back to indexWed Bible Study (BCC 2) - 11-16-16
00:00:14.500 |
Alright, so the notes that you have in front of you, 00:00:18.000 |
instead of filling the blanks, I just kind of left sections open for you guys to fill in as we're going. 00:00:23.500 |
So, the subject that we're going to be covering, 00:00:27.500 |
again, we're talking about the issue of the church, but the importance of the authority that God has. 00:00:39.500 |
Alright, so the subject that we're going to be talking about is leadership and authority in the church. 00:00:43.500 |
And again, this is one of those things that I think culture has a lot to do with how we perceive authority and how we perceive the church. 00:00:51.500 |
I know that, again, because I've served in a Korean church in my first, you know, first maybe about seven, seven, eight years of being a pastor, 00:01:01.500 |
and I know how the first generation Korean church, the culture, and there's certain things that kind of embedded in the culture that they see better, 00:01:08.500 |
and they practice better, and then there's certain things that we see in blind spot. 00:01:12.500 |
But one thing that I know that in a Western community, we're taught since we were young to question authority, right? 00:01:19.500 |
It's embedded, and so we value independence, we value, you know, innovation, but the idea of submission, 00:01:28.500 |
again, the reaction that we get when we talk about the idea of submission, again, it's not natural, at least in the Western culture. 00:01:37.500 |
But we need to... I think this is a very important part of what it means to be a Christian in the local church, 00:01:45.500 |
so we want to talk about this issue because it is emphasized in scripture, right? 00:01:56.500 |
All right, so the importance of the local church. 00:01:59.500 |
Again, I know some of this is going to be reviewed for some of you, but when we talk about the church, 00:02:07.500 |
the real church is always the universal church. Universal church is the unseen church of genuine believers, right? 00:02:14.500 |
Just because you're a membership in the local church doesn't mean that you're a genuine Christian. 00:02:19.500 |
The universal church is a church that only God can see. It's a spiritual church. 00:02:23.500 |
But that universal church is always expressed through the local church, right? 00:02:28.500 |
So, when we say the universal church, a lot of people say, "Well, I don't have to go to church because I believe in God. It's just between me and Him." 00:02:39.500 |
Because our relationship with God is not just between us and God. The scripture makes it absolutely clear. 00:02:44.500 |
You cannot practice your Christian faith outside of the local body of Christ. 00:02:49.500 |
God has given you spiritual gifts for the purpose of serving the church. 00:02:52.500 |
So, if you're not in the part of the church, then you're not able to serve and to give. 00:02:59.500 |
You don't even know what your spiritual gifts are until you're in the body of Christ. 00:03:03.500 |
The church was given as a place for us to practice our faith. 00:03:07.500 |
So, we're going to be talking about that and why this is so important. 00:03:10.500 |
And then, if we don't have a proper paradigm of the church, typically what ends up happening is, I'm getting something out of this church, so I commit. 00:03:20.500 |
If I don't get what I want from this church, then I don't need to commit. 00:03:23.500 |
It's very consumer mentality. It's like going to a supermarket and I go to Ralph's because Ralph's has things that I like. 00:03:30.500 |
And then when Ralph doesn't have the things that you like anymore, I can easily just go to Vons. 00:03:35.500 |
And you have this consumer mentality because we have the wrong understanding of what the church is and how God sees the church. 00:03:43.500 |
So, the local church, 1 Timothy 3.15 says, "If I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth." 00:03:54.500 |
So, the whole writings in 1 and 2 Timothy is to teach Timothy how to pastor the church, which was the church of Ephesus. 00:04:03.500 |
How he ought to teach, what needs to be emphasized, how people ought to behave, how they ought to exercise their gifts. 00:04:10.500 |
So, all throughout scripture, we are taught how we ought to behave in the context of the church. 00:04:19.500 |
So, you can't practice any of this stuff outside the church. 00:04:22.500 |
Right? Members of the universal church gathered in local communities is the local church. 00:04:27.500 |
Most of the letters are written to the local church. 00:04:32.500 |
So, if you're doing Bible study and you're not committed inside, in the context of the local church, even the way that you're understanding the text that you're reading is going to be outside of the realm that God had intended. 00:04:45.500 |
Because God's intent was, how do you understand that in the context of the church? Right? 00:04:51.500 |
You're not supposed to carry out church discipline by yourself. Right? 00:04:55.500 |
You don't find out what your spiritual gifts are by yourself. 00:04:58.500 |
You don't use your spiritual gifts to enhance your own self. Right? 00:05:04.500 |
God established leaders and order in the church. Right? 00:05:10.500 |
I remember talking to a local church, you know, some of you guys may know it as the Witness Lees, but they're on campus a lot. 00:05:18.500 |
And I remember talking to them and they said, "Oh, we don't have leaders in our church. 00:05:22.500 |
You know, we practice priesthood of believers. There is no leadership." 00:05:27.500 |
And then so, I said, "Well, you don't have any leaders?" "No, we don't have any leaders." 00:05:31.500 |
"So, what do you do in Bible study?" "Everybody comes and they just kind of share what they learn." 00:05:35.500 |
"So, what do you do on Sundays?" "Same thing. Everybody just comes and shares what they learn." 00:05:38.500 |
So, I said, "So, you don't have any leadership?" "No, we don't believe in that." 00:05:42.500 |
So, I asked them, "Who has the keys to the church?" 00:05:48.500 |
I said, "Well, who locks up and who opens it up?" 00:05:50.500 |
"When you give an offering, who gives, who, where do you turn in the offering? Who counts the offering?" 00:05:54.500 |
If somebody comes in and says strange things, right? 00:05:57.500 |
Somebody stands up and I got a word of faith and say, "Jesus is not God." 00:06:04.500 |
I said, "Well, we have some people who do that." 00:06:09.500 |
They're your leaders because you appointed certain people to identify what is right and what is wrong doctrine, 00:06:15.500 |
to manage the church and to make decisions in the church, to manage finances, right? 00:06:26.500 |
So, in the church, God has established, again, elders and deacons and then there's qualifications for them 00:06:34.500 |
God taught how to deal with those who are sinning in the church. 00:06:38.500 |
When you're outside the church, you do whatever you want. 00:06:45.500 |
God taught how and when to ordain people into ministry. 00:06:48.500 |
God taught how to deal with widows, younger men, older men. 00:06:51.500 |
So, all of these things in different relationships, how we ought to behave in the church. 00:06:55.500 |
God taught how each gift is given to each member to serve in the local body. 00:07:03.500 |
So, you cannot practice your faith outside the church, right? 00:07:10.500 |
When we think about the Protestant Reformation, 00:07:14.500 |
what do you normally think of when you say Protestant Reformation? 00:07:25.500 |
You have the only Christ, only scripture, only by grace. 00:07:38.500 |
Okay, anyway, you know what I'm talking about. 00:07:41.500 |
Typically, when we think about the Reformation, we think it was all about those five solas. 00:07:46.500 |
But those five solas were only representative of why they went wrong. 00:07:49.500 |
The real problem in the church wasn't just the five solas, right? 00:07:54.500 |
The five solas had to be emphasized because of the abuse of the authority in the church, right? 00:08:00.500 |
So, the abuse that they had was they kept people from reading the scripture for themselves. 00:08:12.500 |
And so, they kept the authority to themselves and wouldn't allow people to come to the scripture. 00:08:20.500 |
So, if anybody contradicted them, the church was above them. 00:08:24.500 |
The Pope had the authority to be able to say whatever he wanted. 00:08:29.500 |
And then, if you didn't behave, they either excommunicated you. 00:08:32.500 |
There was a period where they had the Spanish Inquisition 00:08:36.500 |
basically test you to see if you're telling the truth or not. 00:08:39.500 |
And then, if you weren't telling the truth or whatever, and they would execute you right there, right? 00:08:45.500 |
And if they refused communion to somebody, it basically meant you were kicked out of the church and you're not going to heaven. 00:08:51.500 |
So, they used fear tactic to make sure everybody was under the authority. 00:08:59.500 |
And that's what led to all these false doctrines and emphasis on the solas. 00:09:05.500 |
But when we typically think of the Reformation, we only think, "Oh, you know what? They were teaching wrong doctrines." 00:09:11.500 |
And then, so wrong doctrines needed to be corrected, right? 00:09:19.500 |
There was an outrage that the church was abusing them. 00:09:22.500 |
That's why all these kings and all these people who felt suppressed under the authority, the false authority of the church, they had a spark. 00:09:31.500 |
And then, again, the Reformation, the theologians came in. 00:09:34.500 |
They tried to correct the theology that went wrong. 00:09:36.500 |
But what went wrong from the beginning, and what caused all of that, was the abuse of authority that God gave to the church. 00:09:48.500 |
Because the reaction against this is the Protestant Reformation. 00:09:54.500 |
Reaction against the abuse of authority in the Catholic Church was what caused us to be Protestants. 00:10:04.500 |
So, as a result of coming out of abuse of authority, there was kind of a knee-jerk reaction in fear of any authority. 00:10:16.500 |
Since if you give them authority and they're going to abuse it, we're not, you know, the mass people said, "Well, we're not going to give and trust anybody." 00:10:26.500 |
So, again, Protestant Reformation wasn't just something about wrong doctrine. 00:10:32.500 |
And then, you probably heard this term before because I've quoted it several times. 00:10:37.500 |
"You cannot have God as your Father unless you have the church as your mother." 00:10:47.500 |
This was coined in AD 300 by Cyperion of Carthage. 00:10:57.500 |
And the reason why this quote that was quoted in AD 300 became one of the things that was repeated during the Reformation was there was a fear that because the Protestants protested against the abuse of authority in the Catholic Church, that the authority of the church was going to get diminished. 00:11:16.500 |
That people were going to just, you know, swing so far to the other end that it no longer matters. 00:11:25.500 |
As long as I have scripture, the church is just kind of an avenue for me to serve God any way I please. 00:11:31.500 |
Because of that fear, during the Reformation, during the Protestant Reformation, John Calvin actually repeats this in his book. 00:11:39.500 |
If you've ever read his book, "The Institution," it's probably one of his most famous writings. 00:11:44.500 |
But John Calvin reiterates this, and it's a direct quote from what he says, "I shall start then with the church into whose bosom God is pleased to gather His sons." 00:11:54.500 |
And again, he's writing as one of the leading theologians of the Reformation concerned that this rebellion against the Catholic Church is going to lead to anarchy in the church. 00:12:06.500 |
And so he reiterates that the church is the bosom of God. 00:12:11.500 |
Not only that they may be nourished by her help and ministry as long as they are infants and children, but also that they may be guided by her motherly care until they mature and at last reach the goal of faith. 00:12:22.500 |
So that for those to whom He is the Father, the church may also be mother. 00:12:26.500 |
And this was so, not only under the law, but also under Christ's coming, as Paul testifies when he teaches, when we are the children of the new and heavenly Jerusalem. 00:12:35.500 |
Again, I know it's a little bit of a long quote, but the part I want you guys to see was his emphasis on the church being the bosom of God, and then the church being the mother, as God being the Father. 00:12:47.500 |
So, we're going to get into the scripture, but I want you to see that the Reformers who were protesting against the Catholic Church was not saying there is no authority. 00:13:00.500 |
They were questioning the abuse of the authority, but the authority is clearly established in the church, and there's a good reason why it is established and why it is so important. 00:13:11.500 |
The church is the physical manifestation of God's kingdom on earth. 00:13:17.500 |
In the very beginning, in the very beginning, we talked about, we talked about what is the first thing that we talked about? 00:13:31.500 |
Being God-centered and not being man-centered. 00:13:35.500 |
So, whether it is worship or even our own salvation, even our own salvation, it is not man-centered but God-centered. 00:13:48.500 |
A man-centered salvation seeks salvation, sees salvation, simply in the eyes of what did God do for me. 00:14:00.500 |
And so, God is like a great-grandfather who bends over backwards to appease a grandson. 00:14:09.500 |
No matter what you do, there's nothing you can do for God to love you more or less. 00:14:13.500 |
And so, none of that is untrue but it's emphasized to the point where we become the center of our salvation. 00:14:21.500 |
Scripture doesn't describe salvation that way. 00:14:24.500 |
Scripture, first and foremost, describes salvation as God seeking his own glory. 00:14:29.500 |
Where men who are in rebellion against God, who refuses to submit to his rule, right? 00:14:38.500 |
God is pursuing sinners to bring him back under his kingdom. 00:14:42.500 |
So, salvation is described as him seeking his glory in the salvation of mankind to restore his rule, his reign over man, and then to establish his kingdom. 00:14:54.500 |
So, ultimately, heaven is his kingdom and earth is the physical manifestation of his kingdom. 00:15:01.500 |
So, the church basically is, and that's why when somebody is saved, the first act of obedience is what? 00:15:12.500 |
The first act of obedience for someone who is genuinely saved is baptism. 00:15:18.500 |
Baptism is for that person to die in his old life and to be renewed in the new resurrected life in Christ under his kingdom. 00:15:32.500 |
I'm going to read and I'm going to ask you to read the second one. 00:15:36.500 |
Colossians 1.13, "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." 00:15:49.500 |
Deliverance from domain of darkness, transferred to the kingdom of his beloved Son. 00:16:28.500 |
"We exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, causing you into his own kingdom and glory." 00:16:39.500 |
He's calling us in the manner, walking in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. 00:16:47.500 |
So, again, salvation is described first and foremost, not us at the center, but God and his glory and his kingdom at the center. 00:16:57.500 |
Now, until there is that paradigm shift where we understand that God is at the center, not us, we will evaluate everything based upon how I feel. 00:17:12.500 |
We can say that because it doesn't cost anything to say that. 00:17:16.500 |
It doesn't cost anything to say Jesus Christ is Lord. 00:17:24.500 |
Do I submit to him or do I evaluate based upon does he submit to me? 00:17:30.500 |
Are my prayers according to his will or is God acting according to the will that I'm offering to him? 00:17:37.500 |
So, if I'm praying and he doesn't bend his will because I prayed to him, do we get upset? 00:17:44.500 |
See how if salvation is man-centered, then he's supposed to bow to me. 00:17:53.500 |
But if our whole paradigm is I wanted this and he didn't give it to me, I'm not submitting to him. 00:18:01.500 |
If I'm submitted to him, I have to know what his will is and then I submit to him. 00:18:06.500 |
So, my prayer is a wrestling with my own flesh to submit to his will. 00:18:14.500 |
So, the first act of obedience to a Christian is to recognize his rule, his physical rule on earth is through his local church. 00:18:24.500 |
And so, salvation is described as being delivered from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of his son. 00:18:35.500 |
He is the head of the church and we are here to serve him and not vice versa. 00:18:42.500 |
As simple as that may be, that's a lifelong struggle for every Christian to establish him as king. 00:18:51.500 |
But if we don't understand that from the beginning, you don't even know what you're struggling with. 00:19:00.500 |
It's not just being a bad person trying to be a good person. 00:19:03.500 |
Sanctification basically is dying to ourself and establishing him as our king. 00:19:10.500 |
Alright, before I get there, even the Lord's Prayer. 00:19:16.500 |
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. 00:19:23.500 |
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 00:19:31.500 |
Our Father, our relationship with him, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. 00:19:38.500 |
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 00:19:41.500 |
So before we ever get to give us this day our daily bread, forgive my sins as I forgive our debtors. 00:19:47.500 |
The first thing that we have to acknowledge in the Lord's Prayer is who is he? 00:20:00.500 |
Before I'm concerned about Lord, help me to find a husband or a wife or, you know, help me to get to the right school. 00:20:09.500 |
You know, let me be healthy and thinking about these are the list of things that I desire. 00:20:13.500 |
The first thing that every Christian needs to be wrestling with is to establish him. 00:20:19.500 |
So the Lord's Prayer itself establishes his rule. 00:20:28.500 |
Because outside of that paradigm, the other stuff is just not going to make sense. 00:20:33.500 |
If we don't see the church as his kingdom, first and foremost, all the other stuff where he talks about the authority of the church, it's not going to make a whole lot of sense. 00:20:44.500 |
Because it is his kingdom, he gave authority to the church to establish his kingdom on earth. 00:20:51.500 |
His authority on earth, earth and his reign and his rule and his glory is primarily through his people, which is the local church. 00:21:02.500 |
And so the local church was given authority to practice his will. 00:21:08.500 |
So Matthew chapter 16, 13 to 20, I'm not going to read all of that. 00:21:14.500 |
Remember that passage where Peter is having an interaction with Jesus, who do men say I am? 00:21:19.500 |
And then he tells him, you are the son of God. 00:21:22.500 |
And then he says, Jesus answered him, verse 17, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. 00:21:29.500 |
But my father was in heaven and I tell you, you are Peter. 00:21:32.500 |
And on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 00:21:37.500 |
Verse 19, 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 loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 00:21:46.500 |
Now, I know you guys know that the controversy on this text is the Catholics say the you that Jesus is talking about is Peter. 00:22:00.500 |
And so that's how they took the authority and said, well, the church and the Catholic church or the Pope in particular is what he's talking about. 00:22:09.500 |
But you'll see that he's not talking about an individual. 00:22:15.500 |
He's actually talking about the church as a whole. 00:22:20.500 |
Matthew 18, 15 to 20, he's talking about church discipline. 00:22:29.500 |
But if you read that passage, Matthew 18, 15, 20. 00:22:32.500 |
If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. 00:22:37.500 |
If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 00:22:40.500 |
But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 00:22:47.500 |
If he refused to listen to them, tell it to the church. 00:22:51.500 |
And if he refuses to listen, even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 00:22:59.500 |
He just told them if they don't listen, one person, two people take it to the church. 00:23:03.500 |
And then in verse 18, if he doesn't take it, if he doesn't listen, discipline him. 00:23:08.500 |
Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. 00:23:13.500 |
Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 00:23:15.500 |
So Jesus uses that exact same phrase that he says to Peter in chapter 16, 19. 00:23:22.500 |
But he's specifically referring to the church, right? 00:23:31.500 |
He says, if whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever you bound loose in heaven will be loose on earth. 00:23:37.500 |
So basically what he's saying is he's giving the church the authority to practice church discipline. 00:23:43.500 |
He's giving the church the authority to carry out his authority within the church. 00:23:49.500 |
So in other words, to be a representative of his presence on earth as he sees it. 00:23:59.500 |
Because Jesus himself submitted himself to the rule, to the human rule that was established. 00:24:13.500 |
He comes ahead of Jesus, six months ahead, and he begins to baptize and he says, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 00:24:21.500 |
And Jesus recites the exact same thing that John the Baptist says when he comes in and he takes over John the Baptist's ministry. 00:24:27.500 |
But when Jesus comes, John the Baptist recognizes that his whole ministry was to prepare for the Messiah to come. 00:24:35.500 |
He who comes after me, I am unworthy to even untie his sandals. 00:24:40.500 |
But Jesus comes and submits himself to John the Baptist and John the Baptist says, "I'm unworthy. 00:24:56.500 |
Because he was sent before Jesus and he was the authority that God was speaking through. 00:25:02.500 |
So Jesus as a human being, as a man, is to submit to the established authority that God has placed in John the Baptist. 00:25:11.500 |
So Jesus himself submits himself to the authority established by God prior to him coming. 00:25:22.500 |
Apostle Paul, you know a lot of times people think that, "Well he's an apostle so he wasn't submitted to any particular church." 00:25:30.500 |
Apostle Paul was a missionary of a particular church. 00:25:39.500 |
Which church was Apostle Paul a missionary from? 00:25:47.500 |
Antioch was the church where the elders of the church laid hands on him and Barnabas and sent him out. 00:25:53.500 |
So after his missionary journey, where does he come to report? 00:25:59.500 |
So even the apostle, hand selected by Christ, is ordained and sent out by the local church. 00:26:14.500 |
God doesn't establish this and say, "Well you know what? Church is important for those people but for these people, you know, since you have other thoughts you can do whatever you want." 00:26:23.500 |
God's primary avenue of how he is worshipped is through the church. 00:26:28.500 |
His primary avenue to get the gospel out is through the church. 00:26:33.500 |
His primary avenue where he is glorified is through the church. 00:26:36.500 |
His primary avenue to deal with sin is through the church. 00:26:46.500 |
So if that's what God has ordained, if you have an individual saying, "Well, that's what you think but that's not for me." 00:26:54.500 |
You're not arguing against any particular church. 00:27:01.500 |
Again, because we live in a western world, the idea of authority, like look at the way we talk about politicians, you know. 00:27:16.500 |
I don't know if I would see this in any other country where the opposing party would call the president of the country that he's at an idiot while he's the president on national TV. 00:27:29.500 |
I'm not going to tell you who said it but I've heard it on both parties. 00:27:33.500 |
It's just this disrespect toward authority, this cynicism toward authority. 00:27:38.500 |
And I think it's very detrimental to society. 00:27:42.500 |
There's a reason why in the Old Testament when a teenager rebels against the sun, it was capital offense. 00:27:48.500 |
Because it was the seed of rebellion in the whole society. 00:27:53.500 |
Now, again, I think that because we live in a western world, that idea of authority, like we have a natural knee-jerk reaction against any kind of authority. 00:28:07.500 |
But, again, we need to understand biblically, thinking biblically, how God sees the church. 00:28:14.500 |
God established leaders in the church to establish his kingdom. 00:28:22.500 |
"He gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of stature of the fullness of Christ." 00:28:47.500 |
The apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. 00:28:49.500 |
Verse 14, "So that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness, and deceitful scheming. 00:28:58.500 |
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped. 00:29:08.500 |
When each part is working properly, it makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love." 00:29:19.500 |
I already know the fact that we're talking about this subject, that there's already probably some discomfort or anxiety or maybe even, you know, rebelliousness in your own heart when I talk about this. 00:29:33.500 |
Because, again, that's the culture that we live in. 00:29:36.500 |
If you have an individualistic mentality, right? 00:29:50.500 |
If that's the way you approach church, you're not -- those thoughts are not just against a group of people. 00:29:58.500 |
Those thoughts are against the things that God has established in your life for your good, for your sanctification. 00:30:09.500 |
So, basically, what we're saying is, "I refuse to acknowledge the body of Christ until it submits to me. 00:30:15.500 |
I refuse to acknowledge the body of Christ until it submits to my desires and my opinions." 00:30:30.500 |
Because the church is the physical manifestation of his kingdom. 00:30:36.500 |
"I want to reestablish leaders in the church, 1 Timothy 2, 8-15. 00:30:39.500 |
I desire, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling. 00:30:45.500 |
Likewise, also, women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness with good works." 00:31:00.500 |
And here's another passage that's going to make you feel uncomfortable. 00:31:03.500 |
"Let a woman learn quietly with all submission. 00:31:06.500 |
I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man." 00:31:28.500 |
God established leaders in the church, God established male leaders in the church in particular. 00:31:34.500 |
Now, the passage that we're reading says, "The reason behind it was, Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 00:31:42.500 |
Yet, she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness and self-control." 00:31:51.500 |
First of all, I'm going to rip on the men first before I get to the women, okay? 00:31:58.500 |
If we're living childishly, and you demand authority, you don't deserve authority. 00:32:06.500 |
If you use the scripture to suppress daughters of God that He loves and adores, I would never give my daughter to you. 00:32:23.500 |
God's intention was not to, because you're a male and you have certain body parts that you get to rule. 00:32:31.500 |
Part of the reason why this idea of submission is so difficult with the ladies is because men are acting like children. 00:32:40.500 |
If men act like children and desire to have authority, of course there's going to be a problem. 00:32:47.500 |
So, some of the reaction in our society against authority is completely men's fault. 00:32:56.500 |
You can't act like a child and then open up a passage in scripture and say, "Submit." 00:33:01.500 |
Because the whole purpose of submission, the authority in the scripture, was to give sacrificially. 00:33:16.500 |
He didn't just say, "Church, come so I can do whatever I want." 00:33:20.500 |
Okay, now having said that, having said that, okay, why is there this knee-jerk reaction when we talk about the idea of submission? 00:33:29.500 |
Whether it's the role of a man or a woman or even in the church to leaders, why is there this knee-jerk reaction? 00:33:37.500 |
Everything that you and I understand, what God has established, has been tainted by sin. 00:33:43.500 |
And again, I had a long conversation with my children because of this. 00:33:48.500 |
And I asked them, because this subject came up about women pastors and I was having a talk with Zachary and Faith. 00:33:55.500 |
And, you know, because they seemed a bit confused. 00:33:58.500 |
They didn't say anything, but they seemed a bit confused. 00:34:00.500 |
And so, the question, and I'm going to have the same conversation with you. 00:34:07.500 |
Are good-looking people better than not good-looking people? 00:34:13.500 |
Okay, are good-looking people, do they have more value than not good-looking people? 00:34:20.500 |
Should people who have more money, are they better people than people who don't have money? 00:34:28.500 |
Are people who get better grades, are they of more value in the eyes of God than the people who don't? 00:34:35.500 |
People who have power, are they better than the people who don't have power? 00:34:43.500 |
Now, the answer to that is obviously universally, of course not. 00:34:49.500 |
You don't have to be a Christian to say that. 00:34:53.500 |
Non-Christians will agree with us, just because you're better looking and you have more money, you have more power, doesn't make you a better person. 00:35:08.500 |
If you have more money, if you have better things and you achieve more, you know, you may not say it, but secretly you value that. 00:35:18.500 |
Even though we say we disagree with it, why do we inwardly and in thought, in feeling, and sometimes even acting out, why do we put them in a higher place? 00:35:31.500 |
Because our value system has been corrupted by sin. 00:35:43.500 |
The way we determine right or wrong has been corrupted by sin, even though mentally we know that's not right. 00:35:56.500 |
So, if our value system has been corrupted by sin, the idea of submission and authority has also been corrupted by sin. 00:36:08.500 |
So, the fact that we have a knee-jerk reaction when we talk about authority, is that an innate, independent truth that's causing you to have that reaction, or is that a tainted view of what you value because of sin that causes us to say, "The one who submits is lower." 00:36:37.500 |
We will never say that about the Holy Spirit, because we know that that would be blasphemy. 00:36:41.500 |
We celebrate Jesus because He submitted to His Father. 00:36:45.500 |
We celebrate the Holy Spirit because He submitted to Christ. 00:36:51.500 |
And yet, when we talk about submission, there is a sinful, knee-jerk reaction to, "Well, I'd rather be up on top than below." 00:37:00.500 |
Isn't that the reason why Jesus took careful, put careful attention to His disciples? 00:37:06.500 |
Because He saw this competition among His disciples, who's going to sit to the left and to the right, and He kept on telling them, "He who is the least in the kingdom of God is the greatest. 00:37:15.500 |
He who serves the most is the one who is the greatest in the kingdom." 00:37:19.500 |
And the very last thing that He did before He went to the cross was got on His knees and He served them like a servant before He went. 00:37:27.500 |
Because He knew the corrupt nature of man, that our desire to elevate ourselves was the central sin of mankind. 00:37:42.500 |
Tower of Babel, people wanted to be like God. 00:37:44.500 |
And His general rebellion against God is give credit to creation rather than Creator. 00:37:49.500 |
So our central rebellion is to elevate ourselves. 00:37:53.500 |
Could it be that that sinful perspective on life is what causes us to have a knee-jerk reaction against any idea of submission? 00:38:09.500 |
Our sense of right and wrong has been corrupted, even when we think that we're fighting for justice. 00:38:17.500 |
So our value of what is right and what is wrong has to be renewed by the scripture, what God intended. 00:38:26.500 |
So even if everything inside of me reacts against that, we have to ask why. 00:38:31.500 |
Is that because there's an independent right or wrong that I'm fighting for? 00:38:35.500 |
Is it just the innate value system that I've embraced? 00:38:44.500 |
Why do I come to this when we come to women leadership? 00:38:48.500 |
Because God has established order in creation. 00:38:50.500 |
God created Adam, told him to go and be fruitful, multiply, created Eve for the purpose of being a suitable helper. 00:38:59.500 |
But again, in our value system, a suitable helper is lower. 00:39:07.500 |
And as soon as Adam and Eve falls, what happens? 00:39:13.500 |
Desire meaning there's going to be contention. 00:39:16.500 |
Instead of supporting him, she's going to be challenging him. 00:39:19.500 |
So when he says for the women and for the men to take the role, he's basically taking the reasoning behind it, he takes it all the way back to creation. 00:39:30.500 |
He takes it all the way back to creation that this is what God intended. 00:39:33.500 |
When a husband and wife function the way God intended, and the church is to reflect what God intended in creation. 00:39:43.500 |
What God intended between a husband and wife is what he desires to reflect in the church. 00:39:51.500 |
And that's why, again, when we talk about leadership, we talk about male leadership because this is what God intended. 00:39:58.500 |
And some of you guys may think, "Oh, you're a male, so, you know, obviously it serves you well." 00:40:05.500 |
And believe me or not, believe me or not, this is one of the doctrines I had a hard time swallowing early on in my faith. 00:40:13.500 |
Remember I told you that I had to choose certain topics when I was a Bible student? 00:40:19.500 |
And I remember two particular ones that I chose to do a study on because I had a hard time understanding. 00:40:31.500 |
I couldn't understand, like, did the Bible really say that? 00:40:34.500 |
And so I went through passage to passage and gone through everything. 00:40:38.500 |
And then at the end of the study, my conclusion was, "I can't deny what the Bible says." 00:40:44.500 |
But how do I understand that now in application? 00:40:48.500 |
Remember we talked about exegesis, systematic theology, historical theology, philosophical theology. 00:41:04.500 |
So first, don't say, "Well, it doesn't make sense," and then go reinterpret the Bible because it doesn't make sense to you. 00:41:26.500 |
And then you wrestle with what does that mean? 00:41:33.500 |
Because our society, like, are you kidding me? 00:41:36.500 |
In this generation, to say something as foul as what I've just said, right, as strange and as backward as what I just said, I know for a fact that they'll have a harder time accepting this than Jesus, his son of God, died for you. 00:41:56.500 |
They'll reject Jesus Christ died for you because of this, right? 00:42:05.500 |
And in his wisdom, that's what he established. 00:42:07.500 |
The reason why I mention this is not to really get into that particular subject. 00:42:11.500 |
It's because our whole idea of submission and authority has been tainted. 00:42:16.500 |
There is an innate desire in us to usurp God, right? 00:42:30.500 |
If you're working in the mailroom, you don't challenge the CEO. 00:42:39.500 |
If you're a mid-level manager, your problem is not with the CEO. 00:42:50.500 |
But our innate desire where we have problem with authority is there is a rebellion inside of us where we want to be independent. 00:43:03.500 |
God in the church establishing leadership, put prayer and word. 00:43:13.500 |
Again, hopefully when you did your quiet time, you saw the passages that you looked at, that that was the emphasis. 00:43:23.500 |
And I'm not going to go through all the passages. 00:43:37.500 |
Part of the reason why we need to be careful about not being hasty in establishing leadership is for that reason. 00:43:44.500 |
If you have the wrong person in leadership, they will abuse their authority. 00:43:50.500 |
Where they're going to use their authority to benefit themselves. 00:43:55.500 |
So one of the key qualities of a leader has to be that he is humble. 00:44:06.500 |
If he, if the first thing I think in my opinion, the first thing that disqualifies somebody being leadership is there is an innate desire to self glorify himself. 00:44:17.500 |
That person is going to abuse authority if he gets it. 00:44:21.500 |
Every opportunity he gets, he wants to express what he knows and who he is. 00:44:28.500 |
That person immediately is disqualified because he's not going to be able to handle authority. 00:44:34.500 |
And so the Bible tells us and warns us, remember not to establish new converts for what reason? 00:44:43.500 |
Because he's going to fall under the same temptation as the devil. 00:44:50.500 |
He's going to establish himself through the authority God gives. 00:44:56.500 |
Because he's going to abuse his authority to establish himself. 00:44:59.500 |
It says, "Do not be hasty in laying hands. Some men's sins are obvious. Some men's sins trail behind them." 00:45:04.500 |
In other words, the sins that trail behind them are the more dangerous sins. 00:45:10.500 |
Because that person has learned to hide his faults. 00:45:19.500 |
Health and wealth gospel people, at least to us, they're easy. 00:45:28.500 |
The most dangerous people are the ones who have learned to hide their sins well. 00:45:33.500 |
But if you spend enough time with them, if you talk to them long enough and bring them different circumstances, 00:45:37.500 |
and you criticize them in any way, you'll see it starting to leak out. 00:45:43.500 |
And that's why he says, "Make sure that they're tested." 00:45:48.500 |
Because some men's sins are obvious, some men's sins trail behind them. 00:45:51.500 |
That's why in our church, we take a long, long time to establish leadership. 00:46:01.500 |
And second, from experience, I've made mistakes. 00:46:06.500 |
And I've seen the devastation that that can bring. 00:46:13.500 |
So I know that there's, "Oh, how come we're not doing this? How come we're not doing that?" 00:46:16.500 |
Because we're trying to be very, very, very, very careful. 00:46:20.500 |
That we don't put wrong people in the wrong place. 00:46:22.500 |
Because it ends up doing a lot more damage than not having anybody in there. 00:46:30.500 |
Again, for the sake of time, I'm just going to leave that to you. 00:46:43.500 |
This is a passage where the Israelites have gone back to Jerusalem. 00:46:57.500 |
And so in Haggai 1, 2-7, God sends Haggai to reinvigorate them. 00:47:04.500 |
And says, "This is what the Lord Almighty says." 00:47:06.500 |
"These people say the time has not yet come for the Lord's house to be built." 00:47:09.500 |
"Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai." 00:47:12.500 |
"Is it time for you to yourself to be living in your paneled houses while this house remains a ruin?" 00:47:21.500 |
"You have planted much, but have harvested little." 00:47:29.500 |
"You earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it." 00:47:37.500 |
Again, this is God sends Haggai to remind the nation of Israel the priority. 00:47:44.500 |
Our tendency in our generation is, this is typically how we say it. 00:47:58.500 |
That's typically what we say our priority is. 00:48:00.500 |
And so because we put God, and then family, and then church, is almost always family first. 00:48:10.500 |
Because your commitment to God is very ambiguous. 00:48:14.500 |
You're committed to God, like, "Well, what does that mean?" 00:48:16.500 |
It's like, "Well, in my heart, I commit to God." 00:48:23.500 |
How do you tangibly express commitment to God? 00:48:33.500 |
If God established the church, that through the church we worship God, 00:48:37.500 |
through the church we give, through the church we evangelize, 00:49:09.500 |
Did you read something in the Bible that says, 00:49:11.500 |
"As long as I'm with my family, other stuff shouldn't matter, 00:49:15.500 |
because I'm trying to be a good dad, I'm trying to be a good mom." 00:49:18.500 |
Don't sit there and say, "Oh, Pastor Peter said neglect your kids." 00:49:22.500 |
You'd be disqualified if you neglected your kids. 00:49:25.500 |
If you don't take care of your family, you're worse than an unbeliever. 00:49:33.500 |
But, the Bible neither does, gives us this priority of God, family, church. 00:49:43.500 |
There are times when family has to come first. 00:49:48.500 |
And then there's a lot of times when commitment to God means commitment to church. 00:49:53.500 |
Now, we need to be wise in discerning how to practice that. 00:49:57.500 |
We don't want to go around and say, "Hey, you just had a kid, but you didn't come out last Wednesday." 00:50:06.500 |
But at the same time, this priority that we've established in our own heads is not biblical. 00:50:16.500 |
If church is the physical manifestation of His glory, 00:50:20.500 |
commitment to church oftentimes is commitment to God. 00:50:32.500 |
Search the scriptures to see if I'm exaggerating. 00:50:43.500 |
So, it means a lot to you, but I'm not a pastor. 00:50:51.500 |
I'm a pastor because this is what I see in scripture. 00:51:05.500 |
Whatever you disagree on, disagree biblically. 00:51:11.500 |
Don't knee-jerk reaction and say, "Well, it's just wrong. I don't know why, but it's just wrong." 00:51:16.500 |
Search the scriptures to see if what I'm saying is an exaggeration or just a prejudice of a pastor or one person. 00:51:23.500 |
Or if this is actually what the scripture teaches. 00:51:27.500 |
The church, you cannot practice Christianity without the local church in our lives. 00:51:33.500 |
And if you do practice Christianity in the local church, there is order and authority that God has established in the church. 00:51:44.500 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your grace. 00:51:52.500 |
Even though after a long day of work, just wrestling through heavy material like this, 00:51:58.500 |
our thoughts, and even though it may make us feel uneasy at times, 00:52:02.500 |
help us, Lord God, to be sanctified, to be challenged, to be pushed, to put you first before anything else. 00:52:09.500 |
Help us to love you with all our heart, mind, and soul. 00:52:13.500 |
Help us not to pick and choose what we desire, but to honor and glorify you. 00:52:18.500 |
You are the head of the church, Lord God, not anyone else. 00:52:22.500 |
So help us, Lord, to search your word, that Christ may be established in us and in our community.