The
Second Outpost: The Church (Ecclesiastical Governance)
Prayer:
Lord God, heavenly Father, we most heartily thank You that You have
caused us to come to the knowledge of Your Word. We pray: Graciously
keep us steadfast in this knowledge unto death, that we may obtain
eternal life; send us, now and ever, pious pastors who faithfully
preach Your Word, without offense or false doctrine, and grant them
long life. Defend us from all false teachings, and frustrate the
counsels of all who pervert Your Word, who come to us in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves, that Your true Church may
evermore be established among us, and be defended and preserved form
such false teachers; through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who
lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and
forever. Amen.
Read
the Third Article of the Creed and its Meaning, refer
to Chapter 24 in the Catechism Explanation.
The
Church is the second outpost or estate that God established here on
earth.
Why did
God establish the Church?
Read
John 1:12-14: The Church consists of all those who through faith in
Jesus Christ, His Son, God the Father reckons as His own children.
This faith is a gift of God (Ephesians 2:9-11) which trusts in His
Promise of forgiveness so that we might again be reconciled to the
Father and live with Him eternally (Colossians 1:19-23).
This
Promise was given to Adam and Eve and all their children just after
Adam and Eve fell into sin (Genesis 3)
Through
this gathering of believers the faith is nurtured and conveyed
through the reading and teaching of God's Word, through repentance
and the absolution, through Baptism and the Lord's Supper as
established by Christ. (Romans 1:16-17)
How did
God establish the Church?
Genesis
2 and 3 describe the loving relationship between God and our first
parents, how they rejected that love, and how God stated He would
conquer Satan and reunite humanity with God.
Give
examples from Genesis 3 that show what the relationship had been
before sin. How does the text show Adam and Eve's relationship with
God after sin.
How
does God promise that relationship will be restored?
This
relationship between God and us, his fallen creatures, through this
promise of restoration is the realm or estate of the Church.
Read the Table of Duties
Pastors
and Preachers
What
the Hearers Owe to Their Pastors
What are the responsibilities of the Church?
The Church is the body or group of those who have
faith in Jesus Christ as God and Savior. In our outpost in the Church
Scripture teaches the way love is shown for God, His Word, for our
brothers and sisters in Christ, and to the world. Love is shown
through the relations and distribution of responsibilities within the
Church of God as it assembles around the Word of God and the
distribution of that Word in its various forms (i.e., The Law and the
Means of Grace).
Read Hebrews 10:19-25. As members of the
congregation we encourage each other toward the faithful use of the
Means of Grace, the regular and frequent assembly of worship and
participation in the Sacrament of the Altar.
The only kind of authority given to the Church is
the authority to forgive or retain sins.
In order that God's love may be shown to us and
through us, God has given the Word and Sacraments, which we call the
Means of Grace. In the Church the ministry is comparable to the
father in the household estate. There is no Church without the
Ministry and there is no Ministry without the Church.
The Church is the
congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the
Sacraments are rightly administered. (AC VII)
The Lutheran Reformers stated clearly what
Scripture teaches about how God calls and gathers the entire
Christian Church on earth:
That we may obtain
this faith, the ministry of Teaching the Gospel and administering the
Sacraments was instituted. (AC V)
Read I Tim. 3:3-7. Within the Church the
congregation show love by calling qualified men into the Office of
Preaching
Read Romans 10:14-15. It is God who has
established that His Word be taught by means of sinful men who are
called by God through the Church.
So the Augsburg Confession states:
Of Ecclesiastical
Order they [our Churches] teach that no one should publicly teach in
the Church or administer the Sacraments unless he be regularly
called. (AC XIV)
The Church can use no other tools. It cannot use
the same kinds of punishments or rewards given to the authority of
the Home or the State.
How does the Church show Christ's love by limiting
which men can be called to be pastors?
Read Titus 1:5-9. The
terms “elder” and “bishop” refers to those responsible for
preaching and administering the Means of Grace.
How does the Church show Christ's love to others
in the congregation and toward the office of ministry in calling men
and in the way they behave during worship?
1 Timothy chapter 2
1 Corinthians 14:26-40
How does the Church show Christ's love by keeping
God's doctrine unchanged?
Galatians 1:6-12
2 Timothy chapter 3
How does the Church show Christ's love in the way
that it ordinarily administers the Word and Sacraments?
Titus 1:5 Christian
love follows God's Word in appointing men who's lives are not
contrary to the Word of God.
1 Corinthians 4:1
These men are to act in Christ's love as stewards of God's Word and
Sacraments and are to be shown love and respect for that duty and
office.
1 Timothy 2:11-12 In
complying with the way God has stated that we show His love toward
each other the men are the representatives of Christ, the Bridegroom,
so women are not to hold that office.
Luke 10:16, Hebrews
13:17 In Christian love we are to hear the pastors as if Christ
himself were speaking to us.
Galatians 6:6-7, 1
Timothy 5:17-18 And in Christian love we are to provide for the
minister's livelihood so that he is able to carry out the duties of
his call without hindrance.
What must Christians do out of Love for another
when it is clearly evident that a brother or sister in their
congregation is impenitent?
Matthew 18:15-17, 1
Corinthians 5:13 When it is clearly evident that congregation member
is impenitent, Christians must in love confront that brother or
sister according to Christ's instructions, and if that person remains
unrepentant then exclude him from their fellowship (Excommunication).
What is the purpose of excommunication?
1 Corinthians 5:5 The
purpose of such excommunication is to show love to the unrepentant
sinner in order to convince the excluded person of the greatness of
his sin so that he will repent and be saved.
How do we show Christ's love to the excommunicated
person when he repents?
2 Corinthians 2:5-8
When the excommunicated person confesses his sin before God, whether
to the pastor as the representative of Christ and the congregation or
to to the the congregation, he is to be given Christ's forgiveness
and the congregation is to receive him again as a brother.
Up to this point we have been looking at the
regular and ordinary way the Church shows Christ's love through the
proper administration of the Means of Grace. But it is not always
possible to have the called servant of the Word.
In such situations the regular order is set aside
for that particular need.
What is the situation of need?
A situation of need exists “when a pastor is not
at hand and cannot be secured; or when, if there is a pastor, he
either does not serve the people properly but teaches false doctrine,
or cannot serve them adequately but only so rarely that the people
cannot thereby be brought to faith or be kept in it and be defended
against errors, so that the Christian must faint for lack of care.”
Our Lutheran Confessions give this example from
St. Augustine:
“Just as in a case
of necessity even a layman absolves, and becomes the minister and
pastor of another; as Augustine narrates the story of two Christians
in a ship, one of whom baptized the catechumen, who after Baptism
then absolved the baptizer.”
Such situations of need could be called
emergencies. And each Christian can absolve and baptize in those
times of need. When a Christian does these things at these times that
Christian is filling the office of minister or pastor for that
specific time of need.
This is the reason we have the forms for Emergency
Baptism in both the Explanation of Martin Luther's Small Catechism
and in the back of the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary.
Read the Large Catechism
The Fourth
Commandment, paragraphs 158-166
How are pastors or
ministers to be considered as Fathers in a correct way?
Issues of Church and
Home will be covered in Study 6.
Issues of Church and
State will be covered in Study 8.
Prayer: Lord
God, heavenly father, we thank You that through Your Son Jesus Christ
You have sown Your holy Word among us: We pray that You will prepare
our hearts by Your Holy Spirit, that we may diligently and reverently
hear Your Word, keep it in good hearts, and bring forth fruit with
patience; and that we may not incline to sin, but subdue it by Your
power, and in all persecutions comfort ourselves with your grace and
continual help; through Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who
lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and
forever. Amen.
