Foundations: The Authority of the Church (Part 1)

So, Matthew 16 verses 13 to 19. Hear the word of the Lord. Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say lies are in others, Jeremiah are one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon by Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." And I tell you, "You are Peter." And on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven and whatever you lose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. This is God's Word, let me pray. Father, we ask that you would help us now to understand this doctrine and these themes really well so that in the end, Christ would be glorified in our orderly worship as a church. We ask this in Christ's name and for His glory, amen. So this is the last, these are the last two sermons this morning in this evening, as we unpack the foundations, these biblical doctrines that are essential to understand, to understand the nature of the church and what our responsibilities are. And as we consider the authority of the local church today, the questions that we're going to be asking, the main overarching question is where does authority within the church lie? Where does authority within the church lie? Does it belong to the older ship? Does it belong to the members? Does it belong to a group of leaders over an entire denomination or even to one single leader? Now all of those you can find in part in various Christian denominations. There's quite a variety. Now from that main question of where does authority in the church lie, we're then asking, how is this authority to be exercised? How does that play out? So how are decisions to be made in the local church? Who is responsible for those decisions? These are very important questions to ask because again, we are seeking to be as faithful as possible to how Christ has ordained His church to function. This is what we're trying to do here. We're trying to be as faithful as possible to the Word of God and how Christ has established His church to function. Now as we think about how authority in the church functions, let me just begin by rejecting the two extremes that I mentioned before. The church is not a democracy nor is it a dictatorship. It's not a democracy nor is it a dictatorship. So the church doesn't function like our democratic society, like our modern Western democratic society, where the people rule. But nor is it a dictatorship where either one or a select group of people rule and control everything. Rather, if we stick with that theme, the church is better described as a monarchy or a Christocracy, which basically is to say Jesus is the head. He's the king. All authority rests in Christ. That's how the church is established. Now within that monarchy, there are leaders that are set apart by the king in order to govern the kings affairs and the king's people. But they only govern according to the Word of the king. That's the thing. So these leaders, who are like elders, they have no power to establish any laws or policies that are not consistent with the words of the king or with Scripture. That's how the church is established. And then the people within the monarchy under Christ who then come under these appointed leaders. Ultimately, their obedience is to the king and not to the leaders. Their obedience is to the leaders. Insofar as the leaders are leading them according to the king's standard. So that's how authority. That's a simple overview of how authority within the church functions. But to understand the inner workings of this authority, we're going to start where Jesus starts. In terms of the authority, he delegates to the church. So this is in Matthew 16. Here we have this language that conveys this delegated authority. If you saw that, the language of the keys of the kingdom, the keys of the kingdom refer to a delegated authority. Now recall that the local church can be likened to an embassy of heaven. Just like every country has an embassy in other countries. And that embassy functions like that country. It's not in the actual country. But if you go to the Australian High Commission in London or the embassy in Washington, you're effectively on Australian soil. And decisions can be made there on behalf of Australia, though they're not actually in Australia. The local church functions in a similar way. It is an outpost of the kingdom of heaven. And there are heavenly decisions being made through the local church because Christ is the king of his church. Now in Matthew 16, Jesus is preparing his disciples to establish the church. This is the first reference that Jesus uses to the church here in Matthew 16. Now in verse 16, this is where Peter, who's known as Simon Peter, he confesses, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus recognizes that this was revealed to Simon, not by his flesh, but it was revealed from heaven, the heavenly revelation, where Jesus is recognizing you couldn't have come up with this on your own Simon. This was revealed to you by my father in heaven. There was a spiritual awakening that Peter had. And then in verse 18, Jesus uses a play on words here. He calls him Simon Peter, but then he says, "Your name is Peter." Now Peter means rock, so it's like in verse 18, Jesus is saying, "I tell you, you are Petros, and on this Petra I will build my church." So your name is going to be symbolic of a rock, and on this rock I'm going to build my church. Now contrary to Roman Catholic teaching, the rock is not Peter himself. He's not the rock. Rather the revelation which Peter received to then say that he is the Christ. That's the rock, the rock of revelation. And Jesus is saying, my church is going to be built on this rock, namely the same revelation that you received Peter from my father in heaven where you were able to say, "I am the Christ, Jesus is the Christ, so the church is going to be built as the Holy Spirit awakens many people to make that same confession to say Jesus is Lord." And that's how the church will be established by the Holy Spirit, bringing people to life to receive the same revelation where they say, "You are Lord, and you are my Christ." Now in verse 19, Jesus then gives this language of authority. He says, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven or will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." This is communicating the idea of the church as a heavenly outpost. That's what Jesus is saying. It's like he's establishing the embassy on earth and he's saying the decisions that you make here they will have been done in heaven. The king has given a set of keys to the church. They're the king's keys. So the church just doesn't, isn't able to go off and open any doors they want. They only work according to the king's keys. And the king has set up the keys according to his standard. Now people who want to assert that Peter was the first pope will say, "Here, well here, look, Jesus is talking to Peter, and he's saying Peter, "On this rock I will build my church, and the rock is Peter." Now I've already referenced that, but if I was to just put that to bed finally, one response is to say that clearly Jesus is talking to Peter here in the context of establishing his church. So the context here is the church. The emphasis isn't so much on Peter, it's on what's going to happen through Peter and the other apostles as Jesus establishes his church. But then the second thing I would say to show why Peter was not the first pope, the language Jesus uses here progresses moments later in Matthew 18. Now we've looked at Matthew 18. This is the passage on church discipline. And in Matthew 18 verse 18, after the matter of discipline has been dealt with by the church, Jesus now uses the exact same language that he's used of these heavenly keys. Whatever you bind or loose will have been done in heaven. Jesus uses this here in Matthew 18 verse 18 to say, "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Now the difference between Matthew 18 and Matthew 16 as the language progresses is that in Matthew 18 verse 18, the "you there is plural." So whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven. It's plural here, you can't see that in the English language, but in the original language it's very clear. It's easy to detect. So there is a progression that we see here where the keys of the kingdom that make decisions about binding and loosing, they're not simply entrusted to Peter, they're entrusted to a plurality, namely the church. The local church, which is in the context of Matthew 18, that's how discipline works, the local church receives the keys of the kingdom. And the primary decisions being made here in the church are that of admission and expulsion. That's what binding and loosing is. So whatever you bind on earth, namely who you bring in, will have been bound in heaven, whoever you loose or expel or excommunicate will have been done in heaven. It's the language of entering, entry and exit. Now if the binding and loosing that Jesus speaks of here, this king language, if that is done by each church, then we can assert that the keys of the kingdom, which Jesus speaks of, are entrusted to each local church as that heavenly outpost. So they are not entrusted to a Pope, nor are they entrusted to a denomination, nor are they entrusted to a single leader, they're entrusted to the church that Christ has established. And we see that the local church is that reality of the universal church. You must be a part of the visible church to assert your place in the invisible church. And remember that the keys only work where decisions are made consistent with the Word and will of God. So I hope that's clear to see this overarching principle where Jesus gives a set of keys, you would say, to the local church who are going to do the binding and loosing on earth as it's carried out in heaven. Now how do elders fit in with this? How do Tobias and I fit in in this equation? Within each local church, Christ gives offices who then have a level of authority within that church. Ephesians 4, 11, where Christ gives apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. So Christ gives these leaders to make sure the church is functioning as it should. We saw that in one Peter 5, the great shepherd gives undershepherds to make sure the sheep are nourished and fed. Now given that Jesus chooses to use the language by his spirit of pastors, and remember one Peter 5, the command that Peter gives to his fellow elders is to shepherd the flock, you clearly see in that that there's a level of authority that shepherds have over sheep. Sheep don't tell the shepherd what to do, the shepherd tells the sheep what to do and where to go. That's implicit in the language there. Now it's precisely because elders actually have a level of authority that Peter gives the warning to elders to say, "Don't domineer over those in your charge." You have a level of authority, but Christ has given it to you, so stew it well and don't domineer like the Gentiles do, like Caesar does over the Romans, rather deal gently with them. Be an example to them. Peter makes this even clearer in verse 5 of 1 Peter 5, when Peter says, "You who are younger," and the word for "younger" really just means anyone who is newer could be younger in the faith, so an 80-year-old who has just come to the Lord in that sense is younger, and Peter says, "You who are younger, submit to the elders." They have authority that has been given by Christ, and you're there to follow their guide. This is explicit in Hebrews 13, 17, a passage we'll look at very shortly in detail, "Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your soul." And finally, 1 Timothy 5, 17, Paul refers to elders who rule well being considered worthy of double honor. Now this is important, and to some people, especially those who haven't been immersed in a congregationalist environment before, you probably hear this and you're like, "Tom, why are you?" That's obvious. It's obvious that elders have a level of authority. Why are you pushing this so hard? Well, there are forms of strict congregationalism within Christianity that would say that the idea of pastors having authority, any genuine authority, is not there in the Bible. They would say that it's the congregation as a whole who has the only authority. And so the pastor is more like sort of a CEO of a company. You know how when some companies you have the CEO, but really the board is controlling everything, and the CEO is just basically the puppet. He's there to sort of be the face of the company, but the moment he does anything wrong, or the moment they don't like him, he's disposable, he's cast out. And the board, these people that you never see, these mysterious men in their business clothes, they are the ones controlling everything. And people would like to say that the congregation is like the board. And the pastors are just up there with no level of authority. Now I would say this is simply not consistent with the biblical prescriptions of elders. It's just simply not consistent. I've just gone through them, but consider as well the way Paul, the language Paul uses in one Thessalonians, chapter 2, when he speaks of his, I would say their authority, but more so, their conduct toward the Thessalonian believers. In one Thessalonians 2.7, Paul says, "We were like a nursing mother taking care of her own children." In one Thessalonians 2 verses 11 to 12, Paul says, "You know, we were like a father with his children among you. We exhorted each of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God." Now Paul doesn't say, "In the spirit of being humble, we became like children to you, and you told us what to do." He doesn't say that. He says, "We took the posture of parents. Very gentle and loving parents don't miss that, but nevertheless parents who commanded you to walk in a manner worthy of God." That's how we functioned among you. So to assert that elders have no real authority is simply to undercut and do violence to the Word of God when it speaks of the position of elders. Now the question here is, how do elders rule well within the local church in a way that preserves this authority that we saw that Jesus gives to the church as a whole? How do we balance the authority that elders have whilst maintaining and will soon see that I believe there are specific areas where the congregation as a whole must have the say collectively? So how do we balance this out? Look at Hebrews 13 verse 17. Here we're going to focus on this one verse. Hebrews 13, 17. We read, "Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you." Now although that second half would be very advantageous to me to preach on. I'm not actually going to focus on why you should make my role a joy, perhaps another time. I want to focus on the first half of that. Because this text could be a very easy passage to just wave in front of disgruntled church members to say, "Hey hands off, obey and submit to me." It would be very easy to do because on face value that's what it seems like. But at the heart of this text I believe is actually a picture of open communication and a familial relationship between leaders and members. And you'll see that in the language. The two verbs here for obey and submit. They both convey the importance of members submitting to elders, but they also convey very clearly the importance of leaders. The leaders here would refer to elders, those who are overseeing the church. They convey the importance of leaders helping their members to joyfully submit by open communication that welcomes feedback and carefully guides them according to Scripture. That's what's implicit in this passage. So the word for obey here is not the usual word that requires unqualified obedience. The word really means to be persuaded. That's what's behind the word for obey. So it's not a blind obedience. It's an obedience that flows from being persuaded to do the thing you ought to do. In Acts 174, the word is used, where the Thessalonians heard Paul explaining and proving that Jesus had to suffer and that he was the Christ and that he rose from the dead. And Paul is a dialoguing with them, persuading them, and then we read in Acts 174, Luke says, some of them were persuaded and they joined Paul and Silas. In other words, they heard what Paul was saying and their consciences felt convicted and compelled. This man is speaking the truth. We have no excuse anymore. We must follow him. That's what's behind this word. Shepherds are to call the sheep to obedience as they work to grab the hearts of their members and grip them to Scripture. And that's what I'm trying to do. That's part of the whole point of going through these foundational doctrines, is to make sure that you know exactly why we do the things we do. Not just because Tom says so, but because they are rooted in Scripture. So obedience is not blind obedience. It is an obedience that is persuaded from the Word of God. Now the word for submit is a stronger word. So we can't really do any grammatical gymnastics to somehow say, actually, guess what? You don't need to submit. No, you do. But there is some helpful stuff behind this word. The word itself means to submit, but it implies submission after a process. So one translation could be to yield. To yield where you've weighed something up and you say, yes, I can submit to that. The church members are to yield or submit as they have seen biblically what they are to yield to. Now let me qualify this because if someone needs a 12 round doctrinal fight to be persuaded to do the thing you need to do over every little thing, I would highly doubt that this is an application of this text. I think that's a manifestation of a rebellious and stubborn heart. If you need a long theological fight over the most minor of things, like why you should show up on time. If you need a theological fight for that, you probably just have a rebellious stubborn heart. But the point is made here and here this very clearly. The orders are to help their members submit by persuading them biblically and guiding them to joyfully submit, because they have been convinced that this is right. So elders must do the hard work of demonstrating very clearly why the scriptures call us to obedience on this thing. And you must be persuaded and then yield to that. So hopefully you see this balance a bit clearer now. The elders are not a sort of minor dictatorship under the king. They're here to persuade everyone of the king's standard. The elders must work like a faithful parent to ensure members feel informed and are able to voice their concerns. And the elders must genuinely consider the church as a whole indecision. So to buy us an eye, there may be minor things that we just need to make a decision on, like when a member's meeting is going to happen. We're not going to put that to the church, but there are many other things that we need to do the hard work of consulting and of asking and of being approachable and available to hear. And hear any concerns that any member might have. And every church member, and here's your responsibility brothers and sisters. Every church member is compelled by scripture to be a good Berean in Acts 17, where they searched the scriptures carefully. They didn't just hear Paul and said, "Well, he seems like a good guy. We're going to follow him." No, they searched the scriptures and said, "No, what he's saying is right. We see it in the Word of God." You are mandated to do that. You must understand the scriptures to ensure that your elders are shepherding according to the scriptures. Now with that said, there are particular circumstances where a decision being made within the church should be brought to the church as a whole. And where the congregation, not simply the elders, have a say in the matter. And I would say the two main areas of this are the admission and expulsion of church members, receiving them in and excommunicating them, and then the appointment of church officers. And I believe that biblically is a responsibility of the church as a whole to come to a consensus on. Now the reasons why we would say that these two areas require a congregational consent is firstly because we see, and we'll look at them soon, occasions in scripture where the church is involved in processes like this. And then secondly, because these are significant matters that will change the people in the church in contrast to when we purchase the hymn books, even though as I recall, I actually did announce it before we did anything and said if anyone has any issues come and let me know, but I felt a right to just buy some hymn books on behalf of the church. But I would prefer to err on the side of caution and say, let me know if I have any blind spots or if there's a better hymn book out there. Now that doesn't need to go to the whole congregation. There's nothing major happening there, but when there's positions being moved, people are being brought in, people are leaving, or someone from within the church is then taking being set apart for an office. I believe those are times where the church should have a genuine sense of consent, of understanding what's happening. Now we've seen this clearly in Matthew 18, in the church discipline passage, the binding and losing there refers to the admission and expulsion. And this is a matter of the church, where someone is being disciplined and needs to be excommunicated, the elders cannot simply excommunicate them, and then a few weeks later we say, by the way, this person's gone, we need to go to the church. That's the last step of the process. Take it to the church, and the church must plead with them to repent, and the church has a whole must then excommunicate them. Now it's reasonable in those processes, that if, for example, in the excommunication of someone, if that matter is brought to the church, if there's a relatively significant number of church members who feel very uneasy about that. Even if Tobias and I, as elders, feel very sure that this person should be excommunicated, it's reasonable to say, because this is a church process, that if there are people who feel very uneasy about that, then we should slow down and pause the process and not move forward. And work out, well, is it because they're just really over-sensitive, or is it because there's actually genuine reasons that we haven't considered? And Christ has gifted the church with every member with a level of wisdom in order to make these decisions carefully. Now a reasonable conclusion from this is that if it is a congregational matter, if Jesus means what He says in Matthew 18, where He says that you must take it to the church, and then the church must then treat them like a Gentile or a tax collector, if it's a congregational matter to excommunicate someone, then I would say it follows that it is a congregational matter to receive someone in, to receive them into membership, the reverse is true. As the exit door is something that the church controls, the entry door is something that the church controls. New members don't simply join a club of Tobias and I, and then everyone else is along for the ride, they join the church. So this means, again, that if there are concerns raised from the membership about a prospective member, then I think the church has a responsibility to raise those concerns and we as elders guiding the process or to think carefully about that, and again determine whether it's a legitimate reason or whether they just don't like the way they dress or whatever it is, we need to work out. Is this a biblical reason, and if so, we should take that into consideration. Now when it comes to the appointment of officers, this is also a time where I believe the congregation as a whole or to give their consent. Now I hope, brothers and sisters, you're understanding from your part the responsibility that you have to this. Again, the church is not a spectator sport, there are responsibilities that you have. And so you as the church have a responsibility, especially as we're considering James as a deacon. And potentially, other elders in the future, you have a responsibility to play your part in that. So when it comes to the appointment of officers, I believe this is a congregational matter, but let me be very clear. I would say it's a congregational matter more so based upon wisdom than hard law. And I'm going to show why. So I don't actually think that there is a biblical mandate that how to appoint officers must only be done in a particular way. And I'll show that, including sometimes the elders are pointing someone and sometimes it going to the church. So I believe wisdom would say in the spirit of unity, in the congregation, that the congregation has a responsibility to be involved in that process. But I don't think that it's a hard law in Scripture that it needs to be this exact way. I think this is the best way to do it from the wisdom that we can glean from the Scriptures. And I'll explain this, because we have biblical examples that both show times where simply leaders appoint other leaders. And then we have other times where it's the congregation that seems to appoint leaders. And we have times for both. So no one who has a strict congregationalism can say that the congregation must always appoint leaders. And that they have the final authority and the elders actually don't have the authority to control anything about that process. I simply don't see that biblically. And so I'm going to show you now and this will be the more technical part. We're going to jump around a bit, start in Acts 14. We see in the appointment of officers that it is the elders or the leaders. It's really the apostles who appoint the other elders. So look at Acts 14 from verse 20. We see that Paul has just been near death. He is then almost brought back to life. He was near death, then he's brought back. And the next day, he goes on with Barnabas to Derb. And in verse 21, when they had preached the gospel, that's Paul and Barnabas preaching the gospel in these various cities, strengthening the disciples. Verse 22, encouraging them to continue in the faith and say that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And then in verse 23, and when they had appointed elders for them. Now in verse 23, the they is Paul and Barnabas. That's who the they is. Paul and Barnabas are appointing elders for, who's the them, it's the disciples. So the apostle Paul and Barnabas are the ones who are then appointing the elders for all of the churches. It doesn't seem like it's going to the congregation. They're just saying we're pulling our apostle card. We know what's best. Here are the elders that we need to appoint. This is also what happens in Titus chapter 1. Remember what Paul says to Titus in chapter 1. I want you to put in order the things that are lacking. I want you Titus to appoint elders in every church. You Titus do it. Even in Acts 13 as Paul and Barnabas are set apart by the Church of Antioch. Some people would say, "Well there, there's the Church of Antioch sending out Paul and Barnabas." But if you read the actual text, it says that it's the prophets and teachers who are gathered there from within the church. And then the prophets and teachers are the ones who are then praying and sending them out. Now in Acts chapter 6, and we've looked at this over the past several weeks. So I won't labor on this, but in Acts chapter 6 we have a text that shows the congregation. So those first few were of where leaders, just appoint other leaders. But now we have cases where the congregation does in Acts chapter 6. The congregation, the church as a whole, appoints these deacons. But let me highlight, and I know this is going to be a bit confusing. It's going to sound like I'm really stressing the importance of the congregation is not involved in these matters, or doesn't have to. And yet I'm going to draw the conclusion that I think the congregation should. But hopefully you'll get there. In Acts chapter 6 where we see that the Church as a whole is involved in appointing these deacons. I want to just highlight why this should not be taken as a hard and fast rule for how to appoint other officers. Consider the context of Acts chapter 6. Firstly, the context is that there's already a church-wide situation that presents a risk of division. And so it's very wise to have the entire church involved in the resolution. This has already become a massive issue in the church. There's a threat of division. And the threat of division is because people are being overlooked. Now just consider if there were a number of you that were really concerned that you were being overlooked. And I needed to make a decision. And so the decision I made was to overlook your concerns and not listen to you and not hear from you and just make a decision that I think is going to solve that problem. That would be quite an unwise way to go about it. The wise way would be to those who are being overlooked to say, well, tell me, what are your concerns? How can we solve this? That's what the apostles are doing here. Because then notice, secondly, who are those who are being overlooked? It's the Greek-speaking widows. It's the people from the Hellenistic culture, they're Hellenistic Jews. But there are those who speak the Greek language and have adopted the Greek culture. And they're being overlooked. And so they're feeling on the outer of the church. And the problem is that all of the leaders within the church at the moment are from a Hebrew background. All of the apostles are Hebrew. So the apostles, having exceptional wisdom, say to these people who are being overlooked, well, why don't you choose some people? Why don't you choose some people from the Greek-speaking background? Who can then deal with this? And what a surprise that the seven men appointed are all from Greek-speaking backgrounds. They all have names that indicate that they are from that background. And that should immediately squash any accusations of overlooking Hellenistic Jews. Because now there are people that are from that culture. But notice as well in verse 3 of Acts 6. The apostles still say, "Whom we will appoint to this duty." The implication there is that if the church chose someone whom the apostles did not believe met those standards. The apostles have a responsibility to say, "You can't appoint this person." So Old Deborah who's still dabbling in prostitution, "We're not going to appoint her." Even though you chose her, where are the apostles? We simply can't appoint this person. Now if you say, hang on, that's overriding the congregation. And the congregation has authority. And you have to allow whatever the congregation says. Then you are basically suggesting that we have to allow unqualified, unbiblical people to take office. The elders are entrusted with a position of authority and hopefully wisdom to then be able to make sure nothing like that ever happens. Just as I would say the congregation must not allow someone to take office if they believe he is unfit. So as an example, if Tobias and I ever brought forward someone who we believe could potentially be another elder, and the consensus of the congregation, was that they do not believe. You do not believe that this person is fit. And again, not because you don't like their clothing, but because there are Biblical reasons as to why. And we take that into consideration. Then I think Tobias and I have the responsibility to make sure we carefully assess and say, even though we don't think this, their reasons are valid. And we don't think it would be wise to move forward from this because the consensus of the congregation is that these people should not be taking office. So I want us to see that Scripture does not give a hard and fast rule of how to appoint officers. We have other passages that imply again that the church is involved, Acts 15, 22, the apostles from Jerusalem send out people to Antioch. And we read particularly that it was the, it pleased the apostles, the elders and the entire church to appoint people. So the church is involved in this, but I want us to see. And we're going to draw to a closing and I'm going to have to elaborate on this this evening. There's no hard and fast rule of how to appoint officers, but I do believe that Scripture leads us to do this in a God-honoring way that will always work to preserve the unity of the congregation as a whole. So the congregation ought to be united in the decisions that are being made of someone being brought in or taking office. So in the last few minutes, why do I believe that the appointment of officers should be brought before the church for the church to give their consent or not? Firstly, the examples that I went through that showed that it was the apostles making the decisions. To be fair, we must understand that those are occasions where the church is newly established and lacking maturity. With the descriptions that Paul gives in Titus 1, where Paul tells Titus to appoint elders, just a few verses later, he goes on to say, "Creatans are always liars, lazy beasts and gluttons." And he says, "This statement is true." Now, if they're liars, lazy beasts and gluttons, do you really want to give these people a level of authority to choose who's going to be an elder? I mean, it's pretty wise to say, "You're just not in a position to make that decision yet. You who have been walking with the Lord for about five minutes, we need some people with maturity to make these decisions." So there's wisdom that must be applied there. But as the church grows in maturity, I believe the members are to be increasingly involved in decisions. So it's why in the late first century document, early second century, the instructions there are given to the churches that the church is to appoint officers. So I think that it could go either way, but it requires wisdom to work out what state is the church in to be able to appoint these elders. Now secondly, if the role of the elders is to ensure the unity of the flock, remember Ephesians for Christ gives these officers why for the unity of the church, for the equipping of the saints, to make sure where united. Then it logically follows the decisions as significant as office bearers, or to have a genuine sense of unity from the church. True unity wouldn't come in this congregation if Tobias and I just secretly lowered someone in, offered them a nice contract to become a pastor, and then we say, "Guess what? Here's your new pastor." That would be very uncomfortable and I think very unbiblical. Unity would say the congregation must be aware of the process. You must be able to voice your concerns and we must take those into consideration. Again, from Hebrews 13, 17, consistent with persuading the flock, elders must afford the congregation the opportunity to be convinced of someone as an office bearer. And then thirdly and finally, based upon Matthew 18, it is clear that it is the will of Christ, that the church as a whole is involved in major decisions in the church. So similar to the admission and expulsion, certainly we see for those being expelled, Christ says, "This is a church matter." Similar to that, I would say when an officer is appointed, they are set apart into a new position within the church so the church as a whole ought to be involved in that decision-making process. Now the elders are appointed to ensure that these decisions are God-honoring and made with integrity but never at the expense of genuine congregational consensus. And I hope tonight, brothers and sisters, to give clarity, because if you're anything like me, I'd be wanting to know more concrete examples of how this works, and so I hope tonight to give more concrete examples of how this works to understand this. But as we've finished, let me just remind ourselves why this subject is very important. Christ has a deep concern for His body. The reason why we must understand how decisions are to be made in the church, the reason why we must put a high premium upon the admission and expulsion into the church and upon office bearers is because Christ cares very deeply about His church. He died for His church, not so that they could just do whatever they want, but so that they could live in an orderly way because God is a God of order. And so we must understand these things. Christ cares deeply that all of His flock are involved in the decision-making process of the binding and losing, and He is entrusted to the care of His body, shepherds who are to feed the flock. And here's the comforting thing, brothers and sisters. Christ has given the entire flock the rule book, so to speak, of how elders are to exercise this authority so that elders would never exercise their authority outside of what Scripture gives. He has given the rule book, the handbook of how this is to function to every member of the church, all because Christ loves His sheep. So as we continue to unpack this this evening, I pray, brothers and sisters, this would serve us well as a church, as a young church, with young inexperienced pastors to carefully organize ourselves so that we have the most integrity, the greatest unity, and we bring the most glory to God in the decision-making process through our church. Ultimately, we are seeking to understand this because Christ cares deeply about His church, and we must care deeply about how to function as the church. Let me pray, and then again, I hope to unpack this in a lot more detail this evening. Father, we do thank you that your Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, and we pray it would be so as we seek to understand ourselves and to understand how we are to function as the church, I pray, Lord, that you would help us all as we contemplate these things, to have a greater appreciation for the love that you, Lord Jesus, have for the church. And that we would seek to be faithful to what you have called us to, help us in this Lord, help us to rejoice to come under the authority of the church knowing that it is Christ's authority. Would you be glorified in the remainder of our day and grant us joy again as we gather this evening? We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.