Acts 15, Numbers 16, and Respecting the Lord's Ordained Servants

²⁴ Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, “You must be circumcised and keep the law”—to whom we gave no such commandment—²⁵ it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,

Acts 15:24–25 (NKJV)

One of the things that we’re seeing, where our congregation is in the book of Acts, is that it is important to yield to Christ’s rule by His Spirit in His church through those particular men that He sets apart to teach and to lead. The bad doctrine of the Judaizers was married to bad ecclesiology: self-appointed teachers who took it upon themselves to go to Antioch and preach what was on their hearts.

Resisting the Lord’s servants or trying to make our own alternative way isn’t new, and God takes it very seriously. Consider Numbers 16 (quoted at length below). We shouldn’t be surprised that those from Antioch would end up zealous for hellish doctrine, or that those today who have faithful ministers but instead google their theology end up self-assured about their own self-condemning spiritual ideas.

190207FW 2Cor 1:23-2:11 - Christ's Stops Satan through Our Fellowship

Family Worship teaching time, following up upon the epistle reading from 2Corinthians 1:23-2:11 in Lord's Day morning worship. The Lord Jesus has given church members and officers the privilege of being gladdened by one another, as He uses us in one another's lives for good. Satan's attacks on us include both keeping us from doing the hard work of grieving one another when necessary for confrontation or rebuke, and the sometimes harder work of restoring relationship and demonstrating affection once repentance has occurred. In this passage, we learn the kind of fellowship by which Christ designs to defeat the devil in our churches!