Baptist Distinctives: The Offices of the Church

I tell you what, when he comes, he will turn it around. I

promise you that. Looking forward to the day he does return.

Turn your way in your Bibles to Luke chapter six. And we're going

to be in three different verses tonight. And we'll read this

one to start and then we'll be in Ephesians 4 and Acts chapter 6.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

Baptist distinctives. I'm guessing that all the, the sheets

I passed out and had up there in the bookstore are gone. And I'll

try to get, I'll make sure by next Sunday there's a next Wednesday

there's some more that all 12 the Baptist distinctives are on there.

And so next Wednesday night, I hope that you'll at least grab one,

keep it around somewhere and remember this group of lessons. And

so tonight's a real simple one. It's on the three offices of

the church. Yes, there was originally three offices, not two.

So we'll talk about that tonight. The office of the apostle,

office of pastor and office of deacon. And I kind of in my office

today, as I was studying again the subject, I thought about, well,

all our church families coming here tonight. Our core group is going

to be here tonight. This is more of a Sunday school lesson and

not as much application, but I do think there are some things in

here you could take from tonight and grow from, but also just

some misnomers, some misunderstanding, some non biblical

views of these offices. And so maybe that'll help you as well to

kind of solidify what does the Bible say about apostles? What does

the Bible say about pastors? And what does the Bible say about

deacons? And you could really preach a message on each one of these

subjects. So Luke, chapter six. Luke, chapter six. I guess I

ought to turn there. Let's look at verse 13. And when it was

day, he called unto his disciples. And of them he chose 12,

whom also he named apostles Simon, whom he also named Peter and

Andrew, his brother James, John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew

and Thomas and James, the son of Alphaeus and Simon called Zelotes

and Judas, the brother of James and Judas Iscariot, which also

was the traitor. So here the apostles were chosen out of them.

Out of them. Who was the them? We've already studied that. The them

was the church that Christ had already established. And so let's

pray. Heavenly Father, again we thank you for your word. We pray

tonight. And as we look at the offices of the church, Lord, may

you again encourage us and strengthen us in Jesus name. Amen.

The Baptist distinctives are a collection of biblical truths Unique

to Baptists. It's not again, that some of these doctrines or some

of these teachings are taught by other churches and other denominations,

but it's the collection of them, all of them put together is

unique to Baptists, to the Baptist, to historic Baptist faith.

And I believe, again, if I didn't believe Baptists were as close

to the Bible, doctrinally, as close to the Bible as what the Bible

is intended to mean, and it's an interpretation, then I would be

something else. I would be a Lutheran or I'd be a Methodist, or

I'd be a Catholic or whatever else there is. But I believe without

a shadow of a doubt, not one little iota of an inkling in my mind

that it is Baptists who are as close to the Bible as you can get.

And I'm so thankful for that. I'm glad that I'm Baptist born Baptist,

when I'll be Baptist dead anyway. Churches, we churches are

to be caretakers of God's truth, caretakers of biblical truth.

We are the pillar and ground of the truth, and so we are to do

those things. Second Timothy two, two is kind of our theme verse

for this study. Paul said to Timothy, the things that thou hast

heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to

faithful man who shall be able to teach others also. So the things

that he was taught, Paul says, the things that you were taught,

the things, the doctrines, all the biblical truth, you were taught

the same teach to others. Not what you think, not tradition. No,

you're going to teach the very same thing to others also. And so

we don't have the right to change what the Bible says. We don't

have the right to say, well, there's not enough water here, so

we're just going to sprinkle somebody for baptism. We're just

going to pour on somebody for baptism. No, no, no. The Bible makes

it very, very, very, very clear that baptism is by immersion

only. In fact, the word baptism means. Baptism means to dunk,

to plunge, to go under. And so we don't have the right to change

what the Bible says. Doesn't matter that some hierarchy has made

some decision, and some guy in a big, you know, big house somewhere

over in Italy decides that something means something else. No,

he doesn't get to decide. The Bible is clear. The Bible. We are

to follow what the Bible says the same commit thou to the to faithful

men in the Bible. There are three New Testament church offices,

the apostle, pastor and deacon. So let's look at the word

apostle first. The word Apostle means sent one. Sent one.

We just read where the apostles were chosen. They were chosen.

They were chosen out of them. And the of them is the church that

Christ established. Remember Matthew, chapter 16, verse 18. Jesus

Matthew 16:18

said to Peter, thou art Peter, upon this rock I will build my church,

speaking of himself. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against

it, and so forth. And so Christ took the materials that John

the Baptist had prepared. And as John the Baptist gathered these

materials. I'm talking about people now, not building material.

But as John the Baptist gathered converts, he was gathering

those converts, those to be saved and baptized, who would become

a part of the first church that Christ established. It was John

the Baptist who prepared the way. Look over in Mark, chapter one,

verse one. If you get there before I do anyway, I'll go ahead

and read it. But Mark, chapter one, verse one and two and three,

says the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of

God, verse 2. I'll give you a little time. Again, John the Baptist,

the forerunner of Christ. He was the one preparing the way for

Christ that was prophesied in Isaiah 40 and a couple other spots

in the Old Testament. John the Baptist would make the way, verse

two, as is written in the prophets. Behold, I send my messenger

before thy face, which shall prepare the way before thee. It's

found in Isaiah 40, the voice of one crying in the wilderness,

prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight. And

John did baptize in the wilderness and preached the baptism

of repentance for the remission of sins. And there went

out unto him all the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem, and

were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their

sins. And so John the Baptist was the fourth forerunner of Jesus

Christ. Born six months prior to Jesus, started his ministry six

months prior to Jesus Christ, and again gathering, preaching the

gospel, preaching. The Messiah is coming. The Messiah's coming.

And then the Messiah is here. Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh

away the sins of the world and baptizing them, prepared the materials

of the first church, prepared by John the Baptist. That includes

the apostles, by the way, all of them. Again, when Matthew's at

the seat of customs and he's collecting taxes, and Jesus walks

by and says, follow me. I'm gonna make you fishers of men. Matthew

gets up and he follows him. Sometimes we get the idea that Matthew

didn't know who Jesus was. Jesus was. Matthew wasn't following

Jesus blindly. He'd already been converted and won by John the

Baptist. He knew Who Jesus was. And when Jesus walked by, he

followed the Master. So again, I think you need context to kind

of get this down, that these apostles, all of them, all of them

were converted and baptized by John the Baptist. I'll give you some

proof text here in a moment. We see in 1 Corinthians 12:28 that

1 Corinthians 12:28

he placed first in the church, the apostles. We won't turn there,

but that's your proof text again, that the church was in existence

when he chose the apostles. First Corinthians 12:28. You can't

1 Corinthians 12:28

place something in something that doesn't exist. So he placed

in the church first. Apostles. Apostles. And so when the apostles

were replacing Judas. I do want you to turn to this one. This

will help you, I think. Acts, chapter one. Turn over. Acts, chapter

one. Remember now, Judas, Judas Iscariot, betrayed Christ.

He was one of the apostles. And he. He. He died, hung himself.

We want to read that part of it where he burst asunder and his

boughs came out. The Bible's pretty graphic. And then it's called

the Field of blood. Anyway, as kids, you like to read that part.

Like, that's so gross. That's awesome. The bad guy loses. I love

it. When some of y' all were here when Brother Avery Henderson

preached about Pontius Pilate, and Pontius Pilate apparently committed

suicide by riding a donkey off a cliff. And Brother Henderson said

that in one of his Christmas messages. And I was like, I never

heard that before. And I went and researched it, and sure enough,

you go read about it. It's there. History proves that that Pontius

Pilate killed himself by riding a donkey off a cliff. That's.

What a way to die. Just. That's random. That's. For your free

information, look at Acts, chapter 1, verse 20. For it is written

Acts 1:20

in the book of the Psalms. Let his habitation be desolate, and let

no man dwell therein. And his bishopric. Let another take. This

is talking about Judas now. All right, so again, let his habitation

be desolate. Talking about Judas and then his apostleship. Let

another take wherefore of These men, verse 21, which have accompanied

with us all the time, that the Lord Jesus went in and out among

us. So he's given the qualifications here. You had to have

walked in and out with Jesus Christ. In other words, you had to

walk with Jesus. Not like we walk with Jesus spiritually, but

physically. You had to have walked with Jesus in order to qualify

to be an apostle. Look at this. Verse 22, beginning from the

baptism of John. What does that mean. It means that you had

to be there in the beginning when John was baptizing to be an

apostle, you had to be there. All the apostles were converts of

John the Baptist, and the two they nominate were also converts

of John the Baptist. So look at again, verse 22, beginning from

the baptism of John under that same day that we was, that he was

taken up from us. Must one be ordained to be a witness with us

of his resurrection? What does that mean? It means that you had,

in order to be an apostle, you had to have seen Jesus and company

with him after his resurrection. Again, not like we

do by faith, physically had to see him, physically had to be taught

by him. We only have a very little minute detail of all the teaching

Jesus did in those 40 days. He did a lot. We know that. It's inferred.

And so that person would need to have been there. And part of that.

So there's your proof text again, that to be an apostle there

was qualifications. And one of those qualifications was to be there

in the beginning when John the Baptist was baptizing. I believe

that infers that you had to be baptized by John the Baptist. And

then you prove it out by knowing that these apostles were

indeed baptized by John the Baptist. So tasked. The apostles

were tasked with finishing and getting the church age fully launched.

So it's the apostles who took up the banner that Jesus had begun

of launching the church and the church age. The church age. Right.

So we were in the Old Testament economy. Now we're launching

the New Testament economy. We were underneath an Old Testament

program. Now we're under the New Testament program. And it's the

apostles who are going to carry on that transition that's taking

place. We've always used a bridge as an analogy. But a bridge

transfers you from one side of a gulf to another. And that's what

the Old and New Testament is. And the apostles were part of that

bridge to help you get from the Old Testament to the New Testament

program. Part of that was the sign gifts, the gifts of tongues,

the gifts of prophecy, the gifts, these special gifts were part

of that transition to help the Jews, especially the Jews, understand

that we were going from one economy to the next. We were going

from the Old Testament to the New Testament. We know also that

again, it's like the church going from a child to adult. That

transition taking place over the period of years from A.D. 33

to A.D. 100. The church in transition, Paul and Barnabas were

functioned as apostles. We know that Paul says he was born,

born out of due time. You say, well, did Paul know John the Baptist?

Absolutely. Did Paul talk with Jesus? Well, apparently he did it

for part of three years, and there's so much there. And so Paul

and Barnabas were a part of that apostleship, if you would. All

right, so the church office of the apostle was a temporary office.

There are no apostles today because no one would qualify to be

an apostle. The apostles were tasked by Christ to help believers

to make the transition from the Old Testament program to the

New Testament program. It speaks again that the apostles were

to testify of the resurrection of Christ. Why? Because they had

seen him, physically seen him after his resurrection. They're part

of that 500, part of that. Other groups that have seen Jesus

after his resurrection. And they were to again testify as a resurrection.

They were to affirm salvation by grace through faith. What did

Paul do over and over and over again? Reaffirm that salvation was

not found in what we do, but what Jesus did on the cross. And

he reaffirmed it over and over again. And we know the apostles,

all the apostles did that again. The apostles especially helped

the Jew to make the transition from the Old Testament economy. They

were to make that. Help make that transmission, a transition for

the Jew, especially from worshiping in the temple to that

of the church. Can you imagine the difference? You know, here we

were having to come to the temple with our sacrifice and have

the priests make that sacrifice and watch the blood run,

run down and watch the. Watch the blood be sprinkled on the altar

and watch an animal die. No longer have to do any of that. The

final sacrifice had been made. And it's the apostles who were helping

with that transition, preaching the resurrection of Jesus

Christ, preaching and affirming that Jesus Christ was indeed

the Messiah and that he rose from the dead and helping the Jew

especially, again make the transition. We see this in Acts,

Acts 8:1

chapter 8, verse 1. If you want to look these verses up later.

We see this in Ephesians 2, verses 19 through 22, which is one

Ephesians 2:19–22

of my favorite passages, where it says, we're no longer two. There's

no longer Jew and Gentile, but one and the same under the fellowship

of God, under. Under the household of God. And that we come

together as a church to make a holy habitation unto God. In other

words, we're here to have a home that the Lord will feel comfortable

in. And showing up in our church, isn't that amazing? It's

a spiritual house. It's no longer physical. Each one of us represent

a lively stone. A stone. And we have built up this spiritual house.

And then as we build the spiritual house and we make the Holy

Spirit comfortable, he'll make himself evident he's promised to

be here. I always remind you that he says, where two or more gather

together, he'll be there. But it doesn't mean he has to make himself

evident. What we want is for the Holy Spirit to feel at home and

for him to make himself evident in our services. And we do

that by every. Every church member ought to be here at every

service. I'm preaching to people who are not here, every church

member how to spend and walk and spend time and walk with Jesus

during the week, show up to church, not necessarily every time

needing their gas tank full. You know, sometimes we do get wore

down and beat down by the world during the week, and we come

on Wednesday night to get a charge. And it is important and that's

part of it. But as we walk with the Lord, we want to come to

church having already spent time with the Lord, walking with

him, having already prayed for the services and prayed for the pastor

as he preaches and praying that God would show up in a special

way, a holy habitation of the Lord. So again, the apostles were

there to help the Jewish make that transition from the temple to

the church. And then the apostles were there to set up church

governance, church polity. In other words, they were there to rectify

and help the church set up the governance, how services to be handled

and how the Lord's Supper is to be handled. Remember how Paul

addressed these things in his Epistles. How are we to handle squirmishes

and schisms in the church? How do we handle open sin in the church?

Think about Corinthians. And we have Matthew and Corinthians both

giving us understanding of how to handle a problem in the church.

By the way, we ought to handle problems of the church biblically.

Amen. Instead of talking about somebody, why don't you go to them

one on one, as the Bible says, and try to get that thing resolved.

Amen. Just, just, just quoting the Bible. So good. And then lastly,

it was the apostles who authored or authorized the 27 New

Testament books. So we know there are four writers who weren't

apostles, but all the rest of them were apostles. And the four

writers who weren't apostles was John Mark. Well, I mean, who's

John Mark? Well, he hung out with Paul for a little while, and

then they had a little problem. And then. But we know later

on Paul said, john is a good guy. You know, he goes on and they

get. They get back together. And God's good, right? So you have

John, Mark, you have Luke the physician. You have James and Jude,

both half brothers of Jesus. But it was the apostles who either

wrote the New Testament, authorized and put the New Testament

together. That's why at the end of Book of Revelations, it says,

don't add to or take away from this book. It was John the apostle

and other apostles who determined what books would be a

part of the New Testament. That is an apostle. The apostleship

was a transitional office. Anybody see that? If somebody says

today they're an apostle, they're not. Second Corinthians.

I'm sorry. Number two is pastor. All right. The word pastor,

there are three different terms. As we've said before, we've

covered a little bit of this already. But the word. But the prominent

title is pastor. Why is the prominent title pastor? And even

today, most men who hold the office that I hold are called pastors,

most of them. And that's because of the shepherd analogy.

And pastor, it means shepherd. And so that analogy is mentioned

over and over again, not only by the apostles and the writers of

the New Testament, but Jesus Christ himself, talking about the

church being a flock, that he is the shepherd of the flock. And

so to set up on the Old Testament presentation of the shepherd

and their role, but also, again, Christ. Using that same analogy,

the word elder means. Basically means maturity. You think

of an elder, you think of someone who is older. I won't go

into that tonight. We already mentioned Brother Renz and Brother

Clovis the other night. Won't mention their names, but we think

of maturity when we think of elder. So this word does not necessarily

mean older. This word means mature. And it doesn't necessarily

mean somebody mature physically, but it means. Means somebody

mature spiritually. Spiritually. So it's not negative

against a young pastor, if you would. But any young pastor who takes

a pastorate would be. You would. You would. If you hung around

them. You want to be able to characterize them seemingly older.

Does that make sense? Okay. In other words, in conduct and judgment,

they are mature. So I mean, again, the Bible says, let no man

despise thy youth. So I don't want to say like that. It's not saying

that a young person, a young man, couldn't pastor. But they do

need to be a certain amount of maturing there in order for them

to pastor. And all of us in this room would agree that that maturity

in the last 20 or 30 years has changed. It has changed drastically

in my Opinion. And so there needs to be some time for most young

men to do some more maturing. And we see this all over and there's

ample opportunity in this day and age. So again, Bishop, elder

means mature. All right. And then lastly, Bishop, the word bishop

means overseer. And we know that First Peter speaks about the

pastor as being to take the oversight of the church. I do want

you to turn to this scripture as well. First Peter, chapter two.

First Peter, chapter two. Because I want you to see these scriptures

again. What is a pastor? What is he to do? What does he should

be doing? Well, again, these three names, Pastor, elder, bishop,

describe the office of a pastor. First Peter, chapter two.

Look with me in verse number 25. All right. So it says, for ye

were as sheep going astray, but ye are now returned unto the

shepherd. And what bishop of your souls. So he puts both those

words together. The main chapter I want you to see is chapter

five, verses one through four. Most of you'll know these passages.

The elders which are among you. Verse one. Now, First Peter,

chapter five, verse one. The elders which are among you, I exhort,

who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ

and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Here's

what he's saying to pastors. Feed the flock of God which is among

you. Take the oversight thereof, not by constraint. You say

there are some pastors who pastor because they feel like they

have to. Absolutely, yes. I know some off the top of my head,

but willingly not for filthy lucre. There are some pastors in

the ministry for money. That guy up by the Eagle Mountain lake

might be one of them. But of a ready mind. Neither as being lords

over God's heritage. And I'll use the word dictator. A pastor shouldn't

be a dictator, but being an example to the flock. And when the

chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory

that fadeth not away. Pastor's role is very clear. They are to be

the shepherd, the elder and the bishop. That's why we as Baptists

practice pastoral leadership. It's like a football team. I know

this is a silly analogy, but it is. It works. We have the owner

of the football team. We'll just. Again, this is almost heresy,

but blasphemy. The owner is the Lord. He is the head of the church.

Amen. He is the chief shepherd. He is the Lord of all.

And you have the under shepherd. Say the head football coach.

Head football coach has a staff. Has his staff. Staff that

he works with when A head coach leaves, usually the staff resigns,

or when the new head coach comes in, he hires his own people.

And then you have the players. But all have the same goal to win.

We all have the same goal, and that's to reach people with the gospel

of Jesus Christ. I'll never forget first time I hired Brother

Wiggins. This is back when we were at Lakeland. I was at Lakeland

and years and years ago. And then when we went to hire him again

12, 13 years ago, the men did ask me, a couple of men asked me

on the finance team, how can you hire your best friend? How's

that going to work? I said, we both want the same thing. We want

to see people come to Jesus. Amen. And guess what? It worked.

Because we have the same goal. The same goal. I'm thankful to pastor

this church, to be the overseer of this church. I understand

maybe not to the degree I should of the magnitude of that and

the responsibility of that. I try my very best not to be a dictator,

but to lead. Try our very best to keep the main thing, the main

thing, that we're here to win people to Jesus, to do our very best

to get the gospel out, to baptize converts and to disciple.

Over the years, we've ebb and flowed. I think every church does

that. Little ups and downs, ups and downs. By the way, that's

the Christian life as well. But always regaining the focus. Regain

the focus. The focus is getting the gospel out. The pastor,

the church, its members, its staff should have one goal, and that

is to spread the gospel. Lastly is deacon. The word deacon

means what? Servant. Servant. And this is probably again very misunderstood

even in our own circles. What a deacon is to do what a deacon's

tasked to do. And I don't have time now because we were out of time,

but Acts, chapter six, most of you know the passage where they chose

the first deacons. There was some murmuring among the church.

The widows were being neglected. And so the apostles came

to the church and said, you guys choose you out among you seven

men. These men should be of honest report. They should be full

of the Holy Ghost, should be men of wisdom. And we know also there

was an addition later down the road said to full of faith. Full

of faith. They chose these men to be servants to help the pastor

so that he would be freed up to minister and to preach and to

study and to pray. That was their responsibility. They were chosen

out by the church, but appointed by the apostles. He said

that you choose out that we may appoint These men to their duties.

In other words, I do remind you, and this is biblical, that the

pastor is given the final who, where, and how of how the deacon

is to serve. It's not the opposite way. And I know most of

you, hopefully all of you agree to that, whether I'm pastor

here or somebody else is here. The pastor. We believe in pastoral

leadership because the Bible teaches pastoral leadership. And

the men who are chosen are nominated, chosen by the church.

We do that here, and then appointed to the service, whatever

that may be, by the pastor. I'm thankful for the men who've served

over the years and what blessing they have been and help

they have been. I remember when Brother Juan was a deacon and

man we had. There was somebody sick and they went to the hospital

and I couldn't get to them. And I remember Juan running down

there, like, at midnight one night. I think he had his gun on

him or something. I don't know. Anyway, going down there, helping

me. And that could be rehearsed over and over again of

deacons who have served in that capacity. A servant willing

to serve. I miss Brother Lassiter. I miss the Lassiters, both

of them. But Brother Lassiter came to me the last time he was nominated.

He served as a deacon for nine years, and you have to rotate off

one year. So he served three, rotated off one, served three, rotated

off one. The last time he was nominated, he said, pastor, I. You

know, I really can't move tables anymore, and I can't. I can't

move chairs around and I can't come up and, you know, paint or I

just can't physically do it. I said, brother Lasseter, we don't

need you for that. We don't need you for that. There are many

other ways you can serve, and Brother Lasseter is so faithful to

serve this church, so faithful to be at visitation, so faithful

to help, visit and follow up, so faithful to give the pastor some

advice now and again. He was such a blessing in that way. One

of the most wise men I've ever met, and I'm appreciative of that.

The deacons represent. Were to represent the apostles to the people

and not vice versa. You can think about that on your own. Here's

one I never thought about this one as I did the study this time.

I'll ask some of the former pastors in here. Think about this

one. Although we see deacons teaching and preaching like Stephen

and Philip, it's never found to be a qualification. And though

I was taught growing up that in order to Be a deacon. You need

to be able to teach and preach. And we have not made that

a qualification at Heritage. And you can't find it in the Bible

anywhere. If you have a deacon who can teach and preach. It's the

gift of teaching and preaching that is talked about. In other words,

they have a double gift, but it really isn't found in the Scripture.

So there may be another misnomer that some of us may have

had in our head that's not found in the Scripture, though we

have examples of. Especially think about Stephen man in Acts,

chapter seven, preaching to that crowd and them stoning him.

And then he says, I see Jesus standing at the father right hand,

thinking about Philip and others. Okay, all right. Pastors

are not to be dictators, but leaders. Again, I already said I

was thankful for. I'm not only thankful for pastoring this church,

but I'm thankful for men who have been examples to me. I think

about Eddie Johnson and I talk to him often, or at least text him

often, my pastor. I'm thankful for my dad, who were good examples

of leaders. And I even think about Roy Martin and I think about

Brother McCaskill and Brother Tuck. I go on and on Brother Jernigan.

I actually talked to Nathan here a while back and I told Nathan,

his son, what a blessing Brother Jernigan was to me. And I

named off the things that I learned from Brother Jernigan. Every

pastor who's been in my life, the influence they've had, the blessings

they are. And then apostles is a transitional office. It doesn't

happen anymore. Anybody who claims to be an apostle is a false

prophet. Run from them. Oh, you know apostle so and so. I like

to hear him. Don't listen to them. Don't give them an ear. And

then deacons serving and helping. And again, what a blessing

our deacons have been over the years. God's good. Amen. And God

has set up the governance of the church. The Lord has set up the

governance of the church, the polity of the church. And he set

it up now with two offices. The office of a deacon, the office

of a pastor. And yes, they had a treasure. And yes, we have trustees

here as well. And certainly there are other things we can put

in place as the church decides to do those things. But we can never

say those are church offices, if you understand what I'm saying.

God placed those two offices in the church. Let's all stand, have

a verse invitation. Tonight we'll sing hymn 159, Jesus, I come

After We Pray Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word and we

thank you for the blessing of structure in the church that allows

the church to function in a very Christ honoring manner. I pray

God we continue as a church to follow the Bible's definitions and

the actual structure the Bible gives us and not to follow the tradition

of men. And may we Lord serve you. May we keep the goal to reach

people with the Gospel in Jesus name, Amen. As.