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Should We Witness for Christ? (Part 3)

by | Jun 4, 2012 | Ecclesiology, Missions, Practical Theology

Matthew 12:30a says:  “He who is not with Me is against Me…”  This is the uncompromising assertion of the text.  What we may call the unmistakable amplification of these words comes next:  “and he who does not gather with Me scatters.”  In these words Jesus amplifies and explains what he means by being with him and not against him.  Being with Christ means gathering with Him.  Being against Christ means scattering.  Both the word, gather, and the word, scatter, need careful explanation.

Gather

The verb translated, gather, here is used 59 times in the New Testament.  24 of these, or about 40% of the entire total uses in the New Testament, are in Matthew.  Parallel uses in Matthew to the one in our text are these:

  • Matthew 3:12 “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
  • Matthew 13:30 “Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.'”
  • Matthew 13:47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind.”
  • Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”
  • Matthew 22:10 “Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests.”

Listen to other relevant uses of “gather” in the New Testament.

  • John 4:36 “Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.”
  • John 11:52 and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

Evangelism biblically defined is to gather men into Christ and His people.  Every Christian needs to have in a part in that work and gather with Christ!

Scatter

The verb translated, scatter, is also an important New Testament word with a meaning you may not immediately understand.

It is used of the dispersion of the Jews under the judgment of God.

  • Ezekiel 5:12 ‘One third of you will die by plague or be consumed by famine among you, one third will fall by the sword around you, and one third I will scatter to every wind, and I will unsheathe a sword behind them.

It is used of what a wolf does to a flock of sheep.

  • John 10:12 “He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
  • John 16:32 “Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.

The bottom-line is that gathering is the work of a shepherd or friend, while scattering is the work of a wolf or enemy.

Jesus in Matthew 12:30 describes His ministry and work in the world as gathering men.  He gathers them first to Himself as the good shepherd of their souls.  But he also gathers them together into His church—the place or fold where He can protect His sheep from the wolf.

  • John 10:16 “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.”

To gather with Christ, then, is to join Him in his effort to gather sheep into the safety of His protection.  This includes ultimately gathering them into the safety of the fold, a reference to His church.  To scatter is to act the part of a wolf and oppose Christ’s work and mission in the world.  Only certain destruction can befall such a wicked sinner and enemy of Christ.

Hendriksen argues:

To be “with” Jesus means to be instrumental in gathering people to be his followers (Prov. 11:30; Dan. 12:3; Matt. 9:37, 38; Luke 19:10; John 4:35, 36; 1 Cor. 9:22).  To be “against” him means to be unwilling to follow him in his mission to gather the lost.  It means to leave them in their shepherdless, scattered condition, an easy prey for Satan.

EGNT contains this comment:

But in all cases, when one man scatters what another gatheres their aims and interests are utterly diverse.  Satan is the arch-waster, Christ the collector, Saviour.

All this is confirmed by the context of Jesus’ assertion here in Matthew 12.  The Pharisees opposed Christ and attempted to scatter what He was gathering by claiming that He was doing what He did by the power of Satan.  In so rejecting the miraculous evidence of the Spirit to Jesus’ divine mission and identity, they were bringing upon themselves a sin that could never be forgiven.  But Christ states in our text a further thought.  Anyone who does not join Him in the work of bringing salvation to the world is actually on the side of His enemies.

The Regulative Principle of the Church 12: Its Specific Application (Part 1)

by | Jun 1, 2012 | Ecclesiology, Regulative Principle

A clear understanding of and a thorough commitment to the regulative principle of the church is, I am convinced, absolutely crucial if biblical church reformation is ever to become a reality in our churches.  The regulative principle is intended, as we have seen, to govern the whole of the church’s life both as an institution and as an assembly.  Let me trace out its significance for four areas of church life in this and following blogs.

I.          For the Government of the Church

Puritans who held the regulative principle have historically been committed to the jus divinum.  In other words, they have been committed to the concept that there is a divinely ordained form of church government given us in the Bible.  Historically, Anglicans (beginning with Hooker’s treatise on the government of the Church of England) and many others since then have argued that God has left the church free within very general principles to construct its own government.  Richard Hooker in his work, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, expressly denies the regulative principle of the Puritans.  One writer says, “Its object is to assert the right of a broad liberty on the basis of Scripture and reason.”1

Hooker’s views have simply anticipated the views of many evangelicals today.  But such views can only be entertained while one remains in ignorance of the identity of the church as the house of God and the special regulative principle appropriate to the House of God.  Once these things are understood the superficial and even profane character of the view espoused by Hooker is obvious.

Thus, my first observation is simply this.  In all your ordering of the order and government of the churches over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers see to it that you remember that your church is the house of God.  It is not your house to be ordered in accord with your own traditions, imaginations, or whims.  It is God’s house to be ordered as He has expressly revealed in the Scriptures.  Your elders’ meetings, your church meetings, your ministerial commands, have no right to alter or add to the government of the church revealed in the Bible.  You must impress on yourself, your fellow-elders, and your church the great reality that only God has the right to regulate the proceedings of His house.

My second observation grows out of the first.  If you are to remember that the church is the house of God and conscientiously endeavor to order it according to the mind of Christ, you must believe that the Word of God is a sufficient revelation of the way the church is to be ordered.  Only a deep-rooted confidence in Scripture will make you search the Scriptures as you must so that your ministry will properly order the church of Christ.

My third observation  is that there ought to be no standing office in the church of Christ, but those two standing offices appointed and regulated in the Scriptures.  If you are not a biblically qualified and recognized elder or a deacon, you have no true office in the church of Christ.  I am, of course, not denying that the church through its elders may designate persons who will assist the pastors and deacons like book-keepers, secretaries, and even Sunday School Superintendents.  I am not denying that the elders of the church may have certain specialized ministries like pastor for theological education in my case.  I am simply saying that if you are not an elder or deacon, you have no right to rule and by right no authority in the church of Christ.  You are simply a servant of the officers of the church.  New offices must not be created in the church.

My fourth observation is that the two offices of elder or deacon must be ordered in the way God has ordained in the Scriptures.  Those who hold them must be biblically qualified.  The relations between the elders and deacons must be biblically ordered.  Deacons must understand their peculiar tasks and that they are subordinate to the elders in the execution of their office.  Wherever it is biblically possible there ought to be a plurality of elders in any local church.  The relation of the officers and members of the church must be biblically ordered so that the church understands both its duty to submit to its officers and its duty to take congregational action on issues like church-discipline and the election of church-officers.

1The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, (Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 1909), vol. V, p. 360.

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