Call in the Church Authorities for Jesus!

Our Lord Jesus Christ was the meekest and most loving Man Who ever walked this earth.  He went about doing good because He had a heart for God and for people.  He not only taught the people the ways of God, but actually showed God to them.  When they saw Him, they saw the Father. 

But the more His disciples stayed with Him and learned from Him, the more clearly they saw the implications of what He was saying for them.  The stage came when His followers said that he was saying “hard” things to them, and they just could not hack it. 

So what did they do?  They walked no longer with Him, (Jn.6:66).  They voted with their feet.  They cut their links with Him because He was saying things to them that they did not like!  Indeed, they were not prepared to have Christ to rule over them.  They were living rebellious lives, shown in their hearty rejection of the Son of God’s teaching and His legitimate demands on their lives. 

Now, let’s bring this into the 21^st century.  Here was the church gathered together to be taught the Word of God by none other than Christ Himself.  But what He was saying to them was not finding favour with the members or with the elders.   They had tried to get Him to change His teaching and the way he was preaching, but he refused.  And He refused because He saw that it was the refusal to submit themselves to His discipline that they were saying these false things.

So what do they do?  They set up a delegation to meet with the Presbytery to inform them that this Man is teaching things that they have not heard before, and they wanted Presbytery to persuade Him not to continue in this way, but to tone down His preaching.  Indeed, what He was preaching to them was wholly inappropriate for that particular group of people.  They were the most religious people around.  OK, they didn’t believe everything their faith taught them, but most of it.  Jesus taught about the need for the ‘new birth,’ but they didn’t believe that kind of thing; in fact, it was irrelevant so far as they were concerned. 

Now the Presbytery was in a pickle!  These men regarded themselves as the only people who were holding to the traditional faith, most others having departed from it years ago.  They were the true defenders of the faith, and they only.  They held to the traditions, unlike those who weakened under slight pressure.  They were the people!  Now this new preacher has come amongst them and He is preaching what they ought to have been preaching and weren’t (though they believed that they did preach the true faith faithfully).  Yes, there was some overlap between them, but what made His preaching stand out was that He was making clear what they were saying in riddles.  He was dividing the congregation, whereas they were assuming that because their hearers had professed their faith they were genuine Christians.  They had no place in their thinking for the false, or spurious, professor.

But Jesus believed in and taught that it was possible to make a false profession of faith.  Yes, He cautioned carefulness when dealing with this situation, and to give the benefit of the doubt to the weak Christian.  But He gave no place whatever to the religious professors who persisted in their unbelief.  And that’s where the ‘rubber hit the road.’  He drew the distinction; and the Presbytery could not handle it.  Their primary concern was for the church, their denomination, not the Gospel.  They had to maintain their church structures at all costs, and keep the members on board, irrespective of the consequences for the preacher.

How do Presbyteries ‘resolve’ situations like these?  Well, the truth is the first thing that is set at naught.  Let’s forget about the Gospel issue, and let us work on the assumption that all parties believe the Gospel – we’ll not even question that presupposition.  They are all Gospel people, so we will deal with what is essentially a breakdown in inter-personal relationships.   The congregation is committed to the biblical Gospel and so is this preacher. So to remove the troublesome preacher will maintain the gospel in the church and enable things to get back to where they were before his arrival.  Right?

Wrong, and a thousand times ‘wrong.’  What a false assumption it is that the church is infallible – a distinctly Roman doctrine which reformed churches have now embraced.  To remove the man who is teaching and preaching the Gospel may well be, in the providence of God, God’s way of removing His candlestick from that church!  Oh, church authorities need to be very, very careful.  To remove the herald of a clear Gospel message, and then replace him with a “good churchman,” is essentially an attack on the Gospel of Christ.  It is to say, in this practical and observable way, that the Gospel clearly preached and applied has no place in our church/denomination.  The peace and unity of the church is more important that the Gospel, even though church unity and congregational unity can only be on the basis of the Gospel.  But forget that.  Silence this clear preaching, and then the church will settle down.

How wrong church leaders can be in these matters!  Is it cowardice that drives them?  Or, the desire to be seen as ‘good churchmen’?  Or, are they, as Al. N. Martin, would describe them, “wicked pragmatists”?  Has the church become much more important to them than the Gospel?  Have they lost their concern for the souls of their members?  Has the Gospel of Christ been discounted to this extent?  It seems so.  But the lesson here is that no church can deal so shabbily with the Gospel without their being serious consequences to follow.  So beware!