The church of Christ Ecclesia.
I think that's what we titled it when we started out. Christ
Ecclesia or Christ Church. A lot of what we're talking about
here in Matthew 28 is not going to make a lot of sense to you
if You don't know what we've said in the previous messages
on the Ekklesia of Christ. We have had some extensive long
studies through the scriptures to not only define what the word
church or Ekklesia means, but we've seen that the church has
a beginning. It has a builder. group of people who are the ones
who are making up that church. We see that it has a start date, so to speak. But we've also seen that it has
a gospel, a specific gospel that it is to proclaim, and to hold,
and to keep, and to defend. We've also seen that it has a
commission, and that is what we are looking at now, is the
gospel that has been given by Christ to the local visible assemblies
of Christ, wherever they meet, has been given a specificness
in its deportment, I guess I should say. So far, we've seen that the authority
to carry out the Great Commission is given to the ye. Look with
me, if you would, there. Let's actually read the scriptures
here and ask the Lord to be with us then, and then we'll dive
back into this. Matthew 28, in verse 18, it says,
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given
unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. Amen. Father, we come to you
this morning once again, needy for the Holy Spirit, needy for
a touch from above to understand and to learn. Father, we need
you to open up these scriptures. I need the Holy Spirit's power
to enable me to speak and to preach, to teach, to minister. All those that are here need
the Holy Spirit to hear and to understand. And so, Father, we
pray that your presence will be with us. Jesus, we just pray
that you might send that comforter, send that one who is our teacher,
and enable us to worship you today. Enable us to speak rightly
of you today. Father, Lord, we pray for all
those who are watching and listening. We ask, Lord, that you just might
be with them and minister to them. We pray, Lord, that you
just might draw and convict. We pray that you would convert. We pray, Lord, that you would
increase in understanding and knowledge and wisdom. Father,
Lord, we thank you once again that we have this opportunity
to come. And to be in a local, visible
church. And in a local and visible way,
fellowship one with another. And in a local and visible way,
be able to share the gifts that God has given us. And in a local
and visible way, proclaim the truths of God. And in a local
and visible way, go out from this place and to share these
things. that you have taught us while
we are here. We pray, Lord, that you would
bring others to our church, Lord, to your
church. We ask, Lord, that you'd bring
other laborers in to help serve and to minister the gospel of
Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray for those that
are not here this morning. Lord, we don't know all the reasons
why. We can only speculate. We can
only guess. But Father, we know that
you have a purpose and a reason. But Lord, we pray that you would
be with them. We pray, Lord, that you would convict them.
They might feel the earnestness to be once again with your people,
to gather for worship. But they might see and begin
to understand the importance of gathering together that you
have commanded us to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
And that spiritual life and spiritual growth, spiritual understanding,
is closely tied to our fellowship one to another. That's how you
have designed to grow in grace and knowledge of the truth. And
so, Lord, we pray that you would help us all be faithful to gather
together under your word as is being preached and taught and
in the fellowship of the saints. Father, Lord, we thank you that
again we have the opportunity to proclaim the name of Jesus
Christ. We thank you for his shed blood that has cleansed
us from all our sin. We thank you for the reconciliation
we have through his blood. We thank you, Father, for the
justification before your throne that we have because of him. And Lord, we just thank you that
you have given us this life, that you've given us this precious
gift of salvation. And Father, I pray for those
that are here that may not have been converted yet, Lord, that
those who are here that might not have come to understand their
salvation have been baptized, been brought into the church.
Lord, I pray that you just might draw them even this morning.
Father, Lord, we thank you again for all that you've done for
us and we ask you to bless this time now. In Jesus' name we pray,
amen. Well, so far we've seen in our
commission here that the authority to carry out the Great Commission
is given to a ye, to the ye. Notice again there in our verses,
verse 19, Jesus is commanding the ye. Now we spent some time
developing who the ye was. The ye was the local visible
assembly. This is not to individuals everywhere. This is not just to the spurious
elect all over the world. the ye was given in corporate
capacity to the gathered church. If you see in Matthew 28, you
will see that there were the women, there were brethren, the
brethren, and there were his disciples or apostles who were
there in the mount whenever the commission was given. And so
we see that the ye that was defined here was the ye of that first
local church that Jesus had built with the with the material that
John the Baptist had prepared. And again, we find that you can
see this very clearly, that it was the same people in the mount
is the same people who left and met in the upper room. And that
was 120 people whose names and numbers were 120. So the commission is given to
the corporate body, not to the family as individuals. It is
given to the corporate body. It is given to every body of
Christ wherever they're gathered that have baptized believing
Christians. That was another thing that we
that we established is that the fact that the commission of the
church is to make disciples. So the commission is given to
a local visible assembly and that local visible assembly is
now the conductor or the administrator of the commission to go out and
to make disciples. We found also that making disciples
was both an event that began with the gospel, but it is also
an ongoing process. To make disciples means to go
with the gospel and with that gospel convert them, and remember,
Those who are converted, are made disciples, are ones who
have already been born again. See, we're not making people
born again. Our evangelistic preaching and
teaching and sharing and witnessing of the gospel is not to make
born again people. Only the Holy Spirit of God causes
people to be born again. The Spirit blows where it listens.
And so what we are to do, or we are to go out and to preach
to those sheep that God has scattered all over the place, who we don't
know who they are and where they are, we are to go wherever we
are, wherever God sends us, whether it's here locally, whether it's
down the street, down the turnpike, across the state lines, whether
it's across the country lines, wherever God sends us, we are
to preach the gospel and those who have been given ears to hear
that hear that gospel and are converted and believe that gospel,
then the Bible says that after that disciple is made that there
is an ongoing process of making that disciple by baptizing and
then teaching them all things whatsoever Christ has commanded.
So we've seen that there was a three-fold aspect to the church's
gospel. There was a go with the gospel,
There was a, go with the gospel making disciples, baptizing those
that were made disciples, and then there is a teaching those
who were made disciples and baptized, all things whatsoever Christ
commanded. So we have seen that it was given
to the ye, and the ye are the ones who have already went through
that threefold process. You remember that first church
that Jesus gave this here in Matthew 28 to had already been
preached the gospel and made disciples by John the Baptist.
They also were baptized by either John the Baptist or by the disciples
themselves. And they had for three and a
half years accompanied or accompanied with the Lord Jesus Christ as
he taught them all things whatsoever he commanded. And so we see that
that three-fold commission was carried out by our Lord, and
it was perpetuated through the local church. That's why we continue
in that same ministry that John the Baptist began. He prepared
the people by preaching the Gospel, by baptizing them, and then pointing
them to Jesus Christ. We are to do the same thing.
We are to make disciples by preaching the Gospel. We are to baptize
them And then we are to then disciple them, or we are to instruct
them in all things, pointing them to Christ in all things
whatsoever He commanded. And that's through the teaching
of the local church. We teach them all things whatsoever
Christ has commanded. And in the preaching, we declare
to them the gospel that saved them. We declare over and over
and over again to them the gospel that saved them. And so we see
that this threefold process was first carried out, and the Lord
Jesus Christ did it. He instructed that local church
to do it, and they did it just a few days after he gave that
commission on the day of Pentecost. And then we've seen that perpetuated
throughout the rest of the Book of Acts as they went out and
made churches wherever they went. And Paul did the same thing.
And I know that there's a lot of argument, there's a lot of
debate about baptizing and things like that and how Paul made the
statement that Christ didn't send him to baptize, but sent
him to preach the gospel and that's what we ought to be doing
and quit focusing on baptism. The reason that Paul wasn't sent
to baptize was because Paul was an apostle who was sent out to
preach the gospel everywhere he went. It was the churches
that he gathered together, it was their responsibility to baptize
those people who were made disciples, and then to bring them in and
to instruct them. However, even though Paul, and
Paul even admits whenever he said, Christ didn't send me to
baptize, that doesn't mean that Paul never baptized anybody,
because we know Paul himself declared that he had baptized
people. We've seen that throughout the
scriptures, that Paul had baptized people. He made mention of their
names. We also know those who were in
Ephesus that he baptized, who were wrongly baptized, who were
not scripturally baptized. They had the wrong gospel. They
had the wrong administrator. Apollos was not sent by the church
to administer baptism. Matter of fact, Apollos was teaching
incorrectly at that time and had to be pulled aside by Aquila
and Priscilla and to be taught more rightly the things of Christ. He wasn't teaching about the
Holy Spirit. He wasn't telling about those things. And so we
see that this threefold process was carried out throughout Acts. We've seen that it is given to
those who are of like faith and order. Whenever we're talking
about the ye, to teach them, we've looked at the phrase, teaching
them all things whatsoever I've commanded you. Well, if we are
made disciples, then that means we are made followers. We follow
what was being said. We follow what was being said.
That means our mind changed from what we were thinking and was
converted and said, oh yeah, that's right. I'm going to follow
that gospel. I'm going to follow that doctrine. And so we are made disciples
and we follow after that. And so if we are making disciples,
then that means we are making people who are of like faith,
doctrine, and practice how we serve the Lord in the local church. And so everyone that is made
a disciple is indoctrinated with these things that Christ has
given us to indoctrinate them with. And so they will learn.
I make disciples. They are brought to be baptized.
They are brought to be catechized. They are brought to be taught
in the local church. And that's how we perpetuate.
And if there's others that are gathered in the churches, wherever
they may be, That's how they are formed as well. They are
formed by gathering together by baptized believers who have
baptized the disciples and teaching them all things whatsoever Christ
has commanded. That is how churches come together. And so if we are following what
Christ commands, if we are doing and being true disciples by following
the doctrine of Christ, we're going to be preaching the same
gospel as Him, We're going to be preaching the same practice
as him. We're going to be producing people
of like faith and order. OK. And so that's what we are
to do. And then we've seen lastly, the
last time we met, that it is given to those who are in a church
state rather than those who are not, meaning that it is given
to those who are assembled together. It is not given to extra extra
church people, para-church organizations. It's not the Promise Keepers,
it's not the Gideons, it's not the whatever else is out there,
the Bible Answer Man, all these ministries that are out there.
Souls Harbor, here in Joplin, we have a couple of homeless
missions that are gospel-based, quote-unquote gospel-based, they
don't preach the gospel there, that are supposed gospel-based
ministries. Well, those ministries do not
have the authority to do the commission. They do not have
that authority. It's the local church's authority. And that's one of the reasons
why I don't get too involved in those kind of organizations.
Number one is I do not preach the gospel that they preach.
They preach a false gospel. And I'm not going to associate
me or this church with a false gospel. Besides that, if we want
to help the sick and help the poor and help the needy, and
there's a whole lot to be said about this social gospel mentality
that I ain't gonna get into today, but if we are to help, the Bible
instructs that we are to help first and foremost here within
the brethren. If we want to reach out from
here, then we ought to do that as the local church and not through
some unauthorized, unchrist-ordained, institution out there. Christ
has only made three institutions in the scripture. Do you realize
that? Christ has only made or God has
issued only three institutions in the whole entire scripture.
The institution of the family, the institution of government,
and the institution of the church. Those are the three things that
God has instituted and the church has been given the place to be
where the commission is carried out. Now, this morning, I want
us to look at the last phrase in our passages here. Jesus says
to this ye, to this group of people, now, again, remember,
and we're gonna get into this here in just a minute, remember
that this ye that he's talking to is a local gathered assembly
of baptized believers. And that commission is given
to them in a corporate manner. And so there's some things that
we need to look at whenever it comes down to this last phrase,
because Jesus says, and I am with you always until the end
of the world. Okay? So what do we find in that
phrase? What do we find? whenever we
look at Jesus's last statement here in the Great Commission.
He says, I am with you always. So we see that the subject matter
here, or the person who Jesus will be with, is the you. Now
the you here, if this you is considered to be individuals,
if the commission is given to individuals, If we think that
the ye, in verse 19, is considered individuals, or the you, in verse
20, is individuals, then Jesus said, lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. Okay? Not to the end of just
that time period, but to the end of the world. Okay? So, let me ask, if today, I give
Wayland a commission to say, Wayland, I am commissioning you
to every day to make my coffee and to bring me my dinner, okay? And lo, I am with you even to
the end of the world while you do that, okay? If I say that
to Waylon and that is directed to him as a specific person,
then number one, that dies with Waylon, right? Whenever Waylon
dies, then that service dies with him. If I live to the end
of the world and Waylon dies before the end of the world,
then that service or that commission given to him dies off with it. So if he is talking to individuals,
then he is talking to these individuals here. And if those individuals
die, then the commission died with them. But he also says,
I will be with you until the end of the world. Now, wait a
minute. Does all these people still live
in today? Is that first group of people that Jesus gathered
together here and give this commission to? Are they still living? Because
he said that he would be with you until the end of the world.
So if that word you means a specific church or a specific group of
people or a specific person, where's those people today? Because
Jesus said that he would be with them till the end of the world. No, that don't fit, right? So
contextually, we can't look at the individual. The commission
isn't given to the individual. And contextually, we can say
it isn't given to just that specific church for that specific time,
because the commission is extended to the end of the world because
he says that he promises his presence. Because why? Remember, he actually begins
or ends the commission the same way he begins it. Look, if you
would, back into 18. All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore. The fact that
the commission has been authorized to be done is because Jesus has
all power in heaven and in earth. So he is the one who is authorizing
to carry out this commission. And here at the end, he says,
I am with you always, even into the end of the world. that my
presence will be with you and my authority will be with you. My power in you will be with
you until the end of the world. My power, all power, is given
unto me. So that power, as we know, doesn't
just mean dunamis, that inwardness, this power, like dynamite power,
but it also means that it is authority. So his power, his
authority, has been promised to be with us, whoever this you
is, until the end of the world. So contextually, it couldn't
be the individual. Contextually, it couldn't be
the specific group of people he was talking to at that time,
and them only, because that church, that group of people, died out
individually, and that church itself died out. But yet is his
promises still true? That he said, the gates of hell
will not prevail against the church? And he wasn't talking
about individuals as the elect. He was talking about the institution
of the church. And so what he means here is
this you, and lo I am with you always, the ye, the you, he's
speaking in a corporate manner. He's speaking in a institutional
sense. See, whenever you and I pass
away or whenever this church, and God forbid that it, with
the passing of any of us or me, would ever go away, that the
Lord would continue to bring people in and that there would
be this gospel witness in Joplin for ages to come until his return.
But if we would ever die out, he still remains as present within
any church. that is of light, faith, and
order that He ordained. So the presence that He is promising
is not to the individual, although He has promised to each individual
that He is with them. Because, as a matter of fact,
in other places in Scripture, the Bible says, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. And if you remember, thee is
a singular, not a plural. Ye is a plural. You is a plural. Lo, I am with you always. So he's talking about a plurality. It's a corporate thing. So Jesus
is with them as an institution. That is why the gates of hell
will not prevail against the church. That is why for thousands
of years, I say thousands of years, for a thousand years,
hundreds of years that the church, even though it was severely persecuted
through the dark ages, through the time of the Catholic reign,
so to speak, that the church of Jesus Christ never went away. That's why we carry the Trail
of Blood out here on our book table. I know a lot of people
want to discredit that book. A lot of people doesn't believe
that book to be true. And while I will say I do not
believe that we can do a chain link succession of churches back
to the first church, I believe that in every age, in every time
period, at every point of time, from the time Jesus started that
first church until today, there has been a gospel church somewhere
in this world. Whether it be two or three gathered,
wherever it is, they are the Lord's witness in this world
and that that church, not the individual, but the church has
existed from every age. And that trail of blood shows
that there has been those who have held to the same faith and
order throughout all history. People can dispute that all they
want, and whether or not that book has 100% truth in it or
not, maybe there's some facts in there that's not completely
true. The fact still remains, whether that book tells it, whether
the Protestant history tells it, It doesn't matter because
the Bible says it. The Bible says that he will keep
his church and that the gates of hell will not prevail against
that institution. And it hasn't prevailed. We trust
that Christ has done what he has promised, that he has been
with that institution from the moment that he began it to the
moment that he comes again. That church will continue. And
so if we consider this as individuals, then at the end of the first
century, the commission died with that first group of people. Christ could only give the commission
to them as representatives of something that could and would
continue to the end. The only thing in contextually
here, now again, we're looking at context. I know what man's
theology says. They want to go on to this universal
church business. They want to say that it's the
duty of every individual. But the context bears this out. Contextually, the only thing
that can continue from that day until the end of the world is
the institution of the church and not any individual church
or any individual. So we have to assume, we have
to believe that what is in context here, what is in play here, and
what actually works with the tenor of the rest of Scripture,
what we've seen, that the word ekklesia meant a gathered assembly. It meant a called out, gathered
assembly who was called out to conduct the affairs and business
of the kingdom. Well that's an institution. That's
an institution. That's someone who is an administrator
as a corporate body, not as individuals. That's why it's so important,
brethren, that we be a part of the local church. Listen, there
is no higher calling for the Christian than to be a member
of one of the Lord's churches. There is no greater calling than
that. Apart from our being the elect of God, there is no higher
calling. to be a part of that group of
people that God has called out of among all the other family
of God together in a local place to be his service and witness
within that town or within that community or within that area.
There is no greater thing that we can do. All of our life revolves
around the church. And I don't mean the church as
a universal thing. Again, that is erroneous. Our
whole life revolves around the local assembly that God has called
us into. We meet with them, we love with
them, we cry with them, we burden with them, we serve with them,
we serve them. We are taught, we are encouraged. We lift up our praise and our
worship to God together as that group of people. And that is
how he is ordained that to be. Now, so whatever the you represents
here, it must be in keeping with the characteristics of the context. The established context so far
is who are these people? Absolutely. They are the disciples
that have been baptized who are believing, right? They are saved. baptized and assembled disciples
of like faith and order. That is who the you is. So Jesus
is saying here that he is with any representative group that
is saved, baptized, and is of like faith and order to him,
his church. That's who this commission is
given to. That's who this commission is
carried out by, and that is who the Lord promises His special
presence with. Is the Lord present with all
the elect? Well, absolutely He is. Does the Lord help teach
the elect whenever we're at home reading our Bibles? Absolutely
He does. But He promises a special presence
and power whenever He said that you will be baptized Just not
a few days from now. You know what he was saying?
He was talking about the baptism of the Spirit, which was a one-time
event, not a multiple-time event. Whenever we are born again, that
is not the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There is nowhere in Scripture
that teaches that that is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The
baptism of the Holy Spirit was something that had not yet happened. We see that from Scripture. It
had not yet happened. So if anybody that is born again
from the Old Testament is born again, then that can't be baptism
with the Holy Spirit because the Bible says that that which
Jesus was talking about had not yet happened. He said it's going
to happen, not many days hence. And it can't be talking about
being slain in the Spirit or anything like that. That's not
what it's talking about. The baptism of the Holy Spirit
was exactly what Jesus said. Turn over, if you're still in
Matthew 28, turn over to Acts chapter 1. Again, we see the
conclusion of Jesus' discussion with them during this time of
giving the commission. This discussion in Acts chapter
1 is why they are still in the mount where Jesus is giving the
commission. Look with me if you would. Verse 4, And being assembled
together with them, they were assembled, commanded them that they should
not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father,
which saith, He ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized
with water, but ye, that word ye again is collective, It's
plural, it's not individual. The baptism of the Holy Spirit
was not on an individual, it was on a group of people. It was plural. For John truly
baptized with water, but ye, those who were gathered with
him together, shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence. dropped down to verse seven,
and he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times
and seasons which the Father hath put in his own power, but
ye, again, speaking to the plural, not to the individual, but ye
shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.
Okay, so there again, he is tying back to what he said in verse
five, the Holy Spirit, the baptized, being baptized with the Holy
Spirit, Matter of fact, I just want to make a side note to everyone
listening and watching and everyone here. There is no such thing
of being baptized by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has never
baptized anybody. Can't find it anywhere in scripture
that anyone was baptized by the Holy Spirit. All these Pentecostal
churches out there that is looking for a baptism by the Holy Spirit,
no, there is no baptism by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
is the instrument that God is using to do the baptizing. They
are being covered with, immersed with, they are being, what does
it say? Come upon by the Holy Spirit. So even though they already have
the Holy Spirit in them, God sent the Holy Spirit in power
to do what? Verse eight, but ye shall receive
power After that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And ye shall
be my witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and
in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the world. So the baptism
with the Holy Spirit was a special one-time thing that Christ did
on that first church and as representative of every church that would ever
come throughout all the ages that would be of like faith and
order, that promise of the Holy Spirit is there. Lo, I am with
you always. When did He begin being with
them? Right there at Pentecost. When did He continue to be with
them? All throughout all the ages. How long will He be with
that institution? Until the end of the world. Do
you see that? He is explaining the Lo, I am
with you always. How was He with them always?
By sending them the Holy Spirit in power. Brethren, that is why
the local church is the place. It is not the individual. Yes,
we as individuals are witnesses for Christ, but it is here where
the service of Christ is carried out, that the exercising of the
gifts of Christ are carried out. This is where he has designed.
It's not the Baptist denomination that has designed this. It's
not even the landmark Baptists who have designed this. It is
Christ who has designed this. Christ has designed a gathered
assembly to be the place where service and gifts and gospel
is carried out. And he has promised a special
presence to that. Do you have Christ's presence
if you're not in the Lord's church? Yes, you do. but you will not
experience that same presence, that same power that you do in
the Lord's churches. Now, I've talked with a lot of
preachers who hold and believe in this same thing that I do,
and a lot of them have mentioned this comment, and I have seen
it to be true as well. I've seen a lot of people who
have grown and become very knowledgeable in God's Word apart from the
Lord's churches. But yet, whenever they become
part of the Lord's churches, they even say it themselves.
I've actually had men who have told me, hey, listen, it wasn't
until I actually started actually coming and being a part of the
church that I really began to learn more and become more understanding
of things that at first I couldn't understand. And so the Lord does
give a special presence, I believe, in what he is saying here. to the Lord's church. He has
given them power to be witnesses. Can you be a witness out there?
Yes, but you don't have that same promise of power to be that
witness as them. So the inherent characteristics
of this ye really comes down to only two possibilities. Either
Christ has given the commission to the New Testament church to
be administered by its ordained members, or he's addressing only
the ordained members within the New Testament church? Is he giving
it to the church or to the ordained elders? Well, there's a lot of
people that believe that he gave the commission to the ordained
elders because in Matthew 28 and in verse 18, or is it 17? Let me get back to my scriptures
here. In verse 16, many believe that
it's the ordained elders because in verse 16, he says, then the
11 disciples went away into Galilee. And they just stop there. They
think that the commission is being given to the 11 disciples,
so the commission is given to just the ordained members of
the local church, not the church as a whole. And a lot of times what people
will do to support this is they will say that only the ordained
ministers are capable of performing all three aspects of the commission, where the ordinary, quote unquote,
ordinary church member is not able to do that. They will say
that if it's just not the ordained ministers, then that means that
women and children can administer and teach these things and do
these things. They'll go to the book of Acts
and they'll show you where every case that baptism was performed,
that that baptism was performed by an ordained man. Now, I'm going to say that I
agree to every bit of that. I agree to every bit of that.
Christ has ordained officers within the local church to perform
certain things. He's given gifts to every member,
but he's also made offices. The gift of preaching and teaching
is given as a gift. The office of pastor, that's
a different story. That's an office. That's a position
that somebody holds who follows or has the credentials that the
Bible lays out to be in that office. Okay? The ordained elders here, of
course, we know in the context of Matthew 28, it wasn't just
to the 11 disciples or apostles that he spoke. It was to everybody
else, the rest of the 120. But even though it's true that
the office of pastor, the office of deacon is given to do a lot
of the service work and preaching and teaching, it's through the local church,
by the local church. The highest authority is not
the pastor. It's not ordained minister. The
highest authority is the church corporate itself. Is it true
that only baptism was administered by ordained people in Acts? Yes,
absolutely. That is the only people that
we see in the New Testament that ever baptized that you don't
see any quote-unquote lay person baptizing anybody. Everyone in
every instance, in every place that somebody was baptized, it
was by an ordained minister, whether that be an apostle, pastor,
or deacon, evangelist, quote evangelist,
okay? You don't find it anywhere else
except one place, Apollos. Apollos was baptizing people,
yet he was not ordained by any church to administer baptism.
One of the reasons why Paul baptized those men, because not only had
they been baptized by somebody who was not authorized to baptize,
but they also was holding to a different gospel than that
which was from the beginning. And so every place else there
was a ordained minister. So is that true? Yes, that is
true. But brethren, listen, even though
all those things are true, and I hold it to be true, the evidence supports that the
Great Commission was given to the Church to be administered. The Commission was given to the
Church and to be administered by the ordained membership. It
wasn't just given to the ordained membership. It was given to the
church and then the church in that delegated authority administers
that through its ordained membership. So just because a man is ordained
by a local church doesn't mean that he can go out and be that
everywhere he goes. He was ordained by that local
church to do that such a thing. The overall biblical evidence
demands that this is the truth. And I want to show you in several
places here. We can find places in scripture,
and if you would, go ahead and start turning over to Acts. We
can find places in scripture where the church is the one who
sends out the ordained ministers. Look, if you would, in Acts chapter
11. Acts chapter 11. Now I'm not going to go back
to all the back story of this. You can go back and read that
yourself and you'll find that what I'm reading and pulling
out in the single verse here is not pulling anything out of
context. But look if you would with me at Acts chapter 11, look
at verse 22. Then tidings of these things
came unto the ears of the church. Now again, we're talking about
a gathered assembly, right? Then tidings of these things
came unto the ears of the church, which was in Jerusalem. And they,
the church, sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch, who, when he came and had seen
the grace of God, was glad and exhorted them all, that with
purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. So we see here that the church
at Jerusalem sent Barnabas. The ordained minister was not
the one who was in authority saying, I want to go here or
I want to go there. Have you ever wondered one of
the reasons why I come and consult with you guys
whenever I'm asked to go to Bible conferences. Whenever I'm asked to go preach
somewhere, I'll come and say, I've been asked to come and preach
here. Would it be okay for me to be
gone? Would it be all right for me to miss that day and we meet
again the next Sunday or whatever the case might be? See, it's
because Even though I'm called of God, I truly believe that
I'm called of God, and that calling of God didn't come from the church. It was recognized by the church,
but it wasn't given by the church. The calling of God was given
by God. But yet I am a minister and a
servant in the position that he's called me, with the gift
that he's called me, and the office that he has called me,
as a servant of the church. Now, if I'm the servant of the
church, okay, if the ordained minister is the servant of the
church, what does that say about the church? That the church is
the one who has the authority, not the servant, right? I'm a
servant of the church. You know, I'll be honest, I don't
say this much, and that's just because it's not been in my vocabulary
and been kinda, the way I was raised and heard it and everything,
and probably should start saying it more often. But a lot of the
old school Baptists, primitive Baptists, they always talk about,
well, that's the pastor of so-and-so church, or that's the pastor
of that church, or that's the pastor of this church. Now they
say that they serve the church in so-and-so. They serve the
church of this one. They recognize themselves as,
even though being The pastor of the church, even though being
an ordained minister in the church, they acknowledge themselves as
the servant of that church. And I think we ought to keep
that in mind. All of us pastors and preachers should keep that
in mind so it doesn't go to our head. A lot of preachers let
that stuff go to their head, and they think that they are
the one who is in control of the church. They think that they're
the ones who are the dictators of the church. And maybe not
even the dictators. They think they're the ones who
are the CEO, that everything begins and ends with the pastor.
And it doesn't. The decisions doesn't begin and
end with the preacher. It doesn't begin and end with
an eldership, a group of elders either. It resides with the church,
that's where the authority is given. To the church, not to
the ministers of the church. Now the ministers of the church
have been given, the pastor, the office of pastor has been
given to be the overseer, to help keep chaos out, to help
keep things decently and in order. Because if you have a thousand
mouths or however many you got in your church, you got a thousand
mouths saying a whole bunch of different things. Somebody has
to stand up and be the voice. Somebody has to be the one who
oversees and to help keep order in a lot of things. But he is
not to rule that over the people. He's not to hold that over the
people. But here we see that Barnabas was sent by the church
He wasn't sent by himself, he wasn't sent by a mission board,
he wasn't sent by a seminary, he was sent by the church. Look
with me if you would over in Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter
13. Look if you would at verse 1.
It says, 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 Manaan, which had been brought
up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the
Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and
Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had
fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them
away. And so we see here that in the church
at Antioch there were these men and the Holy Spirit impressed upon that church to
separate those men. So that ordained ministry that
went from inside the church to outside the church did so under
the leadership of the Holy Spirit through the whole body. Now,
look at verse four. I don't want people to think,
well, you cut it off. You didn't go on any further. So they being
sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed unto Seleucia, and from
thence they sailed to Cyprus. And I've had conversations with
men who disagree with what we believe and what the Bible teaches
about the church authority and about them sending it out and
the minister of the church because they do not want to submit to
God's authority. They don't want to submit to
God's authority. That's why they do it. They have a problem with
God's authority and they do not want to submit to it, even men
who believe the doctrines of grace. They have a problem submitting
to the authority that Christ has placed in the gathered assembly. And it's because they want to
have the preeminence. They want to have the limelight. They want to be able to do whatever
they want to do and not be held accountable to others. And so
we see here in the discussion that we've had on these things,
many men who say, well, I don't have to be in a church to be
sent of God. Look at verse four, the Holy Ghost is the one who
sent forth those guys to go. So it's the Holy Ghost that sends,
not the church. How did the Holy Ghost send?
You can't cut out the context. How did the Holy Ghost send those
men who departed under Seleucia and from there sell to Cyprus?
The Holy Ghost sent them, how? By moving upon the local church
to separate those men for that ministry. See, you can't rule
out the Holy Spirit and you can't rule out that the Holy Spirit
works through the local church. The Holy Spirit is the one who
impresses upon the hearts of those in the local church and
the ministers themselves. The ministers receive that. I
feel, like I said, whenever somebody calls and asks me to come preach
and I, you know, if I feel called to go do that, I've been called
to places that they've asked me to come and I've, you know,
I've not felt called of God to go do that. And I just tell him,
you know, I'm sorry, I'm not able to do that at this time.
Maybe some other time as the Lord leads. And so I don't go
and minister in that capacity. Matter of fact, I was asked to
go this weekend to Alabama to go minister. And just, I wasn't
gonna be able to do that. The Lord brought providentially
things up that I could not go and do that. And so, The Holy
Spirit does that work and we can't rule out the Holy Spirit's
work in the sending of men, but we have to realize that it is
in conjunction with and through the local church that He does
that. They were sent and separated, or separated and sent, by the
church. Look with me if you would at
Acts chapter 15. Acts chapter 15. starting in verse 1. And certain
men which came down from Judea taught the brethren and said,
except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot
be saved. Side note there, there's a lot
of people that's out there today that says if you don't keep the
law, then surely you can't be saved. That's not true. The law never saved anybody,
never was intended to save anybody. But I digress. Verse two, when
therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation
within, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain
other of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and
elders about this question. And being brought on their way
by the church, they passed through Phineas and Samaria, declaring
the conversion of the Gentiles and they cause great joy unto
all the brethren. So if you look here, you see
that Paul and Barnabas, there was an issue that came up in
the church by these men that came down from Judea, and they
were teaching, they were Judaizers. And they were teaching that you,
yes, you're going to look to Christ, but if you don't stay
circumcised, if you don't get circumcised, if you don't follow
the law of Moses, then you can't be saved. You still have to do
that too. They wanted to take grace and law and put them together
and say, we have to have both of them. We have to allow the
law and the grace to be saved. And the Bible says, for by grace
are you saved. It didn't say by law and grace. It said by
grace are you saved. But anyway, these men came in
and started doing this. And so that caused up a dissension among
the people at the church here. And so what did they do? They
said, well, let's send Paul and Barnabas up to Jerusalem where
the church started to the apostles that was there that physically
heard Jesus and for three and a half years was with Jesus. Let's send Paul and Barnabas
up there and see if we can get some clarification from this.
Okay? Now Paul himself had already
been taught of Jesus. Okay? But yet they decided that
they would go and they would ask Those who were still mature,
more mature maybe in the faith than them. Whatever the case,
it was the church that sent them. And look what it said. And being
brought on their way by the church. Paul and Barnabas was brought
on their way by the church. So it was through and by the
local church. The local church is the one who
supplied their needs to go. The local church was the one
who sent them to go. And Paul and Barnabas went on
behalf of that Antioch church. They went on behalf of that church,
as messengers of that church. Now look at verse four. And when
they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church. So the church received them.
It wasn't the elders that received them. It was the church that
received them. And of the apostles and the elders,
because it says the church, and of the apostles and the elders. It was all of them together.
And they declared all things that God had done with them.
So we see that there was a sending out by the church. So the one
who is sending is superior to the one who is being sent. If there is one who is the one
doing the sending, then the one who is being sent is subservient
to the one sending. Now that doesn't mean that they
were on a higher level, that they were popes. It doesn't mean
that they were exalting themselves above the men of God. It doesn't
mean that they were crushed with power and wanted to just dominate. That's what a lot of people say
whenever you teach this. You're a lord and over God's
heritage. No, we're not. Matter of fact, it's God's heritage
that's making the decisions as they seek the Holy Spirit's guidance. But see, the problem today is
many churches, they don't seek the Holy Spirit's guidance. They
fail to pray that the Lord would guide them, direct them, give
them wisdom. What should we do? They're not concerned about each
other's problems, much less anybody else's problems. to even be praying
so that that whole entire issue might even be placed upon their
heart. I mean, right here, the people in Antioch, they probably
could have even cared less about what was going on in some of
them other cities. But what were they doing? They were praying
and the Holy Spirit, you say, well, that's mysticism. You mean
that they just like praying for guidance and all of a sudden
the Holy Spirit just impressed upon them that? Absolutely, that's
exactly what I'm saying. How can you read your scriptures
and not see that? What did it say? The Holy Spirit told them
to do this. Well, how did He do that unless
they were not praying for it? See, we can find very clear commands
of Christ that appoints the church as the final authority in the
kingdom affairs. Matter of fact, if you remember
in Scripture, Jesus, whenever those individuals in the church
was having problems and they couldn't get those problems worked
out by the two that were at odds with each other, then what was
one of them to do? They were to bring somebody with
them. And if they don't listen to them, then what he said, what
did he do? Who was the final court of arbitration
that they was to bring their issue with to? The elder board? No. The pastor? No. They were to
bring it to the church. They were to bring it to the
church. You know, I have a study back here where I have a desk
and chairs and a lot of times people want to come and talk
to me and confide in me in private and they want to counsel with
private things. But then there are also a lot
of times people that want to come in there and they have a
problem with things. And they want to talk to me in private,
and then we can't get things worked out in private. But instead
of coming to the church, they either run away and get mad,
or then me and them just have a problem, and it continues on.
The issue is, if you have the problem, go to the person. If
it doesn't get worked out, take someone with you. And again,
going by scriptures, we're to look to the scriptures for the
answers, not to our emotions or feelings. Look to the scriptures.
And if that doesn't still get resolved, We don't part ways
and say, well, I'm just going to go to this church. Well, I'm
going to go to this church. Now, what does it say? It says, then
you bring it back to the church and let the church rule on that.
The church is to make that deciding fact. We're going to bring that
out in the church. And so if the church is given
that, and whenever he was telling that about that very church disciplinary
type stuff, he was talking to his disciples. He was talking
to the ones who were quote-unquote the elders of that first church. So the elders were instructed
that they were to bring them to the church, not to them. If you want to hear your case,
bring it to the church, not to the preacher. We also see in Scriptures that
it is the church that determines, chooses and determines the qualifications
of those to be set apart. Look at Acts chapter 6, if you
would. We are just about done, brother. Hold strong. We're about there. Acts chapter
6, starting verse 1. Acts 6, verse 1. And in those
days when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a
murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows
were neglected in the daily ministration." Now notice that the number of
the disciples was multiplied and there was murmuring of the
Grecians against the Hebrews because the Grecian widows were
neglected in the daily ministration. This was the church at Jerusalem,
by the way. who was made up of more people
than just the ones in Jerusalem. There was Grecian people. Who
are Grecian people? They are the Greeks. They are
the ones that they call Gentiles, right? So there were Gentiles
and there were Jews in the Jerusalem church at this time. And the
Jerusalem Jewish people obviously were not ministrating the things
that as a church they should be to the widows of that church. They were not ministering to
the Grecian ones, but they were just ministering to the Jewish
ones. And the Grecian said, hey, what's going on here? Looks like
just the Jewish widows are being ministered to, but the Grecian
women aren't. I thought the wall of separation
had been torn down. I thought that we were no longer
Jew and Gentile, but we were one in the Lord. And it says,
Then the Twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them and
said, It is not reason that we should leave the Word of God
and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren... He's called
the disciples together. The brethren, the church. He's
called the church together here. Wherefore, brethren, look ye
And there's the key that it was to the collective because he
used the word ye. Look ye, not let us, the who,
the twelve, the apostles. The apostles aren't going to
look out here. He said, look ye. What was he doing? The twelve was being overseers. They weren't being the ones who
was running the organization. They were the overseers. They
said, hey, look among yourselves and let's find, what does he
say there? Seven men of honest report, full
of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this
business. But we, the twelve, will give
ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.
And the saying pleased who? The whole multitude. The whole multitude realized, hey,
that is wisdom from God. That's wisdom. That sounds good. That's what we ought to do. And
so they were in agreement. And the saying pleased the whole
multitude, and they, who's they? The whole multitude. The brethren. The disciples. The whole multitude. chose Stephen, a man full of
faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Procurus, and
Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, the proselyte of
Antioch, whom they, who's they? The whole multitude, sat before
the apostles, that's the twelve, that said, look among yourselves, See, the 12 said for the church
to look among yourselves and find men who fit this quality.
And when you find those men who fit this quality, then set them
before us and we'll appoint them to this work. Whom they set before the apostles
and when they, who's they, the whole multitude, have prayed,
they, who's the they, the whole multitude, laid their hands on
them. And the word of God increased,
and the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great
company of the priests were obedient to the faith." So you see here
that even in the qualifications of the deacon and finding the
deacon, it wasn't an individual, it wasn't a seminary, it wasn't
the individuals themselves. But it was the church who was
tasked with finding and bringing forth, praying for, laying on
of hands those who would minister among them. Look if you would in Ephesians
chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. Look at verse 11. Ephesians 4.11. Speaking of Christ. And He gave
some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some
pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for
the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. till we all come in the unity
of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect
man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And
so we see here in Ephesians that Christ has placed that ordained
ministry in the church. He has given some apostles. Well, how do you know that, Pastor?
How do you know those are gifts that He's given to the church? Well, look at verse 8. Wherefore He saith, when He ascended
up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto
men. Now there's a break in 8 and
11. In 9 and 10, he goes into talking
about the one who came down who also went up. So he's describing
the Lord Jesus who gave the gifts and to whom He gave the gifts.
There's a break there. But if you read, take out the
break, the parenthesis there of talking about who it was who
gave gifts. Look at verse 8. Wherefore He
saith, when He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive,
and gave gifts unto men. And He gave some apostles, some
prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. So
the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers were the gifts
that Christ gave to the church. Look, if you would, at 1 Corinthians
chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 28. And God hath set some in the
church. So that tells me that the church
was there before the rest of it was. You can't be set in something
if something doesn't already exist. So the church existed
before the apostles were called. And God hath set some in the
church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers. After
that, miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments,
diversities of tongues. So we see here that he is set
in the church. So if you are set in the church,
then the church was already there before you. Now, we don't find anywhere in
Scripture a promise of a continuance of the ordained minister, but
we do of the church, right? Matthew 16, 18, Jesus promised
at the gates of hell will not prevail against Him." If you're
anywhere close there to Ephesians again, I was going to read it
while I was there, but I passed right over it. Ephesians 3 and 21. The Holy Spirit writes, unto Him,
Christ, be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all
ages, world without end. Amen. Now don't you think that
that sounds like a lot of what Jesus said? Lo, I will be with
you always, even unto the end of the world. Unto Him be glory. Where? In the church. Do you
want to glorify Christ? You need to get in one of the
Lord's churches. If you want to glorify Christ, it's there
that He is being glorified. Glory. Unto Him be glory in the
church. By Christ Jesus throughout all
ages, World without end. Now, some may say, well, Preacher,
that's a lot of explanation for something that seems just very
clear to me, that in Matthew 28, He was speaking to the individual
disciples, apostles, not to the whole group. And you find in Acts, elder this,
elder that, elder this, elder that. He made the elders over
all of y'all. And right here specifically He
said, then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee and when
they saw Him, they worshipped Him but some doubted. So you
can't really say, well here brethren, let me ask you something. Can
not Jesus be addressing the whole entire church but be doing so
through the ordained ministry? Is that even a possibility? Does
Christ speak to His church or churches and do that through that ordained
minister? Well, of course He does. Of course
He does. Let's look lastly here in Revelation
chapter 2. Revelation chapter 2. Revelation chapter two, and look
at verse one. Unto the angel of the church
of Ephesus write. So who is Jesus talking to? Well,
of course, in context here, he's talking to John on the Isle of
Patmos, and he's telling John to write these letters to these
specific churches, okay? And so he says here, Unto the
angel, now we learned also that Jesus has already defined who
the angels were. We don't have to guess at that,
okay? We don't have to go through some long, apocryphal explanation,
although this is an apocryphal book with types and things being used in symbol.
We don't have to do that. Jesus said who the angels were,
verse 20 of previous chapter. The seven stars are the angels
of the seven churches and the seven candlesticks which thou
sawest are the seven churches. So there are seven angels and
seven churches. The word angel means messenger,
okay? So he says, unto the angel or
the messenger of the church of Ephesus write. You say, well,
there you go. He's talking to the ordained
ministry and told him what to do. Now, look at verse 11, though. He that hath an ear to hear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Jesus was talking to the churches
and he did so. By directly talking to the angel
of the church, the pastor, the messenger of the church. Now,
Matthew chapter 28, Jesus is doing the exact same thing. The
apostles were to be the messengers of the church at Jerusalem. And
so Jesus, while everyone was gathered there, listening, and
the commission was being given to them all, He was specifically
given it to the ordained eldership because they were tasked with
the responsibility of overseeing the commission being done through
the local church indecently, not indecently, decently and
in order. See, that's why we have an overseer,
is to guide and lead that the church does its function as a
church. And so we help in that area.
to remind, to put forth these things. All right. So in Matthew 28, we see contextually
that the ye is the church and it is including the ordained
membership, not exclusively the ordained membership. So who is
Jesus with till the end of the world? The church. The church
as its organization, right? All right. We'll stop right there.
Does anybody have anything to say or any comments? All right. Well, we had a good
meeting last weekend. Appreciate all the hard work
that went into it. The prayers, all those who watched,
made comments on the messages. We hope they were a blessing
to you and a ministry of the gospel. But I do want to thank
the church and the ladies who served us the meals and took
care of everything for all those who gave to help with the ministry
of that and putting up of hotels and the love offerings that we
was able to give to the ministers to help them in their expenses
and things such as that. So we're thankful for everybody
that was involved and pray that you was refreshed. I was, it
was good to hear the Word of God being preached and the messages
that came and we have it on video so we can always go back and
reflect on those things as well. So thank you again for everybody
who was here and for everyone that was involved. All right,
let's bow and have a word prayer. Father, we thank you for the
day and we thank