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The
Holy Spirit & the Local Church 1
Understanding the Local Church & Its
Government
by
Pastor John Hamel
“And when the day
of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one
place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing
mighty wind, and it filled all the house where
they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like
as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled
with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit
gave them utterance. … And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying
one to another, What meaneth this? Others
mocking said, These men are full of new wine.” (Acts 2:1-4, 12-13)
These verses reveal
the beginning of the Holy Spirit’s Ministry to the New Testament Local Church.
The Universal Church worldwide is made
up of many local bodies of Believers meeting all over the Earth. We
call them Local Churches although they are all part of the Universal Church. God’s
Church is one Church. The 120 Believers who met in the Upper Room
(Acts 1:15) on the Day of
Pentecost were actually the first local body of Believers to meet, without
Jesus, after His Ascension.
What a day it must
have been. It is my belief that the presence of the Holy Spirit was
so strong that day that many of the people were falling down under the
power of God, even as the Levites did when Solomon dedicated his
Temple. (2Chronicles 5:1,2,13,14)
This is why many of the newly Spirit-filled Believers were accused of being
drunk on wine. I believe that Solomon’s Temple Dedication is actually a
picture of the Holy Spirit’s coming on the Day of Pentecost to set up the
Church Universal.
With this lesson we
will begin a series on “The Holy Spirit & the Local Church.” We are
going to see in today’s lesson exactly what the Local Church is, how it is
governed and what the Holy Spirit expects from us as Believers. We
cannot possibly understand what God expects from the Local Church until we first
understand what the Local Church is. Later in
this series, we will look more specifically at how all Local Churches are
to be under the control and guidance of the Person of the Holy Spirit.
The
Local Church Is a God-Ruled, Not a Man-Ruled Body
"And he gave
some, APOSTLES; and some, PROPHETS; and some, EVANGELISTS; and some,
PASTORS and TEACHERS; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the
unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect
man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness
of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro,
and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and
cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking
the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, WHICH IS THE HEAD,
EVEN CHRIST:” (Ephesians 4:11-15)
Jesus Christ is the
Head of the Church. (Matthew 18:16; Ephesians 1:21-23) Through the
agency of the Holy Spirit, He reveals His will for every Local Church to every local Pastor. The Pastor is the
Under-shepherd because no one is to be over him but Jesus. Apostles and Prophets, Evangelists and Teachers have no right trying to tell
the Pastor what to do. Neither do the deacons or the
congregation.
The Pastor is the
ultimate authority in the particular Local Church that the Holy
Spirit has set him or her over. The Local Church is not a
democracy. It is a Theocracy. This means it is God-ruled, not
man-ruled. There is something wrong when the congregation is in
charge of the day to day operation of the Church, what will be preached and
how the Pastor will spend his time. This is unstable, ignorant and
unscriptural. There is something wrong when the musicians insist on having a voice in
Church government and the Pastor, for fear of losing them, allows it.
A Body with more than one head is a freak.
The Local Church, as well as the Universal Church, is not a
Monarchy, either. We are not to have a Pope or any king other than
Christ, the King. The word “Pope” is never even used in Ephesians
4:11. The “Doctrine Of Apostolic Succession” is not taught in
Scripture, neither is the “Doctrine Of Infallibility.”
Nowhere in the
Bible are we taught that “Popes” are to be appointed one after another, or
at all. Nowhere in Scripture are we taught that anyone other than Jesus is sinless. Peter, the “First
Pope,” betrayed Jesus and was also rebuked for hypocrisy. (Matthew 26:74; Galatians 2:1-11)
Peter also admitted to being sinful. (Luke 5:8) God made His form of
government clear here in Ephesians 4:11. God’s government does not
include a “Pope.” Now, I was raised a Catholic. I love and I
respect the Pope. However, we must be careful to not teach man’s doctrines
as if they were God’s doctrines. To do so is vain. (Matthew 15:9)
As stated, the Universal Church and the Local Church is a
Theocracy. “Theocracy” simply means “God-ruled.” God is
superior over His creation, and He passes His mandates down through what we
call the “Ministry Offices” of Ephesians 4:11. God calls an
individual to Pastor in the Local Church. (Acts 20:28; IThessalonians 5:12,13; Hebrews 5:4; 13:7,17)
That Pastor cannot be voted in, neither can he be
voted out. To “vote out” someone whom God has voted in is unwise and
dangerous.
My Born Again
father-in-law received the Baptism with the Holy
Spirit while he was Pastoring a church
in Kansas. This Church
rejected the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Because of his
experience, the Elders in the church refused to let my father-in-law back
in the pulpit. They “fired” him and forced his family to move out of
the parsonage.
Within a ten-year period one of the Elders ended up in
an insane asylum and the remainder of these men all died tragic deaths,
every one. God did not do this to them. (John
10:10) They did it to themselves by deliberately aborting a work of
God in progress. (Ecclesiastes 10:8) God wanted His Pastor to
bring the Baptism with the Holy Spirit to that Congregation. The
Elders who refused found themselves fighting God, His government and His
plans and purposes.
The
Local Church Is Holy People Not Holy Places
“Know ye not that YE ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD, and that the
Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1Corinthians 3:16)
The Bible says that
God’s people are His Temple, or His Church. The Local Church is not a
building. It is a group of local Believers. In the Old
Testament, holy buildings symbolized the fact that in the coming New
Testament, the Holy Spirit would indwell human temples. This is why
we are now called the “Temple of God.”
The woman at the
well in Samaria asked Jesus where
the best place was to go and worship God, Jerusalem or Samaria? Jesus said,
in essence, “Honey, those days are long gone. From now on it does not
matter where we worship, it only matters how we worship.”
“God is a Spirit:
and THEY THAT WORSHIP HIM MUST WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT and in truth.” (John
4:24)
I love Israel and I love Jerusalem because God loves Israel and God loves Jerusalem. (Psalm 122,
126) This is why we have developed the “Israel Study Centre” at our
tuition-free JHM
Online Bible Training Centre. But there are no more holy
places, including Israel and Jerusalem. From now on
it is holy people.
“Ye also, as lively
stones, are built up A SPIRITUAL HOUSE, an holy
priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus
Christ.” (1Peter 2:5)
The spiritual Temple of God replaces the old stone Temple of God. I do not have to visit
some holy place for the Holy Spirit to move in my life. All I have to
do is go to the Local Church where there are two or more Believers and the Holy
Spirit will manifest Himself in our midst. (Matthew 18:20)
The
Local Church Is Built on Disclosure Not Discovery
“Now to him that is
of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and
the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the REVELATION OF THE MYSTERY,
which was kept secret since the world began, But NOW IS MADE
MANIFEST, AND BY THE SCRIPTURES OF THE PROPHETS, according to the
commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the
obedience of faith:” (Romans 16:25-26)
No one discovers
God. The Holy Spirit discloses God to everyone by revelation
only. He revealed God to you through the Scriptures, through the
Prophets and even through nature. (Romans 1:20) God cannot be found
with a telescope, a microscope or a horoscope. We do not choose God,
God chooses us. (John 15:16) We were not seeking after God. God
was seeking after us. (Romans 3:10,11) We did not find God. God
was not lost. We were lost and God found us. (Luke 19:10)
So
anyone who boasts about the great discovery they made of Jesus, can stop
right there. Man’s wisdom cannot find or know God. (1Corinthians 1:21) The Holy Spirit revealed Jesus to
you. It was all Him and no you. The Holy Spirit is about to
reveal Jesus even more clearly at the Rapture
(1Thessalonians 4:16,17) and Second Coming. (2Peter 3:10)
The
Local Church Is Elective Not Selective
“And the Lord God
TOOK THE MAN, AND PUT HIM INTO THE GARDEN of Eden to dress it and to keep
it. And THE LORD GOD COMMANDED THE MAN, saying, Of every tree of the garden
thou mayest freely eat:” (Genesis 2:15-16)
Adam did not get to
select whether he would go to the Garden. God elected to put him into
the Garden and commanded him to care for the Garden. So too, we do
not select what Local Church we will
attend. The Holy Spirit elects which Local Church we will attend and
sets us in it. (1Corinthians 12:18) I hope you
are in the right place.
Your time on Earth is a probationary period and you are going to spend Eternity
based on how obedient you were while you were here. I hope you are
building on obedience, not opinion. I hope you are not in one Church
while God has told you to go to another. Ask God where He wants you
and get yourself there quickly.
That is where your blessing, favor and prosperity are.
The
Local Church Does Not Suffer from "Rapturitis"
”But grow in grace,
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for
ever. Amen.” (2 Peter 3:18)
Some people get
saved and think because Jesus is coming soon that they do not have to get
involved in the Local Church or with the
Bible. This is a disease that I call “rapturitis.”
God did not save anybody to hang around waiting for the “Rapture Rocket” to
take him or her out of here. The Local Church is to focus on
“growing up,” not just on “going up.”
The Apostle Paul
said that Jesus had the Holy Spirit anoint Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists,
Pastors and Teachers “for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the Body of Christ.” (Ephesians
4:11,12) The Pastor is to be training you to do the work of the
Ministry. Quit leaving everything to him, remaining a baby and get
busy helping him to reach the community.
There are conditions for
making it in the Rapture. If you are just sitting around thinking the
Rapture bungee cord is going to snap you out of here just because you are
saved, you are wrong. You need to be operating in obedience and you
need to be operating in faith when Jesus comes.
Jesus said that we
are to occupy until He comes. (Luke 19:13) The Greek word “occupy” means
“to keep oneself busy.” Anyone who is not keeping busy supporting the
Pastor in the work of reaching the world is in for a disappointing Rapture
revelation.
The Holy Spirit
rules the Local Church, which is people,
not buildings. You did not discover Jesus. The Holy Spirit
revealed Him to you and He alone elects where you are to go to
church. Once He reveals that Church to you, you are to lock in there
and get busy and stay busy.
You will spend Eternity based upon how effectively you
followed the above revelations. (1Corinthians 3:10-15)
Be Blessed … John and Barbara Hamel
How
to Be Born Again (Receive Christ as Your Savior)
How
to Receive The Holy Spirit & Power
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