to faithfully love this local assembly, but most importantly, I watch Alex Love Jesus and that makes me want to love Jesus.