Making Disciples

SERMON: 2003-11-30--ac14132--making-disciples-part-3 SOURCE DURATION: 00:30:48.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 2 CONFIDENCE: 1.00 APPROVED: false REASON: Candidate 5 is clearly marked as music ([Piano music]), indicating the start of non-sermon material. Candidate 4 ('Amen.') is the final segment of the prayer/benediction within the sermon content. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:26:09.720-00:30:45.260 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:00:00.000; remove through 00:00:13.310] [CUT] For those of you visiting with us this morning, this is part three of a miniseries that we've been doing together on making disciples based on Paul and [CUT] Barnabas' first missionary journey. [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:00:13.310; resume after this marked segment] And so far we have looked together at the first of three strategies Paul and Barnabas use on this first missionary journey to strengthen and encourage their new believers. And the first is that they gave a very realistic picture of the Christian life. Listen again to verse 22, Acts 14. We must go through many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God. Doesn't get much plainer than that, does it? We've got to go through many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God. And in the last two weeks we have identified together three reasons why that is so. Very quickly, first of all, the gate into the Kingdom is exceedingly narrow. That is to say, you've got to leave all your baggage behind. You can only enter through faith in the righteousness of Christ. The cross is an offense to many people who therefore refuse to enter. Not only is the gate narrow and small, the road is narrow. The Christian life is an invitation not to a picnic, but to take up your cross and to follow Jesus. To take up your cross is to die to your own passions and your own desires and your own lusts and whatever else is part and parcel of a fallen world. And it is to live for the glory of God and for the service of others. And then thirdly, the journey is hard because the opposition is fierce. If you've ever looked at that original Broadway and Narrow Way poster that we've been looking at together a lot the last couple of weeks, if you look really close, you will see in one of the corners a lion. I had to blow him up a little bit so that you can see him. But that's a reference to the roaring lion that Peter says is Satan seeking to devour God's people. So that brings us this morning then to a second strategy that Paul and Barnum use to try to encourage the new believers. And that is this. They appoint local church leaders, specifically elders. Here's how the passage puts it. Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church. Two words there that we ought to be looking at together this morning. The first is the word elders. The word elder comes from the Greek word presbuterus. Let's see how good you are at linguistics this morning. What English word? Presbyterian, presbytery, or presbyter? What's a presbyter? It's an old fashioned word for a church leader. The root word is the word presbus, which as you might imagine means elder. It means an elderly person or a person who is to be respected and honored. So the picture that emerges here is this. Here's Paul and Barnabas. They've given birth, if you will, to this whole new community of believers. They're brand new believers, a couple of months old maybe. They are about to leave them as they go back to Jerusalem. They leave them in a world that is so hostile that at least in Lystra they try to kill Paul, and in the previous two cities they drove him away. This is not a friendly world to the Christian faith. So the big concern is what provisions can you make so that these new believers cannot only remain faithful to the Lord, but they can thrive under very adverse circumstances? Well, what you do is you appoint elders. That is to say, you try to find people who are a step ahead of the rest of the crowd who are given responsibility for the well-being of the family of God. Think of it in terms of your own family with children. Some are older, some are younger. You're leaving to go away. The older ones are old enough to look after the younger ones, and so you go through the whole routine of saying, "You're in charge," and you say to the younger kids, "Make sure that you listen to what your older brothers or sisters have to say." It's very significant in this story that this appointment of elders here in these cities takes place on their return journey. Remember? They go all the way to Derbe, and then they go back, and it's on their back journey that they appoint these elders. And that is significant because these Christian communities have now been established for maybe a number of months, maybe as long as a year. We don't really know how long this journey took. But long enough for some of the gifts in Christ to begin to emerge, for some of the spiritual leaders to emerge, and so Paul and Barnabas come back and they determine who are the leaders of this community, and they officially appoint them. And that is the second thing that we want to look at together today. Verse 23, "Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church." Now, here's a very interesting thing. There is a marginal alternate reading of that word "appoint." In fact, it reads like this, "Paul and Barnabas ordained elders for them in each church." Or, and this is a third alternate reading, "Paul and Barnabas had elders elected for them in each church." So the choice is between had elders elected, ordained elders, or appointed elders for them in each church. You say to yourself, "Well, big whoopee-doo, what is the significance of that?" Well, it has to do with the nature of church governance. It has to do with how are these elders in the early church appointed to their task. And the choice is between the one extreme where Paul and Barnabas come into this community and they say, "You, you, and you, you're going to be in charge of this operation." Or do they go to the congregation and consult with the congregation as to who the congregation wants to have appointed as elders, and then they ordain them. And the difference is how hierarchically structured churches or congregational churches appoint leaders. I'll talk more about that in just a moment. The confusion hinges on the Greek word, which is here translated "appointed." It uses the word "kerotoneo," which occurs only twice in the New Testament and literally means to choose by the raising of hands. But it's not used in classic Greek very often in the context of a democratic process. The only other place where it occurs in Scripture is 2 Corinthians 8 verse 19, where it is translated as "chosen." So, on the one hand, it means "appointed." It could possibly mean "chosen." And people have argued about that a lot because, as I said, it has to do with how you run your church. There are churches who appoint leadership from the top down, as in an Anglican or a Roman Catholic kind of tradition. There are other churches who argue people should be appointed congregationally. It's a congregational model. I believe in this particular setting that it's both/and. I think the Apostle Paul and Barnabas, they come along to this congregation and they say, "All right, we need to appoint leaders here, somebody to keep an eye on you, to shepherd the flock, to help you on your journey, to hold your hand, to challenge you, to comfort you, to exhort you, to walk the road to the Holy City. Who do you think can fit this situation?" And so names get suggested and then Paul and Barnabas, they appoint these leaders as elders in the congregation. I say that because if you go back a couple of chapters earlier in the book of Acts, you have the appointment of deacons. You will recall that the Greek widows were complaining back earlier in Acts chapter 6, I believe it is, that their widows were being neglected in favor of the Hebraic widows. And so the Apostle said, "Listen, we don't want to stop preaching the Gospel so as to wait on tables. Waiting on tables is important. Feeding your needs is very important. But it's not so important for us that we should drop our primary calling, which is to proclaim the Word." And so in that context, of course, what happens is that they suggest, "Choose people from among yourselves." Acts chapter 6 verse 3, "Choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom, and we will turn this responsibility over to them." So you have a precedence in the book of Acts that congregations have input into their leadership. Second reason I would give for that, it's never wise to foist leadership on somebody without their approval, because if you're leading and nobody is following, you're only going for a walk. And so it is that historically in the Reformed and Presbyterian family of churches, they have developed a way of choosing leadership that is halfway between the extremes of Episcopalian oversight on this end and congregational oversight on the other end. Remember Episcopalian, hierarchical, you get appointed from the top. Congregational models such as many Baptist churches would be, or many independent churches, it's the congregation who decides. And the Reformed family of churches, it's dab smack in the middle. Council has been busy the last couple of weeks with the preparation of nominations, which they'll be able to present to you soon. But that's a process whereby we invite input from the congregation. Council goes through eligible names in the congregation, eventually presents to you a slate, and then you get to choose typically out of that slate who are going to serve the next term, whether that be elders or deacons. And that is a Reformed structure of church government. A lot of people we have discovered in recent years, even in Christian Reformed circles, think we are congregational in nature. That is to say the congregation calls the schoanz. That's not historically how we're structured. Neither are we structured like the Roman Catholics where the Pope calls the schoanz. It's a combination of an elected council which is responsible before God for the work that happens in the community, but you choose and you elect them, and our job collectively then, of course, is to submit to their authority in the Lord. The writer to the Hebrews puts it this way, Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17. Obey your leaders, submit to their authority, they keep watch over you. As men, we could add women who must give an account, obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you. So Paul and Barnabas create a church structure whereby leaders emerge, think of them as parents over a family, people that aren't going to be perfect, people that aren't going to never make mistakes, but people whose job it is to try to hear from God and provide oversight in the community of faith to help us on that journey towards the Holy City. This is incredibly important for the well-being of God's people, and that is why as a community here, we take seriously the process of electing suitable candidates, both as elders and as deacons in this community of faith. So there you have the second strategy, they appoint human leaders to help us on the journey, which brings us then to still a third, and that is they commit the churches to the Lord in whom they trusted. With prayer and fasting, Paul and Barnabas committed them to the Lord in whom they had put their trust. And once again, two phrases there that are important for us to dwell on for a few moments. The first is the phrase with prayer and fasting. The whole process was bathed in prayer. Why? Because as leaders go, so goes the community. Do you look at Old Testament Israel? When they had bad kings, the nation went downhill. When they had good kings, the nation went forward. Look at the history of the Christian church. When the Christian church has had good and godly leaders, they've moved forward. When they have had deficient, broken, sinful, unrepentant leaders, the whole kit and caboodle goes down the tube. And so for them, the process was bathed in prayer because they had to hear from God and they had to know the heart of God. There's a lot more that I could say about that. We want to move on to the second part of that phrase, which is they committed them to the Lord. And here's the first question. To what or to whom does the word them refer to here? Does it refer to the newly ordained elders? Does it refer to the community? I would argue it probably refers to both because, again, remember the situation that Paul faces as a spiritual parent. The question is, can this baby that we have given birth to survive? Can these Christians remain faithful? Can they grow? Can they prosper? Can they hold on to Jesus? Can they walk up the mountain to the holy city when all around them the pagans are trying to destroy them? Yes, we have just appointed elders and elders are one of the ways in which we want to try to keep this community safe. But remember, these elders are still barely dry behind the ears themselves because the whole community has just come to faith. So how could you guarantee that this group of believers is going to remain faithful to the Lord? And the answer is nobody can. At the end of the day, all you can do is commit them to the Lord in whom they trusted. And I want to say that there is a very important principle here that we all need to hold on to, whether that's with our own children or whether that is with spiritual children, organizations that we're part of or in charge of. At the end of the day, no human being or human institution can keep us totally safe on the journey of life. At the end of the day, our protection for our children, our protection for our grandchildren, our protection for people that we are privileged to lead to the Lord, the well-being of Christian community around the world is ultimately in the hands of Jesus Christ who is the great shepherd. And I find it incredibly comforting and encouraging to know that at the end of the day, the Lord Jesus is more interested in the well-being of His sheep than even you or I. He's more interested in the well-being of young Luke, who we baptized here this morning, than Kevin and Susanna are, hard to believe that is sometimes. He's more interested in the well-being of the Christian church than any of us who labor or minister in it. I love the words of Jesus in John chapter 10 where he says, "These words, my sheep, listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life. They shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my Father's hand." And what Jesus says about individual believers in that particular verse, He says to the church at large when He says to Peter in this well-known verse, Matthew chapter 16 verse 18, He says, "I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock," it's a play on words because the name Peter means rock, "you are Peter, and on this rock," that is the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome," or as other translations have it, "will not prevail against it." The gates of Hades or the gates of hell, the gates of the city is where people would sit and they would make the decisions. The gates of hell is where Satan and his offspring gather together to make war against the Lord and against His anointing. And as we've seen, when you're on that journey up the mountain to the holy city, there is a lot of danger, there is a lot of trouble, and the gates of hell are very active. And there isn't a one of us here who isn't aware of the opposition that we face and that we experience on that journey. I found it profoundly interesting last week when we invited you to come forward and put your concerns on the cross, and you will recall we had three questions, "I want to make a first time commitment to enter the kingdom of God by the narrow gate," and we had an interesting number of commitments made, first time commitments, which thrilled my soul. The second question was, "I have been drawn to the broad way and with God's help I want to recommit myself to the narrow way," and we had quite a large number of answers to that. But by far the largest number of responses from you, just about half of the total paper stuck on the cross dealt with question number three, "I have been weary of the narrow way and I am looking for strength and encouragement to remain faithful to the Lord." Isn't that interesting? The Christian life is a journey and it can be a struggle. And the fact that it's a struggle is not a bad thing, it means that we're really on the right road, but when you're on the right road it can be very difficult to continue going because sometimes you just need to know where you stand. And that's why it's important for us to know afresh, that we have a Savior who has traveled this road. We have a sympathetic high priest who, for the joy that was said before him, endured suffering, endured the cross, and today is seated at the right hand of God in glory from where he has poured out his Holy Spirit so that you and I can come to him in our places of need, in our places of struggle, in the places where the battles rage, knowing that he will hold on to us and he will bring us with him into his eternal kingdom. Join me as we pray. Father, we're so grateful that your word promises that no temptation has overtaken us except such as common to man, but that with a temptation you will also provide the way of escape. We acknowledge, Lord, that on this journey to the Holy City there are days of great joy, great awareness of your goodness and of your blessings, and we celebrated that this morning afresh with Luke's baptism, how good you are and how gracious you are. We also know, Lord, that sometimes the journey is hard and we're reminded of the frailty of human life, and Lord, there isn't the one of us that doesn't know in some way that bittersweet mixture of times when life is really good and when we're really grateful and those other times when the journey is wearying and we wonder where you are, and we're so glad that you've not left us alone. We're so glad that your word on the one hand gives us a realistic picture that through many hardships we enter into the kingdom of God, and we're grateful, Lord, that you place people in our lives who have walked the journey before us and through whom your grace becomes so very real, and we pray that for each of us in that situation we might just be replenished again and again at your fountain of living water, and Lord, we're grateful that even when sometimes there's nobody around us and when it looks like we're all left alone to deal with the struggles of life, that in those moments we have the sure promise of your word that you will not fail us nor forsake us, you will be with us always even to the end of the age. And so Lord, when we find ourselves in that place, we pray that you will show your glory, that you will remind us of your promises, that you will help us back up on our feet again and again and again knowing that you're faithful and that the work that you've begun in us you will bring to completion in the day of Jesus Christ. And so Lord, as we respond this morning with a hymn, "It is well with my soul," I pray that you stir us to the depths of our being, knowing that it's our job to walk with you as best as we know how. It's your job to hold on to us until that final day when we stand before you with any spot or blemish or wrinkle for the glory of God. And may we help each other on that journey towards the Holy City, the New Jerusalem. Thank you for hearing us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 2 START at 00:26:09.720; remove through 00:30:48.000] [Piano music] When peace like a river attendeth my way, And sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control. That Christ hath regarded my helplessness safe, And hath shed his own blood for my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. My sin, O the blest of this glorious thought, My sin not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. And Lord, haste the day when my face shall be sight, The clouds will roll back as a storm. The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall be saved. Amen. So, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 2 END at 00:30:48.000; resume after this marked segment]