Lord, as we gather here this afternoon in Thy name, we do put ourselves under the authority of Thy headship. Lord, create within us a spirit of humility, a spirit of obedience.
As we come to Thee, Lord, we are here to hear, not to speak. Lord, we pray that human words would not conceal Thy will, but that Thy Spirit would come forth, using Thy Word to touch our hearts and bring us into that which is Thy will.
O Lord, we come and ask Thee: we do not want to know things merely for knowing. We want to know because we want to do Thy will. Let this spirit be our spirit this afternoon as we approach this session.
Lord, Thou art our wisdom. Thou art the answer to every question. Do not allow us to answer these questions and take them merely as technical solutions. Deliver us from that. We pray that, in all these questions and answers, Thy Spirit will bring us into Thy will.
Lord, we commit this time into Thy hands, with fear and trembling, looking to Thee. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well, you can see that I have a bundle of questions. I do not think we will have time to answer every question, so I have tried to group them. Actually, most of these questions can be grouped into four groups.
These are the four areas with which we will be dealing this afternoon. We may not be able to answer your question specifically, but hopefully, in dealing with these areas, your question will be answered.
The first area concerns the matter of the local church, or local assembly. Since we are talking about the government and ministry of the local assembly, first of all we need a right understanding of what a local church, or local assembly, is. I am afraid there is confusion there.
The second area concerns government: elders, and what happens if an elder sins or if one elder gains control of the church. The third area concerns ministry: how ministry develops, and so forth. The last area concerns the place of women in the local church, in government and ministry. That is a very interesting question, so I will leave the most interesting one until last.
Before we go into these specific questions, I think we need to lay the groundwork concerning what a local assembly, or local church, is. Today we speak of the local church or local assembly in a very loose way. Any Christian group in any place will say, “This is a local church.”
You say you are the local church, I say I am the local church, and every group claims that it is the local church. So what is the local church in Scripture?
Of course, we mentioned at the very outset that you do not find the term local church or local assembly in Scripture. The word church is better translated assembly, that is true. Therefore, when we speak of a local church or local assembly, we are speaking of the same thing. But you do not actually find the term local church in Scripture.
We use this term because it describes the manifestation of the church in a locality. As we mentioned before, we are human beings, still in the flesh, limited by time and space, even though we belong to the church.
There is only one church. The Lord said, “I will build My church,” not “churches.” “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” We all belong to that church. But it is universal; it spans two thousand years and covers the whole world. How are we going to have contact with one another, maintain a close relationship, be built up with one another, and serve together?
The only way is this: wherever the Lord puts you, with other brothers and sisters whom the Lord has put in the same locality, there you are able to know one another, to rub against one another, to step on one another, to hurt one another, to comfort one another, to love one another, to care for one another, and to serve together.
In the Bible, you find that this is the way God puts all the spiritual principles of the universal church into practice. The local church is a fact in the New Testament. It is not a teaching; it is a fact.
You open the book of Acts, and we know that Acts tells us the history of the early church. You see the church in Jerusalem because people were gathered in Jerusalem. Then you have the churches in Judea. Why churches in Judea? Because Judea is a province, not a city. A province has a number of cities, and in various cities there were Christians assembling together in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Then you have the church in Antioch, because Antioch is another locality. And so on, until you find that when Paul was in Rome, there was the church in Rome.
Therefore, in the book of Acts, what you see is local assemblies, local churches. The way God builds the universal church is by building up these local assemblies. The term local church is a description, not a teaching; it is history, not doctrine. It puts all the spiritual principles of the universal church into practice.
The church is one, and the expression of the church in each locality is also one. Otherwise, you are not able to express or manifest the church. Where God’s people are in a certain locality, they represent the church in that locality.
The universal church includes all God’s people all over the world and throughout all the centuries. Everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus belongs to the universal church; not one is excepted. The same is true of the local assembly, because the local church includes all the believers in that particular locality.
In the New Testament, the locality is represented by cities. Why? Because cities are congregations of people, communities. When people dwell together within a certain boundary and under a certain government, they form a unit. In New Testament times, a city was the boundary of the local church.
You also find that when our Lord Jesus was on earth, He traveled through cities and villages. Thus, cities can be units, and villages can also be units, because the basic idea is a community in which people dwell together.
Today, however, we use this term very loosely. Baptist churches call themselves local churches. Not only Baptist churches, but all denominational churches call themselves local churches. Even many independent groups call themselves local churches.
In other words, in one city, village, or locality, there may be many so-called local churches. Now, this is unscriptural. Nobody can claim to be the local church unless they include all God’s people in that locality.
When we speak of the local church, we mean all God’s people in a certain locality. That is the scriptural meaning of the local church.
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
—Matthew 18:20
“Where” indicates a locality. “Two or three” indicates plurality, because one person does not constitute an assembly. There must be at least two or three, and they gather together—not merely getting together, but gathering under the name of the Lord Jesus.
They put themselves under the headship of Christ, because Christ is the Head. When these two or three in a locality put themselves under the headship of Christ, they represent the Body in that locality. The Lord said, “There am I in the midst of them.” The presence of the Lord among His people is the evidence that they represent His church in that locality.
What is the ground of a local assembly or local church? In other words, on what basis or ground do we gather together? We know that this must be according to the Word of God.
Again, the word ground is not found in the Bible. It is modern language. It is simply trying to tell us this: we know that the local church includes all God’s people in that locality, but how do they meet? On what ground do they gather together so that they become the expression of the church in that locality?
To make it very simple, the first ground of the local church is the authority of the Holy Spirit.
We are coming down to very practical things. Who is the Head of the church? Christ. We gather together unto His name, the name of Christ. Who, then, is the One on earth representing Christ and His name in a practical way? The Holy Spirit.
When you come to the practical expression of this matter, two or three may say that they gather unto the name of the Lord Jesus, but they may not actually put themselves under the authority of Christ. Instead, they may put themselves under the authority of a man, perhaps a spiritual giant. That does not constitute a local church.
How do we know that we truly gather unto His name? Christ today is absent; He is in heaven. The Holy Spirit is here. He is the other Comforter—another of the same kind, not of a different kind.
In other words, the authority of Christ is today represented, manifested, and exercised by the Holy Spirit. In practical terms, whenever God’s people gather together and truly put themselves under the authority of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit has authority there. Then you know that they are gathered unto the name of Christ.
Read the book of Acts. You find that the people gathered unto the name of Christ. Again and again, the name of the Lord Jesus is mentioned. They uplifted His name and gathered unto that name. Because of this, the authority of the Holy Spirit was most evident.
You remember Acts 5. Ananias and Sapphira were believers, real believers, and they had a heart for the Lord. They wanted to be of help. They sold their property and gave some to the church, but unfortunately, they conspired against the Holy Spirit.
The property was theirs. Peter said, “It is yours.” There was nothing wrong with that. Even after they sold it, it was still theirs. There was nothing wrong with giving only a part. But if they were trying to deceive the Holy Spirit, as though the Holy Spirit were not present in the church, and say, “This is all,” in order to gain a name for themselves, what was that?
Immediately, Ananias and Sapphira passed away. In other words, the authority of the Holy Spirit was most evident.
Brothers and sisters, when we gather together unto the name of our Lord Jesus, do we put ourselves under the authority of the Holy Spirit? Is it real? Or is the authority of the church somewhere else, or in somebody else? That determines whether the gathering of God’s people in that locality can represent the local church or not. That is the test—the ground of the local assembly.
Secondly, the church is both spiritual and physical. The universal church is spiritual; it is not physical. But the local church is not only spiritual but also physical. You cannot see or touch the universal church, but you can see and touch the local church.
“Tell it to the church,” in Matthew 18, indicates something visible and practical. Because it is physical, there is a boundary: the boundary of the locality. A local church is a church bounded by the locality. Every believer in that locality belongs to the church.
You cannot draw a smaller circle than the locality and say, “This is the local church,” because it is no longer local. Local means that locality. To represent the local church, you must include all God’s people in that locality. Then it is the local church, if you wish to call it that.
It is because of confusion or misunderstanding concerning this concept of the local church that all kinds of questions arise. Let me say a little more, because I know that today there are people who strongly emphasize locality.
In other words, they make locality the sole ground of the local church. By emphasizing it in this way, instead of uniting God’s people, they divide God’s people. They say that they are the local church, and those who do not meet with them are not. Then where are those other believers? Are they suspended in the air?
Instead of uniting God’s people, they divide God’s people by claiming locality. Brothers and sisters, remember one thing: locality is not a teaching in the Bible. Nowhere in the Bible do you find the teaching of locality. If you can find it, please let me know.
Locality is a practice, an example, history. It is not a teaching. If anybody tries to teach locality, it leads to heresy, to division, to becoming a sect—perhaps worse, a cult.
Locality is never a teaching in the Bible. What, then, is the teaching? The teaching is the unity of the Body of Christ. Brothers and sisters, you find that taught throughout Scripture.
We are one. “That they may be one, even as We are one,” said our Lord Jesus. You are not divided. Christ is not divided. There is one Body, one Head, one church. The teaching in Scripture is the oneness and unity of the Body of Christ.
Because we obey the teaching of the oneness of the Body of Christ and want to express that oneness, how are we going to express it? In the place where you are, you should be one. That is the practical way to express oneness.
If you live in one locality, you cannot express your oneness practically with people five thousand miles away. In spirit, you can be one with them, but in practice you cannot do that. The only way to practice the unity of the Body of Christ is in a locality. If you live in one locality, you are one and express your oneness together.
That the world may know that God has sent His Son into the world. Brothers and sisters, hear the prayer of our Lord Jesus in John 17. When a person is going to leave, his last words must express what is deepest and dearest in his heart.
Before our Lord Jesus was crucified, in His prayer to the Father, He poured out His heart. What did He desire more than anything else?
That they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us: that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.
—John 17:21
Brothers and sisters, the unity of God’s people will convince the world that God has sent His Son into the world. It is a tremendous testimony. Why? Because in this world, people cannot be one. No two persons are one.
The flesh is independent. If the world wants to produce unity, it does so through uniformity: it tries to force everyone into the same mold and then says, “We are one.” But it is not so in the church.
In the church there is no force, yet we, with all our diversity and all our backgrounds, can be one. All the distinctions of race, language, social status, education, and background are eliminated by the cross of our Lord Jesus.
We are one in Christ Jesus, and we express to the world that we are one. Look at the early church. They did not seem to hold gospel meetings every day.
As a matter of fact, the only gospel meetings you can see are two. One was on the Day of Pentecost, when Peter and the eleven stood up. The other was when the lame man was healed and a group gathered around John and Peter. It was simply an opportunity for preaching the gospel; it was not prearranged.
Yet the gospel spread. Why? Because people looked at these believers in Jerusalem and asked, “What happened to them?” They loved one another, cared for one another, were with one accord, and helped one another. With all the differences among them, they were one.
The world had to say, “God has sent His Son into this world.” Otherwise, such a thing could not happen. Is it true today?
When we preach the gospel, we are often faced with this question: “You all proclaim that you believe in the Lord Jesus. Why do you have Roman Catholics, Methodists, Assemblies of God, and all these things? If you all proclaim that you believe in one God, one Christ, and one Spirit, why? Where is your testimony?”
But if we are truly one, brothers and sisters, our very life will convince the world that God has sent His Son into this world. The oneness, the unity, of the Body of Christ is the testimony of the church.
To express this practically, all the believers in a locality should be one. Of course, today we say this is impossible.
In the early days, perhaps it was so—in Jerusalem, Antioch, even Rome. In Corinth, they were still one, but they were on the verge of division. Some began to say, “I am of Paul,” “I am of Apollos,” “I am of Cephas,” or, in an exclusive way, “I am of Christ.”
Today, however, you see “I am of Paul,” “I am of Apollos,” “I am of Cephas,” and “I am of Christ” in that exclusive sense all over the place. Something has broken, and humanly speaking, there is no way to put it together.
Does this mean that, because of this, we should simply be content with being of Paul, Apollos, Peter, or an exclusive Christ? Then the testimony of the Lord Jesus is lost.
Brothers and sisters, God is seeking to recover His testimony on earth. Everyone who loves the Lord knows in his or her heart that something is wrong and that God wants to restore it to His own satisfaction. You have that longing in your heart. But how is it to be done?
There is no way to recover it outwardly. As we mentioned before, in God’s recovery work, He is recovering the reality, not the appearance. Outward appearance will never be recovered. Scripture does not tell us that it can be recovered in that way.
On the contrary, you find that the church is going into apostasy. We are already in apostasy. But God is not defeated. He is working toward the recovery of the testimony of the oneness of the Body of Christ on earth—not merely in our minds.
How? Throughout church history—this did not begin today—whenever the church began to deviate, to go off on a tangent, and to become something other than what God intended it to be, God reacted.
Whenever the church became an institution, an organization, a system, a form, a division, or a tradition, God reacted. The way God reacted was by touching certain people who truly loved the Lord out of a pure heart.
He touched their hearts so that they refused to accept the status quo. They wanted to return to the Word of God. They wanted to return to the heart of God. They refused to be divided. They refused to call themselves by any name other than the name of Christ.
They refused to conform to certain systems. They confessed that they were one with all God’s people.
In church history, such people were persecuted. They were put to death, not by the world, but by Christendom. Their histories were wiped out. Only in recent decades have we begun to discover, for example, the story of the Anabaptists.
Their books were destroyed because the official church would not allow these things to remain. Brothers and sisters, thank God that throughout the centuries there have been remnants faithful to the Lord.
They maintained the oneness of the Body of Christ. They did not claim to be anybody or anything. But they stood on the ground that they wanted to put themselves under the authority of the Holy Spirit and open their hearts and hands to all God’s people, wherever they were.
Even though they were rejected, misunderstood, and persecuted, yet they embraced all God’s people. You find them in church history. This is the recovery.
The recovery of the local church is that God raises up a people who testify to the reality of the oneness of the Body of Christ and the headship of Christ. That is what it is. No one may claim to be the local church, because it belongs to all God’s people. But the testimony has to be recovered.
Dear brothers and sisters, may the Lord touch our hearts so that we, by His grace, may be faithful to Him and know the headship of Christ and the oneness of the Body of Christ. It is a testimony that can be recovered today, not merely a feeling.
With these matters understood, we can deal with the questions that have been asked.
Here is one question, based on Rethinking the Work. This is one of the conditions for attending the afternoon session, whether you fulfilled it or not is another matter.
In Rethinking the Work, Brother [name unclear] spends time discussing the local church being in only one locality. In our fellowship, we have families from different localities, separated by thirty miles from where we gather. Is this a problem?
As we have said, locality is not a teaching; it is a fact, an example. By locality in Scripture, we mean a community. Therefore, do not take locality too technically.
Spiritual principles must be applied spiritually, not technically. If you try to apply a spiritual principle technically, it becomes dead. It has to be applied spiritually.
Suppose in a locality there are a few believers who are truly gathered together under the name of the Lord Jesus and whose hearts are open to all believers there. Even though they are few, they bear the testimony for the Lord in a representative way.
It is like the Jewish remnant returning from Babylonian captivity. Though they were only a remnant, they represented all the tribes of Israel.
Now suppose you live thirty miles away, but unfortunately there are no other Christians there—no other believers who desire to be under the authority of the Holy Spirit, and no other Christians who want to accept all believers. They want to be divided. What do you do? How are you going to be built up, helped, and edified?
There is nothing wrong with driving thirty miles to where there is such an expression. Join them, be built up together, and learn the lessons God wants you to learn, until the Lord raises up something in your locality. Then there will be a testimony to the world there. There is nothing wrong with that.
If you become too technical, how do you draw the line? Modern cities are different from ancient cities. New York has five boroughs. Metropolitan London is another example. How do you draw the boundaries? Do you take metropolitan London as one unit of the church, or a district, township, or postal zone as a unit?
Be flexible as the Lord leads. Do not be too technical about it. It can be one, or it can be a number, because there are many communities there.
The only thing is this: do not try to set up another gathering because you do not agree with some brothers and sisters. Then you take it technically and say, “Well, I moved across the river; therefore, I am in a different locality. I can have my own.”
It is just like synagogues. During the Babylonian captivity there was no temple, and the Jews wanted to worship God. The synagogue was a marvelous invention. If you had ten men of leisure—that is, ten men willing to give time for religious purposes—you could form a synagogue.
Thus, everybody could form a synagogue according to his own taste. It was very convenient. But, dear brothers and sisters, you do not need to be too technical about it. Just see that your spirit is right.
Here is another question:
Many of us do not live in a locality where there is a gathering around the Lord such as that found in Richmond. The choice is either to travel a considerable distance to meet with others on this ground, or to remain in a locality where travel is not practical and is often impossible because of family and financial concerns. How do matters of church government and ministry of the Word apply to those of us in these circumstances? How can we grow and develop in these areas so that the spiritual principles we have heard will be practiced in their outworking?
Richmond is a very bad example. You do not know us. I am being honest. Before the Lord, I do have a fear. I am afraid that people look at us as more than we are. May the Lord have mercy on us.
First of all, we have already explained that if you really want to be part of the testimony the Lord is restoring, and there is no one in your place, there is nothing wrong with traveling to another place. If it is too much to travel, there is nothing wrong with meeting with Christians, whatever ground they may meet on, so long as they preach Christ and love the Lord.
Why? Because Christians cannot live by themselves. No matter how spiritual you are, you cannot remain by yourself. You need fellowship. If the Lord has not raised up something in your locality, find a place where you can receive help and have fellowship.
That is all right. But if you know what the local church is, then there is no necessity for you to join a church, because you are already in the church. As for government or ministry, probably in that kind of situation you cannot yet speak about government and ministry.
Here is another question:
Having read The Church and the Work, and having an understanding that our unity is in Christ only and not in whether we agree or disagree, is there ever a time when we can leave a local church without moving out of town? In other words, if after twenty years there is still a closed attitude toward the living work of the Holy Spirit, are we bound to remain with such a local church? Is there a time we can leave and meet with other local believers?
Very technical, and very confused. If you really know what a local church is, and if it truly represents the testimony, then, brothers and sisters, you are stuck. You cannot leave the Body.
But if the authority of the Holy Spirit and the headship of Christ are not there, it does not represent a local church. I do not know exactly what is meant by “the living work of the Holy Spirit,” but if the authority of the Holy Spirit and the headship of Christ are not there, then it does not represent a local church.
How do you relate in a living way to other local assemblies and to translocal ministries?
You remember the vision John saw on the island of Patmos. He saw seven golden lampstands, seven separate golden lampstands, and One like the Son of Man in the midst of the seven lampstands. Each lampstand represents a local church.
They are independent in administration, but they are joined together by Christ in a spiritual relationship. Thus, local assemblies have spiritual fellowship with one another, but no administrative relationship.
You find this in the book of Acts. The Gentile churches had fellowship with the churches in Judea and with the church in Jerusalem. When there was need in Jerusalem and Judea, they expressed their oneness by sending relief to the brothers and sisters there.
They visited one another and maintained fellowship with one another. When they heard that there were believers in Antioch, those in Jerusalem sent Barnabas to visit them and to maintain a spiritual fellowship there.
There should be relationship, but it should be spiritual, not administrative. That is to say, not one church controlling another church.
As to translocal ministries, I think the question refers to the gifts God gave to the church in Ephesians 4: apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. These are people raised up by God to minister His Word to the universal church—that is, to different local churches.
How do we relate to them? If it is a local church, first, it must be open to fellowship with all God’s people in that locality. Whether those people have different teachings, different experiences, or different emphases, if they belong to the Lord, you must receive them.
As we find in Romans, receive whomever Christ has received. You cannot exclude anyone because he has a different experience or a different teaching, as long as the fundamental teaching concerning Christ and His work is not violated.
If a person does not believe that Jesus is the Son of God or does not believe in His atoning death, then he is not a believer. But as long as a person believes in the Lord Jesus and His finished work on the cross, even though he knows very little, or knows many things he should not know, brothers and sisters, there can be no exception. A local church must receive all God’s people.
Second, if it is a local church and represents the local church, then it must receive all the ministries God gives to the church, because these ministries are God-given to the church. In principle, you have to receive all ministries.
But in practice, you must be careful. Why? Because today there are many so-called servants of God who may not be sent by God. There are many who are truly servants of God and have a ministry, but unfortunately they mix that ministry with many other things.
In other words, today’s ministries are not pure. They may have mixed motives. If you open your door, they may come in and take over.
That is why in Scripture you have elders. Why does the church need government? It needs people who oversee.
These elders are shepherds; they guard the flock. They are open to all God’s ministries, but they have to discern what ministry, at what particular time, will benefit the flock of God there.
This is not a matter of rejecting ministries. Rather, they must be wise in determining what kind of ministry is needed at a particular time, what ministry will not hurt God’s people, and what ministry will help God’s people. This is the responsibility of the elders, of those who are spiritually responsible before God. God has made provision for all these things.
Well, I think I must leave the other questions concerning the local church, because we have only dealt with one area and there are three more. We have to stop at 4:30, because at 6:15 the children are returned to us. So I have to rush now. I am sorry, because I am long-winded.
We have already mentioned the importance of government. Government is upon the shoulder of our Lord Jesus, and He is the One who chooses and appoints those who bear responsibility in local government.
They are not chosen by men. They are chosen by the Head of the church. The way He chooses is that the Holy Spirit manifests these men in the church. Therefore, it is a spiritual matter, not a technical matter.
Unfortunately, today we often choose elders by looking around and finding members who are wealthy and capable. They are executives in big corporations, and we choose them as elders. Then financial problems are resolved, administrative problems are resolved, and they run the church like a corporation.
Sure enough, they turn it into a corporation. Brothers and sisters, no. Our Lord chooses those who bear responsibility for the house of God very differently. It depends upon the life within them.
The Holy Spirit manifests these people to the brothers and sisters. It is evident. If your eyes are closed, you are unable to discern whom the Lord has raised up. But if your eyes are open, you see it.
There is no need for a time of ordination, presenting certain men in an official way and saying, “From now on, they are the elders. They have the position. They have the authority. Obey them.” There is no need for such things.
The church is spiritual in nature. When you are not spiritual, then you have problems. But if you are spiritual, the problems are solved. It is a simple thing. Let us be simple.
Elders are recognized by their works and by their labor. If you aspire to oversight, you desire a good work. How do we recognize those who bear responsibility in the church? Look at their daily life. Look at what they do.
See how they serve the brothers and sisters, how they become bondservants of all, how they take brothers and sisters into their hearts, and how they spend time, effort, and even themselves to care for the brothers and sisters. God has raised them up to take care of the flock. It is very simple.
The tenure of an elder—there are many questions about that. If an elder is appointed, is it for life, or does he have a term?
Unfortunately, Scripture is silent. We see elders appointed by the Holy Spirit and confirmed by the apostles, but we do not see how long an elder is to function as an elder. There is no stated term in Scripture.
Why? Because it is a spiritual matter. How does a man become an elder? He becomes an elder because his spiritual life seems to be a little ahead of the other brothers and sisters, and therefore he can lead.
He becomes an elder because he labors more. Everybody functions, but he functions more. That is how he becomes an elder.
What is his tenure? His tenure expires when he does not grow spiritually and other brothers grow beyond him. His eldership expires when he is no longer functioning as such.
As one question says, if he has not been functioning for ten months, is he still an elder? Of course not.
That is why I say it is more convenient if you do not make it an official matter. Then you do not need to consider tenure; it is automatically resolved. They come in by the Holy Spirit, and they go out by the Holy Spirit. Is that not more convenient? Do you still want elders officially appointed?
Some questions ask whether, when an elder becomes a problem, we should ask him to take a sabbatical leave. We do not know how to get around him, or whether we can get around him, because he is there.
Well, we gave him a permanent leave, not merely a sabbatical leave. I think it is very simple. When you become very technical, things become very complex. But when you touch these matters spiritually, they are very simple.
All right, this matter of ministry: how is ministry produced? How are we going to encourage people to develop? Who is going to look into this matter? Are the elders responsible? Yes.
Those brothers and sisters who are more spiritual have the responsibility to help the younger ones to develop. They should help develop the ministry of the Word.