Have you ever wondered why Israel never had a king but only judges up to the time of Saul? There were many men who could quite easily have called themselves kings and fulfill that role - Abraham, Moses and Joshua to name but three. Instead God decided that His chosen people would have no king, because He Himself would be their king and go out at the head of His people to fight for their battles. This has always been God's intention for His people and also that there should be prophets among them to bring the word of the Lord. This priciple remains equally valid today.
At the time of samuel Israel had been ruled by a series of judges including Gideon and Samson, who were acting as God's representatives in both teaching the people and bringing deliverance from their enemies. However by the end of the Book of Judges acceptance of the rule of God's law had deteriorated to such an extent that the last sentance read: "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25, NKJV).
By the time of 1 Samuel the situation was still pretty bad with anarchy abounding. Eli's sons Hophni and Phinehas were installed as priests but they were completely away from the Lord, treating the sacrifices with contempt. In this situation God raised up Samuel as prophet and priest, and Israel returned to order. However Samuel's sons did not follow their father's example and as Samuel began to get old the people decided that they had had enough and they wanted a king. They were not willing to have God as king because the other nations seemed to be stronger and more successful with their kings (read 1 Samuel 8:5 - 21).
The whole point was that God did not want them to be like the other nations. He had fought their battles for them when they were occupying the land, such as taking Jericho and Ai, yet still they demanded a king.
Situation today
Today we are acting the same way. Want strong visible leadership in the Church and nation and are reluctant for God to be king directly, or for things to be run His way. There is a sense of security and stability if there is a visible king.
Genesis 14 illustrates this desire for the safety of kingship. Abram rescued Lot from the four kings that have attacked Sodom, and yet Lot still returned to that corrupt regime under king Bera and missed the opportunity to break free and join Abram. He felt safer under the newly victorious king despite his 'success' being totally due to Abram's 318 rained men, and returned to Sodom's apparent security, with the result that he had to be rescued again later. Meanwhile Abram, who was walking by faith and knew he was a foreigner and stranger in the land, meets Melchizedek king of Salem, priest of God Most High, who blessed him and Abram gave him a tenth of everything. The contrast is between the apparent safety of organized leadership with a king and city walls on one hand and the walk of faith living in tents with Abraham and God as king on the other.
The situation in the Church today is similar, in that we can choose authoritaria structured leadership that runs the Church like a king, whereas God wants to be both our king and our security and has enabled us to have direct access to Him as kings and priests in our own right. One of the most significant revelations to the Church today, onl which the whole question of Church structure and organization brings, is the priesthood of all believers stated in Revelation 1:6.
Jesus has made us kings and priests to serve God the Father. The Biblical significance of this statement is that there is no longer any distinction between priest and people, clergy and laity as far a God is concerned. In the Chruch the number of priests is the same as the number of believers, but we have artificially reclassified them into two groups with different titles and functions. God never intended for one man to be 'the priest' and carry the weight of any Church, nor to have the gifts necessary to be the omni-competent multiministry man at the front. If you are an ordinary member of a Church you need to see that your minister is actually meant to be one minister among many, and not the preacher/pastor taking the service each week.
Culture and tradition have been allowed to influence us more than the Bible, with the result that Church servises often bear no relation to the Biblical model of participation and shared ministry, and are in essence let by the minister acting as a priest on behalf of the peopl.
The significance of the curtain of the temple being torn in two must not be undervalued, because it was a direct and visible sign not just that Man was reconciled to God but that direct access was being given for the first tim to the very throne of God, and God was abolishing the old preisthood. Jesus Himself was the Great High Priest and has made us a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). The Levitical priesthood was inadequate (Heb. 7:11) and merely a pointer to the One who was to come as the Great High Priest.
The writer of Hebrews said: "For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another - He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Heb. 9:24 - 26).
This wonderful truth now gives us direct access to God. It is important to see that the Levitical priesthood has been abolished, because if you still believe that it is valid and necessary if not only denies the completed work of christ, but also denies Chrsitians the revelation of the freedom they have com into, where they can confess their sins direct to God and be forgiven. All believers are now priests in their won right and represent themselves.
The Body of Christ
It is important to establish this foundationa truth in relation to Church structure because it affects the way we see both ourselves and the leadership of the Church we are in. No longer do we need any mediator or intermediary to represent us before God as we are now all part of the Body of Ghrist, that mystery not fully revealed until after the Resurrection and the Day of Pentecost. We now have to look at the Biblical model as God's ideal, see how the Church has moved away from that, and how to get back to it in these days of renewal.
First of all the Head of the Church is the Lord Jesus Christ and all believer are autometically part of the Body of Christ. The head is in heaven with the body here on eart, and one day soon we shall be united together. As in human body the head sends messages direct to each part of the body. For example, to move my hand the message doesn't go to the neck which then tells the arm to move the hand. It goes direct, and so it is with the Lord. An example of this is specific prayer. God, who knows everything, hears the prayer of a believer saying he needs to change of car. He prays direct to the Head and doesn't have to make the need public. Christ, the Head, tells another Christian to provide either partially or in total, so that the need and the provision are linked up, and the body blessed. Possibly the word of knowledge may be used, where God tells a Christian of another's need, and the person responds having received what the need is, supernaturally from the Head. This is true body ministry, and we should expect it to be the norm and not the exception. Unfortunately those who claim to have heard from the Lord are viewed with suspicion and either considered arrogant, super-spiritual or odd in many Churches, whereas we should all hear regularly from God. His sheep hear His voice, if they listen for it. The principle of direct access to the Head means that revelation is not passed down through a heirachy of leadership, where someone has to ask God on your behalf. Churches need to be modeled with this in mind recognizing both plurality of leadership and corporate participation as part of the way God planned for the Body of Christ to function.
Plurality of leadership
Although the Body of Christ is on, God never intended it to be run like a multinational corporation with a president, vice-president and executives. The very reverse is closer to the truth, with many leaders emerging from a group of believers and being appointed as elders within autonomous self-governing Churches. the early Churches had a group of elders, never one man running a Church single-handed, with deacons acting in their role of administrators. There were of course the original apostles and many believers were sent out as Church planters. Wherever a Church was planted elders were appointed (Titus 1:5) and that Church was self-governing, even if visited by the apostles.
In the days of renewal god is wanting to bring us back to these fundamental principles, however radical and challenging they may be, and seek to re-establish plurality of leadership under God as king and corporate participation through the various gifts and ministries. The recent emergence of so many flourishing home-fellowships (home cell groups) would not have happened if the 'mainline' Churches had applied these principles and broken out of the traditional mould. Some groups are able to respond more easily than others and to move towards this goal. We must be aware what the Holy Spirit is saying to the Church, and be prepared to adjust our ways to conform to His.
The starting point towards this has to be autonomy and local freedom, even if a Church or felowship is associated with other of the same denomination. Unless the local Body of Christ is directly relating to the Head, and therefore hearing direct and moving ahead in the way they believe God is leading their eldership, there is a risk of missing all that the Lord has for them and for a program to be imposed from outside based on someone else's expectation of how they should function and develop. Any form of outside control tends to restrict the freedom to move ahead purely looking unto Jesus as the Head, who is actually able to speak to the believers directly Himself. Of course this dies not invalidate input from outside, but it should be in the form of encouragement, help and support for the developing ministries within a local group, not the exercise of rulership over the believers in an authoritarian structure where they are automatically expected to submit meekly or be considered rebellious!
Home fellowship (cell) groups
Within this independent group of believers there will be many gifts and ministeries of varying stages of growth, some seeds, some plants, and they need the right climate grow and be fruitful. One of the best ways of achieving this to have Home cell groups of a dozen or so people with one or preferably two leaders as this will achieve two main goals.
1. It involves all the members of a Local Church and gets them to look at their own role and involvement in the life and growth of the group, including seeking to meet each others needs both spiritually and practically.
2. It shares the weight and responsibility placing it at the point where need can best be known and met, thus freeing the leadership to be more directly concerned with seeking God for directrionalguidance and receiving the Word of the Lord for the Local Church. In essence it ismeant to be a team ministry with everyone in the team and each finding their role and ministry.
Paul said: "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them; if prophecy, let us prophecy in proportion to our faith, or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who show mercy, with cheerfulness" (Romans 12:6 - 8).
In this passage the one who prophesies, and even the one who teaches, is not necessarily the one who leads. Team ministry is meant to avoid the elevation of one-man ministries. Far too many Churches are known by their ministers, and we should not be seeking for ourselves in God's Church or even be pushing our own individual ministry. Faithfulness to what we have is the goal and it is up to the Lord how He chooses to use us and what doors He opens.
Part of the recognition of the priesthood of all believers implies that there should be no distinction as far as dress is concerned. The wearing of clerical clothes, particularly the dog collar, perpetuates the artificial distinction and creates expectations on both sides. There are occasionally times where it may be appropriate as identification, such as hospital visiting, but in general it serves to perpetuate the tratitional separation of clergy and laity which has the origins in the Middle Ages, no in the Biblical early Church.
Having seen that Vod has given all believers equal status as priest, we need to see the outworking of that in a practical realistic way. The more formal the Church the harder it will be to implement, but if you have the vision for shared ministries it should be possible to make a start. Moses' father-in-law was wise enough to suggest to Moses that he didn't have to do everything himself (Exodus 18:17 - 26)! Part of today's problem is that people still feel they have to see the minister and be visited by him. As in Moses' case, tha can creat unreasonable pressure by the expectation of others. In Number11 Moses once again faced the problem of grumbling Israelites, and complains to God. The Lord said to Moses: "Gather to Me seventy men of elders of Israel, who you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring tem to the tabernacle of meeting that they may stand there with you. Then I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them; and bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone" (Numbers 11:16, 17).
"Then the Lord came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and placed the same upon the seventy elders; and it happened, when the Spirit rested upon them, that they prophesied, although they never did so again. But two men had remained in the camp; the name of one was Didad, and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them. Now they were among those listed, but who had not gone out to the tabernacle; yet they prophsied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, and said, 'Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.' So Joshua the son of Nun, Moses's assistant, one of his choice men, answere and sid, 'Moses my lord, forbit them!' The Moses said to him, "Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord's people were prohets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them'" (Numbers 11:25 - 29).
Even two elders who were not there got the anointing! We can either react like Joshua and seek to limit the anointing to Moses or 'the leader,' or like Moses and desire that everyone should be filled with the Spirit and move under the anointing of God.
Every Church should hav elders functioning, watever you actually call them. They have a shepherding role in the Body of Christ to lead the sheep into the greenest pasture and rescue them before they get damaged, or attend to their wounds if they do. Despite some of the excesses in managing the flock, shepherding is a Biblical concept based on the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep, and should enable the flock to feed in peace and safety. Jesus has given us of His Spirit so that we many all function to our fullest potential in the Body of Christ, sharing the ministry and building up one another in faith. May He alone be King.
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