Understanding Core Apostolic Doctrines: The Church Part 3 - Apostolic Customs and Practices (Part 1 came from Ministerial Decorum Part 1)

Text:

Acts 2:42 “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

Pray; you may be seated

Intro: Last lesson we discussed the Worship Service, Prayer, and Communion. In our journey to better understand Ecclesiology - the study of the church and how it operates - we are delving into various Apostolic practices. This week we will cover holiness, spiritual gifts, and the five-fold ministry.

Holiness: Our Call, Separation, the new man, and God’s love

Session 1: God has Called us to be HOLY

(This study references Dr. David K. Bernard’s book, Pursuing Holiness. It is my suggestion that you purchase this book and read each chapter prior to our sessions to enrich our time together. Blessings, Bro Berry)

Definition of Holiness

Holiness in respect to God means absolute purity, and moral perfection.

IN REGARDS to HUMANITY it means to conform to the character of Jesus Christ. We must:

Think as God thinks

Love what God loves

Hate what God hates

15 Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; 16 for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 1

1 Pe 1:15–16

Separation from sin and the values of the world

Dedication to God and His will

Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you, and I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God.

2 Cor 6:17-7:1

14 nBe ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for owhat fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and pwhat communion qhath light with darkness?

2 Cor 6:14

ἑτεροζυγέω heterozygeō go together (with another animal) under an unsuitable yoke / pull a strange rope* 1

A yoke is a wooden bar that joins two oxen to each other and to the burden they pull. An “unequally yoked” team has one stronger ox and one weaker, or one taller and one shorter. The weaker or shorter ox would walk more slowly than the taller, stronger one, causing the load to go around in circles. When oxen are unequally yoked, they cannot perform the task set before them. Instead of working together, they are at odds with one another.

Put on the New Man - WWJD

22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on the new man, which rafter God sis created in righteousness and ||true holiness.

Eph 4:22-24

“Holiness means to to be like Christ instead of gratifying the sinful nature.

14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

Rom 13:14

19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

Gal 4:19

Isaiah 11:2 “And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and might, The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;”

Phil 2:5

- Same mind that was in Christ Jesus should be in you

Holiness will cause us to love Jesus more than the alternative. In other words, we cannot love this ungodly world system and identify with its sinful natures. We remain in the world, but not of it.

4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

James 4:4

5 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and ithe pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

1 John 2:15-16

27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

James 1:27

Holiness should reflect on the outside, but must first begin on the inside:

19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

1 Cor 6:19-20

23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thess 5:23

- Outward appearance is worthless without inward!

Holiness is a step of faith, which is not righteousness in itself. The OT recalls that Abraham was seen as righteous by his faith, however, in the New Testament God’s righteousness is required to truly be holy. Faith is the first step to growing in our relationship with God. By being filled with the gift of the Holy Ghost, which requires a step of faith, we are able to obtain God’s righteouness. Then and only then can we be led by the Spirit in the holiness of God.

16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16

If we love God we will obey his commandments

15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

John 14:15, 23

Love goes the extra mile when compared to the law. The law sets a standard of righteousness obtainable to me, where Agape love is a level of righteousness only obtainable by God. It is not our dress that makes us holy, our conversation that makes us holy, but God who makes holy. The act of modest dress and clean speech is an outward sign of holiness and separation unto God as an expectable sacrifice unto him.

The Cross:

Love has two dimensions: the vertical and horizontal. Notice, the vertical aspect of the cross goes the longest, but without the horizontal, there can be no stretching and no death. God will use others to refine you and bring out His nature in you. If you can’t learn to love the people He’s created, you’ll never be able to be like Him.

Loving God without loving people is an incomplete love - it’s a hypocritical love - just like the Pharisees love toward God…

The Spirit gives us POWER to overcome sin

2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and || for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Rom 8:2-4

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

Gal:5:16

Spiritual Gifts

King James Version Chapter 12

6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. 7 oBut the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. 8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: 11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally bas he will.

1 Cor 12:6-11

Word of Wisdom

Word of Knowledge

Gift of Faith

Gifts of Healing

Working of Miracles

Prophesy

Discerning of Spirits

Diverse Kinds of Tongues

Interpretation of Tongues

Knowledge Gifts:

Word of Wisdom; Word of Knowledge; Discerning of Spirits

Power Gifts

Faith; Working of Miracles; Gifts of Healing

Speech Gifts

Prophesy, Tongues, Interpretation

Church Government

(Apostle - thumb; Prophet - index finger - points the way; evangelist - long middle finger - the gatherer; pastor - the ring finger - shepherds the sheep and works to keep them in covenant with God. Protects and defends; teacher - gives balance to the hand and the body - grounds)

Apostles - individuals anointed with a specific message and commission. Apostles often work in what are called the power gifts: faith, healings, and miracles

We are probably most familiar with the term “apostle” in its application to the 12 original apostles who were directly acquainted with Jesus Christ.

Jesus commissioned these men to carry the gospel throughout the world after his ascension. Their role was to lay the foundation of the church and to establish sound doctrine. Several of these original 12 apostles contributed to the anointed scripture that we call the New Testament.

Acts 1:21-22 indicates that one of the qualifications of the 12 original apostles was to have personally witnessed Jesus Christ. Revelation 21:4 states that the names of the 12 will be inscribed on the 12 foundations in the New Jerusalem.

Eph 4:11 indicates that the office of “apostle” has been given for the entire church age, including today.

Part of the role of an apostle was to be commissioned to deliver the gospel to a specific geographical location or to a particular people. The apostle Paul referred to himself as the Apostle of the Gentiles (Romans 11:13) .

The title or office of an apostle can never be conferred by mankind - it can be bestowed only by Jesus Christ. Romans 1:5 “By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:”

Prophets - individuals who are divinely inspired or commissioned by God to communicate a specific message to God’s people.

Prophets can foretell (predict) or forth-tell (proclaim; predicting in the present rather than the future). The word “prophesy” means both to tell the future and also to tell forth the Word of the Lord.

The role of the prophet was operative within the New Testament church. We read of prophets in the church at Antioch and Jerusalem: (Antioch) Acts 13:1 “Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.” Acts 15:32 “And Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves, exhorted the brethren with many words, and confirmed them.”

(Jerusalem) Acts 11:27 “And in these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch.” Acts 21:10 “And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus.”

Scripture also gives the account of four women, daughters of Philip the evangelist, who prophesied in Caesarea. Acts 21:9 “And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.”

New Testament Prophets abide by the guidance outlaid in 1 Cor 12; 14 1 Cor 12:28 “And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” 1 Cor 14:29-32 “Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.”

Prophets are commanded to submit themselves to the supervision and judgement of the leadership ministry of the church (1 Cor 14:29).

In both the Old and New Testaments, prophets are to be judged by the truthfulness of their words.

Jesus commanded us to beware of false prophets and to judge them buy their fruit (Matt 7:15-16).

Any prophet whose forth-telling contradicts the Word of God is to be disregarded as a false prophets (1 John 4:1).

Any prophet whose foretelling fails to come to pass is also to be considered a false prophet. Genuine prophesy edifies the church: 1 Cor 14:4 “He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.”; Teaches and comforts the church: 1 Cor 14:31 “For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted.”; and can be used to bestow spiritual gifts upon others: 1 Tim 4:14 “Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.”

Although the office of prophecy has been misused and abused from time to time, it is a necessary ministry in the church, and we are exhorted to “despise not prophesyings” - 1 Thess 5:20-21 “Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”

Evangelists - translated from the Greek word euaggelistes, which literally means a preacher or proclaimer of the gospel. It carries the meaning of preaching the gospel to those who have never heard it.

The ministry of evangelism is not directed toward the church, but toward the world. Evangelists have a distinct ability to proclaim the gospel to unbelievers, and it is largely through their anointed ministry that souls are born into the kingdom of God.

In addition To being a specific office of ministry, evangelism is also a work. A pastor, a teacher, or an apostle might on occasion do the work of an evangelist. 2 Tim 4:5 “But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”

All believers are called to do the “work” of an evangelist at times. When we witness, testify, and spread the gospel in any way, we are doing an evangelist’s work. Matt 28:19 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:”

Pastors - translated from the Greek word poi-main, which literally means “a shepherd.” Jesus referred to his followers as sheep (Jn 10:27). A pastor is called to feed, lead, and care for the flock of God in a particular location.

In the same manner that the natural shepherd protects the flock from predatory animals, the spiritual shepherd watches and guards the church from the “roaring lion”: 1 Pet 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” and “grievous wolves”: Acts 20:29 “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.”

The pastor is the chief leader of the flock. He teaches, preaches, counsels, admonishes, corrects, rebukes, and guides all the sheep, including other ministers who serve the same flock.

The shepherd is the overarching authority of the local body. While he may take counsel, direction, and guidance from the other members of the five-fold - he will be the one to make decisions concerning the local body. - The five-fold does not go against the pastor when operating in harmony

Teachers - individuals commissioned to instruct the church in scriptural doctrine, taking biblical principles and applying them to daily life.

The disciples were commissioned to “teach” Matt 28:19 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:” - Teach in the Greek is “Didasko,” which means to make disciples. Acts 5:42 “And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.” - The Apostles/disciples ceased not in teaching and preaching

Teachers in the church are commissioned to “rightly divide the Word of truth” 2 Tim 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

Teachers are commissioned to train other teachers that they also might become teachers 2 Tim 2:2 “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”

Teachers are appointed to feed the “sincere milk of the word” to the young lambs Heb 5:12-13 “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.” …and strong meat to the mature sheep Heb 5:14 “But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

There are solemn warnings in scripture that caution teachers in the operation of their ministry. James 3:1 “My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.”

True teachers are models and examples. They must live what they teach. Jesus Christ, our greatest teacher, was also our greatest role model.

While it is impossible for human teachers to be absolutely perfect, true teachers strive to emulate Jesus Christ and live the principles they teach from the Word of God.

Eph 4:12 “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:” - God’s ministers are His gifts to His people - to edify them, to promote their spiritual well-being, and to assist them in reaching their full potential in Jesus Christ.