Jesus Consecrates The Apostles
Jesus Consecrates The Apostles | The Book of Acts | 1:12-26 | Pastor Duane Smets
This an expository sermon on Acts 1:12-26. It covers the attitude God desires in his church, how the church is protected from adversaries and the authority roles God has instated for the church. This sermon was originally preached on February 5th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
February 5th, 2012
Jesus Consecrates The Apostles
The Book of Acts | Acts 1:12-26
I. The Attitude of the Church (vs.12-14)
A. Obedience & Prayer
B. Unity & Family
II. The Adversaries of the Church (vs.15-20)
A. The Protection & Power of Scripture
B. Wolves & the Reward of their Wickedness
III. The Authority of the Church (vs.20-26)
A. Offices & Leadership Structures
B. Lots & Leadership Development
Introduction
Well, today we’ve got quite an exciting text ahead of us. It’s got prayer, suicide, blood and guts, church leadership and gambling all thrown together in one package. So beware, the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) rating system declares this sermon R-rated.
It’s actually an extremely insightful and practical text for us since we are a church and we are seeing the beginnings here of The Church being born. If we had read through the Gospel of Luke, like Luke the human author here assumes we have…then we would see today’s passage as a huge step because it’s the first time we see the original disciples of Jesus step out and take on leadership themselves.
Have you ever been watching a movie or reading a book and it just seems like it takes forever for the story to get going? But then once things sort of get set up, you’re on the edge of your seat anticipating and wondering…okay so what’s going to happen now? That’s where we’re at right now in Acts. After the scene we’re going to work through today, the book is just action packed with one crazy thing after another happening as the mission unfolds in taking the gospel to the world.
So let’s read our text for today, declare it as God’s Word, pray over it and begin studying it together. (read text and pray). The title of my sermon today is “Jesus Consecrates The Apostles” and the first thing we’re going to look at here is “The Attitude of the Church.”
I. The Attitude of the Church (vs.12-14)
Okay, let’s get our bearings first. What we’ve covered so far is Jesus rising from the dead, giving the disciples a mission to take the message of the gospel out, but not to go just yet but wait for the Holy Spirit to come on them first. After he makes all of that abundantly clear he floats up into the sky and disappears in a cloud. And that’s where we left off last week.
Now if you do a little math here we can kind of fill in some gaps. We know that in the Jewish calendar there are 52 days between the Passover and Pentecost festivals. So if we take into account Jesus’ time in the tomb and the 40 days Luke said Jesus’ was making appearances after he rose…then we’re looking at a 10 day period here that our passage this morning covers.
But what’s more important than the time frame here is what happens during it. And what is so striking right off the bat is the major attitude change of the disciples here. If you remember from last week, they were wanting to take up weapons and storm the capital and overthrow the government because Jesus’ defeated death, rose and proved he was the son of God and king of heaven and earth! But Jesus’ corrected them and commissioned them to go on mission for people’s hearts and lives with the gospel first before he would one day return and set up his physical kingdom here on earth.
So one minute there is rowdy anticipation and excitement and here in the next is serious, spiritual turning to God together in obedience, prayer, unity and as a family. Their attitude here will set the tone for how The Church conducts herself throughout the book of Acts. And it’s that attitude which has marked every true church God has exercised his grace in and through, throughout all of history. So there’s a big lesson in here for us in the kind of attitude God commends here in his book.
A. Obedience & Prayer
First let’s look at “Obedience & Prayer.” Right away, after Jesus ascends, verse 12 says they go back to Jerusalem, about 3/4 a mile away and they go to an “upper room” and verse 13 says they were staying there. Apparently, this upper room was a pretty big place because not only were the original disciples there, but some of the women disciples, Jesus’ family members, and then in verse 15 we learn there was about 120 people in all gathering there.
Excavations of archeologists have discovered that in ancient Jerusalem there was a part of the city called the “upper city” where wealthy citizens lived who had homes with rooms upwards of 36-21 feet in size. It’s one of the big mistakes people have made in reading the book of Acts when it talks about the church gathering in homes. They import the size of most American houses onto that word “house” in the Bible and conclude that church meetings were just casual small gatherings like our community groups, not formal worship services. But that idea and the house church movement couldn’t be more mistaken.
Anyway, what is striking to me here is what we see here is them taking seriously Jesus’ instructions, obeying his commands and setting out to do what he asked to wait for the Holy Spirit. So they don’t do anything else or go anywhere else but just wait and pray.
When it comes to Christian obedience it is directly connected to the person of Christ. It’s not obeying to be better or to try to win favor. Christian obedience flows out of love, respect and trusting Jesus. Obedience really is the fruit of faith. If we truly believe then we obey. Jesus said in John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
The church and churches do not have the freedom just to do whatever we want. We stand under the authority and instruction of Christ recorded for us in God’s Word! And we will either obey or disobey. What I love about this passage is we see the disciples humbly retreat, take seriously Christ’s command and they obey by waiting and praying.
Check out their prayer. It says they were all “devoting themselves to prayer.” That word devoting means steadfastly, attaching oneself to, continuing and persevering in. It’s a total contrast to how they were only a month before when in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus asked them to stay, wait and pray and they couldn’t…they kept giving up and falling asleep. Now, they are devoted to it.
And they stay devoted to it throughout the book of Acts. In Acts 2:42 we’ll hear them again “devoted to prayer.” In Acts 6:4 that phrase will appear again, them “devoted to prayer.” In fact, prayer is mentioned 31 times in the book of Acts in 20 of its 28 chapters. A church that is not a praying church is really no church at all.
We’ve been talking about this a bit at our elder meetings…the need for our church to be prayer soaked. And we think we need to grow in this area. We had a bunch of good feedback at the prayer service we did a few weeks back and we’re looking at what it would look like to have a more official prayer ministry of the church.
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London where Charles Spurgeon spent his life as a pastor, they had a room beneath the pulpit and auditorium where services were held where a team of people would gather each week to pray for souls and the preaching of the gospel during the service. So we’re trying to see if our landlords will let us dig out a cave beneath the floor here. 
One of the things we’d like to see happen more is you all utilizing the people we make available to go to for prayer at the back during communion. I know each week God is dealing with stuff in our hearts. And we are right to take it to him first at his table and receive his grace. But we also need to take those things to others and receive prayer. There is something about speaking it out verbally and then hear audible words of someone praying for you. I think we need to learn and grow more in humbling ourselves to be a people who are regularly praying for one another here.
That’s us as a church. How about if we talk about it individually?
How is your obedience? When you think about Jesus, his commands and obeying…are you living a life of obedience? Or is there something you know he would disapprove of and you’re doing it anyway? If you love him, you’ll gladly obey him.
How about prayer? Do you spend time in prayer seeking the Lord? I mean really praying, not just having thoughts about God or spirituality in your head…but actually talking to God?
May God help us to be a people of prayer and obedience.
B. Unity & Family
Well, let’s look at the other thing here, “Unity & Family.” Like prayer, the unity of a church is so important. In fact, prayer often breeds unity. It’s hard to stay mad at person or have division with them after you both spend time in prayer together.
Let’s look at our text, verse 14 says they were all in “one accord.” Later in Acts 2:44 we’ll see them being together and having “all things in common.” This phrase here in our passage “one accord” literally means to all be of the same mind. They were all on the same page together.
Unity is so important in a church. We commanded to have unity. Ephesians 4:3 instructs us to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Unity is so important in a church. That’s why we take gossip so seriously in the church. If you find yourself talking badly or critically of other people in the church or the way the church does things that’s sin, it breeds disunity and it’s something you need to repent of.
If you’ve got a real concern about someone or something then there is a right way to go about addressing that. Jesus spells it out real clearly in Matthew 18:15-20 about when to go to a person, how and then at what point you take it to the church leadership.
Unity, we want a united church of one heart and one mind. And actually it’s one of the sweet things about our church. After our elder meeting this week, later that evening when I got home I told my wife…”The other pastors of our church are a blessing because when we talk through stuff, it’s like all of us truly are on the same page and feel the same way about things, with the same concerns and the same passions.” I feel so privileged to be part of a pastoral team where we have such unity.
The other thing related to unity here is family. I don’t think it’s a just a small side note detail that the women and Jesus’ mom and brothers get mentioned here. Two verses later, Peter will address the disciples and the church as “brothers” for the first time calling Christians by this family term of unity and endearment.
Everyone is an important member of the church…it’s a family, brothers and sisters in Christ, adopted in through Jesus. Women are mentioned here…women are not secondary, but we’ll see several women contributing to the work of the ministry throughout the book of Acts just like we see in the life and ministry of Jesus.
Jesus personal family…side note, notice he had brothers here so the Roman Catholic belief in the perpetual virginity of Mary is unbiblical. That really has nothing to do with my sermon. But the point about Jesus’ family is big because it shows that Jesus’ own mother and brothers, who had seen him grow up as a kid and knew him well become believers in him as their savior from sin. That’s a big deal.
What it teaches us is that being the church together as one family of God in some ways is more important than our own personal bloodline families. For some of you you’re closer with those in our church than your own family…which is a call to be on mission for them. For others of you, you’re so close with your family that it hinders you from getting close to anyone at church. We need both, and the ideal here is together…blood family all becoming Christians and being in the family God together.
So unity and family. Let’s be united and let’s love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. Okay, moving on…let’s talk about Judas and “The Adversaries of the Church.”
II. The Adversaries of the Church (vs.15-20)
When it comes to Judas here there’s sort of two pieces to it. There’s the story of what happened to him and why it’s important for the church and what it means for his official role and the leadership structure Jesus set up. What happened to Judas and why Peter addresses it the way he does is meant to both address the enemies or adversaries of Jesus and his church and the authority of Jesus church concerning the office of apostleship Judas left vacant.
There’s a few other connected topics to Judas like suicide, depression and demon possession, of which this would be a relevant text to look at if we were talking about those issues…but that is really outside of the scope of what this passage is attempting to address in context, so I’m not going to go there today.
So two things stand out here when looking at Judas and other enemies of the church, the use of Scripture and the explicit bloody account that’s here.
First, let’s look at “The Protection & Power of Scripture” against adversaries.
A. The Protection & Power of Scripture
One thing we will come to see and notice about the disciples throughout the book of Acts is that they, like the master, become obsessed with quoting and talking about Scripture. The Bible becomes the lens through with they see and support everything.
The Bible is seen as the true word of God, authored by the Holy Spirit but written through the mouths and hands of men. Look at verse 16. Peter says, the “Holy Spirit spoke.” How? “By the mouth of David” and then he quotes two of David’s Psalms in verse 20.
So Peter here affirms what the Bible does in tons of other places and what we affirm here at The Resolved Church that the Bible is the Word of God and has two authors…the human author writer and the divine author behind him guiding and superintending his words so that the result is God’s Word.
Now that’s important, because if Jesus promised power through the Spirit and if the Bible is the Spirit’s book, then that means there is much empowerment by God through knowing and using the Scriptures. Which is in fact what the Bible itself teaches. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scriptures is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness.”
It’s also important because if the Bible is God’s book, then since God is perfect and holy and good…so must his book be. As Peter says here in verse 16, it “had to be fulfilled.” It can’t be wrong. It means his book, if it is actually divine cannot have any errors or mistakes in it. It must be fulfilled. And some have questioned whether that’s true.
Maybe you’ve heard people say before, “The Bible is just full of a bunch of contradictions…so there’s no way you can trust it or believe it came from God.” When people say that to me, my first response is always, “Oh, like which one are you thinking about…which contradiction?” Usually I get a blank stare at that point, because it’s usually more of a smoke screen to just not talk about the Bible.
But every once in awhile someone will have an actual apparent contradiction. And this is one of them in this passage. So here’s the deal. If you’re new to the story and you don’t know who Judas is, he was one of the original 12 disciples Jesus chose at the beginning of his ministry. But at the end, when Jesus was in Jerusalem Judas betrayed Jesus to the chief priests by telling them where they could find him and arrest him for 30 pieces of silver, which led to his crucifixion.
Now verse 18 here in Acts 1 says Judas acquired a field with this reward and there he fell headfirst and something about what he landed on ripped open his stomach and his guts spilled out. Here’s the problem or the question. In Matthew 27:3-10 it says after the chief priests arrested Jesus, Judas changed his mind and tried to take the 30 pieces of silver back. But the chief priests wouldn’t take it back. So Judas throws the money on the floor runs out and goes and hangs himself.
Do you guys get the question then? Did Judas hang himself to death or did he fall and get impaled? And did Judas buy the field or did the priests? Some people have read both the Matthew passage and this Acts passage and then said, “Oh!!! See! The Bible contradicts itself. Someone is lying and making it up! See, the Bible is not true, it can’t be trusted!”
Here’s the thing. Good hermeneutics dispels alleged errors. Hermeneutics is a fancy way of saying, interpretation or right reading. I have yet to come across any supposed contradiction in the Bible that a little investigation into what is actually said comes to show there is no discrepancies at all. So what about this one and the questions about it?
First, did Judas hang himself to death or did he fall and get impaled? Both. Notice in our text it says he fell. He was falling. It doesn’t say he tripped or stumbled but that he fell. From what? He had to have been on some sort of height he fell from. What likely happened is he hung himself and while he was hanging either the branch broke and he fell on some rocks or something or after hanging dead for who knows how long someone finally came along and cut him down and when he fell his decomposing body split open easily when he hit the ground.
Why his guts spilling out was important for Luke to include was because of what the Psalms said about the betrayer, that he made a piece of land desolate so no one could live there. That’s because blood contaminates the sanctity of the ground in the Jewish religion. You see, all you have to do is read the text and it’s there.
What about the second question? Who bought the field Judas or the priests? With that one we’ve got clues from both Acts here and Matthew. First here in Acts. Notice here in Acts the emphasis is on the field being acquired with the reward, the money Judas got. Now let’s go to Matthew. In Matthew 27 we clearly read the priests won’t take back the money as their own because they say it’s “blood money.”
So instead, on Judas’ behalf, even though he through the money on the floor it was still his money, so on his behalf the priests go purchase the field he hung himself in because the money belonged to Judas. Thus, the answer really here, like with the first question is both. Judas acquired the field with his money through the agency of the priests. See, good hermeneutics dispels alleged errors!
I love this stuff. I just think the Bible is so cool. I’ll throw out one other nerd thing and then we’ll move on. What we see here in how Peter handles or interprets the Bible is that he treats it both as real history and yet all pointing to Jesus. So here the Psalms he quotes were written during the time of David by David and yet were pointing to fulfillment in Jesus. It’s what we call a historical and christological hermeneutic…and if you want to learn more about that take my hermeneutics class beginning next month on Sunday nights.
Alright, let’s move on and talk about “Wolves & the Reward of their Wickedness.”
B. Wolves & the Reward of their Wickedness
What I am getting at with this point is that there seems to be subtle warning here about the danger of falling away or betraying the Lord. I think verse 18 is meant to be shocking! When we read that “he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out” it’s meant to cause an emotive reaction. Like “ugh!”
Then add this to it. In verse 16 Peter notes that Scripture prophesied it…that Judas would betray Jesus but not only that but also his judgment, that he’d end up having a desolate camp and no one would dwell there. So the tone, attitude or focus here is the judgment of God on Judas for his sin. It’s almost meant to serve as a warning, “Don’t betray Jesus or what happened to Judas could happen to you.”
And it also reminds us to watch out for Judases. Which is part of the reason for the need of leadership which we’ll talk about in a minute when we look at verses 20-26. But Judases are real. Here’s what Paul will say later in Acts 20, “Fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things.”
Peter and the other apostles not only see every Bible passage that spoke of a messiah and savior as fulfilled in Jesus but also every enemy as fulfilled by Judas and wolves like him who would follow in his footsteps.
So this is going to be weird but it seems appropriate to ask…”Are you a Judas?” Are you among us, maybe even a official member but you don’t really believe any of this stuff about Jesus? Are you here not because God is drawing you and working in your heart but for some other reason? Is money the only thing you really care about? Are you a dissenter who likes to cause division and stir up strife? Are you a wolf? A Judas? If so repent and if you won’t repent get out and if you don’t get out, we’ll eventually find you out and show you the door.
Ok. I’ve never heard any pastor question whether people in his congregation were Judases and I’ve never done it before. But I mean it. We take seriously this whole church thing. I’m a shepherd and I care for this flock. I love you and I will shed my blood to protect this church from lying wolves who would come in to steal, kill and destroy God’s work among us.
With that, I guess it’s time to talk about “The Authority of the Church.” How about that segue?
III. The Authority of the Church (vs.20-26)
So there’s a leadership gap with Judas gone, so let’s see what they did about it and why it’s important for us. Two aspects here, “Offices & Leadership Structures” and “Lots & Leadership Development.”
A. Offices & Leadership Structures
When we talk about “offices” we’re talking about official positions and roles God intends and means for the church. You can see the word “office” real clearly there in verse 20, Judas held an office or official role designed by Jesus for the leadership of his church which he spent 3 years preparing them all for.
There were many other disciples…like we read up in verse 15 there was like 120 present there. But the 12 had a special official leadership role appointed by Jesus. Now we’ll talk about that role more here in a minute, but first notice there were certain qualifications to be able to hold this office. Verse 22 says they had to have been with Jesus since the beginning of his ministry for the entire three years then of the training. And they had to be witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection. Which means they had to be one of the people Jesus appeared to and as a result were witnessing or testifying to others about it.
So some pretty strict qualifications. No one since the first century has ever been able to meet those qualifications. That’s one of the reasons why we don’t believe in having Apostles as an official role in the church today. The other reason reason is Ephesians 2:20-3:11 is really clear that the foundation of the church is built on apostles and prophets which it defines as writers of Scripture. So unless you’re like 2,000 years old, saw the risen Jesus during that 40 day period and have the authority to write new books of the Bible…then you can’t be an apostle. Thus according to the Bible, no matter how you slice it you have to at least be a semi-cessationist or a soft-cessationist.
However, I don’t think that means that apostleship and what takes place here is completely irrelevant to us either. What we see first of all is that church leadership and structure is intended by Jesus for his church.
Second, though the apostles didn’t teach churches after them to establish apostles, they did teach them to establish the church office of elders or pastors (same thing). So the apostles, with their official authority instated or instituted an office for each local church, which likewise had a list of qualifications you can read about 1 Timothy 3:1-13 or Titus 1:5-9.
Once things really get going in Acts with planting churches…we’ll see them work to the point where they can get and establish these official local elders in each church. Now I’m not going to get all into a digression on church leadership and church government…but I do want to address the importance of it.
God means for a church to have structure and clear leadership and processes for how it does things. We spent a few months as a church going through that in detail last year when we went through the book of Titus to see what God said about it. That’s important because we live in this sort of anti-institution, anti-authority culture which resists leadership and thinks it’s bad. The idea is everybody just ought to be able to do what they want. Like parents who don’t have any rules and never say no to their kids so they end up running around in their underwear all day eating lollypops for every meal. That’s crazy!
We just don’t work like that. Now we’re a growing church. And that’s a good thing.
One of the benefits of that is we have new people coming in with all kinds of gifts and passions and ideas for how we can expand the ministry of our church to love one another better and to reach more people for Jesus. That’s awesome.
One of the challenges of that is we have new people coming in who have never experienced church leadership in the way we do it here. So when someone has a new idea about something our response is first, “Well, make sure this is your home church…take the membership class and commit.” Then, share your idea with one of the elders to get some initial feedback verbally. Then if it’s something that fits within our church’s vision, values and mission and we want to actually pursue it then normally we’ll ask that person to write up a gospel-centered vision and plan piece and we move slowly from there.
What’s not good is if you have an idea, start having planning meetings with other people about it and the church leadership has no clue it’s happening or oversight of it. If that happens, that looks like disrespect to the offices Jesus calls us to in the Bible and it looks like disunity.
Cool? Just little family business I want to make clear for everyone. We’re in favor of doing anything and everything we can to make our church an awesome center for the gospel and to reach our city for Christ. We just need to work at it together, in one accord, through the leadership structures ordained by God. Alright? Good.
Last little section for today, “Lots & Leadership Development.” The moment you’ve been waiting for. We can finally find out whether it’s okay to go to Vegas and gamble or not!
B. Lots & Leadership Development
Here’s the situation. Judas is out, he’s gone and they need to fill his place. So they do six things: (1) They attempted to follow Scripture’s instruction to get “another to take his office (v.20).” (2) They considered two potential candidates. (3) They prayed to Jesus and ask him to pick which one as he did in the beginning. (4) They opened their hearts and were open to whatever decision. (5) They asked for God’s will. (6) They drew lots.
What’s important I think in going into the discussion about lots is recognizing them in context. The lots were cast in accordance with five other things which happened first, and all of them essentially amounted to Scriptural direction and prayer.
Now maybe you’re wondering what casting lots is? Basically what they would do was take some rocks or sticks and put one guy’s name on each, put ‘em in a bag or a jar and then draw one out. It’s like old school dice or slot machines. And it wasn’t that odd of a thing back then.
Lots were pretty common in ancient times. You had lots cast for good things or bad things. You might remember that lots were cast for Jesus’ clothes. In the Old Testament lots were cast for what portion of land priests would live in. Saul became king by the cast of a lot. Even some of the decorations in the temple were decided by lots. At the same time, sometimes lots were cast in seeking foreign gods or practicing witchcraft and divination. So lots could be either good or bad.
Here’s what the view was on lots. Proverbs 16:33 “ The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” The belief and conviction behind lots is that God is sovereign over all and rules or every little thing that happens. So you can cast a lot and whatever the result, you know that God ultimately was the one who made that outcome take place.
Now we believe that God is fully and wholly sovereign over all things. Like Spurgeon once said, “Every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes…every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit, as well as the sun in the heavens…the creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence and the fall of leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche.”
In Acts we’ll see a radical affirmation of God’s sovereignty over all things including the most critical and important event of all of history, the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. So that is where the disciples were coming from in the casting of lots. They believed God was real, that Jesus rose from the dead, was truly the king of heaven and earth and would choose the next apostle by his sovereign working through the will and action of their lot casting.
Well, the question here isn’t so much one of whether or not we should gamble. So I’m not really going to deal with it. We’re to work hard for a living, be wise stewards of God’s money, and do all things for his glory. If you’re trying to make a living or to solve a financial problem by casting lots that’s probably bad…but I’m not going to throw the Bible at you for some Godly fellowship tonight over a game of Texas hold ‘em or Go Fish. I said I wouldn’t talk about gambling!
The real question here is how to you find and pick leaders and are there certain decisions in life where it’s okay to cast a lot? I’ll deal with the second one first.
Some would say, look, this took place before the coming of the Spirit and after Pentecost we never see the casting of lots ever again. There may be some merit to that. On the other hand, there may be situations where you have done everything you know to do to try and discern God’s will…you’ve looked at Scripture, you’ve sought counsel in community, you’ve tried to weigh things out, you’ve asked Jesus and prayed about it, in your heart you’re open to whatever decision, and you truly want God’s will…there may be situations like that and you still don’t know the answer. In that case, I don’t think it matters so much what you end up doing, whether you just pick it or cast a lot or whatever.
The second one is leadership development. Should we pick leaders in the church the way the apostles do here to fulfill Judas role here. The answer is “no.” And the reason is because we have other places in Scripture which God revealed to the apostles to record for us us how we are to develop and select leaders.
It happens one of three ways.
One, 1 Timothy 3:1, a person aspires to the office of overseer (or elder). It’s what we call a calling, he wants and desires it because he senses God’s lead in it.
Two, Titus 1:5 elders are to be appointed. So sometimes, a pastor might see that someone may have the gift and calling of an pastor, so he may suggest it to him and then work with him toward having him appointed.
Three, 1 Timothy 3:10 says they are to serve in that capacity if they prove themselves first. How do they prove themselves? Leadership development. 1 Timothy doesn’t say how long, but the disciples were trained and had opportunity to prove themselves with Jesus for three years before he appointed them, so that’s what we do.
Our leadership development program here at The Resolved Church is a three year process and the whole goal is to produce either elders (pastors) or deacons. We’ll be relaunching it in March so if you’re interested in joining please talk to one our church leaders about it. So you can aspire to it and there’s some of you I’ve been talking to and suggesting for you to join us, I’m looking for leaders. We’ve had 12 dudes in it this last year and I’d like us to see 30 guys in leadership development this March.
Now I want to make something clear because one of our deacons let me in on some possible miscommunication on my part. Leadership development is not the men’s ministry of our church. The purpose of leadership development is to produce elders or deacons. Not every man is called by Jesus to be an elder or deacon.
Most men are simply called to be strong Jesus loving men who lead their homes, workplaces and church through being a Godly example, with a servant’s heart contributing in their unique way. Some are leaders others are not and that’s okay. Not everyone is meant to be an official leader. But everyone in Jesus’ church is meant to be lover of Jesus who serves and contributes.
Alright. So that’s the section on the authority of the church. Authority is good, not bad because it’s from God. Today feels more business than usual. Guess that’s okay, we’re just following the Bible here. Let’s wrap things up by looking at the gospel and preparing our hearts for communion.
Conclusion
We’ve kind of covered some diverse stuff today… We talked about the attitude of church needing to be one of obedience, prayer, unity and a family together. We looked at adversaries of the church which the perfect Scriptures protect us from by identifying them and giving leaders the authority to remove them. Then looked at why official church structure is a good thing and how we’re to develop leaders.
How do these things relate to the gospel? Because as Jesus taught the men on the road to Emmaus all Scripture is to point to and be fulfilled in him.
Working backwards…
When it comes to church authority, we recognize Jesus is the only real and true authority. He is the head of his church, the King of kings and the Lord of lords the alpha and the omega who alone defeated death will judge the living and the dead.
When it comes to adversaries in the church, we remember Jesus words in Matthew 16:18 when he said he would build his church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it!
When it comes to the attitude of the church, we receive the heart and the attitude of Jesus in it. Only Jesus perfectly obeyed the father, only Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father ever praying for us, only Jesus prayed in John 17 that we may be united as one with him, and only through Jesus do we get adopted into the family of God.
Everything is about Jesus. So in thinking about how he would have us respond today, where do you need to repent or render praise? Have you taken the seat of authority in your life or is Jesus ruling?
Have you been an adversary of the church instead of an advocate? Have you not been protective and relied on God’s Word when challenges have come to draw you away?
How is your attitude? Are there some things in your life where you have not been obedient and you need to repent today? Has it been a long time since you really talked to God in prayer? Have you bred disunity by gossiping or speaking negatively about others? If so, Jesus says in Matthew 5:24 to go be reconciled to that person first before you come to God’s altar. Have you not been loving others in the church as true brothers and sisters in the family of God?
The truth is none of us have succeeded in all these areas but the good news is that Jesus has and he paid the price for our sin as if it were his own on the cross. The solution then for us is simply to repent, to not only be sorry but to have Jesus work in our hearts and lives to make us more like him…to change.
The truth is everyone of us has a little Judas in us and deserve the reward for our wickedness. We have all denied God as our Lord and maker yet he has had grace on us by sending Jesus pay the price for wickedness on the cross and rose again and now gives us new life. So let’s praise him and thank him for it and have him work in our hearts during these tender moments in whatever way we need him too.
So let’s all stand and I’ll pray. Then when you’re ready respond and come forward to his table. And after that don’t hesitate. If you need prayer today, don’t be reluctant, seize the opportunity and have someone pray for you today. I’ll be back there as well as other men. Come and receive the ministry of Jesus by his Spirit as we pray for one another.
Let’s ask God to work in these moments.
