Drippings from the Honeycomb
More to be desired are [the rules of the Lord] than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. (Psalm 19:10)
3.4- to respect and submit to the spiritual authority and procedures of the Church, including its Elders, as expressed in the Handbook; This article is especially difficult for our anti-institutional age where nothing can be trusted, nothing is true and there is no higher authority than self.
However, Christ is the Head of the Church and has vested Her, and by extension Her leaders, with authority (c.f. Great Commission). However, it is not a self-serving top-down authority but an inverted pyramid. Whereas the Church is not to be an institution that is to be served but to serve (Mk 10:45), so too its leaders aren’t to be served but to serve. Authority is the right to do something. Christ exercises authority on earth through His local bodies or congregations. We represent His holiness, proclaim Him and do all He has called us to do in mission, etc. To help enable this, Christ, through His local body in prayer, appoints men who fulfil biblical qualifications to teach, lead, administer the ordinances, discipline, etc. We are called to respect the Church, as Christ’s representative body on earth, and also Her officers, as representatives of the local body. Insofar as they and the Church follow Scripture, we are to follow their/Her lead, respect what they say, help them, seek their counsel, etc. The Church is God’s gift to mankind and so too are leaders a gift to the Church. Neither are unaccountable either. Churches are accountable to Christ and His Word and other local bodies. Leaders too are accountable to their congregations, even as we follow their biblical example. (This balance is called Elders’ Led Congregationalism, Handbook 13.1[1]). In the Bible respect and submission, rightly understood, are good virtues. To show disregard for Christ’s Church and Her Officers is to disregard Christ Himself, preferring pride to humility. We also humble ourselves to all that God has said in His Word, not just leadership, but other matters of governance. Our Handbook is meant to be an accessible document that reflects the precepts and principles of Scripture we believe are in Scripture and which binds our community life together (both when we agree with a decision and when we don’t). Just as a skeleton without flesh is lifeless, so too a flesh without bones is useless. The body of Christ has bones (structure) and flesh (Spirit). When we follow God’s way, things go better for us. It is also in those difficult moments, where something is tested, when there is pushback, when there is legal challenge, that we become very grateful for agreed upon processes in our Handbook under which we all agree to love and serve the Lord. [1] Congregationalism, in its extreme, means the whole congregation must decide on every little detail. This is paralyzing. Presbyterianism (Elders’ led), in its extreme, along with other forms of singular hierarchies, can lead to abuses in leadership (not to mention the body not being involved, only the head). An Elders’ led Congregationalism is a better reflection of what we see in Scripture. Here, Christ is the Head of the body who appoints leaders who lead it, as they engage with the members of the body, and yet which retains responsibility for significant matters. Read pt. I here. Read Church Covenant here. We joyful commit to the following privileges and responsibilities, believing them to be the basics of being part of Christ in His local body: 3.1. To engage (think marital engagement or embarking on a serious project) is to throw your utmost effort and commitment into something. To engage in Christian love, a love which must proceed from God and be borne as a fruit of the Spirit, surely requires the help of the Holy Spirit. Only He can help us attain anything in the Christian life, for apart from Him we can do nothing (Jn 15). 3.2. To strive is likewise to be so committed to something that one works hard at it. We love the Church because Christ loved the Church; to love the Church is to love Christ (Eph 5). Yet as much as we are part of the international and heavenly spiritual body of Christ, that needs to be made visible. While we can have fellowship with all local bodies, our finiteness means we express our universal membership locally. We would be spread too thin if we tried to be everything to every church and so the Lord would have us focus our attention to the local body of which we are a part. To advance, or forward, the knowledge of the church primarily means its biblical knowledge. As we together seek to advance and conform to the teachings of Scripture the Church as a whole will grow in holiness. It is amazing to see how a church can, say, grow together through a sermon series. When we are holy and walking in the Lord’s ways we will be healthy and therefore comforted by peace and unity, with God and each other. 3.3. We want to do everything reasonably possible to promote the physical or spiritual prosperity of our local church because we love it. We do this by serving the upkeep of the building, being involved in and giving to its ministries, inviting others to our church and advancing our reputation (many of which will be unpacked in latter articles). Chiefly, we support the church by being present and active in the body, particularly, attending all its worship (the body is encourage or discouraged in how you choose to be present or absent), and every other element that is the vital core of a church: the ordinances and then discipline that form the gateway and continuance of membership and health of her members, and doctrine, which likewise informs her health and upon which the true church stands or falls (Jude 3). We want to promote all that is vital to the health of a local congregation. If we are to be healthy she must be healthy (and visa versa).
Usually we use this saying somewhat negatively, you’re not doing anything and you receive an invite and respond, ‘Sure, I don’t have anything better to do!’ (i.e. if you did you might not go!). However, we could also use it less facetiously and in a positive sense to mean, I’m doing such and such because I really don’t have anything better to do—this is the very best and highest thing I could be doing and so I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
In this latter sense we may use the phrase to speak of the Lord’s Day. Here at MBC we believe it is ‘the divinely appointed day of worship’ by Christ’s command (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 16:22; c.f. Gen 2:1-4; Ex 20:8–11). As our greatest weekly appointment with the greatest of all Beings we really oughtn’t have anything better to do! I always remind people that I’m attend worship every Lord’s Day, not because I am the pastor, but because I’m a Christian. This has been the case throughout my life and will always remain so. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.[1] Gathering each Lord’s Day is part of mere Christianity and a basic expression of Christian discipleship. I love John the apostle for many reasons. One was that he loved Jesus so much that he worshipped the Lord on His Day and in His way (as he wants to be worshipped). John even gave us the term ‘the Lord’s Day.’ It is a possessive phrase, it’s Jesus’ day, and it’s definitive (‘the’)—it is actually a one in seven appointment. What is fascinating is that, like Daniel who though in exile was still thinking on God-time (Dan 9:21), John, though he was exiled in the island of Patmos by Emperor Domitian and physically couldn’t attend worship in Ephesus because of intense persecution, still measured the time of his vision by ‘the Lord’s Day’ and what other believers were doing (Rev 1:10). If he could have been with them he would have been. Does your time revolve around God’s time or pleasure, work, family and friends? While not in the Bible I love a story of John told by Jerome (AD c.347–420). In John’s extreme old age, he was carried into church so as to be there, such was His love for the Lord’s Day and people![2] I could tell other similar stories of faithfulness by God’s people throughout history and in my own experience, like Muriel who still came to morning and evening worship in her late 90s or Sylvia who came to church as the best place for her soul the day after her husband died. I’ve always sought to be that faithful leading example to God’s people too, evening coming on crutches the day after knee surgery as a teenager. My prayer is that, like John, we’d all have nothing better to do each and every Lord’s Day. [1] Grave illness and great emergencies excepted. When I’m not at my church I’m either preaching or visiting another. [2] The original says, “The blessed John the Evangelist lived in Ephesus until extreme old age. His disciples could barely carry him to church and he could not muster the voice to speak many words.” (Andrew Cain (translator), ‘Commentary on Galatians 6:10,’ The Fathers of the Church, St. Jerome, Commentary on Galatians. [Catholic University of America, 2010], p. 260). Cain suggests the source of the story was possibly Hegesippus's Memoirs via either Clement of Alexandria or Origen. What is Pentecost? Pentecost means 50, taken from the Greek word pente or fifty. In Hebrew it was the Feast of First-fruits (or a harvest festival) observed 50 days after Passover (Lev 23:9–14). Here, worshippers brought their the first fruits of their harvest to the Lord. Jesus spent 40 days with His disciples after His Resurrection before He ascended to heaven. He commanded them to wait in Jerusalem until they received the promised helper (Ezk 36:26–7; Joel 2:28–32, Acts 2, et al). When He came, the New Covenant people of God began! The Spirit fulfilled the longing for the ability for hard hearts to be soften to keep God’s Law, or to truly live for Him. Without the Spirit we cannot live the Christian life. And so, having been regenerated by the Spirits work to believe and be justified, now adopted we receive Him into our heart as a gift to become new creations. He is given to every believer upon faith (Gal 3:2–3). In grace, this is the first fruit God gives to us of our final salvation (Ro 8:13)! Pentecost was the last step to inaugurate the New Covenant and close the inter-covenantal period between Christ’s conception and the Spirit’s coming. Why Celebrate Pentecost? Most Christians today will observe Christmas and Passover (Easter), even if they aren’t overly liturgical. Yet, we’re only explicitly commanded to observe the Lord’s Day. However, given the weight of narrative in the Gospels and their centrality in coming together to form the basis of the New Covenant, we have warrant to modestly observe these three:
 This is what Pentecost is and why we’re remembering it this year at MBC.
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