Shalom, all you priests of the Lord!
The most illegitimate word that one can use of a bornagain believer is “a layman”, as he/she is by no means a layman, but a priest of the Lord. Those who use the word “layman” have not really understood the essence and structure of the living temple, His own Body, Jesus erected in three days, instead of the former hand made temple. 1 Peter 2:4-5 and 9;
“Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light”
Holy Spirit speaks on the same subject in Eph. 4:10-13;
“He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”
Lord Jesus has given the above mentioned five offices to prepare the holy priesthood fully ready for their ministry. The goal is the realization of the work of the holy priesthood. The ministry offices are for this purpose. That the whole living temple, the Body of Christ, would become fully ready. That’s the plan of the Lord; to get His living Body fully built up to function together under the Head, Lord Himself, according to the effect of the Holy Spirit. Then He is able to glorify Himself in us, and to take us to the clouds as His beautiful Bride (Eph.5:27).
Apostle Paul could write these verses to the Ephesians, because they had enough understanding on the matter. And that don’t surprise us, when we see what Lord Jesus said about the church of Ephesus in His letters to the seven churches in the Book of Revelation (Rev.2:6);
“But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”
Ephesians hated the works of the Nicolaitans – but what are these works? The Creek word “nicao” means victory over others, to climb over others, and the work “laos” means ordinary people. A Nicolaitan is a person, who sets himself above others, to a higher class, considering others just ordinary, and himself above them. Or a person, who supports this view.
If we look at the early church, which was closest to the time of Jesus and His first apostles, we see in its structure and function the following: a church, or congregation, was born when believers started to gather as a holy priesthood, to praise the Lord, to pray and to minister each other with the gifts of the Spirit, in order to be build together as a living temple, and to proclaim the works of the Lord to the people. When congregations crew they needed shepherds, so the apostles choose elders for them (Acts 14:23). The ministry of helps was also initiated for different tasks in the churches.
Elders were the shepherds, the pastors, of the congregations. Paul’s valediction to the elders of Ephesus gives a clear picture of this. Acts 20:17-18a, 28;
“From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them: Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood”
Nowhere in the Bible is mentioned, that only one pastor would shepherd the congregation. Even the world “pastor” is used only once in the New Testament, in Eph. 4:11, as one of the names of the fivefold office. Instead the elders are often mentioned, and precisely as shepherds of the flock. Elders are those functioning in the office of a pastor. During the time of the early church, apostles and prophets gathered with the elders of Jerusalem to seek the Lord for common questions of the churches, and choose some apostles and prophets to inform the churches with letters, and to visit the churches to strengthen them (Acts 15).
The church of Christ was led by apostles, prophets and elders, serving together under the Head, by the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Today one person, a pastor, seems to have a special place above all others in congregations. In many cases they even consider apostles and prophets as some, whom they can hire to “their churches”, thus seeing themselves as their “employers”! The Biblical order, on the contrary, was that apostles ordered them, the elders, to each congregation. How then this pastor -centered custom got started? It did start already in the early days of the church, as Jesus said in His letters to the churches to Pergamon (Rev.2:15); “you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.”
Apostle John also mentions similar practice in his 3rd letter, verse 9; “I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us.”
Even Jesus had to rebuke his disciples on competing who is first in midst of them. That’s the very nature of a fallen man, always wanting to be the first, above other people. This was Lucifer’s thought in heaven; to be like God, above others. We have to uproot all this kind of planting from the church of Christ! (Jer.1:10)
Reformation from the unbiblical practices of the Catholic church has been cut off long time ago, and still is. The Pope has named himself as the vicar of the Son of God on earth. Jesus warned the wine dressers on this same, when they replaced the owner of the wine yard from His position, by refusing to receive the servants He had sent. By this they themselves took the position of the owner. Matthew 21:42-43;
“Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
‘The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the Lord’s doing,
And it is marvelous in our eyes’?
“Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”
In another place (Matthew 23:34) concerning the same, He says (verses 38-39); “See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
In this setting those in a real danger – even though are stoned and mistreated – are not those sent by the Lord, but those who rises themselves against them. May the Lord give grace to His church to repent from the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, whatever it may take!
This is how the Lord is advising us (Matthew 23:8-12); “But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
This ONE, who is our Teacher, is that Cornerstone, the head, Lord Jesus Himself. Glory and honor to Him in His whole congregation! The day is coming when will be said: “The Lord alone is high and lifted up!” That mountain before Zerubbabel, that has rosed himself against the Cornerstone, will be lowed down before the Lord, and the Capstone will be lifted up to its place with the shouts of glory! Zachariah 4:7;
‘Who are you, O great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain!
And he shall bring forth the capstone
With shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’