{"id":164,"date":"2015-07-20T22:48:51","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T22:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.csbcva.org\/?p=164"},"modified":"2015-08-03T16:50:20","modified_gmt":"2015-08-03T16:50:20","slug":"doctrine-of-the-church-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.csbcva.org\/?p=164","title":{"rendered":"Doctrine of the Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Here are the completed notes from the Sunday Evening service July 19, 2015<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>The Organization of the Church<\/h3>\n<p><strong>1. \u00a0That there must have been a simple organization even in the Church in Jerusalem is evident from a number of things:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The believers adhered to a definite doctrinal standard (Acts 2:42; cf. Ephesians 2)<\/li>\n<li>They met for spiritual fellowship<\/li>\n<li>They united in prayer (Acts 2:42, Matthew 18:19, 20)<\/li>\n<li>They practiced baptism (Acts 2:41)<\/li>\n<li>They observed the Lord&#8217;s Supper (Acts 2:42, 46)<\/li>\n<li>They kept account of the membership (Acts 2:14, 41; 4:4)<\/li>\n<li>They met for public worship (Acts 2:46)<\/li>\n<li>They provided material help for the needy of their number (Acts 2:44, 45)<\/li>\n<li>The Apostles were the ministers in this Church<\/li>\n<li>They soon added the seven men of Acts 6:1-7 to take care of the ministration to the poor<\/li>\n<li>On the day of Pentecost they were assembled in &#8216;the upper room&#8217; (Acts 1:13, 2:1), where that may have been; but more usually they seem to have met in some home of a Christian (Acts 2:46), though for some services apparently they still visited the temple (Acts 2:46, 3:1), as we have just seen<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>2. \u00a0Additional Study of Church Organization:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They had church officers<\/li>\n<li>The had stated times of meeting<\/li>\n<li>The regulated church decorum and exercised church discipline<\/li>\n<li>They raised money for the Lord&#8217;s work<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>The Officers of the Church<\/h3>\n<p>The kinds of officers:<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. \u00a0Bishops (I Timothy 3:1-7; see also Titus 1:5-9)<\/strong><br \/>\nBishops, Elders, Pastors<\/p>\n<p>The qualifications:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He must be a male<\/li>\n<li>He must be blameless<\/li>\n<li>He must be the husband of one wife<\/li>\n<li>He must be vigilant (temperate)<\/li>\n<li>He must be sober<\/li>\n<li>He must be of good behavior<\/li>\n<li>He must be given to hospitality (a lover of strangers)<\/li>\n<li>He must be &#8220;apt to teach&#8221; (having the ability and love for teaching)<\/li>\n<li>He must not be given to wine<\/li>\n<li>He must not be a striker<\/li>\n<li>He must not be greedy for money<\/li>\n<li>He must be patient (reasonable, gentle)<\/li>\n<li>He must not be a brawler (not contentious)<\/li>\n<li>He must not covet (desire something belonging to someone else)<\/li>\n<li>He must rule his own house well<\/li>\n<li>He must not be a novice (new convert)<\/li>\n<li>He must maintain a good report from without (a good public testimony in his immediate community)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The responsibilities of the office:<br \/>\nIn general it may be said that the pastor&#8217;s responsibilities are as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He is to administer the ordinances (Matthew 28:19, 20)<\/li>\n<li>He is to be a man of prayer (I Timothy 2:1)<\/li>\n<li>He is to warn his flock (I Timothy 4:1, 6)<\/li>\n<li>He is to study the Word (II Timothy 2:15)<\/li>\n<li>He is to preach the Word (II Timothy 4:2, Acts 6:2-4)<\/li>\n<li>He is to exhort and rebuke (I Thessalonians 5:12, Titus 2:15)<\/li>\n<li>He is to watch over souls\n<ul>\n<li>His own (Acts 20:28, Colossians 4:17, I Timothy 4:16, 6:11)<\/li>\n<li>Those of others (Acts 20:28-31, Hebrews 13:17)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>He is to feed and lead his flock (Acts 20:28, I Peter 5:2)<\/li>\n<li>He is to be an example to all (I Corinthians 11:1, 4:16, Philippians 3:17, II Thessalonians 3:9, I Timothy 4:12, Hebrews 13:7, I Peter 5:3)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Pastor John MacArthur, Jr. writes concerning Paul&#8217;s fourfold perspective of pastoral priorities in Acts 20:19-22 (page 15 in <em>Leadership, God&#8217;s Priority for the Church<\/em>):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A right perspective toward God<\/li>\n<li>A right perspective toward the church<\/li>\n<li>A right perspective toward the lost<\/li>\n<li>A right perspective toward himself<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To this list MacArthur then adds five more priorities as found in Acts 20:28-35<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>To keep right with God<\/li>\n<li>To feed and lead the flock of God<\/li>\n<li>To warn and watch&#8230;to protect the flock<\/li>\n<li>To pray and study<\/li>\n<li>To be free from self interest<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>2. \u00a0Deacons (I Timothy 3:8-12)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The qualifications:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He must be grave<\/li>\n<li>He must not be double-tongued<\/li>\n<li>He must not be given over to wine<\/li>\n<li>He must not be greedy<\/li>\n<li>He must hold forth the mystery of the faith<\/li>\n<li>He must be tested and proven<\/li>\n<li>Blameless<\/li>\n<li>He must be the husband of one wife<\/li>\n<li>Ruling his own children and home well &#8211; verse 12<\/li>\n<li>He must maintain a pure conscience<\/li>\n<li>Acts 6:3 &#8211; Honest report, full of the Holy Spirit, full of wisdom<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Verse 11 &#8211; Deacons&#8217; Wives<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Grave<\/li>\n<li>Not slanders<\/li>\n<li>Sober (temperate\/well balanced)<\/li>\n<li>Faithful in all things<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The Responsibilities of Women in a Local Church:<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Scripture does have much to say regarding the woman&#8217;s role in the church.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Immediately after Christ&#8217;s ascension, women gathered with the apostles and disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem. \u00a0In the early church beginnings, women were a vital part (Acts 5:14)<\/li>\n<li>One of the early converts, Mary, the mother of John Mark, donated her house as a meeting place for the believers in Jerusalem.<\/li>\n<li>Lydia did the same in Philippi (Acts 16:14, 15)<\/li>\n<li>In the last chapter of Romans, eight women are named out of the twenty-six whom Paul singles out for significant service to Christ.<\/li>\n<li>The daughters of Philip were used of God to prophesy (Acts 21:8,9)<\/li>\n<li>Aquila and Priscilla were used to instruct Apollos (Acts 18:24-26)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>In addition to the historical precedent, the Scriptures give clear instruction for women&#8217;s ministry: \u00a0<\/strong>Women have a vital place in evangelism. \u00a0&#8220;<em>The Lord giveth the Word; the women that publish the tidings are a great host.&#8221;<\/em> \u00a0-Psalm 68:11. \u00a0Paul perhaps paid the highest compliment to women when he said, <em>&#8220;The woman is man&#8217;s glory&#8221;<\/em> -I Corinthians 11:7<\/p>\n<p><strong>In addition to these positive areas of ministry for women, the Scripture indicates some areas where women are NOT to serve:<\/strong> \u00a0I Timothy 2:11, 12 is the most important statement in the area of leadership roles in the church. \u00a0Alone with I Corinthians 14:33-35 it indicates a universal spiritual principle, that the divine order for women is subordination (not inferiority) to men.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This principle is based on the facts that woman was created last (I Timothy 2:13) and was first to sin (I Timothy 2:14).<\/li>\n<li>Since the emphasis in both passages seems most easily applicable to public worship, women are not to be in positions of authority over men.<\/li>\n<li>Nowhere in the New Testament is a woman ever commended to serve as an elder<\/li>\n<li>In fact, it&#8217;s obvious that I Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9, which list qualifications for elders, can only refer to a man<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>*Some contents adapted from Dr. Harold Willmington&#8217;s notes on the church<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are the completed notes from the Sunday Evening service July 19, 2015 The Organization of the Church 1. \u00a0That there must have been a simple organization even in the<span class=\"excerpt-ellipsis\">&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.csbcva.org\/?p=164\" itemprop=\"url\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sunnight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csbcva.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csbcva.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csbcva.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csbcva.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csbcva.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=164"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.csbcva.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321,"href":"https:\/\/www.csbcva.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions\/321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csbcva.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csbcva.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csbcva.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}