Leadership in the Life of the Church [34:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Philippians 1:1-2 [+/-]Philippians 1:1-2 [1:1]Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: [2]Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (ESV)

One of the very worst developments in the history of the church as it relates to polity or to how the church does her work is the democratization of the church. The democratization of the church is simply the view that the church exists of the people and by the people and for the people. It produced a polity in which the membership by majority vote determined the direction of the church in almost all matters of the life of the church. This way of doing church did not exist at all prior to the Reformation of the sixteenth century and then was put down as heresy wherever it bubbled up until in the late nineteenth century it began to take hold until by the middle of the twentieth century it was accepted as the way of life in the church for many Protestant denominations and particularly for Baptists. It was a historical anomaly that produced a biblical travesty that represented and represents theological treason because it is a way of doing church that is not found at all in the very book that we hold up and to which we submit as the inerrant, infallible and fully sufficient Word of God.

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This is also the ordination service for new Deacons Kevin Booth, and David Stembridge

 

 The Place of Suffering in the Purposes of God [36:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

2 Thessalonians 1:5-12 [+/-]2 Thessalonians 1:5-12 [5]This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering-- [6]since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, [7]and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels [8]in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. [9]They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, [10]when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. [11]To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, [12]so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (ESV)

Paul begins his second letter to the church in Thessalonica with a very strong commendation.  This church is a great church.  And we looked last Sunday at the marks of a great church.  Paul cites three here:  a great church is growing in faith.  A great church is gracious in love and is persevering in faithfulness to the Lordship of Jesus in the face of persecutions and tribulations.  In fact, Paul makes it very plain here that persecutions and tribulations are present in great churches and they constitute the core of what God uses to produce and to prove great churches.  We can individualize this truth and speak of great Christians so long as we understand that there are no great Christians or Christians period apart from the church.  Put simply, persecution and tribulation come to us from the hand of God to produce in us what God desires and to demonstrate that we really are who we say we are as the children of God.

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 Church Planting 101 [45:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Acts 17:1-15 [+/-]Acts 17:1-15 [17:1]Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. [2]And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, [3]explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ." [4]And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. [5]But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. [6]And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, [7]and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus." [8]And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. [9]And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. [10]The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. [11]Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. [12]Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. [13]But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. [14]Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. [15]Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed. (ESV)

The church was born at Pentecost when God sent His Holy Spirit upon the gathered community of believers forty days following the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and just after His ascension to glory.  But the birthright of the church or the documentation for what the church was to be came during that time that Jesus was teaching His disciples following His resurrection and just prior to His Ascension.  The church was born in Acts 2.  The birthright of the church is in Acts 1 [+/-]Acts 1 [1:1]In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, [2]until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. [3]He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. [4]And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, "you heard from me; [5]for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." [6]So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" [7]He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. [8]But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." [9]And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. [10]And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, [11]and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." [12]Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. [13]And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. [14]All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. [15]In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, [16]"Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. [17]For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry." [18](Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. [19]And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) [20]"For it is written in the Book of Psalms, "'May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it'; and "'Let another take his office.' [21]So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, [22]beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us--one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection." [23]And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. [24]And they prayed and said, "You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen [25]to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place." [26]And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. (ESV)
.  Jesus told the disciples that they were to wait in Jerusalem—the thrust of this term would take them into a time of concentrated worship the center of which was prayer‐‐‐and they were receive upon themselves the visitation of God in the form of His Spirit and they would then be able to fulfill what was then and is now the fundamental function of the church: they would be witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria and all over the world.  To the end of the world or to the end of the age is a temporal expression which simply means that the birthright of the church will never change.  We are raised up by God and redeemed by Jesus for the purpose of receiving the power of the Spirit to be witnesses to Jesus all over the world.  Now what Jesus teaches at the beginning of Acts as the birthright of the church is the very same thing that He teaches at the end of the Gospels:  All authority is given me in heaven and upon the earth, therefore; wherever you are you are to make disciples.  You are to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and you are to teach them the truth of God and as long as you are doing that I am with you forever.
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