Well, what a joy it is to be
with you men and to sing with you, to worship the Lord with
you and to talk about the things of the Lord. It's my greatest
joy and I know it's your greatest joy and when we all come together
like this, it's just a compounded exponential blessing that occurs. So, I thank the Lord for this
conference and I thank God for our host for this conference
who is my all-time favorite preacher, John MacArthur. So I want you to take your Bible
and turn with me to the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter
one. And I've been given the wonderful
assignment to speak to you today on Christ, the head of the church. Ephesians chapter one. For time's
sake, I want to begin reading in the middle of verse 20. He, God the Father, raised Him,
God the Son, from the dead and seated Him at His right hand
in the heavenly places. far above all rule and authority
and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only
in this age, but also in the one to come. And He, God the Father, put all
things in subjection under His feet, God the Son, and gave Him as head over all
things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him
who fills all in all." During the Reformation of the
16th century, there was a crisis of authority. And the crisis
of authority not only dealt with who speaks for God, scripture
or scripture and tradition, but it was also the crisis of authority
that involved who is the head of the church. The church in
Rome announced that there was but one head of the church on
earth, that being the Pope. The very authority of heaven,
they claimed, was invested in this one man, the vicar of Rome. And they claimed that he, as
head of the church on earth, spoke infallibly and decided
impeccably. But the Reformers pushed back,
and the Reformers called him Antichrist. They claimed there
is but one head of the church on earth, and it is the one who
is the head of all things in heaven, none other than Jesus
Christ, our Lord. The same crisis of authority
was breaking out in England at the very same time as well when
Henry VIII declared his break from the Church of Rome and proclaimed
himself to be head of the Church of England. And the English reformers
fought back and defied the monarch of England by saying, no, we
have but one head of the church on earth, and it is the head
who is in heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. And for this, these brave
reformers were burned at the stake. A century later, King
Charles I demanded that the Church of England recognize him as the
head of their church. And the Scots retorted famously,
we have no head but Christ. And in 1638, they signed the
National Covenant saying that Christ alone is the head of the
church. And for this, their blood flowed
through the streets like a flood. This matter of the headship of
the church is not an incidental matter, it is a fundamental matter. It is not peripheral, it is primary.
It is not secondary, it is supreme. No pope is the head of the church. No hierarchy of cardinals and
bishops is the head of the church. No pastor is the head of the
church. You are not the head of the church. I am not the head
of the church. No elder board is head of the
church. No congregational vote is the
head of the church. No seminary president is the
head of the church. No denominational president is
the head of the church. There is but one head of the
church, and he is the one who is seated at the right hand of
God the Father, who with the shedding of his own blood has
purchased the church for himself. And so in this session, I want
us to think carefully about Christ, the head of the church. And I
have three headings that I want to set before you. I want to
talk to you about the meaning of Christ's headship. And then
second, I want us to consider the ministries of Christ's headship. And then finally, the mandate
of Christ's headship. So let's begin with the meaning
of Christ's headship. And in this Ephesians 1 passage,
there are two key components, two key concepts that are involved
in understanding what it means for Jesus Christ to be the head
of the church. And the first component is this,
that Jesus is our ruling head. He is our ruling head. He is
Lord over the church. And so when it says that He is
head, It means that He is sovereign. It means that He has supreme
authority over all matters that transpire in the church. It means
that he is the ruler of the church. He is of superior authority and
rank. No one else has the supreme authority
but him. We use this word even in our
normal English language today when we say that someone is head
of state. Or we say that someone is the
head of his corporation. That means he is the governing
head over the country or over the corporation. And that is
exactly what Paul is saying here, beginning in the middle of verse
20. Look at it again with me very carefully. He, God the Father,
raised Him, God the Son, from the dead because He is a living
head. He is not a dead head. He is
a living head. He has been raised from the dead.
and seated Him at His right hand. As you know, the right hand of
God the Father is that place of highest authority in heaven
and earth, and the Father has enthroned His Son and has invested
with Him all authority. So he says in verse 21, just
how great is this authority far above all rule and authority,
power and dominion. Those two words far above means
exceedingly above. far and above, way beyond any
other authority, name, rule, or dominion, far beyond any ordinary
degree. It is supreme to the exponential
degree. The Father has seated the Son
in this place by which He is far above A rule, authority,
power, dominion, that is a reference to designations within the hierarchy
of angels. And then when he adds, and every
name that is named, that includes every king, every prince, every
judge, every pharaoh, every czar, every president, every prime
minister, anybody and everybody, whatever your name is. He is
far above every name that is named. And the idea is not only
in heaven with the angelic beings, but here upon the earth with
all earthly powers. And then Paul expands this even
more and says, not only in this age, referring to within time
and all of the dimensions of time, of human history, but also
in the one to come, referring to eternity future, which is
to say by this enthronement at the right hand of God the Father,
there are no term limits upon the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He will never be brought down
off the throne. He will never be impeached. He
will never step aside. He will reign forever and ever,
not only in this age, but in the age to come. And then in
verse 22, and he, God the Father, put all things, now all things
refers to all things visible and invisible, all things human
and angelic, all things in heaven and on earth and in hell, all
peoples, all events, all destinies, All things. There is nothing
outside of all things. It is a comprehensive, universal
extension of term. He put all things in subjection. And this word subjection is a
Greek word, hupotasso, that is a military term, and it refers
to subordinates lining up under a superior, lining up under a
superior officer, And God the Father has lined up everything
that there is in the universe in submission and in subordination
under the supreme sovereignty of God's Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Everything that is good, everything
that is bad, everything that is holy, everything that is evil,
everything is under the supreme authority. And he put all of
this under his feet, which was a designation in ancient times
of a defeated king would be brought into the throne room of the victorious
king and the defeated king that was subdued and defeated would
be forced to lay before the throne of the victorious king and the
victorious king would rest his feet on top of the subjected
king as an expression of sovereignty and authority. And drawing from this, Paul is
saying that the entire world, the entire universe, all of the
galaxies, anything and everything that takes place and transpires
in heaven on earth and in hell, time, eternity, north, south,
east, west, is all under the dominion of the King of Kings
and the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. And His sovereignty is
so far surpassing that none of us can even comprehend just how
sovereign the Lord Jesus Christ is. And when He comes back in
Revelation chapter 19, He will have many diadems upon His head. They will just be stacked up,
one on top of another, on top of another, as an expression
of the hyper-sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He has
a name that no one knows, meaning the dimensions of His sovereignty
are incomprehensible to the finite human mind. We cannot even imagine
how in control the Lord Jesus Christ is of everything and everybody
for time and eternity. Abraham Kuyper, the Dutch theologian,
said, there is not one square inch in the whole domain of our
human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign, does not cry
out, mine. Then R.C. Sproul says, there is not one
maverick molecule in the entire universe. It all exists to do
His bidding. And it is this sovereign Christ,
the fulfillment of Matthew 28, 18, all authority in heaven and
earth has been given unto me. There is no authority outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has all authority. And whatever authority a leader
or a politician would have, or a husband or a mother, is simply
a delegated authority that has come down from the One who possesses
all authority. And now, at the end of verse
22, Paul continues to expand this and said, and gave Him,
this Supreme Sovereign Lord, Indisputable king of kings gave
him as head over all things to the church. Now, this word head,
kaphale, means ruling authority. It means supreme to the extreme. It means sovereign ruler, the
one possessing all governing power. In other words, Jesus'
will is supreme in all matters. His Word is final. His doctrine
is binding. His decrees are determinative.
His decisions are absolute. And it is He as head who is ruling
and governing over the church. It is not the toes or the elbows
who are ruling. It is the head who is ruling. Jesus is the head and we are
the body. Jesus is Lord and we are the
slaves. Jesus is king and we are the
subjects. Jesus is master and we are his
servants. Jesus is the teacher and we are
his disciples. Jesus is the commander and we
are his soldiers. Jesus is the way and we are his
followers. Jesus is the builder and we are
his stones. Jesus is the Lord of the harvest
and we are his day laborers. Jesus is everything. Ruling head. The second aspect
is He is the organic head. As we continue to look in verse
23, this head who is the ruling head is also the source of all
life for the church. He infuses life into the church. He infuses grace into the church. He gives his wisdom and his power
and his love and peace to the church. Everything that the church
needs, comes from the organic head, the Lord Jesus Christ.
You and I do not have a need, but that Jesus is all sufficient
to meet the need in the church. And so we continue to read, the fullness of Him. That refers to the full sufficiency
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that He is and everything
that is at His disposal. of Him who fills all. And the all there refers to all
members of the body, all true believers. He pours Himself into
us. And He fills us and He lives
within us. And He is our ample supply and
lives within us as we live for Him. And then he says at the
end of verse 23, in all, the fullness of him who fills all
in all. And when he says in all, he is
referring to in all places and in all times, wherever the church
is, in whatever the generation, whatever the continent, whatever
the denomination, whatever the association, whatever the location,
he fills all in all. All of Himself in all of the
church, in all places and in all times. That is an extraordinary
statement. And so the meaning of Christ's
headship is that He is over us as ruling head and He is in us
as organic head. He is over us as Lord. He is in us as our life. He is over us as our sovereign. He is in us as our source and
supply for all that we need. So, we must be always looking
unto Jesus. the author and perfecter of our
faith. We must be always setting our mind on things above and
not on things of the earth. We need to be always looking
up to the Lord Jesus Christ and relying upon him and looking
to him and leaning upon him and abiding in him and drawing from
him everything that we need because he is the head of the church. Now, second, the ministries.
of Christ's headship. If you would, turn with me to
the book of Acts. If you would, turn with me to Acts chapter
1 and verse 1. And I want to raise this question,
how does this sovereign head of the church exercise his supreme
authority over the church? And how does this sovereign head
meet the needs of His church. And so to answer that question,
I want us to spend some time looking into the book of Acts
and see how Christ, as our ruling head and organic head, builds
His church. And so it begins in chapter 1,
verse 1, the first account I composed referring to the gospel of Luke.
Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach. And when
he says began to do and teach, clearly implies that there is
a continuing work that Jesus would undergo throughout the
church age and in the church. And so, as Jesus will continue
to be the head of the church, I just want to walk through some
pages here in the book of Acts and set before us how Christ,
the head of the church, is building His church. The first thing I
want you to know, His head, He has authority to choose His leaders. In Acts chapter 1 and in verse
24, after they have gathered together in the upper room, the
120 disciples, and it comes time to replace Judas They look to
the head of the church to supply the replacement for Judas. If spiritual leadership is needed,
they look to the head of the church. And in verse 24, we read,
and they prayed and said, Now, Lord here refers not to
God the Father, but to God the Son. Lord is the same as in verse
21, the Lord Jesus Christ, this Lord who in verse 22 was baptized
by John, this same Lord Jesus who was resurrected from the
dead, verse 22, this same Lord Jesus who has ascended from their
very midst into heaven. It is this Lord Jesus that in
verse 24, They pray to Him, and we pray to the Father, through
the Son, by the Spirit, but they're looking to the head of the church.
But you, Lord, know the hearts of all men, and no one knows
the hearts of men like the Lord Jesus Christ, who has x-ray vision
and sees into the depths of every situation. You know the hearts
of all men. Show which one of these two you
have chosen." And they, in verse 23, they've just put forward
Joseph and Matthias. And so verse 26, they drew lots
for them and the lot fell to Matthias. It is the Lord Jesus
Christ who answered this prayer as the head of the church. It
is the Lord Jesus Christ who sovereignly controls even the
casting of the lot into the lap. Proverbs 16, 33 says, the casting
of the lot into the lap, it's every turning up is from the
Lord. And the head of the church sovereignly
controlled the casting of the lot in order to replace Judas
with the man of Jesus' choosing. In fact, you will note, please,
at the end of verse 24, they do not ask Jesus to confirm their
choice. They humble themselves and they
say, show us which one you have chosen. And Jesus continues to choose
His leaders. And Jesus continues to appoint
His leaders in the church. And this was true not only of
the Twelve, but of pastors and elders and spiritual leadership
to this day. Now, there are many local churches
who do not want to pursue what is found in Scripture that we
had preached to us by Mark Dever earlier. They want to go their
own way. They want to appoint their own man by his position
in the community or his popularity. But those churches that will
humble themselves before the Lord and ask for God's man to
be brought to them, the head of the church will providentially
move heaven and earth, if necessary, to bring God's man to that church. And if you are a pastor and if
you are under the understanding that it is God Himself who has
called you and Christ who has appointed you, that is a very
humbling thing. that you're God's man, that you're
a man of God. But that is the first ministry
we see of the head of the church. And then second, as head, he
has authority to call a people to himself. If we come to chapter
2, Acts chapter 2 and verse 39, I want you to note that it is
Jesus who fulfills what He said in Matthew 16, 18, I will build
My church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
We see Him immediately here on the day of Pentecost already
beginning to build His church by His sovereign grace. And in
verse 39 we read, for the promise is for you and your children,
referring to the Jews who are there and those offsprings of
Jews and for all who are far off. Those who are far off are
Gentiles. But the word all needs some qualification
because not everyone is built into the church and not everyone
is brought to faith in Christ. And so at the end of verse 39,
he makes the qualification. Here it is. As many as the Lord,
our God, will call to himself. No more, no less. No more will
be called, no less will be called, but as many as will be called,
the Lord will bring them to Himself." Now, the Lord, we go back to
verse 21, and it shall be that everyone who calls on the name
of the Lord will be saved. And we ask, what is the name
of the Lord? What is His name? In verse 22,
we see the name of the Lord, Jesus the Nazarene, And Lord
is mentioned again in verse 36, "...therefore let all the house
of Israel know for certain that God," referring to God the Father,
"...has made Him Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."
There is no doubt who the Lord is. It is none other than Jesus
of Nazareth. And it is this Lord in verse
39 who is calling out a people unto Himself. And it is an effectual
call. It is an irresistible call. It
is a call that overcomes man's resistance. It is a call that
makes us willing in the day of His power. It is a call with
which we are given ears to hear and a heart to respond. The Bible
talks of two different kinds of calls. There is the external
call, which is the call of the preacher, the call of the teacher,
the call of the parent. But it can only go to the ear
and it can go no deeper. Matthew 22, 14, many are called,
few are chosen. There must be the internal call
of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself by His Spirit in which this call
actually summons and subpoenas the one that is called. When
He calls, that one comes. And in John 10, verse 27, Jesus
said, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and I give unto
them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and neither shall
anyone pluck them from My hand. And Luke goes on to describe
this further at the end of verse 47 when he says, The Lord was
adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. The word saved there is very
important. The Lord is not just adding church members. The Lord
is not adding merely those who profess Christ. He is adding,
in verse 47, those who are being converted and called and regenerated
by the Lord Jesus Christ himself." You see, Jesus, as the ruling
head, is sovereign over who He calls into the church. No one comes into the true church
except Jesus calls them, and all whom He calls will come. And it is for these that He died. It is for these that He laid
down His life. And what we see here is that
Jesus guarantees the success of gospel preaching. When we
give the effectual call, Jesus will give...or excuse me, when
we give the external call, Jesus will give the internal call to
those who have been chosen by the Father in eternity past and
entrusted to Him to be His chosen bride. And that is why in Matthew
11, 27, Jesus said, all things have been handed over to me by
my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does
anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the
Son wills to reveal Him. Now, the only way that you and
I know the Father is because Jesus sovereignly willed that
we would know the Father. And the only way that we are
in the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ is because Jesus
himself, as the head of the church, powerfully and effectually summoned
us to come into the church. He will build the church. And
nothing can resist and nothing can hinder its progress and its
advancement. Come, if you will, to chapter
3 and verse 16. And third, I want you to see
his head. He has authority to give saving faith. In Acts chapter 3 and verse 16,
we see that all whom he calls believe, and the reason they
believe is because Jesus gives them saving faith to believe. And in Acts 3 and verse 16, Peter,
as he is preaching, says, and on the basis of faith. Now, what I want you to notice
in this verse is faith is mentioned twice. The first time, faith
is in Jesus. The second time, faith is through
Jesus or from Jesus. So notice 316, and on the basis
of faith in His name, that is true saving faith, it is the
name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know,
and the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect
health in the presence of you all. What this text is saying,
that as Jesus builds His church, those whom He calls out of the
world He gives them saving faith so that they can exercise faith
in Him. In other words, Jesus is both
the source and the object of saving faith. Faith that is in
Jesus is faith that comes through Jesus, is a faith that has come
from Jesus. That's what Hebrews 12 verse
2 says, looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. Where did you get saving faith?
Oh, not from yourself. Dead men don't believe. We were
spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. We had to be given the
gift of faith in order to believe in Jesus. And the gift to believe
in Jesus is the gift that came from Jesus. Philippians 1, 29
says, it's been granted unto you not only to believe in His
name, but to suffer for His name. So faith must be given to us. George Whitefield put it this
way, man has free will to go to hell, but no free will to
go to heaven. And Spurgeon said, I have heard
much about free will, but I have never yet seen it. So as head of the church, He
calls the people to himself as head of the church. He gives
saving faith forth as head of the church. He has authority
to grant repentance. So come to chapter 5 in verse
31. And what I'm wanting to trace
for you is how Jesus builds his church. He is building his church
one soul at a time. I want to start reading in verse
30, but what I want you to see is in verse 31. But in verse
30, the God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to
death by hanging Him on a cross. Now, verse 31, He, there's no
doubt what the antecedent is for He. The antecedent of He
in verse 31 is Jesus in verse 30. He is the one whom God exalted
to His right hand as a prince and a savior, to grant repentance
to Israel and forgiveness of sins." Now, this is crystal clear. A blind man could see this. Jesus, the exalted, ascended
Lord, gives two gifts that man has nothing to do to conjure
it up. One is forgiveness of sin. We're
all in agreement with that. In my hands, no price I bring,
simply to His cross I cling. But the other gift is equally
monergistic as well. There is only one active agent
that grants repentance, and it is the one who gives the free
gift of forgiveness of sin. You can't have it both ways.
It's a package deal. These are grace gifts that Jesus
gives to His church to build His church. And He says the exact
same in Acts 11 and verse 18, It says that God granted to the
Gentiles also the repentance that leads to faith. You see,
no one can repent until God gives them the gift of repentance.
We are morally plagued by an inability to do what is required
of us. When Jesus said, repent for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand, And that is a binding command
upon everyone who heard those words. But the crisis was no
one can repent in and of themselves. Repentance has to be granted
and given to them. And so, as we preach the Word,
as we proclaim the gospel, God has gone before us and God comes
in with us and He calls out His chosen bride, He gives them saving
faith, He grants them repentance. This is what Jesus does to build
His church. Now, fifth, as head, He has authority
to convert His enemies. Come to chapter 9, if you would,
beginning in verse 1, and we see that he has many enemies,
many persecutors of the church, but no one is beyond the sovereign
authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus can overcome any and all
resistance to him or to his gospel. So in Acts 9, in verse 1, you
know what this account is. It's the conversion of Saul of
Tarsus. He is the chief of sinners. In
an argument from the greater to the lesser, if God can do
this to Saul of Tarsus, if Jesus can do this, He can do this with
anybody. And so in verse 1, now Saul still breathing threats
and murders. No one could have been more anti-Christ,
anti-church than Saul of Tarsus, breathing threats and murders
against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest
and asked for letters from him, verse 2, to the synagogues of
Damascus so that if he found any belonging to the way, both
men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. He is hunting down the Christians
like they are an animal, like they are a prey. And he is an
aggressive hunter. And he is going after them with
the full force of all of his energies and all of his passions
and all of his personality. In verse 3, as he was traveling,
it happened that he was approaching Damascus. And suddenly, and this
can happen just in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, A
light from heaven flashed around him and it was none other than
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 4, and he fell to the ground. Jesus knocked him off his high
horse and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you
persecuting me? You see, to persecute the church
that he is building is to persecute the head of the church, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he feels what we feel, and
when you come against the church, you come against the head of
the church. And so, verse 5, he said, who are you, Lord? He answered his own question
before the end of the sentence. You talk about lordship salvation. I mean, he's in the kingdom before
you can put the question mark. Who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom
you are persecuting. But get up, verse 6, and enter
the city, and it will be told you what you must do. We see that Jesus can bring His
enemies down to their knees. He can humble them in a moment.
He can bring them to the place of self-denial where they look
up and confess the Lordship of Jesus Christ and submit their
lives and surrender their lives under His mighty authority. And
this has been a prototype of every conversion. It's just different
place, different circumstance, different time. But it's what
Jesus did in your life if you are actually converted. He humbled you and brought you
low. No one giggles through the narrow
gate. No one skips into the kingdom. Everyone has been brought down
humble. And look at verse 15. The Lord
said to him, to Ananias, the head of the church is now going
to explain to Ananias his purposes and his plans for Saul of Tarsus. So he says, go for he, referring
to Saul of Tarsus, is a chosen instrument of mine to bear my
name. There is no way under heaven
that Saul of Tarsus could have resisted the mighty call of the
Lord Jesus Christ to come to him, and there is no way he could
have put up any opposition to the powerful voice of Jesus when
Jesus called him to faith in himself. There is no one beyond the saving
power of the head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when
He calls, we come. Come, if you will, to chapter
16. What I want you to see, 6, is He,
as head, He has authority to open closed hearts. And in Acts
chapter 16, I want you to note, beginning in verse 13, that there
is no heart so closed but that Jesus is able to throw it wide
open. You see, this is how He builds
the church. And so, on Paul's second missionary journey, he
comes to the city of Philippi, and in verse 13, on the Sabbath
day, he went outside the gate to a riverside where we were
supposing that there would be a place of prayer. And we sat
down and began speaking to the women who had assembled, a woman
named Lydia. From the city of Thyatira, a
seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God was listening. And the Lord opened her heart
to respond to the things spoken to Paul. Now, if the Lord opened
her heart, that obviously presupposes that her heart was closed. In
fact, it was sealed shut. It was locked down. There was
no way anyone could pry open her heart. It would need more
than just the Lord knocking on the door of her heart. It couldn't
be opened. It was sealed shut by sin and
unbelief. But as Paul preached and gave
the external call, The Lord Jesus, the head of the church, gave
the internal call and He threw open the door of her heart and
she responded to the things that were being spoken by Paul. Now, I want you to see how strong
this word opened is. Do you see it in verse 14? The
Lord opened her heart. I want you to look ahead to verse
26 because the very same word, opened, will be used later in
this chapter after Paul has created a crisis in Philippi with his
preaching. that he and Silas were thrown
into prison. You know this account. And in
verse 26, we read, as they are in prison and every prison door
is locked tight and they are chained to the jailers, verse
26, and suddenly there came a great earthquake. It was a mega earthquake. so that the foundations of the
prison house were shaken. The whole prison house was just
moved in its place. The earthquake was so powerful.
And immediately, that's just like the suddenly in Acts 9.
And immediately all the doors were, here's our word, opened
and everyone's chains were unfastened. God sent an earthquake so powerful
that all of the prison doors were opened that night. Not just
where Paul was, they were all opened. It was an earth-shaking event. But it pales into insignificance
compared to the earthquake that took place spiritually in the
heart of Lydia, when God blasted the doors off of her heart and
God came charging in like a conquering king to claim her as His own. You see, this is how Jesus builds
His church. This is how Jesus, who is the
head of the church, who is the ruling head, an organic head,
how He blows open hardened hearts, that they would respond to the
gospel and He makes them willing in the day of His power. And
that is exactly what happened in your life, my friend. And
that is exactly what happened in my life. It was King Jesus
who sent the spiritual earthquake and opened the door of your heart."
He didn't just stand there knocking. He blew it off the hinges and
just came walking in and said, mine. Come to chapter 18. Seventh is head. He has authority
to guarantee gospel success. And as he's building his church,
he has his people who will believe and who will respond when the
word of God goes forth. And in chapter 18, beginning
in verse 1, Paul comes to Corinth and he becomes one who goes into
the synagogue on Sabbath, he reasons, he tries to persuade
Jews and Greeks. Verse 6, but they resisted, they
blasphemed, and he shook out his garments which symbolized
his break from them and said, your blood be on your own heads.
That's a benediction. and says, from now on, I'm going
to go to the Gentiles. And in verses 7 and 8, while
he's still there in town, before he can leave town, he's preaching
and people just are being saved. They begin to believe. Those
who believe are being baptized. And Paul doesn't know what to
do. And so in verse 9, and the Lord. Who is this? This is the
Lord Jesus Christ. Sent to Paul in the night by
a vision, do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and
do not be silent, for I am with you and no man will attack you
in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city. And
some of them were already saved, but a lot of them were not yet
saved. And it's just a matter of Jesus calling them out as
the gospel goes forward, blowing the doors off of their closed
heart, granting them saving faith, granting them repentance and
infusing them with spiritual life, eternal life, abundant
life. This is what you do when you're
the head of the church. You take over. There's one more I want you to
see. Come to chapter 20. In verse 28, and I've skipped
over several that I wanted to give you, but these are the...
I think we're getting the idea. It's not that Jesus might build
the church, hopes to build the church, could build the church,
would build the church, should build the church. Let me tell
you, He is building the church. And nothing in heaven, on earth,
or in hell will stop it. And so in chapter 20, in verse
28, the last thing that I want you to see is He has authority
to purchase and possess the church. And Jesus is Lord over the church
by right of purchase possession. And so in Acts 20 verse 28, you
recall as Paul has been with the elders at Ephesus and he
gives his farewell speech and he says in verse 28, be on guard
for yourselves and for all the flock among whom the Holy Spirit
has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which He purchased
with His own blood. The Lord Jesus is the one who
at the cross, with the shedding of His blood, making a blood
atonement for our sins, He purchased the church with His own blood. He purchased the church of God
with His own blood. And the church that He has bought
now belongs to Him by right of ownership. The true church belongs
to Jesus Christ. It doesn't belong to anyone else.
It doesn't belong to the leadership in the local church. It doesn't
belong to the denominational hierarchy. It doesn't belong
to a seminary. It doesn't belong to a congregation. It belongs to the one who shed
His blood upon the cross, laying down His life, a ransom for many. And Jesus said in John 10, verse
14, I am the good shepherd. And the Good Shepherd lays down
His life for the sheep. This is why Jesus is so triumphant
in building His church. It's because He has already purchased
the church 2,000 years ago with His own blood. And He did not
die for those who will die in unbelief. And that would have
meant Jesus died in vain. But He died for His sheep. And all for whom He died, He
calls. And all for whom He died, He
died for and calls. He gives them saving faith. He
gives them repentance. He opens their heart. He knocks
them off their high horse. He brings them to Himself because
He is the sovereign head of the church. In Ephesians 5, 25, it
says, Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.
In Ephesians 5, verse 1, it says, Be imitators of God as beloved
children and walk in love just as Jesus also loved you and gave
himself up for us. The last thing I would say, and
I'll just say it off the top of my head, is the mandate of
Christ's headship. None of us are free to reinvent
church. None of us are free to come up
with our own way of doing church. None of us are free to come up
with our own way to preach, our own way to worship. The head
of the church has already instructed us how he desires to be worshiped
and how he desires for his word to be preached and how His body
is to function. The body does not decide this.
The head of the church decides this. And so we find in Scripture
what many refer to as the regulative principle, that the activities
and ministries and worship of the church will be regulated
by whatever Jesus says. And He has every right to govern
every square inch of our church because He is the head of the
church. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
we are so grateful to have such a glorious head as we have in
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Nobody ever had a greater head
than do we. And we praise You that in His
sovereignty, He is all-wise, He is all-loving, He is full
of grace and mercy for us. And I pray that we will be faithful
to our ruling organic head, to follow Him, to obey Him, to serve
Him, to love Him, to adore Him, and to submit to Him with glad
pleasure. Father, we pray this in Jesus'
name, amen.