PROBLEMS AND CONFUSION ON CHURCH LEADERSHIP

Divisions Over leadership in the Church

1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2  I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not being merely human?
The writing in red is holy Scripture. This writing in black is commentary  either my own or some other  source.The Corinthian church had a problem with leadership. As Paul points out, the problem was that they were following a human being rather than Jesus Christ, the true*Pastor--Shepherd  of the true church. As the following passages read, "what is Apollos... Paul?... Servants-slaves...." What this means is taken up in another blog, but the end result should bring glory to Jesus Christ alone.
Only God Gives Any Real Growth in the Church5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 
I planted,
        Apollos watered, but
                   Godz gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but
   
             only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he w  ho waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor
                                 . 9 For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.

10  According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it.
                            Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
                                 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13  each one's work will become manifest,
                                       
lfor the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
                              14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
                            15 If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffler loss,
                                                                  though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

16  Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
                                     17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.
18  Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
m                                  19 For the wisdom of this word is folly with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness," 20 and again,
                                                "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile." 21 So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

1 Cor 3:1-23 (ESV)

The Ministry of Servants and Stewards

1 This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. 3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. 4  I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.
The Judgment of Servants and Stewards  5 Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes,
                 who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.

iThen each one will receive his commendation from God. 6 I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. 7 For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

1 Cor 4:1-7 (ESV)

JUDGEMENT OF THE CHURCHES

          The Book of Revelations mentions seven different churches, and the Pastor, the head of the body, Jesus Christ, calls on 5 of them to repent. Of the two, not called to repent, one was undergoing severe persecution, and the other one, Philadelphia.
To the Philadelphian Church, Jesus had this to say:
" I know your Deeds, behold I have put an open door before you, which no man can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept kept My word, and you have not denied My name.... I have loved you."  (Revelations 3: 4 - 5)
( I would like to exegete this passage and the passage about laodicea, in another page.  What this page is concerned with,  is mainly the Judgment of God concerning the Church in general.)

.One strange thing to say about these messages to the churches, is, if this is just a judgment to correct the wrong things in the church, why isn't the Corinthian church listed among them.

There can be no doubt that these letters are addressed to contemporaneous churches, existing during John's life, but I believe there is more than that involved with the seven churches.

Jesus Christ instructs the apostle John to write about more than the contemporaneous.        

In Revelations 1:19, we read: "Write, therefore the things which you have seen in, and the things which are, and the things which shall take place, after these things."

John, the apostle, is certainly suited for that task. He has been a follower of Jesus Christ from the very beginning, and now, it is close to the end of John's life of close to 100 years. The churches have been in existence for multiple generations of Christians.
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THE CHURCH AT EPHESUS

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         One writer writes this about the church in Paul's day. As we've mentioned Paul has been preaching Christ to with great power to the vision synagogue and rejected by them and so he has turned to the Gentiles.

          " So Paul moves his ministry center to the hall of Tyrannus--a lecture Hall that he rents. Every day from 11 AM to 4 PM, Paul preaches Christ, trained the eight apprentices that are within, and lays the foundation for the Ephesian church.

          "... Paul mends tents in the morning, beginning before sunrise, preaches in the afternoon, and then mends tents again in the evening. With his own hands, Paul supports himself and the eight men he is training. He often goes hungry and thirsty.

         The community of Christians in Ephesus's meeting from house to house while Paul conducts the work from the hall of Tyrannus. One of the homes where the church gathers is the house of Priscilla and Aquila. Paul has received a wide open door to preach the gospel in Ephesus; however, he encounters many adversaries. On top of this, on a daily basis he experiences anxiety over the well-being of the a churches he has planted. 

         So that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. And God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that the anchor achieves or the aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the disease is left them in the evil spirits went out.... And this became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus; and fear fell upon them all in the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified.                                    Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. In many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and begin burning them in the sight of all; and they counted up the price of them and found that 50,000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord was growing mightily in prevailing." pp. 115-116 Frank Viola, THE UNTOLD STORY

         So, from the citation of Scripture, the Holy Spirit worked mightily through Paul. Pentecost, obviously, was in a prophetic timeline, but God, the Holy Spirit, was using mighty acts in introducing the gospel to the city of Ephesus just as at Jerusalem. One difference was this was taking place over three years, and the potential converts numbered in a much larger size like  close to 250,000 of Ephesus rather than 60,000 of Jerusalem. 

LACK OF FOCUS ON JESUS  CHIRST

        So it would be safe to assume there was a large number of Christian converts in Ephesus, perhaps as many as 1000 or more.

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Not only are these message strange, there is an interesting aspect about these, Revelation passages, and that is the historic timeline of the churches-- especially the mentioned Ephesians church.

 CONSIDERING THE EPHESIAN CHURCH

The church at Ephesus is mentioned repeatedly in the New Testament.  The city of Ephesus was a very significant Place in it's size alone--the city was estimated to be over 250,000 people.
The Apostle Paul spent at least 3 years in church planting there, and this was not in building church buildings.
Consider that 3000 came to Christ in one day on Pentecost,  through the work of the Holy Spirit, and certainly the Holy Spirit was working with Paul.  (Read Acts 19:8-12, 15-20)

The churches have been in existence for multiple generations of Christians and have been a part of multiple cultures.

It would be instructive to know the obstacles that might help or might hinder the growth of the church.

WHAT WAS LIFE in THE ROMAN EMPIRE LIKE?

The Roman Empire government, which had been a representative Senatorial form, had changed with the rule of Emperor Augustus (rule 27 BC to A.D. 14).                              So for the past 120 years, everyone lived under the rule of one man, the Emperor. Roman Empire in the beginning of the church was enjoying the Pax Romana ("Roman peace") which the Emperor Augustus had established from Spain to the Black Sea, from Egypt to the English Channel. For the most part life in the Empire was secure and trade was safe.  That would change in the last years of the apostle Paul's mission work. This change would focus in the Roman Empire's Palestine area around Jerusalem. There were between 70 and 100 million people living in the Roman Empire. One half of these people were slaves. (The Empire was run on slave labor. Slaves had no legal rights and are viewed as a personal property of their masters. Some wealthy Romans on his many as 20,000 slaves.) If you and the Roman Empire are part of the wealthy senatorial class. Most belong to the plebeian class. More than half the population is dependent on the regular distribution of free grain. 90% of the Empire's workers are in farming and hurting.

at the stake.













I should add, at this point, that the seven churches were judged
 by God not me or by any man.

As one reads this criticism, God uses a criteria that I wouldn't 
use nor what the world including most Christian leaders today, 
would use, and for that matter not what most church people 
today would use.

For example, we all would consider the large numbers coming
 to our church as being that of at

All churches were called on to repent of some particular sin, with 

he exception of Smyrna and Philadelphia.
Smyrna was a martyr church---Polycarp, 2nd century pastor of
Smyrna, was burnt at the stake.
 Philadelphia had "little power," yet was faithful in the Word.. 

THE WORD

THE WORD 

       "The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth."

John's writings portray Jesus Christ in a number of ways, but here he presents Him as a means of communication--"the Word". That is the great Creator God        was present at the beginning. The creator (who atheist say "nothing existed", but this nothing created everything)--this Creator was the one who created everything.

         "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn`t overcome it" John 1:1-4   World English Bible

            At this point you might ask, "well why should I believe in Jesus Christ?" What proof is there?

            Judged by human standards of success, the life of Jesus Christ was his pathetic failure. He was born in a manger, He was buried in a borrowed grave. His family was pathetically poor, and for his first 30 years He lived in an obscure village of Palestine working as a carpenter. His own brothers thought he was crazy and tried to dissuade Him when He started out to preach.

            His teachings were hated and scoffed at by theologians of that day. Some of his followers came from the lowest level of society. His intimate friends misunderstood Him. He didn't have a public relations campaign advertising his preaching. In fact, the religious component of his culture bitterly opposed Him, and tried to block every move that He made. In the end, like cowards, His followers (disciples and apostles specially trained) abandoned Him, letting Him die alone at the hand of His enemies.

            He never wrote a book. He never commanded an army. He never addressed the Senate, or spoke to the plotting Parliament. He never occupied a throne. At the age of 33, His enemies he died in torture in disgrace, nailed to a cross between two thieves. Even that cross, that he was nailed to, the most painful way to die, had a special spiritual meaning to it--a curse of God, to those of His heritage and culture.

            Amazingly, He asserted that He was a teacher whose doctrine should be as accepted unquestionably; He was the perfect example of human character and conduct; that He was an absolutely sinless Being; that He was able to work miracles such as no one else had ever worked; even more astonishingly that He would rise from the dead; that He would be the final judge of the world; that He was equal with God in power and authority,

            He Commanded his disciples to love Him, obey Him, follow Him, sacrificially live for Him trust in Him, worship Him, and, if need be, die for Him, exactly as they would for God.

            
            Much of the above writing was taken from the tract, "liar, Lunatic, or Lord of All," by Vernon Grounds.

            He asked the question, "what is one to think concerning Jesus Christ? Faced as you are with these amazing claims in all her implications, what is your opinion regarding..." Jesus must be crazy or he is certainly a liar or he must be who he says he is as Grounds which sit in his title.  In his tract , Grounds lists a number of philosophers and well-known thinkers of his day. What is their opinion of Jesus Christ? All of them, having little use or were direct opponents of organized or institutional Christianity, could hardly be called biased people.

            A world renowned German scholar, David Strauss, said "He represents within the religious sphere the highest point, beyond which posterity cannot go; yea, who went cannot even equal, inasmuch as everyone who hereafter should climb the same height, could only do it with the help of Jesus, who first attained it."

            One of the most noted historians of Great Britain, William Lecky, who spent his life in an attempt to destroy organized Christianity, wrote: "it was reserved for Christianity to present to the world an ideal character which to all the changes of 18 centuries has inspired the hearts of men with an impassioned love; has shown itself capable of acting on all ages, nations, temperaments and conditions; has been not only the highest pattern of virtue, but the strongest incentive to its practice...."

            One of the keenest philosophers of his time, John Stuart Mill, who had little use for Christianity, wrote: "about the life and saying of Jesus there is a stamp of personal originality combined with profundity of insight, which must place the prophet of Nazareth, even in the estimation of those who have no believe in His inspiration, and the first rank of the men of the sublime genius of whom our species can boast. When this preeminent genius is combined with the qualities of probably the greatest moral reformer and martyr to whom that nation who ever existed upon the earth, religion cannot be said to have made a bad choice and picking on this man as the ideal representative and guide of humanity; nor even now would it be easy even for unbeliever, to find a better translation of the role of virtue from the abstract into concrete, then to endeavor so to live for Christ would approve our life."

            So if you're of the mind, as these listed thinkers were, then you must believe that Jesus is not crazy and is not a liar. Mills went on to write, "whenever anybody seriously argues that Jesus was an extreme pathological case, I like to point out how strange it is the most learned, cultured, critical intellects of all ages about in reference to this man--at the feet of this young fanatic, addressing Him as master. And whenever any critic insisted He was demented, I like to exclaim,' would to God that the whole world were affected with His kind of insanity!'"

            SO WHY BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST? 

            One thing about what you just read, is that nobody is forcing you to do anything, but one thing you cannot do is push Jesus Christ aside. Why would you want to?

JOHN 1:12-13 "but as many as received Him to them He gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in His name, were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God."
    What this means is upon believing and trusting that Jesus Christ died for your sins and what you have done wrong , your greatest wrong and least son,-- that he died for those sins on the cross.
  This is not a matter of your signing anything or joining anything-:- it's like the thief on the cross next to Jesus; he didn't absolutely nothing except to say "remember me Jesus", and then he died the most assured man of having entering heaven, that there could possibly be.

        YOU MIGHT IGNORE ALL,THIS, OR LIKE THE THIEF ON THE CROSS ASK JESUS TO REMEMBER YOU WHEN IN HIS KINGDOM--ACTUALLY ASKING JESUS TO SAVE YOU,  BUT WHATEVER YOU DO,  IGNORING JESUS MEANS YOU ARE MAKING A DECISION.

         While I want you to accept THE FACT that Jesus Christ is God, and that what  he says is the truth, It is going to mean you have gained eternal life by trusting in Jesus--please let me know--I would like to pray for you. and unite in spirit with you. Jesus is my pastor, and His word is my guide.
But what you do is not going to be any worldly gain for me. I would like you to read my blogs, join this cyberchurch, but I don't know you--I'm not asking you to sign my church membership roll. We can pray together, and I would appreciate your praying for God to guide in writing and those who read these blogs. I'm certainly not now nor will I ever ask for  money--give it to the poor and needy.