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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False Christs, Apostles, Prophets, and Teachers
Christianity took hold in a big way in Judea, Samaria, Galilee, and Syria; then spread across Cilicia, Pamphilia, Galatia, eventually into what was then called Asia, and on to Europe. Later we expect to explore the spread of the early church.
As you might expect, people with motives of their own began to make false claims.
• Some feared that the gospel of Christ would topple them from political power
• Some saw a parade and wanted to be in front of it
• Some found it hard to accept that the Sinai law had been eclipsed by the Christian faith, still clung to it
Jesus warned about false Christs and false prophets
• For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. (Matt 24:24)
• Defending his apostleship to the Corinthian church, Paul wrote that some men, desiring the opportunity to be equal with Paul, were disguising themselves, and masquerading as apostles of Christ (2 Cor 11:12-13).
• The church in Ephesus had the same problem, and had tested those who called themselves prophets, and found them to be false (Rev 2:2)
• On his first missionary tour, Paul and Barnabas went through Cyprus (where today there’s a financial crisis). They encountered Bar-Jesus, a false prophet at Paphos (Acts 13:6)
• John wrote that “many false prophets are gone out into the world. (1 Jn 4:1)
• Peter wrote about false prophets and false teachers
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. (2 Pet 2:1)
• Consequently, there was a proliferation of teachers with conflicting and wrong doctrines, all claiming to be speaking the “gospel truth,” may have prompted James to caution:
Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. (Jas 3:1)
Stricter judgment for what? Accidentally or deliberately teaching falsely.
• False teaching was poisonous to the early church.
One can easily understand why false teaching was prevalent.
It was a fertile time for Satan to send pompous, self-impressed charlatans with claims of access to God, and possession and ownership of truth.
With the New Testaments yet unwritten, everyone could claim to be a teacher, a prophet, or even the Christ.
Read 1 Tim 1:5-7
Teachers who espouse and spread false doctrines will always appear to be positive they are right. But confidence does not make rightness. One may be very confident that a false thing is true.
We must realize that false teaching is still going on.
If so, what constitutes false teaching today?
Is a simple misunderstanding - of which I have discovered many in my own thinking - if taught to others, instances of me being a false teacher?
If I make some mistake in this series of sermons, am I a false teacher?
What if someone makes a comment in a sermon or a class that I think is flavored with some error?
Is there anyone who has not at times come to recognize that something he has believed is different than he thought, as Apollos did? (Acts 18:24-28)
Apollos was not reproached, rebuked, and shunned as a false teacher, rather taught what was lacking in his knowledge.
Without that reality, there is no growth.
What then is false teaching?
And how are to recognize false teachers?
Jesus tells us. It is by their fruits that we are to know them. Matt 7:16,20; 24
Can we be mistaken about the fruit? What if someone who seems to live a fruit-filled life - some have far surpassed my own - but we see some error in their beliefs and teachings?
We are to know them by their fruits. A person who lives a fruitful life of devotion to God may be mistaken on some point of doctrine, but such is common among followers of Christ. False teachers are a different kind of people, who sow discord and strife. Their fruit is not the fruit of the spirit as described in Galatians 5:22-23, but anger and division. In the list of six things God hates - yea, seven - one who spreads strife among brothers is listed directly behind a false witness.
VARIOUS OTHER GIFTS AND ASSOCIATED FUNCTIONS
4. Miracles and Gifts of Healing (1 Cor 12:28)
Doonamis (doo’ nam is) from a root word meaning “force,” specifically means miraculous power. It transcends natural laws we humans live by, but is in accord with higher laws (e.g., laws of aeronautics).
• Miracles were performed by the use of extraordinary powers.
• Gifts of healing - from iama (ee’ am ah) which means “a cure.”
May have been exercised with our without extraordinary powers, but some of the time definitely involved miraculous healing.
• Speaking and interpretation of tongues were abnormal phenomena.
There is no denying that the New Testament church had workers of miracles.
Their purpose was to minister to needs, but went beyond the immediate need of the moment, proving the credentials and authority of those who declared God's message. During the time the writing of the New Testament was not complete, these gifts enabled them to speak as Christ’s emissaries to those who had willing ears to hear. Those who had unwilling ears could find ways to explain away miracles.
Discussion question: Most of us would agree that phenomenal things occurred in the first century, and that Christians were agents in bringing them about.
Are inborn aptitudes today’s equivalent of the spiritual gifts?
Are the things that are said about phenomenal gifts to be understood as pertaining—in principle--to what we think of as natural talents?
I believe they are, but I hasten to add that God works no less powerfully now than he did then. The need to authenticate the messenger is different, since now the power that resides in the New Testament as delivered in the first century authenticates the message it contains - not in a person who repeats, analyzes and explains it to others.
God may act in a way now that - in our reckoning - seems to be the equivalent of a miracle.
But I never have seen a human agent perform one.
The first Christians undeniably did.
5. Helps (1 Cor 12:28) This little 5-letter word is easy to read right past, but it’s there for good reason. The verse says “God has appointed in the church” these various functional capacities. What was this God-appointed function?
The Greek word antilepsis, translated "helps," appears only this once in the New Testament. Antilepsis means “relief.” KJV, NKJV, & NASB render the word “helps,” ESV says “helping.”
It is the work of aiding and comforting the poor, the orphan, the widow, and the stranger, and is akin to what we know as “pure and undefiled religion,” thanks to James, who so declared in his letter (James 1:27).
It is a crucial function, being religion pure and undefiled.
From the very beginning and throughout its history, Christianity has been intensely practical.
Someone may be incapable of teaching in front an audience, speaking in or interpreting tongues, or performing a miracle, but imminently capable of helping wherever help is needed, perhaps more so than someone who is a capable teacher.
Isn’t this everyone’s Christian duty?
If it is, how do we reconcile 1 Cor 12:4-11 (earlier in this same chapter) where Paul says,
• there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit
• and varieties of ministries, and the same Lord
• to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good
• to one the word of wisdom, to another knowledge, to another faith, to another gifts of healing,
• etc.
Some of the works we have discussed are the product of specific gifts to perform that function. Some have a gift that others do not. If we have learned anything in this series, it is that gifts differ.
The eye, as wonderful as it is, cannot do the job of the hand.
Similarly to the duty of comforting those who are grieving, we are finding that some functions in the church are graces we receive from the Holy Spirit as part of the Christian character living in us, making us what we are.
We are all God-appointed for helps, or helping--relieving need or suffering where it is in our power.
While it is true that those actions come more easily to some than to others, “That’s not my gift” is no excuse.
We said in the beginning of this series that our purpose would not just be to settle questions of how we “do church,” and prove by exact conformance with procedures and methods that we are the church of the New Testament. As shown earlier, we have been very selective and inexact if that were our purpose. But this little word “helps” goes a long way to showing who we really are, and perhaps speaks volumes about how Christ - himself a “helper” - regards us.
The definition of the word antilepsis does not appear to require the use of extraordinary powers.
But to make that observation is not to say that people never used extraordinary powers for antilepsis, as Jesus did – healing the sick, feeding the hungry, etc.
Antilepsis was the action of the Samaritan on the Jericho road who came upon the man who had fallen among thieves and was robbed, beaten, and left for dead (Luke 10).
6. Administrations: ("Governments" in the KJV)
The word is kubernesis in Greek, which the Strong dictionary defines as “pilotage,” or “government.”
Vines New Testament expository dictionary defines it “to guide, denoting steerage, or pilotage.”
A form of the word is translated “pilot” in Acts 27:11 in the NASB and ESV, and “helmsman” in the NKJV, in reference to the “pilot” of the ship that Paul traveled on from Myra until it was wrecked at Malta.
In Rev 18:17, it is translated “shipmaster,” in the NASB, ESV, and NKJV, referring to those who trade by sea, lamenting the fall of the great city Babylon a result of the angel pouring out the seventh bowl of wrath.
That of course is figurative, as Babylon in Mesopotamia had fallen to Alexander the Great about 400 years earlier.
kubernesis is a rather elastic word, as is the English word “administrations.” Using the same word in the original language, Paul defined the administration suitable to the fullness of times as "the summing up of all things in Christ." (Eph. 1:10)
• He said his work with the Gentiles was "to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden..." (Eph. 3:9)
• Paul wrote of taking precaution "that no one should discredit us in our administration" of financial gifts for the needy in Judea (2 Cor 8:20).
With the New Testament providing nothing more specific than a rather non-specific word to go on, it seems that administration or government refers to the oversight, management, and coordination of any endeavor.
Writing in the 1600’s, Dr. J. B. Lightfoot contended that the word does not refer to ruling, but to the case of a person with a deeply comprehending mind, who is profoundly wise and prudent, whose nature lends itself to guiding others with sensitivity and discretion.
Beyond that observation, administration seem to include those oversight relationships, mechanisms and processes, that give coordination, balance, and flow to the work, so it does not become lost in confusion and neglect.
Therefore, I do not see administrations as a unique function, but a characteristic of various capacities, such as a person(s) designated to
• make worship assignments and coordinate substitutions,
• plan and coordinate “Sharing your Blessings”
• organize youth activities
• conduct home or other private studies
• host fellowship meals and other events
• coordinate gifts of food for families who have lost a loved one
• keep track of finances, pay bills, etc.
• handle requests for benevolence,
• arrange and conduct private studies or correspondence courses,
A person who is especially talented as an organizer and administrator will naturally find an outlet for that gift in the functions of the church.
7. Various kinds of tongues: We have already discussed speaking in tongues. Little more needs to be said, except to recall that Paul de-emphasized it in relation to the greater gifts in the second chapter following this one (ch 14).
Although it had a part in the early church, I do not see it as an act of worship or religious mandate in today’s church. The nearest function I see of that principle today is translating a sermon or other part of the assembly to those who do not speak English, or a person who repeats what is said in sign language for the deaf, but that is not the same is the supernatural phenomenon that occurred on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, or at the conversion of Cornelius’ household in Acts 10. I see those functions rather as being “helps.”
Paul’s central teaching in 1 Cor 12 is that there is one body, Christ is the head, and we are all members of it, each having gifts as one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (1 Cor 12:7) Having completed his recitation of some gifts as needed to illustrate that teaching, Paul goes on immediately to emphasize that every Christian did not have all of the gifts (read 1 Cor 12:29-30).
Read Romans 12:4-8
Here Paul opens with exactly the same thought we discussed earlier – we have gifts that differ.
In writing to the Romans, Paul cites some of the gifts that he mentioned to the Corinthian church, and some he did not list there. He says”
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them:
• if prophecy, in proportion to our faith (already discussed)
• if service, in our serving (will discuss later on)
• the one who teaches, in his teaching (already discussed)
• the one who exhorts, in his exhortation
• the one who contributes, in generosity
• the one who leads, with zeal
• the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
8. Exhortation (Rom 12:8):
The word in the original is paraklesis, which means “to call near, to invite, invoke, beseech, or entreat.”
It is the work of stirring a person or a group to action or change.
It may involve the use of information, but it is not the mere function of imparting information alone. Rather, it is the function of overcoming inertia and apathy when action is needed, and overcoming momentum when some action needs to cease.
In the New Testament, exhorting occurred one-on-one, in written letters, in the forum of assembled Christians, and in private.
Examples of Paul exhorting and commanding others to exhort:
Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. (1 Cor 1:10)
Three chapters later:
I exhort you, be imitators of me (with respect to his willingness to endure hardship and persecution - 1 Cor 4:16).
Little more needs to be said, as the principle of exhorting is easily understood, and where there is a need for it, the need is obvious. The question is - will we rise to the need?
9. Giving (Rom 12:8):
Metadidomi – to give a share, or impart. Paul’s meaning seems to be the sharing of temporal things.
He cites it as a gift (cf. v 6)
When a Christian is gifted with the ability to acquire money on a scale exceeding that of most people, that ability is accompanied by a responsibility that the gift be used for the Giver's purposes. Permit me
two points of caution, however.
• A person must not excuse himself from using other gifts he or she possesses so as to be free to singularly pursue wealth under the notion that the greatest good will accrue to the church from having more plentiful funds thus obtained and contributed.
• Secondly, those of lesser means should not refrain from giving, or give a paltry amount, because of others who they may consider able to carry the financial load without the smaller gifts. Giving is enjoined, not because the Lord needs money, but because giving blesses the giver with a grace that cannot be received in any other way.
