The Autonomous Church
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This morning I’d like to offer you a visual example of what it means to be Baptist by an Acrostic.
“The BAPTISTS acrostic was developed in the early 1960s by Dr. L. Duane Brown when he was pastor of Pine Valley Baptist Church, Pine Valley, N.Y.”
Has anyone ever heard of Pine Valley, NY? I am just wondering because this acrostic is appreciated by so many Baptist churches today and his church is just 45 minutes from our doorstep.
Pine Valley, NY is located between Horseheads, NY and Watkins Glen, NY, roughly 34 miles from us.
Brown was a graduate of Baptist Bible Seminary, and he developed this, and it helps.
https://www.garbc.org/news/who-invented-the-b-a-p-t-i-s-t-distinctives/
Some of these we have already looked at:
B Biblical Authority
A Autonomy of the Local Church
P Priesthood of the Believer
T Two Ordinances
I Individual Soul Liberty
S Saved Church Membership
T Two Officers (Offices)
S Separation of Church and State
This morning I want to talk about two things: the Autonomy of the local church, and the Two Offices held in a Baptist church.
I would like to start, by reading to you a part of our statement of faith. Under the section entitled, Separation of Church and State is reads:
We believe that each local church is self-governing in function and must be free from interference by any ecclesiastical or political authority. We further believe that every human being is directly responsible to God in matters of faith and life and that each one should be free to worship God according to the dictates of his or her conscience.
(Rom. 12:1-2; 14:13; 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1)
I don’t know if you know it or not, but those two sentences are just packed with information about what we believe. We will only have time to look at part of the first sentence this morning, which reads:
“We believe that each local church is self-governing in function and must be free from interference by any ecclesiastical authority.”
As Baptists we call this idea: the Autonomy of the local church.
“Autonomy” is from the Greek, autonomia, a compound of autos, “self,” and nomos, “law.” Thus, it means “self-governing.”
The Oxford dictionary adds to this by saying it this way: “Freedom from external control or influence; that of having independence.”
Let me show you some examples in history of some people who wanted to be autonomous...
There was once “The Autonomous States of America (the ASA) which was the government set up from 1865 to 1871 by 13 southern autonomous states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S. The ASA's de facto control over its claimed territory varied during the course of the American Civil War, depending on the success of its military in battle.
Asserting that states had a right to secede, three states declared their independence from the United States before the inauguration of Robert E. Lee as President on March 4, 1865; two more did so after the Civil War began at the Battle of Fort Jackson (April 1865).
http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/Autonomous_States_of_America_(Our_Revolution)
Heres another - “In 2012, a series of online petitions were launched on the, WhiteHouse.gov - "We the People" electronic petitioning system, asking for succession for various states; the petition for Texas garnered the most signatures, quickly garnering the 25,000 necessary to trigger a response from an Obama administration official. The petitions were largely in response to President Obama's reelection in the 2012 presidential election. The petitions prompted others visitors to launch "counter-petitions, asking that the president stop states from seceding" or to deport secessionists. The petitions were started by individual citizens, not by the states themselves, and have no legal standing.
There were eventually secession petitions set up for all fifty states, with six (Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia and Texas) reaching the 25,000 threshold. The Texas secession e-petition ultimately received the most e-signatures, almost 126,000.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_state_petitions_for_secession
Even more recently, an article posted in January of this year reported: “A proposal for California to secede from the United States, which was submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office. A poll found that one in three California residents would support a possible secession from the U.S. due to their opposition to President Trump. No mention has been made of the president in the proposal.”
The reason I bring all this up is to ask you a question, what would it take for a state to be autonomous or self governing?
Well it would have to be self governing, in that there must be leadership put in place by the autonomous state. The state would also have to be self funded because it no longer would get financial support from the other 49 states. And lastly it would have to be self propagating. In other words, it would have to be able to reproduce itself. Failure to reproduce would mean that it would fail to exist.
In the same way, when we think about the Autonomy of the local church, these three things, are the three main ingredients, to an autonomous local church.
It must be self governing, it must be self supported, and it must be self propagating.
In regards to being self supporting, as a local Baptist church, we are self supporting. We have made a covenant with each other, when we became members to support the ministry of the local church through the giving of money.
That is why we take time every Sunday to pass the offering plate. Those monies pay for the upkeep of the building, pay for heat and electricity, and pay the Pastor for ministering to the people through the Word of God.
God reminds us in Malachi 3:10 how important tithing is:
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.”
God is simply reminding us that He deserves our first portion. It is he who gave us life, who gave us the ability to work and find work, he is deserving to receive the best portion of our monies through the tithe, which is the offering, so that His work and His name may continue to be glorified.
Church, it doesn’t take long for someone to realize, that if the people in the church are not giving back to God what is rightfully his, the ministry will die. He says simply test me. Bring me my portion and I will show you just how powerful I truly am because you will be blessed till it overflows from your life.
An Autonomous state or country must receive a portion from the people to remain autonomous. We believe that this church, should be reliant on its membership to keep these doors open and to keep the Word of the Lord alive in this town. We take that responsibility on ourselves.
The second part of being autonomous is that the church is self propagating. In other words, the church should grow and reproduce itself. Turn with me to Matthew 16:13
“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”
15 He *said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Here is the verse we want to dwell on:
17 “And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
What is Jesus saying? In other words, Peter only knew that Jesus was the Son of God because God the Father opened Peter’s eyes to it.
Let me remind you of our key verse a couple weeks back in 1 Corinthians 2 - Hold your lace here in Matthew and Flip to 1 Corinthians 2.
I was going to take the time to read the entire chapter, but I had to cut out a lot of information from my sermon today, so I would ask you to bookmark this chapter and come back to it.
1 Corinthians 2 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
10 For to us - God - revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,
13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.”
Here was our key verse:
14 “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
So in other words, when Christ said in Matthew 16:17 “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven....” you got to ask...
It is impossible! Salvation is a supernatural work in response to a supernatural book where God moves into the heart of person and reveals to him what no man could understand without him.
Therefore, Christ continues in Matthew 16 verse 18 “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock (Christ is pointing to himself) I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”
So, how will the autonomous church propagate or grow? By the work of Christ himself.
Practically speaking, we need to be involved as best we can, with the work of the ministry, but we also need to leave the results of this work up to God!
Our first responsibility is to obey, not be creative. Not do things our way with all our earthly wisdom, but to obey! If God says teach the Word of God... Then we teach his Word!
If the Bible says to love as Christ loved us… then that is what we do! I believe the church will be filled as He sees fit! For it is His church! It was built on Jesus Christ for His glory!
So if we stay under 30 people because we preach the Words of God… So be it!
I’m Ok with that. But the self propagation of a church, its ability to reproduce and grow, has very little to do with our wisdom, and whole lot to do with His Spirit.
The best we can hope for is that we don’t stand in His way. That we can’t be blessed because there is sin in our midst. We need the Spirit here. He comes as we lean on him for all our growth and understanding.
Proverbs 3 Turn there with me:
1 My son, do not forget MY teaching, But let your heart keep MY commandments;
2 For length of days and years of life And peace they will add to you.
3 Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 So you will find favor and good repute
In the sight of God and man.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
8 It will be healing to your body And refreshment to your bones.
9 Honor the Lord from your wealth And from the first of all your produce;
10 So your barns will be filled with plenty And your vats will overflow with new wine.
Amen?
Church, blessings come from obedience to the Word of God, and from a sincere heart willing to take part in sacrificial giving. Put away the notion that God can’t use you or won’t use you. If you will give Him first place in your life, this church will grow…
And I don’t mean just in numbers, but more importantly, you will grow. You will see for yourself how God truly blesses those who love him and serve him with their whole heart!
He will fill your barns with plenty…. He will heal your body… He will fill your life with new wine, with joy and gladness of heart.
He will do it… He will propagate this church and move it into the next generation as He so desires. We just have to obey.
Lastly, an autonomous church must be self governing.
I found this story recently of a young woman retelling a family story, she writes:
One day my mother was out... and my dad was in charge of me. I was maybe 2 1/2 years old and had just recovered from an accident.
Someone had given me a little 'tea set' as a get-well gift and it was one of my favorite toys.
Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news when I brought Daddy a little cup of "tea," which was just water.
After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my Mom came home.
My Dad made her wait in the living room to watch me bring him a cup of tea, because it was "just the cutest thing!"
My Mom waited, and sure enough, here I come down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy... and she watched HIM drink it up.
Then she says, (as only a mother would know . . ... )
"Did it ever occur to you that the only place she can reach to get water is the toilet?"
Yuck! I think Daddy got what Daddy deserved...
You see, in this story, the child was free to function and govern her own affairs without intervention from any authority. Now, should the child have been free to function without oversight?
No. Not a good idea.
There is a need for oversight to watch over the “immature” or “unaware child,” to protect them, nurture them, and love them as scripture clearly teaches. All of that can happen inside a healthy family, a family that God instituted, in His way.
The same goes for a church, we are a family called the local body of believers. Not all of us are mature. We are commanded to love each other, to admonish one another, and to teach one another.
So, speaking more directly for an example: If any teacher, Sunday school, or children’s church, is offering... “tea cups of toilet water” in their teaching… Hopefully, those of you that are mature, like the overseers in the church - the Dad if you will from our example - need to respond, and lovingly show them the truth that they need to follow.
If that teacher needs to be discharged from their duty, so that we are not offering up to anyone any more toilet water, than we are capable of doing so. We are autonomous, self governing, and empowered to do so.
What this stands on, is what we talked about last week. That is, we are the priesthood of believers. We... every member here, who knows the Lord, has been given the Spirit of God that enables them to be able to read and understand the Bible and to know solid doctrine from false doctrine.
Galatians 6:1 “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, (is teaching false doctrine a trespass? I think so…) you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.”
Sometimes it takes a very spiritually mature believer to restore a brother from his errors. There is a certain amount of patience, grace, and kindness that is needed to allow the Spirit to convict the soul as needed.
And if for some reason any man, in any scenario, who is caught in sin, is unrepentant, than God gave us instructions in how to maintain order.
I say maintain order as a way of connecting it to self government, but discipline is needed in an autonomous state, or church.
The very fact that God gave us this right is a sign that any church can be autonomous. We read about this in Matthew 18:15
15 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, (take it to the Bishop…no) let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
In other words, the local church has the authority to remove a unrepentant brother from the church. There is no higher authority on earth that the church needs to go to.
Now, some churches, on the other hand, like the Catholic faith, the Anglicans, the Episcopalians, and the United Methodists for example, take leadership to a higher human authority outside of the local church.
Instead of having two offices in the church, they have three. Let me provide you with an example from the United Methodists:
“Methodists follow an episcopal form of church government. With a few exceptions, congregations are not independent and autonomous, but are controlled to a large extent by bishops which oversee conferences of churches.
Two key words used in the United Methodist Church are "connectional" and "appointive," meaning all UMC congregations are connected in a network of counsels and legal relationships and the bishop has final appointive authority.
The annual conference is composed of all the churches in a particular region, and the bishop of the conference ordains the pastors of the local churches and supervises many aspects of local church life and doctrine.
There is also a general conference composed of representatives of all churches which meets every four years.
One Methodist pastor described the polity of his denomination this way:
"Local churches do not have final control over their pulpits. United Methodist bishops have the right to send any pastor to any church. While the wishes of the local church are often duly considered, this is not always so. Local churches have no protection against pastors who, regardless of their theology, are approved and supported by the hierarchy."
The denominational system even owns the property of the local church under modern liberal Methodist practice.”
http://wheelockumc.weebly.com/methodist-church-beliefs-and-practices.html
You see, under their form of government, if the pastor is bringing you... toilet water to drink from… and if, for some reason...I don’t know why... you desire to stay connected to the church, then you got to drink the water.
The church body does not have the right or the power over the person who is in the pulpit. A Bishop, who oversees multiple churches, carries that authority.
But I say all of that, to reinforce to you, that we believe as Baptists, that scripture clearly teaches, that there is no such authority over this church besides Christ himself.
If I start offering you toilet water, as an autonomous church, you can dismiss me as fast as you brought me in. This church, as are most Baptist churches, is Autonomous - self governing.
So let me establish all this with some scripture:
Ephesians 5:15 “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil. (It is getting obvious, isn’t it)
17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;
20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; 21 and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.
22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
Here is the verses to see in context-
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to (the Bishop?….NO) TO Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.”
So we see that Christ is the head of the church, over the assembly of believers, and likewise the church is subject to Christ. There is no other authority over the church or churches for which we as a body are subject to.
So if there is not any other office above the church other than Christ, then where do we see the other two offices in Scripture?
Turn to
1 Timothy 3:1 “It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. 2 An overseer, then, must be above reproach,...” and so forth, you can read that on your own time.
If you have a KJV it says Bishop, I don’t know where they got that word, but… either way it means overseer. One who oversees the work.
Skip to verse 8
8 “Deacons likewise must be men of dignity,...” and so on.
Church, these are the two offices. Overseers, and Deacons.
So the order goes, Christ, who is the Head of the church - Then Office #1 Overseer, those who watch over the flock - Then Office #2 Deacons who serve the flock- and then the ones being cared for, the congregation.
Now, is anyone thinking, where is the position of Pastor? Well the Pastor is an Overseer. He works as one called to shepherd the flock. He oversees it, looks out for it, he teaches the flock. I don’t think this is a new revelation for you, so I’m going to move on.
Is anyone thinking, where then is the Elder? I didn’t see Elder on that list either… The Elders are also an Overseer. What is interesting is that the word Elder is actually a descriptive word for an Overseer, let me explain.
Look at verse 1 of Timothy 3, that word Overseer, is a noun. What is a noun?
It is a word used to identify any of a class of people, places, or things.
In the Greek, it is the word - epískopos: (ep-is-kop-ay') meaning an overseer; a man called by God to literally "keep an eye on" His flock (the Church, the body of Christ), to provide personalized (first hand) care and protection for it. Its focus is upon the responsibility for caring for others in side the local church.
Turn with me to Titus 1:5
5 For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders (plural - let me rabbit trail here for a second… there can be more than one elder in a church, that’s biblical. If you have a small church, like we do, there may be a need to have all Elders. If we grow to 7000 people like the church in Acts… ummm we will need Deacons to help serve the people. Right now, we are not that big…)
I have become so grateful for the Elders of this church. Men who have stood side by side with me to allow me to be an intern, and to grow. I think you are awesome! You men are doing a good, God honoring work.
Anyway, verse 5 “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you, 6 namely, if any man is above reproach… and so on.
The word Elders in the Greek is an adjective.
Who knows what the an adjective is? An Adjective- is a word or phrase naming an attribute, added to or grammatically related to a noun to modify or describe it.
The word Elder is the word- presbýteros (pres-boo'-ter-os)
– the word describes a mature man having seasoned judgment (experience).
In other words, the importance of the word Elder is not in his authoritative position, but in his character traits as a man of God.
He is an Elder, a mature man seasoned with experience… If the Bible just said… appoint men in every town… they may not be the specific type of men Paul is looking for. Elder is a descriptive word of a very specific kind of man.
So when you read the complete sentence beginning in Titus 1:5, we are looking for the noun to which Elder is the description of that noun, so where is?
5 For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you, 6 namely, if any man”... there’s the noun! Paul continues then to describe what he means by the type of man an Elder is in verse 6 and so on.
Now Turn with me to 1 Peter 5
5 Therefore, I exhort the elders (adjective, same word) among you, as your “fellow elder.”
This “Fellow Elder” is actually one word and it occurs only 1 time in NT, the word is sympresbyteros - (soom-pres-boo'-ter-os) -now... it is a noun - defined perfectly as a fellow elder.
Meaning that Peter is claiming his identification with men who are of the stock of Elders, men who are Elders and are “Eldering” if you will.
“Eldering” is not a word, but to understand this better, there is another transitional word in our english that works the same way... For example -“Leading,” is an adjective - it describes - what is most important.
If you are leading, you are at the top, you are the guide, you are in leadership, it describes a man by what he is doing, he is leading.
Now you could say, does that also not make him a Leader? Yes, the word Leader is a noun. Same word, describes what he is and what he is doing. That is what the word Elder is like. Elder is what he is in as much as what he does.
Ultimately, we know that an Elder, noun or adjective carries with it what Peter describes in verse 2, the descriptive role of an overseer…
For Verse 2 says, “shepherd” (the word from which pastor comes from, how a pastor is described, an Elder is also described this way) “Shepherd the flock of God among you, (so an Elder is of the same office as a Pastor) exercising oversight (He is from 1 Timothy 3, an Overseer - or Bishop - again same office as Pastor) not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness;
3 nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.”
So where other churches or denominations are confused about the Bishop or Overseer being higher in authority and different than a Pastor or Elder, we see no difference. All three words, although different in the Greek, all speak directly to the oversight of one church in a very descriptive way.
So as we conclude, as Baptists, we have an Autonomous church, one that is self governing, having two offices, one that is self supported, by its own membership, and one that is self propagating, in that Christ builds his church as He sees fit, assuming we are obeying him in everything.
When I come back from vacation we will talk about the last couple of Baptist Distinctives we have left. That of Separation from church and State, and Individual Soul Liberty.
I hope you are looking forward to hearing from the Elders in the next two weeks. They will be bringing the word of God to you. I know they are eager to share with you what God has laid on their hearts.
Let’s Pray.