The Autonomous Church — Anton Bosch

The Autonomy of Local Churches

Thanks Leo. Turn with me please to the book of Acts chapter 11. Acts chapter 11 and we're still dealing with a church and I want to deal this evening with the subject of the autonomy of local churches and I struggled a little bit about this as to whether we, you know, whether this is really important and I decided that it is important.

It's not just of academic importance, but I believe it's very important to a church like this which is autonomous, meaning by autonomous we mean independent in a sense, but it's not really independent.

Autonomy Is Not Independence

There's a difference between being autonomous and being independent. All of us as families, we are autonomous. The church does not interfere with the way that you run your family. Each family has to supply its own financial needs, each family makes its own rules, each family decides how many children they're going to have and those sorts of things.

So each family is autonomous, but each family is not independent. We fellowship together. We are one with one another. What one does impacts on everybody else. We are concerned for one another. We have a relationship with one another.

So we are not independent as families, but we are autonomous. And so we are self-sufficient, self-supporting as families, but we still have a relationship. Now in the same way, local churches or churches are autonomous, meaning that they make their own decisions, they run their own finances, we'll talk about the details this evening, but it does not mean that they are independent.

We cannot say that we do not need, and I'll deal with this next week in much greater detail as to what those relationships are outside with other churches, but we cannot say we are independent of all other churches and that we have nothing to do with all other churches.

That's simply not the spirit of Christ and that's simply not the reality. The reality is that the teaching that we receive tonight is influenced and impacted by other churches and other teachers. The hymns and the choruses that we sang tonight were written by men in other churches.

Much of what we do is affected in one way or the other by other churches, and so we ought to be, in fact, to a greater degree than we are in relationship with other churches, but we'll talk about that next week.

So when we speak about autonomy, we don't mean independence. There is a subtle difference between the two, but read with me from the book of Acts, chapter 11, verses 19 through the end of the chapter 28.

Sorry, to verse 30. Acts, chapter 11, verse 19. Now those who were scattered from the persecution that arose after Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only.

But some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene who, when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, or the Greeks, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.

Then news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord.

For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. Then Barnabas departed from Tarsus to seek Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch.

And so it was, for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people, and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. And in those days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch, and then one of them named Agabus stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar.

Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. This they also did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. Now, the question obviously is why is this important?

Denominations and the Local Church

Well, it's important because not so much it is not such a big deal today, but it was 20 or 30 years ago. It still is a big deal to many today, and that is the issue of denominations. When I meet people in the street or in the business or wherever, when they hear that I'm a preacher, the first question they want to know is, which denomination?

And I'm sure you get asked the same question. You say, we go to Burbank Community Church. Oh, is it Catholic? It's one of the popular questions you get down here, and you say, no, it's not Catholic. Well, is it then?

What is it then? Is it Assemblies of God or is it Baptist? In other words, trying to put us into some kind of box and some kind of denomination. Now, the issue then this evening really is, should we be part of a denomination?

That's why I felt that it's important for us to answer that question, because some people feel, well, maybe we should be part of a denomination. Why are we autonomous or independent? Why are we non-denominational?

Which is probably the answer most of us give people when they say, well, we're an inter-denominational or we're a non-denominational church. Now, let's look at the Scripture's reasons. Now, the word church that's translated church or assembly in the English comes from the Greek word ekklesia.

If you're Spanish, then you know the same word. Ekklesia, which means those who have been called out. We've been called out of the world, and we're not meeting with the world tonight. We're meeting here as a group of people, and so it simply means those who have been called out or assembly.

The word is also used even in Paul's day when he was preaching and there was a great riot, and it speaks about the assembly, simply meaning the congregation of people. In that case, it wasn't even Christians.

It was just all the people of the city, and so it can mean just a congregation of people. Now, the way the word is used, it's used 142 times in the New Testament. Now, you say, well, why do I use these statistics?

Well, it's important for us to get an idea as to how the word is used. And of those 142 times, about 22 times, the word is used concerning, now here's another idea, the universal church. Now, the universal church is not the Catholic church.

The word Catholic means universal. It's not the universal church of God. Universal simply means the church that is made up of all believers, not only on the face of the earth now, but of all time. So, sometimes the scripture speaks about the whole of the church, which is made up of, I suppose, Jesus would be the first, I don't know who would be the first, and whoever would be the last believer to be saved before the end of the world.

And so, all of those believers together would make up the universal church. In Matthew, Jesus says that I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. When he says, I will build my church, he's not meaning a local church.

He's meaning the whole church of all believers of all time. And so, about 22 times of the 142 times, so you'll see a very small number of times of the whole number of times when the word church is used in the New Testament, it is used concerning the universal church, made up of all believers of all time.

The rest of the times, and that makes another 92 times, it refers specifically to the local church. Now, this is important because most of the time, in other words, when you read the word church, it is not referring to the whole church, the universal church.

It's simply meaning a local assembly of believers, the local church. And so, the writings in the New Testament are primarily written to local churches. They deal with local churches. God's dealings is not with the universal church.

His dealings is not with denominations. His dealings are with this church, and with the next church down the street, and the next church down the street. God does not speak the language of denominations.

God does not have a message to the Methodist church in America, or to the Baptist church, or to whatever. God has a message to Burbank Community Church. God has a message to whatever the Methodist church down the road is called.

He has a message to that particular assembly. That's the way God deals. He deals with local assemblies, with local churches. In the book of Thessalonians, and let's just go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, and we can go to virtually any of the books in the New Testament, and many of them begin in this way.

1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 1. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You see that? He's writing to the church of the Thessalonians.

In Acts chapter 13 verse 1, he speaks about the church at Antioch. But if we go to the book of Galatians, Galatians chapter 1 verse 1. Paul, an apostle, not from man through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead.

And all the brethren who are with me to the churches of Galatia. Now that's interesting. When he wrote to the Thessalonians, what did he say? To the church. But here he's writing to the churches. Why do you think that is?

Well, it's simply because Galatia is not a city. Galatia is a region. It's a province. And so he is writing to all of the churches in that province. This is one of the few times that he does that. And so you find a principle, which we can go through many other scriptures, but that you have in those days one church per city.

Every city had one church. And so you could speak about the church of Colossae or the church of Ephesus, but you could not speak about the church of Galatia because that would embrace a lot of different churches.

And so to speak about the church of the firstborn of the resurrected or whatever and mean a denomination, that you have to, if he was going to write, if God was to write to, let's say, the Baptist church.

Now you see, we use that term, the Baptist church. When we say the Baptist church, and I have nothing against the Baptist church. It's a good church. But when we speak about the Baptist church, what are we meaning?

We're meaning a denomination made up of thousands of churches in this country and in fact made up of something like 46 different denominations within what we title the Baptist church. But if God was to write to them, he would not write to the Baptist church.

He would write to the churches. You see the difference. God does not, nowhere in the New Testament does he deal with a group of churches as one unit. But whenever, even if he's dealing with more than one church, he speaks to them separately and he writes to each one of those churches separately.

So there is no such thing as a national church. He doesn't write to the church in Israel or the church in Asia. There is no such thing as a regional church. He does not write to the church in Galatia.

He writes to the churches in Galatia. There is no such thing as a church which is based on an individual. He does not write to the churches of Paul or the church of Paul or the denomination of Paul or of Peter or of James or any one of these other men.

And neither are they churches that are based on a particular doctrine. We just made reference to the Baptists and please I have the highest respect for the Baptists. But at the same time their title, the name of their denomination is what?

Baptist. It's a doctrinal statement. We are different because we baptize. And others will say, well we're the church, we're the Bible Baptists. In other words, we believe the Bible and we baptize. And so you can go on and on and on.

Now the scripture doesn't make those kinds. He simply writes to the church in Ephesus. And that's all there is. So there is no separating of churches along any kind of lines whether those are regional or national or doctrinal or personality.

There is no division like that. The only division between churches is that of locality. And so if there is a church in one city and there's a church in another city, you have two churches. Now I know that creates a problem today because there are people who, and in fact their headquarters is not very far from here in Anaheim.

The descendants of Wachmanee came from China. In fact he died a martyr in China. But his protege, witness Lee, fled under Wachmanee's instruction, fled to Taiwan and from Taiwan came to the United States.

And they have their headquarters in Anaheim. And they have this teaching, they push this teaching to the extreme which they still say that if you have one city you have to have one church. And so in Burbank you can only have one valid church.

And now the question is who is the valid church? Well of course it's our church. We have to be the valid church. And then you have the other extreme of that era also because what happens now is that there is a big move in many, many evangelical circles to have a central eldership in the local churches.

So all the pastors get together and they're beginning to form this oversight thing, organization, this body that will run the church and bring the churches together in one city. So you have one church in one city.

The problem of course is in order to do that you have to sacrifice many, many things that are truth and that's a whole other issue which I don't want to get involved in. But we simply cannot link hands with people who do not agree on the essentials of the truth.

We must not divide on things that are not essential. Whether we wear ties or don't wear ties is not an issue for division. Whether we face this way in our service or whether we face that way cannot be a basis of division.

But there are other issues that are more serious and that are a basis for division and that we cannot bridge those non-essentials. But these people are trying to reestablish this idea of one church per city.

Revelation's Seven Distinct Churches

Alright, now if we go to the book of Revelation chapter 1, and I know this is maybe a little bit boring, but I think it's important that we establish the biblical basis for this. You see because one of the problems also is that there are many independent churches like this one today and many times they're independent not for biblical reasons but simply because their leaders can't get on with anybody else and so they hive off and they start their own church.

This is very big in Africa. Every Tom, Dick and Harry when he thinks he can preach a little bit he'll leave the church and he'll take some members and he'll start his own church. Now it's good for us to start many churches but when it is simply because I can't work under authority that's the wrong reason and in fact there are too many independent or autonomous churches that are autonomous not for biblical reasons but simply because their leaders cannot work with others and that's the wrong reason.

So we need to know the right reasons for doing this. Now in Revelation chapter 2 and 3 we have the letters to the seven churches. We've dealt with these in great detail in the English department on Sunday mornings and it's very interesting when you look at these seven churches that they were very close together.

They were about 25 miles apart so you could walk from one to the next in one day. That was basically the distance apart. They were in a very very small area. Maybe I haven't actually measured it but I would guess probably in an area as big as Los Angeles County.

Probably that sort of area. And yet when you look at them you see that everyone is different. Each one had its own structure. Each one had its own strengths. Each one had its own weaknesses. Each one had its own doctrinal issues.

Each one was very very different. And these guys were so close together that if there was any sense in which the New Testament encouraged some kind of central control of the churches you would find that these churches would all look exactly the same.

They would not be very very different. The same way as today when you go into a denominational church or whatever denomination. I think that most of us who have been saved for a while can go into a denominational church without looking at the name outside the door and within 10 minutes of the service running you have a good idea of what kind of church this is.

What kind of denomination it is. But these churches, these seven churches, each one is different. And so it shows us that they had no central control, that there was no central authority dictating how they were to operate.

Each one was being led by God and unfortunately being deceived by the devil independently. And so each one of these churches is very very different. But more importantly in Revelation chapter 1 and verse 12 he says, I turned to see the voice that spoke with me and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands.

And in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the Son of Man clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. And then down in verse 20, the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.

Now I've read many commentators that have looked at these lampstands and have compared it to the menorah or the lampstand that was in the tabernacle. Now you remember that in the tabernacle as you came into the holy place on the right hand side was a seven branched candlestick.

But that lampstand and these are very very different. The lampstand in the book of Exodus and for those who are writing down the scriptures, Exodus 25, 31. In Exodus 25, 31 it is specific that the lampstand of the tabernacle was to be beaten out of one solid piece of gold.

And so it had, and it was specific, it had a central stem and it had three branches coming out on the one side and three branches on the other side giving you seven lamps. Not nine like the modern menorahs that the Jewish people use today.

But it had seven. But the point was that it had a single foot. It had a single base or pedestal and out of that then came the central one and then three and three giving you seven. But when you look at the book of Revelation the picture here is very very different.

He does not say a seven branched candlestick or lampstand. Lampstand is the better English because these were lamps that were burning and not candles. He doesn't say it was a seven branched candlestick.

What was it? There were seven candlesticks. Seven candlesticks or seven lampstands. Each one of them a lampstand on its own. Where is Jesus in this whole lot? He's walking in the midst. He's walking between them.

Now you can't walk, if you look at the menorah in the Old Testament, the seven branched candlestick, you can't walk between the menorah. You can only walk around it because it was one with seven branches.

But here it is seven distinct lampstands and Jesus walks between them. So what does this tell me? I think this is very important, very significant because it illustrates this point that we're establishing not just from the scripture but from the other scriptures.

And that is that the church is not a central organization with branches. So that this is a branch of the church in Timbuktu or a branch of the church in New York City. But each church is independent. Each church stands on its own basis, on its own foundation.

And each one of these churches is accountable to Jesus. Notice that Jesus in writing to these churches doesn't say to them, I'm going to get your regional overseer or your district superintendent or your whatever.

He's going to come and sort your problems out. He calls each one of these churches accountable to himself. And to the church in Ephesus he says, if you do not repent, I will remove your lampstand. And so he says, but if you overcome, these are the blessings.

And so he's writing to each church and each church receives from him blessing and judgment. Each church receives from him encouragement. And each church is responsible and accountable to Jesus Christ.

At no stage does he even say to John, because John is a writer and he's probably the oldest surviving apostle of the twelve that's still alive at this time. And we could imagine that maybe Jesus would say, well, you know, when John is released from prison, then he'll sort you guys out.

He'll come and fix your problems. But he doesn't do anything of the sort. Because those churches are not accountable to John, they are accountable to Jesus Christ. Each one of them independent or autonomous.

Franchising and Formulaic Church Growth

Now, for man, that's not a comfortable thing. We don't like that kind of thing because we like formulas. We like to find a formula that works. And then when that works, then we reproduce it again and again and again.

And so why does McDonald's make a lot of money? Well, they found a formula that works. It doesn't work for me, but millions of other people can't be wrong. And so you go into one McDonald's and you go into the next one and it's exactly the same.

The menu is the same, the food is the same, the recipe is the same, the building is the same, the way people dress is the same, everything is the same. That's the way the world works. And in fact, they use this in the church today.

And in the church growth movement, there is a thing which they now call franchising. And they will replicate, they will find a formula that works in a particular church and they will replicate that formula in other places.

To such a degree that sometimes, in some of these examples, what they will do is the preacher will preach the message and he will have the worship team who lead the worship and then they will fly by helicopter to the next church.

And they will do four or five churches like this on a Sunday and two on a Saturday maybe. And they will put on the same show because that's all it is, it's a show. They will run the same worship with the same sermon with the same formula because that works.

And they have other different ways. I've actually seen a video of them running where you don't have the same preacher, you have different preachers. And this particular setup, they were running five satellites like this.

And each one of these are big churches, they run several thousand people. But the pastors in each of these five churches will come together and they will work out the sermon together between them. And then they will preach that sermon word for word.

And not only the sermon but the worship, the whole service runs exactly the same. And so at the exact moment, and in fact on this video what they did was they cut from one church to the next. And these churches were I suppose about 50 miles apart or so in an area.

And by satellite they would cut from the video from the one church to the next and it was almost seamless. The same words were being spoken at exactly the same moment in every one of those churches. This is called franchising, this is the way the world operates.

God's Design for Diversity

But God doesn't operate that way. God works with differences. And even in the body of Christ he emphasizes not the fact that we're all the same but we're all different. Even our fingers are different.

Even our fingerprints are different. Our irises are different. Not two people in the world have the same iris in their eyes. Not two people in the world have the same fingerprints. Not two of us here look the same.

God makes us different. God is a God of variety and of difference. And so in dealing with the churches we want to put everything in a little box. And God says no, every church is different. Each church has got its own personality and so on.

Antioch as an Autonomous Church

Alright, let's go to Acts chapter 11 again, the passage that we read. And I want you to see this in operation because this is not the first church that was established, I don't think, but certainly was one of the first churches that was established and certainly the first church that was a Gentile church which was made up mainly of Greek or Gentiles rather than Jews.

And because of the dispersion that came as a result of Stephen's stoning, it says that people fled all over and they preached the gospel wherever they went. They came to Antioch. Many people believed verse 21.

Verse 22, the news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem. They sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. Now, why I'm using this example is because people will refer to Jerusalem as the mother church.

And all of the churches were run from Jerusalem. Now I want you to see this. Verse 23, when he came and had seen the grace of God, so Barnabas has now come to Antioch, he was glad and encouraged them all with what purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord.

He was a good man and so on. Then verse 25, Barnabas departed from Tarsus to seek Saul. Now, that's important. He doesn't go back to Jerusalem and say, well, this is what I found, now what do I do next?

He comes there, he finds these believers, preaches amongst them, and then he says, well, I need to go and find Paul, who at this stage is still called Saul, that Saul had not actually entered into the ministry yet.

Verse 26, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch, and so it was for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people, and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

Can you see that Jerusalem has nothing to do with this? Except that they sent Barnabas out in the first instance, Barnabas went out and he was on his own. And he dealt with the church of Antioch, he said, I need help, he went to find Paul, they continued to preach.

Jerusalem had nothing to do with it. This was not a sister-daughter church or a satellite church of Jerusalem. And then later on, in verse, chapter 13, now in the church that was at Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, and so on, they ministered to the Lord, verse 2, and verse 3, then having fasted and prayed, they laid hands on them and they sent them away.

So this is the first missionaries that are sent out from Antioch. Again, you don't see them going to Jerusalem and saying, well, we want to do some mission work, we'll send you money, and you can send out missionaries.

They just sent the men out. They didn't send them to Jerusalem to be qualified or to be checked by Jerusalem. When they saw the vision to do it, they just, so what I'm trying to show you is that they're not operating as a satellite or a branch or as a daughter of Jerusalem, they're operating as an independent church.

Just making their own decisions, the decisions that they believe to be right before the Lord. And if ever there was a situation where you would have this kind of satellite situation or branch or daughter church to a mother church, it would be here.

Because Jerusalem was where it was all happening, and Barnabas had come from there, but in fact, Jerusalem was not the mother church. Jerusalem was just another church. Happened to be the first church, happened to be the church where the twelve apostles were, but it was not the mother church.

Jerusalem's Destruction and the Mother-Church Model

Now, it's also interesting that it was not long after this, in AD 70, that in fact Jerusalem was destroyed. Now, we know much about the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70, but we forget that together with that, the church was also destroyed.

And you wonder why that happened. Who brought about the destruction of Jerusalem? It was God. Of course, He used the Romans, but this was prophesied, and it was in the plan of God. God destroyed Jerusalem because He was dealing with Israel, but I think it's also significant that He destroyed the church along with the city.

You say, how could God destroy the church? I believe that God destroyed the church because He did not want Jerusalem to rise up and become the Rome of today. To become the mother church, the central church, and so there was no church in Jerusalem after AD 70.

There was no place that they could say, well, let's take a pilgrimage to the mother church. There was no such thing, because Jerusalem had been destroyed. And so, obviously, we know that there were some believers later on again, and in fact this was not the first time that the church had been destroyed, because remember at the stoning of Stephen, the church already had been dispersed and only the twelve apostles remained, but obviously more people got saved after that.

Local Elders and Local Church Authority

Alright, so we can go through many, many other examples. We're going to run out of time. But you can see from the scripture that there is no such thing as a central church, central authority, a head office, a headquarters.

Each church stands with its own elders under the headship of Jesus Christ. When we go through the writings of Paul, Paul makes no reference to any kind of authority outside of the local church except Jesus Christ.

This is throughout Paul's teachings. And of course, the question is where do people get this from? I don't have a clue. I know some of the scriptures they like to use to pervert, to teach denominationalism.

There is just not, you know, it's just not in the Bible. It's just not what the Bible teaches. Alright, let's look at Corinth, and I'm going to go through this very, very quickly. And if you look at Paul's dealing with a church in Corinth, which was a church that had many problems.

And the role of denominations and of headquarters and of central authorities invariably comes into play when a church has problems. When everything is going well, all they want is your tithes or a portion of the local church's income.

But the time when they flex their muscles is when they have problems in the local churches. Now, there's a problem in the church of Corinth, and I want you to see how Paul deals with it. He deals with the issue of excommunication, one of the most severe forms of discipline.

But he does not excommunicate. Who excommunicates? The local church. He says, you guys put the man out. That's what you have to do. Paul doesn't do it. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. Disputes among believers have to be resolved in the local assembly.

1 Corinthians chapter 6. We spoke about that on Wednesday night. He doesn't say if there's a dispute amongst local believers, go to a magistrate. In fact, he says don't go to the local judge. But he also doesn't establish some kind of church rule and say, well, you know, take it to the district council or the regional overseer or whatever you like.

No, he says if you've got a dispute with your brother, you take it to the church. Again, the final authority in even in disputes of a legal nature is in the local church. It's not beyond the local church.

The appointment of delegates to carry funds from the church was local. 2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 19. Now, let me just touch on that because on two occasions money is sent from the local churches to Jerusalem.

And people like to use that and say, well, you see, we have to send money to the headquarters. But at no stage was that in the sense of money being sent to a headquarter. It was simply there was a famine.

There was a need in Jerusalem, and they sent that money to another church who's in need. That's all there is to it. There is no more deeper meaning to that. And if that other church happened to be in Galatia or happened to be in Macedonia or wherever, it would have been exactly the same.

And it just happened to be Jerusalem. There is no sense of sending a tithe or a portion of the church's income to the mother church. It was to a church that was in need. That was the only reason why they sent the money to Jerusalem.

Letters of commendation are given by the local church. Now, the letters of commendation was that when you move from one church to another, one city to another, when you arrived at the next city, they needed to know who you were.

Because remember, these were dangerous times. There were spies from the government and spies from the Jews who were looking for people that they could persecute. And people would come in and say, well, I'm a brother.

I come from South Africa. I'm a brother, and I'm one of you. But meantime, I'm working for the government, or I'm working for the devil, which is very likely also. And so when they went from one church to the other, they would take with them a letter from the previous church, letters of commendation saying, this is a brother who has fellowshiped with us for so many years, and we have confidence in him that he is a good brother and that you can trust him and that sort of thing.

This is the letters of commendation. Again, the letters of commendation are sent by the Church of Corinth. They are not sent by the headquarters or by some other kind of authority. And then ministry to the poor saints from the local churches.

Their decisions are made at the local level. They are made by the Church of Corinth. They are not made Jerusalem doesn't say, you know, we've got a problem. You guys better send us 20 percent of your income, or we need $5 ,000 to fix our sprinkler system.