Establishing churches in the NT 

Christ is serious about His Church being rooted and built up in Him.    
                                                             
After the Gospel was proclaimed and people were converted, the New Testament puts a great emphasis on forming churches and those churches becoming established. The word used commonly in the New Testament letters to the churches that expresses this idea is the Greek word steridzo, which means to establish or strengthen. This was the very purpose the letters to the churches were written by the Apostles.  A study of the word used in Acts and the Epistles shows what the New Testament concept of establishing churches consisted of[1]. Here is a summary of the concept in these passages.

After disciples are brought together in committed partnership in a newly planted local church, the Apostles and their team members place a priority on an ongoing process of strengthening them in the teaching and practice of their new identity as the Household of Christ. The Apostles main concern is an ongoing faithfulness that does not waver in adversity to the darkness around them or the attacks within them so that they press on in the faith and advance the Gospel of Christ for the glory of His kingdom. The Apostles make it clear to the new disciples and the churches that they should not be surprised about adversity and affliction. Suffering is not to be avoided, rather it is the necessary forming process they must go through to enter the kingdom of God as it was for the Head of the Body, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hearts that are steadied and comforted and unified in the eternal truths of their new identity and purpose become the thrust of the letters and visits the apostles and their representatives make to the New Testament churches.

This receives priority in the New Testament even to the pausing of open doors to new Gospel possibilities if an existing church needed to be strengthened (2 Cor. 2:12-14). The apostles understood that it was wiser in the long run to strengthen an existing church first before pursuing other opportunities because existing churches are to be beachheads and bases for bringing the gospel to the new frontiers.
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In order to establish and strengthen the churches it is key that they understand the eternal purpose the church has been appointed for--the church displays the glory of God in His multifaceted wisdom to the seen and unseen universe. Because of its great purpose, the Church must grasp Christ’s majestic plan for Her and see all of life from that fixed navigation point. In order to provide additional stability and leadership to the Household of God, qualified elders are appointed to teach the glories of Christ and His church to transform them by the Spirit and the Word into the likeness of Christ, and to lead the advance of the Gospel through disciples being made and churches planted and strengthened in accordance with Christ’s commission.
The continued pattern of the New Testament process of establishing churches can be summarized in the following activities.

• After the Holy Spirit converts people through the proclamation of the risen Christ, the people were gathered into a new family where they were strengthened in the new life they had in Christ as a church (Acts 14:21-22).
• Leaders were identified and appointed in the new church to guide and continue the mission (Titus 1:5; Acts 14:23).
• The establishing process was not finished. Additional letters and visits and continued training for men to help in the strengthening deepened and anchored the church (1 Thess. 3; 2 Tim. 2:2).
• The churches were strategic launching points, beachheads, for the advance of the Gospel to new frontiers. Their partnership in the advance of the gospel was crucial to fulfill Christ’s commission, so it was imperative that they were strong and established.
• This process is repeated in the new frontiers for the glory of Christ.

 
Christ loves His church enough to see Her not stay as infants in a spiritual nursery, but to mature to growing Christlikeness, rooted and built up in Him.
Do I? Do we?
 
-Pastor Jamie


[1] Acts 14:21-23; 15:36-16:5; 18:22-23; Eph. 3:8-10; Rom. 1:8-15; 16:25-27; 1 Thess. 3:1-13; 2 Thess. 2:17; Titus 1:5; 1 Tim. 3:14-16

What’s going on in Hebrews?
The first Christians were Jewish Christians. Jewish Christianity is important to understand because Christianity’s roots are Jewish. It was the Jewish Old Covenant prophets who foretold the coming Messiah. The Messiah would be the son of David who would fulfil specific promises made to David when He came. He came to fulfill the law (Mt. 5:17) and His death was to serve as a ransom so that no further sacrifices were needed (Mt. 20:28). Christianity was deeply rooted in the Old Testament revelation and the Apostles’ preaching in the synagogues in the book of Acts sought to prove this to convince the Jews that Jesus was the promised fulfillment.
As the Gospel advanced and Gentiles poured into the church through Paul’s missionary journeys throughout the Mediterranean, the Church that had begun with a large Jewish population became a Church with a largely Gentile population.
This change brought tension (see Acts 11, 15, Galatians 2, & Romans 14-15:13 for a sampling). The Jewish Christians had to grapple with several questions, certainly some of which are listed below:

1. How was Christ to be understood in relation to the teaching of many Old Covenant passages?
2. How were the worship practices of the Old Covenant system to relate to worship under the New Covenant?
3. How did Christianity relate to the New Covenant prophesied by Jeremiah and Ezekiel?
4. Was life in the New Covenant really worth it in light of the persecution from their own Jewish people?
5. Was there any legitimacy in Old Testament sacrifices?
6. When Gentiles came to the Messiah, what Jewish practices would they observe?
7. How were Jewish Christians, who had grown up under the Old Covenant understanding that Gentiles were unclean, relate to Gentile Christians?

Hebrews answers many of these questions as it was written to Jewish believers who were being pressured to return to Judaism and leave life in the New Covenant under Christ.

Who wrote the letter?
The first author to quote this epistle was Clement of Rome in 96 AD, about 35 year or so after it was penned, though he does not say who wrote the book. Some have suggested Paul, Barnabas, & Apollos as the main possibilities. I lean to Apollos in my opinion but no one really knows. Apollos was from Alexandria and would have been well-versed with the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) which is quoted in the letter many times.  Apollos knew the Old Testament and its flow well and after Aquila and Priscilla taught him the unfolding of it (Acts 18:24-19:1) Apollos blossomed and became a great and eloquent teacher in the Church (1 Corinthians 1:12; 3:4–6; 4:6; 16:12; Titus 3:13). Apollos specifically excelled in showing that Jesus was the Messiah from the Old Testament Scriptures.

Who read the letter?
First century Jewish Christians before the Jewish temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70 were probably the audience for whom this word of exhortation was meant (13:22). There are five warning passages that shows that the issue they were facing was the temptation to waver and leave New Covenant life in Jesus the Messiah and go back to Judaism to avoid persecution from their own Jewish people (6:4-6; 10:26-29; 10:38-39). Read the letter today imagining you had grown up under the Old Covenant, had professed you would be a disciple of Yeshua the Messiah, and were now facing extreme pressure to go back it.

The theme of Hebrews, quite simply, is the absolute supremacy of Christ—a supremacy which allows no challenge, whether from human or angelic beings.
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I.      A SUPERIOR PERSON—CHRIST—chapters 1–6
A.     Better than the prophets—1:1–3
B.     Better than the angels—1:4–2:18
(Exhortation: drifting from the Word, 2:1–4)
C.    Better than Moses—3:1–4:13
(Exhortation: doubting the Word, 3:7–4:13)
D.    Better than Aaron—4:14–6:20
(Exhortation: dullness toward the Word, 5:11–6:20)
II.     A SUPERIOR PRIESTHOOD—MELCHIZEDEK—chapters 7–10
A.     A superior order—7
B.     A superior covenant—8
C.    A superior sanctuary—9
D.    A superior sacrifice—10
(Exhortation: despising the Word—10:26–39
III.    A SUPERIOR PRINCIPLE—FAITH—chapters 11–13
A.     The great examples of faith—11
B.     The endurance of faith—chastening—12
(Exhortation: defying the Word—12:14–29
C.    Closing practical exhortations—13[1]


[1] Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary. Vol. 2. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996. Print.

I wish I had read it  long time ago. Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome  is one of those books that brings the reader back to Scripture and the smile of God. R. Kent Hughes and his wife Barbara went through a season where they were measuring their lives against the human bar of  success and felt they were failing. Discouraged, they looked at what Scripture said abut true success and were filled with joy that God's standards of success are available to anyone, "famous or nameless, prominent or unknown, great or small. God's principles or success remain the same, and success is equally available to all. God has not placed success out of reach. He does not dangle it, tantalizing but impossible, before us. Success is possible for everyone. Anyone can be a success in God's eyes" (p.108)


One of the most helpful parts of the book are the questions of success on p. 109 that I'll share below (bold text is added for emphasis by me):

1. Are you proving faithfully in the exercise of your ministry? Specifically, are you obedient to God's Word? Or is there, perhaps, some area, in personal or pubic ministry in which you are knowingly disobedient? (This is a telling question because you cannot be a faithful servant and a disobedient servant at the same time.) Also, since there can be no such thing as a faithful but lazy servant, are you truly hardworking?
2. Are you living your life as a servant, or have you drifted from servanthood into self-service? The question is fundamental to success, for this will move you from success to failure.
3. The great question for all who want to please God is, Do we love him? After his resurrection, Jesus unforgettably dramatized this question by asking Peter three times, "Do you love me?" Thus, from the lips of Jesus we learn that nothing is of greater importance! There can be no success without loving God.
4. Do we believe that God's Son is the Creator of everything in the universe, Sustainer of every atom, the Goal of all creation, and the Lover of our souls who died for us? And more, do we believe that as Rewarder he will equitably reward us? We say we believe it. But do we really believe it with all our hearts? Do we believe what we believe? If so, we have the smile of God, and that is true success.
5. Are we people of prayer? Do we regularly take significant portions of time for an exposure to God, to bare our needs and the needs of our people to God? Is your prayer life moving toward success or failure?
6. Is your life growing in holiness? Or are you becoming captive to the culture? In respect to holiness, would God classify your life as a success or a failure? There is much to consider here. But this question is so important to the Christian life and ministry; it must be answered.
7. What is your basic attitude toward your ministry--positive or negative? Some attitudes exclude success, namely negativism and jealousy. Negative people never fully experience success, regardless of their accomplishment. Their negativism taints their work for God and the experience of satisfaction they might have enjoyed. Jealous people envy the good fortune of others and gloat over others' misfortunes. They find it difficult to rejoice with hose who rejoice. Such people please neither God nor themselves.But those with positive, encouraging attitudes are a success in themselves for they serve God with a heart that pleases him--and that is success.

The NT church, the household of God, lays out clearly the roles its members are to play in the different stages of life in the life of the church. Whether married, single, widowed, older, younger, men, or women, the NT has framed principles to live by in the life of the church, with each specifically suited to these life-stage roles. Of course, these are in addition to the general principles that apply to all members of the household of God.

Older Men  
Titus 2:2 
That the aged men be sober, grave [dignified], temperate [self-controlled], sound in faith, in charity, in patience [steadfastness]. 


Our older men are to be a solid model of steady faithfulness to the forming of Christ-like character by the Word and the Body.

1Timothy 5:1 
Rebuke not an elder, but intreat [exhort] him as a father; 

Our older men are to live within the household of God as a respected father who will receive exhortation from sons in the faith.


Older Women 
Titus 2:3-5 
The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness [reverent], not false accusers [slanderers], not given to much wine, teachers of good things; 4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. 


Our older women are to be a model of respectable life among the household of God and in their own individual households, particularly in the areas of the tongue and self-control. 

They are to work in having a relationship with the younger women in the church to impart their wisdom of godly living within the home.

1 Timothy 5:9b-10 
…having been the wife of one man, well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints’ feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work. 


Our older women are to have a reputation of faithfulness to their husbands and of using their resources, including their home, to meet needs that arise in the church and the world around them.


Younger Men 
Titus 2:6-8 
Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded [self-controlled]. 7 In all things shewing thyself a pattern [model] of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness [integrity], gravity [dignity], sincerity, 8 Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. 

Our younger men need to labor at being self-controlled by fleeing from youthful lusts and modelling a life and speech that is built in genuine integrity that flows from being established in the faith.



Younger Women 
Titus 2:4-5 
That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 To be discreet [self-controlled], chaste [pure], keepers at home, good, obedient [submissive] to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

Our younger women are to be passionate about making their homes a beacon of light that reflects the glory of God in their marriage and children.


Singles 
1 Corinthians 7:32-35 
But I would have you without carefulness [worries]. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: 33 But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. 34 There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. 35 And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction. 

Our singles are to leverage their advantage of not being tied down by the responsibilities of marriage and family to serve the Lord diligently with fewer distractions.


Widows 
1 Timothy 5:11-16 
But the younger widows refuse [refuse to enroll in the church welfare assistance]: for when they have begun to wax wanton [governed by their lusts] against Christ, they will marry; 12 Having damnation, because they have cast off their first faith. 13 And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers [gossips] also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. 14 I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. 15 For some are already turned aside after Satan. 16 If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed. 

Our younger widows should remarry to pursue making their homes a beacon of light that reflects the glory of God in their marriage and children.

1 Timothy 5:3-10 
Honour widows that are widows indeed. 4 But if any widow have children or nephews [grandchildren], let them learn first to shew piety [godliness] at home, and to requite [repay] their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God. 5 Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate [left alone], trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day. 6 But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. 7 And these things give in charge [command], that they may be blameless. 8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel [unbeliever]. 9 Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man, 10 well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints’ feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work. 

Our older widows are to be dedicated to the service of the church and depend on their children and grandchildren’s responsibility for their support; if that support is unavailable, the church is to support them if they are faithful to serve the Lord.

There are scores of ways to minister to others. Christ's Church will never have the excuse that we cannot serve Him because there are few opportunities. Below is a non-exhaustive list of ways you can serve your community. Some may be more relevant than others, but all are needs within the State of Maine. The following is a first of several posts on serving others on our area.


1. The Poor ( people in crisis or in a season of life in which their income is inadequate)

• Food: Collect and share high-protein food or share garden produce for people in crisis or in a season of life in which their income is inadequate to feed them. Another option besides providing food free would be to sell food at very low prices to those who truly need it and not simply to people looking for bargains.
• Clothing: Collect clean and mended clothing to sort and fold/hang to share.
• Shelter: Fire, flood, loss of income, sudden change of rent, etc. may require emergency shelter. Show hospitality through working relationships with people who have rooms available for use, motels, or rent subsidies. Other ways to help the poor with shelter are to help repair and restore living quarters that may have fallen in disrepair due to their financial stress.
• Transportation: Elderly are especially needful of this resource for doctor's visits, grocery store trips, etc.
• Skill Training: If you have a job skill you could train someone in to increase their changes of obtaining a job and climb out of poverty, consider sharing your expertise and invest training in someone who is teachable and able to do the job outcome.
• Literacy: Those with a propensity to teach can become involved in tutoring disadvantaged youth and illiterate adults in their education needs.
• Financial Counseling: Many have never been taught sound financial principles and operate out of ignorance. Sharing wise financial habits with those willing to learn puts a solid tool in the hands of those who are teachable.
• Medical: Routine medical care may be neglected by those in poverty. Coordinating periodic free or low cost health clinics through willing medical personnel or organizations could serve to meet that gap.

• Know that the greatest hindrance to missions is a weak sending church and put major effort into establishing the church as the Pastoral Epistles direct.
  

• Understand the task of missions is to evangelize strategically, establish congregations by instructing disciples and forming them in the context of the local church, and entrusting them to faithful leaders who will replicate this process.
  

• Support the centrality of the local church in the role of commissioning and sending equipping leaders for church establishment and expansion in mission work.
  

• Identify faithful men who can be trusted with the kerygma and didache with the process of testing, training, and affirming their entrustment.
  

• See multiplication of churches as the form of expansion of the church and the Gospel rather than simply building bigger and bigger churches.
  

• Expect that the bulk of mission work, that the church partners with and supports, agrees and practices these principles. 
  

• Partners in missions should have proved themselves in their local church in character and competency.
  

                        -They should be recognized by their local church as elders if they are going to be engaged in appointing other                                     leaders over the church(es).

                       -They should see their primary allegiance and accountability to their local sending church rather than their mission                          board or organization.

                        -They should be committed to the establishment, growth, and expansion of local churches, and their role as a tool                          that is not indispensable in that process.

                        -They should be diligently working on passing on the baton to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Christ is the Head of the church. He has revealed his plan for the world through the administration of the church, the household of God, according to Ephesians 3.

A local church needs to filter partnership with a parachurch organization through the lens of the household order of the church. Here are several rough guidelines that will follow then in working with parachurch organizations.

·         The parachurch organization must recognize that they are not the local church, cannot function as a local church, or cause the local church to function as a parachurch organization. The parachurch organization is a manmade structure created out of response to a context. It is not an eternal organism as the church is.

·         The parachurch organization must have a strong understanding and commitment to the gospel.

·         The parachurch organization must serve the church as their high calling. This must not just be on paper, but in their practice.

·         The parachurch organization exists to protect the church and its purity of truth and love by providing resources or opportunities that advance local churches rather than stifling them.

·         The parachurch organization defers to the authority to the local church in issues that are the biblical missionary work of planting and establishing churches through evangelism, forming churches, and passing on the deposit to faithful men who will shepherd the local churches.

·         The teams that work under the organization have been commended by the local church and its leadership.

·         The parachurch organization defers to the authority of the local church and the local church, at the same time, recognizes that when the church participates with them, it operates voluntarily under the guidelines of the organization for the purpose of common ministry betterment.

Acts 13:1-3 gives us a window into describing the process of commending leaders in Gospel ministry to ministry within the local church and beyond in planting or establishing other churches.

Acts 13:1 begins with a list of the equipping leaders in the church at Antioch. While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, The Holy Spirit lets them know that He has a work to for two the leaders, Saul and Barnabas, and the leaders are to set them apart for that work He had called them to. The rest of the leaders left behind would continue the work of establishing the church at Antioch and Saul and Barnabas would be sent out for the Gospel expansion work of evangelizing strategically, establishing congregations, and passing the baton by entrusting the deposit of the Gospel to faithful equipping leaders.

The leaders, after hearing the message from the Spirit, fasted and prayed, and laid hands on Saul and Barnabas to send them off. This laying of hands is symbolic of the authority of the local church in commending ministers of the Gospel.  The local church is the mediating sending authority, not the mission board, not the Christian college, not any other parachurch organization. If the church is responsible for the realization of the Great Commission (Mt. 28:18-20) since it is the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15), then the church is responsible to send out her ministers.  The laying on of hands that occurred in Acts 13 to send out the ministers of the Gospel, testifies to the significance of the authority of the local church in this action. It is the church accepting responsibility in missions under the authority of Christ.

But not only is the symbolism of laying on of hands to send out ministers symbolic of the church’s responsibility in the Great Commission, it also symbolizes the delegation of that task to worthy individuals under her authority. It is the church that recognizes the call of the individual and trusts and affirms it, because it is the church that recognizes faithful leaders in 2 Timothy 2:2 and invests in them with the expectation that they do the same as they are placed in ministry. The church identifies these leaders, trains them, tests their effectiveness and calling, and affirms them through the laying on of hands. When the church reaches the stage by way of affirmation of laying on of hands, the church is identifying with that individual in their call and ministry and delegating her authority to that person to carry on the task.

The connection of the laying on of hands unites the local church and the one sent forth in the common purpose of evangelizing, establishing congregations, and entrusting to faithful leaders. There is mutuality in responsibility for the task as the minister of the gospel represents that local church and the local church supports them through the various means such as prayer and finances available to them and as necessary. The church goes with them, goes by that person, stands with them, prays with them, sacrifices with them and helps in support as much as she can.

The church assumes great responsibility and authority for the one being affirmed to gospel ministry. The church therefore has the ultimate authority and responsibility as the mediating sending agency, not the individual, mission board, Christian college, or other parachurch organization.

But if this is true for the church’s side of the laying on of hands, then there is a parallel truth for the one who has the hands being laid on them for sending to gospel ministry. The individual who receives this recognizes the authority of the church as the sending agent, has identified with that church body as being part of it, believes in the accountability and authority of the sending body of the local church, and will not forgo his responsibility to be a faithful representative of that church. 

So from the example in Acts 13:1-3, it can be observed that:

1.       “God called the Antioch church leadership to commend Paul and Barnabas. God did not directly call Barnabas as individuals, but worked through the church.

2.       God selected men that demonstrated ability to minister in a local church setting (11:25-26).

3.       Ministry directive came in the midst of worshipping and fasting.”[1]

Michael Griffiths in his book, Who Really Sends the Missionary?, upholds this NT concept and fleshes out the relationship between the church and the missionary in a refreshing NT way in four chapters as he observes that:

1.       “Ministers and congregations have the chief responsibility for the selecting and sending of new missionaries.”

     a.       The local church possesses the responsibility to act as the sending authority and financial base.

     b.      The volunteer missionary practice is suspect on biblical and practical grounds.

     c.       Missionaries selected by local churches are ore able to create and sustain a vital church relationship that strongly contributes to the commitment and financial support of the congregation.

     d.      They are supporting roles that are valuable for mission agencies.

2.       “Ministers and congregations have a crucial responsibility for the retraining and encouraging of furlough missionaries.”

     a.       Home churches have the potential of making strong contributions to the life of missionaries.

     b.      Local congregations should accept a larger share of a few missionaries than a small portion of a larger number of missionaries.

3.       “Ministers and elders have the central responsibility for ensuring that missions are a principle passion of their congregations (and not a peripheral program for the super saints).”

     a.       The missionary calling is the burden of the whole church.

     b.      It is in the greatest interest of the health and obedience of the local church and its members to participate in global missionary work.

4.       “Ministers who are experienced pastors/teachers have a certain responsibility to consider missionary service themselves.”

     a.       Those chosen to be missionaries in the NT churches were ministers already.

     b.      The greatest need in missions is missionaries with church experience.

     c.       Experienced, matured leaders have a responsibility to train up younger ministers with the experience and ability to minster cross-culturally.

Is there a role for organizations outside of the local church to be involved with the expansion of the Gospel if the local church is the mediating sending authority? The answer is yes, with some qualifications.

·         The parachurch organization recognizes the authority of the local church in the roles of identifying, training, testing, and affirming gospel ministers and relates their cooperation in relation to that recognition.

·         The members in parachurch organizations are under local church leadership themselves and those involved in coming alongside the church and assisting the church in Gospel expansion have been affirmed as a minister of the gospel by their local church leadership themselves.

·         They are not looking to replace ministries that are going on in the local church but assist and propel them on if they do exist, or if the organization exists to fill the lack of a ministry that exists in a local church, they operate as a spoke in the wheel of ministry with the local church as the hub of centrality. The parachurch organization is a tool for the local church, not an end in and of itself.

·         If a local church cooperates with a parachurch organization, and a need to operate under the policies of that organization is assumed, then the local church voluntarily places themselves under those policies and guidelines in order to cooperate, but has the freedom to withdraw due to the autonomous nature and authority of the local church.



[1] p. 28 Leader’s Guide for Acts: Keys to the Establishment and Expansion of the First Century Church. BILD Leadership Series.

• Paul’s principles of evangelizing strategically, establishing congregations, and entrusting to appointed elders seems to be the normative process for Christ’s Church for the following reasons:
  

• His authorization
  

o   Ephesians 3:8-11 explains the unique role among the Apostles that God had given to Paul.  Paul is to declare the mystery of the administration of the household plan of God. The order for the oikonomia has been passed by the Spirit to Paul to outline in his instructions for the churches. Jew and Gentile are fellow heirs of the unfathomable riches if Christ and formed into one new man and Paul has been chosen divinely to be the person responsible to make plain the household order, house law, administration, stewardship, plan, or administration of the Household of God. Understanding and abiding by the Household order for the churches is so important that it is the very vehicle the glory of God is put up for and displayed. This household of God and how it is to operate has been God’s eternal plan and purpose since before the creation of the world. Paul’s instructions and principles for the establishment of the churches cannot be underestimated and his principles are to continue in order to reflect the same priority in the proper order of the churches so that God is glorified as His wisdom is put on display. There is strong normative authority therefore that is derived from this text.

• His application
  

(In Acts)

§  In Acts 14, after Paul has evangelized and gathered disciples, he has them instructed in the faith to foster perseverance in their Christian lives, and then prays and fasts to select Elders to shepherd over them.

§  In Acts 20, Paul rehearses his process and then turns it over to the Ephesian elders in the entrustment stage with the understanding that this to be continued in perpetuity—evangelize strategically, establish congregations, entrust to faithful shepherds over the congregation to continue the process. Paul anticipates this is to continue with no end to it  (just as Christ did-“until the end of the age.”).
 
(In his epistles) 

§  Titus 1:5 shows us that the work in Crete that remained that Titus was designated to complete fits the stages of the process of Paul’s strategy of evangelizing strategically, establishing congregations, and entrusting to shepherding elders. Evangelization had resulted in congregations that needed more establishing and Paul ask Titus to appoint elders over the congregations to continue the shepherding and establishing process. These elders would d be entrusted to continue the work Paul had begun.

§  Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 3:14-15 that he is writing so that Timothy will be able to tell the church how to conduct themselves as the household of God. Paul is referring to the local churches. These verses come on the heels of the preceding verses in which Paul has laid out the leadership qualifications for the Household of God who would have the care over the local church/ It is only as the Household of God conducts themselves in the proper conduct of the household order that their testimony of faithfulness will lend to their witness to the truth in the world and the basis of presenting the gospel as evidence of Gospel change from reprobates afar off into redeemed brothers and sisters held together in the Household of God for the display of God’s wisdom to the watching world. Again, evangelism has occurred, congregations are being established as leaders (such as Timothy) are entrusted to continue the process.

§  Even in the last days of Paul’s ministry, Paul is imploring Timothy to continue this normative process in 2 Timothy 2:2 as he asks him to pass the baton through the entrusting of the deposit (1:13-14) to men whose character would be observed within the Household as faithful. Paul describes 4 generations and leaves it open-ended with the assumption of this entrusting to continue until the return of Christ. This puts great thrust into the normative understanding of Paul’s principles of evangelizing, establishing congregations, and entrusting the deposit to faithful shepherds. This entrusting is not just teaching but living the teachings of Christ and His Apostles and, if need be, dying for them.