This session was the first of the 2022 Spring Bible Course at Grace Church Guildford on 9 June 2022.
If you are going along to the Family Fun Day on Saturday, and have not yet experienced the game of indiaca, then I believe you are in for a real treat. For there will almost certainly be a game of it at some point. If you are new to Grace Church, you maybe haven’t heard of ‘indiaca’ before. As various people have explained it to me, it is like a cross between badminton and volleyball. And rather than it simply being a strange game some previous Grace Churchers came up with, it is actually played by many teams in many countries across the world. If you go online you can look at the website of the International Indiaca Association, where you will learn that there is even an Indiaca World Championship. Maybe if we really excel at it this weekend, we could enter a team.
However, if you dig a little further, you will also discover that all is not well within the international indiaca community, for there are several longstanding disagreements between different countries on what the real rules are. Some limit teams to two players, others have five. Some permit you to use any part of your body, others say you can only use your hands and forearms. And because of these disagreements over the rules, these countries are unable to play each other. For example, Brazil cannot play Germany, for one team has two players and the other has five. Because they follow different rules, they aren’t able to play together. Of course, that is true not just of indiaca, but any sport: British, Aussie, American and Gaelic (Irish) football teams all say they play football, yet if you put them on the same pitch it would be chaos. It is a shared understanding of the rules that enables you to enjoy the game.
This is true for athletes in sport, but it is also true for Christians in church. This is why, after the disruption COVID has been over the last few years, we want to use this year’s Bible Course to remind one another of the game we have all gathered to play here at Grace Church. No, not indiaca, but rather our shared life together as brothers and sisters in the same local church. Just as in sport, it is a shared understanding of the rules of the game, of what we do together, that is crucial if we are to live alongside one another here at Grace Church. And so, over next few weeks we will be looking at the different positions in our church ‘team’ as it were, reflecting on the responsibilities of (1) members, (2) elders and (3) deacons. Those are the three roles that we find in our theme verse for the series: Philippians 1:1. There we read, ‘To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons...’ We see there that the church in Philippi was made up of God’s holy people (i.e. members), along with their overseers (elders) and deacons.
That is what we will start walking through next week. However, before we do so, we need to remind ourselves why we even have members, elders, and deacons. From 1:1 we know that the church in first-century Philippi had them. But why should our church in twenty-first century Guildford have do the same? If you read through the Bible, you never find Paul talking about Grace Church Guildford. There is no epistle to Guildford! Grace Church isn’t in the Bible! So why do we look to the Bible for these things? Well, this evening we will see it is because we believe Grace Church should be a ‘Bible-Shaped Church’.
That’s the title of our series. Maybe it struck you as slightly strange. You have heard of Bible-based churches before, but never a Bible-shaped church. Now, it is important to highlight that like every other evangelical church, Grace Church is a Bible-based church. We believe God has spoken infallibly, without error, in His Word and that it is sufficient for teaching us all we need to know for life and godliness. However, Grace Church is more than just Bible-based, we are also Bible-shaped. That doesn’t just mean we are shaped by the Bible, that it informs and influences us. It means more than that. It means that we are shaped like the Bible. That Grace Church has a biblical shape. We believe God, in His Word, gives us a blueprint for how we ought to order ourselves as a local church. That we do not work out the shape of the local church by ourselves, but rather God in his Word shows us the shape our churches should take. That when we read verses like 1:1, we not only see the shape of a church in Philippi, but see the shape that we should have here as well. This evening, we are going to look at two sides of this shape: (1) The Biblical Shape of Church Structures; (2) The Biblical Shape of Church Services.
1. The Biblical Shape of Church Structures
Now it is important to say many evangelical brothers and sisters around us, both in Guildford and farther afield, disagree with what I have said. Many Bible-based churches are not Bible-shaped churches. They suggest to see a set shape for the structure of the local church in Scripture is overly restrictive. Certainly, we can learn from how churches in the Bible arranged themselves, but we need not do the same. How do we respond? Why do we believe Scripture has a set shape for churches today? Well, I think our position is the product of three clear conclusions.
A. Every church has a certain structure
This is simply common-sense, for no matter what church you go to, there is some kind of structure. Whether they are part of the Church of England or are independent with their own rules, all have a certain structure. The question is not should you have a structure, but where should you get it from? Tradition? Collective wisdom? Or the Bible?
B. The Bible has a consistent structure
Given that every church inevitably has some kind of structure, it is unsurprising that when we read of Christians in the New Testament we learn of how they arranged their churches. The book of Acts, along with the epistles, includes details of how the first churches organised themselves. For example, in Acts 20 we are told that the elders of the church in Ephesus came out to meet with Paul as he passed by. Therefore, it is clear that the church in Ephesus had a certain structure that included at least several elders. However, what is sometimes less clear is whether every church in the New Testament had the same structure. When Paul was planting churches, was he planting them all following a consistent pattern? This appears to be exactly what he suggests in Titus 1:5, where he explains to Titus, ‘The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.’ (Titus 1:5). Clearly Paul has a particular pattern in mind, one including elders, which he wants Titus to establish on the island of Crete. And this conclusion is confirmed when we see that across the New Testament, time and time again, churches are structured in the same way, with three roles (members, elders and deacons, as we see here for example in 1:1) that have a consistent set of responsibilities across these churches. When we read the New Testament, we find a consistent structure across all of the churches.
To help you see this, it is important to remember two realities that can sometimes obscure this consistent pattern from view: (1) the growth of new churches; (2) the temporary role of apostles. You see, in a number of passages we don’t see this full structure in place. However, in each case, this is either because the church is still developing towards it or the apostles were playing a unique role in the early years of Christianity. For example, in Acts 14:23 we hear of Paul and Barnabas returning to churches they had planted to see elders appointed in them. Therefore, it is clear these churches of new converts existed without elders for at least a short period. This doesn’t mean that Paul didn’t believe churches should have elders! No, it just means it takes time for a man to mature so that he can become an elder. And it seems as soon this happened, Paul returned to establish elders. Rather than containing an alternative structure for church, such passages simply reveal that new congregations take time to get established. In the same way, the unique role of the apostles in the first wave of church planting can obscure our view of a consistent structure. For example, after Pentecost the apostles appear to operate as the leaders of the church in Jerusalem (Acts 5). However, again, by the time you get to Acts 15 a few years later, you see they have appointed elders alongside them, that they too are travelling towards this consistent structure we see elsewhere. And so, by the end of the New Testament, as Paul and the rest of the apostles are leaving the stage and new churches have been planted and matured, we see every local church structured and ordered in a consistent way.
C. The Bible commands its structure
It is not just that the Bible contains a structure, but it is that the Bible commands its structure. Now, of course many of the details we are told about churches in the New Testament come to us in descriptions. For example, in Acts 14:23 we are simply told that Paul appointed elders in these new churches. And we need to be careful not to read a command into every detail of every Bible story. Just because the church in Troas in Acts 20 met at night doesn’t mean we must. Just because Paul preached into the early hours of the morning there doesn’t mean I need to do the same this evening! However, when it comes to church structure, the roles of members, elders and deacons, the Bible not only describes, it also prescribes. It contains explicit commands for us to go and do likewise. For example, we are not just told that Paul appointed elders in new churches in Acts 14:23, but we have Titus being commanded to do exactly the same in Titus 1:5. Similarly, we not only learn in 1:1 that the church in Philippi had elders and deacons, but in 1 Timothy 3 Paul gives instructions about qualifications for both elders and deacons in Ephesus and in Hebrews 13 other believers are told to summit to and obey their leaders to. We could go through countless other passages, where we are explicitly being commanded to have this kind of structure in our churches.
Now, when I say ‘we’ are explicitly commanded, that isn’t quite true. For strictly it is Titus who is told to appoint elders and Timothy who received qualifications for deacons. However, we must be very careful about cutting ourselves off from these characters, arguing what Paul commanded of Titus and Timothy is not required of us. Of course, there are some circumstantial commands that are not required of us. For example, when Paul told Timothy to bring his coat and books to him in prison, he was not wanting us to show up with them. That is impossible! However, unless we see such an impossibility, we must take great care not to cancel a command that Paul gives. For you see, ultimately, every command of Paul in the Bible is to someone else in a different context to us today. All the commands Paul gives in Ephesians 5, which Jamie is currently preaching through, were originally given to the church in Ephesus not Guildford, and yet we are able to take them and apply them in our own lives. The same is true of these commands regarding the church. If we start ignoring commands because are given to first century Christians rather than ourselves, we logically won’t have much of the New Testament left! Further, even if we did do that, we would still have some several commands on church structure remaining, for when we read key passages like those of Matthew 16, 18 and 28, it is clear that what Christ teaches in them about the authority of church members, the process of church discipline and the great commission we have been given to evangelise, baptise and disciple the whole world was intended by Jesus to apply to all his people across the world and to last until the end of the age. What the Bible teaches about the structure of the local church is not only commanded of churches in the first century, but are also commanded of those in the twenty-first century as well.
2. The Biblical Shape of Church Services
God’s Word not only tells us about church government, it also tells us about church gatherings. It not only instructs us how we should come together, but also what we should do when we come together, shows us a shape for our services, contains components for corporate worship. Again, many evangelicals might disagree with this today. However, this is nothing new, for Protestants have debated this since the time of the Reformation. Shortly after the preaching of the true Gospel was recovered by men like Martin Luther and John Calvin in the 1500s, Protestants began to ponder how they should worship God together in their churches. Now that they had removed the Roman Catholic mass and priests, what should take their place? Quickly two different answers to this question emerged, one group held when we come to worship God together we can worship him in any way we want, as long as the Bible doesn’t tell us not to do this. Luther held that view and so kept religious pictures, statues and relics of saints, and other Roman Catholic ceremonial practices within his worship services. So long as the Bible didn’t tell him not to do something, he felt free to do it. This idea was known as the normative principle. However, another group, led by John Calvin, came to a different conclusion. They believed the Bible taught that when we come together to worship God, we should only do that in the ways that he has told us to. That the Bible regulates, that is controls, orders, everything we do in church services. This was known as following the regulative principle. And it is this later group that Baptists like us have historically belonged to, alongside most other non-Anglican groups in the UK, such as Presbyterians and Congregationalists. It is highly probably one of the key reasons our church began here in Guildford, in the late 1500s or early 1600s, was this very conviction. As with most dissenting, (non-conformist/Anglican) churches in the UK, brothers and sisters likely formed our church because they wanted to worship God according to his Word alone and not be forced to do in services what was contrary to their own consciences, whether that bowing before the sacrament, crossing yourself, burning incense as part of worship, or praying together for the dead. And many suffered imprisonment, banishment and even death, for this conviction. That is the historical background to this principle, this idea that when we come to corporate worship, we should only do what we are instructed to do in God’s Word. But what is the Biblical basis for it? Where do we see the Bible set out this kind of shape for our church services? Again, this position is a product of two conclusions from the Bible: (1) We must not worship according to our own wants; (2) We must worship according to God’s Word.
A. We must not worship according to our own wants
We see this most clearly when we look at how God first begins to teach his people to worship him. In Exodus 20, on Mount Sinai, God gives 10 commandments to Israel. In the first, he declares that they are to have no other gods and in the second he instructs them not to make any images or idols. Now, if you are anything like me, when you read these you usually assume what the Lord prohibits in that second commandment is the worship of other gods through idols. And while it most certainly includes that, it is more than that, for it also prohibits us worshipping the true God through an idol or something else we have made. This becomes clear in the very next story, for when Moses comes down the mountain in Exodus 32 and finds the Israelites worshipping the golden calf, it is striking they are not worshipping another god through this golden calf, but are in fact trying to use it to worship the LORD, the God who brought them out of Egypt. From the very beginning, God tells his people they cannot worship him in whatever way they want. Idolatry is not just about who you worship, it is also about how you worship. This means that God’s people are not to come up with new ways to worship God outside what he has told them. Indeed, when we they have done this, we see that the consequences are severe. For example, in Leviticus 10, when Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu, come up with a new way of worshipping God by offering ‘strange fire’, unauthorised incense, in the Tabernacle, they were immediately consumed by flames of judgement. God alone reveals how he is to be worshipped; we must take care that when we do so it is not according to our own wants but his Word.
B. We must worship according to God’s Word
In the New Testament, while we no longer worship in the Tabernacle or Temple, we are commanded to worship God together as local churches. And as you will soon see in discussion groups, the Bible shows us the shape such services should take by instructing us to do certain things together: teach and preach, read God’s Word, sing and pray together. Now once again, we should take care not to misunderstand. The Bible tells us what we are to do together, but not necessarily how we are to do it. So for example, it tells us to sing but not whether that should be with music or with words on a sheet or PowerPoint. It tells us to read Scripture, but does not say whether this is an individual or corporate reading. While the components of church services are clear, the specific circumstances are left up to us. The elements of what we are do together are given, but the form that they should take is left open. And of course this makes sense, for different churches in different centuries and different cultures are going to obey these instructions in different ways. You cannot do a corporate reading if your members cannot read. You cannot sing with music if you do not have access to a musician. And yet, regardless what form the different items in our service take, they should all be enabling us to obey an instruction in God’s Word. Everything we do together in our church gatherings should be based on, according to, how God has told us to worship him in his Word.
Concluding Remarks
Two concluding remarks as we close. First, do you see how this idea of being a Bible-shaped church is really the ultimate outworking of being a Bible-based church? When we say we believe in the sufficiency of Scripture, we really mean that. We really mean that the Bible is sufficient to show us what we need to do together as a local church. When those brothers and sisters who began Grace Church had to decide how to structure themselves, they were able to look into Scripture to see what shape they should take. It was sufficient. When we plan services for Sundays, we aren’t wondering what we should or shouldn’t do. The Bible tells us. The songs might change, but we are going to sing. The prayers might vary, but we will always pray. The passage might differ, but each week we will read and teach and preach God’s Word. How good it is know for certain you are working and worshipping together in the way that God wants.
Secondly, do you see how being Bible-shaped causes us to care for each other’s consciences? You are required to belong to a local church and gather regularly with them for corporate worship. In your own personal life, you are free to worship God in whatever way you might choose without requiring another person to do the same. If you want to cross yourself, or use interpretative dance, you can do that without impacting others. But when you come together for corporate worship, because we are all required by Scripture to be here, we must take care not to compel each other to worship in ways that God has not commanded. To do what the Pharisees did, what Roman Catholicism did, and set up the teachings of man as the doctrines of God. In every aspect of our life together, if we are requiring someone to participate or be part of something, we want to make sure God requires that of them as well. There should be a Biblical instruction underneath every element of our life together. In this way, regulating corporate worship by God’s Word is actually the most freeing way to worship together. For no one is ever forced to do something that God has not commanded. And structuring our churches just like we are told to in the Bible means that no one is ever required to submit to something that God has not asked them to submit to in his Word. Having a Bible-shaped church is what allows us to live well with each other while we worship and obey God as he has asked us in his Word.
ALEXANDER ARRELL