Thank you for being here tonight. We've got a
good crowd. We've had good singing. Thank you
for your participation in the service tonight.
I want to thank Brother Mark for introducing
the topic, the theme of this gospel meeting.
We're going to continue tonight to explore the
idea of restoring New Testament Christianity
and how we are convinced and convicted that we
can do just that by going back to the Bible to
find our faith, find our doctrine, and find our
practice. As Brother Mark said, we're going to
Talk tonight about restoring God's plan for the
organization of the church. And that plan involves
elders, evangelists, teachers, and other offices.
We're going to talk about restoring God's plan
for the organization of His church. We do believe
God does have a plan. He has a pattern. He has
a blueprint for us to follow. And that plan,
that blueprint is revealed to us. It's laid out
to us in the New Testament. You know, when God
has a plan for something, whether it's the organization
of the church, the worship of the church, a plan
for the gospel, or the plan of salvation even,
anytime God gives us a plan, we know that we
shouldn't add to that plan. We also know it'd
be unwise to try to take away from that plan
or to try to substitute God's plan for any other
plan at all. I want us to go to our Bibles this
evening, and the first thing we're gonna do is
we're gonna let the New Testament reveal to us
and show us what the original plan and pattern
was for organization in the church that Jesus
built in the first century. The first thing we
do when we go to the New Testament and study
what it teaches about the church, we learn that
Jesus is the one head of the church. Colossians
1 .18 says he, that's Jesus, is the head of the
body, the church. So we know that Jesus reigns
supreme as the only head over his body which
is his church. Now the church that Jesus built
does not have many heads. The Apostle Peter was
never the head of the church. The Pope cannot
or will never be the head of the church. No man
has any right to claim headship over the church
that Jesus built. Neither does any council of
men or any governing board of men. There's only
one head over Christ's church and that's Jesus
himself. We also learn from the New Testament
it teaches that Jesus only built one body. There's
only one church. In Ephesians chapter 4 verse
4 it says there's one body and one spirit even
as you're called and one hope of your calling.
One Lord, one faith, one baptism. New Testament
teaches there's only one body. There's only one
church. Now the Lord is not the head over many
different bodies. That is not the teaching of
Scripture. Though we see the religious world
around us, we see a lot of sects, a lot of divisions,
we see a lot of denominations in the religious
world around us, we understand that that's not
the will of God. Jesus never intended to be the
one head over many different bodies. Here's God's
plan for the church Jesus built. He is the one
head over the one church that he built. One head
over one body. Now the one body of Jesus, the
one church that He built, we understand that
it is made up of many different congregations
spread out all over the face of the globe. All
the Christians in a given area come together
to form a congregation of that one church that
Jesus built. Now when we talk about one church
in the form of many different congregations,
we're not talking about many different churches
all found in one place. We're not talking about
Church A here on the northwest side of town and
then a different church Church B on the southwest
side of town and across the street Church E It
wears a different name and Church C is right
around the corner and it's different it preaches
different doctrines and a different gospel We're
not talking about the religious division that
we see so commonly in our communities today that
religious division is brought to us by something
we talked about earlier in the week, the idea
of denominationalism. That's not what we're talking
about when we talk about one church made of many
congregations. We're talking about one in the
same church simply found in many different areas
or many different locations. Just like we see
the church revealed in the New Testament. You
know, Paul wrote letters, epistles to the church
at Rome. He wrote also to the same church, the
same part of the body, but that part of the body
was in Ephesus and Philippi. He wrote a letter
to the church at Colossae. He wrote a letter
to the churches in the land of Galatia and Corinth.
You know, in the New Testament we don't find
many different denominations. Colossae, Corinth,
Galatia, Thessalonica, they weren't all different
denominations. They were all part of one in the
same church. They just happened to be congregations
found in many different places. Here's something
else that we learned when we study the New Testament
concerning these churches. The first century
congregations of the church were autonomous,
meaning they were independent and self -governing.
You could have several different congregations
in close proximity in a given area, but each
congregation was overseen by its own leadership.
It was independent and self -governing, setting
itself apart from the other congregations. We
also find that part of What we see in the New
Testament is there was nothing or nobody or no
board or no hierarchy above the local congregations
of Christ Church. The only thing above the congregations
of the church would be Jesus Christ himself as
the head of the body of the church. Now here's
something else we want to see concerning the
original pattern for church organization. We
want to go back and study the original offices.
that the New Testament authorizes for the church
that Jesus built. We're going to spend quite
a bit of time on this tonight, but I think it's
worth it because it's very important that we
understand these offices. We're going to find
five of the six offices that we're going to talk
about tonight here in Ephesians chapter 4 verse
11 to 12. Ephesians chapter 4, 11 to 12, the
Bible says he gave some apostles and some prophets
and some evangelists and some pastors and some
teachers. He gave them for the perfecting of
the saints, for the work of the ministry, for
the edifying of the body of Christ." So here
we find Paul writing to the Ephesians about the
various offices within the church. And the word
office is a scriptural term, so I think we're
okay to use the word office here. But it sort
of sounds very technical in nature. We can think
about these offices as unique sets of roles and
responsibilities. unique sets of roles and responsibilities
for capable, trained, and brothers in the church
to serve in to help the congregation be spiritually
strong. That's what we mean when we talk about
church offices. Now I want to break this passage
down a little bit starting in verse 11. It starts
off there by saying, and He gave some. Who is
He? He is Christ. And what did He give? What
did He give? If we back up in the chapter to
verses 7 and 8, it gives us some insight into
exactly what verse 11 talks about. Verse 7 of
Ephesians 4 says, But unto every one of us is
given grace according to the measure of the gift
of Christ. In verse 8 it says, When He Christ
ascended up on high, He gave gifts to men. So
the resurrected glorified Christ, when He ascended
up to the Father, the Bible says He gave gifts
to men. He gave them talents and abilities and
blesses them with opportunities to serve in these
offices. Now that's significant because these
offices we're getting ready to study were given
by Christ. They are ordained by Him. He is the
one who makes these offices possible and enables
and equips people to serve in these offices.
What offices does it mention here concerning
the church that Jesus built? It mentions five
apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and
teachers. These are five of the six unique roles
and responsibilities that we see when we study
the New Testament church. Now, for what purpose
were these offices given? Were these offices
given just so men could have the title of evangelist
or the title of apostle? so they could have their
picture on the church website and have their
name and the title underneath it so they could
just have the name and hold the office. Is that
why the offices were given? No. No, the Bible
tells us in verse 12 why Christ put these offices
in the church. He put them there for the perfecting
or the equipping of the saints, for the work
of the ministry, that service. for the edifying,
that's the building up of the body of Christ,
that's the church. So each and every one of these
offices was given not just for someone to have
a title and to feel good about serving in some
position. Each one of these offices was given
with the purpose of enabling and equipping and
building up the body as a whole. Now there's
one more office we'll talk about tonight. I don't
know why it's not listed in Ephesians chapter
4. I do know it's found in 1st Timothy chapter
3. And that's the office of a deacon, the office
of a deacon. 1 Timothy 3 .13, for they that have
used the office of a deacon well purchase to
themselves a good degree and great boldness in
the faith that is in Christ Jesus. So we find
another office there, the office of a deacon.
And when we combine it with the other five offices
we saw in Ephesians 4, here's what we have. Now
I wanna go down this list of offices and I wanna
talk about each one of them briefly so we get
a good understanding. of what each office is
and why it was important to the church that Jesus
built. And we're going to start there at the
top with apostles. The New Testament church had
apostles. What were they doing? They were witnessing.
They were witnessing to the death, the burial,
the resurrection of Jesus. You remember after
Judas lost his life after he died, The apostles
came together there in Jerusalem and they found
it necessary to select another person to take
the place of Judas. They needed another apostle.
And the Bible talks about how they went about
doing that in Acts chapter 1 verse 21. It says,
Wherefore, of these men which have accompanied
with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went
in and out among us, beginning from the baptism
of John, Under that same day that he was taken
up from us, they said, Must one be ordained to
be a witness, a witness with us of his resurrection?
We skip down to verse 26. It says that they gave
forth their lots and the lot fell upon Matthias.
And this man, Matthias, he was numbered with
the eleven apostles. He took the place of Judas
and took his apostleship. What do we learn about
apostles from this verse? The word apostle just
means a delegate or one that is sent out with
a message or one that is sent out on a mission.
That's what the word apostle literally means.
And that's so true of the apostles. The apostles
were the delegates, the ambassadors that Christ
chose and He sent them out with a message, the
message of the gospel to witness and testify
of Him. The apostles, as we saw there in Acts
1, had to be first -hand witnesses of Jesus.
When it came time to replace Judas and his apostleship,
they said, we need to find a man who has been
a first -hand witness of Christ's life, his ministry,
his death, burial, and resurrection. And they
chose a man, Matthias, who was one of those first
-hand witnesses of the ministry of Jesus. And
for that reason, you know, we don't have apostles
in the church today. We don't have anyone living
today who can... Truthfully say they're a first
-hand witness of the ministry the death burial
and resurrection of Jesus Christ However, don't
think for a moment that the Apostles aren't important
to us today. The Apostles are very important
to us today I believe the Apostles indeed do
speak to us today. They don't speak to us directly,
but they speak to us indirectly Through the teachings
that they have left us in our New Testament.
They speak through the Word of God What about
prophets? What were prophets doing in the first
century church? The prophets were revealing things,
revealing messages, revealing truths from God.
You know, Acts chapter 11 talks about a prophet
in the first century church. His name was Agabus.
In Acts 11, 27, it says, In these days came prophets
from Jerusalem to Antioch, and there stood up
one of them named Agabus, and he signified by
the Spirit that there should be a great dearth
throughout all the world. Here a Christian prophet,
Agabus, he predicts this great global famine
that was going to come. And there were prophets
in the first century church that could do just
that. They could foretell future events. But
you know, there were also prophets in the first
century church who instead of foretelling future
events, they might just reveal new covenant truth
to the church. They might get a message or a
revelation from God containing new covenant truth
and they might speak for God and reveal that
truth to the first century churches. 1 Corinthians
14 talks about those kinds of prophets and how
they prophesied in the assemblies of the church.
It's not so much that they were telling the future,
it's that they were God's messengers and they
were revealing truth from God in the form of
prophecy. So when we think about prophets, we
can think about men who can have a miraculous
gift to foretell the future or just those who
had the miraculous gift to speak by the inspiration
of the Spirit. These were men who relayed messages
from God down to people in the first century
church. We don't have prophets in the church
today. We don't have men with the miraculous
gifts of revelation and inspiration. God is not
speaking through men today. He has given us His
message. We have all things that pertain into
life and godliness in our New Testament. So there
are no prophets in the church today. They've
done their work. Their work was there in the
first century, revealing the truths that we have
today in the form of our New Testament. Just
like the apostles still speak to us today through
the word of God, I do believe first century prophets
still speak to us today through the same word.
The third office we'll look at is the office
of evangelists. What were the evangelists doing?
The evangelists were teaching and preaching the
gospel. Paul told Timothy, who was an evangelist,
in 2 Timothy 4, 2, he said, preach the word,
be instant in season out of season, means be
ready at all times. We go on down to verse 5,
he tells, Timothy but watch thou in all things
endure afflictions he tells Timothy do the work
of an evangelist Paul charged Timothy to preach
the word preach the gospel and To do the work
of an evangelist and that's exactly what evangelists
do the word evangelist literally means one who
proclaims the good news or one who preaches the
gospel You know an evangelist work is going to
include Other things besides just preaching the
gospel, it's going to include equipping the saints
and training men in the church to become teachers.
We're going to read that later in the lesson
from 1st and 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 2. Evangelists
are also going to work to train, equip, and to
someday ordain elders and deacons in the church.
We're going to read that a little bit later from
Titus chapter 1 that their job is to set things
in order in the church. and help it grow to a
point where it can have ordained leadership.
Here's something I think it's very important
for us to understand about the work of evangelists.
An evangelist's work is not restricted or limited
to any one congregation. When we look in the
New Testament and we see its evangelists and
the work that they did we see that they worked
in many different places among many different
congregations So we would say that the work of
an evangelist his work is in the church at large
His work is in the universal church Going from
place to place as he has opportunity preaching
the gospel setting things in order Helping the
churches grow and mature and then helping them
ordain leadership That's a little bit different
from the office that we're getting ready to look
at of elders and deacons elders and deacons have
a important work too, but it's limited to their
local congregations. But the evangelist's work
is in the church at large. What about pastors?
Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 mentions pastors.
In fact, that's the only place in the New Testament
you'll find the word pastor. The word pastor
just means shepherd. And the office of a pastor
is synonymous with the office of elders. In the
New Testament, there's one office that's described
with three different names, pastors, elders,
and bishops. All three refer to one in the same
office. What were the pastors or the elders doing
in the church? They were shepherding, providing
leadership for the congregations. Peter wrote
in 1 Peter 5, 1 to 3. He said, the elders which
are among you I exhort. He says, who am I also
an elder? He tells the elders in verse 2, to
feed the flock of God which is among you, taking
the oversight thereof. He says not by constraint,
but willingly. He says not for filthy lucre,
but of a ready mind. Neither is being lords over
God's heritage, but being examples to the flock.
So Peter was an apostle. But apparently later
in his life he also became an elder. He writes
and exhorts the elders of the church and he says,
I'm also an elder. And what does he exhort or
encourage them to do? He tells the elders to
feed, to shepherd, to oversee and lead the flocks.
That would be the congregations of the church.
So concerning pastors, elders, and bishops, they
are shepherds. They are overseers of the leaders
in the congregations. There's qualifications
that must be met for a man to be qualified to
serve in the office of an elder. Those are found
in 1 Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 to 7. Those qualifications
are also found in Titus chapter 1. And one of
the important parts of the work of an elder,
as we'll talk more about this later in the lesson,
is that they be teachers. in the local congregations
for which they are shepherding. What about deacons?
What were the deacons doing in the first century
church? The deacons were serving. The deacons
are servants of the church. Church at Philippi
had both bishops, elders, and it also had deacons.
Paul wrote to that church in Philippians 1 .1.
He said, Paul and Timotheus, the servants of
Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus
which are at Philippi, he says with the bishops,
and the deacons. The word deacon comes from a
Greek word that simply means a servant or one
who serves. And so that's the work that deacons
were doing in the first century church. They
were serving the needs of the congregation. In
Acts chapter 6, we read that the church at Jerusalem,
the first church, the early church there, appointed
seven men. to serve the respective needs of the
congregation that they had at that time. Now,
you go read Acts chapter 6, you're not going
to find the word deacon in Acts chapter 6, and
the word deacon is not expressly found there.
However, if you study carefully some of the work
that those men were doing and the Greek words
behind the work that they were doing, It seems
to me that they were very much serving in the
capacity of deacons, serving the needs of the
church. Perhaps they were the first kind of deacons
in the church. Perhaps their office, their role
would later go on to become what the church knew
as deacons as the church grew outward from Jerusalem.
In times past, I've referred to those seven men
as proto -deacons, meaning a first of their kind
of deacons that the church had ever seen. Now
there are, just like there's qualifications for
elders, there are also qualifications for deacons.
In 1st Timothy 3 verse 8 to 13, we find the qualifications
a man must meet to serve in the office of a deacon.
And in the last office, teachers. Ephesians chapter
4 verse 11 and 12 mentions teachers. What were
the teachers doing in the first century church?
Well, naturally they were teaching. The church
in Antioch had multiple teachers. We're going
to talk a lot about the church at Antioch tonight.
Acts 13 verse 1 to 2, it says, Now there were
in the church that was in Antioch certain prophets
and teachers. And then it's going to name five
of them by name. As Barnabas, that's one. Simeon,
that was called Niger, that's two. Lucius, that's
three. Lucius of Cyrene. Manian, which had been
brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, that's four.
And Saul, five, that's the Apostle Paul. So the
church at Antioch had multiple teachers certain
prophets and teachers five But mentioned by name
and the Bible says in verse 2 that they all ministered
to the Lord They didn't have one man doing all
their teaching. They didn't have one man doing
all their ministering They had multiple men serving
in the office of teacher and they were all ministering
to the congregation through teaching The teachers
in the first century church, of course instructed
and edified built up the body 2 Timothy 2 and
2 says that men that teach in the church need
to be faithful men. We're to train and equip
faithful men so that they can teach others also.
The teaching that happens in the assemblies is
important, but we also need capable men who can
go out and teach away from the assemblies, both
in public and in private settings. Paul said
he taught that way in Acts 20 -20. He says, I
haven't shunned to declare unto you the whole
counsel of God. but have taught you both publicly
and from house to house. Both types of teaching
are important. We also need to pay close attention
to James chapter 3 verse 1. It says, Be ye not
many masters or teachers? Knowing that we're
going to fall under a stricter judgment from
God, God's going to hold us to a higher standard
when we take it upon ourselves to teach others
the Word of God. So we need to be aware of that
higher standard and take our role as teachers
very seriously. So we went through and looked
at all six of these offices that we find revealed
to us in the New Testament. All of these offices
were a part of God's original plan and pattern
for the organization of the church. We don't
have enough time tonight to dive deep. We could
spend the rest of the weekend diving deep into
each and every one of those offices. That's not
within the scope of what we're going to talk
about tonight. Second thing we want to do, now
that we've clearly seen how the Lord set up the
church to be organized, we're going to go through
and survey church history and see how error and
departures slowly made their way into the church
and changed in many ways God's plan for the organization
of the church. One of the first things we see
in the early centuries of the church Concerning
an error, a deviation away from this plan is
the introduction of man -made hierarchies within
the church. This is Ignatius. Well, it's not
Ignatius. It's a painting of Ignatius. Ignatius
lived in the second century. Ignatius was a leader
in the second century church. And some of his
writings have been preserved for us. Ignatius
wrote a letter to Christians called the Magnesians
around the year 110 AD. And I want you to look
carefully at what Ignatius says here. He tells
the Christians in the second century do all things
in harmony with God. That's good. With the bishop
presiding in the place of God. and the presbyters,
presbyter is another word for elders, and the
presbyters or the elders in the place of the
council of the apostles, and the deacons entrusted
with the ministry of Jesus Christ. Do you notice
something here? Do you notice how Ignatius doesn't
speak of just two offices in the congregation?
He doesn't speak of just the elders and the deacons.
He speaks of the bishop. And you know the bishop
here is mentioned first. in such a way that the
bishop is preeminent over the elders and the
deacons. This was one of the very first changes
that was made to the organization of the church
beginning in the very early second century. Now
God's pattern and plan for the congregations
was that they were to be led by elders and served
by deacons, but now here's Ignatius saying we
need to have a bishop. in each congregation over
the elders and over the deacons. Now, it seems
like a slight and subtle change, right? What's
wrong with taking one of the elders and putting
him up above the rest of the elders and calling
him the bishop? You know, if you study what was
going on in the church in the second century,
I believe Ignatius and those who advocated for
this change had very good intentions. They thought
of a hundred good reasons why they should do
this. They thought that this was going to help
the church. In the second century, there were
a lot of heresies that were making their way
into the church. We talked about one of those
heresies earlier in the meeting. We talked about
Gnosticism. Gnosticism was coming into the church,
this false gospel, this idea that Jesus didn't
come in the flesh, that completely corrupted
and changed the gospel. And there were other
heresies. The church was being attacked from
the outside with false doctrines and false teachings
about many things. And the leaders of the church
said, you know what, we've got to take a hard
position against this error and these heresies.
We've got to centralize the power in each congregation.
We're tired of dealing with an eldership in each
congregation. It would just be better to deal
with one man in each congregation and make sure
he is strong in the faith and make sure he is
true to the doctrine. If we can put one man in
each church that will hold on to sound doctrine,
then all the churches will be spared from this
heresy. So you see, they had what they thought
were good reasons to do this. They had the best
of intentions. They were trying to help protect
the church from false doctrine. But what they
didn't understand is this. You know, one change,
even with the best of intentions, leads to another
change, which leads to another change, which
leads to many more changes. And that's what we
see when we study church history. We see over
the next 500 years, by the year 600 AD, a full
-blown hierarchy was established within what
had become the Roman Catholic Church. A hierarchy
consisting of not just, you know, bishops over
the one priest in each congregation, but after
they had all these bishops, you know, that wasn't
enough. They still needed to centralize the power.
They said, we've got all these bishops. We need
somebody over all the bishops. So, they created
the office of archbishop to be over the bishops.
Well, then they had all these archbishops and
they said, that's really not enough either. We
need somebody to be over all these archbishops.
And so, they invented the office of a cardinal.
Typically, how it was back then, the cardinal
was the one man who was over the church of an
entire nation or an entire country. Well, then
once they had the cardinals, they said that's
really not enough either. We need one more office.
We need somebody to be over all these cardinals
who are over all these archbishops who are over
all the bishops who are over all the church.
And they created the office of the pope. What
we know today as the papal office. The office
of the pope. One man ruling over the entire church
on the face of the earth. Now none of these offices
are scriptural. None of these offices in this
hierarchy that developed was not a part. of God's
plan for the organization of His church. It was
invented by men. We would have to conclude that
it has come down to us today as a form of man
-made doctrines and man -made traditions which
are not authorized in any shape or form by the
Scripture. What's the danger in that? We've got
to be careful that we're not adding to God's
Word. God warned his people the Jews in Deuteronomy
4 2 ye shall not add unto the word the word which
I command you neither shall you diminish ought
from it God told Israel in the law don't add
to or take away from my word and that we have
the same warning to us today in Revelation 22
Don't add to the word of God and don't take away
from his word We need to heed the warning of
Scripture be very careful We don't want to be
guilty of adding man -made doctrines and traditions
to the word that has been given to us, to the
pattern, the plan that God has bestowed upon
us. So another thing that developed over the
course of church history, in addition to these
man -made hierarchies that we just talked about,
there was also an ever -growing gap and distinction
between what we're going to call the clergy and
the laity. Let me define those terms. Clergy.
Clergy is viewed as those people who are prepared
and set apart for higher church leadership or
higher church ministry. Here's my redneck way
of describing clergy. It's the people in the
long robes and the funny hats, okay? The people
in the long robes and the funny hats, the clergy.
And as time went on, There was a growing gap
between the clergy, the men in the robes, and
the laity. The laity is everybody else in the
church that isn't clergy. So we're talking about
the lower and common people of the church who
weren't highly educated, who weren't set apart,
who weren't given the privileges to live in a
castle and eat at the table of the Roman Catholic
Church and the people who didn't have the robes,
right, and didn't have the hats. just the common
lower uneducated people in the church. Over a
period of time, the idea that developed concerning
clergy and laity is that only the members of
the clergy, only the priests of the Roman Catholic
Church were allowed to administer the sacraments.
And if you were here earlier in the meeting,
we talked about the sacraments, how the doctrine
of the Roman Catholic Church teaches that the
way every good Catholic goes to heaven is by
faithfully observing and keeping the seven sacraments.
But the seven sacraments are now entrusted to
the clergy, the priests. They are the only one
who can give and administer the sacraments to
the laity. Therefore, the laity is sort of held
hostage. The laity can't serve God properly and
they can't be saved without the priests bestowing
upon them all the rights and sacred privileges
of the sacraments that are held and entrusted
by the church. Instead of the church being one
body made up of many different members and all
the members helping one another and encouraging
one another and building one another up, now
it's a very few at the top and a lot of people
down here at the bottom and the people at the
top will decide whether or not We let you have
the Lord's Supper. The people at the top will
decide whether or not you can get baptized. The
people at the top will decide whether or not
you can get married. It was a much different
dynamic that slowly evolved concerning the organization
and the work and the unity of the church. Here's
the reality, okay? There should be no such thing
as a clergy laity distinction among God's people.
Lord had never intended it to be that way. In
1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9, we learn that all
of God's people are part of a holy nation and
a royal priesthood. 1 Peter 2, 9, ye, Peter writes
to first century Christians, ye are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a peculiar people. If you're a baptized believer
in Christ, you're part of this royal priesthood.
You're a part of this holy nation. In Revelation
chapter 1 verse 5, John says unto him that loved
us and washed us from our sins in his own blood
and hath made us kings and priests unto God and
his father. Notice there, those who God washed
from their sins in the blood of Jesus, he has
made them what? Kings and priests. Every Christian
is a priest and a part of this holy priesthood
we're talking about. And part of our service
as priests in the Lord's priesthood is to present
our bodies as a living sacrifice. that's worthy
and acceptable and that's our reasonable service
in the kingdom. That's what Romans chapter 12
verse 1 speaks to us about. Paul begs the Roman
Christians to present their bodies as living
sacrifices for the Lord. The truth is this, no
man has any right to take the place of Jesus
and try to mediate between you and your God.
There is only one mediator between God and men
and it's not the priest, it's not anybody in
a robe or a funny hat. There is only one mediator
first Timothy chapter 2 verse 5 There is one
God and one mediator between God and men the
man Christ Jesus Jesus is our only mediator Another
error that slowly worked its way into the organization
of the church Would be the addition and the deviation
of the one -man pastor system now after the Protestant
Reformation of the 16th century After a lot of
the modern -day denominations were established
in the 16th and 17th century, the one -man model
for church leadership, which the Roman Catholic
Church was accustomed to, it was slowly adopted
by a lot of the denominational churches that
were formed out of the Protestant Reformation.
And the one -man pastor system is the idea that
one man is ordained to be the exclusive leader
or one man is selected to be the exclusive teacher
or preacher for each congregation. This man could
wear a number of different titles. Some churches
call him a reverend. Some call him a pastor.
Some call him a minister. Some might just call
him a preacher. But it's the idea that we have
one man who is the leader of our congregation
and one man who does all the teaching for our
congregation. From my study of Scripture, I'm
convinced and convicted that the Lord never intended
for His church to be led or taught only by one
man. We don't find this one -man system taught
in the New Testament. In Acts chapter 14 verse
23, Paul and Barnabas are on the first missionary
journey. They're finishing that missionary journey.
They're about to return back to Antioch from
where they started that journey. And the Bible
says in Acts 14 -23 that when they had ordained
them elders in every church, You know they established
these churches and before they go home. It says
they ordained them elders in every church We
notice here that Paul and Barnabas ordained elders
plural in every church They did not ordain one
elder in every church. They ordained elders plural
in every church Also in Titus 1 and 5 Paul tells
the evangelist Titus for this cause left I thee
and creep that thou should have set in order
the things that are wanting and ordained elders
in every city as I had appointed thee Notice
Paul told Titus here to ordain elders plural
in every city. He didn't say ordain one elder
in every city He said ordain elders a plurality
of elders in every in every church acts 1423
and in every city Titus 1 and 5 You know the
one -man system the one -man leader system the
one -man teacher or preacher system the one -man
pastor system is really not needed when we structure
the work of the church according to God's plan
for its organization. Because the Bible teaches
that one of the qualifications for elders is
that they be apt to teach. They be able to teach
in the congregations. And if it was God's will
for the church to be led by elders, a plurality
of elders, and if it's His will for those elders
to be teachers, then we would never have a need
to be led or taught only by one man if we're
following God's model. In 1st Timothy 3, 2, this
is the qualifications for bishops or elders.
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband
of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior,
given to hospitality, and then he says apt to
teach. Elders should be apt to teach because
that's part of their work, to feed and teach
and shepherd their congregation through teaching
the Word of God. We see the same thing with the
qualifications of elders in Titus 1 and 9. Here's
the qualification given to Titus. An elder needs
to be one who holds fast the faithful word as
he hath been taught that he may be able by sound
doctrine. The word doctrine just means teaching.
Elders need to use sound doctrine, sound teaching
both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
I want to go back to the church at Antioch because
when we look at the church at Antioch we find
they didn't have the one -man pastor model. In
Acts chapter 15 verse 35 it says, Paul also in
Barnabas continued in Antioch teaching and preaching
the word of the Lord with many others also. You
know in Acts 13 .1 we learned that they had certain
prophets and teachers and it named five by name.
Now two chapters later Acts 15 .35 it says, Paul
and Barnabas are back there in Antioch. They're
teaching and preaching and they're doing that
with many others also. They don't even tell us
how many at this point. It just says there were
many others involved in doing the Lord's work
of teaching and that contradicts that that goes
against the common idea, the modern -day idea
of the one -man pastor system. Moving on from
our survey of church history and how error slowly
evolved in the church concerning its organization.
Let's move on to our current day practice. Let's
stop and look around and let's think about our
modern practice in churches today. In many churches
today, I'm not going to say all churches today.
I don't want to paint everybody with a broad
brush. Okay, I don't want to overgeneralize this.
I want to be fair. I'm not saying all churches
do these things and all churches operate these
ways. But in far too many churches today, these
offices have become very much secularized in
nature. And here's what I mean by these offices
becoming secularized. It would not be uncommon
today for a young man to come forward even in
a church of Christ and come to his preacher,
come to his minister. and say, you know what,
I want to be a preacher someday. I want to teach
the Word of God someday. That's a great, hey,
I love it. I love it when our young men come
forward and say, hey, I want to teach. I want
to be a preacher. I want to be an evangelist.
That's great. That gets me excited. But you know,
the answer that's going to be all too commonly
given to young men who come forward and want
to get involved in the work of the Lord, they're
going to go to their preacher and their preacher
is going to advise them. He's going to say, son,
first thing you need to do, is go get you a bachelor
degree from a reputable Church of Christ college.
That's the first thing you need to do. And then
they're going to say, if you can, go to a noteworthy
Church of Christ preacher school, stay there
one or two years, go through the program, and
get you a diploma, a preaching diploma. And with
your degree and your preaching diploma, you then
set yourself up. to produce that clean and crisp
resume that you're going to need, complete with
all the sermon examples and all the references
that you're going to need. And then you go online
and you search Church of Christ preacher jobs
wanted. And there's hundreds of them out there
online. There's churches hiring preachers all
over the country. You send out your resume to
all these churches of Christ that are hiring
a preacher. And if there's a church that likes
your resume, they'll ask you to come and they're
going to try you out. They're going to ask you
to preach and see if they like you. And if you're
lucky, if you're fortunate, they're going to
offer you a position, a job. Now you're going
to have to enter into a legally binding contract
with that church to preach. They're going to
want to lay out all the terms and parameters
of your work. And this legally binding contract
has a lot of moving parts, has a lot of bells
and whistles, such things as moving stipend,
sick leave. Personal leave paid vacation if you're
really lucky you'll get what I've seen on some
of these job announcements You'll get a growth
proportion a growth proportional salary increase
or bonus You know what a growth proportional
salary increase or bonus is It's a clause it's
a term in your contract that says if you grow
the church substantially, they'll give you more
money They'll give you more money. They'll give
you a big bonus if you can baptize 10 people
that year or bring 20 new people into the church
They'll give you a big bonus I've seen that I
have read that in these job announcements of
churches of Christ looking to hire a preacher
But it ain't going to be easy. If you can get
a job preaching at one of these congregations,
it's not going to be easy because you've got
to hold office hours. Those office hours will
be set and laid out in your contract. You've
got to meet a sermon quota, preach so many sermons
a year. You've got to do so many hospital visits
a year, and then you've got to pass an annual
performance review to keep your position and
keep getting paid to be the preacher. I might
have exaggerated some of this a little bit, but
there's not an awful lot of exaggeration in this.
Like I said, I've been a first -hand witness
to a lot of these things, and you can go online
and search Church of Christ preacher jobs wanted,
and you can see the same thing that I'm showing
you here. And I'm not trying to be overly harsh.
I'm not trying to be overly critical. I'm not
trying to say that you're doing something wrong
if you go to a Bible college or a preacher school.
If you go to a Bible college, preacher school,
more power to you. What I'm trying to help you
see is this. In too many places, all too often
church offices have become hardly recognizable
from secular professions. Secular professions.
Let me tell you something else that we see. Because
of the introduction of the one -man system, We
see that many of the roles and responsibilities
in the church have been shifted downward. Let
me show you what I mean. This was the New Testament
blueprint and plan for the church. It was God's
will to have elders leading and teaching, de
-conserving, teachers teaching in addition to
and alongside the elders, and then the members
of the body being active, working, and doing
their part. But with the addition of the one
-man pastor or the one -man preacher system,
here's what happens. We're going to hire a man
to come in and do all or most of our teaching
and preaching for us. We're going to put him
at the top. We hired our preacher, and he's going
to teach the church. He's going to take care
of that. Well, then what are the elders going
to do? He just took the elder's job. What are
the elders going to do? They don't have anything
to do now. Well, the elders are going to become
servants to the church and they're going to serve
primarily in an administrative capacity, sort
of as the unofficial board of directors for the
congregation. And a big part of their work will
actually be hiring and firing preachers. There
will likely be an endless revolving door of teachers
and preachers that they will have to hire and
fire. And they become essentially the governing
board serving in that administrative capacity.
Well, they've sort of taken the job of some of
the deacons What are the deacons going to do
now now the deacons don't have anything to do?
Let me tell you what happens. I've seen this
and look I've seen this in some some of the congregations.
I preach it Okay Some of the congregations I've
preached at and work with I've seen the office
of the deacon Being used in such a way that it's
not really reaching its full potential and full
capacity deacons do a very important special
work in the church But in some places, sometimes,
here's what happens to deacons. Deacons become
solely janitors. That's all they do. That's their
job, just to clean the building. Or deacons become
lawn mowers. They mow the lawn. Or deacons become
tech support. When the mic won't work or the
projector's broke, they fix the mic, fix the
projector. Now listen, those things are important,
and we appreciate people. who clean the building.
We appreciate people who mow the lawn. We appreciate,
I really appreciate it when they can fix this
stuff up here so it's not broken so I can use
it. We appreciate the people who do this. And
there's nothing wrong with deacons doing this
kind of work. But if that's all that a deacon's
work ever is, if that's all that we think of
it as, just someone who is relegated to these
very menial tasks and there's nothing more to
their work, no more significance, I think we
missed the mark. of why we have deacons and why
the Lord's church needs deacons. Concerning teachers
in the church, we don't need teachers anymore,
right? We can just cross that out because we
hired our guy, our preacher, to do all the teaching
for us. We don't need teachers in the church
anymore. And concerning the work of the members,
what oftentimes happens once this system is fully
developed, in a lot of congregations the members
Simply take on the role of making sure that they
give enough money in the collection plate to
meet the budget that's required for all these
people who are serving on staff. The members
become nothing more than a cash cow. The people
who need to make sure they give enough money
to support the preacher and everybody else that
we've got on staff doing all the work. You know,
the members are no longer maybe needed to be
active in doing the work. We just need them to
pay the people who we pay to do the work. This
is a system that has evolved. The roles have
been shifted downward and that's because of the
introduction of the one -man pastor or one -man
preacher system. Something else we see around
us in churches today is many congregations have
elders that rarely teach the Word of God. I believe
the New Testament teaches that elders need to
teach the Word of God. In too many places, elders
contract out their teaching. They contract that
out. They're teaching responsibilities they pass
on to the preacher that they hire. But we don't
find that in the New Testament. Sometimes there's
a mentality that, you know, it's just best to
leave the preaching to a certified and credentialed
professional. to a guy who's been to preacher
school, to a guy who has some higher education
from a Bible college. Sometimes elderships get
to thinking this way. We can't get up there and
teach. We got a higher professional to do our
teaching for us. Here's what we need to ask ourselves.
How did the early church ever manage to survive
without Bible colleges, without preacher schools,
without diplomas and certificates to preach?
without legally binding contracts with sick leave
and incentive bonuses and sermon quotas. How
did the early church ever manage to survive without
all these things that we've added into and made
a customary part of the work and organization
of the Lord's Church? Something else we see in
many churches today is the idea that the preacher
is hired to do all of or maybe even or it might
just be most of the work. Sometimes it might
even be all of the work of the church. Now here's
a statement I think every single one of us would
agree with. A church congregation is not going
to last long if the preacher is expected to do
all the work. There's a church out there where
the preacher is expected to do all the work that
church will not last long Why because every member
in the body has work to do and we need every
member doing their part for the body to be strong
Ephesians 4 11 we read this verse earlier. I
want to revisit it Ephesians 4 11 he gave some
Apostles some prophets some evangelists some
pastors and some teachers What did he give men
to serve in these offices for to do all the work?
Did the Lord give us evangelists or elders in
the church to do all the work? Let me share something
with you about verse 12. I personally have never
been a big fan of the commas in verse 12, okay?
There were no commas in the original Greek text,
by the way. Commas were added, punctuation was
added by the translators, and rightfully so because
it does help make the... the Bible easier for
us to read. But I'm not so sure, I'm not so sure
that the commas in verse 12 are helpful in us
arriving at the original idea behind verse 12.
With the commas in verse 12, it almost presents
the idea that God gave us these offices in the
church for this laundry list of things. Three
things that evangelists and pastors and teachers
need to do. A laundry list of three things. God
gave us elders to equip the saints. God gave
us elders to do the work of the ministry. God
gave us elders to edify the body of Christ. Sort
of a laundry list of things that the men in these
offices do. When you take out the commas though,
it completely changes the meaning of the verse.
Let me show you what it means. This is what I
believe the original intent is. God gave us men
to serve in these offices so that they could
perfect or equip the saints to do the work of
the ministry, to do the work of service so that
the saints who are being equipped to do the work
can edify or build up the body of Christ. That's
completely different. That's a completely different
dynamic. It's not the men in these offices doing
all the work. It's the men in these offices equipping
and enabling all the members of church to get
involved in the work. And I think that's the
original intent. I think that's the meaning because
we see that when we skip down to verse 16. We
see that same idea. Ephesians 4 16. I'm going
to go against my custom and read it in the ESV.
I just think it's a little bit easier to read
and understand. Paul says, From whom? That's
Christ the head. the whole body that's the church
joined and held together by every joint that's
every member in the body with which it is equipped
when each part is working properly each part
of the body each member it makes the body grow
so that it builds itself up in love when we equip
each part of the body to do its work And every
part of the body is working properly. What? The
body grows because it is doing the work of building
itself up in love. So I think it's probably better
for us if we can. I hope that doesn't offend
anybody. If you like the commas in verse 12,
keep the commas there. But I think when we read
verse 12 and understand, Paul's not talking about
one man or a small group of men doing all the
work in the church. He's talking about men in
leadership enabling and equipping the members
to get involved and do the work, and that's what
makes the body strong. Last thing we'll look
at concerning our modern day practice. Because
in many churches today we've accepted and adopted
the idea that we hire men in to be our preachers,
fewer and fewer men are being sent out to far
away places to preach and teach the gospel. More
and more evangelists are being hired in to come
and be the preacher in big churches here in the
United States. And the result is this, fewer
and fewer evangelists are being supported to
go out, to be sent, and to go start new works,
new churches here in the US and in foreign places.
Now, I want to give you some proof of that. This
is a table. This table illustrates the decline
in Church of Christ membership in the United
States. since 1955 to the present day. I want
to draw your attention here to this pink shaded
area. These are the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. The
50s, 60s, and 70s was the era of massive Church
of Christ College and Church of Christ University
expansion. A lot of Church of Christ colleges,
preacher schools, if they weren't established
during this time period, they underwent major
expansion. And the thought and the idea was that
if we invest all these resources in these Church
of Christ colleges and preacher schools, we're
going to send our young people to these schools
and colleges and we're going to train them, we're
going to equip them, we're going to prepare them
and we're going to send them out and they're
going to help the church grow rapidly all across
the United States. That was the idea and that's
a very good idea. But you know what happened?
The exact opposite happened. From 1968, to 2020,
the church saw a 55 % decrease in membership
in the United States, from about 2 .4 million
members in 1968 to a little over 1 million members
in 2020. That might be, you know, charts and
graphs, maybe that's a little bit too technical.
I'm technical -minded. I'm an engineer by trade,
and so I think in terms of graphs and charts,
Here's the point I'm trying to teach. Here's
what I'm trying to show you from this graph.
The one -man professional preacher system has
not helped grow the church in the United States.
It has not helped the church grow. In fact, it
may in fact be hindering the church because we
are sending fewer and fewer men out to do the
work. Instead we are just hiring them in to stand
behind pulpits like this and be our preachers.
Last thing we want to look at tonight, we started
by looking at the original pattern, God's pattern
for church organization. We went down through
the centuries of church history. We saw that
many errors and deviations came into the church
concerning its organization. And we see that
we see many things in our modern day practice
that aren't in line with the Word of God. We're
here tonight, and we're here this week not just
to focus on problems. We're here to try to talk
about solutions Let's talk about some solutions.
Let's talk about some things that we can do to
restore God's pattern for church organization
First thing that we could do these offices that
had become highly secularized we can desecularize
them Workers in the early church were prepared
without Bible colleges and again. I'm not I'm
not trying to condemn you if you Teach at a Bible
college. You went to a Bible college. I'm not
trying to condemn you, but I just want you to
understand this. Workers in the early church
were prepared to serve without Bible colleges,
without preaching certificates, without legally
binding contracts. They didn't need those things
in the first century church, yet we see the first
century church growing rapidly. Consider the
way Paul mentored Timothy. In Acts chapter 16
verse 1 to 3, He, that's Paul, came to Derbe
and Lystra. Behold, a certain disciple was there
named Timotheus, Timothy. Paul comes to Lystra
and Derbe on a second missionary journey. He
finds this young man named Timothy. It says in
verse 2 that this Timothy was well reported of
by the brethren that were at Lystra in Iconium.
This young man's got a good reputation. All right,
Paul looks at him and sees potential in young
Timothy. And what does Paul do? He says him,
Timothy, Would Paul have to go forth with him?
Paul tells Timothy, Timothy I want you to come
with me and I will train you and I will teach
you and I will show you what it means to preach
the gospel. I'll show you what it means to do
the work of an evangelist. You know this one
-on -one organic mentorship I think is probably
a more effective way of bringing up and raising
up the next generation of leaders, teachers and
preachers in our congregations. It seems to me
that that's the way they trained up the next
generation of leaders in the first century church
in the same way Paul took and trained up Timothy.
So that's what I mean when I'm talking about
de -secularizing these offices. We talked earlier
about all the roles being shifted downward because
of the introduction of the one -man pastor system.
I think we can take steps and take actions that
would shift those roles back upward. This is
where we left it a moment ago with the preacher
doing all the teaching for the church, the elders
serving as the board of directors, the deacons
relegated to being janitors, lawn mowers and
tech support. No more teachers needed in the
church because we hired a man to do all our teaching
and the focus of the membership is just make
sure they give enough to pay the budget of the
church. Here's the first thing we could do to
change all that. We can encourage and I do encourage
preachers, ministers. equip and train men in
your congregation to get involved in teaching.
That's part of the work of an evangelist. Equip
men, prepare men, train men to teach, prepare
men to serve as elders, and elders need to be
teachers in the church as well. Equip the members
to do their part. in the work of the Lord. If
preachers will get busy focusing on this part
of their work, the elders can resume their rightful
place as teachers in the congregation and they
can resume their place of being the rightful
leaders of the congregations. And if we can move
the elders back up to doing that, the deacons
can then take care of the work of serving the
needs of the church like God intended in the
beginning. Guess what? We can encourage men in
the congregation who might not be elders who
might not be deacons, but they might have a a
Talent and ability and a desire to be teachers
in the church. Let's work with those men Enable
them equip them train them to teach alongside
The elders of the church and then instead of
the members of the church just being the people
who fund everybody above them You know, it's
amazing what you can do when people are willing
to serve as elders on a voluntary basis or from
their heart. Deacons are serving voluntarily.
These men are teaching voluntarily. You know,
it's amazing how little your budget becomes when
people are willingly doing this because they
love the Lord and they love the work of His church.
The focus can be shifted away from giving all
the money for these people to work to the members
going back and working and being active in the
congregations. We could take steps to get our
congregations back to what the Lord intended
them to be in the beginning. And you know, if
a preacher can do this, if he can successfully
work over a period of time to affect these kinds
of changes, guess what he can do now? This congregation
don't need him anymore, do they? They don't need
him anymore. They got elders teaching and leading.
They got de -conserving. They got other men teaching.
They got the members working. They don't need
him anymore. They can actually support him and
send him out to a new area as an evangelist so
he can preach the gospel somewhere else and maybe
start a new work, a new congregation somewhere
else. And what's that look like? That looks like
church growth. Instead of hiring these men to
do all our teaching and preaching and dilute
and diminish the talent of the men of the congregation,
Getting all these people involved and working
will actually allow him to go out and work in
other places and help grow the church. And this
is something we can do to help shift these roles
back upward where they need to be. I do believe
we also need to return back to God's original
pattern for elders teaching and preaching in
the assemblies of the church. There's a multitude
of scriptures in the New Testament which speak
to an elder's necessity to teach. Acts 20 and
28, Paul tells the elders to feed the flock.
1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, the qualifications of elders
apt to teach, able to exhort with sound doctrine.
1 Peter 5, 1 to 3, Peter told the elders to feed
the flock. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 7 talks about
the elders being those who have spoken the word
of God. 1 Thessalonians 5, 12 talks about the
elders as those that admonish the members of
the congregation. There are six scriptures right
there. Six scriptures which make it abundantly
clear that it's an elder's role and it's part
of his role and responsibility to be a teacher
in the church. I'll tell you something else we
need too. We need godly men to step up. We need
godly men to step up. You know what the church
needs? The church needs more fat men. More fat
men. Fat, faithful, available, teachable. Look,
I want to stop just a moment. I want to speak
to you men. Men, we need every brother. We need
every male member of the Lord's body to step
up and do your part and do what you can to help
make the church Strong to help make it grow,
to help make it thrive. What are some things
that we need to do as men? As men, let me just
put it to you straight, guys. Listen, let me
just put it to you straight. In some churches,
we've got far too many men that are just sitting
on the sidelines as consumers. They just sit
on the sideline as consumers of what the church
offers them. We need more men to get off the
sideline and get in the game and become producers.
Producers, not just consumers. Guys, you need
to be leading in your homes. It starts there.
Leading faithfully. honorably as husbands, as
fathers, as the scriptures instruct us. Lead
your homes in a godly manner. Teach your children,
fathers, teach your children. Raise them up in
their nurture and admonition of the Lord. We
need you doing that. We need you doing that.
We need you to commit yourself to be an active
and involved and present member of the body.
We need to count on you to be here when the church
comes together. In some churches you might not
be able to count on the men to be there. Maybe
20 -30 % of the time. They're there one Sunday,
they're gone the next. We can't count on them.
They're not reliable. They're not committed.
Men, we need more of you to be committed, to
be present, to be active and involved in the
work of the church. Guys, you gotta be studying
your Bibles. Gotta be studying your Bibles. Gotta
be sharing your faith. You need to know the Word
of God well enough that you can talk with people
about your faith. Talk with them about the church.
And I know it might require you to get out of
your comfort zone a little bit, but we need you
guys working on developing your talents. Work
on developing your talents. You say, bro James,
well I ain't got any talents. I ain't got anything
church needs from me. You probably got more talent
than you're aware of. You probably got more talent
than you give yourself credit for. And these
are some of the things, guys. We as men need
to take our role, our responsibility seriously.
Look, it's all too easy to make excuses. It's
all too easy to sit back and say, well, somebody
else will do that. Brother so -and -so will do
that. You know, I'm not really needed. There's
so much work to do. And we need everybody in
the game being involved in the work. It's no
time for excuses. It's no time for spiritual
laziness. I want to encourage you men, I'm speaking
to you straight, I'm using pointed words, but
listen, I'm doing that because it's just that
important. If we love the church, if we love
the Lord, let's step up, let's step out, let's
do what we can to be involved in the work of
the church. Let's be fat men, let's be faithful,
let's be available, and let's be teachable. This
is something that as an evangelist I'm called
to do. It's my duty as an evangelist to call
men to this kind of service and this kind of
commitment. Second Timothy 2 -2, Paul tells Timothy,
the thing that thou hast heard of me among many
witnesses, he says the same commit to faithful
men who shall be able to teach others also. Paul's
telling Timothy, what I've taught you Timothy,
you teach to faithful men so that they can go
out and teach others also. So it's that work.
of equipping the members of the body so that
they can be involved in the larger work of the
church. It's so very important. And then the
last thing we can do to help restore the New
Testament pattern for church organization is
we can do the work of sending men out to teach
and preach the gospel. When we set up our congregations
in a scriptural way, when our congregations are
set in order scripturally, As we've talked about
tonight, you know what they can do? They can
support and they can send out evangelists. That's
what the church at Antioch did, right? That's
what the church at Antioch did. Let's go back
and revisit that. Acts 13 .1, there were at the
church at Antioch certain prophets and teachers.
It names five of them by name. It says, as they
ministered to the Lord, they were all ministering
and serving the Lord there at Antioch. It says,
As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the
Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul
for the work whereunto I have called them. The
Lord looked down at Antioch. He saw at least
five men teaching and preaching. The Lord says,
I need two of those men, Saul and Barnabas, to
go and do a special work that I've called them
to do. The Bible says when they had fasted and
prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent
them away. Do you know what they went and did?
This was the beginning of the first missionary
journey. Paul and Barnabas were sent out from
Antioch to teach and preach the gospel in many
places, established new congregations in Lystra,
in Derbe, in Iconium, in Antioch of Pisidia.
You see a congregation that's set in order scripturally
with multiple teachers is able to send men out
to do evangelistic work. The example being the
church there at Antioch. I hope you can see tonight
from our study of the Scriptures that God does
indeed have a plan for the organization of the
church. He has a plan. That plan has been given
to us in the New Testament. I'm here to tell
you that plan has worked well in times past.
It worked very well for the first century church.
The first century church grew rapidly by following
this plan that I've tried to teach you tonight.
This plan, this pattern of church organization,
though it might sound different to some of us,
I may have shared some things with you tonight
that are new. I may have shared some ideas, some
scriptures that you've never heard of. I may
have exposed you tonight for the first time to
a completely new way of looking at the leadership
and organization of the church. And if so, I
want you to understand and I want you to know
that this plan is working very well in many places
today. This plan is working very well here at
North Warren, other congregations in this area
all across this country. There are congregations
I could take you to if you go with me and show
you congregations led by elders, served by deacons,
taught by multiple men, sending out and supporting
three, four, five, maybe even ten evangelists
in other parts of the U .S. in foreign countries.
This plan works. God's plan will always work.
If we will work God's plan, God's plan will work
for us. The question is this, will we trust God's
plan? Despite everything we've ever been taught,
despite everything we've been told, despite everything
we may have ever seen in the church concerning
its organization, will we trust that God's plan
is best? Thank you for your attention tonight.
I really appreciate you being here tonight as
we consider these things We feel like these things
are very very important Very very important for
us to understand clearly And we pray God's richest
blessings on this congregation as it continues
to strive to put this plan into practice. God
bless you all. We're going to sing a song of
invitation. If you're here tonight and you need
to respond to the gospel, you want to be baptized
into Christ, or if you're here tonight and you
need the prayers of the church, we want to help
you spiritually. If there's anything we can do
to assist, please don't hesitate. Make your need
known by coming forward, having a scene on the
front while we stand and while we sing the song
of invitation.