Corporate Calling Of The Church

In my last three messages I’ve been dealing with the theme of ‘Make Your Calling Sure,’ and I’ve tried to cover certain specific major conditions for making your calling sure. Tonight I want to continue and complete that theme, but in a different context. Let me say that I feel that God has given me a very specific outline of His purpose for this meeting. I don’t always have that before I begin a meeting. Sometimes I just feel my way through the meeting, but I feel tonight God showed me the way He wanted this meeting to go, and I believe if we are obedient to follow the Lord’s plan, we will come under the Lord’s blessings. The Lord blesses obedience and He confirms the word with signs following.

For those of you who are here with physical or emotional needs, we want to tell you that we will do out best to minister to every one of you. So please be patient. Don’t sit there saying, ‘When are they going to minister to us?’ because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You can be healed before we ever get to praying for the sick, if you will sit here in the right attitude and receive the word of God, because basically it’s the word that brings healing. Scripture says,

“…He sent His word and healed them.”

There’s a brother sitting here in the front row, my eyes just fell on him, a Presbyterian pastor. He told me two nights ago that he was hear the last meeting we had last year on a Saturday evening in this same hall, he had a chronic back problem which had troubled him for years, he was sitting at the back, he didn’t stand up for prayer, he didn’t come forward for prayer, but when he went out to his car he realized that his back was totally healed and he’s never had another twinge from it since. So don’t limit what God can do. You understand? Derek Prince isn’t the healer, these men are not the healers, Jesus is the Healer, and when you touch Him, no matter how you touch Him, He can heal you.

I was really impressed by what Paul Kyle said tonight about our corporate identity as the body of Christ, because that’s precisely what I want to deal with tonight. I want to speak not just about individuals, but I want to speak about the calling of the body of Christ. I’d like to turn, by way of introduction, to the Book of Revelation, chapter 19 verses 7 and 8. A little further on in the same Book of Revelation, we have that statement,

“…the Spirit and the bride say come…”

That’s how it has to be. The bride has to take up what the Spirit says, and God’s purpose is not fulfilled if it’s merely the Spirit who says come, or if it’s a preacher who says come. God is waiting for the whole bride to say come. And that will happen when the Spirit has His way with the bride. But I want to read another statement here about the bride in Revelation 19 verses 7 and 8, this really the climax of human history. This is what all history is building towards, and it’s exciting to me that it’s building towards a marriage. I think few Christians realize the importance of marriage in the eyes of God. I mean we honor marriage, we believe in faithfulness, but I don’t think we get nearly as excited as we should do about marriage.

Ruth and I are just bringing out a book called God Is A Matchmaker which will be describing how you can find God’s plans for your marriage. Not how to live after you get married, but how to live in such a way that you marry God’s appointed mate for you. I believe if you are to marry, God has an appointed mate for every one. I’ve heard Christians say, ‘God showed me the house I was to live in, the car I was to buy, the suit I was to wear.’ If God can do that, surely it’s much more important that He’ll show you whom to marry.

I’ve been married twice. My first wife is with the Lord, and God showed me sovereignly and supernaturally in each occasion whom I was to marry. God knows that I’m not that good a judge of character. I’m rather easily deceived by certain types of people, so God didn’t trust me to choose my own wife. He very clearly showed me whom I was to choose, and I’m so glad I made the right choice each time.

That’s just by the way, but what I want to point out to you is that human begins with a marriage and human history is consummated with a marriage. And if you don’t get excited about marriage, you’re really not in line with God, because it is the consummation of the whole purpose of God for His people—it’s the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. And the whole universe is going to be excited about it. The praise that we’re going to hear on that occasion has never echoed through the universe in that measure before. Let’s read about it briefly.

“‘Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb as come, and His wife has made herself ready.’
And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

Everybody knows that when a woman gets married she is very concerned about the clothing she is going to wear. I don’t believe that’s vanity or worldliness. I believe that’s pleasing to God. I’ve been in many different lands and many different cultures, and I’ve found everywhere when a woman gets married she’s concerned about the clothes she’s going to wear for the wedding ceremony. Isn’t that true? There’s hardly a woman here that wouldn’t agree with that.

Well that’s going to be true of the bride of Christ. She’s going to be very specially adorned in very special clothing which is fine linen, clean and bright. It’s going to be shining. The Book of Revelation tells us what that clothing will be. It is the righteous acts of the saints. That tells me that in order for the bride to be clothed as she must be and as God expects, the bride—the church—is going to have do everything that God has appointed for her to do, otherwise she won’t have any clothing, because the clothing is the righteous acts of the saints. And so we’ve got to complete every righteous act that God expects of us, not just individually but corporately as the body of Christ, before we can be ready for the wedding.

That’s the great motivation in my own life. I am continually exercised that I don’t omit any of the righteous acts which God has appointed for me in my ministry. But it goes fare beyond that. It applies to the whole body of Christ. We, corporately, are going to have to complete all our assignments, fulfill every righteous act before we can be ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb. I want to read those words again.

“To her it was granted to be clothed in fine linen, clean and bright, the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

When we are save through faith in Jesus Christ we receive a gift of righteousness We don’t work for it—it’s imputed to us, and we’re clothed with a robe of Christ’s righteousness which is wonderful. But this is not talking about imputed righteousness, this is talking about outworked righteousness. You see imputed righteousness should be worked out in our lives. That’s the raiment that we’re going to wear in eternity. I believe it’s true, perhaps in a certain sense, individually. I wonder whether some of you aren’t going to have rather a skimpy wedding dress unless you change your ways. If you omit those righteous acts what material is there going to be to make your wedding dress? It’s a very searching thought. I’ll leave you to ponder on that, but I’m speaking about the body of Christ, the bride, the church corporately. We have to complete all the righteous acts assigned to us before the bride can be ready for the wedding.

Now I believe that we need to understand the basic nature of what God asks of the church and this could be expressed in many ways. But I want to suggest to you tonight that the responsibility of the church relates to the kingdom of God. When the New Testament speaks about the gospel it nearly always calls it the gospel of the kingdom. The gospel is the good news that God is going to establish His kingdom on earth. And in relationship to that good news we have three primary responsibilities as the church—first of all to proclaim the good news of the kingdom, secondly to demonstrate the kingdom in our corporate lives to show people by the way we live and by the way we relate to one another what the kingdom of God is like for the kingdom of God is already in us and the kingdom of God is very clearly defined by Paul in Romans 14:17. He says,

“For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Without the Holy Spirit it’s impossible. We are obligated, both individually but even more corporately, to demonstrate to the whole world the nature of God’s kingdom by our lives—lives of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

And then thirdly we are—and this has been so wonderfully expressed in the song we’ve been singing—it’s our responsibility to prepare the way for the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth. And that’s really what I want to deal with mainly tonight—how do we prepare the way for the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth. I want to give you a whole series of Scriptures from Matthew’s gospel. I will not read them, I’ll simply give you the references. Matthew 4:17, Jesus began to preach and He said,

“Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”

That’s His first message. The first proclamation is God’s kingdom is on the way. Repent, lay aside your rebellion, your self-will, your self-pleasing and be prepared to submit to the King. That is the whole thrust of the gospel. Then in Matthew 4:23 it says He went through all Galilee preaching the gospel, the good news of the kingdom and healing all that were sick and all that were oppressed of the devil. And you’ll find that everywhere the gospel of the kingdom is spoken of it’s attested by the healing of the sick. Actually the kingdom of God and sickness are incompatible. Where the kingdom comes, sickness has to go, whether that’s in an individual or in the church corporately.

“And then in Matthew 6:10 the prayer that Jesus taught us,
Our Father who art in heaved,
Hallowed by Thy name…”

That’s the approach to God. What’s the first petition? What’s the first petition? Thy kingdom come. Not give us our daily bread, not forgive us our trespasses, not deliver us from the evil one. All those are legitimate petitions, but the primary petition is line up with the purposes of God— Thy kingdom come. And only when you are aligned with God’s purposes are you entitled to make your personal petition, because until you are aligned with God’s purposes you are a rebel. Matthew 6:33, how ought we to live, what should be our priorities in life?

“Seek first [what?] the kingdom of God and His righteousness…”

Now notice there’s no righteousness apart from the kingdom. If you’re not under the kingdom, you’re a rebel and no rebel is righteous. And that’s our priority. Brothers and Sisters, have you got your priorities in order, are you seeking first the kingdom of God or is it somewhere very low down on your list, are you more concerned about your own personal needs and desires than you are about God’s kingdom? See, that’s the reason why many of you are sick because you haven’t sought first the kingdom of God. Not all of you—I don’t say that by any means, but I tell you truly where the kingdom comes, sickness has to go. They’re incompatible. They cannot coexist. You may be sitting here with your mind focused on your pain, your need, your sickness, your problem. If you keep your mind focused on your need, you’ll live with your need. You have to get out of your problem and into line with God’s purpose which is the kingdom of God.

One thing I’ve noticed about people who are under the power of the devil, and I’ve dealt with hundreds of them, there’s one they almost all have in common, they are self-centered. That’s the prison the devil shuts people up—me, my little problems, my need, my pain. As long as you’re living in your needs you’re not living in the kingdom. Jesus said,

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness [and what did He say after that?] all your material needs will be supplied.”

Do you believe that? I want to say humbly, but to the glory of God, I’ve proved that for more than forty years. And I want to tell you that God is not a stingy God. Sometimes church boards are stingy. Missionary organizations can be stingy, but God is not stingy. If they throw you out, just fall into the hands of the living God, He’ll take better care of you than most religious organizations. Matthew 10:7 and 8, when Jesus sent the first apostles out He said,

“‘As you go, preach, saying, [what?] the kingdom of heaven is at hand. [And because the kingdom of heaven is at hand, what’s the first thing you do? Verse 8] Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons…”

That’s the demonstration that the kingdom has come. Matthew 12 verse 26 and verse 28, Jesus said,

“‘If Satan is divided against himself, his kingdom cannot stand.’
Bear in mind Satan has a kingdom. Then He said in verse 28,
‘But if I, by the finger of God cast out demons then know that the kingdom of God has come to you.’”

What’s the evidence of the coming of the kingdom of God? - the driving out of demons. That’s why Satan hates that ministry more than almost any other, because it’s the public demonstration that the kingdom of God has come and his kingdom is being defeated. Now Satan has a kingdom and he will continue to have a kingdom until the church has fulfilled its task. The kingdom of Satan cannot be destroyed and the kingdom of God cannot be established on earth until the church has fulfilled her task. That’s why Satan, who’s supreme ambition is to hold onto his kingdom, does everything he can to deceive and blind the church and keep the church from her great primary responsibilities, because once the church fulfills those responsibilities he knows his kingdom will come to an end. Satan really doesn’t get upset over individual souls being saved. He doesn’t even get too upset over new churches being started. I mean he wouldn’t like it, but it’s not going to cost him his kingdom. There are two things that are going to cost Satan his kingdom, Matthew 24:14,

“This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world…and then the end shall come.”

The end cannot come till the church has done that. And the other is in Romans 11:25 and 26.

“Brethren I would not have you ignorant of this mystery, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the full number of the Gentiles come in.”

And so all Israel will be saved, for there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer,

“the Messiah…”

He cannot come in God’s program, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and Israel has been reconciled to their God through the Messiah. You understand, those are the two things that Satan opposes with all his power and all his malice and all his cunning. And most of the religious activities we are engaged in don’t trouble him the least bit. He’s perfectly content. His kingdom can coexist with most church Christianity, but there are two things that he fears and fights—the gospel of the kingdom being proclaimed in all the word to all nations, and the reconciliation of Israel. If you live in the Middle East you live in a furnace, because that’s where the consummation of the age is going to come, and all the forces of evil are mustering in that little area of territory at the east end of the Mediterranean because Satan knows as long as he can keep his hold on Israel, his kingdom is safe.

Now, in connection with this I want to give you a very simple outline of God’s plan to get the job done. What I’m going to give you, in a certain sense, could be compared to the spine of a body. There church is the body and there’s a whole lot of different members and parts, but a body is build around a spine. I think that’s medically true. And once you get the spine in place you’ve got something else to fit the other parts into. So what I’m going to try to do tonight is to very simply depict the spine, show you where the central structure of the church is in relationship to the fulfilling of its task. And I want to say there are two main agents of God’s purposes.

Please understand, every Christian is significant and important, but there are two kinds of agents in the church upon which everything ultimately depends—human agents. Both of them are groups. Neither of them are individuals. The first I call apostolic teams, the second I call local presbyteries. Probably I’m going to have to define those a little bit. By definition, an apostle is one sent forth. That’s what the word apostle means in Greek. Jesus called His twelve disciples, and when He’d sent them forth they became what?—apostles. You look in Matthew chapter 10 you’ll see the change of designation came when He sent them forth. An apostle by definition is one sent forth. The whole thrust of apostolic ministry is outreach. A static apostle is a contradiction in terms.

A presbytery is simply taken from the Greek word for an elder which is presbyteros, from which we have formed the collective noun presbytery—a group of elders in a local area who are the leaders of the church in that area. The government of God’s people is by elders from the Book of Genesis to the Book of Revelation. And interestingly enough even in the Book of Revelation there are twenty-four elders who are in the immediate presence of God sharing in the government of the universe. The divine principle of government all through the Bible is eldership.

Now let’s talk a little about each of these two groups—apostolic teams. Their primary purpose: outreach, extending the kingdom of God, bringing the kingdom to the places where it has not yet been proclaimed or established. The first apostle was who? Tell me, come on now? Jesus, that’s right. Hebrews 3:1 says,

“…consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus.”

As an Apostle he was one sent forth. He said in John chapter 10 the Father sanctified Him and sent Him forth. That’s how He became an apostle. If He hadn’t been sent forth He couldn’t be an apostle. He was sent forth to perform a specific task which no one else could perform—the redemption of humanity. Having completed His task, He returned to the presence of the Father as what?—our High Priest to represent to the Father all those who embrace His redemptive work. So He’s both Apostle and High Priest.

Now I’ve counted in the New Testament I’ve found twenty-eight persons named as apostles. That may surprise you but I’m going to go through the list tonight - fourteen before Pentecost and fourteen after Pentecost. So the idea that apostles only were those appointed by Jesus when He was on earth is a mistake. It says in Ephesians chapter 4, that after He was lifted up on high—that is ascended—He gave gifts to men. The first gift He gave was apostles. Those were not given while He was on earth, those were given after His ascension back to heaven. I want to tell you firmly, Brothers, the church is not designed to function without apostles. It simply cannot be what God intended.

I’ll make a confession to you in 1963 when I was pasturing a Pentecostal church I preached a rather long-winded message on why there could be no more apostles in the church. I only have to say one thing about that, very simply—I was wrong. The trouble with some preachers is they never say those three simple words ‘I was wrong,’ and they’re shut up in their mistakes for life. I’m so glad God gave me the grace to see I was wrong and the humility to acknowledge it.

Now Jesus did not operate own His own as an apostolic. He led an apostolic team. Bible critics estimate that He probably usually had at least thirty persons with Him, and interestingly quite a number of them were women. They were part of the first apostolic team. You see the function of an apostolic team is not merely proclamation—it’s demonstration. And as Jesus went through the land of Israel with His rather strangely assorted team of fisherman, tax collectors, former prostitutes, and all the rest, He said to them this is what the kingdom of God is like. Anybody can be in the kingdom of God. You don’t have to be a Pharisee, you don’t have to be born from a priestly line, you’ve just got to meet the condition be born again. And it’s important today that we do our best to make our apostolic teams representative.

Like when we went to Pakistan I was British, Ruth American, there was one American couple with us, one Christian Arab with an American wife, and one Indian. You see. And the color of the skin of some of us was quite dark. What we were saying to the people of Pakistan is Christianity isn’t just a western religion which is imported. In fact it started in the Middle East. It didn’t start in Europe or America. So I see more and more the wisdom of God, not just preach but demonstrate. And it was very, very unusual for any minister or messenger of the gospel to go out on his own. The only kind of person that did it was an evangelist strangely enough. Apostles went in teams. Prophets work together. Elders are always in a group. The evangelist is really the exception. I call the evangelist God’s paratrooper. He just drops down behind the enemy lines before the enemy even knows he’s there. Philip didn’t give any warning when he went to Samaria. He didn’t have a committee, he didn’t have a choir, he didn’t have an auditorium, he just arrived. And he was causing trouble for Satan before Satan had all his defenses up. If you expect people to get saved in church only in the gospel service on Sunday evening at 7:45, believe the devil knows that. He’s got all his demons there to stop them. We have to have a strategy that isn’t known in advance to the devil. We need to be very flexible and display a lot of initiative.

Now there’s one short simply key word for the apostle, and that is the word go GO. John 15:16, Jesus was speaking to His apostles—note that—and He said:

“…you didn’t choose me, I chose you that you should GO and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain and that whatever you ask in prayer the Father will give you.”

Now all that follows in that verse is conditional on the word go. You see a lot of people want the promises to those who go, but they don’t go. Jesus said to the apostles later on and we’ll look at that Scripture in a moment in Mark 16,

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. These signs shall follow them that believe…”

But them that believe are the ones that go. People say the signs don’t follow. I say people don’t go. I have to tell you when we went to Pakistan those signs followed, basically nearly all the time as it’s promised in the New Testament, because we went. Brothers and Sisters, you try going somewhere where people aren’t tired of religion and haven’t heard the news, and you’d be surprised at the signs that will follow. You know what somebody said? ‘It’s hard to follow a parked car.’ What is the church? It’s a parked car, parked in the church seats on Sunday morning. No wonder the signs don’t follow. They do sometime, but it’s not God’s design. The first thing is GO!

I want to point out to you that when Jesus manifested the church in embryo, it was not residential—it was mobile. He didn’t ___________ set dwelling place. We are so residentially orientated that we can’t realize that the church is not a group of people that sit somewhere.

I remember years back. I was in a Pentecostal Assembly in Denmark, and I speak Danish so I understand what they say. And I asked the daughter of the pastor who was about eighteen years old, ‘What is an elder?’ And she came out with this classic response. ‘An elder is one who sits on the platform.’ And I thought to myself, ‘The one thing you have to do in church is sit, it’s just a question of where you sit. I’ve never forgotten that. It spoke volumes in one sentence as to the concept of what the church is. It’s a sitting group. No it isn’t. It’s a going group.

Now turn with me for a moment because this is important to Acts chapter 1 verses 1 and 2. I want to point out something that many of you may have never noticed. I only noticed it a few years ago myself. Luke says here,

“The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach.”

Notice the ministry of Jesus was not teaching merely, it was doing and teaching. First of all He did and then He explained how He did it. We have left the doing out, and the more teaching you get without doing, the more dreary it becomes, and the more lifeless.

“until the day in which He was taken up [to heaven], after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen.”

The post-resurrection commandments of Jesus were given to the apostles. They weren’t given to the whole church, but to the apostles. That’s very logical. The Commander in Chief, if he’s got orders for his army doesn’t give his orders to the whole army. He give it to his officers and they give it to the troops. So if you go back to the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus and His commandments, you have to bear in mind they were addressed to apostles. Matthew 28:18 He appeared to them after His resurrection and said,

“…All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Go ye therefore…”

To whom was that spoken? To whom? To apostles, that’s right. What do apostles do? They go, that’s right.

“Go ye therefore and make disciples of all the nations, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Jesus didn’t make any provision to change His program. You know why? Because it’s the right program. Any change is for the worse. All He asked us to do is keep on doing it until the end of the age. And in Mark 16 again speaking to the apostles,

“‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
And these signs shall follow them that believe…”

And you see when the apostolic ministry withers from the church, the church ceases to be a going church. I think you can trace the decline of the missionary outreach of the church to be simultaneous with the decline of the apostolic vision and ministry. And my conclusion is that without the restoration of the apostolic ministry the church will never be what it’s intended to be. It will never accomplish its purpose, because it’s the apostles who leave in the going.

Apostles have - let me say very simple things which I’ll say both about apostles and about elders—first of all the appointment of apostles. The appointment of the apostles originates with God the Father. We take the example of Paul in 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 1,

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope.”

Where die Paul’s apostleship originate? With the commandment of God the Father. It came by way of Jesus, the head of the church. How did it come to the church? By whom? By the Holy Spirit. You see, turn now to Acts 13. This is the description of the sending forth of the apostles from the church at Antioch.

“Now in the church that was at Antioch [this is the first verses of Acts 13] there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’”

Who actually presented their call to the church? It came from God the Father, by way of Jesus Christ, but who made the call effective in the church? The Holy Spirit. And notice He speaks as Lord. ‘Separate unto Me Barnabas and Saul for the work which I have called them.’ Then it says,

“Having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.
They were now people sent forth. Verse 4,
So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit,”

Notice who sent them out—the Holy Spirit. Can you see the divine order—God the Father through Jesus the Son by the Holy Spirit, but it only becomes effective when the church acts on it. And then you find in Acts 14, from that time onwards Barnabas and Saul are both called apostles. You can find it—two verses, verse 4 and verse 14, but they were not in actual fact apostles until the church sent them out. In the divine purpose of God from eternity Paul was an apostle. His apostleship was ordained by God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son, but it did to become effective until the Holy Spirit imparted it to the church. And that is a pattern for every ministry in the church. It originates with God the Father, through Jesus the Son, by the Holy Spirit, but it’s made effective by the recognition of the church. Strictly speaking a person should not be an apostle unless he has been sent forth from a church.

Now the church is so out of order today that I suspect that there are some men who maybe don’t fill that qualification, nevertheless are doing the work of an apostle. But ideally that’s the order—God the Father, Jesus the Son, the Holy Spirit through the church. What was the main task of the apostle? We turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 10 and 11.

According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master

“building [that’s the apostle] I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.
For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

The primary task of the apostle is to lay the foundation of Jesus Christ where it has not been laid. And then the attestation of the apostle, 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 12,

“Truly [Paul says] the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, with signs and wonders and mighty deeds.”

Those are the signs of an apostle. Both the NASB and the NIV say the signs that mark an apostle. What are they? Please note the first one is character, perseverance. The apostle holds on when everybody else gives up. But then there’s the supernatural attestation of signs and wonders and mighty deeds. God has not ordained that the gospel be presented in places where it has not been heard without supernatural attestations. In fact God has never really sent any messenger of His at any time without bearing supernatural testimony to message. We are living on a level far below that of the New Testament if we merely present people with a message in words. The kingdom of God, Paul says, is not in words but in power. We’ve been singing that. True.

Now let’s turn to the presbyteries. The supreme purpose of presbyteries, I would say, is for conservation, to preserve the fruit that the apostle brings forth. There are three titles used of the same people. This is very confusing, especially for English readers, and I’m not going to take time to support it, I could but there are three titles used of the same people—elders, shepherds and overseers. Now they’re not different categories of people. In the New Testament they are the same people. Furthermore, in English translations shepherds is sometimes translated pastor. But you need to know pastor and shepherd are the same word—they’re not two different words. As a matter of fact, in the King James Version the word shepherd occurs eighteen times, and only once is it translated pastor, which is in Ephesians 4:11 …He gave some pastors… But that has deluded some Christians into thinking there’s a difference between a shepherd and a pastor. The truth of the matter is simply that the English language has changed. When Beethoven wrote his pastoral symphony what was it about?—shepherd life. It’s a change of language.

And then, and this I believe it partly due to the bishops in the time of King James. Instead of the word overseer the other translation is bishop, which is not a translation, it’s what we call a transliteration, because the Greek word for bishop is episkopos. They drop out the A and change the P to a B and it’s abiskos.(phonetically) The Scandinavian the word for bishop if biskof. [phonetically]. A bishop is an overseer by another name. There’s not two different kinds of persons. So you get five words, all of which describe the same kind of person—elder, shepherd, pastor, overseer, and bishop.

Now how were they appointed? The answer is in the first place they were appointed by apostles. You don’t find any elders in the New Testament other than those appointed by apostles. Acts 14:22 and 23, the first journey of Paul and Barnabas. It says in verse 22 of Acts 14,

“They strengthening the soul of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.’
So when they had appointed elders in every church, and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”

Who appointed the elders?—the apostles. And notice before elders were appointed, those people were disciples—that’s all they were. After elders were appointed they were churches. You understand. The transition from a group of disciples to a recognized comes with the appointment of elders, because that gives government. You’ll find, however, that in Acts chapter 20 Paul makes it clear that the real agent in the appointment of elders is the Holy Spirit. This is interesting passage if you can bear with me, Acts 20 verse 17,

“From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church.
Notice they were elders. In verse 28 he said to these elders,
‘Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God…”

You understand? They were elders, overseers and shepherds. And who made them overseers?—the Holy Spirit. No appointment in the church is valid unless it is from the Holy Spirit. Human appointments without the Holy Spirit have no validity whatever in the sight of God. If we remove from the church today all those who were not appointed by the Holy Spirit, we wouldn’t recognize the church, I’ll tell you that. I hope you don’t think I’m critical. I’m just telling it like it is.

What’s the task of elders? The answer I believe is in one word government. 1 Timothy 5:17 says,

“Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor…”

God’s people have to be governed. That’s a discovery a lot of Charismatics have yet to make. You need human government. All right? It’s all right to say Jesus is my Lord and my Shepherd. That’s wonderful. But Jesus has committed part of the task to human shepherds. God really never does anything for His people until He finds leadership. We are shut up to the need of leadership. There’s nothing more critically needed amongst God’s people today than leadership. But God won’t give leadership in many places because the people are not willing to receive it.

The attestation of elders is stated in 1 Timothy chapter 3. I’ll not read the passage, but there are four main requirements. First of all a life of personal holiness, second a knowledge of Scripture, third a family life that is in order where the man is the head of his house, and fourth a good reputation in the community, because the elders represent the church to the community. I’ll just read those once more. First personal holiness, second the knowledge of Scripture, third family life in order, and fourth a good reputation in the community.

Now I have said that Jesus provides shepherds for His people, but I want to point out to you something that I consider very significant. In the New Testament human shepherds are always spoken of in the plural, without exception. The only person to whom the title shepherd in the singular is given, is Jesus Himself. You can check that. I believe that’s deliberate. I believe it’s order by the Holy Spirit, that we never ascribe to a human shepherd, those things which belong only to the divine Shepherd. He is the Shepherd of the sheep. And I also believe that normally, and God can permit many exceptions, normally the leadership of any properly established congregation is plural, not singular. You will not find one place in the New Testament where human shepherds are spoken of in the singular. I believe that’s a kind of safeguard. I believe it’s a safeguard against dictatorship. I believe it’s also a safeguard because the only way it can operate is in the grace of God. But as I said earlier this week, God has never designed anything to operate that’s not in His grace. God doesn’t have any program for people that don’t want to work in the grace of God. It’s the same with marriage. Christian marriage is only designed to operated in the grace of God. Without the grace of God it doesn’t work.

Then I want to say one more thing which I think is important which is that for shepherds, elders, local relationships should have precedence over trans-local relationships. Here is one of the big problems of the church. The Baptist Pastor relates to the Baptist Pastor in another city, but he hardly relates to his fellow elders in the same city. See what I’m saying. Trans-local relationships have become a kind of back door by which we escape from our responsibility to the other leaders of the flock in our own area. I’m not saying that trans-local relationships are not good, but they are not primary. In the church in the New Testament elders were always co answerable to one another in the same city. The elders in Ephesus didn’t necessarily have a lot to

do with the elders in Corinth, but they had to relate to their fellow elders in Ephesus. One of the problems with denominational affiliations is that it gives people an escape from their local relationships, but it’s not a legitimate escape. And if the leaders of the flock in any city including Belfast, cannot relate to one another the church in that city will never prosper. Sometimes we’ve used a backdoor to escape our obligations to the people that are right on our doorstep.

Now I want to give you briefly just a list of the characteristic features that are true of each group—apostolic team and local presbytery. And I’ve ended up with seven and when I get to seven, those of you who know me, I usually stop looking after that. All right, number one they are normally plural. Neither elders nor apostles usually operated on their own. Elders were a part of a presbytery, apostles operated in teams. And I have taken to doing that in recent years, and I have to say it’s totally different to be part of a team. When we were in Pakistan there were seven people in our team. We needed every one of them. We could never have borne the pressure if we weren’t standing together. And the marvelous thing is that there was never one moment of disharmony in ten days in our team. That’s the marvelous supernatural grace of God. You see if people can harmonize they’re irresistible. Jesus said, ‘If two of you can harmonize about anything you ask, it will be done.’ How foolish it is not to cultivate harmony. I always apply that especially to husbands and wives. Husbands and wives, if you can harmonize you’re irresistible—your prayers will be answered, your family will be blessed, and if you in the ministry your ministry will be blessed. God longs for harmony. My friend, Bob Mumford says, ‘God is so longing for harmony that if He can only find two people that will agree, He’ll do anything they ask.’ That’s a very vivid way of stating God’s concern for harmony.

Secondly, both groups—that’s presbyteries and apostolic teams—are sovereign, but they’re not independent. Can you see the difference? The word independent really is a dirty word in the New Testament. My friend, Charles Simpson says, ‘When you’ve said independent in Baptist, you’ve said the same thing twice.’ But that independent spirit has no place in the body of Christ. Charles is a Baptist, let me just say that in case you say I…

Thirdly, they’re interdependent. They’re sovereign, they’re not independent—they’re interdependent. You see interdependence is a principle that governs the universe. The Godhead is interdependent. They rely on one another, they make room for one another, they operate together in harmony, that principle runs through the universe. It works with apostles and elders this way. Apostles appoint elders, but elders send out apostles. That’s what I call a reproductive cycle. Wherever you are—let’s say you’re a church with elders, God the Holy Spirit speaks to you and says, ‘Separate me John, and Lucia, and Simon and Mary, for the work to which I’ve called them.’ The elders gather together, they fast and pray, lay hands on them and send them out and they become apostles, but they were sent out by elders. Then they go to some place where the gospel has not been proclaimed or nothing has ever been established, they proclaim Jesus, they establish a church and they appoint the elders. You understand? And when that church has grown up and is mature, its elders will send out its apostles. So it’s a reproductive cycle, and nobody can say, ‘I don’t need you,’ because everybody needs the other people.

The fourth fact is they are all dependent on God’s grace. I am describing to you a plan which will not work apart from the grace of God. Don’t even try. If you don’t want to move in the grace of God, just stay where you are and be your own contented little self-centered self. The next point is they must be directed by the Holy Spirit. I think I established that point for those that were here last night. There is not other way to lead the Christian life, much less to be effective in Christian ministry apart from the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Then another point I wish to make is the prophets have a role in both presbyteries and apostolic teams. In Acts 13, there were certain prophets and teachers in the church in Antioch which sent out the first apostles. But in Ephesians 2:20 Paul tells the church,

“You are built together on the foundation of the apostles and prophets…”

So the prophetic ministry flows equally both in presbyteries and in apostolic teams, and neither is really complete without.

And finally, their headquarters are where? Well I was a logician before I became a preacher and that has something to do with the way I preach. To me there is only one possible place where our headquarters can be and that is where our Head is. I can’t conceive of having your head on please and your headquarters in another. Who is our Head? Come on now? Whom did God make Head over all things to the church, over all things? Jesus. Where is He? He’s in heaven. Where’s our headquarters? In heaven. Very simple. Man has introduced the complications. How does Jesus direct His church from heaven, by what? The Holy Spirit. You see the world is full of people today—four and a half billion people—different languages, different cultures, different political situations, who has got the wisdom to know which team is needed where and when? There’s only one Person. The Lord. Heavens computer is the only computer that can handle this task, you understand.

Perhaps I could say without being irreverent, the Holy Spirit is heavens computer. He doesn’t need any other one. And we only really will succeed when we are directed from heaven by Jesus through the Holy Spirit. And most other arrangements get in the way. I’m not saying all. There can be special circumstances, but most of the structures that have been built up in the church get in the way of Jesus directing His presbyteries and His apostolic teams.

I served as a missionary in East Africa with a fine group of people, but our headquarters was in Toronto, Canada, and oh the frustrations of trying to persuade somebody in Toronto who didn’t know the situation, what you ought to do. And by the time they were persuaded the opportunity had passed and the need had not been met, and I mean I just said to myself, ‘I’ll never put myself in this situation again.’

I’d just like to point out a simple fact about Abraham. Abraham is the father of all who believe. What was Abraham’s real problem? He made two serious mistakes. Each time it was not that he failed to do what God told him, it was he did more than God asked of him. The classic example is Ishmael. Four thousand years later, Ishmael is still a problem. What am I saying? I’m saying in most cases the problems in the church are more likely to be caused by our doing things that God didn’t tell us to do, then by our not doing things that God told us to do. And I believe many of the ruptured relationships in the church are caused by building relationships on a carnal basis which the Holy Spirit has to tear down. Personally I believe in flexibility, mobility and freedom—there’s a lot of risks but I’m prepared to take the risks. That’s my personal evaluation.

Now you’ve listened very patiently. I just hope that you’ve been able to absorb what I’ve said, or if not I hope you’ll be able to get the tape and go through it again, because I covered a lot of ground. But you see, what I’ve tried to do is put the spine in place. There’s a whole lot more to the body of Christ. The presbyteries and apostolic teams are the spine. When they’re in place, everything else can come into place. When they’re out of place the body can no more function than a human body can function when the spine is out of place.