Systematic Theology - Church

Ministers

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: Government

Genre: Speech

Track: 11

Dictation Name: 11 Ministers

Year: 1960’s – 1970’s

Let us bow our heads in prayer.

O Lord God of our fathers, who by thy sovereign grace and mercy didst call us, make of us a people, blessed us above all nations, be merciful unto us for our waywardness and for our sins. Other lords besides thee have had dominion over us. O Lord our God, make us again a faithful people, confessing no other lords, obeying thee in word, thought, and deed, and overthrowing the power of all things that exalt themselves against thee and thy kingdom. Bless us this day as we give ourselves to the study of thy word. In Jesus name. Amen.

Our scripture this morning is Mark 10:42-45, and our subject is Ministers. We are continuing our studies of the doctrine of the church. “But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Much thinking concerning the doctrine of the church is traditional, not biblical. People think in terms of the tradition of their church, and so their thinking will reflect Presbyterian history, Catholic history, Episcopal history, Baptist history, Congregational history, Methodist history, and the like. This is true also of specific aspects of the doctrine of the church, such as the ministry. Protestants tend to pride themselves for their purity here, but they, too, are faithful to their tradition.

Now, what I have to say about the word “minister” is not original with me. It is centuries old. In particular, I have followed the analysis by Joseph Mede in a discourse on 1 Corinthians 4:1 published in 1772 in England. It was written well before then, and none of it was new to him, and yet it is surprising that, although the English speaking world has known very well what Joseph Mede taught, it has paid all too little attention to it. There are three words in the New Testament Greek which are translated in the English Bible as minister, or ministers. The first of these words is one which we have in English in “liturgy.” One who performs a public work, a public service. This term is most used of Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 8:2, we are told that he is the minister of the sanctuary, the sanctuary in heaven. We are told again in Hebrews 1:7 that angels are ministers in this sense. In Romans 15:16, Paul says that he is a minister of Christ, offering up the Gentiles as a living sacrifice, like an Old Testament priest. The word is also used of Epaphrodites’ ministry to Paul as the representative of the Philippians. We have it also used of civil authorities, in Romans 13:6 with respect to their calling by God. God has called them to a public work. Now in Romans 13, the normal word used for civil authorities is another word, which we have as deacons, diaconis, but in this case, this word is used.

Then second, we have another word which means literally, under rower, someone who is rowing under the direction of someone else. It is very often used of assistance in pastoral work, as of John Mark in Acts 13:5. In Acts 26:16, Paul modestly applies it to himself.

However, the third word is the main term used in the Bible, in the New Testament, for ministers. It is diaconis, or we have it as deacons. It means “a servant, a deacon, a minister, an attendant, one who waits on tables.”

Now, as Mede points out very clearly, there are two ecclesiastical orders: presbyters and deacons. All other offices are diverse degrees of these two. The term presbyter we have translated as bishop, presbyter, and elder. Never once in the New Testament, as Mede points out in detail and very carefully, are ministers ever spoken of as ministers of the church, and yet, this is our most common usage. A minister is never a minister of the church. They are spoken of as ministers of God in 2 Corinthians 6:4, and 1 Thessalonians 3:2, as ministers of Christ in 1 Corinthians 4:1, in 1 Corinthians 11:23, and Colossians 1:7. As ministers of Jesus Christ, 1 Timothy 4:6. As ministers of the New Testament, 2 Corinthians 3:6, as ministers of the Gospel, Ephesians 3:7, and Colossians 1:23, as a faithful minister of Christ, Colossians 1:7. To call them ministers of the church is to make them ministers, servants, of men, which they are not. They are ministers of God.

One possible instance of such a use is a deceptive instance, because when Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:3 speaks of himself as a servant of the Corinthians, he uses the word “doulas,” slave, or servant sometimes, but he first calls Jesus Christ “Lord over all,” himself and the church, and he is their servant in certain things for Christ’s sake. So that he is under Christ, not under them.

Now, as Mede pointed out, the word ministers came into popular use in English to avoid the word “priest,” but let me read his comment to you, “But if it be well examined, priest is the English is Presbyter, and not of sacerdos, there being in the tongue no word in use for sacerdos. Priest, which we use for both, being improperly used for sacrificer, is the name whereby the Apostles call, both themselves and those who secede them in their charge. For who can deny that our word priest is corrupted of presbyter. Our ancestors, the Saxons, first used preoster{?}. Whence, by a farther contraction, came presta{?} and priest. The high and low Dutch have priestar, the French Presbtre, and Italian, Priete{?}, but the Spaniards only speak full presbytero.” In other words, our English word “priest” is a contraction of the Greek word presbyter.

Now, this is the biblical term for the clergy. To call the clergy ministers is to confuse deacons and pastors. Lay officers are called elders, which is the higher term, or presbyter, bishop. Now, the word presbyter, elder, bishop, is a translation of presbyterion, and as Mede said, “Howsoever, when they call us ministers, let them account of us as the ministers of Christ and no of men, not as deputed by the congregation to execute a power originally in them, but as stewards of the mysteries of God.”

Now, to go further beyond Mede’s points, a minister is a servant, a deacon. He waits at tables, this is the basic meaning. He is a minister in the house and a servant of the head of the household. The word is also used of Satan’s ministers as in 2 Corinthians 11:15. Some men become ministers of sin, Paul tells us in Galatians 2:17. IN our scripture, we have, in Mark 10:42-45, our Lord’s use of the term. The word is diaconis. It is used in the nominative form in verse 26, and in the verb for in verse 28. Our Lord makes clear that every believer is called to the ministry, in this sense. To be a minister to the house of God, to minister to the needs of Christ’s family.

Now, our Lord, in these words summarizes what the Old Testament law teaches about the ministry. He says we are to minister to the needs one of another. When he spoke so, everyone understood because they had been brought up in terms of the law, what he was talking about, and in various other passages, our Lord and the Apostles speak of these things. Let me summarize these things.

There was to be no interest on loans to fellow believers in need. Christians were to help one another. There was to be a release of debts on the seventh year. They were to be mindful of widows and orphans, and to regard them as under the care of the church, and to be ministered unto. They were to be mindful of their neighbors, of sojourners, of the poor, of the needy, of the defenseless, of servants and of workers, of the aged, and the poor were to be remembered in special tithes, and by means of gleaning. They were also to be remembered in our rejoicing.

Now, the Lord alludes to all of these and summarizes these for the covenantal household. Let me cite some other passages from our Lord which reinforce this fact. For example, in Luke 14:13-14, our Lord says, “But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.” These are words from the King of kings, and yet the church pays no attention to them. There was a time, however, when in Christendom, when this was done. In the first thanksgiving, whom did the pilgrims invite but the Indians? They were mindful of others. Again, our Lord says in the parable on judgment, Matthew 25:34-36, “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.”

Again, Paul declares in Acts 20:35, “I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak.” Now, Paul says here, “I have gone over everything that our Lord has taught you and that God, in his word before the coming of our Lord has taught you, how that so laboring, ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus Christ how he said it is more blessed to give than to receive.” What is Paul saying? “I’ve taught you all what the Old Testament and what our Lord himself have declared concerning the need of caring one for another in the household of faith.” Now, this is the ministry as our Lord uses the word. The ministry to which every believer is called. It is not the ministry just for the pastor, the elders, or the deacons, and to limit it to a particular class is a form of Phariseeism. This ministry can be institutionalized, but it must still be personal.

What do I mean by the institutionalization of this ministry? We see it today in Christian schools, and what Christian schools do to minister to the children of their fellowship, including those who cannot afford it. We see it in homes for delinquents, and for the homeless aged, as Dr. Lester Olaf{?} does it. The ministry to prisons as Charles Colson is now carrying on. These specialized ministries are important and necessary, and we should have a part in them. A great deal can only be accomplished by institutionalization, but the necessity is laid upon us to do these things also personally. As members of a household, we have duties one to another. The church and its members must be a family. This is the meaning of the ministry in the scripture.

Thus, to limit as the modern world has done, the idea of the ministry to a special class, or to say it must belong to the presbyters and to the deacons alone, is a radical falsification of scripture. We have a great many people today who complain about what the world has become, a world of totalitarianism, of statism, where all power is delegated to the state, and the state grows more powerful daily. Why shouldn’t it when Christians who should be the salt of the earth in their private lives, have delegated everything to someone else to do, saying, “That’s none of my concern. Let the state do it. Let welfare do it. Let this or that agency do it.” At one time, the church created the institutions, the Christian household, the household of God, which ministered to every need, health, education, welfare, and more. We must again reestablish such a ministry. The government, Isaiah tells us, is upon his shoulders, Christ’s shoulders, and the government includes these things, these ministries. When our Lord speaks of this ministry, he says, ‘Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and their great ones exercise authority upon them,” what is he saying? In the world at large, everything is done in terms of sovereignty by the state, by taxing and saying, “We’ll do this.” Bread and circuses, as in Rome, and we would be the greatest of fools if we imagined when our Lord said this, he didn’t know what was going on in Rome. Rome governed the whole of the world, and Rome’s authority over the Mediterranean world, which was the world of that time to all practical intent, was a world in which the state took care progressively, of everything.

So, when our Lord says, “This is what the Gentiles do,” he was talking about the Roman Empire. He was therefore, talking about what the United States, and the State of California, and the State of Florid, Illinois, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Missouri, and every other state do today. Is there a problem? Well, let’s tax and do something, and our Lord says, “But so shall it not be among you.” It’s a different kind of government because it has as its fundamental premise, that we are all to be ministers, servants of the household of God, ministering one to another. “But whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Before the church can truly be the church of Jesus Christ, it must take up this ministry. Let us pray.

Lord, thou hast spoken the word. Give grace unto thy people to hear and to obey it, to be a ministering people and a ministering church, to take rule and authority away from the hands of the Caesars of this world, and to render it unto thee, and to replace with claims of sovereignty thy ministry, and our ministry in thy name one to another. Bless and prosper us in this task, we beseech thee. In Jesus name. Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Audience] I’m not sure I understand the relationship between the last part of what you’re saying, the ministers to one another in the name of the Lord, and the first part where you talked about ministers of the Gospel or ministers of Christ, quoting from Paul’s letters.

[Rushdoony] Yes. The church has presbyters whose duty is to expound the word of God. The presbyter and the minister are different things. The deacons are a specialized ministry created by the church, but all of us are called to this ministry which has nothing to do with the preaching of the word, but the application of the word. We’re all a part of that ministry, but it’s the presbyters who are the ministry of the word, or the proclamation of the word. Now, I have not discussed today the calling of the presbyters insofar as the teaching of the word is concerned, but I’ve dealt with the fundamental meaning of ministry, which has been so misused in our day, and of course, this was Joseph Mede’s point, that we had confused the nature of the church by applying a word, “minister,” to the clergy, simply because of a reaction against the word “priest.” If they didn’t like the word priest, the people of the day could have chosen presbyter, the original form of it. Does that help clarify that point? Yes?

[Audience] Philippians 1:1, could you explain that? Could you use the word “servant” as the minister?

[Rushdoony] “Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.” I don’t have a Greek testament here so I’m not sure whether that is the word “doulas” or “diaconis,” but it is clear that they are servants of Jesus Christ, not of Philippi. Yes?

[Audience] How do people in their little local communities go about finding poor families to take care of? Should they leave it up to the church, or say, the Goodwill or Salvation Army only?

[Rushdoony] It can be done, and should be done, in every which way. We, as individuals, where we see needs, in our own fellowship, can minister to them. Then, as a fellowship, we can. Some of us have rendered help, for example, to Lester Olaf’s ministry, and to other efforts like that, as our way of trying to minister to such people. We have set up and hope to have in time a good loan fund, so that we can help one another, as the scripture provides, without interest. We have a Christian school, and we need to support every such activity. This is the kind of thing that enables us to do it institutionally. Yes?

[Audience] Do you know if anything is being done in Christian circles along the lines of the hospice to make it possible for every people not to be thrown into rest homes, but to stay at their home, and if they’re ill, to die at home in their own surroundings?

[Rushdoony] Yes, this is an important ministry that needs to be developed. There are signs here and there that this is being done, and I think congregations should work towards this end. There are one or two churches that have, larger churches, a visiting nurse on their staff. The visiting nurse then goes to call on all the elderly people who are having problems caring for themselves, or where a husband or a wife is very ill. This is a very important ministry. If they need more care than the visiting nurse can give, what the visiting nurse then does is to contact the deacons and the women of the church to see if some kind of program of care can be established, so that someone can go in regularly to help with the housework and that sort of thing. It is surprising how much can be done to keep people in their homes. Now, the visiting nurse program, which is variously financed in some communities by United Way, does a great deal towards this same purpose. In one case some years ago, I knew a very fine woman who was virtually blind and could not walk without a walker, but she was a remarkable woman of tremendous willpower. She stayed in her own home with just a visit occasionally by friends to help out, and to help with the shopping, and enjoyed life tremendously. It was possible because she had a little bit of help. Yes?

[Audience] I’ve sometimes felt that perhaps churches should get a list of say, widows and others that would be willing to give so many hours a week, and if there was some elderly person, they could take shifts, or a mother that had just had a baby, or a crisis, or whatever, so that they’d be prepared to donate so many hours a week as a work of the Lord, and go in and make it possible for a person to stay home or get by, whatever, and I don’t think, I don’t know of any churches that do that, but probably if they had a little organization, there are quite a number that would be perfectly willing to do it.

[Rushdoony] The order of widows that Paul speaks about had precisely that function among others, and it was once commonplace. These are the kinds of things that the church has to return to in order to be meeting the requirements of the ministry. We’ve specialized the term and we’ve gone astray at that point. Any other questions or comments?

[Audience] I perceive that this is based on scripture, that this ministry, this care-taking as we call it, is exclusive to the women, is that correct?

[Rushdoony] No, there are certain things that the order of widows in the New Testament did, but there were other things that the deacons took charge of, too. So it was not limited to women. It was shared in by both men and women. For example, one of the things that we totally have forgotten. We have all kinds of nonsense in film and television about the pioneers and the settlers. The fact is that people moved westward, whether it was the first settlements along the Atlantic Coast, or over the mountains into the Midwest, the plains, the intermountain country and the West Coast, in sizeable groups. They tried, before they assembled a group, to get every kind of talent represented. People who were blacksmiths, people who were carpenters, people who had knowledge of various trades. Then, when they arrived, it was two years at a minimum before anyone could make a living, because they had to have enough capital to survive while they cleared the ground, put up houses, and barns and the like, and it was done, all of this, as a community effort. So, they started that way, with someone taking charge of putting up the houses for everybody, and all working. Each task was a community effort. Then, subsequently, as problems developed, again it was a community effort, I can still recall days of horse and buggies when, if a barn caught on fire and burned down, there was a barn-building thing, a community effort, everyone pitching in to help, and in a number of ways, this kind of thing done by the men. So, it was not exclusively an activity on the part of women. It was a routine thing on the part of a community to do this kind of work, one for another. It’s tragic that this has disappeared.

I’ve no doubt in some parts of the country remnants of this still survive. Any other questions or comments? I do believe we are going to come back to this and everything across country indicates a growing interest in reviving what was once commonplace to Christian community life. It won’t come overnight, but I believe in two or three generations, if we could look down history, would be amazed at how much of it would have revived. Yes?

[Audience] Wouldn’t you think one thing that will hasten the revival of it is the impossible financial situation if, for instance, someone is ill and you have to pay nurses two or three hundred dollars a day to look after them for four months, and the family didn’t make three hundred in a week, and the insurance wouldn’t cover it, and that sort of thing, then it would be to the church to help them and they’d be able to survive and not lose everything they had. So I think that financially, it’s going to be more necessary for us to help one another keep from being absolutely devastated by the illness, or something of this nature, or a fire, where we could help one another stay afloat.

[Rushdoony] Yes, what we are seeing out of sheer necessity is a revival of certain aspects of this. For example, Social Security is on the verge of breaking down. The Administration is asking Congress to make certain changes in the Social Security laws. It’s not an impossible thing for it, a few years down the road, to collapse, because financially, it is becoming a nightmare. Then, with inflation, the cost of housing is pricing youth out of the market. What this is already creating is this. First, many young couples are having to move in with the parents, which isn’t altogether satisfactory. They cannot afford housing on their own. Second, many families on both sides are helping the young couple with a start in the way of helping them with the building of a house. These are two things which are compelling the family again to assume responsibilities. It has been assumed for a long, long time. Now, the economic implications of the world crisis today will force the revival of many of these things.

Well, let us bow our heads now in prayer.

Our Lord and our God, we thank thee that thy Spirit is at work in the world of our day, reviving the hearts of men to be mindful of their ministry one to another. We pray, our Father, that thou wouldst do a great work in this generation so that we may see indeed the kingdoms of this world becoming the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Use us to this purpose, we beseech thee, in Jesus name. Amen.

End of tape