CREC 11 Sermon- Gathered Churches

CREC 11. Churches 1- Gathered Churches

Sermon Notes

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Acts 19:8-10, 20:17-28

January 14, 2018

Lynchburg, Virginia

EXHORDIUM

         Gathered churches- We are the CREC, that last C is for churches. Some of our men object to the gathered church itself being a church. In this sense we are congregational more than Presbyterian. We are not the Reformed Evangelical Church. We are a group of Reformed Evangelical Churches.

         The CREC is confederation of churches with each church having a great deal of independence as to its local function. The oversight of the churches is through the Presbytery and the Presiding Minister of the Presbytery. The oversight is not particularly strong. That is to say, the Presiding Minister or the Presbytery do not hold strong authority over the local church. The local churches participate in Presbytery and may be called upon to judge disputes at churches or among churches. But their ability to actively intervene into the life of the local church is greatly limited. This is mostly good but there are some drawbacks.

         It is mostly good in the sense that there is a great deal of autonomy for local churches. But they are not completely autonomous. The local churches must adhere to a specific standard of doctrine. Furthermore, if they change their standard or the views of any portion of their standards, then they are required to notify the Presbytery. At that point, the Presbytery can decide to receive those views, admonish them to change them, or remove them from the Presbytery.

         As long as the churches adhere to their confessional standards, they are free to operate as they best see fit according to their church constitution and the CREC Constitution. The Presbytery does not intervene in matters of daily operations. This hands-off approach would extend to things like a Pastor’s Blog, Facebook, his various teaching, books, or conferences. As long as those things did not outwardly oppose his own church’s or a CREC confessional standard, then the Presbytery will not interfere in the local church’s life. Those sorts of things are up to his own session of elders and his local church.

         When I say that our polity is mostly good, I have in mind a couple of shortcomings. First, ministers are members of their local church and not members of Presbytery. They merely attend Presbytery meetings as delegates. They do not answer to Presbytery as an ordaining body. Thus, only the local church holds authority over our ministers. This ties the hands of the Presbytery in holding ministers accountable unless there are egregious sinful failures on his part that require the Presbytery to act towards the church. In nearly all cases, the Presbytery is going to defer to the local body in matters related to her minister. While that is somewhat of a drawback, it is the way the CREC has chosen to operate and it has served us well.

         Another drawback of this polity is the independence it encourages. Our churches are not very connected as to ministry style, sharing best practices, or giving and receiving counsel. Those things do happen on our elder list serve, and at some presbytery meetings, but they could be stronger.

         Given these strengths and weaknesses of our polity, we are glad to have the polity that we do. It has served us well and is a good middle ground between an Episcopal polity with a Bishop and a Presbyterian polity whose moderator is a meeting planner.

        

POLITY of CREC

We have six presbyteries, which are divided in geographical regions across the United States. Our international churches are currently part of our American Presbyteries. However, we will be forming a European Presbytery in the next three years.

         We have 79 United States churches and 17 International churches. Our biggest collection of international churches is in Eastern Europe with 3 churches in Poland and 5 in Ukraine.

         Presbytery- Our churches are collected in Presbyteries. We are in Augustine Presbytery. Each Presbytery has about 12-18 churches in it. The churches send two delegates to Presbytery to address issues like bringing in new churches, examining ministers for ordination, supporting foreign and domestic mission works.

         Presiding Minister- Each presbytery has a man that presides over the presbytery. It is his job to look into the health of the churches, minister and give counsel to the pastors, and to hear any complaints or charges that might be leveled against pastors or sessions of elders.

         The Episcopal church has a bishop in this role. An episcopal bishop has a great deal of authority over a local church.

         Presbyterian churches like the PCA or OPC have a moderator in this role. Although they do exhibit a great deal of influence as far as planning the meetings and setting the agenda of what is discussed and funded, they do not exert direct authority over the churches.

         CREC- We have Presiding Ministers or PM, for short. Our PMs are somewhere in between. They are encouraged to minister to the churches and pastors and to look into the health of the local churches.  Their ability to do so is somewhat limited because of their responsibilities in their own churches. They have all the responsibilities of their local church as well as their Presbytery. These positions are unpaid. In the CREC, it is difficult to do both jobs true as most of our CREC churches are smallish and the only staff is the pastor and maybe a part-time secretary.

         One of the benefits of being involved in a denomination instead of being merely independent is the division of labor. We are gathered for collective work.

        

Both Presbyteries and the Council can create committees to do work that benefit the entire denomination.

Some examples are:

         Church Planting Network

         Foreign Missions

Biblical Marriage vs. Same Sex Marriage and Gender Issues

Child Security

Constitutional revisions, etc.

Expanding the Kingdom

Our goal in the CREC is the same as your goal in your home. Our desire is to expand the kingdom to the ends of the Earth.

In order to do that, our churches first need to be strong. Second, we need to plant many churches.

EXEGESIS

         Let’s look at a couple passages of Scripture

Acts 19:8   And he (Paul) went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. ⁹ But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. ¹⁰ And this continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

The main thing to point out here is that Paul worked from Ephesus but all Asia Minor heard the gospel from there and many thousands were converted.

Acts 20:17   And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church. ¹⁸ And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, ¹⁹ Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews: ²⁰ And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house, ²¹ Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

²² And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: ²³ Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. ²⁴ But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. ²⁵ And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. ²⁶ Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. ²⁷ For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. ²⁸ Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

On Paul’s journey to Jerusalem, he stops in Miletus and calls the Ephesian elders down to hear his last words to them. These elders are a collection of the elders at Ephesus. This is not a little church. It is most likely that these were various session of elders of the churches that existed at Ephesus. He calls them the church at Ephesus.

He gives the elders instruction to oversee the church and to feed the church of God.

1Tim. 3:14   These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: ¹⁵ 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.

Later, He gives Timothy and Titus instruction about the church is to be governed. We sometimes get the idea that since Timothy and Titus were small letters that these men were pastors of small churches. But that is not the case. At least in the case of Timothy, we have the sense that Timothy is Presiding over a very large church with multiple elders and likely multiple church locations. He is the Presiding Minister or Bishop.

2Tim. 2:1   Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. ² And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. 

Timothy is to teach and preach but he is also to disciple and train up other ministers. Commit these truths to faithful men. One of the primary functions of gathered churches is to train up faithful elders and particularly pastors to continue to build Christ’s Church.

Titus 1:5   For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:

Paul’s purpose to Timothy and Titus was to set the churches in order. This cannot happen without ordaining elders, in every city. If Titus was ordaining elders in every city in Crete, how much more so our brother Timothy who was ministering in Ephesus.

Titus 1:6   If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.

Incidentally, in letters to both Timothy and Titus, as soon as Paul begins to talk to them about the governance of the church and electing or appointing elders, the very first thing he mentions are character and family qualifications. The church must godly men leading whose families are a good example of the Christian life.

EXHORTATION

         I am somewhat preaching to the choir here. You are in a church. Most of you gathered here are members of this church. Thus, you are members of the CREC. That is good. I wanted you all to understand our polity and why we are connected to the broader church.

         One of the central ideas in going to and being a member of any local church is that being a Christian is not an independent existence. It is not just you and Jesus. It is not just you and Jesus and your Bible.

         While we do strongly exert the authority of the Bible, it is still within the context of the local church. Whenever you want to isolate yourself, you are in some form of rebellion. None of us are merely individuals. It was not good that Adam be alone.

         And as the church, we do not exist merely as individuals or even as families. We are God’s gathered saints. We can only be healthy if all the constituent parts are in operation.

Christ is the head and we, as the church, are His body. A hand cannot exist by itself as a functioning body. Nor can an eye or even a leg, which might be able to hop around a bit. We are interconnected by necessity. God made the church that way.

This creates a great deal of mutual responsibility, accountability, encouragement, and exhortation to love and good works. We must exist as the body of Christ or we do not exist as the church.

This means that we need to take a great effort in being part of the body. Our teaching is that Sunday morning worship is required. We expect you to be here week in and week out, unless there is some real and compelling reason for you to be here. Not only do you need to come and worship but if we you are part of this body, then we also need you in order to function properly. Can one part of the body be out of sorts and the rest of the body not feel it?

Imagine how sensitive you are to your body. When you get a hang nail, are you not constantly after it until you get it taken care of? And even then is it not sore for a day or two after? Or, if you get a little speck in your eye, everything has to stop right then until it washed out.

We are made to be in covenant with one another, a fellowship that is deep and abiding. It is not be broken for frivolous reasons. Are there reasons to break membership? Yes. Ought it to be a light or frivolous thing to do so? No, we ought to have to work through the difficulties with a covenanted relationship and open bibles.

So, take seriously your role as a member of this church. Be mindful of your connection to the broader church. Be thankful that you are part of a denomination that is serious about the Bible. Serious about ordaining men who are fit to be ministers of the gospel and serious about growing the kingdom of God until the knowledge of the Lord is as the waters that cover the sea.

Amen.