Church Polity: Who Has Authority?

This Sunday, we continue our study on the doctrine of the church and how we are called, as a congregation, to make disciples for God’s glory. If you have not heard the previous two sermons on the church, I would encourage you to listen to them on the podcast or the church’s website. The first sermon dealt with the nature of the church, and the second, the church’s mission and purpose. Each of these sermons builds upon the previous foundation. This Sunday, we examine what Scripture says regarding church polity, a crucial aspect of our understanding of the church. Polity refers to the church’s organization and governance. If you surveyed 100 churches, you would find vast differences in how the church is organized and governed, even among godly, Bible-preaching churches. If we all read from the same Bible, why is this so?

Simply put, two sets of texts speak of human authority and governance in the local church. One set speaks of the congregation as the earthly authority, and the other speaks of the pastor or elders’ authority, calling the congregation to submit to them. There is so much variation in how churches govern themselves because some elevate the congregational texts over the texts that speak of elders. Therefore, some churches refuse to follow the pastors that God has given and are characterized by divisions and disunity. These churches fight or split because of the carpet color, the photocopier, or any number of day-to-day decisions.

On the other side, some elevate the texts about the pastor - elders’ authority over the congregational texts, and you have pastors who rule like kings. The pastor’s word is law and imposed on the church, which leads to cult-like dictatorships and often ends in leaders abusing authority & damaging the church in a myriad of ways. This is not the model of authority that Jesus intended for His church. This Sunday, we will take the biblical texts regarding congregational and pastoral authority and show how they harmonize with one another to give us the complete picture of Jesus’ commands for the polity of the local church. Christ has given the local church as His instrument to make disciples; therefore, seeing the whole picture is imperative. This Sunday will be far more informational than exhortative as we examine the authority and responsibility Jesus has given us all in order that we may function as a body, every member working together.

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The Mission & Purpose Of The Church

Last week, we examined the nature of the church and saw that the New Testament overwhelmingly stresses the local church rather than the universal in its teachings. The Bible does speak of the church as the invisible, worldwide, universal body of all believers everywhere, but never to the exclusion of the local churches, which are the only place the exhortations, commands, and blessings can actually be lived out. We also studied several descriptions of the church (body of Christ, bride of Christ, temple of God) and saw how they apply to both the universal and the local church. This Sunday, we ask, "What is the church’s mission," and, "Why does the church exist?" Jesus succinctly gave the church’s mission right before He ascended into heaven. At the very end of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus provides the church with her marching orders (Matt. 28:18-20). We are to make disciples. That is the church’s mission. Therefore, everything we do must contribute to that mission or spring from it. Sunday, we will discuss what making disciples means and how we do that as a congregation, not just individually. Making disciples is our mission, but that is not why we exist as the church. Our purpose in all things is to glorify God. God created everything, including His people, to glorify His name. To demonstrate this, we will examine several passages (Isa. 48:9-11; Eph. 1:3-14) but focus on 1 Peter 2:9-10. There, Peter calls the church God’s chosen race, His royal priesthood, and His holy nation - Then, he tells us why the church has been given these titles and responsibilities. "...that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (v.9). Finally, we will see how the church makes disciples and glorifies God as a congregation in the example of the first local church in Jerusalem (Acts 2:42-47). I understand this is a lot of information to absorb in one sermon, and I tend to talk fast. So, below, I have given my outline and verse references (also attached to this email in printable form) if you want to take notes easily or study the passages beforehand. May God be glorified in our hearts and assembly this Sunday

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The Nature Of The church

For the next few months, we will be doing something very different from our regular practice at FBC. Over the past seven years (with a few pauses), we have worked expositionally through the books of the Bible. The preaching of God’s word in this way must remain the steady diet of the church as we strive to feed on the whole counsel of God. That is not going to change. But, for some time, I have been convicted about neglecting to teach what Scripture says about the church, who we are called to be, and what we are responsible for doing as a congregation. So, over the next seven or eight weeks, we will examine what the Bible says about the nature of the church, its governance, its mission, offices, ordinances, membership, and discipline. To do this, instead of taking a book and work verse by verse, we must do "systematic theology." Systematic theology is examining a subject or doctrine that is taught progressively all through the Bible by bringing all the relevant texts together to understand it as a whole. This approach, while necessary, is not without its challenges. It is easy to take verses out of context when we are not studying straight through a book. But this type of study is necessary to get a full orbbed, view of what the Bible says about certain truths. One of which is the church. Our ultimate goal in this series is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the church as revealed in the Bible, and to be faithful to what God has called the church to be and do. Jesus is passionate about His church and we must be too, for the church is God’s chosen instrument to glorify Himself in the world. In Ephesians 3:9-10, Paul says that God appointed him to bring the gospel to the Gentiles, and continues saying, "9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

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