Courage to Maintain the Biblical Pattern
Theme: The right way to restore the New Testament Church.
It began in the break room, continued down the hall, and ended in the foyer of the church building. This debate took place at the Brown Trail School of Preaching. It was between Tom Pugh and me. The issues was about if Tom as a member of a congregation had the right to rebuke a preaching during a sermon if he was teaching error. Since Tom is not a elder, and the Bible says an elder can do this, can he as a member stand up and stop the preaching from preaching false doctrine? Tom said he could, I said he could not. As the debate continued I appealed to Acts 18. In this situation Apollos is preaching error. He is preaching that one should be baptized in the name of John and not Jesus. This is major error. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching, they did not stop him immediately, but waited until after the lesson to explain to him the truth more perfectly. The next day of school Tom came over to me. You are right Matthew; the Biblical pattern for a member is to wait to explain the truth more perfectly. Tom is right though, we should always seek to follow the pattern of the Bible to the best of our ability.
There has been fighting over the pattern of the Bible for years. During the Restoration Movement there was the desire to restore the pattern of the early church. There was religious error all throughout America by people adding to the word of God and taking away from it. These men sought to restore the New Testament church. Because of creeds and opinion the early church was hidden away from the world. These leaders believed that if you could restore the New Testament church then the church would realize the same influence and growth that it had in the first century. This idea is called primitivism. It states that if you restore the church to the way it was in the first century than you will receive the same results that the first century church had. It is the assumption that by restoring the church of the Bible than you will receive the same growth, dedication, and influence that the church of the Bible had. We should believe this idea today.
But the problem is that we are no longer growing like the first century church. There was a time where we were. We were growing rapidly in this nation. But recently in the past two decades, the report is that we are stagnant or declining. Why is this so? Maybe we are not living out the pattern of the New Testament church. Maybe we have lost the pattern of the church.
We have made a mistake in this idea of restoring the church. We have focused on restoring the Biblical patterns of the church like organization, the Lord’s Supper, Baptism, instrumental music, and doctrine. But we are putting the cart before the horse. We are not called just to restore the church but to restore Christianity. We are focusing a lot of attention of certain church doctrines but leaving out some of the weightier matters. Remember we are not called to Churchianity but Christianity. We need to restore Christianity to the first century style than we will receive the same results that those Christians had in the first century.
We can restore first century Christianity through orderly following these three steps. First, restore the pattern of Christ, second restore the pattern of character, and finally restore the pattern of church. If we have the courage to restore these three aspects of the early church we will receive the same influence and growth of the early church.
Restore the Pattern of Christ
You have to put first things, first in the church. You can not run to discuss church doctrine until you have Christ. He is the focal point of the faith. Someone comes to put on Christ-likeness than there will be constant battles over the church because Christ has not been exalted. There is much debate over church practices, but unless someone has been converted and transformed to Christ, the point has been completely missed. This is the mindset of Peter. Peter mentions that Christ is the cornerstone. In the first century in Palestine, people would build their houses and builds with rocks. There is a ton of rocks over there. To build a good house you had to make sure the cornerstone was perfectly in place. If there was any error in the measurements of the cornerstone, the whole rest of the house would be off. Look at what Peter says in 1 Peter 2:5-7 “you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture: "BEHOLD I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNER stone, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM SHALL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED." This precious value, then, is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve, "THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNER stone.” Notice that Christians are the living stones. The church is made up of individual Christians. These Christians must be converted and transformed to the Lord. And Jesus is the cornerstone that the whole church is built on. Jesus is the center of the church, without him the church pattern will fall apart. Conformity to Christ is the number priority in the Biblical pattern for the church. We must have the courage not to get sidetracked into constant debates and fights about church with people who are not living according to the pattern of Jesus. Jesus is the number one priority in restoration of the church.
We have to keep Christ at the cornerstone position. Or we will become like the lady at Broadway. A couple in Atlanta read that “My Fair Lady” was still playing on Broadway in New York City. The wanted to go so badly, so they bought their tickets months ahead of time and planned their vacation, so the long awaited day came and they flew to New York City. The presented their tickets, walked in, and sat down in wonderful seats, seven rows from the front, near the orchestra. To the man’s amazement, the entire place filled up except the seat right next to him. He was curious about that. At the intermission, he leaned over in conversation with the lady in the second seat away from him and commented how they had to wait so many months to get tickets to a performance. When they’re such a demand for seats, why would someone not come? Did she have any idea? She said, “yes, as a matter of fact, these two seats are mine. This one and that one.” She explained further, “You see, that seat belonged to my husband, and he died.” The man said, “I’m terribly sorry. But couldn’t you have invited a friend to come with you?” Her answer was classic. She said, “no, they’re all at the funeral home right now.” When we try to restore the church without Christ, we are leaving the seat empty.
Restore the Pattern of Character
The next step in restoring the New Testament church is restoring the call to Biblical character. God expects us to be a certain kind of person. Look at what Paul says in Titus 2:11-14 “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.” The early Christians were dedicated to morality and character development. You can be right on every church doctrine and worship correctly every week, but if your character is opposed to Christ, you will go to hell just like someone who worships incorrectly. To restore the early church, we need to restore the call to character.
But there are many in the church that believe as long as they are right, the way they treat others is not important. If they are right in doctrine, there is little concern to be loving, compassionate, and gentle. People can become self-righteous by thinking that the pattern of the church has to deal with only forms and functions of the church. Before the pattern of the church should be discussed the character must be cleansed by God. Look at what Paul instructs the Ephesians in Chapter 4:1-6. “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” Before Paul gets into how to have unity with one another over doctrine of the seven ones, he deals with the doctrine of character. The idea of walk is referring to conduct. This person’s conduct must be filled with humility, gentleness, and patience in dealing with others. The attitude that we use in restoring the pattern is just as important as the pattern of the church. We have to have the courage to love when some are attacking others in the church. Being right is never an excuse for being un-loving towards others.
I remember one day when some one gave me every issue in hardback form of a certain journal in the church. I read this journal and mostly I agreed with the doctrine of it, but the way that is treating other Christians disgusted me. They would assign motives, attack character, and call names. It was purely malicious communication. I have seen Christians attacking other Christians through un-loving words. Even if they are right in truth, they are wrong in action, which makes them no different from the false teacher. If you do not believe me, just attend the FHU lectureship one year. There is always someone that was to degrade the speaker and cast names upon him.
Restore the Pattern of Church
After we make sure that Christ is exalted, character is emphasized, we should not stop our restoration of First Century Christianity. Christ has a plan for the actions and structure of the church. There are numerous verses mentioning what the church should be and look like. As we take the entire New Testament to see what the ideal church should be. As we get closer to the ideal, the more success the church will have in reaching the lost. The church is God’s representative on earth. He has given the church instructs not to be mean, or tax us, but to help us fulfill our purpose on earth. There are instructions to lead us. Look at what Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:15 “but in case I am delayed, I write so that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.” There is obviously a way that Christians are to conduct themselves, and there is plainly truth to uphold. There is a pattern for the church to ascribe too. Not because God is legalistic, but because he loves the church and knows what is best for the church. He knows the elders are best over a one man rule system, he knows that partaking of the Lord’s Supper is needed for man to focus on Christ, he knows that each congregation should be autonomous. These patterns of the church were given to help man accomplish the work of reconciliation.
At Christmas, my little girl Gabrielle got a play kitchen. It all came nicely in the box with the instructions. Of course like most men, I felt like I did not need the instructions, I could figure this pattern out all by myself. So I began, got a little ways, had to go back because I put on a piece that did not belong there yet. This went on for awhile. Going and stopping. Finally, I was frustrated enough to look at the directions or pattern of how to build the kitchen. The instructions in the box were not given to insult me but to help me to finish my goal. God has given us the pattern of Christ, character, and church to accomplish our goal of reaching out to the world.
