Biblical Authority — Anton Bosch

All right, turn with me please to the book of Luke. I've been told I speak too fast. I'm going to try and speak slower. You didn't hear me when I was younger. I speak a lot slower than I used to, and I will try and speak slower, and if you don't understand, stop me and I'll try and explain.

I spoke too fast for myself. Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22. And we'll read from 24 through 30. Luke chapter 22, verses 24 through 30. Now there was also a dispute among them, that's the disciples, as to which of them should be considered the greatest.

And he said to them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors. But not so among you. On the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves.

For who is greater, he who sits at the table or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the one who serves. But you are those who have continued with me in my trials, and I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as my father bestowed one upon me, that you may eat and drink at my table and in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Now I want to speak this evening in a continuation from last week on the issue of authority in the church. We're dealing with the church and we're going to begin to deal with elders and the related ministries next week.

But I think it's very important that we, because we had some questions and we've had questions since then, and it's clear that this is an area where we have great difficulty. The issue of authority and submission in the church, and I'm going to refer to the home also because there is a very clear link between those two operations, between the home and the church.

Now Jesus here makes a very, very important statement, and he says this is the way it is in the world. Those who are kings or masters, verse 25, he said amongst the Gentiles in the world, they exercise lordship over them.

They are lords, they are controllers over the people. And they are called benefactors. A benefactor is someone who does good. The word bene, meaning bene, good. And a factor is a doer. Remember when Jesus was crucified, they said they brought two malfactors.

Mal, bad, factors, bad people. And so these are good people. Now Jesus is just highlighting how strange the world's concept of things is. Here are people who are lords in a bad sense, and yet people call them benefactors.

They say these are good people. And that's even true today. Remember James says, he says you give the rich honor when they come amongst you, you give them the prime seats in the church, and yet are they not the people who abuse you and drag you to the courts and who rip you off?

And yet we look at these people and we say these people are great. And we know that we are here in a democratic country, but there are many countries that do not have a democratic kind of government, who have dictatorships.

And yet many people will look at those dictators and say, they're great men. Men like Castro and Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe and the names go on and on and on. These are dictators. And yet people look up at them and say they are, and the same happens in the church.

And so we bring the world's form of government of dictatorship into the church sometimes, and people say he's a strong leader. Now Jesus says this is not the way it will be among you. You see, unfortunately, when it comes to the world and its way of doing things, many men look at themselves as being strong because they are dictatorial, because they are authoritarian, because they rule their homes or their businesses with a rod of iron.

And we understand that in the world you won't get very far if you're not that way. You will not become a Donald Trump if you don't step all over people. That's the only way you can get anywhere in the world.

But Jesus is saying this is not the world. This is not the Gentiles. This is the church. And among you it will not be that way. But he who would be great needs to become the servant. So the concept or the idea of authority in the church or in the home is a very important one for us to come to grips with and to understand.

Jesus is the head of the church. He has all authority. Remember Matthew 28? All authority, all power is given to me. Go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel. Jesus is the one who has all the authority.

Jesus did not say all authority is given to me and I am now giving you the authority. This is what some preachers are preaching. They teach a concept of delegated authority. Delegated meaning giving to someone else.

And so Jesus delegates his authority to the apostles and the apostles delegate it to the next level of people and so the authority gets delegated all down the line. That's the way it works in the world.

And so if you walk down the street or you drive down the street too fast and the Burbank policeman stops you, you say well who are you? He says well I'm Burbank City Police. But his authority is not just the fact that he is Burbank City Police.

But his authority is delegated to him by the county. And that authority is delegated to the county by the state. And that authority to the state has been delegated by the federal government which ultimately goes to the President of the United States.

So when you have a problem with a law enforcement officer or with a military person who carries rank, his authority is backed up all the way to the White House. That's delegated authority. The President delegates his authority further down the line, further down the line, further down the line until you find the policeman in the black and white.

Now this is the idea of authority that we bring into the church and we say well Jesus has all authority. Now he has delegated his authority to the leaders in the church, to the pastors and then they delegate authority to the elders and they delegate authority to the deacons and so it goes.

That's just not in the Bible, folk. It's nowhere in the Bible. The Bible does not teach the idea of a delegated authority. Jesus says all power is given, all authority is given to me. You go. He has the authority.

He still has the authority. Nothing has ever changed. And he has not given his authority away. He has not delegated it to you or to me. Now one of the other things that we struggle with is the fact that in the world authority and responsibility are connected.

You cannot give somebody responsibility and not give them authority. In other words, if I say to Jeff, your responsibility is to keep the hallways in this building clean. I have to give him some kind of authority and I'm just speaking as the manager of the business side here.

That when people spill their coffee, he can go and say, hey, you're not supposed to have coffee down here. Or when they drop their papers or throw their gum on the floor, he can say, please pick up your gum.

You can't give someone, when you give someone a responsibility, they have to have authority to be able to fulfill that responsibility. The greater the responsibility, the greater the authority. That's the way it is in the world.

And so if you have a city council as here in Burbank, they have responsibility for the affairs of the city, but together with that comes authority. But at the state level, the governor has greater responsibility because he doesn't just have one city, but he has a state to be responsible for and he has therefore greater authority.

That's the way it is in the world. But again, we cannot take the world's way of doing things and bring it into the church. And so Jesus gives responsibility without authority. Because again, there is no verse anywhere in the Bible that says elders must have authority in the churches.

There is no such verse. Or pastors are the authority in the local church. There is no such verse. So is he expecting me to do a job without authority? Yes. Because the very idea of wielding authority is contrary to the nature of Christ.

And is contrary to the whole concept and idea of the New Testament. Now, before you say that I'm teaching heresy, does that then not mean that because what about the verses that say in Hebrews, Timothy, submit to those who lead you.

And we'll look at those verses in a moment. So does that then not mean that if I have to submit to somebody who is a leader, that that man or person has authority? Well, again, here's the problem. In the world, submission and authority are two sides of one coin.

If you have submission, you have to have authority. If you have authority, you have to have submission. One exercises authority, the other one submits. That concept is not in the church. Submission without authority.

All right. Let me speak about the home. And we've dealt with this when we've dealt with the families. But let's just deal with that to try and understand this idea. Ephesians chapter 6. Or is it 5? It teaches on marriage.

Maybe we should turn there. Here it comes, let us. Ephesians chapter 5. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. Because the husband is to have authority in his home. Watch carefully. Is that what the Spanish translation says?

Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church, and He is the Savior of the body. He says that the husband is the head of the wife.

He does not say that the husband is the Lord of the wife. Or the master of the wife. He does not say husbands. Where does he speak to husbands? Verse 25. Husbands, exercise authority and control in your homes.

No, it does. Sounds good. But that's how we read it. Because the wife has to submit, therefore the husband has to wield authority. That's the way it is in the world. It is not the way it is to be in the church.

The fact that one submits does not mean the other one wields authority. What is the husband's responsibility? To love. There's a big difference between loving and being the Lord in your house. There's a huge difference.

I don't see Donald Trump being a particularly loving person. But he exercises a lot of authority. And that idea of love and authority just don't go together. I don't see the... What do they call them here in the military?

We call them Sergeant Major. Sergeant Major. Are they known for their loving, a drill sergeant? Are they known because they are loving, kind, compassionate people? They exercise authority. When I went to the military the first time, the Sergeant Major called the parade.

And he said to us this. He says, you no longer have a member of parliament. We had members of parliament that if you had a problem you go and speak to the senator. You no longer have a senator. I am your senator.

You no longer have a pastor. I am your pastor. You no longer have a father or a mother. I am your father and your mother. All authority is with me. I own you. Those were his words as I remember them 30, 40 years ago.

That's the world. And we bring that concept and we say that's how a husband's got to rule his house. There is no verse in the Bible that speaks about husbands ruling their houses. And I know that we refer to the verse in the book of Timothy when it speaks about elders.

When it says if a man does not know how to rule his house well, how will he rule the church of God? But the problem is that the translation is unfortunate because the word rule there is the word lead.

But you see unfortunately the translators had agendas. And we spoke last week about the problem of culture. And unfortunately translators impose their culture on the scriptures. And so what is the responsibility of the wife in the home?

She is to submit. There is no way out of it, Gladys. She is to submit to her husband. Whether he is a good husband or a bad husband. And I understand the arguments. Oh but you don't know my husband. He makes bad decisions.

He is abusive. He is this, he is that, he is the other thing. Now that doesn't excuse the fact that you have a responsibility to submit to him as much as he has a responsibility to love. That's what God is asking for.

Now we don't have time to deal with that whole marriage thing. I'm just trying to illustrate this point. But the moment the husband walks in and says, because I'm the husband. We have a saying back home where often times you see it in an office.

Rule number one, the boss is always right. Rule number two, in case he's wrong refer to rule number one. Now remember that what Paul is saying here in Ephesians 5 is the husband is the head of the wife.

Now remember we spoke about the fact that there are different parts of the body that have different functions. My head does not walk around manipulating and beating my body into doing things that it does not want to do.

Or that it cannot do. My head is so connected to the rest of my body that whatever it does, it does for the good of the body. But it gets the information from the body. And when my knees say they don't want to get up because they sore, my head takes that into account.

When my head says you've got to run across the street because you're jaywalking and my legs come back, we can't. We're over the hill. Then the head says, well, what can I do? But the idea of the head being a dictator controlling and beating up and keeping in subjection and making decisions that are bad for the rest of the body.

That's just not the way a body operates. The head operates in sympathy with the rest of the body. Listening to the needs of the body and making decisions that are within the abilities and within the limitations and for the good of the body.

Can you imagine my head saying to my hand, go and put in the fire? My head would never do that. Because, why? Because if I put my hand in the fire, the whole body is going to suffer with it. And so when the hand feels the fire, the body, the head immediately says, withdraw.

And so everything that happens is happening for the good, in sympathy and in harmony with the rest of the body. Now, he is saying, verse 23 of Ephesians 5, the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church.

That's the way. He's not even using the illustration that I've just used of the body, the physical body. He is saying the husband is the head of the wife in the same way as Christ is the head of the church.

Now, how does Jesus relate to the church? How does He relate to you and to me? Does He make demands that are unfair? Does He require of me things that I cannot do? How does Jesus get me to do the things that I do?

Why do I serve Him? Because He loved me. Not because He said, I'm going to throw you in hell if you don't do what I tell you to do. He's never done that to me. He may have done that to you and then if that's true, then don't believe the preacher who told you that.

But I will give Him everything. My whole life, I will lay on the altar for Him. I will follow Him and I will follow His commands and His desires and His instructions. Why? Because He loved me. And He gave Himself for me.

He proved His love to me. And because He's proven that He loves me. And that He wants to save me. That's what He is saying. That He gave Himself for the church. That He might save it. I will submit to Him.

And I do submit to Him with all of my heart. That is the relationship between Christ and the church. And that should be the relationship between husband and wife. And if you have not, as a husband, not loved your wife the way that Christ has loved the church, you have no right to ask her for breakfast.

Bottom line. Now, I'm speaking to the husbands, not to the wives. Wives have a responsibility to submit whether He's fair or not fair. But the husbands have no rights except what they have earned by their love.

That's when we speak to the husbands. When we speak to the wives, we have to say, you have to submit whether He's fair or not fair. Whether He loves you or doesn't love you. Whether He's cruel or not cruel.

Because the scripture calls for you to love, to submit to Him. You see, the two ideas of authority and submission are not connected. We submit to Christ because He loved us. He has authority. He can command our respect.

He can command our obedience. But He doesn't. How many times have each one of us been disobedient? How many times have we failed to do what He's expected of us? How many times have we been unfaithful to Him?

How many times have we been disobedient? How many times have we sinned? And yet, He never gives us an ultimatum. But He just loves us. And He waits for us to come to a point where we say, Lord, I give you everything.

All to Jesus I surrender. All to Him I freely give. He can demand it. But He doesn't. He's waiting for us to willingly submit to Him. Husbands, likewise, have to wait for wives to willingly submit. You cannot demand submission.

The sergeant major in the army can demand submission. Husbands cannot demand submission of their wives. And in the same way, leaders in the church cannot command or demand or require submission. If you don't like where I'm taking this church, if you don't like what I teach or what I believe, then that's tough.

I cannot force you. Now, I know that leaders do try to exert pressure. They manipulate. And some of them will outright say that if you don't follow me, you're going to go to hell. I've heard preachers say that.

I'm your ticket to heaven. In the sense that I know the way. You don't know the way. If you don't follow my way, you're not going to get there. No. And so, the idea of having authority in the church, of leaders saying, you do it because I said so.

Jesus never did that. And leaders and husbands should also never do that. You see, because there is no verse that says, leaders, I give you authority over the church. Folk have to follow leaders because those leaders have earned the respect of the people.

The same way as Jesus has earned my respect and my total commitment. He's proved himself to me. I trust him because I know he's never going to tell me to do something which is bad for me. And even when sometimes he asks me to do things that are hard and unpleasant, I trust him to such a degree that I know that he knows something I don't know.

And what he's asking me to do is in the end going to be for my good. I trust him 100%. Wives need to trust their husbands. Now, I'm not speaking to the wives. I'm speaking to husbands. Husbands, if your wife does not trust you and willingly follow your lead, there is something seriously wrong.

Not with her, with you. Now, I understand that there are people in churches who are rebellious. That there are wives who are rebellious. And it doesn't matter how good the husband is. And it doesn't matter how godly the leaders are, some people will never submit because they have a problem.

But even in those situations, leaders have no authority to say, I'm the pastor around here, you do it my way or else. We just don't have that kind of power as much as sometimes we feel we need it. All right.

Now, we spoke a little bit about democracy last week. And I'm not going to go all that way. But I just want to deal with when I say that there is no that kind of authority doesn't exist in the church, it also does not mean every man for himself.

Because, you see, the problem that we have here is that there is a lot of abuse of authority in churches. The same way there is a lot of abuse of authority in homes. And there is such abuse of authority in churches sometimes that churches become abusive.

And we speak of toxic faith. Poisonous churches. Where although their doctrine is correct, the leadership is so authoritarian that it is dangerous for the believer. And there is a whole study, there are many, many books.

In fact, back home I probably have something like 20 books on just the subject. Because I come out of a church like that. But because some people get hurt in those kinds of over-authoritarian environments, they go to the other extreme and they say, I will have no kind of authority.

I will not submit to any man. I submit to Jesus. Now, that also is not right. And in fact, the house church movement, which is very big and growing all over the world, and the no church movement, which is also a formal movement, and is growing and very, very powerful all over the world.

And right now, there are probably more Christians in the world that are outside of the church than are inside the church. Because they've been hurt by the church. And so they're saying, we will have nothing to do with any kind of authority.

Now, there is no biblical support for that either. In fact, it's interesting. They like to use the verse from the book of Judges, chapter 17, verse 6, that says there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Now, that wasn't a positive statement. That was a negative statement. That's anarchy. Chaos. Everyone just doing what's right in his own eyes. When we say that leaders do not wield authority, we're not speaking about chaos.

We're not speaking about every man doing what is right in his own eyes. Because if leaders are truly called of God and gifted of God, people will follow. And I don't want anyone in this church to be here because you feel you have no options.

And I trust that folk who are here say that we feel that we are part of what God is doing. However small that may be. The church in Corinth is a clear example of what happens when you have no rules. The fact that we say that leaders do not wield authority doesn't mean that there are no rules.

You've heard me say it a million times. We have to start on time because there are reasons for that. For our own sake, for the sake of our testimony, for the sake of the fact that we are revealing and we're manifesting to the world a God of order and a God of structure.

And so we have to have rules. If we say, well, you know, I'll come when the Spirit leads me. Exactly. He'll never lead us, Brother Junior said. And folks, this is literally what happens. There are churches, and I have spoken with people who are in, they're not churches, house church things, and they say, we have no rules.

So I say, well, when do you meet together? When the Spirit leads us. Well, when is that? Once a week? Once a month? Once a year? No, when the Spirit leads us. I remember at a particular wedding, sitting next to somebody like that, and we had a good two, three hours to try and sort this thing out.

Eventually, I came to the conclusion that they may meet once in two months, once in three months. Now, what about the verse that says, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together? I said, when you get together, what happens?

Oh, no, no, we are led by the Spirit. I said, but what happens? Well, sometimes we'll have a time of worship, but sometimes we'll just drink coffee. I'm serious. But the Spirit's leading us. No, the Spirit will never lead us contrary to the Scriptures, and will never lead us contrary to this idea that God is a God of order and not of confusion.

Now, when we get together and we don't know what we're going to do next, whether we're going to drink coffee or whether we're going to go and play basketball in the parking lot, or whether we're going to serve the Lord's Supper, that's confusion.

So there has to be structure. There has to be some rules. But they have to be rules that are for our good, not imposed from a dictatorial position. But it's also, as we've said last week, it's not a democracy.

Because if you have a very carnal church, by that I mean most people are immature spiritually. And we say, well, how should we have our services? Most folk will say, well, you know, we think we'll watch football or whatever.

We'll drink coffee, as the illustration, the example that I gave you. So leaders have to say, no, we can't. You can't run your home and say to the kids, well, what do you want for breakfast? Oh, no, I want ice cream.

What do you want for lunch? Ice cream. Parents have to take their responsibility and say, you can't have ice cream three times a day. Leaders in the church have to lead and fulfill their responsibility.

Because their responsibility is not just to the church. Their responsibility is also to the head of the church. And leaders have a job to bring baby believers to maturity. And they're never going to get to maturity if they just eat ice cream.

And so the time comes when we have to say, well, it's time that we had some solid food here. Or whatever. All right. I'm just struggling with the time. I'm trying to see how. We spoke about the verse in 1 Peter 5 last week.

1 Peter 5. 1, 2, 3. The elders who are among you I exhort. Notice the elders who are among you, not over you. I who am a fellow elder. Who's the speaking? Peter. Who was Peter? He was an apostle. He had seen the risen Christ.

Peter could say, I, the apostle of the risen Christ, command you, elders, to do this and this. He could have done that. But he didn't. He says, I who am a fellow elder. He says, I know the issues you deal with as elders.

I know what you struggle with. I've been there. I'm there. And I'm speaking to you as a brother. And a witness of the sufferings of Christ. He could have spoken about the resurrection, but he speaks about the sufferings.

And also partake of the glory that will be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God which is among you. Not under you. You see, always this issue of who's on top. No, who's among you. Serving as overseers, not by compulsion, but willingly.

Not for dishonest gain, but eagerly. Not as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. Now, this word lords that he's using there. Not as being lords over those entrusted to you.

That word means to overcome. And you find the same word in the book of Acts chapter 19. Where you read about the seven sons of Sceva. Remember, they came to this man who was demon possessed. And they said in the name of Jesus that Paul preached to be telling you to come out of him.

And then, what did these demons do? They jumped on these men. And they overcame them. That's the word. It's the same word that is used lord. Overcame with force and by power and subjugated them. That's the word that Peter uses.

And he says, don't overpower the church. Now, that overpowering can be a physical one. It can be one that is by threats. I will excommunicate you if you don't do it my way. It can be a manipulative one.

Where I will just ignore you if you don't do it my way. Whatever. All of the tools that people use to get other people to do what they want them to do. If I'm trying to overpower people. Peter says, don't do it.

Because Jesus never overpowered me. With his manipulation or his power. But just with his love. Alright. Now, the issue of submission. Try and get this thing to some kind of conclusion in the next five minutes, four minutes.

Submission is not just something which is mentioned here and there in the scripture. It is all over the New Testament. And when we don't have a submissiveness amongst us. And when I speak about submission, I'm not speaking about the flock submitting to the leaders.

But Paul writes and he says, all of you be in submission to one another in the book of Ephesians. Submitting to one another in the fear of the Lord. Our submission is to every single one. The leaders must be in submission to the people.

The people in submission to one another. Wives in submission to husbands. Husbands in submission to wives. Oh no, brother, that's not in my Bible. The Bible says, all of you be in submission to one another.

When Jeff's mopping the floor. And he says, brother, please don't walk here because I've just cleaned here. I say, well, who are you? You know who I am? No, I submit to brother Jeff. And I say, I won't walk there, brother.

You see, submission is not just a one-way street. When my wife says that I need to be home at a particular time, I say, well, I'm the husband, I do what I need. No, I submit to her and I make sure that I'm at the dinner table when she wants that.

When she tells me, don't put your clothes on the floor, I submit to her. Because that is how it works. But, you know, there are many husbands who say, no, I'm the boss of my house. I can hang my clothes up on the floor.

That's the way it is in the world. It's not the way it is in the church. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. This is the heart, and we've been speaking about Saul, and I encourage you to get those tapes.

This is at the heart of a right relationship with God, humility. And this is at the heart of a right relationship between husband and wife and between members in the church as we are humble and we submit to one another.

But when we begin to assert our rights and we say, that's my right, I'm the wife, I'm the husband, I'm the this or the other thing, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.