New Testament Church Principles - Part 1 — Mike Attwood

Well, good evening everyone. It is indeed a great pleasure to be here and to share with you from the Word of God. Talking with the brethren here. They've asked if I would speak particularly on a subject Which is very dear to my heart and I believe even more dear to the heart of God and that is a subject of the church.

The Church as God’s House

And I want to begin by reading from 1st Timothy chapter 3. 1st Timothy chapter 3 if you'd like to turn there with me. And I want to read from verse 14 through 16 in 1st Timothy chapter 3. 1st Timothy 3 verse 14 Says this.

These things write I unto thee. Hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long That thou mayest know. How thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God. Which is the church of the living God the pillar and ground of the truth and without controversy.

Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Justified in the spirit seen of angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world. Received up into glory. Again, we believe God will bless the reading this precious word to us in this evening.

Just that casual reading of that passage will tell you two things that stand out immediately. Tell you a lot more than two things. But two things concerning the church one is it clearly tells us that the the church is the house of God.

Remember it says here that how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God. Which is the church of the living God? And so what we could say is in the New Testament very specifically because that's the era we live in.

Thank God We live in the New Testament era not in the Old Testament. I'm glad that I live in this day and age. I don't know about you, but I'm really thankful for that but the house of God today is the church of the living God right and it's the New Testament Church and Then the second thing that stands out Concerning the church is this he says that you may know how you ought to behave yourself in The house of God.

I think it really is helpful if we can get it straight in our minds right at the beginning that the church is his house not ours. That that makes a big difference doesn't it see sometimes I think what we do is we we kind of look at church and it's all about me.

Right, it's what I want. You know, I want my needs met. I want I want to to have the right programs for my kids and we look at it from a very Ego, because because we're very egocentric by nature. We tend to look at it from an egocentric Perspective, but I want to change that around a little bit because the Bible doesn't put it that way.

He said it's God's house. Now when you start thinking of the church as the house of God it changes everything. You see if I really believe this is the house of God one is I will behave myself. Because it's the house of God and that means that God is here in this house and I better behave myself in it but secondly Because it's his house.

He has the right to set the rules in his house, doesn't he? See I'm already enjoying the fine hospitality of brother Bob and Jane and They they basically said make yourself at home, but I know that they're saying that somewhat tongue-in-cheek.

No was if I said well, look, I'd like to make some major changes in this house. Where's the sledgehammer? I think they would say to me. Hey, hold on a second. We didn't really mean that You you're welcome here and we want you to feel comfortable here, but you don't mess with this house.

It's our house and they'd be perfectly right wouldn't they? Well, the church is God's house and there is a right behavior That is suitable for the house of God. Before we look in to that subject of how to behave and that's basically what we're going to be dealing with a lot this weekend Is is the order of the house of God and how to behave?

Correctly in his house and and people say well orders not really that important. Is that right? But you try calling my phone number and get all the right numbers. But the wrong order and see how you get on you get.

I'm saying I mean the order is important, isn't it? Not only the numbers are important, but the order is important too if you want to get through and So order is important. And so we want to talk about the order of the house of God before we do that I want to talk about get the importance of the house of God to begin with because it's just a really Critical that we understand this.

Christ’s Love for the Church

Why would we bother spending a whole weekend? When we could lots of other things we could legitimately be doing Here studying the subject of the church. Why bother? I'll tell you why because it's something that the Bible tells us Christ also loved The church and gave himself for it so for one thing if you love the Lord Jesus you love what he loves and he loved the church and He gave himself for it.

So but that's important to study something. You said I love the Lord Jesus. And so things that he loves I want to know about. I Want to understand what he loves and try and understand the heart of my Savior a little bit more and I cannot fully understand the Heart of my Savior and be indifferent about the church because he loves it and he gave himself for it.

Matthew 16 18 the Lord Jesus says this I will build my church. That's what he's doing right now. That's what he's doing in the world today. He's building his church. It's the most important building project going on in this present age is the church.

So obviously it's important to him and then thirdly. Let me tell you how important it is to him in Acts 20 verse 28 says this. It speaks of the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. Such is his love for the church that he made the ultimate investment in it.

The church of God which he purchased with his own blood. So we're talking about something very important to the heart of our Savior, aren't we? And so that's why we need to study it and not only that.

When I think about my Savior, you know what it was said of him. When he cleansed the temple in John's gospel chapter 2 and he drove the money changes out his disciples Watched him do this and this is what came to their mind.

They remembered that it was written zeal for thy house. Have eaten me up. That's John's gospel chapter 2 verse 17. And so one thing that characterized my Savior was a zeal for the house of God. Now, I don't know about you.

But as I read my Bible, I know one thing and that is this that God's plan for my life. Is that I'd be like the Lord Jesus, right? He has predestinated that I would be conformed to the image of his son.

That's God's plan for my life. It's the me to be more like the Lord Jesus and less like Mike Atwood. It's God's plan for you to to be more like the Lord Jesus, right? And and I can I just say this lovingly, but honestly.

You cannot be like the Lord Jesus and be indifferent about the church. Can you. If God's plans for me to be like Christ and and it was said of him zeal and that means the word zeal means hot. It was it was something that he was hot about that is passionate.

Zeal for the house of God consumed him. It said and so what I'm saying is that if I would be like the Lord Jesus. That my life should be characterized with a zeal for the house of God. So we're saying this subject is important to God.

It really is it's important to my Savior. But it's also important for you. To be part of the church to be involved in the local church. I just this summer had the privilege of visiting Norway for the first time.

I had a good reason my oldest boy married a Norwegian girl and We had the privilege of meeting her family. We've met her. She came over and visited and I've met her in England. And but we met with her family and her family we learned some interesting things about them.

She's she's got there are six of them six children and the parents and They in Norway there the the churches like this are rare. I know of one assembly right now in the whole of Norway okay in a place called scheme just south of Oslo and the state church dominates the country and Controls the Christian world very strongly they have these prayer houses where the evangelicals meet.

But they're still connected with a state church and very involved particularly in in Baptismal regeneration in other words when you're a baby and you get dipped in the font or whatever you become saved.

Which is really messed up Norwegian Christianity big time. Because you know that's not true. And so it's very much Lutheranism the whole thing. But but basically how that plays out is things like this for instance when I was there I got to speak in these prayer houses, but there's a rule in the book that if you're not a Lutheran You can only speak there twice so because they don't want to let us guys loose in a place like that because we might cause a problem because we'll teach the Bible and that might wake people up.

So there's limits you see on what you can do, but the interesting thing is that their family Packed up and and left Norway and went to England for one year. Just so they could have the privilege of being involved in a functioning church.

Can you imagine packing up six kids and going To another country for a whole year and all the implications of that. Just so you could experience the privilege of being in a functioning New Testament Church.

I think to myself we have it here so available and Yet often we're so bone idle. It's too much trouble to be involved. Shame on us. Isn't that a shame? It's important to us important to us. Why. Because because the church is a place where one we use our spiritual gifts a Place where we get fed and edified and cared for a place where we learn to deal with awkward people.

If you haven't experienced that yet, you will right? And that's good. That's part of maturity. Isn't it learning to deal with difficulty and overcome it with the love of Christ? I mean church is a great place for all these things and it's God's plan.

And so we need to see this is a very important subject. Now I want to get on to the the subject of the the order of the church and I want to just show something. This evening just to kind of lay a foundation before we get into specifics and my outline is very simple this evening.

The Universal New Testament Church Pattern

What I want to do is really three points because that's got to have a simple three-point outline or else it didn't work. Right, it's fairly simple one test first of all demonstrate from Scripture that there actually was a Universal pattern in the New Testament of how believers are supposed to meet.

Now I think that's important to do that because you know, if you were to I often think what would it be like? If some New Testament Christian, you know, I'm talking about somebody from the the early days of Christianity.

When it was in its very primitive Simplest form as we see it in the New Testament was certainly as it were put in a time warp. And ended up coming to Missouri in 2011. Okay, and they started visiting around quote the churches even in this area.

I Wonder what they would think. You know coming from the simplicity of how it was in the beginning and then going and visiting someone I'm sure they say how did we ever get from here to here? What happened down these centuries?

Where did they get that from? I'm sure they'd be shocked wouldn't they and What I'm saying is that that that the Bible in its essence is given as a simple clear pattern of how we're to meet As believers and and it's there in the Word of God.

It's it's not hard to find I wasn't raised in a church like this. I was raised Roman Catholic. When I got saved I was not involved in churches like this. But what I did is I began to study the Bible in earnest and I began to see certain things That weren't being practiced in the church.

We were going and I began to wonder is anybody out there really doing this stuff that I see in the New Testament. And I finally found a place and I thought wow, this is exciting. Somebody's finally seen it.

Because it's there to be seen. There is a pattern and I want to show you that there was a universal pattern that they all met the same way in The New Testament Church and show secondly that the Apostles sought to maintain That pattern they were concerned about the order they wanted to keep it that way and thirdly I want to use an illustration from the Old Testament to show how serious it is to depart from God's order.

Just as it's serious to get the numbers wrong. You know Eric called me. I think was it last night Wednesday night. Yeah, that's right on the way home from the meeting called me Wednesday night. And he had my number and he got all the numbers in the right sequence and we were able to speak.

But if he'd have used the same numbers, but in the different order, we would not have had that conversation. So it really is important to get the order, right? So let's just look first of all to the existence of a universal pattern in Scripture.

Look at 1st Corinthians with me and Just to look through 1st Corinthians and just see simply that there really was a universal order in the New Testament Church. 1st Corinthians and Chapter 1 just to begin with and verse 2 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 2 Tells us who this epistle is written to it says unto the church of God which is at Corinth now.

We'll just stop there. We'll come back to this verse in a moment. Now so this this letter is dealing with a church the Church of God that that exists in the city of Corinth back in the first century and everybody that that has ever studied Corinthians will tell you that it's it's a a church that was full of problems and That that actually in every chapter Paul is correcting errors that were taking place in this assembly.

Now the question is how did he come to understand about these problems? How did he know about them? I know that he was there and he established the work and he started it and and he spent 18 months in Corinth but then he left and Then after his leaving these problems began to develop and he heard about there was problems and now he's writing to bring correction to these Problems, but but how did he hear?

Well, first of all verse 11 tells us that some of the problems were actually told to him by a family in the church. So it says in verse 11 it has been declared unto me of you my brethren by them which are the house of Chloe that there are Contentions among you and so part of the reason Paul knew there were problems.

There is that somebody tattletaled the house of Chloe. Told Paul about the problems when I say were they gossips? No, they weren't and the reason they weren't gossiping is that they were willing to have their name Attached to it now if I was to Tell you about Springfield and say now listen, let me tell you about some of the problems in Springfield Southeast Bible Chapel, but whatever you do, don't tell them that my cat would told you Right.

Don't listen to me because it's just pure gossip. But if I say let me tell you something about the assembly in Springfield and you can tell them my cat would told you I'm winning to be to own the problem right to be to be owned on that.

This is this is not gossip. I'm willing to go on record and say this is the problem now, by the way, I love the assembly in Springfield. I'm gonna say anything negative about it and we just thank God that we're there.

It's just a delightful assembly. And if you've never been to a good assembly before come and visit you'll enjoy it. It's really a great meeting and lovely Saints. So the house of Chloe one first of all explained some of the difficulties now look at chapter 7 and so part of his Correction comes from things he heard from the household of Chloe.

But not only that he also heard about the problems there as a result of Correspondence from the Corinthians themselves. Verse 1 of chapter 7 he says now concerning the things whereof you wrote unto me.

And so there were some things that they even wrote to him and said look there. They're these we don't know what to do with these issues. This is what's going on in the assembly and they themselves wrote about it.

So so there's a twofold source of the information that he's dealing with and so he begins to deal with these Local problems and he begins to give answers to them. But let me just say this that you might say well, well, what's that got to do with us?

Well again, look at chapter 1 in verse 2 with me First Corinthians chapter 1 verse 2 it says to the Church of God which is at Corinth To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called Saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and Ours and so not only is this letter being addressed To those that are in Corinth called Saints.

But it's also addressed to all That in every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus. Did you ever do that here? You ever call on the name of the Lord Jesus, I hope he did how did you ever get saved?

Right, you know was it's it's relevant not only to Corinth but to Jackson, Missouri. It's relevant wherever people call on the name of the Lord Jesus. So it has a universal application and As he was there the instructions that he gave and the correct corrections that he gave were not just for Corinth.

They were they were Universally practiced and held. Let's look again at chapter 4 now, please chapter 4 just to show that There was a universal pattern that was taught By the the Apostles and that they expected this pattern to be followed chapter 4 verse 17 he says for this cause have I sent to you Timotheus who is my beloved son and Faithful in the Lord who shall bring you into remembrance of My ways which be in Christ and then notice this last bit as I teach everywhere in Every church do you get that?

There was the instructions that he's given to the Corinthians are Exactly the same instructions that he teaches everywhere in Every church so there's obviously a universal pattern here, isn't there? It's something that goes on everywhere in every church.

Look at chapter 7 and verse 17. Sometimes we miss some of these things but when you link them together you see that there's clearly a pattern here He says but as God has distributed to every man Chapter 7 verse 17 as the Lord has called everyone.

So let him walk and so ordain I in all Churches you get that there was this pronouncement that is being made. Not just for Corinth. I ordained this in all the churches. It's for everywhere Chapter 11 and verse 16.

We're gonna look at this in more detail tomorrow but He's dealing with a subject that was certainly an issue in Corinth and it was to do with the the issue of the veiling of women and men appearing in the presence of God without a Covering on their heads and and what was happening in Corinth is that they were doing their own thing.

In fact, he has to say to them that it was a shame what was going on there. And they were they were out of step if you like and in verse 16, he says if anyone seems to be contentious He says we that's the apostolic.

We we have no such custom neither. The churches of God was what he's saying is the Corinthians and what they're doing is out of step with what we the Apostles teach and Also all the churches of God that in the words they're doing their own thing.

It's like this if you ever seen a military march past. And you know one of the things about these military marches is precision, isn't it? And everybody is marching to the same tune and in the same step.

And here's one guy who's got two left feet. Right, what would you see as you watch that group? You know what stand out immediately the one guy that's out of step, right? He and when what Paul is doing is saying here look all the churches practice this.

But you're out of step. You're doing your own thing. You're marching to your own tune get in line and that's his that's his message really is. He's trying to bring the Corinthian assembly back in line with the universal practice of all the churches and again and again He keeps appealing to this this practice.

We the Apostles have no such Christian. Neither churches have God. So, how come where do you get this stuff from? How come you're acting differently? We'll go into that verse in a lot more detail tomorrow, but look at chapter 14 now and verse 33.

For God is not the author of confusion. I hope that one thing that happens this weekend is That you will not be confused because if you are it's not of God. Now sometimes you might initially Think where's this all going?

But hear me out at the end of it. I'm hoping I'm certain that you won't be confused because God is not the author of confusion. And then he says this but of peace. Then he says as in all the churches of the Saints.

Let your women keep silence in the churches. For it is not permitted unto them to speak. But they are commanded to be under obedience as also say of the law and if they will learn anything Let them ask their husbands at home for it's a shame for women to speak in the church.

And again, I want you just to notice that as in all the churches of the Saints. Let your women keep silence in the churches. What is he doing all the way through this epistle? He's doing the same thing is me.

He's saying get in line. Do what all the other churches are teaching the things that I teach everywhere in every place and. So there's clearly a universal pattern. He's clearly expecting that the Corinthians will get in line and be obedient to this and the question is well, okay.

Let's say accept that that's true that there is this universal pattern that politics. But what right does Paul have to tell us how we're supposed to do church? Right. I mean what business is it of his?

To tell us how to do church. Well, let me tell you what business it is of his look at chapter 11 now, please first Corinthians 11 and verse 23. Very familiar verses to you. But sometimes I don't think we think through them quite as much as we should.

Paul says this for I have received of the Lord. That which also I delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus the same night Which he was betrayed took bread when he had given thanks. He break it and said take eat.

This is my body which is broken for you do this doing remembrance of me now I want you to notice what he says. What is Paul telling them? He's telling them to to remember the Lord Jesus in the way is appointed.

But where did he get it from? He says I have received it from the Lord. In other words the reason that he's so insistent about them keeping this teaching and adhering to this Universal pattern is because he got it from the Lord.

That's why. Because he received it from the risen Glorified head of the church. That's why it's important that we keep it. Because that's where he got it from now think through this. Was Paul there when the Lord's Supper was instituted.

He wouldn't even save them. And if he had it been there, he would have probably tried to stop it with me. And So he got it from the risen glorified head and actually many think that the first Description of the remembrance meeting that would have been in circulation because remember they didn't get their Bible all at one Chunk like we got it these letters came out and and that perhaps the first Recorded words they had of the Lord saying do this and remembers to me would have come from Paul.

And 1st Corinthians, isn't that amazing? And he got it. He's and he tells us in Galatians He didn't get his message from the other Apostles. He got it directly from the Lord himself and so The source of it why it's so important is where it come from now look at chapter 14 again.

And I know we're going back and forth in Corinthians, but I want you to see things that perhaps a casual reading we might miss chapter 14 verse 37 now. He says this if any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual.

Who do you think in Corinth would have? How do you think the Corinthians would have responded to this? Anybody here think that you're a prophet you think anybody in Corinth would have said that. They all kind of felt like they were prophets didn't they and they said yeah, that's us.

Anybody here spiritual? Oh, yeah, we're spiritual. We speak in tongues. We do all this stuff. I mean, we're really spiritual. And so he says, okay you guys think you're spiritual. Let me give you an acid test of true spirituality.

He says if anyone think himself to be prophet or spiritual let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are The commandments of the Lord. That's interesting, isn't it in other words a true test of spirituality is that you receive the teaching that Paul gave on Church order as if they were the very commandments of the Lord himself because they were.

Because he says I received in the Lord that which I've delivered to you. And so what should we do with this? People say well you've been legalistic. No, I don't think so at all. You never tell you why.

Because it says the things I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. What did the Lord Jesus say? About his commandments. John 14. Verse 15 says this if you love me. Keep my commandments. So what you say is listen, I'm not a legalist.

The reason I meet this way is because I love the Lord Jesus and I want to keep his commandments and these commandments. Well, they've been delivered from the Lord Jesus through the Apostle Paul to us and out of love for him.

We want to keep them. So it's not called legalism. It's love isn't it? It's I love you Lord. And I am because I love you. I want to be obedient to you. I Want to do what you say because I love you. So the true test of spirituality is being submissive to what the Lord has revealed the Apostles clearly Taught a universal practice of how the churches were to meet.

It was a pattern that had been delivered to them from the risen head himself. And they passed it on and they sought to maintain it. Second point now that they sought to maintain it. Look at chapter 11 again and verse 34.

Maintaining Apostolic Order

First Corinthians 11 verse 34 says if any man hunger let him eat at home that you come not together unto condemnation and the rest. Will I set in order? When I come. The word set in order here. It's it's a Word in the in the original language, which which is used to speak of mending broken bones that are out of joint.

And what he's saying is when I come all that stuff that's out of order or out of joint. I'm gonna mend it. I'm gonna put it back in order and you know when your bones are out of joint. You're crippled, right?

Could it be that the Church of the Lord Jesus is Crippled. Because it's out of order. It's not following the pattern and design of the head himself. Now that's true of many churches today, isn't it? Many churches you talk about some of the things that we're going to talk about this weekend.

And they they would well what they probably never heard it before. Or they just laugh at the very idea that you would even think about practicing these things in the 21st century. But you see when something's out of order.

It's not a healthy thing. It's like look at Titus. Titus Chapter 1. Again, the same thought Titus chapter 1 verse 5 for this cause left I thee in Crete while speaking to this Mantitus this is the reason that I left you in Crete that thou should have set in order.

The things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city as I had Appointed thee and so what we're saying is that there really was a pattern and that this order was so important that that a lot Of ministry in the New Testament was concerned with putting things in order.

Setting things in the right order. And that's most of the ministry this weekend is going to be about setting things in order putting them in God's order in the right. Because it's very important and of course we we say this when it comes to the house of God God knows what he wants.

In his house, right? He knows exactly what he wants. The tabernacle is a perfect illustration. That when it came to a dwelling place for God He gave the pattern to Moses in the Holy Mount didn't he? How much of it was left to man's imagination?

None of it right even down to the joints that held the thing together. Every detail was given by God. There was I want to meet with man and I want to dwell amongst you and this is what my house is going to be like.

And what does God commend Moses for he built the tabernacle according to the pattern in the Holy Mount now. Why was it so important? I mean, it's God just being persnickety and you know kind of a Detail orientated and it kind of I don't know.

Maybe it's just over the top here. You know why because every detail of the tabernacle speaks about his son. That's why it's so important. And if you miss something you miss something of the Lord Jesus.

Can I say this the reason the New Testament church pattern is so important. I will try and point this out this weekend. Is that every aspect of the New Testament pattern is designed Specifically so that it keeps our focus and our eyes on the Lord Jesus and not on anything else.

That's the reason why that's why the pattern is the way it is because it all is going to speak of Christ. Why is it that we do not have a senior pastor? Speaking at this church. Because we have one. Right.

The Lord Jesus is the chief shepherd. And we don't want anybody claiming to be him because there's nobody can be a substitute for him. He's perfect. So we have a chief shepherd. Why do we have plurality of elders?

Well, because it's the the the position that least obscures the idea of the preeminence of Christ. Sometimes I get to speak in other types of churches and I always laugh because sometimes they'll have a parking lot and it's it's.

It's for the senior pastor. And I'm thinking well, you know the Lord didn't get here by vehicle. But you know what I'm saying it was so many places out here they've lost that it's not there and. And the thing that we've lost is is seeing Christ and Christ is in all the details.

And that's why the details are so important now. I want to just kind of spend a little bit of time thinking about Tradition because that's kind of a dirty word. I know in many people's minds, although I think if we're really honest.

It's really not that much of a dirty word. In fact, it's kind of an interesting thing. Look at first Corinthians 11 again in verse 2. Now depending on which Bible version you're reading the King James has ordinances but I think the New King James has traditions it says I praise you brethren that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions.

New King James Ordinances. King James as I delivered them to you and so there are places in Scripture where There's there's clear commendation. Because they've kept the traditions. He praising them that they've kept the traditions.

Second Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 15. He tells them to hold fast to the traditions which you have heard of Me, you know hold them tightly and. Yet on the other hand, we've got this kind of Tension here because remember much of the Lord Jesus is controversy with religious leadership was over what?

You have made the commandments of God of non effect by your traditions. So on the one hand there's praise and commendation you keeping the traditions on the other hand there's this this conflict between the Lord Jesus and the Pharisees over the very issue of tradition and.

So that has caused some difficulties and and so some people would say. Even to say the way we would meet they say oh, well, that's your tradition. That's that's how they'd answer it that's your tradition.

So, how do we how do we deal with that issue of tradition? Well, let me just say this first of all tradition is not always bad. When we were in in Norway at the wedding. They had lots of Norwegian wedding traditions, which meant that the wedding went from one o 'clock in the afternoon Till one o 'clock in the morning because they had to have all their traditions in it and it wasn't all bad.