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Let Us Love In Deed & Truth (Part 5)
Here is the last point mentioned in the article entitled “Thirteen Things Churches Need to Know.”
If you won’t hand over the keys of the church to the next generation until they think like you and do things exactly like you, you’ll never hand over the keys. You will lock up an empty, dead church.
Preparing the next generation applies to both evangelism and parenting.Preparing them to be responsible before the Lord involves the development of their personal faith in God’s word. This preparation is not simply a continuation of the traditions practiced by ancestors. Personal faith is essential to fearing and pleasing God (cf. Ecclesiastes 12.13; Hebrews 11.6). Faith is an exercise of the mind. “By faith we understand…” (Hebrews 11.3). Faith must be founded upon the right source: God’s word (Romans 10.17). Parents must nurture children in the chastening and admonition “of the Lord.” Children are to obey their parents “in the Lord” (Ephesians 6.1,4).
Faith is to be exercised in submission to the church’s head, which is Christ. “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Colossians 1.18). As head of the church, he equipped the church for continued existence. After his ascension, Jesus “gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the stings, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4.11-12).
In doing this, Jesus turned the keys of the church over to the apostles (Matthew 16.19). We read that the church was “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone; in whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit”` (Ephesians 2.20-22).
Strong’s Concordance comments on the metaphorical use of “the keys of the kingdom of heave” as follows: “The keys which the Lord committed to Peter, by which he would open the door of faith, as he did to Jews at Pentecost, and to Gentiles in then person of Cornelius, acting as one commissioned by Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit; he had precedence over his fellow disciples, not in authority, but in the matter of time, on the ground of his confession of Christ; equal authority was committed to them.”
We find that the apostles equipped congregations for the future by ordaining elders in every local church. This was one of the purposes for Paul’s second missionary journey. The Holy Spirit had called Paul and Barnabas for this work. In the church of Christ in Antioch, “the Holy Spirit said, ‘Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them’” (Acts 13.2). We find that they appointed elders in every church as they journeyed (Acts 14.23). This was equipping future generations to continue in the faith. This is how handing over the keys to the next generation is to be done.
Traditions that were authorized from the head, Christ, are not only beneficial, but binding. Paul wrote to the church of Christ in Corinth, “Now I praise you that ye remember me in all things, and hold fast the traditions, even as I delivered them to you” (1 Corinthians 11.2). To the church of Christ in Thessaloniki, he wrote, “So then, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye were taught, whether by word, or by epistle of ours” (2 Thessalonians 2.15). Paul went on to tell this church, “Now we command you, brothers, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from every brother who walks irresponsibly and not according to the tradition received from us” (2 Thessalonians 3.6).
Paul warned the church in Colossae of traditions of men: “Take heed lest there shall be any one that maketh spoil of you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Colossians 2.8). Prior to his conversion to Christ, Paul observed the traditions of his fathers. When he learned that justification was never purposed to come by the law, but through faith in Christ, he gave up his traditions (Galatians 1.23-24).
The preparation that should concern us all is for the coming day of judgment. “For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Ecclesiastes 12.14). Since every work and every hidden thing, good or bad, will be revealed by God on that day, our preparation needs to focus upon this. Discernment between good and evil depends upon having our senses exercised upon God’s word. This is why spiritual growth is essential in preparing to stand before God in judgment with hope of eternity of heaven. God’s word is the only source of this hope. Wonderful words of life which rejoice the heart because of the blessed assurance they declare from God. Leet us remember the advice of Paul to the Ephesians concerning these words: “When ye read, ye can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ” (Ephesians 3.4).
