The Bride of Christ: Elements of Communion, Part 1
As I said, I began last year, this would have been the second message from last year, and the title “Unity Among Churches” I chose last year for my messages, it was purposely a play on words, it’s ambiguous. It means both “within churches” but also “between churches.” The focus today is especially unity between churches. The message originated in a conversation that I was having with Jeff Smith from Florida last year in which we were trying to decide what exact topics we would address, and he made the recommendation that somebody address this subject of the various things that we do together as churches, what our biblical duties are for communion of churches. I thought that was a good idea, and I volunteered to address that. I thought it wasn’t going to happen, but in the providence of God, here I am now. So, we will have “the duties or tasks which constitutes the holding of interchurch communion” as our subject this morning and after lunch as well, or as it is stated on that outline: the elements of communion.
I have three introductory matters.
First of all, I want to say something about the Puritan Congregationalists, and I am saying this because I am acknowledging upfront that I am leaning on them and I am going to make that evident.
First of all, something about their identity, who exactly I am talking about.
First of all, John Cotton, an Englishman who came to the United States, specifically to Boston in 1633. It was his writings that convinced John Owen of congregationalism. In some ways he is regarded as the father of Puritan Congregationalism.
Secondly, John Owen, of course, he was the author along with others as well, of the Savoy Declaration and Platform of Church Polity. He wrote on ecclesiology, especially in volumes 13-16 of his works, in our Banner of Truth volumes that we have.
Thomas Goodwin, he also wrote on the subject of ecclesiology in volume 11 of his works. He was a member of the Westminster Assembly.
Let me mention four other names of Congregationalists who were members of the Westminster assembly along with Goodwin and authors with him of a small booklet that I will mention later on called “An Apologetical Narration” that was authored by Goodwin, Jeremiah Burroughs, Philip Nye, Sidrach Simpson and William Bridge. That’s their identity of these Puritan Congregationalists and then I wanna say something about their connection to Particular Baptists.
Their connection to Particular Baptists, and in particular with the second London Confession that many of us hold to in our churches, is that these Congregationalists really were the teachers of the Particular Baptists on the subject of ecclesiology—obviously apart from paedo-baptism and a few of other more minor matters—but the evidence of that is especially as many of you know, that twelve of the fifteen paragraphs in the chapter on the church in our Confession are from the Savoy Platform of Church Polity, including the final two chapters which we will delve into as we go.
Secondly, as an introductory matter, I wanna give my exhortations basically here at the front end and briefly, but first of all: if you are a younger men, newer pastors or maybe not yet pastors, these things that are on this outline here that I am going to be discussing in my two sessions, these are the things that it takes to establish and maintain a vital unity between churches.
Then if you have been around awhile, as I have, and you’ve done these things good for you but remember as the Lord said in revelation “Remember and do the first works.” Just because you have done it and even done it faithfully for a time doesn’t mean it’s always gonna continue to just happen. If there are things here that you hear today that are new thoughts to you, even if you are a senior citizen like I am, consider whether these things are biblical, and then remember what we like to think is our watchword, Semper Reformanda, do these things if they are biblical and you have not been doing them.
Thirdly, as an introductory matter, I just wanna say something about my subject. The duties or tasks which constitute the holding of inter-church communion, or the elements of communion. (Excuse me, well this is a problem here because I think I misplaced one of my pages, thankfully I numbered them. There it is, good. It would have shortened my message anyway. I knew it was something I wanted to say, so I’m glad I found it.) Alright, that’s my subject: elements of communion.
If we are to have and enjoy a vital unity between churches it will be through these things. Listen to a definition of communion of churches, again this is a Congregationalist definition. It’s from what was called The Reforming Synod 1662 held in Boston here in New England:
“The communion of churches is the faithful improvement of the gifts of Christ bestowed upon them for His service and glory and their mutual good and edification according to capacity and opportunity.”
Let me put this in a simplified way, a non-Puritan definition if you will. The things churches do in fellowship with one another, that’s communion of churches. The things churches do in fellowship with one another. They said “the faithful improvement of the gifts of Christ,” those are the things. Fellowship is where they say “for their mutual good and edification,” and the point I wanna stress here is this: communion of churches involves doing things.
Listen to Owen’s statement. I will provide a way that you can get these references later on God-willing.
“The communion of churches is their joint acting’s in the same gospel duties towards God in Christ with their mutual actings towards each other with respect unto the end of their institution and being which is glory Christ and the edification of the whole catholic church”.
So there is the definition. It’s the things churches do in fellowship, that’s what inter-church communion is or communion of churches.
Another thing about my subject is “these things,” to use Owen’s language there, are things or duties that are commanded to us by Jesus Christ. Here are a few texts and notes that the Puritans, you will listen to these texts, because I am not going to take the time to turn to them. They are familiar texts, and these are the texts some of which—well, no we are not to the section yet where you have it in your outline—but these are texts that you’ll listen to them and you’ll say, “Well that has to do with the individual duties of Christians, and it is not addressing interchurch communion.” But the point is that the Puritans, and I believe rightly, what they did is they gave a universal church application to each one of these text and many others in addition to their immediate local church application. In other words, if I have an obligation towards my brother in the church, that obligation doesn’t end simply with the fellow Christians who are members of the same church I am. That’s how they looked at this.
So here are some of the text on this matter of what is interchurch communion.
First of all 1 Corinthians 12:4-7, “There are diversity of gifts, but the same spirit. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.” Not just all the members of a local church but all the members of the body of Christ.
1 Peter 4: 10, “As each one has received the gift minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of of God.”
1 Corinthians 10:24, “Let no one seek his own but each one the others well-being.”
1 Corinthians 3:21-22—this was a text we frequently heard I remember in pastoral theology lectures when I was studying here at the academy—“Therefore let no one boast in men for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all are yours.” All the servants of Christ are mine to benefit and profit from.
Then Galatians 6:10, “Therefore as we have opportunity let us do good to all especially those who are of the household of faith”.
So, that’s a second thing about my subject: these things are duties we see them in the scripture.
Third, I wanna say something about the terminology I am using, especially in my outline here, the headings of the outline.
The Puritans gave various names and classifications to these duties or “dew-ties,” (but that’s the last time I am saying it that way, Pastor Hughes.) Here is what John Cotton wrote In the way of the churches of Christ in New England: he said, “Seven ways there be were in we exercise holy communion one with another.” If you would to go in your New Testament you will likely come up with the same duties. You might give them different names from what the Puritans gave them or from what I’m given them today, you might categorize them differently, but you will see them there in the Bible. I am going to try to basically use the names that the Puritans used, I’ve added a category or two, like Cotton says there are seven ways, but I have nine listed here. By utilizing the names that the Puritans used, I am doing a few things, so I am doing this on purpose, not just because I am lazy or I think that they were inspired.
I am first of all recognizing that there were men who figured these things out long before we came on the scene. Second, I am acknowledging the good work that these men have done in this whole area of ecclesiology, and I am acknowledging my indebtedness to them, then also I am commending to you their writings on the subject of the church.
The point is communion is held when churches engage, and this is how they looked at this, communion is held when churches engage in all these exercises—whether it is seven or nine or twelve or whatever it is, or in any one of them, whether it is seven or whatever number.
Another thing about my subject here is this: here is an important principle for understanding these men’s writings. There are things done in local churches that are done with an official set way, because we have an official membership, we have a written constitution, we have officers, we have church discipline etc. Between churches however we, and when I say we here I mean Congregationalists and Baptists, many of us here are Baptist associations. I know that we are not part of one here, many of you are or aren’t, probably most aren’t here that I know of. But there are also Presbyterians here, so you are involved in an interchurch communion in an official set way. We don’t have that structure, yet we must do many of the same things between churches although we lack the formal structure.
Listen to what Goodwin wrote: he said “This communion with other churches is not in a fixed set way but occasional. The Sanhedrin was a set and fixed court and therefore by institution, but this communion is but as a communion of saints one with another in a general way.”
As an example, it was around a year ago at this time that we wanted to give, Trinity Baptist Church, wanted to give as a congregation to a church in Turkey. I think they were receiving Syrian refugees at the time, and they wanted to minister to these people. We do not personally know that church in Turkey. We know their names now, because of that contact at that time. Perhaps this will be our only interaction with that church this side of eternity, this side of glory, but the point is it is truly holding communion with them, which I’ve stated it that way because I know that that has been a debated topic over the last couple of decades.
Then another thing regarding the name here the subject of my messages: Goodwin also believed with Owen that there ought to be a communion between churches that are not uniform in doctrine and practice.
Here is what he wrote: he said, “Though this principle is to be held sacred by virtue of the universal catholic communion..”, he doesn’t mean Roman Catholic, he means true churches of Christ, “..that so far forth as churches have anything that is good in them..” Now, this is a Puritan saying: that we can have communion with any. In other words, if they are not a synagogue of Satan there is some level of communion we can hold with them.
“So far forth as churches have anything that is good in them, so far forth whether in respect of doctrine or worship or the like, there is to be a communion held with them, when in practice there cannot yet in judgement there ought to be.”
So, in other words like you have said sometimes yourself, “I don’t know if I could bring myself to worship at that church, but I will still call them my brethren.” That’s what he is saying. He says that we can hold this communion with them to acknowledge them the churches of Christ and ministers of Christ and approve whatever is good in them, and if in one practice we cannot join yet in others we may. This we do acknowledge to be the universal law of communion between church and church throughout the world.
So as a conclusion to this point and just as an explanation of my subject. The original authors of the words in paragraphs 14 and 15 of chapter 26 of our Confession, used the words ‘holding communion’ as a general expression to mean all aspects of biblical interchurch fellowship, and that’s the way I am using the word.
Now as an aside, note that there was an established and unambiguous meaning of that phrase by those who originally penned the words of our Confession. I know there is a debate about that topic among Reformed Baptists, that is again, however, that is a different subject from what I am focusing on today.
So those are my three introductory matters. (We will spend the remainder of our time then now until 12:15 I believe it is, and then hopefully one hour only in the afternoon and we can be done by 2:30 today.) But we will be focusing on the duties and tasks that constitutes the holding of interchurch communion or as your outline has it, “The Elements of Communion,” and we start with prayer then. Number 1 in the outline.
We have a hymn in our hymnal that says, “There is a spot where spirits blend where friend holds fellowship with friend, though sundered far by faith they meet around the common mercy seat.”
There is a real spiritual communion that we carry on with our brethren when we are praying for them for instance, in a prayer meeting or even we can say when you are praying for a Christian brother in your prayer closet. There is a real spiritual communion going on at that time. It’s what that hymn is recognizing. It’s just not your communion with the Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, but there is also a real spiritual communion on a horizontal level. That’s how the Puritans looked at that, and I believe that’s a biblical way to look at it, just like when we come together in the Lord’s Supper. My main communion, I believe, there is with Christ Himself through the work of the Spirit, but by the same Spirit it’s with the other brethren around me.
The Synod of the congregational churches in Boston in 1662 stated this element ‘prayer’ in a little bit different words they had a larger title for it “Hearty care and prayer for one another.” So, I will look at it in that way: prayer and then care.
1) Prayer and care.
First of all prayer. Here are three passages.
Paul wrote in Romans 1:9, of course addressing the church in Rome who he had never seen face to face, but he says, “Without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers.” He was engaging in this element of interchurch communion with that church.
In Colossians 1:9, he said to the Colossian Christians as well as those in Hierapolis and Laodicea, “We do not cease to pray for you.”
Then Ephesians 6:18, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”
Here we have many prayers that crossed church lines if you will. One of the men who gave a greeting on Sunday night of last years Trinity Pastors Conference, I remember him saying that the church he serves was intensifying its focus on this vital discipline of prayer for sister churches. Well, that is interchurch communion when they do that. It’s a significant part of our prayer meetings here and I believe that’s right that it should be that, that we should be recognizing ourselves as part of a larger body of Christ and that our work extends far beyond simply the borders of our own church and locale. So there is prayer and then also care.
They said in that Synod “a hearty care and prayer for one another” as one of the duties of interchurch communion.
2 Corinthians 11:28, you have the words of the apostle Paul, now of course he is saying this as an apostle, but he said, “Besides the other things there is what comes upon me daily my deep concern [or my care] for all the churches.”
Here is another important principle for understanding these men’s writing on this subject. It has respect—what they wrote—has respect to many things that were done by the apostles, we have no more apostles, nor do we have equivalents of the apostles, nor do we have some kind of replacements for the apostles. But we, that is the church, still need to do many of the things that they did. How did they solve that problem? How did they look at it? Well, this matter of care for the churches fits in that category, they looked at it as the principle of mutual love, and in that same Synod here is how they explained their understanding of this. “Churches now have need of help in like cases as well as churches then.” In other words, in the apostolic age if a church needed help there was an easy solution: have Paul visit them, have Paul write them a letter, but their conclusion was not “We’ll ordain a bishop,” but they said this: they said, “Christ care is still for whole churches as well as for particular persons and apostles being now ceased there remains the duty of brotherly love and mutual care and helpfulness incumbent upon churches especially elders for that end.”
So even though we do say because there are no more apostles we can’t just recreate the office of apostle or something similar to it—as has been done at various times in the history of the church—yet we don’t say since there are no more apostles it doesn’t matter to us what goes on in other churches, at least we shouldn’t say that. We have a hearty care for other churches. So prayer and care. The first element of communion, if you will.
2) Information.
Second one is what they called: information.
They said this in that Synod of 1662: “We must maintain unity and peace by giving account one to another of our public actions when it is orderly desired.”
So, remember what happened with the Apostle Peter? That’s the first text there. Peter when he came back to the church in Jerusalem, he explained his visit to Cornelius and to the gentiles. He was giving information about what he did. Or in Acts 15 there, the passage in Acts 15 and 16, they visited churches giving the decrees of what had happened when they had that meeting in Jerusalem about the whole crisis about the gospel going to gentiles and circumcision and all of that.
You have the example of Paul doing this in his epistles when he explained in the last part of Ephesians what he is doing and therefore, why he wants prayer. He did the same thing in the passage there in Colossians chapter 4 or in 1 Thessalonians 3:1-10. He was constantly giving information about his travels and about his ministry so that he could have the prayers of people.
That’s what we do, we are giving information. For example, when we share information about missionary labors. If we get a letter from Steve Hoffmaier or a letter from our brother in Poland or whatever it is, and we read that in our church. When you send that letter and when we read that and we pray, this is what we are doing: we are giving information. Or let’s say we are engaged in church planting and maybe we are not looking for an extra laborer in our church planting endeavor, but we send information around so people will know what’s going on, so that they can be informed, so that they can pray etc. But maybe we are asking them to participate with us by helping out in preaching labors etc. This is the information part of that.
Or when you write a letter just telling what’s going on in your church—and we ought to write letters. I can say this at a later stage in my ministry: I have been young and now I am old, and Reformed Baptist churches used to write more frequently, and we are guilty here at Trinity Baptist Church of not writing as frequently as we have written in the past. There are various reasons for that, but none of them is a good excuse I assure you, because I know. But we do this and I commend you brethren who do write faithfully. I would encourage you not to overload your sister churches but if you have not, and it doesn’t even take—I mean, I remember in Minneapolis it use to take 30-40 minutes after a prayer meeting of having almost the whole congregation, which was small, lick envelopes, stuff envelopes, you still had to lick stamps back in those days. Now all you have to do is hit a button. You don’t even have to have a large list; just send it to somebody who does. So let’s give information about ourselves to one another brethren so that we can pray and care for one another.
3) Contribution.
A third element of interchurch communion is listed here: contribution, and specifically they meant, as I put there, of money or of man power. First of all of money, contribution of money. The texts that relate to that I will mention here:
Romans 15:26-27, these all have to do with the relieving of the saints in Judea. Acts 11 verse 22 and verse 29, and then 2 Corinthians the whole of chapters 8 and 9.
Contribution of money, it is very common thing among us, thankfully. This is one of the things we do. We’ve helped in disaster relief I can think of over the years. Helped other churches in sending missionaries. Our church I remember in Minneapolis was not able to send missionaries, may never be able to depending on what God does there. We’ve been able to give to those who do send missionaries and help them in those causes. We’ve raised church buildings in other places by contributing to the needs of others, or help them to buy church buildings, We’ve supported pastors of smaller churches whose people could not support them on their own. That’s what the puritans called ‘contribution of funds or of money.’
Then there is also contribution of manpower.
Let’s just for the sake of breaking things up read a passage here, Acts 11:22-26. Acts 11:22 fits in that first heading there of contribution of money, but here also contribution of manpower. It says when Barnabas and Saul were in Antioch:
“Then news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord. For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.”
So here where some laborers from two different places joining together and laboring in Antioch.
In The Cambridge Platform a New England Congregationalist document, I believe from 1658, it says this, “In like cases such churches as are furnished with more ministers than one, do willingly afford one of their own ministers to supply the absence or place of a sick minister of another church for a needful season.”
I’m thankful to say that here in Trinity Baptist Church we have a handful of men who can preach the gospel, and we are able to help sister churches. Sometimes we want to make sure we are not never around our own church, whether it is with one of the pastors or one of the other men who have engaged in that, but we are really thankful that we can do that and we look at it as our obligation.
I remember when I was in Minneapolis for many years, a couple of decades. The nearest Reformed Baptist church even there in that part of the upper Midwest, the nearest Conservative Reformed church to our south was 4 ½ hours, to our east 5 ½ hours, to the west 9 hours out in Rapid City at the time. It was very helpful to me personally, and to our people—both in the church planting stage of a couple of years before there was a resident man when I moved there and then later again when I was the sole elder—it was so encouraging to myself and to our people to see and feel when a visiting gospel preacher came that we are not the only ones in the world who believe these things. It was a wonderful help. Again, that reality occurred when the church was without a resident pastor for 6 months when I moved here to New Jersey about 7 years ago. There was a space of about 6 months before the man who then came to labor moved there.
That’s contribution of money and of manpower.
4) Propagation or multiplication of churches.
Then the fourth thing, another way that the churches would engage in interchurch communion and the duties of interchurch communion: propagation or multiplication of churches they called it.
In Acts chapter 14 you have an instance of this. Part of Paul and Barnabas’ church planting labors in Lystra and Iconium and Antioch culminated in first the calling of churches and the establishment of churches, but then in the appointing of elders for those churches. Acts 14 verses 21-23, and of course you have the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20. Again it is the province of all the churches to see themselves as responsible to engage in this activity of multiplying themselves. They may not all have the capacity, in terms of men who are capable in terms of having the time and ability to help and oversee the planting of a church in another place, but some churches do, and arguably all churches can help in some way or other.
We should propagate ourselves. Once again (Matthew 28) this is the province of all the churches, there is no need for an apostolic office, not original apostles, not some secondary or later apostles.
The point, in terms of holding communion, is that we can work together on these things. That when we plant a church we’re not planting ‘our church,’ we’re not planting ‘my church,’ we are planting Christ’s church and we are part of the body of Christ. I was in a situation where that was done not only with the help of the church that sent me there from Grand Rapids, Michigan, but also with the help of a number of other churches. There were a number of men and some of them are sitting here, I think, from back at that time who on a regular rotation went out once a month and preached for about 2 years when there was not a resident man. So that was contribution and that was propagation, and I know of other places where that was done as well over my years as a Reformed Baptist.
5) Participation.
The next thing is participation. Participation, and that means specifically this is what the Puritans meant generally, is participation in the Lord’s Table.
Let’s look at Acts chapter 20, verse 7, 8, and 11. You know the instance, Paul is on his way back to Jerusalem at the end of his third missionary journey and we read this:
“Now on the first day of the week..” this was at Troas, “On the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together…” (and now let’s drop down to verse 11), “…now when he had come up, had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed.”
A church’s admitting members of another church to partake of the Lord’s Supper with them is what they meant. That’s participation. That was their primary meaning. I will expand it a little bit. But first I will say something about the Lord’s Supper.
Our practice here at Trinity Baptist church, probably shared by a number of you men who are here in your churches, is that we invite people not just Reformed Baptists, not just those who hold to our confession, not just Baptists. We invite, in addition to our members, those present, who are believers, who are members of a church, in good standing of an evangelical church. Why do we do that? Because we believe the the Lord’s Supper is an ordinance for true Christians; we believe it is an ordinance for the church; we believe it is an ordinance for the members of the church who are not under church discipline. If they can’t receive the Lord’s Supper in their own congregation, they shouldn’t receive it in ours. Without getting into the topic, we believe it’s for those who are members of a true Christian church. We certainly mean not Roman Catholic for instance.
I understand the closed-communion position, but we believe that this idea of participation, people in other churches being able to commune with us in the Lord’s Supper, is a legitimate way to hold communion with other churches.
I think most of us here will concur with John Cotton’s statement on this subject, he said:
“We look at the Lord’s Supper not only as a seal of our communion with the Lord Jesus, but also of our communion with His members; and that not only with the members of our own church but all the churches of the saints.”
Part of the scriptural proof for our practice and my opinion is this passage I read from in Acts chapter 20. Paul, though he was an apostle did not have, if you will, a ‘universal church membership card.’ He was not a member of the church in Troas, but he was a member of a church of Christ, and that’s why he could commune, I believe, with those people as they observed the Lord’s Supper.
Now, some particular Baptists were more restrictive than we are. I would invite people who are in a closed-communion church to participate at our table, even though they probably wouldn’t participate due to their conscience, but regardless of where you come down on this subject, who should participate in the Lord’s Supper, be consistent with your conviction I would urge you.
Then, some other ways that we participate. As I said, I would broaden this category to include some other things that I have been involved in over the years. I am reasoning here from the greater to the lesser. If this is true about the Lord’s Supper then there must be some other things that we can put in this category, because I couldn’t think of somewhere else to put them.
At times, we’ve had here what I would call ‘joint worship services,’ and I have heard of other churches in other places doing this as well. If there is a sister church close enough by, so they can come let’s say for an evening service. Some even have done it, I think, over the years on occasional basis, a somewhat regular basis. But we’ve had it where we have invited a couple of churches in our area to have their people here on a Sunday evening, and maybe we’ve had a baptism of someone that the people of that church or those churches know. Even less formal gatherings. I know of churches that have had picnics together. We, I think, in one of those occasions I mentioned, had a combination of a church service and then an ice cream social at the end of the summer one time out in the parking lot.
Not to put those things on the same level as the Lord’s Supper and participation in that, but just to include them somewhere in my outline. I was discussing it with someone somewhere the other day and I said maybe we should include ministerial golf outings, but I thought no, no not that.
How about this: how about encouraging your people to visit a sister church while they are on vacation or business travel, I am sure many of you do that already, but including (be bold enough to do that) even when there’s a favorite radio preacher of theirs in the vicinity of the place to which they are travelling. I am not saying that that would be sin for them to go there and hear that favorite preacher or author that they have, but you can help direct them and encourage them in this regard and even see that hospitality could be arranged. That is how I came to know over 20 years ago a Reformed Baptist pastor in Singapore, because he had contacted me because one of the brethren in the church where he pastored was on business in Minneapolis. So we had that man in our home, had a wonderful dinner and I never met that pastor for 20 years, but it led after 20 years to a wonderful week of fellowship with him in my home in September of last year when he was finally in the States. There will be a visit of myself there to preach the word of God there in 2016.
That leads into the next thing and that is: recommendation.
6) Recommendation.
(Let me look at my notes and see if I have time for that. Well l am at least going to start it because I do have almost 10 minutes. I have about 8 ½ minutes, so let me see if I can at least make some headway here on recommendation.)
I’ll expand this by calling it ‘communications regarding people or brethren passing from one church to another.’ Alright, so it’s communications we have when people in our church, whether it’s occasional or whether it is permanent, but they are passing from one church to another.
Let me address 3 things under this heading.
First of all, formal communication regarding people travelling on church business, if you will, because that is what we have in the Scripture mentioned there.
Romans 16:1, you are familiar with it: Paul’s letter to the church in Rome included this element. He wrote about Phoebe who was coming to the church in Rome, and he informed them about who she was—in a sense, her credentials as a legitimate servant of the church where she was coming from—and commended them to the church in Rome. You have that at the end of Acts 18:24-27. The church of Ephesus wrote in commendation of Apollos, and this is the primary things that the Puritans meant by ‘recommendation.’ They would use those texts, you’ll see when you read them on this subject.
Then additionally and importantly I believe, I think this is the heading where I put this, and that’s why I expanded that title of recommendation. I would put in this category: informing other churches and concurring with other churches regarding cases of church discipline. So maybe a more specific title for this would be: unrecommendation, but it’s the same idea.
In that 1662 Synod they wrote about quote, “strengthening one another…” churches that is, “…in their regular administrations as in special…” or we would say in particular “…by a concurrent testimony against persons justly censured.”
In our politically correct society, which as I said earlier today, has impacted churches, even good churches—this is one of the areas where it has I believe, and people are reluctant to ask questions and people are reluctant to give information that fits in this category, but we should do that.
I can think of instances over the years in which I got wind of a person who had been in the church where I was pastoring—I think it happened in both places where I have served—I got wind that so and so was going to thus and such a church and thus and such is going on, and I just thought if I were that pastor I would wanna know this. I did pick up the phone. You think to yourself, “They’re not going to receive me,” but I was received, and I just, you know, tried to give instruction not in the sense that “I am your teacher,” but I said: if you had someone in your church in this kind of situation and that person was coming to our church, here is what we would do and I presume that this is the way you would want it. I had good fruitful conversations, and by fruitful I mean they yielded the fruit of someone being faithful to that person’s soul that otherwise would not have been, because they wouldn’t have known. Paul, we could say, was doing this kind of thing when he told Timothy to beware of Alexander the coppersmith.
Then I would also include under this category: orderly conduct in departing from a church. Orderly conduct in departing from a church. (I will probably conclude, just going to keep my eye on the clock and conclude in the middle of this session, but it brings me to a place in my notes that I will feel comfortable with going into the next hour, in terms of not feeling that I need to rush.)
I would also include under this category: orderly conduct in departing from a church. It may not be directly and always an interchurch issue when someone departs from a church. In other words, there is no other church involved, someone is leaving your church, there is no other churches involved. But most often it becomes an interchurch issue and it is a common occasion for interchurch strife when people depart from churches.
This subject—whether you are aware of it or not—is addressed in our Confession. You should all be aware of it, and you might want to follow it’s in the blue hymnal, the top of page 685, as I read this. I think it is one of the more neglected paragraphs of our Confession, and I think we would do well not to neglect it. Paragraph 13 of chapter 26:
No church member upon any offense taken by them having performed their duty required of them towards the person they are offended at ought to disturb any church order or absent themselves from the assemblies of the church or administration of any ordinances upon the account of such offense at any of their fellow members but to wait upon Christ in the further proceedings of the church.
You might respond to that “what a different world from the world we live in.”
In my message at last year’s conference (The 31 Resolutions for Promoting Unity Among Churches), one of the points I remember making was the importance of patience, that’s in dealing with another individual, but again, the Puritans applied the principle to interchurch relations.
Jeremiah Burroughs wrote this in his Irenicum: he said, “You must bear much with a brother..” meaning an individual in your church, “..much more with a church”. His logic is this: first of all, practically it’s harder to work quickly when a body of people are involved. Second: I think he meant it in terms of principle. I think every one of us would place the Church of Jesus Christ—so long as we can call it a legitimate body of Christ, including any legitimate church—we would place the Church above ourselves on the food chain if you will or in the pecking order. Do you look at it that way? Every church, body of Christ, so if you are dealing with a church matter patience is called for in a peculiar way.
(I’m just going to leave that right there, and mark my spot.)
So, let’s have a word of prayer.
Father in Heaven, we do thank You for your word and ask that You would instruct us from Your Word about what our duties are towards one another. We ask, Father, that You would use this teaching to strengthen us in our labors as pastors and brothers, and that you would truly beautify the body of Christ more and more in terms of the way we relate to one another as pastors of churches and as members of churches for the glory of the Lord Jesus. And now we thank you that You have provided so richly for us in all things richly to enjoy in this world. Thank you for feeding us and for the labors of these ladies present and others who have made soup and sandwiches who are not present, help us to eat and drink to Your glory and do all we do for the remainder of this day for Your glory, and bless us in our fellowship around the tables to once again build up the body of Christ as well as one another. We ask this all in Jesus Christ name. Amen.
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