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4: The Confession of Our Hope

Or, The Propositions of Church Membership

February 23, 2014 • Sean Higgins

1 Timothy 3:14-16
Series: Membership #4

# Introduction

In 1 Timothy 3 Paul provides the qualifications for certain offices in the church. He tells Timothy what to look for in an elder (verses 1-7) and what to look for in a deacon (verses 8-13). In the final paragraph Paul tells Timothy why he wrote about these things: so that he "may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God."

A church has responsibility to recognize and affirm elders. This priority affects the universal church but applies to local ones. Timothy wasn't asked to oversee the appointment of elders in Rome or Jerusalem but in Ephesus. The same goes for deacons. A local church is responsible to recognize and affirm deacons.

Paul provides qualifications for churches to recognize these types of men but he does *not* present a process in order for churches to affirm these men. He says to do it but he does not say *how* to do it. In fact, there are many times that in order to obey the Bible we must consider how the principle applies in our context. Modest is hottest, as the t-shirt says, but no verse tells us where to shop.

We have a [process for recognizing and affirming elders here at TEC][elders]. The first time we did it included a few additional elements. We talked through the principles, explained the process, answered questions, posted it all on the website, and refer to it as elders and refer the flock to is so that they know what to expect from elders. Even though the process itself isn't outlined in Scripture, very little resistance was offered against the process because an elders' responsibility is significant (see Acts 20:28). It's important to get and keep the right men in office.

The [affirmation process is similar for deacons][deacons]. They also have significant responsibility as they coordinate relief for physical needs. We talked, explained, answered, posted, and use that process, one which also included a few additional elements the first time through. The process attempts to apply the biblical priorities here in this local church.

[elders]: http://trinityevangel.org/about/elder-affirmation-process/
[deacons]: http://trinityevangel.org/about/deacon-affirmation-process/

The local church must recognize and affirm her elders, recognize and affirm her deacons, and the local church must recognize and affirm her *members*. How to do it is not specified in the New Testament, but that it must be done is. The [first message in this series][members] used the illustration of a foreign embassy from Jonathan Leeman's book, _Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus_. A local church doesn't make anyone a heavenly citizen, but every local church bears the responsibility to recognize and affirm heavenly citizens. Again, there is flexibility in *how* we do it, but we must do it *some*how.

[members]: http://trinityevangel.org/sermon/2014/church-building/

The first part of the process is *confessional*. That's where Christ started with Peter. How a man answers the question: "Who is Jesus" makes the difference. Jesus asked, "Who do people say that I am?" It's not enough to say that Jesus is a good man, not enough to say that He is a prophet (such as Jeremiah and John the Baptist), not even enough to say that He is a prophet who never died (such as Elijah). Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God." On that confession of faith Jesus builds His church (Matthew 16:13-20).

Individuals must make the confession in order to be saved.

> if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Romans 10:9–13, ESV)

Jesus Christ is Lord. He is God, He is man, He is the only mediator between God and man. He is Savior. Heavenly citizenship belongs with those who believe and obey the King of heaven.

These truths must be confessed by believers and confessed by the church. Consider the last paragraph in 1 Timothy 3 again.

> the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:
> He was manifested in the flesh,
> vindicated by the Spirit,
> seen by angels,
> proclaimed among the nations,
> believed on in the world,
> taken up in glory.
> (1 Timothy 3:15–16, ESV)

The *church* is **a pillar and buttress of truth**. **Pillar** would have brought an unmistakable picture to Timothy's mind. The Temple of Artemis (a.k.a., Diana) was located in Ephesus where he was stationed and was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The structure measured 380 feet long by 180 feet wide and perhaps the most striking features were its 127, 60' tall marble columns some of which were studded with jewels and overlaid with gold. More important than their appearance was their function: to support the structure.

**Buttress** is a word that refers to a brace or reinforcement that helps to guard and fortify. In other words, the church is called to defend the truth. Like battlements protect a town, so the church is to preserve and take care of the truth, making sure the truth doesn’t fall.

It is not merely the elders or individuals within the church who support and guard the truth, it is the work of the entire church. And it is possible for churches to utilize short summaries of that truth as verse 16 does. There are at least a few different "confessions of faith" in the NT (e.g., Colossians 1:15-20; Philippians 2:5-11; here). None of them are exactly the same, but they all seek to condense a confession of Christ's lordship for the *church* to declare and defend.

The same thing has happened in church history. From the earliest centuries after Christ, the church prepared and promoted confessions (or creeds, from the Latin verb *credo*: "I believe") of varying lengths with various emphases in order to proclaim and protect the truth.

Though not inspired (and never claiming to be), the language of these confessions clarified through affirmations and denials what the Bible teaches and what Christians believe. Men are slippery sinners and will say they agree but mean something different by the same words. Most false teachers use Bible words, so these additional statements can help to "instruct in sound doctrine and rebuke those on contradict it" (Titus 1:2).

We have [a statement of "What We Believe"][wwb] as a church. In the summer of 2011 we put it out for feedback and officially adopted it later in the summer. As the elders said at the time, we believed that a longer statement allowed for more clarity and more distinctions. That said, a frequent criticism was the size, printed at almost 60 pages with all the proof-texts footnoted.

[wwb]: http://trinityevangel.org/what-we-believe/

Even then, and for now almost three years since then, I've had the task of drafting a shorter statement to go along with it. Though we do ask the elders and deacons to fully affirm the entire statement, we've never thought that a regular worshipper (or member) needed to fully affirm every jot and tittle in order to belong. The larger document describes our position on a variety of doctrines. As we approached this time of a more defined membership, it seemed appropriate to produce a shorter statement, written and hashed out by all the elders.

This morning I'd like to present "What We Believe in Brief" and then answer four questions about it.