Our church is blessed with godly men who
are stepping up and teaching Bible lessons during our Wednesday evening
prayer time. The following was
presented recently and is a lesson we all should take to heart.
AUTHORITY
Many
churches today seem to be in constant turmoil.
There doesn’t seem to be any unity in the work for God.
Christ has a specific plan for His church; He has set things in
place so that His plan is accomplished.
One of those things is a system of authority.
When we look at the world around us, we see a world that is in
shambles, and continually getting worse.
Do you know why?
People do not submit to authority.
Everyone believes that it is their right to have things done their
way. James 4:1 says that the source of quarrels and conflicts among us is
our own passions, or our desire to have things our way.
Instead of submitting to the authorities in place, we want to be
the person in
authority.
A mindset like that only results in conflict and disunity.
We first must understand what authority is.
We have various authorities in our lives.
When we were young, our parents were our authorities.
They were put in place because we were unable to be responsible for
ourselves.
Then as we got older, we had teachers who were
authorities because of their education.
They also were placed there for our benefit, to teach us so that we
could be valuable contributors to society.
We have police officers who uphold the civil law, without whom
there would be no safety in the world.
All of these authorities are important to society in order to live
in harmony and to be continually progressing.
Our Lord Jesus Christ has set up His authorities in the church in
order that the church would live and work in harmony, and as a result,
have an impact on the culture around them.
What is authority?
Authority is someone or something that has a right to rule.
Christ says in Matt. 28:28 “All
authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19 “ Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the age.”
Christ is our authority, and He has sent ambassadors of authority
to us.
The first is His Holy Word.
That is the Christian’s absolute authority. He also gave us His
Spirit to teach us His word, in order that we would be obedient to all
that He has commanded.
He has given us pastors, deacons, teachers, evangelists,
administrators, and others, all placed by Christ in order that His goals
for the church would be met.
Just because individuals profess to be Christians, and say they
possess the Spirit of Christ, does not mean that they are automatic
authorities.
There are qualifications for those in the place of authority.
If we are living in habitual compromise, unfaithfulness, or sin, we
disqualify ourselves from the position of authority.
We are out of the will of God, and our words will tear down instead
of build up His church.
We can see in the world around us the result of corrupt
authorities.
This same problem plagues the church today.
In some who are in the position of authority, there is a spiritual
corruption, which produces the same results.
So
then, who are those people that we should recognize as authorities in the
church?
They are those individuals who submit to the word of God and do not
quench the Holy Spirit.
The word of God can be painful at times, but the true servant of
God will submit to its teaching in order to be used for the kingdom.
True
authorities are also individuals who put others before themselves.
Jesus says in Matt. 20:25-28
“You
know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great
men exercise authority over them. 26 “It
is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be
your servant, 27 and
whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; 28 just
as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His
life a ransom for many.”
True authorities are not there for their own glory or to have their
own agenda met; they are there to serve.
Christ says whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your
servant.
If we have truly tasted the goodness of the Lord, then it should be
our greatest desire that others might experience it too.
We can’t force people to experience God’s goodness, but by
demonstrating it through a servant’s heart, we can show His goodness.
The struggle is within, to remove our selfish desires that keep us
from experiencing the fullness of the Lord.
We have a system of authority established in the church.
After the word of God and the Holy Spirit, the next person of
authority in the church is our Pastor.
He has been placed there by Jesus Christ to watch over our souls.
When we are unwilling to recognize him as an authority figure set
up by Christ, we are straying from our Lord’s established plan for the
church.
Heb.
13:17 says: Obey
your leaders, and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls, as
those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with
grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.
As
long as our pastor demonstrates that he submits to the word of God and
lives his life in accordance to the law of Christ, it is our duty to
support and uphold his leading.
When we bypass that authority, seeking after our own desires
instead of submitting to the will of God, we harm the church.
We as a church will never be blessed if we aren’t obedient in all
things that Christ has established.
Christ has set up many to fulfill the church’s purpose.
Every member of the body needs to have a servant’s heart, and be
willing to spend and be spent for the good of others.
It requires commitment, faithfulness, and holiness of life.
It requires sacrifice, but without it, we only hinder the work of
Christ.
A
verse to put it all in perspective:
2
Tim. 2:24-26 And
the Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all,
able to teach, patient when wronged, 25 with
gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may
grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, 26 and
they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil,
having been held captive by him to do his will
The deceiver has been busy seeking to tear down and destroy.
Our hearts are desperately wicked, who can know them?
Many of us have been deceived into thinking there is a better way
to increase the effectiveness of the church.
If we are unwilling to submit to the authorities over us, we can
only expect hardship and disunity.
Just as the world has steadily been declining because of the
rejection of authority, so has the church.
Until we recognize and submit to Christ’s established authority,
we can’t expect God’s blessing on our church.
~GAVIN
Glory Alleluia, Victory is Near!
I
