What in the World Is the Church to Be? Part 2
Selected Scriptures
We began last week, and we'll continue this week and finish this brief series. And fitting it is that we understand exactly what's involved and what is the form or the pattern that the New Testament sets for the church. Now, in past months, we have talked about the relationship of believers to each other in the body of Christ. That's the invisible church, and I want you to get the distinction. We've talked about how that Christians are related to each other in an invisible way. But now we're talking, not so much about the invisible church, the body and our ministry of gifts to each other, as we are talking about the pattern and the form for the visible church.
When we come together on Lord's day, when we bring ourselves into this place, gathering as believers, what form are we to follow? What patterns does the New Testament give for the church together visibly? That's what we're studying in this series. The invisible church, the ministry of spiritual gifts, the fellowship of the body, and all of these areas we discussed in connection with that series some months ago.
Now, you all know that we are Christ's church. Every believer is a part of the church. We are the church. All who love Jesus Christ are His ransomed, His redeemed, His assembled children. We are the body of Christ. We are positionally one by virtue of being baptized into the body by the Spirit of God. We are a living organism. We are a community of those redeemed by Jesus Christ. We are a mystery body, Paul says, an invisible group. That is, the world can't see us. We don't always show up on the outside. We're not marked by some tag always that identifies us as true believers. And, as I mentioned to you last week, sometimes we don't even know ourselves who's real and who isn't. And so we're very careful to be sure that we...pray and study and analyze somebody's life as carefully as we can before we put them in a position of Christian leadership to determine whether they're for real or not. Because we know Satan sows the tares among the wheat.
Christ, then, designed the church as an invisible body of those who love Him. But He also designed it to be visible to the world. You heard the testimony of a pagan philosopher who saw in the church something beautiful and something unique. That is the design of God that the invisible church become visible and, by its collective visibility, be a living testimony in the world to the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The tragedy of it is that the visible church is not always the invisible church. And the invisible church is not always visible. Now, if you can untangle that, I think you'll understand what I mean.
We who really are believers don't always show up that way, and sometimes people who appear to be believers aren't. And, thus, the picture to the world is mixed and confused, diabolically so. That was Satan's plan all the time. But in spite of Satan's effort to confuse the issue, the church is to be visible. You have a lot of people today saying we don't need the church. We don't need the local church. We don't need a building on the corner. We don't need to congregate together. Should be spontaneous, home-oriented, out in the boondocks.
I believe God designed the church to be a visible testimony to the world as it comes together. As we mentioned last Sunday morning, when you got up this morning and came to this place, you were a living testimony to the living Christ. This is the Lord's resurrection day. And I believe in the design of God. He called us together. And with the confusion and the mixture that Satan has brought about, it demands of us that our testimony be just that much more clear. We need to be clear in terms of our testimony in order to shine out of the confusion.
Now, what is the correct form? What is the pattern that the church is to follow in terms of its worship and its...its fellowship and its coming together for study? Well, we saw last week, first of all, the history of the church by looking at the first church, the foundation of the church, the Jerusalem church. We saw that first local assembly formed on the day of Pentecost. We saw that it was a very large assembly. They had 3,000 additions the first day. Those, many of them left, but it continued to grow daily, Acts 2 tells us.
That church was a growing church, a thriving church, a Holy Spirit church, a productive church, a God-blessed church, a dynamic church, and outreach church. And as we looked at it carefully, we wanted to find out what were the ingredients that made it that kind of a church. And we found out there were basically four things, plus one other thing, that made it what it oughta be. It was involved only in four things, really. Studying the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread around the communion table, prayer. Those four things. That was the beginning and the end of the program of the first church. And the fifth thing was everybody went everywhere talking about Jesus Christ.
And when we talk about what the church is today, we have to realize that the church today is much different in many ways. Many people have decided that in order to have an effective church you have to have an entertainment center with super programs and gimmicks. You have to bypass all the uncommitted people and program for them and let them stay off the hook. But that's not how it was in early church. They had four things. They studied doctrine. They had fellowship. They prayed, and the broke bread. And, as a result, everybody went everywhere preaching the Gospel. And that is really the beginning and the end of what the church is designed to be in its time together and as it exists together.
That church was a learning church. It was a fellowshipping church. It was a praying church, and it was a church that met at the table of the Lord to share in the remembrance of His death. And then it was a church that went out into the world to communicate what it believed. And the effect was fantastic.
The Bible tells us in Acts 2:47, that they had favor with all the people. And, daily, people were added to the church. The visible church in Jerusalem had an impact. It had a dynamic impact. It was a local assembly of believers gathered together, meeting on the first day of the week for the study of the Word of God, for fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer, and then leaving that place after the first day of the week. They continued to meet together as they were able during the week and, in times when they weren't together, they were out where sinners were communicating Jesus Christ.
The leaders of that early church, we saw last week, were the apostles. God gave them His best for those first few years, so that they might be grounded and rooted firmly. And then, finally, it was time to ordain some deacons there who could run the church, and the apostles could move on to other ministries. And then we saw how Jerusalem church finally, after a period of years, sent somebody to...to Antioch by the name Barnabas and started another one there. And then from there churches began to spring up in local communities everyplace.
And, as we read through Paul's letters, we find Paul writing letters to various assemblies meeting for the same four purposes. Studying the Word, fellowingshipping, breaking bread around the Lord's table, praying, and then the fifth plus, everybody going everywhere to share Christ.
You say, "Well, what's the difference between them and us?" Well, I think the difference is as simple as commitment. Maybe they were a little closer to the fire, being closer to the time of the life of Christ. And the very specific revelations of the Holy Spirit's...Holy Spirit's power in miracles and signs and wonders. But, nevertheless, the difference is the difference of personal commitment.
And so we saw the history of the founding of the church. Then, secondly, we began to look at the ministry of the church. And with that we came to 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, and I'd like you to just turn there in your Bible and kind of stick around 1 Timothy for a few minutes...and we'll review very quickly, and then move on. The church is then to be committed to four things. They are basic, and they are the impetus to that fifth plus, which is every member preaching Christ. But further than that, there is, in 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, much information about how we are to behave ourselves in the church.
We know what the church is to be. We've seen that by the pattern of Jerusalem and the other churches. And now we wanna see how the form of the church takes shape. What is it that Paul sets up as a pattern for us to follow in the church? You know, it's very interesting when you kind of analyze church biblically, how they don't ever fit the pattern. When you try to...to get into a Biblical form for the church, there is just a basic form, and then there's a whole lot of area where you can just about go any direction you want.
And, unfortunately, most churches have taken that area where the Bible isn't specific and created great, huge traditions that have become equal to Biblical truth, and they can't change any of it. So they find themselves in a mold that is un-adaptable to the day in which they exist. All right, the ministry of the church, then, first of all, we said the basic task of the church is the teaching of sound doctrine. The church is to teach sound doctrine. That is what we're all about. We're not here to give you platitudes. We're not here to give you music programs. We're not here to provide for you entertainment for your children, to keep the teenagers off the street. We are here, not to repair family problems from a psychological analytical standpoint. We are not here to counsel you in terms of psychology. We are here to teach you sound doctrine. That is the ministry of the church, beginning, middle, and end.
That's what it's all about. And any ministry that is less than a concentrated effort to teach sound doctrine starts out on a non-Biblical basis. We are committed, then, at Grace Church to the sound doctrine of the Word of God. And we believe that that involves teaching it explicitly.
Now I gave you a little principle last week, and I want you to be reminded of it. So look at 1 Timothy 4:13. And here is the pattern that the Apostle Paul gives to Timothy for how to teach sound doctrine. And this is a little verse that tells us what expository preaching is all about. "Till I come, give attendance to...and here's the pattern of expository preaching...to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine." Now, there you have what really is involved in an expository message. You read it. You explain it. That's the doctrine. And you exhort. You apply it.
That's the three points of expository preaching. Read the text, explain the text, and apply the text. And that's exactly what he says for Timothy to do. That is the key to any kind of a Biblical ministry. The church is to be about teaching sound doctrine. And the tragedy of it is that the church is doing everything but that. It's amazing to go across the country, and church after church after church, there is a dearth and a void of sound doctrine.
Second Timothy 2:2, "The things that thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also." Titus chapter 2 verse 1, "But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine." We are to preach sound doctrine. Timothy has to do it, not just till Paul comes, but till Christ comes. That is the pattern of the church.
Then we saw, not only the basic ministry, but we saw the basic leadership, and we're still reviewing. The basic leadership, those who teach sound doctrine and apply it. The church is to teach it. The basic leadership are those who teach it and apply it to the people. Now there are two leaders, two classes or orders of leaders designed in the New Testament for the church. First of all, elders. Last week, we considered at great length the ministry of elders.
Just to review a couple of points. In a church, there's always a plurality of elders. That is, there's a plurality of leadership. No one man is the chief elder. There's no such animal as a chief elder. None exist. There's no such person as one who runs the church. That's completely contrary to scriptural principle that God works through the collective minds of elders in the church. And so there is a plurality of elders. They are qualified by God. They are responsible to God. They are not responsible to the congregation. They are not responsible to a committee. They are not responsible to a board of directors or a board of anything else. They are directly responsible to God to rule the church. The people do not rule the church. The elders rule the church. The people select the elders.
In Acts, for example, chapter 14 verse 21, we read this. "And when they had preached the Gospel to that city...this is Paul...and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we much through much tribulation enter the Kingdom of God." Now watch this, "And when they had ordained elders in every church and had prayed with fasting"...that's how they ordained them. You say, "How does God reveal to the church who the elders are so that the church can ordain them?"
"Through prayer and fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed." An elder is commended to the Lord, for it is to the Lord that he is answerable. The church selects its elders through prayer and fasting, determining in their heart who it is that God has laid His hand on for leadership in that church. Elders are not chosen on the basis of their knowledge of the business world. They are not chosen on the basis of their financial ability. They are not chosen because they happen to be loud and take kind of the chief places. They are not chosen because they have a...have an innate ability to be leaders. They are chosen because God has laid His on them, and designed them for the leadership of the church, and they are chosen through the prayer and fasting of the people, commended to God to whom they are thus answerable.
Now, what are the requirements for an elder? Last time we saw them as Paul gave them to Timothy. This time, I want you see them as Paul gave them to Titus. Titus 1:5. Titus 1:5, Paul gives to Titus, who, incidentally, is founding churches, and that's why Timothy and Titus had to have all this information. They were busy about planting churches everywhere, and they needed to know the order that God wanted. Now, in Titus 1:5, we have the qualifications for an elder. "For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting." He put in there to set the form down for the church in Crete. "And to ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee." It's interesting that, in the New Testament, the evangelist ordained the elders.
Now, there aren't any evangelists around nowadays. Well, hardly any, who are true evangelists. When we hear the word "evangelist," we think of something which is really foreign to a Biblical evangelist. A Biblical evangelist was a church planter. And so this evangelist, Titus, is to ordain elders in every city to rule the church. Now these are those who are responsible for the leadership of the church.
I'm an elder. Some people we call quote unquote laymen are elders. We are equal. I'm not above anybody else. I'm not more than anybody else. I'm not reverend somebody. I'm not father somebody. I'm not holy somebody. I'm not saint somebody. I'm just me, and that's all. Just plain old John. I have been given the privilege, by God, of being one of the elders in this church. I have the particular responsibility of being the teaching elder...But it's a plurality.
Now, here are the requirements. Verse 6, and, as I said last week, if you feel before God that this is the ministry God has called you to, and that you qualify in the energy of Holy Spirit for this, we'd like to know that that's your feeling, and we'd like to know if you desire this, because it's a good thing to desire it, Paul said. Six, "If any be blameless,"...and that doesn't mean perfect, obviously, or we'd all be disqualified. That means if any be without some great blotch on his life that would be point of criticism by everybody. "The husband of one wife," and we've talked about that last time. "Having faithful children, not accused of profligacy, riot, or unruly." You know one of the qualifications of an elder? His children are to be believers. His children are to be believers. He has to give evidence of having been effective in communicating his faith to his own family. An elder's children are to be believers. And they are not to be unruly. There are some who have believing children who are rather unruly. I'm sure my father fought that particular requirement for years. A man with pagan children cannot be appointed as an elder. They are to follow their father's faith with a measure of godly conduct. Certainly, you don't expect to see a, you know, total sainthood in the child, but with a measure of godly conduct.
Then he says in verse 7, and here he uses the word "bishop," which, again, is the same as elder. This just describes his duties, not his office. He's an elder. His duty is as bishop. A bishop means overseer. "As an overseer must be blameless, as the steward of God." That is, he realizes that he is a steward. That is, he doesn't own anything. He manages the affairs of God for the body of Christ. "Not self-willed." He's not in it to please himself. "Not soon angry...hot-tempered...not given to wine." Remember, I told you that means he doesn't linger over long beside his wine. The only thing they could drink in those days was wine. The water wasn't pure. When you drank it, you drank it and you left. If you were, you know, on the up and up. If you hung around the bottle a long time, that was evidence you had a problem. "Not given to wine, not violent." And that word "violent" means he likes to use his fists. Not that kind of a man. "Not given to filthy lucre." Doesn't pursue money, totally.
Verse 8, "A lover of hospitality." That means he's a guy who loves to open his house and let strangers come in. If you're gonna do that, if you're gonna throw your house open, you're gonna have to have your house in order, right? And that's why it says he should have believing children, and he should be managing his own house. If he can't manage his own house, Paul told Timothy, how could he manage the church of God? He needs to have a house that could be thrown open to anybody to come in and see on display what Christian living is all about. "A lover of stranger love." That's the word hospitality. Loves to let strangers in. "A lover of good," and the word "men" is implied there. It could mean good men. It could mean just good. "Sober-minded." He knows priorities. This guy knows what