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What are Elders and Why Do We Have Them?

Blog, Church Leadership, SermonsJuly 25, 2008

(This is a summary of the second sermon in the six-part series, “God Gave Pastors and Teachers,” preached on June 15. The audio is available here.) Why do we exist as a church? The glory of God is our goal. This is the reason we exist. We as a church are not able to glorify God in some ways:
  • We won't create galaxies or planets
  • We won't raise up kingdoms and bring them down
But what can we do, by His grace, through His power? Basically there are three ways we glorify God: 1) We worship God corporately: proclaiming and singing and delighting in the glory of God This gives God glory DIRECTLY 2) We proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who don't know Him
  • Through Missions: Reaching ALL NATIONS with the Gospel of the glory of God
  • Through Evangelism: Reaching our neighbors with the Gospel of the glory of God
3) We build up the body of Christ
  • In knowledge
  • In love
  • In faith
  • In Christlikeness
  • In perseverance
We can summarize these three ways in short phrases: We glorify God through:
  • Expressing joy in Christ
  • Spreading joy in Christ
  • Deepening joy in Christ
Thus, elders exist to help the church fulfill the reason for its existence.
  • Through worship
  • Through outreach
  • Through edification
God gives pastors and teachers as gifts to the church, so that the church might become what He intends it to be. The growing, strengthening, thriving, worshiping bride of Christ.

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What is Preaching and Why is it Important?

Blog, Church Leadership, SermonsJuly 25, 2008

(This is a summary of the first sermon in the six-part series, “God Gave Pastors and Teachers,” preached on June 1. The audio is available here.)

The title of this sermon series comes from Ephesians 4:11-14, which says, in part:

He gave the . . . pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

Note that God gives pastors and teachers to the church.

  • They are His gifts, His presents, tokens of His love for the church.
  • They play a key role in equipping God’s people to minister as God intends.
  • They play a key role in guarding the church from waves of false teaching.
  • Thus they play a key role in enabling the church to become the interdependent, smoothly functioning body of Christ Paul describes in Ephesians 4:16.

Five main points:

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Running the Race of Faith

Devotions, Sermons, The Race of FaithJuly 25, 2008
(For a version of this devotion that is easier to print, follow this link.) The Bible is full of images that help us to understand the Christian life: we are part of the army of God, engaged in battle; we are part of the body of Christ; we are Christ's ambassadors, his envoys, representing him in this world; we are a building, being built up into Christlikeness; we are branches, Christ is the vine; we are the bride of Christ; we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. All of these analogies are rich and useful. My favorite analogy, however, compares the Christian life to running a race. This analogy is not common throughout the Bible, but Paul loves it, as he uses the running and racing image at least nine times in his epistles. In addition, the author of Hebrews uses the analogy once. The analogy is particularly rich for me because I am a product of the running boom. I grew up during a period when mile world records would be the lead headline of the sports section; when an American set two of those world records; when 100,000 fans filled a stadium to witness a track meet between the US and the Soviet Union. Then came the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. That summer, as a 16 year old who had been running competitively for less than two years, I watched Jim Ryun, the mile world record holder and my boyhood hero, fall in his 1500 meters heat and thus fail to make the final; I watched Steve Prefontaine, an American runner only five years my senior, make a game effort to win Olympic gold in the 5k; and, most importantly, I watched Frank Shorter demolish the field to win the Olympic marathon. After those Olympics, millions of Americans began running, many hoping to complete a marathon. Every teenage boy in the country who was already running competitively began to dream of mile world records and marathon victories. I was no exception.

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Submission and Disagreement

Devotions, Reading Recommendations, SermonsJuly 19, 2008
(For a version of this devotion that is easier to print, follow this link.)

In Sunday’s sermon, we looked at Hebrews 13:17, which reads in the NIV:

Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.

In discussing this verse, I said, “Submission only comes into play when there is a disagreement.”

Several of you have asked (respectfully and submissively!) if this is correct, particularly considering that God the Son submits to God the Father. Surely there is no disagreement between them!

This is an excellent point, and many thanks for the input. I’ll correct my statement briefly next Sunday; here let me elaborate on the idea more fully than will be possible in the sermon. Consider first the nature of God the Son’s submission to God the Father:

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Elijah and the Priests of Baal

Blog, Devotions, SermonsJune 19, 2008
As part of my devotions this morning from the Bible Unity Reading Plan, I read the story of Elijah and the priests of Baal from 1 Kings 18. The king of Israel is apostate, worshiping false gods, the Baals and the Asherim. The people – though they were chosen as special to the Lord a thousand years previously, and though their very name, Israel, was given by God (see verse 31) – are “limping between two opinions” (verse 21); not really knowing who is mighty, they are trying to cover all bases by worshiping both Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel, and the local Canaanite deities. So Elijah tells them this makes no sense. Either Yahweh is God or He is not. If He is God, follow Him; if Baal is god, follow him (verse 21). Yahweh’s claims are exclusive: “Know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that Yahweh is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other” (Deuteronomy 4:39). He won’t share the pantheon with other supposed gods. Elijah therefore sets up a contest on Mt Carmel between Yahweh and Baal through their representatives: Himself on the one hand and the 450 priests of Baal on the other. Both build altars, kill bulls, and prepare the bulls to be burned as a sacrifice, but neither is to set the wood of the altar on fire. “And the God who answers by fire, He is God” (verse 24). Interestingly enough, the priests of Baal are amenable to this. Do they really believe Baal will answer? Or do they anticipate that neither offering will be burned, and they will win simply by force of numbers?

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