June 28, 2026

"Godly Authority" (Acts 15:22-35)

Series: Acts: God's Vision For His Church Scripture: Acts 15:22–35

Hear now the word of the lord from Acts 15, starting in verse 22. Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas and Silas, leading men among the brothers with the following letter. The brothers. Both the apostles and the elders.

To the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, in Syria and Cilicia. Greetings. Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what has been strangled and from sexual immorality.

If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell. So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words.

And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the brothers. To whom? To those who had sent them. But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many others also. This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated. As you're taking your seats, let's join our hearts together in prayer as we search God's Scriptures today. Heavenly Father, we pray that as we open your word you would give us your spirit. That by your spirit you would give us hearts to understand and eyes to see and ears to hear all that is contained in the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, our King and Savior. In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

Our story this morning continues the unfolding history of the reign rule of Jesus Christ, who, when he was risen from the dead, received all authority in heaven and on earth. And we are seeing here the exercise of that authority within the church. Now, if we sort of peek ahead through human history all the way from this scene right in the 50s AD to this year in 2046, in this past week, the 53rd General assembly of the PCA met and did really what we are seeing here in this passage. In the preceding passage, there was an assembly of godly elders who were exercising godly authority that had been entrusted to the Church, exercised by the officers of the Church for the sake of Jesus Christ and his kingdom. Now, as I said in the General assembly this week, it struck, struck me at many times that what we are doing there seems to cut against prevailing cultural notions, especially in the United States.

We live in a very individualistic and a very autonomous, a very entrepreneurial culture that really doesn't recognize authority. In many ways, we are often anti authoritarian. In fact, we are about to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence from the authority that previously exercised authority over these United States when they were not states but colonies of the British colonial system. And so whenever we encounter authority in the world, I think we're always wrestling with the nature of authority. This week, as the church met to gather and exercise authority, maybe a question that you may have had if you thought about it, was by what right do these men exercise authority over the others, over others in the church?

Or maybe the Christian version of that objection might be this. If Jesus is the one who truly does possess all authority in heaven and on earth, then by what authority do these men, by what authority do any men exercise Jesus authority? Now, the Scriptures give us basic answers to these questions. First of all, that Jesus himself is the one who selects and the one who ordains elders to establish the rule of his reign in his church. In First Timothy 5:17, the Scriptures are very clear that the elders are called upon to exercise right rule, to exercise the authority of Jesus.

And we'll look at that text a little bit later in the sermon. But second, these elders are accountable to Jesus. These elders do not go off and do whatever they please. They do not exercise authority on their own behalf or to pursue their own agenda agendas. These elders are accountable to Jesus by his word and especially as that authority is shared, where all of the elders are called to oversee one another in the exercise of authority in Jesus Church.

But the third reason, and this is really what we see in this passage today, is that the authority of overseeing others, the authority of exercising Jesus authority in the church, that this is exercised not for the benefit of those leaders who exercise that authority, it is rather exercised for the benefit of the whole church. Our theme this morning, what we see here in this passage, is that godly authority blesses the church with joy, encouragement, strength and peace. Godly authority blesses the church with joy, encouragement, strength and peace. Now, in this passage, there are really two parts. There's first, the establishment and the exercise of godly authority.

So Godly authority is the first part. And then in the second part, we are going to see the blessings that flow from the exercise of this Godly authority. Joy, encouragement, strength and peace. That's the second part. Joy, encouragement, strength and peace.

1. Godly Authority (Acts 15:22-29)

So let's start in verses 22 through 29 with the first section dealing with godly authority. If you remember, in the previous section which we looked at last Sunday, the Elder James, not the Apostle James, but the Elder James, James, the brother of our Lord Jesus, had offered recommendations about how to answer the question that had come up from Antioch, namely, did Gentile converts to Christianity need to be circumcised in order to be saved? There are some that had gone down from Judea where Jerusalem is. They had gone from Judea into Antioch saying that unless you are circumcised, you cannot be saved. And in the previous section, we saw the gathering and the discussion of the elders and the apostles of the church in Jerusalem and the Council of Jerusalem saying, that is not true.

It is not necessary for Gentiles to be circumcised. They do not have to become Jews in order to be saved directly by Jesus. But the Elder James had made several recommendations about things that Gentiles should observe. Now, these were sort of on the one foot in the moral sphere in terms of dealing with idolatry, in terms of dealing with sexual immorality issues, along those lines. But some of these also moved in some direction, in some sense toward the direction of ceremonial things.

And there's a recognition that if the church is going to flourish together, Jews and Gentiles in one body of Christ, then Gentiles need to be mindful of some of the convictions of Jewish believers who had grown up hearing the regulations of Moses preached in the synagogues. And so the Elder James had offered recommendations. And in this next section, in verse 22, when we read that, it seemed good to the apostles and the elders with the whole church. What it's saying is these recommendations were formally adopted this week. There were a lot of proceedings where motions were put forward and those were voted on.

Sometimes by those in favor say aye, those opposed say no. Sometimes we had clickers. If you saw any of the live stream, if you did, that's fantastic, but I wasn't expecting it. But if you did, sometimes those clickers didn't work. And so we had a lot of issues this week well, here we only had to go to clickers when the votes were close.

And there were number of things where the votes were close, but here the sense is that the vote wasn't close. That there was such a unity of spirit in the Church over this issue, that it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, along with the whole church who was there to see the proceedings, to watch what the elders and the apostles were going to decide together. And so it seemed good to adopt these recommendations from the elder James, but also to choose men from among them and to send them as a delegation to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas to deliver these decisions to the church there. Now it's interesting, we are seeing an example of good church leadership. We are seeing the particular way that this authority is exercised by the officers of the church.

Note the distinction, verse 22. Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders. And that's one side of this. These are the ones who are formally making this decision. But then you see how they were united with the rest of the church, with the whole church.

If you want to see also another example of where we see clearly that it's the officers of the church making this decision, look down to verse 23, the brothers, both the apostles and the elders. And these are the ones who are addressing the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia. So it's the officers of the Church who are deciding these things, who are crafting this explanation written down for the benefit of the church. So it's the exercise of authority by the officers. But you see, this isn't to the exclusion of the other members of the church.

The church is watching alongside and they are of what the officers are doing as they exercise leadership on their behalf. It's like in a good marriage, the Scriptures teach that the husband is given authority in a marriage over the home, over his wife. And we see the Scriptures teaching that the wife is to submit to her husband in all things in the Lord. But in a good marriage, those things are not done in opposition. They're not an opponent on one side, the husband on one, and the wife on the other.

And they're constantly struggling in a power struggle over who's going to get to do what. In a good marriage, both the husband and the wife are joined as teammates. They have different roles, they exercise authority in different ways, and yet they are called to be joined together in unity. And here we have the exercise of authority and the submission of the Church that is exercised joined together. They are both doing Their appointed roles in the church and the church is loving and approving of what the elders and the apostles are doing on their behalf.

But the second aspect of good church leadership, godly authority that we see here is that beyond clarifying the doctrine, it is not necessary to be circumcised. It is not necessary to become Jewish in order to be saved directly by Jesus. Beyond simply making those decisions, they also appoint a commission to go to teach this doctrine in Antioch. They appoint a group of men who will go to Antioch and to settle the confusion, to bring the Church into unity in this doctrine so the Church can move forward in peace and purity and unity. Now think about the situation.

Paul and Barnabas had been fiercely contending against this false teaching in Antioch. They had their opponents who were teaching something different and they were trying to correct things according to the word of the Lord. Now remember, you all could watch these proceedings of the General assembly this year by livestream. There were an abundance of things on Twitter if you cared to follow along there. Some men are very into Twitter assembly so you could follow along in those sorts of ways.

There were some news articles that were published that you could access on the Internet. But if you were living in the day of this first general assembly at the Council of Jerusalem, there would have been no way for you to follow along the livestream. There would have been no way for you to read the newspaper articles that were printed in the Jerusalem Times reporting on the events of the week. And so if Paul and Barnabas suddenly showed back up and said, yeah, I mean, they, they just agreed with us, whatever we said was right, that would raise a lot of questions. Was that really what happened?

Tell us more. Are you sure you what, what you said was right? We want to be certain about what's happening here. And so other men, seemingly other elders within Jerusalem, were appointed from this council to go back with Paul and Barnabas to confirm the message. Yes, this is what the council determined.

This is not Paul and Barnabas just trying to sort of cover up what happened there. This is truly what the church, in seeking the word of the Lord and seeking to follow the spirit of the Lord, decided about these things. Godly authority in the church. Godly church leadership is never about mere power plays of just trying to get things done, getting my way done. Godly church leadership is always about seeking to lead the whole church in peace and purity and unity.

So who are these men? Who is Judas Barsabbas and Silas? Barsabbas is a name that means son of the Sabbath. He's also called Judas or. Or in the Old Testament, this would have been Judah.

The name means praise. And then there's also this other one named Silas. We read that these are leading men. The word for leading men is the same word that appears in Hebrews 13:17, when the author of Hebrews writes to say, obey your leaders, obey your leading men and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give account. These are not apostles.

We know who the apostles were. And if these are not apostles, it's unlikely that some people, some of these men who were not involved, who were maybe just a part of the church not involved in making the decision, would be sent to teach this decision. So if they were not apostles, they had to be some of the elders who were a part of making this decision. In the Jerusalem Council, in verse 32, we know that they were prophets, they engaged in prophetic teaching. It is very likely that these are the functional equivalent of what we would call pastors or teaching elders.

And really what they're functioning as in this context is a short term missionaries. I've gone on a couple of short term mission trips in my life to Colombia, to Kenya and Rwanda. And while there I taught and I sought to build up those churches in the teaching of the Word of God. And that's functionally what these men are doing. Only they didn't have the New Testament written out.

So that's where, as prophets, they received that word of the Lord directly and instructed the church in the word of the Lord. Received prophetically, as they were waiting for the Scriptures, the New Testament to be written down, which we have now, verse 23, we read that those with authority, they didn't just send just sort of a vague instructions to these men, just go and teach them as you see fit. They actually clarify the doctrine by committing it to writing. And notice what they write after the greeting which we read a little bit ago. The brothers, both the apostles and the elders to the brothers who were of the Gentiles in Antioch and Caesar, Syria and Cilicia, and they give them greetings.

In verse 24, they talk about authority that was not given to some men. We're dealing with the question of authority and how it's exercised. And look what they say in verse 24. Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us, these men came from Judea and troubled you with words unsettling your minds. Although we gave them no instructions.

That's an interesting thing. It is not. Although the Word of God said nothing about this as Though they could have gone down and just started teaching and preaching on their own authority, so long as they were teaching accurately. The idea is the church had given no instructions about this matter. And so they simply took it upon them to.

They usurped authority that was not theirs to begin teaching something. And then when that doctrine was later reviewed, that doctrine was found to be false teaching, false doctrine. What we are seeing here is a reflection of the fact that the church possesses and exercises accountable authority. Accountable authority. So, on the one hand, the church possesses real authority.

You may not think of it in this way, but the preaching from the pulpit. This is an exercise of the authority of the Church of Jesus Christ. Because in this pulpit, when I stand in this pulpit, I cannot come to you, just sort of sharing with you my own thoughts and opinions and ideas about politics or about the latest cultural things or about my favorite Spirit sports teams or anything else that I may find personally interesting. When I enter this pulpit, I am commissioned and constrained to declare the gospel of King Jesus Christ. Which means that to preach is an exercise of the key of doctrine in the keys of the kingdom of the Church.

The church also possesses the authority of discipline. Jesus talks about the authority to administer the word of Christ in his church, especially in opening and closing the doors of heaven, by receiving some into membership and by excluding some from membership through the processes of discipline in the church. So the church possesses real authority. Jesus says, what you loose on earth would be loosed in heaven, and what you bind, bind on earth will be bound in heaven. The church exercises real authority.

But, and here's where these men who went from Judea on their own accord went wrong. The church possesses accountable authority. Ultimately, everyone who exercises authority within the church is ultimately authority to God by His Word. But also we are all under authority exercised by the officers of the church. You see, everyone in the church is accountable to God.

That's everyone in the pews. That's every elder, that's every deacon, that's every pastor. Every single one of us is accountable to God. And on the last day, we will stand before the throne of Jesus Christ. But no one, not in this life or the next, no one is accountable only to God.

Everyone in the church, you, me, everyone in the church is accountable to pluralities of elders who gather to interpret and to apply the word of God. And again, you should be encouraged. My doctrine is examined by elders who have authority over me. And if, heaven forbid, I should go rogue, those men have the authority to pull me out of this pulpit and to restore the raw teaching and preaching of God's word here, I take that very, very seriously. Everyone in the church is accountable to pluralities of elders.

And what has happened here is that these men from Judea did not recognize the authority of the church. And they went down, though they had no instructions to do so. And so here we see the church corrected. They are removing those men from the authority that they usurped for themselves. And instead they are appointing a commission who bear the authority of the church, Paul and Barnabas, but also these other men who are commissioned with them, Judas called Barsabbas and Silas, to go down to teach the true doctrine, the true teaching of God's word.

And then finally, in the exercise of this authority, the they clarify that the burden of circumcision will not be placed upon them, but instead they give them instructions of the moral law of God to avoid idolatry and to avoid sexual immorality in ways that are wisely ordered to promote the fellowship of the church in both Jews and Gentiles. Now, this passage and the issues that they are dealing with seem quite formal in many ways. We are not dealing with questions of whether people have to be circumcised in order to be saved. But American culture is so individualistic and so entrepreneurial that people pop up all over the places to try to teach and instruct, claiming for themselves the authority of the word of God. Now, in many ways, it is a good thing.

It has contributed. So it has led to unprecedented growth and prosperity and human flourishing that we do have a society where anyone can see a need and seek to meet it in terms of businesses starting a business, or in terms of organizing around particular causes and trying to get people working toward a particular thing. But when we are in the church, we have to be very careful about how we import those cultural values of individual individualism and entrepreneurialism into the church. Because the church is not a free market. The church is a well regulated, well ordered kingdom.

Now, I want to bring this to a particular point. In today's environment, I want to urge you to be so careful about where you get your teaching. I'm not with you every day of every week. And I don't need to be your only teacher that you listen to. There are an abundance of podcasts, there are an abundance of YouTube videos out there.

But what I do want to say, even if I am not the only voice you ever hear, and I don't need to be, I do want to say that it is critical for your soul to be asking, who is teaching me and what Authority, does this person have to be teaching me? The Scriptures teach us a lot about this. First of all, is this teacher a man? First, Timothy 2:12 says, I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. There are lots of teachers out there who are disregarding this commandment.

The second question is to ask, is this man under the authority of a church structure who will carefully guard his doctrine and remove him, or is he unaccountable? And third, is this man himself authorized to teach in this way? Not every man possesses his authority. This is why we ordain teaching elders, because their doctrine has been examined and they have been ordained to this work of preaching and teaching. But then finally, is this man's teaching characterized by embracing accountability to the church or by despising authority between God's Word and God's church?

I was talking to someone recently about a video, and as I was watching this video, it had this undertone of saying, everything that you have heard about this doctrine is wrong. You have been misled. And those videos, those messages, make my skin crawl. Because first of all, I think that particular video got some things wrong. But second of all, because when you start sowing seeds of doubt, everything you've heard in the pews is wrong, you are not only striking a blow against whatever you perceive to be false doctrine, but you're striking a blow against the accountable authority of the church.

The church can err, the church does err. But you need to be careful about who is teaching you and what kind of authority are they under. It doesn't mean that only pastors can start podcasts or make YouTube videos or write articles or books. But it should raise important, serious questions for the sake of your soul, about whether the content that you are hearing rests upon an appropriate level of authority to be teaching that. Well, let's go to the second section where we see this commission from the church go out to teach and build up the church and see the blessings of this godly authority exercised in the church.

2. Joy, Encouragement, Strength and Peace (Acts 15:30-35)

In the second section, we see joy, encouragement, strength, and peace. That's the second section. Joy, encouragement, strength and peace. In verse 30, as the apostles and elders had gathered to deliberate chapter 15, verse 6, that same word appears to talk about how this commission. When they went down to Antioch, they gathered the congregation together to deliver the letter.

Now, in writing the letter and being very clear about what the Scriptures teach and don't teach, about what the Spirit of God does and does not require, they had committed their doctrine to clarity of words. This was not vague, feels about what they thought, vibed well or not, they were willing to actually commit to writing, commit to the clarity of words. This is what God requires and this is what he does not require. But notice, they didn't just fire off an email to this congregation. Notice.

After they had written down the clarity of this doctrine, they actually delivered this letter in person. They gathered the church. They didn't wait for the content to be spread by gossip. They reached out to people and said, come, let's talk about this important issue in the life of the church. They refused to hold relationships with the congregation at arm's length.

Now, both of these sides, the clarity of doctrine and the closeness of relationships are so important in godly authority and godly church leadership. And in doing this, look at the fruit that it's Produced. In verse 31. The first thing we read about is joy. And when they had read it, they rejoiced.

Rejoiced. When the church receives clarity on issues that have been troubling the church, that's great joy. It's good to know these things have been said, settled. The people rejoiced to hear this decision because much wrote on this. Were they going to have to line all the Gentiles up and circumcise them one after another?

Now they rejoiced, especially those newly converted Gentiles, that they stood on the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith alone and did not need to add their works to what Christ had done, which they had received by faith. The second thing that happened was encouragement. And when they read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. And then verse 32, and Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged. This idea of encouragement is a word that encompasses the idea of exhortation, keep going, stay on the path, but also the idea of comfort, coming alongside someone who is struggling.

You're okay, you're going to make this, you're going to get through this. This is hard, but keep going. That kind of a sense. And also support. This is the the same word derived from the word that Jesus talks about, sending another comforter, another exhorter, another encourager.

That's the word that Jesus describes his own role and the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church. It's the idea of being couraged forward, knowing that you have been on the right track so far. The third fruit from this godly church leadership is strength. Judas and Silas encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. Now, the idea of strengthening is often associated with the idea of teaching the word of God.

They weren't just allowed to flounder and atrophy with a lack of knowledge of God's word. No, they were built up. They, they were taught the word of God to understand more clearly the preciousness of who Jesus Christ is. I want to just stop to say I know we're talking a lot about church authority and maybe this is on my mind because I was just at GA and these questions were fresh in the air. But let's not lose sight of what we're talking about.

We're talking about the establishment of the kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the One who was God before all worlds were created. The eternal Son of God, who voluntarily, willingly took upon himself a human nature, who lived a perfect life, who suffered, who was crucified, who died and death held him for three days in the grave until on the third day he rose again from the dead and he ascended into heaven after 40 days of where Jesus Christ, the God man resurrected from the dead, is reigning and ruling. Jesus Christ is who we're talking about. It's his kingdom and his authority. And when we are reminded of these things, we are strengthened in the gospel of Christ.

And that's what they're doing. They're teaching, you don't need your works. Your works cannot be even a single bolt in the bridge that spans the path between earth all the way to heaven. Christ alone is that bridge and he has accomplished everything for you to be saved. There is strength in that doctrine.

And the fourth fruit is peace. We read that after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace. There wasn't an ongoing conflict, there wasn't more contention. False teachers did not remain among them, stirring up dissension. There was peace, clarity in doctrine exercised in a godly way by the God ordained.

God appointed leaders in the church brings peace to the church. But they didn't leave them alone. Read in verse 35. But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many others.

Now this is important because very soon in the next passage, Paul and Barnabas are about to leave. But this authority that has been exercised within the Church is not hoarded. It's not held to these men alone. Notice that they are training new preachers and teachers who are going to continue the work of shepherding the flock after Paul and Barnabas continue on their missionary journeys declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And the justification comes by faith alone.

But they will not leave Antioch alone. There will be new leaders, new officers, new elders, new preachers, new Teachers who can continue exercising the godly authority of Jesus Christ by the declaration and the administration of His Word in his church. Now, how do we apply this? Again, the church is not a free market. The church is not something that we are able to organize however we see fit.

The church is a well ordered, well regulated kingdom. We don't live in a kingdom. We live in the United States in a constitutional republic. So we don't always understand a kingdom. But let's just sort of zoom out and think about kingdoms.

Let's think about the United Kingdom of Britain. In Britain, there is a king, King Charles iii. Now, in every country within that kingdom, that includes Canada and Australia, in addition to England, there are ministers who establish the rule of that king's reign in that country. In fact, there is a prime minister in every country that the king has a sacred handoff and instructs the prime minister of these countries to establish a government on his behalf. That's the way kingdoms function.

Again, we're at a different kind of a governmental rule. So this is hard for us to get our heads around. Now, these are not presidents, these are prime ministers. And again, their duty is not to establish a separate government that's opposed to the crown. Rather, they establish the rule of the crown's reign, the rule of the king's reign in each of those countries.

Now, the same kind of idea happens in the church. That model is borrowed off of what we see in ancient kingdoms, off of what we see from the kingdom of Jesus. In our kingdom, King Jesus is in heaven. But he has commissioned ministers, not prime ministers. There is no prime minister, but ministers like me, pastors and other elders to establish his government here on earth.

And this means that the elders of the church possess real authority. They exercise Jesus own authority on his behalf. It strikes us strange to think that the elders rule in the church. That doesn't seem right. Elders don't rule.

Jesus rules. Well, the Scriptures actually declare the Lord reigns. That was our call to worship this morning from Psalm 97. The Lord reigns. That's a higher exercise of authority.

That's the authority of the King. The Lord reigns. But elders are called to rule on behalf of the King. I mentioned earlier, 1st Timothy 5:17, where the Scriptures teach, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor. Especially those who labor in preaching and teaching, the preaching and teaching of pastors and the teaching and the leadership and the rule of ruling elders.

That's why we call them ruling elders. This is the exercise of the ruling authority of Jesus Christ in the church. It's not our own authority. It is rather to establish Jesus royal authority. Now beyond that honor or that double honor.

This kind of exercise of church authority produces blessed fruit in the church joy as the church is united in the gospel of Jesus, encouragement, strength and and peace as we are united together in Christ, looking together to our Savior Jesus who reigns as our King in heaven. But your elders are all men under authority. I am. Every one of the elders are. And we are called to embrace joyfully the accountability that comes with our role.

We seek to be above reproach so that we can do the work that King Jesus has commanded us to do with undue hindrance. And we do so especially so that we can seek the fruit of the preached word in shepherding the flock among us. We're called to that. But I want to ask you, as a way of application, how does your heart relate to those who have been placed in authority over you? Do you rejoice in the leadership of your leaders?

Or is your heart hardened or perhaps even bitter toward anyone of those charged with keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account? Now, I don't say this with any particular issue in mind. I just know what it means to live in the United States of America. We are steeped and saturated in anti authoritarian sentiment thinking that's I want to ask you, how do you relate to the godly authority that's placed over you in your life? I've counseled many who struggle with submitting to authority and sometimes very understandable others have abused authority.

Those are understandable reasons why you might be gun shy about authority because you've seen it abused. But if this is an area of struggle for you in your heart, would you schedule a time to come talk with me? I'd love to look at the Scriptures. I'd love to answer any questions you may have, especially if you have some area of concern with me or something that the elders are doing. These are things that I cannot know unless you verbalize them.

Don't leave these to fester and the root of bitterness to take hold in your heart. I'm not infallible. The elders are not infallible. We can err and we do err. Please come talk to us so that we can either explain things that are happening in the church or so that we, if needed to, if necessary, can repent to do more clearly what Christ has called us to do in King Jesus design for the church.

There is a blessed fruit when godly leadership is exercised without apology in the church. And yet it's done in such a way that it should bring the joy of the Church, the approbation or the approval of the Church, and by the grace of our common king, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's all strive for those blessings together. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do pray for fruit.

We pray that the Gospel of King Jesus would be faithfully proclaimed and that by the authoritative declaration of Jesus, you would build up your people now and forevermore. We pray for those who are officers. We pray for those who are being nominated as officers, even right now, for the coming terms. And we pray that as your officers exercise authority in your church, all of this would be for the glory of Jesus Christ, our King and Lord and Savior. It's in Christ's name that we pray.

other sermons in this series

Oct 4

2026

"Preparation and Fulfillment" (Acts 19:1-7)

Preacher: Rev. Jacob Gerber Scripture: Acts 19:1–7 Series: Acts: God's Vision For His Church

Sep 20

2026

"Many Gifts among Many Members" (Acts 18:18-28)

Preacher: Rev. Jacob Gerber Scripture: Acts 18:18–28 Series: Acts: God's Vision For His Church

Sep 13

2026

"My Grace Is Sufficient for You" (2 Corinthians 12: 1-10)

Preacher: Rev. Jacob Gerber Scripture: 2 Corinthians 12:1–10 Series: Acts: God's Vision For His Church