Church Government 1 Timothy 3:14–16

Introduction

Opening Illustration: As we come to the last two weeks of our Biblical Government series we come to the week 3 on the Church, and week 4 on the State. These two ideas, church and state, are vital to have a healthy Biblical worldview. In our country we have what is historically the “separation of Church and state.” Far from what many believe that means today, the idea is simply that the state cannot force you to be one religion or one denomination. We do not have a state-run religion. It does not mean that our faith and belief in the law of God does not come with us into every conversation we have, including the conversations we have on politics. Separation of Church & State simply means, the government cannot force a particular denomination on anybody.

Personal: One of the goals of this series is to properly understand what God has commissioned each of these four government to do. What are they authorized by God to do? And where do their boundaries start and stop. We have discussed self-government, and family-government. Today, we want to focus in on the Church. What is the Church authorized to accomplish? And where does its boundary stop, and the state’s begin?

Context: Our passage today is found in the middle of 1 Timothy. This letter was written by the Apostle Paul to Timothy, who was a young Pastor serving in Ephesus, which is a region in modern day Turkey. Timothy was a younger pastor, and so the Apostle wrote to him to coach him, and to provide guidance for the Church that met in that city. Much of this letter is dedicated to Paul’s very practical guidance for Timothy on leading the Church through all kinds of challenges. In the first 14 verses of chapter 3, Paul lists out the qualifications for those who would serve in the official role of Elder of a Church, and those who would serve in the official role of Deacon of a church. Then we read these words.

1 Timothy 3:14–16 “I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”

Meaning & Application

From this text, we see the Apostle Paul describe the Church in three very clear phrases. I want to examine each of these, and consider the imlications for each on understanding the authority of the Church

I HOUSEHOLD OF GOD

The first phrase used in verse 15 is “household of God.” The Church is the “household of God.” This language is familial language. A household is typically the language that we use to describe a family in their home. And here it is being used by Paul to describe the Church. There are at least three aspects of a family that are important here.

Familial Leadership: First, is familial leadership. Last week we discussed the authority of a family in their home. And we discussed the chain of command. In a home, there is as governor who is tasked with leading the family, providing oversight, and protection for the family. In a family in their home, that person is the husband, or the father, who is the head of the house. Likewise, in a Church, God has designated two different offices (or official roles) for the proper governance and maintenance of the Church, Elder and Deacon. This is in fact what the Apostle Paul has just got done stating in the previous section. He has just listed out the qualifications for those who would serve in those roles.

Elders: Elders, as the governing authorities within a Church, are called to lead much like a father or a husband would lead in a home. Elders are to be godly Spirit-filled men who under the ultimate authority of Jesus Christ are leading the Church forward. We often speak of the responsibilities of Elders using the four D’s. Elders are responsible for doctrine (what is being taught in the Church), for direction (where the Spirit of God is leading the Church), for discipline (caring for Church members that go astray), and display (living authentic lives in Christ that put on display the Gospel).

Deacons: Secondly, we have Deacons. Deacons are the primary care and prayer arm of the Church. The term Deacon, quite literally is interpreted as “servant.” Deacons are called by God to step into all kinds of hardships and difficulties in the life of the Church, and to provide both practical care, and heartfelt prayer.

So, we see that God is a God of order, not of confusion. Just as a family has a head of the house, the father, and just as a government has the head of the state, the church has its proper organization. The Church is not to be run chaotically. It is not an anarchy. The Church is a well ordered household with familial leadership.

Familial Love: Secondly, the Church displays familial love. We are discussing the purpose of the Church, and as Paul calls the Church a “household” certainly he is referencing the intimate bonds of the members of the Church. The church is truly a family. This why the phrase “brothers and sisters” is used all through the Bible to describe the type of relationship Christians have with one another.

Sort Through Conflict: Families are compicated aren’t they. A family is not a place where hardship or conflict never happens. Far from it. Because families are doing so much life together, hardship and conflict occur quite regularly. Yet, in a healthy family, we don’t abandon each other when conflict arises, rather we sort through it in love. Because we know instinctively, that you cannot abandon your family. So it is with the household of God, we are knit together, and we are for each other, and labor through conflict as a family.

Crazy Uncle: Further, families have some characters in them don’t they? The wonderful thing about a family reunion is that crazy uncle Tom is welcome at the table. In a family, we are not all the same. We are not a monolith. Rather, coming from different backgrounds, with different stories, and different personalities, we are knit together as a new family, that loves each other.

Families display familial love.

Family Legislation: Third, families exercise proper family legislation. In a properly fucntioning family at home, the parents have been assigned authority to discipline their children in order that those children might flourish, and that the household might be well run. Parents have been granted the authority to discipline their children. Likewise, the civil government, as we will see next week, has been granted the “sword” to discipline their citizens in accordance with God’s law. The Church does not carry the sword, that’s not our domain. Rather, God has granted the Church what we refer to as “Church Disciplinary Authority” in their legislation. What does this mean?

1 Corinthians: In the NT book 1 Corinthians, we come across a situation in chapter 5, where Paul states that there is a member of the Church in Corinth that has been caught in ongoing sexual immorailty. Paul instructs that Church to remove that member from their membership role. Then he writes,

1 Corinthians 5:4–5 “When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”

Notice, this member of the Church is not being disciplined simply for punishment’s sake, but for restoration, “So that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord.” The Apostle is deeply concerned that this member not be encouraged in sin. And that the Church as a family comes around this member and properly utilizes church discipline in order to protect him, and the rest of the Church, from the leaven of sin.

Church Discipline is Care First: The term I prefer to use for legislation in the Church, is Family Care. When a member has gone astray, we lovingly confront with a heart posture not to condemn, but to learn and hear. Very often, there are far bigger stories going on in people’s lives than the outward actions we see. We then provide care and coaching and walk through Scripture together. Sometimes, the Elders will put together a correction plan with accountability around it for a wayward member. Very often, members respond so well to this kind of situation. There is repentance, and gratefulness, and real growth. Sometimes, members respond very poorly. Typically, before we can ever get to an escalation like 1 Corinthians 5, these members flee and we never see them again. This is a tragedy, and it pains to consider the condition of their souls.

Great Problems: One of the great problems we have in our modern Church is that many people do not treat the Church as a family. The Church has become more of a theatre. A place to visit and sit next to strangers, but not to have your hearts knit together. It is interesting that in the first century, Church Discipline consisted of being forced to not attend the Church gathering for a short period of time. But today, many only attend the gathering once or twice a month, when it is convenient. We wonder why spiritual maturity is quite low, it is because we are self selecting a lifestyle of church discipline!

O, we must restore the idea that the we are the household of God. The Church has proper familieal leadership, familial love, and famililial legislation.

II CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD

Second, the Apostle describes the Church the “church of the living God.” I want to focus in on that adjective “living.” That word describes God as active and powerful in the life of the Church. We are not a dead instution keeping busy with empty religious practices. Rather the Church is alive with the power and the presence of God. How is that living power to be stewarded by the Church. That list is very long. Perhaps I can focus in on three particulars.

Power to Witness: The Church has a living power to bear witness to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. When we read the accounts of the early Church in the book of Acts, we discover that God was regularly working powerfully in their midst to change lives. And that it was those changed lives that were such a factor in many others coming to faith.

Every Christian is a walking testimony of the Gospel. You are a living powerful witness to what Jesus does to a soul, when he gets of that person. And your life, and your testimony is a part of the power of the Church to tell the world that the God worship is living! He is alive! Jesus did not just live 2,000 years ago, and did work back then that was miraculous. Our lives bear witness that Jesus is alive and ruling right now.

Power to Proclaim: Second, the Church has been granted power to proclaim, quite literally to evangelize.

Ambassadors: Look at what the Apostle Paul writes to his the Church in Corinth. He says,

2 Corinthians 5:20 “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

As a Christian, you are empowered by God to be an “ambassador”, one who carrie the message for your King. Here is what is so incredible about this. If, the God we serve is not a living God, then that work of being an ambassador essentially comes down to how good of a salesman you are. God becomes a product that you are trying to sell somebody, and whether or not they buy your product is largely up to your salesmanship. But the God of the Church is a living God. And it is God himself, through the Holy Spirit, who is “making his appeal through us.”

Foolishness: This means that the pressure is off of you. The faith or unfaith of another person is not dependent on whether you know all the answers to all their questions, or if you can make Jesus sound really cool. God delights in using our foolishness to bring Glory to his name.

Summary: When you speak and tell others about Christ and all He has accomplished on the cross, Christ is working through you. He is planting seeds that may or may not be harvested in that moment. Because he is a living God, we have the power to proclaim.

Power to Wage War: Third, because God is a living God, we have power to wage war. In the old days, the Church of the living God was referred to as the Church Militant. And whenever they referred to the future days when Christ returns, they referred to God’s people the Church Triumphant. As the Church Militant, we are to wage war on everything that dares to stand against the name of the true Kings of Kings.

Not Carnal: Let me clarify. The Church has not been granted the sword. That tool has been granted to Civil Authorities (we’ll talk about that next week). In other words, we do not use violence to wage war. Rather the Apostle says,

2 Corinthians 10:3–6 “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.”

This idea of waging war with “divine power” is exactly what the Apostle has in mind when he writes in our passage today that the Church is the Church of the “living God.”

Church Militant / Dormant: There is an unfortunate lethargy that has come over the Church in the last fifty years in the West. We have forgotten that we are the Church Militant. And every day the Church wakes up, and looks out at our society and the insanity of our culture, and complains. How could it have gotten this bad? But we are at fault. Because, the Church Militant sat back and became the Church Dormant for at least two generations.

The Devil’s Twist: Let me tell you the main cause of this. The Devil figured out a long time ago, that Christians on the whole are very kind individuals. We really do care about other people, and we really don’t want to cause harm on others. So what the Devil did is he used that wonderful of Christians against us. He started to place this seed in our culture that to believe Christian principles was fine, so long as you did in private, but that to bring your Christian faith to bear down on all of your life, public and private, was just mean because you’d be hurting people’s feelings. So Christians, being told that any public practice of their faith was hurtful to other’s feelings, took the bait. We privatized our Christianity. And as we retreated into the walls of the Church, the fragrant aroma of Christ that transforms cultures and brings righteousness and goodness, sunk back behind the walls as well.

Conclude: We are the Church of the living God. And we have been granted power by God to “destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.” All that means, is that as God opens doors for you to bear witness about the truth of Christ, you take it, and you trust that Christ is working through you. We must once again, proudly become the Church Militant.

We are the Church of the living God.

III PILLAR & BUTTRESS OF THE TRUTH

Third and finally, the Church is the “pillar and buttress of the truth.” The image here is of a building with many pillars that are holding up the roof of the building. If the pillars were to be taken away, the building would fall and kill anybody inside or nearby. Likewise, truth in this world, in nations, in cultures, is being held up by the Church. This is the authority granted by God, to His Church. This has some deep implications. If the Church is holding up “truth” in this world, then what are we commissioned to do with that truth?

Know the Truth: First, this means we must know the truth. Verse 16 contains what is one of earliest hymns of Christianity. Paul recites this well known hymn in his day, as a means of reminding his readers of the core essence of the truth, not all of the truth, but of some of the core essentials around Jesus Christ and their Christian faith. Let us go through all six lines of this hymn together.

“He was manifested in the flesh”: The eternal God who spoke the world into motion, incarnated himself into the womb of a young woman named Mary. He lived a human life, and he died on the cross as a human, underneath the wrath of God.

“vindicated by the Spirit”: That word “vindicated” means “approved and judged rightly.” Upon his death, the Father received that death as the valid payment for the penalty of our sins, and the resurrection proves that Christ is all that he claimed to be, God’s Son.

“seen by the angels”: This is a reference to the resurrection appearances of Christ. We recall that when Mary visited the tomb on the third day, two angels bore witness to Christ’s resurrection. And when Christ ascended on high, angels bore witness about his ascension. The first three lines therefore express Jesus’ incarnation, resurrection, and glorification.

“Proclaimed among the nations”: This line now moves to celebrate the developing work of the Church in this world. As his Holy Spirit empowers common believers like us to speak of the most profound reality in all of human history, the forgiveness of sins by Christ’s death.

“Believed on in the world”: And the Church does not only preach, but we experience the Spirit going before us and convicting people of their sins, and causing them to be born again, the hardest of hearts, softening to become believers in Christ.

“Taken up in glory”: You can just imagine those early churches repeating this last line as they sung their hymns together. For this last line reminds us that Christ rules and reigns right now in glory, and that we will share in that glory when we depart from this life. Taken up in glory. Taken up in glory. Taken up in glory.

Church, at the center of all we do is Christ crucified, Christ resurrected, and Christ reigning supreme. And if you are a Christian, then God has illuminated your heart to know and understand these things. At this Church, we prioritize experiential learning. That means we don’t just want to know the truth in our heads, but for that knowledge to sink down into our hearts and hands. We want to embody the truth.

We must know the truth.

Preach the Truth: Secondly, we must preach the truth. The Apostle Paul later told young Timothy,

2 Timothy 4:2 “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”

I do no not why, but God has so chosen to use the foolishness of preaching, to accomplish extraordinary ends. All around the world, gatherings of Christians are taking place right now as we speak. And faithful pastors are standing in their pulpits proclaiming the Word of God. And God is taking the words of those preachers and and working them like arrows into the hearts of those who are listening.

Conversion: Some, on this Lord’s day, came into a Church somewhere around this world stubborn-hearted, certain they would find the preacher’s message foolish. But today, they are born again. This was the day the Lord had declared that the foolishness of preaching would bring that wandering soul to saving faith. This was the day the Lord had declared that the foolishness of preaching would turn a prodigal into a beloved son and daughter. O we must preach the truth in our Churches!

Sanctification: But still many more, already beloved saints of the Lord, will sit underneath faithful preaching today, on this Lord’s day, and they will grow in Christian maturity. As the word of God sinks down into their heart, they will become convicted of areas of their life not yet surrendered and submitted to the Lordship of Jesus. And under the foolishness of preaching, deep in their hearts, they will acknowledge their sin, they will experience the thunder of Christ’s love echoing in their heart. O we must preach the truth in our Churches!

Healing: Still many more, beloved saints of the Lord, today enter in their sanctuaries filled with all kinds of hardship and troubles. Throughout the week, the difficulties of life in a fallen world have taken their toll. Yet Christ, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, will minister to wounded hearts through the preaching of God’s Word, very often in ways the preacher never even intended. But God had planned before the foundation of the world. O how often does the preached word minister to our souls, heal our wounds, give insight that is exactly what we needed?

We must preach the truth!

Protect the Truth: Lastly, if we are a pillar and buttress of the truth, we must protect the truth.

Illustration - Pillars: Pillars are unmoving. You may all kinds of cosmetic changes to a house. You may change the carpets and the pictures of the wall. But the pillars of the house remain, for if you change them, the entire house falls down with it. Likewise, there are all different kinds of churches. Some churches meet in groups of 8-15 folks in homes around the globe because they are the underground church and would be persecuted if they were caught. Some churches prison cafeterias. Some churches in great big megachurch facilities. Some churches meet in Union Halls! You can change the carpet and the pictures on the walls, but if they’re going to be a Church, their doctrine, their beliefs must remain unchanging, and be protected.

Today’s Changing: Today, the Church is experiencing a decline of attendance in the West. There are all kinds of reasons for this. But I can tell you one of them, that is in my opinion the leading cause. Churches got it in their hearts that they did not want to be a “pillar and buttress of the truth” but rather that they wanted to appeal to the felt needs of the listeners. Entire new models of churches were built that did not preach the clear words of God, but chose instead to avoid the difficult topics, and offered a watered down vision of Jesus. A Jesus that did not confront sin. A Jesus that did not talk about heaven and hell. A Jesus that did was not crucified on a cross. A Jesus that only wanted us to be happy, healthy, and prosperous. A Jesus that did not uphold a Biblical vision on marriage and sexuality. And these churches changed the pillars, and the West has been suffering ever since.

We Must Protect: The Church, if it is to be a pillar and buttress of the truth must guard the truth unwaveringly. The historic teachings of Jesus Christ, in all their nuances, are under attack, from a thousand directions. We need clarity. Yes, this clarity must be taught with gentleness, and respect, of course. But “gentleness and respect” does not mean wavering in the slightest. It’s the clarity of God’s Word, of the Truth, that has the power. As soon as you water down doctrine, you are simply laboring out of men’s efforts and not God’s.

The Church must know the truth, preach the truth, and protect the truth, because we are the pillar and buttress of the truth.

Conclusion

I would like to close with one last thought. Charles Spurgeon once said,

I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church.

Charles Spurgeon

There is a truth here that must be confronted. The Church is to shine as a bright light in the midst of a watching world. It is commissioned to do so. When our lives, look no different, and our views, sound no different, and our aspirations appear no different than the world around us, it hinders the mission were assigned to “go and make disciples of all nations!”