The Hierarchy of the Local Church Lesson 3: Divine Authority is Delegated through the Word

IV. Divine Authority is Delegated through the Word

The next layer of the hierarchy is the Word of God, “the thinking or mind of our Lord.  This category, the Word, should probably be on the same level as the Lord, because the Word is His thinking, preserved for us in written form: The Bible calls itself the thinking of our Lord in 1 Corinthians 2:16:

ü     For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.  1 Corinthians 2:16

How seriously does He take His word? He puts it above His name or person:

ü     You [referring to human nature of Christ] have magnified Your Word above and beyond Your Person.  Psalm 138:2

          God has placed the highest possible value on the Scripture!  The Word of God is divine phenomenon: it is totally above and beyond what a mere human can even hope to understand.  So once again, God graciously provides us with power to both understand His word, which is power in itself, and power to apply His word.   That power is His provision of the Holy Spirit:

ü     For to us God revealed them (things from verse 9) through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 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. 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… 1 Corinthians 2:10-12

At this point let me bring up a diagram with which most of you are no doubt familiar. 

This graphically illustrates how God the Holy Spirit teaches us.  Now, let me give credit to who credit is due here.  I owe much to Bob Thieme.  I thank God for his ministry.

In this diagram, I want you to note the three issues here: first: for us to understand the Word, we need the power of God the Holy Spirit. Your pastor teaches the Word and you listen, under the ministry of the Spirit.  When you listen to the teaching of the Word of God under the ministry of the Spirit, He is teaching you.  For the Word to reach your human spirit three factors are necessary: first, the Word taught, second, the Spirit’s power, and thirdly, your volition.  Those same three factors that give the Church life also cause you to grow up spiritually.  I’m thinking that you all are familiar with the rest of this doctrine. God’s gifted power to us in the form of His Spirit Holy Spirit transfers the doctrine to your left lobe, your NOUS, where it resides as knowledge.  At this point, your volition is once again a key to the process.  You have to believe the doctrine that you understand. The Spirit takes you to the point of understanding, then you must believe it and once again, the Spirit transfers that doctrine that you believe into your heart or KARDIA. At this point, the Spirit circulates that doctrine through out your soul and you become supercharged, being able to apply the thinking of Jesus Christ to your life.  You are on the way to solving every problem you have.  You are on the way to being able to handle anything life can throw at you…and you can maintain you happiness the whole time.  This is a gift from God.

The Hierarchy of the Local Church Lesson 2: The Head of the Church

       II.            The Headship of Jesus Christ

At the top of the organizational chart is our Lord Jesus Christ, who holds the highest and maximum authority in the Church.  He is the head of the Church.  God the Father gave Him supreme authority over the Church when He gained the victory of the angelic conflict.  He gained this victory by paying the price for every sin of every human being in human history.  He died a substitutionary spiritual death for every person that has ever lived. For this, and for much more, obviously, He is absolutely worthy of all praise, glory and honor we give Him:

ü     Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created. Revelation 4:11

Paul taught His headship by means of the “head and body” analogy in a number of passages: One of these passages is Ephesians 1:22-23:

ü     And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.  Ephesians 1:22-23 NASB

As Head of the Church, Jesus Christ has supreme authority over the Church and all of its functions.

The word order in this verse is important because it underscores the fact of our Lord as our ultimate authority. A more literal translation from the Greek reads like this:

ü     Him He gave as Head over all things to the Church.

Our Lord is strongly emphasized here.

The word “gave” is δίδωμι DIDOMI, in the aorist, active, indicative, third person, singular meaning, “to give.” The Father gave Christ to us, not only as our Savior and Lord, but also as our Head, our supreme Ruler: individually and us collectively as a local Church. The word, “head,” κεφαλή KEPHALE in the Greek, means that in terms of rank He is far above all things.  He is the ultimate in superiority. Obviously, He is superior to us, He is God! 

ü     The first implication that we can draw from His headship over us is His authority over us. After all, we are: His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:10

Paul further delineated His authority over us in Ephesians 1:20-21:

ü     …which [power] He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” Ephesians 1:20-21

The second implication of Headship is the fact of our union with Him.  We studied this in quite a bit of detail in our Sanctification study.  Because we are in union with Him, we share everything He is and does.  The implications of this are staggering! We share His eternal life, righteousness, son-ship, heir-ship, royalty, election, and destiny of Christ, and other factors as well.

The third implication of His headship is that we are always connected to Him.  This implies a certain intimacy, as does our union with Him. The Head and body are always connected with nothing coming between the two. Or else the body would cease to be the body, and the Head cease to be the Head.

The phrase “gave…to the Church” indicates in the Greek that our Lord’s rulership is for our special advantage. This is a dative of advantage. There is no greater advantage than being under the Lord’s authority.

Paul also wrote of our Lord’s authority to the Colossian Church.

ü     He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the Church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.  Colossians 1:17-18

The phrase, “before all things” in the Greek is πρό πᾶς PRO PAS. Because the proposition, PRO is followed by PAS in the ablative case, Paul’s meaning is made plain: Christ’s precedence deals with time, because He preceded everything, having existed in eternity past before anything was created.  This phrase also deals with His preeminence as Creator.  He is before all things in that He is superior to all things.  A better translation from the Greek is this:

ü     And He Himself (great emphasis on He) is (implying divine essential being) before all things.

Since He is before all things, He preexisted time.  So He is from eternity. His headship refers to two factors:  He is ruler over the Church and over each individual within the local Church.  As the Supreme Ruler of the Church, He has delegated authority to and given instruction in the Scripture, which He has designated as His very thinking: “mind or thinking of Christ.”  Now this makes a lot of sense to me. If I owned a business, I would put, in written form, exactly what I want done and how I want it done.  This is what our Lord has done, down through the ages.  He has delegated the authority to communicate this instruction, His Word in the local Church to the pastor-teacher, a man with the spiritual gift of doctrinal communication. 

Earlier in the Church Age, apostles carried the highest authority in the local Church. Actually apostles were over many local Churches, but the spiritual gift of apostleship was withdrawn when the Cannon of Scripture was completed. It doesn’t exist anymore.    There, then, are no authorized layers of authority between the Lord and the pastor of the local Church.  Many denominations are plagued by layers of authority between His and the pastor which interferes with Biblical pastoral authority. Every Church is designed to be autonomous before the Lord, each pastor teacher responsible to the Lord for his congregation.

The Hierarchy of the Local Church Lesson 1: Introduction

A Teaching Manuscript Delivered by Pastor Jim Oliver,

Teleios Bible Church, 2005
Link to PowerPoint Presentation

Contents:

Lesson 1

     Pertinent Passages                                                      

I.            Introduction                                                   

II.            Importance of the Local Church                    

Lesson 2

III.            The Headship of Jesus Christ                        

Lesson 3
IV.            Divine Authority is Delegated Thru the Word                      

Lesson 4   

V.            The Pastor-Teacher                                        

1.                        Purpose                                  

2.                        Shepherd-Teacher                  

3.                        Qualifications                         

4.                        Function                                 

5.                        Authority                               

Lesson 5 

VI.            The Deacons                                                  

1.                        Introduction                           

2.                        Origin                                     

3.                        Vocabulary                             

4.                        Spiritual Gifting                     

5.                        Qualifications                         

Lesson 6
VII.            The Congregation                                          

Conclusion

Pertinent Passages

ü     And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him, and He who fills all in all.  Ephesians 1:22-23 NASB

ü     And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastor-teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.  Ephesians 4:11 NASB

ü     Because of whom, the entire body, being joined together, and being inculcated by every joint of supply on the basis of the operational power, in measure, one pastor-teacher for each part. Ephesians 4:16 RBT

ü     Obey your spiritual leaders and be willing to do what they say, for their work is to watch over your souls, and God will judge them on how well they do this. Give them reason to report joyfully about you to the Lord and not with sorrow, for then you will suffer for it too.  Hebrews 13:17  (TLB)

       I.            Introduction

Because we are a new local Church, we need to understand exactly why our Lord formed the local Church, how God has designed it to function, how He means for it to work and the fantastic categories of power He has supplied for it. Now, many of the overall principles we are going to discuss relate to the entire Church, the Universal Church, but we’re not going to concentrate upon the Universal Church.  However we do need to understand that we are a part of the Church Universal because certain principles that apply to it apply to us as a local Church.

    II.            Importance of the Local Church

Forty days after our Lord ascended, He established the Church Age.  He did this because He was given a third royal patent or commission as Lord of lords and King of kings. He received this royal patent after accomplishing His first advent work and being seated at the right hand of the Father. He received this third royal commission because of the fantastic work He accomplished; achieving the strategic victory of the angelic conflict at the Cross by bearing the sins of the world then being resurrected and as a human being, ascending to the Third Heaven.  His accomplishment on the Cross was the pivotal point of eternal history.  It is the event upon which the dispensations are centered.  It was the most important event, not only in human history, but angelic history as well.  By this explanation I want to impart to you the importance of our existence as a Church.  Jesus Christ formed the Church because of His victory over Satan and his minions.  By the function of the Church and each of its members He extended that victory to us, a part of the universal Church.

In this Church Age, Our Lord delegated to the local Church certain functions previously delegated to theocracy Israel.  Some suggest that the local Church replaces Israel.  I think we all understand the special place Israel has in our Lord’s thinking! Certain functions now belong to the local Church, however, not to the Universal Church. Only to the local Church because the Universal Church includes those residing in heaven and on the earth, whereas the local Church remains on earth, as did Israel. 

In that theocracy our Lord Jesus Christ ruled Israel while her king, if functioning correctly, simply took orders from Him.  As a theocracy, Israel functionally included a vast system of Temple worship, a specific priesthood; the Levitical Priesthood which taught doctrine through both ritual and the spoken Word, and prophets, who foretold the future and taught doctrine.  Israel was also the sole disseminator and guardian of God’s Word and plan for that dispensation.  He replaced all of those functions and responsibilities with two systems of divine power which, when combined with the believer’s volition, your volition, results in the greatest power that has ever been available on this planet to the everyday believer.  These two systems of power combine with the believer’s volition to give the local Church its life and impact. 

When our Lord walked the earth during His first advent, He test drove the first system of power, establishing its limits. Having done so, He bequeathed it to believers in this Church Age.  This power is the filling and resultant empowerment of God the Holy Spirit, with whom He was immediately filled upon His birth.  This power was a gift from the Father to Him, designed to empower His humanity enabling Him to fulfill the unique plan the Father had prepared for Him.  It was by means of this power that He was able to lay aside certain attributes of His divinity, functioning as a human being filled with the Holy Spirit. Under this power He was able to maintain his perfection and integrity, fulfilling the Father’s plan; bearing the punishment of every sin committed throughout human history.  So this is an awesome power. 

The second category of power was that of the Word of God: Bible Doctrine.  Our Lord, when He walked the earth, applied Bible doctrine while empowered with the Spirit giving Him the strength, the thought pattern to maintain His perfection and integrity.  Thus empowering Him to go to the Cross and bear the sins of the entire human race, breaking Satan’s back, gaining the strategic victory of the angelic conflict.  The thought pattern that Bible doctrine imparts to the believer is absolutely awesome.  We are not accustomed to thinking of thought in terms of power, but the very power of God is in His Word.

 These powers are unique to this Church Age and when combined with believer’s positive volition, become the power that runs the local Church.  Without these unique powers, the Church has neither meaning, impact, nor has it any power.  Furthermore, the local Church is the sole guardian and disseminator of both categories of power.  Though we think in terms of the local Church as being an organization, it is not.  It is a living organism powered by two categories of divine power, coupled with believer volition.  As such the local Church has an incredible responsibility toward God relating to the spiritual growth of individual believer, which results in individual tactical angelic conflict victories.  As such the local Church has a tremendous responsibility toward people in its periphery, its local community.  In our study over the next few classes, I want to look at the components of the local Church to gain a better understanding of it in terms of our privileges and responsibilities. Having been girded with this understanding, we will better understand that we, who have who have been given so much, much is expected.

We will be using the hierarchical structure of the local church as the basis of our study.  This diagram illustrates the components of the local Church.  We will be studying them in the form of a hierarchy.