In the sermon 'Establishing Church Government' by Peter Allison, the speaker explores the structured approach to church governance as depicted in Acts 14. The sermon highlights three critical aspects of Paul's ministry: the preaching of the Gospel, the edification of believers, and the establishment of church government. Paul’s method involved appointing elders in every church to ensure ongoing care and leadership. The sermon emphasizes the necessity of church government, stressing the role of elders as shepherds who guide and protect the congregation. Elders are seen as older, experienced individuals who are responsible for overseeing the spiritual welfare of church members. The sermon also discusses the congregational role in electing elders, the importance of prayer and fasting in this process, and the idea that church membership requires mutual agreement and accountability. Additionally, Allison underscores the need for rest and sabbaticals for church leaders, demonstrating the interconnected roles of family, church, and state governments in believers’ lives. Ultimately, the sermon urges believers to pray for and support good governance within the church and their personal lives.

Please turn to Acts chapter 14. We'll be looking at verses, primarily verses 23, but I'd like to just read from verse 21 to have the context. Hear God's Word. So, and when they had preached the Gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith and saying, We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. So when they had appointed elders in every city and prayed with fasting, they commanded them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

And after they had passed through Obsidia, they came to Pamphylia. And when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Italia. And from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed. Now when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them, and that He opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. So they stayed there a long time with the disciples.

How sweet are Christ's words to our taste, sweeter than honey to our mouths. Heavenly Father, may Your Word Come to us in the power of your Spirit this morning. May we see light in your light. May you cause us to rejoice in your Word, in its truth, in its light. And may you sanctify us by it, that we might be holy vessels fit for your service.

And sanctify my sinful lips as well this morning, and preserve me from error, I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. The pattern of Paul's ministry is summarized in these verses right here, very succinctly. This is the pattern that we see throughout the book of Acts. And we have seen it, and we'll continue to see this pattern. And that is, first, there is the preaching of the Gospel.

There is the evangelism, the proclaiming of God's grace, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Paul preaches this message. Everywhere he goes, he preaches this message. He is always preaching in every city. And we see that here.

He's preaching in the cities that he's preached before. He's preaching again and again. He preaches the Gospel. The second thing we see in Paul's ministry, and we see it in this passage, is the strengthening and encouraging of believers. The edifying.

He doesn't just preach a Gospel and say once they're saved, that's done, I'm gone. And move on to some other place. But no, he stays. He stays around and strengthens and builds up the believers because they need fed. His work isn't done when they've been converted.

That's really just the beginning of His work. Now follows the work of edifying, of exhorting, of encouraging, of building up, and so on. So we see that here. And the third thing we see is the establishment of church government. When he plants churches, he then sees that they are cared for.

That there are elders that are established in these works and deacons. There is the organization and delegation of the authorities. So we've looked in the past here at the preaching ministry by which people are saved. We've looked at this ministry of edification by which believers are exhorted and encouraged to persevere and enter into the Kingdom through tribulation. And so this morning we want to look at this third aspect of Paul's ministry in the book of Acts and the ongoing ministry in the church ever since.

And that is raising up local leadership and entrusting to them the care, the ongoing care of the church. So the first thing that we see in this passage is the necessity of church government. In verse 23, they had appointed elders in every church. It wasn't just some of the churches. This wasn't an optional thing that was nice to have, but this is a necessary thing.

So these elders are appointed in every church. And I imagine that since God has given different graces to different people in different amounts. The Bible tells us not everybody has the same gifts, not everybody has the gifts in the same degree. Only Christ has been given the Holy Spirit without measure as we confess this morning. So not every church would have had the same elders or equally qualified elders.

But nevertheless, Every church had elders. Elders are appointed in every church because every church needs elders. Now what is an elder? This is not the first time the word is used. I believe it's the second time in the book of Acts that this word has been used of the New Testament church officers.

Well, an elder is just an older person. We talk about elderly people. Or we talk about respecting your elders, and by that we mean an older person. And that's really what this Greek word is. It's just an adjective that means older, an Older man.

Maybe you've gone to the eye doctor, and they said that you needed glasses to see, to read, because you're getting older, and they said your eyes are getting older. And maybe they told you the name for it. It's presbyopia. It means you just have old eyes, and they don't focus as well. And that's the word.

We get the word presbytery from that. Or presbyter. It's presbyterous. It's an older person. In the Old Testament, it was used for offices in the church and in the civil government.

It simply means an older, experienced person. The word for deacon, this is the way the Bible speaks of these church offices, of many things. The word for deacon, for example, is a servant. It's the word for a servant who waits on tables. The word for bishop is the word for an overseer.

We might call them a foreman, somebody who oversees who's responsible for ensuring a task is done, or maybe for overseeing a crew that's working. It's an overseer. And That word's translated bishop, or sometimes in the New Translations, King James used the word bishop, sometimes now in the New Translations I see they're going back to overseer. The minimum age for a priest was 30 years of age. They began their service at 30 years of age.

That's when John the Baptist started his ministry. That's when Christ began His earthly ministry. And some hold that as a minimum age for elders today. I think there's a lot of validity in that because it takes experience to be able to be an elder in a church. And when Paul told Timothy not to let anyone despise his youth, he was a man in his forties.

And Paul said, don't let people despise your youth. So what is the job of an elder? They appointed elders in every church. Luke doesn't elaborate here on what their job was, but Paul does in a few chapters later when he called for the elders at the church in Ephesus, he called them to Miletus, and He said in Acts 20, Therefore take heed to yourselves, first of all, and to the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. So He's exhorting them there.

He's established His church. He's lived there for years on end and taught them. And He's raised up these elders, or He's trained up these elders and installed them. And now he's reminding them of their duty, which is to shepherd the church of God. And it's not their church, it's Christ's church.

He purchased it with his own blood. And so when you are taking care of something, if it belongs to somebody else, you take extra care of it, don't you? So that it's not hurt, not injured, it's not lost. If It's your own, you might be willing to lose it, but you don't want to lose something, or wreck something that someone else has entrusted to you to care. So Paul reminds the Ephesian elders that they've been entrusted with the care of the souls of God's people and to shepherd.

To shepherd is a word. Remember, Christ shepherds us with his rod and his staff. And shepherding has the element of ruling. And sometimes it's translated rule. The word for shepherd is sometimes translated rule.

It's a... The rod is for correction, the staff is for guidance and care. And so the basic idea is feeding. Part of shepherding is you're feeding, You're caring for, you're looking after the well-being of the flock. As a shepherd looks after the well-being of sheep.

And scripture uses that word because sheep are particularly unable to care for themselves. A lot of animals, like goats, are very self-sufficient, but sheep are not. They need a shepherd to care for them, to feed them and to protect them. And that's the responsibility of elders. Peter said in 1 Peter 5, the elders who are among you, speaking to those saints, the elders who are among you I exhort, who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ." Peter as an apostle is saying, I'm also an elder.

Meaning he shared in this responsibility to care for God's church. And he says the same thing. Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers. Exactly almost the same words that Paul uses to remind the elders of their duty. Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers." Exactly almost the same words that Paul uses to remind the elders of their duty.

Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly." So that's the responsibility of these elders that are being appointed in the church. Now, there's also a responsibility of people as well in the congregation. And we've been reminded of our vows that we've all taken as members of the church. Church membership is often questioned today, whether it's really necessary, it's maybe optional. In fact, many churches don't have any kind of formal membership anymore.

There are some that are teaching that the Scriptures nowhere teach that we should be members of a church. But we see here that elders are appointed in every church. And the Bible says in Hebrews 13, it tells us to obey those who rule over us and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give an account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for them." These elders are watching out over souls and they have to give an account of the souls that they're watching over. They have to give an account to the chief shepherd of how well they've discharged this trust that they've been given.

Now here's the question. Does every elder have to give an account for the soul of every Christian? If somebody becomes an elder, are they now immediately responsible for the souls of every believer? I think the answer is obvious. No, of course not.

Elders don't even begin to know who everyone is, let alone be accountable for them. Even in a little city like this. So no, I don't think that's... Elders are not accountable for everybody that is a Christian. So the question becomes which souls then are they accountable for?

How do they determine which souls they must give an account for and which souls they won't be giving an account for? Called to give an account for. And we can also ask the question of the members of these churches. Does a believer need to obey every person that claims to be an elder? Everybody that says, well, I'm an elder.

You need to know. Obviously, that doesn't work either. So the question becomes, which elders are we called to be submissive to, for they watch out for our souls as those who must give an account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief. Which elders and which souls?

And so the answer to that question is to define the church membership. And these kinds of agreements don't just come without acknowledgement both ways. Could somebody just come into a church and say, well, I'm here, you have to now be accountable for my soul because I'm here? Can a woman just walk up to a man and say, well, you have to take care of me? I'm your wife now?

No, that's absurd, isn't it? There has to be a two-way agreement. There has to be vows both ways. Both sides have to enter into this arrangement. So covenants always have vows, and they always are, at least on a human level, they are entered into voluntarily by both parties, as equal parties.

Now, Of course, in the covenant that we talk about with the Lord, we're not equal parties by any means, and they are sovereignly administered by God. But in terms of these earthly arrangements, covenants always have to be by mutual agreement. And so church membership and the vows are simply the formal entering into of this arrangement, this agreement. It's simply the identification of which elders are to care for which souls, and what elders these souls are to be recognizing as the elders. And so, I think church membership is very much taught in Scripture, and it's the very fact of what are the duties of an elder, and the fact that there are elders appointed in every church indicates the necessity of church government and everything that that entails, including church membership.

So we also see the importance of church government. We sometimes say that this is a secondary matter. And relative to other matters, it is. We would recognize there are different forms of church government, and We wouldn't say that that's the most important matter, but it is an important matter. It's a very important matter.

And the Scripture does teach a form of government. And so we see the importance of this form of government because the selection of these elders is accompanied with prayer and fasting. The appointment of these elders was accompanied by prayer and fasting. Now we also see it in the delay in establishing these elders. You notice it wasn't on this first missionary journey.

Paul went to all these different cities, starting in Cyprus and then Antioch and Iconium and Lystra and Derbe and so on. And he went to all these cities. And then it was on his way back through all these cities that we find this verse here of him appointing elders in every city, every church. And so this journey probably took a couple years. Maybe as long as two and a half years, but certainly it took two years from 1847 through 1848, and some would even say into the latter part of 1849.

So this return journey is a lot faster than the out-forward journey. Because Acts 14.3 tells us that Paul stayed for a long time at Iconium on his way out, maybe as much as a year there. So he's staying a long time on the way forward, but then the way back it's more brief. He's just visiting these churches. So the converts, these people that are being ordained as elders, have had a year or more, maybe as much as two years, to mature.

I don't think we need to wonder if Paul waived the qualifications that he gave elsewhere in Timothy and Titus for elders. He didn't do that at all. They had this time to mature. They had this time where they'd have been serving in these areas. There would have also been believing Jews who would have grown up knowing the Scriptures who could have been ready shortly after believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so in the one to two years from their conversion, they would have been serving in these churches. And when Paul with Barnabas then comes back through these churches, He identifies the men who have the gifts and they are installed as elders. And so these churches would have been without elders for a little while. A church without elders is still a church. It's not a healthy church.

It's not a desirable situation, but it can still be considered a church. He appointed elders in these churches. He established these churches, and they obviously didn't have elders right away. So that's part of growing a church. It may exist for a time without elders.

It still is a church. We have a church in our midst right now, in Peoria, that is between pastors and elders. They don't cease to be a church. It's not a desirable condition, but it doesn't mean that they're not a church. So church government is necessary, but Even without elders, churches can still exist and have at times.

Sometimes all the church officers can be put in jail or maybe martyred. And church will continue to exist and to be a church and to be God's people. Now, we also see the congregational role in church government. Now, that's not obvious in the English, at least in this translation of the English. So when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, When they had appointed elders, the they is a plurality of Paul and Barnabas and the people that were with him.

It says that they appointed. Now if we just take that at face value, It sounds like they came in and said, OK, you, you, and you are elders. But that word is interesting. That Greek word. Hey, Rontani, oh, means to elect by a show of hands.

And you say, well, How do you get that out of appointed? Well, the word literally means to raise the hand. That's what the word is. The Greek word is to raise the hand. And one Greek dictionary, a lexicon, explained it as raising the hand expresses agreement, and hence, chayran tanio first means to vote for.

Other meanings that develop are to select and to nominate. Now I'll just read you some of the older translations. The bishops' Bible, which is a precursor to, I think, even the Geneva Bible, and the King James, that's older than those, when they had ordained them elders by election in every church, ordained them elders by election in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed. The Geneva Bible. And when they had ordained them elders by election in every church and had prayed with fasting.

They commended them to the Lord on whom they believe the Geneva Bible. And when they had ordained them elders by election in every church and prayed identical and the Tyndale Bible and when they Tyndale translated as and when they had ordained them elders by election in every congregation after they had prayed and fasted. And Young's literal translation says, and having appointed them by vote, elders in every assembly having prayed with fasting. So there's four old translations that all recognize the meaning of this word is to elect, to vote on these elders. And so, I don't know...

Well, that is why modern translation, even though modern translations have dropped the voting aspect from the translation, most commentators understand this verse to be saying that the congregation elected elders. So there is a role for the congregation in this. They are the ones who are choosing. And we see that elsewhere in Acts when the first apostles, the people there had a role in nominating. Or in Acts 6 with the deacons, it was the people that were doing some choosing.

So the second role of the congregation though is to pray for the elders in the church. The office bearers in the church and the missionaries are supported by the prayers of the people. They prayed for them and fasted. Now what's the purpose of this prayer? There's two purposes.

We as people cannot read hearts. We need the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to guide us. You remember when Joshua didn't seek the counsel of the Lord and he was deceived by the Gibeonites. They had come into the land of Canaan. They had been delivered miraculously across the Red Sea from the Egyptians.

They had conquered Jericho and Ai. Remember the wall of Jericho just fell down, this immensely fortified city, this double-walled city. The wall just collapsed and they went in. So the Gibeonites are seeing this and they realize they have no hope against this. And so they came up with this crafty scheme where they're going to pretend to be from a really faraway country.

They took moldy bread and old worn out shoes and they went to Joshua. And Joshua and the elders said, we can't make a covenant with you if you live among us. But the Gibeonites said that they were from a far away country, that all their provisions were fresh when they started out, their shoes were new, their bread was fresh out of the oven, it was hot, and it had become stale and moldy in the trip and so on. And so then it says that the men of Israel took some of their provisions. They inspected them.

They looked at the evidence. They thought, well, we're doing our due diligence. We're checking them out. But it says, but they did not ask counsel of the Lord. And you know what happened.

It turned out they were tricked. The Gibeonites were just around the corner. But they made a covenant with them that they would not destroy them. And so they couldn't destroy them. Ever.

And when Saul tried to do it years later, years and years later, hundreds of years later, when Saul tried to destroy them, God came back and sent a famine on the land because they were breaking their covenant. It was all because Joshua didn't seek counsel of the Lord. So it's vitally important that the selection of elders is accompanied by fervent prayer. It's vitally important that we ask the counsel of the Lord in selecting elders, in any officer. Because an unqualified elder can destroy a church.

An elder who is seeking power can be very meek and teachable before becoming an elder. But then become a blight on the church afterwards through manipulation, through intrigue, through creating confusion or personal chaos, or simply being unedified. It can become a great burden, a weariness to the church. And the fasting shows that we mean business in our prayers. It shows that we truly desire what we're asking for in prayer.

That we're willing to give up our food for it. For this. It shows how important it is to us. And there are some things, Jesus said, that certain demonic spirits could not be removed except by prayer and fasting. So it's necessary.

But that prayer is also that God would furnish the elders with the necessary gifts. It's also an equally important reason to pray. Because no man is able to shepherd God's flock in the flesh. No man is able. They need prayer so they can be equipped with the necessary gifts of the Spirit to shepherd Christ's flock with Christ's means and Christ's resources and Christ's power, so that Christ's strength is made perfect in their weakness.

So that's the role of the congregation. It's a role of choosing, and It's a role of prayer and fasting for those elders. But the officers also have a role in this. You notice it says they appointed elders. Paul and Barnabas, It says they appointed the elders.

Now, that means that they were superintending this process. They may have nominated the people and the men and examined them to ensure that They were qualified for the work. Elsewhere we are told that deacons ought to be tested before they lay hands on them. And Paul says don't do it quickly. Don't ordain somebody quickly.

But first let them be tested. So it's the role of the officers to vet these people and to ensure that they are qualified to test them. And they have been tested in this one to two year period that these churches have been functioning after Paul has planted them. And so they are presiding then over this election, and they're examining them and then presenting them to the congregation. They have a role in the, not only in the care and the feeding of God's people, but in the raising up and the training of leaders.

Paul did this with Timothy. He called Timothy his true son in the faith. Timothy was somebody that Paul mentored and that Paul trained for his work. And he wrote letters to him to instruct him on his responsibilities. And we have those letters.

He wrote letters to Titus, likewise, to instruct him. So the officers have this role in the government of the church, in addition to preaching the word in season and out of season, convincing, rebuking, and exhorting with long-suffering and teaching they are also to be raising up and equipping elders. But then we also see that they trust the Lord with the care and the protection of the church through these elders. They are able to delegate. You see, they prayed with fasting and then they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

You see, they didn't try to maintain personal control over every church that they established. And we see that sometimes in the mega church model. You'll see the same pastor's name showing up on all the signs of all the different campuses throughout the city and then even elsewhere. And they will think of them as their own domain. Well, that's not what Paul is doing here.

He's commending them to the Lord, and he's entrusting the governance and the day-to-day leadership of those churches to these elders that have been ordained, appointed. You see, there's a principle here. The Lord establishes governments, He equips and uses fallible men to lead those churches. And Paul, after starting the church, then had to commend that church to the care of those elders and into the Lord. And Paul shared with Corinthians something of his life as an apostle to the Gentiles.

Because it didn't mean that once he'd commended them to the Lord and entrusted the elders with their care, that he then forgot about them and ignored them, pretended they weren't there. He shares with Corinthians something of his life. He says after listing all the physical challenges like shipwrecks and beatings and so forth, he says, and besides the other things which come upon me daily, my deep concern for all the churches." So Paul didn't forget about the churches, having commended them to the Lord and entrusted these churches to these elders that he's ordained. He doesn't forget about them. Daily, he says, daily comes upon him his deep concern for all the churches.

He he didn't forget them. He labored in prayer for them. He wrote letters to them. He visited them again and again as a as a preacher, as an encourager, as a counselor. Sometimes even we have to bring them a rebuke like he did to the Corinthians.

But we also see another aspect of church government here, and that is that elders need shepherds too. Because elders are sheep as well. And so when Paul had passed through Pisidia and Pamphylia, and when he preached in Perga, then he went down to Italia, And from there he sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had been completed. Here was the church that sent them out. Here was the work that had commissioned them to go on this journey in the first place.

And when They had come and gathered the church together. They reported all that God had done with them. So he was accountable to this church that sent him out. This church that probably was a big part of his financial support and certainly was a part of his prayer support because they sent him out. This church in Antioch had sent him out with prayer and fasting.

They had laid hands on him when he was separated to go to this ministry. And so now Paul, the Apostle, and the Elder is coming back to the church that sent him and commissioned him. And he's giving a report. There's a sense of an accountability there. He's giving an account of what he's done these past couple of years of the investment that they've made in his ministry in their money and in their prayers.

And so he spends time here. He spends time here. And so we see also the necessity of rest from these labors, from even our life calling. There's a need for rest, for sabbaticals, for times of refreshing. Paul has labored hard.

He's endured a lot in this. He's endured a lot of conflict, a lot of tribulation, physical, emotional, spiritual warfare. And now he comes back and he says that he spends a long time with these disciples. This was his support base. This was the church that had sent him out that sustained him.

And so this is where he rests. This is where he has a chance to engage in ministry without the constant attacks, the constant physical threats being kicked out of one place, being stoned, and so on. This was the church that had made a substantial financial gift to the Jerusalem church in that famine a couple of years earlier. And so here is this place of refuge from being stoned and left for dead and attacked and spoken against and having mobs stirred up. So this is a chance to catch up and recover.

So what do we, a couple things, two things I think that we see in this passage, and one is the necessity of government in our lives, in every phase of our lives, not just in our church. And there's really no time in our lives that we outgrow our need for government. So don't run from government. Run to it. That's not a statist sentiment.

God has ordained three governments in our lives, family, church, and state. And the extreme overreach, to use the popular language of today, I think, tyrannical or totalitarian is probably more graphic and accurate. But the extreme overreach of the civil government is largely due to the collapse of family and church government, which has created a void that the state rushes in to fill. They're only too happy to take over the government that we've abandoned. State officials do not make good fathers, and they don't make good shepherds.

We need family governments and church governments for that. So don't run from government. It's what God has created for our own good and our blessing. It's for our own edification. Authority has been given, Paul said, for our own edification.

And so it's to our benefit to run to government, to godly government, and not from it. It is necessary. The more self-government that we have, the less other governments need to correct. But good government isn't just about correcting, it's also about edifying. We need the edification of good government.

And so, men, I would encourage you to find someone that you can be accountable with, someone that you can pray with, someone that you can know, someone that you can have deep fellowship with. It's important. The Apostle Paul even had a church to which he was accountable. A church where he could stay and rest. A church where he was prayed for.

And secondly, pray. Pray for good government. Pray for those who are exercising authority that they would do so for your good. And that you can lead a quiet and peaceable life. And secondly, just as Paul was in the business of raising up elders and equipping them, every family is in the business of raising up elders and equipping them.

Every family is in the business of raising up leaders. So remember that. You're in the role of raising up leaders, the future leaders of countries, of churches, and of homes. And so pray for them, just as we see in this example that people are praying and Paul is praying daily for the church to pray. Pray for those that you're raising up as leaders and continue to pray for them even after you commend them to the Lord and entrust them with their own families and their own governments, then continue to uphold them and to pray for them, just as Paul did.

May the Lord bless His government in our lives through each of the institutions in which He reigns. Heavenly Father, you are our King, you are our Savior, You are our Lord and Master. And we thank You for Your government in our lives. We thank You that You as our King have subdued us to Yourself. You've conquered us.

We thank You that You restrain sin in us. And we ask, Lord, that you would give us a good and right understanding of government and where we Have authority may we exercise it? You know for the good of those over whom it is exercise may May you give us grace in this. A grace to bear with the faults of those around us. Especially Lord, in the exercise of authority.

We ask Lord for your blessing upon us as fathers, as mothers, as elders, as deacons, as heads of homes, and as elders in the civil realm and in our businesses, where we have rule, where we have responsibilities, Lord, we ask that we might discharge these responsibilities in ways that honor you, in ways that exemplify and mirror your government of us and your shepherding of us. For you are merciful and gracious and slow to anger and abounding and loving kindness and tender mercy. Lord may those be things that characterize us as well. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.