This 13-part series of classes has been many years in the making. About 25 years ago I began in earnest to examine the features, character and characteristics of the church as it existed in its earliest years. As I sometimes do, I kept my notes all along the way, and this series of classes is to a large extent the product of those years of on-and-off studying the subject. Several things in my experience contributed to my interest in making this 25-year study which I will mention along the way, and those go much further back.
There may be some difficulty in using the individual parts of this series separately, although viewer are free to do so if it serves their purposes. But to those whose interest is in knowing what the church was like in its earliest years, I recommend starting with Part 1 - Introduction to the Church of the New Testament and proceeding through the parts consecutively.
I have prepared some slides that I used in presenting the series in a classroom setting before adapting it to use as sermons. I have left my cues to advance slides or activate animations in the notes as posted on Sermon Central. If anyone is interested in having the PowerPoint files with the slides, I will be happy to send them. Send me an Email at sam@srmccormick.net and specify what part(s) you are requesting. Be sure that the word “slide” appears in the subject line. It may take me several days to respond, but I will respond to all requests.
THE CHURCH OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
OUTLINE OF THE STUDY
I. Introduction
II. The Origin of the Church
III. What is the church?
IV. The First Christians
V. Authority in the First Century Church
VI. Problems in the New Testament Church
VII. How the Church Functioned
A. Introduction to Functions
B. Apostles, Prophets, and Teachers
C. False Apostles, Prophets, and Teachers & Various Gifts and Functions
D. More Gifts and Functions
E. Evangelists, Preachers, and Ministers, Servants and Deacons
F. Pastors, Elders, Bishops, etc.
VIII. How the Church Worshiped
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VI. Problems and Ills in the New Testament Church
We have already seen how that over many years, the church deteriorated into a political mechanism of the Roman government, sometimes violent, sometimes persecuting its most devout saints.
But long before any of that, we see problems beginning to emerge within the church.
We saw in Acts 2 that the church enjoyed a brief period of peace and tranquility. All of the early converts were of the same mind and loved one another dearly, to the point of giving up their possessions for the common good.
But the ideal conditions that marked the church’s earliest days soon began to erode as “issues” appeared. Without much detailed written direction, and a myriad of cultural, religious, and opinion-rooted differences, internal problems were bound to erupt. Without the detailed guidance the Jews were accustomed to, they took opposite sides of various questions, and had severe problems accepting gentile converts as equals.
A. PROBLEMS IN ACTS
• Problems in the daily distribution on food. The Hellenistic widows were being neglected (had to be set aright).
• Then, Peter baptized a gentile at Caesarea. The other disciples took him to task, thinking “the ekklesia is for us, not them.” ( that misconception had to be set straight)
• Circumcision and the necessity for Gentile converts to keep the Law of Moses became an issue in the predominantly Gentile church at Antioch.
It took a council of the apostles and elders to settle that question, but it didn’t stay settled for some, who continued to vigorously oppose Paul’s ministry among gentiles.
• The fallout from that action and all of its implications caused some brethren in Jerusalem to have major heartburn with what was going on in the church at Antioch (Galatians 2:11-21)
• If that was not enough, the disciples at Antioch began to be called Christians (Acts 11:26). Luke doesn’t report whether that caused problems, but as inflamed as things were between the churches at Jerusalem and Antioch, it could have potentially been a convenient excuse for the Jerusalem folks to be irritated at one more thing.
B. PROBLEMS MADE EVIDENT IN THE LETTERS.
In some cases, the writers specifically state the problem. In others, the problem is evident from the remedial actions given in the letters.
1. Problems in the church at Rome
The Christian’s relationship to the Roman government. The problem was addressed by declaring that God’s will is for all believers to “be subject to the governing authorities” (Romans 13:1-7), even when they disagree with their practical policies.
Questions about whether Jews have an advantage over gentiles. Paul addressed the question extensively and showed that all are equally sinners before God and equally in need of a Savior (Romans 1:18-3:20).
The idea that grace licenses sin. Paul vehemently denies it, showing that we are the slaves of sin or of righteousness, depending upon which we present our members in obedience (Romans 6).
Disagreement about whether to eat meat offered to idols. This dispute was resolved by presenting the Biblical principle of Christian liberty whereby the “one who eats” is not to despise the “one who does not eat” and vice versa (Romans 14:1-4).
2. Problems in the church at Corinth
Divisions in the church. Paul showed that Christ, and therefore his church, is not divided into loyalties to those who taught and baptized (1 Cor. 1:10-13).
Worldly Wisdom as compared to Godly wisdom. Paul showed that the things of Christ and the spirit are not to be understood according to the flesh, but are spiritually appraised (1 Cor. 1:17-2:16)
Immorality in the Church. Unrepented sexual sin in the church was addressed by taking a stand against this type of sinning by not keeping company with the immoral person in question, “so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” (1 Cor. 5:1-13) Clearly, the repentance of the sinner is anticipated.
Lawsuits between believers. It is shown to be folly for Christians, who live by higher standards and understand greater truths than their worldly neighbors, to go to the world’s machinations for settling disputes between themselves. If a disagreement cannot be resolved between the parties, one should simply allow an injustice to himself to stand, or the parties should bring it before a church forum and abide with the disposition of the case there (1 Cor 6:1-8)
Fornication with prostitutes, a common practice in pagan religions (1 Cor. 6:15-20). Paul taught that it is a sin against one’s own body, which is a temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells in them
Problem of Marriage and Divorce. Paul addresses various questions about believers who came to Christ already married to unbelievers, and whether remedial action must be taken (1 Cor. 7:1-40).
Eating meats offered to idols. The same issue that Paul had addressed in his letter to Rome was also a problem at Corinth, possibly other places (1 Cor 8:1-13).
The relationship of men and women in the church. Paul shows that Christ is the head of every man and the man is the head of the woman, and teaches how those relationships bear out in praying and prophesying (1 Cor 11:1-17).
Abuse of the Lord's supper. Instead of being a solemn commemorative celebration of Jesus’ death, it was being made a literal banquet with the diners being greedy and sometimes intoxicated (1 Cor 11:20-34). Underlying these symptoms they were demonstrating a lack of love. Paul taught the true meaning of the feast, and in 1 Cor 13, Paul describes love at its finest).
Misunderstanding of spiritual gifts. There was a general confusion about the purpose and use of the miraculous gifts that were given by the Holy Spirit. Paul showed how the gifts of one believer complemented those of another in the way the members of a human body work together, while performing very different functions (1 Cor. 12:1-31).
Issues with speaking in tongues and regarding it as superior to prophesying. (1 Cor. 14:1-40)
Some were saying there is no resurrection from the Dead. Paul gave the most extensive explanation of the resurrection that exists in all scripture (1 Cor. 15:1-58).
3. Problems within the Galatian churches
Perversion of the Gospel. False teachers were teaching that they must obey the Law of Moses. Paul called this perversion “another gospel,” explained the purpose of the Law, and told them that by trying to find justification by keeping the Law, they were alienating themselves from Christ. He admonished them to stand firm in their freedom, and not be burdened by a yoke of slavery (Galatians 1:6-10, 3:1-5, 5:1)
4. Problems within the church at Thessalonica
Misconceptions about the resurrection and the second coming of Christ. Paul told them the day would not come until the “man of lawlessness, the son of perdition” is revealed. He warned them to not be deceived by any report of letter, supposedly coming from Paul, that was contrary (2 Thess 2:1-12).
Idle busybodies among them who do not live by the teachings they received. Paul commanded them to settle down and earn the bread they ate, and commanded the others that, should the “busybodies” not obey that instruction, have nothing to do with them (2 Thess 6-15).
5. Problems addressed in James’ letter to the dispersed tribes
Quarrels and conflicts. James showed them that it is the result of friendship with God, which amounts to enmity with God. He admonished them to submit to God, resist the devil, and humble themselves in the presence of the Lord (James 4:1-10)
Arrogance in planning the future. James taught them that they should subordinate their own intentions and plans to the will of the Lord (James 4:13-16).
Trust in riches. James tells them their gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be a witness against them. They were to pay their workers what is due, and patiently wait for the harvest (James 5:1-8)
6. Problem addressed in 2 Peter
False teachers. Peter warns Christians everywhere about false teachers, some even denying Christ who died for them. James describes their actions in detail, and tells the outcome of their treachery (2 Peter 2:1-22).
Mockers would make light of the delayed coming of the Lord. James told them that a day and a thousand years are the same to God, and he is not slack concerning his promise, but wants everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:-9).
7. Problem addressed in 1 John
Some individuals “went out from us.” (1 John 2:19). Evidently, they had made a profession of faith in Christ, but after their departure, they dropped their pretense and denied him. They were included in the “many antichrists” who had appeared, denying that Christ had come in the flesh; viz., the Jesus is the Son of God. John said “See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you,” and thus “remain in the Son and in the Father.” (1 John 2:24)
8. Problem addressed in 3 John
Diotrephes, a man who loved to be first , rejected John’s apostolic authority, made accusations against him, and drives brethren from the church who were accepting of John. John says to Gaius, “If I come, I will call attention to his deeds,” and tells Gaius and other readers of the letter, “do not imitate what is evil, but what is good.” (1 John 9-11)
C. PROBLEMS CITED IN JESUS’ LETTERS TO ASIAN CHURCHES
Various problems and deficiencies were addressed by Christ himself as he dictated letters to the seven churches (Rev. 2:1-3:22), along with remedial action.
• In Ephesus, they had left their first love (Rev 2:4). Jesus directs, “repent, and do the deeds you did at first.”
• In Smyrna, “you are about to suffer,” Jesus says. “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life.”
• In Pergamum, some were teaching them to eat things sacrificed to idols (objectionable possibly as participating in pagan festivals), and commit acts of immorality (common in pagan festivals).
• In Thyatira, they tolerated that woman Jezebel, a self-proclaimed prophetess, who seduced the Christians into believing immorality was acceptable, apparently including participation in licentious pagan festivals (Rev 2:20-25). Jesus tells them of a terrible end for Jezebel and those who follows her, and says, “Only hold what you have until I come.”
• To Sardis, Jesus says, “you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen the thongs that remain and were about to die.” (Rev 3:1-2)
• The church in Laodicea was lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, and considered themselves rich, needing nothing. Jesus advised them, “buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments, and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.”
Only the churches in Smyrna and Philadelphia were free from internal problems and ills.
C. PROBLEMS EXPERIENCED ACROSS THE BROTHERHOOD OF BELIEVERS
1. Persecution. The early church thrived amidst severe persecution, first from those who thought Christianity was in opposition to the law of Moses, later by the Roman government. We cannot really claim to be the church of the New Testament until we are persecuted as they were, to the point of threat to and loss of life.
2. Gnosticism. The word means “knowing,” or “knowledge.” This heresy (actually a bewildering assortment of loosely related sects) is not addressed by that name in the New Testament, except perhaps in 1 Tim 6:20, where Paul warns against what is falsely called gnosis, a root of the word Gnosticism. But the tracks of this problem are seen in many places in the New Testament scriptures.
The Gnostics took over only the idea of a redemption through Christ, not the full Christian doctrine, for they made it rather a redemption of the philosophers from matter, than a redemption of mankind from sin”
It involves, as the name suggests, a claim to knowledge of a kind of which ordinary believers are incapable, and claimed to make Christianity more complete through higher knowledge. It was a philosophical religion, not a faith-based religion. It puts knowledge in the place of that rightly occupied by faith in Christ. A section of the church was dissatisfied with the simplicity of the gospel and its appeal to people not of advanced learning.
Some of them employed terms like “touch not, taste not, handle not” and invented a particular worship trying to gain deliverance for the soul through neglect of the body (Col 2:21, 23).
The other extreme was the separation, in their proud “knowledge,” of the soul and the body” as separate entities having nothing in common, rather than parts of the same entity. Thus, they could say “Let the soul go its way on the wings of spiritual thought, while the body may indulge its fleshly desires.” For so it was held, as body and soul are entirely distinct in their nature, the spiritual cannot be defiled by anything, no matter how gross and depraved, that the body can do.
Passages in Timothy, Titus and 2 Peter and Jude describe the product of this kind of “knowledge.”
2 Tim 3:2-5 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
Titus 1:16 They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.
2 Peter 2:12-18 But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet. These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error.
Jude 1:4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Jude 1:10 But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.
Jude 1:19 These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.
The apostles labeled the claims of the Gnostics as false and extremely dangerous.
Jude (who we seldom quote) gave a good summation of the Christians’ answer to Gnosticism.
Read Jude vs. 17-21.
What about knowledge? Is it a good thing or a bad thing to want or to have knowledge?
Mark Twain is credited with saying: “Between Rudyard Kipling and myself, we know everything. I know everything that can be known, and he knows everything else.”
But a little knowledge can be a tricky thing. It can delude the person who has acquired it into thinking he has all knowledge.
I wish I had back all the knowledge I had when I was 16 years old. But as years came and went, the realization stole over me by slow degrees that what I know is small in comparison to what I do not know.
Some problems and ills stemmed from simple misunderstandings of the meanings of Christian actions and relationships, sometimes combined with obdurate refusal to understand more clearly.
Other problems stemmed from Christians’ desire to elevate themselves over others, and from the departure from a loving, nurturing spirit taught and exhibited by Jesus and enabled in believers by the Holy Spirit.
In conclusion, let us consider a very brief but instructive passage in Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi. In Philippians 4:2-3 he wrote:
I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord. Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
We can’t help wondering what caused disharmony between two women in the church at Philippi, but we will not find the answer--only that Paul urged these women to live in harmony. That’s all we know. Yet until the Lord shall return, Bible-readers everywhere will know there was an unspecified problem between these sisters, neither of whom is mentioned elsewhere in the scriptures. The wisdom in the scriptures’ silence on the details is evident. If Paul had revealed in his letter to the church some issue that arose between them, our human nature would drive us to inspect and analyze that issue to great lengths, dissect and attempt to adjudicate their argument on its merits, and focus our teaching of the passage on the way that particular issue should be resolved between disputants. But we don’t even know if there was an issue or if the women just had clashing personalities, each bristling to the other’s words and actions. It does not matter what the discord was about; what was vitally important was to end the strife. Otherwise the apostle would not have taken such public notice of a seemingly private conflict.
Neither woman is shown to be evil, nor is one shown to be right and the other wrong. Both had labored with Paul for the sake of the gospel. So this wasn’t a problem between Christians and people of the world. It was a family matter of concern to the entire church (note that the letter is address to “all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi”). That’s the way it is when church members are “on the outs” with one another. The poison tends to spread through the body, with every member eventually adversely affected. The natural tendency is for people embroiled in conflict to talk up their case to friendly ears in the Christian family and line up support for their respective sides. The dissonance proliferates to other parties who have no interest except to sympathize with one of the quarrelers.
It is precisely the seventh thing in the proverb-writer’s recitation of things the Lord hates—things that are an abomination to him—“one who spreads strife among brothers.”
Jesus’ prayer was that his followers would be one, so that the world would know they are his disciples. Euodia and Syntyche were not the “one” that Jesus prayed his disciples would be, but “two”--separate and quarreling. The same may be said for the women’s sympathizers.
Today there are innumerable volumes of guidance on conflict resolution. We might consult the works of experts and prescribe multi-point ways for people to solve disagreements. The assistance of professional mediators has sometimes been sought to try to work through some thorny conflict in the church.
But for any approach to yield a satisfactory and lasting cure, it must be rooted in the principles Jesus and his apostles taught. If your brother sins, or if you know that your brother has something against you, try to settle the matter privately first, involve others only if necessary, and then in the presence of your opponent, involving the church only as a last resort. Give preference to one another in love. Be angry, and do not sin. Be quick to listen, slow to anger, not thinking of yourself more highly than you ought. Put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. The change that is needed is in the hearts of people, not some settlement.
Paul never tells us the outcome of his admonition. He only shared with later generations what was most important--the motivation to set aside petty struggles and get on with serving the Lord.
