SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/27/2019
10:09 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-6 “Explanation of Pastor/Teachers”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
4:11
Message of the verse: “11 And He gave
some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as
evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,”
Just
a note to say that I continue to quote from John MacArthur’s commentary on this
important subject, and will do so until all of it is quoted.
“Presbuteros is used nearly twenty times
in Acts and the epistles in reference to a unique group of leaders in the
church. From the earliest beginnings of
the church it was clear that a group of mature spiritual leaders was designated
to have responsibility for the church.
The church at Antioch, for example, where believers were first called
Christians, sent Barnabas and Saul to the elders at Jerusalem with a gift to be
distributed to the needy brethren in Judea (Acts 11:29-30). It is therefore clear both that elders
existed in the church at that very early date and that the believers at Antioch
recognized their authority.
“Since
the church at Antioch grew out of the ministry at Jerusalem, elders probably
existed there as well. It is likely that Paul himself functioned as an elder at
Antioch before he stepped out in the role of apostle. He is listed in Acts 13:1 as one of that church’s
teachers. Elders played a dominant role
in the Council of Jerusalem (see Acts 15: 2, 4, 22, 23; 16:4) and they were obviously
very influential in the foundation of life in the early church.
“As
Paul and Barnabas began to preach in new areas, and as the church began to
extend itself, the p;rocess of identifying church leaders became more clearly
defined. And throughout the New
Testament, as the church developed, leaders were called elders.
“In
general usage, therefore, elder seems
to be the most appropriate term for our day, since it is free of many of the
unbiblical connotations and nuances of meaning imposed on bishop and even pastor
throughout much of church history.
“As
early in the biblical narrative as Acts 14, we see that one of the key steps in
establishing a new church was to identify and appoint elders for church
leadership. ‘And when they had appointed
elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended
them to the Lord in whom they had believed’ (Acts 14:23).
“Nearly
every church we know of in the New Testament is specifically said to have elders. We are told, for example, that ‘from Miletus
[Paul] sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church’ (Acts
20:17). It is significant that the
church at Ephesus had elders, because all the churches of Asia Minor—such as
those listed in Revelation 1:11—were extensions of the ministry at
Ephesus. We can assume that those
churches established their leadership after the pattern in Ephesus, namely,
that of a plurality of elders.
“Peter
wrote to the scattered believers in ‘Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and
Bithynia,…I exhort the elders among you…shepherd the flock of God’ (1 Peter
1:1; 5:1-2). Pontus, Galatia,
Cappadocia, and Bithynia were not cities, but rather territories. Peter was therefore writing to a number of churches
scattered all over Asia—all of which had elders.
“What is the role of a pastor-teacher? As the apostolic era came to a close, the
office of pastor-teacher emerged as the highest level of local church
leadership. Thus it carried a great
amount of responsibility. Elders were
charged with the care and feeding, as well as the spiritual guidance, of the
entire church. There was no higher court
of appeal, and no greater resource for knowing the mind and heart of God with
regard to issues in the Church.
“First
Timothy 3:1 says, ‘It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer
[episkopos], it is affine work he
desires to do.’ In verse 5, Paul says
that the work of an episkopos is to ‘take
care of the church of God.’ The clear implication
is that a bishop’s primary responsibility is that of being caretaker for the
church.
“That
general responsibility involves a number of more specific duties, perhaps the
most obvious of which is to oversee the affairs to the local church. First Timothy 5:17 says, ‘Let the elders who
rule well be considered worthy of double honor.’ The Greek word translated ‘rule’ (proistemi) is used to speak of the elders’ responsibilities four times in 1 Timothy
(3A:4, 5, 12; 5:17), once in 1 Thessalonians 5:12 (where it is translated, ‘have
charge over’), and once in Romans 12:8, where ruling is listed as a spiritual
gift. Proistemi literally means ‘to stand first,’ and it speaks of the
duty of general oversight common to all elders.
“As
those who rule in the church, pastoral elders are not subject to any higher
earthly authority outside the local assembly.
But their authority over the church is not by force or dictatorial power
but by precept and example (see Heb. 13:7).”
It
looks like to me that Lord willing, I will be able to finish this section in
our next SD. I can say that the churches
that I have attended do not call those who MacArthur refers to as “Elders” but
are called “deacons.” I remember reading
something in another of MacArthur’s books about church rule and he stated that the
government of the church is not as important as those who are involved in that
government. For instance if a church has
good deacons which help the Pastor’s in ruling the church are good godly men
wanting to follow what the Scripture has to say then it really doesn’t matter
to me whether they are called deacons or elders. The opposite is also true that if the church
is ruled by “deacons” and they don’t follow the Word of God then their name
means nothing.
Quotation for today and this time it is
from David Jeremiah: “Wisdom is
development. Wisdom is discipline, Wisdom is discernment, Wisdom is Dignity,
Wisdom is Discretion, Wisdom is depth of understanding, Wisdom is devotion to
God.”
3/27/2019 10:46 AM
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