The Pattern of the New Testament Church Part 2

Introduction

That was very uplifting and very encouraging to all of us. Good to see everyone. Hope everybody has had a good holiday so far. I want to today continue what I started two weeks ago and finish what I started two weeks ago in this two lesson series on the pattern of the New Testament church. We establish the fact that there is a pattern that is revealed for us, for the local church, for what we are to do collectively, for how the church is to function. And I think a good way to think of this is to think of a blueprint that God has given us for just what the church is to be and to do. The main thing we really talked about two weeks ago was the work of the local church.

1. Differences Between the Local Church and the Individual

And we saw that the work of the local church is to be ultimately the pillar in support of the truth. That the church is to be involved in the saving of souls and the truth of the gospel message being preached and taught to men. It is a spiritual work almost completely that the work is of the church is involved in. There is the taking care of those who are needy saints. But even that is really attached to this idea of a spiritual work. I want to continue and really begin with this idea, continuing this idea of the work of the local church, then we’ll enter into some other ideas. And we need to make a very important distinction and clarification. I want to talk to you first here about differences between the local church and the individual.

Many people get confused and assume that whatever the individual can do, the church can do. This is easy to assume, because I mean, by the way, the church is made up of individuals. So it can be confusing. But someone could argue that, well, since the individual can, for example, have a coffee shop. Well, that can’t the church have a coffee shop? Well, the, you know, the individual can have a daycare. So can’t the church have a daycare. You know, the individual can practice horseback riding and lassoing, and so can’t the church do that and we can have the cowboy church? I didn’t make that up. I’m dead serious. These are things that people do. And so we we see that in Scripture, it is not true that whatever the Christian can do, the church can do.

We see this by many principles. I want you to look there in 1 Timothy chapter 5. 1 Timothy, the fifth chapter, I think this is the clearest place to see this distinction. In this chapter, Paul is telling this young evangelist Timothy instructions about church support for widows. So what kind of rules would there be to follow regarding supporting widows from the church treasury? I think that’s clearly the context here. Well, we see, first of all, she’s got to be a Christian and a devout one at that. She’s got to have reached a certain age. But we also see here that she has to be one that doesn’t have family that could take care of her. And we read in verse 8 of 1 Timothy chapter 5, where it says, But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he is denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

So it’s not the church’s responsibility to just take care of everyone. We have the individual responsibility to take care of your own household. But I really want to focus in and hone in on verse 16, which says, If any believing man or woman has widows, let them relieve them, and do not let the church be burdened, that it may relieve those who are really widows, or your version may say widows indeed. So you see, when the church takes on the responsibility that ought to be acted upon and fulfilled by the individual, then it becomes a burden to the church. The church is not designed to just take on everything out there. That would just water down its work, it would burden the church and so forth.

And so the church and the Christian have similar but different responsibilities. I want to also point out here that there are some home activities that cannot be church activities. The clearest place to see this is first Corinthians eleven. If you will look in 1 Corinthians the 11th chapter, Paul is here dealing with abuses of the Lord’s Supper.

So this is a time for us to come together and fill our tummies. And they weren’t waiting on one another, they were just scarfing down this food, and that was the focus. So Paul is dealing with that, and he says in that context, he says in verse 22, What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I shat say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you. And also look in verse 34. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment, and the rest I will set in order when I come. Lord’s Supper is not for a common meal.

Common meals are for the home. But I think there we learn an important principle that can be applied across the board. That there are home activities that cannot be church activities.

If anyone wants to swim, let them swim at home. Did you know there are even church buildings that have bowling alleys? I’ve heard of that. If anyone wants to bowl, let them bowl in the bowling alley. So we have to make a distinction between individual actions and church actions, and this is not something I made up. I mean, our only rule book is the Bible. We don’t have some creed book that tells us that. We find these principles in Scripture. And that’s what we are to do. Now there are two controversial passages in this whole discussion about the individual and uh and the local church. James 127 and Galatians 6.10. Now, James 1 and verse 27 says, pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

So take care of orphans and widows. Galatians 6 10 says, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, especially those who are of the household of faith. These two passages are used by some to authorize church action that the church collectively has not only the duty but the responsibility to use its money and efforts to take care of those who are widows and those who are orphans in general. Do good and to all men. So anyone out there, kind of like the Red Cross or the Salvation Army, sort of sort of a thing. However, those two verses are in a context of individual responsibility. We as individuals have the responsibility to take care of widows and orphans. And by the way, let me ask you: do you do that?

People like widows and orphans anyway, who are needy, and who need to be taken care of or visited, not just maybe in the sense of sitting with them, but in the sense of doing something to help them. Do we do that in our individual lives? Wouldn’t it be easy to just think, well, I can just drop my check in this plate and it’ll take care of the widows and orphans. But see, now this is not meant to say that we don’t care about widows and orphans. But in this congregation, our funds are used to promote the gospel. And in special times of need to take care of needy saints, which is what we talked about in part one of this series. But individually, we do have the responsibility to take care of people like widows and orphans.

2. The Oversight of Elders

Anybody out there who might need help, and we use, of course, judgment and discretion and how we do that. But that is an individual responsibility. Therefore, these two passages do not authorize church homes for orphans or for widows. I mean, what a burden on the church that would be anyway, really. Well, now that we have dealt with the work of the church, and I wrapped that up today in the first part of this lesson, I would like to switch gears now and talk about the organization for the local church, the governing of the local church. And this is done through the oversight of elders and through the service of deacons. So let’s talk first about elders. In Acts chapter 20, Paul was on his third journey, and he was returning back to Jerusalem in quite a hurry.

So he didn’t have time to go to Ephesus, a very important city for him, a near and dear place. But he called for the elders of the church. We read in verse 17 from Miletus. He sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. Now, this doesn’t just mean people who are older. We’re talking about the term elders in a very specific sense here.

Now, why do I say it’s a role of oversight? Well, look in verse 28, when Paul is talking to these elders, he said, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. To shepherd the church of God, which you purchased with his own blood. So it’s a role of oversight. And we see other names for elders, and I want to start with this verse right here. What else do we see elders called in this verse? Overseers. Now, your version may say bishops. In fact, I would just like to ask does anybody have a version that instead of saying overseers, says bishops, bishops? Could you raise your hand if anybody has that? Okay, so that would be somewhat uncommon because nobody in this group has that, but some versions might have that because uh it is the same word.

Okay, it is the same word from the Greek word episcopas, which transliterated is bishop and translated is overseers. So another name for elders would be pastors. Now do you notice here in Acts 20, 28, what else elders are told to do? They are told to shepherd the flock, the church of God. Now, what kind of people shepherd? Shepherds. What else do you call shepherds? In Latin, pastors. Okay? So pastor means shepherd. Elders, shepherd. There is only one verse in which we see the noun referring to elders in the role of pastor. And that is in Ephesians 4.11. This is the only verse where we have the term pastors, at least in the versions that I use, the New King James and New American Standard. In that verse it says, and he that is Jesus gave some as apostles and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors, and some as teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ, and so forth.

So we see in that verse, pastors, and that is referring to the role of elders. So to sum up, there are five terms for the same role. You have elder, you have overseer, which could also be translated bishop. You have pastor, which is the Latin word for shepherd. We could refer to our four elders here in this congregation with any of those five terms and be scripturally accurate in doing so. And by the way, we are very blessed to have men who are looking out for this flock, who are feeding this flock, and who are shepherding this flock. By the way, I’m not one of those.

I wouldn’t want to shepherd you people. That’d be like herding cats anyway. I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding. You actually, this is a wonderful group to work with. I mean, you you all are so supportive and just easy to work with and encouraging. And I’m so happy to be working among you as another sheep. I’m not your shepherd. I’m not your pastor. But I get the opportunity to stand up here as a sheep who is able to do this full time and to teach you. But we have our shepherds. You see, preachers are not called pastors in the Bible. In 2 Timothy 4, verse 5, I want you to be turning there. And I want you to think about what do traditionally, what do people usually refer to 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus as?

The pastoral epistles. That’s just what they’re normally called. I think that’s very ironic, because neither Titus nor Timothy were pastors. But these are called the pastoral epistles. In fact, Paul was not a pastor. He was an apostle, but he wasn’t married. We’ll get into that, the qualifications in a minute. But in 2 Timothy 4 5, Paul says to this young preacher, Timothy, but you be watchful in all things and your afflictions, do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. Notice he doesn’t say do the work of a pastor. Why? Because Timothy wasn’t a pastor. He was a what? An evangelist. And we saw in Ephesians 4 11 that Jesus gave some as apostles and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors, and some as teachers.

Do you see that there is a distinction between evangelists and pastors? They are not the same. Now they can, you can have someone who is a pastor, an elder who is also an evangelist. Mr. Harkrider is a prime example of that, but that is only if those men meet the requirements for pastors or elders. And so we need to focus on those. You see, I can’t, I can’t be your shepherd. I can’t be an elder because I don’t meet the qualifications yet. Maybe one day, hopefully I will. That’s what I’m going to shoot for. But in 1 Timothy 3, we see qualifications given here for elders. We read in verse 1, this is a faithful saying, if a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work.

What do we say bishop could also be translated as? Overseer. It’s referring to the role of elders. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous, one who rules his own house well, house well, having his children in submission with all reverence. For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God? Not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride, he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover, he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Now, I also want to go to Titus chapter 1 and see sort of a different wording for these qualifications.

In Titus 1, beginning in verse 5, Paul says, For this reason I left you in Crete that you should set in order the things that are lacking and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you. If a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of dissipation or insubordination. For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict. So we see that these standards, these qualities, these characteristics are hard to achieve.

Why do you think that in this congregation we only have four elders and not twenty-four? Because it’s a rare thing for someone to be able to meet these qualifications. What a blessing. Brethren, it’s a blessing. Are we thankful for our elders for our leadership? We need to thank them, and we need to tell them how much we appreciate their hard work. So they have to be above reproach. That’s just one of the qualifications given, the first one. Another one that I want to emphasize here is husband of one wife. A person couldn’t be a pastor, an elder, an overseer, if he were not married. Or if he were married but did not have children. Or if he were married and had children that were not Christians.

Titus tells us they they need to be children who believe. A clear reference to the fact that their children must be Christians. Apt to teach, not a new convert. In fact, we call them elders because they’ve got some years under their belt, some experience. I remember when I was working doing a training program at Gooch Lane congregation in Huntsville, Alabama under Frank Walton. And these two Mormons came and were talking with us, and they were like 18 or 19, and they had name tags that said elder so-and-so. I remember one of them was Elder Hollingsworth. I just remember that specifically. And Frank said, uh, I don’t mean any disrespect, but I don’t feel like I can in good conscience call you elder because you fellas don’t meet the qualifications in Scripture for elders.

Can we call you by your first name? And they said, Yeah, sure, I guess. So we call them by their first name, and then we had a second study where they came back and said, uh, you can’t call us by our first name anymore. You have to call us by our last name. They had been informed by the hierarchy that that’s what they have to do. But see, our God is the Bible. And the qualifications for elders we can’t make up. Or for pastors, we can’t make up. We have to follow what Scripture teaches on the matter. Another part of this pattern regarding elders is that multiple elders are to oversee a single local church. In the first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas, when they were beginning to return and retrace their steps and revisit many of the churches, it says in Acts 14 and verse 23 that after they had appointed elders for them in every church, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

Elders in every church. We also saw in Acts 20 and verse 17, Paul called for the elders, plural of the church at Ephesus. 1 Peter 5 is another passage that touches on this, if you will look there in 1 Peter, the fifth chapter. You know, Peter was an apostle. He was also an elder. And we read in verse 1 of chapter 5, the elders who are among you, I exhort. I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God, which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly, nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

So the flock among you.

3. The Service of Deacons

And we see that this term, however, is used in a special sense in this context, where we are talking about a special position of service that we call deacons. We see specific qualifications for deacons in 1 Timothy 3. So let’s go back to 1 Timothy 3. And beginning in verse 8, I want to read those qualifications. Likewise, deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. But let these also first be tested, and let them serve as deacons, being found blameless. Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children in their own houses well. For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

And we have deacons here who serve well and who have obtained a good standing and great boldness in the faith. And we are blessed.

I know what those men do behind the scenes. They are tireless workers. And they do it because they love the Lord and they love their brethren. And what a blessing it is to have these men doing such good work to make so many things possible for us to be able to gather and take care of the different things that are taken care of. What a blessing that is. Now notice here that these elder, I mean, that these qualifications are similar to elder qualifications, but they’re not exactly the same. Some of the qualifications are repeated. Some of the qualifications for elders actually are not given for deacons, such as apt to teach. Deacons don’t have to be good teachers.

They are to be a husband of one wife, but we don’t see that their children must believe, as we see in Titus chapter 1, for elders, so they might have little children, and they may not be as old themselves as elders are. Now, I also want us to notice that there is no female deaconess position. Now, there is a verse that some versions have the word deaconess in Romans 16 1, referring to Phoebe. She’s a servant of the Lord, but there in the context, it’s simply dealing with the idea of servant in a general sense that we are all to be servants, and not in a specific special role such as deacons, because we don’t see any qualifications given and so forth for deaconesses, so we would have to make it all up.

4. Local Church Autonomy

And we’re not willing to make things up. Another part of this pattern is that we see deacons serving in a local church together with elders. Philippians 1 and verse 1. We don’t ever read about deacons serving by themselves, but we do read of them serving together with elders. I believe that this is all part of the pattern that we need to be careful to observe. Now, a thread that is common through all this discussion about elders and deacons is local church autonomy. Now, guys, I know this is exciting stuff. I mean, you’re all real excited about this. Well, you know what? It can’t all be exciting all the time. We’ve got to study these things. And actually, I’m very excited to teach you about this lesson.

I’ve been looking forward to this. Each local church in the New Testament was independent and autonomous, self-governing. You didn’t have some headquarters that sent out, you know, official material to all the churches with maybe some creed book that governed what they all believe, or some man that dictated what everybody should do, or some uh body of, you know, men that have become sort of the uh the governing body over several churches or something like that. We we don’t see anything like that in the New Testament. We don’t see one church controlled by another church. This church here at South Bumby is independent. We don’t have any group telling us what we have to do or appointing preachers that have to be here or anything like that.

In the New Testament, each church received the same teaching, which is in Christ. Paul said it’s in 1 Corinthians 4 17, he says, as I teach everywhere and in every church. So they were unified in the sense that they all followed the same teaching. And if we simply follow what we have recorded here without adding or taking away, then there will be unity in that regard among local churches that follow the pattern. The New Testament knows nothing of one pastor over a church. That’s a man-made invention, and actually that’s somewhat recent in terms of history. The New Testament knows nothing of one bishop over many churches, one eldership over multiple churches. The New Testament knows nothing of one man over an entire religious body. The New Testament knows nothing of such offices as father or reverend.

I mean, you know, I do funerals from time to time, and they always want to call me Reverend. They want to put on the little handout, Reverend Willingham or something like that, and I ask them, please don’t do that. Just call me Adam. I mean, if you must call me Brother Willingham or something like that. But, you know, there is one who is Reverend, and that is God. And Jesus Himself taught in the Sermon on the Mount to call no man on earth your father. And what he what he meant is in a spiritual sense, in this official thing, you’re my father. No, call no man on earth your father, as people do in the religious world and disobey the Lord’s command. We see no offices such as archbishop or cardinal or priest or pope in the New Testament as well.

5. Names of the Local Church Are Descriptions

So, we’ve dealt not only with the work of the local church, but also with the organization of the local church. And let us finally, in our last few minutes, very briefly discuss names of the local church. And the reason I put that in quotations when I say names is because these names that we find in the New Testament for the church are not titles, they are descriptions. And we see that the local church was never called by just one name as we do today. And I believe we need to be very careful how we use the term church of Christ. That we don’t use it as a title. Well, so and so is a church of Christ preacher. I’m a church of Christ Christian. Or someone might say, I’m a church of Christ.

How can you be a church of Christ? I believe that those are inaccurate ways of using the term. And it is borrowing from the same mentality that we see among the denominations. And I think we need to avoid that. Now, I gave, I gave an illustration, I’ll just throw this in there. I gave an illustration earlier this year in a sermon I preached on where did all the churches come from. That if you if you took a pig and you put a sign around that pig’s neck that says cat, that pig is still going to say oink oink. It’s still a pig, no matter what sign you put on it. You could put a sign that says church of Christ or any of the other descriptions, but that’s not going to make us be a church of Christ by having the sign.

How are we going to be the church of Christ, brethren? By belonging to Christ and following his teachings. That’s how. And so let us be sure that we are doing that, not only in name, but in deed and in truth. Now, some examples of descriptions that are given for the church in the New Testament. The most common is simply the church. We also see the church in such and such a city or the church at such and such a city. For example, you know, Laodicea and Philadelphia and so forth in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. Another term is church of the Lord, Acts 20, 28. Churches of Christ, Romans 16, 16. I hope you guys are writing fast. I’m putting these up there quick. Church of God, 1 Corinthians 1 2.

Conclusion

Household of God and church of the living God in 1 Timothy 3 15. We could add more. But you see that these terms in the New Testament were all interchangeable to refer to the Lord’s people. And I think it’s good if we can use Bible terminology and not adapt our thinking and our terminology to the denominations that are all around. Now, we’ve talked a lot about the pattern for the New Testament church. In these two lessons, we’ve talked about the work of the local church. We’ve talked about the organization for the local church, and we’ve talked briefly about descriptions or names, if you will, for the local church. And certainly we need to follow that pattern. We can’t change that blueprint. But you know what other pattern we need to follow?

We also make sure that we follow the pattern of the Christian walk. In Philippians 3 and in verse 17, it says, Brethren, join in following my example and note those who so walk as you have us for a pattern. That pattern is important too, brethren. Let us not think that just because we’re a member of a church that does the right things and that doesn’t do all the things that are not mentioned in Scripture, that we’re going to make it to heaven. That just because we do all the right things when we gather together on Sundays or on Wednesdays, that we’re going to make it to heaven. Because it might be that, yes, you’re a part of a church that does that. And if you’re part of this church, then I believe that you are.

But it might be that in your personal life that you are spiritually empty. It might be that you have no zeal for the Lord. It might be that you are living in sin. And you tell yourself, well, because I’m a part of a church that follows the right pattern, I’m going to make it. Well, that’s as futile as saying, you know, we just need to make sure that the furniture is all arranged properly on the Titanic. Because it’s going down. If we are not living for God in our personal lives. And following that pattern. I mean, you look at the pattern for how the New Testament church lived, for how they, as it were, turned the world upside down, for the zeal that they had in spreading the word and in being crucified with Christ.

Now that’s a pattern to follow, and that pattern is harder to follow. So we need to make sure and follow both patterns. Thank you so much for your kind attention. If you have any questions about any of this, I’d be happy to talk with you afterwards. If you would bow your head with me in a word of prayer.

Amen. We’ll now be dismissed.