Discovering the Way X, Spiritual Authority and Church Government

This is North Way tape number 551. This message on authority was given by Pastor Jay Passavant on Wednesday evening, October 8, 1986. Well, I really appreciate those of you who thought you were in this for five weeks and are going to suffer through the sixth. And I have an idea that God's going to really do some probing around in sensitive parts of our hearts tonight because this is a subject that, boy, we have a lot to learn about. Could you pray for me right now? I have a sense that I could be stepping out into shark-infested waters here. And I want to pray for the covering of God from you, and then I'll know everything will be fine. I'm serious. Could you all pray for me right now? And I'll pray for you as you pray. Oh, Lord Jesus. You have a heart, Father. You have a desire, Lord. You have a will tonight, oh God. Now, Father, I pray for these, your own dear children, God. And, Lord, we pray that together tonight, Lord, we might draw a little closer to your will, Father, and into the place of true confidence, Lord, in your will. And, Father, that a heart of obedience would rise up and be fashioned in us, Lord. And that tonight we would just discover a little more perfectly your plan for the ages, Lord, as it's being revealed in the church in these last days. We thank you for it now, Father. In Jesus' name, everyone say amen. Well, I'm going to go ahead and walk into this subject, and perhaps the Lord will allow some time at the end for questions. And if not, then I'll expect some time for ministry. When you think of God and where God is and the habitation of His dwelling, what almost invariably comes to your mind as a middle picture? What comes to your mind when you think of God and where He is? What almost always do we think about? What? A throne. Don't you picture God on a throne? And I don't know what your image of the throne is, but for most of it, it's huge and it's covered with white, billowing smoke. And yet it's radiant with a white kind of a light. You can barely see, isn't it? And there's these huge steps going up to it. And you're just some little snail down at the bottom. We have a picture of it. And the throne of God is what most of us imagine as being His habitation, His dwelling place. Why is that, church? Because it's a symbol of authority. Authority. But God and our image of Him is synonymous with authority. If God had no authority, God would not be God. And most of us have very little problem laying hold of the concept of a God of ultimate authority. But where we begin to struggle with a little bit is how it relates to where we are, to this good old planet Earth. Turn to Hebrews 1 and look with me at a scripture, the implication of which is gigantic in our daily lives. Look at this. Because we're in Hebrews, this is something we just recently talked about. I want to point you to it again. Read a couple different translations. Hebrews 1, verse 3. Talking about Christ, the Son of God, and saying this. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful Word. Sustaining all things by His powerful Word. Would you read it in the RSVS, Scott? Upholding the universe. Upholding the universe by His Word of power. What does the King James say, someone who has that? Upholding all things by the Word of His power. Upholding all things. How many things? All things by the Word of His power. Do any of your translations have the word of His authority there? See, the Greek words for power and authority are very much interchangeable. Dunamis and exosia are the two Greek words. They are both translated in different places, authority and power. The Bible is saying that it is the authority of God Himself that upholds all things in the world. The reason why the throne of God is so important is because it's the very thing that holds the whole universe together. Do you want to know why the earth doesn't go spinning off into some wacky orbit and all of us freeze to death or burn to death in an instant? Ever wonder why? Why is the sun going to come up tomorrow dawn in the same place it came up yesterday? Why can we count on the fact that if we take this pen that it's going to go like this and not like that? I was climbing around today in my apple tree. It's tough to get good apples now. There was one tree that was laden with the reddish kind that are little late bloomers or something. I was going for one up there just near it. The cows were raging up the hill. They've seen me coming now. They know it's tree time. I just got bombed with these old apples. I was trying to shake a couple loose of good ones. Who did I think of right away? Isaac Newton. I have a few scientists left in the fellowship. The law of gravity. Why is all that true? Because God upholds it with the word of his authority. All the physical laws of the universe work because God upholds them with his authority. If God pulled his authority out of the picture, all the physical laws that we build our whole lives around would immediately cease to function. Do you understand the magnitude of who God is and his authority? Now, as I was mentioning before, we can relate to God, but when we start thinking about authority here on earth, it's not even too bad for us or too difficult to relate to physical laws, but we begin to think relationally. That's when authority starts tripping off some things. When we think about our friend parked behind the billboard with his little lights on his car. When we think about our home situation where one seems to rule with an iron hand over another. When we think about our job where someone says, I've got to be submitted to somebody who's going to tell me, as I heard the other day, that you'll be here at this desk at 730 and you won't leave that desk until 6 because that's when I leave. And you say, man, authority. I've got to deal with authority. Beloved, I'll tell you, because authority is bound up in the person of God. Now listen, this will help you understand why it's such an important subject. Because authority is bound up in the person of God, it becomes immediately a relational thing. Rebellion is sin against God himself. Most sin is just sin against an order or a moral conduct or code. For example, I can say to a little boy, I won't say my little boy, I can say to a little boy who stays out late, you violated our rule. Our rule is to be in at 8 o'clock and you stayed out until 8.30. That's a violation of a code of conduct. But if he looks me in the eye and says, I wasn't out late, you just didn't see me, I was in the bedroom. He lies to me to my face. You see, that becomes a sin of rebellion. Because he's violating, he's sinning against me and not just the code. Beloved, the sin of rebellion against God is a sin that's more grievous than just the ethical things that we may get ourselves involved in. Why? Because it's against God himself, because it's his very nature. Authority is in his very nature, that's who he is. Authority as an issue began way back before we ever had anything to do with this life. Turn to Isaiah 14. I know this is familiar territory to some of you, but I think it's worth reiterating to see a very important principle as to why we want to touch this subject tonight, and rather thoroughly, for this single lesson in discovering the way. You see, in the book of Isaiah, a story just comes out sort of underneath the prophecy that's being given. Most scholars, including ones that I respect a great deal, would say that the verses that I'm going to show you in Isaiah 14 refer to the origins of the fall of Satan. Look with me at Isaiah, would you, chapter 14, and verse 12. Beloved, what we have here is most likely a pre-creative expression of what happened in the heavenly realms before the earth ever came to be. Satan fell from his place. You know, Satan was the anointed cherub. He was the one that was called and appointed by God to lead the praises and worship of the angels. Powerful position. The most powerful creative position that there ever was. And he, these verses tell us, chose to rebel, and it says, to exalt his throne above God. And you see, it was the rebellion in his heart to want him to come up and overrule or usurp the authority of God that caused Lucifer to be thrown out of heaven and to stand in defiance of God Almighty, and then to seal his destiny, separated from God for eternity. Now we as men, we know, we've participated in that fall, haven't we? We've gotten involved in it, haven't we? Because we were tempted, tempted by the enemy. We read about it, Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter 3. Eve first, then Adam. You see, Eve had two authorities over her. She had God, but she also had men. She led the rebellion. Men fell right on along with her. And so together they fell. Listen, what did they do? Exactly what did they do? Well, God had said, don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Rather, he said, obey me. And what did Adam and Eve do? Well, they ate from that tree. You see, and to this day, what do most people do? Rather than obey God, they try to decide what's good and what's evil, what's right and what's wrong. I'll be my own authority. I'll decide if I'm doing what's right. I'll be my own judge of my own life. We're still doing the same thing. Now, people say, well, why is it that the whole human race is blamed for what one person did, if this is all true? And my response to that always is the same thing. If you don't think that man has original sin, let me introduce you to a couple babies I know. Let me show you a couple little ones that know how to try to manipulate good and evil to get their own way. And we see it, don't we, parents? Pretty early on, we see it in them. And so man is already, from his inception, from his conception, tainted with this desire to rebel against God, to do what he wants in the face of God. And so, you see, all the rest of life becomes the working out of this issue of authority. Watchman Nee says in his book on spiritual authority, there are two issues in life, salvation by faith and spiritual authority. Spiritual authority, understanding the order of God. All true ministry flows under spiritual authority. One of the great strategies of Satan to totally render the church powerless is simply to bring it to the point where people begin to act under their own volition, by their own design, by their own impulse, rather than under a point. And what happens? Everyone's going their own way, doing their own thing, and pretty soon, there's nothing left of the church. It's divided and destroyed. When all along, what did God want to do? I want you to turn with me to Ephesians 1. Now, we read what had happened, how Satan fell, and we then recognized that we fell along with him. Let me touch on something here. If you're having a hard time staying with me, just hold your arm up like this, okay? And I'll know that I need to pray for you extra hard. All right? Satan fell. He led the rebellion. Man came along with him. For generations, for centuries, man was locked in a hopeless condition of being in rebellion to God, destined to judgment. And there was no escape for man. Man could not bring himself into right relationship with God. And the whole race was destined to judgment. Only God had a solution. And that solution came in the person of his own son, who was not born of the seed of man, but of the seed of God, untainted by that original sin. Do you see that? Why is the virgin birth so important, church? Because unless Jesus Christ was born outside of the stain of sin, then he too would be under the legal judgment of God, under the federal headship of Satan, as it were. That's no little idol doctrine that we can take or leave. See, Jesus was born of a woman, but he was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And in that conception, he escaped the stain of the original sin in his life. And that's why Satan tried so hard. We read about it in the temptation episode in Matthew chapter 4. We read about it when he was brought before the Pharisees and all the persecutions. We read about it in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was tempted to go against the will of God so Satan could have a legal case against Christ. Because if he could bring down the Messiah, then we never could escape the due judgment upon us. But the Son of God remained faithful to his call. And because... Now listen, if you grab this, it's going to stay with you. Because Jesus Christ went to the cross sinless and with no legal case against him in Satan's court, Satan killed an innocent being. And when he did that, he committed murder in the eyes of God. Satan had a right to all the rest of the human race. He had no right to a sinless man. And when he violated that, he sealed his own death warrant. And that is why, you see, at that point he fell and all of his authority was broken. That is why, from that point on, we were given authority over him. That is why we read in Ephesians, if you're there now, chapter 1. Let's pick it up at the end of verse 19. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. Far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything. Now catch the next preposition. Why? For the church. For the church. For the church, which is his body, the fullness of him, who fills everything in every way. Why is Christ seated over all powers and dominions and authority? For the church. And so when we come to the place of prayer and we say, now we take authority over you, Satan, in this situation, then we're simply enforcing what Christ legally won by his unjust crucifixion and death on the cross. We can identify with Jesus when he says, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I give you authority to tread on serpents and snakes and no power of the enemy will ever come. Church, if you'd only see that where you live, if you'd only come to terms with that in your high school, in your place of work, that you've been given authority. You say, Jay, well this sounds so good. I've heard this spiritual teaching, but it doesn't work. How many of you are thinking that right now? I've heard this, but it doesn't work. I mean, if it worked, then I could take authority over my boss and his unjust demands in my life. I could take authority over sickness. I could take authority over this, and I could bind that up. Do you see how much of a place authority had in the ministry of Christ Jesus? Turn to Matthew chapter 8 for just one minute. I'm really bouncing around here because I'm just raising, I hope, questions as much as answering them. Look at Matthew chapter 8. Are you there? Matthew 8, verse 5. If you're here tonight and you don't have a Bible, try to scoot over and see somebody else's Bible so you can catch the impact of this. When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him asking for help. Lord, he said, my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering. Jesus said to him, I will go and heal him. The centurion replied, Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof, but just say the word and my servant will be healed. Now catch this. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I tell this one go, and he goes, and that one come, and he comes. And I say to my servant, do this, and he does. The implication being, listen, I have authority and I know how it works. You have authority and I know all you need to do is just speak the word. Now look what Jesus does with that, would you? When Jesus heard this, verse 10, he was astonished. How would you like the Lord to be saying that about your life today, Scott? I was just astonished at that, Scott. Look what he's doing to me. And he said to those following him, I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. Faith. Faith and the understanding of the operation of authority. You see those two? The throne of God is in place, holding all things by his power. The authority of God rules in every situation. And God has given you access to share in that authority. And what's more, our enemy has been rendered authority-less, powerless in every situation. The book of Colossians says, when you were dead in your sins, in the circumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code with its regulations. That was against us. And that stood opposed to us, he took it away, kneeling it to the cross. Now listen to this. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. He disarmed the powers and authorities. You say, well, Jay, why is there still so much sickness? Why can't we just point to a blind person and cause him to see? Why can't I just speak to my problem in heaven? Why, beloved? Why? Why? Well, all I can tell you is, I'm coming to the point of seeing that God is increasing his revelation these days. And more and more, we're hearing about people learning to move in miracle power, in signs and wonders, churches where people are seeing manifestation of God. And we have seen little scatterings, enough to encourage us, but not enough to satisfy us. How many of you are satisfied? I'm not satisfied we've seen it yet, but I'm encouraged that we're on the right track. My heart says, Lord, I want to understand this authority. I want to understand what you've given to me. But what is more dangerous than a person with authority who's not under authority? What is more dangerous than a corrupt law enforcement office? See, beloved, God knows the struggle that we would have if we had unbounded authority and unlimited power at our hands. Imagine what we would do. Or could do. But as we go on into God, and God turns up the fire, turning up the fire. How many of you feel God's been turning up the fire in your life lately? What does that mean? Well, he's purging. He's purging. What is he doing? He's making room for the perfect application of his authority in your life. Now, the rule that we share with Jesus, then, is not just the rule of God on the throne and telling us what to do, but it's an organic unity. What's the difference between organizational authority and organic authority? Well, organizational authority would be when someone sits as the chairman of the board of a company, let's say Kent here, and he tells one of his people, I give you authority to go out and purchase this, or I give you authority to go out and sell that, or do this or do that. Organic authority comes by the very fact that your life's blood is what makes it work. Organic authority is my brain telling my hand to touch my wife. You see the difference? Organic unity is when I'm not just sitting at a distance giving commands, but I'm linked to it. And, beloved, that's the kind of authority that we have in Christ. We are the very authority of Christ. We're linked with Him. We're a body. That's why it says here in Ephesians 1, it's through the church that Jesus is going to work. One with Him. And that's what He wants us to come into now. All right. Some of you are with me. Some of you are probably wondering, well, how does this all work itself out? Well, there's an awful lot more that we need to say about this matter because I'm convinced, I really am convinced, that we've lost the idea of authority. We're laughing stock in the eyes of most of the world as a church, not this church particularly, but the Church of Jesus, because we've lost the issue of authority. We have lost it. We've surrendered it. We have not exercised our authority as we are. Do you know that most every person that dies in the grip of Satan dies because we didn't take authority over Satan in their life? I believe that. And I believe that everyone that comes into the kingdom of God comes because someone took authority over the forces that would bring death into that person. Do you believe that? If you do, do you believe that? Because I don't believe most of us believe that either. Because if we believed it, we couldn't help but be at the place of prayer. If we understood ourselves to be intercessors who held in the very expression of our lips life and death, we couldn't help but be in the place of prayer. What brings us to prayer every morning is the very reality of the knowledge that we are wrestling for the lives of people. We're wrestling against the principalities and powers of darkness, exercising our spiritual authority. And if this church has gained any success in terms of extending the kingdom of God, it's because we're holding on to that truth. We believe it. Do you believe it? I trust you do. Why did the church fall into such powerlessness? Why did it slip so far down into the ratings of influential institutions in our country? Where is the church now? It's way down there, folks, unfortunately. It's way down. Why? Because we haven't moved enough. Now, the reason for that, to me, is obvious. Because within the church, let me just shift gears now. Within the church, we've lost authority in the church. We've lost... Of all the organizations that should be moving with an understanding of authority, under authority, the church is one of the worst. I've never been to a... I had someone tell me just a couple days ago, someone from our church. He said... I forget the quote exactly. Dan, you were there when it was given. It took a person... Was it six months and seven meetings to get one simple decision of no or something like that from another church? Because of the institutional complexity of trying to get something done. No one had an understanding of how authority flows. So it was just a jumble of things. How many of you served on church boards where you realized no one knew what was going on? And authority was just a big game. I mean, just nobody knew. And we gave a title, and that title had no authority at all because the person with the title had no authority. And this is where I really touch on what's in the outline for tonight. Because unless the authority of God comes to the church of God, we'll just remain a shell. We'll just remain a shell. That's all it'll be. We'll never rise up to be what God wants us to be. Someone asked me the other day, what did you feel when you marched down through Pittsburgh? Remember, you were on the march, the praise celebration. What did you feel when you marched down through those streets? When you looked up and you saw PPG Towers and you saw the U.S. Steel Building? What did you feel about authority when you saw what the power of man had been able to construct, Bill? Did you feel like you had any power in the face of that? What could we do with a silly little banner? That was quite an experience for me. Because God showed me heaven opening. God showed me that as we were marching, declaring the praises of God, we were understanding true authority. And the authority that we represent far exceeded in glory and in power and in dominion that great skyscraper. The church, we've got to bring ourselves into it. We've got to come to understand it. In many ways, what I'm saying to you tonight is at the very core of what could make this church right here, North Way Christian Community, a great church. Turn to someone right now that's nodding off and tell them we want to be a great church. We want to be great in the eyes of God. We want to be a church. I've said this before. I don't much care what our reputation is and the names of the annals of religious Christendom, but I want to have a great reputation in hell. I want hell to know that this church is here and that we're rescuing the parish. I mean that. And that's the hard way to go. It isn't going to get on the cover of Christianity Today. But beloved, we are penetrating. And the way we're going to do it is by coming into alignment within our church. Now let me just put a couple of definite opinions down underneath this and what I'm talking about here within the church and then I'll conclude. God's authority means nothing unless we see it in a person. It's one thing for you to say, well, I submit to the authority of God, but I don't submit to you. How do you know that God will invariably test your submission to Him by bringing someone over you to submit to? Turn to your husband right now and say that to somebody. I'm wanting submission. No, don't say that. Okay. Let's talk about the church. I could get into family relationships and I don't have time tonight. Really the purpose of the lesson was to deal with authority within our church. God has delegated authority. And the whole issue of how did He do that and what does it mean to be given authority? Do you know that all authority... Look at Romans 13. This is familiar territory, but underscore it in your own thinking. Look at Romans 13. Quickly. Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities for there is no authority except that which God has established. How many of you love those absolute statements? There is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Is there a clearer way to say that, Jim? There isn't, is there? The authorities that exist have been established by God. Wow. I'll tell you. I listened to... Is it Earl Nightingale the other day? Is that his name? Earl Nightingale? The commentator on the radio? And he speaks with a voice like... He borrowed it from Michael the archangel. He was talking... I want to get a copy of the transcript. It's about the autonomous man. I love it when I hear the world talking about itself. And he was describing the autonomous, self-sufficient man as the paragon of what we in America want our children to be. It was incredible. It was incredible. In need of nothing, in need of no one, totally self-sufficient. I don't need any authority or anyone. I just can make it and I don't... And the more I can do without you, the better I like it. And he was extolling that as a virtue that we, as Americans, hold dear and ought to pursue. It blew me away. But he did it so eloquently. Gee, I never believed that. But the Bible says that all authority comes from God. And that in the church, God has given the authority to rule. The Greek word prostheme means to stand before with the idea of diligence and care. He's given the authority to rule the church to the elders. To the elders. The elders have ruled before God and before the church on behalf of God. They're the delegated authorities. Now, that's a pretty awesome thought. In fact, I'll show you how awesome it is to be a leader in the household of God. Turn to Hebrews 13. A lot of bouncing around tonight. Keep those fingers limber. Hebrews 13. Verse 17. Write this one down or take note of it. Obey your leaders and submit to their authority for they keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy not a burden for that would be of no advantage to you. That's an interesting order of phrasing there, isn't it? Obey them so that their work's not a burden but a joy for it's a benefit to you. I'll tell you, I consider it a very sobering thought to know that I'm going to give an account to God for each one of you. I'm going to hurry up and be a leader then realize that. You want to know why I try to get quiet before God as much as I possibly can? Because I realize I'm going to have to give an account for you, Fred. For me, George, and for all of you. And that's why Paul, the writer of this book, I believe, says submit to that. For that word to submit, boy, that can, you know, ding, bell's going off. I know ones of you here that have been hurt by submission to authority. Someone told you to go jump off a bridge and you did it. And now you wonder if you'll ever do that again. Can you trust authority? The word to submit, hupotasso in the Greek means to put oneself in order. Now, we have Bill Leak back here who's in the military establishment of our country, the Marine Corps. Bill understands how authority works, don't you? In fact, any gentleman doing organization learn that, don't they, Bill? And it means to get in order. If your unit's marching this way, and that's the direction that you're ordered to go, guess what happens if you march this way? Some little guy about that high, shoulders like that, comes upside and bounces you right back in line. And you learn submission to authority. But it really means, listen, it means to be in order for the purpose of accomplishing a task. Why is there to be submission? So that we can accomplish something. How many of you want this to matter? How many of you want what you're involved in to matter for your life and what we're doing to count? I do, don't you? I want it to count. I'm pouring my life into it so it's going to count, Gene. I don't want to just finish it all off and say, well, I got done. My goal's not just to finish it. My goal is to complete it and accomplish it and see it be fruitful. Now, it says here that God has given elders to rule in the church. And we have discerned that 1 Timothy 3 and Titus chapter 1 give the qualifications of an elder. And we can go into those if we want tonight. An elder has a lot of qualifications. In other words, one who will rule in authority in the church must be well qualified, proven in ministry. We never just... How many of you were part of churches once where if someone was an elder in that other church back there in New Mexico and they moved to your church, they were an elder in your church now in Massachusetts? Ever part of something like that? If they were an elder once, they were an elder wherever they went. Well, somehow it seems to me that that elder should be qualified. And so we don't release an elder until we see proven ministry, qualified by proving it, by demonstrating it, along with what we see in this scripture. One year ago, most of you know, Grant stood here and shared with you at the end of a number of months of laboring before God about ordering within the eldership. And he explained to you how we had come to see that God had set apart one of the elders to oversee or see over, as it were, the elders and the overall ministry of the church. And that's when I was released into the role of being the senior pastor. And God began to show us some things after that, beloved. And I have to say, I think we're moving in some of the fruit of it. Turn to finally Psalm 133 tonight, and I think I'll conclude with this. Psalm 133. What happens as the church moves in unity within the authority of God? How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity. It is like precious oil poured on their head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes. This is a picture of the anointing oil of God. How do you pray, God, anoint my life? Lord, I want to live an anointed... Do you pray that? I would encourage you, pray to live an anointed life. Anointed of God. The Bible says, Jesus the Messiah was the anointed one. Jesus Christ, Christos, means anointed one. Are you a Christian, John? Then you're a little anointed one. That's what that literally means. Anointed of God. And this is a picture of the anointing oil coming down over the robes of Aaron. Starting at the head and down over the beard. And it's a picture, it is meant to be a picture by the Holy Spirit to us, of how anointing flows when order is established. I want to submit to you that one of the things that we're learning and even experiencing, I believe, here in the church, is as we've come into order, we're seeing the anointing beginning to flow. People who are in order are flowing in the anointing of God. Amen? I'm seeing that. People who are in order are moving in the anointing. People who are not in order are outside kicking against it. Trying to make it happen. Trying to establish their own authority. People who come in under it and say, hey, I just come under that. It's amazing what God's doing with some people who never had any sense of authority before. Any sense of authority. When you come under authority, you're given authority. When you come under authority, you're released into moving in the operation of your own authority. Whew. That's exciting. One of the greatest things that I'm discovering right now is that I can confidently release peop