The Role of Elders in Confronting Heresy

You may be seated. I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the 15th chapter of the book of Acts. In our last session, we began looking at the 15th chapter of Acts. And what I said that I was going to do was that I was going to spend as much time as I felt necessary to walk through the text line by line and verse by verse and deal with what it has to say because this is one of the watershed moments of church history.

It's one of those moments that deserves attention not just because it's Scripture and certainly because it's Scripture. All Scripture is inspired of God and deserves our attention. But because it stands as a moment in history.

The Jerusalem Council as a Watershed Moment in Church History

It stands as a point in time where up until this point, there was confusion and division, but after this point, there will be unity. And while there will still be those who try to bring division, from this point on, the leadership has spoken.

God by His Holy Spirit through the men of God who were leading the congregation has spoken. And from this point forward, this issue will have been settled in the minds of those who understand the authority that God has vested in the apostles and the elders of the church.

As I mentioned last week, when we get to Acts 15, we're looking at something that historically has been referred to as the Jerusalem Council. A group of men have come down from Judea and they have come to Antioch, which was the place where Paul and Barnabas were serving as missionaries in the church.

The church had sent them on a missionary journey. They had come back. They were there fellowshipping with the church. They were serving as leaders in the church. They were serving as, if you will, elders in the church there at Antioch.

And here come some men from Judea and these men are bringing a teaching which is contrary to what Paul and Barnabas have been teaching. It is contrary to what they believe that Jesus Christ taught. It's contrary to truth.

These men were teaching what we would call legalism. They argued that before a person could become a Christian, that person must first become a Jew. Becoming a Jew meant that you must submit to the procedure of circumcision.

Think about that for just a moment. To become a Christian, you have to undergo a surgical procedure. You have to literally be engrafted. You have to be surgically put in to the Kingdom of God through this process called circumcision.

They were teaching, again as I mentioned last week, that yes, Christ is the way. Yes, Christ is the goal. Yes, Christ is the Savior. But to get to Christ, there is a door. There is a vestibule. There is a foyer that you have to go through.

And that foyer is Judaism. You can't just be a Christian. You must first be a Jew. Paul and Barnabas rejected that notion. Having seen God save the Gentiles by grace through faith alone, and as a result, they disputed with these men and they decided to take the issue back to Jerusalem.

Now why did they take the issue back to Jerusalem? Well, this is where the problem seemed to have originated. These men came out of Judea according to Acts 15 and verse 1. These men likely were even a part of that church and Paul is wanting to bring them back to their leadership and set them before their leadership to ensure that there is an understanding between the two churches what the position of God is on this issue.

But there is a second reason. This is where the apostles were in general. This is where an authoritative pronouncement could be sought. And that's why we say that this was a council. This was an opportunity for an authoritative apostolic pronouncement to be made.

Now, last week we ended in verse 3. So today we're going to continue by looking at verse 4. And my original intent was to get all the way down to verse 20. And then I read the sermon to my wife. And about halfway through I said, not unless we want to be there for morning and evening service.

So we're going to actually just look at a few verses today because I am not in a hurry. Lest the Lord takes me, I'll be here next week, Lord willing, and we'll continue on then. So today we're going to look just at verses 4 -6.

Let's stand together and read. Starting at verse 4, it says, When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them.

But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses. The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.

Father in Heaven, I thank You for Your Word. I thank You for the truth. I pray, O Lord, that You will fill me with Your Spirit. Lord, I am unable to do anything. In particular, I am unable to preach Your Word with any power without the Holy Spirit of God.

God, forgive my sins. Forgive my failures, my doubts. Prepare me, O Lord, to preach Your Word and keep me from error. And I pray that You open the hearts of Your people to the truth. I pray as we deal with the subject of authority today, authority in the church, the position of the elders even to today in confronting heresy, I pray, O God, that You would give us an understanding of why this issue of authority and leadership is such a vital one, one that has long been pushed aside in the church, one that has long been replaced by man's authority and man's ideas and man's traditions.

God, give us clarity and understanding of what Your Word is teaching us in this passage. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. The title of the message today is Confronting Heresy. The reason for that title is because that is what is happening at the Jerusalem Council.

Confronting Heresy Without Popular Vote

Heresy has risen in the church and it has not been left to popular opinion to deal with this heresy. They didn't take out a hat and a bunch of scraps of papyri and pass those scraps of papyri around and say, okay, everybody who agrees with the circumcision party, you mark yes.

And everybody who disagrees with the circumcision party, you mark no. And we're going to pass this hat around and everybody's going to take their little scrap of papyri and they're going to drop it in and then we'll have a deacon go and count it.

That is not how doctrinal matters are to be settled. They are not to be settled by popular vote. Neither are they to be settled by personal opinion. As I mentioned last week, Paul didn't stand up and say, okay, well, I think that it's this and you think that it's that and I'll go on thinking this and you go on thinking that and we'll just agree to disagree.

That's the new popular thing, isn't it? Everybody just wants to agree to disagree. Nobody wants to be disagreeable about anything. Nobody wants to stand for anything. Well, the Apostle Paul wouldn't do that.

This is such an important subject. The thing that we need to understand is what is at stake here. This is not a secondary or tertiary matter. This is not something about which the people of God can be gladly separated over, such as there are things in our lives, there are things that we do differently.

There are things that are secondary and that you may do in your home that I don't do in my home, but they're not necessarily sins. I just don't do them. Or maybe there may be something that I do in my home that you don't like to do in your home and it's not necessarily a sin and so it's not your business.

Isn't that right? But this is the gospel that is at stake. That's the point. That's when the council is brought together. That's when the elders get involved. That's when the apostles have to be called.

When the gospel is at stake, when the primary things of God are brought to bear, then God has His men in place to deal with those things. This council is answering the question, how can a sinful man be made right with a holy God?

That's the gospel question. That is the question of questions. All of human history and all of His future rests on the answer to that question. How can a sinful man be made right with a holy God? Well, these Judaizers were saying circumcision first.

Yes, Jesus is necessary. And yes, grace is necessary. But to get to that Jesus, to get to that grace, you have to go by way of the blade. You have to go by way of circumcision. Paul and Barnabas said no.

It is by grace through faith alone. Now I'm going to admit, sola fide is not in the text. We don't go to the Latin and see Paul crying out sola fide. But that is what he's teaching. And that is the argument being made.

People think that's a Reformation argument. That is not a Reformation argument. That was the argument from the beginning. How is man made right with God? How is a sinful man made right with a holy God?

By faith alone and not of works. So what I want to deal with today is the men who brought the issue, the authority that they had, and how this authority continues to today. And how are we to understand the church today in the issue of doctrinal dispute?

You might say, wow, that's kind of a hard left turn. It's really not. It's here in the text and I'm going to show you. Because I do think this provides for us at least a picture of how we ought to understand authority in the church.

Because we live in a time, and in case you didn't know it, I want to bring something to your attention. We live in a time where the church having any authority at all over the life of the believer is outside of the imagination of most people.

The church has become at best the institution of suggestion. It's become at best the place where you go to hear a preference. Pastors are not seen anymore as the shepherds of the congregation speaking authoritatively from God's Word.

Instead, they are looked at as sort of like spiritual Dr. Phil's whose purpose it is to simply speak wisdom, ideas, and suggestions into the lives of people. And thus, any idea of having any authority invested in the leadership of the church has been abandoned in most places.

And on top of that, we live in a time where people don't want to take sides. The very worst thing that can happen in most situations is to tell someone that they're wrong. Oh, for shame. We don't want to tell anyone that they're wrong.

And because of this, the church and her leaders have essentially been neutered. They've been robbed of any authoritative masculinity. It's just been put aside. And everyone is now allowed to make up their own truth, interpret however they want.

And as a result, in the minds of many people, the church has lost any positional authority that she was given in Scripture. She's gone from being... You know the Bible calls the church the pillar and support of the truth?

It says the church is the pillar and support of the truth. Do you think anyone believes that anymore? Instead of being the pillar and support of the truth, we've become a voice in a sea of popular opinion.

One more voice in a sea of popular opinion. So I want to look at some Scripture today. And we are going to be in and out of Acts 15, but I want to look at some Scripture. I want to show you what the Bible says about her leaders.

About the church leaders, rather. Because I think these are things that while I have taught on them in the past, I think it often goes forgotten. The first thing I want us to look at is what the Bible says about the commission which is given to the eldership.

Go with me to Acts 20. Just four or five chapters over to the right. Go to Acts 20. I guess it would be five. I can do math. 20 minus 15 is five. Acts 20, verse 28. This is Paul giving a commission to the elders.

And he says in Acts 20, verse 28, Pay careful attention to yourselves. Now he's speaking to the Ephesian elders here. He's speaking to the elders of the church. He says, Pay careful attention to yourselves and to the flock, that being the congregation, the church, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which He obtained with His own blood.

Now there's a lot of theology in this passage about God purchasing the church with His own blood and that being a reference to the deity of Christ and all that. And yes, is it worth our time? Sure. But we're not dealing with that part.

We're dealing with the commission to the eldership. The commission to the eldership is this. Care for the flock, but also oversee the flock. There is leadership authority which is invested in the office of the elder.

Now in some churches you go to, there are no elders. In some churches you go to, you have one man who fits the pastoral position, and that's what they call a pastor. They normally don't call him an elder.

They call him a pastor. And he's the only one. And he's not seen, as this passage calls him, as an overseer. He's instead seen as an employee. As such, while he can try to care for the church, giving any real oversight to the church is really beyond his job description.

I remember very clearly years ago talking to a pastor of another church. He was down from up north and we were sitting right outside eating barbecue. We used to do little barbecues out here by the road.

And we were sitting out there eating barbecue and me and this pastor were talking. And he said that just that recent time in his life, he was at a business meeting in the church that he was in. And during the business meeting, one of the ladies in the business meeting who didn't really care for what the pastor was saying, looked at him square in the face and said, don't you understand that we pay you to tell us what we want to hear?

Don't you understand that you are ours? Is what she said. That we pay you so we own you. You will do what we say. There is no oversight in a man like that. There is no ability to provide oversight with a man who is seen like that.

Do you understand me? He told me that broke my heart. That is a statement of insanity. All we do is pay you to tell us what we want to hear. But beloved, let me tell you, that's what a lot of people see the role of the pastor.

He is just an employee. And the elders, if there are any, are just a committee. And we don't give authority to employees. We don't give authority to committees. Scripture paints a different picture of the man of God.

The men of God who are called to lead the church are given a different picture in Scripture. One of authority within the local body. Turn with me now out of Acts 20. Go to Hebrews 13. Those of you who know this subject knew I was going to end up here.

Hebrews 13 says something amazing about the leadership of the church. Hebrews 13 verse 17 says this, Obey your leaders and submit to them. What? That's pretty cut and dry. Now, very quickly we can step back and say the Bible does call us to all forms of submission.

It calls us to submit one to the other. It calls us to submit to our husbands and wives or the wife is to submit unto the husband as unto the Lord. Also, it calls to submission to governmental authorities, leadership in the government.

So the Bible calls us to all forms of submission and every form of submission we submit to is ultimately submission to Christ. Because Christ is placed as an authority in our life. Whether it's husbands, whether it's government, whatever.

All this we submit to simply because we're submitting to Christ, right? And ultimately any submission we make is a submission to Christ first. Well, here the subject in Hebrews 13 is the leaders of the church.

And how do I know this? Because it goes on to say, Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls. This is talking about your elders. This is talking about your pastors.

Obama, don't watch over your soul. The governor, don't watch over your soul. This is not talking about human instituted government. Just so we're clear. The submission that's referring to here is submission within the church.

As those who will have to give an account. See, there's the part that a lot of people miss. Do you realize that the elders of this church will stand before God Almighty and give an account for how they governed and managed your life in this church?

We will give an account. So it says, let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage to you. What's the point? Submit to the leadership so that they're not miserable.

Isn't that funny? Whoever the writer of Hebrews is and we don't know for certain, is being very candid. There's a position placed in the church of this leadership and there is a way that you can make those leaders miserable.

And let me tell you this right away. I'm not mad at anybody. I didn't come in this morning with an axe to grind. I'm very happy with the elders that I serve with and I'm very happy with most of you. And I love you all.

This is just where we are in the text, folks. There's leadership authority being exercised in Jerusalem. Why? Why give any credit at all to what these men have to say? It's not the apostles only. When you go back to Acts 15, two times between verses 4 and 6, the elders are mentioned too.

The Elders' Authority in the Church

The apostolic age has ended, but the elders have not. There are no more, quote unquote, apostles, men who walked the same dirt as Jesus with Jesus beside Him. And while we might argue about the position of apostle and that title still having some purpose for today, the apostles who walked with Jesus are all dead.

And that specific authority given to them has been put aside. But the authority that's invested in the elders continues to today. That's what we're getting out of the text today is that there still remains an office in the church of authority.

And we're called to submit unto them. And this is why there is requirements for this office. This is why if you go to 1 Timothy 3 or over to Titus 1 and 2, you will see that there are requirements for the office of elder.

And in James 3 .1, every elder who becomes an elder must really consider James 3 .1 because you know what James 3 .1 says? Not many of you should become teachers, for you know that those who teach will be judged with stricter judgment.

Who's that talking to? Well, the primary teaching office in the church is the office of elder. We will stand before God and give an account for how we manage this office of teaching. We will stand and give account for all of this.

Someone might ask the question, in the post-reformation age in which we live, the church is so fragmented by denominational division, does this authority still stand in the church? That's a legitimate question.

Post-reformation, there is no more unity, not that I would argue there never really was true unity under Roman Catholic heresy, but we could argue that there's a lot more disunity now. I mean, we can throw a stick and hit 15 churches from where we are.

There's a church in every direction I point my finger. How then does this authority still stand? And does it still stand even in a church which is so fragmented by division? And the answer is yes, it still stands.

God has not removed the authoritative office of the church just because it has been misused and maligned by some. There are bad husbands out there. Amen? Does that mean that the role of husband has been put away?

Does that mean that husbands don't have authority in their homes? Just because some of them are not good? Thank you. So the husband still has a position in the home? Okay. So just because there are bad churches and bad elders and bad leaders, does that mean that the role and office of elder and leader has been put away?

No, not at all. This is why choosing a church is so important. When a person joins a church, they need to be certain that they can submit to that leadership. It is their duty to determine before entering into a covenant with that body that their leaders are qualified.

And if a person joins a church just to contradict the leaders and to stir up trouble in that church, that person is in sin. You don't join a church to fix the church. Now that is not to say if you have a gift and the church needs your gift, you come into the church to use a gift.

But you come in with a submissive attitude. That's the difference. I'm not saying you don't come to a church to help a church, but you don't come in with the guns blazing saying, well, this church needs to be...

Whatever. I don't know what that was. You come in guns blazing. I'm going to fix this place. Now having said that, I want to add a caveat. I am not saying that elders are above rebuke. In fact, if you'll turn with me to 1 Timothy 5, I want to show you what Paul says about an elder being rebuked.

Elders Are Not Above Church Discipline

1 Timothy 5 verse 19. Now I hear Bible pages turning, so if you'll turn there. 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus are what we call the pastoral epistles. This is the apostle Paul talking to Timothy about the role of pastor.

There's a lot of information. If you want to know what the pastor's role is, the job of the elder, it's there. Go there. Spend some time studying there. This is what he says regarding the elders in the church in verse 19 of 1 Timothy 5.

He says, Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, that being elders, rebuke them in the presence of all so that they may stand in fear.

Now, why did I bring that up? Well, for this very reason. What Paul is saying here is that elders are not above church discipline. That's right. The elders are subject to the same church discipline that anyone else would be.

In that, if you come to me and I'm in sin, if you're going to bring me before the church, you better have witnesses. That's the point Paul's making. Don't just have one person come and say something. There needs to be witnesses.

But it's that way anyway. It would be that way if it were you. But also what? He's rebuked in front of all so that everyone understands that even the pastor is not above discipline. That's what it says.

So all will stand in fear. So to understand that there is nobody who's above God's law. There is no one who's not submissive to the Word of God. I am not saying, and I hope no one would ever go away from this message thinking that I believe that the elders are the sovereign authority of the church.

They are not. What I am saying is the elders are given a certain type of authority as leaders in the church. The church is called to willingly submit to them and that the elders themselves will have to give an account for how they led with that authority.

And it should be a fearful thing for anyone to take that position because God has invested that position with authority and thus has invested it with responsibility. With great power comes what? Great responsibility.

Everybody who saw Spider-Man knows that. Oh, come on. It's true though. With this authority comes responsibility. Now, when we look at Acts 15, everybody want to go back to Acts 15 with me? We see how this authority is exercised.

We see that there are the apostles who are there. Each one of these men, by the way, has at times been called apostle. Understand that. Peter, of course, he walked with Jesus. Paul is called an apostle.

So too are Barnabas and James. They are both called apostles. James is called apostle. If you want to make a note of this, James is called an apostle in Galatians 1 .19 and Barnabas is called an apostle in Acts 14 .14.

So all these men are at least given the title at certain point of apostle, but that doesn't mean they all walked with Christ and we could argue at another time about whether or not they had differences of understanding of what their apostleship was.

We know there were 12 original apostles and we know one of them went away. One man filled his place. And so the 12 were always considered to have this special identity as having walked with Christ. The apostle Paul calls himself an apostle what?

Born out of season or out of due time. He knew that his apostleship was different than theirs, but he still had a level of authority in the church. But the thing that I want to point out in this text is the fact that these men were also called elders.

Look again with me. It says, when they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders. And you might say, well, there's two different people they're talking about there.

Peter will later identify himself in his epistle as an elder. He calls himself an elder in the church. I once heard a man say this. I once heard a man say an elder can only be an elder if he's 70 years old or older.

He said that's what elder means. Prasbuteros means to have a certain age. And to him, you had to be 70 or older. Now this is what made it funny. Of course, I'm 35. I was sitting next to a 24-year-old man who pastors a church.

He has the position of elder. Now I started at 25. I was young when I started as a pastor. So I love this young man. I know what he's going through as a young pastor. But the guy said from the stage, the guy who was teaching, he said, who wants to hear anything a 24-year-old has to say?

The poor guy beside me just hung his head between his knees. I just felt so terrible for him. Let me tell you something about this idea of elder. It's not age. It's spiritual maturity. Paul tells Timothy, let them not despise your youth.

I know many men who are young in age, but spiritually more mature than men who are older. So when we hear the word elder, don't let it think that that word simply identifies old people. The word elder is speaking of spiritual maturity.

And all of the apostles, all of these men, and there are four who speak. And we're going to get to what they said next week. But the four who speak are Peter, representing the voice of the twelve, the voice of the apostles, because he of course, he even had a distinct relationship even among the twelve.

Peter was often the spokesman for them. Peter was one of the three that we would have considered Jesus' sort of inner circle. The guys were with him on the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter had a special relationship with Jesus.

Even after Jesus was resurrected from the dead, what did Jesus do? He went to Peter and He restored him. And He said, Do you love Me? Do you love Me? Do you remember that scene there on the beach? And Jesus has commended upon Peter a certain type of positional leadership among even the disciples.

He's the spokesman. So when He speaks, He speaks with this apostolic voice. Paul and Barnabas do not. Paul and Barnabas speak with the voice of the witnesses. They have borne witness to the work of Christ.

They have gone through. They have gone through all of these Gentile nations. They have seen the Holy Spirit work in person after person after person after person who has heard the Word of God as a Gentile.

And so they speak as authoritative witnesses. But there's one other person who speaks. And he actually speaks, I don't want to say the loudest, but he speaks with authority and gives a proclamation, this is my judgment.

Who was he? James. You know who he was? He was the pastor of the church of Jerusalem. And he stood up and made an official pronouncement. This is our judgment. Actually, he said, this is my judgment. But it's not a judgment that he made on his own.

He made this based upon the statement of the person who would have had the apostolic voice, Peter, the statement of the witnesses. Based upon this, I make a judgment. And he made a judgment. And it had authority.

That's a powerful thought. Because these men are functioning as the elders of the body. And they're making a pronouncement that would have far-reaching implications. They actually were making a statement that was going to be binding on people.

Man, how hard is that to consider? That they would actually make a statement that would be binding on people. I want to ask a question. Think about this question. Why should have anyone in that group cared what these men thought?

Why should anyone in that congregation? And this is not a small church. This is the church of Jerusalem. This is probably many people who are here. But yet we only hear from four people. That is not to say that's the only elders.

It said the elders gathered together and discussed. But we know that these are the ones speaking. Why should anyone have cared what they thought over and above what anyone else thought? Because remember, there's a whole group of people who's arguing the other side.

Because God had placed them in a position of authority within the church and God was using them as His mouthpiece. Look at verse 28. I know we're not going to get there today, but just go down in Acts 15 to verse 28.

I want to show you something. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements. And he goes on to talk about the requirements. Who does James say that they're speaking for?

The Holy Spirit of God. He said it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and us. Now he's not equating himself with the Holy Spirit. But what is he saying? God agrees with this. We have spoken and God is giving His authoritative announcement that this is true.

That's a very, very powerful thought. These men have been given authority to speak on behalf of God. And I want to argue again. I'm going to again draw to a close here. The office of authority has not passed away.

It remains in the church to today. Elders do not have sovereign authority. God is sovereign. His Word is supreme. But the elders maintain positional authority to settle disputes, especially doctrinal disputes within the church.

They have been placed as overseers in the body for two reasons. And if you want to write these down, this is I guess the overarching theme or thesis of today's message. The elders have a two-pronged position.

They are to bring protection and instruction within the body of Christ. Protection and instruction. Protection from what? False teaching. And instruction in what? Right teaching. It's very simple. Not hard.

Hopefully you'll be able to remember this message because it's not hard to understand. The elders have a specific role in the church. Protect the church from heresy and to promote orthodoxy. To protect the church from false teaching and to promote right teaching.

That is the duty of the elder. Just this past year, our church had the opportunity to see an important positional authority of the elders used. And it was used in the way that I believe it was intended to be used.

Now we did not make a big deal about this. So really, for some of you, today may be the first time you've heard of this. But I want to share with you how we understand this authority to be working itself out.

And something that happened just a few months ago that caused us to have to exercise some of this authority. Last year the Supreme Court of the United States made homosexual marriage legal essentially by striking down anything that would go against homosexual marriage and thus made it the law of the land.

The result of that legal declaration has opened a door for the potential that church facilities and clergy might be demanded if they did not have anything that stated their position on the issue that someone might be able to demand the use of their facilities or even their clergy.

And there are men and buildings that are being sued in the United States for the disallowance of people doing homosexual weddings or demanding that clergymen, clergywomen do marriages. In the midst of all of that, our elders convened and we discussed what is it that we need to do as a church to protect ourselves from what could be the potential of litigation, legal problems, people coming into the church and demanding something we are not willing to do.

And so the elders came together and we prayed. And we drafted a position paper. We signed the position paper as elders and the position paper now stands as authoritative until we are able to add it to the Constitution as a constitutional amendment which will come.

It stands now as authoritative in the church as this is the position of the church. Let me read it to you. We believe that marriage is always to be between one man and one woman only. Homosexual unions and same-sex marriages, even if sanctified by the civil authorities, are aberrations of God's law and thus ungodly and not permissible.