The Structure of the Church
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Question #1: What is the Church?
Question #1: What is the Church?
“I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
The Greek word ἐκκλησία:
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Appears 114x in the GNT. It carries the sense of church or assembly, or community. It appears 75x in the LXX. The overwhelming majority of cases it is rendered from the Hebrew word קָהָל. This word carries the sense or range of meaning, contingent, assembly, convocation, congregation. It appears 176x in the Hebrew text and is translated ekklesia 109x and sunagoge 34x.
The church is the called-out assembly of believers. John Calvin in Book Four of the Institutes begins be referring to the church as the Society of Christ.
The Westminster Confession of Faith Section 1
The catholic or universal Church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the Head thereof; and is the spouse, the body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.
The first time the Hebrew word קָהָל is used is in :
“May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples.
One could argue that we can get back to Noah in terms a “called out” people. Israel was the Church of the Old Covenant, OT. God did not just begin calling out people to himself in the New Covenant. He has been doing that since the fall of Adam.
This blessing of Isaac on Jacob began official fulfillment as Israel first become the covenant people of God here:
Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.”
The nation finally became the covenant people in where they affirmed their covenant with God:
Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do!”
Peter describes the church like this:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
“Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
The church is the people of God in all ages. The church is the people in covenant with God, through Jesus Christ. [John Frame, ST, 1019]
Unlike our Presbyterian friends, we Reformed Baptists do not believe that unregenerate people are actually in the covenant. We believe only God’s elect are in the covenant. The basis for this conviction is found in . Jesus said this is the blood of the New Covenant which is spilled for you. Christ’s blood cleanses. The New Covenant is written on the heart of the covenant people by God himself.
The church then is the covenant people of God, the sheep whom the Father has given to the Son.
Question #2: How does one enter the Church?
Question #2: How does one enter the Church?
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
“They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,
When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.
Acts
Question #3: How should the Church be structured?
Question #3: How should the Church be structured?
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”
This text informs us that Christ is the King of his Church.
for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.
The church is like a spiritual army fighting a spiritual war.
He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.
Christ is head of the Church
For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you,
Each church is to have a plurality of elders.
Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness;
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
I believe that the word s elder, overseer, pastor, and bishop are interchangeable titles of the same office. This is the ruling elder. [John Frame, ST, 1026]
When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
② an official (cp. Lat. senator), elder, presbyter
It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.
③ engagement in oversight, supervision, of leaders of Christian communities
The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.
③ engagement in oversight, supervision, of leaders of Christian communities
② an official (cp. Lat. senator), elder, presbyter
③ engagement in oversight, supervision, of leaders of Christian communities
For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you,
Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed,
Episcopal: all the churches in one region fall under the authority of one man, called a bishop.
Presbyterian: plurality of elders in every congregation elected by the congregation.
The elders within a region (Presbytery) meet over those churches within that region.
Annually all the elders of the denomination meet at what is called a Synod or General Assembly.
Sidebar: The Turning Point in Church History
Sidebar: The Turning Point in Church History
Faced with the dangerous Ebionite heresy and docetism, Ignatius began to make a distinction between the offices of overseer/bishop and presbyter/elder. He called for “one bishop, together with the presbytery and the deacons, my fellow servants” to lead the churches.
Ignatius said that just as Christ did nothing without the Father, so the elders must not do anything without the bishop and presbyters.
He went so far as to say that the churches should “be eager to do everything in godly harmony, the bishop presiding in the place of God and the presbyters in the place of the council of the apostles and the deacons.
This led to the three tiered structure: bishops, elders, and deacons.
Cyprian took Ignatius’ views to a new level. Face with a rival church founded by Novatian, Cyprian focused on the issue of unity. This was because Novatian’s church was theologically sound (all things considered - it refused to readmit lapsed believers at all) and Cyprian had no other quibbles to raise but that this break-away church was disturbing the unity of the church. Unity was not simply defined by unity in truth and doctrine, but unity in submission to the bishop.
“Wherever the bishop is, there is the Church.”
He interpreted the New Testament in a rather Old Testament way, thinking of presbyters and bishops as priests and the Lord’s supper as a sacrifice.
It was in Cyprian’s view of the bishop that we see the doctrine of apostolic succession in its fulness.
This gave rise to the belief that unless one was submitting to the bishop, he was a heretic regardless of the soundness of his theology.
During the first full empire wide persecution, Cyprian introduced the idea of penance for those who had defected in order to avoid persecution and wanted to return after the persecution had ended. He argued that only the bishops had the authority to settle this question.
Question #4: What kind of authority does the Church possess?
Question #4: What kind of authority does the Church possess?
Submission to the sovereign lordship of Christ is not optional for believers. Rather their highest calling and supreme obligation is to submit joyfully to his commands. John MacArthur, ST, 754]
“If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”
For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church?
But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.
But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
Question #5: What is the mission of the Church?
Question #5: What is the mission of the Church?
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
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He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
Preach the gospel
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Make disciples - make those whom God saves, passionate students of Christ.